"OK, thats not right... " Blazermate said as one of the zombie-like monsters exploded upon Nero vaulting over her dance squad, nimbly bouncing off a charger who was throwing its large arm in the air in a vain attempt to do a wave. This exploding, almost puss looking zombie with its glowing orbs on its arms and everything, exploded into a dozen of little tiny things that skittered around, one infecting one of the lesser undead under Blazermate's command, wrenching away her control of the thing as it dashed at Nero. A few more parasites soon followed, latching onto whatever zombies they could.

Although only the non skeletal undead seemed to be affected by this new form of 'undeath' that Blazermate couldn't control. The few that tried to implant themselves in Dry bones just stood there inside the skull of the skeleton koopa, doing nothing. And there was always that one parasite who tried to control the fire dry bones, incinerating itself in the process. "Huh..." Blazermate thought to herself upon seeing all this. Since she would lose her fleshed undead to these things if she told them to attack her turned commrads, Blazermate instead told her horde to attack a tombstone that was summoning Lost, while telling her dry bones to separetely deal with any parasites they see and/or attacking any tentacle tumor undead. With these new commands, the zombies either ran or lumbered to follow their new orders, the dry bones showing the most articulation in their goals as a few of the mutated ones skewered what they could, the Fire dry bones chasing after parasites that fled in fear of its fire, and a few piles of bones made of defeated dry bones as the bone koopas acted as support for the zombie horde.

"Not sure how well this'll work. Still not fully used to commanding so many things at once." Blazermate said, wiping her brow with her healing arm. Looking around the battlefield, she looked for a place to put Dehl. Seeing as everything from the animalistic moving tumor zombies to the lost and demons coming from the tombstones were all trying to attack the police station, she figured that was the best place. As V and Nero were keeping the lost in check where they were attacking, Blazermate made her way to that clear area, floating above the fight but not flying nearly as high as Jak and the bird/bear duo in order to reach close to the fortified entrance of the police station.

At the entrance to the police station, some of the survivors emerged at the sight of all the fighting going out. Seeing that her sentry might cause a bit of friendly fire if placed behind them, Blazermate put Dehl behind Nero and V who were holding the line. As the engineer started to build his buildings, which would take some time, Blazermate turned to the demon hunting pair and began healing them, focusing on Nero as he seemed to be taking the brunt of the damage. She did notice that Daxter in his mighty tree form had rushed another tombstone, using his new strength to try to hold the line over there, but his weak point that even he pointed out had her worried. "I got you healed you two, just hold them off until the sentry is all set up." Blazermate said, not too happy with being in the middle of one chaotic mess. Hopefully Jak, banjo and kazooie could keep that air support busy so Blazermate could fly around like before, but those angelic looking things looked quite nasty as well. None the less, being in the midst of battle, Blazermate held her suffering shield arm up as she healed Nero and V, using it to smack any undead that got near her.

The Cadet nodded his head at both Tora and Franklin's words. This info was especially important, he guessed. Use that 'friend heart' to free people - he knew that already of course, just from his own experience with the Courier earlier that day - but only when they were in a weakened state. The redhead had tried producing a friend heart already with poor results, so he doubted he'd be helping directly with releasing people from Galeem's control, but he could still do his part.

"I'll keep an eye out for a good opportunity!" Cadet assured with a toothy smile. When Tora got up the Cadet turned back to his plate, but not before light heartedly clapping Franklin on the back. "Hey! You gotta eat a lot more if you wanna be in top hunting form!" Cadet's tone was encouraging and he gobbled down the last of his many portions, posing as an example of 'top hunting form' himself. Once satisfied, the hunter scooted himself down to a more open area of tables and brought out the arm guards he'd taken from the 'loot pile.'


Ace Cadet stripped off his own bracers in order to compare the two pairs of armor. It didn't take very long - the hunter poking and prodding the gauntlets, weighing them against his basic bracers, and of course trying them on - and eventually the young man determined that the bronzed iron gauntlets were of much better quality. He slipped them on, flexing his fingers once more and make sure they were a good fit. Seems to be! Kinda clashes with the rest of my armor though. I'm due for an upgrade.

Bowser's booming voice easily caught the Cadet's attention, and he eagerly jumped up from his seat. "Hellblade yeah! I'm more supercharged than a Zinogre and I'm ready to take this thing down!" The redhead hunter grinned as he made his way to the door to join the giant turtle and his smaller turtle family. He made two quick detours: the first was to scoop up the fish scales that Tora had added to the big pile of items. The second was to the Guildmarm's desk, where he flashed the woman his most charming smile. It always delighted him to hear her wish people "Happy Hunting!" "Wish us luck! We'll be back soon!"

Full of confidence, the young man strode to the Guild Hall's door to join the hunting party.

True to their prediction, the two women were quickly beset upon by the angelic flock on their return flight. There was a clear disparity in self-defensive capability between the two, which left one of them pulling double to protect both of them, and while the self-dismembering cat lady managed well enough on her own, she was doing little more than simply managing, making no actual headway with their opposition. While that was going on with them, the situation on the ground began to rapidly escalate, with some of the horde being immune to the Medabot’s influence. Fortunately, the survivors inside showed up to act as reinforcements right around the time Nero and V started going to work, so Banjo and Kazooie could, for now, entrust that matter to the others while they focused directly in front of them on lending return assistance up high.

Kazooie beat her wings twice more, exhausting two Red Feathers for sufficient altitude gain to compensate for gradual loss. As fast as she could get them there, they soared in onto the rooftop, Banjo delivering a momentous front kick to the face of the first angel they came within reach of as they were touching down. Without slowing, Banjo leapt forward, diving at a pair of angels for Kazooie to catch them in a rotary Wing Whack and drag them down. While they were down at his level, Banjo followed up with his familiar three hit combo to knock the first one back into the air, hitting the second with a charging shoulder dive into an attack roll, chasing it with a reverse Rat-a-tat Rap, and finishing with a second jump to execute a heavy overhead punch to send it flying into its ally.

Around the same time as they, Jak came in behind the duo to add his own strength and some much welcomed firepower to the otherwise shorthanded rooftop squad. With three strong--and one extra--their chances of dispatching the angelic neusances in a timely fashion would see a not insubstantial improvement. If not for having this and a much bigger problem down below to deal with afterwards, Banjo and Kazooie might have asked either of the two girls about the current situation beyond what was already obvious, but they weren’t much for talking in the middle of a battle if they weren’t spared a chance to stop for it. They got the feeling that these weren’t the types of enemies to allow for such a thing as breaking for the exchange of dialogue, so it would have to wait at least another minute. For now, they simply stood shoulder-to-shoulder/back-to-back with the other two (or three), ready to engage the angels once more.

@Stekkmen@Lugubrious

---

Linkle took the only remaining piece of blue lizard and slowly wound it around the plate, scooping up e last bits of that delicious jelly before plopping the whole thing in her mouth and swallowing. She patted her stomach in satisfaction, but flinched a bit from the parts that were still tender from Ryu's skyward punch.

As 10/10 delicious as everything was it didn't seem like it had the miraculous healing properties she'd been hoping for. Her arms and chest were still sore, and the wounds from the fishy weapons still stung when she moved even if they weren't debilitating.

Speaking of those fishy weapons Tora took it upon himself to examine the fishy spirits floating in her jar, blanching at the sight of their bulge eyed scaly mugs in a way that made her giggle. "If you think they look terrible you should have been around to smell them. Nothing that lives it water should stink that bad, it doesn't make any sense." She said as the Nopon reached in and started cracking a few of them open. "I thought maybe Courier would like one. He's already got one fish monster in his pocket. It could use a friend."

She was glad she had something to call that guy now. It had been a little awkward.

A few of the things Tora got out of them were interesting. There was a sword, for one thing! A spear too, but it wasn't as cool as the sword. The weird thing about those two weapons was that they didn't look like anything the fish men had been using, or could even make judging from the ragged state of their equipment. The thing that really drew her eye, though, was the shiny stone. She learned it, entranced by its sheer...shinyness. She reached for it, but then Tora piped up his own interest and that put a stop to that. Dibs he may not have expressly called, but the universal rules of dibs stayed her hand all the same.

Besides, mysterious shiny artifact? Adorable creature about half her height transfixed by it along with her? She'd been in this situation before and only good things had happened when she'd given up the stone. It had led to her rescue of Princess Zelda, for one thing.

As Tora wandered away Linkle briefly wondered what he would look like if he turned into a tall, statuesque hunk of a man and how the others would react to such a sudden transformation. Especially Poppi.

Yeah, she decided. Tora was definitely getting the shiny stone. Even if there was a one in a million chance of history repeating itself like that Linkle would gladly take that bet. She would fight anyone to put that stone in his hands.

No one seemed interested in the spiral charm though. She picked it up and examined it. It was small, not as weird in a fun way as the stone, but pretty cool. She clipped it on to her belt, which she wasn't using for much anyway. May as well decorate it.

With her meal finished and everything she wanted from the loot pile claimed she looked around the room to try and find somebody. Her eyes swept over Poppi having a talk with Din, Tora trying to get to know Mr. Spikey Head, and the whole Koopa clan rolling up on the loot table before her eyes fell on Euden. She reached over to the bottle, took out two ofmthe remianing fish spirits, and nodded to Ryu and Agoston. "There's something I said I was gonna do. I'll see you guys a little later. Ryu, eat something before its all gone. I'll bet it tastes much better now." With that and a jaunty little wave she made her way across the hall to fetch the dragon boy.

"Hey." She said excitedly, popping up behind him and patting him twice on the shoulder. "I promised to explain the ears after dinner, remember? But I don't want to do it in a room full of people. It'll make sense once you hear it." She said, a little more seriously. She doubted there were really bad people in a town like this, but she really couldn't be sure. "Come on. C'mon." She said, taking the boy by the hand and pulling the way a friend pulls you when they really want you to see a cute animal or a dead body.

She found a side room in the guild hall, something that looked like some kind of private meeting area, and dragged him inside. "Okay." She said, shutting the door so they wouldn't be disturbed. She pulled up the three spirits she had, the blue haired lady and the two fish men, to show him. "I'm not sure how well known these are around here, or if anyone knows what kind of effects they can have. You probably saw my friends in the main room breaking them and the stuff that popped out, but that's the least of what they can do. I'm just gonna tell you like the man that told me told me, okay?"

So, she did. Linkle laid out everything she knew about spirits, in as many of the same terms as she could remember the Master of Masters using. Where spirits came from, how to use them, the four different ways their effects could manifest, and what kind of changes could occur if you used them.

"So, when I say these ears aren't mine I mean it." She finished, rubbing one of them thoughtfully. "These belonged to a rabbit that...died protecting me and my friends from a giant machine. So I looked for him afterwards and decided to bring him with us. He helps me out with a lot of cool things. He taught me how to shoot and I think I can move better because of him. Those wings Din saved you with? They came from a robot bird that tried to kill us when we woke it up. Even most of my equipment here is made from crushing the spirits of monsters we've come across. Except these."

She solemnly drew one of the orange swords on her back and held it up to the light of the sunset streaming through the window. "We met a man in the desert that tried to kill us. I think he did it because he wanted our spirits, because when he died he let out tons of them. This is one he pulled out and crushed before we could stop him." She looked at the blade sadly. "I have no idea whether or not this used to be a person. I don't think he cared where he got that spirit." She replaced the blade onto her back and gave Euden a hopeful smile. "But I think you would, and I don't think that's something the world should lose."

She handed Euden the fish man spirits. "So, take these and use them. They'll keep you going until you find your friends. And if you ever...lose somebody...than you can carry them in your heart." She held up the blue haired girls spirit. "Just like this." She cupped her hands, brought the spirit to her chest, and pushed.



The change was as sudden as a chill shooting up her spine, and Linkle felt an involuntary full body shiver overtake her as she came down from it, shaking her head. "Wow." She breathed. "Brrrr. I've only ever done that once, haha. I hope it's not something you get used too, that would be super weird."

She noticed one thing immediately. She brought her hand up to her forehead and then moved it out toward Euden before bringing it back to her own. She smiled brightly and pumped her fist. "Yes! Taller! I'm eternally in your dept, Miss blue hair."

