A Test of a Woman's Manhood

"Feh, telling someone to surrender in a tournament match is just taunting them. Anyone that would even stand a chance would fight right to the end. Or... Well, everyone had better be willing to fight, since I won't be offering surrender to anyone." answered Anyis as she casually stretched her arms up above her head. "Now come on guys, I want to go beat up those arrogant sports players." She was looking forward to winning against a team that thought they couldn't lose, and she made that clear by taking the lead to the arena portal.
Meleeman failed to make a comment, but grunted about manliness and fists as he, Seraphim, and Anyis made their way to the portal.

----

Arriving, Andante found themselves in a soccer stadium with empty seats, but goalies were behind them, guarding nets from incoming soccer balls. Team Sports had arrived a bit earlier and were glancing around warily. This didn't seem like their specialty at all.

An info screen describing the Arena was displayed to the operators.

Quote (Soccer Stadium)

A wide-open stadium about the same size as a World Championship size soccer field. The ground is actually astroturf, so there's no need to worry about augmenting fire attacks.

There are no actual boundaries, so you may fight on the audience seats if you like. There are a total of 100,000 foldable seats that may be folded down to hamper opponents.

The Keepers in front of the nets are automated objects that aid in blocking the Invincible Soccer Ball that is placed in the middle of the stadium. Something odd might happen if the ball were to get into your goal, so be wary.

---Terrain---

60% Astroturf
40% Seats (Can use 1 action to fold down a seat)

---Objects---
KeeperA: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)
KeeperB: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)
Soccer Ball: Infinite HP (1 Action to move, 1 RP based action to steal)


"Well, this really isn't my style, so shall we get started?" Passer grinned, twirling his basketball before dribbling it in a steady rhythm while stomping his right foot on the ground. Server was able to mimic the dribbling by bouncing tennis balls off his racket to the ground, but Blocker's was... just a kind of pantomime.

At any rate, looks like you won't be able to ignore that soccer ball... Choose your actions wisely.


KeeperS: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)
Server.EXE: 200 HP
Passer.EXE: 200 HP
Blocker.EXE: 500 HP

Soccer Ball: Infinite HP (1 Action to move, 1 RP based action to steal)

Meleeman.EXE: 300 HP
Seraphim.EXE: 200 HP
Anyis.EXE: 140 HP
KeeperA: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)

Terrain:
60% Astroturf
40% Seats (Can use 1 action to fold down a seat)

---BATTLE 2---
---START---
"Alright, let's see..." Seraphim glanced around the field. "A sports mini-game on top of a battle. This should be interesting. Since Meleeman is the designated meat-tank, He needs all the protection he can get. It won't do any harm for the help to look badass, though." Seraphim grinned, conjuring up his SP in its base 'item' form and tossing it to Meleeman. "Well, I guess you'd wear plate armor, but it'd be awful hard to move in that depending on if you have the endurance feat or not." The navi shrugged, leaving the choice up to Meleeman. "Oh, uh, you should be able to access some of my armor's base functions. It's enchanted to help you move and stuff, and has some things that'll help you keep out of the way of uh- well, I'll explain it later." Completely disregarding the fact that Meleeman would probably need the information now rather than later, Seraphim turned his attentions to Erin. "What do you think of the situation?"

"I think you should get moving before you get hit by something. It's not a cutscene right now, you know." Part of her motivation was to get seraphim off the topic of such obviously nerdy things as she fumbled to turn down the volume of his friendly speeches. She gave a halfhearted grin at Rania that turned into a grimace as she looked at Mill.

1] Summon SP
*1] Toss SP to Meleeman [Move+3]

[Turn Splice]


SP Actions:
1] Equip to Meleeman
2] Help Meleeman Dodge
MeleeMan caught the armor unconsciously and fairly carelessly, turning it over in his hands. "What the hell, item form? How do I use it?" he asked, examining the parcel closely. "It doesn't even look like something I can wear. Are you sure about this?" he called back, grabbing it from both sides as if he intended to tear the armor open like it was a package.

Before he could, Rania stopped him with a loud outburst. "Wait a minute!" she called out, attracting attention from the random passers-by. "It requires a little input on my side, sorry. I'll equip it on you... Let's see, it just functions like this and this... I see..." she murmured, working her way through the menus. "Woah, you can unequip all of MeleeMan's clothes? That's kind of uh..." she muttered, her face reddening as she imagined an operator doing such a thing with her navi.

"Hey, dumbass. The goal isn't to strip me naked, it's to put this armor on over my clothes. Don't get carried away," MeleeMan grumbled. "I need the rest of my clothes too for the flame retardation." Rania nodded, shuffling to the correct option and finally completing the equip function, arming Meleeman with Seraphim's familiar armor over his bodysuit. "Sweet, my coat even works into it. Although the color's a little bright," he remarked as he looked it over. "Anyways, it's surprisingly light. If you're going to wear armor you should try wearing heavier armor, Seraphim; it's good for training your muscles."

"Now is not the time for that, MeleeMan," Rania coughed. "You can trade abstract training methods some other time."

MeleeMan frowned, turning back to his enemies. "Huh, sports playing bastards. This field's almost sure to give them the advantage, huh? Well, I'll let Seraphim and Anyis handle the technical details of all this. Me? I'm not going to play their game. I'm turning this battlefield into a battlefield!" he roared, powering up the thrusters in his boots. "Time to use my new specialty technique. Thanks to Seraphim's flying armor, this is going to work even better than usual. On the ground I'm strong, but flying across the battlefield for interceptions, I'll be like an inescapable demon of competitive sports!" he guffawed, beginning into a horizontal dive towards his opponents.

"Wow, he seems to be getting into it. Maybe I should try to program something like this into his SeraphimCross? Eh heh heh," Rania laughed, returning Erin's awkward grin.

Flying across the battlefield in a stream of flames, MeleeMan approached his opponents knuckles-first. "Let's see you score a goal while you're dealing with me!" he growled, attempting to burn through them in a blaze of speed. "I'm turning this three on three into a two on two and one on one!"

