It didn't go past Bentley as he tried to have a conversation with the being known as Dormin; it being the other's comments in the background of as much as one could have a reasonable conversation with an intangible being. Delsin noted the immense size of the temple's interiour, Tiz remained silent after seemingly feeling the same sense of dread they all did, and Piper and the Boss? It had been pretty clear to the wheelchair turtle that the Boss wasn't the most diplomatical person of the two gangs, and Piper had taken care of this rather quickly. Had it...no, she been around the Boss before?

Bentley continued to listen carefully to what Dormin told him and them all, making mental notes and maps in his turtle head before he realized what their Herculean tasks would be. "Did you say "Colossi", plural?" Bentley asked in his nerdy, nasal voice, looking at the statues around the room. Repeating the words Dormin spoke would have been redudant, but as if a third-party viewer was present, the mentally superior turtle did so anyway. " We kill the new colossi, and you'll tell us what you know? Sounds good, oh you who's name is "Dormin"."

Bentley around his wheelchair and rolled over to the rest of both gangs, Dormin's words fresh in mind as well as the Prince's warning; Dormin was a deciever. Bentley and the Cooper Gang had their fair share of decievers throughout their long career, and so Bentley would take caution. "All right gangs, listen up. Time to make a plan: I suggest each group go for one colossus. Tiz and Delsin with me, Shantae and Piper with the Boss. Let's try to scout it out and observe it from afar for as long as we can, before we engange it. Try to figure out its movements and weaknesses and all that. I suggest we take one each first, and then return here together to brief the others how it went down. Then we'll ask our questions together, and go for the two remaining colossi, and repeat. What'cha think, Gang?" Bentley tried to form a basic plan for the others, lacking the other variables that would give said plan more flesh on its bone.

Looking at Tiz and Delsin, Bentley continued. "What do you two think of going West to the Prison?" With a quick look back at where he'd spoken with Dormin, even though the being known as "Dormin" had been present in the entirety as far as he knew. "Eh, oh being known as Dormin? Do you know how any of these colossi look like? Or how did you know that they had arrived to...your land?" Bentley asked Dormin, not certain that he would receive an answer, so after a possible answer or lack of answer he turned back to Delsin and Tiz. "Anyway, like I said earlier I am by no means the muscle, But I have several other tricks up my sleeve;" A set of two robotic arms extended from his wheelchair. "These two little helpers, always ready to pick some pockets. And this" a pair of binoculars that one would recognize from earlier, " is my Binocucom, binoculars and a way to communicate with you." two small rockets popped out of the wheelchair "My rocket boosters," a high-tech dartgun extended from the Binocucoms "Sleeping darts, it's in the name. And finally these" Bentley finished, fiddling in his pockets with his turtle hand and pulling out a small metal ball with three red lightbulbs blinking. "is a bomb. Don't worry, I have them under my control!"

Bentley put away all of his gadgets, and continued. "If my sleep darts work on the colossi, unlike they did with the last giant we fought...we could get up close and deal some damage before it wakes up. Alternatively I can drop bombs. But I'd first like to get a good look at what we're facing."

Delsin listened as the President and Bentley conversed with the voice in the wind, arms crossed as he waited impatiently for them to finish. At the mention of these so-called 'colossi', he grinned, stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and walked towards Bentley.

"Finally, somethin' worth doin'."

As the turtle laid out his plans for tackling the monumental task they had ahead of them, Delsin surveyed the landscape to their west. More featureless plains, dotted here and there with trees. A small valley with a bridge, and a mountain range further ahead. He couldn't even see a prison from where he stood. The distance from the temple to...wherever it was westwards wasn't something to laugh at either. As Delsin's attention turned back to the turtle showing off his gadgets, he decided to show off a little himself. He let the length of chain wrapped around his right arm unfurl a little and grabbed the end, snapping it taut in his hands in front of him. He let his smoke powers condense around the length of metal, heating it till it was smoking, as streams of smoke flowing from his hands and arms.

"This is what I can do. I can turn into smoke and use that hot smoke to make this chain here real hot. I can also shoot bullets of smoke out of my hands. I ain't the fastest thing around here, but I'll kick some ass if you point me in the right direction."

Delsin let the smoke disperse as the metal chain cooled down, before wrapping it back around his arm after making sure it was cool enough to handle. He hooked his thumbs in the waist of his jeans as he glanced around him, many thoughts swirling in his head. This was way different than the city; after all, back then, he'd fought a woman who could control concrete and had just killed his brother. There were a percentage of people that had powers like his. Except that his power wasn't the manipulation of smoke, it was the absorption of other powers. When he'd crossed the threshold to this new world, he wanted to see what new powers he could find and use. Maybe people in other universes had other types of powers? He didn't know. All he knew was that his world and his life was in danger and he'd jumped on the chance to save what remained of his family and friends. He took one more look across the plains westwards that led to the prison and shrugged.

