Midna had gotten the rundown of the situation and then left behind as the queen bee headed for the fight with Tora in tow. She did not look particularly pleased by this, but Midna thought it was hilarious to watch. The catch-up chat had given Vah Naboris time to catch-up itself and now, together, the princess and the war machine advanced towards the battle that was already raging away, with those who had taken a deal for continued immortality chasing those that had been swayed by the speeches of their animalistic teammates.

One of those retreating had even managed to get out and over to her. The short bearded man had raced ahead of the pack despite his unimpressive stature (not that Midna was one to talk, being only a little bigger than him, and that only thanks to her absorption of Urbosa’s spirit) thanks to a hookshot like contraption that had let him wizz from point to point in the blink of an eye.

”Hello,” Midna called over to the dwarf, giving him a dainty finger wave from where she was drifting just adobe the sands in the shade of the titanic beast. She’d tried walking on the sands, but doing so barefoot had not been pleasant in the slightest. Even staying low as she was it still felt like her royal feet were being roasted by the heat radiating from the sand but after she’d seen what the enemies stray bullets had done to an unfortunate palm tree she'd decided to stick low to the ground despite the discomfort. This gave her the brief impression of being normal, and indeed her newly acquired Gerudo muscle even made her look a little dwarfish at first glance until you looked closer and saw everything else that was off about how she moved and looked impishly gliding across the sands.

”Be careful to not get squished like a bug under Vah Naboris' hooves. Also, I hope you’re not thinking of keeping running. There’s nothing but sand out there for quite a while,” she told him, her tone playful despite the warning she was in-parting, before laying out his options ”Either hide, guard me or find a way to help your friends get to safety and then we’ll all get out of here. Your choice” she told him shrugging to indicate she didn't really mind what he did, before adding after a moments thought ”Unless Fox has more risky ideas up his sleeves”

She realized that she wasn't entirely sure what the plan was other than keeping their new allies safe from their vengeful former comrades. Her instinct was to just leave now that they’d gotten what they could, but her talk with Fox gave her the impression he’d try to steal more chickens from the coop than they already had gotten out.

”Either way, it's time to bring down the thunder” she said, drifting onward as Vah Naboris’s humps began to spark with electricity, their arcane power humming to life and awaiting a target designation. Midna drifted up the side of a sand dune, laying belly down in the air and skimming over the hot sands so she could peek over the top at the fight. Even though she could see it though Naboris and her own eyesight was bad in the light part of her instinctively wanted to see the danger with her own eyes. She got a look just in time to watch the heavy snipe someone with his finger gun. Midna assumed she’d missed some kind of spellcasting and as a result judged the heavy to be a warrior who was also proficient in spellcraft, something that made him a potentially useful anomaly in her eyes. That trickshot still left a fair number of enemies rushing the yellow team after that however, and if she understood the situation correctly, the dead man would be back any second from their base. A bit like the monsters and minions that had been used during the shattering of time had just kept coming till you took their spawning forts.

Now that she thought about it, if they wanted to not abandon the kids or get trapped fighting their way out of the pyramid, they might need to deal with this. Most of her was at most mildly irritated by this, but another part of her, a new one, was almost pleased with the opportunity to fight against new and interesting foes. Midna didn’t take the time analyze this new impulse and simply pushed it down when it also complained about the dishonorable tactic she was going to employ.

”Hmmmm,” Midna scanned the targets available, laying belly down in the air with her feet kicked up above her legs. The squid and the soldier where getting too close to the fleeing yellow team, so she instead picked the slower members of their opposition, pointing at the group containing the Cunning, the Totem, the Raider, and the Vanguard and saying ”You lot will do”

Power surged on Vah Naboris’s back and static began to crackle around the Vanguard specifically as the rather slow charging sequence of the titan’s defensive weapon started warming up.

”Come on. Come on! Strike already!” she muttered to herself impatiently once it became clear this was going to take a while. As she waited she directed Vah Naboris to direct its path to one side of the fleeing team rather than right at them. She did not want to accidentally trample the escapees as they ran away.

---

”Huh. Neat stuff” Jr said, looking over his shoulder as Geralt got his items from the crushed spirits, before thinking for a moment and yelling at Kamek ”Hey, where’s Mimi?”

Kamek paused, and then pointed to his pocket ”Broke her ’mask’”

Jr groaned, but he got the implication and so picked Mimi’s pokeball from where it was sitting alone on his chest bandolier and tossed it out. The ball bounced off of the cleaning, and then froze in the air, shooting a red beam out into the magikoopa’s robe's pocket, pulling the upset spook up into a hiding space that wasn't going out into danger once more. Then the ball bounced down to the ground and then leapt back into Jr’s hand. He’d gotten a bit of practice with tossing the pokemon storage device during his time learning from Steven Stone, but he was still impressed by how good they felt to handle. He also knew that, if given a bit of time, Mimi’d fix her own disguise right up in there. Somehow. But until she did he'd need to think of another way to contribute.

Kamek left the boy behind as he mulled over how he could be more useful in future and headed out onto the deck of the ariship. From there he got a clear look at the fight. One of the princess’s escorts was straight-up gone, while another looked like it had been knocked unconscious, something he didn’t even know could happen but that he guessed could definitely come in handy if they won and could take her back with them. The princess herself however was still up and fighting fit, engaging in a simultaneous battle of toy sized airplanes with Ranger while also duking it out in melee with Sakura, only to grab and toss the girl away a few moments after he started examining the battle. His 3 remaining clones were also still in the fight, but without direction they were being rather useless.

Silently he directed the two red clones to bombard the princess with his own standard bouncing fireballs as the surprisingly unharmed Sakura did the same with her cannons, before sending them after the bombers once the school girl got back into brawling range for fear of hitting her by accident. The magikoopa clones were not built for dogfighting however, and so one immediately took a bomb to the face and had to limp away from the fight for the white mage to heal. Meanwhile the other one used the tentacle spike to try and swat the planes out of the air, as everything else they had at their disposal was much too slow to hit the nippy ball shaped bombers.

While Kamek had been playing air force general from a safe distance, and Geralt dived off of the ship to get in close and go spirit hunting, the toadies had buzzed past their creator to collect one more spirit, this time at Jr’s request. They came back caring the To-Class cruiser that Kamek had previously downed. They drifted past and Kamek and presented their find to the prince, who glanced over from the fight and down to where his baby behemoth was sitting in his lap.

”Alright Tyrant,” he said, as he took the spirit from the toadies and then pressed it into the horned pig’s back ”Time to pull your weight”

Sectonia made her way back to the battlefield after relaying her information to Midna. Since she stayed above everything with her flight, she didn't attract as much attention as you'd think from a large colorful bee queen, although this was more because none of the people below could even reach her with their ranged weapons as they all seemed to have weapons much like what Heavy used which were devastating at close range, but ineffective at best at anything beyond midrange. This gave her an idea on how to handle those below, as while they couldn't strike her easily, she could do something to affect them...

Much like Sectonia, Tori and Poppi also hovered over the battlefield, although a bit less involved than Sectonia as they seemed to be formulating a plan of action. Sectonia was a bit more preoccupied getting her new minions that might be more than just fodder though to get close enough to hear the pair chat. As she scowered the battlefield, she saw that Heavy and Midna had gotten involved, dealing with stuff themselves. She saw Heavy laying suppressive fire and escourting the others to their mobile fortress, dropping his gun at one point to... point oddly at someone and cause them to take some serious damage from range. Sectonia was, frankly, visibly confused at this. "I'll need to ask him about that..." She made note of to herself as she snapped back, watching Midna handle a few as well. Seeing this, Sectonia decided to help her out a bit by casually throwing some of her smaller rings of light at the enemies below.

However, it was around this moment she remembered that, defeating these people wouldn't do a thing, they'd just respawn later and keep fighting until Sectonia and her allies escaped or perished. This led her to think for a bit, before coming up with an idea. She watched as the smaller of the mercenaries, a humanoid that swam through the ink they fired on the ground, made their way towards Midna to support their allies. Sectonia, trying her idea, intercepted the inkling by summoning her ice minions, 6 in total, to deal with the mercenary. She gave them instructions to freeze but not kill this creature, then hide the resulting block of ice from their allies. The inkling was quite evasive though, taking on these new challengers without much of a sweat for the most part.

While the ink gun they used as their primary weapon didn't seem to do much to Sectonia's minions, only painting them with ink and doing minimal damage, their followup would take care of two of her minions in one explosion with a triangle ink grenade. The 4 that were left, alongside the 2 that had perished meanwhile, were having a difficult time even managing to freeze the inkling as whenever they gusted their ice at the squid, they just jumped into the ink they spread around and almost vanished. This went on for a little bit longer, the inkling managing to kill another minion with s fire cracker type weapon while the minions gained no ground. Sectonia, watching this, got a bit frustrated and gave them the order to freeze the ink itself while one targeted the inkling.

This actually lead to some better results, as the inkling dodged one minion, the other two began freezing the ground, leaving no places for the inkling to dive into, and after a bit more skirmishing with one more minion going down to a last ditch paintbrush, the other two minions were successful at freezing the inkling solid. Sectonia sighed as the two minions carried the inkling off to hide it somewhere. "If I ever need a single color in my castle..." Sectonia said, saying a joke to herself to get herself to ignore the frustration of how poor her minions preformed there without proper instructions. At least her allies did things properly without being told.

“*sigh* Do we really have to do this?” Banjo bemoaned, standing before their opponent in recognition of who they were; a loosely familiar character from before, and a kindred spirit to the duo (in the more traditional sense).

“Believe me, I don’t like it either,” Mr. Bones sympathized. “The last time this happened, I had a little more say in it--took it up with the man responsible--but it just ain’t up to me this time. For what it’s worth, I’d have done things differently.”

“Right,” Kazooie interjected almost dismissively. “So… no hard feelings then?”

“None whatsoever,” he replied sincerely with a headshake, a long blink, and a shrug, “and sorry in advance for whatever happens next.” By then, Banjo had already strolled up within arms reach of Bones and abruptly pulled his off while he wasn’t looking, prompting a wide-eyed take from him as he looked at both now empty sockets.

“Me too,” he replied with a soft smile before swatting Bones’ head off with a single heavy paw swing. The duo watched his skull tumble to a stop in what appeared to be an anticlimactic conclusion to their encounter.

“Eh… I’m not,” Kazooie commented bluntly. “Well, that was easy. What now?” They’d not, however, have a moment to idly ponder their next move, and not simply because there was enough going on around them already. Their attention moved to the crumpled skeletal mass at Banjo’s feet as they witnessed the remains reanimate and rise to reassembly before them, little worse for wear.

“Woah!” Bones exclaimed mock shaking off dizziness while he manually adjusted his reattached head. “It’s a good thing I couldn’t feel that.” Banjo looked at the loose arm still in his other hand then back to Bones as Kazooie opened her mouth to say something. Before she could get a word out, Bones continued. “Oh… yeah. Funny thing, right? I’m one’a the only guys here who can do that. Sadly, you’ll hurt to see how.” With that, Bones’ loose arm magnetized back into place, pulled to buy a tether of blue electricity, and touched a jolting index finger arcing with plasmatic energy to Banjo’s chest to begin zapping him as a demonstration.

Banjo howled a painful vibrato as he was shocked to his bones, literally, with Bones’ unique power of ‘Skeletism’ that had been, up to now, untested on an organic, mammalian being. Seeing as it managed to freeze up the burly ursine, it seemed to work no worse than usual. Kazooie took over to knock Bones loose with a heavy, rearing peck (more akin to a sharp headbutt) to detach the skeleton’s head once more, ending his sustained attack while he put himself back together. Bones, being just that and a soul, was fragile and easy enough to pick and break apart with a single direct hit from either of them. The problem was with keeping him down without knowing how, as he could simply keep reforming as long as he held a (positive) charge. Even anchoring one of his loose arms down underfoot didn’t stop him from grabbing an errant spare limb from any one of the other scattered skeletons around.

