In the aftermath of the colossal fly-by, the Seekers picked themselves up with renewed resolve. Thanks chiefly to Braum’s heroic efforts they had been spared what would otherwise have been a deathblow to the team, though Tora and Sectonia’s efforts to rescue isolated team members -and passers by- played a small but crucial role as well. Having been one brawny Freljordian away from a harsh reality where even those blessed by the white-robed council’s afterglow would have been dashed upon the surrounding rocks, the party knew that even if Phalanx wasn’t the Guardian of the Sandswept Sky, they couldn’t get away with ignoring it any longer.

Naturally, nobody knew that better than Midna, who appeared eager to make up for the small part her arbitration played in the barely-averted disaster. Before Phalanx could completely pass Jondo and the Seekers by, the Twilight Princess delivered her ultimatum, then warped herself up to the immense creature. Once aboard she made her way toward the head, where she planned to take advantage of the phenomenon she and the others had forgotten to string the gleaming colossus along and get it away from her allies. After that she could deal with it for good, one way or another. Unwilling to give Midna the benefit of the doubt a second time with so much at stake, Sectonia followed along as a failsafe. This time, nothing would be left to either assumption or chance.

Their departure alongside Phalanx left the remainder of the team with mixed emotions, pumping adrenaline, no immediate threat, and only so many options. As it turned out, Braum’s life-saving ice wall wasn’t the only thing in pieces. Among the wreckage lay the fragmented remains of one of the four multi-man statues on Jondo’s perimeter, its bronze so green and rusty with age that just the solid impact from a windblown Therion had been enough to crumble it. Neglected amongst the chaos, the great chain had been dragged down into the abyss of the bell by its own weight, and the monumental clapper was one step closer to freedom from its restraints.

That wasn’t the only unintentional consequence of Phalanx attacking, however. Now that he’d been hurt by the colossus, Therion fell victim to Galeem’s influence as well, and with the target of his ire not only being dealt with but also actively departing the Apex of the World, that suddenly became a serious issue. Big Band recognized the problem at once, as well as the necessary solution. “I got this!” With a burst of sonic power he charged after the thief with a mechanical arm deployed. He moved fast for a big guy, but it wouldn’t have been enough without an assist from Peacock. Thinking quickly, the girl pulled her head into her hat. A black hole opened on the ground below Therion as he opened his glider, and from it Peacock’s head poked out. She shot out her metal dentures like a bear trap, grabbing onto his foot just in time to stop him mid-takeoff. That gave Band just enough time to get close, open wide his fist, then catch Therion in his anti-air grab, Take the A-Train. “Take five!” The instrumentation in the arm pumped twice like a pile bunker, slamming Therion both times, and on the third sent him tumbling along the ground. Band immediately launched into the same move again, and with the thief’s aggro now on the detective, Therion got up into a low stance ready to strike back. Before he could be counterhit Band canceled his charge with Emergency Break, then sent a friend heart flying with a tip of his hat. The heart flew true, and just a brief moment later Therion was a free man.

With a sigh of relief that everything went to plan, Big Band extended the thief a hand. “Sorry ‘bout that brother, but this player don’t miss a beat. Welcome to the in crowd. We’ll fill ya in later, so try an’ focus on the fight for now.” He straightened up and looked over to see Phalanx receding into the distance, currently reconciling its differences with its boarding party. “Although, if that thing’s peacin’ out, we don’t got much of a fight on our hands.”

“Maybe we do,” Tora suggested, rubbing his chin. “Now that Tora think about it, biggypon snake-beast have normal gleaming eyes, right, Poppi?”

The artificial blade pursed her lips thoughtfully as she consulted her memory banks. “Correct. Previous bosses have unique eyes. Megadragonbowser orange, and Enderdragon purple. Masterpon agree with Midna, after all?”

“Meh!?” The Nopon cut short his sagacious nodding to flash his companion an irritated look. “That beside point! Tora just think that because of baddypon Master Hand, boss must still be around. Friends should definitely ring bell and see what happen, meh!”

Joker seemed to agree. “Couldn’t hurt. Stuff like this is almost always here for a reason.”

“There’s no such thing as coincidence,” Fox mused.

“Agh,” Mona sighed, rubbing his big head with one paw. “I mean, it’s not like we’ve got any better options. But we really just always end up winging it with whatever we’ve got on hand, huh?”

“Hey, man, that’s just how the Phantom Thieves roll!” Skull grinned.

Panther rolled her eyes. “For better or worse,” she grumbled.

Tora gestured at what brazen wreckage remained of the first statue with one wing. “Plus, it looks like friend Therion already get started, meh! Good job Therion!”

“Finally, we’re doing something!” Mao gruffed. “I’ll go left.”

“Tora and Poppi fly to far side!” Tora volunteered without delay.

Tharja looked sideways at Robin. “Can’t you shoot them from here, or something?”

“Theoretically, yes,” the tactician admitted. “Thoron could most likely go the distance. It is an incredibly difficult shot, however, and I would rather not expend the mana if we can help it.” He trailed off as he became aware of Ciella charging another typhoon arrow. The rabbit lady built up her power, took careful aim, and let loose. After a moment in flight the arrow ripped into the right-side statue, shattering it into pieces, and like clockwork the second chain descended. Ciella glanced his way, her half-masked expression one of thinly veiled self-satisfaction. Robin ignored her.

But by this time the team had already scrambled. Together Tora and Poppi jetted off across the iron-sided pit known as Jondo, with Poppi loosely following the route of the spanning bridge in case something unexpected happened. Even with a greater distance to go and a very competitive Mao hurrying to get his job done, the dynamic duo managed to reach their statue first. After the artificial blade cruised in and dropped her Masterpon off, Tora started whaling on the conjoined human effigies. To his surprise, the statue gave up the ghost after only a couple hits, releasing their chain so suddenly that it whipped past and struck him. “Ow!” he cried, rubbing his cheek, but in a moment his out-of-battle healing kicked in and quickly left him with an annoying stinging sensation. He looked up at Poppi, half expecting her to be laughing, but even his sometimes-derisive companion wasn’t that cruel. She gave him a sympathetic pat on the head, then hoisted him into her arms and took off.

At about that time Mao reached his statue, and after a few moments of applying his oversized surgical tools it broke apart, too. As Tora and Poppi flew over the yawning pit, they got a bird’s-eye view of the clapper as its last restraint came off. For a moment there was nothing, just the sound of the wind blowing and Poppi’s thrusters burning. Then something snapped, and the clapper began to fall. It took the bridges with it, caving in the entire span in a matter of moments. It would have been a brutal trap had anyone been on it, but nobody had, so instead it turned out just brutally inefficient. All the effort that it took to rig it in the first place, wasted. The pair watched the clapper plummet into the darkness, bracing themselves for a deafening clang. Several seconds passed in near-silence, until finally a loud THOK echoed up from below, a single meaty note.

Tora shook his head in disbelief, absolutely let down. “What dummypon design this thing, meh!?”

“Don’t demand refund just yet, Masterpon,” Poppi warned, keeping her eyes peeled as she flew. “Poppi get feeling this not over.”

“Yeah, that sound about right,” Tora allowed. “Meh.”

Barely did another moment pass before a terrific, hideous moan erupted from below. Unfathomably deep and awfully loud thanks to the reverberation of the bell, it swept across the Apex of the World, an apocalyptic howl of primeval fury. Amidst the tumult, swathes of spade-shaped fliers swarmed up from below, filling the air with a symphony of shrieks and the beat of myriad fins. Tora and Poppi dodged between the creatures, mowing through them with the Variable Saber when the torrent grew too thick, as they fought to reach their allies. They touched down a few moments later, with Tora’s heart racing and Poppi’s ether furnace burning bright, then joined the others in a defensive formation. Nobody believed for an instant, however, that they were ready for what was to come. And they were right.

Deep within the shadows of Jondo, the creature began to thrash. It threw itself against the sides of its great iron prison, over and over again, each calamitous impact enough to topple a skyscraper. Dutifully Jondo replied, each shockingly loud peal resounding through the earth itself, audible across and well beyond the Sandswept Sky itself. The mountain trembled, its very stone cracking under the sheer, absurd force. As the party struggled to maintain consciousness, Tora squeezed his hands to his ears as hard as he could, only dimly aware of the colossal shape soaring toward the time. When he finally noticed his eyes nearly bugged out, knowing that if Phalanx came in for another pass right now, the team was done for. This time, however, Midna and Sectonia were at its helm. Above the absolute clamor nothing at all could be heard, so they waved with everything they had, beckoning the rest of the team to get aboard. Tora suddenly realized that Phalanx wouldn’t be the team’s doom, but their salvation. Gritting his teeth, he set the Variable Saber to full blast, and with it glowing as bright as he could pointed the way for the team. It was flying low, but they would have only one chance–one shot to use their afterglow or other means to get aboard, and escape this head-pounding hell.

Poppi nodded. She tucked Tora under one arm, grabbed the near-senseless Redento, and took off. The Phantom Thieves opened their gliders and ascended on the updraft, while Big Band blasted off with Peacock holding on for dear life with her teeth, the big, white fingers of her cartoon gloves plugged in her ears. Ciella transformed into her Agito form and took flight, pausing only to grab Braum in her talons, perhaps beholden to the man for saving her life before. Before she could flap off the Scout latched onto her, holding his grapple gun with the tightest death grip of his entire career, and with no other options Mao grabbed hold of his ankles. Tharja used her dark magic to warp onto Phalanx, then her Rescue staff to bring Robin up with her. It fell to Raz, Jesse, and Fox to find their own way, for in just a moment’s time the window was closed. Phalanx flew out from over Jondo and into the wild blue yonder.

Right on cue, Jondo split apart. It sounded its last hurrah across the land as the prisoner within finally broke free, crashing through the narrow layer of stone that encircled the great bell and plummeting downward. It was a catastrophic sight, but a mesmerizing one; like a train wreck, one couldn’t just look away. For the life of him Tora couldn’t quite tell what he was looking at, amidst all that debris, but it was huge. Oblong, greenish-beige, with no visible limbs. Like some sort of caterpillar. More than that he couldn’t tell, since the monstrosity plunged down through the clouds and into the Graveyard of the Peaks. A landslide of elephantine proportions was in progress, but even then the cacophony gradually faded, even if the ringing in the Nopon’s ears did not.

“...Whatever it is, if that thing survives its li’l tumble down the mountain, and you can bet yo’ behinds it will, it’s gonna run hog wild across the whole desert!” Big Band was shouting. Midna and Sectonia were already steering Phalanx downward toward the clouds. As it began its forced nosedive Tora turned around and took one final look at Split Mountain’s peak, so tantalizingly mysterious, so near and yet so far. Then it disappeared from view, and he gave a forlorn sigh as he held on tight to the colossus’ hair. He’d have to see some other time just what awaited at the journey’s end.

Band continued. “Wherever it ends up, that place is history. Tostarena, Al Mamoon, you name it. Guardian or not, we gotta take it out.”

“What do you mean, take it out?” Ciella snapped. The statuesque archer was back in her human form, and even with her mask on she looked incredulous. “I mean, I agree, but let’s not delude ourselves. How do we even fight something that size?”

Tora’s eyes went wide. “Meh, meh!” he cried. “What about Railway Gun? It cannon stupid huge, and Tora bet it fast enough to stay ahead of big evil even with it full attention!”

“I was just about to suggest the same thing,” Joker agreed. “This thing’s slow and can’t attack other than ramming the other creature, which I feel like wouldn’t do much. The train’s probably our best bet.” In a massive poof of vapor Phalanx plunged out from the clouds surrounding Split Mountain, and the Sandswept Sky unfolded below. Tostarena Town was little more than a colorful blotch at the bottom of the canyonland foothills, but the team’s drivers kept the colossus right on course for it. More importantly, the team caught sight of the monster once more, still plowing down the mountainside at the head of a tremendous avalanche. Driven more by its own gargantuan weight than any power of its own, the creature seemed to be floundering limply, but that wouldn’t last forever.. “Let’s just hope we can get moving before that thing gets itself together,” Joker added.

How long it took to swoop down Tora couldn’t rightly say, but with adrenaline surging through his veins it felt like ages. Acting on some defensive instinct, Phalanx was headed straight for the sand, so when the ground grew near everyone needed to either jump or take flight once more. The last of the mountain’s afterglow was fading away, but those final traces helped everyone get down more or less safely in close proximity to Tostarena Town. Tourists and Tostarenans alike had gathered at one side of the settlement to gawk at the spectacle, both of Phalanx descending to the desert with the heroes upon its back, and the other creature that came to a stop not that much farther away, surrounding by the cloud of dust and heap of debris it kicked up on its way down the mountain. For now it lay still, stunned by the ordeal but still very much alive. The heroes took off across the sand, going as fast as they could toward the Railway Gun that glinted like hope in the late afternoon sun. As the dust cleared behind them, those who looked over their shoulders could get their first good look at their true opponent, the towering abomination whose countless eyes burned not with the waxing sunset of Galeem, but a true and absolute red, the blood-fire scarlet of hell itself.





Famished and impatient, Nadia rocked back and forth on her heels behind the big guy in line as the Koopa Troop queued up behind her in turn. In the light of day she could really appreciate just how different -and strange- both Bowser and Kamek looked. Even Link, when he appeared, looked very little like the boy he had been. Small changes to one’s face were all it took to make someone nigh unrecognizable, and now the young Hero of the Wild was basically a grown man. Nadia tried not to stare, but in her heart of hearts wondered if only fusing with girls like herself from now on would even be enough to stay…well, her. With a sigh she chased the thoughts from her mind. Weird philosophy could wait until after she’d had her fun in the sun. Besides, there was Ace! Leave it to that goober to show up to a beach party in full plate. And was that a wink? It caught Nadia so off guard that she couldn’t think to do anything but smile back at him.

Glad to hear that someone else liked her eyepatch, Nadia gave Junior a big grin over her shoulder. “Meowdy there, folks,” she greeted everyone, putting on a southern accent for no real reason. “And thank ya kindly!” After looking forward again to see if Birdie was done yet, she continued to fidget until a lady’s voice cut through the line, sharp and commanding enough to startle the cat burglar even more than it did the freeloader ahead of her. Nadia’s head snapped around to face Karin as her ears and tail stood on end, frozen as if she’d been caught in a searchlight, but after a disarming smile from her hostess her surprise quickly turned to a slight embarrassment, both to be so tense still and to be referred to as an ‘honored guest’. The dude in front of her, evidently named Birdie and an associate of the lady in charge, twisted about to give Nadia a dubious glance. Any other day Nadia might have felt bad to be skipped ahead to the front of the line, but not today, so she looked up at him with a big, smug cat smile. You heard the lady, it seemed to say.

Begrudgingly Birdie stepped aside, and as if a curtain had been thrown open before her, the lavish buffet stretched out in front of Nadia in all its mouth-watering splendor. She stepped forward gingerly, still unconvinced that she wasn’t dreaming. Seafood, baked goods, and the meats, dear lord! There was brisket, pulled pork, chicken breast, sausage, bologna, turkey, hot links, tri-tip! Spoiled for choice and paralyzed by indecision, Nadia hung over the feast for a moment, eyes shining and fingers wiggling with greed. Then she began to rack up her kebabs, skewering something of everything. If anyone made the mistake of offering Miss Nadia Fortune their undivided hospitality, they could bet top dollar that she’d make the most of it.

As she helped herself, her hostess approached. Miss Ringlets stood at least four inches shorter than Nadia herself, but she spoke and carried herself with such gravitas and social expertise that even in her swimwear she made the feral feel like a street urchin. Which, to be fair, she was. But after offering her apologies on Birdie’s behalf the noblewoman took pains to extend Nadia her warmest welcome, and her honored guest was only too happy to accept it. “No problem!” Nadia assured her, turning around with three barbecue-laden kebabs held tight between her fingers on each hand like big, meaty claws. “You must be miss Karen, right?” she asked, completely but accidentally butchering the pronunciation. “Man, thanks a million for the invite! I’d’a been dyin’ for some food if that letter hadn’t come ‘round. And a free pass to a sweet beach party, too!? You’re seriously the best!” Without another word Nadia excused herself. She didn’t want to be rude or anything, but friendly conversation could come after chowing down.

Basically the moment the feral stepped away from the buffet with her ill-gotten gains, she began disposing of them in earnest. For a cat Nadia could really wolf down her food, and these kebabs didn’t stand a chance. She’d already annihilated one by the time she passed by Blazermate, and as the Medabot rose to inquire about her eye, Nadia took the chance to catch her breath. “Oh no, my eyes are fine, see?” Using her free thumb she lifted the clear eyepatch, giving Blazermate a good look at the black sclera and bright blue iris she’d gotten from her fusion with the Oceanid, Rhodeia. “Just thought I’d get something to sorta, hide it, y’know? I look freaky enough as is, don’t need heterochromia makin’ me look like some kinda anime princess to boot. Plus, it looks cool, right? Right!” With a nod of her head she slid the patch back down into place, and without further ado Nadia made her way to a vacant couple of beach chairs beneath a thatch shade. Once seated she could really start doing some damage to her lunch.

The battle was vicious but short-lived, and in the end Nadia emerged victorious. She planted the last of the skewers in the sand beside her chair like the spears of fallen warriors, wiped her lips with the back of her hand, and breathed a long sigh of contentment. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten quite so well, and she was very happy to find that her worries about the Maw ruining food for her forever turned out to be wholly incorrect. Of course, when it came to feasting she’d always been a lightweight, and that hardly changed even after going hungry for a full day, but right now she was satisfied. Now, all she needed was something wet to wash all that meat down. Normally Nadia wouldn’t drink so soon after waking up, but what the heck. It was the afternoon, anyway! Plus, she had an awesome idea. With a wave of her hand she brought out a copycat, who offered a salute before running off to find the Kanzuki Estate’s beachside bar. Nadia busied herself pulling her beach chair out into the sun to lay out her towel, then laid herself down on top of it. By the time she finally got herself comfortable, she looked up and found that her copycat had returned with a delicious mojito in each hand. “Purr-fection!” the feral laughed, taking both drinks before she pulled the double back in. She took a long, cool sip of sugary, minty, rummy, lime-tart goodness, looked out across the gorgeous sea, and let her eyes slide shut. “Man, maybe this hero stuff isn’t so bad, after all.”

