---

For a tourist, this town was probably a paradise. Al Mamoon wasn't terrible, but this place just had a welcoming vibe and a partying atmosphere. You'd find joy, good food, and even better souvenirs. The average person would probably love this place, and become a visitor more than once after having the time of their life enjoying the cold drinks and living the good life.

Unfortunately for Mao, he was not a tourist. Rather, he was a scrawny and angry-looking man that only increased in frustration every time one of the skeletons attempted to talk him into taking part in something. They seemed to have a pretty set system here, they didn't need more help. Or they did, but not the kind that they gave out money over. Rather, currency would be flowing in their direction, and the little bastards were very thankful about it. Half tempted to take one of their skulls and punt it as far into the sands as he could, he ended up eventually forfeiting his attempts at earning any money and instead retreating from any bonehead in sight to try and regroup with the others.

"Kicking an Overlord while he's down." He spat, boot meeting sand. They were lucky that he had bigger fish to fry with Galeem, or else he'd end up reducing these little salesmen to dust. Crush their spirits and make them actually worth something, rather than let them be a pain in the ass so enthusiastically! He noted that he'd have to focus on building up something trade-worthy, or at least make money at the next opportunity. If it wouldn't turn the entire city into chaos, he'd just pillage. But regrettably he'd have to just wait until he came across some poor test subjects in the making that nobody'd miss before anything could go his way around here.

Aurox's gravelly voice was laughing at Mao, inescapable as the voice came from within. "A TOWN OF WASTES," He remarked, knowing how irritated his host was. "I HAVE NO NEED FOR TOURISM. THOUGH A HINT OF TERRORISM COULD IMPROVE THIS HELLHOLE."

"I don't benefit from that, you braindead stone!" He responded aggressively to the air, noticing a Tostarenan stopping momentarily to look his way. His skull shifted to the side as if unsure if he had been spoken to, but after a scowl from Mao he darted off to mind his own business. "Got to stop talking out loud." He noted to himself, of course, carelessly aloud as usual. The duo argued about violence and not getting tossed in a jail somewhere, at least until Mao managed to regroup with some of the others and start finding refuge in the Happy Hongo.

---

Which, to the utter lack of success he found in town, at least the food would be free. Mao for one had no issue in taking what he wanted for himself, snacking down and noting mentally that this was definitely making up for the skipped breakfast this morning. The conductor was, however, ruining his meal mood a little bit by trying to poke problems in the current plan. And as discussion began at the table, Poppi and Tora taking different stances on the subject, Mao was more than happy to simply speak in obvious and aggressive facts.

"I don't care if there's twenty, four, or twenty-four going up!" He could take care of this so-called 'Boss', but he didn't need any of these people serving as a handicap because the climb would be too dangerous. "Poppi's right: If anyone can't handle themselves, they'll be hindering us all the way!" It was not at all how Poppi worded it, but sugarcoating it wasn't exactly in Mao's usual playbook. Or showing as much concern, for that matter. Though, one could argue insisting the less capable stay behind was at least an attempt to preserve their lives. "It's better to have a team that can keep steady than a horde that'd end up constantly in need of help. The less complications, the better!" Undoubtedly overconfident in himself, Mao presented a point: Be capable of managing yourself effectively.

As disgruntled as he was, Mao wasn't entirely against turning to keep someone alive, but if someone was in constant peril he'd almost be tempted to kick them off the mountain himself for being stupid enough to go up there. Gear, abilities, or tactics to ward off weaknesses were needed. The fact that Primrose was probably the only reason he might be able to fight at full capacity was not lost on him, either. It made him realize that some might be able to help each-other, though Mao himself had nothing more than his mechanical limbs and an angry Djinn that he didn't entirely trust to preserve the life of someone else, rather than throw them off and wait for the splat.

The end result truly didn't matter to him, either way. But less potential annoyances sounded good, as he'd rather be monster killing than babysitting.

Level: 1
Experience: 2/10
Currently In: Snowdin, Grillby's
Word Count: 843 (+2 Exp)
"Scholar Dude" @Lugubrious, "Red-Eyed Lady" @Gentlemanvaultboy

When Frisk first woke up, their first thought was that the timeline had been reset again. But that was both false hope, and a quick assumption. Once they were awake enough to focus, they noticed a few things. The child was looking up at clear skies instead of the hole that made up the Underground's usual entrance. They felt the ground beneath their body, but there were no golden flowers that could've broken their fall. They stood up. Closed eyes took a glance at their surroundings, trying to figure out where they ended up. This...wasn't the surface. Yeah, they were sure of it. Wherever Frisk was, it looked way too different than what they knew, felt too different.

The weird sun didn't help either.

Their trusty stick in hand, Frisk took a few hesitant steps forward with the intent to find anyone that could explain, and hopefully guide them through this weird place. Then it hit them. Their friends! Last thing they could remember was Flowey holding them all hostage, then they blacked out (atleast they think they did...) and ended up there. It was kinda terrifying to remember, but they had to be out there somewhere too! The child hardened their resolve. Once they figured things out, they'll look for their friends and find a way home! Preferably on the surface and not still stuck underground!

Some time had passed since then, and Frisk had learned a few things about this new world. Firstly, not everyone that resided there could be reasoned with. They had to learn that the hard way, nearly getting their butt kicked a few times with their refusal to fight. What helped secondly, was the fact that their ability to save was still available to them. Or atleast, some version of it. They stopped at one of the golden stars at some point, and though it did save their progress, it didn't heal them. Odd. Stranger was that in a desperate attempt to reload to avoid dying, they ended up back at the "save" point, with no further changes in their condition. Was this even a save point anymore? Nah. But Frisk kept note of this, hoping it'll still prove useful. And y'know what? It did! The little exploit got them out of a lot of close calls in their search.

Though the most important find to them was the fact that Snowdin itself somehow made it to this place too! The town being out of the Underground was both weird and great at the same time, but this was also a good sign. This meant their friends were okay! ...Well, somewhat. There was no sign of the skeleton brothers for example, but some monsters like Grillby still populated the small town among others they've never seen before, both human and monster.

One example was that one soft-spoken scholar dude with the funny hair. At least Frisk thought he was. He did look smart. For how long the child was staying in Snowdin, they sometimes saw him around doing stuff that looked like research. But they never bothered him. He always seemed busy anyways. Atleast, until most recently. Frisk noticed that the scholar dude was accompanied by a strange red-eyed lady. They couldn't tell if she was some weirdly scary human, or a monster too.

Did it even matter? Regardless of their question, her appearance was a bit unnerving. At least she seems like a nice lady! They left for a bit, and Frisk went on with their day, helping out the other residents or figuring out a way they could defend themselves outside of town without lethal force. They eventually decided to rest at Grillby's, waving to the titular owner as they stepped inside and sat down at their usual spot by the bar.

...Wait, they didn't have any gold on them, did they?

Frisk furrowed their brows as they checked their pockets. Nothing. With a quiet sigh, they looked back towards the sharply dressed elemental. "Maybe next time." They said. They'll probably get some fries later. Besides if they ended up concidering a tab, they didn't want to accidentally overuse it. Frisk idly chatted with one of the other regulars, when their attention was turned to Scholar Dude and the Red-Eyed Lady rushing to get inside. Guess they got too cold out there? Or atleast Scholar Dude did, from what the child could tell. They slightly frowned in concern. Maybe they could help?

When Grillby was done with Scholar Dude's hot cocoa, Frisk offered to carry the drink to him. Once the fire elemental allowed them, they carefully grabbed the hot beverage, trying not to spill any of it onto the floor. They walked over to Scholar Dude's booth, and handed the drink over to him. "...Here you go, sir." Frisk said, giving him a polite smile. While it probably didn't look like it, they kept an eye on Red-Eyed Lady as well. Though it wasn't out of suspicion. Something felt...off about her, aside from her intimidating look. Maybe they should stick around for a bit?

The train ride had been a mostly relaxing experience. Tora challenged his allies to try to attack. Yoshitsune had joined Midna in one of her attacks, which turned out to be fun. Sora had offered healing to the Nopon. It wasn't needed, though.

Afterwards, the rest of the ride gave the samurai a chance to meditate. He'd changed, and not just physically. Would Shukenten be angry with him?

Sora had spent the rest of the ride running from the front of the ship to the back. He lost count of how many laps he did before deciding to take a short nap.

Eventually, the train stopped at a small town. It was full of colorful buildings, small denizens, and more people who looked out of place. Yoshitsune was, as per usual, very out of his element.

Stepping off the train, the samurai and the keybearer both had to shield their eyes from the sun. Sora was quicker to recover, though, and began walking towards the others. Yoshitsune followed soon after, making sure his wheels were locked.

Once Big Band said they could split up, Sora rushed through the town square to a nearby shop to have a look around. He didn't notice he ran right past somebody hiding at first. He turned slowly to view Ellie's hiding spot, ready to draw his Keyblade but not wanting to.

Yoshitsune, on the other hand, approached Jesse. "My wheels will make the climb difficult for me. Do you have any ideas on how I could improve them? Or cover them?" He figured someone from a future time from him would be able to help.

The Troops' machinations, after being prevented from smoking them out of the ship, got the team either dry or warm. The de-powered ship provided a welcome spot of dry ground free from the lashing rain, while the wood, mattress and gasoline fueled fire under the tree was warm but you did have to put up with being dripped on by the imperfect cover above. It was a million times better than nothing despite its imperfections.

Jr took the time they had to do a touch of tinkering with his clown car. First he actually restarted the dang thing (which had been shorted out by the giant robot that had chased them into the Maw in the first place) thanks to applying a massive electrical jolt from Mimi’s reacquire back battery (which the Mon was delighted to have it must be added, even if the creepy metal jaw on her disguise’s head did tilt her creepy-cute factor over onto the creep side) to the vehicle’s own, jump starting it.

The other thing was installing Hook into the car, strapping him into the array of lower deploy-able options, meaning that the clown car could launch the sentient meat hook out of its mouth like a very sharp chameleon tongue. He had a few other ideas, some of which had been on the back-burner forever, but just getting it running and stopping Hook from being a burden would have to do for now.

Kamek also had something he could do to improve things, and that was offering the little red cookbook to the Ace Cadet. ”you were interested in monster parts as part of your monster hunting profession if I recall correctly? This might help with that. I know it's a touch disconcerting to look at, but it should make you better at cutting, and sometimes give you interesting, ah, parts when doing so.”



Bowser and Rika didn’t have anything to do other than get some recuperation out of their camping before heading out into the rain. While Rika enjoyed a lollypop, sating her ever growing sweet tooth for the time being, Bowser caught the shipwrecked survivor Delsin up on the situation. And also poked fun because he could. ”The word Conduit already doesn't sound like a word and you only used it four times. So what does ‘wielding elements’ mean anyway? You some kinda wizard?”

After that he decided to actually be helpful however ”I’m Bowser, Koopa King and the boss of this lot. I smack, blast and punch schmucks like nobody else” Bowser introduced himself, his delusion of grandeur/self importance and his powers via flexing a scaly and muscular arm before giving him a rundown of the rest of the Troop.

”That’s Bowser Junior, my son. Real smart kid, and tough as his old man, just smaller. Also the little doll on his shoulder is Mimi. Shoots lightning and does spooky shadow stuff. Over there is Kamek, my royal advisor. He’s a wizard like you but he mainly does magical minions and he can also make me super huge and strong and even more awesome. Or other people I guess but nobody does big better than me!” Bowser pointed out the other the members of his inner circle who were busy before coming back round too their newest member ”and finally this is Rika-” he indicated to the ship-girl who after a few moments realised he wanted/was letting her introduce herself, prompting to remove her sweet on a stick from her mouth and say “Hi. I shoot stuff” before pumping her guns (literal and figurative) before adding a belated “oh, and its nice to meet you” before then getting right back to candy enjoyment

”So yeah, that’s us. We’re here to kick the butt of the boss of this place and then leave. So if you want out, there's no tougher crew than us to stick around with than us” Bowser concluded, formally inviting the man onboard.

Soon enough it was time to set out once more, prompted by the Maw being struck by lightning and ruining the camping atmosphere they’d managed to insulate themselves in by reminding them of exactly what a wretched place they were trapped in.

”Up and at em Troop. Let’s show this stupid island who’s boss!” Bowser told them encouragingly and, after having the ship shrink back down again into a size the King could haul once more, the Troop set out along with the others, heading inland.

Kamek used his long unused pair of flares as a light source as they traveled. Or rather, one of his toadies did that for him, drifting a little ways away from him and moving to light up whatever they might need inspected. It made them rather unstealthy, but as the group was big enough that they’d be seen coming anyway a bit of extra light in the dark was likely welcome.

Bowser meanwhile acted as a secondary lightsource, not with his fire as he had tried to do before to little success, but with the large red domes he sported on his back that glowed with a stored light which he had gotten by having them ‘eat’ the light of their fire before they left it behind.

After a bit of trudging upstream they found a rotten hulk of a town that was flooded by ankle deep water. Or ankle deep for the others, the troop either floated above the wet (in Jr and Kamek’s case) or on it’s surface (in Bowser and Rika’s). The outskirts contained two things of note. The first was giant snails that spat itchy water at them who where mostly left alone/ignored expert for one unfortunate member of their kind who got a dark energy mine put under it while it hid in its shell, and was then promptly remotely detonated by Kamek the moment it showed its eye-stalks out of its protective armor.

The other was a lone unlit lantern. Kamek used a briefly summoned shadow clone of Bowser to rip it out of the ground and then replaced the now burning low flares with the new lantern as the troop’s Toady based mobile lightsource.

The core of the village contained the first actual credible threat encountered on the wretched island: fishmen of some kind. Whether they were the town’s original occupants or fresh occupiers, they certainly did not take well to the team’s intrusion. A score of them charged forwards to attack with primitive weapons, while one that might be their leader hung back, leaving the heavy hitting to two giant grotesque shark monsters.

Nadia leapt onto the roof, drawing a few concerned glances from the Troop but, assuming that her tactic would probably be followed by someone else, they instead held their ground rather than following her. There was no way those rickety buildings were going to hold Bowser’s weight anyway, so he and his Troop would take the fight at street level, unaffected as they were by the water anyway.

That didn't mean they were just going to brawl in the opening however, and instead they backed up a touch into the street they had arrived through at Jr’s suggestion, where Bowser dumped the airship and they got to work.

”Bytan Brigade! Keep them busy” Jr commanded, summoning a gaggle of the spherical self replicating Bytan who rolled forwards in front of the troop, clogging the street with their ball-like bodies. A few tackled the odd murloc trying to approach the troop to little effect, but the veritable ball pit they created mainly existed to give them the space then needed to ”Blast that big one!”

Jr launched a flaming clown head shaped balloon at the shark giant closest to them, marking the target with the brightly burning balloon bomb. In short order his call out was followed up by a veritable hail of fire from the Troop.

Bowser used his remaining stored up light to let loose a barrage of bright white flash cannon shells, hammering the monster with a consecutive hammering of 8 luminous shots, and then following it up with a mind-boggling bombardment of supersonic sound-waves screeched from his tentacruel cannons.

Next to him Rika let rip her classic cannon shells, accompanied by her now poisoning assault rifle fire, each shell from the Brachydios themed gun stacking more and more toxic damage with each hit.

Above Mimi hurled an Electro Ball from her seat on Jr’s shoulder, delighting at her returned ability to mimic her idol as the shocking sphere soared forth.

The chef bros, returned as strikers, hurled a volley of pots and pans over the head of super-scope armed Primids giving the monster of the week 5 rounds rapid.

Kamek summoned 4 basic clones of himself and then they all cast their new sized up purple magic blasts at the beast, the enhanced magic far faster and easier to land a hit with. He followed it up by having Quiet give it a sniper shot to its ugly dome.

Finally, as if to add insult to injury, once all of those shots had rammed home, a slow moving fireball shot from from Jr’s own mouth lazily swerved into the shark monster’s path and set the ground beneath it ablaze, the magic fire burning on top of the water like napalm.

