Sectonia found the large train pulled by the cat amusing. She had some large trains run by fat waddle dees in her home kingdom, so a large animal pulling a train isn't new to her, but it was still quaint. And the train was large enough to handle her size, so that was also quite nice. The long 3 minute wait in complete darkness outside was a bit strange, as warps should be much faster than that, but eventually they found themselves in a place Sectonia could only say as "Dystopian beauty." The bright lights and other colorful parts of the Metro really agreed to Sectonia, but the fact there was stains, garbage, and other unsavory things underneath said lights gave Sectonia a bit of a mixed feeling about the area. Still, it was about time she found a place in this whole world that was colorful at last.

And the plan overall was to figure out how to use this place as a 'dimensional nexus', something she was familiar with as that was how she took over Floralia. With one of the cats telling them that the main Kiosk was nearby that'd explain everything, Sectonia ushered all of her minions over there to figure out where everything went here.

Once they reached the main station, they found a list of all lines and where they went, which Sectonia frowning a bit that she recognized almost none of the places. Perhaps Queen Station had something related to her, but she highly doubted that. According to the cat at the Kiosk, the group needed 'pons' in order to buy tickets for the various trains here. At first Sectonia wondered what these were, but it was soon figured out they were the strange orb things that were flying around out of reach of the cats that wandered the place or were in places that were... unpleasant to sift through.

With a goal in view, Sectonia said to everyone. "Well, it looks like we require a lot of these 'pons' if we are to use this place for easy travel. They are all around this place, so lets get this over with so we can find a spot that isn't that desert." Sectonia summoned a large amount of different colored Antillions afterwords, telling them to go and find all the pons they could and bring them back to the Queen, with Sectonia refusing to actually go look for Pons herself, stating. "I'm not touching whatever those stains are.", pointing at some dubious stains that were on a wall near a Pon in an alleyway.

---

---

“Blinking” (if you could call it that), The Prisoner woke to his vision obsured by the weight of the winter on his body. He never should have strayed off the path that Frisk, Linkle, and Albedo lead him down. He had expected to find new adventure parting from the skeptical Albedo, yet only found himself lost in the snowy fields. They had to have sprawled around for miles in each direction. He looked down at his hands worriedly to see that they had completely nearly rotted into a disgusting green and purple mush of flesh and disease. He had no blood to shed to fend off the infectionous Malaise. He could feel his body whithering underneath him with each step he took. He was going to die and much like he did on the island and ruins, find a new body to host himself in.

The Prisoner stopped dead in his tracks as his body began to violently vibrate, the disease he festered now rapidly spreading across the interior and exterior of the corpse. It started at his feet as his body began to wither away, turning to a mushy pile of disease before fading into ash, blowing into the wind. His body had been desecrated. Reduced to now his Malaise-ridden head, the Prisoner now laid in the snow. “Well, shit.” He said complaining about the situation in the silence of the wind and snow. There’d be no way he could continue like this for very long. He had very few options. Either go back to find Frisk, or bare the harsh winter around him, trying to find a way to possess a new body.

The choice seemed obvious. Frisk was the only member of the crew who openly accepted him and possibly with time he could learn how to be a part of a team. The blob-like form of The Prisoner began slowly rolling through the snow, leaving a small trail in the snow as he went on his way to meet back up with the group. He hadn’t been walking for long, so on feet, it should only take a few minutes to regroup, but in his current condition, it was very possible that The Prisoner could be delayed.

The Prisoner made no delay to admire the scenery as he rolled as fast as he could as a simple head could, collecting snow on the surface of his head. “Frisk, I can’t see you buddy!” He shouted from the ground, still able to somehow speak despite not having an actual throat. His voice could have easily been drowned out by the winds or muffled by The Prisoner’s rolling through the thick white flour of winter, but just in case it helped him locate his new companions through the difficult terrain.

...

After have been rolling for what had seemed at least a mile, The Prisoner found himself back in the general location of where he had deviated from Frisk and Albedo, though he suspected they had pressed onward towards the tower Frisk had mentioned in their introduction. It took him a minute to find any leads as to where they went, following a trail of what was the feet of a few people, but most prominently, the trail of a child’s shoes. He knew they had decided to go in this direction once seeing this and made immediate way to following the trail he had picked up.

The Prisoner had slinked through the flat and hills of snow, now determined to regroup with the small group that had set out, and within a few minutes of his journey found the sight of Frisk, Albedo, and the bird-man who acted as a sort of guide. It had seemed that The Prisoner had missed quite a lot in his aimless rolling, because as soon as he started proceeding towards them again, he had snapped at Albedo before taking off to the sky, leaving Albedo and Frisk in their lonesome. The Prisoner slowly approached the duo, making his best attempt to not suddenly startle them, now being in this odd, bodiless form. He’d had given them a friendly wave if he still had his arms, but being reduced to a discusting, green, vine-like blob made that impossible. “Hey.” He intejected from below, looking up at the alchemist and the child.

From afar, it would’ve taken The Prisoner a moment to notice the change in Frisk’s overall appearance, however being closer to the child, or rather, now young adult, brought the changes clear to his eye. He rolled up to Frisk and Albedo, his green, mossy-viney head of sickness littered with sprinkles of snow. “Whoa, what happened Frisk? I was only gone for a few minutes and you’re... Older?...” The Prisoner seem genuinely perplexed by the change in overall form, but paid it little attention, as his curiousity had not been quenched. Where did Teba go? And why had he seemed so upset. “I... take it something happened between you three?” He asked clearly in reference to Frisk’s new appearance and the now missing Teba.

He kinda slithered up closer to Frisk and Albedo’s shoes, ready to continue their “mission”. He looked up at Frisk. “You mind giving me a ride? I wouldn’t advise touching me, but, I’m a little short on stamina right now.” He seemed very proud of that joke, as he let out a short chuckle before he lookef back up at the pair. “Seriously though, I might need a ride.”

After Teba disappeared into the gathering dusk, soon to be night, the two who remained looked on for a few moments longer, more or less crushed by the weight of the archer's condemnation and the innocent life they failed to protect. Though the guttural screams and twisted, unintelligible words of the Nordic undead had fallen silent, the cruel wind still howled across Dragonspine's cold, impartial faces of stone, the stark and miserable mausoleum of one more unfortunate soul.

Unable to stand the stillness, Frisk moved first, collecting the vestiges of their enemies from the snow where they had fallen. Albedo watched through solemn red eyes, scarlet as the sunset that these winter clouds hid away from him, as the child tottered stiffly between each one. In turn Frisk destroyed each one, perhaps in a final act of revenge, and from those prismatic remnants obtained the spoils of a hollow victory. A bow, a shield, a crystal, a fruit, and in a twist of the knife, a handful of ghastly bones...whatever extra security they might offer, if Frisk knew how to wield them, would do little to quell the pain inside. Regardless, Frisk kept them all, and Albedo made no claim to them. A shadow of interest passed over his features, however, when the child crouched down in front of the one that bore Melony's image. The moment Frisk embraced that spirit, a dazzling lightshow blossomed in the snowy twilight, so bright that it forced the alchemist to look away.

When he could finally bear to look at Frisk once more, he found that his companion was a child no longer. Instead of a nondescript kid, he beheld a woman in her mid-twenties, a little portly beneath warm winter gear, with longer hair that ran a distinct gradient from cream-white to chocolate-brown, like a dessert melted in summertime. His eyebrows rows as he registered the remarkable transformation, and Frisk seemed just as surprised as he was. The sheer bewilderment that accompanied such a drastic physical and mental change seemed to take the edge off her anguish, but she managed to keep a hold of herself, and focus on what came next. With Melony gone, the torch had been passed, and the responsibility of getting her affairs in order fell to Frisk. Even though she'd only just now learned what Pokemon were, she also knew that her Pokemon were out there, scared, lonely, and desperate for their beloved trainer. She wasn't going to let them down.

With her spirit bolstered to the point where she could continue on despite a cracked ankle, she joined Albedo again, who gestured to the cliff beside them. Though their downfall during their fight with the Draugr, it still served as the path forward, and the less sheer rocks nearby could be used to climb up. As his companion turned away went to begin the ascent, Albedo echoed her words. "Down to us."

While her back was turned, Albedo reached for the icy sword he'd planted in the ground, and with a quick, sharp yank, pulled it free. He approached the woman struggling to lift herself up onto the first ledge, his eyes fixed on her back, and his pace began to quicken. Then, without warning, a sudden exclamation off to the left got his attention, and the alchemist's pace slowed back down as his head snapped toward the disturbance's direction. Though smaller than he used to be, the malign blight of the Prisoner's head was unmistakable, and Albedo's eyes narrowed. "There you are." Without missing a beat he leaned his sword against the rock wall and gave Frisk a boost up from below to get her onto the ledge. Then he stared down at the Prisoner as he rolled closer, the young man's expression one of mild reproach.

"Yes, quite a lot has happened after you disappeared into the evening gloom," Albedo summarized. "And little of it good, I regret to say. We were attacked, and Melony did not survive. Teba blamed us, despite flying ahead in the first place, and left in the aftermath." His manner remained somewhat chilly when the Prisoner requested a ride. "You say it's inadvisable to touch you, but then ask to be carried, regardless? Are you perhaps toxic or infectious in some way?" He crossed his arms. "In this form, you do remind me of a slime, which apply elemental effects on contact. I certainly don't intend to be rude, but even if your presence isn't deleterious in some way, carrying you with us is a risky proposition. It would be harder to surmount obstacles, like this wall for instance, and if more enemies appear...you aren't capable of fighting in this state, are you?" Albedo's hypothesis turned out to be one hundred percent correct. "Regardless, if you wish to persevere with us, I will not try to dissuade you. I hope you're not susceptible to the cold, at least?"

Level: 3
Experience: 3/30 (Friend Heart Created, -1 Exp)
Currently In: Frozen Highlands, Dragonspine
Word Count: 303 (+1 Exp)
Albedo @Lugubrious, Prisoner @XoXKieroBombXoX

As it turns out, they weren't down to two after all!

Once Albedo motioned to the cliffside, Frisk realized her idea the first time was correct. Though it'd be more challenging for her to climb up with a broken ankle, she turned to face the rockwall and begin her ascent. Already the woman had to bite the inside of her cheek from the pain, struggling to even climb the first ledge of all things. How embarassing. As Albedo went over to help her however, something else appeared. Or really, someone.

As she turned her head over to look at Prisoner, Frisk sighed in relief. "Thank goodness you're okay." She said despite his...current condition. The alchemist wasn't that amused on his end. She couldn't blame him either, they could've used the help. Albedo took a moment to help the new Pokemon trainer out before addressing the sentient head himself, despite Prisoner directly talking to her. "It's ah, hard to explain what happened to me on my end, but yes. If we get ambushed for the third time this trip, it'd be too soon." She spoke up, shaking her head in distain.

Then concidering his vulnerable state, Prisoner requested a ride of sorts, despite advising them not to touch him. Hm.

"He's a ball of virus, too risky to pick him up. Maybe we can find an empty satchel in one of those camps and carefully scoop him up into it?" Frisk suggested, quietly chuckling at the joke. Then an idea hit her. Being without a body was like, getting severely hurt, right? Thinking back to how Linkle made one, she paused to focus on creating a Friend Heart herself. Aiming for the talking head, she casually dropped it to him. "Here, a little leg up for you!" She punned back, and continued her climb.

”Eh I get my butt kicked all the time. The important thing is to keep getting back up again when the world knocks you down!” Bowser added to Peach’s insistence that Rubric getting bodied by the gank squad was no great shame ”And then you train and you scheme and do a new awesome plan… and get your butt kicked again… and again… and again…” the King’s eyes gradually glazed over as the weight of his failures pressed down upon them

”His majesty is an old hand at taking down dimension warping eldritch beings though, aren't you Sire? Why this isn't even going to be the first one who tried to rewrite reality in their own image you have taken down!” Kamek hurried over to insist and stop any kind of downward spiral.

”Huh? Oh. Oh yeah I'd did do that didn’t I! Yeah!” the king cheered himself, his history of endless defeats all but forgotten.

A little bit after that, and they found out through Pit how the blue team was doing, which was well ”Glad they’re good. They killed a boss too? Nice, good job them” Bowser said in response to his question being answered by the somewhat familiar angle boy ”Thanks, uh, pat? Pot? Pit! Pretty sure it’s Pit. Right? Dunno much about you but you where a reel thorn in my side till you switched teams last time” Bowser said, misconstruing the situation where he had joined the mass of heroes entirely during the final act of the whole Subspace fiasco ”so good to have you”

After that, they got filled in on some more details that the Blue team had found, namely an underground cat based train network,, as well as some stuff about the state of the world. The big one was the fate of the mission Jr had sent out way back when to deal with Eggman. It had, apparently, turned into a right farce.

”Ah so you didn’t get Dr Eggman onboard? Shame, the guy is a tech wize and definitely a team player once he knows the world is on the line.” Was Bowser’s take on the situation ”Plus he’s surprisingly sporty for such a, uh, top heavy guy.”

Jr meanwhile napped right through the explanation of the series of events he had set in motion, but he did flutter open his eyes at the mention of a vehicle bay ”Yeah I used that place last night to upgrade my car, it's pretty neat. Plus we put the airship in there to be serviced, so we’ll have that boxy thing to use to get around. Or someone will eventually, I don’t know if they managed to restart it yet. Thing took a real beating seeing as it got emp’d twice in one night”

After that, the main question raised was where exactly they should go. Part of that planning was impossible to do, as the result of the blue team’s train rides could open up who knew where for easy travel, but they did the best with what they had. Being the most strategically minded of the Troop, it was Kamek who had their input into the situation.

”So, ah, this hole where the dead zone used to be” Kamek pointed towards the massive crater that had been left where the blighted realm had once stood ”What, exactly, happened there? And, well, there was no mention of the boss there on the list of ones dealt with so… do we need to go back there? Poke around? Put down the guardian there for good? Assuming everything there but the boss is blown to pieces, or rather only it got up afterwards, then we could walk or fly there, deal with it, and then go to this Midgar place perhaps?”

After Raz had went through all of that - the near-fatal mountain climb, the somehow-even-more-near-fatal fight with a giant monster, the mudslide of monster guts he accidentally partook in, the loss of one of their allies (which he wasn't really aware of until earlier that day) - Raz was glad to be in a more familiar atmosphere. For some of the team, the brightly lit, zig-zagging metro station was like another world. But, like, metaphorically another world, since it probably was an actual other world. Raz, though, it brought a sense of nostalgia to him. Hustle, bustle, the echoing chatter of the crowd, bright lights and the deep scent of cheap food. It felt like home.

Wonder Red, on the other hand, was just as on edge as he's always been, at least since the team first met him on the Virgin Victory. "Stick close together, everyone!" He said to the group at large, having taken a slight leadership ahead of the rest. "There's no telling what dangers could be lurking in this place. Complacency could get you lost. Or worse."

"Uhhhh..." Raz cleared his throat and pointed a little past Wonder Red. "There's a map right there, Mr. Red. And over there. And there too. I think that, uh, there's maps all over the place. Getting lost seems... hard."

"... Er, right you are, Junior Psychonaut Razputin Aquato. I hadn't meant to devalue the team's capabilities. These are just unusual circumstances we all find ourselves in, so... caution is key."

Whatever caution the group shared didn't matter much when they accepted the advice of a shady stranger at face value. Most of the metro inhabitants were shady, actually. Literal shadowy cat-like figures. They seemed harmless, but there was a feeling of eyes always on Raz's back that made his skin crawl. It was the exact same feeling that made Wonder Red on his guard despite the seeming safety of the metro. Something about the place was off, so it was probably best not to linger so long as they could help it.

As their impromptu informant skittered off, Wonder Red pulled out a medium-sized coin purse from somewhere on his person and popped it open. "Payment? If we all were to pool our resources together, there may be enough to afford a few passes."

Raz, however, already had his eyes on the prize. Or, eyes on the 'pons'; little green floating orbs dotted around the metro, over railways and on top of shop signs, tucked into nooks, and that was only what he could see from where he was.

"Oh, hey, I'm actually good at this kinda stuff!" Without making a gameplan with the others, Raz rushed towards a nearby hotdog stand and sprang up onto its colorful awning, bounding off of it like it was made of rubber, up towards one of the higher metro lines. "I'll meet'cha all right back there! Don't wait up for me!" He touched down on one of the rails and sped down it as if he was a train himself, gliding off into the twisting tracks to collect whatever pons floated around up there.

A little slower on the uptake than the rambunctious psychic, Wonder Red stashed his coinpurse back wherever it came from, and turned to one of the alleys that Sectonia had pointed out. "If we're to save these worlds from Galeem, Queen Sectonia, then we can't be afraid of getting our hands dirty. This is, a little more literal than the saying usually applies. Nonetheless!" With that Wonder Red dashed forward, poking around the dingiest of corners to find the pons other people had looked over. He might've been essentially digging through a couch for spare change, but he's doing his best at it!

---

Taking the news of Yellow team's safety with a nod, Geralt quickly explained the members of that team (The ones he knew about, at least) to Yennefer, giving Tora special mention as a master artisan.

Mewtwo's telepathy had taken the pair off guard for a moment, however, and the Sorceress hummed in appreciation for the very useful magic (Which in this case, she did not realize was actually a psychic power rather than a magical one), even as she silently mourned her hopefully temporary loss of the ability. After that initial moment, however, both paid close attention to his announcements. Yennefer, of course, had known about Mewtwo's status as the leader of Alcamoth, but Geralt found himself rolling the information around in his head to think on later. He'd been doing that a lot, lately.

The news that Yellow team was not only safe, but successful in their mission, made Geralt node again, this time with a bit more emotion behind it. He hadn't had any doubts that they'd be able to succeed, but hearing and seeing the representation showing that another of Galeem's Guardians was defeated helped further reinforce his confidence that this was an achievable task. They were about a third of the way there. And as their allies grew, it was likely that they'd be able to feel the other Guardians even more quickly. The Seekers were regaining their lost abilities, and in some cases rapidly gaining new and powerful ones in addition to their natural power.

The explanation of the Metro system, however, garnered mixed reactions from the pair. While Yennefer was fascinated with and excited by the idea of such a thing, Geralt was, predictably, dismayed. "No...no more portals, please." He whined quietly. The idea of those damnable things becoming part of his everyday travel was downright horrific.

"Oh be quiet, you big baby." Yennefer chastised with a whisper. "Nobody else is scared of a little portal travel like you are." Geralt, who was indeed a big baby when it came to portal travel, merely grunted and crossed his arms, though he gave Yen a little smirk that showed he was at least playing it up just a bit. Her response was to roll her eyes, but return a smile as they returned their attention to Mewtwo and Mission Control.

Yennefer, being more familiar with the attack on Eggman's base than Geralt, helped quietly fill in some of the details about who was who. All in all, the mission was a relative success, albeit with Eggman's escape sure to cause them grief later.

The destruction of an entire region, while shocking in scope, was something Geralt recalled vividly. The utterly massive explosion that had occurred shortly after the war summit in Limsa. "But we never collected its Spirit..." he mumbled to himself. So of course the Guardian was still there. They'd have to deal with it eventually, but at least in this case it might be a relatively straight-forward endeavor.

And finally, came the time to decide on a course of action. Geralt and Yennefer were in silent agreement on this one. Midgar.

"Once we've managed to learn how this...Metro system...works, I think it's wisest we secure the safety of our allies." Yennefer stated diplomatically. "Assuming we are able to find a location nearby Midgar, we can work on freeing more people in positions of influence from Galeem's control and gain their full support. The sooner we grow our network of allies, the sooner we'll be able to destroy this monster."

Geralt nodded. "The folk at Limsa broke the stalemate on an endless war with our help. Whatever's happening there in Midgar, I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it, too."

The telepathy Mewtwo used to communicate was both new and unexpected, but the Ace Cadet quashed any discomfort he felt in order to actually focus on the pokémon's words. The scouts that the Alcamoth had were impressive, given how much of a map of the world they had in a relatively short amount of time.

At the same time, Pit stared in confusion at the Koopa King before he yelped, "Yeah, it's Pit! And that is not what happened!"

Once everyone arrived Mewtwo went right into the briefing, starting with the good news. Steady progress on the guardians was great to hear. The Cadet peered at the image of Red Eye, feeling a small pang of jealousy. It looked big, dangerous, and monstrous - his favorite kind of enemy. Besides that, there was apparently a train system that could lead to all corners of the world. The Cadet raised his eyebrows in surprise. That would be incredibly useful in getting a lot of their force around quickly. They wouldn't have to put the onus on individuals to create passages for them either, like with Junior and his paintings. The Cadet couldn't wait for the Yellow Team's efforts to bear fruit so that he could check the place out himself. He held his comments until the end, as apparently the information to follow was more pressing. It was a lot of information regarding the mercenary teams, the Alcamoth itself, and of course the options for their next move.

"Hmmm." So where to head next? Honestly the Cadet's first thought aligned with Mewtwo's initial suggestion. "So the Autumn Vale is right next door to Princess Peach's castle, and it's bordering three other regions. Seems like if we get a foothold there, it'd be for the best once we move into those areas," he said. "Then again, we can't exactly ignore a direct request for help."

So far, it seemed that the group was leaning more towards journeying to Midgar. Kamek had some questions about the Dead Zone, which the Cadet awaited the answers to as well. If she was right on the zenny and they could just rush right to the area's boss, then he'd love to get a fifth win in for the Seekers as soon as possible. At that point, Pit jumped in.

"I wish it was that easy!" There's two things stopping us," the boy angel said, holding up two fingers. "After the explosion, the whole place was covered in, uh... Timefall. Rain that makes everything it touches old. Doesn't matter if it's people, cars, whatever. So that's the first thing we'd have to deal with."

His explanation was a little lacking so far, but it got the point across. He went on. "The second thing are the ghost things - the beached things! We could get around the Timefall with magic, but the BTs are invisible, and if they catch you they'll make another huge explosion. At least that's what Deadman said. And yeah, that was his actual name!" He paused to let out a little huff of air before his next statement. "We're still working on a way to track them before we go back."

He didn't bring up the BBs at all, what with his prior objection to using them. "So yeah, that's the situation there."

The Cadet scratched his head. "Well that giggisux, but I guess the boss isn't going anywhere, right? As long as someone keeps an eye on it, we can head somewhere else first."

The wait at Gerudo Town's train station was so uneventful that Therion imagined what awaited them at the other end of the line had to be something spectacular... that was how things normally went, at least. Unfortunately he couldn't even kill time in town on account of his gender. So he waited patiently with his hands shoved into his pockets, quietly listening to the new mission debrief. He was officially part of the team now, after all. Their instructions amounted to glorified sight-seeing, and the thief agreed that it did sound kind of fun even in spite of their want for a buddy system. So it was when the train arrived, pulling by a massive cat, Therion eagerly boarded.

