Bede was disappointed to hear there were no Pokémon in this place, but made a mental note to keep sectors 1 and 2 in mind. He might come across something useful there.

The discussion that followed went right over Bede’s head. He was bored, and not at all paying attention to what was being discussed. He saw Roxas trying to be sneaky and getting out of this meeting, but Bede saw him, and decided to follow suit. Wherever he was going had to be more interesting than whatever was happening here.

He followed Roxas to the helipad where they arrived, and found Roxas brooding, and talking to himself. Well, so much for being more interesting than whatever was happening inside. Bede was never the best at comforting people… In fact, more often than not, he just made things worse. And yet…

“Let me guess, you’re bored too?” Bede asked completely deadpan as he stood next to Roxas. If he was just going to be out here talking to himself, he may as well have another human. “Well, join the club. I just catch Pokémon and battle. I’m not exactly cut out for the saving the world business either, yet here I am with all of you ragtag bunch of misfits.“

@Double Roxas

So much information, so quickly. In all honesty, save for the Ever Crisis itself it sounded like the usual machinations of humans, just dialed up to eleven. If this had been a job handed down to him from the Goddess of Light, they would have ignored most everything and gone to find the source of the Crisis in order to put a stop to it, but in respect to the people that were asking them for help Pit devoted his whole brain to retaining as much of it as possible. From the breakdown of the Ever Crisis, the structure of Midgar's military, the layout of the city itself, it's political climate, how to get around, rebel groups opposing the government, the consequences of being captured by the G-Men...

The level of concentration on Pit's face was almost comical. I really, really hope someone is taking notes, he thought.

If he were to put the situation simply - very, very simply - then he would say that everything about Midgar that they'd just gone over was related back to the Ever Crisis, and whatever happened in the city would either hinder or help the Seekers as they sorted the mess out. If only all they had to do was win people over to their side, rather than navigate the complex inner workings of government factions and PMCs.

Some of the Seekers had suggestions on what to tackle first, and how. Pit weighed them in his mind. The thought of joining up with one of the military segments to get information from them didn't feel quite right. Maybe it was the subterfuge aspect? He would gladly help out in the fight against the Ever Crisis, which they'd end up doing anyway if they enlisted, so he wasn't sure what his hang-up was. Maybe some small blow to his pride at going from commanding his own legion to being a foot soldier? Whatever it was, it was something he'd have to put aside for the sake of the mission at hand. Besides, the angel didn't have any other ideas besides the Seekers rolling out in one large force and looking into things themselves, same as Midna, and their were some flaws to that plan.

"From the sound of it, if we got big enough that we'd be competing with Desporhado it doesn't sound like they'd let us get away with it easily. It'd probably end in a fight with them and weaken Midgar's defense," he said, titled his head. He glanced at the (very cool but also slightly intimidating) cyborg ninja. "But I guess fighting them'd be the goal for some of us."

Plus, as Goldlewis pointed out, they'd likely be branded outlaws if they did try and form their own faction as tempting as it was.

The general discussion and question and answer session was still in progress, but they made a brief tangent into introductions. It was only right, given they were joining hands with a new group. The cryptid came as a surprise.

"Pit here, captain of the Goddess of Light's royal guard. Unfortunately I, uh... don't have a lot more to offer besides my fighting skills right now, ehehe..." he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. The movement transitioned into one hand tapping the golden laurel that rested on his head as he went on. "If my connection to Skyworld was working, I'd be able to call in my own Centurion squads to help us out, especially if we were going to try and become an official group here. And Lady Palutena's clairvoyance would be able to pinpoint any Chimeras too. But..."

He shook his head, implying the complete radio silence he'd been experiencing for the rest of the group. "Maybe the connection will come back while we're here, but, uh, anyway! Fighting skills. And you better believe I have plenty of 'em!"

He went on to describe much the same information he had at the Seeker's own meet and greet earlier, going over his current abilities briefly. His angelic senses were mentioned only for transparency's sake. He'd never been able to use it to pinpoint invisible enemies, and being able to tell a regular human from a psychic, an Underworld denizen, etc. probably wouldn't be much help here.

He did end with a confident note though, promising, "We came here to help, so that's what we're gonna do! In anyway we can."

Most of the information from the other Seekers had already been covered or demonstrated, so there were no real surprises except one - one that Pit normally wouldn't have paid much mind if it didn't make the hot feeling of shame start crawling up his neck. Not only did Geralt have a wife but he also had a daughter! He'd come so close from taking a father away from his family! The angel looked pointedly away from the Witcher for the remainder of the meeting, but committed Ciri's description to memory.

The talks had begun to wind down after that, not slowing down exactly but becoming more focused. Information continued to be exchanged even after Roxas and Bede slipped out of the room. One thing they noted that was surprising and important was the area's knowledge of spirit fusion. They'd have to be careful of rousing any suspicion, especially their fused members - and hopefully Benedict would come around and give them some advice for that. He shared Karin's sentiment about wanting to start off on the right foot in the city they'd be trying to save, so avoiding trouble would be important. The recommended move, and something the Seekers slowly seemed to be coming around on, was to join the fight as part of one of the military factions. Pit would suck it up and do it, if it meant he was helping people.

So for which group to take on? Pit turned to Razputin. "If your friends are part of Psychoff, then it's probably a good place to start!"

“Not sure,” Giovanna told Midna. “Doesn’t happen much. But recognizing a fusion outright is practically impossible. My guess is they’d be checking for any big differences between the current you and the you in your gridPrint whenever you get inspected.”

Peach gave Benedict an encouraging nod when he mentioned the possibility of helping. “That’d be great. When it comes to saving the world, we need all the help we can get, and you’ve already shown us you’re a man of many talents. If there’s anything from your position in the government you can share that might help in our search, please let us know!”

With Jessica’s scoop on the layout of the city’s eight Sectors and N’s Other forecast in mind, the deliberations continued. Susie approached the subjects at hand with a unique perspective, one that blurred the line between offering concrete solutions and singing her Haltman Company’s praises. Casually, almost matter-of-factly, she mentioned that her own corporation, which supposedly harvested planets and possessed a solar system’s worth of resources, could not only out-compete the Shinra Electric Power Company but also take over the city from them, which sounded fanciful at best. She did present one intriguing possibility, though: that it was Shinra with a link to the Dystopiascape’s Guardian, rather than the Ever Crisis. Hopefully, Goldlewis mused, her theory would amount to nothing more than a shot-in-the-dark guess at a worst-case scenario.

“In addition to the mountain of paperwork it takes to open a brand-new company here,” Goldlewis told her, “You’d need to get vetted by the city council. Background checks, approvals, the works. Takes weeks. Just ain’t possible for an off-grid, not in the amount o’ time we got.” Susie’s true proposal, however, concerned DespoRHado Enforcement. She wanted to ally with them rather than Neuron or Psych-OSF as Goldlewis recommended. Midna and Raiden -one he assured the group he wouldn’t fly off the handle- both chimed in with their doubts, but the latter provided a little extra information he happened to be privy to. It was as Goldlewis feared; unlike Psych-OSF, which actively recruited any suitable candidates they could get their hands on, or Neuron, which promising police cadets could transfer to, DespoRHado was highly selective. Raiden would consider biting his tongue and helping them if push came to shove, but it sounded to Goldlewis like climbing into a pit of vipers.

Peach summarized the situation best, however. “If working with this company is a last resort, and going against them is very dangerous, it might be better to just leave them alone in the meantime.” She rested her head in her hand, thinking. “That, or we could try to follow their deployments. Collect rumors, get an idea of how they work from a distance, and trash some machines in the process. Hmm…”

The Others seemed to intrigue Blazermate, although she missed her guess about what they were. “They are not undead,” M replied. “As mentioned before, we know very little about them, other than their connection to the Extinction Belt in the atmosphere. The answer sort of took the wind out of Blazermate’s sails when it came to her interest in the Others, leaving her indifferent, but Raz kept his focus on the subject. In fact, it seemed that the names provided by Dr. N ignited something in him. “That’s good news!” M said. “It would appear that this group is a hidden treasure trove of prior connections.” He gave Blazermate another thorough look for good measure. “I don’t believe I’ve seen any robots like yourself among the Machines, but there are many variants, so keep an eye out.”

Midna latched on to Raz’s suggestion. She observed that the boy would probably be a perfect OSF candidate, but in the interest of not leaving him to fend for himself, the Twilight Princess proposed that the group take advantage of today’s Other forecast by joining the Scarlet Guardians on patrol. She did admit that the path to stardom might not be so clear-cut, but Goldlewis didn’t hate the idea one bit. He gave a sagacious nod and tapped a finger in her direction. “I reckon that might just be y’all’s best bet. When it comes down to it, helpin’ folks and savin’ lives is what’s important, and the Psych-OSF knows it. That’s why they value strength so dadgum much.”

Poppi crossed her arms, recalling information on the city. “It sounds like we should pay a visit to Sector 3 then. Suoh, right?”

“I hear ya, but gettin’ there’s the problem,” Goldlewis advised. “We got too many people to fit in both cars, ‘cause we need whoever they’re registered to along for the ride. Plus, it might attract too much attention.

“Why don’t we split up? Half to Suoh to meet the Scarlet Guardians, and half to Detroit to see what we can find out about DespoRHado and the Hermit,.” Peach suggested. She glanced at Sakura, her expression apologetic. “Sorry, but…maybe we could stop by Inkopolis some other time? I’m sure it’ll come up eventually, and when it does, we can try some sports together!”

Tora waved his wings. “Tora want see pinnacle of mechanical engineering in Midgar, meh!”

“Not to be a stick in the mud or anything, but wherever you’re all going, you’re out of luck when it comes to crossing plates or levels without a gridLink,” Giovanna mentioned. “Unless you plan to go on foot or sky-rails, you’ll need to get scanned no matter what vehicle you’re in.”

At that, Jessica gave a slight smile. “While you all were out getting dusty on Kunad, we weren’t just sitting on our asses here. We got in touch with our friend from Night City, and he started hacking up some blank gridLinks. Even now he’s hard at work making you into upstanding members of Midgar society with forged gridPrints.” She shuffled her papers smugly. “Speaking of, we’ll need to take official pictures of you all, and work on your histories. If an Agent shoots you a question about your workplace, we can’t have you blubbering out whatever comes to mind.”

“It’ll be about an hour judgin’ by his last update,” Goldlewis confirmed. “Then, we can set out. Me in my hummer with whoever’s headed to Suoh, and Giovanna can drive the rest down to Detroit. Y’all gotta get your own rides sooner or later to keep the feds from crackin’ down on us, but we can handle it for now.” Goldlewis stood, gesturing around the meeting room. “So, make yourselves comfortable. We got tea, coffee, biscuits…”

“The biscuits are for Rei.” Giovanna interjected.

“Uhh…” For the briefest of moments, a look of worry passed across the cryptid collector’s face. He swallowed. “R-right, heheh, just kiddin’. Movin’ on, we got spare clothes if ya need. Dress shirts, suits, an’ so forth. On the cheaper side ‘cause it’s standard issue but it’ll help ya blend in. Since this place used to be a police station, we even got a rec room, and a locker room complete with showers. Kinda barebones, but it makes for a fine hideout. Use whatever ya like.”

“Meh, meh. This all very complicated. Makes Tora glad am not leader.” Tora swiveled and hopped down from his chair. “Hooray for downtime!” he sang. “Over here Poppi, Tora want look at new parts. Been while since last diagnostic too, meh.” The two went off to find an unused office to tinker in, but not after Tora stopped by the counter to grab some snacks.

“Once everythin’s ready we’ll head out,” Goldlewis said. “We can both seat six. See ya in a li’l bit, folks.” He went to get some coffee himself, wearing a smile. He had, in fact, been kidding, but thought that making it seem like he ate a dog biscuit would be funny.



After Goldlewis led Peach -who’d exchanged her futuristic getup for one of the office’s spare sets of work clothes- and five others down to the garage, he roused the beast, and in short order the American’s massive and fittingly-named beige Patriot Mammoth Hummer roared out into the late afternoon sunlight. Formidable and impressive, it rumbled down the motorway in the direction of the Shinra Building at Midgar’s center, since the interplate highway tunnels in its facility would facilitate the quickest travel between sectors. Just traveling in this vehicle, more like a tank than a car, made Peach feel unstoppable, and with Goldlewis at the helm plus her new gridLink fitted snugly around her wrist the Princess hoped that she would be. The Sector 7 highways wound back and forth around buildings and districts, less confusing and grandiose than Kunad Highway’s routes but not by much, and the passengers got a good chance to scope out this section of the city.

Compared to some of the crowded skylines the Seekers saw on the way in, Sector 7 seemed pretty normal. Even the busiest parts, full of office buildings and apartment complexes interspersed by elevated railways, pipelines, and roads offered room to breathe. True to Jessica’s rundown, much of it seemed to be residential, and out of the thick of it lay numerous smaller boroughs. As Goldlewis steered his mighty machine down the highway, his passengers spotted a number of interesting vehicles as well. They saw an Apocalypse Sasquatch monster truck, a wooden train, hover cars, hovercraft, and a super stroller. Peach even glimpsed a rocket-propelled bathtub-mobile as it cruised by. She did not, however, see any overt signs of danger, or even unrest. It must be nice for the people to be able to go about their lives as if the Ever Crisis did not exist, the princess figured, but it might be hard to get to the bottom of things. As her team got closer, the colossal Shinra Building only towered higher, standing like a colossal engine above the rest of the city’s tallest landmarks.

About forty-five minutes and no fewer than five security checkpoints later, with plenty of tension but no sign of any problem with the new gridLinks, the hummer emerged from the final tunnel into Sector 3 upper, Suoh. To most of them it seemed stark, almost barren even, a jungle of glass, concrete, walkways, and multi-lane avenues full of empty spaces, full of people but missing something. To Raz, however, this place was a sensory overload. Visions covered every last building and available surface, like a million television screens everywhere he looked, and most of them were ads. Anything that didn’t need to be solid, from street signs to crossing guards, wasn’t. The boy’s eyes glittered with the light of countless psychic displays that only he could see.

A few minutes later Goldlewis parked his hummer in the lot of a complex full of trendy-looking stores and restaurants, unable to be dazzled by their brilliant Vision displays. “For folks like you,” he said to Raz. “It’s a whole ‘nother world compared to what folks like us see. Everythin’ from top to bottom ‘round here’s designed with psychics in mind, which means it ain’t easy if you’re a dud.” He snorted. “Hell of a word, ain’t it? But people prefer it over ‘mentally inept’.” He popped open the door and climbed out, then headed for the trunk. “Still, when it comes to killin’ Others, ya don’t need powers.” From the back of his hummer he withdrew the Area 51 High Security Coffin, which he slung over his shoulder like a knapsack. “A good arm and a little gumption are enough.”

Peach joined him, and the group headed out to the sidewalk. Pedestrians and cars crossed back and forth, but without the means to see the signs most of the newcomers would need to resort to either guesswork or the raised bridges to get across the streets. They could see the surveillance systems, though. Every fifty feet there seemed to be another cluster of black cameras pointed in various directions, dotted with harsh red lights that gave them a pointed stare. They stared down at the tasteful sidewalk tiles, hedges, trash cans, and bus stops, listening quietly to the citizens. Passers-by, many decked out in futuristic techwear, spoke about all sorts of subjects either with one another or alone, using Brain Talk. A number of them mentioned ‘Otherfall’ elsewhere in Suoh, worried about the repercussions there or the possibility of such an occurrence here. All the way down Main Street, a walled plaza with an open gate led toward a big, almost citadel-like structure topped by a enormous glass brain, its triangular panes all tinted red. Or perhaps, scarlet.

“We’re tourists from Sector 7,” Goldlewis said aloud to explain to the others, rather like a G-man. “Let’s wander around some and see what we find, hm?”

Fairly close by stood the most popular restaurant and place to meet on main street, Musubi’s, featuring peppy music and ever-changing Vision menus. On the right-hand side lay Vision Town, a cluttered and twisting market street open only to foot traffic full of small businesses all jostling for attention, including some outdoor food courts. Farther along lay Sumeragi Tomb, a mixture of Japanese shrine and mausoleum complex. On the left stood Anemoiapolis, a multiple-level pool complex-slash-escape room that danced with Visions of sea creatures, Paradise Lost sauna with its unique dark atmosphere, a department store for techwear apparel, and Aquarius Hydroponics Garden, a health center and natural grocer. Behind the parking lot lay a route to a multi-leveled courtyard surrounded by apartments that looked almost bleak without psychic sensitivity, although the citizens walking and playing with their dogs there lent it some extra life. And of course, in between there lay countless other boutiques and things squeezed into every last nook and cranny, like laundromats, workshops, and outlets from Hope Station, where Psych-OSF personnel and approved citizens could ride Maglev trains to traverse the city. With a lot to take in and explore, the Seekers set off.

Anyone who ventured up the steps of Sumeragi Tomb, though, might find something especially interesting. In the first shrine tear, with its structures surrounded by some of the only verdure to be found this deep in Suoh, stood a distinctive five-man team. A young man with a sword across his back and his brown-haired friend stood comparing fortune’s they’d just received from a stall, though neither looked especially pleased. Nearby two girls, one bespectacled and her companion pigtailed, stood complaining loudly about something or other, while a teen with a topknot attempted to make use of the shrine’s peace and quiet for meditation. All five wore black techwear with red accents, with thin orange cables looping around and through their garb.



While the others drove the length of Sector 7’s highways to reach the interplate tunnels, Giovanna steered her run-of-the-mill SeeD personal Carrier the opposite way. Tora sat on Poppi QT Pi’s lap, ostensibly to free up another seat for his teammate, although he seemed happy to lean against his companion throughout the ride. Their team made for the outer edge of the plate, where a station would allow them to ride a speedy Maglev train down the wall to the city’s lower section. The guards on duty didn’t give their gridPrints a second glance; clearly, the SOU’s contact knew his stuff. Giovanna parked her car in a secure area, and once squeezed aboard public transport, the Seekers hurtled one Sector over to the lower part of 8, known as Detroit. Their route was neither scenic nor comfortable, and in fact they needed to take a little extra care -or be a little extra menacing- to avoid any potential thieves who might take advantage of the situation.

As Giovanna explained on the drive there, pickpockets weren’t the only dangers the newcomers might face in public transportation; certain thieves employed devices called skimmers that could trigger monetary transfers from the accounts attached to hapless citizens’ gridLinks in close quarters. While such devices wouldn’t net any ill-gotten gains from accounts with falsified numbers, having strangers realize their bankruptcy would certainly do them no favors, so watchfulness was an absolute must. In sectors where digital technology reigned supreme, a skillful hacker could achieve just about anything. When Giovanna told him this Tora made a mental note to ask about that later, and resolved to keep a sharp eye out.

Thanks to the maglev’s blistering pace, it wasn’t long before the train slid to a stop in a terminal station. The heroes exited to find themselves well and truly in Detroit. Even in broad daylight the plate up above cast a heavy shadow over the undercity, exacerbated by the hazy atmosphere up above to douse the industrial expanse in perpetual twilight. Tora needed to look out toward the land beyond the city limits to remind himself it was still day, though what he saw brought him only cold comfort. Outside Midgar stretched miles and miles of desolation. Lesser cities’ remains stretched all the way to the Valley of Ruins between the Dystopiascape’s border mountains, and those blocky, overgrown highrises sagged together like aged tombstones in an unsettling manner. Out there lurked the Machines, and whatever diabolical engines gave rise to those unyielding mechanical hordes. He and his Artificial Blade stood there for a moment staring out into the distance, imagining an entire army of the red-eyed, soulless robots the twins exhibited in their slideshow. Tora reached out for Poppi’s hand to squeeze it, and she squeezed back. Together, they would show the world the difference between mass-produced junk and Noponic automata.

They caught up with Giovanna and the others a few moments later after they stopped at an overlook on the station’s right side. To his shock Tora looked out across a massive hollow basin that stretched hundreds upon hundreds of feet further down into the ground, lined on all sides by towering buildings. This orange-tinged urban pit, full of buildings laden with rust, stretched all the way to the greenish smog, tangled pipes, and dark, craggy towers of Sector 1’s Zaun, and it continued a good ways into Detroit as well. “Impressive, huh?” Giovanna asked, her tone nonchalant. “Well, that’s Zone 09, AKA Quarantine Valley, an autonomous exclusion zone. It’s been that way for longer than just about anyone remembers, but I got curious, so I looked it up. Twenty years ago, the biggest Chimera outbreak in Midgar’s history left the streets a corrupted waste, so people live on the rooftops. Its corruption levels are off the charts, and Redshift is rampant, but it’s contained, and so are the citizens. Nobody in or out, officially anyway. Between it and the Sector 7 Slums, though, they’ve got the Ever Crisis salvage industry cornered. So a lot of stuff gets by on the sly. Pretty good chance we’d find some Hermits down there, if you ask me.”

She crossed her arms and turned to her new allies to give them an overview of their own situation. “Well, we don’t have my car anymore, and unless you feel like hoofing it through one of the most dangerous undercities in Midgar we need a way around.” She pointed out some elevated metal rails that snaked between the buildings nearby. “Bingo, sky-lines. The monorails don’t run anymore, so we should be fine to hitch a ride. Of course, we’d need sky-hooks to do it. Maybe we could convince a local gang to give us some.”

Tora blinked, surprised, then smiled. “That awful nice of gang!”

“Figure of speech,” Giovanna snarked while Poppi reprimanded her Masterpon’s naivete with a poke in the forehead. “Though, the most important thing is figuring out where we’re going. Out to the ruins to fight Machines, or deeper into Detroit to check out the PMC. Let’s scope out the place, see what we can make of it for now. Just keep in mind, things are a lot looser down here than up top. Stay on your toes.”

Tora widened his eyes innocently. “But Tora not have toes!”

“Now you’re just trying to be annoying…” Poppi nudged him. “Masterpon.”

As the team turned away from Quarantine Valley toward the streets, the undercity confronted the team with a shiny veneer best exemplified by the brightly-lit Limb Clinic up ahead, but those streets belied a cramped, cringy underbelly, and the facade quickly gave way to dingy back allies, trash-ridden courts, and even a solid waste landfill where much of the Sector’s outmoded or unsalvageable trash came to rest.





With the Duke of Flies well and truly slain and the boss gates open again, the rest of the Seekers could trail inside to rendezvous with the trio that mopped up the Basement. Sectonia, Omori, the Knight, and Therion all made it, a few fresh cuts, burns, and bruises on display but nothing to write home about. Nadia didn’t see the Adventurer, but then again she didn’t remember him jumping down through that chest to begin with; maybe after the incident with those giant flies he figured he’d be better off adventuring on his own. Considering the nature of the Seekers’ mission, Nadia couldn’t blame him. Better to have new acquaintances quit than bite off more than they could chew and end up…well, dead.

The heroes spent a few moments to collect themselves, which gave them a chance to catch their breath, commiserate and complain about the awful stuff this place confronted them with, and top off their health via Sectonia’s regeneration aura. Still, they couldn’t dilly-dally forever, and even if they’d rather not plumb the depths of this vulgar dungeon for even worse horrors, there didn’t seem to be any other ways out save an ascent back up through the entry tunnel into that pest-filled mine. Once she finished her stretches, Nadia sauntered up to the trapdoor. “I’ll take point again. I’ve flung myself into danger twice already, no point in mixin’ things up now.” She jumped, tucking her knees against her chest and clasping her arms around them. “Cannonball!”



Dark. Dank. Spotted by leaks and weeds. The Basement didn’t have a lot going for it, to be sure, but at the very least it had been conspicuously well-lit for how few actual light sources it featured. In comparison, the Caves seemed even less inviting. Nadia sidled out from beneath the hole to make way for the others, her ears perked up for any hint of what might lay beyond this room’s four exits. It smelled as if she’d exchanged the despicable odor of offal for the sickly-sweet reek of decay, which might not be a whole lot better, but given all the nastiness she’d experienced in here so far the feral would cherish every blessing she could get.



As the others made their way down, many being less light on her feet than Ms Fortune herself, Nadia took a sneak peek at the surrounding chambers. To the north lay a large room full of different kinds of maggots, many of them with freakishly human little faces, and some of them even sported one on each end. Just watching them wriggle and writhe around made Nadia’s stomach churn, and with a shiver she rotated to the next door. In there she counted six scarlet Boils sitting among the rocks, swollen to the point of throbbing, while three Mr. Mimes traipsed around with skinless heads tugging their bodies around via sinuous, elongated necks. “These things belong in a horror flick,” she hissed, gritting her teeth. Aside from the enemies though, she spotted a familiar sign above the door on the other side. Another shop! With a whole eleven cents burning a hole in her pocket, Nadia wanted to see what was inside.

She turned around to face the group just as the last of her allies entered, that being Sectonia, who being too big to fit through the shaft needed to warp through the tunnel from one floor to the next. “There’s a shop through here!” she called. “I’ll handle this.”

The curious cat stepped inside, and the door slammed shut. Though they lacked eyes to see with, the Mr. Maws whirled to face her and stumbled her way. Rather than wait for them to close in, Nadia made a beeline for one of them, racing on all fours past a couple boils toward a corner that had none. They belched out showers of blood tears at her, but by the time they fell she’d already left them behind, and in just a moment’s time she’d reached her first target. The Mr. Maw launched its head at her with unexpected speed. “Hey now!” she snapped, stopping short to block. “Don’t lose your head!” She jumped and slashed through the extended neck, then airdashed forward to come down with an axe kick on the body. It proved stronger than its counterparts in the Basement, however, and survived to start gushing blood from its neck. Worse still, an awful, raspy snarl from behind her made her ear twitch, and she whirled her head around to see the now-detached Maw floating toward her.

“Ooh, you spoil me.” She raised her arm to drive her elbow into the Maw, then thought better and flipped away from the Gusher she’d created to land on a rock, her brow furrowed. So if I cut the neck, they just become two enemies, she thought. Well, it’s not the only one. With a sweep of her arm she created a Copycat from her blood, which stepped forward to smack the Maw with a headbutt before carving it up. It then raced off to deal with the Boils, while Nadia remained in the Boil-free zone to deal with the bigger issues. She pulled out her chains and jumped, somersaulting through the air like a buzz saw to hack the Gusher apart. When she landed, she held the chains up and swung them in a circle around her not unlike Jesse’s new orbitals. Her anchors struck the Mr. Maws again and again, and even when they broke up into more enemies they just kept walking into Nadia’s blender. Soon enough they gave up the ghost, and the feral checked on her Copycat.

