The white felt no pain. A noxious fog of static drifted from the holes in Hex's pool, the only sign any damage had been dealt as more bodies crawled themselves up into another heap. The Egomorph's body hung half-splattered, head lolling obscenely by a thin vein of neck left. Jerking erratically, they slithered into the husk-pile, oozing piles melding together with a disgusting slurp. Red light shone bloody through the buzzing grey fog. [COMMAND: REPLICATE] came a voice from below, a tortured approximation of speech that seemed to grind from the Net itself. The haze of static slowed as the holes in the white closed themselves.

Red light flared ever brighter. [COMMAND: REPLICATE] came the awful voice again, as though the Net were being forced to translate the white's intent, and suffering for it. The exotic matter of the white was fed into the Conduit where it hung at Egomorph's back, foreign energy flooding the Net until the intrusive light took root and sprouted a fruiting body. All the while, the pool flowed in a sickening jerk off the metal terrain. The white felt no pain, but as long as the red light of its brain shone, it could think.

A surge rose from below. Bubbling, writhing coils crawled from rents in the husk-body, bloating the skin from beneath, fingers cracking as they were made to grasp and flex. Like flowers to the sun, the hands turned to the Sledge where it stood lone, defiant before the onslaught. Like flowers to the sun, they bloomed, fingers unfurling into petals of tongues and teeth. The white frothed and churned in anticipation.

Like flowers to the sun, they feasted. The light of the Sledge's aura could be torn into and digested as easily as bones and meat, and the white was eager for a taste. A braided coil of arms was brought to bear, split all along its length with slavering maws. It chewed as it lashed, lashed as it chewed, seeking not just an opening, but to inspire the fear of an encroaching predator. Why did it seek out the fear? It was impossible to say.

Still the static seeped, grey and noxious. From a rent the Sledge's hammer had managed to smash open, a man's head spurted free. Fog spewed freely from its gaping mouth, which gnashed until its teeth were jagged splinters. As the braided coil receded, the toxic flail was whipped at the Sledge on a long, oozing neck, looking to bite and spread its gaseous venom further.

Hex receded, leaving the head hollow and dead to be smashed like brittle china. The white tide writhed and surged, growing yet larger, yet deeper.

*SetArmour [40 HP Casing, Hex]
1. Equip Egomorph [Encase]
E1. Command: Replicate [30 HP Healing: Hex, Egomorph; 2TCD]
E2. Command: Activate [Random Effect; 1TCD]

2. Dodge onto Normal
3. Buster Charge
4. Half Charge Shot: Sledge [60 Null {A}]
5. Entry: Sledge [80 Null {A}, Break, Glitch; 3TCD]
6. Buster Charge

Dignity's virus alarm had several levels of urgency, increasing threats corresponding to increasingly clamorous claxons in the cockpit. Electric viruses threw the rating up several notches automatically, to say nothing of the immediate threat of the Mimic and the sudden relocation it triggered: Phase's yell of consternation was almost wholly drowned out in noise. Vincent was able to make out, "What the HELL, VINCENT?" alongside several curses he'd definitely never used around her. Dignity nonetheless lurched into a rushed sidestep, engine revving with a wild howling of steam. As the claxon finally died off, the clamour shifted into the clanging percussion of hammering piston legs.

Mindful of the Scarecrow more than anything, Phase cranked the temperature gauge to its lowest point and turned on the ice machine. She was careful to keep the flow contained to Dignity's chassis, as any overspill onto the ground would only increase the danger of a potential electric shock. Icicles jingled where they hung from her brassy limbs, the iceover thick enough to repel a blow, but defence alone wasn't going to be enough. Thankfully Vincent was at least proving up to the task, as three chips loaded rapid-fire into Dignity. At least he was learning, she thought privately, and leaned into her targeting grip.

Dignity's shoulder cannon swivelled in its socket, feathering left and right in sync with flicks of Phase's right wrist. The AquaNeedles made for a simple projectile for Dignity's system; no modification was necessary to create the needles. The skyward cannon barked once with its muzzle pointed almost vertically, then dropped its barrel as Phase jinked the target marker back to the Scarecrow, and sounded off twice more. A threefold salvo of water pressurized into needle-thin bullets shot high, and whistled high as they plummeted towards the most immediate threats.

