Sword Hunting

If Pianissimo were not currently under scrutiny from the fighter navi, he would have given a smirk at her words. Heh...right to the point, aren't you? he thought before answering.

"As it happened, I had business with him as well. Him and the guy who you claim jumped you," he answered. "Probably didn't know it, themselves. Some woman from the GNA wanted help dealing with them, and I had a personal interest. Missing sword."

He paused for a minute, wondering if he'd said too much with his answer, and then decided not. Duke never said anything about keeping silent about mission. "Which brings me to my next question, if you're satisfied with that explanation. What do you plan on doing with them?"

"What, this thing?" She shifted her hips to one side again to make it evident she meant the sword. "Nothing in particular. Maybe mount it on the wall in a sword display case for the rest of eternity.... But hey, since you've got business with him, you're welcome to him." With that statement, the female fighter made a lightning fast swipe at the clasp for her belt with one hand, releasing it before returning her hand to grip the staff in the same place it had been before. The belt, sword and all, fell to the ground at her feet. Her clothing, on the other hand, stayed where it was. She smirked, but decided to hold back whatever quip she was obviously tempted to say about that. Instead, she said: "So, you've got business with this waste-of-drive-space, and I've got business with the previously-walking-tazer. My business is my business, and your business is your business. Lezz leave it at that, k?" She stopped to catch her breath for a moment. "So... Let's do this the only way two trusting souls such as ourselves can: I'll step slowly in a circle to my right, and you step slowly in a circle to your right. Funny stuff permitted... if it makes me laugh that is, and last I checked, you weren't exactly stand-up's best, pal." She ended her speech on a dust-dry note as she took the first step slowly and carefully to the right.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Armor Navi(?): 1 HP (Dormant)

--Side B--
Fighter Navi(?): 350 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown

Sword(?): 1 HP

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.
Custom pole-arm [on the ground]

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%

Just like that, then, Pianissimo thought, waiting for the other navi to take a step before taking one of his own. Okay, then. He took another step, then remembered he wasn't done asking questions like the fighter navi seemed to think. There were a couple more, namely regarding a navi having business with a sentient, or at least semi-sentient suit of armor that could turn into a dragon and shoot lightning, all while giving off similar readings to the sword he had acquired in Hades Net.

"So, this armor," he said, indicating the collapsed pile of metal that he had just vacated the general location of, "What business was it you had? Is it yours? And if so should I be expecting similar resistance to what I saw earlier when I run into the sword I'm looking for?"

The female fighter smirked as she continued to cautiously circle to the pile of armor while listening to Pianissimo's next round of questions. "My business with Stormy? Oh, now that's an epic tale. You see, once upon a time... No." She gave Pianissimo a bright and cheery smile as she added: "The end~♪" She cleared her throat and answered with a little more sincerity: "I'll level with you... I'm really not supposed to tell anyone. You qualify as an 'anyone', therefore, I can't tell ya, pal. And the thought of Stormy belonging to anyone is so laughable, the joke was stale long before either of us were compiled." She paused for a few seconds while continuing to circle around slowly. "Hmm.... I wouldn't know. If your sword is anything at all like Stormy, then I wish ya luck, buddy, cuz you'll be needing a drive-load of it. Thaz all I'm allowed to say about Stormy and his kin. Now..." She smiled again. "...I can offer you the high points of my study of that freakazoid sword. The school of hard knocks teaches well, it does." She glanced sideways and mumbled "I would be one of the fools with the best attendance record, too...."

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Armor Navi(?): 1 HP (Dormant)

--Side B--
Fighter Navi(?): 350 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown

--Side C--
Sword(?): 1 HP (Dormant)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.
Custom pole-arm [on the ground]

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%

"What a great story," Duke said idly, coming in over the communication line. Pianissimo couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Silently, he hoped that he was. As he continued his own circling walk, meanwhile, the thing that concerned him more was the fact that this navi was apparently not allowed to talk about something that would probably save a lot of navis a lot of undue grief if it wasn't kept secret, and that he had somehow just happened to run into a navi that knew more about what was going on than he or for that matter Miriya probably did.