That reminded the duo that there was still a bigger fight going on around them. They figured their efforts would be better spent everywhere else before coming back to Bones, who would be no issue by then, if they didn’t learn how he ticked first. Until then, he posed as little more than a distraction for them, so with that in mind they took off into the air to get a lay of the field before moving in on it, putting them out of Bones’ way.

“See, now that just ain’t good sport. It’s already two against one, and they can fly?” he said to no one in particular, raising a brow he no longer had before shaking his head disapprovingly. “Let’s see if we can do somethin’ about that.” A guitar then materialized in his hands with a sweep of generative pink sparks, and he began improvising an electrical, leading melody. In a stretch of possibility, the red energy that brought the bear and bird airborne faded to blue, bringing them to a gradual, but hastening descent. Kazooie did a panic take upon noticing this, and burned two more Red Feathers to counteract the effect only to watch them futily wilt to blue still, dropping them even faster in doing so. Banjo did his best bracing them for impact by tucking into their crash landing, rolling and skidding to a stop that left him face down with his chin to the floor.

“Oh… because he plays the blues. I get it,” Kazooie uttered unamusedly, cluing into the metacommentary behind Bones’ ability and nature. Bones strolled up in front of the downed pair, guitar still in hand, and clarified…

“To be honest wit’cha, I wasn’t sure that’d work, but I guess that’s what they call ’facin’ the music’, huh?” Bones jested rhetorically with a light chuckle, prompting an eyeroll from Kazooie and a groaning sigh from Banjo. “Look, I know we’re all just bein’ talked into this, but don’tcha think we ought to see our parts through? I think it’s only fair we finish what we started.” Evidently, the duo disagreed, opting instead to roll sideways over the edge, dropping themselves from the platform out of sight.

“Ain’t that a shame,” Bones sighed, lowering and shaking his head in disappointment. “If only things had been different when we met. Maybe we could’a been friends in another life. Probably the last,” he pondered, failing to notice the encroaching heat death of Bowser’s empowered fireball behind him until its brightening glow could no longer be ignored. He turned around to face it, realizing too late what the bear and bird were really avoiding. “Oh…” he said wide-eyed before the inferno bowled over and scattered him.

Banjo managed to catch a hold of the landmass of cyan coils in their evasive tumble. Shortly to follow was Mr. Bones’ unconscious head soaring in a steep arc and falling past them. Banjo freed a hand to catch what was left of the amiable revenant, leaving himself to hang precariously by one in doing so. The duo exchanged a look of understanding before Kazooie took over where Banjo had his hands full, tapping her partner’s chest to bring out a Friend Heart and slapping it onto Bones’ head to wash away one half of the influence over him. When he woke, the red glints in the blacks of his blue eyes would be gone.

“Thanks for the pick me up,” said Bones with a soft whistle, “I wasn’t all myself back there. Still not, technically, but, uh… well, y’know…” he continued referring to his current physical state of being.

“I’m guessing that’s not just a skeleton joke...” Kazooie said in doubt about him regaining autonomy, realizing that he acted for someone other than Galeem.

“I’m afraid not,” Bones replied.

“Figures you might say that,” Banjo remarked, mild disappointment clear in his tone.

“Y’see, the little girl up there’s still callin’ the shots, and I can’t explain it, but me and her are… sort of on similar wavelengths, if y’know what I mean,” he explained, hinting that him and Marie both utilized some manner of necromantic energy that might rationalize a connection between them, as well as his continued survival in proximity to her.

“Not really,” Banjo retorted.

“Well… anyway, if y’all wouldn’t mind, I’d like to be free of this as soon as y’all could make that happen. I’ve seen this before, and I don’t wish it on anybody.”

“Try not to interrupt us while we’re at it then,” Kazooie demanded.

“I’ll try not to, but I can’t promise anything.” Even now, his Skeletism charged body attempted to reform itself with the first stray arm to fall overboard near them, which Kazooie promptly yanked off with her beak and threw away into the abyss. “Worst comes to worst, just keep me out of reach. Shouldn’t be hard for ya.”

“Will do.” With that, Banjo hauled all two and a quarter of them up to safety, but no sooner than they reached solid ground were they lifted right back off of it. Whether by telekinesis, an inversion of gravity, or some combination of both, Sans brought everyone within range up to his level, putting most of them at a momentary disadvantage. Fortunatly, Banjo and Kazooie (mostly her) were just as capable airborne as they were anywhere else. During their moment of weightlessness, Banjo punted away Bones’ head and rolled back into Kazooie’s windup for a Beak Bomb before shooting off. A direct impact appeared to be certain with Sans’ patient refusal to move, but when they reached him, they hit nothing.

With utmost casualty, Sans blinked himself (or them) out of the way at the last decisecond before contact. Kazooie braked and spun them in a u-turn, but failed to return or re-engage before Sans forcibly dropped everyone back down to the floor. In Banjo and Kazooie’s case, that was on the next level below, for they were suspended over nothing else by the time Sans reintroduced them to gravity. The pair were smote onto a floating islet beneath the main platform some ways, still alive, but generally worse off for the moment. Little did they know this would incidentally spare them the harmful chaos of the goings on above. They’d not sit out more than their predicament forced them to, however, as the pair picked themselves up and began their ascent back to the battlefield proper.

The Cadet wasn't sure if his suggestion would work. Sometimes when men retired they still longed for the life they used to live, but other times they wanted to get as far away as possible. Thankfully it seemed Brineybeard was one of the former. With every word the old captain spoke, Ace Cadet bobbed his head up and down encouragingly - and finally when the Princess got him to officially agree, the hunter couldn't help but cheer. Quest clear! Well, kinda. At least this way they'd be able to transport everyone over the water, whether they sailed with Shippy or flew in the Atomos. Having both options was better than just choosing either air or water anyway.

"That's so gargwawesome!" he said, gladly taking the captain's hand and shaking it vigorously in his own. "Like Miss Peach said, we're very experienced! Never a dull moment with us either."

Briney even said he'd be fine with ship modifications. Everything was coming together! They'd travel, supe up their vessels, and take on everything the Edge of the Blue had to offer! Who needed The Maw anyway?

With Cuphead deployed to go and find Link, Cadet thought he should do his part and collect Hat Kid. If the others were back he could steer them toward Briney and Shippy as well, shouldn't be too difficult to get there considering their new airship.

"I'll go find Hatty," Cadet told the Princess, adopting her nickname for the Kid. "We can meet you back here unless you have another place in mind." He didn't think they'd have to report back to the General until those mysterious enemy ships were dealt with, so why not back here in the cove? Plus they wouldn't have to drag the gold through town for the third time this way. The Cadet moved, walking down the ship's gangplank and stopping at said cart before he departed. He was hesitant to give BB any commands or otherwise domesticate it, he still considered it a monster that needed to return to the wild one day, but this time could be an exception. "BB, stay here and guard the Princess." He met the demonic piglet's eyes, a brief staring contest erupting between them, before the minion snorted and hopped down from the cart, trotting towards Peach. Whether the little behemoth would be any help if something were to happen remained to be seen.

Ace Cadet had a pretty good grasp of Limsa's layout by now, and he moved with purpose up the white stone paths around the city. The hatchery he hadn't been to yet, but he was pretty sure he could find it if he recalled the directions they got when they first reached the city. He made no stops on the way up, though he made a mental note to stop at the crowded plaza on the way back.

Up and up the city he went, until the squawking of birds reached his ears. This was the right place, surely. The hunter peeked into the hatchery, scanning the area for Hat Kid and trying very hard not to get distracted.

---

Bullseye! Primrose could practically feel the monster's eye crack and burst apart, and she smirked as the ceramic creature fell heavy to the ground. The wolfos slowed to a halt, panting from the effort of dodging the beast's arms with a rider in tow. The dancer kept in shape by virtue of her profession alone, but it was obvious that she was much heavier than the small Midna. She dismounted smoothly, patting the wolf's fur and honestly figuring her part in this fight was over - the thing was down and it was time for the heavy hitters to do their thing. While momentarily surprised at being singled out by Mona, Primrose found herself swept up in the thieves' energy. Her dagger flashed in her hand during the lapses between her spells. Outside of the onslaught, Primrose paused to catch her breath, but not even a moment later light shined down on her from some unseen source.

Strike a pose and say something cool, he says, Primrose thought to herself. Were she anyone else, she may have stumbled at the sudden spotlight... but she was Primrose Azelhart, the greatest dancer in Sunshade, and she was always ready to take the stage. She lifted one arm elegantly into the air far above her head, the other resting across her bosom. She threw in a twirl, accustomed to entertaining, one leg extending slightly before it swept downward and Primrose struck her pose, head tilted upward.

"Fall into darkness," she said, and as the dunestrider's flaming body disintegrated it took most of the light in the room with it. All that was left were sconces and the small puddles of oil that hadn't yet burned off.

With that over, Primrose reverted to a more natural stance. She smiled politely at Skull but wasn't particularly chuffed, more than used to praise from men.

"I agree, Panther's fire was remarkable," Primrose said, following the girl's self-encouraging statement. The thieves' antics were amusing, and it was clear they were all comfortable with each other. Watching them made something pang in Primrose's chest, something she ignored.

When Joker approached Primrose leveled a stare at him, but she was pleasantly surprised that the thieve's young leader didn't rebuff her assistance. The dancer wasn't so classless as to point out that it looked like her help was needed either way. She shook her head at Joker's offer, patting the travel bag tucked under her cloak as she did.

"It was a team effort. Keep it. I picked up some of the spirits you left behind."

Perhaps she'd be needing them soon, if the "ruler" Joker mentioned was a formidable foe. It wasn't the first time the teens spoke as if they knew exactly what was going on with the giant tomb. Was it something pulled from their world? This time Primrose voiced the thoughts she'd been harboring. "You seem familiar with... this. How do you know your friend is here? Encountered it back where you're from?"

She asked while the group was on the move, easily keeping up until the effects of her Panther Dance came to an end, and it became more of an effort to do so. With the wolf running alongside the group, Primrose grabbed hold of it and swung herself back on. The loud voice that resounded just before she entered the pyramid nagged the edge of Primrose's thoughts, but the wolfos remained by her side, so she expected the group she'd left behind outside were alright for now. Besides, it seemed she and the thieves were nearing the end of this dungeon, if the change in decor was anything to go by.

...and then the stairwell shook, promising something large heading their way.

Seriously? Primrose figured she'd come upon some active traps now that she caught up with the kids, but this? It didn't seem the hall was large enough to squeeze by, not to mention how dangerous that strategy was regardless.

"I don't suppose any of you have something to deal with what's coming," she said a bit weakly, thoughts racing around her head, searching for options. Her defensive dance would probably not be enough to stop someone from being flattened. Her speed dance may work to escape, but only for one person. Otherwise...? She considered the spirits she'd nabbed earlier. The one that came to mind was the large animal surrounded by sand. Would that work? There wasn't much time to sit around and think about it. Primrose reached into her bag, pulling the spirit out and brought it close, whispering to it. Fusing with it was out of the question, and turning it into equipment might take too long to get a handle on. Surely in summoning it, the hippo-like monster would act to save itself even if it wasn't keen to help the rest of them, and in doing so would benefit the group. She wasn't sure how exactly strikers worked, given this was the first time she was even making use of a spirit.

"Come out and lend us your strength, quickly," she said, hushed, hoping that was enough to get through to the creature.

After a moment of initial confusion when faced with Midna, the Scout took her words to heart. “My friends ain't here,” he corrected her, “But I'll head up 'n take potshots with the ol' rifle.” He turned his grappling hook upward and with its help zipped upward to the undercarriage of Vah Naboris itself. Well removed from the fighting, he swapped out his assault rifle for a long-range semi-automatic and made his way to a more secure perch.

