As the fusions continued, Panther was happy to break her attention away from the dazzling display to speak more with Primrose. She leaned in as well, giving the conversation a confidential air, although her response held little in the way of secrets. “Oh no,” she told the dancer. “Personas are...well, it's a little complicated. They're us. They're like, our personalities given form. Masks that we put on in order to fight and overcome hardship. I wouldn't have thought to try giving them spirits, but after seeing Midna's wolfos, maybe?”

“Allow me to explain, my lady!” Mona plopped down on Primrose's other side, ruining any semblance of privacy the conversation might have had. “They're given shape by the mythological archetypes that dwell within humanity's sea of souls, the collective consciousness and culture, which affect how people develop their personalities. The Thieves awakened to their Personas in the depths of despair—faced with frustration at injustice or suffering, they chose to rebel! Our Personas are our rebellious spirits, with the power to take revenge on those who take advantage of the weak!”

Panther nodded. “By accepting our desires, we gained the power to achieve them! Not everyone has the will to break free though, so it's up to us to right the wrongs of society, by stealing hearts and changing one person at a time!” She giggled. “It's serious business, but it's also super cool. You know...” she placed the back of one hand against her chin thoughtfully, just as Primrose did a moment before. “Hey Mona, will you shoo a sec? Girl talk.”

She waited for the cat to clear out before she continued. “If you're trapped in here in the Metaverse like us, may be you have it in you, too. I've been keeping an eye on you so far, ever since you joined us in the pyramid. I'm a little envious, really. You're super nice and cool, and really know what you're doing. But I get the feeling that something's got you down. Like, weighing on your mind.” She smiled apologetically, waving her hand. “I'm not gonna pry or anything, but what I mean is, if I could find the will to rebel against the people taking advantage of me and my friend, I'm sure you can, too. So if you're ever on the verge of giving in, listen for a voice inside you.” Her blue eyes blazed with conviction. “And accept your lust for revenge.” When Primrose asked to speak later, Panther gave a nervous laugh. “Oh, of course! ...Sorry if I got a little, um, intense there.”

A short while later, Tora took note of the dancer inspecting the strange-looking devices alongside Sectonia, and spotted the slots on their sides. “Oh, those must be different type of treasure box, like in Lumbridge!” the Nopon confirmed. “When friends open those in castle, we get special loot!” With a final glance at Poppi he waddled back over to the loot pile, ducked underneath Midna as she zoomed past, and snatched a few of the dollar bills. “These papers unlock like key, meh.” Rather than prove it, however, he waited with great anticipation—for another fusion was about to begin. Primrose vanished into a radiant maelstrom of her own, and was remade.



Tora gave a sagacious nod. “Not that different, meh.” He looked around. “Anyone else before unboxing and crushing?”

The Phantom Thieves stood four abreast on one side of the pile, looking over the remaining options. Joker recounted them aloud. “A bat, a grotesque, the berserker, another Lamia, one more bike robot, the four-arms, the bug woman, the blue zombie, and a lot of insects.” He reached down and took Harrow, his chosen opponent in the temple's sanctum. “I'm used to fusing Personas in different ways, but it should still work. I'll try combining this thing with Ghul to increase its attack power.”

Mona pursued that line of thinking. “In that case, the four-armed brute might boost Captain Kidd's strength. Or the Lamia boost Carmen's firepower.”

“Or...” Panther began. “I could try the Lamia myself. She's blonde too after all, and not too weird looking. After seeing the changes the others went through, I don't think I'd lose my legs with just one spirit. And if both Carmen and I have fire magic, that'll be double the power, rather than just a little more for Carmen!”

Joker gave tentative approval. “If you're willing to risk it. These changes couldn't possibly carry over into the real world, after all. But let me go first.” He brought forth his newest Persona, Ghul. It appeared with a shriek, a hideously gaunt, malformed humanoid. When Joker pressed in the spirit of Harrow, the Persona melted away into golden light and blue flame, then reappeared as an even greater monster. With flesh pulled back away from its skull, elongated claws, a filthy toga-like garment, scattered pieces of scrap metal armor, and a crop of blades buried in its back, it epitomized terrifying viciousness. Joker shivered and banished it, glad that no changes appeared to extend to him.

Next, Skull summoned Captain Kidd. “Alright buddy,” he said as he took the Gorlek spirit. “I dunno 'bout you, but a skeleton with three eyes and four arms sounds good to me!” He jammed the thing in, and the transformation took hold. Sure enough, the fusion finished with a four-armed, bearded skeletal captain, his garb lined with bluish-black fur and a second eyepatch across his forehead. The anchor of his ship had detached, looking more like a pickaxe, and Skull grinned as he imagined his Persona swinging it around. “Awwww man, that's awesome! We'll be freakin' unstoppable!”

Finally, Panther donned her Phantom Thief outfit and took hold of the Lamia spirit, perhaps hoping she could isolate changes to it. “Okay...here goes.” She absorbed the spirit, and began to change. Her friends looked on with trepidation as the light faded, revealing a different Panther. Her blonde pigtails had gotten much longer, reaching her lower back, and her pupils had become slits in crimson eyes. She looked down to see that her bright red suit now looked more maroon, although that paled compared to the realization that her skin tone had darkened and she couldn't see her feet anymore. “Oh, great,” she sighed, glancing over at a red-faced Skull. “Yuck it up, why don't you?” Her eyes narrowed. “Wait, did you get shorter?”

The boy couldn't seem to avert his eyes. “H-hey, you can't blame me if you're suddenly looking more adult. You got taller. And, uh your...” He blinked, trying to change the subject. “Your teeth are sharp!”

“Really? Ouch...” Panther reached up to her mouth, quickly confirming her friend's observation. In the act of moving she noticed a new weight behind her, and turned to see a scaled snake tail where her suit's fake cat tail had been. An experimental poke confirmed that it was real. “W-well, what do you know. Guess Midna's not the only one with a tail.” She rubbed her arm self-consciously, backing out of the spotlight and nearly tripping over her tail in the process. “I must look kinda scary, huh?”

“Whaaaat? No way,” Skull told her, clapping an encouraging hand on her shoulder. “I'd say you look downright pretty...uh...pretty cool! Yeah!”

“Oh yeah?” she laughed as she threw her arm around his. “Like me now, huh?”

Skull grinned. “So uh, can you shoot fire? Is your bite poisonous?”

“Are you volunteering to find out? Besides, it's 'venomous', not 'poisonous'!”

Ignoring the pair's tomfoolery, Tora had already managed to open one of the loot boxes. It burst apart with a loud noise, shooting out its contents like a confetti popped. “Meh meh!?” Poppi, still in her armored Alpha form, grabbed him out of the way. The items pinged off her harmlessly, and fell to the floor. There was a cowboy hat, a strange device, and a golden emblem that looked as if it could be attached on a keychain. “Huh.” He looked over the device, poking and fiddling, until a holographic card popped up giving further details. Even then it didn't make much sense, so he put it down and went on to the next one.

“Okay, box number two!” Feeding the thing some money made it dispense another three items: a piece of leather with a desert color scheme of white, beige, and brown, a sticker depicting a futuristic monkey, and a soft oak hat. The third, opened right after with a golden glow, producing an aerosol paint can, a striped crown, and a reddish-brown hood with a tassel. Both gave off a magical feeling, the same Tora got from the spy outfit back in Lumbridge. “Ooh, Tora think these ones costume change! It enchanted to fit anyone!” He considered putting it on to prove it, particularly since it looked comfortable, but decided not to. Someone probably needed to beat the desert heat more than he.

After that little event, there came a moment of awkward silence. Nobody else seemed to want to fuse. Joker cleared his throat. “If we're done resting and getting ready, we might as well get going. Necronomicon's scans found a way down to the desert.”

Poppi raised her hand like a schoolgirl. “Before friends go, let's crush all leftover spirits. Could give useful stuff. Maybe even way to carry food and water with us.” Her suggestion met no resistance, and after anyone who still wanted something took their prizes, the heroes not busy racing or otherwise testing out their abilities began stomping around, crushing the sparkling motes underfoot.

As each was smashed, the resulting light squirted to one side and became a new item of some kind. Tora found it more fun than anything he'd done so far today. “Wheee!” After a few moments, the whole stockpile of spirits had been decimated, and Yellow Team could take inventory. Almost every single one of the fading Trapinch and Vibrava spirits turned out junk, bits of scale, fang, organ or wing that could have meant something to a master craftsman but amounted to little here. The Redead spirit gave a spooky mask. From the Arcmine spirit came a glowing insect, shaped like a bug but certainly not a living thing. Spaulders of the Bat resulted from the bat creature, the Herker gave a soda can, and the last Roader offered up a trophy stand.

Skull glanced at the can. “Is that a soda?” He picked it up.

Looking over his shoulder -an easy feat now that she was taller than him- Panther read, “Overcharge Delirium XT. Sounds like a gross energy drink. Make sure you read the ingredients first if you're gonna drink that.”

After an opportune sidelong glance Skull shrugged and put it down for anyone who wanted it. “I've got plenty of energy.”

“Alrighty then!” Necronomicon said. The rest of the Thieves suited up. “Follow me, everyone!”

---

For a few minutes the party walked at a brisk pace through dark, sandy corridors. After only a few steps the light and comfort of the oasis seemed miles away. The spacious passages gave the unshakable feeling that they were meant for the transit of something much larger than people, but at least Necronomicon could move unhindered. Her electronic green glow lit the way for the others as she led them on a series of deliberate turns. Only when the party ran into giant rats or spiders, groaning husks, or bandits did she slow down and hang back, so that her allies could test out their new powers. Panther quickly found out that she commanded not just fire of her own but the ability to unleash ominous words of despair, stopping her enemies in her tracks.

A short while later, the team stood in a square chamber, a hole in the floor in front of them. Sunlight flooded up from the aperture, suggesting that the room hung over an area open to the outside. Necronomic pointed downward with a tentacle. “Through there. My scans indicate a clear shot to the bottom!”

Skull crouched on the edge. “Looks like sand. Not too far down either. But its kind of at an angle.”

“We'd probably slide,” Joker confirmed, without thinking.

A glance flew between Panther and Skull, and they grinning. “Let's goooooooooooo!” they yelled together, leaping down and onto the sand. They started sliding the moment they hit the incline and zoomed away. “Woooooooooo!”

“Wait for Tora!” the Nopon called as he threw himself over the edge, followed by Mona and Joker. Poppi switched to her more mobile QT Pi form and jumped after a moment later.

Tora squealed in delight as he flew down the slide, emerging a moment later into a gigantic sand-lined corridor, one side open to the desert. Then he fell silent.



The sunset shone a jaw-droppingly gorgeous orange-yellow from behind the split mountain, passing over silhouetted ruins of uncommon grandeur, and shining across the sand like molten gold. His eyes remained wide and his mouth open as he passed into and out of the shadows of the monolithic columns, gliding at a comfortable pace, and witnessed the graceful flight of living kites against the peach-colored sky. A short ways behind him he could hear the swish of sand kicked up by the last two Thieves, but they too had no words. For how long this lasted Tora make no guess, but after a short time the path swung to the right, bringing him out into the open air. He cruised down a sloping valley of sand, walls of buildings on either side, the occasional stone bridge above.. For a time the kite-creatures even flew alongside him. Then the path suddenly grew steeper, with Tora picking up speed, until it suddenly bottomed out at the buildings' end and deposited him onto the open desert. He slid to a stop not too far from Skull and Panther, who remained sitting side by side.

Joker, Mona, Poppi, and the rest appeared shortly, with Necronomicon flying in from above. Tora found the experience a tough one to explain, it being a mixture of exhilarating fun and incredible awe. Although not a poetic Nopon, he couldn't help but feel as though seeing that sunset in that moment made a lot of things worth it. A handful of appreciative seconds passed before Joker roused his troop into action. “We've got a long way to go. And we'll make good progress at night with the heat off our backs, following those tracks.” He pointed out a set of traintracks that led extended from the edge of the ruins in the direction of the mountain. “Mona, let's save the car until we're tired.”

“Got it.”

Joker took off at a jog. “Then let's get started.”



To Nadia's delight a few of her new compatriots from the Bismarck scuffle made their way over to join her at her table: the upbeat Ace Cadet and the man of the hour himself, Link. Naturally Sephiroth went his own way, which Nadia couldn't say she disliked. If he'd been antisocial and murder-happy before, absorbing the spirit of a crazed madwoman probably wouldn't help. Her current company suited her far better. No doubt as eager to leave their fatigue, tension, and hunger behind as she, they placed their orders with the barmaid one after another, with the Monster Hunter in particular placing an nigh-absurd request for one of everything. The sincerity with which he did so convinced Nadia that it wasn't a joke, either. He meant to eat every bite. After he'd greeted her on the way over, and eagerly inquired about the Dead Zone, she had no reason to doubt his evidently forthright nature. “You're kitten me? Jeez, talk about an appetite!” she ribbed. “I'd probably want to die be-fur getting even halfway through that.” She neglected to tell Link that if he expected to get vegetable nutrition from onion rings, he would be disappointed.

That swordsman then took the opportunity to introduce himself, complete with proffered hand. With a bright laugh Nadia clapped her hand into his. “Nahaha, aren't we formal! Don't mention it, my guy. Kidnapping's a nasty business, so I'm glad everyone's safe.”

He brought the conversation back around to the Dead Zone, reminded her of the Cadet's interest from earlier. Peach, having just heard the terrible news about Linkle, made her way over to join the three at their table. “I'd like to hear it too.”

“Oh, sure!” Nadia nodded, leaning back in her chair again. She exhaled heavily, casting her mind into the past. “Man, that place sucks. The sort of stuff I figure a lot of people would wanna forget, but I don't mind lettin' the cat outta the bag. Let's see...well, I'll start at the beginning. I went there to find the Skull Heart myself, but I got trapped in this police station with a whole buncha other survivors. We couldn't get out, so we had to fend off waves of zombies for days. More people keep tricklin' in until this big group arrives. Nero, Blazermate, V, Banjo and Kazooie, Jak and Daxter, a guy with a crazy hand, all of 'em. They lend a hand, and it turns out there's this giant ghost haunting the place, so after they give it something to eat we're able to escape! Only one problem...” She leaned forward, holding up her claws for effect as her narrative picked up. “Here comes the biggest zombie horde we've ever seen! V used his big demon to blast through the back wall, bwaaaaaaaam, and we make a run for it. We're barely ahead of the horde all the way to this big future-y tower, where this crazy guy in green armor just decimates the horde. We escaped to Lumbridge.”

She relaxed again, taking a deep drink of her newly-delivered beer with relish before launching into the second part of the story. So engaged was she in the telling of her tale that she even forsook her habitual puns. “Okay, so me, Nero and V go back. We see this dude with a bag on his back getting chased by a monster snake lady, so we help him out, and the psycho guy in armor shows up to help again. That's when we learn Sam -the delivery man- is gonna be delivering some sort of bomb right to the middle of the Dead Zone and turn the whole place into a crater. We get a move on to take down one of the root bosses, picking up this demon secretary Pandy on the way. After gettin' through this crazy torn-up hell mall we find our target in this courthouse, a giant corpse monster with a crown and tentacles callin' himself the king of Minos. Take him down no problem, then start drivin' south for the last root boss.

After refreshing herself again, she continued. Even if no expert storyteller, she put her all into recounting her experience, to make it that much more engaging for her audience. “A whole like third of the city got wrecked by, like, a lava earthquake, and it's full of demons. Nico makes me a...that's Nero's friend by the way, Nico, she makes me a cool scythe out of the king's spirit. So we're sloggin' through that, we fight some big demons and meet up with this cool guy named Raidou. We also find Nero's uncle Dante, except she's a cool aunt now. Then the armor dude decides he wants to clean out this flesh pit, which was really tough, and I get hurt pretty bad. There's some kind of fight nearby and then we join up with Bowser's group. On the way to the library I asked what they got up to, and before dukin' it out with Dante they were runnin' from another zombie horde, except these ones had gross maggots in them and could use weapons and drive cars. Eventually we reach the library, which of course has these awful spiders in it that pretend to be normal objects, but we reach the catacombs below.”

