Lonely Planet [Part 1]

[Origin: Beach Street]

A portal in the middle of the Yumland network was minding its own business, being inactive and blue and such, when it happened to be interrupted by incoming traffic. Disgruntled, it begrudgingly turned yellow to allow the newcomers through. Two figures instantly formed on it, obscured by the portal's yellow light. As the light dimmed, the two figures walked out, and were revealed to be the aquatic Navi, Eternalis.EXE, along with his Support Program, Aurora.

Turning to each other, they nodded before turning back to their point of entrance, waiting for their friends to come in.

The next to walk through the portal was a petite, purple Navi with abnormally long hair, with an unnatural huge shadow looming behind her as she trudged to join the early birds. Greeting Eternalis and Aurora in her usual fashion, the unexplained looming shadow seemed to just hang there like a stalker. "U-uh, Rhea, behind you?" Camillia said, pointing at the pixelated shadow though she knew very well that Rhea couldn't see her pointing finger.

A cheesy thunderclap and shaking of the ground later, a huge metal piece of junk seemed to have it's head rested on Rhea's head. "Uh, no, before you comment, dame, this is the only part of your scripted appearance that is relatively soft," an old-geezer like voice said, seemingly depicting laziness that wasn't making sense for it's equine build. "Nevertheless, get off," Rhea said calmly, two hands reaching up to get the horse head away from the top of her head. "... Should you not introduce yourself?" Rhea suggested bluntly to the giant behind her, who promptly moved to stand by the petite Navi's side instead. From the front, it looked like comparing a kid to a warhorse.

"... Well... They didn't really ask," it replied dutifully, though the voice hinted playfulness. The large bulk of a mechanical horse swung it's tail, batting away imaginary dust. "And if I may suggest, I would say we should move away from the portal so that we do not obstruct newcomers. Aye?"

Camillia stared at her PET screen in shock.

With a blue streak of light, Validus crashed into the server, bringing about sparks everywhere as he landed. Markerlight landed soon afterwards, but with more grace and silence compared to the Navi's grand entrance. Instinctively, the support program pulled out her automatic pistol and brought it up to bear, as if scanning the area, before dropping her guard. "Well, it looks like it's all clear!" she said as he holstered her pistol.

Validus looked at Markerlight with slight amusement, before turning to look for the others. Eternalis and Aurora were already here and... wait, is that a warhorse with Rhea? "Whoa, wait... is that your SP?" Validus said as he stared at the mechanical horse.

Markerlight said nothing, except her mind was going "horsie" over and over again like an mp3 stuck on replay.

"Well, that's...."

Eternalis looked up at the horsehead currently looming over Rhea's head, and his yellow eyes squinted. A gigantic mechanical warhorse, definitely befitting a robotic little girl. Heavily armored, with some nice touches to complete the electronics. The bit about how it could talk was also- "... um, interesting. I assume you're Rhea's Support Program, then... I am Eternalis, and with me is Aurora. You are?"

Aurora simply stood by Eternalis, looking up at the warhorse's features and scanning them with her visor's analyzing skills. From her data, she saw that the newcomer was even more of a heavyweight than his(?) master was. Which was understandable, though she wondered how the usually flimsy network paneling could handle such large masses. With Eternalis already starting their intro, Aurora simply smiled.

[Battle 1 - Ready]

Very clearly getting the attention of everyone now, the mechanical horse snorted in satisfaction, though no nostrils nor mouth could be seen from the metal frame. "An accurate assumption, Validus and Eternalis. My name is none other than--"

"Harley."
"--Harley. I was actually expecting a more... appropriate name for myself. Something along the lines of..."

The ramblings continued non-stop, with a few references to names that seemed impossible to pronounce (and yet Harley succeeded in anyway).

"I agree that I might have gone overboard with the personality programming," Rhea admitted, scratching her head sheepishly. Regaining composure at last, the operator to the horse and petite grabbed at her PET enthusiastically. "RHEA!!! I didn't know you're so awesome in designing and... programming... and stuff!!" Camillia exclaimed happily, depicting that her earlier shock was of a positive nature. "Though from what I can see, he's the idea of how a father would be like to you," she snickered, obviously picking at her Navigator. Not knowing the definition of a father, Rhea just shrugged nonchalantly as she failed time and again to shut Harley up.

But then Harley stopped talking, eyes taking in the sight of Aurora.