The battle unfolding on the fringes of Lakeside took a sudden turn a few moments later when a heap of lightning, no less electrifying for its belatedness, dropped on the loosely-grouped bulk of the mercenary group. The sheer force of it threw them around, both out of cover and into nearby walls, leaving the whole bunch rattled. Suddenly deprived of covering fire, the point fighters scattered, only for the Inkling to find herself surrounded by Sectonia's minions. The Soldier sprinted away as ice and ink filled the air, past where the Heavy's phantom bullet breezed through the Spartan's energy shields and sent him off to wait for a respawn. He raced around a corner and up some stairs, headed for high ground. A glowing indicator on the HUD of his combat mask told him it was just about time to bring the pain.

He crested the top of a stone wall just in time to see the newcomers and traitors escaping across the edge of the battlefield, taking the route carved for them by Poppi moments earlier. No doubt they thought the sudden thunderbolt meant that they could make their escape. With a grim smile the old warrior activated his visor, and across the battlefield his voice resounded. “I've got you in my--!”

A blue dart lodged in his cheek, and in an instant paralyzing toxins raced through his body. He jolted upright, his innards seizing up and shutting down “Muh...muh...gahh...” With very little ceremony he tumbled from the high ground, his limp form bouncing off the architecture in comedic fashion.

Blue Poison snickered as she climbed over the cut chain link fence. “Until next time.” With a final glance at the thunderstruck mercenaries, who were just starting to recover, she ran after the others. Braum and his shield covered the group's flank as they made for Vah Naboris. From her foxhole in the sands below, Midna could see them approach, and it fell to her to make access to the Divine Beast a little easier for the grappler-deprived.

From where they soared above it all, Tora and Poppi took their measure of the scene. Although Midna's help with Vah Naboris give their allies the chance they needed to get away, it seemed like she wouldn't be tearing up Lakeside with the beast's hooves. The right choice, Tora knew, for the sake of their new friends, but not one that made his and Poppi's particular assignment any easier. “Hmm,” Tora murmured, mulling over the options as best he could at altitude. “It time for executive decision,” he announced after only a few seconds. “Forget case, meh. Can search for hours and still not find, and we not have hours. Instead we help friends. Let's go!”

“Roger, roger!” Poppi changed directions on a time and boosted toward the escapees. They spotted the Soldier go down just as he was about to let loose some kind of trump card, giving their friends the clearance they needed to make a break for it. With Naboris still standing, however, it would be some time before they were free, and the REDs and BLUs shocked by the divine beast's magic appeared to be getting up. Tora didn't know if Midna could manage both suppressible fire and hero collection at once, so he pointed Poppi straight toward the action. With a nod the artificial blade sped downward, generating the Variable Sabre for Tora to use before letting go. Her masterpon flew like a cannonball, smacking the Raider right in the back and bowling him over. He bounced among the mercenaries like ricocheting bullet, until he hit a wall and unfurled into a blazing blur of Nopon fury.

The Totem swung at him, but his saber cut through her staff like it was a pretzel stick. Bunching his tiny legs up, Tora swung the beam blade upward, dispatching the stunned medic. The Raider lunged and brought his axe down on the rotund creature before him, only to stare in shock as it barely sank into his spongy skin. Tora simply turned around and slashed him across his exposed chest, causing the Raider to shrink back. He caught his fall with a planted leg and gritted his teeth. Tora stepped forward to deliver a thrust, only for a sniper bullet from the RED battlements to strike him head-on. He rolled over but ended up on his feet, still far from defeated, and struck the Raider again as he came in to finish him off. The Cunning looked at him like he was a monster. “What?! How?!”

Despite his bleeding, Tora grinned. “Tora super sturdy bod too tough for anything shrimpypons got! Right Poppi?”

His companion zoomed in with a flying kick to the Cunning's head. The woman hurtled into a nearby wall and slumped to the ground, out cold. Poppi came to a rest hovering above the ground, dusting her hands off. “That correct, masterpon!”

Tora pointed one wing toward the general area where the Infiltrator crouched atop the ramparts, sighting in on the Nopon once more. “Take out shootypon, meh!”

Without delay Poppi grabbed the Variable Saber. In her hand it rapidly converted to firing mode, awash with elemental energy. “Noponic Axiom!” The next instant a beam of dark energy streamed forth, sweeping across the battlements and flushing the Infiltrator from his hiding spot.

If the pair hoped the display of force would dissuade the mercenaries, however, they ended up disappointed. Gunfire kicked up sprays of sand and stone shards all around them, with a few projectiles striking the pair, and rather than put too much faith into his 'super sturdy bod' Tora elected to retreat. “Okay Poppi, it running time!” He allowed himself to be scooped up by his companion and the pair jetted out of there, back toward Vah Naboris. “Jump in middle of enemy team to disrupt well and good, 'til enemy switch focus!” Tora wheezed, his heart beating a mile a minute. The clang of DMR fire from the respawned Spartan against Poppi's chassis told them they weren't out of the woods just yet, and Tora's wounds wouldn't start healing until they were. “Meeh! Time to make like banana!” They sped toward the rest of the somewhat larger Yellow Team, hoping they bought their allies enough time.



As the Thieves' admiration for Primrose's flourish faded away, the dancer posed her question. It received contemplative quiet for a moment, but whether due to camaraderie or just adrenaline, Joker seemed less guarded than usual. “Not where we're from, since this is ultimately still the Metaverse, but you're close. We dug through a pyramid a like this once before. There's some differences, but the little things tell us it's the same. Or at least, close enough to try. If we're right, another one of us is somewhere in here. But why events are repeating themselves I can't say.” His voice grew more serious. “I hope not all is the same as last time.”

The arrival of the boulder put a quick end to any conversation. Joker's grappling hook gave him an easy way out, but he didn't even consider the idea of leaving his friends in the dirt. “If it's like last time, there should be a hole in the wall we can crawl through!”

“That's right!” Mona called. “Then we just need to solve the puzzle and break the machine!”

A few moments of looking around, however, turned up nothing. Suddenly the tension shot up again. Primrose, meanwhile, had been trying to forge a bond with one of the spirits, and the Pokemon seemed to take to her like a fish to water, as if made to have a master.



“Here! Thank God!” Panther yelled, her voice shrill. She crouched down, followed by Mona, but everyone could tell that squeezing through the hole would take time they didn't have.

“Out of the way! Captain Kidd!” Skull summoned his Persona to ram into the wall, smashing repeatedly against the stone. It started to break, but the boulder was fast approaching. The others opened fire, trying largely in vain to slow down the colossal stone as Skull carved their escape.





As Sakura gathered herself following the first clash, a quick look around confirmed that no more ship girls appeared to be around save Ranger and of course herself. The bulk no doubt fled before the Water Princess introduced herself to Blue Team, but even the stragglers had made their escape by now. In the heat of the moment she couldn't properly engage with the inquiring voices on her newfound comms channel,, only get the general understanding that there was some sort of rally point a ways south. Nevertheless, Sakura spurred herself forward for another round.

Seaplane Tender scowled as Ranger's planes engages her own, giving her principal enemy enough room to knock away what bombers did come her way to blow up harmlessly on the oceans surface. The abyssal then tracked her movements as she approached, kiting sideways to avoid cannon fire. She took special note of the dropped torpedoes as Sakura leaped upward once more. Although the girl's cleverness served her well, the act of taking a foe's attention off one's torpedoes was a basic move to any naval unit of some intelligence. The Water Princess lunged her tail-maw forward to hammer Sakura-midair, but the street fighter's preparedness to throw allowed her to mitigate some of the heavy blunt force headed her way. Despite a few new bruises she then sprang off the tail, sending it back toward center, but it was hardly dead weight for Seaplane Tender and she merely pivoted to allow its bulk to swing around her and slow to a halt in the water.

The torpedoes closed in, but the abyssal smirked as her bombers swooped down into the water, detonating the heat-seekers early. A lone fireball came her way, but the Water Princess wordlessly tanked it as she prepared and unleashed her own shot. It was at that moment that Ranger raced in to follow Sakura's example, jumping to deliver a metallic dropkick to the abyssal's back. Her shot went upward, narrowly passing over Sakura's head as she landed, and Seaplane Tender growled. She slammed the tail down on top of the prone shipgirl, dunking her beneath the water. What was with these ships all of sudden, fighting in melee range? Before she could find an answer the abyssal found herself beset by Sakura once again, who jumped into bop her once, twice, trice on the head. Snarling, Seaplane Tender lashed out in a full-force swipe at the girl as she came down, then charged forward. She began unleashing shots without charging or aiming, the force of each blast throwing her tail around in a wild spin. The erratic bombardment filled the entire area with watery explosions, their devastation practically impossible to avoid, although mercifully lucky was on the girls' side when it came to direct hits. As her maneuver came to an end Seaplane Tender unleashed another wave of bombers, their seeking fury unopposed by any of Ranger's own fighters.

Meanwhile, Geralt made his way through the surf with his new armaments. With how his oceanic mobility compared to that of the shipgirls' he was looking more for additional spirits than to join the fight, but a glance beneath the surface turned up something interesting indeed. He could see the spirits of dead abyssals and shipgirls below, steadily but unmistakably flowing in the direction of the Bottomless Sea. Now that he was immersed himself, he could feel it too—a current that felt too consistent and directional to be natural. Something was pulling the remnants of the battle out to sea.

A couple of the spirits drifted close enough to nab with a concerted effort, mostly lowly abyssals. One ship spirit did grow close. However, something stranger caught his concoction-sharpened eyes: a bluish shimmer in the water, dancing back and forth, surrounded in a strong current. It sought out any spirits drifting down out of the main pull into its own flow and returned them, preventing any being lost. The rest of the time its glowing eye fixated on the surface, eagerly awaiting the results of the battle unfolding above.



Peach nodded, her appreciation for the Cadet's plan of action plain on her face. While neither had any experience wrangling children, the monster hunter at least had some talent for climbing things. Peach watched him go, leaving her alone with Brineybeard and Shippy. Peace she did not find, however, as a singular question nagged her. Where was Link? The young man was a capable warrior, and with his legendary reputation the thought that he got lost or ran afoul of the locals beggared belief. Yet neither hide nor hair of him had appeared since he first went off to seek available watercraft. She wanted to go out looking herself, but she trusted Cuphead to do the job, and if she was gone when Cadet and the kid arrived things would only get muddier. Still, Peach did not idle well, and ended up asking Brineybeard if there was anything she could do on the ship to help out.



It took a bit of doing for the taciturn Hat Kid to communicate her intentions without conversation, but as soon as her meaning dawned on Sky a horrified look overtook her face. “You're going to the Bottomless Sea!?” A nod put an end to her confusion if not her disbelief. “Well, you'd better look elsewhere, 'cause none of my fliers are becoming fish food in that hellhole!” She shook her head, assuming the little girl's 'intentions' to be a product of her youth, and took it on herself to explain the gravity of the situation to the child. “Look, it's like you went to a shelter and just told the person in charge you wanted dogs just so you could run dog fights. Or worse, even! Just so you could throw them down a well or something. It's more than irresponsible, it's amoral. Not even navy ships come back from that place alive. If the monsters don't get you, the storms will. Waves big enough to drown ships whole! Tentacled leviathans! And that machine...” Sky shivered. “I sure hope that girl was exaggerating.”

After a moment of quiet she took on an apologetic expression. “Er, sorry if I went a bit overboard. But I love these guys, and I'm not going to give them to anyone who says they're going to put them in serious danger.” She glanced at the orange-powdered moths in their cage. “Well, except those Cheepoofs. They're just bugs. Or, snacks maybe? If I didn't know any better I'd think they wanted to be eaten, but I'm not risking anything. They I wouldn't mind getting rid of, but I doubt they'll fly you anywhere.”



As Blazermate scrambled to undo the widespread damage wrought by Sans' karmic attacks, Bowser rose to his feet once more. The sight of Marie's final form, little more than a flesh-stripped corpse strung together by the energies of the Skull Heart, gripped his heart with emotion. The road until now rarely presented a moral quandary, both in the World of Light and Bowser's own experience, so the experience of fighting a foe more victim than villain filled him with rage. With Marie herself seemingly as dead as a Skullgirl could get, there was no need to hesitate in taking action against the thing so obviously puppeting her trappings, and hesitate the Koopa King did not.

