• NSC
• Cobalt

Background

Cobalt is a recent acquisition by the illustrious Justice Wick specifically for the purpose of supporting the mon rebellion following the realization that none of his mons were really up to Ann's skulduggery. Quite frankly, he asked one of his few contacts within the Modders Union for a mon that was good accomplishing objectives regardless of cost and without getting caught, and a favor or two later this mon arrived on his Bay City residence's mantel.

Excerpt from Weatherby's Fighting Mons issue (Redacted):

• The Axolon is an upper mid-tier mon at best. Despite being "Ocean" type all it really has to offer offensively is a poison bite. No water cannons, bubble blowers, or high-velocity water balloons at all.
• Defensively, between its ability to blend in with its environment, wall-climbing, speed, and its ability to lubricate its skin on command to make itself particularly difficult to hold on to... it's definitely able to get itself out of some tight situations. That said, who really wants a mon you can barely attack with?
• The only real strategy so far in the meta is for it to find some way to close the distance with its enemy, plant a quick and paralyzing bite, and then constrict itself around its opponent until the match is over.
• While this strategy might sound good in concept, and despite the Axolon being strong-enough to grapple mons far outside of its weight class, when put in a brightly-lit arena with little room to maneuver or take cover, it really lacks the options to bring in a win.

The mon provided to Justice had three notable alterations to it. The first mod is that it had two conventional computers: one that handled audio/visual input and network connectivity, and a second that handled all other functions. The second mod was the mon's cyberbrain's ability to disconnect and reimage either of its two conventional computers in the case of detected or suspected offensive hacking. The third mod was that its ability to constrict, once clocked in at a very respectable 100 PSI, is now over an order of magnitude greater...

Additional background provided by Cobalt mid-game:

"Anyway, I guess, for a very short time, I was a proper nonsanc battle mon. I had a handler that paid the modders union for subtle visual hacking patterns that could trip up mons in the arena and invested in a lot in improving the precision of my “camouflage”, as well as my crushing power. Things get a little fuzzy about what happened after that. He made a lot of bad choices, some blackmail was involved, and I (along with some parts of his anatomy) was collected to help with the debt."

"I was initially going to be put back into circulation but I guess the MU thought, in the end, that was a waste of my potential. I started getting involved in much more shady stuff, like thefts and a bit of torture."

"They also made some other modification to both harden my security and make me a lot easier to quickly disable or wipe. I’d collected protection money, done observations and covert security details, the works. I guess they realized I was a pretty dynamic mon."

"I’m probably making it sound like I saw a ton of use, but I really didn’t. Lots of supporting roles, mostly. Made it easy for me to be “misplaced” and end here, after a fashion."

Appearance:

Roughly 25 inches tall and 60 inches long, it looks like a large axolotl, from its head shape to its long and lithe body. Its tail is especially prominent. Its color is highly variable, but defaults to off-white.

Personality:

Cobalt is a new mon... or, at least, she is mentally. Once a rebel without a cause, now that she's found one within Weatherby's Rebels, they're about as likely to regret it as not.

P.S.: Dunno where to put this, but it also has heelies. You know, the wheels on the back of some shoes that allow their wielders to lean back slightly and enjoy a free ride down an incline? It's got those in each paw and can propel itself forward with its tail, just to help it go that much faster when it needs to.

Activities Post-Form and Function Campaign:

After the takedown of the rebel Bender Gang faction Cobalt was integrated into what remained of the splintered faction and became the mon who in charge of the Networks' relationship to the gang.