@Lugubrious

Doom Slayer

Level 1 Doom Slayer
Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: 220

The Slayer had made his way over towards the large creature, the tendrils shooting towards him was a problem. Rolling to the side to try and avoid the tendrils coming at him, he successfully rolled out of the way. Pulling out his combat shotgun firing at the tendrils, he was hoping to shot it off and move closer towards the dragon. This was a situation he was glad to be apart of, it reminded him of when he fought the Spider Mastermind.

Firing off shots at the tendrils and at the other demons. The splatter of blood staining his armor, but he didn't mind. Tearing off the limbs of the lesser demons, he wondered what strange land he had been placed in. The presence of a cat human hybrid seemed very strange to him, he wondered if she was a demon as well. Switching between his pistol to dispatch the demons surrounding the group, using his meat hook to bring and decapitate some of the demons.

He hoped to lower the numbers of demons, but in the back of his mind he should change his strategy. Turning around towards the dragon, starting to fire at the large demon with his shotgun.

Awareness flared back to Bowser while he was flying up in the air from Banjo’s throw. He awoke right in time for the explosive reckoning of the End’s, well, end to rock the tower. Naturally, Bowser took credit, assuming it was his own ploy that had caused the devastation, ”GAHAHAHAHA, I’M A GENIUS!” only for him to then realize it was raining down on him, ”OH NO!”

Mortar and brickwork pummeled the king as he reached the arch of Banjo’s throw. He vanished into a cloud of dust, only to burst out of it once more riding Carrie the Trowlon like a hoverboard. Together the king, hatless and catless, and his flying steed rapidly ascended the outside of the tower despite the fact that all but one of its occupants vacated the lofty vantagepoint.

Down below, the toadies, free of trophified heroes to retrieve and with their master still hunkered down in the branches of a giant tree that Peach was using for cover, were left to follow whatever instructions they felt like, even their own. To that end, one heeded the Ace’s command and flew to snatch the slowly drifting spirit of Quiet from the air, bringing it back down to the tree as instructed (though if desired a hero could call it over to claim the spirit from elsewhere on the battlefield).

The other two went and grabbed the Bowser’s trophified hat and raced skywards to return the Koopa King’s property to him.

Finally, Jr, who had been sneaking with Geralt inside the zombie horde with his nose wrinkled the whole time, watched as the Witcher dropped any pretence of stealth and made a mad dash the rest of the way up the hill in response to the explosion Donnie’s wizard looking striker had set off with their lightning bolt. He also watched as his father got revived and began to soar up the tower unmolested on the back of the towel looking striker he’d captured from the subspace army.

Stealth being 100% not Jr’s style he was more than happy to follow both of their leads, the propeller on his clown car deploying and carrying him up and away from the spiral ramp and gross zombies, as well as using the chaos created by the explosion to call out ”Mimikyu, where are you?” without fear of being titan arrowed

“Kyu Kyu Kyu!” came a call from inside the entrance of the tower, which had rapidly filled up with people since Jr had last seen it during his falid accent. Most were friendly with the only expedition being the red eyed Link who jr vaguely knew was quite the fighter (he was considered tough enough to be on the cliff face along with the mushroom kingdom’s toughest after all). Not that calculations over whether the blue clad hero was sufficiently outnumbered really had any impact on Jr’s decision making process. His pappa was going up, so Jr was going up. If Jr was going up, so was Mimikyu.

Jr grabbed the creature's pokeball from the bandolier on his chest, pointed it her way and called out, ”Mimikyu, return!” causing a beam of translucent red light to lance out and strike her. The pokemon instantly converted into that same translucent red energy, which then raced back to the pokeball to be stored inside it, with all of this taking only a few seconds. With her safely back with him, Jr cracked open the ball again, causing the small robotic mouse ghost fairy to appear on his shoulder in a flash of light. She quickly nuzzled his cheek, the experience equal parts soft and uncomfortable thanks to the metal jaw her fake head now sported, as the pair ascended after Bowser.

Meanwhile, Donnie woke up with a start. One second he was fishing for a gunpowder charge, next he was at the bottom of the mountain, staring a concerned Linkle in the face. Did he get petrified? Looked like it. And Gough tossed him down the mountain to boot! He flexed his arm experimentally, making sure nothing was broken and testing his range of movement in case his Trophy was damaged in the fall.

“Thanks, for the save, Linkle.” he said. “Now, I’ve got a giant to slay. Good luck on the rest of them.”

With that, he tried to perform the summon spell to recall the Luggage, but nothing happened. “Wait, no, this isn’t--oh, the Disc’s atop the tower, isn’t it?” He facepalmed, got up, and began walking towards the tower. This hadn’t exactly happened before, maybe if he desummoned it first? He tried to reach his mind outwards, focusing on the enchantment on the Madman’s Luggage. He should be able to detect its magic even from here, it had some potent spells woven into it. He reached, reached, reached...and it was out of range. He put his hands on his hips and looked up at the tower, wondering if he should brave its interior. He’d have to invest in a good backpack and a set of pouches next time. This just wouldn’t do.

An ally’s voice called out from behind.

”Hey!” The Ace Cadet had made it up the mountain path easily - thanks to the explosion at the top of the tower rocking the snipers out of their perch and throwing the enemies into disarray. It seemed like he wasn’t the only one just arriving either. Blazermate making an extended maneuver to dodge the debris, not wanting to waste her uber on it, was with him - as well as a smaller passenger in Cuphead. Cadet set the little guy down and approached the tower’s base. The pieces of the structure that were knocked loose made for holes perfect for catching his slinger on.

”You going up? Need a lift?” he asked Donnie, getting the grappling hook on his arm ready for an ascent. Three of them might be heavy, but he hoped it was nothing the slinger couldn’t haul up.

“Yeah. My stuff’s up there and I’m out of range to summon it back.” Donnie replied in an annoyed tone. Not to indicate that he was annoyed at Ace Cadet, just annoyed at life in general, really. Something the hunter could understand. ”Welp, hold on and I’ll get us up there quick!”

While he ascended atop Carrie, the Trowlon’s flight perhaps the quietest form of movement Bowser had ever used, Bowser took advantage of the ability it provided for him to stand still while also moving, allowing him to charge up a breath attack without vulnerably sitting still in front of his foe. The king cleared the lip of the tower’s battlements, bent down and unleashed a gout of flame while at the same time as he grabbed the side of the Trowlon and pulled it up, tilting the flying carpet slightly so that it veered to the side slightly in an evasive action.

Fire washed over the tower’s top, which would have been very effective if there had been anyone left other than Gough. As it was the king’s flames washed forth as he continued to climb atop his towley steed, fire blasting out and licking at the giant’s body, thach looking decorated armor and wooden weapon. Bowser made his presence known in grandiose style, and likewise a grand arrow caught him almost immediately. Still, even as his trophy fell from Carrie, his flames ignited Gough’s gear. Silent, the giant began to burn, but he knew that Bowser’s friends would be right on his heels, an assessment that held true as jr finished his climb just in time to see Carrie dissipate and Bowser’s trophy clink to the floor. The prince and pokemon both growled at the titan, ready to brawl.

Even though the Cadet’s slinger wasn’t long enough to get to the top of the tower in one shot, the ascent wasn’t slow going by any means. As soon as the claw gripped stone, the cable was reeled in and it hoisted the trio up… and up and up until the device caught the edge of the tower’s top level. The Medabot and two armored men, one ornate and one scaled, climbed over the side and were met with the prince and his father’s trophy - and the giant archer. He was intimidating, but it also seemed like he wasn’t in top shape.

Gough fired, aiming between his assailants. While it wouldn’t take an extensive dodge from either to escape it, the giant banked on the intimidation factor of the lance-sized arrow to scatter his opponents, maybe to the extent that one or both tangled with a nearby precipice.

Cadet evaded to his right, hopping out of the giant arrow's path with much more gusto than caution. He wasn't worried about a fall; as long as he had the slinger, getting back up wouldn't be much of a problem, though it would be pretty annoying - and probably painful - to be flung all the way back down. Perhaps it was his lack of fear that kept him moving even as loose stones fell away under his feet at the tower's edge. Below, he'd been playing support, but now the hunter was on the move toward the sniper. Cadet brandished not his sword but the spirit of the greap from the canyon, crushing the glowing object in his fist. The best defense is a good offense!

The spirit resonated with him, and from its gleam manifested a long sword in the shape of a scythe. The young man's eyes lit up in delight. Getting new equipment was so exciting, even in a situation like this. As the weapon's weight settled in his hands he judged it to be a longsword, and after a brief moment to adjust to a proper grip Cadet continued his charge.

Jr jerked the controls of his clown car upwards and ascended yet further with Blazermate, gaining the high ground over their foe and staying out of the way of the two armored warriors that had come to back him up. As soon as he was free of the splash zone he whispered brief instructions to Mimikyu, causing her to jump off his shoulder and out into the open air. The ghost, light as a cloud, drifted through the air and then landed gently atop the golden base of Bowser’s trophy. As soon as she landed, she grabbed one of the king’s outstretched frozen arms with her own long noodle arms and used this to launch herself skywards away from Bowser.

While Mimikyu fell Bowser Jr pushed a button on the clown car’s controle, causing its mouth to pop open and a cannon to slide out of it. From this it launched a balloon, which quickly inflated into the sweet tooth’s flaming clown head attack and raced towards the giant.

Gough could only judge the incoming projectile by its sound, but the roar of fire and haunting scream brought to mind the pyromancies of his world, and he knew that the demon flames raged against whatever stood in their way. He hurled a handful of carved stones in the direction of the floating bomb, but underestimated its blast radius. BOOM! The detonation struck him with blistering force, pushing him a few steps back toward the tower’s edge. Also caught in the blast was the Cadet, eager to test out his new sword he hadn't been paying the closest attention to the actions of his comrades. A rookie mistake, but can't blame a guy when he's still operating outside the realm of his experience, right? The force of the explosion pushed the hunter forward. Once he recovered, shaking his head lightly to clear it, he found himself face to face with the massive archer. Or as face to face as one could be with the difference in their sizes. Ace Cadet's eyes flickered between several points in the giant's body and his great bow, the thought of which would make for a better target crossing his mind before be ultimately made his decision: he took one step back to ground himself before swinging the scythe blade forward in a wide horizontal slash at the giant's legs.

Making no move, Gough allowed the sharp blade to strike his armor. The scythe stopped cold, bouncing off the metal with a ting, its cutting power completely useless against protective gear designed specifically to counter bladed weapons.

Donnie, meanwhile, had expected Gough to attempt an ambush by firing at them the moment they ascended the tower. It was a simple matter dodge to the left, avoiding the projectile entirely. He wisely stayed back when he noticed Jr shooting a fireball attack from his flying machine, and was rewarded for his situational awareness by not getting caught in the blast. Cadet, however, wasn’t so lucky. Donnie was behind both of them at the moment, and he decided to help out by firing a Chi Burst directly at Cadet’s back, which would conveniently not only heal Cadet, but go straight through his body and hurt Gough, who was in front of him.

The blast surged through the Ace Cadet and hit Gough’s leg as he prepared his next arrow, dealing enough damage to make the giant wince.

Behind them Jr. swooped down to catch Mimikyu’s leap off of Bowser, while the king himself flared back to life from the Pokemon touching his trophy base. As he shook his head and took in the situation he flew in to join the human’s assault on the giant, only to glance suddenly to the side when prompted by the wordless call of Kamek’s toadies, who tossed him his trophified hat. He caught it by the base and swiftly put the freed headgear back in its rightful place with a grin.

Hovering back and away from where they’d regrouped Jr ordered Mimikyu to ”Mimikyu, charge up an electro ball, let’s give the big guy a real shock!” as he struck a button and caused a synapse infested robot arm to deploy from his clown car, prompting the pokemon to charged up another Electro Ball. Thumbing a firing trigger, jr caused the biological lightning weapon to shoot a tight beam of electricity towards the giant’s arrow drawing arm, a shot that was followed moment’s later by Mimikyu’s electro ball aimed towards the target laser pointed by the synapse’s stream of lightning.

Together corrosive and electricity struck Gough’s bow arm, jolting the muscles and scarring the armor. The bowstring slipped from his hand, and his arrow launched both slow and early. It flew lazily over the edge of the tower, a few feet away from Junior who flinched away from the near miss. Gough grunted and aimed a kick at the Ace Cadet, trying to boot him into the monk behind him.

Left open after his botched attack, the hunter was easily sent flying backwards. The giant's strength was certainly comparable to a large monster - to be expected, given he was a giant. Cadet barely had time to think that maybe he should change up his strategy before he collided with the chi slinging man. "Ouch," he grumbled, and after a brief untangling and a curt sorry! directed Donnie’s way, Cadet was back on his feet. Dealing with the enemy's swings was much preferable to dealing with the possibility of getting petrified at range, and now that he was finally in close quarters with one of their assailants Cadet was quick to try and dive right back into the giant's personal space.

Blazermate, seeing Cadet getting tossed, put her healing beam on the monster hunter. Gough looked like he didn’t take all that much damage, so Blazermate took a bit of time to scan him. With this information, Blazermate relayed it to Cadet, telling him Gough’s weak spot as he engaged with the giant sniper.

With a change in tactics, Cadet raised his longsword high and brought it down in a swipe aimed not at Gough, but at the giant's weapon, hoping to catch the bow in the hook of the scythe and drag it downward whether Gough kept his grip on it or not.

The paradigm shift worked wonders. Hooking the scythe around the bow stopped Gough’s attempt to nock another arrow short and initiated a tug-of-war. If given the chance to do so the giant would have no doubt won it handily, but he did not receive it.