"And that sounds like a plan. Although, from here to there, looks like a helluva distance. You guys prepared for such a walk?"

Piper was pleased and surprised to find that the boss more or less did as he was told and rather than pissing off their host or blowing a gasket at her. Instead he turned his back to her and began talking to himself. Either that or to someone one the other end of an unseen radio. Piper assumed, and hoped, it was the latter. With little else to be done other than wait for the inevitable retribution Piper dusted of her hands and turned her attention back to the conversation between Bentley and Dormin.

That conversation seemed to have gone well. A deal had been struck. Kill these new colossi in exchange for information, one question answered for each target eliminated. She really hoped that these assassinations weren't going to turn out to be of the morally questionable kind. Bently and Delsin certainly took no issue with the prospect of slaying these unknown invaders so Piper didn’t feel the need to voice her doubts. That could wait for later once they were out of earshot of Dormin and found out what exactly they were supposed to be killing.

As bently outlined his plan Piper sighed at the prospect of getting stuck with the boss as the only appointed leader around, but agreed regardless. “Works for me I guess” she said as she walked back over to the Boss. She hoped he was done sulking.

The steambot was fairly sure she’d never be able to co-opt leadership of their small team while keeping the boss a part of it, she expected his ego would not stand for such a mutiny and he might even fight her over it. Also, colossal ass he may be, the Boss did at least seem competent when it came to combat, so losing him would put a real dent in their already limited firepower. That said, there was no way she was just going to fall in line like some good little soldier-bot, particularly after the stunt she pulled with shushing him. So instead she tried a different approach, working with the boss rather than for or against him. Time would tell if either of them would be able to stand that kind of arrangement.

“So Boss. If they’re going to the west how do you feel about trekking back across the bridge to the Old Temple in the north?” she suggested “It’d be easier for us link up with the other team if they get in trouble from there compared to the other places.” she based this assumption of the river separating the west and south, and the distance between the west and east being greater than the suggested pairing.

“Also is it possible to link whatever radio/phone your using right now to Bentley's Binocucom?” she suggested after overhearing Bentley's description of his kit. “It’d be useful to keep in touch with the other team’s leader.”

The warrior found himself freezing when Boss did, the later's focus on him him making him wince just a little bit. Did...did he say something wrong? Luckily it seemed like the person on the other side of his intercom made him relax and continue walking, Tiz scurrying forward so that he was now beside the other man. This seem to prompt Boss into a rather winded spiel about who he was, the gist of it being was that he was a king.
“Whoa, that really impressive sir, it's an honor to be in the same groups as you!” Tiz remain polite however, placing a hand on his heart before lowering his head as if he was bowing. Yeah, Boss seemed a little, uh, boisterous...but that wasn't always a bad thing!

---

It was a shame that the mission had to get all serious, seeing as Tiz would rather get to know the others a bit more before getting thrown into this, but it didn't bother him too much as things were starting to get interesting; not to mention a little creepy too. It looked like they were to be tasked with a mission inside of a mission... missionception? Missinception? Yeah, let's go with that. He tried to pay close attention to the conversation, eyes also shifting to the statues that lined the room. If his intuition proved right, they'd be dealing with the real life versions of these statues, referred to as the Colossi?

Bentley's confirmation of the missinception made Tiz nod slowly in understanding. They weren't meant to fully trust this Dormin guy right? But seeing as the only note taker of the group was going along with this, Tiz did the same, walking beside the other as they both headed back to the group. It made sense why the turtle was assigned as one of the leaders for this mission, he already had a plan up and ready to go for how to handle said Colossi.
“Sounds good to me. I mean, with what we know now, it's probably the safest option, right?” The silverish brown haired boy mused, a small smile forming on his face as Piper and Delsin also seemed to be good with this plan. He then nodded again at the prospect of hitting the prison first; they'd have to start somewhere and it didn't seem to matter where either.

When it came to his two teammates showing of their abilities, Tiz couldn't help but feel a little bit embarrassed at how much he was lacking behind the two of them. Bentley made it seem like he wasn't anything special, but seeing what he had in his arsenal made Tiz think the turtle was just use to undermining himself. And Delsin could turn into and utilize fucking smoke as a weapon. It was kind of unfair how behind he was in comparison, but it was all the more reason to get through this mission and build himself back up to where he was back in the day.

Tiz let out a light chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. He just had to go last out of three too...
“A-Ah, I'm not as smart as you, or have cool powers like you yet, unfortunately.” He looked between Bentley then Delsin respectively. “I'm decent when I fight hand to hand or use a dagger, especially with my job class, the Freelancer. The only useful thing I'll probably be able to do is Examine the enemy to see it's weaknesses, how strong it is and things like that, but I need to be covered so that I don't lose focus.” He explained before looking over to Delsin and grimacing.

