Yennefer was here. She was safe. Letting out a breath through his nose, Geralt nodded. It felt like he'd been hit with an emotional sledgehammer. "Thank you." He said, turning towards the residential area he'd been pointed to before pausing. He almost scoffed thinking about how Isabelle said that Yen wasn't a fighter, but he supposed she did carry herself that way. Sorceresses were a prideful bunch, after all.

They were about to leave. He had a job to do. But he'd joined with this group to find Yennefer and Ciri in the first place! If he ran off now, there was no telling if she'd wait around forever. She'd likely have her own search going for Ciri, if not himself as well. Shaking his head, Geralt stalked up the stairway he'd been directed to. He could spare a minute. And if it came down to it, Yennefer could probably track him down with portals and the plans the group was making. She could chase him for once, couldn't she?

Looking around, Geralt found that the apartments were helpfully labelled with small plaques stating who lived where. Upon reaching one that said "Yennefer of Vengerberg", the Witcher knocked.

A voice he'd been waiting so long to hear responded. "Isabelle, dear, is that you? Rather odd to be calling on me at this time, you ought to be-" Swinging the door open, Geralt was greeted with the beloved sight of his "wife", and a fond smile crossed his features. "Geralt? Oh, thank goodness." A quick look up and down, and she grabbed his arm, carefully yet forcefully pulling the Witcher inside and slamming her door, pulling Geralt into an embrace. "No blood this time. I'm almost impressed," She teased, "but I've a feeling you have bad news."

Nodding, Geralt put an inch of distance between the two, not willing to break the hug, but needing to make some space so he could deliver his unfortunate news. "There's...a lot going on. I've found myself tangled up in yet another misadventure." Yennefer could only sigh.

"You have developed quite the unpleasant habit of doing so lately, that is true. Might I ask what you've done this time?" She wasn't pouting, Sorceresses didn't pout, but there was a displeased look on her face all the same.

"To put it shortly, Galeem, a malevolent entity of untold power has ripped us from our world and thrown us here, in some...sick playground, with beings from hundreds if not thousands of other worlds. And I was hoping I'd finished this particular brand of nonsense." He let out a quick huff. "I've joined with a group of...adventurers...trying to set things right."

"You're playing hero again," Yennefer accused, and Geralt frowned.

"Yen, after everything we went through, I'm not...I can't just overgrown firefly undo all the work we did! Eredin was dead, Ciri was...Ciri went into the White Frost..." Geralt blanched.

"You're...there was another Conjuction of the Spheres after you killed Eredin. Do you think this was the result?" Yennfer seemed to understand what he was thinking, but Geralt shook his head, without confidence.

"No. I know Ciri. She would have stopped it. Galeem must have stopped her. Or waited until just the right moment to rip us free of our world and drop us here." As he spoke, the Witcher's confidence in what he was saying rallied. "If we stop him...we can undo what he's done. Magic that powerful would be tied into his very existence. Killing him-"

"Might very well destroy this world we've found ourselves in and kill us all, Geralt." Yennefer chided, a pensive look on this face. "But it might not. It might merely leave us here, in this...amalgamation of worlds. There's no telling what would happen, Geralt. But you're right. I refuse to live under the heel of yet another tyrant." Geralt smiled at the remark, kissing her rather chastely.

"I wish I could stay, but we're leaving. I'll be going with the Blue team, if you need to find me-or us." Geralt broke the embrace, feeling a little empty for having done so.

"Go save the world, hero..." Yennefer teased, knowing it would get under his skin.

"I'm not a hero, Yen. I'm a professional." Geralt grunted.

"Yes, yes, whatever you say dear." She replied with a roll of the eyes. "I'll be here. I'll see if I can't find out more about this place from the others. My memories are...rather foggy." Giving a resolute nod, Yennefer took a slow breath. "I'll see you later, Geralt."

"I love you, Yennefer."

"I know, Geralt. I know." She didn't need to say the words back. Especially not that Geralt had opened the door and was already making his way off to handle yet another mess that shouldn't be his problem. That man is such a bother sometimes...but I do love him.

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When Isabelle caught up to the group as Geralt was rejoining, he gave the dog-woman a nod. "Isabelle. I found Yennefer. Thank you." His piece said, the Witcher nodded at the others. "We're headed to the Edge of the Blue, as they called it. This is the rest of the team."

Quickly making introductions, Geralt went off with the others, frowning at the necessity of using teleportation of all things to continue their journey. At least he'd been able to meditate before this, get himself centered better. It only helped somewhat, and his stomach was practically in his mouth by the time they stepped out of the Devil's Casino.

While the locals explained what they'd have to do, Geralt remained silent. Bloated bodies sounds like necrophages. Might be under some kind of trance or spell to make them docile...hmm. Thoughts about how to handle the situation raced through his mind. They needed the favor of the locals to get help, or...sacrifices, more likely, from what these people were saying. While he might be able to use Axii to get somebody along, he wouldn't be able to keep the sign active against ten different people, not without killing himself for even trying. The mental strain alone would be deadly, not even counting the sheer amount of energy he'd need to maintain such a thing.

As usual, Axii wasn't the best course of action. Damn sign was almost more trouble than it was worth, sometimes, it seemed.

But something Sakura said ticked him off. "It rarely is, in my experience." His voice was a bit more gruff, the Witcher purposefully playing up his age and experience, trying to emulate Vesemir. "I can't tell you how much money I've declined doing the 'right thing', kid. Or how many people I've killed who didn't need to die, just because they refused to listen. I don't know what your experiences have been, but where I'm from...this is a bloody line of work. People die every day, by the dozens and sometimes hundreds. Sacrifices have to be made, sometimes directly, sometimes...just as the cost of trying." Shaking his head, he continued.

"But we never stopped trying to find a better way. We've got plenty of people among us, maybe between here and there we'll figure out a better way. Maybe we won't. But don't push away help just because it makes your stomach turn. We're fighting for our lives, and for this world, aren't we? People are gonna die no matter what we do. It's our job to make the best use of those sacrifices, or their deaths would just be for nothing." Thinking of Vesemir, and Djikstra, and all the other friends he'd lost along the way, Geralt frowned. "They'd hate you for not at least trying." Well, Djikstra certainly hated him whatever he decided to do, now. Power-hungry bastard.

Another jaunt through the painting and across Lumbridge saw Cadet and the rest of the Blue Team in Inkwell Isle again. The hunter restrained himself from making a detour to the forge, channeling his inner Ace Lancer to continue on with the party (at which point he joined in with Sakura's Blue Team cheer). Those sisters worked fast, but it hadn't been that long. Besides, the Edge of the Blue was now just a hole in the floor away. If anyone needed anything, they could just take the lift back into town.

Seeing the little town and the big ocean properly rather than through the grimy doors of the casino, Ace Cadet was impressed. It wasn't often that he got to see the ocean. The Ace Hunters being based in Dundorma, at the center of the continent, most of their missions took them inland. Mountains, valleys, swamps. Deserts as well, and though the Great Desert might as well have been a sand ocean - completely with sailing ships and leviathans moving beneath - it wasn't quite the same. Rarely they Ace Hunters would visit larger coastal cities like Port Tanzia, but for the most part they stayed in the area around the Hunting Guild's Headquarters. The Cadet didn't wonder if he'd be more suited to joining Team Yellow instead, because just breathing in the salty air only the sea could provide was worth it. Oceans were so cool. Plus it was a beautiful day in the Edge of the Blue. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, there was an evil looking moon hanging in the sky...

"Is that always there?" The Cadet asked, blinking down at Cuphead.

Like most of the others, Ace Cadet chose to walk down to the coast as part of the group. As far as he could tell, the town was a charming enough place. It definitely seemed to fit Cuphead perfectly - or rather, it seemed Cuphead fit into it perfectly. He wanted to explore it a little, plus get a look at that weird misty forest a little further off, but for now the Cadet was content to walk along with everyone else. Once they were close to the water, the young man let out a low, drawn out whistle.

"Nice, it's all water for miles around. Guess that's in the name, heh, but still cool."

He stared out at the ocean for a little while, until a stranger in familiar clothing approached and struck up a conversation with the princess. Ace Cadet looked over his shoulder at the black clad stranger and frowned. That organization's whole deal was confusing. Some were helpful, some were bad guys masquerading as guild masters. The Cadet was much more used to straight forward threats, ruses were frustrating. He crossed his arms and turned back to the sea, thinking to himself as the conversation went on behind him.

The Maw, huh? Sounds spooky. That lady is pretty much asking us to trick a bunch of people onto boarding a dangerous ship. Junior's got the right idea.

The Cadet found himself nodding along with Sakura as they offered alternate suggestions, all of which were shot down. Was it not enough to take a sturdy ship full of heroes and take their chances crossing the sea? Did they really need this "Maw?" Was this mysterious woman just trying to push them into some kind of deadly trap while acting like she was doing them a favor and giving them advice? Man, at least monster hunting doesn't make me think in circles.

It was about the time that a deflating Sakura starting moving away from the group and Geralt started chastising her that the Cadet offered what little was on his mind to the group.

"Hey, lay off her," he started with, pointing his words towards the Witcher. Sakura was just trying to help after all. The redhead looked at the cloaked woman then and continued. "So what makes 'The Maw' so special? If it's just sea monsters that make the waters dangerous, I'm pretty sure we can deal with them," he said, pointing a finger between those that specialized in that kind of thing: Geralt and himself. That, or he was sure if they could come up with the materials, they could commission a dragonator from Lumbridge and lug it back here to attach to any other ship's hull. "Or what if we got ten really strong people instead? People we think can handle it inside. Can whoever crews 'The Maw' really tell the difference? And after all that if we still have to find ten guests like the ones you described, couldn't we just, I dunno, save them after we get on the ship?"

The Cadet folded his arms again, tilting his head from side to side. Perhaps the gesture helped him to think. He looked around at all of Team Blue gathered there. "I mean, even if we look into everything else and this is the only way, we still have some options working with this plan, right?"

---

Once teams started breaking away from the large group and leaving the Alcamoth for their individual missions, it was all to easy to see a few of "Team Yellow" were not part of the princess' chosen heroes. That included Primrose herself, of course. Before they got too far, the dancer introduced herself to put the rest of them at ease of being around a stranger.

"My name is Primrose," she said,

”And I would be Midna”, added a floating imp that materialized out of her shadow before attempting to lean nonchalauntly on her shoulder.

Primrose jerked away from the sudden voice and touch, and in a flash her dagger was in her hand. She hadn't expected any tag alongs besides herself, let alone whatever kind of miniature demon "Midna" was.

With one hand holding a blade defensively in front of her, and the other pressed to her chest to calm her panicked heart, Primrose glared at the imp.

"Where did you...?"

”Aw, what’s the matter, scared of your own shadow?” the demon replied mockingly, having lethargic floated away from her when she’d jerked away.

