Linkle jumped as the ice rushed toward her, kicking off the back of the bar for extra height and letting it rush off underneath her. She landed only to watch in amazement and horror as all her bolts were simply expelled, pushed out by what looked like the glow of the wild mans tattoos. In just a moment his skin was as unmarred as that of a newborn baby. That cheater. They weren't supposed to be able to do that. Only Blazermate should be able to do that.
At his taunt Linkle pulled a bottle a viscous green liquid from a pouch on her belt, quickly chugging the whole thing in two big gulps and placing the bottle back. She could feel the potion swirling in her guts, conveying an internal supply of magic to whatever organ you kept your magic in. She had a feeling she was going to need to whip that out at some point. Even if she wanted to abandon the fight, she couldn't. She had seen how fast he was, there was no doubt the Stranger would overtake her if she tried and he had no reason to let her leave.
"Always." She replied, putting her crossbows away. Then, instead of charging at him, she clasped her hands in front of her and slammed them into the ground like he had. Her hair flashed blue again as a wave of ice similar to his shot at him. Linkle didn't stop, she jumped to her feet and began moving back while shooting icicles at him from her palms. The ice had better range than her bows and she needed that as she moved away, into the snowfield around the town. Those wouldn't hurt him, she was pretty sure of that. That didn't matter. She wanted to draw him off. Away from Snowdin so he couldn't put her through any more poor buildings or the people that lived in them.
Only just now thinking about did she find it strange. She felt like she should be in much more pain from being punched through a building.
Sakura scooted out of the room after he knocked, which was a little risky he thought, to thank him.
”Yeah yeah I was pretty” he began to brush it off/gloat before he was suddenly hauled into the air, quickly spun around and put down again right where he’d been standing, left blinking and a little disoriented by the sudden rotation. He was going to complain before being bombarded by a quick rundown of the Abyssal's progress in self identity, namely their names, and a quick reassurance that he wasn't the only one who’d forgotten the ship girl who had introduced them to the city. Stopsire? Shophire? jr realized he had forgotten her name already. He blamed the spinning.
At least Bella and Rika were shorter and easier to remember so he made an effort to not be embarrassed again, repeating them over and over as he wandered over to the command console of the bridge and then found the bay door controls, thumbing the button and then waiting for them to slowly close back up.
“Oh ok” Rika replied simply when told that they would have to keep hiding, but also that they wouldn't have to hide like that, (what would you call that, double hiding? She wasn’t sure) again which was a relief. She didn't really follow a lot of what was talked about next. Bella’s speaking about being alone among the legion did make much sense to her. She would be with people, how could she be alone, the ship though not understanding she was talking about how it would feel to go back rather than what the physical reality would be. Then she nodded automatically when the princess, even though she had a name now Rika still thought of her as a Princess, someone she should follow, said she wanted to go/stay with Sakura despite the danger that would entail.
It wasn't like she didn't want to follow Sakura either. Baring the gradually more uncomfortable feeling confinement and the brief bit of stressful hiding things had been nice so far. It was just that if the princess had decided to do anything else she would have done the same.
She didn't get what Ranger and Sakura’s conversation about spirits and using them being disrespectful meant in the slightest so she just rocked her torso back and forth, which relieve the boredom for some reason, admired the pig boat resting in her lap and listened without trying to hard process what was being said, just letting the sound of them talking was over her. One thing did stand out however and that was that they were talking about ships as if they stayed gone after they were killed which didn't sound right to her. She’d just kind of assumed that when she or someone else sunk the navy’s ships they came back the same as she had. But then again, had she ever seen any of the ones that had died again? She wasn't sure, she hadn't exactly had a reason to keep track, but she was not enjoying this line of thinking, which made Sakura’s call to exercise very welcome as it meant she could focus on that instead of her own thoughts. She eagerly got up to join in in this ‘exercise thing’, which caused two things to go wrong in quick succession.
Outside junior was just finishing shutting the door when he heard Sakura’s call to get in on something. Having nothing better to do, he turned to go join the girls when he hear a squeal from Tyrant, who was not happy about being dislodged from his resting spot on Rika’s lap when she got up unexpectedly, followed by some apologizing from the girl who’d forgotten about him in her urgency to stop reflection on the nature of death. Then, when he was about to open the door, there was another almighty clang as the cruiser tried to copy one of Sakura’s moves and banged a massive gauntlet into the ship again, this time hitting a wall instead of the ceiling.
Jr wrenched the door open and glared at the girl then the dent in the wall, then at the girl again ”Stop breaking my ship! What are you even doing?”
“Oh. um. Sorry. I was exercising? Like Sakura was?”
Jr’s eyes went a little wide at this, before he glanced over at the schoolgirl warrior, put two and two together and then made a quick decision to avoid being pressured into doing an exercise routine.
”Look. Those are stuck on right? If I help you get those off will you stop breaking my ship?” he asked
“They don’t come off” She wiggled a hand around but there was no escaping the fact that the metal coating her forearms was welded to the gauntlets. Her hands were sort of free, but all she could do with them was tap the top of the weapons, her palms and wrist held down by more metal. “I’ve tried and they’re just stuck like that. It's just was how I was made, so I don't think you can help”
”Not with that attitude you won't. Wait here” the boy asserted, before darting out and returning moments later with his tool box. ”Sit down again. You lot can exercise, I.. We are going to get... Rika? ” he got an enthusiastic nod from the girl who was still very please about having a name ”Me and Rika are going to get these off”
“I did want to exercise though. It sounded good. Or well, it’s Sakura suggesting it so it has to be good right?” Rika said, more stating facts rather than complaining or resisting.
”You can do that when you won't break the ship in the process. Now. hold still,” Jr told her, which as he retrieved a hacksaw from the GDI tool kit he’d acquired at hammerhead a few days ago ”and this won't hurt a bit. Probably”
With that he started sawing away at the metal binding girl and ship parts together, occasionally resorting to using a file, a hammer or little blobs of explosive goo to help him get through the tougher bits. While he worked both listened to/watched as Sakura kept talking about this and that and responding to or asking questions when they wanted too.
”I’m a koopa” Jr explained shortly when asked what kind of people he was ”and I have no idea if anything you said is right for my people. Haven't paid attention to fitness stuff since the Best Fitness Friends tricked me… tricked my minions into gathering the ingredients of a mind control formula and then sicked my own minions on me after they controlled them with the mind control medicine stuff.”
”I mean i didn't really care before anyway. Like. Why do stretches and stuff when you can run around and have fun instead? Seems boring,” He admitted
“I think getting stronger sounds good?” Rika suggested. There was a pinging sound as jr hacked the last of the metal holding one of her arms to the massive gauntlets. She brought her hand up and examined, turning to and fro making little “ow” when it hurt a little, the wrist and arm stiff from never having moved that way before, but it got better quickly. She likely looked a bit weird, as she went about touching things with her fingers that had felt nothing but cold steel since they were made just to see what it felt like. Jr ignored it for the most part and went to work on the other hand
”Why work for something when your born with it, I’m gonna be big and strong as my dad one day anyway” jr replied, before realising the ship girls hadn't met him and clarified a bit ”he’s huge and cool and strong and the best dad and king. trust me”
“So like how Bella was made stronger than I was?” Rika asked while poking her own nose with a freed finger.
”... maybe? Royals are just better than your average member of a species. Except peach maybe. She’s kinda just another human. Or well she’s way better than the useless toads she rules so maybe it’s just we’re stronger than out minions I don't know” there was another snap and jr freed the other hand from the gauntlet ”haha, there we go, all free”
“Oh” the ship girl brought her newly freed hand to the other one, clapping them together and then tippy tapping one set of fingers against the others. New sensations! It was very good. She got up, Jr assuming she wanted to exercise now only to be picked up and spun around again, this time by Rika, who had just barely seen Sakura do this through a little window in the door.
“And now I put you down again, right? And say thank you? Thank you” Rika told him, having gone through the motions in the way she had thanked him but also meaning her thanks with 100% sincerity.
”That uuuugh, you get one but that's not how you should be thanking people. Its not cool. Also, you seem a little tied up there” jr saids after shaking his head clear.
“Oh?” Rika looked down and found that the long pipes linking the gauntlets to her back were still there, and had wrapped around her waist when she’d done the twirl. The gauntlets themselves floated freely in the air, the antigrave that made them lift-able still working and now holding them up on their own. It was good she’d only one one spin, any more and she might have tugged them around and hit someone.
“What are we going to do about those? And how am I going to hold them now?” she asked, when she tried to grab them in the same spot where she used to ‘hold’ them and found nothing to keep them with her, suddenly worried about that now that it was actually an issue.
”uuum,” jr replied, also having not entirely thought this through either, before quickly walking around her and checking out the pipes ”yeah no of course those are welded rather than screwed on back there. Ok. Look. I need to go get parts for the ship later anyway, we'll figure something out then. Grips you can get in and out of, some kind of way of transporting those around when you're not using them, a way to disconnect those pipes... We’ll figure stuff out, but for now I’ll just... ” he pulled the two weapons behind her and after a few moments had duct taped them together into a single more manageable unit which he then taped to her back unit. ”Ok yeah that’ll work. We’ll do something better later. For now just try to remember they’re back there like some massive backpack, and enjoy having hands”
“Oh Ok” she was definitely enjoying that. She could move her fringe out of her eyes without wiggling her head around. That was great. Also she could just touch her hair in general and other things and. Yeah. It was excellent. She went over and petted Tyrant, who had claimed part of the bed, like she’d wanted to this whole time and it was just as good as she’d expected.
“Oh. right. Exercise” she suddenly said when she'd finished petting the pig on the head. She’d almost forgotten, distracted by the whole ‘having hands she could actually use’ thing.
”ugh” jr groaned as he packed away his tools, still not enthusiastic about the thing.
“So. Sorry. What is a sit up? Or a pull up?” Rika asked, potentially the only person other than Sakura onboard who was enthusiastic about the concept, “do I just do the stuff you were doing randomly? Is there a pattern? How do i know what to do?”
The pink mote that Sakura produced held Bella's attention for as long as it remained. She couldn't help but stare at the thing in wonderment, knowing as she did the incredible power it had. Awakening had been the word that came to mind when she tried to conceive of what the Friend Heart did for her, like her life until that moment was but a bad dream, a haze of distortion keeping her from reality. Could such a thing really be done endlessly? For Abyssals, and shipgirls as well she believed, no matter how big or small the tool it would run out of uses eventually. Abyssals' systems manufactured new ammunition, but it took time or -more typically- a resurrection to get it done. Surely something so amazing couldn't be done without some kind of cost.
And even if it could, the Abyssal Fleet did not deserve such an awakening. All were monsters, with the vast majority seemingly incapable of being anything more than monsters. But that line of thinking came to an end when Sakura spoke to the former Water Princess directly, expressing her happiness. Bella couldn't help but flush a little in embarrassment, although the shared joy of the moment quickly expired. She didn't want to be a burden on Sakura in the slightest, although in terms of responsibility she couldn't ignore the fact that she didn't know the first thing about the world beyond the waves. The Street Fighter continued to outline her plan, although it did have some flaws. “I'm afraid I don't know ze first thing about community. I wouldn't be much help. Even the Abyssals I lead did so only because zey were made to obey me.”
Sakura then got herself heated up about the citizens of Limsa villainizing the Abyssals in some way, which Bella couldn't help but feel was a little strange. “Erm...well, we -ze Fleet, I mean- did strive to kill them. Zat's all we've ever done, well before the light came.” She cast her mind back to her existence before the calamity, its memories now open to her, and recalled different waters but the same old war. “So, I don't think the people are doing anyzing wrong.”
She could only sit back, flabbergasted, as Sakura suddenly called out her paltry legs. Trepidation spread across her features as she looked down at her own pale limbs, and poked her thigh with a slender finger. Soft, weak, never used once in her entire life until today, not even to swim. Surely there couldn't be a solitary fiber of muscle in there. Bella looked up in alarm at the poses Sakura was doing. And she expected her to do that!?
Panic sirens went off in her head and Sakura made her wobble to her feet. She leaned against the walls for support as Sakura converted the room, then called Junior to get in on the 'fun'. A bead of sweat had already formed on Bella's brow. Her enormous tail writhed restlessly. The girl quickly offered and then rescinded a reward, not that Bella needed any motivation other than the thought of pleasing her know friend, but still. Having chocolate sounded much nicer than 'aerobics' and 'muscle groups.'
Fortunately, Bella was saved by her underling as Rika accidentally dented the Atomos again, forcing Junior to sit down and rectify the situation. The Water Princess took the chance to set down with them and watch the Koopa at work, hoping to avoid exercise. She listened to the little reptile talk about his family and friends, fascinated. A dozen questions sprang to mind, all starting with 'what is', but she chose not to bother him with them. An irrepressible smile took over as Rika was freed of her bindings one by one and began to explore her new sense of touch, although Bella was surprised she actually did have hands under there. Most Abyssals' equipment was built directly into them, unlike the tools that others held. Rika seemed happy at least, although she had to go and remind Sakura about the proposed workout. Not that Sakura would have forgotten, Bella supposed. It seemed like the dreaded exercise couldn't be avoided any longer.