“Yay, more walking, of course we're prepared...can't you see how excited I am.” The last sentence came out more as a statement than a question as he frowned harder for emphasis on his sarcasm.

Cole had never gone through a portal in his life, nor had any real concept of what it would be like. Sure he had attended an exhibition of the technologies of the future, but that was all nothing but technical gizmos and fancy talk about ideas, nothing which could have prepared the L.A. Detective for travelling through a portal. Once on the other side, that's when the cold finally kicked in. Cole Phelps pulled his fedora down and the collars of his suit up, when he noticed the rest of the group and where they were. The young boy with a...blue turtle, both dressed in warm clothes. At least they had been prepared. Then it was the lady clad in Roman-eque armor, looking like she meant business like the dark Darion himself. Lastly it was another young man, Vent, their leader it would turn out. He looked like a mix of an Army Pilot and a robot for the previously mentioned exhibition.

And then it was the entire setting they found themselves it. "This feels more and more like we're in a movie or something." Phelps said to himself, trying to keep warm as he took in all the sights of people and creatures around them. "Sure ain't Kansas."

As they were briefly left behind by Darion and Vent, they were quickly ordered by a man clad in silver armor ordered them to follow and...grab their gold? Cole preferred dollars, but he wasn't about to argue. Not when he wasn't the leader of the team, though he'd like to know a little more about the others if they were on the same side. "Yes Sir. Come on people, you heard the man." Cole Phelps told the others, starting to move after Vent. If they were lucky, perhaps they had some spare clothing?

The strange creatures, the cold, the hustling and bustling—Blue was overwhelmed. It was his first mission and he felt like a lost puppy forced to ignorantly follow the leader. Again, naturally, he seemed to orbit around Cole whether the L.A. detective liked it or not. He was the most normal-looking, and it was easier to be lost with someone else than alone. He followed the group as they were rushed along after the robot kid who introduced himself as Vent. At least they were all talking.

Blue managed to smile despite the cold that froze his cheeks and made him tremble. “My name is Blue, and I’m a Pokemon trainer. If you saw that little turtle earlier, then what you saw was a Pokemon. His name is Squirtle and he’ll give us a very handy hand.”

On another note, “Uh, by the way, is there a place where we can go that’s warm? I packed what I could, but I’m still cold! Maybe they sell better coats around here. Isn’t that why we’re receiving gold?”

Blue walked over to pick up his coin purse and raised and lowered his hand as though inspecting the leather sacks weight. Why else would they receive gold if they couldn’t spend it on what they would need?

Boss ignored Piper. He didn’t like her, and he didn’t like her trying to order him around. His mind was focused on other things. One of those things being why everyone was so comfortable with going along with what some demonic voice tells them. I knew I should have said something, he thought. The turtle was well, green behind the gills. From his equipment, he could tell that he was smart, but lacked the sort of intelligence to keep himself or even a group alive.

“Is Kenzie back?” Mr. President asked to seemingly no one.

She’s takin’ a shower.

“Really?!”

Bitches gotta wash their ass. What you mad for?

Boss raised his hand to his face and closed his eyes. He was getting a headache again. Pierce wasn’t the most knowledgeable when it came to offering advice on what to do in social situations. Boss was off his leash and like a dog who had been kept captive for years, he was a little afraid to leave his pen. But something had to be said before another Skyrim disaster happened.

Lowering his hand, Boss opened his eyes and gave everyone a narrowed-eyed scowl as though he had the largest headache in the world. “I’m gonna need everyone to wake up and smell the shit-covered roses.”

Oh shit! There he go!

Mr. President marched over to Bentley, staring down at the turtle nerd in his wheelchair gizmo. “You’re smart right? And if you’re so smart, then why the hell do you not see anything wrong with this? You’re just roundin’ everyone up like you’re all about to go on some fuckin’ field trip!”

Mr. President then turned from Bentley and gazed up at the temple ceiling as he shouted, “I got a fuckin’ question; in fact I got a few and my team isn’t gonna do shit…!”

They ain’t gonna do shit!

“Until we get some answers. Where the fuck is the hero of this game?” Boss asked. He then spread his arms, spun in a circle with his brows raised as he gazed upon the rest of the group. “Did nobody fucking think of this? Every game has a protagonist, so what happened to this one? He killed those statue things right? How did he do it? And finally…!”

Finally *****!

“Have you seen how big your game is? That trip is going to take days on foot. I don’t know how time correlates here in comparison to where were from, but I’m not about to be trekking for days into the unknown without GPS or some shit.”

You’re in a medieval fantasy Boss. They use maps!

“Or a map.”

Boss then lowered his arms and frowned at the others. “Tell me I’m wrong? Please. The last time my group listened to some crazy Satanic voice, our mission got fucked! If this Dormin is a god, then why can’t he solve his own problems?”

