Bouncy Bouncy Djinni

Broadside surveyed the field with a turn of his head and quick glances all around while he waited for a follow-up attack that never came. Jared's voice came in over the PET communication link while the Navi waited for a virus to step into range. "Broadside, I don't think Na'im's back at his PET yet. You guys will have to hold out for a bit longer."

"Acknowledged." Broadside replied reflexively while he quickly processed the situation. He glanced back at Djinni and saw her in her suit of golden powered armor with what appeared to be an enormous copy of one of her magnum revolvers replacing her right forearm. That gave him an idea. "Jared. Requesting a Magnum2 and...." Broadside's voice trailed away for a moment as he realized Djinni's torso plate didn't do anything resembling a good job covering the underside of her chest... "...A TwinFang1," he finished at last as he turned away to look back at the viruses.

Try not to stare~♪, the ETG teased. The note of mischief in the random thought was not lost on Broadside... nor was the fact that someone had been playing with his emotion control protocols again. The Aegis Defense system powered up and restored the barrier protecting Djinni to full strength while he quietly fumed about having his programming toyed with.

"Magnum2?" Nadia chimed in over the squad-com. "That's some serious firepower, Chief."

"Affirmative." Broadside responded as the Twinfang1 arrived in his memory banks first. "Transfer it to Djinni, then provide cover fire for her against the FirePhoenixes."

"What about you, Chief?" Ro asked over the com as he refreshed his Riot Shield's data and reinforced it while he was at it.

"I will engage the remaining ground viruses." Broadside said as he raised his Guard Rifle, pointed it at the remaining Champu virus, and pulled the trigger. The rifle was in rail-fire mode, and promptly launched an armor-piercing plasma bolt synthesized from a TwinFang1 at the melee virus with an electric crackle. As if the plasma shot were a signal, Broadside ingoted his powered armor boosters and shot away towards the remaining Shadow virus as he prepared to take a swing with his bayonet equipped rifle.

"Can do." Nadia replied before adding a scary-sounding "Ohohohoho, are the viruses ever gonna feel this one... Makes me wish I had a weapon that could fire this puppy." when the battlechip's data arrived in her memory bank."Hey, Djinni. I got a present for ya from the bossman, and a license to fully enjoy it." Nadia transmitted the high powered battlechip data to the crossed Navi. "He's gonna mop up the viruses on the ground for ya while we keep the FirePhoenixes busy, right people?" Nadia paused as the group of SPs all brought their weapons up to point at the flying viruses. "Yeah... that's what I thought. FIRE!!"

Nadia began firing a volley of blaster bolts to one side of the Phoenix group. Her shots were aimed to pass very close to the viruses without hitting them in an effort to spook those at the fringe of the group of firebirds into flying closer to the others. Rosa, on the other hand, had turned around and was firing up at one of the weakened viruses with her Guard Rifle from where she was behind the Candle while she held Fhyre in the other hand. Ro was standing next to Rosa still, and had assumed a 2-handed firing stance that kept his shield between himself and the viruses while he too did his level best to pump a couple of rifle bolts into the very same Phoenix.

The SPs were doing their job, which freed up Broadside to do his. The Navi jetted towards the remaining Shadow, and began his lateral beam bayonet swing just before entering melee range of the virus. The energy blade flashed through the space above the panel the virus had been occupying in a passing sword attack as the Navi practically flew past. Broadside used the momentum of the slashing attack to spin around and face back along vector he'd used to get where he was now. He flared his suit thrusters to kill the spin and brake his backward movement even as he brought the rifle up at the very end of his swing, aimed at the remaining Drixol, and fired the second plasma charged armor piercing TwinFang bolt at the virus.

Broadside skidded backwards along the slick surface of the glass; the jet thrust of his boosters serving as the only thing keeping him from falling over at this point. The thrusters eventually overcame his vectored momentum, and the Navi found himself accelerating back towards the rest of his group. He kept his feet in tenuous contact with the ground and simply strove to maintain his balance as he slid increasingly quickly along the glass. Once he reached Metal again, he stopped off of the glass, and proceeded to thruster hop his way back over to where Djinni stood.

As Broadside drew near his ally, he slung the guard rifle over his shoulder. He planned to transfer an extra set of his nano-tech plate armor to Djinni, but to do this meant he'd have to physically touch her as that was the range limit of the armor protocol. Broadside prepared to reach out and touch the other Navi on the shoulder as he jetted by, but he suddenly once again found himself oddly distracted by the sight of said Navi and spaced out for a moment. Uhh ohh....

Broadside managed to tap Djinni on the shoulder as he flew past, thereby successfully triggering the armor's appearance over her... However, that marked the end of his success, as without really thinking about it, Broadside turned his head to look at Djinni as he boosted past. He managed to forget to shut off his thrusters or even gave the fact that he was still moving much thought. So, it wasn't a very big surprise to anyone watching that the Navi quickly found himself crashing painfully into the ground.... In reality, only Jared and the presence Broadside had dubbed the ETG were witness to this very uncharacteristic event. The latter chided Broadside teasingly... Oh yeah... I bet that smarts. Look, she may be a 9, but that landing doesn't get better than a 1.7 and a broken nose.

...Was this really necessary? Broadside thought to no-one in particular, quietly stressed out about his programming being altered without his consent. He let his boosters flicker and die while he waited for the world to stop spinning long enough for him to stand up again.

I'm just going to pretend I didn't see that. Jared thought as he decided it would be best if he simply kept this to himself.

The SPs, meanwhile, continued to pour gunfire into the air around the FirePhoenixes. Ro and Rosa, after their initial concentrated barrage against the weakened virus of the group, had joined Nadia in trying to fire their shots around the fringes of the group. If their plan worked, the viruses would shy away from the energy bolts, and cluster together a bit as they did so. They were ready to take the worst the flaming viruses had to offer in exchange.... After all, they only needed to keep the firebirds busy and in one place long enough for Djinni to blast them out of the sky.

<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
Nadia: -- T.C.T.: Magnum2 to Djinni
Ro: -- Type-E Riot Shield on Ro (1 Hit Shield)
Ro: -- Reinforce @ Ro's Type-E Riot Shield (+1 Hit)
Broadside: -- Aegis Defense EX: Project 25 HP Barrier on Djinni
Broadside: -- AddBreak: TwinFang1 (Broadside)
Broadside: -- ImbueElec: TwinFang1 (Broadside)
Broadside:1: TwinFang1 shot 1 @ ChampuA (70 Elec + Break)
Broadside:2: Booster Dash (Dodge/Advance)
-
Nadia:1: Bracket FirePhoenix group with gunfire. (RP)
Ro:1: Double Meason Shot @ FirePhoenixC (10 Elec x 2 Shots)
Rosa:1: Double Meason Shot @ FirePhoenixC (10 Elec x 2 Shots)
Broadside:3: ElecKnife @ ShadowB (85 Elec + Slashing)
-
Broadside: -- TwinFang1 shot 2 @ DrixolB (70 Elec + Break)
-
Broadside:4: Booster assisted sprint (Movement)
Broadside: -- Type-B Armor: 20 HP Casing on Djinni
-
Broadside: -- Faceplant (RP)
Nadia:2: Bracket FirePhoenix group with gunfire. (RP)
Ro:2: Bracket FirePhoenix group with gunfire. (RP)
Rosa:2: Bracket FirePhoenix group with gunfire. (RP)

---Signatures---
Broadside: Unavailable
Nadia: "Armor UP!": 1 TCD
Rosa: Hammer Space Help?: 1 TCD
Djinni glanced upwards at nothing and waited patiently, but eventually lowered her head and shook her head. "Where is he keeping...?" she asked herself and turned to see Broadside had already started to attack. Annoyed by the fact she could do nothing with Na'im not around, she merely pouted and crossed her arm and cannon arm with some difficulty. But around this point she suddenly heard Nadia's voice through the communication network of which she still didn't realize how she was connected to it. Silently, Djinni just listened to the SP and nodded a few times while accepting the chip with many scenarios blitzing through her mind. Figuring this would be the time to pull of a one-liner about how she'd use it, instead she had her sights focused on Broadside and stared at him almost dreamily. "Affirmative," Djinni replied to Nadia.

Back at team SP, Fhyre had realized her stay had become one that would require some services of her own. The guns around her had started blazing at the enemies and decided that it was time to put her own flames to work. Extending her hands in front of her in a triangle, she brought them to each other with the wrist bracelets against each other. Immediately the hands started to spin around, creating a centrifuge of flames with in the center a visible and solid ball of fire being formed. Once the ball neared its completion, Fhyre forced her hands out towards the enemy the others had been attacking and propelled the fiery ball at it.

Still following him with her sights, Djinni noticed Broadside coming towards her and had extended his hand. Flustered she stared at him from behind her visor and raised collar and swiftly looked at her left and right as if trying to find a way out. She shut her eyes and merely felt the touch of his hand on her shoulder which activated a system within her armor, although she didn't exactly understand what it was. But what she did know is that once again he was there to protect her and with this in her mind Djinni flew into the sky still in her saucer mode.

