”yeah yeah I’m coming! Bowser called up to Primrose as he, having been stopped from racing into a battle that was already over by Kamek, turned and started stomping all the way back up the crevasse’s slopes to meet up with her at the spot they’d meant to meet up, but which no one had been at.

Once he was back he let out a little breath of exertion from the climb, then a bigger one his eyes goggled at the sight of all the stuff they had acquired.

”Oh. Wow. You two did waaaaaay better than we did huh?” he had to admit after a few moments, embarrassedly scratching the back of his head. It was certainly better than the bundle of torches they had gotten, that was for sure.

”It… certainly seems that way Kamek, who had flown back up along with his king, was forced to agree.

Oh and, my apologies for running off. Some of the others headed down early and got into a spot of trouble. Not to worry though, it all has been resolved without any death or injury, and now we seem to have acquired a small insect knight friend as a result of their, ah, spirited heroics” He then explained, while Bowser took on the vast bulk of the spare equipment, grumbling a little bit about having to act as a pack mule, but infinitely more suited to that task than the two smaller humans or the even smaller magikoopa.

After that, they headed back down a second time, met up with Rika and Jr just beyond the bandit barge (the prince hauling his car above his head due to not wanting to fly around in it in its busted up state) and headed down. Whether the (formerly) wounded fellow on the roof would follow after to give the thanks Jr had demanded, well that was all up to him.

Once at the bottom, the troop (sans Kamek who was just going to fly) piled onto the wooden platform along with the others. Bowser and Rika both did what they could to reduce their weight, the king using his shadow magic to go down to his smallest size, while the ship girl ramped up her antigrav to the point that it was as if she was standing upon the moon.

Jr made no such concessions, instead plonking down his clown car to take up space, pulling out his bright yellow GDI tool case and then getting to work trying to patch the thing up after it had taken a whole load of bullets and an entire harpoon to the casing.

As they descended, Bowser dumped the load of gear on the platform for people to pick though while they rode down. The troops’ own supplies, and anything that was left over after, was shrunken down by Kamek, and then stuffed into Jr’s car’s hammerspace glove box for safe keeping.

The elevator trundled its way down rather slowly, meaning that even after the gear sorting was done there was still a long way to go. Soon enough the troop lapsed into air-filling conversation, with Bowser and Rika taking a load off while Kamek followed the progress of the elevator down upon his broom and Jr tinkered away, quietly cursing the hat kid for running off with his quick fixing mallet. As a result they were taken quite by surprise by the appearance of one crazy sunchild appearing on the rope of their transportation.

”How many of you jerks are there!” Jr yelled as he, along with the other three platform riders, scrambled to their feet to dodge/block the incoming show of sparks. Bowser ducked down and blacked them with his shell, Rika’s sunglasses flashed as the ones around her slowed enough to be avoided by some quick footwork and finally jr just ended up taking more hits on his clown-car as he lifted it over his head as a shield.

Then the floor fell away below them due to the Consul’s destruction of public infrastructure, sending everyone plummeting down into the dark.

Yet they were not helpless.

”Hold on, I’ve got you kids!” Bowser called out as he used his shell mounted water cannons to adjust his fall, catching Rika and Jr in one arm, and then boosting over to the wall of the pit they were plummeting down, cat clawed hand reaching out to meet it. A horrific sound echoed, 10 times worse than chalk on a blackboard, as Bowser’s claw started ripping through the stone and leaving a trailing cat scratch as he ever so slowly slowed their fall.

Suddenly, a shower of projectiles slammed into Bowser’s back as he sought to stall his downward momentum, although the thick shell dulled their impact. Up above, still clutching the now-severed rope that now dangled freely in the Chasm’s center, the Consul tilted his head. “Stubborn, huh? Like a big ol’ turd stuck in the bowl, you just don’t wanna go down.” He adjusted his arm, pointing a finger gun at the stone around Bowser rather than the armored Koopa himself, and let rip. A spray of magic bullets began to pummel the rock, destroying Bowser’s handhold so that his own weight would carry him down. “If you’re a king, I guess that makes this a royal flush, heeheeheehee!”

”Gaaaaaaah you tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerp” Bowser yelled out as he was blasted away from the ledge and then fell. The king trying to use more water jets to correct his fall, but the blast had sent him spinning, and the Koopa was no cosmonaut, his wild blasts turning his fall from a drop into a pinballing ricochet, the king shielding the youths in his grip as he himself went crashing from side to side of the tunnel uncontrollably to the tune of ”OOf! Ow! Ouch!” .

That left only one member of the Troop to counter the minor menace’s ploy and it was the oldest among them.

”Hold on! I’m coming!” Kamek called out as he dived down, broom handles stabbing towards the depths as his robes fluttered around him. Around him descended his indistinguishable doppelgangers and then, with a wave of his (and their) wands, they were joined by a squad of toadies who, flying upside down, attempted to catch up with and then gradually slow the falling heroes and villains.

Once Bowser fell, the Consul relaxed with a sigh. “Too easy,” he complained. “Maybe S was crying wolf again, after all. Good thing I didn’t get my hopes up.” He looked up, however, which a miniature fleet of Toadies and clones whizzed past him to try and rescue the fallen. “Trying to ruin the moment, huh? What, not dramatic enough for you?” Smirking, F extended his hands downward, creating a picture frame around the scene with his thumbs and index fingers that he peered through with a bright red right eye. “Of course it’d be even better if they…” He then raised his right hand and snapped his fingers with a yellow spark.

Just as they reached out to grab hold of the Troop members, the Toadies, Kamek clones, and Kamek himself all blipped back up the Chasm. It was instantaneous and unceremonious, with only a slight chime noise before their hands closed around nothing. Down below, the other heroes continued to fall disappearing into the darkness far beyond reach. Overhead, more mocking laughter broke out. “Slipped through your fingers, heeheehee!”

”Wh-what…” Kamek stammered as from his perspective the team teleported away from him, at least until he glanced back to the source of the taunting and found it ever so close. Disorientated and aghast at his failure the mage did the only thing that could counter the building despair.

He got mad.

The mage turned on the Consul and retorted with an ever so eloquent ”Die!” as he raised his wand up and magic flared. Dark portals opened around the mage, disgorging a squad of Jr clones, which joined the toadies in body charging the tiny terror. As the mini horde of magical constructs charged the mage pulled out a stereotypical magician’s wand and gave it a wave, causing 5 rings of flaming rabbit skulls to form in a cage around his foe as his doppelgangers copied his move.

“Hah!” Barely moving, the Consul teleported in a flash of purple sparks, leaving the severed rope behind. He reappeared by one of the Chasm walls and shot three bundles of thorny vines from his back, embedding them into the stone to keep him there. The earth continued to rumble, however, and after another second their ends burst from the rock again to surround the Consul like giant tentacles. They swatted away the mindless minions that charged him as Consul hung between them. “Leaving you friends to die, huh? Or did you know about the flowers down there? Either way, that’s actually kinda interesting.” He held his fingers up, pinched close together with only a slight space between them. “Just the tiniest, little bit, anyhow.”

”Flowers?” Kamek asked, coming out of the red haze he’d been in at this news that, if this person had let that slip and wasn’t just messing with him, his family, friends, and allies were going to be ok.

As for attacking rather than running again, he’d mostly acted on instinct fury, though a little part of him had had a sensible reason, one that he explained to the Consul while winding up his next attack ”I can’t help them if you’ll just bring me back again can I? So you have to go down!”

“...You’re serious?” The Consul clapped his hands together, hooting with laughter. “Now that’s funny! Got a deathwish, or something? I mean, not that I mind swatting you here and now. It just won’t be any fun. Amuse me for thirty seconds, and I might even let you live.”



“You can call me F,” he said as he swirled a hand in a spinning motion, creating a ring of magic bullets above his head like a halo. “Let’s kill ourselves some time, eh?”

”F? What a coincidence, that will be the grade I’ll give you in evil after this battle is over, child” Kamek taunted with five voices in return before he and his clones scattered into evasive action. As they flew, they waved the mages’ original wand and sent out bursts of flame using the Fire Materia embedded in the end of it, using the simple logic of fire beats plant for this opening gambit.

In reply F extended his fists, surrounded by their own rings of bullets, and opened fire. As if fired by two gatling guns, a fusillade of the glowing projectiles rained down. Most missed, but there seemed to be no end to them, and with the sheer speed plus quantity it would only be a matter of time before the clones got ripped up, one by one. As the fireballs came in, the giant vines slapped them away from F, scattering the flame. What damage they took the Consul didn’t seem to mind, and their thrashing around ensured that any ignition quickly got blown out. “Like it’d be that easy,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. His right eye flashed red again, focused on the Kamek with the robes of the original color. “Can’t call this a battle if you’re just gonna buzz around, is it?” He ceased fire to make a flicking motion with his hand, which caused all three vines to suddenly shoot forward toward the real Kamek in quick succession, wide as subway tunnels.

”Oh crumbs” the mage said, before each of the vines smashing forth in turn, before leaving a gray cloud in their wake as they withdrew back to the Chasm wall.

Then from on high there came a call of ”Sorry to rain on your parade” as Kamek, surrounded by a dissipating puff of smoke that was the byproduct of his own teleportation, brandished a crimson rod and summoned a bloody raincloud, right above where F had rooted themselves, from which drops of corrupt ichor raining down.

“Tch.” Eye flashing red again, F pulled himself into the stone wall to dodge the attack, traveling through the burrowed tunnel left behind by his vines’ activity. A moment later he emerged through one of the three exit holes, but this time rather than anchor himself with his vines he used them to crawl across the wall like the legs of a spider. He opened fire again while moving, trying to shoot Kamek down.

Time spent tunneling was time Kamek used to put away his rod and summon more clones, each one the same color as him such that who was the real one was indistinguishable

”I see a little roach. Let’s squash it!” the Kamek squad taunted together as they moved to evade with varying success, all of them raising their wands and summoning a series of massive blue glowing fists ever so close to the skittering F. Each one smashed down in quick succession, sending stone shards flying and leaving craters when they impacted with the cave wall, the mage burning a hefty amount of mana to do so.

The consul opened his fists, causing his next projectiles to appear as an array before his palm rather than a ring around his wrist. These bullets burst forth like shotgun blasts to fight against the fists, although the spread of shots didn’t lose power as they traveled. As he used the originals to stay on the move from the fists, more vines erupted from his back, quickly growing in size to the Sequoia-esque thickness of the others. While his spread shots riddled his foes, the vines snaked through the air to swat the Kameks from the sky.

Kamek hissed with pain as the magic bullets clipped his body, each one only stinging individually but the sheer number of shots where taking a toll, the illusions dissipating again under the barrage while the mage himself merely hurt. In contrast to those where a. his own frustrating inability to land a solid hit on F, and b, the vines F was using, which would pulp him if they hit.

So when they started to target him rather than swatting at clones the mage teleported to get some distance again. He reappeared in the shadows of one of the caves, deployed some strikers, and then teleported again into another's shadows, making appear, when he drifted out of it, as if he’d not made that detour.

At this second offshoot he summoned a pair of Rika clones to unleash a retaliatory barrage of shell and gunfire upon the scuttling F to further draw his attention away from the two stealthy snipers lining up their shots.

The mage had disappeared again. Once F arrived at his destination, he began to paint copious amounts of bullets in the air. “More feeble tricks,” he sighed, rolling his eyes. He pounded his fist and palm together his head, creating a brilliant rupture that expanded into a field of outer space around him that sparkled with stars. Then the comets burst forth, flying through the air to track Kamek down wherever he’d wandered off to. They suddenly changed direction midair, announcing where the sorcerer had gone. No sooner did Kamek summon the Rika clones than their position received a deluge of explosive starlight. “I’m losing interest fast, old timer,” the Consul groaned. “Come on out and…play.” He snapped his fingers.

The Strikers vanished as if they never existed. Kamek himself blipped directly into the center of a spherical field of floating bullets, which then collapsed inward.

”What?” the once again confused Kamek started, only to cry out ”Gah,” in pain as he made the snap decision to fly though the wall before it completely collapsed, trading pain of some shots vs the certain death of being hit by them all.

”Grrr, fine, then you shall have my mightiest trick!” the mage declared, before pulling a single Wisp from the air.

And then pressing his wand to its body and chanting

”Boil and bubble
Here comes trouble…!”

“Right you are!” A barrage of star bullets struck him square in the chest. F shook his head, incredulous. “...What, did you think I’d just wait for you to finish?” He extended his armored hand, only for it to tear apart as a big mitt of twisted vines grew out to seize Kamek before he could fall. With his arms and wand pinned, F brought him closer, putting his mask in the old sorcerer’s face. “Killing you would be the easiest thing in the world, you know. But hey, you did last thirty seconds. So consider me ‘entertained’. Next time, bring your A-game, will ya? And all your little pals too, ‘cause you’ll need ‘em. Until then…”

He tossed Kamek into the air, and with his oversized hand flicked him away. “...Enjoy the Underground!”

---

Down down, deep down below where the mage had tried and failed to take on the tyke alone, the seekers had landed harmlessly on a patch of flowers, just as F had said they would.

”UUUUUUURGH, My head. And arms. And legs. And everything” Bower complained, as he slowly started to sit up, only to pause when a ”wowowowow” as Jr, who was laying on his chest, started to fall off.

”Wow wow I gotcha” the king said as he reached out and caught his boy before he could fall onto the …. Flower patch? That was odd, he thought, and then startled as there was a little yelp as Rika, who he had not realized was also in trouble until it was too late, fell off of his shell and hit the ground with a light rustle.

The king bolted upright, still holding his son close and asked ”Wow, are you ok?” to which the ship girl gave an unhelpful ”Mmm” sound in response, before she also sat up, shook her head and realized ”I. Huh. yeah. But… how? Didn’t we fall super far? It felt like that pit was practically bottomless. Until it wasn’t I mean“

That was the question, one that caused them all to look up into the darkness, and yet they found no answers there. For a few seconds. Then the form of Kamek came fluttering down and impacted with the flower bed upon which he bounced rather than went splat, as if it was a bed made of mattresses rather than one made up of plants. That would have provided the answer to the question the troop had been wondering about … if they hadn’t all been too panicked about the blasted state the mage was in to care about said question any more.

”Ka””me””k!” came their triple cry as they rushed over to his side. They huddled around the mage, who was out like a light and covered in wounds.

Bowser immediately called on Heel, the rabbit supporter, to stabilize the mage, but that wasn’t enough to do more than keep him from fading out.

”I can fix this, I can fix this!” Jr declared in a half panic, searching desperately around for his paintbrush and then spotting it embedded, handle first, in the ground near the edge of the meadow they had landed in. It must have gotten knocked out of his car, he reasoned (said device had been allowed to just freefall after Bowser had grabbed him and was laying elsewhere in the clearing).

Unfortunately, before he could go grab it, the welcoming committee arrived, as the darkness divulged a swarm of freakish horrors that came cavolcading into the flower field, maring its beauty with their mere presence. Not that the troop, unlike Sectonia, actually cared about the aesthetics. What the problem for them (barring the obvious threat of injury and death) was that, as the circus of horrors came storming in, they ran past the embedded paintbrush, making retrieving it far more complicated than walking over.

”Alright, which one of you weirdos wants to die at the fist of the Koopa King!” Bowser roared, stepping forwards ahead of the youngsters despite his body being pretty beat up as a result of his pingponing from wall to wall during their fall.

In response to his taunt an absurd monster that looked exactly like a cooked turky stuffed with skulls and snakes, and wielding a knife and fork, charged them while letting out cry that sounded a bit like what a turkey’s gobble would sound life it if had been marinated in sulfuric acid for a million years, baked in the fires of hell and then bass boosted beyond any reasonable amount.

Despite this it still seemed was kinda silly, right up until Rika hopped out from behind Bowser and opened fire, prompting the Turkey to return fire in turn, flaming screaming skulls soaring forth from the slit in its gut that collide with the heavier shells mid air, leaving only the bullets to rake its vital-less body in-effectively.

Then it retaliated by spewing a shower of snakes out of its neck hole, the serpents showering down into the grass before them and then swarming forwards, hissing and baring their fangs.

”Ha ha, is that it? Get Cooked!” Bowser retorted to this, crouching down to bring his maw low and then letting out a torrent of firebreath. It ripped through the snakes (and the pretty flowers) lighting all of them aflame… and sending toxic green smoke billowing up from the snake’s funeral pyre.

The king coughed and backed up, while Rika and Jr (who was carrying Kamek’s dazed body) both quickly hurried to the side to get clear as the towering undead turkey came storming forwards through the toxic cloud, the pre-cooked meal ignoring the lingering flames as it raised its cutlery to stab down into the poisoned king eyes.

Before it could strike however a heavy fist slammed into its side, Rika, her mouth sealed tight and nose furrowed inside her not at all airtight helm, using her new thruster module to do a rocket powered punch right to the thing’s side. The monster, big as Bowser, was not hurt or distributed too badly, but it did knock off its aim just enough that the cutlery hit Bowser in an armored spot rather than his vulnerable eyes.

That still stung like hell however, the knife and fork leaving a set of 1 and two puncture wounds in the king’s shoulder and cheek respectively.

The king stumbled backwards, crying out in pain, but at least that got him out of the gas enough to breathe fresh air. It didn't cure the poison however, and so the King’s retaliation was practically blind, though fortunately the turkey was big enough that firing up the jets of his kinetic strike module and blindly swinging still resulted in him landing a punishing blow that showed up Rika’s own punch up by a fair margin.

Or showed it up until the secondary explosion caused by the Brachydios goo her punch had left behind went off, which rocked it with a third strike, this one blowing a gash in its side. Which more snakes spilled out of.

”Uuuurgh” Bowser complained as Rika backed off out of the stinging poison smoke, pursued by serpents.

