Anyis n' MeleeMan Team Busting

"Ergh... They're just waiting for us to either come down there, or get dragged down there. Useless cowards..." grumbled Anyis as she dug her heels in to fight back the wind, which was causing her hair to fall forward and flap out in front of her face. "They should just come up here and face us! It's not like the outcome will change..."

"Mother Unit, I theorize that you do not really want to go down there because of the three electrical viruses present." suggested Magna, who was, at least in these early stages, taking as much effect from the wind as you'd expect from a heavy mass of metal. That is, not much.

"No one asked you!" shouted Anyis as she felt new chip data being transferred to her. She kind of wanted to bypass this whole "virtual reality" thing and punch Mill for being so inattentive this whole time, but in retrospect, he was really slotting chips in more quickly than usual. Maybe Anyis should take that as a good thing. "Gah, fine! I'll take care of those magnet bugs and the fan myself! MeleeMan, the Wood viruses down there are yours!" announced Anyis, 'generously' giving her partner half of the enemies to fight. With the target designations sorted out, Anyis carefully and methodically advanced along with the wind before stopping just short of the cliff's edge to summon a Rockcube. With the convenience of an instant wind-wall now available, Anyis took quick refuge behind it.

With the wind now cutting around her, Anyis prepped to spare herself the misery of having to prolong a fight with... ugh, Elec viruses. Ugh. Stupid things. Without the turbulence to bother her as much as her fears, Anyis's hair fell flat on her head, albeit a little more frayed than usual. "Alright, so what do we have here... Oh! Wow, maybe Mill actually is paying some attention." laughed Anyis as a Boomerang appeared in her grip. She would have preferred to have a few more of these things by now, but at the moment this Wood chip was her Elec pest control. Needless to say, a grin broke out across Anyis's face at the thought. To get an eye for her targets, she leaned out over the side of the Rockcube just enough to get a view over the edge of the cliff, and, of course, her hair immediately got caught up in the wind current again. God, that was getting annoying. Despite the hair problems, Anyis managed to see the trio of Magtects camped down at the bottom of the cliff. With this wind strength... She let the gears of her AI spin for a moment as a good trajectory was calculated, and soon enough Anyis was confident in her aim. She gripped the Boomerang tightly, took a deep breath, and sent it on its way with a quick flick of her wrist.

"Okay, one last chip... Ooof!" grunted Anyis as an IronShield appeared on top of her. "Damnit, Mill really isn't paying any attention at all! That Boomerang was just dumb luck!" yelled Anyis in frustration as she forced the heavy shield off her body. "Magna, come take this! You probably can use something like this better anyway!" she shouted over the rushing wind.

"Understood." acknowledged Magna as he slowly moved up to his master, showing that the wind really could topple him after all. As expected, he took the IronShield that nearly squashed Anyis and lifted it with a single hand. Magna pondered this setup for a moment, then materialized his own custom tower shield in the other hand. Now he was a big, heavy golem with a big, heavy shield in each hand. "... This arrangement should yield favorable results." noted Magna, who was wise enough to understand that the only thing better than one bludgeon-worthy shield was two.

"I would hope so, considering you've already been stonewalling viruses with just one shield already." muttered Anyis, who begrudgingly acknowledged that her SP was already doing things she couldn't despite his systems having not been upgraded at all yet. Though, that wasn't really a big issue compared to her realizing she had no more chips. "Argh, what am I supposed to do about that fan?! All I've got left is this Rock-"

"... Boogeyman!" shouted Anyis, coming to a quick, decisive decision and summoning her single-function poltergeist. "Crush that fan thing with this Rockcube! Really launch this thing!" ordered Anyis as she got up and started to move behind Magna. Boogeyman just simply stared at the block with its one eye, not even giving a nod of recognition. All it did was follow orders: threw its arms up against the Rockcube, impacting it with enough force to fire it off the cliff's edge and, hopefully, crush the VacuumFan into tiny little pieces.

Anyis's Actions:
1. Summon Rockcube (200 HP Object) at cliff's edge
2. Take cover behind Rockcube (Movement/Defense)
3. Boomerang1 (120 Wood damage, Multiple Targets) @ MagtectA/B/C
4. IronShield1 (2-Hit Shield), give to Magna
--Boogeyman (Knockback) @ Rockcube, drop it on VacuumFan (200 damage)
5. Take cover behind Magna (Movement/Defense)

Magna's Actions:
--Reinforced Golem's Buckler (2-Hit Shield)
--Equip IronShield1 (2-Hit Shield)
1. Defend Mother Unit
MeleeMan gave a sigh of relief as his body finally got back to normal. It was an uncomfortable feeling, being affected in such a way by a girl that he considered a fellow fist-fighter. Back with Shine and Kunie, it wasn't so bad, since he could view them as typical women and furthermore not terribly close acquaintances, but now that he was alone with Anyis (well, aside from the viruses, the golem, and his new SP) the situation was considerably more awkward. The sudden blast of brisk wind from a nearby windbox did little to improve his mood and he channeled his agitation into new virus-busting energy.

"Dammit, Rania, are you free enough to slot me in some chips?" the navi grunted, keeping his coat bundled close to him now for warmth and bracing rather than to hide his affectation. Unfortunately, she was still focusing intently upon Mill and was even more distracted than he. Carelessly, she slotted in some chips. MeleeMan groaned, realizing that they were both firehits; she'd just reached into one part of the folder and pulled out the chips closest to the front. "Get in the game!" he growled, powering up his gauntlets. In reality, he couldn't really object, as firehit had always been a favorite chip of his anyway.

"Ha? I get to go after the wood viruses? Look at the brain on Anyis! She's practically Rass or something," he laughed, rolling his eyes underneath his helmet. "I guess my first step is to get down there... Step... Stepsword. Come to think of it, I haven't used that thing since I got it from Seraphim. Now seems as good a time as any," he commented. "Rania! The stepsword!" he roared. "Either these viruses are deleted or your exercise schedule is.