Again the colossal steam engine revved its gears. Sweat ran down Phase's forehead; it was getting hotter in the cockpit. Fast as she dared, she guided Dignity through another sidestep, the brass colossus pivoting a full ninety degrees to place its far foot behind it, arms wheeling wide to keep balanced. While the other foot swung to return Dignity to approximately where she'd started, Phase prepped another chip, this time priming the main gun to fire. The Shotgun needed a moment for the barrel to reconfigure, but aiming was a simpler matter of holding the cannon low to the ground with Dignity's massive reach, lining the viruses up and jamming the trigger. As massive as it was, the gun's report sent enough recoil up Dignity's arm to throw Phase hard in her harness, a storm of buckshot exploding from the initial round upon impact.

All at once Phase became aware of a pain in her jaw; her teeth were grit tight enough to hurt. Growling with unspent frustration, she forced her jaw to slack and rolled her neck. The last chip was familiar, and while Vincent hadn't named a target, with one glance at the readout the choice seemed clear. Dignity's torso swivelled at the waist into the farther reaches of its flexibility, gun arm still slung low at virus-plinking height. The Piranha was far from the most threatening, but the fewer viruses chipping away at Dignity's defences, the better. Her cannon loomed before the fishlike virus, wide enough to swim straight up - and so, too, was the ensuing cannonball large enough to bowl the Piranha over completely.


-Turn Summary-
1. Dodge sideways
2. Phase Engine: Solid [62 HP Casing; 1TCD]
3. AquaNeedle1Damage: 20 x 3 Needles + Variable Targeting + Drop Attack
Accuracy: B
Description: Three needles drop on enemies
Duration: Once
Element: Aqua
Special: Variable Targeting: Allows the user to select a target for each individual hit of an attack. This means they may strike the same target multiple times, multiple different targets, or a mix of the two as they wish.
Special: Drop Attack: This attack originates above the battlefield, and falls to the ground. It gains one rank of accuracy against High Altitude targets.
Trader Rank: D: Mimic [25 Aqua {B}, Drop Attack], Scarecrow [25 Aqua {B} x 2 hits, Drop Attack]
4. Dodge back to initial starting point
5. ShotgunDamage: 50 + Spread 1
Accuracy: A
Description: A gun whose shot penetrates an enemy to hit another one directly behind it.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Trader Rank: E: Mimic [50 Null {A}, Spread1 to Scarecrow]
6. CannonDamage: 60 + Knockback
Accuracy: A
Description: A decent sized cannon with a single shot.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Trader Rank: E: Piranha [60 Null {A}, Knockback]

The white's advance did not slow, no matter the obstacle. A husk-body was dragged up, the skins of three Navis sewn into an amorphous snare of limbs that hinged like a bear trap. The husk surged forward with the pool for a moment, then jerked to a halt as though unable to progress past an unseen line. At its feet, Hex's true body continued onward, a creep of white tendrils burrowing into the cracks between panels and disappearing underfoot. When the panels reinforced into a mimicry of steel proved too strong for easy digestion, the unmodified panels woven through them proved the path of least resistance, and in seconds every other panel around the viruses was a gnawed-out pitfall.

Passive, uncomplicated flooring was quick to absorb, easily rotted into more white slurry. The mass crept back into the pool, twice as large now for its meal where it packed in behind the husk. Tendrils surged into the empty limbs until they bulged from the pressure, enough that relaxing the seams on its back made it shoot forward on a tide of itself, chasing down the smaller fry to leave their master unprotected. With the Typhoon so close, it would only have time to register a flailing tangle of arms and legs before the jaw snapped shut.

The maw retracted as quickly as it had shot out. Bloated under its own weight, Hex slid unhurried in a loop around its hunting ground. Its aim was clear: it was leaving the Sledge for last, the first goal to remove the distractions that would keep it from focusing all of its attention. Still more white bubbled up in a snakes-nest frenzy, creeping Hex and its puppet further out of reach. Ego just bowed their head, unarmoured and unbodied, creeping low. They couldn't move; instead they were moved by the pool they protruded from like a body half-submerged. Couldn't move, couldn't feel. They just were, more Hex for the pool, more white to consume the world with.

The white's next target was clear; the Ratton was small and would crunch easily under its jaws, and Hex had eaten the ground out from directly under it. Yet it had given the virus enough time for the gravity of its situation to sink in. It could try to scramble back up to the surface, but doing so would only further expose it to the white's snapping jaws. Or it could stay cowering in its hole, and wait for the snapping jaws to descend from above, with absolutely nowhere to run. Hex would stretch its body out nonetheless, a long coil of tendrils connecting its jaw to the oozing main body where it stood at the hunting ground's edge.

