Blazermate seemed to be on Bowser’s side in this, at least partially. Enough that she was open to talking to the girl and maybe even working with her after she's ripped up the root. Unfortunately the idea that they could just let her deal with the root had a pair of interlinked snags. First was that she was taking an age to get through it, which explained how she was still here, and the second was that they didn’t have that time

”WAIT WHAT? DISAPPEAR? WHY DID THIS NOT COME UP EARLIER?” Bowser roared at Nero when he told them about the timer they were only now learning they were under, ignoring the cat ladies’ insistence that he stop talking about the Skullheart. Cursed artifacts were one thing, dime a dozen really to the koopa king, but the threat of being disappeared was... well when it came down to it that was also something of a common threat the king would have had to admit if asked, but it didn’t make it any less of one.

He’d already done the damage by running his mouth off anyway, so telling him to shush didn’t help. Marie knew Nadia wanted the Skullheart, and now she also knew she, like they, had limited time. Unfortunately, rather than deciding she would now welcome their help in breaking the root, she instead decided she would simply kill them and take their power for herself.

”Kid, if its revenge you want we can help with that too, you don't need to-” Bowser said, but it was too late. The conversation was over. The undead maid girl made her first move, ripping the catacombs apart, the ground shaking beneath them, causing Bowser to wobble on one leg with his arms spinning as the vibrations rocked the party. Then the ground started collapsing beneath them into a deep pit that Bowser instinctively assumed ended either in lava or nothingness. The heavy king quickly dropped out of sight, his weight cracking his part of the floor much faster than that supporting the lighter and nimbler members of the party.

For a moment he was out of view until suddenly he reappeared riding Carrie as the Trowlon did what she did best. Ascend.

The king rose up after the catgirl, weaving past or smashing aside debris until he too arrived at the boss arena Nadia had created. He shoved the ruins of the library aside, the mimic’s lair they’d so carefully cleared had reduced to ruin in an instant, and stepped onto the glowing platform as the cat and the maid were finishing their brief exchange about their shared homeworld.

”You’ve got guts kid, but you don’t know who you're messing with” he warned the girl as she armed herself with a bony vacuum, but it was much too late for talk. Her eyes flashed red and it was do or die time.

Dark magic filled the koopa king, increasing his size from a building navigable bulk to proper boss fight size. The towering dragon turtle, twice the height of a man, stepped forwards in front of the rest of the party and then pivoted on one foot and put his shell in the way of the barrage of skulls, giving them a face full of spikes and shell to careen into. Some were blunted by the shell alone or impaled on its spikes, while those that tried to sneak past got elbows, boxing gloves and crushing jaws in response. With the barrage either dealt with or out of his reach attacking the other, the king pivoted back to face the Skullgirl and her now rising legion of skeleton warriors.

The undead horde came at them, armed with a chaotic assortment of decent weaponry but, for the most part, they lacked any kind of defensive armaments. Not that armoring them would have mattered much against the brutish might of the koopa king.

He stomped down on a skeletal wolf that materialized out of the vines to try and bite him with a steel capped boot, then began advancing. He stomped forwards, backhanding a skeleton with a huge braincase that was leading the back, shattering it to pieces in one blow before washing fire over a gang of human skeletons in bowler hats trying to shoot him with tommyguns. Then, leaping up over a giant ‘s fist as it tried to punch him, the king grappled onto the massive metal mouth guard of one of the massive bone horrors with one claw and his tentacles before he hammered it in the skull again and again till it shattered and the entire thing fell.

The king cashed back down into the melee, crushing an unfortunate bone horse in the process, before grabbed an ork skeleton that was trying to cleave him with a sword twice as big as it needed to be, blocking the bow with one of the spiked steel bracelets, and then chucked it at a halfling aiming a tube full of fireworks at him, causing both fantasy creature skeletons to explode in a colorful light show.

After the mimics and Dante it was nice to fight things you could rely on just standing still and letting you punch them in the face rather than hiding or dodging all over, or Bower felt, but it wasn't really getting them anywhere. Even he could tell they were basically just going to have to put up with endlessly spawning swarms of undead forever if their master wasn’t made to stop spawning them.

Much as he didn’t like it, he’d have to go after the child. With so many allies, Bowser briefly considered leaving that to others. But if he did, well, then the cat would end this her way.

”Cant have that,” he growled to himself and then after a deep inhale he unleaded a mega fireball towards the skullgirl. The giant orb of flame, as grand as he was, lazily floating across the platform. It wasn't hard to avoid, but it did not stop, it did not falter, it plowed through anything foolish enough to get in the way, blackening bone, melting plastic, super heating steel and detonating ammunition. Behind this ball of death Bowser advanced, fists swinging, hat mounted boxing gloves pummeling, water cannons blasting, blunt impacts one and all reducing the skeletal fiends to scattered piles of bone once more as he advanced on the Skullgirl’s location.

It would appear that the physical presence of Heavy Weapons Guy once again was dominating the battlefield. Not only in the sense that he had knocked the Shield senseless after bypassing his very signuature weapon, but that his bellowing taunts had caused their enemies of BLU to cease their very assault on the RED Motherland, much to Heavy's delight. Standing tall and strong as he did, he could not help but look in a mix of joyous glee at the mesmerized BLUs, and with murderous hunger as he was still not ready to give their enemies any respite.

"What is the matter? Are you afraid? Shamed? I am still alive and eager to fight!"

Heavy's second taunt was so frightening to the enemy, that when he heard a loud bang from his side, the head of the enemy Assassin exploded into a million, tiny and bloody pieces of brain matter. Heavy as at first surprised to see his intimidation work as good as it it, followed by a deep and joyous laughter. "Ohohoho hahaha! That slaps me on the knee!" Whether or not he realized it had been their own Infiltrator firing that shot or not, it mattered little. Heavy's mood was only improving, and with a lack of enemies to punch, Heavy turned to the last sorry BLU that stood on his way.

The Vanguard. Poor, tiny baby man in armour.

Heavy lumbered forward like a giant Siberian bear approaching a foe, standing on its two hind legs and looking menacingly down at its unfortunate victim. This as too easy, but it would be fun nonetheless. Heavy, following the slowly retreating Vanguard, grab hold of his armoured left arm and easily picked up the tiny man. Vanguard punched and prodded at the Russian giant man, but Heavy only laughed at his meager attemps at escaping. Lifting Vanguard by his arm above his own head, Heavy lowered his other arm and curled a massive fist, shooting it up harder than a speeding freight train.

BOING

Vanguard flew straight up into the air a few yards, before plummeting down again and hitting the sandy ground with a thud. Heavy chuckled, looking down at his unmoving opponenty and taunting him one last time. "The burning you feel? It is shame."

As if right on queue came the Announcer's voice over the speakers, declaring team RED as the victors of the match. Heavy instantly looked up, cheering and laughing as always, jumping up into the air while he shouted "YES!" What followed could be best described as a circus bear with a surprising control over his own point of gravity, squatting down and starting to dance to a tune playing from somwhere unseen.



After Heavy had danced around the Red Point a few rounds, the music ceased to play and Heavy stopped accordingly. The match was won, the battle over for now, and now they had a few minutes to fraternize with the enemy. Yes, Heavy enjoyed the heat of battle and knocking around some skulls as much as any massive Russian man armed with fists of steel and a minigun, but he was social as any other sane mercenary in his line of work.

The Shield, coming back to his senses, attempted to get back on his feet after Heavy had given him a good knock-out blow, only for a massive hand to appear before his dazed face. Heavy stood over his formed foe, extending his hand out to the fellow giant man like the good comrade his was. The Shield, at first sceptical, shot Heavy a smile and a manly chuckle as he accepted the help. With the help from Heavy, they got Shield standing on his two feet in no time, the shield proper strapped to his back. "I have to give it to you Heavy, you really got me good. But you listen to what Totem and Infiltrator says; without your precious Medic, you'd be…what do they say?"

"Toast. You mean RED would be toast? Maybe, maybe, but we still on this battle. It was good fight! I will make sure to give you fair chance next time, Shield…to run away! Ahahaha!" Heavy joked with Shield, hands clapping his own belly of Russian muscle and fat, wiping away a tear of laughter as he turned to find the Medic and give his beloved doctor a big hug as thanks for helping him.

As Heavy was about to shout out for his doctor, Soldier took the word and pointed at somewhere over Heavy's shoulder. Heavy, confused as to what in the world he was talking about, turned in anticipation to be pranked with like so many times before. Once Demoman had replaced his Sandwich with one made of only bread and salat. NO SAUSAGE! It had made Heavy as angry as a bull…wait, who was Demoman, why was he thinking about a black, Scottish cyclops, and why was there a giant camel standing next to their sandy, Egyptian battlefield?

"Oh oh…Is this new BLU weapon? Tiny baby men need giant camel to win? Doctor, what is that thing?" Heavy asked out loud, scratching his bald head as Medic walked up beside Heavy and scratching his own chin, looking just as confused as Heavy did. For that matter, everyone on the map looked in either wonder or horror at the giant, mechanical camel. Medic finally answered, though the answer as as enlightening as one could expect. "In my medical opinion, I have never seen anything like this before."

"Then this is bad. Very bad."

Midna had a bit of time to reflect on her conversation with Fox during the remainder of their travel but eventually Vah Naboris arrived at their destination and Minda had it set down to let the party dismount.

”I hope you enjoyed your royal chauffeurage” she told them as she made a performative show off showing them off of Vah Naboris and down back into the sands before following them back into the harsh light of the sun. After the cool interior of the beast, it was a harsh reminder of the land they were traveling through.

The thieves wasted little time in heading into the pyramid they’d come here to investigate, seeking whoever it was they were seeking within its ancient depths. Primrose later mentioned that she thought they were looking for a friend but Midna wasn’t so sure that was all there was to it.

”Have to say, it’s a little odd that they never said exactly who or what they were here for,” she said offhandedly as she sat herself down on a rock while they talked, not wanting to come of as overly paranoid even as she sowed some seeds of doubt ”Might be good if someone goes to keep an eye on them, just in-case. Make sure they don’t get into any trouble” she suggested.

The rest of the team spent a fair bit of time debating whether they should follow the thieves or go investigate the battle going on in the distance. So long, in fact, that by the time the discussion was drawing to a close the battle seemed to be over (judging by the petering off and then absence of any of the explosive sounds that Midna assumed had belonged to weapons like the one Joker was using), which was, in Midna’s opinion, probably for the best. Strolling into a warzone did not seem like the best plan, and doing so to scavenge the dead as Joker had suggested seemed beneath the likes of her.

Eventually Poppi and Fox set out to investigate the battle site, with the fox insisting she stayed behind to act as backup for them in case things went wrong. Midna consciously decided not to read this as him trying to stop her from stopping him from being hopelessly optimistic and trying to free people who freeing wouldn’t change.

”I’d rather not put Vah Naboris in harm's way at all if we can, so don’t do anything stupid ok? It’s tough, but also a big target. Seeing as it’ll be a big help against Gannon or the boss of this zone thanks to its main weapon it’s best we try to keep it intact,” she insisted. She wasn’t entirely pleased with being ordered about, but on the other hand this way she could backup whichever party ran into trouble and she wasn't going to disagree with a good plan just because she hadn’t come up with it.

As people departed Midna ascended, floating up alongside Vah Naboris as it got to its feet, ready to react if things went really sour. Midna traveled all the way to its head and found a spot in the shade in the back of its head containing another smaller control center like the one in the main room. Ignoring this, it seemed to be some kind of override she didn’t need, she instead did what she came here for and turned the mighty weapon towards the battle. Not to fire, it would be a waste to do so especially unprovoked, but instead just to look through its far gazing eye now that it was both standing and stationery (trying to look through this eye while moving had given her motion sickness, the beast’s motion bobbing the view up and down horrendously). The weapon could fire at great distance and with incredible accuracy, or at least that is what the aiming systems were telling her because it let her zoom right in on the area and get a nice close view on the area her teammates were on their way to investigate.

As she looked, she saw the peculiar sight of the red and blue teams both alive and well and, seemingly, socializing with one another. A far cry from the battle Poppi had described and that they had all heard going on earlier. She also saw that two of the people, one fat one thin, were looking right at her Vah Naboris as she looked down at them. Midna scratched her chin thoughtfully for a moment, and then floated right to the front of the beast, perching on one of its “horns” and forming a massive magical hand, one larger than her entire body, out of her longer hair using her fragment of the fused shadow she wore.

With it this mighty hand that could and had been used to crush squads of soldiers into paste, she waved at them. They knew it was here, after all, so Midna felt she might as well see if they were friendly enough to wave back.

Geralt hummed at the revelation 'Minneapolis' gave him. The members of the Abyssal Fleet disintegrated into dust when killed, leaving nothing behind. Curious, but not necessarily the key to unlocking their weakness. However, the fact that their strength correlated with their forms did at least give a relatively simple way to identify threats. The ones that looked alive and like these 'ship girls' were the more dangerous of the lot. What exactly was meant by 'Demons, Princesses, and Fortresses' he couldn't tell immediately, but he had the feeling he'd be getting the chance down the road. Geralt gave Minneapolis a curt nod. "Thanks for the information. Gonna see what I can do with it."

