Mission: Sharo Experimental Server

--*--Rass.EXE--*--

A piercing black light slammed into the ground, the resultant particles quickly reforming into a fluid, black form. Instantly, two luminescent globes — one pink, and one blue — slammed into the black form, generating an explosion of white light.

"Wh....Whoa," muttered Rass, taking a close look at his body. Though it was improbable that the subsystems carried any physical weight when they were moving through the protoplasm, Rass couldn't help but feel somewhat lighter as he jumped up and down experimentally. So far, so good, I guess, he thought as he stretched out his arms, It doesn't feel like my body is deteriorating, anyways... but then, it might just feel lighter because half of my upgrades and functions were just ripped out of me. I wonder what I can still do...?

Hmph, once again, you're lucky to have me around, said Tem, interrupting Rass' internal monologue and appearing in a patch of blue on his chest, I just finished procuring the body data, and it seems like we're still in decent shape. Our core stability is around 70%, and we've got control over the Rassboard module as well as the elastic properties of the protoplasm. In fact, the only thing that we're unable to do that we could do before is...

"Hmm... g-guess we can't heal then?" interrupted Rass, having called up the body data on a luminous display board in front of him and traced his finger down to the relevant query.

Yes, that's correct, said Tem, sounding somewhat irate for being interrupted, It should not be a problem since we have been allocated additional processing speed to compensate, and our evasive capacities are greater than Argo's. In fact, Suien did a remarkable job allocating the appropriate battlechips to best compensate for our lack of healing., so we should be fine for the most part. Nevertheless, we still need to exercise caution given that any damage sustained won't be negated easily.

"Hmm... glad you approve of the selections, Tem," said Suien, popping up on a video display near Rass' head, Oh, there's one more thing you two might have overlooked. You might be wondering about the upgrades I purchased back at Suitachi's before we left on this mission. I realized that reliance on battlechips for damage output makes us a little bit one-dimensional in terms of busting ability, so I made a few modifications to your fusion core. Since it's wired directly into your buster module, you should be able to see a drastic increase in its effectiveness. If you find yourself backed into a corner and you're not sure how to compensate, go ahead and give it a try." The fusionist duo could hear the sound of clicking keys in the background as Suien performed a final status check. "Hmm... okay, everything checks out on my end. How do you feel, Rass?"

Rass nodded. "I'm okay S-Suien. I'm ready to b-begin the operation whenever you give the go-ahead," he said, giving a quick salute to emphasize the point.

"Good to hear it. It doesn't look like you have any issues with operating, despite the decreased performance index and reduced battle ability. I'm glad that the split hasn't affected you all that much" said Suien, giving a nod of affirmation as he glanced off to his side, "Um... excuse me, I think I need to stop Argo from ripping his arm off."

--*--Argo.EXE--*--

A piercing black light slammed into the ground, the resultant particles quickly reforming into a fluid, black form. Instantly, two luminescent globes — one green, and one red — slammed into the black form, generating an explosion of white light.


Imageshack Link

"Ishamel! What the HELL!" shouted Argo, grabbing the barrel of the buster cannon and trying to pry it off his arm, "I didn't order a buster cannon! Get your stupid thing off my punching arm! I'll call you out if I need a gun!

CEASE YOUR FRUITLESS TUGGING, CORE SYSTEM ARGO! shouted Ishamel, IT IS NOT MY PREFERENCE TO BE ATTACHED TO YOUR ARM. HOWEVER, I DO NOT POSSESS THE SAME DEGREE OF INTERNAL MOBILITY IN THIS CONFIGURATION AS I DO WITHIN THE FUSIONIST PROTOPLASM! IF REMOVAL OF SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL IS DESIRED, I SUGGEST ACCESSING YOUR BODY DATA AND INITIALIZING APPROPRIATE CONFIGURATION CHANGES!

What?! Argh, alright, let me get that stupid data so I can figure out...! growled Argo, patting his massive frame in search of some sort of data readout, Let's see... body data... body data... wait, how the f*ck do I access my body data?!

PLEASE CEASE YOUR HUMOR ROUTINES, CORE SYSTEM! THE BODY DATA CAN BE ACCESSED IN A SIMILAR MANNER TO THAT OF CORE SYSTEM RASS. shouted Ishamel, QUERY: YOU DO UNDERSTAND THE BASIC FUNCTIONALITY OF CHECKING YOUR OWN CORE DATA, CORRECT?!

S...Shut up! It's not MY job to check the body data! Tem always does that for me! protested Argo, frantically searching his body for some sort of clue. His sleek, shiny, "badass" armor yielded no results as the imposing navi grew more and more concerned. "For binary's sake Ishy, of all the places you COULD have mounted yourself, you HAD to have chosen my good hand! How the hell am I supposed to kill things with a giant gun on my arm anyways?!"

...QUERY: DO YOU LISTEN TO YOURSELF TALK? retorted an incredulous Ishamel, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL PERFORMED CALCULATIONS AND DEDUCED THAT THE RIGHT ARM IS THE MOST LIKELY DOMINANT ARM OF MOST NETNAVIS. THEREFORE, I HAVE MAXIMIZED EFFICIENCY BY ATTACHING MYSELF TO YOUR LEFT ARM!

Oh, great job, idiot, but you forgot that I'm left-handed! shouted Argo, having given up on finding his body data and resuming his original strategy of tugging on the massive buster, I swear, I'm going to tear this stupid thing off and just...

"No, Argo, you're not going to do that." interrupted Suien, appearing on a pop-up screen in front of the large, green pugilist, "I've taken a point scan of your body data, and I'm afraid that Ishamel's going to be stuck there until we get you guys reassembled... *if* we get you guys reassembled. If that's not enough to dissuade you from ripping your arm off, your vitals display a core stability of about 30%. I don't think your body would survive a shock like that."

Argo looked up at Suien in disbelief. 30%? You only allocated us 30% of the system resources? Why the hell would you do that? he protested, Rass and Tem are BOTH better at dodging than me! Why don't they have 30% are you TRYING to get us deleted?

Suien adjusted his glasses and shook his head. "The reason why your initial allocation is so low is because I transferred the Fusion Restorer function to you and Ishamel... so unlike Rass and Tem, you'll be able to recover the damage to your systems. Make sure you use it as soon as you encounter a threat, or else you'll be vulnerable to attack," he said, Honestly, you should check your body data files. If you would, you'd probably be more aware of what's going on. It's all in there, after all. The dark-haired netOp glanced away as he keyed in a few commands, speaking as he typed. "Oh, and be careful out there. If you get in trouble, make sure you work together with Ishamel. You two are like brothers, after all, so complimenting your own style with his will likely be a successful strategy, he chided.

AGREED, CORE SYSTEM ARGO! said Ishamel, the blaster cannon humming to life as he spoke, MOREOVER, ACHIEVING THE OPTIMAL RATE OF SYNCHRONIZATION WILL BE BEST SERVED BY WORKING TOGETHER TOWARD THIS COMMON GOAL. IT WILL BE MOST EFFICIENT TO BEHAVE AS QUOTE POP CULTURE REFERENCE: BROS ENDQUOTE FOR THE DURATION OF THIS MISSION!

Argo growled as turned away from the video popup, dusting the barrel of his new Ishamel-buster contemptuously as he trudged off into the network. "Bros shmose — laserbrains didn't even remember which was my good hand" he scowled, "I suppose I should be thankful he didn't try to "help" me by taking over both hands... guess this way I can get some practice in with my right, at least." With an experimental tightening of his green, gauntleted fingers, Argo nodded and grinned mirthlessly. "Alright, 'bro,' let's get this show on the road," he said, glancing around for any signs of malady within the experimental server, "Just remember the first rule of being a 'bro' — don't hold me back, or you'll regret it!"

Quote ()

< NetNavigator: Rass.EXE>

Output Quantity: 2 (A, B)

Current Combat Index: 18

Personality Allocation:
OutputA: [Rass.EXE, Tem.EXE]
OutputB: [Argo.EXE (PRIMARY), Ishamel.EXE]

HP Integrity:
OutputA: [70]
OutputB: [30]
; (Current HP to give to each split. Max HP is retained at 100 for both.)

Energy Acceleration Subroutines:
OutputA: [two upgrades (5 Actions)]
OutputB: [one upgrade (4 Actions)]
; (How many Speed Upgrades for each split)

Integrated Attack Systems:
OutputA: [Fusionist Physics, RassBoard]
OutputB: [Fusion Restorer]
; (Which Sig Attacks to each split)

Battlechip Input Processes:
OutputA: [RockCube, Airshot, Widesword, Shotgun, ElecReel1, Sensor1, Discord, Wind, Guard1, DblBeam2, MachineSword, MiniBomb, HiCannon, SeaZone, Thunder]
OutputB: [Boomerang1, Vulcan2, MarkCannon1, Sword, Areagrab, Guard2, Wind, AuraHead1, ElecSword, CornShot1, Cactiball2, Bubbler, SideBamboo, FireHit1x2]
; (Which Chips to allocate to each split)

Combat Data Allocation:
OutputA: [SeraphimCross]
OutputB: [MeleeCross]
; (Which Crosses to give to each split)

[[color=green]Confirm Process[/color]] [Abort Process] [Exit Program]

((Rass.EXE ready, Battle 1))
((Argo.EXE ready, Battle 1))

--*--Rass.EXE--*--

With the fusionist protoplasm jacked into the network, Rass found himself in a strange area. The air seemed congested with strange data particles that floated around aimlessly, though when he looked at one that was about to hit him in the face, it phased through his head harmlessly. The ground was a curious mix of colors, some grey, some red, some blue, some green...

Suddenly, as he was checking his surroundings, the colored panels lit up and beams of light came from them. When the light subsided, there could be seen some viruses on the panels, ready and raring for a fight as they eyed Rass' form with hostility.

ColdBearA: 200HP [on Green]
ColdBearB: 200HP [on Green]
Swordy-A1: 80HP [on Red]
Swordy-A2: 80HP [on Red]
PengiA: 80HP [on Blue]
PengiB: 80HP [on Blue]

Terrain: 40% Normal (Around), 20% Green, 20% Red, 20% Blue (Middle)
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Rass.EXE: 70HP [on Normal]

-BATTLE ONE, FIGHT!!-

--*--Argo.EXE--*--

As the melee subsystem turned independent familiarized himself with Ishamel's buster cannon, looking around the area, he found himself in a strange place. Some figures could be seen floating in the distance, among them viruses, like DarkMechs and Haunted Candles, but as he looked at them more closely, they disintegrated and left nothing to his visuals.

Inspecting the terrain revealed some... interesting paneling, with a red, green and blue color mixed into the usual grey panels he'd seen everywhere on the Internet. Then, the colored panels sprang to life as they emitted a beam of light that blinded Argo for a second. When the light faded and he could see again, he saw some viruses eyeing him warily, ready for some virus busting!

BombBoyA: 80HP [on Red]
BombBoyB: 80HP [on Red]
CloudyA: 80HP [on Blue]
CloudyB: 80HP [on Blue]
SnowBlowA: 100HP [on Green]
SnowBlowB: 100HP [on Green]

Terrain: 40% Normal (Around), 20% Red, 20% Blue, 20% Green (Middle)
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Argo.EXE: 30HP [on Normal]

-BATTLE ONE, FIGHT!!-

--*--Rass.EXE--*--



"Huh..." said Rass, squinting his eyes, "That d-does seem a little weird. Wh-what do you think those are?"

Well it's doubtful they have any elemental bearing — we'd be able to scan them if it were some graphical error concealing lava, grass, and sea panels. If I had to make a wager, I would say that those colored panels are a reflection of our own core data, given that we are in the middle of what is essentially a massive backup module. said Tem, swirling into being on Rass' chest and scrutinizing the battlefield, It is not simply a reflection of our battle data either, since there is no way on earth that Ishamel's data would crank out those sword-wielding opponents... Perhaps if we utilize an attack aligned with one of our own core systems and direct it to a like-colored panel, we'll be able to shatter their defenses.

"W...Wait, what happens if the p-panels mean they're immune to that designation?" asked Rass, crouching into a defensive pose and observing the panels closely, "I mean... they could be on those panels to p-protect them against certain t-types of attacks, right? I mean... MeleeMan doesn't like g-guns, which means melee things don't like ranged combat... s-so wouldn't it make more sense that those s-sword guys are immune to Ishamel... I mean... g-guns?"

To Rass' surprise, Tem seemed to nod in affirmation, without berating him for his impudence, or even acknowledging that she had made a miscalculation. Hmm... you're right, that certainly is a possibility, she said, spiraling around Rass' body, funneling herself into his right hand, and pointing at the nearest colored panel, Moreover, the advantage may not be unique to those viruses as well. It's also possible that we could increase the damage output of corresponding chips by standing on those panels... that type of property is not entirely unheard of when it comes to panels. I suppose that means that our priority for this round of combat has shifted from elimination to reconnaissance.

I was just about to suggest the same thing, said Suien, as bursts of battlechip data downloaded into Rass' circuitry and began to unpack their volatile energies, We don't know exactly what we're up against, so we're going to play this one safe. Stand back, attack from a distance, and analyze the situation until we have a better grasp on what this battlefield can do for... or to us.

Rass nodded, entering a crouched stance and preparing to begin his designated battle routine. "Understood, Suien. B-Battlechip download confirmed. I'll d-do my best," he said, "I know that y-you're probably busy, but t-try to pay attention to h-help us analyze the data."

Suien looked slightly taken aback. "I suppose I deserve that," he said, chuckling slightly as he brushed his dark hair to the side, "As it stands, this is probably one of the first times I've been able to spend my full attention on you guys... it's a pity that even now I have to split my attention between you though."

Oh, that reminds me. Open a channel to Argo and transmit our initial scanner data and observations. said Tem, flowing into Rass' helmet and looking upward to the digitized sky, I doubt that lunkhead has any idea as to what to do in a situation like this.

--*--Argo.EXE--*--

"Geez, what the hell is going on here?!" shouted Argo, taking a nervous step backwards as a viral cornucopia materialized in front of him, "Ishy, can you get a reading on what those weird panels are?"

