Miner Fiasco

The network access port was located in a large wooden room that seemed to be a mishmash of worker's rest area, cafeteria, and tool storage room. In one corner was a bar of sorts, complete with barstools, though no drinks of any kind were visible anywhere as the shelves were instead covered with glowing miniature mystery data crystals of every imaginable color. In the opposite corner next to a wooden door was a single set of pristine mining gear hung upon the wall. Strangely, there was not space of more gear... There were wooden picnic tables arranged around the periphery of the room, and a lone female Navi clad in typical mining gear was sitting at one of them. The center of the room was clear, and the net access port, a standard green telepad, sat there.
The fiasco with Thomas' freakout behind him, Regalia appeared in the rest area, his armor glinting dully in the light. He glanced slowly around the area, taking stock of it all-- and then his eye caught on the female Navi sitting at one of the picnic tables, and crooked an eyebrow.

He dismissed the helmet from his outfit, revealing his dark, steely hair and tilted green eyes, and began to walk toward her with a sigh, his stepping off of the telepad accompanied by dull clanking of his boots. As he neared her, he opened his mouth to speak.

Then his cape suddenly appeared behind him with an ear-piercing crack of thunder, six lightning bolts arcing straight out and then fizzling into their cloth form, and Regalia's question died on his lips with a sigh. He inhaled again, gathering his resolve, and spoke. "'Minah', I presume?"[color=5A6351][/color] Inwardly, as he took stock of her appearance, Regalia guessed that it was a clever play on the word 'Miner'. He sighed again, this time mentally.

"I am Regalia.exe."[color=5A6351][/color] He said.
Before navi could even step into the network a private link between her and her op clicked on. "Lucia, do keep our future endeavors quiet over the mission, don't want to stir up any trouble for our allies or this company. Likewise Artio I want you to remain behind for now, if this is a Cybeast attack, your presence might unnerve the network navis and we wouldn't want you to be attacked. Beyond that let's send you in with a less threatening look shall we." Clicking the private link off, a glowing portal finally appeared within the network access room.

[Activate Casual Wear.GMO]

Stepping through that portal came the young teen navi. Her short heeled boots tapping against the panel floor as she stepped fully into view. Wearing tan stockings that came just beneath a loose fitting pink short skirt ending with white frilly trim that sway softly with each step and show off the slightest hint of skin. Having from hip was mp3 player which was promptly clicked off as navi lifts her stereo headphones from ears and wrap them around her neck above the black tank and buttoned vest. Offering a smile as she flicks that bubblegum pink-purple hair free of them. "Hello there, Lucia is here, reporting for duty!" Her attempt at trying to act proper quickly failed as she let out a giggle and glances about the room. "Ooo, I've never been in a mine before, do we get to wear digging gear and cut into walls? Oh! Can I use a drill!?" Her rambling wants quickly quieted when she realized she and the other lady weren't the only ones in the room, soon flashing Regalia an innocent smile as those large pink eyes closed in an attempt to add a bit of cuteness. "Hi!♪"
Exorcist and company were the next to show up on the Halstead network, flying down in two beams of green and one of blue (hopefully no one would fault Mary for the way her element ruined the otherwise perfect color coordination). The three quietly took in their surroundings before Bhikkhuni finally spoke up. "Well gee, I'm guessing this place isn't winning any workplace cleanliness awards from corporate any time soon," she grumbled, disapproving of the disturbing data mess caking the scenery.

Meanwhile, Exorcist was surprised to see Lucia again; the three commented as much, although really, their time together had been somewhat short, so Exorcist wasn't sure if Lucia would remember her or not (as if a trio of female religious fanatics was easily mistaken for someone else). She had a good feeling about her allies; then again, it was hard not to when she'd yet to work with anyone that didn't sit right with her as a person of decency and competency. Just about everyone came off that way to her thanks to her time with Burt. "Greetings, everyone," she spoke up, still a good distance away from the others.

Mary remedied the situation by wrapping one arm each around both of her compatriots and luring them into proximity of their allies. "Hello. Exorcist here will be working with the two of you! I'm sure we'll all get along wonderfully," she introduced her master. "My name is Mary; I'm an SP. This little girl here is Bhikkhuni... she acts cold, but she really likes people who are nice to her~"

"How do you know what I like and don't like?" Bhikkhuni pouted.

"I see a lot of things," Mary chuckled, holding one sleeve over her smile.

"Are you blind or not?!" she stormed, making a grab for Mary's neck. The two tripped over each other in a slapstick way, then continued tussling on the ground.

Burt's attention, however, was entirely drawn to Lucia. "That skirt... That smile! That bouncy, pink hair! Those starry pink eyes! That voice! Hnnnnnnnrgh!" he gasped to himself (although not to himself as he should have), tightening his scarf around his neck. "I'd forgotten she was so cute!"

"Did you forget to masturbate today or something? You're too wound up," Bhikkhuni scolded him from the ground, striking the squirming nun on the butt with her golden shakujo repeatedly as she spoke without really paying attention.
There was a flash-- similar to a camera-- before two mechanical-like entities appeared in the wooden room, right at where the bar was.

A gigantic horse was nudging his head against the shelves, intelligent eyes looking at the mini mystery data crystals and wondering if they were edible. "Looking at this actually makes me kind of hungry, much to my... disgracefulness," the equine started to mumble, snorting once and flapping his tail around... and then expelled some exhaust.

Rhea shook her head, then found herself digging into a nearby drawer as well. "Oh no you don't, little lady. Now be a good Navigator and do the introductions yourself, and not rely on this old man SP," Harley added with a frown, headbutting Rhea out of the drawer diving and towards the center where the others have gathered.