"Ah, what a lucky soul am I to feast upon such a dazzling sight," the horse started, and was quickly given a smack by Rhea to the equine's sides. Though, obviously, Harley did not budge due to his sheer bulk. "Perhaps you would join me personally sometime over a fine bugfrag dinner..." he continued, before stopping as his gaze was attracted by yet another dame next to Validus.

"... Unfortunately for you, madame, I am not interested in frails without assets," Harley said bluntly, and Rhea once again moved in to interrupt. "Do you wish for early deletion, Harley? I can grant it," the petite swordsNavi hissed in a low tone, without knowing the reason why she did that. "Dohohohoho, I sense jealousy," her SP bellowed, before clearing its non-existant throat.

"Down to business we go, then, shall we, ladies and gentlemen?"

[[Battle 1, ready]]

Markerlight, like any other girl, felt the tease (If not an insult) sting her ego. In a flash, she drew her pistol and brought it up to bear and assumed a ready to fire position with the crosshairs pointed at the horse, but she kept her facial composure and smiled back at the robotic horse with the overly bloated self-ego. "Aw, that's okay. I'm not into bestiality anyway~" She said with a bubbly smile.

Validus said nothing, but instead shot a glance at the horse and markerlight that clearly said "Knock it off and shut up." as he unslung his rifle and cocked it, readying the rifle for action. "Well then, let's do this thing." The navi said as he followed Eternalis and Rhea. Markerlight pointed the gun away from Harley and followed her comrade. "Try not to kill each other please." Validus sighed to Markerlight.

The support program didn't give an answer, but only gave a childish grin.

[[Battle Ready]]

Aurora tilted her head sideways as she heard the compliment (if it could be called that) from Rhea's support program. She giggled and replied, "Thank you, Harley. But... um, what are bugfrags? I don't know what those are... they sound kind of yucky to eat." She put a finger to her chin and looked up, thoughtful. Then, she brightened, and asked, "Is it some kind of horsey-food? Frags... they sound kind of like something a horsie like you would like, but I don't think I'd like them... thanks anyway!"

Eternalis could do nothing but try as hard as he could not to facepalm there and then. Which would probably be impossible anyway, given his lack of a definite face or palm to conceivably combine together in said gesture. He merely turned to Aurora and said, "Hey, everyone's going, let's go too." Aurora turned away from Harley, and smiled at her Navi. "Okay!" she replied enthusiastically, turning to follow Eternalis as he walked along with the rest of the group. Aurora skipped along, happiness written all over her face, when suddenly she thought of something. Looking around for a bit, she decided to ask Eternalis about it.

"Hey, Elly..."

"Mmn?" mumbled Eternalis, as he turned to Aurora with a questioning glance.

"What's bestiality?" inquired the girl.

"...."

[Battle 1 - Still Ready]

Letting Aurora's question go thankfully unanswered, Eternalis explored the network followed by Rhea, Validus and their new partners. Traveling in a large group made them fairly easy to spot, but the viruses that approached would soon realize that that didn't necessarily make them easy targets.

Probably far from it.

BoomerA: 60HP (Normal)
BoomerB: 60HP (Normal)
BoomerC: 60HP (Normal)
NeedlerA: 70HP (Grass)
NeedlerB: 70HP (Grass)
TotemA: 80HP (Soil)
TotemB: 80HP (Soil)

Terrain: 50% Grass, 30% Soil, 20% Normal

(All Navis/SPs are currently on Normal)
Eternalis.EXE: 160HP
Aurora.SP: 70HP
Rhea.EXE: 140HP
Harley.SP: 40HP
Validus.EXE: 120HP
Markerlight.SP: 40HP

Battle 1 Start!

The situation was getting more and more awkward by the moment, as Eternalis hesitated to answer Aurora's innocent (or maybe not-so-innocent?) question. His hand rubbed the back of his head-output as he looked around, trying to find a viable answer. Perhaps even salvageable, if need be. Just as the task was starting to tax on him, he found his saving grace.

".... oh, viruses," said Eternalis, looking away from her.

"Huh? Viruses?" replied a surprised Aurora, taking a while before realizing that the Navi's statement was not related to her earlier question. "Oh! Right, right. Scan time!" she exclaimed, before setting her analytical skills to the test, bringing up all the data she could on the viruses that they were encountering. The Boomers, she knew Eternalis had seen before, skip. The other two, however, were more intriguing. After a few moments, she relayed her findings to the entire group.