That thought sent a jolt through her, and she immediately reached up and pulled at a strand of hair to check. And it just kept coming. She gasped as she held the long strand of hair in front of her. She'd never had hair this long before. She'd have to braid it or something. She was relived it wasn't blue, though, but it was suprising how it actually looked slightly more red than before. Not that she had anything against Nayru, hallowed be her name, but she could only accept blond and brown hair if she wanted to keep her heroic look.

Speaking of her looks blue hair had also seen fit to modify her boots and gloves with gold, which she enjoyed watching sparkle in the sunlight for a moment. She could do without the stuffy body stocking, though considering it looked like it had completely merged with her shorts she figured she'd have to put up with it.

She finally finished her catalogue of all her new features, not wanting to get into a situation where she would get a new protrusion chopped off again, and looks back up at Euden. "So, yeah, that's basically how all this spirit stuff works." She said, leaning forward and rubbing the back of her head. So much hair. So weird. "If you find someone you think you can trust, feel free to share it with them. I'd rather have us good guys know first."

It wasn't a moment later that Bowser's big voice boomed loud enough to hear over the party, asking if anyone else was coming. She could only think if one thing that could mean. "Sorry, looks like we've got a monster to slay." She said to Euden, pulling on her hood as she hurried out the door. Her new hair was pushed forward and cascaded down over both her shoulders. "We'll be back later."

"Looks like we'll be finding out what you can do in the fight, huh?" She said to herseld ans the girl inside her, bouncing from side to side a little as she made her way to Bowser. She was still sore, full body transformations didn't get you free healing.

"Linkle reporting for duty, your bigness." She said, saluting like she had seen the soldiers back how do as she bounced up next to the Courier's new freind "Let's kick this F-er into next week!" They had almost done it. Every quest in one day!

As he had commanded so did they come. Or that was how Bowser saw it anyway. It helped that the troop had chosen the loot pile as the place to hang around while waiting to head out the door. First to roll up to the table was the courier, who inquired about taking the Frenzy Dust for themselves.

”WHAT? YEAH SURE TAKE THE WEIRD PLANT THING I DON'T CARE. IF ITS ON THE PILE IT’S UP FOR GRABS.” Bowser said, speaking the unspoken rule of the loot pile out loud.

”You can work with these... chems?” Kamek asked, actually paying attention to the bulk of the Courier's words instead of cherry picking things to be incredulous about ”Would that include items such as herbs and potions? Give me a moment while I...” The mage then began to rummaged around in his robes before finding, pulling out and then presented the Bloodwort Tonic and green herbs for the cowboy’s inspection ”Would you be able to do anything with these? Or is that outside your area of expertise?”

Next to arrive where their new recruit, the cadet, and Linkle, who took a bunch of fish scales and one of the 3 remaining charms respectively.

”GAHAHA, THAT’S THE SPIRIT!” the King praised both Linkle and Cadet’s enthusiastic responses to his call to adventure as they stepped up to join the crew. When he actually went to look at them he noticed that Linkle had absorbed yet another sprite, though she seemed no worse for wear because of it. A spot of hair dye and minor change of clothes would have had the same effect. However as he looked closer he saw that the spunky elf wasn't actually at 100% despite her incredibly chipper attitude. She sported a few scratches and a certain stiffness of limb that he would not have noticed if he hadn't been taking in her new appearances.

Upon realizing that one of his minions had been in pain this whole time the king grunted and winced with what could be interpreted as concern before he snapped his fingers and summoned ”HEEL!”

At his command the Rabbid supporter popped into existence next to the snapped fingers before falling the few feet to the ground, the fluffy fiend making barely a sound as he hit the deck.

”FIX HER.” Bowser commanded the Rabbid, waving a hand in Linkle's general direction. Heel, who had his back to Bowser, gave the king a thumbs up while rolling his eyes out of his sight because of how redundant the command was.

Heel then set to work, hopping up on a chair and slapping down their healing backpack before smashing the large heart labeled button on the back with a fist, causing a burst of green energy to shoot out and into Linkle. As the energy took its effect, fixing up her injuries in moments, Bowser asked the team ”ANYONE ELSE STILL HURT FROM THE QUESTS WHO HASN'T MENTIONED IT? IF YA ARE GET OVER HERE ALREADY BEFORE HEEL HAS TO RECHARGE.”

Donnie took stock of the battlefield. It was pandemonium. But the beings atop the building caught his attention.

These...things. Donnie could feel the magic radiating off of those golden-winged beings like a palpable thing. They did not read as what they should have pinged as.

The greater universe in which Azeroth resided, known to Azerothians as the Great Dark Beyond, was defined by two opposing forces: The Light and the Void. The Light was an ethereal force, an endless sea of thrumming life energy, that existed beyond the boundaries of reality. It, like chi, could be found in all things, as it was the life-force that made creatures tick. Light proper cannot directly exist in the universe outside of living things, but it could be harnessed as holy magic.

Donnie--or rather, Donovan--was raised in Stormwind for the first twelve years of his life. Stormwind's defining religion was the Church of the Light. It was the thing he had grown up praying to and worshipping, and he had venerated those trained priests and paladins who could harness its power as authority figures.

He had met the Naaru. He had fought alongside Lighforged Dranei. He knew paladins personally. He had seen them obliterate demons, undead, and the spawn of the Old Gods in holy fire. He had seen them heal the sick and revive the dead, just like he could. Even as someone who could not control Light, he was aware of its power and its role in the world. He respected it and held in great esteem those who used it to help others.

But these...things. These beings that dressed up in a shining golden shell, decorated with gaudy yet sinister spikes, metallic wings, and shining jewels, with unnatural, alabaster faces to cap it all off...clearly, they were meant to be holy. But they made a mockery of the Light.

This flying machine was clearly meant as relief for the "police" station. And they just destroyed it before he could get near.

He was on his Disc, racing to help those inside. He had been trying to protect the innocent. And these allegedly-holy beings had just trashed it, probably killing everyone inside as it crashed into the beleaguered "police" station.

He shook. He could feel the negative forces threatening to take over.

No.

He had lost control against the Ent. But he was the Grand Master of the Order of the Broken Temple. He was to lead by example. It was fine to feel anger. But only insofar as it was useful. The sha had been an excellent example of how negativity could consume you. Sometimes literally.

So he clamped down on it. Took a deep breath. Closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were determined, and intently focused. His path was clear.

Whatever these things were, they were going to pay for their crimes.

He ignored the ground battle. Blazermate had single-handedly neutralized the majority of the undead force, and the defenders were hurling enough lead at the zombies that were left to make life hell for a melee fighter.

So, he hopped on the Disc and rocketed towards the big one, the one he didn't know was called a Cachet.

While passing by, he snapped out his right leg and spun, his foot making contact with the Cachet's left cheek in a perfectly-executed Blackout kick that knocked it back to the edge of the roof as something flew off of it. A lance of pain stabbed through his arm as he passed by though. It had manifested some kind of blade and slashed at him, leaving a nasty wound.

But the panel clattered to the ground, revealing a wriggling mass of flesh underneath the marble-like shell. Disgusting.

"Funny," he said, dismounting the Disc and slipping its orb into his Luggage before desummoning it, his voice dripping with enmity, "Where I come from, holy beings don't need to wear masks."

Then, he leaped into the fray once more. He didn't use the Fists this time. He wouldn't be holding back.

He charged towards the Cachet, both hands charged with chi that he attempted to shove into the angel's face--a dual Tiger Palm. When you get to be a grandmaster, you learn to improvise techniques. Then, he rolled back, the roll turning into a backflip as he landed on the other side of the roof, gathering energy into his hands as he fired off a Chi Burst. At its current trajectory, it would go through Banjo, two Compassions, and the Cachet, hurting enemies and healing allies, including himself. He'd rather heal at these things' expense than waste time casting Vivify.

The adrupt arrival of Linkle marked the end of Euden's conversation with Curly Brace, but neither the prince nor the robot seemed to mind much as the rabbit-eared archer whisked Euden away after a brisk explanation. As he stumbled off, clutched by the hand, the helplessly smiling boy waved goodbye to Curly before turning to regain his footing and follow his new friend to wherever she might be heading.

Once inside the adjunct room selected by Linkle, Euden turned his full attention to her, eager to get in on the secret she'd withheld earlier. He examined the spirits she presented curiously, remembering them from earlier, and similar sprites from his previous endeavors in the Land of Adventure. While pretty, they evidenced no obvious use, and always vanished after a while even if collected, so he wondered what Linkle had in mind. She confirmed what he'd caught a distant glimpse of in the main room, that breaking them would yield equipment. The relevation provoked a sagacious nod as he thought about how useful that could be for the town. However, Linkle went on to describe some other use, one linked to those furry ears atop her head.

Euden's face grew serious as his friend recounted a story of another friend of hers, since passed. Yet, he couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow. She didn't mention exactly how, but apparently this rabbit, as well as a metal machine, gave Linkle and Din respectively new skills and changes to their appearance. Her story about a spirit-hunter were worrisome but shed no further light on the subject, even when Linkle produced a unique sword to show him. Thoroughly baffled, he dumbly accepted the fish spirits from her. “In...my heart?” He watched as she did literally that with the last spirit, completely unprepared for the dazzling light that followed.

“Whoa!” Unable to watch, the prince shielded his eyes. “Linkle, what's happening?” He reached out but could get no closer to the splendid display before him, until after a few seconds the light started to recede. What he saw was undeniably Linkle, but a little different. She had much longer hair, slightly different clothes, and stood a little taller—a fact she seemed pretty happy about. Euden continued to look, doing nothing but blinking, until with a start he turned away, blushing. “Incredible.” It was sort of like when he shapeshifted into a dragon, but into a different person, and stopped halfway through. When she finished figuring out the extent of her changes as well, she suggested that he share the knowledge with those he trusted before turning to go. Just like that, she was gone, skipping away back to the guild.

Euden looked back at the spirits crushed in his hands, those beastly fishmen. “Er...” After briefly considering the possibilities, he put them down. What Linkle said about slaying a monster interested him more. He owed her and her friends a debt, and it was his duty to help out people wherever he could anyway. Mulling over his thoughts over the next few minutes, he exited the side room and waited for her group to head out. When they did, he followed, right up to the giant, scary-looking machine they'd come in on. Euden hesitated, but only for a moment; the answer was clear. He crushed the fish spirits, receiving a scale shield and a fish hat, and hurried to put them on. By the time he did the truck was already starting, so he took a running jump and grabbed on to the chassis. He would be paying these heroes back.



Tora scrunched together his eyebrows. “So....” he murmured, mulling over what Phoenix said. “Mr. Wright fight for justice by studying evidence, asking many questions, and uncovering truth, meh? But not actually 'fight' fight?” That explained why the experience he described of nearly getting killed by marauding fish monsters weighed so heavily with him. This guy was a civilian, and not the tough sort of civilian like Tora, but an honest-to-goodness normal person. Not that the Nopon held anything against him, but he had better things to do that chat with some random person with little to offer by way of his overarching goal. Besides, all this talk and listening left him feeling hungry again. Phoenix started talking again, but Tora bulldozed right over it. “Well, okay then! Stay safe, and goodbye!” After giving a wave, he spun about and marched right off, leaving the lawyer to sort through his own problems.

He got back to his chair at about the same time as Poppi, who looked more than a little crestfallen. Noticing as she hopped up onto her stool, Tora leaned over. “Is Poppi okay? Joints working, furnace alright?” His gaze grew a touch worried as a few seconds passed, his companion not making eye contact, before she finally replied.

“Parts fine, but Poppi not okay. Din has quit adventure. Eyes turned red.” Dumbfounded, Tora looked over himself to witness in the truth in her words. Just like that?! “Losing friend to enemies bad enough, but losing friend this way hurt too.” She leaned onto the table, propped up on her arms, and stared at the fireplace cheerily burning on one side of the hall.

