Mission: Area Exploration

"Fine," Aegir growled, backing off.

"Wait, it's...what?" the archaeologist asked, confirming his obliviousness to what was happening above.

"Growing. It's formed a bubble over your 'giant hole in the net' and is pulling things in," Rainfall answered, beginning to look increasingly impatient.

The navi looked away. "That...wasn't supposed to happen. It shouldn't have leaked out."

"Shouldn't, but did," Aegir snarled, attempting to lunge at the working navi again. And again, he was stopped by Arachne. "For supposedly being smart, you science types don't think anything through very well, do you?"

"Maybe...I should do the talking here," Arachne suggested. She turned to the archaeologist. "First off, what's your name?"

"Relic."

"Okay, Relic. What is this void stuff, do you know?"

"Unprotected netspace between net layers. It wasn't supposed to spread out of the hole, I'll have to petition SciLab to fix it later."

Arachne blinked. "I've seen what unprotected areas do to programs. If that's what it is, how did we get down here safely?"

"You followed the path down, right? My operator coded that up and hacked it in. Now stand back, I think I've got it this time." Relic closed up the hole he had torn in the net. The ground began rumbling once again, and a ring of blue light appeared around the edges of the teleporter.

Then the area lurched upward again, and the light faded. Relic swore under his breath, then pulled up the panel again to continue working.
___

---???---
Relic: ???

---Allies---
Machman: 100 HP
Rainfall: 320 HP
Arachne: 180 HP
Aegir: 200 HP

---Terrain---
70% Normal (Platform)
20% Teleporter (No bonuses. Cannot be altered, broken, or burrowed into.)
10% ??? (Darkness surrounding platform. Unprotected area of netspace, attempting to forcibly pass through will result in damage and possibly widespread glitches. Treated as Missing for grounded navis.)

---Map---

Light gray=visible path. Dark gray=you are here. White=darkness. Orange=upper level. Arrows: Ramp between levels. Brown=unknown navi

Mach braced himself as the area burst upwards again. Mazer chimed in, he was getting rather annoyed by the situation.

[So the ground movement was also caused by him?]

Do you know where that teleporter leads? Though I think opening a very hostile area up to the rest of the web is a bad idea, it may be our only way out of here. I don't think we'll be able to get back from where we entered, seeing as we fell down a seemingly endless abyss when your pathway crumbled to dust.

Relic didn't seem to be paying attention to the fate of his pathway as he responded. "You know," he said dully, "If you want to leave you can jack out. Nothing's stopping you. And I've already told you what's on the other side, so that sure isn't."

"No, I think something is," Rainfall said. Thunder rumbled from somewhere in the blackness above the field, and rain began to fall around them. "Hey, watch it with that," Relic said, hurrying to cover up the exposed teleporter wires before the rain could damage them.

"Thanks to you're demonstration, I think I've figured out what's going on here. Every time you try to activate that thing, it's forcing this area up toward the surface, taking viruses and echoes of fallen navis with it. That'll be why there were much stronger viruses mixed in with the normal ones before we came down here. And since you're so absorbed in this work, you haven't even noticed, have you?"

Relic gave her a shrug. "Not my problem right now. Like I said, I'll petition Scilab to fix it when I'm done. I've spent two months working on this, I'm certainly not going to stop now because surface navis can't deal with a few viruses."

"I'll make it your problem, foureyes," Aegir snarled, raising his axe.

"Two months?! You've never even considered thay you're not going to be done, have you? I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to stop this here." Rainfall added.

Finally, Relic got to his feet, pocketing the tools he had been using. "Well, if that's how you're going to be, I suppose I'll have to clear all of you out so I can get back to work."
___

---Enemy---
Relic: 540 HP

---Allies---
Machman: 100 HP
Rainfall: 320 HP
Arachne: 180 HP
Aegir: 200 HP

---Terrain---
70% Normal (Platform)
20% Teleporter (No bonuses. Cannot be altered, broken, or burrowed into.)
10% Unprotected (Darkness surrounding platform. Unprotected area of netspace, attempting to forcibly pass through will result in damage and possibly widespread glitches. Treated as Missing for grounded navis.)