Rania sighed, although her shining eyes were focused on the screen. "That was not only convoluted, but also doesn't sound like any kind of particular threat," she commented, despite her excitement.

"Ha ha, you may think that now, but this one-on-one guy's going to realize how threatening it really is," he laughed, attempting to scoop one navi up with his beefy arms after jet-rushing through the others. He aimed for the largest navi, loving the feeling of air rushing by him as Seraphim's armor allowed him to fly but disliking the fact that he couldn't really tell whether he'd caught his target effectively or not. "Let's get right into it, huh buddy? Big guys like you and me don't fool around!" he cackled menacingly, attempting to hold the navi with one hand while equipping a gutspunch with his left. He took his time to check his target; so as not to punch at nothing, if there was nobody in his grip, he'd just have to turn around and assault them again. But if the target had been caught... Woe be unto that navi.

Rania felt the invigoration of flying as well, thinking that it seemed like it must be a very dynamic and exciting way to fight. That combined with the fact that the whole match was like competitive sports had set the fire into her eyes, turning her into a bonafide warrior. "Go on, Melee! Give him the right, straight in the face! Do it again!" she cheered, gripping onto the PET tightly. The situation was beginning to seem dangerous for Mill, trapped at the table with one girl that threatened to shoot him and another girl who seemed like she wanted to beat somebody's face in.

"You don't have to tell me twice. This is what sports should really be, ha ha ha!" her navi sneered, whipping his fist back and forth with ruthlessly effective arm motions.

*) Equip Seraphim's mobility SP, activate planeswalking
*) Red Rage to next action
1) Berserk Blitz to Server [microburst to self, 170 fire to target]
2) Iron Grip to Blocker [stonebody to self, hold to target]
3) Gutpunch to Blocker [70 + impact]
4) Gutpunch to Blocker [70 + impact]
5) Gutpunch to Blocker [70 + impact]
"It would figure that we get sent to a sports arena against the sports team." sighed Anyis as she surveyed the large soccer arena around her. "Tennis, basketball, football, and soccer... God, it all makes no sense, but we're still playing right into their hands anyway! I don't even like soccer!"

"Have you ever even played soccer...?" asked Mill, who was somewhat preoccupied trying to shake off the devil's gaze coming from the other side of the table.

"No... but that doesn't matter! The important part is not letting these guys get their way! I'm changing the game!" announced Anyis resolutely as she conjured up a tiny ball of data in her hand. She then looked up into the sky above the open air stadium to see that giant airborne mass of flowing data she was so very familiar with, yet also the only one here able to see it at all. The River was full of the Net's junk data, and Anyis had an idea on how to get this game into a rain delay.

"Wait wait wait, are you using 'that'?!" gasped Mill as he evaded the murderous vibes long enough to glance at his PET. He started to speak, but then realized the dangers of it and turned it into a whisper, "Seraphim and MeleeMan will drown if you use it... MeleeMan in particular..."

"Seraphim's fine and MeleeMan has Seraphim's armor, so it's okay! Just sit back and watch, Mill!" replied Anyis confidently as she pitched the data ball high up into the air. It was actually a really good pitch worthy of the pros (although she won't admit that the distance was assisted by the attack program itself), going so far as to actually disappear into the River itself. Immediately, bits and pieces of the massive current began breaking off and condensing into data thick enough for everyone to see. This breakup continued quickly, breaking apart more and more data and letting it rain down to the ground until the weather was an outright deluge.

While the downpour above certainly was something to see, the real effect of all this was actually happening below. As each drop of the cold data rain hit the ground, that little part of the arena would liquefy. The turf on the field, the floor in the stands, everything was turning into water because of Anyis's rainstorm. "Well, without a solid field to play on, I guess we can't call this a soccer game anymore." laughed Anyis, who was standing on top of her sea as the rain suddenly came to a stop. Since she was likely the only Aqua Navi in this entire match, Anyis felt just a little confident about the new arrangements. "Hey Mill, what kind of water sports are there?"

"Uh... Well, I think that soccer ball is still floating around somewhere. If we still want to get it in the goal, I guess this is water polo...?" Mill responded, despite being about as far removed from "sports fanatic" as one could possibly be, let alone water sports.

"Eh, good enough. This is a water polo match, then. Mill, give me the RageClaw for now. We'll work from there once I get someone underwater." decided Anyis as she deactivated her FloatShoes and fell into the water. The moment she hit, a quick flash of light enveloped her, and she was then wearing her swimsuit. And, just as quickly as her outfit had changed, Anyis herself was off, expertly swimming through the water towards Passer. The RageClaw then appeared around her gauntlet as a set of very long scales coming off the fingers of the armor, leading Anyis to take a swipe at Passer's ankle, trying to wrap her clawed fingers around it and drag her opponent underwater.

As she did that, out of the corner of her eye, Anyis thought she caught a glimpse of the ball floating in the water. Since she went after Passer, she knew she wasn't in a position to make a score herself. MeleeMan jumped after Blocker, as well, so that left Seraphim as the team's scorer. To help that end, Anyis thought to Seraphim a bit of a better position on the ball. With a quick mental command, Boogeyman was summoned in front of her and he immediately went straight for the ball. In fact, that's all he would do at all. Boogeyman lowered his head, and proceeded to take his best shot at a swimming headbutt on the ball to pass it off to Seraphim.

Mill, meanwhile, could only sigh as his Navi actually let herself get so sidetracked by the ball right after trying to drag an enemy underwater. To try and prevent that from become as terrible an idea as he thought it was, Mill slotted in a fresh pair of chips for Anyis to fight with. On his own front, Mill had subscribed to the thought commonly accepted in wild bear encounters: stay calm and don't look it in the eyes.

