Posts made by Sage

There was the virus alarm again, high and shrill to herald the incoming Mettank. Even no larger than Dignity's foot, the Metavirus still boasted more than twice the mech's vitality, to say nothing of the firepower it boasted. Phase glanced at the PET screen, still vacant; Vincent must not have heard. Reaching over the control bank, Phase killed the alarm, and...said nothing. Instead, she just cranked the temperature gauge and fired up the ice-maker, just like she'd done what felt like dozen of times by now. She had this. She had this, and she didn't need to be told what to do!

With a roar of gears and steamwhistles, Dignity stepped forward to challenge the Mettank. Rime-water poured from her shoulder down one arm, hyper-chilled to the point of turning thick and sludgy where it clung to the brass plating. Swinging her left grip in a long push, Phase directed the SetIce program the length of a long, arcing throw down the clearing, Dignity pushing out a wave of ice to sweep out and flash-freeze over the muddy ground, aiming for another patch of clear footing farther away. With Dignity's onboard systems translating Phase's intent into tangible effect, the resultant path was wide enough for the brass colossus to walk the length of, and Phase wasted no time in doing just that, pushing off with force enough to set Dignity's feet skidding down the ice at a decent clip.

Another charge of Dignity's engine, and Phase set the reservoir to churning a second time. More rime came gushing out, this time soaking the mech completely in a flash-freezing flood. Ice shattered around Dignity's joints where the mech pivoted and swiveled, leaving small waterfalls of frozen grit behind her where she slid. Her legs slid through a skater's routine, the smooth motion looking frankly bizarre on such a lumbering body. Yet Dignity did not falter, nor stumble. Her great feet ran smooth over the ice, leaving wide trails of friction-ground smoothness behind her where she carved a path around the massive tree's trunk, keeping the tree between herself and the charging Mettank.

Just as Dignity's skid had continued long enough to bait an attacker into leading their shot, Phase wrenched back on one control as hard as she could, while pushing the other as far as it would go. Dignity immediately wheeled into a ninety-degree turn, her feet pushing forward into a hockey stop. As quickly as she'd stopped, Phase jerked her control arms and made Dignity kick forward with her lead foot, spinning the mech in a tight pivot that was helped along by the slick ice underfoot. Her cannon was brought to bear on the more mobile CrazyRazy, tracking the virus where it flew unhindered over the ice. After a moment's consulting of the display screens, Phase jinked her grip up a notch, and focused on the virus' rider. Her free hand made for the gearbox's stick shift.

As Dignity's engine up-shifted, the noise of her massive gear-churning engine pitched up. The clearing filled with the sound of spinning gears, and the whine of steam-pressurized pipes. Phase's hands ran smooth over the controls, her face set in concentration as she aimed with her left hand. Dignity's cannon came up with a gurgle of pipes, while the mech's reservoir churned once more. Aided by the high-pressure steam, the flood of water came out like a bullet, aimed to shoot the Genin off the CrazyRazy's back.

-Turn Summary-
*SetIce [Large Ice Terrain running north to south, bridging two patches of Normal terrain]
1. Dodge onto Ice
2. Phase Engine: Solid [62 HP Casing; 1TCD]
3. Feint south down Ice, use Elder Tree for cover
4. Dodge back
5. Phase Engine: Setup [Take Aim, Strengthen 30; 1TCD]
6. Phase Engine: Liquid: Genin [40 Aqua + 20 Strengthen {A}; 1TCD]

The white writhed and surged like waves on the tide. As the Sledge closed the distance, the oozing pool reached back with glistening feelers. Bodies were pushed up to the surface, grey and hollow and gaping, and pulled into a gruesome tableau of skin and armour. Hands flexed open and shut like prisoners reaching through their cell bars, but it was only that reached through them, a prisoner only of its unceasing appetite.

All at once the tide rushed in. There was no rhythm to be observed in its motion, no thought driving the thing the Net called Hexadecimal. There was only the push, the ceaseless force which with the white reached. The Sledge was close, close enough that the white rising would seem a vaster space than any Navi (or something taking the form of a Navi) had any right to take up. So near, and yet so exotic as to seem a distant world all its own. The world hungered, and reached with voracious intent.