"Boomer, 60HP. Frontside able to block attacks, attack method is throwing the metal boomerang from its head. Needler, 70HP. From the looks of it, it's slightly mobile, and able to shoot some kind of projectile from a few barrels in multiple directions. Totem, 80HP; it looks to be an immobile turret-style virus."

"Alright, that'll do, Aurora, thanks," replied Eternalis. "Harke, send me HeatDragon. Boomerang for Aurora. I'll let you know if we need anything else."

"Roger that, sending them in," said Harke, putting out the chips from his folder and slotting them in without delay.

With both programs on high alert receiving their respective weaponry, Eternalis turned to Aurora, ruffling through her hair with his hand. He would have smiled if he had some kind of mouth, which he didn't. Therefore, he had to make do with the simple gesture instead. It made him feel like a protector to the girl as well. "You're a big girl, you can take care of yourself, right, Aurora?"

"Right!" the support program replied with a grin.

"Good," he said. He took back his hand and turned to the viruses, calculating his attack. As he assumed a battle-ready position, Eternalis relayed his intentions to his comrades, "All right, guys, I'm going frontside, you guys handle the opposition here." With that, he started a run towards the Boomers, and leapt into the air, promptly disappearing in the blink of an eye into mist.

Traversing the air with the smoothness of particle diffusion, Eternalis reappeared quickly behind the Boomers with one of his hands thrust into the air, palm opened. "Erupt!" he exclaimed, as he brought down the hand in a quick chop towards the ground with incredible force. The strike caused the panels to erupt open in a fissure, revealing red hot lava bubbling away underneath. The lava then erupted into a geyser of molten rock, flooding a large portion of the battlefield with the molten rock. He made sure to not cause the fissure to erupt in his friends' general direction, and got ready to evade any possible attacks and counterattack.

Meanwhile, Aurora got ready to do her part, summoning the Boomerang chip data to her side. The shiny metallic boomerang flew to her side from out of nowhere as she grabbed it with surprising ease, even to herself. Somehow, she felt a lot more nimble than before. Possibly, she thought, because of the ordeal she went through at the Neo-Shogunate battle. Alright, now to prove my worth! she thought as she wound up for the throw, spinning around to gather momentum.

"Launch!"

A powerful force went through her arm as the curved weapon found its way from her hand and into the air, cutting gracefully through the air with its tapered edge. The support program grinned at her successful attack, watching the boomerang fly about for a bit before focusing her attention to the viruses, and possible attacks that she could avoid.

[| [color=cornflowerblue]Eternalis.EXE[/color] | Aurora.SP |]
[1] Vapor Reassimilation @ Behind Boomers [Teleport + Dodge + Take Aim]
[2] HeatDragon @ BoomerA/B/C + Anything else [Fire 150 + 25% Lava + Ground Attack] [+Take Aim]
-- Direct attack away from Navis' general area
[1] Boomerang1 @ TotemA/B [Wood 60 + Target 3] [x2 Soil, Change to Grass]
[2] Dodge
[3] Dodge
-- Precautionary Turn Splice --

"Bugfrags are-- Oh nevermind," Harley was about to say, when the virii appeared. What a bunch of party poopers, just when he was getting along with the lady. At the sight of the enemies, the horse program sobered up and raised it's head high, watching the movements. "Seven targets..." Rhea muttered at the sight, but already she was getting a data transfer from Camillia. "I saw Harke slotting something like a HeatDragon, so it's best if you stay away from melee combat," the redhead said. "Ah, sound suggestion. Good going, girl," Harley teased, which Camillia embarrasedly just nodded her head to.

"I'll just be hopping merrily at one side, then," he added later, and was literally hopping out of danger. Rhea stared at the hulk of metal dumbly for a moment, wondering if she should comment on his insubordination... But figured that it was a waste of time. "Initiating offensive procedures then," Rhea sighed, almost as if she was getting new emotions just because of a new support program.

Brandishing the loaded Boomerang chip, Rhea was briefly surprised that Aurora was throwing a similar weapon as well-- but thought no more of it. "Ensure that you make the terrains work to your advantage, little bird," Harley called out from far, and the petite Navi threw the boomerang towards the Totem group's direction. "I know that," Rhea commented with a tone similar to annoyance at being treated like a child.