”Nonono. Shoo!” She shouted at them, racking the swarm with gunfire that was only moderately effective at thinning their numbers. The rest came on, lunging at her legs, and though some fell to her kicks and hull blade slashes a few snuck through and gnashed at the girl's flesh … only to find it was graded to be resistant to anti ship (girl) weapons. Sharp fangs broke on or only lightly scratched her skin, the serpents finding themselves unable to inflict their deadly venom.

Actually this was kind of a problem everywhere they looked, as the rest of the troop all had touch scales that were ever so difficult to chomp through. So the snakes did the logical things:

Some tossed themselves into the still simmering grass fire to make yet more airborne gas, serpents slithering forth while burning alive to spread the cloud of poison.

Others acted as constrictors, wrapping around Rika and Bower’s legs to bind them and stumble their movements. Which became quite problematic when the Turkey backed off into the toxic cloud for a moment, and then sent screaming flaming skulls firing up into the air from its neck gap, which swirled around its absent head for a few moments before shrieking down to bombard the king and ship-girl.

Bowser instinctively ducked down, the shower of skulls hammering his shell. Then he jerked back upright with several snakes now biting onto his face or grappling his arms. Rika meanwhile used her sunglasses to slow the shots, but the grapple on her legs meant she had to try and counter battery the incoming skulls instead of dodging out of the way.

The glasses massively increased the success rate of this, but one still slipped through and that was enough, the burning head smashing into her own one and causing the stunned girl to fall into the flowers again, only this time her soft landing was followed up by being swarmed by snakes. The fact that she was wearing a helmet prevented them from biting her softer eyes, lips, or nose, but they could still grapple her arms and, worse, her neck. The ship girl began choking as her windpipe was constricted, and her cumbsy gauntleted hands were unable to pull off the wretched serpents.

Things were looking a touch grim to say the least, at least until a cry of ”I got it!” came from beyond their battle. There, the koopa prince could be found, still holding their hurt mage over one shoulder and raising his paintbrush triumphantly in the other, the boy having artfully dodged though all the others fighting to retrieve the implement.

The first thing he did was point it at Kamek and cast ”Cure!” to heal him back to consciousness. The second thing he did was look back and see the farce of a fight he’d left behind.

”Oh jeez. That is one dangerous turkey” he noted, to which Kamek, coming to, groaned in confused agreement upon seeing the scene out of hell. Possibly the ring of gluttony specifically, which fit Bowser quite well.

It was time for the boy to step back into the fray. He used the butt of his staff to flick one of the pokeballs strapped to a bandoleer on his chest free, batted it up in the air in a tennis serve and then smacked it in the direction of the fight using the end of his brush.

”Go Dazzle! Use Icy Wind to blow that gas away!” he commanded, as the ball split open and released Dazzle the Poppilo into the fray.

“Pop pohhhhh” the mon chimed out as it blew up several bubbles in quick succession, tossing each one up to burst and let for a gush of freezing cold air that swept through the gas cloud, picking it up and carrying it away. Then the boy had him use water gun to put out the fires, preventing any more gas from spreading, before he called the mon back to his pokeball before the snakes could get that juicy soft bodied target.

With the gas free and unable to re-poison his papa, Jr pointed his wand forwards and cast ”Esuna” to free him from the toxins coursing through his body. Just in time too, as the king was pulling the last of the snakes off of his face when the turkey came at him again.

”Haha, oh no you don’t” the cured king cried out, flicking on his mecha mit’s shield to block a cutlery strike, before deploying his canons over his shoulders and point blank blasting the titanic turkey with torrents of water to stager it. He was about to smash it with the kinetic strike module again when the monster repaid him in kind, a shotgun blast of snakes and skulls blasting out of its belly and into his own, causing him too to stagger back.

They faced off for a heartbeat… and then both roared with fury and charged each other again.

As Bowser and the big bird duked it out Rika, struggled to rise, serpents swarming over her, gauntlets preventing her from reaching her own body … until she fumbled the latch jr had installed and ripped an arm free from its old prison, hand gripped the snake around her neck and tearing it free. She gasped, lungs filling with fresh air rather than deadly gas thanks to Dazzle’s icy wind, and the rush of oxygen to her brain let her think straight and gave her a moment of inspiration.

A moment later the ship girl was blasting into the air, trailing one of her gauntlets as she used her back mounted thrusters to burst out from the swarm. Then cannons roared as she fired her rigging’s turrets in two different directions, causing her to spin in the air, shedding serpents that were clinging to her body in the process.

Yet the ground was still swarming with them as they poured out of the holes turkey’s body seemingly without end. Which is where the troop’s own swarms came into play. From atop Jr’s shoulder, Kamek tiredly raised his wand and summoned forth a horde of Dry Bones, while Bowser called out for ”Marie!” to summon the former skullgirl and his striker. The maid arose, looked at the mess with contempt and then summoned skeletal soldiers to battle the snakes, and a barrage of skulls of her own to meet the turkey’s head on (literally).

Undead humans and Koopas swarmed forth into the battlefield, and began stamping the snakes wherever they found them, their bony bodies entirely immune to anything the serpants could do to stop them.

Rika, then, floated down among them after correcting her spin, and was only lightly accosted by snakes as she slipped a hand back into her other gauntlet and took in the situation. Jr, carrying Kamek, was still re-approaching, while Bowser was duking it out with the Turkey itself. He was winning, but the lack of vitals was making it hard to actually put the undead thanksgiving dinner down. Worse, all it would take was one knife or fork stab getting through his guard and hitting the eyes it was aiming for for this battle to become costly, and by the looks of the scratches on Bowser’s face scales, it had gotten awfully close more than once.

Time to end this quickly.

The ship girl ran forwards towards them, and shouted ”Toss me up!” at a set of skeletal troopers in the way. Marie herself raised an eyebrow at this from where she was plugging one of the turkey’s wounds with a vacuum cleaner to see if sucking out its insides worked (it did not, there seemed to be zero end to its stuffing), and then had her minions do as was asked.

They put their hands together and held them low, and when the ship girl stepped a foot on their palms they tossed her skywards in a team jump.

Rika soared up, titted herself in the air a bit to angle her fall towards the turkey, and then fired up both her maneuvering thrusters and her rigging cannons, blasting them up into the air and sending herself shooting down like a comet, canon gauntlet holding the top of the rifle one.

Chainsaw bayonet wiring.

The mechanized blade caught the back of the Turkey, and the force of her fall turned the buzzling blade into a guillotine that scythed down through its cooked flesh, tearing its back entirely apart … and sending its stuffing spraying out towards Rika, who shrieked in alarm as the bottomless pit of death spilled forth.

She had a heartbeat to react, and only because her sunglasses counted the mass of snakes and skulls as projectiles. Legs shaking from catching her own landing, she was sure she was about to risk it all on a point blank barrage when Marie, who had entirely seen this coming due to her unsuccessful attempt to drain the turkey, summoned a wall of skeletons between the ship girl and the snake wave.

”I… Thank you” she gasped, to which the skullgirl simply shrugged.

Beyond the wall, Bowser punched the somehow still alive turkey in the gut to get some space and then pulled out a massive pair of shears that he was wearing on his belt like a sword. The blades snicked open and were then driven down on the monster’s front and then squeezed shut, scything though the string holding it’s turkey breast. The king ignored the wave of stuffing that spilled out in response in order to drive his cutting implement down again, and the second snip slicing through its waist as well, tip of the shears meeting the trailing edge of Ricka’s cut when they met, allowing Bowser to fully complete Rika’s bisection/

This caused it to literally explode, whatever the infinite source of serpents and skulls inside it briefly surging in response to the lack of continent, and then burning itself out a heartbeat later as the twin sides of the turkey vaporized into ash, and left its spirit on the floor. This quite fortunately took the sea of snakes with it as they too disintegrated upon the death of their creator, the serpents having been an inherent part of its construction.

With the beat finally dead Bowser, face cut up and body ravaged by the fall and the, fortunately now gone, poison, sunk to the floor with a gasp, himself desperately in need of healing.

Fortunately that was on the way, jr rushing in to rejoin the group half a moment later and casting ”Medica” to heal everyone in the surrounding 15 foot radius. Including the flowers, who’s beauty was touchingly restored as the healing magic washed over all the victims of their battle, and also over anyone else who gathered up with them after it.

Given that the monsters had been quite the toughies, it was likely he might have his work kinda cut out for him.

It was a long way down.

One moment, the team had begun their decent unto the abyss that was the Under. Mewo appeared out of her hiding space at one point and followed everyone to the entrance, soon being lifted up and carried in Omori's arms. For how slow the platform was, it gave Omori a bit of time to get to know the Knight. Somehow. The pale bug was less of a talkative type than he was, only using body language and gestures to communicate. Though it was clear that they had joined for a reason. And with them free, the boy could inform them about how the new world actually worked.

What he told them was a grave issue, in truth. Could there truely be a light stronger than she? She, who brought Hallownest to it's grave because she didn't want to be forgotten? Not to mention the possibility of her being controled by this "Galeem". Empowered by it even. This can not do. Neither Hornet or the rest of their siblings deserved being reduced to puppets, by any god of tainted light.

That only ment their duty has gotten far more complicated. But they'll both fall in due time. Galeem and the Radiance.

And speaking of complications...

"You're kidding me-" Was all Omori could say as another masked figure appeared to make their life hard. Though something more jarring was that from a cursitory glance, this guy had to be around his age! Another kid, what kind of group is this?! The duo took to the evasive from F's bullet hell, the monochrome youth attempting to fire back a couple of shots, but the initial wave was only a distraction.

The platform gave way.

And they all. Fell. Down.

...

..

Omori soon stirred awake, partly due to the feeling of someone poking his cheek. He could gradually make out the faces of Mewo and the Knight peering down at him. The latter tilted their head as if asking if he was alright, and he gently waved them away. "I'm fine." Omori said. Once he sat up, the Knight stepped away to wake everyone else up who hadn't already woken up themselves. He glanced up to the chasm they had fell through, then down to the bed of flowers they had landed in.

This had to be intentional. Someone must've planted these to prevent any fatal injuries. He wouldn't have time to mull over why though. At Nadia's urgency, Omori snapped his head towards the darkness, and the Knight picked up the pace with the Feral in waking everyone up.

Say, were monsters like these okay to kill? Cause these did not look reasonable. At all. Omori quickly got back on his feet and looked over the group of uncanny creatures. The big one in particular, Puzz, caught his attention, and he drew out his machete and flintlock. The Knight soon returned next to him and readied their nail. As much as the boy felt sore from the last fight, they didn't have much options left here.

"Any way you wanna deal with that thing?" Omori asked them. The Knight gave no answer. Both sides clashed, and the duo charged at Puzz.

Ah, so the prey decided to come to it. How delightful. Pieces of Puzz began to fly out of it's body, and it fired a volly of them at Omori and the Knight. While the nimbler latter narrowly avoided the projectiles, the boy wasn't as lucky. Omori stumbled as he was struck, the pieces that flew past them soon constructing a wall separating them from the rest of the struggle. No way out now. The boy pointed his blade at Puzz and used Sad Poem to slow it down, allowing the Knight the first strike against the monster.

The puzzle pieces that spilled from Puzz's shape ceased movement in mid air, soon flying back to knock the insect away with a disembodied limb. Omori quickly took his turn to attack. He slashed at Puzz's other limb, before firing his gun at it's chest. Unfortunately, a wall of puzzle pieces had taken the blow for it. The boy clicked his tongue in distain. There had to be a way to kill this thing! Were there any weak points he could aim for?

On the Knight's side, they were busy dealing with the constructions made from Puzz's leftovers. Asides from the limbs, they connected to form fragmented walls and smaller versions of itself to crush and tear into the two fighters. Omori managed to evade one such wall from crashing into him, only to have his arm caught between the teeth of a mini Puzz. And on the Knight's shell a crack began to form when the larger Puzz managed to drop a surface of platforms onto them as they attempted to go help him.

Omori stabbed his weapon in where he hoped the mini Puzz's skull was, and it released his arm with a distorted screech. He struck at it's head again and fired a round from his flintlock to make sure it stayed down. Didn't seem like the debuff affected it's summons. They'll have to finish this fast. Omori used Sad Poem on Puzz one last time, then charged in with the Knight in tow to break it down to their height.

Slash, slash, bang, slash, stab, slash, slash bang. Just a bit more! Once Omori had reloaded his flintlock and Puzz's head was in range, he fired point blank, eclipsing it's face in a small explosion. It reeled back in pain, and the Knight used the window to run up and finish it off in a flury of slashes. Puzz collapsed into a heap of puzzle pieces, along with the puzzle wall.

Omori breathed a sigh of relief, and looked over to the Knight. "You okay?" He asked. They nodded. Focusing the gathered SOUL into mending their mask. They were going to walk back to the others, but stopped to glance back at the boy. Or rather, the bite wound from the mini Puzz. He noticed this, and waved it off. "This is nothing." At this rate, he thought. It felt strange, the amount of wounds he has been taking. Not to mention he'd have to mend the holes in his clothes at some point. But with one monster down, the two went back to the rest of the team.

Primrose and Therion were glad to give away the bulk of the equipment, especially the heavier or more awkwardly shaped items. For themselves they kept only the essentials: rations, canteens, and the like. Some extra rope joined Therion's own in the thief's inventory, as well as the compass and a pickaxe - never knew when that would come in handy. They both took a lantern, for as useful as Therion found the headlamp he also found that it was too awkward to wear in combination with his feline ears. Considering most of this group of Seekers featured members with horns, animal ears, or straight up in-human skull shapes the helmet was summarily plopped onto Omori's head once the stragglers caught up with the rest of the team.

After traveling down a few levels, the next step was to take a lift to the bottom of the Chasm. Ms. Fortune had been kind (or crazy) enough to test the platform for them before the rest of the Seekers piled on. It seemed safe enough - after all it must have been used to bring miners and their equipment up and down plenty of times. However, if the tense expression and clenched jaw on Therion's face was anything to go by, he was skeptical and uncomfortable with the ride. He would have preferred to walk the entire way down had their been paths that went that deep. While Primrose was content to listen in on the scattered conversations and explanation of what had gone on with the thugs from the Barge (and for her part, Primrose didn't mention Confessor Jiji. Only once she confirmed that Jiji's power was the real deal would she let anyone know), Therion was unable to relax. He had his arms folded under his poncho, his head tipped up as he avoided looking down into the Chasm's depths, his ears and other senses on high alert. So when the malicious stranger appeared, his ears swiveled and his attention snapped to him. Seeing the armored person taking hold of the rope supporting the lift, Therion's heart clenched and his tail puffed out.

"He's going to cut the rope!"

Because what else would someone like that do, especially after the corny one-liner?

Primrose jumped into action, preparing to fend the Consul off. She didn't know how long they had to go before reaching the bottom of the pit, but she didn't want to take the chance that a fall wouldn't be lethal. She raised an arm, intending to use a spell when she hesitated. Would she be risking damage to the rope herself if she used magic? Using pyromancy definitely would be, she wasn't sure about her dark magic - but she didn't get the chance to think on it anymore as the stranger summoned his light storm.

"Bastard," she cursed, using the Devout Beads to counter as many shots as possible - though it helped keep some of the Seekers from harm, it did little to stop the Consul's actual plan. He succeeded in blasting through their lifeline, and the wooden platform under their feet fell away.

A feeling of nausea rose through the dancer, the rush of air passing them by filling her ears and muting the screams of her allies - and her own scream, ripped from her throat once her mind caught up with her body. She tried to focus, knowing that someway they could get out of this. Couldn't they? She could, at least, save herself and another with the scarf if she timed it right.

Therion had gone pale, finding that the glider he'd had during the trek up Split Mountain was ripped through with holes from the Consul's light barrage and rendered useless.

No. No way. I can't believe this is happening again! he thought to himself. Just how many times in his life was he going to plummet from high places? It really wasn't fair in his opinion. Therion's expression hardened, his brain making the difficult shift from fear to survival. No glider and no Raz to save him now, so he had to look for other options. Plenty of the group had flight options, from magic to psychic abilities - but he couldn't rely on them.

Unfortunately, neither Primrose nor Therion succeeded in their plans. His grappling hook scrabbled along the stone walls, finding no purchase on the surprisingly smooth rock. The dancer took hold of his hand and activated her flotation, but as the others fell down they could see that there was a long, long way to go. Whatever spell was weaved into Primrose's scarf did not last forever, and so once the last sigil disappeared until the next recharge the duo resumed their fall.



The Travelers woke up at the bottom of the Chasm, Primrose with a start and Therion with a gasping cough. The latter bolted upright, dragging his hands over his chest and legs. No broken bones. No blood. Nothing impaled. He lifted a shaky hand to his face, pressing it against the scarred side. It was the same as ever, though it took him a moment to remember why his hair was a little shorter. I'm alive, he thought.

"Holy hell," he breathed, pushing himself up to his feet and fighting the urge to puke. At the same time Primrose also stood up, casting her gaze around at the ruins, the flowers, and the cavern's ceiling that featured the lengthy hole they'd fallen through.

"...some places seem to have a mind or a spirit of their own," she said, looking over at Ms. Fortune and Rika. The question they posed didn't call for an answer really, but Primrose thought on it anyway, recalling how Split Mountain itself had given the Seekers the strength needed to complete the climb. "Perhaps the borehole here saved us itself, who's to say."

Sure it was an outlandish theory, but given the state of the world they were currently in? Maybe it wasn't so far-fetched. A late arrival in the form of Kamek put forth a new theory that the flower bed they'd all landed on was just very, very strong and cushiony though. While the Troop moved to tend to their elder, Primrose made to offer her healing flame - but soon found that the Seekers weren't alone down here.

Alerted to the monsters' presence, the group's attention moved to the darkness in front of them. Therion held out his hand and snapped his fingers, a reflex more than anything. When a spark of fire bloomed showing that his magic had returned to him it took the thief by surprise, but still he cast it in the direction he could hear lumbering footsteps. The flame illuminated grotesque horrors shambling towards them, making Primrose recoil at the sight. By the time the monsters got close enough for the meager amount of sunlight to reveal them, both of the Travelers had drawn their weapons.

