Ship and Pyre

"Those viruses don't look particularly scary, do they?" Ship commented on the approaching six. "Am I missing something, Lyn?"

"Uh, yeah," Lyn remarked, beginning to sweat a bit in her heavy coat. "For starters, there's those Bunnies. You haven't been hit by them yet, but don't forget what I said at the beginning or you'll be in for a surprise... eh?" Lyn noticed Ship looking strangely deflated.

"Well, it's just... I was sure you were going to say 'a shock.'" Ship told her operator carefully. "I mean, who wouldn't?"

"Hey, what's more important to you right now, your f*ckin' sense of humor or your health?" Lyn responded in an icy tone. "Ignoring that... we haven't seen the others, but I can tell you this much: the slow ones always hit the hardest. The good news is that if they're slow we might not have to worry about them for a bit. If we get in our hits and take care of those bunnies first we can handle the rest at our leisure... and last time, anyhow, the defenses of those Metools didn't slow down Pasty-Face's work at all. I'll trust Joanna at least far enough to keep her sh*tty shifty Navi out of the way of a shot a freighter could dodge."

"Excuse me?" Ship replied, taking offense in a huff.

"What?" Lyn said, looking back at her Navi blankly.

"You... weren't you just... taking a jab?" Ship told her in obvious confusion.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but you've got work to do if you don't want to be taking in water. I don't think I'm taking too much of a leap to say those Catanks have cannon weaponry, would you?"

"Well, no, but..." Ship was beginning to realize that Lyn apparently didn't consider the puns she was throwing out "jokes," so she decided to give up on it. "Is that a part of 'personal style?'" the Navi wondered. Regardless, looking at the expressionless advance of those viruses convinced Ship that Lyn had a point. If she didn't take care of the small ones that could be a problem to dodge, she'd end up paying for in the end. Lyn had already sent the chips, each apparently meant for one of the two Bunnies. She readied the two simultaneously, a shotgun on one arm and the ringlogs in a bunch across her deck. Spinning her wheel vigorously, Ship took her boat in a banking turn, dumping the payload of logs for the bunny on her right. It might easily be too fast for such an attack, but she might at least hit the Catank next to it. With half the logs dumped, she rotated her body in her stack to point her arm at the other Bunny and let the shotgun fire. With that accomplished, she prepared to move out of the way of incoming fire. She would have to count on Lyn's assumptions that attacks from the heavy four would come later: she hadn't left herself a lot of reaction time. "Sorry I couldn't do much this time, Pyre. Lyn's advising me to take it a step at a time," the Navi apologized. "For now, I'll try to keep out of your way..."

Summary:
Ringlog to BunnyB and CatankB [50 WOOD]
Shotgun to BunnyA [50+splash]
Dodge

As the viruses continued to advance on the pair of Navis, Lyn and Ship had a little conversation, which burned both the nautical Navi and their 'shifty' ally. Joanna rolled her eyes before she addressed the concern brought up by her Navi.
[You're right, those things shouldn't be moving. Try to distract them and get a closer look.]

Pyre nodded as she flipped her spear down to her side, then jammed the spear tip down directly in front of herself as she placed both of her hands together, palm-to-palm with the spear shaft between them.

Will do, Joanna.

Suddenly little purple bolts of lightning arced from the two smaller points on the spear to the ground, which surged over the panels before they seemed to swirl together in a pair of rapidly growing rings. The rings glowed a bright purple, and seemed to be wrapped in ancient texts and runic symbols. A faint purple light could be seen from behind the bangs covering the left side of Pyre's face, and was located where her left eye would be. She then spoke in some other language in a very calm, almost reverent tone, like an incantation.

Vises, mine spøkelser.

As soon as she uttered that phrase, two smoky masses appeared above each ring, and as the magenta energy arced into the seemingly weightless forms, they started to churn and move while they started to change color. They then started to look like a pair of figures, and quickly started to look like Pyre herself. A few moments later, the rings faded from the ground, and left two perfect copies of Pyre behind.

Forhånd.

The two apparitions immediately swung their spears forward and moved towards the incoming viruses. Ship sent a bunch of logs rolling towards the Bunny virus, but the nimble virus simply hopped over the logs. However, the Catank behind it could barely move out of the way, and was struck by the logs with a loud thud (50).

Pyre moved off to the side as she attempted to flank the other Catank, as Ship lined up the other Bunny in her sights. Luckily for her, the Bunny noticed one of the Pyre apparitions and sent a ring of electricity towards it, which left the virus completely defenseless against the blast of shot (50). The apparition silently exploded into a small cloud of mist, and disappeared. The other apparition bore down on the Catank, but it was more focused on advancing than defending itself. The second bunny lined Ship up and sent a ring of electricity towards her, and the shot missed by a very slim margin as Ship moved out of the way. It was aimed somewhat high and zipped past her smokestack, close enough to have some of her hair stand on end from the residual static.

Pyre managed to get around the catanks, and solved the mystery behind the moving HardHeads: the normally immobile viruses were tethered to the backs of the heavy, tread-crawling Catanks with some sort of chain. Pyre reacted quickly and swung her spear down on the tether(1), which shattered one of the links and caused the Hardhead to completely stop. Almost on cue, both of the Catanks stopped as the little gunner-looking figures sticking out of the turrets retreated into it's armored shell, and prepared to fire. At the same time, both HardHeads turned red as their mouths opened to reveal a single smooth-bore cannon.


--Approaching quickly--
BunnyA: DELETED
BunnyB: 50HP

--Slightly further behind--
CatankA: 120HP [Aiming]
HardheadA: 60HP

CatankB: 70HP [Aiming]
HardheadB: 60HP [Tethered]

Terrain: 100% Normal

Ship.EXE: 100HP
Pyre.EXE: 150HP

Decoy1: Destroyed
Decoy2: 1HP

"Yikes, that was close again," Ship said, shivering and smoothing her hand across the curls of her hair to make sure it hadn't been mussed by the electric projectile.

"Sorry about your perm, princess, but you're a big enough target without standing still and trying out the latest fashions." Lyn wanted to keep wisecracking, but she made the expedient decision to cut it short. "Fact is, we're taking a lot of close calls. You might want to be ready to actually take a hit in a second... and not a little lovetap, either."