Hearing that Linkle had yet to encounter Rex came as something of a letdown, but Nia didn’t get long to be disappointed before bewilderment took over. “Hu-what!? Vandham? But he’s…dead…” Perplexed by the impossible news that this girl and her friends had met the mercenary in the flesh, she scratched the back of her head. She’d been there when the big man sacrificed his life, when the avian blade Roc reverted to his core crystal after the death of his driver. It couldn’t be true, but what reason might this stranger to be lying? Sure, she looked kind of menacing with those scarlet half-skull eyes and deathly pale complexion, but Linkle herself seemed incredibly nice and well-meaning. Could it be an imposter–a successor seeking to keep the legacy alive, or something more sinister? This just didn’t make sense.

Albedo could sense her confusion, but being very far removed from the turn of events that now left Nia distressed, he couldn’t offer any reassuring hypothesis or logical conclusions. Perhaps this misbegotten world offered some other, cleaner means of reviving the dead than his own method of creation, but he felt that such conjectures would only serve to muddle the waters.

After a moment though, Linkle bailed them both out by taking the conversation in a new direction. She brought up a particular Eye, which Albedo supposed to be a legendary magical artifact or some such, which like the all-seeing crystal balls of myth could evidently see the future. The idea of such a thing being possible fascinated him, not just hypothetically, but practically, for who could say that such an extraordinary thing did not exist in the World of Light? Unfortunately, he could offer nothing to the Skullgirl beyond a piqued interest. “My apologies, but I am unaware of any such object.”

“Yeah, likewise,” Nia added. “No special eyes ‘round yurr, I’m afraid.”

The alchemist did, however, venture a few more of his thoughts. “If such a thing is truly out there, and as vital to our quest to restore the worlds as you make out, I doubt it would be found in public spaces. More likely is it would be sequestered in some remote hideaway, surrounded by mystery and majesty, inaccessible to the average man.” Albedo crossed his arms, frowning. “That, of course, is a best-case hypothesis. I doubt our foe would want it somewhere that we could even stumble across it. Something so important may very well be kept under lock and key, guarded by the most powerful foes this world has to offer.”

As that ominous possibility hung in the air, Nia’s ears twitched. Brows furrowed, she went back to something that Albedo let slip that caught her attention. “‘Ang on a tick, didja say ‘restore the worlds’? I mean, I wasn’t aware that anythin’ was wrong with the world, but if that’s what this big group o’ yours is all about, maybe we could lend a ‘and?” Though still in her pajamas, Nia put her hands on her hips in heroic fashion. “I mean, we en’t got much to offer other’n healin’, but I’d feel bad knowin’ I’m sittin’ here dozin’ around while the world needs savin’.”

Albedo mulled over her words. “Well, we appreciate the offer. I’m not sure if we can say anything on this group’s behalf, however. At the moment we’re cut off from the rest of her team, completely isolated. Before we can look at the bigger picture, we need to deal with the matter of the Stranger.”

“You mean that tattoo-covered drewgi?” Nia’s eyes went wide. “Good flippin’ luck! Nothin’ gets through to that guy, believe you me.”

“That is what our trip to the Edinburgh MagicaPolis aims to solve.” The alchemist mustered a wry smile. “So for now, just keep your head down. I’m sure we’ll all breath easier knowing we’ve somewhere to go if we sustain injuries.”

After that the chatter turned back to Treat. “Don’t ‘ave another bedroom sadly, but livin’ room’s fine with me if it is with you,” Nia told the wolfgirl. Once Treat agreed, Linkle went out, then returned with her stuff. Along with Treat’s things the Skullgirl carried something new, a small and unassuming intricate figured gained from the destruction of the dollmaker’s essence.



Not long after that, Frisk returned. The child sported some new gear, nothing that Albedo would actually conceive of as battle equipment, but if they seemed sure that it would help then he wasn’t about complain. With Treat situated for the time being, it was as good a time as ever to begin the next -and much more promising- leg of the journey. This time, Albedo looked forward to no strange temples, no wrathful goddesses, and no death-defying zipline rides through wintry skies. Just a long march northwest through the Frozen Highlands, a nostalgic trip around Dragonspine, a chilly boat ride into civilization, and hopefully, answers at last. He removed his coat from the closest, thanked Nia and Dromarch for their kindness. “We’ll make sure to visit upon our return,” he said. “Please take good care of my dog for me.”

“Sure!” Nia smiled. “Does ‘e ‘ave a name, by the way?”

Albedo’s brows rose. “A name?” Such a thing never really occurred to him. He’d met the friendly little corgi some time ago, and the animal had taken a liking to him despite his rather passive demeanor. No matter where he went, the short-legged hound was sure to follow. If chalk follows gold, he wondered, What follows chalk? He knew the answer, and though it didn’t sound like much of a name, he couldn’t think of anything better. “Soil.” Then he stepped out into the snow.

As eventful as things had been lately, it was only early afternoon. Still, the voyage ahead was long, and Albedo figured that his band would be very lucky to reach Edinburgh before nightfall. That meant that he and Linkle could either make the trip or try to find her mystery man in black, but not both. It was an impasse he couldn’t overcome on his own.

“Linkle,” he began. “It will almost certainly be dark by the time we reach the city, and that’s if we move at a good pace, without delay. That means we would have to forgo our search for the hooded patron you seek, at least for the time being. Or, we could stay in town and pursue that line of inquiry, among other things, if you prefer.” He glanced toward Frisk. “There’s also the matter of our new company. We may wish to…fill them in, before we proceed too far ahead.”

Now that the giant flying monster was in (relatively) safe hands, Raz returned his attention to the bell and its statues, along with the others. It seemed the psi-blast he fired off a moment ago went wide and only clipped one of the statue's elbows. His aim was a little rusty, it seemed. Mental note: uh, work on that later.

After so much back and forth between everyone it was finally time to put the idea to the test. Targets were picked, attacks were levied, and Raz hung back a few feet from Jondo's edge. If that thing rang as loud as Redento said, he was worried about popping his eardrums. Though that turned out not to matter as the clapper simply fell right down to the bottom of the bell with a metallic thunk, not even ringing as a bell should. Raz couldn't say he wasn't a little disappointed by it. Part of it was for Redento's sake, the pilgrim having trekked here to witness this bell only for it to be a dud.

A great, monstrous call sounded instead from deep inside Jondo, and for a moment Raz wondered if that was the bell's purpose, that whatever was down there was meant to be by whoever made it in the first place. Then common sense hit him and, no, this is obviously something bad and dangerous and needed to be dealt with. He never heard the sound before, but it drilled into his bones, a fear so potent it was like it reached inside his head and pressed right down on the amygdala.

"Think we found what we were looking for," Raz said, trying to keep things light.

Is was then that Midna and Sectonia directed the newly freed Phalanx back towards them, as the bell rumbled with enough force to nearly crumble the whole peak. Obviously, whatever was inside meant business. Luckily, Raz still had a lingering boost from when they got rocketed up the mountain - he pulled out his Levitation and let it pull him upwards, like a balloon in an updraft. He landed on Phalanx's back, somewhere at its midsection, and gripped its fur tight.

"At least going down is a lot easier!" Raz's words were lost in the wind, threatening to pull him right off and turn him into a splatter against the mountain. His grip kept strong, though, and the monster's fur didn't tear from its body. The desert came up quicker than expected, and at such a speed that it was clear Phalanx was going to ram right into the ground, for whatever reason. Raz bailed before the colossus hit the sand, flinging himself sideways and using his Levitation to gently float the rest of the way down. Once he touched down, Raz looked to where the massive Champion had landed; not too far from them, and right next to Tostarena Town.

"We have to help them!" Raz shouted, turning to the others as they first started their dash to the train. "This thing might, I dunno, go on a rampage down here and destroy that town! At least get it away from them!" Whether or not his words landed, Raz focused on the Champion and, as the dust began to clear, shot off a few of his Psi-Blasts. Most of them plinked off its hide, but one or two managed to hit it right in one of its many eyes. "Hey! Big and ugly! Uhh, yeah, that's right, I did that! Come get me!"

It was a terrible strategy, Raz was already well aware of, but it was the only one he could think of quick. His Levitation ball popped into existence beneath him. He strafed on top of it, zig-zagging a short distance from Red Eye, continuing to pepper whatever it had for a face, trying to keep its hostility away from the town. "Ooh, that was a nice one! Bet that must've hurt!" Raz kept that up for as long as he was willing to risk; once the Champion began to move from its spot, he hightailed it backwards, bounding along the desert dunes towards the train, still flinging wild bolts at the thing in his efforts to protect Tostarena.

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@Dark Cloud@Majoras End

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Vandahm being a dead man came as something of a surprise to Linkle, but it wasn't as hard for her to rationalize as Nia and Albedo. After all, time was all weird here. If Galeem took people from hundreds or thousand of years apart and mashed them together there was nothing stopping it from grabbing people from weeks or months part either. You could even meet yourself, as she had seen with the two different versions of Bowser. Did that mean they could warn the man? If they did, would it mean anything? After all, he had already died. If that was his fate, then there wouldn't be any way to change that. Then what mean for the Guardian Bowser, they had killed him, when this was all over was he just going to be slotted back into history like nothing had happened? How did that jell with fate?

Linkle was as glad as the others that they moved on quickly from that topic, arresting her fall down a dangerous mental rabbit hole by asking after the Master's eye. Not surprisingly, the two didn't seem to know anything but Albedo did hypothesize that it would be in a dungeon somewhere guarded by something stupidly powerful. "Sounds like we'll come across it if we just keep doing what we've been doing so far. There are plenty of strong monsters left in the world to guard it."

Nia cottoned on that this was a "save the world" kind of mission and kindly offered her assistance, but Linkle added onto Albedo's point about focusing on the Stranger right now. "Thanks for the offer, though. Eventually the rest of them will make it up here, and we have teleporters so we can hook all kinds of places together. So if you're still interested, ask around then." Someone that could do healing was always a good get, double so if they were Tora's friend. For now, though, she should stay with Treat.

It wasn't long after getting the wolf girl settled in that Frisk and Papyrus returned, the kid looking much more prepared for the journey ahead. The two met Linkle outside, as she was holding the odd statue she she gotten from the Doll Master's sprit to he ear. She could swear she could faintly hear the thing saying something, something about the moon? Home? Eeriethrell? It seemed pretty important, if they ever found a place by that name. She stopped and looked up as the two came crunching through the snow. "Nice horn." She said, looking over the trombone Frisk now carried. "I didn't know you played an instrument." Music played an important role in the legends, the songs played on simple instruments sometimes having miraculous magic powers. She wondered if it worked the same way with Frisk. Maybe the horn was a weapon. "C'mon, lets say goodbye and then we'll head out."

Leading the pair back inside, the now quartet could say their goodbyes to Treat, Nia, Dromach, and the little dog. It wasn't surprising that it would be hanging around with Treat while hey were out, but it was kind of surprising that it didn't have a name. Albedo's confusion when asked told her that he hadn't even maned it in his own head. "Doge?" She suggested, but the word hadn't even made it all the way out of her mouth before the Alchemist decided of "Soil." Weird name, essentially calling the animal "dirt," but he knew Soil better than she did. With that he stepped out the door and, with a cheery goodbye to the animals and animal girls, Linkle followed him.

Once out, Albedo brought up another problem that that had been at the back of Linkle's mind. He was right, there was no way she would be able to meet her man in black tonight if they were going to be taking a trip as long as this. Crossing her arms and thinking about it, meeting with that black coat wasn't as important as finding the Stranger's weakness. He could potentially tell them about that, but that was also what they were setting out to do. The other reason was to get their help trying to contact the rest of the Seekers, and if that didn't work to give him and their group by extension a piece of her mind. It wasn't as vital, but it was still something she wanted to do.

She sighed. "I should have left a message with Mr. Grillby." She said, then an idea sparked in her head. She head shot up, back toward Nia's door. "OH! Just give me a second." She said, stepping back up to it and poking her head inside.

"Um, Nia?" She said, slightly apologetically. "Sorry to pop back in real quick, but there is something you could do to help. Could you give a message to the bartender at Grillby's to pass on for me? Could you ask him to tell the man in the black coat that that a Seeker of Light wants to speak with him and it's really important, so please meet her in Edinborugh Magipolis. Thanks!" Nodding, she stepped back and closed the door again. "Now he can come find me." She said. "Lead the way, Albedo!"

The matter of filling Frisk and Papyrus in about the details of their real mission had seemingly slipped her mind as they set off, until she said, "Now, it's going to be a pretty long way and there might be dangers on the trip. So once we get outside the town a little we're going to stop for a bit so you guys can show me what you can really do!" She turned to the pair as they went. "I saw a little in the basement, but I want you guys to spar with me so we can get a feel for one another's abilities. That way we can work together better if we're attacked. After that, I'll tell you everything I know about the world as we travel."

”That should be far enough” Midna said to herself, and in a sense also to the soaring titan, after a harrowingly rough and blind ride away from the bell. She cut off the sand flowing from the twilight realm that was veiling the world around them and brought back the clear blue skies of the Sandswept Sky, revealing them to be slowly sinking down towards the cloudlayer and the cold winds below, and that they were not alone.

”I’ve still got this Sec!” she yelled at the bee queen who had followed after them, even as the titan also caught sight of her and began to perform a slow arch in an ineffectual attempt to collide with the comparatively insect sized insect woman.

”Oh no you don’t!” Midna shouted at it, as she slapped her chest with an open palm and drew out a friend-heart. She didn't even have to throw it, the wind catching it the moment it formed and dashing the pink bundle of power into the titan’s forehead a heartbeat later.

”Ok, now comes the hard part” she said as she banished her blade and held up her hands and told it ”See, not armed, not going to hurt you anymore. We just needed to rough you up a bit so we could free you see? Now you should be all healed up. Good as new and remembering wherever you were from.” Not entirely sure if her words where being understood, the princes lowered herself down and along the colossus’ horn and awkwardly pet it on the head while insisting ”no need to fight or anything, we’re friends now”

She was about to tell it that it could simply leave when, below, the great bell rang out a single note that shook heaven and earth. ”Guess they went and rang it huh? Wait what?” Midna asked in confusion as the bell somehow kept ringing, over and over and over again, which as Midna tried to picture the physics of the situation, did not seem like it would be a safe thing to be in the middle of.

”I was going to say goodbye and leave you be, but I think my friends need help. So could you help me out, just this once?” Midna asked as she gazed into the nameless colossus’ eye, searching for understanding.

When the titan came swooping to the rescue, it came bearing Midna sat into the slightly saddle shaped grove in its neck, the princess gripping its neck ridge and directing it as best she could as they swooped down through the swarm of bat things and thunderous noise of the clanging bell, that was shaking everything apart. She hoped the old guy had gotten clear or got grabbed by someone as she waved with her shadowhand for them to come aboard her new friend, the princess looking just a tiny bit smug about being right about the sky snake’s true disposition while coming to their rescue.

There were only a few seconds available to get aboard the swooping beast, but the heroes were no slouches and so all were aboard before it soared back up into the sky. Once up there they could look down below, and see the true boss revealed. At first it was unclear what the giant thing they had dislodged from the mountain using the ringing of the bell actually was, but as they dived after it it revealed itself to be… Another giant worm.

”Huh. You really made a good decoy for that thing huh? No offense.” she told the peaceful sky wyrm as they burst through the bottom of the cloud layer before adding ”If this isn’t some kind of double decoy anyway” as the others immediately decided it had to die. Midna at first couldn’t tell much about it other than it was big but once she’d gotten a better look at it, the giant maw sporting thing certainly seemed like it would be dangerous by nature, contrasting it with the entirely harmless looking and acting sky titan, which would have been reason enough to take it down if the uniquely blood red fire in its eyes didn’t apparently mark it as a guardian that was.

Midna was however entirely in agreement with not using their sky worm to fight the dirt worm ”Don’t worry, I won't put you in anymore danger, just drop us off and you can go back to soaring through the skies and looking majestic while doing it like before” she told it, while using a shadowhand to wave down at the inhabitants of Tostarena Town to make sure said town wouldn't be a danger either. Last thing they needed was to spook someone down there into shooting at them.

They swooped down low as they could safely go and then, after giving the colossus one last pet on the noggin, the princess tossed herself off of the titan, using her levitation to slow and control her fall till she hit the sand. Then a moment later she was riding through the town, racing on the back of her wolfos while removing her X-Naut uniform to prevent herself from being knocked out by heat stroke while wearing them.

They blitzed through the crowd of onlookers and then into the shade of the town, at which point the princess simply vanished from sight as she dissolved into the shadows and blinked from one to another to reach the train.

The princess hopped out of the shadows of the machine they were going to use to stop the threat they had technically unleashed, and then once aboard and staring at the railway gun realized that ”I have no idea how this thing works!” before wracking her brains and deducing that Well it’s a big gun so it needs equally big bullets right? Do we even have those?” before going looking for said big shots. If that failed, well, she had the ammo synthesizer which might, might, produce a single shot. That would be better than nothing, but certainly not a solution, as would leave them all pulling a Razputin style plinking strategy for most of the fight.