Turn summary:
Rhea.EXE
1) Boomerang1 - Wood 60, 3 targets - Totem A, TotemB , ? - 2x damage due to soil terrain
--TURNSPLICE--

Harley.SP
1) Dodge

Markerlight felt herself suddenly tensed, but kept it from being shown. She felt the presence of multiple enemies around her. Validus only gave her a glance, before tossing her a red colored cartridge, which she caught without trouble. So it wasn't just her, Validus also felt the enemy's presence.

Eternalis's comment confirmed her suspicions. As the mechanical/liquid-machine navi sprinted off to engage the enemy, Validus remained still. Instead he was shown materializing some sort of bullet in his left hand and loading his revolver slowly, making sure that the ammo was equipped properly. Markerlight placed a hand on her pistol as well, slowly advancing alongside with Validus.

Markerlight's eyepiece singled out two of the enemies hiding in the grass. The SP pulled out a clip as well. Tsujsa slotted in two chips: the Magnum and the fireburn, the latter Validus had given to . As Markerlight slotted the cartridge into her handgun, the automatic flashed and turned crimson in colour, with an extended barrel.

"Targets identified, patching information." She said with a smile. Validus nodded as the information appeared on his eye visor for the location of the two needler viruses. "Good work. We attack simultaneously then. on my mark."

The navi closed an eye, locked the revolver's ammo chamber, and suddenly fired off two loud shots from the suddenly red-colored revolver, hissing smoke as the shots fired off from his revolver looked more like flaming fireballs. The barrage of fire was continued with Markerlight's handgun as it fired off a stream of flame, igniting everything in it's path.

If there was anything left after the blaze, it was only ashes.

SUMMARY OF ATTACKS:
VALIDUS
1. Hand Markerlight FIREBURN chip data
2. Charge
3. Magnum - 120dmg (x2 for fire element and grass terrain) - 2 shots (Charge from earlier) Needler A + Needler B.


MARKERLIGHT
1. Fireburn - 70dmg (x2 for fire element and grass terrain) - Needler A + Needler B

The viruses found themselves in a tight situation...when they were the one who initiated the battle. Eternalis disappeared while Rhea threw her Boomerang at the immobile Totems and sliced the two viruses in a single swipe. Validus swapped his chip with his SP and began to charge his Magnum, but this gave the virus the opportunity to strike. One needle struck the navi, but didn't stop him from discharging the fireball and make quick work of the Needlers.

The watery navi appeared behind the Boomers and unleashed hell upon them with the HeatDragon. Everything in its path was destroyed...except one fortunate Boomer. With enough sense in its mind, the virus decided for a "tactical" retreat and ran for its life!

BoomerA: DELETED [E]
BoomerB: DELETED [E]
BoomerC: 60HP (Normal) [FLED]
NeedlerA: DELETED [V]
NeedlerB: DELETED [V]
TotemA: DELETED [R]
TotemB: DELETED [R]

Terrain: 50% Grass, 20% Soil, 5% Normal, 25% Lava

(All Navis/SPs are currently on Normal)
Eternalis.EXE: 160HP
Aurora.SP: 70HP
Rhea.EXE: 140HP
Harley.SP: 40HP
Validus.EXE: 105HP
Markerlight.SP: 40HP

-TEAM BATTLE WON!-
Team: 400z + 21 BugFrags
FXP: 3 Static

Aurora found that her boomerang throw was way off the mark, instead flying off into the horizon somewhere, and that Rhea had gotten the kill first. She wished that she could have shown off the attack, but fate was not with her. Shuffling her feet, she looked down, and was greeted by a strange sight- small purple rocks of some kind, glowing faintly with a yellow light from some holes. Just as she made a motion to bend down to pick one up, she was surprised to find that they disappeared as soon as she noticed them. "Hrmph."

Eternalis walked over to her to find the SP sulking somewhat. "What's wrong, Aurora?"

"I didn't hit anything..." she said, playing with her fingers.

"That's all right, you'll do better next time, all right?" replied Eternalis as he placed a hand on Aurora's shoulder, trying to reassure the support program. "Okay..." Aurora mumbled hesitantly. "Now come on, we've got some way to go." He then turned to his comrades, saying, "Great battle, guys. Let's move on." He gave the signal to move on, and walked along, Aurora skipping by his side.