Djinni stopped as soon as she met the FirePhoenix viruses eye to eye and aimed her weapon at them. Sticking her left hand on its side for balance, she started to execute the charging process of the Magnum2 chip that had been given to her. Three crosshairs became visible on her visor and hovered over the viruses she had decided on as targets. But something was changing as the charging process continued. The three crosshairs flickered wildly and eventually disappeared, only to reappear as one big crosshair which had all viruses in its center. "Good," Djinni muttered with a playful grin and unloaded a fiery storm she had not experienced ever before. As the flames engulfed the air in front of her, speeding for the enemies, Djinni found that she had trouble keeping her left hand steady against her weapon as she started to tremble under its strength. "D-Damn, he really..." she started, but decided she ought to keep quiet to maintain her concentration. Minor pieces of her weapon and armor cracked and flew off of her body, immediately dropping down to the ground. Eventually the force dissipated as the attack ended and Djinni just let her weapon rest on top of the wide saucer below her, while her chest raised and lowered gently under the panting of her breath.

Djinni.EXE [Fire/Cursor] [AirShoes/FloatShoes] [BroadsideCross V1]
1. Fly into the air on FirePhoenix' level [Dodge]
2. Magnum2 [150 FIRE; Breaking; Panel Breaking; 1/2 Charge For 1/2 Extra Targets; A Accuracy; Ranged] @ FirePhoenixA/B/D
3. Magnum2 Charge.
4. Magnum2 Charge.

Fhyre.SP [Fire/Shield]
1. Attack [10 DMG] @ FirePhoenixC
Finally breaking his defensive stance, Broadside and co. began to prepare for their next assault. Broadside took a glance at Djinni and noticed her armor was a bit... lacking, so he reinforced the defenses he'd given her a while before. Meanwhile, Ro replaced his riot shield and Nadia transferred some serious firepower to Djinni.

The battle started up again as Broadside aimed his rifle and quickly fired an augmented TwinFang that pierced the other Champu before it could react and almost tore it in half. Needless to say, the virus was finished. Immediately afterward, the hardy Navi shot forward on his boosters in preparation for another bayonet attack. Meanwhile, his team of SPs launched a full scale ranged assault on the FirePhoenixes. Nadia began the attack with some harmless leading fire which prompted the viruses to fly to the side and launch counterattacks.

Most of the waves impacted around the team without effect, but one managed to catch Ro's shield as he hid behind it and another caught Nadia in its range and disintegrated her armor. A fireball was projected at the enemy at some point in the skirmish as well, coming from Djinni's silent SP. When Ro cautiously moved from the cover of his shield, the viruses had stopped attacking for the moment and one of them wasn't there anymore. By the time this had happened, Broadside had already taken a powerful swing the the wispy Shadow virus that remained. It dodged by warping to the Navi's side, which turned out to be a bad idea as Broadside followed through and sliced the target in half.

Coming out of the maneuver and boosting backwards, Broadside put up his rifle and aimed at the Drixol. It was flying at Djinni for another attack to get revenge for its friends. Not willing to stand for that, Broadside shot the second fang of his TwinFang chip at the virus. It caught the Drixol on the front of its drill, landing at the side and causing the virus's entire body to spin out and crash. Broadside kept moving and proceeded to do some crashing of his own as he tapped Djinni on the shoulder, transferred more armor to her and subsequently lost his footing, hitting the ground with a loud crash.

The end came when Djinni flew up to the FirePhoenixes' level ready to use the Magnum2 she'd received. On the ground, Broadside's team minus Broadside provided additional covering fire. The combination of their support and Djinni's Magnum seemed like it was sure to succeed. In short, it did. The fiery explosion shot from Djinni's weapon and reached the FirePhoenixes in seconds. After those few seconds, nothing was left where the viruses had been. The deafening blast from the attack left everyone's ears ringing. Knowing there was still a Drixol remaining, Ro grabbed his shield and prepared to engage it, but when he looked for it it seemed to have either run away or gotten annihilated in the blast.

Who could blame it for the former, though?

Shadow A: DELETED
Shadow B: DELETED
Champu A: DELETED
Champu B: DELETED
FirePhoenix A: DELETED
FirePhoenix B: DELETED
FirePhoenix C: DELETED
FirePhoenix D: DELETED
Drixol A: DELETED
Drixol B: ???HP (Retreated, deleted, no one knows)
Drixol C: DELETED
Drixol D: DELETED

Terrain: 20% Glass, 30% Broken, 50% Metal
Candle1: 100HP

Battle 2 Complete!

Djinni.EXE: 180 HP (Metal) (25HP barrier) (20HP casing)
Fhyre.SP: 70 HP (Metal)
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP (Metal) (5HP casing)
Ro.SP: 70HP (Metal) (1-hit shield)
Nadia.SP: 50 HP (Metal)
Rosa.SP: 50 HP (Metal) (20HP casing)

Rewards:
Broadside: 1000z, 6FXP (+1FXP bonus for chip sharing=7FXP), 58 BugFrags
Djinni: 900z, 6FXP (+1FXP bonus for chip sharing=7FXP), 58 BugFrags
'Disengaging of Cross System' was written in large red letters on Djinni's visor as she was still trying to struggle against the force that the usage of the Magnum2 had managed to throw at her. The armor she was encased in started to break, shatter and crack in more places than before while the pieces that had fallen off desintegrated in flames. Larger pieces started to disappear until the armor faded away entirely and Djinni was seen with her standard outfit again. She remained floating in the sky, staring blankly ahead of herself and could still feel her hands trembling under the power of her last attack. "Damn it," she uttered at herself and glanced at the ground.

Back at 'team SP', Fhyre found herself to be pretty comfortable in Rosa's grasp but figured it was time to scavenge the remains for whatever of use she could find. Slowly Fhyre moved around, digging her fingers into the ground and dragging herself ahead constantly to pick up Bugfrags and to search for any chip data. But due to her activities on the ground, she had no need of paying attention to the sky.

"Broadside..." Djinni whispered before she blanked out and slowly fell with her upper body forwards. Quickly after this she lost control over her levitation and lost her altitude as she proceedingly started to drop towards the floor. While her innate programming was trying its best to stop, or at the most halting it, the rapid decline of Djinni's body, she was falling nonetheless. With head towards the floor, Fhyre busy with her original commands and Na'im busy elsewhere, there was nothing on her side to stop immediate collision with the panels below them.
Broadside blinked a few times and remained still for a few moments dispel the dizziness. Once his protocols were done re-calibrating and properly recognized which way was up once again, he stood up. The process hadn't taken very long. He heard SPs chattering over the squad-com, apparently happy over the fact that the team as a whole had just won the unexpectedly tough battle. They sounded especially pleased with Djinni, as they were cheering for her. The cheering started to lessen, and eventually fell into a nervous silence....

"Uhh, guys... I don't think armor is supposed to do that." Ro's voice sounded hesitant and worried at the same time.

Broadside looked over at the SPs, and began to turn around to follow the collective gaze of his squad when Jared's voice came over the public channel. "Djinni, are you alri--"

Nadia interrupted the operator as she yelled over the squad-com: "SHE'S TAKIN' A DIVE!! CATCH HER!!"

Broadside looked up, and ran forward as soon as his gaze found the falling Navi. He shrugged his dark-gray left arm out of the white silk sling it normally rested in and fired a split-second burst from his boosters to get there just a little faster. He was rewarded for this act by having a couple of flaming armor fragments bounce off of his suit of armor, but it accomplished getting him where he wanted to be. Broadside dropped his rifle without thinking about it and held his arms out. He realized this wasn't going to be sufficient to catch the head-long falling Djinni, and he certainly didn't have enough time to change forms and catch her. So... He would have to do something different.

Broadside took several steps forward, moving out from under Djinni as he began calculating trajectories...

What are you doing? No, you electronic idiot, she's behind you! Behind y--

Broadside did his best to ignore the ETG and process the physics of Djinni's fall and what he'd have to do to arrest it. Then the moment he'd barely calculated fast enough arrived.... Now! Broadside crouched and leaned backwards as if he planned to back-flip, and flared his boosters as he kicked off from the ground. He was airborne and horizontal when his arms hooked in under Djinni's. Broadside made a lifting motion, moving his arms towards his head as he sailed backwards under the falling Navi. This pulled her out of her head-first dive just enough that she didn't snap her neck when she collided with Broadside.

Unfortunately, the rest of Broadside's planned maneuver didn't pan out quite as well... Djinni's body fell upper-back first into Broadside's chest, just as he plan had required, but this knocked him out of the air before he could trigger his boosters to soften the landing.... Newton was driving this rig now, and the inevitable hard collision with a metal panel drew near....

This can't end well.

It didn't.

----

The SPs watched as Broadside caught Djinni with his hastily executed move.... And they watched him hit the ground like a stone on his back, and Djinni crash down on top of him.

