Oh, that was a lot easier than he was expecting. Maybe political espionage isn't all that tricky to do? Classic military-industrial complex move to make something seem super complicated just to get a bigger budget.

With the info leaked and about probably one person in Psych-OSF the wiser, Raz retraced his invisible steps back to the Cafeteria, though luckily he could make a shorter trip to the restrooms and exit from there to really sell the "I had to go to the bathroom real bad" alibi, as humiliating a cover that made.

"Oof, stay away from the french toast," Raz said to some passing breakfast-goers to really sell it. Of course Raz hadn't eaten any breakfast, and before he could chow down on anything, the squad was on the move.

Fighting eldritch monsters on an empty stomach? How hard could it be?
In a flash of spectacular psychic displacement, their platoon found themselves on a small concrete island within some dank, flooded tunnels. Seeing the terrain Raz grumbled. "Oh great." He scratched at his chest nervously. "Uhh, me and water don't do well together, so... are there any Other fish things we have to worry about?"

Luka mentioned his own ability to teleport, which Raz was all-too eager to try out. Teleportation was a power he never got the opportunity to try before, despite being sorta-mentored by Ford Cruller, teleportationist extraordinaire. It reminded him that he hadn't updated the old man in a while - even if Ford could see plenty through Raz's eyes, a verbal debriefing never hurt. Plus, he had to figure out where Ford was at!

All things for later, of course. For now Raz followed suit, utilizing the SAS connection to near effortlessly follow Luka to their next vantage point. "Whoa, that was awesome!" Raz did a little three-step dance in place, the young Psychonaut utterly ecstatic to be living his lifelong dream, even if it was a little to the left of what he was used to.

Making their way further through the tunnel, Raz - sticking to the railtracks and small bits of debris to stand on - tried a little something. Every since he'd been connected to SAS there was a fuzziness in his brain. Something in there felt loose, not in a loose screws kinda way, but more like a plug that wasn't quite in all the way. "Peach, Sakura," Raz thought to his two conspirators. "I think..." There was a slight static of interference as, for a brief moment, Raz mentally shifted the psychic transmitter stuck in his noggin (however SAS truly functioned) into a new 'port'. "Okay, I think that you guys can use my kind of Levitation now! I dunno how it works but, I don't really have ONE psychic power like you or the others have, so it sorta feels like I can kind of choose which one to provide? Psychic mumbo jumbo, it's more a feeling than anything, but try it out! You can levitate over water. I can't, but that's, uh, that's a me thing."

Eventually they came across a more open area, and here is where they first caught sight of the Others. Seemed like a pretty small group, though it wasn't like this was all that'd be in there. "We shouldn't spend too much energy dealing with these guys," Raz messaged the platoon, "let's pick them off one at a time, don't let them group up." Not that he was the leader or anything. Hopefully Luka could do with a tactician.

Raz hopped onto one of the above-water tracks, grinding fast down the tunnel towards one of the Rummies, zipping towards it with a quick Mental Connection. He slammed into its body at full force, using the momentum to spring further up into the air. He took aim mid-flip, nailing the Rummie with a volley of Blasts, before finishing the flip by landing on top of a lightpost. "Can't reach me here, can you?" He taunted, continuing to fire at it, and any others his hit-and-run attracted. Even if he didn't do much damage to them on his own, the quick shots were sure to set them up for his teams' attacks.

---

Greetings and good mornings were swapped, as well as a great deal of puns. Therion practically hissed at the cheery cat girl while she bounded away to finish making her rounds.

Primrose smiled at most everyone. "Agreed," she said in response to Jesse's comment about keeping in touch. Maybe they could get some of those communication devices that Joker and Fox had used in the Sandswept Sky? She had no idea what they were called, but she wasn't able to bring it up anyway on account of everyone being eager to get going. Perhaps she'd mention it later in the day.

There was also the curious ghost that was following one of their young members, but despite its' unsettling aura it didn't seem to be doing anything more than staring. Omori did seem familiar with it even if annoyed, so it was left alone for now.

Even with all of the "underground team" present and talking over each other, they managed to fill each other in on everything that had been missed. The most pressing matter being the note from "IGV" that Nadia had found.

After the exchange of information, Sectonia approached Therion and offered him some curious looking boots, boasting of their ability to improve the strength of ranged weapons which included his throwing knives. He had no idea how she could tell what enchantment they had just by looking at them, but then again she was a giant magical queen or something.

"Oh yeah? Don't mind if I do," he said, accepting the gift. Naturally, it came with some strings. Accepting the boots meant that he was officially her "minion," so she claimed. He was going to ignore her words, but it rubbed him the wrong way to think of himself as under the thumb of someone else. Again. The shackle on his wrist weighed heavy.

"It'll take more than some new shoes to win me over your majesty," he told Sectonia, "but it's a start." Free stuff was always nice, and it wasn't like most of them were taking the minion thing seriously anyway... He could feel Primrose roll her eyes at him, since unlike the thief she'd been playing nice with the royals and letting them claim whatever roles they liked.

He declined to use the melting pot thing, while Primrose tried it out with the strange helmet she'd picked up. She didn't feel all that different afterwards. Therion also declined to go to the sanctum to meet IGV with the others, saying that he'd just get the important information from them when they got back. It turned out that he wasn't the only one staying behind either.

Once the Seekers heading for the sanctum filed out of the hotel, Therion gave them a cheeky little wave and then stretched back out in his chair with his arms crossed behind his head. Those that weren't going with them gradually left to explore or take care of whatever other business they had in the city. He watched them all go, keeping tally of which people were leaving in what direction. As for himself, he spent a little more time with the breakfast bar. He really didn't want to keep going out in the "rain," but he had some unfinished business himself.

After a little while, being sufficiently warm and fed, Therion made for the door. He popped the green and orange parasol open under the hotel's awning and entered its shelter, heading down the same dark cobble street he'd come from last night.

---

In the Soul Sanctum, progress through the floors was swift thanks to the concentrated efforts of the Seekers. With Nadia taking point to give them a heads up about incoming danger, followed up by the relative powerhouses of Sectonia, Bowser, and Jesse, most of the specters were taken care of almost as soon as they showed themselves. Add to that Kamek, the little Knight, Teemo, and the newest addition Ichiban, and Primrose hardly needed to lift a finger. In fact she didn't until they were already halfway up the tower, brandishing the devout beads in their whip form and entangling the more dangerous enemies for either the others to capitalize on, or for herself to finish off with a blast of magic.

The going wasn't quite as tough as anything the dancer had faced in the desert region, despite the general creepiness. At one point Ichiban mentioned the possibility that this was a trap set for them, and honestly she could see why he would think that. It was a tower seemingly full of horrors in the middle of the city. That being said...

"If he is working against us, then he was a fool to summon us right to him," she responded, a sharp smile on her lips.

Eventually some of the group began splitting up as the amount of enemies increased. There were many routes to the upper floors after all. Primrose stuck with the largest group until they were stopped by a large dog-like monstrosity. At that point while some chose to play with the... puppy, if it could be called that, Primrose chose to follow Nadia's suggestion to Jesse.

"Shall we go find that shortcut?" she said to the red head. Doubling back slightly after Jesse put down a few patients approaching from the way the Seekers had come, Primrose dipped down a side hallway to seek another staircase up whether the director came with or not.

Her chosen path was much less crowded than the one she'd left behind. The little ghosties continued to appear, but otherwise Primrose didn't pass any of the mad patients they had in the floors below. It wasn't until a creepy long-legged bird stepped out from a side room that the dancer was stopped in her ascent. As it stepped closer and closer to her, Primrose prepared a spell in her hand. She was not as willing to seek a peaceful way out as Ichiban and Ms. Fortune.

There was a rush of fire as Primrose pressed her palm to the ground, sending the dark flames of the spell Black Serpent weaving toward the bird amalgamate. Predictably it moved to dodge the fire, but the spell twisted and hit its mark. The bird twisted, seemingly in pain, and when it clenched its eyes shut there were sharpened teeth where eyelids should be. Then with a sweep of its wing a humanoid appeared and headed straight toward the dancer, imposing but eerily silent. Seeing that, Primrose quickly decided not to play around.

"Hippowdon, Makami!" she called, summoning her two strikers. While the Everyman passed them by, the strikers went for the Reaper Bird. The wolf spirit used Rakunda to weaken its defense, while Hippowdon held it down with a Crunch. The bird lashed out by pecking and striking with its wing, its attacks coming off more like kicks, but it would have to work hard to get through the Pokémon's own defense. Primrose herself cast the Vengeful Spirit through the Everyman and the bird behind it, leading to the finale of a Ravaging Confession. Primrose's blade sunk into the amalgamate and her dark magic flared to life in its back. When her strikers faded out of existence, the dancer expected her opponent to crumble to ash. When it didn't, she backed away from it with her dagger still raised. Both stark white monsters turned to move towards her, neither looking like they'd taken a scratch.

How unfortunate for me, she thought. Well, since she was now on the other side of the hallway and close to the stairs... she just made a break for it.

All of the routes up converged into one point, so the Seekers met back up again quickly. They ascended to the top of the tower and found the mysterious "IGV" waiting for them. After a brief introduction he wasted no time telling those assembled about his grudge against the Consul, and the plan he'd thought up for them. Primrose did not get the sense that the man was trying to fool them, but she kept her guard up all the same. She'd run into her share of obsessive scholars during the course of her journey with her seven companions back in Orsterra, plus Gallo's smarmy demeanor set her on edge. However, his plan seemed fine. He made it sound easy, but she was sure that wouldn't be the case once it was put into action.

"You've been planning this for a while," she commented, looking over the diagram he'd given them and the amount of information he'd shared. "It's quite lucky for you that we ended up here."

It was still a mystery what purpose if any the Consuls served in the areas they claimed to lord over. Once Consul P was deposed, would there be a power vacuum that Gallo would gladly fill, or would nothing change in the city beneath the lake? In the grand scheme of things the dancer supposed it didn't really matter, but the thought came to her mind all the same. She hummed her agreement to the plan. "If we go after them, it may be best to split up and take them on at the same time. If any of them were to be warned of this beforehand and group up, it would defeat the point of catching them separate."

Queen Sectonia seemed to be on the same page, volunteering herself for the target residing in the Royal Quarter. Personally Primrose didn't have any preference for which to take on, but going on the information they had she'd probably be headed to the same place.

As for the matter of the man didn't leave his stronghold, Primrose glanced at Gallo and asked, "what kind of place is 'Shambhala,' exactly?"

"Shambhala is the stronghold of the reclusive and secretive Agarthans," Gallo replied. "They have not deigned to extend me an invitation, but I hypothesize that it is where they live, scheme, arm themselves, and do whatever else they please well out of the public eye. It is beneath the Royal Quarter, so it is likely some manner of livable dungeon, but I know precious little else."

That certainly did make things difficult with the leader, though with the Seekers' sheer number they might be able to get away with dealing with Thales and Consul P at the same time. Truthfully in the Consul really was a child she didn't look forward to assassinating him, but as Gallo said of Thales, 'something must be done.' Primrose turned to her companions.

"If need be we can discuss it more outside." That way if there were any objections, they wouldn't have to talk it out in front of Gallo who might take exception to naysayers. Plus there were still a handful of Seekers that should be filled in on the new information.

When confronted by the Others, Luka had only a brief window in which he could size them up and take his pick. By now they could sense the psionics’ brains, after all, so time was of the essence. Luckily, it was an easy choice to make. “I’ll take care of the big one,” he notified his teammates as he set his sights on the Exonerator, wishing that he both sounded and felt a lot more confident. The pressure of setting the example for his brand-new team as its leader -which meant demonstrating both combat excellence and tactical awareness for his allies- was a big contributor, but not the only one. Part of the Scarlet Guardians’ effectiveness came from the organization’s shared pool of knowledge, freely accessible through SAS, which stemmed from the limited variety of Others in existence. However, Luka didn’t recognize this particular Other. Right now this didn’t concern him because of the admittedly low chance that his team discovered a new variant, but because it could possess any number of new and terrifying psychic abilities. That made the Exonerator his responsibility to handle.