The white continued to circle. Ego felt it moving, erratic despite its sluggish build. Still it showed no hint of urgency, despite the dire speed at which its trapping jaws sprang out. Ego could only wonder why - and then, as the white filled her head and seized control of the Conduit through her, she was utterly gone, bereft of consciousness. There was just Hex, stretching high and pouring into the Conduit. As it was processed into the relic, a strange gravity bloomed within the two rings, increasing in intensity until the air shone a dim red. The Net had no natural procedure for such stimulus: time would tell what would manifest.

*SetArmour
1. Assembly [Large Broken under viruses, Buster Charge x2, Self Slow]
2. Full Charge Shot: Typhoon [120 Null {A}]
3. Dodge right around Broken
*One For All [Link Hex & Ego's HP, damage split evenly]
E1. Dodge Back
4. Buster Charge
5. Half Charge Shot: Ratton [60 Null {A}]
6. Dodge around Broken
E2. Dodge

A rushing sound seemed to emanate from inside ScorchMan's head, separate from the pulse of magma but getting louder the more he picked up speed. Griffin spoke often of adrenaline, a byproduct of stress that could amplify physical ability. Could Navis be capable of the same? He could feel the tunnel about to open up, four-three-two-one, and tucked himself into a pencil dive just as he breached the cavern. Deep in the magma pool, he felt for any sign of the Myriad and its starburst maw. Nothing just yet, but nonetheless he was gentle in pushing off the bottom, the barest scissoring kicks propelling him to the surface, projecting as best he could 'Nothing to see here, just a rock that fell through the bore,' He couldn't hear Griffin, so he was either back with Prose or just keeping quiet. Either one worked for him just fine, he thought as he made his way to the stone ledge and carefully felt his way out of the magma.

Charred black stone, red coal-glow, bright carved slices of molten river: this was ScorchMan's world, his sphere of influence. Most purpose-built Navis had one, a realm of knowledge they embodied, understanding intrinsically as an aspect of self. His Operator was a career firefighter, and so it was that ScorchMan came into this world a personification of heat, a living understanding of thermal energy. As he took in the cavern, ScorchMan wondered if his eyes would ever have made much difference, when it came to this sort of thing. Wondered, perhaps for the first time since the Incident, if he was fine just as he was, if it was correct for him to feel whole and unbroken in this black-red-white world. In this world that seemed to have been made just for him, he felt as much, enough that it took conscious effort to keep his flames low and contained, and not flare himself high to feel the world all the brighter.

While ScorchMan had his brush with existential joy, somewhere upstream Griffin was undergoing a similar expansion of thought (and, it must be said, somewhat of body). A look over Prose's shoulder would confirm that Griffin's window was still hanging around, having let ScorchMan go on ahead. Upon being noticed, he cocked his chin towards the borehole ScorchMan had disappeared down and affected a wry grin. "Ah, they grow up so fast," he chuckled, settling in to enjoy the show, such as it was. In Griffin's mind, a thread was steadily unspooling, and he found himself happy to follow the thread as long as it continued. To that end, he found himself treating the conversation with Prose like any barroom encounter, just letting his interest show and seeing where it got him. To the observant, that considering glance Prose had first noticed had graduated into a look considerably more sure of itself. One might have called Griffin's expression bold, even challenging if they were looking for it.

To that end, the big man let himself be a little insouciant when Prose brought up his fellow firefighters. "Oh, you mean Evan, he of the sun-kissed summer fun? Tell me, was it the scrum shorts and rugby socks, or the surfer-boy edition? Well, seeing as we've got such big fans, I suppose I could beg an autograph off him to send along. Perhaps if I had an address for it to get to? Possibly one with a video-call option...?" He waggled his eyebrows, playing up the blatant cad and letting his glinting eyes do some of the talking, in particular for Prose's 'accidental' wardrobe malfunction. In that moment, it really didn't seem to matter that he was talking to a NetNavi; really, it seemed no different from any other time he'd had a girl flirt with him over video-call, letting the physical barrier serve as a tease in its own right. Chuckling at the Navi girl's cheek (and cheeks, plural), he keyed the follow command and sent his window sliding down the bore with her.

