The Terraformer and the Knife Fighter

Once the door had been pushed open Trent peered inside with an eager eye. He was sorely disappointed to have only found a few couches and a generally creepy stuff virus mounted on the wall. There was more than just the one viral teddy mount though, all of which were equally creepy and foreboding. Trent watched the room as Carbide was yanked back out of it. Nothing was really happening. He pushed his form off the wall, sheathed his knife, and moved towards the table again. Sasha took this as an open invite to get a closer smell of the food, which he eagerly stared at. Trent held him back from attacking it with a command.

His eyes changed to Terra, who also abandoned hope on the room and left towards the garden. Without missing a beat he and Sasha fell into march behind her, heading towards the garden door.

{Approach Garden.}
A path of stone tiles extended straight ahead, away from the mansion and towards a large circular fountain. The rest of the ground looked fairly verdant, lined with three small stony structures on both sides of the path. Thick trees branched up, over and around the area, acting like a natural cage. The enclosed garden was rectangular with a length approximately twice the width. As their eyes adjusted to the pale ambient lighting, they noticed the tiny monuments were actually gravestones.

Two Momogras popped up from the ground close to the navis to look them over before digging a clear path along the tombstones. Their resting sites disturbed, several Skarabs crawled out from the graves, while some Spidys descended from the tree branches overhead. The Momogras, reaching the end of the line at the fountain, were greeted by a Rush virus that was swimming in it. It barked twice, commanding the rest of the viruses to protect it.

SkarabA: 120 HP [grass]
SkarabB: 120 HP [grass]
SkarabC: 120 HP [grass]
SkarabD: 120 HP [grass]
SkarabE: 120 HP [grass]
SkarabF: 120 HP [grass]
SpidyA: 80 HP [dangling]
SpidyB: 80 HP [dangling]
SpidyC: 80 HP [dangling]
SpidyD: 80 HP [dangling]
SpidyE: 80 HP [dangling]
MomograA: 60 HP [grass]
MomograB: 60 HP [grass]
Rush: 4 HP [sea]

Terrain: 20% Normal (Path), 65% Grass, 15% Sea (Fountain)

Terra.EXE: 140 HP [normal]
Carbide: 20 HP [normal]
Trent.EXE: 175 HP [normal]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP [normal]

[Battle 4 - Begin!]
Trent was impressed by the visual elements of the garden as was Mark and Sasha. The three were all looking around at the surroundings and admiring it all. The peace of the area would soon be interrupted by the presence of a large number of viruses, several having high totals of health along with...a puppy? Trent and Sasha both turn their heads and observed the scene of a tiny puppy swimming in the water. "Mark. What is that?" Trent asked, lowering his knives. As the two fighters watched the sound of clicking keys and opening windows filled their environment from Mark surfing around various databases. It didn't take him long to find something on a puppy virus.

"It's called a Rush virus. If we leave it alone it will just run away and I don't think it will or can hurt us much either." At first Trent was confused as to why such a virus would even be in a high level area like this one. Then the rest of the report came through. "Apparently though it drops amazing rewards if we can manage to delete it. Which isn't an 'easy' task. That 4 hp is a bit of a lie. Think instead of each hp like a shield. We need four hits on it to kill it."

Trent's ears had long perked once Mark mentioned the rewards for the Rush, if nothing else his curious nature drove him to see what it would drop if he viciously deleted the puppy. "Terra, I want to delete the puppy," Trent said in a flat serious voice. It almost sounded rather malicious at first if one didn't know why the Rush was an actual target. It didn't take long for Trent to snap back to the real world to see that there were a lot of viruses in the way before he could actually get to the Rush. A smile slid over his face as he remembered the chip data he just got from another room in the house.

"Heatdragon," Trent demanded from Mark. Mark slotted the chip in and gave a slight chuckle to the situation. The host of a house they thought was abandoned put crazy voodoo on Trent, not he was going to burn his garden with one of his own viruses. Rather sweet of a victory to Mark. "I am going to slot in the best multi shot attacks we have for you to try to use against the Rush, and also a widesword for the hanging spiders," Mark said.

Trent looked back Sasha and knew he couldn't help much here sadly. With a quick familiar order Sasha was already pulling a paw to his collar to drop down his barrier, which quickly encompassed him. Without skipping a beat Sasha followed the next command and back up from the fight, keeping his face to the battle to track the viruses, all the while preparing to move if an attack did come after him.

Trent was ready to get everything started. He opened by summoning the heatdragon chip and with a sly grin he stood still as the large virus landed on the ground beside him after being summoned. The dragon let out a vicious roar before bringing himself into the air, hovering about Trent while take a deep inhale. As Trent dramatically through out his hand to point the direction of the attack the dragon rushed forwards and started to breath a wall of fire unto the garden field. Once it had covered the section of skarabs it flew away dissolving into clumps of digital data along the way.

"That was so cool," Mark muttered as he watched the display. "This chip is fun if nothing else!" Trent was thinking the same but didn't voice his feelings on it. Time to start cutting through more of the obstacles before the Rush virus. Trent ducked his body low and pushed off across the new terrain, running straight for the group of spiders. Both of knives were in his hands and the widesword was present as well, both blades holding the data. Once close enough Trent unleashed a flurry of swift slashes and stabs, ducking and weaving around the spiders trying to stab at three of them.