NO INFORMATION EXISTS IN OUR DATABASES FOR THE PANELS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. HOWEVER, INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM SUPPORT SYSTEM TEM REVEALS THREE POSSIBILITIES BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE PANELS ARE AN OUTWARD MANIFESTATION OF OUR ASSIMILATED CORE DATA. FIRST, OPPONENTS ON THE PANELS ARE IMMUNE TO ATTACKS OF THE CORRESPONDING SUPPORT SYSTEM. SECOND, OPPONENTS ON THE PANELS ARE WEAK AGAINST ATTACKS OF THE CORRESPOINDING SUPPORT SYSTEM. THIRD, ATTACKS OF THE DESIGNATED SUPPORT SYSTEM ARE EMPOWERED ON THAT PANEL. said Ishamel, forcing Argo's buster arm upwards as he pointed toward the viruses.

"Well, which one of the three is it?! That seems like a pretty important distinction, doesn't it?" asked an panicked-sounding Argo, "Argh, why does the terrain have to be so friggen difficult? It's so much easier when it's just the 3L3M stuff... none of this weird colored-lightshow slag. What the hell am I supposed to do when I don't even know what the ground's going to do to mess me up?!"

CORE SYSTEM ARGO, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL WOULD LIKE TO ISSUE A REQUEST TO CEASE QUOTE POP CULTURE REFERENCE BEING A WHINY LITTLE B*TCH, ENDQUOTE, said Ishamel, rotating the buster cannon to face the nearest opponent, IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO PERFORM THE CORE FUNCTIONS, SUPPORT UNIT ISHAMEL IS CAPABLE OF INITIALIZING BRO ROUTINES AND QUOTE POP CULTURE WATCH YOUR BACK ENDQUOTE. FIRST, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT WE REBUILD CORE STABILITY LOST IN THE INITIAL SEPARATION PROCESS.

"Oh right, the fusion restorer thing. I forgot all about that. Thanks, Ishy — I owe you one, said Argo, breathing a small sigh of relief as he initialized the fusion restorer. Black coils of lightning played across his burly form, reinforcing his data and coating it with hard, shell-like casing. The giant green navi smirked as he brushed himself off before realizing, somewhat slow on the uptake, something that Ishamel had just said "Wait...HEY! Did you just call me a whiny little b*tch, you smarmy, gearhead tool?! You must think you're SO damn special with your idiot guns and their idiotic... idiocy!" he yelled, inadvertently emphasizing once more his lack of vocabulary, "I ought to tear you off and leave you to..."

"Argo! Control yourself!" shouted Suien, once again interrupting just in time to stop Argo from ripping Ishamel from his arm in a fit of irritation, "And Ishamel, do try to avoid pressing him too much. I can't always be here to stop you two from fighting. Anyways, your battlechips are ready, but I should encourage you to devise a strategy. Rass and Tem are already working out a way to determine exactly what the significance of those panels is, but any additional intel you can gather this round would be greatly appreciated." The dark-haired netOp sighed and adjusted his glasses on the pop-up screen before continuing. "One more thing... work together to figure these things out, okay? Remember? Brothers? Start acting like it or you'll end up getting deleted."

Argo growled as he clenched his now-armored fist. "I've got it, I've got it," he muttered, activating his body's 3L3M system and channeling a burst of electrical energy through his cybernetic veins. With a grunt of exertion and a flash of golden light, a familiar high-voltage blade appeared upon his right arm. The softly-pulsating weapon glowed in the dank network, casting eerie shadows across the ground and bathing Argo's form in a yellow aurora. "Alright, so we need to figure out what those colored panel dohickeys do, right?" he asked, "Fine by me. I'll have this thing figured out in no time at all!"

AFFIRMATIVE, CORE SYSTEM! replied Ishamel, instinctively initializing the buster routines and preparing to fire, QUERY: WHAT IS THE PROPOSED TARGET AND METHOD OF ATTACK? WHAT PURPOSE CAN SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL DIRECT SYSTEM RESOURCES TOWARD?

"Just stay outta my way, Ishy! I've got no gun chips downloaded, so I've got no need for your calculatin!" scowled Argo, "In the meantime, I'm gonna show these bit-brained viruses what the pinnacle of Sharo melee engineering is capable of! Get ready to FRY, idiots, because here comes Argo! AREAGR...


--*--Real World--*--

"Geez, this is like playing two video games at once or something... it's really disorienting," said Suien, flashing a weak smile toward Karen Ezarith as his fingers flew between the two PET's, entering commands, running diagnostics, and slotting in battlechips at a rather intimidating rate. As the last one downloaded data through the PETs, the dark-haired operator breathed a sigh of relief, adjusting his glasses with one of his fingers before glancing toward the female researcher. Clearing his sore throat, he spoke.

"So I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries when I say you must be some kind of wunderkind running a research laboratory of this magnitude. Most researchers on projects like this are well into their 40's," he said, setting up both PETs to monitor the unfolding battle routine, "I've got to ask... how'd you manage to get a job here with Sharo R&D? I'm sure your credentials must be impeccable." He shot her another smile as he finished synchronizing the battle data between the two PET's and crossed his arms, breaking his gaze to look around the facility once more.

--*--Rass.EXE--*--

*POP!* *POW!*

Like a humanoid slingshot, Rass' body discharged two blasts of compressed air toward the ursine viruses, aimed to knock the furthest one off toward a different panel. The twin pulses spiraled down the network, sending a rough wind spiraling out across the battlefield. Rass' scarf billowed out behind him, but the fusion navi was unperturbed, bringing both of his hands together in front of him and charging up for his next attack. "R-Right," he said, squaring his feet and allowing the 3L3M processor to do its work, "S-Since we c-can't afford to waste system resources, we're g-going to be using this attack to t-test things, right Tem?"

Right, replied the tactical subsystem, hard at work at diverting the energy flow within his body, Because I can't help but think you've forgotten, here's the recap. We fire off the ElecReel battlechip in hopes of saturating the entire area with lightning. Since it isn't a gun chip, and it isn't a melee-range attack, it should be governed by my tactical data. If the Swordies survive, then we know that tactical chips won't work on the red panels. If the Pengies survive, then we know that the blue panels are immune to tactical attacks. If everything dies, then we don't have to worry, got it?

Rass nodded his head and grunted in affirmation as his hands began to glow with a golden light. Sparks and stray coils burst from his tightened fingertips as Tem continued to divert more and more energy into the palmbuster units. The fusionist protoplasm quivered as the electrical onslaught threatened to discharge prematurely, but the fusion navi managed to hold on as he lined up his attack. An instant later, there was a resounding crack as lightning surged across the battlefield, snaking across the landscape and aimed to saturate the entire colored area with a high voltage assault.

Without pausing to gather data on the result of his maneuver and confirm any hits, Rass leaped backward, thrust his arm forward, and projected a lime-green wireframe of a SensorEye into the air. A deluge of protoplasmic matter surged toward it, filling in the wireframe and tightening into a metal-like consistency. A few moments later, the crimson eye of the Sensor1 object hummed to life, sweeping the battlefield for survivors and prepared to discharge a deadly stunning beam at the next sign of movement.

"S-So what's next?" asked Rass, fiddling with his scarf as he eyed the massive Sensor1 module through the corner of his eye, "Sh-Should we attack?"

No, only an idiot would move into melee range at this juncture. We simply don't know enough about the conditions here to take that sort of risk, replied Tem. A large, domed shield materialized on Rass' arm, and the fusion navi fumbled with it for a moment before attaching it to his left arm and positioning it to face the opposing forces, Our job here is finished for the time being — now we wait and see what comes of this... and ensure that we stay alive to see the next round of combat.

*Fusionist Physics x2 — Knock ColdBearA onto Blue
1: ElecReel1 — 80 Damage, 160 Elec Weakness, To-All-Ground
2: Masterwork Sensor1 — Summons 100+38 HP Object, deals 100 Elec Damage, aimed toward viruses if triggered
3: Guard1 - Nullifies Damage, Reflects 60
4: Prepped Dodge
5: Prepped Dodge


--*--Argo.EXE--*--


..AB! roared Argo, appearing in a burst of data near the two SnowBlow viruses near the border of the green and blue panels. Stomping on the ground and planting his feet to gain additional stability, the melee navi brought the ElecSword around in a brilliant arc, tracing a luminous afterimage across his ocular sensors. The golden blade sang as it circled around, occasionally discharging coils of blue lightning on the network. The green navi ended his circular cut in a slightly hunched position, controlling his rate of movement and attempting to skid to a halt in the middle of the green network area. As Argo slowly stabilized his stance and brought the ElecSword in front of his face in a rather challenging gesture, Ishamel took control of his buster arm and promptly thwacked him in the knee. The giant pugulist cursed and stumbled as his "support" system began to berate him.

INCOMPETENT CORE SYSTEM! shouted the crimson sniper, THE CALCULATIONS YOU INPUTTED INTO THE AREAGRAB MODULE WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE SPLICING OF OUR BODY WITH VIRAL OPPONENTS! SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL'S CORRECTIONS WERE NECESSARY TO PREVENT UNNECESSARY DAMAGE TO CORE SYSTEM'S BODY DATA!

"Son of a binome, Ishamel, cool the hell down!" replied Argo, attempting to regain his balance and continue his battle. With the last bit of system resources, he materialized a large, metallic shield in front of him in a burst of data, flipped it upwards with a well-placed kick, and caught it on Ishamel's buster arm. "So I made a mistake. Everyone freaking makes mistakes sometimes — isn't that why you're here to watch my back, 'bro'?" he asked, somewhat facetiously, "Now, 'Bro,' I've got another job for you. Hold onto this thing and try not to get us hit! Time to see if my calculatin' paid off."

CALCULATING? SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL CANNOT COMPREHEND THE CONCEPT OF CORE SYSTEM ARGO 'CALCULATING' ANYTHING! shouted a mortified Ishamel.

"Pah, no wonder Tem always says you're only good for numbers. Did you see what I just did did there? If the panels make the things standin' on them vulnerable, then the fan things get hit. If the panels make things standin' on them invulnerable, then the cloud thing gets hit. If the panels power up moves, then they ALL get hit, said a rather smug Argo, "Primo calculatin' right there. No matter what those stupid panels do, we'll figure it out!"

AMENDING PREVIOUS STATEMENT. replied Ishamel, CORE SYSTEM ARGO MAY HAVE PERFORMED A CALCULATED ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION, BUT FAILED TO ENTER AS A VARIABLE THE SAFETY OF THE MANEUVER! OBSERVATION: YOU TELEPORTED US TO THE MIDDLE OF THE VIRAL GROUP, YOU IMBICILE!

1: Masterwork Fusion Restorer (Heal 45, 20+38HP Casing)
2: Areagrab dodge/counter between SnowBlowA and SnowBlowB
3: ElecSword [right arm] (80, Elec, Wide) SnowblowA, SnowblowB, CloudyA
4: Guard2 [left arm] (Nullify Attack, Reflect 120)

--*--Real World--*--

Pff, credentials, Suien? What credentials? I haven't even been through elementary school yet. You're looking at Karen Ezarith, fifth grade dropout, Karen said, brushing her hair away and hiding her blushing face. She then proceeded to look up dreamily, talking to herself. Man, but school was the pits. Everything, absolutely everything they taught there was for babies! Babies, that couldn't understand a drop of advanced math if their LIFE depended on it! Glad I dropped out. And as for this particular R&D job, my father worked here for a while, but he doesn't any more. When he resigned, I was working on a little something by myself here, and, well, suffice to say things turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself, she finished, walking up to Suien. Then, without warning, she ruffled up his hair in a strange maternal-like gesture. Afterwards, she leaned on the wall adjacent to the console screen near the operator.

So! I think that covers enough about me for now. What about you, then? she asked with a warm smile.

--*--Rass.EXE--*--

Rass and Tem first analyzed the strange panels and then quickly attempted to knock a ColdBear towards Blue flooring, but then, just as the bear was about to cross the color threshold, it abruptly stopped, as if resisted by some invisible force. Then, Rass activated the ElecReel chip, which zapped nearly everything on the ground, missing only a bear and a penguin. The Swordies looked like they were completely obliterated, until....

The red floor on which they stood suddenly flashed like a large warning sign, almost as if it were angry, and then the Swordies which were hit earlier by the attack were suddenly revived!! This was not good! Then, the Sensor was deployed onto the battlefield, sending its seeking eye towards the middle of the group, its laser sight locking on to one of the bears and promptly shocking it to deletion. Then, the other bear tried to knock a block of ice towards the fusion Navi, but missed. The Pengi, meanwhile, fired a wave of ice, which hit the Guard Rass held up, hitting itself in the process.

ColdBearA: Deleted
ColdBearB: 40HP [on Green]
Swordy-A1: 80HP [on Red] -Revived!-
Swordy-A2: 80HP [on Red] -Revived!-
PengiA: Deleted
PengiB: 50HP [on Blue]

Terrain: 40% Normal (Around), 20% Green, 20% Red, 20% Blue (Middle)
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Rass.EXE: 70HP [on Normal]

IceCube: 50HP

--*--Argo.EXE--*--

Meanwhile, Argo performed a rare feat of strategizing when he teleported to the middle of the SnowBlow group and unleashed an ElecSword attack on them, along with a nice hit towards a nearby Cloudy as well! Then, he lifted a Guard to protect himself just in time as the SnowBlows turned a tornado attack on him, with one hit on the Guard reflecting towards one and deleting it, with the other managing one hit on Argo's casing. Meanwhile, the BombBoys materialized bombs that looked like boxes in front of them, and started pushing them forward. The Cloudy was angered at the loss of its comrade and began to send a cloud towards Argo, its dangerously damaging rain hitting his casing as well, destroying it.

