"O'Chunks would give better fashion advice than whoever dressed you up in that dumb outfit and he's a cretino, an idiot, who thinks plaid and black armor look good!" Mr. L promptly snaps back. "While it is nice to know that my reputation as one of the best minions of the Count precedes the Green Thunder, I'mma not a one-note and the Count ain't no sadsack or failure! If anyone is the failure its a imbroglione like you, Mr. Constantly Beaten Up By The Red Fatso. A mammalucco like you who always fails in everything he sets out to do has no idea what victory even looks like! Oh sure you might get a little win here and there but when was the last time you actually won something for good? Or... did someone trick you into thinking that the Pure Hearts can actually help you stop the Count's plans? I don't know about this Gallade ruffiano but someone as bullheaded as you doesn't stand a chance."

The words just poured out of his mouth, without thought or without consideration of how he knows it all. Its one thing to have a vague knowledge of the general situation in one world out of the seemingly endless dimensions, but it does not matter how he knows the details. The Count had used the heavy koopa to bring forth the Chaos Heart. Yeah, that must be why. No need to dwell on it. He must had overheard some talk from the mindless minions that fill the castle's halls.

Oblivious to the way his words are painting his true self in a sour light, not that he'd give a crap if the masked man was aware, Mr. L's eyes take another pass over the surface of the ship. An strange man in blue is rambling on about scouting and food. A wary glance from a hastily fleeing man dressed up like some weird snowboarding bumblebee. A look of light disgust from a chick standing next to a white-haired guy who sprouted up like he took in a Shroom-

Wait. Did the blue guy say he was going to cook fish? Pssh, as if he knows how to do it right. It might not hurt to give that 'Link' kid some pointers on good fish dishes, but anything really good would depend on what if any other ingredients these yutz have access to. For a split second, he gives Bowser a baffled look. "Did that guy just ask you to make a fire? For cooking? Bit of an overkill isn't it?" Even if Bowser just uses a Fire Flower for fireballs the mundane utility (and sheer overpoweredness of a living flamethrower) is baffling.

Yoshitsune smiled as it seemed they had found a solution that everyone could agree on. While he didn’t like thinking of anyone or anything as superfluous, that’s exactly how he saw the ants and wolves that were searching for their missing allies. While tempted to speak up again about the wolves in one group searching the edges for signs of life and the ants climbing down to the bottom for any signs, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

As the train was about ready to move again, Yoshitsune looked off in the direction Fox had stomped off in. Instead of risking another storm, though he didn’t see one in the distance, he took a rope and tied his waist to the back of the train, close enough to keep him safe but far enough that he could still attack any enemies that passed.

But it was for naught. Their trip was fairly quiet and uneventful, giving the samurai time to lament his father’s sword again. “I’m sorry, father,” he said, a single tear escaping.

They pulled into the train station, far to the side to be out of the way of the much bigger trains that could crush their little ride, and everyone piled out. Yoshitsune untied himself as he let his thoughts roam. “There could possibly be a smith here!” he said to himself in realization. Moving quickly to the train conductor, he skidded to a stop on his knees. “Please, tell me you know where a blade smith is so I may have my father’s sword repaired.”

"Hmm." Was Geralt's first word in his new form. He looked about once the light receded, and it took him a moment to realize that he was tall now. Not taller, tall. He dwarfed most of the others, and was even taller than Bowser. He looked at his arms, which felt a bit heavier, and noticed their increased size. His gaze travelled to his chest, and he frowned at the new structural weakness in his armor. It probably wasn't as glaring a weakness as it would have been at his normal size, given the fact that few things would be able to easily reach that high up and accurately hit him there. Still, it bothered him more than he'd care to admit.

The claws were a decent touch, especially since they felt natural enough. Spirit Fusion really seemed to even fused lived experience and instinct, which was one hell of a boon when it was giving you new body parts and changing proportions. As he looked, something caught his eye.

A horn. He had a horn now. Smack dab in the middle of his forehead. Oh. Heh. He was a unicorn now. Other than that, the worst part about this was the hair, and that was easily remedied. The oversized Witcher wordlessly drew his hunting knife, bunched his hair up, and sliced it back down to near its original length and returned it to its loose ponytail. "Much better." He said, now really looking around at the others. Rika, one of the ex-Abyssals, was comparing their horns, and a peaceful smile found its way to Geralt's face. "Indeed, that we do, our horns are majestic now, and we match quite well." He let out a small chuckle at the haiku, which came naturally to him. "Huh, that was...fanciful." And for a moment, the Old Geralt was back, but he wasn't concerned. The battle had ended, a little revelry wasn't a terrible thing.

Sakura's own observations did nothing to dampen his spirits. "Of course, Sakura. Witchers have excellent senses, after all. You shouldn't even have to speak up." The conversation was short, but that was okay. She was going off with Peach and Rika to find food, and that yellow-wearing guy, Mirage was it? Strange name aside, he was going off somewhere else to get something to eat. Link was fishing, and had asked Bowser for help starting a fire and was, predictably, ignored. "I'll take care of it, Boss." Geralt suppressed a laugh at that and walked over to a nearby tree, felling some branches with his claws. They sliced through rather cleanly, and Geralt took to examining them as if they were a sword.

Wood in hand and separated into properly-sized logs for a fire, Geralt moved to a spot that would at least not be detrimental to keeping a fire going, and once his pile was built, quickly made the Sign of Igni, pouring just enough power into the spell to light the logs. It took more than it might have normally, what with the logs having been freshly living moments before, but it was nothing compared to the power it took for combat.

Geralt did notice, however, that moving in his new form took the slightest bit more effort than it used to, and that effect would probably only compound in combat. Whether it was due to size, the fact that few things were as well-conditioned as a Witcher, or some other factor, he couldn't say. But Geralt would be sure to take it all into account the next time they found themselves in trouble. It wouldn't do to get stabbed because he got tired quicker.

This close to someone's fusion, the Cadet had to shade his eyes from the light. Once it faded he blinked and found that Geralt looked... well, pretty much what he might have expected. Bigger, longer hair, black armor, a horn. The Cadet stared at the horn, wondering if that would take a while for the man to get used to. Beside him, Nadia pointed out their comrade's new height.

"Yeah, no kitten," Ace Cadet remarked, finding it easy to fall in with her puns. "So? How do you feel?"

He didn't patronize Geralt with a verbal reminder of what he'd said just moments ago about telling someone if he felt any murderous rampages coming on, but the Cadet's face practically said it all for him anyway. Although so far none of the spirit fusions baring the endermen seemed to cause problems, could you really blame a guy for being concerned for one of his companions? Regardless, once he got an answer the Cadet left Geralt to his own devices. Which included cutting his hair apparently.

As for the Cadet himself, the beach looked pretty inviting. It'd be nice to set his feet on solid group before they went sailing again. The hunter moved to one side of the ship and gently pulled off his rigging. Despite feeling like an extension of his body, it was surprisingly easy to remove. He set it down out of the way of people still milling about onboard, and also tugged off his bow and longsword, leaning them on the metal in a pretty pile. He could easily hear the conversation (or argument) that Bowser and one of the newcomers were having from his spot.

"Think they know each other?" he asked the crew at large with a laugh. That little guy had an especially vicious sounding tongue. Not particularly wanting to get in the middle of it, the Cadet focused on the food suggestion instead. That sounded perfect.

He jogged down the ship's walkway, slowing only to turn and call out to Kamek just before the koopa disappeared, "If you see the felynes tell 'em to meet up with us so we can talk about where they're taking people! Oh and, thanks!"

On shore, the Cadet made a few quick trips into the forest and gathered some sturdy sticks and branches, as well as some rocks to surround the fire. BB was following closely, a couple of branches carried between it's horns. Once he returned the hunter knelt next to the fire and went through his findings, splitting a few branches with his knife and jabbing them into the ground.

"A cooking spit for the fish shouldn't be too hard to build. Oh, and maybe some kind of surface to cook the giant egg that guy was carrying. I bet that would be so tasty." He said while he worked. In no time the rudimentary spit was set up. Even made of wood it was pretty solid with a nicely shaped branch stretching across, and the Cadet didn't have doubt that it would work. The cooking surface for the egg might take a little longer to find and build though.

With some of the ladies off gathering fruit and Link hunting fish, the Cadet decided to circle around to Shippy's front before he started his search for the perfect thing to make an omelette with. Shippy still seemed a little out of it. Ace Cadet approached her, splashing into the shallow water to awkwardly pat her hull. "Hey, you heard what we were talking about on your deck, right...? Kamek is gonna go check. So, uh..." Wow, he usually wasn't this bad at trying to cheer people up. But he'd also never spoken to a living boat before. "You can eat, right? Once the cooking's done I'll make sure we save you some. If you need to eat you're probably even hungrier than us."

As Nadia chilled, she tuned out the noise in the background bit by bit, until the argumentative chatter between Mr. L and Bowser rose no louder than the buzz of bees, and the report of naval armaments in the distance could be mistaken for, faraway thunder, the sort that heralded a soothing summer storm. A dragonfly hovered by her, close enough to make her ear twitch, but she did not stir from her reverie. Like soap, peace and company had dislodged the muck of war that clung to her, and now a thorough rinse let it seep away. Maybe it was just the juxtaposition to the nightmarish battlefield the heroes escaped, but this place truly seemed like a paradise.

Still, nothing gold could stay. All too soon the water grew too cool against her skin, and with a sigh Nadia pulled herself from the lake. She stretched herself out by where she laid her belt of pouches and soaked up the sun, watching Link dart around beneath the water’s surface. With those new changes he could really move, and even though she sported some extra mobility herself, she found herself impressed when he managed to leverage it to catch fish through virtue of speed alone. He managed to snare quite the selection of bizarre yet edible specimens. How he carried them all she couldn’t see--only blue flashes now and again after brief chases. At one point he went deeper than before, until Nadia couldn’t make out any details through the distortion except a roughly conical dark mass.

Link’s patience paid off; after a few moments of waiting the pressure inside the formation came once again to a boiling point, and a torrent of superheated gas burst from its top. He was close enough to feel the force in his chest and a momentary jump in temperature, but nowhere near enough to suffer any injury. When the resulting pillar of bubbles died out, he zoomed close to prize the crystals from the formation’s grasp, then ascended.

He emerged to find Nadia on her knees at the edge of the lake, peering at him. “Phew, there you are! I only saw the bubbles so I thought somethin’ mighta happened, but I guess I shoulda known better.” When he brought up his loot for a better look, Nadia’s locked on. She leaned as far out over the water as she dared, eyes sparkling almost as bright as the gemstone. The crystal sulphides were gorgeous, brilliant green things stained in places with a rich turquoise. “Whoa,” the cat burglar breathed. “What a beaut! I betcha could sell those for thousands!” After a moment, she composed herself with a slight laugh. With no jeweler around she knew she ought to curb her enthusiasm. She extended Link a hand to help him out of the lake“Ahem. That said, your fish are more important right now. Need a hand?” She stood and took off one forearm, which she reached down toward Link to help him out of the lake with.

A moment later the two made their way back toward the others. Nadia stretched as she walked over, noting that she felt rather more limber than before, and opened her eyes to see a giant walking right toward her with arms full of freshly-cut firewood. She almost jumped, having forgotten for a moment about Geralt’s new upgrade, but calmed herself the next moment. Gonna take me a minute to get used to that. He’d taken care of his hair just as she suggested, and didn’t seem to mind the new claws either, so everything seemed fine. In no time the Witcher had a fire going. “Ooh, nice. I’ve fried a fish or two in my time. Better let me try a bite of each one first, in case they’re poisonous or somethin’.” She was only half serious, but would certainly not object if others saw the wisdom in her joke.

---

“I’m doing fine,” Peach told Rika. “Inland...well, it’s hard to really summarize. The land is so varied. Some if it’s pretty rough, but it can be very nice, super pretty, basically everything. I guess what I mean is, compared to the ocean, where everything’s the same no matter where you go, you never know what you’ll get on land.”

While the others spoke and made their preparations, Peach, Sakura, and Rika had ventured off into the enchanting forest. Bella wanted to come too, but was still too weak on land to avoid being a burden, so she wished the others good luck in their search for extra food. The schoolgirl’s bag, however, turned out to be quite insufficient for what they found.

After pushing through some plantlife and hopping over narrow streams, Peach noticed a blue glow from the top of a pink grass knoll that overlooked what appeared to be a little shrine. A quick descent brought the trio to the edge of another pool. Peach narrowed her eyes. “Well, we could go around, or try swimming, or...wait.” Embarrassed, she stepped out onto the water, and of course floated on its surface. “...Right.” She led the way onto the pond, trying to reconsider the way she looked at the area. Now that she could move across water, rivers and ponds weren’t obstacles, but roads. With that in mind the three moved easily across the winding waterways, and in less than a minute rounded a river bend to a second lake, its elevation lower than the first, where they could clearly see the source of the glow.

A few hundred feet ahead lay a little floating island, and in it stood a twisted tree. Its leaves beamed a brilliant, pure white, and in the atmosphere of the Luma Pools the entire area shone a glorious azure. Peach had the thought that it seemed like a blessed place, and when her eyes wandered from the landmark she found only more evidence to back up her theory. Floating in the water on the other side of the lake, between a couple of sandbars, were a pair of unreasonably huge fruits.



The enormous pineapple and watermelon halves were a fantastical sight, but it was recognition rather than wonder that took hold of Peach. “Oh...oh! I remember these, I think. We played Mario Party here, a long time ago. Well, not here. Just on that fruit.” She glanced at the others with one half-lidded eye, anticipating that they thought she was weird. “Um. Well, I guess we’ve found what we need. Let’s carry back what we can.” Luckily for the three portions of the fruits already appeared to be carved into blocks, albeit a little bigger than Peach herself could carry. She worked to break a hunk of pineapple down to a more manageable size with her new fan.

---

Mirage, meanwhile, took a different route. He returned to where his simian companion from before still lounged, the ape’s bananas long since finished, to request Lanky’s aid. Although common sense would have laughed at the scene of a man talking to an orangutan as though the animal could understand him, Elliot’s impulse proved to be well-founded. Obligingly, Lanky stretched out one of his long arms toward the northwest, where the other river out of the lake flowed. He declined to move from his comfortable position himself, but should Elliot follow the graceless ape’s direction, he would stumble upon a banana tree grove about a half-mile upriver, situated on a branch from the main river that any travelers would have been unlikely to see from their ships. Predictably the grove featured its fair share of animals, the most bizarre of which appeared to be a cross between a banana split and a giant water bug that just would not stop saying ‘Scoopy Banoopy’. That particular specimen did not shy away from a fight, and possessed a chilling touch that made the other creatures stay away from it. Still, so long as he didn’t get into trouble the gunman could gather the bunches he desired.

---

By the time the searchers returned with their bounty, they found a cozy little fish fry in progress. Makeshift kebabs and the Cadet’s spit made the process quite practical. More than that, the gathering possessed a renewed atmosphere. Nadia herself was in high spirits, thanks to her time spent relaxing, the anticipation of a good meal, and the Cadet’s much-appreciated punniness. Anyone not just willing to indulge her but also respond in kind was more than okay in her book, and now he’d gone and shown off some serious survival skills, too! He even went out of his way to comfort Shippy too, which left Nadia feeling a little guilty she hadn’t tried. It seemed to work, with the living vessel content to trust in the possibility of her captain being rescued. As it turned out she didn’t need to eat either, so things seemed more or less sorted on that front.

The feral’s brows shot up when Peach arrived with a piece of pineapple as big as a barrel, but only for a moment. “You know, I’m not even surprised any more. Hang on a minute, I’ll grab something to put it on.” She ran over to a nearby tree to tear free another couple giant, vivid leaves. A quick dip in the lake cleaned up the leaves, and then she arranged them on the ground to provide somewhere to set the fruit. “Ooh, let’s roast the pineapple too! It’ll be super flavorful.”