Trent carried through on his assault, determined to cut a path towards the Rush, which he had mostly managed to do. He was close enough now for his next turn chips to try and take some hits from the puppy, maybe even deleting it. He pulled three knives from his belt each one granted to him by the kunai chip. With fast and precise movement he grabbed a blade from his left and pulled back with his right to deliver the attacks forwards into the fountain. Once the attack was done Trent quickly jumped and rolled to the side, trying to keep any stray attacks going his way from connecting.

After successfully landing his dodge roll he pushed himself back up on two feet and uploaded the machinegun chip. A large weapon with extra shot hanging from it was summoned to his hands, which he promptly shoulder and fired into the fountain. With each pop of the bullets a splash of water or dirt flew high from the impact of the bullet. Not bring able to afford hanging around much long in this place he instead jumped to the side to see his handy work and see how Terra was faring.

Summary
Sasha
1) Protection Barrier -30 Hp Barrier-
2) Dodge backwards

Trent
1) Heatdragon to Skarab group (150 + Ground Attack + Medium Area Lava Terrain Change + Terrain Change + Fire) Stops attacking once 25% terrain change has been achieved
*Free Action: Fast Warrior: Tactical Movement to the Front of the spiders to attack with...
2) Widesword to Spidy A, B, C (80 + Slashing + Wide Attack)
3) Kunau To Rush (30 + Slashing + Variable Targeting) +10% Acc for Sword
*Free Action: Swordplay: Dodge
4) Machinegun to Rush (30 x 9 Spray Fire)
5) Dodge
Terra breathed in the cooler air brought about by the grass, refreshed by the presence of her element. Carbide was also a little happier by the garden, and hopped on the stone steps with her usual air of cheerfulness. Balancing herself with her arms outstretched, she hummed a little tune went about the path, not really noticing the gravestones nearby. Terra observed the tombstones from a distance with a bit of curiosity, when a couple of Momogra viruses popped up near her feet.

She was a bit too distracted from all the grass to remind herself that they were viruses, and before long, they went back into the ground. She didn't think much of it, until she looked back at Carbide, who was hopping back on the stone path. The Skarabs and Spiders chose that time to make their appearance, and Carbide was completely oblivious to their presence, hopping up towards Terra and Trent. At that moment, Trent chose to summon his HeatDragon, which grabbed both of their attentions.

"Whoa, that's pretty cool. What's it fo--" commented Carbide, before turning around to follow the dragon's path, and stopping herself. "Riiiight, viruses."

The fiery force of the HeatDragon's attack inspired Terra, as she chose to mimic the dragon's hostility. Her eyes shone as she turned towards the Rush and Momogra, seeing that they were mostly ground-based. Her gloves glowed red for a moment before she slammed her palm onto the ground beneath her, melting it into a boiling lava panel. Off in the distance, the fountain started to turn a fair shade of red, and soon turned into the same molten rock, overflowing onto its sides.

Carbide pulled up her shield as she stayed a bit away from the lava underneath Terra's feet, trying to anticipate the enemy's attacks as best as she could. Red light began to flow up from the lava, encasing her in an impressive barrier. With the dragon still attacking, however, she didn't really feel like going into the crowd just yet. She did, however, notice Trent making an oddly fervent effort to kill the Rush.

"... Scarlet, Drain and AirStorm," said Terra. Scarlet was currently watching the dragon's powerful movements, and sipping her coffee thoughtfully. The Dragon-series of battlechips, she saw, were very powerful. Something clicked in her head as she tapped the screen on a Skeeter and a SnowBlow, sending the requested chips down. Terra transferred the Skeeter's battlechip to her support program, mentioning to her to "... Patch up," before activating the AirStorm herself.

Three balls of wind formed within her hands as she concentrated on gathering energy inside of them. Terra then threw them towards the Rush one after another. Meanwhile, Carbide gathered another chunk of rock, and tried forming the strange rock-monster that Terra had made a couple of battles earlier. She didn't get much into it before settling for a much smaller, less intimidating version of it and simply launching that at the nearest spider she could find.

Terra was poised with a defensive stance after that, ready to receive any attacks aimed at her as she watched Trent go for the majority of the viruses with great enthusiasm. "... Carbide, watch the dog's back," ordered Terra, to which Carbide nodded quickly, and shifted her focus towards Sasha.



--- Terra.EXE --- Carbide.SP ---
[1] Terraform: Violent Magma @ Self + Momogra + Rush [Large Lava Terrain Change] {S}
-- Terrain Shift Damage? [Null 50]
[*] Terraskill: Reflex Guard 1 @ Carbide [Reinforced 2-Hit Shield]
[*] Terraskill: Earthen Barrier 1 @ Terra [20 HP Planar Barrier - Lava: Fire]
[2] Transfer Drain1 @ Carbide [RP]
[1] Drain1 @ SpidyD [Null 50 + Life Drain] {C}
[3] AirStorm1 @ Rush [Null 50 x3 Variable Targets + Pull] {B}
[4] Dodge
Sasha bubbled up while Trent's Heatdragon snaked its way up the tombstones, scorching away the grass and desecrating the graves. The Skarabs were wily and two of them avoided the fiery dragon's trail but one did not and was engulfed in a funeral pyre. Terra followed suit by attempting to create a river of lava beneath the Momogras, but her terrain change stopped short before reaching the viruses. The water in the fountain dried up and the grass receded as the Rush took a more commanding role of the battle. It crawled up onto the edge of the fountain and effortlessly countered Terra's abilities with its own. What was worse, the elemental barrier that she was so proud of suddenly collapsed when the panel beneath her reverted back to a plain white tile.