"Oh... man." Ro muttered as he facepalmed while cringing. He chuckled a bit. "Uhuh. Ouch."

"Tsshhh. Ooowwch." Nadia added in a dry tone as she winced. "Yeah.... That wasn't good."

Ro looked over at Nadia. "Put me down for never trying that trick myself."

"Noted, approved, and seconded, kiddies... MEDIC!"

Rosa turned away from picking up bugfrags, and dumped the lot of them in front of Fhyre as she jogged over to where Broadside had crash landed with nothing resembling grace.
Fhyre looked up at Rosa first and then at the pile of bugfrags she had placed in front of her. At first Fhyre questioned this move and placed it into the area of this being Rosa's typical behavior, but as she turned to look at the location Rosa ran towards she realized the friendly SP had more important tasks to go to. And so did Fhyre.

"Looks like things didn't go exactly right here," rang Na'im's voice out of nowhere and Fhyre immediately glanced upwards, raised a middle finger with one hand and pointed at Djinni with another. "Yes yes, looks like what happened is what I had to fear," Na'im continued and some rustling came from his side. "I'm going to have you rob you of your free will for a bit, Fhyre. I know it's unfair, but it's necessary for a task this dire," he said and a change occured in Fhyre as soon as the Operator had stopped talking.

Fhyre's flame flickered wildly at first while the rings around her grew in size and her hands shrunk. But as she was wondering what was going on, she was robbed of her sight, her hearing, her voice and her body. The flame that was Fhyre continued to change until a flaming human body with the rings as accessories around wrists and chest with the ruby embedded inside of the head which was vaguely visible through the translucent skin. Fhyre's new form started to walk towards Djinni, Broadside and the others. "Out of the way, please," Na'im's voice came from Fhyre's body as the mouth moved slightly, "Djinni should be fine, I'm more worried about Broadside." The figure then looked at Nadia with an expression that could barely be read and spoke to her, "Tell Jared I apologize for this accident." Fhyre then looked back at Djinni and snapped her fingers, causing a quick innocent flame. "The reparation system from Efreet should kick in soon, Djinni. You had better get up before viruses appear," Na'im's voice continued to sound.

Djinni slowly opened her eyes and saw the SPs standing around her and Fhyre's alternate and somewhat peculiar form. While she could feel a definitely hard surface below her, she also realized it was alive and after some seconds of more investigation consisting of adding and subtracting she understood it should be Broadside. Out of relief Djinni loosened up a bit and stayed on top of him for a bit longer, until she realized this must be really uncomfortable for the Navi. Immediately she tried to raise her upper body as start to get off of him, but felt she was obstructed by something by her chest. Raising her head slightly and glancing downwards she noticed that due to the impact of the crash the two had made, one of Broadside's hands had managed to slip underneath the buxom Navi's top while the other hand was found on the outside of the top, yet still on her chest. I'm doubting this is really uncomfortable for him... she thought and quickly pulled his hands away from their current position, while finally raising her body and re-adjusting her top.

"T-This is so embarrassing..." Na'im's voice chimed from Fhyre's body which had adjusted its stance to just stand there with head in palm, waiting for Djinni to finally stand up.

"You're embarrassed!?" Djinni erupted as she stood up swiftly and pouted, then turned to Rosa. "I'll leave you to Broadside now," she said and scratched her forehead gently before turning to Fhyre again. But while facing Fhyre, she spoke a few final words to Rosa. "Thank you for taking care of Fhyre. I appreciate it."

"Yes yes," Fhyre said with the manly voice of the Operator and grabbed Djinni by the arm to pull her away slightly from Broadside so the medical SP could get to her patient. At first Fhyre pushed her finger into one of the rubies that were on Djinni's hands, then continued to do the same to the other one. Little windows were created with each of these motions, including the rubies on Djinni's back and ankles, and showed various information for Na'im to examine.

"Is it bad, doctor?" Djinni asked unamused and with a frown visible on her face, then shot a glance over her shoulder at Broadside to make sure he was alright.

Going over the windows, the visage of Fhyre nodded a few times and eventually shrugged. The windows were grabbed one by one, then put together in a single file and sent to the PET for a datalog. Fhyre turned to Djinni and smiled before a whirlwind of fire consumed her and turned her back into her original self. A burning ruby with three hands.

"I screwed up with the balance, that's all," Na'im's voice sounded from the PET once again, "I know what is wrong, but how to fix it I cannot recall. It will take time, so we'll just have to stall."

Djinni took Fhyre's core in her hands, figuring she enjoyed it as Fhyre had let Rosa carry her all the time and turned to Broadside while manually adjusting the microphone level of her connection with Na'im to mute. "How are you doing?" she asked.
Broadside regained consciousness after a few moments. His vision and hearing were still rebooting, but his sense of touch was working. He really wished it wasn't right now as just about every sensory protocol he had told him he should be feeling a lot of pain... which he was. Well, every sensory protocol except those associated with his front side, arms, and especially hands. Something roughly as heavy as a small Navi was laying on top of him, which he found strange until he remembered what he'd been trying to do just a moment ago. So, if he had to guess, the warm and somewhat soft thing laying on top of him was Djinni. That explained the warm and extremely soft feeling he was getting from his hands as well, especially the left one. Broadside really couldn't compare that feeling with anything he'd experienced in the past, but he certainly didn't mind it. Now if only he could move.... or see... or something remotely helpful.

No matter. Someone grabbed Broadside's arms and removed his hands from where they had rested. The left one took a little more effort as it had been stuck under something semi-elastic. He would have been glad to help with that himself, only he couldn't move... yet. What a pain. Djinni sat up, then her presence was no longer within his very limited sensory sphere a moment later. She is still functional. Good.

.....

----

Ro turned around and looked the other way before Djinni sat up. He figured if he saw nothing and pretended nothing had happened, life was good. Nadia, on the other hand, didn't turn away. But after Djinni sat up, she kinda wished she had turned away, since ignorance was definitely bliss in this case. She killed the communication link with the PET for a moment as she though to herself: Life is so unfair.... But at least it's more fun that way. She looked over at the Na'im controlled Fhyre and responded: "Sure thing. But I think Chief'll be fine. It'd take a lot more than this to keep 'em down."

Rosa walked up to where Djinni was, and waited for the fire Navi to get herself situated. She nodded quietly at Djinni's word of thanks for looking after Fhyre. Aww, I thought I could keep it. That must be her SP. Oh well. The medic stepped over the glitched Navi that was her master, turned around, and knelt down next to Broadside's head. A quick diagnostic told her his processes were trying to recover, but a couple were hung up in places as they kept trying to reference the same memory resources at the same time. Well, what a mess. This traffic jam simply won't do. I'll just dislodge it.

Rosa raised one hand, and a wrench materialized in it. She gripped the wrench in her left hand, and slid her right hand under Broadside's helmet. She lifted the Navi's head slightly, then proceeded to whack Broadside upside the head with the wrench one time..... She dematerialized the wrench immediately after.

"Your bedside manner sucks, Rosa." Nadia commented while thinking the cure was worse than the disease in this case.

----

Something crashed painfully into the side of Broadside's helmet, and his protocols quickly finished rebooting. Broadside opened his eyes and blinked until his vision cleared. He sat up and turned his head to look at Rosa, who waved at him. "Thank you." The SP nodded, gave him a strange look, stood up, and walked off to collect data fragments without a word. He turned his head and looked up at Djinni when she spoke to him. He snood up before he gave her the standard, boring sounding "All systems nominal," report he usually gave everyone. Then he asked: "You are undamaged as well?" That was probably the closest thing to an 'are you okay' as Broadside was capable of saying.

Ro walked up and handed Broadside his dropped Guard Rifle as the Navi finished putting his left arm back into the silk sling it almost always resided in. "We already collected what data we could. I think we're done here."

Broadside took the rifle from the SP, and nodded. "Acknowledged." He looked back over to Djinni. "We are ready to move whenever you are, Djnni."

----

A short time later, Rosa walked up to Broadside and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look at her as they continued on and saw her raise her hand with one finger held up. She waggled it back and forth and said simply: "Shame on you." She lowered her hand and returned to her position in the formation without waiting for a reply.

Broadside turned his head back around to face the front again, and muttered to himself: "What?"

Oho, you don't know? Well then, lemme give you a hint... As soon as the ETG's random thought finished passing through his head, a mental picture of what Rosa was referring to blinked into his mind, along with the unsolicited recollection of the feeling his hands had relayed to him earlier. When the image blinked out, the ETG communicated with him one final time... Was that a good enough hint, Tin Man?

Broadside's face was as red as the lava, and probably producing about as much heat. He muttered a very very quiet "....Understood...." while his face slowly returned to its normal coloration as he desperately vented the excess heat through his booster nozzles. It wasn't enough to make them ignite, but they did glow a bit for a moment.

The ETG sputtered incoherent laughter through Broadside's mind the entire time.

Broadside was starting to wonder if there was a way to get rid of it....