It was, to the troop, incredibly cathartic to just stand their ground together and absolutely blast the living daylights out of something again after the cowardly vulnerability that had been enforced by the Maw.

”You like that, chumps? Well you better be ready for a heaping of helpings of pain, coz it’s showtime again!” Bowser roared, which was echoed by a cheer from the rest of the troop.

"Wow, Mister Delsin. I'm real sorry for your loss. We all just wanna get home, too." Sakura said. She made eye contact a little too long, staring at the Gleem in his eye. He could be a potential ally. But nobody could really be trusted while Galeem had its nasty little claws in them. Sakura knew that much herself, considering the affect it had on her.

"My name is Sakura. I fight!" She pumped a fist. "And right now, I got this cool ship harness. I know we're basically total strangers, but one of the bad guys responsible for keeping all of us from going home is somewhere on this island. So we're looking to kick its butt and then head back to Limsa Lomscuttle." Subtly, she shook her head and smiled in the direction of King Bowser, indicating that the newcomer shouldn't take him so seriously.

She glanced around the group, happy to see everyone who survived the Maw made it out all right. Well, more or less. Some people were a little grumpy. Like Mirage. Hmm...speaking of Mirage. He looked pretty tired, and while no doubt he was a threat with his gun, technology, and quick wits, Sakura figured she could take him in a fight. Especially, well, she was loathe to sucker punch people, but in this case it might be necessary. She figured it was about time Mirage could finally be himself, especially after all the confusion it caused on the Maw.

Standing, Sakura followed Mirage and Link, holding her hands behind her back. "Excuse me, Mister Mirage. I'm real sorry about this, but it's the only way!" She grabbed him by the shoulder, turned him round, and then slugged him in the mouth.

Mirage recoiled from the strike, a hand over his mouth muffling the mixture of pain and confusion that audibly escaped him as he shot a look between Sakura and his own palm as he brought it away from his face, scanning to see if she'd knocked a damn tooth out. He then began feeling across his cheeks, pressing to see if any teeth were loose. All the while questioning the attack in an aggressive but understandable manner. "Friendly fire, much?! What'd I do?!"

"Nothing! Here, take this!" She produced a friend heart from his chest and tossed it at him. When her friend heart just bounced right off his shirt and landed sadly in the sand, it took a moment for the gears to click into place. "Oh...oh, my God! Mirage-san! I'm so sorry!" Turning red as a tomato, the street fighter covered her mouth with her hand.

"Yeah, well--" Mirage felt the tension disappear as he looked at the weird, sad little heart on the ground. Having confirmed his teeth were intact, knowing his mug was in one piece calmed the situation a little. "I'm in one piece," He concluded, although his jaw felt a bit numb. He wouldn't of expected her to throw a punch like that, but maybe that was just him reflecting more on their time in the Maw rather than their time outside of it. "Takes a lot more than that to do-in The Mirage! Ahahahah..." _{Oooww, god.}

Crouching down, Mirage poked the heart out of curiosity before addressing the obvious problem they still had. "Okay, seriously though, uh-- What is this? And can ya give me a better reason than 'nothing'? Feels a little sketchy, not gonna lie."

"You don't know?" Sakura crouched down to picked up the pink heart, still mortified. "It's a Friend Heart. It fixes people who are all Galeemy, and I thought you still were! Someone must have already given one to you. And they don't work unless someone is beat up, and then the Friendly magic just makes it all better! Oh, man, I'm so sorry!" Embarassed, she nonetheless had to surpress a laugh. "I think Blazermate can help you, right?"

"Shikashi- are you okay? I really am sorry! Here, you can hit me back if you want." Sakura stood up straight and stuck out her head, folding her hands behind her back.

"Wha?" Mirage took her eagerness to make things even nervously, not exactly seeing a reason to punch her back. Clearly, as weird and nonsensical as she was being, her intent seemed pure in one way or another. "Think I'll take a permanent raincheck on that one, Sakura. I'll just get patched up and move on." How could you want to punch an innocent-looking face like that, anyways? If anything it'd just make him feel worse in the end.

Still trying to piece her words together, he thought for a moment on what she said. He was pretty sure he didn't remember anyone throwing hearts at him in the past, unless those little paper ones in fan mail counted, that is. "Not sure when the whole 'friend-heart' thing could've happened, though I guess it's good to not be, uh, 'Galeemy'?" Whatever that was. Though if it needed to be healed, obviously it was something bad. "Some kinda disease or somethin'? Name is weird enough."

Sakura laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "Right, right...Well, just let me know if you ever wanna cash one in. I've been told I have a very punchable face." She said, thinking about Karin. As he asked his questions, she realised she was going to be the one to give him the exposition dump on what the heck was going on around here. "Um. Yeah. Okay. Lemme try and break this down for you?" Pausing, she took a moment to gather her thoughts.

Sakura cleared her throat, took a deep breathe, and... "All the worlds have been smushed together, Mister Mirage. Galeem, a giant glowing ball thing, hit everyone with a giant laser. I mean maybe the place you're from is really weird, but you should be able to notice just how bizarre all of this is, right? As long as a person is under Galeem's spell, they don't realise anything is wrong. We're on a quest to stop Galeem right now by destroying its thirteen minions. To give you an example, where I'm from it's 1995. And you're from the future. And like, space, or something. Some people, like Mister King Bowser, are from worlds that I thought were just pretend, but actually it turns out they're real." She gesticulated wildly as she spoke.

"...Does that make sense?" A hopeful wince smile, tapping her fingertips together.

This was all information that could incite some panic. And, if Mirage's expression was anything to go by, it did. He tried to con himself into believing he could just get a shuttle back towards home, but now with everything laid out he was truly presented with a rather hard to believe set of facts. It was still a stretch to anyone's imagination, but as he thought over the group as a whole, and the absolute abomination of the Maw, it was definitely not something recognizable in any regard. It absolutely was just like something out of some fictional experience, rather than real life. "Jeez, 1995?" He questioned to address the least-absurd of the things she'd said. "It's 2734... Or was, back home. That's wild."

"Isn't it?" Sakura said. "That's almost seven Oros."

"So, to get to this Galeemy guy, you've got to take down a bunch of defenses in this mish-mashed place first? That's a heck of a job, but I guess you guys did say you were off to stop 'bad guys'." Their meeting and talks from that moment of peace made a lot more sense now, at least. "And only after that, we can stop the big guy and get things back to normal? Think I've got this right?"

Sakura just nodded along as Mirage organized his mind by putting everything in his own words. "Heck of a job, heck of a job. You've got it right. Galeem has a guardian somewhere in this creepy place. We're on our way to destroy it.To summarize: that's why I just slobberknocked you outta the blue. I hope that explains it? Sorry again, by the way."

"There's still going to be plenty of danger, monsters, and fighting. But none of us Seekers are turning back until we get the job done. We're heroes, you know? Gonna save the world...s."

Mirage stood, stretching his stubbier than normal limbs. "Suuure does sound like hero's job." He responded coyly, before deciding to stop beating around the bush. "Not exactly a hero, but I have more reason to come along now than I did before!" Hands on his hips, he looked away momentarily. "It was kinda selfish to start, but I can't just back out after all that from before, either way."

Hand going from hip to his chin, he scratched at his beard for a moment in thought. "Can't be the only one who ended up here, yeah? I doubt this Galeem guy just picked me out of the world in particular." His other hand raised from his hip, simply to catch the hand from his chin slamming down onto it as a clenched fist. "Yeah? I knew a lot of strong folks. If we found 'em, I bet they'd group with us without even hesitating! ... Well..." He thought of a few of the more... Vile individuals from his line of work. "Most of 'em, anyway."

"I've already met three people from my world. I'm on the lookout for my family, but I'm beginning to wonder if they're even here. They might just be sitting on a proverbial shelf somewhere. I mean there has to be trillions of people where you live, right? There's not enough room for everyone on this one little world." This thought faded as fast as it occured, knowing simply too little to theorize. She looked at Mirage's jaw again, clenching her fist. "Ah, man. I really should have punched you in the back of the head instead. I almost knocked your teeth out." Sakura said, stewing on that statement for a moment.

"...I- I mean obviously I shouldn't have punched you at all! D-duh!"

Mirage let out a small laugh, grinning to show his pearly-whites were still in one piece. "You might be right on both of those," He admitted, holding out his fist. "But we'll keep an eye out as a team now, yeah? And we'll keep the fist-usage for the bad guys, and fistbumps like these!" He said in an attempt to bring a little positivity.

Sakura smiled, clenched her hand and combined her knuckles with his. Only it was like she was fist-bumping nothing at all.

His fist flickered on contact, her own phasing through as what was now revealed to be a decoy let out an audible taunt at her. "Baaam-Booozled! It statically cried, simply standing there with that same grin.

"Eh?" Sakura blinked, bamboozled indeed.

Something suddenly swatted her ear, the action causing Mirage to decloak on her left with one finger extended, snickering as the clear culprit.

"Ah- itai!" She held her ear and turned to face Mirage. "Na- Mirage-san!" She laughed.

"Now we're even!' He said, grin absolutely putting the decoy's to shame.

Amazed, Sakura went over to the decay and began waving her hands through it. His expression dipped as her waving through the decoy was something not many people tried, and since they triggered every time they were touched by another individual...

"Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam--"

The decoy and it's repeating audio faded away at Mirage's intent, the man finding it equal parts hilarious and strange.

"Guh-huh." Sakure giggled boyishly at the reaction she got out of the device. "That's awesome." As it faded, she waved her hands through the open air for a few more moments.

As it faded, it gave the duo a chance to look beyond the decoy and notice that the others were getting a little bit of a lead. "Ah, jeez! We better get goin' before they end up leaving us behind."

"Uh, yeah, let's go! Should be more fun with you on the team, Mister Mirage."

---

Everyone followed each others lead as the eclectic group travelled down the weird canyons and alleys of Carcass Isle. There was something strangely alluring about the whole place. Sakura couldn't help but feel that, for the first time, she was truly on an adventure. Just her and her friends going to a strange, mystical place, rooting out evil. It kind of made her excited.

Maybe that was just because unlike many of the others, her shoes weren't getting wet. Sakura skimmed slowly across the waters surface, her harness keeping her socks nice and dry. Being detatched and free like that really lifted her spirits, though she tried not to look too pleased in front of the others lest they become jealous. Once again Sakura was on edge, but her arms and guns were ready to fire. If any bad guys showed up, she was ready to fight. And this time, she wouldn't get turned into a little kid! The very thought just made her skin crawl. Really, seriously made her shudder. Sakura shook these thoughts away, focusing on the task at hand.

"Ugh." Gloved fingers crackled the knuckles of her other hand. "I hope the bad guys show themselves soon so we can pound their faces in."

Very shortly, Sakura's wish was answered. They came into a large, spooky clearing full of fishermen murlocs, giants, and a big old dead thing they were eating. Heart rate ticking up, Sakura cocked the cannons mounted on her arms and rolled her neck. "Yosh! Let's do this!" The street fighter was seriously ready to hit something again. Something that wasn't Mirage.

"I'm going to the front line!" Sakura announced. Considering her agility in the murk, it would make sense for her to be one of the ones to engage the enemy in the main field. That way the flanks could be won more easily. The Koopa Troop and Rika became a living artillery battery, raining fire down on the murlocs relentlessly. Sakura strafed to the side and kept her distance a little, not wanting to get caught up in all that.

While Sakura couldn't use hadokens while running (or skimming) she could use her cannon arms. Zig zagging forward, she focused down a single, already wounded murloc, blasting it backwards. As it lay in the murky water, she finished it off with a shell. It disintegrated into ash. Sakura felt guilty, having gotten caught up in the fusilade and joined in without thinking. Hopefully her desensitization to the idea of killing monsters didn't mean she was losing herself. Really, the only thing she felt bad about was that she didn't feel bad for these things. Aftering seeing so many of her friends kill monsters or even evil people to survive, the street fighter was a little more practical. With a ponderous hum, Sakura carried on, looking to harry and harass those murlocs emerging from the deeper eastern side of the pool.

One of the blue, agile murlocs with a fish spine weapon erupted out of the water near Sakura, looking to bring its weapon down on her head. "Shouoken!" Sakura reacted immediately with an anti-air. A sound like three pistol shots joined the cacophony of the battle field as her fist connected with the things body, chest, and jaw, as she and it both flew into the air. Sakura landed easily on the waters surface as the burbling thing splashed into the water.

Another one of the murlocs swung at her and she blocked the lethal weapon with her bare arm. There was a dull thud, and Sakura looked no worse for wear. Sakura took the advantage and destroyed the murloc with a combination of strikes and spinning leg kicks. "Shunpukyaku!"

The one she had uppercutted earlier waded eerily after her, but she kept it at bay with a blue energy blast to the mouth.

"Woah!" Sakura said, suddenly realising she had entered the aggro radius of the two big shark giants. Not in combat range, but not exactly safe on the other side of the arena either. "Watch out for the big guys!" Sakura retreated, walking backwards and unloading her cannons on the Shark Giants and more murlocs.

As she did, she passed by a harmless looking mushroom. A moment later, a viscious crabsnake snatched at her lower body. "Uah-a!" Sakura winced, and though it tried to pull her under, she grabbed it by the talons and pulled up, matching it in strength for now. But it still had her in its grasp, and the forward moving fighter couldn't free herself without help. "It's got me!" She declared, looking for one of her teammates to give her an out. Right now she needed to escape before one of these Shark Giants got too close!

@Rockin Strings@Zoey Boey

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---

Link's search through the busted remains of the ships that had beached themselves upon this blighted shore proved fruitless. The hulls had been busted open and gutted by the elements as though by a ravenous beast. Soggy wood, moldering rope, furniture smashed to bits by the crash and clothing left to rot in the rain and sea spray. A few of the weapons, weather beaten and eaten away by rust, interested him in the same way the mistakes he had been gifted by the Blacksmith trio back in Lumbridge had but he already had a full compliment of weapons. He literally couldn't carry anymore. He could have carried as much food as they needed, but there wasn't anything to be found in that department either. He would take anything that was safe to eat at this point.

As he continued to search though, the lack of valuables became conspicuous to him. Things left out in the open or jostled by chaos were one thing, but chests were supposed to seal and preserve. At least the items contained within the few he found should have fared better, but he also found them thrown open and empty. There was no sign of valuables either, items like jewels that shouldn't degrade quite so easily. He remembered the path into village Ms. Fortune had pointed up to them and wondered whether the survivors of these wrecks had taken their valuables and sought shelter that way in the after math. Or, a darker thought asked, whether these ships had been gutted by something other than the weather.

It wasn't long after that Link found a sign of life. Bootprints in the muck leading out of one of the drier hulks, moving on down the beach toward where his comrades had taken shelter. That couldn't be a coincidence. The rain ensured that these couldn't be that old. He must have just missed whoever this was, maybe when he'd detoured to photograph the wildlife. Instantly his sword was in his hand as he pounded sand after them, the worst case scenario blaring in his mind.

It turned out that he had no reason to worry. Not only were his comrades all up and about, but they had even managed to get a fire going and extract the airship from some hidden pocket to provide an even better shelter. He slowed down as he approached, trying to play off the frantic worry that was rabidly fading as being out of breath. It was odd, but he felt for sure he shouldn't have had to fake it. A sprint like that normally should have left him utterly winded, but in seeming contrast to the emptiness of his stomach his Stamina seemed more full than ever.

His relief was doubled when the newcomer was not only amicable, but had been the one to provide the wood to start this fire. It softened the hit to his pride to know that the reason he hadn't been able to gather any fire worthy wood was because it had all already been gathered by someone else. He didn't look as though he was carrying around much else, though, so that still left an uncomfortable feeling that they would find more people deeper into the island. He scooted forward toward the fire, trying to knock off some of this chill. He didn't get long by the fire before a lightning flash signaled the next leg of their journey. It was a shame. He had wanted to hear the newcomers answer to Ms. Fortunes question before them moved out.

