4181/Enter the System

Enter the System
Date of Scene:	03 June 2016
Location:	The System <TS>
Synopsis:	A new world connects to the Cyber Core via a bullet train. What lies on the other side?
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 399, 673, 707, 789, Silica, Lexicon

---

Lexicon has posed:
    Reports of something new in the Cyber Core have led to an unmanned, automated monorail train on an open-air boarding platform. It seems to depart every 20 minutes or so, disappearing into a large black tunnel that disappears into the ground after some distance. The Cablerail arrives and departs often enough that no particular people are forced to ride the same train, though they all arrive at the same place.

    The destination is much like the departure point, an open-air terminal filled with seats, translucent panels, and a rotating news ticker that identifies the location: THE SYSTEM

    It probably isn't supposed to be like this, though.

    Clinging to the pillars holding up the terminal's roof are flat creatures with a vaguely insectile appearance, built entirely out of interlocking cubes, with holes that resemble eyes. Once noticed, one of them announces, "Malvader!", which causes the rest of them to sound off similarly. They seem to be chewing on the scenery, though, revealing glowing points of damaged code inside the pillars and walls.

    In the center of the facility is that big, iconic spire. From ground to top there's a beam of light, but this can't be right-- It's red, flickering and rezzing out of phase every few seconds. With various creatures-- more of these 'malvaders', boxy polygonal cats, and teardrop-shaped slimes with dog faces and tails-- milling about the facility, it's somewhat harder to notice a couple more humanoid figures near the base of that spire, highlighted by the unstable crimson light.

    Yeah, this probably isn't normal.

Silica has posed:
    Silica, being one of those whose second home is within the virtual world, is often frequent at the Cyber Core, even if she's only stepping out of ALO to help with Union affairs. This little jaunt is cut short when she notices the new addition, and curiosity overtakes her. "C'mon Pina." she says, gesturing to her companion before aproaching the Cablerail. She looks around for ticket purchase points, or any kind of attendant, but finds nothing, then just goes and boards the next train when the doors open.

    She rides it in, then looks around in pretty much abject horror as the entire area looks like a warzone. "Oh my gosh..." She glowers at the closest 'malvader' and draws her Dagger. "Pina, Bubble Breath!" she commands, pointing at the closest group, which causes the little dragon to open its mouth, and start exhaling little 'soap bubbles' which surround the Malvaders, before popping.

    This might seem underwhelming, but the 'attack' is meant to act like a short-duration 'stun' or 'sleep', leaving the target vulnerable, which is what Silica is counting on, as she charges in a moment after the bubbles start to pop, her Dagger glowing an icy blue-white, which she slashes at the closest target. "Stop that right now!"

Rory White (673) has posed:
Instead of her Flexbot, today Rory's come in her Synth. A soft and gentle human-face, a long crop of blue hair dangling in a loose ponytail, and... armor. She's wearing armor. A skin-tight pearly-white suit etched with incredibly tiny, fine, glowing blue circuitry. It's a thing of carbon-based metamaterials though, no manifestation of data - as much as it's made to resemble the beings of Deelel's world.

    A long time ago, Rory decided she liked that aesthetic, and made her combat armor bear a similar appearance.

    As she steps off the bus though... she immediately frowns at the handful of.... PROBLEMATICS roaming around causing havoc. Behind her a silvery disk takes flight, no larger than a common frisbee. It wobble-soars upwards at a decent pace, becoming her eyes in the sky. Exactly HOW it propels itself isn't so obvious.

    She hasn't brought much weaponry though. a TUBE of sorts unlatches from her arm and click-clack-locks into the shape of a pistol. The sleek weapon doesn't fire bullets though. When the trigger's pulled...

    Nothing seems to happen. No noises, no flashy lights cutting across the distance...

    There's just the matter of the EXTRAORDINARY HEAT slamming into these so-called Malvaders, accompanied by a fierce violet glow.

    Rory's lasers obey traditional laws of physics, but they're still quite effective.

    "It never fails. Anywhere I go... trouble."

Deelel has posed:
Alpha had brough up they were low on supplies again, given the small restiance group Deelel was a part of back on The Grid? Also the most able to wander the Multiverse. She'd found the whole train station easy enough and catuchg one of the trains to the station. The system? This made her wonder, was this another system that used to be as isolated as the Grid had been? Or was she reading too much into things here? It would be rather hard to tell. Still she stepped out on to the car into what seems to be a viral outbreak. She reaches for the disc on her back, while her outfit does have many halmarks of her world it's also something made using resources from userspace so it ended up a bit odd but it worked well for the basic she eyes the malware for a moment.

"Malware? Oh my kingdom for a keytool..."

Given she was not a System Monitor she didn't have all these tools for dealing with things like this and she ends up powerin the disc and launches it.

"Fancy meeting you here Rory!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu doesn't pass through the Cyber Core 'in person' all that often; when she's logging into ALO or CCO, she usually does so from the comfort of home, or - occasionally - from one of the Union's facilities. But given how much trouble she was having with a download, and the fact that traceroute showed the path from the server to her system going through this part of the Multiverse ... well, it couldn't hurt to take a look, right?

Not like she has any way of knowing where *her* packets are, of course, but seeing the 'growths' of the Malvader infestation is enough for her to be glad she brought her arsenal. On the theory that it'll do any good, at least.

Possibly worthy of note is the fact that in between boarding the monorail, and disembarking it in THE SYSTEM, Xiaomu found the opportunity to transform her clothes from her usual qipao and vest ensemble to a snug-fitting navy-blue bodysuit, highlighted with illuminated lines, bars, and other 'markings' which give her a passable resemblance to Deelel's own armor.

