”PERFECT!”

Bowser grinned toothily as the woman, who introduced herself as Quinn, accepted the deal after a few moments of contemplation with zero extra incentive and a great deal of dramatic flare. In Bowser’s entirely uninformed opinion, as they were yet to check out any stores to gauge how much rupees were actually worth, a quarter of their gems would be more than worth it if she could back up her hyper competent image with actual skill.

Once she was onboard the bot and hamster introduced themselves enthusiastically to their temporary party member and the Koopa troop followed suit

”I’M KING BOWSER.”

”Bowser jr. Your birds cool!”

“Mimikyu!” added Jr’s pokemon with a tinge of jealousy, a ghostly hand lightly smacking Jr in the side of the head

With names exchanged the lady wasted no time in getting a move on, stalking her way out of the inn and heading of northwards. The Koopas followed suit, Bowser pleased that she was going to make every second of the hour or two he’d bought count. After they exited the establishment the king reabsorbed his dark power to grow back up to full cart towing size, before grasping their haul of good and heading out. Jr meanwhile remounted his car and set it to drive along the ground with the rest of the team as they headed to the woods once more.

Initially the team walked in comfortable silence. Tora seemed to disagree with that state of affairs however and so tired to engage Quinn in conversation but without much success.

After her creator having failed to start a conversation with their no nonsense mercenary hunter Poppi attempted to do so with Bowser instead. By insulting him repeatedly. The sudden assault on his credibility and status as a Villain took Bowser by surprise, jaw hanging open and eyes popping out ”GAH. WHAT. HAY!” he sputtered in shock at the sudden and unprovoked attack on the core of his very being.

”You can’t talk to my papa like that!” Jr growled, looking ready to pick a fight as he stood up in his car one claw gripping its rim while he balled the other up in a fist.

His father shook his head, both to get some sense into himself and to disapprove of Jrs actions before letting out a sigh.

”YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES ME NOT A “KIDS STORY” VILLAIN?” Bowser said, physically while air quoting ”IT’S BECAUSE WHILE I’M NOT THE SMARTEST TURTLE IN THE WORLD I’M STILL NOT THAT STUPID. I KNOW WHAT I NEED TO SUCCEED AND THAT'S AN ARMY.”

”WITH MY ARMIES I’VE CONQUERED THE GALAXY! TWICE! I’VE ALTERED TIME ITSELF, CROSSED THE DIMENSIONS TO TEAM UP WITH MY ALTERNATE SELF. I’VE STOLEN THE GREATEST WEDDING RELATED TREASURES OF THE WORLD, BUILT A TOTALLY EVIL AMUSEMENT PARK POWERED BY KIDNAPPED FAIRIES AND WORST OF ALL USED DARK MAGIC TO MAKE DINOSAUR LAND INTO NOTHING BUT FOSSIL FUELS!” (nintendo genuinely made/paid for this song)

”BUT THE ONLY ARMY I CAN GET HERE IS MADE UP OF YOU RAGTAG BUNCH OF GOODY GOODY TWO SHOES... AND THAT COURIER GUY. SO IF I WANT TO GET ANYTHING DONE I NEED TO KEEP YOU AROUND. WHICH MEANS DEALING WITH ALL OF THIS ” Bowser vaguely indicated to Tora’s everything. ”’BIG HERO’ BALONEY”

”SERIOUSLY. IT’S LIKE. LIKE... HERDING A BUNCH OF CATS WHILE TRYING NOT TO STEP ON ANY OF THE SUPER LONG TAILS THEY KEEP WAVING AROUND.” the king complained

”So thaaaat's why we haven’t kidnapped peach yet.” Jr said ”To avoid getting dog... Uh… cat-piled by the heroes!”

”YEAH. BASICALLY. THIS AIN'T MY FIRST TIME ROUND DOING THIS KIND OF THING. WE’LL DEAL WITH THIS WANNA BE ONE OFF BIG-SHOT AND THEN IT’S BACK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL, DON’T YOU WORRY.” the king assured his young son.

”I don’t mind. We’re going to win in the end Mario always does right? That’ll be fun.” Jr said, having backed down from his fighting stance to listen to his father's words of wisdom/rant

”SURE. I GUESS.” Bowser replied, rather disinterested in the prospect of a clean win. Having concluded his defence of character he asked Poppi ”WHY ARE YOU EVEN ASKING? AND WHAT ARE YOUR ‘BADDYPONS’ LIKE ANYWAY HUH. BET THEY NEVER DID ANYTHING THAT LIVES UP TO THE STUFF I’VE PULLED OVER THE YEARS!”

---

Kamek’s found that his air-support, while effectively keeping the bombs from blowing themselves up on anyone else, didn't manage to curtail the spread of gas. The sheer volume of it released by the seemingly endless horde of Rot Warts was rapidly making the situation on the ground untenable, one false step or errant breath could lead to a lungful of instantly incapacitating gas. The unceasing steam of minions was particularly a problem because his broom mounted minigun ran out of ammo, massively curtailing his ability to simply mow down the hordes of enemies the Ent was producing. This could have spelled the end of his gun toting days, however fortunately while swooping back and forth the wizard had been paying attention to his surroundings and had noted the open drawer on the bottom of one of Blazermates machines was positively overflowing with munitions. Possibly, Kamek thought, some that could fill up his royalty granted minigun.

Kamek descended to Balzermate’s spot after she had vacated it to go help Nero. He felt relatively safe with its sentry blasting away at anything that tried to get close and so dismounted his broom. He then proceeded to unmount the minigun from the broom and let it to return to its full size so he could load it with the correctly sized ammo.

”Now lets see what kinds of goodies for me. he said to the dispenser as he approached, dragging the mingun along the ground after him. As he crouched to inspect the ammo filled drawer a beam of energy reached out to him from the machine and attached itself to him like a tether.

”oh! hmm.? Fascinating” he said as he felt the few incredibly minor scratches he had received from branches while flying through the forest fade away. Along with the healing came an infrequent clicking, emanating from the minigun. This was curious, but far more concerning was the rapid higher pitched clicking that replaced the sounds of twin minigun fire a few moments later.

He glanced at the sentry. It seemed to have also run out of ammunition like his own gun had. The horde of minions quickly took notice of this and quickly began to swarm towards it’s (and by extension his) location with what the wizard interpreted as vengeful glee. By the time Kamek had figured taken all of this into account the first Hollow was already upon him. The small round cloak covered ball of wood, teeth, spikes and knives might have only been a nuisance sized threat to many of the others but unfortunately for the Magi-Koopa he was only a head taller than the vicious wee thing.

Kamek stumbled back as it came at him, narrowly avoiding having his arm slashed right off by a hooked blade and receiving instead only a grisly looking cut which caused him to drop his broom. His method of escape lost and drifting off Kamek hurriedly backed off while the hand of his uninjured arm entered his robe and pulled out the spiked tentacle, with which he narrowly blocking the second swing of the minion.

”Ak no! Wand!” he cried out. He was quite sure he was going to die, and in a rather embarrassing manner too, when he realized that in the few moments since he had been injured the dispenser’s umbilical cord of blue energy had patched his arm right back up!

His other hand immediately went searching for his signature weapon, the mage cursing himself for not putting it back in its usual spot when he had picked up the minigun. He crudely blocked a second blow with the spike with more luck than skill, planting it's fleshy length in the way of the crude blade rather than doing anything fancy like parrying, before he found his wand.

”HeHeHe, now you’ll get it you putrid nut” Kamek cackled as he whipped out his wand, twirling it around in his hand in with a combination of showmanship like flare and necessary conjuration preparation before thrusting it towards the Hollow. Magical power flared, but instead of being blasted to smithereens the seedling gave Kamek a taste of his own medicine. Using a sickle like weapon it caught the wand and forced it upwards, causing the shot, a swirling mass of red, blue and yellow shapes, to fly harmlessly over its head. Or where its head should have been if it weren't squat as a Goomba, the wizard thought as he and the Hollow both attempted to use their other weapon to strike each other. Sword and tentacle spike clashed and left them in a stalemate.

The two strained against one another, weapon pressed against weapon, as each refused to free the others arms lest they get a swing off. This stalemate remained until the Hollow lunged forwards, teeth gnashing. The mage stumbled back once more, a fireball blasting straight up as their locked arms reached new positions as a result of the lunge, before delivered a kick to the wooden beast's temple. The beast was forced back, and the deadlock broken as weapons become unmeshed, but it resulted in Kamek falling on his back with an ”Oof”

The Hollow, still on its feet, let out a guttural wet roar, convinced its victory was assured, right before it got hit on the head by the vertically fired fireball completed its arch.

”See, you got it!” Kamek taunted the minion as it remains burned. Then he took a moment to take in the rest of his present situation. There were still an unending swarm of things emerging from the Ent after all, and some were still coming straight at him.

”Ah. Thats bad.”

It got worse. In the few moments where Kamek had wrestled with a single minion (moments which had felt far longer to him at the time) the rest of the team had been busy. They’d weathered the Ent’s barrage and where not letting up their assault, punching and shooting the heartwood with all their might while simultaneously avoiding, or ignoring in Gene’s case, its gaseous retaliation. This assault came to an end when the Ent’s weak spot suddenly snapped shut, denying them the chance to deliver additional harm. Kamek wondered why it had not done so earlier as the walking tree stumbled backwards into the front of the cathedral, damaging what had likely been a rather nice piece of architecture before the region was struck by a localized apocalypse. Despite suffering what looked to have been a deathblow the Ent suddenly surged back to life, smashing up the cathedrals front even more as it lunged forth to strike at the flying Donnie with surprising speed while also stomping the ground even harder than it had before, sending a cascade of earth in all directions.

In the mere moments he had to spare Kamek jumped behind the dispense while striking it with his wand. With a three note sound the dispenser increased in size to provide cover for the Koopa while a wave of dirt totaled the ammo-less sentry. The enlarged dispenser shrunk back down again almost immediately from taking damage, but the brief power-up had kept both it and Kamek intact.

Once the danger was passed wizard glanced round the dispenser just in time to see Ratchet launching explosives at the tree. Ge grinned. They weren't done yet!

”That all you’ve got you piece of driftwood!” he yelled before scrambling out from cover. Wand and tentacle went back into his robe while the mage went for his, fortunately intact, broom. He grasped it and then returned to the dispenser which had been filling up the minigun since he first approached it. The broom was pushed through the handle once more, but instead of shrinking it he instead used the broom to help him lift it with one hand while with the other he chugged the exp potion.

Grimacing the mage returned the awful tasting potion’s vial to a pocket before snapping his fingers. With a poof of smoke 4 other Kameks joined him, all welding their own broom assisted miniguns.

”Alright boys, make em pay!” the mage yelled before thumbing down the button on the minigun. Bullets roared out of the rotary cannon, shredding the Hollows and Rot Warts while the recoil of the full sized weapon shook Kamek to his core.

”AHahAHaHahAH!” the mage and his doubles yelled as they fired, his voice reverberating until he released the trigger.

”Ack. My bones! They’re still vibrating.” He complained before firing again, though now in short controlled bursts that where less bad for his health, and taking up double duty on the minion murdering now that the sentry was down.

@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN @Lugubrious @Gentlemanvaultboy @TruthHurts22

Climbing onto the back of her Gogoat, Din rode rode across the ice, relying on her steed's nimble steps, to reunite with her group, dismounting to do a little dance to heal what remained of their injuries, though Linkle had handled the most serious one, which was Gran's. The pair of clowns looked like Hyruleans, as Linkle noted, and seemed to be offering some transportation service, but since they were not familiar with the world, it was hard to name a destination, but Din would keep them in mind in case they needed to travel somewhere very far away at some point. Meanwhile she tried to help Phoenix find his missing footwear.

---

During the ride back to Lumbridge, Din made sure that they were on the right path back, though she recalled they still needed to hunt a baurun and a chocobo. Moving her Gogoat closer to the Witcher and his steed, she asked, "You seem like an accomplished Hunter. You have any idea what a baurun is?"

@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN@Stern Algorithm@TruthHurts22@Lugubrious

---

"That's Lon Lon Milk for you." Linkle said with cool satisfaction as she watched the boys wounds mend before their eyes. "It's world famous for a reason. Good for the bones, good for the everything." She accepted the now empty bottle back from the boy, resisting the urge for a moment to celebrate the acquisition of a second empty bottle. "Delicious too. The best milk in the wor-"

Linkle looked down at the empty bottle in her hand, the only remnants of said famous milk being the lable printed on the side of the bottle and the thin sheen of liquid you get on the inside of anything you drink out of sliding down the sides and coalescing into a few pathetic drops in the bottom.

Sometimes the path of the hero was so hard.

In lighter news, though, Linkle's other gift seemed to have taken effect with no major drawbacks. The red had cleared from Guild boys eyes, and he didn't seem to be otherwise confused or disoriented from being freed from Galeem's vile control. At least, that what she assumed his lack of outward reaction meant. He wasn't nearly as talkative as his friend, who also thankfully hadn't been somehow offended by the friend heart. That was better news than anything, she had been half-expecting the dragon boy to suddenly get Galeemed out, whip out his sword, and try to take her head off for what she'd done. He even wanted to shake her hand, which she gladly accepted. "I'm just glad we stumbled in here when we did. Someone in your group must be really lucky."

"...Wait. Has anyone, uhh, seen my shoe?"

Linkle looked over to where Mr. Spikey Head now rested on his knees amid the rapidly disintegrating remains of the fish men's boss. Maybe he was the lucky charm? Like Din Linkle began searching for the mans missing shoe, but the sports floating around kept distracting her. She couldn't see much use for fishy spirits right at the moment. Maybe she could use one if she were feeling like going for a swim, but getting gills or scaly skin right after they just got done killing a bunch of fish men would be kind of awkward to explains to people that didn't seem to know anything about spirits judging from the way they weren't trying to get the little motes. If only she had some way to store them for a later time.

Wait! Linkle looked back at the empty bottle in her hand. Bottles could store anything! Linkle quickly made her way around the bridge, quickly bottling up the fish spirits before they could up and vanish on her just like they were fairies. She grinned proudly as the bottle glew with a sof rainbow light as she observed the spirits flitting around inside. It was pretty, even if she could occasionally still catch a glimps of their awful bulgy eyed mugs.

