Powers Combine

((Titania/Oberon + SoundMan: 4 FXP))
"Got it in one," said Oberon, slowing to a brisk walk so that he could continue the conversation. "Two faces... two Navis, sort of... one PET. One HP total."

He shrugged, clearly used to the idea of sharing injuries and risks with another. Not a lot of other Navis can understand, said a voice from within Oberon, musing to itself. Remember, Oberon? Our greatest challenge wasn't learning how to fight with each other; we'd learned that long ago. It was learning to be courageous even when it meant putting the other one in danger.

"Maybe we're two programs smashed into the space of one. Or maybe we're a Navi who's gifted with the ability to gender at will," continued Oberon to his busting partner-- the one in the real, virtual world. Oberon heard the voice, too, but didn't react to it, save for with a sad smile, almost invisible among his white features, and soon hidden as he turned his eyes back to the horizon.
[[ Screw it. Give us Battle 2 now, please. ]]
[ Bump ]
Titania and Oberon were going to have to learn to be even more courageous to face what loomed in the distance. Three large viruses had opened their mouths, exhaling a loud, whistling wind that the two navis could feel slowly pushing them off of their feet. The harsh winds blew up the sand around the two, stinging their eyes and revealing normal panels hidden beneath. Unfortunately, some of the sand did not blow up and the navis suddenly realized that the sand that was behind them had begun to cave in. Quicksand! The navis would have to go against the wind or remove its source if they wished to avoid getting caught in its snare. Three plants, positioned around the Snowblows in a random fashion, began to roll seeds around in their bulbous mouths, looking almost as though they were smirking.

BROS:

SoundMan.EXE: 180 HP [on normal]
Melody.SP: 40 HP [on normal]

Oberon.EXE: 210 HP

Enemies:
SnowblowA: 100 HP [on grass]
SnowblowB: 100 HP [on grass]
SnowblowC: 100 HP [on grass]
KillPlantA: 100 HP [on grass]
KillPlantB: 100 HP [on grass]
KillPlantC: 100 HP [on grass]

Battlegrounds:
Grass 20% [End of path]
Normal 60% [Along path
QuickSand 20% [Behind navis]

--BATTLE 2 START--
Soundman quickly regained his footing, slamming his feet down on the ground and moving to a stance that he figured would keep him from getting blown away. Melody let out a yell as she blew past him, the somewhat light guitar having no grounding weight; Soundman snapped his arm out to the side and caught the rather animated guitar by her neck, and pulled her to him.

"Thank you." Melody breathed, relief echoing through her voice as Soundman clutched her to his chest.

"Any time." Soundman replied with a grin. His gaze rose from the guitar pressed to his chest only partially by the wind, and instead glanced over the gathered viruses with a steely look."What are we going to do about this, Trenn?" He asked, voice echoing to seemingly no-one.

"Well," Trenn started, looking over his chips, "I hate to use a stale move again, but this would be a perfect time for a burner combo. Any way you could spice it up a bit, though."

Soundman glanced down at Melody again, and smiled. "I think I can come up with something."

There was a series of clicks, each one punctuated by the sound of plastic sliding against plastic, and Soundman found him with a small arsenal of chips to use. The strip of gauze wrapped normally around Melody instead clung around Soundman's neck and shoulders, holding Melody to him like a guitar strap-- perhaps she knew what was coming.

With a wink of his eye and a soft little jingle, Soundman whisked away from his original spot, a few ethereal notes hanging silently in the air as he left.

There was a loud, echoing guitar chord that powered through the air as Soundman reappeared in the center of the viruses. The navi's hands expertly thumbed over Melody's strings, forming intricate patterns and vibrations-- music, in simpler terms, which the numerous speakers spread across his body tweaked and amplified.

Soundman played at a fast, almost frantic pace, the sheer speed of the tune adding another layer of difficulty to playing it; the song itself seemed to be slowly building in tension, slowly rising towards a crescendo, each wailing, warbling note seeming to belt out louder, more charismatically than the last.

The song told a tale of battles fought and won; a rogues gallery of warriors, fighting a hopeless war and yet succeeding. Outnumbered, outgunned, and battling inner turmoil and fear, they nevertheless powered through countless encounters, slaying enemy after enemy, carving a swathe through the country toward their goal.

The song continued to advance toward its' dramatic peak, each chord seeming to waver ever-so-slightly as the band lost friends, allies, family-- all in the pursuit of some ethereal, unreachable goal. Like the wavering of their hearts.