Just as the world seemed about to vanish altogether behind the white curtain, with an upsetting lurch Hex was pulled back. The Conduit pulsed with dim red light where it was lodged in the white - in moving its puppet, Hex moved itself. Ooze retracted slithering on itself, pulling out of reach and piling higher. It grew. It grew. It grew, and grew, and swelled, and bloated, and burst ribbons of white from its seams to splatter and spread across the ground.

The Egomorph stretched limbs and dragged the tide further back once more. It teetered high, high overhead, stretching vast limbs in every angle. Where did one aim, when the enemy was all around you? Where did one run, when the world had reduced itself to the ground on which you stood, and a great maw of a curtain descending all around? The white tide surged back in, twice over as heavy and hungry as its first lunge. Grasping fingers dove upon the Sledge like teeth in a gnashing jaw.

The tide pushed, and pulled back. Hex withdrew to slither out of the Sledge's reach once more. Mass pushed back into the pool under its own weight was built back up, dragged in and out of its window from the white world beyond.

-Turn Summary-

*SetArmour [40 HP Casing, Hex]
1. Half Charge Shot: Sledge [60 Null {A}]
E1. Dodge
2. Buster Charge
3. Buster Charge
E2. Dodge
4. Charge Shot: Sledge [120 Null {A}]
5. Dodge
6. Buster Charge

"Well! I should think that round went rather well, all things considered!" Vincent tapped a few keys and ran Dignity's collection engine, then rose to his feet, wincing only slightly at the extensive time spent sitting. "I'm off to make a cuppa, alright? I'll just be in the other room, so you can call if you need anything." No reply - Phase just snorted and set Dignity back to walking. "...Right, I'm off then." Awkwardly, Vincent stepped away to his kettle and busied himself perhaps overmuch going about his business. Waiting, perhaps, for even a smart remark, but there would be none of that.

Net-side, Phase felt uncomfortable in some wretched, impossible to pin down sort of way. While Dignity's temperatures were running nominal again, her skin still felt overheated and overly sensitive where her leather suit rubbed and chafed. With a cry of irritation, she clawed at her jacket's buckles until she was able to tear the whole thing off, plucking at the tank top underneath where sweat had soaked it to a clinging mess. That was better, she thought as she leaned back into the control grips, but still she felt itchy somehow. Absently her thumbs ran and picked at her fingernails where her hands clenched and steered Dignity. Out of this strange glass-and-magnet board the Mimic had warped her, and aimlessly out into the jungle the mech walked once more, trampling the grass under massive, brass-shod feet.

<(Searching for Battle #3, Dignity.CMD at 100/100 HP)>

Taking a deep, steadying breath, there was nothing for Griffin to do but ride out Prose's rejection. Rolling onto his back, he breathed deep and let it go with a rueful grin and an, "Ah, well," and that was the end of that. Standing, he finally made to leave the station gym, staring into the holographic PET window as he walked the halls into the bunkroom. Given it was midday, the room was deserted, and Griffin flicked the lights on and took up a desk, emptying his chip folder across the desktop and taking the time to sort them. His easy grin hardened into a more battle-ready baring of teeth, listening intently both to Prose's battle plan, and keeping his eyes and ears primed on the dim cavern. "ScorchMan, light up a little, will you? I need to see what kind of footing you've got," he ordered.

ScorchMan, quiet through Prose's strategy and only startling a little at the touch of his emblem, nodded without a word. As Prose gave him some distance, a venting of flame rose from his shoulders in a dancing pillar, casting its flickering yellow light deeper into the shadows than the lava's ruddy glow could manage. The foreign fire in his chest was strange, but familiar in a way he didn't know how to quantify. Would he have time to examine the feeling before the Myriad appeared? It didn't seem worth wasting time for in the moment, so ScorchMan resigned himself to one more unanswered question, and thought back to the first fight with the rogue program. What had worked, and what hadn't? What might work again, and what would the Myriad be ready for? As he felt his way deeper into the cavern, pillar of flame swaying and dancing overhead, he considered the Myriad's ferocity.

"Griffin, have a Guard ready, will you? And if it thinks it's down here repairing something...be on the lookout for anything, uh, broken," he murmured as he went. Was this entire cavern not a broken bit of Net-space? Hard to gauge what was natural here, if the whole thing amounted to one big stupid accident. While Griffin kept his eyes on the rocky walls, ScorchMan knelt down and dipped his hands into the magma where it pooled at the rocky shore, feeling for where it flowed, what it was flowing through, or around.