It sounded like a man and a woman.

“Is there a pronoun for that?”

Hold up. I’m Googlin’ it…you can use ‘it’ but it might get offended so you might as well say ‘they.’

“That’s so fucking stupid,” Boss muttered. He then sat down on the floor and got comfortable. “I’m stayin’ right here until this stupid god answers our questions.”

---

---

Teams were generated using the decider machine.

Team One: Shantae, Piper, and Mr. President.

Team Two: Bentley, Delsin Rowe, and Tiz.

Team Leader names are in bold.

GM Note: This is where the team should divide. They should discuss who wants to go where and which colossi they wish to take on first. Dormin is free to be further consulted; however, Dormin will not answer the initial questions asked related to the plot. Make wise decisions! Now is time for preparation.

Constantina arrived though the portal and was also the person least surprised by what she saw. Castles where after all a common sight where she came from. Dwarves where a known factor, though there were probably more of them present here than there were alive back in her world. The Gnomes reminded her most of Hoburgs, though it was a somewhat inaccurate comparison as Hoburgs where closer to halflings than Gnomes, while the Gnomes she was familiar with where actually earth elementals. There were also blue skinned elves, which was terrible, and blue hairless Satyrs/Dryads, which was weird.

As for their equipment, most of them were decked out in what Constantina would consider rare magical artifacts which was very impressive. She imagined that this 100 gold they where getting, which was more than enough to hire and equip a Censor like herself back home, would go even further here. As a result she eagerly looked forward to doing some shopping, particularly because, like the others, her outfit was not suited for the far north but rather the warm mediterranean coast. Vent and Cole seemed to be toughing it out it while the talkative teen with the turtle familier was more than willing to voice his concerns. Constantina decided to grin and bare it as best she could while giving assurances to the young lad that everything would be fine.

”I suspect your right Blue. It most would not do to have us Heros freeze to death before we smite even a single undead fiend and a castle such as this is bound to have spare winter clothing fit for battle. she just hoped it would not be second hand.

While she was following after the rest of the group she happened to spot the strange hooded figure boarding their ship. To the others is must have seemed inconsequential, but to the prophetess, who had been the target of multiple failed assassination attempts by blade and spell alike and had been rendered suitably paranoid as a result, it struck her as just a touch odd. She was in a new place where such a thing might be normal, but she considered it prudent to bring it up just in case.

”Excuse me good sir she addressed the silver armored figure who had come to show them the way ”But pray tell who’s ship might that be? she asked, pointing over at the vessel in question. ”I ask for a robed individual, who seemed a just touch out of place, just boarded it with what I worry may be malicious intent. she concluded, here tone having been as polite and un-accusatory as possible throughout just in case she was unintentionally accusing some important or respected individual of skulking about their own vessel.

The talk going on before The Boss's honestly quite unforseen explosion of words was still important, and Bentley gave his full attention to each other as they spoke. Delsin with his smoke-related abilities was impressive to witness, even for a mastermind turtle who had a lifetime of thieving experience under his shell...belt...you get the point. Taking note of it as it surely would come into use somewhere in his evolving plan, he turned to Piper as the robot privateer asked about his Binocums. "Well sure, Piper! Just give me a moment."

While Tiz explained his own powers, even if he didn't as proud of them as he perhap should, Bentley looked back and forth between him and from whatever he was doing. He was hard at work, but could still talk. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Tiz. Examining the Colossi might be just what we need in a situation like this. Never underestimate the strategic superiority of gathering intelligence!" The green turtle proclaimed, just as he pulled up several pairs of binoculars, each in a metallic chrome and with a microhpone attached to it. Handing one to everyone on his team. He was about to explain their use, when Boss finally exploded.

Bentley had been around shurt-fused people before: Murray used to take any opportunity to pick a fight, and Mugshot had been a walking boxing-glove with serious anger issues. But the Boss? The others would see Bentley visibly shaken by his words, even retreating a little into his shell so that only his nose and glasses were visible from above the waist. Bentley was not used to people being that angry.

Frightened by the harsh words (and cursewords!), Bentley did dare interrupt him, though several answers were formulating inside his mind. One of the more witty ones was that not all games had a protagonist, either several or none as in a strategy game. The Boss had a good point on that however, and Bentley wished he could have answered. But he didn't know. He didn't know how far it was from the temple and over to the colossi, but then again who knew how time or distance worked in that universe? In the end Bentley piped in in a quiet voice, slowly raising his head from his protective shell.

"...I don't think anyone said Dormin was a god..."

The eire silence was louder, to put it in poetic terms. Even for the Boss and his loud shouting, Dormin didn't answer any of his or Bentley's questions. Nothing. Not even a sigh or a breath. Bentley looked from the Boss and over to the other members of the gang/team, and back at the Boss. He wasn't a vocal person himself, but if he was a team leader, then he needed to pick up the mantle like he had when Sly and Murray got arrested. Even if he was scared.