He left her with that, quickly jogging his way back to the others while ruminating on what he'd learned. When Morkvarg had been transformed by his curse, eating anything turned it into foul-tasting ash. The two could be unrelated, but Geralt had a feeling that at the very least, these creatures violating that basic law of this amalgamation of worlds meant something was interfering with the natural order, be it a curse or some sort of resurrection spell. The only problem was that he still had no clue what was causing it. If even the deadliest of foes that these folks had slain dissolved like the weaklings, it meant that whatever anchored their presence was likely held in a rear guard. Internally cursing, Geralt shook away the frustration as he approached the rest of their team. He noticed Peach addressing Sakura, and gave the two ladies a moment to speak before relaying his findings.

"Well, I've got good news and bad. I've learned a bit about our enemy, but not much that leads me to a particular conclusion. Could be cursed to resurrect until they destroy this place, could be some sorcerer bringing them back. But I also learned about their general hierarchy of strength. Weaker ones just look like machines. The stronger they get, the more they look like those ship girls. And the tough ones...well, the one I asked called them 'Demons, Princesses, and Fortresses.' Not exactly confidence inspiring, and add onto that that they've all got cannons, guns, and most of them have some sort of weapon for closing in and tearing apart ships? Well, we've got our work cut out for us."

His melancholy explanation done, Geralt looked at the ship they'd acquired. He certainly wasn't the best judge of airships, coming from a world where they didn't exist in any capacity, but he...wasn't impressed. It looked boxy, slow, and painfully under-armed. He hoped he was missing something.

"I'll be going along as well. As much as I'd love to have a hoard of coin to mess around with, I'd be better served learning as much about these monsters as I can. Always better to see it for yourself than to get a second-hand report." Shaking his head, he climbed into the vehicle. "Just hope the kid's as good as he says..." He mumbled under his breath.

The inside was actually, somehow, less awe-inspiring than the outside. It looked like the previous owners had stripped the thing bare of any personal belongings, leaving only a bed and some built-in passenger chairs for the new owners. "Cheap whoresons..." Geralt complained, shaking his head. "No respect for the elderly." Whether he was referring to himself or Kamek was anybody's guess.

Strapping in per the mage's advice, Geralt found himself very glad for having done so as Junior activated the ship, causing it to rise, and Geralt's stomach to plummet. Had the people of whatever world this abomination found a method of travel worse than portals?

No, Geralt concluded after a moment. Once he was able to settle, his conviction that portals were, in fact, the worst method of travel remained intact. The view as they flew around was actually quite amazing, and though Geralt wouldn't quite admit it, Bowser Jr had taken to the machine's controls extremely well for a first-timer. He could only assume the sheer amount of time he spent in his own little contraption added to that expertise. "Well, I guess it's time to see what we're up against."

Sakura had already brightened up before Princess Peach could even finish her speech. The shoulder clap alone was exactly the kind of communication she was most in tune with. She looked at Peach and her nervous smile became an eager one. She clenched her fists and bent her elbows. Nodding her head eagerly, she beamed. "Okay! Okay, yeah! Let's do it!" Perhaps she was just impressionable, but Princess Peach did an excellent job reinvigorating the youth's spirit. Some if it flew over her head, such as Peach absorbing someone else's spirit, but the gist was there. Princess Peach had confirmed for Sakura that she really was meant to be there. That they were heroes. Adventurers who had fought many battles! And now Sakura was among them.

Once they broke apart, Sakura began jogging in place. Unashamedly enthused. She wanted to stay with Peach and spend some money. But right now, she wanted to go where the fight was even more. Sakura punched the air multiple times. Most of the information said afterard was taken in. Most of it.

"We're just gettin' started!" She announced. Sakura took a firm stance and rocketed her fists forward. Her arms shook with the residual power from the strikes. If someone was standing there, they would have gotten pummeled big time. Sakura imagined it a Galeem'd up version of M. Bison.

"Let's take that big square box for a spin! I helped buy it!" Sakura declared. "Bye Princess! Bye everyone! See you later!" With a cartwheel she sprinted off after Jr and Kamek. She had flown in airplanes a few times. Usually on the way back home on some of her journeys. But never something as crazy as this airship. The girl also believed that Junior could fly it effectively 100%, doubt not even crossing her mind.

Buckled in, Sakura bounced up and down excitedely. When Junior took off, she giggled, excited. Frightened in a good way. Like a really good horror movie. "Woaahohohooo! Sugoi!" She bounced up and down as Junior found his air feet. Once everything was settle, she unbuckled her seat belt and stood, moving up to the cockpit with Junior. She leaned over his shoulder and stared out the window.

"H-" Sakura made a confused noise. She hesitated, as if she had just realised something. "H-hey! Mister Geralt!" She turned around and looked at the Witcher. "Wh-what did you just say? That is a horrible word!" Sakur turned around completely. She was rigid as an arrow.

"That word! That 'w'-word!" Sakura elaborated.

He said it so casually, and it was combined with another word. So it took a moment to register. Still, that word..."whore"! Offensive! Vulgar! She wanted to stick soap in her own mouth after just thinking it.

"A guy called my friend Kei a name like that and...ooogh! I punched his lights out!" She recreated the fearsome uppercut in mime. When she was finished, she glared at him pointedly. "I don't know where you come from, but slurs like that won't fly around me, Mister Geralt!" Sakura literally set her foot down. Whatever matters that might be more pressing had slipped from her mind entirely.

Sectonia was a bit disappointed that her 'gift' couldn't really be used by Tora. However she wasn't a mechanical expert and figured these pieces could be used differently from what was around the giant moving camel, considering they were much smaller. She let out this disappointment with a "hmph" before moving on with the rest of the party.

As they were making their way to the destination that the Queen had suggested, Sectonia caught a few tidbits of Midna and Fox's conversation. She didn't understand some of what they were talking about, but she did pick up on the philisophical crisis this world of light presented with its whole 'spirit system' and mish mash of worlds. However she only listened to their conversation, not interjecting as they made their way to the pyramid and fighting ground below.

Once they arrived, much like Fox, she noticed that the fighting sounds they had heard before were gone, some below celebrating a fight they had won. Considering they weren't hostile at the moment, Sectonia followed Fox and Poppi as he descended upon the battleground, liking his suggestion that Midna stay on the camel for backup. If they needed to make a hasty retreat, she could carry the both of them back, but time would tell if they even needed to do that. Most of those below didn't look all that threatening, and noen looked like they could fly or even handle her magic.

Midna, staying back, waved her hair at the people below, trying to be peaceful with them. Sectonia figured that this was the best course as well, as none of the ones below even had a beautiful spirit for her to take for her own as it were anyway. And she could always use more minions, especially combat hardened ones. Still, she was ready if they attacked her, they were galeem contrlled after all. Getting a closer look below, Sectonia did notice something very, very odd. The battlefield was mostly symmetrical and each side had blue and red paraphinalia much like the people below being either red or blue colored. Although neither had as regal of a royal blue/purple color that the queen herself had.

========================================



This "marie" wasn't the best conversationalist and really didn't do anything to help her case about being an ally to the dead zone party to Blazermate. Her expressions just seemed both defeated and malevolent, which while an odd combination, didn't feel like it'd make for the greatest of team mates. However, these thoughts were put aside when Nero informed everyone that in a couple hours, everything would be annihilated. "Wait, wait, wait... WHAT?" Blazermate said, processing what Nero just said. Apparently according to her, the dead zone would be wiped out in a couple of hours due to some delivery someone in the zone had made. This worried Bowser and Marie as well, the latter deciding that she would just take the power that the heroes had for herself to escape and not be destroyed by this 'annihilation' event.

Marie, going on the offensive, cracked the ground causing Bowser to plummet down a chasm, Blazermate hopping off the koopa king and hovering in place. She then summoned a bunch of strange skeletons, some looking like gun weilding yakuza, some like animals, and others that were just weird. However before Blazermate could attach herself to a new healing target, Bowser grew in size, becoming a giant once more and telling Marie that she wasn't ready for what he could do, more or less. Unleashing his fury, Bowser dove into the melee, destroying skeleton after skeleton, some accidentally, some by using the larger skeletons as weapons.

Since the party didn't have much time, Blazermate would have to use her more offensive options available to her and hope her normal healing would be enough to keep everyone up. She kept her healing beam on the raging koopa king, his natural bulk plus her healing and overheal making him able to withstand quite a bit of punishment. She also set an internal clock for herself that, if it ticked downt o zero, she'd force everyone to teleport away to avoid this 'annihilation' event. She didn't want to chance being inside a nuke zone, although all she had to go on was Nero's word.

Woth all that set, Bowser, turning to the Skull Girl, began to charge up one of his massive fireballs. As Blazermate had been healing the whole way here, her medaforce was fairly well charged and before Bowser unleashed his barrage of attacks, Blazermate used her Kritzkrieg ability on the koopa king. Unlike before with her charges turning the koopa king a metallic sheen while he became invincible, this charge instead made blue electrical energy shoot out of the koopa king, supercharging him with power and making all of his attacks emit a blue particle effect on top of what they did, the attacks looking far more intense and vibrant and, unlike what would normally happen, his attacks showed no signs of decay as they rocketed towards the Skullgirl and her army. Blazermate was also sparking, but as she had no ranged attacks, she stood back with her shield to attack whatever came by with her own kritz.

Despite the fact that they were lugging around really heavy piles of gold, the trip back from World 1-1 to the Edge of the Blue was pretty enjoyable. Sakura was teaching her two companions about the wonders of money in the modern world, but most of it was going right over the Ace Cadet's head.

"Ya lost me at com-puter," he told her. The paper money and cards made sense, at least in his brain he likened the cards to something like vouchers - not real money but trade-able for goods all the same. Further than that he had no clue, but Sakura made it sound much easier than carrying around a bunch of coinage.

Once they'd delivered to the Princess a chunk of her treasury, they quickly made off in the direction of the seller Kamek managed to find. He'd made it sound like a piece of junk, but the two Koopas already had plans to beef it up with new equipment. Frankly, that delighted the Cadet. Going out collecting cooler and more powerful parts appealed to his sense of adventure... and of course, his love of upgrading.

"Now that sounds like a plan!" the Cadet said, his voice enthusiastic as he added onto Sakura's commentary. While the girl trailed off, uncertain, others chimed in to reassure her and the Cadet left them to it, approaching the vehicle they'd just purchased.

"I think it looks pretty groovios," he said, circling around the craft. It was really a traditional looking ship, but it could have been worse. Cadet reached up to run his hand over the wyvern-looking decal, finding it charming. It was around that time that Geralt returned, and the Cadet kept an ear out for the explanation of his findings, but it was another comment that got his attention. He looked down at the blades of the ship beside him before he looked over at Junior.

"If you take the blades off make sure you keep them, they look like they might make decent great swords!" Simple in design, but useful all the same. He stepped around the blades and made to board, but Peach's words stopped him. Oh yeah, I guess we don't all have to go. He looked between the Princess and the Atomos, crossing his arms as he considered.

It was Kamek’s advisement that the group consider their strengths that pushed the Cadet into making his decision. A battle in the air or in the water was probably one he wouldn’t fare very well in. Comparatively! he reassured himself. And while the Cadet was eager to get a look at their next obstacle, he wouldn’t be able to offer much insight given what they already knew about the fleet, and the further insight Geralt brought them. While the hunter begrudgingly willed himself to stay behind and out of the action for once, he still moved towards the Atomos once more, calling out to Kamek before the elder koopa flew into the ship.

"Oh, wait, Kamek!" he said, waving the magician over. "Here, I got some gear from the smithy sisters back in Lumbridge, but I’m not sure I can get the best use out of all of it. Besides, you said you might want a wardrobe change, right?"

Cadet pulled the dark cloth and horn headpiece off, offering it to Kamek. In general he’d like to keep as many pieces of equipment as possible, but he felt content with just his new masterfully crafted longsword, let alone the hammer and headpiece. For what it was worth, BB didn’t look too concerned that master and minion didn’t match anymore.

”Oh?” The mage replied, sounding surprised by the offer ”I suppose I did. Let me take a look” The mage took the offered set of horns and gave them a brief examination before agreeing ”There is certainly some kind of sorecerouse empowerment held within these, so I do believe I can make use of them better than your magicless self.”

The mage donned his new headpiece, which resulted in only really the horns being visible as they poked out the front of his hood. He looked rather pleased with himself, then thoughtful, before reaching into his robes and retrieving the Siphon Grenade he had acquired back in the Deadzone ”Here take this in exchange. It might come in handy if you run into trouble and get hurt while we are away.”


"I'm sure I'll be fine!" Cadet chuckled, but he accepted the trade all the same. "Thanks! Good luck out there!"

The hunter turned the strange looking object over in his hands a few times before he shoved it into his pouch. With a quick whistle to let BB know they weren't actually boarding, Cadet and his minion went to join Peach while the others all took off in their new airship.