Some minutes later and the train pulled into it's station. Therion committed the place's name to memory, and though he'd planned to immediately get his bearings of the station in order to move around it quickly, he was overwhelmed by the intense colors, shapes, and sounds of the metro when the doors opened and the train's passengers were ushers out into the plaza. As it turned out, this large area was only the station of the desert area - the "Yellow Station" as told by one of the many talking black cats roaming around. Alice's explanation earlier was an understatement if every other station was like this one.

The group made it to the main area's kiosk, and there were ten more stations, eleven in total. Seems like they had a long day of riding ahead of them - and the first order of business was getting passes for the lines. Naturally it wasn't as straight forward as just buying them. On top of the labyrinth-like interior, the giant bee had learned that there was only one type of currency accepted here in the metro: 'pons.'

"...these?" Therion asked, producing one of the pons in question from under his shawl. It had looked somewhat valuable, so he'd grabbed one - though when exactly he'd managed to snag it while being with the group the whole time would remain a mystery.

With a confirmation that the green diamond-centered orbs were what they needed, Therion nodded. His first thought was to keep it, but it was only one pon and he was confident he'd be able to get a lot more. He could be a team player if he tried, so he gave the orb to their tag-along Bede. He also scoffed loudly at Sectonia's unwillingness to gather the things herself. "No kidding," he added after Wonder Red's chastisement.

Seeing as everyone would be splitting off at that point, some having already gone, Therion took his leave as well. He slipped away from the group with no fanfare, heading off in a random direction. The main area was like a city on it's own, so traversing it would take a while. Plus none of the maps posted made any sense to Therion, so finding the ticket booths in the first place would be a chore.

For Therion, what followed was a whole lot of exploration. Climbing mountains was awful, this was more of his kind of exercise - running, leaping, tumbling. He pkept an eye out for entrances to other stations and picked up pons as he went, but when he was fooled by a realistic looking sticker that some jokester had put in a difficult to reach spot high on the upper walkways, the thief decided to take a break. He sat right on the ground, idly peeling at the sticker until it came off the wall with a kaching sound effect, after which he methodically began to tear it into pieces as he studied the Metro from above.

If I was selling passes, where would I do it? he thought to himself. He tried to put himself into a merchant's shoes, but quickly determined that the layout of the Metro made little sense. Instead he conjured his inner Tressa, figuring the younger girl's more chaotic nature might give him some insight. From up there he could see more pons, and even spotted some of the Seekers among the station's patrons. He continued to sweep his gaze over the visible area, until something bright purple caught his eye. Considering the stations were color-coded, he hoped this would be promising. He stood up, stretched, and prepared to make his way back down.

It didn’t take long for the Seekers and their new acquaintances to find the Metro’s help center, especially given Sectonia’s lofty point of view as she led the party through the main area. It took the form of a circular kiosk situated right in the middle of the open area, and as everyone made their way over, Tora followed on autopilot, since his awestruck eyes were looking anywhere but straight in front of him. Zipping along through the open air along the holographic yellow track gave him one perspective of the Metro, but being able to see everything clearly was a wholly different beast. Only the distinct memory of boarding the subway five minutes ago, uncomfortably hot in the Sandswept Sky’s potent light of day, kept the Nopon from now believing he stood in the middle of a huge, neon city at night. Things looked relatively normal, albeit not to an inhabitant of Tora’s native Alrest, if one kept their eyes at ground level, but looking upward revealed buildings stacked on top of one another like massive building blocks of brick, metal, and glass, continuing up and up and up for tens and then hundreds of stories. Even Poppi, with the aid of her specialized optics, couldn’t zoom in far enough to make out where the altitudinous upper levels of the Yakuza Metro finally gave way to some sort of ceiling. “Forget train station,” the artificial blade murmured. “This practically indoor city.”

“Meh, meh…” her Masterpon agreed, somewhat astonished by all the sights and especially smells, as if he hadn’t just stuffed himself silly with the best grub the Wild West had to offer back at Tumbleweed Saloon.

Once at the help center, the whole crew could examine the extra-large monitors at their leisure, taking in all the tips and tricks the kiosk had to offer about navigating the Yakuza Metro, and requesting additional details from the helpful attendants as needed. After scanning list after list for a place that he recognized, Tora couldn’t help but agree with Sectonia. Gutsford, Radlandia, Clock Town, Wugachug? Rot one location in the entire registry, save Al Mamoon and Gerudo Town, rang a bell for him. He hadn’t really been expecting to see a name he recognized from his own world, but a small part of him felt a little let down, anyway.

Band shared the Nopon’s disappointment. “Looks like it’s gonna be trial and error after all, folks,” he observed. Before that process could even begin, however, everyone present needed to buy at least one metro pass each, and as Sectonia pointed out, that meant they needed pons. Luckily, that task looked refreshingly simple, for a change. While pons didn’t necessarily grow on trees, they weren’t far behind. A quick look around confirmed a bunch of them all over the Metro, whether sitting pretty in some out-of-the-way place, or forming trails up walls and across jumps. Naturally, Sectonia planned to delegate the task, but without any such luxury himself, it was time for Big Band to break a leg. “Y’all heard the big bug,” he said. “Let’s boogie.”

“Just don’t get careless, mates,” Vandham told everyone. “There’s a lotta places to fall, and it’s a long way down.”

Asbestos chuckled. “Yeah, don’t come cryin’ to us if ya getcha pockets picked, oah run ovah by one o’ those trains!”

The group quickly split up. Big Band set his sights on the heights and blasted off toward the Metro’s upper reaches. While everyone climbed around on food trucks, fire escapes, and in some cases the trains themselves down below, he’d scoop up some easy pickings where those without the gift of rocket-powered flight couldn’t hope to make their way. Tora and Poppi stood together as they watched Raz and the others go their separate ways, peering around for any good spots where they could make a quick and easy pon. At least, Tora kept an eye out, while his companion stared at him expectantly. After a few moments he returned the look. “Poppi want say thing to Tora?”

“Oh, Poppi just wonder when Masterpon ask Poppi to pick up and fly around and nab pons, easy-peasy,” she replied.

“Tora did think of that,” her Masterpon admitted. “But also have second thoughts, meh. It…too easy. Tora always rely on Poppi to get around fast. Poppi very good at it, of course, but carrying Tora like beach ball…it rob essential Nopon dignity, meh.” He glanced at Poppi as if expecting a sarcastic interjection, but this time she kept quiet. “Plus, this place look like biggy-time fun, in all honesty. So Tora want try run and jump around too, for once!”

Poppi smiled. “That does sound like fun. Masterpon not want Poppi help at all, then?”

“Well, no,” her inventor laughed. “Tora jump barely get off ground on own, and not very agile shape, meh. But if Tora have Drill Shield, can use to jet over gaps, midair boost, and even high jump. That make up difference for sure!”

In response, Poppi constructed a new Drill Shield for him, spinning it out of the ambient ether. “Roger, roger!” she agreed, putting her hands on her hips. “Now, let’s go before all good ones get gone!”

Tora took off at a run, flailing his wings a little as he bounced along, and Poppi clanked behind him. He ran up an escalator, saw Asbestos stomping around the scaffolding of an active construction zone for what looked like a statue of the Metro’s founder in the middle of a shopping center, and hooked a left. A second set of escalators brought him to a third-story landing, and while the currently-inaccessible entrance to the Blue Line stood right ahead, he spotted a corner with paw-print phones and a really cool piece of wall art to the right, and the open area stretched on a ways to the left. The glass outer wall of a giant aquarium took up the entire facade along there, and Tora ran past the assembled Metro cats who watched the fish with wide, bright eyes. Ahead lay the bridge that spanned the path he and the others came down earlier in order to reach the help center, but rather than hustle across, Tora turned his attention to a balcony on the aquarium’s second story, where a handful of Metro Cats were lounging around on deck chairs beneath a beach umbrella. Since the Metro lacked both rain and shine, their furled parasol served only a decorative purpose, but at its tip Tora spotted just the bright green glint he was searching for. A pon, out of reach for a casual kitty, but not for an industrious Nopon such as himself.

“Okay, it go time!” He held down the button for the Drill Shield’s thrusters, charging them up for a moment, then released to blast up toward the balcony. At the apex of his flight he snatched the pon, then landed nearby. While the cats looked up for a moment from their phones, they didn’t seem to care, and after Poppi rocket-jumped up to join him, Tora ran inside. The building’s second greeted him with the sight of a large perimeter walkway that ran around the edges of the aquarium, allowing visitors to look over the railing at the fish swimming down below. Some of the cats even wielded rods to catch a meal with, but Tora was more interested in the pons that trailed along the narrower walkways over the tank.

“Meh-meh, perfect!” Without a second thought he hopped over the railing, paused for a terrified moment as the catwalk shook under his weight, then proceeded along it. Two, three, four, five, six. He went back and forth across the catwalks and climbed the occasional vertical grate, accidentally spilling a few buckets of fish food as he made sure to collect them all. A couple rafts drifted around the surface in set patterns, and with a little timing Tora could use them to get across otherwise excessive gaps. Tora did slip and fall in once, but getting soaked wasn’t about to dampen his spirit. With a final daring boost over an open area to nab pons seven and eight, the big fishing tank was cleaned out, and the duo ended up in what looked like a blend between a maintenance area and an alley, all reflective and gray. There seemed to be back doors to a couple restaurants, possibly used to offload leftovers to the fish tank, as well as some half-finished graffiti depicting a tiger. An orange splotch lay on the ground from the rupture of an abandoned paint can, but a cat vacuum seemed to be on the case. Tora steered clear and went to bounce off the dumpsters in order to collect six more pons. That left just eight before both he and Poppi could afford a pass.

After that, the two considered their next move for a moment. They could go back out through the aquarium, or down the only other open route from this alleyway, which resounded with the loud, telltale rattle of a nearby subway train. Tora could see some more pons up high on the restaurant’s fire escapes, but the dumpsters couldn’t spring him high enough to reach them even if he boosted up with the Drill Shield midair. Out of curiosity he tried jumping on the rubbery, domed top of the cat vacuum, and bounced even higher, only for the hapless Nopon to land face-down in the paint. “Meh-meh, of course!” he groaned, annoyed, before turning to see the cat vacuum speeding toward him with an angry, electronic MEOW! “MEH!?” Poppi charged in to protect him, but before she or her Masterpon could do anything, the machine ran him over. In an instant Tora not only got cleaned off, but also bounced sky-high, soaring high enough to grab hold of a fire escape. He held on for dear life, barely breathing until his heart slowed back down, at which point he managed to wrap his head around what happened. “Heh…heheh!” After swinging around to deposit himself on the landing, he put his wings on the rail and leaned over. “Up here Poppi!” he called down. “See, Tora always manage to reach new heights, meh!”

As she looked up Poppi removed her fist from the destroyed remains of the vacuum somewhat sheepishly. “G-good! Now…Masterpon can collect rest of pons!”

He did, and once he finished he jumped back down into Poppi’s waiting arms. While they’d gathered more than enough, Tora was too curious to leave before taking a peek at whatever lay beyond the alley’s other exit. Together he and Poppi followed the path through the maintenance area, and after just a couple moments they came upon a ledge that overlooked a Blue Station train tunnel, wide enough for two subways to run alongside one another in opposite directions. “Whoa!” Tora marveled. “How this work? We supposed jump down and run across when trains not coming?”

“Poppi think opposite. Would be more practical to jump across tops of trains when both come by together,” the artificial blade reasoned. She pointed at the pons that floated in the tunnel at the perfect height to scoop up if one happened to be standing on top of a passing train.

“Oh!” Now that Poppi said it, it seemed so obvious. “Well, we just zip-zoom across anyway,” Tora remembered, hefting his Drill Shield. The two jetted across to find themselves overlooking none other than the Blue Station itself. Metro Cats milled around throughout, hanging out and chatting in their little groups, and after jumping down Tora could see the very same row of blue gates that confronted him at the top of the escalators before, complete with a matching ticket booth. “Meh-meh!” he sang, looking pleased. “So there are ways in without pass. It probably same for other stations. So they more like shortcuts than actual obstacles, meh.”

“Well, we still need buy pass to ride train,” Poppi reminded him. As she spoke she produced her share of ten pons. “Since we here, why not get ours before go back and meet others?”

Tora nodded his agreement, and the dynamic duo did just that. A few moments later they stood back out in the open Metro, not far from the glass front of the aquarium. As the Nopon watched, a trout got snagged by a fishhook, and yanked up toward the catwalks he’d explored earlier on the building’s second floor. “There very much more to this place than meet eye,” he observed.

“Mhm. I wonder how others get on,” Poppi mused. She turned to go, prompting Tora to join her, and the pair began the short trip back the way they came.



The voice of this strange fetus beast in her head made Nadia a little uncomfortable, so as she listened to its attempts to get everyone on the same page, she tried to make herself as comfortable as possible in her chosen chair at the Garfont Center’s fancy roundtable. As if its map wasn’t already crazy impressive and nigh-magical enough to someone who essentially hailed from the early twentieth century, the fact that its holographic surface started changing itself as Mewtwo explained things boggled Nadia’s mind even further. Utterly fascinated, she couldn’t possibly avert her gaze as little dot-trails snaked across the map to trace the teams’ approximate paths, or when areas flashed and displayed additional information, like the guardians that her buddies had already taken down. Both the Ender Dragon and Red Eye looked like terrifying monstrosities, and the mention of Megadragonbowser intrigued her, but considering everything she’d been through she didn’t even stop to question it.

As more new information trickled in Nadia mulled it over with narrowed eyes, her chin resting in her hand. She delighted in HQ's exciting plan to secure both far-off friends and a world-wide travel network, then absorbed the details of their dealings with the Forlorn Factory, both through Dedede’s distressed account of the initial raid and Peach’s summary of that problem’s thorough resolution. With everyone caught up to date, that just left the matter of where to go next. Nadia glanced at each region on the map as Peach described them, and like the princess her attention came to rest on Midgar, represented as a very large city up in the Dystopiascape. For now it possessed only a vague but very large outline, which left Nadia all the more curious. Part of the reason she chose to brave the Dead Zone in the first place was its staggering enormity, far surpassing her only frame of reference, that being New Meridian. The thought of a live megacity in this strange new world set her imagination aflame, inviting her to go see it for herself. And if the Seekers had allies there that needed a hand, all the better. Geralt wanted to help too, so Nadia knew it wasn’t just bias on her part. Then again, Midgar seemed to be about as far to the northeast as one could go on this continent. Yennefer was right: if the Seekers did plan to head over, this Metro would need to hook them up.

While she and the other members of the so-called Hero Teams were out hunting down guardians, Alcamoth and its Mercenaries had been very busy, and not just when it came to sending people off on missions. From the beginning Nadia had struggled to wrap her head around such an enormous campaign, and what it took to make such a venture possible. Luckily, the people at Alcamoth seemed to have accepted the responsibility to handle all the logistics and stuff themselves, meaning that Nadia and the other Seekers could focus on what really mattered: go place and kill thing. Still, she didn’t plan to turn a blind eye to important developments around here, especially when they concerned Galeem’s chosen. When Kamek mentioned a return to the Dead Zone to finish the job, Nadia grimaced. Blown up or not, she hated that place with every fiber of her being, and as it turned out, things were far from over. The young Pit hit the team with a double-whammy of absolutely disastrous hazards for any prospective clean-up crew in the form of an age-accelerating rain and a kind of invisible entity that could trigger more explosions like the one she saw all the way from the western coast.

She puffed her cheeks out as she exhaled, eyes wide, then shook her head. “That’s a no from me, bud.” Hopefully Ace was correct in thinking that time was on the Seekers’ side. If the guardian was holed up somewhere in the crater of the former Dead Zone, the team could wait until the eggheads around here came up with some sure-fire way to beat timefall and turbo-ghost alike. Something Pit said did pique her interest though. “Beached things,” she repeated, scratching her head. “Y’know, it’s probably nothin’, but hearin’ that makes me think of that freaky beach beneath the island. With that slug monster washed up on shore, and that nightmare that crawled out of it.” For a moment her eyes rested on the image of the creature that haunted her dreams, the one Mewtwo called the Orphan of Kos. She shivered and looked away.

Not far away from her, Cerberus had been leaning on the table, oohing and aahing over all the new information they were given and probably retaining none of it. The Triple Demon had continued to follow Blue Team around today just as they did the night before, so for better or worse it looked like the dog girls would be along for the ride. Even if they seemed rather carefree and dim-witted, they were fun to have around, so Nadia didn’t mind. When a lull in the conversation followed Pit’s tale about what became of the Dead Zone, Cerberus seemed to get bored. “So what now?” they chorused. “Everyone just waits until the other team calls for us to come pick them up?”

”Good question,” Mewtwo replied. ”I did think of a way to spend the time. An activity that will not only get all of you warmed up for the day ahead, but also broaden your skills and horizons. As it happens, this is also the activity that Alcamoth is built around.” Some of those present could already begin to figure out what that meant, but for everyone else, Mewtwo went ahead and explained. “I want all of you to engage in some special training. One-on-one sparring matches, held within any of Smash City’s many arenas. As time goes on the adversity you face out there will doubtlessly increase, so you must not only know one another better, but be able to face enemies with a variety of powers and skills.” He reached a hand out toward the table. “Now, let us match you all together.”



As everyone got busy reading to find their opponents, Mewtwo addressed the others in the room, namely Omori and Cerberus. ”You two -four?- I am unfamiliar with, and you are not currently signed on with the Hero Teams. If you wish to participate, I might be able to arrange something for you as well. Would that Link were still here…” Mewtwo looked over at Dedede. ”As for you…be ready for your next assignment. Dismissed.”

The big penguin sighed and turned to go. “A dyed-in-the-wool king, talked down to by a doggone test tube baby, don’t that just beat all,” he muttered to himself.

Nadia, meanwhile, was scanning the room. “Susie, huh?” Her eyes landed on the little pink-haired secretary bot, currently little more than an acquaintance in her mind. More to the point, the feral knew nothing whatsoever about Susie’s abilities. “Well, this should be interestin’!” With a smile she hopped out of her chair. “Wanna take this outside then, li’l miss?”

While the others went for a series of mystery train rides into unknown danger and excitement, Primrose found herself sitting on the edge of a mountain top, feet dangling over the edge which led down into an all too familiar danger, one of cold and blinding. It was not just directly below either, but spread off into the distance on either side of the trio that was made up of her, the stalwart Braum, and the chivalrous Shovel Knight. Therein lay the first obstacle, because it was impossible to know where their destination was by simply peering down into the cloud.

Behind them, however, sat one half of why Midna had thought this would be a much easier task than going up the mountain had been. The portcrystal hummed with soft magics, a beckon to the ferrystones that had brought them back up to the mountain top and, as the princess had pointed out, could do so over and over and over again.

Which was why she was presently hurtling down the mountainside, wind at her back, for the half dozenth time, levitation and shadow hopping being used to control her rapid scouting decent, at the end of which she would simply pop back up topside to recover from the ice and snow for a bit, and then get right back into the action.

While she dive bombed the blizzard, it left the trio just a little time to get to know each other, and, perhaps as importantly for a smaller, more focused team, what they could all do.

“So, Braum knows we have fought on the same side a few times, but if we are to be on closer knit team, it would be a boon to know everything your wonderful dances can do my friend” the big freljordian, who was using his shield as a back rest, asked Primrose “So that we can strategize around them, make combos, and other things so we can win the day!” he said, giving a victorious fist pump to punctuate his words.

Primrose raised a brow at the large man, a coy smile on her face as she crossed one leg over the other. "Wonderful, hm? Surely you aren't trying to flatter me."

Teasing was fun, but she did agree with Braum. If there was still any danger present on the mountain, knowing your allies would be helpful. She continued watching Midna's coming and going as she next spoke. "I can temporarily increase your speed, defenses, and attack power. Even your magical power, should you have any. Besides the basics..."

She glanced at Braum and the Shovel Knight. "I do have one dance that will spread others' effects. It's a bit difficult to describe, but say you have a spell that can put someone to sleep. It only works on one person at a time. However, after I dance for you..." she waved her hand in the air like she would have had she actually been dancing, drawing on the previous night's experience in town for her explanation. "...then your spell will affect everyone around you. Well, everyone you want it to."

She didn't mention the last of her dances, the one that had yet to return to her. Bewildering Grace, a very powerful performance - but one she could not control the results of.

"Midna has a whole bag of tricks, but you two... seem to prefer to get physical. Is that right?"

“Braum is strong” the big man agreed with a flex, “But I also have my own tricks up my sleeves. Or. Well. Lack of sleeves” he grinned a touch sheepishly and then explained “my punches and this hya” he thrust a fist out and hurled and icky blast “they make foes very cold, and with a few follow up hits from me or you, they will be frozen solid for a little moment”

“Then you have my shield, which I can empower so that it can perfectly block the first thing, and then it makes the rest weaker” he showed off what it looked like, forming an even larger shield over his own “oh and if i jump to your side, you and I will be tough like old bear.”

“Finally I can do big slam to knock our foes up and away. But that one takes a lot of effort, so we keep it for emergencies or big important bad guys yes?” he explained and then helped out his hands, finishing “and that is Braum.” before raising a hand to his head and stroking his mustache in contemplation “You and I together could make one person very tough, or make everyone tough I think. Good for when one or all in trouble. Hmm, I wonder if we could all get big shield too? That could be strong too.”

That was the end of his suggestion, but he did also ask “I have seen you do fire things too, I think? We make quite the contrasting pair in that, as well as others, but in a complimentary yes?"

"Thou certainly soundeth most capable, mine muscular companion," Shovel Knight commended. Covered head to toe in distinctive blue armor, the honorable knight gave no hint of his true visage, but his voice and manner told the others everything they needed to know about who he was. "As for mineself, I command a strong arm and a stout heart, able to stomach more punishment -and jump far higher- than thy typical fellow, I daresay."

Shovel Knight then began to sort through his Inventory. "On my adventures I also make use of certain armaments once belonging to the Order of No Quarter. Feast thine eyes upon the Propeller Wand, the Throwing Anchor, the Mobile Gear, and the Dust Knuckles!" He pulled out and showed each relic in turn.

"The pyromancy flame, yes. It does seem we have a lot of our bases covered between us," she said. "I have my dark magic as well." Primrose had seen Braum's shield in action before, but the further explanation was appreciated. She'd have to remember the details of her companion's abilities, as well as their gadgets with some of them like the knight here. She fixed the two men with a small smile. “We’ve a lot of options, then. Where dancing is concerned, between the four of us, I have my work cut out for me.”

