Stepped on up!

Valkyrie appears on the other end of the Portal vortex, surprisingly at a height most would consider "lethal". She only has a moment to try and gain her bearings before she begins falling through the air, the ground rapidly approaching from below.

The fan-covered, air-blowing ground below.

Valkyrie's descent slows and then stops entirely as she catches on the wind, blowing back upward like a demented kite. The vortex whips past her as she ascends to a greater height, passing a large "7", then some cherries, then a- wait, is that a man's face? A giant man's face?

A bearded human appears to be looking inward on the antics going on, himself about mid-30s in age. It's hard to tell, but he appears to be shouting something at the screen (At least Valkyrie assumes it is a screen) through which she is seeing him. Her processors automatically attempt to read his lips. "-E-W-Y-O-U-Y-O-U-G-L-I-T-C-H-Y-C-H-E-A-T-I-N-G-P-I-E-C-E-O-F-S-" The process cuts off mysteriously at that, refusing to read the rest of the man's silent ramble as Valkyrie passes through a translucent field and then-- lands, the wind cut off by the one-way, translucent floor.

As she looks around, she notices a gang of viruses menacing a Boogie off on the far side of the field. It pulls a lever that it's standing next to, and the floor changes, Xs and Os appearing in a grid formation. They begin to light up, starting where the Boogie is standing, going from panel to panel and cascading outward in a wave. As the light hits the first "X" panel, a gout of flame shoots upward, nearly frying the virus on the "O" panel next to it. The viruses on other "X' panels attempt to quickly remove themselves from their now-precarious positions. Some of them make it.

Some of them don't.

Regardless, Valkyrie takes note of her position on an X, and relocates before she gets burned. The Boogie virus throws the switch again as the viruses turn their attention towards Valkyrie one-by-one...

Valkyrie's passive kicks in and heals her as the battle begins.

--Viruses--
Switchin' Boogie: 240
Kabutank A: 50
Kabutank B: 50
Kabutank C: DELETED
Dominerd: DELETED
Bag O' Candy: 100
Fishy A: 90
Fishy B: 90
Spidy: 80
Beetank: 80

--You--
Valkyrie: 130

--Terrain--
99% Tic-Toe Panels. (Tic-Toe panels will switch every time the Switchin' Boogie says so, swapping between X and O randomly. X panels get burned. O panels don't. Stay off the X panels with good RP or actions.)
1% Switch Panel (The Boogie is hogging this.)

-I just arrived and I already messed up someones mood.
- Right on schedule!

The landing luckily did not take a toll on her. Seems like heights in cyberspace aren't all what they are made out to be. That is not to say it was a safe landing though, but that was corrected with a quick sidestep before the panel she was standing on went up in a blaze, along with all other panels with "X" markings on them.

Now, some may think that Valkyrie is a mindless brute, and from the point of view of an everyday observer, this seems undeniably true. Little more than a thug with short temper and a penchant for poking things with something big and metallic. Sieg, on the other hand, prefers to think of her as an extremely efficient thug with a short temper. That beating things up until they stop moving is the fastest way of obtaining their goals is not really her fault. And hey, enjoying and being proud of your job is completely natural, isn't it?

Considering all that, he had a pretty good idea about what Valkyrie was going to do.

-Gonna make people dance?
-Good guess.

Valkyrie flashed a smile before almost exploding towards the boogie handling the Tic-Toe switch, only leaving some white sparks swirling like dust in her wake. She arrived almost instantly in front of the virus but yet somehow still had time to transform her lance into a drill-like appliance. Little known fact that such instruments of destruction are perfect for shoving people away who are standing in your spot. It seems like she intended to use it for such purpose as she tried to ram the mechanical marvel into the ball of hair that was tasked with operating the lever, that in turn decided when the panels would switch, fireworks included free of charge.

It kinda seemed like the other viruses didn't really like the hairball either. No wonder. His rhythm was far too slow. Valkyrie's hand grabbed the lever, fingers gripping like vice. It was time to pick up the pace.

Her arm moved in a blur, pulling the lever over and over again as fast as she could. Unless these virii had hidden depths and talents, such as being immune to getting incinerated, or being part time step dancers when not running amok the nets, the fried virus quota should be filling up rather rapidly with each pull. Some people just can't take the heat of the dance floor.