At this point Nadia's lively demeanor took a serious turn. “Marie was down there. The Skullgirl. We ended up fighting her, but it was brutal. Lots of people got really hurt, and...we lost Raidou. Banjo and Kazooie, Slayer, and Donnie got rattled pretty bad. In the end we managed to beat her, and I held the Skull Heart in my hands. I could have brought my family back right then and there, but...I thought about everything that happened after that. My new friends, my memories, who I am today. Undoing it would have been wrong, and the Skull Heart's whole deal is tempting you into doing the wrong thing.”

Her face twisted into a fierce scowl. “But Linkle...she thought she could beat it. Or maybe that whatever would happen would be worth it, as long as she could do some good. I tried to talk her out of it, but the words just...I couldn't say it right. She became the new Skullgirl and got whisked away. Gone. Just like that.” Sighing, Nadia hung her head, and her anger turned to sorrow. “No idea where she is now. I think she's holding it together, wherever she is. She's a tough cookie. But the Skull Heart is pure corruption. There was nothing we could do. We decided to leave, 'cause of the explosion, but the job's not done.” She looked up again, her features determined. “Not by a long shot.”

Shaking her head, she gave a dry laugh. “That's what I remember, at least! Some stuff might be mixed up, it was pretty stressful. Sorry fellas, I'm really bringin' down the mood here, huh? Things seem like they're goin' purr-etty good over here, nyeah? We ought to relax and enjoy ourselves.” As if on cue, the barmaid appeared with her serving platter and some food for everyone, although this made for just the first of many such trips to bring the Cadet his meal.

Peach stared at the accumulating feast wide-eyed. “Gosh...darn,” she stammered, her emphatic side tempered by her prim and proper one. Having maintained a morose silence both during and after Nadia's story, the sight -and smell- of the smorgasbord jolted her back. “I guess I should get something myself,” she reasoned. “To...keep up my strength.”

Already halfway through a fried fish fillet, Nadia nodded vigorously. “Thish shtuff ain't half bad!” All around, the heroes of the Blue Team got their long-overdue chance to eat and drink their fill, catch up, and exchange dialog. With a wholehearted commitment to her meal, Nadia spoke not another word until she mopped up the last of her catsup with her last fry. “Not what I think of when I hear 'chips',” she admitted. “But good overall! The lemon was a nice touch.” She eyed Link and the Cadet, still at it, while Peach worked her way through a sandwich. “You sure you two don't have parasites or somethin'? You guys must work out like crazy.”

Peach froze mid-bite, her eyebrows raised, so Nadia added a little context. “Back where I'm from, the heavy hitters all have stuff like parasites to give them powers, or living weapons, or something. Almost nobody reaches the big leagues on physical prowess alone. Beowolf's the only one I know of, and his stuff's half kayfabe anyways!” A little woozy from drinking her beer so fast, she leaned on the table with a broad smile, waiting to hear what her new pals had to say.



With a few of her commanders in attendance, Merlwyb listened to Geralt's explanation at rapt attention. A clerk wrote everything down as he said it just to be sure, although the Admiral had no need for her records to figure things out. “So that's what we're working with,” she remarked at length. “These orbs contain our enemy's essence. As long as seizing them halts the replenishment of their ranks, we need not concern ourselves with the specifics of how the Abyssals are revived. If the process did not require the spirits, they would not be gathering them. And if we can get new weapons and munitions from them, all the better. That just leaves one matter—how to collect them ourselves.

“We could redirect the submarine division,” Commander Enterprise suggested immediately. Clad in crisp black and white, with golden adornment and red lining, she stood out as both austere and conscientious. Although she lacked intensity, the sharp-eyed eagle on her shoulder more than made up for it. “Given that they are some of our most vulnerable units and Abyssals fight well underwater, we would need to deploy them after a battle to collect the spirits.”

“After may be too late, my friend,” reasoned the luxuriantly-dressed Commander George V. “You forget, perhaps, that the spirits are pulled away moments after sinking by the sea creatures Mr. Geralt mentioned. It would be reasonable to assume Abyssals guarding the flow as well. By the time we could guarantee the safety of our submarines, pickings could be slim indeed.”

Merlwyb challenged her immediately. “Your criticism is warranted, but did you have an idea of your own, Commander?” With a thin smile George turned her head half away, indicating that she did not.

Looking up from a glass of red wine she'd been working her way through, the elegant fourth commander, Zara, offered her own idea. “Speaking of sea creatures, Admiral. We may be able to utilize the city's fishers. If we equip a select few ships for the sort of heavy defense my division prides itself on, and have them run nets through the water, we could sweep up all the spirits.”

“And Abyssals too, to tear them right open! This is war we're talking about, with soldiers and monsters, not catching food, however near to your heart the subject might be!” Commander Kii towered over the rest, all save Merlwyb herself. Although elaborate, her garb complimented her warrior spirit.

Zara gave a smile, more condescending than polite. “Our fisherfolk are no fools, dear Kii. I've learned as much visiting their wharves and markets. The nets are woven such that even the fiercest fish cannot get purchase with their teeth to bite through. While underwater neither bullets nor Abyssals' hands will be able to force the nets apart, and if they use fire torpedos, well...” She took another sip of her wine. “According to Mr. Geralt, the spirits will be destroyed and reduced to items.”

She glanced at Merlwyb and found a look of approval. “Excellent suggestion, Commander. We'll put your armor division at the front of the operation. And Kii.” The Admiral's steely gaze turned on the fox-eared ship. “I'll thank you to leave both pettiness and personal grievances outside my office. Outside your profession, as well, if that could be managed. Dismissed.” As the commanders left she turned to the clerk. “Once everything is compiled, send a copy to Heinrich so she knows everything the moment she lands.” Finally, she faced Geralt and Kamek. “Thank you both for your aid. And your whole team for your efforts. Because of you, tomorrow will begin a new chapter in this war. Hopefully it will be the last. In order to help you reach the Bottomless we'll be launching a full offensive, so I hope you will all be ready to take advantage of it come morning.”

If nothing else remained to be said, the Admiral planned to bid them farewell. She had a busy night ahead of her, and a busier day to follow.



The Stranger listened for the Skullgirl's response over the cry of the wind, but what she said made him think that she wasn't talking to him. He wore a disgusted look as she then yelled, both at him and whoever she replied to. Everything about the girl stank of futility and desperation, from the empty threats she trained on him to the questions she hurled his way. Sure, she had some power, but nothing that counted in this fight—and seeing it confounded drove her to distraction. But something she said annoyed him in return.

“I don't give a damn about that gods-forsaken star!” he bellowed in a spray of spittle, flexing his fists. “You think I'm just some pawn, little girl? That I'm afraid there's someone out there who can challenge me? HAH.” His laugh was rueful, scornful, condemning the Skullgirl with every synonym of 'stupid' in the book without saying word. “I've tried everything, EVERYTHING I got my hands on, to feel something, anything! 'Cause that's all I want. To feel alive one more time. And there MUST be someone out there who can make me feel...” He ground his teeth, fists clenched. “But it's not you. So let's. Finish this.”

He lifted one leg and slammed his foot down a short way from the ravine's edge, splitting the earth with another terrific CRACK. The vertical slice on which he stood tilted forward, carrying the Stranger atop it. His enemy's bombs washed over him, their force insufficient, and he hopped from his transport onto her side.



It was pure, blinding white, and it filled heavens and horizons alike. The villagers of Lumbridge town quaked with fear at the immaculate wall of death to the north, and panic broke out across the vast metropolis that long feared the diseased nightmare to the south. It ruptured the gathering evening of the star-speckled desert sky, and the people of the towers in the seastack city rushed to their balconies and windows to gawk at the bone-chilling spectacle far, fart to the east, blossoming over even the colossal trees of the Dark Forest. Soldiers in the eternal warzone of the Swordlands froze solid despite the heat of their battles. A terrible radiance pierced the snowy clouds and fog of the Frozen Highlands from the southeast, like lightning at midnight. And far to the north the nameless city that loomed on the precipice of everything looked south in wonderment as to what could have happened.

It was simple, all told, and it only lasted a few moments. No indescribable horror, nor inexplicable phenomenon. It was nothing more than a dome, miles wide and very high, of white light, the purest white that had ever been. And it was nothing like what came after.

Above Empty Space, the Lord of Light moved. Its brilliant wings revolved and unfurled, and a wave of kaleidoscopic creation energy flew in the direction of the blast's epicenter. It swarmed around certain has-beens, re-shaping, remaking. In a few moments the work was done, the power spent. Galeem slept on, its effort no more than unmindful tossing and turning in a slumber sufficiently disturbed. When the second light died down, it revealed that the Dead Zone was no more. Redgraccoon City, with all its horror, was no more than a hole in the ground. A gargantuan crater, marked along the bottom by black, five pointed stain as big as the city itself.

But the nightmare was not yet over. From the very center of the stain rose the Qliphoth, nested in its pot of bones as if nothing had ever happened, a lone sentinel standing tall above utter devastation.

And after that came the rains.

---

Strapping the remains of his battered shield to his arm the swordsman couldn't help but feel foolish, but it wouldn't help Frog get anywhere if he just stood outside the tavern after the rest of the compatriots of Blue Team and their other allies entered the establishment. The sound of voices echoed from within the Drowning Wench, but some were more recognizable than others.

Taking a deep breath the swordsman collected himself and cleared his mind of the unnecessary doubts that had plagued his mind moments ago but as he finally washed away any doubt of his own failure in the fight at the Bismarck, Frog mustered his resolve and pushed open the doors of the tavern.

Frog looked around at everyone gathered in the cozy atmosphere of the establishment each either recounting their own version of the battle or quietly nursing a beverage, but those who stood out were definitely interesting in their own right.
It seemed their mysterious swordsman had taken to sitting on his own but he looked noticeably different than before as Frog assumed it was a side affect of having a spirit become apart of someone elses body. Amongst thd faces he was unfamiliar with Frog spotted the spiny turtle who spoke loudly which in the small tavern made the imposing reptile sound even louder as he went off about something.

Spotting both his companions the amphibious swordsman made his way over to their table where an obviously tipsy catlike woman sat with his two friends as well as the company of Princess Peach. Recognizing her as royalty the swordsman bowed in greeting to Peach then stood and nodded in acknowledgement of the others seated at their table.

"Verily thou must forgive mine tardiness," Frog chuckled awkwardly tapping the mace at his side "Your generosity hath no bounds good princess and thine hath done me a great honor by helping Limsa with thine own coffers." he truly appreciated the kindness of Peach for helping the people of Limsa after what happened today and sounded grateful for it. "Alas I hath wondered how didst thee gather such a force?" Frog asked Peach genuinely curious by the circumstances that had brought such a team together.

---

”They’re rivales. nemis.. nemes.... They fight a lot and like they don't like each other but also do like each other but in a I like hating you kind of way. Look it’s hard to explain” Jr tried to clarify what a rival was to the two abyssals, basing his understanding off of his papa’s rivalry with Mario. Unfortunately that relationship was about as one sided as the one Bowser had with peach, so it wasn't the best basis.

”Whatever lets just go see this fight I bet it’s going to be cool”

“Yeah. um. How am I going to hide these? And also walk out there?” Rika asked, indicating to her giant gauntlets which where strapped to her back.

”Here, let me just” there was the sound of tape ripping and then the large gauntlets were detached from Rika’s back and left to float freely. ”Ok and now i just... upsy-daisy” the prince said, while scooping up the rather heavy ship girl up in his arms and then holding her above his head, leaving the now elevated ship incredibly surprised. Part of her really had been expecting the prince’s self professed carrying ability to be overblown but no. She was being transported with ease.

“I. How?”

”Told you I’m naturally strong. Though I mean even some toads could pull this off easy as pie. People from other worlds are a bunch of wimps. I mean they can’t even jump three times their own height, how how do they even get around?” he asked as he carried her though to the ship’s bridge and then set her down in a chair where she could watch, the women’s giant gauntlets trailing after her, hovering just above the ground. Once everyone was in place the prince hopped into his clown car that was resting in the pilot's chair as the two streetfighters were finishing their conversation. As the shipgirl landed as close to the glass as possible, her eyes drinking everything in, the prince rummaged around in his car’s glove compartment and found a bag of popcorn. It was cheap prepackaged stuff from the mart in Lumbridge, nothing compared to making some fresh, but it was the best he had.

He picked a kernel out and flicked it up to catch in his mouth, made a ‘it’s not that great’ face and then turned the bag towards the ship girls and asked ”Want some?” His offer was taken first not by them but by Mimikyu, who popped out of her Pokeball to take the offer that hadn’t been directed at her. The mascot mimicking ghost Pokemon had had her ragdoll disguise damaged by one of the fleet’s more monstrous machines, but had done a remarkable patch job of the outfit while inside her pokeball .

”Oh you're happy to come out now are you?” Jr asked sardonically, having been a bit annoyed when it had refused to fight after its outfit was damaged. The mon landed on his shoulder and slinked a very long arm around to snatch a popcorn kernel from the bag, before bringing it back and sneaking it under the rim of its outfit to eat with whatever it had that counted as a mouth under there. While it did it bapped the cotton ball head of the disguise to the side and rubbed it against jr’s cheek affectionately.

”Yeah yeah. I’m glad you’re ok Mimi,”

Rika watched this with fascination and then quietly reached in and took a popcorn from the bag. She sniffled it, gave it a poke with her tongue and then devoured the thing, looking delighted as she did.

“Mmm that was good what is that?”

”uh. Popcorn… it’s a snack. Do you want another one?”

“Yes!” Rika replied excitedly as she snatched another induvidual kernel from the bag, taking an amount of enjoyment from it that Jr found rather bizarre. Then he realized she probably hadn’t had snacks as a nameless unquestioning minion, which didn’t sit right with Jr at all. Even Goombas got their snack on every once and a while.

”Do you. Do you want the who-” he began to say before being interrupted by a “kyu!” He sighed, grabbed a handful of popcorn out the bag for Mimi to enjoy and then retrying ”Do you want the rest of the bag”

The answer was entirely predictable, and the Abyssal cruiser spent the fight that was just about to begin alternating between watching with awe and joyfully going through the bag corn by corn. The first half anyway.

And what a fight it was. Jr had seen Sakura fight, of course, but never had he seen her fight against someone who fought like she did, only against monsters and more standoffish types like Bella. Against her rival (who wore red, a bad omen that) the street fighter really got to shine, the pair duking it out in a flurry of blows and, in Sakura’s case, fireballs. The boy had expected himself to be above actually cheering Sakura on, but found himself, (along with Mimi, combat sport being practically hardwired into the pokemon’s spirit) being swept up in the action and yelling encouragement and support.

Despite having an added diminutive supporter in her box however, Sakura’s prediction that she’d win despite her disadvantages failed to come true. Though at first they seemed evenly matched, as time went on the schoolgirl turned shipgirl's weakness started to show. Jr couldn’t understand why, but she seemed to refuse to use her new navel weaponry, leaving them, and the lost muscle mass she’d traded for them, as nothing but a hindrance. He could see how, if unburdened, she might have stood a chance, but instead the fight eventually came to an inevitable end, though not before Sakura received a final utterly grueling and heartbreaking, literally, beat down delivered by the girl in red. Jr felt like he should do something, intervene, but like almost everyone else he was transfixed as a mere spectator of Karin’s callus victory.

So instead it was Bella who made the first move, falling out of her chair and, desperately and undignifiedly, crawling to her savior's aid despite jr’s best efforts to try and stop her (which ended with him being tail slammed into a wall for his trouble). After recovering, and being accosted by Rika who also wanted to go but was in even less of a state too, the boy ended up chasing after the princess while carrying Rika over his head again (with Mimi riding on his shoulder). He joined Bella at Sakura’s side and, after seeing the grief stricken woman and their badly hurt friend, swallowed all the things he was going to yell at them. Instead he put Rika down, the ship also crawling to Sakura’s side and went to rummage in his duffel bag.

“She’ll be ok right? Right? Even if she sink’s she’ll just wake up again like I did? Right?” she asked, once again not wanting to accept that when anyone outside the fleet died they stayed dead.

”These work on people, right?” Jr asked Mimi hopefully as he pulled out one of the potions he’d gotten from Steven Stone that morning, to which the mon shook its head

”Drat. Um. Uhhh.” The boy glanced around the cove as if he could simply find healing aid somewhere nearby and then spotted Briny-Beard’s ship.

