"Curiouser and curiouser," Gretchen muttered, watching in awe as the top of the tower was cut away with swift ease, and the evil looking harpies poured out of the tower to begin their assault. All of the enemies did indeed look so small from this position, but she knew that she was small up close, so things might get a little dicey if she tried to get into any sort of actual combat. "Just dislodge them; you don't have to tell me twice." Looking around at the oncoming army, Gretchen made the decision to start at the top and work her way down. "Climbing up is always harder then falling down, right?" With a flick of her wings, Gretchen began scaling her way toward Kama's chest. The clusters below would be a problem, but they would have to wait. It was a race to the top with the ninjas on Kamas other hand, and there was no way Gretchen was going to fail this early. Besides, there were more of these things coming out of the windows, so she wanted to try and stay high to see what they were planning. When she reached the summit of her climb, she took another look around at the advancing foes. It turned out that destruction of the outfit was more important than speed, so the ones she was expecting to meet at the shoulders were still down near Kama's wrist. Climbing a giant's arm while she dug around inside your tower probably wasn't in the standard training manual of... Well, anyone, really. From this position, she took a moment to survey the contents of the tower, and perhaps get a better idea of what was to come. "Hmmm..." pondered Gretchen, a plan beginning to form in her mind. "Hey Roger, could you load up a chip for me? I don't know if this will work, but at least it'll make for a cool entrance."

"A cool entrance? You're going to need to focus more if you're going to make this work." Roger shook his head, but flipped open his newly organized folder. "What chip did you want?"

Gretchen smirked as she bounded across the back of Kama's neck, headed for her right shoulder, "When soldiers attempted to siege a castle that was up on a hill, the defenders sometimes rolled logs down the hill to try and take them out." She began sliding down the shoulder to get a better vantage point for this. "Sure, Kama isn't quite a castle, her arm isn't exactly a hill, and the opposing ninjas aren't really sieging per say, but it's close enough to be worth a shot." Roger just shrugged and slotted in the RollingLog1 chip.

"If you think it'll work, go for it. Just remember, you're not really fighting these guys, so most of these chips will be useless here." Gretchen nodded as the data of two logs filtered down from Roger.

"Your concern is noted Roger." She turned and looked down to the oncoming assault squad on Kama's wrist and grinned. "Look out below," she said, to no one in particular. The pair of logs popped into existence in front of her, and with a kick they began rolling down toward their targets. Regardless of success, Gretchen followed close behind the logs, ready to take out anything still on their way up. This could be a rough fight, and Gretchen wanted to be absolutely sure of her footing and knew that having to backtrack would take far too much time. A little caution could make a world of difference.

Summary
4 pts: Climbing from the hand to the back of the neck
2 pts: Crossing over and down to the right bicep.
2 pts: Pushing logs down Kama's arm
2 pts: Traveling down to Kama's right hand (Follow the logs)
10 pts: Attempting to dislodge ninjas from right hand and staying aware of what was coming out of the windows.

To say that Gretchen was surprised at the appearance (Both the size and entrance) of Kama would be an understatement. As two massive expanses of black rose from the dunes, she lost her balance and slid down the side, and with a bounce landed clumsily a few feet away. As she gazed at the impressive figure rising from the sand, her cheeks turned a slight shade of red as realization dawned on her. That being said, she was taking the situation surprisingly well. As a child, one of Roger's favorite stories had been the "Alice in Wonderland" books, and Gretchen had grown quite fond of them as well. The first thought that crossed Gretchen's mind was not one of terror, but rather fascination. Thoughts of "tents" were quickly replaced with images of mushrooms, and of cakes with the words "Eat Me" as she stared upward at the massive Navi.

Her gaze and silence, must have been mistaken for fear, for Kama did her best to keep Gretchen calm. The initial shock dissipated quickly as alarms from the distant tower reached their ears, and Kama began to quickly explain the situation. After a few moments, Gretchen found herself very sympathetic toward poor Kama's dilemma. "Oh you poor dear..." she began, with many questions beginning to bubble up inside. But before she could ask anything, the sounds of battle began to rise from the tower in the distance. The witch's navi's weren't going to give them much time to discuss before the fight began, so Gretchen made up her mind on the spot. "Well, I certainly can't let them ruin your reputation like that. I may not know much about the ways of ninjas, but I do know a thing or two about modesty." With a flick of her wings, Gretchen scurried up the black cloth of Kama's right sleeve, and perched herself on Kama's wrist, casting her gaze toward the oncoming horde. "Lead the way, and we can figure out the details later!"

Roger, however, had to run and grab a tissue for his bleeding nose, and missed all of this. All that he knew at this point was that Gretchen was staring at a small army, and was wearing much the wrong outfit for this kind of "mountain climbing", not to mention battle. Roger cleared his throat and set out his Binder of Battlechips for the task ahead, not entirely sure of what he could add to the situation.

Wanting to make a good first impression, Gretchen beams into her first mission in her full professional attire: Brown slacks, a white button down blouse, and a green and black striped tie. Standing in the shadow of the monolithic tower protruding from the sand, she felt a little bit like a door-to-door sales navi. She looked around, taking in her surroundings. A cool breeze made her involuntarily take a deep breath. The crisp air of the beach was a nice change from the dark recesses of SciLab, and she was excited to see where the day would take her. She gave her wings a quick twitch, feeling much more energized after a nice rest from her last outing. She bent down and picked up a small pile of sand and watched as she let the particles slip through her fingers and dance away in the wind. "Oh yeah, I could get used to a place like this." Rubbing her hands together to get the last few bits of sand off, she looked back and forth between the two towers, both of which looked very out of place, though the conflicting architectural designs made Gretchen smile a bit. Looking around, however, she seemed to be the only one there. "Roger? Are we sure this was the right spot?" Roger checked the link from the BBS.

