Aim/MC Mission: Corn's Farm

Exorcist sighed, relighting her candle and then waving her fingers back to normal. Realistically, the fire should have given her quite a scare; if she or the others had been hit by that, they would have been burnt to a crisp. On the other hand, how many of those had she dodged while working with Djinni? It just wasn't easy to register them properly as a surprise any more. "You know, on the note of this virus' odd behavior... I've been wondering: why Spikies would live in a deep burrow like this to begin with? It certainly doesn't seem natural for them," she mused.

"Is this even a good idea? We don't know how deep this tunnel goes or anything! We don't even know what's at the end! What if there's like five of those huge Spikies? Or twenty!?" Bhikkhuni exclaimed, enjoying nothing about their situation now that she couldn't get much out of bragging about her bust size. "I-If nothing else, we're going to get hypothermia, dressed like this with such drastic temperature changes! It doesn't help that someone keeps throwing water on us!"

"Don't you notice the dry heat? It's a good idea to stay hydrated," Mary laughed, splashing more water on the sputtering Bhikkhuni, almost as if bullying her.

"Well, we don't face the dangers that the human explorers of old would. If we get in over our heads, we can't get caught without an escape mechanism thanks to our reliable jack-out procedures. We should count ourselves fortunate," Exorcist encouraged the others. "And besides, it's our duty! If we can't let viruses go free, we certainly can't ignore tremendous, property-vandalizing viruses."

On the other side of the PET, Burt furrowed his eyebrows in an angry grimace. What good was this mission to him if it was too dark to get a good look at his own navis? "Keep that candle lit, Exxy!" he instructed his navi, adjusting his glasses to get a better look.
As the party descends further and further, they have one or two more encounters like that. Eventually, they finally reach a chamber at the bottom of the burrow. It is wide and rounded out in a circular shape, and clean-- if entirely carved out of dirt. Roots, presumably from the CyberCorn high above, hang down from the ceiling.

More importantly, on the far side of the room are seven black spikeys! One of them fires a shot at the party and it goes horrendously wide, blasting harmlessly off of the wall. It recoils, seemingly in fear, and the entire group of spikeys huddles against the far wall, away from the entrance.

--Enemies?--
SpikeyPup A: 10 (Terrified)
SpikeyPup B: 10 (Terrified)
SpikeyPup C: 10 (Terrified)
SpikeyPup D: 10 (Terrified)
SpikeyPup E: 10 (Terrified)
SpikeyPup F: 10 (Terrified)
SpikeyPup G: 10 (Terrified)

Their name displays-- and their pathetic HP totals-- reveal the truth. They're just puppies. Kids. Not even full-grown.
Fireballs, fireballs...yeah. Whoever was shooting those had terrible accuracy. "These shots can't be serious...you'd think whoever's shooting them never did it before!"

But then, he found out that his words may have been truer than he anticipated. "...Wow. Baby viruses. Don't see that every day." Hmm. This was quite a situation. "What to do, what to do...on one hand, I'm getting bored, and no one would miss them. But then again, it's kinda weak to resort to that. They can't even hit me when I'm a sitting duck!"

"Your call, SharpMan. If you want to take them out, let me know."

"...Hmph. Decisions, decisions..." Perhaps surprisingly, the bladed Navi simply stood there, pondering his dilemma. But after a few moments, he smirked, signaling his decision. "Heh heh heh...I just got an idea!"

"Oh, really? Feel free to share with the rest of us."

"Well, someone's trying to open a virus zoo or something, right? DNN, I think. But whatever, that's not important. What IS important is that I bet that if we make a virus 'contribution', we could probably get a bounty or something out of it!"

"I see. So, we won't have to dirty our hands, and we could get a little something for our trouble. Can't say it's not worth trying. Of course, we'd have to see what the others think..."

"Why wouldn't they agree? It's the best of both worlds! But if you say so..." Blah, second opinions. In his experience, that's where he usually got a resounding 'NO'. But whatever, might as well at this point... "Yo, Exorcist! You heard my brilliant idea, right? What do you think?"
"Boy, do I feel stupid. For Spikies, these things sure do look Shrimpy," Bhikkhuni muttered as the team finally met their assailants, who appeared to be tiny, tiny Spikies. When they weren't man-sized nor menacingly effective at destruction, they were kind of cute. Who knew that viruses had babies? Furthermore, who could harm a pack of tiny puppies?

