Floor 1: Bowser Junior

”That's it! That's it!” Jr cheered Mimi on as she spun the wheel till at last a heavy thwonk rounded and the wheel would turn no more ”Yesss! You did it! You can stop now.” Jr told his pokeminion after he was done celebrating, relieving her from her growing frustration with the fact that the wheel had stopped turning. She reeled back her shadow and then wiped her brow/chest, clearly worn out by having to maintain the move for so long.

As she settled down to relax, Jr turned the vehicle round and back towards the entrance, only to find the faceless girl racing towards them again. Crying out ”Not again! Where’s the stupid robot!” Jr tried to back them up and away from her, only to get stuck in the messy contents of the draining room in the process. Mimi, tired from shadow handling the wheel, was too tired to get out another to slash her(but tried to nonetheless) and so, thinking the glass being punched in was inevitable at this point, jr took a deep breath in the vain hope that he might be able to outlast the draining and then squared up to meet her own glass shattering blow with his own aimed for her faceless face.

Fortunately the prince wouldn’t need to test his lung capacity. The faceless girl’s aversion to light became clear to Jr where before he’d kinda missed it while shouting at Mimi. She reacted like she was being hit by a wave of fire rather than light, yet despite the obvious pain she was pushed closer and closer and then, after what felt like an eternity, she gave up and bolted into a hole in the floor.

Jr let out his held breath in relief and then got Mimi to stop over exerting herself in trying to do another shadow sneak. All that was left then, was to sit back, relax, and wait to see if their actions had born fruit. It certainly sounded like it, some ancient machinery gurgling away out there but it was only when the water started draining out of the room and then finally dunked the sub to the ground that they actually knew it had worked.

”Well, that could have been worse” Jr said, as he popped open the hatch of the sub, taking a breath of slightly fresher air. Then he scooped up Mimi and the weird key he hadn’t had to use, jumped down into the foot deep water, shivered about being in foot deep water (but at least unlike everyone else he didn't have clothes or shoes to get waterlogged) then took a sloshing walk through the tunnel he’d been in and over to the Bull

”Good job up there. Didn't even have to worry about mr fish breath” he said to it’s camera, giving a thumbs up to the battered thing’s camera. There was no response.

”Maybe they’ve set off already?” he said to Mimi, getting a shrug in return. ”Well whatever, let's just get moving. Got a bunch more climbing up too do I think. Urg.”

Jr was not looking forward to that, but the faster he moved, the sooner they’d be able to get out and eat something. Hunger and horror were, he was finding, just the worst combination of feelings.

Unfortunately, as he stepped out into the pit, getting out of it was not going to be so easy as strolling along the bottom of the tank and finding a ladder or staircase up to the second floor. There were masses of junk littering the floor of the chamber for one, and for two there was at least one big bad beast roaming around the water logged scrap heap.

”Aw come on, he can breathe air?” Jr complained as he heard the big fish lamenting the loss of his water. He took a few moments to look around for a path through the junk fields, before realizing something: The big fish probably knew where the drain control was and if he did, then he also knew exactly where the person responsible for stealing his water was.

”Time to move! But uh, quietly. Got it Mimi?” Jr said to his minion, getting a nod, before he carefully moved out into the junk, taking a slightly circuitous route to avoid running into the fish if he was indeed coming for him while also looking for a way out of the pit he was in.

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Floor 3: Kamek

”Or it could eat your brains” Kamek said, waited for a few moments to see if anything went hideously wrong with Link’s new head piece and then, when it didn't, shrugged ”Looks like you're safe.”

He put away the uninformative document he had been reading, which had been a recording of a private conversation that had been delightful scandalous but entirely useless to him, and watched with interest as Link tried to fill the mold with the black goopy contents of one of the containers. It was a smart move, he had to admit, but unfortunately the logic that you;d keep mold filler with mold turned out to be a false hypothesis. The goo formed into an awful looking little organic thing who’s flashing lights Kamek had to force himself to look away from despite how disgusting it was.

”Well that is deeply unpleasant.” he noted. Still, at least Link had picked the most useless (in Kamek’s opinion) mold to try out, so it wasn't the worst outcome. Anyone who knew anything could tell you that the key one could probably be important to them getting out of here, so the Koopa resolved to hold onto its smaller mold for the moment.

A bit later Link rushed outside when another awful clanging sound resounded from out there. Kamek had basically gotten used to those at this point, it would likely be more concerning if they stopped, and so only ambled out a few moments later to find the water draining away around them.

”Well I’m not sure what they did, but it looks like the way is clear” Kamek noted pleasantly, before the big fish made it known that it didn't have the common decency to drown in the air like some of the other things down there where doing. Or where hopefully doing. ”Ah, well. Almost clear.”

That was not going to be fun. He scratched his head a bit, looking around to see if there was a way they’d be able to start getting down.

”You two good down there?” came a shout from Bowser, who had been in the middle of climbing back to the command center when the water started going down and he’d stopped to watch it go.

”Quite alright sire. Yourself?” Kamek replied

”Yeah I’m good, just risking my butt up here while you sit on yours down there”

”Sire... Well I haven't been completely idle!. I’ve found. Some strange goop? And some…. Junk. and this model of a key? I mean, we don't have a way to fill it, but it's something” Kamek waved the mold Link had found up at the king, who squinted down at it.

”A key mold huh?” the king scratched his chin before shouting up to the two grate climbers ”Hey wasn't there some kind of machine for those up there?”

If/when he got some confirmation, he shouted down ”Wait right there, I’m coming to get that mold from ya”

”I’m not going anywhere sire. But couldn't Link just bring it up?” Kamek called back

”Nah. Hey, Link. nice doge earlier. Now go see if you can get downwards and help Jr out with old fish face.” Bowser said as he started coming down, taking him away from the panicked situation he was unaware was unfolding in the command center.

”Wait, the young master is down there?!”

”Yeah he got the water down like a champ!”

Kamek squinted down at the pit of trash, then over at the map to work out where flow control was, then down at that before finally spotting Jr. ”There he is!” he called out cheerily, pointing and then waving till he got a wave back from the speck that was Jr. Followed a few moments later by an arm crossing wave signaling no before the prince raced out of sight at a faster pace than he had been taking when Kamek had spotted him.

---

Floor 1: Bowser junior

”Stupid stupid stupid old koopa” Jr whisper shouted as he hurriedly moved to reposition away from the spot he had been at when Kamek pointed him out for anyone who was paying attention to see. ”If we don’t die I’m gonna kill him when we get up there up ”

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Floor 4: Rika

Despite being assisted by her anti-gravity gauntlets in the lifting, throwing might have been a bit too generous to describe what Rika had done with the tv. A lob or toss or heave might have been more accurate, so she only really hit because the thing started stomping its way right towards her as soon as she made a noise. Which was incredibly frightening and prompted her to run the heck away as soon as she’d hucked the tv at it.

It stomped after her, a hulking disgusting mass that caused her to forget she was basically the only person in here who was armed. Instead she booked it, only for Geralt to save her butt with a shattering glass jar that distracted it away from her. It was only after it rammed Peach and Bella did the same trick to save her that Rika got control of her brain and worked out how it was going on.

It responded to sound and almost nothing else.

Rika, having run in basically a straight line found herself hiding behind the controls to the submarine crane and, as a result, basically as far from escape as she could possibly be. She briefly considered trying to ride down on the now lowering water, but was that water really any safer? Plus, she couldn’t abandon her friends like that.

What she could do to help came to her when Mirage, who was as deceptive a child as he was an adult apparently, tried to use his pop gun to rattle the fence in the center of the room around the submarine pit to get its attention there again (but sans a Peach to ram this time).

Awkwardly twisting her arm to get her hand out of her gauntlet, something she’d always had to do to hold stuff now that they were bottled back in place, but which was now dangerous rather than an inconvenience she scraped the gauntlet against the metal console as she grabbed the controls of the crane. As soon as she had a grip started to wiggle them, intending to add a bunch of ongoing mechanical noise inside the cage to distract the thing. Or at least hopefully smother other sounds they made.

Maybe if it got inside she could even grab it or knock it into the hole? But that was a longshot.

---

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@DracoLunaris@Dark Cloud

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Link backed up as the gel he had poured started taking on a life of its own. Small flashes of blue shone in the mass of it as it pooled together and hardened, on its own forming tendrils and odd glowing blue growths. The way it moved shaped itself instantly put him on edge, because it had the same semi-alive quality as the congealed clumps of Ganon's Malice. He held the racket up above his head. If an eye formed out of that, he decided, he wouldn't let it stay an eye for long.

Fortunately, perhaps due to there being so little goo to work with, the clump didn't expand further than the mold he had poured it in. Nor did it take any hostiles action. It just sat there, wriggling, blinking. "You can say that again." Link said, lowering his weapon and glancing worrying at the other container of the stuff and reminded himself to be mindful not to break it. It wasn't long after that that he had been draw to the doorway.

---

As Link watched the room suddenly roared to life. At first Link had a single terrifying vision of a monster far bigger than the one they were dealing with leaping out from the depths, the first monster clutch between its jaws, and slamming its friends into the ceiling with its sheer girth. It wasn't so. Instead, despite how this place was trying its hardest to make him feel, that noise was something going their. As he watched the water started receding, draining out foot by foot. The monster tried one last impotent leap for his comrades in the scaffolding above, but there wasn't a chance of it reaching them any more. As Ms. Fortune mocked it all Link could do was laugh with her.

While the water drained away he took in the surrounding it reveled. Ruined machinery and junk Ace and Ms. Fortune had dropped littered the floor far below. To his left, two stories down and lit up like the GO light in a race, was the elevator that would take them out of here and into some fresh horror. Of course, with the top of this staircase in front of him mangled it might be a little tough getting over there but if they could manage to drop down a floor with the whole thing collapsing them could use the scaffolding hanging down there to reach the elevator.

That would entirely bypass the monster that now lurked below, wailing about the loss of its water. He would have been able to guess what the thing had been so angry about just from context, but "luckily" for him it was able to tell them the cause of its distress with words they could understand. Which meant that it, he, had intelligence. At least, more intelligence than Link had been willing to to ascribe him so far. That was the difference between a Molduga, who would fall for the same trick every time without fail, and the canny Lynel who seemed to have a strategy to counter any trick you cared to try. He wondered what the fish monster would come up with now that it had been put in this position.

Behind him Kamek had joined in on his monster observation. "I think we'll be okay so long as we don't drop to his level." He replied to the koopa's comment. "If he had any attacks that reached far up, he would have used them on Ace and Ms. Fortune when he couldn't snap them up. I doubt he can even jump as high anymore without the water to give him a run up." So long as nothing gave them a reason to go down there they should be safe.

Suddenly a shout drew their attention across the way. Even diminished as he was the Koopa King's voice carried remarkably effectively. The two had a short, loud, conversation where Kamek blatantly took credit for what Link himself had found. His interest was piqued when Bowser confirmed they had found a place to use the molds in the command center. He guessed they really should have checked that first room before moving on. He made a note of that for future reference.

Bowser's next request made his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. Junior was still down there with the monster. Luckily it was Kamek that found him first. Unluckily, he pointed him out. Link prayed to the gods that he somehow hadn't been spotted by one of the monsters unpopped eyeballs, and hoped against hope that it hadn't heard the family conversation taking place up here. "Save the prince. All on a days work." He said, completely unenthused." Tentatively he reached out his leg and put a foot down on the warped platform, steadily putting more and more weight on the metal. It groaned ominously, but otherwise didn't move. He pushed down harder, and as soon as he thought it wouldn't collapse on him he stepped on and made his way across until he reached the descending stairs. Or, at least, what had been the descending stair. It wasn't...that...big of a drop to the next platform. He sighed, and then took it.

He took the impact with the third floor platform at a roll. After waiting a few moments for the feeling to come back and set off, little boots clamping down the stairs to the second platform. This would be close enough, he though. There was another catwalk nearby, fresh if a little soggy, and he jumped over the railing onto it. Careful not to slip he made his way over the network of catwalks toward the fish monster.

What would he do if he was the fish monster, he thought. If this was Link's area to guard, and he was a big fish, he would make sure to know where the drainage room was and head there immediately as soon as this happened both to kill whoever it was that had drained it and find a way to fill it again. That was the smart tactic. There was no way to stop a rational opponent from trying that.

Link, though, wasn't subject to Galeem's rules. The fish monster was. Junior, so far as Link knew, hadn't picked a fight with the fish monster. Hadn't hurt him. They had. He just hoped that was enough to override his reason.

When he got to a place that was out of Juniors path, Link whistled loudly at the fish monster to get his attention. "Hey, fish. Did you like that present we got you earlier?" he called out, rapping himself on the head with his knuckle. CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG, it went. He grinned like the cockiest littler twerp there ever lived and jerked a thumb toward his own chest. "That was all my idea. I just can resist dropping heavy things on monsters, it my go to solution. Anyway, we're going to take off now and let you stew in humiliating defeat. I was just wondering, before we go, if you had any excuses prepared for why you completely botched this? I swear I'll give them to your boss for you when we see her again. If it makes you feel any better you're not dead, so you're at least doing a better job than the last guy so far."

---

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Linkle didn't bother holding in her screams on the way down. In fact the only time she wasn't screaming as she sped down the length of rope, only a lessened grip away from plummeting into the sky, was when she let out bursts of near mad laugher. Linkle had not even discovered the concept of a roller coaster, but if she had she would have put this in the same category as far as thrills went.

Unfortunately all rides eventually had to come to an end, and Linkle could see the end of this one fast approaching. Linkle lifted up her legs and let go as she approached, sending her sliding across the ground like a baseball player a good ways before she settled in a giggling mess splayed out on the earth. Still laughing she pushed herself up in a sitting position and got a look at the cozy little town they had landed in. "What a kick!" she exclaimed, hopping up and dusting the dirt and grass from her suit before suddenly holding up her hand to her face and sniffing the grass that clung to her glove. It felt like forever since she had smelled grass. Somewhere in the distance she cold hear bells ringing, and little people whose posture just screamed "villager" went about their day. The whole place felt homey.

