Melee and Mieli's Romp Through Netopia

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((Sorry, nets went out while I was trying to mod last night.))

Mieli sighed. "Yes, because I totally trust you in there by yourself," she said sarcastically. "Besides, the trick just now only worked because I summoned it inside the barrier. You're already in the net out here, so it won't work."

Using the PET's zoom feature, Rania was able to make out what the protrusion was: a control panel of some sort. Given the only two controls on it, a sliding bar labeled "Intensity" and a large button that extended out a fair bit from the panel labeled "Power", it was a fair bet that it controlled the barrier in some way.

Rania's face brightened. There might be a way to work all of this out after all. "Okay, MeleeMan, I just used the zoom in tool to find out something that I believe will be helpful for you," Rania told her navi.

"What?" he asked impatiently. "You'd better not having interrupted our conversation just to brag about something."

Rania shook her head, sighing. "That protrusion on the other side of the barrier is actually a control panel. There's a switch on it to control intensity, presumably barrier intensity. More importantly, there's a button to control the power. I'll bet if you could somehow push in that button, you could cause the barrier to lower. That is, if it's actually connected to the barrier... Though I think it seems like a safe bet," she instructed her navi. "Now, can you think of any way to get to it?"

"Apparently, Mieli here can't transport me inside the barrier with her limited powers," he said, adding a sigh at "limited powers." Rubbing his chin with one hand, he leaned forward to examine inside the barrier. It was hard to imagine anything really working when Mieli couldn't think of anything herself. If he had to admit one thing, it was that she probably had more of those book smarts. Still, an idea was beginning to wind the gears in his head. "I've got an idea Rania... But it just might shatter my jawbone."

"What? Your jawbone?" Rania asked with a confused and somewhat anxious expression. "What are you possibly planning to do?"

"Well, I'm going to punch this barrier and hope the elasticity is enough to allow my arm in far enough to hit it. My attack might get reflected, though. If this happens, I just want you to know I might be hit by my own fist. And we all know what my fist does to people," he told her with a grim, serious frown. Rania found him hard to take very seriously, but nodded in support. Rearing back hard, MeleeMan summoned a Gutspunch weapon over his gauntlet. "Let's do it!" he roared, driving it forward and hoping that it didn't just reflect back reciprocal force and smash his arm into itself like a coiled spring. He hoped to hit the block, causing it to fly forward and smash into the console, pushing in the button.

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Meleeman's fist doesn't quite break his jaw, as it manages to actually break the button, but it does ricochet, although the force is weakened by the rapidly disappearing barrier. Mieli suddenly seems disinterested, actually, she appears to have disappeared into the building or something, Meleeman can see a rapidly disappearing shadow heading into an open blast door.

"Well shoot," MeleeMan grumbled, heading on into the building. "That idea was damn good. Leave it to that glasses girl to not appreciate something so cunning." He shook his fist, his hand still feeling a little shaky from the ricochet. He expelled a large quantity of smoke from the gauntlet too, but that was just natural for him.

Rania gave him a friendly smile back. "I thought it was pretty good, anyways," she encouraged him. "Now how about that storm door?"

MeleeMan frowned, sniffing unaffectedly at the compliment. "Guess so," he muttered, heading for the door and reaching to open it with one large hand.

As Meleeman opened it, he found it to be greased, opening easily. As he opened it though, there was a sudden shift in the area behind the door, and suddenly, it looked like nothing but ice and snow behind the doors. The area around him remained normal, and if he were to check behind the building, it would be normal as well. It seemed to lead into a frozen wasteland.

"What the hell? There's like... snow and junk here! Is this big place some kind of portal or something? What was Mieli trying to lead me in to?" MeleeMan grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest and shivering with the thought of the cold. "I mean, we all know there's nothing good to be found in any place with this much snow."

"Well, at least there probably won't be a cybeast this time, right?" she laughed nervously. She really had no way of knowing what Mieli was taking him in to. "Besides, we can still jack you out if we need to."

"What? You implying that I'm scared?" MeleeMan growled, baring his teeth. "Nah, I'm not scared, just... you know, being cold sucks." Muttering to himself, MeleeMan wrapped his arms around himself and trudged on through the door and into the cold.

As Meleeman entered the icy world, the door slid shut again behind him. Once it was closed fully, it vanished into the air behind him, as though it had never been there. The frozen environment now extended in all directions, with no visible landmarks and dense snowfall obscuring any possible ones.

As if triggered by something he said, an empty, shark-shaped carapace fell onto the ice and snow in front of him, then crumbled into dust.

"Damn it all," MeleeMan grunted as the door disappeared behind him. He took just a few steps into the snow before bursting into another exclamation as a giant shark carcass fell down, smashing into the snow in front of him. "DAMN IT ALL!" he cried out, jumping back and raising his fists to defend himself. But it turned out there wasn't much to be feared from the dead shark.

Rania was shocked too, but not as affected as her navi. After all, she was still on her own size of the screen, not actually feeling a spray of snow as a stinking corpse smashed down in front of her. 'This really must be the deposit for some kind of warp point. Any sign of Mieli around?" she asked.