"Y'know," Xiaomu remarks to the others at the System's entry port, "I'm not sure if we should just be shooting at those things or checking if there's a 'proper' way to get rid of them." This observation doesn't stop her from pulling out one of her handguns, specifically Roc's Icebrand. Might as well be ready to freeze the viral processes if she can, right?

Taro (399) has posed:
    A small, doll-like girl with bobbed white hair and wire-frame wings, wearing a white tunic over purple leggings that matches the nurse cap on her head, pops out of the train doors once they open. A cyber-elf for those familiar with them. Her already wide eyes widen further still at her first glimpse of the strange and rather frightening insectlike creature munching away at the terminal walls and ceiling. 'Eep!' And almost immediately she turns around to zip back inside the cab she had just left.
    When she next emerges, it's in the company of a priest. Taro is here via cyberspace, though he shed his usual mask-and-kimono guise when he realized that it looked far too out of place in this corner of the multierse. He gives his small companion a reassuring pat on the head even as he frowns upward at what startled her so. "Well. This was not expected," he remarks, more to himself than to anyone around him.
    While everyone else around him draws weapons, he draws...a fan?...out of one of his cassock sleeves, which he snaps open with the flick of the wrist. It's really a scanning program, which he uses in an attempt to analyze just what these malvaders-screeching things are.

Lexicon has posed:
    To be fair to Rory, trouble was already here!

    Silica's pet spews out bubbles, surrounding Malvaders clinging to walls. The effect is immediate simply because the cacophony if their apparent title dies down, as they're disabled and put to sleep. Almost right away they start falling off their perches, flat and vulnerable. Dispatching them causes them to disperse in clouds of scattering polygons, tinted red.

    Similarly, Rory's heat ray and Dee's disc dispatches disabled Malvaders, briefly filling the air with dispersing code. Compared to Xiaomu's ice guns and Silica's ice knife, though, the Heat Ray seems to be taking longer to do the job.

    Taro scanning one of the disabled Malvaders promptly fills his interface with popups advertising all kinds of useless things, from New Wave Paperclips to an Electric Stapler. And apparently a Nigerian Prince wants to give him 20 million credits, all he needs is the Machine Priest's bank information to make the deposit.

    Well that answers that question, doesn't it? These screechy Malvaders are, quite clearly, malware code. And dispatching them with guns and swords seems to do the trick, as before long the terminal is cleared of them and no more seem to be appearing. The only evidence of their presence is the damaged pillars, with red light shining through, flickering in time to the unstable beam eminating from the central spire.

    The boxy cat things, at least, scatter when approached rather than try to fight. And, being cats, the dog-slimes likewise disperse-- chasing the cat things while making unintelligable noises. Further scans of these would show similar results to the Malvader, though-- Malicious code, unhealthy for any computer system.

    What can only be described as an armored mech with fanblade-shaped wings turns about, at the base of the spire, to glower towards the terminal with glowing red eyes. It briefly turns back to the figure it had been speaking with, then turns fully to face the arrivals, wings spreading out. The arms reach up to grab those wings and remove them, bringing them forward. They are fixed together, and the mech shifts its posture, swinging the weapon back while it begins to spin.

    This change in stance shows the person it had been accosting. A battered looking girl in white and brown, wrapped up in lines of glowing crimson code that pulses with the same instability as the Spire's light beam. It's hard to tell if she's angry or in pain, though clearly unable to do anything about her situation.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Deelel, Silica!" Xiaomu calls out to the familiar faces during the lull after dealing with the Malvaders; she spares a second to wave for them as the boxcats and dogslimes go scattering away. She also waves to Taro and Rory, not really recognizing them off-hand.

She doesn't get the chance to engage in further conversation when the mech shows up. "Oh come on," Xiaomu groans as the mech takes an offensive posture; she tucks her gun away and brings her staff out, ready in a fighting grip - and edging backwards. Let someone else take party-tank duty. "I don't suppose pointing out that we ostensibly come in peace, *and* we just cleaned up a bunch of unwanted processes, would do us any favors?" she calls out to the 'mech' - she can only hope that it's intelligent enough to *listen*.

Silica has posed:
    Silica pants a little, not from exertion, but as a reaction to sudden combat. She takes a big breath, then turns to the others. "Looks like we stumbled into some kind of dungeon area. Be careful there's always a Boss Monster in a dungeon." Pina trills softly in affirmation, then flitters over to alight on Xiaomu's shoulder, chirping in greeting to someone she recognizes. "Oh, hey there!" offers the Cait Sith happily.

    Aaaand that looks like the Boss Monster now. Glowing red eyes, giant form, moving in to attack without provokation. Yep. Boss Monster. "Aww man, there it is now. Don't try and take it on directly, switch out when you get hurt, I have some healing magic but I'm not an Undine, so I can't hang in and main heal. Keep moving!" she says, her eyes turning super serious as she summons Pina back to her side.

    She shifts her grip on her dagger, then opts instead to open with some offensive magi<span class=" bold_fg_y bg_n ++ .

    chy">"Ek, Skyt, tuttugu, smar, strioa!"</span> the Words of Power forming up around her, locking into place as she speaks them, before a volley of unguided yellow lances lash out at the charging Mech Monster!

