An Introduction to Counterinfectionalism

Exorcist paused, holding one sleeve to her nose gingerly. "Urgh... The area we're approaching is laden with powerful evil spirits. We've got to be cautious moving through. The very ground itself seems to be tainted by their evil... once we're done, I should craft a charm to hang here," she muttered, looking around the battlefield and spotting many evil entities.

"Uh, worry about purifying the land later, the viruses are the important part," Burt gulped. "These guys don't look like anything I've ever seen before. They look pretty strong, too... E-Er, maybe we'd better just jack out and let Traceur take care of them, eh? I think he'd probably rather work alone anyways!"

The navi sighed, seeing that her operator wasn't even going to give the usual minimum "Be careful" moral support. "I'm not going to just abandon Traceur here. We've got to destroy all of the viruses, so you might as well send me my new katana," she told him hopefully, not facing directly at him and instead waiting to see what his reaction was. She betrayed none of it in her face, but she was desperately hoping to lay a hand on the katana and learn what it felt like to wield one in combat.

"Eh, I dunno... Katana? You sure you want to get that close in?" Burt asked, adjusting his glasses and frowning.

"Yes, yes, please just send it along with a zapring," Exorcist begged him impatiently, her voice now betraying a bit of her hidden desperation. Burt shrugged, slotting the chips in. As soon as the data arrived, Exorcist broke the illusion, summoning the long katana quickly into her hands. A long, iron rod formed in one of her hands, then coated itself in old Chinese coins, ringed around the rod through the hole in their center. The resulting weapon when the process was finished was the equivalent of an ancient Taoist coin-sword, heavy in Exorcist's grasp but sturdy. Exorcist ran her finger across the coins with a shaking lip, stunned at the beauty of her new weapon. "Oh Burt... it looks so lovely and effective... there's no spirit that could stand against the power of a weapon like this!" she whispered with sparkling eyes.

Burt hugged his arms around his chest, imagining to himself that his own navi was giving him a hug of gratitude. "I'm glad you like it Exorcist, I got it just for you!" he sang, not accounting for the fact that his navi really earned it herself.

Holding the sword level, Exorcist focused her attentions on to the enemy trumpet. "Alright, I can't take this thing lightly... first a zapring. That will ensure that my target stays right where I want him," she thought with a nod, holding her sword in one hand while summoning an electricity-charged ring in betwixt two fingers. With a rapid motion, she slung the thin projectile towards the hopping trumpet, trying to stop it from squirming. "Now, feel the power of an exorcist's sacred weapon!" she cried out, running forward with her sword in hand. She couldn't stop herself from putting everything into the attack, bringing the sword down once hard to halve the trumpet, then swinging it wide again to try to quarter it.

"Wow! Look at her go. It's funny that navis know how to do stuff like this from birth. Most people'd probably have to do a lot of training to get that kind of sword technique! It makes me kind of proud, in a way," Burt sighed with a cheesy smile, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Unconcerned with Burt's mix of praise and self-admiration, Exorcist focused her attention back on to her enemies. She knew it was likely one would close in and attack now that she was in their space, so she made her best attempt to ready her sword for a counterattack. Her feet were firmly planted, but she noticed that her legs still felt shaky. Against fast moving enemies like she felt certain those birds were, she knew she'd need her full skill, so she tried to steady her legs and prepare to dodge.

1) Zapring to TrumpyEX [20]
2) Katana to TrumpyEX [60 x 2]
3) Katana to anyone who closes in [60 x 2]
*) Swordplay, dodge
"Good idea, Exorcist!" Traceur exclaimed, viewing his surroundings. These viruses... They were different from the previous ones. Similar to hardheads, they were very near to stationary, making them extremely easy targets. However, this didn't make them any easier to take on if they were immune to normal attacks like his auto-revolver or his sensor1. They were probably near to completely immune to normal methods of attack, which meant he needed to be doubly careful.

"They're either incredibly powerful, or they're ridiculously good at defense. Either way, a cannonball should do the trick." Traceur paused, realizing that his cannonball was a one-hit-wonder. That wouldn't do the job very well after all. He tried to think of something that would hit a fair number of them with a deadly attack, and came up with- "Wait, Travis, what does that Ironshell1 chip do?"

"Uh, it doesn't really have a good description, all there is is a animal thing. It kinda looks like those armadill things, I guess." Travis shrugged. "Dunno if it'll pierce through their defenses, though." It wasn't really looking that great. Traceur would still have to somehow find a way to get through their defense if this attack didn't work.

"Alright, the whiteweb seems to be becoming a staple of my chip assault team, so I'll take it on this time around. Exorcist focused on the Trumpy, which is a very good thing. It means that the enemies won't be prancing about completely impermeable to our best attacks." Traceur smiled grimly as he assessed his options.

"Alright, I'll set up a little funhouse action for these punks." His gun at the ready, Traceur dumped the bullet and casings out. He reloaded at leisure, a slight smirk on his face. "Whiteweb1, Cannonball, Ironshell, and Zapring1. That should be enough. Should spare some time to dodge, and hopefully not get hit by these giant planks of stone or whatever they are."

"Right, right." Travis sorted through the chips. The Ironshell, whiteweb and Cannonball were easy to pick out, but the zapring was a little more obscure. It took him a second or two to pick it out and slot it in along with its friends. "There you go, Traceur. Keep it up, Exorcist, you're doing well!"

