Steam Purge

An ember danced in the steamy surroundings of the Yoka cyberspace. Sure enough, Honoo's signature entrance of a massive firestorm suddenly ignited the area around her. The Navi stepped out of the blazing inferno and in the blink of an eye, the flames vanished as though they had never happened.

Honoo groaned at the steam. Normally she would enjoy a dip in the hot springs, but fighting virii in such a low-visibility environment forced her to stay on her toes. She could already hear the virii scuttling about, leaving faint scratching noises. She waited for the rest of her companions before moving onwards.

After all, she didn't want to get extinguished before the battle actually began.

There was a brief, but dramatic, silence before lightning struck a small area next to Honoo, dissipating the steamy atmosphere slightly with the presence of yet another Navigator.

As Kirlian's eyes widened upon his entrance at the magical environment that was Yoka Net, Cara audibly groaned at the concept of a hot springs network. "Who's the stupid twat that designed this nonsensical layout for a network?" she muttered, and before long, was carrying the PET back to the very comfortable sofa. "I-I think it's nice, ma'am," Kirlian chipped in.

"Nobody asked for your opinion," Cara snapped, smashing (with no consequences) her head back onto the comfy sofa before continuing, "ugh... Let's just get this over and done with."

Kirlian meekly nodded, looking around anxiously for the virus threats.

[[Ready for battle!]]

A green beam with four red beams circling around it shot down towards the ground, creating VenusMan's image on impact. He was happy that he could wear his regular outfit again, without the need of changing for a weird fashion show. He had his vines out, coiled around his arms and in his hands, and prepared for battle. "Kid," VenusMan started and thumbed at the only two Navis he could see without searching, "These are the two?"

"Probably..." Satou said, not entirely sure if these were to be their allies. He hadn't exactly seen them before jacking in, nor had VenusMan.

VenusMan shrugged and walked over to the two. "Greetings," he said and pulled his vines back into his shoulder pads. He offered both of them a friendly hand while tilting it so the green orb on his glove wouldn't be noticed as quickly, but there was no smile or any other friendly gesture. "Looks like we'll be fighting together," he continued.

((Let's wrassle.))

Squish, squish, squish. The three Navis quickly came upon a muddy bank of an Onsen river. The steaming waters washed up upon the soil and had turned it all muddy. Though the farther bank seemed to be a lot more muddy than the area where the three Navis were.

Flop, flop, flop. A pair of sausage-shaped blue fish with brown underbellies were flopping around near the three Navis. Four more of them were on the far bank. And between them, in the water, was a school of piranha.

Fish, fish EVERYWHERE!

-Virus-
MudfeeshA: 60HP [Mud] [Starting Area]
MudfeeshB: 60HP [Mud] [Starting Area]
MudfeeshC: 60HP [Mud] [Far Bank]
MudfeeshD: 60HP [Mud] [Far Bank]
MudfeeshE: 60HP [Mud] [Far Bank]
MudfeeshF: 60HP [Mud] [Far Bank]
PiranhaA: 60HP [Onsen] [Submerged]
PiranhaB: 60HP [Onsen] [Submerged]
PiranhaC: 60HP [Onsen] [Submerged]
PiranhaD: 60HP [Onsen] [Submerged]
PiranhaE: 60HP [Onsen] [Submerged]
PiranhaF: 60HP [Onsen] [Submerged]

-Terrain-
10% Mud [Starting Area]
70% Onsen
20% Mud [Far Bank]

-Navi-
Honoo.EXE: 100HP [Mud] [Starting Area]
Kirlian.EXE: 100HP [Mud] [Starting Area]
VenusMan.EXE: 100HP [Mud] [Starting Area]

~Battle 1: Start!!~

Honoo recoiled slightly at the appearance of the fish virii, before composing herself again and putting on a brave face as she readied her gauntlets for combat. "Guh... I hate fish..." she muttered darkly. Kiri inserted a shotgun chip into her PET, and Honoo's gauntlets hummed softly before clicking loudly. "Right then, let's just get this over with...!" She said to her teammates before springing into action.