”Hey. Briny-Beard” he yelled over in the captain’s general direction ”do you have a first aid kit on your ship! …. Also try not to freak out about these two, their friendly”

”Yeah now that’s what I’m talking about! Just because no one there’s worked it out doesn't mean there isn't a way out. There just has to be one,“ Bowser said, very glad that they had something of an expert when it came to dealing with curses and woes in the form of Geralt. It was also good that the Mercs, and presumably the main party, had a better way to find Linkle in the first place thanks to the Cadet’s scout flies.

After that, Ms Fortune launched into a more in depth explanation of what had happened over in the dead zone from her perspective, including a whole host of encounters and adventures that she’d had before his team and her group had met up. Peach, understandably interested, stuck around long enough to listen in, which gave the King time to get his nosh on, making an order that consisted almost entirely of a very large ham thought it was more of a snack for the titaneous king. Despite this it only ended up being about as much food as Link got on his plate. The hero of Hyrule knew how to chow down it seemed.

”You kinda missed out the bit where I kicked Dante’s butt. Guy just assumed we were bad news when we got close for some reason and then just wouldn’t stop no matter how much people yelled at him to knock it off. You know why. Between that throw down and us arriving in the zone we mainly had to deal with these creepy little tentacle things that were infesting bodies. Super nasty. Way worse than the zombies. Be a great thing when that big explosion goes off and wipes em’ all out, there were just so many and it was disgusting. Bleh” remembering the flood was enough to spoil the king’s appetite, so it was fortunate he’d devoured his way through his meal while Ms Fortune had been talking.

He also, now that he was thinking with his head rather than his stomach, felt pretty guilty about eating when Jr was cooped on a ship somewhere with Sakura and some new friends for some reason. Then he had an idea. The king wandered over to the bar and asked ”HEY. DO YOU DO TAKE AWAY?“

---

Geralt covered explaining everything to the admiral more than well enough, and for the most part Kamek left him too it, his main contribution being bringing out a striker (The End, who complained about being brought as a show piece at his age) to demonstrate the ability. At the end of it the admiral offered to use the fleet to help them reach the bottomless sea the very next morning, which was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it was good to be making fast progress, on the other it didn't leave them much time to prepare. Tonight night might end up being a late one, Kamek expected, if they wanted to get their ship geared up and make sure everyone would be able to be useful when battling out on the ocean’s waves.

There was also the matter of how the Navy were going to be using the information they’d been given, namly to permanently destroy all the abyssal vessels they sank. Before today, Kamek might have agreed with that without a second thought, but after Sakura’s actions and the freeing of the two Abyssals there was suddenly a moral dilemma on the line. One that was complicated by the red eyes of the Navy’s people. Would they attack as soon as they saw or even heard about the abyssals without them being able to explain? Quite possibly. While the trust they’d just earned could make now the time they revealed the final bit of info they had, the mage felt it best they stack the deck in their favor as much as possible before they made the leap by using Ranger to vouch for them. It would not do to have come this far only to be accused of colluding with the enemy.

”We appreciate your offered aid in turn Admiral,” he said simply instead before asking ”Just in-case anything else comes up before the morning, do you have a preferred way we get in contact with you again?” in-order to leave the door open for the reveal of the abyssals without insinuating there was anything else going on.

If nothing else did come up the mage would head outside the office and, should Geralt accompany him, say ”Seeing as our new friend was a no show I think I’ll go check on them. Do you want to come? Or update the others on what the admiral’s plan is?”

Either way, or a third, Kamek had one last piece of business to attend too, fishing out the blue Cia spirit from a pocket, ”and if we are heading out tomorrow, probably best to get this over with as soon as possible now that we have a quiet moment, so I have time to get used to whatever side effects this has,” he said, before pressing the spirit to his head, presuming that it would allow him to gain the magical knowledge of the dead sorceress as his own.

---

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@Lugubrious@darkred

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That was it? Linkle balked at The Stranger's explanation. He was only here, messing with her, because he was too impatient to hang out until it was his turn? He operated on the same logic as the kid who wouldn't quit trying to find his birthday presents the day before the party. "Just wait then." She said, launching her bombs as he flew across the gab. Unfortunately they were just as effective as anything else, The Stanger flying out of the smoke without even slowing down.

Fine, they would finish it. The Stanger himself gave her the idea as to how. As he flew across the gap she jumped back, her crossbows still blazing red light. She fired again and again and again, a series of explosions resounding out across the ice field as her bomb arrows struck the area she thought he would land. If she couldn't kill him, at the very least she was going to try and knock him down. Break off that ice shelf and dump him like garbage into the inky crevasse.

---

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@Yankee@Dark Cloud

---

Link looked at the Cadet in shock when he heard the boys order. "That's an option? We can afford that?" he asked, looking like the cat that had failed to catch the canary. The boy hadn't even bothered looking at the menu! Truly this was a man after his own heart.

Any concern over the food was forgotten, though, as Ms Fortune began her tale. Link leaned forward, hanging on the woman's every word. It was lucky for him that she was the one letting the cat out of the bag, because she had apparently been there from the beginning. It was where she had been drafted into this little group, though it didn't sound like it had been quite as forceful of a recruitment for her as it had been for him. That was lucky. If the people that had been holed up in the poliststation she had talked about had been hostile like he had then the group would have been stuck between a rock and a horde of monsters.

It was surprising that Linkle had fallen for something that sounded so blatantly evil, but he didn't really have a right to judge. How many times had he exchanged health and stamina using a statue that was definitely not of the goddess Hylia. Even evil artifacts or magic could be used for a good cause. Heck, hadn't he just made a similar choice when he had taken Cia into himself? As the story drew to a close and the first of many food trays was delivered to them Link sighed. "It will probably work out for her in the end." He said, trying to hide his worry. "Destiny has a long memory, and it'll bring you to the point it wants no matter how hard you try detouring around it. If Linkle is meant to save Hyrule she will, no matter how much heartache gets heaped on her before that." He picked up one of the curious rings the bar maid had laid in front of him, sniffed it, and took a bite. After that he popped the whole thing in his mouth and went to town on the rest of it, his spirits momentarily lifted on updrafts of pure flavor. "Basically, fate has got our back when we try to help her."

It wasn't long into the meal when Frog made his appearance, bowing politely to the princess and asking her how their force had been gathered. "Frog, sit down." Link said, pulling out the chair beside him for the amphibian and pushing his untouched plate of curry rice in front of it. "I don't know about everybody else, but I didn't come quietly. They had to fight me at the top of a tower and break the curse I was under, but I don't remember the circumstances too well."

He was in the middle of drinking his piping hot milk when Ms. Fortune asked whether he had any parasites and nearly chocked. He looked worriedly down at his stomach. "I have eaten a lot of bugs since I woke up..."

He looked back up as the woman clarified. In her world parasites made you stronger? "If they make you tougher do they really qualify as a parasite? There's nothing like that in Hyrule to my knowledge. I've always just been a bit of a freak. Apparently I was beating grown soldiers in swordplay back when I was a little kid. I don't know whether that was training or special hero powers I inherited though."

"Wait." He said, looking curiously at the cat woman as he remembered her exploding back in the Bismark. "Does that mean the thing that puts you back together again is a bug that lives in your guts? Where did you come by something that useful?"

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Sephiroth had slept so soundly for the majority of the blast, the scalding white hot semi-sphere of death that had so thoroughly scoured the Dead Zone and given the Lord of Light cause to stir in its slumber, that his senses hardly registered its passing. It was only when Cloud emerged to invade his dreams, along with the strange fluttering in his chest that followed, that he awoke. Pressing a hand against his forehead, he slowly pushed himself into a seated position, growling as he did so. It appeared as though the sorceress' spirit had a greater influence over his... desires than he originally thought, which was problematic to say the least. Sephiroth had always carried a twinge of subtle annoyance and even hate when it came to Cloud, the bastard wasn't even a proper SOLDIER nor first-class and he'd still managed to be a thorn in his side time and time again, but the influence of the recently absorbed sorceress was threatening to escalate that into a full on complex. That was the one thing he most definitely didn't want to happen, especially if their paths somehow managed to cross here in this mad fusion of a world. The idea that he could go from fighting Cloud one moment to flirting with him the next was a very uncomfortable one to say the least, since the boy wasn't even worth that much attention or time.

Not from a being such as myself certainly.

Sephiroth let out a tired sigh as he stared into the darkened abyss that was his room, eventually deciding that he needed to go and clear his head. It didn't really matter where, or even how, so long as he could get these damned thoughts out of his mind. For a little while at least. It was then that he recalled Cia's spirit once more. Specifically its dark powers and how he was as of yet unskilled when it came to their use. He'd wielded similar magics before, but for all he knew these spells might have had some hidden tricks or drawbacks he wasn't currently aware of. Reason dictated that it would be better to discover these intricacies now rather than later on or in the middle of combat, where every careless movement or minor miscalculation could cost you your life. So, his mind having been made, Sephiroth clambered out of bed to put on the rest of his clothes. Silently stalking out of his room he made his way through the much quieter yet still bustling interior of the Wench, only pausing once he'd set foot outside. Even then it was for naught but a moment as he pondered where to go, before eventually settling on a small training ground they'd passed on the way here. It had several practice dummies if he recalled rightly, and while it was nowhere near as good as the facilities offered by Shinra, he figured it would serve his purposes well enough.

A few minutes of brisk walking and jumping later, and he found himself at his destination. An empty patch of dirt no bigger than a small lot that was surrounded by a rickety looking fence, the right side of which was lined by a row of equally rundown looking dummies. Striding forward, Sephiroth made his way onto the field to stand opposite the ramshackle row. Stretching out his hand, he turned his palm upon the primitive constructs and summoned up an orb of dark energy, one that pulsed with a violet rage as it hovered before his outstretched hand. Willing it to move, he unleashed a geyser of darkness upon one of the dummies, only to switch over to the next one moments later and send a churning disk hurtling its way. The geyser hit its mark as soon as the disk did, though where the disk cut the geyser vaporized, leaving nothing but splinters and smoldering straw in its wake. Admiring his handiwork, Sephiroth destroyed a few more, this time using traps like the ones Cia had deployed against him back at the Bismarck. He did this until he was certain he had discovered every nuance regarding their use, striding away from the debris littered field with a smile on his face. Granted, he knew live combat would be a very different beast from the static exercises he performed here. Despite this, however, Sephiroth felt confident in his ability to translate and incorporate them into a useful battlefield strategy.

All of this had not, however, done much in the way of clearing his mind. Much to his chagrin. Thoughts of Cloud began to crop up more persistently now that his practice was over, and he found himself becoming even more agitated than before. Exhaling sharply, he made his way back out onto the byways and streets, realizing he needed something to occupy not just his body but his mind as well. Thus he found himself climbing up the side of a building, leaping back and forth from wall to wall until he finally reached the top. Upon doing so he made his way over to the rooftop's nearest edge, dropping into a crouch to gaze upon the streets below. He spied various groups of people milling about here or there, though what really caught his eye was one of the shipgirls, who was seemingly debating whether or not to pass through the alley he'd left only seconds prior. This attention was not directed at her for the reason a casual onlooker might think, for the SOLDIER was interested in her spirit rather than her body. More specifically, the power it could provide him. Although the machine had mentioned placing a spirit in one's head instead of one's heart, which was an equally tempting prospect, for who knew just what secrets that mind might contain?

In any case, Sephiroth had finalized his next move, as had the shipgirl. For she had begun to make her way down the alleyway from which he'd come, giving him the perfect opportunity to take her by surprise. Smirking, he placed a hand against the hilt of his blade as he stalked along the edge of the roof, slowly drawing it from its sheath as he awaited the perfect moment to strike...

"There."

Lunging, he allowed himself to go into a sort of controlled freefall, blade held fast with both hands and its point angled down. Ready to deliver scarlet death from on high...

Should his bid prove successful, of course.

@Lugubrious

Sectonia wasn't expecting someone to actually take her up on the fact that she was only slightly interested in the sorcerous spirit, Premise coming up to the bee queen and requesting the spirit. Sectonia looked at the spirit for a second before handing it over to Premise, giving it a casual. "Pfeh, not colorful enough." as she handed it over, deciding to take the Pipe of Insight from the loot as everyone else had taken their spirits. The pipe itself was quite small and emitted a very subtle magical smoke. Sectonia wondered if she needed to hold this in her mouth, something she wasn't too keen on, but she found that its magic worked while just being carried by her, putting the pipe snugly in her fluff. With the pipe essentially attuned to her, Sectonia felt that she was far more resillient to magic and could heal faster, with her presence giving those around her and herself lesser benefits of this pipe. In addition to her testing, she found that if she channeled her own magic into the pipe, a magical bubble appeared around her and everyone who was in range of her queenly aura, shielding them from harm for a short time.

And seeing what Midna had become with her new fusion, going from someone who seemed to be all together to something.... strange, Sectonia was glad that she took the powerful looking magic item over the sorceror spirit which worked, fairly alright for Premise. Thinking about it, The first spirit Midna absorbed was also close to her basic shape, so the fusion was good. However the dragon spirit she had absorbed was very different, and granted its power at a price. Seeing this in action really limited her choices, and the queen decided that she'd only take a spirit that didn't mesh well with her if the power gain could outstrip the... well at least Midna got some dangling jewel things... The phantom troope didn't look much better with the fusions they had gotten, only exemplifying Sectonia's point she made to herself.

Another question was answered soon after, this time by Tora, who outlined what the strange box items were that Sectonia had found. Apparently there were some kind of cosmetic chest that used the paper currency she had found pointless before. "So its a key to a random assortment of cosmetic goods. Interesting." She said, looking at the items that were spawned from the lootboxes. None of them really caught her eye, but seeing how varied and different they were, she was sure one of these, should she find more, would give her something she liked.

With the remainder of the spirits dolled out, Midna experimenting with one of her wolfos and getting quite an interesting conclusion out of it, the unused spirits were crushed and spawned various items. Sectonia didn't know what most of them did, but seeing as one was a bit of a bug crystal, she decided to take that. She couldn't outright tell what it did, but it had some air of magic about it at least. With the rest of the loot sorted out, what wasn't used was put into the bag they had used to carry the spirits here and brought along, the group venturing down further into the ruins.

After some exploring in the ruins, the enemies not really offering much challenge and being used more to test what everyone had gained, the group found a bit of a sandy decline which the phantom theives decided they would slide on, including Tora and Poppi. Sectonia was much bigger than the rest of them though, and was one of the last ones to slide down, needing to tuck her wings in. Woe be to any that were below her and didn't get off the slide when she reached the bottom, her stinger wasn't for show! Upon reaching the bottom and having the space to fly again, Sectonia did just that, preferring to stay off the ground as much as possible. What they found themselves looking at was more ruins, however the heat wasn't nearly as bad as it was and the sandstorms had subsided as the sun was going down.

"Good, this wont be as exhausting as above." Sectonia said, agreeing with the others who voiced the same opinion. Seeing as it was much cooler here, the party decided to continue on foot. Still, they were going towards what they thought was the area guardian without much to go on, and they were getting farther and farther away from what Sectonia could call 'civilization' so they could only hope they were on the right path.

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



Blazermate, having her offer taken by the shipgirls and the entire situation disarming itself, decided to go with the shipgirl who was going to lead her to the infirmary. "So uh, for Payment. Just uh, pay for their food and whatnot. This will be quick. " Blazermate said, pointing to her party who was discussing stuff and making orders. Sephiroth had slinked off to somewhere, that boy didn't like staying with the party it seemed. He was turning into a real... Why couldn't Blazermate remember that anime loner's name? Either way, Blazermate didn't really think much of it, and as she waved to her friends, saying she'd be back later, she caught a glimpse of the Cadet touching some kind of orb. He seemed fine though, so Blazermate just let him at it, her scanners didn't pick up anything harmful after all.

It didn't take long for her shipgirl escort to bring Blazermate to the infirmary where there were multiple ship girls laying on beds, some bandaged, some still being worked on, all with all sorts of burns, breaks, bites, and other nasty physical injuries. "I'll be watching you, but if you can do what you said, please help them." Her escort said, standing at the door as Blazermate walked in. "Its ok. I've got this. No zombie plagues here!" Blazermate said, flexing one of her arms. Seeing as most of them seemed to have old injuries, her medigun was more effective than what she normally had to deal with.