The Rush barked. In resposen, the remaining Skarabs all attacked in tandem, sending a wave of spinning bones at the group. Terra was too dumbfounded by the Rush's superior ability to avoid the attack and was struck in the head. Carbide's shield and Sasha's barrier each blocked one and Trent was able to run away from his, though it continued to chase him regardless. Another bone missed Terra but it circled around for another pass.

Trent moved forward to strike at the Spidys and cut down two of them. The other three had touched down and began scuttling away, leaving behind trails of thick webbing around the navis, restricting their movement. Carbide drained one of them to heal herself back up to full health. Trent launched some kunai at the Rush, but all of them missed. His machinegun almost missed entirely but still managed to graze it once and also each of the Momogras. Terra was able to harshly pull it out of the dry fountain and onto the path with one of her windballs. The Rush barked again, ordering the Momogras to defend it. They disappeared underground to give both Trent and Terra unexpected whacks in the back of their heads.

Trent brushed off the attack but Terra was starting to feel the effects of repeated head trauma and became incredibly disoriented.


SkarabA: 120 HP
SkarabB: DELETED
SkarabC: 120 HP
SkarabD: 120 HP
SkarabE: 120 HP
SkarabF: 120 HP
SpidyA: 80 HP
SpidyB: DELETED
SpidyC: DELETED
SpidyD: 30 HP
SpidyE: 80 HP
MomograA: 30 HP
MomograB: 30 HP
Rush: 2 HP

Terrain: 20% Normal (Path), 65% Normal, 15% Normal (Empty Fountain)
Terrain Coating: 15% Webbing (around navis)

Terra.EXE: 105 HP [confused] [homing skully bone]
Carbide: 70 HP [1-hit shield]
Trent.EXE: 160 HP [homing skully bone]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP [10 HP barrier]
Terra's fortitude collapsed as the skeleton's bone and the mole's shovel took their collective toll on her, and she started to waver in her defensive stance. "... Rrrrgh," she groaned, trying to keep her throbbing head in check. Falling to her knees, she couldn't do anything to stop herself from getting completely shut down. Attempting to regain her balance, she activated one of her terraformer processes on instinct, returning much of the fertile soil back to the garden that was there before, and resumed the functions of her barrier.

"Terra, you all right?!" Carbide reacted, producing one of her large stone bulwarks, and stabbing it into the ground behind her master to prevent from any more hits. Terra gritted her teeth, and managed to pry out, "... Help me back up," from between heavy breaths. The SP did so, and at that moment, Scarlet piped in. "I know you don't want to hear it, Terra, but I'm worried," she said.

"... Please... don't be. Send me... nrgh, SonicBoom," she grunted, managing to generate a small rocky shard in her hand. An idea came to Scarlet's head, and she sent the chip while adding, "Don't use it yourself. You're in no condition to aim. Let Trent take it. Lay back for now." Terra said nothing, as the shard started to crack and glow, imbued with the SonicBoom's power. The glow burst out into a longer sword, which she gestured towards Carbide.

The SP blinked for a second before realizing what she was to do, and yelled to Trent. "Trent, catch!" she called out, throwing the shard towards him, hopefully with a response. Carbide's rock-summon came back just then, providing her with her recovery data. However, she didn't let it disintegrate. "Hang on a bit," she said to it, without much response; it was a rock after all.

Transferring her locked-in chip data into the tiny rock entity, its maw glowed with power, and she pointed it towards the Skarab. "Get 'em!" she said, causing her "companion" to release a beam of suppressed elemental energy at the skeletons. Carbide herself raised her shield, while Terra watched her SP defend her with disdain. She could still defend herself. All she had to do was... watch for attacks. No need to aim for that.

Okay, maybe if the viruses stopped multiplying. Damned if she wasn't going to try and leave all the work to her subordinate, though.



--- Terra.EXE --- Carbide.SP ---
[1] Terraform: Fertile Soil @ Centered on Self [Large Soil Terrain Change]
-- Terrain Shift Damage? [Null 50]
[*] Terraskill: Earthen Barrier 1 @ Terra [20 HP Planar Barrier - Soil: Wood]
[*] Terraskill: Reflex Guard 1 @ Behind Terra [Reinforced 2-Hit Shield]
[1] ElementalRage1 @ Skarab A/C [Wood 60 + Line Attack(3) + Terrain-Element - Soil: Wood] [+100% Soil?] {A}
[2] Transfer SonicBoom @ Trent [RP]
[3] Dodge [+10% Soil Bonus]
[4] Dodge [+10% Soil Bonus]
The damage from the dragon and his knives was far less than effective. The overall state of the field after what should have been a powerful sweep of most of the viruses was dismal. This was strongly disheartening to Mark, who was always too concerned with the immediate results of a battle. Trent was far more reserved than his operator, and was ready to fight a long fight. His eyes jumped around the battle field, trying to asses the possibilities that he could have. "This is going to be a loooong fight," Mark said while reluctantly rolling backwards in his chair. This gave Trent an idea. "Mark, Totem."

Mark wasn't sure why the chip would help, the general idea behind a immobile chip didn't seem to promising to him...until he thought about the current position of the Rush. With constant pressure on the puppy it would eventually burn, and if the totem was hit than the healing factor would be a huge benefit to the fight. "Slotted in."