It didn't take long for Nadia to regret the degree to which she committed herself. Her technique, of course, went off flawlessly, smacking the nearby sorceresses soundly. One of them, the Feral realized with horror, got shoved straight onto Sephiroth's sword to such a degree that multiple feet of bloodstained steel protruded from her back. Nadia recoiled from the lethal wound, not from its crimson gruesomeness, but rather from its implication of her guilt. Her career as a thief and local heroine back in New Meridian brought her no shortage of scraps, but never once had she taken a life. Before she could do much of anything, Hat Kid appeared in the form of a frozen statue and slammed the floor hard enough to pop Nadia into the air.
She wasn't the only one, however. After landing on a nearby table she noticed two things in quick succession: that she couldn't see the sorceress in green anymore, and that the one in red wasn't coming down. Then a wave of power struck her full in the face, making her tail stand up in alarm, and dark magic surrounded her. “Oh sh-AAAAH!”
For a moment she lost consciousness, her very senses knocked out of her by the freight train of concussive force that slammed into her noggin. Onlookers, however, received a gruesome display: Nadia's entire body blew apart into a dozen pieces and scattered across the restaurant in a rain of blood. Her head landed squarely in a bowl of soup on an undisturbed table near the entrance, circling the rim like a basketball before it came to rest in the broth. In her unconsciousness she couldn't see the Koopa King falling from the sky in a tremendous, terrifyingly upscaled elbow drop. For all her wounds Blue might have avoided death from above if not for Geralt's interference, who reached out for her mind with his Axii sign as he got closer. The next moment Bowser dropped like a tentacled mountain, instant-killing the injured sorceress and abruptly plowing through the platform floor of the Bismarck in a tremendous crash, all inches from the Witcher's face.
Bowser carried through the hole down, down, down to the water below, where he made such a splash that a few curious onlookers got the drenching of a lifetime. As the Koopa King broke the surface, he spotted a familiar face leaning over the edge of a nearby pier. With one hand Bacchus reached out to help him up, and with the other he offered his jug of wine. “Heeeeeey buddy! You look like you could use a drink!”
Up above, Nadia jolted awake to find her head half-immersed in someone's meal. She smacked her lips. “Ooh, clam chowder?” Blinking a couple times, she looked around, trying to take stock of the situation. “Ahem. I'm okay!” She rolled out of the soup bowl and onto her neck stump at the table's edge, where she could see her scattered components. “Ooh, jeez. Here, just lemme pull myself together.” All at once her parts began to move, wriggling across the ground toward her head. Some rejoined on the way, forming an increasingly complete person as they grew near. Even Nadia's blood flowed across the wood, shlorp-ing back inside wherever it could. In front of the table her limbs and body came together, and she popped her head back on as if nothing happened. “Oh, thank the Trinity my clothes survived! What a cat-astrophe that woulda been. But man I'm beat.” Her head span a hundred and eighty degrees to face the action, followed by her body turning around. At a moment's glance she could see that only one sorceress remained, with allies all around. She jogged over and glanced through the hole in the floor to see Bowser treading water, but kept her attention focused ahead in case of unwise action on Cia's part.
With the grill in the background completely forgotten, along with its inhabitants, the stranger watched the Skullgirl's elaborate dodge to escape his ice wave. He looked neither angry nor even interested, just rather disappointed, and when the girl pulled out a flask to down its contents he didn't so much as take a step, let along rush her down. When she finished and began to move, imitating his last attack, he prepared to heavy a misty sigh. He clearly didn't expect her to unleash a wintry tide of her own, even bigger and faster than his own, and with eyebrows ever-so-slightly raised he moved forward. “Run out of ideas already...? Oof!”
As the wave crashed against him he got tossed up a few feet, multiple puncture wounds across his frame, but when he hit the frozen ground a moment later he looked more inconvenienced than anything. He stood just in time to take the first volley of icicles, some glancing off, some shattering on impact, some sinking in a short way only to fail a moment later. “So you've got some ice of your own. Not cold enough though. Not for me.” His noticed his jeers falling on potentially deaf ears as his adversary raced away from the town, and for the first time since the fight began took on a look of anger. “Think you can just walk away?” A moment later he was running after her, not as fast as he dashed before, but still gaining on her quickly. As the two reached the snowfield, the stranger gathered his strength. His tattoos glowed once again, and a chill wind surged visibly around him. With a cry he cannoned into the air in a tremendous leap, becoming a blur against the dreary sky. For a moment before impact a similar flurry danced around the Skullgirl, as if heralding her opponent's arrival, and then the stranger fell like a meteorite. He struck the ground with enough force to send snow flying from the resulting crater, then tore a chunk free from the disturbed earth and hurled it the Skullgirl's way.
Level: 2 (19/20) Location: Sandswept Sky - Crown of Sand Word count: 664 (1 EXP - Level up next round)
The battle had been glorious, and even more importantly they had won! A fanfare and rock-styled victory song would have been playing at this point, signalling the great success which the trio of Heavy, Medic and Midna had accomplished against the enemy team of DRAGONS. But honestly, even Heavy appriciated the simple fact that they had all survived the slaughter. A slaughter they had commenced, but such details went over his head more times than not. Instead Heavy took a moment to catch his breath, finally done with punching the now not-so-flying dragon and taking stock of the situation.
A bunch of loot had spawned on the sandy ground, having replaced the dead bodies of all the sorry baby enemies they had slain moments earlier. Heavy found it odd at first, accustomed to seeing miscellaneous stuff and bodyparts littering the ground, but this was a pleasent surprise. Just as much as Medic was alive and well after having been flicked away! Before Heavy could embrace his tiny Medic friend though, they got more company in the form of Queen Sectonia and Poppi.
"Very good fun indeed, Tzarinna Sectonia! It is good day to be giant man and friends..." Heavy exclaimed, unprepared for what followed. The queen tossed…a heart at him? Not a normal, regular sized gorilla heart that Heavy had beating in his chest, but a cartoon heart. At first Heavy was as puzzled as ever, but as soon as its magical powers released him of what had been an unseen iron grip of Galeem, Heavy felt ten times lighter! In the amazement, Heavy pressed his big palm against his heart, feeling it beat…like normal. "What was that? Was that…Am Heavy free now?" Heavy was confused, but happy. The same was done to Medic, so this had to be a good thing. Hadn't it?
Time passed with Heavy finding himself flying through the air, carried away by Poppi and being reunited with Team Yellow. Before he knew it, which was after a long and dreadful trek through the most difficulty and dusty obstacle course he'd ever seen, they stood before a giant temple with a funny lion perched on top. No wait, that was a 'Spinxh'? In the least it was a statue, and what statues were Heavy know. Also, he was dying of thirst! Having searched his pockets for his beloved Sandvich, he found nothing but crumbs, pocketsand and lint, nothing which quench his thirst. Not a thirst for blood, but for water. Like Tora, Heavy wiped his sweaty, bald head and was ready to stoop over. "Water…Why Heavy leave cool and nice Siberia for scorching desert…"
And water they were lead to. Not just water, but an amazing secret room with pools of it! And best of all, there didn't seem to be any hostile BLUs in there, meaning Heavy didn't have to fight for the water. Not to mention there was FOOD! Heavy let out a relieved laugh, echoing through the chamber with delight as he slapped his massive belly. "Oh hohohohoho! Very good! Heavy thought we were done for, but this be happy surprise! Save some ham and bread for me, first I bath!"
Heavy didn't bother to undress even, only leaving his minigun of metal on the floor as he stubbed his way over to the pool and jumping into it. SPLASH! His massive frame caused a small tsunami in the same pool Tora had jumped in. For a moment one might wonder if Heavy could even swim, seen as how long he stayed underwater. The broad-shouldered Russian did float back up to the surface, a satisfied sight leaving his lips as he floated happily in the cool water and enjoying the moment. For once not a moment with fighting, but a moment of peace and quiet. "I could get used to living like this. A king! So comrades, why we here and where we get to after fine feast? Heavy understand more after Poppi toss floaty heart at me!"
Sectonia wasn't all that thrilled about bringing more people up this cliff side, although she had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time she'd be requested to help the vertically challenged of their little group. At least Poppi took the heaviest of the group, the Heavy, while Sectonia was left with transporting Midna and the Medic, the princess of twilight being relatively easy to carry as she had the power to hide in the queen's shadow. If she was feeling philosophical there could be something to gleem from that, but that wasn't where her mind was at the moment, still annoyed at carrying things. At least the hand of hers that carried the loot that the trio had collected eased her annoyance a bit. Most of the stuff, especially the green ornate paper didn't really interest her, but she also relented she didn't know everything and she was sure that even that had some use here. Midna had shown the same confusion and disdain, so her and the queen were on equal footing there.
When they reached the rest of the group, Sectonia put her charges down, holding onto the bag of loot with one hand and keeping it away from her body. "We can decide where this goes when we have time to rest. First we should get out of this sun." Sectonia said, the others wordlessly agreeing as they made their way deeper into the ruins, following the Phantom thieves who had scouted a path ahead. Apparently their goal was this 'sphinx', whatever that was. Again Sectonia and Midna were on the same path when it came to knowing things that the others took for granted, which was both comforting and unsettling at the same time.
As they went deeper into the ruins, the sand kicked up something feirce and while it didn't have the same magic draining effect it seemed to have on her compatriots, the magic draining effect, the sharp particles, and the great winds kept Sectonia down low tot he ground. Still unlike Midna, it didn't cancel out her hovering entirely. Still, the queen had to hold her empty hand up to her face to shield her eyes from the sandstorm they wandered through as the sand whipped her face. After traveling a little while through this, the sand died down a bit but still raged on above the party as they reached a pit full of platforms. The quick sand looked worse than the previous pit those snakes had come from, and while there was a set of platforms hovering above the pit that allowed people to cross, there were various enemies and obstacles that made jumping from platform to platform a bit tricky. Midna, worried about the bag of treasure, took it off Sectonia's hands and made her way after Tora.
Unlike Tora and Midna, Sectonia had no method of actually 'jumping' and just bypassed the platforms by flying around them and avoiding the shifting walls and crushing rocks when she could. This of course didn't come without its own risks and the projectile firing enemies from below and the invincible bladed things did land some hits on the queen due to her large size and not completely adhering to the route that the others had due to her lack of jumping abilities, leaving the queen covered in bits of sand, bruises, and a few sand caked cuts. Still, she kept her composure through all of that. While people wouldn't think it, she was quite tough for someone so obsessed with beauty. Even so, she didn't escape this little obstacle course without a scrape, but at least they had a medic along now to heal her up. At some point she'd have to explain to the man her anatomy, something she wasn't too entirely enthused about.
Soon after that annoying sand pit and more sand, the team reached the sphinx and upon descending into it, found a camp set up by the Phantom Theives, their... alternative clothing not looking nearly as good as their original clothing. Tora, Poppi and Midna, or rather her mount? Sectonia wasn't sure how much control she had over that wolf, darted for the prepared pool of water to wash themselves off. Heavy followed soon after, not even bothering to undress and doing a rather undignified cannonball that splashed water everywhere. At least he was living up to his name. While not charging it as those two did, Sectonia joined them with a bit more dignity, with her taking off her royal cape and crown and dipping into the water with her lower half, a bit away from Heavy, using her hands to wash that off and getting the sand out of her face before trying to dip lower to get all the sand out of her fluff. Unlike Midna, she wouldn't disrobe entirely, opting to leave her breastplate on for obvious reasons. When her fluff was sand free and she felt clean, she would soak with only her lower half in the water, watching the others having fun in the water. Seeing how sandy her cloths themselves were, Sectonia summoned one of her blue antillions and ordered it to clean their laundry much like before. She then summoned a green and a couple red Antilions to help around the camp as she relaxed in the water, the minions getting busy helping whatever they could. The blue antilions using their powers over frost, the red ones using their power over fire, and the green ones using their power over electricity where needed.
"Good job setting this up you lot. Although I prefer your other cloths, these... seem too plain." Sectonia said to the phantom thieves who weren't in their fighting outfits, relived that they were out of the sand. Much like Midna, it bothered her eyes something fierce, but unlike Midna, Sectonia didn't have one eye constantly covered by her 'crown'. Sectonia then gestured to the Medic to heal up her wounds she had just cleaned up before teasing the group with a rhetorical "Enjoying yourselves?", a slight laugh coming from the queen.
Minamoto Yoshitsune Level 1 [4/10] Sandswept Sky – Crown of Sand 2360 Collab with @Lugubrious
As the Phantom Thieves introduced themselves, Yoshitsune gave each of them a nod, repeating the monikers given. But, as they continued to answer more of his questions, the more his determination strengthened. “Galeem,” he said, gripping the handles of his blades. “I swear by the name of Shukenten, I will see Shizuka again.”
They continued on into the temple shortly after that, Yoshitsune still bringing up the rear, to another large room. As the Phantom Thieves took their hiding places, Yoshitsune walked to the middle of the room.
“Five of them, hm?” Joker whispered from where he was alongside Yoshitsune. “Take your pick, Yoshitsune-san. It'll be all yours. We'll take care of the rest.”
“The sorceress,” Yoshitsune said, drawing his swords. He approached her slowly, his swords crossed defensively, watching her.
Mona’s eyes practically bugged out of his head as the attention of all five enemies latched onto the swordsman like dogs seeing a squirrel. “Hey, wait! Agh, come one!”