But their courage never faltered, and neither did Soundman's playing. The group finally reached the lord's castle; as they powered through the numerous defenses, overthrew the highly skilled defenders, their numbers quickly dwindled until there was but one left.

The one man that would not give up. The man whose voice rallied an army to fight. The man who would challenge the gods--

The 'sound' man.

Flames burst outward from Soundman in waves as the song finally hit that dramatic peak, the sword-fight between the king and the leader. The grass underneath Soundman scorched and burned away as the fire consumed him, then spread outward; each chord seemed to fuel the blaze, each strum of the guitar seemed to raise their heat, their intensity; the crackling flames struck blindly outward like a million ghostly hands, sweeping over and consuming whatever they touched. Each strike of the sword punctuated by a blast of fire, each parry mirrored by a roar of flame; the Burner chip's fires burned hot enough to turn blue, razed so utterly to leave not so much as a smoking ember- and then vanished with one last stab of the sword.

Soundman's playing slowed, smoke rising from his gloved hands, and Melody's strings glowing a bright orange-red. The king had won that battle, the tone said, and the last man had fallen... but all had seen his courage, all had felt his valor, his determination. Though the uprising had been quelled, the king's rule would come to an end, one way or another.

Soundman's playing stopped entirely as the navi took a deep breath.

His hand roughly, abruptly strummed Melody's strings, and the cutting wave of sound that resulted whipped outward in every direction; a combination of Whine and Strum, the deadly, powerful blast of sound threatened death for its' target.

With a second, warbling stroke across Melody's metal strings, the air around Soundman wavered as the cutting edge of the song's finishing chord struck forward, then curved around Soundman like the wide swing of a blade.

The navi let his hands drop from Melody's strings, and looked around to survey the damage that he had caused.


Melody: Strum (40 damage @ Any virus) [1 TCD]
1: Areagrab to center of viruses (Dodge + Acc Up to next attack)
Free: Add Break to next attack.
2: Burner (B+AccUp=A Rank, 130 Blast 3 BREAK Fire damage to surrounding area; 260 to Snowblows if hit, 390 to KillPlants if hit. Total if all targets are hit: 1950 damage.)
3: Whine (80 @ Any virus) [2 TCD]
4: Widesword (80 @ any three virus targets)

COOLDOWNS
Strum: [Entering Cooldown]
Whine: [Entering Cooldown]
Watch it, said Oberon's sapphire pendant, her familiar voice cutting through his combat-readied body and all but forcing him to relax. Check those readings coming from Soundman and hold back your aggression for a moment. Then, audibly, she said, "Rachel, send two Guard chips."

Oberon nodded slowly as his sprinting stance decayed into a light-footed standing posture. His weapons dematerialized into spiralling white mist that, instead of dissipating or being reabsorbed as usual, lingered in the air and started to form smoky rings around his body, encasing him in a defense of data.

Oberon thrust a fist in the air and whooped at Soundman's impromptu concert, his sonic tolerance being tested even from his safe distance.

1. Guard1
2. Dual Aegis [Shield x2]
3. Guard1
4. Dodge
5. Cheer for Soundman!
Bump.
A SnowBlow starts the parade by letting out a hail of tornadoes, but Soundman's gone and ported up to the middle! Melody's Strum manages to hit one KillPlant, but that's just for starters. Then, Soundman's epic concert of FIIIAAAH completely decimates four of the viruses. His Whine destroys the KillPlant Melody hit earlier. The remaining KillPlants try to focus instead on Oberon, but got their stuff reflected back at them. Then, Soundman's final tune ripped through the poor plants like a heated knife through butter. You could practically hear the fans roaring now.

SoundMan.EXE: 180 HP [on normal]
Melody.SP: 40 HP [on normal]

Oberon.EXE: 210 HP

Enemies:
Everything: LIEK, EPIC CONCERT OF FIRE.

Battlegrounds:
Grass 20% [End of path]
Normal 60% [Along path]
QuickSand 20% [Behind navis]

Battle 2 - Victory!

Rewards:
Soundman! He receives the reward of a thousand zenny and a nice TreeBomb1 chip to go with it, too! 2 FXP as well!
Melody! She receives the 30 Bugfrags she deserves!
Titania and Oberon! They, uh, receive 200z as a not-left-out reward! 2 FXP plus an extra FXP for the cheer!
Oberon's last shout of encouragement echoed across the sparsely-populated net, and his raised fist, bare of its weapon for once, stood out like some kind of trail marker. He laughed and jogged over to Soundman to give a clap on the back, seemingly unfazed by his backseat role in the battle. "hell yeah, bro!" He shouted, in a perfect imitation of an older teen cheering for a friend who had just pulled some seriously sweet shit. "Man, I knew you had sound powers and all that, but you, like... you're a legit musician, bro!"