With her right gauntlet raised, she fired off a shot from the larger barrel. A massive projectile was discharged from it, before fragmenting into smaller chunks, aimed for the Mudfeeshes near the three Navi. Kiri immediately followed up with a Rageclaw chip, and Honoo's left gauntlet's hand transformed itself into a set of sharp, steel claws. With a twisting motion, Honoo sent a backhand into the Mudfeesh she shot at, aiming to smash it into the other fish virus near them, before backing away immediately to put enough of a distance to maneuver, dodging any further attacks from the enemy.

SUMMARY:
1. Shotgun - 50 dmg - MudfeeshA + MudfeeshB
2. Rageclaw - Impact - 20 dmg - MudfeeshA to MudfeeshB
3. Dodge

Kirlian took the green man's hand nervously, his free hand reaching behind his head to scratch it in humility. "H-hello. My name's Kirlian," ended his introduction, stealing a glance at Honoo before looking at the ground as he continued shaking VenusMan's hand. Being as nervous as he was, he failed to notice the green orb thing that the latter was trying to conceal. Cara scoffed; there wasn't much she could do about Navigator interactions, since it wasn't something that she was even remotely interested in. Cara just wanted performance in her creations, not a good social item or party piece.

Muddy and man-eating fish suddenly greeted the trio as Kirlian stared at the flopping viruses. "F-fish in hot water..." Kirlian started, pointing at the Piranhas swimming in the onsen. Cara facepalmed; the only time when he was rational and thinking logically, it had to be on a stupid subject.

"Kirlian. Does it matter? Nothing ever makes sense on the Internet. That includes your stupid logics," Cara hissed, slotting in the shotgun chip. "Now go out there and make yourself useful."

The greenhorn troubleshooting Navigator nodded in acknowledgement, revving up his circular bit to life as it spun around him, gathering electricity charges from the air around Kirlian... and set it loose on a particular area-- the hot water river. The groundwork below certain parts of the river began to give out as water seeped into the cracks, before being seemingly covered by many metal panels that crackled with magnetism and attempted to eject the fishes out of their hot watery comfort (?) zone.

Cara blew an inaudible whistle; that was an unexpected move from Kirlian, surely. It showed potential for Kirlian to think beyond using dead-and-obvious tactics; and that meant the potential for faster growth and adaptability. Cara nodded, seemingly to an invisible clipboard, marking away off a non-existent checklist.

Even as Cara contemplated on Kirlian's possible future, the Navigator started running in the mud-- muddy boots in tow-- and pointed at the school of Piranhas, using his finger as a pinpointer for his bits' next move. Expectedly, the two tinier bits spun and obliged their master, releasing two streaks of lightning between the two of them before charging as a huge chain bolt at the Piranhas.


Summary of actions:
1) NaviCust: SetMagnet - Magnet Zone at Onsen, Terrain Change damage (?) 50DMG @ banked Piranhas
2) Standard Action: Feint - Towards the Piranha group
3) Signature Attack: Chain Lightning - 20DMG ELEC + Splash2 - at any of the banked Piranhas

Why was the guy the only one to respond to his hand, VenusMan had thought as he shook Kirlian's hand. "Yeah, sure," VenusMan replied to Kirlian introducing himself, "The name's VenusMan." After releasing Kirlian's hand, he looked at the girl of the crew who had yet to be branded with a name and shrugged. He went along with them until they reached their first battlefield. "Good," he said, but his allies seemed to be less enthusiastic about their discovery while he was just glad to finally get a battle again.