Mach nodded with Rainfall's comments, everything seemed to fall into place quite well. He remained silent as Relic decided he was going to use force to get them to leave, and clenched his fists in anticipation.

[Mach, I don't think this guy is as weak as he may look. Be careful.]

I was thinking the same thing. No normal Navi would spend 2 months down here without getting picked apart by Viruses and Remnants.

For good measure, Machman sent a wireless message to Rainfall, Arachne, and Aegir.

[[i]Don't get cocky, there is something weird about this guy. He may be more than just a history buff.[/i]]

Machman's plasma shield raised like a protective bubble in front of him, and took an aggressive stance. An additional trio of Overwatch sensor drones materialized in front of him and quickly darted off to different locations, to join the others in providing a comprehensive view of the battle zone. He didn't know what Relic was capable of, so he decided to see what he could do by attacking modestly, but keeping his truly powerful chips on reserve. Mach sent a text-only message to Mazer, who replied:

[Chips uploaded! Stay alert!]

Mach's wings floated out to his sides, and paired up before they started to charge up. Two glowing crimson orbs of volatile plasma started to form, floating between the wings and supported by a magnetic "cage" projected from the wings themselves. The plasma quickly reached maximum power, and started to severely weaken the hold of the magnetic field that held them in place. The wing pairs automatically swiveled towards Relic, and unleashed the plasma in a pair of red beams of light. The lasers bathed the area in a ruby glow before they quickly lost power and faded into two trails of charred data.

As his white-hot wings returned to their places, Machman aimed himself towards Relic and slammed his fist to the ground, which sent a powerful shockwave rumbling towards his target. He aimed directly under the Navi in an attempt to throw him off balance, or possibly even knock him over. As soon as he lifted his fist from the ground, his wings kicked on and propelled him skyward. He pulled a quick aileron roll and strafed left then right in an attempt to evade incoming fire as he quickly gained altitude and flew over Relic's head.

Hopefully behind him, Mach clutched a dynamo-studded orb and drew his arm back. He paused before he threw, because he accessed the visual feeds of the Overwatch sensor drones that were posted around the battle space. He took different views of the same area, and plotted Relic's location in a three-dimensional space. With that information, he knew exactly where to throw his Elecbomb. He heaved the bomb towards the ground with an overhand throw, which exploded on impact and coated the immediate area with a fluid, laced with highly conductive wires. These wires were connected to a large capacitor in the core of the bomb, which delivered a painful jolt of electricity.

He was prepared for an immediate counter-attack, so he lifted his left arm in front of his chest, where a large yellow shield formed over his body, centered on his left forearm. As he braced himself, his signature triple-barreled vulcan cannon formed under his right arm, and the trigger assembly swung up into his waiting hand as the weapon started to spool up with a high-pitched whine. As soon as the shield dropped, Mach's wings shifted directions and pointed their thrusters to the right, and slightly upwards. They fired and propelled Mach down and to the left in a somewhat smooth strafing maneuver, which gave him more than enough stability to open up with his vulcan. The heavy weapon roared to life with a fierce plume of seemingly unchanging muzzle flash and sprayed dozens of red-hot tracer rounds towards Relic. Even though the tracers were being fired at an impressive rate, there were 4 standard 30mm AP rounds between each tracer. He depleted his 100 round drum magazine in just a couple seconds, and continued to sweep around his target in a wide arc.


ACTIONS:

-[Plasma Shield: Facing Forward]-
Thrust Laser: Relic (20dmg x2 + 1TCD)
Shockwave: Relic (40dmg + Piercing + Ground Attack + Group Attack) {attempt to throw Relic off balance}
Dodge
Magbomb1: Relic (30dmg Elec + Blast2 + Stun) [+ Take Aim]
Rising Barrage: Relic (25dmg x4 + Break + Strategic Action + 4TCD)
-[Strategic Action: Swing around Relic while firing, and ending up left of his allies and several dozen feet in the air]-

Cooling Sigs:
Thrust Laser: 1 Turn Remaining
Rising Barrage: 4 Turns Remaining

((Bump))

((Bump))

((Bump...))