[Battle 2 - Ready]

Watching Aurora's depressed expression from a distance, Harley looked at his master briefly before trotting over to walk by Aurora's side. "My apologies, m'lady," Harley offered, "She can be a bit lacking in peer relations sometimes." Rhea busied herself with picking up the spoils of battle, before silently following the group onwards.

[[Battle 2 ready]]

"Well, that took care of that~" Markerlight said with a satisfied tone as she holstered her pistol. Validus on the other hand pulled a needle out of his shoulder as though it was nothing. "Ah damn it, one of them hit me..." He said nonchalantly as he stared at the wound. "Ah well, it'll heal later." he said as he pulled out a small bandage and wrapped it around his arm.

Markerlight stared at Validus blankly. "Whoa, sir... doesn't that actually hurt?" the support program mumbled . Validus returned the blank stare with one of his own. "You... don't have to call me sir, Marker..."

[[Battle 2 ready]]

The air buzzed around the three navis and their SPs as they progressed into some very tall grass. As it turned out, it wasn't the air buzzing, but rather a large amount of viruses in the air around them. The skeeters gradually drew up into clusters, buzzing annoyingly around and threatening to strike with their stingers. What was worse: the navis hadn't realized from further away, but several viruses were using the cover of the grass to slink in closer. They were now surrounded by a multitude of enemies far greater than in their previous encounter.

SkeeterA: 30 HP
SkeeterB: 30 HP
SkeeterC: 30 HP
SkeeterD: 30 HP
SkeeterE: 30 HP
ShrubbyA: 50 HP (hidden in tall grass)
ShrubbyB: 50 HP (hidden in tall grass)
ShrubbyC: 50 HP (hidden in tall grass)
ShrubbyD: 50 HP (hidden in tall grass)
NeedlerA: 70 HP (hidden in tall grass)
NeedlerB: 70 HP (hidden in tall grass)
NeedlerC: 70 HP (hidden in tall grass)
NeedlerD: 70 HP (hidden in tall grass)

Eternalis.EXE: 160HP
Aurora.SP: 70HP
Rhea.EXE: 140HP
Harley.SP: 40HP
Validus.EXE: 105HP
Markerlight.SP: 40HP

Terrain: 50% grass, 50% tall grass surrounding navis (lowers accuracy against enemies hiding in it)

--BATTLE 2 START--

Walking along through the thick grass, Eternalis noticed that Validus had some sort of bandage wrapped around his arm that wasn't there before. Was it some kind of injury he had sustained? He silently nudged Aurora for a check through their private link. Hey, Aurora. Validus seems hurt, though I can't be sure. Scan him real quick, will you? Aurora looked at her Navi, and nodded. A quick integrity scan confirmed his suspicions to be true. Hrm, all right, we'll speed things up a bit, he thought, directing a bit of his excess healing into Validus' arm quietly. As he did so, he felt a tug on his arm, which was Aurora.

"Elly, I'm detecting viruses in the grass. Battle routine's set up," she whispered to him.

"All right," he replied. "Harke, slot in the HeatDragon again. It's becoming very useful."

"Got it," said Harke simply, putting in the chips.

A moment later, he felt the powerful heat of the fire chip well up inside of his semi-liquid body. However, something felt kind of strange, as the intensity of the battlechip data seemed to increase gradually inside of him, as though it was being supplied with more energy than it should. His arms began to shake violently as steam began to flow freely out of small holes in the armor, hissing as it was expelled. The Navi grunted as he dove his arms into the grass, and ripped up a good chunk of earth. The crack created made lines across the ground underneath the taller grass.

"Stand back!!"

At the sound of her Navi's warning, Aurora leapt away from the water-being, as well as any other enemy she could bump into. Seeing his support program out of the way at the very least, Eternalis released the HeatDragon's form under the ground. But... the attack that ensued seemed to have some kind of strange coldness to it; what exactly was he doing? Fire, the very manifestation of the energy called heat, carrying the characteristics of its antithesis? As much as the casual observer would ask these questions, none of them passed through the aquatic Navi's head as he focused everything he had on not letting the powerful blast get out of hand.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, Eternalis managed to break away from the ground holding his hands, which were now dripping with what seemed to be red smoke mixed with white mist. He looked at the results of his attack, and saw that almost all of the grass had either been burnt away or wilted into some kind of strange ice mix. The ground was some inconceivable mix of ice and lava, an impossibility in itself, with some exposed enemies sitting all pretty and ready to be shot. He didn't really care about any of that, though, as his arms felt on the brink of falling off. Aaaaaaah, that felt painful, he thought. What happene- Just then, a Skeeter flew past him, breaking his line of thought. Argh, these damned mosquitoes! What the hell do they want with me?!