Luka disappeared in a bluish burst, teleporting closer to the bizarre, baby-faced threat. He popped back into existence just above the water, sending it flying with the pressure of the air he displaced upon arrival, but before a single droplet spattered back down he blinked away again. By teleporting in quick succession, appearing for less than a second at a time, he quickly closed the distance. Before the Exonerator knew it, Luka warped above it, augmenting the strength of his hammerfall with the power of gravity. “Hah!” the grunted, smashing down on what should be the strange monster’s forehead. The material buckled under the hefty bash, and various pieces forcibly dislodged from its frame flew in every direction. With a weird squeal the Other furiously backpedaled, trying to align its lightbulb with Luka, but he wouldn’t allow it that chance. In a blink the pint-sized powerhouse teleported behind the Exonerator for another carapace-cracking wallop, yet again using outside force to amplify the power of his strike, in this case the opposing force of the Other’s backward roll. The result was a satisfyingly brutal bludgeon, and as the Exonerator reeled, trying to get away, Luka pressed his advantage.

He used the centripetal force of his weapon to whirl him around like an olympic hammer thrower, delivering blow after crushing blow, but after a moment he realized he’d gone out of control. Before he could take a potentially disastrous tumble he teleported a short distance away, resetting his momentum, but the Exonerator managed to face him in the open area and finally get off a flash of its bulb. Its vivid yellow flare slammed Luka’s senses like a flashbang, not just burning his eyes but momentarily frying his mind. “Agh!” he cried, unable to stop himself as he dropped his hammer and planted his palms on his eyes, limply falling to his knees in the water as he did. Completely paralyzed, he couldn’t do anything as the Exonerator promptly ran him over, crushing him against the subway tracks beneath the water’s surface.

However, Luka rose again after a brief moment, his eyes narrowed and his lips pressed thinly together. Though dripping wet, he’d suffered no broken bones, and he’d learned an important lesson. “So that’s your game,” he told the Exonerator as it turned around, lifting his hammer from the water. “I won’t make the same mistake again.” He teleported point-blank and struck the Other like a slap to the cheek, knocking it askew. The next second he was above it again, his hammer raised for an overhead smash on the lightbulb. A whirring wail sounded out as the Exonerator wheeled backward, turning sideways to fix its newly-recharged bulb on Luka. “Hmph.” Borrowing Peach’s power through SAS, he materialized a wall to block the light, then hurled his hammer straight through it toward the Other’s lightbulb, guided by Sakura’s telekinesis. The wonderful sound of broken glass rang out as the weak point shattered, its baleful glare extinguished, and as the Exonerator slumped over a different bulb plopped out of its open mouth–the one that meant Luka could finish this with a Brain Crush. He teleported into the air, caught his hammer, and brought it down on the second bulb to finish the Exonerator off for good. “One down,” he muttered, and he quickly bent to collect the spirit.

Meanwhile, his allies were working their way through the other Others. Raz split from the other three, zooming down the tunnel to bash into and then psi-blast an unlucky Rainy Rummy. When the junior psychonaut stopped to showboat, however, he quickly realized that the Other could, in fact, reach him. Sparking with yellow electricity, it aimed its umbrella frame at him, popped it open, and unleashed a lightning bolt his way. Its tottering compatriots followed suit, spreading out in the tunnel’s flooded center section to open fire on Raz in a seven-point thunderstorm assault. Their accuracy, though, was far from perfect, and they could only zap as fast as they could close their threadbare parasols again. Forced to stay on the move and out of the electrocution-prone water, Raz would be getting a lot of mileage out of his acrobatic expertise. He’d dealt a little over half that first Rainy Rummy’s health with his batter-and-barrage, so he could take these things down if given the chance to focus, but whether or not he’d be able to on his own might be another matter.

Fortunately, he wasn’t on his own. Peach joined him as fast as she could, and she heralded her arrival with a one-two punch of explosions from a grenaduck and her rocket launcher to ruin the Rummies’ formation. “Over here!” she yelled at them as she took to the air. A few of the Others took aim at her, but the princess kept herself on the move. Making herself essentially weightless through the power of Levitation, she kicked off the ground, the walls, the ceiling, the tunnel’s support pillars, and the Rummies themselves whenever she got close to launch herself around like an astronaut. Her Scatterboom’s tremendous blasts both dealt a lot of damage and sent her flying in the opposite direction at high speed like this, which Peach quickly learned to use to her advantage. As long as they stayed mobile, Peach with her area-of-effect and Raz with his sharpshooting, the two of them could take these Rummies apart.

At the moment though, Sakura, Dexio, and Sina were all occupied by the Rat Ruts. Sakura subjected the one she’d managed to get in close quarters to a blunt-force beatdown, making solid progress on its shell. This Other was far from helpless in melee range, however. It suddenly started doing donuts, whirling around in a violent circle to try and his Sakura with either its body or its six lateral prongs, and one of which could bash or gouge a weak point if she was unlucky. Another Rat Rut remained farther away and started shooting oil at her, putting Sakura in double the trouble.

The Rat Rut that nearly rolled over the Street Fighter, meanwhile, also tried to do the same for the other two, forcing them to jump to either side. “Cool it!” Sina chided, lifting up her right arm with her left hand clenched around her right bicep. Her Refrigerant Coil came to life, channeling her cryokinesis to unleash a volley of ice blasts from her palm. At the same time, Dexio pounded the Rat Rut’s metal shell from the other side with his cestus. That shell held firm, however, only lightly dented by Dexio’s punches and seemingly unaffected by the ice. Without warning the Other began doing donuts, its six lateral prongs outstretched, and both Scarlet Guardians took painful blows. Dexio staggered, but Sina got knocked clear off her feet, and when she landed beside the track at the water’s edge the impact drove the wind from her lungs. “Uuuugh…” she grunted, fighting for breath as Dexio kept trying to box the Rat Rut. She loosed a couple more ice blasts, but no amount of buildup on its shell seemed to slow the monster down. “This isn’t working,” she growled, dropping her hand. As she did, she felt the water begin to chill around her hand, and looked down to see the water freezing over around her. “Wait a second…”

As Dexio got knocked back again, Sina crouched at the edge of the flooded area and unleashed her Cryokinesis. A wave of ice spread across the calf-deep water, and when he spotted it Dexio caught on. With the plan communicated through Brain Talk, he took off running to bait the Rat Rut onto the ice, at which point its single narrow wheel promptly slipped and toppled its heavy body to the ground. At that point Dexio stopped, planting his hand on the ground. His Seismokinesis spread through the earth, causing it to shake. After only a moment the whole area was vibrating dangerously. “...Crumble!” he growled, and from the ceiling a massive chunk of rock shook loose to fall on and shatter the Rat Rut’s shell. With the Other’s papaya core exposed, Sina needed only to freeze it with an ice shot so her partner could shatter it with ease. “Score one for Dexio…” he crowed.

“And Sina!” his partner finished. With their allies still in danger though, they couldn’t goof around for long. They hurried down the tracks to help the others clean up.

Goldlewis's outburst was for a lack of better words 'in the cards' as one might put it, their plan to acquire the powers from the psi-fish of the reservoir was not ironclad and they had neither taken the time to prepare nor understand the creatures or the reservoir at length.

That, would have to wait for the time being "Keeping our focus on the mission is key, if not it is sure to fail." the former Turk remarked with a certain tiredness, they lacked the focus to keep their moral convictions out of deviating from a plan.

That was a problem, to a man that valued utility above both morality and liberty but it was neither his place nor desire to bring that up in this particular moment. So their next objective was to meet with the other team, and thankfully had a cover story that Goldlewis prepared.

On their way down the tunnels they were met by some sorts of half-dead monsters that exploded on approach. Were they some kind of experiment as well? They looked thoroughly inhuman yet possessed the limbs? Well it was besides the point, with his new power he used his combat acumen to overcome his lack of agility.

Making use of his newfound strength to overcome his weaknesses, he leapt further though he had no way to stop it from winding him. As the room filled with smoke Benedict used Bulkwark on himself while stepping back to let the others deal with the monsters. If one of the things approached he would have Asparas use Bofu on it to slow the red beasts down.

That... did not go well. They didn't know him - which Roxas half-expected - but they also didn't know Sora, which made no sense at all. Didn't they both fight off Heartless alongside him at Hollow Bastion? How could they forget that? Susie suggested it might have had something to do with Galeem... and maybe she was right, but something about this was off. More than that though, Roxas was just plain embarrassed, practically humiliated. He made himself look like a complete idiot back there, but that wasn't even the worst part. He'd thought for sure he found someone he knew, but he was still alone in this World of Light for the time being after all.

Roxas spent the rest of the search keeping quiet. Between what happened last night and his earlier embarrassment, the Keybearer was definitely feeling pretty dejected. He stayed off to the side the entire time the Seekers were recruiting help to halt the Machine attack. And once everyone was rolling out the main gates aboard a pair of trucks, Roxas just sat in his seat and stared silently out the window. He heard Susie ask something about scrap, but Roxas had no answer he could offer. He didn't know the first thing about machines and salvage, so all he could reply with was a small shrug accompanied by more silence.

Eventually, after a draining slog the slowly advancing wall of doom that was Bowser arrived at the waiting room right before the top of the tower. He’d punched his way through a fair share more patients, endless amounts of mistakes and given up on punching amalgamates to the extent that he had at one point simply exited the tower via window and climbed up to the next floor on the outside via Meowser form rather than try and deal with another one. Kamek, naturally, had followed his king’s lead when it came to this navigation, and had also amassed quite the collection of spirits thanks to a toady of his being dedicated to the task.

Specifically, the koopas arrive via window, with Kamek shrinking the pane of glass down to a size to be removed, letting himself and the king in, and then resizing it back up to full size.

”In hindsight, I’m not sure why we didn’t come up via the outside for the entire climb” Kamek mused, before moving clear of Bowser before he shook his cat fur dryer

Once at the waiting room, they took the time to recuperate from their climb, with Bowser sitting his butt down on the big chair, while the broom riding mage took a moment to stretch his legs. Neither of them were inclined to tamper with the flashing light door (for the moment) and instead they climbed up the last flight without incident, and up there met IGV, or rather Iguana Gallo Valletto.

Turned out the man was a minion of council P, but not at all a happy one, considering he supplied them with detailed plans with how to take down his supposed master. Kamek did have to wonder if this was all some elaborate trap. The plan did, after all, involve assassinating several (probably) notable members of the city's population after all, which was likely to not go down well with the locals.

”If we are going to do this, it would be best to be discreet about taking down these ‘cronies’ correct? It would not do to have news of their fate at our hands spread after all, lest that news obstruct the second part of the operation” he suggested, putting the issue he had identified out there in non-accusatory words.

His king was not at all as prone to caution or subterfuge, so when the king began to object to the proposed child murder with ”Hey, so, uh, I can’t believe its coming down to me to say this-'' the mage quickly stepped in to head it off till later with ”Oh your right sire, it is ever so rude of us to have not graciously thanked you for your wisdom and foresight, Iguana Gallo Valletto. Truly it is a boon to us all that you have sought us out to take part in this fantastic plan”

After that flattery, he quickly pivoted to keep the Kings mind off the issue, for the moment, by saying ”Come now, we can’t let time go to waste. The longer we wait, the more likely it is that one of these ‘Agarthans’ catches wind of us! We seekers do have a rather notable feature after all” he tapped the side of his spectacles before pointing out that ”and with some of our number still out and about in the city streets, its only a matter of time till one gets spotted”

”The kids'' the king caught on, instantly a little worried about the various children they had wandering around down there, having up until this moment assumed the city would be safe as houses.

”Indeed, so we best get on their case before they get on ours. Discussions on how to ‘deal with’ the child can wait for once they are dealt with I’m sure'' he added, though the insinuation went over the kings head, before asking their host ”Speaking of haste, is there a quicker way down that going past all those indestructible melted things? If not, I could whip up a few cave drakes steeds that could sneak most of us down from the tower without being spotted''

He would have flown them up, but he was unaware of any clandestine take off points in the city, while landing unstealthy would not be much of an issue as no one would know where they had come from. Plus, he assumed Iguana would be abandoning this abode soon enough, so giving it away to any observers was no longer much of an issue.

