Geralt managed to avoid most of the damage from being slammed by the dragon's tail, between what remained from Quen and his own efforts to evade the appendage, but he couldn't prevent himself from being knocked along the ground, and through a small layer of acid, before rolling to a stop and groaning. "Devils, that hurt." Struggling to get himself up, the Witcher carefully shook a bit of the caustic liquid off of himself before pausing to take a few deep breaths. He wouldn't go down from just that, but there came a point where that much muscle might as well have been a tree swung by a rock troll right into him. Forcing himself to stand, Geralt frowned when he realized that he was much further away from the fight than he'd have hoped, though his distance did allow him to get a good look at all that happened.

And, hell, did a lot happen. Donnie decided that his flying machine wasn't going to be useful anymore, apparently, with all the damage it had taken. At the same time, Jak dropped from above the dragon and unleashed his massive dark energy attack. He heard a few massive explosions around the same time, from that over-sized gun the Courier was using, and there were still a few people clinging to the dragon while the biggest explosion occurred. Geralt winced when he noticed that, but the cat things managed to rescue Link and Euden. That much damage, though? This was done. Geralt put his pistol away and nodded, unconcerned.

Until he noticed the dragon was still moving, missiles detonating against its hide, as it slammed a massive clawed hand onto Tora, crushing him beneath it. Geralt tried to move, but the dragon whipped its tail around, forcing him to dodge lest he be pulverized by the oversized appendage. A second hammer blow crushed Tora utterly, leaving him stuck in the ground, immobilized. The dragon took a deep breath, and a ball of acid descended upon Tora, disintegrating the metal golem utterly, killing him. Geralt shut his eyes, unable to watch, anger coursing through him at his inability to save another person, sentient golem or no.

Until he heard Tora's panicked shouts and witnessed Blazermate's quick thinking in healing their ally. A shuddering breath of relief escaped Geralt's lungs, only for his mood to be replaced by



Maybe somebody looked at him accidentally. Maybe he was reminded of one too many people he couldn't save. All Geralt knew was that he was unusually angry. The stress of being torn away from everything he fought and bled for? The realization that he didn't know if he'd even see Ciri and Yennefer again?

You'd have to ask somebody capable of conscious thought, because Geralt wasn't at that moment.

He was a swinging, screaming bladestorm of fury, tearing limbs from Endermen and chasing their retreating forms flawlessly. Whenever his current target teleported, Geralt was right behind them, silver sword flashing. He'd completely abandoned the group's target, instead chasing the damned little distractions that had kept them from protecting Tora. Was it foolish? Absolutely. Was it counter-productive? Probably.

But the part of Geralt's brain in charge wasn't thinking about the tactical benefits of eliminating the small fry before dealing with the larger threat, of splitting their forces up erratically. All it wanted was destruction. And destruction it had: the Witcher had ultimately done little more than distract a few of the Enderman Linkle and the Bowsers hadn't yet destroyed and angering a few others. If anything, he might have even been a liability with how much attention he was probably drawing.

As his sword exploded out the back of yet another Enderman, Geralt forced himself to take a deep breath and close his eyes, lest he get caught back up in the aggression he so often suppressed. It was a moment or two before he realized what he'd done, and his stomach felt like it was missing. Adrenaline was still flooding through his veins, but he had to clamp down on that before he lost control again.

Wiping the blood from his sword, Geralt turned back to the fight, only to realize that it had ended without him.

He caught the last of Bowser's destruction of the Ender Dragon, of the wave of force the creature's explosion gave off, which only briefly irritated him. It wasn't enough to make even him, as off as he was, stumble.

A few more deep breaths had Geralt stowing his weapon, walking back towards the others, before his stomach dropped again as the strange otherworld they were in starting dissolving and gravity took control of the island they were on once more.

"Whoreson." He sighed. Of course there was some catch to this. Never just a simple victory. Looking at the others, Geralt frowned. "Something about that water feels...off." He couldn't place it, but he didn't want to get wet. Thankfully, as the party fell, Sectonia was kind enough to grab a hold of one of Geralt's elongated arms, not deigning to look at the Witcher. Better for them both that way, Geralt was sure there was some Enderman blood staining his armor and clothing.

A few at a time, the heroes started managing their falls and lofting upward off the ill-fated island. Linkle's cuccos spread their wings to catch the wind and float to safety, one of them held onto for dear life by the long, spindly arms of her owner. Easily able to take to the skies himself, Kamek hurried to assist his young master with his clown car's emergency repairs. While the rush job ended a few moments after the flying machine parted ways with the ground, the vehicle begrudgingly coughed itself awake and hauled Junior upward long before there was any danger. Once flying on its own power, the clown car made for a halfway-decent target for nearby lightweight tether-users, so Hat Kid did just that and joined her fellow child on his ride. It was Bowser, however, who took a precious moment before saving his skin to lend a panicked Tora the literal hack job he needed.

Blurting out, “Thanky-thanky!” he got to work winding wires and welding metal. Relatively unconcerned, Poppi looked around to make sure her allies were alright as Tora labored to shut them out and focus on repairs. She spotted her masterpon's helper simply jump off the falling island with all his strength, then summon that new Trowlon striker of his to surf the breeze far above the water's surface. It looked like a lot of fun, actually, and Poppi made a mental note to bring it up to Tora later. Halfway through a fall to one's death was no time to chat about skyboarding. Instead she watched Cuphead flounder through the air to try and grab a cuccoo of his own, and the Jak-Daxter duo soar on angelic wings. Were she able to breath, Poppi would have breathed a sigh of relief; for a moment there, it had looked as if the two died in the blast that annihilated Link and Euden. The memory, lost for a short time in all the chaos, tugged at her heart strings. Worse still, she expected that it would hit Tora a lot harder once he realized. She could only hope that he didn't beat himself up for laughing and feeling jolly while the realization escaped him. Of course, neither had gotten good look at the aftermath of the gyrocopter's explosion, so neither could use context clues to piece together that the Cadet's terminology meant their friends escaped.

Now more than a little unhappy, Poppi watched her other allies escape, floating up like balloons all around her. Sectonia, having never touched the ground to begin with, busied herself collecting a couple woefully inelegant subjects while Peach sailed away on her parasol. She could see the vibrant red of Kazooie's wings framed against the sky behind Banjo far above, making the bear into a funny-looking angel. Fox joined Cuphead and Linkle's cucco crew, and with his injuries partially tended to Donnie could breath ease while descending atop that flying disc of his. The Toadies took care of both the Ace Cadet and the dragon's severed tail, though it took all of them to accomplish that feat.

Most stunning of all was the Courier, who threw his prior caution about accepting spirits -as well as himself- to the wind after volunteering to host the unbreakable Ender Dragon spirit. He transformed in a dazzling display of dancing light and sheer power, and when it faded, a changed gunslinger of black scales and vicious claws soared on black wings. Seeing her allies safe filled Poppi with relief, but it also made her look down at Tora. Large beads of sweat dotted his face as he fumbled with her circuitry. She glanced to either side, noting that he gorgeous aquamarine of the inland sea appeared to be fast approaching. “Um, masterpon?” she said tentatively. “Not want to alarm, but...”

The Nopon's nerves failed him, and he made a snap decision. He wanted to say something like 'hope that good enough, let's go!' but what he cried in a shrill scream was, “Gonownownownowgonowgogogo!” Tora threw himself into Poppi's lap, still holding his tools, and the artificial blade fired her thrusters. She shot backward, sliding across the end stone, until she could gather her legs beneath her and push off. The pair hit the open air with not a moment to lose, flying clear just a handful of seconds before the island hit the water with a tremendous crash, sending a miniature tidal wave rolling across the pristine lake. Tora deflated in relief, sighing happily as he held Poppi close. Smiling, she gave the sinking island one last glance before she started to gain altitude.

Bowser led the way atop his Trowlon to a different sky island, one that hovered on its own above the surface. Once the heroes got close enough, they could see that the reef not only sort of resembled a curly-up starfish, but also that it featured a bunch of rather aquatic-looking flora. Landing one at a time, they made their way to the reef center, where they could group up in peace.

Once back on terra firma, or at least terra as-firm-as-could-be-asked, Tora practically kissed the ground as he rolled about. His tools, released from his wings' deathgrip at last, lay on the grass beside him. “Ahh, thank Architect! Tora never want see floating island again!”

Poppi was standing on one leg, inspecting her repaired leg. While certainly not pretty, it worked well enough. “Masterpon should try to not open eyes, then,” she remarked. Once satisfactory with her inspection, she raised a tentative hand and looked around at the others. “Did friends see platforms on edges of reefs? Looked like teleporters to Poppi.”

“Mhm,” Peach replied. She sat against a tree in the grass without any regard for the dirtiness of her pink long coat's hems. “Maybe they link the islands together.” She tried not to look at either Linkle or Geralt while addressing them at the same time, which was difficult. “Hey, do you -Linkle- and you -Mr. Geralt- want me to remove the spirits of those tall creatures? Now that we're out of that place, the cons probably outweight the pros, yeah?” Should they accept her offer, she planned to help them as quickly as possible.

Tora rolled into a sitting position, his expression serious. “Tora agree, meh! Useful as warp is, Tora want be able to look at friend Linky-Linky again!”

Poppi rolled her eyes. “Masterpon not see anything wrong with that statement?”

He scratched his head with one wing and laughed nervously. “W-well, Tora also want see friend Geralt again. Just known Linkle for longer, is all. Thought of first...meh”

The spotlight moved on, but his and Poppi's conversation continued. “It seem like Masterpon often think of Linkle first,” she admonished.

“Poppi have logic error if Poppi think Tora not care about you, meh,” the Nopon assured her. “Poppi mean world to Tora. But am not thinking of Poppi and Linky same way. Friend Linky is super cool, super cute, great at fighting but always very nice, very wholesome. Definitely best girl 'til we find Pyra again!”

His companion frowned. “If Linkle knew Masterpon talked about her like this, would be very weirded-out. Probably not hang out with Masterpon anymore.”

“But...” The egg-shaped engineer looked crestfallen, but he ended up shaking his head. “Meh meh. Rex-Rex and old friends never have problem with Tora. Even when Morag and Brighid get cross, nothing bad happen.”

Poppi found herself unable to respond. Logic dictated that unusual, obsessive behavior could bring about negative repercussions, hence her frequent scolding of her Masterpon, but if the others tolerated Tora then she couldn't conclude that it was an issue. If he went over the line, she reasoned, she would have to insist, but until then she couldn't pull together a case against him.

A couple minutes later, anyone on scout duty would spot movement across the sea. A couple figures, their details difficult to discern from this distance, crossed a reef near the floating tower and stepped into the center of one of its outside platforms. They disappeared in a flash, and soonafter the movement of similar figures could be spotted on a closer reef, almost hidden behind a small island that happened to float in the way. The process then repeated once more, except this time the strangers emerged onto the reef the heroes stood upon.

They could be clearly seen the moment they began down the path toward the center where the lion's share of the heroes rested: a boy, a balloon, and a bird.

To some of the heroes, however, these newcomers were no strangers. The third, who led the way for the other two, zeroed in on Fox. His beak hung open, and he grunted. “Huhh. Well, look who we have here.”



As Mym receded into the distance and Link snapped a photo, Ren merely watched with his hands in his pockets. While the sight of the dragon, her prince, and that Sakura girl flying off to adventure made for a striking image, he couldn't afford to use his own phone's batteries when he didn't have a place to charge it. Still, he felt as though he'd gained a lot from these last few minutes. A lot of useful information leaked his way from the exchange between that Michael guy and his seifuku-wearing acquaintance concerning the nature of this world. An idle but self-appointed supreme entity who changed the very nature of reality to keep the masses in unthinking, ignorant complacence, eh? Put like that, he couldn't help but feel a duty to destroy it.

Ren's mind was running a mile a minute. Not only did he know his objective, but the method of doing so seemed clear. Defeat its champions, then challenge it directly, and the metaverse -the hidden world formed of cognition- would recede from reality, leaving everything as it had been before. Reality was, after all, defined by cognition—either that of the one, or that of the many. If he could steal Galeem, the glorious treasure that formed the heart of this fused world, the cognition of the people would change. He'd done it before, and he could do it again, so long as he had his friends. No longer would the Phantom Thieves float around in this world, lost and adrift. The way forward was clear.

Mission start.

Of course, step one was to reunite his team. Hopefully one of the others got a lead on where to get vehicles. Now that Ren knew the people in this world would fight back relentlessly if attacked, he needed to be careful. At least they weren't all purely aggressive like Shadows. A thought hit Ren, and he looked around. He spotted villagers, adventurers, pigs, people of all shapes and sizes, equipped with wildly different equipment and more than likely hosting unique abilities. Were these people Shadows, or just cognitive beings? If they were Shadows, the psychological beings shaped by the consciousness of the people, then...

He paused his train of thought as he thought he heard a call for attention, but the target in question seemed to be another teenage boy nearby. Ren meant to turn away once he realized he wasn't involved, but for some reason the faces of both the caller and the target stuck out to him. Was this deja vu? He could swear he saw them somewhere before.

Moving closer, he listened in. One confirmed the other's name before introducing himself, which was convenient. Shulk and Link. I know those names. But from where? The guy named Shulk replied. “Oh hey, it's good to see you too. After Smash, right? We didn't get to know one another that well, but...” he trailed off, since Link did have another question. “Ah, yes. This is Lumbridge. The starter town, if you will. It's the hub of the whole Land of Adventure, and pretty much the only place that stays the same every week. Everything else regenerates, you see. Did Euden find you on the way to the big hunt?” Shulk crossed his arms, curious. Evidently he hadn't seen Link before. After a moment he went wide-eyed. “Oh, wait, I just now realized! You said you got carted? The palicos only rescue folks who get hurt real bad, so you musta been fightin' the thing! Glad you're okay, mate. But what was it? Do you need to get back out there again?”

It took some serious self-control for Ren to keep himself from jumping in right there. Well, wasn't this just his lucky day! First he overheard Mr. Santa talking about how a group went out that morning to take on one of the angel's 'champions' that prevented it being challenged, then someone who actually fought it appears right in front of him! Well, he didn't know for sure yet that this Link got 'carted' during a fight with the region boss Michael mentioned; it could have been any other fight an adventurer might encounter on a quest. But if this 'big hunt' was what he was looking for, he'd have just about every card he needed to start playing for real.



To Nadia's amusement, some sort of computer system in the scary man's possession answered for him. The smooth electronic voice divulged his name, birthday, military history, and even some choice exploits. While she couldn't fathom what it looked like, 'Icon of Sin' sounded pretty serious. In her world that could probably be spun into a grandiose title for Lorenzo Medici, the old bastard, or more likely his son Vitale. From the looks of this guy, however, Nadia guessed that moniker represented something a lot more demonic. She snickered as the Slayer did something to the voice to make it go quiet. “Well, if it's any consolation I figured nya were a jarhead anyway. I mean, your gear makes the Canopy guys look like chumps, but that look of yours screams 'built to kill.' Which makes the sight of you on a skateboard even funnier, heheheh.”

“We really are from different worlds,” Pandemonica remarked flatly. While V seemed content to continue musing, the demoness seemed amenable to some conversation. “Do either of you know what's going on?” She got straight to the point, uninterested in quibbling.

Nadia leaned back, stretching luxuriously. “Nuh-uh,” she replied. “I don't really remember how I got here...like, 'this world' here. But wherever I am, the mission's the same: to do right by the Fishbone Gang. My family.” She collapsed onto her side, propping her head up on her arm. “So, Mr. Splatterhouse got his story spoiled, more or less. What's up with you, Pandy? You can be purr-sonal with us.”

Wiping wearily at her eyes, the horned woman didn't bother to correct her. “I work in Hell. Customer Service. That's it.”

Nadia went for a sympathetic smile, although she didn't really know what that entailed. “I hear ya. How anyone can lock 'emselves up in one of those skyscrapers pushin' papers and dealin' with jerks all day, I'll never know. Ain't the life for me!” She split off one of her hands and watched it walk around in a circle on two fingers for a moment before a bump in the road knocked it over. Reaching down to reattach it, she asked, “This place you work got a name?”

“Hell.”

“Really rubs ya the wrong way, huh?” Nadia concluded. “What, bad boss?”

“I cannot complain about Ms. Lucifer,” Pandemonica admitted. “If I must point a finger, it would have to be at the clientele.”

Nadia pursued her lips, eyebrows furrowed. “I'm startin' to think you're bein' more literal than I first thought.”

Up in the front, Nero listened without chipping in. Whichever hell Pandemonica hailed from was a far cry from the one that reared its ugly head from time to time where he came from. The demons he fought could be very cunning, but barely any could be considered intelligent, and those that could speak rarer still. Just trying to picture Riots and Baphomers in suits lining up at a desk to give Pandemonica complaints made him chuckle under his breath. By keeping his eyes on the road, however, he spotted a new obstacle at the same time Nico did. A few moments more and she put her foot on the breaks to bring the vehicle to a stop in front of a disaster zone. An entire city block had been torn apart by seismic and volcanic activity, and from the wounds rose grotesque mounds of flesh. They formed a hideous sprawling nest, and at the center rose a torso-like column of the stuff fringed with giant teeth. Nodule-profuse tendrils draped across the buildings along with the Qliphoth roots, and from them sprouted orange veins to infest sheer surfaces like fungus. The whole place was crawling with demons. “What a mess. Is this a breeding ground?”

Nico pointed at something, and the devil hunter peered in that direction. After a moment he spotted a metallic flash, which allowed him to identify someone fighting in the destroyed remains of an apartment building. A young man with sharp sideburns appeared to be wielding a katana and a revolver against clawed demons and a menacing warlord demon armed with a sturdy blade. However, another much less imposing demon fought alongside him, a smooth, green, doll-like creature that used a boomerang. Nadia and Pandemonica arrived behind the front seats, peering out through the windshield at the remarkable scene.

“Faster to go around,” Nico tempted him, trying to keep a straight face. “Or do ya wanna get down in the muck?”

Nero weighed his options, then with a groan pushed open the passenger door. A nearby imp rounded on him, only for the devil hunter to plug it with his revolver. “No use cleaning up here,” he told her, “Since if that delivery man makes his drop, this entire city goes bye-bye. That guy can handle himself, but we ought to let him know.

The sound of footsteps signaled V's arrival up front. “I can dispatch Griffon to warn him. If you like, he can even extend an invitation to join us.”

“Oh, sure. Beats climbing over myself.” Nero relaxed back into his chair and swung the door shot. Back in the rear, however, the Slayer's map was pinging. Down in the Super Gore Nest it indicated not just one but two Sentinel Crystals, ripe for the taking.