Red-faced, the Navigator just did a quick nod to each Navi that was gathered in the room. "Rhea.EXE reporting with Harley.SP." Ended her brief, yet obviously, informative introduction. The horse, from far, managed to clonk his head against the bar, simulating a facepalm. "She has a looong way to go," the equine said.

Camillia couldn't help but to agree.
"Ah. Hello."[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia said, softening the hard edges of his expression as he greeted Lucia. As the other navis and SPs all checked in in turn, Regalia scratched his chin, then turned to face them with a few clanks of his armor. "Hoh...! Quite a gathering we have."[color=5A6351][/color]

He nodded, partly in response to Rhea's stiff introduction, and partly in general. "I will introduce myself again, but I presume you all most likely heard me before... if you were not simply tuning me out. I am Regalia."[color=5A6351][/color] He gave a short, but curtly formal salute, and then turned back to the Navi he presumed was 'Minah'.

[Interject]
The Navi sitting at the table turned her head to look at Regalia when she heard the name 'Minah' called. She was about to greet him when Lucia interrupted by teleporting in. She mentally shrugged it off, and was about to greet them both when the new arrival appeared to suffer from a fit of ADD, and went off on a tangent. She sat her cup down on the table beside her, and held her free hand up over her mouth to cover a smile at how amused she was at this development, and what a stark contrast the old curmudgeonly knight and the young spunky lady before her were.

The miner Navi seemed to get her mirth under control after a moment, and was juuuust opening her mouth to greet the two Navis when a crew of programs teleported into the room. And again, she halted her greeting and closed her mouth. Her eyes widened a bit at the bizarre menagerie of characters that had just appeared before her. A taoist priestess, a nun, and... no clue. The last one just didn't register as something she recognized, other than being a little girl. She had no idea what to make of them... That is, until they started talking, and then fighting shortly after.

Now the miner was just giggling at the group. The sudden appearance of a mechanical woman and a mecha horse just didn't seem out of place anymore. The fact that the horse was talking was just icing. The female Navi decided to just give up and laugh at that point. Who wouldn't? This apparently annoyed the curmudgeon, because he re-introduced himself as Regalia, but that did nothing to stop her laughter. If anything, the disparity in personalities just made it funnier.

The female Navi got her laughter under control after a few seconds, and coughed into her hand before finally speaking for the first time. "What an unlikely bunch you are." Her amusement was still evident both on her smiling face and in her voice. She dismissed her tin cup into data-oblivion, stood up, and moved away from the table. She then nodded to Regalia. "Yes, I am Minah. I will be your guide in the mines."

At a glance, Minah was a curvy Navi only a little taller than Lucia; perhaps 5'2" (~157.5 cm) at the most. She was clad in a thick white cotton shirt with rolled up sleeves and a heavy, durable looking black harness vest with reflective neon yellow strips over it. She also wore a pair of durable looking blue jeans, belted at the waist with a heavy leather tool belt, minus any tools. To round out the ensemble, she wore tough reddish-brown leather mining boots and matching gloves. A red construction helmet with a transparent flip down face guard and head lamps sat atop her head. Her reddish brown hair fell out from beneath the helmet to just above her shoulders, and her eyes were a lively green. Strangely, neither she nor her clothes were worn, battered or dirty at all.

"Before we enter the mine, there are some things you will need to prepare for... First, lighting in the mine is both inconsistent, and tends towards the dim side. You will need a light source." She tapped the side of her helmet with one finger, causing a couple of the headlamps to turn on at low power. "The only light to be found outside the transport shaft and base nodes comes from data crystals, mystery data, and lava." As she spoke, a video-player window opened to her right, and showed first-person perspective images and video of someone traveling through a darkened cavern with the occasional glowing crystal, and a distant reddish bright area that was revealed to be a lava fall as the individual got closer, but not too close.

"Secondly, an Undershirt does not substitute for a portable safety net." The video turned around suddenly, and looked up at a large hole in the cavernous ceiling. A Navi fell through it a couple of seconds later, hit the ground at high speed, and disintegrated. "Ouch. Heeee didn't have a light. Luckily, his operator had backup data."

"Third, also know that the mine's structure is mostly natural." A hopelessly complicated 3-D model of a section of mine appeared to the left of Minah. "By Natural, I mean the data structure of what is loaded into the servers generally dictates what shape the caverns take, and we very rarely do alterations. When we do, they look like this." To her right, the video window flickered through a series of still images showing catwalks, ladders, landings, and stair cases, all made of rubber-coated metal, added to various locations without any digging into the cave surfaces. Some of them even featured lights. Most didn't. "So you will need to stay with me, or you will get very lost, very fast."

"Fourth, for those of you who are not Fire elementals, and those who are because others among you aren't, but especially those who aren't: Do. Not. Dig." The video window to her right switched to a new video where a Navi was drilling through a wall to break loose a cluster of crystals. A half a minute into the video, the Navi apparently broke through the wall, and lava began flooding rapidly into the cavern as a couple of nearby workers fled. "The guys running away forgot their Oil Body at home, apparently." She smiled. "You only make that mistake once, and never again." She coughed to keep from laughing at something from her past. "More seriously, the lava is hot data, or data being processed by our proprietary high end management software. That means the hot spots aren't always in the same places depending on what our DBAs are working on at the moment."

"Finally, if you can fly, don't. Because..." Her voice trailed off as a picture of a ceiling covered in stalactites and sharp crystal formations appeared in a window above Minah's head. "Unless this happens:" The video window to her right changed to a view of a team of miners situated around a massive hole in the floor, easily 50 panels in diameter. They appeared to be setting up a safety rope around the perimeter to keep someone from falling in when... someone did exactly that. A few seconds layer, and they hovered back into view, and gave the foreman a thumbs up. "Then it's okay."