---

At the same time as their elders were discussing political assassinations, the youngsters had decided to go on a little murderous adventure of their own. They had, after all, just acquired Rika a new weapon, an even more modified than it had already been grizzco blaster, and both of them had agreed they should test it out. Unaware of both the arena, and the waterways beneath the city were options for this, they were instead heading for a little trip outside the city to see if there was anything to shoot.

The closest gate to the outside world was signposted as leading to the ‘crumbling caverns’ which the pair assumed was some kind of dangerous unstable cave system likely crawling with nasty things.

They were only partially right. It was indeed a cave system, and it was also unstable to a degree, but what they had not expected, was for said system to be made almost entirely of cheese

”I. What. That can be a thing? Places can just be made of food?!” Was Rika’s reaction to this as she leaned out of Jr’s clown car to take it all in. The giant fruits they had discovered in the Luma Pools notwithstanding this was the first time she had seen something like this.

”I mean yeah. Duh. It’s basically the same as cheese land back home” Jr replied, entirely nonplussed by this. He was slightly more plussed by having to rapidly correct his hovering height when Rika dropped down out of the car onto the cheesy ground, and then shuddered when the ship girl crouched down and gave the floor a lick.

”Ew, hey, Kamek says not to eat stuff that’s been on the floor, and that, well I mean that is the floor!” He called down to her.

“Yeah, people come back and forth through here all the time, miss!” came a call from one of the gate guards, who had seen no issue in letting a kid and a teen through other than warning them to watch their step.

”Yeah, see, you definitely shouldn't be licking that” Jr reiterated

”It’s good cheese though? Maybe if I chop some of it up?” she started suggesting, only to be interrupted by the guard: “No making pot holes either! That’s a road after all”

Rika visibly deflated at this news, and so the guard did offer her an alternative or two “If you want cheese so bad, they sell that in the market. Or you can get it fresh from the miners for cheaper, if you can get out there”

”Ooo, ooo, let’s go do that!” Rika insisted, very interested in this now, thoughts of weapon testing now long forgotten and replaced with a need to sample new tastes. Then, before Jr could offer an opinion on this (he had, incidentally, been inclined to agree) the ship girl was off, leaving him to cry out ”Hey wait up!” as he flew after her.

In the time it took for him to catch up, the ship girl had swung from a vine across a pit of spikes, wobbled her way over a teetering platform, had to use her grapple hook to get unstuck from a quicksand-esque pool of cream cheese, and held her nose to get by the fumes caused by where runoff water form the city of tears wound its way through the cheese, rotting it as it went.

”You could just have gotten another ride you know” Jr pointed out, and then refused to let her take one now due to her boots being covered in cream cheese.

Thus the ship girl ended up doing a bit more platforming till she came to a little overlook, and, looking down from it, she could see that she had reached her destination Below them a number of rat people (known as Skritt) all busying away in a quarry of sorts, hacking away at the cheese and piling it into carts. Every now and then one would make an excited squeak as they made a discovery of a more gourmet cheese among the masses of common fare, from distinctive blue cheeses to ones that could only be distinguished by their sensitive noses.

The spoils of their labor were then shipped off to a metal structure (possibly a warehouse) adorned with a sign reading “Chadder Co.” that was, presumably, their base of operations. Dug into the cheese walls around said structure were a large number of doors which, given the mail slots on them, were probably the miner’s housing.

”There it is, come on” Rika called back to Jr, before she hopped off the precipice and started skidding down the slope leading to the facility. As she slid down she passed a few miners and gave them a ”Hi! Hello! Bye!” along with a wave.

She got a few waves in return … and also the very unnerving experience of practically every one of the rat miners, no matter how far away they were, turning their galeeming eyes to look at her. But only for a moment. After that moment passed most shrugged and got back to work, while a few gave her a long distance wave.

”Freaky” Jr muttered as he watched this happen, before swooping down and getting much the same treatment, though his clown themed flying machine got a fair few gawks and guffaws.

Still, neither mass noticing event had any immediate consequence, other than some amusement from the hypersonically communicating Skritt miners, and so soon enough the pair had rolled on into town and were having a look around. Then the consequences showed up in the form of a yellow mouse wearing a suit and bowtie combo.

“Hey there you two, are you here about the delivery job?” He called over as he approached, before chiding them with “because if so, your late”

”Huh? Oh, no, no, no, we’re just here because one of the guard ladies said we could buy cheese off of the miners for cheap” Rika informed him, before asking ”So are you selling any cheese?”

“Only in bulk. We’ve got quite the lucrative little deal with some of the merchants in town that rakes in the big bucks” the mouse informed her smugly, before furrowing his brow and then turning to one of the Skritt miners nearby demanding to know “Hey, have you lot been selling the product behind my back!” which got some immediate and unified head shakes of denial

”Must have been some other miner she was talking about” Jr quickly interceded to suggest, instinctive covering for whatever mischief the rat folk were in. Their mousy boss looked a tad unconvinced, but accepted the explanation for the moment. Given the few tips of a hardhat the prince got from the miners when their boss wasn’t looking, there probably was something like that going on.

Not that Rika picked up on it, mind.

”So no cheese then? Aw, I was looking forwards to trying a bunch out” the upset ship girl said, scuffing the metal deck of the warehouse with a foot, before snapping her hand and asking ”Oh, oh, but wait, how about if we do that delivery job you were talking about! Would you give us cheese then?”

“I. Well. I’d pay you. And then you could use it to buy some of the cheese you’re delivering” the mouse, who was presumably the Chadder who’s name emblazoned the warehouse, or so Jr guessed, explained slowly.

”Oh so like one of those job things? Neat.” the ship girl realized, having only ever killed things for money at this point, before deciding ”I wanna try it!”

”I mean, we gotta get back to the city before Kamek and Papa finish up in the tower, so sure, we could bring some cheese back with us” Jr agreed. It wasn’t like he’d be doing manual labor to do it.

“Excellent, right this way, and you can meet your fellow employees” Chadder told them, before leading the way inside the warehouse, casually commenting “they’ll be ever so happy to have help, it was going to be quite a tough run, what with them being down a rodent. Poor guy fell down a spike pit”

The pair traded a glance at that news, it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you wanted to hear on your first day on the job, but, given the precariousness of the route they’d had to take there, it wasn’t entirely surprising.

A moment after that bit of news, they were introduced to the leader of the remaining cheese transporters: who turned out to be a Mouse lady with an incredibly large backpack, big as she was if not larger, strapped to her back.

“Oh, are you the newbies the Skritt were squeaking about? Name’s Purse. Nice to have you onboard” the mouse lady introduced herself, rising from the back of the pack she was sitting on and offering a hand to shake

”Hi, nice to meet you too! Only gonna be a one off though, so I dunno if calling us newbies works?” Rika replied, before taking a few moments to free a hand from a gauntlet and shake the offered hand. Or was it paw, she wondered.

“Temp hires then” Chadder suggested, before directing the pair of them to two more sacks of cheese that a pair of Skritt where filling up with neatly wrapped bundles of dairy gold. Jr simply lowered his sentient meathook from his car and used that to hoist his load up into the air, while Rika took a lead out of Purse’s book and strapped a big ol sack of cheese to her back. In doing so she joined the ranks of a trio of Skritt who made up the majority of the pre-existing party, along with a shock roach toting feild mouse who wasn’t carrying much else but his weapon.

Once they were all set up and packed up with cheese, the others mounted up on large rats which they tempted to ride forth via little cheese on sticks.

Then they set off, rodents and koopa riding out, and Rika running, grappling hooking and maneuvering jetting after them.

”Urgh, I really wish I’d asked Kamek to leave me one of those mounts now” Rika commented to herself as she set foot back on the overlook she’d first spotted the facility from, giving her brow a wipe with the back of her arm, which was a bit tricky what with the massive gauntlet strapped to it.

Then she moved to catch up with the mounted people, giving them an apology of: ”Sorry for keeping you waiting. But I’ll be quicker on the jumpy bits I promise”

“Oh don’t worry about it, we can take it slower. Safer for us to stick with you anyway for the rest of it, especially with all that the gear you are carrying there” Purse replied, vaguely gesturing to all the shipgirl’s hardware.

”Definitely feeling it now that I’m all stocked up on ammo again, that is for sure” Rika replied, to which the shock roach totting mouse replied that it was “good to have, but hopefully we won’t need it”

As fate would have it, he was dead wrong about that, to a tragically literal degree as, about half way back to the city, he met his end in the opening volley of a two pronged ambush.

They were passing through a canyon, hopping across ridges hanging over deeper drops, when both ridges suddenly produced hostiles. On one, piratical ratlings let out squeaky war cries as several smaller swashbucklers swinging down on vines to attack the convoy, while one hulking ratling cannon blasted out a teetering platform, cutting off their rout forwards.

From the other appeared strange creatures made from living cheeses who hurled axes down from on high at the cheese curious. One of these was the end of the poor field mouse, who took an axe to the brain, and went tumbling down into a spike pit.

Also on their side where cheese slime knights armed with massive forks who came jetboosting down to join the fray.

Overlapping cries of “take the cheese!” and “free the cheese!” from each group gave something of an indication that these were in fact two entirely separate groups of ambushers, which got confirmed when the first ratling got impaled on the fork of a cheese knight.

“Around! Turn around, back the way we came!” Purse commanded, as she pulled out a large shield to two handily block the strike of a rattling from her pack, before in a flash switching it out for a two handed sword which she used to drive him back. In a third flash the sword was stored, and she was blasting her attacker with a dark wand with one hand as she was urging her steed to turn and retreat with the other.

Then, a screech of alarm caused her to look back, spotting one of the Skritt, who’s pack had been grabbed by a rattling and a knight, both of whom were trying to pull it back and stab the other, while the helpless cheese courier desperately tried to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

”Get your own cheese, the pace is straight up made of the stuff!” Jr shouted at the cheese bandits/liberators, before he gave the command: ”Mimi! Help that guy out would you” to his electric mouse imitating pokemon. She obliged, curling an arm up and then hurling an electro ball at one of the cheese knights, the electrical atack arching though its armor and cooking it alive inside of it.

Jr followed this up by waving his paintbrush and casting ”Stone!” which caused a bunch of chunks of cheese to be ripped out of the canyon wall, which then smacked into rattling in ironic comeuppance, sending it tumbling down into the canyon below.

As the prince switched to healing the wounded Skritt so he could get moving and escape, Purse called out a warning of “The big guy, he’s going to cut us off!”

Indeed, the large cannon toting rat was right in the middle of shoving another load of rocks into his mighty weapon to act as cheap grapeshot.

”On it!” Rika called out, before she whipped her grappling hook up and out, latching on to the edge of the canyon and then rapidly pulling herself up top, leaving the others, (and her cloyster striker which she had summoned to help) behind to keep up the fighting retreat.

The ship girl stuck a boot on the edge of the canyon and pulled herself all the way up top. Just as soon as she got there, she had to immediately ducked to the side, catching a throwing ax to the cheese sack. Then a heart beat later she dodged to the other, the crucible absorbed power of her sunglasses slowing the hail of stone shrapnel enough for her to avoid most of it, while her energy shield and gauntlets blocked the rest.

Projectiles mostly evaded; she moved to face the rattling cannoneer in melee combat. She dodged to the side to avoid a smashing attack it tried to perform with its heavy metal ranged weapon, then delivered a close range blaster shot with her new goopy gun, the explosion knocking the rattling back and smearing it with burning ink.

She ducked under another flying axe coming from the other side of the canyon, delivered another blast to the rattling, and then fired her grappling hook at it. The claw grabbed its shoulder, and then pulled her close, the ship girl blocking a hasty canon bludgeon with her other gauntlet, and then driving the one with the hook attached home. Stabbing the tip of the whirring chainsaw bayonet into its neck.

On the other side of the canyon the cheese slimes where left in shock at the sight of gratuitous blood spraying from one of their foes as Rika sawed it’s head off.