"If I may be so blunt, Mr. Boss, I don't think we have much choice." Bentley spoke up, wheeling over to him as he calibrated his own Binocucom to connect with whatever comms-device Boss used. "It doesn't look like Dormin will answer us, and so far the only way he says he'll talk is for us to defeat the colossi. So unless you can find a way to make him talk, I don't think he'll give us any more information." he continued, the green mastermind turtle wheeling all the way up to the short-fused human and speaking to him a hushed whisper. "...and I think we should continue this conversation outside. Just so you know, I don't trust him either."

Bentley rolled away from Boss again, making his way back to his own team and pulling out his Shell-tablet to look at a map of the area. Looking at Delsin to his earlier question, Bentley patted his beloved wheelchair and gave a perhaps cocky smile. "Us two have gone vaste distances before, so we'll be fine." Bentley assured Delsin, looking back at the map and then towards the exit. "Doesn't look like we have much else left here to do. Let's go gang, follow me."

With that, Bentley began to wheel himself towards the exit, wanting to get outside and towards their mission. He needed to get up there and do some proper recon in order to figure out the rest of his plan. As he pushed himself out in the wheelchair, he looked back at Tiz whom he figured might have the most need for a tutorial with the Binocucom. "So you see, you press that button and hold it up to your eyes. No, not that button, that actives the microphone. Okay that one."

Piper’s sickly olive branch was promptly ignored by the Boss. She was instead left to watch as he went off on a tirade at Bentley over a whole host of issues. Piper facepalmed as the Boss forced them to acknowledge in front of Dormin that the god was as shady as the sun was bright. By the time the two squad leaders were done talking she’d had just about enough of the Boss

Flaming rust buckets Boss. Yes. Dormin isn’t the most trustworthy being in existence. Your not smart for figuring that out, they told us that in the blasted briefing. They also told us we wouldn't just get answers without doing something for em to get answers, so listening to disembodied voices is literally the aim of the mission this time. Also screw you for implying last time was in any way Azura’s fault.

Piper gave an exasperated groan and then turned to leave, not looking at the boss while she walked out after Bently and co declaring that You can sit here shouting at the ceiling till your voice box shorts out and your furnace runs cold for all I care, because unless your going to dismantle this temple brick by brick it sure doesn't look like your going to get any answers. Meanwhile I’m going to do some actual investigating.“

She stomped past Bently, who had stopped to give a tutorial to Tiz, telling him and his team that "Be safe out there. Keep your eyes and mind open."

Maybe the boss would suck it up and follow her out after which they could talk outside of Dormin’s earshot. Otherwise she’d be doing exactly what she said she was going to do. Scouting. Maybe she could learn something on her own to help the remaining intact team complete the mission. The Boss did have a point, but they were probably never going to get the answers to his questions out of Dormin, at least not without some leverage.

Taking her own advice Piper’s first point of investigation was the temple itself which Piper spent some time exploring the rest of. Perhaps she could find a trace of the game’s hero, whatever means they had used to navigate the forbidden lands, or some kind of ancient scriptures of some kind.

"Right."

Delsin took one of the binocular things from Bentley and rolled his eyes when the Boss had his outburst. He'd seen this before when he'd fought Audrey back in his home city. Typical head cases. He patted Bentley's trembling shoulder as he turned to walk away from the frankly embarrassing spectacle. The turtle soon followed suit, and Delsin waited for him at the other end of the bridge. The young man was idly fiddling with the binoculars...thing in his hands as Tiz and Bentley approached where he'd been standing, and he accidentally pressed the microphone button just as Bentley told Tiz not to. A squawk of static erupted from the device which startled him a little, making little puffs of smoke erupt from his hands, before he regained his composure and pressed the same button Tiz had to activate the binoculars.

As Bentley drew away from the rest of the group, Delsin fell in right next to him, keeping pace with his wheelchair. He bent over slightly to talk to the turtle in a low tone, so no one else could hear.

"Relax, it's fine. Lots of bark, not a lot of bite, from what I'm seein'. 'Sides, he tries to hurt you, I'll pour smoke into his lungs until he stops complainin'."

He smirked as he straightened up, the Binocucom in one hand, the other stuffed into the front pocket of his jeans.

"C'mon, let's get outta here."

Bentley's words seem to do just the trick as the silverish brunette's smile became more genuine. Maybe he could be helpful in this situation after all. It's not like they knew exactly what they would be facing, and that was something he could provide to the team. Something that neither of the other two could do at least from what they've mentioned. Nodding a bit to show that he was listening, he graciously took hold of the binocular-like device now in his possession. Did he have any idea on how to use the actual piece of technology, probably not, but he'd have to admit that they looked pretty damn cool.

