Into the Woods

Mach continued to hover and glide forwards, his engines and assorted thrusters keeping him a good 5 feet or so off the ground. Suddenly, warning indicators started to activate as his radar screen started to light up with the "blips" of multiple viruses appearing. Aera scanned the area ahead from inside the cockpit, noticing the large amount of viruses appearing in front of them. She also looked back to see another set of viruses blocking off their escape route.
We're surrounded!
[[i]Requesting chips.[/i]]

Machman remained calm, even though he was completely surrounded by a large number of tough viruses. However, he was confident the destructive power of Red's attacks combined with his own mobility and combat flexibility would make short work of the threat. Machman halted his slow advance and prepared for battle; he jettisoned several small sensors off his fuselage, which darted off in several directions. As his Overwatch sensor network moved into position, a large object formed underneath his frame and dropped to the grass below. The object looked like a large bomb, with multiple holes along it's sides.

[[i]Kaboom.[/i]]
The bomb detonated, but instead of creating a large fireball, the explosion was directed outwards through the rim of holes. A massive ring of golden data particles rippled out over the area. The data fragments reacted with the grass below and became very volatile, capable of literally eating away at viral programs. Machman remained perched over the object as it disappeared, and he called out to Red.
[[i]Watch your head![/i]]

Since they were completely surrounded by buzzing skeeters, Mach had to get a little creative. His engines started to tilt in one direction in their frames, their thrust was further vectored with control surfaces over the thruster vents. This rapid change in thrust started to rotate on his axis in a flat spin. His acceleration was smooth, but quite rapid, Aera had to brace herself to keep from getting pressed against the side of the cockpit. As soon as his nose moved 180degrees, his V-shaped wings were jettisoned from his fuselage with a set of small explosions. The large wings were sent spinning out towards the surrounding Skeeters. The wings acted like a pair of massive boomerangs and orbited around Machman and hopefully tore the relatively weak skeeters to shreds as they tore through the air.

Machman's flat spin continued at a constant speed as his wings whooshed around him like a pair of massive blades. The wings started to move back towards him as he hit 360 degrees, and swung into position as he approached the 540 degree mark. The wings were then caught by Machman's electromagnets, and seamlessly slid into their original places and were locked down internally.

Aera sat in her ejection seat, slightly dizzy, but also quite impressed by Machman's attack.
Wow... didn't know you could do that.
[[i]Well, I wasn't entirely sure I could do that as well, but I trust Mazer's programming, especially with this .GMO. Hang on, we're going up and away.[/i]]
Aera took that as her cue to brace herself as Machman's engines swung back into position and burned brightly as they propelled him in a steep climb away from the viruses. Machman left several white streaks in the sky as he rose several hundred feet into the air. As he did so, a pair of large, heavy missiles materialized under his wings. The blackened missiles' warheads glowed red with energy, and their long frames held more than enough fuel to probably dig themselves all the way to ShaoJingNet. As Machman reached the apex of his climb, he pitched backwards and flipped over till his nose pointed down towards the viruses below. Aera watched as a pair of cross hairs appeared over the pair of PuffBall viruses below. The cross chairs changed from green to red as they locked on. As soon as they did, Machman launched the missiles. Their stabilizers oriented them towards the viruses, and their solid-fuel rockets sent them streaking towards their targets.

Machman remained in the air, concentrating on the missiles rapidly approaching his targets. Meanwhile, Aera's arms started to glow bright green, and the glow moved from her arms to the underside of Mach's frame. The pocket of recovery data beamed down to the ground below and dropped on Red, to replenish her energy. As the recovery program activated, Aera's voice came from the glow.
[[i]Alright Red, I hope we've leveled the playing field enough. Show them what you've got! We'll provide air support![/i]]

ACTIONS:
Machman
Spice2: All viruses on Grass terrain (except the Skeeters) (110dmg Wood + Confusion + Ground Attack + To-All-Grass)
Boomerang1: SkeeterA,B,C (60dmg Wood)
Boomerang1: SkeeterD,E,F (60dmg Wood)
AfterBurner Action: Strategic Action (Move High Altitude)
Charge Magnum
Magnum1: PuffBallA,B (120dmg Fire x2 + Breaking + Panel Breaking + 1 Target per charge {max 2 charges} )
Aera: Heal: RedRidingHood.EXE (Recover 17HP)
Aera: Cheer Red

((The Spice2 chip will affect all viruses on Grass terrain (except for the Skeeters due to Omnishoes), the grass panels do not even need to be connected))
"Whoa," Shin blinked, the devastation Machman was about to cause was ENORMOUS. They were really just left with the scraps of the situation, but first...