"Here, catch!" The navi said as he fired his imbued weapon with something similar to a mortar shell. It arced through the air directly at the Dominerd, and Traceur shifted his attention. He tossed his gun from his left hand to the right, reaching into his utility belt to draw out three grenades.

He tossed one after the other at the pulsebulbs, intending to gum up their works. If they were anything like the hardheads, they would attack when they opened up. He didn't intend to stick around for them to do that. Gumming them up and making them even more stationary than before... Perfect for his next strategy.

He raised his hand up, then quickly outlined a circle about up to his torso in size. It would be about this big. A green line formed where he had traced the air, then slowly spun around, creating a gridwork of green lines. A texture shortly followed over those lines, creating a steel grey ball with three red lines around the center of it. Seams opened up for a second, revealing ominous weapons underneath the metal 'hood' of the mechanical construct. It paused for a second, then simply spun. It simply had too much torque to gain friction for a second. Some sort of traction on the ball caused it to go forward, simply rocketing off at the pulsebulbs.

"Here, have a little fun to play with!" Traceur commented, twisting his hand and controlling the Ironshell as it reacted, swerving slightly to continue attacking through the pulsebulbs. Finally, he whipped his hand through the air to try hit the dominerd with his ball of destruction. "And now for the finale," the navi commented as he brought his autorevolver to bear. If his plan had worked, that would have taken a piece out of their ranks. This additional insurance would stun any of the viruses that so much as looked at him wrong. He aimed, ready to fire.

1] Cannonball: DominerdB [150 Break]
2] Whiteweb Pulsebulbs and hold/grapple/trap them to the ground.
3] Ironshell: 70 break to [PulsebulbA [c], PulsebulbB [D], PulsebulbC [E]] 70*2 break to [DominerdB [F]] Blocks front from projectile attacks. Lowers dodge.
4] Zapring1 [Any virus that tries to attack Traceur, 45+Stun1]

Before any of the viruses could prepare themselves, the group was met with a Zapring and Cannonball from the navi pair. Both attacks hit their mark, deleting a Dominerd and paralyzing the TrumpyEX. While Exorcist followed up her attack with her sword, Traceur hit the trio of Pulsebulbs with a gooey mess that held them all in place like a set of bowling pins.

The other Dominerd reacted by fading from view, becoming totally invisible.

Traceur bowled his new Ironshell down the line into the Pulsebulbs causing the invisible Dominerd to quickly flash back into view in front of its helpless comrades. It was unable to stop the shell and was bowled over, allowing the lead Pulsebulb to be struck as well, deleting both. The other two Pulsebulbs were far enough apart for the attack to roll harmlessly between them.

One of the FishyEX viruses dashed towards Exorcist but she dodged and attempted to counter with her Katana. A wide slash cut the virus but the secondary longer slash missed, saving it from an unpleasant deletion as it flew away. The other FishyEX strafed idly by. Since there were no other available targets, Traceur shot it with a Zapring and successfully paralyzed it.

The Pulsebulbs struggled against their bindings and there was significant progress being made as the sticky tethers began to snap under the stress...



FishyEXA: 60 HP (Grass)
FishyEXB: 80 HP (Grass) [stun]
PulsebulbA: DELETED
PulsebulbB: 120 HP [IronBody] (Grass) [hold]
PulsebulbC: 120 HP [IronBody] (Glass) [hold]
DominerdA: DELETED
DominerdB: DELETED
TrumpyEX: DELETED

Terrain: 20% Cursed (Outer bounds), 40% Grass, 32% Glass (Checkerboard pattern), 2% Broken

Exorcist.exe: 100 HP
Traceur.CMD: 80 HP
Exorcist wiped sweat from beneath her bangs, but gave a smile of satisfaction. "Well done, Traceur. You managed to pierce the defenses of those viruses! I'm very impressed," she congratulated her navi, dispelling her katana to clap for her ally. Judging by the fact that she was willing to drop her weapon to clap for him, it was evident that she must be earnestly impressed by his efforts.

"Yeah, way to go, you'll do great at the Olympics with a throwing arm like that. You should go start training for it right now! We'll see you next year!" Burt groaned, sticking his tongue out spitefully at Travis' navi who had garnered so much of his own navi's coveted praise. "Sheesh, a guy'd think you were his navi and not mine! How about you thank me for a change, I'm your operator, after all!"

"Me? Traceur's navi? What are you talking about...?" Exorcist asked confusedly, only half listening to her operator talk. She couldn't help but wish, though, that she did have an operator with some of Traceur's qualities. Someone who could help her strategize would be far more helpful than Burt, who simply told her to "be careful" then gloated whenever she was successful. "Well anyways, I'll need every wood chip you can give me. I'm taking on those floating mechanical things next and I feel they could use a double dose of nature's purity."

"Yeah, well what are you talking about with 'nature's purity?' It's all net stuff, there's nothing 'natural' about it, dammit!" Burt whined, slotting through his chips jerkily. "Travis, tell your navi to stop being such an ass."