When she made her offer to give him the 'high points,' he responded with a simple "Go on, then."

The female fighter nodded and went on. She seemed to be no longer breathing heavily as well. "Well, as I said before, the guy was a real freak-job. After the loon jumped outta the bushes and let me know what a perv he was, we got into a scrap. Oh man did that suck at first. I kept scoring hits on the guy, but it was like shadow boxing. It never connected properly, and the guy would just blink out. He'd reappear, then stabbity stabbity while I was still off balance from takin' a swing at em. It took me a few tries to realize the Navi I'd been talking to wasn't real. I'd been trying to beat the bugfrags out of a hologram." She stopped talking as the sound of metal plates scraping across metal plates met their ears. She stopped moving and looked down. She smiled and looked back up. "Anyway. As I was sayin'...." Apparently she really did plan to hold to her word and answer Pianissimo's questions. "I was tired of gettin stabbed for shadowboxing, so I went defensive. I tried to hold off the blade, which was as real as the Navi was fake. Wouldn't ya know it, while I was trying to figure things out, the bastard gave up the ghost somehow an' disappeared, leavin' his sword behind. If you ask me, he is the sword. But that's just a guess." She lowered her guard at last, held the staff to her right side, and planted her left fist on her hip. "I didn't try askin. I really dun wanna hear anything the memory-waste has ta say. And now..." The fighter canted her head to one side. "I'm gonna try to go about my business with Stormy, here. I'd appreciate if you didn't try to 'Highlander' me while I do that." The female fighter made a slitting motion across her neck with her left hand to illustrate what she meant. She returned her hand to her side as she continued speaking. "I like my head right where it is, thankyouverymuch. Feel free to ask me anything else that comes to mind, though.... as long as it doesn't pertain ta Stormy, I'll answer you. K?"

The fighter watched Pianissimo as she slowly assumed a kneeling position on the ground with the pile of armor in front of her. She laid the staff to rest upright against her left shoulder, and took her hands off of it as she reached down towards the pile of plates....

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Fighter Navi(?): 350 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown
Armor Navi(?): 1 HP (Dormant; at the feet of the Fighter)

--Side B--
Sword(?): 1 HP (Dormant; at Pianissimo's feet)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.
Custom pole-arm [on the ground]

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%

As the fighter navi reached the pile of platemail and finished talking, Pianissimo looked down and realized that he too had reached the sword she had discarded. He crouched, and reached out for the hilt of the weapon, eventually closing his gloved hand around it.

"Just one more question, then," he said. It wasn't something he particularly cared about, but it felt worth asking anyway. "Who are you?"

The fighter's eyebrows flew up as she froze for a fraction of a second before responding. "Wooooow... Now there's one I wasn't expecting." The Navi kept rummaging around amid the pile of armor, but started to answer Pianissimo's question anyway. "Okay, pal, I'll play along. My name? I go by Dragoon. And knowing that will get you anything from a cup of joe to a knife in the back. Just sayin-- Wait!" She stopped rummaging around and withdrew a small medallion on a thin silver chain. Her eyes lit up as she sat back on the ground, held up the amulet, and stared at it with an ever broadening smile. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the pile of armor plates jacked out right in front of her... or didn't care, one. "I... I passed! Hell yeah! I passed!" She jumped up, and clumsily dropped her staff in the process. "Ack... oops." She whipped her head around to look at the staff hit the ground, and sorta leaned towards it a bit before stopping herself.

"Ehhhhh.... whatever." Dragoon just shrugged, brushed her hair out of the way, and proceeded to loop the amulet around her neck instead. Guard? Hah, Dragoon was too happy to remember or care that Pianissimo was still armed with a bared katana. In fact.... she was all but giggling to herself now. Once the amulet was around her neck properly, she seemingly remembered Pianissimo existed. There was zero tension in her voice when she spoke again. "Well, then.... I suppose I owe ya one. What was your name again?"

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Neutral---
Dragoon: 350 HP

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Stormy(?): Jacked Out.

