Steam-Powered Research

"One of them survived. Do you have anything else there?" Machinae asked, observing the now flipped metool. A helmet that covered the entire body must have seemed like such a good idea to the original designer, assuming it had actually been consciously designed in the first place. But of course it had to have been. If not as a virus then as some sort of electronic pet that multiplied and went out of control. Whatever the purpose, they must not have thought of what would happen if they were flipped over like this. "You know, now that I think of it, didn't you build something like this a few months ago? A little turtle model that your roommate flipped over because she couldn't figure out how to turn it off?"

"I did, yes. Mostly because the last thing like it I built accidentally got stepped on," Alicia answered, putting a suspicious amount of emphasis on the word 'accidentally'. Machinae herself hadn't been in existence long enough to know of anything similar to the turtle machine that was made before it. She considered asking about it, but was cut off as Alicia added "And yes, I've got one more chip here.

She uploaded the chip, but no data was transferred to the revolver shell. Instead, the segmented metal plating on the fingertips of her right hand peeled away, revealing small claw-like blades that extended themselves in response to the chip. Machinae brought her hand up to look at it, having not remembered that particular attachment being there. No errors or other usual readouts were being displayed, instead showing another chip data readout for a 'RageClaw'.

"That works," Machinae commented, approaching the flipped metool, then driving the small blades of the claw chip at the virus's underside. Unless it somehow had more tricks, that would do it.
___

1. Rageclaw: 40+slashing to MetoolC
2-3. Dodge

The soft underbelly of the Metool was ripe for the taking, as Machinae took her time to stab it while it was down.

Metool A: DELETED
Metool B: DELETED
Metool C: DELETED

Terrain:
100% Normal

Machinae.BIN: 100HP

-- BATTLE 01, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --
[Guard1] Battlechip, 280z

"I'm done here," Machinae commented, standing up and allowing the claws to retract back into her arm. The chip data disappeared, while more was left in the remains of the metools she had defeated. She transferred it to the PET as Alicia answered.

"Good. You've only lost a couple minutes, but I don't know how long this is going to take once you get there. Try to hurry up," she said.

"Understood," Machinae said, then added "For the future, there is no way putting off an assignment this long can possibly make sense."

"I work fast."

"Not on essays," Machinae countered. There was no response, allowing the mostly machine navi to imagine the defeated expression on her operator's face as she continued through the network.

((Battle 2))

((Bump))

((Bump number 2))

Further interruptions awaited Machinae further ahead, in the form of two bouncing viruses with silly faces. They didn't seem like they'd be willing to leave her alone, as they were already smiling right at her. Some large, nearby pails of school supplies had been overturned. Silently, two Shrubbies worked their way out from the pails. One slipped around the side, while another peaked out of the top, making it look like a familiar children's television character.

MelodyA: 80 HP
MelodyB: 80 HP
ShrubbyA: 50 HP
ShrubbyB: 50 HP (inside Supply Pail B )

Machinae.BIN: 100HP

Supply Pail A: 80 HP
Supply Pail B: 80 HP

Terrain: 100% Normal

--BATTLE 2 FIGHT!--

"More of them?" Machinae asked, noting the music note viruses that had already noticed her and were giving her silly, ridiculous grins that didn't quite manage to be threatening. Score one more for strange design choices. Yet another point would have to be awarded to the shrub viruses, which had gone so far after all the care was given to make them look like shrubs to be given faces, defeating the purpose. Human designers had strange ideas of what made sense sometimes.

She felt more incoming chip data, a silent affirmation that she should clear away these as well. The other end of the line was was silent, however, as Alicia was undoubtedly too busy to make some comment or remind her to hurry up. Machinae hoped this would only last until she finally got to where she was going, and that Alicia wasn't going to be so busy with some side project that she ended up being forced to do all the work for this assignment.

That could wait until these viral distractions were dealt with, however. For the moment, she loaded the first chip, drawing the mock-up revolver from its place and aiming it at the shrubby in one of the pails. Rather than simply firing it, she shifted her grip so that the weapon was pressed into the steam vent in her palm, then fired. A burst of steam issued forth along with the cannon blast, slightly enhancing the power of the shot.

