feeling blue
Squid Adler had been met with a concrete block to the face, the impact strong enough to knock him back a good distance.
"You ok?!" asked Steven, now getting worried.
"I'm fine. That really hurt though..." said Squid Adler, rubbing his face.
"Well, time for the counter-attack. M-Cannon, go!" said Steven, inserting the chip
Soon Squid Adler's hand morphed into a big cannon
"Let's give Gear and the others some company, then we can strike hard!" said Steven, pumping his fist.
"Understood!"
Squid Adler soon joined Assault Gear's group, Gemini Man's assistance helping them defend themselves from attacks further. His cannon was ready, just waiting for a good opening for a clear shot.
The Phantom Thief
"Hey, concrete face! Eat laser sword!"
Vile reappears next to Concrete Man, slashing the Navi's concrete shooter.
edited 3rd Mar '15 1:08:20 PM by ZenithBloodedge
The measure of a man is not his courage, but rather the size of his gun.
Bark Bark Man
Vile's sword successfully cut through ConcreteMan's concrete-spewing buster. The Net Navi was confused, and hit the ground hard. An opening! Unload everything you've got!
TurboMan and SheepMan had successfully evacuated the construction worker's Navis out of the area. In the real world, Ms. Hammond and Richard also did the same, but for the workers themselves.
All that was left now was to apprehend the target, and delete the Navi.
"Gimme your pants.. and now your other pants"
"Assault combat!" Rai called out loading in a new battlechip.
Gear let out a loud laugh as his vulcan disappeared and a rifle like weapon replaced it. It had a large weapon underneath the main barrel.
In a instant he opened fire upon the Navi.
feeling blue
"Make it hurt, Squid!" said Steven.
"As you wish."
With the opening given to him, Squid Adler proceeded to unload the M-Cannon on Concrete Man, trying to maximize damage as much as possible.
The Phantom Thief
"Vile! Unload everything your blaster has!"
"No need to tell me twice!"said Vile as he shot at the enemy Navi.
The measure of a man is not his courage, but rather the size of his gun.
Mike grinned.
Alright! Let's up the ante completely! Fanfare!" He fed the chip into his PET.
Suddenly, what looked like a golden horn on top of a microphone stand appeared behind Beat, as well as the rest of the group.
It began to play a triumphant tune, which would momentarily make the group completely invulnerable for just a brief couple of seconds, just to further close in victory.
"Everybody! Go crazy!" Beatman yelled with utter exuberance, before unloading his buster upon Concreteman with full force.
edited 3rd Mar '15 6:34:11 PM by lightdarkhero250
I'm a ghost, you didn't see me.
"Hrrrgh!" Chill Penguin reared up and smashed his face against the concrete. "FARO, JUST DUMP EVERYTHING ELSE LEFT!"
"Oh, uh, let's see..." Faro just crammed all his other chips into his PET: "Spreader, Wideshot!"
Chill Penguin's mouth opened up... then again, wider. Both the Spreader and the Wideshot sat inside, and unleashed a torrent of buster shots straight at the Navi. "Hih honhy hu had hih-hend!"
Military Grade Shitposter
"GET WRECKED!"
No longer bothering to hide behind cover, RifleMan stepped out, took a moment to steady his Cannon, and unloaded round after round into ConcreteMan's prone form.
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."
"Mission finished". Blaine pressed a chip onto his PET, and Magma Dragoon recognized the data as soon as it was inserted. The Navi answered with a grin.
"So much talk and no bite! That was most disappointing!". Still, his smirk was as wide as a blood knight's would be. As he cupped his hands, a ball of fire started taking form on its center, and soon Dragoon fired it with a thrust of his hands, the fire ball rocketing toward the defenseless enemy.
With the hostages safely out of the way and the mission almost complete, Roswell withdrew his weapon, turned off the safety, and made his move, running from cover to cover as he tried to close in on the human target.
"WOOT WOOT!" Gemini Man shouted as he rushed in on the practically beaten Concrete Man. He generated another clone as he ran in, who proceeded to help him with a boosted jump. Then, mid-air, he dismissed the first clone and created another. The two spun around once, which ended with the clone being send fly straight at Concrete to deliver a finishing blow.
"PAWNCH!" The clone shouted as he closed and swung his fist, caring little about what damage he might take in the process from all the crossfire.