At first, Blazermate was under harsh supervision as while she was a medic bot, these doctors had been treating these injuries for awhile now, and didn't trust this newcomer all that much. Their tunes quickly changed though when Blazermate put her healing beam on her first patient, the ship girl's bones snapping back into place and healing, her skin closing up, and her complextion that was one of pain becoming one of releif. It didn't take too long for her to be fully healed up, and while she was getting out of her bed, jumping for joy at being healed so rapidly to the astonishment of the doctors and other patients, Blazermate was already working on another girl who had a nasty large bite taken out of her.

As Blazermate healed more and more shipgirls, the other injured shipgirls were stirring, hope in their eyes as tehir injuries would be healed momentarily. After around the 5th shipgirl got up with no injuries remaining, the doctors stopped checking Blazermate's work and just let her have free reign of the place as it didn't take too long for her to heal up the rest of the shipgirls. At one point, a new patient came in, bleeding profusely and if Blazermate wasn't here, would've been dead before the bandages could go on. However, all the healing had charged Blazermate's ubercharge which she used on the quickly dying ship girl, completely stopping her from bleeding, her healing stabalizing and getting her mostly recovered as her ubercharge wore off. "What... what are you?" One of the shipgirls asked, surprised at what had happened. "Oh. I'm a Medabot. Names Blazermate." Another one pointed to Blazermate's healing arm and asked. "How does that work? It would be really useful for our soldiers!" Blazermate gave a reply, but by the look on the shipgirl's face, it wasn't what she wanted to hear. "Its my healing arm part. More focused healing than a Nutranurse! It just heals, I don't know how." she continued, leaving the ship girl doctor crestfallen.

It took her a bit of time, but eventually the infirmary was empty of the injured ship girls. "Alrighty! Thats all done. Can you lead me back to my friends now?" Blazermate said, making a gun blowing animation on her arm, making the sound but since she was a robot she couldn't make any breath come out. Her escourt, with a bit of regret at how useful Blazermate had been about getting ship girls back on the battlefield in record time, brought Blazermate back to the restaraunt. Having gone to heal the ship girls, Blazermate had missed all of Ms. Fortune's story, coming back in with Bowser asking for a to-go dish. "Hiya guys, I'm back!" Blazermate said, waving. Looking around, Blazermate noticed a few weired out faces, most notable on Peach, while Link had a much mor interested faec. "Did... I miss something?" Blazermate asked, walking in the shop to sit with the rest of the group.

Maybe he was just trying to reassure her, but Nadia found that Link's words set her a little at ease. She didn't know much about fate or destiny, but if anyone knew what awaited Linkle, it had to be the man who shared both her name and world of origin. Plus, Nadia figured that things simply must work out for Linkle in the end. If such a nice and well-meaning girl truly met a dismal end purely on account of her own desire to do good for other people, it would just be too cruel.

Frog appeared as Bowser left, the King Koopa no doubt headed to find the new friends still stuck at the Pirate's Cove. Peach wanted to help them as well, feeling guilty even for listening to Nadia's story of her travails in the Dead Zone and getting something to eat. Bowser ended up heading for the bar to get food to go, so she found herself with a moment to answer the amphibian. “Well, uh...it was pretty easy,” Peach admitted. “Most people we come across and manage to free recognize what's been done and want to set it right, or at least take their revenge. So we end up pooling our resources, and before you know it we've got a whole army.” With some boxed chow on his person Bowser made for the exit, and the princess stood up to follow. “Sorry, I've got to go. I'd like to get to know you better sometime. I'm Peach, by the way.” She gave a brisk wave at everyone present, then hurried to join the sea monster on his trip across the city.

The sight of Link nearly spitting up his milk made Nadia giggle. “Nyahaha, guess not! Least, not in my world's sense. But eatin' bugs can't be good for ya. Yuck, fur-get that!” He went on to make the logical connection that she possessed a parasite of her own, but Nadia rewarded his hypothesis with a shake of her head that sent her platinum blonde hair swinging. “Nuh-uh.” She dropped one hand, which proceeded to crawl across the surface of the table in a circle, and rested her head in the other. “It's the Life Gem that keeps me alive! Took it off those bastard Medicis, and boy were they pissed. If I didn't swallow it I woulda died when they hacked me to pieces, but here I am.” Her tone grew uncommonly vehement when she mentioned the Medicis, but it quickly faded to ruefulness. “I was gonna use the Skull Heart to bring back my family. The Fishbone Gang. Raised me ever since I was a kitten...” In her current state she couldn't suppress her emotion. Her increasingly tremulous voice broke, and she could feel tears welling in her eyes.

Because of the choice she made today, she would never see their faces again. Never see their smiles or hear their raucous laughter. Never share a meal, and never watch another sunset. Though they died years ago, she never came to terms with that reality, always figuring that the long-sought Skull Heart would bring them back. But now they lay forever beyond her reach. Nadia blinked back her tears. “Bah, look at me makin' a mess. If they saw me like this they'd laugh until they were cryin' too.” With a final sniff she shook her head, then extended her step. Muscle fibers lashed out to sink into the end of her hand and reel it in to smack into place. She gave her hand a playful spin as if to tighten it into place, flexed her fingers, and stood. “Ya know what, I think I'll get seconds. Who knows when I'll get another chance, right?” She planned to get order another helping of seafood.



The sight of an Abyssal Water Princess sent both Brineybeard and Shippy into a panic, with the vessel in particular growing visible angry as it turned to face her way. But the former pirate did not issue any orders, instead watching Bella like a hawk. Neither her words nor their tone escaped him, and Junior's declaration did not go unnoticed. Bella's concern -fear, even- seemed genuine, and though wary and uncomfortable he let her be. Keeping one eye on the Abyssal he leaned over Shippy's railing to get a better look at Sakura's condition. His expression did not inspire a surge of confidence. “She be concussed most like. Bruised 'n battered too.” He disappeared, but returned soonafter with a bottle he left his ship to present to Junior. The trepidation with which he approached Bella made it quicker for the prince to come to him. “Vulnerary,” he explained as he handed the medicine over. “It'll do 'er good, but she's gotta rest to let 'er brain recover.”

“Merci, monsieur!” Bella thanked him. Though rising from a kneeling position presented great difficulty, with the support of her tail she could do it, and gave the captain a bow. “I owe her my life. She is...extremely precious to me. If there is anything...” with a gasp she descended back to her knees. “Nuh...er, anything I can do. Please let me know.”

The clomp of feet on the wooden pier heralded Ranger's arrival. Brineybeard squinted. “Hmm...settin' aside that twisted metal...ah! Ahoy Ranger, my apologies fer not recognizin' ye at first.”

“Oh hey, Mr. Beard. Been a while,” the ship smiled.

Bella looked between the two. “You know each other?”

Nodding, Ranger told her, “Since I'm a teacher, and records are a mess, I make sure to try and get as much information as I can for my students. He's an excellent source on all sorts of old-timey topics, mostly maritime. The last pirate...”

Brineybeard rubbed his head. “Arr, I ain't a pirate no more, lassie, I been keepin' me work honest.” He turned his attention to Sakura. “Be she lookin' any better?”

It was around that time that movement on the other end of Pirate's Cove caught Bella's eye, but when she looked over she was relieved to see Peach, as well as two other trailing her in the manner of accomplices. The machine and the shelled seabeast certainly didn't seem like Limsa inhabitants, although truth to be told Bella couldn't say what that entailed. Rather, she supposed she noticed their eyes, and assumed them to be friends of the cause. Peach hurried over, running down the dock until she could jump aboard the Ganryu-maru. “You must be the one needing my help,” she addressed Ranger.

“You're Peach?” Ranger's visible eye filled with pleading as she thrust her hands forward. “Then please, get this out of me! Whatever it takes, I need it gone!”

Peach answered her with a solemn nod. “Of course. Hold still.”

Ranger raised her brows. “What, right he-WHOA!” She jolted as the princess thrust her fingerlessly gloved hand straight inside her, like someone reaching into a tide pool. Paralyzed, she could only wait until Peach's fingers closed around something and she abruptly yanked it out. A burst of light came off the ship as she changed back to just how she used to be, and with relief she felt the familiar contours of her typical face. “Ohhhhh, thank goodness. If I ever do that again I must be far, far more careful.”

With furrowed brows Peach peered into the spirit she held between thumb and forefinger. She also spared a glance at Sakura, noting her rigging and other changes. “Yeah, this is just a flat-out monster. Fusion means taking the powers but also appearance and personality of the spirit, so do it wisely. That matter asode...” she reached out her hand. “It's good to meet you.”

“Likewise!” The teacher shook her hand heartily. “I'm Ranger. This is Bella and Rika. After Sakura freed them, they gained a sort of new awareness, and they're on our side.”

Peach studied the two, intrigued. “I see. It might be hard to convince the navy and citizens of that. As I'm sure you've realized.” She looked out to sea and the horizon beyond, then back to Bella and especially Rika. If they were going anywhere they needed something to wear. “Well, it's getting going to be cold and dark soon. We could spend some money to get clothes from Hawkers' Alley so you could slip up to join the rest of us at the Mizzenmast.”

For a moment Bella found herself quite overwhelmed. Where did these people get such understanding, and such generosity? “Y-you're too kind,” the Water Princess stammered. “Really. But I can't even walk. There's a cabin on the ship that would do just fine.”

Peach sent a furtive glance at Bowser. On the way over she avoided speaking to him, but if he wanted to endear himself to her, here was a way. “If only there was someone well-versed in the art of carrying fair maidens around.”

Just then, a tremendous white light filled the eastern sky. Over the peaks of the mountain ridges and the towering trees of the Dark Forest it loomed, terrifying in its size and power. Peach stared until her eyes hurt, as mesmerized as she was horrified, then averted her gaze. After a few moments Bella found her voice. “What...what is that?!”

“The bomb...” Peach breathed. “Judging by the map...that must be it.” Like the others she failed to catch a glimpse of Galeem, being at sea level and their view of the Lord of Light blocked. “Well,” she said at length. “Another one down?”



Though she lingered on the edge of the alleyway for only a moment, Scharnhorst made up her mind quickly. Her, unable to brave the dark of a simple shortcut so that she might rejoin her sisters in celebrating victory all the faster? Unthinkable! “Hmph!” she sneered, her disdain purely directed at her own momentary apprehension. “I will never back down! Just you wait, Gneisenau. This vintage will blow your choice out of the water!” After tossing her exceptionally long violet hair, the eyepatch-wearing soldier couched the bottle she carried and took off at a jog between the dockhouses.

She never knew what hit her. Sephiroth's blade sank through her back as he landed on her with his full weight, driving the point through her body and into the planks below. A gasp of shock rattled from her lungs, and the wine bottle fell from her limp hands to hit the blood-speckled boards with a bump. With the last of her strength she instinctively willed her cannons to fire, but she had left her rigging behind for the party. Her head fell, with her hair strewn all about, and she began to dissolve into ash. In a few moments, only her spirit remained. The proud, warlike Scharnhorst had been assassinated without so much as a chance of fighting back.

But the noise of Sephiroth's impact had not gone unnoticed. He could hear noise in both dockhouses, and both featured doors leading to the alley. Only a scant few moments remained in which he could make an escape without things getting messier.



The Stranger landed without a hitch, but he quickly realized that he set down on uneven footing. At first he thought that the Skullgirl had taken leave of her senses in desperation and resorted to bombarding him with everything she had to try and take him down. When the ground beneath his feet shuddered, however, his mockery froze in his throat. Even for someone used to grappling with snow and ice, he quickly found it harder and harder to keep his balance. With a start he realized—for the first time perhaps, this girl wasn't doing something foolish after all. He glanced back at the yawning black crevasse, into which copious amounts of snow and ice chunks were falling. If she couldn't kill him, she meant to bury him instead.

He laughed, and gathered himself to jump. “Finally, usin' your brain.” In a plume of frost he leaped skyward once more, with the last of the ground beneath him shattering as he did, and a flurry circled his enemy's position. Evading it would prove no more difficult than last time, but this time she could weaken the area further with another volley of bombs. A moment later, when the Stranger crashed down, his weight and strength carried him straight through the fragmented ice. Surrounded by wintry shards, he vanished into the depths below.

For all the aching in the Skullgirl's neck, however, the ravine couldn't be that deep. If nothing obstructed his path he would surely rise again.

It was strange, when the light died down and Primrose felt the changes to her body. Changes made instantly, instead of over time. She stepped back, giving others that wanted access to the spirits more room and gently grazed a hand over her stomach, then lifted her arms up to inspect the new gloves. Her skin color seemed to have changed as well, which was interesting. She touched the veil hiding her face. It wasn't the first time she'd worn one, but she preferred not to. One would be surprised to know the amount of men that could be twisted with just a pretty girl's smile, after all. For now she didn't remove the garment, or any part of her new clothes. A wayward thought that she wished the new outfit would have come as a spare was quickly forgotten as she continued inspecting herself. She heard Tora say that not much had really changed, and for that she was grateful.

She turned her inspection inward, focusing on the pyromancer's spirit. There was a heat there, and she reached out to it, producing a small flickering flame in her hand. It felt different from the type of magic she was used to, not just from her natural dark magic but the fire spells of Orsterra as well. She tossed the flame from one hand to the other, while watching the results of the other fusions. The changes to the Personas, Midna and Yoshitsune playing around and further testing their new abilities, and Panther's change...

Primrose's eyes made their way back to the flame in her hand. She stared into the little fire, thinking on what Panther and Mona had said to her. Our Personas are our rebellious spirits, with the power to take revenge on those who take advantage of the weak. By accepting our desires, we gained the power to achieve them.

May be you have it in you, too. Listen for a voice inside you.

Accept your lust for revenge.

She snuffed the flame, curling her fingers into a tight fist, the glove's fabric squeaking lightly at the sudden movement. No one needed to tell Primrose Azelhart to accept her vengeance. It'd been a long time coming. The image of Simeon was permanently burned into her mind, and she suspected it would be long after she got the chance to kill him, but at least she wouldn't be left with this sickening feeling of incompleteness. Or so she hoped.

Her ragged smile was semi-concealed beneath the face veil, but even so Primrose lifted a hand to her face as though to physically wipe it away before she mingled with the group again. Among the items produced from crushing the spirits, only the shiny ones caught her eye. The small gold emblem, the fanciful crown, the glowing insect-looking thing... She picked these items up, turning them over once or twice. She didn't need anymore hoods, given that with her cloak included she was up to two. The emblem, while charming in some way, didn't seem to have any use she could see besides being decoration. The insect, well...

"I cannot even tell what some of these are," she said, holding the glowing bug item as an example. She passed it off to one of the mercenaries, who held it close to his face while examining it. With a wave Primrose dismissed the items, letting the others have at it. She gathered up her own things, re-donned her cloak, and stood with her arms folded until everyone was settled and satisfied and as one Team Yellow moved out of the oasis. On their way out, Primrose leaned down to Midna, her voice steady but her eyes light, "Let me know if you'd like any pointers."

The path out of the oasis was a straight forward one. At time they would run across hostile creatures, which were all handily taken care of. Even Primrose got to try out one of her new spells, the light of the flame fan dancing on the corridor's walls whenever an enemy managed to make it's way past the others and get close to her. The fire was particularly effective against the dry cloths of the smaller ones.

At the end, the Thieves were quick to descend through the hole in the ground, and even Sectonia didn't hesitated to go through, though she chose to slide instead of fly. Perhaps her wingspan was too wide. For Primrose, it wouldn't be the first time today that she slide down a sandy ramp. With a nod to Necronomicon she went through, sliding down the exit way. Ahead she could hear the echoes of the teammates who went before her. The sudden flash of fading sunlight as the slope opened up came sooner than she expected. Primrose gazed out over the sand, towards the mountain in the near distance. Once at the bottom of the slide she stood up quickly, brushing herself off and noting that some of them were quite mesmerized by the sight of the desert at dusk. Once upon a time she had been too.

They set off again, with Joker setting a quick pace. Primrose blinked in surprise, looking around at the other members of the team. Were they meant to run until they were tired? Stamina was one thing, endurance running was another. Primrose was more a sprinter than anything. She sighed, following after, her pace a little slower. She thought she would be able to keep up, even if it meant falling towards the back of their group. Riding on Hippowdon was nice, though it's slow. I will have to pick up a quicker creature too if this kind of thing is going to be common.