With her RageClaw still set around her left hand, Anyis's right hand became encased in the ice of her ColdPunch, and in that now icy hand was placed a large bone belonging to the Skully chip. In fact, her grip on the bone was so cold that the bone itself was frozen over, creating a large, and most likely painful, bludgeon of ice. With a heave, Anyis threw the frozen bone at Passer, sending it through the water like a torpedo as it homed in on its target. Anyis herself was quick to follow behind the attack as she swam around Passer and swung at him with her ColdPunch, hoping to submerge him deeper into the water if he hadn't already gotten back above the surface.

In the meanwhile, Anyis's Ectopatcher program was set to help MeleeMan if he got hurt. Anyis figured that she should just set him as the default for the time being.

Actions:

1. Raining River (Stage Change Sea Terrain, 3TCD), GAME CHANGE: WATER POLO
2. Submerge under Sea Terrain
--Activate Divewear.GMO
3. Swim underneath Passer, drag him underwater with RageClaw (20 damage, Impact)
--Boogeyman (Knockback ball over to Seraphim)
--Ice Bleeding (Imbue Aqua to:)
4. Bone-Chilling Skully1 (100 Aqua, Freeze, Confusion, Homing) @ Passer
5. ColdPunch (85 Aqua damage, Impact, Knockback) @ Passer, push him deeper underwater
--Ectopatcher (Heal 15 HP) @ MeleeMan

Cooldowns:
Raining River - 3 turns
Seraphim nodded at his allies, confirming what he was about to do as he made to sprint for the ball...

Then the ground under his feet turned into water.

"Well, that changes things." Erin muttered darkly, glancing over at mill with some animosity, but more or less thinking of what she could possibly do with the water. "Just great." She sighed.

Seraphim found he wasn't falling face-first into the water, then straightened up, patting his feet into the air. "Guess I already have Float on me." He spoke thoughtfully, looking at his feet. Seraphim tried stomping, looking nonplussed when his feet bounced slightly off the air rather than even touching the water. "I wonder if I'll even be able to get or carry the ball with this on." He mused, then shrugged. "Better to try than to just leave it for them to score with, I figure."

Erin struggled to find a chip that might help him with this particular endeavor, looking through her stash, but couldn't find much. "Wait. This is water, so freezing it..." She pondered at those particular possibilities, mumbling to herself for a moment while looking through her chip stash.

"Aha!" She exclaimed, pulling out a single chip. "Icewave. Should do something to the ice, anyway." She slid it in, then picked out the Rollarrow as well. "This one is supposed to work on navis especially well. Hope you can fire arrows with that gun of yours as well."

"Of course," Seraphim responded, continuing his run after the floating ball. Flipping the chamber open, he slipped the two shots in, leaving the remaining ones empty. Flipping the weapon shut, he looked at his two allies. They seemed to be managing themselves well, so he decided to help out a bit by making sure they weren't interrupted. His own being interrupted while he charged across the field would not have helped either, so the decision was for the best. The navi peered down the sights, firing off the first shot, a bullet that left behind a trail of light at Passer to distract him from the ball. Server looked like he had his own problems with Anyis, and Meleeman looked kind of like he might be going after the bulkier man on the field. "Perfect, everyone is taking on their reversed roles," He approved as he pulled back on the hammer and shifted his aim.

"Wait, you're not going to hit him with that shot? You could finish him off!" Erin scolded as she glanced at her navi's change of plans as he gave her a quizzical glance.

"Well, this way I can stop him from getting the ball even if I do miss," Seraphim explained, continuing to run toward the ball, making an attempt to dribble it. He whipped the rifle-gun-mesh-sword under his other arm to brace it and fired. The way he fired the weapon was weird, but what occurred after he fired the weapon was a bit stranger. It created a spreading field of ice emanating from the weapon, that headed straight toward Passer, who was hopefully still underwater.

If it didn't hit him, it would hopefully block him from even reaching the battlefield, allowing him to completely block off Passer from the battle, at the very least. "Icewave for a reason," Seraphim chuckled. "Hopefully it doesn't hit Meleeman or Anyis. Although she's like an ice mage so she probably has resistance anyway."

Not sure exactly how to handle the ball with the watery surface, Seraphim tried to keep it in the air, not sure if it would be a good idea to kick it along sluggishly through the water as he hovered above it. Didn't seem like a good idea to him.

"Maybe I should have used the Icewave to make a path to the goal..." He mused, but tried to create a circuit of bouncing the ball from foot to foot in order to keep moving. He sheathed his weapon, realizing how hard this was getting while paying attention to everything around him. If he needed to dodge with the ball, he certainly didn't want to have to factor the gun-mesh-sword into the equation right now.

"Hopefully this does something for all the effort and isn't like one of those token prizes for the effort this takes," Seraphim groaned at the thought, realizing how many fetch quests ended this way. With that, he glanced at the automated goalie, faked a kick at the lower right, then went for the left corner of the goal with a slightly higher kick. "Hope he isn't one for feints. Or frustrating AI." Seraphim seemed to be ruminating a bit on these possible bugs in the goalie's AI design because he was a minor NPC and was even regulated to the task of 'Bot'.



--TURN SPLICE--
2] Rollarrow1 @ Passer [Damage 50+Chipbreak]
3] Icewave2 @ Passer and Area [Damage 100+Aqua, trying to block his path or even 'ice' him]
*] Move+3 [Grab Passed Ball]
4] Dodge any attempts to grab ball
5] Prepped dodge
*] Move+3 [Move toward goal]
6] Feint and fire ball at left hand top corner of goal.
The match started off with a bang, literally. Or maybe a splash as Anyis accessed the River and changed the game to water polo. The seats decided to adapt and shift into bleachers at this sudden terrain change while the goalies morphed into more suitable equipment.

Seraphim decided it was a good idea to give Meleeman his jacket and enable him to fly. Server decided, too late, to slam something at Anyis, who dove underwater and changed into something more fashionable for the environment, avoiding the incoming tennis balls.

Meleeman, all buffed up to fight, blasted himself at Server, delivering a powerful tackle to the tennis player, knocking him out in surprise.