He stood up and stretched. "I guess I'll just have to enjoy being dry later." He said. He hadn't even had enough time to slightly dry off, so he didn't really mind. Instead he looked at the stranded man, so unassuming looking, and cycled through his weapons until he settled on the Sahagin Trident. He flipped it around and held it out to the man. "Here. We're going deeper into the island to face a monster stronger than anything on this sea. I'm not sure if it's safer to come with us or stay here, but keep sharp either way." In truth Link was wholly against bringing this man with them, but he couldn't shake the idea of that Mulduga monster from the Depths or those putrid guests rolling out of the mouth of the Maw and catching him all alone on this beach.

Regardless of whether the man took either the spear or the advice, Link was about to march back out into the rain when he spotted something glowing faintly in Peach's hand. "What's that?" he asked, and only when it was shown to him did he notice Ms. Fortune's transformation back into her default form. Upon enquiring about the reason behind her giving up the spirit and earning that the fuel for the shipgirls could apparently run out he considered it for a moment and then shrugged. He had enjoyed his time under the waves, and it couldn't hurt to experience the other side of that conflict. At least with this one he would be able to walk. "Give her here." He requested, and pressed the spirit to his chest.

---

It didn't take as much getting used to as the Abyssal. For one thing, he had been right: it didn't completely devastate his ability to walk. Not like it would have mattered so far, what with the river leading deeper into the island. That was where Link spent the majority of his time while during the trek inland, the river. On top of it, more specifically. Another upside the shipgirls had over the Abyssal was that he didn't have to physically get in that nasty looking water, but was able to glide over the top. That was one of the things that did take getting used to, but with a few piece of advice and a bit of encouragement from Sakura soon he was skating along the river like her had been doing it all his life.

The other thing he had to get used to was the feeling that he had gotten weaker. In addition to a tattoo, a change of hair color he was still surprised by every time his bangs fell into his face, an overall more reveling outfit, and a bevy of weapons that he didn't dare use lest the whole apparatus it was attached to be blasted to piece, the spirit had also imparted the shipgirl's slim figure. Which was fantastic if he ever needed to sneak into Gerudo town again, because he was pretty sure he could manage it without the disguise now, but was less than ideal when it came to swinging around heavy weapons. He confirmed this by dragging out ebony battle axe and noting the comparatively slower swing speed when compared to the fight in Shippy's hold. The rest of his time heading upriver was spent getting used to his arsenals new weight, testing each weapon in turn and figuring out the best ways to compensate for his new shortcomings before they inevitably had to fight.

Luckily for him and everyone else that could skate along the water like this the town they ended up in was flooded. Creatures you would normally see in the ocean instead hid among the refuse on the side the street, in particular a nasty looking snail the size of a dog that launched something unmentionable at him when he got to close to it. Link spotted the slimy stuff coming at his head and leaned back, skating backwards out of the projectiles path before drawing his sword and charging in. With this new speed he was on the creature in a moment, but just as quickly it protected itself by hiding inside the shell. Unlike Ms. Fortune Link hung around for a moment, skating back and forth in front of the creature while slowly weaving away. Successfully baited, the snail popped out of it shell to try and attack again. Link dodged the brine to the side and snapped a picture of the exposed snail with the Sheikah Slate before skating out of its range. He set the slate to track the Sea Maggot so they couldn't be taken of guard by the critters, and made sure to point out any that he could find for the others.

Kamek's solution was much simpler, which was just to blow one up. More brutal, yet more elegant. It was what he would do if he had access to bombs. While the koopa's fiddled with the lantern they had found Link picked up the spirit if the creature Kamek had just made an example of and crushed it.

As they made their way further into the village the slate stopped picking up snails entirely, and the snails gave way to a more menacing breed of monster. Fish creature, more repulsive than even those he had fought back at the bridge, misshapen parodies of the sleek and beautiful Zora he was familiar with. He brought the slate up and snapped a picture of every variety even as anxiety began to built up inside of him. This was it. Battle was about to be joined. There would be no avoiding this, and as he imagined that he felt a quaking fear building up in his heart. Not for himself, but for everyone else. For the people he cared to lose.

It wasn't long until they were spotted, and the fish freaks let out a call to all their brethren that a new source of food had arrived in the village. Ms. Fortune took the high ground as they charged in, calling the small ones attention, while the Troop took the opportunity to retreat into a more narrow position that they inundated with ball monsters. They then opened up with everything they had on one of the charging giants as the smaller fish started hacking away at balls.

Between their entrenched position and Ms. Fortune's more isolated one the decision was an easy one to make. Link would, for now, trust the giant sized monsters to the giant sized men. He slid past the wounded one Sakura had gunned down on her way and that alone made him feel a little better. He pulled his brandistock and, increasing speed, plowed the sharp end right into another one. It weakly took a few clawed swings at him as it died and blew away in the wind, and Link took the opportunity to gouge another in the shoulder as he shot by and push it along across the shallow water. He skidded to a sudden stop, and the murlock was thrown off the spear from sheer momentum. The loss of strength was more than acceptable to him if it meant he could move as fast as Sidon.

He heard more cannon shots nearby, and turned to find the source only to discover that they weren't cannon fire at all. Those were the sound of Sakura's punches. He was distracted momentarily by the street fighters battle, having never actually been in a position to watch her fight before. He felt his heart jump into his chest when the fish man swung his weapon and the girl brought up her forearm to block the strike. That was nothing compared to the shock he felt when the fish man came out the worse from that exchange of blows. He knew on an intellectual level that she had to be strong, but he hadn't expected "forearm you could use as a shield" strong. That was Goron strong. No wonder she had been so desponded in The Maw. He had felt naked without his equipment, he couldn't imagine the loss you felt when your body had previously been able to do something like that.

Sakura shouted a warning about the giant fish monsters, and he decided to follow her advice and stay out of their range. It would be better to let the big guys handle the big monsters if they could. He skidded after, delivering a killing stroke to the back of the remaining fish man in the process. It was a good thing too, because a new monster emerged from a patch of strange mushrooms and latched onto the girl. He charged in, switching to the battle axe and timing his swing so he could bring the blade down on the creatures long pink body with as much momentum as he could. It fell like the blade of a trained executioner, cleanly severing the creature in half and burying itself in the ground. Link's stop was helped by him slamming stomach first into the handle of the axe, which he quickly stored in favor of the Brandistock again as he got his breath back. "All right?" He asked, looking her over for bite marks.

A bit more centered and focused thanks to his conversation with Sakura, Mirage managed to trudge along with a slight bit of additional confidence. It also took him by surprise that, much like Sakura, he was finding himself traversing atop water rather than in it. Thanks to the fusion he figured, which in itself was thanks to Link for the suggestion in the first place. He figured this form, at least for now, wasn't all bad if it meant that he'd have less issues with mobility. That didn't change that the place was disturbing to say the least, however. Hints of paranoia leftover from the Maw had him eying dark corners and higher spaces, wondering what might jump out at them. He kept one hand near his holster with the intent to draw and fire if necessary. Though all he'd seen so far were some snail-like things that, while rude, were more bark than bite. Weren't exactly worth wasting ammunition on, so he took Nadia's route and simply kept moving rather than engage.

Entering the village proper, Mirage felt uneasy. The place was a wreck, and a messy battlefield at that. All sorts of nooks and crannies for something to hide in, yet it seemed that their opposition was right in front of them. "Ahah, there's only what? A few dozen?" He nervously responded to the approaching fish-like folk. This wouldn't be so bad, right? There were a lot more competitors than that in an Apex match! It just meant it was time to lock and load, which Mirage didn't hesitate in doing as he pulled his mighty Wingman from it's holster.

Concerned with Sakura heading for a frontal assault, Mirage decided to take the direct route as well. Traversing atop the water while maintaining his speed was a helpful feat, and he soon discovered how he could essentially treat it like he was on land. With his mobility in check, he had confidence in this confrontation: Except for those huge boys, which he'd leave to maybe the giant turtle with cannons. Or the ten foot tall swordsman. Instead, he went for thinning out the smaller crowd: His arc-star was a no-go with so many people in the water, but whatever an electric explosion could solve, so could bullets! The agile greens saw the Apex Legend as easy bait, a small swarm of five deciding to gang up and charge into him, approaching from a multitude of angles at his front.

"Time for a certified Mirage classic!" He announced as he brought an arm forward; The devices along his suit shining momentarily before everything went dark and Mirage was gone. It was only for an instant as he approached the small violent posse, but that instant was enough to spark major confusion as Mirage reappeared: Or rather, the Mirage's reappeared. A bundle of six shot out from one position, chaotically spreading out and bringing confusion to his bone-weapon wielding foes. As they followed the six figures that now had them surrounded instead, they began to lash out: It turned into a large chase, with the real Mirage bouncing to and fro, sliding along the water below as his swarm helped distract these watery bastards.

The strong boom of his Wingman firing was a welcomed feeling: The powerful handgun ringing out twice as Mirage put a few bullets in one of the fish-freaks swiping at one of his decoys crying out it's static bamboozling insults. The sound brought attention from the others, but the creatures panicked as the other decoys came into their respective visions, lashing out in response and pinging them as clear targets for a trained gunner. If two bullets was the kill, then he'd take advantage now and try to injure a few. Two more bullets rang from his pistol, striking at the locations of two more of those green agile freaks and causing them to sputter out whatever pained gurgles they could muster.

His decoy count was reduced to two, with four fish on his tail still alive. They seemed to pick up that out of the remainder, he was the dangerous one: The uninjured duo launching at him with alarming speed. Darting left, he found them catching up faster than he'd like, going into a slide before shifting on the ground, facing back at them as he launched his primary Decoy in a sliding motion back at them. It caused enough confusion for him to ring out his last two shots, turning one of the predators a one-way trip to being a spirit floating along the muck.

This brought him to an unfortunate situation, however: He was now out of ammo. Frantic to reload, Mirage found himself too slow for his pursuer, having let him get too close for any kind of comfort. A roll from his prone position to the left yielded a dodge from the fish-freak's swing, causing a large splash that shot water around the surrounding area. As Mirage continued to reload, the fish didn't wait to raise it's weapon to strike again: Rather, it raised one foot from the waters and swung it to scratch at him with the horrid-looking claws on its feet, to which he went down flat against the water to preserve his face from being sliced like deli meat and infected by mucky waters like these.

As the creature turned, it was riddled with bullets: A reloaded Wingman blasted a bullet straight through one of it's large-round eyes, while another dived straight through it's agape maw. But even this victory was short lived, as he found himself getting a nice taste of what those bone-weapons could do from the duo of injured freaks he'd had to take his eyes off of. The jaw of one of the bone weapons struck him in the back as he tried to stand, and it sent him down into the water. Gritting his teeth, he turned and opened fire: One closer in his face than he'd like as if it intended to take a bite, causing it's innards to become a splatter on the Legend's face, as Mirage's frantic shooting staggered the last freak alive but only grazed it, leaving him yet again empty on ammo but with a new opportunity.

The staggered freak had dropped it's weapon, which Mirage eagerly wanted. He holstered his Wingman as he shifted forward, and reached in the center of the ripples the weapon caused as it fell into the water. He pushed himself up and lunged forward, not a swordsman or close-combat specialist by any means, but even he could swing a club. He bashed the freak and toppled it over, his hurting back causing him to stumble down after it, which was terrifying in a multitude of ways, but especially because rather than lay down and take it, the freak tried to just take a bite out of him on the way down. "Don't think so, fish-face!" Mirage cried as he shifted the weapon in his hands, cramming it into the creature's mouth. The jagged and sharp bones sticking out of the weapon did not bode well for trying to swallowing it: The creature ending up being slashed from the inside, with Mirage splashing into the water and ash remains of the creature as it died beneath him.

Already panting and sore, Mirage tried to recover. He stumbled upright, hand on his sore back, but noting this wasn't as bad as the time he got kicked in the spine by a robot-legged lunatic, so he'd probably live! As he retreated backwards to try and reload to rejoin the fray, he found himself not being able to catch a break: Wandering too close to a jellyshroom danger zone yielded him with a crabsnake as a reward, which instantly reacted by deciding that Mirage would be the perfect prey to try and drag home as a meal or three. "Oh COME ON!" He complained aloud, struggling to both stay upright against the crabworm, let alone fight it back. The creature brought it's outer claws into one of Mirage's legs, causing him to shout out in pain and panic as he frantically aimed downward to try and blast it before it used it's inner teeth to chew his leg off. But such a distraction, not to mention a newly-found leg injury that would get worse without blasting this thing to pieces, left him in a bad spot for anything that decided to make him prey in his time of peril.

---

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@Yankee@Dawnrider

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As they road closer to the inky black void that, according to their map, existed at the center of the world Yuri was surprised to find that it wasn't at all as empty as its name implied. Instead it seemed to be just, well, Space. She leaned against the window and watched as asteroids and far off planetoid drifted around as though someone had assembled the worlds largest planetarium. It couldn't have been easy to do, taking Space and shoving it into the middle of the continent, and for the life of her couldn't understand why you would instead of just leaving Space where it belonged. Another chilling though that crept in was that, if Space was right here, what was that up in the sky?

Soon they pulled in between rows of cars, all types and models of cars. From the realistic to the cartoonish, it seemed like all kinds made their way to the Rocket League arena. The name caused her some trepidation. Combined with the setting it called to mind some kind of bloodsport practiced by savage wasteland outlaws, so it was with great relief when she saw that it was apparently soccer. She could deal with soccer, even if it was apparently played by giant cars with even bigger balls. It was better than the automobile death match they had stumbled into on the way to The Dead Zone.

When Nero asked for opinions Yuri was surprised to find herself the first one speaking up. "I've been thinking about that." She started in her halting way, pulling out a small black spiral notebook she had spotted in the gas station and asked for when they had been buying supplies. "These people, they can't live here. They must have come from other places. So, I wanted to try and get them to talk about where they're from. Not before they came, where they were when they woke up."

She laid out her idea as they walked. They could say that they were members of an organization trying to map and reconnected people in the new world, which wasn't even technically a lie, and ask people a few questions.

1. Where had they had woken up in the world, if not here?
2. Where did they reside currently, if they were not wandering?
3. How long had it been since they had awoken, if they remembered?
4. If they had traveled, had they stopped at or spotted any places of interest? If so, where and what was the location?
5. Were they currently searching for any friends or family? If so, could they provide a short description of them?

She even held up her camera, unhooking the Smash Lens so it worked like just a normal camera when it came to the living, and suggested she could take pictures of the people she interviewed. They could post them in Lumbridge or Alchamoth to see if anyone recognized their faces, and the mercenaries could try and help them get in contact.

"There's probably a food court or something." She finished. "I could stay there and try to talk to people. It would be easiest there, I think." She didn't fancy going into the stands to do this, she already knew what would happen eventually if she had to rub shoulders with other people and they probably wouldn't be able to hear her over the game. "I wouldn't mind someone staying with me, though." She sheepishly tacked on at the end. Pit was right, you never knew what kind of person you could run into.

---

---

@Majoras End

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---

As heartening as it should have been to see the kindness the residents of goat village so wholly embrace the old beastman it seemed to do little to mollify the Skullgirl. The goodbyes were, necessarily, quick as the pair continued on, shooting back up the ropes towards the monastery. It was a relief to see the grounds not inundated with briars, but Linkle couldn't really call herself surprised given her assessment of the goddesses character. Even Skadi was all right, if still just a broken as when they found her. While Albedo explained the situation to Father Guerra Linkle knelt with the Goddess beside her Doge.

"We managed to meet your daughter." She said. "She's fine, though not at all what I expected. She said she didn't want our help, and demolished a little old mans cottage because he pointed us in her direction. It's your place to punish her for that. I'm still going to do my best to protect her from that man, because I swore that to you, so please get better. I think she needs you to correct her." With that she stood up and, after touching up the partially melted ice sculpture, left Skadi's hideaway. She considered trying to friend heart the Goddess, but if Skadi turned into a bird and flew away in her state it could end up very dangerous for her. So Linkle left her to try and recover on her own, for now.