Ship took a moment to process that Lyn was indeed counting on her getting hit in a moment. She gulped and nodded.

"Still, I'm going to do what I can to wrap this up short and safe for you two." Lyn had some difficult tasks to perform, but what she'd do next was one of the toughest. She took her pipe out of her mouth, told herself the easiest way was to go ahead and get it over with, and opened the two-way communication window again to talk to Joanna. "Pyre's faster than Ship, right? I dunno about you with your ninja sh*t, but Ship's going to be in big trouble if that Bunny hits her. Do something about that, all right?" She cut the communication without waiting for a response.

In spite of the danger she was in, Ship couldn't let that lack of cordiality slide. She threw a big Please-and-Thank-You Pyre's way before addressing Lyn. "You're asking for a favor, couldn't you be a little bit more friendly about it?"

"I'm asking for a favor for YOU," Lyn pointed out. "Now shut up and work quick, and you'll increase your chances of getting out of this in one piece. Take this Pulsar and fire it at that tank that's lookin' your way."

Ship accepted the chip, feeling the pressure of the enemies focusing on herself and her allies spurring her into quicker action. She materialized the foghorn quickly, replacing her steering wheel, and yanked the chain with both hands. The blast of noise shot towards the Catank, and the Navi bit her lip in anticipation. If it didn't hit, and quickly, she'd be feeling more than a little whiff as that shot passed.

"I dunno how those viruses got chained together, but finding it out was a neat trick," Lyn commented, returning her pipe to her mouth but not yet taking a draw. "If we got that Catank, hopefully his buddy chrome-dome won't be going anywhere. The Zapring we got ought to work to freeze him in place... even if we don't stop his attack, we might be able to keep him from closing back up."

"Can't we just wait for him to open back up if that happens?" Ship replied, still looking nervously at the two Hardheads.

"A longer wait means more chance of screwups. Act fast, act smart, and the battle's already won." Lyn smiled and grinned to herself, taking some time to revel in what she was sure was a cool line in spite of the danger her Navi was in. In a flash, though, her face had return to its set frown as she dug through her folder for the Zapring.

Ship received the Zapring, holding her hands forward as the ring appeared perpindicularly to her own body and between her outstretched fingers. She figured she wouldn't be aiming at a moving target, so she allowed herself to get used to the chip rather than focusing on the aim. The rotating disk had the same unfamiliar crackle of electricity as the Bunny's attack had, and Ship handled it with the same anticipation a child might feel reaching for a door handle that had shocked her before. That strange feeling didn't hold more than a moment's sway on her, though, and she let the ring fly seconds after it had formed.

Following this, Ship just tried to get ought of the way. Somewhere, anywhere, out to work to dodge to, so Ship just made a point to keep her eye on the Bunny, circle around it, and move quickly. For starters, the Hardhead's howitzers would probably fall from overhead and move quickly, so watching out for them would be a waste of time. For an added bonus, Ship was curious to see if Joanna would be interested in taking care of the favor Lyn had asked for her. If she was, perhaps Ship would get another chance to see Pyre in action.

Summary:
Pulsar to CatankB [70]
ZapRing to HardheadB [40 + Stun]
Dodge

As Ship recovered from the near miss, Pyre also noticed the viruses starting to target them.
Joanna, could I have a firehit and fireburn chip please?

Joanna blinked before she slightly fumbled with her chip bag, she had gotten out of practice over the past few months. She did manage to find both chips quickly and slid them into the PET.
[Battlechips uploaded, Pyre.]

Pyre felt the presence of the battlechips added to her combat routines, and smiled as she thanked her NetOp.
Thanks, hon!

Joanna wasn't particularly fond of being called "hon," but Lyn's comm window popped up before she could convey her displeasure of the nickname. She listened as Lyn asked her to have Pyre take down the bunny. She nodded and spoke plainly.
[Will do. We'll keep the "ninja sh*t" to a minimum.]

She avoided the finger-quotes, but internally was a bit amused by the situation
{Hm, seems like she's not above seeking assistance. Interesting.}

In the meantime, Pyre stabbed her spear into the ground before she moved her hands out in front of her chest. In one fluid movement, she moved both of her hands in a circle, as if they were both drawing an invisible shape in the air with her fingers. Less than a second later, a glowing red ring materialized over where she had previously "drawn." Runic symbols grew from the edge of the ring as she drew a large symbol in the center of the circle. The symbol flashed a deep crimson as she overlapped her hands over the center of the circle, and flashed a slight smile just as a fountain of flames erupted from a point just in front of her hands. The flames covered the two immobile viruses in front of her (50).

The flames quickly died down as Pyre received a message from Joanna.
[Target the Bunny next. Ship'll go after the rest.]
She nodded as she glanced over to Ship. The not-so-little Navi politely thanked Pyre, and she returned the gesture with a smile. However, this politeness came at a cost, as she lost focus and didn't realize the catank was gunning directly for her. The tank fired a shot with a loud boom and a flash of light. She turned just as the tank fired, but didn't have enough time to dodge or retaliate. The round struck her side and exploded (20) in a small puff of smoke and flame. She gripped her side gingerly with her left hand, as she pointed her spear directly towards the catank threateningly.

Though she wanted to finish off the catank, she had a more important target to eliminate. She quickly skimmed over the floor as the HardHead fired at her, but missed simply because she was mobile. Ship had already lined up the other catank and launched a sonic blast from her foghorn. The catank seemed to almost jump back from the impact, and it started to literally shake apart, indicating the blast somehow resonated with it's armored body, and left it to a mere pile of scraps (70). The hardhead rotated its spherical head towards Ship and its cannon to bear. However, it never got the chance to fire and was frozen in place by a painful and paralyzing shock of electricity (40)

Ship started to take evasive maneuvers as Pyre got into position. The bunny hopped feverishly towards Ship before it paused and tilted backwards. Its two hoop-like ears perked straight up and started to crackle with electricity as a ring of electricity formed between its ears. However, as soon as the bunny stopped, it started to get lit by a red glow. The panel underneath the bunny glowed brighter and brighter before it literally burst into flames (60). The flames blasted from seemingly out of nowhere and went skyward like a firecracker as curved in a wide arc. Ship looked over to Pyre, who was spinning her spear; she then noticed the fireball streaking overhead was moving exactly like the tip of Pyre's spear before it crashed into the ground and disappeared.