Bark Bark Man
ConcreteMan exploded from everyone's combined attacks. His normally very resistant and durable arm tore away without much hesitation from the torrent of projectiles and strikes.
The word "DELETED" appeared where he once stood, before zooming up and out of sight.
Immediately, every Navi present had their eyes see a quick cycle of 4 overlain colors, before it stopped on the fifth. The remnants of data left after ConcreteMan's deletion were now visible as tiny sparkles gently floating around his deletion-point.
This was what SheepMan had talked about earlier. The minute remains of a Navi after their deletion.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Ms. Hammond had managed to capture Sears with the help of some local policemen (Roswell being under that category, despite being a former member of the force) and firemen. The man in question was currently roughly shoved into a police car. His PET was confiscated and his hands had been cuffed.
Richard was currently leading a troop of workers to reorganize the area. While a quiet man, he seemed to be multi-talented.
Walking up to Roswell, Ms. Hammon clapped him on the shoulder and addressed everyone else present.
"You all did extraordinarily well today. Gives me some hope that we can beat Mitsuba Channel, ya know?" she said with a slight smile.
Hopefully that NetNavi has some helpful information
"Gimme your pants.. and now your other pants"
The Gemini Man clone, damaged but not defeated, stood up from where he had landed next to where Concrete Man had once stood. With the power to access the original's abilities at his disposal, the clone accessed the collection program they had all been granted to harvest the remains of the Navi.
He then vanished as Gemini Man dismissed the clone. A moment later, the original stood in a triumphant pose with one fist on his hip and the other hand held out in front of him where the now collected program data floated where everyone could see it.
"Data get!" Gemini Man said before shifting the open hand and Gemini Man's data in Sheep Man's direction, effectively granting the Navi the opening to claim what had been made of Concrete Man's remains or otherwise grant Gemini Man permission to hold on to it, temporary or otherwise.
"Thank you, Ma'am." Roswell said in response to Ms. Hammon, though he fully knew she was addressing the group as a whole. He considered saying more, but at the moment there didn't seem much to say as an individual. Offering his own thoughts on either the fight or the situation seemed needless for the time being as well until there was more information to go on.
edited 4th Mar '15 9:49:05 PM by TheSpaceJawa
Rai smiled, he turned to his fellows, "Guys! We were awesome! Gear! You were awesome!"
Gear let out a chuckle, "It seemed we were nearly unstoppable as a combined fighting force. But that's how a fighting unit works.
Military Grade Shitposter
As ConcreteMan turned into naught more than whisps of data GeminiMan collected for later analysis, RifleMan's Cannon disappeared, replaced with his arm as he thrust his fist into the sky.
"WHOOOOOO! SUCK ON THAT!"
Fernando, meanwhile, turned to Rai. "Of course I am. As a network admin security's been my number two priority. First one's uptime. And guess what the best security program around is?"
"A Navi with the right chips," he finished.
edited 5th Mar '15 6:44:00 AM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."
The Phantom Thief
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, guys." said Jack, grinning. "We may have won this battle, but the war has just begun."
Turning to Ms. Hammond, Jack asked," Is there a place we can get new Battlechips? I don't think the few I have are going to cut it for this job."
edited 5th Mar '15 7:28:48 AM by ZenithBloodedge
The measure of a man is not his courage, but rather the size of his gun.
Bark Bark Man
"Well, you could go to one of the many chipshops here in Zanadew City. There's one relatively close to here, about.. a block up the street. I assume you all have some form of transportation available? We'll drive you back to Redion HQ, of course. But until we get our next alert, you're basically free to go." Ms. Hammond replied, clapping some concrete dust off of her gloves.
"But don't let this victory go to your heads. Up until now, Mitsuba Channel has not had much in the ways of an organized opposition. We are now a threat to them. They may even attack you while you're alone. When, not if, you are, press the "Alert" button on your PET. It'll send your teammates your location and tell them to get there as fast as possible." She took off one of her gloves, revealing cold steel instead of skin.
Catriona was done. She had expected opposition, of course, but she hadn't considered the option that Mitsuba Channel would attack her directly. She left, brusquely, leaving her employee pass with Richard.