All together the Phantom Thieves burst from their hiding spots, charging forward. The bulbous Herker roared, its guttural bellow shaking the building, but it was the grotesque, flayed Harrow that first lunged forward into action. Joker, leading the pack, summoned Arsene as he jumped into the air, slicing into Harrow’s face as his Persona lashed out with a powerful kick into its midsection. It fell back a moment, surprised, and Joker pursued. Mona, quick on his heels, leaped over and landed on the Herker’s back, where he furiously sliced into its flesh. Swinging wildly in confusion, it staggered away from the main group. Fire blossomed in the darkness of the crypt as Carmen bombarded the Armor’s metal exterior, then sparks flew from Panther’s submachine gun bullets, all getting the construct’s attention. Captain Kidd delivered a bolt of lightning to the bat monster just before Skull tackled it, and the two rolled away.
That left the desert sorceress, who regarded Yoshitsune with a shadowed face. She strafed to an open space, away from the Herker, her view locked on her chosen opponent. Compared to his compatriots and their varied, unfamiliar magics, the steel-swinging warrior did not impress. She extended a finger his way, and from behind her crept two hooded thralls with axes to test the swordsman’s mettle.
Yoshitsune was quick on his feet upon seeing the thralls and rushed to slash at the sorceress, aiming for a decapitation. After the first slash, he shouted, "Kamui!" before aiming his second blade to stab through the thrall on his left. He was unsure of how strong his chosen opponent was but was not going to give up easily. When he was attacked, he easily blocked and countered each thrall, though the flames of the sorceress have to be dodged, getting him behind her with a jump. As she turned to face him, he slashed at her head again before his Kamui ended, leaving him slightly disadvantaged for a couple of seconds.
The swordsman’s initial rush came to an abrupt end as a burst of flame exploded between the two combatants, preventing him from getting any farther without roasting himself alive. The ax-wielding thrall that leaped at him during this time took an unmitigated thrust to the abdomen but didn’t die until Yoshitsune landed a counterattack the moment after. After redirecting the other thrall out of the way he went for the sorceress once again, this time jumping to escape a thrown fireblast. Rather than stand still and take it the silent woman attempted to duck away, but her foe’s precise movements meant his blade left a bloody cut in her hood. Without so much as a cry of pain the sorceress lashed out with a flaming whip, covering a lot of ground, to ensnare her enemy and set him ablaze.
Yoshitsune barely dodged the whip, though took the chance to slash at the other thrall's head while in the air. Facing the sorceress, he ran in circles around her, getting a glance at all the other battles taking place around him. Keeping his movements swift, the samurai leapt for her again, aiming his right sword for her chest before swinging his left blade for her throat again. Whether or not his attacks hit, he would leap back, ready for her next attack.
Attacking with one blade at a time allowed the pyromancer to intercept both strikes with her own sword, albeit barely, and the damage reduction was far from perfect and she took a slash near the heart. Clearly not adept in her weapon’s use compared to her flame’s, the sorceress suffered some damage to her grip. When she attacked again, however, she moved with a suddenness that suggested anger, perhaps at Yoshitsune’s choice of target. She hurled a fireball that exploded into a number of smaller fireballs upon hitting the floor, and with the distance, it bought her channeled some sort of bluish pyromancy around her fist that she then beat against her chest. In an instant, her skin toughened drastically.
At that moment the ground shook from a weighty footfall nearby and the Herker staggered over. Mona still clung to its grotesque back, slicing and chopping away at it bit by bit with Zorro’s piercing aid. The monster seemed to be growing desperate and wildly swung its limbs, including a huge shovel, rather close to Yoshitsune’s duel.
Yoshitsune stood defensively, his swords crossed. He had seen the Herker getting closer. He waited until the perfect moment, jumping over the Herker’s swing and kicking off its face with a spin, his blades aimed to slice through the sorceress. His Kamui wasn’t ready yet but he knew it would be ready again soon. He only needed a few more strikes. Whether or not his strikes hit, he landed facing the sorceress, ready to move. Instead of waiting for her to react, he leaped for her again, aiming to slash through with both blades from behind her.
The unexpected maneuver using the marauding Herker took the sorceress off guard, forcing her to scramble reactively rather than try in vain to defend herself. Yoshitsune landed hit after hit, but her Iron Flesh saved her life by softening the blows. A stream of flame raked across the swordsman, scorching his clothes and skin. When Yoshitsune moved behind her, the fault in her pyromancy became clear; even though her defense had skyrocketed, she could scarcely move. He struck hard and true, dealing a pair of fatal wounds that reached his enemy’s spine, and she fell to her knees before dissolving into ash.
For the last time, the ground shook, as Zorro finally drove his rapier through the Herker’s mutated brain. The loathsome brute sagged to the ground, gurgling its last, and Mona hopped to the ground breathing heavily. “Aah..whoo...that guy...hah...just didn’t want to go down.”
He scoped out the remaining fights, noticing that Skull had already beaten the bat to death, and then jumped in to help Panther. The Armor appeared to be a tough nut to crack, its heated but very much intact armor more resistant to the girl’s flames and bullets than she hoped. She had foregone her whip, ineffective against metal, entirely to focus on evading, but a few gashes in her suit suggested that Armor boasted some speed of its own. Even so, with the brute force of Skull and Captain Kidd taking the construct’s attention, the enemy went down in short order.
That left Joker and Harrow, whose struggle headlined as the most intense of the bunch. Little more than a twisted mash of gnarled bone, gaunt leathery flesh, and savage hatred, Harrow chased down the slippery thief without rest. A fresh collection of scars spoke to its viciousness despite the numerous cuts, holes, and burns that covered it. As Mona watched, Joker leaped out of the way of a strike that demolished an entire shelf of chemicals, coating Harrow with fluids that hissed and sputtered angrily. “Don’t just stand around,” Joker called out his cat. “It’s burning!”
“Oh, right! Persona!” Mona called upon Zorro, who carved a sigil into the air with his rapier. A green-tinted whirlwind raged forth, scraping across and aggravating Harrow’s burns. With a howl, it toppled over onto the ground. A look at Joker for direction confirmed that no negotiations would be had here--only a swift and stylish end. “Let’s take ‘em down!”
All together the Thieves and Yoshitsune launched into action, mobbing the incapacitated Harrow in a flurry of blows, blades, and other attacks. When the blurring shadows relented, Joker stood with his back to the beast and adjusted his glove with a smile. Sticky brown blood slopped from the monster in a burst, and it turned to ash.
Then the five intruders were left alone with their five spirits. Despite his wounds, Joker pointed Mona in the direction of Panther. “Heal her first.” Panther said nothing, clearly fighting to hold herself together despite her wounds, and accepted Mona’s Diorama gratefully. After the initial boost Panther took over healing herself, using her own lesser Dia skill to finish the job.
Joker approached Yoshitsune, which the swordsman was curious about, before handing him something. “What’s this?” he asked, only to hear footsteps approaching.
Mona then turned to Joker and Yoshitsune, giving them the attention they needed. “Starting to run low on magic,” he breathed, fatigued. “We gotta rest soon.”
Skull, meanwhile, collected the spirits and handed them to Joker for safekeeping. On the way, he noticed a light coming from a dark corner and noticed among the splinters of a ruined bookshelf a hidden path leading downward. “Guys! There’s a deeper level here, and that air ain’t stale. I think we hit the jackpot!”
As everyone approached the corner, Yoshitsune sheathed his blades, though kept his grip on them in case he needed to redraw them at a moment’s notice. Upon entering the oasis and seeing it primarily empty, he began wandering, looking for a large enough open spot to practice some swordplay alone. He was tempted to ask the Phantom Thieves to spar, though they seemed intent on setting up some sort of camp. He just didn’t know how some of their weapons worked. Swords were simple. Their… confusing… loud… whatever-they’re-called were nothing like what he’d seen back home. “Tell me of your weapons?” he asked, pointing at one of their firearms.
Skull realized he had yet to put away his shotgun, instead of toting it on his shoulder as he walked like a badass--or so he thought, at least. He held it up for Yoshitsune to take a closer look but didn’t make as if to hand it to him. “This thing? Just a shotgun. Its a model in the real world, but here it works just like you’d think. Watch!” He made a motion to put it away, and the entire weapon disappeared. A reverse motion drawing from his back popped the thing back into existence. “Cool, right? Although, I guess you wouldn’t know about guns, huh? Well, uh…”
“They’re weapons that use explosions to launch little bits of metal, called bullets, that deal a lot of damage,” Panther explained, looking to Skull for confirmation. “I mean, that’s basically all there is to it, right? Not exactly a technical explanation, but guns aren’t exactly every day in Japan. Our Japan, that is. And especially yours I guess,” she added, thinking about Yoshitsune’s time.
He nodded, frowning. “I guess your Japan is a thousand years in the future from mine.” he shrugged. “Any of you have blades?” he asked, swinging his swords in the open air.
Mona manifested and held up his scimitar. “That’s me! If you mean katana though, you’re out of luck until we find Fox.”
“A sword is a sword,” he said with a slight nod. “How about a sparring match until everyone else gets here?”
Everyone present made a sound like a deflating balloon. Panther laughed aloud. “Man, you still have energy after all that? We’ve been making our way through the desert all day. We need something to eat and drink.” Groaning, she tugged on her suit. “Ugh. And to get out of these outfits. This is almost as bad as Futaba’s Palace.”
“Yeah,” Joker said, looking around. He saw a handful of peacocks and hippos and began weighing his options. Nobody else in the party brought food, and a few of them needed it to live. After a day without a meal, he felt the knife of hunger keenly in his guts, and the others were no doubt the same. Even if these hippos looked rather like people, they were still animals, and this world was still not real. It didn’t take long to reach an executive decision. “We’ll de-mask, take a drink, and start taking out some of these animals. By the time the others get here, we’ll have dinner in progress.”
“Now you’re talking my language!” Panther laughed, breaking through any unease. By now, the Phantom Thieves both knew one another and the situation they found themselves in. Nobody questioned Joker’s decision. She reached up and removed her mask, which vanished in blue flames along with her Phantom Thief attire. When the flames died down, she was wearing shorts and a tank top along with a jacket tied around her waist. Joker removed his as well, revealing a white collared short-sleeve shirt and light pants, and Skull took on baggy cargo shorts plus a bright yellow tank. None looked particularly bothered to have their faces exposed--and all, not counting Mona, looked like rather ordinary teenagers.
Skull washed his face in the water of the sunlit pool. “Man, this is great! I could totally hop right in.”
“We should reserve the other one for drinking then,” Panther advised. “No contamination, right?”
“Right.” Joker made his way to the pool himself, bowled water in his hands, and took a long drink. “Ahh. Long overdue.”
Mona looked up at Yoshitsune. “Hey, you’re gonna help us with the hippos, right?” He gestured at the creatures milling around the oasis.
With a nod, Yoshitsune ran to the hippos and began slicing at their wings. With precise strikes, he took down the hippos with as little damage to the meat as possible. When their spirits fell, the Thieves collected and methodically crushed them, producing more food-to-be as well as assorted items. In short order, preparations were well underway.
Location: The Bismarck Restaurant. Level: 2 Word Count:
Once again the amphibious swordsman fell to his knees while struggling to stay upright, but as the adrenaline that surged through his body was slowly fading he felt waves of throbbing pain begin to burn his joints. Frog gripped the hilt of Masamune and set the spirit balancing on it's tip onto the floor inches from him, leaning on his broadsword for support as he seethed with agonizing pain.
It was so painful it became a struggle to stay conscious in the fever pitch of fighting and explosions rocking the restaurant they had so thoroughly wrecked. Frog was breathing heavily as he struggled to move away from combat but moved only inches before the pain became completely unbearable and the swordsman cried out in pain.
His vision faded in and out at a rapid pace and as he vaguely regarded the floating spirit in his possession the swordsman used what strength he had remaining to destroy it with the tip of his blade.
Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town ~ The Bismarck Restaurant
Disruption had been Hat Kids goal, and that goal had been achieved. What her attack aimed to accomplish, specifically, she had no idea, for it was devised and carried out on impulse. Furthermore, she didn’t have a move in mind past that, or any time to think of one or act on it. In the scant space of dilated time from the moment directly following Hat Kid’s ice-quake to that of Red initiating her next attack, there was no time left to act in response, even if she knew what to do with the split second she had before the arcane detonation beneath her feet.
With one, two, three magic well eruptions, her hardened icy form--now glistening red, stained with feral blood--fell away in crystal dust and shards as she was ejected from it by the geyser blasts. Resultantly, she was thrown in a high arc back the way she came, toward where Blue used to be and a koopa-sized hole in the floor now was. She caught a lingering splash of bloodfall that would end up washing itself off when she dropped head first through the hole and into the waters below.
As the pillars sputtered out Cia smiled at the damage. The silver haired interloper had been thoroughly reprimanded, the annoying child had gone the way of her Blue counterpart, and the cat woman that had broken through her hasty defenses had been scattered into chunks. She didn't even mind being drenched in the woman's blood she was so pleased with herself. Until, at least, it started snaking its way off of her back toward the woman's body as it reassembled itself. That prompted her to take a good look at her untenable situation.