Sea terrain spread out from under Aegir, creating a lake of grayed out water that stretched just short of Relic's position and flowed over the edge of the platform, leaving only the teleporter untouched in its path. A large viking ship rose out of it and surfaced next to Aegir, who climbed on top of it and strengthened himself as Machman opened up on Relic. Both his lasers and the shockwave hit, though the latter failed to do anything but damage the archaeologist.

"NNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD!" Aegir yelled as some sort of battlecry, raising his axe and directing the ship toward Relic. He swung his axe down in a crushing blow, but only managed to hit a rockcube Relic summoned at the last second. Aegir wasn't done, however, as he raised a wave of water into steam to pummel Relic, then dipped his axe in the water and swung again. Unfortunately, only the latter hit.

Arachne followed up Mach's and Aegir's attacks by firing a strand of webbing at Relic, which hit and bound him. She shot another, followed by a scrambler blast, but quickly found out that aiming past a ship floating on water was a bad idea, as both of the latter attacks missed. Sighing, the spider navi moved around to get a better shot, and to get away from Aegir's small sea.

Rainfall, meanwhile, built up her defenses, allowing the rain around her to intensify to the point of being able to absorb incoming attacks. "Why are you so obsessed with this, anyway?" she asked. "What are you doing this for that's so important you don't care what affect it has on the rest of the net?"

Relic's uncaring expression was replaced, only for a moment, with a manic grin as he responded "For SCIENCE!" and slammed his pickaxe into the ground. A blast of elemental power shot out from it, turning the ground to silvery sand, hitting Rainfall and continuing past her over the edge. Relic then plunged his hand into the line of sand. The ground rumbled, and then a large worm appeared out of the sand behind Rainfall and slammed into her from behind, ripping straight through the rain barrier in the process.

As Relic pulled his hand out of the sand, he noticed it change into grass as a field spread from around Arachne, now having moved to the other side of the platform, and reached past the point where Relic stood. He turned to face the spider navi just in time to see her release spores into the grass, which spread towards him....

...and stopped dead as all the grass, sand, and water disappeared from the platform.

"Sorry, nothing for you to find here," Relic said, waving Arachne off with his pickaxe. Aegir too for that matter, as his ship was now grounded.

"Like hell," Aegir responded, swinging his own axe in response. A wave of ice erupted from the tip, slamming into Relic and shattering on impact.

"Hm." the archaeologist grunted, swaying on his feet as he stepped back. It was obvious he was feeling the damage despite all of the missed attacks, but to what degree was uncertain. "I really wish you all would just leave me to finish my work."

"Someone hasn't been listening," Aegir growled.

Relic sighed and bowed his head. "Seems I'm going to have to use my collection to force you to leave, then," he said solemnly, raising one hand. The ground began to shake once more, and from behind him rose a colossal knight statue, armored and with its sword held across the chest and pointed up so the blade rose in front of its face. As soon as the ground was still again, the blade glowed, then fired a beam from the tip, which struck Machman but did little more than destroy his shield.

Of course, Machman was at this point behind Relic, between him and the guard statue. He hurled a Magbomb at the archaeologist and began swinging around him, firing a vulcan gun all the while before ending up near his allies...only high in the air above them. From above, he could see that both attacks hit, and that the magbomb had even damaged the guard statue as well...a little bit.

Before his movement could lock up completely, Relic managed to summon another artifact, this time a totem pole, next to Rainfall. The archaeologist collapsed into a kneeling position afterward, letting himself recover slightly, but the totem pole was unhindered as it spewed a stream of fire that hit Rainfall and Aegir's viking ship, but fell just short of Arachne's position, much to the spider navi's relief.