SheepMan took the recovered ConcreteMan data, storing it inside a fluffy cloud he pulled out from the woolen scarf around his neck.
"It'll take some time to process this. Since you took it... I suppose we'll let you have this one."
Zanadew City was one of the grandest technological centers in all of Netopia. Once a small city with a handful of software developers, the advent of the NetNavi thrust it into the light and into grandeur. Here, one could find traders of all sorts buying and selling chips of all rarities. All that mattered was you had the right money for it.
As payment for their first job, Ms. Hammond transferred 50,000 Zenny to their personal accounts. Perhaps it wasn't as much as they expected, but this first job wasn't that difficult.
After dropping them off at Redion HQ, Ms. Hammond informed them that their pass would get them into the Grand Khan Hotel nearby. Redion provided direct security for them, so this was "implied" to be something that would better that relationship. This was only if the Taskforce members didn't already have a place to sleep, of course.
For now, they'd have the rest of the evening to peruse the city. They could visit some of the multitude of chipshops that littered the area, or perhaps stop by a cafe or something.
It was up to them.
edited 8th Mar '15 12:26:37 PM by amporiusrex
"Gimme your pants.. and now your other pants"
Rai smiled and walked off to a electronics store. He needed a new computer terminal anyways, something to crack into enemy systems.
"If I may be so bold, perhaps you should purchase some blank chips and some creation software as well. I could use some new custom moves," Gear added, Rai considered it, it would be expensive though.
The Phantom Thief
Jack walked around and found himself in one of the chip shops Ms. Hammond had mentioned. After browsing for a few minutes, he bought Wide Sword, Hi Cannon, Barrier, and some blank chips for new moves. "I may want to check out this hotel the Redion guys talked about," Jack thought to himself, clutching his new chips. Jack then pulled out his skateboard and rode toward the hotel.
edited 8th Mar '15 11:40:10 AM by ZenithBloodedge
The measure of a man is not his courage, but rather the size of his gun.
Military Grade Shitposter
Fernando nodded. The cold steel of her hand said everything they needed to know. It seemed Mitsuba Channel was more than willing to use... violent persuasion on those they were dealing with. Other NetCrime groups that had been taken down... well, come to think of it, they had used physical violence, but never this direct.
A chill settled into his gut, one that RifleMan immediately picked up on despite still being jacked in. When you were the NetNavi of a network administrator for as long as RifleMan had been, you learned to think like your partner. And considering the rather chilling knowledge Catriona had shared, the green-shaded Navi knew his partner was likely considering his options in regards to defending himself in a situation.
For the moment, Fernando steeled himself. He nodded in response, and looked down to his PET.
"Have fun, Rife?"
"Sure did. Think it's time I head back now."
RifleMan turned to his team, and with a wave and a flash he jacked out, returning to Fernando's PET and immediately beginning a general search on self-defense as Fernando began to meander, thinking about how to spend the Zenny he had been rewarded.
edited 8th Mar '15 12:23:59 PM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."
"Screw it. Chill Penguin, jack out. Let's get you better equipped!" Faro pulled Chill Penguin out as the Navi saluted his fellow fighters.
"Where to, boss?"
"I, uh... I don't really know..."
As Gemini Man returned to Roswell's PET, he noticed that Gemini Man now had in his possession a new combat chip, one that looked like it came from the lead virus they'd just defeated. He'd probably have to look into that later, along with relenting and taking a closer look at Gemini Man and his PET system.
After they arrived back at Redion HQ, Roswell drove back home. It wasn't a luxurious or elaborate home by any means, but it was a house he could call his own, a reliable island of comfort in a world that in some ways determined to leave him behind. While it wasn't entirely disconnected from the net, he had taken care after obtaining it to keep its connections to the larger, digital world to a minimum.
While Roswell enjoyed relaxing by taking a seat in a remarkably comfortable chair, he also planned to use the day to do research. Investigation wasn't just his job, it was in his nature - he was determined to get as much information as he could on who he was working with and who he was working against as he could.
He started with reading up what files he had access to on his fellow teammates. As expected, it wasn't much to go on. But it was better than nothing, allowing him to get a sense of who they were and what skill sets they were packing. And their names, to boot. As he had assessed earlier, they were all in their late teens and early 20s - the oldest was 25, nearly half his own age, and the two youngest came at just 17!