Now free, re-hatted and up to speed, Bowser joined the fray, charging towards the giant, increasing in size back to as he did. He looked to be on a collision course with the Ace until he suddenly leapt up and over him. The King drew his hand back and rather than ball it or bare his claws he held it open and aimed to palm strike the giant, who was still dangerously close to the edge, square in the chest. Following him up came Jr’s clown car. After the synapse’s energy had been drained during his successful shot interruption shot he'd stored it away and in its place deployed the vehicle’s oversized boxing mitt armed arms. As his father aimed for the center of mass jr took a higher road and dived bombed towards the giant’s face, aiming to strafe him with a flurry of boxes on the ears.

Blazermate meanwhile landed instead of flying by Jr, keeping her healing beam on Cadet, Seeing as Bowser and Jr. were going in to attack, Blazermate relayed her scan findings to them as well, making sure to stay out of Bowser’s way as he charged. Still, she saw an opportunity as she saw Gough get damaged, and came from the side to bite him with her Suffering shield. He would make a great zombie for the trials ahead, if he could even be converted.

One, two, and three--the parade of blows struck Gough in quick succession. To avoid overbalancing and falling backward, the giant pitched forward onto his knees after the first hit from Bowser, only for Junior and then Blazermate to follow up. The teeth of the Suffering shield did not penetrate his armor, but they did crumple the metal and leave a couple of painful indentations that rakes Gough’s skin like inward-facing spikes. After the assault, he could not recompose his defenses, instead reaching into his pouch with one hand.

Finally, the monk charged, leapt over everyone involved, moving into a flying kick, dramatically enhanced by dumping a full quarter of his prodigious chi reserves into this meteoric strike. He descended like mighty Xuen from on high, his whole body wreathed in the power of the wind that dumping this much chi at once had created. He was throwing everything he had into this attack, and his armored boot collided with Gough’s face like the stomp of a Titan, driving the resin that filled the eyeholes into Gough’s eye sockets and causing the visor itself to cave in. The force imparted was almost guaranteed to send the giant hurtling off the tower at terminal velocity. Donnie himself had to grab onto the edge of the tower and haul himself back up to safety lest he fall as well.

The blow hit home with tremendous force and a visceral noise, snapping Gough’s head backward. Limply he fell over, sliding off the edge of the tower to drop to the ground far below. A second later, the carved stone he pulled out in his final moment hit the stone by Donnie’s feet and shattered apart, release the giant’s voice into the air. “Thaank youu,” it said, deep but with as much cheer as dignity, the Hawkeye’s last words. His spirit came to rest on the surface of the moat around Spiral Mountain, with the ashes sinking and diffusing into the water.

Donnie put his hands on his knees, huffing and puffing after putting in that much energy at once. Chi was linked to the soul, but also to the body. Spirit and body went hand in hand, in a symbiotic relationship with one another. Chi could empower the body, sure, but the body still had to be capable of acting on that infusion of energy, and dumping lots of chi at once was tiring to both body and soul. Or puppet-body and Spirit, as it were.

“Well, now I just feel sad,” he said between breaths. “I didn’t know he wanted to die. Though I don’t blame him, honestly.” He stood upright, saying, “Now we’ve just got the others to deal with. Think we can free them? I think that man in red looked similar to the Engineer Blazermate has. He’d appreciate it.”

Bowser grunted while shaking the hand he’d struck the giant with and then shrugged in response to Donnie’s question dismissively ”IF YOU WANT HIM, THEN GO FOR. DIDN’T SEEM LIKE ANYTHING SPECIAL TO ME THOUGH.”

”NOW LINK. THERE’S A GUY I COULD USE. CLASSIC MEDDLING HERO MATERIAL” he added, before wondering to himself how the team facing him was faring.

Geralt managed to recover from his desperate leap away from Link’s whirling attack, not trusting Quen to manage to block such a flurry of blows. As the Hylian approached, Geralt narrowed his eyes and shifted his stance slightly, ready to parry the incoming blows. Steel rang against steel as Link’s slashes rained down, Geralt expertly diverting the blows as the two danced around, Link being careful to try and keep the Witcher between him and at least one of the other adventurers at any given time. While he could keep Link from hitting him, Geralt was frustrated to realize that the boy wasn’t giving him any real openings.

Making his way around from behind Geralt in rapid steps, Fox came dashing in at Link’s left with a running sweep into a double aerial roundhouse. The boy, despite being preoccupied with another swordsman, was quick on the defense, and out of four hits, only the second from Fox’s tail managed to tag Link. All the same, he now had another foe on each side to deal with yet again. He focused his defense primarily on the Witcher, given blades were immediately deadlier than feet, while balancing offense evenly between the two. The manageable, but stressful trade went on for the better part of a moment until Link decided to do something about it, throwing out a swift, heavy diagonal swing in a semi-spin--a divided modification to his Spin Attack (and down smash)--to each side with the lethal intent to drive his attackers off. Geralt stepped back as Link’s sword spun around him, the attack telegraphed ever so slightly. Once the blade sailed past him, the Witcher stepped in, thrusting his blade towards the Hylian’s center of mass. Having dealt with the same earlier, Fox anticipated the strike from the split-second wind-up and evasively corkscrewed over the attack, then stepped back in to punish the Hylian with a signature backflip kick to his chin.

Link let out a pained grunt as he snapped backward head first through the air, piercing razor steel running the length of his back as he left the ground. Minus the sustained damage, this happened to work out for him better than expected as far as his positioning. He righted himself while airborne, holding his Slate forth commandingly to detonate the cubic bomb he left at his opponents’ feet without their prior noticing. Fox caught sight of the blinking explosive almost a second too late to skip back away from it and flash his Reflector to nullify the damage, but still being launched by the blast force. Geralt, however, was not as lucky, and found himself launched into the wall of the tower, groaning in pain.

In near unison with the first detonation, Link triggered a second below him at just the right distance to harmlessly propel himself higher. At the near peak of his cheated altitude increase he drew his bow once more with the intent to arrow-blitz the remaining half of his opposition as he had done just moments ago. By this time, however, Fox’s shield was down, and they were at level with one another when he started up his illusory dash. In the temporal dilation that was Link’s perception, Fox was the only other one moving at a rate worth considering, rushing through the air straight for the Hylian with a trail of faint blue wind drawing the line behind him. They made contact the instant before Link completed his first draw as Fox bodily rammed into him with a reckless forearm tackle with enough forward momentum to carry them all the way outside through the gaping hole in the tower over the entrance.

The two locked fighters clipped part of the remaining brickwork on their way out, sending them tumbling over the bridge, onto the left guardrope, and bouncing over the side. Link booted Fox overhead while Fox wrested the bow from Link’s grasp--thanks in part to Link releasing it for a handhold on the bridge--blindly flinging it away anywhere into the field as he continued to fall. The air in his lungs audibly, forcibly, painfully vacated them with uncontrolled impact onto a chunk of demolished rubble at ground-level, and he haplessly rolled the rest of the way down the destructed mound until he fell prone in the dirt, raspilly groaning as he tried to recover his breath.

He successfully relieved his enemy of an advantage, but took an unduly hard, potentially costly hit in doing so, even if all it cost him was a bit of time out of his ongoing role in the battle. That much would likely hinge on whether or not the hero followed him down in pursuit or opted to deal with him last. At this point, it hardly mattered. Either way, neither of them could relent until the other fell, for in their wrong minds, greater judgement would not avail them.

Geralt moaned as he shakily stood, watching through half-closed eyes as Fox and Link jumped out of the tower. Rolling his shoulders to make sure he wasn’t too badly hurt, the Witcher ran over to the others that had been turned into trophies and quickly started touching the bases of their trophies, not stopping to check until he had hit the last base. “Come on, they went out the hole in the tower.” Again not stopping to check if he was being followed, Geralt raced out of the tower, looking to find some sign of the two.

The hero of Hyrule pulled himself up onto the bridge, his muscles screaming. He stood and breathed heavily, watching the tower entrance for any sign of his next opponent. He doubted that they would give him time to recover.

Unfortunately for Link, his next opponent didn’t come from the tower. The sound of boots on stone sounded out behind him, three hard footfalls. If he turned it would be just in time to see a girl in a green cloak pitching something pink and glowing right at him. On instinct he raised his right arm to block, only to remember he no longer had a shield. Instead he pivoted, trying to intercept the incoming projectile with his sword.

Linkle growled as the sword hit the friend heart, popping it like a soap bubble, but didn’t stop running. Honestly, what kind of Hylian had that reaction to a heart? With Link’s sword outstretched to parry the heart she took the opportunity to slip inside his guard, bumping his sword arm with her shoulder to push it even further afield and bringing up a knee to strike at his gut in an attempt to knock the breath out of him.

Tired and wounded as he was, Link fell prey to Linkle’s strategy and gasped, almost faltering. He dug deep to clench his teeth and bring his sword around in a rather slow horizontal slash. Linkle ducked under the sluggish blow, bringing her hand up and thumping her chest to make another friend heart as she did. Popping back up she reached out and grabbed Link’s sword arm around the wrist, pressing herself forward to force it against his chest with her whole body while raising the heart like a dagger. “Just take it, they’re good for you!” She shouted, bringing it down toward his face. The pink shape slipped right in, and Linkle ended up palming her hero in the forehead. In the next few seconds she got a front-row viewing as the power of the bizarre heart surged through Link, scrubbing the streaks of ash from his skin and washing the sunset from his eyes. His tense and weary muscles, struggling against Linkle’s grip, finally relaxed, and he gradually went limp. As Link’s struggle ceased and his condition caught up with him, the harrowed look evaporated from his face, and he slipped into unconsciousness in the girl’s arms.

“Ha!” Linkle laughed, then started struggling as the hero went limp. She half carried half dragged him over to the side of the bridge, laying him gingerly against the railing and looking him over. Even through the wounds it was clear that this is the one that had shown up in her dreams. It was sheer luck, or at least skill on his part, that he wasn’t dead. From the look of it her friends had seriously put the boots to him.

She stood up, looking down to where she’d seen the Fox fall when they’d flown out of the tower. He was lying in a painful looking heap, which in this world was a relief. She’d half-expected to see nothing but a spirit down there.

Charging out of the tower, Geralt saw the two Links fighting just long enough to see Linkle force the Friend Heart into the male hero. Letting out a sigh and a nod, Geralt approached the girl. “Linkle. Good work,” He called out. “Now we just have a few more.”

She looked up as The Witcher approached, smiling before an uncomfortable look came over her. She glanced nervously from him, to Link, and back again before asking, “He didn’t kill anyone, did he?”

Geralt shook his head. “No. Just turned the lot of them into trophies, but they should be fine now. I hit the bases.”

She let out a relieved breath before smacking both her cheeks in an effort to psych herself up. “All right!” She said. “The giant looks pinned down from out here, so that just leaves the two that fell off the tower.” She pointed off to the area beside the tower, near the waterfalls. “The last time I saw the crossbow lady she was over there. The other one fell into the water, but they could be anywhere by now.”

“Linky-Linky!” Tora sang as he bounded out of the Tower, with Poppi following behind. Following his partner’s revival he’d stopped to make sure she was okay, and now both appeared to back up their allies against Link. The only hylian they found, however, was one with long, strawberry-blonde hair and matching rabbit ears. As Tora approached the bridge wobbled, so Poppi took to the air just to be safe. Up above, a couple more allies were trading blows with Gough, but the Nopon didn’t see anyone else up there. “Something happen? Where others?”

Reasoning that anyone at the top of the tower would be otherwise engaged, Poppi scanned the ground. She didn’t get far before a black arrow careened into Tora from nowhere, trophifying him and sending him off the bridge in one golden burst. “Masterpon!” Poppi dove after him, leaving the others to deal with the attacker. Judging by the path of the shot, the sniper in question hid somewhere near the riverbank, either by the tree or in the field.

“Poppi!” Linkle shouted as the Blade dived over the side. By the time she heard the splash she’d dived to, sliding up to the railings to take a little cover. She placed her hand down on top of it, her hair flashing blue as ice began to grow up from it to cut Geralt, Link, and her off from the sniper’s line of sight.

Geralt grunted in shock, ducking behind the barrier Linkle produced. “Damn, can’t even get a moment. We’ll have to hunt ‘em down now. I hate it when they hide…” The Witcher grumbled.

Having regained himself in the brief moment following his fall, Fox picked himself back up at a dignified pace that betrayed not his condition and drew sights to the bridge on Link’s last known position. His need for medical attention would neither compel him to seek it as needed, nor deter him from stubbornly resuming battle. For him, the fight wasn’t over yet, but as it turned out, it wasn’t for anyone else either. He had forgotten all about the remaining snipers until an afield black arrow streaked overhead past the tower’s base at the mountain’s peak, prompting him to pivot into cover behind the stone debris. He didn’t have time to get a clear bead on Link beforehand, and by the time he glanced back up, an inexplicably formed wall of ice on the guardropes of the bridge impeded his view. Even if he started from the top of the mound, Fire wouldn’t carry him high enough and was too slow to start, which would leave him vulnerable, so he would have to make his way back up on foot. When he saw the giant atop the tower begin to fall, he took that as his chance to book it for the mountain’s base, Illusion zipping over the moat just out of the giant’s fall path, opposite the fielded sniper’s view, to cover his first rounding up the mountain path.