His smile continued on even through Prose's more sobering confessions; any good firefighter knew how to balance work and play. "ScorchMan is pretty new to busting, it must be said. Actually, he didn't even start until after his, uh, accident," he gestured vaguely at his face. "Still, he's got some serious grit, and I like to think we work pretty well together. Plus he gets into it enough I expect Big Ugly will hardly notice you're there, it'll be so busy wrestling ScorchMan. We'll keep you safe, don't worry." It had to be said that Griffin Reim had one hell of a smile. It worked just as well for 'don't worry, ma'am, everyone's gonna get out safe and sound' as it did for 'I have every intention of rocking your world, if you're game for it'. If Prose had a use for both, Griffin was all the happier to offer it up. For the time being, the cavern dropped into view as Prose's gear carried her safely to the same rock ScorchMan had landed. Griffin quieted down, and seeing ScorchMan keeping his fires banked, followed suit by dimming his window light to a soft glow. "Right here, buddy," he murmured to his own Navi, and got a tight grin and a nod back. They were counting down to go-time now.

<(Being Level 2, Phase does not yet receive Bugfrags)>

"Hm? That went off quicker than I thought it would..." Vincent squinted at a readout, holding the BoyBomb chip to his ear and shaking as though he expected to hear it rattle. When no obvious defect seemed forthcoming, he shrugged and set it down to continue, "Well, Phase, that was a tad messy, but I suppose it could have gone much worse. Do you wish to continue?"

"Uhh, of course I'm gonna keep going? That one barely counted, c'mon," Still swatting at errant bees, Phase ran the collections engine without a glance. Whatever her reasons for being out here, tangible rewards had nothing to do with it. Nonetheless, the viewscreen saw fit to highlight the mystery data where it glimmered in a tree, and she wasn't about to turn her nose up at cracking it open. "Stand by to receive whatever this is," she said, sounding bored, and reached down a massive hand down through the tree's canopy to poke at its bounty with a finger.

<(Open GMD)>

"Oh, COME ON!!" Binding Dignity's movements, as Phase discovered, translated into a blaring alarm and a tactile gumming-up of her butterfly grips. Phase swore louder than Vincent would have thought her capable, revving Dignity's engine fruitlessly. At least the motions for the mech's arms were still mostly open, as she struggled to level the cannon. "What's the damn holdup over there?" she shouted.

"No." Vincent's patience, normally as deep a wellspring as he ever needed, was unused to being tried by his own Navi. A teacher, particularly a teacher of teenagers, needed to be tolerant of occasional bouts of idiocy, but he'd thought Phase above such fits. Being proven wrong stung in ways he was unprepared for. Stern-faced, he held a Battlechip up to Phase's PET, and put his foot down, "No more chips until you put your defences up. This is not how Dignity was meant to be operated."

Phase was no more prepared for resistance than her Operator; Vincent's words were met with a completely genuine jaw drop. Her eyes flashed dangerously; for a terrifying moment he worried her anger would win out over sense entirely. Then, through the PET came an explosive sigh, and a spike in Dignity's engine output. Net-side, supercooled water poured down Dignity's shoulders from her reservoir, flash-freezing into crystalline whorls where it flowed down her frame. "There, okay? Now hurry up!"

Dignity's engine wasn't finished churning. While the RageClaw loaded a contraption that resembled a bladed cowcatcher, runoff water continued pouring from the shoulder-mounted reservoir. Rather than stick to the well-coated armour plating, this wave rode the eight-metre plunge down the length of Dignity's chassis to pool and flash-freeze at her feet. Phase hunched over the many fine-grade levels nested deep in her control bank, directing the wave of ice to wash over the Viney where it lay planted in the ground, seeking to embrittle its hold on her. "Come on, come onnn-" she muttered, jamming a hand in the grip and slamming her whole shoulder into the motion. The cannon arm swung wild in its socket, RageClaw flailing as Phase sought out any hint of leverage she could muster, bringing Dignity's arm down against her own vine-tangled frame with a yell and a screech of metal on ice.

A rapid tapping at a mounted keyboard set a readout scrolling down Dignity's viewscreens. "Wind, then BoyBomb!" Phase barked. It was, Vincent thought, a step in the right direction if nothing else, and he proffered the two chips without comment. The first was deployed after a few moments, as soon as Phase was sure it would load with its business end brought to bear on the CanDevil. The virus' candlewicks were set to fluttering in the instant gale. The second came as fast as Phase could load it, for this one gave her no options in where it spawned.