The two left the monetary behind them, and after collecting her sled Linkle followed Albedo back the way they had come. The tree women saw fit to harass the pair again, but this time Linkle was absolutely done with being hounded by the foliage. As though seeking revenge for their brethren back in the glade they were attacked with chilled breath, dancing candle lights, and the odd swung branch, and each attack in turn was met with a bevy of bomb arrows. No tree received any mercy on this pass through the woods, if it moved strangely to Linkle's wary eyes and looked even vaguely humanoid it was bombs first and the only question after was whether it left behind a spirit or not. Any she found were crushed, the resulting prize tossed onto her sled.

The tree women were not the only monsters along the way to suffer her wrath. Though she couldn't feel the chill in the air caused by the ice monsters that inhabited this leg of the journey she could see them sparkling in the mid day sun. As they passed one of the floating snowflakes Linkle stopped. Like last time the territorial snowflake had squared up with her, it's eyes promising a fight if she wanted one. Unlike last time, however, Linkle wanted one. She was in such a mood that a look like that reminded her of her earlier idea about hunting the things. "Hey Albedo, would you mind if we stopped for a moment. This should only take a minute." She said, stepping toward the snowflake. "Now, what can you do with ice?"

As she made her way toward the snowflake it shook and delivered on its promise. The wind kicked up as crude chains of ice formed in the air around her and rapidly closed in. She ducked and rolled through the snow, the scraping against one another as they passed over head, and as she came up her bows were already in her hands. It occurred to her that she had never had a chance to test the actual arrows of her new weapons, and so she pulled the triggers to unleash a few bolts. They slammed into the ice creature, and to her satisfaction they pierced into the ice that made up its body. Even the ones that had bounced off managed to leave a spider web of cracks where they had struck. No turtle shell was going to be able to stop these.

The snowflake wasn't done, though. It leaned into her shots, firing strings of multicolored energy from it's mouth that coiled around one another like snake even as they flew toward her. She ran to the side, the beam tracing her path across the snow, but when it finally let up she sprinted toward the snowflake. He boot erupted in flames as she delivered a jumping kick right to the creatures center. It flew back, turning to ash even as it melted.

The beam had been pretty cool, she supposed, but she could probably do the ice chain thing herself if she tried. Though it was pretty impressive that it made ice in the air and didn't just grown it out of its body. Linkle had so far never managed to create ice without having a point of contact. She thought about this as she went to retrieve the spirit, and it was only the familiar crackling sound of ice being rapidly formed that drew her attention to the next attack. She jumped back as an ice crystal as big as she was dropped out of the sky and impaled the area right where she had been standing. She looked around to see half a dozen of the crystal ice monsters floating around her, each one spinning. She fired a rapid stream of bolts at one, and while a few chipped the crystals it was made of none seemed to even phase the glowing core. The familiar crackling sound came again, louder this time, as ice formed and was launched at her from every direction. Three large chunks rained down on her from the sky, plowing into the earth a causing explosions of snow as she dodged them. Through this snow came a series of long icicle spikes, the first two grazing her side and left arm before she put enough distance between the to weave through the remainder. As she dodged she spotted one of the monsters through the snow and aimed, the tip of the bow flashing red as another bomb arrow sailed out and blasted it to pieces. The rest of them began spinning again, but this time she didn't give them a chance to charge up their magic. She let loose with more bomb arrows, singing her arms to throw them in all directions. The monsters didn't seem to enjoy the heat of the explosions. Most of the shots went wide but she saw two more sink into the snow, half melted from the blasts and crumbling to ash. The others stopped their spinning before they could cast their own spells and backed away, perhaps understanding that they were outmatched.

Linkle, breathing hard, collected the three spirits. These things seemed to know a lot about ice, but it had just occurred to her watching them melt that fusing with a creature made entirely of ice could interfere with her fire attacks. Deciding against any fusions that might result in her accidentally melting herself, she smashed the lot and tossed them on the sled as well as she returned. "Thanks Albedo," She said as she grabbed the sled. "We can keep going now."

---

As they pulled into Snowdin Linkle seemed to be returning to her usual self. Perhaps laying waste to the local monster population had done something to help work out the anger she felt at Freya, or maybe it was the sight of the cozy little town safe and intact that managed to warm her heart.

Then again, it might have been worry that replaced that anger.

"No, I'm sorry." Linkle said as she helped the alchemist inside their base camp café. "I should have noticed. I know I can't tell how cold it is but that's, what, three times now?" She helped him out of his coat and watched as he draped it near the fireplace. A wet coat. Of all the things that could permanently injure you, she hadn't even considered it. They slid into the booth to wait for that hot cocoa and she watched Albedo rub his hands together sadly. It was only the knowledge that her undead body was probably ice cold that kept her from reaching over and showing him how you really ground your hands together. "Take as much time as you need. I'd be totally lost if anything happened to you." She said, completely unaware of just how literal that statement was. She looked around the room for his dog. Dogs were always warm and she was going to shove that furry little heater right into his face.

As she was scanning the bar she totally missed the diminutive waiter that arrived with Albedo's hot cocoa until they spoke up. She glanced down, the skulls laughing in her eyes meeting the closed eye of what appeared to be a human child. "Well hey there little..." She started kindly, but paused for a moment to study the child. Their gender was like her age: vague. "Kid," she settled on. "You haven't seen my friends dog running around in here, have you? He needs it on his lap pronto, it's an emergency."

Delsin smiled at the giant turtle, who seemed actually a bit more friendly than he'd anticipated. When his handshake was accepted, the Conduit began to float for a second, seeing a small amount of Bowser's memories, just a handful of what would explain their current mission. When he returned from his mental trip, Bowser began introducing the rest of his crew.

Once Bowser was finished and left him, Delsin was approached by Sakura for a bit, giving him a friendly greeting. She honestly acted very friendly and looked very pretty. Delsin kept an ear open as she left.

Next to approach him was a boy with pointed ears wearing blue clothes. He was offered a trident and some advice. "Thanks for trying to help but I'm more capable than you'd think," he replied, dangling his chain and letting his new power of flames engulf them.

As Link walked away, he turned his back towards Sakura and Mirage to listen in. Different worlds? Galeem? Friend Heart? He was gonna have to ask her later, though, as the group was moving ahead.

As the group headed out, Delsin trudged along with them, keeping his eyes open for anything hostile or helpful. They ran into some monsters. Immediately, the Hero of Seattle began blasting shots of fire from his hand towards the fishmen running at them. His attacks were aimed lethal, hoping to take them out fast. Swinging his chain again, he caught one of the fish monsters by its arm and swung it into another.

With a brilliant thought, he dashed over beside Sakura and laid his chain across her arm. "Throw me," he smirked, "but not directly at them, just beside one." He hoped his plan worked.

"Okay!" Sakura held the chain tight. Pulling it taut, she wrenched the chain and Delsin forward, throwing him to the left of an oncoming murloc.

Delsin swung his chain as he flew, grabbing the murloc by its ankle and swinging it into another before blasting them both in the face with fire.

After finding and repairing the wounds on everyone, the group took stock of what they had left in this desolate, wet, ugly island. It didn't take long to figure out that this was a ship graveyard full of various other types of ships, and the soggy atmosphere wasn't agreeable to many of the others. Blazermate really wasn't affected by weather, but even she could agree it was icky feeling all things considered. It was soon apparent that the only food they had on them was Jr. stash, which was only really for the koopa kid himself. As the other lamented about this fact, Blazermate chimed in. "Well, I don't eat, so at least you don't have an extra mouth to feed." Saying that though, she did need to fix herself up after that whole maw deal, and with her world of light granted abilities back in her hands, Blazermate summoned her striker, the engineer, to fix herself up and make herself look as pristine as ever.

While the others huddled around to discuss a plan of action, Nadia and the Cadet seeming closer than anyone else, Blazermate was laying down on a smooth slab of bone as the Engineer whacked her with his wrench, metal dents audibly popping as her frame was brought back to pristine condition via her little spa day in ship purgatory. While relaxing, someone from the Maw, that wizard from before, came up to the party and asked a few questions. Seeing as the others were being amicable, Blazermate chimed in, the Engineer's wrench making clanging sounds as it hit her metal body. "Hiya, I'm Blazermate, a -mate line model, Blazer subset. I'm the team healer, and I guess mother? Or I was in the Maw!" Seeing as she was getting repaired, she looked over the item that she had gotten from crushing the lady's spirit. It was a mirror, a basic, does nothing, mirror. Hm... well it would be useful at some point maybe.

When the group felt they were ready to get going, the engineer dissipated, having repaired Blazermate and reapplying her missing paint from the Maw. The medabot, now shining had an idea as some others worried about being shipwrecked. "We still have that teleporter to Seaside town there, so we can use that to leave once the boss is done." Blazermate offered. Seeing that the group was on the move, Blazermate took her usual perch on top of Bowser, a bit apprehensive of the darkness they would see themselves enter. Thankfully the rest of the group had light sources, but still it didn't stop Blazermate from holding onto Bowser's horns and not be as casual about resting on the giant koopa as she usually was. While they walked, Sakura tried to friend heart Mirage, hitting him hard, but Blazermate had already did that in the Maw, so it just resulted in hurting Mirage. Something Blazermate healed up when Mirage had approached her, as she wasn't going to move away from the light source that was Bowser anytime soon.

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After walking for some time, they came across a more open area with... primitive fish people in large numbers and some giant shark people.. Of course things wouldn't be easy. Seeing as the primitive fish people let off a murglgl kind of sound and charged, many of the group got ready for combat. Blazermate was among them, giving those who were advancing to the front lines some overheal as she kept to dealing with the flanks so she could focus on healing like she always did. A crack appeared as they started to fight, however it was located behind the giant brutes in the mushroom field so it wasn't something Blazermate was even remotely interested in getting yet. And seeing as Dell wasn't ready to be usmmoned yet, Blazermate was fighting without much in the way of her own support. However that didn't seem to matter so much as her time in the Maw and the repairs from the engineer had made her stronger, and given her a new attachment which she could quickly swap to from her healing arm.

Now was the time to try it as one of the fish people charged her with a spear. Blocking it with her suffering shield, the tongue of the shield lashed out, breaking the shoddy spear as Blazermate shield bashed the creature, her suffering shield taking the opportunity to bite into it and hold on. Swapping to her ubersaw arm, she stopped healing Mirage for a moment to beat the everliving crap out of this fish person. It only took 3 punches to end its life with her newfound strength, its life juices being sucked out and into the large syringe that formed part of her ubersaw arm. And with it being felled, it rose again as a zombie version of itself.

When Blazermate put her healing beam on Bowser, Blazermate noticed she had gained a fair amount of ubercharge from meleeing that murloc with her ubersaw hand. "oooh..." was all she could say as she charged to the next murloc that was focused on running at Kamek, doing the same thing to this one she had done to the previous one with much more fervor and gaining a hefty amount of uber from this one as well. Having collected the life essence of a few murlocs alongside her normal healing, Blazermate said. "Ubercharge ready!" She was almost ready to deploy her projectile shield as well, but she needed to do more healing before she could do that. Mirage seemed to be in the most trouble, so she flew over to him and as one of the deizens of the mushroom field tried to grab her, ubercharged both her and Mirage, making them a metallic blue and invincible, freeing him from his grabber and causing the one that tried to attack Blazermate to recoil in pain as it bit into something that was completely unyielding. "C'mon you, don't play with the worms!" Blazermate teased.

The Cadet had absolutely no idea what Delsin was saying. Up until Delsin mentioned a shipwreck of his own, the only thing the Cadet could glean was that he had some kind elemental power. Still, an introduction was in order after the 'Conduit' requested it, so he piped up like the others.

"You can call me the Ace Cadet. Ace is fine too," he said, having come to appreciate the nickname, "I'm an A-list monster hunter."

He thought about dropping all of his other titles too, to match Delsin's longer introduction, but the conversation quickly moved on. After some clarification, Delsin explained there was a plague on the island. Not just any plague, but one that turned normal people into fish people. Great, just our luck! the Cadet thought, scrubbing a hand through his hair anxiously. Just had to keep positive and hope no one had a weak immune system. Hopefully Blazermate could heal diseases too.

When Kamek approached him, the Cadet could feel wariness start to build up. Ace Cadet liked the old Koopa, he was always looking out for everyone, but his proximity and the offered book put the hunter on edge for some reason. He reached out almost hesitantly to take the cookbook, but once it was in his hands it was clear that it was just that: a book of recipes and butchery techniques. A gross, sort of slimy book, but otherwise just a manual. He let out a half chuckle at his own misplaced worry.

"Thanks. I'm pretty sure it's not even close to the most disconcerting thing in this place though," he told the old Koopa. The Cadet was pretty dang good at cutting if he said so himself, but the whole 'turn into spirits' thing put a huge damper on collecting parts. This might help. Or at the very least it might make him a better cook, considering it was for butchery. When they were in a better place to transport a bunch of parts and goods, he'd give it a try.

After some time to dry off slightly by the fire (and in the Cadet's case sharpen his blades), and some spirit swapping (Sakura made a good point about keeping the ship shape spirits for now), the group got underway. Just before moving out the Cadet noticed that there was no muted snorting at his heels, and asked if anyone had seen the behemoth piglets. "No" was the resounding answer. It was regrettable, making an already terrible day worse, but it would have been a real miracle everyone including those little pigs had made it. This wasn't the time or place to think about "what if's," so they had to move on.

The venture into the waterlogged village was damp and miserable, punctuated with surprise snail attacks, but the Cadet figured it was going to stay damp and miserable until they brought down the guardian lurking in the area. Ahead they could see humanoid fish monsters of various shapes and sizes. Could it be these were sailors succumbed to that plague Delsin mentioned? If they were, it didn't seem like there was anything left of whoever they used to be. Unless they used to be aggressive monsters with murderous intent shining in their eyes. The fishmen approached with weapons draw, their intentions clear. The Seekers responded in kind.

"A few dozen small fry," the Cadet said, clapping Mirage on the shoulder as the monster hunter didn't hesitate to move with the other water skaters into the front line. They spread out, handling Murlocs one by one - or in Mirage's case, corralling a bunch of them together. Nadia, no longer able to skate over the surface, was picking fishmen apart on one of the building's rooftops. There were quite a few enemies to choose from, but the Cadet predictably had his eyes on the hulking sharq-men.

One of the sharqs was busy being bombarded by the Koopa Troop, which he Cadet stayed well away from. The other was looking for someone to try and tear apart, it's teeth bared, and the monster hunter was content to give it a target.

He opened with a makeshift gap closer - leveling the clutch claw at the giant, he shot the contraption out where it latched onto the monster's shoulder. In the next moment the Cadet pulled himself forward towards it, sailing quickly over the water and brandishing his sword and shield. He flexed his rigging, smashing into the giant blades first once the claw's chain was finished retracting. Even with the rigging's blades stuck into it's flesh, the monster didn't even flinch. It reached up with it's long arms to rip the Cadet from it's back, but at this angle it was easy to see, so he dismounted with a few parting shots from the mini cannons. He skated away from it little by little, keeping it's attention and drawing it further from where the others were battling.

The giant fishman groaned and lashed out, swinging it's arms one after another, but the monster hunter was always just out of reach. It was quick to realize it's strategy wasn't working, and with surprising speed the monster lunged forward on it's stomach with it's arms outstretched. It barreled into the Cadet sending him crashing into the murky shallows. The monster followed up with it's fists, and it was strong - strong enough that the Cadet could feel each blow through his armor as the creature brought it's arms down on him, unrelenting.

So he was currently being battered by a giant sharq man covered in barnacles. But on the bright side, he had the tools to fight back this time.

He bared the brunt of the assault until he could get his shield up, meeting one of the sharq's hands with it and knocking the fist away. It was a brief moment of reprieve that the Cadet used to put some space between he and his opponent. From his position he could see what the rest of the crew were doing, and he spared them a quick second's glance before refocusing on the monster in front of him. It had it's arms raised to bring down onto the Cadet again, but it wouldn't find it so easy this time.