Who indeed...

Exorcist stared at the Spikies, her blue eyes shimmering and her throat tight. She knew what her allies didn't: her operator was going to 100% want her to destroy the viruses on the basis of their nature as viruses. Sure enough, Burt had already slotted her in a spreader battle chip. "No! Burt, I can't..."

"What are you talking about? This is like shooting goldfish in a goldfish bowl!" Burt chuckled, rubbing his hands together eagerly. "Look at this treasure trove of manifested evil! Not only did we find some Spikey as big as a Cybeast to get rid of, but we can eradicate these as well! What a productive mission for us, huh? I don't know about you, but I'm giddy!"

His disciple was about the opposite of giddy, glancing back and forth at her allies to see their opinions. Bhikkhuni stared at her feet, not wanting to give input, and Mary remained silent as well. "Viruses don't really age, right?" she offered halfheartedly, pressing both hands together at her lap. "So isn't it actually convenient for us if the evil remains trapped in such a tiny, ineffective body? The evil's as good as removed already, really..."

"You know as well as I do, Exorcist, that we need to destroy that so that new evil will funnel in from the real world and take the place of these on the net. It's the principle of the net's virus replenishment; you remember it from your basic studies, I'm sure," Burt explained, as if it was basic knowledge. "Come now, you're not getting cold feet, are you, Exxy? This is what our religion's all about!"

"But puppies, Burt? You can't really want me to throw a talisman and blow up a bunch of puppies!" she complained incredulously, beginning to tear up at the thought of it.

"I knew I should have remembered to put this explicitly in the creed, but come on, Exxy! You know that viruses may adopt forms that others, such as sweet, kind-hearted girls, will be sympathetic towards! In those cases, you need to cast aside your doubts and eradicate them anyways!" Burt complained, forgetting to fix his glasses as they slid down the bridge of his nose.

"What if I um... what if I let them grow up and then, if they act evil once they're grown, we take care of them?" she ventured, but Burt shook his head emphatically in response.

"There is no 'if!' They are crystallized evil! There is no possibility of them not being evil because that's what they literally, physically are! If you pass them up now, you are directly going against our creed," he fumed, his blue eyes angry behind his now drooping glasses. "'I will not cast a blind eye to evil!' Do you understand that? If you don't destroy them, you've failed your duties and shown that you are not wholly committed to Counterinfectualism!"

Burt's words hurt Exorcist, because regardless of her crazy adventures thus far and her operator's ridiculous attitude, she'd never actually failed to uphold the tenants of Counterinfectualism before. If she relented, she could no longer, in good consciousness, consider herself a devout Counterinfectualist. There might be others out there entirely ignorant of the creed who would be willing to do what she wasn't. She'd be letting her operator down; would that tension between them ever heal? But even then, would she ever really be able to accept that shooting a bunch of defenseless baby viruses was a good idea?

SharpMan interrupted them, offering another solution that seemed more or less laughable in the face of her dilemma. "A-A virus zoo isn't really an acceptable solution... Well, I owe you an explanation. You see, Counterinfectualism- my religion- requires me to eliminate viruses whenever I encounter them on the net. The rules of the practice would require me to immediately exterminate those viruses," she explained, casting another guilty glance over to the Spikies. "I couldn't really agree to the virus zoo because it's sort of er... it runs contrary to my beliefs..."

"Exorcist!" Burt snapped, demanding his navi's attention once again. "Prophets throughout history have been tempted to evil. What seems logical and decent, in this case, is actually a crime against nature! If you hand them over to a zoo, that's even worse; then no one can destroy them! If you're committed to Counterinfectualism, you need to destroy those viruses!"

"I... I really can't..." she sobbed, pressing both palms over her eyes to hide her tears. "I'm sorry, Burt! I'm not fit to be a disciple of Counterinfectualism!"