A BoyBomb materialized at Dignity's feet. The control bank warbled an anxious chime and provided a timer, which was immediately erased out of annoyance. "Alright, you stupid arms, cooperate with me here," Grimacing, Phase set herself to the unenviable task of handling the bomb in the Net's most unwieldy mech suit, glad she at least wasn't stuck handling the volatile chip in her actual hands. The vines were hard enough to see from her cockpit view that there was no way of knowing if she was still ensnared. There was nothing for it but to rev as much steam up as Dignity could handle in the seconds she had, and hope the extra pressure would be enough to fight through the entanglement. The mech's one hand gingerly made to scoop the bomb into its RageClaw like a catcher's mitt. The blades lining the claw were a problem, but not one Phase had time to worry about. She squared Dignity's shoulders and cocked her throwing arm overhead, jamming the grips forward to send Dignity's arm wheeling in a dramatic half-circle. The BoyBomb sailed from her grip into the Windbox's tailwind, which would hopefully help her aim more than it hindered. "There, strategic enough for you?" she snarked at Vincent, and received a grudging snort of amusement for her troubles.

This left the Viney, thorny pain in her side that it was. The swarming insects could be a problem if her Underguard wore off, but she forced herself to ignore them in favour of the immediate threats. The DollThunder had done nothing; the readout, now Phase bothered to consult it, suggested nothing but fire would hurt the actual body, and having wasted the LavaCannon like an idiot she was fresh out. Her only recourse was the claw in her hand, and the hope that in its aggression it would overlook that potential danger. "Just try it, I dare you, I freaking dare you!" Keying the loudspeaker let her challenge ring out loud and clear, her free hand coming up in a cocky come-hither gesture. She tilted Dignity's head down as far as she could to eye the ground by her feet, looking as though she could be baiting a charge, but really scanning the ground for evidence of more vines coming from below. Surely she'd given it enough time to retaliate! Her claw scraped the ground in her irritation, eager to rake its tines through her adversary and be done with this. She'd do better with the next round, she knew she could!

-Turn Summary-
1. Phase Engine: Solid [62 HP Casing; 1TCD]
*SetIce [Large Ice Terrain in a straight line covering the distance between Dignity and Viney]
2. RageClaw1Damage: 40 + Slashing (Attack) OR 20 + Impacting (Throw)
Accuracy: B / B then B
Description: Creates an impressive bear claw. Can be used to slash or throw enemies or objects.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 6 uses.
Element: Null
Special: Throw: The wielder must first grab the target to be thrown, then the target is thrown in the direction/area indicated. A second check is made if against another object/enemy. Throw deals damage to both thrown object/enemy and the second object/enemy. Damage occurs at point of collision with the ground/wall/ceiling/etc. or an object/enemy, not during initial grab attempt. Objects deal their max HP in damage (instead of the chip's damage) if they hit an object/enemy, then break. If they miss, the object just takes the chip's damage. This chip has a variety of uses.
Trader Rank: D: Binding Vines [40 Null {B}, Slashing]
3. WindHP: 100
Properties: Anchored
Object Damage: 100 + Impact
Damage Method: Telekinesis
Status Effect: Wind Effect + To-All-Clause (Enemies)
Accuracy: S
Description: Creates a WindBox to push enemies back and reduce their accuracy.
Duration: 3 turns or until destroyed.
Element: Null
Special: Wind Type: This chip counts as Wind Type for the purposes of Wind triggered effects, such as traps and terrain.
Trader Rank: D: Spawn on Soil facing CanDevil A
4. BoyBomb1HP: 100
Properties: Normal
Object Damage: 220 + Blast3
Damage Method: Throw, Knockback, Microburst, Pull, Gravity, Telekinesis
Attack Damage: 220 + Blast3
Accuracy: Not Applicable
Description: Creates a BoyBomb1 on the field directly before you. The bomb may be pushed around until the end of the turn. The bomb will explode at the beginning of the following turn, dealing extremely heavy damage to anything nearby. Be somewhere else when that happens....
Duration: Until destroyed or the beginning of next turn.
Element: Null
Special: If enough damage is dealt to this object to destroy it, it will immediately explode instead.
Trader Rank: D [Spawned in front of Dignity]
5. RageClaw1Damage: 40 + Slashing (Attack) OR 20 + Impacting (Throw)
Accuracy: B / B then B
Description: Creates an impressive bear claw. Can be used to slash or throw enemies or objects.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 6 uses.
Element: Null
Special: Throw: The wielder must first grab the target to be thrown, then the target is thrown in the direction/area indicated. A second check is made if against another object/enemy. Throw deals damage to both thrown object/enemy and the second object/enemy. Damage occurs at point of collision with the ground/wall/ceiling/etc. or an object/enemy, not during initial grab attempt. Objects deal their max HP in damage (instead of the chip's damage) if they hit an object/enemy, then break. If they miss, the object just takes the chip's damage. This chip has a variety of uses.
Trader Rank: D: BoyBomb1 thrown at CanDevil A [20 Null Each {B}, Impact]
6. RageClaw1Damage: 40 + Slashing (Attack) OR 20 + Impacting (Throw)
Accuracy: B / B then B
Description: Creates an impressive bear claw. Can be used to slash or throw enemies or objects.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 6 uses.
Element: Null
Special: Throw: The wielder must first grab the target to be thrown, then the target is thrown in the direction/area indicated. A second check is made if against another object/enemy. Throw deals damage to both thrown object/enemy and the second object/enemy. Damage occurs at point of collision with the ground/wall/ceiling/etc. or an object/enemy, not during initial grab attempt. Objects deal their max HP in damage (instead of the chip's damage) if they hit an object/enemy, then break. If they miss, the object just takes the chip's damage. This chip has a variety of uses.
Trader Rank: D: Binding Vines [40 Null {B}, Slashing]