His example spurred the others to act, as well. Dante, Nero, Nadia, and Tess sprang into action behind him, racing for the Skullgirl. Sans became less of an opponent and more of an obstacle, obliging the heroes to jump, dodge, and duck in their mad sprint for their true foe. No amount of bones rising from or sliding across the glowing floor slowed them down. Once in range Bowser leaped into the air, becoming a spiked puck of destruction that whirled toward his enemy. Seeing this, Dante began charging her pistols, motioning for Nero to follow suit while Nadia enlisted the wraith's aid to bat her like a baseball with her cleavers. Marie did not move fast enough to avoid Bowser, and the shadow surrounding her materialized to defend the Heart. The koopa's shell struck with withering force, but the shadow held form, shaking violently as her arms withstood the saw-like onslaught. Just when his speed began to ebb, Dante grinned and gave the signal.

“Jackpot!”

Four bullets, two of metal and two of concentrated demonic energy, struck the right part of Bowser's shell. Their strength powered up his spin, pushing him through the shadow's defense. The apparition shattered with a ghastly howl, its veins ruptured and energy spilling out. Bowser carried on for a good distance, leaving the Skull Heart behind him. Nadia, flying in behind him, snatched it from the fractured apparition's chest, tearing it free. A wave of force expanded through the air as the power of the Skullgirl burned away. The floating debris descended; the glowing veins died out, and in just a moment's time all that was left was a crater littered with both the ruins of the library and the catacombs beneath. And, sheltered by a canopy of broken bookshelves in the center of it all, the Skull Heart floated sullenly a few feet above the ground.

Nearby, the final Qliphoth Root could be seen withering. It quickly turned gray and shrunken, decaying to dust and crumbling away. The members of Red Team that still lived could breath a sigh of relief as they reconvened, the wounded to receive Blazermate's treatment. Something about Sans' attacks stymied their healing though, leaving them in less-than-ideal condition. Sans himself was nowhere to be seen, although that alone wasn't the only reason why the heroes knew the job wasn't done. For the moment only Nadia stood before the Skull Heart, its uncanny blue glow shining off her skin and hair.

“Alright...this is it.” Yet even as she stared at the thing, no trace of greed festered within her eyes. Although she gestured for anyone who approached to stand back, she did not reach out for the twisted Heart. “I...I can't do it. I have so many new friends...terribly as it was, what happened happened, and made me who I am today. Changing that would be...wrong.” She looked off into the night sky, picturing the faces of her family. A look of understanding, and a little peace, spread across her features. “And...that's what the Skull Heart is here for, isn't it? To tempt us into doing the wrong thing.” Her gaze turned on her allies. “Marie wished for the power to preserve her friends, didn't she? And look how she turned out.” Without an answer she fixated on the Skull Heart, her expression hardening.

“Do not be so hasty,” the artifact murmured in myriad voices, addressing the heroes gathering around. Its sockets scanned those present, particularly Nadia, Dante, Blazermate, Kazooie, Tess, and Linkle. “I can grant any woman's wish. A life of peace and comfort. Or a life of perennial excitement and adventure. An end to conflict. Returning what was lost. True freedom. The power to stop Galeem, and to heal the World of Light. To be a hero. The impurity of Marie's wish was her undoing, but a pure-hearted desire will incur no corruption whatsoever. This I swear. Just ask, and it can be yours.”

Sakura's jump in was predicted, and she braced for impact. "Oof!" Sakura inhaled sharply after grunting, involuntarily trying to get the air back in her system. Sakura landed on the water and took a few steps forward before realising the Water Princess was aiming right at her. Sakura braced herself for impact when Ranger came into the rescue. A drop kick! The shot went wide!

Sakura's grin faded when Seaplane Tender smacked the brave shipgirl down under the water. Sakura's lips became a thin, grim line. She really didn't like this big pale monster. Taking the opportunity, Sakura leapt forward and gave the Water Princess a Sakura Otoshi, smacking her three times in the back of the head with her double fisted hammer fists. "Ichi, ni,-san!"

As she came down to land though, her torso was slammed into by the mighty metallic tail. Sakura cried out and then gasped as she stumbled backwards. Another yellow spark of ki prevented her from getting splattered, and she felt like she still had quite a ways to go when it came to health. But still, that hurt a lot. And things only got worse.

Sakura was tossed off her feet by the myriad explosions, yelping in surprise. She felt the heat and the burn, and the concussive force suck the air out of her lungs. She scrambled to her feet, winded. The brown-haired teenager rose to her feet. She turned her head to the side and spat into the water and wiped her mouth. She had a split lip, and her ribs would probably be bruised. The alternative would be permanent damage, but her martial arts training was coming in handy. Even if she felt more fragile as a cat girl, she could still tank quite a few hits.

Sakura glanced around. Everyone was gone, except for Ranger, herself, and...Geralt-san? He had come into the water to help! Fortunately she could probably just pick him up.

"Okay! It's time to escape! Hey you, ship girl!" She pointed to Ranger, who Sakura had still not learned the name of. "Could you go pick up that white haired old guy and get him outta here? Maybe get onto that ship?" She pointed the swimming Geralt out, and then she gestured to the Atomos flying overhead. "I'll be right behind you!" She assured her with a smile.

Sakura then floated forward, making herself the nearest target to the Seaplane Tender. Sakura glared at the incoming bombers. Then she jabbed a finger at the Seaplane Tender. "And you! I think your hat looks stupid!" At that point, Sakura activated the Haru Arashi V-trigger. Releasing the built up energy in her spirit into an upgrade form of herself.

"You're in for it, now!" She declared. She pumped a fist into the air. There was a few circling swirls of pinkish, petal-like energy, before they settled into dark blue glowing energy in her palms.

The result was that her fireballs became more than twice as potent. They travelled faster and farther. They did twice as much damage, but many times more explosive force. Even Ryu would get knocked off his feet if he took one of them! Meaning that blocking them would be very annoying because they'd still knock their target back and around a bit. Her zoning pressure just went through the roof! And she unlocked the Hogosho, a defensive ability that allows her to channel her energy into a short ranged, long-lasting blast that was great for swatting enemy projectiles out of the air.

"Hado! Hado! Hado! Hado!" Sakura began firing off her fireballs at a rapid rate, evidence by the fact that she longer had time to complete the signature callout. The first were dedicated to dealing with the bombers. The large size of the projectiles and their increased durability meant they could knock several out of the air at a time. Even the weakest Hadokens ate bullets for breakfast, let alone these oversized toy planes! She changed up the timing on the fifth one. "HadoKEN!" This one was three times as powerful as her normal fireball.

If the Seaplane Tender got close, Sakura would use her EX Shouoken technique, a wicked fast series of uppercuts. The first one zoomed her quickly low over the ground making her nearly impossible to hit unless one predicted the move entirely.

And all the while she was firing off cannons and torpedoes. They roared with each subconscious activation of the harness. Sharp cracks and the whistle of a cannon shell. For the next thirty seconds Sakura became a stationary turret of ranged, projectile destruction. All of it let loose in the Seaplane Tender's direction. The enemy would probably find the attacks much easier to avoid if she merely flew backward as far as she could, letting the Hadokens sputter out and lose speed, and reducing the accuracy of her cannon fire. Fortunately, that was exactly what Sakura wanted. Keep the Water Princess away, so that she and her friends could make their speedy retreat. If the Water Princess felt brave enough she could try to wade through the saturation fire, the fireballs only becoming more dangerous the closer she got to the street fighting ship girl.

She hoped it would be enough. All she wanted right now was for her and her new friends to get to safety. If Geralt or Ranger or Junior or Kamek got hurt on her account she wouldn't know if she would be able to forgive herself. Sweat dripped down her forehead, and her face was one of intense concentration.

“Finished for the day?” The receptionist behind the counter did not look surprised, but given how little Katheryne tended to emote for any occasion, that couldn't necessarily be counted as praise for Frog's adventuring ability. His skills, however, spoke for themselves. Not many adventurers worked in Limsa at all, and fewer still could match his ability. Every day he arrived here at the Aftcastle to get the day's commissions, and if in good form he'd be done with all four and back to collect the rewards before lunch. After jotting down Frog's name and the time in her ledger, Katheryne handed over his rewards. In addition to the typical handful of gil, he received a few shards of purple crystal, which supposedly harbored strengthening properties. Just how to use them, however, was anyone's guess, so those who went to the trouble of earning them typically kept them as pride points.

“Farewell, and see you again on the morrow.” So saying, the receptionist waved Frog away. Whatever the rest of the day held was up to him. In Limsa Lominscuttle Town, there was seldom a dull moment. Even putting aside the constant activities of the navy, a capable warrior could find plenty to occupy his time. Whether that took the form of undersea expeditions into the nearby ocean, a sortie with the seastack city's Half-Genie Hero, or just undertaking maneuvers with the Maelstrom guard, who could say.

Today, however, things were a little different. Whispers abounded among the commonfolk of strange new arrivals, who moved through the hubbub of the city with both wonderment and urgency. This wasn't too surprising, given how rarely the city greeted total strangers, but apparently those newcomers had been carrying around some serious coinage. Stunned townsfolk murmured of sacks and carts stuffed with gold coins, ferried to and fro, but never to the stores and stalls of Hawkers' Alley and beyond.

As Frog left the Aftcastle behind, with no need to deal further with the Maelstrom today, he happened to overhear an exclamation from someone close by. “Look, there's one now!” She pointed out to her friend excitedly, indicating with less-than-perfect subtlety a certain redhead a ways away. Indeed, the man was a stranger to Frog, both in terms of his appearance and the style of his equipment. He looked ready for battle, and no stranger to it, but he boasted an easygoing and personable face. Right now the face turned this way and that constantly, as if he was searching for something or someone.

There was a commotion nearby, Frog had been just leaving Aftcastle as he heard passerby point out an unfamiliar stranger with red hair. The individual looked like a seasoned combatant and a battle ready one at that yet Frog saw no reason to provoke the stranger. Instead of unsheathing his weapon he slowly approached the man and greeted him politely as the man's expression differed from his posture, he seemed to have a calm and friendly expression upon his face. "What hoe' fine stranger," he bowed slightly as they did in respectful greeting in Guardia "Doth thou needest help?" Frog asked the red haired gentleman acting friendly, showing the stranger that he didn't want any trouble by crossing his arms making sure the man could see his hands were nowhere near his broadsword.

Bowser pinwheeled blindly into the shadow, who rose to stop him striking down the heart. The king roared wordlessly with frustration and anger as she slowed his strike, only to feel 4 familiar shots strike him. A brief belief that he had been betrayed and shot in the back by Dante for some reason was flung away in the powerspin that the shot’s induced, the King buzz sawing through the shadow’s defenses and smashing into the heart.

The resulting explosion flung Bowser far away from their foe, his form bouncing once twice and then coming to a stop on the broken ground, the king left a bit dizzy and befuddled from the added uncontrollable spin and the subsequent explosion.

”uuuurgh. That hurt...” he muttered, complaining about the grueling approach, the subsequent ‘help’, and the resulting detonation all at once right as Nadia ripped the heart from what remained of Marie’s, well, remains.

”Wowowowow wait!” Bowser popped his limbs and head out of his shell and scrambled for support as the platform they had been fighting on started to collapse, but fears that he was about to be dumped down into a bottomless pit were unfounded, as the rather gentle collapse merely deposited them back down in the now ruined library. Slowly, Bowser picked himself up and checked the ruins for hostels, but after a few moments decided it looked like they were in the clear. Neither Sans nor Mari had been particularly subtle, so the lack of flying skulls and bones made it highly unlikely either of them were in a position to cause an issue.

After toasting a suspicious looking bookshelf, he did not put it past the mimics to still be lurking around even after their hidey hole had been wrecked, Bowsers slowly stomped back towards the group as Nadia went through some character growth and then the skull heart made its tempting offer.