Burt's face fell into a disbelieving frown. He chewed on his lower lip as he contemplated the events before him. On one hand, in his eyes, her compassion here was a weakness; evil needed to be destroyed, no matter what form it might adopt. On the other hand, if he continued to press her, he really would lose the commitment of his star pupil. Not only that, but seeing his navi cry in a genuine, not-at-all arousing dilemma wasn't at all an experience to savor. "Alright, Exxy... It's okay, you're right. Not every Christian can be Jesus and not every Hindu was Ghandi," he coughed. "Sometimes human limitations come into play... Evil is crafty and taking a form like this is just downright diabolical! Let's make this a lesson, alright?"

"A lesson?" she sniffled, rubbing tears from her eyes as she calmed herself down.

"Yes! The lesson here that you need to remember is how evil those viruses were! They're downright cruel, when you think about it; taking such an innocent appearance to deceive us! Of course you can't destroy adorable puppies. They knew you couldn't! Those crafty bastards manifested themselves this way in order to take advantage of the kind and pure nature of your heart!" he explained. "So let's accept your limitations for now and let SharpMan do what he wants. We can still count this as an asset to Counterinfectualism, since you learned something, alright? You learned a little bit more about the deceitful, brutally effective nature of the viruses' ability to adopt these forms!"

Nodding, Exorcist smiled and wiped her red nose. "Alright then. Sure, SharpMan, you can take them for the zoo. I can't destroy them... and we can't let them free either. At least that will give us a way to keep track of them," she reasoned. Mary clapped her hands together in the background, happy that the situation was resolved. Bhikkhuni let out a loud sniffle as well, then turned around, trying to hide that she'd been similarly affected by the concept of shooting a bunch of puppies.

Burt laughed along with their cheers, grinning at his good luck. "We didn't get those tricky viruses today, but what I did get was a good foothold on Exorcist's learning! She's seen now what I've seen: viruses are sneaky bastards that will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals. I'll drive this point home over our next couple of meditation periods and when the time comes and she meets another pack of baby Spikies, she'll be ready to destroy them," he reasoned to himself, adjusting his glasses with a hidden, devious smile. "And once those baby spikies go, the last holdouts of crystallized evil on an otherwise purified network... the beautiful utopia humanity has always dreamed of will be a reality!"

"Hm? I-I'm happy you're not mad, Burt," Exorcist commented with a shy smile, having been worried that her opposition had rubbed him the wrong way. She was comforted to see that he was smiling again.

"No, no! Like I said, a lesson! We'll talk about it more in the days to come," he assured her, patting his little nephew's hair with one palm as he talked. "This is a nice world we live in, isn't it, Joey? Things have a way of working out!"
Apparently, the concept of murdering young Spikey struck a nerve with Exorcist, who proceeded to have an equally apparent intense discussion with her operator about it. Not having much to do without her opinion, SharpMan leaned against the tunnel wall, listening in to get a feel of what she might do. Sounded like she really didn't want to, but her operator did..."Wow, that guy's cold, even by my standards! Wonder what he's like?"

"I'm curious too...even though we can't tell what he's saying, it's pretty clear to me he's adamant about it. Who knew there was someone that hated viruses that much?"

The discussion was broken as the other Navi shot down his zoo idea, and explained why. As she did so, he pushed himself gently off the wall, and appeared to adjust his forearm armor. "So be it. A quick zenny's nice, but if there must be destruction, there must be destruction! Besides, any religion that apparently requires you to virus bust is okay with me! All right, Hector, go ahead and send me Wid-"

The resumption of Exorcist's conversation stopped the bladed Navi, reverting him to overhearing state. And apparently, she REALLY didn't want to go through with it. Yeah, even someone as cold as ice like that operator appeared to be had to give up at the point of tears. And based on how things went after that, he did. And best of all, it seemed she changed her mind about letting him get some cash. "Heh, sweet! All right, time to get to work!"

With that, SharpMan took a couple of steps forward, then stopped. "Well, Hector? How's that end coming along?"

"They just sent the link. I forgot to ask about payment beforehand, though."

A warp hole appeared in front of the group's lone male, who looked at it nonchalantly before returning his gaze to the puppies. "Listen up, Spikey! You're gonna head through this warp hole. On the other side, some Navis will run checks on you, and take out your battle programming. But after that, you'll all have a nice, large place to run around and, uh, do whatever it is Spikey do other than battle. You'll be safe from attack, and you'll all have happy lives full of rainbows and sunshine and all that garbage!"