"Well, this is where the GNA told us to go... Maybe we're early?" Gretchen tilted her head and looked back at the towers.

"Perhaps..." She shrugged, and crouched down to draw a group of parallel lines in the sand. After about seven or so lines, she switched and drew two more lines, connecting her group like a ladder. She pointed at the tops of these two lines and recited an old child's game, "Eeny, Meeny, miny, mo, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, eeny, meeny, miny, mo!" Her finger ended hovering over the right hand line, and she followed the line to the bottom, crossing every beam as she came to it, ending up pointing to the bottom of the left hand line. She stood up, brushed herself off, and with nothing more to go on than luck and chance, started heading toward the bamboo tower.

Roger leaned back in his chair as Gretchen finished compiling the data from the days exploits. A small pile of Zenny, and a few battle chips were the tangible spoils, which was the goal. But we learned three distinct things in the process, each more disturbing than the last. First and foremost, at least in Gretchen's mind, were the viruses with personalities. Two Bunnys and two Cannondumbs had flames painted on their bodies, and they were traveling together as if they were a gang. If they had been Navis instead of viruses, it would make sense. But these were characteristics not usually seen in supposedly mindless programs bent on the destruction of the net, were they? Virus busting is so commonplace; it had become the most widely used form of earning money that he could think of. But if it turned out that these programs weren't just wandering monsters, and could in fact be communicated with, did we really have the right to simply bust away? Roger shook his head. Ethics on the net have always been loose, but something here simply didn't feel right. "Hey Gretchen, why don't you put a post on the SciLab BBS; see if anyone else has seen viruses like the ones we fought."

"Yeah, that one Bunny is still out there somewhere. I hope it's all right..." Roger stood and gave a quick stretch, and started cleaning up some of the mess at his station. His mind was still reeling with the other two problems. Gretchen still wasn't cut out for prolonged battling, and that could be dangerous. The net was filled with dangerous programs, viral or otherwise. If they were going to continue busting, he was going to have to start investing in some upgrades. You had to spend money to make money, right? He couldn't help but sigh as he looked down at the numbers on the PET. Gretchen sensed his frustrations. "Hey, don't get discouraged Roger. We'll have enough money to get you back on your feet. This may not be much, but it's a start. Besides, this was one days worth of work. If we can pull in this much again every day, we'd have over thirty thousand in a month's time. And if we can spend some of that on upgrades, I'll be able to take on stronger viruses, and bring in even more money." Roger gave a half-hearted smile. He was putting her in harms way, and they were still so far out from just being able to pay the bills. Thirty thousand sounded nice, but was nowhere near what was needed for rent alone.

But even worrying about all of that was only part of the problem. The most worrying ordeal of the entire day was that fiasco with the burnt out wire. Roger opened the back cover of the PET again and examined the contents. The yellow wire still had a scorch mark at the connection point, and a slight char had formed on Gretchen's coin. A chill shot down Roger's back. Maybe self modifications to the PET were a bad thing at this point. He carefully closed the device back up, and began to hunt for his coat and cane. He was worried about that, and wanted some answers, but Gretchen seemed fine now, and he really didn't feel like bringing the even up again. For now, he would focus on the other two problems, and keep this one filed away for later examination. "All right Gretchen, let's go and get you some upgrades." He paused for a moment, contemplating their next move, "Why don't you post on the Mission BBS while you're out posting. See if we can't find someone who needs help that could get our funding a little higher."

Gretchen nodded, "Sounds like a plan. A couple of posts, a little shopping, and we'll be ready in no time!"

{{To the shops, then to BeachNet }}

The next step I need to do is figure out the starting decks for an initial test.

I looked up the starting decks from MMBN and MMBN6, and using the RE:RE rules I came up with what I hope is a happy medium. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on this part especially.

Side note: Yes, I'm currently keeping chip codes in here, I'm not sure if I'll keep it, but I'd rather plan for it now and cut it if it's too much.

Cannon [A] (x2)
Cannon (x2)
Shotgun [N] (x4)
MiniBomb [c] (x2)
MiniBomb [L] (x2)
Sword [s] (x4)
WideSword [s] (x2)
CrackShot [*] (x2)
PanelGrab [s] (x3)
Recover 10 [A] (x2)
Recover 10 [L] (x2)
Atk + 10 [*] (x3)

First process upgrade nets her a new sig, which meets the dual goals of healing and giving me more wood elemental things to do.


Amber Assault: A small, digital mosquito is thrown in the direction of Gretchen's target. After draining some of the target's life force, the data bug (Pun intended) returns to give Gretchen the spoils. The target will find itself quite itchy later in the day.


20 Wood Life Drain, Thrown Attack (1TCD) [Cost 40 pts]

With a smile and a nod, Roger gathered his new programs and headed out, being exceptionally careful with the door.

Roger nodded to the newcomer, and counted out the required Zenny. He didn't have a lot, but you needed to spend money to make money, right? "You know, this gentleman might be on to something. Sorry, but could I trouble you for one process upgrade as well?"


(Buying 1 Process Upgrade: 100z)

Woah, that sounds a little scary, but could make for quite the adventure... I'll do it! We'll never get any better by turning down missions, right?

A Shotgun for a FireHit it is then! Just be careful where you aim that thing, ok?"

-Gretchen.EXE
ATTACHMENT: FireHit1 BattleChip data