<<ACTIONS>>
1.) Ride of the Valkyrie (2 turn haste, teleport) to switch panel
+ Speedburst
-Drillarm (60 + Break+ Knockback + Long Attack) Switchin' Boogie off the panel
2.) SWITCH
3.) SWITCHSWITCH
4.) SWITCHSWITCHSWITCH
5.) SWITCHSWITCHSWITCHSWITCH

+ First barrier

[[Bump]]

[[bump2]]

[[bump3]]

A man in a pink frilly dress appears behind Valkyrie and smacks her over the head with a frying pan. Her HP lowers back down to its' maximum of 120. The man then ceases to exist, his purpose fulfilled.

Valkyrie teleports to, and then liberally punts the Boogie off of the switch panel, immediately going MAD WITH POWER!

By which I mean she flips the switch again, and again, and again, and again. More and more X panels light up on the ground as she continues her staccato flipping of the switch, flames bursting through and lighting the entire room up.

Then, driven to a point by its' abusive user, the switch breaks. *all* of the panels (save the one Valkyrie is on) light up with flames-- and for a brief moment, the entire room is consumed.

Even Valkyrie is burned by the flames rushing out into the panel, left with nowhere else to go. (30)

Eventually the flames die down, and the scene is revealed-- all of the viruses save for the boogie are dead, and even he is left at a pathetic amount of health, his hair all burnt away. It seems like most of the rewards got burnt up as well, but...

Valkyrie can either go try and grab the rewards, or finish off the Boogie.

--Viruses--
Burnin' Boogie: 10 [Passed out]
Kabutank A: BURNT
Kabutank B: FRIED
Kabutank C: DELETED
Dominerd: DELETED
Bag O' Candy: FLAMBE
Fishy A: SASHIMI
Fishy B: FISH STICK
Spidy: WEBS DON"T BU- well I guess they do
Beetank: FLAMING SWEETNESS

--You--
Valkyrie: 105

--Terrain--
100% Normal (Scrap data scattered about)

Valkyrie let go of the end of the broken handle still held in her hands. It hit the ground with a clang before dissipating. The multiple eruptions of flames, ending with the whole room being scorched, along with all her opposition was quite... satisfying.

-Go for the shinies!

Valkyrie hesitated. On one hand, her primary instinct was to finish the fight right now. On the other hand, it's not like finishing off that whelp would be all that fun. Really, without its hair the boogie looked quite pitiful. On the other hand, the valuables were burning up. She'd have hated to return empty handed; she was obligated to succeed not because of loyalty to her funky employer or anything like that but through pride. If these guys had his data, and now it was burning up along with them...

So decide to quickly search the ashes she did.


<<grab the loot>>

GET: 650z!
Get: Slap Twi in the face! (3x)

Valkyrie finds that a good chunk of the data has already burned; luckily, it looks like the dance data she's looking for *isn't* there. The Boogie probably has it. Valkyrie turns to look for him--

And finds him crawling, slowly, away, a trail of ash behind him.

-Found it yet?
-Nope.

After searching the ashes for what looked like an eternity (albeit a short one, morelike an... eternette), and not finding that blasted data, there was one last track to pursue. A track made of ash, and smelling of burnt hair.

Poor guy, got so far. Valkyrie felt disgust, and also a bit of pity looking at it. But a job's a job and a fight is a fight, and there's still a mission to fulfill. And it seems like he's the one holding that last item. It seems like there's only one way this can end.

So Valkyrie ended it with a slash.

<<ACTIONS>>
1.) Slash remaining virus

Valkyrie cuts him open, recovering... another piece of the dance data!

Either this guy made a really goddamn long dance routine, or there is something fishy going on here, as there still appears to be one more piece to collect.

Another portal, shiny and new, opens in front of her as all of the panels turn to X's...

Valkyrie grabbed the data and started running. There's a portal, you grabbed the shiny, and things are going to blow. It was an almost pavlovian response.

-ohfortheloveof....
-Once I'm done, I'm going to show him the dance of my people.

She was picking up the pace while chatting. Sieg could almost hear the nonexistant countdown as she neared the portal.

- Does it involve shoving the dance routine down his throat?
-Not down his throat, and not the data, but that's the idea.

She made the last steps in few huge leaps as she inside the portal head first, arms extended, ready to roll.

-Groovy.

There is a whirling, tumultuous sensation as Valkyrie jumps into the portal, and reality seems to twist around her, launching her through the endless expanse of the network into... somewhere. Everything is black.

The rocket seems to be working fine, all systems are go

It's still just a prototype, we've got more work to do on it before we can launch

Tell the techs to hurry, we're on a budget and a deadline and this thing needs to go

Snippets of human voices cut in and out of Valkyrie's consciousness as she comes to and reflexively pulls up a readout of her current location...

Sharo again?