Her doppelganger had eliminated the Boils one by one, methodically pummeling them down into pulp so they couldn’t grow back. With her Copycat heavily damaged and contaminated by the Boils’ filthy blood, she didn’t want it back, so it eventually just melted down. Just one foe remained, and Nadia went after it. She baited a blood shower, then moved in to reduce the last Boil to a stain with a quick combo. A single coin dropped as the doors opened. “All worth it,” Nadia sighed as she collected her loot, then used the key from the big room in the Basement to proceed into the shop.

A stony corpse sat in there, stooped forward as if sleeping with a fire on either side of it. In front lay a heart for three cents, a yellow pill for three, and a glowing prism for fifteen. There also seemed to be a donation machine, but the feral didn’t so much as give it a second glance. “Ooh, some kind of gemstone?” she bubbled excitedly, squatting over the device. If this could light her way in the dark, she’d be set! Unfortunately, she was ‘light’ on cash as well. “Aw, nuts. Only twelve. Just you wait though,” she poked the corpse in its forehead. “I’ll be back when I get fifteen!” With that she turned back to see what the others had gotten up to.



A veritable horde of slavering, eight-legged arachnids descended upon the Seekers, masked by the mists, the grass, and the pitch-black silhouettes they loved to hide in. Just the noise by itself would have been the stuff of nightmares, but while this situation would have been curtains for any other hapless wayfarers, it turned out to not be quite as dire as it first seemed.

The Koopa Troop belted out firepower using a variety of elements, and to their barrage Rubick lent his magical strength. With Primrose’s Peacock Strut elevating their power even further, they laid into the spiders as they swarmed. The destruction of their webs by the gunk-slinging Juniors meant that the weavers could no longer descend through the open air, and with those lines not so easily restrung the heroes quickly cut down on the spiders’ means of approach. This in turn funneled them into more predictable routes. Brain-rattling sound waves and frigid, movement-impairing gusts impeded the crawlers’ advance, and the heroes could begin to secure their position. Once the walls of fire and trenches of paint around them fried the first couple dozen spiders into foul-smelling husks, the horde kept its distance around the Seekers’ dangerous perimeter, surrounding them on all sides but unable to advance. A handful of intrepid arachnids rappelled down from the trees above, but Kamek’s efforts meant that only a couple managed to plop down among the defenders. In short order, they managed to turn an overrun into a standoff, and all things considered the situation didn’t look too bad.

Then Rika shot at the giant spider. There came an odd flash of bright blue that turned to purple and then black, spread out like webbing from where the spider lay, and it disappeared. A brief moment passed, and then another, much brighter flash went off–directly above the Seekers’ encampment. One second later Silitha the Brood Mother slammed down into the Seekers, indiscriminately scattering them, their defenses, and many of her own children. “̴H̸y̶a̴h̵!̴”̸ she shrieked, her voice raspy and garbled. “̷H̶o̵l̸d̵ ̵s̷t̴i̸l̶l̵,̴ ̵l̷i̷t̴t̷l̷e̵ ̷o̸n̷e̵s̸!̴ ̴I̷’̶l̶l̴ ̷m̶a̸k̷e̷ ̵t̵h̷i̷s̶ ̶q̸u̶i̶c̸k̷!̵”̶ She teleported again off to the side, then lunged forward with a double-smash of her forelimbs aimed at Bowser.

Sectonia found moving through this 'basement' was tricky. The doors were too small for her, so she had to teleport through them which wasn't the best. And while she managed to clear the rooms on the left, they lead to a dead end. Being thoroughly disgusted by this floor, Sectonia decided to stay back and let the others explore ahead; although she soon found this wasn't an issue as while she had gone left, many others had gone right. And she was mostly thankful she let the others go ahead considering the amount of... horrid body waste that lie ahead. Well at least she knew the origin of the smell of this floor, but that only made things worse.

As she hung back Sectonia crushed some of the spirits she had gotten, finding.... well nothing useful. There was additionally a super heavy device she couldn't carry with her that seemed to be useless she left behind (hopper). Therion had managed to pick the lock of the item room, but all Sectonia saw was bits of blood and burnt bits at the entrance of that room, apparently something happened there she wasn't aware of. Wanting to get rid of the smell of this floor, Sectonia summoned her Antillions to clean up the rooms the others had cleared in an attempt to maybe bring some class, or at least reduce the smell of, this floor and collect any spirits they left behind. Being magical constructs, they didn't care one way or another. Sectonia did have to resummon them a few times though as they got filthier and filthier as they cleaned. As she had her antillions clean, she figured what kind of atrocious monster would hire or even make use of any of these things. Anyone that stuck around the Queen would see this was definitely a place she hated just by the expression on her face.

Eventually making her way through the dungeon, following behind the others, Sectonia found that a room marked on the map as a ? mark seemed to have no way to enter it. A strange thing, but she wasn't a stranger to secret passages. Using her antillions, she had them check out the nearby walls that bordered the hidden room and after a few attempts, figured there was some false wall separating it from the rest of the dungeon. A breath of fresh air perhaps? Her antilllions couldn't break through the wall, and she wasn't going to put her hands on it anytime soon... Seeing as she had gotten her hands on an explosive, Sectonia tried using it to blow open the false wall, almost as if it was some kind of makeshift key.

This had the proper effect, blowing open a hole into what looked like a long forgotten crypt. Well 'crypt' was being loose, it seemed to be some cave that gave the air of forgotten death holding a calcified statue of some kind of weird looking person. Additionally inside it was... Well Sectonia wasn't sure what she was going to expect, but inside she found some fires and TWO explosives! Wow... TWO bombs for the price of one. If she was a kid, she figured she might, MIGHT be excited. Well, if she didn't have her sensibilities about her anyway. As she commanded her antillions to collect the explosives, she saw that the fires that were a bit more 'red' for lack of a better word attacked when the antillions got close, shooting out their own blood globules. Did everything down here attack with blood? Using ice antillions, Sectonia put out those red fires, and the yellow ones for good measure, and found that for her efforts she was rewarded one of those coins she had gotten from those spirits she crushed.

Sectonia would soon find that these coins were currency used in a, frankly, dusty and dirty store the others had discovered. Sectonia, being behind the group, only saw the tail end of their encounter with the store. Nadia had tried to steal the bomb that was apparently worth 5 currency, but the chalk numbers indicated some kind of magic. If you didn't have the currency, it wouldn't let you grab the item. Sectonia checked out the items in the store, finding the expensive one was actually something worthwhile as it buffed... minions? Well that was something she was interested in!

Although she realized she didn't have 15 of these 'coins' that existed in this dungeon. This miffed her a bit, but then she thought that perhaps the magic of the store wouldn't care about what kind of currency it was as long as it was currency. Remembering Geo was currency, Sectonia counted out 15 of it, and thrust her hand into the heart that said "BFF". Unlike Nadia who had her hand just go through the item, Sectonia actually collected the item.



Not knowing of the visual alternations these items confined, Sectonia saw that whatever antillions she had summoned immediately grew a fair amount larger. She knew they would be more powerful, but she wasn't expecting the size increase. And without a mirror, she wouldn't know about the new small tattoo that adorned her head. Something she'd learn soon.

Still lagging behind the others, as the doors only seemed to accept whoever could fit through them and only a few people went in every door, eventually the others reached a door adorned with a skull. Sectonia, alongside a few others, waited patiently as those that entered cleared out the boss. She took this time to clean any that wanted it using her now larger and stronger antillions. And considering the filth in this place, many of them needed it. When the boss was defeated and the door opened, the others waited around a hatch as the rest of the party entered, collecting themselves. Sectonia took this time to clean off whoever she could with her antillions as no self respecting minion of hers would be going around smelling like a sewer.

With everyone having caught their breath and Sectonia doing what she could to clean up her allies with her magic, the group went through the trapdoor down to the next floor. Sectonia being the last one to enter as her size meant she had to teleport down, instead of fall like the others. Upon reaching the new level, which seemed to be a cave system, the smell of sewage was gone having been replaced by the smell of general decay. It was better, but not by much.

"Hmph, whoever hid this 'mask' down here had the antithesis of beauty on their mind when they designed this place." Sectonia mentioned at how neither floor was all that accommodating to her sensibilities. Nadia had gone ahead much like usual, going in the direction of another shop she had seen. Sectonia meanwhile looked at the adjacent rooms finding many of them to have the smae grotesque monsters, although a bit more durable looking, as the previous floor. Curious as to what was in the store Nadia had found, Sectonia having found an item that made her antillions far more powerful, Sectonia made her way there after Nadia had cleared up that room. She caught the tail end of Nadia complaining about not having enough currency for some sort of prism looking object.

"IF your interested, I have some currency you can use to buy that object Nadia." Sectonia said, offering up the three pennies she was missing. "However I ask that you crush some of the spirits I have collected so far after this floor is done. I have a theory I would like to test." Far be it from Sectonia to deny one of her minions trying to beauty herself with crystal.

"If Psych-OSF is anything like that Psychonauts, then even non-psychics can get a job with them," Raz commented. "Of course, it sounds like it's only half of the actual Psychonauts, so that info doesn't really help. Weeeeee can figure it out as we go."

The next step of their journey was decided: another split, one part of the team heading to Suoh and the others going towards Detroit. This new separation made Raz wonder. "That Wonder Red guy... he got separated from us back in the Metro, right? I hope he's doing okay."

They had some time to kill before they would be ready to depart. Wherever you went, there would always be some bureaucracy to make things a little harder, huh? The building's amenities were offered to the group, but Raz didn't go for any recreation just yet. There was something he had to do first.

As the others dispersed, filed out, hung around to chat, or do whatever it was they were going to do, Raz double backed to the door out to the helipad. He stepped outside, taking only a quick glance to find where Roxas and Bede had ended up at the edge of the balcony.

Raz approached slowly, since it seemed the two were discussing something important. He cleared his throat. "Hey, Roxas? And... uhm, Beady? Mind if I ask you something?" Raz opened his mouth to continue, but paused. Something seemed to be on Roxas's mind. The look was familiar to Raz, and he had an inkling what might've been going through his head. Despite only knowing him for a short while, he felt something of a connection to Roxas. So, he closed the distance and joined the pair, sitting with his legs over the edge.

"It's kind've a lot, huh?" Raz began. "Trust me, I was like that back when I first joined up. Man, it was only a day ago, I think. Feels like a lot longer!" Raz chuckled, trying to break the brooding tension a little. "But yeah. Not too long ago we were minding our own business, unaware of what was actually going on, and then in an instant we were thrust into this huge thing, surrounded by people who knew a lot more than you did. I'm not sure how you feel exactly, but it sure made me feel small. Hell, when I was awakened, Mr. Goldlewis and the rest were heading to climb up a mountain! It was long, and hard, and I barely made much of a difference going up. I think we even died! But..."

Raz squinted, looking at Roxas's robes, then said, "I think... yeah, it was your Organization guys who saved us. Gave us all a huge pick-me-up, I guess, and helped us get to the top. The whole time I wasn't sure what I was doing, or if I was even helping, if the team was better off if I just stayed in the desert. You can't let those thoughts get to you. If you want my advice, you should focus on what you can do, and do it as best you can. You're good at a lot of stuff - you can run really fast, maneuver super good, and the way you fight is impressive. And you," he turned to Bede, not wanting this peptalk to be too one-sided, "I'm not familiar with your animal... things... but you look like you can control them pretty good too!"

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is a lot to handle right now, so you have to focus on what's right in front of you, the stuff you can do right now, instead of everything hanging above your head. Plus, if that Organization XIII is going to be in the shadows acting all mysterious and helping us out for whatever reason, then having you around might help us figure them out better." With that Raz stood back up and dusted off the back of his pants. "And speaking of 'help', that's why I came out here. We're going to be splitting up - some of us going to the Psych-OSF, the others checking our those Desperado guys - and I wanted to know if you could, well, come with me? There's somebo--... some people that might be there that I care a lot about. I don't want to have to beat them up to get them to their senses. I saw what you did with Benedict in the ride over here, freeing him without all that, so I was hoping you could do it for my friends too? Please?"

The ride into Suoh was uneventful. Midgar's size, while impressive at a distance, made travel a lot longer. It gave Raz time to get used to the weight of his gridLink on his wrist, at least. It might not have seemed like a lot, but his training taught him that even the smallest change in balance had to be accounted for. He didn't want to leap from building to building and fumble a pole swing.

His attention was quickly diverted as soon as the hummer reach the end of the tunnel into Suoh. For a moment Raz was blindsided by psychic images - ads plastered on every available space, symbols and text overlaid on signs that had its own writing, stunning displays of light and color - to everyone else it looked like he just hit a drug trip.

"Oh man, how is this worse than the Sensorium?" Raz asked himself. He closed his eyes, turning his thoughts inwards, and took several deep breaths. Lights, sounds, clawing for your attention... 'Do not let them distract you, Razputin.' His dad's voice echoed in his ears. 'It can overwhelm even me at times. Just remember to keep your focus...' "...at the front of your mind." Re-centered, Raz opened his eyes again. The visions hadn't gone away, of course, but for now Raz was blocking out the worst of them.

"Yeah, it really is something," Raz responded. "Guess I'll be running point? Since I can see all of it?" It felt weird to be in something of a leader position now, despite how out-of-place Raz had been before, though the burden of leadership could wait a bit as everyone went to explore the Sector a bit first. "Oh look, there it is!" Raz helpfully pointed out the 'Otherlobe' down the street, as if nobody else would connect the dots. "The Motherlobe! Otherlobe. Whatever. It's a lot redder than I remember. Must be the, uh, 'other' part of it?"

"Tourists from Sector 7. Alright, I'm going to head for the..." He scanned the environment. He was looking for someone specific, and if they were the same as ever, then he'd want a place outside of the Otherlobe, where there would be some sort of plantlife. And lucky for him, there was exactly one spot that fit that description. "That shrine! The... Sumeragi Tomb," he read from some psychically projected signage in front of the shrine. "A tomb in the middle of the city? Kinda morbid."

He made his way over, not wanting to look too eager to get there, but also a little too anxious to take it slow. When would he ever get another chance to be so close to people he knew in this huge world? The closer he got to the shrine the quicker his pace became, until he took the steps up two at a time. He, of course, tripped on the very last one, nearly stumbling onto his face. "Ghahh, stupid...!" Raz started to scold the gridLink, only to stop short when he noticed the group of similarly-dressed individuals, one among them catching his eye in particular.

"Lilli!!" Raz rushed forward, running right across the shrine to the pigtailed girl, not for one moment thinking how bad it looked to be charging straight at a team of armed, possibly military-trained Psych-OSF soldiers. Oops.

---

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---

The meeting was coming to a close, and Raiden knew this as many of the discussion participants had finished asking their questions. There were not a lot of discussions left that interested nor pertained to Raiden, yet he kept a careful and mindful ear to any additional information coming his way. As he thought, Susie's idea of creating her own company fell short due to many government regulations and along with the dangers infiltrating a private army HQ could pose, they were left with few options.

Raiden was however surprised that Goldlewis seemed on board with sending the group with Giovanna down to the lower sector of the city. "And here I was thinking you guys wouldn't be on board with me. I have a good advantage over machines with my High-Frequency Blade and a few explosives to top off." He added, boasting his skills as humbly as one could.

Each member of the group was expected to take photos for their new IDs titled GridLinks and Gridprints, forged for simplicity and safety reasons. Raiden didn't think much about disguising himself at first, but upon the suggestion, he couldn't agree more. Raiden was plated with armor and was the clear image of a mercenary, which definitely would not work in a city setting with strict government regulations. For both his ID and his disguised, he went to change. He decided it is best despite it not being fully functional to remove the patch covering his left eye to help him blend in, and afterward threw on his disguise: A black dress shirt, a golden tie, and a pair of shades. He was sure to look like an upstanding citizen in what he assumed was the slums of the city, but at least he fits in better. "Not too flashy, but it's a style that's familiar. That'll work." For safe measure, he put his swords and grenades into 2 separate cases for the time being.

Before his small friend could get too far into his repairs and maintenance with Poppi, Raiden popped into the small room they stationed themselves in and politely spoke to Tora. "Did you ever get a chance to look at those blades I bought back in the desert? I think now would be a good time to get those installed, especially seeing how having an ace up our sleeve couldn't hurt." After getting confirmation that he was ready, Raiden laid his arm on a wooden table, and let Tora do his business.

For his cover story, his Gridprint claimed he was a traveling businessman dealing in firearms. It wasn't entirely creative, but he fits the role well enough and knew a good deal about guns to play the part accurately. The Gridlink then was fashioned on his wrist after a bit of waiting in the rec room and he was as ready as he could be for the short time the group was given to prepare. "Let's get going then, eh?"

---

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The city was closing in. Kust like America from his world, Detroit couldn't live up to its role as a "slum city" anymore if it does here. Smog as far as the eye can see, poverty around nearly every corner, and pickpockets and thieves roaming just as often as the rats and mice do. However, this Detroit was much more futuristic than where he came from, which was surprising considering a majority of the fancy technology was always given to the private militaries and government. There were a lot more bright signs and skylights than he remembered. As each of their Gridprints was checked, Raiden simply sat quietly, presented what he needed to, and let Giovanna do what she needed to.

Raiden couldn't be any more relieved to have been freed from the ridiculous-looking car he was paraded around in. He kept his yap shut about the car though. He had no idea who it belonged to, but he was not about to get into any more trouble with Giovanna, especially considering his snippiness earlier. Raiden kept an eye out for any danger as they left, heading Giovanna's words on thieves in Detroit. Not like anyone would be able to easily pickpocket suitcases from him, but the Gridlink did provide some incentive to keep watch. They then entered a train and eventually found themselves in the belly of the beast.

The cyborg noticed Tora looking out, seemingly longing for something, but found it rude that he was staring at the poor friend and looked back to the travel path. "Any more smoke or gas here and my robots might not be able to support my breathing." The cyborg joked to Tora, attempting to lighten his mood once he had caught up with the rest of the group.

Staring down into the pit, Raiden couldn't help but feel as though it was staring back at him as if all the dangers lurking within were collectively peering with their cold gazes. The idea was enough to make Raiden's spine quake... if he still had his biological spine. "There's always something worse." Raiden added to Giovanna who explained the quarantine zone as a sector of death and disease. He was more than happy to step away. As much as he wanted to help people, he's no help if he's endangering himself in the process. Hopefully, there was a way later down the line to help them. Would probably be easier if he learned more about Midgar before stepping foot into one of its most dangerous areas.

Raiden looked up to the abandoned railways that Giovanna pointed out, which she stated they'd need hooks to traverse most effectively. For a moment he just stared, not exactly knowing where could get such an item, until she mentioned "convincing" the local gangs. "I have a way with words. Lead me to them and hopefully, I can get what we need for a low cost." There was very little threatening tone in his voice, though it was kind of blatantly obvious what the mercenary meant and he hoped his tactics were in line with what Giovanna was thinking.

The streets and scenery were not foreign to Raiden, but he knew they were less than satisfactory. Trash, trash, and more trash as far as his functioning eye could see behind his pair of shades. If this was the lowest for Midgar, he couldn't imagine what the rest of the city looked like. Raiden almost wished he could return to the metro, just to feel a bit of excitement in the atmosphere, but everything was just gloomy, outside of the nearby clinic. He voiced his personal suggestion to Giovanna: "Personally, I'm fine with going wherever, but I wouldn't mind carving up a few robots. I say we could each take a dozen ourselves."

---

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Jr’s plan of action worked like a charm at first, especially thanks to Primrose lending them her aid and bolstering the power of Rubick, Bowser and Dazzle’s sweeping AOE attacks. Those laid waste to swaths of unseen foes, while the carpet of goop the prince and his clones produced created an exclusion zone where their foes could not tread safely or swiftly. They could still repel down, but Kamek, after summoning the clones, made sure to swat any incoming bugs down with magic blasts as soon as they came into view.

”I am a Genius!” Jr declared once the plan had held steady for a few moments …. And then right on cue everything went wrong as Rika’s volley of shells sailed towards the giant spider … and it promptly teleported right on top of them. Literally.

”Oh no!” the ship girl cried out as she realized what she had done, firing her maneuvering boosters to dash out of the way as the massive spider came careening down from the sky, its arrival heralded by a blinding flash and then a deafening crash as it landed amongst them.

Jr, his doppelgangers, and Kamek managed to swoop out of the way as well, though all the fliers were sent spinning by the resulting pressure wave of the queen’s landing hitting them. Bowser, not built for such swift motions, could only duck down and be stomped on. Right on his spiky armored shell.

It still hurt, but at least he wasn't going to be the only one suffering from the exchange. The one that came almost immediately after however, was one he did not want to meet head on as well, as the giant demonic spider teleported to the side and then came charging in to perform an over-head strike with her big meaty claws.

The king could not dodge roll, side step, or block the titanic blow. But he could still do one thing, and that was jump good. Straight up.

Defying gravity and the spider queen both, the king’s stubby legs sent him sailing up over the spider’s attack … and right into the webs strung above them that had been two high for the troop to consider clearing.

Bowser became stuck by his shell, dangling in the air above the brood mother, and likely drawing her children to him like moths to a flame. Yet, if he had his way, then just like that flame he would burn all the bugs that came to him. The king unleashed screeching sound from all 6 of his turrets, his new position above his friends and family meaning he could unleash all 360 degrees of his firepower without worry for friendly fire. He also blasted off a flurry of spiky missiles from his shell, forcing the spiders above to run a gauntlet of explosive spines if they wanted to try and attack him.

Heeding Kamek’s earlier warning, however, he did not unleash his flames upon them also, so as to not risk engulfing them in an inferno via setting first webs and then trees alight. The queen however, below in their clearing they had made, presented no such fire hazard, and so she received a dose of firebreath in a (likely vein) vain attempt to dissuade her from plucking him from the web like a tasty fly.

None of this would free himself, which left the rest of the Troop to deal with his predicament.

”I’m coming papa!” was Jr’s immediate response once he’d corrected his flight and taken stock of the situation. The prince soared upwards in his flying machine to clear yet more webs with more goop in-order to try and free his dad. Riding in the car at his trainer’s side, Dazzle unleashed the bright pink sonic beam that was his disarming voice at the prince's command, the sonic attack being used to try and clear spiders in a way that would not collaterally hit the king the way his icy wind would.

As Jr flew he called more commands to the others ”Kamek! The little spiders! Everyone else, the big one”

Rika was already on this, the ship girl sailing across the goop patch and unleashing fire upon the spider queen, cannon batteries barking, machine gun chittering, and main gun roaring as she counted that final weapon’s shots under her breath ”Three… Four…” while also mentally eyeing her dwindling ammo stores with worry.

Kamek meanwhile half followed the prince's instructions. He made the shadow clones spread out to try and clear more room on the ground with their imitation paintbrushes, splatting web, ground and spider alike as best the could though needing to be more spread out due to the queen in their midst likely left them more vulnerable than they had been when doing this earlier. The mage himself, however, used his time to cast ”Sphere of Protection! upon his king, causing a blue shimmering barrier to form around him, that would massively increase the king’s resistance to physical harm. Such as the physical harm being smashed by those massive hammer claws could cause.

When the way forward appeared, Ganondorf waited a moment before descending into the Trap door. Namely Nadia was quick to volunteer to go down first, which she had previously done when the Seekers had entered the Basement. But he also decided to go ahead and be among the last to descend to the next level. By then, he reasoned, whatever traps that might have been tripped will have already been tripped. Underhanded, yes, but Ganondorf had no desire to make this place his tomb as it were.

"This place just keeps getting more and and more welcoming." he remarked at the more dimly lit caves he now found himself in. He also could swear that the stench in the air was worse down here than it was up in the Basement. When he heard Sectonia's remark about the person who hid the mask in the place, he found himself inclined to agree, "Well, you're not wrong." he said to her in response, "But I would imagine the only thing they had on their mind was keeping out intruders like us." Speaking from experience with the whole "hiding things in dungeons" routine, Ganondorf was willing to admit that a foul stench like this was probably just as effective of a deterrent as any monster one placed down here. Not that he expected to find no monsters down here, but there was a certain strategic purpose in using such a disgusting location that he could not deny.

"Ah, but that mask isn't going to find itself, now is it?" he asked, no longer wishing to take up anymore time. The sooner they concluded their business in this atrocious pit the sooner they could leave it behind them. And so without even a shred of hesitation Ganondorf strode through the western door without even waiting for anyone to follow him. He'd just spent the entire previous floor teamed up with a pair of ladies and so for now he wished to work alone again. As such, the door he entered automatically locked itself behind him before anyone would even get the chance to follow him through it. All they would hear would be the sounds of eventual fighting on the other side.

As for Ganondorf, the first room he found himself in was occupied by 3 monstrosities that vaguely resembled the Fatties from previous rooms. Except these appeared to have to two heads, like two beings being forcibly smashed together into one.. Conjoined Fatty. Also occupying this room was a trio of skeletons, which... Ganondorf found kind of surprising. They were just skeletons, no disgusting or body-based gimmicks like the other creatures he'd seen so far. One of the Conjoined Fatties slowly started waddling toward Ganondorf, only to suddenly puke out a line of green, acid-like substance at him. Ganondorf quickly sidestepped to avoid the Green Creep and glared with disgust.

"You'll have to try harder than that!" he immediately lunged forward and in one lighting quick motion, drew out the White Sword AND sliced its blade right through the Conjoined Fatty, seemingly killing it. He was almost certain it would get back up again as some new enemy but for now Ganondorf needed to focus on getting rid of the other enemies first. He sidestepped again to avoid another line of acid-puke and then used the White Sword to bat a bone out of the air that had been thrown at him by a Bony. He angrily lunged for the Conjoined Fatty, impaling it on his blade and then using the sword to swing the enemy's body around and fling it into a nearby Bony, killing them both. Ganondorf then had to jump clear out of the way to avoid being hit by yet another puke attack and by 2 more separate bone throws. These ranged attacks were getting annoying. He leaped through the air and brought the blade down on the last Conjoined Fatty and cleaved clean in half. After that he whirled around and deflected another incoming bone throw. Then when a second bone was thrown his way he caught it out of the air in his hand and then threw it right back at the Bony with enough strength that the skeleton shattered into pieces. After that it was merely a matter of rushing the last Bony before it had a chance to throw another bone and he killed it easily enough. That was when he noticed the body of the first enemy appearing to slowly stand itself. But it didn't get a chance to stand for long before Ganondorf rushed up and obliterated it with a single Warlock Punch. Once it was dead, a single Full Heart appeared in the center of the room. Noticing the Fading Spirits that had appeared from the enemies he felled, Ganondorf went about crushing them all, having no interesting in keeping such weak spirits. As expected, none of them gave him any items worth keeping. Ganondorf also realized that he was still roughed up a bit from the fight with the Duke of Flies, so he was quick to take the Full Heart and benefit from the healing it offered him. After this, he immediately made his through the now-open door on the western wall.