Turning around she found Albedo who, having landed far more conventionally, was a few feet away. "Albedo, you're nose is all red." She said jokingly as she approached. Realization then hit her like a brick in the face. "Right, the cold." She said, slightly guiltily. "Sorry, I keep forgetting." It must have been freezing up there, especially with the wind ripping past him. She looked up, following the flag line back to where they had started. It hadn't seemed nearly that long when they were going down it. All at once, she remembered something else. "My sled..."

That thought was interrupted by one of the helpful, brightly clad villagers welcoming them to what she would know as Goat village. "Konnichiwa!" She called back, testing out her new word of the day. "We already are, it's lovely." Another helpful villager warned them away from the goats, which weren't like any goat Linkle had ever seen. They had the horns, the beards, and the inscrutable looks in their eyes, but they also went around on two legs. Knowing goats they were also probably pretty good wrestlers. She made a note to follow the villagers advice.

Albedo took the initiative to find them a way further down. Unfortunately there wasn't one, but they were helpfully pointed toward the top f the village, instructing them to blow a horn to "call flags." Linkle didn't know what that meant, but it sounded really cool. Something was nagging at her though. "Hey, if you guy travel down how do you get back up?" She asked the helpful villager. It seemed to her that down was a one way trip, unless they made the trek back up all the way to the monastery.

After that, Albedo made an offer to race her to the top. It was surprising, coming from him, but it wasn't like she didn't like the idea. "Oh, you're on!" She said, happily accepting. "But first..." She started, pointing across the way at a certain individual. "Check out that guy." She was pointing to the weird, vibrating masked figure hanging out in town. "You wanna go see what his deal is? Just to make sure he doesn't, you know, eat souls or something?"

The TV connected, but the monster didn't seem to be stopped by it. Instead they blundered onward in a horrific mockery of walking. Clutching the bottle tight, Sakura wondered if they could see her. He wasn't acting like he could.

Geralt and Bella ended up throwing bottles to distract him. Whenever they threw one, he blundered over to it with a terrible noise.

He locked onto Peach, though, the poor Princess being too slow and too loud to escape his wrath. But for a brief moment, Sakura thought he had detected her instead. As it charged towards Peach, Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and hunched down. Like she could do nothing except brace for impact. Nothing happened to her, however. Sakura let out a breath and watched as poor Peach was squished right up against a chain link fence and flung across the way. Horror flashed across Sakura's features. She managed to surpress any vocal reaction though, having realised what was going on.

Mirage was planning on doing something. To be honest, Sakura didn't really have any good plans. The brunette carried her bottle with her like it was the only thing connecting her to this world. As quickly and as quietly as she could, she pattered over to Peach on her tippy toes. Her purple shoes making very small, but still present, tapping noises. Hopefully the racket and schemes the others were making would protect her.

The path ended up with Sakura getting pretty close to the proxy, but some adrenaline based determination kept her moving forwards. "Flight" certainly wasn't her fear reaction. Never had been. Maybe she only froze earlier because punching wasn't an option. Now, though, someone needed her help. Standing idly by wouldn't help their situation.

Sakura gently set her bottle down and rolled Peach onto her back. Lightly, she slapped the side of the Princess' face. "Wake up, Princess Peach! Wake up!" She whispered in an attempt to rouse her. Failing that, she would hook her arms under the Princess's arms and drag her to the shadowed area under the Communications Console, to get her out of the open.

Listening to Jessy speak was like listening back to what she’d said when she’d been talking to Fox back on Vah Naboris. Well, almost. Midna had been more concerned about the dangers of freeing people who wouldn’t see reason even once cleared of the light than the risks of trying to free them in the first place, but still. She hadn't understood the danger and lethality of guns at the time, whereas now she was much too familiar. Still, she could still steal quite a bit of Fox’s thinking for this, and Mao gave her an excellent run into her own arguments. There was not just one blindness but two in play here after all.

”I get where you're coming from Jessy. Trust me, I’ve argued from much the same position earlier. But as Moa can attest, we know these people have a nobility that has been smothered by the light and by this... Number two’s influence. These people are victims who have been turned into enemies, and we are blessed with the ability to save them. I know what it's like not to have that chance, so we should do the best we can to grasp it.” She said, referring to the shadow beasts Zant had warped he people into and which she and Link had had to put down to free Hyrule from the encroaching Twilight.

”and yeah, it's dangerous, and I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for them, but we managed to free everyone and not lose anyone in the first fight we had with them that we had before you and the Thieves arrived” She said rather pointedly as a result of her frustration getting a hold of her for a moment, before recognizing she was trying to shift blame and trying to be more constructive, while also simultaneously addressing Ciella's derision of their skills

”Mainly by ambushing their ambush,” she explained, ”Whee as this was walking right into a battlefield they control where they’ve clearly prepped for this exact situation based on the weapon’s hidden around the place and the emergency teleport items they had. We should try and be smarter as we go down deeper into their dungeon, force them to fight on our terms as much as we can”

How they were going to be smarter was something they’d need to think about of course, because currently she didn't have many ideas.

One thing they could do at least was get moving, and as they were Jessy approached to get some clarification as to why on earth they were doing all this in the first place.

”Officially, we need to get the Grimleal to trust us so we can take a train with massive guns on it to use as transport. Unofficially we’re here for recruitment. Both from the rebels and, if we can, the Grimleal.” Though she wasn't so sure she wanted to work with Ciella any longer than she had too (though she also expected that she’d need to be freed to save the rebels from her ‘justice’) and so when it came to the Grimleal she was mostly hoping the other team would have luck with the other two lieutenants in terms of co-opting the cult/cities resources for their cause.

There wasn't really time to get into the complexity of the politics, and Midna’s own opinions on how to handle the town after this, in a short whispered conversation. Everyone was getting their stuff together and in short order they were descending into the depths of the tower seeking the basement the Rebels had yelled about while under attack.

Midna floated above Mao and beside Braum with her own smaller shield, which she was finding far more attunement with than she had now that they’d been through a few fights together, held up to extend the defensive front line just a bit more. She did not want to walk into another hail of gunfire like they had when entering the building.

Fortunately, no such hail was forthcoming. Instead what they found was some kind of puzzle blocking their way in one direction, and a dead end forcing them through it in the other, which Midna went down into and called up to the others about.

”Nothing here, just some tables and machines,” machines which she had no idea what they were for. As a result they got left behind when Midna took a bit of time to do some cover acquisition.

After looting the room of its non-valuables, she came up and found the others already in or queuing up to get into the spinny maze. She took one look at that queue and then floated past it, over to the area that looked like it was an exit to the maze that led back to the entrance. Then she floated over the panels into the maze and found Mao being incredibly angry about being spun this way and that.

”That bad, huh? Well here’s a tip, don't go back that way because that's the way in ” She said, pointing to the 4 feet worth of maze she’d flown over to get where he was before continuing on another few feet, looking to her left and finding the exit.

”Oh and the end is over here, and the way to get here is at the very bottom of the maze” she said, after poking her head back into the maze to helpful informed him of this, while pointing down the corridor where she assumed you had to spin over two.

”I’ll make sure no one is waiting/coming to make this even harder than it needs to be. Good luck!” she told him, before moving into the exit corridor and proceeding to plonk down two tables and four chairs in order to make a barricade facing the stairs, and then getting a potted plant and holding it ready in her shadow hand. Anyone who tried to come for them was in for a world of hurt.

---

Sectonia was ready to handle whatever this hedgehog was going to do, seeing as he was trying to take off some ‘rings’ around his wrists. She fired a Void Globule but was frozen in time as Shadow prepared to go all out. However he begrudgingly ran away, seemingly extremely offended to be her minion. ”Well then… Minions can serve one way or the other in this world.“ Sectonia said darkly before turning to Necronomicon who was geeking about who they had just fought. "Hm. I don’t know who that is, but he was strong. His attitude could use an adjustment though." Sectonia said, checking and verifying the pokemon she had under her crown was fine, giving Necronomicon a thumbs up, and descending with the persona, healing slowly thanks to her pipe and healing the others around her thanks to the same item, Laharl being even more beat up than herself with Midna tending to them.

The others looked a bit down as the battle didn’t go nearly as well as the warehouse fight. As the others mentioned what had happened themselves, Sectonia said "Good thing that black hedgehog that manipulated time… what did Necronomicon call him… Shadow? Wasn’t there to fight you all. He was quite troublesome, but that means he will also make a great minion."

They didn’t have that much time though, so the group descended the stairs after their little chatter on what had just happened. Sectonia could only really listen ot the rest of the group as she wasn’t too aware what had gone on below her while she was fighting Shadow.

As they descended the stairs, the group came upon tiles that, apparently according to Ciella, forced those who walked to move along the direction pointed out by the arrows. Sectonia was going to test this herself, but she didn’t need to as Mao, one of their new additions, decided to be the test dummy and what Sectonia saw…. Didn’t look flattering. He was overconfident for his age, that was apparently, but that overconfidence soon turned to queeziness as he was forced to spin and move by every tile he hit. "Well that is… concerning." Sectonia said. However, her concerns were alleviated as Midna showed that those who didn’t touch the tiles, such as Sectonia due to their inherent flight, weren’t affected. Seeing this, Sectonia summoned a single fire Antillion, saying. "Help the others figure this puzzle out by testing paths on your own. If you manage to return to me, guide the others along that path." Sectonia said before following Midna to assist in the whole ‘dealing with possible enemies at the end of the maze.’ thing. Although Sectonia didn’t have as easy of a time hiding like Midna did.

Said princess got herself comfortable on one of the chairs making up part of her barricade and then, with little else to do, asked ”So how’d the fight with the black and red... Thing… Person. Go? Did he teleport away before you could free him?”

Sectonia, folding her cape wings to get the slimmest profile she could, staff in one hand, said. "it was a bit challenging. While he was fast, he also was a but tougher than I expected. However I did cause him to retreat. I did have a feeling though he wasn't going all out. " Sectonia said. She then sighed before continuing. " Bring stuck in time repeatedly was not very pleasant."

”iIt really wasn't” Midna agreed

"How did your fights go? I take it some of them also teleported away?"

”The male gun wielder and the armored shouter got away. I think you saw what happened to the gun mage. That was my fault. Should have intervened rather than trying to sneak a heart in while Ciella, because she hit her much much harder than I expected.” Midna admitted, clearly not happy about that ”She’s going to be an issue going forwards with the plan.”

”As for the female gun wielder, the blue haired one, Joker did… something to her. Enveloped her in blue fire and then she was gone. He and Fox didn’t give me a straight answer when I asked about that either, other than implying that it was a form of recruitment, but clearly not the kind that is, well, liberating like the hearts we use are. That and they have some knowledge about a metaverse, or things called altered world events, which seems like it would be useful but hasn’t been shared with us, or me anyway” Midna had started checking behind her as well as forwards, clearly not wanting the thieves to catch her unawares while she was talking about them.

”Plus when I tried to argue with them about freeing people they seemed almost... apathetic? Like the fact that it saves lives didn’t even register as a consideration. I don’t know. A lot about them really rubs me the wrong way, attitude and secrets both.” She concluded, and then glanced at Sectonia to gauge her reaction to all this.

Sectonia listened to Midna talk, her reaction as difficult to read as ever. She did raise an eyebrow however at the talk of Joker's 'recruitment'. She did notice how stand offish the thieves had been as well.

" I agree with that assessment" Sectonia said, her fire antilion having tried and failed at another path. " They seem to be in it for themselves. But they also act like kids overall so that is to be expected." Sectonia said. " Their power is useful from time to time though. The flying UFO one for example helped out with dealing with that Shadow person. " Unlike Midna Sectonia wasn't as concerned with the apathy about saving lives, after all she was in that mindset too with regards to enemies. But minions keeping secrets was dangerous.

"But yes, Joker 'recruiting' someone with blue fire sounds quite dangerous if he refuses to talk about it. Even the thief who helped me let on more than she knew, even if accidentally. For example, she was fully aware of Shadow, while I had no clue. And the way she spoke about him was as if she had run into a celebrity. Now if they both came from the same world or not I do not know. " Sectonia said.

”I guess they are just teenagers…” Midna said, mainly to herself, before asking for clarification, ”But what makes you describe that as ‘letting it slip’?”

"If she knew about him beforehand, she didn’t really make much of a fuss about him until after the combat. If he was such a big deal, her before and after fighting him attitudes were quite different. " Sectonia said as she was asked to clarify, seeing that the others were still busy with that puzzle and paying them very little attention.

”Another secret for the list then,” Midna said, before tapping the defensive table a few times thoughtfully, before glancing back at the queens hard to read face and bluntly asking ”Your going to need to help me stop them doing the blue fire thing they did if we want to save these people... You are onboard with that right?”

Sectonia thought about this for a moment before saying. "If they refuse to explain what it is, then perhaps. But if they do, it’ll depend on exactly what it does. After all, limiting a loyal minion’s fighting capacity could lead to you losing said minion.” Sectonia said.

”We’ll see if they fess up, but I’m not expecting them to do so till after this” Midna said before looking like she was weighing things up before deciding against something and instead asking ”But I also meant more generally. Saving these people from the due influence they are under. I need to know I can count you in my corner on this.”

"Perhaps." Sectonia said as Midna asked her for help on being altruistic. However when Midna didn’t flinch or be reassured on this front, Sectonia continued. "Killing or removing possible subjects doesn’t bode well for your kingdom. However, as you have no doubt seen, those under the influence of Galeem come in two types, the hostiles and the ‘friendlies’. One is willing to become your subject/minion even through the influence of that light ball, the other is up in the air and a risk." Sectonia tapped one of the office tables Midna was using as a barricade. ”Remember, Altruism only works if you are stronger than the person you are trying to ‘save’, at least in this case. As if you friend heart someone who was going even with you, or, dare I say, being a challenge or an uphill battle for you, there is a chance they can become a powerful minion. Or there is a chance you just put yourself and/or your minion put themselves in danger as the person they were just having a challenging fight with, was fully restored and could possibly just decide to finish said minion off instead of being loyal or friendly." She said, and to make her case clear. "So in that case, would you want to risk yourselves and others on a ‘maybe’? I sure wouldn’t. Especially when the rules of this world give you a strong alternative with the “striker” system, forcing even a strong person who wouldn’t serve to become your minion anyway."