Rania swiped through the chip suavely, acting as if she'd barely even heard his comment or acknowledged it.

Frowning, MeleeMan didn't bother speaking to her any further and prepared the chip. "Alright, let's see how this works. Activate!" he called out superfluously. He was surprised to feel that there wasn't really any heat associated with the movement at all, quite unlike his usual leap with areagrab or Berserk Blitz. Instead, he simply emitted a bit of smoke which led a thin trail over to where he reappeared in another large burst. Using his keen senses to recover from the surprise, he slung a wide arc with a shining iron blade, which extended quickly from his gauntlet's knuckles. The blade passed through the air quickly in a path intended to rip apart the vines. It was exciting, perhaps a little more fun for him than using the traditional fire sword and certainly better than those dinky kunai he'd tried.

Damascus' throat was dry and her eyes were stern as she watched MeleeMan hatefully, as if she was trying to use her dreadful glare upon her own master. "If you needed a sword, I could already do that..." she muttered through her teeth bitterly. With such a fearsome expression built already, she turned her head to the genin. Her body hardened into iron, which she hoped would allow her to resist the fan's pull or at least make her fall not so extravagantly painful if she actually did get pulled off.

Finishing off his sword attack on the viney viruses, MeleeMan turned his attention to the spiders. Gritting his teeth, he pounded his flaming fist like a hammer down onto the ground, attempting to squish them down into a thick paste of spider guts. All in all, it was a lot of immature fun; not quite a real battle like he'd most enjoy, but the rush of spider smashing was sort of like a child's arcade game.

MeleeMan:
1) Stepsword to Viney group [120 + teleport]
2) Firehit1 to SpidyA [80 fire]
3) Firehit1 to SpidyB [80 fire]
4) Firehit1 to SpidyA [80 fire]
5) Firehit1 to SpidyB [80 fire]

Damascus:
*) Debuff to Genin [debuff 10]
1) Steel Skin [Ironbody to self]
Summoning an instant wind-wall, Anyis took cover and set up a sneak attack, while her partner MeleeMan was much more receptive of the viruses, warping up to a powerful slash of an iron blade. The Viney were caught off-guard, and had no chance of evading the attack. The Spider viruses warped up to MeleeMan, aware of his presence, but met fiery punching death. The Genin did not like this one bit, and threw some knives towards MeleeMan, all of which hit flawlessly. The first knife was a bit of a blunder, though, as it merely made a flesh wound of sorts. The other two stuck into the fighter's arm quite easily. (10x2)

Meanwhile, the Magtects were focusing on the hiding Anyis at the top of the cliff, pointing their magnetized bodies skyward. The VacuumFan were at it, as well, but their sucking powers proved to be their downfall. Evidence: the Rockcube hurtling towards them at top speed! The Magtects tried to scatter, but were then hit by Anyis' Boomerang, which hit two. The RockCube slid past them into the VacuumFan, aided by its own sucking power, and a little help from Boogeyman.

Genin: 60HP
MagTectA: DELETED [a]
MagTectB: 90HP
MagTectC: DELETED [a]
SpidyA: DELETED [m]
SpidyB: DELETED [m]
VineyA: DELETED [m]
VineyB: DELETED [m]
VacuumFan: DELETED [a]

Terrain:
30% Soil (top of cliff)
50% Grass, 20% Soil (bottom of cliff)

MeleeMan.EXE: 300HP (Grass)
Damascus.SP: 40HP (Soil) [IronBody]

Anyis.EXE: 140HP (Soil)
Magna.SP: 40HP (Soil) [GolemBuckler2][IronShield2]
MeleeMan shrugged off the kunai blows with ease; a little scrape wasn't going to affect him after such a successful round of pummeling the enemy. "Hehehe... smashing those things is pretty fun. I wish there were more," he chuckled, smiling over to Anyis. "Those two enemies that are left, though? Those are mine! Race you," he sneered, getting into a ready stance.

The big navi looked pretty stupid, sitting poised in a runner's start for a good moment before he finally got his operator's attention to send him more chips. Receiving a magbolt chip, he decided that he could make do with it. Starting out of his stance, he ran into a flying leap, igniting his boots and zooming forward towards the magtect virus with a hungry grin across his face. That small target smashing to pieces underneath his weight would be a wonderful feeling, if he pulled it off.

Near the end of his flight, as he skidded to a stop and attempted to crush the virus beneath himself, the navi switched out his gauntlet for a magnet-charged fist. Pointing it out to the Genin, he attempted to sponge up the last of the enemies and piss off Anyis some more if possible. Flames burst out of the back of his gauntlet even as it sparked with electricity, indicating the power he was putting behind the punch.

Damascus found herself glaring at MeleeMan instead of the viruses and corrected her target. Grumbling to herself, she stared down the Genin from afar, still demanding fear and toting a threat despite her distance. Her acutely focused eyes watched the hand of the virus, waiting for it to throw.

Once he got back up off the ground, MeleeMan made sure to be fast on his feet. It would look pretty stupid if he were to try to tackle a virus only to get hit in the ass by a bomb as he fell over it.

MeleeMan:
1) Berserk Blitz to MagTectA [140 fire + microburst propulsion]
*) Red Rage to next attack (Strengthen 30)
2) Magbolt1 to Genin [120 elec]
3) Dodge
4) Dodge
5) Dodge

Damascus:
*) Debuff to Genin [debuff 10]
1) Dodge
"Feh, go ahead. You need a head start to match me." jeered Anyis at MeleeMan's challenge. Truthfully, she didn't want to be within 10 feet of the surviving MagTect, and was perfectly happy with the idea of giving that one to MeleeMan. It'd be a cold day in hell before she'd admit it, but hey, the ends justified the means. "In fact... I'll be so kind as to help you out a little." she grinned upon noticing the cuts on MeleeMan's arm. While lording over her ally, standing above him on the top of the cliff (a rare height advantage for her), Anyis channeled some data through the air to his arm, and the single-minded routine went straight to work on stitching him up.