Meal consumed, the white resumed its crawl through SciLab's backrooms. The usual humming white noise of the Net's processes was left muted in its wake, as code was caught on its surface and torn from their processes. In time, the errors would fester into glitches and virtual rot, if left unchecked. Somewhere, days out, a debugger would be left sitting at their terminal, staring at strings of broken code and trying to determine why whole chunks of the line had just disappeared, as though erased by an errant backspace and forgotten.

This, from the barest fleeting touch. Time would tell what greater problems would be left to that Net repairman, as Hex continued on its path.

<(Seeking Battle #2, Hex 180/180 HP, Ego 90/90 HP)>

One meal remained. Hex made to pull it in like any other. Ego only prayed this one would not shriek as it was pulled apart.

<(Enter GMD)>

Sight returned to Ego in strange, disjointed clips of view. Dingy dim light, white oozing over the ground, these were to be expected. Their body wasn't her body anymore, wasn't a he or a she or anything recognizable at all. They might as well be an it, if not for the distressing truth to the plurality.

They couldn't move very much. There were no limbs on this body, just a warped pustule of a shell that couldn't do much but rock back and forth. They rocked back and forth anyway, if just to feel something. They had too many faces to make sense of, and too many eyes. The world stretched wide around them, and the virus they loomed over looked so very small. The white moved through them; they could do nothing to stop it, any more than a human's skin could stop its muscle. They were nothing but a part of it.

And Hex had no further need for eyes or ears or brains, so here they are, awake and aware and unable to do anything but watch. Watch as, bloated from its feed, it stretched a pair of tongues. Unhurried, they oozed from the rents in its carapace. Confident enough, Ego thought, in its dominance over its prey to feel no need to immobilize or kill. Instead they just leaned in to lap at the Miner, their touch rasping and corrosive.

They were not quick about it.

And what would follow a tongue, but the mouth from which it stretches? Hex's carapace unfolded into a segmented abstraction, the base widening its purchase in the ground while the length of it narrowed into something like a long worm. At its tip, a ring of jagged, shivered teeth ground together: a logical endpoint of mechanical digestion, breaking matter down to allow the white greater immersion. Maw hanging overhead, Hex bit down, not hard enough to shatter outright, but enough for the limits of mortality to feel very near. Why such restraint? The question pounded like a physical force in Ego's mind, the implications vast enough to crush her beneath the processing load.

It had no brain, no thoughts, nothing with which to glean pleasure, or provide malevolent intent. So why, Ego wonders, would it wait? What purpose could be served by holding a tiny, squirming child up to your mouth, giving it time to learn the sharpness of your teeth and the crushing strength of your jaw, and the realization that any further life was a bygone dream? Where did this fit in the simple, defining equation of more equals more equals more? The white had no answer, it only swelled itself in its carapace until Ego felt their borrowed skin tearing at the seams. The world jumped and skipped as their perception skipped seconds at a time, the processing load of so much sensation too much to handle. It was the closest thing to mercy they had at hand, that they need not feel every moment in its entirety.