"What a warm welcome." Primrose had shifted slightly to give herself room to dance, but unfortunately the battle began before she could perform more than a couple of steps. It started with a blast of blue-green fire headed for Sectonia, and continued with the rotund junicorn taking aim at the closest targets.

There was a distinct whooshing noise as the red horn cleaved through the air. The projectile was hard to miss, so it crashed into the ground between Primrose and Therion as they separated to evade it. The horn sparked, not quite exploding but bursting into volatile pieces. Another horn shifted into place on the junicorn's body, and it positioned itself to take aim again.

At that point the Travelers were on the move. Therion dashed in on the junicorn's flank, while Primrose intended to move in on it's other side. She sprinted toward it, vision tunneling in the darkened chamber, when suddenly she was knocked off of her feet. Caught in the mid-section by a powerful limb, she grunted as she landed on her back a few feet away. The pale, discomforting, cloven-hooved form of a dizy emerged, baring it's claws. It towered over her and some of the other monsters, it's whole body swaying as it stalked toward her.

The sounds of the other Seekers engaged in battle echoed around them in the cavern. With one opponent a piece, the Primrose and Therion fought. The junicorn favored into horn in attacking, attempting to stab or whack the thief with it whenever he got close. Therion made sure that he was close enough to prevent the thing from shooting that horn at him whenever possible, for as much as he kept closing in on it the junicorn would hop backward and try to fire. More annoying than that was that when Therion did strike at it, aiming for the bright red limbs, the junicorn would pull them into it's armored shell like a tortoise.

"Tch." Therion darted around the junicorn in a circle, blade catching against the steel shell. When he felt the sword connect with the monster's flesh, it was met with a retaliatory stab - that small knife the monster held so much less imposing than the creature itself sinking into the thief's shoulder.

He backed off, clutching the wound.

"No good, I'm not making a dent," Therion said, figuring that Primrose was nearby given that he'd caught glimpses of her and the monster she was fighting while he was working on his own.

"I'm having the same problem." Her fight against the dizy was not going well. Because of it's size, in the tight space the monster had no trouble keeping Primrose within it's reach. It's claws weren't the only problem, as the razor-like spines on it's arms and back caught her during hasty evades forming cuts that oozed on her arms and legs. The dizy also seemed completely unharmed, and showed no signs of slowing down. Even where there were no scales, it's skin was packed in layers, solid enough that it might as well have been dressed in iron like the junicorn. Primrose's attacks weren't getting through, whether she used her magic or her might. Her own stamina was drained, but she held her dagger up defiantly. Where and how could she strike at it to actually do damage?

"Primrose!"

She turned in time to Therion's shout only to see the crimson horn of the junicorn meant for Therion headed straight toward her after the thief had rolled out of the way. In a spot of quick thinking she teleporting behind the dizy with Ravaging Confession, using the creature as a meat shield. The horn struck the monster's leg, boring a hole into it and combusting. Unable to cry out with no mouth the dizy flinched and shuddered in pain while Primrose struck it with her magic and dagger. Even with the few times she'd felt her power increase with her attacks, she was still just barely able to leave marks on the dizy's flesh. Where the junicorn had struck however, the wound sizzled and bled.

It was the only thing that had done any real damage to dizy so far. So naturally, an idea came to mind.

"Once more," she said, "get it to shoot another, we'll point it toward this thing." She didn't dare look away from the dizy after it had recovered, but since she heard no argument from Therion's side of the ruins she counted on him following through. Staring down the knotted muscle of a monster in front of her, the dancer lashed out with a spell. The dark energy hit dizy dead on but had as little effect now as it had before, simply washing over it. It slammed it's claws down hard, shaking the area with it's impact but narrowly missing the dancer. She had jumped up, using the recharged scarf to hover above the monster. It shifted it's focus up and raised it's arms in an attempt to snatch her out of the air.

Then came the second horn. Therion had been endeavoring to line of the shot with an uncooperative creature by going against his instincts and leaving openings for the junicorn to shoot at. It swiveled it's body while trying to catch him, the moment of truth being when he'd jumped onto it's armored exoskeleton and kicked off of it, suspended in the air for just a few scant seconds the junicorn fired at him. Therion lurched, flinging his body weight to the side to avoid the horn - it scraped by him, carving a burn just below the stab would on the same arm, and sailed right toward the dizy.

The missile struck the abomination's center where it's muscles twisted and collapsed in on themselves. It sunk deep, and when it began to sizzle to signal it was about to burst the dizy dropped it's arms from pursuing Primrose in order to try and remove the offending object. The horn combusted before it could, blowing a bloody hole into the dizy's core. It flailed wildly and fell over backward, twitching and writhing until it went still.

Their battle wasn't over yet. Unconcerned with the fate of it's fellow monster the junicorn was already preparing to fire again, it's horn able to regrow with insane speed. It took aim at Primrose, but it's shot went wild as it was suddenly jerked down, the projectile colliding with the ceiling and sending a rain of dirt over the area. Therion was attached to it's back, his tail swishing back and forth as he scrabbled around on it's shell to try and avoid it's blind stabbing with it's knife, unfortunately being caught by a few.

"Now how do we deal with this thing?!" he asked. He doused the thing with an Armor Corrosive while he could, not a moment too soon as it had the bright idea then to pull all of it's limbs into it's body and roll itself backward in an attempt to crush the thief. He leapt off of it, landing in a low stance and ready to jump back in.

Primrose appeared at his side then, covered in cuts, bruises, and scrapes. Her eyes darted all over the junicorn's form, searching for some weakness. It's arms and legs reappeared and it started to wobble to its feet.

"It's limbs, the ones it can pull inside, are they made of steel too?"

"No."

"Alright," she paused, took a breath. "And your fire has returned to you?"

"Yes," he said, his eyes narrowing as he tried to figure out the plan she was putting together. "Burn it?"

"From the inside," she said. A smirk made it's way onto Therion's face just before he nodded. Without further deliberation they moved in. This time with no dizy to get in the way when the Travelers split up to flank the junicorn they were successful. It turned first to Therion and then to Primrose, unsure of which to focus on. It felt the sting of Therion's sword against it's arm and turned again, pulling the limb in to safety. Soon after the same thing happened with Primrose's dagger, and then both of it's arms were inside it's iron shell.

The Travelers reached in after them, taking hold of the junicorn's limbs. Together, they cast their magics.

"Burn up!" "Wildfire!"

The junicorn reacted violently, shaking and kicking the two humans. They held firm, and though it seemed to be effective it wouldn't be enough to kill it. Primrose grit her teeth, knowing that her pyromancy had been weakened. She activated her Boost, her body glowing as the power of her spell increased. Across the junicorn's body she heard Therion snicker and join in, Boosting his flame until the monster was cooking alive inside of it's shell. The Travelers yanked their hands out when the heated metal got too hot for them to stand, watching the monster thrash around until it fell over, smoke billowing out of it's arm holes and it's body collapsing into ash.

The Orsterrans both let out a huge sigh, taking but a moment to collect themselves. Other battles were still going on around them, so they couldn't afford to sit back and relax until the rest of the Seekers were safe. Primrose opened her palm and summoned the flame of Warmth to deal with the worst of their wounds, though she didn't get far in the healing process before an unwelcome interruption. Next to her, Therion's ears flickered toward a shifting sound.

"You're kidding me," he said, incredulous, as they both looked over and realized the dizy's body had never disappeared. It was rising to it's feet despite the hole in it's chest... did it's wound get smaller? Primrose realized, eyes widening in dread. Though the process was slow, the dizy's muscles were gradually knitting themselves together again.

It flexed it's claws as if to make sure it still had it's full range of motion. Satisfied, the monster ran at the Travelers with it's arms swinging wildly. With razors concentrated on it's hands and running up it's arms, the sudden and vicious attack sliced ribbons into both Primrose and Therion. The former caught one of it's arms was it slashed away, using her temporary strength to throw it off balance. It staggered back, heaving and weakened - for the moment. It it healed the open wound it would be that much harder to damage it.

Primrose summoned a fireball and threw it at the cavity in the dizy's center. It halted the reformation of the skin for as long as it burned, but once the spell was finished the process began again. The dancer was breathing hard and nearly out of mana. Therion held his blade up but was wary of getting too close to it and couldn't find a weak point save for the one they'd had to make.

"...we made need a hand with this one," Primrose said, earning a half-amused noise from Therion. The dizy recovered and rose to it's full massive height, headed toward the Seekers once more.

—------

With an appreciative thumbs up to Primrose and Therion, and a consolatory thumbs up to the koopa troop, Jesse followed the others onto the elevator. As they went further and further into darkness, a small part of her wanted to hop off the elevator and head down in front of the others. But there was no reason too and she didn’t want to get split off for whatever reason. So she stayed put, leaning against the railing of the elevator and watching tunnels pass by.

A Consul made their grand entrance.

Shit. That’s not good. He’s gonna- yep there he goes.

There were lots of fliers on her team, but not all of them. As the elevator fell out from under her, Jesse tried to act fast. She let herself fall and reached for her Tool Gun, which wasn’t exactly a quick unholster mid flight. After a few misses she managed to get some balloons on her falling teammates, only for some stray magical bullets to pop them.

“Shit.” Jesse swore, and went into a head first dive to fall faster than everyone. The ground was coming up fast- she could see it now. “Sven!” She called out. Landing with a thud that tossed up motes of light, she had the alchemist throw elastic ooze on the bed of flowers she had landed on.

It sank between the petals but it didn’t matter. The first person that fell landed softly and was merely disoriented for a few seconds. The rest followed suit.

Jesse stood up straight, exhaling. Relieved, of course, but also unhappy by how that went down. Holstering her Tool Gun, she peered about the cavernous area and up to the swirling cavern they’d fallen from. “We’ll have to be more careful in the future.” Jesse said. “It had to have been the flowers.”

Their troubles weren’t over. The cackling Consul seemed to have wanted to organize some fun, and a parade of what could only be described as ‘Under-Your-Bed and In-Your-Closet’ style monsters came out of the darkness to eat them.

“Oh, ew. What the fuck?” Jesse said in an oddly enamored tone of voice, almost laughing. Then she was back to business, rolling her shoulder and producing her Service Weapon.

“Let’s separate them.” Jesse said, and sprinted to the left to where the purple, frog-like brute traveled forward. She made eye contact with its main eye and it seemed to follow her.

The Director paused in a brief moment before either made any moves. “Peace in our times?” She offered with a shrug. The frog-like brute, Ang, more than twice her size, responded by lashing out with its ocular tongue. Jesse moved her torso to the side with a non-magical dodge, throwing herself out of the way. She stared at the tongue, and only some of its eyes looked back at her. The ground dissolved, and its sticky nature dragged dirt and rocks back into its gaping mouth that didn’t even seem to have the capability to close all the way. Acid bubbled in the back of its maw, threatening to spill over, and secondary rows of teeth awaited any prey.

“...Yummy.” Jesse said dryly, squinting one eye. Even with her psychic shielding she’d be digested immediately. She couldn’t get pulled in there at all costs- best be hit by any other attack before that one.

I wonder what would happen if it ashed me while I was in its mouth, and if it would get any sustenance. Theory? Maybe eating my spirit and ash itself would provide the creature with enough life energy to eat someone else up. Seems like big purple here is way more interested in testing my hypothesis than I am, though.

Once again it lashed out with its tongue, and Jesse leapt over it and began to float in the air before quickly dropping back down, not wanting to be a mosquito to this creature’s frog. In return, she raked heavy duty machine gun fire across the tongue, ripping into the soft tissue. It made a grating, shockingly high-pitched creaking noise in response, eyes whirling around.

Angered, it leapt to her as a blur, its powerful hindlegs supporting its ferocious jump. It brought its weird little fists onto the ground, kicking up dust where Jesse had just been. She had Evaded away. Even its impressive speed couldn’t match a properly timed dodge- nothing physical could, as far as Jesse could tell. Still, she could only evade six or seven times before she ran out of Energy and had to cool it for a few moments to recharge, and a mis-timed dodge could leave her vulnerable. Still. She’d defeated monsters far larger than this one.

Despite lacking opposable thumbs, it gripped large chunks on the ground within its…paws? Foot? Hand?

It chucked them at her at high speed, and Polaris guided Jesse to react instinctively. She reached out her hand and plucked both rocks from the air. They zipped over to her side, bending to her will.

Nice! I’ve missed that!

Jesse promptly Launched both rocks at high speed right into Ang, shattering its teeth and bludgeoning its tongue, fraying and swelling its tissue. Once more it screeched and leaped towards her. Jesse didn’t want to underestimate its intelligence, but she felt she had no choice but to Evade once more. That was when it used its tongue to lash out of the side of its mouth to where she ended up, its many eyes tracking her movement.

“Damn!” It burned into her and she found herself being yanked back towards her death at break neck speed. Jesse evaded forward, using its own momentum to double her speed and yank herself free of the beast, just barely avoiding its maw as she flung herself hard into the cave wall. “Oof. Yuck.”

Ang kept up the pressure, diving forward once again. Jesse narrowed her eyes and Evade again. The creature lashed out with its tongue, and found purchase. Not on Jesse, but on something much smaller and made of glass. It pulled the Fire Flask Sven had provided right into its mouth, igniting it. Yowling as its tongue and eyes burned, it hit the wall and rounded on Jesse as she fired Grip shots at the inside of its mouth. It closed it as best as it could and raised its hands to defend itself. It swallowed, gurgled, and vomited a shower of eyeballs in her direction. Amazed, Jesse raised a Shield to defend herself, watching them pop like juicy acid grenades against her invisible psychic wall that ripped stone from the ground. They sizzled, dealing damage to the wall, but the acid slid off and pooled to the ground, leaving her barrier mostly intact. Apparently tired of getting close, its eye began to glow as a thin beam of light emitted from the stalk-eye, burning against her Shield as she strafed to take cover behind a Stalagmite. Dropping the Shield, she switched Pierce and wanted to give herself more time to recover her Energy.

It circled around from a distance, trying to spot her while keeping the eye beam focused. Jesse circled the pillar, briefly poked her head out on one side, and then lunged to the other side of the pillar, luring the beam and juking Ang out to let loose a powerful Pierce shot. It blew out the inside of its mouth, spraying acid blood out behind it and leaving a red hot tunnel out one side and through the other. Gurgling with fury, it reeled from the attack, and Jesse switched to Grip just long enough to land a few well placed shots into its eye stalk, severing the connection and stopping the eye beam. Reduced to only a few remaining eyes in its tongue, it furiously threw stone after stone at her, but the Director weaved easily enough between them without using her Energy, placing stalagmites and pillars between her and the stones. Forcing it into action, she outpaced its ranged damage output shredding into it with machine gun fire from Spin. Acid blood sprayed everywhere, but Jesse was well out of range. Forced into aggressive action, it leapt forward through the fusillade, right where Jesse wanted it.

“Sven.” The alchemist shattered an Elastic Ooze at her feet where she used it and a combination of Levitate to be flung high over the creatures’ form. With no eye-stalk, it was forced to tip its mouth up to spot her, opening it. There it witnessed Jesse plucking three stone stalactites from the ceiling of the drip stone cave, her face obscured by shadow.

It raised its hands but she had already flung the deadly stone spikes towards Ang in a blur. They ripped through and broke its arms and one large spike stuck in its mouth, spewing acid like a grotesque fountain. Jesse landed next to it and picked up the health elements it was dropping to repair her psychic Health. The Director had an annoying tendency to come out of fights unscathed.

Rolling her shoulder, she tested her powers one last time on the dying beast. Extending out her hand, she saw in her mind’s eye the white outline that signified her control over the beast's physical form. She prepared to Launch the creature, splattering it against the wall, but she thought better of it. Primrose and Therion had battled against two monsters on their own. With a little more help, they could be done. The heavily wounded, faceless horror named Dizy was looming towards them both, and they seemed fairly tired after their previous fight.

“Heads up!” Jesse called out, and Launched Ang towards its doom. The beasts collided, and Ang practically burst like a balloon with the stone spike acting as a needle. The dizzy was slammed into and knocked over, scrabbling as it dissolved under the corpse of its ally. Jesse revved up Pierce and fired an unaimed shot at Dizy as the acid melted it, the sound echoing throughout the cavern. Still melting and now with a large hole in it, Jesse approached and emptied her clip into Dizy with a series of short range Shatter shots. At that point Dizy’s structural integrity was compromised and the regenerator fell apart and was reduced to ash. All the gore and chunks, gunshots, slung spells and unsettling silence faded away.

Jesse looked up at the Travelers. “Sexy.” She said flatly.

Jesse turned her attention to the rest of the battlefield, switching her Service Weapon to Grip as it reloaded, and maneuvering to aid her comrades in securing the area.

Barely did a few seconds pass once the garage door slammed down then Tora and Poppi heard a sudden din from inside. Voices both familiar and new sounded off in a variety of taunts, yells, yelps, and grunts. He did briefly catch a glimpse of Sakura in there before the garage door closed, which explained where she disappeared to while he and Poppi got distracted by the local watchmen, but another voice rang a bell for him. “That sound like friend Midna!” Tora surmised, pretty certain he recognized the voice of the ally he’d fought alongside in the Sandswept Sky. Out of a sense of duty Tora considered finding a way into the disused garage help the ladies with their brawl, but unless those four random ne’er-do-wells on motorcycles turned out to be packing some serious firepower or special abilities, he figured it was them trapped in there with his friends rather than the other way around. Besides, if anything actually got dicey in there they could always cheese it in order to get some backup.

The real problem lay out on the street; Tora and Poppi weren’t the only ones who caught wind of the commotion inside. While the typical pedestrians might cast the graffiti-plastered garage door a troubled glance, they wouldn’t venture to look into it any further, but the same couldn’t be said for the G-men loitering around Chaps’. After turning in unison to stare at the source of the hubbub for a few moments, they confirmed it to be enough of a disturbance to warrant their combined attention, and at once the ominous trio marched off from the gas station toward the crosswalk.