Then they screamed in terror as she turned towards them, and unloaded her full firepower against them while she yelled ”Run while you still can” over the roar of gun and cannon fire.

That was the last straw for both parties as, be it out of either cowardice or pragmatism, neither seemed willing to fight to the death. It was a battle for cheese after all. Rattlings scurried away with roguish speed and stealth, while cheese slimes simply melted away into the landscape made of the same material as them.

Rika gave them a few parting shots, but quickly decided to stop wasting ammo on the retreating foes. That stuff was expensive after all.

After the battle was won, they took stock of their losses. One death (of someone none of them had known very well it had to be admitted) and a few handfuls of cheese either pilfered or fallen out of holes punctured in their sacks. In terms of gains, Purse acquired a new shock roach, and the two troop members 4 tribal cheese slimes, 3 forknight cheese slimes, 2 rattling swashbucklers and 1 cannon rattling. There had been a few more, but the canyon had devoured the rest.

After a quick collection of the loot, repairs to bag holes, and a short eulogy for the dead, they continued on their journey.

The rest of the journey was uneventful enough, the group platforming across the crumbling caverns without future amish or harassment, and then riding back in through the gate and heading for the market.

There, they found out what their pay was for the whole ordeal: ”50 gold per bag! That’s it?”

“You should be grateful I’m paying you at all, what with the state these sacks are in. Who knows how much cheese you lost!” the merchant retorted, and that was the end of that. Or rather it was after the merchant none too subtly threatened to call the guards if Jr kept arguing.

Rika meanwhile, after examining the (comparatively) meager pile of coin she had been given and then looking at the prices of some of the cheeses she had helped deliver, some of which were going for many times that, came to the conclusion that ”Wow. These job things are really bad huh?”

”Yup. Dunno why people do em” the spoiled prince replied in a huff as he turned to move away from the stand

“We can get a bunch of runs done in a day so it adds up” Purse pointed out lightly, before conceding “But I can’t blame you for thinking that after that experience right there though”

”Oh. Well. Um. Hmmm” Rika hummed and ha’ed at that, rather unsure now. What she was sure about was that she had rather lost her appetite for buying any cheese after Jr’s extended argument with the person they’d be buying it from. Going back would likely be very embarrassing to say the least.

”We haven't got time for that either way anyway. Papa’s got to be almost done with that tower by now, right?” Jr noted, looking up to see if he could spot his dad, yet being unable to do so due to the rain, even though the king was at that very moment climbing up the outside of the tower to avoid an amalgamate.

”I guess so yeah” Rika agreed

“Guess this is where we part ways then” Purse said, and then as they moved out of sight of the grumbling merchant, the mouse pulled off her little instant item retrieval trick one more time to retrieve a small parcel from her pack “here, we owe you one for getting us out of that jam. I’m sure those jerks are going to be licking their wounds for a long while after it too, so that's a second boon you’ve given us to us to boot”

The ship girl accepted the parcel and found within it a lovely little wheel of brie some miner had pulled out of the dairy based earth back around Chadder Co

”Huh, I didn’t see you buying this?” Rika asked, to which Purse just winked and reapplied “just think of it as hazard pay” before moving away and bidding them a final “Farwell. And good luck to you with whatever’s up with that tower!” before she and the three Skritt rode off back towards the gate they’d come through.

”Well that was nice of her” Rika said, while Jr briefly wondered just how much of the missing cheese had vanished at the hands of the couriers instead of the bandits. Then he decided he didn’t care and suggested ”How about we find somewhere to wait and give this a try?” to which Rika readily agreed.

Karin pinched the bridge of her nose when her teammates arrived having brought along a homeless man and a terrible smell. She appreciated the thought, and they were competent enough to survive unscathed, so she just shook her head and smirked. Had she been aware of the mission, she most likely would have come along as well, but she kept that part to herself.

After the training and a little bit of sparse interior design was done (this Bridges technology was truly amazing!) Goldewis gave everyone the briefing before the mission. The clearing of the subway had begun, and their infiltrators were on the move. They were to fight their way through the sewers and meet up with their allies, then hit the Others at full force. Made sense to her.

Thus, the Seekers descended. The inadequacies of this city were astonishing.

Karin traveled easily enough above the mirk and mire. What gaps she could not leap were crossed with pulls from her grappling hook. Karin watched a grumpy Midna disappear into her shadow, and watched her leave just as quietly. Not up for conversation, then. She had come to enjoy her grappling hook. When they reached a platform, Karin admired the architecture. It reminded her of the London Underground. But the older tunnels, the ones that got left behind. Were they the very same? More likely they were a similar but disparate reflection. Reflection, mirror image, clone…all of these words implied there was an original. It didn’t strike Karin as likely that her world was the ‘original’ or, rather, if there was an original at all. What to call places like these, then? So obviously familiar yet so entirely alien?

Putting aside the musings that occupied her mind while they descended, they came to an obvious combat encounter. The room began to fill with smoke, and odd flashing boxes and bursting, plant-like wretches began closing in. Vision was low, and the enemies all seemed ready to explode as soon as they got close!

Karin ‘tsk’ed, frustrated with these enemies. ”I can’t damage them without getting close.” She said, backpedaling. How long did they have to act before they exploded? Could she launch them away?

Karin wasn’t eager to find out and be blown to smithereens. When one of the Session Pounds approached, she lined up a shot with her grappling hook. Striking it, she fired off the other end and tethered it to another nearby Session Pound. Ideally, they would explode together. At the very least, the restriction would make them get in each other’s way. Casting her eyes upward before the smoke filled the room, she fired her grappling hook to the ceiling. ”I’m ascending!” There she ascended and landed with agility on one of the beams in the darkness. Midna dropped then just then, clearing the room of much smoke with an impressive stormy maneuver.

As Benedict took the defensive, and Midna was being chased around by the blinking bombs, she realized that they were low on front line fighters. And it seemed they were lacking on ranged capabilities. At the very least, Midna seemed hesitant to fire into the smoke.

”Bah! I’m coming back down!” Karin certainly couldn’t leave Goldlewis to fight off the exploding monsters by himself. As quickly as she ascended to the ceiling, she dropped down even faster, pulling herself in a blur to the floor. She quickly targeted more foes with her grappling hook, tethering them to the ground and each other as they approached. Improvising, she picked up a nearby cinder block with her hook and rather unelegantly chucked it at a stuck Session Pound, hoping her sheer power would make the cinder block a deadly thrown weapon. Enough to damage an unknowable monster?

Karin was always ready to simply block the creatures if it came down to it. Her defensive ki was ready to act. Though how many explosions she could absorb at once without her guard breaking, she couldn’t know. That wasn’t even taking into consideration the chip damage.

Perhaps her last experience with taking on a monstrous, inhuman opponent had left her being overly cautious. Or maybe she was just trying to fight tactically this time. Karin couldn’t learn until the battle was over.

The Seekers picked up the pace through the slum town after Giovanna explained to Pit the difference between salvage and service, as she'd put it. She was also right that the merchant hadn't been able to help them, but not for lack of trying. In fact he tagged along with the group, looking to do some good. He introduced himself as Partitio, and likewise the angel proudly gave the man his own name and rank.

They continued on their way to the depot, and from there Pit watched Giovanna go off to negotiate while Zenkichi and Poppi spoke with some acquaintances. People they'd met yesterday? For such a huge city it's pretty lucky to run into the same people again, Pit thought, the implication that the Rust Crew were here for the same reason as them flying completely over his head at first. While they conversed, Roxas ran off in a hurry. Curious, Pit's gaze followed the boy until he met with a familiar looking spiky haired man.

It's Cloud!

Truthfully he didn't know Cloud all that well, but he recognized that iconic hairdo. He wasn't able to hear what the three were saying to each other, and Cloud and the woman he was with were off in a hurry before Pit could recover and go over there himself. From his run in with Ken the other day, Pit knew that any of the fighters he was familiar with still under Galeem's spell might not remember their stint in the multi-world tournaments too well, if at all... but it would still be a great boon for them if they could get the man back to his senses. But it could wait, for now. It was enough to know where another fellow Smasher was. After they dealt with the machines they could come back.

When the group boarded the two trucks Pit claimed the driver's seat of one of them, absolutely tickled that it would be driving itself. He'd be kicked out of the spot on the way back, if not even sooner, but at the moment he busied himself with studying how the pedals and clutch were moving as well as the scenery they passed. If this has been a natural work, the mega metropolis of Midgar sprouting from the ruins of whatever this city was would have been like a forest flourishing after a fire, but in reality it was just more ruins cut and pasted into place.

Eventually he turned around in his seat, peering over the headrest at the truck's other occupants. his eyes settled on Roxas. Though he didn't look all that eager to talk, Pit asked him a question anyway. "Hey, what did Cloud say?" His eyes were wide with curiosity, and he didn't even question how Roxas knew the man.

When Susie asked what she thought they'd find out there, the angel turned his attention to her. "By us, you mean us us?" he asked, curious as to what she wanted it for. She then mentioned setting up some defenses for the city behind them, using an acronym that he didn't know but chose to interpret as "hype, wild, and cool." When he imagined the remains of a robot battle, it was antennas and metal lobster-like claws, or big buzz-saws and blinking lights strewn over the ground. Assuming that was the kind of scrap the salvage crews would be collecting, he was confident they'd find some hype, wild, and cool tech for sure!

"If you're thinking about defenses for the city, maybe we'll find some laser guns, or those electro-beam things... or a mega buster!" Any of those could probably be turned into defenses by the technologically inclined. "But if we do our job right we'll be stopping any robots... I mean any enemy robots from getting to the city in the first place!"

And for the record, he was still up for some factory infiltration afterward if they managed to chase them all the way back to their bases. Having been thrown into plenty of situations that could be described as deathtraps before, he knew it wasn't an easy ask. But how were they supposed to stop the Ever Crisis, or this part of it, otherwise? Still, first thing's first - fending the robots off. The trucks continued to rumble towards their pre-set destination.




After going from the demon attack at the library to running from police to fighting the police to trudging through the snowy city streets, Grammeowster's Kitchen was a welcome change of pace. It was warm and comfortable inside, with a touch of the familiar. It wasn't until everyone was resting that the Ace Cadet actually realized why that was, and a smile formed on his face that wouldn't leave. The rustic living quarters above the restaurant made it really feel like coming home after a rough day; hopefully the others felt the same kind of contentment while it lasted.

The Cadet striped off his large outer coat and draped it over the back of a wooden chair, next to where he'd set his backpack down. From his things he offered Albedo a mega potion for his wound, and Frisk something to defend herself with should they run into trouble again. Which honestly was only a matter of time.

With Sierra still unconscious, the group was left to kill some time. With some pent up energy left in him, the Cadet walked once around the table in the center of the room just to really take the place in and then announced to the others, "I'm gonna go downstairs for a bit."

He descended into the actual restaurant section of Grammeowster's Kitchen. His intent was to chat up the felynes, but his mouth had been beginning to water even from upstairs. Food would come first. He got a table to himself and ordered three dishes, a basted sushifish, marinated carpaccio, and some kind of roast. He hadn't paid much attention to what exactly was being roasted, but it looked great. It tasted even better. He made quick work of all three, with a familiar brandy called Snowmelt Snifter to wash it down.

The open-style kitchen gave the restaurant patrons a decent view of the cats making their food. The Ace Cadet caught sight of the proprietress, and though it was the first time he'd seen her he thought she had to be the same "Grammeowster" that the Meowscular Chef spoke so highly of. He left a pile of gold on the table to cover his bill and approached the counter where the Grammeowster was, and she smiled at the hunter.

"Thanks for letting us stay here," he told the elder cat. "Anything I can help with?"

"Can mew cook?"

If her customers would be alright with kebabs roasted over a spit, then technically yes. "I'm a better taste-tester," he said instead with a wide grin, drawing a chuckle from the Grammeowster.

"Nyat too good too wash dishes, are mew?"

"Of course not!" he said, already beginning to roll up his sleeves. "Just point me in the right direction."

"Oh wondermew. This way."

As she led him to the back of the house the Cadet asked the question that has been on his mind through dinner. "Chef, you were part of the Research Commission right? With the First Fleet?"