In this next room, Ganondorf was met with 6 creatures that appeared to be a made of bloody pulp or goo. 3 appeared to be blind, but the other 3 looked like they had at least one functioning eye to see with. All three began began running at Ganondorf with surprising speed. But he was ready, he swung the White Sword and was able to seemingly take them all out with a single sweep of the blade, "Hmph, pathetic. ...What?" after being down for a short moment, all of the enemies appeared to reform themselves, as if nothing had happened. Well, now this was just annoying. It seemed he was going to have to be thorough about destroying them, and he had an idea for just how to do that. He let the Globins run at him again and like before he managed to down them with a sweeping cleave of the White Sword. But while they were down, he quickly retrieved the Spirit he had recovered in the Basement, "Alright, creature, from now you fight for me. Now get out and do your job!"



The Spirit appeared to vanish from his hand, but then the Duke of Flies appeared to live once more. It appeared in front of Ganondorf and immediately spewed forth twelve flies that all flew out and homed in on the piles of goo to attack them. In moments, the piles of goo were gone, to which Ganondorf surmised meant that the the creatures were now dead for good. Like in the previous room, Ganondorf once again crushed all the Fading Spirits and once again received nothing worth holding onto. But unlike the previous room, Ganondorf wasn't even gifted with any kind of reward for clearing it, "Tch! What a waste of time!" he muttered, both in reference to the Fading Spirits he had been crushing and to the fact that nothing appeared in the room after he had successfully cleared it. Maybe someone else was having better luck in another room.

He also noted that the Duke of Flies had now vanished, almost immediately after letting off its one attack it had done. That was something else he vaguely recalled Kamek explaining earlier at the Ruins. That meant that the Duke of Flies was now what he called a Striker, and would now fight for Ganondorf when he could be summoned. At this, Ganondorf gave a small smile. At least he got something useful out of this excursion. Perhaps if he could gather enough Striker Spirits, he could command his own veritable army with which he could exact his revenge from that detestable Galeem? Only time would tell. For now, the King of Evil had no choice but to continue to cooperate with the Seekers.

"That would be the least productive direction to take," the flash of the dim flickering street light reflected off Benedict's spectacles as he adjusted them, the Turk interjected Raiden's comment about the robots "It wouldn't do to draw unwanted attention to ourselves. As you should recall what happened a mere while ago?" in the monotonous drawl of his voice there was a subtle hint of incredulity, they should remember that the merest hint of suspicion would draw the attention of the G-Men as ridiculous as they may seem the agents were not to be trifled with.

Benedict thoughtfully tapped the wolf head at the top of his cane for a moment to weigh their options "Fortunately I don't require a new identity, it's not that uncommon a occurrence for those within the city's force go rogue." the strategist gave Giovana a sideways glance before continuing "Regardless however we must keep a low profile, and tread lightly. The safest approach would be to infiltrate Sector 9. It is more than likely we'd find ourselves mixed in gang affairs if we seek them." they had not better options, to him the direct approach would yield a far better outcome than risking unwanted attention or being pulled into the affairs of others.

"Huh?" Roxas nearly fell over, taken aback by having been followed out here. Even more so that Bede had apparently overheard what he was saying, "Oh, uh, well... I wouldn't say I'm bored exactly." he told the Pokemon Trainer with a shrug, then added, "Mostly just... overwhelmed. In my experience 'saving the world' is the easy part. You just have to defeat the bad guy. But all this politics stuff just flies right over my head, it's not in my wheelhouse at all."

And it was after this that Raz came out and joined them. The first things he'd really hit the nail on the head. Was it really that obvious that Roxas was getting overwhelmed by all this? It must have been, since not one but two of the other Seekers had now noticed it. But Roxas was surprised to learn that Raz had only joined the Seekers a day ago. A whole lot must have happened during that one day, Roxas figured. He started telling a story about climbing a mountain and nearly dying at one point. During this, Roxas looked to Bede and Raz on both his sides and was suddenly reminded of all those days he spent on that Clock Tower with Axel and Xion. They'd both be on either side of him, laughing about something or teasing one another while eating ice cream bars.

But he snapped back to reality after that fleeting moment, "I know... you're right." he said to Raz. Just because Roxas was second guessing his abilities didn't mean the others around felt that way, as Raz was clearly proving. But still, that part about the Organization gave him pause, "Look, I don't know what the Organization is trying to accomplish by helping you out, but I'm willing to bet it's not good. It never is with them." he looked down toward the ground far below them and then continued, "It's just... I've been there, I know how they operate. They'll tell you what you want to hear so that you'll go along with whatever it is they're planning. They did that with me and my friends for nearly a year before we started to figure out the truth, and they..." his voice trailed off and he looked away from them. He looked like this conversation was about to drudge some painful memories.

But Raz didn't stay on this topic for much longer. He instead brought up the plan for the Seekers to split up and go to too different Sectors in order to cover more ground. And he made it clear he wanted Roxas to go with him to see the Psych-OSF, It didn't take a genius or a mind reader to figure out why. Some of the people there were people Raz had known. Probably some of the friends he had once mentioned he was looking for. Well Roxas couldn't blame him, he'd be anxious to go there too if he'd found out that any of his friends were there, "Yeah, you don't have to say anymore. I've got your back. Promise."

He looked down at the black coat that had been draped over his lap. It still wasn't repaired yet, and at this point Roxas was beginning to wonder if he even should bother fixing it. He began asking himself if he really, truly, still needed to keep using it. After all, it was connected to some of the worst times he'd ever lived through. And yet... it was simultaneously connected to some of his fondest memories as well. Perhaps he'd better just think on it for a little longer.

---

The ride over to Sector 3 was mostly uneventful. Mr. Goldlewis explained a few of the sights along the way but other than that there wasn't much else to the trip. Through most of it, Roxas just looked over the gridLink thing he now wore on his wrist. It identified him as some kind of exchange student visiting from that Bullworth place all the way back in Gutsford. Once they were far enough into Sector 3, Roxas couldn't help but notice Raz acting a little strange. Goldlewis had told them something about this place being sensory overload for psychics, er, not that Roxas could tell obviously. But Raz certainly looked like he could tell, and it didn't look very pleasant.

Eventually they came to a stop, and then Roxas watched Raz wander off toward the steps leading to that shrine thing. Well, since Raz was the one who would have a better idea of what to do around the psychics, Roxas decided he should probably follow after him. Raz wasn't exactly hiding his excitement, not that Roxas could blame him. He'd probably be doing the same thing in his position. But in any case, he kept up with his Psychonaut friend and even reacted quick enough to help him back on his feet after Raz tripped on the last step.

After that was clearly a reunion. The girl he ran up was clearly someone the Psychonaut knew. For the moment, he hung back a bit and gave Raz his space. Instead he looked around at a couple of the others that were around here. Were... they all psychic? Just to be safe Roxas decided to keep his thoughts as quiet as possible. It'd be a real bonehead move to immediately blow their cover because Roxas's thoughts were too loud.

"Um.. Hi." he finally said to some other kids that were around, "Do, uh, you guys live here? I'm visiting from Sector 7." he was glad he remembered the Sector 7 story that Goldlewis had instructed them to use when introducing themselves.

Susie and Blazermate had decided to go with the team that was going to the robot district, although for very, very different reasons. Susie was known as a robotics and resource collecting businesswoman, while Blazermate was simply, to her annoyance, labeled as 'General purpose medibot.' In retrospect she should've actually chosen something for herself, but she figured the others would come up with something cooler than her at the time.

On the way to the district, it was explained that digital districts like this one were full of crooks, and if you knew how to hack, you had car blanche to do anything you wanted. Blazermate didn't have to worry about the hacking part, ad Medabots were immune to that, but someone pickpocketing her could be nasty if they reached into the wrong spots. Susie meanwhile made sure to keep her PDA off, being more worried about her accounts being drained than anything (Although hers weren't accounts opened in midgar). She was also immune to being hacked, but for different reasons than Blazermate.

Susie looked around as they moved through the district. This was a sorry place for being a part of the city. "When we made a Cityscape, we made sure to make it look half decent, unlike this." Susie said, gesturing to the areas that looked horrid and rundown. "But considering as there are places that sell cybernetics, perhaps there is money to be made here." Susie then glanced at Raiden, in a not so subtle hint as to try to sell him some Haltman Cybernetic enhancements. Blazermate meanwhile kept her eyes open for any sign of anything from her world, but for the most part didn't see anything. "I'm not picky either Raiden, but I would like to see soemone I'd recognize for once."

That the forces running and protecting Midgar knew of Spirit Fusion was a surprising and somewhat concerning revelation to Geralt. Where had they gained this knowledge from? Was it one of the Consuls, using their knowledge to buy influence? That would make sense, though to what end? They were clearly working for Galeem. Was their lord not granting them enough power? Were they to gain it themselves as some sort of test? Or did Galeem even care, instead selecting a few powerful beings to guard its guardians, then just...letting the world go as it did? The possibilities, and the fact that Geralt had simply no idea of what Galeem wanted or how it did what it did, were still growing. How frustrating.

It seemed, however, that some of their allies knew people within these organizations. Raz knew and worked with people from the Pysch-OSF, while Raiden had a very adversarial past with Desporhado. Enough to outright demand a fight with them, in fact. Geralt's fists clenched, but Goldlewis managed to help remind him that not only were they on the same side, but they didn't have the opportunity to just go in and start a fight, given that it would make everybody around them instantly an enemy. That was a great way to get killed.

Their newfound allies took some time to address their concerns, and described the way the city was laid out, and Geralt had to avoid trying to wrap his mind around the sheer breadth of the city, because he simply couldn't. Eight sectors, each divided into top and bottom, each with their own societal ecosystem. He'd take what info he could and use it, though. Sector 3, on top, was where Raz's friends were. Sector 8, down below, was where Desporhado's Bunker was located. And Sector 4's top section was where Neuron was headquartered.

Soon enough, the group were getting their metaphorical handcuffs put on. Devices that told everybody who they were, held their identities inside them. That were required just to get around. It reminded him too much of the Nilfgaardians. Travel papers. Transit passes. Permission from the people in charge just to go where you wanted to go. He glared at the offending bracelet as they were on board the train, trying not to focus on just how badly it annoyed him. To be shackled.

Part of him was even surprised he cared this much. The solution had practically been handed to him. No necrophages to slay, nobody to bribe to get it, it was just...made by an ally. He wasn't forced to pay or work for it. But the physical reminder, the feel of it on his arm. He didn't like it.

Eventually, he was pulled from his thoughts by the group's arrival in Detroit. Apparently, it was a den of scum and thieves, who wouldn't let you have shit. They'd even steal directly from your GridLink if you had money connected to it, whatever the hell that meant. Geralt wasn't sure he was the best fit for this place, but that would be the case wherever they went, whichever group they investigated or tried to join. This city was full of advanced technology, far beyond what he could easily understand. An elevator without visible pulleys? Fine, he could accept that. Odd, somewhat fanciful, but they just got better at hiding the pulleys, he supposed. This? No, it made no sense.

Still, he steeled himself as they were on their way. Giovanna was quick to show them the Qaurantine Zone, and Geralt's hackles raised quickly. A massive chimera outbreak left the citizens infected, and quickly abandoned. He understood the need for Quarantine, especially against something as virulent as the Redshift could apparently be, but...how terrible. "Poor folk. Didn't do anything to deserve it, just...existed in the wrong spot. Left to fend for themselves." He was feeling melancholic for a moment. He couldn't see them, but he knew it must have been a great number of people suffering in there. All the more reason to stop the Ever Crisis, find the Guardians, and destroy Galeem, wasn't it? So much to do.

When it came time to decide which tree they should bark up first, Geralt found himself similarly indecisive. Raiden's intent to hunt down Desporhado seemed to be tempered for now, and while he somewhat agreed with Benedict, Geralt couldn't help but be skeptical of just how willing he was to really help them. It wasn't necessarily anything against the man, but he'd been essentially forced out of his government job by rebels, then press-ganged to join them. Hard feelings would be reasonable. Still, the logic was sound. "For now, might be best to keep a low profile, like he says. Not keen on dealing with those G-Men again so soon, or getting Desporhado's attention before we're ready. Any chance of tracking down any Hermits here, or is that a lost cause?" The Witcher asked of Giovanna.

While Omori didn’t exactly need to get cleaned by Sectonia’s antlions, he did take a moment to rest before following the rest down the hatch. If this place had more spiders deeper in, he’d be in for a heart attack or two, so he had to mentally prepare himself for the worst. The Knight had cleared the dung filled room relatively unscathed. They took a moment to mend any wounds with the SOUL they had amassed, but they were also a bit…smellier than usual. The queen bee’s minions had to prioritize cleaning up the stink-bug a bit more thoroughly. The two were some of the last to hop down into the caves.

It smelled like a corpse in there. That might be an exaggeration, but at least the Basement had better lighting. The headlamp Omori wore shone its light around the room as he glanced from door to door, deciding on where to go first. Nadia went east, Ganondorf went west. He had already fought alongside Therion, so who else could he assist?

Hm… Maybe the queen bee lady would let him tag along for this floor.

Omori caught up with Sectonia just a moment after the wasp queen cornered Nadia in the shop on her way out. While the feral seemed ready to blow the big bug off again, the sight of three shiny pennies sparkling in Sectonia’s outstretched hand made the words catch in Nadia’s throat. She crossed one arm, rested her other elbow on it, and covered her mouth with her hand in a contemplative pose–all to make it look like she hadn’t immediately and shamelessly changed her mind about Sectonia for three one-hundredths of a dollar. “Hmm…” She flicked her tail back and forth for a couple seconds, then gave an exaggerated shrug. “Weeeell…that’s a fair trade, I guess.”

She took hold of the bizarre Symbol of Avarice, her nose scrunched up at the way its protruding tongue flopped around. Before putting it on she glanced up at Sectonia one last time as if to say are you sure about this? but instead she raised her eyebrow. “Didja always have that heart tattoo on your forehead? I mean, it matches the big heart on your, uh…” she gestured at Sectonia’s middle. “Abdomen. But I swear that wasn’t there before.” Then again, maybe she just didn’t like looking at the head of a giant insect. Nadia went ahead and donned the Symbol of Avarice, then went through the fading spirits Sectonia collected like a bag of potato chips. Crunch, crunch, crunch.



With the task complete, the cat burglar unceremoniously parted ways with the life-sucking headwear, clawing it off onto the floor. “Ugh!” she griped. “It feels like I lost blood without even usin’ it for anythin’!” Nadia claimed her reward and promptly crouched down to collect her new trinket. The moment she touched it, her money disappeared from her hand, and the item itself vanished too. Blinking, Nadia wondered what happened, only to feel a painful sensation building in her chest. “Nyuh? AAAGH!” In a burst of blood the prism emerged from beneath her skin. She clasped her hands over it and tried to pull it off, only to find it anchored into her upper sternum. “Owww!” she mewled, breathing heavily as the hurt subsided. Ultimately, she had suffered far worse than this, but the circumstances of its appearance left her more shocked and horrified than hurt. With a grunt she re-absorbed as much blood as she could, trying to come to grips with what happened. Smaller than a playing card, it rested against her skin below her belled choker. There seemed to be a pressure-sensitive area on the prism’s blue attachment, and when Nadia pressed it, the device produced a cone of white light directly in front of her. While not too obvious in the well-lit shop, she got the feeling it would really shine in the dark. “Damn,” she groaned as she switched it off. “It’s like it became a part of me.” She zipped her hoodie up to hide it, then unzipped her hoodie down to her navel to fully uncover the light, then shut it off. “Gives ‘flash light’ a whole new meanin’, heh…”



At the mention of the tattoo on Sectonia’s head, the bee queen tapped the area absently, unable to see it herself without a mirror. No, she didn’t have a tattoo that was like her breastplate, but she did pick up a heart shaped item that granted power. And after Nadia had shown quite a bit of pain as she had picked up the prism, which embedded itself in her chest. Sectonia hadn’t had pain like that when she picked up her item… but that was concerning. ”Hm… I wasn’t expecting any of that. Not the items, nor… what that object did to you. I will need a mirror to see what this ‘heart’ tattoo you mention is…” Sectonia said, tapping her forehead in an attempt to try to feel how big it was and how it looked on her, before saying. ”At least you confirmed something for me, the Symbol doesn’t do much at all for faded spirits. You can keep all those items, that cartoonish red heart should rejuvenate your health.” still, Nadia had shown Sectonia, Omori, and anyone else watching the potential downsides of these items. Much like Sectonia had said earlier, it seemed whoever designed this place hated beauty, or at the very least punished anyone trying to obtain it.

Omori had to agree. He couldn’t have helped the dumbfounded look that crossed his face as he stood at the door. Luckily for him he was given a headlamp that rested quietly under his hood, but to get a light source embedded into your skin and bones in such a gruesome manner? Okay then, now he was slightly concerned about picking up anything from down here. ”Uh, Mister Ganondorf’s clearing some rooms to the west, if either of you want to follow up behind him.” He finally spoke up, pointing a thumb behind himself.

”I suppose. I would like to see what else is here. Perhaps my magic can at least let us know if an item is worthwhile or not. Although we will have to be careful about the side effects…” Sectonia said, gesturing at Nadia. Both of them could see concern on Sectonia’s face, although it would be up to them to decide what she was concerned about. She did make quite a few glances at Nadia however.

As the others spoke, Nadia remained crouched where she’d fallen, letting things sink in. After a couple moments though, she slammed her hand into the ground. “Damn it! I spent all my hard-earned money on that thing, puttin’ me all the way back at square one, and what do I get for it!? Disfigured! As if I wasn’t enough of a freak show already!” She stood and channeled her pent-up blood pressure into a jet-propelled punch that flew across the room and struck the petrified shopkeeper. Unfortunately, Nadia’s fists weren’t nearly strong enough to break stone, and the remains limply fell over as she retracted her bruised knuckles across the floor in a smear of blue blood. “Ugh. What a hellhole.”

Sectonia, taking a little of the blame for the disfigurement comment, tossed the feral 15 Geo to make up for the money she had lost. It was the least she could do. ”If you want to buy another item, this will work as well as the coins. The spell that permeates these shops seems to only care about ‘currency’ regardless of form.” Sectonia then gave a sideways glance at Nadia. The catgirl would need a beauty session with the Queen after all of this if that was the way she saw herself.

In an instant, Nadia’s ears perked up. “Really!? Well, hey.” Her hands darted around, and in flash all the spilled Geo got scooped into her pockets. “If ya insist.” She took the coins and the heart from the itemizations as well, the latter of which gave her a measure of relief as fresh blood pumped through her system. “At least it sorta…looks like a brooch or somethin’, right? Could be worse.” And I could always crack it off later if I need to, she thought. But until we’re outta the dark, I guess I’m stuck with it.

”Well, its light does seem to slow whatever enemy is in it if I’m reading the magic properly. And you can use that light to see in the dark like I can.” Sectonia said, stating what she could figure out from the item in an attempt to at least make it seem like it wasn’t such a bad thing. It was still crystal after all. Or maybe plastic, but saying that aloud wouldn’t help anyone.

Nadia tapped her new heartlight. “Huh.” Her eyes landed on Omori, still situated by the shop’s entrance. “Er, sorry ya had to see that, kid. I mean, me bleedin’ everywhere ain’t anythin’ new, but at least ya know not to touch stuff, right?” And end up going through something like that? Omori quickly nodded his head. His new friend waltzed out of the shop while speaking, and patted the boy on the headlamp when she passed him. “Whaddya say we go kill some creeps then, eh?”

With that, the three made their way back to the start. By now, Ganondorf’s warpath had turned the first room to the west into a mess of blood, ash, and bone dust, and he seemed intent on pushing further in that direction. Nadia consulted her map, but it did not reveal anything beyond the existence of rooms adjacent to ones already explored, so where to go was anyone’s guess. She decided to hang a left toward the chamber to the south, motioning for Omori to jump in and Sectonia to blink in alongside her. “C’mon! On three: one, two…three!”

The new trio burst into the room to find it nearly cut in half by a pool of water, with another couple repellent turds blocking the narrow routes on either side. Opposite them quivered a gruesome gallery of enemies. Three sagging, misshapen Hives tried to distance themselves as flies crawled from their sores to attack one at a time. Three weeping, pustule-ridden Nests did the same with small spiders. And three Ulcers poked up from the earth at random spots to expel yellow, dart-shaped flies or parabolic blood tears. An audible ”Gck, more wretched…” could be heard from Sectonia when they got a scope of the room.

More spiders too. Ugh. The boy faintly shuddered, but remained composed. ”I can probably get them from here.” Omori pulled out his pistol again. ”But I’m starting to run low on ammo. Think you can keep the bugs off me?” He asked, sidestepping one of the blood tears before firing at the Nests first.

Omori didn’t even have to ask, Sectonia looking at these creatures and their hideousness was quite enraged, summoning a couple antlions to act as distractions as she threw her light rings at the boil creatures as they were the most hideous thing in the room. ”Things get worse and worse as we go down.” Sectonia said as the room soon filled with small light rings fired by the Queen, their unpredictable paths leaving something to be said for accuracy, but the sheer amount of them would hit something. Her antlions meanwhile, of the green variety, began to show their new strength as they smashed at whatever came nearby, taking out any flies or spiders that decided to come their way in a single strike. Still, the boil filled creatures spitting out flies were tough, and as a light ring hit them, they coughed up more and more flies. At least her rings seemed to plow through whatever didn’t resist them.

On death, the Hive ruptured into a handful of flies, some larger and able to split projectiles. Nadia bristled; she didn’t want to wade into water that might as well be toxic with literal crap in the vicinity and airdashing over into the thick of it seemed like a worse idea than usual. “I’m bad with small stuff,” she admitted as she drew out a chain anchor. “But just standin’ here won’t fly.” Rather than try to fight normally, she activated her Night Light at the edge of the water. Its range just reached the other side, and the bugs caught in its glow lost some speed. Nadia could take her time aiming, although it still took focus given the volume of light rings Sectonia kept spitting out. “Mrow!” She hurled her anchor forward, ripping across the surface of the water with enough force to leave a wake behind it. It lodged into one of the Nests, and with a yank on the chain Nadia pulled the monster into the water, where it sank and drowned.

As she reeled in her chain, however, a Dart Fly jabbed into her upper arm. “Hey!” She turned, froze the bug, and took an extra second to get the right angle before splitting it in half with her anchor. Behind her, the Ulcer responsible for the spawn receded into the ground. “Watch it guys, these assholes are poppin’ up on this side, too!”

”Well that just makes things easier.” Omori waited until another Ulcer appeared from under them and plunged his knife into its center mass as quickly as he could. Though not without tanking a bloody tear to the chest. With a pained hiss, he continued firing at the larger enemies before having to reload.

Sectonia’s antlions were a decent distraction. As the Hives spat out flies, the antlions took a large amount of their aggro and cleaned up whatever went towards them. One even shot out a bolt of electricity at one, which arced and destroyed a few more, killing a husk that Sectonia had weakened with her barrage of light rings. Omori managed to injure one of the burrowing things but took a bit of an injury in the process. Speaking of these burrowing things, another one appeared behind Sectonia, or rather, under her, and tagged her with a blood shot and retreated before she could strike it with lightning. She was a tough bug and while she did get damaged, the others wouldn't see her even react to the injury short of striking where the creature was with lightning. Seeing these things would be an issue, Sectonia swapped out her light rings for dark globules, having her lightning staff in her other hand to strike at these burrowing things if they ever came near. Her dark globules didn’t pierce like her light rings did, but any defense these creatures had was ignored as the dark energy bolts hit them as the other husks shrunk enough to explode as they spit out the last of their flies.

All of Sectonia’s magic accomplished something else, as well. It destroyed the odious blockage to clear up one of the side-paths, allowing Nadia to wall-run over using her claws and into the spot where the last couple holdouts cowered. One Nest escaped by crossing under her, fleeing in the direction of Omori while spewing spiders, but she carved through the last Nest with an axe kick into Flying Screen Door. On death a handful of spiders squeezed out from its tumorous flesh, and with a look of abject disgust the feral used her fishtail bat the corpse into the water. “Yuck!” That left just one Hive in her corner, and to prevent more spawns she used her anchor to give it a dip, too. Splash!

Omori snapped his head around, waiting for the last Ulcer to come out of hiding. Once he saw the slightest bit of movement in the dirt, he hurried over to stab it down before it could hit him with anything else. Though with his focus elsewhere, he hadn’t noticed the Nest and its spiders barreling towards him. The boy visibly recoiled, stumbling backwards away from the concerning amount of arachnids that had appeared from another’s demise. His grip on his weapons trembled. Too many. Way too many. Way too many to fight off!

Sectonia, being nearby Omori, covered the boy with her dark lightning, destroying the spiders that ran towards him with a sweep of dark electricity. A trivial matter for her, but she did notice that the boy was outright terrified of spiders. Oh boy did Sectonia have some stories for him with her second in command Taranza being a big spider... But that wasn’t here nor there.

All that hard work went to waste when absolutely nothing appeared as a reward for beating the room. Without any more doors branching from here either, the three could do nothing but head back to the start for the second time. With a few rooms on the west side cleared by Ganondorf and the northern one still in progress, Nadia led the way left, then left again, partially to check and see how the heavy hitter was doing. She found him in the middle of a bunch of pulpy smears, and as she expected, he seemed fine. In fact, he looked more annoyed than anything. Maybe he didn’t find all this dungeoneering very rewarding. Some encouragement seemed to be in order. “Good work, champ!” After giving Ganondorf a thumbs-up and her sunniest smile, Nadia left him to his own devices. To the north lay a golden-rimmed door, locked tight, which made the feral bemoan her decision to use her only key on the shop. Normal rooms lay to the west and south, meanwhile. “Any purreference…?”

”Might as well clear both.” Sectonia said, a bit annoyed that they couldn’t open up the golden room. One of those rooms should have something to open up that door, right?

Luckily for them, Nadia wasn’t the only one who had a key. Having followed the three down the emptied rooms, the knight quietly walked past Nadia and up to the locked door. They pulled out the key they’ve been holding onto and tried inserting it into the lock. Sectonia noticed this, and almost laughed to herself as the small bug creature that had joined them did just what she was thinking. Still, that didn’t stop her opinion, there was something else she was interested in…

”... Well that settles that issue. Now the issue of the ‘hidden’ room I found on the previous floor. It was an isolated room that required a bomb to destroy the wall leading to it. With those rooms clean I can have my antlions look for the hollow wall.” Sectonia said. That being said, she was interested in what was in the golden room and suggested they check that out first.