Though Relic's movement systems had locked up from the magnet bomb, he still managed a grin as the ground began to shake once more. Even though it would have time and a temporary stun to go through, the navis could feel that something extremely powerful was on the way.
___

---Enemy---
Relic: 165 HP (Hold, 2 turns) (Blind) (Slow, 2 turns) (Stun)

---Allies---
Machman: 100 HP
Rainfall: 80 HP
Arachne: 180 HP
Aegir: 200 HP (3-hit Shield)

--Objects---
Viking Ship: 40 HP (Grounded)
Guard Statue: 170 HP (Stun)
Totem2: 100 HP

---Terrain---
70% Normal (Platform)
20% Teleporter (No bonuses. Cannot be altered, broken, or burrowed into.)
10% Unprotected (Darkness surrounding platform. Unprotected area of netspace, attempting to forcibly pass through will result in damage and possibly widespread glitches. Treated as Missing for grounded navis.)

WARNING: EXTREMELY HEAVY ATTACK IMMINENT

Mach's plasma shield regained strength and raised in front of him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was coming. Something very, very bad. Machman saw the Totem Relic summoned to attack Rainfall and Aegir's ship, and he experienced the Guard Statue's attack firsthand; so he felt the need to take them down a notch. He focused his aim on the Guard Statue as he drew his arm back and clutched the quickly formed boomerang in his hand. After adjusting his aim to hopefully catch both summoned objects in his path, he threw the boomerang forward like a throwing knife, which caused the boomerang to tumble end-over-end before it leveled out and zipped towards the statue like a blurry green disk. However, as it whirred forward, the circular blade seemed to become an oval shape, before it appeared to thin out in the middle like a figure-eight. A second or two later, one could see that the odd formation was actually two disks that Mach threw in a stack. The two separated by a foot or so as they spun towards their targets. The spinning, sharpened blades flew by and climbed to make their banking turns and dove back down on their return course to Machman. The blades approached quickly, only to be caught by Mach's waiting hands.

The boomerangs quickly deactivated as Mach shouted out to his comrades.
Stay on your toes! Stay focused and don't get sloppy!

Mazer cut in with orders for him.
[Mach, take to the sky! He'll have a tougher time defending against attacks from multiple directions!]
Understood!

Machman jumped into the air and executed a backflip as his large metallic plates formed over his body and swung into place. He continued to flip in the air one more time as his entire body was lengthened by almost 40 feet, and covered the ground with his large, reverse-swept wings. He paused in the air, righted and facing forward, as his four plasma thrust engines kicked on, and a missile appeared under his fuselage. Just as he bolted forward at nearly full throttle, the missile dropped away and it's solid-fuel motor ignited. The missile, containing a small explosive surrounded by pressurized water tanks, streaked forward towards Relic as it's white smoke trail traced it's beeline path towards Mach's target.

Mach boosted forward and performed a "cobra roll" maneuver to not only turn himself around, but also to shake off any sort of retaliatory fire that may have come from Relic. He climbed sharply and went inverted as if to do a complete loop, but he partially leveled out and performed a banking left turn as he dove down slightly and climbed, and quickly rolled right to go inverted and dove downwards before he pulled out of the loop with just a dozen feet or so to spare. He pointed his nose skyward and climbed higher and higher into the air in a very wide, shallow loop. When he finally went inverted and leveled out, he was high above the area, and hopefully out of range of Relic's attacks.

Before Mach decided to position himself for his next attack, he realized his current form was excellent for high speed aerial maneuvers, but his normal form would be a much smaller target, and he'd get faster responses from his thrusters and hopefully be able to dodge should anything come his way. In a flurry of twisting metal and mechanical scrapes, Machman returned to his normal form as he continued through the air towards Relic's position


ACTIONS:
-[Plasma Shield: Facing Forward]-
Boomerang1: Guard Statue, Totem2 (70dmg Wood)
Boomerang1: Guard Statue, Totem2 (70dmg Wood)
-[Activate MachFighter.GMO]-
Bubbler: Relic (50dmg Aqua + Splash)
Dodge
Strategic Action: Move to High Altitude


Cooling Sigs:
Thrust Laser: Ready!
Rising Barrage: 3 Turns Remaining

((Bump))

((Exactly 24 hours BUMP))

The two boomerangs Machman threw cut apart the totem easily, but only the first hit the guard statue as the second curved back around prematurely. Meanwhile, the other navis seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Mazer. Arachne began strafing to one side, Rainfall to the other, while Aegir vaulted off of his ship and advanced directly at the archaeologist. By the time they made any real progress, however, the stun effect had worn off, and Relic was on his feet again and beginning to recover from the initial volley of attacks.