BunnyA: DELETED
BunnyB: DELETED

CatankA: 70HP
HardheadA: 10HP [Closed]

CatankB: DELTED
HardheadB: 20HP [Stunned, Stuck Open]


Terrain: 100% Normal


Ship.EXE: 100HP
Pyre.EXE: 130HP

Decoy1: Destroyed
Decoy2: 1HP

Ship appeared frustrated despite the favorable progress she and Pyre had made clearing out the viruses. Lyn was used to not being able to understand Ship by now, but she still put the minimal amount of effort into trying to deduce why she might be upset. Oh wait... I get it now. Ship was obviously going to go teary-eyed because her ally had taken a little bit of damage when she herself had gone unscathed. The operator didn't have any compassion for that subject, so she waited for Ship to say her piece so that she could correct her Navi as if she herself hadn't even considered it.

"Lyn, don't you think Pyre's fireball attack is cool?" Ship piped up, turning to her operator with her heartfelt admiration sparkling in her eyes.

Luckily, Lyn had already braced herself for Ship to say something ridiculous. She kept her cool composure and plastered a porcelain smile across her face as she addressed Ship in an even tone. "Oh yeah, sure, that attack's the bomb. What was your favorite part?"

Ship was evidently too caught up in her rambling to notice her operator's fake interest. "Well... the way the fireball follows the tip of the spear is really cool, right? And she can make the fire come up right beneath the enemy... it seems like I don't have any attacks that do cool things like that."

Lyn had been prepared to breach sarcasm and move into rebuking, but she felt Ship had some misguided sensibilities here. "You know that, to an extent, your programming allows you to make your attacks look however you want, right? Most of your attacks already have freaky animations that your... uh, whoever programmed you put in."

"Yeah, but it feels like I don't have any attacks that are really me, you know? Pyre's got that funeral flame and everything."

"Well, you're still green when it comes to battling," Lyn commented, biting on her pipe thoughtfully. "It'll be a while before you know how you really want to fight."

"But how am I going to be able to get stronger?" Ship asked. "I don't feel any more powerful, even though we've been training..."

Lyn bit down on her pipe a bit harder before taking it out of her mouth quickly. Ship was clearly broaching the topic of purchasing upgrades, and the operator hadn't quite decided if she was going to actually spend the money she'd earned netbattling in that way. Doing so would be acknowledging that Ship was going to be her Navi, and Lyn was still clinging to the concept of a 'trial basis'...

Lyn decided to change the subject. "Look, princess, I dunno if you were expecting some kind of death beam or whatever, but the chips we've already earned are nothing to laugh at. I'll send you the Machinegun for you to play around with. Just do me a favor: line up at least two of those suckers and then brace yourself." Lyn had to admit that this wasn't a chip she'd seen in action herself. People occasionally lent her a supplementary folder for their training, but as it so happened this chip had never turned up.

Ship tried the machinegun on her arm upon recieving the data, but the heavy gun was too much for her even before firing. As she struggled, placing one hand beneath the heavy weapon that had replaced one of her arms, she took a second to think about how to manage it. She tried it again on her deck, creating a turret with the gun mounted. She held her arms out to the side and swiveled in her smokestack, looking down to see the turret rotate in the same motion. "This'll work for now, don't you think? Maybe it would be better if I hold it and just make it smaller?"

"Do whatever the hell you want," Lyn said, still a bit distracted. "All I know is you're lucky these viruses are slow as f*ck. I hope Pyre's getting sh*t done while you're here trying on the season's artillery..."

Ship had started in surprise, causing the turret to turn up and then fall back along with her own motion. As fast as she could manage, Ship sprinted to try and line up the surviving Catank and its associated Hardhead with the turret on her deck. For Ship, having a ship beneath her ankles was as natural as having feet for a human. She knew that turning would slow her down, so she swept in sideways and let her turret aim to line up the targets, turning her body in the smokestack to accomplish the rotation. When she felt she had it lined up, she pulled a trigger right beneath a handle of her steering wheel. The machine gun had still been swiveling slightly, but when the swarm of bullets began pouring from within it, it violently swung in the other direction. Ship hadn't considered how her setup worked both ways and found herself dizzyingly swished in another direction. She forced her body sideways by propping her hands on the other side of her smokestack and pulling her body against the motion in an attempt to steady the turret.

Lyn took a laugh at Ship's expense, although a somewhat more good-natured one. Even she'd been surprised by the force of that chip, and she had begun to consider what it would be like to have a Navi of her own to bust with... her own chips to use, her own attacks to program in. For now, though, she had to get her head back in the battle. "If you can still see straight, you ought to know you might not have gotten them all with that... especially since we don't know if Baldy opened up to take a bite. Want to test if you can still sail straight?"

Ship felt like she'd just gotten off a roller coaster, and decided that unless she prepared next time, that maneuver was probably a better idea. "R-right," she muttered, continuing her path in a shaky arc. Damage from the viruses wasn't on Ship's mind, though: she was just hoping Pyre hadn't seen her embarrassing display...

Summary:
Move to line up CatankA and HardheadA
Machinegun to Catank A [30x9, Spray Fire]
Dodge

Ship adjusted her heading to line up the Catank and the Hardhead behind it before she opened up with her newly formed MachineGun. Ship had a very hard time controlling the weapon as it spewed rounds towards the viruses, one of the bullets actually struck the stunned Hardhead next to her intended targets and destroyed it (30). She managed to regain at least some control of the weapon and shot the Catank full of holes (90). Unfortunately the bullets were nowhere near strong enough to pierce the Hardhead's cast-iron head, and the remainder of the bullets ricocheted of it's domed head. Pyre raised her left arm over her head and knelt down as she heard a bullet whiz by her position, and saw her decoy explode into a cloud of mist as a wayward round punched a hole through the weightless copy.

The single HardHead stood alone in the battlefield, and took it's own good time before it finally opened its mouth and turned its cannon towards Ship. However, Pyre was waiting for it to lower its defense and quickly stabbed it with the blade of her spear as it lined Ship in its sights (80), and it was left useless and inactive.