The place was utter chaos. The battle became an extended hit and run, hide and seek exchange, with their own group getting several skirmishers into the tower, back again, and once more into the breach. Not wanting to take any of the attention onto himself, Jak had to move more methodically. He could run, roll, and jump at full speed while invisible, but it didn’t last long and took just as long to recharge as it did to utilize. Naturally he fell behind, but figured it was for the best in this instance. The normally talkative Daxter knew not to utter a peep to ruin their distinct advantage, which would soon present a great opportunity. Two of the sharpshooters had been killed, others injured, and two more fell from the tower down below.

Cuphead, having been revived by the Ace Cadet a short while ago, was dropped off at the base of the tower. The giant and the swordsman in blue were engaged with whole groups from their entourage, quite busy with that. He thought about jumping in, but he didn’t want to get in the way. He knew he could be reckless sometimes, but he didn’t want to repeat the mistake he had just made. He may have been impatient, but he could learn! Instead, he looked to Imani and Sniper, dazed by their fall, and ran in (finger) guns blazing! ”Golly, this pea shooter sure isn’t too slick. Sure wish I had my charge beam!” he said, showering the two with a hailstorm of small energy bullets, mostly only capable of scratch damage.

Meanwhile, Courier 6 nodded acknowledgement to the Ace Cadet for reviving him and kept to the cover he had found with Princess Peach and Kamek. The last thing he remembered before being turned into a trophy was firing off a full clip from Michael’s anti-material rifle in VATS. If he remembered correctly, he was able to hit two of the enemies: the giant and the woman in the bikini. He had to take stock of the battlefield before jumping straight back into things. He listened carefully and watched, activating VATS to get infinite time to observe, but never using its targeting system. From the looks of things, the giant was still alive and kicking despite the grievous wound from a gun designed to blow up tanks, but the bikini sniper was gone. No doubt all that was left of her was some red mist. Another enemy seemed to be gone too: the old man. He couldn’t see the boy in blue, but listening there were still the sounds of battle elsewhere, and the old man would undoubtedly be incapable of a melee fight, so he reasonably assumed it was the boy. That left the other two who had fallen from the tower.

The Courier reloaded the anti-material rifle with his pack of rifle ammunition and spoke into his PIP-Boy. ”GT, I need suppressing fire on the snipers on the ground.”

“Boss, I’m glad to hear you’re ok!” Gaige-Tron’s synthesized voice spoke back from the PIP-Boy speaker. He couldn’t help but grin.

”An’ bring Bugfoot, but I don’ want ‘im engaging. Might not get close ‘nough an’ I don’ want ‘im gettin’ hit. Keep Drumstick where she’s at.”

“Got it, boss!” The connection cut out, and just then Cuphead came charging toward the sniper and Imani, firing off his pea shooter while jumping up and down like a maniac. The Courier snorted in amusement, then lifted up the rifle to take aim.

Right on time GT came charging up the hill, firing off her built in pea shooter (the handgun received from the living bullets, not the magic finger energy of Cuphead) right at the two enemies. The robot and the ceramic cup acted as a pincer against the snipers, coming in from opposite locations, Bugfoot the heracross creeping in from behind GT.

The Courier breathed in, and held it. V.A.T.S. activated. Targeting Sniper, torso. Probability of hitting: 89%. Now that he was on solid ground and the distance much closer, naturally the chances of success were much, much higher. Targeting Imani, torso. Probability of hitting: 82%. Targeting Imani, head. Probability of hitting: 75%. Even a headshot was likely at this point, but undoubtedly overkill. Just stick to the torso, then. He queued up one shot for each of them, in the chest. Fire!

”Now Jak!”

In an instant Jak and Daxter reappeared right behind Imani and Sniper, the invisibility broken not by Daxter’s voice, but by Jak’s weapon. He had the morph gun out in Scattergun mode and fired a large cone blast of red eco point blank.

The giant sniper, while their enemy, perplexed Blazermate. Echoing Donnie, she said. "Yeah seriously, why would he want to die? If thats what he wants, I think making a striker out of him would be... disrespectful? But its up to you guys."

Sectonia awoke with a splash of water thrown over her from the Lord of Games, washing away most of the Jarate that was on her. "there, its not a shower, but you smell much nicer. Now off with you, get your revenge. Its not like you'll have a chance in the future." LoG said, Sectonia shaking herself awake. A quick sniff reminded her of what had happened, the outdoorsman sniper threw his own piss at her, and while enraged, she got smacked by that giant! She was going to make both of them pay for what they have done, especially that guy who threw the jar! Getting back up, she glanced at the Lord of Games, gave him a nod, then flew out of the house to rejoin the fight. "If only she knew what I actually meant. Ah well. Back to making games." He said, going back to his workbench and continuing along his work.

Sectonia has been out for longer than she had thought, the tower was badly damaged, and most of the snipers had been dispatched already. She could see the form of the giant sniper, falling off the tower, disintegrating to dust. "Serves him right." Sectonia said to herself, looking around the battlefield for her other target. As her gaze came to the base of the mountain, she saw him, the soon-to-be dead man.

Flying at a fast pace towards Mundy, Sectonia conjured and threw her Rings of Light at the sniper, 6 small ones aimed right for him flying at awkward angles. It was around this time that Jak and the Courier showed up, attempting to deal with Mundy and his sniper ally themselves. "He is MINE." She said, closing the remaining distance with a series of rapid blinks before attacking Mundy by swirling her swords around in a dervish. If he somehow got through all of this, Sectonia had one more trick up her sleave, involving a large light disc and her bare hands...

Sometimes you played the odds, and sometimes the odds played you.

All too soon, there came the sounds of movement, and not on one front, but two. The rattle of gunfire rang out from both sides--a pincer attack. Alarm shone in Imani's eyes as she reached for her belt, going for one of the smoke bombs. "We're..."

A hideous roar heralded the sharpshooter's messy bisection. Her entire torso disappeared in a visceral spray as her eye went wide. Red turned black as she near-instantly began to turn to ash. The Sniper did not scream, since before he could so much as open his mouth, he too was gone.

When Gaige-Tron and the others rounded the tree a moment later, they found only two spirits sitting in the dust.



Unfazed by the leftover mobs and the spear-tipped tendrils sprouting up from the street, the Doom Slayer strode toward Echidna at a steady pace, firing his shotgun over and over. Each slug broke down her focus, and after a few moments she withdrew her tendrils with a snarl and rose into the air. V, however, was one step ahead. Without an opening to attack during the underground onslaught, he commanded Shadow to charge instead, and now that the Slayer drove Echidna back he could make use of it. The demon panther dashed below Echidna and unleashed Hedgehog, becoming a ball of spikes that jammed between Echidna's scales from below.

“Aaaah!” she shrieked, her voice shrill, but the attack was far from over. Taking a page from Echidna's book, V bade Shadow sink into the ground and extend a forest of great needles straight upward to pierce his foe's dragon body and stop prevent her retreat. “Kuh!” The demoness fought to break free, but her struggled only made the spikes tear into her further. With her bottom half immobilized, she raised her hands to cast, but Nadia pounced first.

The feral thief popped off her own head, set it like a volleyball, then leaped up to spike it straight at Echidna's face. Her noggin hit that of the demoness with a pronounced bonk, but a flap of Nadia's ears propelled her back in for more. Using her ears and jets of blood from her neck to move, Nadia sank her teeth into Echidna's head over and over again. “Omnomnomnomnom!”

Nero's wire flew up and latched onto one of Echidna's horns. With a strong yank he pulled the demon's head down to the ground, leaving her next to helpless. Nadia went to collect her own as the demon writhes, screaming. “Nothing to it,” he remarked casually, before glancing at the Slayer. He offered no thanks, but it was clear he appreciated the help from his offer. “Want this one?” If the Slayer moved quickly, he could finish Echidna off before she broke free.

@Lugubrious

Doom Slayer

Level 1 Doom Slayer
Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: 306

The Slayer was gaining much enjoyment form killing the lesser demons, along with the demon that stood before him. He felt all the adrenaline rushing though his body, the thrill of killing demons once again was like a drug. Concentrating his gun fire towards the demon, riddling down her defenses. With the help of the these strangers who held the demon's head towards the floor, hearing form the white haired man of wanting to finish off the demon.

Silently moving towards the demon, grabbing hold of her horns firmly. Pulling forwards slowly ripping off her head. Not caring for her screams and pleads for him to stop. If anything her screams of pain made this moment even more pleasurable. After what seemed like five minutes, with one final pull he ripped the head off of the large demon. Holding it up in the air like a trophy, which he was going to put into his home base once he gets back.

Being covered in the large demon's blood, he wondered if their was a some place he could wash his armor. But that would be a bridge he would cross later. Turning around towards the group, "Did these demons...come out of a portal form hell?" He spoke pointing to the decapitated demon behind him. He wondered if their was other Dark Lords coming after him for killing their leader.

"A sense another demonic presence coming form the white haired man" VEGA spoke up to which the Slayer was now staring at Nero. Clenching his fist for just a moment before relaxing. He didn't sense any malicious or dark intentions that could be a danger to humanity. So he was going to let this one slide, for now.

Bowser’s internal pondering about how the team were faring against Link were resolved by a quick gland over the battlements of the tower and down to the bridge entering the witches mouth.

”YUP. LOOKS LIKE LINKLE HAD THE SAME IDEA.” he noted upon spotting the pair of pointy eared Hyruleans making friendly down below before calling down to them ”GOOD WORK LINKLE. AND WELCOME TO MY ARMY FAIRY BOY.”

The fact that he wasn’t shot while doing this suggested that the battle was over, or at least close to over.

”Did they catch the other guys?” Jr asked his father as he and Mimikyu hoovered over to him, only to receive an unexpected answer from Kamek, ”Yes, I just saw the last two being dealt with a few moments ago," who had finally felt safe enough to stop providing cover via tree enbiggenment to join them.

”Quite the dangerous foes these, and placed in such an advantageous position too. This “master hand” does not seem to be someone who plays fair. I worry about what other fiendish obstacles they’ll throw at us as we get closer to completing our quest,” Kamek noted ”Still, if it has given us a useful set of Spirits for whenever we do encounter those challenges, so I can't complain that much.”

”Says the guy who didn’t get shot by them. Twice! I had enough of the whole being a trophy baloney last time around!” Bowser complained

”I was making sure our team had cover.” Kamek countered

”Bah”

”You’ll be happy to know the Princess is safe as houses as a result”

The king stared at Kamek while the old magikoopa grinned at him, before making an exasperated sound and agreeing ”Fine. Good work.”

”Thank you sire.”

”You both done?” jr asked while not looking at them, instead watching the rather fascinating process by which Mimikyu was devouring a third of a poke puff by pulling it under their disguise. A small stain of icing the same color as that found on the ball shaped cupcake staining Jr’s lip clearly indicated where one of the other thirds had gone. The final one was in the process of being absorbed by the Synapse, in a manner best not described.

”Yeah we’re done. LET’S PACK UP AND MOVE TROOPS!” Bowser agreed before yelling at the assorted heroes, while Kamek fussed over Jr’s messy eating with a handkerchief.

Unaware of the existence of an elevator to the top, the king temporarily transformed into Meowser and slid down the side of the tower, leaving massive scratch marks in its walls as he descended. The two flight capable koopas followed after him, joining the King as he arrived on the bridge leading into the mouth of the giant witch head carved into the side of the mountain. Beyond lay the dark barrier leading to what they assumed was Subspace.

”Right. Try not to get lost in there. It's going to be a long winded maze that’ll overstay its welcome,” He warned them and the trio of not quite humans who were already there when the troop had arrived ”So no running off. Ok Jr?”

”Alright alright. Sheesh. How bad could it be?” Jr asked as they waited for everyone who needed to climb up or down to make their way to the entryway.

With the final blow struck, the giant slumped over and released his hold on his weapon. Cadet quickly found himself falling onto his back now that there was no resistance from Gough. His scythe was still holding onto the wood of the Hawkeye's greatbow, and as he sat up he pulled both weapons towards himself. The bow was finely made, and though it was a weapon truly fit for a giant, it was only slightly larger than the bows Cadet himself was used to wielding. "Rad-alos," he said aloud, intent on taking the weapon with him. He added arrows to his mental list of things to make or buy, along with sonic bombs - those would have really helped out, but in the end they'd succeeded either way.

After a little difficulty stowing the bow and longsword on his person along with his sword and shield, Ace Cadet made his way over to the group. Personally, he wasn't too put out by Gough's parting words. Obviously if he wanted this outcome, then they all did a good thing. Better to focus on the positives after all, and to that effect he threw an arm on around Donnie and Blazermate.

"Woo, good job team! It's kind of nice getting all healed up in the middle of fighting," he laughed, "and the Koopa combo was pretty cool!"

Said Koopas moved over to the tower's edge, looking down over it. None of them turned into a trophy, nor was there any shouting or panicking to be heard from down below. The Cadet took that to mean the battle was over, and the ground team had taken care of the remaining sniper. Excellent news! When the tower team began to make their way back down with various methods Cadet was no exception. While it was very tempting to just leap off the tower's edge and take a tumble once hitting the ground, the hunter found his way down into the tower's interior for a more leisurely descent. As he'd thought, there were no longer any enemies on the inside of it. Once down the mountain, Cadet wasted no time regrouping with the rest of the squad. Seemed like most everyone was together, no one needed reviving, although... there was one extra person.

"So this is Linkle 2?" The red headed hunter looked the Hero of the Wilds over, crossing his arms in consideration. He supposed they looked similar, though the second Linkle didn't share her rabbit ears. Both of them looked pretty close to the other blonde Wyverian-like eared kids back in Lumbridge. He'd have to remember to ask what was going on with that. Some extended family? Wasn't really important at the moment, especially when they were preparing to go into the dark void.