Blocker advanced on Meleeman, and Meleeman advanced on Blocker, both making a grab for each other, but missing.

"This really isn't my day," Passer sighed, twirling his Basketball on one finger and slamming it into the water, activating a chip...

...when Seraphim nailed him with his RollArrow and caused the action to cease, the basketball played letting out a "Buh?" before gargling as Anyis dragged him down underwater. Desperately gasping for air, Passer grabbed a smaller ball from out of thin air and slammed it on Anyis, causing a powerful explosion that knocked the combatants away from each other as Boogeyman passed the ball to Seraphim, while a wave of ice slammed into Passer, freezing him solid.

"Not my day at all," Passer grumbled from within his frozen state.

Grabbing the now transformed soccer ball, Seraphim examined it, finding it to be now a normal water polo ball. Sensing immediate danger, the self-proclaimed protagonist shifted away from what looked like a bunch of webbing that came from his left. It seemed Server wasn't down for the count yet and was slowly swimming toward Seraphim. Not wasting any time, Seraphim headed toward the goal on his own Floatshoes where the Goalie was spreading his big hands out, pretty much blocking the whole goal... Hmmm...

Meanwhile, Blocker had pretty much given up on his theme and wrestled with Meleeman, both parties activating GutPunches and exchanging blow for blow, though Meleeman seemed to be doing better due to his rigid muscular defense.

"Not bad..." Blocker panted, pulling his fist back.

Anyis, on the other hand, seemed to have an easier time due to Seraphim's freezing help, and playfully sent a twirling bone at Passer, breaking the ice, and landing the navi in the critical zone.

"Tch," Passer growled, activating another Minibomb and creating a smokescreen that made it hard for Anyis to discern her opponent's location as she swung her ColdPunch and missed as Passer paddled away, wincing as he activated a recovery chip. His head started to hurt as the world swirled around him.

Seraphim faked out the goalie, kicking the polo ball into the net.

This resulted in Team Sports suddenly freezing in place while the goalie threw the polo ball back to the center.

Interesting, looks like scoring a goal induced a status effect on your opponents.

KeeperS: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)
Server.EXE: 30 HP (Stunned!)
Passer.EXE: 81 HP (Stunned!)(Confused!)
Blocker.EXE: 290 HP (Stunned!)[Gutpunch]

Water Polo Ball: Infinite HP (1 Action to move, 1 RP based action to steal)

Meleeman.EXE: 300 HP [GutPunch: 3 Swings][Mobility Junction: Shirt]
Seraphim.EXE: 200 HP
Shirt.SP: 80 HP [Mobility Junction: Meleeman]
Anyis.EXE: 80 HP [Rageclaw: 5 swings][ColdPunch: 5 swings]
KeeperA: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)

Terrain:
60% Sea
40% Bleachers
"Owww... How the hell do you throw a basketball so hard underwater...?" groaned Anyis after the hit as she raised her hand to rub her head, saw the bladed RageClaw attached to her hand, looked to the other hand, saw the freezing ColdPunch on her other hand, and finally just decided against the whole thing for her own safety. Instead, to bear with the mild pain, she opted to share it with Passer, possibly double or triple the amount, and make sure that, despite saying it himself twice already, Passer knew that this really, really wasn't his day. Yeah, the name of the game was soccer, then it became water polo... now it was revenge.

By the time Mill realized what his Navi was doing, Anyis had already swam halfway to her target. He blinked as his mind needed a moment to register what just happened, scratched an itch on his ear, then almost jumped out of his seat as his mind caught up with his eyes."Whoa, whoa, give me a warning when you want to do something!" shouted Mill in surprise as he began fumbling for chips.

"No chips! This one's mine!" yelled Anyis in response as she continued through the water.

"... Uhh, okay." sighed Mill as he leaned back in his chair. After a few runs on the Net and the ONB tournament, he was starting to clearly identify some of Anyis's... quirks. She was proud and confident, and she could develop a serious one-track mind when something didn't go her way. Mill had a feeling she was in that mode right now, and he couldn't help but pray for Passer a little in his mind since he knew that Anyis would hunt that guy down, to hell and back if needed, just to get him back for hitting her earlier. More importantly, though, Anyis's solo work left him with nothing to do. Mill glanced at Rania and Erin, and inevitably started thinking. For one, how the hell and why the hell was he on the beach, Netbattling with two girls? Well... One girl and a devil. Actually, an underaged devil at that, so there was a bad idea for waaay too many reasons. He didn't want that, she didn't want that, and the law didn't want that. There was one thing everyone could agree on, at least... Rania, though... obviously older than Erin, although Mill was not so naive as to not understand the concept of "jailbait". She seemed to have a lot of similar issues with MeleeMan like he did with Anyis, so they certainly had something in common... for better or worse.

... No no no. Mill shook his head, tossing out the rambling, bored thoughts of a 20 year old electronics nerd. This wasn't the time nor place for that. It was also questionable if there was a time or place for that, but that wasn't important.

What was important was what Anyis was doing. In the midst of Mill's mental vagrancy, she had jumped Passer, to find that he was actually stunned for a bit because Seraphim made that goal when she passed him the ball. Oh dear sweet god, thank you. Anyis clinched her fist, and grinned. Her favorite chip missed before when Passer wimped out and escaped her through a Minibomb smokescreen... also underwater, at which point she was just thinking foul play. But whatever, she was satisfied with how things were now. She leaped up out of the water to go overhead the basketball player who was bobbing stiffly in the water, and threw her ColdPunch down at him, intent on both dealing some serious hurt and sending Passer underwater to drown himself all the way to an EJO.