”Now put that thing away,” the imp said, waving a hand at the knife, ”I’m here to help. Completely uninvited of course, just like yourself.”

Primrose couldn't exactly argue with that. Slowly she tucked both of her arms back into her cloak, although she kept a tight hold on her dagger. One could never be too careful after all. Plus, Midna didn't exactly look helpful. Although neither did the dark scaled draconic man who was already part of the princess' royal entourage.

"I don't appreciate being used as a free ride," she told the imp.

Midna shrugged her arms widely in indifference to this opinion ”Not like I weigh anything, you didn’t even notice me after all. Don’t you want someone watching your back?”

”...” The dancer would be lying if she claimed that having someone she could count on wasn't a comfort, after living so long without that privilege. After a moment of continued glaring Primrose relaxed, just a little. She moved to one side of the rocky trail and motioned for Midna to float ahead of her.

The imp cocked her head at her silence, and then shrugged her shoulders and drifted ahead of her. ”Fine fine. I’ll get my own ride” she said, before snapping her fingers. The ground beneath her a circle of teal with angular veins flaring out of it formed, then a portal swirled within the ring, briefly blakening the ground beneath the teal rune. Out of this portal a wolf with unnaturally dark fur, a golden aura who was wearing a stone disk as a mask hopped before the portal vanished as quickly as it appeared. The imp dropped down onto the wolf’s back, riding it like it was a horse. The entire operation had taken only a few heartbeats, and now Midna had a new ride.

She pett the sides of the wolfos’ back and told it ”Hup-up, let’s go,” causing the creature to begin padding forwards ahead of Primrose, obediently carrying the imp up the trail with zero complainet.

She could do that this whole time? Primrose thought with a hint of annoyance. Although it was in the dancer’s nature to hold a grudge, she decided to try her best to let this one go. Under that strange appearance, maybe she’s just shy. That thought humored Primrose.

As they moved up the hill, Primrose wrapped the cloak a little tighter around herself. The closer they got to the passage into the desert, the hotter the air was getting - and though the fabric wouldn't protect from heat, it would shield her skin. Just like the others, Primrose shimmied through the opening in the rocks and came through on the other to an endless sandy sea.

When Primrose first left the Sunlands, what felt like years ago now, at the time she thought she'd never want to go back. Was sick at the thought of ever returning. Now, under the burning sun of the "Sandswept Sky," she only felt vague nostalgia. This landscape of sand wasn't the same was the Sunlands, it lacked the large red rocks natives came to rely on as landmarks, but in the end a desert was a desert. It was familiar if nothing else. Well, save for the huge flying serpentine creature, it was familiar.

Primrose was prepared to hoof it all the way to that distant, shimmering mountain when that bobble headed cat transformed. Normally that might have shocked the young woman, but there were a lot of crazy things in the Alcamoth. You got used to "weird" pretty quickly. As the rabbit-looking guy spoke with the cat vehicle, Primrose inspected it's tires. It was tough to drag a cart through the desert, but... she had to admit she was unfamiliar with this kind of wheel. It seemed wide enough. She followed Tora quietly onto the bus, sitting as far away from the rest of them as possible in the cramped space. A bit awkwardly she patted the interior walls of the bus in thanks.

The dancer leaned her head against the warm glass. It looked like this desert wasn't quite as featureless as she thought. The vehicle passed by stones of some kind, carved and decorated. Memorials? Primrose thought, turning slightly to get a better view as they drove by. Senseless. The sand will cover them all in time.

Coolness spread in her lap, and Primrose looked down to see a strange little bug getting cozy. Gingerly, Primrose lifted the antlion off of her and set it on the seat beside her instead. "That is very refreshing," she said softly to it, then went back to staring out of the window. Complaints and introductions were thrown around the inside of the "catty box with wheels," as Tora put it. Primrose couldn't keep a smirk off her face at the gripes about the heat. Although she wondered what made those clearly unsuited to the desert choose this area for exploration, she also took the time to repeat each name in her head. The three youngest of them, "Joker," "Skull," and "Panther" were clearly aliases, but keeping their true names concealed was their business.

There was a lull in conversation and Primrose sighed through her nose and let her eyes slip closed. My turn, is it? She took a few moments to think about what she wanted to tell these strangers, if anything.

"I mentioned earlier that my name is Primrose."

She would have been content to leave it at that, before she ended up traveling in a group back in her own world. Primrose thought about Alfyn and Cyrus, the chattiest among them, patiently extracting personal information from each of the travelers. She recalled Sir Olberic using some of that information to the group's advantage, explaining battle strategies that used their individual abilities to the fullest. It made fighting against the nastiest creatures in Orsterra a lot easier. It might help here, too.

"...I have... a particularly invigorating skill set," she told the Yellow Team, choosing her words carefully. Personally, Primrose wasn't ashamed of the life she'd lived until now. Frustrated with it, maybe, but not ashamed. However, it wasn't exactly the kind of thing you let slip while making your first impression. "And I'm familiar with traversing a desert."

It wasn't as friendly an introduction as Tora's, but it was at least more than just a name. It was all Primrose was really willing to give the ragtag team. Until she could find a way to unlock her magic, there as no use in including that either. There, official meetings over.

When the car came to a stop, Primrose elegantly stood and stepped out. Their destination, the mountain with the shimmering peak, was... still pretty far away. To be expected. Everything was farther away than it looked in the desert. It was part of the reason Primrose hadn't liked living there.

Who's to say this mountain isn't a mirage? the dancer thought to herself. Her eyes swept over the sky, which was naught more than sand, and the sand, which was naught more than... also sand. The sides of Primrose's mouth twitched slightly. She'd felt nostalgic at first, but now she was wondering why she hadn't chosen the ocean for a new adventure. The professor would say something like 'we are all but creatures of habit.' Maybe that's why. Creatures moving among the dunes caught her eyes and she watched them for a few moments. There was something else too, standing white against the dark stone totems.

And what do we have here...?

@Lugubrious @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN @Zoey Boey

Doom Slayer

Level 2 Doom Slayer/ Level 1 Isabelle

Location: Dead Zone/ Island off of the Eryta Sea

Word Count: 585

The Slayer made his way down the hallway; easily tearing apart the zombies and imps in front of them. Most of them angering him with their attacks; most of which seemed to bounce off of his armor with only some hitting his weak points. His eyes notice a mancubus waddling towards him; the demon killer dodging it’s rockets firing his shotgun. Noticing form the left side of him a pinkie demon rushing towards him; bobbing and weaving around their attacks. One of the mancubus rockets hit his armor which sent him backwards against a fleshy wall; the Slayer gritted his teeth thinking that it was time for him to fight back. Moving forward letting the pinkie demon slam into the wall; the Slayer grabbed the pink demon’s tail and started to swing him around. Throwing him towards the mancubus while running towards him. The pinkie demon slamming into the mancubus causing them both to fall on their backs.

The Slayer jumped in the air pulling out his chainsaw; revving up the saw and stabbing both demons. Blood spurting out of both demons who let out a horrid scream of pain; the teeth of his chainsaw ripping their flesh and organs into bits and pieces. The anger from having his suit being heavily damaged filling his body; he was not sure how he was going to repair his armor in this world. Usually he would be able to repair it no problem there; but here he could not go to his castle and fix his armor.

Noticing the others coming towards him; he did not give them any sort of greeting. Following them further inside of the fleshy building towards a large hole. Watching all of them jumping down the hole; he thought that the hole would lead the heart of the gore nest. Jumping down the hole and bracing himself for the impact. Looking around the area noticing that the visor on his helmet was heavily damaged; taking off his helmet for the time being letting the others see his face. His face was of man in his mid to late thirties; light brown hair styled in a buzzcut. Many scars on the Slayer’s face and dark piercing brown eyes (A reference of his face- Walking passed the others deeper into the gore nest; while strapping his helmet around his waist.
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“I am glad you are reunited with Miss Yennifer; and it is a pleasure to meet you all” Isabelle walked over to each person in the group introducing herself. “Oh you must be Sakura; i have heard so much about you from Ryu-san. It is a pleasure to meet you” The dog addressed Sakura with a big smile on her face. She had a few encounters with Ryu and helped him in his adventures here; she did not like fighting but if she had no choice she would defend herself. “Mr.Geralt i would to help you in your journey; would that be okay with you and your group?” She asked addressing the group with a big smile on her face.

To other people she didn’t look like she could hold herself in a fight; however she was quite a firecracker when it comes to defending herself or others. “So where are we going next?” He asked Geralt who seemed to be leading this group.

Whoever the woman in black was, she seemed at least a little grateful when doubt began to nibble at Sakura's idyllic resolve. Nothing about her manner -difficult to discern as it was- suggested malice, but rather an almost parental sort of disapproval. You should have known better, and now you're beginning to realize. Rather than linger on the inner conflict, however, Sakura initiated a routine to keep her mind otherwise occupied. Without a vocal shift, the general mood still stood against her plan, until the strapping silver-haired hunter started giving voice to her thoughts.

His gruff voice and weathered hide suggested a practiced pragmatic, and he spoke of experienced both realistic and mature. Unlike many of the heroes that constituted Peach's party and indeed the newly-minted army of Alcamoth, he'd been forced to confront cruelty and complication, situations in which there were no good choices, only less bad ones. He did end up going on a bit, his somewhat intense verbosity no doubt fueled by his own history, and the Ace Cadet let him know. Peach remained quiet the whole time, weighing the options, and rather than cede the floor for an arbitration just yet the Cadet used his momentum to fuel a few counter-proposals.

When the stranger replied, her voice was a little quicker and stiffer than before. “Your past must be storied indeed if your battles above and below stormy waves in your world grant you such courage. There are more than monsters in those depths, but if you believe yourself quite capable of dealing with them, by all means, test the waters.” She gestured outward toward the sea as if suggesting he depart right now.

“As for the guests, gather whomever you might like. I only described the tale; a desire to go aboard is the only true condition. You or your people may even be able to wrest control of it, who can say. If you can truly justify such wild confidence, you may even forget about guests and call it here yourselves and walk the gangway, rather than sneaking in with the cargo. But no matter who enters, beware. I've seen her frightful master, standing at the threshold to that place. Clad in a dark dress of eastern design, wearing a white mask, never making a sound. That anyone who disturbs the workings of the Maw must confront her, I have no doubt. That she is the most approachable of the perils of the Bottomless Sea should suggest a great deal.” With that, she hoped to clear up a couple misconceptions and convey that while the heroes could alter the plan, hers was in their best interest by a long shot. However, she doubted they would see the wisdom in her plan without understanding the nature of the threats they faced themselves. “As you deliberate, why not join our pirate friend on his ship, unless you nurse a desire to traipse about this quaint port town? Given its position, Limsa is a sure port of call on your trip, and its faculties may be of help to you. Assisting its navy will also afford you a perfunctory glimpse at the danger in store.“

Through the panoramic portals, down the hole in the Guild Hall in Lumbridge, through the Casino’s front doors, and out of the cave that housed it--supposedly representing Hell itself--Blue Team took their first steps into the Edge of the Blue. For some of them, including Hat Kid, this technically wasn’t their first trip, but it was their first time entering the region proper since the initial incident that brought them effectively to the other side of the continent. Maybe they should be thanking Gneidxick for making it so convenient for them. Not only did they get to skip over the Dark forest to get there (even if it meant having to backtrack through it later), but once they were done they would have their pick of where to enter it from when they got back around to it. The fogged town beyond the treeline under creepy moon-gaze just screamed, “You’ll definitely be going here later.”