The Grammeowster Chef's ears flicked under her head scarf and she let out a long sigh, though it was filled with warmth rather than wistfulness.

"I haven't thought about that in a long time, child. Retired about... twenty years ago meow," she replied, adjusting the small set of glasses on her nose and appraising the young man. "Mew too?"

"Yep, with the Fifth Fleet."

"Me-wow, they're all still working hard aren't they?"

The two of them chatted even after the Cadet took to his volunteer task, diving elbow deep into a sink piled with dishes next to a felyne standing on a stool. The Grammeowster Chef asked after her old fleet companions, and the Ace Cadet told her all about the current Astera. When she had to return to the front of the house, some of the staff took her place in the conversation as they came and went through the kitchen. None of them had been to the New World, so their questions were much wilder in nature, but the Cadet was happy to entertain them with tales of his own exploits - and those of the much beloved Sapphire Star.

When the kitchen's sink was empty and spotless, the Cadet was feeling very relaxed. Still, he couldn't forget that there was a whole other world outside of the restaurant's doors and foreign friends just upstairs. He put another order in and poked through the kitchen for a quick snack before returning upstairs.

When he entered the borrowed rooms it was with two platters in hand; one was an entire roast fowl on a bed of greens, the other a hash of spiced tubers that smelled divine, both the courtesy of the Grammeowster Chef. The hunter himself had a cinnamon roll held between his teeth as he walked in, though when he noticed Sierra was awake he hurried over to the bedside table to deposit the food and finish off his dessert.

"Thought mew guys might be hungry," he said, seeing as Big Band and Sierra hadn't been able to take a trip to the kitchen like the others had. After being filled on what happened to Sierra, the smile that had been on his face all evening finally started to dim. What was with these Consuls, why were they so determined to do harm? For the time being it was probably best for the trainer to stay out of sight too, lest she suffer anymore at the whims of a Consul. I hope the Spheals are alright, the Cadet thought offhandedly.

"So what's the plan meow? Er, now?"

---

The plan for now was rest up, recharge, and lay low. Easy enough, but there was also the matter of skeletons being raised at night. Based on everything Frisk and Big Band had said, the phenomenon was connected to Linkle. Knowing that, the Ace Cadet suited up again and left their hideout under the cover of night to investigate, and he wouldn't be the only one. Those that weren't staying behind split up to cover more ground, intending on making their way back to Grammeowster’s Kitchen after they were finished.

With coats like his a common sight in the winter city, the Cadet wasn't worried about drawing unnecessary attention as he moved about the streets. He pulled the fluffy hood of the garment up around his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets as he wandered. He passed a couple of people still out at this time of night, and he could hear the dull thump of music being played by some establishments open late, but otherwise the start of his investigation was pretty calm.

Eventually he drew to stop and leaned against the brick wall of some building to coax the scoutflies from the cage affixed to the holster on his chest. They slowly began to swarm, little clusters of green light growing brighter and flying around in a loose sphere shape.

"I snow its a long shot, but think you can find Linkle?" he asked the insects. They were really smart critters, but given the large and unfamiliar city and the changes Linkle had probably been through, he wasn't sure if they'd still be able to pick up her scent. The scoutflies swirled upward into the air and fanned out, groups of them moving in different directions before doubling back. When they gathered together again and mingled lazily around the cage, the Cadet sighed. No luck.

"Let's just keep trying," he said, moving to continue his wandering. The scoutflies remained loose, serving as a floating lantern that cast a green glow over the the sidewalk in front of him.

It was a little while more until the Cadet found anything, and technically the flies found it first. They scooted down an alleyway, buzzing brightly, when their green bodies turned to red. The Cadet blinked in surprise. The scoutflies sensed danger and retreated back into their cage. At the other end of the alley was a person slowly walking away. No... on second look it wasn't exactly a person.

A skeleton in a helmet shambled out of the narrow space until it was on an adjoining road. It didn't notice the monster hunter, at least until he ran right towards it. The Cadet didn't really know what he expected when he approached instead of keeping his distance (an invitation back to the skullgirl's location would have been nice), but what he got was a skeleton plucking its own rib from its rib cage and chucking it directly at him. The Cadet skidded to a halt and ducked, the bone passing over his head. The skeleton was standing its ground and readying another rib to throw, so at that point the Cadet equipped his shield.

It won't run if I actually attack it, he thought, so if he wanted to try and find where Linkle was... he would have to scare it away, he guessed. There were so many factors to consider though: whether Linkle was actually in control of she skeletons or they did follow Galeem's rules, whether they would seek their master out or only move away, whether it was even possible to get them to disengage...

The skeleton threw the second bone, which ricocheted off of his shield and went flying. At the same time he felt something crack against the back of his leg, a painful but not debilitating sensation. Glancing down, he found a bone lying at his feet. Looking up, he noticed the second bone bouncing off of the alley's wall and headed right back toward him again. So it was like that, huh? He blocked the bone again and was happy to see it didn't ricochet forever. Shield first he charged to close the distance between himself and the skeleton, deciding that this one could be disposed of - and if there was one, there would probably be more so he must be going in the right direction. A couple of shield slams later and he moved on.

He didn't always have to rely on the scoutflies to alert him to the presence of the skeletons. Sometimes he could hear them, their bones creaking or clattering together as they moved through the city's streets. He found that many of them were just regular old skeletons, some were clothed and some not, and there were a few skeletons of animals among them. They were never in large groups, just as often alone as they were with a partner or two. They also didn't seem to be moving with any purpose, with no indication of where any specific one was going or clues as to where it'd come from.

The Cadet clenched his jaw, coming to realize this was going to be a lot harder than expected. He was currently peeking around a corner and watching one of the reanimated bone bags slowly chase a couple down the street. They had been spooked when they'd seen it and fled the other way so fast there was no way the skeleton would catch up to them, or else the hunter would have intervened. The more dangerous looking ones he had destroyed, especially the annoying ones of the same type he'd run into before that loved to throw bones around, but some he just tried to follow hoping they would lead him to something. It had been a couple hours and so far it just felt like he was just going in circles.

The distinct clattering sound above him drew the Cadet's gaze up. There was a large creature, half illuminated by the city's street lamps. Was that... a flying skeleton? That was new! Without skin or feathers it really shouldn't have been able to fly, but hey. Maybe it would eventually roost close to wherever it spawned from, which would hopefully be somewhere Linkle was nearby. Worth a shot! Wasn't like he was getting very far following human skeletons. As the flying undead moved through the air, the Ace Cadet did his best to keep up with it. Sometimes he had to take a roundabout route since he didn't have the benefit of wings, but with his eyes on the shadow moving through the sky he just about managed it. Eventually it stopped to perch on the edge of a building about two blocks from where the Cadet was. Now was his chance to catch up, so he darted out of the shadow of an apartment complex and across the street, into a little maintenance road—

Fwoosh. Thwack. There was a sharp stinging pain in his side where he'd been too slow to parry the blow of his ambusher, a waterlogged skeleton carrying a large spear. The second thrust was already coming, caught by the Cadet's shield. "Not Ya-cool man," he hissed, and with sword in hand he made to strike back.

Drawn by the noise, the shadow on the rooftops took to the air. It circled the scuffle a few times awaiting its opening, and then the skeleton dove. It let out no noise besides the brief clack of its joints moving, giving the Cadet barely any time to react when he caught sight of it in his peripheral vision. He raised his shield arm to protect his neck and the undead's large jaws closed around it, teeth sinking through the heavy cloth to the skin below. Well there went his best lead, there was no way he'd be getting out of this one without defeating the flying monster. The Cadet shook his arm but only earning himself deeper cuts as the skeleton refused to be dislodged that easily. Trying to take advantage of the situation, the human skeleton drove its weapon toward the Cadet's chest. It was narrowly avoided by the hunter catching the spear shaft with his own blade and forcing the head up past his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I still have a bone to pick with you," he said to the spear wielder. The Cadet braced himself and leaned forward, performing the wide circular spin slash of Round Force to push the two skeletons away from him. The flier was launched up while the pedestrian undead hit the wall behind it. It recovered faster than the other one, stabbing forward once again. This time the Cadet dodged, shoving his sword back into its sheathe and grabbing the spear. He yanked it forward and smashed his shield into the skeleton, forcing it to release its hold. The airborne enemy had gone back to circling, but when it chose to swoop in again it was now met with a weapon with much longer reach. The Ace Cadet hooked the spear through the skeleton's lower jaw bone and heaved it down to earth, slamming it against the pavement. He could hear some of its bones break, but it wasn't dead - or redead, or whatever. It writhed and twisted its body to right itself even while its skull was still upside down, but it struggled to attack like that. A few wild swipes of its claws managed to hit their mark on the Cadet, but they didn't stop him from crushing the bones of its head until it was done for good.

Deprived of its weapon, the remaining skeleton could only try lashing out with its hands. Soon enough it was reduced to rubble, and then again when it tried reanimating again. Silence returned to this part of the city, and the Cadet sighed while leaning against the spear. He wasn't sure how late it was, but he also didn't think he'd find anything more even if he stayed out. Best to get back and clean himself up. There would be time again tomorrow night, and maybe someone else had better luck than he did tonight. He returned to the Grammeowster's Kitchen and went upstairs, propping the spear up against a wall. After a quick wash he retired for the night, unwinding from the unsuccessful investigation by indulging in one of the books he'd picked up earlier by the dim light of the aquarium.

Zenkichi nodded appreciatively when Partitio confirmed that he was no slouch in a fight. He wasn't sure that'd be enough, but he could always hit the merchant with a Rakukaja to keep his defenses up. It wouldn't be the be-all and end-all of a fight, but his duty wasn't just to bring justice to the guilty, but to protect the innocent as well. And an honest merchant, risking life and limb to better the people who needed his wares? At worst, it was self-motivated in a long-term thinking kind of way. At worst. But given that he was risking his own life and limb? More likely to be genuine altruism. "Then you'll have no complaints from me." He replied simply.

His discussion with the Rust Crew went smoothly enough. It seemed like they were were considering a plan to try and hijack a DesporHado transport, which...well, it was ambitious, for sure. Though it also didn't seem like they were entirely on board with the plan themselves, and were happy to hitch along with a less insane plan when offered the opportunity. He wasn't sure how he felt about Cain's flirting with Poppi, but the android herself didn't seem terribly perturbed, at least not enough to speak up, which he'd gotten the impression she was more than comfortable with doing.

It looked like they'd be getting on the scrapper transports, which were automated to go to the area and leave for home at set times. Giovanna seemed confident enough in the little round guy's hacking skills to assume that he'd be able to mess with that programming. He wasn't in any position to doubt those skills, given that it also seemed like he'd built Poppi himself. He thought he'd heard something about a family project, but even with help, it still meant he was certainly quite the clever little guy.

Partitio speaking to the scavengers to get some better equipment, trading in his old, low-quality gear, was a point in the newcomer's favor. Zenkichi could manage without armor thanks to Valjean, Giovanna had that wolf partner of hers, Poppi was a friggin combat android, Pit was apparently an angel, Roxas had honest-to-goodness magic, and Susie...he wasn't actually sure what Susie's deal in a fight was. She seemed very techy, maybe she had some kind of hacking deal? Still, her robotic nature meant she'd inherently have some protection against damage. Tora was another matter he wasn't sure about, but he very obviously wasn't human, and Zenkichi wasn't going to assume he couldn't hold his own. All in all, he felt confident about their odds against the Machines.

As they all got into their vehicles to be driven to the salvage zone, Zenkichi couldn't help but notice that Roxas was...well, brooding would be the way he'd put it, but that wouldn't go over well with a kid to tell them that. He wasn't sure he had any advice for him, though, so Zenkichi kept his mouth shut. Susie's idea about adding turrets to the border down made Zenkichi chuckle a little. "That's if Upper Midgar doesn't take them for themselves once they hear about us making proper armaments. Can't even be bothered to fix the outer wall..." He wasn't sure why Konoe wasn't taking things more seriously, especially given his obsession with being a hero, but then again, the Konoe he was used to didn't have that Heidegger in his name, and he was a tech guy, not a cop.