"Don't forget our contest when you get back!" Cadet called, watching the ship get further away for a moment longer before he regarded the princess. "Me and you Ms. Peach! I guess we should meet up with Link and the Hat Kid, get everybody on the same page?"

---

As Naboris came to another stop, Primrose once more came to the front of the beast, trying to get a better look at the situation. She squinted in the desert sun, finding that what Poppi said seemed to be true. If the battle was coming to a close, then there wouldn't be a need to crash through the battlefield anyway - and that sentiment was mirrored in the others one way or another. Primrose felt some sense of relief at that, despite voicing her thought that pushing through the Naboris while the battle was at it's height was a good idea.

I wonder why those people were fighting in the first place, Primrose thought, slouching against the interior of the construct. She looked back to her teammates when discussion of disembarking and investigating began. She raised a brow at all of them eager to go down towards the scene of battle. I find myself surprised all over again at how brazen this group is. The dancer turned her head away slightly, bringing a hand up to conceal the little smile that threatened to bloom on her face. Although I'm a bit worried. What those strangers were fighting over... maybe it was a territory dispute, and any outsiders would be as enemies to them.

While she worried that their peaceful approach wouldn't be well received, Primrose wasn't about to try and convince them otherwise. She stood up straight as Fox began to talk, giving the man a loose salute.

"Yes sir, ready to back you up," she said, teasing, and waved him, Poppi, and Sectonia off as they made toward the lakeside town. "Be careful everyone."

Once they trio were getting close to out of eye sight, Primrose sighed, idly placing her hands on her hips. She was left with Midna and Tora on Naboris, though she didn't plan to stay for too long. She was still interested in going after the thieves and making sure they were alright.

"Midna's right," Primrose said, glancing down at Tora as the imp in question formed her hair into a giant hand to wave. "If we can catch up to those kids..." she trailed off, turning her eyes to the desert once more. After a moment she changed the subject. "I heard you mention you created Poppi. Do you think she'll be alright down there? Don't you want to go with her?"

Primrose had yet to see Poppi's abilities up close, so she could only guess. Then again, Fox and Sectonia seemed capable enough on their own, so with the three of them there shouldn't be many problems... she hoped at least. If the three didn't end up having any problems, it would be that much easier to get through into the pyramid.

After successfully making an otherwise troublesome advance through the library, thanks in large part to those sporting incendiary means, Red Team and company proceeded downward into and through the underground to arrive at the crypt hidden beneath it. The way was lit with veins of glowing necrotic energy intermingling with underworldly overgrowth from the Qliphoth, the traces leading them to the source where they found a thousandfold of the same... right where they needed to be. Before them, at the center of this lower sanctum, stretch the third and final root, and between them and it, the ‘Skullgirl’.

The revenant maid, as if waiting for them, greeted them coldly in her opening address. Banjo and Kazooie could see Nadia’s hesitation, and putting together that this was somehow related to her business with the ‘Skull Heart’, they kept to themselves long enough to allow her a moment to tend to it herself. After a second of silence, its bearer confirmed as much aloud with a direct, perhaps rhetorical inquiry. As convenient as it was to have both of their objectives one place, everyone could sense already that it wouldn’t be that easy, or simple. To begin, Bowser’s atypically desperate plea for an alternative fell on deaf ears as Marie made clear her refusal to part with the Skull Heart, wishing to see her vengeful ambition through to the last days of her undeath.

“You know… we kinda just… walked in here. Maybe you could just leave out the way we came in?” Banjo awkwardly suggested at the girl’s mention of being “trapped” there by the root, pointing back with a thumb over his shoulder. He might have known better than to expect that simply having a door left open would be enough. No doubt there was something more to it than that, but the good news was that they had in common that goal of destroying the Qliphoth root. “We’re actually here to get rid of that thing too,” he clarified, pointing to the very root the Skullgirl’s reanimated soldiers were going to work on, “so we could probably help with that if you’d like.”

Had she been willing to accept either of Banjo’s suggestions, it would take her no time at all, and everyone might have come away with what they wanted (except Nadia, maybe). The bad news was that which Nero had to share: that they were on a deadline. He gave his shortest version of the story that amounted to, of all things, a delivery boy personally carrying an IWMD to the region’s center, and that they had less than a day left to complete their mission before the Dead Zone was obliterated.

“And you just… let him take it?” Kazooie interjected with a subdued tone of irritation (possibly in unintended sync with Daxter). “I’m guessing he also somehow beat us there while we weren’t looking?” she added, assuming the porter in question shared their intended destination, questioning how he could make it there so soon in light of the trouble they’d gone through thus far to accomplish the same, and resisting the urge to say “off-screen” instead.

This obviously only served to complicate matters further, as it prompted the Skullgirl to act more dramatically to the revelation. Suddenly believing her own power to be inadequate, she decided to invoke the law of the new world by challenging the party for their own, broadcasting her new intent to take it from them and amass it within herself. Thus, any hope there was of a peaceful resolution was irrevocably lost.

The earth began to rumble and rupture underfoot and all around them, threatening to crush or claim any who failed to escape it. The duo swiftly made sure that wouldn’t include them as Kazooie brought them skyward with an assisting jump from Banjo, burning as many feathers as it took to reach the next closest tier of solid ground (or whatever passed for it). “All this, but she can’t cut through a bloody stump?” Kazooie remarked, regarding the root (and meaning ‘bloody’ in both senses), as they carefully made their ascent through the catacombs coming down around them. After they touched down onto the high-risen battleground, and following one more round of preceding banter between Nadia and Marie, the battle proper was underway.

“Are we still leaving this one for her?” Kazooie asked Banjo, unsure at this point which convention or courtesy they were honoring in the first place (that of fighting games or respect for personal affairs), but knowing it now involved all of them regardless.

“Looks like we’ll have to,” he replied upon seeing the myriad skeletal horde emerge at the command of their revenant master.

“Let’s make it a fair fight then.” To that, Banjo answered with a crack of his neck and a concurring nod, pounding knuckle to palm in a show of eager enthusiasm. It wasn’t so much that he was excited about it (as he typically wasn’t) so much that he was ready to do what he had to, scant as their options were now. Plus, they were due to be officially recognized fighters themselves now (which made for the exception), so it was best that he learned to make the most of it.

The duo Trotted Bowser’s shell and lept overhead, with Banjo entering a spin, slinging his backpack by the straps while Kazooie spun her wings rapidly. At the height of his momentous buildup, and nearing the end of his fall, he slung Kazooie free to circle them like a top, wing cutting down any of the smaller skeletons she caught up in her attack. Then Banjo, with his pack now empty, landed atop a stalhorse, bodying its rider off in doing so, and pulled the sack down over its head, holding onto the straps to use as reigns as it entered a panicked frenzy. He attempted to run it forward and through the mass of undead before them while Kazooie continued concurrently sawing away others in serpentine. As her momentum died down, Banjo dismounted the horse to let it continue bowling over the lesser skeletons as he made to catch his partner, regrouping for the next round.

The three most agile members of Yellow Team made short work of the short trip between the descended Vah Naboris and the lakeside battlezone. As the volunteer point member of the makeshift expedition Poppi led the way down, with Sectonia following behind, and she made sure not to allow herself to outpace the flightless Fox. The space animal kept up with the others quite well however, so the trio reached the area in only moments. Poppi considered unceremoniously slicing through the chainlink fence barring the way to the glowing circle the strangers had been fighting over, but thought better of it. Fox could just jump over, after all. Thanks to her eyes' zoom function she already knew where she could find the most people—the shady section in the oddly symmetrical arena's back. Until now she'd followed Fox's example of a stealthy approach, but that could exactly last if they planned to make contact. Poppi raised her alertness level and proceeded. As she emerged from behind cover she could see a number of faces turn her way, and while many hands lay on or near many weapons, no overt signs of hostility appeared. As she suspected from what seemed to be the fraternization of opposing sides, this was no ordinary scenario.

She waved as she boosted in, landing on the weathered stones in front of the rec center's door. An old man in a mask got to his feet, a rifle in one hand, but before he could say anything the artificial blade took the initiative. “Salutations!” she declared, giving a playful wave of her fingers. Unlike that of the giant insect in tow, her appearance didn't scream threatening, so any amount of endearment to these folk she could accrue would probably be helpful. Maybe even the adorably improper Nopon dialect would help. That said, even with his face hidden this man seemed unimpressed. She put her hands on her hips and put on a winning smile. “My name Poppi. This Queen Sectonia and Fox. We explorers from beyond desert, wanted to say hi and meet locals.”

Poppi looked over the array of people present. As one might expect from a place that apparently staged its own team-based conflicts, everyone here seemed fighting-fit, from the dwarf to the giant brutes to the women. Even the doctor looked right at home, since Poppi doubted that saw dangling from his pack would find an operating table out on the battlefield. The man who'd approached spoke up, his voice gruff. “Let me get this straight. You three saw an active warzone and thought you'd trot on over and say hello?”

Nodding, Poppi smiled again. “Exactly! Mr. soldier exhibit excellent comprehension. Also, not just us three. Friends in little titan, as well.” She extended a finger toward Vah Naboris, as if anyone present needed the mammoth camel pointed out to them. Everyone got a good look at Midna waving her giant hand from atop it, and Poppi nodded in appreciation. That good touch!

A slamming noise rang out as the Dwarf smacked his mug down on a table. “Well, ya said yer hellos! Now are ya gonna turn 'round, or ya want somethin' else?”

Poppi stopped to consider that. Her purpose had been to scout. Did that just mean report back with what she saw? Was she supposed to interview these people, ask them for help, or what? “Er...” Suddenly the eyes of everyone on her felt crushing. “Well, Poppi and friends on very important quest to save world. So we were wondering what you all doing here fighting each other when world needs saving.”

The Infiltrator snorted. “Hmph! Not obvious enough for you? We've got our own fight here. So you mind your business, and we'll mind ours, huh?”

His response rendered Poppi speechless. A dozen thought processes ran through her mind. “H..how long have you guys been fighting here?”

There came a chorus of murmurs. “Forever,” someone threw out.

Poppi found herself struck by confusion. What were they doing fighting so long if nobody died? Or did they die and come back? What were they fighting for? How could any of them think this struggle more important than saving the world? So many questions assailed her that she ended up asking none of them, leaving the questioning to her allies—or the REDs and BLUs.

---

After seeing Poppi and company off, Tora couldn't see much more given his lack of zoom eyes, so he opted to hope for the best and sit tight. Midna drifted off elsewhere, so taking her up on a chat would have to wait. Although his hands wanted to tinker, his mind didn't happen to drum up anything that didn't involve Poppi herself, so being useful in that regard was a bust, too. In the end, however, he found himself faced by Primrose and prompted with a fair question. “Hmm, Tora think so. Poppi very strong now, meh. Blades all capable of fighting on own, so it only problem if Tora needed fight without Poppi, meh. Weapons just metal and wood without Poppi to channel ether.” He held little back in his explanation, always happy to talk tech no matter the audience. “Meh, meh meh. Mind you, Poppi not like other blades, since Tora invented her. Normal blades awaken from core crystal, life tied to driver. Tora could not become driver, so instead made Poppi. Poppi ether furnace mimic natural function of blades to gather and distribute ether. Uh, like magic energy?” Although not at all familiar with the magic that other worlds apparently had, they looked similar on the surface. “Anyway, that meaning of 'artificial blade'.”

If Tora's chatter contained anything helpful to Primrose it all, it was that he wouldn't be much good in a fight on his own. With Midna in charge of Vah Naboris, that left a prospective thief-pursuing group exactly one member strong, unless the dancer thought to find wherever the Courier ended up and convince him.

---

The halls of the pyramid resounded with a scream. Skull struggled frantically, unable to escape the grip of the bizarre creature that held him. “AAAAAAAH! Get this freaking thing offa me!”

“Hold still!” Panther lashed out with her whip, wrapping around the monster's neck. “You could just -hng- call Kidd, you know!” With a mighty tug she yanked the horrifically shrieking thing off her teammate and onto the floor. Joker pulled up on her right side and Mona on the left, each brandishing their firearms. Wordlessly the Phantom Thieves obliterated the redead with a barrage of gunfire, with Skull giving the disintegrating wretch a kick for good measure.

“Hah! Serves you right.” Taking a deep breath, Skull stretched out his shoulder. “Anyway, as I was sayin', door right there across the sandpit.” He pointed to make sure his friends saw. “All we gotta do is get across.”

Mona tugged on his pants. “Hey, not without me patching you up first, meathead!” At his bidding Zorro appeared, and one Diarama later Skull was back in peak condition.

“Aw yeah!” He patted his feline companion on the head, which Mona did not display an appreciation for, before wondering aloud, “Hey, come to think if it, why didn'tcha offer to heal those other guys after the fight with that buff lady?”

For a moment Mona said nothing, a perplexed half-scowl on his giant round face. “Er...well, they were going to search the camel now, weren't they? A-and I need to conserve my energy, this mission's only just starting. Who knows when we'll get a chance to rest?”