As the food got cooking, a tantalizing smell filled the air. Whatever they’d been through, they were still alive, and if that wasn’t cause enough to enjoy a feast, Nadia didn’t know what was. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until that aroma hit her, which left her wondering exactly what time it was. She’d lost track of time in the fight and the canopy made it difficult to see the sun, but Nadia guessed it was about midday. A perfect time for lunch, especially with friends. “Well,” she began, happy to set the mood for everyone. “‘Water’ we waiting for? Let’s dig in!”



Morshu didn’t take his customer’s lack of affiliation with Harkinian too hard, figuring it had been a long shot anyway, but instead listened to what she did have to say with a passing interest. Different times, legendary heroes...all a bit high-minded for a simple shopkeeper, he felt. All the same the mention of a town called Lumbridge tickled his ears, since more settlements meant more prospective business, and until today the wintry village called Snowdin was all he’d known. Still, neither Morshu nor his client favored chit-chat, so the girl sorted through his wares while he stared off into space, bored.

Luckily for him someone else strolled in while Linkle rummaged around, a reptile in a yellow coat. Carrying a patchy maroon sack about as big as he was, the newcomer exchanged a wave with the shopkeeper as he waltzed right up to the counter. “Mornin’, Mr. Morshu. Got any room on those shelves for new weapons?”

“Afraid not, Sal,” the ponderous man sighed, with the air of one who said it often. “Demand is low, so mine is too. Nobody needs weapons, but if you want to sit down, feel free.”

Sal shrugged. “Ah well. Thanks as always.” The disappointed arms dealer made his way to a rug not far from the door and put down his sack, then laid himself down on it like a beanbag chair.

At about that time Linkle returned to Morshu with a question. “Lamp oil? Certainly!” he replied with gusto. “My featured product, the first I always mention. Nobody’s got it in store but me, but don’t think I price it too high! Every drop is of, mmmmm, delectably high purity, guaranteed to last. And my wrapping paper is a best-seller, very affordable, here!” He presented Linkle the rolls and accepted her rubees in return. When she inquired about paper money, he rubbed his chin. “Hmm, those greenish notes? I think I just might. It’s all a few town residents have, so we trade using it from time to time.” He turned and left for a moment. There came the sound of clanking and jingling from the back room, and after a short while he returned with three dollar bills in hand. “This what you wanted?” With a smile he completed the exchanges. “Pleasure doing business with you! Come again!”



Happy to leave Froggy Diver and its hideous depths behind, and hoping for no more unpleasant surprises, Sephiroth made for the next diversion. A look at her stamp card confirmed that she’d managed to fill up two out of the seven rows, indicating the presence of five more big-name attractions before the coveted platinum prize was hers. The listings on the card after ‘Froggy Diver’ and ‘Paddleboat Palooza’ provided her with clues for the rest: Floating Follies, Crazy Slides, Jump Club, Roll Out, and Making Waves. For a mind that prized efficiency, of course, there was nothing to do but head to the nearest untouched pool.

This next one was much larger than the last, and hexagonal in shape. From its corners rose tall, inflatable orange pylons, and they surrounded a rubbery donut-shaped platform elevated a good dozen feet above the water’s surface. From the center of the donut rose an axle with thick, padded arms attached, and when Sephiroth arrived the great clubs were already in motion. Everyone was hard at work jumping, ducking, diving, and dodging, all made a little more difficult by the bulbous, inflatable gloves and boots that seemed mandatory. The green spun far faster than the double-sided pink one, forcing the guests to both time their jumps and do it quickly to avoid being batted off. Anyone who timed or positioned themselves poorly might happen to find the green and pink arms aligned, presenting an unbeatable wall. Before the newcomer’s eyes that exact unlucky circumstance claimed another victim, sending a young woman with a great reddish-purple braid plummeted downward into the drink.

A few moments of frantic running and jumping later, the current round came to an abrupt end. One boy got flung by the green bar and smacked a friend along the way, sending both into the pool and leaving a sole survivor, who celebrated with an unusual dance move. “Oh yeah! Who’s the man?!” The platform started to lower, signalling the end of the game. Before jumping in himself, however, he waited for the bar to come around one last time. He leaped just before it hit and twisted midair to snatch a Sand Dollar that was stuck to the bar’s end, then hit the water with a splash.

“Alright, come over and get stamped!” the snail attendant called, beckoning the soaked participants over. With a practiced hand he took care of all the cards in just a few moments, then turned to the next bunch -including Sephiroth- to give them a quick rundown. “Okay, welcome to Jump Club! Here are your floats, put ‘em on. The rules are simple: don’t get knocked off, and while you can push and shove a little with your floats, don’t try anything funny. Sound like a plan?”

Once everyone swam or jumped to the platform, a cranked level elevated the platform back to its full height. Sephiroth got a good look at her eight opponents, which included the white-haired man from earlier, as well as a purple-haired woman with horns, a burly dwarf, an girl cheered on by little dragons, and four very blocky people. A horn sounded out, and the clubs began to spin.

---

Elliot cocked his head, following the orangutan's gesture to see he was pointing off into the distance. Could he have understood? Why else would he be pointing, right? Surely to not tell him to go away-- Elliot knew he was great company, so the monkey wouldn't want him gone, right? Insecurities repressed, he noted that Lanky didn't want to exactly get up from his spot, so this mission would be a solo one for sure. That was okay, though. Elliot was used to working alone! Though maybe it wouldn't have to be that way, much longer. "Thanks, bud! I'll catch ya on the return trip." He said with enthusiasm, two fingers from his free hand going up to his forehead for a salute before he began to depart in the direction he was pointed in.

Yeah, it wouldn't have to be small commission work anymore. Elliot smiled to himself, thinking of the opportunity of joining King Bowser's crew. Sure, they looked like a bunch of weirdos (And he swore he saw someone grow freakishly tall out of the corner of his eye, but it might have been a hallucination) but they were friendly. Elliot hadn't really found people like that before now, at least not people traveling. And they seemed to be able to handle themselves, especially if they were daring the Bottomless Sea... He doubted himself for a moment, wondering if he was capable enough to be useful on such a voyage? They seemed to be carrying experience he couldn't hope to grasp, and whatever 'bad guys' were out there like that girl had shouted? He wondered if he'd be able to stand up to them.

Well, duh! He thought to himself, letting a small laugh escape him. He took the egg tucked under his arm in both hands, looking at it for a moment. Thinking back to his goals, he made sure to mentally remind himself that success was the only option! He wasn't just venturing for his own gain, after all. He had a wonderful woman to find, and save if need be. And heck, if he could make the world a better place while trying to reach farther out for his search? That sounded like a win to him. Good smiles, good laughs, transportation. What else could you ask for in a world like this?

Elliot's thoughts made the trip a bit shorter, at least mentally. It felt like it hadn't taken long to get to the place the kong had described, finding a route off the main river than lead him into a bit of a strange grove, but there were bananas everywhere! Excited, his eyes lit up at the idea of bringing a decent haul back to the crew, figuring they could eat pretty well off of this much food! Though... There were an assortment of weird, leaf-dinosaurs around that might have been eating it, too. And as he observed the idea, he noticed a weird creature the dinosaurs seemed to be avoiding: It looked like food itself, like ice cream, whipped cream, cherries... The cherries had eyes. Why the HELL did the cherries have eyes? It also looked like it had bananas for mandibles, which was just another layer of weird, but maybe explained why it was here. He had to wonder why it kept saying 'Scoopy Banoopy', though. In a multitude of tones that came off as pretty aggressive.

"This place always has to get weirder." He complained to himself, forming a plan. Alright, so carrying bundle of them back would be a waste of time, considering how many people there were. Well, minus the robot. And the zombies. And the ship...? Did the ship eat food? Regardless, he needed a decent amount. Setting down his egg friend in a secluded and soft spot where he thought it wouldn't be disturbed, Elliot formed a plan. He started by tearing down a few of the larger leaves he could find in the area, figuring he could one: Layer and use them as a sort of sled so he could drag a bunch of bananas, due to the sheer size of the damn leaf. And two: He could use a few more to make some sort of bedding for the egg later, though he'd have to see what his situation was. Having a leaf or two wouldn't hurt though, right?

Leaf-sled in tow, Elliot began to carefully traverse the grove. He avoided the 'Snoopy Banoopy' thing especially, but tried to stay a fair distance from the leaf-dinosaurs as well. Though the wing-like leaves on their backs could've made even better containers for carrying the bananas. He noticed one kind of give him the stink-eye for thinking about it though, so he minded his own business. Harvesting the bananas was pretty easy, he had to move to more trees than expected to keep ahead of the creatures around him, but staying on the outer layer of trees made it pretty easy. Once the leaf started getting a little hefty, he decided to call it good and begin a retreat. His tugs made him believe it wouldn't break, though he had a few spares to fix that if necessary... Plus he could just tear more off the trees.

Returning to his egg, he picked it up and placed it between the banana bundles, figuring it'd stay put that way. He felt pretty proud of his harvest, but noticed some of the dinosaurs looking his way. He laughed nervously, before skipping out of the area with his food in tow, figuring there was plenty in the inner circles of trees that'd leave food for them. He'd just go back the way he came, and not look back. He stifled his laugh and tried to keep quiet, though the dragging made a bit of noise. He figured those creatures would forget, or hoped they did, anyhow. "Man, I sure hope they don't hate bananas or something, maybe I should've asked." Mirage quipped to himself, as his return trip began.

It'd taken awhile. His walk back made him realize how far he went, and damn, did he feel a little tuckered out from dragging these bananas. He finally made it back towards where Lanky had been lounging, having told him he'd be back on the return trip, after all. Stopping to take a momentary breather, Elliot pulled one of his banana bunches off the leaf and brought it over to the orangutan, handing it to him but not having much time to stay at the moment. Especially since he didn't know how many bananas this kong would eat if they lounged together. "Enjoy, buddy! Thanks for the help." He offered the monkey a smile, before gripping onto the big leaf to drag it again, back towards the two ships.

"Heeeeeey!" He called out, offering a wave with one hand as he made a slow approach on the group, a pretty decent stock of fruit in tow if he did say so himself. An all-banana diet probably wasn't the best for you, but having bananas was better than going hungry! Right? "I hope you guys like fruit, because I found a whole bunch! Should make sailing a lot easier!" He spoke as if he was already for sure about to set sail with these guys. He still hadn't been very direct about that, had he? Elliot began to realize his awkwardness needed to come to an end sooner than later, though for the moment he was content in just enjoying a bit of time with some friendly faces.

Once he managed to get closer to the group, he'd dropped the leaf and let the food sit, scooping up his egg again. He figured when the time came, they could work on loading it. Or maybe that weird robot's zombies could do it. Shambling corpses used as free labor sounded like it was very helpful. Now he could try to relax a little, wipe the sweat off his brow... Make some buddies, maybe. He'd have to see.

---

---

@Potemking

---

Link surfaced to find Ms. Fortune staring down at him from the lakeside, evidently worried over having lost sight of him. He felt a little bad for that, but he couldn't help but think his prizes were at least worth a little worry. Especially after he got them up in the sunlight.

He admitted it, he had gotten a little greedy. The four gemstones glittered in the afternoon sunlight, green and blue casting glints over the water's surface. Blue was a good sign. Blue could be Topaz, which was an extremely valuable gem. Ms. Fortune just so happened to agree, setting their value in the thousands. He didn't know if she was serious about that, but it wasn't like he had ever seen this kind of gemstone before. "You think so?" He asked as the woman extended her arm, literally, to him to help him out of the lake. "Give me two seconds." He said, storing the gemstones and dropping below the water again. He pointed the slate at the outcropping and snapped a clear photo of it. Like he suspected, the slate registered it as an ore deposit and as he set the compendious to track them it started letting out slow, sharp, intermittent pings. If nothing else that could help them avoid the things going forward.

"Sorry." He said, popping out again and taking her hand. The beeping got slower and slower as he got further from the outcropping, outright stopping as he stepped up onto land again. With the support of Ms. Fortune and the way he was now anticipating his own stumblyness he managed to do a little better this time. He took a few heavy steps, just putting one foot in front of the other, before realizing that the heaviness of his feet had nothing to do with fatigue or the new spirit floating around in him and everything to do with those new shoes he still had on.

That took a second to fix, swapping out the boots for the purple shorts he had gotten earlier. He liked to try on the new outfits he got even if they didn't provide any benefits besides being loose and comfortable. Walking still took focus and concentration he likely hadn't had to use since he was first learning to walk, but unlike Rika and Bella he had been doing this for most of his life. He could do this. He would not fall on his face. He would, however, continue to walk like a drunk baby.

He had overheard what Geralt and the Cadet had been discussing onboard Shippy, so as the man strode confidently across the sand to set up their fire only one thing came to Link's mind. "Why did you get to keep your land legs?" He asked.

---

Geralt and the Cadet made quick work in setting up and lighting their fire, certainly more careful about it than Links method of putting a pile of wood on the ground and hitting a flint with his sword. They set it up bokoblin style, with a spit over the top of the fire. As they did, Link started laying out the fish on some of the spare rock the Cadet had brought over, the things just popping into his hands one after the other waiting for the skewers.

Each one was odd, like no sea creature he had ever seen before in Hyrule, and it made him seriously consider Ms. Fortune's offer to taste test. Giant eyeballs, holes in the middle of them, weird fins. The most normal fish of the bunch has been a vicious little blight that had come right at him and required a bop of the head before he could catch it. "Not a bad idea." He said, snapping a photo of each fish as he laid it out. "If it doesn't agree with you just open up and pull it out." He joked, picking up and examining the fish that looked like a boomerang. Curiously he drew back his arm and gave it a throw. It spun through the air, as aerodynamic as he thought it would be, before it suddenly losing altitude and splashing into the lake. “It didn’t come back…” He said, disappointed, before getting back to work.

---

The rest of the party returned bearing a bountiful bevy of fruit. His mouth started watering just imagining the size of the thing the girls must have taken their haul from, even if he wasn’t familiar with the color, scent, or texture of what they had brought back. As Ms. Fortune suggested roasting the pineapple Link dragged himself over to the yellow stuff and pulled out his broken sword to carve a mouthful of the stuff. He ate the portion right off the blade and was instantly smitten. “This is kinda like an apple. A tangy apple.” He said after swallowing. “I can work with this stuff. Hold on.” He said, dragging himself back toward the lake like a lizard. Climbing the earth like he would a mountain was faster than walking.

He returned with his freshly cleaned Abyssal helmet, which he flipped upside down and placed on the fire. By that time the new guy had also returned dragging the second biggest pile of bananas he had ever seen.

Bananas. His eyes narrowed as he looked at them. He hated bananas. Well, no, he could enjoy a good banana. He could live off nothing but bananas. Bananas made you strong. He hated what he associated with bananas. “You didn’t see any weirdos when you were picking those, did you?” He asked, scanning the foliage around them before going back and carving a few more chunks out of the fruit. He tossed the parts he’d cut into the helmet to simmer. “Nobody suspicious?”

Nevertheless, he did ask for bananas to add to what he was doing while also setting a few around the fire to roast alongside some of the pineapple slices. In just a few fiery moments, between the rounds of roasted fish, they also had Simmared Fruit, roasted pineapple slices, and rich syrupy Roasted Bananas to go with the mysterious roasted fish skewers. At Ms. Fortune's blessing he eagerly dug into one of the hole fish. "Feel's a little like eating chu jelly." He said. "Unfortunately I've never found a way to combine fruit and fish into anything but a disaster. I should have bought butter back in town."

---

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Linkle collected the Lamp Oil, wrapping it up almost immediately and tying the top in a big bow as she heard the shopkeep rummaging about in the back room. She really hoped she wasn't off track with this, but she had never met a fire that didn't get excited to have oil splashed in it.

She almost bounced up and down when he came back with the green notes. "Yeah, that's exactly what I needed. Thank you so much." She said, taking them and enthusiastically handing over the rupees. He had even given her three of them, it was a total steal. She stored all her purchases in he sack. "When my friends get here, they'll probably set up an easier way to get around the world. I'll be sure to point people your way."