Trent summoned up the totem chip near the fountain with the face of the sculpture facing the two moles and the puppy. Its lag yellow eyes burned bright with flames and its face was glowing with a bright red color. It was in attack mode and its jaw hinged open like a nutcracker at Trent's command. A large flame burned in its mouth as it started its attack. The flames doused the area around the fountain, a cone of fire moving towards the nearby viruses.

He couldn't wait around to watch the fire show though, the bone that was thrown at him kept chasing him around. Terra was still suffering from her painful hits to the head and wouldn't be fighting much, but still threw him a chip to finish out his attacks. He ran towards it, the bone being a constant threat in the back of his mind. As the chip infused shard soared near him Trent jumped up to greet it, grasping it tightly in his right hand. Once he landed he pulled the weapon across his chest, taking aim down it and trying to line up the bone to swipe it from the air too. He grunted as he powerfully pulled the slash across sending out a large wave towards the skarabs.

Trent took a moment to catch his breath. Enough of the viruses had an attack directed at them for him and Sasha to go in for the kill on the puppy. Trent summoned the canine to his side with a whistle, and the two lined up. Sasha's teeth were never not shown as his large white feet struck the ground heavily. A steady growl was easy to hear over the fight as Sasha also prepared to finish the puppy. The two set off, pushing quickly to puppy.

One more request for a chip was sent in, and it was promptly answered to. This battle might not be as long as the operator had previously thought, but only time would tell. The Rush virus was throwing a serious monkey wrench into the plans. "This reward for kill the rush had better be worth it," Mark muttered.

Man and dog charged the front. Trent had a blade in his hand and Sasha had his mouth open, ready to clamp down on the body of the Rush. Sasha was running in fearlessly and not showing signs of faltering. The Support Program's shields were failing and his health naturally low, yet he charged on at the side of Trent ready to fight for as long and hard as he needed. Sasha pushed out ahead of Trent and jumped towards the Rush, trying to take a bite of out it before sliding to one side, his momentum propelling him forwards. Trent followed up on the attack by extending his moonblade chip and spinning on one foot, the chip giving him force behind his swing. Once he had completed two rotations he caught his spin with his left foot and pushed off towards the fountain, trying to take cover on the inside, much like the Rush did before hand.

Sasha turned back around and moved in for a second strike on the Rush, his mouth ready and hoping to get the final bite on the much small dog. Once he had taken a few snaps at the Rush virus he moved away from the puppy as best he could, trying to move back towards Carbide for protection.

Trent poked his head from the fountain and looked around. Two of the spiders were still at a high health total, but Mark had already slotted in a solution to this issue. Trent summoned the chip given to him, the metagel1, and watched as three blobs of blue formed above the rush and the two highest health spiders. As they descended to the virtual earth Trent dropped his back down behind the upper barrier of the wall again, trying to keep himself protected.

Summary
Trent
1) Totem Chip Summoned before MomograA, B, and Rush.
* Free Action: Activate Totem on MomograA (100 Fire + Spread 2)
2) Grab Sonicboom Chip and Take aim to line up the bone if possible
3) Take Sonicboom chip and attack Skarab D, E, F (120 + Slashing + Wide + Shot Eraser(trying to hit the homing bone))

Sasha
1) Bite Rush (15)

Trent
4) Moonblade Rush (90 + Slashing + Spin Attack)
*Free Action: Swordplay: Dodge

Sasha
2) Bite Rush (15)

Trent
5) Metagel1 to Rush, Spidey A, E, and Rush (90 + Slow + Aqua)
Terra was able to change the panels beneath herself to soil but the Rush was quick to undo that change as well. Her attempt to create an elemental barrier backfired as she was standing on a plain white tile though the confusion made it close to impossible to focus. Carbide covered her rear with another shield and fired a beam at the two Skarabs, causing them to crumble into inert piles. Trent created a totem to delete/distract the Momogras. However, the moles were able able to burrow underground after being targetted and struck the totem from behind twice (15)(15). The fire did clear up some of the webbing the Spidys had laid down (-5%).

Trent took Terra's Sonicboom and deleted the three Skarabs on one side of the field at the cost of allowing the spinning bones chasing him and Terra to persist. Terra tried her hardest to dodge but her confusion made it impossible to move in the way she wanted. The bone chasing her struck her in the head again (20), extending the duration of her dizziness. Trent also tried to dodge but with the remaining webbing resticting his movements and his focus being drawn more to the Rush than anything else, he was also hit in the back of the head by the bone (20). The spidys continued to reinforce their webbing (+10%), making it incredibly difficult for the navis to move or dodge without tripping over one of the sticky traps. Sasha braved the gooey mess, letting it strip her barrier in order to lunge at the Rush (-5%). Trent also tried to get close but stepped in some webbing, causing it to snap free from its anchor points and ensnare him (20 + slow + dodge poison). Trying to pincer the virus with his dog, Trent slashed his Moonblade at the virus while Sasha attacked again. The Rush was far too nible for their combined efforts and avoided everything the pair could throw at it, including the follow up metagel, though it did delete one of the Spidys (90).

The Rush could see its forces were being decimated. While the navis were looking fairly haggard as well, it decided to flee instead of trying to take advantage of their situation. It slipped into a portal in the ground and disappeared, leaving the Momogras staring at each other wondering what to do.