Within the golden room lay a thick crescent array of rocks, and in the middle stood a plinth with the Knight’s reward: a six-sided block of ice. Getting closer made it possible to see a small, bulbous shape enclosed within, marked as deceased by its big X-shaped eyes. It could only be a frozen baby, so early in its development that it seemed to be little more than a fetus. Nadia wrinkled her nose at it and refused to approach. “I don’t even wanna know.” With a flippant salute she left the others to make of the ‘loot’ what they would, and made for the room to the west. Sectonia had the same sensibilities as Nadia, taking a look at the ‘item’ then leaving the room with a look of confusion on her face. It didn’t seem all that powerful anyway. Omori himself didn’t feel comfortable taking a dead fetus with him, frozen or not, so that left the Knight to take it for themself.

Once the others joined her, she counted down once more and the three began their next challenge. This chamber turned out to be quadruple-sized, but rather than a big pit it featured a bunch of mushrooms. Yet these were no ordinary fungi; Nadia realized as much the moment she pounced into the room and breathed in its air. These necrotic mushrooms absolutely reeked with the the rank smell of death, and the moment that granular musk filled Nadia’s nostrils, their corrupting spores entered her system, nullifying her passive regeneration. Sectonia’s own methods of healing turned out similarly, which lent a new edge to the danger posed by this place’s enemies. Floating above the infestation as if presiding over it, a Swarmer hearkened back to the Duke of Flies in all the worst ways, starting with the attack flies that left behind their brethren to hunt the newcomers down. Meanwhile, a squadron of eight Knights patrolled amongst the mushrooms, their calcified visages completely invulnerable from the front to protect the vulnerable brain matter that poked out behind.

Sectonia grumbled in this room as well. At least they knew where the smell was coming from but this place was still horrid. She began the fight by slowing the Knights with her slow spell before summoning some ice antlions to attack and be a distraction. Thanks to those mushrooms, Sectonia figured that Nadia might have issues with how willy-nilly she shot her own body parts around. ”I can handle these… walking brain golems for the most part. You two focus on what you can.” Sectonia said, throwing out dark globules that she knew bypassed defenses. At this point she knew that mobility was key when fighting these monsters, hence why she slowed the ones that seemed to only charge at them to make dodging them easier.

Omori attempted a few test shots at the less friendly Knights, only to click his tongue in disdain when their frontal lobes seemed to deflect his bullets. He sliced through the attack flies and casted Sad Poem on the Swarmer (assuming it can even feel anything, could’ve sworn it’s face was just a flesh mask at this point.) to slow it down in turn. The boy moved to cover Nadia, shooting at the larger creature.

With the flies’ attention elsewhere, Nadia moved in. Sectonia’s antlions proved ineffective against the Knights, their attacks useless against the little juggernauts’ stony faces while the Knights quickly racked up hits with their relentless advance. Luckily, the queen’s void attacks fared better, able to pierce the creatures’ otherwise invincible defense to exploit their sole vulnerability. When a Knight drew near Nadia switched on her Night Light, then stood ready to face it in a fighting stance. It charged and she jumped over, crossing it up in order to come down with a kick into its squishy bits from behind. “Keep this in mind!” She used Cat Spike to launch her head into the Knight’s brain, her hair hardened like a wheel of blades to cut through like a circular saw. Her enemy fell, but more came hot on its heels, and Nadia’s head rose atop a conjured Copycat body, and together the two of them taunted them. “C’mon, let’s put our heads together!”

The first Knight went for her real body, which gave her Copycat free reign to slash its backside into oblivion with El Gato. She and her double high-fived and reunited into one whole. When two more tried to take revenge with a pincer maneuver, Nadia jumped up and sank her claws into the root-ridden first of the ceiling. The Knights bonked together beneath her, then turned about to part ways, and once the feral dropped down between them she took a bow with Hand in Hand to pierce both opponents from behind. “Get back here!” When her arms retracted she dragged the Knights in, which meant the whirligig slashes of Wheel of Fortune could finish them both off. She flipped back onto her feet with a grin. “That’s some foot for thought!”

As she punned, a fourth Knight ran into her from behind, first stepping on her tail and then barging into her shoulder. “YOWCH!” Teeth gritted, she hopped up to cross it over, but the Knight turned around beneath her and her attack bounced off its face. She took another blow and tumbled into a mushroom, which left her momentarily dazed. Just getting too close to it had her seeing stars, but she could see the monster headed her way for strike number three. “Alright, bonehead” she snarled, getting to her feet. “Let’s see ya block this wack-ass mixup.” When it got close enough she jumped over it, and just as before it turned around. But by that time Nadia already airdashed backward to come down on the same side she started with an X-slash. Her claws cut deep, and with Ear Piercing she finished it off. “I’m always one step a-head,” she boasted.

Sectonia meanwhile kept herself at range, much like before. She didn’t want any of these vile things to touch her, keeping her slow spell up on whatever knight she was focusing down. At least her dark globules could pass through the masks that reflected most other attacks and damage the flesh beneath. Still, with her antlions being nothing more than a distraction for these things, it was up to her slow spell, dark globules, and mobility to deal with these things. At least Nadia was dealing with those on her end. There was one thing that annoyed Sectonia, while this magic item she picked up in Al Mamoon was tripling her spell count, the fact she couldn’t reliably aim her spells anymore was a bit annoying in this case, as even if slow, the Knight’s small size compared to Sectonia made her use far more dark globules than she would like. But a few did hit stuff the others were attacking so that was helpful at least..

Her large size did mean though that there were a few close calls that forced her to fly near the mushrooms, which much like Nadia, caused Sectonia to cough and get a bit dazed when she was near them. She’d have to burn these things when everyone wasn’t in the room. This led to a hit from an attack fly herself, which she easily batted away but still, even the smallest creatures here hit as hard as everything else and that was a concern. But eventually thanks to Nadia and Sectonia working on them, the knights were all dispatched.

That only left the Swarmer and Omori at each other's mercy. With no Knights in the way, the boy went in to stab it in the “skull”, cleaving through attack flies and the occasional pooter until he was close enough for a critical strike. Whatever remained of the swarm’s body dispersed, leaving behind a single Boom Fly, as if it was one last attempt to drag him down with it. He simply moved out of its flightpath and shot it from a reasonable distance, causing it to detonate.

With the enemies dispatched, a gold-rimmed chest hit the ground. Nadia tried to pry it open, but like the locked doors it seemed able to withstand superfluous force. It would probably need a key to be opened as well, but with those in short supply the trio would more than likely be going empty-handed once more, much to the cat burglar’s chagrin. “Dang it!” she griped as she uselessly bludgeoned the chest with her anchor. “Maybe when this is all over, I should actually learn how to pick locks.”

She soon gave up, not wanting to spend any more time among the spores than she had to. Once back in the four-way room where Ganondorf finished his fight, Nadia felt her pulse quicken once more. “Whew, thank goodness. I’m healing again.” She glared back into the fungus-infested chamber. “Whatever those rotten mushrooms were, they blocked my regeneration! If I went down in a place like that…” she shivered. Though a little banged up and out of breath, the trio had more than enough fight in them for one more encounter, and took a southward turn to finish off what looked like the last room on this side of the floor.

This one confronted the team with someone new, as well. Like the last it featured four times the space of a typical room, but this time it seemed to be mostly an abyss, with a mazelike pathway that ran across it in a large zigzag with sheer drops on either side. Nine things with the look of enemies could be found along that route, six of them no more than skulls atop red mush. Three red, pure-meat variants stood out from the rest. All the Hosts lay stationary, the gray ones invulnerable to standard attacks, for someone to get close enough for them to pop up and release a conical blast of blood tears, exposing their tender innards for a brief moment in the process.

Sectonia, ever being the one to get into the fight first, decided to scope out these rock and blood like creatures by summoning her antlions to attack one. A red one; without its protective top went down without too much of an issue from the sustained ice blasts of her blue antlions, although the fact that it was being fired upon didn’t daunt it from shooting a shotgun spread of blood globules that caused an antlion to poof in a cloud of smoke as it was defeated. Sectonia then moved them to try to attack the ones with protective caps. These ones were a bit different, and no matter how much damage the antlions put into them, the creature seemed to take no damage, nor rise up to attack them. When they were commanded to stop attacking, it took a bit, but the creature rose up and fired at them before going back to its defensive position, only revealing its red vulnerable side when attacking.

”Hmph. This room seems like it’ll be easy as long as you are prepared to dodge and attack at a moment’s notice. Although it may take some time to get through it in its entirety.” Sectonia said to the other two, deciding to send her antlions after the other red hosts and giving haste to Nadia and Omori. She was going to sit back for this one, as while she was fast, her size would make her fairly easy to hit.

Before charging ahead Nadia peered down into the darkness of what appeared to be another deadly bottomless pit. Not even her Night Light could penetrate the gloom. “Wait, didn’t those black blobs ya cast earlier take down those freaks with hard shells? Just do that again!” Then again, Sectonia’s magic seemed pretty random at times, and with the royal’s mind made up Nadia might as well be talking to a brick wall. She jogged along the path to the closest Host, which popped up to shoot at her when she drew near. The combination of Sectonia’s haste and her new item’s slow rendered it a sitting duck, and the feral barely needed to exert any effort to weave around its projectiles and snip through its neck before it plopped back down.

”I suppose I could throw those about. I’m not expecting too many to hit though.” Sectonia said as she shrugged and threw black globules at the various hosts. Some hit, some veered randomly, but Sectonia’s accuracy on stationary targets wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it would be since most of the projectile path effects hit a stationary target without issue. If Sectonia had a way to control these effects, that would be super useful, but for now all she could do was fill the room with globes of darkness. Unfortunately, they did not seem able to strike down the Hosts in defense mode, meaning a different tact would be necessary. ”Well… it seems those don’t work. I will keep you two hasted and keep my antlions out, but I feel like these things are better left to you two.”

With the extra dose of speed plus her natural agility, however, Nadia left Omori in the ground. While he lagged behind, tagged by a few Host shots, she went into overdrive. The feral raced down the zig-zag path, fearlessly leaping over the abyss whenever possible to take shortcuts around the tricky corners. The Hosts opened fire again and again, but compared to some of the zoning she’d been through, this was nothing. She slid beneath a bloody spread shot to drill through a Host’s base with legs like corkscrews, then rose and airdashed over a chasm to land in front of another monster just as it hunkered down. It might be immune to damage, but Nadia had just the ticket when it came to cowards who turtled up behind their defenses. “Upsy-daisy!” She hooked her claws into its eyeholes from behind and rocked back, using her legs to help hoist the Host off the ground.

Its momentum sent it up and over and into the depths behind her, and Nadia snickered at the sight of it plummeting into the darkness. “Skull issue.” She jumped to her feet just in time to block another set of shots. As the last Host shielded itself again, the feral unwound her anchor to spin it like a lasso, and with the help of her Night Light she sent it flying the next time the monster popped up. It wound around the Host’s body like a grappling hook before it plopped down again, but with the anchor beneath its shell, all Nadia needed to do was wrench the chain with all her strength to explode the pesky zoner in a shower of blood. “And that’s curtains!” the cat burglar declared. A few feet away, a shiny nickel appeared to herald the Seekers’ third consecutive victory.

The nature of the "Basement" meant that the Seekers were doing a lot of stop-and-go. It was a weird experience, not being able to just blaze through the area's weak, disgusting monsters. Therion supposed that was exactly why it was designed that way - to force people to go in alone, possibly becoming overwhelmed, and perish; thus stopping a group's advance in it's tracks. Their momentum was slow going, but so far there hadn't been any worry that someone would end up dead. Yet, anyway.

What would turn out to be the final door way was decorated a little differently than the others, suggesting the inside would be different too. Therion did not enter, but judging from the sounds filtering through from the other side he could only guess what was going on in there.

When the battle was over and the doors slid open, Nadia, Jesse, and Ganondorf stood victorious. Therion slipped inside with the rest of them, standing around the opening in the floor while Sectonia's little bugs gave everyone a quick rinse.

"..." So there were more floors below this one. He supposed it shouldn't come as a surprise. But how deep exactly were they going to go, and more importantly how were they going to get back up? When they'd come through the chest, it had acted more like a magic portal than a real hole in the ground. They'd just have to hope for another portal out, once they were finished here.

Ms. Fortune led the way into the next area, and one by one the rest of the Seekers followed. The general stench of the place didn't lessen so much as change, a moistness being present here that wasn't up above.

Now that they'd "cleared" the first area, they knew what to look for: a more ornate doorway than the rest of them. To that end the group split up once more. The room to the North contained maggots, maggots, and more maggots. That one will be easy, Therion thought. In one of the last rooms he'd fought through, the maggots did little else but crawl around. The thief was quick to claim this one, expecting no resistance from the little monsters. The doors were sealed once he'd stepped through them, alone.

His sword was already in his hand. "Let's make this quick," he said to the room at large.

The closest maggots were blindly dragging themselves across the room's floor, easily put to their end with one swift stab. The others would soon meet the same fate, or so Therion thought.

The soft squeals of fellow larva dying drew the attention of the those with faces - some frowning and some smiling, and staring. Therion raised a brow. What, are these monsters going to start talking and try and guilt trip us too? But though the smiling maggots did open their mouths wide, they did not speak. The thief felt his hair stand on end. With shocking speed the chargers rushed teeth-first at Therion, far faster than they'd been crawling just a moment ago.

They missed him by a hair's breadth, unable to turn due to their speed they only kept going forward when Therion threw himself out of the way. Three of them had come charging, then slowed down when their prey left their line of sight in order to turn around and charge again. There was a pair (or perhaps four?) of dual faced maggots that took their shot afterward, coughing up what looked and smelled like blood cots that they spit towards Therion. His hope for a simple, easy room clear was dashed now that he had to spend his time dodging the eerily happy chargers and the attacks of the conjoined spitties.

Great, Therion thought, swinging his blade to catch a blood shot and getting splattered as it burst. The most annoying thing about that was that it seemed any little contact hurt just as much as getting hit dead on. It made the situation painful and stressful, and if he were a less confident man he would have worried about becoming overwhelmed just as he'd thought the dungeon was designed to do.

He made a quick decision to focus on the chargers, not wanting to risk a bite from them. He let the little buggers line up and rush toward him all at once, standing his ground and sweeping his sword in one motion. Their own momentum meant that the chargers sliced themselves apart on his blade, while staying put in one spot in order to end them meant suffering the sting of the spitties' blood shots. No problem. With one of the danger sources gone, the other would be no trouble at all to take care of - there were only two of them, and their shots were slowed than the chargers had been. Besides those, only a few of the harmless maggots remained.

---

When the room’s doors slid open again, it revealed the usual piles of ash and spirits, with a Therion painted red in the center having already claimed the prize. Beyond him was the only other exit which led to yet another dim and dingy room, where the sound of monsters scuttling around could be heard. Therion hadn’t moved toward the other door yet, though his ears flicked at the noise - and then flicked toward the sound of another person joining him.

"This is getting to be a pain."

Jesse strolled in, taking in the ‘sights’. One of which was on her hand. She examined the new insignia marked into her palm as she walked forward. “I dunno. Going from one sparse room to the other, killing monsters and then moving on…it’s almost nostalgic.” She said, finally looking at Therion.

“You don’t seem any worse for wear, though, Therion. Wanna take this next one together?” She asked, nodding her head over to the entrance to the next room.

"Nostalgic, huh?" He wondered what kind of weird pre-patchwork world past Jesse had, but honestly he had no real desire to find out. With her suggestion of taking the next room on together, the thief shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?"

As the two of them prepared to squeeze through the opening before the door slammed shut, Therion paused and cocked his head to one side. He was fairly sure what they'd find on the other side. He glanced at Jesse.

"...you're not afraid of spiders, are you?"

“Oh, deathly.” Jesse said flatly, nodding her head. “Why do you ask?”

"That kid was too, I think. And I've got a good idea that's what we'll find in... there..." The thought that Jesse was fucking with him occurred to Therion, and his glance turned into a sharper, scrutinizing look.

“...I guess I’m not as funny as I think I am.” Jesse said at Therion’s reaction. She held up her gun at her elbow. Jesse stepped off the ground and floated above Therion’s head. “We can go in together like this. We could strategize but we can probably just wing it and be fine.”

He nodded, finding no issue with winging it and having gotten too used to Primrose's teasing to humor Jesse's, well, humor otherwise.

When they entered and were sealed inside, the plethora of spiders waiting for them did not take them by surprise.

Jesse dropped down in front of Therion, taking point. She didn’t know exactly what tactics he used, but she did know that she could create psychic forcefields and was more than comfortable being the target of an entire room full of monsters. Though what took her by surprise was the sigil in her hand. It pulsed a blue light that then encircled her. Seven chunks of stone were plucked from the ground and began to slowly rotate around her.

“Woah.” Jesse glanced down at the light around her and her glowing ‘tattoo’. “Badass.”

She walked forward into the room, her gun switching to Shatter. A shotgun to obliterate fast moving enemies that wanted to get in close. Like a room full of giant spiders. The spiders weren’t bigger than Jesse, but they were perhaps, a little bigger than her shoe. They scuttled around randomly in great number, some bigger, some with longer legs. Jesse started blasting, carving out chunks of stone and turning spiders into ash.

One spider came near her, and Jesse watched as one of the seven stones in her new circle zipped down and squashed it. The stone exploded into debris along with the spider. “Sweet!”

"Watch the rocks," Therion said, flashing out from behind Jesse and keeping space between her sudden orbit of debris and himself. His own strategy was extremely simple in this situation: kill as many at once as possible. For that he again used his long sword, the blade able to catch a couple at a time.

The spiders were more of the same that he'd faced with Omori earlier - along with some much larger ones. Those paced quickly around the edges of the room, about three times larger than their brethren. These Therion kept an eye on while he slashed away. There didn't seem to be one of those gray spiders that were spawning the rest, so once they cleared the room that would be it.

He felt the sting of something colliding with him and bursting on impact. "?!"

He hopped back instinctively, feeling another something graze him while a third went flying passed. They were bloody red globs, hurled through the air at high speed. Despite the second only glancing him, it felt like he'd taken a direct hit - the same as when he’d faced the spitties alone just before this. He turned in the direction the shots had come, finding a stone-colored creature clinging to the wall, half-hidden in the dark corner of the room. Its mouth gaped open, showing off a quartet of teeth, and its single large black eye stared back.

Foom foom foom. The wall creeper spit another three blood shots. Therion dipped back towards Jesse, giving her a quick, "Heads up," as the shots sailed towards her orbit.
“Yup.” Jesse said, pointing her gun down and focusing on evasion. She stepped to the side. One of them got close. But after it passed her, it turned around and began orbiting with the six remaining stones.

“I’m very pleased.” Jesse said, smiling. She ripped a nearby boulder from the earth and flung it at the wall creep, crushing it flat and into dust.

Jesse switched to Spin and began barraging distant spiders with projectiles as she closed in on them. Even the big ones only took a moment more to pop. “It looks kind of hard to stab spiders with swords, I gotta admit.” Jesse commented to Therion as she passed him.

"Not hard," he said, "just annoying."

He was tangling with one of the larger spiders, alternating between stabbing it and crushing the smaller spiders under his boot. Like before, it was their numbers that was the main issue. Their bites, and even the spines on their legs caused pain, but individually they were weak.

Therion slashed the dog-size arachnid apart, grimacing as he watched it's halves reform into a pair of smaller spiders. It was true that blades weren't ideal here, but unless he tried his flame spell again he didn't have much else at his disposal... or did he?

"...I'm still getting used to the whole 'weird spirit stuff,'" he said, backing up towards Jesse again to give him some room to summon his striker in front of him. It was basically a living wrecking ball, so once it got to rolling any of the spiders still on the ground would be crushed under its steel body.

Jesse watched it go. Some spider got too close and got clobbered by one of her circling stones. “It’s pretty weird, yeah. I got a crazy old guy with me. I hope it’s not a fate worse than death or anything. I mean, he seems okay with it.” Jesse said, sweeping up the rest of the spiders.

Must've been that guy in the shaft, he thought, the one that saved Ms. Fortune from splattering all over the ground. Therion hadn't thought at all about how a sentient person would fare as a striker.

"He's still...?" He wasn't sure what he was going to ask. Alive? Able to think?

By the time junicorn's time ran out and Jesse finished up, there was nothing but ash covering the ground and blood stains on the walls where the remaining creepers had missed their shots. The wall creepers had been spared from the carnage on the ground, but with their earlier cover blown it was easy enough to avoid the blood globs they spat up - especially since the volleys of three were always shot in a straight line. These got a taste of their own medicine, a few throwing knives embedded in their circular bodies.

"I figured they were just mindless ghosts," Therion continued as the last of the enemies crumbled.

Jesse strode up to Therion’s side as the doors opened. “My guy listens to me and laughs and stuff. Whatever it is, it’s definitely not a full existence. We basically have total control over them, right? They know exactly what we want them to do. But it’s like I said, he doesn’t seem to mind. So at the very least, he’s not ‘there’ enough to care.” Jesse said.

“Maybe it’s just…I dunno. An imprint. That’s why we have to ‘talk’ them into it.”

"Hmm." The specifics of whatever was at play with the spirits, whether it was magic or some other phenomena, were way over Therion's pay grade. He was neither a scholar nor a philosopher, so thinking about it too hard would only serve to give him a headache. Then again, if they were chaining some poor sap's soul to themselves and forcing them to fight, that seemed important to know - but it didn't seem like that was the case.

"If they are still all 'there' and didn't want to do it, they'd just say no," he reasoned. "Otherwise they're just... shadows, I guess." He didn't have much more to speculate about with the strikers.

“If you’re a little hurt, I can have the alchemist heal you up a bit.” Jesse offered.

"I'm good," he said, holding up a hand to pass on her gesture of kindness. "Everything in here likes to spit blood, so. Looks worse than it is."

“Okay, good.” Jesse nodded. “‘Cause, you know, I didn’t wanna say anything, but.” She gestured at him and the remnants of the blood attacks.

"I know. But it's either this or turn into a cat and risk getting fleas down here." The wry tone of his voice suggested he wasn't really worried about it. He knew he looked like an art project gone wrong, and he lifted his arms to spread out the fabric and show all the red staining his orange and ochre shawl. When he did, his nose wrinkled at the metallic odor his new feline sense of smell picked up.

He nodded to the ring of rocks and single blood clot slowly orbiting around Jesse. "If that's something you picked up here, I'll gladly trade you."

Jesse scratched at her palm where the sigil was inscribed there. “Sorry, Therion, no dice.” She held it up to him. “I touched it and it just wooshed right in. Coulda been worse- coulda been on my face or something. That’d just be distracting.”

She unsummoned her Service Weapon and glanced around. “We should get back to the others before they move onto the next level. Come on.” She jogged back the way they had came, where she knew there weren’t any monsters. That way they could meet up with the others. Sheathing his long sword, Therion trailed after her.

Midna had to cover her mouth to hide her sniggering regarding Sakura’s blatant bias about wanting to check out the sports center.

”I don’t know how your lot got on over in the ocean, be we’ve managed to build plenty of good reputations in the desert…. and then ruin them by dropping a giant worm out of a mountain” Midna replied to Karin’s relief at maybe having a good reputation in town for once, doing so mostly as a joke. She had to wonder how badly things had gone for her before however, the princess unaware that the fighter was somewhat new and she already knew about all the bad reputation events the Karin had been involved in.

”As long as entire towns stop being rallied against us, I will be more than happy.” Karin said.

”Oh!” Sakura ran over and shook Midna on the shoulder, trying to find the words. ”Oh, uh- uh- Midna-san, uh- the- the radios. The radios!” She glanced around at everyone and stuck her hand in the air. ”I have six radios. We should give radios to everyone here who wants one. Walkie-talkies. They fit on your belt or in your pocket and we can talk to each other! Easy squeezy lemon peasy.”

Either way, with agreement from all who cared to ‘vote’ afterwards, operation “find Raz’s friends and punch some Others” was a go. As was poke around the area Desperado and the Hermits where in for info.

Midna got to look a little smug about her plan being picked up, even if it wasn’t the most complex or inspired one. She was, however, still a bit skeptical about the whole Desperado, but she had to put her faith in Riden and take him both at face value, and assume he knew how to handle them.

After that, they had some down time as they waited to get some fake credentials to make navigating around the city easier. And legal. Or, seemingly legal anyway. Mention of needing pictures, and also that there was a shower, prompted the princess to swiftly claim one of the latter to deal with the built up dust and grime that had come with fighting for her life atop a speeding truck.

While in there she had a shower thought and so, after exiting, once more clean, and picking out the one outfit that actually fit her ( she was mildly surprised and rather please that there was even an option), she found a spot to summon a moogle and check a hunch she had.

She and the little fluff ball talked for a little bit, and then once they were done and he was gone, she relayed what she had learned to the group: ”Good news, the people who looked like they got lost in the metro made it, just, uh, to somewhere called ‘Edinburgh’ instead of the places they where meaning to get too”

After that, the suited up princess checked in with the id creation, got the disappointing news that they would not be able to register her vehicles using this method, and then got a crash course in modern occupations while they figured out her cover story occupation. Princess was sadly not a valid option.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Karin also needed their pictures taken. Sakura smiled big for her picture, and Karin settled for an ever polite-yet-restrained smile. Karin naturally insisted that she be marked as something like a financial analyst. Sakura settled for ‘arcade worker’ because she already did that job back home.

Sakura and Karin both were down for punching monsters, but there was only so much room in both teams and if they were going to split evenly, they would have to go to Suoh. But they couldn’t complain. They could use the downtime to relax and rejuvenate and explore the city they were probably going to be spending the next few days in, or more. Plus, Raz wanted the back up.

After that was all sorted, Midna the courier helped herself to some tea (which mainly resulted in her stomach reminding her that granola bars were not a meal, and then after that it was time to go.

Midna, of course, went with the team headed for Suon to see her own plan through. To get there, the princess of twilight slipping into the shadows within the unstoppable Hummer to avoid taking up a seat, which left her unable to take in the sights (hard to see out the windows when the light was coming in through those after all) and so she spent most of the time either napping or pestering people to describe what it was they were gawking at out of the windows.

That feeling of missing out did not go away when they got to the town of psychics, as to everyone but those the place was made for, it was rather drab looking, at least at first. While there were more interesting things for those with mundane eyes to be found, the princess paused before moving on to get a second opinion.

She mounted her wolfos steed first, basically to get any bystanders used to the idea, and then summoned one of the Psynumbra Initiates strikers that she had claimed from the monastery and asked them ”Describe it to me”

The masked cultist scanned her gaze across the mental graffiti “All the powers of the mind, and they spent it on covering every surface in advertising … I don’t know whether to be appalled or impressed at how feeble minded consumerism has wasted their gifts'' which Midna found harsh, but somewhat reasonable. The follow up was not, as the woman who had embraced suffering and entropy and called both gods turned her dead eyes to the princess and told her “this whole place needs to be dragged screaming into the abysse” with absolute sincerity, and with what Midna was quite sure was an implication that, if they initiate had her way, it would only be the first to go, followed by the rest of the world.