"And that covers the basics of safety here in the data mine." Minah said as she dismissed the visual aides. "Any questions?"
"Why did it have to be a literal mine?"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia groaned, half an actual question and half a rhetorical one.

"Oh come on, Regalia! We've TRAINED for this!" Thomas beamed, hiding a chuckle.

"We... have?"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia's questioning voice was uncertain, and a little worried; for once it was his operator's turn to bewilder him.

"Absolutely! Remember all those times I made you play Datamine-n-craft? Sleepers everywhere, hunting for Mystery Diamonds..." Regalia wasn't sure which was worse; the fact that he sounded serious, or the fact that he could be right. Datamine-n-craft was a kind of stylized data-mining simulator... in a way. Maybe.

Regardless, the Knight tapped where his visor would be twice with his index finger-- and his entire helmet sprang back to life, reappearing on his head as the visor glowed green before him. It shone in front of him, easily strong enough to blind those in front of him for a moment if they looked at it... until he tilted his head down-- revealing that the light it emitted was almost colorless, very slightly blue and highly contrasting. It shut off shortly afterward as the knight nodded, leaning on his cane. "This should be adequate for normal preparations. But tell me, how has the viral infection affected the environment?"[color=5A6351][/color]
After her greeting Lucia seemed content enough to at least wait quietly for their mining guide to say what had to be said. Or at least until familiar faces started to come into the room and got her somewhat excited, waiting only long enough for them to give their introductions before hopping up and over to the trio of girls with a grin. "Exxy? Mary, Hunny?! Hey, it is you three! Hi!" Lucia stepped right up to them and sort of hopped up and down lightly. "Hi! I didn't think I'd see you three again so soon! Oh boy this will be great having friends around! Now if only my foxie friend and that knight-" Pausing she glanced back to Regalia before shrugging faintly, "Different knight."

Still her greeting stopped again when more company came to join the party, who went right about starting to inspect the room which did make her giggle while waiting for introductions to be said. "and I thought I was the only care-free navi around. Hi!" Waving, Lucia started to step towards Rhea and her horse, offering a hand. "I'm Lucia, nice to meet ya, your horsie talks? That's so cool! Master wouldn't let me bring my wolf with me, he said him and my normal appearance might be too frightening and evil looking and he didn't want to freak out the lady over ther-" Blinking as she finally stopped talking Lucia turned with a slight flush back towards Minah and quickly shut up so the lady could speak and start giving instructions.

Finally listening intently, Lucia looked on curiously as displays started to pop up explaining the details and reasons behind the points she was trying to make. Though for the most part none seemed to sound like they were that big a threat to her, at least not if she could take of her burdensome clothes she had to put on before coming in. Still when she got to the last point the navi swallowed faintly at the sight of the sharp shards that lined the ceiling. Slowly inching up her hand. "Err, so I get that we have to be careful and all about not falling into holes and the like. But what about if we change the network coding to change some of the surrounding terrain? Or am I not allowed to do that, I think that'd be good to know now." Blinking she spoke back up again with a little more urgency. "Oh oh! And can I bring my pet in too? It's a giant scary looking wolf, Master was afraid he'd spook you cause they told us a Cybeast was around in here somewhere. But can I bring him anyway, he's nice I promise!" Still after her question she wrinkled her nose faintly, almost like she had more questions but decided best to not voice them for now, someone else probably wanted to ask some too.
"Sooo cuuuuute! Lucia's so cute!" Burt cried audibly, loud enough for the other operators to hear regardless of distance. "And Rhea's cute too! And the navi we're working with is also kind of cute! Who knew that heaven was a cybeast-infested mine shaft?!"

Exorcist was becoming slightly miffed with all of the attention Burt was giving the girls standing around; somewhere deep inside, she was hoping one of them would chew him out just to cut him down to size. Bhikkhuni was trying, but she didn't really have much pull with Burt for whatever reason. "It's nice to meet you, Rhea and Harley," she confirmed with another bow. Her SPs imitated her action. "And you too, Miss Minah. It sounds like we've got quite a number of perils facing us, between the ordinary hazards of the mine and the new occupancy of a cybeast... As for light, I've got candles that can provide for us."

"You could wear them around your head, like on a weave crown! It'd look great with your loincloth, actually. Maybe I should..." Burt mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"L-Let's not just yet, please," Exorcist encouraged her operator, placating him with a small smile.

"Well, for my part, I'm blind anyways," Mary shrugged. "So it won't be particularly different for me." Bhikkhuni continued to watch her with a skeptical frown.

"Actually, I have a question," the star pupil of Counterinfectualism commented, raising her hand slowly as she watched Burt's face continue shifting various shades of perversion. "Is there any standard gear that we should wear for our protection when mining? I wouldn't think it'd be safe to go in dressed in just anything..."
Rhea nodded to Regalia's seemingly-forced re-introduction of himself, while smiling at Exorcist and her crew (because they seemed nice enough), returning Regalia's salute with her own. As Lucia approached her with her bouncy and light personality, Rhea blinked a few times before acknowledging the other Navi. "Care-free? I do not comprehend," the petite Navigator-- perhaps the shortest in the room-- shrugged. Regardless, she accepted Lucia's hand, returning the handshake.

Narrowly, Rhea managed to ignore the way Burt was ogling at almost all the females that was available in his line of sight.

"A bright soul you are, m'lady," Harley said, elegantly bowing his head and front hooves before him slightly.

The horse couldn't take his eyes off Lucia's top, however.