As Anyis herself hit the water again in her fall, her mind, potentially having its bloodlust quenched, returned to the fact that this was a team match. The immediate eyecatch was MeleeMan tangled up with Blocker and engaged in a mutual beatdown of the likes she had never seen before. Or, rather, she thought she saw, because Anyis had no idea that MeleeMan was taking almost no damage whatsoever from Blocker's pansy-ass punches. Still, Blocker lived up to his name: he was a block. A block of meat, a block of goo, a block of pillows... Anyis had no idea what, but damn if he didn't have a lot of HP. She was tempted to go in and join in the beatdown, but with MeleeMan tangled up in all that pretty thoroughly, it clicked in Anyis's mind that the potential for friendly crossfire was very, very good. There was one other thing she could maybe do... Anyis wasn't entirely sure how well MeleeMan would take a ghost being shoved into his systems, but if it worked, he'd have enough power to blow up the football player pretty quickly... "Eh, might as well try. MeleeMan!" decided Anyis, then shouting to her ally to get his attention. "I'll give you some extra power, so beat that guy into pieces!" With that announcement that surely ticked off Blocker, Anyis quickly made a new connection to the River, and fished out from it the poor soul of a long-since deleted Navi. His form was awfully decayed, so it was hard to make out many features... except for his fists, which were composed of some ridiculously huge hands. If MeleeMan could ever successfully channel a ghost like she could, this one was probably their best bet. She thrusted her hand forward towards MeleeMan, and the ghost followed the path, going beyond Anyis's gesture straight at the pugilistic Navi. Anyis wasn't really sure what to do until she knew how this panned out...

Actions:
1. ColdPunch (85 Aqua damage, Impact, Knockback) @ Passer
2. Channel Surf (120 Strengthen, 3TCD) @ MeleeMan

--Turn Splice--
MeleeMan had been initially irritated when he'd failed his clutch on Blocker, but his success in pummeling the navi with his attacks had put him back in a chipper mood. Guffawing loudly, he beat his fists together while taking a pause in attacks. "Boy, this is a new one. You can take it but you can't dish it out! Have I even been hit now? Were you even trying? Ha ha ha!" he laughed, bringing his fists back to ready stance. "Pathetic. All bark and no bite, just like I thought. It's time to put you out of your misery, and I'm going to do it all with my own power-!"

As he roared, MeleeMan was suddenly infused with ghostly energy, directly opposing his previous thought. In fact, it wasn't just energy; it suddenly felt like there were hands clutch his arm, trying to propel him into the punch. "What the hell is this?! I think this is the first time I've ever had anyone in the universe want me to punch more than I myself want to. I'm not RassCrossing again, am I?" he asked suspiciously, trying to hold his arm in check. "I've got at least a little bit more trash-talking thought up before I pound this guy!"

Rania had become completely distracted by Mill who, in his own distraction, had stared at her just a teensy little bit. This was enough for her, who'd been hoping he would start staring just a teensy little bit since she first met him. "Oh, uh, he's looking back at the PET now, it'll probably look stupid if I don't send MeleeMan any chips. I mean, even if your navi doesn't ask for anything, you've got to be pretty stupid not to send your navi any chips at all," she thought to herself, trying to take her mind off of her own situation for a while. "Alright, something easy for him so he can handle it himself," she muttered, fishing out a Golemhit. She wasn't overly worried with her navi's battle, as it seemed that he was taking very minimal damage and handling himself quite well. Alternatively, she was extremely concerned with analyzing Mill's attitude and seeing whether he signaled an uncomfortable "your bikini looks ridiculous and your breasts are too small" mindset or a "I'm sneaking glances uncomfortably because you're an all around gorgeous person and I'm bashful" one.

"Argh, okay, I don't like being ordered around by anything, but you're lucky I was planning to throw a punch already anyways, whatever you are!" MeleeMan growled, rearing back for what he hoped would be the final hit. He had a magnificent image in his mind of the enemy being smashed under his fist, crumpling into a useless heap, and then sinking into the ocean. "Ha, an underwater death. That's gotta be the worst way to die," MeleeMan figured, transposing his own dislike of water onto his enemy. "Alright mysterious spirits of my fist, I'm ready. Let's give this one all of it!" he roared, igniting the flames from his gauntlets as he raised both hands to give the enemy navi a crushing axe-handle blow with his fists tightly clenched into a club. He wasn't sure what happened, but whatever the case, the force was so great that he felt his hands tingle both from the impact and the dispersion of the ghosts.

MeleeMan now had a bit of time to ponder over why he'd suddenly recieved the input of ghostly super-protein. Anyis was looking at her and holding out a palm, so he figured maybe she was up to something. Regardless, once the tingling subsided, he realized that the power behind his fists had been significantly more substantial, even compared to his usual muscle strength. "Huh. So I guess ghost infusions are right in there with drinking raw egg shakes and eating the hearts of your enemies with ridiculous things that apparently increase your power. I never would have guessed... But that would explain how that girl is so damn strong," he reasoned, rubbing his chin.

For all intents and purposes, MeleeMan and Rania were both out of the fight, musing over ridiculous concepts that probably had no basis in reality (an all too common occurrence in the netbattling pair's battles). Even like this, however, MeleeMan watched his opponent, curious both to see if his opponent would/could counter attack and what sort of damage his axe-handle technique had done. If somehow the guy had enough left in him to attack, MeleeMan prepared himself to dodge, but he seriously doubted it. "Don't get back up, if you know what's good for you," he grumbled, preparing one more little punch just in case, though his arm felt a little light and weak with the absence of ghost power.

1) Stabilize arm (take aim)
2) Stabilize arm (take aim)
*) Red Rage to next action
*) Channel Surf from Anyis to next action
3) GolemHit1 to Blocker [290 + break + impact + panel break]
4) Dodge
5) Buster Attack to Blocker [8 damage]
Seraphim glanced over the field, looking at the foes and his allies and their coordinated attacks on the enemy. "Well, looks like it's about time for me to end this- and I have the perfect idea. I'll use Mechsword! That'll finish all three of them off at once without any friendly fire. The perfect tactic for now!" He nodded, confident in his prowess as a leader of the team.