It wasn't very long into their trek when the sky brightened. At first Primrose thought that her initial comment about the sun never setting was partially true, and that it was coming right back up after dipping just past the horizon. However, the light was growing bright much too quickly, and a blinding shape loomed into the sky. It seemed distant, back in the direction they came from, but visible because of it's immense brilliance. As it died down there was movement in the sky as well, then everything passed as if nothing had happened at all.

Primrose had slowed to a stop at some point, watching the light glow brighter until she could look at it no more, shielding her eyes until it vanished. "What... what was that?"

---

Peach appeared slightly preoccupied while she gave the amphibious swordsman an explanation on the circumstances that brought together their group. It was simple and straightforward in Frog's opinion but he kept such observations to himself in the Princess's presence, and despite her abrupt exit the swordsman was satisfied with the answer to his questions that had been nagging at the back of his mind. He took the seat Link offered with a nod of thanks, and breathed a sigh of relief as he finally rested upon his rear.

"Goodness tis quite worn from todays endeavor I tell thee." Frog said as he unlatched the broken golden buckler of from his arm and leaned it against the leg of his chair. Happily digging into the dish Link had pushed before him relishing the taste as he listened to the conversation continue on. It was only shortly after that another of the heroes whom assisted in the fight at the Bismarck, but the swordsman was mystified by their odd appearance that looked alien to him "Beg mine pardon but what arte thou?" he asked the strange looking machine woman but found himself turning to Miss. Fortune and listening to her lament over her family before avoiding further conversation by changing the subject.

Frog couldn't think of anything to say that could help the woman but he knew it probably best to respect her privacy, besides her mood seemed to improve and he still hadn't gotten an answer from the automation.

---

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---

Eyes narrowing, Sephiroth swiftly sheathed his blade as he snatched up the spirit, clenching it in his hand before hiding the aforementioned limb beneath his coat. Better to keep it away from prying eyes for the time being. If he was lucky, they wouldn't even know a murder had occurred. If not, well at least he could keep suspicion off of himself until the time came for him to finally absorb the shipgirl's spirit. Presently, however, Sephiroth reminded himself that he had somewhere else he needed to be. Preferably somewhere very far from here. His first thought was to return to the Wench, but if that shipgirl was on her way somewhere then whoever had been waiting for her would likely note her tardiness and an investigation would soon begin, with him as the prime suspect. Or a more likely one at the very least, since he was the only one out of the entirety of any team that hadn't exactly conformed to the helpful hero archetype, or even seemed like the pleasantest of individuals to be around. Add to that the fact that he had fused with the spirit of an evil and obsessive sorceress recently and you had a recipe for trouble.

Trouble the former SOLDIER did not want nor need. No, he couldn't stay, that would just compound the problem and increase the chances of someone figuring out what he'd done. Thus he moved deeper into the alleyway, breaking into a light jog near the end so that he could disappear round the corner faster. A few minutes of running through abandoned backstreets later, and Sephiroth found himself in a completely different part of the city. Luckily for him it didn't appear as though he'd been followed. Smiling to himself, he pulled his hand free from the folds of his coat, unfurling his fingers to reveal the spirit floating beneath as he did so. Staring at it for a bit, Sephiroth carefully considered his next move. The last fusion he performed had made a great deal of changes, not all of which he'd particularly liked, such as the more obsessives aspects of Cia's personality or her annoyingly flashy style of dress. On the other hand it'd also given him a great deal of magical power in exchange. Still, he was reasonably apprehensive of just shoving this one into his chest on a whim, especially since he never actually got to see what the shipgirl could do.

There was still the alternative, however. That being placing it into his mind instead. If he recalled what the machine had said properly, it wouldn't convey the same level of benefits, but it also wouldn't bestow the same level of drawbacks either. A tempting prospect really, since he wasn't very fond of mutating himself further with the souls of these lesser beings, but an altogether disproportionate one given the risks he'd taken to obtain it. No, he would fuse with the shipgirl's spirit as he had with Cia's to reap the full benefits of its power, drawbacks be damned. Holding it aloft, he took a moment to prepare himself for the changes that were to come, before slamming the ethereal orb into his chest...

@Lugubrious

Yoshitsune looked himself over, interested in all the changes. While he had tried to focus everything towards his feet, he wasn’t surprised the changes didn’t stick there. He saw the thigh and shoulder armor before noticing something off with his field of view. It was noticeably shorter. He put his hands to his head to feel the new helmet and mouthguard. He had to see them. Walking towards the pool, not yet ready to rev his engines, he got a good look at his helmet. It looked like it fit him, both with the Roader spirits he’d absorbed but also with a feudal flair that matched his style. “Watashi wa Oni Samurai desu!” he called, slamming his fist into his chest. That’s not something I used to do, he thought to himself, a bit surprised. Seemed he’d taken on a bit of the Roaders’ personality traits.

Turning to face the group, he was about to request a spar when he saw a light he had to block his eyes from. Once the light was gone, he lightly shook his head and tried to regain his train of thought. Looking back in the pool, he was about to repeat himself but stopped before a word escaped. Turning back around again, he was about to issue a challenge again when someone shouted.

”You, I don't know you are but you have wheels for feet now so race me. Race me! I wanna see how fast I can really go!“

Looking where the voice was coming from, he nodded. “A race sounds like an amazing idea!” he shouted back. “Shall we up the ante, though? A sparring race. I’ll use the back of my blades so I don’t do too much damage. Don’t want to ruin your beauty.”

He didn’t know where that came from. Although he did think she was beautiful, he would not have said something as casually as he just did. Guess those spirits changed me more than I thought.

He looked to the land where the hippos had been and walked over, not wanting to start his engines right next to someone and possibly hurt their ears. “What do you say?” he asked, looking her over. “A three-lap race, 10 points for the win, 2 for every successful hit, 5 if we’re knocked over?” He didn’t know where the point system had come from but, after thinking it over, it seemed fair.

Once Midna, and whoever else wanted to join the sparring race, were in position, he revved his engines and readied himself for the speed, his swords drawn.

He didn’t know who was going to officiate the race but figured whoever it was would help keep things fair.

Once the race started, he went as fast as his wheels would take him, staying on the designated path. He wasn’t sure of his limits on the wheels. The race was the perfect place to find out.

He raised his swords, swinging them back to hit those closest to him.

As he said, it had been a 3-lap race and, despite his wheels and speed, he was not ahead by too much when he won. He had, however, gotten many decent hits and trips, giving him plenty of points. He looked at everyone else, smiling. “That was fun,” he laughed. “Shall we head on now?” he asked, pulling out an herb from his inventory.

While they had been racing, most of the rest of the loot had already been distributed, not leaving anything Yoshitsune was interested in.

He followed the rest of the party as they headed down another path, eventually leading them to monsters. With the speed of his wheels and his blades, Yoshitsune ran around slicing at each of the monsters within reach, aiming to damage them all and not outright kill them yet. The foes they fought didn’t last long.

Once they reached the square room, Yoshitsune began looking around the walls, paying attention to any details he thought would be important. In the end, there was nothing. With a shrug, he leaped down the hole behind everyone else, trying to spin his wheels backward to slow himself down on the slide.

At the bottom of the slide, he looked around, taking in the beautiful sight. He chose to stay silent, though. His engines were making more than enough noise for him to be comfortable.

Hopping on the train tracks, he rode along with them, loving the speed he was moving at. He was loving the wheels but also missed his normal feet. If only I could swap them back and forth, he thought to himself, glancing down at his lower legs.

”Well aren't you a charmer” Midna replied, taking Yoshitsune’s in stride with an easy grin. As for his suggestion for adding a bit of combat to the race, Minda was all for it. ”Can’t say I’ll be able to spare your own good looks, I’m so pumped up feel like I could break down the world right now, but I’ll keep my new claws sheathed just for you” she teased.

With the outlines of the race set the pair, and any others who cared to join, lined up on the impromptu starting line. The princess was fired up and, although she was acclimatizing to the high even the brief wait for them to start was still close to agonizing. So it was that when they did start the princess held nothing back. Her shadow hand came out in a flash and delivered an all mighty shove to try and destabilize Yoshitsune right out the bat, before she took off at a run. And what a run it was. Her new slippers hammered into the stone floor, the princess’s legs were a blur and even with that speed of limb her body moved faster still, each footfall bringing a great leap of motion forwards.

She made great pace for the first two laps, blazing a trail and using her shadow hand to great effect to both block and strike. Indeed the princess was enjoying the on the move duel so much, and was so confident in her new speed, that she focused more on the battle than she did on running for most of the race. Then, halfway through the final lap, she put on a burst of speed and disengaged the rolling melee in an attempt to sprint to the finish. It was then that the power gained front he dragon dance decided to fail her, crashing away in an instant. So sudden was the disappearance that Midna was unable to handle her own momentum, causing her to trip and crash into the wall, though the impact was more embarrassing than it was actually harmful.

Frustrated, a little dazed, and feeling like she’d just had a sugar crash, Minda made the last leg of the race under her own power, and although her legs had been enhanced by both her fusions they weren't enough to let her beat the motorized samurai.

”Yeah it was good till I burned out right at the end like that,” Midna replied a touch bitterly when the samurai said he’d had fun, before shaking her head clear and saying far more pleasantly ”Really though, it was fun, and was useful too. Going to have to work out why the power went away like that and it's much better to know it does that now than find out in the middle of a fight.”

That could wait for a few moments however. For now they were all packing up, picking out items and preparing to get going again. By the time Midna had fully recovered and re-acclimated to not being souped up on dragon power most people had gone through the items and were just about to set off, leaving her to pick through what was left before they headed out.

The results from the myriad of Trapiniches and Vibravas was a large pile of useless (to them) animal bits, which was a touch disappointing, though also educational. The dull fading spirits were good for mass fusing and not much else it seemed. As for the rest of the spirits, and the stuff from the loot boxes, the most notable thing about it all was the large number of hats and other head decorations that came out of it, all of which Midna dismissed out of hand as they could never be more useful than her current headgear.

That left a small number of other items which Midna gave some consideration. After a bit of experimenting she eventually stuck the monkey sticker on the inside of a Spaulder of the Bat, managed to shove the ‘maglev’ device ‘inside’ it after a few goes and then attached the entire thing to her shoulder via the guard’s straps. The entire arrangement seemed to have various powers, although it took her awhile to work out what any of it was. At the very least it meant she could put the shoulder armor between her and an enemy like a small shield, which might give her slightly better odds of surviving a blow that got past her defenses, without impacting her maneuverability as much as a fulls et of armor would.

With that all put together the princess set out on foot for once, intending to experiment with her new abilities (it was rather difficult to dance on wolfos back after all) as they traveled. The sandy corridors certainly provided opportunities for this, with giant animals, undead and small wrapped up things with rifles. These mini encounters were mostly straightforward and they allowed Midna to work out the specifics of how the dragon dance power up functioned. Namely it stuck around a short while after the dance and that duration could be extended by being in combat. At the same time running away like she had done when she tried to break away in the race) or just winning the fight would make it end. She also learned it was very, very difficult to set it up before a fight, because someone dancing and exploding with power wasn't exactly subtle and she had to start pumping it up while foes were nearby or it would fall off before they ran into some.

”I might need to take you up on those pointers” she said to Primrose after she’d learned all she could about the dance, ”Like how you manage to find the time and nerve to dance while in the middle of a fight. Or how to do it on the move.”

She also learned to tap into the more earthen side of the Flygon spirit, gaining a strong connection with the ground and, specifically, sand. Unfortunately it wasn't with the light world’s sand but instead with her own. There was probably some kind of elemental philosophy about being connected to the land of your birth involved in as to why, or so Midna assumed, but the gist of the situation was if she brought sand from the Twilight realm to this one she could use it for various sand based attacks. It was very useful for blinding the one eyed gunmen so she could get in close without being shot. It was also cathartic to be on the offensive end of sand based warfare after the nightmare that had been the Flygon’s sandstorm.

Throughout all of this her new Vibrava followed alongside her, scampering or buzzing along and occasionally helping its mistress out when it could or when it was ordered as it too got used to its new powers and position as an aid rather than a ride.

Eventually they reached a sandy slope that would take them out of the structures and back into the sun. The princess did not exactly look forward to going back out, but they couldn't exactly keep track of where the mountain they were headed for was inside either, so out they went. Several of the heroes jumped down and rode the sand before her and, with a sigh, she followed after rhythm. Then she learnt exactly what +30& SLIDE and -30% FRICTION had meant.

”Make way!” She yelled at those ahead as she glided down the sand ramp. Partially sliding on the sand, partially floating above it due to the Maglev effect, she accelerated both to and at a frightening speed, forcing her to dodge and weave around those ahead to avoid any collisions. As a result of the hair raising speed she missed out on most of the marvel and wonderment some of the others experienced during their trip down the sand slide.

Mostly she appreciated that the sun was going down and that the strobe effect the pillars were generating wasn't quite so bad as a result.

She wasn't the only one who enjoyed that, though the others had their own reasons like admiring the beauty or it being cooler at night. She was just looking forward to being able to see without squinting all the time.

Sadly the world had other plans. As they set off following the things Joker had called tracks (”What kind of animal leaves metal bars as tracks?”) the sun set, and then, seemingly, rose again with a vengeance. Suffice to say this was not a good time for Minda as she, and her wolfos (which she had swapped for the Vibrava in order to avoid more jogging), had to shield their eyes from with hands or paws. Even with this Minda was left bleary eyed and cursing Galeem in her own tongue under her breath after the light had finally died.

”Whatever it was, I hate it! Please. Goddesses. No more blinding lights at least till morning.” was all she had to say on the matter when Primrose asked what it was. It wasn't like she had a useful answer to the question anyway.

"Aw, well, you know. It's been a long day," the Cadet chuckled, rubbing a hand against his cheek when Nadia and Link made comments about his order. A hunter needed to eat. Honestly the price hadn't even crossed his mind - he supposed he was still relying on the princess' generosity. Thankfully said princess made her way over as well, so surely he was off the hook. He'd really had to try and do something nice for Peach in return. "There's gonna be plenty to go around so I don't mind sharing!"

Before that though, it was time to learn of the Red Team's experience. Ms. Fortune was quite the story teller. The Cadet listened to her every word, piecing things together with the context whenever an unfamiliar term threatened to distract him. The Dead Zone... he remembered first hearing about it in Lumbridge, passing by a group of refugees as they worried about the place - and what a rotten place it sounded like. He wondered if Nadia and the people she mentioned had been part of that refugee group, but at the time he'd had other things on his mind, and he hadn't recognized her when she appeared here in Limsa.

Linkle... Cadet had only known her for a short time, the same as the others, but he felt the same as Nadia and Link. That she must be okay out there. She was strong in body and mind. The Cadet leaned back, crossing his arms and balancing his stool on one set of legs. He nodded and chimed in, "Yeah, we'll definitely find her and save her. Or maybe she'll save herself before we even get to her!"

The only thing they could do right now for her is be optimistic, and hey - that was a specialty of his.

"Thanks for telling us everything," the hunter said to Ms. Fortune. Pretty quickly after his eyes moved from their new teammate to the plates of food being delivered. Breads, stews, sliced meats, skewers and fried foods of all kinds. Patiently he waited until everything was placed and the others had their dishes as well, then reminded them of his offer to share should they see anything appetizing before he let the stool fall back onto all four legs and dug in. His eating habits were kind of erratic, taking bites of everything here and there with no order or pattern in mind. It didn't seem very efficient, but it was quick - but he wasn't a barbarian, they gave him utensils and he used them! Cadet was halfway through when Frog made his way over, and the hunter paused to smile at the warrior. With his cheeks full, Cadet almost looked like a frog himself.

"Oh my wrog, this is delicious," he said to himself after finishing the nearest plate, putting it in the small stack with the other empty ones. Though his pace was slowing, he still reached for another helping or two (some gooey cheese stuffed bread roll with one hand, and a refreshing looking salad in the other), though on Ms. Fortune's mention of parasites he paused, squinting his eyes at her. Right in front of my salad?? He turned in surprise when Link admitted to it - ah, wait false alarm. Just regular bugs. Cadet laughed and shook his head. "Just muscle and metabolism here." If his arms weren't preoccupied with gathering, cutting, and eating food even now he'd have flexed for her. Instead, he added on a bit to Link's explanation.