Blue was gone, carried away down through that hole by some kind of turtle monster. Even now, unknow to her, the spirit of the Blue Cia floated on top of the water down below. Green also appeared to have fallen, and as she watched the frog swung his sword and dispatched what looked like the lingering remnants of her soul. She couldn't see Dark Link anywhere. She was alone as more allies seemed to come out of the woodwork to her heroes aide.
"I should have know." She said bitterly as she laid her eyes on Link. He wasn't paying her any mind at all. He seemed far more concerned with the frog. "You always have a way of finding allies, don't you? I was a fool to think I'd be able to catch you alone."
Link didn't respond as he reached out to help steady Frog. "Careful buddy. You took this whipping for me, it'd kill me if you keeled over now." He looked over at the silver haired man that had shrugged off the Cadet's care, and watched as his wounds began to stitch themselves up under the beam of the construct. "Just wait a bit, it'll be your turn soon. Here, have a pick-me-up in the meantime." Link brought his hand to his chest and thumped it, pulling out a glowing pink heart that he pushed into Frog's body.
It didn't seem to do anything to the frog to Cia's eyes, but it did cause an irrational jealousy to flare up within her. "Don't you ignore me!" She said. She spun like a dancer off toward hole in the floor, waving her scepter in the air. Above her those gates appeared again, four of them along the route of her twirl, and from each an inferior Dark Link leaped and began to run at the heroes in front of her. One at Blazermate, one each to try and finish off Frog and Sephiroth, and one at the Ace Cadet.
She ended her move behind the two that stood at the edge of the hole, whipping her scepter down at the ground. The head detached, embedding itself in the floor, and Cia brought her foot down on it. When she did a pulse of dark magic erupted out of it in a circle around her, traveling like a wave along the ground, and as she jerked her hip to grind her heel into the head of the scepter more waves shot out with every motion. She intended to knock Geralt and Nadia down into the ocean with the other interlopers to perhaps slightly even the odds of this fight once again.
As the Dark Links charged across the floor of the restaurant Link drew his bow and knocked an arrow, letting it fly at the one coming towards him and Frog. The Dark Link caught it in the chest, dissolving, but he only had the time to get the one shot off before the rest were upon them.
Level: 2 (4/20) Word Count: 452 Location: The Bismarck Restaurant EXP: +1
Sephiroth let out a quiet tsk as he took note of his ruined clothes, the healing beam doing its best to mend the majority of his wounds right before his eyes. He'd need to find a tailor for them at some point surely, though that could wait for the time being. Noticing the remaining sorceress' envious outburst, the SOLDIER took up his blade, holding it off to the side yet at the ready. He might have been noticeably slower than before thanks to her assault, but he was certain he could take down the dark Links she'd sent with ease. There were only a few of them after all, and most had been split to engage different targets to boot, which left only two to rush him and the frog.
A sore underestimation of his power if ever he saw one. Sure she'd gotten a few good hits in and done enough damage to temporarily remove him from the fight, but she'd failed to kill him outright and even given the machine a chance to heal his wounds as well. This Sephiroth knew was her biggest mistake. The fact she'd only sent two of her weakest summons, fodder really, to face him only served to prove her stupidity. Thus he stood, rolled his shoulders in an effort to work out some of the soreness, and fell into a defensive stance as the clone approached. Watching as it rumbled forward, each footfall thudding dully against the wooden floor, Sephiroth waited till the very last moment to parry its strike. The blade was practically at his throat before he brought up his own in a reverse grip, slamming it into the clone's steel and throwing off its strike, giving himself the opportunity to grab it by the collar as the machine's healing device finished its work.
Angling his Masamune horizontally, he ran it across the shadow's throat as a wave of newfound invigoration coursed through his body, the umbral construct collapsing into a cloud of smoke at his feet. Taking brief stock of the situation, Sephiroth decided that the remaining sorceress was his prime objective. She was, much as he hated to say it, the greatest threat here. All of the magic from the barrier to the clones, to the other versions of herself, was her doing, and as such they would only stop when this remnant finally fell. Charging foward while she was still preoccupied with some of the others, Sephiroth put all of his strength into a single leap, blade poised to strike at the back of the sorceress skull.
Should everything go according to plan, Red would find herself swiftly impaled. A final, decisive strike to bring about the battle's end.
Level 4: 12/40 Location: The Atomos. Talking to @DracoLunaris and @Lugubrious Word Count: 1,228 Points Gained: 2 New EXP Balance--- Level 4: 14/40
"Yeah, that's the spirit, Rika! Yeah, yeah!" Sakura encouraged as Rika mimicked her movements, making a huge amount of noise and causing damage with her massive gauntlets. At that moment Junior burst into the room and Sakura shrunk slightly.
"O tto!" She said, smiling sheepishly, realising what he was upset about. When he glanced over at her, she waved quietly. At the idea of getting the gauntlets off, Sakura clenched her fists and nodded enthusiastically.
"That's a great idea, Junior-kun!" She exclaimed, smiling. It was horrible that Rika literally had weapons forcibly attached instead of hands. How could she eat? It was cruel.
"Koopa, huh? Cool!" Sakura said. Koopa sounded familiar, though. She couldn't quite put a finger on why. "Everyone's got muscles, Junior-kun. Even koopas. And the more you work 'em, the stronger they get-" Her mouth formed into a line as Junior explained his predicament with the Best Fitness Friends and his opinion on excercise.
"Excercise is not boring, it's cool!" She closed her eyes and stood up straight, indignantly. She nodded in agreement with Rika. "And fun. Wow!" She looked amazed at Junior's work with freeing Rika. "Good job! You're still wrong about excercise, though." She was conflicted, switching between congratulation Junior and strongly disagreeing with him.
She decided to argue with Junior, but a bead of sweat betrayed her uncertainty. "You might be born into being bigger than everyone else, but you could be biggerer than everyone else, too! And b-besides, royals aren't just better than everyone else by default." She scratched her head.
"Where I'm from, everyone gets to pick who the leader is. Everyone votes and then whoever gets the most votes gets elected Prime Minister. Or something like that- I- I didn't really pay much attention." She said. That was the best system, she assumed. She had never gotten the chance to vote before.
(Stay on topic, Sakura!) Sakura internally chastised herself, slapping the sides of her head. There was something new to admire, however. Junior was done fixing Rika's hands!
"Wow! That is so awesome! Ranger-san, Bella-san, look! Junior-kun did it!" She clapped her hands together. She laughed heartily as Rika picked up Junior and span her around.
Sakura turned her attention back to Bella and her concerns.
"You already know way more than any other Abyssal does right now, I bet. Come on, you can do it! None of us can stay behind! By the time you've finished explaining to the other Abyssals how they should be the leader, you'll already be the leader. That's how it works." Sakura said 'encouragingly'.
"And yeah I know you tried to kill them before I'm just-" Sakura huffed, crossing her arms. "I'm just saying we might be able to convince them to be nice if they knew who Galeem was. There was a whole bunch of wars on the place where I'm from and now a lot of the world are friends anyway. And they shouldn't judge you because you never had a chance to be anything other than mean. Now you're nice. So that's- and that's- that's good." Sakura finished weakly, her tone perhaps stronger than her argument. Her morality came entirely from the heart, rather than a code of ethics.
Sakura leaned against the wall. "I mean...I guess you don't have to lead the other freed Abyssals. But you seem like you wanna help, and that might be the best way. At some point our adventures will have to go on land again. Once we beat up the Guardian of the Edge of the Blue, we'll be whisked off to some other crazy place." Sakura trailed off.
"Unless," She snapped a finger, pointing at Rika as the woman reminded Sakura of excercise. "Unless you get really good with using your legs in the next few days! Rika-san, a sit up goes like this." Sakura laid down on her back. She folded her hands behind her head, bent her knees, and then pulled herself into a sitting position using nothing but her abdominal muscles. She repeated the process a few times to demonstrate.
"And a pull-up," She shot back up into standing position, glancing around the room. She looked at the door frame. It extended outward a little bit, being of bulky build. She went over there, hopped, and hooked her finger tips on the door frame. "Goes like this!" She moved herself up and down with only her finger strength. "You can do those now that Junior-kun freed your fingers!"
"And as for what excercises you should do- no, it's not random! Basically, whatever muscle you want to strengthen, you do motions related to those areas. You'll know when those areas start to hurt. No pain, no gain!" She flexed her biceps proudly. Even reduced, they were still impressive.
"Now, Bella-san. Today we're gonna do excercises based around increasing your leg strength and your balance. So the first thing we're gonna do iiiiiiiiis..!" She swept a pointed finger dramatically into the air.
"...standing practice." She pointed at Bella's feet. Sakura realised that Bella Navire was not going to become a master of physical health in the short amount of time they were spending at Limsa. However, if she could give Bella the tools to increase her own independance slowly over time, then that would be enough.
"First, we gotta make sure you can stand." Her voice took on a more serious and educational tone. She gently guided Bella back to her feet. "Try standing for 10 seconds without using anything to balance yourself. It's okay if it takes a few tries." She assured the Water Princess. Once she made sure Bella wouldn't fall onto her face instead of back into a sitting position, she briefly turned her attention to Junior and Rika.
"And since you two are better at using your legs, you can practice doing this, instead." Sakura straightened her legs and bent down, touching the tips of her toes. "Try to touch your toes without bending your legs. If you can't do that, that's okay. Just try bending them as little as possible. When you get to the part where it starts to hurt, hold that pose for ten seconds. Then, release." She demonstrated, but it seemed like she reached the point a long time ago where no pose hurt anymore. She stood up again.
"Bella-san, you should try standing up for longer and longer. Once you're good at it, you can do the toe-touch. Then you can move onto this one." Sakura stood on one leg, grabbed the other leg, and pulled it behind her back. "It might take a while. But there's a whole wide world out there, and while a lot of it is water, a lot of the cool stuff happens on land. So I think it'll be worth it. Paris, for example, as a land locked city. Some of the streets there are hundreds of years old! That's another dumb thing about the world of light. No history. Everything just got smushed together, like, a few months ago. Sakura said. She forgot she was standing on one leg and just held herself there as she chatted.
Thanks to a combo of the unrelenting desert followed by the cooling, soothing bath Sectonia was partaking in, the queen was much more amiable than usual, and a bit more chatty. "If this is living like a king to you Heavy, then I don't know what to say. This is paltry compared to what I have in Floralia." Sectonia said, attempting to strike up some basic conversation. "At least, I did, until Galeem..." The Queen continued, clenching a fist. After a moment of this, she relaxed, a thought crossing her mind. "That's right, you and the doctor here don't know about Galeem after you were cured of its influence."
Leaning back a bit, her golden wings sinking into the water, Sectonia said. "I suppose it is best you know. Much like my kingdom of Floralia, whatever world you knew is lost, instead being mish mashed into whatever this Galeem wished to create. while bits and pieces of it may be there, it is there alongside items such as this 'sphinx', items, objects, and people utterly foreign to you." The queen started, getting into a bit of a monologue, sounding regal instead of her standard haughty. "Apparently according to this robed figure known as the 'Master of Masters', a pretentious title, in order to set things right, get our kingdoms back, and maybe a bit on the side, we have to destroy the guardians of Galeem in order to challenge the light ball in the sky." Sectonia continued. After saying this, she leaned forward, her golden wings dripping form the water they had just been dunked in.
"Personally, ruling a world made of all worlds sounds great to me, but to even get there we would have to defeat that ball of light, and considering it had the power to merge all of our worlds and brainwash millions or billions of strong people, we must gain strength ourselves." Sectonia said, knitting her hands together as she continued. "Like I said when we first met, there is great opportunity for those who take it here. Defeated foes can grant you their power if you take it into yourself, but be careful, while you will gain the powers and memories of those you absorb, you will also turn into an amalgamation of you and them, which can look quite hideous if your not careful of what spirits you decide to take in." It was a shame Sectonia didn't know what Bowser had become, nor Dante, who had almost become a different person altogether, but she did know of a certain robot who looked like a mish mash of parts slapped together. She WOULD have mentioned Midna, but her merge with Uriobosa went well and only made her more beautiful, although not nearly to the level of the Queen herself. "Our Princess of Twilight here is an example of a good merge, if I must say so."
After giving Midna a compliment, Sectonia continued. "You can of course crush a spirit to gain an item or weapon, those horns on my crown being an example of something like that." Sectonia said, pointing to the arcane obsidian crystal horns that she managed to merge to her crown, which was currently being cleaned by her blue antillon. "However, if you have the choice, it is best to make the stronger of the bunch, such as yourselves, allies. While some of those controlled by Galeem are hostile as you have seen, others are neutral at best, and as long as you don't attack them, you may gain strong allies, as you are well aware. Sectonia gave herself a bit of a stretch, having never actually explained this to anyone before, usually letting others do it for her. But as she had these mercenaries in her employ, it would do her well to show her knowledge. "Even then the hostile ones can be made to serve, although I have yet to find one of a strong enough position for me to even consider, as it is an... involved process. And even then it may be better to take their power as your own. I suppose that is a matter you will need to decide yourself."
While the Queen had said most about the spirit process, there were minute details she didn't know, as the explanation she had been given wasn't the best or fairly cryptic at points, but she got the most important parts down. With her little explanation done, she lounged in the water, finding it almost comical how many of them were in this pool of water while the Phantom Thieves were keeping the camp moving, her Antillions helping where they could.