"I was just warming up before," he said, more to himself than the monster. He could feel the sting of lacerations caused by the barnacle lined firsts of the monster, but he closed in to slash across the fishman's stomach before it could give him any more. Just after the slicing movement the Cadet took a page out of their street fighter's book. Normally he wasn't one to shout out technique names, but his blood was pumping and he could once again feel Jamaica's burning drive in his being. "Shoryugeki!"

The Cadet crouched and then pushed off of the water with his shield raised, propelling himself up. The Shoryugeki was a fast, brutal uppercut delivered with the shield to the underside of the fishman's jaw. If he could stun the thing he'd be in a good position to try and finish it off, but so long as he kept it from going after anyone else he considered that a win.

The persistent cold downfall drenched friend and foe alike, and the odious tide of gibbering pelagic fiends surged forth to crash against the Seekers like a wave against the shore, but nothing could douse the vengeful heroes’ spirits, and Nadia’s least of all. A fang-toothed grin stretched across her face ear to ear, a smile wholly different from the expression she’d worn in the warm glow of the campfire earlier, when in a moment of peace a profound and hitherto unknown joy fluttered in her innermost heart. A jokester who seldom took anything seriously, the cat burglar known as Ms Fortune adored playing around with her opponents, but this wasn’t that, either. It was nothing more complex than a vicious glee at the prospect of finally cutting loose and venting all the pent-up stress and frustration piled upon her soul by the nightmares of the Maw. It was past time that she erased something evil and foul from this world, and her allies were on the same page.

When the first murloc poked its head over the edge of the roof, Nadia let loose the surprise she’d been laying in wait to unleash. Her leg, pulled by her arm to an impossible angle behind her back, lashed out with the elasticity of its muscle fiber in a killer axe kick and split the fishman’s grotesque head like a watermelon. It hurtled off to the side, what remained of its brain struggling to come to terms with what happened as it disintegrated, and two more slimy, teal-scaled murlocs hopped up to take its place. One held a rusty billhook longer than it was tall, its curved, scythelike blade ready to reap limbs like grain, and the other wielded a giant crab claw like a cestus. They attacked at the same time with a stab and a slice, forcing Nadia to scramble backward to her feet, and in that moment one more friend of theirs joined the party. Blue-scaled and ridden with repugnant tumors, it carried both a leviathan’s tooth as a club and a seashell shield, and without hesitation lunged straight for her.

Nadia sidestepped its swing, spinning up her arm like a drill as she did, then drove the deadly point into the mottle flesh just behind the murloc’s vivid violet eye. To her annoyance she found the monster’s hide a little tougher than she bargained for, having hoped for an instant kill, and with the others coming she didn’t have the time to dig deeper. Instead she tore free in a visceral spray and sent the wretch off for a spin kick just a hair too late to deal with the claw murloc’s haymaker. Her rushed attempt to block it hurt like hell, so when it came back the other with for round two, rather than try to block she went low in a corkscrew slide, leaving the monster a victim of its own inertia as she knocked it off its feet. She sprang to her own and narrowly avoided a thrust from the third murloc, but when she went to counterattack the creature adjusted its grip and pulled back. Its billhook blade caught Nadia’s upheld arm and sliced right through, dropping the limb to the ground. The feral’s face lit up with horror. “Oh no!” She scooped the fallen limb up with her foot and popped it into the air. A blast of bloot erupted from the stump to shoot it forward, its claws piercing through the baffled monster’s mouth like a five-set of fishhooks. Nadia snickered as she shot out a bundle of fibers from her own stump to reconnect her arm. “Anyway!” She pivoted backward, using centripetal force to haul the murloc off the roof and over her head in a judo-like throw. It cratered into the wooden planking behind her, which both shook the whole roof and gave Nadia another devilishly clever idea, if she did say so herself.

The other two descended on her together, attacking on both sides. In dodging the big one’s shield bash she took a painful slice to the back from the lancer. She rolled with it to keep it from cutting too deep, then while bent over struck back with a One-Two Punisher. The move softened up and then sliced into the billhook-swinger’s nose, but for her troubles Nadia received a frenzied club swing each to her shin and upper arm. “Me-owch!” she gasped, dashing backward with the aid of sprayed blood. Normally she’d be fighting a lot more mobile than this, but without a good idea of the roof’s size or integrity she couldn’t jump around all willy-nilly. The sight of her bruised and bloody, however, brought both murlocs right back in--just as she wanted. Seeing no reason to change strategies, they attacked from both sides once more, but this time Nadia went low with a Hand in Hand. The extended double-strike went beneath their defenses and hooked upward to pierce through the bottom of their jaws, which meant that when Nadia retracted her arms into place both fishmen staggered toward her, reeling. She dropped to one hand to execute a Kitt N’ Spin, tearing through their legs with talon and tail to both sweep and deposit them in a pile with their spear-wielding friend. Finally, the feral grabbed the planks to either side of the heap and leaped into the rain-filled air. Silhouetted before the moon at the apex of her jump, her muscle fibers pulled taut, and with a terrific cry she shot back down like a giant rubber band. The next second her full-force kick smashed all three murlocs straight through the roof and into the hovel below.

Simultaneously there came a loud splash and a wet, sickening crunch. All three murlocs more or less exploded when they hit the shack’s rotted floor, although they did cushion Nadia’s fall. She sprang away from the mucky mess and landed, as always, on her feet, her heart pounding from exhilaration. As the malodorous mound melted away into gunge-soaked ash she dusted off her hands, laughing. “Whoo! Didn’t even pull a mussel!” Her elation faded as she realized just how bad it smelled in here, prompting her to look around. As bad as the village outside had been, if this sorry excuse of a dwelling was anything to go by, it was worse indoors by far. Shielded from the elements, the place seemed to be a breeding ground for all sorts of horrid aquatic life, from urchins and sea cucumbers to clams with teeth and dubious polyps to things that she didn’t even want to look closer at. For goodness’ sake, even what she thought were candles were actually just wax-white sea slugs, burning away quietly in their little dishes. Noticing that the murlocs left their weapons behind, Nadia grabbed the billhook and made for the door. She slammed it open, smacking a rogue murloc into the deep water of the plaza, and leaned out of the doorway using the polearm against the doorframe. “What’d I miss?”

Much had happened in just a couple minutes. To begin with, right after she jumped away the Koopa Troop assembled into a tight-knit firing squad behind the cover of a horde of bouncy balls, which explained the absurd racket that Nadia heard from that direction when fighting. The moment the Bytans gave way to the fishman onslaught, Bowser and company opened fire, laying into the incoming shark giant with everything they had. Nadia regretted missing it; they must have had one hell of a shootout, although it must have been one hell of a gamble, too. Packed tight between the buildings on the sodden street, the Koopa Troop blocked everyone who hadn’t scrambled early to fight in the central plaza, including Geralt and Bella, neither of whom could either get through or get a shot without fear of hitting their allies. Once Bowser’s crew started shooting, their ranks became a maelstrom of chaos--a singularity of gunsmoke, concussive force, obscuring rain, headache-inducing noise, and dangerous recoil. Shipgirl armaments, unlike normal vessels whose hulls transferred the force to the surrounding water, dealt with recoil by pushing their water-skating wielders in the opposite direction, and in a confined space that made things risky. Projectiles collided in midair, strikers and minions got hit, many shots went wide, and just about nobody could see or hear what they were doing. In return, they mowed through a handful of the murlocs before they took cover underwater, and dealt incredible damage to the shark giant even as he plowed towards them. Taking the bombardment like a champ, the giant fought through the flame, force, lightning, poison, and confusion, and for just a moment it looked like he and that huge anchor of his might actually reach the Troop. In the end, however, even that abominable juggernaut went down, and the Koopas’ fusillade came to an end with ringing ears and blurred vision.

Eager to get out there and help Sakura, Bella took the chance to push through the first opening she found, splash along the remainder of the street, then dive headfirst into the waters of the plaza. Beneath the surface the Abyssal could fight in her element, her leviathan tail a force to be reckoned with as it slaughtered murloc after murloc. She swam in the direction of Sakura, but ended up slowing down when she realized that the Street Fighter was doing just fine. Better than fine actually, as Sakura dispatched fishman after gurgling fishman with finesse. In fact, she ended up falling victim not to a murloc, but to a sudden sneak attack from a crabsnake lurking in a jellyshroom by the plaza’s edge. Bella’s massacre came to a swift end as she charted a course for her beloved savior.

Sakura’s call for help found a swifter answer. Having been picking off stragglers while on the move, Link came to her rescue long before Bella would have made it, bifurcating the offending crabsnake so that Sakura could rejoin the fight. Of course, that exchange didn’t stop a distracted Mirage from falling victim to exactly the same trap only seconds later. The commotion brought the attention of the murlocs, and though Delsin did a pretty good job fighting a few back two at a time, he misjudged the depth of the plaza basin versus the streets and submerged himself right after Sakura tossed him. That put the tally of teammates in danger to two, and though Nadia decided it was about time she started helping, she couldn’t help but be distracted as the courageous Ace struggled against fearsome shark giant, all on his lonesome.

In an instant she decided that the others could take care of the vulnerable. In fact, Blazermate had already jetted over and deployed her ubercharge, which prevented the crabsnake digging deeper even if it didn’t break its hold. Her protection, however temporary, meant that he had nothing to fear from the gaggle of murlocs headed his way. Sakura, Bella and Link, meanwhile, were well-positioned to help Delsin out while he swarm for the shallows. All that mattered right now was the shark giant pummeling Ace. But the pelagic brute had driven him into the shallows on the north side of the basin, where the heroic hunter no doubt meant to keep it away from his allows. How could she get over there?!

Nadia rushed back into the shack, then took a running jump from the doorway, billhook in hand. Knowing she didn’t have enough height, she airdashed backward in midair and jammed the butt of the billhook into the soft wood, where it lodged fast. She grit her teeth and started to swing, using high-pressure blood bursts to build up speed until she could let go a moment later and fly into the air. With the last of her pressure she airdashed forward, aiming for the well upon the promontory in the basin’s center. No stranger to high-flying maneuvers, she stuck the landing, then sprinted along the top of the overgrown well frame. The unique fishman by the wall watched her come, ready with his trident for an attack, only to be ignored as she dashed overhead. As she got closer Nadia saw that Ace had managed to escape his pummeling and even turn the tide somewhat. Instinctively she could tell that the meaty uppercut he landed with his shield would be a perfect chance for a follow-up, and with a sudden strength Nadia launcher herself toward him, spinning through the air like a propeller. As Ace’s blow knocked the shark giant’s head up, Nadia came down with her tail extended like a sword, skewering through the monster’s clammy white flesh.

It would take a lot more than that, however, to stop it. Blubbering uproariously, it bodily hurled itself at Ace. If he did not move he would be pinned beneath its terrible weight as it smashed into the big shack behind him, where it rolled to its feet ready for more. Nadia’s attempt to jump clear sent her flying over the balcony and into the hovel’s mossy second floor. This time, sadly, she didn’t land on her feet. Her tumble came to a quick end when she found herself confronted by another pair of murlocs, already fanning out to surround the stranger hurled into their midst. “Ugh, more?! I don’t have mari-time for you!” Ace had done great on his own, but if it took the entire Koopa Troop to put the other one down, he was going to need help. Nadia lunged for the murlocs, carving through each throat in turn, then left them to mull it over while she jumped down to give Ace a hand.

As the heroes soon found out, however, when it rains, it pours. All the ruckus from the fighting in, on top of, and around the basin, particular from the Koopa Troop, had not gone unnoticed. The island's degenerate peace had been disturbed, and now it was waking up.

Right as the fishmen were just about depleted, a number of the shacks in the basin’s vicinity opened up to divulge another nine or so angry murlocs, including a couple behind Bowser’s crew. More fishmen the Seekers could handle, but nobody anticipated the next source of enemies. So great was the disturbance that the massive sea monster in the pit harbor to the east, Scylla, stirred to wakefulness. Somehow, even in a pitiable state of merciless torment and harvest at the hands of the murlocs, it clung to life. Its gruesome head lolled back and forth, then opened wide its gaping maw to projectile vomit a trio of Sea Crawlers into the water. Rather than relief, however, Scylla found only further agony. A moment later a portion of its chest cavity burst open, revealing another, even bigger anchor-wielding brute than the shark giants that preceded him: Tidehunter. As Scylla sank backward, dying, he waded forward with a roar.

Peach, having just shotgunned the last lamplight murloc into oblivion, gave the green behemoth a miserable look. “Come onnnn…”

Then, up from the well in the center of the town, a malignant horror crawled forth. A conjoined abomination of staggering decreptitude, it hacked apart the well frame with its green-tinged brazen blade so that it could emerge in all its stultifying hideousness. It raised its scales and shook them like bells, each clang piercing into the depth’s of the princess’s mind in an all-too familiar fashion. A vein popped in her forehead. “COME ON!” she screamed, taking out a grenaduck to hurl at the blotch on reality across the water. The time for mowing through fodder had already come to an end; the elite enemies had arrived.

Along with the curses, however, came an unexpected blessing. A sudden fit of hollow laughter drew Peach’s eyes to a rooftop across the basin. In the flash of lightning she spotted a pirate skeleton, along with some sort of living anchor that floated behind him. After a moment Spinal leaped from his perch, with his Dhelmise in tow. He landed on one of the rowboats scattered around the basin and surged forward, slicing at the murlocs who lunged for him in true swashbuckling style. He landed on the little island with the well and immediately charged straight for Fizz and the Judicator, evidently happy to take on both at once with the aid of his floating anchor. If the situation had already been chaos, now it was pandemonium.





Grateful for a warm respite, Albedo settled into the booth, allowing the characteristic coziness of the diner’s orange-hued interior to flow into his being and chase out the chill. Even in the face of hypothermia the alchemist managed to keep himself rather composed, so he couldn’t blame Linkle for not noticing his deteriorating condition, and he certainly hoped she didn’t blame herself. No matter how well she kept the sepulchral influence of the Skull Heart lodged within her at bay, she couldn’t avoid the fact that the way the unconsciously looked at things had changed. With no heart to beat and no blood to pump, the undead archer couldn’t feel the cold like Albedo did, and given her traveling partner’s general unemotive restraint she really didn’t have much to go on. “Don’t worry about me,” he told her, trying to set her mind at ease. “I should have spoken up sooner.” The two of them had enough problems without having to grapple with internal conflict.

Maybe sensing the diminished heat within his customer, Grillby worked fast to prepare the alchemist a warm beverage, and before long the hot cocoa was on its way. It arrived, however, in unexpected form. When he turned to retrieve his drink Albedo found himself looking down at a young kid, inconspicuous and unidentifiable. He dimly remembered seeing this child around Snowdin here and there during his prolonged stay, perennially quiet and unmemorable. They had never spoken, let alone been introduced, which made the person who came bearing sweet relief a stranger, for all intents and purposes. Then again, looking at it from Frisk’s perspective, Albedo was a stranger, too. Stranger than most in all likelihood, given the indifference he showed the townsfolk while going about his research and experimentation. It occurred to him for the first time that the average person in this town might very well fear or mistrust him, given his repeated contact with the tattooed man who drunkenly stalked these Highlands. Yet here this child was, all the same.

He accepted the hot cocoa. “Thank you,” he told Frisk. The urge struck him to say more, maybe start a conversation or at least extend some pleasantries to show that he didn’t mean to be as cold as he felt. Curiosity as to why this child would approach him now tickled him; did they want something, or was it out of the kindness of their heart? But he couldn’t figure out how to start, or what to say, so instead he took a sip of the cocoa. Hopefully it would limber up his mind along with his body.

Luckily, he had Linkle to handle the whole talking thing. She brought up the dog he’d been taken care of, wondering where it was. Before Frisk could respond, however, Grillby chose that moment to speak up. The attentive bartender had been keeping an eye on Albedo’s condition, and being the one in whose care the alchemist left his canine companion, felt responsible enough to interject. “I asked Treat to look after him,” he told them, his sputtery voice carrying across the quiet restaurant. “You know, the wolf girl? I figured she could use some company.” He pulled out a phone, bulky thanks to its copious insulation against fire, and made a quick call.

