Jesse whistled appreciatively at Raiden and Sectonia’s impressive display. “Hot damn. That’s some fancy flyin’.” She said.

She stared down the sights of the cannon as Red Eye approached. Closer and closer it came. Feeling like a heavily armed deer in headlights, Jesse held off on pulling the trigger. “Come on. Open wide.” But Red Eye didn’t budge. No longer was it going to rely on bites, simply it’s titanic weight. Jesse didn’t want to waste Yellow Team’s shot. If it only opened wide, she could sink one right down it’s gullet and they would be victorious. But it was winning the game of chicken.

“Clever girl.” Jesse grumbled, and as the Red Eye collided with the nearest train car she pulled the trigger after her brief countdown. That seemed to get it back for now. It certainly helped that it was so weakened.

She sat back and wiped her forehead, her palms sweaty. From heat just as much as nerves. Jesse was still a bit overdressed for the weather.


The Red Eyed beast destroy the armory, Braum escaping in the nick of time. But as the armory exploded, the shockwave washed over everyone around the Railway Gun. It knocked the wind right out of Jesse and smacked her head against the back of her seat, and rattled her ear drums to boot. "Agh!" She held onto the sides of her head, grimacing. Fortunately she had Health protecting her, which meant that while it still hurt like a bitch, she'd be just fine for now. It wasn't quite as bad as getting shot directly in the head with her Health up. That one almost made her see double back at that under sea lab. Regardless, Jesse still felt like Red Eye had been getting the worse of their trading of blows. Jesse still had all her insides.

No more armory. They were running out of options- as in, they only had one left. Turn the cannon, load the shell, turn it back, and fire. That was the plan.

“Let’s make it happen, people.” Jesse said simply, hopping out of the cockpit once more. She dashed over towards the turning controls and flexed her fingers, popping them.

And then she started to mash.

“Y’know, I know there’s dangerous monsters incoming but a supersonic cyborg probably wouldn’t be super underappreciated doing this.” She said genuinely a little strained as she tapped the button as fast as she could. It reminded her of playing some crappy arcade game with her brother when she was a kid. Slowly but surely the cannon began to turn, in order to be crane loaded.

“Honestly.” She repeated again, more exasperated at the arbitrary cannon design. “Couldn’t it at least have been a crank wheel?”

The plan had been made, but there was a problem, one lost on those possessed of profoundly superhuman durability, like Tora, Big Band, and Ciella. Red Eye’s explosive rising headbutt had ripped the Seeker’s caboose from both train and track, throwing it and all its ammunition into the air like a child’s toy. Its nigh-cataclysmic explosion not only went off too far away from the behemoth to meaningfully damage it, but also pummeled the hapless heroes with a withering pressure wave. It slammed into them like an omnidirectional pile driver, strong enough not just to rattle their brains in their skulls, but to crush their pressure-sensitive lungs and eardrums. In the wake of the blast, the vast majority of Seekers aboard the Railway Gun wound up deafened, dazed, and breathless–in short, stunned.

For a second or two Band looked around in confusion at everyone who apparently hadn’t heard the man. Then the realization hit him like a bolt from the blue, prompting a guttural hrrk. He’d managed to bear the brunt of the debilitating shockwave thanks to his iron lung and protective headphones, but Jesse, the Phantom Thieves, Primrose, Peacock and her cohorts, Mao, the Scout, and the Shepherds were all down, in various states of pain as they struggled to draw breath. Those who did manage to pull themselves together and pick themselves up, confused and desperate to do something, went on the offensive against Red Eye for all the good it did. Midna and Braum spearheaded those desperate measures from the back of the train, joined after a moment by Ciella, but Red Eye closed the distance anyway, gaining on the train with agonizing, almost mocking slowness. Unable to help them, Sectonia offered her magic to speed up the turning process, so Tora directed her down below to the enormous turntable that the whole Railway Gun sat upon. Neither Raz nor Therion were anywhere to be found, which hopefully meant they’d taken shelter either down below or up in front with the Conductor, and not fallen from the train or anything. Meanwhile, something had broken in Raiden. After throwing all his flashbangs to no effect, he seemed to go crazy, talking to himself and shouting at the monster that even now grew steadily closer by the second.

Seeing the absolute state of his team brought a fresh wave of sweat to Big Band’s brow, and with a shaky mechanical arm he dabbed at his skin with a handkerchief, trying to get himself under control. Aside from himself, only Tora and Poppi still possessed the faculties and inclination to operate the Dragonfire cannon, owing to the duo’s shared defense and regenerative ability. “That ain’t enough,” he breathed. He or Tora would need to convince the shooters up front to come back and lend a hand, but even if they obliged, it meant the loss of precious seconds.

The Nopon, however, had other issues. He’d beelined to one of the turning stations to start the Railway Gun swiveling himself, only to be stopped in his tracks by a giant flashing error message on the console. “It JAM!?” he wailed, clutching his head in horror. His wide eyes landed on Band. “Sectonia buff no good if gun not move at all! Tora need go down below and fix!”

“No time to waste!” Poppi grabbed her Masterpon and flew down over the edge, headed for the Railway Gun’s innards so that Tora could service the turntable himself.

Band’s handkerchief flew away in the wind as he reeled, suddenly all alone atop the train hurtling toward Hollow Heights with the mother of all monsters in tow. At a loss for words, he clenched his jaw and stomped to the crane loader, the mission’s last hope clutched tight in his brass knuckles. He slammed the Wrath shell into place, then hopped down to the rear middle section by the mammoth barrel of the main gun that still pointed backward at Red Eye, a laughably empty threat. He gritted his teeth and rammed his shoulder against the steel, pushing with all his might in a desperate attempt to turn the cannon by force. He strained and strained, blasting sound behind him for extra force, but for all his effort the barrel would not budge. “C’mon!” he growled, sweat rolling down his face and stinging his bulging eyes. “C’MON!”

Suddenly, the Railway Gun obliged, but in the wrong direction. It flew sideways in a burst of speed, forcing Band to grab hold to avoid being knocked off the train. “Whoa-oa-oa!” Tora must have fixed the turning mechanism, he realized, allowing Sectonia to hasten it with her magic. But if they were down there, who was up top? Wheezing, Band looked up to see none other than Jesse at the turning station, nowhere near as hurt as he first thought. With the FBC director mashing away, and bemoaning certain allies for not lending a hand or two, the detective gave a sigh of relief. As the whole thing continued to spin he clung to the barrel for dear life, waiting until it brought him back over the train before he relinquished his grip. Disheveled and in sore need of a breather, Band tumbled down the slope and landed upside-down on the lower forward platform, where he remained.

The noise of his landing made the Conductor glance over his shoulder, though he obviously couldn’t see anything from inside the engine. “Gah! What was that!?” he exclaimed, glancing between Therion and Raz. “Go look, wouldja? We’re arrivin’ at Hollow Heights any minute!” Sure enough, a yawning pit had appeared in the desert up ahead. Across the void, a single railway bridge extended through the turbulent air, and that was where the train was headed.

Meanwhile, Poppi burst out from the Railway Gun’s undercarriage, boosting up to the crane loader to get the long-awaited Wrath shell ready to fire. Tora emerged a moment later, panting and smeared with machine grease. When he laid eyes on the team’s pursuer, his mouth hung open in terror. It was too close. The extremities of its gargantuan outer jaws were only seconds away from coming up alongside the train on either side, and in the center of its horrendous mass its inner-jaws gnashed together in anticipation, those pedipalp-like limbs eager to grab hold of the train and pull it straight down Red Eye’s nightmarish gullet. No amount of metal spears, icy blasts, water arrows, or drunken turret fire could keep that monstrosity at bay.

“Meh-eh-eh…!” Tora moaned, tears pooling in his eyes as he flapped his wings in fear. “It t-too late! Train is done for! Need abandon ship! P-Poppi-!”

A hand came down on his shoulder, steading him as he went to shout for his companion. “Meh?”

He looked up to see Robin, clearly still hurt but on his feet nonetheless. “Don’t worry, my little friend,” he said, patting Tora one last time before he stepped toward the back of the train. As he crossed the lower rear platform to where Midna and the others were shooting, the tactician raised his voice. “Hear me, Seekers of Light! I’m telling you this, not for the sake of senseless sacrifice, but so that if worst should come to worst, no-one should ever have to lay their lives down in vain!”

Robin pressed his eyes closed, then opened them with a flash. There came a sound like a thunderclap, and around him swelled a prismatic energy. “This is the power within us–a power unique to each and every one of you. Your whole being in one almighty attack, strong enough to turn even the darkest hour to brightest day. A Final Smash!”

As the aura around him continued to grow, his very body refulgent with power, Ciella seemed to understand what he meant. The Agito lowered her bow as she stared at him. “What madness is this? Do you truly intend to throw your life away for these strangers?”

Robin’s gaze seemed to pierce her mask, meeting his former enemy’s eyes. “My dear friend believed that it was our duty, Ciella. To be the heroes that people needed, to serve and fight for those who could not do so themselves. To be Shepherds for the sheep. His ideals of heroism were no delusion. My faith in them, and in the dream of these ‘strangers’, is no deception. Wallow in despair if it pleases you, Agito, but if my life can somehow be a guiding light unto others, then that is what I will do!”

He thrust his Levin Sword into the air, sparking with lightning. Red Eye roared, its maw so close that the Seekers could feel its infernal heat, but Robin’s voice cut through the chaos. “It’s time to tip the scales!” A lightning bolt shot skyward. Tora watched in astonishment as a cyclone of clouds exploded outward from the top, then opened wide. Through the tempest a colossal black dragon descended, its six great wings carving through the air. As many blazing eyes glared down at the behemoth below, and as it unleashed a tremendous roar, purple flames welled up in its throat, so vivid that it hurt even to look at them. Robin, however, didn’t bat an eye. He leveled his sword at Red Eye, and let out a roar of his own.

”Incarnate Calamity!”

The fell dragon swooped down, and from its jaws raged a torrent of purple fire. Its breath of ruin blasted Red Eye right in the mouth, then swept across its back all the way to the tip of the tail, with the giant worm screeching all the while. Red Eye slowed down, thrashing from side to side in agony, and overhead the soaring dragon dissolved into multicolored light.

Tora blinked several times, trying to process what exactly just happened, and how. In the end, though, he latched onto the most important detail: that Robin had bought enough time for the Seekers to get their final shot off. “Go, go, go!” he yelled, bouncing up and down. Red Eye was still coming, but it had a lot of ground to make up, and the others weren’t going to waste this opportunity. After getting the Wrath shell loaded Poppi moved to the turning console to take over from Jesse, who climbed back in the cannon. The whole shebang began to swivel back around again, creaking and grinding until its business end faced Red Eye once more.

Tora’s eyes landed on Robin once again, and despite the circumstances they lingered there a moment. The young man seemed oddly indistinct, as if he were caught in a desert mirage. On second glance Tora was shocked to realize that Robin seemed to be dissolving, but into light instead of ash. He’d turned around to meet the gaze of Tharja, who was staring at him with teary eyes in stunned silence. For a moment he just looked at her sadly, and when he tried to say something, no words came out. Then he disappeared, evaporated, like morning dew.

Suddenly the desert sand on either side of the Railway Gun disappeared, replaced by pitch-black nothingness. The train clattered along a double track suspended over what seemed like a bottomless pit, surrounded on all sides by an endless forest of metal girders and scaffolds that held up the Sandswept Sky. Red Eye wasn’t far behind, but something strange had happened. As the sand it burrowed through grew shallower beneath it, its whole body rose higher and higher, and its segmented legs found less and less purchase with which to pull its titanic mass along. It slowed down fast and came to a stop not far from the precipice, its limbs scrabbling uselessly at the metal floor beneath a pittance of sand. The guardian was a sitting duck, its defenses blown and burned wide open. It was quite possibly the easiest shot of Jesse’s whole career.

For the final time, the Dragonfire Cannon invited hell. Its payload ripped through the air and exploded against Red Eye with jaw-dropping power. A safe distance away and growing safer every second, the train screamed onward, but its dumbfounded passengers could still feel the blast on their faces. On the heels of the unfathomable explosion came a cacophony of metal as the floor beneath Red Eye gave way, sending both the beast itself and the desert for thousands of meters around plummeting into the abyss.

There was just one problem. That included one end of the railway bridge, and as the Seekers looked on in horror, the rest of the span quickly began to collapse behind them.

Panic erupted all along the train as the whole bridge began to wobble dangerously. With no way to reach the other side in time, there were only two choices: abandon the train, or die. Tora ran around like a chicken with his head cut off, calling for Poppi until his partner snatched him up and took to the sky. Unfortunately, the pair’s troubles didn’t end there. All the chaos had provoked a reaction from Hollow Heights itself, kicking up gale-force winds from deep inside the earth below. As metal came tumbling down, the storm surged up, yanking the heroes from the train with such outrageous force that even the likes of Tora couldn’t help but black out completely.

---

The first thing Tora felt upon awakening was the wind coursing through his hair. When his eyes blinked open his brows furrowed in surprise, for he could see nothing but blue, blue, blue, no matter where he looked. He tried to crane around for a better look, only to realize that he was being held tight in Poppi’s arms. “Poppi!” he called, straining against the wind to pat her gently on the cheek. As he wriggled he happened to look downward, at which point he very quickly realized where he was: the sky.

Below him stretched the desert in its entirety, the mountains on one side, the ocean on the other. He could see Al Mamoon from here, and Sweet Sweet Canyon, the great wall of ruins, Split Mountain, even Smash City Alcamoth way to the south. Beyond the western mountains lay plains, forests, and arid badlands, the green green grass of the Land of Adventure, and beneath storm clouds a great crater blackened by what looked like a colossal handprint, with a strange tree towering at the center. He gulped. “P-Poppi! Wakey-wakey, Poppiiii!” The artificial blade’s eyes lit up as her systems rebooted, and with a groan she brushed Tora’s hair out of her face. After some furious blinking she finished recalibration, then looked down in wonder at the landscape.

“...We very high up!”

“Tora see that!” the Nopon howled, barely able to hear her despite being inches away from his partner. Poppi just stared down at the pit far below, trying to calculate how strong that upswell must have been to carry them this high up. She and her Masterpon both spotted Ciella in her Agito form nearby, and quickly realized they weren’t alone; everybody on board the Railway Gun had been blown sky-high and scattered around, their fall slowed by a lingering updraft. Ciella pointed downward, encouraging Poppi to look again. As she searched, Poppi’s optics were drawn to a fiery glow in the pit, and when she focused she found something disconcerting.

Red Eye was still alive. It lay skewered on countless girders, its whole head in gruesome tatters, but in its middle an enormous core of thermal energy smoldered with unquenchable fury. As impossible as it sounded, this fight wasn’t over. A guttural sound drifted up from below, accompanied by a massive swarm of Trilid sent straight upward to strike the Seekers down. Ciella responded by diving like a bird of prey, zooming down past the incoming Akridd that Tora realized must be trying to protect what could only be the mother of all weak spots. He narrowed his eyes, pounded his Mech Arms together, and pointed downward. Poppi nodded her assent, a smile on her face. Around them the Phantom Thieves descended, and the dynamic duo joined them, sped on their way by Poppi’s thrusters. It was time to end this once and for all.





For nearly ten minutes straight Blazermate took Nadia on a whirlwind tour of Limsa Lominscuttle Town by air, pulling off twists and turns, plunges and slopes, even a couple loops for good measure. It was way crazier than any roller coaster ride the feral had ever been on, and she dutifully screamed herself hoarse whenever Blazermate took a deep dive or made a daring maneuver, much to her carrier’s amusement. Their circuitous trip took them from the city’s lowest depths, where Nadia skimmed along the surface of the fishers’ oyster-encrusted canals, all the way up to the loftiest parapets of its breezy seastack towers among the terns, cormorants, and gulls.

They passed by the Bismarck restaurant, tidied up and open for business after their group’s nasty spat with Cia nearly two days ago, and soared over the harbor they’d set sail from yesterday to find it utterly devoid of shipgirls making ready for war. In the light of day the city’s immense Blitzball arena seemed even more magnificent, and with no game in progress Blazermate could fly right inside. While the two of them had visited the stadium before, an aerial view was a far cry from watching in the stands. She skirted around the great orb of water suspended in its center, allowing Nadia to reach out and drag her fingers along its incredible surface. When she pictured the players from that beautiful night inside, she remembered their movements better than their faces. To an outsider it had been a mesmerizing display, not too unlike the elegant fish she’d seen schooling throughout the reef in Heaven’s Edge, except the Blitzball players were more like sharks on the prowl, working together to hunt down the ball and hungry for victory. Their dance had been one of lightning passes, cunning interceptions, and ruthless tackles, intense as it was beautiful, and thrilling to behold. If she weren’t so caught up in the moment Nadia might have asked Blazermate to drop her into the water, curious to see if her fusion with the Oceanid made her even half as good a swimmer as those athletes on the night before the storm, but before she knew it the pair were back out in the open air once more.

The only thing that flew faster than Blazermate and Nadia as they hurtled beneath the bridges and around the vast nets of Limsa Lominscuttle Town was the time. All too soon Blazermate coasted down for a landing among the dirigibles and flying machines of the city’s bustling airship pad, bringing their wild ride to an end. “Whoo-oo!” Nadia exulted as Blazermate let her go. “That was- wagh!” When the feral hit the deck on wobbly legs she nearly fell flat on her face. She ended up in her knees, gasping for breath as she clutched at her chest in a vain attempt to grab hold of and bestill her racing heart. “Gah…hah…hah!” she coughed, her throat raw from a potent combo of hyperventilation and emphatic yowling. Her nerves were shot, she’d lost her voice, and her head still spun from the dizziness, but as Blazermate could see when Nadia lifted her head after a moment to shoot her a huge grin, she was happy as a clam. “That..” she croaked. “Was awesome.”