Compounding on this, he pulled a canister similar in design to a canopic jar, minus the wooden head, from one of his many pockets, opened it...and downed the contents. One could only hope that was some form of medicine and not preserved organs.

"That's really disgusting," Arachne commented, now from right next to Relic. The archaeologist jumped a bit, then returned the jar to its pocket.

"But effective," Relic countered. "Maybe next time I'll drink poison, see what you think of that." As he spoke, a soft rumble slowly became noticeable in the arena, not from the ground underneath them, but from somewhere beyond the platform where they fought.

Arachne paid this no mind, and simply leaned closer to Relic, smirking slyly. "Your proposal is accepted," she whispered. The spider navi bit Relic, then backed away again.

"You...you bit me!" Relic exclaimed, looking down at the bite. He didn't have much time to be indignant, however, as Machman shifted to his fighter jet form and fired a bubbler missile at him. Rainfall followed up the attack with a swarm of insects that looked more like raindrops with needle noses. They attacked Relic from all sides, draining energy from him to be restored to Rainfall.

Once all three attackers had had their say, however, Relic simply laughed. The rumbling grew louder as a gargantuan stone head statue faded into view from out of the blackness, dwarfing even the guard statue in size. It opened its mouth and let out a roar, calling down a rock slide from the black sky. Six rocks in all fell, and though Aegir and Machman managed to dodge the first each thrown at them, the remaining for hit all four navis. Aegir managed to shrug his off despite the damage, and Arachne managed to take the hit standing out of sheer endurance, but the already wounded Rainfall and glass cannon Machman were both reduced to critical condition.

Still determined not to let a rain of rocks do her in, Rainfall summoned a Lilcloud, which blended in with the pre-existing rainclouds and rained over Relic and his artifacts. Only the guard statue was damaged, however. Aegir took the opportunity to jump at Relic, bellowing another battlecry and swinging his axe repeatedly....at air, as Relic fired off a cannon chip. Though it did no damage against Aegir's shielding, it did knock the berserking viking navi several harmless feet away from the archaeologist. Relic then set up another of his collection, a turret from a castle (or rather just a Rook object), which absorbed two more axe swings and a web attack from Arachne while sustaining absolutely no damage.

The archaeologist added further to his defenses by ripping up a strip of platform from either side of the rook and hurling both at Arachne and Rainfall. Both targets dodged, however, leaving Relic on a now-fragile section of platform between a rook and a guard statue...that was destroyed by another burst of webbing from Arachne. And no defenses from aerial attacks. Could this be Machman's best chance to attack? Perhaps not, as he resumed his original form and the edges of his wings brushed against the edge of protected netspace, incurring a burning sensation in the tips. And the grin from when he summoned the GodStone hadn't yet left Relic's face.
___

---Enemy---
Relic: 140 HP (Hold, 1 turn) (Slow, 1 turn) (Spider's Bite: Takes 20 delayed damage for the next 3 turns)

---Allies---
Machman: 1 HP (High altitude) (Near unprotected netspace)
Rainfall: 1 HP
Arachne: 30 HP
Aegir: 50 HP (2-hit Shield)

--Objects---
Viking Ship: 40 HP (Grounded)
Guard Statue: Destroyed
Totem2: Destroyed
Rook: 500 HP (IronBody) (In front of Relic)

---Other---
Lilcloud: Over GuardStatue remains.