“This is bad!” Tora fretted, flapping his wings. “If snoopypons get involved, no telling what happen to friends! Tangle with law enforcement or worse big-big problem!”

Poppi nodded, her worry writ plain on her face. “Trouble is, how get them off scent without land in hot water ourselves? Masterpon on roll today, so any bright ideas?”

“Tora working on it,” the Nopon muttered, looking every which way for something to use to his advantage. He now found himself in quite the pickle. How could he and Poppi possibly get these strange but single-minded people off his allies’ backs? If only he had the slightest clue who they were or how they worked. He could only assume them to be lawmen of some stripe, or some other kind of clandestine enforcer. That made fighting them a non-option, so he needed to play this smart. But distracting them with an even greater crime would only paint the targets on his and Poppi’s backs, instead. Unless…

His eye landed on the conspicuous sign near Chaps’ front door that read no drinking under 21. That would have to do. He cleared his throat, raised his voice, and started to act. “Oh, what beautiful day it is to be wide-eyed, innocent minor, just thirteen years of age!” he declared, loud enough for the G-men to hear. Like dogs who’d heard a whistle, the G-men looked over. “From shady character, Tora hear about fun place for drinking of tasty beverages in back of gas station. What great adventure!” He nudged Poppi.

Familiar with her Masterpon’s thinking, his companion caught on quick. “Poppi technically less than year old, but that sound like excellent idea! Poppi drink lots and lots!”

The G-men, alerted by the possibility of underage drinking, had turned in the duo’s direction. Compared to the situation across the street, this infraction no doubt seemed a lot more clear-cut, not to mention in conveniently closer proximity. Now to lead them astray. “Meh meh!” Tora cheered, waddling into Chaps with exaggerated swings of his arms. “Off Tora go to have innocence of youth squandered and sink into life of depravity and addiction, through no fault of own!”

“...Depending on who ask, Tora already not far off,” Poppi muttered under her breath, following him inside.

Brows raised, the G-men hurried over and plastered themselves against the windows. “Not the innocence of youth!” one lamented, his delivery still deadpan.

“Being filthy grease monkeys, we have no reason to be inside,” his coworker mourned, his sympathetic hand on the shoulder of the first. “We are powerless to stop this boy’s descent into crapulence.”

“Steady, my fellow mechanics,” the third cautioned the others. He held his little spanner up to his eyes and peered through its jaws like a pair of binoculars. “Nothing has happened just yet. If he does commit this misdemeanor, we can arrest him on the way out. We may also be able to finally catch Anaconda’s staff in the act of selling alcohol to the underaged.”

With the G-men watching and waiting intently for a crime to occur, Tora and Poppi crossed through the gas station to the bar hidden away in the back, Anaconda. Of course, the bouncer saw them coming from where she sat in front of the counter, and with a sour look stood to obstruct them. When she stood, the four black and gold machine arms that Tora assumed were decor for her chair instead went with her, attached to her back. He balked little at the realization, figuring that the mechanical limbs must be terribly heavy, for the woman’s steps were slow, heavy, and purposeful. Right now they appeared to be folded up behind her, her giant revolvers stowed, but she still possessed plenty of menace. As she drew close enough to tower over Tora, it became clear that he didn’t really think this through. Although, the Nopon couldn’t help but stare at some of her other heavy equipment, so his mind wasn’t exactly in the right place.

Jona glowered down at him while the few other patrons in Anaconda looked on. Judging by the red of her face, she’d been drinking already herself. “What’re you gawkin’ at, ya weird little potato?” she drawled, hooking her thumbs into her belt. “Can’t ya read the sign? Twenty one and up only! Get lost!”

“Meh-meh?” The Nopon looked up at her with a surprised look. “What pink lady mean? Both of us definitely heavier than twenty one pounds.” He turned up his nose, averting his gaze. “Please to hurry up and get finest booze, Tora just arrived in town and is thirsty!”

With a pissed-off growl Jona grit her teeth. One of her robot limbs unfolded and grabbed Tora by the overalls, lifting him into the air. She got so up in his face that Tora could smell the alcohol in her breath. “Maybe your ears don’t work so good, fuzzy. I don’t care who or where you came from. My bar’s the only one in town, so I’ve got brats crawlin’ all over the place tryin’ to get their hands on my booze, and if a single one of ‘em gets so much as a swig, I’ll get shut the hell down! So beat it!”

Tora weighed his options. If he left, he’d be leaving the G-men free to go after his friends at best, and getting himself accosted for something or other at worst. As he tried to muster up a response, however, Poppi stepped forward. She firmly took hold of the robot arm’s wrist, a cold and pointed look directed at Jona. “Please unhand Masterpon, ma’am. There no need to be rude.”

Ultimately Tora doubted that this woman really meant to hurt him. If she refused to serve alcohol to kids, assaulting one probably didn’t rank highly on her to-do list. She probably just wanted to scare him off. But this rough treatment rubbed him the wrong way, he needed a diversion to occupy the snoops’ attention while he and Poppi got away, and he sure didn’t have any better ideas. He also knew something that Jona didn’t, which meant that like it or not, she’d be playing into his hand. Tora made his decision.

“Poppi, help me!” he cried, scrabbling at the robot hand with his wings.

In response the artificial blade crushed the machine’s wrist, breaking the joint and crumpling the forearm. Bullets stored point-first on its outer side clattered to the floor in a shower of pings and tinks. Jona blinked in disbelief at the assault on her person, then scowled in anger at Poppi, her eyes agleam. “You metal bitch! Ugh!”

She swung the mechanical arm to smash Poppi with her Masterpon’s own body, but she opened her arms to grab him and pull him free from the machine’s failing grasp. Snarling, she aimed a kick at Tora, but Poppi twisted around to protect him by taking the blow to her own back. It barely did any damage, but did force her to stumble away, at which point the front door to Chaps burst open. The G-men stepped inside, their wrenches brandished like swords. They threw them like boomerangs, and one struck Jona in the head.

“Assault in progress! Direct action authorized!”

“Violent liquor peddler! Stand down now!”

“We will not allow you to corrupt the youth!”

“Damn it, damn it!” A hand on her new head wound, Jona vaulted over and took cover behind her bar. She didn’t understand what provoked such a violent outburst on her part, but she knew she was in for it now. Her other three robot limbs unfolded, seizing the three revolvers holstered at her waist. With the arm she used to reload crippled she only had eighteen shots, but that for someone like her that just meant fifteen shots to spare. With a pull of her trigger she put a hole through the head of the foremost G-men, and as he dropped the other two took cover behind the shelves of convenience store snacks. All around, screaming customers were fleeing the building, but Jona narrowed her focus and fired.

Her second bullet pierced the shelf and downed the second G-man, which filled Tora -watching from behind an overturned table, with terror. “Poppi,” he whispered urgently. “We screw up and mess with wrong person. Need take out threat now before threat take out Poppi!”

The artificial blade’s face spelled out her anguish, but she understood that her life was now on the line; a single bullet could be her end. “Nothing for it.” As Jona downed the third G-man she shifted gears into QT Pi mode, then activated her new power. “Engaging Nano Orange,” she stated, entering her super mode before blazing out from cover in a burst of speed. Jona recognized the threat instantly and shot with all three revolvers, but for the first time in a long time, she missed. Poppi was a green-and-orange blur, zigzagging through the bar with uncanny speed and agility. Jona fired again and again, even hitting a couple times, but not one was a money shot. After a few seconds, Poppi got her angle, and lunged toward her foe with a jet-propelled kick. Jona tried to block with all four arms, but when the kick struck it completely annulled her guard, blowing the arms apart from one another and reducing Jona’s defense to zero. As she staggered Poppi somersaulted, her variable saber blazing forth, in order to execute a falling slash and end the fight.

Tora sighed with relief, only to gasp as the G-men stirred. Something black bubbled from their wounds, but they were still very much alive. “Poppi!” he cried as he took off running for the exit used by the other customers. “Leg it!”

His companion sighed, took the spirit of the fallen woman, and rushed out after Tora.

---

With a plan of action decided (or at the very least, not objected to) and no time left on the clock, the Seekers and their newfound allies split up. First, Raz and Roxas retraced their steps to slip back out the pet shop’s rear exit, where they goaded the G-men on stakeout there into chasing them. They’re smart not to make so much noise that they also alert those up front, Peach thought. Speaking of, Geralt volunteered for the dangerous task of stalling the Turk and his men up front through more conventional means. Though she knew it to be selfish of her, Peach breathed a sigh of relief. For a minute it seemed like that task might fall to her, and truth be told she didn’t know if she had the speechcraft to pull off such a feat. Bede hurried to join Geralt there, so the princess wished both of them luck.

She, the Special Operations Unit trio, and the robots waited with bated breath -be that literally or just metaphorically- as the conversation up front began, muffled by the door between the storeroom and the main floor, as well as by the noise of the dogs, cats, and other animals up for adoption. Peach missed most of the words, but whoever it was confronting Geralt didn’t exactly sound calm. Her team needed to hurry. Luckily, it sounded like the runners had done their jobs, as the hasty footfalls of the G-men out back faded into the distance. Giovanna, listening at the back door, cracked it open to take a peek. Then gave a firm nod and beckoned the others. “It’s clear. C’mon!”

Once she swung the door open, Peach, Blazermate, Susie, and the twins sprinted out into the backstreet. Sure enough, the G-men were gone, but Peach was hardly at peace. Her heart was thumping in her chest, and anxiety coursed through her veins along with the blood. Though she knew neither Raz nor Roxas to say for sure, she could only trust in their wits and agility to see them through. Those up front had it even worse, since they’d need to throw off what seemed to be the enemy leader before making their own escape. As for Tora, Poppi, Sakura, Karin, Midna, and Pit, the princess had no idea. They could be anywhere in the city by now, totally oblivious to the departure time now only minutes away. She needed a sure-fire way to get their attention, whether or not it also got the attention of every enemy in Gutsford.

Right now though, she needed to run. Summoning her wolf spirit Rei, Giovanna zoomed off like a track runner off the starting line. Rather than run, she executed a series of lightning-quick dashes, building up remarkable momentum while still being able to turn on a dime. Blazermate and Susie took off, leaving the others to fend for themselves as the pair blazed their own trail through the sky. As the twins ran off after Giovanna, Peach brought up the rear, at least until Geralt and Bede burst out of the pet shop to race after them. That could only mean one thing: the enemy was in pursuit. Such knowledge made the runners all the faster.

The group moved quickly between (or over) the buildings of Gutsford. Those who couldn’t soar above and see the school town’s bottom-right point for themselves followed Giovanna as closely as they could to avoid getting lost, as demanding a task as that might be, since only the scarlet-haired kickboxer knew the way. At the back of the pack, Geralt managed to put some distance between himself and Benedict thanks to being a lot more spry for his age, and through various chase-breakers like toppled trash cans and Yrden signs. Rather than fret about everyone else, though, Peach took a page from Blazermate and Susie’s books and focused on just herself. She ran like her life depended on it, and thanks to her Olympic physique (further toughened by fusion with the naval soldier Chao Ho) quickly overtook the blue-suited brothers.

Of course, not everything was sunshine and daisies. The team spotted plenty more G-men on the way, whether ‘working’ on roads with shovels and signs, ‘trimming’ hedges with clippers, or carrying around trash bags as garbage men. Though luckily they didn’t seem to be on high alert, their squads forced the earthbound escapees to find ways around. That meant cutting through crowded streets, jumping off cars, and in a couple cases storming straight through buildings. “Sorry, sorry, sorry!” Peach told the panicked people as her team passed through, but since she’d be a lot more sorry if any of the G-men caught her, she did not waver.

Peach didn’t keep track of how many minutes went by, but it felt like no time at all before she saw Giovanna exit onto the southern main street up ahead, followed shortly by herself. Just down the sidewalk to the left was Gutsford’s southeastern roundabout, with the Trade Depot towering overhead and a fleet of ten or twelve white trucks out front, just as Giovanna described. Just a few feet away, Blazermate and Susie landed safely. Peach wiped her forehead with the sleeve of her sports suit. “We made it!” she cheered hoarsely, somewhat out of breath.

Over in the depot’s loading yard, a couple of students were working part-time to load the last of what little cargo would returning with the trucks to Midgar, including a plain cardboard box. “Man, this thing weighs a ton!” one of the guys complained.

“Then put your back into it!” his burlier friend grunted. “They’re literally waiting on us!”

Peach wiped her forehead with the sleeve of her sports suit. “We made it!” she cheered hoarsely, somewhat out of breath..

“Don’t celebrate just yet,” Giovanna warned, patting Rei on the head. Sure enough, the roar of engines signaled the imminent departure of the Seekers’ rides. “Hurry up!”

The team made a break for the trucks. As she ran, Peach put into practice the idea she’d come up with on the way over. She summoned Grimm’s revolver to her hand and aimed it skyward. With a squeeze of the trigger she sent the shrieking spirits of the damned howling into the air, nearly shattering the eardrums -and mental health- of everyone in the vicinity. Peach winced, her face tightened like she’d just sucked on a lemon. It really was a hideous noise. More importantly, though, it was loud, and after the meet-and-greet back at Twilight Town, a sound that everyone recognized.

Up ahead, Giovanna launched herself into the air with powerful legs, somersaulting up onto the roof of the last truck. Peach double-jumped up to join her, followed by the robot ladies, before all four worked together to hoist doctors M and N aboard. “Spread out!” Giovanna urged. “If we’re all on the same truck, we’re sitting ducks!” As the group dispersed, Peach kept a nervous eye out, only to see a real sight for sore eyes.

Already in the vicinity before being drawn in by the familiar din of Peach’s pistol, none other than Midna, Sakura, Tora, and Poppi were approaching from the garage and gas station on the right. Those first two seemed to have procured a motorcycle, too! Meanwhile, Raz and Roxas came from the left, with Karin and Pit -having remained along the southern street between the two travel hubs after their investigation- not too far behind. Finally, Geralt and Bede appeared over the Trade Depot’s back wall and hurtled through the empty lot. Everyone had made it!

And not a second too soon. With the last of the cargo loaded and the rear doors latched shut, the fleet of trucks pulled away. They rolled out two abreast, with each pair following right behind the last. The latecomers needed to hustle -or make use of Midna’s stashed vehicles- to climb aboard before the last trucks joined in the procession to leave Midgar in their dust.

“Meeeeh!” Tora wheezed, only barely flown up to the top of a truck in time by Poppi Qt Pi. He plopped down on the roof as the vehicle picked up speed, causing his tufts of fur to blow in the wind. “That take years off poor Tora life!”

Poppi took a headcount of the Seekers, noting their well-dressed new allies as she did. She feared that for the second time that day the heroes might have left someone behind, but to her relief, everyone was here. “It good thing we see and here you when we did!” she called to Peach, her voice raised over the wind. “Good thing we leave, too. Things suddenly got dangerous.”

“I can imagine!” From farther up in the convoy, Giovanna shouted back at the others, her low voice not suited for yelling. “We’ll get you all up to speed later, just steer clear of any other G-men we run into! Once our chopper meets us, we’ll be on our way to Midgar!”

With the temperate school town in the rear view mirror, the terrain quickly gave way to the scrubland, a rocky wilderness of ridges and gorges, cliffs and valleys. Giant buttes towered above the acacias like silent colossi, while the odd oasis could be found scattered around, surrounded by vegetation. The land trended downward, then suddenly upward, precipitating a gargantuan spiky ravine whose dimensions Poppi could only guess at. Given all the abrupt verticality at work here, navigating the network of canyons would be like driving through a maze, but the strange, almost drippy black roads that bridged the gaps like the humps of a sea serpent would make things simple. Hopefully. By now Poppi expected that things would never be that easy, and the best thing about having low expectations was that she’d never end up disappointed.



A minute or two later, just after the fleet of trucks crested over a hill between two ridges and splashed through a shallow pond, the roar of another engine resounded from behind them. Over the hump flew a school bus, hanging in the air for a split second before it crashed down with a tremendous noise in a cloud of dust. Poppi whirled around, on alert, and identified a G-man behind the wheel. He smirked, tipping his new hat, then pulled a lever. The emergency hatch on the top of the bus popped open as the bus gained ground, and from the opening sprang a squad of G-men, led by a gentleman unfamiliar to all except Geralt and Bede. He landed with practiced precision on the bus’ roof wielding a cane sword in one hand and an electric tower shield of bulletproof glass in the other, then stood. “By the authority of the Midgar Public Security division, you people are all hereby under arrest!” he shouted at them, having to speak up despite his usual calm and collected demeanor.

“Careful up there old timer, you’ll sprain a hip!” Giovanna yelled, gesturing for everyone to move to the front of the convoy. “While you’re at it, tell the Turks they can shove it!”

“I thought as much.” Benedict flourished his cane at the G-men, calling to them. The school bus pulled up to the rearmost trucks, closer and closer. “Agents. Detain them, by any means necessary.”

The nearest one, wielding a plunger, seemed to smile as the red glow in his eyes intensified, reaching up to take hold of his hat. “...Finally.” He brought his hat down over his face, and when it passed it left behind not teal skin, but a sludgy, pitch-black substance like tar. Abruptly he exploded into red-tinged black fog, transforming into a twelve-foot demon seated on a toilet that floated in the air. All around the other G-men followed suit, leaping to the tops of the last few trucks in the procession and exploding into monsters on impact. The one with hedge trimmers became the electric severer of fate Atropos. The one with a phone became Trumpeter, harbinger of nuclear doom. The one with a wrench became the blacksmith Ippon-Datara, a physical powerhouse with his mighty sledgehammer. The one with the trash bag became Sandman, a wind-aligned slinger of sleep. The one with a road work sign became Morax, demonic dealer of vengeful flame. And lastly, the one with a watering can became the diminutive shocker Agathion. Together the seven fanned across the treacherous shifting battlefield to attack. Atropos, Trumpeter, and Agathion began to cast their respective elements, while Ippon-Datara, Morax, and Belphegor moved in for melee attacks. Sandman, meanwhile, bided his time, waiting for the perfect chance to send someone to sleep and drop them to the desert to be run over and left behind.