"You're the one who's being a... well you're being swinish, Burt," Exorcist scolded her operator with a stern frown. Burt blubbered affectedly as Exorcist focused her efforts on the pulsebulbs, realizing she'd have to draw their attention. It didn't seem like that would be easy, though; she wasn't even sure if they were sentient enough to understand words. Struggling, she thought for a moment, summoning and folding a green sheet of paper into the shape of a boomerang as she did. "Spirits! Come hither!" she cried out, reaching into her robe and pulling out a small charm with jingling rings around its center and jingling it furiously. "Come hither spirits!" she repeated, jingling the device in a frenzy. Once she got their attention and they opened up to reveal the evil of their cold mechanical eyes, she would throw everything but the wood-elemental kitchen sink into their faces.

1) Boomerang to Pulsebulb group after they open [130 (2x for wood)]
2) Ringlog1 to Pulsebulb group after they open[110 (2x for wood)]
3) Cornshot1 to an approaching Pulsebulb and bounce after they open [110 (2x for wood)]
"Thanks, Exorcist." Traceur said breathlessly. He hadn't been absolutely sure that would work, and he was very glad it had. The navi raised his hand up, giving Exorcist a thumbs up as he turned to his designated targets. She was taking care of the pulsebulbs remaining, he'd take care of the fishies remaining. One had made an attempt to charge at him, and he couldn't let it get away with that. "Alright, good luck with your batch, Exorcist. I'll help you follow up after I finish up with my pair!"

"Alright, Traceur, what chips now?" Travis asked. He gave a sidelong glance at Burt, wondering about the Professor. He seemed to be acting more like a child every time Traceur even interacted with Exorcist, be it for praise or otherwise. Travis smirked as he realized what this could mean. He had meant to do it in a joking manner, but this opened up the opportunities even more. "Hey, Burt, what do you think would happen if your navi and mine- y'know, get a cross together? Would this mean they're dating or something?"

Traceur's face flushed red as he stuttered out a retort. "T-t-travis! Wh-whaaat? Why- why would you--..." The navi in question fell silent, eyes cast to the side before he realized there was something far more important than embarrassment over a possible future relationship with Exorcist. Namely, the viruses that could quite possible maul him in seconds. "T-travis, could I uh- get the shotgun and uh... uhm... the ringlog and the cannon please."

"Er, alright." Travis felt a bit guilty for embarrassing his navi like that, but if it raised Burt's hackles, he'd feel more than pleased about it. He quickly found each of the chips and slotted them slowly in, hearing the 'click' as they were accepted into the PET's inner mechanisms.

"...Thanks." Traceur said, glancing at Exorcist and then quickly looking away before turning his eyes toward the viruses and concentrating on them. He lowered his gun to his side, clasping it with both hands as he strove to find a good vantage point to take on the fishies. He managed to snap off a quick shot at the unstunned fishie, intending to throw it off guard and hopefully hurt it at the same time as he made his way to the best spot he could see to take a crack at both of them as his weapon clicked. Two more bullets, Traceur remembered. He raised the weapon.

With a crack, it fired once more. One more bullet left. Traceur raised the weapon up and pulled the trigger. He looked over at Exorcist. If she needed help, his er, ringlog would be there. The navi brought his hand up, generating a bat. This would have to serve as a substitute. It wasn't as if it were balanced for throwing, but it'd hurt like heck if it were thrown at anything. Traceur readied it in both hands, glancing back to check the Fishies and their condition. He'd be ready to smack them in the face if they weren't out.

1] Galvanic Charge: 40 elec to FishieEXA, Use movement to line them up.
2] Shotgun: 50 null to FishieEXB, spread to FishieEXA for 50.
3] Cannon: 40 Null+knockback to FishieEXB
4] Ringlog: 50 Wood+wide attack to anything remaining.
The Pulsebulbs ripped themselves free of the Whiteweb and hovered away slowly, allowing Exorcist to plan a counterattack. However, when the virus's sigiled face met with Exorcist's eyes, the sudden dash and attack combo proved too quick for her and the two exchanged simultaneous blows. The Pulsebulb was worse off, being deleted by the Boomerang but Exoricist was temporarily stunned by the viral attack.

Traceur shot a FishyEX only to move and shoot again, hitting both and deleting one. A third shot quickly deleted the other. The last Pulsebulb on the field locked onto Traceur's position and dashed up to him. It cracked open but spat out nothing but sparks as it fell over, revealing the Boomerang sticking out of its back. The virus exploded into data fragments concluding the battle.


FishyEXA: DELETED
FishyEXB: DELETED
PulsebulbA: DELETED
PulsebulbB: DELETED
PulsebulbC: DELETED
DominerdA: DELETED
DominerdB: DELETED
TrumpyEX: DELETED

Terrain: 20% Cursed (Outer bounds), 40% Grass, 32% Glass (Checkerboard pattern), 2% Broken

Exorcist.exe: 60 HP
Traceur.CMD: 80 HP

-VICTORY-
Both Get: 900z, 3 FXP
After having shaken the rings so hard and then simultaneously having been blasted by the pulsebulb's sonic attack, Exorcist felt as though her head were going to explode with the sound of a million rings shaking around in her head. It was as though she had been completely surrounded by Exorcists trying to draw her attention with the same tactic that she'd just used to get the attention of the pulse bulbs. She stumbled around dizzily, unaware that she'd even won the fight.