"So fishes..." he muttered to himself and looked between Kirlian and Honoo with the latter being far more fiery than the first, "OK." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a rose with all its thorns removed, except for one thorn at the end. "Hey," he started as he turned to Honoo, but she was already ahead of them, "...Nevermind. Just don't judge me..." With a quick twist of his hand he tossed the rose at the back of Honoo's shoulder. "You'll thank me later," he said with a small smile and then noticed Kirlian had started attacking too. "Kid, let's go," VenusMan said, glancing up at his Operator.

"We should hit those at the back," Satou said. He took out a chip and pushed some buttons on his PET to send through his strategy digitally.

VenusMan simply nodded and all his flower pods disconnected from his back, flying into the sky and remaining in hover mode. Quickly once they had positioned themselves, one of the pods returned to VenusMan and fused onto VenusMan's right arm. The petals curled back to cover VenusMan's upper arm and revealed a cone-shaped flower with white twisted petals, which quickly started to spin like a drill. "Going down," VenusMan said, made a small jump and tunneled himself into the floor as a facial mask appeared over his face so he wouldn't be eating mud. "I'm not looking forward to seeing my outfit..." VenusMan complained, knowing he'd be covered in mud once he'd get to the surface again.

"You're a program," Satou replied, "Can't you just clean yourself with some data?" He slotted in the chip he had grabbed before.

"The feeling remains," VenusMan said, disgruntled, and loaded the chip. Once in a while he used his other hand to wipe away the mud from the visor, but in the end it was just causing him to get it away only to add more mud to it. "OK, this should be fine," he said to himself and went straight up. But rather than coming out as VenusMan, a being of mud with a botanical drill and disgruntled emotions revealed itself. "Not a word," he said and slammed his drill into the ground. "Bloom!" VenusMan shouted and stakes of wood sprouted as lances from the ground, traveling towards the group of Mudfeesh.

[For future help, please make an edit in your post or a new post stating consent so we don't have to ask for it in the future. Also, SetMagnet makes a terrain change centered on Self. As such I will assume that Kirlian tried to move into the Onsen, but did not submerge. Also, if you would be so kind as to provide accuracies on all attacks, including your signatures, it would help with modding.]

VenusMan linked himself to Honoo by a rose before Honoo fired off a Shotgun blast from her gauntlet that would have gutted both Mudfeesh, if it wasn't for their constant flopping around, allowing them to dodge the attack. Kirlian attempted to move off the Mud and wade out into the "hot water" to beach the Piranha with SetMagnet, however the Mud clung to his feet and he slipped and fell, getting stuck in the Mud. Startled, he released SetMagnet on impulse, covering the opening muddy area and some of the Onsen (unfortunately the Onsen that became Magnet wasn't inhabited), which actually had the pleasant side-effect of releasing the Navi from the Mud. VenusMan was just getting ready to burrow, when all of a sudden the Mud became Magnet. VenusMan was repelled as he tried to burrow into the magnetic panels.

Honoo then reached down to grab one of the slippery Mudfeesh, and succeeds! The claw digs into the Mudfeesh before she tosses it at the other Mudfeesh. Unfortunately the tenuous grip on and the preceding flopping of the Mudfeesh in the air causes the attack to miss its target on the other Mudfeesh. Regardless, the thrown Mudfeesh hits the newly made hard ground and takes some damage. Kirlian feints toward the Piranha group, ignoring the magnetic panels due to his Elec nature, just as the Piranha group turns as one and charges the Navi. They stop just before the magnetic beach, surface, and open up their fanged mouths, and breath out a school of tridents. Kirlian dodges six of the fifteen tridents (out of eighteen total tridents fired) that manage to get close enough to hit him, taking nine tridents to the gut, almost halving his expected lifespan. VenusMan uses the distraction to pry himself from the Magnet terrain and cross over the Onsen to the other muddy bank. The Mudfeesh jump on him as he enters their territory. Fortunately their aim sucks (probably due to their flopping nature) and all four miss VenusMan with their slimy belly-flops of doom.