More alarms made themselves known, alongside a series of red warning lights spanning Dignity's control bank. "What the hell does all that mean?" Phase swore.

"Temperature's rising, must be a glitch!" Dignity's system readouts were a veritable maze where they sprawled across Vincent's computer, to the point diagnosing was as much guesswork as actual deducing. Thinking fast, he offered, "Try to keep Dignity's pressure down, you'll rupture a pipe if the steam buildup runs away on us."

Phase wanted to make a smart remark about Vincent keeping her pressure down, but there wasn't time to think of it. Instead she reached for the temperature dial and cranked it as low as it would go. Dignity's reservoir immediately cranked out a deluge of rime enough to spill to the ground and freeze underfoot, but the temperature of Dignity's internal pipeworks continued to rise unabated. "Well that didn't work!" she complained, shoving her shoulder into the right butterfly grip to set Dignity back into a strafe. If nothing else, the ice underfoot was making it easier on the mech, her gyros automatically compensating for the frozen ground and resolving the awkward stomping into a smoother, skating gait. All the while she eyed the temperature - even standing on ice, the buildup continued. "Vincent, how do I fix it before something ruptures?"

"I'm working on it! Just keep up the movement - wait for the cannonball virus to open up!" Vincent got another grumbled cuss for his efforts.Making the cockpit as complex to control had perhaps been an oversight, he mused as he watched Phase flail between controls. Perhaps the control scheme needed updating, but Phase was at least making it work for now, Dignity strafing across her icy runoff with as much grace as could be expected of a piston-legged colossus. From his view Vincent could see her aim: she was trying to put the Mimic between her and the DeadHead, so as to hit them both. Now she had a hand free to load the Battlechip - yes, there, Dignity's cannon was re-configuring.

Net-side, Phase found herself too short of breath for comfort. The heat in the cockpit was oppressive, and the leather of her pilot suit trapped the steam and sweat against her skin in a way that was quickly becoming unbearable. Her hands slipped on the hot metal grips - irritated, she wiped them on her hands and focused on aiming. Thankfully nothing was moving, she had enough to worry about without having to track moving targets, so long as the Mimic loomed before her. Instinct screamed to retreat and gain distance, but between the speed of the Mimic's beam and the effective range of the DeadHead, distance wouldn't make her any safer. Better to strafe, and try to line the two viruses up to get the most use of her Battlechip. She'd given the DeadHead time to try loosing a shot on her, now it was time to return fire before she had to see what taking a cannonball felt like.

The lightning rod Dignity's cannon had unfurled sparked with enough raw juice to destroy the virus twice-over, if she could just line up her shot, clenching the control until it hurt so as not to risk her sweaty hands slipping. Upon pulling the trigger, the DollThunder blasted forth in a jagged, fluorescent-bright streak, piercing unabated to the far end of the arena where the DeadHead sat. Phase could smell the ozone even twenty-some feet above the thunderbolt, blinking glare from her eyes as she returned her attention to the Mimic. Over the whining pipes she yelled, "Vincent, it's getting pretty damn hot in here! You got anything or not?"

From the speaker Vincent's voice crackled, "It's in your buster systems! Use Dignity's cannon on its own without Battlechips, and the pressure should let off." Without leaving room for second thoughts, Phase levelled Dignity's cannon on the Mimic and fired off a shot, quick and underwhelming as base busters always were, and with no visible changes to Dignity's pressure. "No, the - the secondary trigger behind the primary, hold that one down! That primes Dignity's reservoir for a charged shot!" She found the trigger in question, and was relieved to hear at least one alarm cut out. On the other hand, the temperature in the cockpit immediately increased further, as close as Dignity's cockpit was to the reservoir where steam was building.

With one final curse to Vincent's design sense and need to over-complicate what didn't need to be complicated, Phase contorted her fingers into the controls until she found the condition to fire, and wasted no time letting it fly. Dignity's temperature immediately dropped, all the pent-up heat and pressure converting into a powerful burst of boiling water directly in the Mimic's abstract face. Phase noisily gusted a sigh of relief, leaning back in her seat and taking her hands off the controls to scrub at her face. "Man, if that didn't do it, I'm gonna be pissed," she muttered, mostly to herself, but the microphone caught it anyway. Vincent sighed in reply, but didn't comment.