”Alright that’s enough from you” the princess said after a few moments of staring down the cultist, waving her hand and dismissing the malevolent specter.

She shook her head, regretting asking anyone but Raz what the deal was, before looking around and realizing that she’d lost track of the only gifted one among them.

”Guess I’ll just find my own way around. How hard can it be?” she resolved, before tapping her heels against her mount’s side and taking a ride through the street. She got lost almost immediately in the sprawl of small businesses, but they weren't exactly a bad place to get lost in, other than the fact that they were a drag on her funds, as after a few minutes she was down a bunch of gold.

Not that all of it had been poorly spent, as the princess was now full of noodles and that was good. Less good was the cheap watch she had been scammed into spending several hundred gold (or zenny technically, but fortunately there was no need to mess around with exchange rates) on, due to her lack of familiarity with that kind of technology. Still, it did tell the time, so at least it did it’s job

The main event of her wanderings was when she spied a place called Paradise Lost sauna, the Twilight princess finding herself drawn to its dark atmosphere … that and her curiosity as to whether a sauna was like a spa.

In the front lobby of this place were the pair of street fighters, Sakura and Karin. Before Raz tracked down his friends they were doing some tourism of their own, but not before ending up a light sparring session in the middle of the street. Karin had to force herself to shut down the battle on the grounds that attracting attention too early would be a bad move. Since they were both looking to rest up before moving on to find the psychic friends, they wound up here, at this weird looking sauna. But Karin recognized class when she saw it.

”Ah!” Sakura said when she made eye contact with Midna. ”Hey! It’s Midna-san. Are you here for the sauna, too?”

”No, I imagine she’s here for the movie.”

”...shut uuup.”

Midna could not help but smile at their banter, before confirming that ”Yes, that’s why I’m here. We checked out this place called Shangri-Spa in the city town we visited, so I thought it would be fun to make it a thing to visit some other city’s spas and baths as well. Plus, the atmosphere is very nice on the eyes” as much as she admired the aesthetic, the light adverse princess also ment this literally.

She then had a thought, and had to ask ”What’s a ‘movie’ anyway?”

Karin frowned, her sharp wit now lost on Midna.

Sakura scratched her head. ”You don’t know what a movie is?” She asked. ”You’ve probably at least seen something like it by now. It’s a moving picture that can make noises, and people tell stories with them. There’s little reels with all the pictures that they put in a big projector. Or sometimes on tape that goes in a little box which you can bring home with you. It’s tech. I don’t know the specifics.”

”Well, essentially-”

”I don’t have enough room in my brain for whatever you’re about to start telling me, Karin-chan.” Sakura waved Karin’s explanation away.

”Oh right, those things I see” Midna said, at least getting the picture somewhat, although she still did not get the specifics of the joke due to not knowing how those illusions (as she interpreted them) could be used for entertainment purposes. Even without the details, the gist/energy of the joke had translated perfectly fine however.



After that, there was a bit of a pause in their talking as they checked into the sauna, or rather, what it actually was, which was a bathhouse, and got to admire the interior decoration. It had a gothic style right out of vampire fiction, as if they had just been invited into some secluded sun averse noble’s abode, and was decked out with dark wood, ornate rugs, candelabras, lamps with fancy lampshades, plush chairs, gilded mirrors, and big paintings, all of which gave a stylish yet haunting atmosphere to the palace.

And that was only the foyer/changing room. After they’d swapped out their outfits for towels (with Midna doing her best but ultimately failing to hid the mottled healed burn look her torso had), and Minda had stashed their valuable possessions away, they exited out of the ‘mansion’ and into the ladies section of the sauna



Styled after a rock pool filled with a water who’s mineral composition made it look more than a bit like blood. It also had a vision that made it appear that the room opened up into what looks like a vista of a sprawling ruin that extends infinitely into a starry night, covered by giant, softly glowing spike, though unfortunately for them none of the 3 ladies could see it, leaving them with a much less impressive blank wall where the projection was.

Still, the water was warm and inviting, and so the trio eagerly joined the a number of number bathers in the pool.

The princess slipped in first, sighing as the warm rejuvenating waters washed over her body ”Ahhhh, I‘ve needed this. Beats those weird shower things by a mile”

Sakura happily sank in the water, the twin tails of her headband floating clinging to her shoulders. She left the radio in her sneakers which were at pond side. Karin, meanwhile, reached her arms up and undid her ribbon. Daintily, she lifted it off her head and dropped it on a nearby island of rock, where it hit with a heavy thud.

”It is adequate.” Karin surmised.

”The red water is kinda badass.” Sakura mused, cupping some in her hands. ”If a bit, uh…”

”Macabre?” Karin offered, smirking.

”Yeah, that’s it.” She splashed it on her face. ”’A blissful death. Sink into the peaceful gloom after the end.’” She quoted the place’s grim tagline. ”If you say so!” She sank all the way down to her chin and closed her eyes.

Karin kept her hair out of the water, resting her arms on a nearby rock.

”It feels … homely. Not the water, but everything else is just, more familiar to my world than outside” Midna admitted, as she floated on the water’s surface, only her face poking out as she enjoyed soaking every inch of her body in the relaxing and rejuvenating waters

Karin watched them both for a moment, before focusing on Midna’s floating little face. ”You lived underground, then? That would explain your complexion.”

”Hmm? No, I lived in a place called the twilight realm where it's always, well, twilight. Like the town, but a fair bit darker shade of twilight” Midna explained simply before giving a slight correction ”But I also ment, well, the technology. We didn’t have all these cars and guns and whatever all the roads are made from. It's a bit overwhelming at times I’ll be honest.”

”I see. Well, I’ve never seen any magic before, either, so I suppose we both have some things to get used to.” Karin said.

Sakura peaked one eye open. ”I dunno-” When she opened her mouth some water got in, briefly interrupting her. She sat up a little straighter. ”I dunno, Karin-san. You know Dhalsim? He calls it yoga, but… that guy gets weirder every time I see him. Besides, everything I’ve seen in the World of Light is kind of like something I’ve watched a cartoon about, or seen in real life.” Sakura says. ”Except it’s turned up to eleven. At least I don’t have to do any more algebra problems.”

Karin considered this. ”Fair point. I suppose we are lucky in that way. By the way, Miss Midna, the roads are made of concrete.”

”Well it’s impressive stuff, this con-crete” Midna said, wondering to herself how it was made, while also being presented with more questions such as ”Are those fireballs you can throw not magic?”

Sakura shook her head. ”Nope, not magic. That’s ki!” Sakura said proudly. ”It’s a form of energy within all living things. With enough training, you can harness it. We call ‘em fireballs but they don’t actually look a lot like fire if you get a close look at ‘em. I guess the name just kinda stuck.”

”If you can call what Sakura did training.” Karin said.

”Hey-!”

”I kid, of course. Just this once I must make myself explicitly clear.” Karin said, with emphasis.

”Good.” Sakura said, crossing her arms, satisfied.

”Sound a lot like mana to me” Midna said, before thinking for a moment before correcting herself ”Although I suppose if it is training rather than study then it probably is different” and then asking ”What kind of training was it anyway?”

”Push ups, sit ups, and plenty of juice.” Sakura said succinctly with a smile. ”And I did this a bunch of times.” She mimes the motion of the Hadoken.

Karin pinched her brow. It wasn’t fair.

Midna had to agree.

There was a little lul then in the talk, during which they soaked and the two dignified ladies sulked a bit about how Sakura had come into absurd power though push ups… and, admittedly, lots and lots of hard work and dedication.

After a bit however, the inevitable topic had to come up, which was, well, work.

”So … how are we feeling about this whole …. Things? I have to admit, it is a bit more daunting than being pointed at a mountain and told to ‘go there’ even if said mountain basically froze us all to death. Was the ocean stuff anything like this or?” Midna asked, ceasing her lazy floating and actually taking a seat while they discussed more serious matters.

Karin was only on the ocean for a short while, but from what Sakura had said of her first mission as a Seeker, it wasn’t good. She looked at Sakura with concern. The brunette for her part bit her lower lip and stared off into empty space for a moment.

”It was…pretty bad, Midna-san.” She said. ”It wasn’t anything like this. It was a big war, and a very big boat full of horrible people. And I got turned into a little kid. It was definitely the worst day of my life.” Sakura summed up, never being very closed off about her emotions.

”But when I got turned back into my normal self, I felt strong again. The Guardian was scary, too, but not as scary as that big boat. We destroyed it.” Sakura looked at Midna again.

”So despite everything, we still won. I don’t think it can get as bad as it was on that boat. In a weird way, I feel stronger than ever.” Sakura said.”Saving people- saving someone in particular named Bella, too- felt better than all the bad things, y’know? Made it worth it. As long as we can save people, we should keep going.” Sakura nodded to herself.

”I dunno how hard this is going to be, but as long as we stick together we’ll be okay.”

”At least it was only a day,” Midna said in relation to the curse, vaguely pointing to herself, before pursing her lips and taking it back ”Sorry, I shouldn’t say compare things like that. I’m glad you made it out ok and have recovered from your ordeal …. And it sounds like you where a real hero over there” the princess said approvingly, and with just a hint of nostalgia in her voice, before she added: ”and I think real genuine heroes is what this city needs most of all. So I’ll be counting on you, while also having your back every step we take through this tangled web”

Sakura blushed, rubbing the back of her head and wrapping her arm around her towel. ”Thanks.” She laughed apologetically. ”I think the Seekers have got plenty of those. You can count on me, Midna-san.”

Karin smiled. ”Enjoying saving the world, Sakura-chan?”

”I-I dunno. Maybe? I think I’m doing pretty good overall.”

”With myself on board things shall only improve for the Seekers. For the first and only time in history, I wish you would have defeated me earlier so I could have joined you on that accursed ship, Sakura-chan. But we’re united now. And I believe my example will push you to greater heights.” Karin set a hand on her chest, proud.

”Yeah, me too.” Sakura said, genuinely. ”You woulda kept me grounded. I got all caught up in my own head pretty fast. But, hey. I’m the veteran Seeker. I helped destroy a Guardian. You’ve got a long way to go before you catch up to me, rookie. Isn’t that right, Midna-san?”

”mmm hmmm, looks like you’ve got a ways to go till your on her level again if you haven’t even faced a guardian yet” Midna agreed teasingly, before adding with faux haughtiness ”We can review your contribution to the team again one you have punched a big worm or something”

Karin raised an eyebrow, seemingly unamused by their wit. ”That’s the second time today you’ve brought up this alleged big worm. Did you want to brag about killing a giant worm? I will allow this boast in the spirit of diplomacy. Feel free to demonstrate with your hands that it was: ‘this big.’”

Minda tapped a rock, pulled the fourth of the fused shadow out of a portal she formed on it, plonked said helm on her head, and then summoned a small shadow hand and held it up above her head while she linked both other hands together and declared that it was ”Thiiiiiiis big … and by ‘this’ I mean the cannon shells we shot out of a train mounted cannon to even tickle the big worm. It was deku nuts”

”...I see.” Karin said, looking up at the demonstration. ”Deku nuts indeed. No wonder people were so upset with you.”

”Yuck! Still, wish I coulda been there to see it. I understand why we split up all the time but sometimes I wish we could just go around as a big group of like…thirty, or whatever. It’d be kinda funny. ” Sakura said.

”Fortunately it mainly just spooked people … and destroyed a bunch of railway tracks, which in hindsight was lucky because we had no idea that was what was going to happen when we rang a massive bell at the top of the mountain… So, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that we need to be a bit more careful this time” Midna admitted. They weren't in a mostly empty desert, after all, and every stray mistake had dozens of people on the line, which was daunting.

”As for a big group, eh, we’d probably start getting in each other's way at some point. I mean I know i’ve been having to hold back, or at least be more careful, in a team than I am when I am on my own” she pulled off and put away the fused shadow, which was the main thing she had to be very careful with to avoid slapping friendlies.

”Plus there’s the whole speed thing we need to do now … but yeah it would be pretty funny” she admitted at last

”Woah. Yeah. We’re kind of in a big city so, let’s avoid any mysterious bells of power.” Sakura said. ”But I bet that Galeem thing is gonna be feelin’ real stupid when we all show up after all it’s Guardians are toast.” Sakura said, punching the air before emergency catching her towel.

”I am more interested in these Consuls. Not quite Guardian, not quite Galeem itself, yes? I suppose they are just his minions. I imagine we will have to defeat all of them, as well.”

”We might, though is it just me, or is it strange that apparently they just haven’t been a factor, and then they suddenly make two moves one after the other? Did we get lucky? Were they just complacent? It’s not like part of Galeem’s force wasn’t aware of us with that hand showing up before the guardian, so why now? What changed?”

”Well…” Karin begins. ”I did join the Seekers.” She points out.

”Oh, shut up!” Sakura says, shoving Karin on the shoulder while Midna quietly laughed.

”Ohoho! I am only kidding, of course. But that is a good question. Perhaps one or two guardians getting destroyed is within acceptable parameters. But three or four is worrying. I think you are right, Princess Midna. Complacency. They strive for a world of total control and lack of free will, after all.” Karin says.

”I suppose … well, guess things will only be getting harder than here on out” which was not a prospect she was looking forward to. ”and if we want to get anywhere we’ll need to work out how to go on the offensive against them … not sure how we do that though, other than asking around to see if anyone has seen any red helmeted people around” she said, mostly joking about that method, though she didn’t exactly have an alternative.

”It is not anything we cannot handle. If their power was so overwhelming they would have exercised it by now. Instead they must rely on trickery and deception. Perhaps if we capture one we can find out what hole they are hiding in.” Karin said confidently.

”Sounds like a plan” Midna agreed before thinking for a moment and recognising some irony about the situation ”Iand not one we’re gonna pull off soaking in a bath, lovely as this has been” she said, while standing up and stretching and then concluding ”So how about we hit the streets again, and see if the rain looks to be coming in soon or not?”

”Very well. I feel refreshed.” Karin agreed.

”Let’s go. After this, I feel like I can work triple time!” Sakura said, squeezing the water out of her headband like it was hair.

After that, it was a quick pop back into the changing rooms to redone their clothes and they were off. Well. almost. The place was cleverly set up to filter exiting through a gift shop, and so they, or at least Midna got briefly distracted by the selection, and by a quick chat with the proprietor of the sauna, a woman named Coco who happened to also be staffing said gift shop. Compliment for the experience (and money for a bottle of very nice smelling ‘blood’ shampoo) paid and the trio of ladies were back out on the streets, ready to have the clean and rejuvenated feeling the soak had left them in ruined by the upcoming rain and violence that was to come if the plan came together.

Still, it would be nice while it lasted.

A general mood of casual serenity permeated the verdant shrine, sustained by those in search of a moment of peace and quiet from all the stimulus and hubbub of effervescent Suoh life. Those subjected to cramped confines could stretch their legs, and those whose minds buzzed with color and light could drink deep of a little fresh air in the midst of the city, then let their headaches slip away. Children played and laughed, small carts offered lovingly handmade crafts and charms that would be laughed off the shelves of any five-story department store, and all could feel at ease in a little pocket of tradition beneath the gaze of departed ancestors.

That’s why when Raz ran across the area yelling, he drew more than a little attention. Cityfolk glanced his way, and a few even laughed, but none matched the expression of wide-eyed surprise that plastered itself across the face of Lily Zanotto. “Raz!?” As he barreled toward her she left her nonplussed-looking friend behind and ran to meet him, and the two came together in a spur-of-the-moment hug. “I can’t believe it’s you!” she practically cried, only to realize people were staring, including the rest of her teammates, who already seemed a hair’s breath away from poking fun at the girl who never lost her cool. She instantly composed herself and drew away from him, her facade of sarcastic nonchalance hastily reconstructed as she smoothed off her outfit.

”I can’t believe it either!” Raz smiled, understanding how important it was that Lili kept her ‘cool’ up around others. ”I mean, I can believe I’m me. I’ve always been me. But I can’t believe it’s you too!”

“Just…just where have you been? We’ve been trying to find you for months and months!”

Already there was a small hitch in their heartful reconnection, as Raz floundered for a moment to come up with a good answer. The truth was way too impossible, and he could never lie well enough, so it was a good thing someone else butted in to fill the silence.

“Well, some of us.” Norma Natividad approached, her arms crossed with a smug look fixed on Lili, as if to say, not so above it all, huh? “I mean, I could care less, but a certain someone’s been so worried she even sent out missing-person Visions…”

Lili flashed her an angry look. “Shut up! It’s just ‘cause he’s part of the team, and we don’t leave anyone behind!” Annoyed, she crossed her arms. “That’s the theory, anyway. You’ve always had it out for Raz, Norma.”

“Have not! I’m just razzing him, come on.” The curly-haired girl looked offended. “And even if I was, it’s only because I was sure he was the mole.” She put up her hands. “But hey, I was wrong, and I can admit it. When’re you gonna get off my case about it, that’s the real question.”

By now the cityfolk had stopped paying attention to the disturbance, but the argument that followed proved that it might be a bit before serenity returned to the place. Over on a nearby bench, the boy with a topknot sighed to himself, his eyebrow twitching. “Never a dull moment,” he murmured in resignation, before standing up to head over to his squadmates. “Please, you two,” he chided the girls gently. He clasped his palms together. His gi-like garb, dark gray in color beneath a sleeveless black coat with red lining, gave him the appearance of a martial artist. “This…is a place of tranquility. And is this not a most fortunate reunion? Let us put aside our petty grievances.”

“Oh, well…” Norma averted her gaze as the ascetic approached, twirling her hair. “If you say so, Poo.”

”You’re right… uh, Poo,” Raz said, trying to move pass the kid’s name. He looked from Lili to the taller, lankier pyrokinetic. ”Believe it or not Norma, I missed you too, a little. So let’s call it even, okay? Everything from before, water under the bridge.” Things had gotten way too big to be bothered by Norma, really, so Raz was fine letting it go.

While they were talking, the other two boys arrived from the direction of the fortune cart, and Roxas showed up as well. The brown-haired one wore a teasing smile, while his friend seemed both serious and polite. “Well, well,” the former began. “Not like you to lose your composure, Lili.”

“So you’re Raz?” the black-haired teen greeted before the girl could berate his friend, giving the newcomer a friendly smile. “It’s nice to meet you at last.” His gaze then shifted to Roxas. “Hello. We’re based here, so yes.”

Raz greeted the others with a firm nod, glancing between the three of them. ”Same here! I guess you’ve heard about me, huh?” He shared a glance at Lili. ”Yeah, I’ve been, uhh…” With no better idea for an explanation, Raz went with the classic: ”It’s a long story. To put it plainly, I’ve been kinda lost for a while. I met with some other great people, though, and they’ve helped me make my way back here!” Raz looked at the OSF team, and then back towards the Otherlobe. ”Things look a little different now, though,” he prompted.

“No, really?” Lili looked over her shoulders, past the trees that surrounded the Sumeragi Tomb, and all the way down main street toward the stronghold crowned by a red-tinted brain. “Ever since the Psychonauts and the Other Suppression Force merged, it’s been crazy. Everything got reorganized, and they’ve been putting us through hell with the new Basic Braining. Makes the stuff we went through at camp look like…well, kid stuff. And the SAS aptitude test! Ugh.” She put a hand to her temple and shook her head. “My head never hurt so bad in my whole life.”

Poo bowed his head in sympathy. “We certainly weathered a lot of hardship together, but we’re all the stronger for it.”

“Yeah! And as of yesterday, we’re all officially Private, First Class!” The brown-haired boy pumped his fist, wearing a wide grin. “I’m Nagi Karman, by the way. Any friend of Lili’s is a friend of ours, right?”

The stranger with a sword across his back nodded. “For sure! My name’s Yuito, by the way.”

“Yuito here’s kinda a big deal, you know!” Nagi reached an arm around to clap his bud on the shoulder. “Just one mission under his belt, and the Crows are already all over him, singing his praises!”

Looking a little bashful, Yuito brushed the hand away. “Aw, knock it off, Nagi. Everyone did great on their first mission. People just have all these expectations of me since I’m a Sumeragi, is all.” He extended a hand to shake that of Raz. “But I’m happy just to be doing my part like anyone else.”

“My name is Poo,” the boy with the topknot said once his turn at an impromptu introduction came around. “I am a humble scion of Dalaam, here to aid in quelling the Other threat.”

Lili nodded. “There you have it. Hey, Raz, you should enlist in the Psych-OSF! We could use the help, and if you stay here you’ll probably be scouted the minute you get examined, anyway.”

”I’m guessing that me already being a Psychonaut doesn’t grandfather me in, does it?” Raz scratched his cheek as he looked back at the Otherlobe. ”Doing a new version of Basic Braining sounds like fun, though.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like he’d be put on this Platoon. We’re already full up!” Norma remarked.

Narrowing her eyes, Lili looked at Norma like she might a pest in her garden. “Not if someone happens to get transferred out…”

“HEY!”

A loud, raucous voice cut through the shrine’s atmosphere, drawing the cadets’ attention to the stairs that led up to Sumeragi Tomb. Down the steps swaggered a squat, almost bullet-shaped man in a decorated black suit, gray shirt, and red tie beneath a black trench coat riddled with the same orange wires as the teens’, plus a black beret. “What’s the big idea, cadets?” Morceau questioned in his growly voice. “Are we on patrol, or on a date?”

“Ahaha, not without Naomi here, Captain!” Nagi laughed.

Yuito held up a piece of paper, as well as a small, rotund pink figure separated in half. “We were just getting our fortunes told by Baki!”

“Oh, yeah?” Morceau rubbed his chin as he approached. “And what does Baki have to say?”

With a dejected expression, Nagi crumpled up his paper. “Great misfortune all around! Talk about a bad start to our OSF careers!” He tossed the wad over his shoulder, only for a purple glow to surround it. It unraveled and splatted against Nagi’s head. “Wah!”

He clawed it off and looked at Yuito, who had extended his hand with a mischievous smile. “Can’t run from fate!” his friend joked. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it!”

“Enough fooling around! It’s time we…” By now Morceau had reached his platoon, and he got his first good look at Raz, which prompted a less-than-thrilled expression. “...You.”

Raz, for his part, straightened his back and gave Oleander a little smile. ”Hey there, Coach!” His greeting was cheerful, oblivious to Coach’s more somber reaction to the reunion. ”I hope you didn’t miss me too much. I’m back now though, and itching to get back to it. Oh! I’ve also got some potential new recruits with me today. You’ll love this one guy, Goldlewis, he’s really big and he’s some sorta government agent, oh and he carries around this huge coffin--”

“That’s Captain to you, civvie!” At the mention of new recruits, Morceau seemed to perk up a little. A remnant of the drill sergeant he once affected, maybe. The name Raz supplied, however, made him frown in consternation. “Goldlewis…Dickinson? The old secretary of defense?” He rubbed his chin. “He’s a dud, isn’t he? What in blazes is he doing in Suoh?”

Norma crossed her arms, looking thoughtful. “Maybe he shacked up with the Turks,” she suggested. The others looked between Raz and their platoon leader for affirmation or denial.

Morceau scoffed. “You’d better hope not! We Psych-OSF are taking care of Suoh just fine, thank you very much!” He adjusted his tie officiously as he treated Raz to a probing look. “You said you got now recruits, but I sure don’t see ‘em. Where are they? Who are they?” He leaned forward, one eye wide open as if its stare could lay bare all the boy’s agendas. “They’re psionic, right?”

Raz shook his head quickly. ”No no, trust me, he’s cool! And they’re all, uhh… I might’ve skipped a few steps.” Raz cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. ”They’re not, uh, ‘psionic’, no, but they’re really capable fighters. You should see the sorta stuff they can do! And from what I heard, Psych-OSF is best against those Other monsters, right? My recruits can handle anything the Ever Crisis can throw at them.” Raz might be puffing up his so-called recruits a little too much, but he really needed to get the wedge in. He took a step back, raising his arms with hands palms-up, as if he were presenting Oleander to a crowd.

”Just think, how much of a chip you’d get on your shoulder hiring them on. Captain Morceau Oleander being responsible for putting the Scarlet Guardians a step above any of the other organizations in Midgar! And if you won’t take my word for it, you can give them a test yourself. If you can turn this,” Raz gestured down to himself, a bit of self depreciation to pump up Coach’s ego a tad more, ”into a prime psychic fighting machine, you’d totally be able to lift some ‘duds’ up to the same level. Now that would make headlines.”

While Lili and her other squadmates spectated, mildly curious but mostly just chilling, the platoon leader narrowed his eyes. “It’s true, if anyone could raise ‘em up, it’s Septentrion Fifth Class, Captain Morceau Oleander,” he mused, ruffling his trench coat like someone important. “But the fact is, there’s no duds in the OSF. Psionic aptitude is a must-have. Can’t survive hooking up to SAS without it, and that’s what makes us a cut above!” He puffed out his chest, proudly displaying his medals, then shook his head. “But even if they could, I’m not the one making these decisions, kid. Our job is making mincemeat of Others, not pushing around paperwork.”

“Sorry about your friends,” Yuito told Raz, his face apologetic. “That’s just the way it is, I’m afraid. If you’re not scouted, you’d have to go in as part of the volunteer faction like the two of us, and the tests are…rigorous, to say the least!”

Nagi hung his head. “Ohh, don’t remind me. We worked our butts off, and we still barely made the cut!” He then straightened up and put his hands on his hips with a smile. “But what’s important is that we made it!”

“What’s important is that as long as they’re willing and able to help people, I’m sure there’s a place for your friends somewhere,” Yuito said by way of reassurance. “That sort of resolve is a wonderful thing.”

Lili rolled her eyes. “That’s our Yuito, always trying to make people feel better, even when they’re not here.” She reached out and beckoned to Raz. “Come on, you should join up! We’re not saying to forget your friends, but your place is with us! You always wanted to be a Psychonaut, right? And now, the Scarlet Guardians are all that and more! I bet you could even become a famous Septentrion!” She turned a dismissive look at Morceau. “I mean, you did beat him that one time, after all.”

“Watch it, young lady!” Morceau grumbled. “I’ll have you know I learned a trick or two since then.”

Volunteer faction? That was something at least. So long as there was some way for the group to find a footing in the organization, things would work out. Hopefully. ”What does ‘all that and more’ mean, exactly? I sorta understand fighting the Others, a little at least, but what’s the OSF? What do the Septentrion do, exactly? It’s not like they have any comics for me to read… do they?”