Outside of the Net, Guy was embarrassed, but Rachel was observing her Navi's antics with a critical eye. To Oberon, this wasn't a training session, this was his very reason for living. Soundman's little display wasn't an attack; it was a rock concert, and to Oberon, Soundman was the rock star.
Soundman laughed lightly, patting Melody. "Well, any good musician needs a good instrument. Right Melody?" He strummed the guitar's strings once as if to emphasize his point, prompting her to giggle herself.

Melody unwrapped her strip of gauze from around Soundman and wafted over to the scattered rewards, snatching up and downloading the various bits and pieces.

"Well then," Soundman started, "Shall we continue?"

((Battle 3))
Moving along, Soundman and er, Oberon for now, encountered less of the sand and more of the lush grass that permeated the more fertile side of Netfrica Net. After a while, they find some cloaked figures muttering something together in a small group, surrounding some brown pots. Then, suddenly, a green fire came from the pots, blasting upwards as the figures lifted their hands in unison and hailed in a squeaky, undecipherable voice. The fire came down, and took the form of three dragons looming over the fields. One of the figures spot the traveling Navis and alerted its friends and dragons, prompting them to ready themselves for a fight!

MettfireA: 100HP
MettfireB: 100HP
MettfireC: 100HP
MettfireD: 100HP
EarthDragonA: 200HP
EarthDragonA: 200HP
EarthDragonA: 200HP

Terrain: 100% Grass

SoundMan.EXE: 180 HP
Melody.SP: 40 HP
Oberon.EXE: 210 HP

-BATTLE THREE, FIGHT!!-
A buzz of advice suddenly pulsed through Oberon's voice-link and his blue pendant simultaneously as the new enemies appeared. [ [color=darkred]Let Titania take the weaker ones in back; I'll send ranged chips,[/color] ] said Rachel. Be careful of Soundman's explosion attack, cautioned Titania. Oberon replied only to Titania: I know how we can flank them and do some real damage, but I need your help.

The jewel set in his pendant twinkled with a brief conversation between the two Navis who shared a body, and it continued to shimmer with data being passed between minds as Oberon charged straight towards the virus group, dematerializing his weapons into trails of white mist as he ran, his pupil-less eyes focused resolutely upon the lead EarthDragon.

[ [color=darkred]What in the hell? I just sent you a bunch of chips for Titania's bow! Do you want to get deleted?[/color] ] Rachel was nearly shouting into her microphone now, one hand balled into a fist in her hair, one hand squeezing her aunt's PET with a white-knuckled grip. Oberon barely heard her, or if he did he made a show of ignoring her, because he covered the considerable distance between Soundman and the EarthDragons in record time.

Oberon's body blurred as he leapt, still unarmed, straight at the Dragon's face, in order to plant his hand on its armored head and boost his skyward ascent. In the air, he would pull his body into a half-twist, fade into a blur, and then draw an oversized pair of pistols from the air, firing five times before his feet touched down among the rear rank of Mettfires.

He landed on his feet, in a crouched position with both arms outstretched in opposite directions, each barrel pointed at one of the virus' shadowy faces. His own face was hidden by his hair, which now hung down over his face, and by the long scarf wrapped around his face and shoulders. Where there once had been frayed and nearly shredded cloth, Oberon now wore a form-fitting shirt, baggy cargo pants, and fingerless gloves. "And Rachel thought she was starting to understand us," he said smugly, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

He fired both guns as one, their reports echoing like a single gunshot, then tossed one gun into the air, where it spun lazily for a few moments as Oberon dropped to the floor to fire a final water-imbued bullet.

As the shot left the chamber, Oberon's body evaporated, and Titania's hand appeared from mist to grip it, whereupon it wasn't a gun at all, but the huge bow that she always wielded. When she landed, it was already in the solid stance that she fired from. Her hand was energized, she had two arrows nocked, and she was fully drawn within a second. When loosed, those arrows morphed into wide white projectiles that sought two different targets, and the bow morphed into... some kind of weapon, with a claymore-sized blade and a one-handed grip, which she snatched out of the air and, with impossible speed, pulled into a huge sweep as she ran towards the nearest virus. Just as Oberon had changed costumes, so too did Titania-- from an archer's garments to some kind of rigid, yet light armor. The weapon looked heavy even in Titania's capable hands, and it was shimmering a soft blue with the power of a Sword chip, ready to cleave space and data. She heaved it through the air, and through whatever else was in the way, before bringing it crashing down to earth with a shuddering thump.