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro's eye twitches as he lowers his fan. His opinion of the creatures might best be judged by his next action, which is to stomp the half-dead one in front of him under his boot and grind it under his heel. Adware. An offense to the CyberGoddess and an offending nuisance as far as he's concerned.
    Since the others seem to be doing a spendid job of destroying or otherwise dispersing the creatures, he won't interrupt or join in their efforts. But that mech-like person? malware program? on the other hand...
    The fan snaps closed, and as he runs his other hand across its surface, it shifts and lengthens into a katana with a blankened blade. "You." He gestures at the mecha with his empty hand. "What is this..." and he cuts himself off as Silica decides to strike first and ask questions later. Sigh.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does spots Xiaomu in all this madness and at hearing the nose she puts two and two together that Silicia is one of the GU in all likehood, Taro is a bit of a unknown to her but she's keep her disc going to make sure there's none of the things left. She catches the disc on the remound and launches it again to more of the malvaders.

"Great these things are almost like grid bugs!"

She calls out and she doesn't stop with the disc on the strnge things that keep coming at her and she does not /want/ to get near that stuff, the risck of infection was a very real one to her.

"Mac it! Looks like a local program's been snagged..."

Rory White (673) has posed:
As the problem critters skitter off, Rory decides to go scoot over near some of the scenery they were chewing on and examine the... strange gashes and other damage inflicted. "Similar to Deelel's home system. Similar, but..."

    She rises from these examinations at the clank-clank of something BIG approaching, and this leaves her peering curiously at what looks like some kind of...

    "So much hardware to deal with a few ... pests? Hello--"

    When the girl comes into view she freezes, uncertain what she's looking at. A questioning glance is aimed at the mech....

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
You thought this was over? Nope. It's not over.

Despite the Malvaders being dealt with, there's another shuffling young lass that pops out of the train after the others, having looked all over what's happening. She doesn't seem to get directly involved, just sighing with her arms crossed at the proceedings, nor does she immediately help with the boss monster. Instead, she's slinking around the edge of the incipient battle, letting the creature aggro on the people who can fight while she slips around back to try to approach the battered and bound woman. "Sup." She says. "This place looks pretty trashed." She says, poking at the bindings. "What's going on with the viral programs and Big Stompy over there?"

Yeah, you were looking for a hero? And you got Sarah Parsle. Looks like the Gloomtrain has pulled into The Station.

Lexicon has posed:
    "What is this?" the mech responds in a synthetic voice, "This is my ascension. Deleting my viruses only means you're here to stand in my way, so I'll be deleting all of you, now!" It rears back, swinging its free hand forward to flex its fingers in a grasping motion, "Soon, /I/ will become the master of this mainframe!"

    "LIKE HELL YOU WILL," a furious voice shouts from behind him, prompting the machine to turn towards its prisoner again.

    "Do be quiet, I'll deal with you later."

    "As soon as I get loose--"

    "Honey, please. We both know you won't." The Rival Mech plants its foot and whirls back to its attackers, sweeping its spinning weapon around in an arc. Incoming lances are intercepted, most of them blocked, though damage still cuts through on the oversized shoulder guards, shedding damaged code similar to the Malvaders. At the apex of its swing, the mech sweeps its weapon back and releases it, sending the spinning blades into a wide arc through the gathered Fighty Heroes.

    What Sarah Parsle discovers is a teenaged girl wrapped in glowing red ribbons shot through with corrupted code, baring her teeth at the back of the Rival Mech that is now ignoring her-- and as a result, the villain hasn't spotted Gloomy the Wonder Teen either.

    The girl's voice lowers from her furious shouting to a simple growl, trying to avoid drawing more attention, "Captain Jackass there came in on the Cablerail right after I'd finished fighting with one of the other DCCs, surprised me while I was still recovering." She squirms, "I can't do anything like this and it's pissin' me off. Can you do something about it?"

Silica has posed:
    Well that didn't quite go to plan. "MOVE!" she cries, reflexively activating her wings and taking flight, the four yellow gossamer spans flittering rapidly as she gains some altitude to evade that spinning fan, though she does get caught on the leg on the way up, leaving a large 'gash' that shows a red lattice-work of model skeleton under the surface texture. She's another program?!

    Once she's clear, she takes in the situation, then frowns a bit, checking cooldowns. Bubble Breath is still down for another fourty seconds, too long... Heal is up, use that on someone who gets unlucky. Noone's going to die today.

    The girl freezes for a moment at that thought. 'Noone is going to die today'. When was the last time she thought that? No point now, in the middle of a fight. Looks like he's got a good defense when he has that fan blade weapon, and decent armour without it still. Why can't everything have a handy HP guage?!

    Silica then waits for an opening, before dropping down on the Villain Mech from above, her Dagger shining brilliantly as she aims to jam it in between armour plates, before the elemental effect triggers, unleashing Ice from the impact.

Rory White (673) has posed:
Rory White doesn't have much in the way of weapons at the moment. She came in DIPLOMACY MODE to say hello, not do police work! So she wisely and quietly backs away from the mech after realizing she's got NO chance against it in a direct conflict.

    She doesn't, but others here do.

    So instead she focuses on the other voice, circling around with an eye towards freeing the captive...

    But she also glances about left and right for anything that might be useful as a weapon. And from above, for that matter.

    The SAUCER she unleashed earlier has now made a complete map of things from above. Perhaps there's something she could burn a hole through and drop on the mech, like the local equivalent to a street lamp or a pole...?

    If so she'll start discretely doing that .