Burt was similarly dizzy, but more so with rage at what Travis had implied might be happening between their two navis. "It's not fair... He thinks he's so cool just because he's in the net, that stupid parkour medic whatever guy! If I were in the net, Exorcist would be mine, all mine!" the teacher thought to himself madly, chewing on the sleeve of his sweater. He scratched at his head furiously, having bizarre thoughts which no operator should ever have about their navi, including busting and crossing together with her.

In the mean time, his navi had recovered, stumbling back up to her feet. She saw that the viruses had been defeated, so everything must have ended out for the better. Straightening her hat with a smile, she headed back over to Traceur. "Well, shall we continue our little romp across the planes? But first, er, let me plant something here to purify this area," she requested, pausing to do some calligraphy upon a talisman neatly with one finger. After the charm was finished, she planted another small rod in the ground, then hung the charm from one of the rings. "There we go! Neat and proper," she giggled, prepared to continue further into the net.
Traceur tried to steady Exorcist, and was glad to see she was alright as he let out a brief sigh of relief. The navi nodded once, then proceeded forward after watching her set up her little purification charm. He wondered about the functional properties of such a charm, and how it even worked. Was it a method of clearing out the area temporarily, or did it function as a permanent firewall. He decided to ask later.

Travis grinned as he watched Burt's reaction. It was a decent enough revenge, but he wondered if he could grind it in a little bit if the two did achieve a cross together. "Cheer her on, Traceur!" He commented with that same grin still spread across his face.

[Battle 7]
((Aim didn't say go, but what the heck :P))

The area was starting to get darker and darker before both Exorcist and Traceur could barely see what is ahead. A flickering light popped out just ahead of them, and more and more of them started to pop out. The lights helped revealing the darkness, but it didn't show anything pleasant for the navis. They were surrounded by viruses and a strange, apple like virus that was egotistically crossing their arms. To make it worse, the "lights" were actually viruses them selves!

Will O' The WispA: 70
Will O' The WispB: 70
Will O' The Wisp EXA: 100
Will O' The Wisp EXB: 100
KillerEye EXA: 140
KillerEye EXB: 140
AppleSamuA: 70
AppleSamuB: 70
AppleSamuC: 70

Exorcist.exe: 60 HP
Traceur.CMD: 80 HP

Terrain: 40% Grass, 30% Normal, 30% Cursed

-BATTLE SEVEN, FIGHT-
((I don't usually say battle # unless I'm the second to post))

"Hey hey hey! I think I can handle my navi's own pep-rally," Burt grumbled, feeling ever-increasing animosity for Traceur and his handler as Exorcist's fondness for her new friends grew. "You just try to keep Mr. Marathon Man from tripping on his own feet."

Exorcist was quite happy to no longer be spinning and assaulted by all sides with shrill, jingling metal rings, but she was alarmed at the types of enemies that had appeared in front of them. "Ah! I've read about all of these in my religious archives. Those ones coming from the apples are some kind of "Djinn," a fiend that I wouldn't actually expect to be found in such a grassy area as this. The ghostly apparitions are lost spirits, possibly malevolent, that linger as the these luminous wisps of brilliance," she explained. She had the air of one who knew what they were talking about, but in reality, she was pretty far off base from what the viruses actually were. "The eye um... The eye I'm not quite sure about, but we beat some of those before anyways. At any rate, I'm not sure how any of this helps us one way or another." Exorcist made a mental note to leave this kind of information for a more opportune moment in the future.

"Alright, well I don't much want those eyes getting to shoot you, Exxy, so take them out first. We already know they're capable of doing a lot of damage if they can line up on you from Tracy's weapon," Exorcist's operator told her with a sense of urgency, slotting in a ringlog and a cornshot. "Use them to take out those sensors before they can line you up in their sights."

"Got you," Exorcist nodded in affirmation, summoning to the ground two rolling logs and kicking them off to start some momentum. She felt fairly confident that the eyes weren't speedy enough to dodge the attack, so she focused on readying her corn blaster. Leveling the funny-looking corn head with one of the two eyes, she aimed and attempted to bounce it from one to the other, hopefully destroying them both. "Alright, now I've just got to keep my wits up and make sure those genies don't get me. I also have no idea what those wisps are capable of... for all I know, they aren't even viruses," she reminded herself. "If you're planning to engage them, Traceur, be very careful!" she shouted in warning, not turning her head for need to watch the viruses she'd already engaged. She felt fairly certain that even if the wisps weren't going to attack, the genies probably were.

1) Ringlog1 to KillerEye A and surrounding [55 x 2 wood = 100] and B and surrounding [55 x 2 wood = 100]
2) Cornshot1 to KillerEyeA and bounce to nearby units [55 x 2 wood]
3) Dodge
Traceur quickly took a glance at the situation and immediately would have described it as 'not good'. His personal reaction was something along the lines of a couple expletives for the sake of insulting this situation alone. The fact that the viruses were all around was not only something that made them harder to hit but also a virtual deterrent. How they got all around them was a very good question to be asked, but not really important at this particular moment. A much more important issue is how the dynamic duo of Traceur and Exorcist were to survive in these rough times. The economy was bad, the busting times were getting harder and harder, and the rewards were getting slimmer and slimmer.