She eye-traced the picturesque coastline starting from the Forest in question to the other end of the horizon as far as she could see. Over the cartoon landscape she could spot the sea-borne city in the distance, but could make nothing of it from where she stood beyond the simple fact that it exists. She had to admit, when she signed up to travel to the world’s shore, she was a little surprised to have not seen (yet, at least) some element of a familiar locale she had expected to find. Though the idea fell in line with what she knew about the world, for the same reason, there was no telling what to expect from it.

Speaking of the unexpected, another black coat, hitherto unnoticed, made her address to Peach, laying out instructions for the next leg of their journey a tad too conveniently. As if it wasn’t hard enough trusting any of the faceless exposition machines that were these “Organization” agents (or just anyone who wouldn’t show their face to a supposed ally), she flat out handed them a set daunting and unscrupulous directives with some… interesting word choices: Gather a near dozen victims “guests”, lure them aboard “The Maw” for a proverbial ‘Bermuda’ cruise, survive the voyage to the “black” Bottomless Sea, and escape there. Yeah… that sounded like a plan; nothing sketch about it at all.

Of course, she claimed mutual interest in their quest with a desire to help, and in contrast to the last guy (Gneidxick), who had made a game of jerking them around “qualifying” them for the hunt, she was offering them a fairly direct route to their objective. That being said, if she really wanted to help that badly, couldn’t she have already had the necessary ten “guests” lined up for them to take aboard? Especially if she had been there for apparently “months”, as she said. Moreover, she clearly knew an awful lot about how this process worked and what it entailed to be so dry on helpful key details, yet heavy on poeticism. It sounded like something she could have possibly done herself, or volunteered to help with, for one allegedly so interested in seeing it through. Here, her similarity to Gneidxick showed in a patent lack of candor regarding her motives. What was really her ploy here?

Between her last adventure and the current one, as many times as she had been duped and cheated by people she worked for, it was little wonder that Hat Kid harbored acquired trust issues, and the hooded woman leading them on was setting off her scumbag radar. Was this woman going to somehow betray them at (or close to) the end of all this, regardless of what road they took there? Most likely, the child thought. Was that going to stop her from considering the way given and acting on it? As always, of course not, because she didn’t exactly have a better idea at the moment, and it wasn’t as if she would find one where they stood if she thought really hard about it for long enough.

Naturally, the given plan incited a moral quandary among some of the others, who proceeded to debate over the possibility of a better solution, or lack thereof. It didn’t seem to occur to some, as it did to the child, that they were perhaps jumping to conclusions in their assumption that the prospect sacrifices were necessarily worth saving, or as Ace suggested, that they had to be sacrificed at all, rather than additions to the hunting party, perfectly capable of handling it, that could more than help. The only way they would find out for sure is if they started looking, so instead of competing philosophy, Kid decided to get a head start on their search, consulting her top Hat for a heading toward her next objective as she looked back out over the island. For good measure, she would also be checking her Compass for anything of value she could pick up along the way before taking off.

Just as she was about to take her first steps away, the black coat spoke up once more, elaborating slightly more one what would await them aboard the monstrous vessel, and incorporating a degree of flexibility in the plan. As far as taking control of the ship, THAT was something the child could do. As it so happened, she actually had some experience with exactly that before. Well… wrecking it, anyways, but from what they could infer about it so far, this one probably deserved to be wrecked. If it came down to it, and none opposed for any good reason, the gang could count on her for that much. Though she still wasn’t feeling that great about the plan, it was certainly starting to sound better already.

At the black coat’s direction, Hat Kid sauntered aboard the afforded pirate ship, heading straight for the bow to scope out their destination whilst checking her Hat and Badge once more. Once the captain showed himself again, Hat Kid turned her attention to him with a salute in an enthusiastic show of eagerness to set sail… or just as part of her playful nature. She figured it would PROBABLY be better to let him man the wheel on this one.

Having abandoned her former shadow ride for the sake of introductions, Midna rode along the trail atop one of her loyal Wolfos. She creature’s fur made for a decent cushion for her royal behind, (though riding all day would eventually take its toll no matter how comfy the mount) so the worst thing about the experience was the sunshine. It might not be lethal for her anymore, but as a creature of shadow being in the light still made her skin crawl, and it was only going to get worse.

As they crested the hill and reached the end of the trail Minda was forced to raise a hand to shade her straining eyes from the almost blinding glare emanating from the crack they had to traverse. She sent her ride home for the time being and floated her smaller form through the crevice others were having to squeeze through before making it to the other side where the deserts of the Sandswept Sky spread out endlessly before them.

”Eyugh, It's not only too bright and hot but and its huge too,” Midna complained, still shading her eyes. Still, if the mirror of twilight is going to have landed anywhere, it would be here, she thought. She’d gladly bare the heat if it meant there was a chance to find her home and ensure it was intact. As if to add insult to injury, not only was the sun beating down, but so too was a light glaring down from atop a distant mountain. The round creature that would later introduce himself as Tora pointed towards the light and suggested that there was a great beast circling it that must be the guardian they sought. She took his word for it. The shining beacon was unbearable. As was the heat. Which made the masked teen’s cats’ bizarre transformation into some kind of self powered cart a massive relief. She didn’t bother questioning how it worked, if it offered shade she didn’t care.

”So seeing as I’m floating and not flying you don't mind if I” Midna said, not bothering to finish her sentence before slipping first inside the vehicle, and then straight into the shadow cast by one of the vehicle’s sun visors, vanishing from view in the process. Her disappearing act allowed her to hide in the cool shadows without cramping the vehicle even further, but she did miss out on the personal cooling ant’s offered by the giant bee queen in the process. Midna didn’t mind this too much, the fact that both she and that ant-like minions were similar sizes would have made cuddling up to one rather awkward looking, or so she thought anyway.
.
Now that they, or rather the rest of the vehicles riders, weren't focused on walking they started to make some proper introductions at the prompting of Tora. After introducing himself and his flying machine woman companion Poppi, he told them of the remarkable world they came from, where people lived on the backs of colossal titans who waded through an endless ocean. It was an absurd concept and yet with all the insane things that were going on in the world of light it seemed that none thought it deserved comment. For all Midna knew that was an entirely normal way for a universe to be.

The cheerful fluffy creature’s openness was repaid with name only responses from the masked teens who’s ride they were using while Primrose’s guarded response continued to show her to be a lady of few words. It was somewhat funny to watch Tora’s attempt to make friends get shot down by the jaded bunch, or so Midna felt. It didn’t mean she needed to continue the trend. What, really, did she have to hide from these people? Her people's dark past had little meaning to people to whom their crimes had no meaning and her cursed form was no-longer a mark of shame, simply a nuisance.

”Kinda a dower bunch aren't you all” she said mockingly as she appeared once more in the light. She drifted in the center of the van near the shady ceiling as if it was filled with a shallow pool of water, hands resting behind her head ash she looked down at them.

”I’m Midna, Princess of the Twilight Realm, which is the... a” she corrected herself, who knew how many worlds had their own dark reflections, ”shadow realm parallel to Hyrule. The same Hyrule Link and Linkle are from, though they are both from a different time than me, and each other I suspect.” She directed this last comment at those who had arrived in Alcamoth alongside the Hylian heroes and as a result would have any idea what she was talking about.

”I can do shadow magic, and this fourth of the fused shadow I’m wearing lets me do this” she told them, before her hair transformed into a massive orange glowing arm tipped with an equally large hand. She used the vast power power granted from the ancient artifact of her people to offer to shake one of Tora’s equally large ear hands, ”Pleased to meet you,”

”Well that’s me” she said once she was done, her hair returning to normal, before concluding with a ”I’ll see you later,” before popping back into the shadows to avoid the heat and light. From there she listened to any introductions that followed hers to pass the rest of the time.

She didn’t pay much attention to the world outside, there was little to see but harsh sunlight and monotonous sand in her opinion, so instead of noticing the figure watching them from the dunes she first saw Primrose's reaction to spotting her and decided to investigate what had caused it.

”What’ve you seen?” she asked as she appeared from the shade above the woman before drifting down behind her once her presence had been noticed to squint out the same window. As much as she had played it off at the time, Midna did not want to have the woman’s knife pointed her way for a second time and so made an effort not to spook her again when doing this.

Sakura continued her push ups, trying to maintain a steady pace. Geralt, the old man, must have overheard her. The things he was saying were not what she wanted to hear. She didn't want to hear that people were going to die, and that they were going to have to kill people. She didn't like hearing about how miserable this quest was going to be. She didn't like having her inexperience thrown in her face like this.

Sakura stared down at the grass with a frustrated, dejected look on her fresh faced features. Sacrifices and death. It all sounded so terrible. Sakura had never come into contact with death before, except her goldfish and her first cat, both of which had her crying for months.

(I don't even know how things are done where I'm from, Geralt.)

Up, down, up, down. At this point she was on her thiry seventh push up and had no signs of slowing down or even breaking a sweat. A drop of liquid did hit the grass though, a solitary tear. Red faced with embarassment, she wiped it away without stopping her push ups, briefly switching to one handed push ups to do so. Thankfully Ace Cadet, who as well as having joined in her cheer earlier, told Geralt to back off a bit. He was growing on her quickly, it felt like they might be cut from the same stock. Still, even now he was talking all tactically about alternative plans. Not crying like a little girl.

"Sorry. I've never done anything like this before." Sakura apologized quietly. It was clear at that moment that Sakura wasn't some grand heroine who was used to getting her happy, perfect endings, but a kid in her senior year of high school who had some high expectations about what being a hero meant that had just been thoroughly shattered. A real hero. Not someone who just stepped in to help her friends when circumstance demanded it.

As the hooded woman pointed out the pirate captain's boat, Sakura figured she had nothing left to add to the conversation. She felt dumb. And childish. Which was even worse because it looked like an actual, literal child had taken the initiative first and was already on her way to the pirate's ship.