As the steam began to clear, she shifted back to a normal grip, aiming now at the second shrub virus. This one, unlike its companion who had climbed into the pail, was behind it and poking its head around the side. It would have been a smarter choice, save for the fact that it was still clearly visible. The only problem came in actually hitting it, but if the data readout for the shotgun chip was to be trusted, that wasn't likely to be a problem. She strafed around to position the pail completely between her and the Shrubby, then fired the shotgun round at the pail itself, allowing the spread from the blast to take care of the virus itself.

Which left the two bouncing musical notes. These, she chose to observe for the moment rather than rushing them and getting broken for her trouble. She examined the readout on her goggles for the third chip, a simple reflecting shield type. That would do. Removing the umbrella frame from its place, she opened it. A shield frame materialized on it, followed by the shield itself. She held it over her head, like one would a normal umbrella, hoping that the bouncing viruses would, in fact, bounce to attack.
___

*Buff: Add 10 damage to:
1. Cannon: 40 (+10)+knockback to ShrubbyB
2. Shotgun: 50 to Supply Pail A, spread to ShrubbyA
3. Guard1: Reflect one hit for up to 60, held over head

Seeing that it was unguarded, Machinae chose to easily pick off one of the Shrubby with a Cannon, which she did. The Shotgun later also smashed into the pail that held the other Shrubby, which was defenseless against the spreading pellets. The Melody were less than pleased about this development, and bounced around Machinae a bit, but did nothing against her as their movements were far too erratic.

MelodyA: 80 HP
MelodyB: 80 HP
ShrubbyA: DELETED
ShrubbyB: DELETED

Machinae.BIN: 100HP (Guard1)

Supply Pail A: 80 HP
Supply Pail B: 30 HP

Terrain: 100% Normal

With the shrubbies down, the strange musical viruses began bouncing around more violently, obviously angered by the loss of their...companions? Machinae guessed that they could be companions. She didn't know how inter-virus relations worked, or if there even was such a thing. Either way, their attack strategy of erratic bouncing and hoping to eventually land on her didn't appear to be working. At the very least, she hadn't been landed on yet, and her guardbrella that she had raised as a precaution was still intact as well.

Unfortunately, this made them rather difficult to target as well.

"Alicia-"

"Way ahead of you," her operator interrupted, already partway through loading the RageClaw chip. The data took a second longer than usual to register, suggesting that she had just carelessly slammed it into PET and immediately gone back to what she was doing. "S'all I got left at the moment. If this sort of thing's gonna become a trend, I'll have to see about getting mo-oh no."

Machinae had a moment to sigh and slump her shoulders to the best of their ability to actually do so at the reminder that her operator had, thus far, spent all her money on materials for her side projects rather than allowing the navi to better defend herself in a constantly infested network, when she heard locks clicking and the door opening on the other end.

"Yooo, Lici!"

"Scrap it all...I told you not to call me that, Jackie."

"Oh you know you love it. Listen, I'm gonna have some friends over in a bit. Hope you don't mind.

"I do, actually,"

Machinae tuned the conversation out after that point, already knowing that her operator's roommate was just going to ignore her protests. Instead, she returned her focus to the bouncing viruses, moving to intercept one of them as it landed. The plating on her right finger joints peeled away to reveal metal claws again, which she moved not to slash with, but to grab the virus and fling it toward the other one. As she did she turned into the throw, diverting the steam flow in her arm to send a blast forth out of the palm at the virus. That, hopefully, would take care of one and damage the other.

"By the way," she added, bracing herself in case one of the viruses managed to accurately target her, or at least her guardbrella, "Can't you just lock this Jackie's friends out?"

"Shh, not so loud."
___

1. Movement: Attempt to get close to MelodyA as it lands
*Buff: Add 10 Damage to:
2. RageClaw MelodyA into MelodyB: 20 (+10) to A, 20 to B
3. Steam Blast MelodyA: 50+Knockback

With the Melody still aimlessly bouncing around madly, Machinae got up to business, with her hand basically peeling away to make way for claws. These, she used to whack a bouncing virus sideways, though it did not hit its partner, which was bouncing too madly to care. The steam flow she combined with the hit burned the Melody to a nice deletion, with its partner now rather distraught about the whole thing.

MelodyA: DELETED
MelodyB: 80 HP
ShrubbyA: DELETED
ShrubbyB: DELETED

Machinae.BIN: 100HP (Guard1)

Supply Pail A: 80 HP
Supply Pail B: 30 HP

Terrain: 100% Normal