”While I get that, trust me, I do, I made the exact same argument to Fox yesterday,” and she definitely did not enjoy having them come out of someone like Sectonia, who’s minionising way of thinking/speaking she wasn't challenging for the sake of diplomacy, but it did at least mean that all she really had to do was follow through and explain her own thinking as to why this was different ”But today we know that these people will be onboard if we free them. Mao’s said there's a second layer of influence affecting them for this number two without which some of them wouldn't be doing this. Plus, they’re fighting against a, well,” again she glanced back to check they weren’t going to be interrupted ”,a wear their evil on their sleeve style cult. These are the kinds of people who fight against evil, or at least against authority. Show them the bigger evil and they’ll come around, I can guarantee it.”

Midna had an interesting point, but it didn’t really shake Sectonia too much from her thoughts on the matter. But that mention of a second influence was something to ponder. After thinking, Sectonia said. "I still won't risk it if we deal with someone like that Shadow, and that rebellion against authority might be a double edged sword should they refuse to be a minion which is also a risk. But perhaps that can be avoided should this second influence be neutralized. There was that one person you freed that did a complete 180, true." she conceded.

”I mean they’re working fine under… well no, that's the number two’s influence at work isn't it. All I can say is if they want out after, then they can go. That’s fine with me.” Like Crow with Crow, she wasn't going to force anyone who didn't want to help to work with them. It was neither moral nor logical.

”As for the risk, I can appreciate that. Definitely not wanting people to die for this. But we need to fight smarter this time round anyway, to improve our odds of both winning and freeing them. It's not like we can get stronger before-” Minda was saying before she snapped her fingers ”No wait, I might have something that’ll help you out in your rematch”

Midna swiped a hand over an open palm like she was doing a slight of hand trick and made the Omen mask appear in her hand, brought in from the twilight realm, and then held it out to the queen ”Not sure if its your style, but it seems to work on projectile magic, which you use a lot of, if I remember right?”

Sectonia looked at the mask. It did look imposing, although it wasn't her style. Before she dismissed it though, she took a look at the power it granted, and much like Midna said, it did drastically increase the power of magic, but also made it a bit unstable at the same time. ”Hmm….” Sectonia audibly said, thinking it over. ”Its certainly not my style, but I can feel the immense magic emanating from it. And while not my style, it's not hideous like that helmet I have.” Sectonia took the offered mask and began to examine it, to see if there was a way she could gain its power, without covering her own face. Due to its size, it wouldn’t fit over her face anyway, so she put it in her fluff like the Pipe of Insight as she began to think of how she could incorporate it into her ensemble.

”Even if it isn’t my style, this could prove useful in a rematch. Although with some alterations, I could make use of this at all times.” She said, thanking Midna for the gift. ”I have great control over my own magic, so that should counteract some of the instability this item causes.” Sectonia said, although softer and not to anyone in particular. Still loud enough for Midna to hear though.

After thinking about it, Sectonia said. ”But thank you my loyal minion. Should you find any spirits you would like to crush for items, don’t hesitate to ask to use that ugly helmet. Even I have to admit it's very useful for what it does.”

A brief look of exasperation crossed Midna’s face, but it quickly passed, her irritation once again in the name of diplomacy. She could stomach the queen’s delusion/quirk for just a little longer if it kept her on side for her mission. Instead she forced a smile and a friendly ”Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” and then resumed her watch on the way forwards, occasionally tossing her potted plant projectile up and down while the queen figured out her new fashion and power.

Midna didn’t seem to like Sectonia’s offer, no doubt also agreeing on how hideous that helmet was, but accepting her offer anyway, before going back to looking out for enemies, tossing her potted plant projectiles idly. Sectonia used this idle time to also test out her new little toy, conjuring up some green Antillions to use as target practice. From what she could tell, yes, this mask did cause spell instability, causing her projectiles to become wildly unpredictable at long ranges, but the insane amount of damage they outputted when they hit something meant that if she hit something at close range where these projectiles didn’t deviate too much at all. And she tended to either send her Antillions to deal with something or engage it herself in close range, so this wasn’t too bad of a problem. All in all, that hedgehog would be in for a world of hurt should he engage the queen in fisticuffs again.

Midna, who just assumed the ants were magic constructs, didn't bat an eye at what the queen was doing, other than to take note of what the mask had done. ”Going to need to be careful those don't hit anyone” she noted

As if on cue, one of Sectonia’s Void Globules boomeranged back at the Queen, passing through without issue. ”While I can’t seem to control the stability of how the magic flies, I can still control who it does and doesn’t harm.” Sectonia said ”Friendly Fire among queen and minions just wouldn’t do otherwise.” She said.

”Now that’s some smart magic,” Minda complimented her, genuinely impressed, before resuming her watch.

Hopefully their long chat had given the ground pounders time to work out how to get round.

The idea that they could have helped by carrying people over the tiles apparently never crossed either royal's mind.

Primrose peeked out from her space, looking up at the welcome surprise that had stopped Band in place. Tora, Poppi, Kan-Ra... There were a few people missing. Primrose thought she saw Fox take a completely different route before they were first ambushed, but that still left Panther and Skull unaccounted for. Oh, and that swordsman too. Hadn't they all been together before she and Big Band were stuck behind the un-moving door? Primrose watched the three descend, and then followed Tora's circular path around her as he explained what they'd gone through up above. It certainly sounded disgusting.

Once they backed away from the ledge to give Big Band room, Primrose stepped near to Poppi to get one more piece of information that they'd left out of their story. "Where are the others?"

Poppi shook her head. "When trap go off, they trapped opposite Poppi and Masterpon. Last Poppi saw, they ran down hall after enemies on that side. Not see them since, sorry."

Primrose nodded, her expression thoughtful. This temple was like a maze with all of it's tricks, traps, and hidden passages. With luck, the missing members of their team would find their way here quickly, but it also might take them a while to navigate. At least they had each other. Eventually they'd regroup.

All of the present team members moved towards the sound of battle, and as expected they found Fox and Azwel in the thick of it. Their opponent was a fierce swordswoman, and it looked like she'd had the upper-hand until they arrived. Some interference from Band and a follow up from Azwel turned the tables, but the blonde retreated with a golden ring. With no signs of her reappeared, the Seekers and Grimleals convened.

Primrose's feelings on Azwel hadn't changed, he still came off as a creep. His words were making her skin crawl, so before her thoughts could show on her face Primrose turned away. She looked over to where Fox was picking himself up instead. Though just a short time ago Big Band has said not to worry about wasting her magic on healing him, she knew that not everyone - maybe not anyone - was built like him. If she could help keep everyone in top form, she still considered that the best course of action. The dancer approached Fox, conjuring the healing flame of Warmth.

"For your wounds. May I?" she asked.

He beheld for a second what he assumed by context to be a cauterizing flame, unaware of its true nature and unsurprised either way, before accepting its holder over with a quiet nod to do her work. Rather than a painful burn, when the fire touched his skin the only sensation was a gentle warmth that gradually healed his injuries. Once she was finished, Primrose stepped back looking satisfied. She was definitely getting the hang of healing now.

They moved on to another large, mostly empty room. Just how obstacles are there? Primrose thought to herself. Assuming these traps weren't an innate part of the temple, if the Resistance had set all this up they'd been frighteningly thorough. It all would have been an effective deterrent if the Yellow Team weren't on a mission, all of them intending to see it through. Primrose looked around the room and ran her hand over the patterns on the pillar closest to her.

"Earlier, Big Band and I made it out of a room by pressing an indentation... though something tells me it won't be quite as simple this time." She studied the objects in the room, trying to glean any insight from them about how this particular puzzle worked.

Damn, this thing was making a mess. His distraction worked, but it didn't actually buy them much more than a few seconds as the monster swallowed the bottle whole with seemingly no problem. A small part of him was hoping it would hurt the creature, but he knew he couldn't rely on an unknown like that. Geralt was already moving, getting ready to distract it again, when it locked on to Princess Peach and slammed into her as she attempted to climb to safety. The fencing having some give to it saved her life, but that creature was still searching for them, and Bella's quick thinking was all that stood between Peach and an early grave.

Quickly, though, Mirage sprang into action, now freed from having to control that metal golem-like creature that was once Carl. Nodding at the Legend, Geralt kept his movements slow, decades of experience in hunting monsters allowing him to move near-silently, especially compared to the others, panicked, tired, and relatively unused to stealth as they were.

Mirage's idea was a good, simple one: get that thing to charge the fence again and break through, plummeting to the depths below and hopefully landing with a fatal splat.

As Rika grabbed the controls of the crane, Geralt looked back to Mirage and shrugged. That might certainly do the same job. He couldn't really afford to stay and "chat", so to speak, though, so Geralt continued making his way towards the exit of the Command Center. The fewer people around to make noise and mess with their plans, after all, the better.

While Sakura was taking care of Princess Peach, dragging her out, Geralt paused and watched. He could go and help, but adding more people risked adding even more noise. It would also ease the burden on Sakura, letting her focus more on keeping quiet. Geralt turned back to Mirage, gesturing to the pair, and started moving over to them while pointing between the Legend and the monster stalking them all.

He'd have to hope Mirage understood his meaning again, as he grabbed one of Peach's arms and gave a tiny smile to Sakura. We've got this, he thought. Between the crane making noise, Mirage's dart gun, and two people dragging the Princess out, this could work.

Jesse listened to Midna's explanation and was placated for now. Even if this whole thing did seem stupidly dangerous. Maybe she was just biased because she almost died. Like, as in she was fatally mortally wounded. Maybe they were all used to that kind of thing or something. Jesse had come close to dying sure, but on her world if you got hit like that, you were toast. And if Jesse died, than her friends at the Bureau were toast, too. And she still was trying to process the enormity of the situation she was in.

"It was either walk into a battlefield or let people die. That's what I mean. You can't always engage in the optimal situation." Jesse said. She placed a hand on her hip and thought for a moment.

(I'm used to being in charge, or fighting alone. I'll have to get used to this, turns out.)

Jesse rubbed her chin. Considered Midna's moral plight. "All right. I'll follow along. But we need to do better. I can't die for this sidequest. I still need to know what's really going on here."

Soon, they came to a maze. While the others talked, Jesse kind of tuned out and just observed the entire area. Tempting as it was, she wasn't going to try and start ripping these conveyor belts out of the ground. What would be the point of that? Spite the designer? There would also probably be some kind of trap mechanism or other negative consequence. No, destroying the maze is a last resort. If she was getting chased by a monster or something might give it a shot.

Jesse pursed her lips and surpressed a smirk as Midna floated right over the maze to the exit. Lucky. "I used to be able to do that." Jesse commented. "Soon. I'll be able to do it again. Until then, I'll just have to solve the maze like the rest of the plebeians."

Jesse let herself get taken by the conveyor belts, being flung and spun about the place in the starting area. Just to get used to things. Smoothing out her hair (probably pointless), she rolled her shoulder and got to work on solving this puzzle.

For the first part she followed behind in the eager Mao's footsteps. As she surveyed the environment, she realised he was about to take a wrong move. "Wait up." Too late. "Calm down, Mao. You can solve it easy from there, I'm sure."

The Director looked through the blue glass around her, concocted her plan, and began being pushed a round the place. Hesitating at one part to make sure it was the right move, she continued onwards. Soon she was in the same room with Midna. "All right." Jesse huffed, flattening out her shirt. "Not the most motion sickness activity I've undertaken in my life. We're all good." The Director did look a bit unsteady for a second, blinking a few times and wobbling.




Regaining her composure she nodded at Midna and approached the elevator. Crossing her arms she leaned up against the wall nearby the elevator and waited for whoever wanted to go first to do whatever they wanted to do. Joining this mission half-way through meant she felt zero need to take the lead on this.

The duo's steady work was coming to a close. All climbing, jumping, cutting, lifting and moving certainly made for an intense workout. Maybe a little too much for the children, though the Cadet was handling it a little better than Nadia. She seemed completely exhausted, but a tremendous noise startled the both of them and signaled the end of their distraction-making. It was the heavy creaking and churning of an old machine coming to life, and it quickly began draining the water beneath them. That meant the diving team had been successful!

Moreau tried a last ditch effort to get at the kids up on the catwalk, but due to the lower water level he fell way short of his target. "Not even close!" The Cadet hollered over the railing, watching the monster crash back into the water with a splash. Things were looking up, weren't they?

"Hellblade yeah they did it!" the redhead said, matching Ms. Fortune's enthusiasm. If he thought any in the command center or in the submarine would have been able to hear him, he would have shouted out praises for them. That would have to wait until they all regrouped. He waited, watching the continual drain of the water with Nadia until it stopped completely. Now that it was visible, the lower level looked pretty much the same as the upper ones. It was dank and full of random machine parts. Rusted and water log pieces of metal were all over the ground. The only things that moved were fish, or fish-like creatures anyway. There was also... Moreau.

The creature was down there, but it wasn't stranded - it was walking around! What the Cadet had thought were huge fins turned out to be sturdy legs that it dragged it's hulking body around with, and it was moving about the bottom level wailing in anger. Of course it just had to be amphibious, if that could label even apply to the mutation. Ace Cadet glanced at Nadia, intending to respond to her with an affirmative, but his stomach growled fiercely.

"Ugh... why'd you have to mention fishsticks." The magically induced hunger was really at odd with unappetizing scenery around them, but man what the boy wouldn't do for some food right then. "Let's go. That thing doesn't seem like the brightest Jaggi in the pack, we can probably make it without getting caught."