Either way, by the time the others had arrived, the princess would have found out if this plan was a dead end or not, and if it wasn't, she’d have shells on (shadow)hand to load under the guidance of an actual firearm’s expert.

Well, at least Midna's gambit worked. Either way, in order to 'free' this creature they all still had to damage it quite heavily. But this large creature would be extremely useful once they all saw the real boss that spawned when those pillars were destroyed. It was MASSIVE, bursting through the peak of the mountain, but apparently not very nimble as it tumbled down the mountain. Down towards the towns they had visited on their way here. Sort of annoying, but they all could at least chase it with their new minion. unfortunitely Sectonia couldn't assist any of her allies that missed their chance to grab onto the phalanx as she needed to teleport in order to even keep up with the creature going at full speed down the mountain, the big creature rolling the whole way.

Once they all reached the bottom, Sectonia could only laugh and say. "So how long will this one take to kill?" seeing as all of her spells would hit that thing even with their weird patterns sometimes. The only big worry was the fact that it was near Tostarena town and would probably attack it if not distracted. Also it WAS quite large, so getting hit by it would not be great.

But seeing that everyone was in agreement to attack this thing, Sectonia casted Haste on everyone, aiding those who wanted to go to the train and use its giant cannon to attack this thing. Meanwhile Sectonia herself threw barrage after barrage of Rings and Void globules at range. This thing was quite large, so it would take awhile to kill it, but at least she didn't have to worry much about accuracy with how large this thing was. At this time she felt she had a new power, gained from that spirit she had absorbed. Something that was much like her haste/slow spell, although she didn't know what it was exactly. Still seeing as it was a kind of 'buff', she used it on a hasted Tora, as he would probably be doing something foolhardy. The Nipon being surrounded by a very faint dark rainbow shield that would reduce the damage he took and absorb some of the damage he'd take.

---

---

Now in alert from Raiden's battle cry, the large mechanical beast began swerving in circles in an attempt to throw the cyborg off of his head. Stumbling atop the large orbed creature, Raiden quickly attempted to regain his footing as he swiftly found himself slipping off the metallic head of the large creature. Before he completely fell off, he grabbed onto one of the legs of the front segment. It knew his location now and had to devise a plan to knock Raiden off before he could climb back to the top. It's eye made contact with the nearby fortress and quickly began diving towards it.

As it got closer, it extended it's legs out towards the cragged surface of the old fortress and began running Raiden along the side of the building creating sparks and ungodly sounds from the man's cybernetic body. He grunted in pain as he held on to the creature, persistent to being on the top in order to damage it more. As it ran along the course of the building, it's red eye scanned the desert sands, looking to see if Raiden had yet fallen off, but never found such results. Even throughout the pain, Raiden held on to the machine tightly as it continued to trash him. As they reached the end of the fortress, the creature let up, now out of track to damage the cyborg against. With this moment he had gained, Raiden threw himself back on the top of the goliath as he suddenly began rapidly piercing the top of the creatures head.

With a frenzied cry, the eye of the first segment began to slowly fade to grey, signaling the near defeat of the front most portion. Unknowing of this information, Raiden continued his stabbing after hearing the pained cry of the creature. As if it were falling off, the cyborg quickly removed his blade from the mechanical head of the monster and successfully pulled off a backwards roll onto the next portion of the creature. From his perspective, the segment he had destroyed plummeted slowly to the Earth. It seemed as though this monster was a linking hybrid of slightly smaller, self acting machines rather than a single acting force, as defeating the head only prompted another to take the helm. If that were the case, he needed to defeat each and every one of the orbs.

Two defeated, seven to go.

Clenching his blade after making this realization, Raiden now knew his task. The large mechanical menace continued to snake through the sky as it continued to throw the cyborg off, but now that Raiden was able to predict it's movements he could easily hold onto the top of the creature without being whipped across the desert. It now was performing multiple series of barrel rolls, now desperate to get Raiden off of it. Raiden grinned slightly, now seizing this moment to do more collateral damage. In a desperate attempt to get the cyborg off its back, it resorted to rapidly scraping the top of it's head against the rocks once again. Noticing this pattern, Raiden quickly moved out of the way, and now clung to its side. This way, it would only be hurting itself now. The top of it came out scratched and battered in it's desperate attempt to remove Raiden, and after that, he struck again.

Performing a clean slice through the middle of the mechanism, Raiden was able to divide yet another segment of the creature into two. "Bullseye!" He shouted. With a cry, the destroyed part of the creature sparkled before detaching from the rest of the colony. Same verse same as the first, the segment connected after it lit up with life as it roared into control. The severed portion began throttling to the ground and landed with a clang. Now lost 3 parts of nine, the creature linked into a ring formation, attempting a new strategy. The large being began to slowly spin, picking up speed with each second, understanding Raiden being atop it posed a huge threat to it's survival.

Now spinning faster, Raiden began to slip from the top of the robot. Before he could fall off, he'd wedge his sword in between two of the spinning orbs of the machine, and produce a shock of electricity as he lost his grip from the top. A bloodcurdling whine came from between the orbs as they unlatched from the main body, now falling in six detached orbs. Not exactly the best situation for Raiden, as it gave the machine more attacking freedom, but regardless, stopped the continuous spinning and grinding against rock. He held onto the top of the orb he almost fell from earlier as it collapsed to the ground. As it reached the sand, it rocked Raiden with a big thud as it essentially punched him in his robotic gut. "Arghh!!!" He exclaimed at the force.

Not getting a moment to recover, the other segments began targeting him with their lasers and energy bubble attacks. While they were slow, it'd be difficult for Raiden to dodge and attack the remaining segment after being busted up by the fall. Regardless, he sucked up his pain as he rolled and trudged off the top of the front orb and nearly grazed the edge of the plethora of attacks. Approaching an orb, he performed a swift chop of the creature, wasting no time in attempting to finish it. Now that he had four down, he now had defeated practically half of the monster. It cried again, but did not ascend, rather it became more frantic with it's attacks, spitting out it's powers as frequently as it possibly could. This gave him a chance to target another segment of the creature.

Sprinting using his electrical conduction, he'd speed up his pace and run to the next orb. It wasn't quite as fast as the Ninja Run he had gained from his augment... but it sufficed for reaching another orb quickly. His blade quickly balanced to cut through the fifth attacking orb before it could muster up a final attack. He was gaining a hand over the creature. He smiled as he spoke to the broken fragment, "You haven't even told me your name. I'll call you MG-C, because you look like a caterpillar." He knew the robot did not understand, but thought the remark was charming none-the-less.

With five segments decimated and four remaining, the machine took to the sky again and were able to ascend without Raiden climbing atop. While there was still half of the problem to take care of, Raiden knew the patterns MG-C exhibited from his observations of it attacking. It rose an instantly began snaking dropping orbs and firing laser simultaneously now. The attacks were quicker paced, but were less in quantity. Raiden could finish this, all he had to do was get the robot down again. He didn't think his tricks from last time would work a second time, the robot had become wiser than that, so how...

Well, it had been a while since he had resorted to his marksmanship, but in this case, Raiden's pistol may have been the only answer. Dropping the blade into it's sheath, Raiden equipped his SOCOM into his hand and began simply firing shots. Having to roll out of the way from oncoming balls of energy, his accuracy shook as he aimed once again for the eye of MG-C. The shots landed, but did not have as much impact as the blade-throw Raiden executed earlier, but he knew throwing his blade would only result in vaporized metal this time. The creature became angered in Raiden's attempts to bring it down again, now preparing to make a dive to the man.

While it was never initially in his plan, this came as a moment of opportunity for Raiden. As the mechanical being charged it's body towards the cyborg, he drew his blade to balance it back into his hand. He had pissed it off enough to prompt an unorthodox attack. As the two came nearly face to face, Raiden performed a series of cuts onto the face of MG-C, turning many of the leading portion into scraps of what it used to be. Surprised he still had the skills he showcased after the events of World Marshal, he wondered if he had sat dormant for no purpose for those many weeks.

Raiden was pulled back into reality as the machine angrily collided directly into Raiden. He had destroyed six of the nine segments. He stood up to quickly get back into action, performing a clean vertical strike back through the middle of yet another segment. Able to bounce back, he successfully destroyed an eighth part in the same attack. He was getting better, faster. After becoming more accustomed to his blade after so long once again, he watched as the last and final piece of MG-C rose back to the sky. It seemed as though losing all other of it's segments was unprecedented. It began rapidly moving across the sky as it fired at Raiden rapidly. Smiling, he threw another EMP and his blade at the same time. It didn't have any time to choose, but nor could it attack both at once.

This was it. Raiden had beat the beast.

MG-C would fire a laser at the EMP, afraid more of it than the blade, which quickly got caught in the socket of the eye once again. There was nothing it could do. The metal beast fell to the earth for a final time, as Raiden slowly walked up to it to remove the blade from it. He sighed as he spoke to the creature, despite it not able to understand him, "You put up a good fight. Hopefully somewhere in that metallic skull you understand that I won because justice prevails." He'd quickly execute another cut through the middle of the final segment of the machine. He had won and managed to protect future travelers. Nodding, he'd begin walking back towards the buggy he had left idle.

Climbing atop the vehicle, he looked back at the metallic carnage that had sprawled across the sands of the ruined fortress. He'd quickly fire up the buggy as he gave a final remark."I'm sure somebody will clean this up later." His visor stayed closed as he began traversing the terrain once again, leaving the wreckage he and MG-C had created.

---

During the middle of Raiden's journey back to the little town he had resided in temporarily, something was seen in his line of sight. From the hills of the mountain, a large... creature had slowly began tumbling and falling down the length of the mountain. He wasn't certain, but he thought he saw sparkling and attempts of shoving the beast out of the way of the town. There was more trouble. Despite his injuries and the conflict he had faced fighting MG-C, he needed to make himself useful in the next fight that had presented himself. He sped the buggy up to the max speed he could maintain, as he sped towards the next scene. "Shit." He exclaimed.

He had an idea of who he would meet at the town now, as connecting the dots between the falling creature and the individuals who hiked up the mountain was not that hard. Surely it had to be them, otherwise such a big threat wouldn't be at the base of the mountain.

...

It took a few minutes for Raiden to arrive at the buggy rental station, where he quickly hopped off the vehicle after shoddily parking it. There was no time for detours or errors. He needed to locate the group who were attacking the snake-like creature. He made it to the center of town using his lightning sprint in an attempt to find where they were going... After scouting for a few moments, he saw many prominent figures he had seen previously scrambling back towards the train that had delivered them hear in the first place? Were they planning on fleeing? Or rather, had the beast truly been defeated? No... There was haste in their step, worry in their demeanor. They fled to the train as a means of attack or defense, and Raiden had decided then and there he would include himself in their ordeal whether they wanted him to or not.

His pace was just as hurried as theirs was now, attempting to catch up before any of the group left him behind from their ordeal. He was a few minutes behind their preparation as they began piling on the train. As if he were a part of the group, he followed, hopping on the train as well, ignoring the fact he was not with them prior. There was very little time for introductions as an imminent threat made itself present. He would not allow for many questions. "I'm here to help with the battle, anything you guys need, I will try to provide." He put his hand up in an introductory way. "I'm sorry for not meeting with you guys earlier." There was sincerity in his voice as he met the group. Was he prepared for this conflict he had thrown himself into? Probably not, but he was going to try his damn best to battle with this interesting cast of fighters.

---

---

After fighting through all manner of aquatic creatures the day before, it was actually a little cathartic to chow down on the seafood spread that Kanzuki's staff had prepared. Was that weird? Yeah, it was probably weird, but it tasted so good that the Ace Cadet didn't care in the slightest. Prawns, fish, clams, and more all spiced and broiled and delicious. The hunter didn't eat quite as voraciously as usual given their present company - it wouldn't do to get his invitation revoked after all - but the amount of food he managed to consume was still impressive. Between himself, Link, and Bowser, the cooks and caterers really had their work cut out for them, and they still had to feed the rest of the Seekers and any stragglers too.

No matter how good the food was though, the Cadet didn't plan to spend the entire day parked in front of the grill. He wandered into the shade with a skewer in hand, looking out over the beach as he finished the last of his lunch. It was a far cry from dark and foreboding sands. Even the ocean looked peaceful, with small gentle waves rolling up onto shore. The Cadet was happy to just soak in the sea breeze and the general positive atmosphere, but only for a little while. If he was going to relax and enjoy the day it would be a lot better with friendly company close by. He had someone in mind, and he made his way over to the shady spot she'd dragged her beach chair out of.

"Hey," he greeted Nadia with a smile as he approached. Though seeing how content she currently looked made him ask, "Not bothering you am I?"

Nadia visibly brightened up at his approach, her ears high but relaxed. “Not at all!” she grinned. “In fact, I was kinda hopin’ ya might wander my way.” As he seated himself she shifted in her beach chair so that she could recline comfortably while partially facing him, her finned tail beneath the chair’s arm. She wanted to start talking to him straightaway, but all of a sudden she found herself having a hard time coming up with what to say. A million things raced through her mind, like a school of fish beneath the sea, yet no matter how she grasped at them each slipped right through her fingers. Did she want to praise the food, or would that be too mundane? Congratulating him on their efforts from yesterday might come across as dwelling on a stressful past. Why am I having so much trouble all of a sudden, anyway? she wondered. Normally the fast-talking feline never lacked the gift of gab, but as it turned out, being anything but jokey, perky, and distant didn’t come quite so easily. She ended up taking a long sip of her mojito to stall for time. Hopefully a little rum would help her loosen up, relax, and just be herself. If only she could find an icebreaker, everything else would surely follow...

Some movement along the beach caught her eye, and she spotted a man walking along the shore. He was squat, with a bushy white beard, but so incredibly broad and brawny that Nadia had to do a double-take, and with his speedo only scant few inches of him were left to the imagination. “Holy cow,” Nadia breathed, her eyebrows as high as they could go, as she motioned at the dwarf for Ace to see. He turned to look at the specimen of masculinity, letting out an amused Wow, as he settled back into the beach chair.

“My dude is yolked! You think he has trouble wipin’ his ass by himself?” Nadia giggled. “And with that swimwear, if he so much as dives in the water too hard, everything’ll be out to ‘sea’!”

Her grin subsided somewhat as she shrugged, turning the conversation inward. “‘Course, I can’t exactly complain when it comes to clothes, what with my usual outfit and all. Most gals would wear more ‘round town and less to the beach, but here I am.” She flipped her hair like a diva for comedic effect, then gave a chuckle. “Still, I’m actually kinda diggin’ my new outfit. Whaddya think, Ace? Like it?” As she gave a little pose she returned his wink from earlier, giving him a good look at her new clothes.

"Well the eye patch is pretty cool," he said, tapping the side of his own face that mirrored where Nadia's accessory sat. It made him think of a kind of sealed power waiting to be unleashed for some reason. It was a look he definitely appreciated - at least currently, with that spirit's effect on his personality. Speaking of spirits, the Cadet took in Nadia's complete new look, from the new clothes to the flowing hair and the swirling marks on her skin. The changes were pretty, he'd thought so yesterday but it was especially true today in the sunlight. Ah, but the thought occurred to him that it’d probably be weird if he said anything about her body, even if it was good things. She'd asked about the outfit after all.

"I do like it, it looks good," he offered easily, smiling all the wider at her gesture. "Can't really say I'm an expert on other-worldly fashion, but I think blue is definitely your color."

Come to think of it, the 'usual outfit' she'd brought up also had a splash of blue in the form of her crop top. It suited her. Actually now that she’d mentioned it, that outfit had been pretty revealing… Of course he’d noticed before, but he hadn’t really thought too hard about it. Right now though, after growing to like Nadia in more ways than one, it would be hard not to think about. The Cadet brought his thoughts back to her current ensemble again instead, the juxtaposition she’d pointed out between her beach outfit and her normal clothes rather cute.

Even a simple complement left Nadia practically beaming. “Aw, thanks! Glad to hear my spur–of-the-moment ensemble worked out.” Remembering just what she’d gone through to procure them, she shook her head with a laugh. “I actually sent my copycat to get them, carrying my head around so I could see. I was in such a daze last night, I threw away my old clothes without even thinkin’. It’s a wonder I didn’t conk out in the shower after all... all that.” She sighed, realizing she’d accidentally retreaded old territory. The next moment, however, she shook it off with a smile and a curious look at Ace. “Now, I’m no fashionista myself, but I gotta say you picked out some real interestin’ duds for the beach. I mean, with that armor in the sun you’re gonna fry up like an egg! No way you’re the shy type, right? With all the crazy stuff I’ve seen you pull, I bet under all that you’re ripped enough to give ol’ speedo over there a run for his money.”

As she chatted Nadia couldn’t help but fret that she was speaking too intimately. Of course she was interested in this guy, but maybe she was being too obvious? Her ears perked up as an idea came to mind. “Oh hey, if you’re worried we might get attacked or somethin’, maybe ya oughta have a drink yourself. Here!” The feral offered the monster hunter her second beverage, still in pristine condition while she worked at its partner. “It’s a mojito. These bad boys are full of sugar, lime, and mint, plus a li’l rum. Perfect for relaxin’ on the beach!”

"Wouldn't it be just our luck if something did attack us?" he chuckled, taking the offered drink. He raised the glass to his lips, pleasantly surprised at it's refreshing sweetness. He considered everything Nadia had said, picturing her head and clone's shopping adventure through Limsa. He would have liked to see that. As for the rest of it… he could have been reading into her words too much, just hearing something in her tone that he wanted to hear, but maybe she was just a little bit interested in him, like he was in her? Or maybe he was totally off the mark, as was his usual luck with women. Probably the latter, but it was alright, he was having fun chatting with her either way. After another sip he grinned and spoke.

