SonicPurple

Mach tried to respond humbly to Rhea's question, answering in a matter-of-fact way.
Yeah, Mazer calls it the MachFighter. It's just a .GMO, but it works rather nicely. Yeah, it seems to catch the attention of the ladies as well.

Mach tilted his head towards Aera's window, glancing at her playfully, inciting a sheepish grin to appear on her face. As Harley shook his neck and mentioned the weight of Vector's armor, the fractal SP quickly disengaged from the equine and started to reconfigure into his default form nearby. He bowed apologetically, his eye still focusing on Harley and his rider.
My apologies, sir. I may have overdone it with the head armor.

Vector took a few steps back, his armor turning and clicking into position to further solidify his default configuration. It's not certain that every single plate was returning to its original position, but he started to appear the same as the moment before he junctioned to Rhea. His glowing red eye looked towards Mach in response to Rhea's request to see his master's junction, and Mach chuckled at Harley's 'piggyback ride' comment just as the last bits of Vector's armor floated away from Harley and slid back into place.
Well, I don't see why not.

Mach started to float in the air silently, and coasted back a few feet to get some space. He then dropped the the floor before he leaped into the air, flipping backwards as large pieces of metal started to materialize and jut out of his body. In a flurry of metallic clicks and scrapes, he continued to rise into the air as his body grew much, much larger in nearly every dimension, while his body shape became very distorted. In moments he had become unrecognizable, and appeared to be transforming into a large machine of some sort. Blue and orange covered his smooth, shimmering skin, which spread out into a pair of large reverse-swept wings around his sleek fuselage. Two large intakes bracketed his fuselage below his wings, which lead to four large engines that sounded like they were spooling up. A pair of stabilizers jutted diagonally upwards from the aft of his frame, while other smaller control surfaces extended from his engines.

The final touches came in the form of an armored cockpit, tinted in gold, just like the pair of spine-like canards that flared out from the sides of the fuselage, just behind the cockpit. The engines continued to whine softly, as if the aircraft was idling, but it was still floating in the air thanks to the internal antigrav drive. Mach did a check of his control surfaces, causing the ailerons, canards, rudders, and elevons move up and down smoothly; the hatch of the cockpit hissed and slid open, revealing the spherical cockpit and seat perched inside. Mach's voice sounded like it was coming through a radio, though high quality, it was noticeably different.
Who wants a ride? Haha.

Harley shook his head playfully at Vector's apology. "Just an idle comment, good friend! Please, take no offense to that," the tall equine said, nudging the fractal SP lightly with his snout. Rhea, on the other hand, now in better view without Vector's reinforcement on Harley, sat back down in the saddle as she watched her ally transform into... a...

Rhea immediately hopped off Harley, did a quick tumble and somersaulted into Mach's plane form cockpit, not entirely caring whether Mach was going to complain about her sheer weight or not.

"This is a better alterative than on-land transport," Rhea said, intentionally loud for Harley to hear. Harley shrugged, but one could tell that the equine, too, was impressed. "I suppose there is not enough space for a bulky and heavy warhorse-class chunk of metal?" he said, not sounding disappointed or sad in the least. After all, it wasn't going to be the first time he flew, even if he did get an opportunity to piggyback on the plane.

Rhea screened through every detail, every dial and controls found in the plane, and nodded to herself, arms folded. "The design is structurally correct, the control scheme similar to a real model," Rhea noted; her own version of a compliment.

Mach wasn't exactly expecting Rhea to immediately jump into the cockpit, but she managed to do so without hitting anything, and landed in the seat. The support umbilical groaned from the rapid introduction of weight, but it held strong. The cockpit itself was dark, but Rhea could see the walls of the small space thanks to the light coming in from the hatch; the pale walls looked like the inside of an egg. Without warning, the entire cockpit started to hum to life and the cockpit hatch quietly slid closed overhead. Rhea was completely shrouded in darkness until a single red message reading "MachFighter.GMO Online" appeared directly forward.

The message disappeared, dousing Rhea in shadow momentarily before the entire cockpit lit up. The difference was literally night and day, with Rhea now having a clear view of the ground, the sky, and even Harley as he watched on. The full multi-axis display allowed her to see everything around her, even behind and beneath her feet. Seconds after the display came to life, a series of visual overlays spread themselves out in front of her. The entire gambit was displayed; altimeter, targeting 'pipper', airspeed, radar, even green outlines and identifying information around the two SPs ahead.