The Seekers' destination was still one level above it, so as long as the monster didn't have any means to reach them, they'd be alright to make their way to the lift. With mission "lower the water level" accomplished, those in the command center would be free to just come back out to this area and they they'd find a way across. While that was true for most of them, Bowser - through his loud conversation with Kamek - pointed out that his son was on the lowest level. Duh, the sub! The Cadet smacked a palm to his forehead. Of course the submarine and it's pilot would be stuck down there, no water meant no maneuvering it. This revelation, which seemed pretty obvious in hindsight, had Link going to use himself as bait again to drawn Moreau's attention away from the young koopa prince. Though Link was clever and capable, it had the potential to go poorly. The quicker the Cadet and Nadia got down, the quicker they'd be able to jump in if they needed to.

The hunter sped up his movement over the catwalks, looking over the side at the situation below every couple of seconds. "What's the fastest way down?"

Though the group gathered in hesitation before the maze of arrows laid out before them, the Overlord who led them to the office in the first place was quick to take the lead once again. He managed to make it a good way though before he needed to take a break and quell his nauseousness. . As he swore his vengeance, Joker couldn’t help but wonder why the people who made this trap didn’t place down facing arrows themselves, or just make the puzzle unsolveable in the first place. Their goal, he figured, must not be to stop any intruders but to annoy them. What that might accomplish he couldn’t say, but he resolved to beware any post-maze traps that might befall someone driven by irritation to incautiousness.

One by one the intruders braved the puzzle. Despite being too big to even fit comfortably on a single tile, Braum got spun like all the rest, and ended taking a different route to the same destination that Mao did. At that point he chose wrongly and ended up back at the start. If the experience perturbed him, however, he gave no sign. “Ahaha, oh well!” he exclaimed cheerily. “At least this is fun!”

With Joker busy observing his allies through the glass to get an idea of the patterns and hopefully set a good example by going straight to the end, Fox stepped up after Jesse to give the puzzle his best attempt. He paused to give Midna, Sectonia, and Necronomicon enough space to float right over the troublesome pads and to the next room. The royals went ahead to secure the premises while Necronomicon remained at the finish line to give her allies a hand. “Hey, try this one! Oh no, not that one, ugh! Now you’re back there...well, there’s no way out. You better start over.”

As she helped as best she could, placing waypoints to clarify locations her directions and tentacles could not, she heard Midna and Sectonia yammering away. At first she paid them no mind, but she ended up hearing a familiar name, and after that she couldn’t help but tune in. As the Twilight Princess mentioned recruitment Necronomicon flew north, almost to Mao’s stopping point, so that a wall lay between her and the royal conclave. Luckily, sound could travel in ways vision could not.

Her eavesdropping only got as far as the start of Sectonia’s monologue about altruism before Fox stole her attention away. “Necronomicon? I thought you marked a tile to avoid rather than a tile to try, and seem to be back where I was before. How can I make the best of this?”

“Uh…” the Persona focused back on the task at hand. “Well, that entire section down there is pretty much a dead zone. Just back up to the middle of the room and...hey, hang on a moment.” A number of eyes fell on the flying saucer as she scratched her hull with a tentacle. “Why, um, don’t you just try jumping over the tiles?”

Joker and Fox both looked down at the tiles, noting the clearance between them and the ceiling. The leader of the Phantom Thieves cleared his throat. “...I was...wondering how long it would take us to notice.”

His friend ran a hand through his hair as if to preserve some dignity, adjusting his mask as he did. “It would appear I missed the forest for the trees.”

After that, Ciella and the remaining Seekers made quick work of the so-called puzzle, each member yet to get through feeling various levels of shame. With the aid of her mask the Grimleal Lieutenant remained frosty and inscrutable, and though Joker understood why she stayed back to let the others solve the puzzle first, he felt like they missed out on seeing her inelegantly spun around, too.

Everyone reunited with the royals in front of the staircase, by the wall-mounted telephone and technological-looking vending machine, which on closer inspection appeared to be totally deprived of both beverages and its payment system. Having plenty of SP anyway, Joker disregarded it to focus on the stairs ahead. From here he could see a laser grid at the top, and when he ascended to check he saw a closed room beyond the lasers that appeared to be used for storage. A look around suggested no terminal or other control in the vicinity through which the lasers might be controlled, so there wasn’t much use spending any more time on it. That route being a dead end left only one option: the nook right beside it and the elevator housed within, colored orange. Ciella stooped to examine it, but her lack of experience with modern technology meant she couldn’t figure out any way to open the door. After fruitlessly trying to insert her fingers to prize open the doors, she turned toward the rest of the group. “Anyone care to make themselves useful?”

Having already situated herself nearby Jesse obliged, pressing the elevator call button, and like clockwork the doors slid open. Knowing she couldn’t help blind spots like these, Ciella suppressed a scowl and ducked inside. As it turned out the elevator was more like a lift, a placeholder from original construction, being both bigger than usual and lacking any walls between the passengers and the sides of the elevator shaft. Despite its size, the whole group couldn’t fit inside thanks to the total volume occupied by Ciella, Sectonia, and Braum. The Seekers would need to make two trips, unless Jesse made some helpful adjustments with her Tool Gun.

No matter how the raiders chose to descend, there was only one destination, labeled ‘Base’ on the wall panel. Once started, the elevator creaked to life and began its downward trip. It moved at a decent pace, as indicated by the shaft walls speeding upward, but as the seconds ticked by it gradually became clear that they wouldn’t be reaching their destination any time soon.

Unfortunately the trip was far from uneventful. When the lift came to a abrupt halt the Seekers were more than ready to proceed onward, but not for a sudden ambush in a small room. This happened several times, with one or more walls gone to reveal a room. Handfuls of jab-happy Craws, mace-wielding Clubbas, tough-bodied X-Nauts, and laser-shooting Yux and tried their luck, attacking the moment the elevator-riders appeared. Four times the lift came to a premature stop, sometimes in the corner or along the wall of a room and twice in the center, but invariably enemies lay in wait for its riders. None put up too much of a fight against their opponents’ vast and varied talents, although the Wizzerds distinguished themselves with both offensive and stat-boosting magic. Most of the time Joker and Fox could regain the initiative by leaping into battle the moment the lift came to a rest, beating even Ciella’s arrows to the punch, but even minified Braum’s shield was a valuable asset against the mobs’ ambushes. Once cleared out the enemies left behind what amounted to pretty ordinary facilities for the Resistance: a boardroom, a washroom, a kitchen, and living quarters. Some food could be found in the kitchen, but other than that nothing Joker could identify nothing of particular use or value.

After the fourth time no more stops interrupted the lift’s downward progress, so its riders could relax a little. Still, they were going far, far below Al Mamoon, deeper than the roots of the city could possibly extend. After the brief skirmishes Joker kept calm, breathing steadily as he composed himself, even as the known world receded and the unknown drew near. Nobody could predict what lay ahead.



Suddenly the elevator shaft opened up with a rush of air, forcing everyone inside to grab hold of something or someone, lest they fall. The solid stone had given way to a cavern of elephantine proportions, its exact dimensions impossible to discern through a haze turned bluish by distant lights. What Joker could see, however, was the immense dome structure suspended in midair by a support column from the ceiling. The elevator came to a stop on some kind of high-up platform, and Ciella wasted no time stepping toward the edge to look down at the structure for a better view. Enormous tubes or cables of some sort reached down from various directions to plug into its sides, and the curved bars of metal atop one another brought the image of a birdcage to Joker’s mind. In front of them one part of the cagelike lattice appeared to be busted open, and it was straight toward this opening that what looked like a propulsion device right in front of them pointed. Like the gigantic cage-arena it looked highly technological, of the otherworldly sort he’d only glimpsed in Okumura’s Palace and perhaps Alcamoth until now. There could be no doubt; this was alien construction.

What is it with desert buildings on top of super advanced tech? Though he wondered about the odd trend, there were more important things to consider, and Joker adjusted his glove as he thought. “That place has ‘boss fight’ written all over it. Assuming that cannon-thing will send us, we should make sure we’re prepared before going over.” He peered toward the edge of the platform he and the other Seekers stood upon. Precarious indeed, but with the absolute lack of wind there wasn’t that much danger, as long as nobody tripped. He looked back to see Necronomicon insert herself into the man cannon for the sake of experimentation and get catapulted off in the direction of the cage, forcing her to decelerate mid-air to make her way back toward her allies. “We could wait for Mona to join us.”

Ciella huffed. “I will not stand idle while our foes lick their wounds and bolster themselves. Any moment now they might activate some artifact, or complete some ritual to make good their escape. This is our chance to dispel their false justice. To take another step to a world without deceit!”

So saying, she stepped onto the man cannon and rocketed off in a rabbit-eared blur, her hail trailing behind her like an ice-blue comet. She passed Necronomicon on the way, who approached the others with an intensely quizzical look despite her lack of face. “H-hey, are we doing this?”

Joker shrugged. “Guess so.” Though some part of him felt exasperated at Ciella and her status as a wild card, he couldn’t deny that he wanted to get things over with, too. A familiar feeling was rising inside him, the same that beat in his heart and pumped through his veins just before assaults on other rulers and other cages. That electrifying feeling of anticipation! Like music to his ears.



He and Fox exchanged a nod, both young men galvanized by the same vigor. Joker took off toward the cannon at a sprint and blasted off the second he hit its stream of energy. At dizzying speed he soared through the empty air, his arms spread like wings as he flew, a wild smile on his face. This was exhilarating! This was what it meant to be alive.

All too soon his flight came to an end. Joker landed with a roll on metal coated by sand and rose to his feet to find the place every bit of a colosseum as he imagined. What he saw before him was no reason to quit grinning. There were no traps, no machinations, no attempts at escape. Just the enemy. Silhouetted against radiant light from behind were an assortment of figures, all shapes and sizes, eight of them ready and waiting. He recognized the floating one in an instant. All that really mattered, though, was that they were here to receive him, and he and his team were here to be received.



As he watched, the shadow of a ninth figure approached through the light. Though short and blocky, she sported what looked like a skirt and a bun, and her position above and behind the rest suggested that she was their superior. The enigmatic Number Two that Mao mentioned, Joker assumed. But if that was so, who -and where- was number one?

Ciella stepped forward. “Hear me, you hypocritic pretenders, you so-called Resistance! For the havoc you have wrought against the city of Al Mamoon and its people, and on my authority as a Lieutenant Captain of Validar’s Grimleal, I place you under arrest.” She raised and threw down one arm, calling forth some magic, and behind her back manifested six giant arms of water floating in the air. “This is what became of one fool who dared to resist. Choose the same and fare likewise.” Her lips curled into a smile. “Please.”

A no-nonsense voice reached back across the arena, hailing from the little woman at the very back. “Yeah, um, I’m gonna have to tell you that your orders mean nothing. There’s no use trying to convince them. They’ve already sworn allegiance, and I’m gonna need you to as well, ‘k? But uh, you're gonna need a little disciplinary action, I think...so let's get started, hm?”

She clapped her hands, and the Resistance got to work.



Although the question took the villager by surprise initially, a little more reflection made it seem like a pretty obvious line of inquiry. Either way, the diminutive townsperson was happy to oblige Linkle with a response. “Just hitch ride like normal! Our flag lines are magic. You can zip down, zip up, even zip down branching path! Along with goats, they make life in Alpine Skyline possible!”

With raised eyebrows Albedo recontextualized the whole area. All things considered, the lines possessing magic of their own made a lot of sense. How a branching line worked he couldn’t fathom, but the fact that simple rural communities existed atop these sparse peaks in the first place was testament enough to something special at these villagers’ disposal. That said, it made him wonder about what exactly lay below, other than the autumn glade of the goddess Freya. Naturally ordinary people wouldn’t want to live in the frigid peaks and wastes, but what kept people like these from a less perilous existence down in the misty valley? The alchemist resolved to keep an eye out.

Meanwhile, while Linkle took to the idea of a race to the zenith of Goat Village with gusto, it wasn’t her first instinct to just take off running. Instead she paid more attention to a certain rather suspicious individual in the vicinity, and Albedo agreed. In a place uniformly dominated by cheer and color, a strange figure like that, whose very body eked a dark miasma as it fought an internal war against the laws of physics, stood out like a sore thumb. As Albedo watched, the mask tilted sideways, in increments like the hand of a clock, until it was almost upside-down, then snapped back into place. “Yes, let’s.”



As the pair approached, the odd individual took notice and gave a slow, cumbersome bow. In a smooth, slow voice he greeted them. “Good day. I am the badge seller. Please disregard my twitchy behavior. My body has been to places that left a permanent mark. Badges are...totally ‘in’ right now. That’s what I’ve been told to say. So please, by all means, make a purchase.”

His free arm ceased its spasms to summon forth a menu. It contained an array of badges, each with a name and description, as well as an associated cost in green gems.



Before looking at the products Albedo considered the gems. “What are these emeralds?”

“Those are called Pons,” the Badge Seller drawled. “They appear scattered around the whole Skyline and can be collected easily. If you leave and come back, more will appear, too.”

Albedo crossed his arms. “I feel as if this may be an improper question, but if you want these Pons, why not simply take them yourself?”

The Badge Seller’s mask vibrated sharply. “...As you can see, my ability to move is limited. I cannot.”

“I...see.” Clearing his throat, the alchemist looked back over the menu. It sounded like he and Linkle would need to run and jump around a lot to even make a purchase in the first place. That meant a race would be of even more benefit, so he tensed himself to spring into action if Linkle thought she’d get a head start.

---

Mao eyed Midna, noticing her not only floating past (He had already seen her doing this, but seeing her go over the panels was infuriating) but also commenting that the beginning was dangerously close. Looking down at the surrounding panels, a lot of them took him back towards the start if the arrows could be believed. "Thanks for the warning," He commented, the relief of not being sent back overcoming his frustrations for the moment.