"Mill! Chips!" barked Anyis in a succinct order. She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot impatiently, and was getting increasingly irritated by the negligence of the Operators during all this.

"Mother Unit, what should I do?" queried Magna, who was a for an order in his direction.

"Just stand there and don't self-destruct or something. MeleeMan called me out, and I'm going to win... God, finally." grumbled Anyis as she recognized the feeling of two chips uploading into her systems.

"Understood." nodded Magna, who raised his pair of shields in a defensive stance and remained there, unmoving. Like an industrial-grade scarecrow. Anyis, meanwhile, had already taken off in a dash straight towards the edge of the cliff. And beyond, for that matter. As she reached the edge, Anyis leaped forward, over the cliff, and towards the Genin. While airborne, Anyis swung an arm horizontally in front of her, spawning a trio of icicle spikes that immediately launched themselves at the virus.

Since ranged attacks were, at best, support fire in the book of Anyis, she clenched her fist as it encased in ice, invoking her ever-trusted ColdPunch. With the momentum of freefall behind her, Anyis placed her fist forward, ready to plow into whatever was left of the Genin should it survive the artillery strike.

Upon realizing that she had fallen 15 feet and was not about to land on her feet, Anyis had one of those "Oh shi-" moments in her mind. Thankfully, her survival instinct had a means to manifest itself through Boogeyman, and the spectral being materialized on the ground beneath Anyis, ready to serve as a spring, trampoline, pillow, or whatever else was needed to ensure a safe landing.

Anyis's Actions:
--Ectopatcher (+15 HP) @ MeleeMan
1. Jump off cliff towards Genin (Movement)
2. AquaNeedle1 (30 Aqua damage x 3 hits) @ Genin
3. ColdPunch (85 Aqua damage, Knockback, Impact) @ Genin
--Boogeyman (Knockback) @ Anyis, cushion landing
4. Dodge
5. Dodge

Magna's Actions:
1. Hold shields in an imposing stance (Industrial-Grade Scarecrow)
((Bump))
((Bump))
MeleeMan got a sprinting start before propelling himself into a heated body slam. The MagTect he flew at panicked and tried to get away, scrambling to the side. Thanks to that, a small portion of its body was not completely wiped out, instead crumbling away at a slower pace.

Anyis took her time, healing MeleeMan as he started off. He didn't notice. She then launched herself off the cliff, sending three sharp aqueous projectiles at the Genin. It warped away, dodging the first before being sniped by the next two. With that, the battle ended. However, that didn't stop MeleeMan from sallying forth to try to catch the Genin with his MagBolt. The magnet's pull caught Anyis instead and knocked her over as the attraction force disappeared from MeleeMan's arm.

Magna remained where he was, looking intimidating while Damascus watched MeleeMan send his partner flying over.

Genin: DELETED
MagTectA: DELETED
MagTectB: DELETED
MagTectC: DELETED
SpidyA: DELETED
SpidyB: DELETED
VineyA: DELETED
VineyB: DELETED
VacuumFan: DELETED

Terrain:
30% Soil (top of cliff)
50% Grass, 20% Soil (bottom of cliff)

Battle 3 Complete!

MeleeMan.EXE: 315HP (Grass)
Damascus.SP: 40HP (Soil) [IronBody]

Anyis.EXE: 140HP (Soil)
Magna.SP: 40HP (Soil) [GolemBuckler2][IronShield2]

Rewards:
MeleeMan: 700z, 41 BugFrags, 4FXP
Anyis: 600z, 41 BugFrags, 4FXP
MeleeMan grumbled to himself. He'd missed obtaining his petty victory over Anyis, although the battle had gone pretty well. "As always, your ability to surpass your gender amazes me. Not like somebody I could mention," MeleeMan commented to Anyis, who had touched down to the ground where he was. With a rude and unhidden gesture, he thumbed over to Damascus, who had not ostensibly been doing much to help him.

The SP felt that her bugfrag intake had allowed her to shrug off a little bit of her weakness, but not a lot. She knew that it was still going to take a lot more before she regained any semblance of her former self. Furthermore, she was nowhere near finishing the synchronization that would allow her to become gauntlets like MeleeMan had demanded of her. The worst part for her, however, was that she was beginning to burn to a crisp under the sun of Netfrica's network. The wrap and shade were doing little to help her; while her skin might be protected, she felt like she was going to dehydrate if the heat kept up (if it was possible for a navi to do such a thing). "Rania," she requested quietly, looking to her master's operator. Rania was still speaking with Mill and entirely ignoring her PET. More authoritatively, she barked out in a more dangerous sounding voice, "Rania!"

Shuddering momentarily, Rania turned to her PET and looked into the killer eyes of her navi's SP. "U-Um, what is it, Damascus?" she asked, wanting to get back to her conversation but seeing her SP's seriousness.

"I'm not comfortable with this current outfit. I need a new one," she muttered quietly, hating to sound needy. Rania's distracted brain interpreted the statement as "I'm annoyed with your grandfather's old design; I'd like newer and trendier armor."

Nodding, the operator quickly went to work finding Damascus a good share-ware .GMO. "Ah, this one should pretty much work with your current and I think the helmet will look good on you," she commented, punching a few buttons. Without asking for her consent, Rania overrode Damascus' traditional outfit that she'd worn for over 50 years. The helmet swapped out for a neat samurai helmet, casting an eerie shadow over her already creepy eyes.

Glaring back more furiously than ever, Damascus shook her head impatiently. "No, it's too hot. I need you to give me a .GMO that will help me endure the climate. I'm afraid I don't drink in heat like your navi seems to," she commented, turning to see MeleeMan standing close by. She'd thought she'd still been standing up on the cliff, but apparently he'd re-summoned her to him a moment ago. Still, she didn't seem overly affected by him hearing what she'd been saying.