"That was a rough situation, you and the others you were with had these black arrows that turned people into... well it like froze them solid, like this," he produced the Dark Link statue, putting it on the center of the table and tapping it a couple times. "But bigger. It worked out and we got you on our side!

"For me, I was Lumbridge for a while. I think maybe since this whole thing started? One of the areas outside turned into one from my world, so of course I went on a hunt there. I met The Courier who was already there and here I am now!" Conveniently the Cadet left out the part where the Tzitzi-Yaku roughed him up a little bit, because he could totally take a Tzitzi-Yaku, it was probably just because be was still red-eyed and rusty at the time. Peach's straightforward explanation was probably the best though, once you freed someone and explained everything, most people wanted to help.

Soon after the princess left the air at the table turned somber again. The Cadet edged away from Nadia's disembodied hand, watching it crawl with some fascination. It seemed a powerful ability, but with a heavy cost... or rather, an ability that only came about because of those unfortunate circumstances. The hunter's heart went out to her, and the mention of the Skullheart again just reminded the Cadet of his promise to deliver his scoutflies in order to find Linkle all the sooner. He should do that before the night was over.

Ace Cadet stood up as well, having eaten his fill and then some. Between all of the plates on the table he may have poached some things from the other's without knowing, but hey - there was still some food and drink left on the table that the party was welcome to. The Cadet wrapped up a few items and tucked them away, then lifted a mug and slammed it's contents back, one last good taste before heading off. He placed a hand on Nadia's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "Hey, that's the spirit!"

There was one more thing to mention before he left, and he motioned to the little trophy still sitting on the table. "I'm going to stop by the Alcamoth tonight before turning in. I'm not really sure what to do with that, so..." He looked at Link and shrugged a little, implying that maybe the Hylian should take it. It was a trophy of his own shadow, after all. The other option would be to give it to the Guildmarm as a gift, a token of adventure, but then she'd be staring at a figure of another guy. That wouldn't do!

As Blazermate approached the Cadet passed her by heading the opposite direction, giving the bot a nod and a smile. Outside of the Drowning Wench, he only got turned around once before the main market came into view and he could make his way out of the city. He passed by the dock area near to where Junior's painting was located, and briefly considered stopping by to check in on the prince and Sakura. He figured it could wait though, since Bowser and Peach should already be there he could always check in on the way back.

A few moments after passing the area, a soft, steady tunk tunk tunk sound starting following the hunter. Confused, he looked around and spotted a little purple pig, with a dark mane and large horns - a golden ring surrounding one of them. It caught up to the Cadet and looked up expectantly at him, it's little eyebrows furrowed.

"BB!" Ace Cadet knelt down, beckoning the minion closer and scratching under it's chin. "Didn't I tell you to guard the princess? I didn't see you with her when she came up to the restaurant. Not Ya-cool, lil guy."

The baby behemoth snorted and flopped over, and it's current master moved on to rubbing it's belly. "You at least guarded the gold until she got back, right?"

It snorted again, and the Cadet couldn't tell if it was an affirmative or not. Honestly he had no clue if BB could really understand him. Still, he was happy to see the little monster was alright. He pulled one of the leftovers from his bag and fed it to BB, who squealed happily. Despite the angry expression it seemed to default to, it seemed to have finally taken a shine to the Cadet. Technically that was bad news, given that he still intended to get BB back to it's family or natural habitat somehow... but for now, it would do just to make sure the minion stayed close to him.

The duo of monster hunter and baby monster departed, stepping through the painting portals until they arrived back in the brilliant hub of the Alcamoth.

Jr sighed with relief when it turned out that yes, the old sea captain did have medicine on board his ship, which was very sensible of him. To an extent jr’d gotten used to Blazermate, and then Kamek, being around to provide healing, but as the boy administered the concoction he mentally added “healing stuff” to the list of things he should pick up from the alleyway when he went there next.

After he’d given her the potion all that there was to do was wait and hope she recovered. As they were waiting the long anticipated arrival of the Princess Peach occurred, along with ”Papa!” Jr cried out upon seeing his, slightly different looking thanks to the double fusion but still very recognizable, father arriving alongside the princess. He hopped down from the fishing ship and sprinted over and then jumping up to give his dad a hug

”Wow, hey there Junior” the king said as he caught his son in his arms and returned the embrace

”I thought you’d be gone longer! Did you beat the dead zone’s boss already?” Jr asked as he dropped back down again.

”Ahh not quite. We cleared the way, but the palace is gonna explode real soon so we’re gonna let that blow over on its own. Heard you’ve been pretty busy over here too” Bowser explained, before noticing ”Uh. is she ok?”

”She should be now. Briny Beard had some medicine that I gave her. She just got beat up by her rival though so...” Jr told him without needing to elaborate on the last point as the king nodded understandingly in response. That kind of thing wasn't something you just got over even after the twentieth time. Especially after the twentieth time

”But yeah, we’ve been busy. First, I got tyrant and then ” Jr started running his dad, and anyone else in earshot as a byproduct, through what they’d all been up to that day. The two strolled back to the fishing boat as Peach worked her magic and de-abyssalised Ranger, rejoining the conversation as the matter of getting their new friends a change of clothes to let them slip into the town came up.

”There’s still the metal bits.” Jr pointed out ”Can’t really hide those under a dress or whatever... Maybe we can paint them to look more friendly? Or just less abyssal so people don't realize that’s what they are.”

”If you're going to do that maybe don't use your brush and stick with normal paint” The Bowser told him seriously.

”Aah ha ha, yeah um.” Jr laughed embarrassedly before continuing ”Or I mean, maybe we can cover them with cloth in a different way. Like a tarp? I don't know. Be easier if we just had some spirits, bet we could get you legs working and change the metal stuff a bunch with them, but it’s not like you can just go into town and get some like you can with gear and clothes and stuff” the prince said, the method Sephiroth was in the middle of using to do just that not even crossing his mind, before scratch the back of his head thoughtfully and accidentally tapped his ponytail with his Brachydios wrist horn.

”hmmm” he hummed contemplatively. He’d have to think about it, but that was somewhere they could get spirits from, and he was really sure that Rika would look super cool with that one in her.

The boy also had to laugh at Peach's indirect way of suggesting Bowser carry Bella around till she found a way to get land legs. The comment went right over the head of its intended recipient however, till Jr told the princess ”I’ve already carried Rika around a bunch today already! Papa’s not the only one who’s got the muscle for that kind of thing” while giving a flex, that his dad caught on.

”Ohhh.” the king said in comprehension before floundering for a recovery ”Uh I mean” before earnestly cheering on jr ”Yeah that’s my son! Those guns run in the family”, before giving his own flex and a hearty laugh, which was cut off by the sudden and luminous detonation of the Deadzone.

”Well,” Bowser said at last as the light finally died down, ” super glad we didn't stick around. Annoying we couldn't get its power but, eh. Whatever. It’s great to be rid of that awful place.”

”Anyway, who wants dinner!” The King said, after everyone had gotten over witnessing the vaporization of an entire city, holding up a few bags that all held the closest the bar had been able to supply to takeaway boxes.

”oh boy, gimmy” jr cheered, eagerly accepting a bag of dishes picked especially for him by his dad.

Rika, who’d been sitting patiently next to Sakura and monitoring her condition, perked up as the smell wonderful from Jr’s bag hit her. “What is that?” she asked

”It’s mine” Jr tried to say protectively though a mouthful of cheese burger, this was the good stuff he wasn't giving it away, but his father calmly spoke over him, letting people know ”I brought enough for everyone. I think. You two have got a lot of mouths. Also I didn't know what anyone else liked so I just got a bunch of stuff,”

The various types of junk food Bowser had gotten from the bar was exactly a highbrow introduction to human cuisine, but as the cruiser devoured everything set before her it was certainly an enjoyable one. If the ship had had any second thoughts left as to where her loyalties should lie whatsoever, those last little embers where completely wiped away by a plate of fish and chips.

---

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@Lugubrious@darkred

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Panic briefly flashed across Linkle's face as the Stranger jumped once more, the force of his leap sending the crumbling ice he had been standing on into he depths below along with the hopes she'd had for her final ploy. That all stopped once she noticed the flurry of snow around her once again.

He'd gone too high. He'd used the same trick twice, one that hadn't even worked the first time. She dodged out of the flurry, letting loose with a bombardment of his incredibly telegraphed landing zone. This time there wasn't any fumbling about on falling ice. This time the Stranger went right through like a cannonball careening out into the night, disappearing beyond her view. She almost jumped for joy. She would have if she hadn't heard a noise that wiped her triumph off her face. A thud, somewhere down there beyond the darkness. A landing. A single question racing through her mind: what was to stop him from jumping back up?

Her. Her her her, it had to be her. She knew what she had to do, even if it seemed impossible to her. Falling to her knees and sliding forward toward the ravine she pressed her hands against the ice and snow. Her hair flashed blue. She took a deep breath, then went for broke.

Power slid out of Linkle into the ice under her, along with a single command; Fill. She screamed the word in her head, pushing the icy haired warriors spirit as hard as she could. Around her the ice obeyed, the jagged edges on her side of the ravine rounding off before starting to branch out toward the other side. Inside the ravine the same thing began, wicked spikes of ice shooting out across the divide and impaling themselves into the opposite wall. Like vines ice grew out of them, twisting, connecting, merging with one another, until the top of the ravine was covered seamlessly with a span of ice. It was as though the ravine had never even been there.

It wasn't enough, though. She couldn't just put a lid over him. Linkle dug deeper, pushing out more ice than she had ever tried before. To send it down. Grow, delve, deeper and deeper. Down into the crevasse. The ice jumped at her orders, growing from all sides straight downward. She wasn't going to cap the ravine, she was going to fill it in. The ice sprinted down along the walls, probing for every single nook and cranny that it could possibly fill and moving into the space. Linkle wasn't going to leave him with anything. No air to breath, no light to see, no space to even move those strong arms. Nothing but the dark and the crushing weight of the glacier.

"Just. Wait. Your. Turn!" She breathed out as she put everything she had into this. Distantly, in the back of her mind, she could hear a woman laughing. She closed her eyes and powered through it, not even noticing the ice creeping up her arms. Not feeling the air as the ground actually started to rise. When the ice found no more space to fill below it started growing on top. By the time Linkle stopped and opened her eyes once more she found herself seated atop a mountainous crag of solid ice that loomed like the tomb of some ancient king over the ice field, her arms buried up to the elbows in the ice. She jerked back with a shot, the ice around her arms shattering. The only thing that kept her from tumbling off this new landmark was that her legs were in a similar situation as her arms, her thighs half trapped in the ice from where she had knelt.

The reason for her surprise was simple. When she had opened her eyes she had been face to face with some kind of monster lurking on the other side of the ice. It only took her a moment of looking around her to realize her mistake. The mirror sheen of all this new ice mocked her with the truth. It was the first time she had actually seen herself since since the fight with Marie. She had expected herself to look pretty bad, she had seen the previous skullgirl, but there was a difference between knowing you probably look like a corpse and seeing yourself as a corpse. Her skin was pale, her eyes sunken, and even the blue hair she sported right now had lost the wintery sparkle she had grown fond of. Then there was the eyes. She could hardly see the laughing skull that inhabited them for the red glare her reflection cast back at her. It was no wonder the people at Grillby's hadn't given her a kind welcome, she looked like some kind of Dark Linkle. Then there was that empty feeling in her chest, it felt like more had fallen into the hole.

There was no time for wallowing in self-conscious despair, though. Linkle cupped her ears and tried to listen to the world around her for cracking or pounding or shattering. Had this worked? This was more than even she had intended, but she wasn't going to complain if it kept him down there. If it didn't she would probably feel in in her legs before anything else.

---

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@Yankee@Dark Cloud

---

"But who's going to protect me if you're not around?" Link said jokingly as The Princess got up to leave, but didn't make any move to follow her. Even if he were still overly concerned for her safety she now had perhaps the biggest guy in the city to escort her around.

"You would be very surprised about what bugs can do for you." Link replied to Ms. Fortunes doubts. "There are lots of benefits provided you brew them with the right ingredients. Crickets for stamina, dragonflies to shrug off fire and lightning, fireflies to make yourself sneakier, beetles for a boost of strength. After my hero days are behind me I could live off making elixirs just from stuff you can find out behind your house."

The Cadet had his own answer to the question of where his strength sprang from, which was simple strength of arm and a hearty diet. Link wished he could be sure his came from the same place. He also added some details to Link's story of how he joined, and mentioned something that instantly intrigued Link as he sat the Dark Link statuette in the center of the table for all to admire. Link was surprised to hear that he had been equipped with arrows that could do that same thing during that battle, but before he got the chance to press further Ms. Fortune continued her story.

His face hardened the woman reveled the source of her horrifically strange powers. He could imagine what it would be like to be sliced apart, he had taken enough hits with bladed weapons that were bigger than him to understand what that would feel like. Still, he gave a hearty 'Hear Hear!" As the woman pushed past her sorrow over her state and her family to order another round of food. He slammed the rest of his milk as The Cadet stood up and started packing up to leave, eyeing Link as he motioned to the statuette sitting on the table. Link reached over, holding it up to his face by the base. "Yeah, I can hold onto handsome here." With a flick of his wrist the Dark Link vanished in a plume of blue sparks, safely stored away in the Shiekah Slate. "Be careful on your way! Don't talk to any strange women." He called out after him as he left.

After Cadet was gone Link handily started helping himself to the food he had left on the table, pulling up a plate of pasta with some kind of black sauce and digging in like he had been invited to. There was no need for food to go to waste. After her got done slurping that whole thing up in a matter of seconds he set down his fork and said, "If you see and of these Medici guys in this world make sure to tell us. I don't want to leave people like that to their own devices."

It was around that time Blazermat pulled up a chair, asking what was going on. Frog showed an immediate interest in the mechanical girl, a curiosity that was mirrored by Link come to think of it. All he knew about her was that she was good at healing things and that Zelda would go absolutely mad if she ever laid eyes on her. He whipped out the Shiekah Slate again to take a quick picture of her to show the Princess in case something happened to Blazermate tomorrow. "We were just talking." He said as he tried to find her best side from his seat. There was a SNAP as he took the picture. "I think the first question was about powers, which Frog never answered." He turned the camera on the amphibian and snapped two more pictures of his sword and shield. "What about it you two? Do your powers come from a special place? How did you get strong?"

"Also!" He said, lowering the slate and looking to Blazermate. "Cadet said something about me having special arrows that turned you into statues when we fought at the tower. You were there for that fight, could you explain a little more about those? Do you think it would be possible to scavenge some? They sound useful."

No stranger to jogging across long distances, Tora started after the Phantom Thieves and got up to speed in a few moments, and of course Poppi had no trouble matching his pace. The whole group got underway shortly, and using the tracks Joker indicated as a guide, proceeded into the desert. Although the trek before them remained vast, the mountain seemed notably bigger than it did even at entrance to the Crown of Sand. As the sun sank down behind it, throwing splendid shades of yellow, orange, red, and finally purple across the sky, the desert heat subsided, and in relative comfort the heroes could make their way across the great, flat expanse.

Nightfall in the Sunset Sky meant journeying onward in darkness, but Tora found it wasn't so bad. The very workable light of the moon and stars illuminated the desert just fine, and he didn't have very much trouble seeing. As he bounced along Tora spent a while looking skyward, peering in wonderment at the vaults of a sky awash with stars. “Think those stars have own worlds?” he asked Poppi, who followed his gaze to the cosmos. “All worlds of light, made by Galeem? Or is just illusion, and this all it made?” He gave a long sigh. “Meeeeeeh. Tora hope it last one. Otherwise, maybe friends on whole other world, far away, and never see again. And...” He redirected his gaze to the Lord of Light, floating above the center of the continent, visible even from this great distance. “And it fall to us to save it all.”