1. Unison Flow [4x Tactical Movement]/Handplant Launch
2. Aerial Vulcan2 Strafe [30 damage MettfireA, 20 damage MettfireB]
3. AquaNeedle1 Gun-Fu [20 Aqua MettfireB, C, D]
4. Twinfang1 [70 MettfireA, B]
5. Sword [80 MettfireD]
*Turn-splice*
Soundman got an idea as he stood there, eyeing the viruses... and then the giant, two-handed sword that Titania was still half-gripping, blade poking into the paneling it rested on.

"Hey Trenn, I want to try something." Soundman began, still looking at that sword. "Do you think it would be possible-"

"-To make a sword burn?" Trenn finished for him, a quarter-dozen chips slotting in as the rest of his answer. "I don't know, but I think it's worth a shot."

"Alright then... Melody, you stay over here. This could get a bit spicy." Soundman quipped, running off. Melody herself made a small huff as he dashed off toward the center of the battle, then absently floated about, waiting for him to come back. Indignant as she might be over him ordering her to stay there, foolish she was not. From what she'd overheard, they probably had a plan that involved things burning...

Considering that the entire field was made of grass, it suited her just fine to stay back here...

Soundman's footsteps continued to echo on the ground, his feet brushing the tall blades aside as he moved. He stopped when he reached his busting partner, and as opposed to unleashing attacks of his own, the navi placed his hands on either flat side of Titania's blade, Then drew them down along its' length, bathing the blade in fire as they went.

Soundman bent down as he slid his hands along the last of the sword, and released the blade when they reached its' tip. "The next time you swing this sword should be... interesting." Soundman said, confident. "It's going to be dangerous for anyone besides you, however, so I'm going to make myself scarce for the moment." Soundman clapped Titania on the shoulder, giving her a thumbs-up, and then was whisked away on the wind.

The musical navi popped back up next to Melody with a small displacement of air, and settled down to watch some fireworks...

1: Move to Titania
2: Imbue Sword with Burner (130 Nova 3 Fire damage)
3: Imbue Sword with Firehit1 (60+Impact+Doubleattack)
4: Areagrab to get the hell out of dodge (Free dodge + Acc-up to next attack)
Titania nodded to Soundman, accepting his gift of power, and examining it as it flowed from his data into hers. Yes, this was the same chip that she had seen in action twice now... She knew its capabilities, and already she could envision how it would be useful to her in this fight. As soon as Soundman's hands left her blade, she energized her weapon with the borrowed strength, her face remaining in its steely battle-mask even as it was illuminated by flickering orange light from her weapon, which now crawled with nearly white-hot patterns of burning attack data. It was an unusual combination to be sure- combining her Sword with chip data that was meant to unleash a massive blast of fire on activation. It resulted in something volatile... a bladed bomb in her hands, ready to blaze forth at the slightest cue for release.

The transfer was complete, and Titania abruptly turned her eyes skyward, to the other set of enemies, the ones that she had intended to leave to Soundman and his formidable fire-element chips. Now, however, that living fire was clenched between her hands... hers and Oberon's. Her grip tightened on her overlarge blade's handle as she wondered about the wisdom of what she was about to do. This attack was meant to leave the user unharmed. Was it, then, safe for her to use it? The data belonged to Soundman; she was only borrowing it... and it wasn't just her own deletion that they were risking...

No; she was past those thoughts, had been past worrying about her dormant partner's well-being for a long time. Her feet lashed out against the grass beneath her feet, launching her body towards one of the hovering Dragons, carrying with her a sword that seared the very air behind it in a shimmering path of heat.

There was a strike-- or there might have been. As Titania twisted her body, bringing her blade into a C-shaped arc aimed to draw a shallow slash across the EarthDragon virus and unleash her blade's power, the result of her cut quickly became a moot point as a sphere of blazing data easily three times the reach of her blade exploded forth from the jewel set on her armored forehead.

Titania's data screamed for destruction as did her voice, and her lust for battle poured from her body into the Net. Buried within the shell of raging flames, her battle-mask of a face was morphed into a too-human howl of unabashed fury. While in the Net itself she was obscured by a perfect sphere of swirling fire, hanging in the air like a newborn star, on her Operators' screen she was a tiny figure of white, the epicenter of a solid storm of attack data.