Linkle sprinted through the snow, only occasionally throwing glances back at the Stanger as he gained ground on her. As they ran she kept wracking her brain for some kind of plan. What had she learned about this guy? Really fast. Really strong. Remarkable healing powers. The healing was the real sticking point. Without that she might have killed him already. How were you supposed to get around that? Did it have a limit? Could she just keep wailing on him, chipping away until he ran out of energy? Could he come back if she blew him up completely? But how would she do that? Her bombs weren't strong enough to leave nothing but ash. What else was there? Think, think, think!
Maybe...
She heard the Strangers yell as the idea popped into her head, wincing as she skidded to a stop and looked back again. The man launched into the sky. Around here flurry of snow kicked up in a circle, which was a redundant indication of where the man intended to land. She dived out of the way as he crashed down, spinning to face him with her bows drawn as he physically ripped a bounders from the ground and chuck it at her. That was okay, her bombs had handled bigger boulders that that. The tips of her bows blazed red as her eyes as she pulled the triggers, a pair of bomb arrows impacting the rock and blowing it to pieces.
Linkle exploded out of the dust and smoke, having started running toward the Stranger the moment she had pulled the triggers. She closed the distance between them, building speed, looking for all the world like she was planning to take him head on. Then, just before contact, she called out. "IMANI!"
The woman appeared right beside Linkle, without her crossbow in hand. Instead she lobbed something underhand right at the Strangers chest that exploded into a plume of impenetrable white smoke that all three of them vanished into, Imani herself most literally. Linkle skidded on the snow, letting herself drop backwards. She placed one hand on the ground and kicked up with both leg right at the mans neck, still hung up on the fact that kicks to the head seemed to be the only things that really affected him. Instead of slamming into his head, however, she spread them wide. One shot to either side of the mans neck. She pushed up with her hand as her hair flashed blue, and like on her heel before blades of ice pushed out from her inner thighs. Hoping she was on the right track she snapped them together like scissors, planning to wrap the mans neck between her legs and then squeeze and wrench and twist as hard as she was able. To keep him from healing if she made a cut she would pour on the ice power, continually making the ice blades longer to fill in any wound she made.
It was time to see how well the Strangers special healing trick worked without his head.
Word Count: 361 (+1 exp) Level: 6 - Total EXP: 41/60 Location: Edge of the Blue: The Bismarck
The Cadet wasn't at all offended at the silver haired swordsman shaking his hand off. He'd known plenty of stubborn types before, it was just a matter of time before their new friend warmed up to them. Hopefully. Overall the hunter was just glad to have gotten the man out of the way of Cia's attack, considering how it blew that woman to smithereens. Seeing grievous injuries wasn't exactly foreign to the Cadet, but that was some next level gore. Cadet blanched seeing Hat Kid get tossed into the air and down through the hole that Bowser had made, but at least she was in one piece, unlike... well, actually it seemed like that cat-like girl was pulling herself together. Maybe it was some kind of crazy ability of hers. Either way she seemed okay - for now. It didn't look like Cia was ready to give up just yet.
The sorceress moved, magic surrounding her again. Ace Cadet focused on the portals, from which more enemies poured out. The shadows spread out, each seeking out a different target.
"Hey Blazermate, heads up!" The Cadet called, figuring that she would be focused on healing the injured and not the enemy heading her way. With Link supporting Frog, Sephiroth off to try and put an end to Cia, and the aforementioned villainess doing her best to take down Geralt and Nadia, the healer might be on her own. The Cadet himself knew he wouldn't make it over to her in time, having his own dark Link to take care of.
As the shadow approached, the Cadet's hands flew to the weapon now hanging off his hip, one grasping the sheathe and the other hovering above the handle. Compared to the first Dark Link, these seemed weaker. As soon as it was in range Ace Cadet drew the long sword's blade again, It flashed out of the sheathe, striking horizontal against the shadow and slicing across it's midsection. Back to traditional handling of the weapon, just as quick the hunter reversed direction, finishing the shadow off and returning the Nightsky Ripper to it's cover in one motion, where it waited to be drawn again.
Word Count: 839 (+2 exp) Level: 3 - Total EXP: 11/30 Location: Sandswept Sky: Crown of Sand 𝙱𝙿 ●●●●● D34C25
Traversing through the area proved to be extremely irritating. When they'd undertaken this mission a few hours ago, Primrose was confident in her ability to cross a desert - but this was much different than she'd expected. The strange ruins and ambushing enemies all checked out, but the moving platforms and trick rooms? The walls with faces that did their best to just get in the way?
Ridiculous... the dancer thought to herself after the first few obstacles. She was quick, lithe; but not an acrobat by any means and clearly struggled crossing. Where normally Primrose would try to keep the annoyance off of her face, it was plain as day now. By the time the next living wall showed it's face, Primrose had enough.
"Hippowdon!" She summoned the Pokemon to her, and it appeared the same as it did while in the pyramid: heavy, large, and eager to help. Sand spouted out of it's back, getting picked up by the wind before it could even mingle with the sand below it. Hippowdown's sand storm lifted higher into the air, adding to the particles that already flew around above their heads. Honestly even if it hadn't and it's sandstorm stayed at ground level, Primrose was prepared to weather that in return for the Pokemon's help.
"Would you get that thing out of the way?" she asked of Hippowdon, and the Heavyweight Pokemon grunted an affirmative, "Pow!" It opened it's maw wide, biting down on the wall - but finding it's attack not very effective, the duo changed method. Instead, when it opened it's mouth a second time the Hippowdon let out a yawn, and soon enough the wall's face appeared drowsy and it's eyes slipped closed. It was alive, and so it could sleep.
Primrose and Hippowdon dealt with most of the rest of the obstacles together. The Pokemon was large enough to ride, and so Primrose sat side-saddle atop it's back while it trudged along. It was slow, but it could move through the sand easily. They made up time by making short work of the sandtraps while others in their group took a more careful approach to them. Sustaining Hippowdon was getting taxing, but the dancer preferred it to struggling with puzzles and tricks. When the sphinx finally came into view Primrose dismissed her partner Pokemon, rubbing it's head gently in thanks before it returned to her in spirit form. She followed the rest of the team right into the temple, eager to get out of the sun.
The inside was much more pleasant than expected. The first thing Primrose did was stride over to the drinking pool, filling her waterskin back up and then quickly bringing it to her mouth and emptying it again. Once her thirst was quenched Primrose rejoined everyone, watching a few of their members splash around in the other pool.
"A bath would be nice..." she murmured in response to the Heavy's comment. Primrose wasn't shy in the slightest, but she didn't have a change of clothes - and what was the use of bathing just to put dirty clothes right back on? Wait, speaking of clothes... the Phantom Thieves had a change of outfit. Where were they keeping their costumes? She looked at the teens.
"Setting up camp for everyone was very considerate... but I don't suppose you have more clothes where those came from?" she asked. She was genuinely inquiring, but her tone implied that she already thought the answer would be no. That was alright, no harm in asking either way.
Primrose placed the spirits she'd gathered from the initial battle atop the great barrier next to the bag Poppi had left on the ground. Then, she decided to sit by the edge of the bathing pool, shedding her cloak and sandals. She dipped her feet in, sighing softly at the relaxing sensation. She leaned over and scooped some water up with her hands, washing the sand off of her skin and face. She pulled the ribbon from her hair, letting the wavy brown locks loose to fall over her shoulders before she poured water over her head, rinsing her hair out as well. As she was finishing up she listened to Sectonia give the people gathered a crash course in how spirits worked in this world.
"...my Hippowdon is an example of the last part she mentioned," the dancer chimed in, leaning back on her hands and slowly kicking her feet through the water. "The yellow and black animal I used to cross over the sand traps." Given that Sectonia's explanation was so complete, with a living example in Midna even, Primrose thought she might as well add in an example of a striker. She didn't say much of anything afterward though, just relaxing for a few more minutes before she stood, re-donning her sandals before making her way to the campfire. She wasn't a great chef or anything, but she could cook - and so Primrose started the process, helping to prepare some much needed food for the ever-growing Yellow Team.
Reanimator: Upon death, the Medic's teammates drop a small device that he can charge with his Medi-Gun in order to resurrect them. It operates by pulling their body back together, negating all forms of death, even disintegration/atomization. However, the Medic only has ten seconds to begin the revival process before death becomes permanent. Also, the Medic must craft each Reanimator himself, and requires both down time and an understanding of that teammate's anatomy.
The Medic dismounted his new friend as the sandstorm finally subsided, the dragons who had summoned it having been dispatched. The Medic barely had time to catch his breath and begin investigating his own wounds when a familiar voice called down to them. "Ach, hello, your highness. Hello, Fraulein Poppi." The Medic panted. While he had made sure to use correct prefixes, he didn't bother putting on the same airs he had before. If the big bug was so special, she could fight next time. When Poppi offered to heal him, however, he gave her slightly more attention. Before he could inquire how, she produced a glowing cartoon heart and pressed it into the Medic's chest. Instantly his wounds were healed, but more importantly, the red haze that had hung around his mind finally cleared. Staring at his own face reflected in the mechanical woman's oversized eyes, his memories finally came flooding back to him. Everything; his employer's murder, the stalemate against their robot clones, his joining up with another mercenary group, the murder and subsequent revival of Archimedes, everything.
The Medic stood in dumb silence for the next few moments, his glasses sliding down his nose in an almost comical fashion. He barely even noticed as the robot and insect set to work collecting the souls of the desert creatures. It wasn't until Queen Sectonia lifted him off the ground that he finally snapped out of his reality shattering trance, letting out a short, involuntary scream. His legs kicked uselessly as he was lifted up and away, his feet desperately searching for any form of land. He know understood what the Soldier and Demoman experienced daily, fear quickly giving way to exhilaration. As they ascended, he caught a glimpse of what he had assumed this entire time to be a sun. It was not at all a sun, nor could even be confused for one. Illuminating the desert sky was a massive ball of white light, encased and surrounded by iridescent wings, each glowing with all the colors of the rainbow. He was tempted to ask what it was, but decided against distracting the person carrying him using a single, disembodied hand.
The Medic breathed a sigh of relief when his feet finally touched ground again, though the ground beneath him was anything but solid. After taking a moment to compose himself, the Medic thanked Sectonia for her assistance. He turned to thank Poppi as well, but she had already taken to the sky after depositing the Heavy. Fox used a shockingly small radio to communicate with Necronomicon, who had apparently scouted ahead of them. The team was to rendezvous at a sphinx. After finding and healing Midna, the Medic proceeded across the sands, chaining himself to Fox for a burst of speed. After only a few moments, however, it became clear that wasn't going to be a viable strategy, as the path ahead was too treacherous to travers in this manner. Beyond the ruined city was a crumbling path of rubble floating over a massive, sandy whirlpool. The Medic waited for a few of his compatriots to cross before braving the obstacle course himself. He was no Scout, but if the slow Heavy could clear the platforms, the Medic could as well. At first it seemed the Medic would be alright so long as he kept moving, but as he progressed, he was proven wrong. Walls animated, spinning blades floated stationary in between platforms, and strange skull things slammed down, attempting to flatten Yellow Team. The Medic fired his syringe gun at the undead things while waiting for the living walls to allow him openings to jump across. Eventually, he made it to the other side, sandy and sweaty, but otherwise no worse for wear.
Upon entering the temple, they were immediately met with signs of a battle. While the rest of the team hurried down the now obvious hidden staircase, the Medic couldn't help but stop and take a look at the scene of the fight. There was a large pile of glass by another shelf, along with an acrid smelling stain on the floor where something vaguely humanoid had burned to death. The Medic examined the spot briefly, but finding nothing of use, decided to join his teammates. By the time he arrived down stairs, everyone seemed to be bathing in a pool of clear, clean water, some more clothed than others. The Medic took a few moments to heal everyone's wounds, but rather than join them, the medic wandered over to a table where several teenagers were hanging out. It took him a moment to recognize them as the super hero team from Vah Naboris. "So, zese are your secret identities, ya? I hope you von't have to keel me for seeing zem." He chuckled as he removed the uber-pack from his back and gently set it down, out of the sun and splash range. He proceeded to remove his gloves and coat, as well as loosen his tie, when the strange meat caught his eye. "Zis meat ist very frwesh indeed. Vhat deed you keel to acquire it?"
As everyone relaxed, Queen Sectonia explained more about this world and how it operated, assisted by Primrose. The Medic, fascinated by all this, reached into the make shift bag and pulled out the Spirit of one of the dragons Heavy and Midna had slain. The Medic glanced around briefly to be sure everyone was more focused on themselves then him before pushing up his glasses and taking a closer look at the glowing orb. It was not the first soul he had acquired, but it was the first inhuman soul he had had a chance to study. He slipped it into his pants pocket. After a quick meal of hippo meat and cool, rehydrating water, the Medic set to work crafting small metal devices for each of his teammates, save Sectonia and Midna. This required him racing up and down the stairs to acquire materials from the wrecked room, but with Tora's help, every human, cat, nippon, and robot had their own little box that could be attached to any belt or pack they had. "Ahem! Excuse me your highnesses?" The Medic began, looking down at the bathing royalty. "But if you could just confirm ze nature und arrangement of your internal organs for me, I can equip you viz a Reanimator to literally pull you back togezer should ze vurst occur und I am unable to prevent your deaths." He'd prefer to simply open them up and make his own observations, but they had made it clear that they weren't comfortable with that, and after their little hunt, the Medic had too much respect for Midna to do so without her permission. Also, he couldn't be sure normal anesthetic would work on Sectonia. If they complied, he'd make some reanimators for them as well.