MeleeMan stepped forward, squeezing his own thoughts into the discussion. "Why don't you hook her up with something like you wear when it's hot, Rania? You know what I mean, right?" he asked, throwing one arm over Damascus' shoulder with a sneaky grin. Rania looked like she had serious protests, which he'd anticipated. Damascus simply looked confused, hot, and impatient. "What, you don't think she'd wear it right? I mean, she's a mature woman, just like you. Doesn't it make sense that the two of you would dress similarly?"

The SP spoke up, looking annoyed at being left out of the conversation. "I don't know what you mean. My body is really nothing like hers. I think my sizes all around, if you'll excuse my saying, dwarf hers to such an extent-" she started, but Rania interjected fiercely, ending the conversation.

"You're right, MeleeMan! You're absolutely right! W-We have similar bodies, so it only makes sense! I'll program it for her quickly. There's not a lot involved with it, so it shouldn't take too long. It's mostly just a matter of stripping out this... and this... and..." she muttered, pushing buttons vigorously on her PET.

Raising one eyebrow, Damascus looked back at MeleeMan, unsure of what to expect. The big navi simply turned, crossing his arms with a triumphant sneer. "Let's see what the old man was so proud of, huh?" he thought to himself, motioning for Anyis to walk on. "C'mon, viruses are waiting!" he called out to her with a good-humored laugh, moving along in high spirits as his operator sliced into Damascus' programming with ruthless abandon.
"Surpass my... Oh no, hold on. I'm awesome because I'm female, not in spite of it." responded Anyis sharply, wanting to get this stupid notion of male superiority out of his head. She walked up closer to MeleeMan, and pointed a gloved finger at his face. "So if you think you can get away with-"

*BOOM*

The ground shook, and Anyis's hair and robe were blown forward in a surge of wind as Magna jumped off the cliff and landed a few feet from his companions. The end result left Anyis's hair folded over her face and her robe rolled up in a tangled knot halfway up her back. She sighed, began the tedious process of undoing the damage, and asked to her SP, "Was that really necessary?"

"There was no other way down the cliff, Mother Unit." answered Magna matter-of-factly.

Anyis just stared at him for a moment before shaking her head in defeat. "Anyway... MeleeMan, if you're still thinking that women are naturally weaker than men, you're in for a lot of surprises. Just you wait and see." said Anyis with a smirk as she got her hair back in normal order. With that established, she beckoned Magna to follow her in the search for more viruses.

(Battle 4 Ready)
As the group set out, it began to feel very scorching hot, and the ground beneath them slowly turned into infertile sands, stretching out for miles around. They traveled for quite a while, it seemed, before running into a small group of viruses. Some skeletons laid in the sand, looking quite toast. They were being surrounded by a group of Ninetails. They immediately noticed the group, and began to growl. Then, one of the skeletons looked up, and knew that Navis were about. It alerted its comrades, and they, too, lifted their bodies and rearranged themselves into a kind of sitting stance.

Then, suddenly, as MeleeMan took another step forward, he found that the sand wasn't so solid after all, and dropped through a hole in the sand! After picking himself up, he found that he had fell into a kind of small cave, and that the hole he had just stepped in was the biggest of many tiny ones peeping through the ceiling. Looking around didn't reveal many friendly faces, as the glaring eyes of scuttling IronShields and Flameys stared back at him. The ground didn't look very stable too; he spied some cracks around the area that did not portend very nice consequences.

SkarabA: 120HP
SkarabB: 120HP
SkarabC: 120HP
NinetailsA: 90HP
NinetailsB: 90HP
NinetailsC: 90HP

IronShieldA: 120HP
IronShieldB: 120HP
IronShieldC: 120HP
FlameyA: 60HP
FlameyB: 60HP
FlameyC: 60HP

Terrain:
90% Sand, 10% Broken - Upper level (May have other holes, caution advised)
70% Soil, 30% Cracked - Lower level

MeleeMan.EXE: 315HP [Lower level, Soil]

Damascus.SP: 40HP [Upper level, Sand]
Anyis.EXE: 140HP [Upper level, Sand]
Magna.SP: 40HP [Upper level, Sand]

-BATTLE FOUR, FIGHT!!-
MeleeMan frowned, thinking Anyis ungrateful for refusing to accept what he thought was a very large compliment towards a woman. "Well damn... I guess I still don't quite have the hang of this yet," he muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "How's the progress on that .GMO coming, Rania?" he asked, smirking as he looked back out to his operator.

"Done," Rania announced, activating the .GMO immediately. Before MeleeMan had a chance to see, however, he fell down into a virus infested crevice. Getting back up irritably, he looked around to see several Ironshields and a number of more fiery viruses. Rania found her attention divided, trying to keep up with the positions of both her navi and her .SP.

Damascus was too distracted by MeleeMan's fall to take note of her new outfit, although it probably would have been wise of her to do so. The new bikini that Rania had outfitted her had fit the operator poorly back when she'd tried it on; the padding did a little too little to hide the size of her breasts and the whole thing had been a bit skimpy. The problems were worse on Damascus, however. There was no need for padding in the suit, as her breasts nearly poured out over the string bikini top. The bottom was a good bit too tight as well and the view as she bent over to see where her master had fallen was much too revealing. It was likely that whatever advantage she got from a less heated suit would soon be null and void in the face of the sunburn she'd be receiving.

As the new .GMO came to her attention, Damascus' brow somehow became even more stern and arched than it had been, if such a thing was possible. Her eyes were gleaming with intense bitterness, but her face was actually reddening over, implying that she did have some hidden degree of girlish modesty. Rising back up to her feet and standing erect, she closed her eyes and gathered her mind. Interestingly, the most upsetting fact to her seemed to be that Magna was seeing her in such an outfit; she couldn't exactly say why, but something about being nearly naked in front of a fellow SP with such similar conditions was upsetting to her. "I guess I shouldn't have to tell you that I'm not comfortable with this, Rania?" she asked, turning a frightfully fierce glare onto her own operator while crossing her arms beneath her tremendous breasts.