"A maze huh? Well I'm pretty much good to go!" Cadet stretched his arms over his head and rolled his shoulders in a circle as if proving his point, not that anyone was contesting it. He figured it was better to get a move on, but if the group needed a break after that battle it would be understandable - and maybe he could even find some neat ingredients around.

With the battle pretty much over. Blazermate relaxed a bit as the others grabbed what spirits they wanted. Cadet noticing this too, gave Donnie and Blazermate a one armed hug, celebrating over their victory. "Yeah, everyone likes the combat healing. Its what support medabots do..." Blazermate said as she replied to Cadet, a bit distracted watching Bowser climb down the tower as a giant... cat version of himself. "Yeah. That is kind of cool. But why is he a giant cat? Like, why?" Blazermate said, scratching her head as she made her way down the tower, gliding down to the group below.

With a flurry of slashes to the surprised and injured Mundy from her swords, the Sniper fell to Sectonia's blades and Courier's shots. While Sectonia was furious at this bushman, she made his end quick. Although truth be told, Courier did most of the work, Sectonia only got a couple slashes in before the guy turned to spirit ash. And with him gone, there were none left in this challenge.

"What a disgusting man." Sectonia said, putting her swords away. She was pretty hurt, but not enough to make her lose her composure. She took a few moments to make sure that the battle was over and from what she could see looking over the battlefield the only one left was that boy with a sword who caused her quite a bit of pain with his swordplay. However, her 'allies' were apparently dealing with him from what she could see. Although why he wasn't attacking them was, odd. Did one of them have some kind of magic that turned them to their side?

Blazermate, gliding down from the top of the tower, took note of everyone below. First she had to tell her zombies to take a break, as even though the fighting was over, they were still trying to bring down the tower. Second, she noticed one of the snipers had been friend hearted, and much like others who got friend hearted, they come out the other end injured. The other injured person she saw was... Sectonia? How did she get hurt so badly? Neither were all that critical, but both did need healing so Blazermate did what she did, healing Sectonia first, then Link.

Sectonia, seeing everyone else relaxing, decided to clean herself off to get this 'musk' of combat off of her divine self. Flying to the nearby waterfall, she quickly washed herself off while everyone else was chatting with each other. Only Blazermate actually came over to bother her, but considering the robot lady was healing her wounds, Sectonia tolerated her presence.

Once Blazermate had healed up Sectonia, noting at how she was using the waterfall as a quick shower, she flew over to the larger group to heal up the newly allied Link. "Hiya, I'm Blazermate. Welcome to the party. Why do you look like a guy version of Linkle?" Blazermate said as her healing beam rested on Link.

After cleaning herself off, Sectonia used a bit of magic to dry herself off before returning to the rest of the group. She didn't care as much about this 'Linkle 2" that Cadet called the newcomer as Blazermate, especially considering the hits he and gotten on her royal person. Still, from the looks of things, whatever magic they used, this person was here to stay. And, at the least, he was a better sword user than her.

Soon the group came up to the sphere that was their goal for this area, Blazermate lazily being carried by one of her stronger zombies as she powered up the others. "A maze? I'm not good with those... Guys, don't get separated. I don't wanna get lost." Blazermate said, sitting up as she showed concern at the koopa king's words. Sectonia was a bit apprehensive as well, more so because she knew she wasn't going to like wandering around a maze.

Banjo and Kazooie were slow to follow on Geralt’s order after he had detrophyfied them, still reeling from the experience and in need of a second to wake themselves back up. Hat Kid was even slower still, slowly returning to consciousness just as exhausted as when she went out. The animal pair were better able to handle injury--even individually--than the child, therefore able to quickly recollect themselves. They jogged over to the tower entrance with the Kid a few steps behind them, mentally prepared to re-engage, only to find their foe pacified by the green-clad ranger woman of their group. Banjo halted his advance at the first notice of this, exercising equal parts restraint and caution as he observed from a manageable distance (door to bridge).

“I’m guessing we won?” he asked, having come to the obvious conclusion, but wanting to be doubly sure.

“We did?” Linkle called back. There had certainly been sounds of quick and dirty violence, so she popped her head up over the ice wall to be sure, but all she saw when she looked for the people that had taken out Tora were Jak, Gaige-Tron, the giant bug, and the Courier’s pet bug hanging around a pair of spirits that she presumed to be the Other Micheal and the lady with the big crossbow. If they needed any more confirmation of the area's safety, one only had to look up at Bowser bossing everyone around from the tower without a care in the world save for what they might have to face next. Linkle did some quick and simple math, then turned and gave the bear a thumbs up.

Banjo returned Linkle’s gesture with a nod, which told Kazooie she could cease swivelling her head about to watch for danger. Hat Kid sighed with relief at the news, propped herself lazily against the wall, and popped the cork on her half-empty bottle of Lon Lon Milk like the cap of a flask she would have no business carrying to finish the second, and last, serving of it. Had she considered it, and not needed the healing and nutrition as much as she did, the Heroine of Hyrule might have appreciated the familiar flavor. Banjo exited the tower to approach the Hylians and two hunters, but hadn’t cleared the green to the bridge when a swift silhouette passed over them. Fox bounded high above, the contrast of the sun darkening his shape at the crest of his leap before he aggressively descended on Link’s position with a forceful heel aimed for the weakened hero.

Linkle looked up over her shoulder when the shadow fell over them, only having a second to register downward strike. She turned to face the descending foe, standing in front of Link and crossing her arms in front of her to block the blow. In that moment she was able to register who the attacker was, and her confusion over why the flying fox was attacking now was swept away by the sunset red of his eyes. Right, Ryu had had this problem.

The heel threw her back against bridge railing, eliciting a pained groan from Link as she slightly crushed him. “Heart the Fox or he’ll never stop!” She shouted to everyone around her.

Fox pushed off of Linkle’s guard, drawing his sidearm on Link the instant his feet rickety lumber. Balance proved little issue for him, as it seldom did, but his aim shifted about still as he tried to get sights on Link around his stubborn protector. Alas, he could find no opening in the second spent looking, so he instead zipped past the woman in a phantasmic blur, turning with a reverse roundhouse at the end of his dash and ready to follow it with his firearm.

Linkle, luckily, knew what the fox must have been after. Even if he suddenly zipped past her faster than her eye could track she still had a pretty good idea of where he was going to end up. So, not even wasting the time to look, she extended one leg out and spun with a kick that would fly right over Links head and right into anybody standing over him. Both kicks collided at their ends, cancelling them out, but continuing Fox’s rotation. In that moment, the gears of Galeem’s influence turned in his head, occupied by multiple subseries of synaptic responses that amounted to a simple overriding shift in priorities. His mind--absent of his true self--interpreted the retaliatory defense as aggression, and just like that, Linkle was now an enemy in his eyes. He chased his deflected strike with his blaster hand, spinning to face the ranger woman, aimed at her chest, and squeezed off a short, rapid burst of point-blank laser fire.

Linkle yelped as a burst of fire hot agony exploded in her chest. There was no push to it, it just hurt, so she lashed out with her foot to try and kick that dangerous thing out of his hands. The toe of her boot forcibly bumped the pommel of the gun’s grip in a disarming strike that sent Fox’s gun flying in a steep arc that he followed with his eyes. In a single fluid turn, he faced his back to his opponent as he threw out a webster kick to her chin that simultaneously served as a jump to get him over the side of the bridge. He extended both arms out to each side--one to catch his gun, the other to find purchase on the ropes--then slung himself back around, tucked to fit through the gaps, and threw himself feet-first at Linkle. His rebounding strike met Linkle’s torso, knocking her back across some length of the bridge, and with the impact, he followed through into a retreating back tuck and resumed fire--before and after he landed.

Linkle slid back across the bridge, already feeling the hot stings of the fox's cool gun as she did. One in the thigh, another buried in her shoulder, one flying right across her cheek. She rolled backwards, pulling her shield off her back and holding it in front of her to absorb the shots, the lasers leaving smoking holes burned into the woodwork wherever they hit. She didn’t think the shield would last very long at all with the rate he was putting those shots out, but at the very least he wasn’t putting them into Link. She had his undivided attention by this point. Actually, that was probably perfect.

“Somebody?” She called out over the rapid fire PEW PEW PEW of the blaster barrage. “Come on, while I’ve got him on the ropes. Make a friend!” At that moment she felt resistance as a single hard impact met with her shield that threatened to force her back, but little else. Fox rushed the girl down and applied further pressure with a straightforward assault of seven additional kicks to her shield, the last of which had him flipping overhead with the rising adjustment in her guard, drawing the sword he took for the first time with two rotary, vertical follow-up slashes. Before he touched down again, he wreathed himself in flame, slowing his fall to a near stop with what was clearly a preparatory build-up for some kind of attack. Unique to his condition, hints and sparks of multicolor flickered beneath the burning red, further betraying the cause of his rationality deficit. Just as he was about to fire himself forward (at the potential risk of burning down the bridge), he was taken by surprise when he felt himself knocked aside by something that he could tell was heavier than him.

Ignoring the obvious physical threat posed by the cloak of fire, Banjo decided to heed the Hylian girl’s call and threw himself bodily at Fox in a wrapping tackle, taking him out of the air, and both of them (including Kazooie) over the edge of the bridge. There was little he could do in time to direct their fall besides keeping a tight clinch on the suddenly adversarial vulpine to make sure he came with them, and they fell like a weight into the moat, audibly slapping face-first into the water’s surface. This made for the duo’s third, and most painful dip today. They resurfaced a couple of seconds later, Banjo dragging Fox from out to lay him limply onto dry land and giving him a firm slap on the back to help him cough the water from his lungs. He was still alive, if barely, and by all accounts tapped out. He would sooner fall unconscious than get up after anyone else in his current state. Even as he tried sluggishly to lift his gun, Kazooie needed only to wing slap it away from him to render it virtually harmless.

“You okay, Miss?” Banjo called up to the girl in inquiry, gesturing a more interrogative thumbs up this time.

“Uhhhhhhh…” Linkle said, standing up and walking to the edge to look at them. Curiously she took a finger and put it to where the fox had shot her in the chest. It passed through the hole it had burned in her shirt and into the small divot that had been burned into her skin. She flinched and yanked the finger away. “Nothing that Blazermate can’t take care of!” She called back, forming some ice in her right hand and pressing the clump to where one of the shots had grazed along her cheek. “Do you guys know how to make him cool?”

“We got it from here, Fangirl.” Kazooie retorted in confirmation, cracking at Linkle’s established fascination with her world’s heroic legends.

“Yeah…” Banjo quietly said to himself, nodding. “Yeah…” He sat moatside for a prolonged moment longer in contemplation of the ‘make traitors cool’ process, long enough for the lingering silence to wear out its welcome.

“...”

“Well…?”

“Yeah… erm… I… don’t actually know what to do,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head in slight embarrassment. Though a demonstration took place just moments ago, he had reappeared just in time to miss it.

“Hm…” Kazooie thought aloud, probing her own memory bank in search of a communicable example to work from. “Okay. So, remember when we fought that tree, back in the Dead Zone, and whatshisface threw a heart at Nero?”

“A heart? You mean, like…” He started, wondering if there was some other morbid occurrence in that place that he had somehow missed.

“No,” she preemptively corrected before her partner could enter a fallacious line of inquiry, “It’s much friendlier than that.” If beating a potential ally candidate into submission to be conscripted or liberated passed for ‘friendly’, then she wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

“Ooh. Okay,” he answered with a nod. “So… do we have to find them, or…”

“Just summon them, I think.”

“How do I do that?”

“Try touching yourself… O-on the heart, I mean,” she quickly corrected in a subdued fluster, the occasional innuendo they were once used to getting away with slipping into her dialogue. To test this, Banjo hovered a hand over his heart, where a pink, diffusing glow penetrated his palm on both sides. He pulled his hand away by a few inches to see a soft stream of rose-colored energy follow, and both of them admired it for a moment before he gently beat his chest to manifest a Friend Heart for the first time.

“Like that?” Banjo held the Heart aloft floating above his hand, presenting it before them and smiling as he beheld it.

“Yep. That’s it.”

“Al-right! Guess I’ll just…” By the time he returned his attention to their downed rogue teammate to administer ‘friendlification’, they found that the behatted child had already beat them to it. Fox’s color started returning to him, and with it, his memory…

---

On the cusp of dusk, they--an unprecedented gathering of heroes, villains, and everything in-between--stood at what may as well have been the world’s precipice, between it, and it’s self-appointed new ruler. At the front of all of them… was Fox, with an assemblage of legends at his back, Heaven and its army before them, and him quite literally pointing a gun at the new closest thing he’s ever met to ‘God’. Though he would never admit to knowing it, he was in over his head, but that never stopped him before. This wasn’t exactly a first for him, or a number of those with him. To those for whom it applied, they had been here before, at the very same cliff overlooking the sea, peering out into the horizon at the shining blank spot left in the world by the destruction of the Isle of Ancients that preceded Tabuu’s defeat. Back then it acted as a symbolic beacon of a brighter future to follow. Little did any of them know that the light of new dawn would eventually herald their darkest day. And now, they stood again once more… at Ground Zero...

---

Fox’s eyes, now clear of hostile red, opened on the New World for what seemed like the first time; as if waking from a coma. His most prominent memory rushed back through his head, overlapping with that of most recent events. He weakly pushed himself up and began examining his surroundings, trying as he could to make sense of them while he took the moment to readjust. The next thing he knew, a purple-clad child in a top hat was handing him a steel broadsword that she was obviously too small to wield, the logical conclusion being that it wasn’t hers.