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Can we start by demoting it to Ensign Jackass?" is Xiaomu's immediate reply ... well, 'immediate' barring the exigencies of not getting filleted by those rotary blades. For her, that entails a mix of dodging, ducking, and extra-judicious blocking. Mostly dodging. Lots of dodging. There's also a pole-vault involved, although Xiaomu winces a little to put undue stress on her staff. Sure, it can *take* the 'stress' of an impromptu vault that gets her out of harm's way, but it's going to be a major pain to *fix* Suiren if it somehow gets busted.

More to the point, the 'mech' has pretty much confirmed what Silica assumed: 'ascension' is worrisome enough, the fact that those were ITS virii is a confirmed warning sign, and - well, it DID make the first hostile move, apart from taking out all the Malvaders. Xiaomu studies the MalMech for a moment, then ...

Slings her staff across her back, and pulls a baton-like object out of her vest?

"Be right back, guys." She 'snaps' the baton apart, a glowing wireframe spawning from the breakpoint as she pulls her legs up off the ground and - twists the accelerator?

"HIGH SPEED XIAOMU!!!"

Her lightcycle takes off, and she actually tries to 'draw' a circle around the mech-thingy with her trailwall. It won't go up too far - the best Xiaomu can really do is try and anchor its feet prohibitively close to the ground, maybe get some of its legs - but it should at least keep the MalMech from moving around so much ... and once she's done that, she can go see if Sarah needs a hand rescuing the local girl.

Taro (399) has posed:
    He still gets an answer, and even if it wasn't to his half-asked question, it was an informative one.
    Taro drops to the floor to avoid the spinning blades, his 'elf companion squeaking in surprise as he takes her with him. He remains prone like that for a moment, long enough for him to reach into one of his belt pouches with a free hand. Then, he pushes hmself back on his heels, and flings a handful of what appear to be caltrops at the mecha's feet. A counter-attack program, one that he'd normally using against network defense programs when -he's- the interloper, but why not give it a try against a virus?

Deelel has posed:
Deelel eyes narrow for a moment at the mech's voice.

"Ascension? You got to be kidding me on that, Null unit. Oh you'll be the one whose cubed virus!"

The seemingly sudden agression from Deelel may be puzzling to some who don't know her very well there's actualy /hate/ in her voice as she pulls her baton out which unfults out into a light staff, it's tips power up and she makes ready to mve in as another Mch appears.

Delele is force to leap into the air however and flips comming down trying to get in close combat with the mech to bring the powered ends of her staff againsts it.

"I could use some covering fire!"
% She'll just have to trust in the otehrs here, either she knows them personally like Xiaomu and Rory. Or even Sarah though she's still trying to get a feel for her as Silica is clearly one of Kiritao's crew so that's enough for her there, Taro is the one whose more of a mystery out of everyone here who isn't a native.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
"Wow, did I just step into a comic book?" Sarah replies as she hears the Executive Summary. "Okay, let's do this thing." She starts with the obvious process of simply trying to untie the ribbons from the girl. Simple. Straightforward. The arrival of Xiaomu on the shiny lightcycly just gets a gesture from Sarah as she works at the bindings. "Is everything here supposed to be all computery? I've done some coding."

She looks over to the fox as she does a driveby pistol-beyonetting of the ribbon. "Careful! This isn't an action movie!" It might be but Sarah sure doesn't see it that way.

In the meantime, if the ribbon proves resistant to such things, she'll have to fiddle with the code and see if she can understand it. Maybe she can prod a few functions in order to flip a variable.

Lexicon has posed:
    The Mech plants a foot while adjusting its posture, eyes tracking the scattering opponents. Its hand reaches out, snatching its whirling weapon on the return trip, which also presents a nice open target for Silica's descent, her knife wedging into a briefly exposed gap between the armored plates of its arm and the oversized shoulder guard. Rather than blood or oil, the blow produces a spray of dissipating crimson pixels. When the ice goes off, the machine shouts in surprise as expanding ice completely detaches the arm from the main body.

    That shout is more in surprise and annoyance than pain, mind.

    The Rival Mech's remaining arm reaches for Silica in an attempt to grab her, with the full intent of using her to fight off Deelel closing into melee range.

    "I'm not about to let /you/ stop me..!" With caltrops scattering around his feet, the Mech rumbles, then hunches forward. In the same gesture, he drops whatever he might be holding, while ports snap open on the shoulders, back, legs, and remaining arm. A second later, missiles surge out in all directions-- with the bulk of them quite suddenly blocked by the Lightwall of Xiaomu's digital motercycle. Only those that arc up manage to pass the barrier, scattering every which way. For any stuck inside the walls with the Mech, it's gonna be a bit tougher to deal with.

    Crimson energy is already starting to flow from the severed arm, forming a loose wireframe in the shape of a cannon. It's useless and immaterial right now, thankfully.

    "It's the System," the girl answers Parsle simply, "Everything's like this here." She actually seems bewildered by the question, "I guess it's different on the other end of that Cablerail, huh." An eye closes as explosions rumble inside the walls of Xiaomu's makeshift mecha prison, "--Look now isn't the time for questions, can you get me loose or not?"

    The base code for the ribbons is, put simply, all jacked up. It seems to be the same corrupted malicious code that comprises the other 'red' creatures floating around here, including the boss fight going on about 10 yards away. Maybe even just cleaning it up would do the trick, though deleting it might be a better idea. Given the speed and precision required to not brutally injure the victim in question, Xiaomu hasn't quite severed it. But the spot where her bayonet gouged it is pretty clearly weakened. It even sparks, shooting off little red 1s and 0s.