VenusMan counters with a WoodTower1 as Kirlian attacks the Piranha with electricity. Spires of wood march across the muddy field, claiming two kills and halving the amount of enemies on VenusMan's side. Honoo goes into a defensive stance as Kirlian launches a huge bolt of electricity. The Onsen amplifies it as it strikes the leader and bleeds off to splash one more of the Piranha. The Mudfeesh that are on the starting bank with Honoo try to flop on Honoo, but one sticks to the Magnet panel, and the other manages to attack, but misses.

-Virus-
MudfeeshA: 40HP [Magnet] [Starting Area]
MudfeeshB: 60HP [Magnet] [Starting Area]
MudfeeshC: DELETED
MudfeeshD: 60HP [Mud] [Far Bank]
MudfeeshE: 60HP [Mud] [Far Bank]
MudfeeshF: DELETED
PiranhaA: 20HP [Onsen]
PiranhaB: 60HP [Onsen]
PiranhaC: 40HP [Onsen]
PiranhaD: 60HP [Onsen]
PiranhaE: 60HP [Onsen]
PiranhaF: 60HP [Onsen]

-Terrain-
30% Magnet [Starting Area]
50% Onsen
20% Mud [Far Bank]

-Navi-
Honoo.EXE: 100HP [Magnet] [Starting Area] [All For One]
Kirlian.EXE: 55HP [Magnet] [Starting Area]
VenusMan.EXE: 100HP [Mud] [Far Bank] [All For One] [10 Strengthen]

Honoo's face contorted into disgust when the mudfeeshes were absolutely unfazed, by the attacks. "Are you kidding me?!?" Honoo yelled as she charged. Her allies were doing a far better job than she was, which made her feel slightly inferior... and then Kirlian got hit by a number of Tridents. Honoo winced in pain, thankful that it wasn't her on the receiving end of those attacks. In either case, there wasn't much in her arsenal she could use to help her allies out... except...

"Kiri, remember that virus that annoyed the hell out of me and I had to disembowel it in a rage?"
"...Yes. That wasn't a very nice thing to watch by the w-"

"I think we pulled some chipdata out of it in the past. Equip me with that!" Honoo said hurriedly. Kiri didn't take kindly to the interruption but complied anyway as she slotted in the DblBeam1 chip into the PET. Immediately, her free gauntlet started humming, glowing with a pulsing light that constantly shifted between red and blue. The colours flashed rapidly before slowing down, eventually revealing the result of the chip. "What are you planning to d-"

Before Kiri could ask her Navi's intentions, Honoo fired her gauntlet. A rectangular cuboid, still flashing between red and blue, was suddenly launched into the air. Silently, the Honoo kept praying that the color ended in red...

SUMMARY:
1. DblBeam1 - Effect Random: See Chip
--TurnSplice--

"I think some got in my mouth..." VenusMan complained, having shouted right as he was covered in mud. But instead of spitting it out like a sensible person he chewed on the chunky bits and swallowed it. He could already see the cloud of counter-commenting from his Operator so before he could have the honor of doing so, VenusMan pointed up at him. "This and that are different matters," he said, "But I do want to clean myself." Curiously he looked over at the aquatic area that, luckily, still was aquatic.

"Not so fast," Satou said and slotted in a chip. It looked like he was dropping any notion of commenting on VenusMan's appearance with the idea that with some leaves it wouldn't have been much different as what he was wearing at the fashion contest. "Attack the remains before you run off to the water," Satou continued and tapped a few buttons on his PET. Once he had said this, he just smiled at the screen and awaited VenusMan's actions while hovering his finger over a single button.

VenusMan grinned, nodding to the deal and throwing around mud in the process. "Sorry, guys," he said and lifted the pod that was still stuck onto his right arm. The petals had closed and then opened again to reveal a strange wide horizontally positioned cyan flower. It was quite frankly an ugly flower. Luckily, however, he didn't have to look at it. A wave of water erupted from the flower and rushed through the air at the two Mudfeesh in the vicinity. "Ta ta~" VenusMan waved at them with his pod arm, turned away and made a sprint for the Onsen area. "Kirlian, hey!" VenusMan shouted at the one companion he knew the name of, "Thanks for keeping the water, y'know, liquid!" He had seen the magnet panels around Kirlian feet and was glad he was not anywhere near there anymore. He was unsure if it was intended this way, but regardless he felt like he should thank him.