Tora took a deep breath. “Meeeeh...so that means Tora and friends cannot lose heart, because no getting back on own.” He stared into the fire for a moment as well before Bowser's call to arms resounded through the adventurer's guild. The bellow jolted him into action, reminding him of his appetite. “Meh meh meh! Cannot go and leave food to waste!” With that loose justification given, the gluttonous Nopon started shoveling food in, though he lasted only a few more seconds before he reached his limit once again. This time he hit in a powerful way, and for a moment was sent reeling. “Muh...bury Tora...at Torigoth,” he wheezed before falling backward off his chair. He hit the ground with a mighty wallop and lay there dazed.

Poppi sighed, smiling. She pushed herself from the table, picked Tora up, and carried him toward the gathering ground. On the way she passed by the diminished loot pile, which gave Tora the chance to reveal he wasn't as senseless as he let on, as he scooped up the shiny stone with a wing.



The pair arrived just after the Ace Cadet, to whom Poppi waved after tucking Tora under one arm. One by one, the other heroes joined the team preparing to depart. The Koopa King exchanged a few words with the Courier, and while they conversed a young woman appeared that caught Tora's eye. It took only a moment for him to recognize her, despite the changes to her outfit and hair. “Linky-Linky!” he exclaimed, wiggling out of Poppi's grasp. “You look even better than before! Tora was worried when saw Linky-Linky with ugly fishies, but it look like there never reason to fear.”

Poppi gave her friend a smile, taking in her new appearance. After this fusion, she and Linkle stood at about the same height, thanks to her QT mode. The archer must have lucked out, getting a spirit that didn't change much about her while also assumedly granting some new power. She made a note to keep an eye out for spirits that might do the same her her and Tora, though she figured it'd be harder for her Masterpon to stay himself given how nonexistent Nopon appeared to be in this new world.

A few more moments passed while more heroes gathered, with Bowser using his rabbid striker to heal anyone who needed it. The final preparations came to an abrupt end when the guild doors opened and none other than Peach leaned in. “I brought that truck close,” she stated, the flatness of her voice a far cry from Linkle's bubbliness. “We should load up and get moving. East, right?”

Tora waddled forward. “Tora and Poppi call shotgun! Went that way earlier, so can guide no problem.”

Nodding, Peach turned to leave. “Alright. Let's go.” Everyone followed her out the door and down the road to the waiting Brother Grimm. It took only a short while to load up, with the gigantic monster truck's expansive bed providing most of the space for whoever wasn't eager to cram up front with Tora, Poppi, and Peach. A turn of the ignition and a mechanical roar later, and the consolidated caravan was in motion.

With Tora's (but mostly Poppi's) help, the Brother Grimm navigated eastward, away from Lumbridge and across the plain. The uneven offroad made it a less-than-serene trip, but if any vehicle could handle unusual terrain, this monster truck could. It wasn't long before its enormous tires started pulverizing through a field of wheat, gently waving in the evening breeze. To the left, a large dark mass signified the forest where Bowser and his crew did much of their gathering during the day. After another five minutes or so rumbling through the crops the Brother Grimm emerged onto tree-speckled prairie once more. Wild rabbits with glowing yellow eyes shrieked before sprinting to their holes, and keese flocked close, but no explicit dangers presented themselves.

Eventually lights presented themselves in the darkness ahead, illuminating the tall, thin buildings of the Hamlet. Pig Guards, asleep at their posts, snorted to attention, and brandished their axes with as much ponderous menace as they could muster, but the titanic vehicle passed them by. Anyone wanting to entertain the Mayor's request as mentioned by those who visited the Hamlet earlier could request a stop and get off at their convenience, but Tora and Poppi didn't think twice about it. The target of their hunt constituted the most pressing concern, and demanded both the most personnel and the most attention. After all, it could very well be the Champion of this region, the strongest being in the Land of Adventure, chosen by Galeem to take on one of its many colors and the responsibility of keeping it safe. The heroes could mop up pig quests later.

With the Hamlet firmly in Brother Grimm's rear-view mirrors, Peach guided her team out onto the Ancestral Steppe. The land trended upward, evidencing oddly angular rock formations here and there, and the wind carried a slight chill—and something else. After passing between a few stone slabs, a new smell drifted across the area, something old and bizarre. Above them, the night sky was not right. Constellations, nebulae, and planetary bodies could be glimpsed where none existed before. With the help of the Ace Cadet, however, the heroes found something more important: tracks. Huge and clawed, they led deeper into the step. Following them proved troublesome in the dark until the Cadet's scoutflies got up to speed, and after that it was smooth sailing. The trail led the Brother Grimm through gulches and by small cliffs, and even in the night its passengers could see something wrong with the terrain. Here and there were plots of farmland and accompanying shacks, plants and ground alike fossilized in blasted, colorless gray, as though aged uncountable years in the middle of harvest season. Petrified grass crumbled under the monster truck's tires, and worryingly human shapes stood stock-still among the ruined crops as the heroes proceeded through the wasteland.

After driving around a giant boulder, the monster truck came to a stop at the bottom of a large hill with a few tiers of farmland ringing it. Atop it stood a roughly circular fortification, with wooden walls and towers. The route, defined by stony ridges and edges, led up to and through it. Peach's expression changed as her eyes moved between the fort and Cadet's scoutflies. “We must be getting close. Sshh....”

A moment's silence allowed the keen-of-hearing to detect a low groaning on the breeze, drifting down from the hilltop. Once informed, Peach nodded, and put the Brother Grimm in park. “On foot. We'll attract less attention.” Tora nodded, and leaped from the passenger door with Poppi. They hit the ground one after another, crunching the grass as though it were frozen by winter. After looking at one another and exchanging shrugs, Tora and Poppi equipped the Mech Arms in preparation for combat. At the back of the group, Euden dislodged himself from the truck's chassis and walked up, a hand on his sword. When everyone was ready, the troop began its ascent.

As they climbed higher, the silence became deafening. Everything was still, save for the stars wheeling overhead. After reaching a certain height, the heroes found that their ascent enjoyed more than the illumination of the moon. They began to see odd crystals growing from the petrified husks of vegetables and other once-loving things, not terribly remarkable save for their color. It defied exact description, maybe something akin to a bluish-pinkish-green, but wholly unpleasant to consider and even look at. One brief moment of curious staring was more than enough for Tora, who averted his gaze as he felt a sort of weird headache come over him. Shaking it off, he continued upward, his role as a tank demanding his position at the head of the pack. It seemed like longer, but the heroes arrived at the top after only a minute or two. Upon entering the ring of wooden walls and farm buildings, they spotted their target immediately.

In the middle of the clearing huddled a monster. It was enormous, with tough scales gleaming a gorgeous blue in the moonlight. With ridges all over, and muscle to spare, it cut a terrifying figure even while asleep. A small number of crystal shards stuck to its scales like barnacles, but their otherworldly glow at least paled in comparison to the lime-green sheen of the noxious goo coating its enormous arms and horn. There could be no doubt that this was what the heroes were here to hunt.



But it wasn't alone. There was movement among the houses and atop. Fossilized husks in the shape of farmhands, aglow with an alien radiance from within, shuffled out to stare without eyes. Banging, crashing sounds echoed from within the mill at the zenith of the hill. Something hit the door with a slam, allowing otherworldly light to spill from between the cracks in the wood. A moment of pure silence followed before the horror struck again. This time splinters flew, and the heroes could spot for a fleeting instant a side of unholy flesh. Then it broke through, the Thing from the Stars, and its cry split the night. Terror, primal and true, pierced the hearts of the heroes, and their stress began to rise.

Awoken by the ungodly noise, the Brachydios rose with a snarl. It beat the earth with its hammer-arms, and roared in defiance of its foes.





As Nero expected, his allies leaped into the fight with gusto. Daxter in particular leaped with force and landed with a shockwave reminiscent of the treant he'd absorbed, its impact rattling the nearby tombstones and shaking loose chunks. For as bulky as they looked, the monuments did not seem especially sturdy. When Blazermate's zombie fell across them, swinging and slamming wildly with whatever they had on hands, the structures practically melted. Each blow left behind cracks, and each second blow broke off chunks in a shower of dust. Try as the Flood might to invade the outermost ranks of the medabot's horde, they slowed down the destruction not at all, and in no time Daxter and Blazermate's efforts rendered the enemy spawners into piles of inert masonry.

Still, the bulk of the enemy force remained. The Lost attacked with the full faculties of living humans empowered by some sort of overwhelming violent urge, not bothering to do any biting or eating as they attempted to rip apart anyone in their way. They, at least, fell like chaff to Nero and V, and to the police station's defenders. The Riots did not. Pivoting away from the Lost, Spawn, and Flood, Nero and V addressed the issue personally. After receiving some healing from Blazermate, Nero began his onslaught, using wide-ranging spinning attacks to strike and stagger as many of the demons as possible before taking two to the air in an upward slash. He swung once, twice, then switched directions to rise upward in a double spinning cleave. Screeching, the demons swung at him, but Nero executed a Payline, diving forward with the Red Queen extended. “Down you go!” He shrugged off their slashes as they plummeted down, and upon hitting the ground Nero revved his sword to full. After starting to charge Gerbera, he unleashed a flame-boosted triple spin into the air, where he hung for a moment. “Got a little something for ya...” Once it sparked, he thrust Gerbera downward, which unfolded in a brilliant pink flash. “Petal Ray!”

A half dozen pink beams shot down in a spread formation, burning through all enemies in their way and bouncing off the terrain. They flew around in a dazzling, chaotic display, ricocheting in every direction. Under the cover the Petal Ray provided, V went to work. He sent Shadow to attack, turning its body into various weapons to attack monsters again and again. Griffon lent his aid with column lightning attacks, coordinating with his fellow demon. Griffon dropped an orb of electricity that sent out two lightning streams in a V, which started closing after a moment. It dragged together all nearby enemies into a single pile right on top of Shadow, who promptly exploded into a spiked ball to skewer every one of them. Every monster except the Riots perished, who instead turned white, awash with purple vapor. Seeing this, V disappeared, teleporting into the air to unleash a hailstorm of summoned canes that finished the whole group off at once. With the main threats eliminated, gunfire from both the police station and Blazermate's sentry ate through the monsters not decimated by the devil hunter or his comrade.

At an unheard signal, the shooting stopped. The three close-range fighters from the police station approached, killing Lost as they did. Beckoning, the shotgunner called, “C'mon! Let's get inside 'fore more show up!” After a brief look at each other, Nero and V ran his way.

Meanwhile, the group bound for the roof was locked in a bitter struggle against the angels. The bear and bird arrived first, assailing a pair of Compassions with a rapid-fire series of moves to soften them up. Jak landed and opened with a volley of gunfire, drawing the Laguna off Olivia. Jak plus Banjo and Kazooie represented a far greater threat than the tiring catgirl, so with a final drill attack to Ms Fortune's belly to drop her in a pool of blood the Catchet commanded its Compassions to line up in formation. At that moment Donnie arrived with a bone-cracking kick to the Catchet's head, sending it reeling in midair. When it righted itself, a piece missing from its face revealed twisted flesh beneath. With their leader momentarily disabled, the Compassions did not attack, but they readied their blades the moment the Catchet was ready again. One second later and the two sides clashed, the Compassions' formation charge making for a dangerous opening move. However, a well-aimed Chi Burst swept through the battlefield the next moment, undoing inflicted damage while dealing a healthy chunk of damage to all angels involved. The battle unfolded quickly, with the first Compassion -already pierced by gunfire and Kazooie pecks- falling with surprising ease.

After that, the weak angels dropped one after another, with the last even falling victim to a surprise lunge from Ms. Fortune. After pouncing from the side, the catgirl extracted her own muscle fiber to wrap the angel up in a giant mushy yarn ball, played with it for a moment, and then reeled quickly to make the angel spin like a top. “You've strung me along...” she purred, before rolling onto her head and spinning her bottom half with her legs outstretched like a propeller. Snapping to her feet, she delivered a couple of claw slashes before turning around and forcibly extending both legs diagonally upward in a double kick. A quick jump carried her after it, and she pulled off her own tail. Calling “Cut it out!” she thrust downward, stabbing through it, and upon reaching the ground unleashed a crescent slash to cleave the angel in half. She flashed the newcomers a smile. “Purr-etty good, huh?”