@Lugubrious

Doom Slayer

Level 2 Doom Slayer

Location: Dead Zone

Word Count: 391

The Slayer should have turned VEGA off once he had gotten inside of the van; a mistake he was not willing to repeat. Feeling quite embarrassed form being told of his backstory towards the others; he would rather not divulge into his past. But their was no changing their newly acquired knowledge of his past. Scolding Nadia but she could not see his scolding face because of the visor on his helmet. He was not sure what was going on either; the last thing he remembered was practicing in his arena when he was consumed by a white light and brought here. If he would have to guess it was another hell portal that had opened. But he was not sure and would need to double check with VEGA.

When he heard that the coffee addicted demon worked customer service in Hell; which surprised him since he didn't think their was such a thing in a place filled with such hellish demons. He found it to be mostly amusing. Finding the thought of Satan being a female working in what looks like a desk job to be quite rib cracking. Something he didn't show but just letting out a low “HA”.

Noticing the van stopping and moving so his head was looking out form the front window. Noticing the large gore nest; thinking back to every time he would see one. “We must...destroy it” He said lowly pointing to the large gore nest. From the corner of his eye noticing the fight that was going on; agreeing with Nero that they would have to fight to proceed. And this would be the perfect time to use his chainsaw.

Getting out of the van before being notified that their was two Sentinel Crystals ready for the take. Revving up his chainsaw and rushing towards the large gnarled structure of flesh. Cutting down any demon that came towards him.

There were a few close calls, Poppie and Tora’s narrow escape was particularly narrow, but in the end everyone managed to get clear of the island before it smashed down into the water down below. After a bit of playing around on his summoned airboard Bowser led the team towards the closest piece of solid ground they could find which ironically turned out to also be a floating island. This one seems right at home in the area and showed no indication of obeying gravity any time soon however and so after a tentative touchdown they set about exploring this new location. Even Jr opted to land, although that was mostly out of fear that his rapid repair job might fall apart at any moment, resulting in the boy awkward hauling the car above his head till his father spared him the indignity and tucked the machine under his arm.

The star shaped island turned out to host somewhat unusual reef themed foliage, but was otherwise blessedly unremarkable. There were no land sharks or dangerous monsters of any description to be found, and so the Troop took the opportunity to take the load off their feet after the boss battle. Bowser tore up and thoroughly obliterated a corral like tree with his claws, reducing it to firewood which he tje piled up in the middle of the reef’s central clearing. With a brief burst of lame from his lips he lit it alight, creating a cozy campfire for them to relax around.

”Got anything for cooking on the fire left in there Jr?” the king asked his son after he’d started the fire up.

When asked Jr extracted himself from the guts of his clown car, where he’d been using the tool box he’d bartered for in Hammerhead to do some more mundane and finely detailed repairs to his battered machine and then took a look inside its storage compartment. It contained, alongside a few carrier bags of Bowser’s convenience store shopping, various items that he’d not had time to do anything with after they’d been acquired from various subsapce minions and road kill spirits. After tossing his father a bag of marshmallows and a packet of hotdogs he decided to do a quick spot of spring cleaning. First a small battery was used to replace the one on the absorption of a Spaak Spirit had left on Mimikyu's back. He wasn't sure if this helped in any way, but it felt right.

After that he headed over to the campfire and tossed the (Tough black shell and a burning, paraytic sting. Even in death the scorpion's lethal injecting days aren't over) he’d gotten on the road to their parking spot to the Cadet. ”Here! For your tail collection!” he told the dragon tail hauling warrior before sitting down by the fire and getting a hot dog on a stick to roast from his papa. Mimikyu, who’d been watching jr work with casual interest, joined them and got to roast a little marshmallow on a twig once shown by jr how to do so.

While the royals roasted meats and mellows over the fire their herbivorous advisor was investigating the Fire Materia he’d gotten back at the beginning of this mission. The bright green orb was clearly magical and so the mage was performing some casual preliminary investigations of the orb as he rested while sitting on the grass with the others. This generally involved gazing into it contemplatively for a long while before he unscrewed the red crystal orb from at top his magi-koopa wand and replacing it with the fire materia. ”Yes. I do believe that will do nicely” he said to himself as he tested running power though he orb, feeling the new magic thrumming within the wand but not actually unleashing it quite yet.

The next few minutes were a mix of refueling and mostly meaningless banter and boasting from Bowser and Jr about the roles they’d played in battle vs the dragon. It passed the time, cooled the nerves and allowed them to relax after what had been a set of very vicious encounters. It was, they knew, only going to get harder from here on out, now was not the tiem for such worries. Now was the time to celebrate being alive and overcoming the second of Galeem’s guardians.

The Troops' relaxation was briefly interrupted by the surprise (to them) appearance of three smashers, which Bowser recognised by face, if not name, as Falco, Jigglypuff and Ness, via teleporter platform. The Koopas tensed for a moment before spotting that the eyes of the new arrivals lacked the tell tale crimson glow that denoted Galeem’s influence, allowing them to return to relaxing.

”OH HEY. IT’S YOU LOT. AND YOU’RE FREE ALREADY THAT’S CONVENIENT. YOUR ALL PART OF MY ARMY FOR ROUND TWO AGAINST THE GLOWBALL NOW, GOT IT?” Called over to them as they approached, getting the necessities out of the way but leaving most of the actual talking to those more familiar with the newly arrived heroes.

After falling and a bit of flying, everyone found themselves on a reef island in the middle of the ocean that was hanging around below the End. Why this was here made no sense, but then most things made no sense here so while Sectonia just shrugged at the weirdness, seeing much weirder in her home kingdom, Blazermate was confused. "But... But why though?" She muttered, moving around a bit in confusion before she remembered that there were injured people. "I've seen weirder. My kingdom has floating water blocks inside a volcano." Sectonia said offhandedly, a bit amused at Blazermate's confusion.

Seeing an opportunity, Jr and his family started to set up camp as the Courier was learning what he could do with his new ender dragon spirit, looking sort of like a weird cosplay of himself and the dragon. Seeing as people were relaxing, Blazermate summoned Dell to build a quick dispenser for everyone, telling him that he could build a sentry, but it probably wouldn't be needed. Still, dell loved his gun, so he made it anyway, but spent more time making the dispenser to level 3 before working on the sentry. Although Dell didn't build his dispenser in a good spot, keeping it away from the fire for some reason.

Once he was done though, Blazermate figured that maybe he could help fix her up afterwords with his remaining time, as well as help Tora fix Poppi. "Hey Tora, Poppi. Think Dell here can help fix us all up? Everyone else, we got a dispenser here, although one of you might need to carry it to the campfire... Still, it can heal you while I fix myself up." Blazermate said, sighing as she sat down and began tinkering with herself. Sectonia sighed at the lack of foresight of Blazermate's summon and moved the building herself to sit next to the campfire with everyone else. She was about to grab a smore, but decided against it as she saw everyone at the fire.

Getting a look over everyone, Sectonia noticed most of them were battered with their cloths and everything ruined and some of the letting off some nasty smells. "Well... If you all are going to be in my service, I'll need to make you presentable. No tattered clothing or funky smells." Seeing as she could now summon her minions, Sectonia did just that. With a fwe waves of her hands, 5 portals opened up with some green and some blue Antillions falling out of them. Seeing as they were summoned by their mistress, they bowsed waiting for orders. "Minions, your task now is to fix up this group and make them presentable. If they are to stay within my presence, they must at least have a fraction of my beauty." giving a salute at hearing their queens orders, they got to work, ignoring the personal space of whoever they were dealing with.

The first one they worked on was the biggest of the group, Bowser. He was larger then their Queen, and his tattered battle worn suit and slight smell thanks to all the acid he took and fighting he did would go a long way to helping out the Queens image. Although as they were about to get started, a few newcommers appeared, Bowser, Fox, and a few others apparently knowing them. As Sectonia looked at them, she noticed they didn't have that red glow in their eyes that a lot of the others did, and they seemed non hostile, so while she gave them a stren look she didn't do much beyond that. She did mentally put them on the 'beautify' list however.

Undeterred by the newcomers, the blue antillons took to the cleaning and bathing of the koopa king, using their magic to clean him with a simple mist while the green ones started on repairing his cloths, making sure to take them off before the blue ones got started on their job. After a bit of squirming from the king in a thick mist cloud, the cloud dispersed and he looked sparkling. It took the green antillons more time to fix his outfit though, so the blue ones moved onto one of the next people that didn't really wear cloths, bathing them as the greens finished fixing Bowser's suit. This pattern happened for everyone, although some got bathed in their armor or clothing as it wasn't damaged, or only needed minor fixes and not massive stitching and material like Bowser's ruined suit. Still, this was probably not very comfortable for some people, especially as there were newcomers about. However when any Antillions got near Poppi, Tora, or Blazermate though, Sectonia told them to move onto the next person instead, informing them that they could fix those three up when they weren't injured. She was somewhat familiar with a little bit of mechanics as her castle used some of it, enough so to know that water plus electricity lead to bad things.

Blazermate watched this as she was getting repaired and repairing herself, laughing a bit. "Ha. When I'm all fixed up, I'll take some of that cleaning. Medabots are completely water proof, we don't run on electricity." she said. She didn't know much about how to feel about the newcomers, but seeing as Bowser and his family wasn't worried, she wasn't worried either.

Dragon bone cracked with sickening report under Koopa might, a ripple of shadow fanned out over The End in its death throes, sunlight broke the abyssal atmosphere, dissolving it away like photo-soluble cloud cover, and with the return of spacial ‘normalcy’, the island gave way to gravity underfoot. For Banjo and Kazooie evacuation was as simple as launching back into Flight, but could do nothing from there to help anyone else leave the doomed earthberg. Uncertain of their ability to support passengers in Flight, and unable to catch up to the plummeting landmass even in a terminal dive, it was too late for them to consider it now. They were left in the aftermath of their impulse to watch the island fall with their teammates still on it, and they could only hope now that everyone else found their own ways to safety.

Hat Kid and Fox sprinted for the nearest edge to them, neither having an exit strategy in mind, but knowing they couldn’t afford to stick around long enough to think about it. A solution for the child flew over her head as Jr took off in his hastily repaired Clown Car, to which she lept after and threw out her Hookshot at it, latching on and sailing clear of the End Stone just a yard shy of the edge. Fox, seeing no immediate alternatives and no reason to look back for one, bounded from the island into open air, opting to figure it out as he went. Even at their relatively generous height to the isles below, however, he wouldn’t have much time to do that at his current rate.

He scanned the array of still floating islands for the nearest one to him according to altitude and distance, calling in his lifetime of experience airborne to make quick, intuitive mental calculations for how best to approach it. Reaching any one of them safely (or at all) would require a well-timed boost and shield stop in the right order to allow for drift and cancellation, but that was only if a better, less risky way didn’t present itself to him in a timely manner. That looked to be the case until he noticed his flight path intersecting with that of… a flying chicken? Nevermind where it came from, or why it was there. He thought that it surely couldn’t be the better solution he was hoping for, but then saw it working for Cuphead and Linkle (whom he tried not to look too hard at when hit with a discouraging chill of negative energy). As absurd as it seemed, if it really worked that well, then there was little reason not to try it now.

Fox boosted after the fowl in a trail of white jetstream smoke, catching a hold of it with one hand for an initially unsteady descent. The sudden addition of his own weight made for a somewhat startling drop for the Cucco and Fox alike, which he rectified in a rush by getting both hands on the flying flightless bird. He tried to be as gentle with the unfamiliar creature as he could, considering the predicament, and after a second the two of them stabilized. To his surprise, it actually made for easy going from there, coasting the rest of the way down to make landfall on a nearby island.

A little at a time, the party regrouped on solid ground, amidst a hybridized biome of terrestrial and aquatic. Fox gently released the Cucco to return to its master, which turned out to be Linkle, meaning its arrival to his aid wasn’t just random coincidence. Again, he refrained from lingering his gaze on her, glossing over her and Geralt as he conducted a head count. His assessment wasn’t the best informed, however, as he hadn’t made himself aware of who and how many their group were up to that point.

“Is that everyone?” he asked aloud to anyone who could or would acknowledge him. Though he would prefer an actual answer--be it verbal or gesture--he could take contented silence for its own confirmation. Better that than for questions to be raised of one’s whereabouts following an incident.

Hat Kid took to the Courier with a curious eye, inspecting his new draconic form with a sense of wonderment. From the front she could see his new claws, and perhaps for the first time since meeting him, his eyes beneath the shade of his hat, aglow with amethyst. She still couldn’t make out a full face though. From there she circled around to his back and tugged lightly on the tails of his scaled dragon-leather duster, then mounted his actual tail (that he now had). She then crawled up onto his wings, giving them a once-over before moving to stand on his shoulders to get hands and eyes on his horns. She made a quick climb up the scaled cowboy’s form, excitedly, but impertinently, stealing a feel of his newly added dragon parts to see if they felt as they looked.

“COOL!” she gushed admiringly, doing little to hold back her exuberance in the face of such a development. Sure, she had seen Spirit fusion before, but found the prospect and results largely unappealing (with a few exceptions) up until now. While she had a certain respect for the idea to begin with regarding its potential, she saw it similarly as something that could easily be overdone or done wrong altogether. Perhaps seeing a nigh exemplary high-level fusion was what it took to excite her about the possibilities, but not so much that she would willingly rush it. This was the kind of thing you wanted to be picky about, that you wanted to be patient with. In the meantime, she thought it would be worth reexamining everyone else’s Spirit transformations to get a better grasp of its effects on others, now that she was paying closer attention to it. She dismounted 6’s head (at a rate dependent on his tolerance) and joined the Koopa Troop (and whoever else) in taking a seat by the campfire, joining in the round of marshmallow roasting and quietly relishing the opportunity for a moment of downtime.

Fox tuned in to the brief commentary between Peach and Poppi about the distinctively man-made features of the island, speculating with educated guesses as to their purpose. “I’ll go check it out,” he added, volunteering himself for lookout and setting off accordingly. He proceeded at a leisurely pace, seeing as the matter didn’t demand his immediate attention… but would soon nonetheless have it. A few minutes passed in uneventful quietude in his search for one of the platforms in question, and as he neared one on the island, he spotted movement in the distance of another around the same time; the figures’ shapes unclear, but their action confirming. They stepped onto their resident platform and blinked away to another island, while Fox moved to make sure he kept them in visual registry. They reappeared on a closer island, their visages made clearer to him as familiar to him; one especially so.

“Falco?” he questioned aloud with eyes narrowed on the distant subjects. Upon closer inspection, he could see his old ally traveling with two other fellow Smash veterans: Ness and a Jigglypuff. In anticipation of their arrival, he moved to the platform to meet them on the path leading from it, approaching at a matched pace to theirs. “Good to see you too,” he smirked in reply to Falco, taking a light verbal jab at him for skipping the friendly salutations.

“What? D’ya miss me that badly?” The two anthro pilots lifted a hand in preparation as they neared each other and met them with a firm, brotherly clasp. “I figured you could handle yourself without me for a change.”

“Better than you,” Fox teased.

“Ey, don’t get cute! Last I checked we’re even,” he retorted assertively.

They referred, of course, to all the times they had bailed each other out of trouble. Fox could vividly recount a handful of saves he’d received from his fellow wingman. The inverse of the same he’d long since lost count of. In other words, they were never even, but it didn’t truly matter to either of them. What mattered was that they were always there to help when they most needed it. That’s what it meant to have a loyal friend at your back: that you could be entire star systems apart, and you’d still never be too far away.

“I’m glad to see you’re okay… all of you,” he directed to the entire party of three. It was then that he noticed, in the bigger eyes of the child and Pokemon, that there was something missing. No corrupting red adorned them, and grateful as he was for that to be the case, it made him wonder how. In his musings he was caught staring after a moment.

“Uh… are you okay, Fox?”

“Huh…?” he responded with a head shake as he broke from his contemplative stupor. “Y-yeah… I’m fine.”

“You sure? Because you looked like you were tuning out for a second.”

“It’s nothing… nothing I can explain...” he clarified, prompting a subtle, but curious look from Falco. Admittedly, this was all still new to him, so he could hardly begin to explain something he didn’t yet fully understand himself. Though there were a few waiting back at camp who could fill in the gaps for them, and he was due to have that conversation himself. “Come on,” he instructed, gesturing headways up the path. “There are more of us up ahead. They can catch you up better than I can.”

In the middle of their reunion the two pilots received extra company in the form of Peach. Like Fox, the princess recognized the familiar faces of all three newcomers, though more as acquaintances than friends. In the period of rest prior, she also spotted an all-too-memorable emblem adorning the floating palace from which the three ventured forth. Circular with an off-center cross, it was a symbol of remarkable simplicity that stood for something of uncommon importance. Seeing it loosened some of the memories lodged in her backbrain, and battles fought of campaigns concluded, sequestered away in her mind from her daily life of sports, parties, and getting rescued. She wanted to get down to business immediately, but she didn’t mind her comrades getting a moment to reunite. This world made for a lot of people robbed of their friends and family, after all. Something like this was not to be taken lightly. Peach approached, but only waved for now. Not for one moment did she consider that her appearance had changed drastically.

Unfortunately Falco only got her appearance, and though he couldn’t shake a sense that he’d seen this woman before, he didn’t recognize her. “Hey,” he greeted. “So you’re one of Fox’s new pals, huh?”

“You’ve... met, actually,” Fox corrected, considering not the tact with which to approach such a revelation until after hinting at it.

“Oh, yeah?” Falco looked at Peach in a new light, but couldn’t quite see it. “...Where?”

Peach blinked. “I’m surprised you don’t remember. We worked together to defeat Tabuu. Princess Peach?” She grimaced, realizing. “Oh, right. I forgot that my looks changed.”

As a befuddled Falco looked on, she held her arms wide to give the newcomers a good look and help them realize. A mix of pink and black, her sporty longcoat, undershirt, and jeans suggested more ‘biker’ than ‘princess.’ Her crown of thin, blonde-streaked black dreadlocks roughly resembled her old hairdo, but her rougher features and dark skin were a far cry from her origin appearance. “I absorbed the spirit of a man named Mr. Grimm. I got both some of his looks, and his power to manipulate souls.”

Falco scratched his head with his feathers. “Well, I’m sure it’ll make sense sooner or later.” He watched as Jigglypuff walked out of the conversation, going for the group of people at the center of the reef. When Peach turned to head that direction, he and Ness followed suit. “So, what’re y’all doin’? Last thing I expected after seein’ that big sphere pop was a whole bunch of people flyin’ around.”

“We just kicked the ass of this huge black dragon,” Peach told him, her smug smile not at all hidden. “Two down, eleven to go. Not just dragons, either. We’re fighting the boss of every region.”