"Well, Traceur?" Travis asked, fanning out the chips. He glanced longingly at the slotted binder Burt had, it looked so nice and organized. However, it also seemed quite annoying to have to remove and place chips into. Travis shrugged. he had to find something better than throwing his chips out onto the deck and using them like they were some sort of flea market tools he had found off the floor. He sighed, then looked at his navi. The situation he wasn't as interested in but was still relevant to the health of his navi. He wasn't as emotionally invested in his navi as Joanne was, but was certainly financially invested. "What chips do you need?"

"Let's see, those wisps there do not look friendly... And they're the same kind that tried to ambush me back then, too. I'll uhm..." Traceur responded warily, looking around while dropping into a half-crouch. His hand hovered over his pistol for a moment before drawing it and reloading it with new shells. He reflected that he should remember to reload the next time around, should they survive this onslaught. "I'll take the Whiteweb1. Heh. That one seems to be the most versatile of any of my chips. The Sensor1. And the Cannonball." The navi smiled wryly as he glanced at his ally. She appeared to be taking out the killereyes, and he wished her luck with that as he glanced at his targets. They were significantly harder to hit and they weren't stationary. Letting out a sigh, he waited impatiently for the chips. "Hurry please, Travis." He aimed and measured the distance as best he could without actually firing a shot, but knew he'd need a proper shot to judge their distance versus how easily he'd be able to take them out.

"Alright, alright, just gimme a minute, these chips aren't getting any easier to find, with the rate you're getting them at." Travis muttered as he quickly grabbed up the chips and slotted them in one after the other. Finishing, he made a quick flourish. "It's up to you now, Traceur."

"Gotta do this one carefully," The navi muttered to himself. The ethereal blobs that the wisps were-- they were extremely annoying as well as hard to hit. If he was going to hit them with the cannonball, he'd have to do it around point blank. He sighed, wincing slightly as he tried to maneuver himself into a more advantageous position to counter-guess their tactics. Traceur tossed his pistol from his left hand to his right, taking three small grenades out of his utility belt and waiting for the best moment where the majority of the wisps would drift into the semblance of a line. He chucked one grenade after the other after removing the pins by looping a finger around it and tugging hard. Pulling the pin of a grenade with one's teeth was in actuality an extremely bad idea, and Traceur had no desire to lose a tooth however easily it might be regenerated.

Letting the pins fall from his fingers, Traceur threw his pistol back to his dominant hand, knowing he'd need near-perfect aim for this. He pulled the trigger back slightly, waiting for the viruses to make the first move rather than to make it himself. He needed to do this in the best possible manner, and this would have to be it. The navi shifted, dropping into a full crouch as he quickly generated a grid of lines which slowly rose up to form a frame of a miniaturized beam cannon. A tiny laser, as if from a laser pointer blinked out. The machine solidified and a full texture covered it as the beeping noises became significantly more ominous. It was ready to fire. "C'mon. Come and get us." Traceur had a grim smile on his face. He wasn't quite ready to go out in a blaze of glory, but the words felt good to say.

1] Galvanic Charge: 40 Elec to Will o' the Wisp A as a ranging shot to get their exact location. Movement used to position self so that as many possible wisps are in a line.
2] WhiteWeb1: Web viruses to stay that way, (40 Wood)
3] Sensor1: Placed at the end of the line. When set off:[100+Elec+Beam+Stun1]
4] Cannonball: [Hurled at whatever looks like it's going to attack Traceur, 150+Break]
Bump.
Exorcist's Ringlog smashed into one Killereye, blinding it with splinters. The following Cornshot eradicated it and struck its partner, exploiting its weakness for massive damage.

Meanwhile Traceur's Galvanic Charge zapped a Will O' The Wisp and allowed him to position himself for a better shot with his Whiteweb. However, the erratic movements of the wisps made it all but impossible to group them together. The web was launched and trapped two in a sticky goo. A sensor was laid down and was immediately set off by the pair of trapped viruses, deleting both in a powerful red and yellow bolt of electricity.

The Applesamus seemed to be content bouncing around the field in their protective shells while the other KillerEye tried to dislodge a corn kernel from out of its cornea. However, the Will O' The Wisps were not happy and the two remaining ones charged. Exorcist managed to dodge her attacker but Traceur was not as fortunate. His attempt to counter with a Cannonball was unsuccessful and the virus struck him square in the chest and squirmed its way inside. The eerie light began to spread through his body and weird thoughts crept into his mind.

You don't need Exorcist... She's stealing your glory... Your thunder... Delete her... Delete her...

There's certainly something strange in this neighbourhood. Who ya gonna call?



Will O' The WispA: DELETED
Will O' The WispB: 70 [Possessing Traceur]
Will O' The Wisp EXA: DELETED
Will O' The Wisp EXB: 100
KillerEye EXA: DELETED
KillerEye EXB: 30
AppleSamuA: 70 [ironbody]
AppleSamuB: 70 [ironbody]
AppleSamuC: 70 [ironbody]

Exorcist.exe: 60 HP
Traceur.CMD: 80 HP [Possessed by Will O' The WispB. RP to shake off.]

Terrain: 40% Grass, 30% Normal, 30% Cursed
"Erk." Traceur commented, poking at his chestplate. The virus had completely ignored his armor, going straight through. He sighed. He was infected with viral data now. "Uhm, Exorcist, I advise you to stand back, I'm about to perform a purge of this virus from my system. It would be wise of you to immediately vacate the current location. I intend to use my Ferroelectric Field, and it would probably disable several of your functions, even causing you to lag severely." Traceur had reverted to speaking and parsing out sentences into a very formal manner, wincing slightly as he tried to locate the source of the problem.