"Oh, how about giving him this?" Satou asked and slot in a chip.

"Give?" he questioned while a second flower pod revealed itself from his back and dropped a white rose with an image tag hanging from its stem. "Oh, I see," he said and jumped towards the Onsen while reeling his arm back. "Use this!" he shouted at Kirlian, through the mud on his face, and tossed the 'chip rose' containing Shockwave data at Kirlian. And while he had done that, he could await the sweet cleansing feeling of the water coursing over his body. Except the feeling never came. Through Satou's meddling and VenusMan's NaviCust equipment, he had turned a part of the Onsen area into a lush grass area. "Dude!" VenusMan shouted as he looked up at Satou.

"Hey, strategy. What's that? You want us to use you? Yeah, sure. Let's keep him dirty," Satou played as if he was talking to a third entity. He then directed his voice at VenusMan again. "Sorry, strategy suggested this." And with those words, he slotted in another chip.

"Dude!" VenusMan shouted at Satou again. But with the grass under his feet and the chip data being loaded, he continued to shout at Satou. "Solid strategy, but dude! Look at me!" He turned his eyes down at his body and realized that due to the running around there were actually only blotches of mud left and most of it had already fallen off. "Oh," he muttered. The pod on his right arm had closed to activate the chip data and VenusMan shook it a bit with an absent mind. He looked around curiously, including looking at the piranha viruses. "So how do we call these anyway?" he asked, wanting to divert attention away from him overreacting over the mud, "I'm thinking we should give 'em a cool acronym." The attention was still there. "Oh hey, girl!" he shouted at Honoo, "I don't know who you are, but I guess you're on our side! Looking at your equipment there you're pretty fiery so go ahead with the grass!" As he was talking he aimed the pod at their adversaries while the flower slowly opened. The petals were a lush green with the center being more like a light bulb than a flower. Green light emerged from the petals and the grass by his feet, collecting in the center for the attack. "Ready," he muttered to himself and shot a blast so botanical it literally pulled along the grass by VenusMan's feet to join the attack. "OK, that was that," he said and after the attack was finalized, he knelt down to pull out some grass from nearby panels to clean his outfit.

Kirlian vaguely remembered slipping into mud, and the rest a quick blur before realising that he was sitting on magnet, staring down at the tridents piercing his middle, their damage done as they dissipated. Almost dreamily, Kirlian caught the 'chip rose' thrown at him with his own face, before slowly peeling the object off of his blurred expression.

"--get up, you twat!" a rather angry voice echoed through Kirlian's communication channels, before it continued. "Do you want to embarrass me further, you useless prick?"

At that notion, the semi-circular bit lightly bapped at the back of Kirlian's head to bring him back to the reality of the situation. VenusMan's offering found it's way to the floor now; coinciding with the magnet panels as it generated a huge hum from the ground, firing a ground shockwave at the other two Mudfeesh. The roar definitely sent Kirlian back to his feet, however; and despite his reluctance to admit how much of a failure it was, Kirlian murmured a sincere apology to his Operator,in a low tone that could not be heard by his allies.

Cara huffed, and rewarded his apology with a Shotgun chip.

Kirlian sprung into action in the next moment, gathering charge from the floor beneath him to his arm coils. As soon as the coils were fully charged, Kirlian let loose a high energy wave at one of the weakened Piranhas, before running sideways in strafing.