With that, Midna also pointed out where the end path of the maze was. All that was left was to deduce the last few panels and head that way; Where she would be putting down defense in case this was leading to an ambush. "I don't need luck!" He retorted to Midna's kindness, taking light offense but not really giving off an aggressive enough tone for it to mark him down as angry. Overconfident, possibly. As he was about to take a step in the wrong direction, Jesse attempted to warn him: The Demon spinning off course, though not back to the beginning, at least.

Squinting behind his glasses, he was mildly offended by being told to calm himself down. He was perfectly calm! She just didn't know what he was like once he wasn't! And she'd be spared knowing, as she seemed to pick out the rest of the path easily, allowing Mao to follow suit. Arriving at the end was tiring, to say the least, but aside from looking a little green in the face, he was in one piece. "Guh... I don't want to see another one of those panels as long as I live." He complained, managing to compose himself as the rest of the group gathered up. Luckily he was too sick to his stomach to get angry over the fact that Necronomicon suggested that they jump over the panels, though he was hit in his pride a little from such an obvious oversight.

Just one more motivation to fight these Resistance members.

Figuring there were plenty of folks capable of using an elevator, Mao had no issue with Jesse calling it down. He was eager to board, however, in case there was trouble down below. He offered Midna a glance, not sure if she'd be doing that shadow-lurking thing again, but regardless he poached a small spot in the elevator, his small frame not taking up a large amount of space compared to the larger members of the group.

It seemed the Resistance wanted to buy time with mooks; Mao was quick to jump into action when the elevator stopped, but surprisingly tried to keep his axe out of it's most practical use. Attempting to not kill, Mao still laid down immense pain with brunt strikes from his axe to an X-Naut that sent it barreling into more of the opposition, but mostly kept to blocking with his axe while attacking with firm kicks or grabs. There seemed to be no interest in friend-hearting these ones, but it made good practice for this 'mercy' crap he was having to take part in. Maybe they'd be less violent after they squashed the stronger members? There was only one way to find out.

Mao had landed himself in a rather unfortunate situation during the last ambush. The mooks were varied, people were distracted, and he had a few too many enemies on him in particular. Spur of the moment led to him frantic to defend from all sides from his over eagerness to go into the fray, and to even his own surprise, four mechanical limbs emerged from beneath his coat, saw spinning, drill revving, and surgical scissors snipping. The sight caused the enemies to recoil in their own surprise and fear, but Mao was eager to get to work.

Using the saw as a tactic to keep enemies away rather than cutting through them, Mao focused on delivering blunt damage with his drill and catching X-Nauts by the fabric of their suits with his scalpel before tossing them like trash. What was originally a situation where he appeared cornered turned into a "You're stuck in here with me" scenario, as Mao caused havoc with his newly rediscovered toys. After cleaning up his portion, his new limbs retracted back under his coat, seemingly disappearing all together. There wasn't any visible sign they actually existed. Truly a dangerous concealed weapon, all things considered.

The kitchen caught Mao's attention: Before having to continue he snagged what food he could, snarfing it down with a satisfied expression, not entirely aware of what he even snagged up with how fast he went about it. A meal was good for the body, though! And after the injuries he took earlier, he'd take any good his body could get.

The rest of the elevator trip was concerning. Mao couldn't help but wonder how far down they'd gone, figuring a building shouldn't be designed with such depths. Yet, as the elevator opened, and the wind tested to try and send them away, Mao gripped the elevator railing with one hand while the axe in the other helped him keep grounded. Soon he was out, and expecting danger, he took the calm moment to pop open a bottle of BBQ Sauce to gulp down, it being the closest thing he had to a drink anyways. Magic reserves restore, he looked over the edge at what seemed to be a bottomless pit before tossing his empty BBQ bottle down in curiosity if he'd hear it break.

As the others thought about the plan, he sat there for a moment and listened. But never heard the shatter.

Instead, Ciella's huffing got his attention. "Ah, shit." She seemed eager, and considering Midna was the only one who really showed reason towards friend-hearting the Resistance members, Mao figured Ciella took part in the previous killing. With no hesitation and an axe over his shoulder, he darted for the propulsion ramp and went flying after her. Not an air-bound creature by any means, Mao found it both exciting and terrifying to experience flight. He crashed down into the arena, feet meeting the ground and causing a small crater zone where the metal beneath the sand could be seen.

His gaze first fixated on the group before them, noting the familiar faces among them. Following that though, the appearance of Number Two brought a tightened grip onto Mao's recently obtained war axe. "Sworn my ass, they're just under your control!" He'd deal with her soon enough, but for the moment, she wasn't a threat. They just had to knock down her defenses, then she was easy pickings.

"Not sure what these new guys can do, but I know that black fur-bag and the old guy are dangerous. Don't need him conjuring more monsters or healing anyone." His quiet, but aloud thoughts came as the fight initiated. He thought for a moment on how to handle this, before his knowledge of his own Striker gave him an idea.

"Ara Mitama!" He called, the Demon appearing in a quick and effective manner. Mao held his axe forward, as Ara Mitama targeted the Dragonborn with it's Taunt spell. "You back up for round three, gramps? This time I'll whack you over the head with your own axe!" He boasted towards the Dragonborn, taunting him further.

Not foolish enough to dash into the group of more notably dangerous enemies after his experience with the mooks, he took to a slow pacing towards the left, simply distancing himself a little as to not have the Seekers bunched up together in a bundle for some sort of AOE. He was ready to fight, but knew it'd be messy. He only hoped that this went smoothly, and that Midna didn't have more to complain about afterwards.

With time of the essence, the Grimleal captains and their associates busied themselves searching their new locale for any sign of a way forward. More like the bridge-spanned cavern that Band and Primrose braved than the rest of the Temple of Khamoon, this place appeared to be more of a naturally-occuring (albeit massive) cave that ancient buildings constructed within, rather than an area painstakingly cleared by the laborious efforts of miners and masons. The manmade section actually occupied a comparatively small area, with untamed rock walls, roiling sand pits, and bulky columns around it. At least four stalactite-lined tunnels extended haphazardly away from the central cavern, any one of which could reasonably lead to the stronghold of the Resistance.

Seeing all this, Band couldn’t help but wonder if Tora and Poppi might have jumped the gun in declaring that the route to their destination lay right below everyone’s feet, just waiting to be revealed by some clever mechanism. Depending on how far those tunnels went, his team could be here for hours, even days, and never know if this or that ordinary-looking stone was actually a button for a hidden door. “Ugh. We ain’t got time for all these stolen moments.” The idea of getting stumped in such an unceremonious, mundane fashion after coming all this way pissed Band off, so he deployed his magnifying glass and stepped forward after Primrose to scope the place out with renewed vigor. He was a detective, after all! If the Resistance came this way, there had to be a sign.

The first problem he ran into wasn’t too little evidence, but too much. So many feet had trampled the sand in the area going to and fro that nothing useful could be gained by trying to trace them. With furrowed brows Band widened the scope of his search. After a couple minutes of examination between the assembled party members, he came to what he thought was a conclusion. “It don’t look like there’s much sand up and around the rocks. If their base was down a tunnel, all those bozos trampin’ though woulda left some kinda trail. That means we can set some...aerial boundaries.”

Kan-Ra, crouched down before the recessed relief of a scarab beetle, murmured his concurrence. “Mm, yes. I believe that this is the door. I’m sensing a magical artifice here as well, which would indicate some sort of security mechanism in place.”

While the others searched, Azwel had reclined against a pillar, ostensibly to recover from his fight with Es but also to keep sand out of his raiment. “Or a trap of some sort, hmhm,” he added helpfully.

“There is indeed some sort of curse at work,” Kan-Ra confirmed as he stood to his full height. “The work of an inferior magician, I might add, but it would likely trigger if we attempted to force our way in nevertheless. I highly doubt it to be so sophisticated as to distinguish friend from foe, so the solution must be around us.”

“Hem-hem!” Tora cleared his throat with his little arms akimbo, all smug and full of smiles. “What did Tora and Poppi tell friends? Smartypons know puzzle when see one!”

A double honk from Big Band’s little horn, just like that of a clown nose, cut through the Nopon’s elation. “Instead of gloatin’, how ‘bout you make yourself useful and hustle down that sidepath, since you two can fly ‘n all?” the detective told them.

Aware that he was pushing it a little thanks to the Grimleal captains’ shared look of annoyance, Tora turned to give it a shot. After Poppi helped boost him over the shifting sands the two disappeared down the little tunnel, leaving the rest to continue their search for anything that might be of use. Their concentration didn’t last, however, as less than a minute later the sound of running footfalls drew their collective attention toward the entrance. After a moment Yoshitsune, Skull, and Panther appeared, banged up and burned to varying degrees but otherwise okay. “Hiya!” Panther greeted cheerily, waving to everyone. “Looks like we didn’t miss much. Everyone alright?”

Skull took stock of everyone and came up a few short. “Wait, where’s, uh, Tora and Poppi? And Red?”

“The duo went off to explore a side path,” Kan-Ra explained. “As for Red, if you mean the masked woman, she was injured in the initial ambush. When we moved on, she turned back and left.”

Touching bases with the Phantom Thieves put Primrose’s mind at rest, allowing her to fully focus on the task at hand. As luck would have it, the dancer happened on something interesting just moments thereafter. Like the others her eyes and hands had been tracing the intricate patterns and carvings that covered the pillars and walls in this place nonstop, and though she wasn’t nearly so fixated as to accidentally fall in a sand pit, she wasn’t watching her feet, either. As such, it took her by surprise when her open-toed shoe happened to hit something hard in the sand. A glance down revealed what looked like a dark stone half-buried in the sand, but it glistened oddly in the light of the chamber’s braziers. A closer inspection revealed it to be far from natural: it was a carving of a beetle rolling an orb. If touched it emitted a slight yellow glow, and if struck the shaped crystal would light up.

In response, the wings of the scarab on the doorway opened, and the first of the three symbols connected by lines beneath it gained a glowing, circular outline the color of sunlight. The door itself, however, did not open. Band gave a long, low hum of contemplation as he looked at the door and Primrose’s find. “Hmm. This beetle...just like with Eliza.” As Azwel and Kan-Ra looked at him, he explained further. “Lemme back up. There’s this vicious li’l honey I’ve tangled with once or twice back home named Eliza. Blood’s her thing, and if she’s goin’ all out she might turn it into a bug just like that and fly around. Straight up, straight out, straight down, big boom. And ‘cause she won’t shut up, she sometimes calls out ‘sunrise, high noon, sunset’.” He shot a look at Azwel as the sorcerer yawned, then cut to the chase. “Anyway, I’m thinkin’ we got two more bugs to find. One in the middle, one up high.”

Kan-ra grinned as he gave a soft clap. “I am impressed. It is rare that the myths of ancient Egypt come in handy, and rarer still to find someone who knows them--however that knowledge might have come about.”

Crossing her arms, Panther squinted at him. “Are you saying you recognized this stuff too? You coulda led with that!”

“And rob our good detective of his time to shine?” Kan-Ra looked amused. “Perish the thought. Now, let us seek the remaining scarabs.”

Band took serious issue with that sort of condescension, but since he’d already wasted enough time, he let sleeping dogs lie. The team dispersed, only a little closer to their destination but with clear targets in mind. Skull brushed some particles out of his hair after he got a little close to the sandfall on one side of the ruin. “Gah! Y’know, this’d be a lot easier if we could use Third Eye like Joker can.”

“You mean, if we could cheat,” Panther laughed. “C’mon, let’s climb up on the rocks. I’ll have Carmen send up some Agis and we can shoot any beetles we see up high.” Skull nodded, and the two jumped to higher ground.



The hollowness in Nadia’s stomach forced her to agree with the Cadet that she could have chosen her insults better. Even for a stray kitten used to living on scraps, this hunger was becoming a serious problem. It could only be worse for those with more normal, well cared-for childhoods, but Nadia found that telling herself she had it better than the others didn’t help her out a whole lot. There was no telling how much farther the kids had to go to be free of the Maw and its damnable curses, but just two areas sounded a little too good to be true. The odds of them making it were slim. Consequences or not, the kids needed to eat something soon, or else grow too weak to carry on.

But there was neither food nor rest to be had in the hanging catwalk labyrinth, and both Nadia and Ace agreed that they needed to get a move on. While trying to deal with Moreau they, Link, and Bowser had managed to get the platforms and both the start and end of the aerial maze wrecked. That left them both stranded in the middle without an immediate option, and left Nadia in particular bemoaning the fact that she left her bedsheet parachute behind. On the subject of Bowser, however, the little king started hollering across the former Depths’ upper reaches to make sure Link and Kamek were okay. While Kamek didn’t exactly make a great case for spending his time productively, Nadia was still glad that everyone seemed to be okay. Although, she couldn’t see that green-haired kid. Did he end up hiding in the storeroom? Falling in the water when Moreau attacked? Hopefully not.

Bowser ended up directing Nadia’s attention downward. She could see Link making his descent, but apparently Junior was down there, too. By pure coincidence she smacked her own forehead at the same time as Ace, having not put two and two together earlier. Of course, that meant that the young hero who just saved everyone’s bacon by risking his life to open the way now faced an irate Moreau on his own. Worse still, and hopefully not thanks to Kamek’s ‘help’, Moreau seemed to be plodding toward Flow Control at the north side of the room.

They intrepid climbers didn’t need to waste time discussing what that meant; instead, Nadia took off after Ace toward where Bowser hung over the platform by the Command Center. The route taken by Link proved that the stair towers didn’t need to be intact to be traversable, and right now the Seekers didn’t have enough time to be picky. The two ran, jumped, swung, and slid like lives were on the line until they reached Bowser’s ladder and could shimmy down to what remained of the stair tower.