"Uh, well, I can't find it here." Erin rummaged through her chips. "It's not on your spell list. Maybe you uh, learn it at a higher level?" She hissed at Seraphim, trying to get him off the topic of it and possibly making her an even worse target than Mill. Her nervous smile had long since transformed into an uncomfortable grimace, which she held as she looked at her current options. There wasn't really much she could do. "Uh, yeah, I'll give you these. They should work handily as long as you don't uh submerge yourself while doing it."

"Of course not. I'll bet this water is conductive, so I'll be sure not to let them get even that close to me," Seraphim stated as he drew out his comically oversized blade. He looked at the combat, then leveled his blade at the only other target that he could see that wasn't currently occupied. "Alright, I'll take him on. Maybe I can even do a combo attack with Anyis!" The navi grinned and nodded at the idea before the sword began its process of drawing in energy needed for the combo he was about to initiate.

"It'll only take a touch, and then I can throw him over to Anyis so she can finish him off. Maybe I can even send some pulses underwater to finish anything left off." He brandished the weapon at Server, which then began buzzing with electrical energy as it magnetized to Server's specific frequency. It would draw the navi straight into a wave of over 10,000 virtual volts. Covered in water, Server wouldn't stand a chance. Not to mention the fact that with the followup he intended, the navi would be tossed straight into territory he would most likely not escape alive. "Alright, that should be enough," Seraphim gauged, as he brought the sword up like a fishing rod, then spun it around and swung it as if it were a baseball bat, hopefully knocking the poor navi in a lobbing arc toward Anyis.

"Why does it have to be his navi that gets to take him out, Seraphim?" Erin asked, somewhat genuinely puzzled. "Shouldn't you be finishing Server off?"

"Obviously, the poor mage needs the exp. She must be the most underleveled here. Meleeman is just fine, as am I, but since we just recruited her, she'll be behind us. We'll need to powerlevel her up to speed so that she can cast some nice and powerful buffs for us." With that explanation, Seraphim tapped his sword into the water to make his point, unintentionally sending a small zap of the remnant electricity into the water.

"Well, if you say so." She spoke in a completely unconvinced tone as she slotted in another chip. "Well, I guess that's all we can do here. Most of these chips would probably spread in the water and hit allies. Doubt Anyis could afford a hit of that. Meleeman has his situation well in hand."

"Hm. Well, let it never be said that I couldn't help." Seraphim said, storing away the oversized blade and taking out his somewhat more reasonable but less feasible sword-mesh-gun. Aiming it at where he saw Passer last, he made for a single shot. "If he put up any defenses, that shot should have taken them out. If Anyis wants to make sure though, that would get her some more experience points."

"Well, it's best to be prepared. I say you charge up a shot so that you can take out anything left, just in case." Erin's remark caused Seraphim to frown slightly, but he did realize its validity. Energy began to collect around the sword-mesh-gun as he stared along the iron-sights, bracing it as he looked for any enemies that remained about.

"If I need to make a shot at Blocker, Meleeman will be covering most of him. Passer and Server should be down for the count, and-" Seraphim winced as he heard Meleeman's fist contact with something with some serious impact. "Meleeman is a formidable ally. I'm sure that Blocker is no match for him."

"Well, you never know. Passer may have had something up his sleeve." Erin shrugged, not really thinking it the truth, but worst case scenarios always popped up. Especially around Seraphim.

*] Use position to gain better vantage point and brace self while hovering above water somehow impossibly.
1] Magbolt @ Server (90 Elec + Pull to self) (Terrain Sea +100% Damage)
2] Rageclaw @ Server (20 To Server) Thrown @ Near Anyis' general area
*] Turn and look for Passer
3] Fire Buster at Passer trying to break any defenses/chips (50+Break)
4] Charge
5] Charge
*] Brace and swivel, looking for target
6] Fire @ anything still alive that is an enemy (200+Break)
Upon seeing MeleeMan's satisfaction with the power-up she granted him, Anyis relaxed in the water just enough to let her Ectopatcher start running its course on the injuries she took from Passer. Of course, letting her guard down while Seraphim was making his move was a terrible, terrible idea. Since Anyis was the apparent newbie, Seraphim, in all his generosity, decided it was a good idea to throw Server at her to let her finish him off.

Anyis's response was as thus: "Oh ****... Seraphim, give me some warning when you do something like this!" she shouted in frustration as, in all likelihood, a bruised and beaten body was about to crash into her. There wasn't enough time for Mill to send a new chip, so Anyis just had to rely on reflex. In response to her thoughts, the frozen shell around Anyis's chain-link gauntlets melted away and moved to her left leg before refreezing into a rather jagged looking ice greave. She tensed up in the water as she waited for the incoming body, holding herself back until just the right moment when she leaped out of the water, backflipped in the air, and threw a vicious bicycle kick at Passer before gravity sent her falling back into the water.

Once she resurfaced, Anyis clapped her hands together once and announced, "There, that should do it."

"Well, MeleeMan and Seraphim both seem to be cautious about the other team pulling some kind of trick. We should probably stay on the offensive too." said Mill in response after observing what the other Navis were doing.

"Do you have something in mind?" asked Anyis of her Operator.

"Uh... The ElecReel is probably out of the question for you with all this water around. Same goes for the DollThunder." muttered Mill.

"Yeah, I'd rather not be burnt to a crisp, thanks. Anything else?" replied Anyis sarcastically.

Mill rattled his brain for a moment before speaking again. "The next best area attack I can think of is that Pulsar combo we used back in Hades. I'm not sure what it would do underwater, though..."

"... Hmm. I'm not sure either. Now you've got me curious, so let's do it." decided Anyis.

"If you say so." shrugged Mill as he pulled out a pair of chips. "I just don't want to hear any complaints out of you later."

"I wouldn't worry about that." grinned Anyis as she received the chip data. Immediately, she activated the first chip and summoned a Rockcube in front of her... that began sinking in the water as soon as it was summoned. "Oops... Hadn't thought about that. Boogeyman!" shouted Anyis, summoning her unresponsive servant to her side. "Get under that Rockcube and keep it from sinking any more for just a bit." With that, the ghostly being dropped into the water and under the Rockcube, which it began pushing against with its arms to keep it in position.