Finally, finally Hex's mouth came down. If only that were a mercy! That the torment were to end with one final bite; that consciousness and life should be snuffed out, to be mercifully absent for the process of digestion. This would not be, for however much of a virus might be as meat to the white, the true prize it stripped viruses of their bodies for was the mind within: that little spark of life that made a being a being, that gave it thoughts and choices and wants and needs. Those, it took, and deep in its belly brought into itself in some unseen unity, some process none could see, but Ego could hear. And those pieces, sewn together in Ego's head and gnawed on to fuel the white's own processing - those pieces never, ever stopped screaming.

E1. Watch
1. Buster Shot: Miner [15 Null {A}]
2. Buster Shot: Miner [15 Null {A}]
3. Half Charge Shot: Miner [60 Null {A}]
4. Buster Charge
5. Wait
6. Charge Shot: Miner [120 Null {A}]
E2. Listen

"Heh, sounds like a normal day in corpo-world." Griffin's snark aside, Navi and Operator were quiet for much of Prose's exposition, both alternating between thoughtful nods and rueful smirks at the thought of such a costly error of judgment. Around the moment Prose bent over to examine the bore, Griffin chimed in, "Hang on ScorchMan, I just need to take a look at something." With a bit of fiddling, Griffin found the PET window controls, and flipped the camera around momentarily to check the bore. This only took a second; still working the controls, he called, "Yep, okay, now let's see here..." the camera flipped back to the two Navis, and sank down to roughly waist-height, doing a slow orbit around the shapely lagomorph. "Daaaaang," he couldn't help but murmur, his eyes a little glazed over. After a moment of taking the liberties Prose so generously offered, he blinked several times, adjusted his shorts, and, voice just a little huskier than normal, coughed out, "...right, that'll do," and continued listening to Prose's findings with a thoughtful frown. Prose's strange choice of wording was not lost on the big man, no matter where his thoughts may have been in that moment, but now didn't seem like the time to clarify the matter.

Standing right beside Prose, ScorchMan was nodding along absently, his attention obviously somewhat impaired. The borehole called to him in a wordless language of heat and light. The buffeting air currents set a-flurry by the thermal anomaly beckoned like coaxing fingers, the glow of it singing in ScorchMan's mind an imperative siren song. Dazed, almost hypnotized, he spoke, "Griffin, can you send down a subchip?" As it turned out, he could, and as ScorchMan's venting flame brightened visibly to a steady yellow glow, he started towards the bore the moment Prose started in on her preparations. His hands came up in front of him, less like a blind man's reach and more like he meant to dive headfirst down the shaft. "I'll go on ahead, in case the landing zone needs clearing out!"

Theirs was a relationship of push and pull, one guiding the other into battle and giving direction. As ScorchMan made to blaze forward, Griffin was there to call out a laughing, "Whoa there, buddy!" It was enough to make the Navi rock back on his ankles, though he still fairly bounced with enthusiasm. Chuckling, Griffin slotted in a chip and elaborated, "Let's dial it back a notch, alright? Ease yourself in, and use this as a brake," he indicated the RageClaw as he slotted it in, tried-and-true utility chip that it was. "Now if I'm right, those walls are still wet enough you'll probably find yourself speeding up, even using the extra surface area as resistance. If you find you're going too fast..." he trailed off, a faraway look on his face indicative of a rogue train of thought; he bit his bottom lip, worrying it between his teeth for a moment. Shaking his head a bit, he straightened his face and continued, "eh, that is to say, the tunnel should be narrow enough that if you need, you can push off one side with your legs, and give yourself enough leverage to reach something solid with that claw there. If you start to lose control, hold on as tight as you can 'til Prose reaches you, and grab on. Make sense to you?"

ScorchMan's gauntlet unfurled into a wide array of hooks like a gardening rake. Feeling out the tines with his off-hand, then testing a few overhead stretches, he nodded once and crouched down to feel out the mouth of the tunnel with his boot. With his RageClaw held behind him, ScorchMan let gravity take hold of him, and surrendered to the thrill of the fall, testing the purchase of his brake by digging in a little deeper, then a little looser. When he felt confident, ScorchMan relaxed his grip until just the tips of the claws skated through the glowing slag, and committed to the plunge.

<(MiniEnergyPack x1 used, ScorchMan.EXE at 120/120 HP)>
<(RageClaw1 equipped, using as ablative brake)>