"Inspiring."

"Oh, and if you don't go through it by yourselves, I'll probably get irritated and push you in there myself. And that may not go so well for you, depending on exactly how irritated I get. So I suggest walking. Now, mush!"

"You do realize that if they work like actual puppies, there's a chance one or more are incapable of properly walking, right?"

"...I did not. But I'm sticking with what I said!"

[Order of Not Turn:
0-Warp Spikey pups to DNN Viral Zoo]
The pups remain huddled in the corner of the room. A few of them shake their heads; one or two let out a high-pitched whine. A couple of them try to 'hide' under their siblings, while one over to the side just hides its' head in its' paws.

One of them, however, seems to have an idea. It stands in front of the others, head held up, opens its' jaw...

And howls. The noise is loud and keening, almost like the noises of several animals mixed together-- although not entirely unpleasant, save for the volume. After a few seconds the howl stops-- only for the pup's siblings to join in.

The noise is enough to physically shake the cave. Or, at least it seems so, until the party hears a loud, furious roar from somewhere high above them, followed by a lot more shaking. Several of the pups bark excitedly.

Eeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... Now might be a good time to do something.
"Gah!!!" SharpMan physically recoiled at the sheer decibels invading his ears, unable to do anything until it stopped. "That is NOT what I told you to do! Now I'm-" The roar coming from above ground stopped him in his vocal tracks, however. "...going to have to think up something real quick, before I lose my chance!" Ironically, the howls probably saved the pups from any chance of cruel deletion. "Well, no matter what we do, we're going to face the angry wrath of the source of that roar, so there's no point in just leaving them. But if we get rid of them, that'll result in even more wrath. So we're speeding this up!"

"I don't think I can get them all just by myself...Exorcist, gimme a hand getting them in the warp hole! Your SPs should stand guard and let us know when their mother's getting close! At that point, grab and hold a puppy, don't let go, and don't let its head face anyone! Oh, and be gentle! We can't have 'em get hurt at this point!" With that, the bladed Navi raced for the tiny pack, to try and grab a Spikey puppy, and bring it over to the link for transferal. And, upon success, repeat the process as many times as possible in the probably not that long a timeframe they had until they had a gigantic problem on their hands.

[Order of Turn:
ALL-Put as many Spikey pups as possible in the warp hole]
"As weird as it seems given his mentioning of a virus zoo, that guy might make a pretty good Counterinfectualist yet! Maybe once all of this is over, we should hand him a pamphlet," Burt mused, intrigued by SharpMan's comments.

Of course, the three girls had no way to hear him over the howling of the baby spikies. "Damn! I guess this is where Christianity tells you to turn the other cheek, right?" Bhikkhuni asked Mary, holding her hands over her ears. "Sometimes it's hard though!"

"Indeed!" Mary called back.

As the two SPs stood watch over the hole (not terribly effectively, since Exorcist was using her candle to keep track of the puppies), their master carefully moved forward to try to move the dogs into the warp hole. Not many navis would want to handle viruses. Beyond that, almost no wood navis would want to handle fire viruses, no matter how tiny. Still, she took a deep breath and clumsily tried to start carrying them over to the hole, one by one.

"Remember that feeling, Exorcist! Remember what evil feels like," Burt instructed his disciple.

"Their spikes aren't fully in yet, so it's kind of warm and fuzzy," she commented with a small smile.

"The warmth and fuzziness that only comes with pure evil!" Burt reminded her with an irritable frown. "Remember that!"

Exorcist
1-5) Move spikies into warphole

SPs
1-2) Stand guard
One by one, Sharpman and Exorcist (carefully) hurl carry the Spikey pups to the portal and, well, toss them through. You can't really "push" something through a portal, it's just awkward. Shove, maybe.

Gradually the Spikey Pup pile shrinks in size, until Exorcist is left grabbing the last one that hasn't gone through the portal yet. It gives off a loud whine as she grabs it just a little wrongly, and the constant roaring and shaking from outside rapidly increases in pace.

Exorcist quickly takes the pup over to the portal and prepares to shove it through when a gigantic black blur BARRELS past Mary and Bhikkhuni, knocking them over, and lands on top of the portal, a single huge paw smashing it.