Rania had also upset herself. It wasn't just the death-glare that Damascus was giving her, although that was certainly disconcerting. The .SP looked waaay better than she had in the outfit, and worse, she'd designed it to nearly mirror her own. It actually gave Mill a reference to see how incorrectly she'd worn the suit herself. It was a disaster, to say the least. "Uh, yeah, in hindsight maybe this wasn't such a great idea," she laughed, trying to look as not upset as she could. Her upper body seemed to slowly collapse, however, and before she could stop it she had submerged her head into her arms crossed upon the table, hiding the shame on her face the only way she knew how.

"Hey Rania! I don't know what the hell is happening with Damascus, but isn't my situation a little more important right now?!" he growled, pounding his metal fists together to get her attention. Looking for a distraction from Damascus, Rania perked back up to listen to his demands. "Finally. Alright, I need an area grab, a lava zone, a lavabreath, and a golemhit. Got it?" he asked, tapping his foot impatiently. The operator nodded, slotting through the required chips. "Good, we're getting somewhere," he laughed, preparing the areagrab.

In a fiery leap, MeleeMan bounded forward amidst his enemies. He wasn't sure if he'd hit a crack, but he wanted to get his lava out before he was forced to find out. As fast as he could manage, he threw out the lava zone around his enemies. "Be careful that you don't fall down into this crap, Anyis. It'd burn like hell," he warned her, shouting up as loudly as he could manage. Moving on to the heat breath, MeleeMan prepared himself for a tremendous fit of heart burn, welling up flames inside his chest. He cocked his head backward, letting the fire build in his throat, before unleashing it in a plume over his opponents. "Heh, you guys look like you actually like the fire, but how much can you handle?" he laughed, wiping his mouth with one sleeve.

Next, he equipped a tremendous rock fist onto one hand. "Heh heh... let's see you guys guard this one," he cackled, bringing up his fist and jumping into the air, assisted by a brief spurt of power from his boots. He came down in an impressive jet of flames, trying to smash the ironshields altogether for as much damage as he could. Knowing that there's a good chance some of the enemies might have escaped his attacks, he prepared himself to dodge incoming attacks.

MeleeMan's SP was unable to follow his fight below the ground and instead opted to help Anyis. She hardened her skin in preperation for attacks and then started to glare down one of the Skarab's. The glare was intimidating as always, but if the virus had perception towards behavioral oddities, he might find it funny that she was trying to glare him into submission while her face was still red and one hand was constantly occupied with fixing a recurring ride-up at the back of her swimsuit.

MeleeMan:
1) Areagrab towards enemies
2) Activate lavazone around self
3) HeatBreath to Flamey group [105 fire]
*Red Rage to next hit [Strengthen 20]
4) Golemhit1 to IronShieldB and surrounding [160 damage to one + 140 damage to others surrounding + break (to all damage)]
5) Dodge

Damascus:
*) Debuff SkarabC's attack (-15 damage)
1) Steel Skin [ironbody to self]
2) Nothing
Anyis watched MeleeMan fall through the sand with a mild curiousity, but even that quickly disposed of itself. That meathead wouldn't get himself killed by something as stupid as a pitfall. Instead, she turned towards the SPs and said, "Hey, watch your step. Especially you, Magna. You could probably bust a hole in the ground that wasn't even there before if you aren't careful." As she addressed the two, Anyis noticed Damascus'... alteration. She stared at MeleeMan's SP for a moment, turned away, and...

*snicker*

A muffled laugh was all that escaped from Anyis in response to Damascus' plight. The thought that Damascus actually had a better body than her never even crossed Anyis's mind, and instead she could only laugh at the SP's attempt to surpress the embarrassment Rania had forced on her. Magna, who in some bizarre way was the biggest cause of Damascus' grief, could only think of one thing in response to the scantily-clad SP. "Unit Damascus, does this GMO provide some strategic value? I recognize the defensive capacity of your skin, but there is room for critical failure if you don't supplement it with exterior armor." Always focused, always battle-ready, and wouldn't know a good chance if it hit him in the face. Good show, Magna.

As she turned towards the viruses, Anyis noticed something odd. No... it was familiar. Familiar, but it was odd that it was so familiar. Why was she staring down Skarabs again? She had been running into these things way too often lately. It's like they were following her. "Mill! Give me the strong chips! I'm sick of these stupid skeletons, and I'm going to blow them clear off the Net!" shouted Anyis as both an order and a threat.

"Uh... Yeah, got it. Two strong chips on the way." answered Mill hesitantly, who was honestly thankful for the interruption. Rania was pretty upset over the GMO screw-up with Damascus and had since buried her face in her arms, leaving a tense silence over the table they were at. Using the welcome distraction to stall for time, Mill pulled a pair of chips out of his folder and slotted them into the PET while he thought of how he was supposed to deal with this situation.

"Good choices, good choices." nodded Anyis as she examined the chip data delivered to her. "But I need some more power. I need to send a message to these bags of bones that I never want to see them again." In the midst of her monologue, Anyis tapped into the endless data supply of the River and began channeling it down into her ElecReel. What was originally just a voltage gun began taking on a new form, adding more and more data to itself until it detached from Anyis's hand as phantasmal lightning ghost. It lacked definite form, electricity crackled from all around its body and out of its empty eyes, and it its core this thing was an explosive whose payload measured in megawatts. "Go! Turn those skeletons into ash!" commanded Anyis, pointing the apparition to its targets. The lightning ghost charged into the middle of the virus pack and erupted, sending a storm of electricity outwards in an effort to incinerate the Skarabs in one giant blow.