----

Jared was too busy laughing to himself over the entire ordeal to offer any sort of comment.

((Ready for Battle 3.))
Moving on through the networks, Broadside, Djinni and company found themselves on a huge metal platform, which looked to have been used for some purpose before the present. The reason for this was that there were numerous console-like devices around the area, all of which seemed to be in heavy disrepair. However, one seemed to be clinging on to life, with its green screen still lit up. The consoles all surrounded a large raised platform in the middle of the place. The entire place was overrun by viruses which have made it their home... and they did not take kindly to strangers.

-- Near/On Raised Platform --
Tromby: 90HP (Raised Platform)
VacuumFan: 100HP (Raised Platform)
Miner: 100HP (Raised Platform)

-- East of Platform --
Handy A: 80HP (Metal)
Handy B: 80HP (Metal)
Handy C: 80HP (Metal)

-- North of Platform --
Volgear A: 80HP (Lava)
Volgear B: 80HP (Coal)
Volgear C: 80HP (Coal)

-- West of Platform --
Cragger A: 120HP (Metal)
Cragger B: 120HP (Metal)
Cragger C: 120HP (Metal)

-- South of Platform --
Djinni.EXE: 180 HP (Metal)
Fhyre.SP: 70 HP (Metal)
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP (Metal)
Ro.SP: 70HP (Metal)
Nadia.SP: 50 HP (Metal)
Rosa.SP: 50 HP (Metal)

Objects: Eight consoles, in compass directions (N, NW, etc) 10HP each, surrounding a central raised platform. East console is activated. Consoles will be denoted A-H from North, clockwise.

Terrain:
-- 65% Metal
-- 15% Raised Platform (Permanent, treat as Normal)
-- 10% Lava
-- 10% Coal

-TEAM BATTLE THREE, FIGHT!!-
Djinni had pouted on the path towards the new battlefield, not even realizing the impending threat at first, after she had heard J.T. laugh and the SPs of Broadside's personal army comment on the situation. As soon as the viruses came in view of Fhyre, she perched on one of her hands and hit Djinni on the back of her head, then pointed ahead with the remaining hand. "Even though I know we're here to fight these," Djinni started while Fhyre returned to ground level and Djinni took out her massive guns, "It's always a bother to find more." Resting the right gun on her shoulder while letting the left one hang down her side, she glanced at Fhyre and nudged at the Volgear viruses that had populated the area around the existing Lava panels. She then turned to look at Broadside and the SPs by his side. "Guys, I'll take the sky. You all look out for yourselves and stay active," she said, thinking that on one hand some encouragement is always a nice gesture while on the other hand was that the rowdy gang around Broadside wouldn't need encouragement to stay strong in the battle. With an amused smile on her face, she went through her knees and made a strong jump. A red energy emerged from the ring around her waist halfway in the jump and consumed her lower body to form the red ethereal tail she used to have all the time. Immediately she flew to higher regions and stared down on the enemies.

Back on the ground, Fhyre raised a hand above her core while staring at Djinni's silhouette in the sky. If she had actual eyes, she would be squinting right now but lucky there was no such need. All she figured was that there would be some kind of sign for her to move.

Djinni brought her guns to the front with a strong swing and aimed down at the area she had made Fhyre aware of before. The Volgear viruses were in her sights and all she was waiting for was for Na'im to actually put chips into the PET. Only a split second the chips were inserted and instantly brought to Djinni's guns. Pulling the triggers of her two guns repeatedly, she unloaded a hailstorm of bullets onto the Volgear viruses.

As if the lights of Djinni's guns were beckoning her, Fhyre decided it was time to move ahead. She slammed a hand onto the ground in advance to pull her ahead, but she turned her core and flame slightly to glance at Rosa. A moment later, she had pulled herself into the direction of the Lava panels while keeping her sights on Rosa for a few seconds more. Readjusting her sights for incoming danger, Fhyre continued to pull herself forwards and through the air while the bullets became clearer in sight.

Figuring the viruses she had fired upon, Djinni looked around to see if she could do something to assist Broadside or just to fire at something. It was at this point she heard Na'im's voice.

"I'd suggest that one virus on the platform," Na'im said and sent Djinni some info on the Miner virus that was present in the battle, "Dance for his death and show how you perform." He slotted a chip into the PET as he spoke and figuring Djinni could go on by herself, he turned his point of view to peek at Broadside's activities from Djinni's position.

Djinni nodded silently, figuring she might as well do what her Operator told her to do instead of wasting time figuring out what to do by herself. "But dancing for his death..." Djinni complained during a frown of her face, "That's so grim. I'll just shoot him." And with these final words, Djinni aimed her right gun at the virus while slightly shifting her body to a side so her right arm was at the front. With the pull of the trigger, a concentrated wave of magma in the form of a speeding bullet was shot out of the gun and heading for the Miner virus. Djinni lowered her guns to her sides, coiling her tail playfully around one of them and looked around to see if she could find Broadside in the battlefield.

Djinni.EXE [Fire/Cursor] [AirShoes/FloatShoes]
1. Fly into the air [Dodge]
2. Machinegun1 [30 DMG; 9 Shots; D Accuracy; Ranged] + [Accuracy Bonus] @ Volgear group
3. Machinegun1 [30 DMG; 9 Shots; D Accuracy; Ranged] + [Accuracy Bonus] @ Volgear group
4. LavaCannon1 [90 FIRE; +40 FIRE If On Lava Panel; B Accuracy; Ranged] + [20 FIRE Element Bonus] + [Accuracy Bonus] @ Miner

Fhyre.SP [Fire/Shield]
1. Evade towards a Coal panel. [Dodge]
Fhyre's sudden movement caught Broadside's attention. He looked in the direction the SP was pointing at, but could only make out vague shapes in the distant heat warped haze. His vision, and that of his Elec elemental SPs, in this kind of environment wasn't nearly as good as that of the Fire elementals he traveled with. His mecha form's sensors would have been only a little better, but not by much. Wondering what the SP was pointing at, Broadside raised his hand to signal the squad to halt.... Though Djinni's comments clued him in quickly enough. "Viruses ahead. Get ready."

"And there she goes." Ro remarked as Djinni took off. He readied his Riot Shield while Broadside refreshed his suit of armor and the Aegis Defense system projected a barrier around Djinni.

"Chips on the way." Jared said as he started slotting in whatever came to hand.

Nadia called after Djinni in mock seriousness. "Hey, remember to save some for us-- whaa?" Her surprised outcry came as a vortex of wind began pulling the group towards the platform in the center of the field.

----

"Fanbox! Take it out before the other viruses capitalize on it." Jared suggested helpfully as he slotted in an Arrow1, and sent it to Nadia. In all honesty. it had taken him a while to learn that he could send chips to Nadia, and even longer to figure out how exactly to manage it. It would have been nice if this information had been... y'know... documented. But it wasn't. He'd figured out the SP was using chip data he'd been sending to Broadside really quick... it was happening on screen in plain view after all. Once he'd seed her do that a time or two, he'd started looking for ways to send her chips. It took him a while, but he'd managed anyway once he'd found the option menus that allowed it. Now, it was easy. Perhaps I should write and post documentation on how to do it? Ehh... later.

----

Nadia's eyebrows flew up as she realized the human had just sent her a battlechip. And a nice one at that. Just the thing for potting the virus. She smirked, and teased the operator appreciatively. "Sending a girl chips now, J.T.? Who said chivalry was dead?" She transferred the chip to Rosa while she spoke, and addressed her fellow SP as she finished: "Chocolates and flowers from the human. Pot the Fan for me, would ya?"

"Oh? Sure thing." Rosa responded as she raised her rifle towards the VacuumFan and launched a canister round from the rail driver. The canister broke apart and an angry electric hornet buzzed in at the virus at high speed. Too bad for the virus it was only helping the mechanical hornet fly to it, and fly to it faster....

As soon as Rosa's Arrow1 attack was up in the air and streaking in for the kill, Broadside barked a the order to "Scatter!" The viruses were now clearly visible, and Nadia and Ro immediately complied knowing that they were toast if they stayed put. Broadside, on the other hand, decided to buy his SPs some time by giving the viruses something more... important... to think about. He raised his rifle towards the miniature-mountain shaped viruses, and switched it over to rail-fire mode. The weapon split, Broadside angled the driver up, and pulled the trigger. The rifle spat an explosive canister round on a ballistic arc that would drop the MagBomb1 roughly in the center of the viral formation. The bomb hit the ground, and a spherical plasma explosion consumed an area of the battlefield roughly 7 panels in diameter, bringing death to anything and everything caught within the blast zone.

With the attack away, Broadside followed his own advice, albeit belatedly, and booster dodged away from his former position just as his SPs had earlier. Rosa joined him in taking evasive action, and dashed in the opposite direction. Nadia braked her evasive maneuvers, and executed her "Armor UP!" command protocol. As fresh suits of armor appeared on both Nadia and Rosa, Broadside pointed his rifle at the distant Handy group, and fired another MagBomb1 mortar round. As before, the plasma warhead impacted where the center of the group was roughly located, and detonated with greater than normal power on the Metal terrain. Another 7-panel diameter sphere of the network temporarily vanished in a ball of plasma.