"Good boy." laughed Anyis as she too dove underwater. Once she was only a few meters above the Rockcube, she uploaded the second piece of chip data. The Pulsar, like last time, called forth a wailing banshee to deliver the sonic strike... unsuccessfully. Anyis just floated there for a few seconds until realizing that the banshee wasn't appearing. "Stupid ghost... Guess it doesn't like being underwater..." muttered Anyis through her air filter. Sighing, she took the filter out of her mouth. With the chip data still coursing through her systems, Anyis decided she'd have to do this manually. Taking all this water into her lungs would be annoying, but she didn't really have much of a choice now. Anyis opened her mouth and inhaled, taking in as much air and water as she could manage. To get a strong enough blast, she'd need to hit the highest pitch that was possible for her. God, this was going to be so embarrassing...

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The sonic wave produced by her scream tore through the water and impacted with the Rockcube, causing the object to tremble. Being not too far away, Anyis could feel the water around her beginning to shake violently. Feeling that she couldn't get away in time, Anyis rose her arms up to defend herself as best she could, and...

*BOOM*

Actions:

--Ectopatcher (Heal 15 HP) @ Self
--Move ColdPunch to Anyis's left leg
3. ColdBicycleKick (85 Aqua damage, Impact, Knockback) @ Server
4. Summon Rockcube (200 HP Object) underwater
--Boogeyman (Keep Rockcube from completely sinking)
--Ice Bleeding (Imbue Aqua to:)
5. Suicide Sonar + Mine Detonation (70 Aqua damage, Object Triggered Splash 8) @ Rockcube, Passer, Server, Blocker, ???
Seeing as their opponents were stunned, the trio took quick advantage of the situation, Anyis moving in and punching Server with all her might as he tried to throw his basketball at her, but failed miserably and was EJO'd.

Meleeman guffawed and chortled in manliness as Anyis infused him with a GIANT FISTED specter, bolstering his strength far more than usual and, by stabilizing his arm, delivered a crushing blow to his opponent, who decided to... crash straight into it with a DashAttack. Though, due to the overpowering might of his allies' help, Blocker was soon crushed under the weight of the GolemHit and soon EJO'd with another smaller punch from the fiery brawler.

Seraphim decided to pull in Server, who survived due to his Undershirt, and then whacked him across the stadium to Anyis, who leapt in surprise, before bicycle kicking the last member of Team Sports into a chilly death. She then sang a song of mourning that reverberated through a rockcube.... Well, not really.

The water drained from the stadium and the goalies disappeared into thin air while Andante slowly reached the bottom of the pool....

KeeperS: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)
Server.EXE: EJO'D
Passer.EXE: EJO'D
Blocker.EXE: EJO'D

Water Polo Ball: Infinite HP (1 Action to move, 1 RP based action to steal)

Meleeman.EXE: 300 HP [Mobility Junction: Shirt]
Seraphim.EXE: 200 HP
Shirt.SP: 80 HP [Mobility Junction: Meleeman]
Anyis.EXE: 95 HP
KeeperA: ??? HP (May be given orders to or equipped with defenses)

Terrain:
60% Normal
40% Bleachers

-VICTORY-
Get: 2 FXP Static
+10 For Various amounts of teamwork
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A gleaming portal appeared in the middle of the pool. It seemed like the last team was waiting for them at the other end....
"Ha! What kind of stupid plan was that? You, running into me? Give me a break!" MeleeMan laughed again, referring to his EJO'd opponent who might no longer be listening to him. "Anyways, good work guys. We wrapped those guys up without breaking a sweat. Here, Seraphim, have this back," he congratulated his allies, tossing Seraphim's equipment back to him after walking over. The stench left on his armor made Seraphim highly doubt MeleeMan's "no sweat" claim.

Rania smiled and rested her head upon her folded hands. "Wow, our navis must be in a whole new league now. We were practically untouchable in that last battle!" she cheered in amusement.

"We? Who's we?" her navi grumbled. "I don't recall you out there fighting."

Not caring to respond, she turned to Mill and Erin. "So, what do you guys think? We've got a pretty good chance of going all the way, right? We should still go and scout out that last battle though," she reminded them, turning her head back to MeleeMan.

MeleeMan was already going to do just that. As he walked, he went over to Anyis, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hey, whatever that ghost thing was... I need to learn how to do it. It may just be the next step to perfecting my Soul Fist. You and I are going to have to stick together until I'm a master of it," he told her, frowning downward. With that, he proceeded on to the arena to watch the other semi-final match conclude.
"... You? Channel ghosts? Really?" asked Anyis incredulously as her regular clothes replaced her swimsuit. After overcoming the initial shock of the idea, she succumbed to a fit of laughter. "Hahahahaha! That's... Ha! Wow... Haha... I think that just made my day." said Anyis as she caught up to MeleeMan, lightly clutching her stomach with her hand to relieve the laughter. "You're lucky that I gave you a quiet ghost. I can't even begin to imagine what would happen if you had one that talked back!" Well, she said she couldn't imagine it, but her bursting out laughing again after saying it suggested otherwise.

He didn't want to say it, but Mill had a pretty good idea too of what would happen if MeleeMan had Anyis's abilities... Well, whatever. They'd cross that bridge when they came to it. "Rania's right, though. You guys have pretty much swept both matches so far. The next opponents will have to be pretty amazing to turn things around that badly." noted Mill in response to Rania.

"Yeah, it'll probably be decided as soon as we see these guys fighting." bragged Anyis arrogantly. She turned her head around for a moment to shout, "Hurry up, Seraphim! We'll miss the other match if we don't get moving!" before following MeleeMan out the exit and to the other arena.
"Hm." Seraphim said thoughtfully as he looked at the portal. "Would it be best to go in cautious, or to do something more along the lines of greet them? If they're all so unsportsmanlike as these guys- Well, Best to hope for the best." Seraphim nodded, then looked to Erin, who had a significantly more dour expression on her face.