With further interaction with Frisk left to Linkle, Albedo waited in silence, nursing his cup of cocoa as the heat flowed through his fingertips and up his arms. He remained almost motionless until a gray blur abruptly hurtled by the window mere inches away from him, taking him by surprise. Rather than spilling his drink with a sudden jerk, however, the alchemist maintained his composure, and managed to avoid losing even a single drop. He breathed a sigh of relief, and after another moment Grillby’s door opened with its characteristic chime to reveal the white-haired wolf girl Treat, bundled up in gray for the wintry weather, with none other than his corgi snuggled comfortably in her arms.

“...Hi?” she greeted them, breathless from her sprint over. Despite the speed with which she arrived, she hung there for a moment in the restaurant’s threshold, as if the eyes of all its occupants on her created a physical barrier she could not break through. In fact, she almost looked like she wanted to bolt away as quickly as she came, but the moment the little dog spotted Albedo he perked right up, letting out an eager whine. After that Treat couldn’t possibly keep them apart, and with no small amount of reservation headed for the booth where Albedo, Linkle, and Frisk had congregated. “H-here!” Linkle accepted the squirming offering and wasted no time introducing the creature directly to Albedo’s chest, so fast that he barely got his cocoa out of the way in time. With the corgi, the chocolate, and the kindness of so many strangers, he figured he’d be warm again in record time.

Level: 1
Experience: 3/10
Currently In: Snowdin, Grillby's
Word Count: 555 (1+ Exp)
"Scholar Dude" @Lugubrious, "Red-Eyed Lady" @Gentlemanvaultboy

Frisk nodded as Scholar Dude grabbed his drink, their smile unfading. They weren't a mind reader of any kind, yet even as they were nothing short of a stranger to others, that never meant they shouldn't show kindness. Especially in a weird place like what's outside of Snowdin. The child wasn't aware of the Scholar Dude's full schedule thingy either, so if anyone was indeed scared, they'd probably be confused. He seems so quiet, like they are. What would be so scary about him? For goodness sake, the poor guy was probably cold as heck out there!

Frisk's attention was turned back to Red-Eyed Lady, their smile shifting to a curious expression with their mouth slightly open. She greeted them, then hesitated on what to refer to them as. They softly chuckled. They never said if they were a boy or a girl, did they? In their defense, no one thought to ask! They just were. And that's okay. Anyways, the lady asked if Frisk knew where Scholar Dude's pet dog was. "I-" Regardless of their answer, their attention turned back to Grillby, who answered for them.

Apparently Grillby asked someone named Treat to look after the little guy. A wolf girl, no less. Putting the irony aside, Frisk's attention went back to the Red-Eyed lady. "Uhm..." They spoke up, thinking of a way to break the ice.

...Nah, not the right set up for a pun. Or time for that matter.

"Your eyes are pretty cool." They said to her, albeit more focused on the skulls that acted as her pupils. That kinda is neat if they were honest. But they internally grimaced at the wording, even if it was just nothing. ...Actually, now that it's crossed their mind, why was Scholar Dude freezing, while Red-Eyed Lady looked okay? Did the former fell into a lake or something? Would make sense. Still, they should probably ask. If anything, Red-Eyed Lady could've pulled a prank on him that went wrong or something. Possibly a remorseful culprit. ...Well, they'll bring it up later, when Scholar Dude's fully recovered. Last thing they wanted was to be rude to possible friends. Once they heard the front door open, Frisk tilted their head to look at the girl that sprinted inside, dog in her arms. They've seen Treat around a few times in town, but she always seemed so nervous and sad, and they didn't want to scare her. That'd make them sad too! And then where would they be? The child gave her a reassuring smile, as to say that it was okay for her to be here. But the fluffy corgi in Treat's arms did most of the talking for them, once he saw his owner.

Frisk watched intently as Scholar Dude's Scholar Dog was passed to his lap. They remained quiet. More quiet than usual. Their blank stare was directed to the dog, and the dog alone. Must. Not. Pet. They must resist the urge to pet the Scholar Dog. He was not their dog, but...fluffy... Very fluffy. The child's small arms reached over to the corgi, petting him. After a moment, they shuffled closer and gently wrapped their arms around the good boy. They emitted a content hum.

"Good boy."

If they ended up with dog fur on their sweater, it was so worth it.

Luckily for Raz he ended up not being the odd one out of the already odd bunch in front of paranoid Ellie, with a lot of his group seeming to follow him inside the same store. The tragic demise of decorum and good patronage notwithstanding, their antics seem to have gotten them a good deal for anything they might want! Though unless the Champion they're fixing to fight exploded into loose change, Raz seriously doubted their collective IOU being fulfilled. It wasn't like the clerk knew what all this gear would be going up against. Well, neither did Raz for that matter, but pitons and puffy coats were bound to be lost or destroyed along the way.

Not wanting to have the guilt of murdering this town's economy on his shoulders during the climb, Raz stepped up to the counter and placed a little stack of coins in front of the register. "Uhh, do you have any cleats in a size four?"

After having paid for his own equipment - he didn't need much, so just a thicker coat, a scarf, and those shoes - Raz figured that a hearty Mexican lunch could help take his mind off of things. Plus, spicy food before a dangerously cold climb was probably a smart idea, right?

To that end Raz loaded up with some of the establishment's hottest offerings, two burritos made with something called a 'Dash Pepper' and a side of chili that the menu purported was so hot he would be spitting fire! Instead, Raz ended up spitting a mouthful of the chili back onto the table once it touched his tongue, with plenty of hacking and coughing.

"Ugh, okay, too hot!" Guzzling his glass of water down, Raz settled back into his seat and began forlornly munching on his burritos, defeated by that dastardly dish. When the conversation turned to the party's size, Raz tapped the side of his head and gave his two cents to large. "It'd probably help if not all of us made the climb, since we have some big baddie at the top to take on. It'll just tire everyone out. I would teleport everyone up there, but that's Ford's specialty, and I don't think he could get everyone. What if we brought something with us to get the others? Like a, some kind of reverse zip-line? Ooh, I think I saw this huge cannon in one of the stores!"

---

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@Rockin Strings

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There were two things that prevented Link from jetting off to Mirage's aide once he noticed the man was in a similar predicament to Sakura. The first was that Blazermate beat him to the punch, attaching her beam and engulfing the both of them in a radiant blue light that let them shrug off all attacks. The other was the situation with the newcomer.

From the way the man, swinging both chain and fire around with equal abandon, proved him to be as capable as he had claimed. He managed to fight his way over to them even in this water, and when he reached them he request Sakura toss him farther in so he could engage a farther duo of the fish monsters. Sakura obliged, muscles bulging as she grabbed the mans chain and gave him a hammer hurl over to two of the remaining enemies. He landed, caught one of them with his chain, and used it to toss the monster into its partner to set them up for a barrage of fireballs.

Unfortunately the man had advanced just a step too far, right over the edge of the drop-off in the basin and into the drink. That wasn't good. The fish monsters would already have the advantage in the deep water, and the man wouldn't even be able to use that fire of his to defend himself while submerged. "I'll get him." He said to Sakura, skating off toward the man and hoping he got there before any of the monsters while pulling out his slate.

As he reached where the man fell he aimed the Sheikah Slate where he was treading water and thumbed one of the two runes he noticed he had gotten back earlier. There was a crackling sound as mist began to pour off the surface of the water around the man as it rapidly cooled. His feet touched solid ground as a pillar of ice rose, square and perfectly stable on the surface of the water, lifted him up out of the water and gave him a somewhat commanding view of the battlefield.

"Watch your step." Link called up to him as he jetted around the pillar and searched the battlefield for the next thing that required his attention. As he did so he felt something wet, clammy, and strong wrap around his ankle. He glanced down to see a red, webbed hand griping him from under the water. So something had been coming for the easy prey down there. The muscles in the hand tensed as it tried to pull him under the water, but Northampton's harness wasn't about to allow that. He summoned the brandistock back to his hand and plunged it down into the murky water, but by that time the monster was already pulling itself up. It raised its other arm, managing to deflect his blow with a worm eaten shield it wore on its wrist, and reached up to sink its claws into his now exposed and unprotected side. It pulled, dragging a wretched stench with it as it grabbed his shoulder with its now free arm and brought its face level with his. It widened it's jaws, ready to sink its knife like teeth into his neck.

He dismissed the brandistock, it's length more of a hindrance now than as asset. He reflected, for a moment, that he had been in almost this exact situation before earlier today. It seemed a lifetime ago, and now he had no helmet to save him. But this thing was no Abyssal, and neither was he anymore! Link brought the shipgrils hull blade to bear, driving it into the fish monsters side. It let out a pained gurgle that was cut off by a series of booming cannon shot that blew a hole clean out the other side of the monster. It's grip strength waned and it tumbled back, already dissolving, into the drink. Link looked down, but while the claws of the monster had hurt he only found the spreading purple of a bruise rather than a punctures he had expected. An effect of Blazermate's quick ministrations as the battle began, no doubt.

At least the battle seemed to be dying down now. It looked as though the fish monsters were on the ropes, one of the large ones already being destroyed by the Koopa troops concentrated onslaught as it approached and the other currently being double teamed by Ms. Fortune and Ace. The diminutive leader of the fish monsters saw fit to hang back and observe the battle from near the central well. With everything else seemingly well in hand Link started forward to lock down this last threat before he set upon one of the others..

Unfortunately the fish monsters were nowhere near spent. A reinforcement squad of fish monsters burst out of the surrounding buildings, letting out a war cry of unintelligible gurgles. More distressing was the group the ripped themselves from within the giant monster that the fish men had been butchering, three semi-humanoid ocean horrors and another shark man even large than the two they had started with. Even worse was the thing that pulled itself out of the well. He couldn't take his eyes off it, the discordant noise of its scales rubbing together burrowing their way deep into his ears and causing his brain to quiver just from being this close to it.



His vision was torn off this latest horror by the arrival of a skeleton, who bounded off the roof and instead of attacking any of them went for the pair around the well. Well, this seemed like the best time to abide by his own advice. If monsters wanted to infight he was only too prepared to let them. He turned his attention to the quadruplet advancing from the east, pulling out his bow and knocking an arrow as he advanced. He fired at the most human one first, pulling back and releasing three arrows one after the other his way before spotting the clam monsters opening up its mouth. He took the opportunity to carefully aim and send an arrow right toward the glowing green orifice.

---

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@Majoras End

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Linkle was taken aback when the kid complimented her spooky eyes, blinking them rapidly and looking away. She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about that. On the one hand, wow, it felt pretty nice to get complimented on something you were so self conscious about. On the other, they didn't know the context. The context ruined them. "You really think so?" She asked the kid, embarrassed. "I mean, they're not. They're really not. They're bad news, super evil." She said, twiddling her fingers together nervously and failing utterly at looking at all evil. "So a kid like you shouldn't go thinking they're cool or anything. Thanks' anyway, though. It's the thought that counts, right?"

Luckily she was saved from this awkward topic by the arrival of the wolf girl. For a certain measure of wolf girl, at least. If you weren't snarling than, in her opinion, you didn't count as a wolf. Treat didn't look like she snarled. Treat looked like she felt like that compliment had made Linkle feel, except she felt it all time. As the girl approached and handed the wriggling and eager dog to Linkle she felt it was only natural to pay the kids complement forward. "Hi! Thanks so much for looking after him." She said as the animal wriggled in her arms. "Cute ears." She passed the corgi across the table to Albedo, placing it right in his lap with all hates, before whipping off he own beret and letting the rabbit ears on her own head point straight up. She flicked her finger between her own and the wolf girls. "We almost match." The wolfs were probably natural though.

The Kid, meanwhile, had down what almost any kid would do when in the vicinity of a cute dog. They looked like they would be hanging around for a while with how dedicated that hug was. She should introduce them, if that was the case. "I'm Linkle. I'm a traveling hero, blown into this wonderful little town by the winds of destiny." She said to the pair. "You probably know Albedo already." She said, nodding in the alchemists direction. "He's helping me explore the Frozen Highlands. What about you guys? Mr. Grilby said your name was 'treat,' she said, pointing out the wolf girl before turning her attention to the child that was also practically in Albedo's lap. That was so cute she was reluctant to say anything lest she break it up, but she powered through. "But we didn't get your name, little buddy. How do you two like Snowdin?"

Unfortunately for Geralt, it seemed that nobody else had any reserves of food for the group. Junior's meager pile would hardly last them, and though he wasn't terribly hungry after having had something to eat just before the end of their time in the Maw, Geralt found himself nervous about that lack of backup resources. For now, however, he figured that they'd just have to make do. Without the accelerated hunger they experienced on the Maw, as well, they wouldn't be starving just yet. Still, there was a nervous niggling at the back of Geralt's mind that told him the others weren't taking this seriously enough. He put it aside for the moment, and once they'd dealt with the Area's Guardian, he'd bring that logistical issue back up.

Speaking of logistical issues, Sakura managed to take care of one for them, Geralt noticed out of the corner of his eye, explaining to the recently-freed Mirage exactly what the hell was going on. The Legend would have to come to terms with it all on his own time, however, as not long after Sakura sucker-punched the man, they were given quite the signal to get moving: a lightning bolt striking the highest piece of the Maw's remains. The prospect of sticking around any longer wasn't an attractive one, either, so the Seekers seemed to be in agreement that now was the time to get moving.

The path up the river was, in a word, unpleasant. They were funneled along by outcroppings of sharp, barnacle-crusted rock, making their path forward a dangerous one. They were grouped up perfectly well for an ambush that never came, much to the Witcher's relief. The village before them was disgusting, being ever-so-slightly submerged under a half a foot of water, and absolutely reeking of fish. Geralt involuntarily wrinkled his nose at the stench, ironically less accustomed to it than he was that of the decay earlier. That wasn't to say he preferred the rot of death, moreso that he was better able to ignore it.

Moving forward more brought the Seekers past some annoying Sea Maggots, though Geralt merely ignored the ugly creatures, which were content to let him pass so long as he didn't get too close. That was his kind of monster.

Moments later, however, their path opened up into the village square, a roughly circular area surrounding a slightly raised stone well. The place was riddled with fishmen, including two absolutely giant ones, and he noticed off to the side the absolute behemoth that was being carved into by the monsters while it still lived. Geralt involuntarily shuddered a bit at that, then narrowed his eyes in anger. It felt wrong to him, to do that to a living creature. At least kill the damn thing before you ate it.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the large group was spotted just about immediately, and the residents of this doomed village turned and attacked, leaving little to the imagination just where their groups stood: enemies. There wouldn't be any talking their way out of this one, much like Geralt's earlier encounter with the similar, but not identical, fishmen in the Land of Adventure.

Unsheathing his sword, Geralt frowned and paused as the others surged ahead, the Koopa Troop immediately summoning some of their minions and blocking the path into combat. That was annoying, to be quite honest, but Geralt worked with it, instead drawing the plasma pistol Tora had given him (He'd have to thank the kind little engineer), and taking a few shots at the assorted monsters about. He managed to finish off one or two here and there, but mostly his focus was on distracting the ones he could manage.

As the Troop managed to fell one of the giants, Geralt saw an opening to move. Bella, who'd also been stuck by the admittedly effective defensive formation, surged forward into the fray.

Geralt, owing to his larger size, had to be more careful not to crush any of the smaller allies the Troop had summoned, but he made it past their lines without any friendly fire incidents. He made his way towards the Eastern side of the battle, where the larger group of enemies congregated, but was interrupted by a wave of new arrivals as the current horde was being mostly cut down.

A new group of fishmen burst out of the houses across the village, but Geralt's attention was first caught by the Scylla's death knell and the squad of buffed-up monsters that burst forth from its gut, and then the clambering monstrosity that appeared from the well. Trusting the others to handle the group, Geralt moved towards the deeper water, summoning the Ordnance Platform once he was close enough. "Over here!" He called as the Ordnance Platform appeared, the guns trained on the monster as it clacked and clanged its scales.