Except she got waylaid by the Lizalfo resting next to the door. She had heard the two merchants conversation when she had been browsing the shop, but she hadn't seen the other voice. He wasn't the first lizard she had seen in town, but unlike the one from the library this one was packed for travel. Besides, what would be the point of selling weapons to the town shop when you could just open your own? "Hi." She said as she approached. "Are you a traveling merchant?" She had met people like that on her journey, wandering Goron's that bought weapons and made potions out of the monsters bits she had collected along the way. "If so where from? And, can I look over what you have?"

---

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---

Sephiroth glanced over at the ride as she slipped on her floaties and handed the snail her card alongside everyone else to ensure it didn't get wet. With that done, she made her way over to the pool, still a bit uncertain about the whole endeavor. She couldn't simply eliminate any obstacles in her path this time, and she still wasn't entirely sure her depth perception and peripheral awareness was up to the task. Still, there wasn't much room for second thoughts at this point. Besides, she was at her core a SOLDIER First Class, and therefore more than capable of performing a bit of acrobatic avoidance. Once again she spared naught but the briefest of glances on her opponents, some of whom she would have considered quite strange back on Gaia, but had grown more than used to by now. Turning her attention back to the ride at long last, Sephiroth readied herself to jump as the clubs began to spin. The one closest to her left began its approach, moving relatively fast but not enough to be completely unavoidable, which allowed her to vault over it without much trouble alongside the other guests. Although one of them, the burly dwarf, she could have sworn got clipped just the tiniest bit on his way over. In any case the first "round" had been passed, though that didn't mean things were about to get any easier for them. If anything, the difficulty saw a sharp increase as the foam clubs gradually began to spin faster and faster which each revolution, with the next three spins practically obliterating the four blocky individuals from earlier. The lot of them letting out a comically loud OOF! in the process.

In all honesty, Sephiroth was surprised they had managed to last this long.

In the end, however, only her and five other participants were left. The burly dwarf, who'd avoided being knocked off through a combination of sheer determination and timing, the dragon flanked girl, the white-haired man from the previous game, and the horned woman with purple hair who was subtly jostling with the silver-haired swordswoman over space. The worst part about it was that, no matter how much Sephiroth and the other two personalities within her mind may have wanted to, she couldn't just deck the annoying bitch and send her hurtling right off the platform. She could plant her feet and shove back ever-so-slightly at most when bumped into, but no more than that, especially since the horned woman wasn't being obvious about her ploy.

"Sorry hun," the horned woman cooed, leaning in close after ducking another club. "But I'm afraid only one of us is going to win this game, and sadly that won't be you."

Sephiroth extended her arm, using it to push the other woman back a bit so she had enough space to leap over the next club, which was approaching rapidly. Across the way she heard the dwarf utter a curse as he was conked right in the head and sent sprawling off into the water below with a splash, being followed shortly thereafter by the girl and her pet dragons along with the white-haired man, all of which had been sent flying in one merciless foam-filled swoop. Hopping the club swinging round her own side, Sephiroth shot a cocky yet assured smirk at her remaining opponent, but stayed silent otherwise. She did not need to boast about her abilities after all, for those were far beyond anything the fool standing beside her could possibly comprehend. So it was when the next club came that the former SOLDIER danced close, feigning a stumble, only to hook her foot round the back of the horned woman's ankle in the handful of seconds before the club's impact. Sweeping forward just the tiniest bit to ensure she was fully off balance, Sephiroth dove up and over as the beam closed in, jumping to her feet just in time to watch as her final opponent fell into the waters below with an ear-piercing shriek. A few seconds later and the ride was stopped. Leaping off the platform, Sephiroth swam back to the main area, pulling herself up onto dry land and flicking a few strands of waterlogged hair from her face. Striding back over to the snail she took her place alongside the other guests, not failing to notice the downright venomous glare the horned woman gave as she made her way there. Sephiroth did have the smallest flicker of doubt cross her mind as she took her place in line, concerned that perhaps her maneuver had been caught somehow, though she quickly dismissed it. She'd been too careful for anything, least of all a snail, to have noticed what she had done.

Standing with her hands clasped behind her back and a grumbling dwarf off to her right, Sephiroth calmly awaited the results, confident that she had secured yet another win.

Link, ever the hero, jumped in and rescued the dark sentai looking fellow after Blazermate called him out. Although what he did after gave Blazermate mixed feelings. First, he seemed extremely arrogant, especially for someone who looked like he couldn't swim well. Second, he and Bowser seemed to know each other, and humorously argued with each other. "Now now boys, don't fight each other!" Blazermate teased. Geralt soon took in the spirit of the Harbor Demon given to him form Cadet and grew to be the biggest member of the team. "Oooh. Hey Bowser, I might have a new ride. Although unlike you, I don't know how he will fit in doors." Blazermate said, looking Geralt's new form up and down. The 'boob window' really didn't look good on him though.

Seeing as how they all landed, many of the group wanted to look for food. Blazermate asked her zombies what food they wanted, with a resounding sound of "brains..." coming from them, with Blazermate looking at the others with a "Yeah we're not getting that." look on her face. Blazermate didn't need food herself, so she stayed behind, playing with her zombies and making sure Shippy was all healed up and everything. It seemed the only thing wrong with her after awhile was the sadness of losing her captain, but with everyone reaffirming he was saved, it cheered her up a bit. It didn't take long for those who went out for food to come back, the new nervous looking fella coming back with bananas while Peach came back with a huge slab of pinapple.

"So whats the plan here?" Blazermate asked, making her zombies doing flips and cartwheels with mixed results.

There were no further additions to be made to the plan, and so after Midna and Sectonia taught the wolfos to cooperate with one of the ant creatures, the rescue party was sent off and the remaining heroes gathered up onto the train and set off once more.

Red was overall content that people were agreeing with her and not giving her any shit for refusing to help out. She was perfectly happy letting the queen and the princess handle this situation with their minions. Though she had to practically restrain herself from opening fire at the strange looking wolf Midna summoned. She still got that fight or flight response anytime she saw a wolf, and typically that reaction was fight. But pissing off a group of strangers with heavy assortments of weird powers and abilities was not good for her health, so she held back reluctantly. But that didn’t stop her from occasionally keeping an eye on Midna afterwards, although sitting next to her on the train wasn’t intentional.

The Princess found herself watching the horizon behind them as they sped off, observing as her mount and the team of magical minions setting off into the desert together on their one adventure, as if she would be able to spot them succeeding so soon after heading off. In short order both they and the great pit were left in the dust however, and so she turned her attention to the occupants of the passenger cart and found herself sitting next too…

”I don't think we’ve been introduced?” she said to the red hooded woman who had joined the party while the princess was sneaking around the village. Masked by a bandana mimicking a thousand fanged maw and armed with a brutal axe that was more blade than handle and a pistol of some kind she had an intimidating look, let down only by the fact that she was surrounded by people who regularly bent the elements and reality itself to their own destructive ends.

”I’m Midna” she guessed the woman wouldn't care for royal titles, ”What’s your name? And deal while we’re at it”

The red cloaked girl looked down at the figure of the smaller woman sitting next to her. Apparently her name was Midna apparently, and she wasn’t there when Red first introduced herself. “Don’t really have a name anymore, but back home I got called Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary. But they suck at naming things sometimes so just call me Red.” She considered the best way to answer her second question for a moment. There were a lot of different ways she could answer this and still be truthful.

“I’m a wandering mercenary,” she started after deciding this would be the easiest way to go about it. “I’ll take just about any job for the right price while I look for info on a personal target of mine from my world. And your group here seems like it’ll be a perfect opportunity to explore this world and try to track him down so I’ll help ya out along the way. Seems like you all are more familiar with this world than me and like you have some bigger purpose.” After explaining her own situation a bit to Midna she decided to turn the question back around on her. “So what’s your deal then? You and this ragtag group you’re in. Doesn’t seem like you're all from this world either.”

”That really is a mouthful, Red is much nicer,” she agreed, though the entire context surrounding the giving of it raised so many other questions. They could wait though, it would be rude not to answer the woman’s own.

Not that it was an easy one. Apparently no one had tried to fill her in much before now, though then again when had there been the time?

”and no, I suppose you could say we aren't from this world. Most people don't notice that though.” something about the nature of her home world was letting her grasp around the edges of the nature of this one, which was interesting and, possibly, helpful. ”Don’t suppose the name Galeem means anything to you? Doesn’t really matter if not.” how to explain that if she didn't, Midna wondered. Patterns. She’d been thinking a lot about patterns recently. Stories too, and there was a straightforward one here that she could tell that might be able to slip most of the truth past the sun made blind spot.

”There's a sleeping evil, a destroyer of worlds, protected by thirteen guardians scarred across the land. We, along with a whole bunch of other people, are hunting down those guardians, gathering powers, weapons and allies as we go, so that in the end we can take the fight to Galeem and end them before they can do any more harm. That whole being from different worlds thing you noticed? All them.” she explained in abstract

Red was completely taken aback when she heard the absolute scale of what was going on. This really was on the scale of multiple worlds like she had assumed. This strange being named Galeem apparently was the cause of it too. “Huh… didn’t expect that, I’m gonna be honest with you. An assorted group of heroes from other worlds trying to save the world.” She honestly couldn’t help but laugh a little at the absurdity of her statement.

“Not that I’m too concerned. Still better than my world, and I get to kill some really tough targets. I think I’ll definitely stick with you guys then. See what I can do against that Galeem thing whatever it is while I’m here.” She cracked her knuckles as if she was ready to get to work already. “How many of these guardians you mentioned have been defeated? Just so I can see the progress so far.” She didn’t really understand anything about this ‘Galeem’ but she had an assumption. There’s only one being with holy light like that and had anything akin to guardians. White Night, an angelic and godly being that turned employees into horrific beasts called apostles. It was the only thing that fit the bill and had enough power to bring her to a weird place like this.

”Just like that?” Midna was a little surprised how easy that had been. Then again her last attempt had been with Crow who, all things considered, was a bit of an outlier, so she shrugged of her own bit of surprise and said ”We’ll be glad to have you onside

”So there's three down so far” Midna (incorrectly) informed her ”and we’re working on number four here, who should be at the top of the mountain” there was absolutely no need to clarify as to which mountain ”while another group are working on number five down by (or maybe in) the ocean to the south west. So we’ve made a start at it, but there's still plenty more targets for you to test your metal against”

”Also that's the second time you’ve mentioned your world in not so favorable terms. What’s it like, if that isn't a difficult question and if you don't mind me asking?”

Red just shrugged at her new acquaintances' surprise. “It’s not my first rodeo dealing with time and space altering bullshit. Nothing really surprises me that much anymore.”

The mercenary listened intently to the intel she was being given. She really was treating this like she was taking another job. Only this time the payment was the thrill of the fight against otherworldly beings she wasn’t familiar with. Sounded like a good deal to her. “Oh, there’s so much I could tell you about that hellhole.” Red said with a bit of a dry laugh. She’d seem quite a bit of the horrors in the world before getting stuck inside that facility. “There’s 25 corporations called the Wings that control most everything and then the Head that controls all of them. Each corporation has some special unique thing called a Singularity, like W Corp and their warp technology. Their trains can get you just about anywhere in only ten seconds. Each Corp has a Nest, basically a city under their control where life is normal and dreary. Outside of the privileged Nests are the Backstreets. Criminals, gangs, just about anything goes out there. I won’t go into too much detail but there’s a lot of death out there. And even worse shit like unnatural monsters the farther out you go.”

Red looked around a little suspiciously and started speaking a little quieter. “The worst wing was Lobotomy Corp though. L Corp captured monsters called Abnormalities and somehow created energy from them. That’s where I was stuck before I wound up here. Luckily my target was there too so we got to duke it out every so often, and I got to fight some really weird creatures too so it wasn’t all bad.” Realizing she had probably rambled on for a little bit too long she leaned back and settled down. “But anyway, you don’t look like you’re human either. Where are you from?” She asked, feeling it was only fair that she get some info in return for what she shared.

”That does sound pretty messed up” she didn't know what a cooperation, but given the state of the world they were in control of the must be some kind of evil organization. Or they were barely in control and just incomptent supremely. or both.

”I’m a Twili.” she replied when asked what she was ”Or was. I got cursed and turned into an imp and then I’ve taken on the spirit of a very tall woman and a dragon since then so I don’t exactly look like one any more. Used to be tall, slender, grey skin, lovely orange hair, actual... You know” she vaguely indicated to her everything.

Rather than linger on what she’d lost physically she moved on to what she'd lost emotionally ”and the Twili like me, we’re from the realm of twilight. It’s a realm of floating islands in a perpetually dark void where the only real light is that created by magical Sols. It sounds dreary I know I know, but it’s actually pretty nice. We’ve got moving platforms and teleporters and we’ve made a decent and comfortable life for ourselves there. Our ancestors got sent there from Hyrule which is a world more like this… well there is a desert but that's not the main part. Sunshine and grass and humans and so on. Pretty sure it wasn't ring shaped though. Also no secret monster energy places in either of those, as far as I know. Pretty sure Zelda wouldn't condone that, and I certainly wouldn't back at home either. I’m not sure how you’d even turn a moblin into power without making it run on a wheel or something like that. That would be cruel, even if they are dangerous raiders.”

Minda halted her musings and looked over the woman and realized something she hadn't picked up on originally ”So. Wait. You said I ‘don’t look like you’re human either’ and that they locked you up with the, well, the monsters. So does that make you an ‘Abnormality’ then?” she asked, before scrunching up her face like the word had been responsive in her mouth and saying ”Ech, that is a ugly thing to call a person... But what does it mean?”

“Damn, sounds like you got put through the wringer little lady. What even happened to get cursed like that?” Red said with a little bit of sympathy for Midna. “Sounds like both you and your realm were rather beautiful though. Despite the lack of light you mentioned, that sounds like a sight to see. Even though I have no idea what you mean by taking on a spirit. Is that some special power your race has or something?” It was probably increasingly obvious by now that the poor mercenary had literally no idea about anything of this weird world.

She laughed a bit as Midna finally came to the conclusion that Red was in fact not a human. “Yup, I’m an Abnormality. One of those monsters. Though it’s hard to really explain what it means other than… we’re not normal. An assortment of creatures, people and objects that just can’t be explained and produce large amounts of power. Some might call me lucky that I retained this much of myself, after all some of them are mindless beasts with nothing left inside of them.” It was surprisingly hard trying to explain the concept of abnormalities considering it was practically commonplace for her. “Some were humans at one point, some are objects that were created, and some were just born that way. But each and every one is unique and horrifying, so let’s hope I’m the only one that made its way to this world. Even though I’d love to hunt that wolf down while I’m here.”

”I got elected to be the Princess of Twilight, but one of the other claimants, Zant, decided to make a deal with our world's most ancient evil to take the kingdom by force. Then he turned me into an imp and banished me to Hyrule. Then he invaded Hyrule, which was a big mistake because in the long run it let me get back home and kill both him and his benefactor. That was the first time it happened. Second time this bitch called Cia tore time apart and, probably because she saw it happen the first time around due to being a guardian of time before going crazy, thought that for some reason doing it again would stop me from stopping her. Didn’t work for Zant, didn't work for Cia either, though I didn't have time to work out how to undo it the second time around before, well, this whole Galeem thing” she explained the history of her form. Considering the way she’d gotten out of it the first time was dying and being resurrected... Spirit absorption was maybe a safer option.

Speaking of which, Red needed filling in on those too.

”As for spirits, that's part of the whole Galeem deal. Anything that dies here leaves behind a spirit. A little glowing mote which you can see what it used to be. You might remember seeing the robots leaving those? You can use them to gain power. Put one in your head for wisdom, heart for power, crush it for weapons or make a ‘deal’ with it to bring it back for a few moments to aid you in a fight in person. It’s strange, it can mess with your mind a little and your body a fair bit (I didn't always have a tail) and your clothes a lot, but hey. Power’s power.” she clicked her fingers and ignited them with a dragon claw for a moment, before dissipating it again.

”Sectonia used one since you met her. She didn't always have that hat or the, ah, mouth” she pointed out as an example of the possible transformation ”and she can slow down or speed up time in a localized area now because of it.”