BombBoyA: 80HP [on Red]
BombBoyB: 80HP [on Red]
BoyBombA: 100HP {2 Turns}
BoyBombB: 100HP {2 Turns}
CloudyA: Deleted
CloudyB: 80HP [on Blue]{Rain: 1 Turn Left}
SnowBlowA: Deleted
SnowBlowB: 20HP [on Green]

Terrain: 40% Normal (Around), 20% Red, 20% Blue, 20% Green (Middle)
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Argo.EXE: 75HP [on Normal] (Casing Destroyed)

--**--Real World--**--

Suien Matsumoto was conflicted.

He wasn't a fool. Karen Ezarith was a Sharo researcher at a government laboratory. She likely received a government paycheck with government benefits. It didn't take a rocket scientist to infer where Miss Ezarith's loyalties lay.

On the other hand, Karen Ezarith was... pretty darn hot.

Not only that, but Karen Ezarith didn't threaten him, didn't seem to be carrying a gun, and wasn't surrounded by military types that would break your legs if your brain was valuable enough to be a state asset. In short, Karen Ezarith was not acting like a Sharo researcher at a government laboratory. Karen Ezarith was acting like a blushing schoolgirl. The dark-haired netOp instinctively bristled as Karen reached up toward his face, only to playfully ruffle his hair, lean against the wall next to him, and smile warmly.

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" So! I think that covers enough about me for now. What about you, then?" she asked.

"Me?" asked Suien, slightly taken aback — it had been a while since anyone asked him about his background. He looked up at the server for a moment before responding, careful not to reveal anything more than was necessary. "Not much to say, I guess?" he said, "My parents are Electopian, but I grew up here in Sharo. I graduated from Sharo Polytechnic Institute a few years back, computer science degree, been doing odd jobs ever since." He smirked as he glanced down at his PET screens momentarily before turning to face the raven-haired researcher. "Can't say I can compare to a talented young lady like yourself though. Advanced math at age ten? Sharo R&D a few years later? I'm impressed."

Suddenly, two additional blips on the monitor caught Suien's attention. Whirling around once more to face the mainframe, his fingers flew across the PET keyboard as several streams of data flew across the top screen. The bespectacled netOp stole a quick glance at Karen before refocusing his efforts on the rapidly unfolding battle...

--**--Argo.EXE--**--

"Ya-HAH! That's how it's done!" whooped Argo, thrusting his Ishamel-buster arm into the air as two of his viral adversaries disintegrated into the network, "I'm tellin' ya, Ishy — you really can't beat a good old fashioned slash-you-in-the-face attack when your back is to the wall!"

IF CORE SYSTEM HAS FULLY EXECUTED AND RESOLVED HIS INEFFICIENT SELF-CONGRATULATORY ROUTINES, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL REQUESTS THAT CORE SYSTEM EXPEND SYSTEM RESOURCES NECESSARY TO REEVALUATE THE PRESENT CONFIGURATION OF TARGETS AND DERIVE APPROPRIATE BATTLE ROUTINES. POINT SCANS OF REMAINING TARGETS REVEAL A STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY VALUE OF APPROXIMATELY 2.6 TIMES OUR MAXIMUM DEFAULT CONFIGURATION. SUPPORT SYSTEM ARGO RECOMMENDS SUPPLEMENTARY ANALYSIS AND UTILIZATION OF RANGED BATTLECHIPS FROM A REMOTE LOCATION THAT MINIMIZES RISK OF COUNTERATTACK.

"Shoot them with guns? Huh, I wonder why I didn't think of that?" quipped a sardonic Argo, "Oh, *right,* I forgot — it's because I'm not really into completely sucktastic plans, Ishy! Tell you what, 'bro,' I've got a better plan. I call it keep letting Argo win the battle, and stay out of his way. *My* part of the plan involves being a badass. *Your* part of the plan is... not part of the plan. Just butt out and be a good little gun while I take care of anything."

Ishamel didn't respond. Just as well, he thought Man, I can't even remember why I hated the idea of being the system administrator. This is awesome! Aside from this stupid gun-arm thing, fighting this way is easy! I get to slash and punch and ele...ment...ify all I want, and nobody can boss me around! No Rasshole, No Ishamel, No...

[Argo! Argo! Can you hear me?!]

Argo sighed and braced himself, prepared to avoid any viral counterattacks that came his way. "Yeah Tem? How're you and Rasshole doing over there, cause I'm kicking names and taking ass."

[...I think you might have that backwards.] was Tem's curt response, [At least I hope you do. Anyways, I'll cut straight to the chase. Have you encountered any strange panel configurations on your side?]

Argo scoffed. "Yeah, there are these weird colored panels on the ground, but they're mostly just for decoration, I think. I've been just taking care of business here, doing the slashy-slashy delete thing."

[I guess you guys just got lucky then — apparently they're capable of regenerating viruses within their boundaries. Rass and I just saw two Swordy-A viruses get revived by the network. If we're going to figure out what is going on here, I'm going to need as much information to analyze an optimal course of action.]

"What? Revived? That doesn't make sense!" shouted Argo, instantly perking up at the unattractive prospect of trying to kill something that wouldn't stay dead, "Networks don't revive things, right? They just sort of sit there and occasionally change elements and stuff. Reviving... that's just... just..."

[Now Argo, listen carefully - because I know that higher-level thought is not really your forte - you tell me EXACTLY what you observed there. I need to know EVERYTHING that you saw. Omit nothing. Complete data is going to be essential to analyzing our situation, and naturally, I wasn't there to see you doing your... your "slashy-slashy delete thing," was it?]

"I... I don't friggin know, Tem! See?! This is why I wanted to be teamed up with you!" shouted an agitated Argo, panic rapidly building on his face as he frantically glanced from side to side, "I uh... I beamed in, saw how Ishy handicapped me, saw a bunch of viruses, did some tactical stuff, equipped our ElecSword, swung it around, deleted a bunch of em... does that tell you what you need to know?"

[Stop processing in 8 bits and start listening for once! I'm not just talking about what YOU did! I need data on those panels!] yelled Tem, [Describe the [b]panels[/b]! What colors do you see? How are the panels distributed across the network? Can you confirm the location of each of the viruses on your end? Can you describe the panels at least? What color are they?]

"I... um... well... I see Red, Blue, and Green" struggled Argo, nervously glancing at the viruses while pointing toward the colorful network underfoot, "and the viruses... well, they're all over there, yeah?"

[Do you know whether there is any pattern to the distribution of viral signatures?]

"I... I mean, I see them... bunched up here and here and here, and..."

[How are they bunched up?]

"W...well, they're like..."

[Can you confirm the remaining structural integrity values relative to each other?]

"Oh! Ishy said... um... Ngh...Tem, I don't..."

[Well? Come on! I need more data to...]

"NNNNNNNNAAAAUUGH!" shouted Argo, "I don't know, okay?!" The massive green brawler gesticulated wildly as he continued to yell over the communications uplink, the ElecSword gleaming brightly and casting shadows across the cluttered Sharo network. Suddenly, he noticed the cubial bombs advancing slowly toward his position.

Argo snapped.

"Look, Tem, there are viruses THERE, and there are bombs THERE, okay?" he indicated, punctuating each identification with a decisive swing of his crackling sword in apparent obliviousness to the obvious limitations of audio-only communication. Finishing his tirade, Argo slammed his foot down on the network, rebalancing himself as he turned to face the red portion of the network. "Now unless I do something about the viruses THERE, there's going to be a lot less of me over HERE," he growled, lowering his stance in preparation to charge, "So I'm going to go over THERE, and make sure that doesn't happen!"

[You... you IDIOT! Shut up and....]

"Override communications uplink with unit T3M!" shouted Argo, cutting off Tem mid-sentence.

--**--Rass.EXE--**--

You... you IDIOT! Shut up and think for a change! Do you even COMPREHEND what.... the tactical support system trailed off as realization slowly dawned upon her ...did he cut me off? Did that meatheaded, addle-brained, MORON actually dare to cut me off?! I probably should have anticipated that without ME holding his STUPID hand, he'd go and recklessly just muck everything up! It's just garbage in and garbage out with that son of a bino...

"W-Wait, Tem, what did you just say?"

Tem froze, surprised that Rass had the audacity to cut her off mid-rant. Regaining her composure and shifting her azure presence from Rass' midsection to his shoulder, she spoke. As I was saying, she said, somewhat more calmly, Argo, the meatheaded, addlebrained moron is apparently incapable of providing any meaningful input such that any output generated by my analysis is ultimately rendered...

"There! M...Maybe that's it, right?" interrupted Rass, pointing to the newly revived Swordy viruses, "This network is s-supposed to be some sort of b-backup server, right? That's what that s-scientist lady said, anyways. What if those p-panels serve as some sort of... c-copying machine that is connected to Argo's side?" Rass shut his mouth instinctively, fully expecting Tem to berate him for his rudimentary suggestion.

Tem, for her part, seemed to be taken aback by Rass' surprisingly well-reasoned explanation. Well, that's... certainly a possibility, she blurted out, So you're postulating that by destroying all of the viral signatures on the red panels on our end, the red panels, being somehow connected to the viral signatures on Argo's end, identified the presence of viral signatures there and facilitated the regeneration of the backup data of the Swordy viruses here? As Tem spoke, she manipulated Rass' protoplasmic body, causing it to nimbly and swiftly fire off a pair of kinetic bursts toward the IceCube, aiming to knock it toward the Swordy-A viruses and halt their advance. Rass barely noticed the movement, trying to follow Tem's complicated analysis as best he could. I suppose if there is some sort of overarching input/output mechanism connecting both extremes of the network, then some coordination would be required as to ensuring an overall equilibrium of viral signatures, right?"

"Uhh... Yes?" said Rass, obviously not fully understanding Tem's interpretation of his own suggestion, "S-so basically, Argo and I h-have to kill the s-same viruses on a certain panel at the s-same time."

If Tem were at all annoyed at Rass' oversimplification of her analysis, she hid it remarkably well. Understood. Rass, get in touch with Suien. We will attempt to test your hypothesis, assuming that Argo hasn't gone and ruined everything.

--**--Real World--**--

Suien wasn't sure what concerned him more: the revived Swordy-A viruses on the top screen of the PET, or Argo's apparent inability to operate his own body on the bottom screen.

Fortunately, at least one solution to the problem seemed to be forthcoming. "Suien? I think Rass may have figured out the mechanics of those colored panels. A simultaneous attack on like-colored tiles may be able to solve the regeneration issue." said Tem, manifesting a chat window on the top screen, "Hold off on sending us any battlechips this round though. I imagine we will need to carefully manage our available resources in the event Rass' analysis proves to be flawed. If you managed to augment the output of our buster modules, I imagine that our power will be sufficient."

Suien nodded, continuing to monitor the battlefield as best he could. "That sounds reasonable, Tem. Good to see that you and Rass seem to be getting along well. I'm glad to see the two of you showing some good teamwork." The bespectacled netOp smirked as his fingers flew across the PET keyboard. "Guess if the re-fusion doesn't go so well, at least the two of you will be able to keep on functioning, right?"

Tem didn't respond. Noticing the awkward pause, Suien cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. "I uh... I should check on Argo," he said, turning his attention to the bottom screen.

--**--Argo.EXE--**--

Despite the fact that a mere four viruses were presented before him, Argo quickly came to the realization that he was way over his head. Apparently, his usual approach of beating down his problems until they weren't problems anymore wasn't going to work. His so-called partner had decided to stop talking to him, his ElecSword was starting to show signs of depletion...

...and worst of all, he couldn't figure out how to undo his communications override.

"Uh... re-enable communications uplink! Engage umm... engage the audio... module! Activate the... phonetic... phone! Turn on the... talky... box..." he ordered, taking a nervous step back, "Uhh... Ishy? Any... Any ideas on how we handle this?"

The buster cannon affixed to Argo's left arm said nothing in response. The green netnavi shook the buster roughly in annoyance. "Ishy, come ON, you stupid gearbrain, help me out here! I need to talk with Tem!" he shouted, momentarily considering slashing his arm off with the ElecSword in an effort to get the targeting subsystem to stop giving him the silent treatment. The buster, for all intents and purposes, remained a buster — something that the green navi had little use for.

"Argo?"

"Gah! Suien! Man, am I glad that you're here!" huffed a very relieved Argo as he glanced upward toward the comm monitor, "Look, I sort of... uh... broke the comm-link with Tem. Do you think you could do something about that? I guess the... the panels revive things?"

Suien's brow furrowed with concern as he stared at the Green netNavi. "Well, if you're no longer able to communicate with Tem, my best guess is that you overrode your chat module with Rass." he said, "Either you or Ishamel is going to have to access your body data and re-enable the chat function. Have Ishamel get that up and running while you get yourself into position - Rass suggested that..."

"But Ishy's not talking to me!" whined Argo, "He's getting all passive-aggressive because my badassery is too much for him!"

NEGATIVE, OPERATOR UNIT SUIEN! was Ishamel's monotone reply, the lights on Argo's buster-arm blinking as he spoke. Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed to Suien that Ishamel was making a conscious effort to sound more robotic than usual, CORE SYSTEM ARGO HAS PROVIDED SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS TO QUOTE ACT LIKE A GOOD LITTLE GUN ENDQUOTE.

"Oh, suck it up, you whiny little punk" retorted Argo, shaking his gun arm roughly, "I was doing just fine up until..."

"Both of you, stop it! I can't believe I have to tell you this, but you have to work TOGETHER if you want to accomplish anything here," scolded Suien, shaking his head in annoyance, "Ishamel, don't sulk - if Argo gets deleted, you're as good as gone too, so you're going to have to work with him even if he's going to be a douche."

Argo's buster rifle made a short buzzing sound in response that, despite being incomprehensible, somehow managed to communicate begrudging resignation.

"On that note, Argo, don't be a douche - you're apparently the only one of the four systems who doesn't know how to operate his body data. I don't have time for a crash course, so you'll have to rely on Ishamel whether you like it or not. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Argo grumbled something inaudible, but nodded his head in apparent affirmation.
"Good, because I mean it this time - you guys are going to have to cooperate if you're going to survive. Since communications are down, I guess I'll have to be the relay for both you and Rass, so let me just open up a manual communications relay between you too. An electronic whine could be heard as Suien fiddled with a few dials on his PET.