“You’d be surprised!” Norma told him. “They’re just the strongest people in the Psych-OSF -Other Suppression Force, in case that wasn’t obvious- but they’re basically celebrities. They have action figures! Fashion brands! People even write fanfics about them!” She coughed. “Not that I’m into any of that stuff, just figured a geek like you might be.”

”Hey, it’s not geeky! It’s a perfectly normal collecting hobby! I’ll have you know that I even got my hands on the misprinted edition of Psychic Tales Volume 325, where Milla Vodello’s dress was colored blue instead of…” He trailed off as he started to hear himself. ”...we’re getting off topic. The Septentrion might be strong and popular, but what do they, you know, do? The difference between what they do and what you guys do?”

Morceau sniffed, ready and willing to self-aggrandize. “We Septentrions are at the forefront of the war with the Others! Machines and Aberrations, too! We lead our platoons into battle to save the poor, helpless people of Midgar time and time again!”

“Just think of them to us as what Milla and Sasha were to the original Psychonauts,” Lili told Raz, hoping to rely on his hero worship to make him understand. “But instead of foiling criminal conspiracies, we’re killing monsters that devour human brains. Every. Single. Day.” By this point, Poo, Yuito, and Nagi had drifted away. The latter two headed toward a couple of Psych-OSF girls who’d just arrived to the shrine, one silver-haired and one blonde, but both with matching accessories. Lili crossed her arms. “And when a Major Other appears, only the Septentrions can really take them on.”

”What’d I be when I join back up? After re-taking Basic Braining?”

“You’d be a Private like everyone else!” Morceau replied. “Although, you might not have to go through Basic all over again, seeing as you’re already certified. A few tests, a couple classes, some Vision sims…we could probably fast-track you.” Lili nodded with a smirk, as if to say I told you so.

”The faster the better! Hang on, what was that thing you guys said before.. S-A-S? What’s that, some sorta test?”

“Man, you really don’t know anything, huh?” Lili rolled her eyes like it couldn’t be helped. “It’s the Struggle Arms System. It lets us connect our brains together with SAS cables to power each other up, and even share our powers. So the whole platoon can use Norma’s pyrokinesis, or the Captain’s forcefield!”

Over toward the side, Yuito and Nagi had met with the two new girls, although Nagi appeared to be doing most of the talking. “Well hey, if it isn’t Naomi and Kasane!” he greeted them, all smiles.

“Hi! Did you guys come to get fortunes too?” the blonde girl, Naomi, cheerfully asked.

Nagi shrugged. “Nah, I’m just hanging with Yuito.”

“And I brought Kasane!” Naomi giggled. “What a coincidence!” She glanced at Yuito’s charm, then up at his face. “You must really be a fan of Baki, right, Yuito?”

As Yuito stammered his reply, Nagi stepped forward. “Hey, here’s an idea! After you get your fortunes, how about we grab some tea? We’ve got time before we have to start work.”

At that point, Kasane stepped in front of her sister, her expression grim. “Don’t feel pressured, Naomi. It’s a good thing I came along.”

“H-huh? What’d I do?” Nagi stepped back again, his hands held up in placation. “Let’s just get our fortunes, and have some tea!”

Morceau watched them go gruffly. “Grr…even if we aren’t on duty, there’s an Other forecast! You kids shouldn’t be messing around.” He huffed and started toward the steps down to the street. “The rest of you, c’mon.”

“Yes, sir.” Poo gave Raz a polite nod of his head, then turned to follow Morceau. Norma followed him.

Raz waved to the others as they headed for the stairs. ”We’ll catch up in a second!” Once they were more-or-less alone, Raz turned back to Lili. ”Before you go head off to set some monsters on fire or whatever, there’s something I need to talk to you about, both me and Roxas here. Something really important. Do you know anywhere more private?”

Roxas couldn’t help but look away a bit, knowing what was about to be asked of him.

Though a little surprised by that announcement, Lili couldn’t help but be intrigued. “Hm…that might be tough. With all the cameras around, there’s no ‘private’ outdoors pretty much anywhere in Suoh! A royal pain, too…” The bitterness in her voice suggested some sort of prior incident on her part. After a moment, though, her eyes landed on the building across the street. “Oh, how about that? Anemoiapolis. It’s a new, kinda like a weird mix between public pool and haunted house. It’s big, quiet, and empty. Perfect, right?” She raised an eyebrow at Raz. “I mean, unless you’re a wuss who’s afraid of a little liminal space.”

”Liminal Spacial Awareness was one of the first benchmarks needed to become a Psychonaut, y’know.” He nodded for Lili to lead the way, then paused beside Roxas. ”Hey… so, when we get there, think you could help free Lili? It’d make things a lot easier, and it feels weird to leave her like that.”

”I can, but… we need to be careful about this. Galeem’s not just going to go quietly, his influence might make her try to resist.” he warned. He had surmised by now that Benedict’s process went relatively smoothly because he had already been tired by the previous fighting. Roxas wasn’t entirely sure how smoothly this would go for someone who was completely fresh.

Raz nodded once and moved to follow Lili as she notified her squadmates of her new plans through Brain Talk. ”I’ll trust you on this. I don’t want to hurt her too much…”

Aided by Vision signals, the three crossed the street. “I’ll cover you guys this time, as a welcome present,” Lili told the boys, jingling her gridLink. “But just this once, got it? So you better work hard once you join the Psych-OSF to thank me!” With her help the small group got admitted to Anemoiapolis. As they passed the locker rooms, Lili shot Raz a slight smile. “You know, I’m kind of surprised you agreed, considering your fear of water. You must have grown up a little while you were lost, huh?”

With everything going on, that little tidbit had managed to slip Raz’s mind. Still, he wasn’t going to admit the newly-found fear starting to bubble up. ”Oh, eheh, totally! I’m so grown now, you wouldn’t even believe it. Just ask Roxas!” At least it was only a pool… of sorts. He wouldn’t have to get too close to the water. ”Have you been here before?”

“Once,” Lili told him. Having stepped from the reception area into the labyrinth proper, things got quiet fast. The girl’s voice echoed through halls covered in pure white tile, be it on floor, wall, or ceiling, and aside from the visitors’ footsteps the soft lap of water was the only other sound. “I thought it was overrated, though. I mean, there aren’t any actual monsters or scares in here, for Pete’s sake! It’s just boring, not creepy. People just come here to chase each other around in swimsuits.”

After another couple moments the trio passed through a dark tunnel and came to a stop in a secluded part of the complex. They looked out across a big, empty room full of water with thick central pillar that made the pool donut-shaped. “Good enough.” Lili turned to Raz. “So, what did you want to tell me?”

”Right.” The echo bouncing around the Anemoiapolis and the ambient water noises were nearly deafening, but it sure made the place safe to talk in. He moved in close and put her hands to Lili’s shoulders. ”This is going to sound crazy, but you’re not thinking straight. There’s this… big thing, controlling the world! And it’s got in everyone’s minds, making them think nothing’s weird about it! Roxas here, he can help get it out of your head. You just… I need you to really trust me on this, okay?”

Lili looked thoroughly unamused. “Okay. Great. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about.” She rolled her eyes. “If you goofballs are done, I’m just gonna head back.” With an annoyed expression she started to move. “Whoever does your psychiatric exam is gonna have a field day.”

Roxas - who had been quiet all this time - finally spoke, ”Unfortunately, he’s telling you the truth.” he said as the black keyblade Oblivion appeared in his outstretched hands. Roxas appeared to be hesitant for a brief moment but then closed his eyes and steeled his resolve, ”...May your Heart be your Guiding Key.” and then he lunged forward and suddenly pushed the tip of the weapon into Lili’s torso. Not enough to actually pierce her, but he firmly pushed the Keyblade forward anyway. Searing light issued from the point at which the weapon’s tip touched Lili’s chest.

“Nuh!” The moment a weapon appeared, Lili went on alert, and though she couldn’t react quite fast enough to stop Roxas’ initial thrust, the next moment she sailed backward over the water. A huge air current kicked up, blowing the boys back and buoying Lili up over the water. Her coat flapped in the wind as she glowered at them, her lip curled in anger. “Think you’re funny, do you? Well, I’m not when I saw.” She held two fingers to her head in a position Raz knew well, and sent forth a burst of psi-blasts, then unleashed a torrent of fire that she spread with a wave of air. “Even though I’m on my own, thanks to SAS you’re facing all of Morceau Platoon! So bring it!”

Roxas had to summon both blades in order to use them to take the brunt of the initial blast and avoid getting knocked off balance. Afterward, he had to dodge roll out of the way of the incoming fire, ”I told you she’d try to resist! Now what?” he asked Raz, knowing immediately that it had to be his call whether they try to go any further with this.

”Lili!” Raz shouted over the winds, cartwheeling sideways to avoid the barrage of psi-blasts. ”Why would I lie to you about this?! Isn’t something really weird going on, that you can’t place your finger on? Have the Psychonauts been sent on any away missions lately? How long has their HQ been in Midgar?” Outright fighting was a last resort for Raz, but they’d already pushed too far to just drop the issue now. ”What about Camp Whispering Rocks? Have you heard from them at all?”

Unfortunately, talking someone out of Gleaming had never worked before, and Lili did not seem susceptible now. She could barely hear over the wind to begin with, in fact, so she kept on targeting Roxas with her barrage of psychic lasers.

Raz groaned. ”Way to mess this one up,” he chastised himself. He matched her stance, only instead of firing back with psi-blasts of his own, grasped Lili’s body with TK, hoping to hold her still enough for Roxas to finish.

“What? Hey!” Lili protested as she felt her friend’s grip close in. Quickly realizing who was attacking her, she called upon the necessary power to expand a bubble-shaped forcefield and repel the hand. A stream of flame billowed toward Raz in retribution.

”Waterga!” Roxas used the spell to fling a small wave of water at the incoming fire to hopefully dowse it before it could reach Raz, ”I’ve gotta do something before this creates a bigger scene…” he then muttered to himself under his breath. At this point it might be better to ask for forgiveness rather than waiting for permission. And so Roxas made a dash toward the edge of the pool and proceeded to launch himself at Lili while her attention was still on Raz. Then he launched into a flurry of aerial strikes with the Keyblade against her forcefield bubble. He was hoping that it would break after taking enough damage. If it did he could follow-up by trying to grab Lili and throw her in Raz’s direction where he could then maybe more easily hold her down with his TK.

No matter what attacks Roxas landed, Lili’s shield didn’t so much as crack, let alone break down. Yet, his persistence was rewarded nonetheless. After just a few seconds, the shield faded on its own, and its creator could be attacked again. Faced with a double grab from both opponents, which would almost certainly be enough to hold her down, she went for a third option. Lili created a plume of fire straight down, which hit the surface of the pool and erupted into steam. A little added turbulence spread the steam into a cloud that covered almost a third of the room and hid the girl from sight. The wind died down, and no splashing could be heard once it did.

After barely managing to twist his body out of the way of the fiery plume, the turbulence knocked Roxas away and he hit the side of the pool, where he remained stunned for a few moments.

“Lili?! Where’d she go?” In the steam, Raz saw a familiar silhouette, which turned out to be Roxas as he made his way closer. “Oh, Roxas! Sorry about all this, it’s not like she was weak back home, but now she’s got a lot more power under her belt. Keep an eye out.” They moved together to prevent anyone sneaking up on them, but after a moment Roxas slowly pivoted around, a smirk on his face as a singularity of condensed wind coalesced in his palm, swelling in intensity as he prepared to unleash it into his the smaller boy’s unassuming back.

Raz’s voice snapped the Keyblade Wielder out of his daze and he pushed himself to his feet. But why was Raz talking to him when Roxas was nowhere near- ”Uh oh.” and he took off in the direction that he heard Raz’s voice coming from.

Raz, unaware of the fake Roxas behind him, had two fingers to his temple and his other hand pointed forwards, prepared to defend himself. He also reached his psychic will out, trying to pick up Lili’s thoughts in the steam, to get a read on where she was…yet his attempt to make a connection hit a hard wall, as if forcibly blocked, and he could tell nothing conclusive.

”No you don’t!” shouted Roxas as he suddenly careened into, well… himself. He didn’t use his weapons, instead just using that element of surprise to tackle the fake to the ground, ”I… have to… do this!” he tried to use the chaos of the struggle to summon one of his Keyblades and attempted one more time to thrust it into the girl’s chest.

When tackled to the ground, the false Roxas reverted back to Lili, rendered momentarily helpless by the true keyblade wielder a fraction of a second before she could unleash her mortal blow. “Huuugh!” she wheezed, the breath knocked from her lungs. She tried to struggle, but with her arms pinned she could no longer mount an effective counterattack. Lili flailed, her yells echoing through the steamy pool room as it began to clear, but she could not stop the stronger teen as his purgation took its course. At least, not physically. “I’m taking this, Yuito…” Gritting her teeth, she poured all her mental focus into psychokinesis, reaching for the strap that dangled beneath her hood on one side of her neck. “Brain…!”

Before she could tug it, the intense moment ended with Roxas’ success. He’d managed to isolate and destroy the power of Galeem seared into Lili’s spirit like lancing a boil. Lili jerked as if shocked by a defibrillator, then lay still for a few seconds, stunned. “Ugh…” Her eyes scrunched up as her head began to ache.

Raz watched the entire scuffle from a few feet away, stunned into inaction out of fear of messing it up, especially since he wasn’t as familiar with the process as Roxas might’ve been. When the dust cleared, metaphorically, his legs finally moved. ”Are you okay?!” He asked, glancing between Roxas and Lili, as if unsure who he was actually asking.

Roxas kept quiet for the time being, feeling winded and in need of a breather. He also assumed Raz would want a moment of privacy with Lili. So he stumbled back to his feet and took a few steps away somewhere where he could sit down and get off his feet for a moment, ”Well, at least I didn’t pass out this time.” he quietly told himself, ”But note to self: figure out a way to make this go more smoothly next time.”

“Oww, everything hurts.” Lili tried to get up on her own, but fell back into a sitting position with a wince. “Agh. What happened? Everything’s…” She held a hand to her head. “Not what I remember. When…how?” Her eyes flew open, and she blinked a few times.

”We can explain it all later.” Raz helped Lili onto her feet, hand to her shoulder to help keep her balance. Not that he was sure anyone could answer ‘when’ or ‘how’, though. ”It’s like I said; big thing, controlling everyone, everything all squished together. The friends I tried to recruit, well, they’ve been at this for longer than me, so I can introduce you to them later. Right now we should probably head back, before your team gets suspicious. Are you alright?”

Lili looked up at him with a grimace. “Not…really?” She figured that her behavior since her awakening communicated that implicitly, but Raz could be dense sometimes. Nevertheless, she stood, and even pulled away from Raz to make sure he knew that she didn’t actually need his help, idiot. Once she got her breathing back to normal, she could at least move with the independence she insisted upon. After a moment with her eye closed she began back toward the entrance of Anemoiapolis. “I sent them a message with Brain Talk saying I had an accident, but I’m okay. Poo and Norma said they’re coming to help. Let’s get going, I guess.”

Raz nodded. ”I’m just glad that you’re yourself again. Oh, and uhh, try not to agitate anyone else too much, or they might go hurt-happy like you did just now. Some kinda side… effect… I-I can give you the rundown some other time.” As they left for the outside, Raz fell into line beside Roxas. ”Thanks, again, for helping with this. Didn’t really end up how I expected, but still, I might not’ve been able to free her without you. Next time we should do it while they’re sleeping, though. If that’s possible.”
Roxas just nodded, ”You’re telling me. I don’t even really know what I’m doing at this point. So far it’s all been pure instinct. I’ve really gotta find this Master of Masters guy and ask him to explain some of this to me.”

They may have escaped the worst of the ambush thanks to immediately resorting to violence, but Primrose was anything but comfortable while the six of them were surrounding by man-eating spiders. Animals and monsters couldn't be reasoned with even if they hadn't been under Galeem's influence. Primrose was sure that as soon as any of them let their guard down, the predators would dive in.

The largest spider among them, which the dancer could only assume was their queen or equivalent, did just that. With a flash of light she was upon them, right in the middle of where the Seekers were making their stand. The sudden displacement of air and the force of her bulk landing on top of them threw Primrose off of her feet. She rolled backwards, scrambling to stand as the pyromancy in her hand expanded into the Flame Fan. A couple of the smaller spiders (at least compared to Silitha) had tumbled nearby, getting a face full of fire as Primrose waved the fan to ward them off.

The Seekers were afforded a brief look at the brood mother in all her terrifying glory before she would teleported again. Silitha was huge, standing at least two and a half times as tall as a man, letting alone the width of her legs. Her body was scaled with hard chitin, several glimmering red eyes embed in her face, and her maw was absolutely filled with needle-like teeth. From that mouth the spider queen's harsh voice screamed out, though Primrose could barely make out the words over the cacophony of noise around them.

Chaos was the rattling, staticky noise of the spider brood circling and taking their chances while Silitha teleported in another flash of dark light and brought her legs down hard in a smashing motion. She was less like a spider and more like a complete monster, and as the most dangerous thing here presently she needed to be dealt with.

While Kamek's summons handled keeping the area clear, the rest of them could focus on the brood mother - and while Silitha was focused on the largest of the Seekers, Primrose could perform another empowering dance. Steps one, two, and three were Sealticge's Seduction. The sultry movements were for the wizened Koopa wizard himself, spreading the effects of his shield spell to the rest of the Seekers. Surely it would be invaluable against those heavy forelimbs, preventing any of squishier Seekers from being smashed.

In addition to the dance, Primrose went on the offensive this time. Her own short range teleport put her behind the spider queen's abdomen, and she leapt up to stab at it's underside with her dagger swelling with dark magic. She maneuvered herself back in order to use the Ravaging Confession once more to catch up should Silitha teleport again, prepared to test the limits of her borrowed ability.



So there was someone out there freeing people from Galeem's influence - that was good news! It was a shame that Frisk's friend had disappeared, but hopefully they were alright out there wherever she was. A curse seemed like serious and unpleasant business, but it would have been nice to point her in the direction of the Alcamoth to get help with it.

Her two other pals were less lost, and the "sentient orb of pestilence" earned a curious look and a brief "Er, hi there," unsure if said orb was capable of replying. With a promise of introducing them to another freed person later, the group got around to finishing up the stage and props.

Once everything was set up they still had some time before the show actually began. The Spheals were just about ready too, and while they were cute and the Ace Cadet liked them fine, he hadn't expected that Sierra would assign him the task of trainer.

"Huh? Me?" He pointed a finger at himself, making sure he heard her right. He looked down at the Pokémon and then back up. Sierra was going over her expectations and other information, and by the time she'd handed him the scarf there was no time to protest - as Band, Red, and Lucia moved on to scope out the area. The Cadet held the scarf in his hands, wanting to at least admit one thing to Sierra and Frisk before he gave the whole training thing a go.

"I've never really done anything like this before, so, uh... well I'll try my best," he told them, wrapping the show fabric around his neck. "So no blubbering if it's not perfect, that goes especially for you, Dumpy." In response, the Spheal rolled over onto it's back.

---

After what felt like the shortest fifteen minutes ever, the show began. Though he didn't feel completely prepared, he could wing it with the best of them. He had a bucket of fish at his feet and a partner across the stage, what could really go wrong? For the Cadet, "stage fright" was not even a word in his vocabulary. He broke out into a wide grin when Sierra introduced him, waving both of his hands over his head at the crowd. When the stars of the show arrived, all eyes were drawn to them. The Cadet glanced at Frisk, turning his smile on her and mouthing 'just like we practiced!'

With a quick, sharp whistle the Cadet called the Spheals attention over to himself. He couldn't claim to know a lot about showmanship, but he didn't need to in order to know they should start off simple and gradually ramp up to the most exciting tricks. "Exciting," of course, being subjective. At any rate, the Cadet picked up an inflated ball in each hand, about as large as the Spheals themselves. He showed them off the audience briefly before tossing them to the sisters Happy and Sadie. This trick was a piece of cake for the Pokémon - they bounced the balls high into the air and between each other, passing to Glenn and Dumpy as well so that all four were juggling them, and catching thrown fish whenever they didn't have the ball. After about a minute or so the Ace Cadet pointed the Spheals toward Frisk, where she was holding up some hoops.

The Pokémon easily bumped the balls through the circles, earning the applause of the audience. Glenn and Dumpy hopped up onto the fountain's edge and clapped their flippers together happily, while Sadie and her sister swam up behind them. The two of them nudged Glenn and Dumpy from behind until they rolled backward, and then there were Spheals balanced on top of Spheals. With surprising balance and strength the Spheals turned to swim back toward Frisk, bouncing and tossing their fellow Pokémon towards the hoops like they were balls themselves. The would-be trainer had to pitch herself to one side in order to make sure one of the thrown Spheals actually made it through the hoop, but otherwise it had been a pretty flawless maneuver. The Cadet was surprised too, and joined in to applaud once he was finished up preparation for the next routine.

While the crowd's attention was focused on the Spheals on Frisk's side, the Ace Cadet had been setting up the show's little target stands. Sierra had assured her two new trainer hires that the Spheals knew what to do, they just needed some prompting, and so far she'd been completely right. At the moment the big balls of fur were swaying to the music, perfectly in sync with each other as Frisk tossed them fish one at a time and turned their blubbery bodies back in the direction of the Ace Cadet. Target shooting (the Cadet wasn't sure if there was some special term for it here, but that was basically what they'd be doing) was technically the second part of the next trick. The first part would be getting them over to the target area, or else risk their Water Guns going wide.

Frisk led them along the front of the fountain, walking along the outside while the four Spheals rolled along it's edge following the scent of her fish bucket. The was pretty cute, especially with the happy, dopey smiles on the Pokémon's faces, but why the crowd seemed to get so excited over just the Spheals rolling the Cadet would probably never know.

Once they were close enough to Ace and the targets, Frisk nudged the Spheals back into the water and left them in the Cadet's care. "Here we go!" he said, mostly to himself, as he dangled a fish above the first target.

The first Spheal popped up out of the fountain where it'd been submerged and fired it's Water Gun at the target while it was airborne. It was a classic bullseye shape, but as long as the Pokémon hit the target that would be good enough for the first time trainers, no matter how far from the center the shot was. Thankfully, Glenn had good aim. Oh, wait, maybe that's Happy? It was a bit hard to tell in motion when they all looked so similar to each other.

Either way the move hit it's mark and the Spheal splashed back down into the water. It held it's face above the surface, mouth open and eagerly awaiting it's prize, which the Cadet tossed to it. The next few minutes followed that pattern: a Spheal would pop itself into the air and shoot the designated target, earning a cheer from the crowd and a fish from the Cadet before it sunk back down and waited for another turn. The targets gradually got smaller and harder to hit, but the Spheals were professionals! Only one Water Gun missed, Dumpy's move dousing the Cadet in frigid water. He was all too glad that he'd managed to find some good winter clothes before this or else he'd freeze, but it was no harm done besides some laughs from the audience. With some luck, maybe they'd think it was part of the show.

It was a good thing that they'd decided to go with Water Gun for this segment, because apparently the Spheals had practiced the same trick with Ice Beam too. There was some other kinda of beam they'd be moving on to as well... after another small break.

"Good job!" the Cadet said, kneeling down to quickly ruffle the fur on the Pokémon's heads as they gathered up again and wobbled their spherical bodies to the beat of the music. "And no hard feelings," he whispered to Dumpy.

They'd soon be going into the finale, if the Cadet remembered their plan correctly. A quick glance over at Frisk confirmed that she'd been setting up a ramp in the mean time, the segment immediately before the end. The same way that Frisk had led the Spheals over to his side before the Cadet mimicked now, slowly leading them along the fountain and letting the crowd get their fill of their rolling along the edge. Really, they went wild over this part for some reason.

The ramp part that they'd gone over in that brief fifteen minutes before the show was deceptively simple. The Spheals would line up near Frisk, and she'd lift them and place them at the top. Then with their Powder Snow, the Spheals would freeze the sturdy ramp as they went down it. It was the trick with the best chance for each Spheal to show off their personalities, while also being the one with the greatest risk of going wrong with the amateur trainers. It was a staple of the show, so they couldn't just leave it out. Fingers crossed!

Dumpy was first, and she happily took Frisk's offer of fish before being hoisted up to the top of the ramp. She swayed there for a moment, eyes closed and happily enjoying the spotlight and the music. The audience waited with baited breath. Then the Spheal tipped forward, rolling head over tail down the ramp toward the water. She picked up speed and soared off the end and into the air, where she waved her flippers around before landing back into the fountain with a splash. The crowd cheered for her, and were clearly excited for the Spheals that would follow.

...wait, was she supposed to freeze it? the Cadet thought, watching off to one side. Maybe Dumpy was first just to show off how the basic ramp worked?

Glenn followed her up, and he did freeze the ramp in front of him before sliding down. The ice extended the ramp slightly, making his jump a little higher, and when he rolled off of it he did the same cute flipper wave as Dumpy and splashed back down. Happy went next, building on Glenn's ramp with a truly intense ice curve, making it into a half-pipe. When she rolled down the angle of her ice sent her straight up - and naturally she landed back on the ramp, completing another roll back to the start. And then again. Sadie waited at the top of the ramp, nestled between Frisk's hands while the audience cheered for the continuous stunt. When Happy's momentum was gone and she finished, she sat dizzy and satisfied in the middle of the ramp until the Cadet waded into the fountain to pick her up after some not-so-subtle gesturing from Sierra. Perhaps a minor hiccup, but nothing Sadie couldn't pull them back from. She unleashed the Powder Snow and froze the ramp into a loop, then wasted no time in throwing herself down it. She zipped through and spun in the air off the jump, barking happily all the way down until she splashed into the water.

And just like that, the hardest parts of the show were over. The Spheals cooled down with another music break, bobbing up and down and eating their rewarded fish for a job well done.

The finale was something that the Spheals had done so many times that Frisk and the Ace Cadet hardly had to do much at all, besides give them a helping hand up to the fountain's middle section. There the Spheals spread out and rolled in a circle around it, stopping only to wave at the audience and do a cute little turn before rolling back the opposite way. The final act saw the Pokémon come to a rolling stop and look into the air for their cue. Ace and Frisk took turns tossing the last of the fish high over the fountain where the four Spheals aimed at it and released their Aurora Beams all together. When the rainbow energy crashed together overhead it was with a burst of beautiful color. The crowd oooh'd and aaaah'd at the light show, mini auroras forming overhead like the name of the move suggested.

The music swelled and cut off with the final fish, the show finishing with a wave of rainbow. The Spheals turned to the audience and clapped their flippers together, once again drawing an applause.