”Oh, yeah sure, you're totally trustworthy, not prone to backstabbing whatsoever. Take it from a guy who’s been in a fair share of evil team ups, you only do it if you know you can double cross them before they double cross you, and this little rat’s gonna get stab happy right off the bat” He said with unusually quiet venom as he swept his gaze over the ruins around where the heart was laying, and failing to find what he was looking for. When he realized he might never be able to find it ”HEY! WHERE’S MARIE’S SPIRIT YOU SPLINTER! TELL ME BEFORE I CRUSH YOU INTO DUST!” he demanded as he made a grab for the heart, looking more than willing to go through on his threat.

---

”Allies then,” Midna replied to the dwarf’s correcting of her- saying his friends weren't here, an unsurprising if a little sad thing to say. Then he scooted off, grappling up on top of Vah Naboris just before the lightning struck. It was fortunate she’d been watching him zip up onboard rather than her targets as she got only a little dazzled rather than straight up blinded again when the lightning struck its target.

”Ugh, finally… huh, not bad Vah” she complimented the giant construct, confident no one would over hear, as she squinted down the result of Vah Naboris’ thunderous introduction to the battle. It might not have killed very many of their foes, but the disarray it had thrown them into was more than enough to give the escapees time to breach the fence and start getting clear. They weren't out of the woods yet however. Even if that had killed all their foes, they’d still come back, keep harassing them and wearing them down till they were dust. They needed a solution. Sectonia’s plan to ice them was, Midna had to admit, ingenious, but she felt sticking around to try and pull it off on all of their enemies was an unnecessary risk. As was trying to destroy the room they kept coming out of. Either they’d have to push to it, very dangerous, or try and stomp it down with Vah Naboris, and Midna was loath to give them more time to work out how to knock the divine beast out of commission in the same way fox and co had when they’d first captured it.

Distance, she felt, was what would be best. The briefly mentioned briefcase and announcer Sectonia’s quick rundown of the situation had spoken about didn’t seem important enough to her to tackle right now. Neither were going anywhere as far as she knew, whereas who knew what was going down in the pyramid as they burned time out under the sun. Putting distance between them and the resurrection room would give them time to figure out if it was worth going back for. Or so Midna hoped.

The fastest way they were going to get out of here was, of course Vah Naboris, so she sent it to swing round behind the escapees, again, leaving space to avoid making them into flatbread and then called out to them from her lookoutspot, ”I’m setting the camel down. Hurry up and get on so we can ditch these hunting dogs!”

The giant construct did just as it was told, carefully strutting its way round and to the side of the escape’s route of flight before setting itself down just in time for them to be reaching it. The camels body angled at 45 degrees to their rout so that, once the last of the runners was out of the way, it could lower its neck down to to act as a wall, preventing anyone from getting to, or at least shooting at, their side of the camel while the yellow team mounted their getaway vehicle.

”Quick, up here!” Minda, who’d shadow hopped onboard again, called down, directing a massive glowing pointer finger towards a stairwell leading up one of the pagodas that the legs extended out of that would be the best way to get onboard.

”Now then, we should probably make sure we don't have any uninvited guests” She suggested, both to the Scout and to any fliers or fast climbers who were on hand to ripple borders. There was, after all, a slight flaw with her plan, in that while it meant that the team should be able to get onboard without being harassed, it also left the entrances on the other side open to be boarded by the Red and/or Blue teams, so they might need to kick some unwanted hitchhikers off before they made their escape.

In the all the madness and confusion that this battle of Lakeside had devulged into, Heavy must have looked like a calm cliff standing strong against the waves of war. Calm, or quite possible insanely calm. Bullets, explosions and whatnot whizzed past the Russian brute, richoceting off the sandstone collums and wooden scaffolding surrounding Heavy. Even death was starting to emminate before Heavy's eyes, even if said death was only temporary for the cowardly enemies which he had the pleasure of gunning down. He'd met death before, so he was scared.

Which was probably why he didn't feel that terrifying sensation of losing his life when he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Heavy grunted loudly, blood starting to slowly pour out of the gunshot wound now visible in his left shoulder. Well, perhaps a goo-wound was a better description, as a handful of organge goo dripped down from his vest. More annoyed than anything else, Heavy shouted at the enemy who'd gotten a shot at him, who must have been the Inkling. "You think you can ink me, tiny Inkling?"

Heavy's held in the trigger of his minigun, swining its many barrels in the general direction of Inkling who sprinted just as quick as friendly Scout, ready to turn her into Swiss cheese! It was with great confusion then once some sorts of ice monsters went after her. Heavy held his fire for a moment, turning around to see who commanded these tiny Siberian soldiers; It was the Queen herself, who for her reactionary stature, gave Heavy a good laugh and reason for joy. "Aha! Many thanks, Tzarinna Sectonia! Teach little Inkle Siberian strength!"

That still left the remainder of their enemies out to continue pushing Heavy and his friends back towards the mechanical camel. They were running out of time, space, and certainly ammo as Heavy hadn't seen any ammunition boxes floating around the battlefield. Heavy knew from just the weight of Sasha that he wouldn't be able to continue his suppressive fire for much longer. He needed a distraction, something to get their attention while he looked for ammo…

Said opportunity came like lighting from a clear sky, quite litterary. An attack of lightening struck down at several enemy mercenaries, throwing them around and giving their offensive a pause. "Good hit!" Heavy shouted over his shoulder, turning around to quickly look for any lucky drops for him. In the corner of his eye he could see it; The Box! Floating a foot over the ground and slowly spinning around, a wooden box marked by three bullets was just what Heavy desired. Heavy ran as fast he could over to it, once touching it with his hand instantly absorbing its contents in the form of many more bullets for Sasha to fill enemy team with lead. "Very good, time to bring more pain!"

Back to his designated mission then; Provide covering fire for friends and teammates to escape to the massive camel. A distant sound of gunfire came from what had once been Heavy's own side of the map, the RED battlements when a sniper round from The Cunning, striking Tora in the head with little to no damage. Heavy looked puzzled, but impressed at the furry little creature. Somehow it must have had some massive Health boost, or some kind of Übercharge. "Tora is strong little comrade! Heavy do approve!" Heavy told his new furried comrade, opening fire with Sasha on the now visible Cunning. Several bullets struck the now enemy, striking Cunning up against the wall.

They were still outnumbered, and their retreat was now fully called. Tora was swooped up by Poppi and run back to the Camel, while Heavy slowly stepped backwards while continuing giving covering fire. Way behind him, Heavy could hear another voice of a friend he had not seen before now, tiny Midna. She was calling them to climb onto the camel as fast as they could, as the camel itself kneeled down to allow their tactical retreat. For a moment Heavy remained steadfast, firing upon anything and everything that moved in front of him as more and more comrades fled to the camel mech. "Run for cover, comrades! I cover you…"

Heavy's comitted support was once again cut off by yet another sharp pain. This time a couple of bullets from the now re-spawned Spartan filled his torso, painfully dripping blood. It must have looked bad, for the sight of Heavy wounded must have reassured the enemy teams that they need not rush the camel. Too bad that out from his pocket, Heavy pulled out that culinary miracle that was Sandvich, biting into it with a deafening "Nom nom nom…nom nom…Moist and delicious! Hehahaha!" It must have been quite the wonder, for as Heavy turned around to make a run for the mech camel, Heavy's wounds were visible healing themselves.

Whatever confusion must have been sowed amongst Team Yellow was not visible in the enemy teams, probably quite aware of Heavy's healing ability. They rushed on after him, just as Heavy reached the mechanical camel and the remainder of his new comrades. Heavy climbed up onto the camel, glad that it included a stairwell which made it easier. Once onto the camel, Heavy smiled at his comrades and once again began firing his suppressive fire at the enemy team. "Time to get away then, yes? Heavy will try to keep enemy teams off camel!"

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---

Sephiroth brushed away the light dusting of ash that had gathered on his pauldron, watching the broken and devastated landscape unfurling before him with narrowed eyes. He had been loitering nearby for the last three weeks, having ventured here in the first place to find more things to kill in order to regain some measure of his former strength, and so far things had been going very well for him in that regard. There were plenty of enemies that had crawled their way out of the woodwork to assault him, though they were hardly a challenge as far as combat was concerned. Still what little fight they did put forth provided him with a welcome distraction from the uniform bleakness of the surrounding land. Of course a desire for combat was not the only thing that had brought him here. In truth the real reason he had ventured into the accursed depths of the Dead Zone was to figure out what had caused the library root to collapse.

He had heard the tower fall long before ever laying eyes on it, only managing to catch the last moments of its incredibly destructive end. Despite this, the tower's collapse had made things much plainer in his mind. There were other competent beings here, or at least beings who had risen above the beastly mannerisms put on display by the rabble he had spent so much of his time exterminating. Beings that could, if he pushed them just right, prove themselves to be of great use to him.

If they were not... well they would simply be removed, as all obstacles in his path inevitably were.

Flicking a stray strand of hair from his eyes, Sephiroth strode into the ruined valley below, a smirk etched across his immaculate face...

Sectonia, having taken one of the mercs out, and hopefully for a long, long time, moved to cover the others who were making their way to the now lowered Vah Naboris, its lighting striking and taking out a few other mercenaries although far more temporary than Sectonia's method due to their respawning abilities. Heavy called out to Sectonia, giving her his thanks for defending his flank. She didn't recognize the honorific he used, but considering his accent she figured it was something in his native tongue. Sectonia gave him a smug smile. It was around this time a shot rang out from a sniper, hitting Tora and damaging him. Sectonia thought they had no snipers, so this was a surprise to her as well and she turned towards him. However, giving up his position he got barraged by attacks from Heavy and Poppi, knocking him out cold or even killing him. "Hmph, serves him right." Sectonia said, laughing at the sniper as she flew, giving the others cover when she could.

Even with her cover though, Heavy got injured by a few stray shots. Wounded, he ran behind a wall as the others made their way onto the lowered Vah Naboris. Sectonia, sighing, flew down to help the others that were using heavy for cover. As she flew down low, she saw Heavy munching loudly on a sandwich. This confused Sectonia, but before she could yell at him to get going, he finished and his wounds healed nearly instantly which confused Sectonia even more. She then shrugged, saying. "So you have something like a Maximum Tomato as well it seems." As Heavy and the others got close to Vah Naboris, Sectonia looked over the battlefield to make sure no one else was missing and noticed Tora and Poppi making their way back as well. Sighing again, she made her way over to them to hurry them along, grabbing Tora if necessary so they could get out.

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



While Blazremate kept people from destabalizing from San's attacks, her cleansing ability doing more 'healing' than her outright healing them, her commrades who were still up focused on Marie like she commanded. While she was zooming over to make sure Linkle wasn't going to disintigrate, Dante, Ms. Fortune and Bowser joined up their attacks on the shadow Marie and the soul heart, destroying Marie in the process and cleansing the root they had come here to deal with. With the power of Marie no longer keeping the area together, the battleground they had fought on collapsed, although it only collapsed a few feet leading to the floor of the mimic library. "Ok, thats done. Lets get out of here before..." Blazermate said, healing Dante of the damage that Sans had left.

It was around this time Blazermate noticed that Sans was gone, but not only that, but the Soul heart was calling out to her and the other girls of the group. It promised them any wish, although before any of them could reply, Ms. Fortune explained what Marie's wish was, and what she had become. It was then the heart said "Marie's wish wasn't pure. A pure hearted wish will cause no corruption." Blazermate thought this over. "OK. A wish to protect your friends was IMPURE? Thats what I do every day! Darn, having a wish would be sooo cool. Maybe a spirit could..." Blazermate thought over the hearts offer, however before she could decide bowser spoke up, speaking frankly without yelling to the entire group. Bowesr only did that when he was dead serious, and he had a very serious look on his face when he said it. Bowser said that he knew how the 'evil team up' went, and didn't trust this heart at all at its word, before getting angry and attacking it yelling after not finding Marie's spirit.