---Terrain---
60% Normal (Platform)
10% Broken (Strips on either side of Rook)
20% Teleporter (No bonuses. Cannot be altered, broken, or burrowed into.)
10% Unprotected (Darkness surrounding platform. Unprotected area of netspace, attempting to forcibly pass through will result in damage and possibly widespread glitches. Treated as Missing for grounded navis.)

Machman struggled to remain airborne as he was pummeled by stone, and gripped his left shoulder gingerly. His mask was cracked, so much that a sliver fell away, revealing a cyan glow underneath. The light flickered as Machman spoke.

Ugh, what the hell was that?

[I have no idea, but we aren't going to let him do that again! Take him out immediately.]

I shall reduce him to ashes.

Machman's body heat began to rise rapidly, so much so that his entire body started to glow red. His surface temperature reached critical levels, and caused the air around him to burst into flames; thus created a fireball in the sky. The flames swirled around him for a few seconds, before it was blasted apart by a large weapon swinging into place. The flames quickly dissipated, revealing Machman's new form underneath. His orange hair changed to a deep crimson, braided into a thick ponytail, and he had brilliant white bangs extended over his face. The pylons over his ears changed to a similar crimson and white, and his orange eyes glowed like two miniature suns. His chest and arms were covered by a red shirt, adorned with gold buttons. His legs were covered by long white pants, the bottoms were embroidered with a flame pattern that seemed to flicker and glow like actual flames.

He was poised in the air, in his right arm he carried a large, jet-black cannon. The barrel was covered by a red metal muzzle cover that looked like the head of a dragon. Inside the rifled barrel was a large high-explosive artillery round. Mach had a clear line of fire, but he tapped into his Overwatch sensor network and confirmed Relic's position on the rather unsupported platform. He aimed his cannon right at Relic's chest, and prepared to fire.

I will blast that grin off your stupid face.

Machman fired his cannon with a loud boom and a flash of fire. The round left a black trail as it soared towards it's target, and impacted with a loud clang before it exploded in a ball of flames. Immediately after he fired, his plasma shield strengthened in front of him, and blurred out of sight. He immediately re-appeared in the air behind Relic, and it seemed like the friction caused by the rapid burst of speed caused his hands to literally catch on fire. Though that would have been wicked, but it was just because of his twin firehit chips activating. Machman's face had twisted into an intense scowl, his glowing orange eyes pierced the darkness like twin spears of light. Machman made a sound oddly similar to a snarl as he delivered a flaming punch to Relic's ribs, followed by another fiery hook to the kidneys

Machman then quickly leaped over Relic's head and flipped over to face him. His body seemed to blur, as if seeing double. He continued to float in the air, his right arm was drawn back, his hand clenched into a fist. His fist started to swell up, and large black and red metal plates formed over his arm, from his shoulder down to his fingertips. In a fury of metallic scrapes and sparks from grinding armor, Mach's right arm and hand was transformed into a massive GutFist. Machman was ready to quickly dodge away from his next attack, and return the favor with a 200lb solid metal fist to the face.


ACTIONS:
Afterburner Action: Activate XIIICross (Fire/Sword, +20HP, +1 Action, +15dmg to Fire chips)
Magnum1: Relic (135dmg Fire + Breaking + Panel Break)
-[Plasma Shield: Facing Forward]-
SCRAM Boost: Teleport behind Relic
FireHit1: Relic (75dmg Fire)
FireHit1: Relic (75dmg Fire)
Swordplay Dodge
Counter1 (Counter 1 attack with GutPunch for 70dmg Null + Breaking + Impact)

Cooling Sigs:
Rising Barrage: 2 Turns Remaining
SCRAM Boost: 2 Turns Remaining

((Bump))

An explosion of flames high above the battlefield signified Machman's transformation into a crossed state, complete with fire and...

...that's a Magnum.

He fired, hitting Relic with a massive blast intensified by his crossed state, just as Relic managed to set a candle beside him. The archaeologist was damaged further by Arachne's bite and Rainfall's...well, rain, while only managing to heal by a small amount. The rain above Machman, unaffected by his fiery state, healed him to almost full health, while its source down below used a recovery chip on herself.

