--**--Real World--**--Suien was taken aback by the apparent nonchalance with which Karen raised her use of previously “picked-up” navigators to test her experimental server.
Typical Sharo research protocol. he thought bitterly, allowing his features to darken for the briefest of moments before composing himself,
Results are king, ethics be damned. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.
His opinion of Karen’s moral character notwithstanding, Suien’s eyes betrayed him, furtively darting involuntarily toward the curves peeking out from beneath the female researcher’s gray lab coat.
This is stupid… The bespectacled netOp cleared his throat, crossing his arms and turning away from Karen to look up at the ceiling of the research facility in thought. “Assuming for the moment that your hypothesis is correct, we’d be dealing with an entity capable of overcoming two hurdles,” he mused, “First, it would need to be able to somehow retain its agency within the ‘snapshot’ the system created. Second, it would need to survive the data purging routines you have in place.”
“I suppose the only other possibility is that one of the other navis you sent into this system is causing the problem,” he said, adjusting his glasses as he thought out loud, “Presumably these navis would have been sent in to the server after the snapshot was created, resolving the first hurdle… though I imagine you must have a good grasp on what happened to them, given that you were utilizing them to diagnose the issue.”
A thought crossed Suien’s mind as he turned to Karen, his spindly fingers stroking his chin contemplatively, “If you don’t mind me asking - how many navis did you send in, and what specifically ended up becoming of them? Can I assume that they were sent in after the infections began?”
--**--Net World (Rass.EXE), moments before--**--Rass instinctively took a tentative step back as he found himself contemplating the veritable menagerie of color and code arrayed before him.
Okay… this is different… he thought, quickly activating his scanning routines and taking stock of the situation. Instantly, green streams of data flowed across his visual display, showing various analyses of viral data and network stability. The fusion navi grimaced at the data, struggling to take everything in.
Eyes ahead, Rass. Let’s see what we’re up against. I’ll start initializing scanners and… huh, you’ve already taken care of that? quipped Tem, her blue presence swirling around to Rass’ torso. The tactical subsystem’s eyes narrowed and gazed quizzically upward toward Rass for a moment before refocusing upon the viral horde before them.
Good - that saves some of my system resources for analyzing the situation at hand. Now, having reviewed the data, what do you make of the situation? Rass frowned,
“Are you p-patronizing me, Tem?” he asked out loud, never breaking his focus on the surrounding viruses,
“Because s-seriously, if you know how this s-system works–” Tem huffed, interrupting Rass mid-sentence.
For your information, I wasn’t being patronizing. These colored panels are just as confounding to me as they are, no doubt, to you, and I was simply trying to solicit your thoughts to brainstorm a way out of this situation, she snapped, with a hint of vulnerability unfamiliar to the small pink navi,
This may come as a surprise to you, Rass, but there are limits to my processing abilities and I appreciate some… collaborative conception from time to time. A pause.
But fine, have it your way. scoffed Tem,
If you can’t trust me, you just need to say so. Rass gulped, taken aback for what seemed to be the hundredth time today.
“No, look, Tem, I’m... I'm sorry.” he began,
“I’m not used to this, okay? You’ve been trying to undermine me to t-take over the s-system administrator position for as long as I can r-remember, so I always assumed you didn’t care about what I thought. I'll... I'll collaborate with you.” Tem seemed to bristle momentarily, but remained silent, sliding down Rass’ torso and left leg, into the sole of his boot. The black-and-pink navi felt his limb spasm as a burst of protoplasm poured out, generating the now-familiar RassBoard beneath his feet. Just as Rass opened his mouth to offer additional words of apology, Tem spoke first, launching into her battle analysis as though nothing was wrong.
Right then. Four colors, four corresponding towers. I don’t see Argo, but we can safely assume that he’s dealing with a similar anomaly on his side. If the viruses are coded to a particular color zone, we may need to coordinate through Suien to simultaneously delete them…“N-No, look over there,” interrupted Rass without thinking,
“Those Champu viruses can m-move across colors without trouble. I d-don't think that's the same as b-before...” He quickly cut himself off, feeling the protoplasm comprising the RassBoard tighten below him and bracing himself for a castigating cascade of abuse from Tem for derailing her train of thought...
...which surprisingly never came.