SkarabA: 60 HP [invincible]
SkarabB: DELETED
SkarabC: 60 HP [invincible]
SkarabD: DELETED
SkarabE: DELETED
SkarabF: DELETED
SpidyA: DELETED
SpidyB: DELETED
SpidyC: DELETED
SpidyD: 30 HP
SpidyE: 80 HP
MomograA: 30 HP
MomograB: 30 HP
Rush: ESCAPED

Terrain: 20% Normal (Path), 65% Normal, 15% Normal (Empty Fountain)
Terrain Coating: 15% Webbing (around navis)

Totem: 70 HP [fire face] [2 turns remaining]

Terra.EXE: 85 HP [confused]
Carbide: 70 HP [2-hit rear shield]
Trent.EXE: 120 HP [confused] [slow] [5 damage per dodge]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP
Terra was getting really pissed off by now, with her battle ability being severely hampered by the Skarabs' repeated attacks on her ability to retaliate. She couldn't even see straight, much less fire any sort of weapon. Her anger started to leak into her battle processes, with the paneling around her once again shifting into the heated lava paneling from earlier, its reach also spreading towards the Totem, where the Momogra were. With her FloatShoes program, she was unaffected, but Carbide nearby didn't like it at all.

"Whoa, hot! Hot, hot!!" she exclaimed, making sure she wasn't anywhere near the bubbling rock.

Terra's body was once again covered in her trademark glowing sphere of protection, colored red to match the magma just beneath her feet. However, apart from that, she didn't seem to be doing anything to help her case. Rather, she couldn't, as her coordination faculties were thrown completely out of whack. Scarlet pinched her forehead, trying to figure out what to do to help Terra to recover from her plight. As it was, however, she was currently powerless, and couldn't help in any way.

"Scarlet!" yelled Carbide, snapping her out of her thinking. "Let me help out! Give me something, anything!" Scarlet bit her lower lip, thought about it for a moment, then glanced over at her battlechip folder screen. Tapping one of the chip icons depicting a Quaker virus, she set it to proxy itself through Terra's systems towards her SP. "Cover for her while she recovers. Those skeletons are down right now, so make the best of it," she advised, sending in the WaveArm.

"Roger that!" said Carbide. With a little more force, she produced another shield, and threw it towards Sasha, making sure she didn't accidentally hit the dog by accident. "Here, Sasha!" she said. She felt Terra's systems fueling her with battlechip data, and she smirked. Finally, she was going to do something that actually mattered. Balling her fists, she punched them together, making some rocky gloves for herself.

She focused on the ground beneath her, and closed her eyes, attuning herself to it, as she had seen Terra do. The relative positions of each virus revealed themselves faintly to her, with their movements making their position quite apparent. With gusto, she wound up, and punched at the ground repeatedly with her rocky fists, creating large shockwaves that traveled across the battlefield towards the spider viruses. "Rrrraaaahhh!" she shouted, as the gloves began to disintegrate under the sheer force that was being applied.



--- Terra.EXE --- Carbide.SP ---
[1] Terraform: Violent Magma @ Self + Momogra A/B [Large Lava Terrain Change] {S}
-- Terrain Shift Damage? [Null 50]
[*] Terraskill: Earthen Barrier 1 @ Terra [20 HP Planar Barrier - Lava: Fire]
[2] Be generally useless [RP]
[3] Still useless [RP]
[4] Not useless: Proxy-transfer WaveArm1 @ Carbide [RP]
[*] Terraskill: Reflex Guard 1 @ Sasha [Reinforced 2-Hit Shield]
[1] WaveArm1 @ Spidy D/E + MomograA [Null 80 + Ground Attack + Chain 3] {B}
Trent clinched his fist tighter as the rush virus managed to not only avoid all of the damage thrown at it, but escape in the process. The situation was aided none by the klobering he received to the side of his head by the bone thrown from the ever so lovely now pile of bones. His vision became blurred and his swings random as he lashed out randomly in both defense and panic. Gathering himself for a moment he dropped back into the protection of the fountain and pressed his shell shocked head into his hand. With his back to the stone he whistled out to Sasha.

Sasha was barking and growling at the location where the rush had run out on the fight. A few quick paw scratches into the dirt was even more frustrating for the large dog. With a fast step Sasha moved to the nearby found and stood guard on the outside. Trent called out for a battle report from Mark.

"Well, that last attack was rather effective actually. Two of the skarabs dropped into piles of bones and their hp is reading invincible. This gives you time to recover from your head trauma and to heal up. Sasha lost his barrier, another installment of that wouldn't be a bad idea for the pooch. With the bash to the head though, you really shouldn't try to swing a knife. You can see straight and since most of our chips require a bit more precision, which you lack, take a moment to clear your head."

Mark proceeded to give more information, including the physical condition of Terra and Carbide in Mark's usual drawn out way. Once Trent heard that Terra was down again from another bone, he knew he had to give her a bit of a helping hand. She probably couldn't see correctly at the moment let alone defend herself well. He moved his massive torso over the edge of the found and gave quick hand signal instructions to Sasha. The large white dog moved upwards and nipped at the side of the totem, changing the color of its face from the demonic red, to a soft blue. Once the change happened Trent ordered it to heal Terra, which it did, bathing the ally in a gentle glow.

Trent took cover once more and said, "Give something to Sasha and direct him where to go. I can't focus."