Before Tiz had a chance to even thank the turtle of his quick work, both were startled by the Boss' sudden outburst, Tix in particular furrowing his bros a bit at how he went about voicing his problems. Sheesh, this guy was worse than Edea and that's saying something. His eyes remained mostly on Bentley however, seeing if he needed to step in as much as he wanted. Thankfully, the giant turtle, along with Piper, was able to stand up for himself. A rush of pride swelled in the freelancer's chest as he folded his arms smugly.

Once Bentley returned to them, the three were off, more than ready to begin the long trek that awaited them; well Tiz didn't really have a choice in the matter, but that's not important right now. Was was important was figuring out how...how whatever Bentley made works. Continuing to make himself Bentley's right hand man, Tiz stuck to him like white on rice, learning how to operate the Binocucom.
“Press this button?” His finger was placed over the button for the microphone as if he was about to press it, but before he had the chance, he was corrected, the same finger sliding over to the other button and only pressing it once he was given the okay. Bringing the device up to his eyes, Tiz was met with nothing particularly special. It was what he saw on a normal basis for the most part.

When his attention was shifted to Piper, he looked over to her with the Binocucom and smiling widely at her.
“Same to you guys! We'll see ya when we see ya.” He hummed before bring the binoculars down and hurrying to catch up with Delsin, who was more than ready to get this show on the road. “Onwards! The faster we leave, the faster we get there, which means the faster we can come back and get this mission over with!”

The Boss glared hard at Piper as the bot went off on him. Shit; in that moment, she seemed so much alive and like a woman that he didn’t even see that his blood was boiling over some stupid machine. He had a hand rested on his knee, and he was leaned forward as though ready to pounce on her.

“It was her fault! And yours! I bet you knew all about it!” Boss shouted back.

When Piper stormed off, he raised his hand to his mouth and yelled after her, “I don’t have a voice box or furnace. I’m not a piece of junk like you!”

We got voice boxes, Boss. I think they’re called a larynx.

“Oh; you’re trynna’ pretend to be Kinzie all of a sudden? Pierce; you fuckin’ suck man.”

Fuck you then. I was trynna’ help you out!

“Fuck man, don’t tell me you’re upset. Pierce? Pierce!? Shit.”

Kinzie was gone. Pierce was probably off crying somewhere like a bitch. The other team just left without a care for anything he had to say. As Boss sat there in the empty temple, the silence was growing thicker and thicker by the minute. Eventually, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He didn’t have anyone to take his mind off the duration of the mission, and the quiet was driving him crazy.

“Ugh,” Boss moaned in exasperation before he slowly rose to his feet and reluctantly started walking in the direction he had watched Piper disappear off to. I can’t believe this is happening. I wish someone would just pull me out of this nightmare, he thought.

---

Besides the statues seen in the foyer of the temple, outside there were no runes or any glyphs. The temple was wide around as it was tall, its peak disappearing out of sight. Vegetation covered the upper areas of the temple, and it couldn’t be determined how the plants grew there. There could have been caretakers. Were there others residing about the temple? It would be a long climb for the one who wished to brave it, and a test of stamina.





Out on the open plains, if one looked closely, they could see in the distance a herd of horses—black, brown, and white. They were free and untamed and journeyed together across this wide and mysterious world. Catching them would not be easy for the average person, but with strategy, they could be tamed.

---

Teams were generated using the decider machine.

Team One: Shantae, Piper, and Mr. President.

Team Two: Bentley, Delsin Rowe, and Tiz.

Team Leader names are in bold.

GM Note: XP has started. You are to keep track of your word count from here on. Remember, Alpha Academy uses a different XP system than PXO, the main game. So reference the OP/OOC of this game. Not PXO.

Without the bombastic voice of the Boss ringing way to loud in his ear, Bentley observed passively the grand silence that surrounded them, his little Gang away from home. Rolling onwards on his wheelchair, the masterly crafted wheels rolling on the cobblestone giant of a bridge with not too much bouncing around. When Piper went past him and wished him and his Gang good luck, Bentley looked up at her and gave her a saluate with a smile. "We'll do our best, and you too, Captain! I've been in strange open landscapes before, so we'll be fine. If and when the Boss calms down, tell him to hit me up over the comms, just to test." Bentley told the impressive machine lady, turning arond his wheelchair and continuing across the bridge.

As Bentley led his little gang onwards, he periodically looked around them with his thick-glassed turtle eyes, switching back to looking at Delsin and Tiz, and the map on his Shell-laptop. "Oh I appricate your concerns, Delsin, but I think we should be fine. I just...I don't know why he was so angry..." Bentley replied to Delsin's protective words, shooting him a thoughtful look for a moment as he wondered what was going on with the Boss. Perhaps they too would get some answers after they'd defeated the Colossus? Looking back at his Shell-laptop, Bentley traced the route they had to take in order to get to the prison. "Let's see. First we have to go north along this bridge, then circle west around the edge of the canyon, and then we should be there."