Summary of action:-

1) Borrowed!Battlechip: Shockwave - 40DMG, Line Attack, Ground; C Accuracy - Mudfeesh A/ Mudfeesh B
2) Battlechip: Shotgun - 50DMG + Spread1; A Accuracy - Piranha C + one other nearby
3) Dodge

Honoo summons a red cube, the laser beams that wash over the battlefield heavily damage the entire enemy force, deleting a few here and there. VenusMan manages to dispatch two of the weakened Mudfeesh, their attempts to dodge prove futile in their weakened state. Finally Kirlian sends a Shockwave at what is left of the Mudfeesh, but it is dodged by the last remaining Mudfeesh. The Piranha act almost immediately afterwards, launching a concentrated assault at Kirlian again. Stuck to the Magnet panel, he takes another eight spears to the chest. Ouch.

Kirlian, heavily wounded but still functional, blasts two of the Piranha into oblivion with a Shotgun. Then starts dodging sideways. VenusMan runs over and gives Kirlian chip data and then turns the Onsen and some of the Magnet Terrain into Grass Terrain. The remaining Piranha are forced out of the onsen and die gasping on the soft grass as they are hit by a Wood Boosted wave of plant energy.

The last remaining Mudfeesh flops around on the magnetic panel, missing Honoo.

Then Honoo acts...

-Virus-
MudfeeshA: DELETED
MudfeeshB: 20HP [Magnet] [Starting Area]
MudfeeshC: DELETED
MudfeeshD: DELETED
MudfeeshE: DELETED
MudfeeshF: DELETED
PiranhaA: DELETED
PiranhaB: DELETED
PiranhaC: DELETED
PiranhaD: DELETED
PiranhaE: DELETED
PiranhaF: DELETED

-Terrain-
20% Magnet [Starting Area]
40% Grass
20% Onsen
20% Mud [Far Bank]

-Navi-
Honoo.EXE: 100HP [Magnet] [Starting Area] [All For One] [2 Actions Remaining]
Kirlian.EXE: 15HP [Grass]
VenusMan.EXE: 100HP [Grass] [All For One] [10 Strengthen]

Honoo grinned when the object that fired out of her gauntlet eventually weakened off almost all of the virii. Kirlian and VenusMan were effectively mopping up whatever that survived the initial assault, and the last object that remained on the field was the pathetic virus that flopped harmlessly atop a panel that Kirlian had converted into a magnet. She lifted her gauntlets up as the turbines on the sides began spinning. Kiri slotted in a Firehit chip, causing her gauntlets to suddenly burst into flame. A light tap on her feet, and Honoo hurled herself at the last Mudfeesh, both of her fists eager for blood.

The last thing the virus would probably see was a massive metallic fist on fire closing the distance rapidly between it and the virus' own face.

Summary of actions:

2- Dodge
3- Firehit - MudfeeshB - 60 dmg - Acc:A

And with one more flourish of fire, the Mudfeesh was no more.

-Virus-
MudfeeshA: DELETED
MudfeeshB: DELETED
MudfeeshC: DELETED
MudfeeshD: DELETED
MudfeeshE: DELETED
MudfeeshF: DELETED
PiranhaA: DELETED
PiranhaB: DELETED
PiranhaC: DELETED
PiranhaD: DELETED
PiranhaE: DELETED
PiranhaF: DELETED

-Terrain-
20% Magnet [Starting Area]
40% Grass
20% Onsen
20% Mud [Far Bank]

-Navi-
Honoo.EXE: 100HP [Magnet] [Starting Area] [All For One]
Kirlian.EXE: 15HP [Grass]
VenusMan.EXE: 100HP [Grass] [All For One] [10 Strengthen]

~Battle 1: Victory!!~
Rewards:
Honoo.EXE: 800z, 4 FXP
Kirlian.EXE: TriArrow, 600z, 4 FXP
VenusMan.EXE: 800z, 4 FXP

"Good riddance," VenusMan said as he disconnected the flower pod attached to his arm and threw it into the air, which then connected back onto the unit at his back. He felt, however, that in the heat of the battle he had not found an opportunity to consume anything and Carnivore complained audibly at him. "Maybe we'll get something next battle," VenusMan said to Carnivore, although it looked like he was talking to nothing to others, and walked over to his companions. He stopped standing in front of Kirlian and looked over the Navi closely as if he was trying to verify something. "You did well, Kirlian," VenusMan eventually said and turned away with his arms crossed, "But don't think I approve of you because of that!"