That was a good point, where was Marie's spirit? This fact made blazermate think even more, and while she was very tempted by the skull heart, the fact that Marie had no spirit gave Blazermate some enlightenment about the situation. "Wait... Bowser. There was no Marie! The Skull Heart there ate her or something!" Blazermate was very, very unfamiliar with magic, so that was the best she could think of. And that was something she didn't want to happen to her. She'd rather have a spirit than a cursed object, at least she knew that even 'bad' spirits like her suffering arm shield were actually very nice when they became a spirit, and this wasn't a spirit.

"So uh, while you guys figure out what to do with that thing, I'll be making a teleporter. We need to get out of here before this place gets nuked. Worse comes to worse, we can leave that heart here to be nuked." Saying this, Blazermate summoned the Engineer and told him to remake the teleporter network and his dispenser so he could upgrade the teleporter faster. He proiritized these things, but he also made a sentry gun out of habit. Blazermate, having turned around to look away from the haert saw a strong person up on the hill descanting towards them. He looked a bit... too pretty. Like he came out of an anime and he dressed as such with one heck of along sword on his side. He didn't seem to be hostile, but seeing him Blazermate said "Hey guys, we got someone coming. Hes anime pretty, and doesn't look hostile. A friend of yours Dante?" she asked, pointing out the approaching Sephiroth.

”Yessss. So cool. I mean. Ok so the teeth are kinda weird. What is it with these things and teeth?” Jr asked as he quickly looked over the now bigger and badder pig. Tyrant had, coincidentally, gotten some freaky new dentures just like Mimikyu had out of the transformation process, but the main draw was the large gun mounted on his now deck like back. Not being pink anymore was also a plus for jr’s image, though the deathly pale white wasn’t the biggest improvement in the world over that.

”Ok let's see what you can do hey wow!” Jr said as he held Tyrant, only for the beast to wriggle in his grapes and in the process accidentally fire off his gun while attempting to escape. The shot ricocheted around the room, causing jr to lose a grip as he ducked for cover, letting the tyrant hop back down onto the floor.

”Careful! You could’ve hit me with that!” Jr admonished his minion, with Tyrant only looking a little apologetic about it. They were mostly confused by the whole ordeal.

”Whatever,” Jr sighed ” just go out and help Kamek”

Tyrant looked from his master to the open door from which the sound of battle was emanating and after weighing up its options looked inclined to decline the order. Jr frowned, but before he could get royal mad at this hint of insubordination he had an idea. Quickly rummaging through his car’s glove box he pulled out a small piece of candy and, with a dexterous claw, unwrapped it single-handedly to wave around in front of the beast's snout.

”You want this? You want it! Kamek catch!” Jr taunted the gluttonous pig with the treat before tossing it out at his magly minder. The small sweet flew through the air with a pitcher’s precision and bounced off the side of Kaemk’s head. The mage scrambled to catch the object, which had bounced up into the air and then turned to shout back at his ward only to see an excitable and drooling Tyrant trotting out of the airship after the tossed threat. The beast was noticeably bigger and a little ungainly on its feet thanks to its new ship-like parts, which gave Kamek just enough time to toss the sweet for Tyrant to catch to avoid being accidentally gored or shot by the creature if it tried to forcibly get it off of him.

”Well now, isn’t this interesting” Kamek said as he examined the mutated Baby Behemoth. Then, after a moment he grinned devilishly at the sweet scoffing creature.

As Jr had been doing his animal experimentation Kamek’s remaining clones had continued to do what they could to help fight the Princess, directed by their safely distant creator. One of the red mages fought valiantly against the bomber squadrons alongside Ranger’s fighters, only to be obliterated by the Princess’s scattershot bombardment, becoming its only casualty. The final two, one red one white, moved to Ranger’s side as she recovered from the blast. The white mage raised his staff and got straight to work cleansing the injuries she’d received from her near miss. It would have aided Sakura as well, but some power was preventing her from actually being wounded and, whatever it was, the mage had no way to help restore it.

The red clone which had had to pull out of the air duel to be healed and thus avoided being exploded joined it by Ranger’s side just in time for the princess to show off her plane spawning stamina, throwing out a wave of bombers that sailed forth free from any retaliatory fighter harassment. Sakura hucked a a swarm of mini fireballs at them and the red mage joined in, using the small amount of mana Kamek had regenerated to launch out a seeking fire shot using the fire materia, before switching to the wand of Hopus Pocus to pull lines of playing card suits up out under the bombers. They were about to switch again to the tentacle spike for a last ditch charge when a hail of bullets suddenly hammered down, sweeping through the bomber squadron before the stream arched round to suppress the Princess herself.

The source of this fire swept by, revealing itself to be Kamek, holding Tyrant under one arm like a football. A toady was having to aid in this, flying alongside the mage hand holding the pig the waist, because Tyrant’s size had been increased yet again. He had been buffed to be 50% bigger than he already was by the mage and, thus, the shots he was firing from his back mounted light machine gun were also 50% larger. As a byproduct of being touched by the magic and logic of Kamek’s world however, they were also a little bit slower, indeed they were visible to the naked eye as they flew, but this made them no less deadly.

The mage ended his strafing run and swept skywards again, circling out and away. Behind him, Jr was already pulling the airship around and away, getting the larger target out of range of the Princess’ ire while Kamek’s remaining toadies dived down to grab the incapacitated Abyssal fleet member, relying on the fleeing fighters to acted as a distraction or, worst come to worst, they'd act as a distraction themselves to help the others get away.

If even Sakura was deciding that retreat was their best option, then neither Koopa was inclined to get bogged down in the fight any longer.

Geralt pushed through the water, collecting Spirits as he went. Anything he could grab without slowing himself down too much, he did. The disparity in power between himself and the others, especially when it came to long-ranged encounters, was beginning to grow. Hopefully his newest acquisitions would help bridge that gap, but Geralt wasn't one to rest on his laurels, or to wait and see if things would work themselves out.

They rarely ever did, anyway. Take, for example, this underwater current dragging the Spirits out to the Bottomless Sea. Sure, he now had an explanation for just how the Abyssal Fleet seemed to be endless, but it would just be a war of attrition for the Lominscuttle Fleet to stop the flow of Spirits and prevent themselves from being slaughtered while doing so. The Abyssals had the advantage of their lack of care for their individual minions- a hundred to kill a single Shipgirl would be a worthy price, since most if not all of them would just float back if not grabbed. And trawling the depths for Spirits would make whomever was doing it a prime target, after all.

However, one thing did seem to work out for him: one of the Spirits that drifted close to him was from one of the Ship girls. He snatched that Spirit up without any delay, knowing that the Spirits of these...sailors...would be much stronger than anything else he'd find here.

Tempted as he was to absorb it then and there, his experience with the Enderman spirit gave him pause. There would be downsides associated with absorbing the essence of another into himself, and in the middle of a fight like this, it might be unwise to do so without some knowledge of what those downsides would be.

Stashing away the Shpigirl's Spirit in a pouch with the others, Geralt stopped when he saw the...creature...in front of him, guiding the Spirits through the currents. He watched the thing dance through the current, almost mesmerized for a moment, before turning away from it and swimming on a more roundabout course towards the fight between Sakura and the Pale Shipgirl monster. He did not want to fight that thing too, especially not underwater. What he grabbed would have to be enough- they had their evidence, anyway. The Abyssal Fleet was recovering the Spirits of their dead, and presumably reviving them. He wouldn't be surprised if they were turning the Shipgirls into the stronger members of their army, as well.

He hoped that wasn't the case, for their sake.

---

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The former SOLDIER made his way down the uneven path in a graceful yet determined manner, the tail of his coat fluttering out behind him as he went. About a minute of walking later and he was there, standing before the group with his arms crossed as he surveyed the site of their scuffle, his eyes raking over each of the group's members in slow succession. First among them was an oddly feminine machine, one whose function he couldn't ascertain, at least not for the time being anyway.

Alongside her-or it rather-were a handful of similarly strange creatures, the most noticeable of which was a large draconic beast that had seemingly been crossed with a turtle, or had ancestors that were at some point down the line. Aside from them the only other individuals of note were a rather ordinary looking man hammering away on some smaller machines, his garb reminiscent of that worn by those blue collared grunts who'd built the mako reactors for Shinra, and a white haired woman clad in a weathered old jacket. One that was stained a deep, almost bloodlike, red. Shifting his gaze once more, Sephiroth's eyes came to rest on the flaming heart-shaped skull floating a few feet above the center of the platform on which they were all stood, a skull that was currently being berated by the dragon-turtle from earlier.

Stepping forward, he strode past the other members of the oddly mixed group to approach the Skull Heart from the dragon-turtle's left. It was quite the odd looking thing to be sure, and completely unlike anything he'd seen on Gaia, but other than that it only seemed to carry the appearance of power. All bark and no bite, at least as far as a cursory examination revealed anyway.

"Curious..."

He circled around to the other side of the skull, coming face to face with the much larger and far more imposing Bowser, though he did not look at him. Not immediately anyway, his focus still very much fixed on the floating skull itself.

"Very curious indeed."

@Archmage MC, @Dawnrider, and @DracoLunaris

Thanks to the combined covering fire of Heavy's unending barrage from below and the Scout's rifle from above, Yellow Team and their new friends made it to the belly of the descended Vah Naboris in once piece. The stairwell Midna helpfully pointed out for them provided entry, and they hurried up it as bullets whizzed off the divine beast's stony exterior around them. By the time a few of the REDs and BLUs made it across Lakeside's borderline, Vah Naboris was already starting to rise to its full height once more. No amount of gunfire seemed liable to make it reconsider, either, but Midna could make sure that nobody would be boarding with a little blast of lightning.

With a cheer Tora jumped out of Poppi's arms and danced around the newcomers, bouncing and spinning. “Hooray! Wherever Tora and Poppi go, always make it out okay, and make new friends along the way!” Pleased with his rhyming, the lyrically-gifted Nopon sprang up to high five Braum with his wing, then Heavy, then Medic, finally stopping in front of Blue Poison. “Meh, meh! Even find super crossbow cuteypon!”

The operator blinked twice. “Please do not feel any need to treat me differently from the others.”

With an awkward laugh, Tora got his last high five and quickly moved on. Poppi jabbed him in the nose with her finger. “Don't go overboard just yet, Masterpon. Even though things go well for us, Phantom Thieves still in pyramid!”

Tora looked over at Midna. “Tora guess we just go over there, then?” He perked up as he remembered something, making his voice into a loud whisper. “Meh, meh! Tora thinks now would be good time to...you know!” He made a heart shape with his wings, then pointed toward the newcomers.

Poppi looked over. Unfortunately, the Medic had already healed everyone up. “Er, new friends not...susceptible.” She glanced at Fox and Sectonia. “Any ideas?” With Primrose and the Phantom Thieves still out, there were five newcomers and exactly five Yellow Team members. Something could conceivably be done.



After being hurtled clear of the danger zone by Seaplane Tender's barrage, Ranger managed to recover enough both to hear Sakura and act on it. She threw the girl a worried expression, clearly wary of anyone being able to take on the Water Princess alone, but she couldn't deny that Sakura's results so far spoke for themselves. Besides, she could show her thanks for a second chance better by trusting her new ally rather than throwing that chance away or risking another ally's death. “Okay!” she called after a moment, taking off toward Geralt. Behind she left a furious and hazardous low-altitude battle between her fighters and the Abyssal's seaplanes, but if she thought projectiles were flying now, she hadn't seen anything yet.

Sakura resolved to give the trigger-happy Abyssal a taste of her own medicine. While Seaplane Tender scowled at the girl's taunt, working out her self-inflicted dizziness, Sakura engaged her V-Trigger and started blasting. Hadokens surged across the water, faster than before. The Water Princess' remaining bombers sallied forth to meet them only to be blown out of the sky. More fireballs, and a salvo of cannon fire, shot from the smoke their explosions left behind. Seaplane Tender started to move, strafing sideways. Expected gunfire from the Atomos harried her, further fragmenting her concentration Her tail rose, its vile maw agape and ready to bring the pain, but fire blossomed beneath her. “Hnng!” The torpedoes' detonation ripped and burnt, sending the Water Princess reeling, but she managed to avoid falling as she accelerated sideways.