"Alright! Let's get everyone in tip-top shape! Candle2! Slot in!" the ace suggested cheerfully as he sent down the object.

"Alright! It's the present from Mr. Montag! Here we go!" Red giggled excitedly, flipping out her cape with a flourish. The sun seemed to smile upon this childish navi, shining brightly while luring broken data parts back to their original places.

Whipping out a glass vial of wax from her picnic basket, Red threw the container onto the closest glass panel, making it burst aflame and form into a giant candle that lit itself with a green flame on the top. A soothing sensation wafted over the battlefield toward Red and her allies, granting some healing bonuses.

"Set up complete! Let's burn burn burn!" Shin yelped throwing three chips into the PET.

"Roger that! It's time for a Barbeque! Today's special! Deep-Fried Vegetables!" the red-caped wonder shouted, waving her arm forward and summoning a series of lava towers to burst out of the ground and make their way toward the Boomer group. Sure they could deal with frontal assaults, but attacks from below pretty much bypassed that case anyway. The roar of fire churned maliciously as tower after tower of fire rose up from the depths of the ground and marched menacingly over to the Boomers.

Pinpointing another grassy area next to the KillPlants, Red focused and warped over to the designated area in line with the viruses before sending a stream of flames erupting out of the ground toward her opponents. The searing blaze cackled maniacally as they closed in on the KillPlant group, hoping to incinerate them all in a single go.

Re-evaluating the situation, Red wondered if there was anything else she could do before it came to her that there was new chip that they recently got in a trade.

"Hey Shin! Send me that... what's it called? Double Cube?" the crimson crusader requested, reaching her hand up to the sky.

"Hm, that does look like a good thing to use in this situation. Alright, let's try it out! DBLCube... I mean DBLBeam! Slot-in!" Shin yelled, sending in the traded chip to the PET.

"Round and round she goes! Where she stops, nobody knows!" Red sang as a DBLCube, flashing violently between red and blue color schemes, popped out over and above her head. What could it be? Only time would tell.

In the meanwhile, Red decided to hop through the next couple of grass panels to try and dodge any incoming attacks. Myun decided this would be the best option as well and proceeded to copy her master's movements.

Turn Summary:
*Sunshiny Day: Heal 15 to Red
1. Candle2 on Grass Panel [Summon 100 HP Fire Resistant Object that grants Regen 10 [10 HP per action] To-All Allies]
2. Firetower1 to BoomerEX group [100 Fire DMG x2(Elemental Weakness)=200 Fire DMG + Piercing + Group Attack + Ground Attack]
3. Areagrab to Grass Panel in line with KillPlants [Teleport, Dodge, Tactical Movement]
4. Flameline1 to KillPlantEXA,B,C [70 Fire DMGx2(Elemental Weakness)= 140 DMG + Ground Attack]
5. DBLBeam1 [(Red) 40 DMG To-All Enemies or (Blue) 30 Heal To-All Allies]
6. Dodge to next Grass Panel
*Grass Panel (Heal 30)

Myun's Actions:
*Run Myun Run: Head to Next Grass panel
1-3. Dodge through Grass Panels
((Bump))
((As you may see..I may have made some mistakes.))

The spice made a deep impact on the virus group, but few managed to survive the attack. Red immediately followed the attack with the firetower, but it was a complete flop as none of the surviving Boomer wasn't even singed by the fire. One quickly retaliated with a throw of the boomerang, which managed to hit everyone except Machman who was already high up in the sky after eliminating all the skeeters in two quick sweeps.

Quickly, Red positioned her self besides the KillPlants and burned all of them to crisp. However, it was a bit too late as all three planted the seeds into the grounds. The Puffballs in the far back started to open its mask and began to spread its poison powders that affected everyone. At that time, MachMan prepared his Magnum as it the shots destroyed one virus while the other, who was hiding behind a mask, was completely overwhelmed by the power of the chip and incinerated. The sole surviving Needler rushed into the navi's line and fired its needles everywhere. It missed Myun and Red, but the Candle was broken into scraps of waxes; however, that didn't matter too much since Red's DBLCUBE fired a healing blue light that recovered most of the damages and the candle already finished its job before it was gone.

