Wrapping Up Practice

Ew. Gross. Nasty. Ugh. Scourge didn't actually need to count the number of tentacles she was removing from her person...she just needed to look at Martia and count the number of times she flinched as another crawling limb came out. "Oh man...I'm not the oldest Navi, but even if I was, I think this would be at least a 9 out of 10 on the gross scale..." How did they even have the ability to move at this point? Sure, maybe right after they were disconnected, but considering the core was already dead for a bit...great, now things were confusing as well as disgusting. "Guess so. At least we're safe. Or, as safe as you can be on top of a lava flow, anyway." Surrounded by tentacles to boot, though at least they were out of range.

Fortunately, Scourge was done before too long, which actually made the martial artist relax a little. "Good, that was awful! One would've been bad enough, but that was, what? A dozen or so? At least there's not-OH GODS!" She suddenly tensed up, barely able to look at the other Navi as she pointed...downward, between the waist and thighs. "There's one more there! Get it off! Or maybe out, I don't even wanna look! Just...EWWWWW!!!" If she didn't, there was a fair chance that Martia would abandon ship. She was so done with tentacles for the rest of her life.

"What? Light's sake, stop yelling, I might not be able to feel anything anymore but my ears are still fine!" said Scourge, turning around here and there, trying to find the offending stowaway. As soon as she bent over, however, she managed to find the tentacle, and proceeded to extract it rather easily, thanks to its own black ink providing sufficient lubrication, a sad story in its own folly.

Instead of immediately throwing it away, however, a wicked thought came to mind, and Scourge loomed over Martia with her newfound superiority in vertical dominance. With the tentacle in hand, she began waving it in the martial artist's face with a frighteningly evil-sounding cackle. "Ahahaha! Hey, what're you so scared of? It's just a lil' calamari, c'mon, ahahaha!" she taunted Martia. Scourge didn't take too long, however, before tossing it right at Martia... and above her head, into the lava, where it joined its comrades in sizzling hell.

"I'm sorry, it just-oh, gross..." The good news was, Martia apparently didn't have any sort of programming relating to vomiting, so she didn't get the urge to throw up watching Scourge slide out the last tentacle. "Get rid of that thing, quick!"

But, the witch Navi didn't, and instead waved it in her face, causing her to back up a step or so. "That's just nasty! Even if it was just calamari, it was lodged in your...oh, I can't even say it! So get it OUT!" When Scourge tossed the last tentacle, the fighter Navi's body was ready for it. Before it could clear her, she raced up, and roundhouse kicked the tentacle, sending it flying far, far away...eventually, it hit the wall on the side, making a bit of a splat before falling into the lava. She shuddered at the very thought of where that tentacle had been, and where it easily could've happened to her. "At...at least that's finally over, right? Nothing inside your butt, too?" Hopefully the answer was a resounding 'no'. "Actually, there's something I wanted to ask you. Why is it you don't feel anything? Is it just how you're programmed, or did something cause it, or...?...Um, I'm not trying to pry or anything! It's just, even though we've been fighting all this time, I don't think I know all that much about you beyond 'is a girl covered in bandages', and I'd like to change that."

Scourge whistled as she saw the tentacle fly far off into the distance with Martia's panicked punt, with a decisively resounding splat against the wall. "Oof, wouldn't want to be that little guy," she laughed. All things considered, she herself could have been on the receiving end of that kick. "No, nothing back there, I think I would've seen it when I pulled out the one in my back," she replied, turning around to display what appeared to be a tentacle-free behind. Still pretty much drenched with ink, though.

"Oh, you wanna know about that? Hang on, lemme recall," said Scourge, in reply to Martia's query. Her eyes rolled about as she pondered the question, with a furrowed brow to match. Eventually, she put up her answer-- "Dunno," she shrugged. "As far as I can remember, I've never felt pain... But I know what it is, so I guess I experienced it as some point before? Actually, hang on--" she said, pressing her fingers against her temple. "--I don't think I even remember what I did yesterday. Weird."

Then, she shook her head, as if to clear it from all the hard thinking. "Eh, must've not been all that important. Let's beat up something else-- Ah, wait, that idiot's MIA. And this isn't exactly a motor boat, either... Crap. Well, this sucks!" she exclaimed.

In frustration, she sat down on the magnetized flooring, and crossed her arms. "Stupid operators, gone when you need 'em..." Then, realizing she wasn't exactly alone, she looked up. "Oh, right, uh, anyway, I guess I don't have much to tell you, given that I don't remember anything. Why don't you start, maybe it'll jog my memory or whatever." Of course, she didn't really think it would, but anything to pass the buck with helped.

In a rare moment, Martia found herself looking over another girl's behind intently. Usually it was more her operator's thing, but she needed to inspect it for loose tentacles. Thankfully, she didn't see any motion at all. "Okay, you're clean. ...Uh, I mean, there aren't any tentacles there. You're not anything near actually clean!"