The Catchet backed away, unintelligible noises resounded from within. To either side of it, two halos appeared, rising upward to manifest half-human, half-pegasus angels brandishing lances. They took just a moment to adjust to their new surroundings, then charged, and the Catchet along with them.

---

Through the windows of the Police station that laid in front of the gang that approached, a scared and slightly frightened face of the Black Mage lay insight. His worry about the new situation has driven him to complete and utter fear. Leon had previously told the mage that he had faith in the tiny sorcerer, but he still had major doubts about his abilities and strengths. "Will I even be of any assistance out there?... They seem to have everything under control... The newbies included." He would sigh with slight dishonor, feeling as though he were a nuisance being carried by those around him. He was useless, with no purpose. Finishing his sigh he decided to ponder his current actions... he was constantly putting himself on standby, without orders to, he was making a complete fool of himself, he could make himself useful, he could be an important figure to the team. As Ghalt ran back inside with the two newcomers following suit. His remark about coming inside worried Vivi about potential other threats. He would run to the two and nod his cap at the males who had recently entered. He reluctantly opened his mouth and spoke: "I'm the Black Mage. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I saw your compatriots hop on the room to help Fortune and Olivia. I shall quickly gain up with them to assist in combat with those 'Angels'. Good day." And with that short and brief introduction, Vivi was on his way up the flight of stairs.

Bursting through the door of the stairway access room, the little mage clad in blue whipped his staff out from under his cloak. He looked at the fighting bear and bird, the robot and cat, the elf and squirrel, the were-cat, and the female robot. With the tip of his straw hat, he said: "Sorry I'm late! Had some issues finding my courage! I'm here now though."




He would twirl his staff around his hand before slowly winding up his "Thunder" spell. As he guarded himself carefully, he prepared the black magic. His eyes glowed a magnificent yellow (red to those not under Galeem's influence) and he would calm his mind and his power. He would look at the larger of the three cachets that stood before him, as he continued to charge his powers. After stalling his ability for a few moments, he would release a hail of booming lightning on to the direct face of the cachet. "Take that ya' creepy demon! I-I mean, I hope this hurts!" He said slightly with some doubt and some anger towards the large ceramic looking beasts. The chain of lightning would rattle off one of the enemies and head for the other one, maybe doing some good and heavy damage to the creature.

Magnumus Agoston, Centurion.

Level 3 - (23/30) EXP
Location: Lumbridge, Land of Adventure
Word Count: 599

---

Centurion had chucked. "If only, Linkle. Ryu bested me aswell. I suppose you are a bit more charismatic and kinder than I, if his senses were restored with words alone. Only a bit, though," He said sarcastically, smiling. After a while, Linkle got an upgrade, and Centurion nodded in approval and finished the rest of his meal.

Just then, the monarch of the crew, (unless one counted Bowser), Princess Peach, arrived inside the Adventurer's Guild. There was combat to be had, and evil to be vanquished. The entire world was hostile, and needed to be smote or restored. It was hardly like his campaigns of old, where movement needed to be carefully considered. The placement of the enemy's army needed to be predicted and guessed at. The path of least resistance to their goal needed to be realised and then taken advantage of. Here, in Galeem's world, that was not the case. Slaying enemies granted them additional powers, and the enemies were everywhere. One could not travel from the cauldron to the pantry without stumbling upon some warped creature plucked from it's forgotten cave. Since any creature slain was another boon gained, "quests" were a valuable investment. Everyone had to power up in order to become powerful enough to defeat Galeem and it's lieutenants.

Thus, a newly refreshed Agoston slammed down his now empty mug of ale, made sure his gladius was secure in it's sheathe, and marched out the door with the rest of his comrades. Finding his old drill kart, the armored man stepped, a little more clumsily than before, within the driver's seat.

He followed the rest of his fellows to their destination. As they neared their destination, they dismounted. They began their ascent. Centurion was quiet, his eyes narrowed, scanning the environment for potential attackers. That, however, would not be necessary, as once they reached the top their foes made themselves quite apparent.

The beast itself was intimidating for sure, but the things around it, it's allies, were what shook Agoston to his core. Horrific, twisted abominations of people, along with some alien creature that that was terrible to look upon. The Thing from the Stars. Suffering incarnate! For the first time in a long time, Agoston felt fear began to creep into his heart. It felt unnatural- Centurions did not become afraid. So what was this? Perhaps, Agoston thought, it was some kind of fear enchantment?

Steadying himself, the Centurion unsheathed his gladius and pounded the flat of the blade against his forearm. Engaging Phalanx, his comrades around him would gain a bonus defensive shield against attacks that manage to hit them. An extra layer of protection.

"Audaces fortuna iuvat! Fortune favors the bold!" He shouted to his friends, hoping to help maintain their courage, and his own. With that, he leaned forward and charged, his feet pounding on the dirt and stone. The fear made him angry. Centurion wanted to kill the Thing from the Stars and prove his worth.

Thus, Agoston charged for the nearest undead farmhand, determined to carve a path directly to the Thing from the Stars. The Gladius surged forward, plunging into the heart of one of the sickly humanoids. Using it as leverage he slammed his fist, newly enhanced with a boxer's technique, into the side of the things temple, trying to shatter it's skull. Gathering momentum, the Centurion began his rampage, trying to cut through as many husks as possible. If he succeeded, he would reorient his efforts upon the Thing from the Stars, hoping to calm his quivering heart by stilling the heart of the terrible, shrieking abomination.

Upon leaving the Guild Hall, Ace Cadet was genuinely excited. He was all smiles as he climbed right into the back of the big truck. The day so far had been full of so many surprises and new information, that the Cadet was ready to roll with just about anything at this point - including motorized monster carts. It wasn't really the strangest thing he'd seen anyway, not even just including some of things he'd seen back home. As it were, as the vehicle rumbled off towards their destination, the red head simply enjoyed the hum of the motor and the chatter of everyone pressed into the bed. He spent most of the first parts of the trek getting to know his new comrades. Besides Tora, Poppi, and Peach up front who were up front, and The Courier and Geralt who both he had already met (and he'd asked the witcher about a dozen times if he was really sure they hadn't met before coming to Lumbridge), he managed to learn everyone's names. Cadet didn't have any objections to the "boss," Bowser, taking command of the lot of them. He was the biggest and apparently a freaking King back where he'd come from. All in all, it was a swell ride.

When conversation died down a little, perhaps the gathered people trying to sight-see any of the places they hadn't gotten a chance to visit yet, the Cadet pulled out his bag and rummaged around inside. None of them knew exactly what kind of quarry they were after, so it was best to be prepared. He ignored the berries, both the Dragonfell and those he wasn't familiar with, and mentally kicked himself for not pulling them out during dinner. Surely someone could identify them - and the Dragonfell wouldn't be useful on it's own, he had always planned to gather more eventually. Still, now wasn't the time either. What he pulled out were the herbs and phials he had. Crushing the plants in his hands, he got them down to a surprisingly fine consistency. Once they were completely squashed and began to resemble mush, he shoved them into the vials: ta-da! Potions! One might think there was more to it than that, but there wasn't. The mysteries of nature!

A particularly bumpy part of the ground made the Ace Cadet look up from his work, and he grinned at the night time atmosphere of the Ancestral Steppe, another place familiar to him. However, his smile began to fade when he noticed the strange figures dotting the land. His scoutflies flew up toward the front as the truck slowed slightly, and he let them do their thing, catching scent of a monster. He stashed the potions and turned his body, half leaning out of the truck to get a closer look at the area as they traveled through it. "This is... really weird. The Steppe doesn't normally look like this," he said his thoughts aloud, but no more after the Princess' call for silence.

The whole group exited the vehicle and of course the Cadet was no exception. He unsheathed his sword and shield as he walked, finding his nose wrinkling and the hairs on the back of his neck standing up the higher they got. Yeah, something was definitely wrong here, and "weird" probably wouldn't even begin to cover it. The hunter even managed to keep quiet as they climbed, keeping his eyes straight ahead and avoiding the creepy, weirdly colored growths.

It wasn't until they reached the top and the Cadet spotted a familiar mass of muscle and scales that he broke the silence. "Oh, that's - !" The sudden burst of broken wood and the appearance of a large, disgusting, impossible being stopped the hunter's words, and quite nearly his heart. He felt his entire spirit gripped with fear. He'd never seen such a creature before, but somehow he knew it was awful news. The green glow of his scoutflies turned an ominous red as they fled back to him, not that the group needed any confirmation that the monsters in front of them knew they were here.

Agoston's sudden cry shook the Cadet from his frozen terror, and as he watched the centurion charge he was grateful for the man's encouragement. Not to be outdone, the hunter prepared to jump into the fray as well. The Thing from the Stars still unnerved him, but it was only part of the problem - there was also the hulking Brachydios to deal with. At least I know what it is and how to kill it, so I'll focus on taking down the Brachy, he thought, and before he took off his brain managed to remind him that although he knew what a Brachydios was, the rest of the posse most likely did not. It was too late to warn the centurion, but the rest of them were still gathered together. Cadet pushed his way to the front of the group and spun around to quickly address them, pointing at the blue scaled monster.

"I don't know what the heck those other things are, but that big guy is Brachydios! It's saliva makes that green slime on it's body explode so if you get any on you, get it off as quick as you can!" He'd dealt with many Brachydios in his hunting career so far, and it was a hassle every time. Stupid slime monster with your stupid pompadour! the Cadet thought, turning back to the scene and trying to get the unpleasantness of the encounter out of his mind. He really needed to focus on taking down the Brute Wyvern before trying to deal with the unknown. The Cadet leapt into battle, going the opposite direction as Agoston - making his way toward the Brachydios rather than The Thing from the Stars. He used his shield to violently push the husk-like beings away from him, and what he couldn't reach with his shield he slashed at with his sword as he attempted to get within range of the monster.

Considering all the trouble these police station survivors had been going through, Blazermate was surprised at how Nero, V, her horde, and her allies decimated the area. Daxter and her horde did wonders at destroying the tombstones that were spitting out baddies, even with the occasional undead minion turning traitor as the weird goopy parasites found their way around her dry bone guard. Seeing these things are a huge threat to her budding army, she doubled down on trying to squish the parasites that were left after Nero and V basically decimated the area with their combined attacks. Seeing as her sentry and the police station survivors were dealing with the stragglers without much problem now, Blazermate directed her horde to run away from any parasites they saw, having the dry bones squish whatever they could find so that no more of her zombies could be taken over. She meanwhile joined her dry bones in the parasite stomping, seeing as she was pretty sure they couldn't infect a medabot if they couldn't control the dry bones.

"Hey, when you guys are done over there, make sure you kill these parasite things! I keep losing zombies to them!" Blazermate said to Nero and V as Blazermate commanded some of her dry bones to take down another zombie that got infected, crushing the flood that burst from it. "I hope we don't run into too many of these things... They are very frustrating to deal with." Blazermate said to herself, crushing another flood parasite under her shield arm.

Geralt simply followed along as the group finished their meals and exited the mess hall, leaving his plate and utensils behind for the guild's staff to take care of. He pitied them a bit for having to clean up after such a massive feast, but that was the life of servitude: some people hunted monsters for others' safety, some people cleaned their plates so that they could eat again later.

He'd noticed that Linkle left with Euden, but didn't think much of it. Clearly she saw something she liked, and he had no desire to get himself involved in that.

Her return, and more specifically her new appearance, came as more of a shock. He'd heard what those spirits could do, but seeing someone so....drastically changed....it reminded him of the Trials of the Grasses. He did not like that. Nobody deserved such a thing. Nobody.

She didn't seem to be particularly distraught about the change, though. If anything, she seemed happy. How odd. He and the other Witchers had no choice in the matter. They were taken, as children no less, and forced through grueling training that made even the most elite Nilfgaardian warriors seem like children playing at knighthood. Then, if they survived, they were forced onto racks and pumped so full of mutagens and monster essences that it tore their bodies apart from the inside and forced them to adapt or die.