"Alright so I'm not quite as jacked as that guy, 'cause like, come on." He looked over again at the dwarf, whose steps were slowly taking him farther down the shore away from the pair. "Buuuuut yeah, you could say I work out." He wiggled his eyebrows playfully at Nadia following the understatement.

"And as for the armor, I guess it was dumb of me huh? I was kinda in the same boat as you. I didn't throw my clothes out, I just don't have anything else besides my armor." He guessed things would have been way too convenient for them if Galeem had seen fit to give everyone all of their stuff when the worlds got mashed together. Plus while traipsing from one adventure to the next, the Cadet hadn't even thought about picking up some casual clothes. He wished he had now, for moments like this when they all needed a break.

"You'll have to help me pick out a ‘mew’ outfit," he suggested. "But in the mean time, you're right. Between the sun and the sand... ugh." He laughed at himself and shook his head. "I've only got my underclothes but hey, it's the beach, right? One sec."

It took a heroic effort to keep Nadia’s eyes from bugging out.

He leaned over and sat the mojito snuggly in the sand and then stood up, moving a few feet away. It could have been the most technical strip Ms. Fortune had seen. There were belts and harnesses to be undone, clamps released and metal plates shifting against each other. Once free of the armor and the shipgirl rigging, The Cadet sat the chest piece upright in the sand and positioned the rest around it as a silent, headless, mock sentinel.

"That'll make anything think twice about ruining a good time," he joked, returning to his spot beside Nadia. The underclothes he wore consisted of a pair of shorts, a top that wrapped around his back and covered his upper arms and pecs but not much else, and matching gloves and boots that he promptly discarded by the beach chair. Before he sat down again he performed a classic flex with both of his arms raised. "Well? Think I should go ask that guy for some pointers?"

Having done her best not to just stare shamelessly at Ace as he removed his armor, a feat made none the easier by the intricacy and length of the process, Nadia did her best to ignore the furious swishing back and forth of her tail and the sudden rush of blood to her cheeks. After trying and failing to keep her eyes on Ace’s face until she averted her eyes altogether as she replied. “Heheh, heh, well,” she just about stammered, tugging at her collar as she looked off into the middle distance. “I certainly ‘cat’ complain.” In fact, she couldn’t seem to form any coherent thought at all, which frustrated her to no end. Calm down, you blithering idiot she told herself, but goodness, was this guy purrfect! He was just the right amount of brawny, neither an overblown caricature like the dwarf nor stuffed with show muscle like a bodybuilder, but the natural product of incredible effort and diet. Fusion with the lovely Jamaica might have made him a little smaller, but it also did wonders for his complexion, pushing him way over the line between well-built dude’ and ‘certified looker’. Plus, with Ace on Nadia’s radar for his genial, pun-loving, and heroic nature first and foremost, this new revelation came as icing on top rather than a superficial infatuation. Man, did I luck out or what!?

Of course, that left just one issue. How in the world could she get her interest across to him without being weird? Wait, should she be thinking about that right now? Even though they’d already been through thick and thin together, they’d been in one another’s company for only a day and a half or so. Even in Nadia’s profound inexperience, she knew that wasn’t much. Her first order of business ought to be getting to know Ace better. And for that, normal conversation would probably work a whole lot better than any schemes she might conceivably cook up.

The feral took an extra-long drink from her mojito, which helped her calm down. “Y’know, seein’ you outta your armor reminded me I forget to grab sunblock. Guess neither of us get beach vacations often, huh? I mean, I lived right on the seaside back in Little Innsmouth, but even if there were any beaches, the water wasn’t exactly clean, y’know? Still, it was a wonderful place, lemme tell ya. Fulla color, everythin’ all connected, all the balconies and chimneys branchin’ off like coral. And at night when the tide’s high, the light from all the neon signs and jellyfish lanterns would reflect on the canals. Ah, nothin’ better than an evenin’ stroll ‘long the walkways, just smellin’ what’s cookin’ in all the li’l restaurants and listenin’ to the waves.” Unable to suppress a wistful sigh, she glanced back in the direction of Limsa Lominscuttle Town. “Still, this place is way cool, too. A whole city on the water insteada just a district, and a helluva lot less rotten than New Meridian, heh. Really makes me wish I didn’t get stuck in the damn Dead Zone for who knows how long.”

The Ace Cadet took his seat once more, not entirely shameless as there was a strip of red on his face that ran from cheek to cheek after his display, that definitely did not come from a sunburn (not yet anyway). He scooped up the mojito that had been waiting for him and crossed one of his ankles over the other. Plenty of sun, plenty of sand, but not much beach, he agreed silently in regards to the comment about vacations. Nadia went on to talk about where she lived before all of this, and the Cadet listened intently. He did his best to picture the scene that Ms. Fortune was painting for him, taking bits and pieces from places that had been wholly unfamiliar to him a week ago and putting them together in the best approximation of Little Innsmouth that he could think of. The nostalgic way she talked about it brightened the place up in his mind's eye. Briefly he wondered if he sounded like that whenever he brought up Dundorma and Val Habar while in Astera, or if that feeling was strictly reserved for the people he knew there. He recalled Nadia's story about the gang that was her family, and figured that might be part of her feelings about the place too. It was endearing.

"That's really nice," he told her. "Not the Dead Zone part, obviously. Everything you told us about it at the Mizzenmast was awful." The Cadet also didn't want to dwell on unpleasant topics, so he moved on. "Maybe we can find a little piece of it somewhere out in the world, you never know with this place." He would definitely enjoy a tour with her.

"I like Limsa too, it's lively," he added, "and it kind of feels familiar. It's not exactly the same, it's a lot bigger for one, but it's similar to the cities I'm used to." Beside's the Guild Hall, and when the land would spawn an actual chunk of his world, the town he'd ended up in was more on the podunk side. Maybe closer to Kokoto or Pokke, villages he wasn't well acquainted with. The Cadet glanced over at his conversation partner. "Plus, it's got this whole out-sanding shoreline." Perfect for that beach vacation they finally got to take!

The pun made Nadia smile as she mulled over what Ace said about Little Innsmouth. While he meant his words as assurance, and of course she wanted to see the place again, she couldn’t help but wonder if such a thing would be for the best. “Maybe, but... I don’t know if I really want that.” She shifted herself in her seat again, uncrossing her legs to cross again them the other way around. “This world is all mixed and matched and jumbled together, right? If we did find Little Innsmouth, it could be a totally different place from the one I know and love. All the spots and friends I miss, Yu-Wan and Minette... who’s to say whether or not they’re still there, or haphazardly replaced by other stuff, from other worlds? It’d be... I dunno, uncanny. I don’t think I could be happy with that. With the dysphoria.”

Nadia gave a long and wistful sigh, her eyes shut, then looked out into the vast blue sky. “When this is all over, I wanna go back to my real home, just how I remember it. It’s not perfect or anything, but it’s where I belong.” Unable to stand the rather angsty tension any longer, she gave a short laugh, mostly at herself. “Heheh, well. ‘Til then, I guess I’ll see what all this patchwork world has to offer. Sure it’s a little crazier than what I’m used to, but I was gettin’ into fights all the time anyhow, and it sure ain’t all bad.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Ace before laying her elbow on the arm of her beach chair, and resting her head in her hand. “So, you missin’ anyone, too? Stand-up guy like you’s gotta have tons of chums back home. Maybe even... a lady friend?”

While she explained her thoughts on potentially running into a mishmash version of Little Innsmouth, the Cadet nodded. "Hm, I get that." He hadn't considered things that way before, but he supposed he could understand the feeling, even if he didn't share it. The hunter himself had just been relieved and grateful to see any chunk of his home world so far. As Nadia's reminiscences started to take a turn for the melancholy all he could think was, Good going, Ace Idiot. He almost apologized for suggesting the idea, so he was grateful when Ms. Fortune steered them forward. He had chuckled at her playful insinuation then taken another sip of the mojito as she went on, though the last question she asked almost made him choke on his drink. After a poorly disguised cough he looked back at her.

"Not... exactly," he said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He wished he did have a certain sweetheart to leave behind, as that would mean going back to her once everything was over. There was certainly no lack of trying on his part, but things had never panned out the way he wanted them to with his heartfelt crush on the Guildmarm, even after reuniting in Lumbridge. Sure, he could tell Nadia about his one-sided feelings but that didn't seem like the right move. Setting the interest he had in her aside, the Cadet didn't want things to potentially get weird between them. So he went in a different direction with his reply, pushing a grin into place.

"Despite my amazing hunting prowess and winning personality, I didn't have anyone like that. It's tough competition back where I'm from," he said, playing things up for Nadia's amusement. Not that what he said was necessarily untrue, as around the larger gathering hubs one was always able to find at least five or six Geralts around, the rugged and handsome types. The Ace Cadet took another drink and settled back with one arm tucked behind his head.

"Actually before this all happened, I was already away from home and my team for weeks. On a research commission. Sure you get to know everyone you're working with, make friends, but once it's over everyone goes their separate ways." The exodus of hunters headed back to the Old World after the mess with the Elder Crossing was resolved had left the base feeling lonely for days afterward, even if part of the commission remained. "We were just about to move even farther out, but then..." he gestured vaguely at the second sun in the sky with glass in hand as he concluded.

‘Not exactly’ wasn’t ‘no’, but Nadia wasn’t going to read too much into it. Ace’s past was his business, and what to share about it was his choice to make. The feral simply took his reply as a relief. When the monster hunter described the events leading up to his world’s sudden end, she offered a sympathetic nod. “Mhm. Galeem, more like... ga-lame.” Totally unrepentant about her bad joke, she leaned back in her seat and drained the last of her beverage. With the sun’s heat really starting to sink in now, the cool drink felt that much nicer, and she kept the ice-filled cup in her hand. She’d hoped that Ace might have more to say about his friends, or responded to her reminiscence about her home in kind, but he wasn’t exactly the voluble type. Not a problem, of course, when Nadia Fortune could run her mouth a mile a minute when she felt like it.

“I feel ya though, it’s tough where I’m from, too, but not for the same reasons, I don’t think. New Meridian’s a huge city, always hustlin’ and bustlin’, everyone movin’ a mile a minute while lookin’ out for number one. And who can blame ‘em, really? Durin’ and after the Grand War, the whole Canopy Kingdom boomed like crazy, but crammin’ so many different people under one umbrella ain’t without its downsides. Sure, it looks great, but on the other side of all the glitz and glam it’s crowded, dirty, and even cutthroat. Crime is ridiculous, the damn Medici Mafia worst of all, and the crooked cops sure don’t give a crap. And as if all that wasn’t enough, everyone gets to live in fear of a new Skullgirl appear’. Disparity, discrimination, despair... if you’re not upper class, it can be tough just gettin’ by day to day, let alone meetin’ people. ‘Specially when you’re someone... well, like me.”

Nadia gave Ace a grin. “Now, I know you’re askin’ yourself, who in the world wouldn’t like Miss Fortune? She’s just so smart and lovable and talented, not to mention humble! Well, things ain’t exactly sunshine and rainbows. Where I’m from, most people don’t like Ferals a whole lot, even if we got it better than the poor Dagonians. And once in a while you run into someone who likes ‘em too much, obsessin’ over their real-life catgirls and crap. Treatin’ us like animals, no matter which side of the spectrum they’re on.” She sighed, running her fingers along her scars. “There’s also my whole separation thing. I could hide it, I guess, but that’d mean tryin’ to build relationships on a lie, and there’s no way that turns out well, right? But when people see how I am, they’re liable to think I have a parasite, which is taboo, or worse, that I’m connected to the Skullgirls somehow. Even aside from that, though, it’s just sort of... gross, you know? I mean, it’s body horror, plain and simple. No matter how you slice it, I’m just not...normal. Can’t really blame people for not wantin’ any of that.”

After a brief pause, staring down at the sand as she realized she might have loosened her tongue a little too much, she continued. “Plus... well, I dunno why I’m telli-nya any of this. I guess I just wanna come clean, or maybe it just feels good to get it off my chest. But remember what I said about it bein’ tough gettin’ by? Well, the last piece of the puzzle is that I’m... well, a cat burglar. Surprise, surprise.” Shrugging as if to say what can you do, she put on a wry smile. “Me and the Fishbone gang. We’d steal from the rich out in the city, usually the Medicis, and spread it around the poor folk of Little Innsmouth. Keepin’ some for ourselves, of course. Not that a li’l charity makes it right.” A dry, almost despondent chuckle escaped her, before she turned back to Ace with an apologetic look. “Sorry for spillin’ my guts like this, even if it’s just figuratively for once. All things considered, I’m surprised a great guy like you’d give a trash fire like me the time of day.” With that Nadia fell silent, knowing that she’d gotten carried away and fearing that her reality check might scare Ace off. But if she was going to have any chance with him, she knew he would have to confront this, and that meant the end, better sooner than later.

The hunter was surprised to hear all of that about Nadia's home. He'd heard her talk about her backstory before, and so he knew it didn't have a happy ending, but this was despair inducing. It didn't get any better when she brought it back to focus on herself and her own experiences. And yet her personality was normally so vibrant! Making the best of a bad situation. He sympathized with her, and couldn't help but let out and incredulous half-chuckle at the joke she'd thrown in, but the last thing she said had a frown forming on his face.

"Hey..." The Cadet sat up so that he could turn to fully face his friend. "Don't say that, you're great too! And you don't have to apologize."

After laying it all bare like that the feral, understandably, seemed a bit down. Nervous even. They couldn't have that. The Cadet jumped right into encouraging her.

"You go through all of that and still get back out there, and still even love your city? That's ameow- amazing.

"Plus anyone would be stupid not to see you're beautiful, insides included!" There was a beat of silence after his words when he realized how weird that probably sounded, even given the context of their conversation. "I mean like, inside and out. _Aaagh..."

He pushed a hand through his hair. Hopefully that didn't come off as strange as he worried it did. He didn't want to take his words back because they were the truth, and besides he hated to see a girl disparage herself. The way Ms. Fortune could separate her body was shocking, yes, but it just took some getting used to. "What I mean is, you're awesome. We've only known each other a couple days and you're already one of the most Radalos people I know."

He had yet to address her profession confession, and it would be a few moments more until he did. Realistically he thought he probably should have a problem with it given his own background, but he didn't - and he very much doubted anyone else in their group would either. He knew there was a difference between malicious thievery and turning to crime to stay alive.

"...you know, in the Old World I was a Guild Knight," he began. "The Knights do all kinds of stuff besides hunt monsters. We're basically peace keepers, so our job included tracking down people that broke the law. Punishing them too sometimes, but thankfully I never did much of that part myself." He met her gaze, his eyes showing a hint of amusement at the irony of their situations. She seemed on edge, but hopefully Nadia could see the humor in it too. "So I've seen my share of criminals. Mean, totally corrupt, no remorse...

But you don't seem like them at all. You were helping people then, right? And you're here trying to save the world now!" The Ace Cadet smiled at her, warm and reassuring. "You're a good person."

After letting the cat out the bag Nadia braced herself for the worst, but to her surprise -and soon after, delight- Ace wasted no time setting her worries to rest. He washed the doubts and fear with an inundation of praise, using terms like great and awesome and even beautiful. The goofy way he phrased his appreciation brought a laugh out of her, making its delivery all the sweeter. A surge of emotion struck the feral, a little embarrassment mixed with relief and, above all, gratitude. Sure, she’d pretty much forced him into a position where he had to say something nice about her, but this was no mere front on his part. The man could genuinely look past not just her unnatural bodily condition, but her past as a criminal despite once being something of a lawman, and come out on the other side to tell the girl that even if she didn’t believe it herself, she was a good person. She wasn’t so soft-hearted that Ace’s kindness would make her burst into tears, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from watering just a little, either. In her heart Nadia could now conclude that the Ace Cadet absolutely liked her too, and even if that put some butterflies in the feral’s stomach, she couldn’t be happier.

In her somewhat tipsy giddiness Nadia wanted to tackle Ace and hug him like her life depended on it, rubbing up on him like, well, a cat, but she managed to keep herself under control. Instead she reached over and squeezed his shoulder with her hand, hoping that her touch helped to convey the thankfulness her words alone really couldn’t. “Thanks, man. Really.” she told him. “If my world were full of people like you, it’d be a much better place.” After taking a deep breath of the fresh seaside air, she sat up, planted her feet in the sand, and put on her best smile. “Anyway! That’s more than enough of me sittin’ around, bellyachin’ over purr-sonal stuff. I’m ready to tire myself out again. Maybe see if I can whip up a game of volleyball, or we could just go in the water.” She leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “Whatcha think, Mr. Ace Cadet?”

Seeing the effect his words had on Nadia brought the Cadet a great deal of joy. She could have easily brushed him off, but instead she took them to heart. She deserved to feel good about herself, so he was more than happy to bring up all of her good points. He thought about going on, but paused as she thanked him and reached out. Despite the heat of the sun, her touch felt pleasant and warm.

"Aw, c'cmon." He ducked his head a little to hide the pink that was starting to bloom on his cheeks. He didn't think he was some shining beacon of goodness. After all, how many times had his dumb antics almost gotten people killed? It was only a scant few years ago that the ace hunter was inconsiderate. But since then he'd been trying to grow, become someone that others could rely on, especially to lift their spirits. If such a great girl thought so highly of him, then maybe he'd succeeded.

"Well if you need a pick-me-up, you know who to come to," he offered with a grin as Nadia moved on. She had some ideas for activities, and he considered them while finishing off his own mojito, tipping his head back until the glass was empty. Between playing a game and swimming, the former was his preference. Though unfamiliar with it, he could pretty much guess what was involved with "volley" and "ball."

"We can play first, cool off later?" he suggested. The Cadet got to his feet and extended his hand for her to take.

"Shell we?"