Broadside braked his dash, and loaded a chip-clip into the rifle. He turned, extended his right arm, rifle and all, towards the Tromby, and fired a plasma bolt at the virus. The third virus he'd seen earlier on the platform was curiously nowhere to be found at the moment. "I got this!" Ro said as he saw the TwinFang shot lance out at the virus. He raised his own rifle, and loosed a 2-shot burst of Meason bolts at the same virus while Broadside took aim at another virus and the it have it with the second TwinFang. Both of them had been firing from angles that wouldn't bring any of the consoles into the equation, thanks to their earlier dodges.

Broadside, Rosa, Nadia, and Ro might have scanned the skies for their fiery ally if any of them had the luxury of a moment to do so. Thanks to this spread of viruses, none of them did.

<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
Ro: -- Type-E Riot Shield on [target] (1 Hit Shield)
Ro: -- Reinforce @ [target]'s Type-E Riot Shield (+1 Hit)
Broadside: -- Refresh Armor: 20 HP Casing on Broadside
Broadside: -- Aegis Defense EX: Project 25 HP Barrier on Djinni
Nadia: -- T.C.T.: Arrow1 to Rosa
Rosa:1: Arrow1 @ VacuumFan (100 Elec + Homing)
--
Nadia:1: Dodge
Ro:1: Dodge
Broadside: -- AddBreak: MagBomb1 (Broadside)
Broadside:1: MagBomb1 @ Cragger Group (40 Elec + Stun + Blast3 + Break) [3x damage against Craggers, 2x to anything else]
--
Broadside:2: Dodge
Broadside:3: MagBomb1 @ Handy Group (40 Elec + Stun + Blast3)
Nadia:2: "Armor UP!" @ Nadia & Rosa (20 HP Casing x up to 2 Targets, 1 TCD)
Rosa:2: Dodge
--
Broadside: -- ImbueElec: TwinFang1 (Broadside)
Broadside:4: TwinFang1 @ Tromby & any surviving Handy (70 Elec x 2 targets)
Ro:2: Double Meason Shot @ Tromby (10 Elec x 2 Shots)

---Signatures---
Broadside: Unavailable
Nadia: "Armor UP!": Activated
Rosa: Hammer Space Help?: Ready
Djinni, Broadside and company started their assault as the viruses started theirs. As Djinni moved up into the air, and Broadside's team prepared their assaults, the viruses started theirs, with the Tromby and VacuumFan attempting to reduce their opponents' chances of evading their allies' attacks, and the Miner laying down some mine stacks. Unfortunately for the Fan virus, it got on the wrong end of an Arrow attack, and was subsequently deleted. The Tromby sucked in its breath and played a powerful cacophony of bass, stopping the entire team as the other viruses started attacking. The Cragger were about to attack, but their advances were halted as a MagBomb explosion erupted in their path. Unfortunately, Broadside had miscalculated the arc, and the blast zone only managed to catch one unlucky Cragger. Meanwhile, the Handy teleported in towards the raised platform, and placed a few bombs, two with large ticking timers, and one with a giant 'X' printed on its front. They then returned to their original positions as the second round of fire came from the Volgears hailed the group with powerful bursts of flame- or, at least, they would, had Djinni not unleashed her bullet hell upon them, ending their attack prematurely, with Broadside's team marked with a little scorched armor. Nadia had not managed to Armor up before the initial attack, though, and ended up a little burnt. Another MagBomb fell onto the unlucky group of Handy, and this time, caught two instead of one. The last one managed to survive another day. The last attack of TwinFang and LavaCannon then blasted three more viruses into oblivion, with some backup fire from Ro.

Somewhere during the explosions of the Magbombs, two consoles suffered the consequences, and were destroyed.

-- Near/On Raised Platform --
Tromby: DELETED [Br]
VacuumFan: DELETED [Br]
Miner: DELETED [Dj]
TimeBombA: 100HP [2]
TimeBombB: 100HP [2]
DudBomb: 1HP [X]

-- East of Platform --
Handy A: DELETED [Br]
Handy B: DELETED [Br]
Handy C: DELETED [Br]

-- North of Platform --
Volgear A: DELETED [Dj]
Volgear B: DELETED [Dj]
Volgear C: DELETED [Dj]

-- West of Platform --
Cragger A: 120HP (Metal)
Cragger B: DELETED [Br]
Cragger C: 120HP (Metal)

-- South of Platform --
Djinni.EXE: 180 HP (Metal) [25HP Barrier]
Fhyre.SP: 70 HP (Metal)
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP (Metal) [20HP Casing]
Ro.SP: 70HP (Metal) [1-Hit Shield]
Nadia.SP: 30 HP (Metal) [20HP Casing]
Rosa.SP: 50 HP (Metal) [20HP Casing]

Objects: Eight consoles, in compass directions (N, NW, etc) 10HP each, surrounding a central raised platform. Consoles will be denoted A-H from North, clockwise. Consoles C and G are destroyed.

Terrain:
-- 60% Metal
-- 5% Mine
-- 15% Raised Platform (Permanent, treat as Normal)
-- 10% Lava
-- 10% Coal
Nadia cringed from the hit she took, but kept right on going. She pulled a TwinFang1 out of the pipeline, and shunted it immediately to Ro, who was closest to the remaining Craggers. "Ro, take the shot!" Nadia then dashed in the direction of Rosa.

Broadside was just lowering his rifle from firing upon the Handy that popped up in his field of view, deleting it, when he heard this. He established a link to Nadia, and searched the squad net for the TwinFang1's data. He found it immediately, and send the code to improve the TwinFang1's firepower through the link. He did this as he looked up from where his target used to be, glanced around quickly for threats, and then dashed to a new position to look for more targets without making himself one.

Rosa looked around as the tried to spot Fhyre. She didn't see the flame Navi, but saw her injured comrade heading her way instead. The Medic waited for Nadia to get a little closer and brake her dash before stepping forward to administer first aid. She summoned her medical gear and applied a quick salve to the burns before dismissing it all back into the PET's drive storage. "You should be okay, now."

Nadia nodded. "Thanks, Doc."

Ro, meanwhile, took the data he'd received from Nadia, and formed a chip-clip out of it. The Guard SP slapped the clip into his rifle with his left hand, and took aim at the first Cragger with his right. He pulled the trigger, and the rifle launched a rail-fired plasma bolt at the mountain-like virus. He shifted his aim to the right, and fired the second plasma bolt at the remaining Cragger.

<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
Nadia: -- T.C.T.: TwinFang1 to Ro
Broadside: -- AddBreak: TwinFang1 (Ro)
Broadside: -- ImbueElec: TwinFang1 (Ro)
Broadside:1: Dodge
Nadia:1: Dodge
Rosa:1: Hammer Space Help? @ Nadia (40 HP Recovery, 1 TCD)
Ro:1: TwinFang1 @ Cragger A & C (70 Elec + Break x 2 targets) [3x Dmg to Craggers]
--- Turn Splice---

---Signatures---
Broadside: Unavailable
Nadia: "Armor UP!": 1 TCD
Rosa: Hammer Space Help?: Activated
"Fhyre!" Djinni blurted out as loud as she could while making a rapid decline in altitude, but this time it was a voluntairy one. Holding her legs upwards while she fell with one knee raised, she looked at the viruses that had survived the carnage. In her fall, she was sent a chip through Na'im who had afterwards left the PET for the moment to get himself something to eat.

At Djinni's command, Fhyre flung herself to a position underneath Djinni and then moved slightly to the back. Her three hands were brought together to form a pedestal for Djinni to stand on in advance.

As Djinni reached the surface and had slammed her feet onto the ground, a chunk of metal emerged from the ground and was shot into the air due to the Navi's force. Elegantly Djinni jumped backwards with a loop and landed on top of Fhyre's hands. A smirk surfaced on Djinni's mouth as she went through her knees slightly when Fhyre quickly launched the Navi into the air to meet the metal chunk, which had broken slightly in its flight to form a ball. Djinni started to spin around while some of Fhyre's flames, that had been dragged along from the force of the launch, accompanied her in the spin for the dramatic effect. Once she reached the metal ball, she fiercely kicked it with the Cragger's body as goal. "Explosive Heat Storm!" she exclaimed loudly as her foot connected with the ball and launched it.

Djinni.EXE [Fire/Cursor] [AirShoes/FloatShoes]
1. PanelShot [60 DMG; Element Dependent Of Terrain; Creates 5% Broken; B Accuracy; Ranged] + [Metal Terrain; Break Effect Added] @ CraggerC

Fhyre.SP [Fire/Shield]
1. Assist Djinni.

-- 'Turn Splice' --

((We do not have more we want to do. This can be modded.))
Broadside and his squad, along with Djinni and her SP, began their last assault on the two remaining Craggers. Suffices to say, the viruses stood no chance against such teamwork.