"Harke, double WideShots! NOW!"

"Errr, okay, okay, cool down," said Harke, slotting the two Lark-chips quickly. Receiving the chips, Eternalis immediately transferred one to Aurora, watching as he loaded his arm-output and shifting it into cannon mode. Understanding the Navi's intention, Aurora immediately loaded up the chip as well, causing a small ring of water to form around her hand. She then threw her arm in a horizontal arc, and the water around her hand flew at the exposed viruses. Her Navi lifted his cannon up to face the viruses, and fired a shot to match as well. Feeling better for a while, Eternalis then took to readying his healing processes to default to his allies, while his legs were primed for some evasive action.

[| [color=cornflowerblue]Eternalis.EXE[/color] || Aurora.SP |]
[*] Influx Aegis @ Validus [Heal 15]
[1] Dodge
[1] Desolation @ Tall Grass [Large Ice Terrain Change]
[2] HeatDragon @ Tall Grass [Fire 150 + Lava 25% + Ground Attack]
[3] WideShot1 @ Needler Group [Aqua 60+10 + Wide Attack]
[2] WideShot1 @ Shrubby Group [Aqua 60 + Wide Attack]
[4] Dodge
[5] Dodge
[*] Influx Aegis @ Any if necessary [Heal 15 x4]
-- Priority Set: Marker/Harley/Aurora/Validus/Rhea/Self

Noticing the Skeeters at first sight, Rhea decided that it was her task to keep the critters from harming her allies. "I am targetting the Skeeters. Please upload appropriate chips," Rhea announced, and turned quickly to see where Harley was going-- the bulk and the weight in his every step was very hard to ignore.

Apparently Harley was busy attempting a munch of the fresh-looking netgrass.

"... Uh, I think you might need to discipline that SP of yours, Rhea," Camillia advised, slotting in a Shotgun and a Heatshot chip. Upon receiving the data (and the advice), Rhea nodded as she tried to get the equine's attention. "You are not a horse. Acting like one will not upgrade your status to flesh-and-blood." Without warning, she ran towards the metallic SP, a speedy jump sending her onto his saddle. The petite Navi raised her swordarm high, generating her signature energy blade, ready to parry any attacks coming at her (and Harley's) way. "Nevertheless, little bird, hopping onto an old man's back is--" he started, raising his head to meet the virii group. "--rude. Off to business then," he sighed, and a few huffs and clicks later, he galloped towards the side of the battlefield, careful not to get into any tall grass-areas as part of his defensive maneuver.

Even as the blast of cold and heat emerged seemingly from the ends of Eternalis's fingertips, Rhea locked and loaded a shotgun in her left, free arm, aiming it at the mosquito-like virii group. She stood from her saddle to get a better vantage point, her boots sticking securely to the magnetic panels found on each side of Harley's frame. Rhea fired two seperate shots once she designated her targets--data received from Camillia earlier. The first to be let loose from the barrel was the lead bullet of a shotgun, followed closely by another bullet seemingly on fire.

"Here's another one for good measure!" Camillia called, sending over an often-used battlechip, Boomerang. Without thinking, Rhea already let the wooden weapon speeding towards it's enemies. "Don't be blaming me if you get hit, lassie...!" Harley complained from the Navi's reckless behavior.

Summary of actions:
Rhea.EXE
1) Parried Charge - 2-hit shield, Tactical Movement: Mount Harley.SP
2) Shotgun - 50DMG, Spread1 - SkeeterA, SkeeterB?
3) Heatshot - Fire 40DMG, Spread1 - SkeeterC, SkeeterD?
4) Boomerang - Wood 60DMG, 3 targets - Skeeter E + any remaining Skeeters?

Harley.SP
1) Dodge (with Rhea mounted)

"More of them incoming. Marker, get clear." Validus said as he brought the rifle up to bear this time. The Support Program wanted to protest towards Validus's treatment but saw the bigger picture instead, and followed the Navi's orders. "Captain, we're still dealing with grass type viruses. We'll need more literal firepower."