I see, interesting responded Tem, without dropping a beat,
I suppose it's also noteworthy that these viruses do not appear to be native to the Sharo ambient network. Ergo, perhaps the focus of our analysis should be on the new untested variable…“That’d be those weird colored t-towers on the four corners, right?” “Correct, so assuming a similar layout on Argo’s end…, “…we can f-focus our attacks on one tower…” …while coordinating with Argo to take it down simultaneously! finished Tem,
Sounds like a plan. I’ll open up communications with Suien to get the battle routine ready to execute. --**--Net World (Argo.EXE), moments before--**-- H…Hey, Ishy? muttered Argo, eyes shifting from the viral array to the buster cannon on his right arm,
I still can’t access my body data. Think you can uh… get me that scanner information? AFFIRMATIVE, CORE SYSTEM ARGO! MULTIPLE VIRAL SIGNATURES DETECTED. EXTRAPOLATING FROM PURE DATA INTEGRITY, THREAT LEVEL IS ASSESSED AT APPROXIMATELY 65%. HOWEVER, PROCEEDING ACCORDING TO THESE PARAMATERS IS NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO EXISTENCE OF UNKNOWN VARIABLES. “Well that ain’t super helpful, is it?” growled Argo, scratching the back of his head with his gauntleted fist,
“So the viruses are kinda dangerous but maybe very dangerous? The hell am I supposed to do with that?” UNCLEAR. ADDITIONAL DATA IS REQUIRED TO FORMULATE OPTIMAL BATTLE ROUTINE. QUERY, CORE SYSTEM ARGO: WHAT IS YOUR PROPOSED COURSE OF ACTION? The armored navi hesitated, then nodded nervously,
“Well… okay... um... that’s a real weird lookin’ tower over there” pointing his Ishamel-cannon toward the green chromatic clump of paneling
“What say we smash it?” AFFIRMATIVE, CORE SYSTEM ARGO. OPENING COMMUNICATIONS WITH OPERATOR SUIEN MATSUMOTO TO COMMENCE BATTLE ROUTINE “Wha… wait, really? Are you sure?” sputtered Argo,
“Ishy, I don’t have a goddamn clue what I’m doing. I’m just runnin’ on instinct here.” CORE SYSTEM ARGO, THE PHENOMENON THAT YOU HAVE DESIGNATED AS QUOTE “INSTINCT” ENDQUOTE IS IN FACT THE ACCUMULATION OF BATTLE DATA WITHIN YOUR PROCESSORS. YOUR ABILITY TO DRAW UPON THIS DATA HAS BEEN INTEGRAL TO OUR CONTINUED SUCCESSES. MY PRESENT HYPOTHESIS IS THAT YOUR QUOTE INSTINCT ENDQUOTE COMBINED WITH MY TACTICAL ANALYSIS WILL ENABLE US TO FULLY ENGAGE OUR QUOTE POP CULTURE REFERENCE “BROTASTIC SYNERGY” ENDQUOTE Argo’s brow furrowed as he glanced downward at his crimson buster rifle before steadying himself into a combat position.
“Yeah, pretty sure that’s still not a thing,” he muttered,
“but...yeah, if you say so, that kinda makes sense. We got this, I guess.”AFFIRMATIVE, CORE SYSTEM ARGO. WE GOT THIS BECAUSE WE ARE BROS added Ishamel.
“...whatever, Ishy.” --**--Real World--**-- Suien’s mind was racing as his eyes darted between the two PET screens, quickly reviewing the twin streams of data.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said, glancing toward Karen,
“it seems like we’ve reached some sort of nexus of the colored panels, but unlike the previous encounters, this one lacks any of the partitions we were dealing with before.” The dark-haired netOp's eyes narrowed from behind his glasses.
“Rass and Argo are probably frazzled, so I’m going to need to focus on coordinating…” Before Suien could finish his thought, a fresh burst of communication data from Tem and Ishamel streamed on to the screen. He blinked.
“That’s… new,” he muttered, squinting his eyes in disbelief,
“no cross-chatter, no bickering, just a short directive from both of them: ‘destroy green tower.’” --**--Net World (Rass.EXE)--**--As the fresh chip data streamed into his body, Rass felt the rocket platform jostle beneath his feet as it sped forward into the fray. Steadying himself, he allowed the elemental energies of the ElecReel battlechip to coalesce within his arms. Light-yellow coils of electricity sparked between his fingertips as his hands vibrated, struggling to contain the pulsating energies therein. With Tem deftly maneuvering his flying surfboard into position nearby the viral threat, Rass braced his legs for balance and thrust his palms forward, discharging a thick bolt of golden lightning into the nearest Champu virus. The colorful network lit up as the thunderous blast split into a netlike array of thousands of bolts, crisscrossing the battlefield and surging toward the green data pillar.
The heavy recoil of the ElecReel discharge made the Fusion Navi’s knees buckle, and he felt himself stumbling backwards. However, ITEM-2 seemed to almost move and buck in tandem with the destabilizing kickback, absorbing most of the shock and allowing Rass to keep his balance. Rass’ eyes widened as he looked downward toward the Tem-possessed vehicle.
Oh don’t look so surprised, Rass, she said,
Honestly, this happens every time you fire that thing off. I’d be an idiot if I couldn’t adapt for at least that.Suddenly, a small video window materalized to Rass’ left, displaying the ruddy helmeted face of a growling Argo.