Arachne, meanwhile, edged around the side of the Rook so that she could get a clear shot at Relic and fired a burst of webbing that wrapped around the archaeologist and squeezed tightly. It didn't stop him, however, from pulling out another of the canopic jar medicine bottles and healing himself with the contents again, which allowed him to loosen the constriction slightly, still left him wrapped in spider's silk.

Arachne followed up her web attack by summoning a Melody virus, which bounced around the platform before bouncing off the candle, the rook, the rook again, and finally Relic. Relic responded by summoning his own bouncing weapon, a Knight object, behind him.

And, as it happened, right under where Machman had planned to teleport.

Machman ended up landing on top of the knight, where he was thrown off slightly by actually having something under him. Because of this, only the first of his punches hit. As the second went wild and Machman pulled his fist back, it was followed by an expanding sphere as Relic activated an unassuming device he had managed to recover from somewhere under the spider's silk...which turned out to be some form of shield generator.

From the other side of the Rook, Aegir hurled his axe like a boomerang. It arced around the side of the castle artifact and bounced off the barrier before flying back to him. Relic then shifted his attention to the viking. He directed the knight at him, which jumped just after Machman dodged away from it and continued floating over the rook. The knight, meanwhile, bypassed Aegir's shields, which he summoned a Guard to replace and landed on top of him, reducing him to critical condition. As it landed, the entire platform shook, but there was no visible damage. Yet, at least.

Arachne crouched against the ground after the knight attack and released two strands of webbing into it, which transformed into vines as they burrowed through the platform and reappeared on either side of Relic. The first destroyed the barrier, but only managed a loose grip on one of his legs. The second, however, managed to wrap itself around until it found the silk from her earlier attacks and attached itself to it.

"You should try that on female navis sometime," Aegir commented.

"Pervert," Arachne shot back.

Rainfall's rain, meanwhile, intensified, creating a distracting backdrop of falling water as she fired off an Aurahead at the rook, damaging it but missing Relic. Aegir followed up the attack with his axe, which cut through the rook in the same hammerblow pattern that destroyed the rockcube from earlier, leaving Relic exposed.

The bound archaeologist recognized that all his defenses were destroyed. The grin faded from his face, but only for a moment before he fished the pickaxe out of the webbing binding him. He threw it not at any of his opponents, but at the path leading away from the teleporter platform. The pick transformed into a large shovel as it flew end over end, then hit the ground at the edge of the platform. From where it landed, the ground crumbled away, creating a hole that continued spreading until it encompassed the entire north end of the platform and part of the path, leaving only a weak frame keeping the platform from falling into the abyss below.

"Normally use that to dig quickly," Relic explained. "Works for breaking things in a pinch though. If I'm going down, then we're all going together." He laughed, prompting Rainfall to draw her umbrella back and thrust it forward, spinning it like a drill. When she did, however, the platform lurched as the frame holding it to the network began to give way, and her attack missed. Rainfall pulled away, bracing herself and allowing her rain to stop falling, leaving large puddles covering what was left of the platform and running off of the sides. Relic was finally shut up, however, by a large web from Arachne, which managed to cover his mouth as well as what was left un-webbed of his body. "It's always spider webs, isn't it?", he tried to say, though it came out muffled.

Still, Relic managed to free one arm enough to point it through the space where the rook had stood and summoned a large cannon made from intricate stonework. Aegir edged through the gap as he did, swinging his axe in a weak blow that damaged Relic just as the candle restored a small portion of his health once again.

The cannon swiveled upward and fired, not a simple blast, but a massive death ray that targeted Machman.

Unfortunately for Relic, Machman was prepared for an attack and defended himself from the blast before flying forward and swung a massive fist at the archaeologist. He scored a solid hit, and without the candle's healing to save him thanks to Aegir's attack, his undershirt failed. He fell backward as the platform lurched again, and fell off the end.