"He says he's looking forward to cooperating," Satou mentioned, after standing closer to Cara in the real world so he could talk to Kirlian's PET in person.

VenusMan muttered something foul under his breath and looked over Kirlian again with a disgruntled curve in his mouth. But there was one person on the battlefield who was still a confusing existence. "Hey," VenusMan said as he looked at Honoo, "Are we going to get a name to connect to the fiery beauty?" His mouth had done a swift 360, becoming an enchanting smile even with his fangs. Everything made sense after their first battle though. Kirlian had power over electricity, while the woman was easily labeled as 'fire' and he himself had power of plants. Looked like a nicely rounded group of Navis.

Satou still hadn't put much focus back onto VenusMan and was instead more curious about Cara and her Navi. "You don't have to be so mean at him, you know. Isn't cooperating way better when it's done with smiles?" he spoke to her, but at the same time he got a peek of her PET. He waited a short moment for Cara's answer or rebuke before returning his attention to VenusMan. "Venus, can you do 'that' to Kirlian?" Satou simply asked.

At first no answer came from VenusMan, who was still standing by Honoo. His mouth had once again curved into a bothersome expression and turned his head over to look at Kirlian. "But... He's a guy," VenusMan said, but even he knew that despite his principles it was the best course of action. He sighed and looked at Honoo. "Excuse me," were his words before coming closer to Honoo, curving an arm around her and plucking the rose off of her shoulder, "I'm going to need this again." With loud steps he turned and walked over to Kirlian, stopping right in front of the Navi's face. "Look," he started, "I don't do this often. But you're fighting on team Venus, so I've got to take care of you. Now don't think we're best friends all of a sudden." He held the rose in front of his face for a moment, making sure all the thorns were removed, and then slid it under Kirlian's headset nestled with his hair. "This is protection," he said, making sure this was not seen as anything else, "Protection. We're just companions, not friends. And especially nothing romantic, got it?" He continued staring at Kirlian, awaiting a confirmation of the Navi.

Whatever that remained on the other end of her Gauntlets, it simply dripped away like a coating of slime, drawing Honoo's disgust on her face. The remains eventually faded away as it scattered into small, intangible blue cubes which disappeared as if fading into the wind. "Ugh, that's going to stay on mentally." Honoo grumbled with her tongue hanging out in disgust as she flailed it wildly to get the slime off her hands as soon as she could. She then turned towards her compatriots. Kirlian had been banged pretty badly by the virii, and was starting to show obvious signs of exhaustion. She sighed and opened a channel to Kiri. "We have some energy packs, don't we?"

"I believe so, yes, but you don't seem inju-"
"It's not for me, you doof, It's for the kid called Kirlian who's pretty banged up."

Kiri simply blinked, before authorizing the protocol for a mini energy pack to be dispensed. A small first-aid box suddenly materialized in front of Honoo as she reached out to grab it, and headed over to where Kirlian was. "This ought to keep you fighting a little longer if you want. We've still got some virii around to mop up for the system to declog itself." She said as she handed him the energy pack. It wasn't then she noticed the one called Venusman had suddenly sneaked his arm around her, which almost prompted her to punch him straight in the gut on instinct, but he was just removing the rose that had somehow made its way onto her shoulder.

"You could've just grabbed in on the other end, you know." Honoo said gruffily, before standing up and stretching to get herself ready for the next wave.

In what turned out to be a horrible experience for Kirlian, in terms of getting stabbed multiple times by unfriendly piranhas, the greenhorn Navi looked genuinely discouraged (and in pain) from the ordeal... until he was offered some healing pack and a rose? from his adhoc partners.