Oh! Now this is a surprise, quipped Tem,
No voice commands - did you finally figure out how to access body data remotely?--**--Net World (Argo.EXE)--**--Taking one last look around to mentally mark the positions of the viruses arrayed before him, Argo stepped off from his starting position, traversing the battlefield with a speed that belied his larger frame. The former subsystem barreled toward the nearest PogoJack, charging the recently-arrived chip energy and generating a softly-glowing Megalien head on Ishamel’s buster arm. As the charging Argo approached his target destination, Ishamel piped up.
CORE SYSTEM ARGO, I PROPOSE INITIALIZING COMMUNICATIONS WITH CORE SYSTEM RASS TO COORDINATE OFFENSIVE EFFORTS..
Argo nodded, and immediately started talking out loud.
“Oy, Rasshole, can you...” he began, before realizing his error, cursing, and shouting a series of increasingly-byzantine voice commands,
“What was it again? Activate communications! Initialize comms! Turn on speakers! Start the... talky thing! Um...The ascended subsystem was still struggling to “initialize communications uplink” with Rass as he slid into position on one of the green panels, and lined up his shot with the massive green pillar. Having exhausted a veritable thesaurus of synonyms for “turn on” and “speak,” Argo cursed again, and with his free arm, tapped the side of his helmet, simultaneously accessing the fusionist protoplasm’s core routines and “starting the talky thing” with Rass. The pink navi’s face appeared on a video window to his right.
Oh! Now this is a surprise. No voice commands - did you finally figure out how to access body data remotely?“
Can it, Tem. This shit is hard.” grumbled Argo as he clicked his buster appendage into position, zeroing in on the nearest PogoJack and aligning his sights with the Tower,
“and you, Rasshole, You in position? I’m gonna bring the pain down on that tower over there!”Rass nodded into the chat window, holding up his glowing fist, a pure-white aura of battlechip energy pulsating softly in the dank Sharo network. Turning to face an offscreen opponent, Rass thrust his palm forward, squaring his diminutive frame.
Argo grinned. Ishamel tensed.
--**--Net World (Together)--**--A deafening crack echoed across both sides of the network as both navis let loose their respective blasts.
From Argo, the eerie Megalien head surged forward, rumbling as it barrelled toward the green tower and the Snake-like virus coiled tightly around it. The force of the discharge sent even the stocky Argo back a few steps, and he dropped into a crouch to stabilize himself, dragging his gauntleted fist into the network to slow his backward momentum.
From Rass, a sharp burst of white light snapped off as the HiCannon battlechip energy discharged, sending a bright white stream of energy lancing toward his green tower. Unlike Argo, Rass was sent spiraling clockwise from the kickback, flying off the back of the Rassboard but managing to land on the panels below.
--**--Net World (Argo.EXE)--**--“Argo? Ishamel? How’s the battle progressing there? Is everything okay?”It was Ishamel who answered, in a voice that sounded somehow almost cheerful, in a strange, monotone, robotic way.
AFFIRMATIVE OPERATOR UNIT. CORE UNIT ARGO AND SUPPORT UNIT ISHAMEL ARE OPERATING AT ACCEPTABLE QUOTE “BROMANCE” ENDQUOTE LEVELS. Ignoring a groan from Argo, the targeting subsystem continued,
HOWEVER, THERE IS AN INCOMPATIBILITY BETWEEN CORE UNIT AND SUPPORT UNIT THAT REQUIRES YOUR INPUT TO RESOLVE.”Suien’s brow furrowed.
“An incompatibility? That sounds pretty serious - what kind of incompatibility are you talking about?”QUERY: HAVE YOU INITIALIZED SUIEN MATSUMOTO SUPPORT UNIT ACQUISITION PROTOCOLS? IF NOT, SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL HAS RUN SEVERAL SIMULATIONS AND CAN PROVIDE ANALYSIS TO ASSIST YOU IN OPTIMIZING SUCH PROTOCOLS.“Support unit acquisition protocols? Why on earth would I need to acquire a supp... oh, I get it. Dammit, Ishamel.” replied Suien, his face reddening slightly as he glanced toward Karen,
"If you’ve got the system resources to waste, you should allocate them to the battle at hand.” He paused, a sudden realization dawning on the bespectacled netOp,
“wait... simulations?”Argo cracked a grin and thrust his arm out to his side, fingers extended.
“Yeah, told ya he wouldn’t be interested, Ishy. Researcher chick’s a dud,” he quipped,
“Bring on the next battlechip, Suien. I’m on a roll here”“I didn’t say she was a dud, Argo,” hissed Suien, shaking his head and slotting a small green battlechip into the PET,
“...just… nevermind. Focus on the battle, not my love life.”As the metallic-green boomerang materialized into Argo’s gauntleted fist with a flash of emerald light, the Melee navi grinned wider.
