Wrapping Up Practice

"This was probably a bad idea," was the prevailing thought in Scourge's head when the black tentacle-beast opened up to pull her inside itself, and a deep rumbling sound followed suit. With darkness every which way she looked, she felt the viscous black fluid soaking through her bandages as tendrils began to pull her in every direction. Immediately after she was pulled in, however, something else zipped by her. She could barely register the thought of "What the hell was that?", as Martia made her dynamic entry, her busting partner proceeding to land a solid flying kick directly into the heart of the shadow-beast.

Scourge felt the impact quite strongly, as the dark tentacles shuddered and tightened around her body, though she wasn't exactly sure how much force it was, until the tentacles opened up to the light. The red glow of the lava illuminated her situation, which was a dripping mess of inky bandages, some of which had been apparently torn up by the tentacles currently wrapping around her self. Still, by some bit of virtuous luck, she was still decent, and a good portion of her was still protected by the thick rewrapped bindings, though if the tentacles let go of her, the first point might not apply as much.

A garbled voice came over the voice link for a moment, before clearing up. "Um--Sc--rge, are y-u ok-y? It's k--da d-rk, I can't see anything-- Oh, never mind, it kind of cleared up. Eww, what is all that? Are you okay?" said the voice, before it cleared up to reveal itself as Sofia.

"Ugh, I... think I'm okay? It's not so bad, really. I can't really feel any pain, and I'm not registering any damage done, so if anything, it's like some kind of really slimy and grabby harness," said Scourge, idly pulling at one of the tentacles coiling around her right arm. Despite being rather disorganized, they were still hanging on to her with a decent amount of force. It'd take a bit more than her pulling at them by her own strength to free herself.

Of course, she might not actually want to free herself; her eye lingered towards the furiously rampaging lava monster down below, and a halfhearted grin crossed her face. For that reason, though the tentacles were exploring with a bit more curiosity around her nooks and crevices than one would normally find comfortable, she didn't mind as much -- at least she was secure. "At least, I'm not in a hurry to fall down into that mess. I might not feel pain but I'm not about to jump into something like THAT," she said, her previous attempt at jumping at something almost as similar going over her head rather well.

She glanced over at Martia, who was similarly just as entangled in the tentacle field. "How about you, Martia? That was a pretty big jump you did there. Feel the burn yet?" she joked, though Martia would feel as though Scourge's words were laced with a bit of hearty strength as well.

"I don't think you can hang around there forever, though. Umm... Are there any of these chips that you don't have to use your arms to use..." muttered Sofia, the sound of her shuffling through chips on the dojo floor coming through the voice link. "Mmm... I think I saw you use these three."

"Alright, great, let's see what we can do," said Scourge, as she focused on activating the battlechips that streamed in. The first round of attacks manifested not near her, but further down in the lava whirlpool. Numerous red bandages began to shoot up from the magma in a square-ish area around the tentacle monster, restraining whatever they found in their reach. Any of the lava tentacles they bound would soon find itself erupting in a ball of flame. Though there was a fair number of them, Scourge couldn't quite see if they were very effective, if at all, she was a bit far up for that.

The next attack came in the form of a familiar ball of lightning gathering in front of Scourge's face. By now she was used to controlling it somewhat, and it flew down towards the lava monster as well. The last bit of offense came in the form of a swarm of tiny fluffball bugs -- the Skeeters needed no instruction and simply flung themselves headlong at the lava whirlpool as well.