"Can you both hear me? Listen carefully. Your target is the remaining virus in the blue zone, and unless I'm mistaken, you'll have to delete it as close to simultaneously as possible. I'll count you off: One... two... three!"

At Suien's command, Argo burst off from his crouch, dashing laterally along the battlefield toward the blue-paneled zone. The mighty green netnavi bobbed and weaved, aiming to avoid the deadly rain of his cloudlike adversary as he closed the distance between them. His boots slammed heavily on the Sharo network as he skidded, stabilized, and drew the ElecSword downward in a brilliant arc. The tip of the blade scored the network, sending a cluster of sparks splashing in its wake.

Breathing heavily from the effort, Argo quickly drew back, balancing his stance as to avoid any possible counterattacks. His digital muscles tensed as he warily regarded the remaining viruses in front of him. Shooting very nervous glances between the advancing BombBoy viruses and the nearly-expended ElecSword grasped tightly in his gauntleted grip, he pleaded once more with Ishamel to provide assistance.

"Hey, uh... Ishy? Suien said to cooperate and all that slag. You know, so we don't get deleted and all. I figure that since you're a... another support system, so do you think you could... help me out or uh... somethin' or another? he asked, amazingly avoiding any semblance of apology through his rambling.

--**—Rass.EXE—**--

One... two... three!"

Simultaneously, Rass crouched down, balling his hands into a pair of tight fists and channeling resources from his fusion core to his buster modules. To his surprise, the fusion navi felt an unfamiliar rush of energy that quickly filled the buster reservoirs. A brilliant white light appeared to radiate outward from his palmbuster units as he leaned forward, drawing both arms outward and back behind his slender chest. A moment later, Rass thrust both hands forward, palms outstretched, and released a burst of white, pulsating energy that surged across the battlefield toward the small Pengi virus. Unprepared for the force of the blast, the recoil knocked Rass backward off his feet, causing him to land awkwardly on the cold ground of the network. Though his forearms quivered from the effort, Rass pushed himself along the ground, rolling in an effort to avoid any oncoming attacks before hoisting himself up into a balanced crouch.

Interesting choice, deciding to go with a half charge said Tem, a hint of surprise leaking into her voice, Nice planning, ensuring that additional system resources could be allocated to evasive maneuvers.

Rass probably would have told Tem that he had thought the buster was fully charged when he released it, but he was busy trying to recall a time where Tem had actually *praised* him on a tactical decision he had made.

--*--Real World--*--

"I guess that's that," said Suien, quickly flipping through his remaining battlechips before turning his head toward Karen. Doing his best not to get caught in her bright blue eyes, the dark-haired netOp did his best to stick to the task at hand. "Any idea as to why the network is behaving like this? If Rass' hypothesis on the network's behavior is wrong, I think we could use any advice you might be able to give." Suien shot a sheepish smile toward Karen as he shrugged his shoulders.


Rass:
1: Buster Charge
2: Half-charge attack (80) to PengiB (timed with Argo)
3-5: Prepped dodges
Fusionist Protoplasm x2 - knockback IceBlock toward Swordy-A's, aim to block their progress

Argo:
1: Feint toward RainCloud
2: ElecSword (80, Wide, Elec, 1 use remaining) to CloudyB (timed with Rass)
3-4: Prepped dodges

--*--Rass.EXE--*--

Once Argo stupidly cut Tem off from their strategic communications line, she attempted to deduce the nature of the panels, ending at the conclusion that the panels were linked to each other. Rass put the solution in her face... which she took surprisingly well, and had Suien coordinate the attack. First off, however, a double burst of kinetic energy sent the nearby IceCube flying towards the Swordy. A half-charge on his buster, and the Pengi met its demise. Now to see if Tem's deductions were correct...

--*--Argo.EXE--*--

With his Targeting Bro forcing a silent treatment on Argo, it was pretty much up to him to execute the plan himself for the moment. His ElecSword connected easily with the Cloudy, and the virus screeched in agony as it was deleted. The flooring lit up with its deletion... but this time, it did not react as it did before on Tem's side. Instead, the blue was replaced by a mess of static, followed by an abrupt change to the standard blank CyberPanel type.

... Anticlimactic.

In any case, thanks to his counterattack, the Cloudy's bundle of needle rain dissipated, while the BombBoys happily pushed their bombs towards Argo. The remaining SnowBlow started to suck Argo's body towards it, placing him square on a green panel.

Quote (Argo Side)

BombBoyA: 80HP [on Red]
BombBoyB: 80HP [on Red]
BoyBombA: 100HP {1 Turns}
BoyBombB: 100HP {1 Turns}
CloudyA: Deleted
CloudyB: Deleted
SnowBlowA: Deleted
SnowBlowB: 20HP [on Green]

Terrain: 60% Normal (Around), 20% Red, 20% Green (Middle)
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Argo.EXE: 75HP [on Green] [ElecSword 1/3]

--*--Rass.EXE--*--

Back on Rass and Tem's side, they observed the same shift, with the blue paneling beneath the deleted Pengi returning to a blank white after a slight static-filled interruption. The earlier IceCube sailed past the Swordy off into nowhere as the viruses teleported... right back where they started. Whoops, looks like they weren't going anywhere off the red paneling. In addition to that, because of the space between them and Rass, they swung their blades towards him with no result. The ColdBear produced yet another cube and launched it into the sky, though he dodged that attack with relative ease.

Quote (Rass Side)

ColdBearA: Deleted
ColdBearB: 40HP [on Green]
Swordy-A1: 80HP [on Red]
Swordy-A2: 80HP [on Red]
PengiA: Deleted
PengiB: Deleted

Terrain: 60% Normal (Around), 20% Green, 20% Red (Middle)
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Rass.EXE: 70HP [on Normal]

IceCube: 50HP

--*--Real World--*--

"It doesn't look like you're doing too badly," commented Karen, covering her mouth as she giggled at, presumably, Suien's pleas for help. "I'm not too worried about it. You'll be doing fine, it seems, even though they don't look like they get along too well. As for the network itself... Well... I don't know! This is the first time that I've had an actual look into it, everything before was just proxy readings."

She turned towards the screen, and her forehead creased as she continued, "From the looks of it, though, it seems a little early in terms of virus infection spread, so you should be able to clear out the entire thing without too much trouble."

--**--Real World--**--

Suien's smile flickered at Karen's seemingly unconcerned response. Given the dark-haired girl might be a certifiable genius, as evidenced by her stated "credentials," not understanding the mechanics of a system that she was in charge of seemed somewhat incredible. The possibility that Karen was intentionally withholding information from him was very much alive in Suien's mind. Of course, given Karen's rather unorthodox educational background, it seemed equally possible that she was genuinely oblivious as to the specifics of her own project when she sent a request for an outside consultant to do her work for her.

Suien wasn't sure which possibility he was more afraid of.

To be fair, her relative nonchalance was not entirely unwarranted. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that Rass had provided a sound analysis of the situation, and barring some complete breakdown in coordination between Rass and Argo (again, something not entirely out of the question), it looked like the formerly-fused netNavi team wouldn't have any trouble finishing the job.

Also, she was really pretty. Did he mention she was really pretty?

"Huh, well it looks like ensuring an... an equilibrium of viral signatures on like-colored panels works for all intents and purposes," said Suien to nobody in particular, pushing aside his doubts and deciding to refocus his efforts on operating. "I think..." he started, glancing upward at the ceiling as he tried to process his feelings and suspicions, "...battlechips. They're going to need battlechips."

--**--Argo.EXE--**--

The swift suction action of the SnowBlo virus nearly knocked Argo off his feet. The green navi stumbled forward as the fanlike opponent drew him in toward the green paneling. Argo's boots scraped unpleasantly on the Sharo network as he desperately attempted to slow his inexorable advance, but his efforts were futile. Before he knew it, Argo was standing face-to-fan before the viral opponent, squarely atop the strange green panels. The rapidly fading ElecSword hummed temptingly in his iron grip, flickering slightly in the dank atmosphere of the strange network. Instinctively, Argo raised the luminous weapon in preparation to strike, but hesitated, realizing that every movement was rapidly sapping valuable system resources and that a non-coordinated attack would only operate to their detriment in the long run. "D...Dammit," he cursed, sorely wanting to bring the glowing weapon smashing down on the rapidly-approaching virus, "Hey, Suien! Is Rass going to take out the green virus yet? Any time now! Just... Just let me know, okay?!"

"I don't think so, Argo," was Suien's reply, "In any event, it looks like you're in a bit of a bind. As it stands, I'm more concerned about those bombs over there. On your own, I'm not sure if you have the mobility to outrun the blast."

"Oh, those bombs? You THINK?" shouted Argo over the roar of the SnowBlo virus, "Look, can't I just smash this stupid fan, then run until I get out of the way?"

"That's too much of a risk too — even if both of you attack now, Rass won't have the opportunity to make it onto the green panel on his end, which might cause some issues," said Suien, nervously flipping through his battlechip folder, "If the equilibrium theory is sound, you BOTH will have to be on a green panel to prevent the network from incorporating your data. You're going to need to set up the SnowBlo for deletion at close range when both you and Rass are on a green panel, then mobilize away from the green panel to attack the BombBoy viruses at long range. That way, if you somehow fail to eliminate all viral signatures, you'll at least be out of the blast radius of those bombs. Check the battle routine I'm sending you and execute it as soon as you can — it looks like Rass is paging me to check in, so make sure you perform the necessary setup in my absence. Ask Ishamel if you have any questions"

As the green navi felt the influx of battlechip data course through his body, he quickly realized that no system resources had been allocated to the continued operation of his ElecSword. After a moment's hesitation, he reluctantly disengaged the glowing weapon. Though it would have been a simple matter to bring the luminous blade downward upon the nearby SnowBlow virus, Argo instead began charging the fusion core to manifest a physical object, collecting the compositional data in his right arm as he lowered his stance. His fist coursed with brilliant red aura as the data downloaded into his circuitry, and with a mighty throw, Argo lobbed a cluster of energy across the battlefield, generating a windbox behind the SnowBlo virus in a flash of light. As his creation roared to life, Argo steeled himself, nervously glancing at the advancing BombBoy viruses as he awaited the next influx of chip data.

--**--Rass.EXE--**--

Hmm... well that's an interesting reaction. commented Tem as the blue network tiles shifted to normal in a flash of white light, it appears that simultaneously eliminating a viral signature on like-colored panels has resulted in the partial nullification of that color on the local network. The azure subsystem manifested herself on Rass' chest, peering outward and scanning the battlefield. While we cannot be certain that the triggering event is the simultaneous deletion of viruses, it seems safe to assume that planning our maneuvers in reliance on that course of action will result in a favorable outcome, she mused, before swiftly snaking up Rass' protoplasmic arm, seizing control of the appendage, and bring his hand to his helmet to open up communications with their netOp. Suien, as you are probably aware, Rass' battle strategy seems to be working acceptably, she said curtly, As Argo — being the moron that he is - still has not re-enabled communications with us, may I assume that you will be coordinating our attack now as well?

"It's not... entirely Argo's fault, Tem. He doesn't know how to access his body data," replied Suien, somewhat belatedly, "You assume correctly, however. I just got finished taking with Argo, and it looks like he'll need a little bit of time to set things up. Right now, you'll need to get yourself into position on the green panels before finishing off that bear virus."

"On top of the g-green panels?" stammered Rass, taking a step backward as he raised his head toward the viewfinder, "Doesn't that seem a bit d-dangerous given what we've seen?"

"Perhaps, but we're working off the assumption that the network won't take action if there is an equilibrium of signatures on each panel." was Suien's quick reply, sounding somewhat exasperated at having to reexplain the situation, "In theory, if you're both on a green panel when the deletion occurs, the network will recognize two navi signatures, and no additional scanning should be required."

Rass nodded with uncertainty as he prepared himself to charge. "If you s-say so," he said, the sinewy muscles of the protoplasm tensing in anticipation of his next move, "G-Get on green, shoot, get out. I th-think I can handle that."

That is acceptable, Rass, quipped Tem, sending her presence into Rass' lower body, I will provide assistance and support as necessary.

The small, pink navi thought that was a strange thing to say, but did not have time to dwell. No sooner had Tem finished her comment did Rass feel himself being propelled forward. Adjusting his upper body to compensate for the sudden burst of speed, he tore down the Sharo network, bounding full throttle toward the green panels.

--**--Real World--**--

"Okay guys, here goes," muttered Suien, sliding in a quartet of battlechips into the PET, "Bubbler, BambooLance, Shotgun, and WideSword — attack as soon as you can process the data!"

--**--Argo.EXE--**

"Look, Ishy," Argo muttered, addressing his still-silent buster arm, "You... you know I ain't no good at this gunning stuff." The green navi turned his body to the left, unsteadily pointing the large, weaponized appendage toward the opponent. The buster hummed with battlechip data, glowing a deep blue color as aquatic energy churned within its reserves. "Come ON, Ishy! Don't be just a stupid gun. Be a... not stupid gun?"

No response. 'Be an... an ally?" he tried.
Still no response. With his annoyance rapidly turning to desperation, he jammed his foot down angrily and clutched the cannon with his free arm. "Look, I'm SORRY, okay?! Geez, what do I need to say to get you to...

CEASE SPEAKING TO YOUR ARM AND DISCHARGE YOUR WEAPON, CORE SYSTEM! yelled the WindBox AND FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL WOULD PREFER THE DESIGNATION QUOTE POP CULTURE BRO ENDQUOTE!

Argo stared at the WindBox in surprise, accidentally discharging the weapon he was pointing at the SnowBlo virus. A rippling flash of azure aquatic energy lanced down the field, but Argo scarcely noticed and didn't bother to confirm the hit. As Argo's thought processors overclocked themselves in an effort to understand the mechanics of a talking fan, the WindBox, somewhat alarmingly, began advancing toward him!. The swift winds began pushing the large green navi away as the object began getting closer and closer. "H-H-HEY!" he shouted, turning around and running "What are you?! Some sort of ghost?! Get the hell away from me!"