Only a little nighttime passed by, however, before the heavens raged with light—not sunlight, nor even the multicolored luster of spirits, but a stark, soulless white. Tora gaped and Poppi stopped in their tracks and gaped as the rippling dome of death rose above the western mountains. A front of air kicked up sand across the desert and buffeted Yellow Team for a few moments, displaced by the titanic explosion. After what seemed like ages it receded, and the night resumed its dominion over the world, but the experience left the group rattled. Everyone shared the stricken wonderment that Primrose expressed, but nobody could offer any answers. Although not for the same reasons, Tora loathed the blast nearly as much as Midna did, and it left him shivering. He felt sure it had been some kind of weapon, and even in a world where habitable land didn't come at a premium, such wanton destruction disturbed him immensely. The Nopon could only hope, with more than a little unease, that it hadn't claimed the lives of any friends. As best he could judge it lay much, much too far north to imperil Alcamoth or even Lumbridge, but just the thought that something like that could happen worried him enough. In the span of only a few moments, the world had gotten a lot less safe.

In the end, the heroes couldn't do much but continue onward. Before they got underway again Joker called down Necronomicon for a quick consultation. “Nothing yet on my scanners,” she reported. “But from up high I saw something strange. Up ahead, it looks like the sand is moving a little. At first I didn't notice, but there's no mistaking it.”

Joker scratched his head. “Like there's a monster underneath?”

The spaceship rotated back and forth in a crude approximation of a shaken head. “Not in one spot. All the sand, and in one direction. Almost like it's flowing. I don't know why, either. I'll fly ahead and see if I can find anything. Just be careful, 'kay?”

With no further details available, Yellow Team started moving again. After a while, the frontrunners -Tora among them- started experiencing a change in the ground beneath them. As he jogged through the sand the Nopon found it getting slowly harder, his feet sinking further in with each step, and the sand itself getting stickier. Another couple minutes and to his displeasure the desert surface seemed to be mud in all but appearance. “Meeeeh!” he grumbled. “Little legs of Tora giving tough time!”

Poppi tapped his shoulder and pointed at the tracks, along the top of which the Scout was already running. With a noise of approval her Masterpon waddled through the muck over to the train tracks and climbed on. He ran along the ties for a few steps, found his stride sufficient enough to cover the short distance between them, and went to give his companion a thumbs-up. When he looked her way from atop the stationary tracks, however, the change in perspective allowed him to see the truth in Necrnomicon's words. “Ground is sliding!” he announced as he reached a wing down into the sand. Its flow caused it to gather into a globule in his wing-palm, which he flung the away after a moment. “Tora confused, but would also get on tracks if Tora was you!” he advised. Whatever the reason for this phenomenon might be, it couldn't be good. Not for the first time he found himself envious of Midna and Sectonia, able to float wherever they pleased without having to worry about the ground.

Still, he was pleased to see the Phantom Thieves heed his suggestion and climb onto the tracks. Braum bravely tried forging onward another couple dozen steps, but suddenly found himself sinking too quickly to ignore. “Big guy!” Blue Poison called out in warning, but he'd already swerved to clamber up onto the tracks. She lent him as much as hand as she could given her tiny stature. “It's pretty much just quicksand at this point,” she remarked.

While Braum caught his breath and his friends got sand out of their boots, Joker watched Necronomicon approach in a hurry. “What's up?”

“You won't believe it!” the Persona replied in earnest. “Up ahead the sand keeps getting gooier, turning brown, then suddenly smoothing out. Just like syrup. Then there's this giant dessert!”

Panther raised an eyebrow. “...You mean 'desert'?”

“No, 'dessert',” Necronomicon confirmed. “Waffle cone islands, donuts, taffy roads, a giant cake mountain. A whole bunch of islands, and the tracks lead right to it.”

As the ship relayed the unusual news, there came a rumbling sound that grew steadily stronger. Although distracted by the mental image of a literal mountain of sweets, Tora became aware of the tracks vibrating, then the accompanying noise. He patted Poppi's shoulder to get her attention and confirm he wasn't hearing things. “Poppi? Tora hear noise getting louder...”

Necronomicon turned his way. “Oh right, that's the other thing. On the way over I scanned multiple creatures headed this way. You guys should get ready.”

In a flash, the Thieves' weapons appeared. “You didn't think you shoulda led with that?” Mona shouted. He looked frantically into the night. “Where are they coming from?”

The sound had intensified until Tora could feel it in his bones, but still he saw nothing. His eyes went wide, and he cried, “Underground!”

From the mucky ground burst a pair of spiky red slugs that leaped at the tracks. One grabbed the Medic, and the other the Scout, who bellowed in anger. “NAYAKA TRAWLER! I hate these damn things!” Seeing his friend abducted, the Heavy bellowed as well, albeit in wordless rage. He span up his minigun and unleashed a hailstorm of bullets toward the Trawlers, heedless of the flying machines that descended from the night sky. Panther summoned Carmen, and hurled fire at them, but they dodged out of the way and returned fire. As their purple orbs rained down on Yellow Team, Panther bared her fangs and pulled out her submachine gun, with Mona and Skull joining in to blast a few of the robots to scrap.

Meanwhile Joker switched to Leena to join Blue Poison in trying to shoot the Trawlers, who'd exited Heavy's effective range. One-hit Kill and a well-aimed crossbow bolt killed the Trawlers in sprays of green blood, but that left their captives floundering a couple hundred feet away from solid ground. Necronomicon zoomed their way. “I got 'em!”

To make matters even worse, an explosion of sand the next moment heralded the arrival of a hideous behemoth, which charged at the tracks. It bulled over the tracks like a runaway plow, knocking the Heavy and Braum into the quicksand, and clipping Joker's leg as he tried to evade. Tora gave the Molduga a parting slash as it dove below again, but it didn't even slow down. Joker pulled himself up onto the platform with gritted teeth, and shouted, “We're getting attacked from all angles! Someone help the fallen!”

Skull narrowly avoided getting grabbed by another Trawler, and plugged it with his last shell. A projectile from one of the machines hit him in the back, almost knocking him into the sand. As he struggled Tora zipped upward with a swooshing slash, carving it in half twice with as many slashes, but the others weren't flying above the tracks. He glanced out across the sand and to his relief spotted the Medic hovering above the surface thanks to his new ability, as well as the Scout dangling from the grappling hook he'd attached to Necronomicon. The Heavy and Braum still needed help, but before Tora could act the Molduga came around again, forcing the Nopon to take a running leap out of the way, only to land face-first in the sand himself. Poppi plucked him out a moment later, carrying him with her as she flew up into the air. His Variable Saber's bright blue blade carved through the darkness, destroying machine after machine, but more kept coming. Joker summoned Arsene to kick away a Trawler as it leaped for him, and shouted, “We can't fight this! We have to make a break for the islands!”

Nearby, the Molduga surfaced once more, and Poppi's sensors locked on. “Poppi will give friends chance to get away!” the artificial blade called out, her voice determined. Taking the Variable Saber in hand she chucked her protesting Masterpon down for someone to catch before diving down. She switched to her Ice core, placed herself directly in front of the onrushing behemoth, and leveled the her weapon at it. The blade vanished as its housing opened up and energy welled within.

“Noponic Axiom!”

VWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! With a crystal-clear note a beam of absolute cold blew forth. It spread over the Molduga in a wave, slowing it down until the ice could catch hold of the sand below and freeze it in place. Even if it broke free in a few seconds, the heroes had their chance to make a break for it, even if that meant fighting other enemies the whole way. Not imagining that an ally would seek to capitalize on the frozen Molduga, Poppi boosted after the others. The team had about a mile to go until they reached the first of the dessert islands, with the syrupy muck to either side of the tracks growing only stickier and sweeter as they went.



A hearty finger sandwich left Nadia feeling satiated, and while she enjoyed her present company, a restlessness had entered her bones. Ace encouraged her, Link asked her to let him know if she encountered the Medicis, and while she smiled appreciatively, she had no such intentions. When the time comes, they're all mine.

With the stories of her past told, both recent and distant, the spotlight moved to Blazermate. Nadia, meanwhile, felt like stretching her limbs. Leaving whoever was in charge to handle her tab, and feeling a little sorry for whoever it ultimately was who bore responsibility for this gaggle of miscreants, she turned her eyes through the door and to the night-draped city beyond. “I'm feline a trip 'round town to see the nightlife of the place,” she announced once the others finished talking to Blazermate, to avoid interruption. Come with if ya like, can always use the company. Or don't, won't take it purr-sonal.” So saying, she bowed out and made for the outdoors. For the second time she took a long, deep breath of the flowing seaside air. Its essence reached into the open-air tavern, of course, but feeling the breeze on her skin and playing with her hair was something altogether different. “Aaaalrighty...first, let's get a good view. To the top!”

Rather than use the lift she just left behind, she made for the nearest rigging. Ever since she saw Sephiroth take a shortcut to the Bismarck, she wanted to try these ropes for herself. Meshes of rope hung all throughout Limsa, connecting levels and buildings. Together with the copious bridges, catwalks, and posts, they really did make the city smack of a gigantic ship's upper reaches. An enterprising individual could save a lot of time and navigational headache by using them, and Nadia Fortune was nothing if not enterprising. She took a running jump from the wooden walkway ringing the Drowning Wench's stack, sailed across open air with a manic grin on her face, and latched onto a mesh like a kitten on a pant leg. One rung at a time she climbed, higher and higher, until she could haul herself up.

Compared to the castle of a structure situated on that grand central stack, of which the Drowning Wench formed only a middling part, this one reached a little less high. Its top combined both the roof of the building built into it and the natural summit of the formation itself, grass, shrubs, and all. Immediately after climbing up she noticed a couple laying on a blanket, stargazing, but they didn't seem to see her. How cute. With a grin she made her way to the opposite side, grabbed hold of one of the roof spires, and hung off it to get a view of the city. And what a view she got.

From here, with the central stack in all its enormity blocking about half the city, she couldn't quite see everything, but she could see a great deal. Although the hour wasn't particularly late yet, Nadia got the feeling that this city never quite slept. Even now she could see dozens of people crossing the bridges between the stacks, filtering into Hawkers' Alley, and loitering around the Aetheryte Plaza. A lifetime spent in New Meridian meant she knew both bustling markets and fashionable hang-out spots when she saw them. Of course, she could see that Limsa Lominscuttle Town was more than just the white seastone towers. Radiating outward in a rough circle from the central stack extended a the spokes connecting smaller stacks, and between them lay the wharftowns. Great platforms of wood and stone supported by columns rising from the water below occupied what would otherwise be empty space, lined with building of all kinds from businesses to homes to warehouses. Even more impressive, nothing stuck out to Nadia as a slum. Though they lacked the grandiosity of the stacks, the wharf districts had their own charm and wholesomeness, and calling them shantytowns would be to grossly undervalue them. Here and there Nadia spotted superstructures situated in the wharftowns, including what she could only assume to be the main harbor. It made her heart ache for Little Innsmouth, with its clashing colors and corals. Was there really no trace of it in this seafaring city?

Out of everything her eyes fell on the most unusual building. Roughly circular, and tiered like a ziggurat, it featured a massive orb of what appeared to be water in its center that reached higher than many of the city's buildings. Strategically placed at the edge of the city, it glowed with the strident beams of stadium lights, and Nadia's eyes lit up too. “What is that?” she whispered. Some local sport? She had to see. Just as she prepared to leap off, however, an even greater light shown to her right, flooding the night sky far to the east. For a moment Nadia watched in intimidated wonderment, which the startled couple behind her echoed to an even greater degree, but things clicked after a few moments. “Must be the bomb,” she told them matter-of-factly. Their faces displayed no comprehension, so she elaborated. “This guy was planning to leave some kind of bomb somewhere in this rotten, zombie-infested demon hellscape called the Dead Zone. Boom. All good now.”

“...I see,” the young man said. “Er...when did you get up here?”

Nadia laughed. “Don'tcha worry 'bout that! I was just goin'. Stars won't gaze themselves, huh?” She pointed back at their blanket, then gave them a cheeky salute by way of farewell. Without an ounce of hesitation she launched herself from the tower. She slowed her fall with jets of blood, carefully aimed to avoid splattering innocent bystanders who might not take kindle to a faceful of loose viscera, and landed -as all cats do- on her feet. From there she made her way to the stadium, slinking through the crowds with a smile on her face as she took in the general energy. More than a few times she stopped at various stalls, sights, or live performances, looking and listening to the culture of a Lominsan night.



Peach turned to Bowser. “Give me a boost, will you? No direction, just up. I've been meaning to use this.” When he obliged, she flew up in a high arc and then landed right by Sakura. On impact she let out a green wave that expanded a set distance, washing over the street fighter and healing her wounds. “Learned this while fighting the rabbids,” she explained. A few more repetitions and Sakura's injuries were no more.

Tenderly, Bella accepted some of the food offered by Bowser. She still didn't know what to make of the far-off yet still imposing explosion, but if these people resolved to pay it no mind, neither would she. “Merci.” She bit into the burger, and her eyes widened. Flavors never before conceived of circulated through her mouth. Taken aback, she dug in with a hunger she didn't know she had, disposing of the whole sandwich in just a few short moments. And just like that, it was gone. With a sheepish smile she wiped at her mouth.

Brineybeard stifled a chuckle. Looking at this woman now, full of awkwardness and wonderment, it was almost difficult to imagine her as a killing machine. The tail helped, though. “So how was it?”

Bella ran through her lexicon, thinking. How could she describe an experience like that, without any point of reference? She could only describe the flavor in objective terms, knowing that taste from many a day on the briny blue. “Salty...”

As everyone enjoyed their food, her eyes kept drifting to Sakura. Even after taking the vulnerary and the healing provided by Peach's Team Jump, she had yet to stir. It worried her to know end, but Bella couldn't just assume that being healed was like flipping a switch, and she was good again. There were surely other factors. Being unable to heal herself, Bella could only trust in those who could, or at least . She sat in solemn silence, wishing that she possessed some power to make people better, and not just to make them dead.

She tried to distract herself by thinking about some of the suggestions given earlier. “I would not mind using spirits,” she ventured suddenly. “Even though Sakura didn't want me to and I hate to go against her, there's so much about me I would like to change. To leave this hideous, stained me behind...” Her eyes lay on the monstrous head of her tail. No matter where she went, that horror would follow her, right at her heels. Unless she could wipe it away. “Yet spirits come only from the dead, and I want no more death on my hands.”



By the time the denizens of the neighboring houses reached the alley they found only ash and a scratched bottle of unopened wine. One shook her head and ducked back inside, but the other, a blue-haired guy with a yellow headband, knelt to get a better look. He squinted, rubbed the gray powder with his fingers. No burn marks on the wood below, no light in the windows. With a deepened frown he laid his hand over the bite mark on his shoulder, given to him on the day an Abyssal squad reached Limsa and wrecked havoc. The townsfolk who died in the attack turned to ash, and if not for Shantae he would have joined them. Somehow, someone died here, leaving just one clue. But where could he go from here?

Shantae...

Bolo took the bottle stood to his full height. He might not be able to figure this out, but of course Shantae could. With a spring in his step he set out for her house, not so much as remembering to lock his own shack's door. She could get to the bottom of this.

---

Sephiroth made haste from the crime scene, putting as much distance as he could between it and himself in the span of a few minutes. Limsa Lominscuttle Town's highly unique layout meant he couldn't just continue in one direction, but after a short while spent running up and down stairs and across catwalks he reached a bridge that led all the way to the mainland. On the other side he could see rows of neat houses heading up the hillside. Considering the seastack city's sheer naval power, making a terrestrial escape stuck out as a far better bet. The people he passed suspected nothing, and any guards he came across spared the silver-haired stranger only a fleeting glance as they kept their eyes trained on the murky sea. In a way, the ongoing war gave Sephiroth an advantage—with such a vicious external enemy, nobody paid an excess of heed to the possibility of treachery from within. The bridge took him all the way to the well-to-do Housing District without issue, and the swordsman inserted himself into its darkest, densest sector.

There he considered his treasure, the essence of the girl prized from her disintegrating corpse. While he saw no weaponry on her in life, her spirit housed an image armed with an array of cannons and even a vicious-looking metal fish. After thinking about his options Sephiroth decided to throw caution to the wind, and took the spirit into his heart. Instantly he erupted into dazzling light, and if it had been brilliant in the day, it shone spectacularly in the night.



The radiance took only a few moments to die down, but for someone trying to remain inconspicuous, even a second of such a lightshow was beyond compromising. Yet Sephiroth exited the fusion in more of a daze than a panic. This absorption manifested psychological changes that directly clashed with her previous desire for stealth and retreat, as well as physiological changes so profound as to be disorienting, everything from hair length to weight distribution to center of balance. Yet she would need to come to terms with the alterations with dizzying speed, for the prismatic display had bought faces to the windows of every house within a five hundred foot radius. A chorus of curious and/or angry voices arose as a handful of doors swung open. Into view appeared a young man with a long tail, up late on some project, a wealthy-looking woman on an evening stroll, and a pair of ordinary businessmen -one in a blue suit and the other in a red tie- from an impromptu meeting nearby.