Spikkirn, a look of fury in... Her? His? eyes, leans down and ROARS far, far louder than the pups' howling ever was, blowing Exorcist's hair-- and nearly her as well-- back with the force of the scream. The pup gives off a soft whine, struggling in Exorcist's grip, and Spikkirn clenches its' jaw, small embers leaping from between its' teeth.

Momma (Let's go with female) looks pissed.
All right, almost there. Exorcist had the last one, good. Now hurry, woman, for heaven's sake hur-

BOOM!

...Well, shoot.

The enormous Spikey from earlier managed to crush the link in a single blow, which made SharpMan extremely nervous. Or maybe it was the deafening roar. Neither were exactly pleasant. "Hector, can you reform that link?"

"It was a one-use link. There's no way to bring it back. And even if I could, that...thing might end up transporting itself to the zoo. And THAT we cannot allow."

"Then we...are in hot water!" Granted, hot water would really help in this situation...hmm. Perhaps they could use that to their advantage somehow? "...Exorcist. Hand over that pup, then stand behind me. And hurry!" And transfer complete. With any luck, his blades would strongly discourage any wriggling from the small Spikey. "Listen up, mom! Out of the way! All I have to do extend a blade, and your baby's history!" Admittedly, he'd rather do it as a last resort, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

SharpMan began to sidestep over to the exit, making sure to face the Spikkirn at all times. Hopefully, his ally was doing the same behind him. Upon reaching the opening, he stopped, and allowed the others to move out first. He, on the other hand, should be safe as long as he kept a tight grip on his viral passenger. With that in his mind, he began to backpedal, focusing less on pure speed, and more on not taking a wrong step and falling over. That was the last thing he needed.
With the commotion of the mama Spikey bowling back into the cave and the portal crashing out of existence, Exorcist was left holding the bag, so to speak. When SharpMan offered her a way out, she didn't think; she took it immediately, tossing the baby in a small lob to her ally and then holding her hands up to her mouth in panic. She hadn't caught sight of either SP either since the mama had barreled through the tunnel; being without their support would make a confrontation especially difficult.

It turned out that SharpMan wasn't looking for a fight, however. He'd turned the situation into a hostage crisis, using the puppy as a not-so-human shield to cover their escape. While surprised that her ally would resort to such tactics, she reminded herself that just moments ago she'd been contemplating shooting a bunch of puppies. Neither of their hands were really clean at this point... but what happens in an underground Spikey burrow stays in an underground Spikey burrow, right? "SharpMan, if we make it out of this, I think I have some pamphlets you might be interested in," she whispered to him, trying to follow along and hoping that the Spikey would give them room to move, rather than jumping in to rescue the child itself.

"We're about to be burned alive by a giant, fire-breathing wolf and you're thinking about pamphlets?!" Bhikkhuni asked from a short distance behind her ally.

"I've got a lot on my mind. I've got the sacrifices of my two SPs to think about!" Exorcist responded, then realized who she was talking to. "You two are okay! That's good, I was worried."

"Worried about your advertising!" Bhikkhuni griped. "Also, isn't it kind of crazy that Mary's able to follow us right now? Isn't she like, blind and wearing a close-fitting robe?"

"I imagine it's no longer narrowly fit along the legs right now, if she's got any concern for her comfort," her master commented. "Are you alright, Mary?"

"I can feel hot breath tickling my bottom," Mary answered vaguely, half-chuckling as she did.

"Business as usual," Bhikkhuni grumbled, trying to stick closer to SharpMan for the safety his hostage would hopefully provide.
The giant, pissed-off Spikey continues to growl, and roar, and snort and grumble, trembling with rage as the party inches around-- but she lets them pass. As they head up the burrow tunnel, however, Spikkirn slowly follows them, flames dripping-- dripping! --from her mouth.

If they're going to do something with this, they should probably do it soon.
To SharpMan's chagrin, the gigantic Spikey elected to follow the pair of Navis up the sizable hole. He wasn't really surprised, but deep down, he was sorta hoping it's be that easy. "Those dripping flames...what are you, rabid?!" Well, he wasn't entirely joking. He'd seen a lot of Spikey, but never one that did that...actually, come to think of it, he'd seen a lot of Spikey, but never in Netopia Area...odd. Didn't change the fact he had a royally angry gigantic one in front of him, but it struck him as unusual.