After a few more moments she managed to bring her breathing and heart rate under control, which also turned out to be enough time for the cityfolk going about their business in the area to stop giving the surprise newcomer weird looks. That meant that when Nadia picked herself up, she got to see the airship deck in all its glory. Perched high atop the Mizzenmast, the great tower that formed the beating heart of Limsa Lominscuttle Town, the landing stretched out in every direction like a giant umbrella. News of the city’s freedom from Abyssal siege seemed to have traveled fast, and a whole host of air vehicles now sat upon or hung about the place. Some, like lhe Junker and Squid, hovered alongside the deck like ships docked at a pier, prevented from setting down by their peculiar construction. Their immense balloons really caught the eye, but even they didn’t quite hold a candle to the actual blimp moored nearby, its fins and undercarriage a striking hot pink. Nadia spotted a sick-looking helicopter with two adjustable rotors, as well as an even more futuristic hauler. Not counting the steampunk ships’ balloons, the hauler tied for biggest alongside a green arship with a huge, sharp nose that reminded Nadia of a narwhal’s tusk. She expected to see the Seekers’ Atomos somewhere, but if unlike her Bowser spent the night in Alcamoth, it made sense that the team’s airship would’ve been left in the public park or something. Workers were loading and unloading cargo, making regular use of the Crow’s Lift in the deck’s center. It was an impressive scene, although even with all its grandeur, the airship deck couldn’t claim the honor of being Limsa’s highest point. That went to Sky’s Hatchery, accessible by the spiral staircase that began where the lift ended. When Nadia looked upward, she could see the rookery up above, traces of animal activity visible through the windows.

Nadia took a deep breath in, then let it out. Despite the fumes coming off some of the nearby vehicles, she could really savor the fresh air up here, almost as much as the wealth of opportunities that stretched out in every direction beneath her. Her flight with Blazermate, and all the sneak peeks around the city it provided, had helped her realize just how much there was to see and do around here. Her previous jaunts around the city had really just scratched the surface; exploring the upper and lower decks alone could keep her occupied for days, and after taking into account the labyrinthine wharftowns plus the shoreline districts across the great bridges, as well as the culture and citizenry that brought the whole place to life, Nadia could picture herself falling in love with Limsa in a way she never could with New Meridian. Compared to that, even the thought of facing another Dead Zone or Bottomless Sea made her want to die a little inside. She looked over at Blazermate. “Thanks again for the ride! Never have I ‘meda’ better ‘bot. I think I’m gonna wander around a while, though. Maybe meet up back at the beach ‘round dinnertime. See ya!”

With that she was off, but Nadia didn’t plan to go down before she checked out everything that was up. With bright eyes the feral skipped up the stairs two at a time until she stood at the threshold of Sky’s Hatchery. The instant she set foot inside she found herself greeted by a whole flock of birds, winged beasts of all shapes and sizes, some even big enough to ride on. A few were flapping around but overall they seemed pretty content to just lounge around their perches and cages. Some customers milled about, mulling over potential purchases, and a couple hired hands -who were themselves penguins- helped to take care of the other creatures. They were adorable in their little caps and vests, although the ‘DANGER - DO NOT THROW’ warnings on their backs threw Nadia off somewhat. In the middle of it all stood Sky herself with her trusty partner Wrench on her arm. She seemed to be talking about owls with a magical-looking girl, who had a cute little owlet of her own. Nadia waved when they glanced her way, then did a lap around the place to look at the birds. Most were a little wary of her, so she only stopped once in order to pet an industrious-looking rooster named Nugget, whose label identified him as the hatchery’s manager. Highly impressed, Nadia gave him some feed, then went on her way.

Rather than join the crowd using the Crow’s Lift, Nadia made her way to the edge of the airship deck. The wind whipped at her hair and her shirt, but she wasn’t afraid. As tall as it was, the Mizzenmast didn’t exactly compare to modern skyscrapers, and she was by no means starved for ways to get down. She turned and, like a diver from a boat, fell backward over the railing. As she did she embedded hardened claws into the rim. From there she descended using her muscle fibers as a bungee cord, stretching them out farther and farther until she could feel the pain even through her typical numbness, at which point she was left dangling in the air.

Ignoring the probability of being stared at through the windows behind her, possibly by somebody important, she scanned the nearby upper decks for any good anchor points and found a suspension bridge held up by nets between two buildings. “Okay,” she told herself, bringing her off hand up in front of her. “This should work…I think…” After taking a deep breath Nadia began to pressurize her arm, charging up power until her scar tissue couldn’t hold together any longer. In an explosive burst of vital fluid her hand launched forward, connected by strands of fiber. She aimed high, and thanks to the abundance of net, managed to snag a handhold from afar without issue. “Hah! Like shakin’ up a can of soda–a certified pawttle rocket!”

Of course, that was just stage one. Nadia started building pressure in her thigh and ankles, but kept her muscles tightly bunched, so that instead of blowing her parts off, she’d blow herself forward. When she had enough power she took a deep breath, let go, and with a hearty blast of blue blood zoomed toward her new handhold. Nadia barely kept herself under control, her teeth clenched the entire time, but after a moment she came together right where she wanted to be.

A moment of silence passed as she double-checked to make sure everything was intact. Then she breathed a sigh of relief–a sigh that turned into a cackling laugh halfway through. “Nyahahaha! Course it worked, I’m the coolest!” Still giggling, she climbed onto and flopped down on the bridge, where she lay staring at the sky. After a couple moments she lifted up her forearm again and looked it over. “Hmm,” she thought aloud. “Y’know, I bet if I sat down for a couple hours and practiced I could use that to punch dudes from a ways off. Fast, too. That’d be purr-etty cool…yeah…” As she realized she was talking to herself, she rolled her eyes, then got to her feet. So, the Upper Decks, she mused, looking around. Where to next?

She wound up in the next building over, the Marauders’ Guild, where a bunch of big, burly dudes trained with axes. While she watched for a few minutes, wondering if she could apply any of their techniques to her fish tail, she soon moved to the balcony to get a good view of her surroundings with no nets in the way. It offered a great view, not just of the Upper Decks around her, but the Lower Decks beneath. From here she could see the Mizzenmast Inn, where she and a number of the other Seekers had their rooms, and where they’d chowed down on pub food the same night she went to watch Blitzball. Just down the way stood the Aftcastle, where the Maelstrom militia was garrisoned, keeping the peace inside the city and doling out commissions to anyone who wanted some work. Farther down she could see the Aetheryte Plaza with its distinctive enormous crystal mass, full of people mingling or going in and out of Hawkers’ Alley. Lower still, the shanties extended outward. If the Mizzenmast was the hub of a wheel and the other seastacks plus their stone walkways the spokes, then those multi-tiered wooden wharves were the space between.

Naturally, everywhere she looked, Nadia saw the people of Limsa just going about their business. Funny how just watching ordinary people still didn’t tire her out; hopefully it never would. Maybe she was just imagining it, but today it seemed like everyone was walking with some pep in their step. With the Abyssal Fleet leaderless and in tatters, people were full of zest all over, even those who couldn’t afford to while away their time on beaches and in resorts. When Nadia narrowed her eyes in search of familiar faces, she spotted Shantae down in the Aetheryte plaza, cheerfully giving dance lessons to a dozen or so bright-eyed girls and a couple guys. Some of the young ladies seemed vaguely familiar, so the feral went ahead and assumed they were shipgirls she saw during the battle on Blackwater Bay. She also saw Bacchus slumped against the wall by the Mizzenmast Inn, unsurprisingly plastered. Other than that though, she didn’t really recognize anyone. Not until she happened to glance back at someone she initially passed over, a gray-haired young man on a different bridge looking out to sea.

It took a moment for the ball to drop. “Oh wait, yeah, I know him, he was the guy…” Nadia stopped dead in her tracks, a knot forming in her stomach. The guy who asked me to tea a couple days ago. Who I saw at the Blitzball game, with…her. She recalled her impression that Inigo was an incorrigible flirt who seldom saw success, and that when she saw him actually on a date with the somewhat aloof Northampton, she felt happy for him. Happy that he seemed to have found someone, and ended up happy himself. But that girl was dead now. Killed on Blackwater Bay, fused by Nadia herself, then later removed and fused with Link. It was impossible to say one way or another, but an idea haunted the cat burglar: the idea that Northampton really had been the one for this poor guy, only to be murdered the very next day, then have her remains passed around like a trading card.

“Ugh.” Nadia held a hand to her head and averted her gaze. Part of her felt like she ought to make her way over and offer her condolences, but at the same time, she didn’t really know Inigo, or even Northampton for that matter. Her eyes drifted to her old wounds, which no amount of regeneration seemed able to heal. She was no warrior, but she knew that in any war, there were always sacrifices. Better than most, she reckoned, she knew the scars that tragedy could leave in its wake. Some scars would never fade away. But by the same token, those scars made sure that she would never forget what she had lost–and why she needed to keep fighting. Today was her day to take a load off, sure, but tomorrow the sun would still rise on a world full of evil. Her fingers closed into a fist, her Oceanid eye glowing with resolute power. Tomorrow, she would rise to the occasion, too. No matter how many more Dead Zones or Bottomless Seas awaited her, she couldn’t live well while Galeem and all the evil it brought into this world still endured. As long as she had her allies, stronger and braver than she, and spirits to give her the power to make a difference, Nadia Fortune could finally be the change she wanted to see.



She took a deep breath and straightened up. Her conviction allowed her to dull the pain of seeing Inigo alone again; hopefully, he wouldn’t give up, either. While today still lasted, she could still make the most of it, at least. Nadia turned and began to make her way to the Aetheryte Plaza, wondering if she could learn a thing or two about dancing before the next bubble pit came around.

Level: 2
Experience: 12/20
Currently In: Frozen Highlands, Snowy Ruins
Word Count: 209 (+1 Exp)
Albedo @Lugubrious, Linkle @Gentlemanvaultboy

Ah, it wasn't magic?

Frisk tilted their head in curiosity as D and Tatiana explained the source of their power. They slightly frowned as the gilded warrior expressed his distain for some mentioned scholars. They didn't mean to open past wounds for the guy. Tatiana then took her turn to explain. Faith. That was what gave them power. And lots off it it seems! The child's eyebrows rose as she listed off the cool stuff they could do, cause of this higher being they followed.

Frisk faintly smiled as the cleric patted them on the head, assuring them that even they could have that kind of power as long as they believed. ...In who or what, they had no idea. Perhaps a higher being could humor them at some point. For now, they kept Tatiana's words in mind, nodding in response with a more pronounced grin.

Though D seemed more pesimistic about it, talking about an Erdtree and gold. Guess he likened faith to gold? Would make sense. The head cleric's optimism countered his pesimistic outlook, to which he simply shrugged off. As Albedo diverted the warrior's attention for the moment, Frisk spoke up to Linkle again:

"Wanna get going?" They asked, not seeing any further reason to stay.

As Red-Eye drew ever closer, Jesse wondered what she could do. There had to be something. This situation was not ideal, to say the least. There had to be a way out of this, for everyone. Of course it would be trivial to save her own life- but that wasn’t a victory. Maybe she could No-Collide something? Lift something up? Make something smaller at a crucial moment? Someone could practically hear the gears turning if they put their heads up to her redhead. But a solution would present itself in the form of Robin and his sacrifice play. A Final Smash- something like this was about to happen in the undersea lab if Jesse remembered correctly.

Well, this was it. Another one bites the dust. Jesse would just have to win it for Robin, too. Robin’s final display of power was truly extraordinary. Countenance newly sharpened with grim resolve, Jesse brushed past Poppi and once again took her place in the gunner’s seat. She was looking forward to finally wiping this oversized maggot from the face of whatever world she was on today.

As the sand disappeared the train took to the bridge, the Red-Eye failing to dig into metal, Jesse silently lined up the cannon. Easiest shot indeed. Quickly, Jesse did some mental calculations. They came up with the idea that whatever happened, she had to kill this thing before it did anything else. “You guys can fly, right?” She said, and pulled the trigger.

Though she didn’t quite predict just how bad things would get. “Ah, fuck.” She said, watching the entire god damn desert vanish into the abyss. It was time to abandon ship.

And then suddenly she was really high up. “Um.” She pondered.

Did she miss something?

Glancing around, she saw everyone else being lifted high into the air, and then freezing at the apex, before slowly moving back down. Wind blew her hair and clothes all around.

Polaris?

A blue shimmer directed her eyes downward. There that ugly motherfucker lay, its carcass spewing evil into the air towards them.

Man, I wish I could fly again. She thought to Polaris. Evade would just have to do. She reached her palm out behind her and then pushed off the sky, blurring through the updraft to charge downward. Forgoing accuracy, Jesse summoned her Service Weapon in her right hand as she fell head first. The pistol’s barrel rotated and began to spin. As she dived downwards she unleashed a hail of machine gun fire upon the flying enemies, cutting a small path through them. She flattened herself out, hitting the air brakes as it were.
“Hey, Sven.” She called out. The cooky Alchemist Uncle Sven appeared for the first time in a long time. Jesse hadn’t found the time to use him yet, but looking at the weak spot, and her musings on currently lacking any real burst damage, had given her an idea.

He seemed all too happy to be summoned during a death plummet, cackling along. “Gimme a fire flask! Gonna make it a big one. Sound good?” Jesse offered. A science experiment. Could she once again give the first law of thermodynamics the finger? The round alchemist gave the redhead what she wanted, tossing a fireflask at the monster below. He floated away like a balloon. Jesse withdrew her Tool Gun from its holster, quickly used some minor telekinesis to switch it to Inflate, and fired several shots at the fire flask. Lo and behold, the glass round flask and the boiling orange liquid within double, tripled, quadrupled in size. It was now the size of Jesse. Any bigger and it might break apart in the air or break for some other reason. Uncle Sven flung his hands up in the air, whooping in victory, before vanishing. “All right.”

Jesse unsummoned her Service Weapon and latched onto the fire flask with Launch. The air around the bomb shimmered with power. Hopefully her machine gun fire and her allies combined would cut a path for the weapon to the giant beast. Once she thought she saw a lull in the swarm, she narrowed her eyes. “Open wide.” She jerked her arm down and the fire flask plummeted through the up draft, zooming towards the gaping wound of the creature at tremendous speed. She felt like it had enough speed and weight to smack and crush one or two of the flying bugs out of the way before breaking. Worst case scenario a big enough creature sacrificed itself to break the flash, only to send a rain of fire spreading across the greater area, softening it up. Best case scenario, the dying Red Eye’s innards got roasted.

Kamek poked the stone platform that had apparently swallowed Link and forced him to fight a gang of dog eared girls with the end of her broom while standing well away from it. Then she sent a shadow clone to wander over it. After that she braved the circle herself. Peered at it. Poked it some more. Gave it a quick sweep to see if that would uncover any hidden runes or something. Then she shot it with a spell for good measure and finally gave up.

”Well then. This is a bust” the mage admitted, right before Rika leaned over her shoulder and asked “What you doing?” which gave her quite the start, the mage twirling around to face the ship girl in a moment of panic.

”Ah my stars! Rika? You snuck up on me!” she accused the former abyssal who simply cocked her head and insisted she had not “I’m just light-footed on the water” she explained, before reiterating her question

”Well I was investigating… ah it does not matter it's a dead end anyway” she replied and then turned the question around on Rika to change the subject ”What have you been up too? I haven’t seen you in a while”

“Me? Oh I’ve been sailing around. It’s nice to be back on the water and not be in danger while I’m at it” she explained “plus I’ve been checking out all the neat stuff there is in the ocean”

”Oh? Such as?” Kamek asked mostly to make conversation as she remounted her broom.

“Lots of colorful fish, and coral oh and there’s this shipwreck with food walking around in it. I didn’t know that was where food came from. Seems kinda weird to be honest” she said, which raised the mages eyebrow. This she had to see, so soon enough they had scooted along the beach to see the food based bugs who made their home in and around the shipwreck.

“Weird aren't they?” Rika said as the bugs mostly scurried away from her loudness

”Somewhat, yes” Kamek agreed as she landed on the beach next to the shipgirl, before sending a Toadie swooping off to snatch up a kiwi looking one, which came complete with a large spoon for a nose. It struggled in the propeller minion’s grip as the mage poked it with her wand.

”Well it’s certainly a novelty… you can't speak can you?” she asked the bug, and only received some pokemon-like calls of “Kwee Kweeble” from it in response ”Seems not. You can never be too careful, you know.” she explained, before having the minion put it down again, at which point it fled to go hide in a nearby fallen log.

“Wanna see if there's anything else neat around?” Rika asked, to which she got a shrug and a ”Why not, I could do with stretching these old bones for a bit” from the mage.

As the pair began their search, they managed to turn up no shortage of unusual things. Their shared interest in ambulatory food had brought them to quite the interesting section of beach, a little south and around a leftward bend from the Kanzuki Estate. With no manmade structures to be seen other than that rather aesthetic shipwreck resting on the shore, the igneous rocky outcroppings forming natural walls and wealth of different Bugsnax to be found, made the cove seem more like a nature preserve than part of a resort. Kamek and Rika could watch a Snaquiri leap from the water to float using its umbrella, or Crapples fighting over morsels of food that had washed ashore. When they passed by palm trees they could see crowds of Snakpods just hanging there like bagworms. It wasn’t all fun and games, though; channels of lava oozed gently down the beach from within caves in the porous rock, and irksome Grapeskeetos buzzed around the ladies in a feeble but annoying campaign to drain their juices.

Most interesting of all, Kamek and Rika realized during their tour of Boiling Bay that they weren’t alone. While tourists and beachgoers seemed to give the place a respectful birth on account of its weird and wonderful creatures, a lone Grumpus traipsed around the cove busily, using a trap to gather Bugsnax one at a time. If lucky enough to catch one, the purple-furred stranger went right back to the shipwreck. A better look at the place revealed the presence of a number of tables laden with hastily-scribbled notes and scientific instruments, as well as cages for the critters and some other bits of furniture. Said better look also led to the bizarre discovery that the stranger’s left lower leg appeared to be composed entirely of strawberries, but if the unusual limb troubled the Grumpus at all, they certainly gave no sign of it.

Kamek took the strawberry leg for a strangely localized fusion and that was enough to pique his interest, though the discovery that she seemed to be a fellow academic also had a part of it. Of course, such types were not normally the ones who liked to be interrupted, which could prove a problem to her information gathering. As such, when she politely rapped on the closest thing she could find to a door on the ship with her wand she had with her the same very unfortunate kweeble. Or rather Rika did, carrying the panicked thing under one arm

”Excuse me for interrupting, but you seemed to be someone in the know about these strange creatures? Would you be able to enlighten me about their nature and what you are studying about them?” she called out with polite interest.