Nadia paused as she landed on the twisted platform, her spine chilled by a grotesque noise that issued down the hall from the direction of the Command Center. “W-what was that?” she squeaked. “Are they in trouble in there?” In vain she craned her neck to try and see inside, but couldn’t get a clear shot down the corridor without committing to it. Then she looked back down to see Link reach the bottom floor and promptly start making a racket at Moreau. Indecision clutched her heart like an ice-cold hand, squeezing in two directions. This was a crossroads; she needed to make a decision, and make it fast.

“Ohhh…” she moaned in dismay, both brain cells working overtime to come up with an answer that would break her out of this paralysis. “W-well...whatever’s in the Command Center, it can’t be worse than the fish monster, right? And we’ve only got two guys down there.” But doubt riddled her. Did she think that just because the exit lay that way, too? Before she could second guess herself, the kitten leaped down to the mangled stair tower’s third floor. From there she could race down the stairs as fast as her little feet could take her, headed for the bottom.

Meanwhile, Link’s noisemaking earned him his desired results, for better or worse. Rather than comb through the debris to try and flush out Junior, Moreau rounded on Link with a bellow. Its anger could not be mistaken, but it held something else as well, a sort of piteous, quavering, almost sobbing quality. “Don’t...be cruel,” Moreau cried. “It’s not fair. It’s not fair! I should be the one with her...not them…” He hauled himself toward Link, crawling faster than one would expect for such a misshapen monstrosity. “Rrragh! You’re the reason nobody loves me!” his garbled moans echoed through the once-flooded base, addressing all the intruders at once. “If she didn’t need monsters to...to terrorize intruders, I...I wouldn’t be stuck with this miserable life!”

Like a walrus he reared up and slammed his weight down where he last saw Link. “They’ll have to respect me if I kill you! Please!” he pleaded. “She’ll make me better...I just need to...to! Grrah!” He started lumbering around, trying to ram and bite anything that moved on either the ground floor or the metal walkways just above.

---

Once it became clear that the Proxy found its targets by sound, the Command Center quickly filled with grave silence. Even as the horrific pile of pustules began to stalk among the gathered children, however, there existed a glimmer of hope. Its senses were not so acute that it could detect the muffled shuffling of little feet here and there, particularly when timed with the nauseating cries that issued from the creature’s warped gullet. And though its strength and speed made actually fighting it a near-impossibility for a bunch of tired, scared, and hungry kids, Mirage awakened his team to a different possibility. Smack dab in the center of the room was a four-story drop that not even this abomination could survive.

First, Peach needed to vacate the area right between the opening in the pit cage and the pilot seat, which was about to become a highly contested area. Sakura moved in to help the fallen princess out. She got lucky with her footsteps, but as she maneuvered Peach face-up and whispered to Peach to no response, the sound carried far enough to alert the Proxy. With a gargle the fleshy horror turned her way, but the sudden rattle of Mirage’s dart against a section of the chain-link pit cage got its attention off her back. The Proxy howled and threw itself against the fence, thrashing its imagined prey, but despite the frightening display of violence Geralt came back to help drag Peach to safety. Mirage’s distraction also allowed Rika to take charge of the submarine controls without getting mobbed herself, and once the mechanical arms started up their mechanical ruckus the Proxy’s wrath was thoroughly occupied. Together Sakura and Geralt two pulled the little princess around the side of the cage opposite the Proxy and toward the communications station by the window. If either checked her pulse en route they’d be relieved to learn that their ally was still among the living.

A few moments later they’d ferreted the half-conscious Peach in the legroom of the desk and could turn to reappraise the current situation with their unwelcome guest. Rika’s efforts with the arm controls had drawn the wailing Proxy around the cage, through the open gate, and onto the extension over the pit itself. There, unable to jump or otherwise reach the source of the noise, it could only stamp and scream in hideous frustration.

---

As Peach was rescued by Sakura and Geralt, Rika’s rapidly constructed plan came to fruition. The lumbering thing, already lured back to the charge by Mirage’s bolt, became utterly infuriated by the crane rumbling and rattling away inside it, and after some smashing and thrashing it got itself into the room with the pit. There, unable to jump or climb up to reach the crane, it became effectively stuck for as long as she kept wiggling the controles, screeching up at the source of the noise with great fury.

The sounds it was making were hideous things, but at least it was adding to the noise in the room, giving the others room to breathe, recover and then escape. With that in mind the ship girl started gesturing with her free gauntlet for them to move out towards the door while she was keeping it distracted, a move that would let them all get out while leaving her behind to make some kind of mad dash afterwards.

Mirage, however, seemed to take this in the opposite way. Rather than run, he took Rika and the Proxy's loud noises as an opportunity to move farther forward. He carefully eyed the Proxy as he moved, the gurgling and stomping being great motivators for wanting to get rid of it. With the others out of the picture, it just meant there were a lot less distractions that could pull the Proxy out of it's cage. So all they had to do was knock him in, like putting a golf ball, or something! He had no intentions of leaving Rika behind to do this herself, who knew what was happening outside the room with all the rumbling? It was very possible Rika would have an issue getting to the exit herself. She wouldn't be the first abyssal he helped today.

Managing to scurry up to join Rika at the controls, he looked over the situation for a moment, noting the now empty room and the very angry, eyeless meat sack that was throwing a tantrum right next to the pit. "All that's left is to give 'em a whack with that crane." He seemed fine with letting Rika operate it since her plan had worked out so far, though the sight of the controls and the damage from her gauntlet made it clear things were a little difficult. "Need a hand?" He asked with a slight tilt of his head.

The girl’s eyes widened a little at the idea, and then she looked momentarily sheepish at not thinking of that, before nodding in agreement to it.. However as he, and to an extent she, expected, Rika didn't have much luck hitting a swing. The crane was slow and when combined with the way her gauntlet was blocking things and the arm twisting she was having to do to even hold the controles she didn't have any success.

“Yeah” she whispered in response to his request for help, before scooting a bit to the side while sliding the controle over to him, attempting to ensure that the move to hand over control didn't interrupt the noise making.

Mirage took a moment to familiarize himself with the controls, not being complicated by any means but he didn't want to embarrass himself too much. Good thing the Proxy didn't have arms, as with how low the crane was dangling, it could probably just grab the damn thing at this point. Realizing he had to keep the thing in place while the crane positioned behind it, he took his Dart Gun in one hand and put it to work: As the crane positioned behind the monstrosity, Mirage's darts rattled the top of the cage to try and at least buy time by keeping it in place.

With the darts deployed, he pulled back on the controls and brought the crane in for a good smack against the Proxy, hoping to send it into the pit below. Not exactly the speediest tool, but hopefully it'd be enough.

If it wasn’t, while he was at it Rika had tried to sneak her way round to the cage’s entrance and, once there, lined up her two cannon to give it the extra kick it needed to be tipped into the drained abyss bellow.

---

---

---

Don't be cruel. That was a laugh, Link thought. Here was this big lug trying to eat them, out right telling him that it was his job to terrify people weaker than him, and he had the gall to beg him not to be cruel. Beg. That's what he was doing as he dragged itself across the floor toward Link. For just a moment Link found the monster pitiful, but then it reared up far faster than he had expected. All at once Link's vision was filled with slimy grey flesh, and he sprinted to the side to try and avoid it. Like a tidal wave the monsters crashed down on the platform that had just been supporting him, ripping it from its mooring and sending it clattering to the floor under his bulk. It took a last second leap for the next platform in the line to avoid being crushed. He landed in a roll and then took off running.

The monster came after him, as though following the sound of his feet pounding across the metal. Link felt the platform under him start to pull away the moment he made it to the next, the monster wrapping its teeth around it and yanking it down. Link scanned the route in front of him as he ran, trying to find one that both lead the monster away from Junior and eventually circled back around to a way back up to safety. With the way the monster was able to move even out of water he didn't think there was any way to outrun it on the ground, but he slowed down every time he reared up to try and get at Link. He heard it again, the monster rearing up and slamming down to take out the platform he had just left. So long as he kept moving and regulated his bursts of speed to maintain his stamina, though, Link was confidence he could keep in front of-

There was a another slamming sound behind him, but not the one he had grown used to. It made him glance back for the fist time to see one of the rusted piles of junk machinery flying toward him, driven forward by a strike from the monsters tail. He skidded to a stop as he noted the arc of its flight, slipping on the still wet metal as the junk slammed into the platform in front of him and tore it to pieces leaving only a quartet of hanging chains.

Not even taking the time to think he scrambled to his feet again and ran full tilt toward to the edge, making his leap as that platform to was ripped away. He managed to wrap his little fingers around one of the chain, swinging forward even as he began to slide down thanks to its dampness. He slipped from the end at the apex of the swing, landing clumsily on the next platform. Getting his feet under him and shot forward, climbing up a short set of stairs on all fours like a monkey that led to the next platform where he could keep running.

All the while he felt the rumbling in his gut, and had a sudden appreciation for how hard this must have been on everyone that had crossed the scaffolding earlier. This was a nightmare.

---

---

---

This was going to be so fun!

After hearing about the magic of the flaglines Linkle had taken the chain she had ridden in on and weaved it through the mandibles of her beetle, clamping the jaws shut to keep it in place. It was a major relief that they would be able to just ride back up after they found Freya. Maybe when they did they could bring the girl to see her mother.

The other important piece of information they got was that, despite their otherworldly appearance, the masked figure was apparently on the up and up. Just a merchant, if a rather twitchy one. Some of those badges on offer were pretty tempting, but it looked like they only accepted these green stones that were apparently scattered around. "All right. When we get back, we'll have a sack full." She said, patting the bag tied to her belt. Then she stretched out before dropping to a runners start. "On your mark." She said, grinning up at Albedo. "Get set. GO!"

With that she sprinted forward across the dry brown stone. She didn't pick a route, choosing mostly the method that looked the fastest. For her, that meant a nearby springboard. She jumped toward it, kicking downward to land hard. An instant later she was sent flipping high into the air toward the roof of a nearby house. She landed in a roll, dashing forward. There was a rope connecting this house to another, and she could see another springboard sitting enticingly on the opposite roof, but she didn't have the balancing skills to make use of that. Instead she kept forward, jumping off the roof and catching ahold of a latter going up a nearby cliff. She scrambled up the latter like a monkey.

Reaching the top pulled herself up and took off again. She almost ran into one of the wandering goats, but spun around the big guy and spotted a pile of hay bales stacked up against the side of a cliff. She broke for it, jumping up the hay bales as though they were a giant set of stairs before jumping up and grabbing the lip of the cliff above. She pulled herself up and, spotting a rope connecting this cliff to a small one with a cute windmill, undid the chain around the beetle and wrapped it around the rope. She slid down to the windmill and grabbed onto one one of the passing blades, letting it carry her up to the roof in an effort to reach the village peak. She spotted another thin cliff edge from the roof and jumped for it, grabbing on and sidling her way along the lip until she could find a place to pull herself up. Along this rout she was, of course, keeping a look out for pons and bagging them at every opportunity. This slight delay might have cost her the race, but it definitely wouldn't. She was going to lose for another reason entirely.

Linkle had lost the plot somewhere around where she had avoided the goat, and every exhilarating acrobatic maneuver she had employed since then had been taking her farther and farther away from the goal.

With some difficulty, because dropping down caused an even more heavy an impact from the weighty Koopa king than jumping up had had and thus had an even higher risk of breaking platforms, Bowser managed to eventually make it back down to meet up with Kamek. The mage himself was anxiously watching as Link taunted the big fish jerk, which caused him to yell some rather pitiable things back up, which bought jr a bit of time, but then after that he resumed moving in a rather more general pattern, attacking anything that moved.

From their raised angle the older koopas could see him peeking his head over a pile of junk well out of rage of the initial stomping ground rampage to assess the situation. Link’s ploy had bailed him out of being homed in on, and also gave him a few precious moments to dart away from flow control, but now the jerk was patrolling the grounds at a semi-random basis. Still, he was big and noisy and so figuring out where not to go wasn't that much of an issue. The big issue was figuring out where he needed, or even could, go to get out of here.

With that in mind Jr started searching through the waterlogged scrap heap that was the bottom floor, his head for a way out or anything that might be useful in the junk, his stomach for anything that could be eaten, as far a stretches that might be.

Up above, that last point was very much on Bowser’s mind as well, the king asking ”Don’t suppose you found anything to eat while you were at it?” while taking the key mold off of Kamek and giving it a quick mental comparison to the one Jr had just in case.

”No not really. All I found was this scrap metal, two canisters of goo, one of which got emptied and made a weird eyeball thing that you should not look at… not look at sire” Kamek said, rapping a knuckle on the king’s shell to break his gaze from the bio-goo-eyeball thing, ”and a load of scrap metal”

”I’ll take that, the machine probably needs stuff to smelt into other stuff or something.” Bowser said, moving to pick up some of the metal junk, before asking again ”So no food?”

”No, and, like I said, eating is probably a bad idea seeing as it is a cursed hunger after all” Kamek reminded him

”Easy for you to say, mr sitting on your butt all the time. I’ve been jumping around all day and I. am. starving!” Bowser retorted grumpily.

”Sire, look at me, I am tiny and also, not exactly a jumping species. Do you see any wings on my back?” Kamek replied with frustration directed both at his weakness and that the king kept bringing up and complaining about his obvious helplessness, as if doing so would allow him to miraculously do something about it.

”You don't need to jump to drop down after Link. Go use your brain to figure out how to help Jr or something, or maybe I’ll end up finding a use for you as a survival ration” Bower replied with even greater amounts of frustration, jabbing his advisor in the chest with a claw and causing the tiny turtle to stumble back in surprise and even a little fear.

The two stood and stared at each other for a moment before Kamek responded with a ”As you command sire,” in a forced monotone before turning and leaving, leaving Bowser behind with his regrets. And his stomach, which growled loudly at him.

”Oh shut up! This is all your fault.” Bowser demanded of his ravenous gut, which showed no sign of shutting up.

The king grunted and focused on getting back to work as a way to distract himself, awkwardly trying to piling up scrap metal and the two remaining forms into his hands, only to lose his grip on the bundle when he went to pick up the last piece he wanted, causing it all to clatter to the floor.