“My word, what was that?” the aristocrat exclaimed, looking for the source of the disturbance. Her eyes fell on Sephiroth. “Why, what's the navy doing here, at this time of night?”



Knowing that the invincible Stranger needed to be stopped, the Skullgirl knelt on the precipice of the yawning but far from bottomless chasm, and tapped into her power. Her ice magic surged forth with a terrifying speed and strength, flooding outward across and then into the crevasse, not just sealing it over but filling it in. Incredible quantities of ice billowed out from her fingertips with only a manageable strain, and no signs of stopping. Shutting out her opponent's sneering memory and the goading voice within, she poured forth all her anger and frustration, until at last she opened her eyes. Then she found herself half-enncased in the summit of an icy new peak, and saw in her reflection off its freezing crystal what she really was.

The shock of that deathly vision brought her back to reality, but when she listened for any trace of resistance against her glacial bulwark she could hear only the whisper of the wind. In however much time it might take for her to be satisfied, she would hear no indication that her enemy was breaking free, despite his strength. For how long her efforts would hold him, if indeed they held him, it could not be guessed, but he was out of her hair for now. That left the Skullgirl alone atop her spire, unperturbed by the chilling wind, surrounded by a landscape dominated by the tranquil but callous grip of perennial winter.

After a bit, the movement of a dark shape against the snow, from the direction of Snowdin, caught her eye. She could see a boy in a long white coat, with curls of ash-blonde hair, who she glimpsed momentarily by the window in Grillby's with a short-legged dog by his feet and a sketchbook in his hands. Judging by his rate of movement he couldn't have come in response to her breathtaking feat, instead perhaps having followed her and the Stranger at a safe distance. For a moment he stood at the base of her ice mountain, performing some unidentifiable art before he raised his hand. When he brought it down, a flower with sky-blue petals sprang from the snow, and when he stepped on it, a golden energy crystallized beneath his feet into a small, circular platform. The disc rose, with the young man standing atop it, up and up until he reached the Skullgirl's altitude.

When he grew close the girl could make out his features better. Beneath the sunset-red glaze of Galeem his eyes shone bright teal like tropical waters. Each contained three dots within the iris, but more than that they held both a certain boundless curiosity and a pointed intrigue. And his handsome face was kind as he regarded the Skullgirl, one hand raised. “You may not need my help to break out of there, but I feel as though you might need...a friend.” His other hand he laid on his chest. “Pardon me, this must be a bad time. But I prefer to get straight to the point. I am Albedo, an alchemist. My chief occupation is the truth of this world, which had led me to study base elements. That aura of death you carry might turn others away, but I am most interested. You have no trace of the light elements that seem to permeate all existence. I believe we can help one another.” He clasped his hands. “I would like to study you, if you don't mind. In exchange I would offer anything that is within my power to grant.” He extended his hand to the Skullgirl. “I can tell you everything in the library, where it's not freezing. If you're so inclined.”

---

---

---

---

Sephiroth pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling the full weight of the changes both physically and psychologically. It didn't exactly sit too well with her, this current clash, especially since it only heightened the chances that she'd be found out. Especially with how long it forced her to remain. And, even as she thought this, a wave of disgust radiated throughout her body. It didn't sit well with her, this skulking away. Or, rather, it didn't sit well with the personality she'd absorbed. Sephiroth would need to remind herself that no matter what she presently felt, it wasn't truly her will but that of the spirit she had fused with. Speaking of which, several people appeared from the surrounding doorways to investigate the disturbance and further complicate matters, their questions throwing her even more off balance than her new body and thoughts already were.

"I... uh..."

Sephiroth shook her head, inhaling sharply as she forced her way through the daze in order to give an appropriately convincing response.

"We're investigating a potential disturbance," Sephiroth said in the most matter-of-fact and soldierly tone she could manage. "My commander said there was some sort of troublemaker skulking about here and sent me to check it out."

She slowly stood up straight, the daze finally clearing even if the awkwardness of it all hadn't.

"Suffice it to say I did find someone sneaking around down here, but he managed to get the drop on me with some kind of spell. Ran off before I could get a good look at him."

The lie was sloppy she knew, but hopefully these fools would buy it so she could get back to putting more space between herself and any potentially concerned parties back at the center of the city.

@Lugubrious

@Lugubrious@darkred

---

There was nothing. No impacts. No vibrations. No dark shadows rushing over the horizon to the Strangers aide. Nothing but the wind. Linkle let herself slump forward, collapsing onto the ice in front of her and letting her adrenalin flow out into the iceberg. She couldn't exactly say that she had won here, but she hadn't lost either. She had gone mono a mono with one of Galeem's oh so precious guardians and she had eked out a draw. The thought made her giggle as she lifted herself back up and roughly patted the ice he was at the bottom of. "Serves you right, whoreson."

The question of the hour was what she should do now. She had a lot of information about the Guardian of this area now, but there was one really crucial thing she didn't know. He couldn't be invulnerable. He had to have some kind of weakness. Unless Galeem and the Black Coat that dropped her here were both in on the same sick joke there was definitely a way to take this guardian down. She just needed to find the right people and ask the right questions? Did she have that kind of time though? Buried as he was Linkle wasn't entirely convinced the Stranger wasn't currently boring a hole through the ice with his sharp tongue, and if he got out he probably wasn't going to fall for this trick twice. So maybe it was best to make a run for the border while she could with the info she had, hook back up with the rest of the Seeker's, and then let someone smarter try and figure out this trick. Which way was the border, though, and what was to stop him from following her? He was definitely the most active Guardian they had ever met, and she had just kicked his head like it was a hornets nest. Then again, if she waited for the guy in the Black Cloak to show up at Grillby's she could twist his arm and make him take her directly back to Alchamoth using his portal powers. It'd be hard to follow her then.

All these options danced around in Linkle's head, and when she found herself caught up in these situations there was only one thing she could consult. Linkle pulled out her Compass and held it up so she could see in the twilight. The needle of the old artifact spun hither and thither for a few moments before settling on a direction. Linkle looked, and spotted the warm lights of Snowdin. More than that, though, she saw a shadow moving across the ice toward her new landmark. A boy in a white coat, and the little dog that had given her that dirty look in Grillby's. She wondered why they were coming out here? She would have gone down and asked what they were up to, but just as she thought that she also realized that getting down from here was going to be a mean feat in itself. She had climbed as many trees and rocks as any self respecting rambunctious youth but those hadn't been nearly as high, sharp, or slick as what she was resting on now. Maybe if she concentrated she could make stairs or a slide but that feeling she had after creating the glacier made her hesitate.

Fortunately for her the boy had a technique in mind already. He floated up to her perch on a magic disk like Donnie's. He introduced himself as a seeker of truth and an alchemist, whatever that was. He had a kind face and eyes that sparkled with curiosity, but even beyond that they sparkled blue underneath the red haze of Galeem's influence. It was a strange sight, as though he were just on the cusp of freedom but hadn't taken that final step yet.

She sent of command to the ice binding her legs, and it splintered into pieces and allowed her to stand up, though stiffly. It wasn't from being caught in that position for a while, the insides of her boots were also coated in ice.

She didn't want to mistrust him, it was clear in her body language. Even as caution littered her face she stepped toward him like a pirate on two wooden legs to try and take his hand, nearly losing her balance in the process and whirling her arms to keep her from tumbling over the edge. She fell back down onto her butt and looked up at him sheepishly. "Maybe it's better if I just scoot?" She said, using her legs to drag herself onto the boys glowing disk and implicitly accepting the boys invitation.. She didn't know what he meant when he said he wanted to study her, but if he was willing to offer her any help he could she could probably put that library to work finding the strangers weakness. More than that though, a friend is something that she desperately needed right now. Someone to talk to that wasn't a madman or actively trying to devour her heart.

"Thanks a lot, Albeto. This was actually a great time. I don't know what I would have done if no one had come to get me. I didn't even mean to make an ice mountain." She said, letting her legs dangle over the side of the disk. She sent a command to the ice coating one of her legs, shattering it into pieces and wrenching off the boot. She turned it upside down and shook, letting the ice shards sparkle in the sunset as they tumbled down, down, down. "I'm Linkle." She said as she pulled it back on and set to work on the other one. "I might not look it right now but I'm a wandering hero, so I know a ton about the truth of the world. Oh, but can we stop by Grillby's to get my box and my sled first?"

The strange detonation left them in the dark, both figuratively and literally. All they could do was push forwards and- ”No, wait, no we don’t” Midna remembered there was a relatively straightforward way of getting info about what had happened, at least if the mercs knew anything about it. Actually now that she thought about it, the detonation had been worryingly close to Alcamoth, it would be good to make sure it was still in one piece. With a simple incantation she summoned a Moogle who appeared upon the disk decorating her mount’s forehead.

It wobbled for a moment, arms spinning, then caught its balance and said “Hello again, Kupo. Got more errands for people?”

”Questions actually” Midna replied

“About the big explosion” the moogle guessed, to which Minda nodded, and so it helpful explained “That was the Dead Zone going kablooie kupo. The Red Team left because they said someone dumped a body in the middle and that it was going to go boom any second. Looks like they were right kupo, because now that place is gone. A good thing too, lots of nasty things multiplying in there apparently, which is why someone decided to explode it in the first I’d bet, kupo.”

”Well. Guess that deals with Red’s target,” Midna said, which was good news, although the existence of a way to blow up entire cities was concerning. Then again, how many bodies were there in the world of light? No new ones at any rate. ”Red got out ok then? What’s next on their agenda?”

“Some were hurt, but the rest went off to meet with the Blue team in a city sitting on the south west ocean, kupo” Midna nodded. So they were, at the moment, the only ones going east at the moment. They were ranging far, far beyond any base of support then. Good thing it was just them, with an army this would have been a logistical nightmare. The Moogle wasn't done however, as it got to some of the bad news. One of the party had died in the zone, which was regrettable, though Minda couldn't place the name and, “also Linkle took this thing called the Skullheart. It’s supposed to grant pure-hearted wishes, but it turns anyone who’s wish doesn't meet that criteria into a monster called a skull girl. Strong scary necromancer kupo. Apparently it’s real strict with what’s ‘pure’ and so it thought Linkle’s wish was no good and then, well...”

”What?” Midna couldn't believe it. Well, she could believe that that girl had been reckless enough to do something like that, people didn't merrily follow a compass needle into a time fractured warzone without buckets of self confidence, ovaries of steel and a complete disregard for their own safety after all, but that anything she might have wished for was impure? Preposterous. ”Then what happened?”

“They said that before anyone could do anything, a member of organization XIII, that's those leather cloaked guys with weird names. Not the master of masters. Different people kupo. One of them snatched her up and took her who knows where though a portal. Big turtle boss says for everyone to keep a look out for her kupo, to be suspicious of those cloaked people and to think about if they know any way to remove cursed wish giving skull hearts from people.”

Midna didn't, at least not off the bat. Maybe if they captured her she could try and work something out, but it wasn't her area of magical expertise. She didn't know if anyone else had anything they could use to help either. She shook her head head sadly. Between the city bomb and linkle being monsterified the Deadzone was as bad as its name suggested.

“That’s all. Need anything else Kupo?” the moogle asked gently

”No… No I think that’s all. Or, well, I guess if anyone else asks we’re getting closer to the mountain? Oh and if you take on 10 weak spirits of the same type it’ll turn you into the spirits you're taking in. People might like to know that.”

“That is new Kupo,” the Moogle looked around to see if it could spot who’d completely transformed themselves before Minda infomed it that ”It was a wolfos, but they’re back in the twilight real right now”

“Oh ok, Kupo.” It replied, a little disappointed, before asking the group “anyone else need anything?”

After it was done, the moogle vanished after a final ”goodby and good luck kupo” leaving them to continue their night running. Or night riding in Midna’s solitary privileged case. Both her and her mount were well adapted to this. Indeed the bright star and moonlight shining down on them was more than enough for them to see clearly through the night and, as a result, Midna actually got a clear look at the mountain they were traveling towards. Admittedly having a hazy blob turn into a clear lump wasn’t the biggest change, but she could see the shape of the, presumed, guardian slowly circling it. Good to know where they were going, a touch unnerving to have it looming over them the whole time. Was it watching or were they just insignificant specks to the Guardian?

The team kept following the tracks as they stretched out, seemingly endlessly, towards the mountain. It was rather impressive that anyone or thing had had the resources to just plonk this much metal down in the middle of the desert, though she still had no idea what it was for. Part of the reason only came clear when the sand started to change from a packed to more liquidy, causing her wolfos to start to get bogged down in it. She followed Tora’s advice and steered onto the track, and then gave Poison a big hand when Braum needed pulling out of the quicksand.

”We’re lucky these are here,” Midna noted, though she didn't know quite how lucky till the report came in that the liquefaction kept going, sand turning to a sea of syrupy delight. ”Maybe we’ve actually been walking on brown sugar since we left the ruins?” Minda suggested, and while she somewhat wanted to go back and check that hypothesis they were left with little time to muse on the upcoming absurdity as the desert decided that now was an excellent time to get nasty.

First came a rumbling and then suddenly a pair of red slugs burst from the sand, dragging two of their companions off into the quicksand. Following in their wake was a swarm of small metal machines that buzzed around above them and pelted them with energy pellets. Midna and her wolfos dodged and dashed around on the limited space of the tracks trying to avoid the shots. At first she tried to grab them with her shadow hand, then she hurled sand at the flying things, but both of these were incapable of hitting the nimble buzzing machines.

For her third strategy, the princess jabbed a finger at the ones flying around above her and then out of a portal came her new Vibrava, briefly increased by more than three times in size and much more imposingly draggony as a result. The adolescent drake flew upwards like a massive projectile, smashing multiple machines with sheer mass and crunching another one right in front of it before pausing at roughly the same altitude as the swarm and unleashed a bug buzz. Its wings buzzed thunderously and produced a violent storm of soundwaves around itself, buffeting the drones (and forcing the princess, who was directly below the source of the ear splitting sound, to cover her ears defensively) before dropping down into another portal and vanishing again. All this occurred in a scant few heartbeats.

The princess shook her head to clear the ringing and spotted that both the medic and the scout had freed themselves from the beasts and the sand, before both she and her Wolfos had to leap out of the way of the giant bullrushing sandfish as it plowed over the tracks, smashing their two big guys, Braum and the Heavy, into the quicksand in the process.

”I’ve got you!” Midna called out as she raced to the edge of the tracks, had it leap over the quicksand then dismissed her woflos before it got stuck and floated the rest of the way over the sands using her levitation. As she drifted across the last meter she summoned the Vibrava, now merely at it’s standard size, and commanded it to ”Keep them off of me!” before focusing her power and bringing out a massive shadow hand, big as the large men she needed to fish out. She made a grab for Heavy and tried to either pull him out and throw him back to the tracks or, if she couldn't manage that, use her power to help drag/shove him to safety as the man added his own power to the mix. Once the heavy was free, and if Bruam hadn’t received other help and was still in the sand, she’d help him as well.

As she did her Vibrava buzzed too and fro around her, firing beams of dragon fire at anything that tried to harm its princess and even selflessly body blocking energy shots, ”Don’t actually die to protect me from scratches bug!” The princess admonished the beast as one way or another she finished her rescue attempt, ”Now help me to get back to land-” the Vibraba flew in close when she commanded this and then grabbed her arm with its chameleon like feet and hauled her both out of the way of an energy shot and back towards the sand back faster than she would have been able to float under her own power. The Princess cried out in surprise when it happened, but considering it had been obeying orders and that it had worked, she didn't complain or berate the beast once she was back on the tracks.

Instead she dropped down, dismissing the Vibrava and summoning one of the two wolfos below her. She didn’t run when Poppi called out too. If she went all out she’d likely outpace everyone and so instead of trying to save her own hide she moved to a defensive position near Braum and Heavy, ready to cover the retreat if the others ran or push in if they held their ground, her mind blazing as she tired to strategize a way to get them out of this alive.