Meanwhile, Joker had already gotten halfway across the sandpit. However, his progress suddenly began to slow. Whereas a moment ago he stood to reach the other side way before the slow but steady sink of the sand claimed him, he now stood in danger of succumbing. “Uh, Joker? You alright?” Panther asked, taking note. “If you're stuck, zip out of there!”

“R-right!” The thief's hand rose from the sand, and from the device mounted on his wrist Joker released his grapple. It snagged on the doorway, and with a grunt he started dragging himself out. The easy task came hard, however, thanks to the invisible weight pressing down on him. At some point something he couldn't see had started attaching to him, more and more, until he couldn't move forward. With a herculean effort he pulled himself out of the pit, covered in sand, and with what little breath he had left gasped, “Arsene!”

The Persona manifested in a gout of azure flame and without further ado kicked Joker square in the back. Something released a shrill cry as it crumpled to the ground, and Joker's burden eased slightly. Mona's keen senses put two and two together quickly. “No way! Invisible pests!? I thought I smelled something funny.” He called forth Zorro. “You guys go ahead. If I smell any of 'em on you, I'll have my buddy stab 'em.” Skull and Panther gazed through the murky half-light at the treacherous sands, thinking about invisible rats biting them, and exchanged a glance.

A few minutes and several bite wounds later the Thieves made it through the doorway. Before them stretched a familiar scene: an enormous hallway paved with stairs leading steadily upward. Green lines and fragments of code danced across the walls and even the air itself. Joker experimentally bade Arsene put his foot through an urn and watched as green pixels scattered. “We're in the right place, alright.” He joined his teammates looking up the stairs. “She must be here. Let's go.”



With a stroke of luck Junior's brief time spent familiarizing himself with the Atomos culminated in an arcane-fueled rumble as the magitech in the belly of the beast awoke from its slumber. Its sudden and noisy activation broke the silence of the swear-word situation involving Sakura and Geralt, giving both an unspoken ultimatum: all board! Further banter could be had en route. The tyke wasted no time putting the machine through its paces in a worryingly high-risk process of trial and error, but whether by providence or sheer dumb luck the little Bowser managed to get the craft under control before a collision with the city itself came about. Still, resident air marshal seemed less than happy, shouting at the Atomos and gesturing wildly. His vehemence suggested, perhaps, to some Blue Team members that the young'uns not being able to hear him might be for the best. Junior maneuvered the Atomos into open air, where it began to pick up speed, its systems humming ferociously as magic flowed throughout. He lofted over the seastacks of Limsa Lominscuttle Town and aimed the craft toward the waves, where faint traces of white foam outlined the path taken by the navy as they sailed -or scooted- to war.

Long before the dumpy but vigorous Atomos drew near the ominous stormclouds to the north, the team found its destination. A vast section of the open sea had become utter chaos, the fleet of shipgirls engaged in a dance of death across the ocean's roiling surface. While the Atomos couldn't hover, it could slow down to such a degree as to afford its occupants a good view of the battle from its deck at whatever Junior judged to be a safe distance, if he did as such. Although perhaps not surprising given the constitution of Limsa's navy, the Abyssal Fleet it engaged also eschewed the usage of traditional boats, making its own units difficult to spot for a short time. But spot them the heroes did.

At first the enemies appeared indistinct, maybe fish or stones or hunks of metal. When they crested the waves, however, the onlookers could see their baleful, dead eyes and hideous teeth. Even the lowliest attacked viciously, cutting through the water and leaping at the shipgirls to snap and tear. Some rose above the waves to take leering potshots from their eyes, blasting any unwary seafarers with dark bolts, while others featured tougher armor and miniature cannons for bombardment. Fairly close to the Atomos, a girl contended with a pack of disturbingly child-like imps that zipped through the water like dolphins. Rotating quickly, the shipgirl aimed what looked like a landing strip at the imps, firing out tiny fighter planes that zoomed after their targets in a salvo of tiny machinegun fire before exploding. As the heroes watched she destroyed one after another, and when the last fell the trio dissolved into ashes. A singular spirit sank beneath the water, no deeper than a foot or so below the surface. The girl paid it no mind at all, instead pivoting to face a new threat as it emerged from the water and opened fire. With a yelp the girl narrowly avoided a twin blast, then aimed her own weapon at the thing as it barreled toward her. Its three heads howling, it plowed through two planes in quick succession before leaping from the water, revealing burly arms. It grabbed hold of the girl and jammed its cannons into her body before letting loose. Another tooth-rattling explosion joined the chorus as the girl flew backward, bouncing off the surface before coming to a stop, alive but helpless.

At about that time, another horror rose from the waves, bristling with long-distance artillery. After an excruciating moment of calculation it turned its weapons on the Atomos, and opened fire. The shells exploded against the side of the flying machine, jolting it sharply.

---

Accompanied by just the Cadet, Peach led the way back to the lift. Everyone involved in the purchase of the Atomos had been saved some trouble by not making the exchange at airship dock altitude, with Cuphead standing guard over the hoard until the others returned. “Well heya! Looks like everyone's gone. Off to see the navy in action, huh?”

Peach nodded. “All except us. And the kid. Don't know where she is, but I imagine she'll turn up soon.” Until then, that left just three to carry around all this gold. Even when greatly diminished by the purchase, enough remained to make its transport something of a chore if not for the wagon. With the Ace Cadet's willing strength plus her own and Cuphead's vigor, they could get it where it needed to go, which right now was back where they came from. “We're gonna see if we can buy Shippy from that Brineybeard,” she explained for the boy. “If we can, we've got another vessel that can take a hit or two and be upgraded by spirits. He looked like he was on hard times, but that might be exactly why he won't part with it. We'll see.”

As the group passed through the aetheryte plaza, they spotted the dancer from before. Her dance had changed along with the music from last time, becoming a lively fandango that sent her whirling through the crowd, pairing up with a dance partner for a few seconds before switching to the next. The energy was practically infectious, and Peach stopped the cart to give her team a chance to both rest and watch. After a few moments the lithe dancer span their way, catching up the Cadet in her rhythm. “Hey there~!” she greeted him, winking, her touch encouraging him to let her sweep him up in the dance. “You guys have quite the haul. Any of that for me~?”



No sooner did the legions of skeletons appear than the heroes began trashing them in earnest. True, their bones broke under the strength of their fists, bolts, blades, and bullets, but no matter how hard the heroes fought they couldn't cover all angles at once. Whether through charging melee skeletons, free-firing ranged ones, or skulls falling like rain, Marie sought to overwhelm her foes with sheer numbers. She did not expect one of them, the scaled and ugly one, to suddenly grow in size and plow forward. For a moment the Skullgirl considered pulling a similar trick from her own hat, but thought better of it. This size hardly qualified. Still, the Koopa King advanced nonetheless, tearing through her skeletal servants and even taking down a bone giant, all the while flanked by that flying hunk of metal.

One hero, however, made a beeline straight for her, vaulting over and rolling past all enemies in the way, try as they might to tag her. The rabbit-eared archer unleashed a stream of bolts at Marie only to lodge in summoned skulls. As soon as they obscured the Skullgirl's vision, Linkle twirled in place and unleashed a wave of ice across the floor of veins. It raced beneath Marie before cropping upward, trapping her and her skulls in a huge crystal of ice, only for Linkle to let loose twin bomb arrows a moment later and blow the whole sculpture to kingdom come.

Or so it seemed. In the haze Linkle couldn't see the gesture Marie performed to summon skeletons from the ground directly beneath her. They grabbed onto her legs before freezing there, holding tight. “You should have stayed with your team,” Marie warned, emerging from the smoke. “Die.” Four bone gangsters rose up around her and without hesitation bumped Linkle with lead, bringing her down in a spray of blood to fight for breath on her back.

Marie turned her attention to Bowser, finished with the giant and incoming. With nothing but a thought she sent a flurry of bones hurtling his way, but what wounds he suffered started repairing before her eyes. Marie exhaled in annoyance, then staring without flinching as Bowser released a huge fireball that pulsed with power. She flicked her finger, and a massive wall of skeletons packed together like canned sardines rose in the pyroclast's way, blocking its light.

Then the wall erupted.

Marie's eyes widened as flame consumed her. For a few moments she roasted in the center of the inferno, until with a grunt she blew apart its diminishing fury. Burned but far from destroyed, she pulled another Bone Giant from the ground beneath Blazermate to try to grab and crush her in its rock-hard mitts. As Bowser approached, a shadow flickered behind her, phantom veins in a phantom darkness with a vaguely female shape. Marie held out her hand. “Die.” The shade disappeared from behind her and flashed in front of Bowser, It lashed out with a superhero punch at his face.

“Hey, chew toy!” Marie looked down to see Nadia slide in. “Oh, don't mind me. No claws for alarm!” With a grin the feral leaped upward, claws extended. She dealt the Skullgirl a slash-slash-cross-slash, then extended her legs using her muscle fibers for a biting double-kick. For the finale she detached her head and thrust her rigid hears forward to stab Marie in the chest. A skull smacked Nadia the next second and sent her flying, but how she felt about the combo was still written on her face by the time she landed. “Y'know despite all that fire, things aren't goin' so hot for ya right now, eh?” she taunted, smirking.

Marie's face betrayed no emotion. “I have yet to truly fight,” she warned, looking out over the others. Dante dispatched a skeletal knight before releasing a charged shot that sailed Marie's way. She intercepted it with a skull, which took the demonic bullet and shattered. “The power of the Skullgirl is supremacy over the dead. Soon you will understand.”

From around Nadia sprang a fresh crop of corpses. She stood at the ready, head in one hand and tail in the other, until a look of horror spread across her face. “No...”

“Yes,” Marie told her. “Your beloved Fishbone gang, in the flesh, as it were. And that is just the beginning.”

She waved her hand, and from below rose five more undead before her. One was a skeleton with a guitar, the second a skeletal knight, and the last three were skeleton lords. No command was needed to spur them forward.

Meanwhile, the others would have engaged the Skullgirl herself if not for the glut of minions. No matter how many the devil hunters cut down or styled on, more appeared. Yet they worked through the skeletons steadily, reducing them to bone dust a few at a time. For the most part these ones dropped no spirits, either. Still, Dante kept a steady eye on the Skullgirl, firing when she could. With Nero gone to get Linkle to safety, she meant to bid her time to make the right move.

“What’s a whoreson anyway?” Jr muttered to Kamek as Sakura took issue with Geralt’s favorite insult/curse.

”I don’t know. Someone who’s the son of a ‘whore’ I suppose, but I’m not sure what that is,” Kamek replied with quiet honestly ”Seems to be a rather rude thing to call someone however, so it perhaps best if-”

“Hey. So. What’s a whore?” Jr asked, cutting off and ignoring his elder’s advice and butting into the human’s dispute with the curious arrogance only a child could have.

---

The Atomos held up to its merger sales pitch. It was as maneuverable as a flying brick, but it was a fast flying brick. The stiff controlling ship had an impressive top speed despite having the aerodynamic properties of a lorry and, while Jr dreaded to think what it would be like handling wise if the holds weren't completely empty like they were now, it got them where they needed to be quick as can be.

The party arrived at the site of the naval engagement not long after it had begun, and found it to be just as strange as the ship-girls who were currently engaging the abyssal fleet had given the impression it would be. The enemy fleet turned out to consist not of rival ship girls, as the Koopas had assumed, but instead of horrid metal shark fish head things and other monstrosities that looked like they had maybe been intended to be ship girls, but had come out of the oven half baked or had been barely baked at all.

”Wow. Nasty looking aren't they” Jr commented, as he ship slowed down to get them a better view of the action. Closest to them one of the ships was engaging with a pack of cybernetic children, her plan firing weapon getting the better of them.

”Odd. Those, ah, infantile ones looked like they turned to dust like most things in this world do? I don’t suppose any of you have better eyesight than me and noticed if they dropped a spirit or not?” Kamek asked as the ship girl achieved victory, summoning his toadies and mentioning that ”If so, these might be able to collect it, or something else, to help us”

”What? No sorry missed it” Jr said, having turned his gaze elsewhere after deciding he did not enjoy looking at the weird robot shark baby monsters.

A little while ago while they’d been approaching the fight Kamek had unbuckled himself from his chair and had summoned 4 illusionary clones of himself. To each he’d proceeded to toss a colored orb, each one imbuing the mimics with additional powers and limited independence before shooing them into the back room so they wouldn't crowd the bridge. This preparation now turned out to have been time well spent when the ship girl, who had light red hair and was wielding a miniature aircraft carrier like an arbalest (not that the koopas knew what either of those were) got in a spot of trouble. A triple headed, burly armed abyssal ship rose up from the waves and, after trading fire with the girl, charged her. Kamek could already see where this was going before the two collided, both for the girl and potentially for them if she went down, and so quickly shuffled through the back of the bridge and flung open the door to the outside.

”Go go go!” he yelled over the wind rushing in through the door as he waved his doppelgangers (two red, one green and one white) through the door. Each in turn stepped outside, mounted their broom and took off before Kamek followed suit, the quintet of magikoopas clearing the vessel just as it attracted attention and took fire.