Mark and Sasha were both a little off put by this. Neither exactly knew what to do, but Mark quickly got the ball rolling by slotting in a chip. The powerful melee style chip was kept in the folder just for the puppy, and it was time he finally got to use it. "Um. Attack? Unwards? Bite? The...spider?"

Sasha could be seen rolling his eyes before pushing off towards the healthiest spider. He gave a bark of happiness to Carbide after she provided him with the shield. As the chip raced through his system the drool from his mouth trailed behind him, the water element changing the dogs bite quality. With a powerful bound he jumped and descended on the spider, mouth wide open. He tried to clamp down before growling loudly and backing down. Trent help his position until his head cleared.

Summary
Trent
1) Take cover
2) Instruct Sasha

Sasha
1) Nip at Totem (1)

Trent
*Free Action: Totem Heal +50 to Terra
3) Transfer Mistconvergence to Sasha
4) Sit in cover
5) Sit in Cover

Sasha
1) Mistconvergence to Spider E (100 + Impact + Aqua + Melee Subtype bonus)
Despite her handicap, Terra was able to convert the ground beneath her into lava just as the Momogras attacked. The viruses were surrounded by magma and were deleting before they could find their way behind her again. As an added effect, the lava also incinerated most of the webbing around them (-10%) and scorched the Spidys (10)(10). She was able to form a red barrier around herself again but found herself unable to maintain it with her confusion still in effect. Trent was in a similar bind, unable to control his actions. Though he believed himself to be taking cover, his body moved directly onto the last remaining patch of webbing that bounded him up (20 + slow + dodge poison). The pain temporarily sobered him up enough to relay orders to Sasha, who grazed the Totem (1) just enough to activate its healing effect on Terra (+50). The navis then attempted to rely on their support programs by sending them chip data, but unfortunately, the data didn't go where it was intended and somehow ended up in the Skarabs' hands. The skeletons, now armed with new weapons, quickly reconstituted themselves while Sasha and Carbide executed their default attacks instead. Sasha managed to bite the Spidy (15) while Carbide launched a pebble that put the other Spidy into critical condition (10). The Spidys reacted by attempting to escape up the walls to try and get away from the spreading lava and angry SPs. Things were going poorly though on the bright side, the confusion wore off.

SkarabA: 60 HP [mistconv get]
SkarabB: DELETED
SkarabC: 60 HP [wavearm get]
SkarabD: DELETED
SkarabE: DELETED
SkarabF: DELETED
SpidyA: DELETED
SpidyB: DELETED
SpidyC: DELETED
SpidyD: 10 HP [up left wall]
SpidyE: 55 HP [up right wall]
MomograA: DELETED
MomograB: DELETED
Rush: ESCAPED

Terrain: 40% Lava (Pool), 15% Normal (Path), 30% Normal (L/R Graves), 15% Normal (Empty Fountain)
Terrain Coating: 10% Webbing (Around Lava)

Totem: 69 HP [wood face] [1 turn remaining]

Terra.EXE: 135 HP [lava]
Carbide: 70 HP [2-hit shield]
Trent.EXE: 100 HP [slow] [5 damage per dodge]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP
"What--" blurted out Carbide, as she realized the "chip data" that she had received was redirected elsewhere, and she ended up picking out some weaker attack instead. "What happened, Scarlet?" she asked. Scarlet ran her fingers through her hair, checking some of her data. She clicked her tongue in annoyance as she located the source of the problem. "Terra's systems redirected the data at the last minute to one of the viruses, it seems," grumbled Scarlet. She definitely didn't expect that. Something would have to be done about it later.

Meanwhile, Terra's systems recovered back to normal as her barrier refreshed itself. A strange flame burned from within her eyes, and she knelt down to one knee. Without warning, she sank one of her hands into the lava, eliciting a terrified reaction from Carbide. "Terra, what're you doing?!" she yelled out in a panic. Terra didn't reply, and pulled her hand out, unhurt, revealing that she was holding onto some kind of glowing orb of magma.

A beep on Scarlet's screen notified the operator of a direct private link, which detailed some requests for battlechips. [MarkCannon1, MarkCannon2, Pulsar1, ElementalRage2], it read out. "Terra, are you--" started Scarlet, before another message interrupted her. [Thank you for your worry,] the message said. Scarlet sighed audibly, and her fingers swept across the folder selection screen in response, and the link closed itself. "Stay safe," she said.

Meanwhile, Carbide tried to reach out to Terra, but her lava pool restricted the SP's movement. "... A little further away, Carbide," said Terra, as she raised the orb above her head. The orb disintegrated into a few shards of rock, which situated themselves behind her in a circular pattern, and started to pulse and crackle with energy from the lava beneath them.

Carbide gulped, and generated another shield. As she saw Trent had some difficulty moving, she dislodged it from her arm, and tossed it over. "Trent!" she called out, hoping the knife fighter would get the message. After that, she moved a little closer to Sasha, who was exposed from his earlier attack. "Stay close," said Carbide, lifting her shield in defense.

Terra looked to her sides, inspecting the shards about her. After being satisfied with them, she crossed her arms, and searched the field for the viruses that had been so much of a pain to her. Locating the Skarabs quickly, she only had to wait for a moment before two of the shards about her released a powerful crackle of energy each.

Her eyes lingered towards the sides of the battlefield, and a piercing glare at each launched two more energy bursts towards the unlucky viruses. Scarlet watched the spectacle with a shake of her head. "Don't need words to say she's angry," she chuckled.