You don't need Exorcist... She's stealing your glory... Your thunder... Delete her... Delete her...

"The virus is speaking, and tells me to 'delete' you because you're 'stealing my glory'." The navi said laconically as he gave a faint grin toward his companion. "It kinda hurts, so I'd appreciate it if you could move out before I activate this thing to wipe it from my system."

"Traceur, is that thing going to do permanent damage to your system?" Travis asked, biting his lip and chewing on it nervously.

"Er, I doubt it, but I'd like to get it out as soon as possible. I think I can get it out," Traceur said, now slightly more confident as he raised the ball of his foot upward, his shoe crackling with tiny arcs of electricity.

"Ready, Exorcist?" He asked, giving a wan smile as he looked down at his chest. "Get the f*ck out of me, you nasty piece of virus trash." With that expletive, he slammed his foot down into the ground, creating a chain reaction of magnet panels to radiate from him.

1] Wait for exorcist to get out of range, then Ferroelectric Field, creating large Magnet Panels, attempting to eject will o' the wisp. [Turn split]
"Nargh! Annoying little stupid eyeball thing. How freaking annoying," Burt grumbled, seeing that one Killereye had survived his navi's assault. "More proof that viruses are pure evil! What else could be this freaking annoying, am I right or am I right?" he laughed, looking at Travis with a careless smile spread across his lips.

"There are more pressing matters right now. It looks like one of those wisps got into Traceur's system! I should've performed an exorcism as soon as we saw them, but I wasn't sure of whether they were kui or good spirits, and I let them get into him," Exorcist panicked, beginning to move to Traceur's side. "Are you alright? Do you need me to perform an exorcism right now? I can whip up some charms in a flash and get some incense sticks, then start up some charcoal-"

The navi finally stopped rambling as Traceur informed her that she needed to get far away, since he was about to activate his special ability and create a wide spread of the same magnet panels she'd piggy-backed on him to evade last time. Now, not having the option, she'd have to gain her distance and hope that Traceur had the skill to expel the virus himself. "Well, if you need any tips, just shout out to me!" she yelled to him after retreating to a safe distance. "I know some really good blends of herbs that work wonders when burnt and spread!"

"Something tells me you can help out more just by fighting," Burt sighed. "If you really want to help, get out a zapring and make sure that another of those things doesn't jump into him. I'd imagine that, seeing as one got in fine, the other remaining will try to hop on the bandwagon. Ignore the apples for now and use this cannon to take out that killereye that's still alive," he instructed her, thinking with surprising quickness. He didn't like Exorcist's chances fighting this many enemies alone, so he figured he'd better not take it as easy as he might normally.

Exorcist nodded, happy that her operator was at least focusing on the battle for once. Once she felt like she'd gotten a good enough distance away from her possessed ally, she readied the zapring between two fingers as usual, spotting the final wisp. The target was small and fast moving; she had her doubts about her ability to hit it, but she knew that it'd be just as bad no matter what chip she tried to use. After flinging the ring through the air towards its target, she switched over to a cannon, a weapon she felt she'd been neglecting the use of. The bulky design was more cumbersome than she had remembered, but she hoisted it up with her other hand to aim at the killereye who'd survived her previous attacks. Clenching her teeth together, she braced both legs for the recoil and released the shot.

1) Retreat to a distance away from Ferromagnetic Field
2) Zapring1 to Will-o-the-WispEX B [40 + stun]
3) Cannon to KillerEyeEX B [40]
The magnet panels radiated out, and it was kind of a homemade cure for viral infection, as far as Traceur was concerned. It wouldn't only help purge his systems, but it would also aid in stopping the viruses from moving, or shunt them in places unexpected to themselves. The only thing that probably wouldn't be effected by it would be Exorcist, as she had been prepared for it. And, of course, its creator. "Oh hell, the Killer- nevermind." Traceur grinned as he saw Exorcist fire a cannon at the killereye, giving her a quick thumbs up before taking one last look at his data. The idea that a virus could do that to him-- It wasn't good at all. To be deleted, that was one thing, but an easily influenced navi could become corrupted. "Is that what happens with heelnavis...?" the not-so-easily influenced navi questioned.

"Alright, good, good." Traceur said, shaking his head as he tried to clear it of the somewhat disturbing thoughts of a virus. They were somewhat insightful into the actual reasons of why viruses attacked, he supposed. He'd rather not be the test subject, next time. "Alright, good- Already said that." Still a little disoriented, he applied pressure to his temples, trying to shake that influence off, reasserting his data. "I'd rather not see Exorcist's views to be true, but uh, if Will O' the Wisps can influence people by possessing them, that's sure to make for both a heelnavi. I suppose I need more evidence before I come to a conclusion, and I really do hope that er-- that philosphy does not match up. Either way..."