”They’d probably call all my people abnormalities,”she commented when told about what an abnormality was ”our ancestors used to be human before getting gradually warped by/adapting to the Twilight realm, though we don’t have any kind of innate power... other than magic I guess?” it was mundane to her, but maybe not to those people. The interloper's blood certainly ran strong with the stuff.

”As for if the ones you're worried about, and the one you want, are here, well, there's all sorts of things here so there's a possibility, but there also isn’t nearly enough space for everything to have ended up on this world going simply by the sheer amount of worlds stuff seems to be drawn from. It would take this train… two or three weeks, to go round the whole thing if it was able too? I’m guessing. It’s hard to tell how far we’ve traveled, but this desert is about an eight to a tenth of what we know exists? There’s a map, but it’s vague and we don't have a copy. Maybe we can find another one or I can sketch from memory for you some time?” She suggested.

Then she asked ”So what does being an... so what can you do?”

Red actually listened very intently to Midna’s story about her past. Everything about it was so magical and fantastical compared to what she was used to. After all, even the ‘magical’ things she encountered ended up being equally as horrifying as everything else. But this seemed more like an amazing adventure. “Hell yeah, sounds like you absolutely taught them a lesson for pulling that shit on you. I can respect that. Though to be honest I didn’t take you for a princess at all.” After realizing how rude that could possibly sound she quickly corrected herself. “Not that I mean that in a bad way. You’re just definitely on the cooler end of rulers I’ve met, I’m used to them being pretentious or not caring like that one back in Parnasse.”

”Don’t worry, I’ll take that as a compliment” Minda told her, waving off Red’s concern about having upset her breezily.

Though the topic of spirits started getting her extremely excited. If she wasn’t wearing that mask she’d probably be looking giddy. “I did notice she looked different but at this point I wasn’t gonna question it.” Her mind was already racing with ideas of how effective this could be for her. She could have an arsenal of weapons from enemies she defeats, or enhance her own powers quite a bit with fusion. She was already thinking of what she’d look like if she absorbed the spirits of some things back home. Or even getting a hand on those weapons employees got from Abnormalities. She had so much potential to be an even more effective killing machine.

When they got back to the subject of the state of the world and the team's current progress she was extremely attentive. It seems a lot from each of their worlds got left out in creating this world, especially since it seemed this world wasn’t crazy large from Midna’s statement though she’d want to verify that herself. “We can get that sorted out at some point. I haven’t left the desert yet so I’m curious what else there is.”

“Well unfortunately I don’t have any super crazy powers like some of them do, can’t turn into a laser shooting dragon or teleport or possess people or any of that shit.” Red said as she started trying to explain her abilities. “But I can still keep up with and hunt down a decent amount of those things. I guess it’d be easier to show you…” Suddenly an idea struck her, after all she hadn’t had a decent fight since she got here. “How about a little sparring match once we get there? We’ll be in a place we can rest afterwards and it’ll let me really show what I can do. Plus I’d love to see just how strong that fusion can make you.”

”That. Is an excellent idea” a perfect opportunity to free her too, Midna thought to herself ”Going by all those powers you don't have but the things you’ve dealt with do, it’s going to be a very interesting to get a feel for how you fight.” The old Midna might not have been so up for putting herself in range of that nasty looking axe, but the two new bits of her? Oh an honorable duel style sparring match was right up their alley.

”and we’ll see if you can handle me Red” she concluded, giving a grin that was a little cocky but mostly playfully teasing

---

The rest of the trip passed without much incident and was filled by light chatter that was entertaining but not particularly enlightening in any way. There was a lovely little stop at a glacial melt oasis, who’s waters were refreshingly cool and pure. A welcome break from the desert before they rode off again, though not before tora acquired a round bird creature as a pet. Mostly the stop made Minda happy that those that had fallen out would have somewhere closer than the city proper to walk to to get food and refreshment.

Before too long they set out again and, after another trip through the dry desert, their destination came into view. A walled city topped by stunning azure (and less stunning green) domes which seemed to have a thing for cow horns. And bells. A bit on the nose. Midna wondered where they kept the actual cows and concluded it was probably round the back as they rolled towards the Town.

”Looks like an actual normal looking city. Now that’s not something I’ve seen yet.” Midna commented, hanging out one of the windows and taking it all in. ”Oh. And it’s probably that one on the map. Means we’re most of the way through the desert” she noted

They rolled in through a gap in the wall without much fanfare, parked the train in a yard which had numerous more beefy and less fantastical trains inside. Those might be handy later, Minda noted, but for now they all disembarked off of their own train, ready to hit the town.

Poppie was all business, wanting to get them to find what was on the road ahead of them as they approached the mountain, and if there was any way to get there. Not a simple task.

Minamoto meanwhile wanted to find a way to fix his sword, something of a big deal seemingly, seeing as he insisted on kneeling before their little condoctore friend when asking about a smith.

”Just remember you’re going to need money for that even if you can find one. For much of anything really. Someone should go see if they can pawn some of our spare items for rupees. Or whatever they use for currency here. See if they accept that paper stuff, but I doubt it.” Midna suggested, not having much fat in a currency that didn’t glitter.

”As for me, well, still up for our match Red?” she asked the hooded woman who she’d picked up a rapport with on the train. It had been one of the more pleasant ones she’d had with the group and she was excited to see what she was made of.

This wasn’t Red’s first trip to Al Mamoon so it wasn’t a shock for her like it was for the others. She even knew her way around town a bit, seeing as she stayed here a couple days before setting off on her mission in Parnasse. “Oh you know I am.” If her face was visible she’d be smirking. She’d been longing for a good fight for a while now. “Technically I should be reporting my success to the ruler of this place, but this seems like a much better use of my time right now.”

The two of them made their way over to the local guard barracks. Red had ‘borrowed’ their training grounds before to make sure her aim wasn’t getting rusty and that seemed like the perfect place for their little match. She stood on the other side of the grounds from her opponent, twirling the blade around in her hand before preparing herself. Opting not to use the gun for now until she ascertained her training partner’s strength. “Ready when you are.”

”How nice of you. One moment then ” The princess floated down onto the ground opposite her, stretched out her arms to crack her knuckles and then unexpectedly did a little dance, fiery and with much foot stomping and tails winging. It was rather awkward without any music, but it also lasted for only four seconds, and then the princess exploded with a flash of purple light that imploded back in towards the princess in a heart beat, surrounding her in an aura of dragon energy.

With the last step of the dance the princess took up a fighting pose as a shadow hand, a massive orange glowing arm) formed out of her twintails using the power of the gilded helmet she wore and flexed and made a fist above her head. Someone was putting on a bit of a show.

”Let’s dance!” she declared, before driving that fist down towards Red in a meteoric punch.

Tilting her head in a bit of confusion as she watched her opponent do… a weird little dance? It looked kinda awkward and weird but then she suddenly burst with a weird purple energy. “I have no idea what that was, but now I’m even more excited!” She was finally getting a picture of what kind of magical things her opponent was capable of.

She got quite a bit overconfident and decided to use her weapon to try and block the giant punch coming her way and was quickly knocked onto her ass in response. “Alright, maybe I underestimated you…” she picked herself off the ground and glared right at Midna with her one eye. “I won’t let that happen again.” Quickly running towards her opponent she prepared to try and duck under another punch while trying to slash with her axe. Hoping to follow it up with a swift kick to Midna’s side.

Just as she’d planned, Midna’s second blow, after she’d reeled in the first, sailed over her head. The princess’s eye went wide in surprise, but she didn’t fail to react, pivoting to the side to take the blade blow on her shoulder guard grunting with pain from the raw impact but being spared its bite.

She didn't handle the kick as well however, the huntress’s blow knocking the lighter Twili away. Using her levitation and one of the spaulder’s powers she slowed, corrected and stabilized the launch and used it to gain distance instead of hitting the deck. As she flew she thrust an arm out, opening a small portal out of which a blast of sand that sang as it flew shot out towards her foe, the princess trying to dissuade Red from immediately following up on her blow, before landing and skidding to a halt.

Her feet steady again, she lashed out with her shadow hand once more, bringing it round in a lower sweeping claw swipe, complete with glowing purple talons on the tips of the hand.

Unfortunately for Red she was stopped by a blast of strange sand that caused her to cover her face as she tried to chase after her opponent. Even that still stung her face as it flew by. She was finishing rubbing the sand out of her eye when she saw the draconic claw coming at her from below. She barely had time to jump over it and potentially leaving herself vulnerable but deciding to try something different. On her way down she tried to bring her axe down on the shadow hand and see if it was vulnerable.

The blow hit the hand down into the ground, staggering Midna’s recovery from the swing, but the blow itself left no mark, the hit either being absorbed or the damage done to the energy limb being repaired so rapidly that it looked invulnerable. Rather than pull it back for another swing, the princess instead made to snatch Red up in the hand’s grasp, its claws dulled and gone but grip likely to be strong.

Without much time to recover Red was swiftly snatched up by the shadow hand. Thankfully Midna wasn’t squeezing too hard, either that or those claws weren’t as sharp as she assumed, but try as she might to thrash in it’s grip it didn’t let go. It was starting to make her just a little bit mad.

While it might have been logical to simply crush Red, like she had tried with Crow, the fact that that hasn't worked the first time on the scoundrel, and the fact that it wasn't very sportswoman like (or really because Minda was enjoying herself to much to consider trying to end things so cheaply so soon), meant that instead of squeezing the hand whipped round the princess's head and then tossed Red across the sandy sparring arena.

Being tossed was certainly not a fun experience for Red and because of the sandy texture of the arena she struggled catching herself and slipped in the process, causing her to hit the ground with a thud. She looked a little disoriented before her head shot up and glared at Midna as a red aura surrounded her and her rage became active. “Looks like the kid gloves are coming off!” Midna was about to find out the hard way that even in friendly matches Red had a bit of a competitive streak.

With her speed and strength both enhanced Red ran at her opponent again. Charging at her again she went for a feint with her blade from the side and instead attempted to deliver a knee to Midna’s stomach. Normally she would be going for the neck or more hits with her blade, but despite the inherent anger of her power she was still having fun.

The hand came out again, making a grab for the blade as it came in, but only managed to do a palm block before the knee was driven towards Midna’s gut. She instinctively blocked it with what she had, which was her arms, but her form wasn't exactly great or practiced and so it still hurt like hell as she was driven back, her forearms and gut bruised by the empowered blow.

”Goddesses” she swore between her teeth. Now that Red had pulled out some of the stops she was slightly regretting picking a fight without her mount at hand. Well. the permanent one. Sand blasted out from portals again as she tried to buy time to gain ground. That wasn't all though, as a far larger portal opened beside her and her Vibrava flew out. The princess grabbed one of its legs as it ascended, pulling her up into the air, before sending it careening down again while she drifted down to land on the ground further away while her minion attacked.

The Vibrava landed hard, its large size making its path easy enough to predict and dodge but when it did strike the earth it shook the ground, bulldozing the sand outwards from the impact site. Then it dropped into another portal a heartbeat later.

As typical of her when she got into this state Red elected to ignore the sand beating down on her to the best of her abilities. Pushing through it way faster than before. Even still it slowed her down enough to where her attempted attack missed as Midna got pulled up into the air. “Damn it, you have a lot more tricks than I thought you did.” Seeing as she was living for the thrill of the battle once again she was not too focused on dodging and tried to charge straight at the pokemon that was barreling down at her which unfortunately caused her to get thrown back. While it definitely hurt to get hit by a move like that she was able to land surprisingly well. With her minion gone her eyes turned back to Midna. Red threw the axe at her foe and ran behind it. Attempting to hit Midna with a right hook and following it up with another kick, this time aimed at the face. All in all this was actually really good practice for Red’s hand to hand combat.

As it was for Midna, who slammed her shadow hand down in-front of her to block the axe and the, rather than try and brawl with the woman, used the hand’s palace on the ground to haul herself by the back of the head, hand grip light the sand as she punted herself over red. Drawing the hand back in as she flew she used her actual hands to blast more sand down on top of her. Ineffectual as an eye attack, but that didn't matter. The rest of the sand she’d previously dropped flew towards red as well, forming a localized sandstorm around red as the princess landed behind her.

”These aren't tricks Red, this is Magic!” she declared as she thrust a hand out and opened another portal, this time sending the Wolfos who wasn't currently traipsing through the desert charging towards the woman. The beast, who thanks to Midna’s magic was briefly increased to the size of a healthy rhinoceros, leapt towards the Huntress, jaws wide and with its tongue hanging out one side.

A lot of things happened in Red’s mind all at once. First off she thought it was pretty interesting how Midna decided to dodge her attack. Basically using the hand to pull herself out of the way. Second she thought all of this sand was getting really, really annoying as she struggled to pull herself out of all of it that got dropped onto her before it all got whipped around in a massive sandstorm. And third, she saw the jaws of a massive wolf coming at her. And her mind stopped for a split second. Everything about this fight went completely out the window, this wasn’t a friendly match for Red anymore. All she saw was the Wolf.

She was only immobile for a split second before adrenaline pumped through her veins and she unholstered the gun in a swift movement before pouring several bullets in the wolf's direction before charging at it as well. She dodged to the side of the creature’s jaws and running the blade along the side of the wolf. Screaming at the top of her lungs the entire time. She turned around, charging at the wolf again, jumping and trying to bring the axe down on its neck. “I’LL HAVE YOUR HEAD!!” It’s like she almost completely forgot Midna was involved in this fight.

The wolf had collapsed, and lay on its side where it had fallen after taking the racking blow, it’s flank bloody with a silvery glowing icor while the mask set atop its snout was pockmarked with bullet holes. Yet before the final blow could be struck, the same portal that had summoned it appeared below it, the heavy beast dropping into it and away from the executioner's blade with only a heartbeat to spare. Red’s axe instead cleaved into the sand and lodged within it.

”Goddesses. Red, are you ok?” came a concerned shout from behind her. Around her the sand whipping through the air and sanding her skin stilled and fell to the ground as Midna carefully approached Red as a friend rather than an opponent.

Before Red’s attack could land the wolf had simply vanished into a portal. Her axe slamming into the ground where the wolf’s neck had just been. But the angry look in her eyes had yet to subside. She started looking in every direction, pointing her gun wherever she was looking. He was doing it again, that tricky bastard was going to show up out of nowhere. But no wolf was found. The only target she could point her gun at was Midna. “Where is he?! I saw the Wolf, he must have followed me here! I swear that I’ll have his head hanging on a wall for what he’s done!” Red’s mind was far from reasonable right now. The only thing occupying her mind was thoughts of the Wolf.

”He isn’t here. That wasn't him it was just my wolfos” Midna tried to tell her, raising her hands in front of her non threateningly. She’d put two and two together relatively quickly it seemed, though what she didn't know was if this was all Red or if it was just the red in her eye that was causing this. ”It’s ok” she tried to assure Red, and then she flipped a coin and added ”your safe. He can’t hurt you here.”

“That was your…” Red started asking a question but stopped midway like she was confused. Her mind just couldn’t comprehend that she didn’t just see the wolf. Was her mind that corrupted by hatred? Or… did Midna help the Wolf? Her clouded mind thought that could be the only reasonable explanation. Just like when those stupid employees took her kill back in the facility, her rage had no outlet. And was unfortunately turned towards the nearest thing. Without any explanation she charged at Midna with her axe, no longer trying to keep the match friendly.

”oh Goddesses” Midna swore, rapidly summoning her shadow hand and grabbing the woman’s axe wielding arm with it. Praying that it was the red in her eyes and not Red herself causing this, the Princess darted/pulled herself in close, ignoring the risk of being kicked, or worse, shot, and stabbing her new friend in the gut with a dragon claw with one hand before pulling out and thrusting a friend heart at her with the other.

Red honestly hadn’t expected her to fully block the attack like that, she expected Midna to run away again. Before she could bring up her gun and react she was hit by a dragon claw to the stomach and she yelled in pain. “Ah you bi-” And her complaints were cut off by the use of the friend heart. It was like her mind cleared as Galeem’s influence slipped away. She fully remembered what had happened. Her escape from her cell because several other Abnormalities had escaped. The howl of the wolf signaling that things were going to hell. And the white light that she had originally assumed was the godly figure called White Night, but no. It turns out it was Galeem instead. And it was enough of a change to her system that her rage cleared as well and she stumbled backwards, before hitting the ground. She went to check on her wound but noticed it was completely healed. “How did… what did…” Red quickly realized what she had done. Let her anger get the best of her yet again and almost really hurt her new ally in the process. “Er, I’m uh… really sorry about all that.” She looked away out of a mixture of embarrassment and shame.