Looking over the side, Machman could see the unprotected space of the void begin to eat away at the webbing before his body was replaced by a bright blue light. And then...nothing. Rainfall apparently had noticed too, as she walked over to the edge as well and commented that he wasn't dead. "We should probably get out of here," she said to the other three navis. "I'm satisfied, at least." As if to emphasize this point, the frame holding up the platform snapped and gave way.




Fortunately, the protection surrounding the platform held as it began to fall through the abyss. "Well...I hope to team up with you all again in the future. It's been fun," Rainfall said. Her body was surrounded by the soft light of a rainbow after a storm, and she disappeared from the net.

"What she said," Aegir shrugged. "Hel with it, I'm outta here." Lightning struck the viking navi, and he vanished as well.

"How very eloquent," Arachne teased, though it was lost as Aegir had already left. The spider navi waved to Machman. "Well, I'll be seeing you," she said, then rose into the air on a strand of silk before disappearing as well.

Which just left Machman floating a foot above the remains of the platform and falling with it. Perhaps he should jack out as well.
___

MISSION COMPLETE

---Enemy---
Relic: EJO (Spider's Bite: Takes 20 delayed damage for the next 2 turns) (Stun) (Rope hold) (Rope hold) (Snare)

---Allies---
Machman: 111 HP (Afterburner used, -1 action next turn) (XIII Cross) (Shield) (Get: 2000z, DoubleShot, +8FXP with each)
Rainfall: 81 HP (Shield) (Jacking out) (Get: 2000z, ElemSand, +8FXP with each)
Arachne: 30 HP (Jacking out) (Get: 1500z, Totem2, +8FXP with each)
Aegir: 1 HP (Equip: Guard2) (Jacking out) (Get: 2000z, Candle1, +8FXP with each)

--Objects---
Viking Ship: 40 HP (Grounded)
Guard Statue: Destroyed
Totem2: Destroyed
Rook: Destroyed
Candle1: 40 HP
Knight: 100 HP

---Other---
Lilcloud: Over GuardStatue remains.

---Terrain---
20% Sea (Puddles covering what's left of the platform)
50% Broken (Strips on either side of Rook) (north end of platform, path leading out)
20% Teleporter (No bonuses. Cannot be altered, broken, or burrowed into.)
10% Unprotected (Darkness surrounding platform. Unprotected area of netspace, attempting to forcibly pass through will result in damage and possibly

widespread glitches. Treated as Missing for grounded navis.)
(Platform is falling toward Rogue Net. Jack out recommended.)

Machman's counter-attack worked even better than he expected, since he bypassed a very powerful beam attack, then literally knocked Relic off the path. Machman's arm changed to normal, as the rest of his body started to glow a cool blue as he deactivated his XIIICross. He turned as his comrades started to leave the area.

I hope to team up with you again as well, Rainfall. We would have been lost and confused without your guidance and skill.

Machman didn't have enough time to say goodbye to Aegir as he abruptly left after Rainfall, but he did manage to partially wave as he did so. He then waved fully towards Arachne as she ascended upwards on a thread of silk.

Until we meet again, Miss Arachne.

Mach was then alone in the dark and increasingly unstable defunct network. Mazer's voice came in, with a little bit more clarity, but still somewhat distorted.

[Good work ---ach, Let's log ---- out before the place shakes itself a---art.]

Machman nodded, but then his eyes quickly went wide and his back arched painfully backwards. It felt like his body was moving on its own, and he couldn't even utter a single word. The voice was screaming in his head, so loudly that he felt his skull was going to break apart. He managed to clutch the sides of his head and doubled over as his entire body shook violently. Large cracks started to form over his mask, and pieces started to fall away. The entire lower portion seemed to be breaking away, and the bright, glowing cyan cracks grew larger and larger. Mazer saw what was happening to his Navi, and shouted to him as he rushed to log him out. His shouts fell on deaf ears, since the strain overcame Machman's cognitive functions, and he lost consciousness. He started to fall, but Mazer had initiated the jack out sequence and he beamed up into the PET.

((Logged Out))