--- Terra.EXE --- Carbide.SP ---
[*] Terraskill: Earthen Barrier 1 @ Terra [20 HP Planar Barrier - Lava: Fire]
[*] Terraskill: Reflex Guard 1 @ Trent [Reinforced 2-Hit Shield]
[1] Defend Sasha [Defend]
[1] MarkCannon1: SkarabA [Null 70 + Seeking + Lock-On] {A}
[2] MarkCannon2: SkarabB [Null 100 + Seeking + Lock-On] {A}
[3] Pulsar1: SpidyD [Null 70 + Object-Trigger Blast2] {A}
[4] ElementalRage2: SpidyE [Fire 90 + Line Attack(3) + Terrain-Element - Lava: Fire] [+100% Wood] {A}
With his head clear from taking cover, Trent rose up from the fountain with two drawn weapons ready for the fight. It was drawing to a close at this point, and Mark had already informed him of the failed transfer to Sasha, meaning that the Skarabs were still a treat. But not for much longer. The first thing Trent did in the opener of what he hoped was the final exchange of this long and brutal battle was command the Totem for a healing. The blue light flowed over him and a mist and he took a deep inhale of the cooling sensation. Sasha was already pulling his leg up to itch at the collar for the barrier, something he had been feeling uncomfortable without for a while now. The familiar cube fell and soon engulfed the support program in the defense.

Trent pushed forwards, now with a renewed vigor, determined to end this fight now. The chips that the skarabs now had at their dispostal were rather powerful, nearly so much so that if Terra or Trent was injured by the attack they could face being jacked out of the network. "Mark, Arrow and aurahead." Trent was going a bit out of character requesting a few gun style chips, but they were all he could use to quickly take out the distant targets. Trent summoned the elecbee virus to his side and pointed it towards the virus which received Terra's chip. The bee happily buzzed off after the bone pile. Trent pulled up the aurahead chip next, which he imbued to one of his knives. With a fast throw the knife drove forwards in a straight line, trying to pierce threw the second skarab.

Now Trent turned his attention to the Spiders. They had caused a poison to flow through him, something that was rather annoying actually, and he pulled up another request to Mark, the fireknife chip. Trent would be at his element here, slicing and dicing at the spiders to finish them off. He moved forwards and pulled up the knife on the higher of health spiders first. Both of his knife were glowing bright red as he slashed downwards on to the target with both knives. He stepped backwards and kept his attack going, opting to send many slashes in the direction of the spider. He switched his focus to the second spider and sent a horizontal slash at it as well. Trent backed out of the battle and waited to see if it was finally over.

Summary
Sasha
1) Protection Collar -40 Hp barrier-

Trent
*Free Action: Totem Heal +50 HP to self
1) Arrow1 chip to Skarab C (100 + Elec + Homing)
2) Aurahead to Skarab A (90 + Line Attack + Barrier Boost)
*Free Action: Fast Warrior: Tactual move towards Spider E
3) Fireknife to Spider E (60 + Fire + Slashing)
4) Fireknife to Spider E (60 + Slashing + Fire)
5) Fireknife to Spider D (60 + Slashing + Fire)
The Skarabs were deleted before they could use their chips and the Spidys were blasted away with things before they could get away. The totem also performed one last heal on Trent before succumbing to some kind of self-destruct mechanism.

SkarabA: DELETED
SkarabB: DELETED
SkarabC: DELETED
SkarabD: DELETED
SkarabE: DELETED
SkarabF: DELETED
SpidyA: DELETED
SpidyB: DELETED
SpidyC: DELETED
SpidyD: DELETED
SpidyE: DELETED
MomograA: DELETED
MomograB: DELETED
Rush: ESCAPED

Terrain: 40% Lava (Pool), 15% Normal (Path), 30% Normal (L/R Graves), 15% Normal (Empty Fountain)
Terrain Coating: 10% Webbing (Around Lava)

Terra.EXE: 135 HP [lava]
Carbide: 70 HP [2-hit shield]
Trent.EXE: 150 HP
Sasha.SP: 40 HP

Terra get: 1375z + Whiteweb1 Battlechip + 31 bugfrags + 7 FXP
Trent get: 1375z + Whiteweb1 Battlechip + 31 bugfrags + 7 FXP
The atmosphere was strained as the team's collective attacks wiped out the rest of the viruses easily, though Terra was still tensed up by her previous attacks. Her energy-blast shards were still floating about her, and she was gritting her teeth with all the pressure on her. Of course, there weren't any more threats so far, and she was just continually getting worked up over nothing.

An exclamation broke the silence as Carbide rushed towards the Navi in a hurry. "Terrraaaaaaa!" she said, nearly knocking down Terra with the force of her running embrace. "Are you okay? That looked pretty bad!" said Carbide, who buried herself in her master's chest with her hug. This had the effect of breaking Terra out of her tenseness, and she put her hand on her SP's head. "... Yes, I'm all right," she said, ruffling Carbide's short hair affectionately.

Scarlet breathed easy once she saw Terra's battle routines wind down into standby, and pulled up a comms screen. "Thank heavens you're all right, Terra. I was a little worried there," the operator said. Terra replied with a warm smile, saying, "... Thank you, Scarlet." Looking down at the SP locking her with a tight hug, she poked Carbide's forehead slightly. "... Come on, you need to breathe sometime," jabbed Terra. Carbide laughed a little, and let go of the Navi shortly after.