"Nope," MeleeMan grumbled, shivering and walking around the huge pile of dust that the shark corpse had become.

MeleeMan's net op leaned back in her chair as she watched him walk around, then clapped back forward and laughed. "What if it really had been a Cybeast, huh?" she joked.

"Uh... Then hopefully I wouldn't break another arm," he replied, giving an unamused frown in return. Still, he couldn't help but break into a smile as well, though his was one of smugness. "But I'm pretty sure that this time I'd fare a little bit better."

As Meleeman walked around the pile of dust that had once been a minibeast carapace...nothing happened. Another piece of the shell broke off of what little was left of it behind him, but otherwise it did nothing. The snowstorm, as well, continued to blow around him, unrelenting.

After a moment, however, a flash of black is visible up ahead for a brief moment before fading into the storm.

MeleeMan gritted his teeth together, hating the sight of his own cold breath coming out before him. "Hopefully that's her up ahead," he grumbled, squinting to try to make out the dark figure better. "Damn, I can't really tell. Stupid snow's everywhere."

"Hurry on, MeleeMan. Don't let her get out of your field of vision," Rania encouraged him, trying to zoom in to see the figure herself.

"Ha! I'm pretty sure it's too late for that," he said through chattering teeth, trying to pick his pace up just a bit, but still trudging heavily through the snow.

Meleeman managed to get close enough to catch a glimpse of the figure again. Upon zooming in, Rania could tell it was in fact Mieli, who was kneeling to the ground and examining a patch of...grass?

What was there grass doing here? Or at least exposed like that?

Mieli looked away, noticing Meleeman catching up to her. "You're slow," she said.

"Only some kind of screwball would run out into snow like this without a good reason and I'm afraid you haven't quite given me that good reason yet, Mieli," he grumbled, still shivering and clutching his arms. The amount of smoke he was expelling made it pretty evident the amount of energy he was expending keeping himself warm. "Why the hell am I supposed to care about some little patch of grass out here? I doubt you needed me to come all this way just to burn it and that's about all I can do with it."

Rania quited down her navi with an irritated shake of the head. "It's pretty unnatural though, right? There's no way it could grow in such extreme cold if this were a constant condition, or especially after these snowfalls had already started. I'll bet Mieli has a good explanation for it."

"Well then? I'd like to hear that good explanation," MeleeMan grunted, staring after her with impatience.

"Not exactly the smartest one, are you?" Mieli reaffirmed, standing up again. "If you must know..." Before she could finish, however, the patch of grass began to spread. Snow melted away instantly around them, fading as though it was never there. The frozen wasteland gave way to a grassy hillside, with a few trees and plants beginning to bloom around them. The blinding snowstorm gave way to a light spring drizzle that was beginning to clear.

"Well, there's something you don't see everyday," Mieli commented, seeming to forget about the explanation she was supposed to give.

As usual, MeleeMan was not phased by any comment upon his intelligence. "Oh wow. I feel like I'm in some kinda kid's movie," MeleeMan laughed, thinking to himself that it was actually quite pleasant for the cold to be letting up. However, he didn't like the rain; with the snow, it wasn't so evident, but that really was water coming down on them. He pulled up his collar with a discrete motion, trying not to make his dislike of the drizzle too apparent. "Well, what's next? We've had snow, raining shark corpses, fields of grass sprouting up from nowhere. Should I be expecting toads falling from the sky of random pillars of fire to start spouting?"

Rania remained quiet, tapping her fingers against her arm impatiently and trying to figure out what could be the explanation for all that was happening.

"Sure, why not," Mieli commented, rolling her eyes again. "You take care of the fire pillars, I'll fine some toads to toss around." She looked like she also wanted to comment on the motion of pulling up his collar, but didn't.

Now that the snow had let up, however, a few landmarks started to become visible. There was a large cluster of trees behind them, presumably around where the door had been. The area ahead spread downhill, revealing several more scattered, budding trees, as well as a cabin directly ahead at the foot of the hill and a lake in the distance.

"Well?" Mieli asked, gazing down the hill. "Are you going to complain more now that we can see where we're going, or can we move on?"

"Hmph. As though I'd complain when there's nothing to complain about. I have a serious problem with your haughty attitude. Not that I'm complaining about you complaining about me complaining... about..." he paused, scratching his head with his finger, lifting his helmet briefly to do so. Rania put her hand on her forehead, becoming exhausted with the bickering of her navi.

Resting her elbows on the table, she yawned into one hand. "Please, just try to hurry and finish the mission, okay, MeleeMan?" she begged, frowning into the monitor.

"Huh? I'm not wasting time or anything, I'm just saying what ought to be said," he defended stiffly. Walking forward a bit, MeleeMan caught sight of a log cabin in the distance. "Is that what we came all this way out to see? I can't imagine what would be worth seeing all-"

"Stop provoking her!" Rania growled, beginning to become seriously angry with her navi's prolongation of the mission.

"Alright, alright. I'm just saying," he grumbled, walking on down the hill.

Mieli ignored most of Meleeman's bickering, shrugging. "Fine, lead the way," she said offhand, following Meleeman down the hill.

Predictably, when they reached the cabin, there appeared to be no door or windows.