--Side B--
Sword(?): 1 HP (Dormant; at Pianissimo's feet)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%

"Passed?" Pianissimo asked, stopping in the middle of picking the discarded sword to glance back at the navi who introduced herself as Dragoon. "What do you mean? Or is that another one of those things you 'can't tell me?'"

Not waiting for her to answer, he stood up again and sheathed his own sword, raising the newly acquired one to examine it more closely. "The name's Pianissimo, since you asked," he said, offhand.

"Huh? Oh, I passed the trial. Stormy was my examiner." She glanced sideways, shifter her weight to her left leg, and planted her left fist on her hip before murmuring dryly: "I was the only fool crazy enough to take it." She sighed, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again she was looking at Pianissimo. "The trial rules are pretty simple. Chill out in a network for a human month, don't die, and don't talk about the trial. Meet your examiner at a designated place at the end of the month and kick the stuffing out of him." She smirked. "And anything unexpected that happens during the trial is just tough frags. Like me getting jumped by pervy freak, and you jumping Stormy." She shrugged. "Life's a scuttle spawn like that sometimes, and this one owes you for stepping in like ya did." Her smile said she knew exactly what she'd just said, and was completely fine with it. "So here's the deal... So long as you're not havin a run-in with the fuzz: if you ever find your self in need of an extra large can of whoopass, just post something random about Stormy on a public BBS that mentions where you'd like me to be after I read it, and I'll show up there. I'll only do it once, so think before you cash in, quiet-one. K?" She grinned devilishly. "Oh, and be as embarrassingly creative with your post as possible. The more ya irritate ol tazer breath for me, the better. Heh heh." She had somehow sidestepped answering everything Pianissimo had asked while answering most of it.

----

Pianissimo, meanwhile, picked up the dropped sword, allowing the belt and sheath to fall off as he did so. The sword was a really strange thing. It was composed of multiple free-floating parts that somehow stayed arranged as they were as if the entire thing was held together by an invisible force. The blade was one piece, roughly 3 feet in length, that floated before a heavily scarred crystal sphere that looked to be on the verge of breaking. Around the sphere, floating to the to the left and right were curved metal pieces obviously designed to ward off blows to it. The hand-guard extensions poking out of the back sides of the curved pieces, while functional, seemed more of an afterthought than anything. The handle was a simple metal rod wrapped in leather that floated at the back of the sphere.

Looking back at the blade, however, it was easy to see that it was made of some sort of liquid metallic substance rather than a solid... even though it was solid to the touch. There were also many crystal spheres, more like glass marbles, of various colors embedded within every few inches or so. They weren't very large at all.... perhaps half an inch in diameter at best.

What a strange weapon.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Neutral---
Dragoon: 350 HP

---Possible Mission Targets---
Sword(?): 1 HP (Dormant; in Pianissimo's hand)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%

"So you're allowed to talk about it now that it's over, then?" Pianissimo asked, raising an eyebrow that went unseen under his helmet. "Well, no matter."

He gave Dragoon's offer a listen, wondering but not particularly caring why she was so intent on embarrassing her examiner for this 'trial' he had stumbled across. "I think I can manage that," he said when she was done. "Or my support program can, at least. Not sure what happened when Duke rebuilt her but it seems the sort of thing she'd do now."

"Speaking of which," he added, mostly to himself as something that would have been obvious to any less apathetic navi dawned on him, "I should probably get back to...yeah." He turned away, glancing through the woods around the clearing for the fallen trees that would signal where he came from. Eventually he found it, and took a step toward it before stopping again. He knelt down once more and picked up the belt and sheath, and returned the weapon to them. "You can wait," he muttered.

Pianissimo made his way back through the woods, and reached the path just as Edana was beginning to regain consciousness. He leaned down and tapped her on the shoulder to wake her the rest of the way.

"How long was I out?" she mumbled, pulling her face out of the mud.

"Few minutes. You're fine. We're leaving."

Edana glanced around and saw the sheathed weapon in Pianissimo's hand. "You found it?"

"No. But it's going to help us find it if it knows what's good for it. Get up, we're leaving."

Edana tried to protest, but was jacked out of the net before she could get any more words out.