She tried to get her bearing, knowing that a single solid shot from her tail could reduce this blasted shipgirl to chunks, but Sakura would not let her rest. The Abyssal knew she couldn't fight effectively on two disparate fronts. If she could just focus and get rid of one enemy, whatever the cost...gritting her teeth, Seaplane Tender enraged and began to glide forward. She deployed bombers ahead of her to try and block Sakura's shots, but even if they stopped her cannon fire her Hadokens plowed straight through. The Water Princess pushed through it all. “Sink! SINK NOW!” With a final effort she pushed through, her tail lashing out to tear Sakura limb from limb, but its hideous teeth found no purchase, nor satisfaction greater than a glancing blow. Instead the Water Princess found a rock-hard fist interjected into her abdomen, its force squashing her lungs and making her eyes bug out. “KUH!” Her hat flew off as she sailed through the air, slamming down hard on the ocean's surface.

For a moment the wounded Abyssal lay on the water, her tail writhing as she stared blankly at the sky. “Cold...it's cold...I don't...want to go to...dark places.” Rolling over, she got to her feet with the help of her tail. It lay half-submerged on the surface, like a ship taking on water. “Cold thoughts...and dark thoughts...I don't want them...” The head of her tail croaked as it opened wide, water dripping from its teeth, to take aim at Sakura once again.



As she waited, Peach happened to think back to Vandham's explanation of how the newly founded Alcamoth Mercenaries would function, as well as the creature assigned to carry messages for her. Tentatively she cleared her throat, and after making sure Captain Brineybeard wasn't listening, spoke to the empty air. “Moogle! I want to talk about missions!”

Sure enough, a puff of smoke went off before her, and when the sea breeze blew the haze away Peach saw that her Moogle had appeared. For some reason it was carrying some sort of drink, which it offered to her. Part of her wanted to make an unbecoming squealing sound at how cute it was, but part of her also wanted to strangle herself for thinking that in the first place, so she settled for crossing her arms and addressing it stiffly. “Can I initiate missions?”

“Yup!” The fuzzy critter chirped.

Peach took a sip of the drink, finding it pleasantly mellow. “What missions are there, again?”

Without delay the Moogle produced a list, as well as a pair of tiny reading glasses. “Let's see...looks like both of the recruitment missions wrapped up, so we've really got a bunch of people standing around! As for choices, you've got 'Main Man', 'New Age of Pizza', 'Territorial Rotbart', 'Connecting the Hamlet', 'Techno Revolution', and a whole bunch of scouting missions all over! Anything sound good?”

Peach sighed, thinking. “Some of those names don't really explain what the mission is about. But 'Main Man' is the one to find Mario, right? And I remember the Hamlet. Those pigs seemed like good people, and the thought of their entire village just...disappearing sometime this week doesn't sit well. Let's do those.”

“Yes, ma'am!” The Moogle did a backflip in the air, sending his glasses flying. They sailed over the railing and into the ocean with a plop that was scarcely audible. A new pair manifested anyway. “So, who're you sending?”

“Who've we got?” Peach countered.

Her assistant listed out the mercenaries by rank, and it took a while. “That's...quite a few,” Peach muttered to stall for time, trying to remember who might have the skills for the jobs. Unfortunately she didn't even know them all. “Well...for Main Man, let's do Din, Mym, Junkrat, and Roadhog. Three of them fought alongside Mario at the start. Mym has extra firepower and can fly them around. Well, I hope she will, at least.” She recalled hearing that Mym only let people other than her 'darling' ride her when he insisted. “Maybe Euden instead of Junkrat, then. As for the Hamlet job, we need people who can build...” She spent longer than she would have liked trying to figure out a lineup. “Knuckles, Mewtwo, King Dedede, and...Shovel Knight, I guess. Plenty of strength, able to move materials and shape the terrain. A shame we don't have anyone who really knows how to build around.”

The Moogle scratched his head. “Huh. I heard that Steve guy was an expert builder, though...”

Peach coughed loudly. “Ahem! Of course, of course. I just wanted to make sure you knew your stuff. I mean...I wasn't going to try to get Mewtwo to do menial tasks, anyway! Knuckles, Dedede, Shovel Knight, and Steve. That'll do.” With a cheery nod the messenger disappeared again, carrying away her orders. Peach exhaled deeply. “Ugh. I need to get in touch with the mercenaries. What kind of leader doesn't know this kind of stuff!?”

She turned her gaze back to sea, wondering what was keeping Ace Cadet. Or Cuphead, for that matter. Hopefully they hadn't run into trouble.



Inevitably, all eyes fell on the Skull Heart, it was unearthed from the light debris that sheltered it initially to all but Nadia, and now its ethereal blue glow lit the faces of all present. It made its proclamations, sparking conflicting thoughts. Having learned from his feral friend the promise of the Skull Heart earlier, Nero turned his attention elsewhere while he let Nadia have her moment.

He checked up on all the team members as they approached, confirmed with a stone face who did and did not survive the fight. For all the injury inflicted, casualties were low, but low was not enough. He pictured the features of the stolid man who'd aided them, silently lending all his strength to the campaign of strangers. Raidou's spirit lay somewhere among the rubble, he knew. The devil hunter put a hand on V's shoulder, trusting that Blazermate's healing had stabilized him. He didn't know how hard the medibot looked, but he figured the mysterious one could do her one better. “We need to find the fallen spirits.”

V nodded. “Griffon and Shadow are searching.”

Nero's search turned up a couple others as well. In the eerie light emanating from the Skull Heart he spotted the face of the skeleton Marie summoned, sitting on a pile of dust-caked volumes and shelf splinters. He certainly looked harmless, winded and sweating despite being a skeleton, but after what he pulled during the fight Nero wasn't about to let his guard down. He also saw Mr. Bones climb up from beneath the debris, and another skeleton he couldn't remember having actually lifted a finger during the battle. No other dead remained, either around the ruins or beyond, at least as far as he could see. Hmm. He would have figured that the spectacle would bring zombies running from miles away, but hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all that.

He zeroed back in on the dilemma at hand. Bowser looked mad, as one might expect, but for all his threats the Skull Heart looked unfazed. It didn't look like it could display emotion, even. Rather than respond to him, its resonant voices reached out for the others. “Do not allow this brute to extinguish this flame of hope. Of opportunity.”

A new voice responded. Nero's eyebrows shot up when he spotted the strange man. He said nothing, but seeing Sephiroth's weapon, put a hand on his own. For his part, the long-haired swordsman seemed to shut everything out but the Skull Heart, but what little action he took made his intentions incredibly unclear.

The unspoken question became moot when a hand closed around the Skull Heart, pulling it close. Its light shone upward on a pretty face framed by long strawberry-blonde hair and rabbit ears, her pretty features turned to seriousness. Linkle looked at her teammates in turn. “Now hold on, hear me out. It's pretty obvious that making a bad wish with this thing can mess you up, but what I have in mind is for the good of us all. And even if I suffer, isn't going through pain for the sake of others part of the job? For a hero, I mean.” She put her other hand over her own heart. “I'm not afraid. Even if it hurts, even if I'm forgotten, or I forget myself, I'll shoulder the consequences. Because that's what heroes do!”

Her allies reached out their collective hands, a number of voices speaking out at once.

“Wait!”

“You sure you don't wanna think some more about this, kid?”

“Didn't you hear Marie? She thought her wish was pure!”

“Take it from us, toots: you don't need some macguffin to be a hero!”

“Hold on a second!”

“chances are you're gonna have a bad time.”

Linkle shook them off, flipping away to land atop a collapsed staircase. “Skull Heart!” She called out. “I wish for the strength to save all worlds, and only for as long as it takes to save them!”

A pulse of spine-chilling energy radiated outward, forcing away anyone near her. “Your wish is pure...” the Skull Heart reverberated. “Almost. You wish to bring restoration and peace, yet you also wish for the mantle of the hero. You covet that status, ever the lot of the one you admire. Your charity is stained by greed—your compassion tinged with envy.”

Linkle clutched her heart, stricken with pain. “N-no, I...but...”

“You will command unbelievable strength, such that could very well bring about the restoration of the worlds, as the next Skullgirl.”

The Skull Heart disappeared, and Linkle doubled over. Her eyes radiated infernal crimson, a far cry from the sunset glow of Galeem, and white spread across her hair. “No...matter...what you say, I'll still do the...the right...thing! Gaaaaaaah-!”

At the height of her scream, there came a white flash, and the whole scene was frozen in time. From the shadows stepped a figure in black, a camera in his hand, who climbed up beside Linkle and motioned for calm. “Good evening, ladies and gentleman!” he called out in the lightly accented English the Red Team members had come to expect. “I know this must be quite the shock, and you want to deal with it, but you must understand this is not on the itinerary. You've got an appointment with the Qliphoth after all, now that the city's conveniently dead-free. No Skullgirl, no shambling undead to trigger an...ah, what was it that man said...a voidout? Well then, I'll just get this young lady out of your hair, hmm?” With a chuckle, he placed a hand on Linkle's shoulder, and a well of darkness sprang into being that swallowed them both. Just like that, Santofex and the new Skullgirl were gone, and the time field dispersed along with the last traces of the dark portal.

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Sephiroth blinked as the skull disappeared from sight, the tinniest wisps of darkness the only indication anything had ever been there. Tilting his head to the side slightly, he pondered the matter for a bit, but found himself unable to arrive at any concrete conclusions other than the fact that someone or something must have spirited the thing away. Twas a shame that was too. He had been looking forward to seeing what manner of despair the girl's hubris could have brought about before that dream had been swiftly crushed. Still his investigations had not been entirely in vain. Now he knew the leanings of those around him at the very least. They were most certainly a heroic bunch if one of their own had been so willing to sacrifice themselves, not to mention tightly-knit given their reactions. Two weaknesses that could prove invaluable in any future interactions he might have, at least as far as manipulation was concerned. His observations had also taught him a bit more about the skull itself. The object did carry some manner of corruptive power it seemed, all of which appeared to be contingent on a wish, the success or failure of which was apparently determined by desires hidden deep within the supplicants heart.

In other words, make a wish that was pure and everything turned out fine. Make one that wasn't though, and you got possessed. The only problem with that premise was that no one was pure. Everyone had a hidden motive or selfish desire, well everyone except him that is. Such was simply the lot of lesser beings after all. Still, it was quite the simple yet devious little artifact, one that almost brought a smile to his lips with just how cunning its functions really were.

"Self-sacrifice. Truly the greatest folly a person can have..."

He lifted his gaze to look upon them all.

"You would be wise to abandon it."

Kasugano Sakura nodded to Ranger as she agreed with her plan. Good. Now, all she had to do was chase of Seaplane Tender with the help of Junior and Kamek. The Atomos had a crew full of ranged support, and Kamek's little wizard clone was floating around and taking pot shots. "Yeah!" Sakura cheered as the Water Princess was tossed butt over tea-kettle by a torpedo. Sakura was feeling confident that the outnumbered and surely tired Water Princess would decide to disengage for now.

But that didn't happen. Her fireballs, even empowered by Haru Arashi, were not being respected by the Water Princess. She elected to treat them like they were nothing and surge forward. This greatly reminded her of her fight with Zangief, who also made this mistake. Only this wasn't a big enthusiastic russian guy who would probably get her to try some vodka afterwards. This was real evil. In the back of her mind Sakura was secretly regretting telling Ranger to leave. Her heart rate sky-rocketed with fear. Nonetheless, Sakura had people counting on her. She had to be brave! Any second now the Water Princess would back off!

Sakura's teeth grit harder and harder and her eyes got wider and wider as the Water Princess pushed forward. Her new tail stood on end and her cat ears were aggressively perked. Through it all! She was just tanking all of it! Sakura knew her fireballs were having an effect. But that didn't make the Seaplane Tender's approach any less terrifying. The street fighter's arms pumped back and forth like the wheels of a locomotive.