Not catching Harley's ogling, Rhea turned to Minah as the latter bursted into laughter. Harley, too, snapped back to focus on what the miner guide Navi had to say; wouldn't want to be dead weight to anyone else. Not especially when he's a huge of a clunk of metal that he was.

Rhea and Harley both turned on their recorders and transcription codes to record the briefing into their separate memory banks. Just as Minah started to open up a Q&A session, Rhea started to walk over to the thing that caught her attention in one particular area of the room, even as the others started asking Minah questions.

She stopped right in front of the hanging set of mining gear, unceremoniously grabbing the mining helmet-- part of the wall's equipment-- and plonked it on her own head. "Will gear such as this provide further aid to our expedition?" Rhea asked Minah, her eyes blinking with sheer curiosity. It would seem that she was enjoying the notion of emulated underground exploration.

If anything, it would seem as if Rhea was having fun fiddling with the helmet-- and it was only the helmet! Almost as if she was being playful, Rhea flicked at the switch to turn the headlamps on and off.

Harley joined his Navigator by her side, looking about for any more supplies of the gear. Didn't seem like it, though. "Wish they came in warhorse sizes," he muttered.
Minah squinted as Regalia thoughtlessly shone his high powered visor light in her face, and turned off the dim headlamps on her helmet. "Hey, now...." She complained mildly before answering the Knight's question. "Well, I don't have any video or images to show you, but I can say that there are no viruses in the mine. Viral infections tend to destroy files, or replace them with viruses. The Cybeast isn't doing that. The Cybeast is altering the code of files and programs it comes into contact with, which is changing the net environment and turning Progs into corrupted monsters." She seemed both unhappy and worried as she continued speaking. "I don't have any information on what happened to the Navigators that went missing. Nobody who went to find out has come back to report yet."

Minah turned to Lucia, and proceeded to answer her questions. "It should be fine. Nothing a Navigator is capable of can seriously hurt the server... I think." She added the qualifier at the end in an unsure tone. It was apparent people didn't rampage about the server often, or her answer would have been more certain. She spoke up again in a wry tone a moment later. "Put another way, I doubt any damage you cause will be more than a drop in the bucket compared to our beastly intruder. So... go nuts?" She shrugged while smirking.

Minah grinned as the energetic Lucia asked if she could bring her per wolf along with her. "Only if I get to bring all my Mettocks with me." As soon as she mentioned the oddball term 'Mettock', her mining helmet stood up on top of her head, and a pair of eyes stared out from beneath it. She reached up with one hand and rubbed one of its feet, which made the odd little creature close its eyes and purr happily. When she stopped, it blinked a time or two, settled back down, and proceeded to pretend to be a mining helmet again.

Minah turned her head to look in Exorcist's direction, and smiled at the Navi's question. "You won't be mining, but there is a set of gear over by the door that all of you can use." As if to emphasize what Minah was talking about, Rhea walked over to the set of gear, and reached for the helmet on the rack. When she grabbed and went to pick it up, a different colored copy of the helmet, the same green as Rhea's headgear, left the rack in her hands while the original yellow helmet sat right where it was as if it had never been touched. "As you can see, there is enough for everyone. And when you pick your copies up, they will become whatever color you want them to be, except the vest... This ugly thing stays black and neon yellow no matter what you want."

Minah nodded to herself. "Right, then, I guess the next question would be 'what does it do for you'." She pointed at her helmet. "The helmet will prevent minor damage from falling bits of data, and it comes with a set of dimmer controlled head lamps. Mettock not included." She pointed at the vest. "This, aside from being a fashion disaster, can anchor you to cavern surfaces... like this." She tapped one of the metal loops with her index finger, and pointed at the wall across the room. A thread of light shot from the loop, and connected to the wall. Minah tugged on the thread, and it gave only slightly. When she let go, it elastically snapped back into it's perfectly straight shape again. "And this is how you make it go away." She tapped the loop twice with her index finger, and the thread faded into nothingness.

Minah pointed at the belt. "This is pretty handy if you have the permissions to use all the tools it has, but since none of you do..." She swiped her hand over an open topped pouch as if she expected to grab something cylindrical. And sure enough, a pull-cap ignition flare appeared in her hand. "This is about all you can use. Just pull the cap off, and the stick glows for about 5 minutes." She pulled the cap off, and the stick glowed a bright white. "No flames are involved, so there is no smoke, and you can't burn yourself or light things on fire with them. You can only have one of these at a time with no server license. so if you reach for a second, the first will disappear automagically." She shrugged. "The rest of the gear requires a license to access or operate. So don't bother with it."

Minah coughed into her hand. "We need to get moving. Meet me outside after you make your final preparations. You can ask me any other questions you may have as we travel." With that, she walked to the door, opened it, and stepped through while turning her headlamps on. She left the door open behind her for everyone else, but she called back into the room: "Oh! Last one out, close the door behind you, k?"
Regalia listened intently as Minah spoke, nodding at appropriate moments, then walked over to the rack and grabbed a belt-- which, rather than appearing around his waist as one could possibly expect from a man in heavy armor, appeared in his hands. He whipped it behind him, the fabric of the thing making a dull clang against the metal of his armor as it struck, and grabbed the far end of it with his other hand before hooking it around the thin portion of his waist.

Next, he reached for the Vest-- which, amidst Thomas' chuckling, also appeared in his hands. "This thing is rather... unwieldly as a weapon of fashion."[color=5A6351][/color] He remarked.

"Oh? If you want, I could try to color-match you." Thomas responded, speaking aloud. The knight-lord spluttered, shouting an interrupted cry of 'Wait-!'-- and then his armor flickered, turning a bright green with gold accents. Another flicker; blue and white. Another resulted in purple and green in entirely contrasting shades, then yellow, then BRIGHT yellow, then a few shades of maroon, then a lively, girly pink with white accents as the armored man seethed, cheeks matching his currently-cherry-red visor.