While Anyis was creating lightning-loaded monstrosities, Magna had a thought while, out of what was quickly becoming habit, forming his trusty shield. MeleeMan fell through a hole in the sand, but why was it there? It'd be weird if there was just a random hole underground. By putting two and two together, Magna figured that there were several holes underneath the sand that opened up into the cave down below. If there were multiple holes, though, it'd be pretty hard for the sand above to be perfectly level, as some of it should have been seeping down into the cave. Being as large and bulky as he was, Magna wasn't particularly optimized to move in sand, so from where he was, the golem looked around the batltefield, trying to spot parts of the ground that seemed a little more sunken in than the others. It wasn't a precision science by any means, but once Magna had picked a few spots in particular, he raised his arm up and fired a round from his palm cannon at each, hoping to expose holes underneath and lessen the risk of Mother Unit falling.

As sand erupted around her due to Magna's shots, Anyis eyed the group of Ninetails ahead. They were kind of scattered about, and the information she was getting from her new AuraHead chip was saying that it only attacked in a straight line. Wanting to make the best out of a seemingly bad situation, Anyis thought to strafe around the viruses in hopes of finding an angle where the viruses were in more of a line. Before she started running, Anyis tapped her heel against the sand, causing a small field of data to appear beneath and confirmed that her FloatShoes were in good working order and that she could traverse the sand with little concern. She came to a quick half upon reaching what she figured would be her best shot, then formed the Battlechip in her hand. The launcher materialized in both hands, and it armed itself with a very ghostly-looking head. With a quick pull of the trigger, the AuraHead blasted off towards the Ninetails pack, emitting an eerie wail as it flew. With her last chip expended, Anyis backed off, not wanting to incur the wrath of a virus whose power she didn't know.

Anyis's Actions:
1. Channel Surf (120 Strengthen, 3TCD) @ Self
2. ElecReel1 (120 Elec Damage) @ SkarabA/B/C
3. Change Position so Ninetails group is lined up (Movement)
4. AuraHead1 (90 damage, Break, Line Attack) @ NinetailsA/B/C
5. Dodge

Magna's Actions:
--Reinforced Golem's Buckler (2 Hit Shield)
1. Fire shots at the ground to expose holes
2. Defend

Cooldowns:
Channel Surf - 3 turns
While Damascus sorted out her problems with her new .GMO, MeleeMan dealt with the neighbors downstairs. Teleporting forward at the virus forces in the cave, MeleeMan began spouting lava everywhere before he even landed. As he landed, the ground beneath him began to give way until it somehow solidified with the addition of the lava. Right after that, he somewhat ironically expelled a wave of searing flames upon the Flamey viruses, deleting all three and rendering their own element useless.

Meanwhile, back on the main floor Anyis tried to avoid laughing openly at MeleeMan's SP. A bone boomerang whirling by her head reminded her that she had her own tenants to deal with. Once she had received some ordnance, Anyis ordered a glowing yellow lightning ghost at the attacking Skarabs. The powered up chain attack managed to delete two of the viruses, but the last of the ghost's targets had already skittered out of its range. The spirit dissipated after flying on for a time. Magna attempted to live up to his file name as Anyis attacked, picking out suspicious areas in the sand and pegging them spot on with shots. The sands collapsed to reveal even more holes. He proceeded to put up his shield and remain where he was, left to wonder about Damascus' choice of battle wear.

MeleeMan was now advancing on the IronShields toting a very mean looking souped up GolemHit. Two of the viruses fired in panic, one missing by a mile and the other landing a wrecker in the flaming Navi's stomach. Blind to the pain in his current charge, MeleeMan kept going and smashed down his fist in the center of where the IronShields had been positioned. As with Anyis, one of the viruses had had the sense to move aside rather than fire, while another had already backed away. Presumably the chicken of the group. Regardless, one of the IronShields definitely wasn't going home that night while the other two received light burns for their trouble. To top off the round, Anyis strafed into a better position and launched an AuraHead attack, clipping two Ninetails viruses as it flew. The third dodged the attack nimbly while the head passed by.

In a final closing move, the remaining Skarab made a attack it would likely regret. Tossing a boomerang at Anyis just as Damascus made an effort to stare it down, the Skarab practically flipped over at the sight of the SP. This resulted in the boomerang flying a little higher than the intended bodily area. The bone flew forward at the distracted Anyis and nailed her on the side of the head, leaving her with less damage than confusion and certainly a fair bit of displeasure rage towards the skeletal virus.

SkarabA: DELETED
SkarabB: DELETED
SkarabC: 120HP
NinetailsA: DELETED
NinetailsB: 90HP
NinetailsC: DELETED

IronShieldA: 115HP (Lava)
IronShieldB: DELETED
IronShieldC: 115HP (Lava)
FlameyA: DELETED
FlameyB: DELETED
FlameyC: DELETED

Terrain:
75% Sand, 25% Broken - Upper level (May have other holes, caution advised)
60% Soil, 30% Lava, 10% Cracked - Lower level

MeleeMan.EXE: 315HP [Lower level, Lava]

Damascus.SP: 40HP (Hot IronBody) [Upper level, Sand]
Anyis.EXE: 135HP (Confused, barely focused on Skarab) [Upper level, Sand]
Magna.SP: 40HP (2-hit shield) [Upper level, Sand]
Damascus facepalmed as she realized that her new suit was having more of an effect on the enemy virus than her glare. This increased the intensity of her anger, at least, so her eyes were now more tempestuous than ever. She blushed as she answered Magna without facing him; he was being aggravating, but perhaps unintentionally, and it would be wrong to threaten him. "I believe that this armor somehow manages to be even less effective for my purpose than it was for my operator's intentions when she wore it. I will certainly discuss a more appropriate attire with her later," she spoke through her teeth, fixing the back of her swimsuit once again quickly with her fingers.