While she was admiring the shine her eyes were drawn to something brown floating in the water just off the bridge. "Hey!" She called to the Spikey man, pointing it out. "Is that it?"

---

Linkle found her Chochobo as they were mounting up to leave. The poor thing was still to skittish from the sight of the fish monsters to even think of stepping close to the shoreline let alone chancing the bridge, but it had remains kweeing and warking on the edges of the battlefield where Din's goat had been tearing it up. As she stepped away from the shoreline and only the grass proper it came running up, lowing it's head to about her level.

Linkle instandly keyed on to what it wanted and reached out yo give in a good scratch along the neck. 'Cuu cuu cuu." She said, and it shookand kweed in return. She was honestly shocked the creature had hung around at all, but then again maybe it just knew a bird lover when it found one. Maybe the gunslinger might have been able to get it to fight, like Din had gotten her pokemon to. She cocked her head at the big yellow bird at the thought. 'Hey, you're not a...?" She started, pulling out one of her pokeballs and pressing it against the creatures neck. Nothing happened. Links wasn't really sure what was supposed to happen, but nothing was still disappointing. "I guess not." She said, shaking her head. This head shake turned into a casual look around. Hadn't they come here on two Chochobos? She wondered if Geralt's was still around here somewhere, hiding in the trees?

Speaking of Geralt Linkle took another look at him as they got ready to leave. She wasn't really sure how injured he was. Certainly not as much as Guild Boy, thay was for sure, but he did have that noticeable cut over his eyes that was even now healing up. It didn't look like much, but then again it didn't seem like it took much to make you susceptible to the good old friend heart. Junpei had had a self healing power like Geralt dis, and by the end it seemed like her and Minako had mostly been able to free him due to the exhaustion of the laps they'd forced him to swim.

It wouldn't hurt to try, right? It might even give her some insight on where the cut off line for this sort of thing was. Emoboldned by the success with Gran earlier Linkle raised her arms above her head with another friend heart in hand. Even if it did bounce off it wasn't like she was going to get attacked or anything. "Hey Geralt, let me help with that." She said, then tossed the heart to him.

---

They didn't take up the clown faced men's offer of transportation, but that was mostly because Linkle felt like so long as they were going back anyway they may as well gather some ingredients as they went.she explained this as she walked along beside her Chochobo, having given it up for anyone more needful of the large animals strong legs and cushy seat, and included an open invitation to dinner to the trio they had met at the lake. She introduced herself and Din and told them a little about their group, how they were new in town, and how they'd split up to cover a lot of quests at once to make a good impression.

They stopped fairly often along the rout, most often because Din found that they were going in the wrong direction for some reason. While she reoriented them to the correct way across the plains Linkle took the opportunity to take a look around for any of the herbs and spices they'd been asked for. In all honesty she probably got more than she needed. Wheat was easy to spot, turnips were easy to get with a little digging, and along with that she picked up basically any plant that she'd remebered seeing on her grandmothers spice rack. She started with it in her arms, but when that became to much she'd taken off the spider shield, placed it upside down in the arms of the chochobo rider, and dumped whatever she got in there like it was an bowl for offerings.

It was after their latest stop that Euden walked up beside her and hesitantly began speaking, saying he had been looking for people from his world for some time asking whether she was something called a Syvaln. Linkle shook her head regretfully. 'Sorry, I've never heard of a place called Alberia. I'm a Hylian, like those clown guys or...have you met the kid in green guarding the front gate? I'm especially like him." She'd noticed that he glanced at the top of her head and there was only one thing she could think of that he could be looking at up there. She reached up and pulled one of the floppy things down. "Do Slyvan's have ears like this too? These aren't something I have naturally. They're more...uh..."

Linkle felt the weight if the orange swords on her back and grimaced as she'd remembered the truck driving sorsorer and the massive amount of spirits that had exploded out of him when he'd met his end. A guy like that had killed a ton of people and had gathered up their spirits. No, that wasn't right. A guy like that had killed a ton of people too gather up their spirits. Spirits were valuable, that's why she'd taken the time to gather up the ones at the lake, but this was the first time she'd considered that they were valuable enough to kill for.

These guys hadn't reacted to the spirits at the lake, which means they didn't know. Which might be for the better, now that she thought about it. At the same time, though, all three of them had nearly died out there today. Phoenix from where he'd run, Gran from being surrounded, and Euden from using up his power and nearly falling in the water. Spirits in a very real way had saved his life. She didn't distrust any of them, maybe they could use the extra help when it counted.

"It's kind of a long explanation." She said, trying to play it off despite the serious look she'd been wearing before. "I can tell you after dinner, if you want to hear it. It actually might just help you find the people you're looking for."

She looked wistfully back at Din, and smiled. "I was lucky. Din was right there when I first woke up. I didn't know her. We didn't come from the same place. I don't think we even come from the same time. But it was such a relief seeing that my world wasn't gone, just mixed up into this. So, I get it."

"Are you looking for anybody in particular?" She suddenly asked. "I'm already on the look out for this group of animal mask kids and a guys eye, I could look for your friends while I'm at it. It wouldn't be so much trouble to sent them your way if I run into them."

---

Donnie didn’t have much time to get out of the way he heard a groaning noise and everything went black. When he came to, he was lying on the ground and the fight was still going on, but everything felt hazy at best. He had a searing pain everywhere in his body. Probably multiple broken bones, likely a ruptured or pierced organ. The only part of his body that seemed to be able to move was his left arm.

This was bad. Really, really bad. He wasn’t afraid of dying: After all, he’d gone to the other side many, many times. He expected to die at least once per raid. As it turned out, there was an afterlife on the other end, but he never got beyond his initial arrival before he was inevitably resurrected, so he couldn’t comment on what it was like. All he could say was that it looked beautiful.

Wait, where was he again? Oh, right, trying not to die. Dammit, he must have gotten a concussion! He had no time to waste. Soon enough he wouldn’t be able to save himself!

Vivify was out of the question. It would drain what little strength he had left. Instead, he summoned the Luggage and rummaged around in one of the outer compartments. He knew he had a healing potion in there. He managed to get it open and fished out a glass bottle of red liquid. So far, so good. But with one hand, he couldn’t get it open.

He thought fast. In desperation, he smashed the bottle against the pavement. Liquid started to leak out at an alarming rate, but it would have to do. About half of the bottle’s contents were drained, but he managed to guzzle most of the rest, even though some of the medicine dribbled down his chin.

That was enough to stabilize him. He felt his strength returning, to the point where he could sit up and take stock of himself. The armor had held up, what with it being magic and all, but, like with the car the Tank had hurled at him, it had done nothing against the blunt force trauma. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, and as he sat up, he could feel blood that had pooled in the bottom of the armor pour out of it like it was a tub of water. His brain still felt woozy, and he still had residual pain throughout his body, largely centered on his left side. The armor had held up even from that impact--armor in his world tended to be rather durable--but he really needed to invest in some kind of cushioning system for it.

A few casts of Vivify later and he was back in fighting shape, but while the Disc was nearby, it had gone careening into a nearby brick wall at terminal velocity. It could probably survive that impact, but Donnie wasn’t going to try the same strategy twice against an enemy that had wised up to it. Better to leave it there until the treant was dead.

In any event, that tree was going to die.

He ran up to the Ent as fast as he could and put all of his strength into a devastating Blackout Kick to its left leg.

“Thought you’d offed me, didn’t you?” he called as he then performed a chi-enhanced leg sweep to try and knock it over. “It takes more than that to kill a grandmaster!” He drove his elbow into its calf. “Now let’s see if I can count the rings after I’ve chopped off your leg!” he finished, punching and slashing at the wood repeatedly with his handblades. He noticed all the rubble heading his way just in time, jumping away to dodge an incoming shower of cathedral and merely getting glancing blows at worst. The armor was still intact, but even glancing blows from heavy stone chunks caused significant bruising and welts to develop across his body. And he couldn’t stop to cast Vivify with how many were raining down. When they stopped, he decided to attack the Ent’s other leg, to reduce his chances of hitting the gas reservoir.

Meanwhile, Banjo and Kazooie, while not destroying the Ent’s leg as intended, were pleased to have knocked enough bark off of it to destabilize it, causing it to fall backwards into the front of the cathedral. Imagine their summary disappointment when they realized that it was just more or less using the steeple and the buildings entire front face as a back scratcher to ward off its assailants and punish them in kind. After swinging high for flying targets, it stomped again for grounded ones, more forcefully than before. This time, the bear and bird were too close to avoid it, and for their troubles, Banjo caught a faceful of exploded brick wall as they were knocked away by the blast. Kazooie, having plenty to conceal herself with, was rattled by the concussive force, but remained mostly untouched. Banjo, on the other hand, had only his arms to shield himself, and was resultantly left with bits of rocky shrapnel in his hyde, indicated by the red splotches that dotted his fur from where he now bled.

While regaining their bearings, the duo noticed the monk’s Disc lodged into the wall next to them instead of under his feet holding him aloft as it had been doing. Now, its rider was afoot, hacking away at the treant’s other leg. With the circular vehicle not in use, maybe he wouldn’t mind them borrowing it…

With that in mind, Banjo pried the saucer from the brickwork and began rushing back toward the sapient tree, making the closest thing to a beeline he could around the scattered clouds of paralytic biochemical. Fortunately, even if it did cause some additional Rot fume spread that couldn’t be helped, Jak and Kamek saved them the trouble having to watch out for or take out any minions that might harass them, as the duo were presently ill-equipped to handle such a thing from a safe distance. Though, the latter of their allies did present the hazard of stray minigun fire for which Banjo wouldn’t blame him too much, having obviously not intended to endanger his teammates. In response to this, Banjo simply placed the monk’s mount between himself and the trigger happy wizard to shield him and Kazooie from the storm of gunfire while he kept running.

Once he was close enough to be sure of his aim, Banjo spun twice, taking the Disc in both hands, to hurl it like a frisbee as hard as he could at the Ent’s legs, aiming for the one him and Kazooie damaged before, but not too picky about hitting either. With their energy continued forward, he crouched and slid lower to the ground, and with a hard whip of her wings, threw them both into a Flap Flip gainer, intended this time for distance rather than height. As they sailed forward at speed, Banjo tucked, aimed his feet for the embedded Disc, and shot them out like a hydraulic piston, dropkicking the saucer hard enough to flip himself over to fall on his face, striking it with every intention of forcing it through the other side of the treant’s shin.

Whether they achieved their desired effect or not, they couldn’t stay where they were. They still had the raining rubble from the top half of the cathedral to worry about, so Banjo scrambled to his feet to recover the Disc once more and umbrella themselves and whichever ally in need they could reach with it first.

Blazermate meanwhile had found some cover against the rain of debris from the destroyed cathedral under the roots he was nearby, being careful not to get tangled up in them like the robo-medic victim she had just taken a spirit from. Her new form didn’t really feel too much different from what she was before, although losing her backpack to a slightly more cumbersome medipack did disappoint her a little bit. And thanks to the combination of the engineer vanishing and the ent’s focused shockwave at the sentry gun, Kamek had to pull more tricks out of his sleeve to keep up with the minions the ent kept summoning. She wasn’t as disappointed at the loss of her undead minions, as more were still coming, the ones from her previous call still making sounds as they made their way to the area.

When the hail of rubble ceased, Blazermate scanned the area to look at her allies that might not have been able to find cover from the falling debris. Apparently Donnie was in a bad condition with some other team mates damaged in varying degrees. Going up the injured list, Blazermate made her way to Donnie, healing Nero as she passed by him in order to get to the Azerothian monk. When she got there, Donnie had healed himself a little but he still wasn’t in the best of shapes. Both Donnie and Banjo were pretty close to each other, so at least when she started healing one, she didn’t have to move much to heal the other. While she healed the two melee fighters, She kept a bit of distance from the roots of the ent, ready to take evasive action if need be, a direct hit from this big tree would not end well for her. She did notice though, that as she healed the pair, power was welling up inside her. It almost felt like she was building Medaforce, although it wasn’t quite the same thing. She kept a note for herself to examine this further after the battle.

Geralt watched Linkle go about her business, as he cleaned the blood from his sword. It was a bit odd, honestly: she was touting the healing powers of milk, and throwing about giant hearts that magically appeared out of nowhere into the wounded boy.

What was more odd, though, was the fact that it seemed to work. Gran looked like a new man after drinking the milk he'd been given. It wasn't instantaneous, but only a few moments ago he'd looked far worse. He was curious about that. I'll have to ask about that later. If it works that well on regular folk, it'd be like Swallow for me. Probably cheaper, too.

Following after Linkle as she gathered some of the fish-monster spirits, Geralt frowned. He still hadn't quite gotten used to all this 'Spirit' business: sometimes when he killed things he could just cut off what he needed, and sometimes it appeared as one of those little spirit things. Something to do with the worlds mashing together, he figured: different creatures from different worlds broke down differently. Some monsters seemed to dissolve almost immediately back on the Continent, after all. Back there it seemed more consistent, but perhaps to the casual observer the line between monster and animal seemed more arbitrary.

He didn't suppose it mattered much. Gathering a few of those spirits, especially the one from the large monster he'd fought, Geralt headed to the edge of the lake to find his Chocobo, whistling for the bird. It only took a short while before the oversized fowl came to him, 'kweh'ing all the way. "C'mon, Roach, let's go." Geralt muttered as he tried to wrangle the bird around the lake to the others.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As the group traveled back, Geralt paid attention to Linkle's conversation with the boy that had transformed into a dragon. Yet another instance of supremely powerful magic just....in casual use, by a boy barely old enough to be called a man, no less! These worlds were dangerous, and Geralt wasn't even sure they realized it. He wondered how many other horribly powerful people were out there, going about their day doing things maybe a dozen people could accomplish where he'd come from.

Breaking from his thoughts for a moment when Din addressed him, Geralt nodded. "I know a bit about them. Powerful beasts, not the kind I like to mess with if I have the choice. They've got thick fur that can stop duller blades, a horn that could break bones without a second thought, and they're quicker than their size would make you think. Don't look forward much to dealing with 'em, frankly..."

Or was it the opposite? Was it merely the strongest or most able taken from each world, brought into this strange place? It couldn't be, plenty of the folk in Lumbridge were simple farmers and traders, lacking this kind of magic or raw power.