Kamek glanced back worriedly, but the ship seemed to have survived the shots and so he left it in the capable hands of those onboard. He had a damsel to rescue. An odd situation to be in, the old mage mused to himself, but she was a better distraction alive than dead and if she did bite it, well, then he’d be in the perfect position to get one of the spirits they needed, free of ethical concerns. The flock of mages swooped down towards the ship girl who Kamek saw had, as he’d predicted, gotten the worst of the close combat encounter and was now at the mercy of her foe. White and green clones flew low in, diving down and raising their wands, glows of magic matching their own hues flaring up around their wands and then, sympathetically, around first their new horns, which empowered their magic skills, and then the ship girl herself. Several of her worst wounds closed in a flash as a green shielding aura surrounded her that would help her resist further injury. The two clones slowed down and hovered by either side of her, ready to act as assists and to cast their supportive magic again once their magic reserves built back enough.

Kamek himself, flanked by his two red clones, stayed flying high and fast and attacked the offending triple ship monster. All three wielded brandished their wands, now tipped with fire materia, and unleashed a triple shot of fire magic, all three shots draining the mage’s personal mana reserves. The three quick shots, far faster than the bouncing fireballs or slow triple shape spells the mage generally used, lashed out and detonated against the monster in a trio of fiery explosions.

”Are you alright miss?” Kamek called down as he swooped overhead, his team keeping their speed as they banked around for another attack run.

Behind him Jr was busy dealing with the aftermath of being shot at, or rather, of the ship being pummeled by gunfire. The Atomos had managed to tank the shot, likely only because the ship attacking them was built for hitting small fast moving ship girls and not the comparatively massive floating hunks of metal that was their airship, and the boy had managed to prevent the jolt from capsizing them, but their foe wasn’t going to leave them with just that one greeting. Said attacker was also horrendous; a person sized pillar of guns with a bedraggled looking metal headed woman half emerging from the lower half of a titanic jaw that made up its base. Her guns were almost certainly not finished firing and Jr wasn’t in any mind to just sit around getting shot at till it hit something important, like him or the engins, or simply filled the ship with enough holes and shrapnel to cause it to crash.

Jr slammed the controls of the ship to the side, causing the Atomos to demonstrate one of its many failings, in this case it’s inability ability to turn in place at speed. With the lethargic grace of an overweight hippo the ship began to turn on the spot as jr tried to make it so that when he gunned its powerful engines they wouldn’t just be ramming straight into the heart of the battle or the storm crackling to the north of them.

”Turn you hunk of junk!” Jr yelled at its agonizingly slow turn, smacking the control board with a mix of frustration and restlessness before turning and, still holding the controls in one claw, pointed the other out the unclosed door

”Primid patrol, get your shooters and fire back!” he ordered, summoning a gaggle of subspace striker minions in the backroom, who proceeded to pile out the back door and out onto the banistered airstrip like section found out on the back of the ship. Jr tilted the top of the ship towards the foe as he turned, allowing the minions to line up next to the railing and begin returning fire with their retro super scopes, their clunky oversized rifles charging up and then unleashing a volley of energy shots on the tower like ship.

”Mimi, go out there too and use electro ball on that thing! Tyrant, stop running around and panicking!” Jr yelled at his minions. The freaking out Behemoth ran to hid under his trianier’s chair, while Mimi hopped off the dashboard and scooted outside after the last of the Primids, before grappling up onto the top of one of banister with one long arm, wrapping that arm around it to keep herself steady and then reeling the other arm out directly behind her. Summoning electricity from her back mounted battery she sent it racing up her arm to form into a beach ball sized ball of lightning which she held in her shadowy claw for a moment, before lashing forwards, slingshotting it past herself and letting the fastball fly towards the slow looking pillar ship.

”Hold on!” Jr called out in warning when, after what felt like an eternity but which had only actually been a few seconds, he’d gotten the ship pointing the way he wanted too and gunned the accelerator. The ship lurched forwards and took off at speed, racing off behind where Kamek and the ship girl he was assisting were, aiming to put both them and some distance in between the poorly armored airship and the battle. Primid’s cascaded off of the back of the ship and then poofed as they either timed out or hit the water, while Mimi clung on to her banister with all her might, the bridge somewhat shielding anyone on the back from the wind, but still demanding whoever was back there cling on to something lest they end up like the Primids.

Sectonia followed Poppi down to the desert floor, towards the crowd of RED colored people. While Sectonia and Poppi could fly, Fox still kept up with them with his agility which Sectonia was fairly impressed with. The three soon made it to the spawn area of the RED team, the team still waiting for their next round of combat. Poppi was the first to introduce herself, waving herself in and making introductions for herself, Sectonia, and Fox. It was probably for the best, as while Sectonia thought herself as one of the most beautiful things in this world, she wasn't the most qualified to make introductions. Plus having someone else introduce her was proper for royalty.

Poppi talked a bit with the gruff warriors, their gruffness most certainly showing as they seemed to shoot down or question everything Poppi said or asked, not giving her much acknowledgement for her attempted joyful kindness. Even Sectonia noticed this and felt a little sorry for the mechanical lady. But even with all eyes on her, she didn't fluster too badly and was able to get a few important tidbits of information out of this group. Especially during the muttering phase where they seemed to chours the 'forever' thing, one of which even muttered how they had been in this desert for as long as they could remember. This gave Sectonia a few ideas on how to win these warriors over, and she was going to act upon them getting ahead of this 'Fox'. She was the Queen, so she was going to make sure these mercenaries knew it.

"Ahem" Sectonia coughed, to get the attention of the mercenaries in the room. "As said, I am Queen Sectonia, ruler of Floralia. From the looks of you all, you seem quite strong and fond of combat." Sectonia said, thinking this little 'speech' through. This area felt very familiar, but she couldn't put her tongue on it. "Are you all content here, fighting the same endless fight over and over, with no new opponents, no new scenery, no... purpose?" Sectonia said. And saying that, she figured out what made this area feel familiar, it was like that "Lumbridge" town they had been in. But instead of resetting every week, this reset every few minutes. But from the sound of things these mercenaries could remember past battles. While she recognized this, she looked over the various people here and gauging their reactions. Some were in armor, some weren't, one was holding a gun almost as big as he was, and he came up to Sectonia's chest! It was a very varied group, one that would do them well in the fights ahead if they could be convinced to come with them.

"Now, much like what Poppi said. We are a group adventuring through this land to bring purpose and beauty to it. Purpose that seems to have been stripped from you all. After all, what purpose is there to fight over the same thing over and over?" Sectonia said, looking over the group again. "Much like some of us here." Sectonia said, pointing at Fox "some of you have other allies that came from your world you'd like to meet. You can't do that staying here fighting an endless fight." While this message might've reached a few of them, it wasn't really her biggest selling point. She did need fighters after all, and continued. "And if you just want to fight, we could give you some purpose to fight for, more varied fights, and even strong powerful items that allow you to do all sorts of things." pointing at Poppi's fancy looking shield she got from Thunderblight ganon, and the crown she had fashioned herself from a spirit she had crushed earlier. While Sectonia had no idea what Poppi's new shield could do exactly, she did know that these spirits were quite strong from the others that she had seen, even as items.

"So, which of you would like the opportunity to discover what lies beyond this 'desert'. I can assure you, this world is vast and needs agents to make it beautiful." Sectonia concluded. She would like to see Fox top that! Although thinking that, Sectonia did figure that Fox would be able to address angles she missed. But what was a better motivator than purpose and loot? Especially for those who fought endless warfare? She was hoping that she wouldn't need to 'fight' any of these people to gain their loyalty though. She knew about the whole 'galeem controlled red eyes' issue that could lead a simple loyalty fight into an all out brawl and she wasn't going to get herself involved with that if she could help it.

Heavy as in awe of the very sight of the massive, camel robot-thingy that had simply strided up to their little battle in the middle of the desert, his eyes fixated on it in a mix of said awe and confusion. His mind raced back to conjured up images of robots descending from the sky to hunt down and murder his fleshy tiny baby comrades of RED, though Medic was the only one in present company that he recognized in his vision. Again his conflicting thoughts bothered him and angered him even more. Why did this battlefield feel so empty…

The mighty mountain of a minigun-wielding mercenary had little time to contemplate that, however, as more figures appeared in their fenced-off battlefield. They were…strange to say the least, stranger than anything and anyone previously killed by Heavy's own two hands so far. A lady, or someone lady-looking with robotic additions as the first one to approach the group of fraternizing enemies, speaking to them in a friendly tone…what? This was not normal, not normal at all.

Heavy slowly and surely leaned over to his German comrade of a Medic, whispering quietly into his ear - or as quietly as Heavy could be, which was not very good at all. "Who are these ne people…They are strange, and they have no blue or red colour on them…AND if that camel is 'little' titan….then how big is normal titan, or BIG titan?" Heavy asked in curious amazement, scratching his bald head as Medic tried to answer to the best of his abilities. "Heavy, my dear, dear Heavy. I hate to say this, but Ich have nein idea! This zertainly was not in ze job-description…"

The lady-robot, calling herself Poppi had greated the fighters of the team, asking who they themselves were and what they were doing there. Several mercenary comrades had answered so far, leaving Heavy and Medic discussing amongst themselves until Poppi asked some very good questions which Heavy couldn't answer to himself. Well, not without a script or piece of paper.

Heavy strode forwards, his back straight and chest puffed out, pushing the Soldier to the side as he proudly decided that Heavy Weapons Guy needed to answer. "Miss Poppi, I am Heavy Weapons Guy. It is honour to meet new face here, not often we kill new members. I can not answer how long we have been fighting here, BUT I can tell you why…" Heavy answered in his thick, bass Russian voice, reaching into his vest and pulling out a folded piece of paper, when Knight shouted from the back.

"Well that is certainly an easy answer, my dear lady: for HONOUR!" The Knight boldy and boistrously shouted out, raising his mace up into the air for dramatic effect as several members of RED turned to look at him, most facepalming. The Spartan looked up and answered "For Humanity.", while the Raider calmly answered with "Loot, plunder and thralls." Heavy shook his head at these answers, clearly all wrong as he unfolded said piece of paper.

"That may be true for other RED comrads, but Heavy and Medic fight for RED: To fight against the enemy team of BLU over the valuable resource of gravel. Also Heavy fight for money to pay family home in Soviet Union. Is that answer enough for lady robot?"

Heavy's answer was probably not enough for the second individual to approach and speak, or…insect? A giant bee, coloured gold and blue, larger than even Heavy, adressed the comrades of RED as if she was a monarch speaking to her lowly subject peasents…as it turned out, she was an actual queen.

The Russian giant looked up at this humanoid insect, visible confusion upon his face as the insect queen spoke to them about their own quest to "bring purpose and beauty to the world", not to mention their "allies"… Allies? But all of Heavy's allies were already here in this desert, with him and Medic and….Yes, where were the others? Something finally snapped in Heavy's mind, something both good yet sad.

"Queen Bee mean that…Scout is real? Pyro, Demoman and Engineer? AND SCOUT? So this was not figment of Heavy's imagination! Medic I told you I was not mad!" Heavy shouted at the other team members, most of them looking at him like they did not agree one bit with Heavy's last statement. Heavy just shook his head at his comrades, though at Medic his eyes pleaded for answers. "Heavy, I…Ich don't know, this iz very strange, und how can we truzt zem?"

"But if others of us be out there, then we MUST help tiny baby team!"

Heavy turned to face Poppi and Queen Sectonia, picking up his beloved Sasha as he approached them. "If you tell Heavy rest of REAL team RED is out there, and that Heavy can fight more bad enemy than tiny coward BLUs, then Heavy will join fight against…against…LIGHT! Yes, Heavy remember now! Evil reactionary Light that seeks to destroy world and make new, like counter-revolutionaries! Yes, Heavy will fight as long as he can fight people his own size."

"Heavy, get your ass back here! You're making a fool of yourself. There aren't any other places to fight, you stupid, fat Russian brute."

Heavy stopped in his tracks and turned around slowly, giving whoever said such mean things to him the deadliest of looks. He had a desire to reach down and pull out an imaginary revolver, shooting whoever said that with one deady imaginary bullet, but he would not do so. Not for now. "For last time, I am not fat! And you are all stoopid, and easy to kill. Heavy want challenge and to save world like true hero!"

Turning back to the group of strangers who'd convinced Heavy and brought back certain memories of the Light and his life before it, Heavy gave one last look of sadness to Medic who he was probably leaving behind, but proudly walked over to Poppi and Queen Sectonia. "I as I said; I am Heavy Weapons guy, and this is my gun. How can I help?"

Things started out well, at least from Bower’s limited perspective. With Blazermate’s kritz power and his claw tips he’d rendered through the undead hordes and unleashed a massive ball of blue sparking flame that rolled forth towards the skull girl without any indication that it’d stop or that she’d try and get out of the way of it. He also wasn’t alone in his push towards the girl. Banjo and Kazooie vaulted over his slow advance and then went their separate ways, each one leaving a trail of havoc and mayhem as they cleaved or rode their way through the hordes to either side of him.