"Makes a man feel ancient." Said with a sigh. "Who?"
Roswell looked to where his PET was lying, where the holographic representation of Gemini Man was looking at him. Roswell looked back, but said nothing further. In his experience, computers were something you typed into, not spoke to.
Unless they were broken, but then all the yelling did was let out some steam.
Not surprisingly, the bulk of them were hackers or computer technicians in some right. That included the 25 year old - Mac Guinness - who interestingly appeared to be more attuned to hardware rather than software. If he was going to ask someone for help on the digital stuff, the man stood out as someone to talk to - he'd probably be best suited to help bridge the gap between his old-school sensibilities and the new-age science.
It would be either him or Ms. Kharitonova, who's records showed she had history as a government agent. At 19, she couldn't have been with them for long, but even a short time as a government agent was likely to have put a kind of discipline into her that most the hackers and students were lacking for this kind of work.
After getting familiarized with his teammates, he began looking up what public data he could find on Redion to better familiarize himself with the company, including both Lloyd Schwarz and Ms. Hammond.
Bark Bark Man
Lloyd Schwarz
Current CEO and Founder of Redion Incorporated.
Graduated from Coleridge University with a degree in Computer Science.
Founded Redion in 200X as a minor program developer, eventually started making breakthroughs in automated virus-busting technology.
With the advent of the NetNavi, Redion chips became common place in the use of professional virus clearing services. The cost-effectiveness of the battlechips lead to a great success in the market.
Records on him were rather slim. He seemed to be an underdog of sorts. He was someone unknown coming up from low roots into greatness.
May Hammond
An avid motorcyclist, and a member of the Netopian Biker's Association. Likes the smell of gasoline.
Was caught in an accident a few years back, along with several hundred other Redion employees. This specific event had conflicting causes for it: some said it was a mere accident, others said it was the work of disgruntled hackers.
This was around the time Mitsuba Channel first started showing up. It was highly likely they had orchestrated this attack.
Now that Roswell would think of it, the Redion building did look fairly new.
Elsewhere
Both Faro and Fernando eventually met up in front of Cordozar, a relatively out of the way chipshop a fair distance from the center of Zanadew.
Despite its distance and its isolation, it seemed to be in pretty good business. It didn't seem to fit its surroundings at all. The shop had a rather wooden design to it, in contrast to the stark metals of the buildings around it.
edited 9th Mar '15 5:25:48 PM by amporiusrex
"Gimme your pants.. and now your other pants"
Military Grade Shitposter
Cordozar
Some of the Zenny he had spent on a bit of food. Some of the zenny he had partitioned away for RifleMan - Navis ran up a budget all their own, and he felt that his little shooty pal might need a nice upgrade for his autoturret chip soon enough.
RifleMan's search had turned up several things - weapons stores, martial arts classes, even a gun store - but Fernando had immediately ruled out firearms. The only thing he was interested in shooting someone with was a Taser. He didn't want to kill - he just didn't want to die.
Fernando had yet still to decide when he noticed that he was in front of a chipshop. It seemed rather wooden in comparison to the buildings around it. A thought struck him.
"Hey, Rife. Place looks pretty woody. Think they sell Wood elemental chips?"
"Searching now..."
In the meanwhile, Fernando spotted someone familiar - he'd seen him at the briefing. Faro? Faro. "Hey, Faro!" Fernando waved as RifleMan perused the results of his search.
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."
Beat grunted in annoyance as he was hit by a glob of cement. He could easily put two and two together and tell he didn't have long until he was either stuck in place or significantly slowed down. He immediately began to wipe off the the stuff before it solidified, but what already did would definitely weigh him down a bit.
Mike thought for a moment; this was bad. Not only did he and Beatman often favor speed, but he had a cruddy feeling that, as an Elec-Type Navi, Beat would be at a major disadvantage if he tried to take on the seemingly stone-based Concreteman. He did make note of Gear and Rifleman's charge forward.
"Hey Beat, try to keep up with Gear and Rifleman! If the big guy tries to attack em' then..." He grasped a chip in hand.
Beat gave a nod, knowing what his Operator was thinking. He began to follow after the assaulting duo, but at the same time tried not to draw attention to the fact he was joining them.
I'm a ghost, you didn't see me.