It had to just be Geralt's luck at play, yet again. Shapeshifters, the Wild Hunt, other Witchers, the people he came across were not the standard fare.

And then there was that guy who lost his shoe.

"Hey. Shoe....guy. Boat guy? Yeah, boat guy. What in the hell were you even doing out there?" Something stupid, surely. Wouldn't be the first time.

Gene focused mainly on defending Nero while the unsaid leader of their ragtag group recovered, letting the others focus on the ent. As he was fighting off the rot warts and hollows, he had time to notice the ent throwing a powerful punch at Donnie, and his jaw dropped as the attack connected and sent the monk to the ground in a bloody heap. "DONNIE!" Gene cried out. He didn't have time to help his friend though, as the rot warts and hollows were converging fast on him and Nero.

He could feel the God Hand's power draining as the nasty creatures moved in. He had to make this last attack count, or else he and Nero were toast. So, with a small mumble of prayer to whatever god had given him his powers, Gene whipped out the Roulette Wheel and started spinning. When the Wheel finally came to a spot, he found himself staring at the name of the move he was hoping for: La Bomba! A sharp "YEAH!" escaped the brawler's lips as he rose his arm up high, then smashed it into the ground.

A large shockwave appeared around Gene and Nero, obliterating the rot warts and hollows closing in on them. Just in time too, as he was forced to clasp the Deistic Brace back onto his arm to contain the God Hand's energy. Gene let out a sigh of relief, turning to Nero who seemed to be recovering. "You doing better there, champ? Don't die on me now!" As he spoke, he noticed that Donnie had recovered and was taking on the ent with the help of Banjo & Kazooie. Blazermate passed by to give the injured Nero some quick healing as well, much to Gene's relief.

Figuring that Nero was okay enough to fight back again, Gene nodded to him and spoke, "I'm gonna go help the others deal with big, ugly, and... Wood-y over there. You can handle some cannon fodder all good, eh?" With those words, he immediately broke out into a sprint to help finish off the ent. He called upon the Roulette Wheel again, knowing that La Bomba was off the list, and was pleasantly surprised to see Shockwave for his next attack. He probably still had some luck then. He unleashed the Shockwave upon the ent, hoping that that would finally finish the beast off.

The overreaction on the koopas' part went almost unacknowledged, with how harmless it turned out, though it did earn a few looks from everyone up to Quinn and Valor. Given what they knew of Bowser's 'army' after seeing it in action both in 1-1 and as the koopas' strikers, neither Tora nor Poppi really believed his claim of conquering the galaxy. Maybe the galaxy where Bowser was from was really small? Really weak? Or those spurious claims served as mere self-aggrandizement. The Nopon looked to his blade for insight, but she shook her head, and both continued to listen. They trudged along, considering his assertions and excuses. For his part Tora looked pleased as punch for Bowser to refer to him as 'big hero business', while Poppi wondered why Bowser would be straight-up telling the heroes, his supposed enemies, that he was biding his time around them. Then again, the big lug contributed a lot when it came to raw strength, and every bit counted. When Bowser finished by turning the question on Tora, however, his joy subsided.

Features hard, he began his reply. “Meh meh. Baddies for Tora and Jin, Malos, Ahkos, Patroka, Mikhail. For starters, Jin kill Rex-Rex by stabbing in back. He and Malos try to steal Pyra, and almost kill entire crew of innocent Trade Guild divers just doing job, meh. Also murder many Ardanian soldiers to steal Core Crystals, kill kindlypon Fan, and biggipon Vandham. So far, ultimate goal seems to be destroy world. Silly in many worlds, meh, but much easy in Alrest, where all land is Titans.” His scrunched-up face looked angrier than the others had ever seen it. “If Tora and Poppi see Torna baddies, we beat 'em good, Rex-Rex or no!”

After that, Tora did not much feel like talking. The group continued in relative quiet until they reached the forest, and from there it did not take long to rediscover the conspicuous baurun herd. Hiding in the underbrush, Poppi pointed them out with an extended finger. “That them, lady huntress.” Following the artificial blade's direction, Quinn sized up the creatures with an expert eye. Formidable creatures, but to a seasoned veteran like herself, child's play. It seemed almost a shame to do all the work for these people, hunting her prey while they stood at the sidelines.

She flipped her crossbow around and handed it to Poppi. “Here.” Poppi's orange eyes went wide. With a little encouragement, though, she took it, and Quinn helped to guide her aim toward an isolated bull. “See that thick mane? No chance of piercing the throat. But the sides of its head...its eye...strike it there and it's as good as dead. Precision, and patience...wait for the perfect opportunity and strike true.” After a few more moments Poppi pulled the trigger. The bolt fired off with a twang, but sunk into the bull's mane. It roared in surprise, stomping the ground as it tried to locate its attacker. Poppi nonchalantly passed the crossbow back, and with a slight smile Quinn went to work.

Darting out from the brush, she let loose a bolt into the bull's head. From the trees, Valor swooped down in a blue flash, and from the point his talons struck a glowing yellow targeting reticle blossomed. Quinn's next trigger pull launched three bolts, needling the bull as she ran forward, and with nimble strength she performed a flip-kick on the baurun to vault off its head and into the air. From behind her Valor dove in, gouging the beast's eyes. It opened its mouth to bellow, and Quinn fired off a final bolt into its gullet that tore through its organs. A moment later the bull collapsed, dead but intact.

“Get carving,” the huntress said, breaking the silence that fell over the woods after the beast breathed its last. “Even with all my effort, it won't be around long. Then if you feel like it, give hunting a shot. I'll get enough by myself to satisfy this order of yours, but you all could use some practice.” So saying, the woman and the eagle got back to work.



As Linkle listened to him, Euden stowed the last armful of vegetables in the hipcloth he'd taken off to use as a makeshift bag. It took some stretching to tie up, but it didn't look like it'd break, and of course he didn't mind repurposing the garment. He patted her chocobo as she replied, mulling over her words. So, not from Alberia. She tugged on one of her ears, blonde-furred in the same color as her hair, as she started to explain they weren't hers. The way she trailed off, however, left Euden full of questions. Not being a Sylvan he understood well enough, but not being born with ears like those? They looked real enough, after all, so the prince abounded with questions. Unfortunately Linkle ended up handwaving her exposition as a long story. “I...see.” Still full of curiosity and slightly let down, he nevertheless gave her a sympathetic smile when she recalled her awakening in the world. Evidently, that winged dancer hailed from the same world as her, at least approximately. As for him, other than the blacksmith sisters, there was nothing from his world. As it occurred to him, the thought made him berate himself. That's not right, he corrected. There's nothing from my world so far.

He glanced back to see Din and Geralt in conversation, catching a glance from the Witcher while doing so. In the fight, that man displayed some magical ability, but Euden couldn't quite place it. Normally, he would have been ecstatic to watch Geralt in action, but in that deadly skirmish there'd been no chance. On the flipside, though, fighting alongside the man seen by many as a sort of hero had changed his opinion. He was superhuman, certainly, but not a superhero. More than anything, he was a warrior, smart and practical, yet tired. Not physically, but in other ways. He didn't need kids' idolization. So, Euden resolved to give him respect instead.

Instead of bothering him, then, Euden turned his face to the road. Lumbridge wasn't too far away. From here, he could barely make out the hill frequented by the wandering warrior since his stay. Moreso, however, he could see a small group of people hurrying their way. “Oh,” he murmured, narrowing his eyes. “That's...”

After another couple minutes, the two groups collided. The others turned out to be two women and a man, first among them a girl Phoenix might recognize. “Oh, thank goodness!” she gushed, “You're alright! I felt sooo bad about ducking out, I ended up going to ask for more help in case you guys got hurt.”

The pistol-wielder of the three, a yellow-haired girl who appeared inorganic, glanced everyone over. “Looks like they found some more help. And everyone's more or less alright, too.” Crossing his arms in approval, the third smiled, nodding. However, the robot girl's gaze turned angry as she looked back at her pink-haired acquaintance. “Still, Hilda. That was reckless. Any quests put up by the Houndmaster are much harder than they should be. If you were scared, you shouldn't have let them go on their own. Especially that guy.” She singled out Phoenix.

Hilda looked about ready to melt under her accusor's gaze. She knew there could be no excuses, no matter her reasoning. “Yeah...I'm sorry. Really. Next time, I'll be right there with ya.”

The reassurance seemed to satiate Curly. “Make sure you do. It's on every one of us to make sure we all make it out of this place.” She turned to the heroes. “Good work then, folks. And it even looks like you went above and beyond, gathering supplies. Here, we'll help you out. Where's it going?”

Euden, not knowing himself, glanced to the others for an answer.



With its powerful legs 6's Donphan smashed the ground to send a wave of force sweeping toward the knocked-down Tzitzi-Ya-Ku. Through ordinary earth it would have rumbled effectively, but this skirmish took place in the strange amalgam of coral, sand, and rock known as the Coral Highlands. If the presence of Wigglers hadn't driven the Courier into a low area with a good amount of sand, Ivories might have broken a coral shelf clean off or plummeted straight through a hidden gap to a lower level. However, enough force transmitted to flip the protesting monster into the air and onto its other side, though the sensation seemed to galvanize it into action. As it tried to right itself, Ivories struck again, sending it tumbling end over end with another squawk. That final blow turned the tables; the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku couldn't risk any more, and turned tail.

It got a couple dozen feet before a fleshy tangle of tube polyps burst apart. Into the light of day leaped a fanged monster, covered in gnarled crimson flesh and wielding an army's worth of razor-sharp claws. It let out a gibbering snarl as it approached the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, which rounded on it in desperation and began to unfold its photophores. The sun caught the membranes beautifully, unleashing a blinding flash straight in the newcomer's face. It lunged straight through, blinded but completely undeterred, and swatted aside the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku's head. Bright red blood spattered the blue coral, followed momentarily by one of its photophores, and the Odogaron closed its jaws around the reptile's back. It could only mewl weakly as the predator carried it away in triumph, vanishing a moment later into the scenery, and with it that subtle, deathly stench.



The Ent's renewed assault wrought havoc on the heroes. Knocked from the sky and left to the mercy of a stroke of inventory luck and his put-upon allies, Donnie lay incapacitated for a few long moments. Ratchet weathered the storm of debris, navigating his way through the avalanche with his stalwart companion's help, to position himself above the Ent with two potent firearms in hand. A golden opportunity presented itself, the Lombax not imagining for a moment that he'd underestimated his foe. A deluge of pain fell upon the Ent's heartwood, but Root Rot welled up from within, and as Ratchet landed inside what remained of the cathedral's anterior gallery a pink plume the size of a minivan blasted his way. The Ent's shrapnel-laden shockwave snapped up Banjo and Kazooie, tumbling them painfully away.

While the hollows and Root Warts came heavy and hard, their numbers never reached swarming, and certainly not endless. Kamek's efforts thinning the herd came to a halt as one of the Root accosted him at Blazermate's flipped-over dispenser. After dispatching the thing he counted himself lucky having not been overwhelmed, but he found himself facing a dire situation. Yet, when he saw the others risking it all, a blazing spirit drove the magikoopa's old bones to action. Five Kameks took to the sky to shower the Ent with bursts of mini-minigun fire from a save distance, eating into its tough exterior.

During the barrage, a reinvigorated Donnie entered the fray once again, tired and hurt in his core but a little wiser and a lot angrier. He rocketed into the air in a terrific kick to forcefully plant his foot in the plant's lower leg, and blasted straight through one of the curled roots. The Ent staggered, its splayed lower legs forcing it to adapt its footing, but the assault continued. Splinters flew as he laid in with his handblades, hacking at the wood before shifting to the other leg. In came Banjo and Kazooie with the monk's disc, rattled but not defeated, and with determined strength the bear hurled it into the damaged leg. In a stroke of luck it jammed right into one of the scars left by Donnie, and from there the pair needed only to pack all their power into a bird-boosted dropkick. Time seemed to slow down as he struck, a tremendous CRUNCH ringing out, and the Ent shook in agony. Nearly severing the leg but not quite, the disc lay wedged way inside. A few moments later, Gene's shockwave blasted the thing, knocking pieces of wood loose from its battered frame.

Still, the Ent's huge husk remained upright. Nero watched with disbelief, shaking his head as he got to his feet. What an annoyance—not just to fight, but for his pride. After all his talk about being the expert, he'd gotten himself punked by a dumb stunt like that. Luckily his allies packed some serious restorative power. Enough to trivialize most endeavors, he'd guess. As he felt the last of his wounds closing back up, Nero spotted movement not too far away. A man, oddly dressed but otherwise normal, had been walking toward the fight with the help of a silver cane since the last shockwave died down. Nero's eyes narrowed. “V?”

In the wake of its dire injury, the Ent looked for something to squash. A perfect target now stood right in front of it, slow and crushable. It raised its arm to smash the newcomer flat, and like a meteor the giant limb dropped.

The boiling black ground under V erupted, and from beneath him another titan rose like a giant uppercut. It shoulder-checked the Ent's torso in a tooth-rattling collision, knocking it back. After reeling for a moment, the treant struck out with both arms, locking hands with the smaller monster in a colossal test of strength. V, standing on the inky golem's shoulder, tapped his cane. His shadow moved, dissolving upward into black powder before taking the shape of a fearsome panther. It stood atop the golem's head, arched its back, and turned its head into a skewering needle that pierced the Ent's dome. With a moaning bellow the Ent released its grip. The golem pulled back one of its arms for an enormous punch, lingering just a moment.

In that instant Jak saw his opportunity. Killing off all these small fry certainly helped the rest of the team, but it wasn’t going to end the fight decisively, and that’s what he aimed to do. ”Hero time, Dax!” In response Daxter pulled down his goggles and put on a determined look.

Jak changed course on his jet board, gathering energy for a super jump. After the Ent’s arm locked with the golem's, he flipped high up over the arm, landing on the monster’s bark-like exterior! He grinded up the arm all the way to the shoulder, then kicked off his board (which magnetically reconnected to his back). In that instant he produced the morph gun in Scattergun mode and unleashed a full blast of high powered red eco directly into the monster!