Then there were the...extra...experiments that he endured. He almost felt a pinprick of self-pity thinking about it again. He crushed it, however. It wasn't necessary. Especially not with another Quest at hand. Bowser wanted them.

"Your glorious majesty, we are ready to serve." Geralt answered sarcastically, falling in line nonetheless. He was a bit surprised at Bowser's care for his so-called 'minions', however. Usually big evil kings and lords were a bit less....proactive in caring for their soldiers and retainers. It was almost heartwarming for the giant spiky turtle-looking thing to ask them to come to be taken care of like children with bloody calluses.

Feeling his forehead, Geralt was pleased that the gash he'd received was already mostly healed, with a scab in its place. He hadn't bled much in a while, too, so the scab was probably old. He'd be fine soon enough, perhaps even before they arrived to take down this 'Mr. F'. That was probably just wishful thinking, though.

As they approached, Geralt hoped for a moment to ask Linkle about what happened, but he didn't quite get the chance. The Cadet, however, sure took up plenty of his time, checking again and again to be sure they'd really, definitely never met. He recognized the style of weapon the man carried, sure, but his face didn't bring even an inkling of recognition. He'd only been in that world for a short while, anyway. Once the Leshen was taken care of, he was lucky enough to find his own way home, as well.

Their method of transportation was similarly attention-grabbing, but....Ciri had mentioned something like that, hadn't she? Carriages drawing themselves, some even flying through the air? People modified in mysterious and strange ways, but they were treated the same as anybody else was. He supposed it made sense that something like that existed, even if it wasn't....quite as amazing as she'd made it seem. It was still something he'd likely never see after he left this place, this....strange combination of worlds.

And it became even more strange as they reached the Ancestral Steppe and left their transport behind. The landscape changed, strange crystals grew everywhere, and the silence.....Geralt knew they were close just from that.

As they finally approached, Geralt's eyes narrowed as he saw their prey: the Brachydios. It reminded him of the things that lived in the Cadet's world. Gargantuan in size, powerful in build, and decidedly not something he wanted to fight head-to-head.

And then The Thing From the Stars pierced the veil of silence, its scream decidedly unpleasant to say the least. Something inside Geralt revolted, and he felt a measure of unease, along with an unpleasant but not unfamiliar emotion: fear.

Thankfully, he wasn't alone. The Centurion, Agoston, and the Cadet both charged ahead, Geralt following behind the latter, cutting down one of the strange, altered humans that the man in front of him had shoved aside. Taking advantage of its companions' reaction, he weaved through them and came up on the Cadet. "Kid, I got something for that slinger thing of yours." Pulling out a grapeshot bomb, Geralt passed it to his ally before taking a ready stance.

"Bowser! Something tells me this is your kind of fight!" He shouted to their self-declared leader. "Kid, how do we kill this thing?" He asked Cadet as well.

@Stekkmen@Lugubrious

---

"Hmmm?" Linkle said, looking down as Tora wriggled out of Poppi's arms and admired her new look. Seeing Poppi also checking her out she took the opportunity to spread her mantle out and, with a slight effort, pirouetted in a little circle for them. "I was thinking about the fish." She admitted. The prospect of a quick and dirty way to learn how to swim appealed to her. "Gills would be fun, but I'd probably just end up with those big old eyes." She put her hands to her face and, using her finger and thumb, pulled the skin of her eyelid away and darted her eyes from side to side for emphasis. Having her hearing supercharged was trouble enough, thank you very much. She didn't need to also go blind every time she looked to close at a torch.

She also caught sight of Tora's new shine stone, and was disappointed it hadn't transformed him into 7ft stunner.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the boom of Bowser's voice and the snap of his claw. His rabbit minion appeared in a flash and sardonically went about his work, pulling up a chair and pouring rejuvenating green magic into her. She let out a satisfied sigh as it closed up cuts and chased the stiffness from her bones. She rolled her shoulder where the spear wound used to be, the reached over and scratched Heel at the base of his ears. "Thanks buddy, I forgot you could do that." She looked up at Bowser as he imperiously ordered anyone else who hadn't presented injuries to get over here and let the rabbit fix them. "Thanks a lot your majesty."

---

It wasn't long after that that the Princess poked her head in and, like the schedule oriented mother to Bowsers worried father, told them she had brought the car around. So the group heads out, Linkle happily piling into the back with Geralt and the boy she'd come to know as Ace. Still, she got the feeling something was missing. She looked over the side, but what she saw following along behind them was Agoston in his drill cart. She'd expected to see a magic goat with its enchanting rider keeping pace, but it wasn't there.

"I guess Din decided to sit this one out, huh?" She said aloud. Maybe she wanted to give an after dimmer encore while everyone was still mostly gathered? Linkle didn't blame her. Reliable as she was Din never seemed like that much of a fighter. Linkle was sure that whatever she was doing was helping them in her own way.

Despite that bit of disappointment the mood in the back of the truck was pretty jovial as they made their way further from the town. The sun set as they rolled along, but the truck came equipped with giant lights that banished all darkness in front of it and the cool of the night air rushing past might have been uncomfortable if it wasn't for her wardrobe upgrade. The Ace took the time to make conversation, introduce himself (to which Linkle responded in, laying out the whole Hero of Hyrule deal in the process), and really make sure that Geralt didn't actually know him.

"Maybe you met him in a previous life." She suggested. "You took up monster hunting in this one, so you might have been a witch man too in the last."

They tore up a field of where and headed out onto a prairie. Conversation died down as the Ace started working with herbs and vials and than Linkle standing up at the familiar squeaking of a flock of Keese and taking two dozen potshots as the black winged mass to make sure they steered clear of the truck the night was calm. "They're so annoying."

She wished there was something she could do to make preparations for what was coming, but her only talent was fighting things. Maybe her new passenger knew things like potions or cooking, but as she looked around in her head for things she hadn't know how to do before taking her in Linkle couldn't find anything. Right now she really wished she'd been smart enough to ask Ryu what this girl could do when they had fought.

She glanced at the hair blowing in her face. Red? Why had it added some red? She'd had blue hair in the spirit, right?

---

It didn't surprise her the the land starred to become significantly less pleasant out past the hamlet of what she'd taken for bokoblins before rationalizing that bokoblins didn't build hamlets. She still thought it was a bad omen, and she was soon proven correct. The smell was weird, the chill was uncomfortable, and even the stars weren't right. It felt otherworldly. That might have been an oxymoron given the circumstances, but it was the only word that came to mind besides "weird." It didn't feel like a place where things lived. It certainly didn't feel like you were supposed to be here.

Their prey disagreed with her. They followed its tracks by the light of fireflies, big heavy footprints buried in the grey and cracking earth. Everything else in this place had been petrified, from the plants to the...oh, those weren't statues out in the fields, were they? There were houses and farms. People. People used to live here. Had their quarry done all this?

They pulled up at the base of a hill and as the rumble of the truck came to a stop she could clearly hear something groaning. Peach and the others sitting in the cab hopped out and the others climbed over the side of the bed. Linkle followed after, crunching the petrified grass as she landed. Curiously, she toed at some beside her feet and watched it crumble into nothing. She shook her head.

Then she saw Euden drop off the undercarriage of the truck.

"Wha-" she stammered in surprise as the by walked up. "Euden, if you wanted to come you could have just asked. Did you hold on the whole way? You could have sat in the kart with us." She said in a mixture of impressed disbelief, but even Linkle unconsciously kept her voice to a loud whisper in this place even if she wasn't conscious of it. Still, it took some of the tension that had been building off to get a pleasant surprise in the midst of all this. "Cute hat." She complimented as they began their march up the hill.

It turned out to only be a momentary reprieve because as they marched they came upon the color. It shimmered like a spirit, impossible to describe or look at for more than a short time. Trying to comprehend it made her feel a little sick, and she was even more grateful for the body stocking than before because it meant there was less of a chance that she would come into direct contact with that stuff.

They continued on up the hill and found the monster the fireflies were leading them too, asleep in the middle of this alien landscape. Even with the snot green mucus dripping off of its head and hands the thing was still slightly comforting to look at. It felt natural, like a living animal, and that was all it took to make it stick out like a sore thumb in this place. She didn't think it was responcible for this destruction. But then, why had it come here?

She thought they might be able to get the drop on it, but those hopes were dashed when a different monster, alive with color, burst out of the mill at the top of the hill and shrieked into the night. A shrike that Linkle felt herself echo as pure, unnatural terror stabbed its way deep into her heart.

She was breathing heavy as she felt herself bolstered by the Centurion. The man beat his word like a war drum and let out a rallying cry before charging up toward the mill and the The Thing. Linkle had to admit, it was a fortifying sight. The Ace felt that way to apparently, because he pushed his way rough the group and quickly laid down what the now awoken Brachydios was capable of before charging in, Geralt right behind him.

Linkle didn't want to get blown up again, but more importantly she wanted to see Agoston tear that freakish amalgamation into its individual parts. Leaving the monster hunting to the monster hunting professionals she charged after Agoston to help deal with the interloper.

Agoaton was fast, but at a dead sprint she was faster. She overtook the man as he was deckng one of the husk like farmhands and unloaded on the monsters in front of them with a salvo of arrows and bombs to clear their path to the Thing.

While Bowser acted as the very large , fussy and insistent center of a gathering spot Jr found time to toe get into a bit of mischief.

”go on. Touch it”

“Kyu?”

”Touuuch it!” Bowser Jr compelled his mouse impersonating minion as he held Mimikyu up towards the floating arm like item that had been disgorged from one of the loot boxes and promptly ignored /avoided by everyone since then. Kamek, who was watching this with interest casual, couldn’t blame them. It was quite the foolhardy individual who risked disfigurement by touching the gambling dispensed powerup, especially one that looked so weird and pixely. For all they know it could act like a weird mushroom and what a freakishly farcical fate that would be.

This was exactly why the boy was using his spooky companion as a labrat. Eventually after a bit more encouragement/insistence Mimikyu reached out a careful pitch black limb and touched the floating powerup with their hand. Upon making contact the powerup vanished, the glowing sprite like energy quickly being absorbed by the contact, and in a flash as Mimikyu’s arm shot forwards till it had doubled in length.

The Pokemon cocked its head sideways in confusion, and then proceed to unfurl the rest of its arm from within the dark void like interior. Mimikyu’s already disproportionately long arms could barely be called that anymore and instead resembled a tentacle nearly a dozen times longer than the creature it belonged to. It turned its now distant hand over a few time, trying to comprehend its new extra long limbs.

”Huh. So it was a long arms power up?” Jr said as he watched this ”That’s a really stupid powerup but hay it worked out pretty well for Mimikyu huh?”

”Quite absurd. I shudder to think what one of us would have ended like if we had picked that up. Still, this was an interesting thing to witness up close. I wonder how it compares to the absorption of an actual sprite?” Kamek commented thoughtfully

”I dunno” Jr said while shrugging before asking Mimikyu to ”Hay. Mimikyu. Do this!” before proceeding to do the wave.

Mimikyu stopped inspecting its limb for a moment, stared at their trainer’s strange dance move for a few moments before mimicking them, two long noodle limbs extending out on both sides and wriggling them about energetically like some kind of wacky wavy inflatable tube Pokemon and causing Jr to burst out laughing.

”pfffhahaha, Oh man these boxes were totally worth it”

HA. Yeah that's pretty good. Bowser agreed as he came over and picked up the little blue mushroom charm in order to pinned it to his hat. After that he scooped up the horse armor and dumping all the spare weapons into it.

Now let's move! he commanded them and the rest of the party who had assembled as he headed for the door, Jr and Kamek quickly moving to follow in his wake.

---

After stuffing the spare loot in the boot of the Bowser mobile the koopa troop and co made good time heading for their prey’s location in their monster truck. The drive covered the ground they’d spent half the day walking back and forth across in minutes. When they arrived at the Ancestral Steppe the troop was in high spirits as Bowser dismounted the monster truck and kamek and jr landed beside him. The smaller koopas had flown escort for their enormous motor vehicle which had been an easy task considering the only thing to challenge them had been small one eyed bats.