As the trucks rumbled on, Zenkichi looked outwards and sighed at the devastation around them. "It's like it's out of some post-apocalyptic TV show..." He muttered, wondering what exactly happened. Had this been placed here, just like that, plucked from some ruined world, or had this been a thriving community that was destroyed?

---

“Just go around-” Jesse scoffed to Nadia. “I’m trying to cover you. You know. All ‘teammate’ like?” She joked.

Regardless, Ichiban prevent a loss of resources and they were all on the move. They avoided a few more weird amalgamations, who seemed as indestructible as they were indecisive. Jesse Evaded and Levitated past all of them.

Finally they made it to meet IGV, who revealed himself as ‘Iguana Gallo Valleto’.

What a name. This guy was destined to be a wizard. Or the owner of a barely-legal exotic animal petting zoo.

Long story short, Jesse saw the guy as a talented visionary with a big ego who got spurned big time by the evil Consul P. Those evil guys creating and enslaving the entire world and keep it in eternal conflict.

IGV gave them the run down of the bad guys they were up against. Storming the castle directly was probably not a good idea, so it made sense to divide and conquer. Going up against the captains and lieutenants first would weaken the infrastructure, making the finishing blow possible to strike.

She didn’t know if IGV was entirely trustworthy. But he seemed genuine enough and this was a lot of info to leak, or pretend to leak, if he was for some reason working with Consul P. With a bit of scouting and caution, they would easily be able to verify if the intel was good. Because if all these targets just turned out to be people this guy didn’t like, that would be big trouble.

But anyone supporting Consul P and thus the Consuls and thus the Guardians and thus Galeem, was a valid target in Jesse’s mind.

Primrose made a good point that matched with what Jesse was thinking. “Bingo. Hit ‘em all on the same day. Same hour, even.”

Jesse looked at the map. “Nice.” She said, rubbing her chin.

The Director tapped the map, pointing to the western district. “This guy’s in a school? That might be weird. Or dangerous. Maybe we could draw him out first.” She said. If no one else would volunteer, she would go. Her fighting style wasn’t exactly quiet, but the Tool Gun meant she could aid in some serious infiltration. At the very least, no conventional means of security could keep her out.

Even if the vista of desolation laid out before Tora, filtered through the dreary haze of a raincloud-gray sky, filled him with a sense of melancholy, it couldn’t dampen his spirit for too long when he kept such good company. Naturally he could face just about anything with Poppi around, but the team’s newest recruit took an interest in the rotund engineer as well, and soon Tora found himself engaged in a lengthy conversation with Partitio to pass the time. Though different in disposition and speciality, they shared a sense of curiosity that made it easy to communicate, and of course Tora was only too happy to tell the merchant all about his pride and joy.

“This is Poppi!” he practically sang, gesturing toward Poppi with both wings open like a showman. If his companion had the room, she might have performed a curtsy or some similar elegant formality, but without the space to do so inside the tricks interior she struck a pose with her hands on her hips, her head turned sideways with an amused smile. “Poppi invention of Tora, meh. She Artificial Blade originally designed to replicate capabilities of blade one-to-one, but after many-much adventure and development Poppi come into her own as incredible fighter and true-blue companionpon! Crux of matter is indispensable Ether Furnace, originally designed by Grampypon Soosoo and iterated upon by daddypon Tatazo, which draw in naturally occurring ether from environment for use as fuel. Can also reconstruct both body and weapons using ether to suit any challenge, meh. As product of many many long days and sleepless nights shut up in house, Poppi truly bestest invention, and living proof that Tora bestest inventor!”

He squeezed his partner close in a big hug, although his eyes bugged out slightly when Poppi squeezed him back, squishing him like a giant stress ball. “Most modest inventor, too,” she joked.

Cain, who happened to be riding in the truck, rested his chin in his hand in a thoughtful expression. “Ah, a homemade masterpiece. Zat would explain why even in a city chock-full of machines, you truly seem to be one of a kind.” His bright blue optics roved between Tora and Poppi. “Alzough, I am curious about one thing, monsieur. How do you see her?”

“Meh-meh?” Tora blinked. “Not sure what friend mean.”

“Hmm…” Crossing his arms, Cain tried to think of how to phrase this. “What I mean is, what is ze nature of your relationship? Do you see her as, say, your daughter? Or perhaps something more…intimate?”

The question seemed to perplex the Nopon. “...Not sure actually, meh. Not really give it much thought. All Tora know for sure is that Tora like Poppi very much!”

Cain tried to read Poppi’s expression, but her mental state was inscrutable. “Fair enough, monsieur!” he replied, and the topic ended there.



Eventually, the trucks groaned to a halt at their pre-programmed destination. Eager to stretch their legs and stimulate their senses after the stiff, sore, and somewhat boring journey, everyone climbed out and set foot for the first time in the Valley of Ruin. It didn’t take a lot of perception to see why this spot had been chosen as a salvage point. Neither Tora or Poppi recognized the once-proud machine splayed out before them, but the sight of a crashed passenger plane made Giovanna take a sharp breath. It lay in huge, grisly pieces with its tail in the air, its right wing lodged in a nearby building like a broken axeblade left to rust in a tree. Its cabin, ripped clean off by the catastrophe that transpired here, had come to rest a couple dozen feet away, the broken glass of its windows listlessly reflecting the rainy day’s dim light, streaking down rivulets of rainwater like tears. At one point this section of destroyed city might have been a bustling, vividly-lit Chinatown, but all that remained now were the characters on decimated signs and red paper lanterns dangling from what few cable lines still clung to their crooked poles.

Especially with today’s weather, it was a terribly solemn place, but the sight of the airplane’s hull reminded Tora and Poppi why they were here. It had already been thoroughly picked over by previous salvage crews, who’d unscrewed or cut off panel after panel of usable metal to make good use of the precious steel, titanium, and aluminum. Most of the other loot around here had already been claimed as well, but a little delving could still uncover a variety of suitcases with small amounts of cloth, batteries, booze, snacks, hair and face products, pills, cash, and other such goods. The trucks themselves also made sure to remind the alleged salvagers to get to work before time ran out. Nineteen minutes, twelve seconds remaining, the displays on their dashboard consoles read, counting out the seconds before the trucks’ automated departure. Of course, the Seekers weren’t here to salvage, and they had no intention of letting their rides leave them behind. Giovanna approached Tora. “Ready to do your thing?” she asked.

“Born ready, meh.” Once helped into the driver’s seat by a boost from Poppi, the Nopon put down his toolbox, pulled out his microcontroller kit, and after a couple moments spent configuring the adapter, plugged right into the truck’s console port. He got tap-tap-tapping straightaway, a rather pleased look on his smug little face. “This too easy for top-of-class code monkeypon like Tora, meh,” he said, despite having not taken any classes. Quickly he accessed the vehicle’s internal self-driving system. “Only have, what, ten circuit boards?” It didn’t take long at all to disable the truck’s automatic route. “Looks like it only drive on pre-recorded route, so can’t turn autopilot back on to get back afterward,” he noted. “Hopefully someone pay more attention to route on way here than Tora.”

Poppi frowned, thinking. “I can surface those memories. We should be fine.”

She helped her Masterpon out of the first truck, then boosted him up to repeat the process for the second. At the same time, the Rust Crew finished casing the area and reconvened with Giovanna beneath a surviving overhang to get out of the rain. “So. Now that we’re in the woods, all that’s left is to go hunting, eh?” Marshall asked.

The secret agent nodded. So far, her team had spotted a handful of Machines scattered around the area. Whether bipedal or aerial, they just seemed to mill about, although Giovanna couldn’t discard the possibility that these units were scouts as well. “Uh huh. Recon ‘til we find anything that looks like an assault force. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so we should get moving. And destroy those Machines whenever possible. We don’t wanna let them pile up.” It looked like another long, footsore day. Even if the coat she’d borrowed from the Salvage Depot hampered her style, Giovanna was glad to have some protection against the rain.

“We oughta use the trucks to drive between vantage points,” Bo mentioned. “The higher the better.”

With that plan in mind, the teams got underway, identifying four high-altitude locations in different directions from the crash site that they could visit to survey the area. The Rust Crew took their truck northwest in the direction of an abandoned factory where a surviving smokestack offered a good spot to get a lay of the land. Tora and Poppi went with them, then broke off on the way to fly west toward a handful of overgrown highrises.

The other truck took Partitio, Susie, Giovanna, Pit, Roxas, and Zenkichi further south. There lay a district of flooded ruin in the shade of a great tree that grew from two skyscrapers that collapsed against one another. Strange Machines inhabited this zone, like the troops of baboon-like Clamberjaws that prowled the overgrown in search of fresh scrap, happy to use their tail dusters to spray noxious fumes or hurl hunks of metal ablaze with foul chemical fire. In and around the waterways lurked crocodilian Snapjaws able to slow down targets with sprays of freezing water to leave them vulnerable to a killer lunge. Worse still were the bulky resource collectors known as Widemaws, which used powerful vacuums to suck up minerals into their massive, drill-filled jaws for grinding. Further still stood a couple Shellwalkers stockpiling resources collected by other Machines into their containers. Not too far east stood an intact construction crane overlooking a neighborhood that never was. That crane crawled with Simians however, and the entire neighborhood featured a conspicuous patrol of Assault Shooters and Rapid Shooters. Wherever the Seekers went, excitement was sure to follow.



When the monsters appeared, Goldlewis was ready. From the moment he lost sight of the sky he’d been on high alert, cautiously moving step by step through the underground railway labyrinth as he waited for humanity’s enemies to appear, whether he found them or they found him. Now, the bright red flash of the Session Pounds and the bulbous, bloated silhouettes of Rotwarts through the smoke, bouncing along like over-inflated balloons just waiting to burst, kicked him into action. He’d seen enough of war to know that any enemies that single-mindedly charged like this with no visible weapons were detonators.

“Get behind me!” he called out gruffly, stepping backward to try and herd the others back the way they came, out of the open where an attack could come from any angle. Instead Midna disappeared, and the others might be similarly disinclined to be protected, but Goldlewis was undeterred. His coffin slammed to the ground with a thoom, and the lid slid open. From insight the UMA’s spindly arms lifted up the Skyfish minigun, which Goldlewis gladly took and hoisted in his massive arms. Bullets sprayed through the haze and punctured several Rotwarts, detonating them long before they could reach their targets, but even though he lit up a pair of Session Pounds they neither exploded nor were visibly wounded. The minigun clicked empty, and after a disappointed click of his tongue in reply Goldlewis stowed it away. “Darnit. The flyin’ ones are goin’ out on their terms!” he warned the others. As the Others closed in, he lifted his coffin up like a shield, a semblance of a plan in mind.

In the smoke, Midna descended on one of the Mission Pounds. It fought back to preserve its own life, whirling around in a circle like a pinwheel to try and strike its attacker with its metal body, but it couldn’t effectively counter the princess’s attack. Her angle and elemental attacks left it disoriented and tingling with electricity, leaving it open for continuous assault until she managed to finish it off. While the Missin Pound’s death didn’t make the smoke around it vanish, it would soon dissipate without the source to replenish it, and as the screen began to clear Midna tangled with a Session Pound of her own. It did not go down easily, and when she escaped between some pipes the explosive Other struggled for only a moment before circling around to find another route. These things were determined. Floating lazily over the battlefield made Blazermate a prime target for them; even if she could see them coming thanks to her scan, this area wasn’t enormous. Getting surrounded was both surprisingly easy and extremely punishing.

Karin found a way to use the Session Pounds’ relentless pursuit against them, however. Even if these enemies proved frustratingly unsuitable for melee combat, she could demonstrate clever use of the other tools at her disposal. With her grappling hook she bound two of them together, and almost instantly the Others got tangled around a pipe. Completely at odds in terms of directional movement, they tugged and tugged, hopelessly wrapping themselves around the pipe like a giant set of bolas. Shortly after binding themselves so tightly that they couldn’t move anymore, the Session Pounds wrenched the section of rusted pipe clean off, which sent them spiraling into a corner of the room. There, Karin’s cinderblock promptly smacked into one of them, making it think it had been struck by something in melee range. It blew up, and the one at the other end of the line quickly followed suit, shaking the underground chamber with the twin explosions but hurting nobody. At the same time, water began to pour from the broken pipe, quickly pooling and spreading across the floor of the room. The Rootwarts splashed through it heedlessly, unaware of the potential hazard sloshing at their gnarled feet.