// Summary
[Sc.*] Act: Buff: Attack +16 @ Martia
[Sc.1] Sig: Witch's Trial: Freeze + Blast2 + Ground-Type @ MagmaMass
[Sc.2] Chip: BurnSquare1Damage: 60 + Blast 2 + Ground Attack
Accuracy: B
Description: Creates a small, square shaped explosion of will-o-wisps that erupt from the ground, scorching the very soul of whatever is occupying that space.
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Trader Rank: D: 60 + Blast 2 + Ground Attack + Group Attack (Acc: B) @ MagmaMass
[Sc.3] Chip: Synapse1Damage: 80 + Piercing + Chain 2
Accuracy: B
Description: Produces a powerful ray through sheer force of thought, which arcs towards nearby enemies when it hits a target.
Duration: Once
Element: Elec
Special: Chain 2: This attack, upon striking a target, may change directions towards a new target. This may be done up to 2 times in one attack.
Trader Rank: D: 80 + Piercing + Chain 2 (Acc: B) @ MagmaMass
[Sc.4] Chip: Drain1Damage: Drain 50
Accuracy: C
Description: Summons a cloud of Skeeter viruses, and sends them flying at one enemy. They surround the target, proceed to drain HP from it, and send the stolen energy back to their summoner before vanishing. This attack has a slow travel speed.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Trader Rank: D: Drain 50 (Acc: C) @ MagmaMass

As soon as her foot connected with the core of the creature, the parts of her idea that Martia hadn't stopped to consider before suddenly flooded into her consciousness. Namely, the parts that involved getting grabbed by tentacles. Even though it was pretty clear that the dark mass was no longer a threat, the tentacles seemed to have some sort of reflexive action of grabbing the two girls, and...exploring the ensnared. The martial artist began to have flashbacks of her various missions, a feeling that only intensified as her captors started their more intensive search. Before long, the goo they expelled made her upper body attire about as good at hiding her assets as body paint; anyone looking at the situation would know every last detail about her breasts.

And as they were exposed to light once more, the operators would get an eyeful. Though, Leslie didn't seem very concerned about the fact she was privy to large, sopping wet breasts. "Martia? Martia! You all right?"

"No I'm not all right! Even in a harmless busting run, I'm on the receiving end of tentacle porn! I'm lucky I haven't been violated yet!"

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't let that happen...why don't you just break out? Those tentacles don't look very strong."

"Look how far up I am! It's gonna smart when I land!"

"Fine, then get raped by tentacles. I don't think there's really anything I can do on that front, anyway, so, guess I'll enjoy the show."

"..." ...While it was a mean way to put it, Leslie was right. She had a choice. And she knew one of her options would end poorly, which meant that she needed to take a chance on the other one. Martia sighed, and looked over to the quipping Scourge. "I wouldn't exactly call this a burn...oh no...this goop had better not burn through clothes, or I'm SO done with this...anyway, I've had enough tentacle fondling to last me several lifetimes, so I'm heading back down. Enjoy the view, and...whatever the tentacles do to you." At that instant, she could feel a moment of weakness in her arm bindings...that was all she needed. With a strong pull, she freed her arms, and immediately used them to karate chop the living rope around her legs. Now, gravity would begin to do its thing...but before it could do much, she reached over and grabbed a nearby whip-like tentacle, and swung with it for a moment. Before it could really register that it had a passenger, however, she let go of it, grasped the similar one near Scourge, and used it to whip herself downward. It actually felt nice for a moment, falling...no worrying about lava, or enemies, or getting raped...though she was quickly snapped out of it by lightning and mosquitos flying past her. At least Scourge fully intended to still help, despite her current...predicament.

As she neared the other large mass of tentacles, the martial artist noted a flail-like limb...perfect. She reached out, grabbed it, and flipped forward from it like a gymnast. "Leslie, give me something! Anything!"

"Right!" Anything? Leslie grabbed the first chip she could, and slammed it into her PET. A picture appeared on the screen...a Drixol? That'd work. "BattleChip, DrillArm! Slot in!"

By now, Martia was falling headfirst towards the MagmaMass, but as soon as she received the chip data, she made a fist, and started to spin. Rapidly. Before long, she almost looked more like a pink drilled Drixol than a Navi, as she slammed into the entity. The attack had enough penetrating power that even if the protective tentacles were still there, it could extend and try to hit the monstrous creature beneath.