Silica has posed:
    Okay that wasn't quite what she exprected to happen... She managed to take off an entire arm, no surprise there, but the fact the mech reaches up and GRABS her to use as a BLUNT WEAPON is a surprise. She sqirms, arms pinned to her sides and legs flailing around as she tries to get loose. Pina crows angrily, and descends to claw at the 'face' of the Mech in defense of her master.

    And then suddenly missiles. There's no quick shield spell, and Silica's wearing very light armour, so as the explosions go off, she's dancing around, trying to evade as much as possible, which leaves her covered in red 'scratches' and one big spider-web patch on her midriff where she zigged instead of zagged and took a glancing blast.

    She's panting again, and looks to be in pain, though she takes to the air again with no obvious slow-down in her movement. Once she's got some space, she incants quickly once more, this time pouring more MP into the spell. "Sier fylla heilagr austr, brott svalr bani!" the spell goes off, and her allies are bathed in the regenerative effect. It doesn't touch Taro, for one reason or another, perhaps Silica didn't see him, or it has an effect range and he's outside of it. Either way, those in close combat with the Mech suddenly get their energy replenished.

Rory White (673) has posed:
Having reached a good distance away and, finding nothing, Rory takes aim with her weapon. She doesn't expect it will do much damage to the mech... so she doesn't aim for the mech!

    Instead she aims at the mech's footing. The ground. The intense violet light's a powerful laser indeed... the question is whether it'll be able to melot whatever the ground's made of. Or vaporize it. Or... something, anything.

    She's sure this weapon would do NOTHING against the Mech, but TRIPPING the mech is another story!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
"Sure is." Sarah replies, working at it. "But yeah, we don't have time for this right now."

The sparking portion of the ribbon opened up by Xiomu gets Sarah's attention. She moves to grip at the damaged area and imply pull, trying to break the ribbon apart there. If that doesn't work, she'll get out what looks like a folded puzzle, the 'teeth' of it all sticking out of it regularly in a pattern to create a sort of jagged blade.

Sarah will then use this jigsaw to begin cutting apart the ribbon. "Hold still unless you're into amputation." She comments.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Dodging the blades was comparitively easy. Dodging a rogue missile is another matter entirely.
    Taro hops back to finish getting to his feet, then moves to leap to the side to be where that missile is not. But it's not far enough. Rather than landing gracefully, he's hurled back by the blast from the explosion, skidding off the edge of the platform to land with a thud on the tracks below.
    His 'elf fares slightly better, though she's also sent sailing by the shockwave, flipping end over end in the air before she's finally able to catch herself. 'Unnh...so dizzy.' She shakes her head to clear it, then looks around. 'Em? Taro? Taro!' And she flits over to try and find where he landed.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
If Xiaomu were not being careful, she would have tried using her sword (yes, she has one) instead of what amounts to an emergency melee knife. Also, if she were not being careful, she probably could have cut deeper - and severed not just the ribbon, but the girl's skin (textures?) or something similarly ouch-inducing, and she REALLY doesn't want to hurt the girl.

Sarah seems to have things in reasonably good hand, though - and the way so many missiles go off against her lightcycle's trail-wall actually makes the vehicle itself wobble underneath her; it's enough of a cue for the sage fox to wheel about and rejoin the fray.

Mind you, having to dodge a portion of the missiles that DIDN'T get contained would be an abundant reason to go help destroy the MalMech *anyway*, just to make sure it doesn't AOE the place again. Area-of-effect attacks really are a pain in the spinal column, aren't they?

Xiaomu concentrates briefly, then 'dismounts' on the run, her lightcycle derezzing back into a convenient baton shape; the wall will last for a fairly short time after the 'cycle was derezzed, but she tried to pump enough extra energy back into it to stretch that out as much as she can. It'll have to be enough - whether it outlasts MalMech or not. "So have you got an *actual* name," she calls out as she unslings her staff again, "or should we just make up whatever names we like?" On the heels of that question, she leaps as high up as she can, drawing Suiren from the staff which normally conceals its blade -

And as (virtual) gravity pulls her down again, she executes as deep a slash as she can, putting the ice (and water) elemental enchantment of her sword to its full use. Ice worked nicely against the Malvaders, so the boss monster which spawned them should be just as vulnerable, right ... ?

Deelel has posed:
Deelel hopefully will at least keep the Rival Mech busy s she's attacking even if she never lands a hit or gets into close combat she's keeping the Mech busy. Which will allow her allies to act more easily. She might need to turn things up a bit. If she cailfs here she's going to change tactics but for now. Well that was he idea then comes missiles nd she's caught inthe blasts and it's very bad. Deelel's sprawled out on the green with several glowing rents in her body bleeding a teal light and dispelling any idea she's made of flesh, she's also not getting up yet...

Lexicon has posed:
    It would seem that releasing the cat was a bad idea! No sooner has Rival Mech let Silica go, and she's healing everyone in range-- including herself. This draws the machine's attention immediately, and it draws up the wireframe of its recovering arm, even as the textures fill in to reveal a large single-barreled cannon covered in lights and tubes. As the Mech tries to move its feet, however, it finds itself incapable--having sunk into the ground due to Rory's intervention. As it struggles, this starts setting off the caltrops Taro scattered earlier, flooding the mech's lower half with damaged code and prompting a frustrated noise.

    It's re-armed, but immobile!

    "Yeah, thanks," the girl keeps herself still while Sarah wrestles with the damaged code string. Once she resorts to the world's most awkward hand tool, she speaks up again, "It's Lexicon, by the way." After some effort, sharpened bladed teeth do the trick and the code string snaps, dissolving in Sarah's hands.