Kirlian's eyes watered before the both of them.

Almost without warning, he grabbed the two partners, one with each arm, and hugged them in appreciation. "Youuuuuuu guys are the beeeeeest ever!!!!" Kirlian snorted through his tears, looking embarrasingly comical in his attempts to thank his partners, who were essentially the first Navis that actually were concerned about his well-being.

Cara scoffed at the act, looking ready to throw her expensive PET and stomp on it just to get Kirlian to shut up. Unfortunately she cannot, so she just hid the PET under some couch pillows and muted the sound until she could be sure that Kirlian was presentable. God, that was embarrassing. The woman turned to the kid, the Operator for the plant Navigator, and scowled.

"What I do is none of your business, kid. Also, I need not 'cooperate' with my subordinate. Or you, for that matter," Cara noted, her eyes rolling as she leaned on a separate couch pillow. She didn't see the need to expend an energy pack for Kirlian, considering he had such caring partners with him now.

Back in the net world, when Kirlian finally let go of the two to wipe away his snot-filled nostrils, Kirlian took the offered healing pack and slapped it across his own face. The box's contents flew and stuck themselves onto his head briefly before disappearing, bringing some of the pain away with them. Kirlian breathed a sigh of relief.

"A-anyway, t-thanks guys, and, er, ma'am, miss..." Kirlian began to address them, then realised that he didn't know the fiery lady's name. How embarrassing! "...W-what's your name, ma'am?" the bluehead offered, then realising that VenusMan had also asked the same question a while before. Mental facepalm, Kirlian! You've just copied someone again!

Kirlian physically facepalmed in response to the thought.

Honoo placed a gauntlet on Kirlian's face and slowly edged away from him, pushing him backwards before he recollected himself. "Uh... right. Okay, yeah, hands off, buddy." Honoo remarked. Then she realized that she had ignored Venusman's question earlier, only reminded of it again when Kirlian asked about her name. "It's Honoo. Nice to meet you, Kirlian, and Venusman." She added, turning to Venusman. "You'll have to forgive me for ignoring your question earlier. Still running off from combat adrenaline."

"You don't possess hormones to have that effect, Honoo." Kiri chirped in.
"Shush."

"Your operator must run you ragged everyday just to make you fight hard." Honoo said with a smile as she removed her goggles. "I expect you to pay that energy pack later, with interest."

[Mod Note: VenusMan and Kirlian are linked with All For One [Team Subtype Active] for the start of the next battle. Also, do to some potential errors in how I modded the battle, Kirlian receives double healing from the one Mini Energy Pack, restoring him to full. Please indicate when you wish to start Battle 2 in your next posts for moderation.]

While VenusMan wasn't bothered by the hug, noticing the Navi could use a little friendship, he had appreciated it more if he had a pair of breasts or at least a more feminine form. After Honoo's actions took care of the hug he quickly looked over Kirlian's body in the event his jacket might've punctured the Navi but it wasn't the case. "So now we've been introduced," he started to speak while turning to Honoo, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Honoo."

While their introductions went well, Satou had less luck with Kirlian's Operator. He had already turned away from her and held his PET close to his mouth to mutter to VenusMan, "Careful. She must be the final boss. You know... The character that is a friend but turns out to be the rival." A quick glance at Cara interrupted his muttering, after which he continued, "Except this one never starts out as friend... Windfield, more like windbag..."

VenusMan just glanced upwards behind his visor. "At least their personalities aren't identical," he said, turning his eyes back at the innocent Navi.

"Talking about identical personalities..." Satou muttered and looked at Kiri, Honoo's Operator, before speaking to her, "I think I missed your name, lady. What was it again?"

In the NetWorld, VenusMan had started walking ahead of his companions while looking for trouble. "Let's keep looking around for whatever is messing up the inn's register," he said and gestured towards the open area ahead of them.