“That’s quite the arsenal!” Braum said, delighting at the many varied tools of the Shovel Knight “you certainly seem like quite the versatile fellow if you can use all of those with skill. Add in the princesses' varied might and magics and I’m sure we four will be able to face any challenge!”

At which point, right on queue, that very princess appeared in a flash of magic, snow-caking the X-Naut Uniform she was using to keep out the cold and announced “I’ve found it!” in a way that you could hear the slightly manic pointy toothed grin that was hidden behind two layers of masks.

---

Icy wind swirled around the frozen entrance of the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage, singing a mournful song as it bit at its walls ineffectually, for the frost coating the carven stone had reinforced the monastery against the rest of the elements. Around the place, glimpsed only in moments of clarity, it could be seen that several of the lesser peaks had been carved, all depictions of women's faces, rivers of frozen tears flowing from their anguished eyes.

Then the weather was split, as a tiny gash Midna had left in the World of Light leading to her own world of dark widened, bleeding the amber un-light of twilight and a shower of black squares which descended to the ground and ‘built’ themselves into four figures, princess, protector dancer and knight, who found themselves stood among the frozen bodies of long dead pilgrims who had only just failed to reach the holy ground before them.

Not wanting to risk even a moment more in the snow despite holding the same emergency exit Midna had used to find this place, the squad hurried inside of the main entrance, finding within the convent’s cloister. Its central garden had been flashfrozen, long dead plants, delicate leaves and petals coated in ice and preserved with haunting beauty, surrounded icy fountains in the center, while around the cloister’s edges rows of pillars and arches denoted the surrounding ambulatory, safe-ish from the wind if not the cold.

Safe enough that the hall’s lone occupier could survive it, at least for the time. It was a hunched over women of indeterminate age, wearing a habit and a rather ropy cowl, carrying a bell in one hand and a staff in the other, upon which she was leaning. Her most striking feature however was the golden mask that adorned her face, covering it entirely from view. Given the mask, the only indication of life was the breath passing through a thin slit in the mask. Slow, relaxed, and which would not speed up till they got closer and disturbed her.

Though he said nothing, Shovel Knight instinctively tensed up, and not just from the cold. With precious little to go on except the guarantee that no matter where one went in the World of Light, one would find trouble, he’d prepared himself for the worst. So far, nothing jumped out to attack either him or his companions, but he still found himself confronted by an overwhelming sense of wrong. With the sheer cold and barren starkness that reigned here, the convent itself seemed to give off an ominous, dire air. He wasn’t about to let down his guard.

As they got closer the nun startled, either out of a sleep or out of a trance, and half raised the bell, priming it for shaking. She did not, however, do so, and instead after a moment greeted them with ”Welcome, blessed travelers. Do you come in good faith, seeking the great miracle and its scorching blessing?”

”Yes actually, but for a friend?”

“For a friend? No, no, that will not do, only the righteous who brave the path, who suffer it’s cruel and indifferent bite, may find salvation here!” the outraged nun replied, moments away from ringing what was probably an alarm bell held in her hand.

”He is… indisposed. Entirely unable to move in-fact, and also on death’s door. That we bring him this, ah, sacred oil was his last request, one that we’ve traveled here to fulfill” Midna replied, trying to carefully explain the situation. If they could get in and out with no violence, it would make things so much easier.

“Hmmmmm,” the golden masked woman seemed to be considering this, but remained unconvinced.

While Midna and the sister spoke, Primrose's gaze flickered about from the high stone walls to the woman's golden mask, trying to piece together as much information as she could. A "scorching blessing" did not sound good whatsoever, and judging by the religious attire that covered all of the nun's body including her face... Primrose took her words literally. However this 'blessing' must have been further inside. The oil that Midna wanted to obtain for that poor man was also inside, so inside they had to go. Getting in will be the easy part, I'm sure, Primrose thought. Hopefully a little white lie would suffice.

"Our friend is quite pious. He's told us about your miracle," she said. She stepped closer to the woman, and behind her back for her allies to see was the classic symbol of crossed fingers, though it was unlikely they would need the hint. "It's true we have come to fetch the sacred oil on his behalf, but we are interested in the faith as well. You could say that we are... potential converts. We have come all this way through cold and misery for it."

The Sister leaned on her staff with gnarled, bony hands, and when the sickly, glassy-eyed stare behind her mask fell upon Primrose, she became incensed by the thought of words without conviction. “Presumptuous knave! The holy oil that once melted away the beauty of Our Lady, and bore it to God, is for the communion of the pious alone,” she creaked. “Only once you likewise burn your face, in an act of most exquisite penance, and adorn what remains with this mark of sacred sacrifice, shall anyone be accepted into the Congregation, and gain the right to administer the oil.”

Ah, strike one. So this was a convent home to those kinds of people - the kind that have gone passed devout and into... whatever this was. Primrose's placid smile did not dim or crack, but she did raise both of her palms in a placating gesture.

"I've been called worse," she commented, giving the masked woman some room.

”Then couldn’t we escort one of you down to him so you can do the deed?” Midna asked, ”That sounds like a right penintent pain in the, uh, posterior”

The Sister recoiled from the suggestion. "Only here, at the end of the path of penitence, may the frozen know it's burning embrace. A communion unearned…an absurd, sacrilegious indulgence! And an impossible one," she growled. "For only cold gold can carry the Redeeming Oil."

”Hmmm” the princess thought long and hard, and then theatrically shrugged ”Oh well, seeing as I can’t fulfill my holy mission guess I’ll just go back out into the snow an, uh, pray to the goddess- to the miracle for guidance. You wait here I’ll be riiiiiiiight back” before turning back and walking back the way they had come, not even making much of an effort to disguise the fact that she slipped into a shadow the moment she thought the gatekeeping nun wasn’t looking, leaving the others awkwardly standing about while she turned this into a solo sneaking mission.

“So ah, we will be… over here… admiring your lovely garden?” Braum suggested before awkwardly edging away from the golden faced woman. Shovel Knight shrugged and stepped away.

“I am starting to see pattern. Braum does not say this to complain, it is good to be daring, but I do have vague feeling that big damage dealer shouldn’t be running off on own as much as she does” the big man said, having already had to bail the princess out of a fair few scraps where she had got in over her head.

Likewise Primrose stayed with the men, unwilling to be in the sister's off-putting and frankly rude presence while she could help it.

"She did say she would be right back," the dancer said, "though it would be nice to be clued in on her plans, whenever she does disappear."

Taking his shovel blade off his shoulder to plant it in front of him, Shovel Knight tried to control his shivering. "While I cannot attest to our companion's intentions, I am sure that a touch of patience is all we require." A shaky exhale brought a puff of cloudy breath from his helmet. "T-though, sooner would indeed be better!"

“Mmmm,” Braum agreed, and then there was a lapse of silence as the trip preserved their breath, not wanting to waste it on the chill until the man spoke up once more “Still, Braum hopes she does not cause too much trouble.”

Right on queue the princess returned and did more than just that, appearing behind the woman who was eyeing the loiterers suspiciously from behind her mask, and then in one swift motion reaching out with a shadow hand, grabbing her and cruising her into ash before she could make more than a gasp of surprise.

She stepped forwards, catching and storing the golden mask the spirit had been crushed into as Braum blustered, understandably taken aback by this sudden turn, before asking, “Are we going to kill them, for the oil?”

”They’ve got Laharl and a little girl captured. I wouldn't have put it past him to get imprisoned for being a jerk, but he’s in bad shape, and there’s others too,” she explained swifty ”and a lot of them are worse, part of being prepared for some kind of ritual. I don’t know what, but given the nature of this place, it didn’t sound good.”

”I put a port-stone in an cupboard where they are being held, so we can get to them fast. It's getting them out that’ll be the hard part,” she added, taking it as a given that they’d help these people out, the only question was how they went about it.

Midna's sudden violence surprised Primrose, but the mention of the familiar half-demon's name surprised her even more. She'd come along in part to make sure he'd gotten off the mountain alright, figuring that the convent might be a place of shelter for travelers - though that notion had gone quickly from her mind after speaking with the sister at the door. She never imagined that he, and others apparently, would be taken for some kind of ritualistic sacrifice. This would be the second time she'd help take on an evil cult if one could believe it.

"Then let's go, before they learn what's just happened," she said, naturally on board with the idea of rescue. "If we’re quick, we may be able to avoid the worst of whatever they have in store."

Unsure exactly of how Midna's shadow movement worked and not wanting to be wholly unprepared, Primrose asked, "Did you happen to see an escape route, or will we be finding one on the way out?"

”I did, but it’s not any kind of back door. This place is pretty precariously perched, so the best exit we have is that one” she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder towards the entrance that the now dead nun had been semi guarding ”Because everything else is a drop into an abyss. The prisoners are in a room right before of some kind of central shrine, and then it’s two rooms and a staircase back to here, and then we’re out.”

“And the oil?” asked Shovel Knight, cognizant of the team’s original mission even if it had since been overshadowed. Before a reply could come, however, a loud clanking sound rang down the halls. “What ho?”

He and the others turned to see two more Sisters of the Charred Visage lumbering closer. Unlike the brown-clothed crone who stood at the door, this sturdily-built pair seemed more than physically capable, especially considering the unique and unsettling weapons they dragged noisily behind them. Both pulled along a brazen censer almost as tall as themselves, held by lengths of chain, but from the mouths of the oversized ornaments reached a handful of grasping arms. Though scarred and marked by cauterized sores, they still weakly grasped at the air as if in desperation for any kind of relief, although what kind of help this world might hold for any such poor wretches as might be crammed inside those urns, Shovel Knight couldn’t fathom. His grip tightened on the handle of his shovel blade. “Shall we engage? Or make use of thy uncanny crystals?”

That was the question, wasn't it? Those two sinister sisters would notice their fellow nun gone, see the ashes where she once stood watch, and after putting two and two together alarm the whole convent. Or they may be entirely oblivious, though they'd still be waiting for them here at the door when the group made their escape. If they fought now there was no telling that even if they won, the noise wouldn't alert the others inside anyway. Primrose was once again reminded that she was no strategist, and neither a practiced gambler, but her gut was favoring one choice over the other.

"Use the stones to go in, and once we have Laharl and the others make a push for the exit," Primrose suggested in a hurried whisper. They didn’t need to defeat every would-be enemy inside, only get what they needed and get out.

”Agreed, and people first, oil later” Midna whispered, before raising her little linked stone and vanishing in a burst of magic.

---

The Princess had not been kidding when she said she’d used a supply closet, and the group more or less spilled out of it and into a (thankfully empty) corridor due to the lack of space within.

”This way, quickly”, guiding them quickly past a set of grand and barred doors and to a stairwell that leads down into the earth and then, finally, into a cavern.



Within was a large cavern dominated by two things, a pool of molten lava at its center, and a massive cast iron forge at its back. The blast furnace room did not seem to be being used as such however.

The top right of the chamber houses a nook filled with a variety of cages in which prisoners, living and dead, had been imprisoned, while ahead of them teams of sisters hauled the massive lava buckets made for creatures much larger than them, slowly filling up the central chamber with molten rock under the supervision of a sister superior and a pair of nuns who stood thrice as tall as them all. Those towering edicts of faith also had mouths made of of rusted zippers and long talons for index fingers which gave a way their inhuman nature if their impossibly tall and lithe figures had not already done so.

This would have been used to superheat the massive, bull-headed bronze furnace that sat at the end of the chamber, but the lack of any kind of ore to be processed, and the space where it would most likely be stored being filled instead with the people the group were here to save, made it abundantly clear what the chamber was going to be used for.

Before they could be spotted, the team ducked back to the side of the entrance (found directly opposite the sacrificial furnace) and tried to come up with a quick plan.

”We need to get past them and to the prisoners, so that they can’t do anything to them once they realize why we’re here,” was Midna’s initial observation right out the bat, before pulling the golden mask she had gotten from the crushed sister out and suggesting ”and I think this might come in handy for that”

"A cunning ploy, but what of the rest of us?" Shovel Knight replied, trying to keep his voice to a whisper. "Mayhaps we should split our force. A diversion wouldst occupy their rancor."

Primrose agreed with the Shovel Knight's suggestion, and she gave a quick nod. "I can draw their attention, even perform a dance or two for you all while I'm at it. They won't give a second thought to a 'masked sister' being near the captives at that point," she said. "So long as I have one of you of nearby when they come after me."

“Braum is here for just that. With me at your side these mad ladies won’t lay a finger on you, let alone interrupt your fancy footwork,” the guardian declared, boldly thumping a fist against his bare chest.

”So I was thinking I’d sneak in and then cause an accident as a diversion which’d let you snuck around the sides, but this is a much better plan” Midna admitted as she secured the mask over the other two she was already wearing, the bunny eared X-naught outfit being somewhat conspicuous but still robe-y enough that it could well pass in the panic.

”So am I running in to ‘warn’ them about the intruders, or am I slinking in after you make some noise? Also do you wanna stick with them shovel knight, or put some of those good jumps to work on all that scaffolding somehow?”

"The less attention drawn to you, the better."

Shovel Knight nodded, his fist clenched with determination. “Verily! You need not take any gambles. Leave the uproar to us!”

Midna stepped to the side, directing both arms theatrically towards the entrance with a little bow as she gave them the spotlight.

Braum moved to stand beside Primrose on her left so he could more easily cover her with his shield. “Then let’s give them a show they won’t forget ha ha!” he declared, thumping his shield down into the ground once and then, once everyone was ready, advancing into the chamber.

Their entrance did not go unnoticed, Braum’s shield slam having caused one of the tall zipper faced demons to look back at the entrance, which caused her to spot them. Rather than call an alarm herself however, the demonic nun instead used her long index finger to tap the shorter human who was dressed in the same gray robe and carried the same bell as the woman outside had, giving the heroes a few scant moments to announce themselves in style.

Primrose moved to take center stage, graceful and practiced. With a flick of her wrist a miniature version of the Flame Fan formed in her hand, and she twirled together with it in a turn, two turns, three. Another flick and the fires in her hand died, giving way to her actual performance fan. A little sleight of hand for entertainment's sake. The Panther Dance continued on, giving a speed boost to her allies in what little time the performance mesmerized the sisters - as naturally Shovel Knight wouldn’t waste the opportunity, especially after a quick and satisfactory look around. “HUZZAH!” he yelled, leaping into the air. Equipping the Dust Knuckles, he dealt a mighty wallop to one of the hanging cages he spotted, smashing it into its next-door neighbor with a tremendous metallic crash. It swung away as it spun wildly, then thanks to the chain that suspended it, came right back to strike the first cage in turn. The result was a tremendous clamor, and if that wasn’t enough, Shovel Knight used his patented Shovel Drop to pogo off Braum’s upturned shield, adding to the spectacle. “Behold, thou scorch-ed miscreants!” he shouted. “I am here to to topple yon fearsome furnace! For shovelry!”

The Convent response was immediate. Alarm bells rang, and the Sisters joined voices in an outraged howl. Guttural roars came on the outcry’s heels, resounded from the pouring lava and billowing flame found around the great chamber. From the blaze charged a number of Disciples, bulky husks with bodies eking magma. Gurgling and snarling, then ran and stumbled the intruders’ direction. Behind them leaped the Percherónes, their spines so contorted by constant prayer that they could do little more than lunge around, and at the back stomped the censer-wielding Sisters. “...Retreaaaat!” Shovel Knight cried, turning to flee back the way his team had come.

“Hold fast my friend, we shall take them together!” Braum shouted, sending an icky blast forth from his shield into one of the shamblers, hot and cold colliding in a burst of cooling steam that caused it to stumble and fall to the ground.

“That may be, but would it not be better if we lead them on a merry chase away from here?” Shovel Knight barked back.

Midna herself did not make an appearance, yet, but her minions entered the fray without her, her two wolfos supersized, charged out of the gate, plowing into the front ranks of their foes, while her Chilfos strikers marched out and delivered a volley of spears before both sets of support dissipated. The Twilight Vibrava however remained, landing on the ground and then causing a section of it beneath one set of sisters to erupt with the power of the earth.

While the others handled the front line, Primrose continued to fulfill her role as a support. Spinning, shuffling, shaking her hips, weaving her arms in dance. It took concentration to keep her steps right, but she was able to boost Braum and Shovel Knight's attack power with the Lion Dance. At the end of her performance she took a deep breath to regain her bearings, and noting the amount of enemies still heading toward them she summoned the wolf spirit striker.

"Makami, Mafrei!" The spirit let out a howl of its own, peppering the sisters and their monsters with light nuclear damage. The more wounded of the enemies sizzled and died, and the Makami circled it’s master once before disappearing.

It looked as though Shovel Knight’s allies were determined to fight here, at the entrance of the fire sanctum, against far greater numbers with no tactical advantage whatsoever. According to the plan they didn’t need to win so much as to merely survive, but even that would be a major challenge. If all these Punished monsters continued their charge, they would overrun the four, no matter how strong their shields, how strong their armor, or how numerous their buffs. Still, Shovel Knight was no stranger to a showdown, and if his allies planned to hold their ground, he would not let them down. “Huzzah!” he cried again, striking his shovel blade to the cavern’s stony floor. With powerful thrusts he sent chunks of rock flying, punctuating Primrose’s magic damage with a big helping of brute force.

As the lesser spawn surged forth the lead sister, one who now that she had turned could be seen to be surrounded by a set of floating Rosary Beads, cried out “Take them alive sisters, their sacrifice is the only thing that will bring forgiveness for defiling this holy place with their presence!” before turning the beads into a whip and using it to grapple around the neck of one of the demonic nuns, the sister superior hauling herself up into its arms and then demanded “Spawn me more warriors of the Miracle.”

“Yesss, let me bear your rage,” the demon replied once her neck was free, after which she and the carried sister superior floated up into the air, wreathed in blood red lightning as a trio of pustulating pods began to form on the ground beside them. As more Punished appeared in burst of consecrated ash the rest of the Sisters surged forwards after the chaff, the spindly demonic battle nun stalking in their mist crying out “Lay down your toys, and I promise you your deaths will be rapturous!”

"Not a chance," Primrose responded. Switching to offense, she began to pool magic into the palms of her hands. At the same time, dark magic swirled on the ground around the sisters. The Night Ode spell was cast, bursting to catch a group of them in its attack range. She didn't intend to stand her ground, choosing instead to rely on her more robust comrades she retreated behind them until she had enough room to prepare another spell. The area was sweltering and hazardous, though more than that they should give Midna as much space away from the horde as possible.

"Braum, let us fall back," she said, following Shovel Knight's initial thought of moving out of the area, but added, "After we take care of that."

She called forth a fireball and sent it flying at the coupled Sisters doing the summoning. It wouldn't do to leave them be, spawning more and more monsters to give chase while they stayed put in the furnace room.

“Two can play at that game!” announced Shovel Knight. He produced the Flare Wand and followed up the dancer’s pyromancy with some fire magic of his own. After doing so, however, he quickly swapped it back out for the Shovel Blade, since the fire sanctum’s congregation had arrived. Seven Disciples, five Percherónes, and four Sisters of the Charred Visage reached them, their force harried but not significantly depleted by either the decoy squad’s ranged attacks or Midna’s summons. While two Disciples and a handful of the Percherónes had fallen, both Primrose and Midna took some damage through their Strikers in return. Now those left over, the whole gang of sixteen, crashed into the three like a tidal wave.

Braum held fast against the charred, muscular brutes and rather easily knocked back the leapers who collided with his shield, but he couldn’t keep the others from just moving around him, and when the Sisters got close enough to batter his defense with the brutal weight of their censers he ran into a problem. Shovel Knight quickly found himself face to face with the monsters, but with Primrose behind him in need of defense he couldn’t just take to the air to save his skin. He engaged his attackers in a flurry of frenetic blocks and blows, hacking at the molten bodies of the Disciples again and again with his shovel blade, despite their sturdiness. At once point he did try to jump up for a finishing blow, only to be tackled back to the ground by the lunge of a Percherón. With a grunt he flung it off him and onto its back for Primrose to dispatch, which she did with a roar of black flame, reducing it to ashes. Then he shoved a Disciple into its friend, and in that brief moment he flung two Chaos Spheres to bounce around the enemies, inflicting damage with each rebound off a twisted torso, habit, or limb.

Nevertheless, a Sister charged through the chaos, and Shovel Knight barely backpedaled in time to avoid an overhead smash that cracked the earth. “Zounds!” He clutched his weapon in both hands as he glanced nervously over his shoulder. “We have their attention. Let us abscond with it!”

“Back up, little dancer, and Braum will hold the rear as we move!” Braum said, getting completely onboard with the plan now, especially since their fiery shots had disrupted the summoning that would have made this fight three sacks of horrors worse.

The sister superior had tossed herself off of the battle nun before the shots could scorch them both, leaving the demon to take the full brunt of the volley. It stumbled back, screeching and aflame as the pods that were to birth its spawn withered and died around it. Then it tripped and fell backwards into the molten metal, its screeching silenced a suitably karmic death.

The superior pulled herself up from the ground, screaming of sacrilege and then used the prayer bead weapon to fire individual glowing beads as projectiles over the heads of her sisters at the towering Braum as he started to back up. Adding to the pressure was the other battle nun, the lanky monster stalking through the ranks of smaller Sisters and raising one long digit high and preparing to scythe it down over the top of Braum’s shield, only for Midna’s Vibrava to blast it in the face with dragon fire.

The towering demon stumbled back like its twin, but unlike her there was no hazard to fall into. As such when it lowered its hands from its face it revealed that it was almost entirely restored, with the last scorch marks closing right before their eyes. “As long as the children’s life flows through me, your flailing against me is futile! Now be good boys and girls: get down on your knees and submit!” it declared/demanded as it began to stalk forwards again.

Still, with the superior now also chasing them, the trio had the congregation’s full attention. It was time to leave.

Sandwiched between the Shovel Knight at the front and Braum at the rear, Primrose was aglow with magic as she lent her full support while the trio fought their way through the throng of enemies and out of the furnace room. Shadow and flame bloomed together, and while the spells managed to pick off a Disciple or two that were previously weakened by Braum and the Knight's attacks, their main use at the moment was creating brief gaps in the enemy's ranks. The more explosive of Primrose's spells pushed the monsters apart, and the Seekers steadily moved before being surrounded again.

The tussle spilled out into the corridor, and the remaining monsters swarmed. In such cramped confines they couldn’t overrun the defenders, but the defenders also couldn’t fight them as effectively. With Braum at the forefront to mitigate incoming damage and Shovel Knight to fight alongside him as the sword to the Freljordan’s shield, the fought a retreating battle as the Punished pushed them back.