"What are you even doing following us, anyway?! Get back in the den! Don't, and your baby's a goner! Its life is in your ha-er, paws!" ...Despite his threats, the bladed Navi wondered to himself exactly how true his words were. Sure, he COULD kill the fiery fuzzball as easily as he claimed, but there wasn't really much incentive for him to do the deed. Alive, it was the one thing keeping him from getting charred, not to mention a few potential zenny if he could send it over to its siblings.

Still, he was basically dealing with an (albeit intelligent) animal, so it was a good idea to have a backup plan, just in case things felt apart. "...Exorcist. If that thing doesn't head back, you should probably keep some kind of attack ready, to...encourage it to do so. As long as you're behind me, you should still be safe. Just don't use anything that could wipe out the pup, or we're all gonna be extra crispy!"
"We can't lead it out too much further... If we move it away from this cave, where the corn's already burnt, and it acts up again, even more of the crop will go up in smoke. That'd be on our heads..." Exorcist murmured in response, seeming to forget again that when it came to the farmer, the specific amount of corn burnt by the Spikey probably wouldn't matter as much as the assurance that it wasn't going to burn any more. "Well, I guess that ought to be an afterthought..."

"No time for indecision, Master! You gotta keep moving!" Bhikkhuni warned Exorcist, keeping a good distance ahead of the pack relocating outside of the cave, so as not to be a target for the giant angry Spikey.

Exorcist did so, staying just behind SharpMan while the SPs took up the lead. In preparation of the mother's advance, she lifted one fist into the air, then summoned a wooden sword into her hand. The sword glowed with heat, then lit ablaze in her hands. Pointing it out towards the Spikey, she quickly drew a tiny amount of blood from her other wrist to prepare a barrier for herself. "Counterinfectualism has spared your child! If you attack us while we're still trying to relocate the infestation, then we will have no qualms or hesitation executing a permanent solution here and now!" she explained, waving the flaming weapon threateningly... although, the threat that a giant fiery virus would find a burning stick was likely insignificant.

Suddenly, she remembered she still had some corn from earlier nestled into her bosom. She silently marveled at the fact that her breasts had become so fatty and tremendous that she'd failed to even feel it there until she'd just brought it back to mind. Reach in, she plucked it out and began gnawing, trying to ignore the clear hygienic problems due to the sweat that had likely been building up in that crevice. "Master... I don't know if your towel is going to handle another push like the last ones," Mary chuckled.

"I know your dramatic speech didn't! It's hard to look like a badass while you're eating a ear of corn," Bhikkhuni grumbled.

Exorcist
*) Load a FireSword
1) Chi Barrier to self [120 HP barrier + 15 HP sacrifice, 3 TCD)
2) Eat corn
Spikkirn growls loudly-- then stops as her pup whines for her, causing her to bear her teeth and-- sit. The giant spikey makes no move to pursue Exorcist or SharpMan as they make their way up the burrow, and even the subtle rumble of her footsteps is gone. They reach the top without incident.

Exorcist, meanwhile, takes the plunge and-- eats the corn. snap The first bite tastes heavenly; snap the second bite tastes positively ecstatic. Snap! the third--- Exorcist can feel a distinct, pleasurable pressure building up inside of her, growing stronger and stronger until-- she finally bursts. Both physically, and out of her clothing, as her entire outfit strains to contain her new curves and fails miserably. It isn't that Exorcist has become chunky all of a sudden, as her fundoshi gives way entirely, her loincloth just barely hanging on for dear life-- it's more that she has become a kind of overly-voluptuous all over, with idealized curves spilling out into more idealized curves, and her breasts perking outward as two big, gawking monuments to it all. In the end, she's kind of lucky that her clothing can't deal projectile damage to her barrier.

And while she certainly feels a strange strength in this newfound, uh, curviness, there's also the disbenefit of having to lug it all around.

Exorcist GET: Curveball Buff: Slowed, all attacks gain an instance of homing (Stacks with any already-present homing effects).

But nobody cares about thaaaaat! The group hears a loud, rumbling howl ring out from underground, in the burrow, and find themselves looking down at the burrow tunnel mouth. The howling sounds... mournful. Sad. Almost with a kind of tragic pulling, not that this particular group cares.