With the most important thing, in Medic's mind, taken care of, he turned away from the group and finally retrieved the flygon's spirit from his pocket. "Enthülle mir deine Geheimnisse, mein kleiner Freund." He whispered to it, bringing it close enough that he could see the dragon's image within. As he studied it, his insatiable curiosity seemed to react with it. The glowing orb slowly faded, and he began to undergo a change, the results of which he had no way of predicting.
wordcount: 593 (+1) Bowser: Level 9 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (8/90) Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (73/70) Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town - Outside The Bismarck
The king descended like an anvil upon the bewitchered sorceress and then, like a wrecking ball, smashed both her and the floor to pieces.
”SHODDY WORKMANSHIP!” the king cried as he descended, followed by a shower of debris. Fortunately for everyone the fancy restaurant was built on a large balcony rather than as part of the tower proper and so the worst collateral damage that happened to the local bystanders was getting wet from being in the splash zone of the king’s mighty belly flop.
Then the king vanished beneath the waves. Then his hat appeared, upon which the spirit of blue slowly drifted down and landed atop of. Around the hat a stream of bubbles started bursting and then, after a few moments, the king himself burst to the surface of the water, gasping for air and also back to his usual size.
”Uuuugh. Well at least the dust’s off, but I’m definitely going to have this suit fixed” he muttered to himself as he tread water. Then, upon hearing the shout of Bacchus and looking over to see the man offering to help him up, and trying to get him to drink again, the king let out a long groan and let himself sink under the water again.
A moment later he burst from the ocean, his dripping form born towards the heavens by Carrie the Trowlon striker. The part towel, part trowel creature rapidly ascended, carrying the king on its back up towards the hole he’d smashed in the restaurant’s floor.
”SILL BUSY” he yelled down at the god, only for the light tilt of his head he made to do so to drop the spirit he hadn’t known was on his head down in front of him. A tentacle whipped out and caught the remains of the blue woman faster than the king’s hands ever could, after which he stored it away in a bottle. He was in a position to similarly catch anyone who happened to be dropped down the hole as he ascended back towards the battle.
And there 100% went any possibility that they’d be able to eat here ever, let alone after they’d finished with this skirmish, Kamek thought to himself as his master smashed through the floor of the restaurant. He wasn't overly concerned about Bowser himself, King had survived far worse drops and if the blue one had not simply been splattered by the king’s drop then it was probably her, not the king, who would be in trouble down wherever they landed. What remained up here was the last, red, mage who was horribly outnumbered by the heroes. For about 3 seconds.
Seeing her disadvantaged state she dodged towards the hole Bowser had smashed and summoned reinforcements, a quartet of dark doppelgangers of the Hyrulian Hero who all raced to strike down several one of his allies. The two that caught the mage’s gaze raced towards Sepheroth and Blazermate. The silver haired swordsman clashed with one, but, either due to ineptitude, selfishness or lack of ability (or at least those were Kamek’s guesses), ignored the other going for his healer. Free from being targeted, thanks to either his elevated vantage point or because he hadn’t done anything to be an immediate threat till now, Kamek found himself perfectly situated to intervene.
He jabbed a finger towards the Dark Link as it engaged the healer bot and called out ”Quiet!” summoning the silent skimpy sniper to his side, who raised her rifle, took quick but careful aim, and then fired at the doppelganger. Which resulted in her shooting it in the head right as the ace cadet cleaved it in half.
”ah, well, better safe than sorry” the mage said, earning a shrug from the sniper before she vanished back into the ether
”If you think that’s good, you just wait. I have so many ideas on how to improve it” Jr said, Rika had gone from nuisance to potentially super cool project in his head as he’d gotten a better look at her workings. It took him a few moments to realize that treating a person like an engineering project probably wasn't a great look.
”uh, her. If you're cool with that?” he added, very belatedly
“If I’m... cold with that? I’m not sure I understand. So sorry” the cruiser-girl asked apologetically. This one was certainly a bit bossier even though he was helping. Also he was royalty, meaning she trod a little more lightly around him than he did the ever friendly Sakura.
”.... It’s another way to say ‘good’. But in a... Cool way?” Jr scratched the back of his head and tried and failed to explain the nuance ”look, you can't really describe what makes something cool, you just know, you know?”
“I don’t think I do? But I like what you did already, so more would be ‘cool’” Rika replied after a moments thought
”Great,” Jr said, before turning his attention to Sakura’s somewhat vague understanding of her home’s political system, and countered with his own immature take on how things worked in his own ”Also royals are better than everyone else. Otherwise they wouldn't be in charge because someone better would come and kick their butt! I mean sure, Kameks says you gotta be compassionate and good at inspiring people and stuff but like all royals are mainly just bigger and better versions of their people so that’s the most important bit. King Bob’omb is a big bob’omb with a mustache, the goomba king’s a big goomba with a… mustache,” weird that ”also it's not just a bad guy thing either, those weird pea guys who live next to the mushroom kingdom’s prince is pretty strong apparently”
Jr realized no-one had any idea what he was talking about and tried a different tact ”Look. This, ' he snapped his fingers and summoned a koopa troopa, ”is a regular Koopa. Look at me with my cool spikes and horns and awesome butt kicking skills. Look at the plain Koopa whose main strategy involves walking into things to hurt them. Who do you think is in charge here?”
“you are boss” the minion helpful supplied
”right you are,” Jr said ”Seriously who votes to decide their leader?”
“We do that for picking the head of our union” the Koopa also supplied
”... Your what?”
“The wukmoo? The Working Koopa’s Minion Union?” From Jr’s expression it was clear had no idea what his minion was talking about, “it's this organization that negotiates our working conditions and things. All the minions have one and then there's a big ‘Minion of the Koopa Kingdom’ one for all of us?” still nothing “Uh... I don't think I have enough time to explain, but they mostly deal with Kamek I think so you could ask him? Times up gotta go sorry boss!” the troopa quickly tied to explain before running out of time and rejoining his kin in striker limbo, leaving Jr looking very confused
”uh. Right.” Jr shook his head and quickly dismissed it as one of those boring admin things his dad always fobbed off on Kamek and moved on ”Look, the point is, the person who can kick the most but is in-charge of anything that counts. We work like that, Abyssal fleet works like that, and I bet the navy works like that too?” he glanced at their resident navy girl for confirmation.
Jr’s mostly self indulgent line of conversation did end up having a point in the end, and that was for him to use it as a basis to give a more simplistic and violently practical suggestion on how to fix the issue abyssal fleet without grinding every last ship to dust. Or into items. ”So if you, Bella, want to do Sakura’s thing and take over the Abyssal fleet and stop them from killing you don't need to talk’em all round, you just gotta get strong enough to beat them all up and then they’ll follow you instead of who the current boss is. Probably don't even need to free everyone if you do it that way, just the bosses and then people like Rika will just follow suit? Oh, or you can get the bosses to free their own minions for you once you free them? Yeah! Delegating is something else Kamek says is important too.” he suggested, nodding proudly to himself at remembering that last bit. True, he mostly remembered it because it let him justify fobbing off stuff on his minions as a good thing actually, but still. ”You find another fleet, punch their princess in the snout to assert dominance. Then do that again and again till you’ve got a big rebel army going and then you take down the queen. Or the flagship? I guess she’d be both?”
Again, Rika had no idea what was being talked about, so she was very happy that exercising became the core part of the conversation again, and listened with rapt attention as Sakura answered her questions, complete with demonstrations of what sit ups and pull ups where. Even Rika could tell that this was something Sakura was both especially passionate about and more knowledgeable about than some of the other things she'd been talking about which made the ship girl even more enthusiastic about trying it out.
It was a bit weird that she could walk better than the princess, she thought as Sakrua switched to giving Bella standing lessons. She thought royalty’d be better at everything than her.
Jr assumed it was because Rika was built to be a brawler whereas the princess was more of a long range shooty girl, though he also didn't really understand why standing would be difficult at all. Surly they still needed to hold themselves upright while ‘standing’ on the water, or so he thought as he watched as Rika walked over to the door frame to try a pull up, her poise noticeably less stable now that her gauntlet strapped to her back rather than to her hands. But clearly enamored enough with anything that would let her use her freed hands that she wasn't going to let that stop her.
She gripped the sides and with surprising ease, pulled herself up and then set herself down without any issue. There was something a bit off about the pull though, or so Jr thought.
”Now do it without using the anti gravity you’ve got on those gauntlets. Or at least turn it down a bit.” Jr called over.
“Oh? Ok” nothing changed for a few moments, but then the girl suddenly let out and an “eep” as the giant gauntlets based backpack stopped supporting her weight and she almost toppled over, wobbling and flailing and then clearly turning the anti grav way back up to avoid completely collapsing while Jr snickered to himself.
He wasn't laughing for long, as all too soon Sakura moved on from trying to get the princess to stand on her own two feet to directing the prince and heavy cruiser into doing more advanced exercises.
”uuurg, fine” Jr said before bedding over, attempting to touch his toes, taping the deck with his explosive goo tipped wrist horns instead. After getting clear of the (fortunately very small due to only getting residue thatcher than a fresh dose of goo on the ground) explosion he tried again ”see? Easy and boring” he said. Indeed it was easy, mainly because the boy had legs that were very incredibly stubby when compared to a human’s proportionally speaking. Indeed his arms were actually a bit longer than them which was the opposite to most human’s proportions. All this meant he didn't need to bend down anywhere as much as the others would to achieve the same effect..
Rika meanwhile followed her instructions without question, partially out of habit, partially because it was Sakura but mostly because this was another thing she would not have been able to do before a few moments ago, bending over and tippy tapping her booted feet with her newly freed hands, her antigrav gauntlets not helping her cheat this exercise like they did the push up or even just standing. “Oooh. Oh I feel something? A lot of something? It’s a little burning feeling? That's cool. Or it isn't cold, but it’s still cool? I think. Is that how that works Jr?”
”Sure.” jr replied (prompting a smile from the ship girl who proceeded to start loudly counting to 10 under her breath as she held the pose) before asking ”Look wouldn’t it just be faster for the princess to fuse with a spirit that can walk anyway?” aware that that had its downsides but also being 100% the kind of person who’d take shortcuts like that.
”Also how long are you gonna stand like that? You’re just showing off at this point.” he added trying to copy Sakura’s pose with her standing with her leg over her shoulder while they talked, the prince only really able to tap his chin with the tips of his clawed toes thanks to his inhuman proportions.
Level: 5 (12 -> 13/50) Location: Sandswept Sky - Crown of Sand Word Count: 958 (+1 EXP)
The ‘dragon hunting’ excursion couldn’t have ended in a more timely manner, for the three that had carried it out were already being lifted to the plateau by the time Fox and company made it back to the edge of the barrier to catch them on their return flight from afar. In part, they may have had the conversational delay to thank for the ground team’s tandem progress in the meantime, and the distance and wait of retrieving them for subsequent progress made by the Thieves in their advance. On that note, as Poppi and the Queen crested the cliff with their respective passengers, Fox received a call from one of their new “honorary” allies ahead.
“I read you,” he answered, verifying the working order of their newly established line of communication. Necronomicon then summarized their route and destination for them to follow, giving them a specific mark to look for in a ‘Sphinx,’ whatever that was. “Got it. We’re on our way, now. We’ll be right behind y-” Fox went aback in a surprise take as Tora caught him off guard, crowding him to talk into his headpiece after faintly picking up on the Persona’s speech through the other end. Just as well, since he at least thought to ask the proper question of what a ‘Sphinx’ was.
As little sense as it made in concept, at least by the description, Fox was confident they could put it together when they saw it. Though, she was gracious enough to offer that she wait out front for them just in case they didn’t. “Understood. We won’t keep you waiting.” With that, Fox was off by the way he last saw the Thieves heading, expecting the regathered Yellow Team would follow minus the need to direct as much, thus he abstained to as he began to march.
Through the obscuring sandwinds, the resulting inability to fly in them, and the visually samey nature of the ruined streets they passed through, it proved difficult further on to gather a solid sense of direction. Tora forged ahead, and soon found a path wrought with obstacles--possibly the one Necronomicon mentioned, but none of them could be sure short of crossing it to the other side. With a long history of putting his own aerial mobility to use where his continued survival and forward progress was concerned, Fox had little trouble at all finding his way across the suspended obstacle course. It was mostly a matter of skipping some of it in long, horizontal strides of air dashing, at one point timing a jump to lure a harassing Skullcrusher into dropping through the crumbling floor at his feet as he left it, kicking off of the face of an obstructing Walleye to maneuver around it, and just altogether ignoring the distraction of the Cymuls and Ergotroks, refraining from so much as entertaining the latter with a pulse of his Reflector.