"THOMAS!"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia shouted. The armor changed back to normal as the boy's cackling rang out in the air, and the knight grumbled and cursed under his breath, trying to stick the vest on and reclaim a shred of dignity. He failed multiple times at this; first his gloves got caught, then the loop was too small to get around the armor on his forearm, then the shoulderpads got in the way...

By the time Regalia finally got the 'stupid vest' on, Thomas was (practically) rolling on the floor with laughter in the real world (and probably drawing at least a few curious looks in the process). The knight, utterly humiliated, deftly hooked the clasp of the 'fashion disaster' and decided that no, he didn't need to replace his current helmet after all. He stomped off instead to stand next to Minah, the act of supporting himself on his cane the only thing that kept him from childishly crossing his arms.

"So why aren't all the 'options' enabled?"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia practically grumbled, before catching himself and continuing in a more normal tone. "If they could be even remotely helpful, you would think they would want us to succeed... after all, the more people they have to hire to tackle this disaster, the greater the Public Relations nightmare it becomes."[color=5A6351][/color]

"You know, that is a good point, Regalia." Thomas scratched his chin, briefly considering getting up to ask their 'client' (who felt more like their boss)... but decided against it, shaking his head. "They're probably just things related to their normal operations. Besides, do you really want more gear?"

Regalia's grimace was his sole answer, the curled line of his lip withdrawing into an almost painful frown.
Lucia seemed completely oblivious to the stares and murmurs of Burt and others in the real world as she received a compliment from the odd talking horse, which just got her to grin up at him. "Oh why thank you!"

It wasn't until Minah would start addressing her questions that the navi turned her attention back to her, and almost moved up to hug her when she learned anything she did wouldn't cause any real damage. Perhaps the only reason she didn't, in fact hug the leader of the group, was when she mentioned a strange creature of her oh. "Metto-eep!" Stopping short, Lucia blinked in surprise when the little creature popped up before looking at it curiously and finally grinning. "Oh cute! Well that will make Artio happy, I'll have to call him right away then." Turning round, navi started to move away from the group, enough so to at least have some extra space in the room while Miss Minah finished explaining the details of their hardware.

Drawing up her headphones from around her neck, the navi quickly tugged them off completely and reached down to pull her mp3 player from her hip, flicking it off before tapping it a few times to make it, along with the wired stereo headset burn away in a flash of flames. Clapping just after she connected upon her uplink with her operator. "Master! She said to send Arty down, it's perfectly safe cause nothing will be here but corrupted navis and the monster!"

Vincent had up to this point been listening in on the explanations in the networld through his PET, so when the little screen popped up he shook his head lightly as he clicked the button to activate Artio and transfer him down. "Not quite what she said, but close enough."

It took but a moment for a large portal of light to open up beside Lucia, and a breath longer before it started to spark wildly as if unstable, though this proved to not be the case, as slowly the sparks and jolts started to slip forward before the muzzle of a great wolf slowly eased into view. Stepping fully through the portal took effort it seemed and once through Artio seemed less then pleased to actually be here. Taking the time to at least glance about the room before letting out a long, deep sigh, "Oh, underground... This will be pleasant.. Oh well, good afternoon, I'm Artio, a pleasure." giving a faint bow he at least seemed sensible, until Lucia broke whatever attempt at formality he had as she threw her arms around him and hugged the wolf tightly, which instantly caused her pink hair to rise up and shift about like she'd been touching a plasma lamp to long.

[Artio.SP Summoned]

With her canine companion summoned and properly welcomed, the navi once more looked on and listened to Minah, and ooo'd loudly at the display of how the vest worked, grabbing one up quickly and started to try and put it on, though her old vest seemed to completely prevent it, so grumbling to herself the navi tossed her mining vest atop her pet before tugging at her shirt slightly. "Well, I guess I should change and get more comfortable then, don't want to wear that bulky looking belt anyway when I'm already a torch."

Taking hold of her sleeve tightly, Lucia started to pull, almost to the point one could hear the fabric beginning to give before it'd outright burst into flames and quickly start burning away at an alarming rate. Overtaking and burning off around the navi suddenly as the vest, shirt and skirt all started to vanish away, leaving Lucia standing in a perhaps overly tightly pulled tube top around her chest and the obvious matching tan biker shorts about her hips. Next to burn down were her stockings, which as they met with her nice boots ignited and seemed to continue burning long after, and for that matter so did her wrists as odd as that seemed to be. At last navi's hair caught flame, but did not seem to burn away, but instead begin to sway and flow as if being ablaze was its natural state. Letting out a soft gasped breath the navi shifted and swayed slightly before giggling and hugging her canine companion once more. "So much better! I hate wearing clothes. Well, I'll be ok in this I think. It's worth it! I've been begging Master to let me have a grappling hook for ages now, and this is so much better! Do you think I can keep it Minah? After the mission I mean, does it work in other places, cause that'd be awesome!"

[Casual.GMO Deactivated]

Well her quick change, navi grabbed up the vest, which promptly changed to a dark ashen color while the reflectors took on a more glowing neon pink to really stand out, which she then pulled up and zipped up to completely hide her chest from any prying eyes that may or may not still be staring, not that she had noticed if they had been to begin with. "There we are, alright! Let's get spelunking!" Slipping her arms around Artio, she'd start to, if somewhat against his preference, start to push him through the door into the mine. Turning back once through to scowl and call out towards Regalia"Hey, big guy, what's wrong with you, you're not supposed to let the poor little helpless girl take charge! Get out here and take the lead already! Honestly you are worse then another armor wearing guy I know."
The three disciples of Counterinfectualism looked back and forth nervously as Minah's pet revealed itself. "Er, Burt-" Exorcist started, but was interrupted.