NEGATIVE! NO SUPERNATURAL FORCES HAVE BEEN DETECTED! CORRECTION: SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL HAS ESTABLISHED TEMPORARY CONTROL OVER THIS OBJECT UNIT! replied the WindBox, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL UTILIZED AN ANALOGOUS SYSTEM TO THE INDEPENDENT THRUST ENERGY MECHANISM TO ENCODE DATA INTO AN EXTERNAL ENTITY!

" W...wait, we can do that?!" huffed Argo, still bolting away at full speed and being propelled by the WindBox, "Why the hell didn't we do that earlier?!"

SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL INDEPENDENTLY DETERMINED THAT THE MANEUVER WOULD HAVE SUFFICIENT PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS THROUGH AN ANALYSIS OF CORE SYSTEM ARGO'S FUSION CORE! bragged Ishamel, ADDITIONAL COMMENT: CORE SYSTEM IS FORTUNATE THAT SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL WAS ABLE TO QUOTE POP CULTURE BAIL YOU OUT BRO ENDQUOTE.

"Yeah? Well aren't you proud," scowled Argo, turning around to face the distant BombBoy viruses and charging his right arm with an emerald green aura. The 3L3M system whirred to life as green coils of electricity played across the armored navi's fingertips. With a resounding crack, Argo thrust his index finger up into the air, discharging the grass energy in a shower of sparks and summoning the bushlike Kilby virus adjacent to the BombBoy group in a flash of green light.

--**--Rass.EXE--**--

Alright Rass, since we started operating, you've gotten a little better with your footwork and accuracy, so I'm going into full diagnostic mode for the time being, said Tem, shifting her presence to Rass' midsection and carefully scrutinizing the network, You've got the battle routine uploaded, so mind your timing and positioning — and do try not to mess this one up. We're dreadfully short on resources as it is.

The pink navi nodded in affirmation. With heroic effort, Rass launched himself off of the ground, crossing the threshold twixt gray and green and closing the final distance between himself and the large, bearlike virus. A tingling sensation could be felt in his fingertips as high-density battlechip data coursed through his circuitry, coalescing into a pulsating white aura within the palmbuster unit of his right hand.
With a deafening crack, several bolts of luminous energy erupted forth, peppering the battlefield and sending smoldering holes into the network. The recoil knocked the fusion navi to the side, causing him to land roughly on his feet. Without skipping a beat, Rass charged a burst of kinetic energy into his legs, sending his lithe body spiraling toward the sword-wielding virus. Before Rass even landed, however, he knew something was wrong, and slid awkwardly on the network as he stumbled to correct his angle.

Okay, not too shabby. Your angular momentum is a bit off of optimum, but that's something we can... work on, I suppose, muttered Tem, in a surprisingly neutral tone of voice, Just focus on executing the battle routine.

Rass glanced down confusedly at his chest, rather concerned by Tem's apparent lack of condescent and irritation. The fusion navi didn't have time to contemplate for long, however, as he quickly closed in on the remaining viruses. Rass equipped the WideSword in a flash of chip data, and traversed the battlefield. The second burst of compressed air went better than the first, launching the fusion navi toward the Swordy pair. Rotating in mid-air as he rapidly approached, he swung the blade, sending the weapon flashing through the air in a brilliant crescent arc.

Rass:
1: Feint toward green panels
2: Shotgun (50, spread) to ColdBearB (while at green panel)
Fusionist Physics: Knockback self to propel toward Swordy viruses.
3: Knockback-assisted Feint toward SwordyA-1
4: WideSword (80, wide) SwordyA-1 and SwordyA-2
5: Autododge

Argo:
1: Masterwork Wind behind SnowBlowB (Summon 100+38HP WindBox, blows away): Blow Argo away from SnowBlowB, cancel SnowBlow Suction.
2: Bubbler (40, aqua, spread1) to SnowBlowB (while on Green panel)
WindBox: Tactical move to follow Argo, increasing distance of retreat
3: Wind-Assisted Tactical Move out of Bomb range
4: SideBamboo1 (80, long attack) to BombBoyA and BombBoyB

--*--Argo.EXE--*--

Even with a good part of the viral threat already gone, Argo didn't have time for dallying, as he had another problem; the SnowBlow was getting dangerously close to him and he didn't have much room for dodging. In a panic, he executed the WindBox data Suien sent him, cancelling out the SnowBlow's suction for the moment.

--*--Rass.EXE--*--

Meanwhile, Suien and Tem got to combining their mental efforts and avoided a possible catastrophe, positioning Rass on the green paneling before shooting at the remaining ColdBear before it reacted. The reaction was, again, similar to the one before, with the green paneling shifting to a static field before disappearing, which showed that their operation was a success, for the most part. One of the Swordy-A swiped its sword as was default protocol, but the other sensed that it had to try and escape, as they were the only two viruses left on the field. Rass's bursts of movement prevented the attacking Swordy from getting a hit in, and he struck with his own sword, but the other defending Swordy tried to teleport away, only to be, again, limited by the confines of the red paneling. The sword struck both decisively, though the defending Swordy almost got away by a hair, ending the battle.

Quote (Rass Side)

ColdBearA: Deleted
ColdBearB: Deleted
Swordy-A1: Deleted
Swordy-A2: Deleted
PengiA: Deleted
PengiB: Deleted

Terrain: 100% Normal
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Rass.EXE: 70HP [on Normal]

IceCube: 50HP

--*--Argo.EXE--*--

While Rass and Tem were doing their thing, Argo had been trying to reconcile with his silent "bro" to little effect. Unexpectedly, Ishamel had transferred himself to the WindBox, scaring the living disks out of his partner and accidentally releasing his Bubbler data. Thankfully, even without Ishamel's help, his aim struck the SnowBlow easily, and deleted it. Meanwhile, Ishamel was working hard to get Argo as far away from the bombs as possible, with great effect. The box weathered the explosions easily, and Argo summoned the Kilby to do their work. Their aim was sound, and the Kilby's bamboo spears skewered the remaining opposition.

Quote (Argo Side)

BombBoyA: Deleted
BombBoyB: Deleted
CloudyA: Deleted
CloudyB: Deleted
SnowBlowA: Deleted
SnowBlowB: Deleted

Windbox: 78HP [Masterwork]

Terrain: 100% Normal
< Colored Terrain cannot be altered >

Argo.EXE: 75HP [on Normal]

-- Battle 1, Victory! --
Rewards: LilCloud (Argo), 3200z (Combined)

--*--Real World--*--

Karen's eyebrows were raised as she spectated the battle on the screen. "... Well, that took a lot shorter than I expected. You've got quite the team in there, hotshot," she commented. She looked like she was going to say something else, but then a little ring from her pocket interrupted her. Taking her PET out, she blinked at the caller's name displayed on the screen for a little while before letting out a sigh.

"I gotta take this, hope you don't mind. Just go right on in, and yell if you need anything," said Karen quickly, as she shuffled out of the server room, leaving Suien alone for the moment.

--**--Real World--**--

Suien breathed a sigh of relief for the first time since jacking in to the Sharo experimental network. With the diagnostics showing a localized network completely clear of the strange colored panels, it looked like, at least from a procedural standpoint, the debugging job would be manageable.

Quote ()

"I gotta take this, hope you don't mind. Just go right on in, and yell if you need anything," said Karen quickly, as she shuffled out of the server room, leaving Suien alone for the moment.

Suien nodded as he watched Karen exit the room, his eyes lingering a bit longer than necessary on her departing form. Shaking his head, the dark-haired netOp glanced upward at the screen, eyes sweeping the battlefield for any other signs of infection.

--**--Argo.EXE--**--

Argo was still breathing heavily as he trudged over to where the Cloudlike viruses had been. He crouched down to collect the sky-blue battlechip data in to his right palm, long strands of vial coding and information streaming wispily into the air. The pugilistic navi hesitated, glancing down at Ishamel's buster arm.
"Look, uh... Ishy... about earlier," he said finally, breaking the silence, "You know, I mean, when I'm out there beating the crap out of things, it's... well, it's pretty helpful to have someone around who..."

CORE SYSTEM ARGO, IT IS HIGHLY INEFFICIENT FOR YOU TO CONTINUE ATTEMPTING TO EXECUTE AN APOLOGY ROUTINE, FOR SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL IS YOUR QUOTE POP CULTURE BRO ENDQUOTE. QUERY: CORE SYSTEM ARGO, HAVE YOU TAKEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONDUCT AN ANALYSIS UPON OPERATOR UNIT KAREN EZARITH? interrupted Ishamel, the buster cannon tilting upward toward Argo's body as though trying to whisper to him, OPERATOR UNIT KAREN EZARITH POSSESSES SEVERAL STRUCTURAL AND INTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT ARE COMPATABLE WITH OPERATOR UNIT SUIEN MATSUMOTO. I HAVE TAKEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO COMPILE SUCH AN ANALYSIS FOR REVIEW. I HAVE OBSERVED THAT SUPPORT SYSTEM TEM HAS EXPRESSED DISSATISFACTION WITH THE RESULTS OF MY ANALYSIS IN THE PAST. HOWEVER, SUPPORT SYSTEM TEM IS NO LONGER PRESENT. Instantly, a holographic data readout emitted from the side of Ishamel's buster arm, displaying several images of different women that Suien had encountered over the past several years, as well as several streams of data. Age, nationality, netNavi, biometrics...

Argo's green eyes widened at Ishamel's revelation, and the burly netNavi was at a loss for words, trying to take in what Ishamel was saying. Slowly, a grin crept onto his stark features as he snorted, snickered, and finally burst into laughter. "I thought you'd never ask, Ishy!" he shouted, "Yeah, that Ezarith lady is pretty hot, but she's government. No way Suien's compatible with someone like her. Honestly, I would go with that Firebrand chick, she's got that spunk that I think Suien'd have a lot of FUN with, if you catch my drift."

SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL DISAGREES, CORE SYSTEM. OPERATOR UNIT RANIA FIREBRAND MAY POSSESS A COMPATIBLE PERSONALITY MATRIX, BUT HER PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION DOES NOT CONFORM TO TRADITIONAL CONVENTIONS OF BEAUTY. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FEMALE BODY DATA IS DISPLAYED ON FIGURE C-2.

The green navi and his subsystem walked deeper into the network, all recollection of their previous altercation forgotten as they discussed the relative merits of Suien's potential mates.

--**--Rass.EXE--**--

Nicely done, Rass, said Tem, somewhat more coolly than usual, You were a little bit short on that last sword swing, but with all due respect, you're no Argo. The azure support system swirled into existence on Rass' shoulder, carefully scrutinizing the battlefield. In any event, if you continue to improve at this rate, I believe that you might be able to...

"Tem, why are you being so nice to me?" blurted out Rass.

...excuse me? I'm not sure I understand your question, Rass. I am merely attempting to assist in...

"N...No, Tem, I know you. You're not being normal," interrupted Rass, talking to the support system as he walked deeper into the network, "You're not being critical, Y-you haven't bugged me about how incompetent I am, and you d-didn't even comment when I made a mistake. What's g-going on?"

Tem seemed to hesitate, Rass... I...I just think you're... improving, she said, finally, You realize of course, that there is the... very real possibility that we won't be able to reconstitute ourselves, so we... we need to work together. That's it, okay?

((For the record, this bump is made with the caveat that I understand the hypocrisy of bumping a topic after ~9 days after leaving it idle for over 3 years. Let's just call this a "I'm planning to see this through this time" nudge?))

As both Argo and Rass advanced forward through the network, the colorful viral imagery that was floating around from before shifted to sceneries instead, with both of them glimpsing brief snapshots of various networks. An image of Netfrica Net's dunes meshed into a few blaring lights from the NetVegas network whirled before Argo's eyes, while Rass was treated to a mix of images from the waters of Beach Street's seas and Hades Isle's volcanic regions. Graphical glitches aside, it wasn't difficult to trek through the relatively straight pathway leading further into the servers.

However, as they both entered a certain section of the network, all of the images ceased, and a large swath of red panels spread out around both of them. Two circles of light blasted up on either Navis' sides from the red paneling, each large enough to comfortably move around in; one was directly in front of them, and another was a little further ahead. On Argo's side, a huge number of intimidating-looking viruses started massing up on him, while on Rass' side, only an odd couple of stationary viruses stood to face them.

One of the things that Suien would notice was that besides the terrain configuration being exactly mirrored yet again, the two gunnery viruses Rass faced were similar to the ones Argo was facing in addition to its entourage. There was one slight bit of difference, however, in that the ones on Argo's side had this little bit of a glitch, where certain parts of their body would be covered in a bit of static, which distorted their image, before returning to normal after a little bit. If Ishamel examined them, he would also find an odd error upon viewing their images.

Wasn't enough time for niceties, though! With both the virus groups detecting the presence of Navis near them, both Bashers on both sides raised their cannons in creepily perfect sync, and fired a warning shot, which conveniently landed to the Navis' left and right. Oddly enough, though the Bashers' shots cracked the paneling at first, the damage almost immediately disappeared in a flash.

Quote (Rass Side)

Basher A: 120 HP (Shine, inside circle of terrain further away)
Basher B: 120 HP (Shine, inside circle of terrain further away)

Rass.EXE: 70HP (Red, in front of nearer circle of Shine terrain)

Terrain: 70% Red, 30% Shine (divided into two 15% circles about one movement apart)
(Special: Terrain is permanent and non-changeable)

Quote (Argo Side)

Basher A: 120 HP (Shine, inside circle of terrain further away) [???]
Basher B: 120 HP (Shine, inside circle of terrain further away) [???]
PulseBat A: 80 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, left)
PulseBat B: 80 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, right)
Cragger A: 120 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, left)
Cragger B: 120 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, right)
Shadow A: 80 HP (Red, behind nearer circle of Shine terrain)
Shadow B: 80 HP (Red, behind nearer circle of Shine terrain)
Shadow C: 80 HP (Red, behind nearer circle of Shine terrain)

Argo.EXE: 75 HP (Red, in front of nearer circle of Shine terrain)

Terrain: 70% Red, 30% Shine (divided into two 15% circles about one movement apart)
(Special: Terrain is permanent and non-changeable)

[I'm just being a Rasshole in terms of modding right now, my apologies. Doesn't matter if you left this topic for 3 years lol]

--*--Rass.EXE--**--

Rass, just drop it. scowled Tem.