-Turn Summary-
*SetIce [Large Ice Terrain centred on Dignity]
*Overheated Buster* [Buster Charge]
1. Dodge right
2. Line up Mimic & DeadHead
3. DollThunder2Damage: 100 + Line-Attack5
Accuracy: B
Description: Fires a powerful bolt of lightning that pierces through objects and enemies alike.
Duration: Once
Element: Elec
Trader Rank: C: DeadHead, Mimic [100 Elec {B}, Line Attack 5]
4. Buster Shot: Mimic [10 Null {A}]
5. Buster Charge
6. Charge Shot: Mimic [40 Aqua {A}]

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: ACTIVATE] 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)>

Phase snarled at the sudden shock of the alarm. It was the first time Vincent had ever seen her make such a face, and even though her expression smoothed not a second later into a bland focus, hands flicking across the controls with practised motions, the sight remained burned into his mind. Vincent was a scientist, his mind felt questions keenly, and this one felt particularly pressing, 'Why was that so upsetting?' However, now was not the time; the man resolved to examine his private hows and whys later, and withdrew a Battlechip. "Defences up, Phase, this should pair well with Dignity's shields," he reported, ready to start up their usual strategy.

"No time for that, just give me a weapon." Phase's voice was clipped short of inflection. In a window on Dignity's viewscreen, Vincent opened his mouth to argue, then apparently thought better of it and reached for another chip. Good for him, Phase thought, and dismissed the screen to focus on the viruses. Dignity's engine chugged as it processed the Battlechips, one at a time to prevent overload. Begrudgingly, she loaded the UnderGuard first, bouncing her leg anxiously while she waited for the defence to take hold. Run through Dignity's systems, the body armour manifested in a deluge of strangely thick water from Dignity's reservoir, which did not splash to the ground but instead clung like adhesive to her chassis.

No sooner than the last drop of converted water had left, did Phase bring up Dignity's cannon. A long, thin metal rod extended from the barrel, studded along its lengths with tines bent up towards its tip. The discharge was not immediate, for precious seconds Phase had to manoeuvre the targeting reticle around the viewscreen by pivoting her arms in the butterfly grips, and hold steady once she'd lined the marker up on the beaked vine-creature directly ahead. Her teeth clenched, Phase held her firing stance as tense as she dared, her right hand squeezed the grip trigger, and Dignity's lightning rod lit up a searing blue-white. The mech's arms were long enough for her to sling the cannon almost at ground-level, the resultant bolt carving a jagged line through the underbrush with a noise like a growling beast: thunder, at twenty paces. "Keep going, I need more!" Phase barked through her grit teeth.

"Don't you think you ought to put up a shield?" Vincent complained, but Phase wasn't listening, just clicked her empty trigger finger impatiently until he sighed and relented. The lightning rod had yet to finish retracting when Phase loaded the LavaCannon, which procced a momentary system alert but nonetheless generated a secondary chamber in Dignity's reservoir, along with a thick metal tube that extended down the cannon's hosepipe with a rapid-fire chakchakchakchak. Steam whooshed around the mech's shoulders, while her cannon's vent whistled like an enormous teakettle.

Firing stance still held, Phase threw her left shoulder and set Dignity on a slow pivot, holding the cannon steady while the mech slowly shuffled one piston leg at a time. "Come onnnn-!" Phase complained throughout the lineup, unwilling to risk her firing line but itching to keep shooting. Finally her reticle chimed, Dignity's viewport facing down the pair of CanDevils. Abandoning language in favour of a more primitive lexicon, the Navi's complaint degenerated into a wordless noise of frustration, which quickly became a yelp when the LavaCannon's report threw her in her seat. Phase had never fired a bigger weapon than this, more a quick high-pressure hosedown of lava than a true projectile, and she felt every pound of force in the recoil that thrummed through her trigger grip. The offspray set several inconsequential bits of foliage into quick-burning brushfires, the destruction bringing Phase a strange, sick sense of relief. "More!" she bit out again as she leaned back in.