Lyn had expected to be pleased by Ship's implementation of the machine gun. What she hadn't expected was to be entertained, and the battle came to a conclusion with the operator laughing her head off at her Navi's expense. "Jesus, Princess, were you tryin' to hit someone over in SciLab Net?!" Lyn sputtered between guffaws.

"E-excuse me!" Ship defended herself with a red face. "I think I did a pretty good job dealing with those viruses..."

"Yeah... and a pretty good job... makin' your friend dance, too." Lyn let out a few more wheezes of laughter, finally beginning to collect herself. "Do me a favor next time, though: try and hit the actual one instead of the copy, okay?"

"Oh no!" Ship had been so caught up in how ridiculous her display had been that she hadn't even thought of where the stray shots might have gone. "Pyre, are you okay? I didn't hit you, did I?! I'm so sorry, it's just that I was trying to use a chip I hadn't tried before and I wanted to use something powerful to show that I wasn't just dead weight and you'd seemed so in-control that I thought-"

"Slow down, you didn't hit anyone," Lyn told Ship, her Navi's frantic apologizing taking the edge off of her own amusement. As such, she aimed to slip back into business. "So, how are we doing, Joanna? You and Pyre done yet, or do we need to clean the other half of this net of viruses before we call it quits?" Lyn realized her wisecrack implied whining about work and corrected herself. "I mean, I can stand here all day if the weather holds up, so we can go as long as you need to..." Lyn's legs hadn't gotten tired yet, but damn if it wasn't hot. She took off the heavy coat draped on her shoulders and slung it over an arm. If they decided to bust longer, she'd find some place to put it.

Though her decoy took a bullet, Pyre was completely fine, if you ignore the minor blast wound from one of the viruses. She brushed at the slightly discolored area of her pale blue and magenta robes where she was struck and mentally pouted.
{Aw... I just repaired this robe too...}

Her disappointment with her damaged garment was put on the back burner when she looked over to see Ship's apologetic freak-out. She smiled and spread her arms out to show she hadn't suffered any damage from the wayward bullets and spoke.
I'm fine! No need to worry about it, Ship. It was the Hardhead that caused those bullets to ricochet, not you.

She floated over to Ship as she confirmed Lyn's statement and tried to console the panicking maritime Navi. While she tried to calm Ship down, Lyn asked about the current task at hand, and the ultimate goal of the mission. Joanna realized such a request really didn't have much of a concrete conclusion, so she didn't immediately have an answer. Pyre seemed to be in somewhat proper fighting form, but two short battles didn't seem much to knock the rust loose. Then again, she only knew the consequences of combat, not how one prepares or practices for it. She responded in the same tone as before in an attempt to disguise her uncertainty.
[Those two battles were a sufficient warm-up, but we might need some more practice. Well, you are a Navi trainer, what do you think? Do you think Pyre would be able to hold her own in serious virus busting?]

She was rather interested in Lyn's answer; her response could reveal how factual her Navi trainer story is. Though Ship was innocent enough, Joanna couldn't help but feel like something was amiss. Everyone can lie to cover their backs, and her job involved using evidence to reveal those lies.

Pyre continued to attempt to calm Ship down, but then she saw something out of the corner of her eye, and it was approaching rather quickly. A serious expression flashed over her face before she identified the approaching object. Her calm smile returned as she waved towards the object slightly.
Hello there, Prof. Prog! Is something wrong?

The prog stopped in front of the pair before it made a quick, shallow bow towards the Navis. This particular prog was slightly different from the standard progs, its green finish was slightly faded, and it had two sky blue stripes running down the front of its body. Only when it bowed one could see the stripes wrapped around and connected in the back to reveal the design to be like a sash of some sort. A little raised emblem was attached to one end of the sash, which had the DenTech University logo embossed in its gold surface.
I'm sorry, Miss Pyre, but I need to ask you and your friend to either log out or follow me to the library area.

Pyre raised her left eyebrow as she responded.
Oh? Are you running maintenance on the network again?

No ma'am, a group of Navis logged into the network and started to attack some of the programs within this area of the network. I'm afraid at least one of them belongs to one of the students here at the University. I'm trying to ferry other users out of the network before we get someone to deal with these delinquents.

Pyre put her hand to her mouth in surprise as Joanna sighed with a frustrated tone. She hated when the network was disabled by destructive students when she attended the University a few years ago.
[Well, we may have to cut our warm-up short. Prof. Prog, did you see how many there were?]

The others have reported 3 Navis, but there may be a 4th, Miss Grímsson.

[Three or four? Well, there are two of us, but do you think we could beat them, or at least stall some time before others arrive? Well, I can't draw your Navi into this, Miss Clarke, unless you think Pyre and Ship could handle it.]

Ship managed to calm down easily when she could tell that Pyre was unharmed. With that out of the way, she listened to the question Joanna had intended for Lyn. Personally, Ship felt assured that Pyre could handle it, but... when she thought about it a bit harder, Ship realized that she didn't even really know what "serious virus busting" was. Was Joanna implying that what they'd fought so far was only the tip of the iceberg?

Lyn, meanwhile, was feeling caught with her foot in her mouth. She told herself that in the future she'd look both ways before crossing the street when it came to wisecracking. "No, no Navi I've ever trained was fit to roam the net after two. And from what I've seen so far, you two would've been getting more than a little workout if Ship and I hadn't been here. If your definition of 'serious' is the same as mine, neither of these ladies would have a chance in that situation." Lyn realized that "serious" viruses might have a few tricks she herself wasn't prepared for too, of course, but she didn't see any reason to say so.

Ship perked up at once upon seeing the Mr. Prog. She greeted it with a wave before listening to what it had to say. The Navi was accustomed to seeing the green tenants of cyberspace frequently from her work in advertising, which took place in an isolated terminal cut off from the ports of the Net. She'd been meaning to ask Lyn why she hadn't seen any on the open Net up until now.

Lyn was already irritated with the Mr. Prog. Before it opened its mouth, Lyn knew it would be asking for something. The truth was worse than she'd thought: not only was it whining for a favor, it wanted something on behalf of the university. "I guess you can't blame the eggheads for going a little crazy. I'd go crazy too if I had to stay cooped up and study that sh*t all day, five days a week."