"No, T-Tem, I want to know. What's your angle?" insisted Rass, plodding deeper into the Reversal Backup System server, "I've been r-relying on you since day one, so it's not that you're just interested in s-surviving. Also, it can't be that you just think I'm getting better - even you can see that I've b-been improving since we s-started working with Suien."

Well aren't we rather full of ourselves? quipped the sarcastic subsystem, Look, I said to drop it, okay? You like being complimented, right? So why are you complaining so much?

"W-Well," said Rass, glancing down at the patch of blue on his chest and speaking without thinking, "For one thing, y-you're usually only nice to me when you want something or you're scheming something, so I have to be on my g-guard."
Tem made a sound that seemed like a combination of a scoff and a gasp, and appeared to tense up within Rass' chest. The tactical support system didn't say anything further, but Rass could tell that he had touched a nerve. Usually, this was the part where Tem would offer some cloying words aimed to ease his suspicions, or simply berate him for accusing her of any misconduct. Tem did nothing of the sort, however, and lingered in stony silence upon Rass' chest.

If... if you feel the need to do so, then so be it, she said finally, Just don't divert system resources away from the battle routine.

Rass instantly felt a little bit bad for his mistrust. He was about to say something when he stumbled upon a pair of Basher viruses, located in the center of the further of two circular panels on the ground. The pair of advanced cannon-like opponents looked rather lonely atop their luminous perch.

"H....hey... is that all? That doesn't look so..." he started, before flinging up his arms to shield his face as the high-calibur duo unleashed their devastating salvo upon the fusion navi. Rass gave a slight yelp as the concussive bursts detonated to either side of him. "Wh-Whoa!" he shouted, immediately taking a defensive position and opening up a communications window with the outside world, "S... Suien! Viruses!"

--**--Argo.EXE--**--

"Oh come ON, Ishy," sighed Argo, taking little note of the absurdist scenery that adorned the server, "Never thought I'd be sayin' this, but you have to give the girl's er... 'personality matrix' a bit more credit here. If Suien's gonna get with some chick for the long term, she's gotta be someone he gets along with! Plus, it ain't gonna work unless the girl actually *likes* him."

NEGATIVE. CORE SYSTEM ARGO HAS UNDERESTIMATED THE CALCULATION ROUTINES OF SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL! SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL HAS ALREADY EXTRAPOLATED THE VARIABLES OF MUTUAL ATTRACTION, FACTORED IN A MULTIPLIER FOR QUOTE POP CULTURE "RACKTASTIC" AND "BOOTYLICIOUS" ENDQUOTE VALUES AND HAS DETERMINED THAT THE FOLLOWING FEMALES WOULD BE AN APPROPRIATE SUPPORT UNIT FOR OPERATOR UNIT SUIEN MATSUMOTO. DICTATING LIST: NUMBER ONE: KAREN EZARITH. NUMBER TWO...

"See? You're missing the point, Ishy! First of all, I can't get a good read on that Ezarith chick. You have to look at these things in context, for binary's sake," replied Argo, sagely stroking his chin as he wandered further into the network, "See, the real key here is whether little miss researcher would be so keen on interactin' with Suien if he weren't operatin' us and fixin' up her precious server. Like I was sayin', your variables are a bit outta whack.

CORE SYSTEM ARGO, WE HAVE REACHED A POINT WHERE WE REQUIRE ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF OUR DISAGREEMENT! boomed Ishamel, bobbing Argo's left arm up and down as he spoke, WHILE IT IS UNDISPUTED THAT OPERATOR UNIT SUIEN MATSUMOTO WOULD GREATLY BENEFIT FROM THE PROCUREMENT OF A SUPPORT UNIT, IT APPEARS THAT AN IMPASSE HAS BEEN REACHED AS TO THE IDENTITY OF THIS SUPPORT UNIT. A MORE EFFICIENT PROCESS WOULD FIRST IDENTIFY KEY VARIABLES IN CONTROVERSEY IN ORDER TO EXECUTE MEANINGFUL INQUIRY INTO QUALIFICATIONS OF HYPOTHETICAL SUPPORT UNIT. QUERY: WHAT QUALIFICATIONS SHOULD OPERATOR SUIEN MATSUMOTO'S IDEAL SUPPORT UNIT POSSESS?

"Oh BALLS!" cursed Argo, suddenly noticing the rather intimidating menagerie of viruses that lay before him.

Ishamel looked perplexed. YOUR ENTHUSIASM IS NOTED, CORE SYSTEM ARGO, said Ishamel, HOWEVER, I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT OPERATOR UNIT SUIEN MATSUMOTO QUOTE POP CULTURE "SWINGS THAT WAY" ENDQUOTE. INCIDENTIALLY, I BELIEVE I HAVE ISOLATED THE SOURCE OF OUR FUNDAMENTAL DISAGREEMENT AS TO THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR OPERATOR UNIT S-

"Hey! That's not what I... grraaaugh... now's not the time, Ishy!" interrupted Argo, forcibly shifting his Ishamel-cannon toward the viral horde, "Nine viruses, with some of that weird terrain stuff too. Looks like it's only one color though, so it should be fine, right?" He turned his body, extending his crimson arm toward the viruses. "What do you think, Ishy?" he asked, "Think you can run one of those uh... point scans on these guys?"

Ishamel made what was an obviously dissatisfied sound as he projected a luminous data readout from the side of the buster. SEVEN VIRAL SIGNATURES DETECTED, AVERAGE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY 91.43% OF OUR MAXIMUM VALUE.

"Huh? Ishy, are you sure you've got that thing working correctly?" asked Argo, frowning as he counted off each virus with a gauntleted finger, "seven... eight... nine. See? Nine. None of them are invisible this time either, so... what gives? Is the scanner malfunctioning?"

NEGATIVE, CORE SYSTEM ARGO. NO SYSTEM MALFUNCTION DETECTED. replied Ishamel flatly, HOWEVER, SCANNERS HAVE DETECTED TWO LOCALIZED DATA ANOMOLIES SEVERAL PANELS AHEAD. As Ishamel spoke, a pair of crosshairs zeroed in on the pair of Bashers on the digital readout and displayed a morass of incomprehensible data, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL NOTES THAT GIVEN THE UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF SUCH A SITUATION, EXECUTING A BATTLE ROUTINE THAT INVOLVES TARGETING THE LOCALIZED DATA ANOMOLIES WOULD BE INEFFICIENT.

"So lay off the guns until we know what we're dealing with? I guess that makes sense," mused Argo, "That terrain is makin' me antsy too — all glowy and weird like — if we take down those other viruses, we can focus on tryin' to figure out what the terrain is capable of." The melee-oriented navi crouched down, focusing on the situation. "Whatever. It doesn't look like those things are operational anyways. If they're all weird and glitchy and stuff, they shouldn't be able to shoo..."

KABOOOM!

--**--Real World--**--

"...and there we go, that should do it," mumbled Suien, placing the finishing touches on his battlechip order during the lull in the fighting. With Karen gone and the dual PETs running several diagnostics and monitoring the network status simultaneously, there wasn't much risk of a sudden virus attack, giving the dark-haired netOp a rare opportunity to sit back and think.

To think I'd end up back here in Sharo. Can't say that this is an... ideal situation, but I guess it could be worse, he thought, glancing upward at the massive server, There doesn't appear to be any... immediate military application for this technology, and we're nowhere near MasterType's laboratories. Wish I didn't have to worry about all of this though. Glancing toward the doorway that Karen had exited, he allowed himself a weak smirk before turning back to the myriad of screens. Hard to believe Ms. Ezarith is the one running the show, he thought, his weary mind apparently shifting gears without a clutch, If this job goes well, I wonder if she'd be willing to grab dinner with me afterwards...

Simultaneous viral proximity alarms brought Suien back to reality. Queuing up video feeds on the top screen of both PET units and readying his chip folder, Suien sighed, pausing a little bit longer than normal, before speaking.

"Alright, Rass, Argo, what do you see down there? Let's see if we can't clean this up a bit."

--*--Rass.EXE--**--

Rass glanced upward as Suien's image appeared on the screen above. "Suien, I'm looking at two viral signatures located on some w-weird glowing terrain," he said, "There is a s-similar patch of that terrain a few panels ahead of me, but the majority of the battlefield contains several r-red panels like the ones we saw before."

As Rass spoke, he extended his arm outward, generating a green wireframe and rapidly filling it with fusionist protoplasm. As the viscous fluid solidified into the familiar rocket-surfboard shape of ITEM-2, Rass continued to address Suien. Looking around once more to confirm, "It's weird though. I d-don't see any other viruses here. Maybe we can just t-take out those two Bashers, that'll be the end of it."

"Initiate Communications uplink, System T3M!" shouted Argo's voice, his helmeted visage appearing on a second screen, "Pah, stupid voice commands. Hey, Tem! We've got a problem here!

Oh good, you figured out how to re-enable communications. That only took you about a few thousand cycles, snipped Tem, What's wrong? There's only two viruses, and their structural integrity is only about 120% of our maximum configuration. Just wipe them out on my mark and we'll be done with it.

"What the hell are you talking about, Tem? We've got *nine* viruses over here! shouted Argo, "Wh...What the heck does this mean? Doesn't that mean our strategy ain't gonna work? We've got nine viruses, you've got two... how do we achieve that e... equi.... Equilibraah..."

The word you are looking for is "equilibrium," Argo, said Tem as the tactical subsystem materialized into a ball of blue light and slammed into the chassis of ITEM-2, And yes, this does require us to adapt our strategy somewhat, though this isn't altogether surprising.

"Wait, what? What do you mean not altogether surprising?" demanded Argo.

"Think about it, Argo," said Suien, This is something that's been bothering me for a while now. This is a system that works by collecting junk datastreams from various networks, and outputting a "snapshot" of the network. Now, given that you and Rass were sent to each of two main entrances that are apparently on either end of this system...

"Pah, nevermind. Suien, I'm gonna stop you right there, because I have no flippin' idea what you're sayin," said Argo, rudely interrupting the netOp's explanation.

The dark-haired netOp sighed as he slotted in several battlechips into Argo's PET. "Fine, I'll cut straight to the chase. If I had to guess, those glowing panels are a part of the system — possibly the source of the corruption, given that those Bashers are operating in perfect synchronization. Argo, stand on the glowing panels, and start attacking. Rass, stand by. If my hypothesis is correct, your side might be getting pretty busy in a little bit."

Rass nodded in affirmation as he stepped onto the chassis of ITEM-2. Steeling his boots on the sleek body of the board as the back thrusters ignited, the fusion navi was propelled forward onto the nearer of the two shining patches. He nervously glanced downward and hesitated momentarily before dismounting and landing heavily on the luminescent battleground in a crouched position. Without skipping a beat, the small, pink navi unfolded his legs, taking a defensive pose and preparing to take evasive action in the wake of the Basher viruses' inevitable counterattack. Eyes darting back and forth between the two opponents, Rass clenched his right hand into a tight fist, redirecting the energies from his fusion core into the palmbuster unit of his right arm. As his reactor whirred to life, his hand slowly became enveloped in a luminous aura, at first a pale white, but eventually an iridescent mixture of red, blue, and green.

As the buster modules approached their maximum capacity, Rass glanced toward ITEM-2, taking note of the activities of the Basher viruses. The tactical subsystem's stony silence was, at the moment, of greater concern to Rass, despite having little to do with his continued survival. "T-Tem, I... look, I didn't mean that I don't t-trust you," said Rass, "What I meant was if... if you're nagging me, it m-means that you're looking out for me. I can understand if you've given up on me, b-but... I just want to know..."

Tem whirled the floating platform around to glare at Rass, If that's what you think is bothering me, then you're more ignorant than I gave you credit for, she snapped, interrupting the Fusion Navi mid-sentence, You can't possibly understand what's going on here, so for the last time, just drop it.

"I KNOW I d-don't understand! That's why I'm asking you!" shouted Rass, causing the Tem-possessed ITEM-2 to recoil slightly, "I j-just... I'm not that smart like you and Suien, so you need to explain it to me!"

--**--Argo.EXE--**--

Quote ()

"Fine, I'll cut straight to the chase. If I had to guess, those glowing panels are a part of the system — possibly the source of the corruption, given that those Bashers are operating in perfect synchronization. Argo, stand on the glowing panels, and start attacking...

Argo didn't need to be told twice what to do. Instantly, the green netNavi lunged forward, right arm extended to the side as the familiar silver cylinder materialized in his palm. Dipping and sweeping across the battlefield he traversed the luminous panels, closing in on the shadowy trio on the opposite end. Argo feinted to the right, stepping across with his left foot before suddenly shifting his weight bacwards. The burly navi entered into a clockwise spin, the ElecSword tracing a luminous neon-blue arc through the air as he brought it full circle, aimed to sweep the three Shadow viruses in its wake.

Without bothering to confirm his hit, however, Argo extended his left buster arm toward the viruses as soon as his feet crashed down onto the luminous panels below. "You're up, Ishy!" he called, discharging a blast of crimson energy from the weaponized appendage and generating a red WindBox virus directly in front of him, "Show em what my biggest fan can do!"

AFFIRMATIVE, CORE SYSTEM ARGO! shouted the fanlike object as it charged across the battlefield, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL WILL ENSURE THAT THE REMAINING VIRAL FORCES RECEIVE A QUOTE POP CULTURE BLOW JOB ENDQUOTE!

Argo paused, then shook his head. "We should probably update your pop culture database, Ishy," he muttered as he downloaded the remainder of the battlechip data from Suien. His eyes widened momentarily as an unfamiliar sensation coursed into his buster arm. "Oooh, new chip!" he quipped.