”Stupid. Gah.” The king growled, kicking one of the boxes in frustration and tipping it over, spilling reams and reams of paper covered in recordings of private conversations all over the floor. In a place filled with corrosion, decay and corruption plain old sheets of paper were a surprisingly mundane thing to find.

Bowser's stomach growled again.

”...”

And again, painfully so.

”Grrrr…. Maybe this’ll shut you up!” He told it, before grabbing a couple of layers of of documents and biting a chunk out of them.

---

While Bowser tried to eat paper, Kamek was grumbling to himself as he followed Link’s route as far as he could without the ability to jump. He did at least have one advantage, and that was that no one from his world had ever had to worry about fall damage, and so like a goomba he wandered off the end of the non existent descending stairs and dropped down to the next floor without fear or even consideration. That's about as far as he got however, but he wasn't really intending to put himself in direct chase-able danger like Link was risking, because he wasn't able to dodge out of the way like the spry Hylian. Getting to the second floor was fine as far as he was concerned.

Still, he had to do something, and so he started talking.

”If you don't mind me interjecting, the reason no one loves you is because the people you're trying to get to love you are a big jerk of a boss” Kamek called down the fish monster conversationally, not at all projecting his current emotional state with regards to his own boss, ”and her menagerie of horror show minions. I can assure you that no matter how loyal or helpful you are, you are never going to win the respect you so crave in a place like this. It's not exactly what I’d call a loving environment after all. Even if you were the most charming and effective little monster, you’d still just be that, a useful monster.”

”You're clearly unhappy here, so why don't you just leave? Pack your bags and strike out into the great ocean blue? There's plenty more fish in the sea after all, ones that aren't running some rust-bucket of a submarine that exists purely to eat up cruise goers. There’s that Tyl Regor fellow who probably knows a thing or two about biology, or you could head for one of the cities around the coast. There's people from all over available, and I'm sure you’d be able to find people who know how to make you better who aren't, you know, a horrifying wraith of a lady that keeps you around as a guard dog. A guard dog that's attacking children, I should remind you out. Is this really where you want to be?” He concluded before, rather belatedly, adding ”Also, while I’m at it, hello, I’m Kamek. What’s your name?”

Kamek knew that, due to Galeem’s influence, convincing the fish to leave them be or give up was basically impossible, but maybe he could get the guy talking and buy time for them to work out how the heck they were going to get Jr up to their floor.

Blazermate was calling out where Moreau was as Jr. and Mirage did their thing. And they were successful! They managed to drain the water that blocked their path forward, and Moreau didn't take that well. Due to the damage they had been doing to the room to fight and distract Moreau, Blazermate used her ability to fly and easily carry others to escort those who needed aid to the command center where others were gathering, it also had people in trouble with something that Blazermate could help them with!

Moreau didn't take the fact that people were managing to escape well, and decided to chase down those that he could, even getting out of the water to do so! Link being his primary target, but everyone nearby being in danger. Link seemed to be able to keep away from him though, even with his small body and hunger issues. Peach had been injured and others were fending off some kind of monster thing in the Command Center, so Blazermate had to make that her first choice before doing anything to help Link out.

Grabbing a larger sheet of scrap, Blazermate held onto it like it was a shield and made her way to help deal with the creature that rika and Mirage were having to deal with that was advancing on those that hung over there. Using a chain to help control her flight, Blazermate spun around on it to gain momentum, the centrifical force multiplying her flight speed when she eventually let go and barreled towards the creature that Rika was shooting with her cannons. Shield held out in front, Blazermate tried her best to slam into that thing with her makeshift shield. Sadly she wasn't the heaviest medabot, but even so, she was sure she could help knock over some humanoid creature. She lost said shield in the process as she refused to keep a hold of it upon impact, using it to jump away and counteract her own impact force so she didn't tumble with the creature.

Should the creature fall off, she'd start to stabalize and heal up Peach, since it and her flight were really the only functions she could do right now. The water was drained and link was distracting the thing she was watching.

Sakura tensed up as the proxy seemed to spot her, but fortunately her teammates covered her, just like she predicted. Soon afterwards, Mister Geralt came to her aid in rescuing Princess Peach. She smiled nervously at him and continued escorting poor Peach behind the console and out of easy access from the creature.

After nearly getting attacked, the little girl was much less eager to whisper, let alone speak. Sakura sat down next to Peach and crossed her legs, cradling Peach's head in her lap so she wouldn't be on the cold hard floor. And her body was probably quieter than echoing metal.

Sakura looked up at Geralt and shrugged, eyes wide, not sure what to do. She couldn't see much of what was going on anymore and she wasn't going to leave Peach alone. Sakura's bottle was now where Peach was, if it got knocked over it would make a small noise.

This console center felt like a safe place. If the creature heard any noises, he would probably smack into the console before figuring out how to get around it. If other people wanted to regroup here, they could. Sakura just looked at Mister Geralt and then back down at Peach, holding a hand against the Princess's head. Sakura hoped everyone, especially Bella who looked to be the most exposed after throwing that bottle. What the others were up too, she couldn't know.

Well, she could guess, actually. Cannons and jetpack jets began going off. Sounded like some people were fighting back. Rika, and maybe Blazermate? Going by the noises. Sakura hoped they would succeed but outside of that she couldn't do much else.



Jesse shrugged at Ciella's request, walking up and calling the elevator, smacking the bottom of her curled fist against the button. Just another day at the office. The lift wasn't big enough for everyone. But the bigger members of the team could be shrunk down in order to accommodate this. A perfect plan, were it not for the sudden harassment of their group by floors of goons.

As such, at the beginning of every fight Jesse spent the first few moments aiming at and unshrinking some people back to their full size. After that she just used her Grip Service Weapon to semi-automatically focus down troublesome targets. All in all, it wasn't a huge hassle. If anything, it was easier than what she was used too. Walking into and then clearing out a room full of enemies was like, her entire job description for the first couple of days. And she didn't have superpowered help back then.

This place was bigger than it looked. At least down here. Jesse briefly welded her foot to the ground to not get knocked over by a gust of wind. Massive chambers that probably shouldn't fit where they're built? Familiar. Nostalgic, even.

Soon they entered a massive room, and Jesse barely spotted the enigmatic villain behind this entire thing. Mao gave everybody the low-down. After a brief but fruitless confrontation with Ciella, this annoying little lady order her mind controlled minions to get to work. Jesse recognized most of them, especially Fuse and the Dragonborn. Given their perfect health, there must be a healer among the Resistance. Or maybe those magical items healed them up.

When the fight kicked off, Jesse still had her Tool Gun out. The Director dashed forward and to the side, staying by the wall. She reached her telekinetic grasp for one of the long, pointy spear-like objects sticking out of the ground. Ripping one up, she hit it with a Tool Gun to double it's size, lifted it high, and then flung it a high velocity directly towards Number Two. Not in a straight line, as if to impale her, but spinning like a slower helicopter blade. Kill shots usually weren't effective unless the enemy had been softened up first. Giving Number Two a mighty sharp thwack with a spinning piece of metal might do her some good. At the very least, her team might get a glimpse of what kind of defenses the leader had protecting her.

Switching to her Service Weapon, Jesse was flanking around the right side and started firing at Shadow the Hedgehog.

(This is so weird.)

He seemed dangerous and if she could stop him from doing any more crazy Hedgehog spells, that'd be great. While she fired, she was running and pre-emptively evading fire coming her way. Especially putting pillars between her and the enemies she wasn't firing at.

It took a little while, and seemingly some cheating by jumping over the spin platforms (too which Minda’s gut response a brief pang of disappointed in them before her own cheating re-registered with herself) but eventually the team all filed out of the maze and join the royals at Midna’s improvised fortification, which she proceeded to dismantle and send back to the Twilight realm along with the un-flung potted plant.

The vending machine was added to the collection after it was examined and dismissed by those who seemed to know what it was. It might not have the snacks it was apparently supposed to have, but it certainly had a metallic heft to it that might come in handy.

Once back together they pushed forwards once more, only to be met almost instantly by an obstacle that did not seem surmountable for most, a field of energy beams. It also looked like it led to a dead end anyway, leaving it quickly dismissed by the Thieves at least. That said, if you wanted to keep people out for good then this was a much better attempt than the mere stumbling block that was the spin maze, so Minda still considered it worth checking out just in case. The fact that it looked like there would need to be two trips down in the ‘elevator’ to get to the ‘base’ only solidified her resolve to investigate.

She shook her head at Mao’s wordless offer to ride his shadow again and said, ”I can get across that trapped room no problem, so I’ll go with the second group after giving it a look. I think you’ve proven yourself to be onside at this point anyway, so you don't need me watching you” she added, referring to her status as his sudo-parole officer. He’d fought earnestly against one of the tougher threats in the previous room, and he could easily have let Laharl die in the confrontation if he was doing some kind of subtle double cross, so she had no reason to doubt him. Not that she had much in the first place, but all that was confirmation enough for her to not even consider worrying about leaving his side.

With that she drifted round too and up the stairs to the laser room, plonked down a chair, hid in its shadow and then teleported across the room to a shadow in the store room to check the place out.

When Midna reappeared she found herself in a storeroom piled high with assorted miscellany. There were loot boxes, supply barrels, and even classic chests. Popping one open would reveal not treasure but a bunch of random stuff that differed wildly in value. Various unused odds and ends with the tags still attached, a wealth of personal items, excess spin and stop pads, construction materials, food and ingredients, and more. In short, she found the sum total of this arm of the Resistance’s stolen goods. Since very little of the stuff seemed to be precious in any way, except perhaps on a personal level, it stood to reason that the rebels couldn’t even get much for selling it all, even if they found somewhere willing to pawn it off. All these things, carelessly taken and then discarded here, suggested that the ‘heroic’ Resistance had been stealing not because they needed to, but just because they could.

There were, however, some items that stood out among the rest.



The boots had a touch of magic to them and had some nice steel toe-caps to boot. A new bit of her instantly saw the advantage of that, and in short order they were her feet and being used for a practice aerial kick, dragon claws slicing through the air backed by an iron hammerblow.

They went exactly stylistic, the heavy boots worn with her light attire did not really match, that she was sure Sectonia would agree on, but if they gave her an edge she was fine with it.

The yellow slime filled jar was one of the few things that she'd found in the new world that was instantly recognizable, both for the goo itself and the style of the bottle it was held in, both of which were sourced from Hyrule. As she sorted the flammable substance Link had used as lantern fuel away for safekeeping, she noticed a few more bottles of the same style, all sitting in a strangely familiar picnic basket. When closer examination revealed them to be filled with bugs, the source of that familiarity resolved itself into one for ”Agitha?”

Finding out that the self-proclaimed princess of bugs was around (or at least that was what her basket being here in the rebel’s possession implied) was both surprising and, in a way, not at all so. She’d played a rather vital role in the time war for some inexplicable reason after all, so the princess made a note to herself to track her down after this and to return her bugs to her. Seeing a familiar face would be welcome, she thought, even if that face belonged to someone who was a touch… off kilter. Plus the princess had been loaded, so getting her help might be well worth the effort.

The familiarity didn't end there either, as the search also turned up an armor piece she remembered being worn by Impa during that same time war. Whether that meant she was here was less clear, as it could theoretically belong to someone of the same culture, whatever that was, but she would certainly endeavor to find out.

She turned the small armor plate over once more, silently wondering how on earth they’d managed to steal it had belonged to the secretive guardian if it was hers, and then gave the metal a rap with her knuckles, new instincts approving of the quality of the steelwork.

”I’m sure she won't mind,” Minda said to herself, before donning the metal plate, adding a bit more armor to her right side. If it saved her from a bullet it would be well worth it, though she was probably approaching a limit on how much metal she could clad herself in without starting to encumber herself.

The rest of the store contained little else of interest, mostly useless personal items like Agitha’s bug hamper along with various construction materials and even food, all haphazardly tucked away here with little rhyme or reason to its organization.

”Weird. What was even the point of taking most of this?” She asked herself while rummaging around. General ongoing disruption was basically the only tactical value she could see in this, but it still seemed somewhat aimless. The more obvious and worse reason was that it had all been taken for fun, for the thrill of the act, rather than because they needed whatever it was they stole, which was one massive black mark against them if it was the case. However, considering there was some kind of mind altering at play due to the number two, how much that reflected on the resistance’s recruits’ actual personalities was difficult to say. It certainly did not reflect well on the organization as a whole that was for certain.

”Well, it’ll be gone before the sun sets anyway so what does it really matter. As for all this stuff...” none of the rest of it was going to be immediately useful in and of itself, unless he wanted to try and get really clever with her own spine tiles somehow, and unlike the rebel’s office furniture she didn't really want to be throwing the belongings of their victims around if she had to.

Still, she collected it all anyway, re-sealing the chests and boxes and then sending the entire contents of the store room to her own storage space in the Twilight realm, with a vague idea that she’d be able to set up some kind of lost (or rather stolen) and found once they were done with this. Getting bystanders their stuff back was the right thing to do after all, but the good will it would generate with them and the city officials wouldn't hurt either.

With that sorted out she headed back to rejoin the others, blinking back to her chair and then retrieving it before floating down the steps to the elevator entrance, finding that, apparently, everyone had managed to get in the first time round. That left her at a bit of an impasse, because she wasn't familiar with the machinery they had used to go down.

True, there was only one button to interact with, but despite that Midna decided she’d take things into her own hands rather than rely on whatever this device was. Or hand rather. Summoning her shadow hand she reached out and stabbed two dragon claws between the elevator doors and then used the two fingers to pry them open, forming a gap big enough to slip through and then promptly doing so.

She drifted in over the elevator shaft as the doors snapped shut behind her and, taking a look down, saw the others, who seemed to have arrived at their final destination and were exiting the elevator deep, deep down at the bottom of the shaft.