Primrose conjured the Flame Fan and slammed it into a Percherón that got close, the fire breaking across its body. Another pass of the spell and and it stumbled, and then was struck with the follow up of a Moonlight Waltz which managed to destroy it. Taking the chance to let some of her mana recharge, Primrose began another dance - but before she could complete it, a Sister's heavy metal censer came crashing down in the group's blind spot.

“Gyah!” Shovel Knight hollered, dented and sent flying back into Primrose as he sought to attempted the brunt of the brutish nun’s attack. The two slammed painfully against the stairs behind them, only spared the worst of the impact thanks to the knight’s short stature. Shaking his head to chase the stars from his eyes, Shovel Knight tried to right himself. While it did bottleneck the enemy force, the tight confines of this corridor weren’t doing his team any favors. “L-let us make haste, to a better battleground!” he quavered. From his Inventory, Shovel Knight produced the Mobile Gear, which he dropped at the bottom the the staircase for both himself and Primrose to jump upon. Once both were aboard, the clever contraption sped the two quickly to the top, and with a combination of speed-boosted running plus Stand Behind Me, Braum wasn’t far behind.

The room at the top of the stairs turned out to be a multi-level chantry, with stone pulpits jutting out from the walls on either side of the rows of pews beneath the light of fiery censers that dangled overhead. In here the three could use their surroundings to their advantage and mount a more solid defense, but there was one problem. Their arrival met with a trio of Sisters waiting in ambush around a huge cauldron of molten oil, primed and ready to be poured out and, in a flood of unimaginable pain, wash the half-melted heroes back down the stairs.

With guttural cries of victory the two Sisters on either side seized hold of the vat to pour it out, but the third seemed to have a different plan. Moving with a sudden speed and fluidity that none of the other Punished exhibited thus far, she rammed her elbow into her ally’s head an smashed it against the cauldron, stunning her. As the Sister turned in angry bewilderment, a dagger flashed, and the blade sank into the Sister’s ear. The next second another slammed in from the other side, and with a final twist the attacker snapped her victim’s neck. As she sank down the traitor vaulted up and over the cauldron in a daring acrobatic display, and as the opposite Sister attempted to tip it on her, own, manifested a sapphire-blue cross spear to drive past the Sister’s clavicle and straight into the heart.

A moment later she landed, and with a flourish threw off her disguise to reveal a altogher different sort of nun, her skin ash-pale except for the gruesome burn marks that covered half her face and much of her left arm. “Stop gawking and turn around already,” Rosaria told them, her voice raspy from pain. “We’ll face them together.

“Well met, my unexpected friend, and thank you for the save!” Braum said, about turning on the double and presenting his door-shield to the enemy. Midna’s vibrava, which was still accompanying them, landed atip it, and then fanned its wings once before buzzing them vigorously, unleashing a torrent of ear splitting sound down the corridor the mass of Punished climbing up after them.

Primrose used the small amount of time they had before the horde reached them to prepare. While she'd muttered a quick thank you to the helpful stranger, she'd also noted her obvious wounds. The dancer herself was hurting, and she could imagine Braum and the Knight's state. So she danced the steps of Sealticge's Seduction, using the buff on herself in order to then spread the flame of Warmth and give all of them a little pick-me-up before the next part of the battle. The palpable relief her healing pyromancy brought to Rosaria in particular was plain to see.

“You are indeed most gallant, my fair lady!” Shovel Knight assured Rosaria, making sure to compliment her despite the grievous injury that defaced her. As he panted, taking the brief reprieve offered by Midna’s giant insect to bask in the dancer’s Warmth, his gaze landed on the cauldron of boiling oil that Rosaria saved them from, still oriented toward the stairs. He perked up. “Braum, help me overturn this! Let us turn these vagabonds’ machinations back upon them!”

The musclebound protector obliged, and together they tipped the vat without much issue. As soon as the oil began to spill they both stepped back to give it a wide berth, nursing their hands burned by convection through the cauldron. Feeling the heat on their faces, the defenders watched the oil surge down a wide channel in the floor and into the Punished as they burst from the stairway corridor, only to be greeted by a wall of molten liquid. Heavier and stickier than water, it crashed into them hard enough to knock them down and sweep them off their feet, then destroyed their flesh while the struggled, feebly and futile, to pull free. Though he knew this was the cruel fate that would have befallen him originally, he couldn’t help but shudder anyway, at the hideous howls and screams of the doomed.

Primrose had closed her eyes and turned her head when the first shrieks began, only looking once the sounds began to die down. "We can only hope that got all of our pursuers, though err on the side of caution." she said quietly, giving her realistic take on the situation. She suspected that there were more beyond the door, staying clear of the bubbling death trap while they thought up their own plan, but maybe the universe would be kind for a change. "Hopefully we've bought Midna the time she needs. Perhaps we should...?"

The dancer trailed off before the rest of her suggestion as she felt someone shift beside her. Rosaria had relaxed only a little, but it was enough for the dogged strength sustaining her to falter, and the good sister sank to the floor. The burns that hurt her so terribly made doing most anything almost impossible, which made her save all the more miraculous. It took everything she had to stay conscious as she knelt in Primrose’s Warmth. Primrose dropped to her knees beside her. Brows furrowed in concern, she searched the nun's form. "Where is the worst of it?" She asked. She'd hate for their sudden savior to perish from a mortal wound now.

The good sister hovered her hand over the burned side of her head, not daring to touch the stomach-churning wound. “They held me down…” she rasped, pained even by the minimized movement of the left side of her lips. “They burned me.” Even in such dire straits, however, Rosaria could clench her teeth in muted rage as her eyes slid shut. “They have to die. All of them…”

Despite this being a rescue mission, Primrose resonated with Rosaria's feelings. If she were in the nun's shoes, she was sure she'd feel the same. Seeing the work of the cultists up close was hard, and she wasn't sure if her spell would be enough. Gently Primrose took the sister's hand in one of hers, and with the other she withdrew a glowing pink heart from her bosom.

"You'll get our chance for vengeance yet." She pushed the heart into Rosaria, watching as the other woman was healed and Galeem's stain was washed from her person.

---

Behind them, and the sisters, Midna slipped out of the shadow of the doorway and entered the cavern. Her disguise was nowhere near as good as the nun who had come to the aid of the distraction trio, but with most of the sisters being lead on a merry chase, she was free to slip inside and casually strolled her past any who remained, heading straight for the back of the chamber to the prisoners.

Her stealth route took her past a number of enemies, proving that even with a lot of the Punished force in pursuit of her allies, the fire sanctum wasn’t anywhere near safe. The Disciples that remained mostly lumbered around without paying too much attention, but they moved erratically, both in random spasms that changed their field of view on a whim, and ambling through lava and fire alike without a care. Just a few Sisters stuck around, and though they seemed lucid enough to keep some semblance of watch, they preferred to stand still rather than wander around. No Percherónes in sight was a blessing, but Midna quickly spotted something else to worry about.

Aside from the Battle Nuns, the Convent’s Sister Superior seemed to have one other elite guard around for added security. On top of a rocky vantage point loomed a horrific mockery of a priest, taller than your average man, with a stole and grisly gas mask of what seemed to be colorless flesh, and a decorated gas tank on his back that fueled the deadly flamethrower in his hand. Heavy, phlegmy breaths could be heard from the Harbinger as he scanned the chamber, weapon in hand. From his lookout he could keep an eye on almost all the cages that hung throughout the fire sanctum, whether their captives were living, dead, or somewhere in between.

That was going to be a problem but thanks to the distraction and her disguise, it was one she had time to navigate around rather than panickldy deal with in the midst of the chaos of combat. There was a non-zero chance that the masked man would, if things looked bad for the religious horrors, turn his weapon on the prisoners out of spite. Not a risk she wanted to have to worry about.
She could, of course, just spend her disguise and attack him, but she had time and space to be a bit more creative, so she would.

As she maneuvered around the room in what she made to look like a patrol route she covertly brushed a hand against one of the great lava buckets, this one presently waiting to be refilled, on the opposite side of the room. Then she moved past the furnace, the layers of masks only moderately muting the smell of burnt flesh coming from within, and then moved behind the other bucket as part of her ‘route’ and then flicked a hand.

The sand that had been flowing out of a portal in the bucket and swiftly filling it rose in a torrent and then started whirling around the room, blanketing it a sandstorm that sung a siren’s song as it blocked out the infernal fires of the room just enough to let some of the shadow grow long and to obscure sight. The moment this occurred Midna pulled off her disguise and flicked from her hiding spot to one above the flame thrower priest. She opened one more portal and then dropped down onto him, twin knives in hand, to silence him before he became a threat.

Her daggers slipped through the cloth of her target’s garb and into the skin, prompting a pain grunt like that of an ox, but that concluded the extent of their damage. With a roar the Harbinger flailed, struggled for a moment against the added weight before reaching up to seize Midna by a limb and throw her off if she didn’t disengage in time. It would take more than one stealth attack, evidently, to put this creature down. “You! You will be cleansed!” the Harbinger proclaimed as it aimed a mighty flamethrower bash at Midna, wielding the heavy metal like a fire-spouting club.

”Of course” Midna comapliend when a knife to the back didn't end what was probably a monster, kicking off of him and leaving the blades embedded in the flesh rather than waste time trying to wrench them out. She tossed herself to his side, rolling around the attack (a move she had seen Link do a hundred times and that borrowed instincts now let her imitate) and swiped Dragon clawed fingers at the back of his thigh to try and hamstring him.

While the low blow hampered the Harbinger’s movement a bit, it did not prevent him pivoting around to smack the Twilight Princess right in the noggin with the flat of his flamethrower. The blunt force right to the dome sent her end over end, helmet or not, and put her at just about the perfect range for the horror to point his barrel her way, finger on the trigger. “Buuuurn!”

Stunned enough that she could do nothing herself, the princess did what she should have done straight away and called in the big guns. Or big dogs. Twin portals opened just behind her and her two souped up wolfos came charging out to slam into the flame thrower priest.

The wolfos immediately found themselves engulfed in the inferno belched out by the Harbinger’s weapon. Together, however, they managed to push through at great personal cost, protecting Midna behind them as they struck their enemy head-on. Their bulk managed to knock the Harbinger back, but only briefly. As they jumped away the monster struck back, sweeping the back legs out from beneath of of them. It stumbled but briefly, but it was enough for the Harbinger to step forward and stab his flamethrower into its midsection, after which it began to charge an explosive fireblast. Midna had only a second in which to act, be it to risk her own neck to save her summon’s skin, or to take advantage of its sacrifice to escape back into the shadows.

Not wanting to lose another, Midna reached out a shadowhand, grabbed the wolfos, pulled it off of the impaling weapon and shoving it down into a portal before the blast could go off, while also willing her chilfos strikers to appear and deliver a trio of spear thrusts to the priest, as much to briefly pin it as do actual harm.

Through the ensuing haze of embers and soot the frozen lances pierced the Harbinger’s body. He gave another, angrier grunt, more of a guttural snarl than anything, and with a powerful twist broke free. The next second his flamethrower unleashed its fury, its searing torrent perfect for obliterating these irksome soldiers of ice.

That, and the potential shared damage dealt to Midna, did not comprise the extent of her woes, however. By now, thanks to the spectacle and the Harbinger’s shouts, the other Punished had caught on to the fact that an intruder had appeared in their midst. Already a handful of Disciples led by a Sister of the Charred Visage were stomping their way up the incline toward the commotion atop the Harbinger’s lookout point. All hopes for a stealth mission were just about scuppered.

It hurt, oh it hurt, but it bought her time and space to pull herself back into the shadows of the sands still swirling around the room and drop into them, and appear further away at the far end of the chamber and then find a spot to hide.

Once out of sight she flicked a finger, forcing all of the sand to swirl towards the priest, engulfing him in his own personal sand tomb. As the sand swirled and the monster struggled against the cip damage, the princess was let to lick her wounds.

This, she was forced to conclude, had not worked. All she’d managed to do was spend assets, or at least deprive herself of them (both wounded wolfos and foe stuck knives were recoverable), get herself scorched and concussed (though hiding gave time for the ringing in her head to go away) and she could not tell for the life of her if she’d even managed to dent the thing’s vitality.

Time for a new strategy. Midna stepped out from her hiding spot onto the clear ground, a longsword cracking with electricity slung over her shoulder, put two fingers in between her lips and whistle shrilley to get their attention, before proceeding to spit basic level blasphemy at the nutjobs ”Your god sucks! All of my gods and goddesses, of light and dark, are great!” before using a shadow hand to pick up one of the brazier lanterns from the side of the room and hurling across the room at the priest while she raised her thunder infused blade with two hands, ready to meet the closer Sisters with shocking steel when her bait inevitably got them to charge her.

The Punished jumped down from the promontory to cross the open space of the fire sanctum, censers at the ready. Behind them the Harbinger followed at a confident, intimidating walk. Midna’s unconventional projectile, lobbed from so great a distance, failed to hit him, and as the peons closed in he proclaimed. “You cannot hide from your sins!” The next moment the shockingly uneven fight began. The first Sister began to spin, her censer held at its chain’s full length, and like a hammer throw closed in on Midna in a whirlwind of centripetal force. Though easily avoidable, the attack was nigh-unstoppable, even for a Sister of the Charred Visage. On her heels came a second brute, who came around with a single revolving strike that transitioned into an overhead slam. Both attacks left wide openings, but the space they controlled and the unblockable damage they commanded made them dangerous. Then, as if to add insult to injury, the Harbinger sent an explosive fireball arcing over the Punished to detonate at the front lines without regard for his allies.

Minda counter charged the Sister, leaping up into the air with a front flip over the top of the telegraphed censer swing, slamming the longsword blade into the Sister and sending a trio of lightning bolts crashing down into her for good measure. Then she used the force of her own blow to keep going, flipping over the second round swinging Sister’s strike as well to drive a near identical blow into her. With each hit Midna flipping over the top of the Sister as more lighting crashed down one either side of her, covering her flanks while the princess relied on the damage of the blows to heads or shoulders and the nerve rending electricity to if not kill then at least leave the Sisters behind her stunned enough that she had already moved on before they could turn and try and retaliate.

Should they even get the chance, because while Midna went crashing headlong towards the backlines with another flip, friendly-fire rained down on the nun she had already blasted over. The Harbinger did not stop to admire his handiwork, but spewed a column of incineration toward the Twilight Princes from his flamethrower, able to quickly adjust his aim if his target attempted an unwise dodge. “Buuuuuurn!”

Staying out of the Harboinger’s reach offered its own problems, however. The third Punished swung at Midna with an overhead smash while her allies, half-fried by the overgrown imp’s voltage, attempted to chase her down. Once close enough to attack they hammered like rail workers, alternating blows to lower the risk of bludgeoning an ally. Even in the depths of a fervor-induced rage, it seemed, these monsters shared the bond of sisterhood.

Midna’s response to this was to take the road none of them could, which was up, the princess interrupting another spin flip by violently bringing out her shadow hand, palm slapping the ground and in doing so using the mighty mitt to hurl her light frame up into the air at an angle away from the priest. As she went over the sisters she ditched the longsword, the blade smacking down into the stone ground point first and releasing a shockwave of lighting into the group, the stun and the reduced weight intended to give the princess the time and agility she needed to get clear of them and the priest.

The Sisters’ mauls cracked nothing but earth and cleaved through nothing but air as Midna escaped from their midst. Bewildered, they looked up to see her enemy’s weapon descending like a bolt from the blue. Then a surge of crackling electricity erupted between them, frying their twisted bodies in a chorus of screeches. Smoke rose from their clothes as they twisted and writhed, and Midna easily rose beyond their reach.

Looking on from a safe distance, the Harbinger huffed in annoyance. While he could launch more fireballs, even he could see the futility of trying to land a direct hit on such a mobile target. “You only delay the inevitable!” he proclaimed, pointing his finger at the floating princess. Two Percherónes leaped from the sidelines to try and tackle her mid-air, but even the best the Punished could do wasn’t good enough.

”Ha! I should have done this from the start” Midna declared before using a shadow hand to snatch one of the Percherónes out of the air and then toss him at one of the Sisters.

”Where’s your Miracle now huh? Probably making people suffer like a jerk rather than help you, if it even exists! Meanwhile the gods of twilight empowered my champions blade to restore my crown, and the Spirit’s of Light resurrected me when I fell against an evil far greater than your wretched god. Your faith is in nothing worthy of respect, let alone worship!” she proceeded to taunt them, mouth running while she tried to get around a certain conundrum, naimly that while she was safe up here she couldn't exactly hit them safely, what with her ranged options being lacking. Then she snapped her fingers

”Ah ha! How about I give you a little dance? Why am I asking, you can’t say no” she gloated, before beginning to bob and twirl in the air, raw physical power beginning to course through her vines as she performed the dragon dance free from reprisal.

While the sisters hurled religious damnation (and loose stones) at her (”Everyone’s a critic” ) the priest turned and stomped towards the prisoners, which got the princess instantly worried. He did not, however, go for the recognisable prisoners, but instead went and banged his weapon against a cage against one with a misshapen mass of meat in it and commanding, “Awaken sinner, let your hate flow forth,” before gripping onto some kind of spike covered dias that the tipped over cage was chained too, mounting it like a Pulpit and commanding the sisters to join him.

”Ooo scary, meat in a cage and a whole half a meter-” the princess shouted down at him as the sisters also mounted up, only for her eyes to go wide behind her mask as the spiked dias suddenly rose up on a pair of massive chicken legs, dragging the cage into the air with it as the monster within began to scream and spew liquid vitriol around it as the twin demons that made up the Hate Cage awoke.

“Witness your doom!” the preacher bellowed, astride atop the demon that was so tall he had to duck the cavern ceiling in some places while the three sisters clung to the side, whirling their massive flails defensively. The titan came stomping towards her, abit somewhat slowly, but that just gave the demon below aple time to spit blood red spitunes of pure hate at her.

The princess floated out the side, narrowly avoiding the first, and then was swept out of the way of the second by her Vibrava that she had summoned in, removing him from the other team in what she hoped would not be a detrimental fashion. The bug grappled her waist and tail, grinding its wings in her own double team maneuver, and the fight was on.

Susie listened to all that was being said and their plans. Apparently this place called the “Dead Zone” was on the way and had been destroyed by some kind of explosion, but a ‘guardian’ still existed there that the seekers had to destroy. Susie hadn’t seen any guardians herself, but she remembers something about them, but she can't remember what at the moment. They were also waiting for another team to return with information about some ‘fast travel’ network that relied on trains. Well, that sounds good overall, she wouldn’t mind a train ride.

The rest of the report offered up by… Hey! Susie knew that penguin! She made a clone of him at some point. What was his name? Triple D? Susie did know he was friends with Pinky though. And they mentioned something about… an Eggman and him escaping? And he was good at tech? Perhaps Susie should go and find this walking egg person if he was good at tech; she doubted it’d compare to Haltmann tech, but it’d be a nice change of pace.

Still, Susie just smiled as Mewtwo continued talking and suggested that while they waited for “yellow team” that they should split up and spar to warm up or learn new things. Susie figured this would happen at some point, she’d have to show these seekers what she could do after all. And she was matched up with… a cat girl? Well, considering she was a seeker and had purified the ocean from some apparently horrible abomination, she had to be strong. And at least it was sparring, although could this place handle her blaster? Time would tell she supposed.

Seeing the matchup, Nadia came up to Susie, quoting what Susie could only think of as some old western thing, although the joke fell short since they were both ladies. ”Hm. Sure. Lets hope my blaster doesn’t hurt too much~.” Susie said with her cutesy voice.

“Lucky I don’t hurt easy,” the feral shot back good-naturedly, baring her teeth in a feisty grin. While the other pairs met up to work out where and how they’d be fighting, Nadia strolled away from the Garfont Center’s round table and led her prospective opponent down the hall back outside to the spotless white metal and soft green rim lights of Alcamoth’s spacious Ark Mall. As confident as she might seem, Nadia had absolutely no clue where she was going, instead trusting that Smash City would have one of the ‘many arenas’ that Mewtwo mentioned no matter which way she went. Her eyes drifted between all the circular doorways that branched off from Ark Mall, each leading to a little dome with that both provided a view of the beautiful Eryth Sea through curved glass windows, and a teleporter to one of Alcamoth’s other floating domes. Rather than wander the halls, Nadia crossed her arms and went with eeny-meeny-miny-moe in her head to pick a random portal, bobbing her head in each direction as she did. “Okay, that one!” she announced, twisting her head almost one hundred and eighty degrees to glance down at the diminutive Susie over her shoulder. “C’mon!” Susie internally flinched at seeing Nadia’s head rotate like that, but she figured ti was just one of her powers or something.

Nadia set off at jogging pace, so full of eager energy that she bounced with each step. At that speed it took her only a few moments to reach the teleporter, and after bracing herself for the bizarre experience of being warped around, she jumped through. The next second Nadia appeared in the middle of another atrium, albeit much smaller and much more colorful than the one in the main area, although for a moment she was far too dizzy and disoriented to contemplate the scenery. “Hurk…” she groaned, trying to steady herself. “Can’t believe people get used to this.” After shaking her head, she looked around to found herself in the middle of a vibrant plaza completely covered in all sorts of patterns, the whole thing houses snugly inside the city’s futuristic dome. Everything looked garish, angular, and bright, from the decorated booths around the place to the big, very pink, and very fake tree that stood close to the central spire. In total, twelve curious archways stood in front of the walls of the dodecahedron-shaped plaza, and all featured a symbol of some kind on the wall overhead. “Yeesh, this place is like a purr-sonal assault on my eyes,” Nadia remarked, blinking a whole bunch as she tried to take everything in. Her eyes landed on Susie once the robot warped in beside her. “Guess we go through those to the arenas. Any catch your eye?”

Susie thought about it, she had to agree with Nadia, this place was a bit too bright, although unlike her she was a lot more used to brighter colors. ”How about the one with the triangles? It feels a bit more ‘sane’ compared to the others.” Susie said, rubbing her chin as she thought about the available choices. If she had to choose she’d prefer something more high tech, but this area was already showing it was some kind of hologram or holodeck like thing, so at least there was that.

“Works for me!” Nadia set off for the neon-green gate beneath the symbol that her sparring partner selected. Even on the short trip over though, she couldn’t help but be distracted by everything this arena hub contained. All throughout she caught sight of random fighters, as well as a number of miis, either going to or coming from the gateways, or crowded up in front of them. One such assembly stood around the archway right next to the one Susie chose, and over the heads of the spectators the keen-eyed feral could make out some sort of action, fast-paced and hard to follow from a distance. Intrigued, she muttered some half-hearted excuse to Susie and wandered over to see.