-Far Behind-
PuffBallA: DELETED
PuffBallB: DELETED

-Behind-
KillPlant EXA: DELETED [Seed Planted]
KillPlant EXB: DELETED [Seed Planted]
KillPlant EXC: DELETED [Seed Planted]

-Front-
Needler EXA: DELETED
Needler EXB: DELETED
Needler EXC: DELETED
Needler EXD: DELETED
Needler EXE: 90 HP

Boomer EXA: DELETED
Boomer EXB: 90 HP
Boomer EXC: DELETED
Boomer EXD: DELETED
Boomer EXE: 90 HP

-Surrounding-
Skeeter EXA: DELETED
Skeeter EXB: DELETED
Skeeter EXC: DELETED
Skeeter EXD: DELETED
Skeeter EXE: DELETED
Skeeter EXF: DELETED

Terrain: 50% Normal, 50% Poison [Checkered Pattern]

Red: 200 HP
Myun: 80 HP
Candle: DELETED

Machman: 80 HP
Aera: 40 HP
Machman maintained his altitude as he surveyed the situation.
[[i]We have 3 viruses remaining. Engaging.[/i]]
As he made a wide banking turn towards the viruses, Aera activated a recovery program and sent it coursing through Machman's frame to replenish energy and repair some of the damage caused by the toxic spores. Machman pointed his nose towards the closest boomer, and a missile materialized under his fuselage. Unlike the others, this missile had no warhead, just a solid chunk of iron designed to smash it's target to bits. The warhead was supported by a powerful solid fuel rocket engine, and had multiple fins to stabilize it's flight. As Machman approached his target, he pulled up multiple visual feeds from his Overwatch sensor grid. Using the information from the sensors, he plotted out the virus's position, course, and speed. Using that information, he sent an infrared beam from one of the sensors and "painted" the area he wanted to send the missile to.

As soon as the beam was activated, he jettisoned the missile and it rocketed ahead like a dart. A small camera quickly found the infrared beam and used it for guidance as it streaked towards the ground. The missile impacted with a loud thud and kicked up a cloud of dust and debris. As the dust settled, Machman's weapon blisters slid open to reveal a pair of triple-barreled vulcan guns. He throttled up as he began his strafing run. He set his gunsights on the second Boomer virus and opened up with a roar. The 30mm vulcans spun wildly as they spewed a dual stream of armor-piercing rounds downrange and towards the boomerang virus. The impacts of the bullets sounded like a rumbling freight train as they tore up the ground and hopefully its target as well. As the vulcans depleted their ammunition and retreated to the weapon blisters, Machman continued to dive to the ground and picked up speed. He angled himself towards the remaining Needler virus and kicked on his afterburners. He exploded forward with a boom as he broke the sound barrier. A protective veil formed over his frame and he attempted to use the veil to crush the virus with his increasingly large inertial force.

After passing the virus, he throttled down and banked hard to return to Red and Myun on the ground behind them. He banked towards his allies as his engines swung downwards in their frames and his hover thrusters kicked on. He then hovered several feet ahead of Red, and turned back towards the viruses. As he did, the lines on the surface of his cockpit began to glow. Aera was pumping electric current into the channels on the cockpit surface, causing the glow and preparing to unleash an electric blast if any viruses were to attack.

ACTIONS:
Machman
Aera: Heal Machman (Recover 17HP)
CannonBall: BoomerEXB (150dmg + Break) [+ Take Aim]
Rising Barrage: BoomerEXE (100dmg + Break + 4TCD + Strategic Action) [Dive from High Altitude]
DashAttack: NeedlerEXE (90dmg + Impact)
Strategic Action: Shield Red and Myun from attack
Aera: Attack: 1 attacking virus (35dmg Elec)
Afterburner Cooldown Action
"Work it out!" Shin yelled, snapping Red out a momentary reverie that occurred after the first little skirmish of the battle. The enemy had been massively wiped out, but there were still some remnants left.

She'd be sure to take care of some.

"SideBamboo and Cannonball, let's roll," Red sighed, snapping her fingers. A ray of sunshine soothed some of her wounds suffered from the recent attacks as the red-caped wonder surveyed the area.

"Roger that, go help Machman out," Shin commented, letting out a low breath as he slotted the chips in.

"No problem," the crimson crusader replied, smirking as she charged something in her right fist with green energy. Facing one of the Boomers, she violently swung her arm from right to left, summoning a Kilby virus next to the Boomer. Following the navi's arm motions quickly and rapidly, the shadowy creature grinned widely with its yellow mouth before suddenly thrusting a lance with dangerous velocity at the Boomer it was at the side of. Cackling menacingly, the shadow seeped back into the ground.

Activating the next chip she requested, the fairy-tale fighter reverted back to her old self as she cheerfully pulled out a bowling ball from within the depths of her picnic basket. Grinning playfully, she winked at the remaining Needler and sent the heavy projectile rocketing toward the virus with an expert toss.