    Immediately, Lexicon tilts her head forward, casting her eyes in shadow. Bringing her hands up, she flexes them, then smacks her fist into her opposite palm. There's a very loud series of pops as she cracks her knuckles. A jerk of her head likewise pops her neck. The look on her face, sans eyes, has become a serious frown and she steps forward from where she'd been held captive, trailing motes of blue-white light.

    Meanwhile, the Rival Mech is still rooted, swinging its cannon back up towards Silica with an inarticulate shout of rage. Just in time for Xiaomu to slice it off, as well as a good chunk of the corresponding shoulder covering. As the cannon arm tumbles away, the virus shouts a frustrated, "I JUST FIXED THAT."

    That pale blue light leaking off Lexicon grows more intense, becoming a glow that engulfs her and is bright enough to draw the damaged Mech's attention. It whirls at the waist, shooting a look over its damaged shoulder as a silver-haired girl in white, on wings of light, emerges. Her eyes still cast in shadow, she mutters, "You sneak in here, wait 'til I'm weak from fighting, then try some stupid bullshit like tyin' me up and tryin' to take over?" Her hand shoots out, and an enormous mechanized polearm materializes in her grip. With a hissing sound, a blue-white axe blade materializes at the end, "If you think any of us DCCs would let you pull a stupid stunt like that--" At this point, the 'mech whirls back around, struggling to get free while the transformed girl draws her legs up behind herself.

    A circle of code materializes around her feet, forming a platform from which she launches herself, swinging her axe back. Her eyes are still cast in shadow, though there's an intense furious red glow all the same. This, however, is not malicious code. No, she's just extremely pissed off, "--YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMIN', SCUM." In midair she throws herself into a spin, which ends when she plants her foot down right beside the machine, bringing all her leverage into swinging the axe against the robot's back. This neatly severs its legs from the rest of it, and her spin follows through by slamming the flat of the axe into the still-airborne torso, "--ZERSTORUNG!"

    Uttering a string of curses, the de-legged, disarmed robotic virus sails into the distance, descending somewhere beyond the edge of the land.

Silica has posed:
    Silica goes wideeyed at the cannon being leveraged at her, but thanks to the timely intervention of the others, she's saved from staring down the barrel of that particular .45. And then, the local is released and transforms into some kind of avenging angel with a /really/ big beam axe. "... coooooool. I want one..." she says, "I wonder how high of an Assault Spear level you'd need to wield something like that." now the danger's gone, the gamer is taking over again, as the Cait Sith slowly lowers down to the ground, pondering with a finger tapping her cheek. "So, uh, looks like we came at a bad time, but, I guess it's over now?" she offers up to the Axe Angel.

    The short, young looking Avatar bows slightly, then beams. "I'm Silica, the Beast Tamer. And this is my friend, Pina." she says, as the dragonling flits over and lands on the cat-like girl's shoulder, chirping for a treat, which is provided from a quick flick through her inventory.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Nice distance on that swing," Xiaomu remarks as Lexicon sends the MalMech flying hellafar. "Remind me to find out what your golf handicap is before I challenge you to a game ... or are you more of a croquet player?"

She pauses briefly. "... and should we run that guy down and finish him off, or is your system gonna be okay?"

Oh right, introductions. "I'm Xiaomu, agent of Shinra," she introduces herself. She flicks Suiren to make sure nothing unseemly is clinging to the blade, then sheathes the sword, making it look like a perfectly normal Buddhist monk staff once again. *Then* she bows politely. "Sorry about not calling ahead, but I think it was curiousity led us hither - and did not," she adds with an impish grin as she straightens up, "kill the cat."

And on that note, she sidles a couple of steps towards Silica and attempts to scritch both an ear of the Cait Sith and the back of her little dragon. (She'll back off quickly if either of them seem unappreciative, and in Silica's case it's just gonna be brief anyway.)

Rory White (673) has posed:
If she needed to breathe, Rory would be sighing in relief. As it is the only sign of her relief is her shoulders loosening slightly. Her weapon's smoking from pure overheat but... oh well.

    With the strange robotic virus thing FLEEING, she steps forward and smiles. "Well done! Very well done! Not sure why something ALWAYS happens... or what that even was... but they're not likely to return anytime soon!"

Taro (399) has posed:
    There's a quiet thump as Taro grabs the edge of the platform, followed a soft grunt as he pulls himself up. He's a bit worse for wear, his avatar a bit fuzzy around its edges and scratched in places, but still cohesive enough to still be considered 'here'. Wherever here is. There's no firm answer on that.
    His 'elf alights on his shoulder, making tiny warbly concerned noises at him. "I'm fine," he murmurs in assurance, then falls silent as he makes his way over to where the others are.

Deelel has posed:
Well Deelel still not doing so well but the injured basic is getting back on her feet, the staff complact as she doesn't seem intent to do melee anymore. She does however keep her balnce as she looks at the Rival mech and summons her keyblade Duel Disc. the weapon seems to be formed out thin air but she seems ready and then she throws the weapon ath the Mech like it's a damn boomerange and she seems to have some control of it as it is trying to home in on him.

"...Let's see how your Game is ... virus."

Lexicon has posed:
    The white-clad girl swings her axe around and then plants the head against the solidifying ground, though her feet are not actually touching it. Keeping her hand on the weapon, she skims those present with crimson eyes, "Well. I can't exactly be pissed at folks who'd fight a virus, can I? You really saved my bits, there." She hefts the axe, then disperses it in a scattering of white light. Similarly, her body glows as she reverts, dropping the few inches to the ground, now that it's solid enough to stand on safely.