As she and Sectonia jogged back from the ruin-crowded corner of the cave toward the flowerbed where the battle raged on, Nadia wondered briefly what to do with her ill-gotten gains. Considering how long the stuff she carried around with her tended to last nowadays, using it straight away seemed like a much better idea. The ‘idea’ of fusing with that pale, veiny, multi-headed monstrosity repulsed her, but that wasn’t all she could do with it. “No way I’m fusin’ with that uggo,” she said aloud. “But havin’ a grappler in my back pocket sounds purr-etty ‘handy’...” Nadia held the spirit up in front of her. “So how do I make it into a Striker? Just look at it real intense and say ‘you work for me now’?”

To her surprise, that actually provoked a response. The spirit melted away into motes of prismatic light that flowed into her, and since Nadia didn’t sprout extra fingers or anything, she took it to mean that the spiritbond worked. “...Huh. Cool.” Weird, but Nadia wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.



With that taken care of, she approached the flowerbed and took stock of the underground battlefield. One of the weirder monsters that showed up, the giant gunk-stuffed turkey, ended up taking the entire Koopa Troop to put down, but together the team achieved a hard-fought victory. Rather than bug out into the darkness, the Knight ended up helping Omori against that bizarre jigsaw monster, proving that the little ones weren’t kidding around.

Her eyes fell on the billowing flame and smoke from Junicorn’s metal husk just as the monster inside finished burning to death, leaving its partially-melted shell to follow suit by turning to ash as well. One of the other monsters, the bulky fungal brute that Nadia wanted nothing to do with herself, trundled toward the wounded Octopath Travelers to finish what it started. Before it could reach them, Jesse answered their call for help by hurling her own awful adversary into it like a giant acid bomb. Nadia watched, somewhere between impressed and horrified, as the redhead then strolled up to finish it off with a withering barrage from her service weapon. “...Jeez, Jess,” she laughed once the FBC director finished mopping up. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

That left just one monster: the freakish electric jester with all the orange mace-heads protruding from its flesh. While the other Seekers faced off against their respective opponents, Zzap went for Rubick, blasting the mage with chain lightning. Rubick’s agility and resistance mitigated the damage a lot, but he clearly had trouble adjusting to both the horror’s attacks and the pace at which it fought. Luckily for him, he had plenty of allies to back him up. While Primrose and Junior attended to the wounded, including themselves, the rest of the seekers converged on Zzap, shooting and punching and tearing the monster to pieces in a matter of seconds. With its demise, the Ruins went quiet once more, except for the hum of Warmth and casts of Cure.



For a few seconds, at least. Barely did the team get a chance to breathe, heal up, or take a gander at the cavernous Ruins they’d fallen into, before reinforcements arrived. A squad of four round, one-eyed, leering Loox appeared from one of the tunnels, led by a single, larger Astigmatism with twice the horns. With them was a single Froggit.

“Huh!?” the ringleader shouted in stunned disbelief. “Junicorn and the others…you monsters!” It grabbed the Froggit by the shoulder and shook it. “Hey, pea green! Get out of here and warn the boss!”

The Froggit recoiled, clearly nervous. “W-what, me?”

“Yeah you, mucus-for-brains!” Astigmatism pushed the amphibian away. “Hop to it! We’ll pick on these murderers!”

Turning tail, the Froggit began to hop back the way it came. At the same time, the crowd of exercise ball-sized monsters spread out. Nadia readied herself, although the runaway worried her more. If these monsters had a boss, she and the other Seekers probably didn’t want it knowing where they were. The Loox attacked, shooting out bursts of five small light balls apiece with terrible accuracy, provided that their opponents didn’t blast them first. Their projectiles flew slowly and ricocheted off whatever -or whoever- they hit, which given the amount of space in this cavern reduced them to a non-threat in record time. Worse still, their projectiles did low damage by default, but even less to the heroes of higher levels. Nadia looked down as once orb bounced off her belly, barely leaving a mark. She straightened up, her claws returned to normal as a bemused look overtook her. “Huh…” The Loox began conjuring snakelike projectile beads to wind through the air, and Astigmatism joined in with faster bouncing light rings plus three-ring revolvers, but all of the feral’s fighting spirit had already drained away.

“Uh, one of you deal with whatever this is.” She broke off into a run, turning back to look at the others as she did. “We probably oughta see about that frog.”

She took off running on all fours and breezed past the monster squad, leaving them in her dust as she raced down the stone brick-lined tunnel. With her keen eyes and ears she need only follow the echoed plop-plop-plop of froggy feet on the floor until she spotted it hopping through the darkness. “There you are,” she muttered, advancing until she spotted something odd in the Ruins’ dim ambient light: a crumpled bit of paper lying on the floor up ahead. Just a little farther, the tunnel wall gave way to a gaping hole, and when Nadia stopped in front of it she looked down to see another huge cavern extending downward, full of thin platforms layered atop one another by wrought-iron supports like a giant jungle gym. Here, the purple Ruins stone seemed to intermix with more alien blue-black architecture not unlike that of Dirtmouth. It went down a long way, full of hanging chains and gently pulsing fireflies, but among the mists and bulbous shapes along the cavern walls she spotted more pieces of paper, and a distant humming welled up from far below. The scraps seemed to lead toward it, a literal paper trail, and given her intel from Iselda Nadia could guess what. She turned back to look at the other Seekers following her and waved, pointing downward. “Here’s a way deeper in. I heard there might be a mapmaker named Cornifer down here too, so we oughta see where these papers lead!” she called.

When she turned around, however, the Froggit was far ahead. Couldn’t be helped given the importance of a possible map find, but now Nadia really needed to book it to catch up. She took a deep breath and sprinted after it.

---

“Toriel, Toriel!” a little voice called, echoing through the silence of the Temple of the Black Egg. The goat lady looked up, taken by surprise; she’d only crossed about half the room since leaving Ganondorf to his lonesome imprisonment, and had been looking forward to a quiet walk through the ruins to put together her thoughts. Instead she found a Froggit racing toward her. “There’s killers on the loose! Th-they got Juni, and Ang, and Idea, and-and Zzap!”

Toriel’s tray clattered to the floor, the plates and porcelain cup shattering with more noise than the Temple had ever known. “What!? Intruders!?”

“Yeah! Stiggy and the others, they’re gonna hold ‘em off, but…” Froggit broke out crying. “The others were way stronger! If the intruders took them out, Stiggy and the Loox are next! Then it’s us, ‘cause they’re coming here!”

Toriel clutched at her heart, her breathing panicked. “They must be coming…to free the King of Evil!” Clenching her jaw, she took hold of the Water Sage’s Sword and pulled it from its sheath. Can I really beat enemies stronger than the likes of Dizy and Stuffed? She turned slowly, her eyes on Ganondorf. Despair welled up inside her. Maybe not, she thought, tightening her grip as she approached the prisoner. But I have to do something…

She stopped just a few feet away from Ganondorf, her anguish plain to see on her face. “...I’m sorry,” she told him. “But I can’t let the King of Evil go free. Not if it’ll give rise to more murder and suffering. If I can’t stop them freeing you…” she took her sword in both hands and lifted it up, her movements hesitant with palpable regret. “I have to…!”

At that moment Nadia sprinted into the cavern and slid to a stop, taken aback by the scenery–by the vast chamber, the dangling lights, the Black Egg, and the man cruelly chained across its entrance. “Holy mackerel, this place…!” she exclaimed. Her eyes fell on Toriel, Froggit, and Ganondorf. “Eggs-cuse me~?”

Distracted, Toriel lowered her guard and whirled around, her eyes all too easily averted from the killer enchained before her.



As Band followed Lucia through the police station, he couldn’t help but notice the overt lack of hospitality among the other officers. There seemed to be no shortage of them keeping warm in here among the desks and lockers rather than out on the town. While Band hardly expected them to roll out the red carpet for anyone, let alone a lawman from another precinct, they seemed determined to make him feel unwelcome with a mixture of stares, glowers, and curled lips. Conversely, a number of them let their eyes rove over Lucia with brazen salaciousness. Band made a conscious effort to keep his face from tightening until he left the open area of the station behind, stomping through dimly-lit halls to find the police chief.

Soon after the surreptitious whispers and leering chuckles faded away into the background, a strange new sound replaced them from up ahead. It sounded like someone stretching or ripping coarse, stiff fabric, either burlap or something equally fibrous. As it grew louder, clearly coming from the office to which Band and Lucia were headed, the detective picked up on another sound beneath it: heavy, labored breathing, less like someone hyperventilating from exhaustion and more like a ravenous feaster gasping for breath between gluttonous mouthfuls of food. Undeterred, Lucia knocked on the door, then opened it up and stepped inside.

Once Band bent down to follow her through, he stood up to see a huge office absolutely stuffed with taxidermied animals. Wolf, deer, armadillo, buffalo, raccoon, and more all stared down from their trophy stands and wall mounts, their eyes glassy and lifeless. Other lavish decorations filled the place, from ornate rugs to heavy wooden desks and tables of antique style. Band took it in listlessly. It smelled of chemicals in here. Wonder if the cityfolk appreciate how their tax dollars are being spent, he thought. In front of the long window, silhouetted by the pale afternoon light that poured through it, was a heavyset man with short gray hair bent over a table blanketed in lengths of hide and cloudlike heaps of cotton. Back turned to his guests, he continued to jam stuffing into the hide before him, then sew up the seams bit by bit.

“Ch-chief Iyans,” Lucia hailed him, her voice more tentative than before. “Detective Bahdland to see ya, sah.”

Band stepped forward. “Afternoon, sir. How d’you do?”

Without turning around, Irons responded in a gruff tone. “Detective Bahdland, huh?” he asked, mimicking Lucia’s accent in a mocking tone. “Don’t recognize that one. You from out of town, Bahdland?”

“That’s correct.” Band bristled slightly, but kept his tone even. “N.M.P.D. I’ve been sent here to help with…a major ongoing case.”

“That right?” Chief Irons turned around for the first time, revealing a mustache and sagging features. His face already looked dour, as if begrudging the interruption, but once he looked the newcomer up and down his eyes turned hard and flinty. He glanced over at Lucia in annoyance, like she’d wasted his time, and let go of his tools. “You can go now, dollface,” he told her coldly as he made his way toward his desk.

Lucia cleared her throat and clasped her hands behind her back. “With all due respect, sah, I’m a detective too. If theah’s somethin’ big goin’ on, I wanna help.”

After seating himself, Irons glared at her. “Really? Could’ve fooled me, with all the time you spend playing cowboy. Since it seems like you’ve forgotten, let me remind you: you’re on desk duty ‘til you’ve gotten a handle on that hothead of yours. Then again, maybe a demotion to meter maid out in the snow would cool you off faster. How about it?”

Rubbing her arm in agitation, Lucia looked down at the floor. “N-no, sah. Sorry, sah. I’ll just, uh, get back to my desk.”

“Then get going,” Irons told her. “And don’t make me tell you again.”

“Yes, sah.” She gave Band an apologetic look for not being able to help him more, then beat a hasty retreat.

“And grab me a fresh cup of ‘kwaffy’ while you’re at it!” the police chief called after her as he watched her leave, then leaned back in his desk chair with his arms crossed. He turned toward Band. “So, big fella. Here to help, huh? Well, it’s kind of you to offer, having come all this way. Maybe we don’t need any help. Especially from outsiders. Maybe we’ve got the situation perfectly under control here, and everything’s just fine. So you can just take it easy. Enjoy the city, and when you go back, tell whoever sent you the E.M.P.D. has things covered.”

Band inhaled through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth. “I see, I see. Well, that is a relief. Got things well in hand, hm? I’ll just let the brass know Chief Irons has it all handled, then.” He took a good look around the office, studying the police chief’s choice in decor. Something occurred to him that he’d mentally glossed over before. “Ah, sorry,” he apologized after a moment. “Couldn’t help but notice…you’ve got quite the collection here, sir. Must be a man of great taste.”

Irons raised an eyebrow. “Caught your eye, hm? I’m surprised. Most folks see my collection here and turn up their noses. Too dull or squeamish to appreciate it. You into the art of taxidermy, uh, Birdland, was it?”

“Oh, just call me Band,” the detective said, noting the instant attitude shift once he brought up what he rightly guessed must be Irons’ favorite subject. He chose his next words carefully. “I can recognize quality wherever I see it, sir,” he said. “Stuff like music, though, it’s dime-a-dozen. It’s rare I get the honor to meet a master of this. ‘Specially since the animals melt away into ash the minute you kill ‘em off.”

Irons groaned, rolling his eyes. “Ugh, a pain in the damn ass, isn’t it? I don’t remember when it started happening, but I remember being on a hunting trip on the mainland. Shot a deer, went to slice its belly open, but before its warm guts even spilled out the whole carcass was up in smoke. But I found a way around.”

Now Band raised an eyebrow. “Now ain’t that something. Just as I’d expect of Chief Irons. Don’t suppose you’d care to drop a hint for…a fellow stitcher, tryin’ to follow in your footsteps?”

“Well, it’s not really a secret,” Irons shrugged, pulling a cigar from his desk drawer. “Litany of Proper Death, it’s called. There’s this…” He shook his head dismissively. “Order of monks or some bologna, I dunno, but their hocus-pocus is the real deal. They go out with hunting parties all the time, and once they do their little magic tricks everything starts dying like it’s supposed to.” His eyes rested on his new hides as he heaved a heavy sigh. “Looks like these’re gonna have to last me a while, though.”

Still grappling with the new information, Band tucked the new thread away and reached out for the next as fast as he could. “Why’s that, Chief? Magic stop workin’?”

“More like the damn clerics did,” Irons grumbled. “Right after I got my last shipment from the Fishing Village a couple days back, all the shit with the skeletons at night got started. Made all the clerics go cuckoo, ranting about the living dead and whatnot.” He suddenly turned back to Band, eying Band suspiciously. “Hey, we have it under control though, got it? Don’t go sticking that big nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Band’s eyebrow twitched as he gave a thin smile. His mind was racing in overdrive. “Of course. Perish the thought. Just realizin’ I probably ought to tuck in early.”

“Or leave before nightfall,” Irons not-so-subtly suggested.

“That works too.” Band gave a slight bow of his head, then turned to go. “Thank ya for your time…Chief.”

Irons watched him go, drumming his fingers on his desk as the gears turned. After a good few moments he heard the front door close, at which point he hit a buzzer on his desk. “...Stryker. Nightingale. Byte. Get in here.”

Soon, three officers stood side by side in his office. One was an ex-FBI agent who looked unkempt and unwell. Another, surly and muscular, was a hard-faced riot cop. The last was a blue and yellow machine, part clockwork, part magic, and one hundred percent loyal. Irons sized them up one by one. “Looks like we’ve got someone poking around on our turf, boys. Keep an eye on him, will you? And if he overstays his welcome…well, escort him out of the city. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” the three chorused, saluting. They filed out of the office, closed the door behind them, and made for the armory. Once alone, Irons stood to head over to his taxidermy table and resume his work.

Outside in the hall, Lucia poked her head out from behind the corner, a coffee pot held in one hand and a fed-up look on her face. When the sound of stitching began again, she hurried down the hall to her desk, where she left the coffee pot. From the closet by the front door she pulled a heavy winter coat, threw it on, then hustled out into the cold.

With the fight over, and all of those ugly, hideous monsters gone, Sectonia and her allies could only get a little bit of rest before a few more monsters came wandering up. These monsters however were... Weak. Like, super weak. So weak that Nadia just ignored getting hit by one and she wasn't the most durable one here. With Bowser and his family healing up, and Nadia having dashed off to intercept the one mosnter that was apparently calling their 'boss', Sectonia moved to deal with these little monsters.

Summoning her Chaos Shield, Sectonia went through the monster's weird attacks. She noticed pretty quickly however that she didn't need her shield, as these attacks barely even registered on her carapace without it, and with it? Well, she did have an idea... "You know, I think instead of destroying these monsters, perhaps since these ones can talk, we could get some information from them instead. They aren't as hideous as the other ones after all." Having said that, not even paying attention to the weak attacks of the other monsters, Sectonia grabbed the Loox and Astigmatism and summoned her striker, Natashia.

"Yeah boss?" The blue secretary said, fixing her shades. "Do your thing to these two, lets see what information they have.", Sectonia commanded, with Natasia giving a simple "kay" before moving to each monster that was being held by the Queen bee. As she touched the monster, it screamed in pain as a red ring appeared around it, and while they tried to struggle free, Sectonia kept them pinned while Natashia did her work. Not even half a minute later, both creatures were under Natashia's mind control, and with them under her control, they stopped struggling. With her job done, she said. "Right. You'll now serve Queen Sectonia. Be a good team player, k'ay?" before disappearing and with that, Sectonia let both monsters go who ceased their attacks saying. "Hail Sectonia!"

Gesturing to the rest of the group, Sectonia said. "These are also your new friends. Be delightful little serfs and answer any questions I or they have." With that, Sectonia flew back to the group, her new two monster minions following her. It was clear they wouldn't disobey the bee queen, but besides that, they seemed to be their selves.

And with that combat was over, at least for now. Sectonia asked her two new little serf monsters to explain themselves and why they attacked the group, and where there little frog friend was going and who their 'boss' was. Those creatures answered, saying that they attacked only because the seekers attacked the other monsters and this is where they live and following up explaining Toriel was the boss of the ruins they were talking about.

With that all sorted Sectonia pulled out her Mark of Avarice, telling those who didn't know about it what it did and the rules involved with it. Although since the koopa troop weren't her minions, she made special rules for their group where they'd have to pay with something upfront as they weren't her minions. Sectonia also put the scythe she had claimed from her journey above to the pile of spirits, offering it to any of her minions who could make use of it.