After tossing her hair in a faux-dignified manner, Nadia accepted his hand with a gracious smile. “But of course!”

Once on her feet, Nadia went off with an irrepressible pep in her step and Ace right behind, both eager to see who among the vacationing Seekers might fancy an impromptu volleyball game.

”Hey. Sandcastles are cool!” Jr retorted to Blazermate’s derision of the overdone practice of making them on the beach ”But, uh, we could do other stuff? Like vollyball? Or diving for seashells? Or swimming races?”

”Sounds good son. Food first though, then fun, yeah?” the ever hungry Bowser suggested

”Yeah for sure” the boy agreed, and then soon enough they got to the front of the queue and began raiding the buffet in earnest.

Bowser ended up piling up an unholy amount of various meats onto a very, very large plate, the stack wobbling precariously and alarmingly as it grew and grew and yet despite that never collapsing. The king might lack grace a lot of the time, but he would never let such a bounty fall. That would be a travesty. He topped it off with a healthy helping of hot sauces, turning the stack into the fiery fair worthy of the koopa king. He also got himself some root beer as a side.

Jr also indulged his carnivorism, though he stayed well clear of anything spicy, which Bowser’s going for such things had made rather easy. The boy loaded himself down with a hot dog, burger and several pastries, from jam donuts to cinnamon buns, while Kamek and Mimi both added fruits onto his plate much to the boy’s chagrin. He got his revenge by nabbing some kind of energy drink that would leave him buzzing for most of the rest of the day.

The mage herself meanwhile stayed well clear of the meat, sticking to the smaller ensemble of delights that were suitable for a herbivore/vegetarian. She went with a simple buttered croissant and a bean-burger alongside a fruit salad for dessert. It was a little bit more than what she would normally go for considering how recently they had had breakfast, but after yesterday’s fast she had space to do a two part feast. She finishes it off by getting herself some iced-tea to go along with her meal.

Rika, presented with all the various foods, was overwhelmed with choice while having almost no basis for how to overcome it. Most of everything here was new and neat to her and so she ended up with a haphazard collection of shellfish, sausages, starfruit, scones and soda cans. She got some dubious looks from the two royals for her choices, and a sheepish one from Kamek who had forgotten she might need help, but in the end the novelty of well prepared food overruled any concerns regarding her own developing pallet, so she ended up enjoying herself either way.

The troop found their own little spot by the seaside, and while there was some talk, it was mostly of the small kind, or focused on Rika asking what the things the others were eating were, followed by her trying it out. Baring one bout of screaming and crying caused by her trying some of Bowser’s hot sauce slathered chicken, the whole thing was a quiet and comfy affair.

“Wow I am feeling kinda heavy. Not sure if I should eat any more” Rika said once she was quite full, despite still having a fair amount on her plate. Taking tasters of everyone else's stuff would do that to a woman.

”I’ll take that off your hands then” Bowser offered, and then, after he got a nod of accent, picked up her oddly assorted plate and put it next to his own. He picked up one of the oysters and fiddled with it in his mighty mit, ”Urgh how do you open these-” he asked before one of his shell mounted tentacles slipped out, nabbed the shellfish and proceeded to crack it open in one of the beak cannon’s jaws. ”Huh. That works” he said, before plopping the little moral into his mouth and frowning at how tiny it was compared to him. He’d need more than just one at a time to make eating them worth it.

”Yeah I’m full too” Jr agreed with Rika as his dad started going through the oysters at an industrialized pace, tentacles and beaks working away to crack each and every remaining shellfish, ”So wanna do something else now? We could go swimming?”

”You should wait a bit before doing that. You shouldn't go swimming after you just ate. It’s dangerous” Kamek interrupted to inform the prince

”how?”

”... It just is, you see” Kamek said, having simply passed on the wisdom of her elders.

That might have turned into a minor altercation if there hadn't been talk of organizing some volleyball coming from Ace and Nadia just a few moments later.

”Hey yeah that sounds fun!” Jr immediately agreed to join in, before glancing to the others ”You coming?”

”ah I’m much too old for such things I am afraid” Kamek replied, despite the fact that she was more spry thanks to her fusions. Her mind had yet to really internalize the amount of youth she had regained. Besides, she’d prefer to take things easy and digest rather than launch into activity right away even if she was fresh as a spring chicken.

”Maybe in a bit. I’m gonna go get seconds first” was Bowser’s reply to Jr’s question, the king’s appetite unsated despite him having demolished Rika’s leftovers, leaving just Rika herself to answer the question.

“Sure!” she agreed without thought, always up for new experiences, before asking “What’s volleyball?” to find out what she was getting into as she pushed herself to her feet and moved to follow after the prince to the game.

”Ah it's easy to pick up too so don’t worry” He insisted, which was probably for the best considering the amount of people here who had never heard of the quintessential beach sport.

It was a strange feeling to see a friend being beaten up and not even try to help them. Knowing it was for their own good, in fact. All the same Primrose winced as Therion took his licks and was then freed courtesy of Big Band. Privately, she was glad she hadn't had to suffer the same process. If they were lucky Therion wouldn't take it too hard, and maybe they'd even be able to joke about it sometime.

"What just happened," Therion said, mostly to himself as he took Big Band's hand and let himself be hauled to his feet. A bit dazed, his question came out more like a statement. Physically he felt great, despite just being thrown by a giant monster, bitten by metallic teeth and then pummeled by an enormous detective. He was assured that they would fill him in later, and although he didn't particularly like that answer he bit his tongue before he could make any snappy remark. With his mind now unclouded he was bewildered that he would even attempt to fly up and fight that giant beast, he was a survivor and that would have been reckless at best, suicidal at worst. He heeded Band's words to focus on the battle, only it looked like the battle wasn't coming back. Off Phalanx flew, leaving the group to their own devices on the ground.

They'd decided that now was the time break the statues and see whatever was waiting for them in relation to bell. At the sound of his name Therion, still not in the best of moods, glanced over.

"Uh, sure," he said in reply to Tora's misplaced praise. Wait, was that furball being sarcastic? Ultimately it didn't matter, Tora and his friend flying off and a couple of others spreading out to break the bell's clapper free of it's chains. The huge metal piece fell and rung once, and for a long moment nothing happened. Neither Therion or Primrose relaxed, the former defensive and wary and the latter poised and determined. They had expected something to leap out at them, or some enemy to manifest, but not the sound. Whatever was inside thrashed around so violently that it struck the bell's body and let loose a horrible, cacophonous noise that near paralyzed those that heard it from it's sheer volume alone. The Travelers' hands flew up to their ears, trying desperately to block out the sound.

Damn, I knew it was gonna wreck this stupid mountain! Therion thought. He really hated being right sometimes. Now wasn't really the time to say 'I told you so' though, if anything could have been heard above the awful clanging in the first place. To his left, Primrose lifted her pained gaze up and caught sight of Phalanx making it's way toward them again. Her heart nearly sunk, until she spotted not just Midna and Sectonia on the beast's head, but Poppi flying brightly towards it. The Seekers prepared to evacuate the mountain, and it seemed the sky serpent was their ticket out. Primrose shook Therion by the shoulder, pointing up until he turned to catch the same sight. Instantly he understood what was going on, but he still didn't want to go up there. He'd just thought about how flying up there was a bad idea, but once again he didn't have a choice - though this time for a different reason. The Travelers looked at each other just to confirm they both knew what to do before they took off. Still with the afterglow of ascending they flew up to the mighty colossus and held tight to it's back as it crossed over Jondo and then away.

As the mountain's peak crumbled and gave way, they spotted something massive and writhing. It's thrashing threw it from the summit, and it began to slide down the side of the mountain. It has hard to make out just what the monster was, only that it was gigantic and angry.

"Surely that is the beast we sought?" Primrose wondered. Concealed as it was in the great bell, she found it hard to imagine it was some kind of second ruse. Plus there was nothing else on the mountain's top - or at least not anymore. She supposed they'd find out for sure once they followed the monster down.

After a certain point it was clear that the monster's trajectory had it landing dangerously close to Tostarena. A harrowing minute later and the creature came to a stop with a great crash, sand and debris spilling over it - just outside of the town. A second titan, the one they were riding atop, was soon to follow.

The dancer suddenly realized that the ground was coming up quick. She couldn't fathom that the creature's driver would intentionally crash it, but it looked like that was going to happen with or without Midna's input. "Time to get off," she said, reaching up to grip the front of her scarf. Nearby Therion turned at her words, blanching as he saw the collision about to happen. Neither of them hesitated to throw themselves from Phalanx then, and they landed a little ways away with a tumble but ultimately alright.

They got their bearings again as the colossus burrowed it's way into the ground, shielding their eyes from the sand it kicked up. Once the sand in the air was gone they had a much clearer picture of the situation. Primrose looked to where the monster had landed, struck with sudden unease as it's full form was revealed. Despite it's incredible size, wriggling legs, and the spikes that stuck out from it's body, what unnerved her the most was the glaring red eyes. They ran along it's length from front to back, and reminded her of the nightmarish stories H'aanit passed along to them whenever she'd found more information about her quarry, 'Redeye.' That alone made her loathe to get close, but thankfully the group decided their best bet was the railway gun they'd traveled in on. She certainly wasn't going to disagree with that, and so she ran with the rest of the Seekers back to the train.

At some point during the group's mad dash, Primrose felt the familiar - and yet unfamiliar - effect of a buffing spell placed on them. For that she was grateful, as with the performance aspect of her ability it would have taken the dancer double the amount of time to speed everyone up. With the buff she focused on making it to the train, sure they would all figure things out from there. Scattered thoughts about warning the residents of Tostarena, or even trying to evacuate the town entered her head, but ultimately the citizens could see the giant monster laying just outside. Far too late for a warning, and anyone smart enough would already be heading to a safe place.

She leaped onto the train just after the quicker Therion, the both of them making space for anyone entering after them. The two Travelers split up then, Primrose moving up to lend a hand however she could.

Being his first time on the train, not to mention being completely out of his element, Therion watched the others go about their preparations. He gripped the railing tightly, his gaze flickering to the monster they apparently had to kill. He could just picture it rampaging toward them and leveling the entire town as it did. He didn't have any allegiance to Tostarena besides living there for the past week, but he'd still hate to see it demolished. Hopefully someone who knew what they were doing could get this big lump of metal moving before that happened.

Then a Tostarenan boarded, one he'd seen once or twice before. Tall, with a black metal body, and - wait this guy wasn't a Tostarenan at all. Why the hell had he ever thought that? Was it the hat and poncho, and his spell-addled mind hadn't been able to see through it before?

"Better late than never," Therion told the man. He wasn't sure what would need to be done on board until someone more familiar with running it started calling the shots, but he was sure they would need as much help as possible.

Rough landing or not, there was no time to waste, so the Seekers hit the ground running. The sheer size of their foe was staggering, even in comparison to the colossus the team had already tangled with, now disappeared beneath the sand to shelter until such time as it felt safe enough to take to the skies again. What Red Eye lacked in length it made up for in bulk and weaponry, with sectioned jaws big enough to chow down on office buildings and a plethora of giant arthropod legs to help drag it through the sand. Once it came to its senses the behemoth could steamroll anything in its way, be it a forest, a city, or a ragtag bunch of heroes, and nobody harbored any delusions about fighting it head-on. So while Sectonia bravely buzzed off to harry the monstrosity while it was down, the rest used her speed buff to turn tail and run like they were getting paid for it.

The Psychonaut cadet Raz joined the wasp queen in pelting Red Eye from a distance in an effort to grab its attention, but to his chagrin his psi-bolts turned out to be even less effective than his comrade’s magic. Neither of their attacks, even those landed on the creature’s many eponymous eyes, seemed to register at all. It quickly became apparent that their efforts were mere drops in a vast, vast bucket, which meant going out on a limb like this promised a lot more risk than reward. “Raz!” Necronomicon hailed, floating down to where the kid was waging his one-man standoff, unaware that he planned to levitate away when things got hairy. “It’s not working! We’ve gotta get you outta here now, or you’ll be left behind!” The flying saucer extended her tentacle limbs, ready to grab hold and whisk Raz away to safety, or as near an approximate as she could manage, if he agreed.

Meanwhile, the others were making tracks. Big Band trucked along the desert toward the Tostarena Town train platform as fast as he could go, kicking up grit as he belted out baritone, and the groove he plowed through the sand paved the way for the others to follow. Still, a couple team members blazed out ahead of the pack, Tora and Poppi among them. With the artificial blade’s thrusters at full burn it took only a couple moments to reach their destination. Fraught with worry, Tora lingered a moment as he caught sight of all the dumbfounded townsfolk, many of them already fleeing in whatever direction their panic-stricken minds struck upon. He couldn’t bring himself to shout words of worry, for where could these poor people possibly run to escape the horror that he helped to unleash, if the Seekers failed in their duty? Instead he focused on the job at hand, determined to not allow such a thing to come to pass.

He and Poppi alighted on the immense train right by the cab, and immediately the Nopon started pounding on the door. “Conductor? Conductor!” he yelled. “We need to leave, right now, very, very fast!”

“Ya don’t peckin’ say!” The supposed bird, reclined with his feet up for his late afternoon nap until mere moments ago, already had preparations well underway. “Ya better make sure ya friends are on board, laddie, ‘cause we sure en’t waitin’ around! All aboaaaaaaaaaaaard!” As he yelled he reached up and pulled the train’s whistle, sounding out two piercingly loud notes of alarm. Even if the noise didn’t stack up to the ground-zero tolling of Jondo, everyone in the vicinity could be assured that the last train in town was about to depart.

As the locomotive’s engine blazed and smoke belched from its stacks, Tora and Poppi left the Conductor to do his job, and ran toward the back of the train to attend to the second most important ingredient in the team’s recipe for success: the Railway Gun itself. There they found Midna, who was already doing her darndest trying to figure out how to get the massive cannon working, bless her technology-illiterate heart. Tora approached at a fast waddle, waving his wings. “Meh, meh, meh! Before friend Midna start slamming things together, wait moment! We need turn on weapons system first!” Suddenly very glad that he’d spent hours geeking out over the Railway Gun back in Al Mamoon, Tora approached the main terminal and got to work. As it booted, Poppi looked fretfully back toward the gargantuan sand worm, as well as the rest of their friends fast approaching. The Phantom Thieves were a fast bunch, but even then they were only slightly ahead of Primrose, Therion, and the Scout. Robin and Tharja repeated their strategy from before to teleport onto the train, while just a moment later Ciella landed in her Agito form, setting a now conscious but still dazed Braum down on the upper deck. In only a few moments everyone would be aboard, but how long they had before Red Eye recovered was anyone’s guess.

After a couple tense moments the onboard mainframe came online. “Warning!” an electronic voice instantly declared. “Category G Akrid detected. Activating emergency response protocols.” On his screen a popup appeared notifying Tora that the STORMBREAKER AI was speaking, as well as a complicated diagnostics readout. “Verify Chimera system initialization criteria.”

“Mehh!? Sure, sure!” Tora pounded whatever prompts looked affirmative. He glanced over toward the behemoth, saw it rolling itself upright, and began to bounce in place with manic energy. “We need big gun, and we need it now!”

The console seemed to accept his input. “Chimera system verified. Stand by to begin operation.”

With a sudden lurch and the loud creak of mechanical parts, the train began to move. The stragglers jumped aboard with only seconds to spare, and as Big Band doubled over on the railing to breathe a sigh of relief, he noticed an unfamiliar face among those present. Though he didn’t exactly seem like the most trustworthy individual, he did look capable with that sword of his, and Band wasn’t about to turn down an extra fighter. “Right on,” he told his fellow cyborg. “It’s lookin’ like we’ll need all the help we can get!”

With the Conductor working the controls for all they were worth, the train began to pick up speed, and in only a few moments it left the platform -and Tostarena- behind. Unfortunately for its passengers, and in all honesty the world at large, Red Eye was starting to move, too. Partially immersed in the sand, it started working its forelegs and quickly gained traction. Its innumerable eyes took stock of its surroundings, searching for anything unusual or interesting, and it didn’t take long to find something that looked like prey.

“Chimera system initialization confirmed,” STORMBREAKER declared. “Prepare to negate Category G Akrid Threat.” With a series of loud clicks, four smaller turrets unlocked around the central gun platform, two on either side of the train. “Dead Eye firing system initialized,” the AI added, followed shortly by the activation of the main gun control, which was basically a little cockpit of its own in the giant, rotatable metal mass. “Dragonfire main cannon initialized.” Down below, inside the sizable Railway Gun chassis, the armory unlocked. Shells bigger and much heavier than barrels were now available for collection, coming in three increasingly rare varieties: Cobalt, Hell’s Roar, and Wrath. “Dragonfire operating system Shellshock activation confirmed. All crew members begin operating procedures.”

It was go time. With the urgency of the situation, Joker made a split-second decision based on the fact that most of the Seekers present came from a pre-industrial society. “Leave the turrets to us!” he volunteered, scrambling the other four Phantom Thieves to man the smaller guns. “Now that we’ve got some firepower, let’s get that thing’s attention!”

“Maybe it’ll notice us, but I doubt we can put it down with those,” Band observed. “We’re gonna have to roll out the red carpet for this sucka. Any idea how?” He glanced over at Tora.

“Yes, Tora think so, meh!” the Nopon announced, raising his voice so everyone could hear his instructions. “Controls are simple, but there lot of them. There left and right stations for fast turning cannon, manual loader for cannon, thermal energy charge station to make shell stronger, two repair panels, and crane loader for special Wrath shells!” He looked around at the Seekers, practically bursting with both energy and nerves. “Meh, meh meh! We need friends bringing up shells from below, charging them, loading them, turning cannon, and if cannon overheat or damaged, someone on repair duty! Button need mash to make machines do jobs!”