"Well I'm glad you're having fun up there," MeleeMan called up to his partner after hearing her laugh. He cracked his neck as he realized that there were still two viruses left to take down. "Bah. You guys are going to learn that it doesn't pay to be a chicken. Then again, it wouldn't have exactly paid to stay in that spot either, I guess. It's a lose-lose for you two," he smirked, pounding his fists together. MeleeMan held up one fist and materialized a firesword onto his arm, snearing ominously at the two. "Let's wrap this up." He submerged down into the liquid lava, taking the sword down and out of sight.

Swimming through the viscous liquid, he came up beneath one of the viruses like a shark, stabbing his sword thrice in attempt of a viscous murder. The fire burst around his sword, indicating the power he was putting behind each jab. Predator-like, he then dived back down into the lava and swam towards the next. As he came up, however, he caught sight through the hole he'd created earlier of Damascus' eye-catching new swimsuit. He'd readied a magbolt for the next attack, but he had a hard time looking at the enemy to aim it. Luckily, magbolt allowed him some leg-room there and did the pulling for him, so the virus might be dragged into his fist automatically.

"Man. I amaze myself some times... Brains and muscle, I've got both," he snickered to himself, dropping back down into the lava partially to hide the glee spread across his face.

Rania still caught the expression, however, and groaned even more miserably. At least Anyis had gotten a good laugh out of this, but she was too distraught to see how Mill was reacting.

Damascus decided that perhaps it would be better if she let Anyis handle the remaining viruses herself and instead devoted her facilities to making sure she could dodge the enemy's attacks.

MeleeMan:
1) Submerge into lava
2) Firesword to IronshieldA [105 fire]
*) Red Rage to next attack (Strengthen 20)
3) Firesword to IronshieldA [125 fire]
4) Firesword to IronshieldA [105 fire]
* Damascus' Buff to next attack (Strengthen 15)
5) Magbolt2 to IronshieldC [125 elec + pull]

Damascus:
*) Buff MeleeMan's Firesword
1) Dodge
2) Dodge
"Uhhn... That stupid bag of... Whoa..." groaned Anyis, who was supporting her forehead with her hand after being nailed. "I'm gonna... I'm gonna... Ooof!" she stuttered before tripping and falling onto the sand, having been betrayed by her very disoriented vision. River data was already feeding into her to work on relieving her of the damage, but her senses weren't getting any less screwed up. She tried to push herself up, but all Anyis managed was to roll over on her back. As confirmation of her confusion, her skyward view of the River gave the impression that she was looking at a big funnel cake.

A small eruption of sand dusted Anyis over as Magna crashed down next to her and immediately began the inquisition. "Mother Unit, your systems are in disarray. I can pinpoint the cause and source, but it is not within my capacity to remedy the problems. What are your orders? I can provide cover while you recover, I can take a-"

"Quiet already...!" moaned Anyis, cutting off her SP's overattentive show of concern. Well... She assumed it was Magna. All she could really see was a muddled purple wall. "Just go get rid of those viruses... I'll deal with this headache..."

As she had been afflicted with a system anomaly, Mill's PET gave off a warning message alerting the Operator to the problem. "What the... Are you okay, Anyis?" asked Mill cautiously, having missed whatever event that unfolded.

"Does it look like I'm okay...?!" barked Anyis amidst a particularly strong phase of disorientation. "Just send some chips so Magna can take them...!" Mill shrugged, then picked a pair of chips out of his folder before he started to read up on the warning message his PET was displaying.

As the weapons uploaded, two orbs of energy appeared above Anyis's body. With his shield in his left hand, Magna reached forward with the other and grasped the orbs, letting the data be absorbed into his body. Before wielding them against the remaining viruses, though, Magna thought to make a second shield and prop it up in the sand to cover Anyis. "Understood, Mother Unit. I will fulfill orders, but I will request that you stay behind this cover until you have recovered." said Magna in compliance.

The first virus the purple golem caught in his view was the Ninetails. Upon uploading the first chip, the BigHammer1, into his shield, Magna launched forward, taking care to avoid the pitfalls he had exposed before. He crashed into the sand once again upon getting within range, and then raised his mighty tower shield up in the air over the virus. Magna then brought the shield down, channeling the BigHammer's power as he attempted to bash the Ninetails straight into oblivion.

Magna then turned to the real enemy: the Skarab who had caused suffering to Mother Unit. The metal monster uploaded the second Battlechip into his systems, and immediately he felt the surge of power coming from what was easily the strongest chip Mill had. This was overkill, but for the cause of avenging Mother Unit, there was no such thing as too much. He leaped forward across the sand once more, before landing near the skeletal virus. Magna's free hand balled up into a fist, and he could feel that beyond the already massive power the GolemHit was providing to him, there was a certain synchronization that just made this chip right to him. When his duty was to destroy, this was how he would do it. With a heave, Magna threw his fist forward, ready to shatter every bone the Skarab had amidst an explosion of sand.

Anyis's Actions:
--Ectopatcher (Heal 15 HP) @ Self
1. Transfer BigHammer1 to Magna
2. Transfer GolemHit2 to Magna
3. Combat Confusion
4. Combat Confusion
5. Combat Confusion

Magna's Actions:
--Create second Reinforced Golem's Buckler (2 Hit Shield), give to Anyis
1. BigHammer1 SHIELD BASH (160 damage, Impact, Break)) @ NinetailsB
2. GolemHit2 (190 damage, Break, Panel Break) @ SkarabC

Cooldowns:
Channel Surf - 2 turns
With his pool of lava all set to go, Meleeman went blitzkrieg with his FireSword, taking out all the IronShields while they flailed around helplessly with their giant shields, unable to retaliate with anything but deletion. Meanwhile, Anyis on the surface was having trouble keeping her eyes straight. She then opted to rest her head for a bit while Magna took care of things. Raising his tower shield high in the sky, the Ninetails had no chance of doing anything and succumbed to sheer impulsive force. The Skarab threw its bone uselessly at the stoic golem's shield as it, too, was decimated. The shockwave caused by the attack caused the ground above the cavern to cave in, however, and one of the rocks happened to land on Meleeman's head.