Linkle too went for the kill, but this is where the trouble began, as Marie showed off the true potential of her skellie summoning. The hylian hero had been getting the best of her at first, her waves of arrows, ice and bombs perfectly suited to this kind of battle, trashing undead and overwhelming Marie’s defenses, but it all came apart when skeletons suddenly grabbed up out of the floor. The undead grabbed her, preventing the nimble hero from dancing away from danger as she had been. Then she summoned a team of gangsters and the tommy gun toting goons filled her with lead.

”LINKLE!” Bowse roared in alarm as she hit the deck. He wasn't the only one to see her fall. Nero raced to her side and avoided the same fate Linkle (likely due to other threats having gotten closer) and proceeded to try and pull her to safety.

”HEEL, GO HELP HER!” Bowser called out, before summoning the titular Rabbid support in a large claw and then tossing him up over the skellies to land next to Nero. Heel, once he got a grasp of the terrifying situation, ran screaming obnoxiously after Nero. Using a combination of grenades and healing pulses the Rabbid attempted to make sure that Nero would be able to make it out and that Linkle would be able to survive her evacuation.

Aid given to the fallen, Bowser pushed onward as his fireball hit home, something that honestly surprised him. The girl had arrogantly stood her ground against the kritz boosted mega fireball, attempting to shield it with a destructible shield of packed bones that the ball had plowed through like it had plowed through everything else. Even after it swept over and scorched her it kept going, rolling onward out into the open air behind her, before floating onward above the dead city like a tiny sun.

Bowser wasn’t done with just that, but unfortunately neither was Marie. The girl seemed to still have plenty of minions in reserve and also seemed to be more than happy to let them do her dirty work for the time being. The part of him that wasn't fuming about what she’d done to Linkle approved of this. It was the proper villainous way to do things in Bowser’s opinion.

Against Nadia she brought up the remains, or facsimiles of the remains, of her dead family to inflict a psychological blow. Against the rest of the squad she brought out a band of five skeletal powerful warriors. Against Bowser however she used something off theme. A shadow. That alone would have taken Bowser off guard but the specter flash stepping in front of him and winding up and then unleashing a full body punch took him entirely off guard.

Fortunately, as he was twice her height and several times over her mass so what would have decked a human merely caused him to stumble backwards, holding his bashed snout in his claws.

”GAHHH. YOU’LL REGRET THAT!” The king roared before releasing his bleeding nose, which despite Blazermate being in the process of being simultaneously attacked by a surprise floor spawned giant rapidly healed up just like all the other wounds he'd taken, and unleashed a wave of fire directly in front of him, before sweeping his head to and fro, turning the burning breath on the surrounding undead, trying to wash away the shadow woman with his burning light wherever she might warp too.

After she’d waved at the people looking at her Midna sat down on the camel’s head and watched as the queen, the machine and the fox approached the formerly fighting red and blue teams without any sign of hostility from either side. Then the two groups got to talking, but as she couldn’t hear what was being said, and couldn’t read lips, she quickly got bored of just sitting there and watching them flap their gums at one another.

Instead of continuing to idle in the sun she drifted back down from Vah Naboris to join the rest of the backup team, namely Tora and Primrose, who were chatting about how Poppi worked.

”You built her? Impressive. Maybe if we have time and trust I could take a more intimate look at her and see how much this ‘ether‘ is like magic?” Midna commented on what she’d overheard while floating down and hovering just above the ground, reclining a little in the airs with her arms folded.

”Either way, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that they’re talking to each other over there. Not sure about what, though the red and blue people seem a bit grumpy judging by their body language,” She commented before her single eye focused off of the people she was talking and into the floating Sheikah eye that glowed in front of her own to watch more closely as the Heavy suddenly broke ranks and approached the team after Sectonia’s speech.

”Oh. Except that one. Big bald guy’s approaching. Proud look on his face. Others seem to be arguing with him going over but don’t seem mad enough to stop him,” she commented before bringing her focus back to where she actually was ”If I were to guess, I’d say they’re good over there. If things were gonna get heated they’d already have kicked off, or are just about too. I’ll keep keeping an eye out, but if you want to take a look at what the thieves are up to you’ll probably be good to go,”

Midna snapped her fingers, summoning one of her masked wolfos before telling them that ”If you want to go, you can take this one with you” before speaking to the creature in her native tongue, after which the large furry beast padded over and then sat in front of Primrose, ready to act as her stoic and noble guardian. The way it was happily wagging its tail distracted from this image somewhat, which Midna just rolled her eye at.

In no time at all, the volunteer scouting trio arrived at the compound just moments after leaving for it. Fox had little trouble keeping pace with the two fliers of their company, being naturally fleet-footed as he was, and perfectly capable of facilitating his own landing from the low skydive off of Naboris with a guided, curved thrust to drift him down and forward. With a couple of leading steps, he bounded over the fence after his compatriots in a full twist layout and continued making his way in unimpeded.

It was oddly quiet and empty within, absent of any dead, dying, or battle to see to either. Of course, they knew the conflict had ceased prior to their departure, but even still there were no signs of an expected aftermath to be found. After a moment or two, they discovered what was happening instead, which only raised more questions, such as ‘why’. Fox was puzzled by their findings; that the two opposing sides seemed to be gathered together, casually socializing following their no doubt deadly territorial standoff (and perhaps preceding another). Seeing as they weren’t actively posing a threat, Poppi took the initiative to approach and make first contact, effectively compromising their anonymity, and since there was now no point in trying to maintain it, Fox left cover to follow suit.

He kept sharp eyes out for anyone among the mercenary assemblage that looked ready to use their weapons, still ready to act as they made their approach and introductions from Poppi. Her attempt at a warm welcome and succinct explanation of their purpose there was met largely with rhetorical questionnaire or overall dismissal, and while Fox didn’t feel the need to directly answer the Soldier’s question, his answer was ‘yes’. Him and his lot (whoever they are at any given time) did indeed have a habit of showing up unannounced to intervene in ongoing conflicts; that was exactly the type of thing he would do. Though, he wouldn’t have called what they had stepped in an “active warzone” as it was, even if it could be at a moment’s notice--a fact he kept well in mind as the conversation went on. A few of them begged to disagree, believing somehow that they had better things to do where they were, and attempted to turn the trio away before they could get a proper word in.

“You don’t seem to understand,” Fox piped up, stepping forward to draw the room’s attention. “Believe it or not, like it or not, our business IS your business,” he spoke generally to the entire crowd, in response to the Infiltrator’s comments. He looked about all of them as he continued to make his address, starting with the Soldier. “You’re right about one thing: you are at war… you just don’t know it yet.” This statement would likely provoke a curious look or two from the group, so he began to elaborate.

“See that?” he asked, pointing to the titanic camel they rode in on, which would prove hard NOT to see. “With or without us, that would have found its way here eventually,” he conjectured in half-truth, more aiming to make an example of it in his explanation. “Consider yourselves lucky saner minds prevailed to tame it. It could have just as easily stomped through here raining lightning and reducing this place to dust.” He spoke calmly as he made his point, but still with the intent to make an impression. “In case any of you feel like you can keep ignoring the world and all its problems, just know they won’t ignore you forever.”

Turning back to face them, he continued. “I hate to break it to you, but the real war is out there. Some of us are already fighting it, while you’ve been missing it, and right now, you’re exactly where our--YOUR--enemies want you to be. Acting in circles, distracted, fighting your friends...” Fox prodded at them by reasoning believably sinister motives for subterfuge on behalf of a nondescript ‘enemy’, but also genuinely curious as to who that could be, suspecting there might actually be one. Being no stranger to fighting for sport himself, as arranged initially by a cosmic entity, he knew that these things didn’t happen on their own. Someone had to be behind them.

To that end, he was all but certain the combatants here were unaware that they had been hamster wheeling their way through fight after fight with nothing to show for it. All signs pointed to that being the working scenario, and their given time spent there clarified as much. The question was, could they be convinced to break the monotonous cycle of repeat conflict, or were they bound and compelled by ‘influence’ to sustain it until broken? In part, Fox was trying to test them to get a read for it.

“I doubt you’re all just here for a cheap thrill with no reward. I would know,” he related broadly while wondering over and casually snatching a filled shot glass from the bar nearby. “So, if you think you’ve got a case to make for why staying here to keep doing what you’re doing is somehow better, feel free to sell us on it,” he challenged, expecting any takers to understand (or at least believe) they would have a hard sell to make. “Or you can come with us, and do some actual good,” he proposed, this time more in earnest, assuming any of them cared to. “Who knows, maybe you’ll even be rewarded,” he added in his pitch, appealing to the overall mercenarial sense he got from the group.

“If you really need a better reason, I’m sure something can be worked out,” he said, looking to Sectonia to better know how to handle matters of potential compensation, should it come up further. “Either way, there are kids in that pyramid who need our help,” he gestured to the monument in question across the lake. “So decide fast, and decide now. Stay here, keep shooting at each other to pass the time while you wait for an honest threat to kick down your door, or get on board, join the real fight, and actually fight for something.” At the end of his piece, he shot back the mouthful of whiskey in his hand and gently knocked the thick base of the now empty glass on the countertop as he set it down. “Your call.”

Geralt's face tensed at Sakura's response to his curse. Having dealt with Yennefer for a few decades, he knew what the best response was as a matter of instinct: apologize, deflect, move on. Placate the angry woman, change the topic, never mention it again. Unless it was funny, of course.

"Ah. I'm sorry, I'm not used to dealing with...decent folk." Oh, that was an understatement. "I'll watch my mouth, don't worry."

Step one, complete. Step two-

“What’s a whoreson anyway?”

Ignore them. Just ignore them and look for a new topic to work with.

“Hey. So. What’s a whore?”

This kid was gonna be the death of him. Not only was he worried the big guy would rip his head off for explaining brothels to the kid, that would risk getting right back into the conversation of exactly why he'd referred to the ship's previous owners as cheap whoresons in the first place.

"That...is something you and your father will have to discuss. In about..." Giving a show of looking Junior up and down, Geralt shrugged. "However long it takes until you're an adult, I guess. Either way, it's a father's place to explain it to his son, not mine." Desperate to escape the conversation, he looked out the window and frowned.

Good distraction, that fight in front of them. Good distraction indeed. Watching the battle carefully, Geralt leaned forward in his seat and narrowed his eyes. "There!" Pointing his finger at where the Imps' spirit had fallen, he frowned. "They leave spirits...? Hmm, guess we should watch what happens to it. See if it disappears like normal, or if it goes anywhere. The girl I talked to had no idea what I was talking about, so it might just be that they can't tell in the middle of the fight, and don't stick around to collect them afterwards..." Geralt's musings were cut short by Kamek's egress from the ship to assist in the fight. Having no flight or aquatic mobility to speak of, and frankly, not even here to fight, Geralt sat in the relative safety of the Atomos, watching and learning about their enemy.

He took the opportunity to better watch Kamek's abilities, as well. Being told of an ally's capabilities was one thing. Seeing them in combat at your side was another. Being able to watch and scrutinize from a safe place was the last piece of the puzzle.

The duplicates provided quite a boost to Kamek's abilities, both in allowing him (or at least some facet of his abilities) to be in more than one place at any given time. Even with each clone limited to one type of magic (as far as Geralt could tell), it was a force multiplier to be reckoned with. Healing somebody's injuries, shielding them from harm, and simultaneously destroying their attacker was like if Geralt could use multiple signs at once, use Quen on others, and give them a dose of Swallow without killing them.

Suffice to say, he was glad the magikoopa was on their side.

The gunfire, and Junior's evasive maneuvers, did little to deter him from watching Kamek's fighting, at least for the first part. Once hell started breaking loose inside the Atomos and the kid summoned his little minions, Geralt found his focus wavering among all the commotion. He elected to keep his position within the vehicle, not trusting his little weapon to turn the tide, and also not trusting the kid's piloting skills to not throw him from the vehicle.

Not that he'd tell the runt, that was. He didn't need to bother with the whining and all that. He was here to observe and learn about their enemy, as well as make ideas about how to keep their infinite numbers from respawning. His place on the battlefield was on solid ground, not in the air, and certainly not on the water.

And he'd managed step three rather well, he thought- even he'd forgotten about the 'whoreson' argument.

Bowser's fireball landed full force, devastating Marie and her defenses with the crit boosted power from Blazermate alongside with a few other teammates doing what they could. However, she didn't appreciate that fact and counterattacked, especially considering Bowser's fireball left Marie not looking so great as it were. First to go down was Linkle, who got mowed down by machine gun fire and passed out from the damage, but was saved from turning into a spirit by one of their allies. Blazermate's limited range of healing meant she had to stick with Bowser during her kritz, but Bowser had some ranged healing in the form of his striker which would help at least. That, and the fact that Marie's retaliation to Blazermate patching up Bowser's wounds was to summon a shadow to both knock Bowser back a bit and knock Blazermate off him, to then summon another one of those big skeletons from the gorge below to try to grab and crush the medabot.