(Well, come on. If she can do it, so can I. No reason to keep moping!) Sakura said to herself, feeling inspired by the kid with the hat. It felt like she was popping a dislocated shoulder back into place, only with her emotions. With a sharp, self-reassuring exhale, Sakura popped quickly back to her feet.

"As much as I would like to stick around and explore this town, there'll time for that on the return trip. I'm gonna go with uh... hat kid over there and check out the pirate ship," She said, returning to her normal nature, if very slightly muted. Hopefully she could leave before anyone called her out about her slump. Or asked her to leave since she accidentally admitted she was a first time hero. Hopefully no one minded too much. Skip-jogging over to the pirate ship after Hat Kid, she began to feel excited again.

"Permission to come aboard, captain?" She asked cheerfully, stuffing the urge to do a terrible pirate accent. The last thing anyone needed to hear was her japanese accented Captain Hook impression. Sakura didn't even want to hear it.

"I've never been on a ship like this before before," She exclaimed, her sneakers thwacking against the wooden gangway. Waving to the captain she took a seat on the railing, her legs dangling over the side. After looking over the side, she glanced back over at Hat Kid and anyone else who had followed her onboard.

"Do you think he's a real pirate?" She asked Hat Kid, loud enough for anyone on the ship to overhear. Sakura had acquired all of her knowledge about western pirates exclusively from the Muppets and Peter Pan.

-----------------------



It really sucked that they went from the smash tower to a massive melee, but considering how dangerous this zone was, it made sense. Thankfully all her preperation in the Smash Tower let her enter this zone with a pretty much full tank of Medaforce, which was promptly needed as while Bowser was handling things from the front, Blazermate rode on his back to keep that guarded from the flood and other strange things that were here, keeping her medi beam attached to Bowser as he was the one taking the most damage here. As they fought, Blazermate saw a weird glow thing approach the pair of them, aiming at Bowser. As it got closer, Blazermate noticed that it was something being held by something, her robot eyes able to make out the distortion of the creature's cloak. Not knowing what that was, and having a full Uber anyway, she decided to pop it and hop off the koopa king's back to block whatever that object was with her shield, herself and Bowser now ubered and invincible.

As the creature hit her shield, the suffering's visage sprung to life and bit into the creature's arm, breaking its cloak and revealing what it and its weapon was. Making sure to keep it there, as Blazermate had bitten into the creatures now visible sword arm, she ignored the creatures attempts to knock her off as she was completely invincible to grab his sword out of his hand, breaking its fingers to do so. "Why does a zombie have a sword? Its a cool one though!" She said as she grabbed the sword, causing Bowser's uber to flicker a bit before stabbing the creature with it (with a clearly amateur and untrained strike that she could only do because she was invincible), before going back to tend to Bowser, her new sword in hand. "Hey Bowser! Careful! Some of the zombies here have weapons, and they look nasty! And cool! I got a new energy sword!" she said, trying to command any zombies that'd listen to destroy this flood infestation, defending the Koopa King's back with her shield, healing, and new sword she clearly wasn't trained in using at all.

It was a good thing that Blazermate and Bowser were ubered as at some point during the Uber, a truck crashed into the area, causing damage to basically everything that didn't move out of its way and destroying the teleporter. "This is a warzone! Where are the zombies?" Blazermate said as even the cloaked man decided to help them clear out the flood. This reminded her of a weapon she had gotten earlier, and while she knew what it could do to projectiles, she wondered if it'd work to help clear out the flood as well. Pulling out her short circuit, she noticed that it had recharged all of its blasts, all 3 of them. Seeing as there wasn't many things that used projectiles here, she fired the electrical orbs at groups of flood, the orbs exploding upon hitting the ground. She only had 3, but it'd zap a good amount of them.

---------------------------------------------



As they made their way across the expansive desert, Sectonia was glad that she used her minions to keep herself and by extension everyone else cool as the desert just moved on and on. As the others were in the car below, Sectonia couldn't really make out anything they were saying, however the few that were outside the car with her, namely poppi, decided to make conversation as their journey was quite boring. At first Sectonia was a bit... put off with Poppi referring herself in the third person. Sectonia was going to say something about this, before she was reminded Poppi was a robot, and they tended to be odd creatures in general. "I can fly for a long time, yes." Sectonia said, eyeing Poppi. "When I need my magic to recharge I'll fly myself, when I'm tired, I'll use my magic to fly. Its an elegant system." she said. Of course her magic reserves were vast, so it'd take awhile before she did any hard flying, but without telling Poppi, Sectonia combined both her magic and manual flying to make sure neither side exhausted itself, as this was quite the trip and there was no one that could summon her.

"Although I have a feeling we will rest before we even reach those mountains. Unless the moon doesn't exist here." Sectonia said, pointing out that this might even be a multiple day treck. This got her thinking though, and she asked "Do you even think that thing flying around the sun is the 'boss' of this area?" glancing at the thing while shielding her eyes at the intense bright light.

Jak and Daxter surprisingly didn’t have a whole lot to do while they waited for the big meeting of everyone at Smash City. They wandered around and took in the sights, and Jak definitely wanted in on a little combat, but there wasn’t much opportunity for it. Besides, after that dragon fight some rest was in order and Dax was more than a smidge hesitant. Once everyone was called to order and the large crowd of Smash City all seemed to “wake up” in one fell swoop, signups began and Jak knew exactly where they were going.

”PLEASE tell me you’re not taking us back there, Jak! I’m still digging out splinters in my fur.” As if to emphasize his point, Daxter flicked away a little piece of wood.

”We gotta, Dax. I don’t trust that V guy. His eyes are the same mine was after Praxis… Besides, maybe we’ll see Ratchet and Clank again?” he mused. Daxter shrugged, clearly defeated. There was no way he’d be able to change his friend’s mind and he knew it. So when the time came…

---

Jak wasn’t expecting Argent Tower to be the safe haven they left it, so he went into the teleporter prepared with his morph gun out and ready in scattergun mode. He was right. The Flood were invading in massive force, and luckily he had chosen the perfect mode for maximum damage against clustered groups. The large area of effect caused great harm to the bodies the alien parasites had infected, even if the slow rate of fire caused a problem.

Mag Launcher had seen a lot of run down places in his adventures. After all, exploring ruins was his job! But this place, it was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Parasites weren’t something he was unfamiliar with however, so he knew the best way to fight these things was to keep his distance and let the airacomet crush them into paste. Small infectors ran around the ground in an attempt to latch into him, but he jumped back while his bionic hand slammed down open palmed like a giant fly swatter. Squish! An infected attempted to rush him with a pipe and he backhanded it from a distance, sending the host body flying. A problem was quickly arising though, and that was the sheer numbers. He couldn’t keep up with this many attackers!

Running low on red eco, Jak switched to the vulcan fury and unloaded an incredibly fast volley of blue eco penetrating shots while his red eco recharged. Each shot wasn’t the most damaging on its own, but ten shots a second piercing through every target until they hit a wall, it still chewed through enemies like nobody’s business.

Then a hooded figure appeared and froze some of the creatures in a flash of light. Like they were… Frozen in time. Jak narrowed his eyes at the newcomer, black hood and all. This felt too familiar and it gave him a bad feeling. ”Another member of the Black Hood Cult? How many of these bozos are there?!” Daxter exclaimed.

”Reinforcements? Very cool.” Mag said as he grabbed a Flood infected brute and hurled it into the wall.

The battle raged on with neither side giving an inch. The Flood just kept coming, and killing the infectors didn’t seem to stop them. As long as the bodies were intact, another would just hop in like a car with the keys left in the ignition, and destroying the bodies still left the parasites themselves. Mag was going to get tired sooner rather than later, and Jak could only swap between gun modes for so long before having to abandon the battle altogether.

”Listen everyone!” Daxter called out as Jak spin-kicked a Flood’s head clean off then blasted the body with the scattergun. ”We’ve gotta prune that giant tree by uprooting it! Look for the big roots stickin’ outta the ground like one of Samos’s bunyons!”

Ignoring that nobody but Jak would know who Samos was or find that remotely funny, Mag began to direct everyone toward an exit. That’s when the hooded figure dropped their hood and Jak locked eyes with the man as he went running by. Daxter’s jaw dropped and he tried to calm his friend down, but it was to no avail. ”You!” Jak growled, losing his temper. Dark eco rippled through his body and his eyes turned pure black. ”I’m gonna kill you!”

”We don’t have time for this, tactical retreat now!” Mag grabbed Jak’s shirt collar from afar and yanked the duo away from the hooded man, through the hole made by the crashed truck.

Bowser’s command for medical assistance was answered happily by Blazermate, who sailed above their foes and landed on his back, using his body as a shield as she healed his injuries. Broken scales where regrown and his cracked shell begin to close, crushing an infector that was trying to creep its way inside in the process. With Blazermate’s medibeam wiping away his wounds, the king went back on the offensive, rapidly roasting the lesser flood that had charged him in an attempt to take advantage of his wounded state. Yet the alien virus still had plenty of tricks up its sleeve they had to handle.

First, a sneaky flood with an energy sword tried to stab him in the back. Fortunately for him, he had someone watching it. Blazermate activated her ubercharge, engulfing the pair in a metallic shimmering invulnerability. As the king made additional mincemeat of the swarm the healer got her hands dirty, confronting the stealthed mutant, disarming it and then, adding insult to injury, stabbing it with its own sword.

”Yeah I noticed, seeing as they keep SHOOTING ME!” Bowser called back in response to her comment about the undead being armed, having taken a couple of shots while the uber was down. Now that it was back up and he’d had enough he decided to get the cowardly shooty flood hiding behind the flood of melee troops ”EAT THIS!” he roared before taking a deep inhale and blasting out a mega fireball. The massive car sized fireball plowed through the hordes of foes, passing though their masses, demolishing and incinerating everything in its path, before finally smashing into the ranks of ranged flood harassing the team, vaporising a significant number of them.

There was little time to celebrate however. Adding to the swarm of lesser creatures were a few particularly nasty foes in their ranks. The first came plowing through the wall of the building in some kind of improvised lighting firing armored car, which proceeded to vaporize the teleporter, closing off any hope of either escaping with it or bringing in more reinforcements. The pair of water pokemon were also still on the loose, the invincible Bowser having to physically hurl them aside as their bodies could not simply be incinerated like the others, meaning that even when their infectors were killed they’d simply rise again moments later.

They were like the physical embodiment of the Flood’s unending nature, for the flood just kept on coming like, well, a flood. The team wasn’t getting anywhere, just holding back the endless tide with their dwindling reserves of stamina and firepower and littering the floor with meliciouse spirits that they weren't really in a position to collect.

Which made it a good thing that one of them knew where they were going. Daxter spelled out their goal, while the kid with the big hand started trying to direct the squad towards an exit from the infested tower.

An exit that had been formed by the ambulance digger combo vehicle when it had smashed through a wall of the building. A vehicle who’s lighting spewing cannon was still active.