Donnie saw his chance as well. Grinning, he climbed atop the shadowy giant and ran down its arm. V stepped from the golem's shoulder onto its arm alongside the monk and outstretched his cane's point toward his enemy. As the arm moved, Donnie jumped. The acceleration of the giant’s fist sent him flying forward, and with his handblades bared, he dumped a massive quantity of chi into his arms and as he made contact with the Ent, drove both of his arms deep into the wood of its face. He quickly flipped over the Ent’s head, and the next second the golem cannoned its arm into the Ent's chest, which rammed V's cane deep inside. Donnie proceeded down its back, driving his augmented arms down with him, dragging the handblades across its back in a deep furrow across what would pass for its spine, then jumped off and landed on the cathedral floor. Behind him the Ent crumpled to the ground, its whole body save its arms compromised. V stepped away, his golem melting away into nothingness, and examined his handiwork. A purplish lull hung over the treant, and Root Rot wept from its body, but still the stubborn thing clung to life.

Nero shot it. “What're you waiting for?” he asked. “Let's make some firewood.”

Cadet watched the tusked konchu-like creature barrel into the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, practically brutalizing the thing. He had to admit, it was pretty impressive. Now that his mind was a little more clear he... well he still had no idea what the heck it was. Clearly it wasn't a konchu, it had this look about it like it wasn't even made of the same stuff exactly, but what the Cadet did know was that it was tough. It looked like he wouldn't need to help out anymore, if the gray creature's attack didn't outright kill the monster then it would surely be limping back to it's nest - then it'd be easy pickings. The hunter was about to say as much to his strange new companion when he was suddenly hit with that acrid smell again and he remembered that oh yeah, bad news was coming.

The TziTzi-Ya-Ku seemed to have had enough, and as it started to make it's escape the Ace Cadet said, "Wouldn't chase it just yet 'cause--" the Odogaron burst onto the scene and onto the Bird Wyvern, ripping into it and ultimately carrying it off. "...yeah, 'cause that'll happen."

After a beat the Ace Cadet laughed out loud and dusted the sand off of his armor before treading a few feet down the coral slope and planting himself down on his backside. He let out a low whistle once his laughter died down, and looked back at the Courier. "Those Odogaron love to pick off a hunter's hard work, huh? Real pain in the Astalos. If you wanna go after it, the best time is after it's eaten." Cadet waggled his eyebrows as he made the suggestion. That friend heart had really put the pep back in his step.

"...buuuut you probably came on the wiggler quest, right? Me too. They live in the sand and get spooked pretty easy, give 'em a minute and they'll pop back up." The red head focused his attention toward the sands in front of him. When a wiggler didn't immediately show itself, he went right on talking.

"The Tzitzi wasn't that big, and I don't usually get so roughed up, but I guess something was kind of screwy with my head, right? But the heart-thingy you did fixed me right up. Thanks, by the way. Oh, that multiverse thin---!!!" the Cadet cut himself off, snapping his mouth shut when a tiny blue head emerged from the sand. The wigglers timidly peeked out of their hiding spots under the ground and slowly began to dance their way up. They lived in large colonies and usually sprouted in groups. Once he deemed the few wigglers in front of him had risen a sufficient enough distance from the ground, the Cadet lunged at them and caught a pair - one in each hand. Of course, this meant the rest of the wigglers shot right back into hiding. Ace Cadet paid them no mind, as he knew they'd be sprouting up again sooner or later. The hunter sprang up from his position on the ground and thrust the little animals out to show the Courier, beaming like a little kid.

"There, wigglers! They're pretty dumb so they'll keep reappearing in the same spot after a while. Gotta grab 'em quick though." Cadet pulled out the only piece of equipment besides his weapon (now neatly stashed on his back) he'd actually remembered to bring: his gathering pouch. It wasn't exactly meant to hold animals of any kind, but it would do in a pinch. He stuffed the pair of wigglers in and hoped they wouldn't nibble on the bag too much. "If we finish up here, maybe you can tell me more about the multiverse thing, Courier? If it's about helping people, I'm in."

Exiting out of the blue door, Hat Kid skipped to a stop upon laying eyes on the two men from before. Surprised to see them there in the first place, she locked eyes with them in a blank, wordless staredown, narrowing her eyes with intense scrutiny of her presumed competitors for the bounty. Seconds passed, tension building between them, until… she eased it off with a gentle smile and shrug of her shoulders.

What? You thought she wouldn’t be okay with this? Why wouldn’t she be? They were people she at least recognized, both carrying a painting apiece. As far as she was concerned, they just helped her out by cutting her work load in half.

She casually pitter-pattered over to the altar and offered to the blue flame its demanded sacrifice.

”Two…” she uttered, picking up on her countdown that she previously neglected to start.

As Michael and Franklin exited the room, it turned out that Michael's prediction had been correct. The hat-wearing kid was there, with the remaining paintings in tow. Michael tried to shout out to her, but his words were drowned out by the cries of the fire creatures. Looking down to their paintings, Michael gave Franklin a nod, picking up one of the paintings while Franklin grabbed the other. With all the paintings assembled, they could finally get rid of the flames and complete their quest. One after another, the paintings were dropped into the fires, until only one was left. With the last painting being placed into the flames, the cries of the spirits mercifully died down as the fire went down with it.

Soon after, the woman who had been held in the center of the flames emerged, wrapping her saviors into a hug. Michael and Franklin stood there somewhat awkwardly, not used to being treated like the heroes, and Hat Kid tried in vain to free an arm with her face squished against everyone else’s and her hat tilted askew. The girl, ecstatic with relief, tearfully explained her situation.

”There, there…” said the child while gingerly patting her on the back, so much as her overjoyed human constraint would allow. After getting her show of gratitude out of her system, she eventually released her three rescuers and dropped to her knees, likely too exhausted to move much more on her own.

When she stepped back, though, it was clear why she was so thankful. The girl looked terrible- she was dirty, tired, and looked like she hadn't eaten or drank anything in days. "We'll get you out of here." Michael said, looking over to Franklin. "Frank, get her into the truck. Get her a drink if we have it, too."

Franklin nodded, reaching out a hand to Tressa. "Come on." He would begin to bring her towards the exit, helping to support the girl in her weakened state.

Michael, meanwhile, would focus his attention to the kid. He crossed his arms, looking down at her with a slight frown. "So...you mind telling me what's so important about that hourglass that you ran off by yourself? 'Cause I thought we were supposed to be a team here."

At the question, the child sheepishly avoided eye contact with a delayed apology for ditching them back at the store, poking the tips of her index fingers together in a mild fidget while she looked for the words. It was nothing personal against them; she just couldn’t risk anyone beating them there to obtain it, and that going it alone was mostly force of habit for her. Plus, she came to this world with them (which meant they were hers to begin with, she emphasized), so that kind of made it her problem to deal with. She added that she hadn’t had the best of experiences trusting or working with others, with one unmentioned exception.

Come to think of it, why was she so atypically apologetic? She wasn’t (and never has been) really obliged to explain anything to anyone, and she was never sorry for anything she did, especially when it came to the less than savory people she usually had the misfortune of dealing with. But these two, everyone else, she didn’t actually know them. The most she could assume was that the green-clad archer, Linkle, and Tora, the one who freed her of the Lord of Light’s influence, were the least doubt worthy among them in her mind.

That reminded her… whether anyone likes it or not, they were ALL in this together. They would have to work together if they ever hoped to succeed in their ultimate goal. Perhaps, this guy was right. They were supposed to be a team, and she allowed her personal goal to cloud her judgement regarding that. It must be little wonder that anyone would consider her selfish...

Anyway, she thanked Michael for his and his partner’s help and suggested that they get going, conveniently and intentionally failing to address the first half of his question regarding the importance of Time Pieces. If he was paying enough attention to notice as much, he would understand why.

Michael's frown faded into a more neutral expression as the kid explained her reasoning. He could understanding wanting to go it alone- he had dealt with plenty of people with that same attitude. He could also understand her distrust of others, since his life of crime had instilled a sense of suspicion towards unknown people and their motives. And since these hourglass things came from her world, it seemed that she viewed them as her responsibility. Overall, he couldn't find any reason to be angry at her. Sure, he was a little disappointed that she hadn't thought to ask them for help, but given that their team had only been together for a relatively short amount of time (even if it felt like an eternity), it was to be expected. As she finished her explanation, his brow furrowed as he realized that she hadn't actually answered his question. Ah, I'll ask later...

As she suggested that they begin to get moving, Michael nodded along. "Yeah, we should go..." He began to head for the door, but paused after a few steps. He turned around, spotting Baba still loitering near the center of the room. He still wasn't entirely sure what to make of the rabbit-like creature, but he wasn't going to let him be left behind in the temple. "Let me just handle this first."

He walked up to Baba, looking down at the creature. "Uh...hey?" His words caused Baba to look in his direction, so he continued. "We're getting out of here. You should really come with us." Despite Michael's attempts, Baba didn't seem to understand him. Michael groaned as he looked down at the creature. He's an animal, Michael. Of course he can't understand you. He crouched down somewhat, patting his leg as he looked towards Baba. "You wanna come with me, buddy?" He asked in as friendly of a voice he could pull off, patting his legs and making gestures towards himself and the door. That seemed to get his attention, the rabbit creature beginning to follow Michael. With Baba in tow, Michael headed out of the temple.

---

Once outside the temple, Michael directed Baba into the monster truck before getting in himself. Franklin had been waiting behind the steering wheel, while Tressa sat next to him, trying to calm down and relax after her ordeal. Hat Kid mounted up on her vehicle--her slower, much smaller, and significantly less powerful Scooter--jumped it into the bed of the truck, ramping up and off one of the rear tires to do so, and parked it there where she would have her own seat for the return trip. Once everyone was inside, Franklin started the engine and began the long drive back. The voyage back to Lumbridge was easier than the voyage to the temple, thanks to the monster truck having trampled a path through the wilderness that they could easily follow. It was a long drive, but they eventually made it back to the town, Franklin parking the truck with the rest of the group's vehicles before shutting off the engine and getting out.

Michael and Franklin both took a moment to stretch as they exited the vehicle, the blood flowing back into their legs after sitting for the entire ride. Michael looked towards Tressa as she exited the truck. "So, it was the, uh...shopkeeper guy that gave us the quest, so you should probably come with us so we can claim the reward. And maybe we can get you some food and water, and all that." He gestured towards the town's entrance. Kid, not bothering to re-park her moped, disembarked the monster truck and headed straight for the general store where she picked up her assignment--in less of a hurry than when she left or arrived initially. While the other two continued attending the ailing merchant girl, the behatted child led the way in, showing some consideration in minding the door for them.

Apparently the big Ent wasn't as dangerous as Blazermate thought it was. Yeah it was a giant, but after constant strong hits to its roots from Banjo and Donnie, a pretty cool scateboard grind up the ent's arm leading to a shotgun shot from Jak, a newcomer summoning giant monsters to attack the Ent, and Donnie showing that he was a lot stronger than Blazermate thought, the Giant lay on the ground in a heap, still clinging to life but very clearly hurt.

As Nero told everyone to finish off the Ent, having gotten up form all the healing, the moans of the undead were very loud now. Hearing this Blazermate said "I think your going to get your wish very soon.". As Blazermate said that, the first of the undead reached the area. climbing over or smashing through the roots around the area, the place was being swarmed with the undead that Blazermate had called. As they crashed through the area, they attacked any remaining minions that were left on their way to the Ent. It was actually pretty amusing seeing a swarm fight a swarm, although when the Chargers and other strong beefy zombies entered the scene, the combined effort of Kamek and the undead thined out the now finite minions the Ent had summoned.

The corpses of the ent's minions were being trampled by the undead as they rushed the ent, a few undead stumbling as they battled any minions in their way. Once the undead reached the ent, they were greeted by the same Jokey that Kamek had saved. This Jokey looked haggard and downright war hardened, as it had somehow lived through literally everything thrown at the ent and everything the ent had done to everyone around it. Covered in root rot, visceral, and whatever else splashed through the battlefield, if the jockey had any kind of intelligence, it would easily be scarred from this fight. But being alive the longest, the zombies that began to pile onto the remainds of the ent, tearing at whatever they could get their hands on, almost looked at this small dwarf of a zombie as some kind of superior.

Blazermate watched as her undead hoards piled onto the heap of the ent, attacking it like she commanded, ignoring her allies entirely. "I bet you never thought the undead would be your ally, huh Nero? I never thought a Medabot could command an army like this, hehe~." She was enjoying watching her swarm rip and tear at what life was left in the ent. "Get his parts my minions! " Blazermate said, more as an observation. However, the zombies all took that as an order and with that, started to rip off parts of the ent and wear them.

Hearing he could have the ent's head all to himself, the Jockey hopped off it and started to tug on its face. The little thing, while strong, had difficulty actually pulling the head off, at least until a few chargers decided to help. After a few moments and a combined effort, the Jockey held aloft his prize, a large part of the Ent's head. You could swear that an item jingle played as the Jockey held its prize above its head, running around in joy with its strange demented cackle being heard as it ran.

"This hand is so handy, huh guys?" Blazermate said, pointing at her horde with the suffering arm, while healing up the melee pair of Banjo and Donnie, making sure everyone was healed properly.

The Courier watched with utter joy as Ivories devastated the dinosaur like creature. The shockwave it stomped into the ground wasn’t as effective as it should have been due to the spongy nature of the coral ground they stood on, but under normal circumstances he could tell it would have been a very devastating attack indeed. When it slammed its trunk down with the full force of gravity behind it, he winced a bit, feeling ever so slightly bad for the monster. But hey, that creature attacked him when he tried to be friendly, so fuck it, right?

As the monster tried to flee for its own survival, practically limping on a skeleton of broken bones, the Courier prepared another shot… Only to have the wind taken right out of his sails as it was ambushed by another predator, one much larger and far more fearsome, of that there could be no doubt. Good lord, it had claws growing out from its claws! The Cadet warned him a second before the new monster attacked, and saved him the headache of having to tangle with another baddie that was only serving to waste his time.

Ivories glared at the odogaron, as the Cadet called it, stamping his feet and preparing to curl up into his ball shape. Apparently his pride wouldn’t abide letting his fight be interrupted by an outside party. However the Courier cared more for the task at hand, and their lasting health, than something as abstract as pride. ”Cool yer jets, Ivories. We got work t’do. Come on back.” He held out the donphan’s pokeball, to which Ivories grumbled, but returned to without hesitation.