"Here's something else, to keep the pressure on it!" This time, a picture of a Cragger showed up, and this time, it was 100% handpicked. "BattleChip, GolemHit! Slot in!"

The wet chested Navi stopped spinning, and pulled her fist out from the pile of tentacles and...general grossness. As she did, her hand turned as hard as stone, and she punched the mass once more. While it lacked the ability to pierce like the other chip had, the sheer force of striking caused shock waves to travel left and right, with the ability to slam anything nearby with every bit of power the main punch had. She removed her fist from making contact again, and angrily looked down at it. "That's for your buddy perving on me after he was already dead! I mean, come on! Can I not go five minutes without something showing my nipples to the world?! Five. Frickin'. Minutes?!?!" If nothing else, she was extremely irritated now, to the point where any fear of sodomy was replaced by sheer annoyance at how much this sort of thing happened to her. On the plus side, her self-preservation was still mostly intact, so she had the presence of mind to try and avoid incoming attacks. Plus, her Dominerd friend stuck by her the whole time, and still sought to provide protection...

[Order of Turn:
1-Buster shot on Grasping Remnants (10)
2-Jump off limbs onto MagmaMass (Movement)
3- DrillArm1Damage: 60 + Break + Knockback + Long Attack
Accuracy: B
Description: A long drill is created to bore through enemies. It can hit one enemy twice, and a second enemy once.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Special: Knockback paired with Long Attack causes the drill to hit close ranged targets twice, instead of once. This is because it pushes the closest target through both hit zones. Knockback only triggers once.
Trader Rank: D on MagmaMass (Melee Mastery, +1 accuracy rank)
4- GolemHit1Damage: 140 + Break + Panel Crack + Wide Attack
Accuracy: C
Description: A fist of stone falls from the sky to smash an enemy, and create a shock wave that hits two nearby enemies. The area affected by the fist becomes Cracked terrain.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Trader Rank: D on MagmaMass (Melee Mastery, +1 accuracy rank)
5-Dodge]

Weighing the options between hanging around and risking the lava below, Scourge took her chances staying up, while Martia rolled the dice for dropping down. It didn't take the martial artist more than a couple of quick and forceful manoeuvres to break herself free and begin her descent. Doing so seemed to make her the magma creature's main focus, and several of the smaller burning tendrils whipped in her direction flicking small bolts of lava in her direction as she dived and clambered, swinging nimbly between the reaching tentacles and making her way closer to the lava's surface. In between weaving around the mass of limbs and dodging the hurled lava bolts, she wasn't able to avoid one of the thick, main tentacles slapping out to strike her, but with an artful turn, she managed to bring her shield to it instead, and the summoned defence responded viciously. With a sudden snap and a tearing sound, the cursed shield bit down on the offending tentacle and wrenched away, tearing it clear off the main body and eliciting a pained, ear-grating shriek from it. One of the final flung globs of magma managed to clip her shoulder just after this, but it was a relatively minor issue, against managing to stick her landing atop the burning creature properly, and keep her balance for the next attack.

While this exchange took place, Scourge would be able to see her ally weaving her way down, while a different, thicker tendril snaked upwards towards her instead. Putting the explorations of her slimy, holding tentacles out of mind for now, the bandaged navi had a trick of her own prepared for the defence-heavy monster; the burning bandages that rose from the lava next entwined themselves with the creature's limbs rapidly, restraining its activities and fighting against everything it tried to do. Fortunately, their burning nature didn't detract from their ability to shred through the layers of tentacles protecting their target; the other blocking shield limb was bashed away, and the wall of limbs nearby was thinned down considerably. The two smaller independent tendrils nearby exploded violently as they were struck, further damaging the wall and whittling away at the writhing mass covering the creature's core.