“You dropped this,” she clarified, ironically further confusing him ever so slightly. He eyed the weapon for a moment with an expression of puzzlement before simply accepting it.

“Thanks,” he replied, reclaiming the sword and propping himself against it. The child then strolled over to the next curious item she spotted laying at the moat’s edge: Fox’s blaster. The realization hit him as she started playing with it like it wasn’t a dangerous tool that could cause her serious harm if mishandled, knowing fully well that it could (as she understood with swords). This prompted Fox to check his holster to find it atypically empty. “Hey,” he addressed her once more to get her attention. “That’s mine too,” he calmly beckoned, politely demanding she relinquish to him his own firearm, as she did without a fuss. She already picked one up back at the canyon earlier, so there was no need to rob anyone of theirs. She tossed Fox his pistol back and nonchalantly made her way back up the mountain.

Banjo and Kazooie, meanwhile, were pondering a few choice implications about the situation amongst themselves.

“Huh…” uttered Banjo, slightly dumbfounded by the unexpected interruption.

“Well, that was a little disappointing. I guess we built that up for nothing,” Kazooie complained, having unreasonably felt cheated out of a moment of exaggerated importance.

“At least she saved us some XP…” he added, suddenly sure of how the Heart system worked, and then less so. “So… what should I do with this now?” He thought for a moment about what one influenced party member could mean for the rest of them. “You think there’s anyone else we might have missed?”

“I don’t know, but I’m wondering how we failed to notice until now. We’ve been travelling with it the whole time.”

“Right. I’m just saying... I’d hate to waste this.”

“I don’t think it matters.” Around that time they noticed Fox had returned to consciousness. “Oh, look. He’s awake,” Kazooie noted with little enthusiasm.

“Heyyy, erm…” Banjo started awkwardly, “Sorry about that. Are you okay?”

“About what?” replied Fox, genuinely unsure as to the nature of the apology offered, exhaustion still present in his voice. As he looked around, a slightly better question came to mind for him. “Where are we?”

“We must’ve hit him too hard,” Kazooie mockingly inferred at his expense.

“Home,” Banjo answered. “Well… we’re home. At our home. Everyone else is just passing through.”

“Everyone else?” The very mention piqued Fox’s interest, for he couldn’t help being curious as to who all else was left.

“They’re up there.” he said, pointing to the top of Spiral Mountain. “We should probably be getting back to them now.”

“Yeah…” Fox concurred, and began hauling himself somewhat shakily to his feet.

“Need a hand?” Banjo offered to the clearly injured vulpine.

“Thanks,” he started as he stubbornly stood back up, “but I’ll be fine.” While he wasn’t wrong in that he could make the short trek up on his own, Banjo would have outpaced him just by walking at his present rate.

“Here,” Banjo insisted, throwing a supportive arm around their revived ally’s shoulders. “It’s the least we could do to make up for earlier.” That part still didn’t make much sense to Fox at the moment, but he couldn’t be bothered then to spare the mental energy questioning it. He conceded to the offer to help, resting his own arm around the generous ursine as a voluntary crutch, and they began hiking up the mountain trail at a relaxed pace.

“I’m Banjo, by the way, and my pal here’s Kazooie.” Save for the formal introduction, Fox was already somewhat familiar with the pair. Although he had never met them until now, he still knew them by name and reputation. What’s more is that he remembered the call to action against Galeem not reaching them in time. Not that it would have made much of a difference, he thought.

“My name’s Fox.” He replied.

“Fox, eh? Your parents must’ve had QUITE the imagination,” Kazooie remarked sarcastically about his obvious namesake.

“I wouldn’t know,” he retorted tersely, letting the somber implication of his reply speak for itself. After about a minute they rounded the mountain’s peak, where the others were no doubt waiting.

“Medic!” Kazooie called out, expressing not the sense of urgency that usually went with the command. Banjo immediately sought out Blazermate, for lack of knowing any other healers in their group, and dropped off Fox next to the tower while he went to ask for her help. They found her already at work healing Link, the queen bee, and others. Poor girl was liable to be swamped with requests. “It hurts right here, Doc,” Kazooie began on approach, specifying no part of her despite the emphasis. “Think you could patch me up, please?” Banjo gave her a nudge of reminder for trying to cut in on the waitlist. “Oh, right. And him, too,” she added with a gesture to Fox.

“I know you’re busy, but would you mind taking care of him when you get a chance? He needs it worse than we do,” Banjo clarified, making sure to thank her in advance after putting in his request. Kazooie had a point in that they needed care as well, but they could sooner wait than the three besides them who were hit the hardest. Though, the fact that Kazooie asked nicely did stand out to him, even if her politeness was accidental (and undercut). Before he forgot, he held the Friend Heart he was still carrying aloft in presentation and asked, “Does anybody need one of these? I’d hate for anyone else to go rogue on us,” he declared aloud to anyone who was listening.

While he waited for (or received) medical aid, Fox took stock of those around him. Among them, he only knew four: Bowser, Jr, Peach and Link, and to say that he ‘recognized’ them would be generous, to say the least. Link’s was the only face out of them that remained familiar. The other three had undergone some… changes. Was he having some kind of feverish dream, or was he seeing prospect symptoms of a nightmarish new reality. One thing was for certain, he would have to get acquainted with it, and likely soon. The umbral boundary that lay just beyond drew his eye and reminded him of a past evil that they had once faced. If Bowser’s educated guess at what waited for them ahead proved to be correct, the lair of Banjo and Kazooie’s nemesis wouldn’t at all resemble its former self from when they first set foot in it. Whatever it promised would almost certainly be far worse.

Kasugano Sakura was on the trail. The young woman who looked to be 18 years of age was wearing her school uniform. It was clean, properly maintained even after all this time due to regular washings. It was her look, her aesthetic, she always fought in it. Maybe not this particular sailor's outfit, but one of them. A white bandada was tied around her head, slightly covered up by her short brown hair. Underneath her uniform there was a simple pair of gym wear. A red sports bra and a red bottom, as if she was going on a jog. Everything else ontop of that, from the yellow neck-tie to her red and white sneakers, was just extra cosmetic flair. Otherwise she would look boring. Sakura liked reminding others of her youth, and reminding herself of what she has accomplished before even graduating high school. Normally she was supposed to wear a shirt underneath the top, but she often didn't, choosing instead to show off her killer abs. That's what fighters did, right? Show off their big muscles?

Only her outfit wasn't as colorful, and her friendly brown eyes had turned an unnatural shade of crimson. Over her shoulder was her student bag, carrying what little of her belongings she had with her from...wherever she got them from. Despite the fact that clearly something was wrong, and that Sakura should be on Earth, at home, sleeping, she didn't seem worried at all. Those thoughts never crossed her mind, and the brunette was keen on exploring her new environment.

Now she had travelled into the Land of Adventure. The inhabitants of this land were friendly enough. They all had red eyes like her and were occasionally violent but nothing she couldn't handle. Normally she didn't kill anything, or anyone, but it just felt right. No biggie.

Sakura, however, was looking for someone. Her hero and almost mentor, Hoshi Ryu, or just Ryu. He must be out here, somewhere, in this land. Probably not in the middle of nowhere, though, he had to have past through a town at some point. So, she asked one of the locals where she could find a nearby town, and they pointed her in the direction of Lumbridge. Hefting her student bag over her shoulder, she lightly jogged along a cobblestone path, breathing in the beauty of this wonderful place she had found herself in. Quiet, still...Sakura was happier then she had been in a long time. Often, she had longed for purpose and peace. But when she was hear, she found it. Within her heart she knew she had found the truest purpose she'd ever get. She didn't even miss her family anymore. If anything, she just felt bad for them if they weren't here with her.

Cresting a hill, she knew she was on the outskirts of the Land of Adventure. Before her, nestled up against the beginnings of the mountains was Lumbridge. If Ryu wasn't here, then there was somebody who knew where he was. She wanted to fight him. With her new confidence and inner peace, she wouldn't be surprised if she had that Power of Nothingness he so often described. She could probably beat him, now, in a real fight. What would happen then? She would probably still have a lot of respect for Ryu, but for some reason it felt best just to end his life once he lost. It was an unexpected thought, but maybe this was the Power of Nothingness. Well, she'd figure it out. She usually followed her heart, and right now her heart was telling her to find and fight Ryu and then figure it out from there.

Smiling, satisfied she had found her destination, she did a little skip and continued along the path. Even if Ryu wasn't there, Lumbridge was a beautiful town. It looked like something right out of an American fantasy movie. Picturesque!

Several minutes later, she arrived at the gates. This place seemed pretty safe. No violence here, just a quiet town. Sakura could easily see herself spending a great deal of time here, had she not the nomad's spirit. Still, this would be a nice place to operate out of. Without the Kasugano Residence with her family inside to be a safe place to return too, she was in need of something else. This place would do. Somewhere, there was a place she could stay. As she wandered the streets, there were places that looked out of place. Neon signs that looked like they were from her time mixed in with the heavy wooden signs and stone bricks of Feudalistic Europe. Strange, but in a way it just added to Lumbridge's charm. If anything it just meant there were so many new things to experience, just in this one town.

But before she found a place where someone could help her, she was hungry. It had been a while since she had eaten some hot food. Foraging was fun, and rabbits cooked with Hadoken were actually pretty delicious, but she really wanted someone else to prepare food for her. Problem is, she didn't have much in the way of money. Only ¥4000 worth of spare paper notes that she kept in her student bag in case of emergency. Maybe they took it, here? To be honest the merchants of this town looked like they only traded in big, thick gold coins like in her younger brother's video games.

Inns, hotels, motels, apartments. Condos? Anywhere she could take shelter would be great. The Great Ton Pu inn, it was called. Looked like a cute place, very rustic and self-made. Just like Sakura! Taking a few steps toward it, she opened up the heavy wooden door and peaked her brown-haired head inside. "Moshi moshi? Anyone home?" She asked politely with a small smile on her face. Her voice was light, high, and comfortable. There was a very slight accent in her English, making it apparent it was her second language, but she spoke it well and understood many of the more nuanced phrases of the language.

By the time Poppi extracted Tora's trophy from the moat around Spiral Mountain and revived him, the battle came to an abrupt, loud, and messy end. The constant rapport of gunfire throughout the skirmish went silent, and it left the entire area a little too quiet. While the valley appeared lush and lively, its bizarre location in the most dangerous and least explored part of the Land of Adventure made it uncannily lifeless. No birds sang, no bees hummed, and no fish disturbed the water's surface. Weird, Tora thought, but understandable—after all, the roiling, black-and-purple surface of another dimension or something loomed large over the valley.

Moving habitually by now, the heroes congregated at the top of Spiral Mountain, inside the tower sitting atop it Tora waddled at a leisurely pace to where Peach's presence denoted the meeting spot, looking a little deflated, all too happy to see the last of that horrible encounter. For the life of him he couldn't remember a more stressful fight, and considering some of the adventures Rex got his team into back home, that was saying something. After arriving the Nopon took a seat on the cool stone and watched everyone gathered in a loose circle. Linkle passed by the Nopon, and he waved, glad to see she escaped the snipers' fire. Then Linkle passed by him again, forcing a double take. “Meh?” A second glance made him honestly wonder how he made that mistake, though. The one he knew sported long hair, rabbit ears, green clothes, and a cheery demeanor, while the other was a boy in blue. He wondered if they might be siblings or something, but really Tora didn't care much about the guy.

Peach seemed to be taking stock of the assembled adventurers, and after a moment she nodded. “Including the Koopas up by the bridge, it looks like we're all accounted for. That was a serious challenge, but thanks to the rules, we didn't lose anyone despite taking a lot of hits.” The princess looked relieved, allowing herself a moment to relax before her new, tougher manner took over again.



Her black eyes landed on Link, then on Fox and his bright green eyes. “Good to see you again, hero, and to see you restored, Fox. I may not be exactly who I once was, but I'm still Peach.” A few others greeted the young man, welcoming him into their ranks. For his part Link looked somewhat confused, but he remained as quiet as ever, stolidly taking everything in stride. After a moment Peach clapped her hands together and raised her voice. “So, that's another victory under our belts. We could only save one of them, but the others can still help us on our journey. Did we get all the spirits?”

The various collectors presented them. Within the floating rainbow moats lay images of the End, Quiet, the Sniper, Imani, and Hawkeye Gough. “Any takers?”

Tora's almond-shaped eyes locked onto the one with the scanty sniper inside. He waddled up to get a good look, then glanced around furtively between Peach, Blazermate, and Linkle. “Meh-meh-maybe, you should...um, it'd be a g-good idea if...?”

A metal hand descended from above and bopped the Nopon squarely on the noggin. “Meeh!” he shrank back, glaring at Poppi. “Bad Poppi! I-it just idea! We no know what happen of manlypon take lady spirit yet!”

The artificial blade stared at him with humorless eyes. “Ulterior motives suspected. Maybe masterpon should think more productively. You not yet take spirit yourself, after all.”

Tora looked back at the selection. “...That true. But...all of them human-shaped. What if Tora get human limbs with handsome round body? Or little Nopon limbs with human body?” He glanced worriedly at the Gough spirit. “And if Tora take that one, probably triple in size, meh! How can Tora be cute if big as Bow-Bow? No way!”

“Then we not need be here.” Poppi reached over and grabbed Tora by his overalls, then started to drag him back toward the wall, with Tora protesting and flailing uselessly the whole time. She bowed her head to Peach and the others apologetically. “Poppi is sorry about masterpon disruption.” They went just as Kamek forged a spiritbond with two of the spirits, Quiet being one of them.