Terra ran her hand through her hair, and looked at her partner, wondering about his condition. "... Is everything all right, Trent?" she asked.

[Battle 5 - Ready?]
[Terra.EXE: 135 HP]
[Carbide.SP: 70 HP]
Trent's palms were turning white from the end of the fight, both from the overall length and intensity of it, and for his failure to delete the rush virus. These feeling of anger towards that small inability were quickly dismissed as he gathered his rewards from the fight, along with his hand relaxing from the blade handles. He found several pockets of remaining zenny and two forms of the same viral data. Mark saw instant use of the new attack in the rings, gladly placing it in the their expanding folder, which was mostly full of useful attacks at this point. Trent looked to his battle partner as she was still tensed from the fight. He shouted a few simple words to help calm down from the intense fight. "Relax Terra, we got them." Not a moment after Trent talked Terra was tackled by Carbide. Trent chuckled about it and looked for the same reaction from Sasha, but didn't get it.

Sasha's nose was to the dirt sniffing out the rest of the bugfrags that were his. Trent rolled his eyes at Sasha, who didn't even notice Carbide and was too distracted by his treats. As he gulped down the last few he looked to Trent and burped before bounding over tail wagging happily.

"Trent, Sasha has gathered enough of those bugfrags to get a few upgrades here. A window popped up on your PET for him. I am going to pick a few for you, I think I know which you would want anyways. There is a chip preset here and I know you are dying to fight along side of Sasha for once. Here we go." As Mark's fingers tapped the screen Sasha was covered in a small light for a moment as the upgrades took place into his system. Mark ran a fast list by Trent for a good standard attack, and Trent choose the gigasarm attack. Letting out a happy bark the two played together with each tying to wrestle the other to the ground.

After a moment of this both realized that Terra and Carbide were talking to them. Both held an awkward pose before snapping up to their feet. "Everything is alright." He waited a moment and glanced around. "Everything ok...with you?" Trent wasn't the best at small talk. Sasha hid his face and Mark turned off his display. "That was a rough fight for us."

[Battle 5?]
Trent :150HP
Sasha: 50 HP
The threats of the garden were no longer an issue and the area itself didn't lead anywhere so the only place left to go was back inside. There were still some unexplored areas including the eerie den and the two unexplored doors in the foyer; the crumbly wooden door upstairs and the rusty metal door on the ground level.
Carbide watched Sasha play with Trent happily with a bit of a curious look in her eyes. It did kind of look like they were fighting each other, but in an affectionate kiddy kinda way. "... It was quite rough, yes," said Terra, unsure on how to respond further, with her hand hiding her slight smile at the amusing sight. "Doesn't feel like there's anything here anymore," popped in Carbide with her small stature.

Scarlet popped in a small tart into her mouth as she muffled out her idea. "Maybe you guys should check out that big hallway out front? I think you guys passed over a couple doors," she said, munching slowly on the chewy delicacy. "... That does sound like a good idea. Let's go," she said, turning on her heel and walking towards the large dining hall once again. Carbide ran after her, shouting out, "Hey! Wait for me!", only to find Terra resting her head on her chin and staring at the food.

"Don't tell me you're going to eat that," said Scarlet, worried about the earlier regal Navi's appearance and the general suspiciousness of the place. Terra said nothing, and picked up one of the assortments of food laid out on the table; a neat little bun rested on her palm, her creased brow indicating that she was examining it. "What're you doing, Terra? C'mon, let's go," said Carbide, though she was also curious about the food. It certainly smelled good.
Sasha and Trent kept rolling around in the yard a bit more as Terra and Carbide had their talk, the two being just as rough as before. Once they caught word of moving back inside and exploring the other doors, they dropped play time and started to follow along behind. They were several paces behind the two as Terra entered the room and started to take a look at the food. Sasha agreed with Terra on this one, that food did look really good. He rushed forwards ahead of Trent to the side of his new friend and placed himself right beside her in a sitting position. The large white dog turned his head to the side and raised his ears up.

Trent picked up his own pace once he saw Sasha run ahead, shouting out commands to stop. Sasha must simply be really hungry. Trent stopped in the door frame, unsure what else to say to stop the two other than, "Remember which navi it was that made those!" The thought deterred Mark from even getting up and gathering his own food from his apartment. "That was one disturbing navi," Mark chimed in. Once his mind started to wonder Mark came up with various scenarios about how the navi came to look like it was sewn together, all of which were very Sweeny Todd in Nature.
Trent, Sasha, and Mark all waited for some sort of response from their teammates. None of the three were responding, all of which frozen in place. The first assumption was that it was a lag in the connection, which Trent took the advantage of and removed the food from Terra's hand and sat it back on the table. As he waited longer it became clear that this was no normal lag spike or break. As the minutes dragged on and on he started to grow quickly impatient. As much as he wanted to explore the rest of the house, based on the size of the viruses groups that had been dwelling here thus far, he didn't think that it would be safe for him and Sasha to try and work through without her.

As the minutes gathered and stacked, with still no return or activity from Terra or Carbide, Trent simply opened a simply text file in the shape of a slip of paper and slid it into the grasp of the frozen warrior. It had written on it Mark's email, should the two wish to finish their busting runs together. With one last look in the house, both out of frustration and wonder, he jacked out from the network taking the large white dog along for the ride.

{JACK OUT}