"After we've finished, perhaps," he cut her off with a patient smile and not-so-patient wave of his hand, realizing they were about to hit upon the sensitive subject of how to handle seemingly non-threatening viruses again. "After we've finished, let's have a little talk with Minah about her pet."

"Speaking of pets," Bhikkhuni grumbled, looking irritably around at all of her partners, "I noticed that everyone but us has a pet. A dog, a metool, a pony...!" Exorcist reminded her that, for one thing, Harley was too large to be a pony, and for another thing, Regalia didn't have any sort of animal companion. "Sure, but he's an old guy! We're all young girls and we need pets! W-Well, most of us are young girls..." Mary smiled, not showing a bit of the rare irritation she felt at being excluded from the classification of "young girls."

Burt was about to shoot down the idea, but he was distracted by the sight of Lucia removing all of her hip and trendy accessories. Even though he'd just been thinking how cute they made her, just like the forbidden fruit known as elementary school girls, he found himself realizing how much he liked the initial design and the transformation. "Oh boy! I'm going to program that in for all of you girls too some time! Let me think which part's going to burn up first...!"

"I like my hair not-on-fire, thanks," the little SP protested. "Anyways, I'm grabbing my gear." She did so, then equipped all of it with quick and efficient motions. "It fits like a glove! How are you guys-" she started, then frowned deeply as she realized both Exorcist and Mary were fiddling with the hooks at the back of their jackets (Exorcist slightly, Mary more so). "Oh geez, you bimbos, just warp it on like Regalia did! Quit making a show!" Blushing, her master did so; giggling, the nun did the same. "Well, the good news is, Thomas can just let us use Regalia as a lite-brite if we get lost in the dark down there! He's not a bad leader, in that regard!"

"I don't know... Minah is probably the best to be considered as a 'leader' in this situation, given her experience with the mines," Exorcist offered.

"I think you should be the leader, Exxy! Come on, you're the star disciple of Counterinfectualism. That means you're always the leader," Burt sighed, feeling as if that ought to be common sense.

Exorcist kept quiet, deciding that she'd rather let the group sort it out without her having to get involved.
"Looks like our little party is getting bigger... a little bit at a time," Harley quipped at the sight of the 'Mettock', winking at the little fella before frowning slightly at the attention it was getting from Minah. "Don't see someone petting their own pets more," he added with a mutter. Harley trotted over to Exorcist's side, towering over them as if to emphasize on Exorcist's point of him being a not-pony.

Rhea, preoccupied slightly at trying to get her head to fit perfectly with the helmet, finally managed to clip it after receiving distraction from Regalia's color-flickering. Her eyes wandered over to the vest, pondering. "The safety harness could be useful," she said to herself, taking two sets off the virtual... shelf... thing. The petite Navi then proceeded to equip herself with the vest and buckled up a toolbelt; no size issues there.

She then unceremoniously walked up to Harley and Exorcist and co., wrapping the second vest around Harley's head like a headscarf, clipping it in place. "Oh, very funny," Harley scoffed, much to Rhea's amusement as she gave a cheeky grin. As Exorcist mentioned about having Minah to be their guide and leader, Rhea nodded in agreement. "That would be the most logical selection for our team's leader. Leadership qualities are judged according to experience and circumstances, and not our apparent file sizes," Rhea responded to Lucia's recommendation of Regalia to be leader-- the petite's eyes looking at the fully-armored, tall, bulky man that looked like he could lift at least two of the girls in this room despite his graphical representation of his age.

If that wasn't apparent enough, Rhea was doubting that an old man in heavy armor--perhaps with weakened eyes--was going to be of any help to them as a leader in a Dangerous, Cybeast Infected Mine. She shook her head and sighed in a silent, but dramatic way.

Harley snickered at Rhea's antics, before finding his way out of the door to follow after the miner guide of a Navi-- head-vest-scarf and all. Rhea, on the other hand, moved forward to hold the door open for the others to pass through.
Regalia took pause at Lucia's comments-- and the way that everyone else (save for Rhea's SP) was still standing around-- and followed on through the door with a nod, beckoning silently after the others as well. "In either case, they are right. We should press on."[color=5A6351][/color] He said, disappearing through the door as the light of his visor appeared before him.
Minah shrugged at Lucia's question about the mining gear. "I can ask..." The mining Navi went silent for a moment, then spoke up once more. "My Operator doesn't seem to be responding. I can ask him again later when he's paying attention, or you could ask your Operator to check with him. His name is Jeff." With that, she turned and left the room.

Minah giggled at Lucia's reaction to the Mettock and Harley's jealousy at her treatment of it as she walked away from the shack and along the tunnel towards the mine. The tunnel itself was carved through a reddish-brown colored stone, and was only dimly lit by a string of lights that ran along the ceiling. It was about 5 panels wide, though every dozen panels it narrowed to three to accommodate steel arches that clearly reinforced the cave. There was also a lack of deadly stalactites overhead in this tunnel, as the ceiling was generally smooth. Other than that, the tunnel was fairly unremarkable.

Overall, Minah had a good impression of the group. Lucia seemed happy-go-lucky, and her dire wolf was well mannered in his introduction. Rhea came off as emotionally stunted, but well meaning. Her SP was a tad irreverent, but that complimented the stoic Navigator quite well. Exorcist gave off this earnest feel, but the poor thing was stuck with a rotten operator. Her SPs were real characters, too. Even the old curmudgeon, Regalia, wasn't a bad sort. Minah had learned to deal with his type long ago, as there were quite a few of them working down here in the mines. Her thoughts carried her a few dozen steps into the small tunnel before she heard that very curmudgeon's voice.