The tiny explosions also brushed Martia, but the damage was very minor, and not nearly enough to distract her from her next assault, which was a brutal downward blow that drilled through the remaining defences and struck into the monster's body directly, dragging another bellow from it. it lurched and writhed, trying to throw Martia off and get at her with its main tentacles, but she was able to hold her ground and keep her balance without being grabbed — the main two flailing limbs looked strong enough to really hurt, even weakened as they were by Scourge's earlier efforts, and it was probably a good idea to stay out of their hungry grasp.

Slowed as they were by the bandages that Scourge had restrained the mass with, it tried to pull up more defences, but only managed a few, less effective efforts before being locked down completely; with one of its main limbs torn off, it only raised a single one in defence, rather than two, and the thin veil of lesser tendrils that slipped free of the bindings to desperately cover the creature's core looked much thinner and unsubstantial than previous efforts.

Far above, Scourge was finding that ,without Martia beside her, even more of the wet, shadowy remnants were focusing on her, trying to grab and hold and curl and probe. They were having a much harder time worming their way under her reinforced bandages, but though they weren't tearing or damaging anything, they were definitely making progress, bit by bit. None of them had reached a point of actual violation yet, thankfully, but one or two felt worrisomely close to that threshold. Despite this, Scourge had more important worries, including helping to make sure her busting partner didn't take an unwanted lava bath. the bolt of arcing synaptic energy she released next snapped and jumped, blasting back the freshly raised group of protective tendrils, and destroying what remained of the collection forming the wall before discharging into the lava.

A moment after, Martia hammered down with her second blow, effortlessly hammering through the one shielding tentacle to crush into her foe with near debilitating force. With a pained burbling sound, the entity's thrashing slowed and the binding restrains from scourge took a firmer grip, holding it mostly still and barely able to move at all now. It looked like it was close to collapsing in on itself, and Scourge's lock-down was certainly going to stop it from bringing all of its various protectives up again for a little while. Poor luck at the last moment saw Scourge's helpful draining gnats unable to find a target they really wanted to bite, amidst all the lava, but there wasn't much left to it now, and the two had the opening they needed to finish it off in safety, although Unless she actually wanted to swim in lava, or welcome the embrace of a similar batch of remnant lava tentacles when they finally destroyed it, she might need to think about getting to a safe purchase somewhere else before laying in the coup de grace.


-=Shadow and Flame=-

MagmaMass.dmp: 26Hp [Freeze!][Debuff: -20 All]
ShadowMass.dmp: DELETED

-=Bandage and Battle=-

Martia: 186Hp [Standing on MagmaMass's Head]
Scourge: 116Hp [High Altitude][Grappled][15Hp Casing]

-=Objects and associated tentacles=-

Wall of Dark Limbs: DELETED
Wall of Burning Limbs: DELETED

Roiling Mass: DELETED
Writhing Mass: DELETED

Mini Magma Flail A: 5Hp [Left edge of raft]
Minor Magma Flail: 10Hp [Front edge of raft]
Thick Magma Tentacle A: 28Hp [Front left edge of raft]
Thick Magma Tentacle B: 28Hp [Near the middle of the raft]
Thick Magma Tentacle C: 28Hp [Reaching up towards Scourge]

Mini Shadow Whip A: 5Hp [Right edge of raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Mini Shadow Whip B: 5Hp [Near Scourge's Foot][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Minor Shadow Whip: 10Hp [Next to Scourge's Head][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Thick Shadow Tendril A: 28Hp [Front right edge of raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Thick Shadow Tendril B: 28Hp [Near the middle of the raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]

Grasping Shadow Remnants (18): 5Hp Each [High Altitude]['Holding' Scourge][Clustered Group: Attacks that normally only hit one target can destroy as many tendrils as their damage allows, in increments of 5]

-=Lava Flow=-

30% Magnet [Martia and Scourge's raft - More stable and larger now, more firmly secured to its pillar anchorage]
60% Lava [So Much Lava]
10% Missing [Centre of the vortex, where MagmaMass resides]

"Oof, I guess she really has some strong opinions about her tits," commented Scourge, watching as her partner dove down towards the giant monster, delivering two powerful attacks in quick succession. Though the creature tried to raise its defenses, her attacks seemed to have stripped them away quite summarily, leaving the creature open to a massive wallop from Martia's end. Scourge herself could almost feel the impact from further up, though having lost most of her tactile sensations, she was limited to nothing more than the visual and auditory feedback.