Vincent was quicker this time to anticipate the command, though he couldn't help a plaintive, "Really now!" Sighing, he ran through the readouts in front of him and chose another chip from the stronger end of his folder; if Phase was going to forgo strategy, he would at least do his best to help her get through the fight as quickly as possible. Upon slotting it into the PET, he immediately saw Phase lean into her right grip to rotate the shoulder launcher, while Dignity stood stock-still with her arms frozen in place. Yes, strategy had definitely been forgone.

The AquaNeedle was compatible enough with Dignity's systems to be loaded without configuring, and Phase wasted no time in putting her aim to the test. Thankfully she was still ambidextrous, and her right hand was equally up to task in lining up a shot. This time the target reticle mapped itself to the forest floor, a wireframe parabola tracing the firing arc onto a bright blue circle. "Vincent, would you just keep the chips coming?" she huffed - the target circle was annoyingly large to account for the physics of ballistics, and there was no way of pointing the mortar directly at the CanDevils. All Phase could do was centre the reticle as close as she could, mash the trigger, and hope for good winds. The triple volley of liquid javelins sailed well past the treeline from the force of Dignity's howitzer, whistling like cartoon anvils all the way back down. A double-stack of chips followed without a word; Vincent had likely tired of the back and forth. Good, Phase thought, that was exactly what she wanted.

The two chips were simple fare, Dignity's earliest bread and butters. The cannon needed no adjustment in frame, just one large step to spin the whole mech in a messy about-face that Phase immediately regretted, the whole world seeming to heave underfoot. Thankfully aiming Dignity's cannon was one of her simplest controls, and the HoneyBomber was far enough away Phase could straighten the mech's arm to point straight at it. The Shotgun cracked off first, a thick wad of buckshot spraying wholesale out the cannon's wide mouth, winging enough flechette to shred yet more distant brush. For the Cannon, Phase brought Dignity's right arm up to brace the gun-mounted left, and shoved her whole bodyweight into the seat as she squeezed the trigger once more. Dignity's cannon barked once more, this round a deeper, throatier report, and the sturdier round knocked a solid hole through the trunk of a distant tree. "Come on, what's left, give me something," Phase's neck felt tight with tension. Distantly, she noticed her teeth grinding together.

-Turn Summary-
1. UnderGuard1Protection: Damage Reduction 20
Accuracy: S
Description: Reduces the damage of all non-Impact attacks taken by 20. Impact ignores the effect and deals double damage.
Duration: 2 turns
Element: Null
Special: Status Guard: This chip blocks debuffs.
Trader Rank: D [20 HP Damage Reduction]
2. DollThunder2Damage: 100 + Line-Attack5
Accuracy: B
Description: Fires a powerful bolt of lightning that pierces through objects and enemies alike.
Duration: Once
Element: Elec
Trader Rank: C: Viney [100 Elec {B}, Line Attack 5]
3. LavaCannon2Damage: 120 + Lava Panel Boost(+40)
Accuracy: B
Description: Fires a blast of magma from a cannon. If the user is standing on Lava terrain at the time of use, this chip's power is boosted by 40.
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Trader Rank: C: CanDevilA [120 Fire {B}]
4. 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: CanDevilB [25 Aqua x 3 Hits {B}, Drop Attack]
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: HoneyBomber [50 Null {A}, Spread1]
6. CannonDamage: 60 + Knockback
Accuracy: A
Description: A decent sized cannon with a single shot.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Trader Rank: E: HoneyBomber [60 Null {A}, Knockback]

"YEAH-HAH!!" Always ready to play hype-man for his Navi, Griffin's yelling sparked up right as the HammerToss impacted. "You sure you can't see, bro, 'cause that was the sickest bulls-eye I've ever seen!"

"Heh! Hmm, let me check..." ScorchMan, still coming down off his adrenaline rush, made a show of slipping a hand up behind his visor and feeling around, "uhh, checking, checking...nope, still no eyes. Guess I didn't need 'em in the first place!" The wreath of white flame burned down along with the adrenaline; by the time ScorchMan waded his way through the tunnel towards Prose, he better resembled his milder countenance that had been her first impression, if with somewhat better humour. "Doing fine, thanks," he replied to her with a mostly on-target smile, stretching out his shoulders.