At first she thought she could see people fighting in some impossible space inside the arch, but after a moment she realized that she was looking at another two-dimensional screen like the Spirit Board back in the Garfont Center. It really reminded Nadia of the motion pictures that seemed to be all the rage back home, although in this case a little less electronic and a little more mystical, like seeing something in the haze of a crystal ball. In this case, the viewers got a live feed of a match between Diddy Kong and R.O.B., played out on a creepy mansion in the dead of night, and as events unfolded the spectators either cheered them on, bemoaned them, or took notes. “So, this is a fight in progress…” Nadia glanced between this arch and the empty one. “And that one’s open! Purr-fect!” She hustled back over, and with a final beckon at Susie, charged into the wall of fog. Everything went white, leaving Nadia adrift and directionless in the mist, but after a moment the haze began to clear, and with its departure came the radiance of a golden sun amidst crimson clouds.



Nadia whistled, impressed yet again by the fantastical World of Light. She stood atop a long and narrow bridge of stone, precipitously perched above a yawning gorge, and in front of her unfolded a sprawling vista of autumn-yellow hills, distant crags, and scattered pines, dominated by the silhouette a medieval castle against the imminent sunset. Somehow it seemed to be dusk, despite the morning sun that shone upon her just seconds ago. Even stranger was the fact that she seemed be wearing a tan trench coat, her hands casually slung in her pockets. It was just like the time she sacrificed a previous coat for the sake of her coolest entrance of all time, which naturally meant that she got to do it again. A sound behind her made her ear twitch, and her head swiveled around to face her opponent with a cheeky grin. Her body launched into a tornado-like spin, shredding the trench before Ms Fortune adopted her fighting stance. “Hope you’re ready to get your ro-butt kicked!” she taunted.

Susie nodded, she was interested in how the dimensional space of all of this worked, as she saw the same things Nadia did, but now wasn’t the time for that. Pulling out her blaster and giving Nadia a wink while doing a cute pinup pose with her blaster. ”Let’s not hurt each other too bad, ok?~” Saying that, Susie pulled out a remote and pushed a button, but, much to how it had been in the past, nothing appeared. With a small sigh, she readied her blaster and shot at Nadia, keeping her range. Seeing as it was a big bridge, there wasn't much space for the cat woman to really go.

Just as expected, Nadia’s opponent opened the game with a volley of ray gun fire. Though they looked and sounded pretty puny, the little pew-pews sped her way, and Nadia began to move. She darted back and forth in a zig-zag pattern, skirting along the very edges of the bridge when necessary, relying on her agility, her ability to turn on a dime, and her slender frame to avoid Susie’s shots. While easy enough to execute, that strategy didn’t allow her to gain much ground, which meant that if Susie kept moving backward she was in for quite the slog. After a few moments, however, the reason why Nadia hadn’t been jumping became clear. Suddenly she crouched down in a trackstarter stance, like a runner at the starting line, and all the water pressure built up in her legs and the base of her tail erupted in a riotous burst of vital fluid. Nadia cannoned through the air, sailing over the robot’s laser bolts in low arc, and with claws outstretched pounced at Susie at a breakneck pace.
Susie was surprised at the sudden speed of Nadia, as she hadn’t seen her fight before, but her low arc as she dashed at the robot girl was predictable in a way. Dodgeable? Not fully, as even if Susie pulled out her transport to fly away Nadia still clipped her blaster out of her hand, but the cat didn’t get any kind of grab or anything. The fact Susie didn’t have arms also helped her deal with the incoming attack. With her propeller out, Susie flew into the air out of reach of Nadia, and while high in the air, she went from holding onto her transport to strapping it on her back and charging up to do the same thing Nadia did to her.

The near miss left Nadia momentarily sprawled out on the ground, her would-be prey just barely slipped through her fingers. “Oof!” She made it sound like a bigger deal than it was, however, and the next second she rolled back onto her feet. The noise of Susie’s rotors drew her attention skyward to reveal that her opponent had taken to the air as well, spooling up some sort of turbine slam. “What’re you doin’ up there?” Nadia crouched down, smiling. “Cruisin’ for a bruisin’, looks like. Fiber Uppercut!”

As Susie dove down to strike her, the feral launched upward in her heavy Fiber Upper, a hard-hitting reversal that stretched so far that she could smash her feet right into the robot’s oversized noggin all the way from the ground. As if that wasn’t enough, Nadia immediately retracted the rest of her toward her feet, snapping her right up into Susie’s grill with a flip. “No x-scrape!” she announced, lashing out at at her opponent with a point-blank cross cut.

Susie really couldn’t dodge this one, and to be fair Susie was thinking she could suplex Nadia like she did those waddle dees, but the cat girl’s double kick slammed into her well before the robot could grab hold of the main body. After getting hit by Nadia’s follow-up, Susie sho downward a ways, taking a fair amount of damage but being alright otherwise. She pulled out her transport to stabilize herself in the air and brushed the tuft of hair out of her face. Blaster it was then, as Nadia airdashed toward her, Susie shot at her with a newly summoned blaster as she slowly descended.

The first few bolts took Nadia by surprise, since after disarming Susie earlier she did not at all expect another gun. “Me-ouch!” she yelped as they zapped her, forcing her to go on the defensive and airblock until she hit the ground again. True to her boast earlier, at least, she didn’t feel much from those shots, even the ones that struck home. Since Susie wasn’t that high off the ground any more, Nadia took off running on all fours, closing the distance between them. Knowing that she didn’t need to worry about the stray shot anymore, Nadia closed the distance fast, and once in range detached her head for a [url=i.imgur.com/KaLMErN.png]High Brow.[.url] She followed up by letting go of her head, then jumping in order to spike her head at Susie as a projectile of her own. With her hair hardened her head hurtled down like a sawblade, a grin on her face the whole time. “Heads up!”

Susie did her best to dodge Nadia, who wasn’t taking too much damage from her blaster and just started to tank the shots but while she could dodge the first move, but loosing her balance with her transporter, which left her wide open for the second attack where Nadia threw her own head at her! Susie wasn’t expecting that at all, which knocked her away again and hurt, especially when she hit the ground. She got up though and pulled out that new, larger, ‘blaster’ she had bought. Might as well test what this thing can do she figured, and she fired a few rockets to blast both Nadia’s body and head as she landed, the energy rockets having some nasty splash. Susie could only fire 4 before she had to reload the thing by cranking it, which felt weird.

“Nyuh!?” The feral bugged out as her opponent produced the Cow Mangler, staring up at the bulbous nodules of Susie’s shiny doohickey with no way to dodge at point blank ranged. “Where were you keepin’- EEYOWCH!” she choked out as a series of energy blasts blew her body and head apart from one another, leaving the latter behind Susie and the former a ways in front. Though a little scorched, her body jumped nimbly upright, its wounds already starting to heal. Her head, meanwhile, rolled across the bridge’s stone brick until it came to a stop upside-down, scratched and dirtied. Even from there, however, she could recognize Susie reloading that weapon of hers. “Nuh-uh! Here, kitty-kitty!” Her body sprinted at Susie to scratch her with El Gato, while her head stood up and, rather unnervingly, skittered toward Susie from behind. “Pinch her maneuver!”

Susie found the fact that Nadia could move her body and head together like that really weird, especially since she could move her head. While she had reloaded a single shot from the cow mangler and had to put it away to transport away again as she found herself being sandwiched between the cat girl’s body and head both rushing at her, an ear-splitting horn went off nearby. Both Susie and Nadia wondered what was going on as King Bulblin thundered across the bridge on a fearsome giant boar. Susie snapped out of her distraction a bit faster than Nadia, who had to cut short her axe kick follow-up, and transported herself back into the air as Bulblin dropped a bomb on the center of the bridge. This gave Susie enough time to finish reloading the cow mangler in the air, although she had to stop using her transporter to do this. She made sure to avoid the bomb on the bridge, not knowing how badly it’d destroy the bridge, although she’d find out she miscalculated a bit and took some chip damage from the bomb’s blast radius. At the same time Nadia had scooped her head up and cheesed it, but even her most panicked, headlong rush didn’t get her out of harm’s way in time. Bulblin’s bomb detonated with enough force not just to send the feral hurtling away to tumble painfully along the bridge, but to destroy the center of the span, dropping its bricks into the great chasm below.

“Uuuuugh,” Nadia groaned after her wild ride came to a stop. “Feline like something the cat drug in…” As the flesh torn up by the bomb blast knitted itself back together, she tried to pick herself back up. Susie also picked herself up from where she had landed. As the two girls got up from getting blasted, they found they were on opposite sides of the now destroyed bridge. Something that gave Susie quite the advantage. So much so that she figured she’d try out the ‘charge’ button on her Cow Mangler and see what it did. It took the entire clip, but when Susie pushed the button, nothing happened except power building up near the front of the launcher, Susie tapping it out of annoyance to try to get it to fire. Nadia, meanwhile, looked a little annoyed herself, but her irritation quickly turned into a smug smile, her eyebrows lowered. “Cats, outta the bag!” She lifted her hand, then swiped it to her side. Two copycats zooped out of her, formed from her blue blood, and together the three started running.

First order of business was to cross this bothersome gap where the bridge used to be, without getting blasted by whatever Susie was cooking. When the Fortunes reached the edge, the original used one of her copies as a springboard, sacrificing it in a high-pressure burst for a superjump with her other clone. At the apex of her leap Nadia hurled her other copycat like a living projectile down at Susie, flying in to deliver the axe kick that Nadis saved from earlier.

The copycat, being the thing between Susie and Nadia, took the cow mangler charged shot head on as it finally fired after building up for as long as it did. This shot caused the copycat to flash full of energy as it disintegrated mid air, the copycat catching on fire for a moment before it got vaporized. ”That will need some work…” Susie said as she put the Cow mangler away, attempting to meet Nadia head on again with another charged dash using her transporter on her back again, building up power before dash toward the cloud of vapor and energy. There she met Nadia in the middle of a blood-boosted dive, and the two clashed in an epic collision, forearm to forearm, strong enough to blow away the surrounding midst. Feral grin met cyber stare, and like cowboys at a quick-draw, both moved at once. Nadia attempted an airgrab, but Susie’s command grab blew straight through, and snatched her right out of the sky.

Having grabbed Nadia finally, Susie let out a battle cry as she zoomed around, Nadia in hand, in an adorable heart shaped flight path before crashing the two of them into the bridge below, slamming Nadia with her metal body and causing the feral to bounce a couple times on the bridge like a rock across a lake.

For a moment Ms Fortune tumbled along, stunned, but then a fire seemed to ignite inside her. The pupil of her dark eye flashed a brilliant azure as she zeroed in on Susie, a wild grin on her face. She backflipped one last time and landed, as any good cat would, on her feet, sliding backward with her claw carving through the stone to slow her momentum. “Hell yeah!” she hissed. “You’ve got some spirit after all! Let’s do this, Sooz!”

In a blast of blue blood she zoomed toward Susie once more. “River-carving rapids!” she yelled. “Cat-aract!” From her eye a torrential beam of water blasted forth, sweeping over the bridge. Though imprecisely aimed, it forced Susie to either block or evade to escape heavy damage, giving Nadia the chance she needed to close the distance. By the time the torrent died, the feral was too close for comfort, with her head held in one hand. Susie brought her Cow Mangler around to block with, but Nadia sent her head along the bridge like a bowling ball. It rolled right past the robot in order to cross her up and nail her in the back with a jet of blood from the stump of her neck. As her body closed in, the head rolled back onto her neck with a smile; a better chance she could not have asked for.

The combo began with a flying dropkick, and as her body recovered, her head flew toward it as a saw-blade to keep up the hitstun. Her head plopped back onto her shoulders as Nadia pulled off El Gato, slashing once, twice, thrice, then finishing with a hard-eared headbutt, but it wasn’t over just yet. Nadia extended her combo by blasting out a copycat in a low Cat Slide that swept Susie off her feet. Before she could hit the ground, however, Nadia knocked her opponent back up with a golf swing, only for her copycat -now behind Susie- to slam her back down with an axe kick. The stylish combo ended there, but the fight had yet to conclude. Nadia summoned another doppelganger to help the original pick Susie up and hold her in place, while she ran to the edge of the bridge and jumped off. She turned as she did, latching onto the ledge with her hands as her arms extended, swinging her under the entirety of the bridge in an enormous loop. A moment later she swung back up over the opposite side, and with the power of centripetal force, delivered the biggest dropkick the World of Light had yet seen to the robot’s back. Susie soared off the bridge and into the chasm, and the game was decided.

Everything disappeared, and both fighters got spat out of the fog back at the archway in the colorful plaza, a little banged up but not that much worse for wear. “Whew!” Nadia grinned, trying to catch her breath. “Good fight there, Sooz!” Doing her best not to look smug at all, the feral extended her hand to shake in a gesture of goodwill.

Susie picked herself off the ground and brushed off her outfit, making sure her cloths and everything looked nice and proper before extending her hand to accept Nadia’s handshake. ”You seekers earned your reputation. It's a shame I didn’t have my business suit, but that Galeem…” Susie said, glaring off to the side showing that she was a bit salty over losing, but she quickly regained her composure. ”Well, I’m sure I can fix whatever is interfering with the Access Ark MK2 and finally get that going at some point.” She gave Nadia a smile, although if the feral was perceptive enough she could tell that it was more of a facade if anything, although Susie had perfected putting on a cute happy face.

”Still, throwing your own head to attack people, that has got to be very disorienting. I don’t think any of our products do that.” Susie said, putting her hand on her chin as she thought about it. ”Is that related to the water clones?”

Nadia shook her head, her enthusiasm waning to normal levels. Even if she’d been in control for most of the fight, she’d winded herself pretty thoroughly. “Nah, the copycats are new. Splittin’ up is a Ms Fortune classic.” She crossed her arms. “Ya did pretty good for a newbie! Really liked that fancy throw. Felt like a roller coaster.” The feral chuckled. “Once you get some more weapons on ya, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with, I bet!”

”Yeah. Maybe I’ll find something new as well. That ‘Cow Mangler’ did some damage, even if it kinda looks like an older Haltmann Works device. I’ll need to spruce it up though, that charge shot took way too long!” Susie said.

---

---

The Prisoner looked upward at the cold (probably both physically and socially) Albedo, who inquired The Prisoner about his infectiousness. "Gee, don't get too excited." He edged back at Albedo's displeased tone. "Well... I'll be real, I don't really know." The Prisoner would've shrugged if he had arms to do so. "All I know is that whatever happened to me to make me a headless freak tends to deteriorate the corpses I live in. If it wasn't obvious, I'm dead, and piggyback off dead people's bodies to get around." The Prisoner, rather than asking for a boost up the ledge they had begun climbing up, stuck to the wall, and rolled upwards, meeting the top with relative ease thanks to the Homunculus Rune.

"Yeah, no, touching me is a bad idea, and I guess by carrying me, I more meant maybe letting me sit in an empty bag or something until I can get my hands on a beheaded person." He watched for a moment as Albedo assisted Frisk up the ledge, unable to give immediate assistance. "And yeah, in this form, the best I can do for you in a fight is launch myself at an enemy and maybe cause a distraction. I'm kinda useless right now." He stared at Albedo for a moment as he chatted The Prisoner up some more for a moment. Damn, this guy talks a lot... The Prisoner thought to himself, not particularly upset by the new company. "Nope. Cold feels cold, warm feels cold, hot feels cold. The only thing I can feel is direct pain from the nerves in a body I hitch rides from, 'sides that, everything's pretty numb."

Once both party members had managed to mount the cliffside, The Prisoner looked back to Frisk who had answered the same questions Albedo had previously answered. "Hmm... Yeah! I think a sack could work for now. Good thinking kid!- Er, guess I should just call you Frisk now. Don't look very kiddish anymore." He thought about the travel between where the cliff side they stood atop and the camp. "Isn't the camp a bit of a ways back though, now that I think about it now?"

The Prisoner watched for a moment as Frisk produced a pink heart from their own body and offered it to the blob. For a moment, the scene confused The Prisoner as Frisk dropped it on top of his mangled head. "Ey, what're you-" The Prisoner was cut off by the heart dissolving into him, causing his head to lose the grey shade clouding it and the place where an eye would be to return to its natural form. His original body slowly fizzled back to life, starting at his feet and repairing itself upward as his head floated slowly upward, following the reconstructed body. Once his body was back to its original shape, The Prisoner's viral head writhed through the headless corpse, filling it with his disease, allowing him to possess it once again. He clenched his fists, forcing his head to reappear on the nape of the neck. "Y'know, that is much better." He said, examining his returned body. The Prisoner gave Frisk a thumbs up as he inspected his weapons which were back in his possession again. Huh... That usually didn't happen.

In fact, a lot of the Prisoner's thoughts seemed to clear up, as he began to notice a lot of oddities in this world. "Wait." He said, confusion now present in his tone. "Where the hell even am I, this ain't an island..." The prisoner scratched his head like a confused monkey for a minute. "Usually when I die in a corpse, all my loot disappears." He held out his Balanced Blade for a minute as it indeed had come back into his possession. "Ugh, this is hurting my brain." He said, completely aware of the fact he had none to have been aching.

After recuperating somewhat from the shock of being released from Galeems influence, The Prisoner checked his loot once again to notice a new, yet very familiar item...



The Prisoner sloshed the contents of the flask around for a moment as he scratched his nonexistent chin. "Hmm..." He grumbled to himself as he thought for a moment. Both of them had sustained some pretty nasty injuries and he had just the fix for it! He snapped his fingers with an "a-ha!" idea and turned on his heel, chasing after Albedo and Frisk in a frenzy to catch back up to them from the short distance they made. "WAAAIIIIT!!" He shouted, waving the flask in the air for a moment, trying to catch their attention.

As The Prisoner approached them again, he held out the vial. "This, will help with your injuries." He said gesturing to the bottle as he swirled the liquid inside. "Now I know you guys probably don't have full trust in me, but I don't think being in this condition while being ambushed is 100% ideal." He uncorked the bottle, offering it to the two. "So trust me on this."

Grinding along the electric rails really helped ease Raz's mind about all that went down the day before. Twisting and turning along with the cat-like trains gave him something to focus on. Plus, the higher the tracks led, the more of the enormous metro Raz could see. It stretched on for miles, not just where the tracks went but way further up than you'd noticed at ground level. This place might've been a section of the world all on its own. Hopefully there wasn't a Guardian around, though. Raz has had enough of fighting on trains for a while.

Sight seeing wasn't going to help with collecting pons, though Raz's method was also turning out pretty unfruitful. The problem wasn't a lack of pons - the tracks were littered with the things - it was actually getting to them! The layout of the individual rails overlapped, double-backed, and sometimes went clear straight up, making it tricky to hop onto the one that'd get him where he wanted. If that wasn't enough there were the trains themselves, too. Raz would have to jump lines to avoid becoming a kitty pancake, and every so often some enterprising shady cats would be leaning out the windows and swiping pons for themselves.

Needless to say that it wasn't very productive. But it was pretty fun.

At least until Raz got flung off the tracks. While racing towards a lone pon, a train overtook him on the neighboring rail, and one of those pon snatchers whacked him clear into the air with a butterfly net. Raz soared for a distance, the momentum of his sliding making him sail like a skipping stone, landing on a metal platform jutting off the side of a building. The impact made him lose his grip on the only two pons he was able to snag, rolling along the floor until they came to a stop against the legs of a fold-up table, manned by a particularly slimy alligator, in more ways than one.

"Whoa!" The alligator yelped. "Good thing nobody else was around for that. You came in so hot I'd've had to tell them, 'hit the deck!', which I think wouldn't be a very tasteful phrase considerin' your current circumstances."

Raz picked himself up and dusted himself off. "Thanks. I guess? Hey, those are mine!" Raz rushed to collect his pons, but the alligator didn't seem to want them.

"You got me all wrong, pal! I don't take people's belongin's that way. That's what pickpockets and pigeons are for. Nah, I only steal in the 'technically legal' way. And by that I mean I run a perfectly legitimate games business that does nothin' funny! No humor to be had here! Not even a chuckle. Heheheehh." To prove his clean-handedness, the gator picked up one of the pons closest to him and handed it back to Raz. "Name's Slick Mickey, by the by."

"I can, uh, see why," Raz muttered, holding the pon Mickey gave him between two fingers, a very clear slime patch dripping off one side.

"Guess y'got a good head on yer shoulders then! Well, anyone can see that, cuz it's big, and bigger's always better. At least that's what my dermatologist said when I went to get that weird thing on my inner thigh checked. 'Course, that was after he screamed in abject terror, but he assured me it was due to a spooky ghost he saw out the window and I see no reason to think otherwise." Mickey placed a hand down on his table with a wet thunk. "Say, I happen to, ahhh, entertain people with big and/or good heads. You lookin' to buy a Metro pass, right? If you put your pons up for a bet, you can quintuple your grabs! Two to ten in just one unrigged diversion."

Raz thought this one over. The math did seem in his favor there, but he'd had enough experience on the road to run into scam artists before. Eventually he said, "I guueeeeess I can do that, sure. But I get to pick the game."

Mickey visibly gulped. "Uh-hah, well, see, that ain't really how it works..."

"Well, if you say so. Guess I'll just take my two, WHOLE pons with me to someplace else..." Raz made like he was going to march off. He didn't even get a single step in before Mickey practically threw himself across the table.

"Ah, no no! I-it's fine, heh. What sorta gamesgator turns down a game? A bad one! Or one that's fed up with the career choice, which is perfectly valid." Mickey produced a stack of cards and set them down. "So, kid, what's it gonna be?"

"How about... you pick a card and I have to say which it is."

"Really? Y'wanna go with that?" Mickey could barely hide his joy, shaking in his gatorskin boots (which were his feet. He didn't have shoes.) "S-sure, sure! Let me just..." In a frantic jolt, Mickey rifled through the deck of cards, turned his back to Raz, did a bit of futzing about, and turned back, a single card in his hand with the back towards Raz. "Alrighty then! What do you say this card is?"

Before Raz could begin to guess, Mickey tossed the card into his gullet and swallowed it down! "Hey! That's cheating!" Mickey merely shrugged and did his worst at playing innocent. Not that it really mattered. Raz wasn't fixing to play fair himself. He'd felt a familiar tingle in his brain ever since yesterday, and now it was feeling a lot closer to home...



Raz squinted and brought two fingers beside his temple. Since Mickey only just met him, he'd have no idea this kid was psychic at all, so this should be a piece of cake. The brainwaves cleared, a fog in Raz's head clearing just enough to catch what was going through Mickey's head.

"The card was... a Queen of Hearts... that you scribbled over with a blue pen and turned into the King of Clubs."