Incredibly deep in-fact. Absurdly so, in Midna’s opinion. She’d probably only been that far below the ground when she and Link had challenged the Cave of Ordeals, she mused as she found a shadow up at her end of the shaft and then blinked down into one down at the bottom of it. Things got even more absurd when her ride moved into the chamber propper, and revealed its depths to go even deeper than their entryway. The vast chamber was absurdly large and contained within its center a large hanging structure that to Midna’s eyes also screamed boss arena.

Minda marveled at the scale of it like the others and even her antiquated eyes could see that this was far more advanced than the building they had just been in, inspiring the question as to who had put this here and why? Well, the answer to why was probably Galeem, because she doubted that if the rebels had the ability to build something this massive in the amount of time that the world had existed. If they could have done so then they really should not have had any trouble taking the town.

When Joker started making plans she was reminded that she hadn’t reintroduced herself, and so mentioned ”I’m back, by the way” from her transport’s shadow, and then pulling herself out of it and landing beside them.

”Beam room had all the rebel’s stolen goods in it. Which I’ve collected and sent home for storage till we get out of here,” she informed them, while dance-stepping away, charging up dragon power in preparation for the battle they were likely about to face. Unfortunately Ciella’s haste wouldn't even leave time for that to get fully pumped, as the dark paladin rushed ahead, leaving them to follow in her wake.

It was a reminder of the problems she was going to cause, her blinding by Galeem almost secondary to her (possibly deserved) arrogance and twisted personality. Planning that had been running passively in the back of her mind shoved itself to the forefront as the final act of this battle rapidly approached and she’d need to do everything she could to avoid the curtains closing on any of the lives that were at stake here, something made very difficult by her only having two other people she knew would be following her script rather than the one that ended in death.

But maybe she could pump that number up by one at this late hour.

”Braum, could you wait up for just a moment?” she said, catching the bare chested brawler just before he followed the problem members of the crew across the jump pad. Having his attention, she pulled out a friend-heart and held it out towards him ”and could you hold this for me? I think it’d be good if you can see the whole picture before we go into this.”

Although the mustached Freljordian couldn’t fathom what the little lady meant by ‘whole picture’, he accepted the friend-heart from Midna without question. The mote of power took root immediately, since while Braum had received some ambient healing from from Sectonia, the wounds sustained by bullets and sorcery in the initial fight still took a toll on him. But like the seed of Galeem’s influence his wounds disappeared once the heart made contact, and as it disappeared his eyes widened. “Whoa…” he murmured, awed by the sudden change. Big, sea-green eyes full of kindness regarded his surroundings anew. Everything seemed so clear--especially what he needed to do. “I don’t understand all that’s happened, but I am ready to fight to bring these villains to justice!” He pounded his fist against his meaty chest to show just how ready he was.

Minda had not been expecting that to work in and of itself. The man bore his wounds well it seemed, or the threshold was lower than she expected ”Justice being the key point: let's take them alive if we can, because there’s a mind control situation going on here that these hearts can cure,” she explained as she moved towards the jump platform ”Mao was one of them once, and if he can be a friend, then so can the rest” she said, and then slowed, paused, and then nodded to herself.

She had a plan.

Stepping onto the platform, the princess soared through the air, spring and twisting another dance as she flew, landing with an explosion of power when she arrived. When she did she found barbs were being traded between their group’s bigger personalities and the tiny woman apparently responsible for the mind control afflicting the rebels.

Midna saved her words, she was going to need those later. Instead she followed her landing into a fourth dragon dance, pumping herself to 300% speed and power and, while in the midst of doing so summoned a host of office plants in their plant pots, scooped them up at the start of a twirl using her shadow hand, and then using the rotation of her dance move to pendulum the handful of porcelain projectiles around and then hurling them in an indiscriminate opening salvo at the assembled rebels.

With the final step of her dance she stabbed dragon clawed toes into the metal ground and then hurled herself into Sectonia’s shadow to avoid whatever retaliation might be coming their way.

”Focus them, free them, turn them to our side” she commanded from the dark to whoever would listen, delivering her plan of how to make saving lives into a winning strategy (by increasing their numbers) rather than a thing that held them back as quickly as she could to those she expected to be onboard, before blinking away into the delightfully shadow filled depths of the arena, ready to pop out almost anywhere in reaction to the other’s opening moves, to exploit weakness in the mind controlled rebels’ ranks or reinforce anyone who immediately got in trouble by leaping to their defense, Braum style.

It really all depended on what went down in the opening few heartbeats of battle. Either way, the main focus of her strategy was to intervene and rapidly turn a fight in their favor so she could land her own blows and then a heart their foe to add them to their ranks.

Disappointingly, Es was not yet ready to be awoken from her Illuminated stupor. The same, then, could not yet be hazarded with Azwel either, as the measure of his zeal against his sense of reason (or with it) thereafter was even less certain. What was certain, however, was that they both had a fair amount of fight left in them. Fox moved to meet Es halfway to make good on Azwel's setup, but unexpectedly moved the rest of the way on him to catch him in a punishing attack string. With the last hit, he ended up next to the arriving members of Yellow Team, who briefly provided reinforcement enough to force an advantage on Es and defeat her… had she not been warped to safety (presumably) in the midst of Azwel's flamboyantly called-out finisher.

In the implosion of vibrant crimson and azure against the golden glow of a magic teleportation circle, it didn't escape Fox that Es's disappearance wasn't the sorcerer's doing, a fact by which he seemed to be more amused than anything. Just as well. Even with a provisional alliance, Fox stood by not wanting to let the Grimleal have their way if it meant total annihilation of "the enemy". One of their own--and who knows how many others, perhaps better deserving--happened to be among them. For him, that was reason enough for what they were doing… and whatever they did from there.

After having his wounds flame-licked, the group proceeded further down into the catacombs. Besides the fact that they were in enemy territory--and clearly expected--Fox had a hard time sharing the deduction that stalling puzzles and traps awaited them, should they proceed carelessly. Tora was right about one thing for sure; they would have time to gather and recuperate, and now had a better look at their opposition against which to prepare accordingly. That was fine with him, for that went both ways. They, too, better knew what they were up against now. Their main disadvantage now lay in being at half their collective strength on unfamiliar turf.

The problem, currently, was finding which way they went. Excepting for Tora and Poppi, the latter of whom could fly and hear from Fox if needed, splitting up to try paths was obviously out, for they were already at half of their number even with the return of the Thieves and samurai. Investigative happenstance turned up a possible solution moments into their trial, prompting the remaining party to begin their search up and down for the remaining pieces of the puzzle. Fox left them to it while he stepped away to phone the other squad for an update on their progress. If they were wading into an obvious trap the way they already thought they were, it might do for both ends to know what things looked like on the other...

“Necronomicon, report!”

Ace and Nadia were practically in a race against Moreau, frantically making their way as fast as possible toward the lower level before the monster could squash their friend. Fortunately Link was not a stationary target, and the Hylian was doing his best to keep away from the mutant - and succeeding! Well his plan worked! the Cadet thought, pulling some positivity into his brain while he worked his way down. All things considered, it was going pretty well for them in this area of the Maw. Just had to keep the optimism up - and he was trying, even as a distressing noise filtered over to them from the direction of the Command Center. The Cadet descended the ladder and landed next to Nadia, his eyes wide and confused. There had been nothing in the Command Center when they left it, only those that were handling the underwater part of the plan. Where would something even get in from?

"They'll be okay," he assured her after she tried reasoning with herself. Geralt had gone back there, plus Blazermate had just flown back with a big chunk of metal. Not to mention the rest of them keeping guard. Who knew, that noise might have even been some kind of weird echo with Moreau as it's source. Positive thoughts.

Ace Cadet followed her to the bottom level. The more people working on this "Moreau problem," the better. Once they were on the ground, the Cadet's mind shifted from thinking positive thoughts to thinking of solutions. It might be possible to play keep away with Moreau, shifting his attention from one kid to another to keep him from focusing on catching just one of them. While they did that, another one of them could go help Junior, and once they were in the clear they could all try and climb to safety. Nadia, with her speed and dexterity, might be a better fit for dodging the monster... but the Cadet knew she was exhausted. Her agility might not hold out. Besides, even if the Cadet was turned into a kid he was still monster hunter. Facing off against bigger threats was kind of his thing. He just had to figure out how to do that in his current state.

"Nadia," he said, catching the feral's attention. "Go find a way to get Junior out of here. Between the two of you, I know you can do it. Boost him up, or find a low hanging platform and pull him up - whatever works, okay? I'll go help Link distract fishface until you're both back to safety." He smiled at her, hopefully in a way she found reassuring, before he went ahead with his plan to split up.

Step one: find those cutters that had fallen into the water. He scoured the immediate area for them while Link was still the monster's target and Kamek tried talking it down. That definitely wouldn't work, but if it distracted Moreau then the Cadet hoped the koopa didn't run out of breath any time soon. Finally, the red head spotted the tool laying atop a junk pile. He snatched them up then ran towards where the creature was still thrashing. He studied Moreau, doing his best to judge what the weakest areas of the monster would be based on those from his own world, and some common sense. The tail was a no-go, it was waving about violently and one thwack from it looked like enough to seriously injure any of them, if not worse. It's arms were not ideal for much the same reason, and though it's face looked menacing the real danger was that belly flop. The analysis led into step two: make it split it's attention between two targets.

While Moreau was chasing after Link, the Cadet ran back to get on a higher platform again. Moreau was already trying to snap at the catwalks before, so getting him to turn away from the ground floor would help all of those still down there. His arms and legs were sore and aching, but he pushed himself up and waited. Soon enough the monster came by, crossing close under the platform the Cadet was on. The young monster hunter raised the cutters and - trying his best not to fumble - snipped off a few of the wriggling tentacles protruding from it's back.

"Ha ha!" He caught one of the appendages in his hand and threw it down at Moreau. "Yeah, listen to Kamek and give up, you can't catch any of us!" He taunted, resisting the urge to jump down onto the beast and stab like he would have done if he was still in his adult body.

No matter how many times she stared at the same hieroglyphs in the room, Primrose's brain couldn't form any useful patterns to them. There was no codex she could see, and even if the symbols themselves were familiar in the way they depicted simple shapes or common objects, she couldn't make sense of them in a meaningful way. Their "Babylonian" ally confirmed that the door they wanted was enchanted, so there had to be something... so all she could do was keep looking.

The sound of people approaching quickly drew her attention away from the task. Surely not enemies? Primrose tensed herself in anticipation, but moments later the missing trio appeared. The three of them looked a little beat up, but they were otherwise in high spirits. It was good news. Primrose smiled at the lot of them, returning Panther's wave with a small one of her own. Everyone was safe there in the room, so rather than offering a healing spell to them Primrose refocused on trying to discover the secret to opening the door. Hopefully with more eyes, they would make quick work of it.

The dancer didn't expect that she would be the first to find a clue. With her eyes on the pillars and walls, she hardly noticed shapes in the sand on the ground. Her foot kicked something rather hard and she winced, glancing down at it. It was a smooth stone... too smooth. She knelt down, brushing sand away from the thing and unveiling a beetle statue. A magical one too, if the glow was anything to go by.

"Look at this," she said, calling attention to the discovery. She placed her hand on the beetle sculpture and it's glow strengthened, but nothing changed within the room. She tried turning it, but no part of the statue budged. The professor would have a field day with this, she thought, but when it comes to puzzles, I am a little more direct... Primrose stood up and kicked the beetle with her heel. It's soft light intensified, and then the matching carving on the door shifted. A lock undone, she guessed.

Pleased with herself, Primrose listened to Band's story. It was, sort of, corroborated by Kan-Ra. Even if the story ended up having nothing to do with the puzzle, the group didn't have much in the way of other theories. So, they just had to look for some other stone beetles. Primrose didn't see any with a cursory look, but she had another idea.

"Someone should inform Tora and Poppi," she said first. Then, she summoned her more recent Striker. The hunting wolf spirit was as eager to come at her call now as it was when she'd summoned it before in the museum. It fluttered around her once, but she ran a hand over it's head and brought it's attention to the beetle statue at her feet. "Here, Makami. Find us more of these."

The spirit barked and put it's flat snout to the stone. After a second or two is floated into the air, it's body twisting as it flew in a tight circle. Then it moved with purpose, flying over to a beetle statue mounted on a far wall. It was partially hidden within the shadow of a pillar, but while it was concealed from sight the wolf's nose was able to point it out. The spirit disappeared soon after that, but not before Panther and Carmen struck the statue and set it's light shining.

One Peach extraction, success! The part where they almost got caught and killed notwithstanding, Geralt was glad to have gotten the Princess out of their with Sakura. Aside from not wanting her to die and all, having an unconscious body lying around in the middle of a fight was just asking to trip and break your ankle or something.

Sakura wisely chose not to say anything, especially not after their close call, as the two rested Peach down on the Street Fighter's lap. Careful not to push Sakura's hands out of the way, Geralt laid his fingers on Peach's neck and gently pressed, closing his eyes as he felt for her pulse. Giving it a few seconds, he let out a little sigh of half-relief. Looking back up at Sakura, he nodded and gave the girl a thumbs up. Peach would be alright.

He looked back over to the Command Center, where the sounds of the 'fight' could be heard. Blazermate, presumably Rika firing her cannons, and Mirage working the crane controls to knock that mutated monster down the hole to a gruesome and splattery demise.

And off towards where they came from, faint sounds of yelling and groaning indicating that the others were dealing with Moreau. He couldn't quite figure out whether they were good or bad sounds for the Seekers, but he was admittedly a bit preoccupied.

Turning back to look at Sakura and Peach, he nodded, then pointed at the Street Fighter girl and then the ground. Stay. Here. He tried to convey. Sakura could watch after Peach for now, and when Blazermate was freed up, she could heal the Princess and they could join the others dealing with Moreau.

Standing carefully, Geralt pointed to his eyes and then the Command Center. He cautiously made his way over to the doorway and peaked inside just in time to see the results of the others' plan to take down the Proxy.