Floofty gave Kamek an irritated glance, although a little respect and the possibility of free Bugsnax as a peace offering meant that they couldn’t be too bothered. “Hmph! I should certainly hope so,” they grouched, slapping shut the door on a freshly-caught Strabby’s cage. The Grumpus reached out a paw to request the Kweeble. “How refreshing it is to meet someone helpful for a change. Here, I’ll take that. Curious about Bugsnax, are we? Keep whatever wits you have about you and don’t touch anything without my say-so, and we’ll get along just famously, I’m sure.” After they stuffed the living kiwi in a birdcage, with its spoon nose poking through the openings, the Grumpus crossed their arms behind their back. “Floofty Fizzlebean, Gastroentomologist. If that’s too many syllables for you, just know that it means yes, I most certainly can ‘enlighten’ you about Bugsnax. I’m studying them to better understand, and control, the process of snakification.”

”Oh I wouldn’t dare” Kamek replied to the insistence she not touch anything, before giving Rika a ‘that goes for you too’ glance after the ship girl had handed over the Bugsnax to the Gastroentomologist. A word both wisely decided not to embarrass themselves failing to pronounce correctly.

”Pleasure to meet you, Floofty. I am Kamek, a humble mage, and this is my companion, Rika” the koopa introduced them to her as they both looked around the rest of the shipwreck of a home.

“Hi” Rika said with a smile and a wave “Nice place you got here. Very… drift woody!”

Kamek gave her a look and then realized Rika was being more or less genuine with her compliment and tried to move past that as best she could ”Yes… well anyway. What was that process you mentioned? Snakification?” she glanced down at the Grumpus’ mismatching limb and then asked ”Is that what occurred to your leg? If that isn’t a sensitive topic”

“Yeah what is up with that? It's like a super localized fusion? We’ve never seen that before, right Kamek?” Rika added, tactlessly crouching down a little to get a closer look at the strawberry leg.

Floofty nodded to Kamek. “Correct. Snakification is the process by which Grumpus biology is overridden by surrogate biological matter following the consumption of Bugsnax. We are what we eat, as they say.” They lifted their leg and moved it, each of the three strawberries bending and flexing just as a normal limb would. “Owing to the difficulty of getting any help from the dim-witted and trepidatious populace hereabouts, I have been experimenting on myself, hence the leg. Snakification occurs one part at a time, and randomly–until now, that is.”

“Until now?” Rika asked curiously, bulldozing over any of the interim questions Kamek had been about to voice about, for example, the how of that situation, or perhaps more importantly the whys of why you would want to have a food based leg in the first place.

A smug look spread over Floofty’s face. “Ah, tickled your fancy with that one, did I?” They adjusted their bow importantly. “Indeed. For I have created an invention capable of directing Snakification’s transformative power into a specific part. Behold…” Floofty moseyed over to a nearby table and picked up a device that seemed to be made from a fishing rod, then presented it to their guests. “The Snaktivator. It’s all very intricate and complicated, so I’ll put it in words I’m sure everyone can understand.” They opened the a cage and pulled the Bugsnak Rika gave them back out. “Feed me Kweeble. Poke Snaktivator in foot. Foot turns into Kweeble.” Flipping the device around in their hand, they almost offered it to Rika, but thought better of it and handed it to Kamek. “Well? What are you waiting for? The trial has begun.” With that, Floofty stood with their mouth open, and an otherwise unamused expression.

”Are you su-” Kamek began to ask before she realized it was a very pointless question. Of course she was sure. So instead the mage took the device before Rika could, and crouched down next to Floofy’s foot.

“Aw” Rika bemoaned not getting the funny device, but that did not prevent her from picking the Kweeble out of the cage and holding the struggling beast out and, sort of, vaguely handing it towards the Grumpus’ very big mouth.

As Rika hoisted the Bugsnak Kamek had to ask ”So. Forgive my ignorance, but what is the benefit of this, specifically?” even as she stood ready to engage in the experiment.

It went without saying that neither of them had any particular qualms about feeding a living creature to this very reckless scientist. Kamek came from a palace where everything had eyes, and Rika saw no reason not to follow her example in this situation. People probably should have not let her fall in with such dastardly influences.

Rather than reply, Floofty went ahead and ate the Kweeble. The creature got chewed up and swallowed in a matter of moments, leaving Floofty smacking their lips. “Hmm. Terribly sweet,” they mumbled as they glanced down at the extremity Kamek was kind enough to prod with the Snaktivator. Sure enough, the left lower leg suddenly turned into a big kiwi fruit with both ends removed. It just sort of popped in, without any build-up or ceremony. Floofty’s knee disappeared straight into the top as if the missing lower leg was embedded within. “Experiment zero-two, successful,” the Grumpus announced.

They cleared her throat and moved on, as if the matter bore no other significance. “As for your other question, the answer is really quite simple, so I daresay its implications won’t be lost on you. As you see, snakifications ‘remember’ the part that came before, as if imprinted. This allows them to mold to a shape similar to the original. And snakification wears off over time.” Floofty paused as if waiting for their new assistants to start applauding their genius right that instant. “...Which means, even if I were, say, missing a limb, a snakified limb would grow in its place, then revert to the original part over time. It is nothing less than regeneration–of limbs, of organs, of bodies. A discovery that will no doubt rock the world of medicine to its very core, even if…certain people…don’t quite grasp that significance.”

Kamek blinked behind her spectacles a few times and then had to admit ”You’re right, that is remarkable”

Rika scratched her head and then pointed out “Can’t you and Blazeramte already do stuff like that with your magic and her heal beam thing though?”

”Well, yes. But not everyone has a mage as experienced as I or a fancy medical robot, on call. If these can be farmed then you could supply an entire civilization with near perfect wound and disease treatment in an edible form. That would be revolutionary on its own. Plus there are limits to what we can do, limb and organ restoration wise. We haven't exactly had to worry about limb loss yet for example, so I do not know if Blazermate can cover that” Kamek pointed out, before asking a somewhat key question in terms of application for their specific needs (i.e. violence) ”How long does the, ah, snakification normally take to wear off?”

Barbed words for Rika had been on the tip of Floofty’s tongue until Kamek gently explained the importance of their work. The Grumpus settled for looking indignant, as if her time was being wasted, until Kamek posed another question. “That depends on one’s natural healing rate, independent of any outside restorative effects, but it’s typically about a week,” they replied.

”I see” she replied. Much too long for combat healing, but an impressive rate for anything other than that. If they could get some of these to smash city it could be useful for treating long term injuries there. If it worked on non grumpus’ that was.

”I take it you do not know if this works on people who are not of your species yet?” she asked, a touch rhetorically, before adding ”or if there are any of these bugsnax that would provide beneficial properties on top of the transformation…. Hmmm maybe we could even induce useful effects via fusion?” as much as a question as her own musings.

The question took Floofty aback, provoking brows furrowed in indignation. “As if! You must not know what a good scientist looks like. Of course I tested on other species whenever I could get them, and they most certainly do experience similar effects. If you simply cannot visualize such a thing, why not prove me right by trying it for yourself?” Floofty tossed the Snaktivator back to Kamek, treating the device almost as flippantly as their guests. “With my vastly superior two-point-two model nearly complete, I have no further need of version two-point-one. Just let me know if anything interesting happens while you’re playing with it, would you? I’ve got much to do, so if you’ve no further intent to aid me in my research, kindly leave me to it.”

”I meant no offense. I simply assumed based on your mention of not being able to get help earlier, and your reliance on self testing, that you would have not had access to other research subjects as of yet. That was my mistake” Kamek apologized to her even as she stashed away the device in her white mage robes.

“That seemed pretty obvious to me” Rika interjected, having not really liked the woman’s tone from the start.

Kamek’s good manners helped to smooth over the perceived wound. “Ah, fret not. In the end it’s only natural, I suppose. All that really matters is progress.” That said, it would seem that Floofty was serious about getting back to their own business for now. The Grumpus returned to their workstation, where they lifted up their new kiwi leg and laid it on the table before taking hold of a hacksaw. Then Floofty paused, and almost as an afterthought glanced the others’ way. “Run along for now, why don’t you? What comes next might not suit you. Later on, however, I might have need of you again, and I may be able to prepare something for your troubles, as well.”

”We’ll, ah, keep that in mind” Kamek replied. If the dismissal had not made her want to leave the prospect of viewing some self amputation most certainly did. ”Come along now Rika, let us leave Floofty to her work” she said, before swiftly stepping out the door with the ship girl in tow.

“Well that was weird?” Rika said while they were still unwisely close to the self mutilating researcher’s driftwood domicile.

”Nonsense it was fascinating” the mage replied with deliberate loudness before saying far more quietly ”She seemed a few coins short of a 1up yes, but no need to let her know that”

“Oh. Ok then” Rika relpield “Sooooooo. What are you going to do with that thingy then? Because I don't think anyone else would want to turn their leg into food. Right?”

”Probably not, unless they were worried about losing it of course. Which in this line of work does not seem too unlikely unfortunately” Kamek replied, before explaining that: ”What I am really interested in is how this interacts with fusions. As a targeted delivery mechanism perhaps? Maybe it even works on fusions on its own”

“Huh. maybe. So how are you gonna find out?” Rika asked as they strolled along the beach

”Well we’ll just have to try it out and find out now won't we?” the mage replied with a smile

And thus began their own bout of highly ill advised experiments.

On some unfortunate fish.



Several minutes and a few heavily mutated fish later and Kamek had her answer and it was quite the excellent one.

”Fascinating stuff” Kamek concluded as their experiments wound down, before saying ”Thank you for bringing me here Rika. This little gizmo was well worth the effort and rudeness from its creator” to her research assistant.

“No problem” she replied before suggesting “so… wanna head back?”

”Seems like a good plan, we need to share our discovery after all the mage replied. The two set off a few moments later, arriving just in time to meet up with Bowser, Jr and Jr’s new friend Lana as they were all about to join in with the sandcastle building.

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Link passed Karin as she made her way down the beach, waving obligingly at the woman's understanding. As he approached the long buffet table again, where the triplets had posted up and were digging in to what was left of the spread, he took a detour over to the beachside bar he hadn't previously perused. He ordered a tall drink of crystal clear water for himself, slamming down an entire pitcher of the stuff, before moving on to three orders of "something sweet."

He approached the trio carrying three pink drink poured inside hollowed out pineapples, bright straws and cute littles umbrellas poking out the tops. The orange, blue, and violet of the umbrellas demarcated whose was whose. He set the drinks down next to Cerberus. "Enjoying yourselves? I thought you three would wants something to wash it down with," He said.

"My name's Link. We never got to introduces ourselves back there." He said, sitting down on sand that now felt so incredibly soft. "I hoping, now that we're not beating on one another, you could tell me everything you know about that place you were stuck in? We've been traveling around, fighting the thing that put you guys in there." He gestured to the entire beach, or at least the people that were still hanging around this area and hadn't been lured off to the bubble party down the way or some other pristine vista. "You three are unique in our experience. I've never seen Galeem lock people away instead of filling their heads with light."

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Frisk @Majoras End Albedo @Lugubrious

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As disappointed as she was that they hadn't stumbled upon a workaround of the Strangers immortality, their explanation of faith and the power in fostered resonated with her. It reminded her of the power passed down in the Hyrule Royal family, the golden power wielded by Princess Zelda to fight back evil and darkness. D even described it as golden. She cupped her chin. "I wonder if holy power is gold everywhere?" She wondered aloud. Thankfully Albedo had drawn the knights attention elsewhere, because the Skull Heart chose that moment to change tactic and a creeping feeling crawled up her spine that he would definitely be able to see that her breath didn't have any fog to it.

No, that was fine. Before she could start to panic Frisk gave them an out. "Yeah, I guess we'll leave you to it." She said, looking from the child to the monks. She gave a short bow. "It was nice meeting you, but we've still got a lot of walking to do before it gets dark. Happy hunting." Spinning on her heal, she started back up the hill to retrieve her sled.

Minda held a crude barb of metal formed from a ripped apart railing against her chest with both hands and filled it with lightning. Once charged she tossed it up and caught it with her shadowhand before using that mighty mit to hurl the improvised javelin forth at her foe. The wind caught the projectile and blew it back even faster until it stuck home and crumpled uselessly against the massive armored wall that was Red Eye’s head. Then a bolt of lightning hammered down into the improvised spear and blasted the titan with enough power to maybe irritate it a bit. The equivalent of a static shock’s worth perhaps.

Still. At least she was doing something, unlike many of the others. Though that could perhaps be more attributed to the ancient artifact on her head having prevented her brains from being scrambled from the blast than by any kind of lollygagging on behalf of the others.

That didn’t stop her from yelling about it to the others though.

”Please please please tell me you are back in the game and have a plan back there!” she demanded to know as she ripped apart another part of the train for ammo. She was not entirely impressed by what she heard about what their plan was.

”Hollow Heights! Are you out of your mind? What is the plan to lose half the people onboard to the winds again!” Midna demanded to know as she hefted an entire deck-plate into her shadow hand, charged it with yet more power, and then prepared to heft it at the worryingly close worm.

She didn't get the chance to finish her toss however, because she instead had to throw herself flat to avoid being decapitated by the gunbarrel of the train swinging around at lightning speed, leaving the deck-plate to fall behind the train and into the sand below.

”Goddesses. Watch where you're swinging that thing you idiots!” she shouted as she picked herself up, only to be presented with the sight of Red Eye’s gaping maw bearing down on them, mere moments away from turning them into worm-food.

”Oh. Fuck”

It was all out of her hands at that point, though that did not mean she did not try. Lighting scorched the insides of Red Eye’s mouth just as useless as it had the outside, but in the end they were saved twice by dragonfire. First from the heroic sacrifice of Robin, who’s last gift was the knowledge of a final smash and the few moments of time they needed for the second burst of dragonfire to save them, the cannon roaring one final time as it near obliterated the titanic wyrm.

But not quite.

Two sources of dragonfire died, and yet neither where the end of the beast.

Robin turned to light rather than ash, a strangeness they had no time to reflect upon as the bridge holding them above the wind filled chasm fell away from them and sent the train crashing down to its demise along with it.

Yet they did not join it. Instead the heroes were blasted skywards by the winds, and out of consciousness by the g-forces involved.

Up there, Midna shook herself awake, and then slipped a finger beneath her mask to wipe away the mist from her eyes. The mask slipped back in place, and she put aside another death that could be laid at her feet to focus on the present.

They were falling to their doom, and yet despite that the damn worm would not stop trying to kill them. Even blasted to bits and impaled on a dozen beams of steel it still had the energy to vomit up a massive swarm of fliers to try and stop them from putting out of its misery.

To her left, she saw Jesse preparing the mother of all firebombs to end the titan, but that wasn't going to matter if it couldn't get there.

”Alright. Fly swatting time it is” she said to herself as she opened portals and drew out her blades. She held the smallest knife in her shield hand, the larger one in her free hand, and then the longsword in her shadow hand. All three she crossed before her heart and infused with Urbosa’s power as she fell.

Finally, she summoned her Vibrava, had it grip her backpack to act like her own set of wings, and used those wings to dive down towards the swarm ahead of the fire bottle, blades bared.

”Clear the way, coming through!” she shouted as she opened a portal before her and hurled her shadow Mimic down at the swarm, the chest hanging wide open as it devoured a score of Trilid before it had to return home. She followed this up with a cartwheeling wolfos that smashed through the swarm and finally a barrage of Chilfos spears flew down as she charged up one more attack.

And then they were upon her.

Or rather, she was upon them.

Midna spun in the air, avoiding the pack leader and slashing a long knife along its length and stabbed another in the head with her small knife before being surrounded by the swarm. Just as intended. She released the dark energy zone she had created around her just as they were about to overwhelm her. Her Vibrava detached from her back and started scything though the stunned pack with rapid fire disembowelment while the princess fell further and brought her longsword to bear alongside her knives.

She became a whirlwind of blades, hacking and stabbing while screaming at the top of her lungs as the air around her joined in, thunder roaring as each strike of the blade sent lightning arcing through the swarm, frying the bugs that came to kill her like the bug zapper of the goddesses.

And then all to soon the wells of power ran dry and the storm of lighting ceased, while the storm of Trilid kept coming. Still she fought, but without the lighting there was nothing to clear the air between swings. A Trilid clipped Midna on the side, sending her blood swirling into the wind as the princess fell the other way, was rammed by a second and then a third narrowly missed her as her Vibrava swooped down and snatched her up and the two turned to fee the swarm instead if fight it, the beleaguered princess trailing vital fluids and a flock of vengeful Trilid in her wake as she sped to one side of the swarm.

Truly, life had seen fit to provide Rubick with nothing but endless amusement. He had thought that nothing would be able to top the Defense of the Ancients, and he had mournful thoughts about what he would do once that event ended. After all, it wasn't every day that a great battle would draw in so many beings of all sorts of different origins and species. The day Galeem descended onto his world and brought him to this one was the best day of his life, perhaps even topping the day he earned his title of Grand Magus. He soon found himself in a town filled with a mishmash of various landmarks that clashed with each other's aesthetics. This led Rubick to theorize that he was no longer of his own world, and in fact had been brought to a world that was composed of many other worlds being merged together. Whatever had taken Rubick from his world and place him here was intent on doing something extraordinary, and Rubick wanted to see it all.

He quickly learned that he did not command his full repertoire of spells he had back in his own world, but he did still have one spell he could use, and that was more than enough for now. Besides, in this world, there was so much to learn and experience. There were many residents here who offered so much to play around with. The Azur Navy shipgirls were fun to toy with, as were other various fighters living here. The purple-haired half-genie girl was of particular interest, but after seeing what she had to offer, he quickly grew bored and left her alone. What really caught his attention, though, was the Arcanist Guild. Eager for a chance to learn some new spells, Rubick made his way in and explored, only to find that it mostly held basic commodities fit for budding "Arcanists". Most of the staff and occupants didn't even seem to be that magically gifted. Disappointed but not discouraged, Rubick signed up to join the guild anyway. After all, learning new ways to perform magicks other worlds, even if only basic techniques, sounded like a fun way to pass the time in this Limsa Lominscuttle Town. Rubick quickly rose through the ranks, as to be expected with his abilities.