The princess, who had backed off a bit while the effect was ongoing, sighed in relief and dropped her guard. ”oh thank-” she began before coughing and starting again ”It’s fine” she lied, clearly a little shaken, ”one of the thing’s Galeem’s influence does, on top of the whole mental block that should have just cleared up, is make people have less self control and forces them to commit to a fight, a real fight, fully and to not consider stopping, which probably made that worse than it would have been.”

”and I’m also sorry too. I didn't know that would happen, but it was still my fault that it did” she apologized, mostly recovered from her shock as she floated up and towards Red again

”Are you going to be ok?” she asked, hovering to a stop before her.

“I’m sure that didn’t help, but that wasn’t the only thing that caused that.” Red said, shaking her head at the first part. “Thanks for knocking me out of that. I’m usually not too guilty about killing, but I think I might’ve actually felt bad if I hurt you too bad.” Red started brushing sand off of her clothes and picked herself up off the ground. “It’s not like you could’ve seen that coming. Not like I’m all that open about my wolf related trauma or anything.” She tried to joke to relieve the tension even though she wasn’t very good at it. “Yeah I’ll be fine. This has happened plenty of times before. If I ever get like that again just… the only thing that really works is beat some sense into me or let me wear myself out. And hopefully I’ll take it all out on enemies.” This situation just further resolved her desire to kill the wolf. That one day all of this can pass once he’s no longer a threat.

”That... ok” it wasn't really, but she could work with it ”I’ll make sure my wolfos keep their distance then.”

There was a tacit suggestion that she’d keep her distance too, Midna realized, and she did not like that because barring the last scare she’d been enjoying Red's company.

”Well then, that’s more than enough sparing for one day so um,” she said, giving her arms a stretch over her head while trying to think where to go from here. She paused half way through the stretch, did a little directionless point with both her fingers as she had an idea, and then asked ”want to go see if this place has ice cream?” she’d had some at the tower once and it seemed like the perfect thing to eat to beat the heat.

While she still had to report to the ruler of this town, Red felt like she needed to make it up to Midna. She didn’t expect to start getting close to anyone in this group but Midna seemed fairly interesting and was surprisingly accepting. Even despite everything that Red had just done. “Sure, doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” With that the two went off in search of food, and afterwards Red would have to make her way over to reporting to the Cowlipha, finally.

In a puff of smoke and magic Kamek appeared above Lumbridge to start his search for the captain. It was an important, nay vital, task, because it would mean a bunch of people were less sad. Also it meant they wouldn't have to worry so much about other people biting it. Also it meant the captain would be alive which was a bonus in Kamek’s somewhat callous opinion.

Of course, the tricky bit was finding out where, if anywhere, he’d ended up and the most logical place was the one where this had happened before.

”Oh bother” Kamek said almost as soon as he had appeared. He hadn’t asked exactly where in the town they had been dropped off, which might make this a touch trickier than he’d expected ”Well no matter, someone must have seen it happen. Hmmm”

He took a look around the town down below looking for either the man himself (should he be so lucky) or the Houndmaster, who he assumed might know if an injured captain showed up out of the blue via cat born stretcher and, presumably, started making noise about being confused as to what just happened.

Kamek’s aerial search, however, turned up no portly pirates. He looked all over the quaintly patchwork town, from Mina’s restaurant to the smithy sisters’ forge, from the Great Ton Pu Inn to the bustling marketplace, but he found nary a trace. Only loads of villagers, even more than before, and the place’s characteristic abundance of adventurers, some Kamek recognized from his time spent in Lumbridge prior. One thing he couldn’t help but notice was an increase in the number of pigs in various professional attires, all of whom traipsed about with the sort of wonder and excitement that signified newcomers. Unfortunately he sought brine rather than swine, so his search came up fruitless.

Eventually he fell back on a trusted authority, parked as ever out in front of the busy guild castle with his faithful wolfhound by his side. The Houndmaster kept a sharper vigil than ever thanks to the guild castle’s increased traffic, which came as a result of the odd portal implanted in its floor. Since the heroes had left, further construction efforts better integrated the anomaly into the building, allowing for both access to the guild’s functions and the distant archipelago on the other side. A mutual interest from both Lumbridge and Inkwell in the other location meant a bevy of new faces around, and nobody going or coming escaped the sheriff’s watchful eye. When Kamek appeared with a few questions, however, the Houndmaster could only shake his head. “Nary a glimpse of feline couriers nor piratical ragamuffins,” he told the sorcerer. “Should you possess time enough, interviewing adventurers may yet yield a trace, but your effort may be better spent procuring a missing-persons poster.”

”Thank you for the advice, but I still have other spots to check before resorting to that. It would be embarrassing to go to all the effort only to find him on my next stop” Kamek said, frustrated that his guess that starting out where they’d last appeared was the best bet hasn't borne fruit. So much for empiricism. He also hadn't found out where Link had been dropped off when he’d been carted back, which was a shame. That would have made guessing where the man might have appeared a lot easier.

He was mulling over going all the way back to Link to check when he suddenly remembered ”No wait. There was that other one, what was his name… ah. Euden! Perfect”

That made his next stop rather obvious, and he wouldn't even need to move under his own magic to get there, which was infinitely preferable over teleporting to each of the other two locations in his tired state.

A short flight later, Kamek reached Jr’s “addition” to the commemorative statue that had been made of their group, and using that warp graffiti made the trip back to Alcamoth, materializing just outside the door to the great structure and heading inside to find both Euden and Vandham to ask them about the hero’s brush with death and their merc leader if he or anyone under him had encountered their missing sailor.

Of Kamek’s two targets Vandham turned out to be the easier of the two to find, seldom far from the mercenary headquarters and never far without communicating with his supervisors. After sending for Euden, however, the huge man was unable to provide the magikoopa a satisfactory response. “Sorry mate, ain’t seen summan like that. But if any kitties do drop by, I’ll send a Moogle t’letcha know, alright?”

A few moments later Euden arrived. Although the young man had quickly become quite the popular figure in Alcamoth owing to his kindly, personable demeanor and never-ending consideration for others, he never skimped out on his duty. The prince came in at a light jog and greeted Kamek with a wave. “Hello. What can I help you with?”

“This ‘ere wizard wanted t’know whereabouts you ended up the other day while fightin’ that nasty dragon,” Vandham explained, jabbing a thumb toward the carved-out section of cliff across Eryth Sea. “Summan else mighta gotten saved by a buncha cats, and ‘e’s tryin’ t’find ‘em.”

Euden nodded, his face appropriately serious. “Of course. Well, when I fell in battle against that monster, I blacked out. When I came to I was back in the Lumbridge castle. I know a few adventurers with blessings that let them return back to the last place they rested on death, but that wasn’t where I slept the night before, so I could only guess that those cats brought me back to my ‘base.’” His brows narrowed. “It was a really long way. I probably wouldn’t have been able to come here if Mym didn’t show up. Although...those cats didn’t seem normal. They vanished around a corner after leaving me. So maybe they possess some sort of magic.”

Shaking his head, Vandham cut him off. “That’s prolly more’n ‘e needs, lad. Anythin’ else on your mind, mate?” If Kamek had no more business for him, the mercenary leader returned to his duty, and Euden to his own affairs after a polite farewell.

”No that will be all. Thank you both” the mage replied ”you’ve given me plenty to think about already.”

The cats being magical lend some credence to the idea that they could have bailed the captain out despite the location he had fallen which was good. The idea that it was the persons’ 'base’ that the cats delivered people too was useful too, and yet what counted as a base was tricky to suss out. Was it a person's personal base, or the base they had last used. And what counted as a base?

”I swear if he’s been unconscious in Shippy’s holds this whole time” he muttered because where else would the seafarer call his base?

Whatever the case, there was one last spot Link had suggested, and it looked like it was the best bet thanks to the additional information, so he headed for Limsa Lominscuttle. The mage strolled down to his young master’s gallery of landscape art and took a warp over to the official docks they’d first arrived in the city at. After a quick check there just in case, before skimming round to the pirate’s cove, the last place he’d docked at and the palace they’d launched the expedition from and, if all that failed, headed for the navy’s headquarters to see if whoever had been left in charge gotten reports about cats carrying old sea captains around.

Given the sheer size of the seastack city, and in particular the claustrophobic, layered construction of the wharftowns, a cursory flight around a few of its harbors shed precious little light on the object of Kamek’s search. No sign of him appeared at Pirate’s Cove, which stung a little harder than before. The places where Brineybeard might be were dwindling quickly. That said, considering that Pirate’s Cove offered little but a clandestine place to moor a ship or two, it seemed unlikely that it would qualify as a base.

When Kamek visited the Navy’s shipyards he found them largely vacant, with only the youngest shipgirls present to mill around. None looked happy, as it appeared that the reality that their brethren were out there fighting and dying while the children idled on the homefront was lost on no-one, despite leadership’s decree. After he asked around Kamek quickly found that none of the Navy commanders remained; all of them had been attendance at the terrible battle of Black Bay. From those who did stick around, however, he got only puzzled looks when he mentioned either Brineybeard or the cats. Something like that, it would appear, did not register as something important enough for practically anyone to note. Thus, it fell to Kamek himself to try and sort through the proverbial haystack. Just where would a portly middle-aged pirate, fresh off a harrowing battlefield, end up?

Taking a leaf out of his king’s modus operandi, the mage followed his stomach rather than his head for once, and set a course for the Drowning Wench.

Embedded within the tallest tower of Limsa Lominscuttle Town Kamek found the inn just as he left it in the morning, albeit patronized by a decent lunch crowd. All kinds of workers, from fishers to builders to guards, had finished their first shifts and dropped by in small groups for a hearty meal before buckling down for the rest of the workday. The redheaded waitress sashayed to and fro carrying drinks and dishes, while a droopy-faced musician provided ambiance in hopes of a little generosity. Kamek swept over every face in search of a scruffy black beard and bright red nose. And just when his search had gone on about long enough to give up, he found them.

Brineybeard sat by himself in a comfortably dim, candle-lit corner. For everything he'd been through he appeared to be in pretty good shape, at least physically. His expression, however, was as dark and stormy as the high seas, and his eyes were almost as cloudy as the foamy, pitch-black contents of the mug before him. In a rather understandable turn of events, the good captain had elected to deal with nearly dying in naval warfare with the help of a stiff drink or three.

The mage sighed with relief, to see the man yes, but also because it meant that he’d finally reached the end of his round trip. He weaved his way through the tables, broom handle clicking against the tiled floor of the tavern, and made his way to where the man was drinking. Kamek didn't know what it was exactly, but whatever it is was numbing the shock of having almost died. The Mage found it was better to just get used to that sort of thing, though never enough to get sloppy. He was pretty sure everyone who wound up getting stomped for Bowser’s schemes ended up feeling the same way.

He coughed politely to get the man’s attention and then asked ”Mind if I take a seat?”

Although Kamek had not been part of the pirate’s crew, Brineybeard recognized him from the brief time in which he saw the Magikoopa in the battle, and gestured for his visitor to sit down. “Wha’ happened?” he croaked, more than a little inebriated already. “Make it out okay? What about...hic! Wha’bout Shippy?”

The mage cringed a little, but then hid the expression as he sat down opposite the man ”We’re fine. She’s fine. Mainly worried about you. We made it out of the battle in one piece and headed up the river we were aiming for. Stopped for a break, which is why I had time to come and try and find you” Kamek told him, before asking ”what happened on your end? No one saw it, so it was only a hunch that brought me back here” he explained, leaving out the bad hunches he’d made that had resulted in the rest of his round trip.

The news that everyone was okay, including his wayward vessel, set Brineybeard's worries to rest. He let out an enormous breath that he must have been unconsciously holding for a while, and slid down a bit in his chair. "Hooh…thanks be," he sighed, suddenly looking mighty weary. "Well, fer me, I felt somethin' hit the ship below me. Must've been a cannonball, smashed clear through me cabin. Went flyin' in a hurricane o' wood chips 'n hit the water, barely awake. Somethin' touches me 'n next thing I know a crew of walkin' cats dumps me 'ere." He held up his hands to signify his confusion, nearly spilling some brew in the process, then quaffed another mouthful.

”Yes it is rather odd, but apparently our Ace Cadet is familiar with them. Don’t suppose you know where they went? Would be nice to meet the people who helped us out. Also was it right here, in this establishment?” Kamek asked. A cat based rescue system, he mused, how strange and useful. Mushrooms would have made more sense, but Cats? Very odd. Still, best not to look a gift yoshi in the mouth. Or ever really, if you didn't want to end up with egg on your face. Or in an egg.

Brineybeard wiped the foam from his lips with the back of his hand and shook his head. “No, not as much as a whisker.”

”Bother” Kamek replied, sighed, and then shrugged, ”well we’ll see if we meet them again, though to an extent I hope we won't. You, ah, seem pretty shaken up by the whole thing?.” he said, before asking/offering ”do you want to talk about it?”

At that Brineybeard scoffed. “Yarr, I ain’t some lily-livered landlubber! If everyone’s still kickin’, ye best be leavin’ me t’me cups here, and I’ll get along just fine.” It was too soon, it seemed, for the koopa to connect with the captain.

”Fair enough” the mage leaned back with a shrug ”Speaking of them, anything you want me to bring back with me? Can’t bring you with me” he imagined that would be something of a relief and, to be frank, in this state he wouldn't exactly want the captain on board. Jr’s paintings wouldn't work either, because they needed an iconic location to work with and the forest, while stunning, where to large
to really get a good painting of an exact, and unique, location inside them ”, but I imagine they’d like to hear something from you. A letter or just words perhaps?” Proof that the captain was alive, not that he’d lie about that sort of thing.

Probably.

“A message…?” Despite his affected lucidity, the former pirate tried to concentrate. “Just...just t’be wary out there. It’s a cruel sea, and I don’t be cut out for it anymore. But take care of Shippy. Ol’ tub’s as good a companion as...hic! ...As I could ever ask.”

”We’ll make sure of it. This has been a learning experience of that, that is for certain. We won't be caught flat footed like that again.” Kamek assured him, and himself. They’d need to take more care, but they were also better prepared thanks to all the fusion they’d gotten up too since. ”She’ll appreciate the concern I’m sure, though maybe I’ll leave the ‘old tub’ part eh?”

”Well, it's been good to see you, but i should be getting back. I think there was going to be cooking going on, and I’d rather not miss the result.” Kamek concluded, pushing himself out of the chair, preparing to head out.

Brineybeard nodded, and took another swig from his cup. “Good luck out there, matey. I’ll be makin’ sure there’s a proper celebration awaiting ye when ye return.”

”I’ll let people know, it’ll be something to look forward to” he said with a smile, before bidding the man farwell ”Have a good day.”

The mage stepped away from the table and wandered his way through the crowds till he found a bit of space before taking to the skies on his broom and vanishing in a puff of smoke

---

Back at the lake Bowser was not done with Mr L, not even one bit. There was no way he was leaving the man’s vitriol unanswered

”So yeah, maybe I do fail sometimes. But unlike Cackletta, Smithy and a whole lot of other chumps. I’m. Still. Here. I’m still standing when every other coin store villain who tries to take over the mushroom kingdom takes one little setback and runs off with their tails between their legs never to be seen again. You definitely can't talk because...” he retorted

Then Bowser paused and then barked out a laugh at a realization he’d just had before laying down the hard truth at Mr L’s feet

”But you know it looks like someone missed a memo. Well I guess you would, seeing as you weren't about for the grand finale. Spoilers’ your oh so great boss got back-stabbed by a clown and then I crushed both him, a mind controlled green stash and the chaos heart easy as pie. Then that sad hatted man wandered off into the sunset so he could date one of Mario's infinitely replaceable floating sidekicks or something and left all his minions adrift without him. Looks like you mattered least of all out of all of them, because no one even bothered to tell you he retired.” he told L, jabbing the thief in the chest with a gloved claw to drive the point home.