A couple Session Pounds closed in on the spot where Goldlewis stood in front of Geralt and Benedict. The latter used his new striker to sling an ice spell at one of them, but the freeze did not proc. Goldlewis prepared to swing his coffin to try and squash the Others with a Behemoth Typhoon or two, but he changed his mind at the last moment. If these things were going to wait to explode until in the perfect range to do so, he might as well let them–as long as they couldn’t hurt him or his team. The veteran slammed his coffin foot-first onto the ground in front of him, and blue light flared out from within. A glowing hex shield appeared, covering almost the entire room to either side of Goldlewis from wall to wall, and when the Session Pounds blew up against it the barrier held firm. “Hmph!” he snorted, smoothing over his hair with his other hand.

Once Midna and Karin finished dispatching their own targets, and however many detonators crashed against the rocks of Goldlewis’ shore to be broken, the scary but brief encounter came to an end. “Nothin’ to it,” he said breezily, slinging his coffin back over his shoulder. He glanced down at he spirits left behind by the tam’s fallen foes, wondering if creatures like those could be made into Strikers that could explode like that whenever summoned. They might work even better than his Thunderbird drones. Then again, given how Strikers worked, that might blow him up. “Hmm.” Leaving Midna to round the spirits up, he continued on his way.





Continuing in the same direction brought the team to another abandoned train platform, separated by another platform to either side by train tracks that led into collapsed tunnels. The escalators that led upward also turned out to be dead ends, but the path continued straight ahead. Unfortunately, this liminal space wasn’t unoccupied. Three particularly bizarre Others called it home, two on the left side platform and one on the right. The Saliva Santas appeared to be male and female bodies conjoined at the midsection, where they sat upon a metal box, and covered in blue fish scales. The male halves would use their head-tentacles to spray beams of watery spit at the Seekers from a distance. Their long-range sniping, performed either as precision shots or big sweeps, would stop only if they ran dry, their targets got too close, or they completely lost sight of them. In the first case the Santas’ male halves would plunge their tentacles into the ports on the females’ heads to extract saliva for a refill, and in the second the Santas would retreat into their extremely durable boxes. Fighting them at melee range necessitated taking them completely by surprise.

These Others proved to be a huge pain for Goldlewis. He couldn’t outmatch them from long range, he couldn’t hide behind the pillars in the room to cover his approach, and even when he finally got to the one on the right he couldn’t crack its shell before it blasted him back with an explosive saliva reversal while still encased. “Consarn it all!” he spat, red with frustration and supplied with no shortage of spittle himself. Since the Santas seemed more keen on being massive annoyances than actually moving, he turned and left the room using his Wall of Light for protection. “Rat bastards,” he muttered as he proceeded to the next room. Once everyone got through the door, he slammed it closed and shoved a piece of rubble in front of it to keep it shut even if the Saliva Santas managed to drag themselves over, provided any survived the other Seekers. “The Scarlet Guardians can have ‘em.”



It was in the next, much larger room that the heroes found their next real challenge. Inside the reinforced cylindrical station, illuminated by the vivid red light of a high-power flare, were two large Others. Both sported equine hindquarters, long tails perfect for whipping, and treelike heads sprouting from metal valves. The one in full bloom with burgundy leaves, the Winery Chinery, lay on the ground like a tiger as it cleaned blood from its nails. Its counterpart with branches as bare of leaves as trees in midwinter, the Slippy Chinery, was on its feet and eating something. Fresh ashes lay piled around their feet. When they smelled the Seekers’ brains, they turned to look together, staring with the holes in their metal faces. Then they roared, the horrid noise reverberating through the room. The Winery Chinery crackled with electricity, and the Slipper Chinery lifted a hand to turn the valve on its head. Oil flowed from its pores to coat its metallic body, and after another moment the huge Other turned invisible. A torrent of water burst from the Winery Chinery’s face a moment later, forcing the Seekers to break formation as the battle began.





For the remainder of Gallo’s exposé on the machinations of Consul P’s inner circle, Nadia kept quiet and listened. The rain drummed down on the windows and walls, steady as ever. Its rhythm and purity helped her both relax and focus as she considered the new road this stranger laid out before him. He made it sound as if P were little more than an upjumped brat, given enough undeserved power and authority to let his worst nature run rampant, and that once these Agarthans were out of the picture his downfall would be straightforward enough. Nadia liked having a plan to follow; nothing felt quite as satisfying as the moment when all the dominos fell just as planned and she pulled off the perfect crime.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little conflicted. On one hand, though an expert in subterfuge, Nadia Fortune was a thief, not an assassin. Once the Seekers disassembled Those Who Slither in the Dark, the last step of the mission would be squashing P himself, who -as Gallo rather callously mentioned- was a child. A loathsome, selfish, and abusive child, but still. On the other hand, this whole scheme felt just a little too good to be true. The Seekers would still need to put in some work, but Gallo’s plan made the elimination of a Consul sound simple, and could that really be the case for a member of such a powerful organization? Gallo himself gave off a rather villainous impression, with ‘mad scholar of magic’ written all over him. Then again, his ego was his whole reason for rebelling against P to begin with, and ratting out his master like this was a pretty big risk. He couldn’t stand up to P on his own, and if he thought the Seekers could, he couldn’t oppose them either if he went for some sort of double-cross. He wasn’t being all mysterious and secretive either, which was nice. Nadia decided that she felt optimistic about this.

Some of the others had questions. Sectonia immediately volunteered herself for the Agarthan stationed in the Royal Quarter; regardless of whether or not she possessed a discrete bone in her body, she heard the word ‘royal’ and went straight for it. Rather than try to figure out where to start on her own she asked Gallo, who gave a nonplussed shrug as he turned up his nose. “I’m not what you’d call a socialite,” he told her. “If you’re as well-versed in the games of nobles as you claim, I wouldn’t dare offer any puerile suggestions. Your own expertise would surely serve you better?” Primrose asked him about Shambhala, and Gallo shared what little he knew. “I would not be at all averse to joining any raid you may envision on Shambhala,” he added. “While I greatly prefer the study to the battlefield, I daresay my signature weapon would be an invaluable means of support. I do insist upon being there when P flees to his sanctum, however. I want to see his face when I spring the trap. I care not who does the honors after that.”

Kamek lavished Gallo with flattery, but he took it in stride. Evidently all the honeyed words in the world would do him less good than seeing P and his toadies dealt with once and for all. Kamek and Primrose’s other suggestions, however, he did agree with. “Indeed, I bid you make haste,” Gallo advised. “Not so much that you slip up and botch things, mind, but the sooner the better. Strike as the iron’s hot, as they say. I myself will return to Gallo Tower and keep watch from the Clock Run. When you’re ready, I will open the gates” Rising from his seat, Gallo prepared to leave. He sighed heavily at Kamek’s last question. “Truth be told, I wish there was an easy way through here. But I picked this place for secrecy, not ease of access. I will simply walk. If you choose to descend through the air, be aware that the pounding rain is strong enough to beat down most winged fliers. It would not do to see my new associates dashed upon the pavement due to impatience.”

He took one step, then paused. “Oh, one more thing. I believe that the last person to run afoul of the Agarthans without a plan is currently imprisoned somewhere in Shambhala. She may be of use if you free her.”

After that he began the descent, not waiting for the others. On the way through the hallway he almost ran into a yellow dinosaur on her way back from her kitchen to her room with a steaming cup of instant ramen. “Doctor,” Gallo greeted nonchalantly as he passed, glancing in the direction of her room’s open door.

Alphys looked confused at seeing someone else in the Soul Sanctum for a moment, but when Gallo’s eyes roved perilously near her computer screen she moved like lightning to block the door. “D-don’t look in there!” A second later the door slammed shut, punctuated by the sound of multiple locks closing in quick succession. Gallo was already on the move, however. Before making his way downstairs he activated some sort of magic which began sending out light-blue rays in a rotating ring around him. If anyone followed behind him, they’d see that when the rays came in contact with a monster, whether patient or Amalgamate, the aggressor would be frozen in time for a moment while Gallo coolly slunk by.

Nadia did not go back down through the Soul Sanctum. She planned to climb down the building’s exterior, confident that her claws’ grip would outmatch the heavy rainfall. Before going, however, she took a few moments to confer with everyone else. “Well, I don’t really have any objections,” she piped up. “Could be some kinda trap, but I’m not seein’ it. If he tried actin’ all nice he might be hidin’ somethin’, but you can always trust a jerk to act like a jerk. And if it’s jerk-on-jerk violence, no matter who loses, the good guys win!” The bigger issue at the moment seemed to be Consul P’s childlike appearance and demeanor. Something poignant occurred to Nadia as she mulled the matter over, though. “Well…we did kill that Orphan of Kos thing, and we literally watched it get born. And it caused a lot less sufferin’ than P, it sounds like. Plus, P’s the guy who tried to kill us already, right? So if you ask me, the kid gloves are off!”

At the very least, step one of the plan -get rid of the Agarthan kingpins- was agreed upon. “So what, one or two of us per target?” Nadia ventured. “Well, Gallo said the one at the circus is an assassin, yeah? Why noy send in someone who can’t be backstabbed?” Pulling out her box cutters, she neatly stored their blades in her case and slid the grips into her belt with a flourish. “I’m down to clown.” Once everyone decided between Kronya at the Amusement Park, Solon at the Downtown school, Cleobulus in the Royal Quarter, and Thales in Shambhala, everyone could split up and begin their separate missions.

---

Now that the Seekers knew the names to look for, the ones that went to the Royal Quarter didn’t need to spend that much time searching at all. The word ‘Cornelia’ was plastered on almost every sign, display screen, and bulletin board they found, and her face -a visage of uncommon beauty and smirking, unfettered pride- appeared an all kinds of advertisements from fashion brands to perfume, but nothing so much as what appeared to be her pride and joy: the Royal Canopy Club. All the ads for that particular club, evidently the pinnacle of the Royal Quarter’s high-society artistry and entertainment, mentioned breathtaking performances ‘all night long - for the sun never rises in the Home of Tears’. They also listed off a number of other star performers, so it wasn’t exactly clear if Cornelia would perform herself, or merely ran the show. At least the Seekers knew a likely spot to find her, but dealing with someone whose modus operandi seemed to be making sure as many people as possible were giving her attention at any given moment might be difficult.

Unless Cornelia could be beaten at her own game. The descriptions of the Royal Canopy painted one other picture about it: that it was where the best of the best singers, players, and dancers proved themselves, specifically over one another, all vying for the crown in a sort of musical battle royale. They fought for the favor of the esteemed patrons who attended their performances from their galleries on high, sipping fancy drinks and dabbing their lips with fancy napkins, and those who managed to win the audience’s adoration through skill and spectacle were promised fame and fortune. Looking at the Royal Canopy through that lens, it seemed almost like a dolled-up colosseum, and if someone possessed the right skills for the job -as well as an ‘in’- they might be able to upstage even the gala queen herself.

---

Nestled in the less-cluttered, less-claustrophobic part of the Downtime district, the Seekers could find the school they were looking for. Aptly titled ‘School’, it lay not far from the cavern wall, and it featured its own little fenced-off grounds where great pains were taken to preserve facsimiles of green grass, autumn trees, and white picket fences beneath a gigantic umbrella that shielded against the constant rain, beneath the apex of which warmly-colored spotlights served as an artificial sun. The result was a comfy, establishment of brown brick and white marble with a nostalgic small-town aesthetic, and though the recreated environment was ultimately a lie, the atmosphere it created probably did help keep the students’ depression at bay.



Somewhere inside that school, according to Gallo, was the Agarthan Dark Bishop Solon, disguised as the schoolteacher Tomas. Even if the Seekers ultimately decided to eliminate P, endangering the lives of normal children was probably out of the question, but that made things difficult. Their target was someone everyone in this establishment probably liked or at the very least knew. Chances were that he’d be surrounded by kids, and given his true identity as a villain, the worst case scenario could be very, very bad.