He gave a bit of notice to the skeletal pirate who'd appeared and was moving to engage his target, but the Demon Witcher wasted no time in ordering each of the Platform's guns to fire, the thunderous report drowning out the sounds of combat for a moment. Drawing silver, he surged forth and dismissed the Platform, not willing to put himself in its way and not wanting to risk it being damaged. Bringing it back would take more out of him, certainly, but at the moment he needed to focus on taking this thing down. Instead, he made the Sign of Quen to protect himself as he approached for close-quarters battle.

He reached the monster with a swing of his sword, testing its reflexes and defenses with a few probing blows. He kept a wary eye on the interloper, as well, not wanting to risk a knife in the side from assuming the stranger had friendly intentions, ready to move at a sign of treachery. Where possible, he kept the Judicator between himself and these enemies of his enemy, for he wasn't fool enough to call them friend on that merit alone.

Still, he was careful with his blows, now seeking to bite into flesh instead of merely a test, and tried to avoid unnecessarily harming this other fighter. Even avoiding making a new enemy would be enough of a win in his book.

The Judicator was actually somewhat skilled at keeping his blade away, but Geralt was a master Witcher, and between the opening salvo of the Ordnance Platform, his superior swordplay, and the assistance of the pirate alongside its Pokémon, they began wearing the thing down. However, much like the Fiends and Relicts from Geralt's world, it would take more than a few solid hits to take this thing down. Keeping this in mind, Geralt went back on the offensive. It couldn't last forever.

”It’s getting closer!” Kamek cried out in alarm as the shark brute just kept coming, wading through the veriballe wall of firepower blazing out of the street they had decided to hold.

“No it isn’t?” Rika shouted through the wall of smoke and noise, notably from several feet back from her starting point as she, and Bowser next to her, got a quick physics lesson on Newton's third law as their firepower overwhelmed their ship-folk motor power and shoved them back down the street.

”Just keep firing!” Jr demanded between fireball hucks, both of his mage and of his minions, who, bogged down in the water in front of Rika and Bowser’s line of fire, got an absolute pummeling of friendly fire. Only Quiet was spared, or rather she spread herself by taking one look at the mess he had been summoned into and promptly leaping onto a roof for a clearer shot in a safer and less distracting environment.

Check weapon, identify target, aim, aim, try to ignore the stupid turtles and girl yelling at each other and demonstrating D rank shooting skills, aim, aim aaaaaand

A thunder-crack echoed through the square, louder even than all the cacophonous firepower of the Troop and which put an end to their nonsense as a high caliber sniper round shot through one of the shark giant’s comparatively tiny eye holes and finally struck it down right before it tore through the mass of strikers.

”Phew. Thank you dear” Kamek sighed with relief and then called up to the sniper, who shrugged and then dissipated a moment later, along with the rest of the strikers.

”Whaaat!” Jr shouted at him as the smoke and ringing in their ears took a bit longer to dissipate.

”I was just thanking Miss Quiet for her excellent shooting” Kamek floated closer to inform him.

”eh, why would you do that?” Jr asked, not putting much stock in thanking minions for simply doing their job

”Because-” Kamek began, but any lessons in boss-minion relations would have to wait, as the attention attracted by their noisy battle strategy bore fruit just as the rest of the battlefield came into view from their haze of smoke and water vapor.

As bigger monsters joined the square battle itself, a more immediate problem for the troop was a bunch of doors being thrown open down the street, where another gaggle of fish dudes stormed out in an attempted flanking maneuver that instead sent them charging right into where Bowser and Rika had back blasted themselves too.

”Sire look out!” Kamek shouted as the pair of water walkers made an about turn to face these fishy foes.

”ghahaha, if it’s a punch-up you want it’s a punch up you’ll get!” Bowser roared with delight, slamming forwards a slug that sent waves through the street as it missed the first slippery fish ”Go help the other’s you two, we’ve got this!” he insisted, not at all disheartened and promptly giving one of the bigger, slower, fish men an uppercut to actually prove his confidence.

“We do?!” Rika shouted back as she brought her gauntlets up in a boxer’s guard (in a mimicry of Bowser’s own style) to block an overhead swing from a big murloc, and then used her hull blades to guard her lower body from a leg sweep by another one.

They’d have to ‘have it’ as Jr and Kamek saw no reason to doubt the King’s ability to handle small fry and head off to aid the others with the big fry.

“Oh… shoot” Rika said, and then did just that, using the small triple barreled ship turrets mounted on her rigging’s elbows to blast herself backwards intentionally this time, the combination of the burst of speed and suppressing power of her poorly aimed projectiles giving her just enough space to drop her guard, bring her machine-gun to bare and pepper one of the fish men with bullets.

The other, smaller, one charged her without fear even as its comrade fell, only to be grabbed by a stray tentacle lash from Bowser, to whom one more fishy boy was nothing when counted against the other half dozen swarming him.

”Raaagh, stay still you fishsticks!” Bowser demanded as he tried to kick one of the little dodgy ones, only for it to slip aside and hack at his armored leg to little effect. That it rapidly became the case that basically only the small ones left said something about what Bowser could deal with, something aptly demonstrated when one of the bulkier puss filled buggers charged in, late to the party, and got a highly telegraphed wound up punch for its efforts that sent it flying across the street and into a nearby wall.

This left the Bowser vs fish fight as functionally between the speedsters and the one thing that they could hurt, and could simultaneously be hurt by; the tentacles of Bowser’s tentacruel cannons. As Rika watched, the one that had been grabbed batted at the tendrils of its capturer with its club, eliciting a screech of rage from the beak they belonged to and prompting it to toss it’s captured foe away, only for it to land (relatively) softly in the water.

The others were mostly fighting the same target, dancing back and forth in and out of range of the tendrils trying to grab them as they congested with Bowser’s slow attempts to catch them, batting at the tendrils with their clubs. Unwilling to try and shoot them and risk hitting Bowser, Rika moved in to help, resting her rifle on-top of a sideways held gauntlet as a brace and then bayonet charging the closest murloc. She skewered it in the back while it was distracted, before turning her turrets to either side and blind firing to ward off the others for a moment as she kicked her stabbing victim down into the water and then pumped lead into its back to finish it off.

She pulled the bayonet out of the crumbling murloc only to be grabbed and hoisted over Bowser’s shoulder as unseen by her the tossed fishman had been about to do to her what she had done to its ally, only for the girl it had been rear charging to be plucked out of harm's way and a torrent of fire to be blasted out in her place.

It leaped to the side, the water skating its body and the air giving it just enough fire resistance to complete its evasion steamed but not roasted.

“What are you doing?” Rika complained, unable to see this hoisted over Bowser’s shoulder but taking the opportunity and fact that the merlocs were as surprised as she to hammer one of them with gun fire.

”I’ve had about enough of these goons! Let’s make a splash” Bowser declared, before crouching and then launching himself skywards with Rika in tow, leaving the remaining locks looking upwards in confusion. For about a second. After that they went scrabbling as he came thundering back down with an almighty meteor stomp that created a mini tidal wave that washed the fishmen away, followed by his own shockwave of fire rolling in its wake, roasting fish meant that tried to jump over or swim through the wave or just giving those smacked against buildings by the waves a blast of fire for good measure.

Hammered by the wave and then scorched, the wounded fishmen picked themselves up only to find themselves at the mercy of Rika’s rifle fire, as the shipgirl flipped around to sit on Bowser's shoulder, cannon arm wrapped over his neck while one of his arm held her hips in palace and the other guarded her with a mecha-mit shield so she could use him as a mobile elevated firing position.

“Die die die die die!” she cheerfully demanded of the fishmen while Bowser cheered her on with ”Yeah! Blast em to bits Rika! Make them regret messing with us!” while leaping from place to place, sending out more water-fire waves and keeping them both from being surrounded again.

Meanwhile, in the square proper, the fish lackeys might have been dealt with or (were being dealt with as merely a side piece to people’s main targets), but in their stead more big brutes had arrived, adding themselves to the pile of toughs that had only had one of their number removed sofar, and that was by the Troop themselves. The second shark giant was engaged in a running battle with Nadia and Cadet who had made the ‘mistake’ of fighting it 2 vs 1 rather than several dozen vs 1. That was Jr’s self aggrandizing tactical analysis anyway. A more level, Kamek sourced, look at their situation would see that Ace was in his element, it was just that with any speed vs power fight, speed would rather ironically have a rather slow time of taking down power. Nadia meanwhile, was more used to fighting human sized (if admittedly often super powered) foes like the murlocs she had been absolutely tearing through, but unfortunately didn't quite have the tools to deal with someone much bigger and stronger than her safely.

”Nothing a little magic can’t fix” the mage asserted, summoning a green orb of power and tossing it to one of his clones, then a second green to another and a third to a third, turning their robes from his own blue to a deep forest green. These shadowy supporters immediately went Ace’s way, and with a wave of their wands cast their magics upon him, adding a dark green burning energy to his sword, a similery hued aura to cling to and invigorating his body and a barely visible barrier that extended over and out from his shield (the semipermeable magical barrier having about twice the real shield’s radius) as they buffed his attack, speed and defence respectively.

”That should give you the edge you need” Kamek informed the fighter as he himself floated safely out of harm's way and transformed the last clone into an ash white healer, which, while it could not compete with Blazermate, could patch up the odd cut, bruise and scratch that Nadia and Ace had picked up so far. Speaking of Nadia, the three support clones moved to her next, giving her claws, tail and ears (of all things) a dark green fire to their edges, her body the same accelerating aura of Ace, a pair of spectral arm and shin guards to help her block and, for some reason, an spectral oversized pirate hat that belonged on a Miss Fortune rather than a Ms Fortune.

As Kamek rendered aid, Jr went in on the attack, hovering above the shark giant and deploying two of his clown car’s custom arms, one ending in a water gun, the other in a bizarre mass of living flesh.

”Look out below pea brain” Jr taunted the ground pounding shark monster as the car tilted to the side and brought the splatter gun full of (or more accurately running low on) ink to bare, spraying the giant's body with vulnerability causing ink, given its tiny eyes a special focus, before flipping round and using the synapse flesh gun to shoot a stream of electricity at the titan, which was joined by an electro-ball from Mimi.

”Can’t get me, can’t get me!” the boy taunted (throwing in a raspberry at the end for good measure) the beast , and really all of the range-less foes, as he bobbed above them all carefree as can be and being a right nuisance while he was at it.

"Thank you, Mister Link." Sakura had said after being said by him. Her outfit and skin was a little scuffed, but she still had oodles and noodles of ki left to protect her body from permanent harm. The crabsnake was dead, and she was safe, for now.

When she threw Delsin, his plan seemed to work, but he was quickly dunked into the drink. "Oops! Sorry!" She waved over to him, grimacing. When Link, still harnessed up, said he would go get them, Sakura nodded. She could trust the hero to help Delsin out.

As Sakura observed the frenzied battlefield to pick her next target or ally to help, a whole new wave of enemies emerged. From all sorts of various places, especially the dying dead monster. Loads of terrible monsters hatched from its body. More fishmen arrived, and a two-headed monster came from the well.

"This is so gross." Sakura wrinkled her nose, her cat ears twitching. This was going to be a long fight, wasn't it? Still, she smirked, ready to deal out some hurt and take some hits herself. Such was the thrill of fighting. It'd been too long!

The Sea Crawlers caught her interest as the opponents she would like to fight. The three of them were mostly human sized. She didn't want them running amok and hitting her allies in the back while they were distracted with more important foes. Sakura's body was pulsing with potential power just ready to be spent. Her EX meter had built up a bar and a half, and her V-Meter had a bar, too.

The trio of Sea Crawlers disappeared under the surface of the murky water. Sakura internally named them Zappy, Clammy, and Crabby. Helpful monikers to keep them separate in her head. Clammy was a monstrous looking fellow with a huge clam for a head. Crabby was a hunched over humanoid crab with a large claw. Zappy looked like a dead guy with electric crystals and fungus plugged in him, and was easily the smallest of the three. Normally she wouldn't underestimate someone just because they were small, but she doubted this ugly fungus zombie had Ki and technique to be his equalizer. This guy was no Akira.

Sakura went to the edge of the basin, where she knew the Sea Crawlers would be trawling underneath the deep waters. The giant creature holding the anchor was also nearby, but Sakura hoped that she was far enough away that she wouldn't attract its attention before someone else did. Many of her teammates, including another new guy who was a pirate skeleton, were fighting The Judicator. Sakura didn't want them disturbed.

Sakura didn't want to fight the Sea Crawlers where they could still hide underwater. She wanted to lure and harass them until they were forced to attack her in the shallows. Sakura gathered ki in her hands and fired a ball of plasma into the water. "Hadoken!" She blew a huge chunk of water away, displacing a tunnel's worth of water as the ball pushed through. The ball careened towards the underwater crawlers.

Sakura's fireball exploded on contact, doing damage to all three if they were clustered together.

Focused on the Sea Crawlers, Sakura employed a kind of zoning strategy. She fired hadokens whenever she saw them approach her from underneath, knocking them away and whittling them down.

Once they got close, she would time a V-Shift. She had seen Karin do it before on their fight, and she'd been eager to do it ever since. Normally she felt like she would have to practice to do it, but something about this World of Light made her feel confident that she could do it first try. Everything went slow and starry as she dodged the monstrous claw. "Whoop..."

For a moment, she saw everything, and felt like she was on the verge of some kind of philosophical breakthrough. But the moment passed, and she punished the monster with a back throw. She grabbed its claw, and then hop right over Crabby's head, slamming it with her fists between her legs. That would send it scattering into the shallows where she could hopefully engage all three of them on her terms.

"All right!" Sakura hyped herself up, kicking at Crabby and Clammy. "These three uggos are on me!" She called out. Now that she was actually fighting them, she wondered if she really could take on all three. Was she biting off more than she could chew? A bead of sweat dripped down the side of her face. If it came down to it, one of her allies would just cover for her again. It's not like she could just stand idly by and let the Sea Crawlers walk right on past. Even something as some precise ranged attacks from someone like Mirage, Kamek, or Bella would do the trick.

Whack! She shut Clammy's big mouth with a bigger uppercut.

Traveling from town to town was something Therion was well accustomed to by now. He'd been moving around pretty much his whole life. He'd trekked through forests, frost, and fields; in sand, sun, and swamp. Visited cities large and small. Alone, and with friends.

Currently, he was the former. Hitched a ride on the caboose of one of those long metal contraptions they'd called a train about a week ago into a town called Tostarena. For a tourist destination, it was pretty small. Compared to the city he'd come from, it was much more difficult for long term guests to go unnoticed just because of the population difference - but the colorful high energy locals liked attention, and newcomers always drew the eyes away, so it was... workable. That being said, there was a lot less coin moving around Tostarena too. A lot of mountain enthusiasts, amateur singers and dancers, but not many deep pockets.

One might ask why was he in this town to begin with if his recent stomping grounds were so superior. The answer was simple: the dark robed cult that had served as law enforcement back in the city was getting a little too aggressive for his tastes. It was better to move on sooner than later, and now he was camped out here waiting to catch a ride out. If he could help it, he did not want to cross the desert on foot. Again.

The morning was spent like most others, idly wandering the town. Therion suspected that he had probably memorized every nook and cranny by now. He was beginning to grow antsy. Maybe he should just hop on the next train out he saw, even if it ran back to the capital. Or whatever that huge city was.

The sun started climbing higher, and Therion retreated toward the slots parlor he'd been frequenting soon after he'd arrived in town. A cutesy little establishment with a large space that matched the town's exterior, opening into a side room with more traditional machines - or so Therion had been told. It had all been foreign to him the first time. He'd never been much of a gambler, but the atmosphere in the parlor was not as oppressive as the cheery, party-like vibe outside.

He passed a man with a wide grin as he slipped into the establishment. Once the door closed behind him, Therion drew a hand out from beneath his shawl.