“Begin thermal charging procedure,” STORMBREAKER insisted. “Thermal energy charge will increase firing speed.”

Big Band shook his head, sweat beaded on his brow. “You gotta be kiddin’ me. I’m too old for this shi-!”

A roar resounded from Red Eye as it began to pursue the train, encouraged by Skull and Panther as they opened fire with their turrets. Ciella, back in human form, joined in with charged typhoon arrows that struck even harder than the turrets themselves, albeit slower. More angry than hurt, the fearsome titan bore down on the train, tearing up the track behind it. As fast as the Conductor had the locomotive going, it wouldn’t be enough to outpace Red Eye if its passengers didn’t start properly fighting back. It wasn’t an easy process, and the behemoth was only too happy to complicate matters further. From its gullet flew a swarm of Trilid, and the trilobite-headed flyers quickly homed in on the Seekers to divebomb them where they stood. Even if they went down in just one shot, and the rear gunners Panther and Mona could fire at will, their numbers made them a problem that the heroes couldn’t ignore.



While common sense would typically dictate that an important meeting ought to occur first thing in the morning, the circumstances of the Seekers’ late-night return to home base meant that this one needed to wait until one-thirty in the afternoon. All things considered, it was an understandable delay. After naval warfare, the Maw, and the unfortunate turn of events on and beneath Carcass Isle, the triumphant but stressed-out away team couldn’t press on even if they wanted to, no matter how impactful the business at hand might be. Of course, the delay also meant that a full half-day of vigorous activity had already come to pass, and at Smash City Alcamoth, no day was uneventful.

That period had already seen a number of smaller-scale mercenary missions dispatched and completed, each one drafted, assigned, and overseen by Mission Control in the Garfont Center’s Dispatch without the need for any input from the Hero Teams, as they’d come to be known. It took a lot of infrastructure to support both the floating city and its ever-growing army, which in turn demanded a bevy of quests both for the sake of the city and the surrounding areas to secure resources, knowledge, and revenue. Through exploration, experimentation, and plain-old interviews the wisdom of many worlds came to be gathered in places like the Spirit Board, slowly but surely. At any time of day a small contingent of skilled fighters, known colloquially as the Door Bosses, could be found at Alcamoth’s front entrance as the welcome party to ensure that nobody brought in from the outside remained under Galeem’s influence for long. Those not on the job spent much of their time training. Whether in the gym or in matches throughout the city’s holographic arenas the Mercenaries worked to better themselves, gaining the experience to regain what the World of Light had taken from them.

Today marked some exciting new developments, however, and not just for Alcamoth, but the campaign against Galeem itself. That’s why Princess Peach and however many of her cohorts could possibly be spared needed to come to this meeting. Vandham was already seated at the Garfont Center’s great roundtable, poring over the world map for the live updates delivered that morning, when the first of the attendants arrived. The Devil Hunter Nero appeared with his crew, including Banjo and Kazooie, casual but a little tense. Whether it was due to what they experienced or just the gravitas of such a grand meeting itself, Vandham felt sympathetic. “G’day,” he told the newcomers, waving them over. This party represented the Mercenaries’ firsthand knowledge of the Dead Zone, so their willing cooperation was vital. “No need to stand on ceremony, mates. Feel free to put your feet up, long as ya don’t crack the map, heh.”

“Thank you, sir.” Yuri said stiffly, taking a seat but not putting her feet up. In her hand she had a small cup of coffee, not for consumption but to hold. It helped steady her nerves for if she was given a significant amount of attention.

Next came the new ingredient in the mix, the strangers whose chance encounter had provided an easy way home for the scouts, and whose assistance might very well prove quintessential in the journey yet to come. The eccentric doctor Elvin Gadd rolled in on a mechanized chair, wearing a navy-blue cap and pushing a futuristic stroller before him. With its bonnet down the carriage concealed its contents, but Vandham could only assume that a baby or two lay nice and snug within. As for why the scientist might have babies with him, well, the mercenary commander was still grappling with the brief explanation he’d been given the night before. Along with Gadd came two more figures of comparable stature. Captain Lawrence Nelson served as the leader of the security detail responsible for bearing Gadd’s party so far south, while the masked Wonder Red represented his fighting force. The last four members of their group, being the pilot, the engineer, and just two additional superheroes, remained with their ship. Despite the severe lack of manpower, the pair seemed to be perfectly composed and ready to begin. “Good afternoon, Commander,” Nelson greeted with a raise of his cup.

“G’day yourself, good sir,” Vandham responded in kind.

Last to arrive was Peach. After a night of restless, fitful sleep she couldn’t claim to be feeling fine, but the princess did her best to seem as professional as she could. With her clothes in the laundromat she came wearing a simple sweater-and-jeans combo so ordinary that they stood in sharp contrast to her tri-colored hair, done up in a fluffy ponytail, as well as her station as leader of the campaign against Galeem, but what could she do? The clothing preferences of the regal princess Peach, hardass punk Grimm, and elegantly evocative Chao Ho had left her fashion taste so scattered that she couldn’t do much better than the bare minimum. Her gaze swept over the assembled people. “Hello, everyone.”

“Welcome back, princess.” The mercenary commander crossed his arms as he took stock of everyone present. “Well then, now we’re all ‘ere, we can get started. On behalf of the Alcamoth Mercenaries I bid ya welcome, be it welcome back, or welcome for the first time. My name is Aquila Paronet Sol Esteriole, but you can call me Vandham.”

With introductions were in order, Peach bowed her head in respect for the newcomers. No matter how ordinary one’s clothes, a little decorum was expected from the head that wore the crown. “Princess Peach, of the Mushroom Kingdom. Pleased to meet you all.”

“Lawrence Nelson, at your service,” the Centennial leader told her, returning her gesture. With a cultured British accent he seemed every inch the gentleman, even in battle regalia. “This is the field leader of the Wonderful One Double Oh, Wonder-Red.”

At his introduction, Wonder Red saluted the room at large, his movements quick, snappy, and slightly rigid. ”Greetings, everyone! It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

After that, the elderly scientist had his say. “Nice to meet you. I’m Professor E. Gadd, longtime assistant to the Mario Brothers and current representative of Bridges.” He tented his fingers, giving a crooked smile as he peered around through swirly glasses. “And that, my friends, is the chief reason we’re all gathered here today. Now, I could ramble on about the who and what of Bridges, but I figure I might as well leave it to my boss, eh?”

“Your boss?” Nero looked around. “We missin’ somebody?”

“That would be me.” A bright light turned on in both arms of Gadd’s chair, establishing a connection. There was a bright flash, a loud PING, and beside the inventor a heavyset man appeared. Gray-haired and spectacled, with a trim beard, black suit, and lateral scar across his forehead, he stood with his hands raised. “Ah, no need to be alarmed!” he said, taking in the sudden change of scenery, his low voice accented by a slight Spanish twist. “What you see before you is merely a chiral hologram. I myself am still in Midgar. But ah, where are my manners.” He put a hand over his heart. “I am Deadman, coroner, leader of the Bridges Medical Team and acting director of Bridges, until such time as Die-Hardman is found.”

Vandham lowered himself back down into his seat. “Roight. G’day t’ya as well then, Mr. Deadman.” He crossed his arms again. “Professor Gadd was just sayin’ y’know all there is to know ‘bout Bridges, and we were ‘opin’ you’d spill the beans.”

“Certainly.” Deadman clasped his hands together. “So, Bridges. Put simply, it is a logistics company charged with the reunification of the United States of America. At least, back where we’re from. Though this world is divided and under siege, it is very different from our own. Yet our purpose here is much the same. This world is full of cities, towns, villages, all sorts of places kept in stasis by the forces at large. Their citizens hail from all over, with vastly different understandings of society, science, and yes, even magic! We are here to…close the distance between the people. Make the connections needed to bring about a better society, so that we may make the most of this strange world we’ve been stranded in.”

He went on to pull up a couple holographic screens, displaying various pictures as he talked. The first one was of a massive, roughly circular city, walled in on all sides, with another entire city a layer beneath the plates suspended high above the ground. “This is our home base, the capital city Midgar. I say that though it is not part of any true country, nor is its governance concerned with any place but itself. Nevertheless, it is the biggest and most technologically advanced city on the continent, and where reunification must begin.” He pulled up the next slide in his presentation, a visual of Bridges HQ. “We do not have the resources or manpower to lay down power lines, or signal towers, or build roads, but we do have the power to unite

“Of course, we have encountered more than our share of issues.” For a moment, Deadman’s face looked downcast. He walked forward toward the center of the group, his hologram’s lower half phasing through the table. “As if its internal issues weren’t enough, Midgar is under constant threat from outside, so much so that many refer to the situation as the Ever Crisis.” He placed emphasis on each word, punctuating them with taps of his hands. “Simply going and coming is a risky business. Our organization is scattered just like everything else, our ranks sorely depleted. So we took to hiring anyone with a mind to help, including the good professor Gadd.” He held out a hand to the scientist, who waved, then turned in the direction of the Centennials. “We also enlisted our friends at the Wonderful One Hundred, suffering from a similar predicament, to help us go out into the world and do good for its people.” Deadman smiled as he began to account for the organization’s achievements. “To date, we have made connections to Esaka, the Tiered City, Al Mamoon, the Cream of the Eastern Desert, and even Edinburgh MagicaPolis up north. Many smaller towns and such too. This is all made possible by the Chiral Network. Of course, to explain that, I would need to delve into the Beach.”

Peach’s eyes widened, remembering the night. “The…Beach?”

“Indeed,’ Deadman nodded sagaciously. “It is a liminal space between this world and the next, the realm of the dead, where time does not pass. Once built and connected to the network, our nodes can use the Beach to instantly send data between one another, turning it into the greatest repository of knowledge that the world -any world, in fact- has ever known. As Die-Hardman put it, a very ‘spiritual’ successor to the internet.” Deadman smiled at his little joke, but when nobody laughed, he cleared his throat and continued. “Ahem. Gadd’s chair has been configured to serve as one such node, which is how I am able to speak with you.”

“You’ve been to the world of the dead?” Yuri asked, shock radiating across her face. She remembered the dark ocean where she had confronted Ose for the last time, lit red by an eternally setting sun, both infinitely deep and shallow enough to stand. “And you ran the internet through it? Are you sure that’s safe?”

Deadman shook his head, specifically for the first question. “Not physically, and not all the way there. We can only interface with the seam between the two worlds, where they’re bound together.”

With Peach too stricken by the relation to the pocket dimension beneath Carcass Isle to comment, Vandham spoke up. “While this is all very interestin’, I’m sure, ‘ow exactly does it pertain to us? You just want us to ‘elp you settin’ this network up?” He rubbed his chin. “If we can send people around the world like that, I can definitely see the benefit...”

“Oh, no,” Deadman corrected him. “It cannot send people. Well, nobody without sufficiently advanced DOOMS, I should say. There is another avenue we’re aware of for such travel, which would be the Metro, but as for your main point…” He clasped his hands together. “We have had our eyes on one particular place for some time. Redgraccoon City, the place overrun by the living dead. Just recently we sent our best man inside, to drop off a certain package that, once triggered later that day, would destroy the whole place in one fell swoop. Kaboom, game over!” He spread his fingers wide, then clasped them.

Nero squinted at him, remembering suddenly both the name and the deeds of the porter Sam Bridges, but he didn’t say anything.

“Alas, there turned out to be unforeseen circumstances. Even though the contamination should have been minimal, the entire area was covered by Timefall, as our recon team found out.”

Captain Nelson looked grave, a single tear rolling down his cheek. “The storm caught us by surprise. The moment that rain hit us, the Virgin Victory began to age. It is a miracle we escaped with our lives, and another that after meeting with your own recon team, we were able to make it here.”

“That lines up with what we found,” Nero concurred, a little irritated. “But if the rain seriously ages everything it touches, how are we supposed to take down the Qliphoth? How is it still standing, in the first place?”

At that, E. Gadd perked up. “Well! It just so happens we got a plan in mind, sonny. Turns out, not everything ages as bad as yours truly. Magic for one, so if we got anyone with magic barriers we could walk straight in. But option two is coatin’ stuff in Chiralium, ‘cause bein’ from the Beach, that stuff doesn’t age either! So if you whippersnappers find any strange golden crystals shaped like hands, let us know!”

Peach raised her hand. “Actually, we might have a lead…”

After explaining what she’d been through early that morning, both Bridges members seemed taken aback. “Well, criminy!” the professor exclaimed. “Sounds like we got more than enough!”

“I wonder if that means you and your team have contracted DOOMS?” Deadman mused. “That may be important for step two. See, wherever Timefall falls, BTs aren’t far behind.” After a few confused glances, he went on to explain that, too. “BTs…Beached Things. Dead souls that could not reach the other side, and returned to their decomposed bodies. If they catch you, they can trigger a void-out. A nuclear explosion, everything for miles…gone. They must be avoided at all costs.” His chiralgram walked out of the map table and over to Gadd’s stroller. “Luckily, if there are DOOMS sufferers among you, we have the solution.”

Gadd pressed a button on the carriage, and the bonnet popped open. Inside were four bright orange capsules, and inside each of them was a baby. The professor picked up one that held an infant with a remarkably familiar hat, leaving the babies in green, pink, and blue. Peach’s eyes nearly bugged out at the blonde one, for though she didn’t resemble the baby anymore, it looked unmistakably like a younger version of her own self. “BBs!” Gadd said. “These tykes are tied to the other side, and they can sense BT’s even if most people can’t. Once hooked up to Odradeks, they’ll help ya steer clear of the nasty things and get where ya wanta.”

Vandham exhaled deeply. “Well, that seems dubious…but moral quandaries aside, it sounds like we mighta solved the Dead Zone. And maybe gotten a lead on a couple other zones, too.” He looked at Peach and the other mercenaries present. “Whaddya think?”

“It’s despicable.” Yuri said sharply, staring intently at the babies. “Why would you use children for this?”

Deadman looked almost hurt, but he had a ready reply. “Normally, BBs are excised from their stillmothers’ at seven months, since the mother -being braindead- cannot give birth. The stillmother’s womb is what facilitates a connection between the BB and the world of the dead. These BBs are older and more stable than we’re used to, but otherwise they exhibit the same traits. Logically they would have mothers, but they do not. They are incapable of growing into their own people, but are ‘locked in’ at their current state until they expire. The pods are, in fact, necessary for their survival.” Deadman pressed his hands together, his brow furrowed. “They may look like children, but functionally, you should consider them as nothing more than equipment.” Despite his reassurance, however, the others remained ill at ease.

”Understand that it is a necessary precaution,” Wonder Red pitched in, ”Without these Bridge Babies there would be no way to circumvent any BTs out in the field, leading to disasters that nobody would be prepared for. It’s thanks to their help that Bridges can avoid such things.”

"That's cruel," Pit began, bending down to look at the babies in their pods. Even if they didn't look so uncannily familiar, they were still just kids. "They aren't equipment, they're alive! And they'd be in a lot of danger if some "doomed" person brought them out there. With all the crazy stuff in this world there has to be another way, right?" He looked up at Deadman and the people they'd met on the aircraft before glancing towards the well traveled Princess Peach. "Some other way to see or fight those BT things. I bet we could find some wizard or necromancer that can spot them."

The princess could offer no solution, but it was clear she felt the same way. Deadman gave a slow nod, understanding where everyone was coming from. Even if it carried over some elements from the post-Stranding world he knew, this new realm was fundamentally different. The average person wasn’t a helpless civilian, isolated and trapped in their bunkers or Knot Cities in fear of the outside world whose horrors they were powerless to face, so embroiled in the despair of chiral contamination that only artificial dopamines let them reach the next day. In a reality where things weren’t nearly so bleak, such desperate measures as BBs were a much harder sell.

“That very well may be true. With seemingly infinite worlds conjoined, we cannot discount the possibility. BBs are tried-and-true, but if you wish to wait until another method is found, that is your decision to make. In the meantime, we would like to install a terminal in your city of Alcamoth and connect you to the Chiral Network. If there is any way Bridges can be of service, we will do what we can.”

“I might be able to.” Yuri said, more softly this time. “If BTs are what you say they are, the souls of the dead wandering the world of the living…I’ve been able to see them for most of my life. So, in a way, I’m like one of these babies all grown up. And I have this.’’ Yuri reached down and placed the Camera Obscura on the map table for everyone to see. “The Camera Obscura was designed to take pictures of things that humans were never meant to see, and I’ve used it as a weapon against ghosts before. But, I’m only one person.”

Deadman stroked his chin, nodding. “Fascinating, fascinating! Well, that is lucky, indeed. Even if it’s just you, you can keep watch for the rest of your team, navigating them quickly and quietly around BTs. Just be aware that one slip-up could prove fatal, not just for whoever gets caught, but everyone else for up to miles around. Are you up to the task?” The coroner looked at the girl pointedly.

“No,” Yuri said gravely, looking down.”Like I said, I’m just one person.” She didn't have any illusions about her ability to protect a whole group. Without a practical solution to offer she felt herself deflate.

”Uhm, excuse me! If I may interject - Commander?” Wonder Red addressed Nelson standing beside him. ”Could the Camera Obscura be reverse-engineered? Perhaps Professor Shirogane, or Professor Gadd, can replicate its design so that more people can use them instead of this one girl.”

“It might be possible.” Yuri said. “Their creator, Kunihiko Asou, was a normal man as far as I know. He even made multiple cameras, but they’re so rare and valuable as antiques I don’t think anyone has ever seriously studied how they do what they do.”

Her testimony seemed to capture Gadd’s attention. “Ooh, that so? Well, maybe I oughta give it a li’l look-see.” He adjusted his glasses with a smile. “Wouldn’t be the first time I rigged up some tech to deal with ghosts. That’s part of why I’m along for all this hullabaloo to begin with.”