For a moment or two Goldlewis just stood and watched as his new allies dispersed to begin the operation. Raz took off running toward the right side of Main Street with Roxas in tow, while Midna, Sakura, and Karin favored the left. They all moved like they had a plan in mind, even if that plan just happened to amount to ‘idle away time until the Others descend’. That went for Goldlewis too, but how to kill time never came easily to someone as punctual as himself, a man so particular about his schedule that he went as far as to meticulously time each and every one of his fights with the help of his wristwatch.

His eyes roamed over the many businesses and attractions before him, all of them fighting tooth and nail to capture and preserve the attention of the cityfolk who frequented these streets. Even without the ability to see Visions, he got the picture; it was the same in back places like New York City and Las Vegas in America, after all. And here more than anywhere, the old veteran could feel how little he fit in. “I’ll never understand folks nowadays. ‘Specially kids,” he muttered. “All these trends, movin’ a mile a minute. The minute ya jump on the bandwagon, it rolls right outta town. Just tryin’ all this newfangled stuff takes a lot outta me. Last week, I tried somethin’ called a ‘gyoza’ that exploded when I bit it!” He ran his hand through his hair, closing his eyes as he did. “In the army or the government, they kept me too busy to worry about society.” Goldlewis chuckled, shaking his head in resignation. “Bein’ a civvie ain’t easy. How d’ya suppose they all manage it?”

“I guess they just go with the flow.” Peach wished she had an answer, but she couldn’t even call herself an expert on her own world, let alone the mashed-up World of Light. Then again, Goldlewis probably asked that question rhetorically. “Where I’m from, things rarely ever changed. We’d sometimes find new areas or inventions to spice up sports, or to travel to, but looking back on it, the status quo reigned more absolutely than Bowser or I ever did.” She and Goldlewis stepped back, then watched in amazed silence as a young couple passed them by atop a purple, tentacled brain, riding it like a horse. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think any of us will be getting used to Midgar any time soon.” Goldlewis gave a grunt of affirmation, and Peach smiled. “Is there anywhere you want to go around here while we wait?” Her eyes landed on the nearby restaurant. “How about there? ‘Musubi’s’.”

Goldlewis furrowed his brow. “No thanks ma’am, I’m not hungry. In fact, I’d like to stretch my legs.” He turned around toward the apartment complex behind where he parked, referred to as ‘Kong King’ by a plate on the wall. “Let’s give that a try.”

The soldier and the princess moseyed on over. While clearly not the highest-class apartments around, the dwellings here had to be expensive, given their proximity to Suoh’s economic and cultural center. Most Psych-OSF soldiers slept in the citadel’s barracks, and its upper crust could afford far better housing than this, so the movers and shakers of Main Street’s business probably called this place home. Many of those here seemed determined to make use of Kong King’s most notable amenity, as well: the multi-tiered plaza. With its central gazebo, its planters of exotic eye plants, and selectable nature Visions that could turn the whole plaza into a grassy meadow, flower garden, or lush forest, and even an overarching Vision sky, it offered a place of community for the psychic populace fortunate enough to call this otherwise stark apartment complex home.

After wandering around for a few minutes, up and down the flights of stairs in a big, complicated circuit of the plaza’s various levels, Goldlewis parked himself on a bench overlooking the central area. With the Other Forecast fewer people were around than usual, although even on a good day Goldlewis knew that the sight of children playing would be a rare one. “Kids get sent over to Gutsford at an early age for safety,” he told Peach once the princess sat down beside him. “The Extinction Belt don’t go up that far, and Gates rarely ever open. So Midgar acts as one big shield between the Ever Crisis and the li’l ones.”

“Hmm.” Peach watched a man with a goatee jog past with his dog, which looked like a Golden Retriever but, judging by his curly tail and white socks, had to be a mix. “Well, that’s just what everyone’s made to believe, right? By Galeem, or…whatever. Since the World of Light has only existed for two months.”

Goldlewis blinked. “Huh? How d’you reckon?”

For a moment his response left Peach taken aback. “Well…I only have memories in the World of Light going back two months.” She stared into the old man’s eyes. “Isn’t it the same for you?”

Slowly, Goldlewis shook his head. “It’s hard to remember exactly, but…I’m pretty sure I’ve been in Midgar for the better part of…three years.”

Before the princess could fully process that statement, an unfamiliar voice from in front of her drew her attention. “Excuse me!” She and her new ally looked forward at the same time and saw a teenager standing there, his group of friends a little farther off. “You’re Mr. Goldlewis Dickinson, right? The Secretary of Absolute Defense!”

“Y-yeah, that’s me,” Goldlewis replied after a moment, surprised yet again in the span of only a few moments. “What can I do for ya, son?”

“Oh, nothing! We were just hanging out in my apartment, and I happened to see you down here, and then…” The boy waved his hands, only to realize that yes, he did in fact want something, and held up a finger as he reached into his backpack. “Oh! I mean, if you don’t mind, could you sign this?” He held up a large red sleeve with a rock-and-roll design, holding a big black vinyl disc inside it. “I’m a huge fan! Got your LP back when Vernon was in office!”

Just a tiny bit bashful, Goldlewis gave Peach an apologetic glance, then pulled out a pen. “Sure thing, son. I ain't with the government anymore, but anyone who likes the classics is good in my book!”

Little did he know, doing that opened the floodgates. The boy’s friends and a few random pedestrians crowded around, full of excitement for the unmistakable man whose distinctive appearance, character, and achievements once earned him the popularity of a hero.

“Oh, Mr. Goldlewis, can I get a selfie with you?”

“Is that THE coffin? The one with an alien inside!”

“Please sign my hat! A-and my baseball!”

“Can you say one of your famous lines? Give us a ‘down with the system’!”

“Whoa, whoa!” Goldlewis leaned back, his hands held up in surrender. “Did I really say it that often…? And that ain’t an alien, by the way! In fact, it’s still classified, so I can’t tell y’all nothin’!”

A new, louder voice cut through the commotion. “Mr. Dickinson!” It belonged to a quad-rotor drone, zipping down from above, and the voice that issued from the machine sounded composed and professional, like a newscaster. “If it isn’t Goldlewis Dickinson, the former Secretary of State! What brings you to Suoh today, of all places!”

“A damn Crow,” the veteran grumbled under his breath before replying. “I’m just on vacation! Ain’t a man entitled to a little privacy?”

The drone did not budge one inch. “Of course, of course! And yet, you are no ordinary man. The first active-duty soldier to become the Secretary of Defense in Midgar history, more popular than even the president at that time, Vernon Groubitz. The man who’s personally aided Psych-OSF and Desperado in the field on more than one occasion, saving countless lives! But what is the illustrious ‘Secretary of Absolute Defense’ doing nowadays? What are your thoughts on the Administration that replaced yours? In what direction do you think Midgar is heading?”

As Goldlewis searched for the right words to defuse the situation, the people around him suddenly flinched, looking in all directions. The next moment, an alarm rang out through Suoh. BOO-WOM! BOO-WOM! BOO-WOM! In a flash the citizens were on the move, yelling and screaming as they fled. Goldlewis heaved a sigh. “Perfect timin’.” He then stood up in a hurry and raised his voice. “Other Alert!” he barked. “All of ya, get to the nearest shelter on the double! Move, move, move!”

Peach had jumped to her feet as well. “It’s happening, right?” she asked, scanning the sky. “What do we do?”

Goldlewis grabbed his coffin’s chain and hoisted the whole thing over his shoulder. “You’re comin’ with me. We got some business to attend to.”

---

Within two minutes, they fell. Specks became visible up above, falling from the Extinction Belt above Sector 3 until they got big enough that even those on the ground could make them out. What appeared to be giant peach pits hurtled down toward the city like meteorites, getting closer and closer.

“...Fire!”

At the signal, the army trucks deployed from the hangars of the Otherlobe unleashed the missiles stored in the defense systems on their backs. The rockets ascended skyward en masse in a mountain of billowing smoke to intercept the Other pods before they hit the ground, destroying up to half of the monsters before they even got a chance to pose a threat. The pods that made it through, however, cracked open to jettison their bizarre contents down into the city below. With their mission accomplished, the rank-and-file defenders pulled back, and the available Scarlet Guardians moved in.

On the opposite end of main street, Yuito, Nagi, Naomi, and Kasane had burst from Musubi’s to set up a perimeter so that the other patrons could escape to the nearest shelter. All of the Visions in the area had turned into flashing alerts, urging the population to take cover. Most of the populace, more or less used to alerts like these, had already made it to safety, but here and there strokes of misfortune meant a few stragglers had fallen, been trapped, or gotten left behind, and when the Others hit the ground, the panic only grew.

These creatures were like nothing Peach had ever seen, and just looking at them made even Goldlewis’ skin crawl. They were truly alien, in that they looked like animate amalgamations of plant, animal, and object, moving in ways too unnatural to be called ‘bestial’. Bile Pools oozed around like bulbous slugs, the light bulbs atop their greenery lurching around in search of prey to batter with blasts of water. In tandem, Plateau Pendus hunted on wings of fencing, leering with doorknob heads as the green gloves of their inverted mannequin bodies dangled beneath them. Their electric bolts would ensure that any hapless civilian soaked by a Bile Pool would be paralyzed long enough for their brains to be devoured. Ungainly Buddy Rummies tottered around in groups, the torn-off arms of their comrades wielded as weapons to gather food for the fungal mouths on their chests. Worst of all, Vase Paws stalked around in packs, the bells on their spinal tails jingling as they searched for humans to dispatch with vicious, high-power kicks from their ruby-red heels.

“You two hurry and link up with your platoon!” Kasane told Yuito and Nagi.

“We can’t just leave these people. Nagi, let’s go!” The two boys took off running, the former using psychokinesis to draw his katana while the latter lifted bladed chakrams with aerokinesis. They closed in on a Vase Paws moving in for the kill.

“Kasane, they’re coming from above!” Naomi called, apropos of nothing. A moment later, two Buddy Rummies jumped off the nearby building to drop on the girls. They landed on the trap Naomi laid for them and were blown off balance. Kasane charged, surrounded by dancing blades held aloft by her own psychokinesis, and finished them off.

Goldlewis gritted his teeth as Others noticed him. “Heads up!” he called to peach, directing his attention to the three Bile Pools and two Plateau Pendus headed their way. Farther down the sidestreet, a man was trapped in his car as four Buddy Rummies surrounded it. “I’ll hold ‘em off, go!”





Giovanna rather casually leaned against the railing that overlooked the extremely lethal fall to Quarantine Valley as the others shared their thoughts. Her mention of gangs in the area naturally piqued the interest of her new crew, and considering how much easier it would be to get around via the sky-lines rather than these smoke-tinged streets, finding some ne’er-do-wells that nobody gave a rat’s ass about to furnish the Seekers’ sky-hooks made sense. Raiden was on board with that plan, but he also seemingly itched to scrap some Machines. While nobody could object to an offensive against those artificial adversaries in principle, in practice it was another matter, especially considering the team’s current situation as Benedict helpfully -and curtly- pointed out.

The Turk did take the first chance he got for a metaphoric sniper shot against Giovanna, though. Rather than rise to the provocation, however, the secret agent just let the words roll off her back. “If you got some kind of problem with the SOU, you’d be better off telling Dickinson,” she said with a shrug. “I’m just a trigger. Gonna take a lot to heat up cold metal like me.”

As Blazermate and Susie described what they wanted out of today’s visit here, whether or not that related to the mission, Giovanna snapped her fingers. “Oh, that reminds me. One tricky little detail.” She pointed a finger at all three of the team’s female robots, using the index and pinky of her right hand to do so. “The gridLinks you got back at base won’t cut it if we run into any actual security. Robots aren’t people in Midgar, but they still need a way to ID you, because of the Machines. Gotta have a way to tell friend from foe, right? So everything gets an LED, white for military hardware like DespoRHado’s androids and Unmanned Gear, blue for commercial androids.” She brought up a glyph to display a map of the current area. “So before you go anywhere, visit the Solid Waste Landfill nearby. People dump their scrap there, so there’s bound to be some functional LEDs. Just scan it with the gridLink you got and it’ll transfer everything over, then put it on your temple.” She shrugged again. “I’m pretty sure that’s right.”

No sooner did she finish with that advice than Geralt turned toward her for some. “Should be possible,” she told him. “They say the Hermits started in Quarantine Valley as hackers, but when new leadership took over they expanded out into the city. Got more aggressive, too.” Giovanna peered around the nearby streets. “I’d be more surprised if there weren’t any in Sector 8.”

Tora spoke up at that point. “Before we go to war, friends should take time and figure out what working with, meh. Learn ins and outs of new place, and who better for help than streetwise Hermits? Tora vote search for hackypons!” He took one more look down at ‘Sector 9’ and shivered in the chill wind that blew across the forlorn, rusted rooftops. “Up here though, not in Redshift Valley. Plus, this Tora chance to study city tech!”

“Kay then. The three bots plus Tora to the landfill for LEDS, then either the Limb Clinic or Android Zone, sounds like.” She pointed out the facilities to the four, both within easy walking distance of the train station. “While the rest of us look go make some friends.” She, Raiden, Geralt, and Benedict set off, quickly discarding the electronic avenues in favor of claustrophobic side-streets and grimy lots enclosed by building walls and chain-link fences, like prison yards. Barely a hundred feet deeper in from the undercity’s well-traveled public roadways, its smooth, futuristic alloy facade became brick, mortar, iron, and concrete. For a ways it still seemed livable, but after the squad went down a warmly-lit street and took a turn, their surroundings downgraded once again to their base form.

They stopped in a raggedy, graffiti-plastered, pipe-infested alleyway, littered with trash bags piled up against walls like snow drifts. A couple people either laid or drifted around, whether homeless, delirious, semiconscious, or plain old down-on-their-luck. They looked like they could use some help. Giovanna ignored them and summoned Rei, who manifested behind her like a big, green scarf. They began to snoop around. “Finding criminals isn’t hard,” Giovanna said aloud as she and Rei alternatively scanned and sniffed the area. “Like finding a salamander in the jungle. It might seem impossible at first, but if you know which rocks to turn over, it’s only a matter of time. I figure a lot of lowlifes lurk near the train station, trying to catch naive newcomers or unwary commuters. Plus, it’s a quick and easy escape route if you don’t have a car. Places where people come and go in a hurry, you never know what you’ll find…” Producing a small pair of tweezers, she picked up a small plastic sleeve from the garbage and held it up in front of the light. Tiny, faded red crystals could be found within. “...In those liminal spaces.”

She held out the sleeve for Rei to sniff, then looked toward the others. “Red Ice,” she told them, knowing what that meant to Benedict. It was the drug of choice for the city’s dissatisfied underclass in the more techy Sectors especially, being similar to cocaine with an additive of thirium. “Strong, destructive, and addictive. Lots of poor men and women who lose their jobs to machines wind up becoming users. Or even dealers. I’m guessing someone got a fresh load and couldn’t wait to get home to help themselves.” Rei barked and began to move, snaking through the air down the alley toward the set of stairs that led back up to a second level along the street. “Let’s take a look.”

Rei led the team through a series of balconies and catwalks that ran throughout the area’s second story, between and through clusters of buildings. The locals watched them with unmasked suspicion, caring very little for their odd mixture of semi-professional attire, medieval armor, and cyborg components. At one point just after they passed beneath a third-story sky-line, a handful of hoodlums hurtled along beneath it with the aid of sky-hooks, and headed from the direction Rei indicated, too. Just over a minute later, the team wound up across the street from an abandoned three-story tenement on a corner that jutted out into and towered over a basketball court. A handful of lookouts lurked around what looked like a reinforced entrance at street level, further protected by that dead being closed off by barriers in case of inter-gang aggression, but Giovanna could see holes in the roof from here. She pointed up toward the alternative entrance, then with Rei summoned alongside her, took a running jump over the steamy manholes and beneath the unlit street lamps of the fortified lane. Once airdash later, she landed deftly on a protruding AC unit, mantled onto a pipe, and climbed onto a fire escape with which to make her ascent. If the others did not possess the agility to follow her example, they could find another route.

Once at their destination and ready for battle, the Seekers prepared to attack. From the roof Giovanna could see a number of Hoodlum Dolls, strewn all around their hideout. The whole tenement had been gutted, with the central area wide-open, so she got a good view. Gang members with knives, crowbars, bats, and a few pistols lounged around, making sure to look extra intimidating for the addicts trying to make a purchase from a stash carrier on the bottom floor, while a stash vehicle rested nearby. Plenty of sky-hooks were in evidence, which seemed to garner more of Giovanna’s attention than the weapons–a testament to her confidence. At her signal, the four dropped down and burst onto the scene.

---

Tora’s fantasy of poring through a smorgasbord of unwanted mechanical marvels got swiftly crushed under the cruel weight of reality once he and the ladies arrived at the Solid Waste Landfill. Instead he found a big, muddy pit ringed by construction amongst the downtown buildings of Detroit. A heavy-duty lifter sat on the brink of the dump, using its claws to shovel the contents of an adjacent reclamation truck into the mire, but instead of everyday garbage this morass contained the junk of countless machines. For a moment it looked to the horrified Nopon that a number of people lay within the dump as well, sprawled out and often dismembered, but after a quick look with her optics Poppi reassured him that they were just humanoid machines, probably the androids that the SOU mentioned. Still she herself could not quite overcome a feeling of intense dread that permeated her; being an artificial lifeform herself, she looked at this place as something even more macabre than a mass grave.

Still, their mission demanded that they descend. Tora reached the tail end of the street, jumped off the jagged edge, and slid down the dusty, scrap-littered incline. Once at the bottom, he looked around the heaps of dirt and discarded metal, big enough to form mountains and canyons throughout the area. As Poppi flew down after him he waddled up to the upper half of an android husk reclined against a filthy pile of its brethren, most of its valuable components gouged and and picked clean. Even its Thirium blood had been drained by some opportunistic salvager, leaving dry blue streaks across its hacked-up chassis. Higher up in the pile, the body of a Side Kicky dangled limply from where it had fallen onto a spike of rebar, the one big, blue eye that remained in its head smashed. The head of another medabot corpse seemed to stare at him, despite its cranium being caved in by some sort of heavy impact. Many other trashed robots and their parts came to rest here, including a number of pierces that undoubtedly belonged to the Machines themselves, possibly taken from the battlefields where they waged war with DespoRHado outside the city.

Noticing how uncomfortable this place made Poppi, in addition to how uneasy it made him, Tora wasted no time using his wrench to pry functional LEDs from the heads of dead robots around him. He could learn few lessons from this place, and none were the ones he wanted. Once he collected enough components for his team, he and Poppi beat a hasty retreat.

On the way back toward the Limb Clinic, Tora spotted another of the shops mentioned by Giovanna: Android Zone. He and Poppi, with the military-grade LED newly plugged into her right temple, entered to find a pristine white store full of all the latest lifelike android models on display. Some looked like normal, everyday people, while others seemed rather fantastical. Poppi almost immediately caught her Masterpon ogling some of the more elegant and alluring designs, prompting her to push him toward the clunkier-looking units. While he looked around, examining and reading whatever he could, Poppi went to wait at the main counter. After a staff member finished helping a man in green retrieve a KARA-type android that had been in for repairs, she met Poppi face-to-face. “What do you need?” she said, the professional smile she wore before replaced by a brusque neutrality.

Poppi smiled at the employee anyway. “Hello. I would like to ask about where these machines come from.”

“Come from?” The question seemed to take the woman by surprise. “You mean the manufacturer, Cyberlife? Wouldn’t you already have all the information your owner might need about it?”

Poppi shook her head. “No…” Given the false identity provided by SOU’s technical contact that now circulated within her LED, she knew that she couldn’t say that she didn’t come from Cyberlife herself. “Due to a technical error, I lost most of my stored information. My owner says he’s sorry. Can you tell me more about Cyberlife and its workings?”

“N-no?” the employee scoffed, her brows furrowed in incredulity. “If you’re defective or your owner tampered with you, we can deactivate you and ship you off for repair, but we can’t help you when it comes to anything else about Cyberlife. Everything there is to know about them should be available online, however.” Though she kept her tone gentle, the lady began to look impatient. Her expression said why didn’t you just do that from the start? “Who is your owner, anyway? Is he here?”

Poppi was beginning to feel a little impatient herself. “I have a Masterpon, not an owner. Sorry to waste your time, I’ll just be on my way.” With a final sidelong glance Poppi stalked out of Android Zone, stopping only to grab Tora by the wing, then drag him away from the female androids and out of the store onto the streets of Detroit.



“Whew!” Nadia took a deep breath and leaned back, stretching. “That wasn’t so bad. We’re really cuttin’ through these little abominations.” She happily pocketed the nickel that appeared in the room with the Hosts before either Sectonia or Omori got the chance, then began the trip back to the start. The weight of even a little money in her pocket made a lot of difference when it came to her mood; maybe this was the first sign that her luck was starting to change. Still, in this nightmarish place a little windfall could only elate her so much. “Three dead ends in a row, though,” she griped. Her new teams’ efforts got the Seekers no closer at all to the next floor. Instead they’d just been mopping up all the fleshy little fiends that dwelled in these caves’ alcoves and byways, like some kind of demented viscera cleanup detail. “Plus, we’re still dirt poor! Aren’t dungeons supposed to be filled with riches? Where are all the sparkly jewels? The priceless heirlooms?” She stopped in front of a fungus-ridden corpse crawling with maggots, grimace, and skirted around. “Huh, at least the maggots are eatin’ good. In fact, they’re spoiled rotten!”

On the way, Nadia suddenly realized something she’d been wondering since the fight with the Knights, which was why her new bauble didn’t seem to work the way Sectonia said it should, at least all the time. The answer suddenly dawned on her: she fought in a side-facing stance, so of course a light that shone in the direction of her torso would miss any foes in front of her. Plus, the more she looked at it, the less sure she felt about it being a gemstone of some kind. “Great purr-chase you turned out to be,” she grumbled, tapping the Night Light with her claw.

The team reunited in the northernmost chamber of the Caves, where Jesse and Therion’s own series of skirmishes just came to an end. Everyone seemed okay, no life-threatening injuries or grievous mutations immediately apparent as Nadia looked around. And wouldn’t you know it, there it was: another ominously-decorated boss door off to the west, wide open and ready to accommodate any would-be challengers. “We all made it!” she exclaimed. “Not that I doubted ya. But if your rooms turned out anythin’ like ours, we had a harder time even with fewer enemies. Next floor’s bound to be even tougher.” The cat burglar’s shoulders slumped down she let her her head loll to the side. “Ohh, we still don’t even know how deep this goes. This place is gettin’ ‘under’ my skin!”

Before they could think about the next floor, however, they needed to confront the final challenge of this one. While the others caught their breath, deliberated, and shared any tips they’d uncovered on their rampage through the Caves, Nadia happened to notice some movement by the door in the corner of her eye. When she looked over her brows shot up in surprise at the sight of the bug knight moving toward the gateway with a purposeful stride. So far the silent swordfighter had been content to follow Omori around, but now it seemed intent on tackling the biggest challenge in this place so far both head-on and all by itself. “Hey, wait a sec!” Before she could take action, or even decide if she wanted to, the Knight stepped inside. Nadia got a split-second glimpse at a towering heap of guts before the gates slammed shut to bar the way.

“Oh.” Nadia glanced at the others, shrugged, and jogged toward the door. She pressed her ear up against it to listen, and what greeted her was a near-constant barrage of swiping sounds, each punctuated by the wet shlorp of meat torn asunder. Monstrous coughing and the muffled buzz of oversized flies cropped up here and there, but only once or twice did the onslaught ever cease. After less than a minute, she heard a loud, meaty blast, and the door popped open, so suddenly that Nadia toppled over into the room. In front of her lay Gurdy’s head, dissolving into ash, and she recoiled from the smears of blood around it. In the center of the chamber stood the Knight, using a portion of its accumulated Soul to heal. Above a plinth floated a set of soft periwinkle garments, a new trapdoor could be soon on the floor, and behind the Knight lay a door with a pitch-black frame, adorned by the head of a goat. Within, a satanic statue watched over an item on the floor, a creepy head wreathed in a wheel of crimson flame, and like the shops encountered before it featured a price carved into the floor below it. Rather than money, however, it demanded health.

From her position, though, Nadia could only see the immediate room, the reward, and the very capable fighter that won it. “Well, aren’t you the cat’s pajamas?” she said, impressed. “Not this cat’s though, they’re all yours. Good work!” The Knight nodded and took the PJs, which immediately appeared on its body beneath its cape, with no other visual changes. Curious, Nadia headed over to take a peek inside the dark room, but what she saw made her fur stand on end. “It’s a demon!” Between that and the flat-out scary item in front of it, she backpedaled super hard. “Nope, nope, nope! Not messin’ with that!” She went over to the hatch, through which the knight had already descended. “See ya on the other side!”

Things did not get better on the next floor. Nadia joined her masked companion inside an even darker, drearier labyrinth, free from the nauseating odors of either the Basement or Caves, but somehow even more dreadful and grim. This ancient, crumbling ruin, replete with strange and unnerving bas-reliefs, possessed a fearfully primeval quality, as if chiseled by inhuman hands in some antediluvian era. It reminded the feral of the catacombs beneath the Cathedral of the Trinity, only worse, and that realization chilled her. That, and the atmosphere itself. Instead of stuffy, musty, and overgrown it felt cold, desolate and long-abandoned. Still, Nadia rather expected to find plenty more horrors here, and worse ones than those that came before. First filth, then rot, and now…death.





Silitha’s meteoric descent scattered the Seekers, their defenses, and their minions, and though she took a few puncture wounds from Bowser’s spikes in the process, the Brood Mother’s onslaught continued. When she warped off to the side, she got a satisfyingly good view of her handiwork. While the Koopa King wasn’t so easily squashed, the others had all been either thrown or knocked to the ground, and that meddlesome wizard Rubick took a direct hit that left him cratered in the dirt. Coarse laughter, scratchy as nails on a chalkboard, rang out before she moved in to make sure the biggest threat wouldn’t escape unscathed. Bowser was not the sitting duck that he appeared to be, however, and before her mantis-like forelimbs could test their serrations against her target’s scales, he leaped into the air, where he stuck fast in the strong, wiry webs of Silitha’s innumerable spawn.

With the defenders’ formation broken and prey freshly caught in their nets, the small spiders surged ravenously forward, but their foes knew better than to forget about them. Bowser hammered them with exoskeleton-rattling sound, while Primrose’s flames scoured the arachnids too eager for a bite to eat. Once Kamek’s entourage regrouped to pick up the slack, defending Rubick as best they could in the process, the star players still on their feet could give Silitha the attention she was due. The many-legged monstrosity boldly charged into Bowser’s flame, weathering the burn long enough to deliver a titanic one-two punch with her forelimbs, then laid into him with faster, weaker blows like he was a scaly speed bag. Rika and Junior hurried over to help as the Troop’s leader got turned upside-down. Their combined sorcery and gunfire plus the painful burns convinced Silitha to teleport again, this time on the opposite side of Bowser, at which point she reached her arms up to grab him. At that point she pulled him in for a giant spider bite, just as he feared, but in the nick of time Kamek’s barrier appeared. Silitha hissed as her jaws closed around a Koopa King as hard as rock, and she threw him away with all haste, though that didn’t hurt him much either.