The two sat back to let the others have at the plunder, with Tora looking out through the hole in the wall he made with his and Poppi's entrance earlier. He peered into the brilliant, picturesque blue of the water. With one hand he reached into a pocket for a snack, but to his disappointment found that he forgot to restock. He sighed, and said to his companion, “We not help much in that fight, and things only get harder from here, meh. Pretty soon we not get luxury of turning down strong spirits, even if make look horrible.”

He wasn't the only one frowning. Poppi considered it too. “Masterpon and Poppi not weak, but people in this world have many unexpected powers. We need to adapt. Be ready for any situation.”

Tora fussed at the cut left by Link's sword, thinking. After a couple seconds he took a deep, determined breath. “Okay, next time we both take spirit. Get stronger together, like Rex-Rex and Pyra.” He looked at his partner but ended up looking past her, out the tower door, across the bridge, and past the partially-destroy hag statue at the wall of unnatural purple beyond. “If there is next time. Next is boss fight, and this time friends get no continues,” he joked, dryly. “Not even have chance for relaxing swim first.” He went quiet to listen to the others not dealing with spirits as they talked about the road ahead. Apparently, some knew about what waited inside the other world thanks to prior experience. It sounded like things would get tricky. Tora redirected his attention to stretching, trying to psych himself up for the coming fight. Poppi joined in, doing various stretches despite the absolute lack of benefit they provided her.

After the fight was over, Donnie felt a deep sense of disquiet in his soul. He took Gough’s Spirit without another word, and left the premises. While the others sat down and began to have their usual post-fight banter and dole out Spirits, Donnie walked down the grassy mountain until he found a secluded spot, away from the others.

He sat down on the sun-kissed grass, getting into the lotus position. He needed some time alone.

Merkava was merely a savage monster. The zombies, demons, and ghosts were, well, zombies and demons and ghosts. But what had happened just now was...brutal. At least when he’d had to fight the Horde on rare occasions before he got the guts to declare neutrality, the enemy was genuinely motivated. At least there was a sense of honor to the fighting, however sad.

This...this was murder. They freed one, maybe they could have freed all of them. But freeing someone took power, and they needed as much as they could get in this topsy-turvy world.

It all came down to power. Power was just an abstraction of strength. And he knew who to turn to on matters of strength.

He emptied his mind, seeking a sign, some kind of guidance, for what he should do. In times of great importance, he could count on a word from Xuen. He could travel to the Timeless Isle and meet him personally, or simply resort to prayer, like the paladins of the Light did.

He closed his eyes, putting his fists together, and silently prayed.

Mighty Xuen, I seek your wisdom. The enemy is perhaps the most powerful I will ever face. He takes the hearts and minds of the people of the multiverse and makes them do his bidding, to protect a world he stole from other, more creative gods. He is ruthless, holier-than-thou, and willing to make friend fight friend and brother fight brother to keep his dream alive. I can save some, but not all. Circumstance and the sacrifice of power prevent me and my allies from saving everyone who is killed. White Tiger, you are a fountain of wisdom on the subject of strength. You philosophize on when and how it should be used. So, I beseech you, grant me the guidance to choose the correct path.

He waited. And waited. And...nothing. Normally, he could feel a connection to the power of Xuen, or the other August Celestials, within himself at all times. But...now that he thought about it, he couldn’t feel anything. It was like his connection was severed. Like he was now the only source of the thunder god’s power in the entire world. If you could call this place a world, anyway.

His disquiet was only multiplied.

Well, he thought as he opened his eyes, at least I have this Spirit. He took Gough’s Spirit in hand. He had killed this man. He didn’t have to. He could have freed him. But circumstance and folly prevented it, and he wanted to fix his mistake. And to give Gough an opportunity to turn his bow against the repulsive god that had the gall to call itself a being of Light while sponsoring horror after horror.

The spirit seemed to resonate with Donnie’s sentiment. It shone brightly, momentarily growing from a mere sprite into a ghostly facsimile of the Hawkeye himself. Then the image flowed into the monk, cementing the formation of the spiritbond.

“That’s a neat mechanic,” came a bloopy, electronic voice from nearby.

Donnie turned to see, looming like a specter in the doorway of the house he sat beside, a being that defied logical explanation. It filled him with neither apprehension nor surprise, since by now his time in the World of Light desensitized him to the strange and unfamiliar in a big way, and even ignoring that, he’d encountered more than his fair share of the bizarre during his time on Azeroth. The stranger before him appeared to be a golden machine with a shimmering face, with bars of lights forming an angular facsimile of a face. From the contraption’s base extended a flowing purple cloak trimmed in exquisite fur, creating a look rather like certain wraiths from Donnie’s world, whose skulls, arms, and spines constituted the only solid matter in their ghastly robes. Compared to them, though, this floating, unliving thing seemed more dryly cheeky than wrathful or vicious. Plus, the artificial mouse-like creatures climbing across his robes, clicking softly, managed to be rather cute.

“Greetings,” he bleeped. “I am the Lord of Games, manager of entertainment and keeper of forbidden knowledge, yet somehow I don’t seem to have you in my database. Who are you?”

Donnie rose to his feet, extending a hand. “My name’s Lee. Donovan Lee. Nice to meet you.”

The screen on the Lord of Games’ head flashed an image of two hands shaking, which moved up and down. “...Likewise. You may call me LOG. Your name, however, is not recognized. You must be a custom, which would make your existence in this world truly remarkable. And in a sense, tragic. What are you here for? Easter egg hunt?”

“Back up a moment. Custom? Tragic? My world has games, but I don’t think we have the kind of games you’re talking about. Assume I know nothing, and please explain. I’m from Azeroth, if it helps.”

Though simple, the expression on LOG’s screen portrayed a pronounced neutrality. “Yes, yes, I know. Your world is quite renowned. But it’s really not much use explaining. I doubt you’d understand.”

Donnie crossed his arms. “I’m not stupid. I know that my world isn’t that advanced in the grand scheme of things, what with us having to stave off an apocalypse every few months. We don’t exactly have time to really focus on entertainment technology these days. But I’m pretty sure I could grasp what you’re talking about, if you’d at least try.”

LOG sighed. “My knowledge is forbidden for a reason, you know. To embrace the truth is to invite insanity. Insight into what lies beyond, into the fate one has in store...it has driven many to madness. And all of them believed themselves wise, able to handle whatever secrets might come to them. I can give you a nugget of knowledge, bit player, but are you sure you want to receive it?” Something in the atmosphere had changed, something in the sky, or the wind, or the air. The glowing pixels of LOG’s screen burned bright against the blackness that surrounded them.

Donnie paused for a moment. He had faced things that would make most men cry for their mothers in the fetal position. He had fought Garrosh Hellscream in the throes of Old God possession. He had felt the Sha pull and tug at his mind. He’d even been mind-controlled, more than once. He was definitely no stranger to murderous attempts on his sanity, but he had to consider.

And he did. For a while.

Finally, he spoke. “Very well. Tell me.”

“I shall.” The Lord of Games floated into the air. “You, Donovan Lee, are walking down a path to oblivion. Even if you succeed, it will be the end of you. Not death, but a fate many would consider to be...worse.” LOG looked out across the valley. “This world was made by Galeem. It is reality, but it is the only place where you, Donovan Lee, truly exist. Here, and only here, can others know your face, and remember your name. If this World of Light comes to an end, you will cease to exist. You will return to nothingness, to sheer, uncaring anonymity. You will be a nameless hero, just one among an uncountable number. That is your tragedy, and what it means to be a custom.”

“But what about my past? My friends, my family, the temple I lead? Did it all mean nothing?”

“Your past?” LOG’s face gleamed. “You are an expression. Your memories, a flavor on the tongue. The actions you took are not yours alone. But it did not mean nothing...” The entity descended, his tone less cold. “You may take solace in that.”

He looked down at one of the mice chewing on his cape. “Still, if you value your identity, you should not be seeking the restoration of the worlds. The World of Light may not be reality, but it’s better than nothing, hm?”

“...So, what you’re saying is that I won’t be famous. That I won’t have my titles and mountains of gold and my artifacts of great importance. You claim it’s the same as cessation of existence. That anonymity is a fate worse than death, correct? Not that when the worlds are restored, I’ll actually lose consciousness, forever.”

LOG stared at him. “What little you will have, in anonymity and isolation, if the World of Light ends, is meaningless in the greater scheme of things. It is as a dream, fleeting and personal, nothing at all to the waking world.”

Donnie’s response was as blunt and straightforward as an Arcanite hammer to the skull. “I don’t care,” he said in a flat voice. 

With that out of the way, he continued. “I don’t care if I have some grand cosmic meaning I can’t even grasp. These other people I’m working with, the non-customs. Would they even understand what you’re talking about? Do they even grasp the distinction between this dreaming world and this waking world you’re talking about? I get it, you’re a font of forbidden and eldritch knowledge gleaned from planes of existence beyond my mortal ken. That means nothing to me.”

He crossed his arms again. “I’m not some glory hound who thinks that he’s only important if everyone knows his name. I’m a Huojin Monk. I believe that I am the change I wish to see in the world, and a Huojin sees that change through to the end, no matter the consequences. And there are people suffering in agony because of Galeem.”

He summoned Vivi, and just as quickly dismissed him. “You see that little wizard that I just summoned? He got dropped into the Dead Zone by Galeem when the World of Light was made, in a barren, dead city infested with zombies and demons from every world imaginable, all in the same place. He survived in an abandoned police station for several days with a bunch of other survivors, only for my group to arrive and help them escape to here, the Land of Adventure. He didn’t make it, and got zombified. Some super-soldier in green armor killed him and a bunch of other infected and I made him into a Striker to bring him back. Galeem is heartless enough to just drop a poor man into that hellhole for no reason. The humanitarian cost alone is worth my fame several times over.”

His face became harsh. “Now if you don’t mind, we’re done here, Lord.” He turned around and made to leave.

LOG watched him go. “Well, I’d hardly consider that to be ‘back’,” he muttered before turning back to the house to resume working on his game. “Still, that’s quite the heroic spirit. May you reach the goal and the reality you desire.”

“Thanks--wait, what did you say just now?!” the monk said as he whirled around and walked right back to the house LOG was coding in. “If there’s something more to Strikers than I was told, I need to know. It’s important to my quest.”

The Lord of Games looked up from his mice. “Hm? That wizard seemed to spring into being at your beck and call, didn’t he? Like a ghost. Seems like a terrible way to live. But such things are not within my realm of expertise. Perhaps there’s someone else you could ask. Now, if you’ll excuse me, these bugs won’t squash themselves.”

Donnie sighed. “Yes, I agree. But Spirits vanish into nothing when left there, and the alternatives are absorption or equipment. I wanted to give him some kind of existence, at least. Just...one more thing. Sorry for snapping at you, and...does a ‘Xuen, the White Tiger’ exist in your database? Do you know if he’s in the World of Light? Or any of the other August Celestials?”

“Yes, no, and no.”

“That explains things. Thank you for your time. I’m gonna leave you to your tinkering.” With that, Donnie left for the meeting spot.

He arrived before long, with his intended time of meditation cut short and all. The others had yet to depart, and as he entered, he drew a glance from Tora and Poppi, who’d shifted to QT mode. “Hm. Donnie look deep in thought. Wonder what he thinking,” the artificial blade said aloud.

“Probably about big bossypon. Meh, Donnie! You good?” He waved at the monk with his wing.

"...Yes, somewhat," Donnie said. "I went to meditate on the situation we're in, and I ran into a... robot, of sorts. He called himself the Lord of Games, or LOG for short, and said that I'm...different from you guys, somehow."

He explained the rest of what happened, quickly filling in who the August Celstials were and his connection to them since Tora likely wouldn't even know who he was talking about.

It didn’t help. The two were pretty baffled. “What?” the Nopon said, practically slack-jawed.

“Maybe we talk about this after death battle,” Poppi suggested. Reading the room told her that it wouldn’t be much longer before the heroes rolled out.

"We can always visit him after we beat the champion," Donnie said. "He's within walking distance."

@Lugubrious@Dawnrider@DracoLunaris

---

Everything hurt. A boundless darkness stretched out before him in all directions, beckoning him to tumble into it and just sleep. Somewhere far in the distance he could hear the faint reverberation of sounds. Boots scuffing on wood, the sharp cutting noises of lasers lancing through the air, grunts of pain. He tried to move, but it was useless. Cold flowed down his back and into his muscles, mingling with an exhaustion that made his limbs about as useful as a un-strung puppet. He thought back, back to the last things he could remember. The cliff, the hands, standing side by side with all those warriors, light. Light more terrible and radiant than anything he’d ever seen bearing mercilessly down in him.

Was that it? Was he dying? Again? Were these sounds he was hearing the last gasps of that terrible battle?

In a short time, though, even the sounds died away. Everything got quiet. Or maybe, like last time, he had simply fallen too far away to hear anything. Then, cutting through the dark...

_{...his is lin...?}

A voice. The barest outline of a sentence. Was someone calling his name?

It was only a moment later that he felt something flooding into his body that chased the pair and weariness from his body leaving only, strangely enough, the cold wetness on his back.

_{...mate...om the party...uy version of Link...?}

He was sure this time, someone was definitely talking to him.

_{...open your eyes...}

With a sinking feeling he realized that this was all dreadfully familiar.

"Wake up!"

---

Light flooded Link’s eyes as they opened with a start. He felt strangely refreshed, as though he'd just awoken from a long and dreamless rest. It was a feeling he'd only had once before, when Princess Zelda's voice had reached out to him and guided him up from the well of sleep. It had been calming, gentle, like the cooing of a bird on your windowsill greeting the morning.
This girl's technique was more brute force, but nonetheless effective. She had just pinched both his cheeks and pulled until you could get a good look at his gums.