Eventually, however, boredom began to take hold again. There were only so many potions he could brew and summoning techniques the guild had to offer, most of which he had already forgotten out of lack of interest. Sighing, Rubick grabbed a potion off one of the brewing stands he had been using and shoved it into a pocket before going out for a walk. His walk soon turned into a skip, and he began to him as he twirled his staff in one hand. As he passed a small crowd, he opened his ears to their gossip. Perhaps there would be something interesting the locals were talking about, after all. And as if by fate, there was a rumor that caught his attention. The "Seekers of Light", they were called. A group that was making a name for itself in Limsa Lominscuttle Town, having already performed some remarkable feats. He listened on, trying to catch a description of any of its members. Once he was certain he had gotten all the information he could, he set off, continuing his walk while keeping an eye out for these "Seekers of Light". He figured it was about time to leave the town anyway, and if he could find this group, then it was likely that he wouldn't get bored on their journey.

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---

Raiden was lucky to have arrived at the body of the train in time, should he have been a second later, the headbutt which ultimately ripped off the back end of the train sure would have brought his life to an ultimate conclusion. Luckily then he still held on to his sanity, but upon unlocking his ability to feel pain, he became controlled by his insatiable bloodlust. His persona, Jack the Ripper, had been allowed to fuel Raiden.

Raiden nearly tumbled over at the force of the headbutt, however he managed to keep his footing due to his naturally heavier metal body, but it still managed to knock a few more screws loose in the cyborg's brain. As he rattled, he looked back at the large sand-trekking serpent with spite. "You lousy piece of shit..." He growled under his breath, his anger towards the creature boiling now that his bloodlust lead his blade.

As the rest of his team had gathered their composure, Raiden kept to his mysterious persona, when he offered assistance to the now knocked over Big Band on the lower platform, as neither of the parties the conductor had requested had made it before Raiden. "Up you go, big guy. Got more danger to deal with and we don't need to lose any firepower." He'd help to hoist the man back on his feet, when suddenly a new change of events had caught Raiden's eye as he stood on the lower platform.

The Red Eye had rapidly been gaining on the train and there was little for Raiden to do besides prepare mentally for the worst. "Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" He shouted as it continued to close the gap between the two. It was then that Raiden was able to witness something that he never would have seen on any regular day. The ultimate sacrifice: a final smash.

Raiden had no idea such a final power existed in the world. Something that was so strong, yet so mystical. A power that was able to save the crew from total annihilation from the sand worm, as they closer and closer approached the hole ahead. But it came with the man fading to light, possibly forever.

For Raiden, there was no time to share sentiments with the woman he had left behind, though there was some sorrow for her loss. It did seem that he was gone with his noble act.

As they crossed over the seemingly bottomless pit, Raiden felt his heart jump as the cannon fired again into the creature, the sound of the cannon roaring as the shell the train crew had worked so hard to load finally met contact with Red Eye. Raiden grinned devilishly as it broke into the creature, when suddenly something changed. The tracks below the train had suddenly fallen into the endless void below, before being pushed high up into the sky with the rest of the crew, his blade flying out of his hand to god knows where. He'd have to look for that later.

As the crew reached the apex of their short flight, Raiden was surprised to find that none of the crew had became splattered across the hot desert sands, due to the efforts of the rabbit lady that had previously met Raiden. His weight however made it slightly difficult to descend as slowly as some of the others, making him fall at a slightly elevated pace compared to his companions. He shouted as he fell slightly faster towards the desert floor.

He managed to land more elegantly then his descent had initially been, dropping to the floor in a super-hero landing as he grumbled. "Why the fuck does this bastard have to make things more difficult..." It took a moment for the rest of the crew to arrive along side Raiden as the sand around him began to fade back to the scorching desert flooring. Raiden's visor came back to life as he scoped the tangled mass the serpent had become amongst the girders and other metal scraps. The crew were in the end game.

As some members of the gang began diving straight towards what was obviously the final spot they should be aiming for, Raiden, being a short range fighter, decided it be best he provide cover for those attacking yet again. As a few of the members began diving and weaving towards the final pressure point on Red Eye, Raiden searched the nearby terrain for his missing sword, with no avail. Time for plan B. Drawing the red sword equipped to his hip, he began dashing across the sand, falling behind Tora and Poppi as they closed in more and more. Whatever attack they and the others were executing, Raiden was more than glad to split a few insects in the process.

He began to quickly begin making work of each Akrid in a nearby radius of him as he hacked and slashed with his Ripper Mode, as the blood splattered his blade and metal, he became more and more ravenous for their deaths, chopping away more and more. "Get in there guys! It's now or never!" He gave the crew a demented grin as he sliced at more of the oncoming threats. "Show this fucker what you guys are made of! I'll cut down his support."

---

---

Sectonia's fears of a 'panic attack' were founded as the Red Eye did its absolute best to try to catch up to the train and devour it after having knocked off the ammo section of the train. Midna and a few others did what they could to try to slow down the beast as Sectonia was busy getting that shell ready with Tora and as the Red Eyes closed in, ready to chomp, Sectonia attempted to conjure a crystal platform to at least slow it down. This ended up not being needed however as Robin unleashed quite a potent attack that blasted back the Red Eyes. An attack that... caused him to completely disappear, soul and all. What did he call it? 'Final smash'? It seemed to be some technique that burned the mortal coil entirely to preform. Something that, while a few others were sad, Sectonia didn't react much to. If there was one thing she knew, there was never any reason to do an attack like that if there are other methods available. But then that was what heroes did.

And thanks to that attack, at least the group was able to launch that final shell at the Red Eye as they started to pass by that large pit, causing quite a bit of chaos as the red eye took the hit head on, fell into the pit, and got tangled in all the supports and wreckage caused by its rampage, subsequent hit, and fall. Seeing as it couldn't move much anymore, it started to launch hits minions at the group. Some of the seekers who couldn't hit the red eye in the pit launched their attacks at the minions it was spitting out, with those that could hit it doing so. Sectiona joined in on this latter group, having relative peace to cackle and throw large light ring after light ring at the trapped Red Eye. If those rings hit some minions along the way all the better, and seeing as a few went off course thanks to that magic boosting mask of hers, soon the area was filled with large ornate rings of light zipping everywhere dealing no damage to her allies, but devastation to her enemies.

Red Eye could take some incredible damage. The pustules on it's sides were broken open and weeping, it's hide was cracked and ripped open exposing it's insides the dry air, and it's very spine was fractured and irritated. Yet, the monster kept coming. The high speed battle had been anything but easy so far, and now on it's last legs - or so the Seekers hoped - the beast intended to make things even harder. No longer able to rely just on it's bulk, Red Eye came up behind the train and trashed the armory car, shaking the rest of the vehicle and producing an explosion overhead so forceful that it laid most of the Seekers out. Primrose was among them, toss from the gun's platform and landing flat on her front with the wind knocked out of her. She fought off unconsciousness and struggled to breathe for a few long moments as above her, those unaffected by the blast ran around to cover the positions and put the cannon to work.

Primrose was just recovering when the monster got close enough to try and close it's jaws around them, and when Robin stepped up to stop it. The same energy he'd displayed back at the Resistance hideout began to swirl around him, calling to mind the memory of their conversation on this very train headed to Tostarena: What I saw led me to believe that the price of a Final Smash is the user's own life. After putting one's whole being into an attack... not even a spirit remained.

"Robin..." Primrose murmured, immediately understanding what he was about to do even as he began his speech. She barely knew the man, and he barely knew them, but here he was about to sacrifice himself for the lot of them. Primrose felt her heart start to ache. The grand spectacle of the fell dragon being summoned by their tactician did not captivate her as well as it did the others. Primrose glanced over at Tharja as Red Eye shrieked and burned, watching as the dark mage looked on with wide, heartbroken eyes. There was a look of understanding that passed over Tharja's face, but it did nothing to mask the anguish that rested there as well.

At the front of the train, Therion was beginning to have second thoughts about faithfully relaying the team's instructions to the conductor. Apparently when envisioning a giant pit, he hadn't even considered that the tracks would run over said pit. That was way more danger than he wanted to be in - on top of being actively chased by a giant monster. His thoughts were put to words by Raz, who had followed along behind the thief. Seriously, was that the plan - drop this metal thing and all of them in it on top of Red Eye? Because Therion did not want any part in that plan. An explosion from behind them stopped any arguments, and worryingly he could see ahead of them that they were indeed coming up on a great chasm. Begrudgingly Therion agreed with the conductor that someone should go see what the hell had just happened, so it might as well be him.

"Don't drive this train into a pit," he warned, glaring at the conductor as he turned to take his leave of the head train car. He glanced at Raz as if to give the boy a silent mission to make sure the conductor heeded the thief's words, and then he was gone - sprinting back into the danger zone.

He arrived at the tail end of Robin's Final Smash, watching the dragon emerge from the sky as he moved and not even bothering to question what had just happened. He could see that the rearmost parts of the train had been ripped away, and that the cannon was just about ready to fire it's (hopefully) final shot. Below them, the sand suddenly fell away into darkness - and damn if Therion's knees didn't try their hardest to buckle as he wrenched his eyes away from the dizzying drop below. "That bastard," he complained under his breath.

Even close to death, or so they all hoped, the monster was aware enough to see that it too was hurtling towards a pit. It tried it's hardest to stop it's momentum, and when it succeeded it made for a sitting suck. Jesse hit the button and the railway gun exploded once more, tearing into Red Eye again and sending it tumbling into the dark.

And it took the precarious train track with it.

Therion managed to stop himself from being sick as he felt the train begin to fall. He considered all of his best options for survival, from jumping with the glider and hoping he could make it far enough to throw his grappling hook onto a canyon wall, to hoping the psychonaut and his weird magic could stop another fall. He looked at the other Seekers all panicking and thought his odds weren't good. Briefly, he caught Primrose's eye. She was much calmer than he was, although all of his own panic was internal. Primrose turned away to make sure someone else was alright when the train fell away completely and the storm rushed up so forcefully that it knocked the senses out of most of the group.

Primrose came to quickly, taking in the view from the sky. It was amazing, and very, very concerning. If the wind died, what would become of them? She cast her gaze about, doing a quick headcount and finding that they hadn't lost anyone to the wind like they had on their first trip across. Everyone was recovering at their own pace, and some were already diving into the wind and making a beeline for the monster below them - which had managed to cling to life. Primrose might have felt bad for it if it hadn't been one of the guardians keeping the world locked into the amalgam of light on Galeem's behalf.

The finale had come at last. A trilid swarm swept up into the air right for the group, but many of the Seekers were already on the move. That included Primrose, and the recently awoken Therion. The thief fought off a wave of nausea as he opened his eyes and found himself airborne yet again. He was not keen on diving toward the ground, having had enough of that for one lifetime - maybe even enough for two. With that being the case he was more than content to take up the rear, make sure no one went flying away, and pick off any of the akrids that managed to reach him before they could turn around for a second pass. With sword in one hand and daggers in the other, he made sure that none got a second chance.

Primrose was one of those descending to assist in the end of the fight. Not as quick as the others that were able to fly or otherwise propel themselves faster, the dancer had to settle for defending those above her from the flying akrids. She summoned the pyromancy of Zoey, the flame fan, and swiped it in broad strokes across the sky in front of her to burn the trilid to ashes. She lashed out at any particularly large groups, including the pack that was after Midna. With a fwoosh the flame fan cut a wide arc in their numbers to alleviate the twilight princess of a chunk of her pursuers. She didn't have the power to let loose another fireball like the one she'd used on the train, so while her feet were unable to dance to provide support that way, this would have to enough - clearing the way as much as possible in order for the rest of the Seekers to finally put an end to Red Eye.

---

---

Yet another day The Prisoner had perished, forcing himself to find another corpse to serve as his vessel. Lucky for him, there seemed to be decent amounts of beheaded corpses down in the dark, damp corridors of the dungeon he resided in. Crawling into the hollowed body of the corpse, the vines of the malaise crawling into every corner of the body allowing him to take control of it. Clenching his fists tight, he forced his ethereal head to appear over the beheaded area.

He had no choice but to make it to the end of it as he had always done, in an attempt to slay the king and change the cycle yet again. However, The Prisoner had not noticed one crucial detail with this dungeon that was abnormal. This was not his dungeon and he did not know that.

As he sprinted through the corridors of the large underground ruins, he did however, manage to find multiple common undead enemies such as zombies, archers, and bone golems of sorts, which he removed of by thwacking them in the head with his metal frying pan. There was plenty of enemies to kill and if there was good loot to find amongst the darkness, it took no particular interest to The Prisoner, as he was happy with the weapons he had currently.

It was within a few hours of traversing the dungeon that The Prisoner had come across a larger golem enemy, clearly guarding what was assumed to be a next area of the dankness. A trapdoor. As he rapidly approached the beast. it quickly roared to life, a rush of wind blocking both exits and entrances alike. That trapdoor was what he needed to shoot for. Keeping his frying pan and shield handy, The Prisoner dropped a Wolf Trap in his rush, rolling underneath the Concierge with grace as he quickly picked himself back up. He quickly landed multiple blows with his frying pan to the golem as it enraged and released a red forcefield around. Knowing that this could damage him should he get to close, The Prisoner dodged backwards as he waited for the effect to wear off.

As soon as the field went down, The Concierge prepared to strike The Prisoner with a direct jab. Before the blow could land, The Prisoner swung his shield into the attack, parrying the attacker backwards, stumbling directly into the Wolf Trap, which clamped into the leg of the Concierge, forcing him to be stuck in place. Pan in hand, he repeatedly struck down the Concierge with slams until it was able to free itself, prompting The Prisoner to yet again perform a roll behind him, chucking a grenade into his behind. To The Prisoner's surprise, this was enough to beat the familiar foe, reducing him to nothing but rocky rubble, and then slowly fading to ash. As if commanded, the doors which had slammed shut, now came open.

There was no loot to be collected from this familiar boss, yet The Prisoner saw no fault to this. His trusty Vorpan had served him well before, so why should he abandon it now? Now headed to the trapdoor parallel to his view, he approached it, climbed up the ladder, and was greeted by a collapsed room which had leaked light through the room. Amazed to see that he had seemingly found a way out, The Prisoner suddenly began searching for the first-most exit he could find. There was a small crack in the wall to his left, which he managed to adjust some rubble to enable easier access through. When he was no longer able to move the large rocks, he forced his body through the tight wall, the bones of the original corpse surely dislocating as he pressed through.

Once he made it through to the other side of the wall, he was blinded by the sight of white snow. Snow... The Prisoner had never seen snow before. He watched as flakes gently floated by his face, curious as to which part of the dungeon he could possibly be in now, only to realize something. The sky was empty, and there was land as far as the eye could see.

He was not in a dungeon. This was the outside world. Not a hellscape of piled up bodies and flying soot and ash, but rather fresh air, snow, and blankets of white. He didn't know what to do with the new land he had found... There was so much new terrain to discover, and most importantly, the freedom to be his own person...

...

The days had begun to pass by and The Prisoner was lucky it was as cold as it was, otherwise he might as well be dead yet again, but it seemed the cold had temporarily held off the spread of the Malaise within his body. The lifeless man had made camp within the ruins he had found outside the dungeon, complete with a simple pile of snow for bedding and a fire, which had begun to thaw the cold limbs of The Prisoner. Sure, cold and warm meant nothing to him, but it was a nice thought regardless, which is why he got pissed when some passerby began desecrating the wild life nearby. One of them was clad in silver and gold. If it weren't for his size, the man would have made a great vessel.

They seemed to use some sort of dark magic, though The Prisoner had no clue of the validity of this thought, to keep the animal carcasses alive long enough to produce food. Even the Prisoner was familiar with the ashen death of every creature and human alike in this world. He decided he could watch them closely for the time being (or as long as he could keep interest).

It was after a bit longer that even more travelers had made their way to the entrance of the ruins. Specifically a young man, a young lady, and a child, who followed behind the group. I'm lucky. They haven't seen me yet... He thought to himself. He reached for a weapon, now that the thought of strangers crossing his tuff came across his mind. He equipped his green Balanced Blade, holding it at the ready as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

What the power had been described as was golden, so perhaps his theory on dark magic was overruled... Yet, he knew that something was fishy about this whole ordeal. Scratching at his chin, he watched as just as quickly as the new crew had arrived, they began parting. Yep. Something was definitely off. The new group seemed uncertain about these... magic users, and now that they gave The Prisoner that vibe, he felt the need to follow suit.

As they began to pace away, The Prisoner quickly and scrappily packed up his belongings before snuffing out his embers and making way to the woods adjacent to the crew. He'd be keeping his distance as he watched the travelers quietly from the shadows of the pines. He kept and snuck along each and every tree, trying his best to avoid being seen.

---

---

Karin smiled warmly as Geralt made his way over to her. On her knees, like a proper beach goer, Karin worked away with her tools and kept creating her magnificent beach castle. Her eyebrows raised slightly as Geralt admitted his ignorance on the subject. “I assumed it was fairly self explanatory. A castle of sand. Though obviously miniature in this case.”

It was difficult to explain the mastery of beach architecture on display. How she worked with a plastic trowel, bucket, and an array of various custom made tools was truly remarkable. A man in very high quality and fancy beach wear and sunglasses moved from the shoreline back to Karin, bringing her a fresh supply of water.

“The idea is to use tools to create a mimicry of a castle. The most simple process is to fill a bucket with sand, douse it with water, and then flip it upside down. That is an example of a Level 1 Sand Castle Technique, for beginners and casual castle makers. I am a certified Level 350 Sand Castle Maker and have won several competitions. However this is just a very simple sand castle I am creating to entertain myself.” She said. The foundations were forming and she used her fingers and even her fingernails to soften edges or create corners. Was that a gargoyle?

“You see, this is a rudimentary recreation of Cologne Cathedral in Germany, originally built in 1248. Note the flying buttresses and pointed arches around the stain glass windows, signifying it’s Gothic origin.” She finely plucked at the tips of the many rising towers, creating spikes.