-- Near/On Raised Platform --
Tromby: DELETED [Br]
VacuumFan: DELETED [Br]
Miner: DELETED [Dj]
TimeBombA: 100HP [2]
TimeBombB: 100HP [2]
DudBomb: 1HP [X]

-- East of Platform --
Handy A: DELETED [Br]
Handy B: DELETED [Br]
Handy C: DELETED [Br]

-- North of Platform --
Volgear A: DELETED [Dj]
Volgear B: DELETED [Dj]
Volgear C: DELETED [Dj]

-- West of Platform --
Cragger A: DELETED [Br]
Cragger B: DELETED [Br]
Cragger C: DELETED [Dj]

-- South of Platform --
Djinni.EXE: 180 HP (Metal) [25HP Barrier]
Fhyre.SP: 70 HP (Metal)
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP (Metal) [20HP Casing]
Ro.SP: 70HP (Metal) [1-Hit Shield]
Nadia.SP: 50 HP (Metal) [20HP Casing]
Rosa.SP: 50 HP (Metal) [20HP Casing]

Objects: Eight consoles, in compass directions (N, NW, etc) 10HP each, surrounding a central raised platform. Consoles will be denoted A-H from North, clockwise. Consoles C and G are destroyed.

Terrain:
-- 60% Metal
-- 5% Mine
-- 15% Raised Platform (Permanent, treat as Normal)
-- 10% Lava
-- 10% Coal

-BATTLE WON!-
Djinni: 950z
Broadside: 1,200z
Team: 6FXP + 57 BugFrags
"It's not over yet!" shouted Djinni as she made a swift descent towards the ground yet remained floating closely to the ground. Immediately she brought forth her guns and threw one of them at Fhyre. "The bombs are still there! We'll take the quick way out of this!" she shouted, then shot a quick glance at Broadside while wondering if he had the means to get out quickly.

Fhyre caught the weapon and nodded her core slightly at Djinni, then aimed the gun somewhat to the direction of where the explosion would be to blast the other way. But with two hands on the gun to make sure she wouldn't drop it or worse, she had one empty. Fhyre's flame flickered gently as if it was telling the others she was thinking, then nodded her core at Djinni who had been waiting for a reaction of the SP.

A playful smirk appeared behind the veil and Djinni aimed her gun away from the bombs. Fhyre followed her owner's actions and while she didn't have any options of showing facial expressions, one could sense there was determination in this young flame's actions. "OK," said Djinni, "We get the goods and we make our getaway. You'll grab yours, I'll grab mine." Djinni brought her empty hand to the gun and made the cylinder spin, while Fhyre imitated this. As soon as Djinni pulled the trigger a burst of flames emerged from the gun, making Djinni fly swiftly through the air with its force as propulsion. Fhyre also pulled the tirigger which caused the same reaction and while Djinni picked up the zenny data that had been scattered, Fhyre picked up the Bugfrags.

Taking less time due to the fact Support Programs could sense the location of bug fragments more easily, Fhyre was already on her way to get away from the impending blast of the bombs. However, something clicked in Fhyre's programming and she realized she had to ensure something. She directed the flames of the gun elsewhere and flew past the group of Broadside's SP. Extending her third hand, which had become empty again due to the Bugfrags being absorbed almost immediately, she took the hand of Rosa and pulled her along through the air.

Djinni had transferred the zenny data to Na'im while she increased her speed momentairily to catch up with Fhyre. "Broadside should be fine," Djinni said as she disengaged the flames of the gun and continued flying on her own speed while accompanied by the momentum she had built up, "I wonder why he keeps using this form though..." The latter was said less loud than her usual volume, but still caused her to slip into her thoughts while examining where Broadside was in the flight.
Broadside looked in Djinni's direction as she shouted, then looked at the bombs she was talking about. He debated shooting them to destroy them before they exploded... for the 0.0015 nanoseconds it took for his processes to register the giant red [X] displayed on the DudBomb nestled dangerously between the two countbombs. Shooting that one would just get them all blown up sooner instead of later when the others reached Zero on their counters. There really was nothing for it but to leave, and leave quickly. "Agreed. Squad, evacuate immediately."

A chorus of acknowledgments came back across the com, after which Ro's relaxed-as-usual voice asked: "Yo, Chief. What about the data remains?"

"Simple, Ro; Ya pick up anything that 'just happens to be in your path while evacuating'... If you get my drift." Nadia responded while gathering up a pile of Bugfrags and Zenny data that a little out of the way of their escape route.

"Define 'just happens to be in y--'...." Ro stopped talking when he saw this and instead added a "Yeah, nevermind."

"You're a fast learner, but not a fast mover; get going." Nadia admonished as she quickly finished gathering the data, stood up, and took off with a thruster-assisted jump.

"Yes ma'am."

While Ro got it in gear, Rosa was just about to get up after sending in a pile of her own collected data when a familiar hand floated into view. She looked up, and saw Fhyre reaching out to her. Rosa smiled as she took the flame SP's hand, and was immediately pulled up from kneeling to standing. Before Rosa could thank Fhyre, the flame SP began trying to pull the Medic along. Rosa nodded, and started trying to run along with Fhyre. Eventually she got her balance together enough to kick off with a booster-jump. She collected Fhyre in her arms as she took off, and away they went.

Nadia and Broadside followed close behind Rosa, with Ro bringing up the rear after a late start. The group made rapid progress as they dashed clear of the platform with a couple of boost-jumps, and were starting to leave it behind after only a handful more.... A few moments later and Djinni flew up next to Rosa as she carried Fhyre. The Fire Navi said something reassuring about Broadside's continued good health, or so Rosa took it to mean. The SP medic smiled quietly to herself as the group continued to move forward rapidly.

((Ready for Team Battle 4))
As Broadside and Djinni got further into the hades net, they came across a mouth of a canyon. Seeing how it would be difficult to go around it for Broadside, the two navis and their SPs began to walk into the canyon. However, as all things go into the net, they found themselves in a virus ambush as a pack of Spikey watched Djinni and Broadside from the top of the canyon while a handful of others blocked both entrance...

-Left Canyon-
Spikey EXA: 140HP
Spikey EXB: 140HP
Spikey EXC: 140HP

-Right Canyon-
Spikey EXD: 140HP
Spikey EXE: 140HP
Spikey EXF: 140HP

-Front-
DrixolA: 90HP
DrixolB: 90HP
SkarabC: 120HP
SkarabD: 120HP

-Behind-
SkarabA: 120HP
SkarabB: 120HP
DrixolC: 90HP
DrixolD: 90HP

Terrain:
Left Canyon: 20% Sand
Right Canyon: 20% Sand
Bottom: 30% Metal, 30% Lava [Spotted]

Djinni.EXE: 180 HP [Lava]
Fhyre.SP: 70 HP [Lava]
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP [Metal]
Ro.SP: 70HP [Metal]
Nadia.SP: 50 HP [Metal]
Rosa.SP: 50 HP [Metal]

-TEAM BATTLE FOUR, START!-
Djinni came to a screeching halt as she saw the viruses in front of her and noticed the presence of those behind the team. With a quick spin to check the surroundings, she also noticed the multiple enemies that had taken the higher ground. "An ambush in this place?" she asked out loud and while she had a thoughtful face at first, this face quickly shifted into that of someone who had plenty of mean tricks in her sleeves. "Hey Broadside," Djinni said with a grin over her face, "I don't like this advantage they have over us. It's not them that should grace the spotlight, but us!"

Na'im had realized this was going to be a pesky battle and shuffled through his chips, until he noticed one he hadn't seen before. "A little stowaway in the pile?" he asked himself as he picked it up and examined it quickly. With a few button pressing motion he swiftly had brought up a database of battle chips. "Looks like this is what we need for this trial. A defensive, yet restricting, chip. Time to send our adversaries on a one-way trip."

"And so!" Djinni continued as she had sensed the chip Na'im had spoken about being transferred to her system. "It's time to put myself in the light!" she shouted playfully while a red moon surfaced from the horizon behind the enemies in front of them.

Fhyre took this moment to raise her arms and waved them about frantically at Broadside and the others. It was hard for the little SP without a voice of her own to express that they had to be careful of the impending lava that would surface from the panels. First she pointed at the moon, then pointed with all hands at the ground and ending with a motion of her fingers as if something would rise from the ground.

The light had not started to shine yet, but fragments of magma rock became visible around Djinni's feet and, instead of sticking to the ground, they began to float around Djinni. Once enough pieces had collected in the air they attached themselves on Djinni's outfit and skin yet kept her face and accessories untouched. Once the rocks stopped bringing themselves to Djinni's body, she had a sleek yet craggy body armor with the brown color of the earth and the red color of lava. Still visible on her hands and feet were the rubies that were embedded in those positions and the rings that floated around her wrists and ankles. "Broadside!" she shouted while taking the moment to see how the armor felt on her body, immediately realizing that it was really heavy, "This place is gonna get hot!"