Down in the seat, a pair of holographic screens appeared out from the ends of the arm rests, displaying a directional gimbal, and weapon status on the other side. Mach's voice calmly emanated from speakers in the headrest behind her.
[[i]This is my mode of carrying folks. Unfortunately my capacity is limited to essentially one standard-sized Navi. However, I can get them there in a hurry.[/i]]

A small hollow diamond shape moved about on the screen ahead, before stopping on Harley's head. Data started to stream out from all sides, displaying all of Harley's basic information, as well as his current direction, speed, and X/Y/Z coordinates relative to the MachFighter.
[[i]Just curious, what's Harley's top speed?[/i]]

As if thrown into a very futuristic spaceship, Rhea watched calmly as her surroundings lighted up after a brief moment of complete darkness. Eyeing Harley and Vector in the distance, she looked ready to wave before catching herself. That would have been silly.

Turning to the speaker headrest, Rhea nodded to it and talked to the headrest. "It certainly looks impressive enough. I would like to see it's performance, as well," Rhea said, then turning back to point at Harley.

"I have never tested Harley's top speed, though I did model him after an existing cruiser bike model," the petite Navi added.

Aera's face appeared at the upper right area of the forward display, responding to Rhea's request.
[[i]Fast is an understatement, heehee. All I can say it's an absolute blast to ride in the MachFighter.[/i]]
[[i]My capabilities are akin to that of a standard fighter aircraft, but with the addition of swiveling engine mounts and the antigrav drive, I can perform maneuvers that would cause fixed and rotary-winged aircraft to break up or hit the dirt.[/i]]

Rhea gestured towards Harley, and stated she hadn't seen Harley reach his top speed. Whatever the reason, having her sitting in a high speed platform would allow her to observe Harley as he attempts to run as fast as he could, without having to weigh him down with her own weight.
[[i]Since we've got a nice big area to use, want to give it a shot? What do you say, Harley, want to see how fast you can really go?[/i]]

"Looks like I will have to see for myself then," Rhea said, performing slight stretching in her seat as if to make herself relax, human-like. Harley looked awfully tinier than she remembered from this angle, and for some reason or another, Rhea felt as if she was happier with that arrangement. "I am sure that he would not mind," the petite Navi responded to the MachFighter, her eyes observing Harley's response to the matter.

Harley snorted.

"A challenge, eh? That sounds just jolly fine with me! Bring it on, falcon," the equine shot back, his head held high (but still below the MachFighter) as he turned towards the direction the plane was facing. A few hoof-scrapping, engines roaring along with a neigh; quad-exhausts puffing smoke, and suddenly Harley was off.

His feet could barely be seen connecting with the ground, and his gallop were in huge strides-- almost as if he was doing quick leaps in motion. Soon enough he was travelling at a speed equivalent to the relative real world equivalent of a racing vehicle, topping almost up to 250 miles an hour. Real horses would've collapsed and died already at this point.

But Harley's still going strong, and didn't look like he was going to slow down. Rhea blinked; since when was Harley packed with so much fuel and power?

The equine SP very confidently accepted the idea, and even fired back an indirect challenge to the MachFighter. Harley turned towards the open net ahead, and reared up as his engine roared before going off like a shot. Mach whistled as he watched the SP take off.
[[i]A race, hm? Hop on, Vector.][/i]

Vector silently acknowledged and leaped towards the MachFighter as it turned towards the racing Harley. Vector's body fragmented and adhered itself to Mach's airframe, adding very little weight and even less drag thanks to the sliver-thin thickness of Vector's plates. Mach's 'eyes' locked on Harley as he sped off, showing the SP's current speed, which rapidly broke 250mph. As he did so, several ribbon-like belts reached out from the seat before they wrapped over Rhea's waist and chest. They clicked in on the other side of the seat and sinched down tightly to keep Rhea secured in the seat. This seemed moot; the roar of Mach's quad engines caused him to lurch forward and continue to accelerate, pressing Rhea into the back of the seat, practically pinning her there.

Mach gained altitude and started to catch up to Harley, cruising at a respectable 300mph as he pulled behind the equine SP. He stayed about 30 feet above the deck and off to the side, allowing Rhea an unimpeded view of her SP as he sprinted over the network floor.
[[i]Quite impressive.][/i]
[[i]Look at him go! I haven't seen someone run that fast before!][/i]

From how smoothly and almost effortlessly the SP was running, Mach didn't think Harley had met his top speed just yet. In a competitive gesture, he descended to a mere 10 feet from the ground, supported by the ground effect wind, and edged his throttles forward just slightly. He tried to pull ahead of the SP, giving him a view of his four engine exhausts, burning a soft cyan. He kept a good distance to the side of the SP, so Harley wouldn't have to worry about his jetwash.