Mickey's jaw dropped so low it almost flipped his table. "That's, what, wow! I can't even be mad, that was exactly on the money! Y'got some real intuition on ya! Normally I'd be weaslin' my way out, as you do, but I'm too impressed and frankly a tiny bit scared to really scam ya here." Mickey scooped two handfuls of pons from his pockets and laid them out on the table. "There y'go, kid, eight pons with your name and my skin secretions on 'em. Don't go spendin' it all in one place! Haha, see, it's funny because you will."

Raz looked a little less than pleased as he rolled the pons into his pack. "Gee, uh, thanks for that. Good luck with the card stuff, Mickey."

"Oh, no, you cleaned me out. Only had eight to my name. Gotta fall back on my second source of income: letting people pay me to get away from 'em." As Mickey folded up his table to move on, he gestured towards the train rails. "If y'wanna know where to get a pass, just follow the lines. Eventually they loop back 'round to the stations for 'em, where you can buy one."

"Oh, thanks!" Raz waved Mickey off as he turned back to the rails. The closest one way a bright purple, so Raz figured that'd be the one he'd go on. Why not, right? And then he was off, back to his grinding.

---

Much, much farther below, Wonder Red was somehow having worse luck in his search. The alleys looked promising, but it seems most everyone else had thought the same thing; the nooks and crannies down here were picked clean. It made sense that not a lot of passerby would be adventurous enough to collect the ones above. Wonder Red picked up every trashcan, smashed every crate, opened every payphone's coin flap, and there was not a single pon to be found. As adverse as he was to return emptyhanded, Wonder Red needed to retrace his steps back to where they first split off and look for a different way to gather pons.

On his way through the alley again, Wonder Red heard something strange. Some sort of laughter and a bell-like jingling, that echoed off the walls, giving it a very eerie quality. His searching earlier must have masked the sound. Seeing as they were off exploring for pons anyways, Wonder Red decided to investigate. It took a bit, trying to determine the source of the sounds since the alleys were so numerous that it felt like it came from every direction, but a few right turn and several wrong turns later, Wonder Red found himself at a metal door cracked open.

Stepping inside, Wonder Red saw what looked like a big soundstage. In the center was a handcrafted set made out of fabric, cardboard, glue, tape, and other sorts of DIY odds-n-ends. All over the place where small, bouncy dolls, or what looked like them, also made out of various materials in an array of colors, decked out in costumes ranging from paper animal masks and PJs to sci-fi visors and jet boots. And they were just everywhere. Some were hopping around their personal play area, climbing walls, jumping between precarious platforms, slapping decals wherever they fancied. Others were at the fringes of the stage, trying on different pieces of costumes or collaborating on building colorful new set pieces. A few were even rooting around a huge machine, tugging at its internals as it sparked and jittered.

For a moment Wonder Red thought this was some strange underground militia of doll people, but just watching them for a bit revealed that they were only having fun. Playing, dressing up, crafting for the heck of it all. It brought a smile to Red's face - even with Galeem's influence, it seemed some worlds were able to retain their innocence and joy.

Just as he was turning back out the door, one of the little sack persons up on a high, wobbly 'icicle' stumbled. The whole thing swayed back and forth, and the doll atop it lost its balance, tumbling right off. Wonder Red, seeing it out of the corner of his high, leapt into action. "Look out!" He sprung forward, closing the distance from the door to the stage, and landed under the falling doll, managing to catch it in both arms. "Are you okay?" He asked as he set the doll on its feet.

It gave two thumbs up and a big, open-mouth smile. There was also a smattering of soft applause from the ones that were looking their way. Wonder Red nodded. "That's good. You should try securing your structures more, so this doesn't happen agai--" Above, the rickety tower finally gave way, collapsing into several pieces and falling towards them. Wonder Red was once more quick to act, jumping straight up to meet the falling debris in midair. "Hah! Whah! Pawh!" He delivered swift punches to each piece of the structure, sending them flying away from the person he just saved, or any of the others loitering in the danger zone.

When he landed, the assortment of sack people erupted into an even greater applause, cheering on Red's heroics. There was even a few shrill whistles. Red blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, really, it's all part of the job. No need to clap or anything." The sack person he had saved waved to get his attention and pointed behind him. At the other tall platforms were more sack people, looking at him expectantly, and toppling the towers again! Wonder Red was back at it, smacking away all the chunks of the set as they came, to the continuing enjoyment of the crowd. After a brief while, when there was little more on the stage for Red to punch, he was pretty tuckered out.

"Alright," he huffed between breaths, "I think I've done quite enough here. Really, you shouldn't be playing around so dangerously like that." The playful dolls didn't seem to take in his advice as most of them were already right back to work, gathering the scattered materials and setting up a new set to play on. One of the group wearing a little hardhat and vest approached him, a big bubble in his arms, and offered it up. Inside, 10 whole pons floated around. "This is for me?" After the sack person nodded, Red took the bubble. Was it payment for entertaining them? Did they expect him to punch this now?

Whatever the reason, Wonder Red saw it fit to take his leave, before they roped him into anything more. "Thank you for this," he said as he side-stepped to the door, "please try to remain safe from now on!" Of course, none of them paid him much mind anymore, their attentions diverted to something even newer.

Wonder Red hurried out the door, the large pon-filled bubble under one arm, and started to finally head back to the station proper. At least he was helping in some way, despite everything.

---

In quite the contrast to Albedo, Frisk seemed very happy to see the festering, malign pustule once more, even in a crippled and practically helpless state. Under these circumstances, with both the rawness of disaster and the inhospitable environment of Dragonspine looming overhead, perhaps any face -figuratively speaking- was welcome. The three spoke briefly, with the Prisoner relating the reality of his current circumstances. Despite his admission to being good for just about nothing in this form, the Prisoner seemed determined to be a burden on Frisk and Albedo’s already arduous climb. Maybe he saw no qualms with keeping their company, but the alchemist looked none too pleased. For what he meaned to accomplish on these frigid slopes, the Prisoner would only get in the way. Still, he wasn’t so inept that he couldn’t stomach a slight change of plans. When it came to accomplishing his goals, anything could change.

He considered the idea of carrying the Prisoner in a sack. The strange being mentioned that the camp now lay at a distance, prompting Albedo to give a curious look at the half-buried wreckage of the camp just a few meters away, not for at all from the singular ledge that Frisk managed to clamber atop with his help. Maybe it seemed a long way for someone so small, but the alchemist could see a worn rucksack that he could -and would probably have to- pull from the snow with relative ease. Not ideal, but it would have to do. Before he could make his way over, however, Frisk bent down to offer something to the Prisoner: a bright pink heart, so cheerful and innocent as to be completely at odds with the misfit trio’s bleak surroundings. He watched with furrowed brows, his expression betraying the intrigue one might expect of any empirical mind, as the Friend Heart popped against the Prisoner’s head.

He then tensed in surprise at the sudden burst of light from the Prisoner’s being, which in an instant both cleansed Galeem’s influence from his spirit, and fully restored him to a pristine state. As it turned out, this meant fashioning a brand new body for him from nothing, which the feculent snotwad naturally couldn’t infest fast enough. In a flash the Prisoner was his ‘normal’ self again, fully ambulatory and fighting-fit. As he strove to collect himself mentally, Albedo blinked a couple times in muted surprise. “Well,” he said after a moment. “How delightful.” The alchemist glanced up at Frisk. “Good thinking. I’ll have to remember that for next time.”

Yet the good news didn’t stop there. After a few moments that Frisk and Albedo spent climbing up the ledges toward the top of the cliff, the Prisoner followed in a hurry, demonstrating both an impressive jump height and an unfamiliar item newly returned to his possession. He offered it to Frisk, saying that it could fix her broken ankle. Given the hard road ahead and the pain such an injury would cause, she’d be a fool to refuse. Once the draught worked its healing magic and Albedo verified the effects, he seemed to perk up, and with a neutral expression reached out his hand for Frisk to pass it to him. “If you don’t mind. I suffered some…rather severe, internal wounds back there.” After briefly inspecting its contents, the alchemist helped himself to two drinks of its remedial contents. While he did not visibly change, he gave a sigh of relief as he returned the flask to the Prisoner. “Much better. I am grateful. Please forgive my brusque manner; all told, I’ve spent far more time on Dragonspine than among the world’s peoples.” He then turned to the cliff face to resume his climb. “Now then. Onwards and upwards.”

Once atop the cliff, the journey continued. While the lower levels of the Dragonspine featured helpful stairs here and there carved into the stone of the mountain to aid in traversal, the higher reaches offered no such niceties. It got rockier, rougher, and more steeply sloped, and in short order any semblance of an actual path upward disappeared. Its absence left the trio to make their up way up snow drifts and stony cliff faces. Patches of a hardy, thick-stemmed, blue-white grass poked through the snow to suggest where firm footing could be found beneath the powder, and as the dark of night descended over the winter-bound mountain, it became easier to notice the light of pretty little flowers growing among the grass. Their bells shone a soft, almost melancholy blue light across the snow, but it did not reach far. It wouldn’t be long before visibility became an issue.

Still, it would have been a peaceful nighttime trek, if not for the monsters that followed the advent of dusk. Least of the trio’s worries were the bats, which offered Frisk, Albedo, and the Prisoner only a taste of combat, especially compared to the Draugr from before. Li’l Brrs, meanwhile, just slid around obliviously, threatening to freeze anyone who touched them solid but lacking direction. The sudden appearance of ice elementals did come as a cause for concern though, forcing the three to expend some effort to put them down. The most worrisome creatures, however, kept their distance, watching with bright red eyes from the snowy shadows and vanishing into the white if approached. The wolf-demons Freki and Geri were still stalking the group when they chanced upon a large cave opening among the rocks. Albedo sighed. “Without Teba to guide us, our chances of finding more camps are low. Perhaps we should explore in here.” He glanced at Frisk. “Could be that Melony’s Pokemon thought the same.” Movement in his peripherals caught his attention, and he looked over the see one of the wolf demons disappear behind a snow drift, much closer than he’d seen them before. “Or we could attend to our…unwanted guests.” Tensing himself for action, he left the decision of where to go to his comrades.

---

---

On the train pulled by the large friendly cat, Raiden opted to stand in silence and solitude as he held onto the handgrip of the moving train. He looked at the passengers who had made themselves comfortable previously, some- if not most of them, clearly of feline origin. He examined the team, now well rested and ready for another day of adventure for a moment before the outside of the train went dark as they passed through the mouth of a tunnel. There was nothing much for Raiden to do in the time being, so he simply tapped his foot for a moment, avoiding direct eye contact with any of the passengers. He was sure the sight of a metal-clad man had been a sight enough for most of them, staring at them any longer would only raise the awkwardness Raiden felt in the momentary silence.

The voice over the intercom had voiced their arrival before light broke the darkness into a new area. Raiden, now eager to get off the train immediately released the handgrip of the subway before striding over with the rest of the group. "Finally..." He muttered to himself as the vehicle broke to a stop as the doors slid open for the crew to exit into the brightly lit area filled with neon signs and multiple attractions for the group to visit. The metro possessed an air of charm as the room was lit with multiple tracks in the sky, pulling Raiden's attention for a moment as he examined the atmosphere. Now... Where to go next?

It seemed Big Band had begun investigating the platform for clues as to where they should go, but he seemed just as lost by the information as everyone else was. Luckily, a short cat, clearly familiar with the metro had introduced itself to the crew, allowing Raiden a hint as to what to do next. Clever and convenient. Raiden, opting to search for more information before finding an immediate means of payment for a pass, stuck back and examined the kiosk. It took a bit of puzzle piecing, but it seemed each of these lines was color coded with their track, leading to a new area, however, none of these new areas sounded remotely familiar to the cyborg. Raiden seemed to be the first to notice this, for as soon as he had turned to inform the others of this news, many of the others had begun slipping around the area to collect small circular emerald crested objects. It was clear to Raiden that these were his means of currency in this unfamiliar area. He took a moment to gather himself and began exploring the station.

Raiden found himself, after a bit of sightseeing and exploring, now on a part of the station that lead to a black track and platform, seemingly an area completely unexplored by any scavengers or new friends of Raiden, yet even considering his enhanced cybernetic eye, couldn't see any clear indication of any Pons nearby. It was odd, considering many of them seemed to be placed in convenient areas for hiding or areas which required precise bodily movements. Raiden sighed, now ready to explore a different part of the station.

That was until he saw a very panic-stricken young cat in a plaid dress anxiously wobble about in place for multiple moments. It was clear that while she followed the cat theme like every other denizen surrounding the metro, she was somewhat unfamiliar with the location in which she found herself. Perhaps she had gotten lost? Raiden knew time wasn't to be wasted, but surely helping such a lost friendly face couldn't take too much of his precious time, right? Who knows, maybe he could be rewarded for helping her out. In the end, it couldn't hurt to help a poor soul out. The cyborg walked over to the small feline, gently poking it in the head before it turned, some panic left in her soft black eyes. "Something wrong, friend?" he said casually as the cat continued to wobble about, panic mode still on.

She seemed slightly taken aghast by the offer of empathy presented by Raiden, performing a small gesture of surprise and then afterward sighing in slight distress. "Just... Guess today just isn't my day is all." She said, seemingly becoming less tense simply by talking. "How so?" Raiden asked the small feline simply, willing to allow her to vent her struggles to him for a moment.

She seemed to enter a small train of thought as she began speaking. "Well, it all began when I entered the platform leading to the metro. I boarded the train, and everything seemed fine and dandy. It was when I exited the train that I realized..." She seemed to take a small break of a dramatic pause. "I had forgotten my pass on the train! And paying for another would be such a pain, especially since I didn't bring any money..." She sighed again before flopping her arms down. "What am I gonna do..." She whispered gently under her breath.

"What's your name, miss?" Raiden asked the little cat. She looked back up for a moment before introducing herself. "Lolly?" She said slightly confused by the origin of the question.

"Lolly... I'm Raiden." After crouching down to meet the cat's height, Raiden jutted his hand out for a shake. Lolly took his hand into her paw for a moment, still seeming slightly confused by why such formal introductions were being conducted. "I'll get you your pass back." At the offer, Lolly seemed more excited by his generosity. "Really?! You mean it?!" She asked like a small child. "Sure." Raiden nodded with a cold expression on his face despite his attempt at kindness.

Lolly seemed as if she was soon to say something more but quickly silenced herself, provoking a moment of thought in herself. "How'll you do that? No matter how long I've waited here, I hadn't seen the same train pass by..." Raiden poked at his skull for a moment, thinking of how he could logic his way into finding the right train. Then he remembered... Each of the trains was pulled by cats. "Does the train you're looking for having any distinguishing features? A marking, maybe?" Lolly didn't even need a moment to think. "Sure I do, it was being pulled by a cat with a little white diamond on its forehead." She pointed to her forehead, clearly indicating the location of the diamond she meant.

"But even if you have a pass, it'll be impossible to get to it without standing for hours..." Raiden shook his head. "I don't have a pass... but..." Raiden pointed to an oncoming train, which quickly had its doors open. It was led by another orange cat. "I'll hitch a ride." Lolly somewhat cocked her head to the side in confusion to Raiden's answer. "You need a pass to board a train..." She seemed slightly disappointed again.

"Who said I was boarding the train?" Raiden answered in tandem. He began walking towards the train as Lolly realized what he meant. "W-wait! Mr. Raiden, I don't think you can do that!" While everyone else used their passes to enter the platform to board the train, Raiden climbed the side of the entrance, looking to make sure he was being stealthy enough to not be caught. Lolly continued to worryingly try to wave Raiden back to her, but he continued to climb. She flapped her arms rapidly at her as he dropped from the wall, down to the top of the train.

Raiden plopped down on the neck of the cat who mewed gently (yet somewhat loudly) at the sudden shock of having a heavy cyborg land on it. Raiden patted the cat's ear affectionately, noticing a familiar glint on the head of the creature. A pon. It took him a moment to stand up and reach for it, but after clambering over the patient cat's head, he collected it. One down... Raiden had no idea how many he was supposed to gather, but he knew one certainly wouldn't be enough.

Raiden knew to get off the cat because as soon as the whistle in the station blew, this cat was going to start building up speed. He crawled off the tail end of the cat and clambered on top of the first compartment of the line of trains. From here, he was able to see that through the top of the main compartment of the train were four more of the pons, which after being collected would ring him up to five. Before he could stand to run and grab them quickly, the whistle Raiden had narrowly avoided rung throughout the black line boarding platform, signaling the cat to begin pulling the train car to its next destination. Raiden turned to notice the edge of a tunnel, giving him just enough time to swiftly crouch down, his blonde-platinum hairs just barely scratching the roof of the tunnel.

Unlike the train he arrived at the metro on, this one quickly faded out of the dark abyss, and lead to one of the many rails present in the sky. Raiden looked down at the sights of the metro before getting back on his feet and using his ninja run to put spring in his step as he dashed along the top of the train, collecting the emerald-crested tokens one by one. Shortly after running for a few seconds, Raiden had gathered a total of five Pons and if the trains were consistent with one another, the train holding Lolly's pass should hopefully have five as well, totaling Raiden up to ten at the end of his little mission. Hopefully, that'd be enough.

Raiden searched around for the cat that Lolly had said hosted her pass, his visor closing back up, to allow wind to be blocked from his face. It took Raiden no time at all to notice the sheer amount of cats pulling trains and how each and everyone was orange, but some had more noticeable features than others, and yet none had that distinguishing white diamond on the forehead as Lolly had mentioned. He hopped off the top of the train, grabbing onto an empty track and pulling himself onto it. From here, he had a slightly better overhead view of the rest of the metro and scouted from left and right. Many of the cats moved at bullet-like speeds, yet Raiden knew he would be able to hop on one again.

With a large meow reverberating from his left, Raiden hopped high and far enough out to grab onto the side of a new train and pull himself upward. It took a moment, but after standing, it only took mere moments for him to find the cat with the tiny white diamond, which was halfway across the station. Ignoring the valuables littered on the top of the train Raiden had his footing on, he used his ninja run to dash from train to train, avoiding the gaps in between each by using his lightning to give him an extra step in his leaps.

Just as Raiden neared the train with Lolly's pass on it, he jumped and narrowly missed the tail-end of the compartment, causing him to catch himself with a baseball-style slide. He quickly got back onto his feet and dashed rapidly after the train, able to surprisingly beat its speeds. As he was inches away from grabbing onto it, he used the walls to perform a wall jump on the corner of the train where he clung as the train continued moving. While he used his cybernetic strength to hold on, he knew the rougher part of his mission was now over, and soon he could climb into the main compartment, grab Lolly's pass, grab the remaining Pons on the top, then return to Lolly.

Once the train halted to a stop, he wiggled off the end of the train and slid past the moving crowd of exiting passengers, bumping shoulders with a few of them. Once he entered the unfamiliar train, he checked each seat for a missing pass, since it had only been a short time since she had lost it. He found it jammed between the cushions of two seats, sticking out three-fourths of the way out. He grabbed it in between his fingers then as passengers were allowed on the train, he exited and climbed on top to rushingly grab the remaining 5 Pons, which sure enough, followed the same ideology as the other train he rode on. Swiftly jumping off the roof of the train, he made sure to not be gathered by security who might have seen him hitchhike the top of the multiple trains.

...

It took Raiden a fair few moments to return to the entrance to the black-line platform, but once he got there, he was greeted by the sight of a pacing Lolly, clearly now anxious by the stunt Raiden had just pulled. Not noticing her new friend arriving immediately, Raiden chimed in monotone. "Lolly." He said to gain her attention. She looked up and began stimp-stamping her way huffily over to Raiden clearly ready to lecture him. Before she could say anything, Raiden held up her missing pass. "You... got it?..." She said, obviously shocked by the skill he must have displayed to perform this feat. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she had no idea what to think. Raiden smiled cheekily before saying "You're welcome, Lolly." He said simply before walking away to find the place to purchase a pass for himself. He had decided he would board the Black Line legitimately once he obtained his own. He thought about meeting with Tora once more before doing so. As he continued walking away, the dumbfounded Lolly finally gathered her bearings and shouted a glad "Thank you!!" before Raiden disappeared behind a pair of stairs, a goofy grin slapped on his pale face.

When Mewtwo arranged the matchups for the team’s sparring matches, the names of the assembled heroes whirled around like symbols on a slot machine, quickly building anticipation in the onlookers. A veteran of countless Mario Parties, minigames, and other events where everything came down to random chance in the end, Peach knew the feeling quite well, but the display kept her riveted regardless. In just a few short moments, she would be assigned her opponent among the Seekers of Light, but rather than enthusiasm the princess felt something more akin to dread.

Under ordinary circumstances, the task of a soldier fighting his or her leader probably sparked feelings of fear or even resignation. After all, one’s boss was the person who ought to know best, who commanded the most knowledge, skill, and experience, more than likely responsible for teaching the underlings what they knew. What Peach knew, however, was that the heroes around her had nothing to fear, and really, nothing to look up to.

For her whole life, she hadn’t been much of a leader. The day-to-day tasks of running the Mushroom Kingdom -what little that entailed- she left to her subordinates like Toadsworth, leaving her with nothing but free time. Possessed of an empty title, and ignorant of her own ignorance, she lived a life of vapid luxury interspersed with easy, pleasant sports and games as her sole source of competition. Without even the pride to care very much about the dozens of times she’d been kidnapped by Bowser, reasoning that Mario would just save her any time, she’d been content with that life. Only after the Seekers arrived to destroy Megadragonbowser, almost a week ago at this point, did she finally begin to realize what a leader should -and shouldn’t- be. A princess wasn’t someone who sat on her cushions while her people suffered, fighting and dying for the amusement of a tyrant, whether that tyrant be Megadragonbowser, or Galeem itself. From that point she tried to take responsibility, to be the commander of the campaign to save the worlds, but even after a dozen crash-courses in leadership out in the field, she still felt like an impostor. She couldn’t take charge when the team needed or fight well enough to swing the tide of battle; the team seemed to accept her, but it didn’t feel earned. That’s why this fight mattered: this time, the princess needed to be on the ball, and prove herself worthy of her role. All these thoughts raced through her head in just a couple seconds, at the end of which the holographic names slotted into place.

Bowser.

The eponymous villain, splitting image of a source of her inspiration and woes both. Stood among his sub team he was a picture of everything a leader should and shouldn't be as well as something of a thorn in the side with his assertions of authority. Truly, there could be no more appropriate challenge to test how far she’d come, and how far she had to go, than the Koopa king!