“Here. Accept this pail and trowel. You may participate as well.” She said as if she was handing them over to Geralt, when in fact the member of staff had picked them up and was handing them to him with a deep bow.

Geralt rolled his eyes good-naturedly at the explanation. He hadn't realized such a thing was a popular pastime, though it may not have been among Continentals and Skelligers, given the much more welcoming nature of this beach compared to what Geralt typically saw. As he watched her work, Geralt's eyebrows rose a bit in surprise. It was very impressive to see, admittedly. He wasn't entirely sure whether there were actual levels to this sort of thing or if she was simply exaggerating, but he wouldn't don't that she'd won a competition or two in her time with this sort of workmanship.

Her explanation of the castle, which was apparently a recreation of one from her world made not much earlier than his present time, left him nodding appreciatively. "Was only 1272 where I'm from, and that's certainly something that wouldn't look out of place on the Continent, maybe Redania. Wonder if there's any connection there..." Taking the offered tools, Geralt looked at them with a frown.

He had only the most bare-bones hints on how to begin, with what she'd called a "Level 1" technique: filling the pail with sand and flipping it over. Carefully doing so, Geralt frowned when the sand quickly fell apart, before remembering that one of her servants had been bringing water to help bind the sand together. After a few minutes, Geralt had a truly pathetic excuse for a sand castle for him and an amused look on his face as he tried to make a small rampart on one of the towers he'd created and repeatedly failed. "I'll admit, you make this look much easier than it's proving."

Karin laughed politely at Geralt's joke. "Oh, I'm sure you're not that old." She replied after he explained what year it was where he was from. "Well, like I said, I have thousands of hours of experience and am a world champion. It's one of my lesser hobbies but it has a certain soothing quality, wouldn't you agree?" She said, looking down at his pathetic excuse for a sandcastle, almost successfully hiding her small amount of superiority. "You don't need a rampart. Just stick with the bucket. Children can do it, I'm sure you can, too." She said 'encouragingly.'

Geralt's eyebrow rose at the comment about his age. "Well, actually...I'm 98 years old." Chuckling as he admitted it, he met here eyes and forced his pupils to contract slightly, showing off his pupils. "Mutations make me age significantly more slowly than a normal human." Returning to the task at hand, however, reminded him of how Ciri got frustrated when she was having trouble with learning a new technique, or mastering one she'd been having trouble with. Deciding that the self-proclaimed expert probably had the right idea, he smoothed out the ramparts and tried to go with a simpler design.

"Mmh." Karin nodded, looking Geralt over again behind her gold-rimmed sunglasses. Mutations. "One hundred years ago my grandfather challenged a man to a battle. They dueled for three days straight. It was a draw of course, since a Kanzuki never loses. But the point is, that was one hundred years ago and the man my grandfather and father challenged still lives. His name is Master Oro...I've yet to meet him yet, but I have challenged a student of his."

"My point being it's never too late for a master to learn something new." She looks down at the beach. "If not sandcastle building, then something else."

"Oh, I've learned plenty in this place. Like how shit life really is back on the Continent." Geralt muttered the second part, remembering the things Sakura had told him about what life was like in her world. Free education his ass. At least he rarely wanted for coin, given his skillset. "So, Master Oro, huh? Must be one hell of a fighter if he can force one of the Great Kanzuki to a standstill. And he's still teaching? Wonder if he'd be willing to put a Witcher on his ass once or twice."

Karin smiled sadly. "Life can be so terribly unfair, can it not?" She frowned. "I only ever examined my tremendous material privilege recently." She said, almost like it was a complaint. "He's more of a hermit. I would have found him already otherwise. I hear he's going around fighting with one hand behind his back these days. Though he also uses fireballs, psychic energy, both of his legs and telekinesis. And sometimes his other hand. A bit of an empty boast if you ask me."

Geralt honestly had no idea how to address the admission of her privileged life, so he didn't think about it. "Sounds...heh, believe it or not, like a Witcher. Igni, Yrden, and Aard would match the fire, psychic energy, and telekinesis, they're simple enough magic, and I'm sure there's some prick in the Cat School who'd fight with one hand behind his back just to prove he's better than you." Shaking his head at the reminder of the dying School, he shrugged. "Though we prefer to use steel and silver blades as well. Crossbows and bombs for when you need to keep a distance from your opponent, as well."

"Igni, Yrden, Aard. Magic, you call it? I've never heard of it." Karin said, looking a little cognitively dissonant. "I've trained with many weapons, but I found at a certain level of skill the necessity of them lessens so much that eventually, they become a liability. I suppose that's not an option for everyone, though. Though I still do enjoy the occasional game of horseback archery."

"Well, it all depends on the situation. Even with some basic Signs on hand, hardly even real magic, it's not exactly simple to take down the likes of Manticores or Kikkimoras without a real weapon. I once had to beat a Striga half to death with just the silver studs on the gauntlets I was using at the time because I was forbidden from killing it. Had to break the curse or it was my head on the line. Damn thing near ripped my throat out." Sighing, Geralt figured it was best to rip the bandaid off.

"I'm a mercenary, a monster killer for hire. Where I come from, monsters and magical creatures used to be a dime a dozen, and in response, mutants like me were created to hunt them. To make a long story short, we're very good at our jobs on the whole. But we can't slay a 15-foot fiend with our bare hands, even with our enhanced physiologies."

"What you're capable of, from what little I know from Sakura, might make it seem like we're in a weight class far beloew you. And, honestly, you'd probably be right. But. Where I come from, I'm a renowned, respected, feared slayer of monsters. I'm near a century old, with more life experience than all but the most wizened Witchers and Sorcerers. And I was killed by a pimply farmhand with a pitchfork. It took the combined power of a unicorn and a Source, a person with a direct and physical connection to the literal concept of magic, to revive Yennefer and I, and it did so at the cost of a long bout of amnesia." Chuckling, Geralt shook his head.

"Look at me, getting defensive over a comment that isn't even wrong. Ugh, Lambert would get a kick out of that. What I'm trying to get at, my point about how we're so different, is exactly that. But on a scale I don't think you realize yet. It's barely been, what, a day? Have you noticed anything...off? Maybe a giant flaming ball of energy in the sky?"

Karin listened, but at some points it was hard to tell if she was hearing Geralt. A lot of the things he was saying weren't making sense. They'd probably be sorted out later, once she was free from Galeem's curse. She managed to connect the dots in her own way. "I didn't mean to offend. I'm sorry to hear your destiny was chosen for you, though. But if you've stuck with it for this long you must have taken a liking to it, hmm?" She said. At Geralt's last comment, she glanced up, squinting at the sun. Not at Galeem in the distance. "Yes, that is the sun. A giant flaming ball of nuclear energy."

Geralt shook his head. "No offense taken. I've seen things far beyond what I thought normal or possible. It's been eye-opening to say the least." At her comment about the sun, he frowned. Thinking on it for a moment, he realized he didn't actually know just how wide an area was freed after a Guardian was defeated. Dammit, that made this harder. They couldn't just beat their way through the streets and take the entire city out from under Galeem.

"Never mind that." Geralt carelessly deflected. "It's not important." Hopefully, the Gleaming Curse would work with him on that one, as he was trying to get her to notice their Universal Jailer.

"I was bitter, sometimes. About having the choice stolen from me, I mean. But the others like me, we all decided we'd be the last a long while ago. Most of the secrets to creating us were lost or destroyed, anyway, but we wouldn't force anybody else into what we were made to endure. Besides, there are benefits. I'd be long dead otherwise. I've made a hell of a lot of coin doing what I do, even if taxes are a pain when you make it in half a dozen different places that all work differently." Shrugging, he looked out over the beach.

"Besides, what I made of my life is more than enough for me. You're right, I've taken a bit of a liking to it. But I've enjoyed having a family as well. When the world isn't trying to tear us apart, that is."

Karin seemed to accept Geralt no longer pushing the issue. She thoughtfully followed his gaze across the beach, strongly considering his words. Her initial broaching of the subject was casual, almost off hand. In reality it was something she often thought of herself. "What if the world needs more people like you? Could there be some kind of alternative that isn't so cruel?" She asked, seeming interested, but only from a distance. So much so that she keeps working on her sand castle.

Geralt pondered it for a moment. "Maybe. But the changes are...drastic. Some of it's training, but much of it is a genuine difference in biology. Compared to an average human, I'm faster, stronger, my organs process poisons significantly more efficiently, I build muscle more quickly, my wounds even heal much more rapidly. Were I normal, that Striga that cut my neck open would have killed me. I still needed significant medical care, but I wouldn't have survived to get it without my mutations. It would take much more knowledge, much more careful application of power, and it would be excruciating. It was for us as children, with bodies made to be molded. For an adult, with their body already set? The shock may very well kill them outright."

Karin smiled slightly, her expression unreadable behind her sunglasses. "I see." That answer was correct, but it wasn't the answer to the question she was asking. Not being nearly as open about her feelings as Sakura, Karin decided to lighten things up a bit and go back to normal. "Well. I suppose this grim topic was inevitable. But we're past it now. Perhaps in future we can stray towards lighter subjects." She said lightly. "Not that I don't enjoy discussing the torture of children on a sunny day, of course."

"It beats politics, at least." Geralt gave a half-hearted laugh, remembering the whole plot against Radovid and how poorly it turned out. "Still, unpleasant talk aside, it's been good to relax for a bit. Seems the last while I've been constantly doing something, so being able to just...be. It helps. Thank you for the opportunity to see what a true sand castle building expert is capable of." He joked.

Karin laughed. "Indeed. But I am a sand castle building expert. Seriously." She said flatly, looking at Geralt. CLearing her throat, she sat back. "Yes. I am...quite interested, I must admit, to learn about you Seekers and what you've been up too. I-" Someone distantly called Karin's name. She perked up, glancing around. It was coming from the ocean.

Swimming on a wakeboard was one Kasugano Sakura, coming from the ocean blue and swimming along the shoreline. "Karin-san! Karin!" She called out. She was newly de-cat girl'd, sporting one pair of ears, her tail bone once again vestigal, her height increased back to its towering 5'2 instead of 5 flat.

Karin was silent, before looking down and continuing her sand castle. "Did you hear something, Geralt?"


Geralt looked between Sakura and Karin, remembering that the last time they met, the two had fought. And Sakura had, apparently, been soundly beaten. "What, not excited to see your old friend again? Though, it hasn't exactly been a while since you saw each other last?" He couldn't help the sass.

"Old friend? Why, I have no time for challenging dishonorable little street cats. Birdie, do away with her for me, would you?" She said, not even looking up. Birdie, rolled to his feet out of the shallows and hiked him his swim trunks.

"Right. Stop right there, you little pipsqueak!" He said, wading over, arms flailing, interposing himself between the two women.

"Pipsqueak?!" Sakura said, swimming to shore. "Pipsqueak! Mister Birdie, I can't believe-" Sakura was hit from behind by a wave and submerged. Karin giggled at the misfortune. Sakura emerged, holding her wakeboard over her head. She spat out some water. "Ptuh, ptuh. Pipsqueak!" She resumes. "No way. I remember the time we tied in an eating contest. Now let me through, I have to go speak with Karin."

Karin hummed along, putting the finishing touches on her sandcastle. "That's Miss Karin to you. Probably." Birdie said, rolling his neck. "Go home, girly!" He declared roughly.

"Pleased to meet you, too. But please, this is important. We can fight afterwards, okay?"

"Look, I gotta do somethin' to earn my paycheck." He cracked his knuckles. "Now I mean it, I'll wallop ya. I don't get me jollies beatin' up on school girls but I know you can take it."

Sakura sighed. "All right, fine. If you insist. Hold on, I can't fight with this." She frisbeed the wakeboard over Birdie's head and onto the shore. Where it landed point first directly into Karin's sand castle. Karin's placcid smile didn't falter, though her eyebrow twitched.

"Oh!" She said brightly, recognizing the distant figure Karin was sitting with, while still totally oblivious about the catastrophic damage she just wrought. "Hi, Mister Geralt!" She waved her arms, prompting the raising of a hand in greeting from the Witcher.

Geralt watched the scene unfolding before him with smug amusement. He knew Sakura could more than take this guy, he'd seen her shake off hits from much bigger, much stronger opponents. Still, part of him was tempted to intervene to keep it from coming to blows. "Just gonna let her break him in half? You know as well as I do that she's no slouch in a fight, and these past few days she's seen some real shit. Don't know if it'd change how a rematch between the two of you, but him...? I get the feeling he's not exactly on the same level."

It didn't particularly matter whether Sakura beat the guy's face bloody to him or not, but Sakura was never one for unneeded violence. It was refreshing, and he might as well help her out on this one. He wouldn't Axii the guy, that would be more trouble than it was worth, but he'd give it a shot.

Karin looked down at her ruined sand castle. She picked up the wakeboard between two fingers and flicked it away like it didn't weight much of anything. "He's my body guard. He protects me from vagabonds and commoners."

Her eyes poured over Sakura trying to read her. Something was different about her from the last time they met. Or rather, something was there once again? "Geralt, a martial art is the soul made manifest. For the first time, Sakura disappointed me in battle. I feared she had lost her way. Her returning for another challenge is good first step...but I must know that she is worthy of my fists." Karin wiped away the remnants of her gothic architecture and rose to her feet. She removed her sun hat and her sunglasses, hanging them off to her butler. With a swish of her ringed blonde hair, the steely resolve of her golden eyes seemed to cut through the haze of Galeem's curse like sunrays on an overcast morning.

"Ninety seconds. Best of two rounds." Karin said Sakura took her fighting stance turning her hips perpendicular to Birdie. One fist even with her navel, the other by her chin. Birdie extended his hand outward and waited. "...Birdie, what are you doing?" Karin asked, sighing.

"...eh?"

"Your hand. It's empty."

"Well yeah, but- one of your lads'll give me my chain."

"You have to say that, Birdie, they can't read your mind." Karin said flippantly.

"They seem to read your mind just fine!" Birdie protested. "You're all communicatin' with each other with nothin' but posh looks and sneerin'!"

"All right, enough. Retrieve Birdie his chain." Karin called out, clapping her hands.

"Aw, man!" Sakura whined. "I hate the chain!"

"If YOU get to shoot bloody fire outta yer hands, I get me chain." Birdie said with finality.

Karin glanced down at Geralt. "You'd do well not to understimate Birdie. I don't hire just anyone into the Kanzuko Zaibatsu." She smiled. A chain- with gold finish, was fed into Birdie's hands and he rolled it around his arm.

Geralt's eyebrows raised as Birdie was handed a golden chain to fight with. "Alright, have to admit. Didn't expect that. Fair enough." He shrugged. This would be an interesting fight to watch.

"Round one." Karin said, cupping her elbow and holding her fingers beneath her chin. "Fight!" And they began.

With everything that life had thrown at the intrepid heroes today, it made a weird sort of sense that even the simple act of falling would present a challenge. The moment that the Seekers made the conscious decision to descend was the moment they realized that everything was working against them. From within the bowels of the manmade abyss known as Hollow Heights welled a powerful updraft, streaming upward alongside the warm thermal currents that poured from Red Eye’s fiery innards. Together they provided so much air resistance that Tora didn’t think he’d take a lick of damage no matter how far he fell, but what at first seemed like saving grace turned out to be a curse in disguise. For those winds also allowed the hordes of Trilid that wormed their way out of Red Eye’s flesh to seethe upward in angry clouds, like the tephra of a terrific volcanic eruption. The same currents that bore them upward also conspired to keep the Seekers sky-high, forcing them to endure the Akrid onslaught until they too were nothing but dust on the wind.

Of course, nobody was about to let that happen, not after the sacrifice made by Robin that allowed them to snatch the hope of victory from the literal jaws of defeat. By switching to more aerodynamic positions and employing whatever powers of flight they had at their disposal, the Seekers of Light turned the tables, and faced the Trilid swarm head on. It quickly became chaos, but each skydiver had a method to his or her madness. Jesse called upon Sven to supply a flask that she could supersize and ride down like a giant, flammable snowboard. Midna drew her blades and equipped her faithful insect once more, relying on its vigorous wings to usher her through the tempest. Far, far below, Raiden raced across the desert sands full of bloodlust, eager to take full advantage of the blank check that fate had written him and clear the way for his allies’ descent. Sectonia put on a dazzling light show with her rings as she buzzed back down to earth, and while Therion with his steel formed a formidable vanguard for his airborne company, Primrose unleashed her pyromancy to blaze even brighter than the Akrid that assailed her.

The others rose to the challenge as well. Braum crusted over his shield with ice, increasing its size threefold, then stood atop it with Raz and the Scout tucked under one arm each, mulching Trilid like bugs against a windshield the whole way down. Maybe taking inspiration from him, Ciella let off a handful of spread-shots to help thin the swarm before manifesting a cryogenic meteor beneath her, so large and heavy that she only needed to latch on to plummet straight to the front of the group. Peacock pulled her buddy Andy Anvil out of hammerspace and held tight as the cartoon curmudgeon dropped like a rock, shooting like a maniac with her pistol as she did. Mao wielded his mechanical arms to make mincemeat of whatever Trilid swerved his way, while an emotionally overloaded Tharja eviscerated all comers from the inside out with fearsome dark power. Unfortunately the Phantom Thieves had little choice but to dive headfirst, making use of whatever shields their allies could provide on the way.

Big Band, meanwhile, took his protection into his own hands. Upside down and pushing through the currents thanks to his rockets, the detective deployed his brass cymbal over and over again to parry the Trilid that attacked him, which allowed him to kill them without taking damage if timed right. Of course, he couldn’t always time them right, but the one-man band was made of sterner stuff than most, so even as a handful of the pests crashed into him, he stayed the course. No matter how the wind roared in the heroes’ ears, the clash of his cymbal cut through it, reassuring them that the big guy was still alive and kicking.