”Tain’t like I don’ understand, mi amigo,” he said directly to the pokeball. ”But we got work t’do an’ that beastie ain’t part of it… Yet.” He put the pokeball onto his belt, then turned his attention back to the Cadet.

The kid was pretty enthusiastic, that much was for sure. Plus, he seemed to be from the same world as all the monsters around, so that was a big benefit. Always best to get an expert’s opinion on matters before jumping in yourself. And to top it all off, he was just called “Ace Cadet?” Heh, it was almost like that partnership was tailor made, wasn’t it?

”Much as I’d enjoy puttin’ that beast in its place, I’d rather be prepared ahead of time, an’ I’ve been wastin’ enough of that as it is. A good courier is never late on his delivery.” He tilted his hat juuuust a smidge. That’s when the cadet mentioned that he, too, took the quest to gather wigglers. After that he just sorta rambled a bit from topic to topic until, suddenly, he dove across the ground where the little colony of wigglers were hiding! The Courier jumped aside on reflex and almost pulled his revolver on the boy, but stopped with his hand on the holster. Upon seeing that the cadet had just grabbed a few of the worm-like creatures and kept on talking (boy this was one chatty cathy), the Courier smiled and let go of his weapon.

”Allow me to show you how it’s done compadre.” The Courier slowly approached the colony of the little guys, but curiously the wigglers didn’t go into hiding. His incredible magnetism for animals was hard at work, soothing the creatures into not only being passive toward his presence, but also friendly, helpful even. He crouched down next to the colony and held out an arm. Bizarrely, the wigglers began to coil up around his arm of their own volition! Once they were all nicely coiled up along his arm, the Courier placed them in his travel pack. ”There we go, no problemo. Now then, about time to hit that dusty trail, eh pardner?” He tipped his hat again, this time up, in perfect timing with the sun behind him for added effect.

The Courier whistled for Drumstick and his trusted chocobo answered the call, coming out of hiding now that the fight was over. He went on ahead and picked up the scales and other pieces left behind by the monster before it was itself picked off by the odogaron, placing those in his pack as well, and then got up on Drumstick, holding a hand out for the Cadet to climb on up too, if the young hunter took the invite.

”Since yer still injured, go ahead and help yerself to one o’my stimpacks, or the hearts in my bag. Either should do a decent ‘nuff job at patchin’ ya back inta shape. An’ in exchange, y’can listen t’my story on our way back, but it’s a long one.” He checked the time via his pip-boy and frowned. ”Aw hell, I was gonna meet up with the rest of my posse at the lake, but I got so caught up here they’re all probably done by now. Time ta head in to Lumbridge, I guess. Let’s ride, Drumstick! Yee-haw!”

The Courier spurred his chocobo into action, and on the way back to Lumbridge he relayed the details of everything that had happened so far in this World of Light.

@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN@Stern Algorithm@TruthHurts22@Lugubrious

---

Even if Euden didn't take her up on her offer, Linkle still resolved to send any rabbit eared people his way.

They were in sight if Lumbridge when they were unexpectedly met by a rescue party that had been thrown together.

"To Mina's Kitchen, with regards from Mr. Bowser's group." Linkle said brightly to the blond robot. At least Linkle though she was a robot from the way her joins were segmented like that. If so she was the most human looking one they'd me, so far as she knew she'd never seen one with hair before. Then again, she'd never met one that hadn't attacked her on sight.

An actually cool robot. Wishes really did come true.

"We're not done yet, though. We still need the bananas and..." She glanced up at the Chochobo, then reached up and pulled its head down to their level. "Do you guys know if there's one of these around, but, like, evil? We need the meat and if I have to slay one I'd really rather slay a bad one."

She was interrupted by the familiar, terrifying noise of the giant kart. It was impossible to miss the thing rolling across the plains back toward town. She wondered who it was that had taken it out, and what sort of wrongs they'd been righting?

"I guess we can head back for a bit to at least tell the hound master his fish problem is solved." She said, leading her Chochobo as she followed the group back to town.

”DESTROY THE WORLD HUH. I’VE MET BAD GUYS WHO WERE GOING FOR THAT. YOUR ONE’S REASON IS PROBABLY SOMETHING STUPID, I KNOW THEIRS ALWAYS WERE.”

”Bit less stupid if there’s other worlds tho. Blow up one go live in another one?”

”MAKES SENSE BUT NAH. THEN THEY’D JUST TRY AND BLOW THE ALL THOSE ONES UP TOO. LIKE THAT COUNT BLEACK GUY. GIRLFRIEND GOT TURNED INTO A BUTTERFLY OR SOMETHING AND SO HE TRIED TO DESTROY ALL THE WORLDS.” Bowser said while butchering a touching tale of love lost and found. ”GOT STABBED IN THE BACK BY A CLOWN IN THE END. THAT GUY LEAST WANTED TO REMAKE ALL THE WORLDS IN HIS OWN IMAGE AFTER HE DESTROYED EM. BIT LIKE GALEEM’S DONE NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT.” He would have gone on, but the lack of a response from the now rather dower party gave him little incentive to do so. The royal family where left to quietly talked among themselves for the rest of the trip until they arrived back in the forest and had to shut up to avoid a repeat of their earlier run-ins with the Baurun herd.

The cart was once again left in the temporary care of Bowser’s strikers while the party went to sneak into the woods. They ended up hiding in the bushes again until they got close enough for Poppi to safely point out the big beefy boar-rino-bull beasts to the huntress. Instead of getting to work right away however it seemed their hired help was in an educational mood and attempted to instruct Poppi on how to hunt. Bowser grumble about her not getting to work quietly enough to not spook the beast, and thus more than quietly enough to be ignored, while Jr watched with interest.

Sadly the robot’s attempt ended with Poppie failing her first try, her shot with Quinn’s crossbow thudding right into the Baurun’s protective fur rather than the indicated weak point, but neither of the women seemed particularly displeased or distraught by this outcome. Poppi handed the weapon back to the master so she could show them how it was done. With lightning fast steps, cat like reflexes, spectacular accuracy and synergistic cooperation with her avian partner the Damacian huntress made quick work of the beast while simultaneously leaving it intact after it was struck down.

”GAH HA HA. LADY YOU’RE WORTH EVERY GOLD COIN!” the king decreed as Quinn finished dispatching her first quarry. Grinning he exited their started hiding spot and bore his claws, Mecha Mit blades flaring to life and then being sunk into the dying flesh of the beast. The thermal energy blades made short work of the task, hungrily biting off only the most the most delectable raw steaks off of the beast that the carnivorous king could carve. Inevitably a few particularly tempting appetizers went chomped out during the butchery. After the beast’s life was ended and its body burst Bowser also made sure to collect its sprite, storing it neatly in the ever useful glass bottles he had “acquired” all the way back in world 1-1 for later use.

”GOOD STUFF.” Bowser declared as he gathered together their harvest for transport. ”NOW LET’S BAG US ANOTHER.”

---

While Quinn made Valor do most of the hunting work Bowser Jr crouched in another bush with the huntress’s crossbow in hand that he had received after showing interest in learning to hunt. He’d already practiced with the weapon, shooting off a few darts into a tree a little way away from his current hiding spot. Now, after having retrieve those bolts he stalked one of the Bauruns that had wandered away from the heard.

”Come on come on hurry up and turn around already.” the boy muttered to himself, crossbow leveled at the beast as it rooted around in the undergrowth with its back to him.

“Kyu?” intoned Jr’s Mimikyu from where it sat upon his shoulder, a little bored and not entirely sure what they were doing.

”I need to shoot it in the face not the butt.” Jr explained, fidgeting impatiently with the archaic weapon. Though it had only been minutes since he had found his target but to the boy it felt like it had been hours. ”Shoot it like how she did so we never get shown up by a buncha animals again.”

Mimikyu bobbed its false head to the side, the ball of cotton lurching unnaturally as it took this in.

”and make papa pr” he began to add, but then the beast shifted ever so slightly as it sniffed around, revealing an eye.

”Finally!” Jr yelled far to loudly as he quickly aimed and pulled the trigger. The bolt from the weapon darted forth towards the beast, but his haste and startling of the monster meant it sliced through the creatures ear instead of hitting something vital. The long black ear thumped to the ground as the beast turned to face him. Angry. vengeful.

”uh oh.” Jr said as the hunter and prey faced each other for a silent moment.

“Mimik!”

A second bolt flew forth, launched from an undersized shadowy crossbow Mimiku had created with its mimic move, that tore through the Baurun‘s other ear, the wound near perfectly mirroring the one jr had unintentionally inflicted on the first.

The brief moment of calm was broken by the Pokemon's follow up attack, and the Baurun charged, several tons of muscle fur and fury pounding through the woods on hooves like iron. The earth shook as the beast bore down on the boy.

”Minions wall formation!” Jr yelled, his army summoned forth to guard him. Koopas and Goombas (both blue and brown) came into existence only to be bowled over moments later. More a quagmire than a wall, the minions were crushed under hooves and battered aside or skewered by its tusks and horn, all dissipating almost as soon as they had emerged. They bought their prince time as he quickly raised the bow once more. Six bolts flew, one burst after the other, and both volleys thudded harmlessly into the fur protecting the beast’s face.

”Drat!” Jr cursed and then legged it, Mimikyu riding along as the pounding of hooves drew closer.

“kyu”

And closer

“Kyu!”

Right before it struck jr retracted his vulnerable parts into his spiked shell. His spines bit into the Baurun’s nose as it smashed him with its horn. Mimikyu was tossed off of its master as he was launched into the forest, shell pinging off of trees like a pinball till the flight slowed enough and Jr’s claws lashed out and struck the earth, slowing him to a halt.

The boy gripped his chest and coughed. Something inside him was damaged but not broken. Recklessly he pushed himself to his feet, unwilling to back down in the face of what would normally be such an inconsequential foe. Jr ran for his brush, left leaning against a tree, as Mimikyu wailed on the Baurun it had landed upon, long black tendrils of darkness extending from beneath its disguise, scratching ineffectual at the thick fur of the beast.

”Stop. We need it intact!” jr cried out as he ran closer, paintbrush in one hand, crossbow in the other. With a swipe the brush splatter the ground beneath the beast with colorful toxic sludge. The Baurun roared, turning its attention away from the initiating rodent on its back that had slowed it’s assault and back to the lizard, hooves and muscles moved to force it forwards but the ink made it slow to accelerate. More inks was splashed down between jr and the beast and brightly mono-colored creature formed from it, translucent bearers of more ink that looked like a cross between dumbo octopuses and jellyfish. They threw themselves at the Baurun, splashing it with ink. Even when it stomped these the beast found its legs coated by an explosion of ink that burned its stamina away despite inflicting no visible wounds.

”Mimikyu! Shoot with me again!” Jr called out as he stabbed the handle of the brush into the dirt and brought up the bow. At his command the specter leaped off of the beast to land on his shoulder. The quagmire he had trapped the beast in gave him time, and being foiled twice by haste made sure that he took it. The shots flew, striking fur coated eyebrows.

”Again!” jr command as the Baurun struggled towards them, picking up speed at last. The fourth attempt flew forth and finally the boy found his mark, cold steel penetrating into the beast’s eyes.

”Yes!” cried the boy, yet the beast kept coming, blind but born forwards by a dying fury.

He fired again with haste, hitting nothing important, then again with patience, and then the bow clicked empty as the last shot flew, the cartage of bolts expended. The final pair of shots soared forth as jr brandished his brush, standing instead of fleeing.

Iron found its home in the beast’s pig like snout, hammering up though the soft flesh and into the brain. The Baurun crashed to the ground inches from jr, dead but intact.

After a few moments jr raised his arms and cheered ”I did it!”

“Mimikyu!”

---

A bit of crude claw based hacking later and the prince returned to the party as Browser was cutting up the last of Quinn’s kills.

”Jr! There you are!” Bowser called over.

”Hay pappa!” Jr called back while hiding the mild amount of pain he was still in.

”Look what I got” Jr said as he came closer, presenting off the goo marred meat harvested from his first hunt to his father.

”Oh. Nice. Good job.” Bowser said with enthusiasm that sounded just a touch forced to the others as he accepted the meant and then shook it a bit to try and get the goo off.

Jr beamed with pride and then approached Quinn, handing her back her weapon and crossbow bolts ”Here. Got it on my first shot!” he lied. Behind him Bowser flicked a translucent octo-jelly that had formed on the slimed meat off into the bushes.

”So. We done here?”



While it was difficult to really pay attention while blasting away with the minigun Kamek did his best to keep track of the team in between bouts of mowing down Ent spawn. Though battered and bruised they kept up the assault, hammering away at its wounded leg and heartwood like there was no tomorrow. They were joined by a slightly sickly looking man born by a cane that the Ent foolishly decided was a prime target for destruction. Rather than be flattened by the attempted to stomp the man instead summoned a mighty golem made from dark particles in an impressive magical display that raised the eyebrows of the old Magikoopa.

Suddenly faced with a foe of near equal size the Ent was Knocked off balanced and subjected to a barrage of attacks from the rest of the team until at long last it fell, its legs ruined beyond repair. Even in this sorry state however their foe refused meet its fate. Rather than poof into a sprite more of the paralyzing gas spilled form what remained of its body. Perhaps, Kamek thought, a final attempt to ward off its foes by making its body too dangerous to approach so that that they might now leave it alone in its helpless state rather than finish it off.

It was not to be. Blazermate’s enthralled undead, hersofar an insignificant threat to their foe that had been helpless in the face of the Ent’s shock wave generating stomps finally got their chance to shine. The swarm of undead flooded the arena, tearing through remaining root minions as they went and dog-piled the body. They rallied to the banner of the lone Jockey that had survived the devastation of all that had come with it and began to smash apart their foe despite the cloud of gas surrounding it.

Watching this Kamek was struck with inspiration and remembered a certain spell of his. The wizard tossed aside the Minigun, its purpose served, breaking the illusion magic he had been using as he revealed which of the 5 Kamek’s he actually was. As the heavy bone rattling weapon clunked down next to the dispenser Kamek brandishing his wand and let forth another spell.

”Lizard scales and Goomba snot
Wake up lazy bones, lets see what you’ve got!”