“Is that so?” Yuri replied, surprised at the little man’s field of study. Talking to a doctor that actually believed in ghosts could be worthwhile.It might even benefit Bridges once they returned home, so they didn't have to resort to something like the BBs. “I wouldn't mind helping you, though I only really know what my mentor passed onto me.”

“Sounds like a fine arrangement to me,” Vandham declared, pleased that the team had come up with a promising plan of action so quickly. “And for the record, I’m in favor of hookin’ Alcamoth up to this network of yours, as well. Nice as our Moogles are, bein’ able to radio whoever we needed at the drop of a hat would be a lot more convenient. Between that, and the possibility of aerial deployment once the Virgin Victory is back in action, a partnership with Bridges might be our savin’ grace.” Despite his affirmation, however, the mercenary commander maintained a solemn bearing. “I have just one question for you, Deadman. When they arrived, your associates were Gleaming, an’ ‘ad to be freed by the Door Bosses. But you sir don’t look the part, an’ you’re able to talk about the world like normal. Yet you’ve never left this city of yours called Midgar, where nobody on our side’s ever been.” Vandham raised an eyebrow. “Now, ‘ow might that be?”

Deadman seemed perplexed. “Hmm. You’re talking about the bright-eyes, yes? How most everyone is suppressed in a certain way? Well, I…I do not know. For as long as I can remember, my eyes have been normal, while everyone else has been glowing. Thought I was crazy for a while, trapped in some sort of limbo, until I realized. It meant I could take charge and start things happening again. A new game plus.” Fists tightened with determination, he put on as brave a face as he could. “I’ve been acting director for Bridges for about a month now, working to make the connections that nobody else seems willing to. In part to fulfill the dream of a world united, but also so that I might ask....for help.”

Clearing his throat, Deadman treated the room to an imploring look. “Do you remember what I said early, about the Ever Crisis, in Midgar? Well, it is serious, more serious than I can even convey. The city is under attack from the mysterious Others, bizarre creatures who feed on human brains. There are Chimeras, invisible to the naked eye, who can infect civilians with Redshift. And if that wasn’t enough, a seemingly inexhaustible machine army waging war from the swamp valley ruins to the south. The OSF, Neuron, Desperado, and other security divisions are hard-pressed merely to defend the city. And right now, things are even more tumultuous, thanks to the upcoming presidential election. The question of who will define the city’s future, and how, is on the mind of every man, woman, and child.”

Deadman took a deep breath. “That is why I was hoping that Bridges would establish contact with someone who could help us. Someone who can work with us to keep the city safe, and find a way to bring the Ever Crisis to an end. Someone like the Alcamoth Mercenaries.”

Once he finished, a few moments of silence followed. He’d dropped some big news, and in the wake of that knowledge bomb everyone was left with a lot to think about. Of course, the decision ultimately lay with Peach and Vandham, who had a number of factors to consider.

Peach ultimately decided to speak up. “Well, it goes without saying that we would want to help out whoever might be in trouble, if we can. I’m sure that the city of Midgar would not allow such aid to go unrewarded, either. But one thing we have to keep in mind is our campaign. Thirteen Guardians must be eliminated before we can defeat Galeem, and we have only three. To dedicate our resources and manpower to a cause that may not advance that all-important goal, or at worse cripple our ability to accomplish it, is no small matter.” She inhaled deeply, in through her nose and out through her mouth. “I would like to confer with the others, once they’re done with their respective assignments. Can you give us that time?”

“Of course,” Deadman confirmed.

“Thank you. We’ll have much to discuss when the others return.” With the meeting all but concluded, Peach stood up from her chair. “Until then, let’s see if we can research the Camera Obscura, as well as set up this network of yours. We have someone lost somewhere on the continent, and with any luck a few contents will help us find her again.”

Vandham nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s hop to it, ladies and gents! This little world of ours just got a ‘ole lot bigger!”

While her spells hit the creature dead on, even with some of their weird patterns thanks to one item she held, this creature didn't seem to mind even with the ones that bypassed its natural defenses. Its size just had some insane bulk that not even her spells could put a dent into. But thanks to her haste buff and the additional buffs of Primrose, at least her minions could get to the train without much issue all except one which decided to stay and try to fight with the queen.

Seeing as her attacks were doing nothing nor were her new minion, Sectonia elected to bring the two of them back to the train as well, seeing as the rest of their group had made it there and were beginning to take off. Flying around, she grabbed Raz out of the air to bring him to safety as the giant monster was getting up and getting ready to chase the train. "We'd best follow the train if our attacks do nothing." Sectonia said a bit annoyed herself. Sure she could probably beat this thing eventually if it had nothing to deal with an airborn fighter like herself, but it would take forever to wear it down. Raz in hand, she flew to the train, needing to cast a bit of Haste on herself to catch up to the now moving train.

Dropping Raz off when she could, Sectonia flew backwards facing the creature, flying above the train and making sure to stay clear of that giant cannon. She had cannons like that back in Floralia, so she knew what kind of damage it could cause if she even got clipped by it. Descending down, she found a spot to talk to the others on the train, noticing a shiny newcomer but just figured that was a traveler who got roped up in this. "I don't think I can slow that monstrosity, nor boost the train itself. We had best keep it busy while the cannon is loaded and fired my minions." Sectonia said. And while saying that, the creature began to spit out smaller creatures in quite a large number to assault the train itself, the creature able to keep up with, but not outpace, the train so far.

Well, they couldn't have the train be attacked now could they? Sectonia summoned her staffs, and flew to meet the oncoming horde, casting a volley of dark lightning all around herself towards the oncoming horde to clear them out, making sure to not get in the way of the massive cannon for obvious reasons.

”Yeah I know that!” Midna replied to Tora’s insistence that she leave the machinery to the professionals, having 100% not been close to trying to womanhandle the giant gun around once it was clear she had no idea how to get the damn thing running. Letting the furball take over immediately got dividends when the machine started talking to them and, conveniently, seemingly recognizing the kind of thing the big worm thing was: an Akrid. Specifically a category G one, though whatever that meant the princess could only guess.

”Do you think the G stands for giant, or that there’s 6 smaller types?” she asked as the last of the gang came onboard and they set off, having missed the swarm of smaller ones that had assailed the bellringers that were probably A class.

It then went on to insist they begin operating procedures, and unhelpfully not letting them know what those procedures were. Other than that one of them was called the ‘thermal charging procedure’ which it informed them would increase the firing speed but gave no hint as to how it would be done. Fortunately Tora had everything sussed out. Use the left and right control ‘stations’ for turning, some repair ‘panels’ for, presumably, repairing and a big slot they needed to mash the equally big shells into. Midna decided right there and then that she was not going to use this very moment to learn how to control machines and instead put herself on a task that she was suited for, despite it being a rather unregal one.

”I can go grab a bunch of these ‘shells’, shove them into the twilight realm, and then bring them all up here in one go” Midna called out her role, namely ammo caddy, right before the thing they needed to kill informed them that it was done laying around and was now storming after them at a frightful speed, presumably because Sectonia and Razputin’s unfortunately mostly harmless shots had gotten its attention.

”Better chasing after us than plowing through the town” she said, though with the way it was gaining on them that was something of a cold comfort. Baiting it away only worked if they could catch it in the jaws of a trap before it crunched that trap to pieces alongside the cheese after all, and with them being the cheese? Well it was time to get going.

Not content with just tearing up the track after them, the titan spat out a swarm of flying things which came racing towards them, fearlessly diving through the hail of incoming fire to assail them.

”I could use an escort! Fast!” Midna shouted as she moved to race down to the ammo wagon on wolfos back, shadowhand lashing out to slap down the first of the wave of flying creeps coming her way.

The princess made it down to the ammo store in one piece, though how fast and how injury free that arrival was depended on the quality of her escort, should she get one at all. She darted inside the armory that she had not been able to get into before the others arrived and activated the automated systems, and found what she was looking for. Probably. The big heavy pointy things bristling in their racks certainly looked like they’d fit inside the slot of the gun up top.

While technically it would be more efficient to grab everything in here to haul it up top all at once, time was off the essence because they needed a shot fired as soon as possible so that they didn't become worm food. So the princess raced through the armory room one door to the other, tapping the closest shells as she passed with a hand and vanishing a half dozen into the twilight realm (mostly cobalt, but one roar and wrath also got caught up in her lightning raid) before dashing out an opposite door and racing up and around the other side of the train from the one she’d descended. Her masterfully dexterous wolfos made quick work of the accent and so, in only a handful of moments, she was back up top.

”Delivery for Tora and company” she announced, before sweeping her hand out in front of herself and portaling up her six pack of deadly shells, all standing point up, ripe and ready to be used to ”blast that Akrid into soup!” or so she hoped.

---

---

There was a bustle of commotion as all of the passengers on the train pushed and moved around to fill spots on the weaponized vehicle. It was never in a prominent swordsman's nature to get easily overwhelmed by crowdedness and areas full of what seemed to be mercenaries, skilled fighters, creatures, and machines alike. There were many faces he recognized amongst the crew and some Raiden had not seen initially. There was to be many greetings with his new "associates" arranged after they had taken care of the large sand serpent. Originally, he had not noticed the mounted turrets and canisters of explosives that were abundant on the fleet when the crew first arrived in Tostarena town, but the crazed commune of the adventurers made the weaponry much more observable.

After the cars began moving, a few of the crews members had acknowledged the late existence of the cyborg. No formalities had been established, as Raiden inserted himself into the fight without a shred of thought. His joining of the fight was pure instinct. He carefully observed the notable individuals who spoke to him, most notably a white haired man clad in purple and the previously mentioned cyborg who shared an uncanny (at first glance) appearance to the once alive Desperado member: Sundowner. Raiden made his rounds about the train looking for work after this encounter.

Before he could partake in any work, an interesting scene caught his eye. When the large, bee-like queen roped in the smaller crew member from his floating expedition, all Raiden could do was stare in shock. He sure had seen his share of interesting characters and heard many odd tales of others, but surely this was a sight to the man. When they arrived on the platform, what had caught Raiden's eye was the fact that this was no short man, but was rather in fact a child. Many concerns were had, yet all he could say to the young psychic was "This is a dangerous situation you've caught yourself in. Be careful." Before returning to his self-delegated duties.

A small group of five fighters would man the smaller guns located on the locomotive, which left Raiden somewhat relieved. Snake had been the one to introduce him to the way of the blade and he became so skilled in the art that most of his early training with firearms had now become rarely utilized by the mercenary, whether that translated to giant mounted train-guns or not. One of the small, fluffy creatures had mentioned that he and others could bring up shells and explosives to charge and fire at the creature, and the golden and black imp had proclaimed she could take this task, however she shouted for assistance amongst the group as swarms of flying creatures began targetting her. Raiden took up the task, seeing as though he was marooned in terms of tasks. "I'll handle this."

His sword was quickly pulled off his back and balanced between his hands. As the arthropods continued dive bombing the princess and her temporary cyborg escort, he retaliated by slashing back at the flying monsters, trying his best to hit them out of the sky. As he focused his blade, he performed multiple lethal strikes to the insectoids, splattering the alien blood on his face and cybernetic armor. Raiden moved to follow the lady he promised to escort down to the ammo room, consistently slashing away at the airborne pests, batting them away, maiming them, or killing them entirely until they had arrived at the depot.

She made short work of collecting the shells and bombs into... well, wherever she put them. Raiden didn't really understand how she did it, and proceeded to rub the grime off of his blade onto his metallic plating, making the sharp edge shine once again. He nodded back to the working imp who no longer seemed concerned about protection, nor was the cyborg himself. If there were to continue being flying nuisances, they now would be centered on other fighters rather than the two in the ammo storage. Seeing as though it be best if Raiden helped load stuff too, he'd grab two of the heavier shells for each arm. What weighed near a ton for others was mere weigh-lifting practice for the cyborg as he hauled the shells, ready to follow the imp once more, but as he prepared himself, she had already brought dog-like creatures to her aid and raced off. He shook his head in confusion "I'm never gonna understand this magic shit..."

Now following at a slightly slower pace, Raiden made head to the location Midna had dropped the artillery off at. She had managed to transport an impressive sum of six shells for the aid of the company, while Raiden only managed two. If he were to be a part of their crew, he'd have to make use of his specialized skills. He still could be useful, even if many of his abilities and original skillset had been stripped away from him. As he wiped the blood off his cheek, he was able to acquire a new purpose, should his previous companion not need his assistance anymore. Keeping his blade at the ready, he stood at the side of the train, fending off any close-range attacking Akrids, their bloodlust keeping them at charge with the train.

Many of the members aboard the train may need his assistance within the fight, so he kept himself relatively open until new discoveries and attacks were made. There wasn't a whole lot Raiden could do besides fend off the creatures who constantly attacked the vehicle and assist those who were unable to participate in combat, either because they were helping with cannons or standing idle for the time being. He was particularly worried about some of the members not being suited for battle, but then again, they all had collectively brought the large serpent down the mountain. Maybe Raiden could be surprised by his own expectations.

He was especially worried about the kid who had recently arrived and small fluffball and robotic girl who piloted the cannons on the ship. Raiden didn't ever think he'd see something closely resembling an animal controlling a gun big enough to punch a whole through a dam.

---

---

Raz's blasts didn't seem to even register on the huge monster, the reason why becoming pretty clear to him: it's huge. A startling revelation to be sure. He still argued when Sectonia decided to cut their losses, scooping him up from the ground to head towards the train.

"But what about the--" Raz, dangling in Sectonia's grip, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted to the spectators, "Hey! Get to safety! Find a basement or somewhere to hide, this thing is dangerous!" It might not have needed saying but he couldn't just leave it be. It wouldn't have felt right to leave the civilians to fend for themselves. Turns out that it wasn't that much of an issue, though; whether it was because of their tag-team effort in distracting it, some force of Galeem compelling it towards the Seekers, or simply an animalistic mind chasing the fastest thing, Red Eye went after the train as soon as it collected itself. Raz was going to take credit because it was obviously thanks to him and Sectonia.

Definitely.

The two landed on the train just in time to catch the Railway Gun's explanation. And, as it happened, right when Raiden had climbed aboard too. Raz wasn't there for more than a minute before the sword-wielding cyborg (side note, this world was kind of awesome) addressed him. "I can take care of myself!" Raz shot back. ""This isn't the first giant destructive monster I've had to deal with!"

A part of Raz wasn't sure about putting all their eggs in the same basket, with everyone focused on operating the gun with no apparent backup plan if it wasn't effective or broke or whatever else could happen. He didn't voice the concern, partly because he didn't have a better plan of his own, but mostly because the giant death-mouth was right on their tail by that point. "I got the charge station!" Raz shouted, hurrying to his button.

As he primed himself to mash, Red Eye decided the stakes weren't high enough and... for lack of a better word, 'burped' up a whole swarm of those kite-like creatures that came from the mountain bell. "Two can play at that game!" Raz turned from his button, manifesting his TK hand to mash in his place, and rushed forward. Adopting his psychic stance Raz peppered the swarming trilobites with psi-blasts, aiming specifically for the ones that were closing in on the gun's platform and threatening the other onboard.

"I mean! I'm not really! Playing the same game here! But, I think you get it!"

---

The roar of Red Eye and the swarm of arrow-headed creatures spun the train's passengers into a flurry of activity. There was much to do, and not much time with which to do it. Midna raced off to collect the cannon's ammunition, playing to store it in her dimensional pocket. Sectonia, Raz, Panther, Mona, and the stranger were handling the wave of Trilids, which Primrose assumed was only the first of more to come. Briefly she considered dancing for them, but the flying enemies were easily dispatched as it was. Her gaze flickered to the beast, with it's unnerving eyes and even more disturbing jaws. She very much doubted her spells would have any effect on it. Now the dancer found herself in place where her magic was useless. With some apprehension she looked at the various panels that Tora laid out for them. The closest thing she could relate them to was how the inside of Necronomicon looked. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad, Tora had said that the controls were simple after all.

Meanwhile, Therion was coming to much the same conclusion, though he couldn't help but let snap, "What part of all that was simple to you?!" Even if the thief's flame came back to him, it most likely wouldn't help fend the monster off - and he was not planning to get anywhere near close enough to try and lower it's defenses or take it on with a blade. So he'd either have to try and take on one of the many roles in operating the main gun, or sit around waiting for the Red Eye to kill them all. Obviously he would take his chances with the former, he just had to choose what seemed like the most straight forward job.

"I'll take the turning station," the Travelers said in unison. They blinked at each other in surprise, but with no time for teasing or amusement they rushed to their places; Primrose on the left turning station, and Therion on the right. This would go well, or so they hoped. Though Primrose and Therion weren't strangers to butting heads with each other, their familiarity would theoretically make maneuvering the gun together a smoother process.

"Once the cannon is loaded we will start to get it moving," Primrose said. Her hands were on either side of the panel, and she studied it closely to make sure she would be ready, and that it was really as simple as slapping a directional button. A glance in the direction of Therion was met with a nod from the thief.

Sleep came quickly once Geralt was in bed. It was a heavier sleep than he often got, though he'd spent much of his time the past months on the road, preparing a war, among other activities that didn't lend to sleeping deeply or soundly. Sadly, his favorite activity that interfered with sleep had not been, and still was not, on the menu.

Yennefer woke before Geralt, slipping free from the bed with a sorceress's ethereal grace and quickly clothing herself before setting about cleaning the armor he'd left for her magically. It was a simple task, thankfully, although the strange window over his chest confounded her somewhat. She'd have to make him get that fixed, or find something to cover the gap. He'd do it himself, to be sure, but a reminder wouldn't hurt. It didn't hurt that this gave her the opportunity to joke about how impractical it was. He and his Witcher friends ever did go on about how important it was to keep practicality in mind whenever choosing their gear.