SkarabA: DELETED
SkarabB: DELETED
SkarabC: DELETED
NinetailsA: DELETED
NinetailsB: DELETED
NinetailsC: DELETED

IronShieldA: DELETED
IronShieldB: DELETED
IronShieldC: DELETED
FlameyA: DELETED
FlameyB: DELETED
FlameyC: DELETED

Terrain:
65% Sand, 35% Broken - Upper level (May have other holes, caution advised)
60% Soil, 30% Lava, 10% Cracked - Lower level

MeleeMan.EXE: 315HP [Lower level, Submerge in Lava]

Damascus.SP: 40HP (Hot IronBody) [Upper level, Sand]
Anyis.EXE: 135HP (Confused, barely focused on Skarab) (2-hit Shield) [Upper level, Sand]
Magna.SP: 40HP (1-hit shield) [Upper level, Sand]

-TEAM BATTLE FOUR, VICTORY!!-

Rewards:

Anyis: 650z, [Varitails1] Battlechip, 6FXP, 33 BugFrags
MeleeMan: 650z, [LineOut1] Battlechip, 6FXP, 27 BugFrags
MeleeMan's helmet made a comical, low, metallic thud as the rubble bounced off of it painlessly but annoyingly. Pulling off his helmet for a moment to rub his head, the big navi glared up at the ceiling. "When I get up there, my fist is going into somebody's purple hair for a Soul Fist: Noogie," he threatened, walking over to the hole where he'd fallen down earlier. After piling up a few rocks, he was disturbed to find that he still didn't have enough altitude to lift h imself back out. "Alright Damascus, you're up. Help me out of here," he requested, raising his hands and waiting.

Damascus wasn't about to risk falling in too by leaning her body over to grab him. With her arms crossed beneath her chest, she looked down at MeleeMan with a smug smile. "If somebody hadn't gotten rid of my sheath, I could have used that as a durable rope to pull you back up. What a shame," she laughed, turning her back on him.

After taking in an eye-full of the suit from the back, MeleeMan grinned and called out to her. "Well could you at least lean your head in here a second then?" he shouted, crossing his own arms. Confused, Damascus leaned her head in with her eyes narrowed, trying to see what her master could be asking for. Suddenly, he called out, "hold on to something." Following his instructions, she wrapped her legs around a nearby rock and watched intently. With an unexpected motion, MeleeMan then reached out and grabbed her hair-tail that was dangling down into the pit.

The immediate reaction of both of them was pain. "Guff! Master, you don't seem to realize how heavy you are! Let go!" Damascus grunted, using all of her might to hold onto the rock as his body dangled.

"Gaah! This thing is really like a sword! It nearly cut through my gloves!" MeleeMan exclaimed, letting go and falling back down a short distance to the floor. "What the hell was that old man thinking when he designed you?!" he yelled at Damascus, dusting himself off as he rose to his feet.

"I'm sure it wasn't 'Oh, somebody might need to use her hair as a climbing rope,'" she responded, rising back up to her own feet and blushing as she hoped that Anyis and Magna had not been watching.

Rania sighed, shaking her head at the woeful dullness of her navi. "For Pete's sake, MeleeMan, just use your areagrab!" she advised him, slotting the chip through.

..."Oh right," he mumbled, using the chip to zip back up to the surface. Crossing his arms, MeleeMan gave a smug grin to hide the shameful occurrence that his dusty coat clearly gave away. "Well, Anyis, why don't we continue on?" he asked his partner, swaggering forward boldy in spite of circumstances. Damascus glared daggers into his broad back, proceeding onward with her disarming scowl.
There was a lot of luck floating around this area. Anyis's head had cleared up just prior to the loud grunting and screaming, which, aside from being potentially misleading, would've irritated her headache to the point of her killing "someone". Luckily for "someone", though, Anyis's headache was gone, and she sat up to see Damascus yelling at MeleeMan as he yelled back while climbing up her bladed hair. Overall, a very stupid sight to behold.

Anyis thought about going over to keep this spectacle as short-lived as possible, but decided it was in her own best interest to let MeleeMan and Damascus deal with it themselves. Rather, Damascus was going to have to learn to stomach MeleeMan's... everything. With a sigh, Anyis got up and walked over to Magna. "Not bad. I don't even see a trace of the viruses left." commended Anyis.

"There is one remnant, Mother Unit." reported Magna as he opened his clutched fist in front of Anyis, dropping some chip data into her palms. "It is my wish that you will be satisfied." added Magna before beginning his now-routine consumption of Bugfrags.

Anyis laughed, then gave Magna a well-meant punch to his side. "Good job! First day back from the dead, and you're already earning chips! That's great." she said as the new chip data was uploaded back to the PET. Anyis then turned to see that MeleeMan had finally climbed out of the cavern, and Damascus, through some sort of miracle, wasn't bald. Upon his request to move on, Anyis responded to MeleeMan, "Sure, but you're in front. I don't want you trying to tear my hair out too."

(Battle 5 Ready)
[Moderator-locked]

After MeleeMan, Anyis and their SPs walked through the desert for quite some time, they stumbled upon a small oasis in the middle of the sun-baked dunes. A large pool invited to them in the middle of a rock outcropping, while green grass and palm trees grew in the rare fertile soil. If one looked in the pool, it could be seen to be quite deep, judging from the dark coloring of the waters. It was quite a beautiful sight for the weary travelers, as they had been walking on the sands for a long time. Perhaps it was time for a small rest?

Terrain:
45% Grass (grassy areas)
15% Normal (rock area around pool)
30% Sea (pool)
10% Sand (desert around oasis)

Objects:
About 12 or so palm trees around the oasis, and some shrubbery as well. Trees are 250HP, anchored. Shrubbery can be used to hide, but good luck trying to use it as shielding.