"So what do you think, Lyn?" Ship asked. "We did pretty well against... uh... Dark Spirit... Zero, that was his name! And he was another Navi. Maybe we can give Pyre a hand?"

"I dunno," Lyn said, biting on her pipe. "This sounds a lot like 'uncontracted work' you're signing us up for, and only a f*ckin' idiot agrees to help without knowing what she's jumping into. Also, these pencilnecks are the ones who took their own network down. Why doesn't the... student police, or council, or whatever these dumb*sses use to keep order deal with this?"

"Well, I want to help Pyre," Ship decided. "Besides, you already agreed to help Pyre get back into shape busting, right? And you just said she can't handle the serious stuff. If you stop now, you'll be breaking your contract." Ship crossed her arms and smiled widely, confident that she had found a way to use her operator's stubbornness against her.

"Whatever, I changed my mind," Lyn said, robbing Ship of her victory. "Frankly, I can't wait to beat the sh*t out of those brats. After that, we can get back to fighting something worth our time."

"All right, then," Ship said, quickly rebounding in her eagerness to help her new friend. "It sounds like we're both on board. Lyn seems excited but, um... if it's three or four, Lyn might be underestimating this. Does the university have any forces to help with this? Do you think we might be able to keep them busy for a while? I don't mean to brag, but I've defeated another Navi in head-to-head combat before. I think I can hold my own."

"There's no need to bring that up..." Lyn muttered under her breath, rubbing her temples and hoping the urgency the situation presented would keep Joanna from prying in.

Joanna grinned as she heard the NetOp/Navi pair agree to help out.
[Well, that makes two.]

The Prog's eyes darted between the two Navis before he looked down to the ground slightly.
I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I don't want to see you two Navis get hurt, especially a former student. I'd never forgive myself!

Pyre smiled as she leaned down to the prog's height.
Don't worry about us, Professor. You've known me for a while, and my friend Ship has faced Navis before, so we should be fine.

The prog seemed to be really pondering the situation before he surrendered with a sigh.
Oh, all right. But I'm not going to just leave you two ladies out here alone, I shall accompany you to make sure you don't come to harm.

Pyre chuckled as she stood up straight and spun her spear before she rested it on her shoulder. She looked over to Ship, and tilted her head towards the prog as she spoke.
It looks like the professor will be assisting us as well. Shall we go?

Lyn sighed a bit. Happily, she'd dodged the bullet of any inquiries on Ship's boast, but she still cringed when Pyre mentioned that Ship had "faced Navis" before. More like "faced Navi," if you could even call it that... Regardless, it sounded like work continued. Tired of holding her coat, Lyn found a newspaper holder at her right hand that she could keep an eye on. She draped the heavy article across the stand, neither realizing nor caring that it would hamper anyone interested in picking up a paper.

"I'm ready if you are," Ship responded to Pyre, placing both hands on her wheel in preparation to steer herself to the destination. "Although, from what I know of progs, I wasn't aware they had any combat functionality." That comment was addressed to Pyre, but she turned her head to the professor. "No offense, of course." She faced Pyre again as she raised a thoughtful finger to her own chin. "Wouldn't it be better if he remained out of danger until we'd cleared out the miscreants?"

"Ah, no, we aren't getting into a back-and-forth 'I'm worried for your safety!' conversation," Lyn interrupted, crossing her arms in front of her and scowling. "He said he wanted to come, he's comin'."

Ship didn't disapprove of Lyn's decision, but she still clearly looked concerned for the professor. She looked at Pyre expectantly, hoping that she or Joanna would get a word in.

((+6 FXP for non-battle interaction))

Pyre saw Ship's expectant look, and slightly shrugged before she responded.
He's pretty adamant about everything, almost to the point of pure stubbornness.

The prog turned towards Pyre sharply before it spoke in a more serious tone.
I heard that, Miss Pyre. You may not be a student right now, but I'll have you know tha...

The prog stopped mid sentence, and it was then that the trio could hear a commotion in the distance. It sounded like distant gunfire, but it seemed to be approaching. It was only shortly afterward that they saw a trio of figures moving at a relatively high speed across the net horizon. They weren't able to pick out all of the details, but there were definitely three Navi-like figures, and they were moving much faster than a normal Navi's running speed. One figure was wielding a weapon of some sort and was firing it off randomly, and the punctuated gunfire seemed to bracket the sound of the figures yelling or something; Ship and Pyre couldn't make out what they were saying.

Those must be the loose delinquents.

Joanna's Operator window opened next to Pyre as she gave the Navi orders.
[Alright, let's take them head on. They shouldn't be too difficult to deal with, since there are only three of them.]

Pyre nodded and lifted the spear from her shoulder before she struck the endcap to the ground as she looked over to Ship.
Okay Ship, time to show those Navis what we're made of! Come on!

Pyre started to float towards the group of Navis and began to pick up speed as the Prog paused for a moment before it too gave chase.

"We aren't going to even try and negotiate this?" Ship gasped, surprised to see even the professor running ahead of her towards their targets.

"We're not here to negotiate, Princess," Lyn told her Navi sharply. "Do you think we'd even be here if the educators could just reason with them? Now hurry up! You're falling behind, and I'd prefer not to operate a Navi that kicked less *ss than a prog."

"R-right away!" Ship began to move her boat forward but slowed down quickly. "Actually, they look preoccupied. Maybe it would be better to start out from a distance while they're not looking out for us? I'm sure Pyre will try and sneak in, anyways."

Lyn figured that Ship had her own idea of what Pyre's tactics would be, but the operator wasn't so sure. "She moved in like she was ready for a head-on fight. Regardless, maybe it would be better if we started this out with some careful steps. I mean... it looks like they got their hands on some fancy weaponry. I think we could take them in a straight up fight, but you never know what these intellectual types have up their sleeves."

Ship wondered about Lyn's preconception and thought about reminding her that not all students who attend a University are necessarily smart, and ones causing trouble in a network moreso. All the same, she and Lyn were on the same page with a quick attack. "Is there anything in my arsenal for a quick attack?"

"Well, from this distance, it's hard to say. I'd say our safest bet is to start with a Zapring. Aim it carefully and continue to make your way closer. Range is good, but our job is to stop them from shooting up everything. If they try taking potshots at us with that cannon, every missed shot could be another poor f*cker's research paper going offline."