"They are pretty big though," said Sofia, her eyes squinting at the two combatants through the PET screen. She then leered over to the side to take a peek at the other operator in the room, and then back down to herself. Her cheeks puffed up slightly before she focused back to the task at hand. However, just as she was looking through the chips that were still available, her Navi spoke up.

"Looks like she's almost done beating that thing down... I guess I'm out of things to do."
"Oh, you don't need any more chips?"

"Probably not... Though she's still in the middle of that lava ocean. I could help her out, but it seems like she's doing fine enough on her own," said Scourge, retreating back into her little 'nest' of tendrils. The security of the impromptu tendril harness felt safe, though with her general lack of sensation, it was difficult to tell when one of the tendrils managed to snake its way through her tightened wraps, pushing onwards to spread its black goo into unknown territory.

Around her, the enormous amount of junk data from the destroyed shadow monster's core lingered in a thick purple haze. The remnants of data trailed about in a wisp, and snaked into the screwheads that jutted out of Scourge's limbs, slowly filling her with vitality. As it did, her body slowly grew in size, to the point that she was almost a good foot taller, and her measurements increased a good few sizes as well. Her body jumped slightly at the influx of data.

"Holy-- wow, that was a rush..." she exclaimed.
"Scourge? You okay?" Sofia said.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine... Just waiting for the next main course," said Scourge, looking down at Martia's fight with anticipation, while her operator was left in confusion over the statement.

// Summary
[Sc.*] Act: Buff: Attack +16 @ Martia
[Sc.1-4] Sit back and do nothing

Almost. Martia didn't have to check the influx of battle data to know that they had the other mass of tentacles on the ropes, to speak. But, as that sank in, a new problem popped into her head. "Hey, Leslie? I just thought of something...once this thing's destroyed, I don't really have anywhere to go. The raft's too far away to jump...and I'm NOT going through tentacle hell again."

"Well, you can relax, because this time, I've come up with a plan!" Leslie proudly displayed that she was holding a pair of BattleChips, though her fingers were blocking exactly which ones they were. "Just do what I say, and you won't get deep fried!"

"Honestly, compared to some of the stuff I've been through lately, deep frying almost seems like a welcome change...almost. Go ahead, tell me what I need to do."

"First, apply this to your feet." First chip in. "BattleChip, GutsPunch! Slot in!"

"My feet? All right..." For a split second, the martial artist Navi's hands changed color to yellow and black, but instead, her boots acquired that color, as well as a slightly bulkier appearance. "Now what?"

"Spring board off the virus. Like, really slam your feet down! That should put an end to your...whatever the hell that thing is. Then you can jump as far away from it as you can. Don't worry if it looks like you'll land in the lava, you won't!"

"...Oh, I think I see where you're going with this. On it!" Martia performed a small hop, then used the little bit of height to stomp her makeshift platform with both feet, with all her might. There was no room in her heart for mercy at this point...she wanted pain to be the last thing the creature knew before it was no more. A sharp, crushing pain. From there, she quickly crouched, and flung herself forward as far as she could. She wasn't reaching that raft, or anywhere near it, though...

"Now let's get you that landing platform! BattleChip, MistConvergence! Slot in!"

A Misty virus suddenly formed in front of Martia, and after converting itself to a fist shape, launched itself straight at where she was going to land in the lava. That'd create a nice spot of non-burning for her to land on, and from there, she could watch the tentacle monster's last moment of agony. No one said catharsis was painless. Of course, on the off chance that there was a last ditch effort to bring her harm, she'd be ready with some quick evasion...but she really, really hoped that wouldn't be necessary at this point. She just wanted some peace from all the tentacles.