    Hands tuck together and she bows, primarily to Xiaomu, since she's closest, and by proxy Silica. When she speaks up, her voice is far softer than a moment ago, "You have my thanks, as Drive Core Controller of Britannica. My name is Lexicon." As she straightens, she blinks at Deelel's antics, and the boomerang sailing off into the distance.

    Some time later, there's a distant explosion, followed by the return of Deelel's disc, from whatever unholy distance that must have been. "...Nice shot."

    After a moment, she turns back towards the tower and its flickering crimson light. Stepping closer, she reaches out, placing a hand on one of he glowing lines running up its side. Right where she touches turns white, which spreads up through the building until, with a flash, the beam stabilizes as a healthy white-blue shade reflected through the entire facility. Only then does she lower her hand, letting out a soft sigh, "He got me while I was recovering. Really underhanded. I won't be letting that happen again, that's for sure."

    A glance is spared to Sarah before Lexicon turns back around to face the rest, and she tucks her arms together, hands disappearing into her sleeves, "If you're visitors, that's fine. I like the idea of tourists. Especially those who are interested in learning. Learning is what my Drive is all about, after all." Head tipping forward, she casts her eyes in shadow again, "But if you even think about raisin' trouble... well. You saw what happens when I cut loose, just now."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
The Jigsaw is insanely unwieldy, it's true. But there's a reason why Sarah isn't doing the fighting. She pops out of the way and gives Lexicon a thumbsup. "Names' Sarah. Sarah Parsle." She replies. "I'll do the rest of my introduction when you're not kicking a thing's ass for its stupidity."

She watches how things pan out with Lexicon and how she boots the boss out of zone, and actually chuckles. "Well. That was richly deserved, I guess."

She approaches after the area is cleaned out. "Good work, guys. Looks like everyone had something that resembled fun." She looks over to Lexicon. "As I said. Sarah Parsle, Afterus, student at the Predestination Academy for Gifted Ecto-Youths." A pause. "Or Death Game High for short." She shrugs, and looks around. "So those are your work clothes? Fancy."

She shrugs. "I don't care about making trouble. Trouble's already happening here, apparently. And there's going to be more of it now that you're connected to the Multiverse. Hope you like dealing with the endless supply of idiots an infinite number of worlds will foist off on you."

Silica has posed:
    Silica blinks a bit owlishly at the hot and cold of this girl. She's nice and pleasant, but she can sense an undercurrent of barely contained anger there. Short fuse, very nasty temper. Got it. She smiles brightly, rubbing the back of her head. "I just saw the new train in the Cyber Core and curiosity got the better of me." she remarks, neither herself nor Pina really minding the subtle petting. Silica's ears twitch and she gets a bit of an odd look but she doesn't pull away. At least it wasn't the tail! "Anyway, I'm not here to make trouble. And even if I was, I'd be rethinking my plans after seeing /that/ little show!" she adds.

    Pina scurries up Xiaomu's arm, and coils around the sagefox's shoulders, chirrruping softly.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro watches silently, face mostly expressionless as the young lady they (or more honestly, the others) just rescued begins restoring that which had been corrupted. Whatever title she's been given or claimed, it's clear that she has control over this place...Britannica.
    When Lexicon faces them again, he gives a deep, respectful nod. "Taro Daisho, Bishop Engineer in the Church of SHODAN. I was here merely out of curiosity. It seems you already have troubles enough, Drive Core Controller."

Rory White (673) has posed:
"Rory White of the Argonauts, a managerial AGI... who's not been doing a lot of such things lately." The bluenette executes a respectful little bow in greeting at Lexicon... then asides to Deelel, "Nice throwing! I'm still so awkward with those."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu lets up on scritching Silica's ear, instead trying to fluff her 'hair' (tails) out so Pina can slide under them instead of trying to wrap around them. She's still mostly listening to Lexicon - and takes a moment to look suitably impressed at how readily Lexicon just stabilized the main tower. "I don't raise trouble," the sage fox promises with a smile. "Mostly I shoot trouble if it happens."

Now, would Reiji agree with that assessment ... ?

Deelel has posed:
Deelel watches the Dual Disc as it retuns and then keeps it handy for a moment a sshe wants to make sure this thing is over. She want to maks sure things are done however.

"It was cerainly impressive. What you did and thanks you!"

She looks to the others banishes her weapon in a flash of light and she looks to the gathered group.

"Greetings Program, the ID's Deelel I'm a multi media program ... well orginally."

She looks a bit sheepish but she seems not to be like the attackers.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Yes," Lexicon's eyes wander from one to the next, "You don't appear to be viruses, nor do--" She lingers on Silica and Deelel for a moment, "--most of you appear to be programs like myself. So the Cablerail must have something interesting on the other side after all." Eyes closing, she cradles her chin lightly in one hand, "I'll have to investigate that more directly myself, later. For now, I have some damage to repair here in System before I return to Britannica."

    Her hand lowers, arms staying folded as she regards Taro, "If you're curious about that, the viruses started appearing after the Cablerail installed. All of us are learning how to deal with this, it's a bit of a new problem."

    Eyes closing, she shrugs, "I suppose the polite thing would be finding a way to repay you guys for helping me out."

Rory White (673) has posed:
"Your senses are encountering my robotic shell... but this is a digital world like Deelel's? Hmm... I wonder if it's somehow possible... to manifest here as pure data. If my code is even compatible with such an existence..." Rory's got that look on her face. That look of SCIENTIFIC CURIOSITY. That look of WHAT IF.