Unwilling to allow the Trilid to ruin their big moment, Tora and Poppi quickly changed tactics. At her Masterpon’s request Poppi switched gears into her Alpha form, the heaviest and bulkiest of the three, allowing her to supply Tora with his coveted drill shield. Once angled downward and dialed up to eleven, the drill bit pierced through both the thermal updraft and any Trilid unfortunate enough to charge the pair head-on, while the shield’s rearward boost added to the Poppi’s overall thrust. As small as their shield was, it was enough to make them practically invincible as they dug through the Trilid onslaught, so long as they stayed committed. Even as friends took damage, they couldn’t do much to help other than veer their way slightly, hoping that the streak they carved would help to alleviate their troubles.

Together the seekers weathered the storm, slashing, piercing, dodging, diving, ducking, burning, and bashing. They filled the sky with light and darkness, fire and ice, and mustered all their strength to push through the alien swarm until finally, finally they broke through to the other side. The Trilid supply had been exhausted, many reduced to ash but most harmlessly flown by on their way to the clouds above, and the Seekers of Light remained. As the final stretch opened itself up before them, with Red Eye sitting defenseless at the bottom, they began to pick up speed. Raiden ripped a gruesome path across its body, bleeding the giant Akrid of the T-ENG that flowed like magma from its sallow flesh. With his help, the core was totally exposed.

“Poppi!” Tora roared, his heart beating a mile a minute as he retracted his shield’s drill bit. “Time to combine power!”

“Here goes Poppi!” The two switched places, with Poppi taking over the shield and filling it with channeled ether. “Throttle released! Preparing to strike!”

Nearby, Band shrugged off bug bits and gooey ash from his cymbal, then whipped out his bagpipes. The few notes he belted out were lost in the wind, but the act was nevertheless of vital importance. As Red Eye grew closer and closer, he deployed his giant French Horn and blasted the last couple hundred meters, the wind whipped at what little remained of his hair. “Uuuaaahhh, horn crush!”

“There!” Tora cried, then along with Poppi, screamed out his two favorite words. “JET BITER!”

In quick succession the heroes divebombed Red Eye’s thermal core. Ciella’s frozen comet came down hard enough to not just leave a crater as it shattered, but shove the monster even farther onto the myriad girders that skewered it. Big Band smashed into it with Super Sonic Jazz, then laid waste with a barrage of brass-knuckled punches. “Tubatubatubatubatubatubatubatuba–TUBA!” Next to him Tora and Poppi struck at withering speed, drilling straight into -and then through- the Akrid’s dying body. The impact of Braum’s shield caused a blood-curdling CRACK to echo across all of Hollow Heights, and the Phantom Thieves became a flurry of black blurs that tore across Red Eye’s final weak spot like ravenous piranhas. Saved from fall damage by the drafts from below, everyone lent their all to this climactic final assault, and when the last Seeker fell upon it the behemoth gave up the ghost at long, long last.

Its body burned up from within, its countless tons of biomass turning to ash in a matter of moments. The Seekers were left to drift down to and grab hold of the steel beams and supports that once held up this section of desert. Perched precariously on one such length, Tora and Poppi held tight, both to one another, and to the knowledge that they’d made it through the action-packed, heart-stopping rollercoaster of a boss fight to somehow claim victory once more.



Band took a long, slow breath. “Well, it wasn’t easy, and in some ways it’s hollow as these here heights, but we did it. And if we could take out that sonuva gun, I guess there really ain’t nothin’ we can’t do. Even the sky ain’t the limit.” He pulled a fresh hat out from his jacket, dusted some ash off his shoulder with it, then put it on. Up above, the blue sky was beginning to yellow in the west; it wouldn’t be too long until sunset. Sloggin up Split Mountain, skedaddling down, and then nearly getting killed a half-dozen times over a giant Railway Gun was enough to take its toll on any man, and Band for one was just about ready for an early bedtime. Idly he wondered how far the team was from Al Mamoon, and if they could even get there with both train and track totaled.

Still, there was one crucial matter to attend to. The spirit of Red Eye had emerged as the ash of the body that housed it melted away into the abyss, and now it floated in a whorl of crimson light over the open space. “Boss spirit immune to crushing,” Tora said aloud, remembering the dilemma that followed the defeat of both Megadragonbowser and the Ender Dragon. Of all those present, only he and Poppi had the pleasure of being present for the death of another of Galeem’s chosen guardians, so he realized it fell to him to explain.

Before he could say anything, however, a stern voice reached the Seekers from above. “Correct.” They looked up to see a lone figure floating down. It was Ram, the oddly emotionless brigadier who’d dined on fast food with the team in Al Mamoon last night, then helped them against the great stone snakes above the Graveyard of the Peaks today. At some point she’d exchanged her robe of white, with its strange fleshy lining, for a hooded coat of black. With its zipper undone it flapped in the wind, but Ram took no notice. “If you don’t want it to revive in the next sixty seconds, someone needs to fuse with it,” she explained.

Band’s brows shot up. “Hold on, sixty seconds!? And whaddya mean, ‘fuse’?”

“She mean absorb monster into self, taking on it powers and appearance,” Poppi supplied, relishing the idea about as much as everyone else familiar with the concept, which was to say not at all.

“Huh!?”

The deliberation came to an abrupt end when a black blur swept over the spirit, snatching it up. It came to a stop on a high girder above the others, revealing itself to be Joker. When the young man turned after a moment he held the spirit up in his red-gloved hand, grinning devilishly.

“You’re not…” Mona blinked twice, his eyes wide. “Wait! I know what you’re up to! Nyeheheh, if this works, you’re a real card, Joker!”

Tora looked between the Thieves in bewilderment. “What friends mean!? If Joker fuse with big wormypon, he get even bigger than Railway Gun! That no way to live, meh!”

“Who said anything about fusing?” Joker asked. With his free hand he reached up and took hold of his mask, which turned into a ball of azure flame when removed. “I’ve never met a god that the Wild Card could not overcome. Compared to their like, a monster like this…is nothing at all!” So saying, he took hold of the Red Eye spirit with his flame-wreathed hand. It struggled within his grasp, somehow fighting back against whatever he was doing, but Joker grit his teeth and gripped harder. “I am thou…” he growled. “And thou art I…let the contract be signed…now!” There came a pulse of energy, then silence and stillness. When Joker opened his hand, a mote of light floated up that turned into a new mask. He smiled and put it on, then stretched out his arms. “Manifest. Red Eye!”

Behind him, the behemoth reappeared in a burst of bright blue fire, albeit at only a fraction of the size. It curved around to Joker’s side and opened wide its maw to let out an ethereal roar. “Holy moly, Joker!” Necronomicon exclaimed, the UFO whirling in excitement on his other side while Mona struggled to stay seated on top. “Not only did you actually turn it into a nuclear Persona, but it’s crazy strong!”

The Thief shrugged and banished Red Eye before placing his hands in his pockets. Doing so nearly caused him to fall off his girder, so he held them out again for balance. “All in a day’s work,” he downplayed, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. “How about we…get out of here?”

At a loss, Band looked over at Ram, but the brigadier seemed less than certain herself. When a few more moments passed with no explosions or violent changes of any kind, he heaved a sigh. “Well, if that takes care of that, by all means. Let’s blow this joint.” It would be a decent climb -or a short flight- to the surface from here, so the battle-weary detective got cracking.





Having taken heart, Nadia descended from the Upper Decks. While the many ropes, nets, walkways, bridges, and beams of Limsa Lominscuttle Town might leave the average newcomer lost and dumbfounded by the complexity of it all, to someone as agile and opportunistic as Nadia Fortune, the whole place might as well be one big jungle gym. She leaped, vaulted, slid, and swung her way down to the Octant, where the majestic, sapphire-blue, crystalline Aetheryte hummed and span softly above the heads of the civilians, who by either whim or necessity found themselves in or passing through the seastack city’s busiest -and most popular- intersection, its living, beating heart.



After she used a taut banner line to pull off a successful triple-backflip, Nadia alighted on the plaza’s white stone bricks with feline grace, landing on her feet as always. While a few passers-by glanced her way, nobody seemed to regard her dynamic entrance, or her appearance for that matter, as anything unusual. Most of the people gathered around the Octant just kept their focus on Shantae’s dance class taking place on the grass ring around the Aetheryte, for obvious reasons. As if the half-genie heroine herself wasn’t eye-catching enough by herself, her expert movements so perfect and fluid as to be mesmerizing, she’d assembled quite the assortment of earnest students. More than a few appeared to be dressed for the occasion, and almost all of them were pretty good, following their instructor’s example nearly to the letter. With all of them together, the synchronized dance became a captivating display of whirling silks, bells, and hair, all flowing to the merry maritime music of a few piratical bards on their concertinas, banjos, drums, and hurdy-gurdies.

Naturally, such a splendid spectacle had drawn a suitably large crowd to watch and cheer the performers on. Now that she'd come down amongst them, Nadia could really appreciate just how clogged with people the Octant was. Even with everyone arranged around the perimeter, there were enough men, women, children, and creatures around to get in the way of people trying to go about their business as usual. In fact, it was a wonder that nobody had toppled backward over the plaza’s knee-high seastone railing yet. As much as she wanted to just jump right in and try her luck, Nadia couldn’t help but hesitate at the edge of the crowd. Maybe it was just her inexperience talking, but these dancers didn’t seem like beginners at all. Some of them were supplementing their dances with spinning rings. While she was no shrinking violet by any stretch of the imagination, there were a lot of eyes around if she ended up making a fool of herself. In the end Nadia decided to bide her time for a bit. She crouched down and stroked her chin like a philosopher, eyes narrowed. If she could glean a basic idea of what to do before trying to do it, after all, she’d be that much better off.

Try as she might, however, she just couldn’t commit to a serious study of the dancers’ craft. It was just too enjoyable, and too easy to get caught up in the spirit of it all. In no time at all her feet were tap-tap-tapping and her tail was swishing in time to the beat. It took all her willpower not to give in to the urge to spring to her feet and join in the fun. Not yet, she whispered to herself, aware and frustrated that her internal rebellion made it that much harder to concentrate. She was almost grateful when a hand came down on her shoulder and shattered her focus completely.

Nadia glanced up to see a red-haired woman to her right, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow and a slight but knowing smile. She looked familiar, but the feral couldn’t quite place her. “Looks like you wanna jump in. What’d the hold-up?”

“Heh, that obvious, huh?” Nadia returned the smile, not so self-conscious that she couldn’t laugh at herself being foolish. “Well, I’ve just never tried it before, that’s all. Don’t want to…ya know, ruin it or anythin’.”

The lady crossed her arms. “Oh, yeah? You looked plenty limber hurtling around the city the other night to us. Well, how about this. Guybrush here’s got two left feet, and we’re just about to give it a shot.” On her other side, a good-natured blond fellow gave a friendly wave. Seeing the both of them together jogged Nadia’s memory enough to make her realize where she’d seen them before: laying together up on the grass-topped seastack she scaled on the way to the Blitzball arena. Small world after all! she supposed. “Why not join us?” Elaine asked.

As Nadia mulled over the offer, the pirate’s music came to a sudden crescendo, then finished. The crowd erupted into a mighty round of applause, drowning out any reply she might have made. Some of the dancers bowed out and dispersed into the crowd, while a few of its members jogged up to take their places. Among them went Guybrush and Elaine, the former led by the latter, although the redhead paused for one final glance back at Nadia. It was now or never. Oh well, she thought with a shrug, then grinned as she reached out a hand. Just for today, I’m going with the flow. Elaine seized hold and pulled her along.

Nadia and the other newcomers took their place in a circle around the Aetheryte, encouraged by a chorus of cheers from the onlookers. Shantae treated everyone to a big, warm grin. “Alright, everyone!” she sang. “It makes me so happy to see so many fresh faces! This is gonna be great. Just follow along as best you can! Let’s go~!”

The band struck up a fancy tune, Nadia took a deep breath, and Shantae began to spin. Together the dancers launched into action, planting one foot and stamping the other in a circle with arms outstretched. While a little stiff at first, focused completely on the rotation and rhythmic up-down, up-down of her leg, the cat burglar quickly realized that she needed to be moving her hips, arms, and head as well. After three spins, Shantae would sashay from side to side, arms and waist snapping back and forth in sync, then begin a new set of spins. Nadia tried to copy her, and to her surprise found that it wasn’t nearly as much of a struggle as it first seemed. One step at a time she worked to synchronize the movements, keeping her eyes on her fellow dancers so she could follow their example. In doing so she also began to notice that the others weren’t quite as perfect as they first seemed. Maybe everyone was just learning and doing their best, after all! Plus, all around her were fellow catgirls or statuesque, rabbit-eared women, making her own animal features nothing out of the ordinary. Instead of scornful faces, she found only smiles, and kindred spirits. Pretty soon, Nadia’s worries about tripping over her fish-tail, jeering onlookers, and judgemental professionals began to melt away. Her rigid spasms turned to , and the exhilarated beat of her heart chased away the unease that had gnawed at it. She was actually doing it, and it was fun!

After a few minutes the music suddenly changed, switching from elegant to goofy in a flash. Nadia looked at Shantae in alarm, but found the half-genie heroine giggling as she bounced around in a ridiculous dance that all the others hurried to emulate. Even members of the outside crowd got in on it. In an instant all of Nadia’s illusions about this being a serious performance were shattered. Though taken aback for a brief moment, she quickly burst out laughing, then joined in, hopping on one leg and swinging her arms with the best of them. Forget dignity and decorum–this was just a rollicking good time. All too soon, the bards’ song came to a thrilling conclusion. Everyone gleefully leaped into the air and landed with arms upheld, surrounded by a cheerful mixture of ovation and mirth.

Nadia, tired but happy, spotted Guybrush and Elaine heading off together as the dancers dispersed. The crowd was in the way of a proper thank-you, but the feral still managed to shoot the pair a grateful smile and mouthed thank you. If not for their encouragement, she would have missed out big time, and probably never even realized what her hesitance had lost her. As the herd thinned she spotted a distinctive giant ponytail of purple hair, so Nadia made her way over to where Shantae rested on a white stone bench in the shade of the Octant’s leafy green tree. “That was paw-sitively delightful!” she punned, reaching out a hand to shake. “Thank ya so much for puttin’ it on!”

“You’re welcome!” the dancer beamed. “This is your first time with us, right? Well, you could have fooled me! You’re practically a natural!”

Nadia laughed, scratching at the back of her neck as she soaked up the praise. “Ya think so? I’m just glad I didn’t fall flat on my own face, honestly. Compared to li’l ol’ me, you’re practically breathtaking.”

“Aw, you’ve got nothing to worry about. The crowd couldn’t take their eyes off you! You’d better come back tomorrow.” Shantae tilted her head slightly. “Then again, if I remember right, I saw you, like, two days ago with that Peach lady and that big Bowser guy, right? That must mean you’re with the ‘Seekers’?”

Nadia nodded, seeing no reason to hide her affiliation. “Uh-huh! Nice to meetcha, I’m Miss Fortune.”

“A pleasure, Miss Fortune. My name’s Shantae. And wow!” Sheseemed even more impressed. “That makes you extra specially welcome, but maybe you’re moving on to the next big thing pretty soon?” The half-genie heroine crossed her arms. “I mean, if everything I’ve heard is true, you all just rolled into town, un-cursed the Bottomless Sea, and toppled the Abyssal Fleet in what, a day? While we’ve been struggling for months? Sounds like you’re the breathtaking ones.” While still smiling, Shantae looked a little downcast, too. “Compared to all that, I haven't been much of a hero.”

“Oh, go soak your head!” Nadia scoffed, much to Shantae’s surprise. “I’m nobody special. Just some stray in the right place at the right time. If someone like me can be called a hero, anyone can. Plus, good heroes are super modest, right? So I bet you’re secretly, like, the best ever.” Her tail swished back and forth as she put her hands on her hips, an eyebrow raised. “So tell me, Shantae, what does a day in the life of a hero look like?”

The dancer did argue, but rolled with the change of subject. “Well, I guess you got me. Yesterday I went out with a team to track down a fugitive from the city, wanted for murder. A silver-haired swordsman with a long, long blade.”

Nadia’s eyebrows shot up. “No way! I knew that guy was bad news! Well, sword-a. We only met him earlier that day, but he gave off a bad vibe. You’re saying he went and killed someone in the city?” When her new friend nodded, she shook her head in bemusement. “Jeez. Guess we shoulda left him to die in the Dead Zone. No wonder he didn’t show up the mornin’ we shipped out. Didja get his ass, at least?”

“I think so…” Shantae toyed with her hair uncertainly. “We met someone of that description, sword and all, just chilling in a resort up north. But I guess the initial description was off, because the target was a woman. We put her under arrest, and on the way back she attacked us. For a minute I thought we were done for, but she kept trying to run, and Officer Nanu shut her down every time. After that…well, it was us or her.”

“Sheesh. Well, good on you guys.” Given Sephiroth’s fusion with one of the Cia clones, Nadia felt like she might have an idea about what happened. Just went to show that nobody could afford to be careless, brazen, and murderous all at once. As messed-up as this world was, actions still had consequences. “Anyway, I dunno where we’re headed next. I was thinkin’ of lookin’ at a map or somethin’. Right now though, all I care about’s findin’ somewhere nice we can all pig out for dinner. Got any tips?”

Shantae tapped her index finger on her chin. “Well, there should be a map of the region at the Aftcastle. And for food, if you want the finest dining Limsa has to offer, either Bismarck or Mother of Pearl’s the place to be. One up high, one out on Galdin Quay in the north shore district. That said, my favorite is Rum for Ale. While I don’t drink, and I don’t know where ‘Cuba’ is, the flavor of the food there is to die for.”

“Never heard of Cuba either, but good to know! Thanks for everything, Shantae.” Looking down at the donations box, Nadia gave it a nudge with her foot. “I’d drop ya a tip, but I don’t have anythin’ on me right now.” As she said it, the feral couldn’t help but feel as if something was wrong. She scrunched her brows together as she patted herself down, realizing that her new jean shorts didn’t even have pockets. But if I don’t have pockets, she thought, where…is my room key?

As horrific reality dawned on her, Nadia’s eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped. “Uh oh.” While Shantae looked on in concern she sprinted off toward the Bulwark Hall, headed toward the elevator that would take her back to the Mizzenmast Inn, where her room waited for her with its door ever-so-slightly ajar, and not a single golden coin to be found inside.