But she was still being empowered by her kritz and while she couldn't shoot Mariw with kritz, she could still punch with it. So without a beat of keeping her kritz on Bowser, who was now roasting the undead before him with kritical blue and red fire, while Blazermate herself shield bashed the approaching fingers from one of the hands of the skeleton, denying its ability to grip her as the hand shattered into bone fragments and dust from her kritical bash. Krits was going to wear out soon though, and as it did, the last spurt of Bowser's sweeping flamethrower which was once glowing blue/red fire turned back to normal fire.

Taking over Sakura's position as cart puller, Cadet, Peach and Cuphead made their way back down toward Limsa's center, intending on heading back to Inkwell Isle. It was a good idea to have multiple options for the group. For as cool as the Atomos was, could it fit all of them inside it? Cadet hadn't even considered that at the time, but as they were moving the gold and thinking about other ships, the thought came to mind. Since it was an airship the could probably use it to get around to the other areas too, it would be a great way to move everybody - including those that had split off from them and went to the deadzone and the desert.

"You think he'll sell?" the hunter questioned, glancing at Cuphead. "Ol' Briney? Gee, I dunno. If he does, we'll get a pretty tough ship though!" After a moment of consideration, Cuphead added, "not too tough for me 'n Muggy, of course!"

Cadet nodded and humored Cuphead with a grin, "Yeah, of course!" He wondered what shape Shippy and the Atomos might take after an adventure or two. Big wings? Legs? ...more room inside?

As they passed closer to the city's center and the music grew louder, Ace Cadet's eyes were drawn to the performers, especially the purple haired dancer. She really had some moves. Cadet nearly crashed into the princess once she'd stopped to watch, but he paused just in time, BB sliding forward on the cart as it came to a quick halt. Then, the dancer twirled in their direction, reaching out the hunter and playfully inquiry about the chunk of wealth he helped carry.

"Oh, this isn't - I mean, it's not mine to give," Cadet said, stumbling slightly over his words. The dancer giggled and pulled him forward, and the Cadet let himself be spun around by the woman.

"I get it," she said, "but come on, not even a little~?" She laughed as the Cadet tried on a dazed smile, glancing back at Peach before his dance partner spun them both around once more. "Kidding! Don't worry about it."

"Oh! Ha," tension melted away from the hunter then, and he quickly reinvigorated back to his usual self, letting a grin spread wide across his face. "Don't get me wrong, I love to spend my money - if only this was mine! Oh but, we need it for something important."

"What's that?" the dancer asked, the pair of them swapping roles with the Cadet now leading.

"A ship to help save the world!"

The woman blinked, but she otherwise took the bold declaration in stride. "Sure you are."

"What's your name?"

"Shantae!"

"I'm the Ace Cadet!" He saw that look in Shantae's eyes that said seriously, that's how you introduce yourself? but before she could voice the thought, he continued, "Your dancing is groovios, how long have you been in town?" Somehow, it didn't seem like Shantae "matched" most of the rest of Limsa, like how Cuphead looked so different from the rest of them, yet seemed right at home on Inkwell Isle.

"Hmm~" Shantae, considered her reply, turning a few times in place. "I don't remember, really. I've protected Scuttle Town for a long time, fighting off pirates - but even pirates don't come around anymore."

"You fight pirates?" Cadet exclaimed, suddenly seeing the dancer in a new light. The conversation with the robed woman from earlier returned to his mind. "You should come with us!"

"And save the world?"

"Exactly!"

"I dunno~" Shantae lifted her and Cadet's hands above their heads, swapping positions once again and twirling the hunter back towards Peach and Cuphead. She met eyes with the princess, who gave her a polite smile. She could ask for payment, but that wasn't really her style. She'd always protected Scuttle Town simply because it was the right thing to do. But now, "Scuttle Town" was a lot larger than she remembered, things that should have been familiar seemed foreign, and there was a large group of strangers tromping through the city and buying shops. "...I'll think about it."

The Cadet smiled and waved to Shantae as she danced away, looking for her next partner. "This town is radalos," he said, scratching BB's head. "Alright, let's go buy another ship!"

---

Primrose listened politely to Tora's answer, and although she wasn't familiar with some of the specific terms he used she followed along well enough. He'd already mentioned that ether, the thing that apparently powered Poppi, was similar to magic - in some ways at least. That was all Primrose needed to understand. Magic was mysterious and powerful after all. The way the brunette understood it was that Poppi was an extremely advanced golem, and Tora: her proud creator and caretaker. They were an interesting pair, and Primrose found them endearing... well, a little, at least.

"I see," Primrose said, nodding once it clear Tora was finished with his explanation. "With as much faith as you put in her, how could the rest of us have any doubt?" She finished her sentence with a small smile. When Midna floated over and offered to take a look into ether, Primrose turned the smile on her, along with a single raised brow. She hadn't pegged the imp for any kind of wizard or scholar, but she did seem to be familiar with magics that Primrose herself had never seen - and she'd seen some incredible things in her travels, things none of her group of eight had imagined to find in Orsterra.

Somehow Primrose got the feeling that Tora wouldn't be so keen to let anyone look into Poppi. Pride bred possessiveness after all. She'd be wrong about people before though (utterly, completely, devastatingly wrong), so if it turned out that he'd let Midna look into ether, Primrose would like to be there as well.

For now though, she had something else she wanted to do.

She gave her full attention to Midna's report as the imp confirmed that everything seemed to be going alright. Or at least, it wasn't going poorly. Really, that was about as good an outcome as Primrose expected. Along with the good news came Midna's advisement that should Primrose want to head toward the pyramid, it was most likely safe to do so. The dancer hadn't exactly been subtle about her plan, so she only nodded to girl - woman? She didn't know the imps age, and her playful personality didn't give Primrose any hints.

"Good to hear. Then I'll go ahead."

The dancer was happy to take the wolf as a companion. She held her hand out to the masked beast despite it's happy tail wagging, and when it showed no aggression she reached further to pet it lightly on the head. "Aren't you a good dog?" she whispered to the glowing creature, "You're smaller than Linde, I think."

"Thank you," she said to Midna. Briefly, Primrose looked to the distant mountain that was the yellow team's ultimate goal. "With luck those kids are just fine."

She bid a short goodbye to the imp and nopon before disembarking, heading toward the lakeside battleground with the wolfos in tow. Once the situation was settled there, she didn't know if the others would go on toward the mountain or enter the pyramid, but either way she'd be fine. Although she'd gotten used to traveling with a large group, ultimately she was more used to being on her own. The wolfos sneezed once as if sensing her thoughts, and Primrose glanced down at it with a silent apology. She wasn't exactly alone. If the team went on without her, then eventually she'd meet back up with them with the phantom thieves. The thieves seemed driven and unlikely to abandon the quest to defeat Galeem. She didn't want to say something like she knew what impulsive young people were like, but... well, she knew what impulsive young people were like. She was one herself too.

The dancer stuck to the city's outskirts, trying not to draw attention to herself. Nearby she could hear the gathering of people chattering and arguing about whether to join up with the 'people from the giant camel' or go on fighting like they always have. Glimpses of red and blue could be seen whenever she looked down alleyways toward the voices. Underneath her cloak, Primrose's dancer's clothes were dyed a rich ruby. The last thing she wanted was to be caught in the middle if these fighting obsessed desert dwellers went back to war with each other.

The city turned out to be smaller than it looks from the outside, though by the time Primrose traversed it she was sure that the diplomatic party of Fox, Poppi and Sectonia would be returning to Naboris soon in triumph or disappointment. She stood outside the great pyramid's entrance, pausing to listen for anything strange or even mundane before she ventured in, pursuing those in their own pursuit of their friend.

The Heavy's inquiry gave Poppi something to say at least. She couldn't help but smile as she pictured the big man's amazement should he ever see a real Titan. “Oh, titans very, very big. Many so big, they carry entire country on or in body. Poppi made on titan Gormott, in city called Torigoth on shoulder. Plains stretch for miles and miles.” She trailed off after a bit, embarrassed that her chatter wasn't very helpful.

Those gathered, however, showed no hesitation to give their reasons for why they fought, but their responses left Poppi in wonderment. How did this mock battle contribute towards helping humanity? What about Nopon, anyway? If they'd been fighting forever, wouldn't the Raider have plenty of plunder? Out of everyone, however, the Heavy gave the most abstract answer. This was apparently a struggle over some resource called Gravel, which Poppi assumed must be distinct from value-devoid pebbles, and he worked for money to help his family. Although Poppi wanted to respond, she couldn't exactly deny these people. If they all had their reasons and seemed satisfied with them, who was she to tell them they were wrong? Then again, the supposed 'enemies' were awfully chummy...

Where Poppi fell short, her teammates more than came through. Sectonia wasted no time delivering a magnanimous -even pompous- speech, but she struck on good points. Surely, the artificial blade reasoned, these people lacked purpose? They'd been fighting 'forever' after all, and their individual ambitions remained unsatisfied. Maybe they were really trapped in a futile struggle? Back in 1-1, an eternal war between rabbids and robots waged on behalf of the region's incandescent tyrant, whose excuse of security his land poorly masked his shameless desire to see his subjects suffer. Here, there seemed to be no authority keeping things in line. To her it seemed like some sort of 'natural' phenomenon, like the regeneration of the Land of Adventure.

Surprisingly, a small tidbit of what Sectonia said seemed to strike a chord with Heavy. From his tone Poppi gathered that he was talking about lost comrades, and the prospect of bringing them back seemed to be enough to change his mind. The conviction he displayed earlier must not have been that strong. He went on to surprise her by referring to Galeem. “Oh! That interesting. So far, nobody we talk to remember end once freed. Maybe...getting killed over and over again here loosen Galeem influence?” While the strangers' eyes shone red, including those of the Heavy and Medic, that memory was still a good thing. The others, however, seemed less convinced. Going off her own theory, Poppi wondered if Heavy died more than the others. Big, slow target, no visible armor or shielding, gung-ho attitude...maybe!

Oh, yes; Fox was speaking. Poppi pulled out of her processes to catch his own contribution. The real war is out there. Poppi could scarcely have said it better. Fox truly carried the mantle of leadership, possessed of the knowledge of how to interact with people and get them in gear. She could see the murmurs among the soldiers begin to swell. The Dwarf had gotten to his feet, the Knight seemed close to reconsidering what actions of his would best serve humanity, and the Priestess looked ready to follow Heavy. In the span of only a moment the number of recruits went from two to four as the Shield and the Poison came over.

“Here I'm called the Shield, but if I'm going, you may call me Braum! It's good to meet you, and I'm sure we'll be fast friends.”

“Good day. I too am most pleased to make your acquaintances. I am Blue Poison, should it please you. Many keep their distance, but if you'll have me, I'll join your campaign.”

Just as things seemed to be going well, a nearby loudspeaker blared to life. “What. Is. THIS!?” a stiff female voice practically screeched. “Intruders! Unknown assailants, in the rec room! Mercenaries, destroy them!”

Instantly the mood changed. Everyone went on alert, all eyes on the newcomers warily. Even those who'd come over took a step back, as if they'd learned their visitors were sick. Poppi held up her hands, eyes wide. “Wait! We not intruders. No intention to fight at all!”

“What about the briefcase?” the Soldier questioned her. “Here to keep us distracted while some buddies steal the intelligence?”

Poppi shook her head emphatically. “No, no! Not even know what briefcase is. Friends just want to see if anyone willing to join, maybe help in process.”

“Aha!” The Administrator exclaimed. “They're here to steal you, my mercenaries! But whatever for? According to my data, all of them are far, far stronger than any of you. So why are they here? With a walking war machine that can 'rain lightning' waiting innocently outside? They're here for your spirits!” Poppi could practically hear the woman's smirking confidence. “All they see when they look at you are weapons and powers. They're here to destroy you!”

The heroes found themselves faced with a number of weapons. Not everyone seemed ready to attack them, however. Braum raised his shield, facing the REDs and BLUs. “Hold on a moment friends, we can't assume intentions like this. Let's talk things out.” Poppi gave a vigorous nod.

Blue Poison looked up at the speaker, as if it could hear her. “Be reasonable, Administrator. Do you have any basis for these claims?”

“Basis!?” The unseen lady howled. “Does my word mean nothing to you?! My authority?! Thanks to me, you have comrades at your back, a reason to live for! You're all immortal!”

The Dwarf spat. “Aye, a never-endin' loop of shootin', dyin', and more shootin'. I ain't touched a pickaxe in so long my mitt's gone smooth. I miss adventure, the unknown! I'm done here.”

He took a step toward the visitors, only for a warning shot to fly in front of his face. The Soldier glared at him through his menacing visor. “So, you're abandoning us? Traitors...all of you!” He swept his hand at Blue Poison, Braum, Heavy and Medic. “We're soldiers. We follow the orders of our superiors, like it or not.”

Scowling, the Dwarf turned to face the Soldier. “I'm gonna like clonkin' yer empty head, ya arsewipe!”

A laugh rang out from the speaker. “Hohohoho! Teams are being scrambled! Anyone not on RED or BLU when mission begins will be considered an enemy and lose respawn privileges, followed shortly by their lives! Mission begins in ten seconds!”