Minah turned her head and spoke over her shoulder in answer to Regalia's complaints about the limited access they had to their newly acquired gear. "You people won't be mining, so there's no need for you to have access to things like jack hammers, pile drivers, hydro saws, or crushing tunnel bore rigs. They are too unwieldy to use as a weapon, and require proper programming and actual experience to use properly. They aren't like battlechip data, so using one doesn't just come to you intuitively. If we need them, I will be on hand to operate them for you. But..." Minah stopped talking for a few seconds and turned around to face the group. "Well, if you really want, I suppose you can have your Operators go speak with mine about getting a Class T license. That will give you access to an extra flare, a pickax, a sledge hammer, and a chisel. The downside is that it will overwrite your busters and custom weapons with those tools." She shrugged. "I don't think you want that, but if I'm wrong, all you have to do is just talk to Jeff." Minah looked up at the ceiling for a moment, as if she half-expected something to happen. When nothing did she grinned and shrugged. "Jeff is uhh... AFK. Hopefully he's not face down in his coffee mug, but I wouldn't bet Zenny on it. So if you really want a Class T license, your Operators had best go find him now."

With that, Minah turned and continued walking towards the tunnel exit. As the group approached it, they could tell with vague but an increasing feeling of certainty that the tunnel fed into a very large space ahead. This impression was not disappointed as their guide led them out onto a large metal platform that jutted into what was clearly a main vertical shaft for the mine. The platform they stood upon was easily two dozen panels, squared, in size, and it was ringed with guard rails that were topped with lights. As she stepped out of the tunnel, she said: "Welcome to the mines."

((Mission theme.))

The place where the party now found themselves was large on a mind boggling scale. The shaft itself was easily several hundred panels wide, maybe more, and the bottom was far out of sight. In the center of the shaft was a large metal structure that presumably extended all the way down the bottom of the shaft. It certainly extended all the way up to the ceiling, as that was plainly visible a few dozen meters overhead. The ceiling seemed to be made of metal instead of rock. The outer wall of the shaft was dotted with formations of glowing colored data crystals in a completely random manner, and the occasional lava fall would spill forth from a break in the otherwise smooth surface. The sounds of mining-in-progress could be heard echoing up from everywhere, albeit inconsistently.

The platform they stood upon was but a tiny leaflet, one of many, braced within a three story tall square groove within the carved rock wall of the shaft that spiraled in a very gradual helix all the way down the shaft until it was impossible to see any further. From here, it was easy to see many other platforms identical to this one at fairly even intervals along the recessed spiral, and the shadowy entrances to countless branch mine tunnels behind them. Caged ladders and a couple of elevator platforms to the left and right provided access to the upper and lower levels of the spiraled groove. Lighted catwalks extended from all of the platforms the group could see to the giant metal structure in the center, and the countless levels of circular catwalks that ringed it and the structures around it; all of which possessed lighting and guard rails of their own.

But the complexity didn't stop there. Not by a long shot. There were many sloped bridges that crisscrossed back and forth between the central structure and the spiral that did not connect to the platforms at all. Not to mention the countless other structures that seemed to be purely mechanical in nature, but how evident their function was was directly related to the power of the viewer's imagination and their level of familiarity with similar mechanisms. Minah pointed to the metal structure in the center of the shaft, and proceeded to explain what the group was actually seeing. "That right there is the heart of the datamine operation, along with this shaft, and is our first destination. At the core of that structure is a huge pump system that they use to pump hot data, lava to us programs, into and out of the mine." She pointed up towards the ceiling where the central structure widened considerably before eventually merging with it. "That there houses the data converter systems and gateways between the net and the mine. There is one gateway and converter for each pipe, and each one is dedicated in or dedicated out. So each of 'em works one-way only."

Minah began to walk at a decent pace towards the central structure, but continued to explain the workings of the mine as she went. "That's how data enters and leaves the mine... and most likely how the Cybeast got in." She did not seem happy to say that, and quickly moved on to a related topic. "To move data around the mine, we use good old fashioned mine carts. We just do it in our own way. These bridges here and here..." She pointed to the two sloped bridges, each 8 panels wide, that ran parallel to the catwalk they group was traversing. "...have mine cart tracks on them, and are used to ferry mine carts and freight carts to and fro. The upper bridge sends them to the mine, the lower one returns from it, as you can guess by how they are slanted." Minah turned around and pointed to the outer wall of the shaft. "That groove you see in the wall of the mineshaft is part of the cart transit system, as the rock floor one story beneath this platform and catwalk is covered in cart tracks. There is a second set of cart tracks on a raised floor one story above this level as well. The lower set is incoming from the mines, and feeds back here, while the upper set is outgoing to the mines. There are switches and changeovers to control where the carts go, each of which is activated or ignored by the cart's destination transponder as it approaches. The rest is mainly taken care of by gravity, hence the giant spiral."

Minah turned back around and began walking forwards again. "There are cart elevators for bringing them back up again..." She pointed at one such cart elevator structure that was nestled between a pair of large cylindrical structures. The cart elevator was a huge vertical conveyor that was running even as the guide spoke. "...like that one. It operates by catching a cart in a traffic gate, and releasing the cart into the conveyor's path if an empty slot is available. The conveyor catches it in those lift cradles you see there..." She pointed at a cart being carried up above several other like it as the conveyor lifted them all towards the top one after the other. "...and takes it up along with every other cart. It drops the carts off at whatever floor they are destined for based on their destination codes. It catches on one floor and releases on the other, so they work in pairs. With this system, they never need to stop running."