Noticing Machman providing some cover, Red and Myun bounced back one grass panel and watched out for incoming attacks to dodge, if any. The rabbit unit, wary, prepared for her ears to lash out if an enemy should attack.

"I hope that's the last of it," Shin sighed, nonchalantly accessing the Colosseum webpage.

Turn Summary:
*Sunshiny Day: Heal 15 HP to Red
1. SideBamboo1 to BoomerEXB [80 +15(Elemental Bonus)+10(One Opponent) = 105 Wood DMG + Piercing]
2. Cannonball to NeedlerE [150 DMG + Break + Impact]
3. Tactical Movement behind Machman's Guard
4-6. Dodge to Grass Panels

Myun's Actions:
*Run Myun Run: Movement behind Machman's Guard
*Rhythm Boxing to any-incoming virus [2x10 DMG]
1-3. Dodge to Grass Panels.
The two navis showed no mercy against the remaining viruses, but also took caution for any counter attacks. The remaining viruses stood no chance against the navis and simply perished as they were bombarded by attacks after attacks. When things calmed down, the seeds that was planted not so long ago bloomed and exploded in a destructive wave. Grim was able to shield his partner by using his own body as a shield and the rest was simply evaded!

-Far Behind-
PuffBallA: DELETED
PuffBallB: DELETED

-Behind-
KillPlant EXA: DELETED
KillPlant EXB: DELETED
KillPlant EXC: DELETED

-Front-
Needler EXA: DELETED
Needler EXB: DELETED
Needler EXC: DELETED
Needler EXD: DELETED
Needler EXE: DELETED

Boomer EXA: DELETED
Boomer EXB: DELETED
Boomer EXC: DELETED
Boomer EXD: DELETED
Boomer EXE: DELETED

-Surrounding-
Skeeter EXA: DELETED
Skeeter EXB: DELETED
Skeeter EXC: DELETED
Skeeter EXD: DELETED
Skeeter EXE: DELETED
Skeeter EXF: DELETED

Terrain: 50% Normal, 50% Poison [Checkered Pattern]

Red: 210 HP
Myun: 80 HP

Machman: 67 HP
Aera: 40 HP

-BATTLE WON!-
Red: 1900z + 102 BugFrags + 10 FXP + 1 FXP Extra
Mach: 2200z + 102 BugFrags + 10 FXP + 2 FXP Extra
"Whew! What a ride!" Red exclaimed stretching her arms.

"Those Wood towers came really close though," Shin sighed, turning his eyes to Machman.

"We can heal him next battle! It'll be alright!" Red said, pumping her fist into the air. "Whaddya say Mr. Machman? Ready for another one? We'll beat the next guy quick and rush to the tournament! Are you ready!?" the red-caped wonder shouted motivationally, her burning spirit coursing through the battlefield.

"Well, you better hurry up, who knows when the next round will start?" Shin sighed, seeing no updates from the Colosseum homepage.

"That's why I said we're going to beat the next guy really quick! Are you up for it Mr. Machman, Ms. Aera?" the crimson crusader inquired, bubbling with fighting spirit.

((Battle 5 if Grim wants it))
[[i]I think we should be good to go.[/i]]

Mazer's face popped up in a window that opened between Machman and Red.
[Hey Mach, I wish we could continue, but it looks like the 2nd round of the tournament is starting momentarily.]
Aww... I really enjoyed busting with Red and Myun. But it sounds like Red is in the tournament too.
[[i]Sorry Red, but I guess we'll have to cut our adventure short. How about we meet back together after this round?[/i]]

Machman transforms in a glow of cyan light, and both Aera and him stand on the grassy floor in front of Red and her SP.

It was a pleasure to meet you all. I hope to see you again after the tournament!
Good luck at the tournament!

Mach and Aera glow a bright cyan as they beam out of the network and back into Mazer's PET. A small packet of data remained floating in the air near Red, and it silently floated to her hand.


Red GET: Mazer's Email: M.Patrovski@PSAOM.org

((Logged Out))
"They were a nice couple, weren't they, Shin?" Red inquired, a bit down from having to leave so quickly, but exuberant that they would get the chance to meet again.

"Yeah, they were, Red. Well, you heard 'em, the second round's starting, don't wanna be late," Shin reminded.

"Alright, let's go! To victory!" the crimson crusader cheered.

As the navi and support program disappeared in a flash of red light, the red-caped wonder could feel something calling out to her from below the network. That certain emotion, she would surely try to meet it head on the next time.


((Logged out, to be continued at a later date in Yumland Rogue Net.))