With that, Argo began channeling the remainder of his system resources into the 3L3M processor. Brilliant blue bursts of light emanated from his buster arm, and a thick, wispy black cloud seemed to pour out of the barrel, fogging up the immediate area. Raising the cannon to an angle just shy of 45 degrees, Argo fired, sending a large black cloud draped in an azure aura flying overhead. Taking a knee from the monumental effort, Argo watched as the LilCloud data began to coalesce into a coherent form.

"Heh... I could get used to this administratin' thing" he breathed, smirking to himself, "Just gettin' the chips, listenin' to Suien, blowin' stuff up... ain't THAT tough.."

Rass:
1: Rassboard Masterwork (20+38 HP Object, Flying, light, Passive Movex1)
Rassboard: Move Rass onto Shine panels
2: AutoDodge
3: Autododge
4: Charge Buster
5: Charge Buster

Argo:
1: Feint toward Shadow group onto Shine panels
2: ElecSword ShadowA, B, and C
3: Masterwork Wind: 100 + 38 HP Windbox, Decreases enemy accuracy, blows enemies back.
Windbox: Move Windbox away from Argo, out of Blast2 Range, attempt to shield Argo from frontal attacks from PulseBat, Cragger, and Basher
4: LilCloud (70 PulseBatA, CraggerA, BasherA)

((Gonna bump this. I understand you're busy though.))

With both Argo and Rass holding back their firepower for the moment, Suien got through the role of coordinator once again, and had both of them stand on the glowing paneling. Immediately after both of them entered the area, the other received a surprise (or not?) in the form of an exact copy of each other on both sides appearing. Rass and Tem would watch as Argo's form twisted and spun to attack what appeared to be absolutely nothing, and doing a good job of it, too. The Shadows on Argo's side immediately fell to a single swipe of his ElecSword, but the PulseBats were quick to react with a couple of sonic shrieks. The WindBox Ishamel inhabited did a little to mitigate the damage, but Argo nonetheless still sustained some. (30@Argo) (30@Box)

The Craggers' fists bashed onto the ground, creating shockwaves that shook Argo's footing a little, but not by much, thanks to Ishamel's windy work dealing them a blow to their efforts. Argo then proceeded to use his newest chip just as the Bashers began to wind up for another attack, their barrels spinning with a whir. A rapid array of shots rang out, with a couple blows denting Argo and Ishamel's respective bodies. (10@Argo) (10@Box) Rass's side also received a few shots, but he managed to whisk through it for the most part. The cloud that burst from Argo's buster retaliated handily, with three targets receiving powerful blows, most notably the Basher, which exploded as the cloud rained death upon it.

The attack was mirrored onto Rass's side as well, destroying the Basher on his side. However, an interesting thing happened; as the one on Rass's side exploded into bits as most deleted viruses tended to do, Argo's deleted Basher was simply frozen in an almost-deleted state, and no amount of deletion signals would erase it from visuals on his side. The PulseBats retreated into the skies at this development.

Meanwhile, while all of this battling was happening, Suien's operation was interrupted by a sudden bout of extremely colorful Sharoan language from the room outside. He didn't need to strain his ears to know that Karen was loudly sending death threats at someone, presumably over the phone, mostly using some weird implication about the caller's grandmother. It wasn't long before the young lady's potty mouth was silenced by the slamming of a door, and Suien's ears now only heard the hum of the servers once again.

Quote (Rass Side)

Basher A: DELETED
Basher B: 120 HP (Shine, inside circle of terrain further away)

Rass.EXE: 70HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [Charge 2]
Rassboard: 58HP (Flying, Shine) [Masterwork]

Argo.EXE: 35 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [ElecSword 2/3] [???]
Windbox: 38 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [???]

Terrain: 70% Red, 30% Shine (divided into two 15% circles about one movement apart)
(Special: Terrain is permanent and non-changeable)

Quote (Argo Side)

Basher A: #VALUE! [???]
Basher B: 120 HP (Shine, inside circle of terrain further away) [???]
PulseBat A: 10 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, left) [High Alt] [Lilcloud 1/2]
PulseBat B: 80 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, right) [High Alt]
Cragger A: 85 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, left) [Lilcloud 1/2]
Cragger B: 120 HP (Red, surrounding Basher, right)
Shadow A: DELETED
Shadow B: DELETED
Shadow C: DELETED

Argo.EXE: 35 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [ElecSword 2/3]
Windbox: 98 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [Masterwork]

Rass.EXE: 70HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [???]
Rassboard: 58HP (Flying, Shine) [???]

Terrain: 70% Red, 30% Shine (divided into two 15% circles about one movement apart)
(Special: Terrain is permanent and non-changeable)

--**--Real World--**--

Suien's focus on the battle parameters was interrupting by a jarring,, rather impressive burst of Sharoan vocabulary erupt from the room outside. is that... Karen? he thought, looking up from the two PETs and staring at the outside room. The verbal outburst persisted, drawing the dark-haired netOp's attention away from the battle and toward the door. Realizing that Karen might be in trouble, he began to take off toward the door. He had barely made it five or so steps, however, before Ms. Ezarith's screams became audible and distinguishable. Suien froze, hearing a door slam shut in the adjacent room, leaving him standing like an idiot alone with the experimental server. That person's grandmother is a.... a *what?!* he thought, moving closer to the door and pressing his ear against it. "Um... everything okay in there?" he asked loudly, giving the door a few sharp raps. Before he could hear a response, however, Suien heard Tem's shrill voice erupting from his PET speakers.

Sheesh...girls... he thought as he hurried back to the server.

--**--Net World--**--

You... You're not dumb, you idiot! stammered Tem, taken aback by Rass' sudden desperate outburst and displaying a rare moment of linguistic incoherence, I mean, you're not incapable of handling yourself! Whatever! This whole thing is stupid, okay?!

"No Tem, I need to know, have you g-given up on me? Are you waiting for me to f-fail? Why aren't you giving me c-corrections and stuff?" asked Rass, "Y-You're always saying how I could have done an attack b-better, or how I could have planned more. Why aren't you d-doing that?"

I AM doing that, Rass. You're just... getting better. Maybe... maybe I don't NEED to nag you as much now that we're... stuck. replied Tem, the rocket surfboard shrinking back as she spoke.

"Tem I... we need to work together. I understand th-that there's a chance that we'll n-never get reconstituted when this is all over... and I know we n-need to start t-trusting each other, so..."

THEN WHY AREN'T YOU TRUSTING ME?! shrieked Tem.

Rass took a step back, "w...what are you t-talking about, Tem?" he stammered, "You mean, you aren't trying to manipulate..."

I'm not trying to manipulate you, you IDIOT! Why the HELL would I go and do that?! I'm TRYING TO WORK TOGETHER WITH YOU! said Tem, interrupting the fusion navi before he could finish, Apparently you realize that we're stuck together, but is it POSSIBLE that maybe, just maybe, I'm TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK?!

"And you don't have a p-problem with that? Being s-stuck alone with m-me as the system administrator?"

OF COURSE I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT! Tem screamed, I DON'T want to be stuck with you until we get deleted! But that doesn't mean I WANT to get deleted, you bit-brained, dim-rezzed packet of junk data! I don't want to trick you, and I don't want to sabotage you! I just... I just thought... The tactical subsystem appeared to hesitate for a moment before turning away.

I just thought... if we ARE going to be trapped together with me as your only support system... that perhaps you would operate more efficiently... if I were... nicer to you, she said finally, That's all.



...



Hrmph, nothing to say then? said Tem, her voice containing a slight waver, barely detectable to Rass, Good, then why don't we...

"AUUUUUGH!" interrupted a nearby scream, followed by a heavy thud. Rass and Tem whirled around to the source, having been completely oblivious to Argo's combat antics behind them. The green navi appeared in the same circle, his metallic armor perforated and cracked from battle damage. Gnashing his teeth, Argo slammed his crackling ElecSword into the network, using it to support his weight as he scrambled into a crouched position. Tem appeared to whirl about toward the Basher viruses while Rass began moving slowly toward Argo, head askew. "S...Son of a Motherboard f*cking binome, that HURTS!" yelled Argo, who had been similarly unaware of his counterpart's presence, "Ishy! Are you still in that fan? Get the hell back in here! I'm gonna show that cannon what a...

"Argo?"

Argo froze, turning his head to face the small pink navi that had cautiously approached him. The two navigators stared at each other, neither totally sure about how to go about handling the encounter. Finally, Argo hauled himself to his feet with substantial effort. Thick black ichor oozed out of Argo's damaged chassis as he rose to his full, intimidating height. "Huh... Hey Rasshole," he said finally, awkwardly waving his Ishamel-buster in Rass' direction, "Hahah, look how puny and uh... weak you look! Guess you're nothin' without me and Ishy!" Argo gave a halfhearted laugh to go along with his halfhearted taunt while Rass continued to stare in silence.

You're not looking so good, Argo, said Tem, hovering over to Argo and scrutinizing him closely, Your structural integrity is reading at about 30% - you should probably engage the fusionist protoplasm so you don't end up getting yourself deleted.

"Huh? Engage the what now? Oh, right! That fusion restorer thingy," said Argo, striking his chest with his buster-arm and causing a surge of protoplasmic substance to wash over his body. Rass' gaze followed the path of Argo's arm, as though the concept of physical motion were some sort of mysterious wonder to him. "Tch... what the heck are you starin' at, Rasshole?" growled Argo as the protoplasm began to mend itself, "Take a .jpegx. It lasts longer"

"Ah... er... s-sorry Argo" muttered Rass, shaking his head, "It's just... is that what you really look like?"

Argo's face contorted at Rass' question. "What the hell do you mean? Of course this is what I..."

CORE SYSTEM ARGO.EXE, CEASE CONVERSATION ROUTINES WITH CORE UNIT RASS.EXE. SEVARAL VIRAL SIGNATURES REMAIN! shouted Ishamel, having reconstituted himself into Argo's buster-arm, COMMENCE THE BATTLE ROUTINE AND BEGIN TARGETING!

Argo frowned as he turned to the side, looking out toward the luminous panels across the field. "Yeah, yeah, Ishy, I got it," he said, "Guess you're just gonna be sittin' this one out, Rasshole? Figure since you can't see those viruses, you won't be fightin' much now."

Rass was about to voice his agreement when Tem suddenly spoke up.

That's only half true, Argo, she said, I think we have all the data we need. It's true we do not have visual confirmation of the viruses, but that doesn't mean we won't be taking part in this battle.

--**--Real World--**--

"Rass? Tem? Is everything okay in there? I thought I heard Tem yelling," said Suien, running over to the PET and entering several diagnostics on the keyboard, "Sorry, I stepped away for a moment. What's going on? What were you yelling about?"

Everything's fine Suien, though I've managed to observe some interesting data, replied Tem, slyly avoiding Suien's question, Although we haven't quite determined their ultimate function, the shine panels seem to allow entities within their boundaries to manifest themselves concurrently in two remote locations.

"Huh? That's... impossible isn't it? Things can't exist in two places at once... although it *does* explain why the Basher viruses were attacking you both in perfect synchronization," said Suien, scratching his head. Suddenly, the implications of what Tem was saying struck him. "Wait a minute, if those panels operate the way that you say they do, then it should be possible for you to counterattack in kind!" The dark-haired netOp flipped rapidly through the chip folder, withdrawing several battlechips and quickly slotting them in to the two PETs. He watched as his selections downloaded into the pair of navis, the screens of the PETs reflecting their luminous data across the lenses of his glasses. "Alright guys, new plan," he said, smirking as he crossed his arms and looked up at the server, "always thought it'd be fun to operate two navis in one battle — time to try it out!"

--**--Net World--**--

"Tem, I don't understand a word you just said" complained Argo, watching the damaging rain continue to pound down on the battlefield. The dark clouds expended the remainder of their aquatic onslaught, creating an ominous mark on the network above.

I never expected you to, Argo, quipped Tem, But fortunately for you, this is going to be pretty easy. Just pretend that Rass doesn't know what he's doing and execute the battle routine accordingly. If my hypothesis is correct, then any attacks made from the shine terrain should simultaneously exist in both sides of the server. Take care of Rass, now!

"W...Wait, Tem? Take care of Rasshole? Where the heck are you..." started Argo. As he spoke, the Rassboard thrust off from its resting position, exiting the shine panels and surging toward the remaining Basher virus on the other side. Tem planted herself onto the luminous panel, as close as possible to the remaining Basher in an obvious attempt to block any shots fired from its triple barrels.

"T...Tem..." started Rass, taking a step forward before his field of vision became obscured by Argo's large, green frame.

"Okay Rasshole, here's the deal," he said bluntly, pointing to where the undamaged PulseBat was located, "I don't really understand what's goin' on, but you've gotta line up your shot so you shoot that thing up there."

"Argo? I can't see anything, r-remember? What are you talking about? Over h-here?" protested Rass, charging the HiCannon battlechip into his left palmbuster and pointing off in a random direction.

"No, no, no, you're way off! shouted Argo, gesticulating wildly with his sword, "You have to shoot... um... there! Shoot up there!" Again, Argo pointed fruitlessly with the ElecSword in the general direction of the PulseBat, waving the charged weapon like a banner.

CORE SYSTEM ARGO.EXE, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL BELIEVES THAT THERE IS A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO THIS ISSUE! declared Ishamel, his presence surging from Argo's buster and into the still-hardening protoplasmic casing that covered Argo's body, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL WILL COMMENCE PROCESSES AND GENERATE QUOTE POP CULTURE BROHOOD ENDQUOTE WITH CORE SYSTEM RASS.EXE. HOWEVER, DETAILED EXPLANATION WOULD BE INEFFICIENT! PREPARING TO EXECUTE BRO ROUTINES IN THREE... TWO... ONE...