Once he’d figured out this very big problem there was little hesitation for Bowser as to what he had to do. With the last of his invulnerability king charged the vehicle head on, with Blazermate coming along for the ride on his back. Bowser barged combat forms aside and roaring loudly as bast after blast of the electrical cartoon harmlessly glanced off of his ubered shining body. He smashed into the reinforced scoop and the front of the vehicle, clawing forwards over it to grab it and hold the machine in place as it tried to back away. The king reached over, stabbing his mecha-mitt claws at the driver, who moved to avoid them, the metal bars welded over the window gap stopping him from just reaching in and crushing them. In retaliation it pushed a button inside the vehicle, causing the front schoop to smash forwards on a set of pistons, shoving the invincible king back only for it to drag him back in thanks to his hold on the bumper weapon. While this tactic was ineffectual at actually harming Bowser, it did further hindering his attempts to murder the driver.

As the king fumbled his attack time began to run out. The invisibility started flashing, indicating that it was about to run out, and the Blastoise and Tentacruel Warrior forms were rapidly closing in along with more common flood.

Blazermate, doing her duty as Bowser’s back protector and medic, tried using her new sword to help Bowser slash the car open, seeing as he was trying to get into it himself. With a hole big enough for her to fit through, and Bowser pointing at the driver, Blazermate got what he was saying, she thought. Moving through the hole she had cut through with her nifty plasma sword, she attacked the driver with it, a bit more nimbly than Bowser due to her smaller size, but also destroying some of the interior of the vehicle due to the sword offering almost no resistance and her unfamiliarity with it.

”Great now let’s” Bowser began to say, before the flood caught up with them, hurling themselves at the king, they assailed his back. Growling, the king shoved back, pushing himself off of the front of the Shockdozer, spiked shell slamming into the lesser flood before the king turned, and slashing his mecha-mit claws through them till they struck the armored and heat proof Blastoise. The hostile turtle knocked Bowser off balance, and got a few good hits in the process, but its smaller frame couldn't stand up to the king in a 1 vs 1. Unfortunately, it didn't have too as the Tentacruel crawled its way towards the brawl, the massive squid Pokemon’s tentacles grabbing for the king, trying to wrap him in its grasp and once more draw him towards its crushing mandibles to crack him open like a shellfish.

With finishing off the driver, Blazermate noticed Bowser was getting all tied up and in trouble. Seeing as she was in the car, and the only way to help Bowser was through Bowser, she got an idea. “Hey Bowser! Take this!” She said, handing Bowser the plasma sword, knowing that if she threw it, bad things might happen.

Holding the Blastoise back with one hand while the Tentacruel grappled him, Bowser reached back for the blade, rapidly shrinking as he did so so he could actually hold it in his hand. The enemy turtle’s puppet master might have thought this new even scale gave it an advantage, but it was sorely mistaken. Kicking off of the car, Bowser suddenly retracted into his shell and spun rapidly with the sword the only thing sticking out of his armored shell. Like a deadly spinning top, he hurtled towards the Tentacruel, scything through its tentacles with the blade like stalks of wheat before slamming the blade down though the top of its head, through the eye the infector was hiding in, and then down through the base, cleaving it in twain with the energy sword.

The twin halves of the mon slowly slid in half as the king landed on his stomach, before bursting into ash as he popped back out of his shell, a hand catching the monster’s Spirit, its image depicting a purified form of the poisonous sea beast.

The Blastoise meanwhile was dealing with the car itself, stepping in front of it to stop its new inhabitant from escaping. Seeing the zap cannon used before however, Blazermate figured that there had to be something in here that made it fire, and after haphazardly hitting various buttons, causing the vehicle to do all sorts of different things until finally Blazermate found the button to activate the cannon. Funnily enough, one of the buttons Blazermate hit was the one that activated the forward plates, knocking the Blastoise off of the vehicle and in a perfect line with the cannon, allowing her to zap it. The combined force of both attacks caused it to careen over towards Bowser, heavily damaged, as the koopa king finished it off by impaling it on her nifty plasma sword.

The king caught this Spirit as well and, while giving blazer a thumbs up roared ”WAY’S CLEAR LET’S MOVE TROOPS!” before stomping quickly back towards to Blazermate, handing back her blade as when he got close enough.

”Thanks Bowser!” Blazermate said before thinking. ”Guess I’m driving. Ok…. Medabots don’t drive so…what can go wrong?” Blazermate said, knowing only very basic information on how to drive. She shifted the gear shift into the R position before hitting the proper pedals to get the car to move, although hitting them a bit harder than one would normally do, due to not hitting the clutch until after hitting the gas pedal. This caused her and the vehicle to blindly drive backwards through the hole it had plowed and out into the unknown dangers that lurked beyond with Bowser following hot on her trail on foot, stopping only to huck a fireball or two at their pursuers.

---

---

As Linkle back up toward the teleporter to get a little more breathing room Bowser literally threw himself into the breach, batting away the big monster that had smashed a hole in her wall like a children toy before getting thrown himself and isolated. Monsters swarmed him and Linkle was about to respond to his call for aide when Blazermate, almost casually, beat her to it and floated across the room to give him the full attention of her healing beam. The urgency of that situation instantly plummeted, and was replaced with another.

The tell tale crack of gunfire and the the familiar, bee sting like pain of buckshot in her shoulder brought to her attention the fact that some of the gunners were now making their way around or over the wall. To add on to the bad news the melee forms that were still closing on her seemed to find her arrows more of an annoyance than anything, driven forward by the unrelenting will of the wrigglers buried in their bodies. The little guys drove the big ones like you would drive a kart, and the big ones that hadn't been blown to bits by bombs or incinerated were getting new drivers all the time.

She sprang forward as one of the melee forms did, ducking under its claw and pumping a few useless arrows into as she passed before jumping at the one behind it. Her foot erupted in fire as she delivered a high kick to the parasite in its chest, scooping it out as it was engulfed. Bereft of its driver the body of what was once a man fell down, and as he did Linkle put her boots on his back and ran down him toward the nearest group of flood.

The gunner leveled his weapon at her as she closed the distance, but the shot went over her head as she dropped, skidding across the tiled floor on her knees and placing one hand on the ground. She'd used ice as a barrier, and ice as a projectile. What about barrier as a projectile?

The gunner fired again as Linkle swept her hand upward, a thorny tower of ice erupting as she did. The shot scattered the ice into diamond dust. At least, it did the first one. Linkle was surprised to see another erupt from the ground in front of where the first had been. This one shattered as well, but not to any sort of attack. It seemed as though it shattered to make way for the next, then the next, then the next. In a matter of moments the ice reached the gunner, springing up directly under it and lifting it into the air impaled upon the crystal thorns before that ice, too, shattered and dropped the monster to the ground. It never reached earth. In the instant it began to drop Linkle had already sprung up and closed the distance, leaping into the air and delivering a spin kick to the creatures chest that froze the parasite solid where it had burrowed into its victims body. It tumbled through the air, slamming into the flood behind it that as Linkle landed. A wet pop threw more of the little wrigglers into the air as one of the carriers exploded from the impact. They swarmed the body, desperately prying the frozen one from the chest cavity so one could resume control when they were obliterated in a spray of bolts.

The arrows of course didn't do so much damage to the melee forms behind them, but that was why Linkle was already moving. She reached the body as the flood were springing up and wrenched the shotgun from its grip. One started to swing at her, but she jammed the weapon into its chest and pulled the trigger. A explosion of greenish gore erupted from the monsters chest even as she dodged back from the retaliatory strikes of its fellows, a grin on her face. Like she'd suspected, this weapon seemed much more effective on the things.

Perhaps sensing all the fun Linkle was having a armored kart picked that moment to shatter her ice wall into a million pieces. The teleporter they had all used to get here suffered the same fate as the kart through as arc of electricity at it, forcing her to dodge out of the way lest she be caught up in the destruction. The hooded man made a valiant effort to kill the driver before teleportation over where they had gathered, his hood falling down and delivering his assessment of these monsters, the Flood. That they would not stop.

Linkle shook her head, blasting another combat form as it got close. "Daxter is right, we just have to kill the boss of this place." She said, looking around for the sort of root monster the little furry guy had described. "It'll show up if we kill enough of these guys. I haven't even broken 500 yet."

Linkle, however, seemed to be overruled. Jak, his new friend, Blazermate, even Bowser all opted for the tactical retreat though the latter two had decided to retreat in style by stealing another of the enemies vehicles. Linkle supported that plan, blasting at the Flood forms that tried to interrupt the big turtles wrestling match with the car for as long as her shotgun ammo lasted her before switching back to her crossbows and harrying them with bombs. When the car finally reversed out the door into the unknown and Bowser hacked his last two parting shots past her at their enemies Linkle hesitated to leave. She felt sure that these guys wouldn't stop bothering them until they took this place, but the boss said retreat.

She felt power welling up in the pit of her stomach, a dam bursting inside her. "I could have gone all day!" She shouted at them as she spun, fire and force exploding out of her popping the smaller forms and sending the large once spinning through the sky engulfed in flames. She surveyed the blast radius for just a second, satisfied that she'd bought at least a little more time to breath, then sprinted off after the others.

---

So, it seemed this was all disturbingly literal after all.

Link listened intently to the reactions of the others. Some dismissed the idea outright, other wanted to modify or poke holes in it, some wanted to find a way to avoid riding it at all. All the while, everything the woman said stoked the fires of Links exploratory spirit. Dangerous places like the Maw didn't hold any terror for him. Indeed, the more he heard the more drawn to the place he felt. He truly wanted to ride it, to see inside, to meet this mysterious dark lady that commanded it and, if it were truly spiriting its guest away never to be seen again, to put an end to the vile thing.

"I like the Prince's plan, personally." He said. "Conquer the Maw. Though we could stand to be a little more subtle than charging up the deck and picking a fight. Thank you for the information." He bowed his head respectfully to the woman in black before turning and heading up the gangplank to the pirates ship, taking his cues from the little girl and saluting the captain when he saw him. He'd had the pleasure of boarding one sea worthy vessel in his entire post-amnesia life, and that one had been small and tied up at dock. This one, though? This one was big enough to make for a fine house.

At one of the girls questions he shrugged. He didn't really know what a pirate was, and found no reason to be intimidated by the giant scalawag. "It's good of you to carry us to Limsa, sir. From what our friend in black told us it's not very safe waters. You must have fought off a few terrible sea monsters in your time. Any tales to tell?"

If they were going to Limsa to find facts and, perhaps, strong allies then there wasn't any reason not to start early.

It was hard to make out any details of the person in white. If it was even a person that is. Though even from this distance, Primrose thought that it was. They were garbed in a cloak or coat, unless someone thought it would be funny to dress a scarecrow up and stick it in the shifting sands. That seemed unlikely. Primrose kept an eye on the mysterious person, and soon enough Midna appeared beside the dancer again.