"Yeah, uh, so do I. You gonna make it, Traceur?" Travis asked, looking down at the chips. If Exorcist's 'philosophy' of viruses being the manifestations of evil--- no, he couldn't. It wasn't true, the dude was delusional in every way, shape and form. Convincing himself of this fact was easy enough, as Burt was obviously at the very least, highly delusional. "Uhm, we've only got a couple more chips for you, so we'll have to use them properly if we want a really good chance. Exorcist looks like she's providing cover fire for you, and these magnet panels should make it all the more easier for you to finish these annoying little things off. You up for it? And are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think I'm alright now," the navi commented on his state of well-being. He did a quick scan of his functions, finding that his data was still slightly fragmented by the intrusion of his well-being. "If I wasn't trying to kill these viruses, I'd ask Exorcist for a complete-- well, Exorcism. Heh." Traceur chuckled, taking a sidelong glance at his ally. "You know, wouldn't exorcism be healing? Why isn't she a recovery based navi?"

"Er, should we really be talking about this? What chips do you need, too?" Travis questioned his navi's sanity, but then he did just get hit by one of those stupid wisp-things. "Are you sure you're alright, Traceur?"

"Why not, I can multitask. Uhm, give me the Rageclaw, Shotgun, and let's follow up that with an ironshell." Traceur chuckled, looking at the remaining viruses on the field. "First, let's try repairing that data."

"What're you going to do, Traceur?" Travis asked, slotting in the chips one after the other as he looked at the now-magnet-covered-field. The question stood there for a moment as Traceur plunged his hand into his chest. "What- Traceur, are you crazy?!"

"No, just-- making sure." Traceur still felt a strange spot in his data, and was using the rageclaw to stab into his chest and remove the viral data in a forceful way. He ripped his hand back out, flinging bits of data and hopefully the wisp at its ally. "Have fun with your friend, stupid things."

Leveling his weapon at the foe, Tracuer closed one eye and shot once. Only once was needed, he thought as he sheathed his weapon. He'd remember to reload once this was over this time flashed through his mind as he placed his hand on the floor before him. "This time, I hope it doesn't miss you guys as much. Hopefully, you're rooted to the ground, and I don't have to swerve with this thing to hit you guys."

A small gridwork formed on the surface of the panel, growing larger to encompass the panel in front of Traceur, then rising up to form a green box-grid. A sphere formed there, conforming and the green box disappeared as a green-grid sphere now was covered in textures. It finished and opened up slightly, revealing a small camera-like protrusion along with a bunch of weapons. It began to spin, then charged after the applesamus. "Have fun with those," Traceur grinned as he directed slight changes in its movement with an outstretched hand. His affinity with the magnet panels let him control the ironshell a little more than he normally would, allowing him to better shunt it into their paths, or so he hoped.

2] Rageclaw [20 WispB (Remove Wisp from self)/ 20 WispEXB]
3] Shotgun [50 WispB, spread to WispEXB]
4] Ironshell [70 Break to Applesamu A, B, C, Accuracy decreases one rank each time it hits something, protects attacks from front.]
Traceur's claws dug into himself and pried out a chunk of what he thought was viral matter. The process was painful and as damaging to himself as it was to the virus, but it was effective. Fortunately the infestation was still fresh and hadn't penetrated very deeply allowing this brute force method to actually work. The other wisp managed to dodge its comrade as Traceur threw it, but not Exorcist's Zapring, which paralyzed the shimmering glow in its tracks. The exorcised wisp, disoriented and still attached to Traceur's flayed chest, attemted to flee the excised programming. Traceur's Shotgun deleted it before it could and managed to catch the other stunned wisp in the blast.

Meanwhile the remaining Killereye was able to pluck the corn out of its eye but was deleted by Exorcist's Cannonshot.

Traceur's Ironshell crushed an Applesamu instantly but something miraculous happened. Instead of disappearing harmlessly into the net, the viral data channeled itself into the mortibund wisp. Though it was still stunned, it made a complete recovery from the damage it had sustained. The other Applesamus cracked open and spat a barrage of seeds at the Ironshell in revenge, but it had no effect.



Will O' The WispA: DELETED
Will O' The WispB: DELETED
Will O' The Wisp EXA: DELETED
Will O' The Wisp EXB: 100 [stunned]
KillerEye EXA: DELETED
KillerEye EXB: DELETED
AppleSamuA: DELETED
AppleSamuB: 70
AppleSamuC: 70

Exorcist.exe: 60 HP
Traceur.CMD: 60 HP

Terrain: 20% Grass, 20% Normal, 10% Cursed, 50% Magnet
Exorcist gave a sigh of relief, seeing Traceur return to his former self. "I'm so glad you're safe! Who would have thought that ripping out an evil spirit could actually work. Highly unorthodox, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say," she nodded to her ally, crossing her arms across her chest. With Traceur returned to normal, the best thing to do would be to destroy the remaining wisp and make certain that it didn't have a chance to jump back into him. The last thing she wanted was for him to have to dig his hand back into his chest unless he absolutely had to and even then she figured she'd rather seek an alternate, less painful method.

"Yeah, Traceur's fine, let's get back to the matter at hand. There's still enemies left that you guys need to take care of. To make sure you get the job done, I'm sending you a katana to finish them all off, so go crazy and exorcise the hell out of them," Burt laughed, slotting through the chip with a quick flick of his wrist.

After having just used a bulky, clunky cannon, Exorcist couldn't help but be happy with the somewhat more natural feeling sword, even though it was itself fairly weighty. She knew she'd have to close some distance to get in a usable range for her favorite weapon, but she also reasoned that stepping over any of the magnet panels her ally had laid would still be dangerous. Feeling confident that she could dodge the panels, however, she began a trek over the dangerous terrain to reach the remaining will-o-the-wisp, hopping from panel to panel with one leg out at a time, somewhat awkardly.