”So don't give lip, chump, or you’ll regret it.”

---

“That does sound fun.” Rika replied when she got Peach’s attempt at explaining what all of the inland was like “but I mean the sea isn't all the same. There’s currents and little islands and it's real different out in the deep than it is near stuff and, well, if you think that's all the same then everything in here must be super all over the place huh. Wow.”

Needless to say Rika was hyped, and the land did not disappoint. The forest was even more beautiful inside than it was, full of streams and bushes and trees and a thousand and one other new and exciting thing. The former Abyssal had to keep being reminded that they had a mission as she kept stopping to inspect things or marvel at the view. The walking was a little tiring though, so Rika was extra happy when the princess remembered she could rid the waves and soon they were skimming around on the various waterways weaving through the forest.

This being the first time she’d really been able to get at it since she changed, the girl found that being a ship girl squared had its benefits as both abyssal and azure navel locomotion combined to let her race across the freshwater with elating speed and grace.

The place they ended up was an excellent finale to their exploration, a pool filled with the most beautiful sapphire waters the girl had ever seen and, floating in the middle, two giant succulent and delicious looking fruits. Apparently Peach had played something called “mario party” on this and, lacking context for that or much of anything really Rika didn't think it was weird at all.

“That’s cool. What's a Mario Party?” she asked, her new mind ever curious.

After that they scooted up onto the island and got to chopping up some fruit for transport. Rika at first tried hacking at it with the bayonet on her new rifle gauntlet, but quickly hanged over to her hull blades, the thick heavy robo arm mounted weapons chopping through the flesh of the fruit like a pair of heavy cleavers with absolutely 0 effort from the girl herself. There was only a slight problem she found as she hauled up two bundles of pineapple and watermelon sticks under her arms and rested them on the tops of her gun turrets, and that was that the juices of the fruit were getting everywhere.

“Oh. well. That's sticky. Hope it doesn't mess up my gear” she said talking around a carrot sized stick of pineapple she was chewing through, not realizing till later that it was her cloths she should be most worried about.

---

A little later the team of ladies returned to the campsite to find that they now had lots of bananas as well, and a whole heap of fish which she saw nothing weird with at all.

”Hey Rika!”

She also found Jr, who had been roused from slumber by the smell of cooking. Indeed for what had been a rather impromptu stop the gang sure had settled in, and who could blame them. The trip had been rough so far, and was likely to only get rougher. They deserve a… Whatever meal this was. Lunch? Second breakfast? She realized she had no idea what time it was and only a vague understanding of how you organised meals. It didn't really matter, the smell of cooked fruits and fish where enough for everyone to set aside such concerns and just dig in.

Rika sat down with the others where they were around the camp/cooking fire and, unaware that the fish were weird looking ended up eating a finny one.

“Oh wow that's. Pretty intense. Not sweet? Uh. bite-y?” she lacked the words or culinary expertise to describe the pungent and smoky flavor of the weird fish. Then she tried to combine it with some watermelon and found out exactly why Link had failed to find a good fruit+fish dish.

”try washing the taste out with water or something” jr suggested after having a laugh at her expense, having decided (alongside Mimi and Tyrant who where sitting with him) to stick to fruit after the two less than pleasant descriptions of the fish based food.

It was Blazermate, who as a machine didn't get to enjoy the food part of their break and who was definitely getting bored based on the antics of her zombies, who brought their attention to the issue of what they were doing next.

”Keep heading for the bottomless ocean I guess?” jr said

“First we need to get past that living ship” Rika pointed out

”Living ship?” Jr asked, and then when it was pointed out for him asked ”why don't we just shoot it?”

“Well we didn't when it was attacking that Mr L guy, Bowser just blasted it with water till it went away”

”He did?” that was unusual, and considering he’d woken up to find his dad roasting some Luigi look alike, with words admittedly, he didn't seem to have been too affected by his fusion as far as Jr was concerned. Maybe he was wrong about that? ”Well I guess we just do that again if it gets aggressive?”

A few moments after that Kamek reappeared above them, having returned from his long distance trip.

”Good news everyone, Brinybeard is alive. I found him in Limsa Lominscuttle, though I did not find the cats. Seems they like to run off after delivering people.” He declared them as he landed, getting a cheer from Rika and an ”oh cool” from Jr in response to his news.

”He seemed a little down but was otherwise ok and said for us to, ehe hem, ‘be wary out there. It’s a cruel sea, and I’m not cut out for it anymore.’ also to ‘Take care of Shippy. Old tu… old girls as good a companion I could ever ask’” he added, relaying Brinybear’s words mostly unfiltered before adding ”Oh also that he’d make sure that there’d be a ‘proper celebration’ for when we get back” and that got a cheer out of Jr.

”Now then, please tell me you’ve left something for me to eat I am famished” he finished, before eagerly taking a helping of all of the various fruit dishes on offer, giving his compliments to the chef after savoring each one.

Magic was hungry work after all.

Once he’d had his fill he popped off a message via moogle to Vandham to update him on the situation, and to send someone to notify the Houndmaster as well, just to let them both know if they were curious and so that they didn't need to keep an eye out any more.

Mr. L was readying up a rant about how the Count is so much better than some witch, robots, aliens, boos, alien-robots, and eldritch living shadows....? For some reason? It's not important but honestly sometimes his thoughts veer to strange places. It is incredibly stupid, really, but hey at least the L-ster has as good of a good laugh at his own thoughts as he would at Dimentio's dumb face. But the little memo...

Hm-mm-mm... Yeah, there, isn't that better? Welcome on board, Mr... L? Signing up took a little more work but with your skills I'll slide you right in with the senior staff. With the enthusiasm you showed you'll do just fine. But don't worry, I'll make sure you get the memo for any updates on compliance with your new workspace, K?

Its time to read the memo, K?
You weren't around for the grand finale. I crushed him, a stash, and the chaos heart. Then the sadhat left to date something and left all his minions adrift. Looks like you mattered least. No one even bothered to tell you he retired. Don't give lip or you'll regret it.
Memo received.

"Dimentio did what." Mr. L grounds out. "They all did what?! I go out to help wreck you would-be wreckers and instead that stupid Harlequin goes and ruins everything? And they don't even have the nerve to let the minions on the road that the plan got wrecked?! Incazzato! After all the time I put in, all that effort... Just tossed aside? How... How..."

He can't breathe. The Count had promised... Everyone had promised... Everything would be better if they worked hard and supported Count Bleck... and the others including the Count himself just give up after a few hours?! Thanks to that Dimented double-crossing creep? L's not the best minion, he knows that, the role of top minion to the Count is Miss Nastasia. But its not like he's one of those mindless mooks or even a traitor like Dimentio! Che... If they're going to treat him like this maybe he should start looking for work elsewhere. Anywhere else. ... Maybe not with this Koopa kreep but it would serve those cretini right if he did.

"I cannot believe this. I don't suppose you have any idea where they are so I can give them a piece of my mind?" The masked man pauses and then corrects himself. "Even if you did, this whole... thing would put that to the side for the time being."

Contrary to his earlier aggressive behavior, Mr. L has completely turned around and is either affecting a more neutral tone or is genuinely no longer attacking the koopa king. "So what are you up to with all these mooks? That blue guy said something about fish and... what, there's no towns here or something? Or are you already in hot water and unable to actually buy or take what you need? Sure its a little more busy than most dimensions I've seen but its not like you don't already have the numbers to handle it all." Here a little sly grin makes the man in black's mustache twitch. "Or don't you got any professionals in underhanded acquisitions? Of goods, not princesses of course."

Primrose was sat snugly in the corner of the passenger car, arms folded together and one leg crossed over the other. She passed the time on the train much the same way she had during the first leg of the ride: thinking to herself. Although this time her attention moved to the windows every now and then, watching for any sudden signs of danger. The desert was empty and showed no obstacles in their way, just the distant silhouette of the city - and further, the mountain that was their ultimate destination. Primrose was content to sit in silence while others chatted around her. She contemplated the relationship between everyone in the group, and how despite all of them meeting just the day before it already felt like there was a bond between them beyond their mission. They hardly knew each other, as was pointed out during the earlier argument, but the strong sense of camaraderie was perhaps what sparked the argument in the first place.

'That is the case when people fight side by side.' She could hear the voice of Olberic in her thoughts, bringing her back to that night in Victors Hollow. The eight of them had eaten their fill, some having drank their fill too, and helped each other stumble to the inn after the celebration of the new champion. The knight in question slunk off at some point, and Primrose found him seated on a stone wall overlooking the road out of town.

She remembered asking him, after he'd gotten the information he'd come for, why he cared so much for someone who'd betrayed him. She knew that he was seeking out that man not for vengeance, but for understanding, and she couldn't wrap her head around that. Olberic was quiet for a while before he explained that those who fought together, lived and died together, shared something with each other and formed a bond through battle. As a knight, he was well experienced with it.

'Whether you fight against someone or beside, you will grow to know them well, and quickly,' he said, though there was an edge in voice. It always came back around that he hadn't known Erhardt quite as well as he thought he had.

The memory faded as the train pulled into an oasis. Al Mamoon was still ahead, though much closer now. Primrose sighed and exited only to fill her waterskin and quickly wash her face and tidy her hair. She couldn't help but note what looked like a big lemon slice in the oasis before she reboarded.

As the train pulled into Al Mamoon (and again Primrose stared hard at the giant milk jug architecture as soon as she noticed it), the dancer was again filled with the soft feeling of familiarity. The city was similar to Marsalim, enough so that she wasn't overwhelmed by the sight of it. The giant skull adorning what had to be the Cowlipha's palace was surprising, but otherwise this was the most familiar looking place besides the desert itself that Primrose had seen since waking up in the Alcamoth. She hummed to herself, encouraged.

She disembarked, dusting herself off as she did so. Gnorbu offered to guide them, and while it would be nice she didn't think it was strictly necessary. While the daylight shone it wouldn't be that hard to find their way back to the open plazas if one of them got lost - or to find each other, given how much the group at large stood out.

Primrose glanced around the area, following Poppi out of the station and into the warm streets of the city proper. Behind them, Yoshitsune begged to be led to a blacksmith and Midna warned him about the need for money. In her own bag she had some leaves and that chunk of topaz that would be good to trade with, so she assumed others might have similar currency with them. Primrose turned to the sorry sight of Yoshitsune following Midna's warning.

"There are plenty of ways to make money in a city like this," she told him, on the off chance he was as strange as a certain apothecary she knew and didn't travel with any money. Then Midna and Red went off to spar with each other, the later off-handedly mentioning something Primrose thought was pretty important. She blinked, but the two were off in a hurry. Primrose looked at Poppi, nodding her head in the direction Red went in. "I think that may be where we get those answers. The one that rules this area, the Cowlipha. If anyone would know..."

Now Primrose had a choice, she could go straight to the Cowlipha's palace and get right down to business, or... she could explore the city a little. Honestly she was more inclined towards the second option. If it wasn't going to be often that they ran into a regular city like this, then they should take advantage of it while they were here. With all those trains coming and going, Al Mamoon must be a hub for goods both local and foreign, maybe they could pick up something useful. Primrose didn't have the expert merchant eye that Tressa did, but she did alright for herself.

"I'm going to have a look around," Primrose said. She fussed with her clothes as she spoke, making sure everything looked nice. She undid her hood and tucked it in her bag, though she opted to keep the veil on. The sheer black cloth matched well with her gloves, and gave off an air of mystery. That would work well for her. She had a certain skill set that she was hoping to employ here that would be able to help them all out - or at the very least it would help her out. Once satisfied, Primrose looked directly at the remaining women in their group (that weren't flying saucers): Poppi, Panther, and Sectonia. "Perhaps visit the market. It's... nice to have company while browsing," she finished with, a subtle and surprisingly coy invitation from the dancer to join her if they wanted.

With Sectonia's antillions riding Midna's wolfos, things should go smoothly for their lost commrades. The antillions would also make the desert trip fairly easy for their lost allies if they were found, thanks to their chilling magic. That was actually the reason why Sectonia kept the 5th ice antillion for herself, to use as a portable AC as they rode the train towards their destination. The only person in the compartment when Sectonia arrived was Premise. Sectonia, unlike Midna, wasn't so sure on what this girl did all things considered. What she did know was she used magic via dancing, an odd way of doing it, but magic isn't something not anyone can grasp so those who can grasp it in the way they can.

As they traveled there were various ruins and such littered across the desert. She was glad they didn't have to bother with those, being out in this wasteland wasn't her idea of a good time. At one point they all stopped at an Oasis, apparently the last stop before their last stop at this 'town' everyone kept mentioning. Sectiona used this pit stop to stock their water supplies back up as Tora seemed to find a pet version of himself. "Tora, take care of your new little you now!" Sectiona said, giving a giggle as she made her way back to the train, having done what she was interested in doing here.

After their little visit to the oasis, it didn't take them long to find their way to the town itself. Midna seemed to be surprised that they ran into an actual town, while Sectonia knew better having been to Lumbridge. Poppi was ready to get going to their next stop, with the mountains themselves being very close now while others wanted to go shopping and yet others, namely Midna and Red, began sparring, Midna using this opportunity to cleanse the galeem eyes from Red. Sectonia gave her opinion on what they should all do, chiming in with what everyone else was saying. "So, new town. If its anything like the last one, shopping would be a good idea before that mountain." Sectonia said. "We will use what we have collected to barter. There might be something we can all use." she continued, offering to take anyone else shopping with her as she grabbed their loot from the Phantom Thieves. "I'm sure our samurai could use a nice sword, and considering the strange parts we found on that camel, Tora might find something useful as well." With all that being said, Sectonia followed Premise to the markets, looking for magic items in particular, but keeping in mind stuff the others could find useful.

He stood quietly in the corner of the passenger car where a few of the others were currently engaged in conversation, however Laharl was disinterested in whatever Fox and his new companion Sly were talking about yet someone who did interest the young demon was the mercenary that spoke rarely, so he listened closely whenever Red did speak.

Laharl had his arms crossed while he leaned his back to the wall of the passenger car, his gaze withering to anyone who looked his way yet his sights were set on the mercenary after a time and his glare was that of curiosity rather than contempt.

It seemed though that the others were off to do their own things and paid him little mind as they went off to explore the sprawling city. Laharl watched them act like friends and speak to each other as though they were equals, but how could they act as a group without a proper leader? He had no clue, although Fox seemed to be the groups unofficial leader but in the young demons eyes Fox didn't look strong physically which in Laharl's opinion was the most important factor for any leader to have.

Yet the way things work here seemed greatly different from what he was used to so all the boy could do was shrug it off, despite his feelings currently he had to accept that the group wouldn't accept the leadership of someone like Laharl. But he wanted to be in charge, it felt wrong to not have others heed his commands! As he stepped out of the passenger car he gritted his teeth watching as the others simply left without a word, yet again leaving him alone with his doubts and desires gnawing at his conscience.

Laharl not wanting to be left behind found himself walking at a brisk pace as he trailed the group from afar. It hurt him that they didn't even ask if he had wanted to come with them, especially so that Primrose seemed to have completely forgotten about him. It was ironically the opposite as he had been so self-absorbed that he missed the groups words prior to leaving, so in fact it wasn't out of disrespect he had been left behind but actually his own ignorance.

Sakura's food gathering expedition with Peach and Rika turned out to be a lot of fun. It really took her mind off things. This place was so unaffected by the war. She felt bad for feeling better already, but that felt like a stupid thing to feel bad about. Shaking away these confusing thoughts, Sakura followed the classic video game princess to their destination.

Sakura balked a little, putting her student bag over her shoulder. "Um...heheh. Guess we won't be needing that. That's the biggest pineapple I've ever seen in my whole life." She said.

Sakura giggled as Peach forgot she could walk on water.