Falco whistled, which was a real accomplishment with a beak. “Whoa. You guys are nuts.” Though given his usual company over the years, that hardly surprised him. “What’re you doin’ all that for? Fun? I know it ain’t for your health.”

Peach gave a dry chuckle, thinking of those hurt badly during this mission, and of those who’d already given their lives. Was this fun? The new part of her soul didn’t seem to relish bloodshed, and the old part certainly didn’t. “Nope. To save the world. Well, all worlds.”

The pilot looked taken aback. “What, that’s it? No more details or nothin’?”

Peach shook her head. “So that I don’t have to explain a million times, I’m going to wait to give the full story to whoever’s in charge, since you three strike me as a scouting deployment.”

“Oh. Makes sense, I guess.” The Princess proposed a curious, but plausible theory that Falco and the other two were a splinter of a larger party, much like their own, prompting silent speculation from Fox. After taking a deep breath, Falco got a little more serious. “Something tells me you ain’t jokin’. Well, if the world’s on the line, the time for smashin’s over. Count me in.”

Ness nodded his agreement, the young boy’s face solemn. Fox echoed this, happy to have his wingman back. Jigglypuff couldn’t answer on account of being amid the other heroes already, preparing to introduce herself with a song.

---

Meanwhile, Banjo and Kazooie broke away early into the respite period to look around, more out of habit than necessity. After a minute or so, they crested one of the hilled ‘starfins’ of the island and gazed out at the tower; the emblem emblazoned on it familiar, and fresh in their memory. Banjo pulled out the invitation letter they received from L.O.G. (of all people) and inspected the seal on it, comparing it to the one adorning the tower. It went without saying that they were the same, but the question remained as to what lay within the monolithic structure.

“Hm. You think any of them might know this place?” ask Banjo.

“I don’t know, but let’s go ask them anyways,” replied Kazooie before they backtracked back to camp, where they would happen upon a brief exchange of slightly heated dialogue.

“I’m sorry, YOUR ‘army’?” Falco responded defensively to Bowser, none too keen on his conscription attempt. “Well, I hate to turn you down ’Your Highness,” he emphasized mockingly, “but I’ve seen your armies; what they’re worth. Not interested.”

“At ease, Falco,” Fox calmly interjected. “He’s on our side this time.”

“What if he is?!” he replied rhetorically. “If he really wants to help, that’s fine,” he turned his attention back to Bowser, “but I don't work for you! I ain’t one of your flimsy goons, and I ain’t gonna be! So you can forget talkin’ at me like it. That goes for the rest of us. ‘Got it?’” He ended his declarative rant by repeating the Koopa King back to himself, letting the last word hang for a second before backing off to allow the tension to deflate. The following accosting of Bowser by a cleanup/makeover crew was sure to see to that. In response to the awkwardly timed silliness, Falco just hung his head with a resigned sigh and withdrew from the scene. Just as well, his piece was said, his point made (maybe), and caring little either way if the Koopa communicated an understanding or not (fully expecting ‘not’), or for whatever he otherwise might have had to say about it in response. To him, the “biggest, baddest villain” was little more than a big, delusional pushover with a bloated ego and sense of entitlement to match, and Falco was just one among a shocking many who wasn’t afraid to challenge him.

“What was that about us being ‘free’ anyway?” he turned to ask Peach and Fox; whoever could best answer that for him. Fox opened his mouth to try, but was cut off just ahead of his attempt.

“Forget whatever you’re all arguing about,” chimed Kazooie, loudly. “Banjo and I just found something, of course.” The snarking Breegull had the attention of the space animals, as well as an open ear from Hat Kid, with surely more.

"Let’s hear it,” said Fox.

“Erm, well… you know that place we saw on the way down?” Banjo started. “Would any of you *ahem*... fellow ‘Smash’ guys happen to recognize it?” Besides the new arrivals, that qualified only four of their troop to potentially answer their question: Fox, Peach, Bowser and Jr.

“I saw the symbol,” Peach mentioned. “Don’t recognize the building.”

“Weeell, allow me to enlighten ya,” Falco said. “That tower’s the place where the Super Smash Brothers fighting games have been happenin’. We’ve been runnin’ tournaments, brawls, Smash Run, you name it. And thanks to the sim rooms, we’ve been doin’ it on stages from all sorts of worlds. The joint’s got livin’ quarters, gym, cafeteria, hospital, you name it.”

Peach put a hand on her hip, her face questioning. “You said ‘we’. Who else is there?”

“Fighters, admins, and some randos. All us fighters are from past tournaments, and the admins keep things runnin’. Then there’s just some people who hang around, not doing much.” Falco broke down the inhabitants of the tower, which only gave a real idea of some of their identities to those who also participated in these ‘past tournaments’.

"And… you’re out here?” Fox asked, implying a ‘why’.

Falco crossed his wings. “Just to see what’s goin’ on. When the bubble popped, the lookout spotted a bunch of people flyin’ around. There’s enemies around here sometimes, and refugees other times, so we pay attention.”

Hearing all of this struck with Fox for more reasons than one. Described seemed to be a city built around a colosseum, with the local culture centered around it, and one apparently providing asylum for those in need of it. By the sounds of it, Falco and co. had been here for some time, with cited memory of their exploits dating back presumably farther than a day--several, perhaps. Fox had only ‘woken up’ a little less than an hour ago himself, so he could assume they’ve been up for longer than him at least. Yet, somehow, his wingman was distinctly less aware of the situation at large for the outside world than he was, which was saying something. For that reason, he couldn’t help thinking something might be amiss. As much as he’d like not to shirk the duties of his new mission, whilst finding the prospect opportunity to ‘play’ again dangerously tempting, it was clear to him that there was a better reason to go. They needed only agree to. He looked to Peach, his perceived peer among the adventuring party, believing her to share his (or similar) thoughts on the matter, and silently expecting joint approval on venturing there.

Peach already had a plan in mind. “We’ll go with you back to this facility of yours shortly,” she told Falco. “We’ve got a lot to discuss with the people there.”

Fox nodded his concurrence in kind, then looked back at those gathered around the fire resting, disrelishing the idea of asking them to break camp so soon after setting up. It wasn’t as if they could settle in regardless (and would be impractical to try, considering where they were going), but he did try to empathize a little for those who didn’t share his stamina or propensity for seeing a mission straight through with little to no pause.

“We’ll gather everyone on your call,” he said to Peach, entrusting the order to her. Having been with this party for longer and better acquinting herself with them, it stood that she would better know when they would be ready to set off.

The transformation had been intoxicating, and Courier 6 was one to know what intoxication felt like! His body grew and rippled with black scales! His hands grew sharp claws! Powerful wings sprouted from his back and he took to the air like a fish to water, draconic instinct guiding him. His hat came dangerously close to flying off, but he held it down. ”YEEEEE-HAAAAAAW!” he cried out, pulling some spinning tricks and loops in the air. Just for fun he tested out what he could do based on what he saw from the dragon in their battle. Opening his mouth he regurgitated caustic acid and rained it down over the water, but a safe distance from everyone else. That would prove to be a most powerful ability indeed, especially combined with his VATS and GRX implant.

Cuphead watched the majestic dragon man fly around while he desperately clung to his chicken, terrified of letting go. He glided down to the next floating island where everyone was taking refuge, and couldn’t help but comment, starting with a whistle. ”Hot diggity dog, that Courier fella really is looking impressive! How’d he become a dragon?” the little ceramic headed boy asked to nobody in particular.

Jak, flying slowly in his light form, shook his head at the antics of the Courier, unable to voice his thoughts due to the inherent muteness of the form. Daxter though, he had no restrictions of the physical or the social. ”Hey pal, why don’t ya stop it with the show boatin’ eh? Nobody likes a braggart!” he called out without any sense of irony or self awareness.

They all landed on the platform and began gathering, Jak dispelling his light form and collapsing in a seated position near Blazermate. His injuries were still extremely grievous, and she noticed that many of the group still had to be treated. Cuphead had no damage to speak of, having been lucky enough to have kept himself away from the nasty stuff, or otherwise able to dodge it all. The Courier was winded and bruised, but certainly not suffering, and besides that was still relishing in his newfound abilities.

As the Courier landed and walked toward the others, he noticed something. The grass, the dirt, it withered away and turned to dust around him. He frowned. Well, that was a problem. He reached for his revolver, his large clawed hands no longer suited for firing it, but the gun didn’t suffer the same effects. The same went for everything else on his person. So what caused some things he wither away and disintegrate in his presence? He’d need to experiment a bit more, but this could be a massive issue. Aaaand then the Hat Kid decided to start using him as her new playground jungle gym.

”Gah! Hey, come on Kid, git down.” He was about to reach out to her and pull her down himself when she exclaimed how cool his new transformation was and he gave pause. A big smile crept across his face. ”Alright, fine. Have yer fun, Kid.” Of course she decided to get down on her own at that point, but he wasn’t bothered anymore.

Bowser started a camp fire, with which the Koopa Troop began to roast some marshmallows and hot dogs, a fine campfire meal if ever there was one. He preferred gecko sliders and bloatfly kabobs, but whatever was on hand, right? Cuphead was quick and eager to join in himself, grabbing a stick of his own and putting a comically ridiculous amount of weenies and marshmallows on it, alternating them in a big row. By the time he was done packing it all on he had 12 hot dogs and 12 marshmallows squashed together, roasting on open flame.

It wasn’t long before they got more company. Jak, having been healed up, was quick to pull out his morph gun, and by practiced reflex the Courier grabbed his now useless revolver, while Cuphead ignored what was happening in favor of somehow fitting the entire length of his skewer into his mouth and swallowing it all, like a professional sword swallower. Of course the new arrivals were not hostile, and even friends to Fox and others apparently, so the two gunmen put their weapons away and listened to what was going on.

Apparently there was something called a “Smash” event and they were being held nearby? None of the three had ever heard of such a thing, though it did interest them all. A tournament meant prizes. Between the fighting and the rewards, it piqued the interest of all three. Jak was always down for a good rumble, and of course Daxter would love the spoils. Cuphead enjoyed the thrill of it, and it they had a betting office he’d put everything on himself! And of course the Courier was a greedy man, always on the lookout for an opportunity to make a quick cap. And speaking of which…

”Sounds like we got ourselves a tonna opportunity, amigos. This here Smash thing, that Deadzone area we gotta git back to, and of course we gots ourselves a reward for takin’ down that dragon. Obviously I gotta mosey on back seein’ as I’m the livin’ proof we took ‘er down. Anyone else willin’ t’come with me?” The Courier left the invitation open, then called over Drumstick. The chocobo, having been properly healed by Blazermate, wasn’t the least bit turned off by his sudden and extreme transformation. ”Our time was short girl, but you were great. You weren’t a battle steed an’ got hurt, and now that I’ve got wings it ain’t right to keep ya around. I’ll be takin’ ya home now an’ lettin’ ya run free.”

Sakura held on tight to the dragon's claws wrapped around her body. She couldn't help but look down every once in a while. The alternative was screwing her eyes shut and constantly reminding herself she doesn't have a fear of heights. The good news is, this present danger was a nice distraction to the overall strangeness of her situation. Fortunately, Sakura's overall airheadedness and penchant for adventure made her a perfect fit for this new world. Kei would probably be having a mental breakdown about the implications of all this.

Plus...thinking about it too hard wouldn't help anyone. It would just slow her down. Accepting her reality at face value and going along with, continuing to try and do good, was her best course of action.

So, she held on tight, occasionally giddily glancing down at the varied environments below her to feel a pit form in her stomach for the thrill of it. Despite everything, this was a new and exciting chapter of her life. Sakura was eager to explore. She was ready to fight, and meet other fighters. Make new friends and learn new things.

Soaring over mountain ranges and rivers in a dragon's claw. This was literally the stuff little kids dream about. The only pesky issue was that existential threat to all the free will in the multiverse. Mym spotted the group of adventurers before she did, and begun to pitch downward. At first she thought it might be some kind of optical illusion, but the whole island was suspended in mid air. It was an incredible sight. However, she also really wanted to get to know the people she was going to be travelling with.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the electic group, trying to make out some of the details. They were a colorful bunch, big and small and of all shapes and sizes. Some of them even seemed like giant monsters, but Sakura already learned with Mym that anything can be like anything no matter what they look like.

As Euden and Mym came in for a landing with Sakura along for the ride, they brought her down slowly as to not crush her to death immediately. "Thank you Mym, thanks Euden! Thanks for the ride! Arigato!" She thanked her travelling companions quite redundantly as she dropped to the ground.

Sakura stumbled for a moment as she was released and jogged forward. Coming to a stop, her heels skidded along the grass for a moment. Everyone, it seemed, had set up camp.

Her big brown eyes were wide and her dark brown hair was all tossed up, messy, and wind-whipped. The late teenager stood at average height with an unusually athletic build for someone her age. A bandana with long white strips trailed behind her in the wind. She was wearing a japanese sailor outfit for girls, a seifuku. It seemed to be a little undersized, because really it was just aesthetic covering for her real outfit underneath. A red cropped gym top, red shorts, big red fighting gloves, and big red sneakers was underneath her sailor outfit and was the true core of her character. The student look seemed to be a flimsy facade, easily displaced to see the modern street warrior underneath. As if at moment's notice she could tear the student outfit off, fling into the wind, and drop down into 100 push ups. Which, of course, she literally had done one time, but her mom wasn't happy about having to buy a new outfit.

Either way, Sakura was not put off by the daunting task of first impressions. She was already finding her footing in this new world. The real best thing, though, was that not a single one of them had the spooky red eyes of Galeem. They were all themselves!

"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" She declared, slapping her hands to her sides and bowing respectfully. The greeting was a habit, but hopefully the message she was trying to convey was universal. Upon realising that it might not be, she stood up straight and tried the American way. Everyone here seemed to speak English, or something like it, it was kind of hard to tell.

"Hello, everyone! My name is Sakura, and...I'm here to help!" She said proudly, striking a 'heroic' pose and a big, toothy smile. She had a japanese accent, but when you're a street fighter like her, it's important to get mastery over a few different languages. Especially English.

"I'm looking forward to getting to know...everyone!" She exclaimed, her eyes glancing. She seemed especially interested in the non-traditionally human members of the group, giant turtles, fox people, dragon people, more robots! A bear and a bird! A really old looking guy! In the end, though, no one could avoid Sakura's curious, gregarious gaze.

"Is there uh, a leader or something I should talk too first?" She asked. It was impossible for her to put together any sort of hierarchy on first glance, and she didn't want to make any more wrong assumptions.

Carefully deposited onto the island by Sectonia, Geralt wrinkled his nose in frustration. How could he let himself lose control like that?! With the immediate threat of the battle over, his thoughts turned inward. The stress of this place has to be getting to me. Even Vesemir got frustrated sometimes, but this is something else. It's not like me to...

Ah. Exactly. It wasn't like him. Absorbing that Enderman spirit had done more to him than he'd expected. He was used to pushing his emotions down, not letting them get the better of him. But when they were so overwhelmingly powerful, and caused by something not entirely himself? The damn had burst. Every errant glance, every time he had to teleport himself, everything that had happened seemed to add to the flood of indignation that had spilled forth from him.

Getting this spirit out of him suddenly became priority number one. He was no good to anybody like this. He'd have to be more careful in considering the possible downsides to absorbing spirits in the future. Considering that he'd left the Pelagic Champion to fade away, it might have just been the urgency of facing one of Galeem's champions that made him make such a poorly-thought out decision.

Hah! Who was he kidding, that kind of brash, devil-may-care attitude was pure Geralt, through and through. One didn't break curses without making a few suppositions, after all. Still, this was one such decision that reminded him that he always had to be vigilant, even when he was sure he was fine. The dangers of a Witcher's life, they were.

Peach's question was met with a frustrated and demanding, "Please do." He tried not to let exactly what, or in this case who, he was frustrated with show in the statement, however. The last thing he needed was his companions questioning his sanity after that debacle.

Once the spirit was removed from Geralt, and he was back to his regular proportions and state of being, he gave Peach a small, genuine smile. "Thanks, Princess. I'd not recommend anybody do that again. The downsides are much, much worse than the upsides are." His piece said, the Witcher turned and walked over to the Dispenser Dell had set up. He remembered vaguely being told that the machine could produce ammunition and regenerate wounds. The machine made a few bolts for his crossbow, bringing him back to his original 30 and filling his case. Additionally, he noticed that his blaster was charged again, from the display Tora had helpfully put on it to show Geralt how close he was to empty, so to speak. It turned out he was much closer than he'd expected, though given the sheer magnitude of the previous fights, it was little wonder.

He also noticed that his aches were dulling even more rapidly than usual, which was further proof of this machine's miraculous properties. Smirking, Geralt looked to the man responsible for creating it. Knowing he was a "summon", a temporary entity manifested through the power of a spirit, made him pause. Normally he might have even complimented the man for making something so useful, like Hattori in Novigrad. With things as they were, however, he mostly ignored the Engineer, instead returning to the group and grabbing a "hot dog". Which was pig. In a tube shape. Yeah, that made sense.

Ignoring the strange shape and name of his food, Geralt ate slowly, savoring the flavor. It was rich in flavor, fatty and greasy. Perfect food for a Witcher. It would give him plenty of energy, and didn't taste like a horse's arse.

Geralt mostly ignored the three newcomers who started chumming it up with Fox and the group's leaders, both actual and self-proclaimed. They seemed to know each other, and he wasn't terribly in the mood for making new friends.

Which made the next newcomer even more ironic. A young girl, likely a teenager, with the body of a seasoned warrior. That earned a raised eyebrow, but the Witcher thought better of commenting. Women could be touchy about that sort of thing. She seemed to want to make friends with everybody, and was generally upbeat and jovial. Oh joyous times, yet another hero, The Witcher silently bemoaned. Still, if she was like the others, he'd grow to tolerate her. Standing up, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Peach and Bowser. "The girl in the...weird clothes is in charge, but the big guy is gonna get pissed at me for saying that, so suck up to him a little or something so he stops yelling for a minute. Bastard's too loud."

His piece spoken again, Geralt sat down and returned to his food.

---

As Linkle crested one of the large rocky outcroppings that enclosed the floating reef the toes of her shoes scraped along it. She gave it a sharp kick, launching her and her transport forward toward the center of the island and plopped down of the rocky road in the center and letting the cucco flutter down to her feet. She was soon joined by the other two, the ones she'd handed to The Cuphead and had chucked wholesale toward the needful Fox that had thrown himself wholesale off the island. For a moment when she'd seen that Linkle had thought that he could actually fly, but once she realized he was just falling with style she'd had to act quickly.