With that, she went silent as she awaited an answer. And...it wasn't what she was expecting. "...You don't know? ...Huh. Maybe you have amnesia, or something?" It'd explain how she remembered pain, but didn't remember how she stopped feeling it. "I dunno, I can remember yesterday pretty well..." Navis usually had pretty good memories, so long as they were in working order. And based on Scourge's battle prowess, she definitely seemed to be working just fine. "That's really weird. Maybe I should roundkick you in the head? See if it knocks any memories loose for you? ......I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Don't worry! A concussion definitely wouldn't help you at all!"

And now, the reality that they were stuck on a raft in the middle of nowhere struck the pair. "Yeah, I dunno why they just ditched us. Where would they even go that was so important that they couldn't jack us out? Luckily, people have a habit of avoiding the Battle building if they aren't part of the karate club...they get nervous that they might get beaten up by a ghost for being unworthy or something. Weird superstitous stuff. Ghosts aren't real, and the living Battles could care less if someone comes in here. ...Well, ghosts aren't real in the real world, I should say. If they didn't exist in the cyberworld, some viruses have some explaining to do."

As the witch Navi sat down, the martial artist was content to just do a 180 split, and started stretching by reaching over for her foot. "So, do you not like your operator or something? She seems earnest, if nothing else. Me? Leslie's a little...rough around the edges, but she's got a good heart, even though she's been through stuff no one should ever have to go through. I'm honored to be her NetNavi!"

Scourge's expression turned into confusion as Martia began to do some form of stretches, though she quickly shrugged it off as the martial arts Navi began her line of probing. This time, her fingers found themselves pinching at her bandaged forehead. "Hmm... Well, truth be told, I don't like her, but I'm not really sure why. The one reason I can pull out right now is that it's not exactly that I don't like her, it's just that I wish I could function without her. There's probably other reasons, but it's all a blur right now to me. Feels like there should be something there, but like, the references to what I'm supposed to remember are either garbled or gone." Her fingers began to pinch harder, though nothing else came out of it, her head still felt like a mess. "Damn, my head hurts. Where is that dumbass?"

With an irritated look on her face, she looked off to the side, though at the height she was at, her view was mostly obscured by a lethargic row of tentacles. Scratching the back of her neck, she sighed. "Ugh, still, can't fault the kid for trying. Maybe I'm just being nitpicky and there's not much reason to hate her. I just feel like I'm being held back or something. Like her presence is like... some kind of... big restraining suit that I have to put on, while the entire time I just want to punch through some virus's face. And I can't punch the virus without putting the suit on or my head'll explode or something dumb. Not making much sense there but that's about what it feels like."

She turned back towards Martia with a quizzical look on her face, still puzzled by Martia's stretching. "I don't really understand how that works with your operator, but good for you if you're on good terms with her, I guess. Also, what ARE you doing? Are you putting on a show or something?"

"Hmm..." Somehow, Martia was less than surprised that Scourge didn't quite fully remember why she didn't care for her operator, or even at the reason she was able to give. But, it didn't really mesh with her own experiences with having an operator. "I kinda get what you mean. Leslie was nice, but at first, I thought 'I'm a Navi with total mastery of martial arts! Do I really need a human to help me out?' And at first, I was convinced that I'd be fine on my own. But, after getting some experience under my belt, I started to realize what operators bring to the table. Sure, they give us BattleChips, and that's great. But there's more to it. They can give us insight we can't always notice for ourselves, help us figure out how to improve, or even just pick us up if we're feeling down. Basically, they're our friends. I think once I noticed that, we started to get on the same wavelength, and that's when my fighting ability really started to take off. So, I get the restraining suit comparison, but I think you have it backwards. I think getting closer to Sofia is how you get out of it, and unlock your true battling potential. I understand if it's not easy, but...you should try it, okay? It's not like you have anything to lose from doing it, right?"

"Huh? What am I doing?" She thought it was obvious, but maybe not. "Stretching, of course! I know I don't really need to do it as a Navi, but it helps calm me down, and after everything that's happened today, I kinda need to cool off...figuratively. A lava flow isn't exactly my idea of a vacation...but I don't regret doing it. I got stronger, and got to bust with a neat Navi! I'm not getting that feeling I usually get after fighting alongside someone, though...the one where I get an idea for a new move. I guess our fighting styles are too different for me to really copy? I dunno, that doesn't seem right, either..."

"Friends, huh... Heh, well, I'd rather solve my own problems first, like this memory retention problem. Maybe I'll try to find some kind of help on an error diagnosis BBS later," said Scourge, before she raised her head suddenly. "Oh, a jack out sequence. Man, about time..." she said, picking herself up off the floor and standing up properly. "All right, Martia, see ya later. Let's see if we can knock some heads together again, I had fun," she said, lightly jabbing Martia's shoulder before disappearing completely back into her PET.

[>> Ura High School - Yoka.]

"That's important, too. But, two heads are better than one. Don't forget that." ...Hmm? "Hey, you're right! Finally!" Martia hopped up on her feet. "Yeah, let's totally do it again! Just, let's avoid lava flows next time..." She took one more good look around, noting all the lava and rocks and tentacles...if she never saw any of those things again, it'd be too soon. Especially the latter. Ugh. Anyway, time to head back. Beam of light...activate!

(JACKING OUT)

((+6 Mutual FXP for post battle interactions))