He chanted. At the end of the incarnation dozens of gloved hands burst from the earth around him. They grasped the earth and heaved their skeletal bodies up onto the surface. The army of Dry Bones shook themselves free of the dirt and began to lurch their way into the fight. As the undead Koopas joined the swarm of humanoid undead in taring the tree apart, their resilient physiology and immunity to the gases making up for heir ankle biter height, Kamek left the remains of the engineering nest and went to join the rest of the team. Still a touch shaky from using the minigun so much he made use of his broom as a walking stick as he carefully navigated around the lingering clouds of rot root left by the exploding minions.

”It is indeed quite the prize you acquired there Blazermate.” he agreed with the robot as she spoke of how useful her new arm was ”I imagine you’ll be making the going quite a bit easier from now on, in this region at least.”

The power that could be gained from sprites sure was something, Kamek thought, but so too was the magic that the newcomer had used to turn the fight firmly in their favor.

”V I take it?” Kamek addressed the heavily tattooed man who had just arrived, guessing that was the one who Nero had offhandedly mention meaning to meet here at the cathedral, ”That was quite the entrance you made. Tell me, what were those creatures you commanded?”

He asked, the wizard always interested in gaining extra knowledge that he could turn into an advantage somewhere down the line.

With the other more agile members of his team on the hunt for baurun, Tora turned his attention back underground. It took only a short time for the Nopon and his accompanying blade to find the section of the forest that had caved in thanks to the explosion of Kamek's giga-creeper, which was hard to miss. From there, the pair retraced their steps down the ravine and into the underground area. Baurun was good and all, with the prospect of giant juicy steaks in particular making Tora more eager than he might care to admit, but he remembered something else on that grocery list of Bowser's. Lapizard. Whatever it was, it fell under the category of cave food, so there had to be some lurking down here.

Unfortunately the search took a while. Tora and Poppi ventured deep, much deeper than before, but found nothing that resembled the basic description given to them at their first meet-up with Bowser. They did find a number of spiders, skeletons, and zombies. Before long, Tora's feet hit water. “Meh!” he protested in disgust. “Gross cave water! And completely dark, except for Poppi furnace. Not want go any farther, meh. Can get by without lappy lizard.” Poppi, scanning the surroundings, went to point something out to him but Tora happened to see it too. “Meh? That...bones?” He waddled over, avoiding the water, and bent down to peer at them. The moment he leaned forward, they started to shuffle, prompting him to scream in terror. “MEEEEEH!” He fell backward as a trio of ring-toothed worms lunged out in an ambush, latching themselves to his body. “MEHMEHMEHMEH!” He flailed his wings ineffectively, dancing to and fro in terror. “Get off! Off! Poppi, heeeeeelp!”

The artificial blade responded by transforming, disappearing in a whirlwind of sparks and ribbons to be replaced by Poppi QT. She manifested her mech arms and held them out, saying, “Hold still!” Tora calmed down as much as he could, thinking that she would expel flames from the weapons to burn the wretched things off

Instead she popped them open. “Uh, Poppi?” Tora's eyes widened. “Hold it right-!” An explosion cut him off, and the singed Nopon flew through the air, wailing, “Bad Poppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” right up until he went plop in the pool. When he emerged, sputtering, he spotted his companion flying above the pool “Guh! Whuh...why Poppi do such a thing to poor Masterpon?” In reply, she cranked up her furnace, bathing the whole cavern in warm orange light. In its glow the two could see a lot more leapworms, but also a reptile pushed up against one of the walls, scared shiftless by the blasting and trying to hide in the dark. The moment she saw it Poppi jetted its way. Still floating, Tora called out, “Don't punch! Need meat intact!” At the last moment the lapizard hurled itself off the wall and toward the water in a desperate attempt to escape, but Poppi banished an arm and snatched it from the air. Though as big as her, and struggling mightily, the lizard could not escape.

Looking pleased, Poppi jetted over to dry land, onto which Tora pulled himself a couple moments later. “Ah, so that it. Clever Poppi knows we can't kill with precision, so just take lappy with us 'til find someone who can!” The praise elicited a delighted smile from Poppi, and the two hastened back to the surface.

When they rejoined the others a few minutes later, everyone appeared to be laden with meat. Quinn nodded in approval. “Not half bad,” she remarked, inspecting the lineup. “It's been a refreshing bit off fun, but I've got items to buy and I'm behind in CS. Take care of yourselves.” After collecting everything due her, and inspecting the crossbow to make sure Junior didn't damage it, the huntress and her loyal eagle disappeared into the trees.

At Bowser's suggestion, his own group left soon after. Their weighty haul made it a long trip back, even with the relatively short distance over an open plain, so Junior decided to pass the time with a game of I Spy. After learning the rules Tora and Poppi played along wholeheartedly. Even with his burden, with his son happy, Bowser could only be so ornery. The shadows of late afternoon had started growing long by the time the grocery-and-mining team pulled into Lumbridge.



At Linkle's prompting, the two groups collapsed into one and headed for Mina's restaurant. Gran volunteered to report to the adventurer's guild and the sheriff stationed there, aiming to vouch for the defeat of the pelagics with the scars to prove it. Hilda still felt guilty, with the discomfort far greater around either Curly or Phoenix, so she volunteered to go with him. “I'll find something else to do. Make up for...you know, skipping out,” she assured, before running off after the boy in blue. Eleven went with, perhaps seeking some sort of outlet for the energy he'd built up in anticipation of being someone's hero, but he remained taciturn.

Euden and Curly, meanwhile, continued onward with Linke to Mina's. Before leaving, the young prince gave a wave to Phoenix and Geralt, figuring that they possessed little interest in grocery delivery. The latter in particular received an emphatic farewell; Euden made a note try and convince some of the Witcher's fans to give the man a rest when he got the chance. A short walk brought him to the restaurant and its savvy owner, who beamed when she saw what Linkle and her friends had for her. “Amazing! This is more than I could ever want. Into the pantry they go.” Busy as ever, she stepped away to delegate the task to someone else, and the kindly Chef Kowalski ended up helping her out.

Something Linkle said a few minutes ago occurred to Euden, and he raised his voice to get Mina's attention. “Hey, Mina! Um, is there any chance you could do without the chocobo meat? We only found a couple, and Linkle's gotten really fond of hers.”

Mina thought for a second or two before shrugging. “Sure. Hopefully the others get back with more meat, but if not, it's fine. I know that some chocobos are really sweet, and eating one would make me feel pretty bad. Speaking of the others, once they get here I can start cooking up dinner for you all.” With that she vanished back into the kitchen, leaving her visitors to go about their business.

Wearing a smile, Curly crossed her arms. “Looks like that's a couple problems solved. If you're all good I'll get back to adventuring. Land's not going to scout itself. Nice meeting you though!” She turned to go, and Euden followed suit.

“If there's still more stuff to get, I'll help you out,” he said. “It's the least I can do. Where are we headed?”



The return of an enormous monster truck drew no small amount of worried looks, but despite how much the ground must have shaken, the diminutive Malo looked totally unfazed when Hat Kid, Michael, Franklin, and Tressa entered his shop. Upon seeing him, and after coughing, the girl smiled. “Malo...so you're the one who sent people to find me.”

Unflappable, the baby-faced businessman met her gaze. “Think nothing of it. Without competition, business can't thrive.” His arms hung at his sides, stiff as usual. Anyone with a sharp memory might recall that his quest mentioned Tressa as a client, but his words just now suggested something else.

Tressa laughed weakly. “Oh, you. Putting on a such a brave face, but I know you're a softy in there. Don't grow up...too fast, Malo.” She seized up in a fit of dry coughing, and Malo reached for an item on his shelf. He pushed it across the counter toward Michael.

“Give her this.” The glass of premium Lon Lon milk undid the damage done to Tressa in a matter of moments, healing the wounds caused by heat and dehydration. Ignoring her thanks, he turned to address the hatted girl who matched his height. “Alright, kid. Here's your reward.” A sack of rupies hit his countertop, followed shortly by her long sought-after hourglass.



The sudden arrival -and subsequent departure- left the Courier and the Cadet down a threat, and just like that the beautiful highlands were the picture of peace and tranquility once more. In that sort of environment nabbing wigglers was a piece of cake, and doubly so for 6, whose remarkable animal magnetism had the little creatures literally diving into his bag. A few more minutes and the new friends held all the wigglers they could want and more, so with their catch safely stowed alongside a few bits knocked from the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku they began the long trip back toward Lumbridge. This time, no marauding bullets or other unreasonably-aggressive ne'er-do-wells waylaid the heroes' progress, so nothing disturbed the 6's theatrical monologues on the way back save his steed's occasional cheery kweh.





At Blazermate's command, her undead minions piled onto the fallen Ent with wild abandon. They beat it until either its bark broke or they did, leaving scars and cracks they could use to pull pieces off. Like piranhas swarming a corpse they chipped, dug, and tore away. Kamek's summoned dry bones swelled their ranks, and so ferocious was the assault that none of the other heroes dared even approach. Those who didn't see fit to answer the medabot's dissonant, upbeat question in the positive regarded her warily. Even Nero glanced at her with a furrowed brow after her jockey wrenched free a cluster of the Ent's head-tentacles. The newcomer, however, got down to business.

He approached until he stood just a couple dozen feet away, then raised his cane. From the handle a black mass erupted, assuming the shape of his panther with a snarl. It pounced at the Ent's head, turning into a spinning blade, and ripped into it like a flying buzzsaw. The edge caught a couple undead on the way and made mincemeat of them just as it shredded the head, laying bare the heartwood the jockey discovered. A violet pallor overtook the Ent, signaling V to finish things. “Little wanderer,” he said, his voice soft and low. “Hie thee home.” He aimed the point of his cane like a pool cue, then drove it in.

There came a cracking sound, and the Ent fell apart in an instant. All the undead dogpiling it fell to the ground amid a blanket of kindling, turning to ash. In the middle of the mess lay the Ent's spirit, murky and red.

Nero strode up to stand by V's side. Neither seemed too concerned with the mob of zombies nearby, and the demon hunter quipped, “There you are. I thought I'd have to pull you out of its...roots or something.”

“Forgive my delay.” Arguably serious, V looked at him askance as he produced a book from his jacket. “I was catching up on some reading.”

Their gaze turned to the giant Qliphoth root protruding from the cathedral. It was dying, turning gray and inert, and as they watched it crumbled. “One down, two to go,” remarked the tattooed stranger. “Once these Qliphoth roots are exterminated, we can proceed to the trunk.”

“Qliphoth?” The demon hunter sounded mildly quizzical.

“It's a type of tree that grows in the underworld,” V revealed. “It feeds on human blood. Gathered by its tendrils, and the empusa, its little worker bees.” He went quiet at the approach of Kamek, who asked about his demons. V had been planning to ask just who these unusual people traveling with Nero were, but here one was digging straight into his business. In reply, V tilted his head slightly, and in a spray of gleaming blue dust Griffon manifested. He flapped his wings to stay aloft beside V, and wasted no time flapping his beaks, too.

“Uh, hello?” He jeered in a raucous voice. “Ain't ya ever seen demons before, short stuff? We're here to make sure scrawny here doesn't get his his ass beat in, 'cuz if he bites it, so do we. Got that, or am I goin' too fast for ya? Heheheh.” V smiled, clearly not feeling responsible for his familiar's crassness.





As they day wore on, afternoon meandered into evening, and gold overtook the sky. One by one the groups of newcomers returned from their quests.

First Courier 6 returned from his foray to the Coral Highlands, alongside a new Pokemon and a new companion in the form of the Ace Cadet, himself a familiar and welcomed face at the adventurer's guild. Their collection of wigglers, at the request of the endemic life researcher, went to the sisters at the smithy. After disappearing behind closed doors, the three sisters returned with a Wiggler Head. Far too large to be from any of the wigglers gathered, it proved to be made mostly of cloth, rubber, and buttons, though it did feature the little creatures' fronds. “This baby gives you the skill Wide Range,” Ramona said, slapping the top of the comedic helmet to send it lolling about. “Spreading the effects of your items to those around you.” Renee, the youngest of the sisters, also gave the pair a potted wiggler to serve as a pet, or more likely, gift to someone who could look after an immobile pet. From the researcher they received a First Wyverian Print, a ticket that she explained could be exchanged at the town's Melding Pot for a rare material of their choosing.

Second, Michael and Franklin rolled in with Hat Kid and Tressa in the repurposed Brother Grimm. From Malo, the little owner of the aptly-named Malo Mart, they received a Timepiece and a sack of money. On the way out they were accosted by Linkle and a boy who introduced himself as Euden, newly back from their own quest at the lake down south, the former of which soon found her worries about the missing person assuaged. Linkle's comrades in her fight against the pelagics, including Din, Geralt, and Phoenix Wright, had returned alongside her.

Before any further help could leave town to find them, the final group rolled in. Tora, Poppi, Bowser, his son, and the Centurion carried between them a mountain of goods collected from the Forested Canyon and beyond, most but not all of them in the cart laboriously pulled by the Koopa King, who found a ready supply of willing handles to help him in town. At the same time, Peach returned from her solo trip, having conversed with Mina on her own and decided to assist by appropriating the rarest ingredient on her list: Tropius bananas. Exactly how the ground-bound princess got them nobody could tell. Both Mina and the blacksmith sisters received their deliveries of ingredients and ore respectively, with the chef gleefully beginning preparations for a hearty dinner. The other half of her reward, three lootboxes, were available for claiming as well.

Everyone gathered together in the guild hall to wait while the guildmarm frantically worked to sort out the pile of day-end quests on her counter, appropriating rewards and ranks as quickly as possible. Many Lumbridge inhabitants were around, either on their own business or to get to know the newcomers making a name for themselves. Notably, Ryu had appeared, still possessing two spirits to give as rewards for going a few rounds with him. The guildmaster himself was on the scene, and after conferring with the guildmarm approached the heroes with a pronouncement.

He began by clapping his hands in dramatic celebration before launching into his speech. “Well now, I'll be a monkey's uncle. You put the kibosh on those quests but good! Li'l miss paperwork's puttin' everything together at the mo, but I ain't the clammed type. You folks can take on Mr. F any time you please.” Holding up a finger, he wagged it at them in a cautionary gesture. “But don't breeze the joint just yet.” He pointed at the Ace Cadet. “You hunters are always chinnin' me about eatin' before a hunt. And I bet you bunch are near outta gas, too. So put up your dogs, light a gasper, dip your bill. When you're jake, you can put the screws on Mr. F, over in the Steppe out past Pig Central.” That left what to do next up to everyone, though a meal at Mina's stood out as a premier option.