Her impression of Midna hadn't changed much in the short amount of time Primrose had known her. She did learn that she was apparently a princess, which was surprising. It also turned out that Primrose's earlier thought that the imp might have been shy was way off base. In fact Midna seemed a bit forceful. That suited Primrose just fine, though the dancer was still a little put out by the whole "hitching a ride in her shadow thing." If it wasn't already apparent, Primrose Azelhart had some deep seated trust issues.

Whether Primrose thought or not that eventually she and Midna would get along swimmingly, she'd already thought not to hold this particular grudge too long. Besides, maybe by spending time with the imp and her shadow magic, a little of Primrose's own dark magic would manifest again. It hadn't worked with Ashley, but then they'd been spending their days idle around the Alcamoth. Not exploring a region with the intent to free it's inhabitants.

With all these thoughts in mind Primrose nodded her head in the direction of the white cloaked person, a few hundred feet away from the car, without taking her eyes from the stranger. "There. Down the dune. A person, I think. Though it's impossible to tell if they are friend or foe."

The car hardly made a stealthy approach, so it was most likely safe to assume that this person had spotted them already. Although she wasn't particularly keen to approach, the dancer supposed that they would find out whether they were looking at an enemy or not soon enough.

When Red Team arrived back at Argent Tower, those who were there before would find that it wasn’t as they left it, and as such, they would not be afforded a slow, easy start that some of them had hoped for. That was to say the pace would be hard set for them to one of immediate urgency right out of the gate. Before Banjo’s bare feet could hit flat against the cold metal floor the squad were instantly beset upon by a parasitic horde of mutant monstrosities that had more than enough time to build up in their absence with the doors forced wide open for (and likely by) them. As soon as they registered this, Banjo hastily drew Kazooie, ‘charged’ her and began returning fire.

Weighed against a couple of choice members in their party, the duo were sporting decidedly meager firepower, but still proved more useful than not to just the right extent. While a torrential rain of crossbow bolts, a sweeping volley of blue eco rounds and a roaring cloud of dragon fire tore through the front line, Banjo and Kazooie were able to individually take out any strays that managed to clear the onslaught, at one point shooting down a leaping Flood with its tentacle arm reared back ready to swat to first one of them it came into contact with. The duo found themselves suddenly more thankful than ever for the experience afforded to them through the tacked on ‘Shooter’ element in their sequel, as well as starting with full Blue ammo to make use of it. Though, the practical necessity for it meant that their supply was already noticeably dwindling while they and the rest of the squad were getting nowhere fast. They soon adjusted their strategy to saving shots for the smaller, skittering parasites that would splatter with one round apiece while switching to melee for average mid-sized enemies. This was made much easier by Linkle’s ice wall as the enemies’ advance slowed significantly, but it served as little more than a holding pattern for the Team.

Said pattern was forced to a destructive end when the crystalline barrier was battered to shards from the impact of a heavily armored vehicle against it, followed by a stream of lightning from its top-mounted arm that struck out the teleporter, ensuring them no way back. Banjo dove aside and rolled out of the turret’s line of fire, stabbing Kazooie’s beak through a former human Flood, through which the reanimated creature persisted. In a light panic Banjo fired Kazooie in an attempt to knock it loose, only to end up shooting behind it, which happened to be useful in its own for the moment it lasted before Banjo withdrew his Kazooie’s head from its torso and swatted its head away with a hefty swipe. When he disgustedly shook the iccor from his foot after stomping a crawler flat, he got a good look outside at the remaining root that the duo remembered they were bound for. It was then that Bowser made the timely call to move, to which they promptly complied.

Banjo put Kazooie away and switched to the Accept-Lance as he made a run for the retreating vehicle. He took two heavy, wide-sweeping swings around him with the lance while advancing, and topped it with a third arcing strike to set himself into a sidelong semi-vault by its grounded tip. Kazooie popped out mid-flight to stick a running landing to give herself a brief start on bounding after the dozer. Banjo pocketed the lance and twisted mid-jump to transition from talon to foot and catch them in a reckless, rolling landing atop the vehicle. The duo managed to overshoot their jump slightly, forcing him to grab a hold of the shocking turret arm for lack of anything better to hang on by, fully aware now of its function, but desperate for an expeditious escape.

Although Tora liked Primrose well enough in the brief time he'd known her, the really interesting member of the group was Midna. When he first saw the imp, he'd thought for a horrific second that she might be a gruesomely deformed Indoline. Like her, the race of humans who called the draconic Titan Indol their home featured pale greenish skin and long ears, although they lacked those black markings. Of course, he didn't really consider that the case; it just happened to pop into his head when he saw her. Although diminutive, her shape made her seem not at all a child, which left Tora confused. On top of her unique appearance she also sported a hodgepodge of fascinating abilities, from disappearing into shadows and summoning wolves to changing her hair into a big hand. Cooler still, she was a princess, like Peach. While first impressions made her seem a touch on the bossy side, which fit, the rest of her pretty much embodied the exact opposite of elegance or grace. Of course, the Nopon knew better than to say that.

Since Fox seemed to be deep in contemplation, silence filled the cab once more once the princess said her piece. This lasted, just a little awkward, until Primrose left the confines of the Morgana-car to look around outside. Though busy examining Sectonia's antlion, Tora watched her go, wondering if this stop would be longer than usual.

Outside, Poppi glanced at the passenger departing the car, oblivious to Midna tailing along. Although Sectonia didn't seem particularly interested in the line of conversation Poppi brought up, she couldn't really think of a better one. “That very impressive. Poppi draw energy from ether in atmosphere thanks to ether furnace, but if Poppi exert for too long, reserves deplete and Poppi have no power. Then not very helpful.” She held up her arm and flexed her fingers. Of course, she had yet to put her new power in this form to the test. Sleek, streamlined, and the very image of miracle technology, this body might be efficient enough to make the journey along with Sectonia. But two heroes, even two high-damage fliers, couldn't very well contend with one of Galeem's champions. Besides, she couldn't really consider the possibility of fighting without her Masterpon. They were two sides of the same coin, after all. Neither could excel without the other.

Her audio receptors picked up the words of Primrose, causing her to look that way. Sure enough, her zoom feature could make out a figure in white leaning against one of the totems. Her systems afforded her the ability to examine the unknown face in detail, unlike those of certain other robed strangers. She appeared to be a young woman with dark skin, orange eyes, and light blonde hair, and she was looking Yellow Team's way. “Contact,” she reported for Sectonia. More than that, she seemed to know that she'd gotten the party's attention. With effortless grace the stranger got to her feet, then floated a few inches above the sand. While standing her cloak didn't cover her fully, and Poppi could see that she wore some kind of military vest and shorts, a combination that wouldn't be misplaced in the wardrobe of a Blade. One arm and one leg bore tight red wrappings, bandages perhaps. Poppi watched along with Primrose and Midna as the stranger raised her arm and pointed toward the mountain on the horizon, then tilted her head. Go, she was saying. If she had anything more to say than that, she seemed to be in no hurry to approach.

Back at the car, the Phantom Thieves had piled out to look around—the true reason for stopping the car. A few moments passed in relative quiet, before the girl called Panther widened her eyes. “Look! Over there!”

She leveled her finger into the distance. Out in the barren expanse, a towering sandstorm undulated in the wind like an immense tapestry, and from the shifting wall issued a strange shape. Although it looked a lot like a camel, its contours and details weren't quite natural, and though it looked small from here, it could only be very large. The noise distracted Poppi from the stranger, and she looked over. “What is that?” the girl asked.



“Some sort of machine,” answered the Artificial Blade. “Reminds Poppi of Titan Gormott, but nowhere near as big.”

“Interesting, but not what we're looking for,” Joker remarked.

Poppi tilted her head. “What are allies looking for? Are we not heading for mountain to fight boss?”

Joker tugged at his collar and climbed into the driver's seat of the Morgana-car. His friends retreated into the cool air as well, thankful for Sectonia's antlions after getting another taste of the desert heat. “We are, but we're also looking for something. The reason we picked this location over the others. A pyramid.”

“Pyramid.” Engaging her zoom, Poppi scanned the horizon. “Searching...searching...” Impressed, the thieves waited in silence. After a moment, however, she shook her head. “Nothing found.”

Skull looked mildly disappointed. “Welp, let's keep movin' then.” He waved at Primrose and Midna. “Hey, girls! You comin' or what?”



To her surprise Hat Kid discovered a signal for none other than a Time Piece. Judging by the spots she passed on the way to the wharf with the other heroes, it was coming from the second island in the the archipelago, the one with the fairground big enough to see from here. To leave in pursuit of it meant going in the opposite direction to the one laid out before her, however, and that double peg-legged pirate seemed eager to begin the voyage to Limsa. The situation begged a choice: leave the Time Piece for later to continue onward unabated with her team, miss the departing ship for the chance to increase her collection, or request that the others wait for her as she went about this errand. A speedy youngster with a peppy scooter could make good time, but there was no guarantee that fetching the coveted item would be straightforward once she got there.

She didn't have a lot of time to choose, either; the others were already climbing aboard Brineybeard's vessel, one by one. “Granted!” he roared at Sakura, giving her leave to embark. For the average landlubber, setting foot aboard such an idyllic pirate ship tended to impart a difficult-to-suppress feeling of adventure. Visions of swashbuckling action and vagabond merriment came easily to mind, full of parrots and shanties and gold. The Captain, however, looked anything but happy, even after being saluted and thanked and asked permission. Nevertheless, Link asking him about his experiences opened the floodgates, and Brineybeard began yammering away with gusto as he went about readying the ship to weigh anchor. “Oh aye, lad! These gentle waves be nothin' like the Bottomless or the Shoal betwixt 'em, but we even gets 'em sonuvas 'round here time to time!” He spent most of his time gesticulating emphatically, making slow progress on preparations. “An' don't get me started on the stinkin' Black Fleet! As if dealin' with monsters wasn't bad enough, they're always comin' with their torpedoes 'n rotatin' cannons 'n such. How 'n the hell...”

Brineybeard faced Link as if demanding an answer from him. “Now, how 'n the hell's a traditional ship supposed to compete!? They ain't! Ol' Shippy here's one 'o the last real boats sailin' these waters.” He turned away, looked over his ship with pride, before cracking a grin. “Gahahah, but she be more than yer everyday rowboat! How else ye be thinkin' we stayed afloat? Avast, Shippy!”

He patted the railing with his hand, and the entire ship began to move. Ropes pulled themselves, hoisting sails and lifted barrels with jolly faces, and the anchor wheel turned steadily. The wood itself took on a state of constant flexing like the sides of a breathing animal. At the prow of the boat, two great big eyes opened wide to stare down at the heroes not yet on board. True to the captain's word, this was no ordinary watercraft. It was nothing less than a living thing.