So it would have been a lot more dramatic a moment if he had been paying attention. Instead, as far as Peach could overhear, he was in the midst of arguing the virtues of a very very very big umbrella as a counter to the timefall rain, a plan that only the long suffering Kamek seemed to see the problem with. To add insult to injury the reason his attention was drawn to their names coming up next to each other on the slot machine was as a distraction by said Magi-Koopa to derail his hair brained scheme

”Ha, well that hardly seems fair!” was the king’s response to seeing the matchup, before he either uncharacteristically or very characteristically (depending on the intent) added ”Though you could say that about anyone who had to go up against me! The rest of you got lucky!” boastfully a moment later.

Peach grimaced. As much as she didn’t want to hear it, she couldn’t exactly deny his words. It wasn’t a fair fight by any stretch. In terms of size, reach, defense, constitution and especially strength, there was no contest between her and the Koopa King. His addendum painted his initial comment as a product of ego applicable to anyone, but it still stung. To not be taken seriously as a rival, or even a threat, hurt her developing sense of pride. For a moment she almost despaired; was she really destined to be dominated by this big idiot, over and over again, for eternity? Peach put a hand on her chest and she breathed in and out, slowly, trying to calm down. Forget about everything else, she told herself. I just have to do my best. Fight with everything I have. Her eyes cracked open to find that Bowser had already stomped off, despite not knowing where any of Alcamoth’s arenas might be. Peach narrowed her eyes and jogged after him, making sure to draw up alongside him and then pull ahead. “Follow me,” she told him. “I know a good spot.”



When the fog cleared, Peach floated down with her parasol to alight upon the surface of the stage. Her nerves were electric with anticipation now that her match against Bowser was nigh, but the princess worked to get a hold of herself. The woman who stood here now, on familiar ground, was not the same spoiled princess who awaited yet another rescue six days ago. She’d been through hell on Blackwater Bay and the nightmares of the Bottomless Sea, and melded with her very soul were two fighters very used to taking on monstrous foes. The cruel resolve of Mr. Grimm and the military professionalism of Chao Ho stabilized her shaky legs, and tightened her grip on her Boomshot. It was time to begin.

Opposite her the Koopa king was a picture of calm, the tower of scales and muscles rolling the shoulder of his arm housing his new kinetic strike module to give it a stretch, and then flicking both hands to his sides bearing his claws as the new mechanisms in his shell clicked in and out of position. Then they seemed to jam, the king frowning and giving his shell a thump, which was enough of a placebo to get things organized again back there. With a grunt and a nod to himself he turned back to face her as the countdown started









At which point Bowser immediately lept for the rope suspended platform before him, the thing sinking rapidly under his bulk before he leapt for the central platform, clearly intending to just come straight for her.

Peach inhaled deeply through her nose, then got to work. She let go of her Boomshot with her left hand and pulled out a grenaduck, which she lobbed across the pit to the center. Whether he waited for the opposite lift to lower or just tried to jump straight across, her explosive would blow up after a couple bounces, and it wasn’t her last bomb, either. With an upward flip of her heel behind her she popped out a torpedo, then span around while it flipped to smack it with a roundhouse kick and send it flying toward Bowser as well. Determined to start off with a bang, she finished off the explosive volley by pulling her Agro Torpedo rocket launcher from her Inventory, a blast from which sent a fiery payload Bowser’s way.

”Ha, is that all you … uh oh!” Bower began to mock when the duck was tossed, only to change his tune when everything else came to follow it up, the king comically doing a complete about turn and running back the way he came as the world exploded around him, only to be struck in the back by her the rocket launcher and fully blown across the pit he had cleared, winding up right back where he started.

Bower’s shell was tough however, and so the main thing that was hurt was his pride. ”Two can play at that game!” he shouted as he turned to face her once more, the top two segments of his shell rising up and four guns extending from them and then folding over his shoulders. The light also dimmed around him as he started to draw energy into his flashcanon reserves via the tentacruel orbs. As he charged, his guns opened fire and the king began to huck his slow moving fireballs across the arena, a fury barrage he’d end with a blinding beam should his light reserves reach full capacity.

For a brief moment Peach was surprised. She’d half-expected Bowser to shrug off her special deliveries and just juggernaut his way into melee range. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t just close-quarters combat that her opponent excelled at. The princess balked at the entire arsenal that Bowser deployed to gun her down with, and the coarser part of her couldn’t help but blurt out her astonishment. “Goddamn…!”

Peach steeled her nerves as she tensed herself to move. She couldn’t push through this onslaught or run away from it, but with no water around and only a relatively narrow battlefield, she couldn’t strafe around as well as she would have liked to take advantage of Bowser’s less-than-ideal aim and projectile travel time. At least, not without a little ingenuity. As the barrage began, and the ground and scenery around her began to blow apart in the storm of cannonfire, she ran toward the edge while stowing her weapons. “Brave,” she muttered as she neared the precipice. “Be brave!”

She leaped into the open air, extended her arms, and began to float. As if gravity had forgotten about her, Peach scooted through the air in a horizontal arc, fast enough to make shooting her a serious challenge. When the princess sensed her floatiness running out, she pulled out and thrust her parasol upward, taking her even higher before the canopy popped open. At that point her speed decreased dramatically, as well as her chances of making it back to the stage–until she pulled out her Boomshot again, aimed it behind her, and let the recoil blast her back toward solid ground. The maneuver brought her close to Bowser again, which meant she needed to do something before he shot her down. With her Boomshot ineffective at such a range and her launcher still cooling down, that left only one option. She pulled out Mr. Grimm’s revolver, lined up a shot, and let loose the screaming Death Spawn soul shot, one of the strongest -albeit most difficult to land- weapons in all of Twisted Metal.

”Stay! Still!” the king demanded as the princess evaded his poor marksmanship only to go ”Uh oh!” as the soul came screaming towards him. Having clearly learned, (perhaps too well given his earlier retreat), that the world of light had a lot of things that could hurt even him, the king crouched and then tried to leap over the incoming shot, which meant it detonated beneath him as an unintended rocket jump. The explosion blasted his boots apart and sent him flailing, the king losing control of his stored up flash cannon and sending a blazing beam of light wildy slashing across the stage.

Then he slammed down onto the central set of floating blocks with an ”Oof” and scorched, bruised and most damning of all bare feet.

”Hey, I liked those! I got them for our wedding! Ow ouch!” The king complained as he tried to haul himself up onto his hurt claws, gave up and announced ”if I cant hit you, I’ll hit everything!” before withdrawing into his shell and beginning to spin rapidly, all 12 guns firing wildly as fired and indiscriminately unleashed a hail of fury spike torpedo from his back, his timed explosive spikes firing upwards and then showering down all across the stage.

“What!? Hey!” Peached holstered her revolver and held tight to her parasol for dear life as cannon shots whizzed by her. “H-how does this help you!?” She watched with wide eyes as Bowser himself spun around in a field of explosions of his own making, an impossible target. She couldn’t hit him like this, which meant she needed to get back to solid ground. In the midst of his volatile uproar, however, Bowser was laying waste to the terrain itself. His torpedoes and shells destroyed chunks of brick at a time, sent both suspended platforms plummeting down into the abyss, and knocked the rows of floating blocks from the sky. Peach veered back toward the area she started in, wondering if he meant to keep her from landing and force a win as she sank below the outer boundary. Well, he couldn’t possibly keep this up forever. After a moment Peach smacked into a row of bricks, climbed up, and promptly rolled away as a torpedo spike embedded itself nearby. “Ugh.” As the dust and rubble cleared, she called forth her revolver again. This time with both hands, she lined up a second shot at the epicenter of the explosive mayhem.

”Testing out Nadia’s thing!” came a semi informative roar over the din, a din which suddenly ended with a click click click of auto loaders trying to pull shells from stores that were entirely depleted. The same went for his back load of spikes, the king’s back presently as smooth as a koopa troopa’s. Well a heavily ornamented koopa troopa’s.

Now that the spin attack was over, rather than pop his actual arms and legs out of his shell and put up with sore feet right away, the king instead deployed the crab-like Dreugh legs from the back of his shell and used them to try and leap through the air towards her like an oversized Tektite. Peach gritted her teeth, adjusted her aim at the massive target flying her way, and fired. The screaming soul blitzed though the air like a railgun shot and walloped Bowser right in the torso, sending him right back the way he came. Unfortunately the recoil, which sent Peach into a wild spin while floating with her umbrella, now knocked her out of her inexpert firing stance and onto her back.

Bowser’s shell bounced once twice and then skidded to a halt right before the precipice, such that when bowser’s head popped out the top it was straight up hanging over the edge. ”Uuuuurgh, ok, not a good one” he groaned and then moved to pick himself of of the ground, the Dreugh legs helping with both that and, if he leaned forwards a bit, he could also use them to support his sore feet, giving him an opportunity to shake em both out before committing to his next move.

”Urg… that gun is nasty. So, I’ll be taking it now” he informed her polity, before squaring up, breathing out, and then breathing in hard, his inhalation turning into a twisting vortex that reached across the stage and tugged at her small arm, threatening to rip it from her hand.

With Peach’s focus currently on getting back up, she didn’t notice the vacuum until it was too late, robbing her of Grimm’s revolver. “No!” she lamented, grasping uselessly at the gun as it sailed away. While she didn’t think Bowser could use it thanks to his size, her win condition had been stripped away. On the plus side, however, she still had the rest of her weapons. With an angry scowl she pulled out her rocket launcher, holding tight the whole time. “Here, you can have this, too!” FOOMP!

The only thing that stopped Bowser getting a gut full of rocket was that he was considerate enough (if you could call it that) to not swallow her weapon and instead cut off the vacuum once it came at him and raised a hand to catch it. He failed, the gun bonking off of his nose and then clattered to the ground, but it left his arm in a perfect position for him to clench his fist and unfurl the shield of the mecha mit. The buckler sized energy barrier caught the rocket, blocking the core of the basalt, though the sides of it still rushed past and scorched his suit.

”Nice try,” the king said in not quite a taunt as one of his tentacruel tendrils plucked the stolen gun off the ground and stashed it in his suit. ”But now let’s see how you handle me without that crutch,” he added before he started to storm towards her once more, but this time deploying his turrets and firing four beams of supersonic soundwaves from them to disrupt her overwatch fire.

Peach scowled, but rather than waste time on a snippy comeback, she put her full attention into what came next. Thanks to his suppressive fire Bowser could now reach her without issue, and even if she relied on remaining structure around her for protection from the aural assault, she’d only delay the inevitable. Without Grimm’s revolver, she possessed only one more possible win condition. The problem was making it happen, and no plan came to mind. Still, the princess needed to do something...

As she retreated, hiding behind the pillars of brick, she began to pull vegetables from the ground two at a time. Thanks to their weight she could throw them indirectly from behind cover, and while most just bounced off Bowser’s scales, not all of them turned out paltry. Depending on their faces, some could deal a lot more damage and knockback than others, and Peach kept running and pulling until, just as she was about to run out of stage, she found what she was looking for. Instead of a bomb, she yanked a bob-omb from the ground, its fuse already sizzling as it struggled in her grasp. Perfect. She produced both a grenaduck and a heel torpedo, and after tossing them into the air Peach whipped out Chao Ho’s giant fan to blow all three explosives at Bowser in a single mighty stroke. As the makeshift carpet-bomb flew Peach ran in behind them.

”Ow, oof, fine i’ll eat my veggies!” came a shout after the first few turnup-y projectiles, followed by bursts of vacuum breath and sounds of revulsion replacing the pain sounds that made it somewhat unclear if Bowser’s strategy was actually reducing the damage her vegetable projectiles were doing.

Then her bombs came flying and the tennis seve of a toss it gave him just enough time to realise that sucking these in would be a poor plan, and recognise the oh so faimiler sight of a bob-omb in the mix. Having blown all the cover to hell already, Bowser took the stubborn option. He held his ground and let loose a blast of firebreath at the incoming bombs, burning the wick of the bob-omb right down to the base in a heatflash and detonating it prematurely.

As her bombardment went up in smoke, Peach opened and slammed her fan, blowing the haze of ash, and brick dust toward Bowser in one big gust. Whether he choked on it or not, its acrid particles and sizzling embers could sting his eyes and obscure his vision, or so Peach really hoped. Because now, after closing and hurling her fan at the big brute like a caber toss, she was closing to melee range. She got as close as she dared in order to start the real fight with a bang.

KRAKOOM!

A short-range blast from her Boomshot scattered the smokescreen, but before she could see what damage it did to Bowser, Peach hurled the gun right at him. In a flash her parasol was in her hand, bundled up tight and held like a rapier. With her sincerity writ upon her royal face, the princess prepared to strike.

The blinded king stumbled back from the blast with an ”Oof” followed by a ”What” as the gun bonked off of his snout. He blinked repeatedly both to clear his eyes and because of what he saw.

”Are you for real?” he had to ask, he didn’t wait for a reply, instead cracking his neck and then throwing both arms out to his sides as his own weapons deployed, energy claws flicking out from the mecha mit while the kinetic strike module’s first deployed into place.

”You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that, lets see if you can back em up,” the king challenged her, before the afterburners on his new rocket fist and he started their melee with a jet propelled uppercut.

Fueled by raw adrenaline, Peach’s life flashed before her eyes. This jerk’s trying to kill me! The conclusion jolted her into action, and throwing all thoughts of offense to the wind, she flipped horizontally backward and out of the rocket punch’s way. She landed in a crouch to see Bowser carried into the sky by the force of his knockout blow, looming over her like a meteorite. With terror the princess pictured his iconic Bowser Bomb, capable of reducing just about anything to smithereens. In that moment, however, she also saw her fan, descending in her direction. Peach embedded her parasol in the ground and caught the fan on her shoulder, which she opened with a twirling overhead slam to send a gust of wind up at the Koopa King. “Back off!”

If all the stars aligned it might have pushed him back far enough to plummet straight down into one of the stage’s pits, but she’d happily settle for not getting squashed flat. Either way, she hurried to put the fan on her back and ready her parasol once more.

Bowser was a bit too busy being surprised by the sheer power in the gauntlet he’d just tried to slam Peach with to consider any follow up slams, his legs kicking under him as they failed to find purchase. Only at the gust of wind did his senses snap back as the part of his brain that paid any denizin of Bowser’s world had honed to a fine point if they wanted to live screamed PIT at the top of its nonexistent lungs. Either thinking fast or not thinking at all, bowser jammed all 6 sets of guns out of his shell and slammed them all into hydro pump mode. The 6 sets of jets might not have been able to all point forwards, but they had enough of an angle to add to his backwards momentum such that he cleared the pit. Oh and almost staged-outed himself anyway by going too far past it, the koopa slamming a claw into the ground to stop him slipping on the last few inches of wet stone out of the arena.

”Close one,” he noted as he clicked the kinetic strike module back into storage position. Then he gave the stone a flame blast before rushing through the steam to hop across the gap, claw primed to reach out and grab her instead of smash her this time.

After a sound bombardment by Bowser’s hydro pumps that slammed her into the ground and soaked her to the bone, Peach staggered to her feet, bruised and ragged but holding her parasol firm in her grasp. Against a more conventional opponent she might have been able to make good use of her umbrella, employing her heightened dexterity and speed to beat her opponent down, but Bowser was anything but. Some other day, maybe. She braced herself as he bounded over the stage’s pits, then thundered toward her like a freight train. Her explosives weren’t ready; her fan and her turnips would do nothing. No cover remained around the stage for her to use for shelter, just scattered blocks and pieces of brick.

Peach’s eyes narrowed. She went low and performed a spinning sweep that kicked a number of bricks into the air. Then, with a powerful thrust from her parasol, she popped it open to send the debris flying toward Bowser. Despite her inventiveness, it unfortunately wasn’t enough. The tough guy took the smattering of masonry no problem, followed shortly by a thrust from Peach’s parasol as he reached out and grabbed hold.

“Guh!” The princess grasped as Bowser lifted her into the air, squeezed tight in his painful grasp. With just one eye open she could see his smug face, already sure of victory. Indeed, he could now end this at any moment. He could throw her off the stage, crush her beneath his weight, or just roast her right now.

But would he?

This wasn’t the first time Peach found herself grabbed by Bowser. This normally ended with him carrying her off over his shoulder, though at the moment he needed to beat her, not kidnap her. Still, the Koopa King was a sore winner, a gloat, and not at all the pragmatic type. That’s why Peach wanted this to happen. Only once he grabbed hold her, determined to never let go of his prize…was he close enough for her to win.

“All..” Peach grabbed at of his scaly mitt, as if hopelessly trying to dislodge his grip. After a moment, however, her gloved hands reached into his flesh, grasping at the core of his being–his spirit. Going through an extremity lengthened the process, but it also made it more painful, like slowly pulling off a bandage versus ripping it off in one go. Would he just stand and let this happen? She doubted it. But she had no other options. “...Or nothing!” And so the reaping began.

”Ah hey what is that?! It feels really weird!” Bowser complained as he felt existential pain for the first time, but the stubber fool didn’t let go. No instead he kept running across the center of the stage, not slowing the momentum that had brought him to her in the first place one bit, and jumped the last bit of distance before tossing her straight down, aiming to slam-dunked princess into the twin of the bottomless pit he’d only just avoided dropping into himself.

Peach pulled and pulled, but she just couldn’t draw Bowser’s spirit through–like a tapioca pearl through too small a straw. “Dammit!” she screamed as the Koopa King hurled her down the pit. Full of helpless fury, she did the only thing she could, and popped open her parasol to bring her downward trip to a screeching halt. Yet that alone wouldn’t save her. She couldn’t jump or fly back up, or jump back and forth between these walls. All Peach could do was continue drifting downward, rankled by the laughter of her triumphant opponent, and await the lackluster finish. Unless…

Peach summoned a new grenaduck and stared at it for a moment before clenching her teeth. “Not like this.” Her grip tightened, harder and harder as the explosive began to blink, until it erupted.

From the cloud of flame the princess flew out of the pit, singed and tattered but alive and ready for more. She stopped her uncontrolled momentum with a well-timed float, facing Bowser for a brief moment. “Don’t pity me! Ha…” she cried, twirling in place. Then she burst forward, her rear extended for a mighty Peach Bomber. “CHA!”

”What?” was Bowser’s confused reply before he brought up his arms into an X guard to block her ass blast, before counter attacking with a four pronged strike with his Dreugh limbs before he’d even dropped his guard back down.

The pincer attack struck Peach in the middle of her recovery and knocked her back to the edge of the pit. Wincing from the punishment, she fought to maintain her balance for a second, and she second she found it she charged again. Dragging the tip of her umbrella along the ground, she swept toward Bowser with a diagonal blow which the king simply raised his arm and took on his scaly forearm.

The king made a thoughtful noise as he stabbed at her with the carb legs again, really leaning into this style of combat and not even trying to use his fists for a bit. This time Peach yanked a struggling Toad out from nowhere to take the limb strikes for her, and return their combined damage twofold in a stream of spores accompanied by an ear-rattling scream.

The lim stabs were fairly wimpy compared to some of the real damage the king could put out, but the resulting burst of spores and sound still sent the king reeling and coughing, breaking his guard for a moment as he covered his ears.

Peach narrowed her eyes–this was it. Judging by her burns, bruises, and fatigue, maybe her last chance. She leaped into the air, and with her parasol thrust as hard as she could toward the space right between her opponent’s eyes.

The king went cross eyed as the tip of the umbrella went between them and smacked him right between the bushy brows with a “thonk” that sent him into a stumbling fall, closer to the edge. Then those crab legs lashed out behind him instead of infront, correcting over his tumble and sending the thick koopa’s noggin careening towards the princess.

When it looked like Bowser was about to fall, a spark of hope galvanized Peach’s faltering muscles into pulling out her rocket launcher in order to blast him off. But her opponent catch himself too quickly, and put his momentum into a fearsome headbutt. Peach turned the Agro Torpedo horizontally as a makeshift shield, and when the hammer fell she planted her feet and pushed back with everything she had. “Grrrrrrrrr…” she grunted, the visceral sound direct from her innermost being. “..rrrrraaaaaah!”

In the end she lasted only a second. Her arms gave way, and as her legs buckled beneath her Bowser’s headbutt smashed her flat. Parasol and rocket launcher both bounced away amidst a spray of shattered bricks, and Peach lay in the dust barely clinging to consciousness, unable to move a muscle.

GAME!

Bowser for his part stumbled backwards fists raised in a boxer’s guard, still mostly out of it for a few more moments and then a few moments later realized that no more violence was happening. He shook his head clear, then gave it a tap for good measure and then saw the consequences of his actions.

”Oh. Uh. Are you alright?” he crouched down and poked her with a claw.

Fog swept in across the stage, swallowing all in its path. It rolled over Bowser, Peach, and all their wanton destruction with the speed and indomitability of a tidal wave. Then it passed, leaving the fighters out in front of the archway they’d used to access this pocket dimension. A handful of spectators had gathered around, and when the two royals arrived they met with a handful of cheers, and applause. Revived with about a quarter of her total vitality, Peach got to her feet to find herself offered congratulations and sympathy. Even as she struggled on her own against an overwhelming opponent, many of them had been cheering on the underdog, and now she even got some praise for her smart moves out there. Bowser got his share of admiration too, but Peach didn’t even notice. Losing had been inevitable, but if some people actually thought she did a good job out there, and respected her for what she achieved, it was all worth it.

Bowser, of course, noticed his own fans, giving them a flex of his scally guns for show alongside a ”Yeah, I’m pretty awesome” before being tapped on the shoulder by one of his tentacruel tentacles while the other presented him with the gun he’d stolen from Peach.

”Oh, right” he said, plucking it from the tendril’s grasp and then turning around offering it handle first to Peach, the small put ever so powerful hand cannon held between his fingers ”Here your gun back, that thing’s got some bite” he said, rubbing his chest subsciously where it had hit him. ” You’ve come a long way,” he told her uncharacteristically when she took it, and then finally adding ”but maybe get something nastier than an umbrella for poking people with, yeah? Ooo or put spikes on it, that’d be cool!”

The princess did not look happy to see him, with some trace of resentment haunting her eyes, but she accepted the revolver without complaint. When she looked she would find that her Boomshot, fan, and other weapons were all back in her inventory where they belonged. “...Thank you,” she told him. The rarity of a compliment from the Koopa King did not escape her. Rather than shake hands she crossed her arms, an unsatisfied look on her face. “Maybe I will. Next time, you’ll have to take me more seriously.”

”Already am” the king replied pretty nonchalantly, before stretching and saying ”Now let's go find Blazermate or someone to patch us back up to full…oh and then a snack, fighting always workers up my appetite!” and moving to stomp off and do just that.

Thank goodness, it worked.