Speaking of the Fox she called out a quick "Here!" in response to his inquiry on if they all made it. Everyone made some indication, even if it wasn't directed at Fox. Some, like Tora, flopped down in relief. Others, like The Kid, crawled all over the newly empowered Courier in order to get a good look at the transformation that had carried him so easily to this island. Still others concerned themselves with practicalities. Bowser was a good example, stepping up to get a celebratory bonfire going, while Peace did the duty of asking whether She or Geralt wanted to part with their spirits.

Linkle felt a flood of relief at the prospect of getting the Enderman out of her, then a hint of shame for being so ready to expel the newcomer from its place inside her. This shame was quickly tempered by a fresh flood of relief as she realized she could feel feelings again, and the subsequent reminder that the Enderman also imposed it's weird feelings on her. Tora comment about not being able to look at her sealed the deal for her. "Please, I don't think I can live like this." She said, warping forward one last time as the Nopon and his Blade began to talk among themselves.

---

It hadn't been nearly as painful as she thought it would be, but then again why would it hurt? It wasn't like her limbs stretching out had been painful in the first place so why would them shortening back hurt at all? Post extraction the first thing she'd done was whistle at Tora and jump high in the air, waving her arms, just to test that none of the monsters intrusive thoughts had had any time to set down roots while it had been a part of her. Since she didn't have any compulsion to go and hide nor rip him apart with her bare hands when he laid eyes on her she decided that Peach had ripped any trace of the monster from her being. She spun around and gave Peace a bow. "Thanks a million, Princess." She said, raising up and holding out a hand for the spirit.

She cupped her hands over it, careful to keep it totally concealed in darkness. As she made her way over to the fire where the Koopas were busy cooking food on sticks she wondered what she should do with it. She couldn't just smash something that had been as helpful as this thing had. It had saved her life after all. She couldn't repay that by destroying it. Neither could she stand to have it be a part of her again. She considered keeping it as a Striker, but... no, no. She didn't want to subject it to that, not having felt the way it did. Being summoned over and over in battle, getting looked at by all sorts of crazy people? It'd be torture for something as shy as these guys.

There was really only one option that made sense to her. She placed the spirit between the pincers of her beetle, the pincers gently closing and indenting the sides slightly, before pointing her arm back the way they had flown from. "See you later, tall guy." she said, launching the beetle. "Hopefully nobodies around to bother you wherever it is you guys go!" She called after it as it was carried to the edge of the beetles range. She watched, just a little sad, as the beetle got as close as it could to where the monster's brethren now rested at the bottom of this sea before dropping the little rainbow spec out of sight before making its return to its rest on her arm.

Satisfied with her sendoff of the thing she sat crosslegged beside the fire, eagerly grabbing a stick of her own. She was getting hungry by now and a quick lunch seemed like the best way to go. She curiously grabbed a few of the squishy white foods she had never seen before and, watching how Bowser and Kid cooked the things, copied them in skewering them and holding them over the fire until they turned brown. Pulling the strange food back she pulled one of the slightly melted things off the end, she looked it over before blowing on it and popping in in her mouth. Linkle let out a short, excited grunt before swallowing and devouring another. "What are these?" She said between mouthfuls. "They're the best! Maybe the best ever! Do you guys have these where you're from?" She hadn't realized how empty her stomach had been before these sweet melty things were in it.

She continued eating for a while, even as company showed up. Fox and the Princess to charge of the newcomers almost immediately, though now without Bowser attempting to assert his authority only to get rebuked by the bird man. His comments about the worth of the Koopa army actually stung. She had seen the Koopa army. She had seen how useful they'd been and how hard they tried when called to battle. So far as armies were concerned she considered them a fine army. Also, she was in the army sorta kinda so it was like he was kicking her along with them.

Any retort from Bowser was interrupted by the appearance of Sectonia's cleaning crew which set to work on him and his torn up suit, doing a quick and fantastic fix of the Koopa's damaged clothes. Eventually a detachment of the bugs made their way over to Linkle, the green one pointing a demanding finger at pretty much her everything. Looking down it was easy to see why. Her clothes were charred in some place, ripped in others, dissolved in a few, and altogether stained with soot, dirt, ash, fishman blood, her blood, and all other manner of foulness. The last tie she had done any self-maintenance was back at the castle. She must have smelled like a combination cigar lounge/poultry farm situated right across the street from an open air fish market. At least, that's what the blue ones impatiently tapping their feet indicated. Linkle didn't have any problem with being dirty. When she was a kid sometimes she got so covered in dirt people started mistaking her for a Goron, at which point her grandmother would throw her in a washtub and scrub her like a dog until she was presentable again. It was funny, the look these bugs gave her reminded her an awful lot of her grandma.

Not wanting to relive that particular childhood memory hastily surrendered everything but the undersuit, which was basically an entire outfit unto itself. If she had a mirror she'd be a little disturbed at just how un-Linkle like she looked without her "Linkle" gear. "Be careful with that compass." she said as the bugs got to work mending, patching, even shining her weathered outfit. One of them looked up from the big circle that had been burned into her blouse by the cigarette bat earlier, then pointed at the equally big hole in the same place of the suit. Linkle crossed her arms and shook her head. "Uh-uh. Figure something out." Compelled by his queens orders the bug launched itself at Linkle with a needle and thread, leading the girl to let out a surprised shout as the cleansing mist went up. There were the sounds of a light struggle, then a bout of riotous laughter and what sounded like a sewing machine for a few minutes before the cloud dropped. Linkle stood there fresh as a daisy and running a finger around the seamlessly patched hole in the suit. "Good job." She said, impressed. The ant gave a professional looking bow before making its way back to mend her blouse. She knelt to watch them work.

Linkle was getting dressed again, her gear all positively sparkling, when the Courier announced he was headed back to Lumbridge and asked whether anyone wanted to accompany him. "I'll go!" She said, pulling on her boot and hopping up. "We have to head for that awful land of the dead place." After all, friends had gone back to the land of the dead while they'd headed to kill the boss of this area. Linkle hadn't really gotten their names, but she did know they had fought to help the half of their group that had gone their before. That was enough for her not leave them twisting in the wind. "Besides, Cadet said that's where we can find the hero and-"

Linkle was interrupted by the shadow that flashed across the ground. Looking up and spotting the source of that she instantly pulled her crossbows and took aim as the dragon descended. Instead of shooting them with a ball of acid or thundering past to throw them around with hurricane force winds, though, this one dropped somebody off. A polite, energetic young woman that said something in a strange language before switching to Hylian to introduce herself as Sakura. At first Linkle thought she might be from the same place as the bird man and his friends, but as the dragon landed behind her Linkle spotted someone familiar on its back. "Euden!" She shouted.

While Linkle had been gushing over the survival of their friends Geralt had actually answered the girls questions, pointing out the Princess as their leader. As Linkle ran passed her on her way to meet Euden she stopped for a moment beside the girl and was surprised to see the color of her eyes. Had Euden and Link freed her? Or had the wave of darkness reached all the way to Lumbridge? She supposed it didn't really matter. She clapped the girl on the shoulder. "Welcome to the party! I'm Linkle. Nice to met you." She said quickly before taking off down the road. "Euden! Link!"

"I knew you guy were okay!" She said in the relived tone of someone who had been only 99% sure you were okay. She skidded to a stop beside the dragon and looked up expectantly behind the boy, only for her face to suddenly fall. "Wait, where's Link? Is he okay? Did the cats get lost?"

While Tora and Poppi knew nothing of the three newcomers to make their way onto the newly-dubbed Reef of Heroes, some of the others apparently did, and it made for one heck of a hard-to-follow conversation. Smash, fighting games, Smash Run, tournaments? The bird fellow certainly expected his new acquaintances to be familiar with the terminology. However, the bottom line seemed to be that these three and a bunch of others participated in some sort of fight club in the tower city across the sea. Since none of them featured the red eyes of those under Galeem's influence, it seemed to Tora like a whole slew of potential allies might be camping out just across the floating islands. With that many fighters on board, Tora thought, he might be able to kick back and relax for a while. A hero's journey made for a lot of hard work and painful bruises, after all. If not for his friends' healing, that stunt with the Ender Dragon could have gotten him killed. Letting someone else do the work sure sounded nice, but really, Tora knew he couldn't back down now. Not when he had the chance to be a hero for real.

For now, he contented himself with a cleaning by Sectonia's henchmen. When he understood that they wanted to scrub and mend his outfit, Tora slipped out of his dingy, damaged clothes without the slightest hint of shame. His utterly casual treatment of nudity earned him a few looks, so Poppi prompted him to explain. “Oh, it normal for Nopon to not wear clothes,” he assured his friends. “They human invention, so Nopon just wear so fit in or be stylish. Or for function.” The bugs did not miss the opportunity to wash down Tora himself, and he gave no objection. After a short while he emerged freshly fluffed, spick and span, and thoroughly enjoying himself. “Ooh, that very nice, meh! Tora not have bath for so long since invent Poppi!” He soon received the bugs approval and his tidied-up garments, folded in a neat bundle. He then lounged in grass a moment, feeling satisfied, before putting them back on.

Peach announced her plans to head for the tower, so Tora held off telling her his conclusions to instead cram his mouth full of hot dogs and enlist Poppi to help him climb a tree. Ovular of shape and without strength in his wings to speak of, he more or less sat while his partner dutifully pushed him up. Once as high as could be, he adopted an extravagant pose, leaning out from the trunk with one wing while the other shaded his eyes. “Land ho!” he called unnecessarily, appreciating the view now that he need not worry for his life. He rotated his grip, admiring the sunlit waters and lovely beaches. A hero he would remain, but a little vacation couldn't hurt, right? He pictured himself reclined in a beach chair, colorful drink in hand, Blazermate and Linkle fanning him with palm leaves. “Meeeh...”

His reverie came to an end when he heard a noise that sent chills down his spine: the distant flapping of great wings. Fresh off a near-death experience with the loathsome Ender Dragon, he fell right out of the tree. “Meh meh meeeeh!” Rolling to stop by Peach and Fox, he bounced onto his nub legs. “Dragon! It dragon!” He scanned the sky frantically until he spotted a red beast cruising straight for the reef. “There!”

The heroes collectively bristled. Falco immediately palmed his blaster, but he also engaged his visualizer. The device zoomed in on the incoming dragon, revealing a couple passengers. “Hey, wait a sec. It's carryin' someone. And someone's ridin' it?”

“What do they look like?” Peach asked, her hand on her scatterboom.

Falco took another look. “Uh, a sailor with brown hair...no pants...and this blond dude with a red jacket.”

Poppi squinted, engaging her own optics. “It Euden!” she observed. “Dragon must be friend! Everyone put down weapons!”

A few moments later, the dragon touched down. Euden waved, greeting everyone, but he got outshone by a country mile as Sakura took the stage. Once she thanked Mym and received a welcoming nod in return, the girl gave an energetic bow and introduced herself with aplomb. Tora smiled from ear to ear when she struck a pose, getting a pretty good idea of her personality after just a couple seconds. Straightforward, amicable, and earnest enough to be just a little goofy, she seemed the perfect friend. Plus, she had the sporty tomboy appeal on lock. What wasn't to like? He flapped his wings, drawing her attention for a moment. Though large for a Nopon, the furry, egg-shaped,denim-clad hamsteroid stood at only about four feet high. That meant he looked up to Sakura with big, dark eyes, glittering with excitement. “Hi hi, meh!” he called. “Am Tora, and this Poppi! Happy to make acquaintance!”

He jumped in surprise as the dragon disappeared in a whirl of fire, but when it gave way he nearly forgot all about Sakura. Tora watched, eyes wide and mouth agape, as a stunning woman emerged from the flame. Even with horns and a giant red tail, she was the very image of regal beauty. Poppi poked the side of his head and watched, eyes half-lidded, as he tilted over. “It would be good if masterpon did not fall to pieces at sight of every pretty face that come way,” she whispered indignantly.

Mym, however, just laughed. “Aww, what's the matter, little one? Never seen a dragon before?” A brief moment passed in which all could savor the severity of her incorrectness. She put a hand above her chest. “My name is Brunhilda, but you all can call me Mym. You're friends of my darling, mm? That makes you friends of mine!”

“Wonderful.” Peach stepped forward, waving for attention. Geralt spoke up to succinctly relay the power dynamic at play here to the new arrivals, aptly describing the roles of both the princess and Bowser. “Thank you, Geralt,” she said before she addressed Sakura. “You can join us if you like. I'll assume Euden gave you some idea of what's going on. If you've got any more questions, save them until after my big explanation.” She realized that she sounded a lot less friendly than she meant. “Um, please. And...it's nice to meet you.”

Though happy to see Linkle again, Euden found himself at a loss for words when she asked about Link. “Uh...” He clenched his teeth, mortified. “We must have left him behind. We met Mym all of a sudden, and then took off immediately. How foolish...” Looking her in the face, he apologized profusely. “I'm terribly sorry. I should go back to find him.”

“Another trip, dear?” Mym held a hand to her head, appalled. “But I've already been flying so hard! It takes a lot out of a girl to fly that fast for that long!”

Peach interjected. “Hold it, you guys. You too, Courier. If this place is open to us, and it seems like it is, we can put down another base. Bowser's kid and his wizard can set up another fast-travel trick, or maybe Blazermate a teleporter. No need to fly all that way if you can just warp there.”

It wasn't long before the convoy got underway. Falco was only too happy to assume the role of leading the procession of heroes through teleporters and across various reefs, growing ever closer to the tower. Along the way they passed by some wildlife, including Cruz Paguls, Eryth Ansels, and Perna Elucas, but even those that might have been aggressive did not dare attack such a large group. Considering the distance crossed, it took very little time to reach the structure. From a lower altitude, it was easier to see the many circular structures that branched out from beneath the tower like shelf fungus. Falco blazed a trail to the centre gate and finally the main entrance.

He spun around as Jigglypuff and Ness entered on either side of him, and spread his wings wide in theatrical fashion. “Awwwwlrgihty then, ladies and gents, here we are. Welcome...to Smash City Alcamoth!”

Stepping into the atrium was like stepping into a movie set. The biggest interior space seen by any hero in the World of Light so far, it featured impressive ornate decorations, well-kept lawns, flowers, and trees, all temperature-controlled. Falco sauntered down the main walkway toward a reception desk situated halfway to the center of the semicircular chamber. Behind the desk sat a little yellow dog with a computer and a pile of paperwork. She looked up when the pilot approached and greeted him with a smile and a bubbly voice. “Oh, hi Falco, Ness, JigglyWHOA!” Her ears flew upward in surprise as she spotted the crowd of heroes. “Who're you guys?! Wait! I know you!” She directed a nub-hand at Fox. “And you two!” She gestured at Bowser and his son. “And...!” Her paw ended up pointing at Peach. “You too, I think?”

The princess looked a little mortified. This was just going to keep happening, it seemed. “Hello, Isabelle. It's me, Peach.”

The dog plopped back in her chair. “Ah, Peach, so you are! I'll be darned, I thought I recognized you. Love the new look! So, uh.” She straightened her papers and put her paws together officiously. “How can I help you?”

“We oughta call a meeting,” Falco suggested, leaning against the reception desk. “They've got big news about the state of the world and all. We need to get everyone together.”

Isabelle's eyebrows scrunched together. “A big meeting? On short notice? Oh dear! But the boss...”

“Aw, he can stuff it. This is for real,” Falco insisted crassly.

Though affronted by the suggestion, the dog got the point. “Well, I'll have to make some calls. Excuse me!” She pulled out her phone and started jabbing away at it, working hard to dial numbers using her indelicate paws.

Meanwhile, the newcomers were attracting attention. There weren't a lot of people doing whatever in the atrium at the moment, but all the eyes there were lay on Bowser's 'army.' Three such people had already begun to drift over. One, a girl in white and pink, approached from the direction behind Isabelle, and the other, a pair of kids in parkas sharing ice cream together on a nearby bench, got up to come say hello. The last, a beanpole of a man in purple overalls and a matching hat, stood at a distance, his manner goonish and his face distrustful. It was the lady who spoke first, waving with her whole arm. “Greetings.” Her voice was melodic, sweeter than an instrument. “I bid you welcome to Alcamoth. I am called Zelda.”



After making clear his intentions, the Doom Slayer left the others at high speed, throwing himself down into the collapsed area with gusto to air his grievances with the demons in person. Nero pressed his lips together, nodding. “You know, I should have guessed.”

Nadia stepped up to the edge and peered down at the fight. Already the furious report of the Slayer's shotgun split the air, piercing the flesh of demon after demon. He moved like a killing machine, never standing still as he zeroed in on his targets, always jumping, strafing, or swinging off the environment. The efficiency with which he cycled through his equipment, never letting a particular feature stay off cooldown for more than a moment, impressed her. “We going?” she asked, glancing at Nero.

He found himself also under the scrutiny of Pandemonica and Nico. Recognizing that he was being seen as the de facto leader, and probably not for the first time, he told them, “We don't have time to waste picking out every mess we come across. It's all going sooner or later, after all.”

“Fella must really hate them demons,” Nico observed, watching him go. The clawed demons in his path lunged when he drew near, their talons extended, but unless they got him from behind the Slayer stopped them dead. Even those that did come at him from a blind spot only managed to damage his armor. A warlord demon came at him with a heavy blade, but the Slayer kept his distance, blasting him again and again from afar, until the time came to move in for the kill. “Reckon we could bend 'is ear 'til the sun comes up and 'e still wouldn't give it up.”

Very unsurprisingly, Pandemonica looked tired. “...Does that mean you intend to move on? If waiting until your madman finishes was on the table, it would have been prudent to join his rampage after all.”

Nero considered his options. “We could use this chance to stock up. If we find anything that looks useful, Nico can whip up some new gear.” He glanced at his friend for confirmation. “You can, can't you?”

“Long as yew got the cash, I can do most anythin',” she assured him.

Nero approached the edge himself, looking down across the battlefield. The Slayer happened to be facing a unicorn, but behind him the ashes and spirits of his former opponents lay scattered among red orbs of crystallized demon blood. “Yeah, well, if it's demons we're fighting and not damn zombies, we'll get plenty of cash. Spirits too. Should work well enough for ya.” He jumped down and started collecting the stuff, which vacuumed toward him when he drew near.

At the moment, Nadia seemed more interested in Nico. “So you're a purr-etty awesome driver and a demon weaponsmith?”

Grinning, Nico crossed her arms. “You bet! My grandmother was called the '.45 Caliber Virtuoso... a legendary gunsmith. I hope to be like her someday. An artist, and a lethal artisan.“

“Well, aren't you just the cat's meow?” the feral joked. “How long 'til you make me something cool?”