Proud as he was, Harley knew that it wasn't exactly possible that he could outrun a fighter plane; especially not when the plane has the name 'Mach' tagged to it. Watching how the plane was engaged in friendly taunting, though, Harley gave a visible snort and increased his power ever so slightly, making sure that he was at least on par with MachMan's speed, if not at least a head faster than his competitor.

He was appreciative of the fact that he wasn't exposed to the jetwash, though.

Before Harley could give any further thought, however, a downslope met him and he smoothly kept his footing in place, allowing the momentum to guide his gallop to a greater degree of speed, steadily increasing to 400... 500 miles... and rising. His exhaust output also grew from sooty to pure steam-like, as if his internal combustion was achieving almost total combustion, with no waste to whatever digital fuel that he was running on. By then, his strong, mechanical feet were no longer touching the ground if witnessed by a bystander; it was like as if the equine was just floating at ridiculous speeds through the network.

Harley knew what he was aiming though: the sound barrier.

Rhea, herself trying to maintain composure from the G-force, was impressed, but did not show much expression of that sort. She did, however, raise two hands (with slight trouble) and started doing a slow clap, as if to provide moral support to her SP.

With a slight down slope assisting Harley in his pursuit of more speed, Mach angled downwards with the slope, hugging the terrain next to the equine SP. Mach kept an eye on the SP as he streaked over the ground, running faster than anything he'd ever seen before. Aera was watching as well through a view screen, her eyes were wide and her mouth was slightly agape from the sight of Harley blazing a trail over the ground. It seemed like poetry in motion, everything moving in exacting, blindingly fast efficiency. Harley almost appeared weightless, due to the sheer forward momentum and the downward slope.

Mach was tracking his progress, and he was starting to flirt with the trans-sonic threshold. Was he trying to break the sound barrier? Mach wondered if it was even possible to run at supersonic speeds, let alone if Harley would be able to survive the strain of supersonic movement. He decided to provide at least a little assistance, or at least attempt to carve a path in the air in front to hopefully lessen the amount of drag and sheer aerodynamic pressure. Mach accelerated and started to climb, before he started to bank in towards Harley, causing him to start a somewhat tight barrel roll. The MachFighter went inverted and stopped there, ahead and slightly above Harley. He was still about 50 feet or so above the ground, so the amount of jetwash on the ground would be minimal, but due to his much larger size, relatively close proximity to Harley, and airspeed, Harley would be veiled by Mach's slipstream and be able to draft behind him.

Mach remained inverted, partially to give Rhea a better view (rather than having to look down through her own lap), and due to his engines being set lower in his frame, so being inverted helped direct the jetwash away from the SP. He tried to leave a good distance between himself and the SP, to keep Harley in his slipstream, but he continued to accelerate as Harley did the same. Would they see Harley achieve a supersonic sprint?

"Oh! That is very nice of you, Sir Mach!" Harley posted a rather enthusiastic message to MachMan's communication link, knowing that Rhea was hearing it as well. "Also, that sort of clapping is not exactly motivating, lassy." Harley added that to the message as an afterthought, even as he caught wind of traces of the sound barrier; and his own limitations starting to remind him to keep himself in check.

He was also having troubles trying to keep his head up. "I may not be cut out for this!" Harley commented to himself, and soon realised that he might not actually be capable of breaking the trans-sound barrier. Running really fast is one thing, but it wasn't as if he was actually designed to travel at the speed of sound. Behind him, panels that he traversed across showed signs of cracking; an invisible force seemed to have broken them as Harley left them in his speedy wake.

His horsepower and output, however, still stored much potential despite his struggling outlook. The two inlets stored at Harley's shoulders began to visibly suck in the air around him, and within a few milliseconds, his exhausts were no longer emitting common exhaust. Trails of light-blue instead made it's way out of Harley's exhaust pipes; bearing a resemblance to the fires on a gas stove. With that, the equine suddenly spurted even further-- breaking into the private, soundless dimension of Mach 1 and beyond.

So apparently, he was equipped with a scramjet.