The door to the cabin burst open, and a couple of dogfish hustled out. They made a beeline for Brineybeard, who knelt down to stroke them. “Ohohoho, who're my rotten seadogs? Aye, they be you!” In no time at all the ship was ready to sail, and to ferry the heroes onward to Limsa.

After a moment Peach stopped marveling at the living pirate ship and began to make her way toward it. Scarcely had she taken her first step, however, than her wrist was seized by the woman in black. She pulled the princess close, close enough to see a pale face and cold eyes beneath her hood. “A corpse should be left well alone,” she murmured. “But the wrongness of this world demands you give ear to the secrets that beckon oh so sweetly. Like the siren to the sailors. Some never think to heed the warnings.” Glancing out at the ship and the other members of Blue Team, she gave a soft sigh. “I fear only a needless death will cure you now. Liberate you, from your wild curiosity.”

She released Peach, who pulled away. With a scowl the princess turned to leave, heading down the dock to the gangway for Brineybeard's ship. When she looked again, the stranger was gone, disappeared into a dark portal that sprang up from nothingness and vanished just as quickly.


Though caught in tricky and -by most metrics- untenable situations, Red Team's most proactive members prevailed against their individual assaults. Linkle's quick reflexes, battlefield experience, and potent display of cryomancy made short work of her assailants, no matter how vicious their weapons. Bowser survived his encounter with a lethal energy sword with all limbs intact thanks to Blazermate's intervention, first to shield him from harm and second to jump into the fight herself and wrench the blade free of the infested elite's grip. Even the Shockdozer's lightning failed to rupture the ubercharge, though the protection timed out shortly thereafter. A moment of invincibility was a comfort and and relief, but after that moment it was gone.

The others fought savagely against the Flood, desperately keeping them at arm's length. No sooner did one fall than two took its place, after all. Mag and Jak worked their weapons mercilessly to keep the twisted arms and claws of the horde off of them, but stray bullets from assault rifles and very targeted needles from ranged forms that had clambered up into vantage points racked up steady damage. The same held true for Banjo, even if his 'weapon' had a mind of her own and his ammunition came from the Lumbridge cucco pen. None of them needed the black-coat's help to figure out that this fight wasn't winnable. They needed to go, and fortunately Bowser and Blazermate were in the middle of commandeering the team a way to break the deadly blockade.

With a little ripping and tearing, the pair took control of the Shockdozer, with the medabot even figuring out how to make use of its lightning gun to dispatch the troublesome infested Blastoise while Bowser struggled to keep the horde off. For a moment it seemed as though the Tentacruel might overwhelm the koopa king, but he managed to slash it to ribbons before bellowing for his subjects to get a move on. Banjo shoved aside incoming Flood with his lance before vaulting over to the Shockdozer in a daring maneuver. Mag and Jak made tracks, although the latter needed the coaxing of his little friend to avoid sinking some of his precious eco into the man whose hood had fallen down. “Now now,” the Italian teased. “You'll get your turn.” With that he was gone in a flash of blue light, nowhere to be seen. The next second Linkle's explosion scattered the Flood, giving her team the room they needed to push off and pick up some speed.

Outside the Argent Tower, the sundered avenue was thick with Flood. Seeing it instantly confirmed for the heroes that they made the right choice; if they stayed, they would have surely drowned beneath the tide of flesh. Anyone not piled onto the vehicle itself would need to move fast and keep close, lest they be left behind, or worse risk everyone dying in a rescue attempt. The Shockdozer proved incredibly useful, plowing straight through combat and infection forms, and barely even flinching when the swollen combat forms burst themselves into spores and wriggling things. Still, its relatively lackluster speed meant that the heroes needed to keep a constant look out for would-be boarders. Most combat forms of the Flood could really jump, and they tried relentlessly. Of all of them the skittering infectors climbed aboard the most often, and while a single hit could wipe one out, their tentacles would dig into flesh if given half a chance. If allowed to carve in and come into contact with a hero's spine, a single touch would cause instant nervous system failure and brain death.

As for direction, Blazermate knew where the group needed to go. To the south, across the patch of the city most thoroughly rearranged by seismic activity, the final Qliphoth root towered. At its base existed the boss whose death would open the way to the Qliphoth itself, and the chosen guardian of Galeem that existed within.

Even if the Flood were being outpaced, however, they weren't about to relent. Three combat forms riding chainsaw-equipped slicecycles motored after the more sluggish Shockdozer, their biting blades able to take chunks out of armor, limb, and tire alike. If the tires popped, the heroes would be dead in the water. To make matters worse, more monsters were being drawn by the commotion. Winged vulture-like beasts, the lerks, In addition to biting, they spread a poisonous gas as they flew. With the movement of the Shockdozer the gas wouldn't linger, but a faceful of the stuff in passing would not be pleasant.



After braving the radiation filled tunnels, each in their own way, the various daredevils wound up walking down a dimly-lit hall toward a set of double doors. When the Slayer pushed the doors wide, he gave his team a good look both at the control room and through the glass window to the generator itself. Wound around the main pylon to the point of subsuming it was the heart of the Super Gore Nest itself, an enormous, gruesome facsimile of a heart. Glowing blood filtered through its sacs to the tune of a deep beat, and from it both dangled fleshy tendrils and protruded nasty horns.

“This is the heart of the nest. It has taken root in this facility's main power generator. Reactivating the generator will destroy the nest,” Vega informed the group.

A terminal next to the Slayer featured a lever ripe for the pulling. Its use filled the air with the sound of electrical humming, and a readout on a control panel screen read 'fifty percent'. With no other lever in sight, however, the generator couldn't be turned on just yet. “Great, more looking around,” Nero snarked, looking down at the colored strips on the floor. They led through a door to the right and through a series of rooms. “Bet the other one's that way.” He went quiet as the telltale snarls and growls of demons reached the group through both halls, then sighed. “Think you can handle it? We'll hold down the fort.” With a shot from his revolver he shattered the glass window, creating a way into the generator room to turn it on once power was restored. Then he was obliged to give his full attention to his guests, for it didn't look like he'd be picking off fodder this time. He fixed his attention on the guitar-wielding punk zombie, reminded of the guitar Nevan that Dante possessed and shortly thereafter sold a long time ago. That left a demon with a tiger's head on its chest, which Nadia positioned herself to face off against, and a long-legged gargoyle for Raidou. The three wasted no time getting down to business.

Meanwhile, on his quest to find the second lever, the Slayer ran into another familiar if unwelcome faces. The snake-tailed Whiplash moved at high speed and with a low profile, slashing at him from afar. Alongside it came a revolting thing, spiked and pulsating, crawling on misshapen horned legs as the purple tendrils it possessed instead of a a head whipped around wildly. However, a full armor pickup floated on the other side of the room.

Despite the robed woman's clipped response, the Cadet took her words as a straight up win for Blue Team. There was wiggle room in the stranger's plan, if they decided to go through with it. It seemed that at the moment, commandeering the ship was the popular choice. The hunter couldn't say he had much experience with that (in fact he had none), but he was more than willing to give it a try. It couldn't be much different from what the group had been doing up until then, he thought. Even if it wasn't, there was a first time for everything, right? Some members of the team were just learning that not all firsts were easy when the robed stranger gestured to the ship that would take them to Limsa.

"I actually did want to look around town," he laughed, but Hat Kid, Sakura, and Link were already headed aboard. It sounded like Limsa was a much larger city, it would probably have everything they could find here in this place and more, but there was something really nice about seeing someone in their natural habitat, so to speak. It felt great to hunt in the Coral Highlands, as brief as it had been, and he recalled Banjo and Kazooie's stunned emotional response to the valley with the spiral mountain in the center. Cadet was definitely looking forward to the Cuphead tour around the little island, but Sakura was right - it would probably be more fun on the way back when they weren't busy mulling over the mysterious 'Maw' and what to do about it. "Aw well, it's Ya-cool. Next time buddy," the hunter told Cuphead. Ace Cadet folded his arms behind his head and wandered up the gangplank.

The captain was fun to listen to, with his exaggerated speech and mannerisms, but of course the most interesting thing was the ship itself. Ropes and masts moving on their own was one thing, but the steady movement of the boards on deck was another. The expressions of the princess and the few others still on land drew the Cadet over to the boat's rail, and he leaned out as far as he could, peering down at an expected pair of giant eyes. "Whooooa! Is this thing alive?"

---

As the stranger in white stood up and even seemed to float, Primrose quietly steeled herself for anything. Her muscles tensed and her eyes grew sharp. Once more her delicate fingers found their way around the pommel of her family's dagger, though she kept it concealed beneath her own stolen cloak. Then... the stranger did nothing but motion. If they did anything more, Primrose couldn't see it from this distance. When no spell came flying in the car's direction, Primrose gradually relaxed again. Not a foe, then. At least not yet.

The dancer tilted her head at the stranger, but her attention was drawn by Panther's exclamation. The colossus she was pointing at was, thankfully, far off in the distance. Primrose couldn't tell if it was a living beast or not, although Poppi clarified that right away. Although no one had come out and said it, Poppi seemed a little less than human, which would explain how she could see that far. That wasn't a problem at all, considering the current party line up was a dragon man, a fox man, a giant insect, a shadow imp, a fluffy bunny-like guy and a cat-car. Include Poppi in that and the non-humans nearly outnumbered Primrose and the three codenamed kids two-to-one. Once again Primrose's time in the Alcamoth had done wonders acclimating her to weird situations like this.

Skull waved over at Primrose and Midna, but before the dancer moved back towards the car she once more gestured for Midna to go ahead of her. "After you," she said, with the barest hint of a playful smile on her face.

Once they were back aboard their unusual ride, Primrose paused at the front. She laid a hand on the back of the driver's seat, her eyes flitting down to the boy sat in it. And he was just that, a boy. Still, he seemed to fancy himself the leader of his own little group. Besides, at his age Primrose herself had already gone through hell. She didn't judge him, although she looked like she wanted to give him some words of advice. For a few moments she said nothing, feeling like she wasn't in any position to comment. Eventually she just sighed to herself. The desert can be a dangerous place for the hasty. It takes back whatever it offers two-fold. But if these children are determined to get through it with the rest of us, I suppose I can keep an eye out for them.

She moved on then, finding the same space she'd claimed earlier and sitting herself right back in it, next to the cooling little bug and the warm window she went right back to gazing out of.

So. they were being watched. Or so Primrose told her. Once again, Midna had to watch Primrose’s reaction to what she’d seen rather than observe it for herself thanks to the light. The imp tensed as the dancer went for her knife, priming herself to bring her magic to bare if they where attacked, only to relax once Primrose did. If the cautious women thought it wasn’t a threat then Midna was inclined to agree with assessment for the moment. It wasn't as if she could make her own with the harsh sun beating down and leaving her long distance vision blurry at best.