"Well, go on then," She stated, sighing slightly as she prepared to slide in even more chips. This thing seemed like it had gone on forever.
Warping to the next battlefield, the Team Andante arrived in a barren wasteland filled with ever-flowing iron dust and weapons, broken and not, littering the ground while giant gear whirled in the background.

It only seemed like two navis were standing, but mysteriously, their partners hadn't jacked out. On Team Outcast's side, the lizard-navi lay flat-out on the ground, tongue sticking out in a silly fashion, eyes spiraling as if he were comically dizzy while the yellow blob had pretty much splattered all over the place as a puddle of yellow goo...

On the Strikers side, Cera was wincing and in a kneeling position, her glasses lopsided and most of her clothes torn while her special control panel crackled in disuse, obviously broken. Engetsu was flat on his back, completely unconscious.

All that was left was the hooded navi that emitted terror from every part of his being, and the nameless armored knight from before. It actually didn't seem like they moved much.

"...Be careful.... Rust..." Cera groaned, clasping her right arm.

"I'm aware.... but..." Rust started, his voice rumbling through the arena. "It's too... late..." The armored knight quickly raised his sword in front of him as the hooded navi lunged, a spiraling vortex coming out of his body. It was as if the cloaked navi was rending space itself. Rust feebly blocked against the slashes, his armor chipping off his various place before the hooded navi warped to the other side of him and took out a skeletal arm from his cloak, the hand in a spear-like position as it aimed to pierce Rust's back.

Rust's sword glowed, battlechip data recieved as he turned around and swung at the hooded navi mightily, knocking him back before it could ever reach him. Growling, the hooded navi opened its cloak again, revealing multiple gunbarrels and firing rapidly at Rust.

Grunting, the armored navi picked up a halberd from the ground and danced among the bullets, whacking some aside as he approached his opponent, still taking damage at the same time, as he couldn't block all of them. Letting out a war cry, Rust sheathed his sword, picked up a nearby trident, and leaped into the air, twirling both weapons magnificently as he descended upon the hooded navi, who let out a sigh while eight, long arms burst out from under his cloak, trapping the navi in place.

"Well, it was fun..." the hooded navi sighed, a red laser building up in its hood before blasting Rust into devastation.

As the victory alarm sounded, the hooded navi retracted his arms and floated back over to his allies.

"Damn.... it..." Cera growled, jacking out. Engetsu's operator did the same to his navi.

---------------------------------

The Progs did their usual thing to both surviving teams. It seems Team Outcast went ahead to the next arena. Another, blue portal, appeared before the group.

This was really it.
"Huh. Damn," MeleeMan grumbled, rubbing his chin. "That wasn't easy to follow. No bones about it: we've got to be prepared for this next one. They can't be as strong as us, but they're obviously packing more than sports equipment..." The visor of his helmet hid his excited eyes, which in spite of the danger were burning brightly in anticipation of finally engaging a worthy opponent. "That guy in there didn't mess around."

Rania watched her navi with surprise. "You're conceding that your opponent might be a worthwhile challenge? That's sort of unlike you, MeleeMan. Usually you just assume you're better than everyone else," she pointed out, not trying to sound offensive but unfortunately wording it out that way.

MeleeMan shook his head, smiling and clenching his fists. "Nah, I never said he was equal or better than me. I only know a few people in the world equal to me and not a single person who's better," he smirked, strutting confidently into the portal.
"God, that was a waste. We only saw that robed guy in action, and he was just showing off." whined Anyis impatiently as she watched the woeful end of the other match. "Since the other two managed to get beaten up against the other team, I guess we just need to beat up the robed guy and the other two will follow?"

"Do you really care? All you've been doing so far is assaulting whoever has looked at you." sighed Mill in acknowledgment of his Navi's lack of tactics. "You should at least admit that this one should be tough since it's the last match, right?"

"Well, yeah, of course. It's the finals." nodded Anyis as if there was never any disagreement. "It's just math. They have one strong Navi. We have three. The odds are in our favor." With her flawless logic established, Anyis followed MeleeMan into the portal.
"Hm. So that was a setup to send us against a cruel and unforgiving force. I see." Seraphim reasoned out, fuming at the bait and switch boss as well as the injustice against those who did not deserve it. He stepped through the gate quickly.
Where they warped to was a dark place. They couldn't really see anything at first.

But then there was light.

A tiny pinprick of light, but soon enough thousands... maybe millions of these tiny shiners surrounded the two groups.

The first thing they realized was that there was no floor. Though it felt that all navis were standing on some kind of surface.

"A replica of outer-space... Interesting, though I'm not sure they really did it right," the hooded navi mused, scanners identifying him as "Multiple.EXE."

"I've always wanted to experience something like outer-space. This will be a good test of my skills," remarked the lizard-looking navi, identified as "Chamo.EXE."

"STATEMENT: THIS MATCH WILL CONCLUDE THE TOURNAMENT." was what emitted from the yellow blob, identified as "Pulsing Orbital Monitor.EXE" or "POM.EXE" for short. Team Andante had a little idea in their heads that whoever made this navi probably just went with whatever was cool.

"Well then, let's get started," Multiple proposed, Team Outcast getting into battle stances.

A brief, hideable pop-up detailing the aspects of the arena were sent to the operators. Apparently the navis could fly in this crazy space-model.


Terrain: 100% Missing
Special: Anti-Gravity (Navis can move about freely as if they could fly)

-Team Outcast-
Multiple.EXE: 300 HP
Chamo.EXE: 230 HP
POM.EXE: 500 HP

-Team Andante-
Meleeman.EXE: 300HP
Seraphim.EXE: 200 HP
Anyis.EXE: 140 HP

-FINAL ROUND-
-BEGIN-