"I wish Exorcist could fly... Wouldn't that be cool, huh? If she could just fly around everywhere, these panels would be no danger at all... Why can't all navis just fly?" Burt daydreamed with a sigh of relaxation, paying no attention to the battle whatsoever. He rested his head upon his elbows with a wide, satisfied smile, imagining his navi enjoying the splendor of flight.

Exorcist, meanwhile, was enjoying no such splendor as she leaped from panel to panel, holding her hat to her head with one hand and gripping the sword tightly with her other. Upon reaching her destination, she gripped the katana with both hands and made two broad swipes for the wisp, trying to cut it down from the air, where she hoped it had been made somewhat lazy due to the stunning effect. After landing, she turned her attention to the apples. It was a stretch, but she hoped she'd be able to make it over to them and deliver them a slice as well.

"Ha ha ha, you know it'll only be a matter of time before all of the viruses figure out how to fly for survival, right, buddy?" Burt asked Travis, slapping him on the back again annoyingly. "Then that special ability of Traceur's isn't going to be any good any more! Na ha ha ha!"

Ignoring her operator's rude (and probably baseless) remarks, Exorcist remained focused on the battle, readying her katana as she approached the apple genies. With two powerful strokes, she attempted to sever them out out of their apple shells. The task would be exponentially easier if they would come out of their shells for two seconds, so she remained hopeful that they would choose to do so.

1) Avoid magnet panels
2) Katana1 to Will-o-the-WispEX B [60 x 2]
3) Katana1 to Applesamu B and C [60] and Applesamu B [60]
*) Swordplay [free dodge]
"I'm pretty sure that viruses don't evolve like that..." Travis commented, but didn't really have much to support his argument, with the varying amounts of viruses. They could have been because of the amount of hackers throwing them into the web, though, so he supposed he couldn't be entirely wrong. Either way, it didn't matter currently, but-- "Burt is right, Traceur, wouldn't it be a lot more convenient to bomb them from above?"

"I wouldn't be able to run then, Travis." Traceur said, as if that was the perfect argument to use against him. "And if I'm not able to run across the battlefie-"

"But wouldn't it make it a lot easier if you could ignore those stupid terrain obstructions to heal your allies?" Travis asked, interjecting with another reason that Traceur should be using the much vaunted airshoes or floatshoes.

"Well, true, I guess." Traceur had a slight fight of morals there, and decided they'd have this chat at a later time. "As you said previously, is this really the time we should be talking about this sort of thing?" The conversation was cleverly avoided as Travis resisted making a crack about Traceur's inability to multitask.

"Well then, what chips do you want this time around?" Traceur's operator asked wryly, looking about the last remaining chips they had left. Not much, but the ringlog could help along with the process. "You had better at least stun one of them, so I'll give you the zapring."

"Alright, sounds good. Uhm, throw in the ringlog and the two cannons, if you would. I might not use all of them, but I'd like to have a backup just in case." Traceur gave a quick thumbs up, looking at the foes left. The magnetic terrain didn't seem to be doing its job as a disabler for the enemies, though. The navi scratched his head as he pulled out his weapon with his left hand, aiming and firing an electrically imbued bullet at an applesamu. "That's one..." he muttered to himself.

"Wait, Traceur. Check the Wisp. We don't want something like last time happening." Traceur swiveled, looking for the wisp and prepping a shot for it to finish it off in case Exorcist had missed with one of her shots... He certainly didn't want that experience to happen again. "On a sidenote..." He muttered, looking at the applesamus once again. Traceur materialized a log and kicked it in their direction, following that by- "Wait. I can use this thing repeatedly. Maybe it's a flaw with the chip or something, but-- it works for me."

With that statement, he materialized another log and looked for whose face to put it in. "Well, let's see what else I can do--" Traceur looked around, trying to figure out where the best place to put this log would be. Hopefully placing something in a world of hurt, and definitely wiping out the team. If he could eliminate them, that would be for the best in itself.

1] Zapring AppleSamuA [45+Stun1+Elec]
2] Ringlog AppleSamuA, ApplesamuB [50+Wide attack+Wood]
3] Ringlog Whatever's left [50+Wide Attack+wood]
4] Dodge
Exorcist gets exorcising with the use of her katana. Hopping over the magnet panels, she makes her way toward the stunned wisp and purifies it from the network with two swipes of her sword. Moving along, the taoist takes her swings at the AppleSamus, taking one down, but missing the other. Luckily Traceur's there to help, so he stuns the target, and bowls it over with a Ringlog.

Will O' The WispA: DELETED
Will O' The WispB: DELETED
Will O' The Wisp EXA: DELETED
Will O' The Wisp EXB: EXORCISED
KillerEye EXA: DELETED
KillerEye EXB: DELETED
AppleSamuA: DELETED
AppleSamuB: SLASHED
AppleSamuC: LOGGED

Exorcist.exe: 60 HP
Traceur.CMD: 60 HP

Terrain: 20% Grass, 20% Normal, 10% Cursed, 50% Magnet

-VICTORY-
Exorcist Get: 680z
Traceur Get: 850z
FXP: 3 Static
1 Specific (Warning Exorcist away)