The PET chimed to indicate a transfer, which Griffin tabbed through one-handed while he did mountain-climbers. "Nice little haul there, ScorchMan, good work. Let me know if you want a top-up, I saw that last one ding you," he chimed in, puffing as he set the PET down and upped his pace. Turning his attention to the other side of his split-screen, he finished out his set and sat back on his knees. "So! You were looking busy in there, Prose, find anything good? In fact, why don't we have a look just the two of us? ScorchMan thinks he's too good for that sort of thing...looking, that is!"

"Ha ha," ScorchMan huffed out in the driest of deadpans - though, given his mouth was the only visible part of his face, the curled lip gave him away somewhat. "Hope the lava isn't an issue," he addressed the other Navi, unable to help feeling out the shape of the melted bore. The thought of diving down that molten pit sent a thrill of anticipation through him. Clearly, ScorchMan was still a bit keyed up in ways he'd never needed to express before. It came out in the almost childlike cast of his enthusiasm, and the eagerness with which he followed Prose for answers.

The jack-in process was stymied several times by Yumland Net's less-than-hospitable terrain. Finding a level spot to touch down took long enough that Phase was well past frustrated when she finally made Net-fall. The chug of Dignity's engine should have been soothing, it had never been anything but, but in the mood Phase was in she could only complain at the noise. "Did you have to make this thing such a rattle-trap? It's so damn noisy!" she cried out, every inch a teenager in the throes of a hissy-fit.

Vincent knew better than to argue, instead he side-tracked. "Virus readings are in the red, Phase, you'd better keep an eye out. And watch your footing," he eyed the terrain uneasily. He didn't see this ending well for them, but wisely chose not to say so.

"And another thing! Why does Dignity have to be so freaking huge?! Y'know what needs to be this huge in the Net? Nothing, that's what!" Phase leaned into the butterfly grips to start Dignity's ponderous walk cycle. Thankfully there was some semblance of an auto-balancer keeping the cockpit level, for the mech's journey through Yumland Net's underbrush was anything but graceful. Not to mention, loud enough to draw all the attention Phase could want, and she most certainly wanted something she could take her frustrations out on.

<(Searching for Battle #1, Dignity.CMD at 100/100 HP)>

Phase was restless. It was one more symptom of her new physiology, Vincent noted as he ate his supper. He winced - too much horseradish - and watched Phase pace. And pace. And jimmy with the PET's hologram settings until she stood on the ceiling. And paced. He took another bite. Still too much horseradish.

It was quiet, an awkward sort of quiet neither knew how to breach. "I," Phase started, and fell silent. Her Operator watched, so patient it was annoying. She wanted him to snap, she wanted him to be annoyed and ask what she was doing so she could be mad at him. That wasn't fair, though, she was too rational for that, and she was mad at herself for even thinking it. Ugh! Everything was annoying.

"Do - do you need to blow off some steam?" Vincent dared venture. He finished his disappointing supper, washed his plate and cutlery, and filled a glass of water. A stack of worksheets waited at his desk with baleful eyes and bad handwriting.

Phase was quiet for a long time, long enough he was halfway through the third page before she replied. "I want to break something." It was an unsettling sort of phrase from a Navi that, just a few short months ago, had been nothing but chipper. Vincent wondered at that - had she been happy being so one-dimensional? Was this better? Instead he just loaded up Dignity's docking bay and ran the pre-flight checklist. Every inch a tiny, disgruntled teenager, Phase threw her piloting jacket over her shoulder and snuffed out her hologram without a word. Vincent sighed, and went back to his grading.

<(Jacking in)>

"We have to help them, Vincent, we have - we have -" Phase's voice was coming out keening, bordering on a wail. Her hands kept skittering around the control bank nonsensically, looking for the one magic lever that would make their problems go away. "Vincent, please, tell me what to do, I don't know what to do!" Her breathing was getting funny, why was breathing so hard, how did humans do it?

"Phase." Her father's Operator's voice snapped her back into herself, that one low syllable the most comforting sound in the world. "I think we'd better leave." He sounded unhappy, but firm. She knew that voice, she'd heard it most every day. There were always students in need of a firm, decisive directive, and apparently she was one of them today.

She swallowed a whine, but her hands finally seemed to be working again, and she obediently keyed the jack-out procedure. Just before Dignity warped out, she keyed the loudspeaker and whispered a quiet, "Good luck," to her audience. Then, the mini-mech was gone, like the last few minutes of chaos had never happened.

<(Soft-lock disengaged, jacking out)>