[Order of Turn:
1- GutsPunchDamage: 70 + Impact + Knockback
Accuracy: A
Description: Creates a large fist for the user to punch with. Anything it hits is knocked back a sizable distance, even objects.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 6 swings.
Element: Null
Trader Rank: D on MagmaMass (Melee Mastery, +1 accuracy rank) (+16 from Buff)
2- GutsPunchDamage: 70 + Impact + Knockback
Accuracy: A
Description: Creates a large fist for the user to punch with. Anything it hits is knocked back a sizable distance, even objects.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 6 swings.
Element: Null
Trader Rank: D on MagmaMass (Melee Mastery, +1 accuracy rank)
3-Jump off of MagmaMass (movement)
4- MistConvergence1Damage: 100 + Impact
Accuracy: B
Description: Summons a steaming hot hand of mist to crush an enemy.
Duration: Once
Element: Aqua
Trader Rank: D on space Martia is about to land on (Melee Mastery, +1 accuracy rank)
5-Dodge]

Still trying to sluggishly defend itself from Martia's assault as the restraining lock-down held it in place, the magma creature managed to raise one of its defensive tentacles in an effort to fend off the Martial artist's final strikes. It was too little at the end, and she was able to kick it aside with ease before stomping down with a last blow to its core that sent it quivering and convulsing for several seconds, before finally collapsing into a mess of small, independently waving tentacle remnants. Two of the attacking feelers that had been lining up to wing globs of lava in Martia's direction settled and slipped into a passive state, swaying slowly and reaching around with languid instincts.

As the creature expired, the strong drawing whirlpool of magma began to slow down, and when Martia unleashed her aqua attack beneath herself before she landed in the lava, it rocky solid patch it created seemed to anchor itself firmly enough to no longer get washed away. She landed neatly, if carefully on the small patch of rock, but between the distance she'd already covered, and the way that some of the larger limbs of the magma creature had fallen back to the lava and cooled into stone, there would be enough purchase for her to jump and hop back to the raft to meet up with Scourge if she wanted to, now.

That said, the raft itself was still surrounded by a veritable nest of pacified tendrils and feelers, all swaying and writhing slowly. They weren't exactly hostile now, but by natural instinct, if it could be called such, they'd probably be a bit clingy if someone stood still long enough nearby them. Given their previous behaviour, they'd probably explode if they were hit, and the chain reaction would remove most, if not all of them, but it might be better to take a clean-up pot shot from afar before returning the to raft, just in case – that mass was dense enough that any long range attack was liable to hit something without any fear of missing. Of course, now that the lava was slowing right down and settling, there was always the option to simply create more solid land for them to catch their breath on safely instead of venturing back over there.

Speaking of meeting back up with Scourge, now that the battle was more or less done with, Martia might find herself wondering exactly what her busting partner was up to, just hanging about above. For Scourge, seeing that Martia now had everything settled, it was apparently prime opportunity to relax into the overly-clingy remnant tentacles and let them do whatever they wanted. The less she resisted, the easier the individual tendrils found it to worm their way between the layers of her bandages, then between the bandages and her skin, then further still. Ultimately, guided by insentient instinct, several of the slippery, viscous explorers graduated to pushing their way between folds of skin, rather than cloth, while others simply groped, squeezed and curled about under the bindings wherever they couldn't penetrate further.

Exactly what Scourge herself made of this development was anyone's guess; the loss of notable pain receptors might well also have unfortunate effects on her ability for feeling other, more positive tactile sensations, but there would still be no ignoring the physical sensation of what was going on, and just how exceptionally thorough the many wrigglers were being with her. Without any guiding sentience behind them, they seemed unlikely to stop any time soon, short of being destroyed or otherwise dealt with, and they were blindly treating any and every deeper crevice or entryway they could find as fair territory for exploration – lower down might be safe enough, probably, but as the ones near her head tried for her mouth, she might find it wise to keep them away from her nose and eyes, just in case.