After Toriel's departure, Ganondorf once again found himself alone. As usual, there was little to do but think. At least now he knew a little bit more about his captors. Not as much about the Consul, other than simply confirming his presumptions that they were likely just a child. But he now more about Toriel than he had learned in the two months worth of visits from her. And he was fairly certain he had managed to intimidate her, despite his chains. Not bad, for a supposedly powerless prisoner chained to a wall. But what of any of it? What good would this do him unless he were to get freed? He looked down at the Triforce embedded in his right hand, it's faint golden glow pulsated a bit. It's power was growing, but not as quickly as he would like. Whoever had placed him here had actually managed to dampen the powers of the Triforce, a feat not easily accomplished. He would need to investigate this matter, find a way to restore the Triforce's lost strength before he would have any hope of getting his revenge.

And that was when he heard it. It sounded a bit faint, coming from some distance away, but was unmistakable. Combat. Someone was fighting a battle, and some of it sounded like it was gradually making it's way toward his location. Intruders... perhaps someone Ganondorf could convince to free him? Or at least get close enough for him to try and take their power for his own in some way. But in the distance he spotted the vague shape of smaller monsters scurrying off in the direction that Toriel went. Damn it, that would complicate things. If she turned around and came back, she could be a threat with the White Sword she carried. Then again, perhaps the intruders would take care of her for him? For now he decided it was better to let things play out on their own.

Sure enough, he spotted Toriel heading back his way. This time her hand rested on the hilt of the White Sword. Her intentions were clear. She'd rather kill him herself than let any of the intruders free him. In that case, Ganondorf's hand would be forced. But could he muster enough power to break free and strike her down? Even if he did, he was without a happen and she could strike him with the White Sword before he could close enough to her. Damn, what other way did Ganondorf have to get out of this?

And then, as if by a miracle. His chance presented itself. Someone, a girl, came sprinting onto the scene. Who she was mattered not. The only thing that did matter was that her arrival caused Toriel to spin around, turning her back on the King of Evil.



This was never his intention. Ganondorf's plan had always been to break himself free when she wasn't around and simply leave her to her loneliness. No reason to senselessly kill the woman who had taken it upon herself to heal his mortal injury and keep him fed all this time. But no, she just had to come back. If she'd just kept on walking, not turned this into a choice between him and her. But it was far too late for "could haves" or "should haves". She'd made this choice, and she'd made her mistake. There was no turning back.

The man clenched his right hand into a fist. All at once the golden glow of the Triforce on his right hand erupted with a bright glow of power and strength. With that strength, the Great King of Evil sprang to his feet and lunged forward. The chains holding him back had no sway over the Triforce of Power, and they shattered as Ganondorf's muscular form reached out for the woman whose back had turned. Whether she heard him and tried to turn around didn't matter. With his immense strength he grabbed the wrist of her sword-hand and twisted. Not enough to break bones, but easily enough to loosen her grip and wrestle the White Sword from her grasp. When she looked at the now armed and escaped prisoner she did not see an angry snarl or a wicked grin. Instead she saw only a pained grimace on his face. "I told you this prison would not hold me. You shouldn't have turned back."

After this came a single mighty swing. The White Sword came down on its previous owner with a single, powerful diagonal slash across her body. Surprisingly, there was no blood, despite the ghastly cut across her torso. Instead she slowly dissolved into white ash. With her life gone, Toriel became reduced to little more than motes of prismatic light bearing an image of her in the center. But Ganondorf would not extend his cruelty to her spirit. Rather than destroy it, he merely held onto it. Perhaps he could find a way to give the lonely woman some manner of peace once he had left this dreadful place. After this, he slowly walked to the chest several meters way from the spot he had been chained. He raised the White Sword and used it to destroy the lock. Once the chest opened, Ganondorf reached in and reclaimed his sword and added it to his now growing collection of spoils.

Only now did he look to the girl Nadia, "You have my thanks. I never would have gotten the jump on her if you had not distracted her for me." he said with a wicked smile, "As a token of my gratitude, I shall grant you one favor that you may ask of me at any time you see fit. I suggest you not waste it, for I shall not give you a second one."

---

---

Well, that was surprising.

A little snippet of what had happened came back to him.

"All I really want is to get ho-"

The Adventurer froze, watching as a towering green monstrosity rose up seemingly out of nowhere. He mentally catalogued all of the huge enemies from the dungeon, but there was nothing that came to mind. Large, and red pustules covered it's body. Well, not red, but a specific color only rich people knew the name of. "That's not at all good. How about a truce, because I have no delusions that I'm going to get out of this alive without help."

He rose to his feet and dropped the heavy sword, taking out his crossbow and loading it. "I'm assuming those bulbs contain most of the organs within their body." He looked at the crude crossbow he was holding and his face kind of wrinkled. It's been so long since I've held this. Wonder if I even know how to fire it? He sighed. "If there are any weapons you have to spare, I'd be happy to take them." He said, turning to fire his weapon into a tree. Unsurprisingly, inexperience with the shabby mechanism caused him to miss by a lot.

"Fucking perfect. Amazing. I'm up against the biggest thing I've ever seen and all I know how to use is this tiny sword. Maybe....I'll let you handle this one."

The Adventurer came to and found himself face to face with a small child. He must have been healed by him. "I don't give gratitude to those that expect it. Maybe try being a bit less bratty, and we'll see where it lands." He stood up and brushed off his worn scarf and armor, before turning away from the group. "Whatever. I'm not really interested in the conflict, but who were those people anyway? To be frank, I'm not totally sure how I got here myself." he said, standing up in the bed of flowers.

Come to think of it, I don't remember much. My armor and weapons are all low level pieces of garbage, and I don't understand any of this. Perhaps I must complete the goal of this...strange summon to return. I'm sure there are many things to learn about this.... He paused. About this world of...light, perhaps. These strangers seem animated, more so than those I've interacted with in the past since coming to this land. Perhaps, like me, they are also displaced.

"Erm...I will admit, I was lying a bit when I said I didn't know how I got here. I was going to slay the Demon Lord, and when I arrived, I saw them...they were burnt to a crisp by a strange, cold light. It seemed to take up the whole room I was standing in. I felt an evil presence in the light indeed, and entered to slay what was in it. I assumed my eyes would then fall upon the true villain, but for long after, all was black."

"I eventually came to at the Barge, in what can only be described as a second story gardener's shack for all it's amenities. I got into a fight with a shopkeeper recently though, I think, so I might not be very welcome here anymore. Must have got me this though, so not all bad." he finished, putting down and smiling at his long sword. That thing was starting to get heavy on his arms without a sheath to wear it on his back.

The Adventurer stopped and thought for a moment, deciding that it was better to make friends than enemies. "I am known as the Adventurer, in my world at least. I regularly partake in missions for the king, and my latest was to put a stop to Dungreed, a dungeon that swallows all it can trap. Many friends have been lost in those halls, and that's why it's so important that I stop it. I'm only telling you this because I don't think anyone else can help, and I really need it."

Time to get some answers.

He stood up and pointed his Zweihander at the small boy. "I've told you all there is to know about me. You. If you really want thanks, tell me where I am, who you are, and what the hell is happening. Please." he sighed, withdrawing his blade and maneuvered it so that he was leaning upon the flat of the pommel, as the weapon was easily as tall as he.

---

OOG: Sorry for the wait!

It had been quite the kerfuffle indeed, and Karin Kanzuki suddenly found herself in a hurry. The Seekers were on the run from the law. Karin followed the sound of Peach’s recognizable- if unbefitting- gunfire. ”I was hoping to have a little more time to relax but-” Karin fired her grappling hook and pulled herself over an entire row of buildings, landing with a flourish at the loading bay of trucks. ”I find myself relaxed and ready to engage nonetheless. Tally ho, Seekers!” She quickly put together that they had convened with some kind of Seeker cell within the city that had organized their transport.

”Very well. This shall do for a quick escape.” Karin said, a single elegant hop carrying her to the roof of one of the trucks. A few more hops later and she was towards the front of the fleet. Her golden eyes scanned the Seekers. But it wasn’t long before she spotted her friend Sakura on the front of a motorcycle, the Princess Midna there as well. Sakura had found much more success than Karin had in terms of finding transportation, that for sure, but as to where she procured that motorcycle Karin could only assume she beat someone up for it.

”These cops are creepy.” Sakura said to Midna as they rode past them. She followed the havoc, winding between fleeing people and glimpses of fleeing Seekers, blowing past the pursuing G-Men in the process.

Midna had no idea what a ‘cop’ was specifically, but she had to agree. Whatever peril the rest of the team had wound up stirring, it certainly had an ugly face.

”Looks like we’re taking the trucks after all, Midna-san!” She said, pulling to a stop and waiting for them to get moving. ”This is- um, not-” She tried to find the word. ”-subtle.”

”You don’t say”

”But that’s okay. Looks like we made some new friends!”

It was close- the G-Men almost caught up. But the convoy started at the last second and Sakura peeled away from the town and into the wilderness on her motorbike, with Midna has a passenger. The trucks were on the move. Sakura moved with Midna to the front of the pack, though if the Princess wanted to she could move wherever she liked. Sakura wished they had enough time to put some of the motorcycles down, but they were run out of town by the authorities before then.

She pulled up alongside one of the front trucks where Karin was standing.

”Karin!” She shouted up to her, waving and grinning behind her new green goggles.

”Greetings, Sakura! I see you fared rather well. I offer my congratulations. I merely procured some tea in our time apart.” Karin said, her hair blowing majestically in the wind.

”I got six radios and four motorbikes! All of ‘em are in Midna’s magic pocket. ‘Cept for this motorbike I’m on right now.”

”You could have done worse, you could have stirred up whatever trouble this is” Midna called up, before joking ”Really, you can’t leave some people alone for five minutes without them picking a fight huh” before she leapt off of the back of Sakura’s bike, floated up to truck Karin was on and proceed to dump the three remaining bikes onto it to be picked up by the others if they wanted them.

”Oh, and, nice to meet you of course” she turned to the second street fighter to say, before adding ”and I take it the two of you already know each other?”

”The pleasure is all mine. Indeed, Sakura and I, Karin Kanzuki, are friendly rivals.” Karin said. She glanced down at the bikes Midna had placed on the roof of the truck.

”Impressive, no doubt, but…” She looked at the ground speeding along underneath them. ”I’m not entirely sure how we’re supposed to get on one now, unless your magic can accommodate.”

”I could do it like this” Midna said, as she brought out her shadow hand, picked up a bike and then lowered it to the ground carefully, using her magical might to stop it getting ripped backwards upon contact with the ground and instead making it drive sidecar next to the truck for a little bit before picking it back up and popping it back in the pile.

”See, totally safe… anyone want one?”

After the princess made her offer, Karin glanced over Midna’s shoulder and to the horizon, where she spotted the oncoming enforcers. ”Hmph. It seems we have company. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass for now.” She adjusted the grapple gun on her bare arm. ”I’ll be more useful on foot.”

”...So, uh, what are you guys talking about?” Sakura asked awkwardly from her moving motorcycle below.

”It’s a ….. Bus!” Midna said after taking a moment to remember the word while pointing over at it ”And it’s not full of children”

No, it contained something much worse. Demons. Because that is apparently what the G-men truly were. That said, despite looking far more dangerous, many of them still maintained the absurdity of their disguise forms, the most bizarre of which Midna could not keep her mouth shut about ”That one’s riding a toilet? What’s it going to do …” she paused her mockery as realization and unwanted mental imagery flared in her mind and she cried out in a mix of horror and disgust ”oh goddesses, what is it going to do?!”

Sakura glanced over her shoulder, a nervous look plain on her face despite the goggles covering her eyes and eyebrows. ”Oh, man. This is going to be really dangerous. And not in a fun way. Can’t we just get a break? I guess- I guess I’d be more worried about the toilet guy if he wasn’t on a toilet.” She mused optimistically, before looking back where she was going.

”I wish I had your lack of imagination” Midna said as she crouched down on the top of the truck and got herself armed.

Karin jumped herself to the truck closer to the rear, nearer to the fight. ”I shall engage the enemy defensively, preventing them from harming our ranged allies. With my grapple hook I’ll maneuver myself easily, and if necessary, save anyone from falling too far behind should they lose their balance.”

”Sounds like a plan. As for me, let’s see if I can get this to work” the princess said, as she hoisted up a wide barreled musket she had stolen from one of the cat snipers, took aim … and then completely wiffed her first attempt at trying to shoot with it.

”Pfft-” Sakura covered her mouth and averted her eyes.

” … ”

There was a moment of silence as she tried to work out how to reload it, failed, and then just pointed in their foes and commanded ”Beast’s to me”

Two twilight portals opened up, divulging her mecha bear from one, and her Vibrava from the other, the insect increased to a size more befitting of its dragon typing. The massive false bug flew to a nearby truck, gripped it, and unfurled its wings before vibrating them in such a way that it sent a wall of ear bleeding sound as it used bugbuzz on the entire demon horde.

Back on the truck with Karin, Midna hopped up onto the back of the mecha bear, manning its back mounted cannon, swiveled it, aimed and then, before firing, commanded ”Javalins! Take out that toilet!” such that when she let rip with the cyborgs cannon, sending one of Bowser Junior’s fiery goop filled swoopin stu’s blasting out towards the twelve-foot demon, her shot was joined by a volley of 4 icy spears and 3 spears of psychic energy from her assorted strikers

Karin watched, eagerly anticipating the impact. ”An impressive barrage! Let’s see how they handle it.”

After the Troop had finished ripping up thanksgiving dinner they gathered together and bathed in more of Jr’s Medica pulses and some targeted Cures to patch up the worst of their wounds from the fight. The former of these magics seemed to catch a certain fellow in a cloak who Jr had not realized had followed after them till the moment he picked himself out the flower bed and quickly made himself the prince’s problem.

That’s what good deeds got you, the boy guessed. Specifically it got you no thanks, sass, a backstory, and a pile of questions

”We’re the seekers, and we’re” the boy’s explanation as to what they were doing, namely working their way up to slaying galeem, proceed to just slide off of the galeeming man’s think pan without him noticing it had happened due to that great multiverse destroying glowball’s curse, before the boy concluded with ”and your now at the bottom of a pit full of monsters”

”The creatively named ‘under’ … or ‘underground’ according to F, the one who dropped us down here” Kamek interjected

”F? What kind of a name is that?!” Jr asked, to which Kamek just shrugged, leaving Jr to turn his focus back to the self-titled Adventurer and saying ”Well whatever. Long story short, your ways home are up” he stabbed a finger up to the massive tunnel they’d fallen down, and then moved it to point vaguely in the direction the monsters had come from ”or uh… somewhere down there?”

”I believe there is another train station somewhere deep down below that we were meant to go straight to before we were redirected up to dirtmouth … which I am going to blame F for as well” Kamek helpfully informed them both

”Right. So… I guess you can stick with us, if you're useful in a fight. Or as monster bait. Either works. Or you can go wander off and face that on your own” Jr concluded, jabbing a thumb over his shoulders at the monsters.

Unfortunately his point was slightly undermined by what he ended up pointing at was Bowser laughing in the face of one of the little monochrome monsters due to how pathetic they were, followed by them being effortlessly mind controlled by Sectonia.

”… Look, the ones that we're here before you woke up were way scarier, trust me. Here see …” he held up the spirit of the monster the troop had killed, and, well, let us just say that the fork welding turkey was not very intimidating either in this diminished state

”Look, unless you are some legendary butt kicker, you don’t wanna go out there on your own if you wanna live … and if you are a legendary butt kicker we could kinda use you on the team” Jr said, but ultimately it was up to the adventurer.

Speaking of going off on your own, that was exactly what Bowser realized Nadia had done (after he was done picking on the Loox that was) which had him a bit worried.

”I’m going after Ms. Fortune!” he announced after a few moments thought, which Rika quickly followed with a ”Me too!” before she went thruster boosting off into the darkness after the cat girl, leaving the king to go stomping on after her, the ship girl easily track-able due to the pair of torches glowing in her Brachydios styled rifle gauntlet’s eyes.

They almost caught up with their flighty feline at the fragile platform filled cavern due to her getting distracted by bits of paper (that the pursuing pair had no idea what the deal with was), but then got left behind again as the aforementioned fragileness of the platforms resulted in one or two… interior redecoration moments when heavy turtle dragon met architecture made for light bugs.

As a result, when the huffing king and not at all winded ship girl arrived the bout of misfortune was already over. The kind guardian of the ruins was dead, and the evil king was free, not that they knew anything about the character of the former. They were, however, just in time to hear the genie Nadia had apparently freed from the bottle offer her a favor in return for freeing him.

Bowser gave a single gawf of a laugh at hearing it, kinda undermining the moment a bit, before commenting ”Classic stuff from an unbottled evil. Bit overdone maybe. 7/10. Good to see you're still on form Ganondorf” with just a little bit of sass.

”Huh, you know this guy?” Rika asked, while giving the king an odd look.

”Yeah we go back a bit. One of the smash crew. Oh and Link’s nemesis too” Bowser said, before remembering one important detail regarding their prior interactions that caused his brow to furrow. Then a moment later the expression was gone and, with a fair bit of cheer, the king actually said hello to the familiar fellow ”So yeah hey there, my ol partner in crime, how’s this hole the ground treating you?”

It was a good thing that Peach decided to let loose a huge blast into the air, because Raz wasn't really sure which way the Trade Depot was from where they ended up. Following the shrieking flare Raz and Roxas turned the corner of a warehouse just in time to see the rest of their friends clambering up onto a fleet of trucks right as they began to pull out.

"Gotta book it!" Raz started for the trucks, vaulting onto his Levball mid-run as he spotted another group of G-Men after the others. Three big bounds across the pavement, and a bounce off of a moving forklift ("That'll buff out!") sent him careening across the depot, over the grasping hands of a few of the faster G-Men, to finally land atop one of the last trucks to leave. Not a graceful landing either; the momentum threatened to send him flying right off again so Raz had to de-levitate on the move, which made him tumble and flip across the roof of the truck before finally skidding to a stop on his face.