    "Will be worth experimenting with later... either way... you're welcome. For the help! If I'd just come with more WEAPONS..."

Silica has posed:
    "No repayment necessary! I doubt Alfheim would recognize anything you gave me as a valid Item anyway." replies Silica, "Just knowing I did some good is enough for me!" she adds, rocking on her heels a bit. "If you need some more help with these... virus, things, just let us know! I'm sure we'd all be willing to help clear them out."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah nods. "Nope. Just an ecto-youth. I'm not a program, but I'm good with computers. Probably not as good as all these chucklers over there though." She gestures to the others. "Don't worry about paying me back yet. You can just owe me one. First time in a computer land, so I'll need to learn what's up before any of that happens."

There's a pause. "In the meantime, here." She pulls up a smart phone and taps at it, trying to offer a contact card. "Use this to get in touch with the Syndicate Network. Put up jobs for people to do and we'll come do them in exchange for stuff or favors. You have problems? We'll fix them, even is most people only know how to fix things by breaking them."

Taro (399) has posed:
    "You may need more effective gatekeepers, if the viruses we just fought are intruders from elsewhere in the multiversal network," Taro notes. Then he arches an eyebrow at Rory. "Are you normally capable of uploading yourself or directly linking to cyberspace? That's how I'm here..."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "I'm from a system called The Grid. Though do wish to trvel there I'd ask you come to me. It's not the safest system in the world right now."
% She looks to girl for a moment She thinks over her next moment before she adds.

"It's no trouble it's what some of us do. I'm not about to let a viral infection run rampant. I seen that happend when I was a few hundred cycles old..."

She shudders at the memories of Abraxis.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"I'd say you don't need to worry about repaying me, per se," Xiaomu says with a grin. "Although the opportunity to visit every so often would be nice ... especially if you can let me peruse whatever entertainment media this system happens to have installed. Anime, games, movies ... but even without those, it's good just to meet you, Lexicon."

Her ears flick a bit at Deelel talking about her own home system, and the matter of Abraxis. "Yeah, viral infections suck," she says with wrinkled nose, "no matter whether they're electronic or organic."

Rory White (673) has posed:
Rory nods quickly Taro's way. "Yes, but... apart from strange Multiverse territories like this, being a pure Infomorph doesn't come with any... well... a pure program residing on a system has no body. No up or down, no concept of position or distance. Systems aren't inexplicably modeled like cities where I'm from. Not unless you're explicitly running a Simulspace and create an avatar to use in that Simulspace... so.."

    She looks around at the surroundings with a mixture of awe and bewilderment. "Fantastic places, here and the Grid, but so strange..."

Lexicon has posed:
    "Fair enough," Lexicon remarks to Silica, "It'll be handy when I start looking for their source, at least." When Sarah starts doing things, Lexicon turns slightly and unfolds a hand, as if catching something. Information offered by the phone manifests as a flat floating screen, containing the contact info. With a nod, the girl reaches to the top of the projection and pushes down on it, tucking the info away, "Right. It's appreciated."

    Eyes closing again, she mutters, "Games, music, an' movies, huh. I guess you guys have little need for Britannica then." One eye cracks, and she jerks her thumb, "Britannica's only one of System's Drives. You probably want one of the other Drives. I don't get along with their DCCs all that well." Glancing over her shoulder at the spire, she adds, "I mean, I just thrashed Emerald Soul today to get control of this." Turning back around, she refolds her arms, "If you want into those sections, you'll have to talk to those DCCs. I only take care of Britannica."

    In response to Taro, Lexicon merely blinks, "I don't know how you expect me to answer that. I am as I am. There's no 'projection'. What you see before you is, in fact, everything I am. I'm not 'linking' or anything."

Taro (399) has posed:
    "That question was intended for her," Taro nods towards Rory, "not for you. My apologies for that confusion."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Hey, whatever you've got that we can browse through, I'd be happy to at least take a look," Xiaomu says with an apologetic grin. "I hope the other DCCs won't bear any grudges against you, though ..."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "Might I ask the meaning of the term DCC? Drive I think I understand."

In the contex of her home world? The Drive is what contains the physical part of a system, in short to a program it is the material world to them. Still I am curious to learn more about this system. So I would like to check out the various drives here."

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon raises a hand to wave the others off, before turning to face the two who have stuck around with more inquiries. Though she's not going to just sit here idle, fielding questions. Rather, the girl steps away as well towards the damaged Cablerail platform to oversee the damage repair taking place since the tower's energy was corrected.

    "DCC is what I am. Drive Core Controller. I oversee the Drive of Britannica, we call it the Silver City of Knowledge, or the Library City." Raising a hand, she places it over some of the data that had been chewed by the Malvaders, infusing it with a soft glow to aid in the repair, "It's my job to manage it, direct System Resources-- like I'm doing now-- and represent Britannica abroad."

    Lowering her hand, satisfied, she simply closes her eyes, "I don't get along with the other DCCs but we don't hate each other. We're competing, here. Whoever's Drive has the most system resources means that Drive does better. And the best way to guarantee your Drive has more resources..." She turns slightly, eyes opening, fixing on the spire in the center of the System, "...Is to control the biggest source, here in System." She shrugs, eyes closing again, "So we fight over it."

    Turning more fully, she tucks her hands together again, disappearing into her sleeves as before, "If you really want to, later on I'll give you guys a tour of Britannica. I'm pretty proud, we're the oldest Drive in the System that hasn't crashed."