”Mysterious watchers in the desert? How fun. Let me know if they do anything stupid,” Midna commented, before drifting away when Primrose directed her to go first, returning her mischievous smile as she did before re-approaching the vehicle. She couldn’t see the machine the others were discussing as anything but a smudge in the distance, and so mostly ignored its existence, but was when the gang of masked teens said they were looking for a pyramid she took interest. The thing they were looking for in and of itself wasn't that interesting (though the gang’s lack of interest in sharing additional details about it was adding to a trend with them that she did not appreciate) but the not quite human Poppi’s search for their goal, giving the impression that she could see much further than the others could, definitely was.

”I maaaay have a similar kind of ulterior motive as these guys one for coming here. I’ve also got something I came here to find. A powerful artifact. A mirror, one that creates a portal to my home realm. Having the aid of an entire kingdom would be a great help don’t you think?” Midna asked Poppi, making an effort to be more informative than the teens as to why she was looking for the mirror of twilight and also in the process added an incentive that might get the team onboard with helping secure it, before laying out what the palace it could be found looked like.

”It should be in a massive circular open topped building with lots of arches in its walls. Got six massive columns surrounding it, bigger than the building, with golden poles atop those pillars, at the top of which there's symbols of an eagle with its wings spread and round mirrors in place of their heads,” Midna said, as she described the less straightforward design of the Arbiter's Grounds as best she could before adding ”also anything with this symbol could also help,” before sketching a quick Triforce in the sand with her massive hair hand.

After she’d gotten her answer, Midna would get back onboard (ducking back into a shadow as soon as she was inside) rather than hold up their journey any longer with sightseeing things she couldn’t see properly.

Sakura had been sat on the railing of the pirate ship, exciting to keep moving and stop thinking about moral quandries, at least for now. Her feet dangled over the side and the heels of sneakers made quiet pitter patter noises on the wood of the ship. It was a beautiful view and she listened to Brineybeard's bellowing with a pleased look on her face. She was eager to get this adventure on the road and try to be what she thought a hero was. Even if this brief encounter with the hooded lady had already dampened her spirits.

Suddenly, the captain called his ship "Shippy". Sakura giggled and turned to look to him. "Shippy? That is the best name for a ship I've-" Her eyes went wide and her mouth transformed into a surprise 'O' shape as she watched Shippy literally come to life.

With a bounding rise, the rail lifted her up, dropped down without her, and Sakura splashed soundly into the sea water below. Sakura was upside down, squeezing her eyes shut against the salt, before she oriented herself and her brown-haired head broke the surface tension.

"Ppbbhtpt pbbtp pbbt!" Sakura spat out some of the water. Treading water, she giggled nervously at the breathing creature she had found herself dwarfed next too. Treading water, she glanced around briefly before looking up to see if anyone had peered over the railing.

"Uh, man overboard!" Sakura called out with a smile, her cheeks flushing red from embarassment. She on the starboard side of the ship, a small shape looking apologetically up at whoever happened to notice her brief descent into the water. Meanwhile, she took a moment to think about the living ship just a few feet infront of her. One of the strangest things she had ever seen. Shippy really was an amazing creature. Hopefully she didn't get left behind. This thought alarmed her so much she splashed loudly and decided to vocalize it aloud. "Please don't leave me behind!"

Geralt sighed and shook his head when the Cadet told him to back off. That...didn't quite go as expected. He actually felt a little bad about the obvious effect his words had on Sakura, and he frowned sadly before moving away from her and boarding the ship, lost in though. He'd overheard the captain praising his ship, and he smirked a bit. The man reminded him of a Skelliger, boasting about his adventures and the fierce enemies he'd fought. It made him nostalgic for the archipelago.

The Witcher took a moment to get his balance as the ship suddenly began moving, ropes pulling themselves and the wood itself seeming to breathe. "What in the...?" He murmured, looking around, only to witness Sakura going over the edge. "Dammit!" Geralt cursed, running to the edge of the boat, and breathing a sigh of relief when he saw her surface and look up. Shaking his head with a laugh, he looked about for a rope and tossed a length of it over the edge for the girl. "Can't say I expected that..." He complained as he easily hauled her up, enhanced muscles straining minimally to pull the girl up the side of the ship.

"Always something weirder with every new world I end up in..." He muttered. Dragons, living ships, floating islands, a world that replenished itself every week? He couldn't imagine what would be next.

-----------------------



"I don't know what an ether furnace is, but it sounds like you absorb and burn the ambient mana in the air. And it sounds like you burn mana faster than you can gather it." Sectonia said, eyeing Poppi and her explanation as the car reached a stop. Much like the mechanical lady, Sectonia watched as the others filed out of the car. Seeing this, Sectonia descended, still towering over most of them but being at 'landing' height all the same. "I'm surprised we're taking a break so soon. Did something happen?" Sectonia said, looking over everyone who had left the car.

Poppi soon spoke up, mentioning that the group made contact with someone in the distance. The woman didn't seem like they were here to hurt the party, only gesturing towards the mountain as to say to continue on ahead. Still, Sectonia wasn't one to trust strangers, heck she barely trusted most of those with her right now, so she kept an eye on this newcomer as she discussed a few things with the party who were outside the van. Especially the big thing in the far off sandstorm.

"Hm... Does that thing look familiar to any of you?" Sectonia said, pointing off in the distance at the Divine Beast roaming around in the sandstorm. "Considering its size, it could potentially be related to what we are hunting." Around this time, Midna appeared out of Premise's shadow, explaining her whole deal about needing parts of a mirror which rung bells for Sectonia, although the bee queen was far, far off base with the mirror she was thinking of. "I had a mirror back in Floralia that was quite large with a gold frame and radiated some incredible magic. Your not looking for that are you?" Sectonia didn't know where Taranza had gotten said mirror, so the description of where the mirror would be held didn't matter much to her at all.

After chatting a bit with a few of the others, Sectonia took this down time to formulate something she had been thinking of since they had left the tower. She was given control of a small army of some strange individuals which would help her take over this World of Light. And much like a ruler would, she had been thinking how to best use these individuals. She didn't know a fair amount of them, but the looks of a few of them gave off an heir of royalty or charisma and while she wasn't familiar with the stranger of those, she could recognize and formulate teams based on those she figured would work for the recruitment missions at least. Still, not knowing everything, she did ask around to hear if any of the others knew anything about some of the "mercenaries" that she would be commanding.

"Before we go, there is something a Queen must do. Delegate. However, I am unaware of the abilities of a few of those I would be delegating. Would any of you know anything about some of these people?" Sectonia asked the group, running off the names of the people she remembered that she had no clue what they did at a glance, or if they'd even be useful. After getting whatever information the others could provide, Sectonia summoned one of the moogles to delegate a few mercenaries to the recruitment missions. She would send Chrom, Corrin, Din, and Shovel Knight to recruit people in lumbridge, seeing as three of them were dressed in the same garb that a few of the 'respected' people in lumbridge wore, and Din who she knew was well known around lumbridge herself. She then delegated Zelda, Dr. Mario, Nintendog (After learning what a dog even was from the others, as those didn't exist in her world.), and Wii fit. Most of those who she delegated looked like royalty in their own right, or should do well where they were placed from her thoughts and learning what some of them were. She did remember the time where she was at Peach's castle for the night that the Toads went on about a "Mario", so that made the most sense there as well. Although it was kind of strange that there was a mission to look for a Mario as well when they had one who was a dcotor. World of Light shenanigans Sectonia mused.

With that all taken care of and the rest of the group piling back into the car, Sectonia took to the skies again to fly over the car and head to their next destination.

Jr did not appreciate being talked down to by the hooded figure. Not one bit.

”Ah buzz off you twerp. You don’t know me! You don’t know what I’ve done or think. Go eat a spiny!” Jr yelled at them, before storming up onto the boat in a childish huff. Rather proving the Nobody’s point in the process, Kamek noted to himself as he stayed to hear out the rest of the conversation with their unwelcome advice giver.

It was mostly push and pull, the heroes arguing against this unethical method of getting transport to the region boss, while the hooded figure arguing it was the only way, with some unexpected backup from the grizzled swordsman with the yellow eyes. Geralt gave them a speech about how doing what was necessary did not always involve doing what was good. That doing the right thing could and would require bloody sacrifices. This perspective was a rather alien one for a hero to have from Kamek’s perspective, and that it did not go down well with the others who showed the traditional desire to put themselves at risk before even considering putting innocents in danger.

Indeed, the team mostly seemed to like Jr’s idea of storming the place, which the boy appreciated knowing once Kamek mentioned it to him later, saying ”Heck yeah! Who does this lady think she is, saying we couldn't even take on one spooky woman on her ghost ship! If she doesn't think we can take her, how the heck does she think we’re gonna be able to take down whatever the boss is? Stupid.”

There was a little more to be gleaned from the figure’s words. Further warnings about the dangers of the sea were given, and what Kamek noted was probably a rather important detail about the Maw, namely that eating was a poor thing to do upon it. Certainly, the implication had been there already that the food was dangerous, but it was rather useful to know for sure that the Maw’s bait was poisoned. They also learned that the only other danger listed in the maw other than the food was its mistress, a silent masked woman.

Despite the team’ general dislike with the strangers plan, the initial trip across the sea was agreeable, and so the majority of the gang sauntered onboard the (apparently living) ship without much fuss, which meant there were fewer people around when the hooded nobody made a grab for Peach. Kamek was taken by surprise by this move despite his distrust of the members of the 13, and so was only just pulling his wand out in reaction to her aggressive move when the figure let Peach go, but not before delivering one final dire potent of what would occur should they try a different path. Her final missive left, the Nobody departed via a dark portal that seemed to be a shared skill of the 13.

”What a grim woman she was. Are you alright your majesty?” Kamek asked Peach as he followed her aboard the ship.

Most of the squad were onboard when they arrived, including a still slightly huffy jr, who had parked his clown car and was now out on the deck. The boy was cured of his mood shortly afterwards however by Sakura’s tumble into the water, running over to the railing to laugh at the schoolgirl rather than help like Geralt was.

”Jr, don’t be rude to the poor woman,” Kamek admonished the boy for his mockery.

”Come on. She can’t even stay on a ship while it’s sitting in port. How bad do your ship legs have to be for that to happen?! Maybe we’ll have to tie her to the mast to stop her falling off again!” Jr called back, before hopping up onto the ship’s banister and deftly balancing walking along it and managing to avoid falling off even when the living ship moved unpredictably beneath him, a testament to having spent plenty of his life on Koopa Troop airships.

After jr had been convinced to stop tempting fate to deliver some well deserved comeuppance and was safely back on the deck, they were ready to set sail for danger and adventure.