When it came down to her turn to pick some fruit, she tore off a junk of pineapple and bit into it. "Wow! It's really sweet. And not dirty at all, which is crazy cuz its just been sitting here." Sakura ditched the big piece of pineapple and went over to the watermelon. She karate chopped a big slice off and held it over her shoulder by the crust.

"Watermelon!" She held it over her head victoriously. "Yattaze." She said proudly to herself.

She set the watermelon down on the ground at the campfire crust down, so everyone could eat it. "Uoooh, sugoi! Good job everyone!" She set, placing her hands on her hips. Cadet and Link had set up a campfire. This Galeemified guy had borrowed some bananas from a monkey (Sakura liked him already) and Link had gotten fish. Geralt was...still big. Nadia was making cat puns. Blazermate was making her zombies do weird things. Bella and Ranger were taking part, too. Peach had brought her fruit, and Nadia was making cat puns. Shippy was there, and that kid with the Hat was around, too. Everyone was here! Except...well. Brineybeard.

Sakura crossed her legs and sat down. She slapped her palms together and bowed."Itadakimasu!" She shouted.

With that, she began eating her portion of what was gathered. The fruit was delicious, as fresh as could possibly be. "This is way better than store bought." She said.

Kamek arrived with good news. Sakura's face lit up and she went to cheer happily. Instead a watermelon seed got caught in her throat. "WOO- clughf-khkek-... ptoo!" She wiped her mouth. She moved on, undeterred. "Woohoo! That is awesome news! Those cats are amazing!" She shot both of her hands up in a peace signs.

Sakura stood to her feet. "Hey, Bowser, Mr. L, shut up a minute, wouldja?" She asked in a polite but blunt way that left no room for argument.

Holding a piece of watermelon in her hand like it was a cup, Sakura cleared her throat. "I know today really sucked. But we're one step closer to our goal of kicking Galeem's butt. But with Brineybeard alive and wishing us well, the Seekers are doing okay." She took a quick bite out of the red and green fruit in her gloved hand.

"I just- I just think you guys are really great. I've known some fantastic heroes in my time and you guys are really up there with them. So when we beat up Galeem and everyone goes home, it'll be good to know that those places have got you guys watchin' out for 'em." She smiled and tried to subtly take another bite. When she realised a lot of eyes were on her she became embarassed.

"Uh. So. Yeah. A fruit toast to the good guys. I just wish we had music for our party." She concluded and sat back down at her spot in the campfire. "Hehe..." Hopefully someone else said a few words so she didn't feel so awkward. Someone better at speeches, maybe.

The Cadet left Shippy with a wave, leaving her to deal with the two boisterous acquaintances still arguing on deck. He made his way back to the fire finding that Link, Nadia, and Jr. had joined them, the former with a decent haul of weirdly shaped fish. The Cadet settled down next to them, eyeing the soon-to-be-food curiously.

"Huh. No pelvic or pectoral fins," he commented, picking up one that had strange cord-like appendages going from it's face it it's tail. He wondered how well they actually swam, but that wasn't as important as how they tasted. He laid the fish back down and took to manning the spit. The cooking was going well once they got into a rhythm. Most of the fish were passed back to Link so he could skewer them, a few of the smaller ones the Cadet tossed to the two baby Behemoths, though whatever Tyrant refused to eat BB was more than happy to scoop into it's mouth. The Cadet was content to cook fish and laugh at taste testing jokes until the others returned, which ended up not being too long after.

"Groovios, nice finds!" Those giant hunks of fruit looked fresh and delicious - and who didn't love bananas? Once the ladies (and the new guy in goggles) rested the fruit on the leaves Nadia laid out, the Cadet didn't think twice about cutting off a few chunks for himself. "Well yeah, it's got apple in the name," Ace Cadet chuckled after Link. Taking Nadia's advice he stuck a piece onto a few recently vacant skewers, setting them up near the flame. Once cooked he handed a few off people around the fire. The fruit was nice as is, but it didn't compare at all to what the Hylian cooked up once he returned. The hunter ate with his usual voraciousness, but mindful of their limited stock and the many large mouths to feed. This kind of easy, tight-knit meal was really nice after the chaotic and life-threatening battle earlier that morning. Everyone seemed to be breathing a little easier, even if Bowser and the masked guy were still trading words. The Cadet considered calling out to them with something like, Hey, don't you guys want to come eat something? but though it seemed to be winding down their conversation was so fast paced and confusing that he left them alone. Plus it sounded like the mustached man just called them all mooks. Which, ouch. ...actually the Ace Cadet didn't know what a 'mook' was, but the way the guy said it made it sound less than pleasant.

Then came the question posed by Blazermate of what their plan was from there. They knew, roughly, the path they should take to get to the Bottomless Sea. If he recalled, it was almost right on the other side of this island, and they should see it once they followed the river back out to sea. The thought of going back into battle made the red head shiver in an unfamiliar way. Anticipation maybe? At least this time, if what they'd heard about the Bottomless Sea was true, the enemies they'd find there would be more up his alley. So the Cadet nodded around a final mouthful of banana at Jr.'s simple suggestion; just keep on moving.

He swallowed and cut a look towards the man they'd found on the beach - or who'd found them as it were. He'd noted that some of the other man's wording kind of hinted towards that. If the Cadet looked carefully he could tell the guy seemed 'out of place' in the area, which wasn't that unusual given, well, everything about the world of light. He also seemed dressed for adventure, and carried one of those mini bowguns. He definitely wanted to come along, right?

"Were you gonna come with us?" he asked, "Apparently it's pretty dangerous, but if you're alright with that... uh...?" The Cadet flapped his hand in a circle, struggling to remember if the man said his name already. If he had, the monster hunter was probably to distracted to have caught it. "Sorry, didn't get your name. I'm the Ace Cadet, by the way." He gave the man a smile. This smile brightened only a little later when Kamek made his return and immediately gave them the good news.

"Really?!" The Cadet jumped to his feet, excited. The cats came through again! "Oh my wrog, that's gargwawesome!" It didn't seem like the old Koopa had actually made contact with them, so the Cadet would have to think of a way to talk to them and ask them a few questions. It would be tough if they only showed up in the most dire of straits. He'd never known a felyne to be particularly shy, but apparently these ones were. Relief passed over pretty much everyone, and Sakura even stood up to say some pretty touching words.

"Aw, Sakura," the Cadet beamed at her, reaching over to pick up a slice of watermelon to join in with her fruit toast. Raising up the piece of fruit looked a bit silly but hey, in the absence of mugs he did it anyway. "Couldn't agree more. To us! We're gonna get it done."

The scene at the newly set up spit was a peaceful one, even as Bowser and Mr. L bickered about some grudge the two carried from some previous adventure. Geralt didn't find himself caring all that much about their petty grievances, though, and as the others gathered various foodstuffs, the gargantuan Witcher helped set up the less delicate bits of their meal. The yellow-suited gentleman they'd encountered soon returned with a veritable horde of bananas, and Geralt gave a soft smile that didn't seem to quite fit his face. "Well, Mirage, thank you for that."

Soon, Peach and her fellow ladies also returned with a haul of pineapple and watermelon, helping to round out their meal further. Choice would only make their respite more enjoyable. However, it was the news that Kamek returned with that brightened the mood the most. Brineybeard had survived his close encounter with the deep blue, and was drinking his sorrows away back in town. Of course, the news could have been better, but the man was alive. Healing the emotional wounds that were obvious in the message Kamek relayed would take time, time the Seekers simply did not have. Perhaps once they returned and he reunited with Shippy he would feel differently. Perhaps one of them could even give him a Shipgirl's Spirit if they found it did not suit them.

"Kamek, you've done as all a great service. Please, sit with us, rest, and enjoy our meal. We've one harsh battle behind us, but still have more to come." Saying this, he continued his own meal, still getting used to the whole 'Giant' thing. Looking over at Shippy, he smiled again.

He was glad. Things were looking up, for once. The only problem was that the inevitable crash might just hurt even more now.

---

For the most part, these folks had been pretty nice so far. Mirage wasn't quite sure why Link looked so suspicious of the bananas like they were rigged to explode or something, and grew even more confused as he asked his questions. Suspicious people? News flash to Mister 'Suddenly My Hands Are Fine', but he's the guy on the living ship commanded by a sharply dressed turtle-squid-man along with an entire circus worth of weirdos. Sassy thoughts aside, Mirage shook his head as a starting response. "Uh, no? Don't think so. I saw some weird dinosaurs draped in leaves and sentient ice cream, though." Realizing the absurdity of his claim, he shiftily looked away, eyes half-lidded. "I wish that second part was a joke." He said dryly, the topic quickly changing to Link wanting some of the banana hoard. "Knock yourself out, they're for everybody after all!"

He brought his enthusiasm back in spades, confidence flowing again as he wandered over with the man to watch him cook. Mirage personally didn't know how to cook much aside from his family's signature Pork Chop recipe, but he could see the talent behind what was being done with these fruits. With a light request to dig in, he decided to reward his labor by trying out some of the roasted bananas Link made. His cocky smile melted into bliss, the man speechless as he began eating after the effort put in from the trip. He wasn't a huge seafood guy, but he definitely wanted some sort of meat to go with the fruit as well, though he made sure to not be grubby as he had plenty of fruit to bide him later if need be. He distracted himself by observing his surroundings, noting that King Bowser was still roasting that angry midget. Jeez, they were really causing a mood whiplash here, and though The King surely needed to put a commoner in his place or whatever, it was really unpleasant.

... Almost as unpleasant as the zombies. He watched one attempt to do a backflip with surprisingly efficiency until it bunked the landing. Ouch, at least this made them seem a lot more harmless. This was around the same time his eyes caught view of what he thought he hallucinated earlier; A man who was HUGE. And he had a horn on his head. A giant, hulking unicorn guy... What the hell. He would've said something, but the big man spoke first; Thanking him for the food he brought back. His nerves about the man suddenly calmed, he knew quite a giant himself who had just about the most jolly and bright disposition he'd ever seen. It should've taught him to not fear someone just because of their height. "Hey, not a problem. Ah- Didn't get your name, big guy..." He commented awkwardly, though not in an offensive manner. He just genuinely wasn't sure who the big man was, but wasn't about to disregard his friendliness.

He listened in at what else was going on, specifically that green midget calling everyone 'Mooks'. Now, he was familiar with mooks. He knew a mook. A grunt of the IMC, but one of the best competitors in the Apex Games. If she was what being a mook was, then that was acceptable enough for him. But not specifically from some lanky-yet-short stached jerk. Though Bowser seemed to be putting him through a bit of turmoil, or it seems the guy got betrayed in some manner. Mirage decided it'd be best to cut the dude a break personally, though he wouldn't say anything to the man himself at the moment as he was still gleaming with attitude.

Mirage was surprised with the noisy activity that someone had approached him directly, the young man surprising Mirage a bit but not in a bad way. He offered a wide grin, the question of coming along with them was such a casual one and the man could hardly contain himself at the opportunity, even with the danger presented. "Come along? Well, uh," He stumbled over his words, noting that they didn't even know each-other's names. He introduced himself as the Ace Cadet, and Mirage thought that was kind of a mouthful, but he'd figure out nicknames later. "Mirage, good to meet'cha." He introduced himself for what felt like the third time today, though that wasn't a bad thing. Not like everyone was just magically eavesdropping on all of his conversations. Right? "Heck, I've seen quite a bit of danger with my Guild work, so why not? If you guys are going to the Bottomless Sea to stop some bad news, you could probably use a few extra hands on deck, right? I've heard nothing but scary stuff about that place."

This carried off to some old guy seemingly poofing in from nowhere, and declaring some guy named Grimy-Bread was alive, or something? He noticed that girl from earlier getting excited, along with Ace Cadet, and a few others he hadn't even met yet. That girl that called out to him from the boat seemed to start a sort of toast in the honor of Grimy-Bread, and Mirage almost jumped into the celebration, though her words stopped him cold. His mind tried to process her words, finding himself losing his confident composure momentarily, before he snapped back into it. That must've been the name of a pirate crew or something super dangerous at the Bottomless Sea, and home was whatever region of the world they'd came from, yeah? Man, thinking they came from all walks of life sure was interesting. Maybe one of those regions held answers to where his mom was? He pushed back his thoughts, instead raising what was left of his own fruit with a grin.

"I don't quite get the whole Seeker thing, but a friend ending up alive is definitely a reason to celebrate, yeah?" There's that bombastic Mirage! Yeah! He just needed to keep that up. "To your guy's friend, and hopefully a safe voyage through the Bottomless Sea!"

Mirage laughed in his own head, a bead of sweat he could use the fire as an excuse for going down his forehead. Ahah, right... They say nothing short of horrible things about that place. Who knows what the hell's out there...?

Gnorbu seemed more terrified by Yoshitsune’s prostration than anything, totally unprepared for the passion the man attached to his broken blade. “O-oh, uh…” Suddenly put on the spot, he racked his brains trying to remember if the desert city featured a foundry that might suit the pleading man’s needs. The residents of Parnasse, after all, never needed weapons or armor, but even if he didn’t frequent such an establishment Gnorbu felt he knew the lay of the land well enough to say. When Midna opened up the subject of money she and those that chimed in bought Gnorbu a little time to think, and in that period he did manage to recollect a pertinent location. “Yes, I think there was a place. On the thoroughfare, by the guardhouse. Open-air, with lots of weapons lying around. Can’t miss it!” He certainly hoped that Yoshitsune would be able to deal with whatever left him so distraught.

While his comrades talked about money and shopping, Tora had more of a mind for machines. Until today he had never seen a train, but after arriving in this station the Nopon just about found himself overwhelmed by choice. There were trains of all sorts arrayed between the platforms, from boxy green to brightly lit to actually just wood, but he quickly fixated on just one--one that made the rest look like toys. “Mehmehmeh!?” With wide eyes he waddled toward the central platform, alongside which rested an utter monstrosity of a locomotive. Though housed snugly within the bright, glass-domed atrium of the station, it boasted a height greater than most buildings, and its raw metal made for a sharp contrast against the checkered tile and intricately-carved sandstone around it. The hulking central chassis, from which a massive cannon protruded with singular menace, lay behind not one but two locomotives on two different tracks and spanned the gap between them. Suddenly, the tracks running in parallel across the desert took on a new meaning in Tora’s mind; he’d assumed that they merely facilitated traffic in both directions simultaneously. Of course, the tracks interested him far less than the gun. As rusted and disused as the behemoth engine seemed to be, he could think of no better weapon to put to use against the equally massive boss of the Sandswept Sky.



As such, he pitter-pattered over to an officious-looking person with palpable excitement. At first the stranger seemed to be a sort of yellow bird in a black uniform and hat, but when he spoke into his handheld radio and revealed a wide, jagged mouth in the process, Tora was less certain, and the not-bird spoke with a thick accent to boot that almost reminded him of Nia’s. Nevertheless he waited for his soon-to-be friend to finish his conversation, bouncing with energy all the while. “Hello, hello!” Tora called as soon as the Conductor looked his way. “Tora new here. What is super wow-wow amazing machine!?”

“Oh, this?” The Conductor waved his hand at the locomotive. “Sure this Railway Gun might look impressive, but it’s nothin’ but a bloody eyesore. Just a mountain of ugly metal, ‘eavier than the palace itself most like. Can’t run it, can’t even move it. ‘Ad to put a cork in just to make the wee babies happy.”

Sure enough, the aptly-named Railway Gun’s main cannon featured a comically large cork wedged in its barrel, which Tora guessed came from one of the milk-jug towers. Though the sight made him giggle, it was the least of his concerns. “Why?” he asked.

Shrugging, the Conductor told him, “It’s just peckin’ broken, is why. Not a soul in the city who can make ’eads or tails of the bleedin’ thing, with all its doohickies ‘n thingamabobs, let alone fix it. Like somethin’ straight outta science fiction.”

Tora’s eyes shone as he spoke without the slightest hesitation. “If Tora can fix it, can Tora take it?”

The Conductor released a noise of utter shock, somewhere between a laugh and a cough. “W-wot!?” he hacked out after a moment. “Ya just...you...ya serious?”

“Yes, yes!” The Nopon confirmed. “Tora submit as evidence: this unflinching eye contact!”