At the end of the path lay the temple described to them previously, indicated doubly by the presence of the girl-turned-saucer outside waiting to greet them. She led the Team in at the thirst-driven behest of Tora, through an expectantly gloomy inner sanctum that the Thieves no doubt fought through in their absence, to a contrastly lavish, pristine pool hall where they now resided in respite. They were even adorned in decidedly casual attire as opposed to their masks and adjoining outfits, suggesting that their purpose may be more expressive rather than a means to conceal their identities. Though, perhaps the absence of a real name was all that mattered to them on that end.
At Skull’s direction, Fox took his needed drinks from the designated pool before rejoining the others around the swimming hole, but not in it. He wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion, nor set to strip down accordingly, on top of having the added layer of fur that would take extra time to dry off, even in the sun, while it collected sand in the meantime. Mona, if no one else, might understand as much, even if he was comparatively advantaged by the allowance to go conventionally nude.
While they were still on a mission, Fox had no desire to cut short their revelry by urging them onward, even if he didn’t partake in it himself. Besides the brief intermissions of downtime between travel, most of them haven't had much honest opportunity for rest since Alcamoth, and more still had been at it for longer than that throughout the same day. It did them more good than not to take advantage of the moment while they had it to recuperate at their own pace in preparation for what lay ahead.
A thought occurred to him then; one not terribly reassuring. For an abandoned temple, the place in which they now resided was conspicuously well-kept, he thought. Not even a dusty surface presented itself. As for the provisions and camp setup, unless the Thieves had some manner of conjuration magic or the like (not that Fox would be able to distinguish or understand as much) that allowed them to summon or manifest them as needed, as per their outfits, that could only mean one thing to him: someone was there already. The arousal of his suspicions stopped him just ahead of taking a seat in a shaded area of the central platform overlooking the pools, almost thinking to ask Joker how much of it was there when they arrived before thinking the better of it. He opted instead to let them relax while they were down instead of putting them on edge, while he took an independent shift on watch for them, keeping a calm lookout for anything on the off chance he happened to be correct in his assumption.
Blazermate, being the resident healer, brought herself attention from Cia who unlike most of the enemies in the Dead Zone, had brains behind her and saw the medabot healing the wounds of those who she was trying to destroy a nuisance. With this in mind Cia sent one of her dark link shadows towards Blazermate intending to deal with the team healer. Blazermate, already in a defensive stance, raised her shield to deal with the incoming dark link clone, however it never reached her as both Kamek and the cadet took care of the clone before it could get anywhere near the heal bot.
"Oh, thanks guys! I'm still charging, but its almost there!" Blazermate said, keeping her defensive posture but healing those who needed it. Thanks to the efforts of her team, even though they were destroying the building, the colored clones were disappearing one after another, turning into spirits. Blazermate didn't really have much of a need or interest in these spirits. Still, Bowser's idea to hold them for later was a good idea.
Relieved that his gambit had worked, Geralt released his connection to the Sign of Axii and let out a short breath. They were down to one opponent now, the Red sorceress. He had since stopped paying attention to the...rather bloody ways in which Nadia was destroyed and reconstituted herself, deciding that if she could survive that, it would only be insulting to worry after her safety. Maybe if he had that think Blazermate used to heal people, but otherwise she seemed more than capable of handling herself.
What he did pay attention to, however, was a very familiar scene: powerful sorceress meets skilled, famed, handsome warrior, falls helplessly in love, and becomes irrationally jealous when the object of her affections doesn't give her every minute of her time.
It was a tale as old as time, as far as the Witcher was concerned. His heart went out to Link, a kindred spirit in that minefield they called romance. Geralt had been wise to extricate himself from it, long as it may have taken.
His mind back on the fight, Geralt cursed as Cia summoned a shadow puppet to attack Blazermate, and he started to move towards it when a wave of something sent him reeling, only for a second wave of what he saw was some kind of dark energy to knock him aside and over the edge of the hole. His desperate scramble only delayed the inevitable, as he fell from the Bismarck, sword left on the restaurant's floor.
Only to land with a grunt in a rapidly-ascending Bowser's arm-tentacle things. He looked up at the Koopa King with a shrug. "Huh. Thanks, boss." He said, now looking about to get a look of what had occurred in the moments since his attention was pulled from the battle.
One by one, the new arrivals split between the oasis and the makeshift campsite. Midna's wolfish steed took her with it as it hurled itself into the pool after Tora and Poppi, but she found the waters' embrace quite agreeable. Heavy followed suit, clothes and all, with a splash so big that the ensuing waves swept Tora away. “Wheee!” he sang, bobbing to the other side of the pool.
His friend the Medic and a rather bedraggled Primrose visited the campsite first. They arrived at the same time as Necronomicon, who with some help from Joker had managed to widen the bright aperture lighting the oasis enough for her to get through. Panther in particular had wondered if her new acquaintance would be interested in seeing her as she really was, but the dancer appeared more focused on her attire. “Sorry!” she apologized, giving an embarrassed smile. “Our Phantom Thief outfits are...well, projections, sort of. Our rebellious spirit, given form! So this is what we've really been wearing. It was summer when we got stuck here, you see?” She looked Primrose up and down, taking note of the state of her attire. “But uh, if you don't mind how they look, we got some stuff from the hippos!” She gestured at the small heap of clothes deposited beside the camp, which consisted of loose red-and-dark-red striped robes, peacock-feather accessories and a mantle, and a couple fezzes.
Unwittingly Panther also answered the Medic's question, but Mona replied to him anyway, his comment about their secret identities having received no more than a chuckle from Joker. “We found some peacocks and hippos here when we arrived. Since we didn't eat much today we figured we might as well make the most of 'em.” The cat moseyed over to where his leader was pan-frying a hippo steak and took a deep sniff. “Kinda exotic as meat goes, but it smells good, and it's a whole lot better than starving! Guess all that time making food at LeBlanc's coming in handy, huh Joker?”
The boy nodded. “It'll be a bit longer given this method of cooking.”
He looked over to see Skull approaching, wearing one of the robes, and raised an eyebrow. The blond boy shrugged. “Hey, I don't wanna get my clothes wet, and I didn't pack any trunks!” He headed over to the pool and jumped in, joining the growing crowd.
After seeing Poppi start cleaning the sand from her chassis with a smile on her face, Tora allowed himself to relax. He floated on his back around the pool, marvelously buoyant, and his tension drifted away in the refreshing, wonderful water. With Sectonia droning on about the World of Light in the background he really did almost slip into a dozing slumber, not even taking notice of Primrose letting her hair down, but the coolness of the water at his back prevented him from drifting away completely. He only awoke from his reverie when Braum -having heroically volunteered to be the first to try Joker's cooking and proclaimed it highly satisfactory- maneuvered into the pool himself, which sent another round of waves rippling across the surface. Tora shook and then smacked his head to get water out of his ears, regaining his full hearing in time to catch the end of Sectonia's speech.
Braum, now lounging in the pool, stroked his mustache thoughtfully as he took the information in. “Hmm...this is a lot! So, is there a way to tell who is friend and foe?” He glanced around the more experienced adventurers with his own scarlet eyes inquisitive.
Her voice careful, Poppi replied, “Anyone with both orangey-red eyes and ash on their faces under Galeem influence.” She fixed Braum, the Scout, and Blue Poison with a pointed glance, but strongman only nodded, his features serious.
“Kind of bulky way to describe,” Tora piped up idly. “Maybe friends should come up with name for people not free from Galeem. How about....mehmehmeh, Reddypon?”
Skull scoffed. “Psh! It should be something cool, but also like, dangerous! Like an enemy force in a video game. Like...uh...” With all the spotlight suddenly on him, he found himself struggling to come up with something. “Light...ful?”
“Uh, no. What about Daybroken!” Panther offered. She sat on the edge of the pool near Primrose, halfway through a drumstick. “Like 'daybreak', when the sun comes up. Doesn't that sound cool?”
With his paws tented, Mona considered the suggestion. “Daybreak is a positive thing though. Something bright and hopeful springing from the darkness.”
Panther took another bite. “Thatsh where the 'broken' comes in!”
Hearing a splashing, Poppi noticed her Masterpon trying in vain to climb out of the pool and went over to help. The commotion drew a few other eyes her way, but she shrugged to put them off. “Poppi have no ideas.”
After a moment of contemplative quiet, Joker spoke up over the hiss of the cookfire. “Sundown. The sun of this world, Galeem, has brought them to a low place.”
Tora scrambled up onto the solid stone. “That not bad, meh! Hey Poppi, can you wash Tora clothes, please?” His companion dutifully reached for his piled shirts and overalls as he bounced over to the camp. With Sectonia's antlions helping a great deal to get the meals ready, there was no shortage of appetizing-looking food. “Ooh, smell make Tora super grumbly-hungry. Could eat Tasty Sausage the size of Poppi!” He settled on a side of roast hippo instead, laid it on a scrubbed slab of stone along with some greens and sat to wolf it down. He was in the middle of thirds when the Medic approached with an idea in mind. Clean, refreshed, and full of good things, Tora could think of nothing better to pass some time with than some fun tinkering. “Okay, Tora help new friend!”
After waddling over to retrieve his toolbelt from the poolside, he joined the Medic in his project. A natural engineer, he quickly proved himself a great help with both his knowledge of his companions and his technical know-how. Using his attachable console the Nopon breezed through the software portion, sizable as it was, and in doing so decided to pass the time with some conversation. Now seemed like a perfect opportunity to get to know the Medic inside and out, and start down the pathway of real friendship. “So,” he began, steadily tapping away with his tiny nub-hands on his terminal. “Not only friend Medic amazing doctor, but also amazing engineer! Tora never think would be helping make inventions to bring back life! Back home in Torigoth, Tora just work on Poppi, sometimes days at time. Tora forget eat, forget sleep. Very unusual for Nopon! But Poppi Tora's pride and joy.” His expression said as much as he looked up from his work to see his companion sitting in the pool, her washing task done. In the cheerful sunlight and sparkling water she seemed especially beautiful.
It was a moment before Tora gave a contented sigh and continued tapping. “Rex-Rex say that if person care enough, anything possible. Rex-Rex is Tora friend and hero, so he right for sure, meh! So, meh, Tora wonder about Medic. How get amazing skills? And what for?” He glanced up again to watch the Medic's face as he replied. Though shamelessly inattentive to others at time, Tora had here a kindred spirit in technological expertise and passion, and waited with bated breath to hear what he had to say.
At about the same time as Heavy went for his own dinner, Braum joined him to get a second helping. “Eat well, my friend!” the big man was saying. “Strength like ours must be built brick by brick, so we must make up for any lost meals! I'm more used to bear meat in the frozen north I call home, but this is fine fare.”
Panther took a sip of water and remarked to Primrose. “This is new for all of us. In the real world most hippos are in, uh, Africa I think, which is totally on the other side of the world. And they're SUPER dangerous. I wouldn't pick a fight with an actual hippo even with Carmen backing my up, no sir!” She laughed to herself. “Then again, I guess we did beat that one that you made a Striker, huh?”
Behind Braum and Heavy in line was Skull, who had finished with the pool and changed back into casual wear in time to join them. “Not bad, huh? I'm always down to try new things, but nothin' beats a steamin' hot bowl of ramen! Ah, man, the first thing I'm gonna do when we get back home is raid Ogikubo!” He almost got lost in thought imagining the noodles of his homeland, but took a serving of poultry all the same.
Some time later, dinner came to an end along with Medic's project, and the curious healer decided to take a leap in the name of science. Every eye went his way as he absorbed the spirit of a Flygon. The moment the spirit touched his body his entire form became shrouded, then lost in a dazzling show of multicolored light. His very being came undone in a flurry of reconstitution, then combined with the essence of the pokemon. When the light finally died, there stood a Medic not too dissimilar from the original, yet unmistakably different all the same.
Spirit absorbed: Flygon The host has gotten a little taller, and his lower section a little bulkier. A rash of light green scales appear on the back and sides of his neck, his back, and the sides of his arms and legs. His nails are white, harder, thicker, and longer, like claws, and he's down to four fingers on each hand. The tails of his coat are now green with red trim, and there's another much larger pair on the back of his coat that resemble wings, although just part of his outfit. His glasses are larger, rounder, and red-tinted, more resembling goggles. His hair turns dark green toward the tips, and there are two longer spikes of hair that extend backward atop his had and curl down. This spirit confers the Power Levitate, granting immunity to Ground-type Pokemon moves as well as limited flying ability. It also confers the Weakness Winterbane, giving the host a crippling weakness to ice, which will deal quadruple damage
“Oooh,” Tora admired. He looked at the loot from the battle below the barrier, arrayed across a section of floor. Mostly bugs, but one thing did catch his eye. “JET BOOTS!” He scooped the weapons up, only for his delighted expression to falter. “Meh, meh, meh! They're broken!”
Poppi looked them over. “Why don't you fix them?”
The Nopon's face lit up again in realization. “Oh, yes!”
“We found some stuff too,” Mona announced as Joker placed five spirits down with the rest of the goods. “Some monsters we fought in the temple, along with the fight on the cliff.”
Poppi give her Masterpon a sideways look for his deception, but he seemed more focused on the spirits. “Maybe it time for Tora and Poppi to get new power,” he suggested, examining the choices. “Not fleshy thing...not ugly bat...armor suit might work for Poppi, but it hurt agility and charm, meh.”