And then it was over. Titania's moment of glorious destruction ended in a white-hot flash of light, as the fury spouting from her form finally gave off its last emanations, and she dropped to the Net's surface, the panels blackened from heat where her spherical chip attack had passed too close to the ground. She stood, eyes downcast, blade resting on the incinerated remains of the grass, in the center of a perfect circle of barren death, a white ghost against a field of black.


Afterburner: Unleash Sword [Sword chip imbued with Soundman's chips]
[Sword: 80 Slashing@EarthDragonA]
[Firehit: 60 Impact Fire@EarthDragonA]
[Burner: 130 Nova3 Fire]
Oberon and Titania fired a lot of things, like uh, needles, and bullets, and arrows, all that stuff. Some miss, some hit, that's the stuff life's made of, y'know? Yeah... Oh, and Soundman jacked his ally's sword so sick it went up in gratuitous FIRE. You heard me, it's a sword that's FUCKING BURNING. You don't get third-degree burns from holding it either. She threw it down and blasted everything into a fine, fine crisp. Everything dies in one shot.

Godmoders.

MettfireA: DELETED
MettfireB: DELETED
MettfireC: DELETED
MettfireD: DELETED
EarthDragonA: DELETED
EarthDragonB: DELETED
EarthDragonC: DELETED

Terrain: 100% Delicious Fine Crisp

SoundMan.EXE: 180 HP
Melody.SP: 40 HP
Oberon.EXE: 210 HP

Battle 3 - Victory!
Rewards:

SoundMan:
- 700z
- +4 FXP
- 50 BF

Titania/Oberon:
- 700z
- +4 FXP
The remnants of the Burner and Firehit's data flitted through the air back over toward Soundman, and then uploaded themselves once more into the PET. A similar process happened as Soundman picked up the various rewards strewn about.

He held out a hand to Titania, palm covered in effectively half of the rewards from the battle. "Here ya go." He said, smiling.
Titania nodded graciously, accepting her half of the rewards with a wave of her hand, sweeping the Zenny into storage. She turned to Soundman again with a smirk on his face, twirling one gun between the fingers of a gloved hand. "I gotta thank you for that," he said smugly, lowering the scarf around his neck slightly so as to make it easier to talk. "For letting me have a taste of that power, I mean. Well, you ready to move on?"

Without waiting for an answer, Oberon turned on a heel and marched deeper into the net, guns at the ready.

[Battle the next.]
SoundMan and his ally, whose identity seemed rather fickle, made their way further into the net. As a result, it wasn't long at all before they found themselves in the company of a few opponents.

The field they found themselves on was desert-like; nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. There was an angry looking red Totem in the middle of the field, and large boulders littered the rest of the field.

The navis could only spot eight of the eleven listed viruses right off the bat. The others were likely hiding somewhere in this mess and would require better searching to spot.

Battle Summary:

Allies:
SoundMan.EXE: 180 HP
Melody.SP: 40 HP
[color=EFEFEF]Titania[/color]Oberon.EXE: 210 HP

Enemies:
SkarabA: 120 HP [On top of RockcubeC]
SkarabB: 120 HP [On top of RockcubeG]
MettfireA: 100 HP [Ahead and to the left, between Rockcubes C and D]
MettfireB: 100 HP [Ahead and to the right, between Rockcubes G and F]
MettfireC: 100 HP [Ahead and left, behind RockcubeB]
Swordy-FA: 80 HP [On other side of RockcubeE]
Swordy-FB: 80 HP [Ahead and to the right diagonally from the group]
TotemA: 80 HP [Center of field, ahead]
GeninA: 60 HP [??? - Out of sight]
GeninB: 60 HP [??? - Out of sight]
GeninC: 60 HP [??? - Out of sight]

Terrain:
100% Sand [Everwhere]

Neutral Objects: [Named Leftmost to Rightmost]
RockcubeA: 200 HP [A bit behind]
RockcubeB: 200 HP [Ahead a few feet]
RockcubeC: 200 HP [A good distance ahead
RockcubeD: 200 HP [Ahead a few feet]
RockcubeE: 200 HP [Right in front of SoundMan]
RockcubeF: 200 HP [A bit behind]
RockcubeG: 200 HP [A ways off ahead]
RockcubeH: 200 HP [A little ahead]
RockcubeI: 200 HP [A good deal ahead]
RockcubeJ: 200 HP [Horizontally aligned with allies]

BATTLE 4, START!