Several seconds of unflinching eye contact passed before the Conductor wilted, convinced that the round furry thing before him spoke the truth. “Bloody peck, you sure don’t beat aroun’ the bush, do ya lad? Well, uh...” As ridiculous as an offer it was to come out of the blue, he attempted to think it over. “Weeeell...I’m sure the city wants it gone, obstructin’ the tracks ‘n bein’ scary ‘n all. But it ain’t mine or anything, it’s crown property. Ya’d ‘ave to ask Her Moojesty, and I bet she ain’t gonna let people she doesn’t trust ‘ave a weapon like that.”

Still quite serious-looking, Tora ran over his options in his mind, then gave a sagacious nod. “Okay, meh. In that case, Tora start fixing while friends go get Cowlipha trust.” He turned back over to the group. “Thanks!”

“Yer...welcome?” the Conductor muttered as he waved Tora off, not entirely sure he hadn’t made some kind of serious mistake.

Tora skidded to a stop a moment later among the others. He couldn’t see Red and Midna anywhere, but that wasn’t about to stop him. “Okay, Tora have plan! Tora ask funnytalkypon Conductor man about giant gun train, meh! It belong to big queenypon, but she not want it, so Tora going to try to fix it up. If friends can convince queenypon to give it, we have both way across rest of desert and huuuuge weapon for boss fight!” He danced around like a Nopon possessed, so jazzed about the marvel of engineering that he couldn’t contain himself.

Poppi tempered her expectations. Gesturing to Primrose, Panther, and Sectonia, she told him, “That seem like good plan, but Poppi not think we just waltz in and ask permission. Plus, it probably take long time to fix train.” She said this while looking at the Railway Gun herself, noting its size. Hopefully whatever made it inoperative was small-scale, otherwise ‘long time’ was probably too generous. “Rest of us going to explore city and do shopping for now. Maybe we get more familiar with Al Mamoon during trip, figure out way to earn Cowlipha favor.” It was a simple suggestion, and not at all definitive, but she thought it sound. Tora wasted no time agreeing.

For her part Panther, currently decked out in her normal-looking but somewhat ill-fitting ‘civilian disguise’, was both happy to be going on a shopping trip and glad that it would serve another purpose toward the overall campaign. “Sa-weet!” She walked between Primrose and Poppi and put an arm around their shoulders. “Alright girls, let’s get it on!”

---

Finding the marketplace was easy, for it very much wanted to be found. Its clamor could be heard even over the hammers and furnaces of the foundry. The entire eastern section of Al Mamoon was an open-air forum, walled into six courts with the far-middle one dominated by a statue-topped temple. Inside its confines the most prestigious and well-to-do shops did their business in shady luxuriance, but most of the trade occurred in the rows of stalls, carts, and shops set up both within and along the sides of the courts. Poppi’s sensors observed such a profundity of color, noise, and movement in the first court alone that she struggled to take it all in, so rather than try she digested the sight one bit at a time.

If the first court was anything to go by, Al Mamoon’s marketplace was truly matchless in variety. Poppi noticed an aged adventurer’s shop along the right front wall, positioned so favorably possibly due to age. Its bearded keeper sold cloudy Spider Venom, ruby-red Rodent Blood, murky Golem Tears, a Book of the Sun, the enigmatic Feather of the Squinting Shrimp, a lopped-off Monster Toe, a paired set of katars, a slingshot, and a rapier of fine craft. Opposite him sat a humble Goron Shop, offering arrows, lamp oil, shields, and hot springwater. Close by, Rhon Ron’s Eatery offered a number of exotic foods, including jars of honey-glazed worms, loaves of mushbread, spicy sides of lizard meat, and skewers of chewy, mixed morsels. Its fluffy-tailed, beady-eyes keeper waved at the prospective shoppers, eager for their custom. Naturally the other stores in the first court wanted it just as badly, none more than Raj’s Curry Pot, a cart offering less exotic but still more than flavorful fare. Poppi also spotted an assorted items stand for conventional goods, the storefront for Hee Ho Mart with its fried food on display, and a curious stall with all sorts of commodities right by a pawn shop run by a hat-wearing man.

“Oh...my...goodness!” Panther practically squealed. Her attention flew all over the place, spinning her around enough that her pigtails and new snake tail whipped back and forth. Unfortunately, reality eventually caught up with her, and her elation faded. “Oh man, it sucks having no money. We totally should have stopped at those ruins to find some treasure or something.” Her eyes landed on the pawn shop. “If we do have anything to sell, we could try that place though.”

Following that line of logic, Poppi tried to think of something to sell. Everyone left most of their random junk lying in the ruins where they sheltered yesterday evening, and the artificial blade had nothing of her own to offer. Then again… “Maybe Poppi can use elemental core to make ice. Must be valuable in desert, since climbing up Freezeezy Peak dangerous.” She tapped a finger to the side of her chin. “Or...maybe Poppi earn money cleaning away sand with wind core.” The sort of methods that Primrose might favor hadn’t so much as crossed her innocent mind, despite being more than well equipped in QT Pi form, as the stares that followed her throughout Al Mamoon could attest. There were many establishments the shoppers could visit, and after the journey they’d experienced so far, a shocking amount of people around as well.



Fish, watermelon, pineapple, and now bananas--in these circumstances, Nadia couldn’t have asked for a better feast. A full-bodied laugh after Link hurled away his Boomerangfish had done her more good than he might have guessed, but she wasn’t about to follow his example with her own portion. Still, he seemed to have a plan in mind for the fruit, so she focused on the seafood first. She took a good look at the specimen on her skewer, the kind that sported a single giant eye that dominated its body. With only a little trepidation she sampled its roasted flesh, and as she chewed found herself unable to form a clear impression. It wasn’t bad, and it was certainly fish, but quite unlike any she’d ever tasted before. Without any preparation other than cooking it didn’t offer much in the way of flavor, but it seemed okay. Only when she sampled the protein-rich eye did she come away surprised. Turned to a flan-like consistency by the fire and given a crispy skin, it was both tasty in a meaty sort of way and surprisingly dense. In only a few more moments the Peeper was just scaly niblets on bone, and Nadia tossed the scraps into the fire.

At about that time Link finished his simmered fruit, and Nadia helped herself. True to her pronouncement, the act of cooking unlocked the fruity flavors, making each bite that much tangier and sweeter. “Ah, that’s nice,” she remarked between bites. With Sakura, Cadet, and even Peach sharing her relish, the gathering around the campfire was a jovial one full of camaraderie and good cheer, although the mood did not go uncontested. Bowser and the new guy -of the short and masked variety- seemed to know one another, and quarreled with a difficult-to-ignore viciousness. Nadia also tried to shut out the grotesque antics of Blazermate’s abominations to the best of her ability, but the medabot -no doubt bored and excluded due to her inability to eat- quickly cut in to talk business.

At the moment those enjoying the meal together were not quite done, however, so Peach answered for all of them. “We’ll sail to the Bottomless Sea naturally, but there’s no need to rush. For now, let’s enjoy this moment of peace.”

Nadia tapped her finger against her nose. “Couldn’t’ve said it better myself. Right now I’m not fin-ished, so the plan’s to try another fish.” And so she did. While she worked her way through it, pulling the meat from the bones with her teeth, the Cadet extended banana-man an invitation to join the crew. Nodding excitedly, the feral gulped down her fish and added, “Yeah, if you’re willin’ to hike for like twenty minutes to grab total strangers some grub, you’re alright! They call me Ms. Fortune.” To both her and Cadet’s delight the stranger accepted, introducing himself as Mirage. It was a mysterious nickname for a guy who seemed like a goof through and through, but no doubt even the most normal-looking fellow had some tricks up his sleeve to make it this far. Nadia wondered how he’d react when she played a card or two of her own.

Toward the end of the meal, Kamek reappeared to punctuate the shared meal with something a lot sweeter than dessert. Nadia’s face lit up when she learned that Brineybeard survived. “Hell yeah! Guess that means our crews didn’t lose a soul!” On purpose she made her sentiment as paw-sitive as could be. The others didn’t need a refresher from her about the shipgirls whose lives the battles claimed. Luckily, the positivity train didn’t end there either, because Sakura had something to say. After shooting Bowser and L a well-deserved suggestion the martial artist gave the best motivational speech she could muster, and it fit her perfectly. Straightforward, whole-hearted, and a little shortsighted--after all, Nadia noted with a wry chuckle, she spoke as if the day was over. There was a lot that could still happen today, given their ominous destination. But Sakura was right in that this was a good bunch. If anyone could do it after escaping that awful battle, it was them.

She joined the toast with a roasted banana in place of a cup. “To the good guys! Whoever the bad guys are, they’re gonna be sorry they screwed with us.”

Over the next few minutes the last portions got divided up, and everyone who felt like it got a few more moments to chat and relax. Bella in particular exhibited a radiant joy, endlessly eager to hear about the others and their lives, absorbing all these things she’d never known and happy to prompt the others for more. Nadia ended up describing her home of Little Innsmouth, that quaint port city built around the changing tides, its coral chimneys and jellyfish lanterns, and the culture of the Dagonian people who’d accepted a feral into their midst. It was a lovely time. All the same, this communal tranquility could not last forever, however much those present might want it to. Nadia knew she wasn’t alone in wishing that this moment could last just a little longer, but they’d had all the rest and food they needed, and it was time to go.

Everyone made their way back to the ships in due course. Nadia stopped to grab and re-fasten the harness-belt she’d left by the lakeside, and once she’d climbed back aboard Shippy, she reattached her rigging as well. Once back in place the mechanical arms sprang to life, extensions of her body once more, and she bade them fold back up into compact, shield-like formations along her hips. The only leftovers from the meal took the form of bananas, stowed for the journey ahead in Shippy’s hold. They would travel easily and keep well, provided that their foray into the Bottomless Sea didn’t compare to actual sailing trips in terms of time. Without Brineybeard to steer the ship, Peach took the helm. “All aboard!” she called, despite that being something said for trains. “Okay Shippy, let’s go!”

“Yes, ma’am!” The vessel said, and she heaved into motion. Shippy cut through the lake, giving both the Ukazeer and the geyser both a suitably wide berth, and made for the opposite river. The moment that Shippy hit it she began to accelerate, since the river flowed downhill. With a wild grin Nadia tightened her grip on the forward railing, and like a log in a flume Shippy sped downward through the Luma pools. As the fantastical scenery sped by, Nadia did her best to etch it into her memory. When this was all over, she’d have to come back here someday.

---

The cruise through the Luma Pools passed without incident. Though plenty of animals appeared throughout water, tree, land, and sky, none troubled the vessel that so fleetingly traversed their domain. All too soon, the paradise started to give way. As Shippy forged onward the vivid aquamarine blue that suffused the place started to turn darker and darker, and overhead the sparse altocumuluses visible through the pink-palm canopy turned into a moody cloud cover. When at last the forest came to an end and the river turned into a delta of black sand, the heroes drifted across a beach strewn with the carcasses of sea creatures from crabs to whales, and those of things they couldn’t identify. When they looked ahead, they saw a dark sky over a stormy sea.



Thunder rolled across the ocean as the heavens swirled in a monumental vortex. Nadia swinted, trying to make out the pivotal point of the incomprehensible storm, but it lay too far to the north. Even from this distance, she could tell that the sea tossed and turned every bit as feverishly as the sky. Though details were difficult to make out in the general atmospheric haze, she imagined horrifying waves, walls of water many times higher than Shippy herself. Suddenly she doubted that the shrunken craft could make the trip, but everyone couldn’t exactly cram aboard the Atomos, either. Minute one in the Bottomless Sea, and they already had a problem.

Rather than get too distracted by that Nadia gazed out over the water again, and this time she could also make out some sort of greenish structure rising from the sea a few miles out, from which a yellow beacon emanated to light up the surrounding clouds. “Hey, maybe we should sail for that thing? We can probably reach it before the storm!” she called. A moment later the ship passed the end of the beach, and the ocean floor abruptly ended. Taken aback, Nadia ran to the back of the boat and peered into the water. “No way…” A sheer face of rock stared back at her from below the surface. As best she could tell, the land just ended, whether as beach or cliff, and infinite water began. While looking into the sea she also happened to see and audibly scoff at the sight of sharks forming up around the ship already. “Come on, already!?” She shook her head and warned the others, pointing down. “We’ve already made some new chums. Wouldn’t go for a swim right about now if I were you.” As choppy waves began to rock the boat she retreated from the railing and moved back to the front. In just a few moments it felt like all the inner peace and serenity gained during the Luma Pools had already been squandered, and Nadia wore a grim smile as the Seekers entered the Bottomless Sea.



As Linkle drew near, the ‘lizalfos’ sized her up from where she lay. Though those red irises with skull halves and her overall paleness gave her a somewhat disquieting aura, her behavior in Morshu’s store thus far had been that of a regular, earnest girl. Even before he examined her Sal had pretty much decided she was a good egg, and her choice to approach the hooded reptile before her without a second thought solidified it. Between the two of them, neither would be judging by appearances.

“That’sss right,” he confirmed, although his exchange with Morshu already said as much. He was a peddler without a roof to call his own, relying on the generosity of the Snowdin townsfolk to avoid freezing his cold blood out in the winter wonderland. “I’m from the desert, but sssomehow ended up here. Trapped in this awful climate.” Sal wasn’t shy about expressing his dissatisfaction. “I’d be dead long before I reached warmer weather, even if I sssold everything for firewood, ssso here I am. A place where nobody needs what I’ve got.” To satiate his visitor’s curiosity he opened his sack and produced a few items from within. “I’m an arms dealer. Weapons are my trade, but monsters sssteer clear of Sssnowdin.” He licked his teeth with a long, forked tongue, and added a clarifying distinction. “Real monsters, I mean.” At his feet he laid down a scrap gun, some kind of machine gauntlet, a set of lovely paired crossbows, and a blasting wand.

“My products are the best, trust me,” Sal told her. “For the right price, their power is yoursss.”



The end of the game of Jump Club left everyone soaked, but not everyone a loser. With everyone who’d already fallen off taken care of, the snail waved over the last couple of participants. “Hey, over here! My arms are only so long!” He handed back the card he’d taken from Syndra for safekeeping, then Sephiroth’s. “One for playing, one for lasting two minutes, one for winning! Good job out there,” he told her.

By omission, however, he revealed something that the one-eyed swordswoman had forgotten: the Sand Dollar. Had she not been so absorbed in her rivalry she might have remembered, but as it was the little tokens remained attached to the end of the green club, with the only one missing in the palm of her diminutive competitor. He’d nabbed it as he tumbled off the platform, his level head allowed him to snatch a little victory from the jaws of defeat. Or...had that been his objective the whole time? His positioning near the edge and relatively early exit may not have been coincidence. “Hah!” he exclaimed. “Finally, my last one! No more stinkin’ Jump Club for me!” He waved his stamp card around proudly for the others to see, showing off a fully completed row under Jump Club, although only one of the stamps was new. If Sephiroth wanted to fill out her own card, she would need to try again.

Once she finished with Jump Club, however many attempts that took her, she set her sights on yet another attraction. The tangle of enormous, multicolored plastic tubes over the central pool formed one of Atlantis Temple’s most iconic features, and it was as good a time as ever to try her luck. She made her way over, narrowly dodging a pack of squids having a whale of a time with elaborate water guns, and past where a large, teal-furred fuzzball lounged in an appropriately-sized inner tube. A girl in a baseball hat about to dive in paused to give Sephiroth a strange look, but shook her head after a moment and jumped. A good climb stood between the swordswoman and the top of the slides, either via stairs or the rock wall over water, but either way it took only a few moments. At the hub on high where all the slides originated, a very tired and bored-looking snail waited to tell the guests when to go. A sign attached to the railing gave the safety rules including minimum height, as well as the scoring criteria. Try every slide, score high enough, complete at least three of the five slides under par time, and find the Sand Dollar. Evidently every slide featured a number of holographic arrows that could be passed through with a little maneuvering, each of which contributed to both score and speed. Simple and without interpersonal competition, the attraction nevertheless promised to be an enjoyable one.