Fhyre stared at Djinni, thinking she had just tried to explain that and wishing she had explained her plan to Broadside before going through an armor change. But eventually she raised her hands in a shrugging motion and awaited the change of panels.

The moon had reached its highest point and shone its light down on the surface, causing temperatures of those present to increase except those familiar with the heat. The panels that were not lava yet started to boil and crumble until they were as those that had already reached maximum degrees. Djinni stood down on the surface of the lava in her magma armor and smirked with her arms crossed. The smirk disappeared though as she turned to look at Broadside and hoped he wouldn't be too troubled by this change. She then glanced at the hills the Spikeys were on, hoping the change would make the hills fall to an equal level of herself and the others. "And now..." she whispered while holding out one of her hands and summoned a magma-covered gun in it, "My turn."

A thumbs up came from the happy SP who had all this lava for herself now and almost instantly took a dive into it while glancing upwards to check everyone's positions.

The armor Djinni was wearing started collecting heat through the lava and into her gun. Na'im figured it was time to attack and had already entered a chip into the PET, which was the cause of Djinni's movements to strike. Eventually enough heat had collected and she had sent data from herself towards the gun for the actual strike, but found herself to hesitate for a second. This chip was the same... she thought and remembered the time where she blacked out and fell down, only to have Broadside save her. But this time she was prepared and had a strong armor which were enough reasons to block away any form of hesitation. In an instant she pulled the trigger and sent forth a violent wave of fire at the skeletal enemies she had in her crosshairs.

Djinni.EXE [Fire/Cursor] [AirShoes/FloatShoes]
1. FlameScales1 [20 HP Fire Element StoneBody Casing; Slow On Self; Mobility Down On Self]
2. Red Moon [Lava Full Stage; 4 TCD]
3. Charge.
4. Magnum1 [120 FIRE; Breaking; Panel Breaking; 1/2 Charge For 1/2 Extra Targets; A Accuracy; Ranged] @ SkarabC&D

Fhyre.SP [Fire/Shield]
1. Dive into lava. [Dodge]
As soon as the group became aware of the viruses, the sounds of weapons being drawn, and safeties being released filled the air for a brief moment as Broadside and his SP squad prepared to fend off the virus ambush. The terrain here had proven to be a double edged sword. On the one hand, the valley walls had provided cover against the detonation of the time bombs they'd left behind at the abandoned platform. On the other, it had allowed the viruses to get into position for this ambush without being seen by the group. And there is a wolf pack of enhanced Spikeys as well. This will not be easy.

Broadside turned his head to look in Djinni's direction when she called his name. He made note of the evil looking grin she wore, and felt the urge to shiver... He didn't of course, nor did he understand the feeling. He did understand what she said however, and nodded in agreement. He didn't like the situation either. At the same time, he did not understand Djinni's fascination with spotlights, and the need to be under the light of one. Spotlights are used by defenders to spot and blind intruders and also mark them as targets. Being under one is never a good thing. Does she not understand this?

Broadside found Djinni's words increasingly perplexing as he watched her don a suit of flaming scale mail armor. As the red moon began to rise behind Djinni, however, Broadside's focus shifted. He remembered this from somewhere... He simply knew he did. He searched through his memories at high speed as he tried to recall why this red moon was a bad thing, and completely tuned out everything that was going on around him.

----

Ro was just readying his Riot Shield when Fhyre caught Rosa's attention. The Medic looked down at the small flame SP, and tilted her head to one side with complete incomprehension. Nadia saw Rosa stop what she was doing, and the command SP immediately spoke over their squad-com. "What's the deal, Rosa? You joinin' NAXA on me, girl? Armor UP!"

"Umm... Fhyre's trying to tell me something, but I don't get it." Rosa replied hesitantly as a suit of armor formed over her body.

"Oh really?" Nadia said as she looked over at the SP just in time to see it point up at the sky. She looked up and saw the same red moon she'd seen when Djinni had turned YokaNet into HadesNet. "Ho shi-- Ro! Look up!" Nadia then looked over at Broadside and noted the Navi was already staring at it... In fact, he seemed to be spaced out. "Great."

Ro glanced up, wished he hadn't, and groaned audibly over the squad-com before adding: "There goes the neighborhood."

Nadia tried opening a com-link to the PET... more specifically to Broadside's Operator. "Hey, Jared. We-- Hai there!" The SP's eyes went wide and she leaned back for a second when the Operator responded by opening a window right in front of her. It was something she simply wasn't used to. "You don't leave 'em waitin', do ya?" She recovered well enough to continue with her request. "We're, uhh, gonna need something to treat burns with really fast."

"What?"

Quote (Djinni)

"This place is gonna get hot!"


Nadia turned back from looking over her shoulder while Djinni had spoken. The SP's expression changed to something far from amused as she hiked her thumb back over her shoulder to point at the fire Navi. "Yoka," was all Nadia said.

"Right then...." The Netopian man looked off screen, grabbed a chip, and slotted it in before looking back up into the pickup. "Sent." The man seemed distracted at the moment as he stared quietly at the screen, perhaps concentrating on another matter.

"Thanks." Nadia replied as she cut the link and received the Candle1 chip data at about the same time. She jumped back on the squad-com as she sent the data to Rosa. "Got a present for ya, Doc. I need ya to use it to keep us burn-free."

"Okay. Why?"

"Djinni's about to turn the net into Lava. That's why." Ro said as he raised his rifle to his shoulder, braced his shield before him, and started sweeping his aim across the field. He was watching for viruses to launch projectile attacks in their general direction. He didn't have to wait long. His response was immediate as he fired two energy bolts in an attempt to shot the projectile down. "I gotcha covered."

"...." Rosa's eyebrows flew up as Fhyre's charades-esque sign language, the Candle1, and her comrades' acute unhappiness suddenly made sense. She set the candle down just in time for Nadia to respond to Ro. "Roger that. Everyone else scatter!" Rosa did as she was told and dashed away from the Candle with a short burst from her suit thrusters as the ground changed to Lava. Nadia pulled the same maneuver in the opposite direction while Ro drew a bead on another projectile and did his best to blow it out of the sky with a double shot from his rifle.

---- Meanwhile, in the real world....

Broadside's memory search had erroneously taken the old default approach of searching files in order from special tags to numbers and then down through the alphabet instead of using the newer and smarter methods. Jared sighed as he stared at his screen, which displayed his frozen Navigator, the uninterruptible search in-progress, and the string of error codes that had caused . It's been a long time since this happened last, but shame on me for becoming complacent during that period of stability. Well, at least this time his arm didn't fall off or his rifle explode in his hands. Or....

Jared face-palmed at the mental laundry list of things that had broken down on his Navi over the last year....

Or things his Navigator had broken instead. Ugh. Honestly. What am I going to do with this Navigator? If Broadside's not blowing chunks of the network into very tiny pieces, then he's going to pieces himself instead. Sometimes both at the same time. Jared started laughing quietly at his screen, careful not to disturb the other passengers. Now that... Now that says something. It's a miracle Broadside still exists at all, and yet even when he's literally falling apart in front of my eyes, he still manages to blow things up while he's a shambles.

The Netopian continued to chuckle to himself as he reached for the keyboard and struck the first key of what was to be a long series of command inputs that would eventually fix the current errors. However, Jared never struck the second key, or any of the keys after that as something on the screen caught his attention. The error console window on his screen started to experience an unexpected change; The wall glaring red errors started to collapse as line after line of red text turned suddenly green, and vanished off the list.

Jared looked down at the keyboard to see his finger was indeed still poised over the function key he'd hit. He then looked back up at the screen to see the menu had opened like it was supposed to when that key was hit, and no options had yet been selected. In short... I haven't done anything yet. He looked back up at the window where his Navi had been standing in a suspended state....

---- Meanwhile, in the net....

Broadside's glitched memory search flashed several images and sound bytes through his mind that matched the un-corrupted segments of his query. The query was calling forth that which composed Broadside's first-hand memory of Djinni. It recalled the various forms she had assumed since he knew her, the things she had said, the things she had done, and his thoughts and responses to them all. Everything from the mundane to combat situations and even the few embarrassing ones Broadside actually remembered. His programming began to pull a copy of all of this data into one storage location as these entries filtered through.

Once there was enough data to form the beginnings of a database inside Broadside's programming, the query began pulling data for everything Broadside knew that was related to Djinni through a key-words referencing system. And what a query it was... Data regarding old myths got pulled right alongside the history, development, and use of Fire battlechips, such as Meteor12 and HeatShot. Information regarding ancient religions came streaming in with the data for the specs of modern handguns. Popular culture snippets concerning the djinn swept in with advanced programming theory regarding the Elements and the advent of current Navigator technology.