In front of everyone present, little red and blue doors appeared. It was time to decide. Poppi ignored hers in favor of summoning her Variable Saber, then turned to Fox. There wasn't time to ask or outline the options, only the time to heed the leader's decision.



Soon after Primrose and her lupine mount moved into the pyramid, she found the thieve's trail. It took the form of solved puzzles and defeated enemies, and with ashes in place of encounters she could make quick progress indeed. Only the pyramid's traversal and platforming challenges remained, but Midna's conjured creature possessed no small amount of leaping ability. The way forward took Primrose through dusty, dark corridors and over sandy sinkholes, circling around intricate statues and deadly-looking spikes alike. As she went she passed by the discarded spirits of a Hippowdown, a redead, and Arcmine.. She encountered only one major roadblock: as her wolfos made its way over a sandtrap, Primrose could her a strangely ethereal squeaking noise, and her mount began to struggle. Some sort of weight weighed it down, hindering its movement. Noises from a room ahead, however, signaled that she hadn't far to go.

The next chamber housed a familiar spectacle: the Phantom Thieves in battle. The four of them stood in a rough spread formation facing a behemoth clay pot with tentacles of oil. As she watched, it opened its lid and fired urn missiles that soared on inky black jets. Mona dodged out of the way, but Skull and Panther took the hit.

Joker looked over his shoulder at his allies. “Mona, heal them!” He stood alone before the Clay Dunestrider, and called a new Persona. “Ghûl!”

An emactiated horror materialized beside him, and it unleashed a hideous cry. The Dunestrider, however, exhibited no effect. Joker winced. “Immune to Fear. Should have guessed.” He braced himself as the monster lashed out and struck him, sending him skidding toward Primrose.



Strangely for the right-hand man of an archetypal villain, Kamek acted the consummate hero and leaped with his clones into danger the moment he saw the shipgirl in peril. The magikoopa swarm descended over the waves in formation even as the Atomos rocked from the impact of artillery fire. The healers began attending to the fallen immediately, patching her wounds as she floated, sprawled, on the surface. Though rattled by the blasts, she recovered quickly thanks to the clones' care, looking at the lizard wizards with bafflement. “Oh...! Thanks...?” As strange as this was, she couldn't argue with the results as her damage faded away. She watched, amazed, as even more Kameks bombarded the abyssal with explosive flame. “Whoa. We've never had air support before.” They kept up the assault, well out of reach of the abyssal's brawny arms and vile teeth, preventing it from being able to launching a counterattack. It wasn't long before it gave a guttural cry and sank beneath the waves, burned to a crisp.

Kamek cruised over, asking about her condition. “I'm fine, I think.” Shakily, she got to her feet, her shoes somehow repelling the water to such a degree that she could get back into a standing position, like a fallen ice skater. Her plane launcher helped her up, but judging by its condition it wouldn't be doing any more damage today. “Drat, my weapon's toast. I need to help the others...”

Her voice trailed off as Junior's primids opened fire, unleashing a fusillade of energy pellets from the deck of the Atomos. They rained down around the turret-pile abyssal, sending smoke up from the water, but even those that hit didn't dissuade the unnatural creature from taking aim. It unleashed a mortar that sailed into the primid crowd, blowing several to smithereens and probably making the heroes realize a fatal flaw of this attack plan: with the bay doors open, an assailant could shoot straight into the tender, occupied guts of the Atomos itself.

Meanwhile, the battle was shifting closer. Two ships crested a nearby wave just before it hit its peak, followed shortly by a long abyssal that shot out into the open air and landed heavily, slowed to a crawl. “Yes! Open fire!” one of the shipgirls called, before the pair hammered the abyssal from opposite sides. It broke in half with a guttural moan, and the ships peeled off toward the Atomos. They assumed the airship to be friendly and zeroed in on the turret-pile before letting loose. Their light armaments forced them to circle it while firing constantly, but the turret went down as well. The pair made their way over to Kamek and their wounded ally. “Heya!” the black-haired one greeted. “C'mon, we all gotta go. A Water Princess popped up right in the middle of the fight. She...she got Ooshio just like that. We're regrouping by the Admiral.”

All around, shipgirls were fleeing in the direction of Limsa, with a number of abyssals in pursuit. From his height Geralt could see the spirits below the water slowly starting to move in the opposite direction, as through drawn by some current. The pair that helped the heroes, Hatakaze and Arashio, remained in place to help cover them. Moving as one, they engaged an abyssal taking aim at the Atomos. Arashio waved at the ship. “What're you waiting for, you guys are sitting d-!”

A blur struck her in the back, turning everything above the ankle to red mist, then ash. Her spirit sailed through the air, blown away by the force, and Hatakaze froze, speechless. Across the water skated a shipgirl of pure white, her features blank, her rigging black and monstrous like a nightmarish sea serpent. Its head zeroed in on Hatakaze, and energy began to gather.

“We don't stand a chance! Move!” The pink-haired girl cried, but Hatakaze didn't move. Although fear dominated her face, she zoomed forward nevertheless, clearly intent on pushing her ally out of the way to save her. Kamek found himself faced with a dilemma, the stakes suddenly high.



After his pleasant exchange with Shantae, the Ace Cadet proceeded along with Peach and cuphead to the harbor, although he left a lasting memory behind. Even after the dancer got back into the swing of things, she found herself thinking about the stranger, and about herself as were. It was as if things hadn't been quite right for a while now, and she'd simply not realized until someone pointed out that things could be different. Well, not to worry—the extra few moments she'd spent with the redhead left some other attendees feeling jealous, and she needed to liven things up.

Although customs gave Peach and her entourage the stinkeye as they passed through with loads of gold, the trio arrived back at their landing point without trouble. Sure enough, there rested Shippy, and the smoke drifting upward from a pipe above the cabin suggested a certain someone was busy cooking lunch. Peach boarded without hesitation, leaving the wagons behind, and knocked on the door. “Hello? Mr. Brineybeard?”

After a few moments and more firm knocking the portly captain himself opened the door. “Oh, it be ye. What brings ye back? Wantin' to go already? Well, I ain't runnin' a charity here, so ye knows.”

Peach crossed her arms. “As it happens, we've brought some money. Care to look?”

Brineybeard did care—in fact, his eyes literally bugged out. “Blow me down! Thar be enough doubloons to set a poor scallywag fer life! What's it here for?” It was hard for him to hide the hope in his voice.

“We'll be upfront with you. We're trying to collect vessels in order to traverse the Bottomless Sea. We were hoping -it being a ridiculous amount and all- we might be able to buy Shippy from you.”

The conflict spreading across the former pirate's features told her that she wasn't looking at a done deal. “Oogh...I...I dunno. I mean, I'd be a fool not t'take the deal, but still...Shippy's got a special place in me heart.” He ran a hand along the railing, and the ship shuddered happily as if tickled. “It's like she's a part o' me. Even if I can't pirate no more, 'n spend my sorry days ferryin' landlubbers 'n catchin' fish...I can't leave 'er. The last legacy o' my good old days. My last matey.” He looked out across the ocean, his gaze full of longing.



Even with the typical ineffectiveness of cutting weapons against hard bone, Shadow wrecked havoc among the skeletons as a whirling saw of death. V planted a foot on top of a fallen Skeleton Lord and drove his cane through its skull. “Reap what you sow.”

Griffon blasted a bony rider with Blockade, keeping it stunlocked just enough for the v-shaped bolts of Royal Fork to close on it and annihilate its undead horse. “In other words, suck it, shitasses!”

Raidou grunted in agreement, more focused on aiming his shot. His bullet struck Sir Daniel square in his empty eye socket, spinning his head around in a comical manner. After a moment the bone knight grabbed his head, stopping the revolution in its tracks, but he continued to stagger about dizzily.

Laughing, Dante shook her head. She took a moment to crush a scimitar-wielding skeleton with a crescent kick from Balrog, then faced Sir Daniel. “Man, for a bonehead you seem like a fun guy. Why you gotta fight us like this?”

Muttering unintelligibly, Sir Daniel glanced at Marie, then back to the fighters before him. Somehow, Dante seemed to understand. “So, this monster maid not only revives the dead but controls them? That's tough, buddy.” The knight stepped forward, sword at the ready, and Dante raised her own. “Maybe you'll be free if we take her down. Guess I've got another reason to shoot for the top. Keep him occupied, huh guys?” Without another word she teleported away.

She appeared above Marie to drop a Helm Breaker on her head, but the shadow that flickered out to attack Bowser intercepted the blow and punched Dante square in the gut. The Devil Hunter looked more surprised than hurt, even as she fell to the ground. “A new trick! You're already better than Cerberus. What he wouldn't give to chew on you...” She hit the ground and rolled, watching Bowser's kritz-empowered flame annihilate a number of skeletons, including another Skeleton Lord. A colorful burst of eco from Jak's morph gun, meanwhile, heralded the end of the final Skeletal Lord. “Gunslinger!” Dante switched styles and unleashed Honeycomb Fire into Marie, then rolled to avoid the strike of her shadow.

She pivoted left to sweep the head off an undead fishman with Sparda, which did not alleviate the pained expression on Nadia's face. The feral looked haunted as she squared off against her former family, unable to do more than evade. After a moment's study Dante realized her ally couldn't solve this problem alone. “Lead 'em over to the rest and pass 'em off,” she advised. “No need to force a bad fight.”

Although she'd been thinking of taking responsibility for these undead, Nadia accepted the suggestion gratefully. “Okay.”

Dante returned her focus to the Skullgirl just in time to avoid another sideswipe from her shadow. Although Blazermate and Bowser possessed no more kritz, they would arrive in just a moment to make the assault on the Skullgirl three-pronged. Marie knew it too, staring at the pair balefully as they approached. “Don't think me cornered. This city has all sorts of undead, and I can control each and every one...” She raised her hand once more, and from the floor of veins rose one more skeleton..

He looked around, a hollow smile plastered on his face. “welp, sorry folks. this is gonna suck for everyone.”

With a flick of his wrist, everyone in a hundred foot radius floated into the air, then slammed down into the ground. A wave of bones erupted from him to roll across the entire arena, each one rising and then falling vertically. They did no direct harm, and indeed seemed incorporal, but every sixtieth of a second a living body overlapped with one they did a singular point of True Damage. In a matter of moments, Raidou, Jak, and Shadow took critical injuries, their bodies' molecular integrity dangerously degraded.

Sakura was right alongside Geralt that the debate of his use of swearing quickly became forgotten. The situation evolved rapidly, and Sakura found herself somewhat frozen in indecision. She wasn't sure what to do or where to go. She knew they weren't supposed to get directly involved in the fight. So she hovered by Junior and Geralt, holding onto a handle bar to assist in keeping herself steady. Suddenly she was in the middle of a warzone.

"What should we do? What should I do?" She asked. Her heart was beating. She wasn't afraid, just unsure. The last thing she wanted to do was be a liability or be useless. She stayed in the bay, wondering if any of their abyssal enemies would somehow assail the Atomos directly. She would be able to fend them off, then.

Kamek was gone quickly, and Junior had his minions open the cargo bay door. They began firing out to the water below. Sakura decided she might as well join them. Unfortunately, a large projectile hit the inside of the Atomos. Junior was trying his best to pilot, and doing a really good job, but they were getting big time fired upon!

Sakura's eyes widened and she rushed to the open cargo bay, confident in her ability to not fall out. "Watch out! Stay back!" She warned the remaining primids. Sakura took a fighting stance. The first thing she noticed was an evil looking Shipgirl. Pure white, very scary. It looked like it had managed to somehow terrify one of the good Shipgirls into freezing up. One of the other ones was going into save her, and Kamek was there, too. Sakura frowned, determined, and grounded herself in the cargo bay.

She held her arms in hands in a curved cup formation, twisting her upper body to the side. She gathered blue, fiery energy in the space between her palms. "Hadoken!" She released it with a small explosion. It travelled outward, aided by gravity. It's accuracy and damage would be reduced by the distance but it would do something if it hit. It was after all, a fireball that exploded on impact, undeterred by even the ocean itself.

Her main goal was preventing another shot like that from entering the Atomos, and knocking the Water Princess off balance.

"Hadoken! Hadoken! Hadoken!" The street fighter shouted at regular intervals, punctuating her fireballs with the battle cry. Sakura spammed fireballs onto the Water Princess. At a moment's notice though she would interpose her body between any oncoming shots and the interior of the Atomos. No way a little artillery shell could get past her and her focus ability. Not even M. Bison's Pyscho Power or Akuma's evil fireballs could do that without some strategy on their part. This brainless machine's metal shell packed with gunpowered was nothing but a big bullet, and Sakura's Ki defence ate bullets for breakfast!

If the Water Princess did something, that might be more tricky. Sakura wasn't sure what she could do, but given the fact they weren't blown out of the sky already it probably meant she wasn't unapproachably powerful. She could at least help out her allies below with Ki fire bombing. Sakura trusted Junior and Geralt to do what they thought was best; she would follow their judgement.