The group kept going faster and faster, flirting with the threshold of supersonic speed. Still inverted, Mach 'watched' as Harley continued to accelerate; it seemed the faster the equine SP moved, the more efficient he became. Harley's exhaust began to flare up, but in the form of blue-hot conical flames, just showing how clean and hot he was functioning. With that, Harley surged ahead, punching through Mach's wake thanks to the conical shockwave that formed over his body as he broke the sound barrier.
[[i]Wooow...[/i]]

Aera cooed over the intercom as Harley cruised forward, giving the MachFighter and its occupants a good view of his vertical profile; they could just barely make out the blur of his hooves as he ran with a blisteringly fast stride.
[[i]Haha, never thought I'd see a program actually RUN faster than the speed of sound![/i]]

Since Harley likely didn't need Mach's slipstream anymore, Mach completed his barrel roll and slid close to the ground and matched speed with the SP, flying about 20 feet to his left side and just slightly behind, to prevent interference and give Rhea an even better view of her SP. From this angle, one could see his legs moving at a blurring pace. It looked doubtful anyone could manage to stay on the saddle if Harley was moving at that speed. Save for possibly Vector, the sheer drag would likely tear the rider away, not to mention the added weight. It was surprising enough Harley was holding together under the strain, adding a rider would probably cause a great deal of damage to both parties at that speed.

If Rhea was by any means human, she would've started having the urge to vomit from being inverted for such a long period of time.

But thankfully for Mach, she wasn't! And Rhea was still all-systems-go when the Machfighter reverted to a more normal position. If anything, she was doing her own basic analysis of Harley's capabilities. "Logically speaking it is an impossible feat, though the Networks might not apply the same physics theory as in the Real World," Rhea noted, adding on to Mach's concerns, "It is also technically not possible for me to remain mounted on Harley should he be galloping at that speed."

Harley, on the other hand, pondered at the possibility of him giving Rhea a ride without knocking her off from all the speedy overdose. Well, he could always turn into a bike, or some sort. With a few design tweaks and he should be able to maintain that speed without knocking the petite Navi off, despite all of her weight advantages. As he did so, he started to slow down his strides-- entering into the normal sound field, then his galloping hooves becoming much easier to spot amidst the equine chaos.

As he slowed, his exhausts seem to also return to a sooty and smokey state, along with his head back up proud and high. If anything, he enjoyed the run; and he was not tired of it one bit. The equine turned to the plane as he slowed to a trot, shaking it's head slightly. "It could've been faster, Sir Mach! Just that I'm not aerodynamically cut out for it!" Harley hollered in his signature tone, all jolly and sounding like an old man.

Mach started to slow as Harley did the same, reaching a much more acceptable speed. Before long, he had to swing his lower engines down to keep himself aloft, without using his anti-grav drive. He slid forward slightly to get ahead of the SP as he returned to a normal trot, and started to turn his nose towards him. Driving softly on the pillow of air beneath him, the MachFighter slid out in front, facing directly towards Harley, still moving backwards.
[[i]Alright, deactivating the MachFighter, just a moment.[/i]]

With that as the only warning, Mach started to swing the lower engines back into position as he kicked the throttles forward, causing the downwash to propel his nose skyward into a backflip. As the fighter reeled backwards, the entire frame started to fold in on itself in a flurry of metal. The rapidly shrinking form spun in the air as Vector's metal plates were flung out of the mass, allowing him to begin reassembling himself nearby. The metal plates folded down or disappeared into Mach's default form, cradling Rhea in his arms; he held on to Rhea's back and shoulder with one arm, while the other was tucked behind her knees to keep her steady.

The inner circle of his ring-like wings were glowing brightly, indicating his anti-grav drive had kicked on. This was a wise choice, since Rhea's sheer weight would have likely caused Mach to clumsily hurtle to the ground. His arms were still slightly strained by the weight, but he calmly eased to the ground, touching down before sliding his left arm down, freeing Rhea's legs to touch the ground. He let Rhea get her footing before moving his right arm away and looked over to Harley.
I'm impressed, I was a bit worried you wouldn't make it!

Rhea blinked as Mach started to shapeshift back to his humanoid form, herself being shifted into a comfortable position before being gently let down to the ground.

Harley snorted.

... Not once, not twice, but thrice. It was then immediately followed by a bellowing equine laughter, haw-ing it's way through the vast network. Rhea raised an eyebrow, not comrpehending the hilarity of the situation. "Rhea, my dear girl! N-now you will have to be sir Mach's bride! Pfff haw haw haw!" Harley guffawed while shaking his head, his two front hooves taking turns to stomp on the ground in entertainment. In his laughter, Harley did not bother responding to Mach's statement.

Rhea tilted her head. "I do not understand you," the petite (but heavy) Navi stated bluntly at her SP, her eyes shifting back to Mach before continuing, "... however, I would like to hear your feedback on Harley's performance from you."