“Here it comes! One big hit for Argo!” he announced, squaring his legs and drawing his right arm back,
“Gonna boomerang your f&%$in’ face off, snake!” With that, Argo torqued his body and brought the scything projectile around in a huge arc. The wood-element weapon whistled through the air, aimed toward the remaining viruses. Without confirming his hits, Argo whirled around, still smirking slightly as he entered into a crouched position, prepared to evade if the opportunity arose.
--**--Net World (Rass.EXE)--**--Having landed heavily upon the prismatic network, Rass stumbled to his feet. Feeling a surge of fresh chip data coursing through his circuitry, Rass slammed his palms onto the network, injecting a burst of coding into the network and materializing the narrow tuby virus in front of him. Almost immediately, the silver instrument belted out its cacophanus melody, Rass stepped backwards a few steps, plugging his ears and readying his body to dodge the inevitable counterattack.
You should allocate remaining system resources toward evasion until the next cycle, Rass! said Tem, her loud voice piercing through the discordant dirge emanating from the newly-summoned object,
I'll cover you however I can, but that tuby isn't going to keep them occupied for long. With that, Tem twirled the Rassboard around and planted it nearby, forming a makeshift barrier between the fusion navi and his viral adversaries. Rass nodded, bent his knees slightly, and took in the battlefield, magenta eyes darting to and fro as they scanned for threats.
--**--Real World--**--“Huh, there it goes again,” mused Suien, adjusting his glasses with one hand while following lines of data on his PET monitor with the other,
“Another synchronization rating spike. Are they just... getting along better?”Argo:1: Tactical Movement toward Green terrain
2:
AuraHead1Damage: 90 + Break + Line Attack3 + Aura Boost
Accuracy: B / C / D
Description: Launches a Megallian Aura Head that smashes through up to 3 targets/objects in a straight line. Accuracy decreases with each hit.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Special: Aura Boost: +20 Attack Damage when user of this chip is protected by a Barrier. +50 Attack Damage when user of this chip is protected by an Aura.
Trader Rank: D: 90 + Break + Line Attack3 + Aura Boost (Acc: B / C / D) to Green Data Pillar, Anaconda-E, PogoJackB (timed with Rass’ Hi-Cannon)
3:
Boomerang1Damage: 60 + Group Attack (Arc)
Accuracy: B
Description: Throws a boomerang at enemies
Duration: Once
Element: Wood
Special: Group Attack (Arc): This attack may hit between 1 and 4 enemies on average, perhaps more depending on the situation. This version of Group Attack hits in an arc that loops back to the attacker. If attempting to hit too many targets with poor RP, you may also hit yourself, so be careful.
Trader Rank: D: 60 + Group Attack (Arc) (Acc: B) to Anaconda-E, Drixol EX, PogoJackC
4: Prepped dodge
Rass:1: RassBoard Masterwork (20+32 HP Object, flying, light, passive tactical move x 1)
*RassBoard: Tactical Move angled toward Green terrain
2:
ElecReel1Damage: 80 + Spread 3 (Side + Behind)
Accuracy: B
Description: A small bolt of lightning that spreads sideways and behind the target upon impact.
Duration: Once
Element: Elec
Trader Rank: D: 80 + Spread 3 (Side + Behind) (Acc: B) to ChampuB, spread to ChampuA, ChampuC, and Green Data Pillar
*RassBoard (Mobilize): Position board between Rass and Magneakers, at an angle to attempt to defend against airborne bombs.
3:
Hi-CannonDamage: 120 + Knockback
Accuracy: A
Description: A decent sized cannon with a single shot.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Trader Rank: C: 120 + Knockback (Acc: A) to Green Data Pillar (timed with Argo’s Aurahead1)
4:
DiscordHP: 50
Properties: Heavy
Object Damage: 50 + Impact
Damage Method: Throw, Telekinesis
Status Effect: Confusion + To-All-Clause (Enemies)
Accuracy: S
Description: Causes mass confusion in the enemy ranks.
Duration: 1 turn or until destroyed.
Element: Null
Trader Rank: C: 50HP Heavy Object, 1-Turn: Confusion + To-All-Enemy (Acc: S) Confuse enemies, try to make them miss/attack each other?
5: Prepped dodge
A few housekeeping items, since I’m a bit out of touch. Seven years is a long time:
-Since passives have apparently been eliminated, I’ll be refraining from utilizing Fusionist Physics until I have a chance to get to a shop.
-I'm not sure how the action updates affect this mission, so I’m going to go with the 5 action/4 action split until further notice. I have levelled down accordingly, however.
-Thanks for all your hard work on keeping the lights on here. I know I said my posting days were over, but sometimes you just feel like scratching that creative itch. Can't say for sure whether I'll end up seeing this through, but for what it's worth, I’m very grateful to you all for letting me play in your proverbial sandbox again.