Nico glanced at her van. “Normally it'd take a li'l bit, but in this world you can make stuff jus' by smashin' these spirit things. Nero told me all about it. Apparently some of the guys he fought 'longside earlier even ate 'em and got their powers.”

Nadia looked dumbfounded. “Wait, it's that easy? So, you're pretty much outta a job, right?”

“Nuh-uh. There's a science to it. Just crush 'em willy-nilly and you can get all kinds of random crap. Takes a certain touch to pull somethin' good.”

Off to the side, Pandemonica had been watching the carnage, only looking up when Griffon returned to exchange a few words with V before both headed off toward the unknown fighter. When she heard Nico's explanation, Pandemonica pulled out the spirit of King Minos and stared at it. “Just a moment. You're suggesting that these can strengthen those who consume them?”

Nico looked over, interested. “Mhm. Gonna try it?”

Pandemonica considered it for a moment, then casually tossed the spirit toward the gunsmith. “Certainly not. That so-called king boasted no abilities I'd call special. Lesser demons already heed me, after all.”

After Nico caught it, Nadia was quick to capitalize. “Hey, let's try it smithing it then. I've got just my nails, teeth, and tail after all. If I'm gonna keep pulling my weight out here, this cat's gonna need sharper claws.“

Meanwhile in the pit things were heating up. After the Slayer destroyed the unicorn and recovered a red key from his body, two larger demons appeared to steal the show. The Hierophant sprang from a ruptured sewer line, wielding a trident and possessing enough speed and strength to offer the Slayer some challenge. Its body shrugged off his shots, but its ribcage opened and closed continuously, providing brief windows of visibility for a bright red heart. A lithe demon with a purple mask, emerald-green wings, and snake tail burst out of a nearby building, moving like a hurricane. Nero put a final round through the neck of the Hatred he'd caught hold of and moved to intercept, Blue Roe at the ready. The masked demon sneered. “Nyaagh! Think you can step to me, huh? I move so fast...” He held out his hand, and from his palm shot a ray of green light. Nero stepped aside and the ray shot path him, hitting part of the scenery and reflecting. In a matter of moments a web of green lines crossed the battlefield, and Bathin zipped through the ray, bouncing all across the arena as a ray of light. He struck Nero twice before sliding to a stop. “You won't even see me!”

Nico disappeared into the van, leaving Nadia to look down at the scene for a moment before she followed suit. “Nyah, those guys can handle it.”

@Lugubrious

Doom Slayer

Level 2 Doom Slayer

Location: Dead Zone

Word Count: 500

This whole situation was quite normal for the Slayer; killing demons was something he has been doing so long that it was all instinctual. Putting away his shotgun and pistol; while revving up his chainsaw which roared to life. His main focus was going to get the crystals; if the group left him he would not care in the slightest. He was always a lone wolf doing things on his own terms; people seemed to slow him down and this group was no different. The demons included in the group made the anger and rage fill him to the brim. Luckily he can control the rage; and this would be the perfect way to express his rage and hatred. Sawing the demons in half or splitting them apart with his chainsaw; enjoying every moment of their suffering and cries of pain. A few of them trying to get behind him in a pathetic attempt to ambush him; but he was too smart for such a simple tactic. Firing his pistol to into their heads or torso's to disable them; finishing them off by punching a hole in their chest.

Noticing a large demon wielding a large sword coming towards him; “How cute” His smile extending almost ear to ear. Pointing his chainsaw towards the demon; firing off a few shots with his shotgun towards the beast. Strafing out of the way of the sword which hit the ground with a loud crash; this thing seemed too slow which would be beneficial to him. Firing off his shotgun towards it's sword to throw it off balance; stabbing his chainsaw into it's guts and slicing it in half.

Another large demon approached him; “So large....YOU MUST HAVE HUGE GUTS” Without missing a beat he charged at the large creature. Mainly using his chainsaw ripping off it's legs so it was immobile. Using his chainsaw to rip into it's guts as blood was sprayed all over his visor. Bathing and taking pleasure in killing such a large creature. From the corner of his eye he could see something familiar inside of the creature's guts. Reaching his hand into it's innards pulling out a UAC red keycard. The memory of picking up and using the keycard came back to him; opening doors to open other doors or opening a door to a exit. It seemed unreal that this and the gore nest was here; perhaps a portal to hell as opened and the demons are once again invading. “Not on my watch....not again” He sneered underneath his visor; the angry building up.

Turning his attention to the other strange aquatic creature in front of him; “Another lamb for the slaughter” Rushing towards it switching to his shotgun firing at it's ribcage. Over time with enough shots the heart was exposed. The Slayer made sure to move close enough towards it to try and rip it's heart out with his bare hands.

Even if it was just in the interest of saving their young master (who'd already wriggled free of the hunter's grip), the Ace Cadet was grateful the toadies had snatched him out of the air just as the once floating island abruptly dropped. The support afforded to those traveling in a group was truly amazing - not that the Cadet himself ever doubted that. Hunters did their best work as part of a team, after all.

As everyone found their way over to another island - I wonder why these ones float and the one we were on couldn't outside that black bubble? - Cadet took in the scenery during his free ride. Many more floating islands than the one they were headed to, and a sparkling blue sea enclosed by jagged grass covered cliffs. It was a picturesque landscape that wouldn't be out of place in the Land of Adventure... which they were still in, right? It'd been a pretty far trek, then into a dark portal and now this. The toadies let the Cadet go without warning, and he landed wobbly on his feet. The island they'd made it too reminded him of the Coral Highlands. Surely they were still in the Land of Adventure with such similar scenery, and they hadn't been dumped through another portal like that grimy casino. Then again... There were some weird looking devices dotted around the island, and after everything already it wouldn't be the most far fetched thing.

Something was shoved into the hunter hands that broke him out of his thoughts. He looked down at the prince pushing a wicked looking thing at him. "Even two is hardly a collection," he laughed, but took the scorpion's tail from the boy. "Groovios! Thank you. I bet it will make for a cool weapon."

Cadet followed Jr. over the campfire and sat down, taking the time to rifle once more through his own bag. He didn't have any food to contribute, but that didn't stop him from stuffing his face when it was offered to him. He wrapped the scorpion's tail in the crawler skin he'd snagged the other day and hastily attached it to the dragon's tail, intent not to let either go to waste even if it would weigh him down. Hopefully they could make it back to Lumbridge before going on anymore big hunts. Speaking of big hunts, the target of their latest quest - or at least the person who'd absorbed said target - made his way over. The Courier looked a lot different, more than he'd seen so far from those that had absorbed spirits. The sight of him nearly had the Cadet choking on his food, and though he couldn't disagree with Hat Kid's exclamation of "Cool!", his own thoughts about the transformation were a bit different.

"D-d'you feel okay?" he asked the cowboy after roughly swallowing what was left in his mouth. Almost superstitiously Cadet lowered his voice and continued. "Older hunters used to spooky newbies with stories about armor made out of pieces of a black dragon. Like, the dragon's grudge was too strong to die with them and it ended up taking over the wearer... not that I really believe that, but you kind of - I mean it's whole spirit is inside you."

Those old stories definitely couldn't be true (Right??), but it would take some time to get used to The Courier's new look, that was for sure. Sectonia's cutesy little insect minions marched over to distract him once they were finished cleaning everyone else. They polished the Cadet's armor until it shined in the sunlight, and he patted some of them on the head before they went looking for their next target. During that time, a trio of people that some in their group seemed to recognize approached and dove right into conversation that easily sailed over the Cadet's head. He sat back and let the words roll over him. Apparently they had a base in the area? Cadet looked out over the star-shaped island's edge at the other floating land masses. There were a few interesting looking ones... and though the "Smashers" talked about visiting the base, Cadet was leaning more towards The Courier's suggestion of heading back to Lumbridge. Of course, getting there was a different story.

As usual, right on time another group appeared, one that was from Lumbridge even. Cadet narrowed his eyes as the dragon approached, but surprisingly wasn't as quick to brandish his weapons this time - though a hand did move to the handle of his long sword just in case.

"Things just get weirder and weirder," Cadet chuckled after the school girl introduced herself and the dragon turned into a mostly human woman. Actually, she sort of looked like how the Courier did now. Did she absorb a dragon's spirit too? Regardless, it was good to see Euden again safe and sound. The Cadet hurried over and clapped the boy on the back with a grin. "Hey, no worries! Glad the felynes got you two back safe and sound anyway."

Peach spoke up, and what she had to say made sense. Just before the group made their way over to the city, the Cadet made his thoughts known. "For the record, I'm interested in heading back to Lumbridge too. I want to see the look on the Guildmarm's face when she finds out we did it!" He smiled, seemed to suddenly think of something, and glanced at the now back to normal Linkle. "By the way, if we see the cats with - Link, right? If they're there with him, definitely don't call them pets. I don't own them or anything, they're people like you and me. They're called Felynes. Well, I guess they'd be Lynians, but the ones that helped us are Felynes." Ace Cadet seemed glad to speak about something he was familiar with after overhearing the Smash-related conversation from earlier. "Oh, but Felynes that work with us hunters are called palicos too!"
Turned out the base was massive. Truly fit for the name "City." It was like there was a whole village inside the building! It was pretty amazing, and Cadet would have wandered off to explore while the group was handling diplomatic matters if he wasn't worried about missing the proverbial train back to Lumbridge. When things tended to happen to quickly to this group, plus the story of Link being left behind just now, it was a real concern. He stuck with the group, though his interest in the Alcamoth was as plain as the grin on his face. Although the young man was decked out in scaled armor, a fiendish weapon or two, and with the body parts of creatures strapped to his person, he still looked pretty friendly. Or so he hoped as more strangers approached. Compared to the likes of Bowser and Sectonia, the hunter was sure he was fine though.

"Hi! Newcomers here. Lot of newcomers. Thanks for letting us in."

While Sectonia was busy commanding her minions to clean up those that she had been traveling with, some seemingly never had a bath ever seeing how well they cleaned up. Blazermate was also busy fixing and healing herself with Dell offering some support before he disappeared. As they were doing this, a few new people came to their island, with one riding a dragon! Although before anyone could get ready to attack said dragon, Sectonia having one staff in her hand, it turned into a human woman and started talking to Tora as if they were friends. This stayed Sectonia's hand, as the threat was clearly non hostile. Plus the Nippon cleaned up so well that even she had to admit he was a bit cute. Needed more gemstones, but still.

One of the newcomers who was riding the dragon addressed the party in Japanese, which Blazermate instantly cough onto. but before she could offer a greeting and be the translator for the party, this Sailormate looking girl started speaking english, commenting on how no one probably knew japanese. Standing up with most of her bits repaired and just needing herself cleaned, Blazermate said. "Hello, I can speak Japanese too, but yeah, I'm the only one. Why are you dressed like a sailormate?" She ended with that question, because usually humans didn't dress like medabots unless they were REALLY into them.

Being one of the last to be cleaned by Sectonia's minions, Blazermate didn't resist at all, and just spoke casually to the lot. "Good to know there are good and bad dragons. Although dragons turning into humans is kinda weird. But then wehave this guy so maybe its not that weird." Blazermate said, pointing a thumb at the Courier. Sectonia wasn't too impressed with the dragon lady either, but at least she knew how to present herself so that was fine. the girl dressed up in a sailor outfit though, she didn't care much for at this moment. She looked off to Sectonia, but she couldn't place a finger on why.

With everyone cleaned up and Blazermate repaired, Sectonia de-summoned her minions and the group started moving again, moving towards this 'smash tower' that some of the newcomers had mentioned. Apparently according to quite a few of their group this could be very beneficial, although both Sectonia and Blazermate were unsure why. They figured some new allies maybe, but beyond that they didn't know what they were getting into until they reached the tower itself. Inside there were quite a few people free from Galeem's grasp, and everyone seemed to know everyone else. that all changed when most of their group entered the reception area, an odd looking yellow dog lady managing the front desk. Blazermate thought she was cute, Sectonia didn't really care either way and was more interested in the location itself.

"I sense there are quite a few here of some renown." Sectonia said, regally looking at everyone around her. Most were quite a bit smaller than her, but even she could sense their power. Blazermate wasn't as perceptive, but she did at least notice no one here was hostile.

Once the temporary rest stop was set up numerous people took the opportunity to take a breather by the fire and fill their bellies, no doubt the cozy campfire was a welcome respite after the hard fought series of battles that had taken up their afternoon. Tora, Geralt, the hat wearing kid and more all took a sausage or two, and by the looks on some of their faces it was like nothing they’d ever eaten before. The standout, however, was Cuphead, who somehow managed to pile 12 of the processed meat tubes onto a single stick, along with an equal number of marshmallows, and then even more absurdly proceeded to eat them all in a single mind boggling gulp.

”What? How?” jr had to ask after the cartoonish display of gluttony took place. It was unsurprising that, after Cuphead’s stunt, they rapidly ran out of hotdogs, much to Bowser’s chagrin.

”got any-” he began to ask jr, who shook his head to indicate the complete absence of any more hot dogs ”ugh. Wells we’re gonna have to get the cars back at some point then. Somehow.”

They were also joined by Jigglypuff. The explosive nightmare puffball started singing almost as soon as it got to them, and had to be distracted via (pink) pokepuff and a bunch of marshmallows to stop it from knocking everyone out. Or at least that is what Jr assumed it was trying to do before he lobbed the cupcake straight at the demon’s noise hole.

Meanwhile the other two smash scouts, or rather mainly just Falco, chatted with peach and fox, although when called out by the king to join his army the bravado filled bird was having none of it and proceeded to bad mouth the king’s armies in response.

”YOU TAKE THAT BACK, MY ARMY IS GREAT!” Bowser yelled back as he lurched to his feet looking pumped and ready for a fight. Fortunately for everyone he was distracted from cursing out and possibly attacking the bird brained hot shot who kept needing his tail tailfeathers saved by Sectonia’s cleanup crew. The ant minions, who where either completely nonplussed by or totally ignorant of the fate of their larger comrades who had been left to fall into the ocean along with the island, certainly had their work cut out with Bowser. The king’s suit was a wreck and there haven't exactly been any access to giant turtle sized bathing equipment since the start of the adventure. Like Tora, the King showed zero shame about the fact that he was removing all his clothing.

”YEAH WEARING CLOTHES ALL THE TIME IS WEIRD AND UNCOMFORTABLE. I DON’T GET IT AT ALL” Bowser added to the fluffy mechanics comments while enjoying the scale polishing, earning a betrayed look from an almost unrecognizable de-robed Kamek. While the mage had not taken much of a beating, the old wizard’s robes definitely appreciated the laundering. The only real complaint about the actual scrub down was jr, who moaned about being washed and almost immediately undid the ant’s hard work by digginging back into the guts of his mini clown car, having taken copious amounts of the dispenser’s scrap to facilitate the final set of repairs the vehicle needed to become operable again.

Eventually however, the time for relaxation and repair came to an end when a massive dragon suddenly appeared on the horizon, heading straight for them. The troop, along with others, scrambled into a fighting position, but thanks to Falco’s falcon eyes it was quickly sussed out that they were not about to have to throw down with yet another dragon, and instead the imposing beast was humbly playing taxi for the fallen Euden and an enthusiastic newcomer. Sakura introduced herself as such and proceeded to oogle the ever living heck out of everyone in the group before asking who was in charge.

”WELCOME TO THE WINNING TEAM LITTLE LADY. I LIKE YOUR ENTHUSIASM. I’M KING BOWSER AND I’M THE BOSS OF THIS AWESOME ARMY” Bowser greeted and introduced himself to Sakura, 100% fitting the warning Geralt had given her (which Bowser had fortunately not overheard), before turning to Falco and asking ”WHY CANT YOU BE MORE LIKE HER HUH? I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO ASK OR PUT OUT JOB ADVERTISEMENTS AND SHE’S ALREADY COME RUNNING TO SIGN UP.”

After the reunion, introduction and discovery that their other losses where still stuck back at Lumbridge plans were made to head for the Smash building, which Bowser had to have pointed out to him before he claimed that going there had been his idea all along. Plans were also made to loop back to town once via setting up some fast travel once they were there, which jr agreed to do. Kamek meanwhile was silently affronted by the fact that Peach apparently didn’t know his name.

The troop set off towards the smash building, following along after Falco and using multiple teleport pads to warp themselves from island to island, turning what would have been quite the distance to trek into a relatively relaxed stroll. Or drive in Jr’s case.

Once they got to the tower it turned out to be a lot more spacious than it had looked from a distance. It put the old stadium to shame, eliciting an impressed whistle from Bowser, ”Nice place. Really moved up in the world huh.”

Falco led the party up to the front desk where they found the diminutive Isabella dogging the front desk. After a brief conversion, the assistant began making phone calls about a meeting Falco was wanting to have about the news about the world that they were bringing, leaving the troop with some time to kill.

Their arrival had caught the attention of few of the people who had been hanging around the atrium as they arrived. Four of them ambled over and one, Zelda, introduced herself to the group.

”YEAH HEY PRINCESS” Bowser replied dismissively before yelling at the lanky fellow loitering behind her and the ice climbers ”HEY WEEGEE. YEAH, I SEE YOU SKULKING BACK THERE. THEY LET YOU INTO THE BIG LEAGUES THIS TIME?”

While Bowser got to ‘talking’ Jr had work to do. Parking his car and leaving it in the care of Kamek, who took this as an excuse to sit down again, he got to work setting up the portal network they needed.

”Alright Lumbridge here we come. Just gonna stop by peach’s castle first though. Trust me, this stuff works way better when you have a hub level.” Jr announced before walking right back out the door and finding an inconspicuous place on the tower. Once there he brandished his paintbrush and painted a large stylized M with two umlauts on top onto the wall with it. For a moment it looked just like the usual pink-yellow-orange goop mess the brush left, but then it suddenly began to glow and the mess of colors seemed to clear and deepen, showing a scrolling view of Peach's castle within the M.

”Now you just gotta touch it and-” he said, before pressing a hand to the surface of the paint. Upon doing so the Koopa seems to dissolve into a myriad of mono colored spheres which hung in the air for just a moment, still representing his general shape and appearance, before they broke apart and raced into the artwork.

Miles away, right in front of Peaches castles these small spheres suddenly appeared, rapidly racing together again to reform jr into a solid state before the reformed boy dropped a few feet down onto the path leading to the castle's main entrance. Anyone who took the time to examine the portal after jr had headed in would be able to watch as he walked a little ways away from the landing spot and waited for the others to arrive.