The small Spikey pup lets out a tiny, matching howl of its' own as it struggles once more to try and escape, then finally settles down when that is obviously not going to happen.
While many would've been affected somehow by the pitiful cries of the Spikey mother and child, SharpMan simply stood there, without a shred of emotion in his face. He took a few steps from the hole, not wanting to be right next to it after his planned move. "Looks like we're clear...finally! Hector, can you get another temporary link to the zoo?"

"It'll take a minute, but it shouldn't be a problem now that there's some space between you and the giant Spikey." Tense moments passed as the bladed Navi awaited the portal, keeping his grip on the smaller dog virus tight. "...All right, they sent another one. Placing the link next to your location...there. Once the pup's in, I'll close it right away so nothing else gets through."

A warp hole identical to the previous one appeared next to SharpMan, who appeared to show a certain amount of relief upon seeing it. "Finally...well, time to complete the set for 'em. In you go!" With that, he sought nothing less than to send the final puppy through the warp...hopefully it'd be at least slightly cooperative.

[Order of Turn:
?-?: Create link to zoo, then send final Spikey puppy through the link; afterward, close link immediately]
As selfish as it may seem, Exorcist's own problems came to the forefront of her mind rather than whatever distress they were causing the Spikey family. In her mind, she'd already solved the problem in a downright humanitarian way. On the other hand, there was nothing decent or respectable about what was happening to her outfit, as the cloth around her waist stretched to its maximum limit and the tightly coiled sides of the fundoshi strapped from the sudden expansion of her hips. She clasped one hand over her mouth to silence herself and drove the other arm between her legs to hide it from view. Fortunately, SharpMan was turned the other way and preoccupied...

Quickly, she scampered off into the cornfield for a bit of decency, then stood there in that same position, hiding her most private area from sight and covering her mouth to avoid making any noise. Of course, the problem wasn't her own modesty so much as the fact that until she finished the mission, she couldn't leave. Destroying or otherwise incapacitating that giant Spikey was absolutely vital to their goals; they could not be said to have saved the cornfield unless there was no threat of that thing rampaging out again. In fact... would taking care of the Spikey mother even do it?

When she thought about it more, she realized that they'd found others sitting around very casually, eating the corn from the farm. Their symptoms suggested they'd been at it a while. If Corn was the only tenant and he was growing the digital corn on public land, where not only HeelNavis but even a giant Spikey could hide, how were they supposed to secure the farmland to begin with?

She wanted to voice her opinions, but she also didn't want anyone staring at her. She called Bhikkhuni over discretely instead, then whispered the message into her SP's ear. "Psh, you're worried about that? Seems kind of secondary," Bhikkhuni scoffed, but went to relay the message all the same. "Hey, Sharpie! How are we supposed to clear all of the inhabitants out of this cornfield to begin with? So far we've already found heel navis, viruses, and GIANT viruses with their own families living in here. None of this even directly accounts for that pounding noise we heard. Can we actually finish this mission?" she asked, making it sound like she'd been giving the mission a lot of thought.

Your attempt at hucking the Pup into the portal is thwarted by a team of Fishy viruses swooping in at the last second, carrying the pup away as the last of their ranks blows a raspberry at you!

Their leader, a Fishy wearing a blue scarf emblazoned with the word "Speedy", gives you a powerful leer, mouth forming on its' front as it lectures you for five hours on the rights of all creatures, viruses included, to exist, and--

Oh. Right. Sorry, wrong topic.

Sharpman hucks the virus through the link, and then closes it while Exorcist runs off to hide her gratuitously gratuitous wardrobe malfunction. What now?
Success! SharpMan performed a celebratory backflip, free of fuzzy deadweights, and noting in the process that his ally was nowhere in sight. "Hey, where'd ya go?" Well, it was fairly obvious to him that she was in the corn field, and judging by where her SPs were clustered, it was probably right about...there. Man, if she was hiding, she was doing a really, REALLY bad of it. "Any reason you're hanging out in there? Pretty sure Navis don't exactly ever need to visit the cuarto de baño..." Nope, he really didn't know. He hadn't gotten a really good look at Exorcist since before he entered the hole, after all.