The Navi was too naive to tell that Lyn's talk had been an exaggeration, and so she felt the pressure of the University's academic record on her shoulders as she gulped and accepted the battlechip data. She formed the electric ring between her hands and squinted at the Navi with the huge weapon she'd seen firing earlier. She carefully inched her arms to the left and right, the weapon whirring between her palms, trying to align the shot perfectly. When she felt she had it, Ship moved her hands behind the floating projectile and projected it by leaning her torso forward and letting her hands push it.

With her attack launched, Ship figured the time had come to announce herself. "Excuse me, you three!" Feeling her voice wasn't carrying as well as she'd like, she began carefully closing the distance between herself and the enemies while looking out for damaged terrain. "If you're the troublemakers, please cease your activities immediately!" Ship tightened her lower lip in preparation to add a fierce edge to her warning. "If you don't, you'll have to face us!"

Lyn considered briefly the possibility that the professor didn't know what he was doing and that any of these might be disrupted students or even hired help like them. She bit her pipe dismissively, shaking her head slightly. She'd been doubting her own calls too often recently. Progs were... well, programmed to know their sh*t when it came to particulars in their network.

Summary:
-Take Aim
-Zapring to the Navi firing randomly [40 ELEC + Stun]
-Move closer carefully

As the pair of Navis and the prog moved closer to the trio of Navis, the different features of the delinquents started to come into view. Two of the Navis sported the signature purple and black color-schemes of rank-and-file HeelNavis, while the third was a simple NormalNavi with a blue and green color scheme. The three of them were riding what appeared to be skateboards of sorts.

The lead HeelNavi, who wielded a cannon and fired randomly, was on a hover board with several serrated blades lining the sides and a pair of spikes protruding from the front. The second HeelNavi was riding a similar board, but it rolled across the ground with the help of four metal-studded wheels. They appeared to be attached to the board with spring suspension, since the Navi wasn't vibrating violently due to the studded wheels. The NormalNavi, who lagged just slightly behind, was riding a skate board that appeared to be modeled after a real-world "long board."

Ship could also make out the voices more clearly, but didn't get much more than laughter and over-confident boasting about "raising hell." The two HeelNavis were seemingly more vocal than the NormalNavi, who didn't seem to say much.

Pyre and the Prog didn't accelerate and charge in, but they kept up their speed so they wouldn't lose track of the rapidly-moving trio. Ship decided to take the "shoot first" approach and prepared a ring of electricity. Pyre looked back as she heard the telltale crackle of electricity and briefly glanced back at the trio before she turned back to Ship with a slight grin. It appears she liked Ship's strategy. Ship fired the electrical hoop towards the lead HeelNavi, and thanks to the combination of her careful aim and the target's total lack of awareness, the attack struck the HeelNavi in the chest and sent a wave of electricity through his body (40). The current leaped to his hoverboard and caused it to shut down and hit the ground with a sudden thump, and sent its rider sprawled out on the ground.

The other two tried to find the source of the shot, and immediately saw the trio of advancing Navis/Prog. They managed to hear the second part of Ship's threat, and started looking at eachother as the downed HeelNavi slowly got up and got back on his reactivated hoverboard.

Man, what the **** was that? What the, that scratched up my board!!
The slightly bent spike on the front of his board only fueled his anger, and the second HeelNavi pointed towards Ship and her allies.
One of them did it!

The NormalNavi took a closer look at the group before he spoke up with a confused tone.
Is that a little girl... riding a cruise ship?

The two HeelNavis looked at the group again as well, then the lead HeelNavi started to chuckle as he glided towards them, which prompted the other two to follow. Pyre and the Prog stopped when the trio approached.
Okay, who was the moron who scratched my board? If you apologize, I might just be nice and not bash your ****in' face in.

Prof. Prog spoke up in a shocked tone.
That kind of language will not be tolerated, young ma-
Can it, prog! Don't you have some papers to grade or somethin?

The HeelNavi got off his board and started to walk towards Ship, Pyre, and Prof. Prog.
Okay, so who's gonna pay for my board? Was it you, book smarts? Or was it the half-pint girl scout? What about you, blondie?

The second HeelNavi snickered before he muttered something to the NormalNavi.
Hey, that one is pretty hot.

Well!? Someone ****in' speak up!

"All right, I'm gonna cut you off early, Princess," Lyn told Ship quickly over her private channel. "I see these delinquents mouthing off about the board you have to pay for and sh*t, and all that's just typical street-trash intimidation. I dunno if you were thinking about talking with them even though we decided not to, but that would be my guess. What you want to do instead is just keep on attacking."

"But Lyn-" Ship murmured to her operator, speaking under her breath.

"Get your words in edgewise if you want during the attack. Wasting words is only going to get you and Pyre attacked. It's pretty clear these chumps mean business, and we've already made up our minds."

Ship nodded in response. Truth be told, she was somewhat eager to teach the ruffians a lesson herself. She was used to being spoken to in rough language by Lyn, but her operator and these delinquents were two entirely different things. "Excuse me, but I am going to teach the three of you a tough lesson about causing trouble in a university network! Feel free to flee the battlefield whenever you've learned from your mistakes-"

"Hold it!" Lyn shouted. "They might have to pay for damages, ya can't just let em walk off."

"Er, that is..." Ship continued, losing the momentum she felt she'd had in her motivated declaration, "Feel free to, um, throw down your weapons and... uh... sit down or something so we know not to attack you, if you want to give up... and know what you did wrong."

"I'm sure they can barely stay on their boards now, they're shakin' so hard," Lyn muttered, reaching into her battlechip folder and drawing out a selection. "Now, as I'm sure you've noticed, those boards they're riding aren't just cosmetic. If we don't do something about it, they'll have a major speed advantage on us. Use the machinegun for starters and try to get them shaken up-"

"Open a channel with Joanna," Ship interrupted quickly, keeping her eyes trained on the delinquents and feeling a bit antsy as she hoped the targets would hold fire until they got set up.