Spinning quickly, she lashed out at the other flies buzzing around her, but thanks to Primrose’s dance the spider’s heavy blows barely left a scratch. Aghast and not sure what to do, Silitha teleported away again, appearing hundreds of feet away. Her options appeared to be limited, however, for after she composed herself the Brood Mother teleported above Primrose, hoping to lay low her enemies’ support the same way she did their sorcerer. After that she rampaged toward Rika and Junior, slamming away at them like whack-a-moles. This pattern of warp out, warp drop, attack, warp out, warp drop, attack would continue without variation–until the Seekers whittled her down to half health. At that point Silitha shrieked, and six-eyed Deephunters the size of dogs appeared from the backdrop. While their smaller kin shied away, the Deephunters spat globules of fiery venom through the air, quickly dealing heavy damage to any ignorant Seekers who stayed in one place too long.



In the end, the show went even better than Sierra, in all her endless optimism where random, untrained volunteers were concerned, could have either expected or hoped. Ace and Frisk both gave it their all, and if they stumbled at all the crowd barely seemed to care; they were here for cute Spheals doing cute things, after all, and All Round more than delivered. Clumsiness was practically part of the charm. Sierra kept the audience excited and attentive as her helpers went about their business, hyping up tricks with cheers of praise and encouragement, or offering fun facts about these ponderous Pokemon when the trainers needed a moment for setup. They pulled off routine after charming routine, and whether the Spheals rallied Pokemon-colored balls, balanced atop one another, water gunned down the targets, tricked off the ramp,instigated aurora borealis, or just vibed to the music, the crowd ate it up. Oohs, awws, and uproarious applause filled the plaza when the show came to an end, with the only disappointment being that it was over too soon.

“One more time, let’s give it up for our stellar squishes, our sensational sillies, the heart and soul of All Round, Glenn, Dumpy, Happy, and Sadie!” The people obliged Sierra as she directed her Avalugg over to the front of the fountain, in which the four Spheals were waving at their adoring fans like the superstars they were. Being too small to help either of them, Sierra could only beckon to her trainers to join her up on her animate iceberg, offering them their own icy stage for both the audience at the security detail to see. “And let’s give another big hand to our talented trainers, too! Would you believe this is they’re first time?” A chorus of cheers resounded, and together the three took a boy. “Thank you for coming, everyone! If you enjoyed the performance, please feel free to show the Aether Foundation some support, so they can keep funding more spectacular shows just like this one! See you next time, everyone!”

After the show finished, a bunch of fans swarmed the fountain, eager to stroke, scratch, and feed the Spheals for themselves. With no disturbances of any kind throughout the performance, much to his relief, Band moved in toward the fountain to keep a closer eye on the meet-and-greet, and his fellow guard Lucia did the same. They kept a close eye on everyone who came up to meet the Pokemon in person, but most of them were children, and none gave any sign of ill intent. A few parents and miscellaneous fans crowded around Sierra, full of praise and questions, whether about All Around, Pokemon shows, Pokemon handling in general, or the Aether Foundation and how to show their support for delightful events like these. Ace and Frisk, meanwhile, got a chance to sit back by a portable heat lamp and rest while warming the fingers numbed by constant fish handling in the cold.

Several minutes later, with most of the remaining spectators dispersed, Sierra made her way over to the fountain. “All right, all right!” she told the red-faced youngsters. “Our Spheals love you guys, each and every one, but they’re tired from the show and need a nice, long nap. Plus, they’re so stuffed full of fish, they’ve gone all round!”

One of the kids, a young blonde boy in glasses, looked affronted. “What do you mean, they’re always round!” he corrected her in a nasally voice.

“Ahah, you got me!” Sierra wagged a finger at him. “You really know your Spheals, dude! For real though, it’s time to pack up. See you next time!”

Reluctantly the kids moved on. Band chuckled as he watched them go, then lent a big, brass hand to help carry the spheals to their cushion-lined cages in the back of Sierra’s van. “Gotta say, little lady. Ya put on a damn good Spheal show.”

“Thanks!” One by one Sadie toweled the Spheals off, then installed them in their cages with a pat on the head apiece. “Wouldn’t have been possible without you guys, though. With that finished and all the doors closed, she sat herself on the vehicle’s rear bumper, letting off a big, misty sigh of relief. “Hwah! Man, I’m beat. There wasn’t any trouble, right?”

Lucia shook her head. “Not a peep. No pickpockets, poachahs, nothin’.”

Sierra leaned back against the rear doors, allowing her tired eyes to slide shut. “What a relief. I honestly didn’t think there would be, but if any actual Spheal poachers showed up, I would’ve lost all my faith in humanity. Stick a fork in me, I’m done, you know?” She clapped her hands on her knees. “Still, even if it was for nothing, I’m glad you all kept an eye out. The Aether Foundation…well, it’s not the most popular company in town. Some people have real issues with our shelters. So, someone trying to hurt the Aether Foundation by targeting All Round...not that farfetched, if you ask me. I kinda feel like these shows were approved just in the hopes of boosting our public image. But training and taking care of these guys is my passion, and I’m going to keep working as hard as I can to make this cold, bleak city of ours a brighter place.”

“You got a good heaht, miss,” Lucia told her. “...I feel bad sayin’ what I planned ta now, ‘cause I don’ wanna bahst yah bubble, but the postahs mentioned a rewahd, yeah?” She shrugged, her hands held up as if the question couldn’t be helped. “We’ah really shoaht on cash right now, is oall.”

“Oh…!” Sierra paused only a moment, but that was enough for the shoe to drop for Band. Sure enough, her paltry attempt at a poker face turned into a wince. “I’m, uh, really sorry, but I don’t…actually have the money right now. My crew’s paid in a lump sum at the end of each show week according to overall performance. In fact, the analyst should be around here somewhere…” She scooted off the bumper and onto her feet, sidling off as she looked around the area. “Where, where…ah!” She turned toward the group and held out a hand toward another woman in white. “Here she comes now!” Then, in a loud whisper. “Better cross your fingers for good news, ahaha…”

After a moment, the senior Aether Foundation employee joined the group, a pleasant smile on her face. She wore gold-accented white clothing much like Sierra did, albeit in the form of a shawl, skirt, and thigh-high boots. A thick pink turtleneck sweater matched his big pink glasses, and her mauve hair boasted both impressive volume and height. Her bright green eyes lingered on Frisk; the two seemed to possess a similar energy, almost motherly in nature.

“Good afternoon,” she greeted them. “You must be our darling Sierra’s hired help, then? A pleasure to meet you!” She gave her coworker a warm smile. “I’m so glad you managed to find some substitutes after all, dear! And they did quite well, considering its their first time. I have all the analytics right here.” The lady held up her tablet and took a deep breath for a thorough explanation of how things went, but second-guessed herself and waved the numbers off. “Oh, but I don’t want to bore you all. My name is Wicke, by the way.” The Aether Foundation analyst put one hand on her hip as if posing for a photo. “I won’t waste your time with quibbles, I’m sure you’re eager to receive your pay. I can handle it in Sierra’s stead, but I’ll need to crunch some numbers before I write your checks.” She put a finger to her smiling lips, thinking. “Why don’t I treat you all to a nice cup of hot cocoa at the nearest ROSE? You’ll drive us, won’t you Sierra dear? But let’s hurry, it’s cold outside~!”

With no other choice if Band wanted to cash in on an easy job well done, and no reason to be suspicious, the detective cast one last wary glance over his shoulder for any sign of EMPD personnel before taking Wicke up on her offer. With Sierra behind the wheel of the van, Ace could take shotgun with all his equipment, and Red squeezed into the middle of the back seats between Frisk and Wicke. Lucia didn’t mind riding in the back of the van with the Spheals, whose soft snores the passengers could hear through a grate in the separating wall. Band followed behind, sliding smoothly along the snow-dusted street after the vehicle with a stream of jazz in his wake.

A few minutes later, the van came to a stop at Dessert Shop ROSE, a warm and pleasant-smelling bakery where the magic of a pink-haired witch fueled the creation of pastries, chocolates, and other confections of all kinds. Sierra bid the team farewell to take the Spheals home, leaving them in the capable hands of Wicke for their rewards.



The afternoon sun shone through a blue sky dotted by vast, voluminous upon the shingles, timbers, and battlements of a bustling medieval town, livelier than usual. After all, it was Saturday, and for the inhabitants of Lumbridge that meant the exact opposite of a day of leisure. Townsfolks and adventurers alike ran back and forth, each with at least a dozen tasks in mind and only a scant few hours left in the day to check everything off their lists. The outposts, camps, and other staging grounds built around the Land of Adventure throughout the week needed to come down, their equipment and supplies salvaged for use in the coming seven days. With any troublesome monsters cleared out by hunters over the course of the last few days, it was all hands on deck to make the most of this iteration. Field teams arrived to the town one by one, laden with all the loot they could safely carry back to home base from the dungeons, forts, mineshafts, and other such points of interest. Valuables, materials, foodstuffs, spirits–they all got handed off to the citizens for sorting, itemization and distribution through Lumbridge, while the weary adventurers who procured the goods on behalf of the Guild took the records of their achievements with them as they returned back to base for their wages and a hard-earned feast.

In a few hours, as dusk began to gather, most would be sharing stories of this cycle’s exploits over plentiful food and drink. WThe menus of Lumbridge’s eateries and canteens never grew stale, for each week offered a brand-new assortment of ingredients to supplement with the crops and livestock grown within the settlement’s boundaries. Life here was a whirlwind rich with adventure, danger and opportunity going hand in hand, with every week a brave new world of unknowns and possibilities. This ever-changing reality offered its hardships, of course, but as long as the people here -from the most legendary heroes to the most ordinary millers and potters- worked together, there seemed to be nothing they could not achieve. And once the sun set and the sky grew dark, alight with the twinkling of countless distant galaxies and worlds beyond measure, those who wished to could gather at Lumbridge’s borders with their chairs, blankets, and lanterns, and in awed silence watch a realm unravel and woven anew before their very eyes, knowing that even as everything changed, the bonds they forged would remain the same.

On the parapets of the Guild Castle rooftop rest a lone figure, watching the wagons of plunder roll hither and thither, the excited shouts of adventurers gearing up for one last run, and the laughter of squealing youngsters underfoot whose eyes shone with wonder at all the new stuff brought in to enrich their home. The observer reclined comfortably in his fine chair, the spiky, black-scaled tail that protruded from his armor coiled around one of its legs. He slouched, languid, with his elbow on the arm of his seat, occasionally sipping from the glass of red liquor that sat on the table beside his seat next to his helmet, which with its horns and fangs almost seemed to glare balefully down at the townspeople. The Consul’s face, however, was one of faint amusement as he idly tossed a palm-sized cube up and down. As if someone who’d painstakingly erected a house of cards before him was a mere moment away from its completion, oblivious to the errant gust of wind just about to blow his way.

When the rooftop door behind him swung open, the Consul turned a sidelong glance in that direction, and his smile only grew. A familiar figure approached with his cape billowing in the winds of change, too tall to be mistaken for anyone else with a similar taste in armor. “How interesting,” he remarked, his voice curt and acerbic. “A visit in person? You must be infatuated to flatter me so.”

“What are you doing here, M?” S asked, his own tone devoid of humor.

M narrowed his eyes, an unfriendly smile on his lips. “Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow? This happens to be my territory, in case you’ve been meddling around so much you’ve forgotten. Did you know that these fools made a road all the way to the Hamlet, honestly believing that a link to Lumbridge would prevent its re-generation? What a laugh!” He looked again at the villagers below, then slumped down in his chair with a sigh. “Ugh. It really has gotten nauseatingly boring around here. So here I am to set things straight. You wanted as much, yes?”

“M, I beg of you,” S drawled, putting every ounce of tiredness he felt into that word. “Speak plainly. Perhaps it slipped your notice, but I have expressly avoided so much as a singular utterance to you for quite some time.”

At that, M snickered. “Oh, but I can take a hint. F was kind enough to stop by and tell me about the meeting with everyone. The way you talked about me, it almost sounded like you thought I wasn’t doing my job.” He feigned sounding hurt. Unconvincingly. “So I simply thought, what better than to clean up one of my partner’s messes for him? Think of it as a gift.” His gaze returned to the people of Lumbridge. “A fresh start, if you will.”

S looked down as well, but not at the people. The eyes inside his helmet settled on the object in M’s palm. It was a chiseled cube of sleek black obsidian, emblazoned with gold in a distinctive shape plus an inlaid fragment of diamond on each of its four sides. He took in a sharp breath, and his eyes narrowed. “The World Anchor.”

“Mmhmm~” M tossed it again, then caught it. “I knew you put it here, but I didn’t mind since that just meant more subjects for me. But it turned out to be a snoozefest, and we can do better than that, can’t we?”

“Why? Our enemies have no reason to return here, and the people aren’t freed. There’s no benefit. You’re…not even going to harvest their lifelight?”

M’s brows rose. “Oh, how bloodthirsty! That didn’t occur to me. And here I thought you were a feckless wastrel, more interested in playing with heroes than serving your purpose.” He stood and put the World Anchor away. “Oh, don’t you worry about giving me any ideas, I’m just kidding. I’ve already mostly drained the Clock most of the way. Not bad for a peacetime colony, too, must’ve been some big monsters out there this week. We won’t lose much, and it’s more than worth what we’ll gain when the clock strikes midnight! All those gnats, preening with arrogance…I can hardly wait for them to see all they hold dear evaporate before them. What a sublime moment it will be!”

Green wings unfurled from his back as he rose up to clasp S around the shoulder. “You’ll stay here to watch the fireworks with me too, right? ‘Parter’? I know we haven’t always seen, heheh, eye to eye, but let’s not dwell on the past, hmm? Why not enjoy this as the start of a brand new chapter in our friendship!” S said nothing, his eyes dark, and after a moment M shook him by the shoulder. “Hey now, why the hesitation? You haven’t gotten attached to these worms or anything, have you? That’s not very cash money of you, S. Your hands are stained, black as pitch. After all, you’re Moebius, just like the rest of us.t” His mockingly jovial voice dropped to a whisper as he leaned in close. “Or did you not wish for the endless now?”

“Hmph!” S tilted his head away as he pushed away from M. “Questioning my loyalty is a buffoonish jape even for you. Our newfound initiative against the new heroes is my handiwork, after all. These people are…nothing…to me.” He dismissively flipped his hand at Lumbridge, his voice bitter. “I only ever selected Lumbridge for edification in the first place in an effort to do your job for you, since you prefer wanton murder to proper cultivation. This was clearly a gross mistake, and one I shall endeavor not to repeat. Moebius I may be, but a sadist I am not. There is no purpose in any pretensions between us so long as we do our duties. Do with your fiefdom as…as you please.”

“Aw.” The other Consul landed, a disappointed look on his face. “Well, I think I’ll do just that. It’s true I’ve been slacking off lately, after all. My colonies are infighting; I’ll need to whip ‘em into shape before we visit any of yours.” M put his helmet on, then turned toward S with a mocking bow. “See you on the battlefield?”

But S was already gone.

The two robot ladies, having made some basic plans, were soon told off for them as they needed some extra identification. Blazermate nodded her head at this, saying. "Yeah yeah, makes sense. Same as in my world more or less. Did you know medabots are actually toys where I come from? Crazy right?" Susie meanwhile was angry at this, since she was running a very successful business doing things on a galactic scale. She was brought out of this anger with Blazermate's offhanded comments about herself, actually confused as to what society would have military grade robots like her as TOYS. She'd have to see if she could do business with these people, it could be very lucrative...

Still, with Tora and Poppi, the two girls were directed to the Solid Waste landfill. Tora was happy at first to see new tech, but had his enthusiasm quickly deflated as he saw what was essentially a mass grave for robots. Poppi was just as mortified, if not more so due to being a robot and the two looked very unsettled here. Blazermate herself was a bit creeped out by this place, but it was more akin to someone being creeped out at a graveyard than the dread Poppi was feeling. Susie meanwhile seemed to be disgusted at the sight, but only because this was incredibly wasteful, saying "What a waste of resources..." Apparently the pink haired robot girl didn't think in the same was as the other two.

The two girls followed Tora and Poppi down into the wasteland of robotic bits and pieces. Susie noticed that basically almost anything of worth, or what seemed to be of worth, had been scavenged from what robots the scavengers could find. Within the wasteland there were human looking robots, things Blazermate figured were the robots they'd be fighting and... Medabots? Yes, Medabots! She knew they were around here somewhere! But they were... thrown away parts? Blazermate flew over to these two junked metabots to get a closer look at them. It was no wonder they had been thrown out, their tinpets were irreversibly damaged and the nanobots inside were gone. Doing something Tora had only seen before, Blazermate pulled these medabot corpses out of the landfill and opened a hatch on their back, a hatch she kept hidden under her schoolgirl/medic backpack. She had a look of concern on her face as the hatches opened, but let out a sigh when she saw what was inside them. "Oh good, they didn't throw out the Medals. So these are just busted up hunks of metal."

It was then a truly morbid thought came across Blazermate's mind. "Hey guys..." She started, getting the attention of the group. "WHY is there a robot landfill in the first place that is still being filled when things turn into spirits when they die?" With that thought, Blazermate flew above the landfill, waiting for Tora to get her an LED, clearly freaked out. Susie scratched her chin as she thought about this too. Why was that the case? In fact, she hadn't really seen anyone but things they had defeated turn into spirits... Why was that? But she shook her head, apparently the main group they were looking for had fused with spirits, so there had to be something else going on.

Thanks to Tora, the two bots had their LEDs installed. Blazermate choosing a Military LED, while Susie got a commercial one. Blazermate didn't move or anything as Tora did his work, while Susie gave him a sideways stare. She wasn't angry at Tora in particular, more the whole situation, but she couldn't help but stare daggers at the Nippon. She let out a sigh when the process was done, saying. "I have a feeling if I did open a business here, I wouldn't be the CEO of it until this whole Ever Crisis is dealt with... Even then I wonder..."

Tora and Poppi then went to go visit a store full of shiny new on display robots. Blazermate followed behind, with Susie bringing up the rear, merely curious as to what the commercial grade robots were. Tora spent his time in the store staring at the human looking androids with sexy bodies, as Poppi made a fool of herself unintentionally as the shop owners found her line of questions weird. Looking around the shop, Blazermate saw an old KBT medabot. It wasn't as shiny as the legendary heroes KBT, but its guns still packed a punch. Still, seeing a medabot on sale was nice to see.

Blazermate asked the two store clerics after Poppi left, seemingly embarrassed or insulted at the word of having an 'owner.' Susie, not that impressed with what was on sale short of the combat medabot, left with Poppi. She didn't want to even MENTION needing an owner as that was far below her if she didn't need to. Blazermate mused asking the clerics about the medabot, but figured Poppi had already made a mess and her perceived owner had just left the store... so she decided to buy a cheap medabot watch looking thing and left with the others.

Catching up to Poppi who was tugging Tora along, Blazermate said in a joking singsong voice "Hehe, I guess your my Medafighter then Tora while we're here. Make sure to keep me all nice and repaired now~" finishing her sentience with a cute wink. Susie merely crossed her arms, clearly not happy about the situation. Blazermate then dropped the sing song voice, saying something that was on her mind. "So, this place has medabots. And apparently just beating up their parts or tinpets don't yield spirits. Until we fight one, I wont know if ejecting the medal will yield a spirit or not as well. I've been keeping mine well hidden because of that fact. Anyway, if we run into a medafight, Tora, you'll need something that looks like a watch on one of your wings to look like a Medafighter. " Blazermate then pulled out the watch she had bought. "I am NOT putting my medal in there for obvious reasons, but its best you look the part if this place knows anything about medabots."

She then, after thinking for a few moments, remembered something which made her freeze up for a moment before snapping herself out of it. "Oh right, uh... If you guys see any like, toy hammer looking things that have a battery attached to them and spark electricity... Please keep them far, far away from me. I don't know if they'll actually work or not with me having fused with spirits, but I really, really don't wanna try anything with a Medal Ejector. "

Blazermate then thought a bit more, and explained to Tora, Poppi, and Susie that if they did run into a medabot outside of a robattle, that they should target its head and back. If they got their medal hatch open and pulled it out, it would shut off ANY medabot no matter how bulky or dangerous it was. She even explained how one time there was a medabot the size of a building, but just yanking its medal out shut the whole thing down. "Oh right, speaking of robattles, Tora, they aren't all that complex. You just stand there and cheer me on as my medafighter. I can give up on my own, so no need for that either." She then thought, and said. "You'll know if your involved with one or not because Mr. Referee will come out of Gods knows where to announce it. Trust me, he has announced EVERY robattle I have ever seen and he has found very, VERY creative ways to find his way to referee one. Hes an eldritch monster, that man..." Blazermate stopped for a moment, nodding her head remembering how the man had appeared out of a lamppost, came out of a 10cm filled fountain like it was as deep as the ocean, parachuted from a helicopter, or even wore a mascot costume! She then remembered something very important with him. "Oh yeah, DO NOT attack him or threaten him if you see him. He is really, really strong. Like really strong. He has a satellite medabot that'll hit you with its rail cannon and smite you like a strike from God. He shouldn't attack us otherwise though, he only oversees robattles."

Susie could only think about what this man was. Considering Blazermate said she was a toy earlier, Susie wasn't surprised that the people she would have been owned by could be something akin to monsters, they'd have to be in order to have military grade hardware as toys.

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Raiden followed Giovanna as Benedict voiced his concerns about drawing attention to themselves and with that, the majority of the group gave the recommendation to instead investigate the quarantine zone, or on the safer side, explore to find sky hooks. "Sounds like a plan. I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather avoid going into the hole where we could end up leaving with an incurable disease. I may be a cyborg, but I can still get sick." Adjusting the tie on his dress shirt, he continued with the group's paced steps.

Giovanna then explained how the non-living allies of the group would be required to wear LEDs on their temple in order to blend in. There was no surprise in Raiden's expression to learn that robots in this sector were seen simply as property rather than as their own beings. The thought brought a very important question to the cyborg no one else had yet asked. "Wait, so you're saying one of us has to be with those three at all times?" Raiden asked pointing at the living members of the group. "Because if one of them gets seen unsupervised, that sounds like it'd cause us a lot more trouble than we set out to find." Raiden had hoped the question would provide some insight into how cautiously they should proceed henceforth. "And if that's the case, ain't they gonna find it weird that our little friend is with three of them?..." Raiden sighed his concerns to Giovanna before they split.

Once the plan was in motion, Raiden and the other group of humans (if Raiden himself could even be called that) split off to search for skyhooks so that traversing the city would be accomplished much faster amongst the group. Tora, before leaving, had expressed interest in exploring the city for its wares and tech, which Raiden found catching his interest as well. Maybe he could purchase a replacement for the gun he traded back in the desert. He wouldn't mind getting range on enemies again.

Raiden can't say he was too particularly thrilled with the "backroad" Giovanna opted to lead them down, however, he knew keeping out of sight may provide them the upper hand in multiple circumstances. They were just as quickly whipped from a nice street and then back into another alley riddled with pipes. When they stopped in the alleyway, Giovanna produced a small bag of what she said was called Red Ice, a drug popular to the Detroit of this world, and which would be their guide to finding skyhook. Raiden noticed how Giovanna stated many people lost their jobs to machines, a concept that while foreign to him made sense. "So you're saying a majority of the workers here are robots? Robots that are conscious? That sounds like an uprising just waiting to happen, hell people with cybernetics in my world are forced into PMCs, myself included, and I sure as hell got some screws loose." Raiden admitted, hinting towards his hidden persona.

After climbing the stairs where Rei lead the group, Raiden looked down, making a tactical analysis of the surroundings and the types of foes to expect. Raiden looked up to see the use of skyhooks being conveniently made use of by hoodlums before meeting way above the basketball court below. Raiden was able to ninja-run atop the holes of the roof, opting to stay above and in the shadows. Rather than jumping on top of a ledge or AC unit, Raiden allowed lightning to flicker on his hands and arms, allowing him to cling to the side of a building allowing for him to easily climb atop the roof next to Giovanna. He waited for her move.

As Giovanna dropped, Raiden followed her lead, dropping to the ground, and very quickly rolled the sleeves on his coat up to avoid damage in the brawl as he landed, and opted to make use of the discrete arm-mounted weaponry he found from the scrapper. He dropped the two briefcases to his sides as he landed before releasing the hidden swords. The blades swung out much quicker and tastefully than he had anticipated. They limited how he would be able to utilize his hands themselves, but they had a very mobile and sleek feel to them. "I can bare a few bullets if you guys can drop the other goons." Raiden said, confirming his plan. He wanted to make sure, being the member with the most bullet resistance on the team, to deal with the thugs brandishing pistols, as to avoid his teammates taking gunshot wounds.

He figured his friends could handle themselves if he made use of his protective cybernetics to stop the shooting. Raiden carved up many of the pistoleers in a violent execution style as the blades pierced and sliced through the thugs in a bloody mist. It's a wonder how Raiden managed to keep his coat clean, but the installed blades were another story. If some of the others hadn't run away from the terrifying sight of seeing a robotic man ruthlessly slaughter their comrades, he had made sure they no longer stood just as swiftly.

Raiden then made use of the last-minute pickings of the other thugs, turning some of them into mince meat and letting those who opted to run escape the scene in a show of mercy. It was after their assault died down that Raiden noticed a familiar, faint glint and retracted his mounted blades to inspect further. The spirits of those he had killed appeared before him, and curious as to how they would affect his mental and physical physique, he grabbed one from one of the thugs wielding knives and another from one of the pistol thugs. He had never witnessed anyone absorb other spirits too carefully, but he figured the process was relatively simple.

He took the spirit from the pistoleer and allowed his body to absorb his essence, stunting his height by a few inches before decreasing the apparent muscle mass on his cybernetic armor. His skin became darker and his hair tinted red. He managed to somehow regain some of his organic tissue and now donned a black sleeveless jacket.

After allowing the effects of absorbing a spirit to take place, he rubbed his forehead. "Ugh... I feel like I got hit with stupid." He said, his personality now developed into something new. Before he had forgotten, however, he grabbed the other spirit he expressed interest in, and smashed it in his palm, forming a relatively simple combat knife. Guess he could sell it or keep it as a carry-on. "That's cool... I guess."

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