Once they did he headed towards the castle’s foyer and, much to the displeasure of a toad who had been in the middle of cleaning it, painted two more warp M’s, one lending to Lumbridge and one back to the Alcamoth smash arena. Finally, he warped through to Lumbridge, the portal depositing them just before the entrance to the town, before heading to the statue that had been erected in honor of their defeating of the Brachydios and added a painting leading back to Peach’s castle.

His work done the boy dusted off his hands, ignored any complaints about his vandalism and headed for the Guild hall to make sure the Courier did not run hightail it out of town with their spoils.

The first person to approach her was a white-haired man with enchanting yellow cat eyes and a voice like he was gargling gravel, who didn't give her his name. Either way, he indicated to her that a biker looking woman (with weird clothes) and a massive turtle man was in charge. Sakura chuckled about his comment and tapped the side of her nose in response. "Okay! Thanks for the tip! I know you probably get this a lot, but you have pretty eyes." She complimented genuinely as he turned to sit down to his food.

Sakura briefly got a look at the woman who introduced herself as Linkle. A warrior looking type, heavily armed, and with rabbit ears!? Sakura practically spun on her heels to watch the young woman run to her friend, waving at her as she met with Euden. "Hello, Linkle!" A lady with rabbit ears? That is seriously so cute. As long as she didn't think too hard about what the anatomy of her head looked like considering it seemed like she still had her normal ears, too.

It seemed she wouldn't be the last, as two more people approached him. Tora and Poppi, a bird ball thing of adorableness and an equally adorable if slighty more intimidating robot-tank looking girl. They were two short little people and it looked like they were best friends. Sakura gasped at Tora and smiled big, placing her hands on her knees and looking down at him. "Oh my gosh, hi! You are just the cutest little guy in the world, huh?" Then she looked over at Poppi and was about to say something before both of them got distracted by Mym transforming into her human form. Sakura glanced over her shoulder at the dragon and giggled at Poppi's consideration for Tora's reputation. "Yeah, she's beautiful, huh? But even I don't think she could ever her hair as perfect as yours, Poppi." She added, admiring the perfectly shaped shine of Poppi's metallic blue hair. Sakura licked her finger and then tried to press down a high flung strand of her brown own hair using the polished reflection in Poppi's hair. Unfortunately, to no avail.

The next woman that approached was indicated as the leader. She seemed to command respect with a cool authority, while also looking like she could glass people in a barfight no problem. Definitely real leader material. She also mentioned the white-haired mans name was Geralt. Sakura stood a little straighter already and bowed at her the new leader. "Yes, ma'am. Nice to meet you, too." She responded, not even phased by any of Peach's self-percieved unfriendliness.

The next person to approach her was yet another robot lady. Lots of robot ladies in this world, but all of them looked very different and all looked equally adorable. She supposed she had "seen" this world and explored it before, but it didn't really feel like herself in retrospect. So in a way, it was like she was seeing all this for the first time. Either way, when Ryu and Michael gave her the low-down on the bad situation they all found themselves in, she hadn't expect everyone to be so cute and nice to look at. Everyone here had their aesthetics on point! Sakura made her mouth into an impressed 'O' as the blue robot said she could speak japanese. Then she asked a strange question that Sakura didn't quite understand. Sailor...mate? Probably cultural shock from being from another dimension. Perhaps her school uniform carried some sort of different meaning?

"Ooh, nice!" She said, then she grabbed the shoulder of her school uniform and pulled at it. "Um, this is my school uniform. Where I'm from, all the girls wear something like this when they go to school." She pulled it up a little more to show her red crop top underneath.

"Really I just wear it because it's my nicest pair of clothes and it would be weird for me to just wear gym clothes everywhere. I think." She shrugged with a smile. She glance around at the strange site of weird bug looking creatures making their rounds on certain members of the group and doing something? Cleaning them?

Sakura was taken aback though as the rumbling storm that had occasionally made noise in the background of her conversations revealed itself to be a voice belonging to a giant turtle person! This was the fake leader that Geralt mentioned earlier. Sakura took a step back and looked up at the huge creature. "Wow-ha-hoow!" She laugh-exclaimed, looking at King Bowser and being absolutely awe-struck. If anyone could be taken in by his boistrious, super-villainous charm it would probably be Sakura. He reminded her a lot of her """""mentor""""" Dan, only this guy looked like a real king monster! Like something out of Godzilla!

"Yes, sir!" She exclaimed with exuberance, snapping into an exaggerated American salute as she did so and putting on a soldiery face.

The others were talking too each other, and the relationships between these people were clearly dense and storied. They all knew each other somehow. It was going to take a bit for her to integrate into the group, but they were all so overwhelmingly nice! The atmosphere was alive and full of energy. It was like an adventure and a party all at the same time! An adventuring party!

The others were talking too each other and tossing around orders and commands and suggestions.

Wow. These people and their relationships with each other are probably really dense and storied! They all know each other and have been fighting alongside each other. It's probably going to take a bit of time before I really get integrated into the group but...these people are all so nice! The atmosphere is alive and full of energy! It's like an adventure, and a party, all at the same time! Is that why Tsukushi calls it an adventuring party when he plays Dungeons and Dragons with his friends? It's all starting to make sense now! There's so much to see and look at! I need to start remembering people's names. Geralt, Linkle, Bowser. Tora, and Poppi!..Mym and Euden-...did somebody say Courier to someone? How many people are here, anyway? Is that really a giant bee over there? Sakura put a finger to her chin as she reflected on events so far.

One thing that had caught her ear was a warrior of a young man discussing the cats. The official named seemed to be Felynes, and they definitely weren't pets. Given the many animal themed people in the group she had seen, it was safe to assume everything in this world was as smart as a person. Like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. No more assumptions about things intelligence, that was for sure.

Before she knew it, people were being swept along to somewhere else. It looked like teleporting was the way to travel! Man, she wished she could have teleported to Lumbridge. Would have made her life a lot easier. Teleporting was a unique experience, the first time she had ever done it in her life, and it was strangely anti-climactic. Just another way to get around. Hardly the strangest thing she had seen since she had come into this world of light.

But what wasn't a small deal was the huge, mega massive ginormous humongous big arena building that made Sakura's jaw drop. It was gorgeous! How long would this have taken to build? Sakura spent most of her time looking upward, occasionally glancing around to see if anyone was as impressed as she was.

After a moment, another incredibly cute creature appeared who was named Isabelle. It was through Isabelle that she learned the name of the first/second/real/other leader of the group, Peach. Which was a really cute name for a girl who looked like such a badass. Maybe it was one of thos ironic names that naming a big guy 'Tiny'. There were new people all over place, but the one that approached them first was literally the prettiest princess named Zelda. First a king, and now a princess. Sakura had never met real royalty before! Though she had come real close to meeting the Queen of England. Either way, Sakura bowed to the princess like she seemed to like to do.

Then Sakura waited to let someone else take charge of the conversation. Right now she was trailing around somewhere in the middle of the group, observing everyone. Secretly she was trying to learn as much as possible, especially names. There were so many names! There was no better way to learn a name than to ask, though. One of the people she didn't know the name of yet was Ace Cadet, the well-armed man who seemed to know about the cats.

"Hello," she said, a little quieter, side-stepping next to him with her arms behind her back. "I'm Sakura! What's your name? Do you know about those cats that carry people around? They're nice, right? They look nice."

Huh. That went better than most raids. Donnie thought to himself as he picked himself off the ground. Usually I’d need to Resuscitate someone. I wish we had a tank though. I’ll need to see if I can remember Brewmastery at some point.

Donnie was taken completely off-guard by the falling island and didn’t have enough time to get out a mount, but thankfully, as the island started to fall, he was protected by game mechanics. He’d fallen from heights before, and every time he hit deep enough water, he was fine.

And lo and behold, as he plummeted downwards, through the air, and hit the surface of the water at terminal velocity, leaving one hell of a splash in his wake, he was unharmed, if a fair distance down. Still a little shaken by the impact, he righted himself and swam to the surface, his leg thankfully repaired by now by a cast of Vivify.

Breaking water, he managed to fish the Disc’s orb out of his bag and use it. Soon, he was soaring above the surface, still dripping wet, and alighted on the reef with the others.

He sat down on the floating reef floor, taking off his helmet and shaking the water out of it, only for…whaaaaaaat were those antlions doing?

“Get away from my armor!” the monk protested. “If I want a bath, I can take one myself later! I already took a swim in the ocean! And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t touch the handbla--”

Too late. The antlion had already grabbed the right Fist out of its pouch and was cleaning the grime off of it.

“--Okay, looks like the Fists really were drained. Whatever then--”

The antlions began taking off his armor against his protests, and, not wanting to harm an innocent being, Donnie resigned himself to letting them at this point.

Of course, he had his limits. “Don’t take off the gambeson? Have you no shame? Or sense of boundaries?“

Soon enough, he was left in his gambeson, but the armor was quickly cleaned via some kind of magical mist, and before he knew it, he was back to normal

With that over, Donnie stood up, shook his head, and took stock of his surroundings.

The reef was overlooking the ocean, as he knew, but there was some kind of shining city in the distance, under a dome.

And there was an awful lot of company.

The most interesting development was this “Super Smash Brothers” organization. A genuine fighting arena. Donnie was always one for a good fight. He’d fought in arenas before, from the Darkmoon Faire’s arena to the Brawler’s Guild in the Deeprun Tram, to the Gurubashi Arena when he was traveling through Stranglethorn Vale that one time.

Of course, with resurrection magic, it didn’t matter how injured he got, and kills were consequence-free. It was bloody, but it was something he liked to do when he was a rookie adventurer looking to test his skills in honorable combat.

Donnie, as one could probably tell by…everything about him, was nominally spiritually-inclined, but not one to pursue inner enlightenment. As a follower of Huojin philosophy (typically associated with the Horde, ironically enough), he believed in quick and decisive action, being the change he wished to see in the world. To do that, he needed to hone his skills, hone his body. And arena battles were one of the greatest ways to do that. All of his training in self-discipline and harmony of spirit and body was just a means to an end for him. His position as Grandmaster was mainly due to his heroic deeds, mastery of the three monk disciplines, and excellent combat capabilities rather than representing the main tenets of his order.

In fact, he had planned on stepping down from the position of Grandmaster as soon as the war against the Legion ended. The life of a master wasn’t for him. But thanks to Galeem, he never got the chance. He was an adventurer, first and foremost. He couldn’t stand the thought of sitting in a temple all day spouting philosophy and teaching people how to do palm strikes. He had a lot to teach, but also much more to learn, and much more to do. Perhaps that would change when he was an old man, but for now, he hoped to stick to punching out godlike beings, looting legendary weapons from their treasure vaults,  walking around with thousands of gold, and drinking every tavern in Azeroth dry as a desert.

Donnie had seen things that would drive a hundred men insane. It could be argued that the only reason he was still going around adventuring was his love of combat.

So an entire city dedicated to fighting? This was a dream come true!

Then Kamek opened up a portal network, and Donnie knew what he had to do.

“Sorry guys, but I have to head back to Peach’s Castle for a bit. I have something I have to do real quick. It’ll only take a few minutes.”

Walking through the paint-like portal to the castle, he made his way into the main hall, and immediately started asking around for the castle steward. There had to be someone who would qualify as an innkeeper!

Soon, he found one, in Toadsworth.

“So I’ve been told you’re Peach’s steward?” Donnie asked.

“Why yes, that’s me. What’s your name, young man?” the elderly toad asked.

“Donovan.”

“I see. A fine name. I’m Toadsworth, and you already know what I do. What do you need?”

Donnie magicked his bag into existence and pulled out a strange white stone with an inlaid blue swirl. “This is a Hearthstone,” he said. “It lets me return to an area I designate as ‘home’ every thirty minutes. Fifteen sometimes. To do that, I need the permission of the proprietor. Usually that’s an innkeeper or other landlord, but since your business is running the castle, I need to talk to you about it.”

Toadsworth looked astonished. “A fascinating device! But why is there a waiting period?”

“I have no idea. Most magic where I come from works like that.”

“Ah. Still, you’re one of Peach’s fellow heroes. I saw you in the crowd a few days ago before you all left on your quest. But wouldn’t you need her permission? I don’t own the castle, I just see to its day-to-day affairs.”

“True,” Donnie replied, “but the spell recognizes the one who runs it just the same as the one who owns it, and if the owner is in another region, I’m not sure how that would interact with the spell.”

“And what if there’s a conflict?”

“Well, I don’t think there would be, would there?”

“Well, no. A friend of Peach is a friend of mine. So what exactly do I need to do?”

“Just place your hand on blue swirl and speak the words, ‘This place is now your home.’”

“Alright, I’ll do that…” the Toad said, starting to be a bit weirded out by the whole thing.

Donnie handed the stone to Toadsworth, who shakily placed his hand on the swirl and said the magic words, “This place is now your home.” Dots of blue light manifested around Donnie for a split-second, and then faded. The binding spell had completed.

“Thanks!” the monk replied. “I have to head back now, thanks for your help!”

“Have a nice day!” the elderly Toad called back as Donovan left.



Donovan quickly arrived back at the reef, “Back. What’d I miss?”

The Courier was about to take off when Peach essentially told him to hold up, and he couldn’t deny that it irked him a bit to be told what to do, but her reasoning was sound so he didn’t express any of his irritation. Setting up a portal in this Smash City place and getting a travel hub absolutely sounded like a great and practical idea. Besides, that meant that the others could get to Lumbridge before him if he took off flying now, and the guildmarm might give away the prize without him and that absolutely would never do.

The new arrivals of Sakura, the dragon lady, and the return of Euden were welcomed by Cuphead and Jak (one much more enthusiastically than the other) but soon it was time to get a move on and they all traveled through a series of teleporter pads and ultimately ended up walking toward a huge citadel that was the host of this “Smash Tournament” event, whatever the heck that was. Once inside it was clear the place was full of some absolute legends, and it was quite the hustle and bustle of a place! Some small, adorable anthropomorphic dog was working the front desk and Daxter couldn’t help but jump up on the desk and pat Isabelle on the head.

”Lookit Jak, isn’t just the cutest thing?” he chuckled. Jak shared in his friend’s laughter, but only a little bit.

Another individual approached them, a regal woman of golden hair and white and pink gown. She introduced herself in a melodic voice as “Zelda.” The Courier began to lose interest and followed Bowser Junior, making his graffiti and somehow this paint translated into a portal. He shrugged and figured, “What the hell?” and jumped in after the heir to the Koopa throne. Jak merely nodded to the woman of clearly royal pedigree, while Cuphead bowed and tipped his head by removing it like a hat.

”Greetings milady! You may address me with the title of my personage, Sir Cuppicus Cranial Headdicus. Or you can just call me Cuphead for short!” He snapped back into normal position, placing his head back upon his shoulders with a smile.

---

Back at the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach’s castle, the Courier arrived just a couple seconds behind BJ and the koopa was already at work setting up more graffiti portals. Soon as the one to Lumbridge was made, the Courier jumped in ahead of BJ, eager to not only get their spoils from the guild hall, but also to reunite with someone. In a flash later, his body disassembled and reassembled elsewhere, the now draconic Courier looked all around the medieval town but did not see the individual he was looking for. His new form was sporting him many looks and stares from the crowd, but he couldn’t give less of a shit. With his new wings he took to the air and gazed down from above, but still he couldn’t find who he wanted. Did those cats take her back someplace else? That would have been strange. Well he’d have to look for her at another time, with greater effort. Instead he changed course to the guild hall.

Once he arrived at the guild hall, alongside Bowser Junior, the Courier spotted exactly who he wanted to see, leaning against the counter. ”GT! Howdy!” he called out, arms open wide.

The robot readjusted itself and looked at him, the face on her tv screen changing to a new static image of Gaige in confusion. “Boss?” The image changed back to Gaige with an excited grin. “Hell yeah boss! You got the dragon spirit?! I knew you would!”

Courier and robot rushed in for a very strange and awkward embrace, but it was heartwarming in its own way. Once they were finished he looked over the counter to the guild marm. ”As you can plainly see amiga, we done took care of that big beast an’ now it’s part of me. We’ll be moseyin’ off with that reward now, please and thank you.”

---

Link cocked his head at Shulk’s explanation. The land regenerated? He thought he knew what that could mean, but the way Shulk said it this was on a much grander scale than any blood moon he’d even experienced.

“It was a dragon.” Link said. “An enormous dragon, black as midnight. Spat acid. I managed to get a picture while it was circling. It’s not good, but…” He pulled out the slate and flipped to his album, pulling up the shot he’d taken of Tora, Poppi, and the Cadet perched up on the dragons back and showing it to the boy. Nopon for scale.

“I think those people might have it handled, but. I’d still like to make it back if I can. They ran into me on their way to fight it. I was in a sorry state, and they stopped to help me. I’d like to return the favor if I can.” He looked around at this, sighing. “Unfortunately, to do that I need weapons, supplies, and directions because I have no idea where they are. My guide just flew the coop.”

Seeing a fellow adventurer in need was all Shulk needed before he chose to lend a hand. “Well, I’m happy to help! We can get you kitted out in a jiff. This whole town’s basically made for adventuring, after all. You’ll want to head there.” He pointed out smoke rising from a sturdy brick building down the street. “The Sisters of the Forge. They’ll do your weapons and armor. If you don’t have the cash, you can even get stuff on credit, long as you sign the ledger. And Miss Dragon landed by the market square, where you can get your general goods. If you need better stuff, Malo Mart will do the job, but Malo doesn’t offer credit.” Scratching the back of his head, he looked out toward the horizon in the southwest. “As for direction, uh...the End is at the far side of this region. The scouts say there’s a big, dark orb, like a hole in reality. That’s where the big hunt is on.” He gave a bright smile, hoping that his words were of assistance.

Link’s eyes widened as Shulk mentioned that the local blacksmith worked on credit. A terrifying memory flashed through his mind. Him standing in a Goron shop as the heat made his fingers smoke, eyeing the armor that would keep him from bursting into flames the moment the magic potion that was chilling his body wore off while a Goron who seemed fully content to let him burn to death should it come to that counted out the exact Rupee amount he needed to purchase it. Of all the close calls he’d had on his adventure that was the one that sometimes kept him up at night. These sisters, he decided right then, must be the golden goddesses themselves.

“Thanks Shulk.” He said, following the smoke the boy had pointed out to the Sister’s forge. Malo was out if he didn’t offer credit, but he could at least get a shield. He was sure that he’d more than make up the cost on the trek back to that black sphere.