Minah pointed at the two large cylindrical towers to either side of the cart elevator. "And those are personnel elevators. Our group is a tad large to fit in one of those, so we will be taking a freight elevator." She lowered her arm to her side. "Just like the lava pipes, you can't see them from here, though." Minah sighed in a relieved manner as she finished her mini-tour speech, but a moment later she spoke again in a wry tone. "All that jaw-jacking, and we're still only halfway to the elevators." While her tone sounded at least a little amused at how absurd her statement was, she also wasn't kidding. "You can blame our beastly friend for that," she said as she pointed at the surface of the catwalk. A glance down would reveal the panels were all non-functioning high speed conveyors. If they had been running, there would have been a 3 panel wide set going toward the central structure, and a 3 panel wide set coming back from it with a two panel wide stretch between that was just metal walkway. Sadly they were not.

Minah sighed and continued walking briskly toward the central structure.


----Summary----

---Allies---
[-VB] Regalia.EXE: 180 HP
[-V-] Lucia.EXE: 180 HP
[---] Artio.SP: 80 HP
[HVB] Exorcist.EXE: 140 HP
[HVB] Bhikkhuni.SP: 40 HP
[HVB] Mary.SP: 90 HP
[HVB] Rhea.EXE: 140 HP
[-v-] Harley.SP: 70 HP
[FG] Minah.EXE: 320 HP
[FG] Red.SP (Mettock): 100 HP
Lucia seemed more than content to follow after Minah since she had taken the charge, and everyone else seemed to want her to do so as well. Petting and smoothing over her pet's ears and even casting a wave towards the trio of girls that had been talking about him. Still her attention turned back to the miner as she was spoken too. "Yeah? I think we can do that! Hey Master Minah says that I can keep the vest! You just gotta get some guy named Jeff to give the ok!"

"No Lucia, you can't keep it.."

"But Minah said-"

"No, she said we could ask, which I don't intend to do." Interupted with a faint sigh and a shake of his head.

Lucia let out a whine and huffed as she stopped to glare into the small holoscreen, "But why not! They said I could ask!"
"First of all, even if we did take it with us, there is no telling how it'd work in the outside networks as it was made for. Secondly, it was probably never designed to work outside of this network and the mine itself, so it'd probably do nothing, if it even came out at all." Shaking his head some, Vincent instead turned his attention back to Minah since she was still explaining things and his navi seemed to have stopped paying attention.

Which was just the case as Lucia gave up trying to argue with her operator and instead crossed her arms to fall into pouting mode. Or at least until they finally set foot into the main corridor of the mine, her eyes starting to widen as her complaints and brooding melted away. Letting out a faint, awe struck "Oooooo." as they stepped into it and she could see the giant pillar set in the center of a truly massive pit.

But at least it got her to snap back to pay attention to Minah as she started explaining all the sights and details of everything along the pathway. For the most part she had been listening, if not too closely, at least until they started stepping deeper and she could move closer to the edge of the pit to peek over and down inside, oooing faintly.

Of course, then she saw the catwalks leading towards the center, or more importantly, out over that seemingly bottomless hole. Which she promptly rushed by the miner navi and ran out partway onto the closest catwalk she could access. Running across the metal walkway before grabbing hold of the guardrail and took a deep breath. Slumping over the darkness as she let out a long, loud, "HeelllooooooooooOOOOoooooooo!!" Giggling like a little girl as she leaned back over, only to gasp and start rooting around pockets. "Oh I know I know! Damn it I didn't grab one. Uhm, uhm.. Minny!"

Rushing back towards the group, the little fireball sort of stepped up to the miner and their proper leader before sort of reaching for her belt of tools. "Minny Minny! Let me borrow your flare! Please please please!" the little navi started chanting while trying to find Minah's flare.

((Interject))
Minah was slow to realize at first that 'Minny' was actually her. She figured it out soon enough as the hyperactive speaker, Lucia from the sound of it, seemed to get closer. Minah started to turn around, and was just about to open her mouth to respond to the other Navi when Lucia rushed up to her, and started reaching for her tool belt. Instead, she said: "Woah, wait, what?"

Lucia's first attempt at finding a flare ended with her holding a wedge shaped object. The item in question looked like a 4 inch wide aluminum door stop with the nose of the wedge covered in a yellow rubber coating. The back end of the wedge featured a small light that was turned off, a key hole, and a recessed button surrounded by red and black striping. Whatever the object was, it wasn't a flare.

As soon as Minah realized Lucia was holding this unknown device... "Nononononew," she all but stuttered as she quickly snatched the object out of the fire Navi's hand. "Please don't touch that, sweetie. It's danger--Yiiii!" Minah's statement was interrupted by Lucia reaching around for another pocket, and accidentally goosing the guide as she reached into the pocket. Minah's face turned a little pink, but her tone was more amused than anything. "Sweetie, the flares are in the right front pocket, not my pants pocket." Minah turned around so Lucia was facing the correct pocket, flipped the pouch flap up with the thumb of her free hand, and waited for the Fire Navi to to grab a flare. Or two, maybe, since there seemed to be half a dozen or more in the pouch.

----Summary----

---Allies---
[-VB] Regalia.EXE: 180 HP
[-V-] Lucia.EXE: 180 HP
[---] Artio.SP: 80 HP
[HVB] Exorcist.EXE: 140 HP
[HVB] Bhikkhuni.SP: 40 HP
[HVB] Mary.SP: 90 HP
[HVB] Rhea.EXE: 140 HP
[-v-] Harley.SP: 70 HP
[FG] Minah.EXE: 320 HP
[FG] Red.SP (Mettock): 100 HP