It appeared Rhea's SP was quite entertained by the sight of her being cradled in Mach's arms, even going as far as to say she was now his 'bride.' Mach chuckled as he put his hands on his hips.
Haha, someone has already taken that title.
He looked off in a slightly different direction and winked, what was he looking at?

Back in the PET, Aera was looking at one of the screens laid out in front of her, the one observing the programs in the network, specifically. Her face quickly became flushed as Mach spoke then look directly at her viewpoint with a wink. She felt an almost audible thump in her chest as a sheepish smile appeared on her face. It wasn't the first time she felt that, but it still felt strange... but in a good way.

Of course Mach couldn't see his SP's reaction, and responded to Rhea's request.
As I said, I'm very impressed! For your first attempt, you performed admirably. I guess if you wanted to improve, I would recommend better streamlining so you'd be able to travel at those speeds without as much resistance and stress. And of course I'd never attempt that in anything other than perfectly flat terrain, but I bet you already know that.

"Now isn't that depressing to hear, Rhea?" Harley managed to say with a straight face, giving a wink. Rhea furrowed her eyebrows at the equine's comment, unable to compute the entire conversation. She turned to look at Mach as he gave his feedback, nodding in agreement as he mentioned about streamlining issues. "Yes, horses are not designed to travel at such speeds. Perhaps he needs a more aerodynamically-friendly form?" Rhea inquired, now turning to look at Harley.

Other than the intimidating size, Rhea equated Harley as being a clunk of heavy metal.

Harley snorted. "Oh boy, I'm not going to try that ever again in my powerful, equine-like structure, no way," the SP stated bluntly, one hoof busy clunking the ground, "That slope almost made me trip and fall, and that was nothing to joke about."

"Maybe I should get a tank build or something. That would be cool! Speed AND durable!" cue Harley's hoarse laughter, along with his normal, sooty exhaust.

That or some slight modifications to reduce drag, even some wing-like structures to produce some lift, putting less stress on his legs, and even possibly allowing him to lengthen his stride and "bound" forward. That of course would probably cause some additional impact with each step... Regardless, there are many ways one can approach it.

Back in the room, Mazer started to stir, catching Aera's attention. The NetOp groggily grabbed a glass of water from his night stand and sipped from it before clunking the glass down and rolling in his bed. He became still once again, but seemed to be sleeping a little better. The SP was still blushing slightly from Mach's comment, shifting in her seat.

Mach put his hands on his hips and stretched his neck and back, looking around at the network before turning back to Rhea and Harley.
So, what shall we do next?

Harley nodded as Mach continued to give him some tips, absorbing the information like a sponge. After all, being too speedy was not exactly his forte.

A finger raised to her chin, Rhea pondered the question earnestly. "I am considering reporting back to the Net Police for any tasks," Rhea said, not secretive at all about her faction alignment, "Though I am not sure... oh... You might not be from the Net Police." Finally realising her mistake, Rhea just scratched her head and lowered it slightly in emulated embarrassment.

Mach was slightly surprised the purple Navi was a part of the NetPolice, but he was relieved she was at least associating herself with a decent crowd. The question of Mach's own membership came up, prompting him to smile as he scratched his chin with his thumb.
Well, I just recently joined up with the Neo-Shogunate, have you heard of them? I really haven't had the chance to report back to them since my recruitment mission, so unfortunately I don't have much experience with them.

Vector spoke up, after being silent for nearly the entire conversation, watching patiently.
Our knowledge of the organization is at about the same level as the general public; we were convinced to apply for membership with one of our allies.

Mach nodded in agreement, but became a bit more perturbed by the fact he knew very little about the organization he's a part of... He made a mental note to get back to the NS headquarters to get more information about the group ASAP.
I've always been interested in the NetPolice, how did you find yourself joining their ranks, if you don't mind me asking?

"..."

The petite Navi's face visibly darkened at the mention of the Neo-Shogunate, reminded of the terrorising army of Navis stomping through the Yoka battlefields against the 5 GNA-despatched Navigators. Rhea closed the distance between Mach and herself, placing a heavy hand on Mach's shoulder. "The Neo Shoguns comprises of disrespectful individuals that engage in terrorising activities," she began, her expression grim, "It is best if you disassociate with them."

"What's this about bad company, lassy?" Harley asked inquisitively, trotting closer in interest. "I encountered their kind with a few others once in Yoka Net." Rhea looked carefully at MachMan's response, herself getting ready to make evasive actions should he turn hostile or defensive over Neo-shogun's actions.

Though, MachMan had been relatively friendly to Rhea and Harley, so the Navi decided to play an advisory role before anything else.