Ren watched him go, considering his options now that a little more information had trickled his way. The ‘End’ that Shulk mentioned sounded a long distance away. He remembered the good look he’d gotten at the rolling grassy hills and picturesque swaths of forest, seemingly extending forever, and the student couldn’t see any dark orbs from here no matter how big the scouts made them out to be. That just landed him and his team right back where he started--in dire need of transportation. He heaved a frustrated sigh, missing that cat’s oftentimes helpful advice right about now. Still, if he couldn’t get a hint from Morgana, he could at least get one from Link. Better to try and speak with him after errand got wrapped up, after all. While Link kitted himself out, so could he.

Ren turned slowly, watching the crowd. Things went back to normal pretty fast after Mym left, with almost no trace left behind of the ruckus she inadvertently caused. Even the pigs returned to their jovial selves, working to establish relations with Lumbridge through their mercantile talents. Though his sharp eyes swept over the available goods, nothing tickled his fancy, or rather he couldn’t get a good grasp of their worth. He left the marketplace behind and headed for the guild hall. Rather than enter the castle, he followed the sounds of combat toward a lot behind it. There he came upon a number of adventurers hard at work bettering themselves in an elaborate training ground. With obstacle courses, all sorts of dummies, a few interesting-looking dummies marked as ‘combat adjudicators’ that seemed to be on the more challenging side, and other various facilities, it offered everything a budding quester could want. Ren leaned against a palisade wall and watched, arms crossed. Nobody really noticed him or questioned his presence, thanks to his ordinary looks and marginal presence. His stare swept over every adventurer present in turn, sizing them up one by one.

Meanwhile, Link entered the smithy to find the sisters on break. Fresh -or rather, tired and dirty- from what appeared to be a serious session of forging, Ramona, Rena, and Renee sat around the front of the workshop, trying to cool off. Of the three, the youngest happened to notice Link first. “Hiya!” she greeted, waving a mitted hand. “What’s shaking?”

Link waved back, slightly surprised to see how on point he had been about the goddess idea. “A lot.” He said. “About as much as a giant dragon can shake. I’m low on funds and in need of a sturdy shield. Shulk advised me that I could get one on credit here. I assure, I can find something in the wild or perform some favor in order to reimburse you. Anything you need.”

Ramona perked up. “Hey, that could work.” She leaned forward on her chair, resting her elbows on its back. “I’ve been thinking about writing up a quest for salvaging equipment. We’ve been working with local materials, which is fine and all, but we don’t have access to rarer metals, crystals, and so forth.” One hand went up, gesticulating as she explained. “We can arm you for now, but in return, when you go hunting around the countryside, bring back any high-quality weapons ‘n armor you find. We can study ‘em to learn new tricks, then melt ‘em down for their materials. Or maybe just repair and resell ‘em.”

Her older sister looked pleased. “That’s a wonderful idea, Ramona!” Rena glanced over at Link, a big smile on her face. If he held true to his word, he’d be bringing in a lot more wealth to the smithy than he took out today on credit. “So, a shield, you said. We can hammer out a damascus-inlaid heater for you that’s both tough and lightweight. Anything else?”

Link did enjoy collecting weapons, and he’d kind of done this sort of thing before. It had been just showing off various weapons to a kid but he’d enjoyed it. He’d always ended up with more than he could carry anyway. “Yeah, I can do that.” As for anything else, he considered that for a moment. “Do you have any weapons you were just going to trash? Mistakes, accidents, things rusted to uselessness? Stuff you can’t do anything with, it doesn't matter if it would only last one hit.”

He received varying levels of confusion from all three. “Uh, maybe. Don’t know why you’d want that, though,” Ramona remarked. Renee jumped off her bench to skip into the back and get looking. “We try to make use of whatever we can, which means melting it down if it turns out wrong,” she explained. “Most adventurers just toss the remains of whatever breaks on the ground, too. So pickings might be light.”

Renee returned after a few moments. She held a small bundle in her arms, which she unceremoniously tossed down in front of Link. “Ta-da!” Rena narrowed her brows at her, prompting the youngest sister to give an exasperated sigh. “What? They’re not getting any crappier.” She turned and presented their visitor with a broken straight sword, a bent pickaxe, a shattered axe, a fork, and a brandistock. “Well, those last two are probably fine, albeit a little fragile,” she observed. “But nobody buys weird polearms. Just swords, swords, swords, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

Link picked up one of the pair of weird polearms, testing its weight in his hand. He’d never seen a design like this before, with the three short barbs on the end. Still, the girl’s assessment was sound. It seemed like a fine weapon all its own.

The first three, though, had been exactly what he’d been looking for. Complete trash. He especially admired that axe, which looked like it legitimately had one or two swings left in it before it turned into shrapnel. “These are perfect. I’ll take the lot off your hands.” He picked up each of the weapons in turn, and one by one the things vanished from his hands to be stored wherever the sheikah slate stored them. Noting the confusion of one sister over his choice of armament he said, bashfully, “Even the very best weapons tend to break when I use them. I like to keep a few on hand that nobody would miss. I wouldn't want to destroy anything rare before I got it to you.”

“Hmm. I see.” Rena knew a few adventurers who stood at the opposite end of the spectrum, who could wield weapons (or more usually, a single weapon) without sustaining any equipment damage at all. “Well mister, we’ll get started on your shield in a few minutes. Since we keep prototypes around to speed up standard orders, it won’t take long. Come back soon!”

Ramona dragged herself to her feet. “Aaalrighty then, I guess break’s over.”

---

After taking a deep breath, Kai adjusted her cap so that she could wipe the sweat from her brow before pulling it back into place. With practiced precision she re-engaged the safety on her rifle and stowed it in a carrying position. A half-turn brought the Four Swords into view, who’d all been waiting with barely-suppressed patience for their turn on the firing range. Since according to the others their over-enthusiasm often left a mess, she’d been quite particular that they hold off while she got her daily training in. No sooner did she step away, however, than the four boys sprinted into the firing range with bows, boomerang, and bombs, hooping and hollering. The hint of a smile played about her face as she shook her head and joined a few other fighters on their way out of the practice yard. A young man with frizzy black hair fell in behind her, but she thought nothing of it.

Halfway through Lumbridge, however, she began to take notice. The boy followed at a respectful distance, but he followed nonetheless. Given what Kai knew of this town’s idyllic nature, it seemed remarkable that anything off-color would happen, but the soldier was determined to take no chances. She turned away from the door to the Malo Mart, circled behind it to the patch of dirt that lay between it and the smithy, and stopped. Sure enough, the sound of footsteps signalled the approach of her pursuer.

When he drew near Kai stepped out from behind the building, her face intimidating. “What do you want?”

“Negotiation, already?” the boy remarked, more to himself than as an answer to the soldier. He cleared his throat, looking unperturbed by the confrontation, and examined Kai’s eyes. Kai herself eyed his hands in his pockets, but she couldn’t make out the shape of any hidden items. “Well, I want to undo the distortions plaguing the world of cognition, of course. Just everyday stuff. How about yourself?”

Confusion welled up within Kai, but she kept her features stern. What did she want? He was acting as though this were an everyday conversation, not a tense standoff. Now that she got a good look at him, he appeared to be about highschool age. What exactly did he think he was doing? “To go about my business in peace. Why are you following me?”

“A serious one, then,” the boy observed. His tone grew more straightforward. “Actually, I was hoping you could lend me your power.”

Kai bristled. Things were not as they seemed. “I’m not an adventurer. If you need help, submit a quest to the guild. Now leave me alone.”

Her pursuer shook his head, looking disappointed. “Oh, well. I hope you’ll forgive me, but I am not going to accept this distorted world. Not now, not ever.”

Kai’s hands went to her rifle. In a flash it was in a combat-ready position, not yet pointed at the boy, but able to be. He withdrew his hands from his pockets and held them up. “Careful, shadow. I’d be happier if you joined me. Allow me to jog your memory. I’ll show you my rebellious spirit, my true self. Come forth, persona!”

The boy burst into blue flames. They washed over him, changing his attire into a black suit and coat, and his glasses into a white mask. Behind him a shape rose from the fire, adopting a humanoid form, until its wings spread wide and its form emerged. Kai’s eyes went wide and she raised her rifle. She pulled the trigger. A bullet struck the thief in the chest, and while he staggered, he did not go down. “What?”

He held up his own hand, a pistol pointed at her. When did he get that?! Not expecting a fight so soon, Kai was far from cover. She dove, but her assailant fired. Eight shots, much quieter than her own, pelted her in quick succession. She gasped, holding a hang to her stomach, but felt no wound. Baffled, she could only watch as the thief snapped his fingers. “Arsene!”

“Eiha!”

The winged specter released a blast of dark energy that burst against Kai like fire. With a cry of pain she fought to her feet and held out a hand. “Stop! Don’t kill me!”

The thief held out a hand, bidding the creature stand still. In reply Arsene disappeared, leaving the two alone. “Ready to negotiate again?” the boy asked.

“Yes, yes,” Kai assured him, trying to bide her time. As gunfights went this wasn’t a loud one, but someone had to have heard it in a town like this. However, the moment she said that, something seemed to change. There was some kind of feeling, a ringing maybe, in the back of her skull. Like she knew something was wrong. “What do you want?”

“For you to be my strength,” the thief declared, as if that explained anything.

Kai grit her teeth and tried to play along. “And what does that mean exactly?”

The thief crossed his arms. “It means we take up arms as comrades. That we cooperate through thick and thin. That we weather whatever challenges may come our way as warriors of honor, watching one another’s backs, leaving nobody behind.”

Kai found herself laughing at the corniness of his response. Still, though she didn’t know if he meant them, his words resonated with her. She stood up straight with a wry expression. “Hmph, what a load. There’s no place for kindness or honor on the battlefield. You rather remind me of...myself…”

She staggered as if shocked by a sudden realization, her eyes wide. The sunset-red within them drowned within azure flame. “What in the!?” Her head was spinning, her thoughts jumbled and her memories afire. She held her head with her hand, staring out at the thief. “I...I remember…” Her gaze fell on the palm of her hand. “I don’t belong here...I’m not from this world. I’m from the sea...of humanity’s souls.” Straightening up again, she saluted. “My name is Leena Schulen. I’ll serve as your mask as you march into the future.”

So saying, she disappeared into blue fire that flowed into Joker’s mask. He held it as if putting it on again, standing still for just a moment, before his garb reverted back to school clothes. His fingers lay on the rim of his glasses, as if he’d been adjusting them. “Just as I expected,” he said aloud.

“What, that she was a ghost?” Came a voice from behind him.

Link stepped out from behind the corner where he’d caught the very tail end of whatever it was that had just happened. He’d been left with thirty minutes to kill and had been getting the lay of this town when he’d heard...well, it was hard to say. The small explosion. A sound that he’d never heard before, but was at the same time familiar. Like he’d heard it recently, in some forgotten memory or maybe in a dream. Whatever it’d been the noise stirred up unpleasant feelings in his chest. It warranted investigation.

What he’d found was a girl wreathed in blue fire, swearing loyalty to a boy in a mask before vanishing into it. The boy had pulled a quick change after that, reverting to what Link could only think of as his disguise. After all, he’d seen the opposite more times than he could count. Assassins had stalked the lands of Hyrule, a whole clan adept at hiding their true faces right up until they were close enough to bury a sickle into Link’s chest.

He kept a wary distance from this boy. He didn’t know what sort of situation this had been, but between that sound and the mask he viewed the entire thing with evident suspicion. The girl seemed like she’d been lending him her aide intentionally, but she had also just immolated. Maybe that had been “spirit fusion” in it’s own way.

“Then again that fire wasn’t exactly the kind I've seen surrounding ghosts. So, what exactly was it that you expected? What did I just watch?”

Ren regarded Link with curiosity. He didn't try evaluating him, since the swordsman was an ally in the fight against Galeem and neither did he plan to try and deceive him. Still, he didn't need to waste time trying to explain things to shadows, even if they were on his side. "We formed a contract," he told Link. "It's a...talent of mine. She's agreed to be my Persona." He didn't hold off on the jargon, suggesting that any further inquiry would be similarly difficult to understand. Few, he imagined, would spend their time trying to understand the minutia of how things in this hodgepodge world worked.

“Is that anything like becoming a striker?” Link, who had time to kill, asked.

Shrugging, Ren turned to walk his way, his hands slipped in his pockets. “I wouldn’t happen to know what that means. Still a lot to learn about saving the world,” he joked.

“Apparently.” Link said, following after him. More to keep an eye on him than anything. “Though, I’m not much more in the know than you I think. If you want to save the world there’s this group I was with before I got hauled back here that has most of the answers. I’ll be headed back their way in half an hour, but it’s apparently a long trek.”

“So I’ve heard.” Ren guessed that Link must not have noticed him standing around earlier. “I’d like to join this quest, but I figured I should gather Personas first. The shadows around here are pretty carefree, but they might attack en masse if they found out, so I set about doing it discreetly. See any that seemed useful?” As the two emerged on the main street, with none of the nearby pedestrians apparently any the wiser, Joker looked both ways. “I’m in the same boat as you otherwise. I need a way to get around.” He flicked his head to indicate the guild castle. “Maybe we’ll find both over there.”

Link looked around with him, trying to figure out where these enemy “shadows” were. He saw people going about their day, adventure’s headed between the various shops, one guy chasing a cucco through the street, but he didn’t see anything that looked like it could attack them in mass. Unless...he thought back to his amnesia, and the conclusions he’d already come to about where that Tora guy had probably gotten the slash across his chest. His eyes flicked back to the kids, watching as they moved over the villagers. No doubt about it, he meant them.

Could that really happen? Everyone here just turning on them? Looking at them now he couldn't believe it, but then again seemingly normal people put on masks and became assassins.

“No, no one really caught my eye.” He lied, deciding to focus his attention to the guild building. “If nothing else we might be able to at least get a general map. Hiking isn’t bad once you get used to it, but I can probably find something for us to ride.”

The newcomers took in the sights offered by the grand foyer of Smash City Alcamoth, and wasted no time interacting with the locals. Zelda bowed her head when the Cadet thanked her, gracefully implying he wand the others were welcome. When Sectonia mentioned the presence of renowned individuals, she laughed off the perceived complement politely. “You're too kind. Here, we all stand at the same level as fighters.” Bowser greeted her as well, and took notice of the purple-clad plumber sulking off to the side. Since he was too far away to participate in the conversation and showed no interest in getting closer, Zelda took the responsibility of responding for him. “Oh, Mr. Waluigi isn't a fighter. More of a...hanger-on.” A look of concern passed over her face, befitting of a regrettably situation that occurred on her watch. “Most everyone tries to be nice to him, but he is rather on the surly side. He acts as though he wants attention, but when he gets it, he dismisses it as though he doesn't need it.”

Her attention was taken up by Cuphead, who introduced himself in gallant fashion. Smiling, Zelda offered a courteous curtsy in return. “How do you do, Mr. Headdicus.”

Tora burst out laughing. “Pfff! Cup-Cup just being theatrical. No need stand on ceremony, new friend Zelda!” Poppi nodded as she stepped forward, offering Zelda her hand. The machine and the princess shook, completing the gesture of friendship. As interesting as Zelda seemed, the two couldn't monopolize her time, so they stepped back to give the others a chance to speak. Tora looked up to Poppi. “Lots of pretty faces all of sudden! Tora might need Poppi to keep her masterpon in check!” he joked.

The artificial blade nodded, her face solemn. “Poppi will employ fist liberally.” Tora's smile faded, and he swallowed nervously.

Meanwhile, Isabelle flushed when Daxter pet her, embarrassed. “Oh, goodness! Why, s-stop it, you! I have important business to take care of!“ Clearing her throat, she shuffled her papers to try and put her thoughts in order. “Anyway, the meeting is scheduled for just over an hour from now. We don't have a meeting room, so this spot will work.” She raised her little voice so everyone could hear. “Please come back in an hour, folks! Pretty much everyone in Alcamoth will be coming, so look forward to it! Until then, feel free to tour the place, and say hello to the locals.”

---

A quarter-hour later, the Nopon and his ether-fueled companion found themselves seated in a restaurant tucked away in an alcove on the second floor. Its cozy brick interior and the cheery tune playing in the background gave it a wonderfully cozy feeling, but Tora was far more interested in the wonderful smells drifting out of the kitchen. A minute after the pair seated themselves, a girl in a red dress and white coat came out to welcome them. “Hiya!” she said. “Welcome to Monas' Pizza and Pasta! I'm Mona. Well, the original, at least. What can I do ya for?”

Realizing he had been looking more at the pizzeria than at the menu before him, Tora panicked. “Oh! Meh, meh...” he quickly scanned the listings. “Um, what is pepperoni?”

Mona laughed. “That's a good one.” She quickly realized from the Nopon's blank stare that he was serious. “Oh. Well, they're these li'l salty sausage slices, dude.”

Tora's eyes practically bugged out. “Meh!? That sound super yummy-lovely! Want pepperoni pizza, please!”

Nodding, Mona wrote it down before she glanced at Poppi. “And...anything for you?”

Poppi shook her head. “No, thank you. Poppi just enjoy smells of food with olfactory sensors.”

“O-kay...” Clapping her notepad under her arm, Mona smiled warmly. “Well then, we'll get that out for you in just a few minutes. Thank you!”

The pair settled in to wait. Scarcely had Tora sipped his water than he heard a racket from the back of the restaurant. He looked over through the brick archway offering a look at the kitchen to see a black cat standing on a stool with his little arms crossed. With a grin, the cat posed, and in a burst of blue flames a masked spirit appeared behind him, much to Tora's amazement.

“Show 'em your might, Zorro!” the cat commanded. Brandishing a roller, the spirit bent down and started rolling a glob of pizza dough, flattening it one stroke at a time. Zorro worked at feverish intensity while the cat looked on, pleased, until Mona walked over with an annoyed look on her face.

“Stop trying to impress the customers, Mona!” Mona scolded, flashing Tora and Poppi an apologetic look. “That Zorro of yours is too rough with the dough. The pizza needs a human touch!”

Looking guilty, the other Mona banished his spirit and took hold of the roller himself. “Well, I am a human,” the cat muttered. “So that won't be a problem.”

Highly entertained, Tora looked over at a neighboring table to where a little girl was sitting, a book in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other. “Meheheh! Is Smash City always like this?”

She sighed. “Pretty much.”

Chuckling, Tora turned back around to get cozy in his chair and await a late lunch. Poppi rested with her head in her hands on the table, relaxing with a smile on her face.