(Is she crazy!? Did insulting her hat send her into some kind of rage mode!? Just leave us alone! Why does she want me to sink so bad?!)

Faster and faster. The less fireballs she had out at once, the more she could fire. "Hado! Hado! Hado Hado Hado UH OH!" Sakura yelled out as the ravenous biting tail came swooping in amongst the veritable firestorm she had created. She bit her lower lip in anticipation. She had to time this just right!

"SHOUOKEN! Right there!" She spent a bar of her EX meter. Sakura zoomed forward with a flash of energy. The fist connected. It hit hard. Sakura hadn't thought about it, but this was the first time she had used an EX move on someone with no Ki like her. There was no spark of defensive energy. This wasn't just cosmetic damage that could be healed with a good night's rest. She was inflicting serious bodily harm on someone. It didn't feel good the way hitting another street fighter did. Her fist sunk like a rock into the enemy shipgirl's belly. It pushed the air out of her lungs and she felt her knuckles compress internal organs until they jostled out of position.

But she committed anyway, out of resolve, and out of muscle memory. The Water Princess was knocked away and Sakura landed expertly in a spinning descent. Sakura felt violent. In a way she never had before.

The Seaplane Tender was brought low by this hit. She was saying strange, delusional things that made Sakura uneasy. Sakura briefly let her guard down, mouth forming a sympathetic 'o', eyes shimmering with guilt. Seaplane Tender didn't even have her hat anymore. Sakura didn't actually think the hat looked stupid- she was just saying that to hurt the Water Princess's feelings. If this was a real street fighter, with rules and rounds and honor, then this fight would be over. Habit took over. Sakura took a tentative step back and began to turn away from the downed Abyssal fighter. She wanted to go back to her new friends.

These thoughts were pushed quickly out of her head. It wasn't over. That horrible toothy maw rose up and began to take aim. Even now, that Seaplane Tender wanted to kill and murder. Guilt became obscured by frustration.

"Stop it, idiot!" Sakura cut her hand across the air in a definitive 'it's over' motion. "I win!" She declared childishly. Sakura's fighting instinct pushed her back into battle. Besides, if she ran away, this Water Princess would just shoot her in the back.

Sakura spent her last EX bar to charge up a viscous fireball. It exploded forth with tremendous speed and power. Outperforming even the ones she had just been using. It was aimed right at that drooling tail mouth. It would impact, rolling and pushing against the tail for almost a full second, before detonating.

She used it to cover her advance. The teenager dashed forward. Once in range she did a chin buster kick, her flexible leg going nearly 180 degrees. "Uriyah!" Her kiai became wordless shouts of focused breathing. She followed it up with a elbow strike to the same spot she had just Shouoken'd. At this point the impact of her blows would have pushed her and the Seaplane Tender apart.

"Sore!" She took a step forward and did a standing medium kick right into her ribs. Sakura's hips twisted in an elegant, artistic way to maintain both balance and force. She shot her left fist downward and brought her right hand close to her body. All of it so she could strike with as much force as possible in a moment, and then bring her foot back down to the surface of the water to maintain balance.

Another step forward, a crouch, and then fierce uppercut into the Water Princess's body. Sakura shot off her feet and span around. "Shunpu!" One hard back kick across the face. Sakura landed on one foot and kept the spin going. It smoothly transitioned into a spinning leg sweep, Sakura maintaining perfect balance on only the toes of her left foot.

Her sweep was a graceful 360. She shot her right foot outwards in the low, knee-breaking side kick that would sweep an unprepared fighter off balance. Sakura was learning that going up against opponents without Ki was different. This Water Princess was tougher and stronger than any martial artist she had ever met, but she lacked just that- true martial artistry. That was the reason reason Ryu could destroy a car in seconds, and then use those same attacks on Ken who walked away with a bloody nose.

The Water Princess was just muscle, bone, and machinerey. Things Sakura could... break. And overpower. It didn't feel good. Dread began to well up in her heart. She feared the Seaplane Tender would keep pushing the fight until it reached a final conclusion. She had to push these thoughts out of her mind, too, for the battle wasn't over yet.

(Please just stay down!) Sakura silently pleaded. It was an onslaught of strikes. Combos didn't seem to work against the towering Water Princess, so Sakura was just trying to be as unpredictable as possible. No more jump ins and grab attempts- just strikes. Sakura didn't like the idea of inflicting internal bleeding, but she had to do what was most effective. Six seconds of offense: EX fireball aimed at her tail cannon, followed up with a chinbuster kick. An elbow, a standing medium kick, followed by a crouching uppercut into a spinning kick into a spinning leg sweep. This was no time to be defensive.

With a final thundercrack of deterring lightning the pursuers were seen off, and the escapees were allowed to board Vah Naboris in relative safety. As soon as they were, Midna pulled it up and made the titanic stone beast trot away as fast as it could, leaving the pursuers, who fortunately did not figure out its weakness, in the dust.

”Well, that’s that. We’re safe,” Midna announced, though she kept a mental eye on the remaining lapdogs, just in case they turned out to be a persistent kind of hunters. Overall, things had gone rather well. They’d gotten in, liberated a competent looking gang of mercenaries, and gotten out without a search. Despite this, part of Midna’s mind disliked the hands off, some might even say dishonorable, way she’d participated in the fight. Or more that she’d hardly participated at all. Which is why she practically lept at the suggestion that they go help the Thieves.

”Then we ride for the pyramid!” She replied to the suggestion, then caught herself, coughed and then said more levelly ”Primrose went in to check on them before your, ah, negotiations broke down. Might be good to check on her.” Midna’s concern came off as forcibly offhanded, the impish princess looking away and raising a palm as she did so, before turning her gaze back to the newcomers.

”So. Who are you all anyway? I’m Midna, the Princess of the realm of Twilight by the way” She introduced herself as she settled down on a the pile of gears and other things Sectonia had found, lounging regally on it as she examined the people that they, or rather the others, had risked life and limb to free. There was the dwarf, of course, and joining him was a cute young crossbow wielding girl who Tora was getting all flustered over. In sharp contrast to her was an incredibly muscular and handsomely mustached giant of a man who was carrying nothing but a massive shield and wearing practically nothing above the waist. Midna found herself biting her lip as she admired his bare muscled chest before forcing herself to move on before she made a fool of herself like Tora had.

Finally there was the heavy set heavy weapon and finger gun wielding bald man who’d been instrumental to getting the group out and a bespectacled gentleman (who stood out among the other men they’d picked up as being the only one with hair on his scalp) who’d fixed up the whole squad with an odd set of contraptions contraption he carried and wore on his back. That had solved the team’s earlier issue about needing a healer, Midna noted, but did make freeing the newcomers a problem for later. They’d figure it out, Midna was sure, though she made a mental note to ask about how working with those under the influence worked in a more subtle way than Tora had suggested hearting them.

”and what are you hoping to get out of this?” she also asked, both genuinely curious and wanting to separate the wheat that would be useful to the cause from the chaff that had its own goals and aims in mind.

As the fighter and the princess duked it out, Kamek’s toadies snuck around them both and found the sleepingabyssal ship who had been knocked out by The End’s tranquilizer dart. The lightly clad ship lay on her back, drifting across the waves and snoring up a storm. The constructs glanced at each other and then carefully grabbed her by her metal parts. With one toady carrying each massive shield gauntlet and the third gripping the metal components grafted into her spine the abyssal ship girl was ungracefully hauled skywards and then back towards the Blue Team’s ship and the toadie's awaiting master.

Kamek himself had swung back to the deck of the Atomos after strafing the princess with pig iron fire. The peeved pig themselves had been set down, because Sakura had once again gotten into close quarters, and who could blame her, she was tearing it up there. Kamek had initially been sure she’d reengaged because the sight of the ‘sinking’ ship girl had drawn her back in to end the battle in a victory rather than a tactical retreat, but as he watched, he saw that she might not be willing to do what needed to be done. Indeed, she even seemed to try and walk away at one point, as if the monster’s wounded and dilapidated state meant that she’d won, only for the ship-girl to attack and draw her back in, the abyssal vessel unwilling, indeed unable, to surrender or retreat.

”Stop holding back and finish this,” the old mage called out to her ”because she won’t surrender! She won’t retreat! She can’t! That is Galeem’s curse!”

---

”Ate, what do you mean ate...” Bowser asked Blazermate when she suggested that the skull heart had devoured Marie’s spirit. Then, thinking about how the thing’s voice sounded like a multitude of woman all speaking as one, the king thought he got it and demanded that ”YOU BETTER COUGH HER UP RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I’LL HAVE PEACH RIP MARIE OUT OF YOU” or perhaps it would be accurate to say he'd thought of a more optimistic idea of what she meant. Sadly, he wouldn't have the opportunity to find out if his idea would have worked.

The Skullheart wasn’t the only they had on their issue either. Blazermate reminded them that they were on a timer till an antimatter blast ripped the city apart, and she clearly wanted to skip town and let the countdown roll by from a safe distance. The king wasn't inclined to disagree with this plan, as far as he knew there wasn't any reason to risk racing that clock, so her constructing of the teleporter back out of this wretched place and back to safety was more than welcome and got a nod of approval from him.

The third thing on their plate was the arrival of Sephiroth, the dead zone once again proving itself to be full mostly of horrifying monsters and anime pretty boys, though the latest arrival spice things up by being both at the same time. He also made Bowser comment about villainous team ups extra timely, though neither of these facts were immediately clear.

Not that Sephiroth made any attempts to hide them, casually strolling in and among the group without a hint of courtesy or concern about his own safety among strangers to get a look at the skull heart. Even Bowser could read the “evil dangerous creep alert” written all over his actions and words.

”WOW, HEY, BACK OFF BUDDY. MAJOR CURSE ON THAT THING YOU DO NOT WANT TO- WAIT LINKLE NO!” Bowser tried to reach out and take the heart before anyone, especially their new guest could, but disastrously Linkle naively thought she knew what she was doing and snatched it up for herself.

”I AM SERIOUS, IT’LL EAT YOU UP, DON’T DO IT!” Bowser added his booming voice to the others, trying to grab the heart again only for the nimble hylian to dodge away from them all and make her wish. It went about as well as everyone expected.

Exactly as Bowser had predicted, the Skull heart took all of a single heartbeat to stab the hopeful hero in the back, finding a tiny selfish chink in her noble wish and using it as an excuse to inflict its corruption. The king tried to force himself forward all the same, not actually knowing what he’d do if he did manage to reach Linkle, only for another hooded figure to step out of the shadows and freeze Linkle right before the transformation could finish.

The member of Organization XIII, not that Bowser actually remembered the name of the hooded meddlers he had Kamek for that kind of thing, stole the limelight of the dramatic event, freezing everyone just long enough for him to dictate what they should be doing next before stealing Linkle away into one of his ilks now quintessential portals. Time returned, but the shock of everything that had just happened wasn't something Bowser could unpack in an instant, leaving the newly arrived Sephiroth plenty of time to be a smug snake about what had just occurred.

Bowser ground his teeth, his claws bared, his brow shaking and his eyelid twitching before he turned all of his built up ire about the current situation on Sephiroth.

”WE GET IT. YOU’RE EVIL, YOU DON’T NEED TO LAY IT ON SO THICK! WHO. EVEN. ARE. YOU?” Bowser stomped right up to the man and then jabbed a blunt edge of a claw into Setheroth’s chest to punctuate his question before telling him that ”YOU KNOW WHAT, IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER WHO YOU ARE, IN GALEEM’S WORLD YOUR JUST SOME TWO BIT DIME A DOZEN FAILURE WHO CAN'T EVEN-” the koopa king faltered ”Who can’t even… GRAAAAAAAH!”

Bowser’s rage echoed across the desolate city as he roared at the sky. Then, as was his want, he did something incredibly stupid. He tried to punch Sephiroth right in his beautiful smug face.