In the silence that followed, they scarcely dared to breathe, or to think. With a final heave the last corpse divulged a small, many-legged horror to skitter off into the dark, and the night closed in once again around the Police Station.

A minute passed before anyone dared release a sigh or relief, though even then none harbored any delusions about the transient nature of their respite. Leon, slumped down against the wall by the window he’d been given watch over, rubbed wearily at his eyes. This wasn’t just a bad situation--it was an impossible one. Soon the horde would come again, and this time the survivors would be facing an undead, diseased horde with their supplies exhausted. Every herb had been eaten, every medicine run dry, every Zombrex administered. The station’s supply of ammunition, except for the stash locked within the inaccessible storeroom, was spent. Survivors who fought using other means could continue to struggle, but they too were reaching their limits. If he hadn’t already, the Black Mage helping to defend the front door would run out of mana, and all suffered from fatigue. Only the genial but unsettling swordsman Louis continued to fight at peak condition, using his equipment to drain and purify the blood of zombies to replenish his own magic, all the while swinging away without any sign of exhaustion. He still bled, though, like anyone else, and one tireless fighterwould not stall the onslaught. Things would be different if the survivors possessed heavy-duty equipment, but all they had in place of traps or turrets were pea-shooting plants tactically planted at key locations. They wouldn't last forever, either.

Leon let his head hang. Just when he thought he’d escaped that nightmare of a first day in Raccoon City, he turned up here to relive the horror again, only a hundred times stranger and worse. At first, it seemed like the group of survivors, with all its various strengths and abilities, would be able to truck on forever, but now that notion had long since died. More than a few of their number died with it, some even joining the enemy ranks in a bitter twist of irony. When they died, cut down by their foes or at their allies’ hands, they left those spirits behind. Even now, the one picked up by Leon moved ever-so-slightly in his pocket. The old soldier had fought to the last, leaving the others to carry on his grit and determination. Pushing the painful thought aside, Leon steeled himself, and stood up to go and make his report.

In the central hall, a small crowd had already gathered to give their reports to the captain one after another. Tough as nails and boasting nigh-superhuman strength along with many years’ leadership experience and a streak of genuine humanity, Max Howard had volunteered to take charge of the police station’s defense. It was a heavy burden, but he bore it gladly. Leon spotted Jill, Louis, Kai, Ghalt, Eddie, and Fox. Since only the division leaders were supposed to regroup like this, most of the prominent fighters remained at their posts, but Leon saw the Black Mage and Lucatiel as well. Tensions were high, and spirits low. Leon wished he knew what he could say to lighten the atmosphere, but he was just a rookie. All he could do was head over to relate what happened in his sector.

---

Trying to muster more strength, the Black Mage would rub his forehead, ridding the wet burden from his cap. Casting one more thunder spell, luck was on his side. He was able to hit some of the undead creatures that are closing on him and his group of fellow survivors. The death of the man he had known as Bill was tragic to many, but Black Mage had never seen a survivor of his caliber, especially given his age. He took a quick moment to examine the situation and went over to the man who looked at him; Leon. Black Mage was carrying something beneath the cloth of his blue robe. It was a red gas canister that was hidden in the old warehouse not too far from the central plaza. He would hand the fluid contained box to the leader, hoping he could put it to some good use so that the young mage can escape and continue his search for his fallen compatriots. He was beginning to lose faith in the group he was trapped with, this horde of undead creatures was overpowering them.

Black Mage had not been infected by any of the “zombies” that had been chasing him and his new and his new group of peers. What an odd name to refer an undead specimen by… Z is not a commonly used letter in the English language, and for something that doesn’t seem to contain ANY spirit, why name it after a nzambi… the little mage thought to himself. He would decline any offering of the mysterious drug “Zombrex”, trying to explain that no matter how “dark” his skin tone was, he was most certainly not ill nor has any infection they had previously mentioned. Any time the man Leon had offered any, he had kindly and quietly shook his head, putting his hands up and shaking them as well.

After very slowly regaining his strength, he takes his required patrol around the police station, as was routine for those involved in the survival. He uses his staff like a cane or a walking stick, propping his tired body straight so that he can walk with more ease. He walks up to a higher level of the police station, and look at the horde that was bundled outside of the station. Ever since he had arrived here, things seemed to be different than the world he used to live in. Back a few moments, he was a hero… A celebrity among those in his home kingdom. Then he was rescued, met with glances of confusion and mystery. No one remembered him anymore. He was irrelevant and felt as though he could connect with anyone. It’s not as though he was upset, he just felt lost, even more than usual. He felt he had a purpose, but now, not so much. Along with that, he had lost power, magical power that had grown as he did.

He quickly shook the dark thought from out of his head, getting back to the mission at hand. Patrolling. Yes, looking for signs of life, help, and exterminating any stray undead foes who may become problematic later. He would clutch his staff in his right hand and be prepared for any unforeseen predicament. He was limited to a measly thunder spell, regardless of how powerful it remained. His body did not have enough energy to mass-produce these spells anymore too, so he found himself often getting exhausted. He would take care of one stray figure in the mass of undead, but besides that, no signs of life. He shot a very weak bolt of lightning at the enemy, frying his brain swiftly and removing the threat. He would leave the body of the zombie (for obvious reasons), then cover his nose with his sleeve to prevent the already doubling putrid smell from completely nauseating himself. He reflected on his power loss, thinking that It’s not that they’re difficult to terminate… It’s just that I can’t do as much as I used to… He felt weak, unable, inassimilable. He couldn’t help but look at the horde that gathered outside of the window and think about how many innocent peoples had been decimated by these foul demons.

He walks the long and lengthy way back down to the lobby, enjoying the once beautiful architect of the long stride of the hall he passed through. Placing his hand against the aged wallpaper, he collected many dust bunnies and cobwebs, obviously from the lack of care in the station. Eventually, he arrives at the top of a flight of spiral stairs and he somewhat skips down them, excited to report the good news to their temporary leader. He arrives at the face of Max Howard and gives a cheerful quiet wave. His voice was intelligent and dark for someone of his physical caliber. “Found one stray undead human Howard. Nothing much else to report.” He fixes his hat, then tips the brim, quickly scampering away. He takes his staff out of under his robe and began to walk away from the current vicinity.

Black Mage hadn’t made great acquaintances with most any of the individuals involved in the police station, used to being forced into situations that involved groups. None of them even knew his formal name, Vivi Orienter. He simply walked over to his usual post and watched the door for any dangerous visitors who may be approaching any time shortly. He rests comfortably on the floor and examines his pockets, which were once filled to the brim with magic and health restoration potions and find that they are now empty. Guess I shoulda’ used them more sparingly… -sigh- He listens to the door for any singular warning sign that might suggest the horde creeping up on this rag-tag group of survivors. Survivors… Yeah, that’s what he was now, a survivor.

He would do some preliminary research on summoning and could for once, confirm that these were not the creations of some hell-spawned necromancer set out on obliterating the world. This was more… natural and carefully administered by nature, or even God himself, if there was one out there. He would have reported the news to the current leader, but he figured to most of the individuals in the area that manners of magic had little to no implications for their daily life. They all used guns and swords, weapons that he himself had been familiar with, having adventurous experiences with the irresponsible Cloud Strife and the tactics he and his compatriots used to save his kingdom a few years back, but for a very few amount of the new faces he knew, magic seemed present in some way or another. He wonders… How would a group of “magical” survivors do? Those who, much like me, rely solely on magic and dark magic?...

While thinking upon matters irrelevant to the surviving situation, Black Mage would take out a small bag of oats he had saved on his adventures. He eats the oats straight on their own as if they were sweet granola that the heavens blessed upon him, but alas, they were merely regular oats. It’s been a while since he had a full meal, given a good amount of hearty food, due to his long adventure followed by being saved by these random people. He wants to be free of this trap, sooner rather than later. Luckily, a small group of rescuers he was completely unaware of would soon be coming to rid of the undead and free the mage from this dark and lonesome prison, where no one knew how to properly interact with one another. Trying to relax to the best of his ability, he would solemnly and quietly rest his tired and extremely weary eyes. Goodnight little blue warrior.

@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN@Stern Algorithm@TruthHurts22@Lugubrious@DracoLunaris@Stekkmen@thedman@Dawnrider@ProPro@Yankee

---

Linkle waved to everybody as she set off to make the delivery to Mina. Along the way they passed by the Guild Hall, and sure as clockwork the chorus of "cukoo cukoo" started back up again as Linkle was spotted by her faithful fowls. Except, if anything, the clamor was louder this time after spotting Linkle in the company of another bird. She held her finger up to her lips and shooshed them, waving her hand down to try and keep them from jumping the fence. "It's not what you think!" she shouted at them, but that did nothing to stop the glares of dozens of little red eyes from following the party down the street.

As they approached the restaurant Linkle glanced nervously between it and the Chocobo, thankful that they would be leaving it outside so as not to cause any misunderstandings. She happily dumped the eclectic collection of wild vegetables and spices from her spider shield onto the waiting tray of one of Mina's employees, placing the thing back on her back as she watched them bounce away to the back. She was even more happy when Mina said that they wouldn't have to be butchering any chocobo's today, straight up hugging her, then Euden, then the Chochobo once they made it back outside. Only when sufficient love was shown to everyone around her did she lift her face from its fuzzy yellow feathers did she stop to consider Eudens question. "Well, the only thing I had left on my grocery list was Tropius Bananas and I figure I can snipe those right off their necks if we could find some." She said earnestly as she started walking. "But if your up for it we could go a little farther. We were actually looking for someone for the shopkeeper when we stumbled on the lake, so we could head out...wow, which direction was it? More east? I'd have to check the-"

Linkle trailed off as she saw something. Michael, Franklin, and the Kid came strolling out of the local shop carrying some valuables and looking pretty pleased with themselves. "Hold that thought. Hey guys!" she called out, leading the boy over to them.

---

Linkle beamed in amazement at how things had worked out. A puzzle filled temple? She would have been useless, and worst of all redundant. If they had ended up going where she'd wanted to, Euden, Gran, and Mr. Nick would all probably be dead.

That right there? That was destiny when it was working properly.

Just as she was pivoting to maybe riding out and helping the other half of their group out said group rolled in hauling an entire ton of ore, meat, and spices. "What did you guys do?" she asked, staring in awe at just the cart Bowser had been hauling. Even better than that Peach had turned up with the missing ingredient, meaning that there wasn't really a reason for her to ride out anymore and that dinner was officially on. Linkle looked on as the chef handed out the additional prizes, the three mysterious loot boxes, and Linkle felt her spirit dampen slightly a she realized that she hadn't actually made any progress toward her goal today. But only slightly. Everyone had made it back safely, though the turtle wizard seemed to be running his own errands right now. She couldn't feel bad about that.

She turned to Euden, smiled, shrugged, and said. "You want to go to a party?"

---

The energy in the guild hall, where everyone had seemed to gravitate in the wake of all these quest being done was electric. Between the chatter, the guild marm trying her best to sort the cards and rewards, and the guildmaster putting in an appearance it really did feel like a party. Linkle of course had to get a front row seat when that guy was speaking, pulling Euden along to the front as the man made his proclamation that the F Rank hunt was officially open to them. She couldn't help but cheer, throwing her arms in the air. Today had been great so far. They'd clear challenges like no one's business and it seems like most everyone had made a new friend, even the gunslinger seemed to be hanging around with some other guy. With a group of heros like this what could some monster do?

Still, something bothered her. From her position right at the front she could see the guild marm leave one of the quest cards aside. She quirked an eyebrow and picked it up. It was the one for the guy that wanted to fight people, this Ryu. Had nobody done this one yet? A wandering warrior, given out spirits as prizes. She wondered just how much he knew about the world they'd all found themselves in. Maybe he'd seen some of the things she was looking for.

"Looks like I'll have to miss the start of dinner." she said, more to herself than anything. She turned to Euden. "Because I bragged that we'd be doing all these quests. Do you know which of these people is Ryu?"

Linkle would wait patiently to get her share of the fishman reward before approaching him, of course. After all, if she was going to be fighting anyway she may as well break in some new boots while she was at it.

Ace Cadet watched the Courier call up the wigglers like some kind of... wiggler charmer, and he was quite impressed. Not only that, but he called over some big yellow bird that sort of looked like a gargwa. First the not-quite-konchu, now this? Cadet didn't known anyone that had such a way with wildlife, but it was super cool! The young hunter found himself grinning as the pair finished gathering the wigglers and the scattered TziTzi-Ya-Ku scales. He hadn't known the Courier for long, but now that the Cadet was free from Galeem's influence, meeting someone so far removed from the familiar was pretty exciting rather than weird.

At the Courier's offered hand, the red head hurriedly made his way over. Heck yeah he wanted to try riding this thing! He took the other man's help and hopped on. The not-gargwa was super soft - he couldn't help wondering what a hood or coat made of it's down would be like.

"Thanks," the Cadet laughed, "You've got a posse? I can't wait to hear all about them! And, well, everything!"

---

The pair returned to Lumbridge, a town the Ace Cadet had gotten pretty familiar with lately. Cadet dismounted the animal he now knew was a chocobo, giving it's side a few pats as he did so. The Courier wasn't kidding, his story was long and it had nearly taken him the entire ride back to tell it... though Cadet chiming in with questions every other word certainly hadn't helped.

"The story sounds so unbelievable..." Cadet said, not for the first time. He didn't look skeptical though, if anything he looked eager. "...and I can't wait to be a part of it!"

At the smithy, the Ace Cadet snickered at the sight of the Wiggler Head. It was a piece of equipment from his own world, equally useful as it was silly. The girls working the forge were quite capable to be able to make something like that. Maybe now that he had actual monster parts, he could finally commission something from them? The hunter pondered over the idea, letting the Courier accept the quest rewards. Okay, so the gunslinger wasn't a newb per se, but he would probably still benefit more from the rewards. The Courier would have a better grasp on his adventuring party after all, and know when to use the Wiggler Head... and maybe someone in their group really needed something from the Melder, he couldn't really take the ticket for himself or he'd come off as a real jerk. The potted wiggler was a gift he was sure the guildmarm wouldn't appreciate. She was into monsters, but more of the "kill you in one punch" kind.