With both Delsin and Tiz in possession of their own Binocucoms, and Tiz briefly introduced to it, Bentley continued his tutorial on how to use them. "Yeah that one, Tiz. Good! The Cooper Gang have used these for years, and you wouldn't believe how handy they've been!" Bentley said enthusiastically to the two humans, stopping as they had gotten past the halfway point of the bridge. Time to show them some more.

"Okay you two; To bring up the Binocucom, press the R3 button. That's the thumbstick, no THERE! Okay... You can move it around as you want to look at things, but to zoom in and out by moving the left thumbstick back and forth. Try looking at..." Bentley instructed Delsin and Tiz, looking around himself for something to practice on, when he noticed something moving in the distance. Pulling up his own Binocucoms, Bentely zoomed in on the moving things as he had instructed, to see what was moving around on the plains. "Horses. Yes, try zooming in on those horses down there, on the plains!" Bentley looked back through his binocucoms at the horses, seeing the various colours they had. "Hmm...I wonder if they could be tamed. That would drastically shorten the time spent travelling. If I could get within range of my dartgun, I could put one to sleep, and then...any of you good with animals?"

Delsin did as he was told, although the instruction to reach for control sticks was weird...control sticks? What were those? He raised the Binocucom to his eyes and zoomed in on the herd of horses that Bentley had spotted out in the plains. He sorta agreed with the plans; when they'd gone over the map earlier, Delsin knew that his smoke speed boost wouldn't last even a third of the way to the prison. He removed the Binocucom to take a glance at the turtle. None of the party were good with animals, so he thought, but hey, better have a shitty plan than no plan at all.

The young man hooked the device back onto his belt and tapped Bentley on the shoulder.

"Well, if I'm fast enough, I could probably try to corral those horses nearer to you. We dart a few of 'em, then see if Tiz can get 'em tame? Or something? I have no idea how to deal with horses at all."

Delsin crossed his arms, standing next to Bentley. With the distance they had from the temple, he was glad that he was out of earshot of the Boss. Temper tantrums, a man his age throwing a tantrum like a child? He scoffed. Not exactly the best team leader, but with the threat of their home games being destroyed...well it was all they had. Delsin pushed the thoughts from his mind as he rolled his shoulders and hopped on his toes, limbering himself up for the horse wrangling in his near future. The closest he'd ever been to a wild horse was hearing stories about the herds of wild horses in Europe back when he was at the reservation, listening in on his elders telling stories while he was busy painting one of the outside walls with a new stencil design he'd come up with. After that was the running away when someone inevitably found him spray painting the reservation wall. Back then he didn't have his smoke powers, just his legs.

All that was behind him now. Ever since he became a Conduit, he'd been whipped around like smoke in the wind. Ironic, considering he could become smoke.

A pleased smile formed on Tiz's lips as he was praised for getting the hang of the Binocucom.
“Woah, that sounds so cool! I hope one of these days we can meet your original gang.” He mused, his eyes never leaving the device in his hands. The way Bentley talked about his other gang really showed how much he cares for them, and probably misses them for that matter. Tiz was no different. Agnes, Ringabel, and Edea waited so long for him to wake up on for for him to leave yet again and help out others worlds. It was a big price to pay, watching his soon to be wife and friends respectively have to say goodbye for the third time, but that only made Tiz more determined to get stronger, do his part and eventually make it back to them, same with Bentley and probably Delsin too; although the later's been a bit quite about anyone waiting for him back home.

When Bentley got back to instructing the two humans on the Binocucom, Tiz could only arch his eyes brows in confusion. Where the hell was the R3 button? He only knew about L and R. Letting out a slightly nervous chuckle, the boy went for whatever he could recognize.
“U-Uh...” He mumbled, hand resting over the thumb stick before Bentley used his voice to guide him to the correct button. “Huh, okay, I think that makes sense.” He said with a nod as he brought the Binocucom back up to his face and tried out the zoom function. He was a bit startled at first when things started to zoom in, but he quickly got use to it, grinning in the process. “Man I wish we had something like this back at Nore-- DID YOU JUST SAY HORSES?!” Tiz didn't mean to yell, but his excitement got the better of him as he fumbled with his Binocucom to get a better look.

And there they were. Magestic beasts of black, white and brown. Oh how he missed being back at the farm with the rest of his family. Despite them having gone without him, the memories and time they spent together was still fresh with the silverish brunette.
“Aw~, they're so cute! I wonder how old they are... I hope they've been eating properly too, kinda hard to tell from here though.” Almost anyone could see the hearts in his eyes once he brought down the Binocucom, a blinding smile accentuating his features in the processes. “Let me give it a go. I love horses!” Tiz said as he rose his hand and waved it around much like a child would. “I'd rather we not use any sleeping darts though... by any chance, do you have anything that could keep them from running away? May like a barrier or something?” He asked with a tilted head.