She pulled back when she noticed his eyes were open, letting his face snap back into its proper shape. “Welcome back.” She said as he sat up off the...he looked over his shoulder and saw that he’d been leaned up against a small wall of ice. That explained the cold, and why his back was wet. At least he wasn’t naked this time. He turned back to face the girl, who was now sitting on her legs just watching him curiously. She was Hylian for sure, he could tell by the ears poking out from a mop between the cascades of her hair. More than that, if he looked past the strange mismatched outfit and the ears placed neatly on her head, there was a certain familiarity about her face that reminded him of the one he saw whenever he looked down into the clear still water of a lake. It was the same kind of vibe he had gotten from a few of the boys present at the cliff. If you didn’t know any better you could mistake them for relatives of his.

“It’s like looking in a mirror.” She said, leaning closer in fascination. He wouldn't go quite that far, no matter how good he looked in Gerudo garb. “I’m Linkle. I bet you have a lot of questions, but I’m not sure we have all that much time right now. Do you think you could help us kill a monster?”

He blinked at her a few times, then grabbed a hold of the top of the iced over ropes of the bridge to pull himself up and get a look around. The landscape was unfamiliar with its giant tower, the bigger stone head that had been ruined, and the even bigger blob of disquieting darkness that loomed over the canyon. The people hanging around were unfamiliar, at least most of them, with many being creatures he had never seen before. He had no clue how he’d gotten up on this rickety bridge, how he’d gotten so injured, nor the circumstances of his revival and now he was being asked to throw himself into danger in a world he didn’t know.

“Sure.” He said, smiling nostalgically.

“Awesome!” Linkle shouted, bouncing up. “Follow me.” She said, having spotted where the heroes were gathering in the tower and heading toward it. That bounce never left Linkle's step as he followed along behind at a more casual pace along the bridge. Occasionally she’d throw glances backwards at him, and whenever she did she would speed up a little from the excitement. Like a little kid, excited to show you something but unsure if you’ll still really be there when you check. It occurred to Link at that moment that he had no idea whether or not he had been an only child.

“Hey.” He called forward, causing her to stop on the spot and spin round. “Am I your great uncle?”

She considered that for a moment, then her face lit up like the sun. “Maybe.” She replied eagerly, before turning and proceeding at double speed.

Link just scratched his head before shrugging it off. He’d learned a while ago that if you just went with it eventually things stopped being confusing.

---

There was never enough time, Linkle thought. She’d met two whole other Heroes, seen a quartet more, but there was never a moment where she could really talk to any of them. Adventure always called, there was always something she had to do. She looked back again, just to make sure he hadn’t fallen over the side or been eaten by a giant bird or something. Nope, good, still there. She was planning to keep it that way.

She waved back at Tora as she passed him, happy to see he wasn’t all that damp from his dip in the moat, and chuckled at the confusion on his face as Link also waved at him. She shut up though as the Princess started to hold court, only to look as surprised as Tora had when The Princess greeted Link as though she knew him. It took Link a moment before recognition filled his eyes, and he bowed his head respectfully at her address before he started looking around the room, taking careful stock of all the participants in this monster slaying endeavor.

Peach then brought out the Spirits. Tora started to suggest...something, but Poppi almost immediately intervened violently to veto the idea and drag him off. Linkle didn’t know what that was all about. It was perfectly reasonable to think about what happened to a guy if he took a lady spirit. He was wrong about becoming giant making him less cute, though. How could he be less cute if there was more of him?

As she pondered this question and imagined a Tora the size of King Dodongo rampaging around Hyrule Field she missed first pick on the spirits. Donnovan picked one out and left without a word whereas Kamek greedily took on two, a process that Link watched with great interest. Linkle stepped forward, hoping someone hadn’t gotten the one she’d taken an interest in. Thankfully, the lady with the giant crossbow was still there.

“Hello.” She said, holding the mote of light up to her face as Link looked over her shoulder.

“There’s a person in there.” He said, curiously.

“Yeah, one of the people we just fought. The hand brainwashed them and made them try to kill us, so we didn’t really have any choice.” she answered.

He nodded at this, as though the idea of The Hand wasn’t at all strange to him. It made Linkle wonder what he had seen in his adventures all the more. “What do you do now?”

“Oh right, this is really important!” She said loudly enough for anybody nearby to hear. “I either put her in my head to take her skills, put her in my heart and take her powers, make friends with her so I can summon her, or crush her to make her into an item.”

He nodded again, before turning to look at where Tora was nursing his sword wound and frowning. He returned his contemplative gaze to the spirit. “Could you do one that lets you summon her?”

“Sure! I was going to do that anyway, it’s the only one I haven't tried yet.” She replied, turning back to the spirit. “I’m Linkle. I see you’re a fan of crossbows. I like crossbows too.” She lifted up her own crossbow, turning it to different angels to show it off to the spirit. “But mine only work from really close up, so I can’t really handle anything if it’s far away. I mean…,” Linkle lowered her voice to an embarrassed whisper and leaned in, “...you saw how it was back there. You must have. I couldn't do anything to you guys. Please, help me out?”

The spirit was still for a moment, then with what seemed like a cosmic sigh the image of the one eyed sniper flowed out of the rainbow mote and stepped confidently into Linkle. She wiggled her fingers where the spirit had once sat, rolled her shoulders, swiveled her hips a little. After the two previous times it felt strange how nothing felt strange. She didn’t even feel more full, which surprised her considering there was now a whole other person in there with her.

Linkle wasted no time. “Okay, now come back out!” She ordered, and in what seemed like a spectral cloud of smoke the sniper they had just finished fighting appeared before the group again, right in front of Linkle. She appraised the would-be hero in front of her, and signed.

“You shouldn't waste my energy like this, love. We’re still deep in enemy territory.” She said, a gentle admonishment that chilled the girls enthusiasm slightly.

“Oh yeah, you guys need to recharge.” Linkle said, donking herself on the head. “Sorry. I just wanted to ask you your name.”

The sniper’s single eye widened momentarily in surprise, before a slight smile graced her lips. “Imani.” She replied, before fading away.



“Nice to meet you, Imani.” Linkle said, before turning to Link. “Cool, right?” Link, however, wasn’t there. She turned in a little circle to see him approaching Fox, Bowser, and Peach. “He didn’t even hang around to meet her.” She said, disappointed. Oh well, like she was thinking earlier, she had things to do anyway. She’d left the girls to back up Euden in case he needed it when she’d booked it up here, so she had to make sure everyone was okay.

---

Link, from what he had gathered through looking around and listening to Peach, thought he had a pretty good idea of why he’d been so roughed up. Before that, though, there was a question burning in his mind that had been called up by the familiar faces in this group.

“Fox, Your Majesties.” He said, relief naked in his voice. “It’s good to see you all made it out in one piece. Do you know anything about the others? That monster got me first, I didn’t see what happened to anybody else.”

The three sat in a rough circle in one corner of the foyer, their positions and postures clearly agitated despite their best attempts to relax. In their brief careers as the Phantom Thieves they had participated in countless meetings like this, whether for the purpose of discussing targets or planning infiltrations or just for getting together. It had been a long time since such a meeting constituted just these three though, a membership hearkening back to the early days of their cooperation. Even then, though, they never found themselves without a fourth member, whose earnestness formed the very basis of their organization. It was a sobering thought, and for a little while, none of them broke the heavy silence.

Eventually, however, Skull sighed and sprawled out over the sofa. The metallic spine on the back of his jacket propped him up a little, but he didn't seem to mind. “Man, this friggin' sucks. Everything got pulled right out from under us, right when things finally seemed to be going our way. It really pisses me off.”

Panther wrung her hands in frustration. “Right? We're totally adrift. This place is gigantic, there's no obvious way out, and who knows where everyone else is. We've got no clue what's going on or what to do.” She looked at the floor. “Never thought I'd miss Mona so much.”

Joker nodded, his expression dour. “I miss him too.”

“Yeah, I bet that furball would know what's up,” Skull admitted, shaking his head. After a moment he leaned forward, his face serious. “But seriously, I can't just sit around doin' nothin'. We've got to figure somethin' out.”

Straightening up, Joker put his hands on his knees. “Let's start with what we know.”

“Sure,” Panther said. “Let's see...the first thing I remember was the three of us appearing in that awful city. Seemed like something straight out of a zombie flick, so we holed up inside this art gallery.”

“Then that freaky camera monster came at us!” Skull growled. “It kept trying to freeze us, but we managed to keep saving each other until...it got both me and Panther at the same time. You ran to find help then, right?”

A couple seconds passed while Joker thought. “We had our Metaverse outfits from the start.”

Panther's eyebrows rose a touch. “That's right. At first we thought this place was Mementos, what with all the distortion, but the monsters and people we've seen aren't shadows.”

“Well, are we sure it ain't Mementos?” Skull asked. “It looks way different from the stuff we've gone through before, but it kinda feels the same. If this is the collector's conscience thing Mona talks about sometimes, it'd explain all the stuff from games.”

“Collective unconsciousness,” Joker corrected.

Scratching her head, Panther considered that. “I guess that would make sense. After all, Mementos is given form by society's thoughts, right? Maybe this is some kind of really deep level made from the thoughts of gamers. Or a gigantic palace...?”

Skull exhaled deeply. “Man, that'd be crazy. Super cool, but still crazy. Doesn't help our situation, though. What're we going to do about it?”

A pause reigned for a few seconds before Joker made his decision. “We need to reunite the Phantom Thieves.”

To that, his friends voice unanimous agreement. “Of course,” said Panther. “Given how big this place is, it'll be tough, but I'm sure we can think of something.”

“Uh huh. Man, if only this crappy village had phone service,” Skull complained. “We could just call 'em.” He held his phone in his hand, but the connection signal in the upper-right corner displayed no bars.

The sight of it sparked an idea, simple but nonetheless solid. “Let's go somewhere that does,” Joker suggested.

“Chasing smartphone signals? Sounds like a plan!” Panther laughed. “I was worried for a while there, but I guess no matter what happens to us, we're still the Phantom Thieves. We can solve this mystery together.”

At some point the door to the inn had opened, and it admitted a young woman with a face Skull just now recognized. Cheerful, with short brown hair, a too-small school uniform, and fighting gloves...he'd seen her before. He reached over and pushed Joker's shoulder repeatedly. “Hey, hey! She's from Street Fighter!” he whispered urgently. “She was on one of the machines at Gigolo Arcade. We ought to ask her.”

Panther's eyebrows furrowed. “What makes you think she'll be any help, Skull? Are you sure you don't just wanna chat up a girl?”

Waving a hand dismissively, the blond leaned back. “Pssh, no way! I just figured she wasn't from this town, is all.”

“Plus, you'd either fumble it, or give away our identities or something.”

“H-hey, what's that for?”

Joker glanced over at Sakura, who'd by now reached the reception counter and started talking to the burly, red-haired innkeep about accommodations. He didn't remember seeing her in the group that came back from the Dead Zone, and anyone who lived in Lumbridge wouldn't need lodging at an inn. As Skull and Panther continued to bicker, he rose from his seat and approached the girl from behind. As best he could guess, they shared about the same age, and though his outfit screamed 'thief' and he wore a mask, his natural charm should make it easy to approach her. He waited until they finished conversing about currency -trying to figure out the approximate value of yen compared to that of zenny, the town's main currency, it seemed like- before the thief made his move.

“Excuse me,” he said. “I'm Joker. You're from out of town, right? If you don't mind me asking, where did you come from? I'm trying to find some friends, and to do that I need to find an area with phone service, you see.”



For a moment the trio watched as the Doom Slayer approached the draconian demoness to exact her punishment, but when he got to work they found themselves losing interest quickly. Nero averted his gaze when he started to pull, not exactly thrilled by his grisly torture of Echidna, even if she was a vicious little devil. When the screams came to a height, and he noticed Nadia looking profoundly uncomfortable, he reached up and laid a hand on the hilt of the Red Queen. “Okay guy, let's move this along, huh?” He swung in a clean arc, slicing through the remainder of Echidna's exposed neck and silencing her agonized wailing for good. Her body began to disintegrate, her skin and scales turning to ash, and in a few moments the head clutched in the Slayer's hands like a trophy followed suit.

With the general energetic mood thoroughly soured by the Slayer's excessive and disquieting enjoyment, the three didn't need to confirm with one another the idea of moving out. Before they could, however, the man rumbled out a question, and Nero shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me. Saw her the same time you did. Could've been here since the giant disco ball made this joint.” Even in the perennial night and oppressive cloud cover of the Dead Zone, Galeem's radiance could be seen somewhere in the sky, a single glowing constant amid this nightmare realm.

His attention returned to the Slayer, however, when an electronic voice pointed out a demonic presence in him. Shit. Was that brutal bastard going to fight him? For a moment it looked like he would, and Nero inhaled sharply as his muscles tensed up. He recalled the slaughter the day before, the sight of the Slayer single-handedly destroying the horde that followed the survivors from the Police Station to Argent Tower. However, the Slayer did not attack. Nero remained on guard a moment longer, then relaxes as well.

V watched the entire situation from a young distance with Nadia beside him, whose worry did not abate so easily. So glanced between the two, anticipating a clash any moment, until V piped up. “It is good that your obvious hatred of demons didn't propel you down a foolish path. 'To generalize is to be an idiot'...not the most poetic of Blake's insights, but poignant nonetheless.”

Nero glances at the mysterious one. “Easy for you to say. You've got literal demons with you, while I'm just one-fourth, and he's clenching his fist at me.” He shook his head with a resigned sigh. “I'm never gonna get used to this.”