Lyn sighed and opened the channel up to Pyre and Joanna. She didn't bother to fill them in, just picked up where she left off. "I can't say for sure, but it's quite possible those boards are like real-world ones: punks like to ride them to show they're bad*ss, so it would take some skill. They won't stay on automatically. Use stuff you think you can hit with. Once we cut their feet out from under them, we can attack at leisure. Don't worry about attacking the boards themselves: if we get the riders off, chances are the boards will be useless."

"Oh? How do you know, Lyn?" Ship interjected quietly.

"That loser had to climb back on his board, it didn't just zip back to him. I'm inferring, then, that these boards don't have any special functions, or that these jack*sses don't know how to use them." With that, Lyn abruptly slotted in the Machinegun. "We've spent too much time talking, let's go!"

Ship gulped and allowed the machinegun to appear as dual submachine guns in her hands this time, still feeling the embarrassment of her last experiment. Assessing the situation, though she found herself smiling confidently. Suddenly busting out these weapons ought to shake up her foes. "Now, apologize!"

Her feminine shout and its wimpy message were offset by the sudden rattling of the guns in her hands, which still rattled her body in spite of her efforts to compact them. Ship hoped that the machinegun fire would succeed in dispersing the three, at which point she and Pyre could start picking them off (The Navi had no idea if the Professor was going to actually battle, but for the time being she had forgotten him entirely). She aimed for the one on the rolling spiked board, confident that she had a good idea to take him out.

Keeping her focus on her previous target, Ship summoned up the waves around her. She was convinced that showing off her unique power early would be a good method of scaring the opponents. Furthermore, she'd chosen her target carefully: he was still scary looking, but he was on a rolling board and thus shouldn't be able to easily dodge her attack from the ground. Ship let her Bank Wave roar towards him, a powerful-looking wave in spite of its meager damage.

Ship glanced at Lyn over her shoulder expectantly.

Lyn glared back at her for a moment before placing her head to her hand and letting out a puff of smoke. "I see what you were going for, but uh... if they know how to board at all, he could theoretically jump it..." Seeing that this was somehow enough of a disturbance to distract Ship, Lyn corrected herself. "Well, they're losers anyway, so maybe it'll work. But they're losers with big weapons, remember? Get stepping!"

Ship let out a gasp and got her Ship moving. She focused her circle-strafing on the Navi with the large cannon. For one reason, she was convinced that he'd attack her if she initiated the attack after messing up his board... and, frankly, she was scared of him since he was the only one who had as-of-yet demonstrated he had a weapon he wasn't afraid to use. "We'll teach you not to cause trouble, and to respect your professors, and... not to be so rude to pretty girls!"

Summary:
Machinegun1 to HeelNaviB [30x9, Spray Fire]
Bank Wave to HeelNaviB [40 AQUA, Spread]
Dodge (centered on HeelNavi A)

As Lyn briefed Ship over their private channel, the lead HeelNavi continued to press on and stood directly in front of the group.

Quiet types, huh?

He had overheard the comment of his fellow HeelNavi, and got a better look at Pyre before he approached her. He tried to change his voice to sound more suave, but he was certainly no Casanova.
Hey there, babe. I'll be willing to forget about this little incident if you ditch these two zeros and ride with us.

Pyre responded with a smile.
Though I appreciate the offer, I'll have to decline.

The HeelNavi seemed to ignore Ship's command to surrender; he persisted and reached out to brush the hair away from her face.
C'mon, playing "hard to ge-

The HeelNavi had pushed some of her bangs to the side, and immediately recoiled as if something was going to bite him. Ship wasn't entirely concentrating on Pyre, and didn't see what was going on, but she clearly heard immediately what happened after.
Holy shit! What the **** are you?!?

The HeelNavi staggered back and pointed his cannon directly towards Pyre's head. Joanna had gotten Lyn's message and transmitted the information to Pyre as soon as she could. Pyre started to giggle impishly before she quickly turned transparent and faded into the background. The lead HeelNavi swung his cannon in front of him as he tried to locate Pyre, but she simply wasn't there. The other two scrambled to materialize their weapons, the second HeelNavi carried a multi-barreled Vulcan while the NormalNavi brandished a sword.

This was a good time as any to start the attack, and Ship took advantage of the opportunity as she materialized a pair of sub-machine guns and pointed them towards the vulcan-wielding HeelNavi. The leader was cursing up a storm before he heard a click in front of him, followed by the loud boom of a cannon shot. The round hit him from nearly point-blank range and sent him tumbling backwards to the ground(40). The smoke from the cannon started to move and streak to the right, as if a pocket of air started to move through it.

The deep boom of the cannon almost acted as a starting gun for Ship's attack as she opened up with a spray of bullets. The pair of Navis standing next to eachother were surprised by the sudden barrage of bullets that peppered them, and the HeelNavi was struck multiple times, the only thing that saved him from EJO was his undershirt (99). Many of them missed, but a few struck the NormalNavi standing next to him(60), and one shot shattered the board beneath his feet(30).

The HeelNavi retaliated with a volley from his Vulcan, which peppered ship's hull and sent a damaging spray of shrapnel into the Prog that stood next to her (30). Ship counterattacked with a wave of water that knocked the HeelNavi off his feet and caused him to EJO. The NormalNavi would have been hit by the torrent as well, but he started his retreat on his board during the machine gun barrage. He didn't get far though; he heard a pair of loud clangs in very rapid succession before his board dropped several inches lower and made a very abrupt stop. The Navi stumbled forward but managed to remain standing before he looked back at his board. The trucks that held his wheels to the board were laying near the board, and appeared to have been cleanly sliced off. The NormalNavi temporarily glowed green as he recovered a bit of health(30) before he brandished his sword and started to advance.

The HeelNavi struggled to get up, and tried to figure out how he and his group went from high and mighty to scattered and broken in such a short time. Ship was making evasive maneuvers, but heard the Prog call out to her.
Miss Ship, try to strike at his legs or cannon, he will likely try to defend his chest since he was just attacked there, but the rest of his body will be left open![40 Strengthen]

"I hope you Navis will think about what you've done once we're done with you!" Ship cried out, still smarting from the shots that hit hit her hull. "Attacking a cute girl like me and recoiling from Pyre shows that you bunch have neither brains nor taste!"