As the task at hand finished, Yen set about procuring breakfast for the pair. Some sliced fruit for herself, and an omelet with bacon for Geralt. Between his now-thinned physique and the unholy sounds his stomach had been making, she knew he could use something heavier. And if he wanted more to eat, he could get it himself.

It wasn't much longer before the man stirred, sitting up with a yawn and looking over to see a plate of food on a small table and Yennefer sitting in a chair, one leg over the other and a half-content look on her face. "I'm just glad you don't toss about in your sleep. If you'd pricked me with that horn of yours, I'd have thrown you from the bed."

Raising an eyebrow in response at her choice of words, Geralt got up and took the plate from the table without a word. He had a feeling she wasn't quite up to his "juvenile wit" given his late return. Ravenously tearing through the omelet, Geralt sighed in relief when he finished, before frowning. "Damn, still hungry..." He complained, looking up at Yennefer. "All you thought to bring up for me?"

Oh, that was the wrong thing to say, he realized at the look on her face. The pit in his stomach demanded it, however. "Yes, you're quite welcome Geralt. I wasn't quite in the mood to carry a ten-pound tray of whatever pleased you after you interrupted my sleep last night."

Rolling his eyes, Geralt started putting on an outfit that had been laid out at some point for him, his stomach still the only thing he could think to give any care to. "Came back when we were done, is all. I'll go and get something else, then." He didn't respond to Yennefer's silence, making his way to the door.

"I'll be back once I've eaten a bit more." He curtly reported, opening the door.

Only to be faced with a bipedal dog holding a letter. "Ah, Mister Geralt!" Isabelle greeted, peeking into the apartment before realizing she might see something she regretted when she remembered the Witcher's relation to the apartment's official resident. "I'm sorry if I interrupted anything, I can come back, it's just that I have a letter for you!" The poor thing seemed torn between running and fulfilling her business, but she visibly relaxed when Yennefer appeared at the door fully clothed.

"Ah, Isabelle, good morning. I didn't see you this morning for breakfast. A letter, you say?" Yennefer plucked the envelope from her paw, easily breaking the seal and retrieving the letter. Isabelle looked between the two nervously, sensing the unhappy energy they were giving off, and gave a nervous smile. "It seems you've been invited to a party, Geralt. At a beach, no less. They'll have food all day, and plenty of alcohol, it seems. I suppose we'll have to get you into something fitting for the beach, then. I'm sure they have something here for you. I already have something, thankfully."

Grunting, Geralt nodded. "Don't suppose the others would ignore that. Alright. After I get something else to eat. I don't know how long it's been since I ate anything that wasn't that omelet you got me. We were captured for a while, in some kind of cursed or enchanted ship. Feels like I've been without food for days." Sighing, Yennefer waved him off.

"Yes, Geralt. When you get back, we'll get you looking presentable in something that won't leave you sweltering."

---

And she'd done just that. Unfortunately, owing to Geralt's tall but slim size, they didn't exactly have the luxury of choice with the outfit they'd gotten. A pair of plain blue swim trunks and a two-sizes-too-large button-up t-shirt in a floral pattern covered his scarred, lithe body as the two arrived at Karin's beach party. Yennefer herself was wearing a white sundress with a much more subtle floral pattern than Geralt's shirt, with a two-piece swimsuit underneath that. Her arm around Geralt's as they approached the relaxing Seekers, Yennefer greeted them with a combination of familiarity and politeness that Kamek might recognize from a diplomat.

"Hello there! Geralt tells me you're the ones he's been traveling about with, hunting down Galeem's guardians? I fear we've not been introduced. Yennefer of Vengerberg."

Nodding, and in a much better mood thanks to having eaten properly, Geralt continued. "She wanted to come along and meet you all. We've been busy, so relaxing like this...it's nice."

"Ever the wordsmith." Yennefer chuckled. "It's simply wonderful, Geralt! We must thank Miss Karin for her generous invitation! Would you perhaps be able to point us in her direction?"

Well. They had discovered the boss, and getting Phalanx pissed off had proved to be somewhat useful for everyone except Braum. Things kinda worked out in the end.

Jesse had gotten onto Phalanx by jumping up and air dashing over to it, barely clinging onto the bottom of the creature. Swearing rapidly under her breath she clambered up, dashing into the thing and letting her momentum carry her up and over.

She trailed behind Raz, not even bothering to fire her pistol at the giant weird worm thing. Nothing they could do would put a dent into that big boy.

She clambered onto the train with the others and was glad they could get the monster's attention away from the civilian population. As long as it was chasing them, they could beat it and kill it. They picked up yet another straggler adventurer to add to their motley crew, and Jesse was glad for it. Galeem didn’t use spies- Galeem only used giant monsters. As far as she could tell anyone willing to take on a giant monster was trustworthy.

She took a few potshots at the encroaching minion swarm, taking a moment to stare down the impressive maw of the giant creature that was following them and tearing up the tracks. A shake of her head and a raising of her eyebrows conveyed her conviction.

The onboard AI insisted upon something called a Thermal charge, which Raz took care of. The Phantom Thieves manned the turrets. Several other members defended against the swam and manned the other stations and… Jesse blinked, staring at the empty main gun seat. It was it’s own little cockpit with controls to aim the cannon. Like something you’d see on a battleship. She was right there! Someone had to do it, right? “I’ll aim it!” With a grimace, Jesse clambered into the seat. The others used the side stations to get the cannon even remotely close to correctly oriented. Which meant Jesse’s one and only job was actually aiming the damn thing. Fortunately, the big monster was pretty damn hard to miss. She was fairly confident she could eyeball it. Jesse lined up the shot. “Does that look good from your angle?” She made a few more minor adjustments to get it just right.

Jesse glanced over at the operators of the machine that turned the cannon. “Is this a bad time to mention I never actually graduated high school?” She said dryly. Mostly for her own sake. She thought it was funny, anyway, though she didn't smile, to add to the comedy.

Once the cannon was lined up and all the preparations were made, Jesse put her hand on the firing trigger. “Cannon’s firing! Get ready!” She raised her voice over the din of the battle, and with a heavy mechanical clunk she pulled the trigger.

The sudden expectoration of Akrid swarms worked wonders to make the Seekers realize they were on an even tighter schedule than Red Eye first made it seem, and like eggs the whole crew scrambled to their stations. The undisputed ruler of flying insects, Sectonia took to the sky to cover her teammates while on the move, rebuffing the incoming Trilid horde with a veritable fireworks display of sorcery. Given the velocity of the train below and the rather more worrisome speed of the Guardian in pursuit, Sectonia needed to work her poor wings overtime just to keep up while also raining down magical mayhem on the Trilid, but if there was anyone who could accomplish such a feat of aerial acrobatics, it was her.

Under her protection, Raz reached the charging station in a matter of seconds. Midna and her new impromptu bodyguard Raiden were making tracks to the train’s caboose to plunder the onboard armory for heavy ammunition, but until they returned with ordnance, the psychonaut cadet had nothing to do. Rather than just stand around, he lent his psi-bolts to the fusillade of projectiles that Sectonia, the rear turret gunners, the Scout, and Peacock had brought to bear. As he shouted at the Akrid a shadow fell over him, and when Raz glanced sideways he realized it belonged to Ciella as she adopted a firing stance. Standing beside one other really put the size difference between the pair into perspective, with Ciella at six foot ten and Raz at just four foot four, but the Agito did not deign to look the boy’s way. Instead she pulled taut her bowstring, her hair streaming beside her, and unleashed four water arrows in a spread formation. Each tore through any Trilid in their path before disappearing into Red Eye’s cavernous maw. Whether or not they dealt much damage in there Ciella couldn’t really say, but without delay she drew her bow once more.

Compared to Raz, Primrose and Therion had even less distance to travel before they reached the stations they’d volunteered for, but once there they couldn’t exactly stand idle. Despite the ranged fighters’ efforts, some Akrid nevertheless managed to slip through. That remainder fell to the rest to deal with, be they strictly melee fighters like Braum and Big Band, or mages who couldn’t afford to waste mana on single-hit small fry, like Robin and Tharja. Trying to slap dive-bombing Trilid out of the sky, however, was like trying to hit an entire baseball game’s worth of fastballs, and Big Band wasn’t doing so hot. “Ow, gah!” he grunted, reeling from the explosion of one monster that struck him square in the middle. He recovered just in time to duck out of the way of a second Trilid, which promptly blew up against the surface of the cannon behind him. The blast dislodged his hat, but before it could fly away on the wind the brazen detecting snatched it out of the air. With another Akrid already on its way down, he hurriedly popped his hat on and pulled off a well-timed Beat Extend. Two halves of a giant tambourine deployed from his torso and slammed together like pincers, catching the Trilid before it could hit him. The noise of the jingles inflicted sound stun, allowing Band to catch the dazed creature and hurl it back into the Trilid cloud like a stick grenade.

“These things got me all kinds of funked up,” Band complained, looking over his shoulder at the cannon. To his dismay he found that the Trilid he dodged had gone on to detonate on the main cannon’s turning track, warping the metal enough to pose an issue. “Hey, we got a hit over here! Who we got on fixin’s?”

A little panicked and very distracted by everything going on, Tora looked over with wide eyes. Nobody had claimed repair duty, not that anyone was much of an engineer except, of course, Tora himself. “Meh, me, I guess!” Using Poppi’s stored ether he released a parting volley of missiles from his Mech Arms at the trilid swarm, then took one final look around. Before he could say anything about the main cannon, Jesse volunteered to take control, which meant that every position was accounted for. Or did it?

“We need someone up front!” Tora suddenly realized. “If enemies get yellowpon, we all doomed!”

Taking potshots at Trilid nearby, Joker narrowed his eyes. “Hey, you guys good without me?” he called down to the Phantom Thieves in their turrets, shouting above the wind.

“All good here!” Skull shouted back. “It’s basically one big arcade game!”

“Except the ducks are trying to kill us!” Panther added, her pigtails flapping in the wind.

Joker gave a parting salute and dashed off toward the front of the train, where his varied skillset would be invaluable keeping the Conductor safe.

Meanwhile, Poppi switched to QT Pi mode and jumped up on top of the cannon. “Poppi run defense up here for Jesse!”

“Oh…” Tora looked uneasy at the prospect of separating from his treasured companion, but at the same time he knew it had to be done. The team couldn’t afford to lose either the critical weapon or the woman controlling it. “Okay! Stay safe and kick monster butt!”

“Roger, roger!”

In a jiffy Tora reached the repair panel, where he started redirecting T-ENG for repairs. “Friend Therion and Primrose!” he called as he worked. “We need cannon face backwards, right away! Can load normal rounds at any time!” Once Tora made the requisite connections, a little button mashing would push the T-ENG where it needed to be to make turning the big gun possible.

It wasn’t much longer before Midna and Raiden returned, fending off Trilid all the while. The Twilight Princess deposited the giant shells on the top of the train next to the cannon, and Tora shouted the instructions she needed. “Meh-meh-meh! Put in loader, and charger, quick quick quick!” When she complied, some mashing would plug the round straight into the main gun itself. From there another could be put into the loader for immediate insertion after the loaded shell was fired, and another in the reserve slot to take its place. Meanwhile, the charging station could energize a shell with all the power drummed up by Raz’s mashing, then added to the queue. After Primrose and Therion decided on which of them would be turning the cannon one hundred and eighty degrees, since both mashing their buttons would get them nowhere, the barrel of the Dragonfire cannon swung around. As it span so did its counterweight, which included the charging station, the loader, and everyone on top of it, which took Ciella by surprise and would have resulted in a fall from the train if not for a timely grab by Raz. Another few seconds and the turn was complete, and it was down to Jesse to make the final adjustments.

Poppi was crouching above Jesse when she asked if her targeting looked okay, and after a quick focus of her optics the artificial blade gave her a thumbs-up. Without Blazermate on hand to scan for weaknesses, anything seemed as good as anything else, and Jesse was right to conclude that it would be hard to miss. While Poppi didn’t know what the FBC director meant by graduating high school’, now was a bad time to need reassurance, so Poppi told her, “Poppi not do that either, so it fine!” At Jesse’s warning, everyone in earshot braced themselves, and the next second the roar of the Dragonfire rang out through the desert sky.

Nobody saw the shell actually travel through the air, or what happened inside Red Eye’s gullet. They only staggered from the physical force that shook not just the train, but the very air, and witnessed the monster’s reaction. It let out a terrific roar as it bucked wildly, thrashing from one side to another as it let the whole desert know of its pain. As it fell back, the train tracks began to curve, averting the locomotive from Al Mamoon as per the Conductor’s strategy. Even as the behemoth receded, however, Poppi kept her eyes on it. In no world would one shot, even from a weapon of this ludicrous caliber, be enough to end this fight.

"Pow!" Peacock grinned. "Right in the kisser!"

Big Band whistled through his instruments. "Now that's what I call percussion."

Despite the general elation, Red Eye didn’t stay staggered for long, and after mere seconds began tearing across the sand again. It cut through the arc the train was taking, and with terrifying speed began to pull up alongside the Railway Gun. From there it couldn’t just eat the train if it caught up, but the Dragonfire cannon couldn’t shoot down its mouth, either. Still, its reload was already in progress, and once the Octopath Travelers turned it again Jesse could line up another shot. All along the behemoth’s side were large, meaty red masses situated at intervals among the chitinous plates of armor, which to anyone with even a morsel of genre awareness looked tantalizingly like weak spots. For the rest, Necronomicon spelled it out.

“Shoot those red mounds!” the Persona advised, and the Phantom Thieves on the train’s right side, Mona and Fox, hurried to obey. Their turret rounds pounded the eye-shaped spots, rupturing bloody craters in the exposed flesh. As the Seekers opened fire, however, so did Red Eye. From a blowhole it launched an absolutely massive spiky pod that hurtled almost lazily through the air, and despite any attempts to shoot it down, the sheer mass kept it going until it hit the Railway Gun. The whole train shuddered under the impact, knocking the main cannon -and any heroes without firm footing- askew. To make matters worse, the pod then erupted into a horde of Bolsepia that landed across the entire train.

Seven landed on top of the cannon section, four on the counterweight around the charging station and loader and three on the barrel. Counting on the others to tend those behind her, Poppi focused on the ones ahead. She morphed the Variable Saber into shotgun mode and unleashed two blasts apiece into the nearest Akrid. Their force dislodged the crab-legged pests and sent them flying from the train, but the third skittered forward toward Jesse’s cockpit. Poppi dashed forward and extended her saber’s laser blade, skewering the Bolsepia through the head. That head, however, began to swell and glow, which in Poppi’s world meant only one thing. In a panic she switched off the saber and burned her thrusters to execute a backflip kick, popping the Bolsepia far enough off the cannon that the ensuing explosion caused no damage. The artificial blade breathed an entirely cosmetic sigh of relief before calling out, “Everyone be careful! These things explode!’

By the time she gave her warning, however, other Seekers had already learned firsthand. Robin cut through a Bolsepia head with an electrified slash from his Levin Sword, but couldn’t get clear before it blew up, slamming him into the metal hard. “Robin!?” Tharja snarled, grabbing hold of the second Bolsepia with hands of darkness as she bent to heal her beloved’s wounds, unaware of the third climbing up behind her.

“Grrah!” Big Band groaned. “I’ve had it up to here on this chattanooga choo choo. He leaped down from the Railway Gun to land with a bang on the roof of the armory car, where Bolsepia were massing to blow the whole thing sky high. “Giant Steps!” he cried, deploying a huge kick pedal to sweep the monsters’ legs out from under them. From there it was a matter of picking them up one or two at a time and tossing them off the train, but if any of the leftover Trilid joined the party, things would get explosive fast.

Down in the Railway Gun’s fuselage, Tora was working on repairs when one explosive Akrid crammed itself into the same cramped passageway he was in. “Meh-meh!?” he exclaimed, realizing that a blast in here would be very, very bad. “Poppi!” he cried. “Need Drill Shield! Copy? Need Poppi Alpha, pronto! Poppi!?” As the Bolsepia crept closer, the Nopon swallowed nervously, struggling to figure out something he could do.

Level: 2
Experience: 7/20
Currently In: Snowdin, Heading out.
Word Count: 266 (+1 Exp)
Albedo @Lugubrious, Linkle @Gentlemanvaultboy, Papyrus @Dark Cloud

"Hm?" Their eyebrows rose once Linkle pointed out the trumbone. "Not mine. Thought a friend might want it. I do play a bit of piano though." Frisk explained. The three of them headed back inside to say goodbye to Treat, Nia, and Dromarch. Guess the former finally decided where to stay. The child had hope things will get better for her. Then Nia asked Albedo if his dog had a name. It didn't? Well, it didn't seem that odd. Must be a stray. Linkle suggested Doge, which earned a quick chuckle from Frisk, but the chalk prince already decided a name.

Soil.

...They could work with that, in all honesty. With that, Frisk silently waved goodbye to the animal and animal girls, and stepped out after Linkle.

As they left, Albedo revealed that they were in a sort of crossroads. Apparently the skullgirl was looking for some hooded dude. Either they'd have to stay in town for a bit longer to find him, or push it aside for now and head out. Luckily it seemed she had an idea to kill two birds with one stone. Then there was catching Frisk and Papyrus up to speed with what the other duo was up to, she turned that into a challenge. A friendly spar, to see what they could do.

"A fight, huh...?" Frisk mumbled, resting their gloved hand under their chin as they thought. They didn't see themself as a fighter, but then again, this was an opportunity to get both information and some rust off their own prowess. So, they nodded. "Alright. I'll go first."