Clunking around the temple had done little for Piper’s mood as the entire structure seemed devoid of basically anything useful. ”Grind my Gears, who makes a building this big and puts nuthin’ in it?” she complained as she ran out of places to look, finding herself as high as she could go. Anything higher up seemed to have no stairways leading to it and it was all covered with greenery.

Piper rested her back against one of these plant covered walls and popped open her chest mounted furnace in order to poke around in there with a little folding fire poker basically every steambot carried around with them. She nudged some of the existing coals around and then popped a few more little clump of fuel in from one of her hip pouches to keep the fire going. Then she popped it shut again, put away the poker and took a swig of water from a small canteen she had. Once this refueling process was done she pushed herself of the wall and turned to face the weird greenery she had been using as a head/back cushion.

”What even is this stuff?” she asked herself, tugging at the tangled plant growing against the wall she had been leaning against. ”s’ like a ladder. Made of plants? Weird” she concluded when she followed the path of its growth upwards. Piper did think it might be deliberate in some way, certainly there seemed to be more temple up there that nonetheless had no other ways to it, but having a complete lack of any understanding or experience with plants in general she really couldn't say for sure it wasn’t natural. What she did know was that there was more places to explore up there and, even if it was a waterless venture it was at the very least a high point from which she could use to get a better look at their surroundings.

”Maybe I can see a way forwards or spot those Titans from up there? Only one way to find out ah suppose”

She gripped the plants and gave them a tug to test their strength. Suitably impressed by their sturdiness she hauled herself up of the ground, her human like and claw machine hands pulling the rest of her body upwards. Surprisingly it all managed to hold the weight of the bronze forged bot, even if there was some ominous creaking.

”This is such a terrible idea.”

But it was this or either going back to the Boss and admitting that she hadn't found anything, or wandering off into the forbidden lands alone. Both of these where things she did not want to do for entirely different reasons, so up she climbed. It was tough going, climbing up the often unhelpful plants that were often only barely adequate in their emulation of a ladder. While her weight fought against her and her missmatched hands weren't ideal for this task, most of Piper’s physiology was suited for this climb. She’d chosen her own parts as she grew, and her resulting frame was designed predominantly for monkeying up and down ladders inside the cramped confines of spaceships, meaning she had plenty of upper body strength. She also had no muscles to tire nor any skin to become sore, only gears, pistons, metal and sensors. As a result the climb was a calcuatable contest between gravity and steam powered engineering, one Piper knew she could win barring any major setbacks.

Setbacks there where however. Plants snapped under her weight or slipped from her inelegant grasp. Once or twice she nearly fell. She could also probably survive falling here, although someone would have to put her back together after she smashed against the ground. That would make her look bad in front of the boss however, and she did not want to leave the task of getting fixed to him. At certain points she had to give up on the the plants entirely and rely instead along stone outcroppings. At one point she even had to jump from one wall to a stone pillar to keep going. Though none where setbacks where enough to kill her or stall her for to long, by the time she was approaching the top Piper’s furnace was in dire need of refueling.

Piper’s hand reached up one last time from the greener, only to find air and then stone below it. Feeling a little further forwards she found that this was not another stone outcropping out an actual platform she could stand on Her destination reached Piper halued herself upwards onto onto the stone surface.

She’d done it! She’d made it! Now where in the world had she made it too?

Boss descended a turning stone stairwell into an atmosphere that opened like a painting before him. The sun made the green fields glow, and he could see in the distance Team 2 heading toward what appeared to be horses. He raised his hands up to his eyes to shade them from the light. Squinting into the distance, when he confirmed the grazing creatures to indeed be horses, his dark brows shot upwards. “Hey; there’s horses!” he thought aloud. He then glared over at the other team and thought, Those bastards were holding out on us.

Horses would make getting to wherever Piper wanted them to go a lot easier. Turning back around to face the temple, Boss scowled up at the structure as he wondered where the red bot had gone any way. If she had just waited around, then she would have been able to discover the horses with him, but instead she had to go nosy around a demonic temple. As Boss started to walk around the temple, he grumbled, “Why don’t people fuckin’ learn? She isn’t even a person. She’s a fuckin’ robot, so she’s supposed to be ten times smarter than me. Whoever made her fucked up…”

Raising his hands to his mouth, Boss called, “Piper!”

“Where the fuck are you? The other group found horses! If you don’t come out, then I’m not waitin’ around. I’m not playin’!”

Boss stopped when he heard rocks clatter to his left. He glanced over at the wall, and then gazed up to see a shiny red chassis standing on a high ledge. His eyes widened in surprise. “How the fuck did you get up there?” he asked before even noticing the green vegetation making an obvious trail up to her location. “What are you doing? Sightseeing? Did you hear what I said about the horses?”