When Link approached the Triple Demon, he found the three in a much better state than he left them in. Practically the moment Karin gave them her blessing, her butler Ishizaki and several of the Kanzuki ninjas had swept the would-be freeloaders up to give them a much-needed hand. Running rampant over the buffet table in utter disarray, soaked to the bone and plastered with sand, would behoove nobody after all, and it was patently obvious they had no plans to help themselves other than to Karin’s barbeque. In a matter of moments the three bedraggled, waterlogged messes, with their nice suits and long white hair in a sorry state, had been toweled off, brushed up, and given spare sundresses to change into, with their garb washed off and hung up on the railing of the beach house’s deck to dry. Link found them sitting in a circle on a giant striped beach towel in their fresh clothes, eyes bright and tails wagging as they chowed down on plates of leftover meat.

“Thanks!” they chorused as they accepted the hero’s offerings without a second thought, so quickly in fact that none of the triplets took the correct color-coded drink. Luckily, if the way they gulped their mango smoothies down was any indication, they liked the stuff plenty anyway. Cerberus didn’t seem to even consider the possibility that Link bore them any ill will from their fight, as intense as it had gotten, and they certainly didn’t bear him any. It didn’t take much time spent watching or listening to them as they squabbled or bubbled about this or that to get the impression that the triplets shared a forthright, one-track mind, blunt and -despite their earlier stated intentions of corrupting the mortal realm- rather happy-go-lucky. They were beings without subtext, enthusiastic but endearingly empty-headed–sort of like dogs.

Two of them shuffled over to make room for Link to join them, and while they kept snacking afterward, the one across from Link considered his request as she scratched her ears. With all three in matching sundresses, they were just as identical as when they first emerged from the Evergaol, with only the color of their eyes telling them apart. “Heehee, did you forget already?” Cerberus grinned at Link. She sneezed abruptly, then leaned back with her palms on the beach towel. “That was a jail! We were stuck in there forever, and it was awful! Dunno who put us there, or how. One day we were at home, everything business as usual, yeah? Then all these pillars of light showed up outta nowhere! We thought angels had come to send us back to hell. Everything went white. After that…” She squinted as if trying to see her memories better, and the others’ feast ground to a perplexed stop. “It was weird. Hard to remember. Like a bad dream. Nothing made sense. We just got jumbled around a lot. We fell into this giant dog monster with three heads, like us. Except it was us. Dunno. Then finally…something. Some kind of faraway place. Didn’t recognize it, but better than nothing, right? But no matter how hard we reached, we just couldn’t…couldn’t get there.”

Cerberus sighed. She fell back against the towel, her hair splaying out beneath her. “Next thing we know, we’re thrown in jail. The world was right outside, but it’s like we were trapped in this weird limbo. Sometimes ghosts would come around, but no matter what we did they ignored us. So we were alone. Stuck with this horrible feeling…like we lost out. Like the mailman gave everyone their letters, but we got left in the bag. Like he couldn’t figure out where we were supposed to go, and it was our fault!?” Her brows furrowed as her lip curled. “No way in hell! Damn mailman. Screwed up, then left us to rot! You said you’re fighting whoever it was, right? Well, lemme at ‘em! We’ll feast on his flesh, and gnaw on his bones!”

As the others echoed her conviction, Cerberus angrily bit into a smoked drumstick, ripping off its succulent, flavorful flesh as if it were the throat of the mailman she spoke of. After a few bites, however, her flared-up temper began to subside. “At least sleeping in that purple crack passed the time faster,” she said with her mouth full. “Since the jail’s for losers, we just had to wait and hope someone’d spring it eventually, so we could kick some ass and get out. And here we are! That’s all there is to it, I think.” With a bright smile the demon downed the rest of her drink.

It wasn’t too long before Cerberus took note of a gathering nearby. Karin, Geralt, and the Koopa Troop had all assembled to build sand castles, whether for the purpose of destressing or socialization, but by their collective efforts the construction of a great sand city was well underway. Its citadels, fortresses, battlements, and parapets slowly took shape, painstakingly molded together by both the builders’ hands and their tools, and seeing it all come together intrigued the Triple Demon greatly. “What’s that?” they wondered, naturally gravitating toward people and wanting to be involved. Together they got up and jogged over to join in the fun, and while terrible at first and comically oblivious to the importance of the architectural detail that Karin went to great lengths to recreate, they were eager to learn.

Once sufficiently instructed to keep their goofing off at a safe distance from the young woman’s creations, they spent a little while making lots of haphazardly-placed towers with their buckets before they decided to see who could build the biggest one. In a mad scramble to do so they ended up digging a couple bathtub-sized pits in the beach, mostly with their hands, and when the blue-eyed triplet tripped and fell in the others wasted no time burying her up to the neck. None of them paid any attention to the conversation between Geralt and Karin, although when Sakura arrived and a fight seemed to be brewing they perked up their ears and looked on with interest. It took a minute to get going, but when it did Cerberus pumped their fists in excitement and goaded the combatants on. “Fight, fight, fight!” they cheered, eager to see what the new girl and the big guy could do.



In just a few moments Linkle and Frisk managed to indulge their curiosity, but beyond the few nuggets of wisdom and information the clerics saw fit to dispense, Albedo saw no further reason to engage with them. His companions came to the same unspoken conclusion, and when the child ventured that the three should continue onward, Albedo nodded his assent. Before long the body of the Gammoth would be totally stripped of all its meat and useful materials, which might go on to feed and arm small communities like Snowdin across the Frozen Highlands. Even beyond that, though, these holy hunters had their own business to attend to, and Albedo’s group theirs. When Linkle bowed Tatiana curtseyed in return, her smile warm enough to blunt the bite of the woodland’s cold winds. “May grace shine upon you,” she told them. She then turned along with D, who gave only a stiff nod by way of farewell, and the both of them headed back to their fellowship.

Soon Linkle returned, coasting down the ridge on her sled. She cruised past trees and fragments of the nearby ruins in a flurry of powder kicked up by her sled’s runners, and at one point even took flight thanks to a small snow drift. It looked like such simple, childlike fun that Albedo made a mental note of it. When everything blew over and all was as it should be once more, Klee might get a real kick out of an afternoon spent sledding down Dragonspine’s tamer slopes. The tough part would be convincing Acting Grandmaster Jean, but then again, how could she object to a proposal that would keep the mischievous Spark Knight entertained without the risk of dynamite fishing or forest fires? When Linkle pulled up and sprang to her feet, that made all three members ready to go, so the next leg of their journey northwest could begin.

While the idea of scrounging the ruins for treasure did not escape Albedo’s mind, the weathered edifice didn’t seem that large or intricate to begin with, and the trio didn’t have a wealth of time to spend on a detour anyay. In this region it was harsh and cold enough in broad daylight, so he did not relish the prospect of spending any more time than he absolutely had to out in the frozen wilderness at night, when the silvery light of the moon and stars would be the only thing between hapless explorers and pitch blackness. Besides, if this forest was as well-traveled as the sizable crew of clerics made it appear, anything of value had probably been picked from those ruins long ago. Accordingly, the alchemist did not give them a second thought as he set off, leading the way for Linkle and Frisk toward the lonely mountain that towered above the northwestern coast. He suspected that for anyone else from his world, Dragonspine would be cold comfort as the sole element from Teyvat to make it here, but it suited Albedo just fine. Its beauties and its perils alike were well known to him, a welcome source of familiarity in this strange and unpredictable world. Before they reached Dragonspine, however, there would be plenty more winter wonderland to grapple with.



As the three pushed onward through the silent woods, the trees gradually began to thin, but as the foliage grew more sparse Albedo noticed a handful of unusually large specimens. They followed a frozen river as it wound through the forest, past rotund hills that sat alongside the icy water like giant layer cakes covered in frosting. Pretty soon the path narrowed into a snowy gulch between the hills, scarcely wider than the river itself and lined by trees on either side. Overhead the sky remained a moody gray, but with only moderate snowfall visibility was still pretty good, and with drifts smaller than the woodlands’ the going was easier, too.

Only one thing kept Albedo on edge: the odd snow formations that seemed to be growing more frequent as he, Linkle, and Frisk proceeded through the canyon. They took the shape of bulbous piles and small spires, making it easy to imagine something concealed behind or even within them that could jump out any second. He kicked a couple to make sure, but the splashes of ordinary snow did little to set his mind at ease. Worse still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched, but no matter where he looked he saw only earth, snow, and trees. It got to the point that when one finally did move, the alchemist wasn’t even surprised. His weapon manifested in his hand in an instant as he prepared to attack, but as he stood there with his sword drawn, the snowman in front of him did nothing more than mill about aimlessly. It gave no sign at all that it noticed Albedo’s presence, let alone his implicit threat. In the area ahead he spotted a couple more, all wandering with neither rhyme nor reason. After several seconds the alchemist relaxed with a sigh, but he did not allow the Cinnabar Spindle to fade away. “Do not let down your guard. This area is ripe for an ambush,” he whispered just loud enough for the others to hear. “We may as well get it over with, don’t you think?”

He stepped forward and sliced the harmless snowman in two. Its top half fell to the snow with a plop, the pieces of its coal face arranged in a frown. There came a series of crunches as nearby snow piles began to move. “As I thought,” Albedo said, readying his blade. “Get your victims used to something odd but harmless, then after they’ve strolled into the belly of the beast, spring the trap.” He watched with narrowed eyes as Sir Slushes took form, grimacing at the trio as they packed snow together into rock-hard snowballs to hurl with pinpoint accuracy. When the first one let fly, its projectile would have struck Albedo square in the throat if he didn’t manage a deft block with the flat of his swordblade. It was an ambush, but since he triggered it early, only a handful of the total enemy force was close enough to engage his team. Of course, he suspected that if Linkle felt like it, an entire army of snowmen would be no match no matter how good their aim was. The smaller snowmen were cute, and their ice looked more dangerous, but not by much. There was one at least who looked like a nasty customer, maybe the ringleader of the whole gang, but he was a ways off and not too fast by the looks of him. “Nothing like a little exercise to get the blood flowing,” he quipped dryly. “Do take care not to go too overboard.”

The Sir Slush hurled his second snowball, but this time Albedo rose out of the way on top of a Solar Isotoma, spawned in secret beneath the snow. He kicked off, using the golden platform as a footstool to leap straight toward his frosty foe, his sword upheld for a mighty overhead chop aimed straight for the monster’s top hat.

Frisk @Majoras End, Albedo @Lugubrious, & a stalker@XoXKieroBombXoX

---

---

It took some time, enough for them to well and truly leave the busy hunters behind, for Linkle to stop and take in a long pull of a crisp air. "Wow," she started, a tinge of nervousness still flavoring her voice. She looked back the way they had come. "That could have been really awkward, right?" She said to her companions, looking back and forth between Frisk and Albedo expectantly. "I mean, maybe I've got this totally wrong but living in death kinda describes my whole deal right now. Right?"

It seemed as though the only thing their distance had gained Linkle was the ability to be openly jittery, a steady drip feet of anxiety supplied by the Skull Heart only supplementing what was already occurring naturally. It built on the feeling that had already been there, before even meeting the hunters. Since she found the hole she had locked her enemy in uncorked. She couldn't seem to calm down. She wasn't being allowed to calm down. "You guys don't think he noticed, right?" She said, glancing backwards again. Something was following them. "It's just, the Heart keeps trying to tell me he noticed and I don't want to believe her but..."

She looked back again. She saw the faintest of shadows disappear behind a tree. What was back there? Linkle shook her head against the impulse to go look and kept walking, reminding herself that the Hearts tricks weren't confined to just verbal taunts. "They seem all right, is all. I don't want to fight them, but he said he was after every last one. It's nonsense, I know." What was that noise? What's moving? "Shut up." She said under her breath, clenching her eyes shut and doubling her pace. There was nothing back there. It was just the Skull Heart doing its regular thing, harassing any weakness it found in her armor. It didn't matter how small the crack was, it took its shot. None of which meant something wasn't really watching them.

"This is going to sound weird, but can you guys talk?" She asked. "It can be about anything. Friends? Romance? A funny story? I think it'd be better if I had someone to listen to right now."

One thing that helped set her mind more at ease was their emergence from the forest. Less trees made for less cover, less ability for anyone tailing them to hide. Less of a chance that the paranoia she felt was natural, easier and easier to dismiss as something that was being fed to her by her dark passenger. She was sad to see that her feelings might have been catching, as Albedo started kicking at the strange snow piles as they passed through a small canyon. That feeling vanished when something actually did appear out of the snow drift. She drew her weapons' long with the Alchamist, but when she saw what the threat was she lowered them before letting out a big hearty laugh.

The tension seemed to deflate in an instance. The fact that the phantom eyes the Skull Heart had been so trying to convince her were on them were made of coal and set above a stupid little smile made her feelings seem so silly it almost hurt. She could swear she even felt the Skull Heart feeling sheepish over what all its creeping dread had led up to. "It's a squareman." She got out on the tail end of her laugh, lowering her crossbows. There were even a few more wandering around up ahead, adorable square snowmen without a care in the world. "Some stuff is just made of squares. I even met this guy back in the land of adventure, totally square just like that. I'm pretty sure it's all from the same world."

Albedo didn't relax nearly as much as she did. He spotted the ambush coming a mile away, and started it before they could fall into a fiendishly frozen trap. She was just about to admonish him for cutting down a perfectly harmless snowman when all of it's friends reveled themselves and went on the attack. It was a cold betrayal of the simple relief she had just been immersed in, and she narrowed her eyes at the big one across the gulch that looked to be in charge. "Imani!" She said, pointing one of her crossbows at it. "That one!"

The sniper appeared behind her in a puff of smoke, pointing her giant crossbow over Linkle's shoulder. A pair of the half-melted looking snowmen saw this and chucked their snowball's her way, but Linkle crossed her arms over her chest and body blocked the projectiles until Imani got her charge shot off. Her one shot fired, the striker disappeared to leave Linkle to deal with two of the little ice crown Snowmen surfing across the snow toward her. Linkle threw out her arms in a pair of wide arcs, firing a volley of crossbows at the (admittedly adorable) monsters. Her bolts hit the pair with a noise like fire crackers going off, not sticking into the snowmen as she expended but throwing them back like they were solid. They stayed that way until they hit the ground, where they each exploded into ash with a little pop.

This was met with another hail of snowballs, four balls they felt more like solid ice than snow slamming into her one after the other. "Careful. They're the kind of bully that puts rocks inside." She called to Frisk. She wasn't too worried about the child. If they could dodge her these snowballs should pose no challenge at all. "Feel free to use anything on the sled." With that Linkle charged, sending bolts at any monster that stood between her and the bulky one.

Blazermate wasn't as enthralled with flying around as Nadia was. After all, this was something she did daily, so the thrill of flight had long, long left the medabot. Still, Nadia's enthusiasm was infectious so Blazermate did a few more fancy tricks such as loop de loops and all that to give the cat lady some more thrills as they flew around Limsa. After awhile though, Blazermate touched down, with Nadia, having had lots of thrills, thanked the medabot for a good time before catching her breath and eventually going on her own way. "Nice girl time. I'll meet you later then!" Blazermate said, waving to Nadia as she made her way to a few areas that did catch her eyes as they flew around, areas that were of a much higher class (but not tech level.) as limsa proper.

With that being decided, Blazermate made her way to the north beach, a high class area she hadn't explored yet. Unlike the other areas, this place was a lot more fancy. Lots of well built builds made in what looked like a metropolitan city, although the buildings were made out of stone instead of concrete and steel, and there were people in the streets, not cars. Considering Limsa proper, this place was much more 'fancy' looking for sure, and the prices that Blazermate saw for a few places exemplified that.

And much like the rest of Limsa this place... lacked technology. Blazermate wasn't surprised, but still, the lack of tech anywhere really sucked. She did concede though if she found a TV the other seekers probably wouldn't see her for a few days and that'd be very, very bad, so... Well, at least things were pretty here even if Blazermate didn't have the money, nor the inclination to buy anything here. Still, touring the place was nice. A lot of high class stores, boutiques, and the like everywhere.

One store did catch Blazermate's attention, although not for any of the products there, but for one of its patrons, another robot with pink 'hair'. A robot... getting herself prettied up? Wouldn't you just get yourself polished and call it a day? Or was this person not a robot but just had some super high tech stuff on them? But then their hands were floating, but then Sectonia also had floating hands and she wasn't a robot...

Blazermate's confusion at starting at Susie eventually caught her attention. Susie, having not seen another robot or anything higher tech than anything in the early industrial age, was ecstatic. Cutting her beauty session a bit short, Susie came up to Blazermate to get a better look at another mechanical person. Seeing Susie approach, Blazermate did get a bit on guard, but only slightly as she too was also curious considering how few other robots or medabots Blazermate has seen on her adventure so far.

Susie gave Blazermate a once over with her eyes before giving a slight bow before speaking. "Ah, its so refreshing to see someone else with class! I've had to make due with what I've had for so long... Oh where are my manners? My name is Susie, CEO of Haltmann Works. What is your name?" While Blazermate didn't seem as high tech as some of the more advanced Haltmann robots, she wasn't too far off from their middle of the line models and for Susie right now, that was better than nothing.

Blazermate was glad this person was friendly, and after hearing Susie talk, replied. "Oh uh, Hi... Susie? My name is Blazermate. Are... you a medabot too? I don't think I've ever seen your model before."

Susie tilted her head, but quickly understood what Blazermate was asking. "No I am not a 'medabot', I assume that's your product name? But yes, I am artificial, if that's what your asking."

Blazermate nodded to this, saying cheerfully. "Its so nice to see another robot! This town has like, no technology at all. Mimic has some nice stuff, but I think hes the exception here."

Susie returned this enthusiasm, although unlike Blazermates it felt a bit more... manufactured. But that kind of manufactured someone well versed in business would have. This little nuance went over Blazermate's head however. "Indeed. Are you new here?"

"Well, yes and no. I'm here with some friends. We are more passing through, but I think we'll be here for a little while longer. Why do you ask?" Blazermate said.