Acknowledging the request, Tsujsa slotted in the fireburn chip, morphing the rifle into a flamethrower configuration. With a grin on his face, Validus ran towards the tall grasss and unleashed a fury of fire into the grass, incinerating anything that was in his front, especially a bunch shrub-like viruses that were looking a little panicked for the moment.

Markerlight, on the other hand, felt herself increasingly annoyed over the bugs. "Gyaaaa! Get them away from me!" She yelled as she pulled her pistol out, while trying to avoid the skeeters from attacking her. Cursing, Validus requested for the Aquaneedle chip, transforming his rifle into the lance-rifle configuration. While Markerlight avoided the Skeeter viruses, Validus set three of them as targets and let loose a volley of needles straight at the skeeter viruses.

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS:

VALIDUS:
1. Fireburn - Crowd of Shrubbies - 70 dmg x 2 (For Grass Weakness)
2. Dodge
3. Aquaneedle - 2 on Skeeter D (40 dmg), 1 on Skeeter E (20 dmg)

MARKERLIGHT:
1. Dodge

After a very quick healing of Validus by Eternalis, the three Navis began to get to work. The aquatic fighter struck first, creating some icy terrain where the grass began to stop needing to be mowed, and started needing a good machete. It worked...to perfection, as the grass became covered in icy frost, weighing it down to where it was entirely obvious what was in the thicket; groups of Shrubby and Needler. While the Shrubby suddenly started to panic, the Needler quartet began preparing for takeoff, not liking the fact their cover was blown. Fire atttacks from the Cursor and Recovery Navis justified the Wood viruses' terror, as a FireBurn took out two of them, and the HeatDragon vanquished a third, as well as one of the mobile needle cannons. The other Needlers were either completely missed, or were able to take off in time. A lone Shrubby, however, managed to withstand the entire assault of flame, and decided to celebrate by...stretching? It almost looked like it was stretching its calf muscles, but...did they even have muscles?

Meanwhile, starting the attack on Skeeter decency, Rhea began to fire a pair of guns at the group of mosquitoes. Unfortunately, the Shotgun blast was mocked by the Skeeters, as they split apart to avoid the projectile. Not all of the viruses were that clever, however, as HeatShot burned them to cinders. But that might've been a bad thing; noticing what happened when hit by an attack, one of the other mosquito clouds decided to divide and conquer, causing the boomerang and two needles to completely miss. A third needle did smack it, but it was still alive, and that was what was important. To it, anyway. The Navis might have disagreed.

Shifting focus away from the Skeeters, Eternalis and Aurora focused on the others, as their WideShot sailed far and true. Unfortunately for the Navi, the Needlers had been scattered by the previous attack, and thus his water wave was unable to reach more than a single virus. For entirely different reasons, this was also true of the Support Program's water blast, turning the last Shrubby into junk data before it could flee the scene.

The virus remnants took a moment to size up the situation, before the Needlers began to fly forward and attack. First up...a double needle attack at the three Navis. Eternalis avoided them well enough, and Rhea simply used her sword to deflect them, but Validus was unfortunate enough to get hit by one of the needles (5). The other decided to focus needle blasts on a single target, and shot multiple volleys at...Rhea. Despite her SP's best efforts, she proved to be slammed by series after series of sharp, splintery pain (16). Satisfied with their attacks, the machines moved to different parts of what could be generously called a battlefield, and landed.

Of course, none of this mattered, as Eternalis made sure their wounds were less than eternal (+5, +16).

SkeeterA: DELETED -R-
SkeeterB: 30 HP (Grass)
SkeeterC: DELETED -R-
SkeeterD: DELETED -R-
SkeeterE: 10 HP (Grass)
ShrubbyA: DELETED -V-
ShrubbyB: DELETED -V-
ShrubbyC: DELETED -E-
ShrubbyD: DELETED -E-
NeedlerA: DELETED -E-
NeedlerB: DELETED -E-
NeedlerC: 70 HP (Ice)
NeedlerD: 70 HP (Grass)

Eternalis.EXE: 160 HP
Aurora.SP: 70 HP
Rhea.EXE: 140 HP
Harley.SP: 40 HP
Validus.EXE: 120 HP
Markerlight.SP: 40 HP

Terrain: 40% Grass, 25% Ice, 25% Lava, 10% Normal
-Ice and Lava are randomly intertwined with each other
-Normal is where SkeeterC and SkeeterD were
-All Navis are presently on Grass