”Man even the stuff back at the castle was more dangerous than the minions attacking us at night here and Linkle basically handled them all herself.” jr said dismissively as they pulled a bat wing off the fishing spear they had been practicing fly fishing with and tossed it aside.

”Now now. Let’s not get complacent. We still have a ways to go.” Kamek said as he landed and joined the rest of the team in their ground based sneaking mission.

Jr dismissed this concern out of hand, but it slowly became clear that he might have been a touch premature with his judgment of their mission as the land around them grew more and more strange and twisted the further they went into the steppes. The fossilized crops made a stark contrast to the golden fields the troop had harvested only a short time and distance away and the eerie glowing crystals dotting it managed to be a far more disturbing sight than the single dead rat person they had stumbled across at the farm. The royals did their best to not look at the strange brain hurting color that emanated from the crystals while their mage could not help but glance at the color again and again as he tried to understand what could never be comprehended by mortal minds. All of them failed to look up, and this was probably for the best considering the state of the night sky.

Eventually however they reached the top and found their quarry, a purple scaled beast studded with a small number of crystals and leaking some kind of radioactive-green goop/snot.

”Is that it?” Jr whispered to Kamek, who he startled out of another attempt to understand the crystal. The magikoopa shook his head to regain his senses, then adjusted his glasses slightly and finally nodded in affirmation.

”I believe so”

Jr frowned while Bowser said that ”Bit small for a zone boss isn’t it?” Bowser said dismissively. Considering his standards for the position was a souped up version of himself it was always going to be tricky to find anything that the king felt could compare to their first major foe.

Their line of discussion was rudely and horrifically interrupted by the arrival of a living nightmare. The thing from beyond the stars burst from a mill atop the hill, alerted to their presence by goodness knows what, and let rip an unearthly scream that bypassed logic and ripped straight past reason and slammed directly into their hind-brain. Forget that both Kamek and jr had only recently seen and fought undead beasts or that the koopa troop employed reanimated skeletons and literal ghosts, the amalgamation of flesh, bone and crystal gripped at their hearts and pumped fear thought their bodies. Or at least that's what they thought it was if they tired to think about it all. The crystals' glow made it very hard to look at directly.

Bowser startled noisily backwards a few steps before regaining enough control of their legs to stop themselves from fleeing. Kamek simply stared, frozen on the spot, eyes devouring the unnatural light emanating from the beast. Jr ducked his head down in his clown car, which had been rolling along on it’s wheels, as if he had just been shot at.

The elder koopas broke out of their stunned silence when a second cry pierced the night, their eyes snapping to jr’s location as Mimikyu, who seemed entirely unaffected by the entire situation, had the ingenious idea of copying the Thing’s attack. The significantly smaller aoe failed to hit anything other than the party and then most where only bushed bu it lightly, except for jr upon whom the epicenter of the cry sat. The boy gripped both sides of his head, hunkered down completely in his car as he cried out in in fear and surprise.

”JR!” ”Young Master!” the boy’s two caretakers cried in alarm before rushing to his side instead of into the fray as the others where.

”Don’t” Jr gasped breathlessly as he waved a hand at Mimikyu who he had realized was the source of the second burst ”Don’t do that!”

“Kyu Kyu” specter said, tilting its false head slightly in confusion before a lengthy arm spooled out from under its disguise and went to pat the still hiding monarch on the head. The fact that he did not immediately bat it away showed just how shaken Jr was

”You ok?” ”Are you alright?” Bowser and Kamek asked, both equally concerned.

”I’m fine. I’m fine” Jr said unconvincingly, his breath slowly returning to him.

A Bowser tried to think of a way to comfort his son Geralt called his name. He glanced behind him and saw that battle had been joined, the others having recovered and then had engaged the enemy as soon as they were steady. Yet most were still hacking their way through the hordes of farmhands that had swarmed out of the fields in response to the eldritch cry. They would need the koopa’s aid if they where to get through this alive, or at least this Bowser firmly believed. Mostly due to self importance.

Bowser breathed in once, quickly and deeply, and then stood from where he had been crouching over jr. ”Son.” He said to still rather alarmed jr ”When something tries to frighten you, don't hide or fear, get Angry! Get MAD! Because how dare these weak, sniveling, pathetic things do this to you! HOW DARE THEY! RAAAAGH!” Bowser, having worked himself up into a rage, turned while roaring with fury and launched himself up into the air with a mighty leap towards the closest target, which happened to be the the Brachydios. Dark magic flowing into him as he flew, causing him to grow just as tall as the saurian in half a dozen heartbeats, before bringing his legs up and bowerbombing down onto the monster right as his jump arched above it.

”DIE!” he roared as he slammed down, emitting a flaming shock-wave in the processes.

”Your father’s right young master. These guys don't stand a chance against you! They're cowards using cheap tricks because they know they can't stand up to you in a straight fight” Kamek followed up his master's words with some good old fashioned coddling, which was tried and true method of getting the boy’s fighting spirit up and pumping.

”yeah… Yeah!” Jr replied, enthused if not back at 100%. He tried to glare at the monster only to flinch away from the blinding alien light it was producing. The boy wished he never had to see the thing again. Which by his father's logic meant he had to make sure it was destroyed as soon as possible. Jr grinned a little as he got an idea to do just that.

”Kamek? Do you still have that bomb?”

After a lightning fast bit of planning the Jr and Mimikyu ascended into the sky in the clown car, followed by five Kameks. They all flew up and over the horde of undead farmers, quickly overtaking those trying to hack their way through the lines. As they ascended jr deployed the splattershot, pumping a rain of ink at a high ark (so that he could shoot it without aiming at it) at the thing while Kamek retrieved the Black bomb he’d gotten from the creeper’s sprite from his robe and increased it in size by 50% using his magic. Each armed with their own bomb, the five Kameks spun in a full circle to build up momentum and lobbed the heavy explosives towards the thing from beyond the stars.

”Make way, bombs away!” Kamek yelled in warning to their allies who where fighting their way towards the thing.

As he did Jr undeployed the arms of his clowcar, activated the front facing cannon and slamming its fire button. A balloon was spat out from the cannon which rapidly inflated into a flaming homing clown head missile that roared down after the bombs, yet another attack that didn't invovle having to look at the awful thing.

With near perfect timing the shower of heavy unlit explosives thumped down right as the fireball struck them, instantly detonating the slow fused bombs all at once in a cluster bomb’s worth of explosions.

---

"A simple spear charge? Really? I've seen better," Donnie mocked as he jumped up and over the charging Acceptances with a front flip and landed on the back of one of the centaur-like pegasi, riding it like a horse against its will. It bucked and tried to force him off, but he managed to stay on. He charged his hands full of chi and his fists into its golden spine, one after another, shattering the gold that encased its back and revealing the nightmarish flesh within. He then jammed his right hand into the open wound and, in a first in this battle, slashed at it with his right handblade, cutting something important, before it managed to strike him in the face with the butt-end of its lance.

Donnie saw stars as the Acceptance finally bucked him off of it, sending him up into the air and crashing back to Earth, the Acceptance standing above him. It attempted a coup de grace with its lance, but Donnie managed to catch it in both hands as he cracked a smile and pushed it back.

While the Acceptance was preoccupied with this, Donnie kicked at its forelegs with a sweep, tripping it over. It babbled something in a language he didn't understand from the mouth in its chest. He understood the sentiment, though. Something something patience my child, something something divine fury. He'd heard it before, and from the mouth of something actually worth worshipping.

It had dropped its lance in the confusion, and Donnie was quick to pick it up. Their positions now reversed, he wasted no time jamming the lance all the way through its side, skewering it, before finishing it off with a chi-enhanced boot directly what passed for its face.

It sprayed blood from its open wound and disappeared into light. Its weapon, however, stayed.

So Donnie picked up the lance and hurled it like a javelin from an arm with quite a lot of chi dumped straight into it, hurling it at a speed not unlike a high-caliber bullet, straight at the Cachet he had wounded earlier, followed by running right for it with a Rising Sun Kick aimed directly to its already-wounded face. if it landed, he'd follow up with a ferocious combo of hand and leg strikes while watching out for that blade. Hopefully, this finally killed the golden nightmare. He was getting tired of dealing with these self-righteous horrors already.

Beneath the wheeling vault of heaven, a primeval terror gripped the assembled warriors. It threatened to petrify them, like the calcified husks now serving as mere vessels to the uncanny crystal, but they found the strength to move. The fear chilling their bones became electricity filling their veins, galvanizing them into action, and one after another the heroes leaped into the fight. At their backs, Mimikyu emulated the haunting cry of the Thing from the Stars, spurring them on even further. In defiance the Centurion filled the air with his voice, steeling his allies' courage, before charging.

When the farmhands closed in to attack him they were met with Agoston's fury and a fusillade of Linkle's arrows. Bolt, bomb, and blow alike pummeled them, but the radiance-filled husks proved as tough as the fossils they resembled. They fell back when assailed, with a couple unlucky ones falling to their foes' attacks, but those that still stood took a Rest from Labor to mend their damage while their untouched allies continued to hound the heroes. Meanwhile, those that did collapse started to crumple in on themselves, like turtles melting into their shells, and from the gray mounts larger crystal spires jutted upward. Once grown they started to pulse, the rhythm of each irregular but intensifying as the seconds passed.

Leaving both these crystalline aberrations and momentarily dealt-with farmhands in their wake, Agoston and Linkle fought their way to the Thing from the Stars while Kamek enacted his gambit. A cluster of bombs fell around the alien malignity, and after taking aim with his new weapon, Bowser Jr. unleashed a familiar ghostly clown head to seek the Thing and detonate, blowing up the bombs in the process. A bone-rattling series of explosions shook it, but when the smoke and fire subsided, the nightmarish thing remained upright. Linkle took the opportunity to pepper its repulsive hide with bolts, only letting off when the Centurion drew near enough to dare to take a swing at its lidless, leering face.

Its mouth yawned open, the color of madness within. A Transfixing Shard of crystal surged outward to strike Agoston, the range making evasion nigh-impossible. Its slackening touch sapped the strength from his muscles, decreasing speed and damage, but the next moment the crystal went soft and translucent, becoming a viscous, clear liquid that dripped into the ground. A moment later, Peach arrived, boomshot in hand. She took aim, albeit a bit hastily thanks to her nerves, and let loose a thunderous shotgun blast across the Thing's body.

The heroes' explosive attacks clearly did a number on the thing. Bleeding and mangled, it looked almost half-gone already. Yet, with wretched eyes seemingly unfazed, the Thing proceeded to start the next round of combat. It spread wide its horrid limbs as the color of madness surged, dancing lightning-like across its body. With incredible speed and precision the lightning arced across all nearby combatants, tickling them with an incoherent terror before it leaped upward to Return to the Stars. Something fell from its body, turning into another crystalline aberration, and something about the Thing changed. Its odious bulk hardened, a gleam like the twinkle of far-off suns in its very flesh.



Behind the embattled heroes, Tora and Poppi fought through their leftovers to join them in their fight against the Thing from the Stars. Using his partner's mech arms, Tora beat back the farmhands with punch after fiery punch. They swung their farming implements again and again, a few of the nasty blows getting past the Nopon's guard. “Masterpon!” Poppi alerted him, using her ether to shield against what would have otherwise been a heavy blow to the head. “Too many mooks, we wasting time!” She glanced, eyes wide, as their comrades took a jolt of otherworldly electricity. “Friends need us!”

Tora cracked a farmhand in the knee, bending it sideways, but the monster still swung its shovel. He thrust his gauntlets out to block, the tool shattering against them, and Tora pushed the grumbling husk away. “Am trying!” Turning halfway, he opened one arm to unleash a salvo of mini-missiles into the crowd. They did some damage all around, but most notably destroyed one of the crystalline aberrations. Thinking nothing of it, Tora turned to disengage and join the others, only for another aberration right next to him to blow up. The force hit him first, bowling him over, and after followed a vile, hollow keening. “Guh! Meeeeh!” he cried, clamping his wings over his ears. “Color in eyes! Hurts bad! Burns!” Panicking, Poppi picked him up and set him on his feet, half-watching the farmhands the whole time.