Without an answer, he instead got quizzed by Bhikkhuni. "Dunno." Okay, even he knew to give a better answer than that. "But considering how huge this field is, I'm pretty sure the farmer knows that pests are going to come in and get away with some of the corn no matter what. But things like that huge Spikey are capable of destroying the entire farm if left alone. We'll focus on it first, then regroup and decide if we're meant to do more. ...Well, Hector? I think the time's come to put an end to that dog's misery once and for all!"

"So it would seem. It's a pity it won't be able to comprehend why we took its children at the end, but so be it. The world just works that way sometimes..." All right, since their target was in a hole..."You remember the turns in that tunnel, right?"

"I could run through it backwards!...Since, ya know, I did that on the way up. Were you not paying attention back then?!"

"Just making sure you were doing the same. Now, since I can see you're fully ready...let's go ahead and use this, since it'll have issues dodging it down there. BattleChip, AquaTower! Slot in!"

The bladed Navi's right hand glowed blue, which he set gently at the edge of the hole. Almost instantly, a geyser rose high from it...and while ordinarily that pattern would continue before his eyes, only audible cues remained this time, as the parade of water descended into the tunneling below. Still, he kept his hand to the ground, trying to guide the attack based on his previous knowledge of the hole. Granted, AquaTower wasn't the easiest move to alter like that, but eh. Couldn't hurt. Speaking of which, he should really keep an eye out for any fire and/or extremely angry giant Spikey, and be ready to avoid either. He was too young to be South Netopian fried.

[Order of Turn:
1-AquaTower1 chip attack on Spikkirn (100, Aqua, D, Ground Attack, Line-Chain)
2-Dodge
---TURN SPLICE---
"You're right; it's probably not worth concerning myself over. Especially since, when you really think about it: if there were two of these things or something equally as threatening as this somewhere in the cornfield, there would probably be no cornfield," she reasoned. "So defeating the Spikey will definitely solve the majority of our problems."

Another motivation behind Exorcist's monologue was to drown out the sound of the mother spikey howling. Inside her mind, she repeated to herself over and over again the Counterinfectualist's rule: "Viruses will use tricks to deceive you." "I already spared the children," Exorcist reminded herself. "But to let a giant virus like this go is akin to sparing a Cybeast. I must not leave this cornfield without destroying this immense crystalization of evil..."

That said, she realized that she couldn't really step in there while SharpMan was plumbing the cavern out using his water attack. Even if he wasn't, she wouldn't want to step out wearing essentially only a single length of towel, covering only her breasts. There was nothing around for her to even make an outfit out of on-the-fly... even if she put on a .GMO or a cross, she had nothing that would resist instantly bursting into shreds of cloth and metal as soon as it appeared on.

"Excuse me... Mary," she whispered from the bushes, catching the attention of the blind nun. "Do you have anything I can wear, just to cover my lower body?"

"Master, I'm afraid if I take off this habit, I'll be rather indecent myself... Oh well. I'm willing to sacrifice my dignity for the good of the team," she chuckled, shrugging off her robe. The hood stayed on, but other than that, the inside girdle had popped off earlier; the only articles remaining were her shoes and red bodysuit, which had already ripped in several unsafe locations. "There you are."

The nun's hand reached into the cornfield aimlessly, unable to pin Exorcist's exact location. Gratefully, Exorcist accepted it, only to find that it when worn across her upper body, it now hung like a short coat. It wouldn't cover up the front by any stretch that way. Sighing, she instead wrapped it around her waist to form a knee length belly-skirt, then tucked the sleeves into the back. "Alright! I'm ready to rejoin the fight," she proclaimed, stepping out with her fiery sword. She kept her other arm hugged across her chest, so as to stop the distracting breast-swaying that was produced by even the smallest forward motion.

The three girls kept behind SharpMan, waiting to see the results of his attack and to dodge out of the way in case the action resulted, again, in a charging, angry spikey. "They're so heavy..." Exorcist sobbed, trying to imagine how she was going to get out of the way of a charge given all of her newfound bodyweight.

Exorcist
1) Dodge
2) Dodge

Mary
1) Dodge
2) Dodge

Bhikkhuni
1) Dodge
2) Dodge