---

By the time the appointed hour came about and the heroes returned to the atrium, a prodigious assembly had gathered. A huge variety of people of all shapes and sizes stood in a rough circle around Isabelle's desk, by which a large crate had been placed for Peach to stand on. Tora got Poppi to pick him up and hold him over her head so that he could see above the crowd and get a look at who was in attendance. In addition to everyone he came here with, from the oldest of compatriots like Linkle and Blazermate to the newest arrivals like Sakura and Mym, there appeared to be quite the variety hailing from Smash City itself. He could see a pokemon, a robot, a knight, a monkey, an imp, and humans of all varieties from swordfighter to big fistfighter to big-fist fighter, just to name a few. Above it all floated an imposing, alien figure with a stern look on its face. When Peach took the crate, the general hubbub came to a stop, and the speech began.

“Hello to you all, and thank you for welcoming me here,” the biker chick began. “I am Princess Peach.” She allowed a moment of chatter to pass. “I'm here to tell you the truth of this world, in which you all have been locked away, unknowing and complacent, until today.” She spread out her arms, her voice growing heavy. “With an army of master hands under his control, Galeem sought to create a new world. The fighters and their countless stories came to an end as light consumed them. Thus, the universe was crushed in the hands of Galeem.” She cast her mind back to that cliff, the annihilation that occurred there. She could see the same horror in the eyes of her audience as they began to remember. “Those who fought the light were devoured,” she continued. “The others lost their bodies and became spirits. Only one survived. Through him, a star of hope twinkled faintly as the dust settles on a new world.”

She looked between the gathered faces. “I can see that it's coming back to you. You're realizing it now. This world is not our own. It is a tapestry woven from the threads of countless worlds by Galeem, who even now floats over his masterpiece in idle splendor.” Her finger extended toward the sky, pointing out through the window of the atrium. Far, far away, a glimmer of multicolored light shone in the distant sky. “My team and I are taking him down. To defeat him, we need to first defeat his thirteen champions whose essence protects him. We've been busy. Only eleven remain.” She crossed her arms. “Still, we have a massive task ahead of us. Our fight is across the entire continent, and moving as one unit we've made progress, but slowly. What we can do is limited by our numbers and by our resources. That's why I've come here to speak to you. Will you help me save the world?”

A chorus of cheers went up from the crowd. Everyone seemed to know the score, deep in the backs of their minds. They just needed someone to point them in the right direction. The cacophony went on for a few moments before a grunt issued through the assembly's collective mind. They looked up to see Mewtwo, floating above the crowd with an air of authority. The pokemon nodded its assent.

Peach manifested a relieved smile. “Good. In that case, we'll start immediately.”

Another fountain of noise spilled forth, but amid the general enthusiasm a singular brawny arm went up. Peach gestured for quiet and pointed out its owner. “Yes?”

“Yeah, so that's a great idea 'n all, and I'm down fer it completely, but 'ow exactly didja plan to do this?” The absolute titan of a man questioned. “Were we all gonna plow around in one giant army? That just ain't practical, miss.”

Peach stared at him, defensive but curious. “You sound like you have a better idea in mind.”

“That's right,” the man said. “Y'see, back in...!”

“Vandhaaaaaaaaaaam!” Tora wailed, jumping out of Poppi's hands straight for him. The man held out his arms and caught the Nopon like a beach ball, allowing Tora to hold him close. “So happy see you again! We thought you dead, meh!”

Vandham grinned, embarrassed. “Not yet, mate. But, uh, maybe save the tearful reunion for later, huh? This ain't the best time.” Wiping his eyes, the Nopon nodded, and Vandham set him down. “Anyway,” he said, clearing his through. “Back in my world, I ran a little outfit called the Garfont Mercenaries. We deployed small teams best suited for the job on missions all across the world, solvin' problems and rakin' in rewards. If ya like, I can handle organization. Could be ready fer duty as soon as tamarra.”

Impressed, Peach agreed. “That would work very well. Work smarter, not harder, right?” With that neatly taken care of, she thought to the immediate future. The heroes would be moving out again before long, and they needed direction. “Kamek, the map,” she said, and the magikoopa approached to hand her a large rolled-up paper. She unrolled it with his help and let it hang, turning back and forth so that everyone could see. “This is a map of the world. By our best guess, we're on the very edge of the black zone by the desert, which was the End and is now the Eryth Sea, looking from above. That means that the 'Sandswept Sky' is the nearest area. We also have a link to a fortified building in the Dead Zone, and a way to get to an island off the coast of the Edge of the Blue.”

Mewtwo's telepathic voice resounded outward. “If you intend to brave the desert, make for the mountain on the other side. There is something there that fits the title of a champion of Galeem. I can show you after this.”

Peach nodded. “In that case, let's make preparations. Isabelle, if I may ask, please put together a roster of everyone present. Please prioritize my team, and mark down where they intend to go. Team, let her know your intentions. Everyone else should be marked as 'awaiting deployment.'”

The dog looked eager to begin. “Yes, ma'am!”

Vandham spoke up again. “Sounds like the first job of the Alcamoth Mercenaries if to scout the country. I'll draw up plans on the double.”

A short ways away from the main group, a familiarly unknown visage casually leaned against a tree as he looked on. “Boy howdy, this is something else,” he remarked, his voice expressive and charismatic. “Just about brings a tear to the eye.” The black-hooded figure put a gloved hand into the darkness of his hood as if to wipe away said tears, but nothing in that shadow could be seen. He raised an arm and waved at Peach. “Hey, pretty in pink! Aren't you forgetting something?”

Peach's eyes went wide. “Oh, Master of Masters? How did you get here?”

He pantomimed painting something. “Through a magical graffiti door, of course! How else?”

With no answer to that, Peach answered his question with a question. “What am I forgetting, then?”

“Spirits, doy!” the mystery man declared before addressing the gathered fighters. “So here's the crib notes. If you beat enemies in this world, they leave behind spirits you can use to make equipment or fuse with, granting totally radical new powers. If you're curious, see me after this and I'll give ya the deets.”

The princess retook the spotlight. “Thank you. Alright then, people,” she called out over the excited chatter. “We have a plan. We have the manpower to fight on many fronts. And we have the will to beat this World of Light. Now steel yourselves, and prepare to save the worlds.” Another round of cheers went up. Tora joined in, bouncing up and down, and even Poppi waved her arms. Everyone could feel the energy and determination in the air. With this many heroes, there was no way they could lose.



It wasn't until Ren stepped inside the guild castle and got a whiff of the aromas wafting over from the in-house snack bar that he realized how hungry he was. “Oogh. I could really go for a bite to eat.” Restraining himself from tripping over himself to get there, he took a moment to scope out the guild hall. It housed what seemed like an average number of adventurers, all going about their business in unconcerned normalcy. They relaxed at tables, chatted with their fellows, and group around the quests board to figure out how to spend their afternoons. A colorful array of characters occupied the place, but looks alone weren't enough to make any judgments on, so instead of take stock Ren sank back against the wall by the main entrance to look out for a few faces in particular.

He ended up finding the object of his search at the snack bar after all. A Japanese teenager with spiky hair dyed yellow and a school uniform sloppily draped over casual clothes hunched over a bowl of fries. “Aha.” Waving at Link, Ren started over. “Let's see if my friend over there found anything.”

The hungry student spotted Ren as he sat down and greeted him with toothy grin. “Yo, what's up?” His eyes lingered on Link. “Who's this guy?” After Link introduced himself, he nodded and stuck out his hands. “Hey, I'm Ryuji.” He didn't waste time getting back to his friend, however. “So, check this out. I found this dude named Franklin, and he actually knew something about cars. Apparently he and a bunch of other people came here in, like, a caravan, including this huge-ass monster truck.”

Ren remembered the huge, dark shape sitting at the edge of town when he arrived from the Dead Zone and nodded.

“Apparently they got most of their vehicles from a scrapyard outside of Peach's Castle. Like from Mario! Ain't that cool?” Now that he was excited, there wasn't any stopping Ryuji. “The monster truck came from this wasteland area they drove through, when they fought a bunch of other people with cars, which is like the coolest thing ever. I can't believe I was stuck in some time paradox in that nightmare city while people were havin' frickin' motor battles! Anyway, they stopped at a mechanic with all kinds of cars and stuff that's just a ways north of here. Called Hummer...Hammer-something.” He leaned on the counter. “So how's that, huh? Even Morgana would have to admit I'm a real credit to the Phant-”

He took a nudge in the ribs from Ren, who cut in over what he was going to say. “Yes, yes, you did well. As it happens, I figured out what's going on in this world, and what we need to do to stop it.”

Ryuji's jaw dropped. “For real?”

Ren nodded. “This is a cognitive world like Mementos, full of shadows. The source of the distortion -the treasure- is an entity calling itself the Lord of Light. It keeps the shadows suppressed and oblivious.”

The puzzle pieces were clicking into place. “Ohhhhh, I get it...just like with the...the Holy...”

“Just like that,” his friend confirmed quickly. “In order to face it, we need to defeat thirteen guardians hidden around the world. Once we do, we can take it on directly.”

“Aw, yeah! We're back in business!” Ryuji all but yelled, drawing a few looks. Flushing slightly, he settled back down, and in an urgent whisper said, “So, we just gotta find Ann...I mean, Panther, and track down these guardians. If these are all shadows, we can take whatever vehicle we need, right?” He scratched his head. “Wait, how are we gonna find these anyway?”

“There's a group already going around doing this,” Ren told him, inclining his head at Link. “This guy was with them before ending up back here. They seem to know what they're doing, so we just need to follow them.”

Ryuji furrowed his brows. “Wait, there are shadows trying to change things? Now I'm confused.”

“Get used to it.”

After a few seconds more, the sound of heavy tramping feet reached the three through the guild hall's door. They looked over to find a strange man standing in the threshold. Huge and menacing, he bore the fans, claws, horns, tail, and wings of a black dragon. Link could not avoid making the connection, but the others just watched as the strange fellow started through the hall. A little turtle with a bandanna and a slimy blue pompadour followed behind him, and so did a hunter with red hair. Getting his friend's attention with a sharp nod, Ren got up from the snack bar to follow, taking a handful of fries with him. Ryuji took the entire bowl as he followed suit.

The pair listened as the stranger stopped to greet a robot of some kind. Apparently they knew one another, and when the robot mentioned the winged cowboy getting a dragon spirit, Ren's face turned to one of mild surprise. He looked to Link for confirmation. Meanwhile, the Courier spoke to the guildmarm to collect a reward for completing the hunt. The guildmarm seemed taken aback, both by her client's appearance and its implication. “Wow! You guys really did it! Now the entire Land of Adventure will be open for exploration! And of course, Lumbridge will be open to you. You're now our top adventurers, after all. We don't have any grand coffers of gold to offer you, but you can always count on this town for a warm meal, a place to stay, and whatever tinkering you might need.” She pulled down the contract card marked 'Fight to the Bitter End' and marked it completed. As if on queue, the sound of a crowd cheering filled the guild hall, and confetti burst out from hidden contraptions. Most of the adventurers present started clapping and cheering, replacing the recorded sounds with their own.

Ren waited for the party to subside, watching for the Courier to emerge from the crowd. When he did, he whispered to Ryuji. “Find Ann, now,” before hurrying toward the gunslinger. “Greetings. It sounds like you're part of the group that's tackling Galeem's bosses. If it isn't too much trouble, my friends and I would like to join you. Perhaps you know him already?” He indicated Link. “For the distance involved, you got here quite quickly. Do you have a way to return to the main group?”



Of all the monsters the Slayer fought so far, the Hierophant was uniquely agile, and uniquely problematic. His shotgun rounds rebounded off its scaly hide, and the pellets that did make it into through the brief windows into its ribcage were so few as to render the damage meager. When the Slayer closed in to handle the situation personally, however, the Hierophant slunk out of his grasp and lanced his armor with its trident. The two covered ground aggressively, with the man bulling forward in frustration and the wily fishman evading him. Bit by bit, the fearsome prongs of the monster's trident gouged deeper and deeper, diminishing the Slayer's armor. It didn't take long for the metal points to start doing real damage, but the man's anger made him faster. He made the Hierophant scrabble to maintain its distance, taking potshots when he could until his ammunition ran dry.

Snarling, the creature ran and leaped over a lava river, clearing the bubbling lava with ease. Though too far across for the Slayer's standard jump to make it, the edges of the chasm maintained some of the debris from when a city street ran through hear. A lightpole hung over it at a precarious angle, its beam horizontal enough to serve as a monkey bar. Thinking itself safe from the Slayer for now, the Hierophant waved around its trident and thrust it toward him. A shoal of demonic fish leaped from the lava moat toward him, trying to sink their vicious teeth into his armor before they burnt out.

At the same time, an even more mobile throwdown was in progress between Nero and Bathin. The devil hunter quickly learned that his fleet-footed adversary could dash fast enough to create whirlwinds after taking a hurricane punch to the shoulder. “Gah!” He grunted as he tumbled backward. Cackling, Bathin extended his snake tail, and from the serpent's mouth fired a purple laser. It missed initially, but the snake quickly adjusted the aim to rake Nero across the abdomen with the beam. Gritting his teeth, Nero pulled out the Blue Rose and nailed the demon right in the visor with a pair of bullets, but Bathin learned quickly, too. He zipped to the side the avoid shot after shot, then wound up for another lunge punch. Nero replied by swapping arms, and when Bathin zoomed forward this time, Nero thrust his Overture arm forward to meet him. A hand-shaped thunderburst expanded outward, flooring Bathin and sliding him over the rubble. He slipped off the edge of the lava moat, twisted in midair, and landed on his feet on the other side.

He found no safety there. Nero had already prepared a follow-up, so even though Bathin unleashed his tail-beam once again, the devil hunter plowed through it with Hard Way to deliver a massive jumping slash. “Right there!” With Bathin on the ground, he inelegantly pounded away with the Red Queen, smashing downward again and again. The repeated clash of his blade against the road echoed across the area, drawing the eyes of various demons. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! Finally, he turned the blade to drive the point in, then pulled it upward to send Bathin flying. Bleeding bright yellow ichor, the demon righted himself as he sailed through the air and sent out his targeting beam. It bounced off the walls of the valley-shaped battlefield in a massive zig-zag, and the next second Bathin sped along it at nearly the speed of light. Nero took two hits and got spun around before he backflipped up onto higher ground, leaving Bathin to complete his return trip.

As he landed, he spotted V sliding backward nearby and almost fall over the lip to the danger zone below. Nero glanced over his shoulder to see Griffon and the hat-wearing stranger from earlier tangling with a grotesque insect with a staff. Even though he appeared to be sitting idle atop a filthy throne held up by a number of crabs, he clearly possessed his own measure of power. He conjured an orb of scum and hurled it at the stranger, against whom it exploded on contact. “Bug problem?” Nero teased.

“Stronger than he looks,” V assured him. “If you're free, I could use some firepower.”

Nero looked back over to see Bathin climb a nearby ledge. “Hold him still and it's a deal.”

“Got it.”

The two switched places, with Nero running for the bug while V called Shadow to deal with Bathin. Nero sent forth a Wire Snatch to grab onto the insect's throne and fly in. Sloth's staff swung toward him to crush him mid-flight, but a well-placed shot from the stranger's pistol blew a chunk out of the monster's spindly wrist and sent the staff's head on a low path. Nero landed on Sloth's oversized belly. “Hi there.” He primed his Overture Arm and held it up to ram it down.

“Really, this is too much effort...” Sloth proclaimed.

Nero planted the arm, turning it into an attached explosive, and jumped off. He turned in the air to see Shadow clamp a vice-jaw shut on Bathin's tail, and with a smile lunged downward into a Payline. The Red Queen's tip plunged into Bathin's chest and Nero carried him through, straight to the bottom of the valley and the lava river flowing there. He dunked Bathin in the molten rock, who screamed shrilly as he struggled. One hand went up to put out another tracer beam, just as V expected. “Shadow—fence him in.” The demon cat transformed, sinking into the battlefield before a forest of scattered black spikes arose. They cropped up in the exact path of the tracer, redirecting it again and again. When Bathin took off, desperate to escape the searing lava, he zipped between the spikes like a pinball until his journey came to an abrupt end in a head-on collision with the Exploder placed on Sloth.

Bathin's eyes went wide as he reeled, his head spinning. “What?”

Sloth's were dull. “Oh, bother.”

V smiled, smug as a bug. “Checkmate.”

The bomb went off in magnificent fashion, annihilating Bathin and blowing Sloth through his throne. Laying where he fell, the bug summoned more crabs to dig up beneath him and carry him away. Nero, meanwhile, went after Bathin's spirit, which took him to the opposite edge of the battlefield. The Slayer could tidy up the mess, he figured. He clambered up onto the road and found himself in a dusty, half-destroyed food shop, maybe a deli. A look back confirmed Nico's van on the other side of the valley-shaped pit. It also made him aware of someone sitting at one of the tables overlooking the battlefield. Someone with a red longcoat and a crop of white hair.

Nero's brows went up. “Dante?”

The figure turned around, laying one arm on the chair back. Nero's brows dropped back down again. Not Dante. For starters, she was a woman, one with sunglasses, black-tipped white horns, and a spiked red hairband. Beneath the coat she wore a red suit vest and black tie over a black undershirt, and her cuffs and ears bore silver, fly-shaped pins. And she had freckles. An apology was on the tip of his tongue when the woman greeted him. “Hey, kid! That was awesome!”

Nero froze, his mouth hung open. His eyes drifted down to the weapon propped up against the table. Sparda? But not just anyone could wield that thing. He glanced at the woman again and went out on a limb. “...Trish?”

“Uh, no. It's me, Dante!” The woman stood up from the table, faced him fully, and put her hands on her hips. Nero became aware how much taller he was than her, but he didn't move “Yeah, yeah, I know. Crazy, huh? So here's the thing.” She held her hands up as though she were painting a picture with words. “So there I was, woke up with this horrible migraine. I smack around a couple Nobodies, grab the Sparda, then start walkin' around. Nothing but dead-ass zombies, far as the eye can see. Until I find these two ladies. Both with red eyes, suits, horns, white hair, and beating the hell out of each other. So I jump in to try and defuse the situation, you know, and they come at me. Like, really come at me. So I mopped 'em up, and when I did, I see these colorful little lights.” She shrugged and crossed her arms. “So I think, aw sweet, new weapons. When I tried to pick them up, this happens.”

Nero continued to look dumbfounded, as if he couldn't deal with this world's nonsense. “You don't say.”

“I do say,” Dante confirmed for him.

“So how's that working out for you?”

“Mostly negative,” the five-sixths demon admitted. “My eyesight got worse, for one. I got a new Devil Trigger, but it kinda sucks. And getting used to all...this.” She indicated herself broadly before cracking a smile. “But hey, I can still whip demons like nobody's business, and it's a blast. So I'm good. How've you been?”

Nero seated himself at the table to watch the carnage unfold below with the Doom Slayer. “Would you believe things have been better? Here, lemme fill you in.”