With that, the soft casing created by Argo's fusion restorer leaped off his body, aimed to attach itself upon Rass' body. Rass looked confused, and frankly a little bit dirty as the chunk of hardening fusionist protoplasm conformed to his feet. EXTEND YOUR ARM AND MAINTAIN THAT POSITION, CORE SYSTEM! shouted Ishamel, causing Rass to panic and thrust his arm skyward at an awkward angle, THAT IS SUFFICIENT. SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL WILL NOW POSITION YOU!
The fusion navi felt the new rigid casing shift and turn upon the ground, possessed with Ishamel's cybernetic presence. At Ishamel's direction, Rass fired, sending a burst of white-hot kinetic energy lancing into the sky. The recoil knocked his arm akimbo, but Ishamel's casing helped to prevent the small, pink navi from falling over.

Argo, meanwhile, glanced back at Rass before turning his attention to the undamaged Cragger virus. "Alright, Rasshole," he shouted, materializing a megalien virus head on his buster arm and leveling it toward the Cragger virus, "Dunno what Ishy's tellin' you, but watch the rain when you shoot next! There's a big friggin rock thing right in front of you. Just shoot straight ahead!" With that, Argo engaged the AuraHead battlechip, sending the bizarre weapon barreling down the battlefield toward the rock-encrusted opponent. Argo breathed heavily, his body still slightly aching from previous battle damage sustained in the earlier ((round)), but nevertheless downloading the latest packet of chip data.

Simultaneously, Rass extended his right arm, following Argo's directions and trusting Ishamel's direction. His hand quaked from the effort to contain the considerable fusion energies contained within before finally discharging the full charge in a single blow. Iridescent blues, reds, and greens erupted from Rass' palm in a severe flash of light. The massive blast tore down the field toward the apparently empty panels, its luminous brilliance making it impossible for either navi to confirm the hit. Rass collapsed onto his knees from the effort, panting loudly as he struggled to stand.

Without skipping a beat, Argo materialized a yellow-and-green shield upon his arm, and stepped in front of Rass. "Look sharp, Rasshole. We're countin' on you for this one," he said, taking a defensive position and scanning the battlefield for threats, "Charge up that buster of yours again and take out that stupid cannon thing!"

--**--Real World--**--

Huh... that's odd... thought Suien, watching the battle unfold in front of him, It looks like their synchronization rating is...

--**--Net World--**--

A white aura began to grow around Rass' body as his fusion reactor roared to life once more. The fusion navi stabilized his legs upon the ground, quaking as raw fusion energy poured into his palmbuster reserves. Argo remained in front of him, guard at the ready, prepared to defend the small pink navi. Ishamel stood below, his crimson presence filling the discarded casing as he began to return to Argo's side. Tem, for her part, began charging the engines of the Rassboard module in anticipation of dropping the makeshift barrier she had erected before the Basher virus.

Argo turned his head, nodding once in affirmation. That was all the prompting Rass needed. Snapping his arms up in a single fluid motion, he released the palmbuster reserves. There was a flash of brilliant white light...

"Now!" shouted all four systems in unison.


Rass:
Mobilize: Rassboard in front of Basher B (on further circle of Shine Terrain), block shots fired by Basher B
1: HiCannon (80) to PulseBat B's location, guided by casing (see below) or, alternatively, Argo's direction
2: Charge Attack to Cragger A (160-80 damage with HardBody), guided by casing or, alternatively, by falling Rain + Argo's direction
3: Charge
4: Charge
RassBoard: Move away from Basher B
5: Charge Attack to Basher B (160)

Argo:
LilCloud1 Continuous attack, (70 to PulseBatA (+ accuracy from high altitude), 35 to Cragger A)
Wind: Continue to Reduce Accuracy
1: *Masterwork* Fusion Restorer (Heal 45HP to self, apply 20+38 HP Casing to Rass)
Mobilize: Move casing on Rass, assisting Rass' aim on PulseBat and aligning his body toward CraggerA
2: AuraHead1 to CraggerB (90 Break (180 with HardBody)
3: Guard2 (Reflect up to 120) Defending Rass
4: Dodge out of the way when Rass releases charge attack on Basher B.

((bump))

After they had gotten their somewhat odd meeting out of the way, the team of core and systems got back to the immediate problem, and went back towards the viruses. It wasn't really that difficult for Rass have his aim adjusted for... lack of vision, and his shots went true; both bats went down pretty easily. Both the Craggers groaned as they lifted their fists to attempt to bash at the two foreign entities in front of them. Oddly, they managed to catch Rass in their slow attacks, though the fusion restorer's defenses absorbed quite a bit of the blow. (-1)

It really didn't take much afterwards for a double attack to eliminate the Cragger golems as well, leaving the Basher as the sole survivor of the battlefield. To make matters worse for it, its attacks were also spent, and it vainly tried to charge up another round to eliminate its foes. Ultimately, it could only stare down Rass's buster as a fully-charged shot deleted it swiftly.

Quote (Rass Side)

Basher A: DELETED
Basher B: DELETED

Rass.EXE: 69 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain)
Rassboard: 58 HP (Flying, Shine) [Masterwork]

Argo.EXE: 35 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [ElecSword 2/3] [???]
Windbox: 38 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [???]

Terrain: 70% Red, 30% Shine (divided into two 15% circles about one movement apart)
(Special: Terrain is permanent and non-changeable)

Quote (Argo Side)

Basher A: #VALUE! [???]
Basher B: #VALUE! [???]
PulseBat A: DELETED
PulseBat B: DELETED
Cragger A: DELETED
Cragger B: DELETED
Shadow A: DELETED
Shadow B: DELETED
Shadow C: DELETED

Argo.EXE: 80 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [ElecSword 2/3]
Windbox: 98 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [Masterwork]

Rass.EXE: 69 HP (inside nearer circle of Shine terrain) [???]
Rassboard: 58 HP (Flying, Shine) [???]

Terrain: 70% Red, 30% Shine (divided into two 15% circles about one movement apart)
(Special: Terrain is permanent and non-changeable)

BATTLE WON!
Rass GET: 560z
Argo GET: 1680z + [GolemHit1] BattleChip

With the Bashers both taken out, they disappeared on Rass's side of the server, but again, Argo's side had a more interesting result. Both of the Basher images lingered at the brink of deletion, and were about to disappear as well, when the shining panels suddenly lost their illuminating light. The Bashers turned into a jumble of static, as did the entire field of red paneling, and both Argo and Rass were treated to the unpleasant noise for about five seconds.

The noise disoriented them enough that they weren't able to gain their bearings for a bit, and after the five seconds were over, the static noise ended, and both of his screens showed Argo and Rass in their respective screens, alone, in a vast field of plain white CyberPanels. Though the Navis wouldn't have noticed anything thanks to the noise, the operator would; both of the screens displayed a glimpse of a small Navi dashing off from the Bashers' location.

After that, a certain woman decided to reenter the server room, crunching noises interrupting Suien's operation as she clearly displayed a fearsome scowl while munching on something. However, it didn't last long, as Karen swallowed whatever she was eating and drew a deep breath.

"How's things going along?" she asked, a half-hearted, somewhat displeased look on her face.

--**--Net World--**--

As the fusion navi's iridescent blast tore across the battlefield, slamming into the glitchy Basher virus and exploding into a luminous burst of color, Argo raised his buster-arm to the sky. "Ha-HAH, suck on THAT, cannon-thing!" he shouted, disengaging the ElecSword and extending his gauntleted middle finger toward his distorted adversary, "Mess with Argo, and you're in for a world of hurt! Can't compare with an invincible piece of codin' like me when you're made of dumbness and failure."

AFFIRMATIVE, CORE SYSTEM ARGO! TEAMWORK ROUTINES HAVE BEEN EXECUTED TO A SATISFACTORY DEGREE. CORE SYSTEM ARGO AND SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL HAVE INITIALIZED QUOTE POP CULTURE BROMANCE ENDQUOTE ROUTINES TO ACHIEVE A RESULT THAT EXCEEDS SIMPLE NUMERICAL CALCULATION OF THE SUM OF THE INDIVIDUALIZED SUCCESS PARAMETERS OF EACH. quipped Ishamel, returning to Argo's buster in a gleaming orb of crimson light, IT IS FURTHERMORE UNLIKELY THAT SUCH A CALCULATION IS A RESULT OF NUMERICAL ERROR. CORE SYSTEM ARGO HAS INDISPUTEDLY LEARNED THE VALUE OF OUR QUOTE POP CULTURE BROTASTIC SYNERGY ENDQUOTE

"Oy, Ishy, I don't think anybody says 'brotastic synergy.' Also, that ain't teamwork, that was me being... uh..." started Argo, clearly having begun his response intending to belittle the others' contributions before realizing his own minimal role in the previous battle routine. After a moment's pause, he slouched downward, rubbing the back of his helmet awkwardly with his right hand. "I mean... yeah, go bros. Whoo." he muttered flatly, somewhat deflated, "Whatever. Now let's just go and collect that chip dataAAAAAUUUUGH!"

Instantly, the floor surged to life in a blast of static. Rass shot a panicked look toward Argo as the entire battlefield warped and buckled. Both navis winced and covered their ears as the piercing static assaulted their senses, unable to focus on anything but maintaining their balance.

--**--Rass.EXE--**--

A few moments later, Rass struggled to his feet, shaking his head and flexing his fingers experimentally. "W....What just happened," he asked, looking from left to right and seeing a large deserted field of ordinary panels, with Argo nowhere in sight. The battle routine ended as swiftly as it began, with the summoned peripherals fading silently into wispy streams of junk data. As the RassBoard disengaged, Rass felt Tem's azure presence slam into his body, creating a patch of blue in the center of his chest.

Hrm... if I'm not mistaken, it appears that by deleting those Basher viruses we've managed to eradicate the localized viral infection. But then, it doesn't make sense that the entire field has reverted to normal. Perhaps those shining panels were not an ordinary part of the network after all? mused Tem, keen on avoiding any mention of her previous outburst and eager to expand on any topic that would allow her to do so, As it stands, I suppose we should assume that any other such panels that we encounter are further indication of viral infection, rather than some feature of the system.

Rass nodded slowly, trudging forward and collecting the small fragments of zenny data that had collected on the network. "D-Don't you think that's a little bit weird though?" he asked, taking another scrutinizing look at the ambient network, "This is s-supposed to be an input/output s-system, right? Are those shining p-panels like holes in the datastream?"

I suppose that's a valid possibility, though it's impossible to determine at the moment given the data we have available to us, said Tem, glancing upward at Rass' face from his chest. Suddenly, a video window materialized directly in front of them, causing Rass to stumble in surprise. Suien's squinting face appeared in the center, looking as though he was focusing on some minute detail on the PET screen.

"Rass? Tem? Who was in there with you? Did somebody just leave the battlefield?" he asked, his dark eyes darting around as he apparently scanned the different readings, "Just as the panels reverted, I thought I saw another navi running away on both of your screens. I just spoke with Argo, and he said he didn't see anything. Can you confirm anything like that?"

Rass glanced downward at Tem for a moment before shrugging and shaking his head. "N-nope. I didn't see anyone else earlier," he said, folding his arms across his chest, "That d-doesn't seem to make sense though. Didn't Ms. Ezarith say that ordinary n-navis couldn't survive in this system?"

Suien frowned, "That's true - she did say that a split navi would stand a high chance of deletion without multiple core personalities. That's not what's bothering me though. What's confusing to me is that you should be the only navigator on this server. Karen mentioned that the reason why we had to split you in the first place was because the server outright rejected multiple navis entering the system if they do not have the same core data signature." The raven-haired operator brought his hand to his chin and looked upward into space, apparently intensely in thought. "I suppose that it's possible that the escaping navi is the source of the malfunction that is preventing other multiple other navigators from entering the network."

Alternatively, it could be that Ms. Ezarith was lying to you from the beginning, and there is absolutely no problem with multiple navis with different core signatures entering this system, offered Tem, Naturally, if this is the case, I am concerned as to the true purpose of our presence here.

Suien hesitated, tapping his chin as he considered the implications of what Tem was suggesting. Before he could respond, however, he heard the sounds of Karen's ill-tempered entry behind him. "I suppose we have to acknowledge that possibility, he said finally, deftly fiddling with some controls off-screen presumably to open communications with Argo, "Rass, Argo, keep searching the network and see if you can't find that navi. I'm not sure of the details, but I think we can assume that at the very least, it has a greater degree of knowledge about the present situation than any of us."

--**--Real World--**--

Quote ()

"How's things going along?" [Karen] asked, a half-hearted, somewhat displeased look on her face.

Suien spun around in place, perhaps a bit too quickly, to face the irate-looking researcher. He noted, with some chagrin, that Karen was still rather attractive even in her somewhat disheveled state, and he was forced to mentally compose himself for a moment before he spoke. "You'll be pleased to know that we seem to have eliminated another localized patch of viral infection, and seem to have gained a bit more information on some of the more unusual terrain features present on the system," he said, gesturing toward the mainframe and the newly-cleared panels, "I'm not sure if this is an intended effect of the mainframe, but some of the panels on the server exhibit some very interesting characteristics. Specifically, they appear to allow data entities located within their boundaries to simultaneously manifest in two remote locations. It's quite an interesting feature that may warrant future study. I should be able to provide battle logs from the last few cycles for further analysis at your convenience."

The dark-haired netOp crossed his harms and began to pace in front of the mainframe. He was not oblivious to the fact that Karen likely had little interest about his analysis of the server issues, but the prospect of addressing the Karen's possible misrepresentations regarding the network was more disconcerting to him. "The interesting thing about the problem is that these abnormal terrain features appear to be the product of the viral infection, rather than some inherent quality of the network... though it is unclear as to how much the latter affects the generation of the former," he continued, "If I had to wager, I don't think that these issues are purely viral in nature. Based upon the behavior and placement of the viruses, I would think that there may be some other... anomaly influencing the workings of the system."

Suien paused, having arrived at the proverbial elephant-in-the-room question. "Incidentally... are you aware of any other netNavis who might have access to this server?" he asked finally, nervously adjusting his glasses as he locked eyes with Karen, "I believe I saw another navi escaping the area when we finished cleaning things up here. It's possible that this navi is the cause of the network abnormalities, so anything that you know would be helpful."

((bump))