Lyn wasn't sure Ship had connected the dots properly, calling their enemy's revulsion of Pyre a lack of taste. With how messed up the rest of Pyre's theme seemed, she wouldn't be surprised if there was some gnarly secret hiding beneath her bangs. Lyn shrugged and lit her pipe up again. How other people decided to design their Navis was none of her business.

Overall, Lyn was impressed with how her strategy was working out. One of the losers was already down, and the other two were clearly shaken up. It looks like she'd been right to presume they had no skills. Regardless, the two were clearly armed and dangerous. The Prog was giving Ship some good advice, and seemed to have offered a bit more than insight as well. Lyn figured she might as well capitalize on that.

"All right, Princess, I see you're already focused on that one with the cannon. He's got the clearest shot on you, so we want to take him down fast. Your professor friend has lent us some power, so one good shot ought to do it. I'm sending two chips. The Guard will make sure he can't do anything to f*ck with you while you aim the Zapring to smoke him. Clear?"

"Yes, Lyn," Ship responded, accepting the shield immediately and forming it in front of her ship's bow. "But shouldn't I be worrying about the other one, too?"

"Eh, Pyre's invisible, off doing her ninja sh*t somewhere," Lyn responded dismissively. "That guy's coming at you cause you're the only one he can see, and Pyre will probably be able to pick him off easy. Stay engaged with that one."

"Roger," Ship responded, taking careful aim with the Zapring that had formed within her cupped right hand. As she readied her weapon with her right, she used her left to try and control the shield in front of her: maneuvering it to cover her considerable girth was no easy feet. She felt confident, though, that with the arsenal Lyn had provided, her opponent would have a difficult time lining up a shot with his oversized gun. She let the shot fire, aiming just below his gut. Her idea was to aim for his center of mass as best she could while avoiding the chest he'd be guarding. "I think we're about finished, Professor!" Ship called out. "Try and stay safe until we're done, okay?"

Summary:
Take Aim
ZapRing to HeelNaviA [40 ELEC + 40 Strengthen, Stun]
Guard [reflect up to 60]

The HeelNavi got back to his feet, and saw Ship taking aim directly at him. Though he wanted to put a cannon round in Pyre's face, Ship was directly ahead, and he certainly didn't want to get himself fried. He quickly pointed his cannon towards Ship as he smirked.

The prog was watching the HeelNavi with the keen eye of a professor, and immediately darted in front of Ship just as the HeelNavi's cannon went off with a flash and a very familiar-sounding boom. The prog wasn't tall enough to completely shield Ship, but the shot was fairly low and aimed towards her bow. The prog saw the cannon round incoming and braced itself just before it impacted with a loud clang and ricocheted off his cylindrical body and flew off in a wild angle before it disappeared from sight (20). However, the force of the blast drove the prog backwards and smacked against Ship's bow.

Partially due to the amount of care she took into aiming, and also due to Ship's much larger size and weight, the Prog's collision with her didn't throw off her aim, and the HeelNavi was given a very painful helping of paralyzing electricity, saved only by his undershirt (69). Ship switched to defense as the NormalNavi advanced, but as soon as he attempted to bring his sword down on Ship and Prof. Prog, it bounced upward with a shower of sparks, as if it hit something very hard in front of him. This was followed with a loud popping noise and a shower of painful shrapnel that struck the NormalNavi and effectively halted his advance (50). The mystery was then solved as Pyre started to come back into view, with her spear held horizontally over her head with her right hand, and smoke oozing out of a shotgun that was partially concealed by her left robe sleeve.

"Man, my expectations weren't high, but these guys are total chickensh*ts!" Lyn exclaimed, pressing her hat against her forehead with her unoccupied hand. "The university really didn't have anyone capable of taking care of them? Not even some student volunteers?" Lyn still thought it was ridiculous, but she was considering the question. Maybe the university needed someone unaffiliated to do it so they didn't get the reputation of beating their own students out of the net?

Ship, meanwhile, was more concerned for how her partners were doing. "Pyre and the Professor are doing everything they can to help me finish this safely... I'm going to end this now." "Lyn, send me the Rageclaw. Professor, you've already done more than I could ask: please try and keep yourself safe. Pyre, please try and keep this one occupied!"

Keeping her shield squarely in front of her, Ship built up speed in her progress towards her helpless enemy. Her focus sharpened on him, and she raised her voice to allow her words to carry as she traveled. "I hope you've learned the error of your ways! You've caused the professor a lot of trouble by acting up out here! If you understand what I'm saying, then clean up your act and get a real hobby while you're healing up!"

When she judged she had gotten in range successfully, Ship quickly spun her steering wheel to the side, giving it extra force from her claw. The ship careened sideways and dipped down, allowing her to duck from her elevated position to melee range. She grabbed out with her clawed hand and leaned on the wheel, forcing it the other way. The ship continued to spin until Ship was facing 180 degrees of her starting position, and straightened back up in the process. During this quick motion, however, Ship used the momentum to unclench her claw and hopefully release the load she'd picked up. "You can have your friend back!" she called to the NormalNavi. "Please have him pass on to you what I told him!"

"Huh," Lyn thought, biting on her pipe thoughtfully. "I guess the Princess can get pretty intense when it calls for it. If she could tap into this kind of mood all the time, she might make a decent fighter after all." Lyn was already considering the battle over, figuring that Pyre could deal with the remaining opponent even if he survived his flying ally. Personally, she'd wanted to break the boards of those punks as well, but she figured they'd already been given a tight-*ss lecture by a little girl in a cruise ship. Their bruised egos would serve as a reminder of this beating, boards or no boards.

Summary:
Movement toward HeelNaviA (emphasis on avoiding obstacles in path)
Movement for quick spin (attempt to face Guard towards NormalNavi)
Rageclaw HeelNaviA to NormalNavi [20 to each]

Pyre heard Ship's orders and smiled at the HeelNavi with slight grin before she floated to the side as Ship advanced and scooped up the downed navi and chucked him into the NormalNavi. He shattered on contact, but the force was enough to cause the NormalNavi to lose his footing and fall to the ground as his undershirt deactivated (20). Pyre looked over at Ship and smiled as she clapped in amusement. The NormalNavi tried to get up, but Pyre quickly moved over towards him, and the first thing he saw was the point of her spear floating in front of his face. The Navi then realized the predicament he was in, and deactivated his sword.