After another moment Tora shook and cleared his head, bleary but still capable. He hurried to join his allies, rushing with Poppi to the front of the group to defend them. As if on cue, the Thing from the Stars lurched forward, a hideous tubular length extending from its maw to latch on to Tora like a colossal leech. It bulled straight through his guard and sank blighted teeth into his head, both poisoning the Nopon and jolting his confidence.



Mercifully, the remaining farmhands did not pursue the heroes and join the fight. The nearby crystalline aberration, however, started to pulse.

At the same time, the other half of the heroic retinue engaged the more worldly, yet no less menacing foe. After warning his comrades, the Ace Cadet forged toward the Brachydios, only to be waylaid by a few farmhands. He struck at them with both shield and sword, defending against their attempts to crush his bones with swung farming tools, and after a moment managed to push them off. Geralt joined him the next moment, passing off a grapeshot bomb before calling Bowser. The King of Koopas obliged, running at the Brachydios as he grew in size. While it had hesitated for a moment, unsure of the greater danger, the blue-scaled monster finally identified it as Bowser and tensed its muscles to attack.

Bowser propelled himself into the air for a colossal drop attack, a crushing weight strong enough to decimate entire buildings, but the Brachydios was no fool. An apex predator driven by primal cunning and killer instincts, it knew when to attack and when to evade. It halted its charge short and leaped out of the way of the Bowser Bomb, allowing the oversized turtle to sink himself a few feet in the soft, tainted soil instead. A wave of fire spread out in all directions, totally catching the Brachydios by surprise but doing almost no damage to it, while Bowser's allies would need to contend with it themselves. Snarling, the beast pulled its arms through its mouth, activating the slime with its saliva. Then it closed in.

Using its arms like slime-covered boxing gloves, it swung from the right at the enlarged Bowser's head. A hook from the left, brutally powerful, followed suit, and the Brachydios ended by bashing its own head into that of his nemesis. Using such an easily-telegraphed, high-recovery assault was proving to be a grave error—not just for the saurian pummeling, but what came after. The slime left over from the monster's strikes started to change color, turning from bright green to snot yellow. After finishing, the Brachydios stepped back to a neutral distance to ready itself for the next exchange. Geralt, the Cadet, and Euden, having not attacked it so far or gotten too close, were not yet targets.



Nero glanced back at Blazermate, her request for help with the parasites stopping him on his way to the RCPD's front door. At the survivors' urging V had already gone inside, leaving the devil hunter overextended, which Nero didn't look too pleased about. “Look, they're just going to keep coming, and you can find more zombies. Just get in here!” If they weren't already mopping up and on their way, Ratchet, Daxter, and Gene couldn't say they didn't get the memo now. After beckoning one more time, Nero turned and hustled in. A few moments later the police station's doors were closed, barred, and deadbolted. A final volley of shots from the windows sent the remaining Lost and Flood on their way, leaving the heroes a moment of peace.

It wasn't a full ten seconds before the newcomers, surrounded on all sides by new faces, found themselves greeted by an imposing man with broad shoulders and gray hair. As he saw them, his stern, battle-ready expression turned into one of gruff appreciation. “Ah. Came as quick as I could when I heard there were more survivors, and here you are. Is that everyone?”

The thin, red-eyed swordsman who'd come to assist in the fight against the Riots spoke up. “No, there were more. Two men and a bear with a bird on his back.”

At the mention of an animal duo, the resident anthropomorphic fox batted an eye. “Oh, that's gotta be Banjo and Kazooie. We met recently. Good to see a familiar face, eh?” He drew curious looks from both Nero and V, and took them as a prompt for more explanation. “I'm Fox. Fox McCloud? Maybe they mentioned me? Eh, probably not. Did you see where they went, uh...?” His mouth hung open for a moment, the name of his fellow survivor evidently escaping him.

“Louis,” the swordsman filled him in. “And yes, they went up to the roof. Didn't get a good chance to see what was up there, but there was more fighting.”

The realization brought an aghast look from the shotgun-wielding man. “What?! And you're jus' lettin' 'em fight up there? We oughta back 'em up!” Without further ado, Ghalt took off at a run for the nearest staircase.

For a moment it looked like the old policeman was going to stop him, but he just shrugged. “Already sent someone, but the more the merrier, huh?” He crossed his arms and sized up the newcomers. “Well, I'm Max Howard. Most people here call me Captain. Welcome to our little prolonging-the-inevitable operation.” He gave a dry chuckle that hung in the air like a stormcloud. In the silence that followed, the general mood became easy to glean: spirits were not high. From the designated fighters like Leon and Fox to the civilians like the suited man hunkered along the edges of the central hallway, nobody looked anything but bleak and despondent save those trying to put on a brave face.

Looking around as if he could find an answer on the wall somewhere, Nero put up his hands in bemusement after a moment. “So, are you gonna tell us what's been going on?”

Max nodded, his expression grave. “We've been holed up here for a long time. Several times a day we're attacked in waves, trapping us inside. At first it was just normal zombies, but now there's all sorts of monsters. Even worse is this darkness.” He gestured out the window at the oppressive black, far heavier and inkier than any yet encountered by the heroes—and puzzlingly absent when they came. Max continued. “More survivors arrive from time to time, and a couple try to get away, but we can't get out. There's no chance of getting everyone out alive. Our supplies are low, and any onslaught could be our last.” Another laugh. “Heh, that's about the shape of it. Not great, but we're holding on.”

For a few moments now, V had been staring out into the pitch dark. The gears in his mysterious head were turning, ruminating on something within the night. At length, he remarked, “...Those shadows are indeed not natural. They're here because of something. Something lingering, malignant.” Leaning on his cane, he turned to look the police captain in the face. “There's something out there.”

Max looked nonplussed. “Er...yeah, there's a whole lot of somethings out there.”

The misunderstanding evoked a tortured looked from V. “I do not mean the waste and the demons. I refer to something...different.” He scraped his cane on the floor, and from beneath him Shadow bubbled into being. Some of those around him tensed or jumped at the demon's appearance, but the big cat ignored them. With flattened ears, it glanced in the direction of a radio on the reception desk. Walking toward it, V declared, “This station...is being haunted.”

---

Though their charge made for a dazzling display, the angels clearly underestimated their opposition. Barely had they begun their attack before a new arrival popped onto the roof, staff in hand, and after a few words started to charge a spell. That left the others to deal with the assault on their own, but they proved more than capable. Donnie deftly avoided their formation by taking to the air, engaging one Acceptance personally in a wild struggle for dominance that ended with a shot to the angel's vitals and the martial artist on the ground. If not for his quick reflexes he would have been skewered then and there, but Donnie managed to intercept the Acceptance's lance, trip it up, and then impale it with its own weapon.

Ms Fortune, having been harrying the other angels with the fire support of both Jak's eco and Kazooie's eggs, spotted the Black Mage's spell reaching a fever pitch and rushed to dive backward. The next second a swath of lightning electrocuted the Catchet and remaining Acceptance, rattling their facades and sending up smoke from twisted crimson flesh. Before the flier could recover, its departed ally's lance clipped a wing, tearing out a few golden feathers and seizing its attention. Turning to face its attacker, the Catchet received a full-force Rising Sun Kick that blackened its eyes and stirred its wrath. From its undercarriage its drill popped out to gore Donnie straight through the middle, but the monk swerved to evade the whirling lance as he landed strike after strike, culminating in a punch that sent the Catchet spiraling into the emergency beacon. It reeled for a moment longer before dissolving into light, leaving the beacon to spin crazily.

The last Acceptance turned on Ms Fortune. It charged forward, thrusting its lance at her face only for the Feral to smile wickedly. “I'm one step ahead!” Her head popped right off, flapping her ears to soar over the lance, and fell on the Acceptance's own chest-face. Taken by surprise, it could only bellow as she started biting it. “Omnomnomnomnom!” Her body, not one to be outdone, dove and slid beneath. She detached her forearms and legs, using the muscle fibers to wrap up the angel's legs and tie them together. After dropping to the ground, she spotted what she was up to, and her eyes lit up with mischief. “A purrfect plaything!” She commanded her blood vessels to burst, and her body flew apart, its pieces zipping around like bloody rockets. Their attached fibers pulled the angel's legs out from under it, making it fall. The Acceptance groaned while Fortune laughed. “Remember, remember...” Retracting their fibers, her parts converged on the angel's chest-face along with her head. “The fifth of DISMEMBER!” Slamming together, she recombined in a burst of high-pressure blood, blowing the angel's torso clean off.

Standing up, Ms. Fortune stretched herself. “Now that was fun!” she smiled at the newcomers. “You bunch can help meowt anytime!” At that moment, a punk-rocker with an axe barged through the door, almost tripping over Black Mage.

The other woman, the one also wielding an axe, looked downright furious. “Really? That's when reinforcements appear? I swear, I'm gonna...”

“Hey, hey,” the new arrival said, holding up his hands placatingly. “Save it for the boss. Let's get inside before more show up.” Opening the door, he ushered everyone in.

---

The air following V's pronouncement grew silent, and -unless it was just the imagination- chilly. Nobody knew quite what to say, so V sighed and turned on the radio. The moment the sound came on, a man could be heard speaking in a serious, pleading voice.

”All of you please listen...when you've done unkind things to others...either to family or friends...when you badly hurt those who are kind to you...when you commit crimes and cause others disturbances...the karma will be facing you when you pass away...once the karma is done with you you'll be reborn as a ghost...drawn and wandered to all the places where you once sinned...list in the eternal limbo...”

“All of you may be aware of the screams which can be heard in the distance at nightfall...the sound made by a creature with a mouth as small as a pinhole...unable to feast...unable to gulp...it wanders around aimlessly and hungrily...full of pain as if it's being tortured...the moral here is to not cause anybody pain or hardship...because that is where you'll end up...once the wheel of karma has turned...what you do comes back to bite you...what goes around...comes around...”

After this the audio looped, and after a moment's stunned silence, a dozen voices erupted into speech at once. The hubbub persisted for a few moments, Max trying to shout over the din to restore order, before Nero drew the Blue Rose and fired upward. His revolver's boom shut everyone up in an instant, drawing all eyes to him, and he addressed V. “So what, you're a ghost whisperer now? Huh, like demons weren't enough. Well, what do we do?”

The mysterious one shook his head. “I know not. I have had no dealings with ghosts...I can merely sense dark energy. If you want to know more, I suggest looking around. Whatever it is haunting this place must have left a mark.”

Max cut in with a more practical consideration. “Sounds fun, but we've got people sick, wounded. If you want to help, you should be looking for secret passages. There's rumors that this place has some kind of hidden exit but we haven't found anything, so be my guest.” People, recovering from the intrigue of new arrivals and the mention of ghosts, were starting to disperse. From the direction of the stairs, Ghalt and Eddie Riggs could be seen approaching along with the heroes that attended to the roof fight. What the new arrivals would do next remained up in the air, but whether it be for traces of a ghost or secret passageways, there seemed to be a search in store for anyone with a mind to help the survivors of the RCPD.

Bowser’s rash action immediately bit him in the ass as the monster dodged away from his butt stomp. Instead of crushing their foe he instead found himself planted in the dirt like some oversized scaly potato. One that was about to become a punching bag.

”OH CR...” Bowser began to say as he realized his predicament, but was cut off by a slime coated right hook hammering directly into his face, impacting with both a splat and a crunch.

Bowser watched in slow motion as one of his teeth fly through the air before it struck a left hook from the beast. ”...UD” Bowser finished before being struck again. He didn't even see the third attack as the monster headbutted him in the face with enough force to free him from the hole and send him sprawling backwards till he fell onto his back.

Bowser face was left a battered bloody slime drenched mess and his head was spinning but the monster backed off instead of moving in to take advantage of his stunned state. Bowser could not think as to why, he couldn't think of much at all with how his head was pounding and face was bleeding, and was instead simply relieved that the beating was over.

He sat up and then shook his head violently to try and clear both the minor concussion and to try and shake off the goop. It was sticky stuff however and much of it refused to budge.