This made Susie excited, if this robot girl was passing through with more robots, even if they were a slightly lower tech level than Susie was used to, they could be a huge help to getting her reconnected with Haltmann Works. After all, most of her Haltmann brand electronics didn't seem to work, and due to the low tech level of this place, Susie had to subsist on her own business skills to make money as nothing took her card. "Oh, I'm so glad you asked. If you are passing through with friends of yours, I would like to join you to see where your going. Its best girls like us stick together right?"

Blazermate scratched her head a bit as she was thinking, but decided that this was fine. Although Blazermate would probably have to explain the 'seeker' thing to Susie. "Uh... yeah sure. I can bring you to my friends. Its nice having new friends after all! " Susie politely nodded at that, and after paying her bill, the two ladies left and made their way back to Limsa and the south beach where Blazermate's friends were, Blazermate explaining the whole 'seeker' thing as the two made their way down to the south. This was something Susie found a bit confusing, but she had heard about these 'seekers' and having powerful allies in this world did entice Susie.

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

Blazermate made her way back to Limsa, Susie in toe, the secretary glad that there was at least a fellow robot in this town of savages. As the two ladies made their way chatting, they ran into a strange green robed mage who was clearly new in town. Seeing all the strange people going through Limsa, Blazermate wouldn't really give him much thought, but she heard him talking to someone about finding 'the seekers'. Seeing as he didn't seem too evil looking, although a bit strange, Blazermate shrugged and walked up to him, much to susie's confusion.

"Uh... hello? Who are you?" Blazermate asked.

Sakura considered the fragile little spirit of Arashio in her hands. Peach had removed it from her, and she had started taking it towards the Ship Girl navy. But for a moment she had paused along the beach, and considered the shoreline and the people within it that she died to protect.

It all seemed like such a long time ago. Before she had even met Bella. Before she had ever seen the infinite deep ocean. Before the Maw, and the island, and the Orphan.

Oh man. The Maw. Sakura hardly wanted to think of it. Bella and Rika, almost some giant monster’s dinner. Sakura wondered if she would have nightmares about it. About all the mistakes that she had made. How she accidentally erased the identity of a robot with a friend heart, or how she had lost Duerage. And throughout the whole thing, how they lost so many of their number. Death. People died around her and it was something she wasn’t used to. How was she going to be herself, now?

---

As Birdie lumbered forward, Sakura gathered energy between her palms and shoved it out towards him, a bright blue fireball slamming into his raised arms. She backed up and fired another one, only for him to side step it. Another fireball, this time aimed at the ground, was also sidestepped. But it exploded in the ocean surf, carving a hole in the water and knocking into Birdie’s legs. He growled, and jumped ten feet into the air over the next fireball, landing heavily in the wet sand. She dashed backwards, but he surged forward and threw his heavy fist towards her head. It swooshed through the open air as she moved to the side. He advanced, popped at her with jabs. With one particularly clean block, she ducked in and popped him on the chin. His head jerked back and she kicked him in the shin, rhyming her attacks in English.

"Shouoken!" She zoomed upward, her fist colliding with Birdie’s body and head, rattling off like three pistol shots. He flew backwards and landed in the sand with a tremendous splash. But just as quickly he dug his boots into the dirt and did an odd slide to his feet just in time to see Sakura dashing forward to push the assault.

---

The experience had, she concluded, not made her stronger. She wasn’t better off in any way, shape, or form, for having suffered. And she imagined nobody really was. What had trauma ever done for anyone?

She remembered saying something about there being no pain, no gain, on the boat ride before encountering the Maw. But about emotions instead of muscle. In a way, she stood by what she had said. Perhaps she had merely worded it wrong back then, and her friends hadn’t understood what she meant. Sakura just meant that…it was worth the risk. If the alternative to never feeling anything horrible, was feeling nothing at all, then she had to take the chance.

Sakura had finally changed out of her school uniform, storing it in her hotel room. Now she walked the streets in a black and white one piece swimsuit that came down to her upper leg. Using Karin’s gift money she had secured elbow guards and knee guards as well. Perhaps it was time to shelf her old uniform look once and for all. It didn’t really feel appropriate anymore, not while she was here, in the World of Light. She wasn’t in school. Her school didn’t even exist at the moment, as far as she could tell.

So, a swimsuit would do for now. But she’d probably change into something else eventually. Maybe a gi, like Ryu?

Would that make her feel… more prepared?

Sakura had loitered awkwardly outside the Ship Girl’s base of operations, trying to figure out how to even begin to broach this subject matter up. It was like delivering her remains…Sakura had never done anything like that before! What if she messed it up?! What if she started crying? What right does she have to just walk in there and deliver this to them? How did she even get into the building in the first place?! This was way out of her league.

---

Sakura slammed her elbow and fists against Birdie’s block. Just when he thought he had backed up enough to raise his fist, "Shunpukyaku!" She hopped forward and slammed her leg into his face. Grunting, he stumbled back, only for Sakura to jab into him and do the same move once, and then twice more, the two traveling across the beach, battering his face from side to side. Finally she ended the combination with an uppercut. Sakura dashed forward again, but Birdie’s body flashed with energy. She slammed her knuckles into his chin only for him to power through and slam his forehead into her nose. Sakura flew backwards only for him to slam into her again, sending her flying. Gasping, she hit the sand but bounced her legs over her head and was on her feet just as quickly as she hit the ground. Birdie slammed his fists down on top of her and she blocked, but her bare feet were practically embedded in the sand from the transferred impact. He raised his fists again, but Sakura dove forward and rolled cleanly between his legs, causing his attack to whiff.

“Huh!” Birdie said, impressed, unraveling his chain and whipping it around in a blind turn behind him. It collided with Sakura’s fireball, which knocked the chain soundly aside and battered into his heavy body.

At this point, spurred on by the cheers of the crowd, Sakura dashed in, her feet lightly splashing on the surface of the water as she did. The two exchanged strikes, but Sakura was faster than Birdie, and her quick strikes generated more power than he could muster. She swept his legs out from under him, socked him in the jaw, threw him over her shoulder, kicked his knees, and-

Birdie sneezed in Sakura’s face.

"IEAAAH!" Sakura shrieked, covering her eyes and falling backwards into the sand. "I can’t believe you!" She rolled over onto all fours and stuck her face into the sea water, turning it from side to side.

Chuckling gleefully, Birdie flung his chain forward and wrapped it around Sakura’s waist. He stomped his foot, turned and yanked the chain and Sakura high in the air and onto the sand. "Oof!" The chain unfurled from the impact. Birdie leapt into the air towards Sakura, arms extended and prepared to grab at her ankles. Sakura popped off the ground, over the hands, and popped the heel of her foot once into his face. Sakura finished the backflip and landed on her feet.

Birdie took a step forward and then face planted, the previous pummeling he had taken finally boiling over regardless of his ingenuity.

Sakura wiped her face and did a little dance.

"Round one goes to our stray cat!" Karin announced, earning a quick ceasing of the dance and a stink eye from Sakura. ”I don’t have the cat ears anymore, Karin.” She said, crossing her arms and pouting.

Birdie shook his head and then stomped to his feet. “Got lucky, that’s all.”

”Oh, I don’t think so, Birdie. You sneezed in my face and got a cheap shot in but I was smacking you around! You need to work on your defense.” Sakura advised.

“Nah, I jus’ gotta hit you even harder!” Birdie sniffed, twirling the chain around.

”You do hit pretty hard, but I’m actually hurting you more per exchange.” Sakura said a little proudly. "Ryu-san always did say I do a lot of damage!

”Yes, like being attacked by a cat with rabies. You know what else does a lot of damage? Heart disease. So, congratulations! Ohoho!" Karin laughed. Birdie laughed too, a little, but mostly seemed somewhat concerned.

"You didn’t even have the stomach to endure a single one of Birdie’s sneezes. Just close your eyes, you imbecile." Karin brushed one of her golden coils of hair aside.

”It was really gross! ” Sakura protested.

"The taste of defeat is even more bitter." Karin said, earning a gag from Sakura.

”Y’know, I’m really starting to question the unbiased nature of the judge of this fight. ” Sakura grimace, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh, please. Karin Kanzuki judges every battle with complete objectivity. Now, prepare yourself, peasant, my bodyguard is about to assail you again. Round two! Fight."

---

Sakura had weaved her way through Limsa, holding the spirit like a precious item. It was full of life. IT felt good to be back in a place like this. It was worth protecting. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but Sakura was beginning to think it did nothing but reveal the strength that was already there.

---

---

Raiden continued to fight from the grounds as his companions continued their downward descent, providing cover for their eventual attack. Many of his companions had opted to either stay in the air and give clear a path for the final assault, or took it to themselves to attempt their own attack. Raiden continued his decimation of the flying Trilids around him, providing backup and ground support for his allies. Raiden, being the closest ally to the exposed weak spot of the Red Eye, readied his sword to chain his attack from flying enemies to the large core which the flying Akrids had attempted to defend into a clean vertical strike which bled it of the Thermal Energy it had, leaving it exposed for his friends. After leaping backward from the leaking wound, Raiden looked upwards to his slow falling teammates. "Now's your shot guys!"

Seeing as many of the enemies have now been dealt with by the combined efforts of Raiden and many of his sky bound companions, Raiden now turned his gaze towards the sky as many of his teammates had worked together to charge towards and prepared their own attacks. Lucky to have rolled away in the knick of time, a comet of ice created by the rabbit lady Raiden had known, pierced the large monster further into the skew of girders and metal was followed quickly by a torrent of attacks from Big Band. Met right after was Tora and Poppi who came crashing into Raiden's general direction, attacking the core of the large Akrid. However the assault wasn't ended until after the Phantom Thieves finished off Red Eye's final weak point as it was ripped to further shreds by final attacks. The fight had seemingly come to a conclusion.

As the giant creature that was sentenced to death in his metal prison had begun to turn to ash, Raiden's theory had been confirmed. Yes, the fight was finally over. Drawing a quick breath, Raiden sheathed the large red blade into it's home as he rolled his neck. As his visor snapped open, he manually switched his pain numbing abilities back on, flipping his Jack the Ripper persona back of. As Big Band gave a short congrats to the team after arriving back on foot, Raiden looked to the man. "So that's it? We beat 'im?" He asked, ready to move on.

It was in between conversation, however, when Raiden felt something change within him. Not only had the stress of battle come to an end, but as if some strings were cut off a marionette, Raiden felt freed from some greater grasp of evil. His body, which he hadn't even realized was engulfed in a shadowy effect, had begun to fade and his once ominous gleaming red eyes (which were not from his Ripper Mode capabilities) had faded back to just a regular, dull grey, a sign that he had regained his humanity. Rubbing his head, now confused, he looked to his new allies. "The hell was that?... That felt really weird..." He asked, looking to his teammates for answers.

The fight was long and tiring and it was midway through Raiden exhaustedly readjusting his Mexican garbs that he remembered something. His blade had gone flying off somewhere into the desert. Slightly upset by this minor inconvenience, Raiden grumbled under his breath as he realized he would have to begin combing through the surface of the sands to find it.

His thoughts were interrupted by his new companion who mentioned that the spirit of something or another was immune to being crushed. Confused, he turned his head toward the fleshly defeated body of the Red Eye, which now had something translucent gently wavering out of it's corpse. A spirit... Raiden thought to himself, now realizing what Tora had called out to the crew about.

It was then that a lone woman came floating down to greet them. She explained that in order to keep the giant Red Eye dead, someone would have to fuse with it, which Raiden did not entirely feel up to doing, nor did he particularly have experience in as well. Raiden watched as a young man had taken initiative to deal with the spirit, and cleanly dealt with it by turning it into a sort of summonable entity. Raiden was still flabbergasted by magic and otherworldly powers, but if it meant the situation was dealt with, then it was of no major concern to him.

It was also dreadfully hot, and Raiden was lucky to have Poppi alongside his team. She managed to keep him and many of his other new friends cool for the time being.

Now laid the matter of his missing sword. Raiden had gotten so distracted he had nearly forgotten about the blade which had been flung with their flight upward. "You guys go on ahead. I'll be behind you." Walking away from the wonderful cool air, Raiden maid his way backwards and began his search nearby the bottomless hole they had been spat from moments ago.

Surely as many of the crew had begun trudging towards wherever their next destination was, Raiden had continued to comb the sands of the desert, looking for anything that resembled a sword. Through his search, he made sure the crew he had just fought the Red Eye with was still in eye sight of him. He had just met the folks, didn't want to lose new companions already. After searching for what seemed to be miles upon miles of sand, Raiden was just about to give up hope and turn tail to meet with the rest of the gang. It was then he saw to his left a silver glint in the midday sun. He quickly ran to the source and managed to pick up his blade. Gripping the sheath on his back, he lined the blade with it's proper place as he sheathed it back up. Solves that issue... He thought to himself.

Turning back towards the now fading group, Raiden played catch up as he activated what little electric powers he had left and ran towards the group. Getting in practice with running had been a useful asset, allowing Raiden to remember his VR training he had undergone with The Doktor.



The same notification which came up earlier when he was able to trigger his pain inhibitors, now notified Raiden that he could access his previous collection of VR trainings. "The hell happened to me?... So many things are missing, and I'm just now noticing..." He whispered to himself as he activated his Ninja Run. While faster than his regular sprint, it sure did get him more tired. He quickly caught up to the gang, exhausted from running such a far distance and climbing up a decent amount. "Sorry... Dropped something." He said shrugging nonchalantly as he enjoyed the fresh change of air, returning to the general area of Poppi.

---

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Rubick's search was quickly interrupted when a pair of robots walked up to him, one of whom began to speak to him. It was quite rare for robots to be initiating conversations with him. Rubick hoped he hadn't caused enough trouble in town again to warrant disciplinary action from the local guards again. Judging from their stark contrast in appearance from said guards, however, it seemed unlikely. "Ah, hellooo~! I am Rubick, the Grrrrand Magus," Rubick introduced himself cheerfully and with a flourish, rolling the r's on 'Grand' to emphasize his title. "But you may simply call me 'Rubick'. I'm currently on the search for the Seekers of Light. You wouldn't happen to know where..." He trailed off as his mind finally began to fit the pieces between one of the descriptions of said Seekers of Light and the blue-and-white robot in front of him. Say... you wouldn't happen to be one of them, would you?" Rubick mentally celebrated his current streak of good fortune. It had just been favorable event after favorable event lately, and it seemed his life was going to get more exciting from here on out.

”No no no get lost” Minda shouted at the chasing Trilids. Sure, these ones chasing her meant they where out of the way of the bomb and the rest of the crew, but that was cold comfort when they where nipping at her heels. Her Vibrava dodged to the side, dragging her with it and out of the way of a charging insect trying to smash its blade-like head into the both of them. She slashed at it clumsily, her wounds from her making it hard to fight as well as before ,meaning she succeeded only in batting it away. Fortunately that was enough, as fire suddenly lanced down from on high, scything through her pursuers one and all.

”Thank the goddesses” she whispered to herself as she slowed, and used her long-sword held in her shadowhand to hack at the stragglers to bits, before correcting herself by shouting up ”Thanks Prim!” at her savior and saluting her with a blade holding hand.

Then a few moments later there was an explosion below as the mega jar hit, followed by a cavalcade of final blows raining down on what was left of Red Eye. Minda held her breath as she watched the strikes hammer down, and then let out a whoop of ”yeah! Get squashed maggot!” as the titan finally breathed its last breath and started to turn to ash.

Then she was left to fight her way down through the air currents, returning just in time to see Joker bind Red Eye’s spirit to his will. At another time she would have been weary of that, she still didn't quite trust the thieves even after all this time but at the moment she could care less.

”Well I’m glad that’s over… so uh. Now what?” she asked, before glancing around and becoming aware of their current predicament ”Ah ” she held the sentence as she prevented herself from swearing and finally finished with ”Joy. Another death march. Well at least it’s warm instead of cold this time”

They were also a bit better equipped to deal with it. Poppie had her ice core which she could blast people with in a rather brute force cooling method. Midna meanwhile had something much more mundane to help them make it.

”Water and salty food. Come and get it!” she announced as she mounted up and prepared to get moving, opening up portals and (after storing her blades) dropping bottles of water and varieties of travel food into her hands and then handing them out to whoever wanted them. Which was likely everyone. Aid granted, she then helped herself to plenty of water and a cereal bar or two while she stuck close to Sectonia to benefit from her passive healing and holding her shadow hand up over her head to act as a parasol.

The team got moving together, though not all of them set off at the same time. The metal jawed warrior stayed behind for a bit, only to come sprinting after them to rejoin them a short while later, letting them know he had stayed back to find something he had dropped.

”I’m surprised you found whatever it was you were looking for” Minda said, remembering how they could not find their friends that had been blown away the last time they crossed, before pulling out another water bottle and tossing it to the cyborg warrior with a ”Drink up, if you can manage that with only one lip”

She looked away after that, intending to just get back to riding across the sands, before going ”Oh! Right” and turning back and saying ”You should be free now?” a glance at his eyes told her that he was ”Mmm. Good. Then I’ll fill you in on the truth of this world. This is not your home realm, it is Galeem’s world and that” she pointed west and skywards at the winged ball of floating ball of light ”Is Galeem”

”Galeem tore reality asunder, ripped every world to shreds and then stitched them back together into this mish mash quilt of a world. Then it filled its hack job of a world with the peoples of the torn up worlds, and muddied their minds so they couldn’t remember how the world used to be,” she said, before pausing her exposition to take a sip of water for her desert dry throat, ”something you should be free from now, going by the fact that your eyes aren't red anymore. People under its influence have red eyes and can't back down from a fight, you see, on top of the whole, not being able to realize Galeem messed up the world deal”

”We don't know how, or why it did that, but we do know it’s protected by 13 guardians, and we need to take them all down before we can take a shot at the gaudy thing. Other free people… Tora and some others… already got 2. This one here that makes three and there's another team working on a 4th, if they haven't got it already. So, a few down, a fair way to go” she explained, laying out the task at hand, before saying ”We could use all the help we could get, so if you want to go home, or get revenge, or just are the kinda guy who sees a cause and signs up because it's the right thing to do, and considering what you just did I assume its the latter, we’d be thankful for more of your help…”

She paused, and then realized something ”Huh. Don’t think I ever got your name. Mine’s Midna, what’s yours?” she asked as they tramped forwards together under the beating sun.