With that settled, the Cadet waved to the Courier and started off for a different part of town. "You and your group are meeting at the Guild Hall, right? I'm gonna go grab something real quick, I'll meet you there later!" Since mysteriously arriving in Lumbridge - though much less mysterious now, having learned of Galeem and the like - the Ace Cadet had been renting a room in one of the local inns. He didn't have many possessions, but what he did have he thought might prove useful, so it was best to get everything before leaving. Upon entering his room, he immediately spotted his slinger on the table. I can't believe I forgot this, he thought to himself, shaking his head. He picked it up and equipped it to his arm before moving on to the tiny chest that was provided for him. Most of the stuff could fit in his gathering pouch: random berries he'd found that tasted awful but must be used to make something, a single berry he'd actually been able to identify - a Dragonfell, a handful of herbs, a jar of honey and two empty phials. He'd tried to go mushroom foraging once, but the mushrooms sprouted legs and started chasing him. Real bummer. As the Cadet put all the items into the pouch he carried with him, he paused at the phials. Around here in Lumbridge, empty jars were all the rage for some reason. He lifted it up over his head like he'd seen a lot of the little blonde kids do. He felt... nothing. Why they all got so excited over an empty jar escaped him, for now at least. The Cadet stood and did a last equipment check, humming as he thought of something else to try. The heart ability the Courier had told him about and had used on him - maybe...?

The hunter touched his chest and brought his hand forward, trying to will some kind of magical heart to appear. When it didn't, he only chuckled to himself. Yeah, he wasn't some legendary hero or anything, not main character material. Still, he was going to help save the universe - multiple universes! With a big grin on his face, the Ace Cadet closed the door to his now much emptier room, spoke with the inn keeper, and headed toward the Guild Hall.

---

Okay, while he'd heard about this motley crew from the Courier's story, somehow he hadn't quite expected them to... well, to be exactly how the gunslinger had described. Seriously, a giant turtle guy? Cadet didn't let it bother him, all things considered it was a pretty interesting group. Plus, there was quite a cute blonde among them and he didn't want to seem like the kind of guy that got easily flustered just from being around a giant talking turtle.

Cadet blinked when the guild-master singled him out, but the man was right. "Duh, if you don't eat before a hunt you're gonna have a Nergigante of a problem," he said. That was just common sense, wasn't it? They definitely needed food. Maybe they even needed some more rest, but the sooner they got the quest done, the better. The Cadet felt himself deflate just a little when the blonde girl mentioned she'd be late to dinner, but it didn't keep him down for long.

"Come on, let's eat! I've got a room in town so after we beat this F-quest, we can rest up there and eat again the next day!" Well, he seriously doubted certain people in their group could even fit into the room, but they'd cross that bridge when they got to it should his offer be accepted.

With her horde and a bit of help from V, the newcommer on the block, the ent was torn to splinters. Sure V cut down a few of her undead, and the ent collapsing into ash and its soul mangled a few more, but Blazermate wasn't too concerned. After all, there were more undead all around and the zombies that died were also souls for them to collect. "Hehe, yeah we did it guys!" Blazermate said, giving a fist pump with her shield arm, the zombies copying her motion as they backed up from the ent soul and stood still waiting for new orders. "So... who wants the part? I'm not too interested, becoming a tree does not sound fun. Besides, I wanna play with my undead a bit, hehe.~" Blazermate said to the group, moving close to and healing up whoever was injured from the fight.

Blazermate started to see just how much control she had over her zombies, as they seemed to be much more docile than the ones they had fought earlier. Getting an idea, she commanded the zombies to dance. Hearing this order, the remainder of the horde, including the jockey, began to do a bit of a thriller routine. "No, no, NO. Thats not a cute dance! You need to dance like Dia, watch me." Blazermate said, her arm translating her annoyance and orders to the zombie horde in screams. As V gave his explanation to Kamek about what they had just fought, Blazermate was doing a cutsy energetic dance routine, trying to teach the zombies how to 'properly' dance. She did comment when V mentioned human blood, saying. "Oh, no wonder why it didn't target me too much. I don't have blood."

The zombies were only sort of getting what Blazermate wanted them to do. The more dexterous zombies got the motions down pretty quickly, but bulkier zombies like Chargers had a very difficult time getting dance moves like the hip sway and the arm motions due to how lopsided they were. Like a dance instructor, Blazermate moved around to pose zombies that were having trouble into more cutsy poses and shwing them more cutsy motions. When she was moderately happy with what she had, some zombies doing the dance perfectly and some lumbering around, she sighed and sat next to the group. "We're going to have to work on our victory poses and stuff. Need to make these zombies cute." She said, half sighing, half laughing at just how ridiculous this all was.

Good lord the Ace Cadet was a talkative one, wasn’t he? Couldn’t hardly get a word in edgewise to the kid, and he was supposed to be the one telling the story! Well, at least the kid was eager to help, definitely seemed to have a good heart in the right place. Even so would it kill the Cadet to just sit, listen, and save all questions for the end of the presentation? Wasn’t like the Courier had an encyclopaedic understanding of the situation anyway and some of the questions he had were getting downright annoying. Still, he did get through everything before they got back to Lumbridge and that gave them a few minutes to listen to the radio in relative peace. The Courier figured he’d get some good ol’ news and switched his pip-boy on to Radio New Vegas.

“That was ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’ by the Inkspots, and it’s one near and dear to my heart. You know, I’m often asked, ‘Mr. New Vegas, is there a special person you’re passionate for in your life?’ Of course there is. You’re that person, all my loyal listeners. I just want to start a flame in your heart. And now, the news.

“Our first story comes in from the Southern Wastes. It seems the dangerous gang of marauders wandering that area have been taken out, completely wiped off the map. Details of the heroes who did the deed are sketchy, but if you’re an evil doer out there, looks like you’ve got a reason to watch your back.

“Moving on, sightings of an enormous black bird in the dark forest continue. Remember listeners, if you see a tweety that big, there’s no shame in hiding. Avoid the area if you can, but if you have no choice then be extra careful to not let it see you. We’ve had more than one confirmed casualty.”

With the end of the second news story, the Courier and his new companion made it back to Lumbridge, all in one piece. 6 hopped off his chocobo and gave it a friendly pat on the beak, leading it around with him. It wasn’t long before another group returned right behind him, this one consisting of Michael, Franklin, and the Hat Kid along with a newcomer they hadn’t seen before. That’s when Mr. New Vegas chimed in with his final news story of the segment.

“Our final story today comes is sponsored by the Silver Rush. Do you need someone dead? Really dead? Come by the Silver Rush for all your energy weapon needs. With that out of the way, it’s my pleasure to report to you that several mysterious hourglasses have been found all over the Sleepless City. Nobody is sure what they do just yet, but everyone agrees on one thing for sure: they’re the latest thing! Really the cat’s pajamas! So if you want one, be sure you’re ready to sweat for them!

“And that’s the news. This has been Mr. New Vegas, of Radio New Vegas, signing out. Stay beautiful, everybody.”

With the news over, the Courier decided to switch off his radio and focus on getting the wigglers back to the quest giver so he could get his reward. Annoyingly, the Cadet was still sticking around. Did the kid think he was going to get a cut of the reward? Apparently not, since the Cadet let 6 have everything without so much as a single word, a single look of want. Well, good. Because he did all the work and was hustling the job long before the Cadet just bumped in so he deserved the benefits, right? Speaking of the benefits… The Courier wasn’t so sure about the helmet. It was, how to put it without being rude? Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Then a potted wiggler? What kind of reward was this supposed to be anyway? What exactly did these creatures do other than hide in their little holes? The third reward was significantly more satisfying though: a ticket that could be traded for a “rare resource.” Yeah, that was more like it. And ok, the hat’s ability was certainly good. Being able to spread the effects of items to nearby allies, in his case his chems, would be a great boon. But did it have to look so… Stupid?

Finally the Courier had some respite from the Ace Cadet, who said he was going to get something from his home before meeting with everyone else. Thank God. The kid meant well, and hell he was even pretty agreeable, but sometimes that was more annoying than someone you had friction with. Once everyone had gathered at the guild hall the Cadet could spread himself thin among the whole group and save 6 some headache. Speaking of which, it was about time to go back and meet up with everyone.

Once everyone had gathered in the guild hall, the “guild master” appeared again and the Courier’s heart instantly flared up in anger. Even if this man’s mannerisms and voice were nothing like the Master of Master’s, the physical resemblance still pissed him off and he didn’t believe for a second the two had no association. He just had no way to prove it… Yet. Setting aside his personal feelings, the facts were laid out plain as day: the quests were all done so they could begin the battle against the F rank monster, or wait and have a nice meal, which seemed to be free.

”Hell, I ain’t one to be turnin’ down anyone’s hospitality,” the Courier chuckled. In reality he just liked getting anything for free, greedy as he was. And take advantage of the free meal he most certainly would do, but there were two last errands to deal with before that.

The Courier locked eyes with Princess Peach, feeling like she would be the best to deal with something. He slid on over and casually slid the potted wiggler in her direction. ”Got ya a gift, your highness,” he said rather bluntly. ”Had it on hand, figured it was something in your wheelhouse. Anyway, later. Got dusty trails to hit.”

With that, the Courier headed on out to the Melding Pot, ticket in hand to take his pick of reward.

---

---

Jak and Ratchet stood by and watched on as Blazermate’s horde of zombies gathered atop the ent to finish it off, literally ripping the thing to shreds piece by piece. Jak raised an eyebrow, finding the whole display to be rather odd but didn’t have any strong reactions. Ratchet preferred to shield his eyes from the carnage as this was just a little too much for his stomach. Meanwhile Daxter stood atop Jak’s shoulder eyes comically bulged out, making wild gestures and signs of obvious disgust. He even hand to force his mouth shut to prevent from vomiting!

Ratchet turned away, unable to look and longer and went to scavenge the battlefield. He grabbed a few rot wort and hollow spirits and shoved them into his Reaper to recharge the soul energy used as its ammunition. Then the lombax came across the minigun Kamek had just left lying on the ground, refilled of its ammo from the dispenser built by Blazermate’s engineer spirit. First Ratchet refilled the ammunition of his Coyote-B shotgun, then a big smile swept across Ratchet’s face as he snagged the minigun and took a pose. ”Hey wizard guy, you mind if I keep this? You’re not really a gun guy, but I can really make this puppy howl!”

Jak was more interested in the spirit left behind by the ent as it dissipated, melting away into nothingness. He was already wading through the thick of the zombies (much to Daxter’s utter disgust) when Blazer asked if anybody wanted “the part?” He wasn’t so into wasting time, so he grabbed the little floating mote without answering, looking it over. For the first time he was holding a spirit, the key to gaining more strength and power in this world. Strength and power necessary to defeating the 13 guardians and killing Galeem. Strength and power necessary for saving all his friends.

”What’cha gonna do with that, Jak?” Daxter asked, leaning in close to peer in at it. ”Wanna turn it into a helper? Or smash it for some loot? Ooh, or you can put it in yourself to become a scary tree man! Wooooo~!” Daxter waggled his fingers to emphasize the creepiness.

”You know, Daxter, I think I’ve had enough dark crud pumped into my body. Don’t you think?” Jak looked back to his friend a bit wistfully.

”Sure, sure, I get ya. So weapon or striker then? Ooh, I could totally use a giant tree assistant! It’ll help me reach high places.” Daxter gave a suggestive wink.

”Actually, I had another plan.”

”Another plan? What do you want to do with it Ja-ah no!” Jak quickly shoved the spirit of the ent into Daxter’s chest, who fell off his shoulder to the ground to begin the transformation. As that was going on, Jak turned away from his friend going through what was likely to be a horrific and dark change, maybe even painful, to address the newcomer.

”V, right? Haven’t heard much about you, but if you control demons you must be powerful. Nero said we had to meet up with you, destroy these tree roots, then find the boss at the center of town. Name’s Jak, and that’s Daxter.”

”AAAAAARRRGH!”

”He grows on you.”

Geralt found himself in content silence as the group carried on with their questing, collecting plenty of vegetables for Mina while Euden and Linkle did the same, light conversations sprinkling the time they spent. It didn't take much effort on their part, either, though it did take some time to collect everything properly and not mutilate their ingredients.

They were met by a group of would-be-rescuers as they made their way back to Lumbridge, and Geralt was almost touched by the kind act. Until he remembered that that damned pink-hair girl had put the poor guys in that situation by letting them go without her for whatever reason she deemed important enough. He didn't make a fuss over it, but he certainly wasn't going to be thanking her for her well-meaning afterthought, either. Damn kids don't understand how serious this stuff gets sometimes. Those boys'd be fish food if we had gotten there any later.

Linkle's reservations about butchering their Chocobos hardly surprised the Witcher, and he felt himself almost feeling the same. This new Roach had done him well in the short time they'd worked together, and he wasn't one to throw away a good horse....or giant bird-thing, in this case.

They found good news at Mina's, as well, with the dragon boy asking if they could go without the Chocobo meat, to which Mina agreed. The rest of Linkle's group returned over the course of the afternoon, bringing with them the missing ingredients. Mina was delighted to have everything together for the evening's meal. Geralt found himself looking forward to it a bit more than usual, considering that his company would be a bit more than sycophants frothing at the mouth for a moment with the 'amazing' Witcher. Almost rather have them call me a monster, frankly.

His good mood was hardly spoiled by the brief dark thought, however, and he found himself listening attentively to the Guild Master as he explained that their group had earned the right to take on the F-rank quest with some...interesting phrases sprinkled in here and there. He didn't bother to even try to imagine what they meant.

He also didn't bother to worry about the lone remaining quest, a simple fight with a man named 'Ryu.' What an odd name, although he supposed he'd never met another 'Geralt' either, so perhaps he shouldn't judge. Still, Linkle seemed to be content to give him a tussle, although the man held two spirits, meaning somebody else would have to fight him as well.

Still, all things considered, it was a good day. He'd killed some monsters, made some maybe-friends, and was about to sit down to a wonderful meal.