"Uuogh," Raz groaned as he lifted himself up. "...still got it."

Their trip to Midgar began for real now. The top of a bunch of trucks wasn't the most comfortable form of travel, but at least it have them all a great view of the scenery. Raz kept low, sitting on the roof of the truck's cabin, back against the trailer, to keep the wind from knocking him off. The path the trucks took was pretty bumpy, sending their trailers bouncing left and right whenever they weren't on one of those sections of roads, though luckily Raz could handle some turbulence.

Speaking of turbulence...

"Who the heck is that guy?!" Raz shouted to the others over the rushing wind as he stood, ready for the fight. The spectacled man with the shield was in charge of the G-Men it seemed, but it wasn't anybody Raz knew. "Oh, this should be easy," he tempted fate, taking a little combat stance so he could wallop these fedora-wearing fools. That is, until they exploded.

"Whaoh! Okay, they didn't do that where I came from!" Raz somersaulted away from the heavy hammer of Ippon-Datara as it came down on him, leaping between one truck to the other in order to dodge. "Looks like it's time to get schooled!" He nailed his attacker with three well-placed Psiblasts aimed at its broad chest. "Get it? Because they came out of that school bus? That works, right?" Raz's would have to workshop his one-liners another time, since the little alien-looking guy in the floating pot zoomed in close to him, the air crackling with electricity. It tried to nail Raz with tiny lightning bolts, forcing the Psychonaut on his toes, jumping to and fro in a little jig to avoid the shocks. "Hey, hey, watch it!" Fingers to temple, Raz grabbed Agathion with his TK, the large glowing hand holding the thing in its pot like he'd caught a spider in a jar.

"Batters up, anyone?" He called to the others, focusing on keeping the Shadow still, despite its best efforts jerking it back and forth in the air.

---

While Gutsford couldn't exactly be described as a sleepy town, it also wasn't anywhere close to a noisy metropolis. So when there came a hellish scream from back in the direction Pit had originally come from, it was impossible not to hear. The sudden noise spooked him from his leisurely exploration of the city and he jumped to attention. A signal from Princess Peach! And it sounded like it'd come from the trade depot. Maybe she'd ended up there and came to the same conclusion he had about stowing away?

Pit wasted no time in started back toward the depot, breaking into a run more in anticipation of moving on than with any sense of danger. When he arrived he found the majority of the Seekers already gathered there and... in various states of exhaustion. Plus there were some strangers with them, people who Pit could only assume were new allies. They were all scrambling up onto the tops of the trucks and Pit hopped up to join them as the vehicles began pulling away from the depot. The more frantic of the group started calming down, and Poppi made a comment that things had been getting dangerous.

"What happened?" he asked curiously, tilting his head. Obviously the others had a more exciting time in town than he did. The one to respond to his question was a newcomer, and the woman promised to fill everyone else in at a later point. She also mentioned they stay away from any "G-men," which Pit had no idea what she meant by that, and something about a chopper.

"Chopper...?" he started to ask, the phrase only vaguely familiar to him due to mingling with people from other worlds semi-frequently. Then his face lit up as he realized what she was talking about.

"Oooh are we gonna ride a helicopter into the city? So cool, like an action movie!" Of course that was putting aside that his own life was chock-full of action already, and he'd played the hero in it plenty of times.

Enjoying the feeling of the wind, Pit looked ahead to Midgar towering in the distance and then around at the dry landscape. He barely had time to even think about making himself comfortable and getting more of the story about what the Seekers had been up to within Gutsford before his action movie wishes came true even sooner than expected.

A school bus was hot on their tail. That was strange enough, but then an older man and a bunch of red-eyed weirdos in hats and coats climbed out from the hatch on top. What's with these guys? Pit thought, though as usual no one responded to his thoughts. He fixed the newly arrived bus and it's passengers with an odd look right up until the man - who seemed to be in charge of that group - spoke up.

"Under arrest?!" Pit squawked, completely taken by surprise. He expected some kind of villainous monologue, not that. "You've got the wrong people, we're innocent!" he shouted back to Benedict, before rounding on the other Seekers and loudly whispering "What did you guys do?!"

Unsurprisingly Pit's bid of innocence did not sway their pursuers especially with Giovanna's provocation. The crew backed away from the bus full of enemies as much as they could before the trench-coated men suddenly transformed. They'd given off a weird vibe before, but now it was doubly so. Their demonic forms ranged from the more humanoid to the strange, including a skull-faced angel and a devil on a toilet.

"Gross!" he said, echoing Midna's feelings on the monster. They had boarded the rear trucks and spread out much like the Seekers had, with their heavy hitters in the front and their casters in the back. Getting around the vanguard had never been a problem for Pit before, and his bow was already forming in his hands.

Light arrows whizzed by Karin, Midna, and the rest of the two front lines as they streaked around to target Atropos, Trumpeter, and Agathion. A few volleys to hopefully interrupt whatever spells they'd been planning to unleash just before the melee attackers moved in. And then a few more for good measure! Leaving the rest of the demons to the other Seekers for now he widened his target area to include Sandman, hopping up into the air a few times to get a better starting position for his arrows so they'd have an easier time zigzagging and arcing toward their targets. He'd thought it was going well until a poorly timed jumped ended with a clang a sharp, if brief, pain in the back of Pit's head as he collided with an interstate sign posted over the roadway.

Owwww. He held in his little noise of pain and hopped back up after being momentarily knocked down. He noted that he'd seemed to have been sent sideways onto one of the other trucks, finding himself on the same one as Razputin. The psychic was engaged in his own battle already, and managed to trap the smallest of their foes with his power.

"I'll take you up on that!" The angel told Raz. He had just the perfect move too, if the slight tingling in his arm was an indication that this particular power had come back to him at just the right time. Pit dashed forward toward Raz's captive, and as he did so his left arm shimmered until it was fully encased in metallic red and gold, with a colorful disc at the end. He winded up his attack, bringing his arm low and then swinging it up toward Agathion.

"Fore!" he shouted as the disc struck the suspended shadow and with a mighty crack sent the potted devil flying into the distance.

The situation was anything but ideal, these individuals, likely a third party to the machinations of the redheaded woman he was after, were definitely under the impression that he was the 'bad guy' in this whole scenario. It made him sigh, couldn't they see that it was folly to blindly follow someone with nary an idea of their true intentions? Benedict was shaken from his thoughts as a bright volly of arrows whizzed by striking the demonic agents, he wobbled slightly as the bus jostled on the old dusty road.

Still sore from the force of whatever magic the man who called himself Geralt had employed, Benedict winced as he righted himself by the butt of his sword cane's sheath. He was convinced the man could have simply killed him yet the so-called White Wolf did not deign to draw his steel, of which the odd fellow sheathed upon his back instead of strapped to his side. But such thoughts were best saved for after a skirmish, thus he adjusted the rims of his spectacles, and for but a moment they glinted red as he took a readied stance with one hand holding his blade aloft while the other held the shield.

"No harm should come to the vehicles," his throat hoarse from needing to shout over the din of the truck convoy, having to fight the wind that whipped against him as the chase ensued "We can suffer no collateral damages." the convoy while still harboring the suspects was still a utility of Midgar and damaging the vehicles would be as much a bane as a boon at the moment.

While he may certainly be a member of Midgar's public security division he was still a man of reason, Benedict could tell just at a glance these people were formidable thus he took a deep breath and spoke "I know not who you people are," taking a shaky step forward shouting to the people gathered at the rear of the convoy "Or why you associate yourselves with these seditionists, but I cannot allow you to pass through Midar without knowing your intentions." maybe if they could see reason, all sides could win or if not they would turn over the woman he was after "Midgar already suffers from outside threats daily, the woman you choose to be party to should know this all too well."

Right or wrong, for better or worse he was simply trying to get the point across that maybe the Seekers were associating with the wrong people. This woman may have decided to follow another's example but she hadn't followed the proper channels to just disappear without a fuss, but that was above his knowledge and he only knew that she was the cause of trouble in Midgar. For better or worse, he was going to take control of this situation...

Yet if they would not see reason, Benedict would make them understand. By force if necessary.

Being the group that could fly, Blazermate and Susie were the first ones to arrive at their destination in the trade depot, trucks they'd use to get into the city proper. The two robot girls sat and waited on top of their truck for the others to make it there, with the others running at full sprint and making it in time, being chased by the G men. As they got onto the trucks, the trucks left the depot after some weird mumblings from those loading the trucks. This left the G men in the dust, at least, thats what should've happened....

But once they were on their way, the boss of the G men appeared as a group of G men came driving a school bus(?), and commanded the G men to transform into their REAL forms. Susie had thought these things were just stupid, but they apparently were playing stupid which was... better? worse? Still, considering what these demons looked like, Midna and pit commenting on the one riding a toilet, that wasn't here or there. And much like Midna and Pit, Susie and Blazermate were disgusted at that thing, but unlike Midna, hid their disgust behind getting ready to fight these demons with Blazermate summoning her engineer striker so that he'd make his buildings while she began to overheal everyone and charge up her shield and uber. Blazermate's engineer able to make his sentry and beginning to make his dispenser before he upgraded the sentry to level 2 and 3. Susie meanwhile summoned her business suit, only realizing afterwords all she could do was use it as a weapons platform as the suit would be left in the dust as the trucks drove along. At least Susie had her cow mangler that let her fire energy rockets alongside the baseline rockets found in her business suit.

"Does anyone have any elemental like effects that would be stronger against these demons? Haltmann Works Co. technology has the feature of absorbing the elemental properties of allied attacks and reusing them in their own way." Susie said, informing those around her of that ability of her business suit. Sadly Blazermate didn't have anything like that she thought... but maybe someone else did?

The whole time, Roxas couldn't get his mind off of what happened earlier. That bus driver was probably in for a rough time, and all because he happened to be driving the bus that he and Raz had used to don a disguise. At first, Roxas could only hope that he would be released soon enough as he and his partner made their way to the rendezvous. But when they finally got there, the Seekers were all in for a surprise. At the Turk's order, the G-Men under his command all suddenly changed form and turned into a variety of demonic creatures. This revelation brought Roxas' guilt back in full force. That driver from earlier had been taken somewhere by... demons? That couldn't have been good. Who knew what he was being put through if actual demons were involved? Well, one person currently present would likely know. And his blood began to boil as Roxas narrowed his gaze at the Turk giving the demons their orders.

"...Him." Roxas muttered under his breath, both hands clenched tightly into fists. It was clear that a battle was inevitable. And that gave Roxas an idea about what to do next. Without a word to the nearby Raz, Roxas sprang into action. Even as the trucks began their rumbling movement. Even as his fellow Seekers began to engage the plethora of demons around them. Roxas instead had another destination in mind, using flowmotion to easily maneuver from truck to truck until he could get within spitting distance of the Turk.

"Haaaah!" Roxas cried, having already summoned both of his Keyblades. He didn't waste time with formalities or quips like a few of the others. Roxas was furious, and in that fury he came at the Turk with a big x-slash with his weapons. But even after that, he kept going, unleashing a flurry of furious strike after strike. but eventually Roxas did indeed have something to say, "What happens to people who are arrested by those G-Men? Tell me!"

All of this was because he felt responsible for what had happened to that bus driver mere minutes ago. He hated the thought of having been the cause of someone else's misery. He knew all too well what it was like to have your day - your whole life even - ruined because it happened to be in the way of someone else's conflict. And now potentially having done that to someone else left the Keyblade Wielder boiling with anger. Not just at the Turk or the demons he commanded, but at himself as well.

Once the convoy began to pick up speed, even the fleetest G-men soon got left in the dust. Tora and Poppi watched them recede into the distance, standing in eerie stillness and staring with those beady, unblinking scarlet eyes. G-men, huh? Tora thought. When the trucks went downhill and the team’s pursuers disappeared from sight, he couldn’t help but feel like a weight had been taken off his chest. Those things, whatever they were, creeped him out a little. They did this not by virtue of being inhuman, for this world contained plenty of strange beings completely new to Alrest natives like himself, but by virtue of trying to be. Those uncanny watchmen seemed to believe that their laughably weak disguises rendered them totally inconspicuous, and yet the people of Gutsford played along, ignoring the imposters in their midst who so clearly didn’t belong. It was that fact that bothered Tora the most. When the G-men first confronted him, looming over him like nighttime shadows, he’d been gripped for a moment by raw fear, as if his instincts had cried out for him to get away. Maybe the citizens abided by these creatures, not because they convinced them, but because the consequences of not doing so terrified them. Tora frowned, and turned from the way he’d come to face the road ahead.



Soon the ride got rough. Not much of the scrubland highway seemed to be paved, with roads of gravel or plain old dirt making up the majority. What roadways did exist turned out to be in pretty poor shape due to a potent combination of use, neglect, and the elements. The result was a jarring, jolting, jostling, and generally unpleasant ride. Easily knocked off his little nub-legs by a rogue bump or pothole in the road, Tora stayed seated, with his wings planted to either side of him for extra support. Remembering the railway trek in the Sandswept Sky, he kept his eyes on the scenery, alert for any hostiles. Of course, the scrubland looked much nicer than the barren, syrupy desert back then; in fact, it was quite pretty in its own way, with the trees, brush, cactus flowers, and sparkling blue rivers. Still, he didn’t care to appreciate it close-up by getting thrown off the truck, so he focused on keeping himself as steady as possible.

He watched Midna not only put some motorcycles down on top of one of the shaky trucks, but pile them up, and then be taken by surprise when they slid right off. She managed to save one, but the others hit the ground at high speed and instantly got wrecked, causing the driver to panic and swerve the opposite way. “Meh-meh,” he muttered. “What think would happen?.”

While her Masterpon endured the ride, Poppi put her stabilizers to good use and maneuvered around the fleet of trucks. Given the width of a four-lane highway, the trucks could afford to spread out a little for safety, but Poppi confirmed that just a slight added jet boost in her jump would be sufficient to get across any gaps. She made her way toward the front of the fleet to briefly speak with Peach, Giovanna, and the Doctors. Real conversation could wait until later, but she at least confirmed their allegiance and the plan. “Ride trucks until helicopter arrive, then get on that and fly to Special Operations Unit headquarters in Midgar,” she confirmed. “Roger-roger.”

Just a couple twists and turns through the canyons later, the heroes’ good luck came to an end. From behind them the school bus roared into the scene, and the G-men climbed out with their gray-bearded ringleader in tow. As they approached Poppi hurried back to Tora’s side to help him steady himself long enough to bring out the Variable Saber. “We really fighting here?” he asked her, his tone incredulous and a little fearful. “Barely any room to maneuver, and there danger all around!”

Poppi gave him a reassuring pat. “If go to ground, we get left behind. We not have choice.” She produced the spirit she’d swiped from Anaconda, and pressed it to her chest. “...But we do have options.”



The two sacrificed their initiative to secure the fusion upgrade, but the other Seekers got to work. First to step up was Karin, leading by example. Soon after she boarded one of the rearmost trucks, Morax slammed down opposite her. The buffalo-headed demon scowled at her imperiously, his lip curled and his tiny eyes scornful. He made a sign with his hand, activating Counter in order to reflect physical attacks 10% of the time and strike back after physical attacks 50% of the time. He then held out his scepter. “...I will have order,” he decreed, calling on Maragi to send forth a series of fiery explosions. His flame would continue to flow unless given the chance to wallop Karin with Oni-Kagura at close range.

After fumbling more of her equipment, Midna let loose her minions. Together they attacked the seated demon Belphegor, barraging him with their various abilities. Psychic projectiles dealt some damage, but the ice spears shattered limply against him. The firebomb that punctuated the volley, however, left the demon reeling. “Aaaargh!” he growled, nearly falling off the toilet before he righted himself. “Blasted mortals…you’d stand against a Duke of Hell!?” He puffed up and unleashed Famine’s Scream to slap Midna’s whole crew plus Sakura with Hunger at a 50% chance, although since an affliction on and of the Strikers would pass to Midna herself, halved attack power was practically guaranteed. “Gahaha! Get a load of this!” Belphegor cackled. With a flush of his toilet, he used Mabufula to crystalize and then burst ice magic in the air around his foes.

When Midna’s Vibrava used Bug Buzz to agitate Benedict’s team, it provoked a reaction from all of them. It instantly got a light Zio bolt from Agathion and much heavier Ziodyne bolts from Atropos. Sandman stirred up a Garula, creating a wind vortex that just missed the Vibrava, but erupted into an upswell the popped the back of the truck it’d been clinging to in the air. “Oops,” Sandman grunted, glancing over at Benedict apologetically. “My bad.”

As the Vibrava fled, the voice of the Seekers’ number-one problem followed it. “I am Trumpeter,” the harbinger intoned. “The ring of my trumpet signals calamity and death…” Pit’s light arrows struck its body only to bounce right back at him, forcing the angel to cease shooting at Atropos and Agathion. Trumpeter prepared to return fire, only for the angel to fly a little too close to the sun and get clipped by a street sign. “...Justice.” As Trumpeter considered what to do next, it took stock of its allies’ activity. Ippon-Datara narrowly missed a Sledgehammer blow on Raz and got a burst of psy-blasts for its efforts. It did some damage, but not anywhere near enough to give the boy free reign to be distracted by Agathion.

Thankfully, Raz wasn’t alone. “Trovão!“ As Ippon-Datara hopped toward him to pummel him senseless, a green blur hurtled through the air between his truck and one up ahead. Giovanna’s flying kick struck like thunder, tumbling the smith across the truck’s roof to the back. It looked up, its eye flaring with anger, to see the secret agent adopt a fighting stance with her wolf spirit curled around her. She dashed forward, closing the distance with incredible speed, and met Ippon-Datara in a mighty clash.

At the same time, Pit dusted himself off to help Raz out with Agathion. His tremendous uppercut blasted the little squirt off more like a baseball than a golf ball, and to add insult to injury the demon smashed into a passing tree. There it remained, down for the count.