Frisk covered her eyes with an arm at the restorative light, and quietly let out a relieved sigh once she saw her ally had regained his body. Prisoner should be fine enough to finish this search and rescue now, atleast as far as she could tell. They should still grab something for him to ride in when he loses his next body though. She nodded to Albedo in response to his noting the effects, then looked back to the headless warrior, who as expected was confused but nonetheless more aware of the differing area. "I'll explain what I can on the way up." She told him.

The heals didn't stop there too. Turns out, Prisoner had what the woman wanted to look out for, and was willing to let her and the alchemist use it. Right, they took a heavy beating didn't they. "Thanks." Giving him a warm smile she took two swigs of the healing flask, then passed it to Albedo. Frisk lightly tapped her foot against the ground. Good, she won't have to tolerate a broken bone any futher.

Soon enough their treik up continued. Frisk took the moment to catch Prisoner up to speed on things, Galeem, the World they were in, everything she learned from Linkle and then some. "When anyone or thing dies here, their bodies eventually turn to ash. But they leave spirits behind. They're kind of like the souls back in my world, but I'm not sure if anything like that is in where you're from. You can crush them to get new stuff like this," She held up the bow she obtained from the second ambush. Though it's kind of useless without arrows. Maybe once she regains access to the Justice trait, she can work the ranged magic into being a substitute. Frisk put it aside for now, then motioned to herself. "Or fuse with them to get new abilites, asides from a slight cosmetics change. I ended up fusing with Melony's soul- Er, spirit, for example. That's why I ended up older. Even shocked myself, believe it or not." She chuckled. "But her Pokemon, my Pokemon, can't be without their trainer. I can handle how Teba reacts, but for now we have bigger things to worry about."

Looking back, Frisk couldn't help worry about how the others were doing back at the camp. Especially Joel, the poor kid. Hopefully Linkle hadn't lost to her curse yet. After a short moment, she held a hand over her throat. "Man, it's weird talking so much like this..."

Of course, they didn't have to walk far to find more enemies. She found the li'l brrs cute, but made sure to avoid contact with them. The bats and elementals though were a different story. Oddly enough Frisk's demeanor in battle seemed different. More stern, unsparing to the creatures that dared harm her allies. She bore no hesitance in ridding the bats with a hearty Bonk! of Vorpan, while she acted as more as support against the ice elementals; Blocking their cold magic with her own defensive means. She collected a couple of the spirits left in their wake and crushed them in hopes to get some arrows. Or at least something useful. The rest can go to the other two.

And yet...

The twin wolf-demons didn't go unnoticed on Frisk's end. In fact, she kept an active eye on them in case they tried something funny, bearing only a glare at their direction. The trio ended up finding a cave. One Albedo hypothesized her Pokemon could be hiding in. That was enough to get her to act. "We can try and lose our dear stalkers inside. Or at the very least buy us more time to brainstorm a counterattack." She told the alchemist, more than willing to head in.

Sectonia's antilions weren't the smartest of minions to say the least. Outside of doing what their queen demanded of them, their problem solving skills weren't the best. One thing they did have though was teamwork, as they all followed their queens orders as best as they could. Their orders were to collect Pons, which when they did, materialized in Sectonia's hands as they were her magical summons. Sectonia herself staying near the Kiosk and reading whatever material she found interesting or useful, admittedly not a lot here but there were a few pamphlets and the like.

The antillions went on a bit of an adventure themselves, noting that whenever they touched the green orbs, a chime was heard and they disappeared, but not into their hands. They figured out quickly that whatever they touched was gathered by their queen, which helped a lot. Now the pons on the ground were scarce, this was soon found out by the antilions as they went around the town. Seeing as they were currency, the cats that were around the metro probably stripped the streets clean, although the antillions had no way of knowing that. Seeing as there were more pons though as they rose up in the metro. Although they couldn't fly, they did know how to stack themselves up like a tower and help each other climb up and up much like their namesakes. Their jumps weren't very high nor was their ability to move around nearly as good as the others in the metro, but their ability to spread out and collect pons when they reached a pon filled area was unmatched.

There were a few cats who, doing the same thing the antillions were doing, decided to attack what they assumed were money laiden simple bugs. Those cats soon found themselves sliding off the catwalks and rooftops when they tried attacking the antilions, most of them frozen in blocks of ice as they kept sliding across the streets of the metro. A few others just ran while on fire, not expecting a bug to have a flamethrower. The antilions took no joy or pride in warding off the bandit cats, but they did collect the pons left behind and continued their task.

Sectonia meanwhile was deciding on which line to go on. Mint sounded refreshing in its name, although she didn't know any of the destinations, she didn't know any of the others so just from the name she figured why not. And with the rate her antilions seemed to be collecting pons, she might have enough extra for anyone who didn't collect enough, or maybe to spend on other things that were around. Sectonia wondered how the others were coming along.

“So, you and me huh?” Rika said as she wandered over to meet up with Blazermate before pausing for a moment and then asking, “So, uh, do you have any idea how this works?”

[color=0072bc]”Uh, vaguely.”/color] Blazermate said, gesturing for Rika to follow her. As they moved through Alcamoth Blazermate said what she thought it was at least. ”So what we do is we go to this battle arena place and choose an arena, and we robattle. We can go as hard as we want as we’ll just be healed up afterwards and there is no risk of death or serious injury. But only inside the arena. If someone gets knocked out of the arena, the person left standing wins. Don’t attack people outside of the arenas for obvious reasons.” Blazermate continued, trying to remember where the arena area was.

It took the two ladies a bit of time to make it there, but they were more middle of the pack. They could see a few fights going on in some observation windows, where the arenas looked very flat, but colorful and interesting locales. Very different from robattles that was for sure. ”So. Any idea where you wanna go?” Blazermate said, asking Rika to choose one of the arches that had various symbols over them.

“Hmmmmmmm how abouuuuuut, that one” Rika, having perhaps little frame of reference for these symbols out of anyone present, pointed at a wild west looking one and explained her choice simply as “It’s of a hat”



Unfortunately the stage did not turn out to be a hat, and was instead a sandy western town that someone had decided to run two minecart tracks through before spicing the place up with the odd tnt barrel. The place’s name, painted onto a sign hung above the active railway like certainly was appropriate: Danger Gulch

“Huh, it's like a place that’s just all beach? Weird” Rika said as she stepped away from her starting spot in front of the greed painted building and gave the sand an experimental kick. “You ever been to somewhere like this?” she called over casually to her opponent who had spawned in under the awning of the red painted telegraph building

”Yeah, it's some kind of thing out of a western. It's a canyon in some desert or something? Anyway, let's get started then!” Blazermate said, giving a flex at Rika before summoning her Striker who began to make his buildings before charging Rika with ubersaw attachment in one hand, but her shield out in front in an attempt to both close the distance and possibly shield bash Rika.

“Lets” Rike replied, closing her eyes briefly, snuffing out the blue flame wafting out if them only for that fire to flare out a dozen times hotter when she reopened them, the cable tuning to a great streak of fire that trailed behind her when she moved



“I’ve been wanting to try out these upgrades i got last night after all”

True to her word, the ship girl didn’t just start up with her tried and true strategy of overwhelming firepower, but instead raced forwards to meet the bot with a here-for unseen burst of speed, right gauntlet wound back in preparation for a massive punch while she held her other, bayoneted, gauntlet over her chest defensively, moving it to intercept the incoming saw.

Blazermate took her challenge somewhat head on. She still rushed at Rika until she got close, at which point she used her agility to jump over Rika, tilting her shield to use Rika’s blow for more lift if needed. When she did her little flip over Rika, she slashed with her ready Ubersaw. All the while the Engineer had managed to make his level 1 sentry, which began to shoot Rika from the direction where Blazermate was, the shipgirl now sandwiched between both an automated turret, and a medabot.

“Ow” went Rika as the blade slashed over her shoulder, followed by “Ow, ow, ow” as the turret started pinging her hull until she dodged to the side and out into the street. An invisible field popped up around her, gripping the bullets as they came in and slowing them enough that the ship girl didn’t take any more than the first three shots. She turned her right side main gun and one of her turrets in the direction of the stationary target and fried off a battery of 6 ship shells in its vague direction while turning her head after blazermate and actively targeting her with the other turret and her rapidfire cannon, the Brachydios headed rifle roaring as it fired shot after shot in quick succession.

Rika’s ship shells didn’t need to hit too close to home to destroy the level 1 sentry. Seeing the random deviation projectiles come at him, the engineer hid behind his dispenser using it as a wall. This managed to save him from being damaged from Rika’s attack, but he was forced to rebuild both of his buildings. Blazermate meanwhile used her shield to start to block the rapid fire machine gun fire, much like a medabot would do against other medabots with SMGs or assault rifles. Rika’s bullets were a bit bigger though than the standard medabot rounds, which even with Blazermate healing herself and her shield couldn’t keep up with Rika’s damage output. But this built Blazermate’s Medaforce, and when her shield started to show some wear and tear, she took off into the air to dodge Rika’s shots as she healed herself back up. With her vantage point over the battlefield, Blazermate saw one of those red cracks that summoned a ghost around where the engineer was rebuilding his buildings, and kept that in mind.

“Alright both barrels for you, you ahhhh!” Rika cried out as she was interrupted from turning all her firepower at Blazermate now that the sentry was (temporarily) dealt with by the fact that no one had taught her about the dangers of standing in the middle of the road. Or in this case on a minecart track, the rightful user of which came whizzing up the central road and then careaning into the shipgirl upon whom it had snuck up on by virtue of all the racket she had been making.

The little cart smacked into her hips, causing her to topple ass backwards into it, at which point it kept rolling, more slowly now, towards stage right “Nooo I don’t want to go this way!” Rika yelled, before pushing herself upright enough to push herself out right next to the undertakers.

“I’m ok!” she informed her opponent as if the bot hadn't been responsible for her bullet and stab wounds. This didn't stop her from hopping floatlly up onto the roof of the undertakers either, and then shifting to use its sign as cover as she trained her guns on the engineer's sentry spot and raining down hell on him again while she looked out for Blazermate

The engineer took cover where he could from the ship fire, at least having the knowhow to hide although he took some damage from the splash of Rika’s fire. Blazermate meanwhile had been healing herself above Rika and managed to build some Overheal in the process, although still not enough for her shield or any of her abilities yet, even though she was close. As Rika was looking at the engineer, Blazermate looped around behind Rika, and using her shield as a battering ram, she swooped down to knock Rika off her perch and do some damage.

“Oof!” went the ship as she was knocked over her cover and fell down to the ground, smashing into a (thankfully empty) coffin that broke her fall a bit but left her with a butt full of splinters.She started up at the sky for a moment, a touch dazed, then shook her head and used her hullblades to jump herself back onto her feet before setting of at a run and then trying to jump first up onto the yellow building’s awning and then going higher, aiming for the bridge that crossed the street.

Blazermate having swooped back into the sky, moved to where her striker was as Rika repositioned to heal the damage he had taken so that he wouldn’t go down to her next volley and gain some more medaforce and shield in the process. With him all patched up, Blazermate zoomed back into the sky, healing herself and looking for Rika. At least finding Rika wouldn’t be too difficult thanks to Blazermate’s scan ability putting a glowing mark on her.

She wasn't exactly trying to hide either, the ship girl leaping up beside the horse repair sign, then atop the green flop haus’s roof and finally atop its rooftop water tank for maximum height. Of course she wasn't going to ever beat the flying blazermate when it came to altitude, but from here she had a good view of the whole stage from which to bring her guns to bare. And bring them to bear she did, finally training all 4 sets of guns she had and letting loose a barrage that almost blew her off the roof from the recoil.

”She acts like a God Emperor medabot! But without the heat seeking missiles or lasers…” Blazermate said Rika unloading on her in the sky, trying to shoot her out of it. Seeing this as a problem, Blazermate did aerial evasion moves to try to land on the ground in some cover. Her descent didn’t go too well as planned though as Rika managed to shoot her as she was landing, Blazermate being blasted away but thankfully into cover. Cover that wouldn’t last too long as Rika seemed to be having fun destroying all the buildings and walls and everything, so Blazermate did what healing she could to herself behind cover. She then made a flight to that crack in the ground she had seen earlier when she figured she could, the engineer having moved to a different spot on the battlefield to set up, and summoned the ghost that zoomed aggressively at Rika to explode in her face.

“Oh no you don’t” Rika shouted at the ghost as she hopped backwards off of her perch, slow field procking and delaying the ghost just enough that when it served after her it slammed right into the water tank. Rika’s self congratulatory cheer was swiftly ended when the ghost did as ghosts did and phased right through the barrel. Then it headbutter her descending foot while its body was still inside the barrel, scorching Rika’s lower leg. Her cry of pain was swiftly rended into a blub as the rest of the spook bomb had blasted the water tank to bits, showering Rika with water and splinters to add insult to injury.

“Bleh, waterlogged, so not good” she complained after the torrent was over, shaking her arms futilely for a moment before her combat focus kicked back in. The drenched shipgirl limped around the ruins of her ruined firing platform, aimed and then pulled the trigger on her main gun, only to immediately lose control as all out assault procked, the resulting five bursts of triple shots being sprayed widely across the town as she was literally floored by the unexpected recoil. Windows were smashed, awnics collapsed, and then a strey shell hit a loitering tnt barrel and there went the telegraph office up in smoke.

When it finally ended, about 3 rapidfire heartbeats after it started, Rika was laying flat on her back in a pool of rapidly evaporating water on top of the only unscared building in the town telling herself “Guuuuuuuuess I need to start counting my shots”

Blazermate couldn’t help but feel bad for the shipgirl. All that firepower but no discipline or knowhow to use it. Sort of like your standard God Emperor, ah, she was becoming more and more like one of those every moment Blazermate fought her. Still that didn’t make the shipgirl any less dangerous. Still with her being distracted by that ghost which did far, FAR more damage than Blazermate expected, both to Rika and the town (in part thanks to Rika blowing up a vast majority of the arena.) Blazermate was able to get enough charge for her projectile shield. With that charged, Blazermate started flying right at Rika to use it to zap the shipgirl and do loads of damage for once, waiting to deploy it when she got in range or Rika opened fire again.. So far it felt like Rika did more damage to herself than Blazermate did, and Blazermate kinda wanted to end the battle soon to save the shipgirl from more embarrassment.

“Oook?” Rika said, unsure as to why Blazer was coming at her without her blade out, but she expected a trap. So, while opening up with her 2 rigging turrets, she laid her own, hammering the building with her gauntlets to leave big splats of green goo, before giving 'em a spittoon and hopping back, leaving the front of the building priming to blow.

Blazermate seeing Rika leave her cover, decided to veer up and away before coming back down on her. Seeing as Rika acted just like a god emperor, although inexperienced, Blazermate wasn’t going to fall for the mine legs, not again anyway. You only make that mistake once. Although she did know of a medabot that made it many, many times, but that's besides the point. When she made her way to Rika, Rika’s little turrets started shooting at her. Now this was a smart move, well, it would’ve been, if Blazermate didn’t swoop down on her with her projectile shield, trying to zap her with it.

“Uh oh” Rika worried as Blazer simply waited out her goo bombs, which blasted apart the front of the top of her building with little gain, and then came in again now that the bomb spot was gone, deploying a shield that blocked her side turret suppressing fire, and which she was pretty clearly trying to ram her with. With the stage edge behind her there wasn't really anywhere Rika could go “Uh uh” except “Up!”

The ship girl hopped, cranking her gauntlet’s antigrav to the max to make her jump much floatier, before turning all of her guns down and blasting the building she had been on and using the recoil to launch herself up and over the shield at surprising speed with an accompanying whoop of delight from the flying boat.

Blazermate wasn’t expecting Rika to explosive jump with her guns like that, so while Blazermate had her shield deployed, Rika dodged it for the moment fairly well with the smaller scrap of the destroyed building being vaporized and forcing Blazermate to dodge the larger chunks that her shield didn’t vaporize. Although sadly for Rika, once Blazermate got back out of the wreckage Rika had caused, she was right back to trying to zap Rika with her shield, Rika noticing wherever Blazermate pointed her healing arm is where her big blue energy shield went.

Rika performed a stumble of a landing behind Blazer, turned back to face her, and was immediately presented with the same problem she had just escaped “So does that thing ever run out?” she asked, before blasting herself backwards and landing on her butt in the ruins of the telegraph office.

”At this rate you will be doing more damage to you than I do!” Blazermate said, her shield protecting her from Rika’s blastback as she used the same thing to try to escape Blazermate and her shield of ouch. A good thing too, as Rika has seen what this shield can do when it sits on something for too long. And with Rika evading it, the shield was starting to flicker. Seeing that, Blazermate still approached, but with her arm shield out seeing her energy shield starting to blink out of existence. All this while the engineer had managed to set up a fully functioning nest in the block over, sipping beer in his chair as his work was done for the moment and nothing was bothering him.

“Hey what’s that beeping sound?” Rika asked in response to this, curiosity getting the better of her as she followed the sound during a running retreat, punched open a door (guanteleted hands meant no opening them) and then being immediately blown back into the street by a hail of minigun fire.

Blazermate just wobbled in the air when she heard and saw what Rika had just done. ”OK, this girl REALLY needs a mentor. If this wasn’t practice she would’ve gotten herself probably killed.” Blazermate then zoomed above Rika as she retreated from the level 3 sentry and its gunfire and rockets and said. ”Don’t go TOWARDS beeping things! Those usually mean danger! It could’ve been a bomb you know!” Blazermate was clearly flabbergasted at the naivety of this girl.

“Why would you make a bomb beep? Or that gun beep? Doesn't that give them away?” Rika asked as she hauled herself up unsteadily of the dirt, her’retreat having beenmore of stumbling and then rolling away while the massive knockback of the sentry blew her away. Her wet clothes were a patchwork of holes and her skin a quilt of bruises, blood and oil, but she wasn’t going to lie down and give up.

“Ah this hurts” the ship girl whined

“Ok, but, hmm, how do I deal with that… oh. Its a static position, so of course all I need to do is” she squared up her guns, but rather than fire flicked to switches that caused a pair of torpedoes to drop down from beneath the gauntlets. And on to the sand. Where they just sat, uselessly whirring their propellers.

“...”

Rike looked down at the pair of bombs, very offended by their uselessness, and then just started shooting at Blazermate again with everything she had.

Blazermate could only look at Rika with a look of sadness in her eyes as the poor girl seemed to have almost no combat experience vs anything that wasn’t right in front of her and charged her head on. Something that Blazermate would need to fix at some point. But now was not that point as Rika, having dumbstruck Blazermate and herself with her torpedo shot, turned around and shot at Blazermate with all of her guns, catching the medabot off guard. Blazermate took quite a bit of damage from this attack, but used another ability of her suffering shield to let out a loud sonic screech to both escape Rika and stun her.

The shipgirl stumbled back trying and failing to protect her ears with her hands due to them being stuck in her gauntlets, which Blazermate used to get distance and cover to heal herself. Her uber was almost ready, but she also had her Medaforce beam. Although, seeing the engineer’s nest gave her an idea…. What would happen if she teleported on top of Rika? This area seemed to be safe, at least according to Mewtwo, so nothing bad should happen besides Rika flying off into the sunset, and the round being over… Yeah Blazermate figured she’d try that.

Rika meanwhile shook her head to recover. Then started to take a step forwards only for the beeping to remind her that doing so would put her in gun range again. “That really is silly” she said, and then thought about what to do about that, getting mad at her useless torpedoes again for a moment before having an idea.

She reached down, grabbed the two torpedoes with the jaws of her gauntlets, and then circled round the side of the building so it wouldn’t see her approaching. Though not exactly sneaky, Blaze was busy prepping her own plan, so the ship girl had free right to sneak up next to the door she had kicked in, and then proceeded to lay them down in the doorway and use a length of splintered wood to set them rolling over the floor and towards the sentry. After she heard the klonk of them hitting the wood she backed up a bit, and then blindfired her rapidfire gauntlet through the door, slowfield giving her just enough time to get her shots off before she got gunned/rocketed down, and setting off the torpedoes which exploded with the force of multiple grenades each, vaporizing the sentry and most of the room along with it.

Blazermate meanwhile had her full uber charge ready, and zoomed up behind Rika as she had just finished destroying the engineer’s sentry. Grabbing Rika from behind, Blazermate pushed her into the rest of the engineer’s nest. While she did manage to destroy the sentry, that wasn’t Blazermate’s goal as a pair of teleporters was not too far away. Since the engineer had no destination to set them up with, he just put them right next to each other in an attempt to get all of his buildings all built. Rika tried her best to retaliate and protest at Blazermate carrying her at the shining platforms, but Blazermate popped ubercharge the moment Rika did anything, and the shipgirl found herself helpless at the invincible medabot carrying her over to the teleporters.

Once they got there, Blazermate flew up and dropped Rika on top of one, flying down as she fell to take the other teleporter as Rika landed on the first one. The shipgirl had almost no time to react as Blazermate teleported and even if she managed to get a foot off the other teleporter, Blazermate appeared where Rika was, sending the shipgirl flying straight up through the roof into the stratosphere and ending the combat.



With that done, both parties appeared in a lobby, having a small bit of battle damage, but not nearly as much as they should’ve had going at each other like that. [color=0072bc]”OK so, we need to really get you combat ready. [”/color] was the first thing Blazermate said, healing Rika and herself up as she gestured for them both to leave for the next people.
”If I was more deceptive instead of being evasive, it wouldn’t end well for you. And trust me, there are a lot of deceptive medabots out there. Also we gotta work on your weaponry, while they worked in the sea, I don’t think we’ll be going back there at any point anytime soon so we need to get you some ground weapons. Maybe when we go to “japan” we might find a God Emperor medabot. Those parts would feel right at home to you.” Blazermate said.

“Deceptive? What do you mean by that?” Rika asked first, trying to focus on learning rather than getting dejected in response to this barrage of criticism.

”Uh, well… Like the sentry. If ya hear beeping, try to be cautious around it. Yeah sometimes it doesn’t make sense for bombs or guns to beep, but they do, and yeah.” Blazermate said. ”Also I suggest practicing with your guns and how much recoil they do. I saw you getting hurt a lot by your own thing than me. The explosive jumping was a good idea though, although did that hurt?”

“Ooook?” Rika replied, not really sure why they beeped, but filed it away for later anyway “Oh and that? Well, if I’m too close yeah, but mainly it's the stuff shooting out of the barrels that gave the lift. I guess if i could tough out the bombs too I could use those for extra hight? But, yeah, mainly it's pushing me back while I’m making myself all floaty that did it. Dunno why that happens, but it does so I thought why not use that, you know?”

”Well, make sure you figure out your recoil and all of that. Good to see you learned something though. Maybe the others will have some advice for you.” Blazermte said as she led Rika back to the main atrium.