In the end, playtime could only last so long; Scourge had a busting partner to consider, and rewards to collect, and even if she wasn't concerned about public decency or modesty in front of her operator or Martia, it might still get a bit awkward if she spent too long entertaining the remnants holding her up.

-=Shadow and Flame=-

MagmaMass.dmp: DELETED
ShadowMass.dmp: DELETED

-=Bandage and Battle=-

Martia: 186Hp [Normal][Halfway between Magma Remnants and the raft]
Scourge: 116Hp [High Altitude][ *really* Grappled][15Hp Casing]

-=Objects and associated tentacles=-

Wall of Dark Limbs: DELETED
Wall of Burning Limbs: DELETED

Roiling Mass: DELETED
Writhing Mass: DELETED

Mini Magma Flail A: 5Hp [Left edge of raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Minor Magma Flail: 10Hp [Front edge of raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Thick Magma Tentacle A: 28Hp [Front left edge of raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Thick Magma Tentacle B: 28Hp [Lying across the raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Thick Magma Tentacle C: 28Hp [Lying between Martia and the raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Mini Shadow Whip A: 5Hp [Right edge of raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Mini Shadow Whip B: 5Hp [Near Scourge's Foot][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Minor Shadow Whip: 10Hp [Next to Scourge's Head][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Thick Shadow Tendril A: 28Hp [Front right edge of raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]
Thick Shadow Tendril B: 28Hp [Near the middle of the raft][Inactive][Self-Destruct Left Engaged]

Grasping Shadow Remnants (18): 5Hp Each [High Altitude]['Holding' Scourge][Clustered Group: Attacks that normally only hit one target can destroy as many tendrils as their damage allows, in increments of 5]
Grasping Magma Remnants (20): 5Hp Each [Lava][Clustered Group: Attacks that normally only hit one target can destroy as many tendrils as their damage allows, in increments of 5]

-=Lava Flow=-

30% Magnet [Martia and Scourge's raft - More stable and larger now, more firmly secured to its pillar anchorage]
60% Lava [So Much Lava]
10% Normal [Patches in the slowed lava which make getting around a little easier]

-=Battle 5, Victory!=-

Spoils:

Scourge GET: 1400z, TrainArrow1Effect: Adds +30 Aqua to Buster Shot Attack
Accuracy: Buster Accuracy = A
Description: Allows the user to fire Aqua Spears from buster.
Duration: 6 Uses.
Element: Aqua
Special: Overrides Buster. Disables Charged Shot.
Trader Rank: D, 40 BugFrags
Martia GET: 1400z, HotBody1Effect: Adds +20 Fire and Nova3 to Charged Buster Attack
Accuracy: Buster Accuracy = C
Description: Blasts the surrounding area with a nova-like explosion from your Charged Buster attacks.
Duration: 6 Uses.
Element: Fire
Special: Overrides Buster. Disables Buster Shot.
Trader Rank: D, 40 BugFrags

Both Earn: 18 Mutual FXP (5 Base + 4 for Teamwork, x2 for Boss Modifier)

[Z > 5895, BF > 90, F > 19.]

With Martia's final strike, Scourge watched as the second tentacle-beast retracted into itself, forming another island of wiggling tendrils. Except this one didn't look quite as inviting. As soon as the battle was over, the whirlpool of lava began to slow down, and Scourge started thinking about some way of getting down. "Sofia? Get me that blue knife already," she said. A few moments of silence later, only interrupted by the background symphony of roiling black ink, tentacle trouble, and slowly-flowing lava, she grunted in annoyance.

"Ugh, did she go and leave me to go off somewhere? The voice link's still running," she muttered. At that moment, a shadow tentacle thought it would be a good time to start prodding at her cheek, attempting to find more ground to cover, now that it had breached her bandages quite thoroughly. "Hmm... I guess I can try what Martia did a little while ago," she said to herself. Gathering strength in her arms was simple, now that she was empowered with the junk data remnants of the shadow monster, allowing her to force herself away from the mass of tendrils.