"Wow, big winner," he said, spinning the floating moon he'd lifted in his palm. The Tostarenan at the counter shook his head at Therion humorously. The thief tossed the moon to the front desk as he passed it, making his way toward the more secluded area. As far as Therion could tell they had no practical worth, just a pretty souvenir. None of the locals would buy them, he'd tried. Now it was kind of like a game to pass the time, and the shop's proprietor kept his skull quiet because ultimately it meant he'd get his prizes back.

Therion parked himself in front of one of the machines, content to listen to the chatter and gossip of the few patrons already inside. Sometimes there was interesting information to be learned this way, but today that didn't seem to be the case - until the town's biggest gossip walked in not too much later.

Biff was always looking for someone to state his opinions too, and since arriving Therion had filled that roll for much the same reason he came to hang out in a casino with no intent gamble: to hear news. Did he like the man? No. Biff was actually pretty annoying. But he hoped tolerating him would pay off at some point. Biff looked around the joint briefly before spotting Therion and making his way over, taking a seat at the machine next to him.

"Yea?"

"You'll never guess what just pulled into town," the man said, emphasizing his statement with a drawn out whistle. Therion rolled his hand in a gesture to get on with it. "Circus just rolled in. Some of the goofiest people I've ever seen. Might be some excitement in ol' Tostarena for once."

"...a circus? What, with animals and tents?"

"They got animals, but no tents exactly. Actually their train is weird. All metal thing with a big gun on the front."

That... doesn't add up. Running in back alleys and black markets, Therion had learned what a gun was pretty quickly. Perhaps if his eyes weren't full of sunset light, he might have questioned why he wasn't perturbed at all about the contraptions, or the odd variety of people using them. As it was, his brows were furrowed in thought, because what would a traveling circus need with a huge gun? And mounted on a train, no less. It was something to look into.

He stood up, heading for the door. Biff, bewildered, called after him. "Hey, where are you going?"

"To see the clowns," Therion answered, lifting a hand in goodbye. He departed quickly, lest Biff try and follow him, and slipped back into the open where tourists and locals mingled. The train was impossible to miss. It was huge. Dark gleaming metal and— okay that was not a gun, that was a cannon. Way to understate, Biff.

There did seem to be a large crew meandering around the train talking though. People of all sorts, every shape and size. Sure, he could see someone mistaking them for a circus... but some of them were pretty intense looking. His first thought was that he was not looking a sideshow act, but a group of ragtag mercenaries. And with a train like that... maybe they were running security for something valuable.

Despite wanting to lay low in town, there were already plots forming in Therion's head about how he'd scope the train out and get into it. None of the ideas got very far, distracted by a flash of red that tickled the recognition part of his mind. The outfit wasn't exactly the same as he remembered, and she looked a little paler, there was a little more muscle definition, but was that...? It was just a flicker moving among the group of strangers, but it was enough to catch his attention - and with his attention, his curiosity.

And as the saying goes, nothing bad ever happened to a cat who was curious.



It turned out that the group heading into town for gear was larger than Primrose had initially thought it would be. They ripped through the shop like a tornado, and if Primrose was bewildered she could only imagine how the poor shop keep felt. Arguing, making messes, pulling strange men from their ears... it must have went beyond a headache into traveled into nightmare territory for the Tostarenan behind the counter. Primrose kept the edge of the chaos, perusing courteously despite her company. When it seemed like Big Band has convinced the shop keeper to lend them the items, she trailed after the group and help up a pair of hiking boots so that the Tostarenan could see them.

"Add these in, please," she said, a pleasant smile plastered on her face. It was nice of Raz to pay for his own gear, he seemed like a good kid, but free was free. Or in this case, borrowed. She sauntered out of the store after the rest of the group. With such a large amount of items, she hoped that the climb wouldn't be too difficult. If they succumbed to the mountain before making it to the Guardian that just wouldn't do.

As they started back towards the restaurants in town to see where the others had ended up, Primrose felt someone bump into right side. She faltered, but when she looked there was no one there. Then, on the opposite side, a clumsy tug at her satchel. She whirled around, clutching the bag close and ready to glare daggers into any would-be thieves, but again there was no one to be seen. However, an inspection of her inventory saw that her coin purse was missing.

"I don't need this right now," she sighed, scanning the area for any suspects. She caught the flutter of a purple shawl disappear into the space between two buildings and her eyes widened. Without a second thought split from the group and she ducked into the alley. There at the end of it, tossing her purse between his hands, was...

"...Therion?"


Out of all the places she could have met one of her friends, those fellow travelers from Orsterra, the last one she would have expected was this small, vibrant little town at the foot of a great desert mountain. Then again, she had first met Therion in a town much like this one, only nestled into the heart of the Clifflands. Was it some kind of fate or destiny that brought them together again?

She approached the thief slowly, almost unbelieving. Therion looked her up and down with an eyebrow raised, but it seemed that he was satisfied with whatever he found. He tossed Primrose's coin purse back to her.

"So it was you," he said. "Your look's not the only thing that's changed. Getting a little carefree, are we?"

Primrose looked confused at first. Her heart was beating hard, spreading intense feelings of pure relief and gladness at finding one of her friends alive and well - and that was all he had to say? She was speechless at first, but just one look at him made her remember that he wouldn't think anything was wrong with this situation. Maybe he wasn't even missing any of the travelers at all. From his one visible eye, a gloomy red light glowed softly. A silence stretched between them, and Therion grew fidgety. Why wasn't she saying anything? Primrose took a deep breath and regrouped, although it was delayed.

"On the contrary, I should think you were losing your touch. You would normally not be caught so easily," she finally replied, but Therion only rolled his eyes.

"It was intentional. You were supposed to notice," he told her, "I'm more surprised at what you didn't notice missing." He produced a dagger from the folds of his clothes, the dagger of House Azelhart. Primrose's eyes widened ever further. Was she really growing complacent, traveling in a group even larger than the eight she was familiar with? She breathed out slowly through her nose, then narrowed her eyes and stuck her hand out to take the weapon back.

"Relax," Therion said. He stepped close to her, pressing the dagger into her waiting palm. "Just testing you. Anyone would feel safe in a big group like that. Can't believe you've already replaced us—"

He met her eyes while he talked, and found a genuine hurt in Primrose's eyes. It surprised Therion so much that he recoiled away from her. The dancer never showed her feelings so easily even with the travelers. She was upset, and only now trying to hide it once she saw how her expression had affected Therion.

"...you know that was a joke, right...?" he tried, his voice soft.

"...I have never known you to be particularly funny."

There was another brief stretch of silence, but a small smirk was steadily growing on Primrose's face. It gave her away, that she was recovering from the wound Therion had unknowingly inflicted on her. "Oh har har," he said, rolling his eyes again.

Gods, Primrose wanted to slap him. But she knew if she did, they'd do battle. She could feel that with a lot of her powers returned, she was probably more powerful than him - but she wasn't sure she'd be able to incapacitate him before he just gutted her.

"I have been looking for you - for all of you. What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here? With that ragtag bunch, riding a train and buying climbing supplies?"

"Going climbing, is that not obvious?" She wanted to question how he knew what a train was given she'd only learned about them that morning, but she went on. "Traveling with a group of do-gooders, helping people. And saving the world."

"...now I can't tell if you're joking."

Primrose shrugged. She didn't have to convince him to believe her, she couldn't. "Are you by yourself? Have you seen any of the others?"

"No, I haven't."

So he was alone. Although they'd been together previously, more or less, when Galeem's light swept over them it also separated all of them. Or so Primrose assumed, given how she and Therion hadn't been with any of the others upon waking up here. Still, finding Therion in such a huge world... it gave Primrose a sense of hope that she hadn't felt in what seemed like a long time.

"Come with us."

Therion blinked. Once, twice. Then he scoffed. "No thanks, you all look like a walking disaster."

She couldn't exactly argue against that. His blunt response didn't dash her spirits just yet though. "Then stay here. Here, in Tostarena, so that I may find you when we descend the mountain." Therion looked skeptical, but she had to lock him down before she lost him again. She wanted to find all of her friends if possible, to make sure they were okay when everything... well, when whatever happened, happened. "I would rather not lose you," she stated.

Therion rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "So my choices are climb a mountain with your traveling circus or stay put in this place for who knows how long?" Primrose tilted her head at his analogy about the Seekers, but otherwise didn't react, knowing he wasn't finished. "Why don't I just tell you where I'm headed, and we can meet there later?"

"Because you don't know where you are headed."

"I - ugh." The thief's shoulders slumped. "I'll think about it. But tell me, really, what are you doing?"

"I did tell you," she said, and again Therion didn't look like he quite believed her. She added on quiet and solemn, "we are helping people, to find their ways home."

---

A half-assed promise was about as good as she could get from Therion. Despite his evasiveness, she had faith that he would at the very least stick around the area. They had talked a little more before parting, if vaguely, about Primrose's plan with the Seekers. That they'd be scaling the mountain and taking down a powerful opponent. If Therion was concerned he hid it well. He had confided after a little while that it "might not be bad" to travel with the crew again, provided they could find them. It was clear that he had the same interests as Primrose, if not the same goal - yet. But that would come with time. If he wasn't going to travel with her, then she would just free him from Galeem on the way back.

...he would definitely be here when they got back. Or so help me Gods, Therion.

When they separated, Primrose made her way back to the large group at the Happy Hongo. The free meal was another nice surprise on top of finding a missing companion. She hadn't thought much on the group size beyond that it was a lot of people. She had assumed they would all trudge up the mountain in one force, or perhaps a long single file line. But maybe Mao was right. A strong core group would be better than a larger, weaker one.

Primrose had a lot on her mind this afternoon, but she considered the current predicament, propping her chin up in her palm. "I veto the cannon," she said. "Everyone should think about if they really want to make the trek. If there's any doubt, it may be better to stay behind. There would be no shame in it... but if all twenty four of us are willing to try, then why should we not try?"

There was a short cough of someone clearing their throat, standing off the side of the mass of people dining. "...make it twenty five, I guess."

She was almost as surprised to see Therion now as she was earlier in the alley. He stood there shifting from one foot to the other with a rucksack thrown over his shoulder. With his shawl and large scarf he was practically ready to venture out, even if it was his regular outfit. After splitting up from Primrose he had thought about her invitation. Her ultimatum, really. He had grumbled, but then thought hadn't be been looking a way out of town? Going up wasn't the direction he'd expected, but it would be more interesting then putzing around Tostarena for the foreseeable future. That we would leave Primrose in the dust didn't even cross his mind. He hadn't thought it strange to be separated from the other seven until running into one, and now it just made sense to stick together. Primrose, himself, and... all these other people.

With his hair falling over part of his face only one eye was visible, and it shifted between the large group. Now that he was up close, he could see that they did indeed have some 'animals' among them, and even children. What the...

He might have started questioning his decision, if it weren't for the soft smile on Primrose's face. She was pleased. He wanted to be annoyed at that, but he just huffed and stayed quiet. Primrose stood up then, bringing a hand to her mouth to clear her own throat and try in vain to wipe away her smile. She glanced slightly at Therion, communicating with her eyes I'm glad you're coming with me, before she looked at the Seekers at large.

"Well. Everyone, this is Therion. A friend I ran into in town," she said. Therion thought her explanation could use some work, but he shrugged and nodded a greeting. He couldn't help but wonder what he was getting himself into.

Midna’s pride made her hesitate for a moment before accepting the money from Rasputin. But only for a moment. Only a fool turned down free cash after all. Some might suggest that she now owed him, but that was a problem for future Midna, who would no doubt have to bail the child out of danger at some point.

”Thanks Raz” she said simply as she accepted and then warped the money away to sit in a little pile in the twilight realm, before adding ”I’ll be sure to spend it wisely” cheekily.

It certainly looked like they’d need the cash, as it turned out the Thieves' acquisition had mostly been for themselves, and it wasn't a great selection either. Fortunately for Midna, in looking around for their clothes in her pocket dimension, she inadvertently came across something she had almost forgotten about that turned out to be quite handy for the upcoming situation: the X-Naut uniform which came complete with a nice thick set of gloves and sturdy boots along with its head to toe covering guise.

”Goddesses this is sweltering” the unrecognizable princess complained after applying the uniform to herself, becoming the perfect picture of an X-naught, if a bit taller, with the floppy ‘ears’ on the hat standing straight up to cover her helm’s twin prongs the goggles going on top of her mask/helmet combo and with her new flygon tail and and twintails dangling out the back of the disguise that entirely gave the game away if you looked at her from behind. So not really the perfect picture at all.

”Still, this’ll work for me, that’s for sure” she said, before proceeding to remove it for later use and pointedly not offer the money she’d gained to anyone else. That was her 20 gold now, and no one else's.

It turned out that they didn't need to worry about money after all, because while Minda was skimming around town collecting purple coins (which could only be used in one specific store as it turned out. Midna ended up buying a sombrero with what she found just because she could, and then brutalizing it with a sword so she could wear it and her helmet at the same time. The shade it provided was delightful) and failing to find anything else of value in the tourist trap of a town to be gained for anything but cold hard cash, the others more or less managed to bully the sport’s shop’s owner into letting them borrow everything they needed for free.

Surprisingly, this bout of not quite thievery garnered no response from the town’s guardians, a pair of masked wrestlers. On top of that, not only did they get their climbing gear for free, they also got a free lunch as well which, while Minda was confused by the whole affair, she could not complain about it as she sat in the shade with her new straw hat and munched on something called a taco. Well. she could complain about how messy the thing was, but that was about it. It was quite the delicious and spicy meal.

While the large group was chowing down on and around their train, its conductor pointed out just how big their group was, and how it might not be the best idea for them all to go up.

”I’ve climbed up a snow covered mountain before, Snowpeak back in Hyrule, so I know a bit about it. Plus if things get too bad I’ll just hitch a ride with Braum” She informed them, before jokingly adding ”Plus, you’ll want me around to lend a hand I’m sure” while gesturing with her shadow hand as a way of informing them that there was no way she was being left behind.

She was very sceptical about Rasputin’s zip-line idea regarding getting everyone up to the top ”That’d need to be a really long rope” she pointed out, before suggesting that ”It’d probably be better to try and lure this thing down to anyone who can’t climb rather than bring everyone up to it anyway. Set up some kind of ambush lower down the mountain kind of thing? I'm pretty fast so acting as bait wouldn’t be any problem,” both because it had some genuine tactical value, and because it gave those staying back something to do and an excuse that didn't involve admitting weakness.

She did not want a repeat of having people being blown out into the desert, that was for certain, so if some people didn't think they could make it up there, then she for one did not want them to come.

Someone who clearly wanted to come despite not being suited was Minamoto and though she had a vested interest in having her friend come along, she wasn't exactly full of good suggestions with regards as to how he could make his wheels fit for snow and mountain climbing. Her world didn't have tires, let alone ways to winterize them after all.

”Maybe use some kind of climbing gear with your second set of arms? Like those technical walking sticks the shop had?” she suggested, vaguely remembering seeing said equipment in the store while passing by it.

Adding to the twenty four considering whether they were going to go was an unexpected twenty fifth, someone who Primrose knew and introduced as; Therion, a friend she had run into in town.

”Lucky you” Midna commented upon the situation despite having had exactly the same kind of encounter catching up with Agitha in the last town. Well maybe not the exact same, seeing as Prim was apparently close enough and confident enough in this Therion to invite him along, where for Midna meeting the bug collector had mainly been a welcome novelty for the princess at most, who had put little thought into leaving the woman behind and in the dark after their brief meeting.

She actually reflected upon this a bit before shrugging off her jealousy and drifting over to properly introduce herself to the man, giving the somewhat raggedly dressed scoundrel a curious look over. With him standing next to the elegantly attired Primrose they certainly made for an odd looking pair.

”I’m Midna” she introduced herself simply, leaving out any honorifics, before adding ”Welcome aboard Therion. Want to come freeze your butt off half way up a giant mountain? There’ll be a fight with a giant flying serpent at the top for your efforts and, if we’re lucky, maybe something even more dangerous too.” mostly to see his reaction.