“What if Masterpon fuse with four-arms? Double wings, double useful. Although zero times two still zero,” Poppi told him.
Too deep in thought to listen, Tora scratched his head. “Hmm...Tora wonder if changes can isolate to just one Poppi form. If armor suit stick to, say, Poppi Alpha, then that form can go full defense and others stay mobile.” Remembering the Medic's fearlessness, he grabbed the spirit in question. “Meh meh, let's try!”
With a deep breath Poppi changed to her young-looking Alpha form, then gingerly took the Armor spirit. She too unraveled in a kaleidoscopic lightshow, and in a few moments reappeared.
Spirit absorbed: Armor The host has gotten taller, and gained burnished armor with orange highlights. This includes large, circular pauldrons, enhanced gauntlets, a plated fauld around the waist, and a visored helmet beneath her beret. From the back of the helmet Poppi's hair erupts as a large, spiky plume of lavender and red. Her left eye is bright red. Her waist is also detatched from her chestplate, with only a swirling nebulousness between them forming a vague midsection. Her thrusters also blast darkness instead of flame. This spirit confers the Power Living Armor, increasing her defense and allowing her to summon a heavy metal sword to fight with. It also confers the Weakness Heavy Metal, decreasing her agility to the point where she cannot hover, fly, or dodge quickly.
Tora was on Poppi in an instant, running diagnostics as he babbled. “Is Poppi okay!? How does Poppi feel?! Any strange urges? Can see out of left eye? Can move legs? Repeat after Tora: 'La la la la laaa...”
Laughing, Poppi patted his head. “Dn't worry Tora, Poppi feel fine! Stronger than ever in fact. About as tall as QT mode too!” she noticed, comparing her height to Tora's. She held up one gauntleted hand. “Analysis indicates higher defense, lower speed. Free flight likely impossible. And can do this!” From a blast of darkness she summoned a huge steel claymore in her hand, which she stuck point first in the ground. “Poppi Alpha have both sword and shield. Like legendary knight!”
“Dark knight maybe,” Tora fretted, but it was clear he was happy. One lingering worry remained. “Meh, meh, can Poppi try changing to QT Pi?”
“Roger, roger!” In a whirlwind of sparks and ribbons Poppi transformed from her modified first form to her third, and Tora saw to his satisfaction that it bore no trace of the Armor.
He cheered, dancing around. “Hip hip hooray! Tora find workaround! By giving specific spirits to different forms, can create three different 'builds' with different strengths and weaknesses, like crazy Poppiswap!” His elation dwindled to normal levels. “Alright, Tora run more detailed checks on Poppi, get fully acquainted with new abilities. Now perfect time for everyone to power up before next leg of journey, meh!” With Poppi right behind he headed for where he and the Medic had been tinkering to lay Poppi down and get to work.
Sakura's response left Bella less than convinced. Although the girl had her heart in the right place, the Abyssal felt like she simply didn't know the situation at hand quite well enough for her pronouncements to be wholly accurate. For now, all Bella could be sure of was that she hoped Sakura was right, and that a better future lay within the grasp of all.
More than anything else, she came to realize the importance of exercise. The nebulous goal of greater strength made the activity seem more like a chore than a worthwhile pursuit, without a tangible goal in mind, but Sakura made a very good. Bella realized that she would only be able to accompany her heroine and her friends on their adventures if she could cut it on land, and that would be beyond her if she couldn't stand upon it in the first place. Suddenly fired up to exercise, Bella watched Sakura demonstrate a push-up for Rika, then awaited her own instructions. 'Standing practice' was the name of the game for now—and that, Bella thought, she could try her best at. Flushing again as Sakura took hold of her to help her to her feet, Bella placed her whole weight onto her wobbly legs. Her enormous, monstrous tail coiled behind her, helping to keep her from suddenly falling, but the weight of her human body lay upon her legs alone.
She steeled her muscles as best she could while the seconds crawled on, but finding nothing to steel, she found the wobbling growing more and more severe. “Grrrrgh...” she breathed. “I...can...do zis. I will...leave the sea...” Her muscles burned beneath their burden, all her strength straining to keep her upright. “I...wha!” And just like that her limbs went slack, and she slid to the floor on her knees, panting. “Hah...hah...” With hopeful eyes she looked up at Sakura. “H-how long was zat?”
The light drained from them as they went wide. “Six seconds!? How!? Zat felt like...like hours!”
While recovering her stamina she listened to Sakura outline exercise goals in the future, and by the time she finished was ready to go again. Her next round of standing practice began while Junior said his piece, and ended long before his did, but Bella listened nonetheless. Becoming powerful enough to lead seemed simpler than somehow convincing the Abyssal legions, but Bella doubted if it would be an easier. She knew a few of the Abyssals who stood above her in the brutal hierarchy, and the thought of facing them in combat terrified her to the core. “I'll keep that in mind,” she told him shakily, wondering if a child knew well enough to stand as an authority on such matters.
More chatter and exercise followed, but for all her attempts Bella didn't find the act of standing any easier. In fact it got harder, since she seemed to recover less and less each time. After a few minutes she collapsed onto the coil of her tail, using it as a makeshift seat. “Sacré bleu, this is difficult. I would not object to...haah...finding one of these spirits that could help me walk.” She wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, her hat long since removed.
For a moment it seemed as though Cia had given up as she miserably addressed Link, but Nadia's caution proved well founded. Either the sorceress didn't ultimately understand the dire situation before her, or she didn't care. In a rage she called forth another crop of dark swordsmen to assail her enemies. Nadia bunched her muscles to leap over the hole in the floor and take care of the deranged woman personally, but her foe pulled another trick out her bag. Waves of dark force swept across the wooden floor from the impact point of her scepter's head, elicited by a move that Nadia would have expected in more provocative circles. The shockwaves swept the catgirl off her feet, but she remained far from helpless in the air. Jets of blood from her ankles boosted her away from the hole in the floor, leaving Geralt to plummet through himself. “Whoops, sorry!” she called after him, before refocusing on Cia.
The arc of her jump meant she wouldn't reach the sorceress without having to land and risk the shockwaves, but Nadia had nothing if not fallbacks. She extruded a length of muscle fiber from her wrist to loop over one of the hangers that previously held up the Bismarck awning, and swung from it as if on a jungle vine. “Swing and a miss!” she called, swooping over the open air and ocean blow, then back toward the restaurant. Well before she could drop onto Cia from above, however, Sephiroth burst from the struggle with the sorceress's conjurations and pushed his ridiculously long blade straight through her. Death came instantly; the Dark Links dissipated like someone flipped a switch, and the fight way over.
Nadia landed on the floor, sucking her fibers back in, and placed her arms akimbo. “You killed her again!” she accused the swordsman, her face cross. “That was the last one, too!” As much as murder rubbed her fur the wrong way, she couldn't really condemn him. Cia's lack of casualties was not for want of trying. If not for her own abilities, or the others' intervention, she, Peach, Cuphead, and Sephiroth might be dead. She watched the magic barrier around the restaurant start to glow, then shatter into wisps of energy. There came a flash that left her blinking, confused, and when she looked again she saw two glowing orbs by the hole in the floor. One was sea-green, with a trident at its center, and the other was pink with a heart. A moment later Bowser reappeared from the hole atop his Trowln, the fallen Geralt caught unceremoniously in his arms.
Party: Link, Ace Cadet, Hat Kid, Frog, Sephiroth, Nadia, Bowser, Kamek, Blazermate, Geralt Reward: 10 EXP Additional Rewards: Cia Spirit (Purple), Cia Spirit (Blue), Cia Spirit (Red), Poseidon Boon, Aphrodite Boon, 4x Bystander Spirit, the privilege of dealing with the fallout of Bismarck's destruction
You have obtained: Cia's Scepter An ornate rod with a head of spiked purple crystal. It is a strong casting catalyst for spells and sorceries. In the hands of a magic user, the weapon comes alive and its head can detach from the staff and act as a flail, connected by a magic string. While detached, cast spells can originate at the point of the head. For someone not gifted with magic, the scepter is little more than a mace that lacks durability
Dramatic Tension – Once a fight begin, Nadia can begin building up Dramatic Tension by dealing and taking damage. If she accumulates enough she can perform Blockbusters, powerful moves that cannot be broken out of if a hit lands at any point. Her two Level 1 Blockbusters are Cat Scratch Fever (an onrushing series of hyper slashes with a different finisher depending on whether or not her head is attached) and Feral Edge (a diving plunge attack with her tail-sword, which can combo into Feline Allergies)
A bit later, as people sorted through the rewards, Nadia's motioning for them to get a move on grew to a fever pitch. “Come on, we've got to get out of here, before-”. A big man with green skin, a gray chinstrap beard, and a marvelous chef's outfit rushed onto the scene from the kitchens. He fell to his knees in despair, raising his oven mitts to the heavens. “Oh, Hydaelyn! What did I do to deserve this...!” Dejected to the core, he hung his head and took a deep breath. Then he looked up at Blue Team, and stood, his expression severe. “I hope you people are prepared to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and to pay due recompense.” He pointed an accusatory mitt. “It was your side that began the fight, inside the Bismarck nonetheless, set off the firebomb, tore off the awning, and put a hole the floor! The dining floor is a ruin, and the kitchens a mess! That woman may have set off an blast of her own, but would she have taken such measure if you didn't gang up on her? And she's dead anyway, in no position to undo the damage. You, meanwhile!” Enraged, he shook both fists. ”YOU have put an end to the culinary arts of the entire region, in addition to my business, for the foreseeable future! Even with millions in repairs it will take an age to mend it all.”
There came a commotion by the entrance. A dozen guards armed with spears and firearms appeared, joined by the ships Pennsylvania and Tosa, as well as Admiral Merylwyb herself brandishing twin double-barreled pistols. She eyed the spirits of the killed bystanders, and treated the heroes to a fearsome scowl. “So, this is what the travelers from afar have brought us after asking how to earn our trust. Death and destruction. What do you have to say for yourselves?”
Nadia gulped, her ears lying flat against her hair. More than anything she wanted to sprint away at high speed, and she knew she could escape easily, too. But being part of this group meant not abandoning them. She looked urgently at Peach, but the princess was standing stock-still, a look of fear on her face. What are you doing? Nadia wanted to ask. You're the leader, right? Say something! But like Peach, she could say nothing at all.
After dealing with his hurled chunk of earth, the Skullgirl quit running and sprinted the Stranger's way. He held his arms wide, taunting her. “Come and get me!” She closed the distance quickly, sending up puffs of powder with each pound of her feet against the snow. Did she plan to strike him, knowing already that her strength meant nothing to him. “POINTLESS!” he cried, lifting a leg to deliver a kick to her head, compounded such by her speed and his power that it could very well tear her head clean off.
Instead she summoned forth a fleeting ally, and the next second everything vanished in a cloud of smoke. “That all?” In the haze the Stranger waited for his foe to hit him, and dutifully her legs lashed out at him. Both missed, sent to either side of his head, then glistened with blades of ice. The Skullgirl brought them together in a killer vice. She felt her frozen edges hit flesh, but something was wrong. Try as she might, her legs would not come together.
The wintry wind cleared the smoke a moment later, revealing the reason why. With a disdainful expression the Stranger stood, having not so much as blocked, his adversary's blades biting into his neck. Blood speckled the ice. Yet for all her strength the wounds were no more than skin deep. “Nice try,” the man drawled. “Woulda worked on anyone else. But lemme tell you one thing. The boooolts, the blaaades, the coooold...I. Don't. Feel. Any of it.” His hands closed around her legs. “You're gonna have to do better.”
With one motion he crushed the ice surrounding her limbs, freeing himself from her vicegrip. Rather than let go, he lifted her up, then dropped her in a mighty powerbomb. The impact shook the ground and cracked the earth, sending fissures through the ice fields. Without missing a beat the Stranger grabbed the Skullgirl's legs and swing her around and around, then let her fly.
Location: The Bismarck Restaurant. Level: 2 Word Count:
"Admiral Merylwyb," grasping Link by the shoulder for support the swordsman called out to the admiral dressed in her dark attire, but for a moment he squeezed the pointy earred young man on the shoulder gently giving the youth an appreciative nod as well as uttering a quick thanks before carefully standing on his own still leaning a little for support upon his broadsword "I shouldst hath hoped to greet thou under any other circumstance alas I stand amongst this..." he limped slightly towards the Admiral whom he had met on a couple occasions before, looking around he bowed his head sorrowfully for the innocent lives taken in the fight "Awful tragedy that couldst hath been diverted hadst thou come sooner," there was no anger nor sarcasm behind the words as he spoke only sorrow as well as disappointment "Admiral thou hath known me for quite a time and I haty never deceived thou in the slightest." hefting the scepter that appeared from the ground the swordsman bound it to his side while speaking to the Admiral.
"I beseech thou to lower thine weapons as the blood of too many hath already been spilt," with a sigh the swordsman removed a hefty pouch from his side, and held it out to the large chef "Tis everything I saved from working in thy fine town and twas a little extra from today," Frog told the green-skinned chef "Tis at the very least cover most of thine damages but it does nay resolve what took place today." the swordsman said returning his gaze to the white haired woman.
1x Laugh