This led to gravity taking its course, but fortunately, she had a nice landing pad in the form of their original raft, where Martia was currently stationed. With a bit of a rolling landing, as well as the small blessing of being able to ignore pain, she landed on the raft without much incident. The tentacles about the raft were still there, though with how lethargic they looked compared to before, she figured it wouldn't be much of a problem.

"Wait, ugh, these things don't quit."

As she jad just discovered, however, what was more of a problem was that after tearing herself away from the tendrils, it appeared that some of them had come along for the ride, sliding themselves in between her bandages, loosening them in places as they wriggled quite energetically. What with most of her still being covered in black ink, as well as having grown nearly a foot taller, it wouldn't be surprising if Martia didn't recognize her now.

"It's over...it's finally over! Woohoo!" Martia still had the energy to raise a fist in victory as she watched the second tentacle monster collapse in agony. "I dunno about anyone else, but I think we just did a great service for the net!" ...This proceeded to be met with completely silence, including from her operator, which was a little odd. "...Leslie? You there?" ...No answer. "Leslie! ...Oh, a message." Let's see..."Brb. ...Informative." Well, at least she didn't have to worry about her for a bit. Though, she COULD have at least had the decency to not leave her in the middle of a lava flow. And on that note, she didn't want to hang around on the tiny rocky area longer than she needed to, so with another mighty hop, she found herself back on the movement restricting raft. She quickly made her way to the center, where she would be the hardest to notice for tentacles without any sort of driving intelligence.

And speaking of tentacles, she looked up, to see Scourge still wrapped up. "You can come down now!" Whether she heard or not, the bandaged Navi freed herself, and dropped down. "Welcome back! ...Eww!" Did Scourge have tentacle remnants still in there? Gross. She figured she didn't have any herself, since she probably would've noticed by now if she did. "I...guess as long as they don't hurt you. But, seriously, gross." ...Wait a minute. Something was off about the other Navi. But what? "...Hang on. You seem...taller, than you were a few minutes ago." That was weird, but since it didn't involve tentacles (as far as she knew), Martia decided to focus on that for a second.

"Hm? Really? Oh, huh, I did," said Scourge, as she looked about her person. Martia's observation did seem to be true, she had grown a fair bit since they last saw each other about a minute ago. While they were Navis, she assumed they didn't get those kinds of growth spurts naturally. "I bet my boobs are way bigger than yours now, heh," she said, as she worked to remove the stowaway tentacles one by one, tossing them over her shoulder into the lava as she did.

As useful as they were before, they did kind of get in the way now, but she made fairly quick work of them as she went along. All counted for, she extracted about four or so from her arms bandages, two from her face mask, one up her neck, three from her legs, and about two from her chest wrappings. Scourge herself didn't really keep count, though.

"So I guess we're sort of stuck here until they pick us up," she said, twisting her body about. One fairly enterprising tentacle had also wormed its way into the small of her back, but with some stretching, she managed to reach back towards it, though it was proving slightly more tenacious than its peers. "Okay, c'mon! Get outta there you little piece of--" she grunted. With a little bit of stretching, however, it, too, was successfully extracted and tossed into the fire. "Okay! Got it! Out ya go."

While all of this was happening, Martia was somewhat forced to watch, likely to the despair of her operator a little later. "I think that's all of them. What a pain," said Scourge. However, if Martia were to have not averted her eyes when Scourge was twisting around to get the one on her back, she would have noticed that there was at least one Scourge had missed, right under the deepest folds she could have. Deprived of her tactile senses, the bandaged Navi was clearly unaware of it, save for some faint ink-slopping sounds. "Hey, I didn't miss any of them, right?" inquired Scourge, almost too innocently.

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))