All of this came flooding through along with the images from Broadside's own memory at the same time, and it did it very quickly. All of Broadside's resources not necessary for simply maintaining his own existence were devoted to this effort. This left the Navigator standing there mindlessly staring at the Red Moon in the middle of a battlefield for a handful of very long seconds. That is, until the query ended and Broadside's core programming suddenly crunched all of this data into a super compact registry and database file that it stored in the PET, and then promptly linked it to Broadside's Emblem.

Broadside continued to stare at the Red Moon as the processes that demanded so much of his programming finally let up and he found that he was now standing in searing hot lava. As the memory search ended, the image of Djinni's earlier grin and the logo of a Meteor chip flashed through his head. He now understood a lot of things that made no sense to him previously. Broadside mimicked that predatory grin as he suddenly reached for the Emblem on his chest, and tapped it with his left hand....

Emergency Override: Engaging Fire-Fall Format Protocols printed itself across the PET screen as Broadside's Navi form dissolved into the glowing humanoid silhouette just as it always did in the beginning phase of form-shifting in the past. The similarity ended there, however, as the moment the glowing form began to expand, it also burst into flame. The flames were small at first, but they quickly grew in size and intensity within the span of a few seconds until there was a roaring six meter tall pillar of fire burning brightly where Broadside should have been. Burning brightly, perhaps, but also only briefly. A second later, and the towering flames abruptly stopped burning as whatever fueled them ceased doing so. The last of the flames flickered away to nothing as they rose into the air, yet the flame's roar did not die with them.

((Theme))

The source of the burning roar was a five-or-so meter tall red behemoth that floated amid a warped tower of rising heat haze. The haze lessened enough above the behemoth''s waist line to reveal what it actually was: A five meter tall burning red colored humanoid war mech hovering just barely above the surface of the lava on what had to be the raw thruster output of more than a few large scale nuclear jet engines. The rising heat and fire of the jet wash went far in obscuring the machine's structure below the waist, and gave the thing the overall appearance of some mechanical elemental lord of fire riding a column of flame.

This Hades-spawned mech was the form of Broadside's V1 DjinniCross, and the Mecha Navi wasted no time on making sure his terrible first impression was a lasting one. The huge, boxy, twin sunfire-colored pods on the mech's back shuddered as they rose towards the sky several feet before stopping. The pods then titled backwards and locked into place at a 45 degree angle with a deep metallic thunk. The visor on Broadside's sleeker mecha helm glowed bright red for a moment as the Navi's greatly improved targeting system lit the four viruses of the rear group up like a NetVegas Christmas display with a crazy number of missile locks that made Jared's jaw drop in stupefied disbelief while the fire control calculated and displayed the projected zone of destruction.

Fire blinked into being on Broadside's HUD as row after row of missile tube hatch covers swung open in a cascade from the bottom of the twin pods to the top with great speed. Broadside seemed to float backwards as the dense salvo of artillery rockets erupted from the launchers. The wave of projectiles arced up for only a moment before the smart weapons' programming kicked in, and the rockets deployed flaps to alter their angle towards the ground. The flaps broke off with the detonation of tiny explosive bolts, and the rockets surged forward with the speed of a gunshot as their high output thrusters kicked in and drove them into the target zone... Which ceased to exist barely a second later as countless warheads reached their preprogrammed detonation points at ground level, above the ground, and even below the surface of the lava. The warheads detonated in sequence within a fraction of a second of each other and turned that cube of net-space into a roiling zone of surging lava, fire, and deletion.

Broadside hadn't bothered monitoring that group of viruses. As soon as the last of the rockets had heft the launch tubes, the mecha Navi had modulated his thrusters to turn quickly to his left and face the next group of targets. The pods on his back where just starting to close up and retract to their storage position when Broadside's cross-enhanced targeting and fire control systems locked up a trio of Spikey EXs. The Navi selected the lead virus as the primary target, fed that data to the box launchers mounted to the sides of his shoulder armor, and commanded them to fire. The cluster missile launchers opened up, and the left launcher belched a rocket pod at the Spikey EX while Broadside continued to cruise along sideways slowly.

The pod continually corrected its flight path as it entered attack range almost instantly. A heartbeat later, and the pod shell broke apart, spitting a spray of flaming missiles at the virii. The missiles broke up, spraying jet fuel into the air before the last of their salvo introduced a dose of napalm. This produced three short-lived spheres of flame as the F.A.E.s ignited.

Broadside dumped his old targeting data following that attack, and took advantage of DjinniCross' much better sensor suite and target processing ability to acquire a fresh set of targeting data on the trio of Spikey EXs from scratch. In no time at all, the viruses were locked up in a new firing pattern, and the right shoulder launcher hurled an identical rocket pod, loaded with Heat-V data, straight at the hell hounds. The pod corrected its aim, broke up, and dumped another spray of compound F.A.E. munitions at point blank range.

As three more globes of fire burst into being across a battlefield of boiling lava, Broadside mused quietly to himself about how Djinni had been right when she'd said things would get hot in this fight.

When I pushed you into getting to know your ally better, this is not what I had intended, the ETG murmured quietly in the back of Broadside's mind as he went about deciding what his next target was going to be, and what he was going to blow it up with.


<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
Broadside:1: Activate DjinniCross V1
Ro: -- Type-E Riot Shield on Ro (1 Hit Shield)
Ro: -- Reinforce @ Ro's Type-E Riot Shield (+1 Hit)
Nadia:1: "Armor UP!" @ Nadia & Rosa (20 HP Casing x up to 2 Targets, 1 TCD)
Nadia: -- All-For-One: Candle1 to Rosa
Ro:1: Attack Intercept w/ Double Meason Shot (10 Elec x 2 Shots) [+Defender]
Rosa:1: Set Candle1 (Regen5 @ All Allies) [Counters Lava Damage]
-- <Djinni's Lava Stage>
Rosa:2: Dodge
Nadia:2: Dodge
Ro:2: Attack Intercept w/ Double Meason Shot (10 Elec x 2 Shots) [+Defender]
Broadside: -- Complete the shift into FireFall format.
Broadside: -- Refresh Armor: 20 HP Casing on Broadside
Broadside: -- Aegis Defense EX: Project 25 HP Barrier on Djinni
Broadside: -- Marksmanship: +1 Accuracy w/ Guns, may exceed A-Rank.
Broadside:2: TankCannon2 @ Rear Virus Group (120 Null + Blast(2) + B Accuracy)
--
Broadside:3: Heat-V @ Right Canyon Virus Group (80 Fire + Spread(2) + A+ Accuracy)
--
Broadside:4: Heat-V @ Right Canyon Virus Group (80 Fire + Spread(2) + A+ Accuracy)

---Signatures---
Broadside: Towering Guard: Ready
Broadside: Missile Barrage L: Ready
Broadside: Missile Barrage R: Ready
Broadside: Bunker Buster MK-II: Unavailable
Broadside: Ifrit Missile: Ready
Nadia: "Armor UP!": Activated
Rosa: Hammer Space Help?: Ready
After armoring herself with a casing of rock, Djinni transformed the world around the viruses into a lava pit. Her SP dove into the lava in retreat as the navi readied a large cannon, drenched in the soupy lava surrounding the area. Firing off the magnum in an explosion of sound, she aimed for and destroyed two Skullavia.

While Broadside armored up his team and himself, he became strangely affected by Djinni's performance. After adopting his unique Djinni-inspired appearance, he proceeded to release cannonfire into the back row of the enemies. The bones exploded into white chunks and marrow, failing to regenerate following the attack. Switching targets to the Spikey viruses and lining them up in his sights, he released more shots that tore through the enemies, leaving only one injured enemy.

The candle minimized whatever damage any of the navis would have taken from standing on / sinking into lava, but the viruses were never the less determined to get their two cents in. The spikies in the left cannon released a burst of fire, two of which hit. Luckily, the navis had each readied defenses for just such an occasion. Two Drixols left the ground before the lava could affect them and then burst through the navis' defensive line, claiming hits on two of Broadside's SPs. The other Drixols seemed too preoccupied with getting out of the way of attacks to worry about launching a counter offensive. One more Spikey attack smacked into Djinni, but her flamescales made it feel relatively inconsequential.

-Left Canyon-
Spikey EXA: 140HP
Spikey EXB: 140HP
Spikey EXC: 140HP

-Right Canyon-
Spikey EXD: 60HP
Spikey EXE: DELETED
Spikey EXF: DELETED

-Front-
DrixolA: 90HP
DrixolB: 90HP
SkarabC: DELETED
SkarabD: DELETED

-Behind-
SkarabA: DELETED
SkarabB: DELETED
DrixolC: 85HP
DrixolD: 85HP

Terrain:
Left Canyon: 20% Lava
Right Canyon: 20% Lava
Bottom: 50% Lava, 10% Broken (front)

Djinni.EXE: 180 HP (4 HP fire-elemental stonebody casing) (slow)
Fhyre.SP: 70 HP (submerged)
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP (DjinniCross)
Ro.SP: 70HP (1-hit shield)
Nadia.SP: 40 HP
Rosa.SP: 40 HP
Candle1: 100 HP