The sound of light footsteps came from behind the two; Peach had floated over to join them. “You two okay?” she asked, her voice raised over the wind. “Since the three of us can float a little, maybe we can make a push from an angle they aren’t expecting!”

Up in front, Roxas opted to try cutting off the head of the snake by going for the Turk in charge: Benedict. After reaching his quarry he bombarded the old strategist, first with attacks and then with questions, but Benedict’s allies weren’t about to make things so easy. His bodyguard Atropos stepped up to defend him. She flung out her thread to try and bind Roxas, then followed up with Mazionga, a wide-range shower of yellow lightning bolts.

Meanwhile, Blazermate and Susie were setting up shop in the backlines. The constant, violent, and unpredictable motion of the trucks made it tough to get situated, but with a little time and effort they would pose some real danger to the enemies. Sandman, however, decided against it. If these bots wanted to get comfortable, he’d be happy to tuck them in. He approached the backlines, leaping nimbly from truck to truck until he got in range. Of course, the Engineer’s turret -still level one at the moment- immediately opened up on him, but since Gun wasn’t particularly effective, he powered through in order to cast Dormin on both bots before making his escape.

He did not get far, however. A loud gunshot rang out as an oversized bullet zoomed past Sandman, prompting him to whirl to the right. He looked over to see Poppi soaring his way, her new revolvers blazing in her Masterpon’s wings now that she’d finally loaded them both up. While the second shot missed also, the third slammed into the small demon’s shoulder hard enough to just about knock him off his feet. “Gah!” With no other cover he went for the edge of the truck, took another bullet to the back, and vaulted over to hang off the other side. Poppi landed and Tora hopped down to shoot over the edge, only for Sandman to jump back up on the offensive. He struck the Nopon with a furious Dormin Rush using his bag, and Tora got unlucky enough to fall asleep.

As he slumped over and started to roll down the truck, Poppi rolled her eyes. “Gimme a break.”

She dashed after him to scoop him up, and as Sandman prepared to cast Dormina on her, she threw Tora right at him–both to bodyblock the spell and to knock him back. As the demon teetered precariously on the brink of the truck, Tora sprang up ready for a reckoning, only for Poppi to drag him back. He spun to face her as she holstered the guns she’d given him, his gaze accusatory. “Hey! Tora want pay back for unwanted naptime!” His companion merely glanced to the left in the direction that the trucks were headed, and Tora followed her gaze. A second later, a passing sign whacked Sandman and dropped him to the canyon floor.

Trumpeter had seen enough; it was time to act. It readied its calamitous instrument and resounded the toll of death. “...Mafreidyne.” Pillars of light fell all across the battlefield, and where they landed ten-foot spheres of nuclear power welled forth. While not one per Seeker, the outbursts occurred where they’d do the most damage. They fell upon Tora and Poppi, the Midna mob, the backline bots, the floater trio, and both one-on-one fights, forcing everyone to move -if they could- or suffer crippling damage. At least the trucks got out unscathed, somehow.



Neat as this place was, Nadia couldn’t afford to be distracted for long, but by the time she got a half-dozen steps into the Temple of the Black Egg she was already too late. Her headlong sprint came to an apprehensive stop as the imprisoned man suddenly and violently ripped through his chains, half-hidden in the gloom, and attacked what appeared to be a sword-wielding goat priest from behind. Their struggle lasted just briefly, as Ganondorf overpowered and proceeded to execute Toriel, her end quick, clean, and quiet.

Nadia grimaced with her brows raised, her head pulled back. “Eugh…” She wondered if she should have done something, or even if she could. “I hope that wasn’t someone im-purr-tant.” Her tail curled around her arms and legs as she crouched there, watching the man slowly and deliberately claim the sword stashed nearby. Behind the feral came a couple representatives of the Koopa Troop, Bowser and Rika. She swiveled her head to glance at them, then to the fainted Froggit, then back to Ganondorf. In due course he did turn to face Nadia, peering at the unfamiliar girl across the misty distance that separated them. He did not need to speak loudly to be heard in this place.

“You’re…welcome?” Nadia stood up, her graciousness and expression both tentative, and pocketed her hands. This guy was big, and he carried himself powerfully. With the elaborate patterns on his unusual garb he gave her the impression of some tribal warlord. He also looked…well, evil. Nadia knew not to judge a book by its cover, but that smile was really the icing on an imprisonment-and-murder cake. Bowser referred to him by the name Ganondorf, which sounded both regal and a little silly, but for once Nadia didn’t feel like laughing. Apparently the big lunk knew this guy, and even worked with him? Considering Bowser’s level of villainy, she wanted to think that this fellow might not really be that bad either, but this was one hell of an introduction.

After a couple seconds Nadia decided not to overthink things, and just deal with them as they came. “A favor, huh? Well, since you’re offerin’, might as well. I like settlin’ things straight away. So.” She tilted her head, causing her ears to lean from one side of her head to the other. “We’re here to wipe out something called a Guardian. We don’t know what it is yet, but it’s real strong, probably real big, too. Important to some pain-in-the-asses in red armor called Consuls. Got any dirt on somethin’ like that?”

The chase was on, Geralt and Bede speeding their way along to catch up with the Seekers, the former pausing a couple of times to place a slowing Yrden trap, just to be sure. They passed even more G-Men on the way, and Geralt cursed the first time they did, being forced to navigate around them lest they be caught. These things were proving to be quite the pain in the ass. Though, because they apparently had not yet gotten the word that the Seekers were to be detained on sight, they got away without causing much more trouble.

Soon, they arrived at the trade depot, Geralt hosting the smaller Bede up the wall after the trainer had returned Ponyta to its Poke Ball, following after him.

The other Seekers had taken the hint from Peach firing the gods-forsakened gun of hers, and Geralt was just glad he wasn't anywhere nearby when she had. That thing was disturbing, not to mention loud. They didn't have time to celebrate the reunion or warn the others of what was after them, however, as the trucks started their engines and were making their departures, just in time to get them away from their pursuers. Convenient, but at least something was going their way. He wouldn't look that gift horse in the mouth any time soon. Quickly making his way to one of the vehicles and climbing to the roof, he sighed a breath of relief. They made it.

For a little while, the witcher just relaxed, taking a moment to ask Bede more about Pokemon, since he was now the owner of some of the red-and-white balls that the Pokemon Trainer used for his own companions. There was...definitely more to this than he thought, but he could get the hang of it. Eventually. Surely. He was smart, he just needed some time to ruminate on his newfound knowledge.

Time that, of course, the world was not going to give him. A short while into their journey, the roaring of an engine heralded the arrival of their not-so-abandoned pursuers, and Geralt quickly got to his feet, drawing his bow as Benedict and the G-Men climbed from the hatch on top of the bus. What came after that, however, Geralt did not expect.

They doffed their hats, and in doing so, transformed. Into...well, a variety of things. A bull-headed man. A dark-clad woman with scissors and strange headgear. A man in a suit with a crescent moon for a head. A helmeted blacksmith. A tiny creature in a pot. A strange, floating man with a trumpet. And a demonic-looking creature on some strange white seat that floated with it. Of all of them, the large demon and the floating trumpeter stood out as the most problematic. The former for its built-in throne, and the latter for its flight and choice in non-weapon.

He still didn't like pitchforks, and this was a thematic similarity that was too great for him. While the woman with scissors gave the same idea, it seemed different somehow. He couldn't place it, but something told him the one with the trumpet was trouble.

Quickly, Geralt drew the Spirit of the feline assassin he'd slain in the Nyakuza Metro. "You tried to kill one of the kids. You seem like somebody who knows the deal, and while I have no love for your choice of actions, you didn't cry, scream, or rage when death came for you. You knew you walked beside it, and I can respect that. Join me, and you can do so again, with targets that will rarely be as morally dubious." He couldn't promise moral purity, and he wouldn't lie about it, either. "Fight by my side." He asked, looking up and drawing his bow.

As the fight began around him, Geralt noticed Trumpeter's relative lack of action. That was not good. No, it most certainly was not. He drew Odysseus's bow, firing as quickly as he could at the self-proclaimed harbinger of calamity. The arrows of light that Pit fired bounced off of it, but the more mundane arrows fired from the bow struck true, with the fourth arrow unleashing lightning on the Persona. It was, however, reflected back by something, and the feeling of electricity locking his muscles for a moment forced a curse out of Geralt. "C-careful! It just sent my bow's lightning back at me!" He warned the others.

Geralt tried to keep towards the back, somewhat near Raz, Pit and Peach, which proved somewhat unfortunate when the harbinger of calamity called upon its mass nuclear attack to drive the Seekers out of position. Geralt, perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, decided to take advantage of the forced reposition to begin a full-on assault on the musician Persona, stowing his bow and drawing a Dimeritium bomb from his pack. "No more!" He yelled, tossing the grenade directly at Trumpeter to prevent any further magic usage. Drawing his hand crossbow and firing, Geralt smirked when the bolt landed and finally triggered the ATGM launcher on his shoulder, dealing an even mightier bow than his crossbow shot had.

He kept firing, not resting on those laurels, and made the Sign of Yrden in its magic trap configuration, hoping to discourage any of the other enemies from attacking him, either by having their projectiles shot down, or themselves being blasted by magic. Even if it wasn't terribly strong, it would be a consistent thorn in any melee attacker's side if they closed on him.

Midna’s combined volley had mixed results, but that in and of itself was very informative.

”Oh, so you don’t like fire huh? Ehehehehe, well do I have bad news for you, because I have ways to burn you in spades!” Midna jeered from the back of her bear-based flame cannon. Unfortunately for her, instead of being able to put any of that arsenal to work, she had to endure a cavalcade of retaliation, and unlike her ground type Vibrava, she did not have the advantage of being immune to the electrical attacks coming her way (the ground typed pokemon fleeing not due to damage but due to the time Midna could sustain the enlarged mon in the world of light running out).

First, the enraged demon duke unleashed a scream that ripped through her party of minions, and though the frozen undead were immune, Midna found herself stricken when two of the initiates caught the hunger and, rather than being affected themselves, passed it on to her.

”Goddesses, worse than when I was banished” the princess cursed, clutching her gut that suddenly felt as if it had been empty for days, a feeling she had not felt since the days right after she’d lost her kingdom where she’d had to learn to live on her own, without the conveniences of royalty. Her own groan was joined by a loud rumbling beneath her, caused by her bear’s tummy, the cybernetic beast having simply lost the coin flip.

If there was any consolation, it was that the initiated not being affected by the scream meant that they had time to get off another psychic volley in retaliation, another set of three bolts hammering the demon. The next one they where far more vulnerable to however.

At the flush of a toilet, glowing balls of ice formed all around them, one for each member of her squad in fact, hovering ever so close and rapidly increasing in brightness, giving only a moment to react before they detonated.

”Chilfos, front!” Midna barked, as she raised her shield, stretched out her shadow hand, and put herself and the bear in-between the ring of ice and the initiates, who had the least defense. This turned out to be not the best idea. Icy shards bloomed, slipping past the chilfos’s thin forms illmade for body blocking, biting into the amazons where their cultist robes and weak energy shields did little to stop them. Hand, metal augmented bear, and shield took the blows better (the shield in particular unleashing a retaliatory burst of needles that swept round and harried the Duke) however Midna herself did not.

Thought guarding as bet she could, the omni directional burst was impossible stop all of, and though mask, helm, shield and shoulderguard all did their parts, shards of ice still snuck through and sunk into her exposed flesh, the cold spreading like poison and dimming an inner fire she had not know she had had till it was chased away from where the cold touched.

The princess cried out in pain because apparently ice, bane of dragons, hurt like hell. That would have made the following dance of ice and fire oh so swift and deadly, demon and princess both wealiding each other’s weaknesses. Unfortunately, that potential romantic battle was rudely interrupted by a trumpeter, who rained down nuclear fire upon the battlefield.

”What in the goddess- move!” Midna commanded, her minions rushing forwards to get out of the light, while the bear simply returned to the twilight realm. The princess herself, however, stumbled, a pain in her gut and one of her ice shot legs too much for a moment.

A few rapid fire life or death heartbeats later and nuclear fire bloomed. The slow Chilfos found themselves lagging behind and got clipped by the edge of the explosion, while the initiates, used to skirmishing, had time to get out of harm's way and get a third psychic spear out each before all of the striker’s time was up, their effectiveness highly debatable given the amount of aoe attacks they’d drawn.

And the princess? Well. Of her there was no sight for a good couple of seconds as the trucks continued to roll forwards … right up until they approached an occupied layby on the twisty turny roads. A lay-by occupied by a 4x4. A 4x4 with a massive machine gun on mounted on its back, and mounting the machine gun? Minda, her mouth chipmunked full of granola bars.

As for how she was here: the princess had tossed herself off the side of her truck in a last ditch effort to avoid becoming atomised, landed in its shadow, and then jumped from that shadow into the ones of several lamp posts and street signs lining the road to get ahead in-order to get some breathing room, and to also set up an ambush.

That ambush she now sprung, the princess she opened up with the minigun turret, blazing the trumpeter, or any other demon not in close proximity with a hero, with bullets, making up for her ill-practiced aim with volume of fire as the whole convoy raced by her. Joining her hail of gunfire was her Vibrava, again summoned sized up, which unleashed tight blasts of dragonfire at anything that got close.

Then, once the convoy passed, and if no one came to stop her, the twilight princess tossed herself from the turret into the driver’s seat, short (and still burning with pain) legs hitting extended pedals and butt sitting on a mini throne mounted on the regular chair (no it was not a booster seat) so that she could see over the dashboard. Both of these were things that she had badgered Eddie Rigs into installing when she’d first claimed it, in-order to actually make it usable for her impish form.

With a feral snort, the engine of the warthog would roar to life and the princess would begin racing after the trucks, a singing sandstorm building in her wake as she released the deserts of the twilight realm into the world, and her shadow hand pulled up over the windscreen of the car ready give anything that came close, or that she got close too, a taste of titanic dragon claw.

First likely thing on her agenda? A vehicular battle with the demon’s battle bus if it was still bringing up the rear of the pack.

"Oh my. That was terrible," Rubick groaned, having suffered greatly from the recent battle. Fortunately, his Tranquil Boots and the healing spells going around fixed him right back up. The Consul ambushing them was unfortunate enough, but he was really disappointed with his performance in the fight with the various animals down in these depths. Even with everyone's spells to rely on, Rubick just didn't have the durability to outlast his opponent. He knew he would have to do better next time.

Rubick then noticed Nadia and some others running off, prompting him to follow them. He was curious about what they were doing. When they arrived, Rubick was greeted with the sight of a large man standing above a pile of ash with his blade in the middle of it. It was easy to assume the man had just killed something, and it was confirmed by Ganondorf himself, but that wasn't Rubick's main concern. Rubick could feel something about Ganondorf. Beneath that rugged warrior physique, there was a faint yet powerful magical energy emanating from him. Bowser himself knew the man as well, and described him as an "evil fellow". Rubick couldn't help but chuckle. All of this only served to pique Rubick's curiosity further; he could tell this fellow was going to be interesting.

"Incredible," Rubick said, staring intently at Ganondorf. "There are such fascinating energies coming from you. Clearly dark in nature, yet there is also something else in there... what is that...?" he asked. Rubick guessed it was some kind of magical artifact, but he had no way of knowing for certain without seeing it.

Unfortunately, before Roxas could actually get anything out of the Turk, his attacks were suddenly halted. He was caught by some threads that tightly yanked him back a bit before he could take anymore swings at his intended target. He jerked his gaze around and spotted the demon femme wielding her thread and scissors. He also spotted her readying a spell of some kind, no doubt an attempt to capitalize on his current predicament. Thinking quick, Roxas let Oblivion vanish from his hand for a split moment, only for it to reappear in a backhanded grip. This allowed him to point the tip backwards, where he awkwardly aimed it in the general direction of the demon, "Firaga!"

A beach ball sized fireball burst forth from the tip of the Keyblade a mere fraction of a second after the Atropos had cast her lightning spell. The fireball flew back in her direction, and unfortunately she would be more than able to avoid being hit by it. Luckily she wasn't the boy's primary target. During its trajectory, the Firaga spell caught the thread and set a section of it ablaze. This loosened it enough for Roxas to free himself. He had to make a quick dive to the side to avoid getting struck by a lightning bolt, having to catch himself to avoid tumbling over the edge of the truck. But the spell sent down a series of lightning bolts around his vicinity. He dived back in the opposite direction to avoid a second bolt, and then crossed his weapons out in front of him to absorb the brunt of three others that were coming toward him.

When the lighting spell finally ended, the Atropos attempted to lasso another thread around Roxas. This time, however, he saw it coming and instead let it wrap around one of his Keyblades. After this Roxas pulled the thread as hard as he could while also using Flowmotion to launch himself forward. This would create a large amount of momentum that he could capitalize on. He held both blades in front of him as he approached the nearing Atropos, caught off balance by being yanked forward. At point blank range, Roxas let out a powerful horizontal slash with both his blades, even appearing to slice right past her and navigate himself toward the truck coming up from behind. But he didn't stop here. When he hit the truck, Roxas simply bent his knees and immediately launched himself right back in the direction he had just come from.

This time he was able to catch the demon as she attempted to whirl around, and managed a small flurry of Keyblade strikes against her. Similarly to when he fought the creatures in the Underground Concourse, Roxas hooked his Keyblades onto the demon and swung himself around her, trying to drag her down with him to the truck he had been attacking Benedict on earlier. In his experience, flying enemies didn't do so great when forced down to the floor. After this thrust his Keyblades straight up above him and decided to call down a little lighting of his own, "Thundaga!"

This conjured up a series of lightning bolts striking down on the immediate area. In fact it probably looked very similar to the spell the Atropos had used herself moments ago. And if Roxas was lucky, a stray bolt might just manage to catch Benedict if he happened to still be just behind them.