”UGGGG. THIS IS DISGUSTING” he complained as he tried to scrape it off with his hands, amassing a load of the gradually reddening goo on his claws before shaking them off, splattering the slime around himself.

The king was not left alone to feel miserable however, as the calcified farmers attempted to strike the one who had dared to bypass their gauntlet of farming implements. Unfortunately said farming implements where of little use against the massive armored reptile, clanging off his shell and scales. They inflicted little noticeable harm or at least nothing comparable to the beating Bowser had just received. Instead of harming him one unfortunate farmhand found themselves grabbed by a large claw and used as a face towel, with Bowser using the ragged cloth on the farmhand’s back to wipe away a lot of the rest of the goop before tossing them aside.

Now that it was more visible it could be seen that the king's face was a mess of bruises, swellings, broken scales, chipped teeth, blood and a few spots of slime now indistinguishable from that blood. It was also twisted into a mask of vengeful rage.

Long orange blades extended from bowers right hand as the mecha mit fired up and mechanical arms ending boxing gloves deployed from his hat as Bowser activated his weapons.

”I’M GOING TO TEAR YOU APART!” he growled at the Brachydios before taking one step towards it. And then the goo exploded.

---

Meanwhile Jr and Kamek had far better luck with their fist strike. Or so they thought. Fire and death engulf the thing that had not even tried to avoid their attack as if the idea that things born beneath the stars could ever harm it didn’t even ross its mind. Yet as the smoke cleared and they could see it remained standing it seemed like maybe it had every right to be unconcerned by their attacks. The Koopas’ allies didn’t let this phase them however and instead bravely raced in to attack, Linkle and Peach peppering it with bolts and pellets while the centurion got in close and personal with his sword.

The legionary got a face full of crystal for his efforts but through their combined efforts, it seemed like the battle might actually almost be over, as to Jr it seemed like the thing was both badly wounded and unable to deal with so many of them at once. Then everything changed as lightning surged from its body and lanced out to strike their ground based allies. Kamek and Jr momentary thought themselves safe as they so often where in the sky, but then the lighting arched upwards, racing towards the stars above and zapping the wizard and prince quite a bit harder than it had those below.

It didn't actually damage them, the fact that Kamek’s clones where still about proved that, but it was terrifying to experience nonetheless, though Mimikyu once again remained unaffected. It had yet to occur to either of them to think about why this was. As Jr and Kamek felt their hearts racing in their chests and their confidence frey things got worse for those blow. Mainly for Torra, as the hamster and his robo companion had gotten bogged down in the farmhands. Still they managed to take a few down as they fought on until one of the bodies of the slain farmhands finished compacting into itself and exploded, doing more than just physical damage as the Tora proceeded to freak out about the light it emitted upon detonating.

Kamek watched this from above and quickly assess the threat the corpses of their foes presented. He also noted that the ones that had been blasted earlier by Poppi did not detonate, their conversion from corpse to bomb interrupted seemingly halted by damage.

”Destroy the bodies before they explode!” he called out before blasting the aberration spawned by the Thing as it had used return to the stars using his wand, causing 5 sets of colored shapes to bombard the crystal.

As he did this Rora’s run of foul luck continued as he managed to escape from the horde, which seemed happy to mostly act as a wall standing between the two groups for the moment, only to run right into the waiting maw of the Thing From Beyond The Stars. Like a leech it gripped onto tora with a disgusting anemone like tongue that was thick as a tree trunk. It was horrible, it probably hurt like hell and it also meant the arbitration was stuck in place was it tried to devour Tora.

”Kamek! We’re ending this!” Jr shouted as he pulled one of the fire axes, which he had taken from his father’s car’s loot boot once it was clear no one else would, from his clown car’s hammer space compartment and brandished it.

”I’ll take its head, so make this big enough!” he commanded as he flew to a spot above the thing.

Kamke nodded and directed his wand towards the axe as he chanted:

”Look out wretched thing,
as pain this spell will bring.
For the prince's justice,
surely won’t be bloodless.”

Jr slammed the car into a rapid descent while Mimikyu clung to him with their tentacle arms and swung the axe as Kamke’s magic took hold, causing it to increase in size from large to almost comically oversized in his hands. When it hit Jr was more following its decent than they were swinging. The large metal blade struck hard, but as the handle splintered and shattered in Jr’s hand it was clear that something has changed, for the monsters flesh was now bolstered by a new kind of strange otherworldly light.

The battle, Jr suddenly realized as he put himself right in the line of fire with his supposed finishing move, was in fact far from over.

"Thanks," Cadet said quickly, taking the grapeshot Geralt offered him. He ducked out of the way of the reaching arm of a husked farmhand as he loaded it into the slinger. Although it was of unfamiliar make, Cadet could easily tell what it was: an explosive. A bomb of this size would do very little if any damage to the Brachydios' hide, but it would come in handy in other ways - and soon. When the Witcher asked how to kill the monster, the Cadet couldn't help but bark out a short laugh even in the tense situation (or maybe because of it). Just like every other monster he knew, the tried and true method was "hit it until it dies," but, that's definitely not the information the other man was looking for.

"Attacking it's legs might make it fall, and it's head and arms get really weak when they're damaged or broken!" He paused to bash another husk with his shield, sending it toppling into a few others of it's kind. "'Course, that's where all it's slime is, so!" Truly, the Brachydios was a dangerous beast. Feeding info to Geralt was a little surreal for Cadet, as while he was well used to fighting alongside white-haired veterans, it was usually himself that was asking the questions. That thought brought a little cheeky grin to his face, but before he could think of anything else to say about the monster in front of them, a 'monster' of sorts came flying from behind.

The sight of the massive Bowser soaring through the air and becoming even more massive as he did so was quite the experience. Ace Cadet would have whooped in excitement if there weren't a sudden blast of flames headed his way. He brought his arms up in time to avoid getting burned, but his fancy new gauntlets and the edges of his armor were singed.

"Hey! Cadet shouted. Even if fire like that wouldn't kill him, a little warning would have been nice. As he shook off the embers he had a mind to tell the Koopa King exactly that, but when he looked over what he saw was a bruised face (and likely ego) surrounded by the Brachydios' volatile slime. "Hey! The slime - !"

Boom! Well, he warned them. He hoped that since apparently Bowser had some kind of flame-element to him, the explosions would do less damage to him than the Brute Wyvern's pummeling did. Still, just a quick glance between the two giants and he could tell the Brachydios was gearing up for round two with the King. With a slight nod to Geralt and Euden, Ace Cadet announced, "I'm gonna draw it's attention!"

He took off toward the monster's flank, trying to avoid the husks as not to slow down, but cutting his way through any that got too close. Hopefully if he could distract it, it would give Bowser time to regroup and the other two an opening to close in on it's weak points. Once close enough, the Cadet aimed the slinger on his arm and fired off the grapeshot the Witcher had given him, launching the thing at the Brachydios' face.

@Stekkmen@Lugubrious@DracoLunaris

---

Linkle had to cover her ears from the sound of the koopa karpetbombing. She was kind of surprised someone else knew "make my bombs really big" spell she sometimes found while running around the battlefield back home. As she looked up to see the results she shuttered as the Things lightning arched through her body, a quake of revolting horror so strong it effectively paralyzed her and halted all her momentum. It was lucky none of the farmhands they'd cut their way past had followed them up to capitalize.

When she shook it off she saw that the thing had extended what looked like its own throat and was grasped on to...what, was that like an big onion or somet-it was Tora. It was Tora!

She immediately started spraying arrows at that fleshy protrusion, which was a weak point if she'd ever seen one. "Stop making me feel things and stop eating my friend!" She sprayed for all the good her arrows would do against the things hardened skin.

That when she heard the call to action from the grandfather koopa. She stopped her assault momentarily, looking around at the crystal spires that had sprung up both from the thing and the corpses of the farmhands. They shuttered themselves with that eerie light. Earlier she'd heard something shatter like glass, the Tora screaming about that awful color being in his eyes.

She didn't want to know what that meant.

"Agoston, chop that tube!" She called to the centurion before turning to the aberrations. Luckily for her, she had the perfect thing for dealing with big rocks. She ran up to the nearest one and tossed a flurry of bombs at the crystal spire. If that broke she'd move on to the next one, and the next, until she'd gotten every one she could see. If there was a hazard on the battlefield you got rid of it so you could fight your enemies if peace.

---

The ride out of Lumbridge was, fortunately, uneventful. The two spent their time mostly staring at the strange wildlife and scenery that the Land of Adventure had to offer. (Baba, meanwhile, had been strapped into one of the truck's empty seats for safekeeping). Other than a village of what looked to be humanoid pigs, there wasn't much on the trail besides trees and wildlife. There were probably plenty of quests that they could still embark on, but those were unimportant compared to their main goal. They were after the big target now- one of Galeem's lieutenants. The two could only hope that it was a bit less difficult than the fight against Megadragonbowser. But despite their hopes, the two looked between each other with a serious look. Most likely, this fight was going to be harder, and the next fight was going to be even harder. They would have to be ready for intense fighting, more intense than anything before.

As the monster truck continued on, the scenery around them began to change, the sky taking on a strange appearance as constellations and planets started to appear where there was once none. The two looked out the windows, before turning back to each other, each nodding as to affirm that they had seen the same thing. "Be careful...something's up with this place." Michael's point was illustrated as they began to come upon giant tracks, no doubt of the beast they were out to kill. They began to pass through what seemed to be abandoned farmland, dotted with shapes that might be corpses, the sight not bringing any comfort to the two.

Finally, the truck stopped, and the two criminals piled out, Michael taking a second to look back at Baba, still strapped into one of the truck's seats. "Stay here. We'll be back soon." As he stepped out, Michael unslung the hefty sniper rifle off his back, taking a moment to pull the bolt back and chamber a round. "Big game hunting..." He muttered to himself, looking over to Franklin. They still hadn't found a better weapon for him- his nine-millimeter pistol would only annoy any large beast, although the plasma pistol could possibly do some damage. "Hey, unless you got a good shot, save your ammo. That plasma pistol's probably your only chance of hurting whatever we're fighting, so don't waste it."

Franklin gave him a nod. "Yeah, don't worry. I got this." He took a moment to take out the stealth outfit he had gotten from the lootbox earlier, placing it over his head and activating the night-vision goggles. They would help him see, and the outfit would hopefully make him harder to spot in the dark. "Might be able to use this to sneak up on it, and get a shot in like that."

"Good idea. Here, take this, if you're gonna be closer up." He reached down to his belt, taking out Needles' machete and handing it to him. Franklin simply gave him another nod, placing the machete into his own belt. The two continued forward, towards a medieval-looking fort. As they approached, they noticed a number of strange crystals. As soon as they looked towards them, they began to look away, something of a headache coming over them. Whatever they were, they simply hurt to even look at. They continued marching forwards with the rest of the group, but with a new sense of unease coming over them. What the hell were they going up against?

---

As they entered the fort, what could only be their target appeared, some form of massive beast. Off to the side, though, it became clear that it was not their only enemy. Amongst the houses, what looked like zombified medieval peasants lingered about. But they were nothing compared to what would soon emerge. Something was clearly trapped inside one of the buildings, and soon it broke through. The two could feel their heart rates increase as it emerged, and Michael gripped his rifle tight. There was something about the thing that made some primordial part of Michael demand that it was destroyed, and destroyed completely. The thing's cries seemed to anger the other monster, and the fight had begun.

The two stood there for a few moments, almost dumbfounded, while the rest of the group moved in to attack. After the initial shock wore off, though, the two were quick to get to work. Michael kneeled down where he stood, a decent enough distance away from the enemies, and shouldered his rifle. He turned his attention towards the Thing first, aiming down his scope as he looked for a weak point to target. He settled on the mass of crystals on its back, holding his breath and pulling the trigger, sending a .50 caliber round towards them.

Franklin, meanwhile, decided to attack the Thing as well, following behind the Centurion, but moving quietly and trying to stay in the shadows. As he got closer, the Thing extended some sort of tube from one of it's faces and bit down on Tora, something that he couldn't allow to happen. Taking out Needles' machete, he lined up his arm and threw it at the tube-like mouth, aiming to cut the thing off.