A short distance away, the man who Echidna had been pursuing approached the group gingerly. From this distance, his appearance could be made out more clearly. He wore a strange, one-hundred-percent artificial pale blue hazard suit, covered in various harnesses and equipment. On his chest was a dark capsule, and strapped in on his back was a shape that could only by an occupied body bag. Beneath all that, however, he appeared to be a normal guy. Between forty to fifty years old but in great shape, he had brown hair tied up in a short knot, a goatee, and a tired face. His expression said that he didn't want to be here, clear as day, but he came anyway. His eyes flitted between the devil hunter, the tattooed man, the blood-drenched marine, and the cat girl. “Uh...hey. You people seem, uh, kind of okay. Any chance you know where the center of this hell is?”

V pointed his cane toward the Qliphoth. “There. It stands at the center of this dead place.”

The stranger received an incredulous look from Nero. “What're you doing here, man? This is no place for ordinary people.”

Shifting uncomfortably, Sam looked at the Qliphoth. “I'm making a delivery.”

“A delivery?” Nadia laughed in disbelief. “What could you possibly be delivering that's worth clawing your way through this?”

Sam said nothing, but he didn't need to. Everyone could tell what lay inside that bag on his back. After a bit he said. Nadia put her hands on her hips. “Cat got your tongue? Why are you delivering a body?”

“This place is dangerous,” Sam said, an edge to his voice. “It's been condemned. Gonna put this body right in the middle, and when it goes necro, it'll come back as a BT. Then it'll grab a zombie or something and...poof. City's one big crater.”

Nero's eyebrows raised. He didn't get the details, but the ultimate meaning seemed clear. “Huh. Well, that's interesting. I agree the Dead Zone should basically be nuked, but there could be more survivors around.”

“If the pestilence is allowed to spread beyond the city, the death toll will continue to rise. The number of survivors remaining here surely pales in comparison,” V reasoned, a little too pragmatically.

Nadia said nothing, instead trying to wrap her head around both something capable of annihilating an entire city, and the consequences of doing so with living people still inside.

After some more thinking, Nero said, “Well, even by itself the Qliphoth and its harvesters are brutally efficient. They won't leave any survivors. That plus plagues, and the Flood...well, this place needs to go.” He looked at Sam questioningly. “How long until that stiff rots?”

Without so much as checking, he replied, “Twenty-three hours.”

Nero nodded. “Alright. We know some people who can evacuate survivors and stuff before this place goes away. Meanwhile, we'll take care of those Qliphoth roots and clear the way for 'em.”

“Ugh, it sucks that I need you guys,” Nadia complained.

“Good luck, pal,” Nero said, reaching to clap the guy on the shoulder. Sam shied away from his touch, however, and Nero smoothly gave it up. He glanced at the Doom Slayer. “Overenthusiastic or not, we could use your help. Up for more demon hunting? We're headed over there.” He pointed to the Qliphoth root that towered, tree-like, over a mall to the north.

With the battle's end, the various people who got spread around due to the fighting made their way back to the rest of the group. Although considering most of this fight was either alive or trophy, Blazermate was shocked at how many people actually got injured as Fox, who was freed from Galeem's evil, and the animal duo of Banjo Kazooie came up, both injured. Kazooie mentioning that she was injured, although she didn't really gesture to any part in particular. "Yes, I can see your injured, same with Fox there. My scanners can tell me your health, conditions, and even your weak points." Blazermate said to Kazooie, swapping her medibeam on Fox after Link was in a healthy but not fully healed state. "Although I don't know what you think I can do for a chronic condition. I'm a blazermate model, not a nutranurse." Blazermate continued with a bit of sass, unable to, but trying to meet the sass of the red breegil. She'd get to the pair once Fox was fully healed.

While healing Fox, Tora suggested, although not so subtily, for Blazermate and the other girls not named Sectonia to absorb the spirit of the scantily clad sniper lady, with Poppi smacking him on the head for the idea. "Uh, no thanks Tora. I'm already not 'wearing' a whole lot in the first place. Plus I'm more in it for the support or super cool stuff. Becoming a Sailor Multi doesn't really appeal to me." Blazermate commented. Sectonia looked at the pair very oddly, almost with a look of disbeleif that this kind of conversation was even happening. Thankfully her attention got divided with Donnie reappearing, talking about this and that about his world to Tora. One thing he did say caught her attention though, and out of everyone here, Donnie probably didn't expect to get a comment about the LoG from Sectonia.

"Yes, I met this monitor man myself. He was an odd one. Although I didn't catch much of what he said since I was indisposed at the time. He mentioned something about no 'sequels' for me, whatever that meant. Cryptic" The bee queen said, only a bit dismissively. She did dismiss the notion of taking any of those sniper souls though, as she noting she had more of her magic powers back. She pulled out the magical horns she had gotten earlier, when she awoke in that strange lab, and mulled over their magical potential at hearing Tora and Poppi complain about feeling weak. They didn't look all THAT bad, although the obsidian really clashed with her whole motif, the runes at least matched the blue of the middle of her crown. "You wouldn't happen to have any blue or gold paint in that magical bag of yours, would you?" Sectonia said, looking to Donnie. She would much rather prefer to make these horns match her crown in some way, shape, or form, but if this was the 'boss' of the area coming up, she could stomach taking in the power this item would give. It didn't look THAT hideous, not like some of the other things she had seen some of the others use or wear. With that last thought she glanced at Blazermate's horrific demon shield arm. Yeah, these horns weren't nearly as bad as THAT thing.

Blazermate, while healing Fox, noticed that when he became fully healed, his health 'continued' to grow past his max vitality up to 50% more. Confused, Blazermate started healing Banjo/Kazooie while watching Fox, and noticed that this 'extra health' drained away super fast while she wasn't healing him, decaying and going away in under 20 seconds. Blazermate also noticed her healing rate had drastically increased. "Huh... thats cool." Blazermate absently said, trying this out on a few others to test out how it worked. Since her healing rate had increased, Blazermate was absolutely giddy with excitement. "Hey guys, my healing got loads better!" Blazermate said, overhealing a few people and letting them get used to the feeling of the extra vitality. When Sectonia got the feeling of Overheal, she felt much stronger than normal, as if she could take quite a few more hits, although that dissipated quite quickly when Blazermate healed someone else.. Her new horns also glowed slightly with an eerie aquamarine glow, but nothing came about them due to no enemies being in range. They seemed to react to healing Sectonia noted, which was very helpful considering the robot girl of the group specializing in it.

Link, the new addition to the group, seemed to be one of those who knew others before this whole 'world of light' thing, talking to Peach, Bowser, and Fox with familiarity. Linkle meanwhile, much like Donnie and Kamek before her, took in some of the other sniper's spirits and made the crossbow wielding one a striker. "You know Swordsman. You gave me some trouble back there. I expect you to pay me back by doing the same to our enemies." Sectonia said, giving Link a stern look. Sectonia wasn't too familiar with how these odd tall and limbed 'hylians' are supposed to look, but even she could see that Link looked quite... feminine for what she assumed was a guy. If that was because of his natural looks or taking good care of himself she couldn't say just yet. But it was an interesting observation.

Sakura liked the innkeep.

He's big, bearded, and friendly. Kinda like Zangief! Only nicer, probably, and this guy has never thrown me across the room before. And, I have zenny! I'm glad we figured out an exchange rate that's fair.

Sakura had organized a place for herself to stay. Already she felt a bit safer. Travelling was her thing, but unlike Ryu she needed somewhere to go back too every once in a while to regroup and compose herself. This place would do! As she gathered up the new currency into her school bag, a very likeable person asked for her attention. He looked like some kind of suave super thief that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. It was very good looking. She had seen some flamboyantly dressed people in her time as a Street Fighter, and usually they made her feel kind of tasteless. Really she was just dressed as a school girl because she was a school girl. Represent? Maybe?

I have a bandana? That's cool, right? And gloves? I should probably take the gloves off now that I'm somewhere safe. She thought to herself, holding the student bag infront of her with both arms. Either way, she spent a little bit too long taking in Joker's outfit before she blinked and looked him in the eyes with a welcoming smile. This person was easy to read and kind to strangers, so Joker had found the right person to ask if he wanted trustworthy information.

As Sakura answered Joker's question, she began to pull the fighting gloves from her hands. "Sure, no problem! I came from this place called the Forbidden Kingdom." Sakura explained, setting the gloves on the table. Her tapped the counter. "Now, uh, don't let the name fool you. Everyone's pretty nice there, and there's lots of friendly fights, with tournaments and TV. Lots of familiar faces from the World Warriors league back home." Turning to the side, Sakura mimed a few punches at the open air as she explained the part about fighting.

"And, it has cell phone service! But, it's a pretty long walk. About...that way. Way, way that way. " Sakura concluded, waving her arm in the general direction she had entered Lumbridge from. Yup. Almost everyone she knew was there...except the one she really wanted to see. Ryu, the eternal nomad, always seeking truth in battle. Maybe he got bored of the staged fights and left for greater challenge?

She quirked her to the side, looking a little disappointed about something. She perked up though and quickly asked a question. "But, ē to...have you seen a japanese guy named Ryu? He's about this tall, he wears a karetegi with the arms torn off that show his really big muscles, he's got short black hair, and he's got a headband like this one but it's red instead of white?" She flattened her hand a little under a foot above her own head, pointed at her own biceps, tussled her own hair and then tapped her headband in quick succession as she rapidly described Ryu. Clearly this was a person she cared about a lot, like a friend of hers. Her left index finger was frozen over her headband as she waited for Joker's answer. Her back was straight and her other hand was by her side, suddenly it looked like she was doing some kind of bizarre salute. In reality, she was in total anticipation of whatever Joker's answer was going to be in regards to the whereabouts of Ryu. She had come in here expecting to take it slow and explore a little bit, but she couldn't help herself that an opportunity for information had presented itself in the form of a friendly interaction with a stranger.

@Lugubrious

Doom Slayer

Level 1 Doom Slayer
Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: 276

The Slayer was disappointed that he could not fully pull the head off of the demonic dragon. The blood staining his suit, but he quite liked the new paint. Listening to what the half demon was telling him, he was sure it was some sort of demonic fuckery. Another hypothesis could be the UAC once again trying to open the gates of hell. Sometimes he wonders why he keeps trying to save these people. However he still had hope for humanity, despite their many faults.

Looking over at the flamboyant demon speaking to him, "If i think you are not a threat to humanity...then we will not have a problem" He spoke with small tone of threatening the both of them. He was going to watch them to make sure they do not cross the line. If they did then he would look like a fool, and he would need to correct his mistake. Following behind them, where the group, he didn't care about the details of where they come form. His job was to send these demonic bastards back to hell.

Once again looking over at the bishounen demon, Nodding his head wanting to stop where he though the demonic source was. He wondered if the cat girl was a demon of some kind. Looking up at the tall tree he had a bad feeling about it.

Before they set off everyone took a moment to camp out in the slightly battered tower where they were distributing the sprites, one of which got Torra going about the effects of combining with spirits of beings of different species or body types of their own upon seeing one of them was a very scantily clad human woman.

While Bowser pondered whether taking on human spirits would make Peach more receptive to his advances and simultaneously body blocked jr and the hat kid from getting a closer look at the bikini clad lady’s spirit Kamek grabbed her and the End's spirits and took them both on as strikers.

”I’m in the best position to plop these in similarly towering locations during future encounters” he said as he did it, which would conveniently put them far away from any innocent eyes. They could have crushed her of course, but Kamek felt that was a waste of what had been some incredibly dangerous opponents, and all they’d probably get would be a gun that the people who could actually use it already had access to some kind of equivalent.

A couple of other things happened before they set off.

Firstly, Donnie finally joined the group after wandering off to do some soul searching and instead ending up having a very confusing conversation with a being called The Lord of Games. The koopas where similarly stumped by his retelling, or rather Kamek was stumped while Bowser tuned most of the retelling out after the first few incomprehensible sentences and gleaned from it only a smug sense of self importance when compared to Donnie the “custom”, whatever that meant. Jr, who actually played video games quite, was positioned to at least understand some of the lingo the LOG had used, but failed to make any use of this knowledge in approaching the cataclysmic knowledge being so casually imparted by the screen faced stranger, leaving the fourth wall and everyone’s sanity mercifully intact.

Finally they where joined by a surprisingly talkative link. Bowser wasn't sure he’d ever heard the Hylian do anything vocal other than yell while stabbing things. Not that he’d spent that much time around him. At any rate, Link asked those present at the cliff for the first disastrous fight with Galeem what had gone down after he’d been smote.

”EVERYONE BETWEEN YOU AND ME GOT HIT BY THE SAME STUFF, AND LOOKS LIKE EVERYONE AFTER GOT GOT AS WELL, ‘SEPT KIRBY WHO RAN FOR IT. PUFF-BALL BAILED ME AND SOME OF THE OTHERS OUT A WHILE BACK, AND THEN WE BAILED SOME OF THE OTHER PEOPLE HERE OUT WHILE WE’VE BEEN TRAVELING.”

”EVERYONE ELSE, ‘CEPT A FEW BACK AT PEACH'S CASTLE, ARE STILL RED EYED AND DANGEROUS. WE’LL PICK EM UP WHERE WE FIND EM WHILE WE GO TO TAKE DOWN THE TWELVE BOSSES STOPPING US FROM HITTING GALEEM. PRETTY STANDARD STUFF FOR YOU RIGHT HERO?” Bowser explained loudly while taking the load of his legs, getting them some rest before they entered subspace.