Luck might be on the Seekers’ side, however. Today was, after all, Sunday, and school was out for the weekend.

---

The Amusement Park was a curious place. Normally, any circus would have to be canceled if it rained, but given the circumstances this one had to adapt. As much, the entire fairgrounds essentially lay beneath a sea of red-and-white striped fabric awnings, some of them several stories high. All the water got channeled into the narrow canals that criss-crossed the district, small enough for even young monsters to hop over easily. Only the roller coasters and water rides were exposed to the elements. Everything else was dry, not to mention a bombastic bonanza of flashing lights, wild noises, and noisy attractions. Alongside the guests here, who themselves were monsters of all shapes and sizes, there were also tons of clowns. Some were silly, some were sweet, some were smug, and some were a little spooky, but all were generally trying to make sure the visitors had a good time.

“Wow…this place is in-tents!”

Of course, Nadia didn’t need a clown’s help to be all smiles. Already sunny by nature, she felt almost giddy just being around here. She hadn’t been somewhere this fun and jovial since Carnival Town after all, which felt like ages ago. Sadly, the feral knew she was here on business, not pleasure. Somewhere among all the fun and games was a killer in disguise. “Alright,” she muttered to herself, narrowing her eyes to get her bearings. “If I were a murder-lovin’ psycho lady, where would I hide…?”

—

Sakura backed up as the Rut began to spin, but the extended prongs, sharp and dangerous, caught her off guard. One of them slashed across her face. Sakura gasped and rolled back to her feet. There was a spark of defensive ki that kept her head from splitting open, but she felt warm blood trickle down her cheek. She was lucky it was below the eye. Gotta be careful.

Just then, the other Rat Rut backed up its buddy, and fired a barrage of oil her way. ”Guess it’s a two-on-one!”

She dove out of the way of incoming oil. It pooled hotly onto the spot where she just was. Coming out of her roll, she launched a hadoken at the base of the spinning Rut. ”Hadoken!” Right for its wheel. The impact launched it up and it had to stop spinning and speed off to prevent itself from falling on its side.

Avoiding more oil with a jump, she advanced on the Rut #2. It charged at her and she jumped over it, slamming it on the armored behind with a hammer swing for its trouble.

Just then the Rut #1 came around for a charge and she avoided it with a sideways leap. Time to adapt. She followed it and slammed her fists into it, focusing it down. She backed up before it started spinning.

Some of the oil hit her in the back and she hissed, jerking forward from the impact. One probably wouldn’t be a problem. But two was a real fight. Sakura, however, was getting a sense for the ranges of the creatures. They were predictable.

Too close, they span. At their ideal range, they did donuts. Avoid that range. Far away, they charged. Close to another rut, they shot oil. It was just a pattern, like in the training arena. All she had to do was figure out when to strike, when to dodge, and when to switch targets. It didn’t take long. Sakura was smart. She knew she was smart. Knee strikes, hammer swings, dodge rolls and leaps. She could play them.

Finally, she found it. Her goldilocks zone. Grinning now, her headband trailing behind her, she skidded to a stop in the center of both of the Rat Ruts. Not quite within spinning range. Not close enough to the other rut to trigger oil barrage. They only had one option- charge. So they did.

At the last moment, Sakura jumped, her arms over and behind her head in victory, pulling her legs in tight. With a tremendous crash the Ruts crumpled their mighty shells against each other. Their front facing prongs snapped and bent. ”Oops!” Sakura taunted as she dropped back down.

Right in the middle of them as they wheeled back from each other, she used her saved up meter to do a super art. ”Here we go!

She turned into a spinning top, her outstretched leg trailing blue energy as she flashed with power and swiped both the wheels out from under the stunned Rat Ruts. They crashed onto their sides. Sakura leapt up on Rat Rut #1, the more damaged of the two, and wrapped her fingers underneath the front of the bent up shell. Fortifying her position with Telekinesis, she wrenched the metal upward, peeling it like an orange! Yelling from the effort, she bent it up enough to hop underneath the bent up portion. What she saw under there skeeved her out a little bit, but she punched at the interior organs of the beast nonetheless. With a wet thud, she struck true several times and the Other turned to dust all around her.

That was when Rut #2, who had, unbeknownst to Sakura, landed at a recoverable angle due to some debris, charged at her. Sakura barely heard it coming and stepped out of the way to avoid being impaled. The heavy metal shell crashed into her and she was sent spinning and tumbling. She fell down the side of the platform and rolled into the water. Breathless and face down in the water, she used the rail to pull herself up where she emerged, coughing and sputtering.

Squinting, she saw the ramaged Rut #2 begin to wheel its way towards her. It was going to come tumbling down that ramp and squish her flat. As it picked up speed, it came at the Street Fighter like an oncoming train. Sakura was angry at this thing and at herself, for thinking she had it in the bad only for her victory to get torn out from underneath her by some unexpected variable.
”Come on.” She said to the Rat Rut, clenching her fist and teeth. ”I’d do it if I were you.”

When the Rut charged at her while she was crouched in the water, it picked up a little air. That was all she needed.

”Kurae!” She cried, zooming forward with another burst of energy. She hooked her fist underneath the spinning eel wheel and rocketed upward once, halting its momentum in mid air. As it began to fall down on her she dropped and gathered even more power into her fist before exploding upwards with a spinning uppercut.

”Midare Zakura!” There was a pop and spherical burst of energy that turned into sparkles and spiraling flower petals. The Other flew upward, spinning, and crashed mightily onto the platform, cracking the tile. Dust fell from the roof. It was on its side thoroughly now, with no way to recover. A strange bulb emerged from its form, ready to be Crushed.

Sakura, now on the platform herself due to the forward velocity of her attack, jumped into the air and punched victoriously.

”Yes! Yeah! The crowd goes wild! Victory for Sakura!” She cheered happily, hyped up.

Then she winced. She her hand on her knee and with the other, held her side, taking a moment to compose herself. Slash across the cheek, hit by oil in the back, and then the left side of her body had been hit with some pretty serious blunt damage. ”I’ll be okay.” She said aloud to herself with a nod and a laugh.

She looked over at Sina and Dexio who had finished their fight against a Rat Rut. She was tempted to ask them to go over and finish the job for her, but Peach and Raz were still cleaning up their active threats and might need the help. So she just offered them a congratulatory raising of her fist.

”Nice. Heh. Y’know I tried to get a friend of mine to do that kind of stuff with me but she wasn’t down for it? I don’t know why. It’s cool.” She rubbed her nose and went over to the Crushable Bulb, doing literally that. They had some kind of practiced duo motto.

No doubt the others had done all the cleaning up at that point. If not, she would pitch in with a few obligatory Hadokens. But all the major threats, be they singular or in number, seemed to be taken care of.

In the aftermath of their fight against their pursuers, Wonder Red noted Albedo's reaction to Frisk and Nightingale. While he didn't mean for his attack to bring much harm to the man, Red couldn't deny that he was getting careless. The whole situation was something he hadn't trained for, so he couldn't rely on what he learned from the CENITNELS for everything.

Reexamining his stance on how he proceeded, Wonder Red followed the rest as Albedo led them to their hideout, a cozy-looking restaurant helmed by an elderly cat. Wonder Red thanked her for her hospitality and discretion as everyone settled in to rest and formulate their next movements.

First matter of business was interrogating Sierra, who unfortunately didn't have much information on hand. Nothing that gleaned much light on the biggest mysteries the team had at least. "Consul N? Are they in charge of this region too, alongside L?" They didn't have a lot of information on the Consuls before coming here, and if Alcamoth gained any itself since they departed, they had no way of knowing. Red continued, "it sounds to me that Consul N didn't have much of a plan in dealing with us in spite of having one prepared for us in the Metro, meaning we're a rogue element to them. Either that or the impromptu attack was a method of testing us. He also doesn't have a way to follow our movements... outside of simply asking." Wonder Red nodded to Sierra. "We'll have to be more secretive of our actions from here on." Wonder Red pulled out a pamphlet from somewhere on his person. "If everyone could read these infographs on non-verbal military communication then we could effectively--"

Red's planned night of rigorous war-time lessons were unsurprisingly (to everyone but him) shot down. Trying very hard not to look disappointed he put the pamphlets away again. "...ahem. Very well then."

Even with the hideout supposedly safe, Wonder Red didn't want to take anything to chance, especially with their presence made known very destructively. "I'm going to keep watch for the night, in case anyone tries to hunt us down."

Grabbing a generic shawl from Grammeowster to hide his very noteworthy attire, Red took a seat in the restaurant near a window and settled in for a stakeout, keeping careful eye on any patrons that came in, or any goings-on happening just outside.

---

Quick to realize the problem with standing still on a battlefield, Raz leapt off the post, just in time for the lightning to spark past him, making the hairs on his neck stand straight.

"O-kay, point taken!"

Raz stumbled into some ankle-height water, luckily not enough to summon the Hand of Galochio, but he still jumped out onto a raised platform as fast as he could - only just avoiding another zap to electrify the wide puddle he was in. "And here I was thinking water couldn't get any worse," he quipped.

Not alone for long, Raz hopped onto his Levball and launched up into the air to meet Peach as she float over. "Sakura!" He wasn't calling for their actual teammate of course, instead borrowing her power of Levitation. Like, sure, he was levitating too, but that was a different kind of levitation! One he needed, as, after the default Vision of Sakura appeared in the air next to him ("Here to help.") at the peak of his jump, his fall stalled. Raz was now floating, for real!

...though he didn't have much control of it. Whether from Sakura's inexperience with her new psychic abilities or his inexperience with this brand of levitation, Raz couldn't really maneuver in the air, leaving him to lazily forward at an even level. He twisted and turned midair, only succeeding in spinning him around like he was in anti-gravity.

As Raz passed by Peach above the battlefield, slowly rotating upside down, he shrugged. "Eh, better than nothin'." Following up Peach's volley on the Rummies below, Raz began peppering them with numerous Blasts once more, raining them down from above at a fast fire rate, helped in part by the subtle annoyance Raz felt in his failure to levitate properly. Together they literally rained firepower down on the group, with Raz twisting and spinning away from any bolts of lightning shot his way.

---

With the whole platoon’s combined firepower, the Rainy Rummies didn’t stand a chance. Some of the Scarlet Guardians took hits from either the Others’ umbrella attacks or their lightning bolts, but as long as they didn’t get waterlogged first a few zaps didn’t pose too much of an issue, allowing everyone to outmaneuver their foes as they more than outmatched their firepower. Once the last Rummy fell, the team spent a brief moment collecting their spirits, as per standard protocol. Seven Rainy Rummies, three Rat Ruts, one Exonerator. As platoon leader, Luka carefully stored them all inside a specially made canister.



“You took out two Rat Ruts on your own!?” Despite lacking Raz’s iconic eyewear, Sina practically goggled at Sakura. “We had to dig deep just to deal with one! I’m so jealous!”

Dexio rubbed the back of his head, a little sheepish. “And here I thought I was the team’s physical powerhouse.”

“No need to make comparisons, you two,” Luka chided gently. Weight Hammer in hand, he moved to the front of the group, walking along the edge of the flooding. “With how competitive it can be in Psych-OSF sometimes, I can’t say this isn't a race. Nor can I say that it’s a race we start on equal footing. But the important thing is that we run it together. We’ll all grow stronger as a team.”

Peach gave an enthusiastic nod. Part of her wished that she, as a leader in her own right, had been the one to say something like that, but she was also grateful to have someone else filling the role for a time. “Absolutely! We’re not trying to show each other up. We’re trying to lift each other up!”

After everyone took a quick breather, the five got underway. This abandoned tunnel network was a vast labyrinth, and even with all the different squads deployed down here today, Luka Platoon had a lot of ground to cover. As they proceeded the floodwater in the subway tunnel soon receded and the earth dried out, but all things considered Peach liked this area a whole lot less. What began as stray stretches of cobweb quickly became gigantic tangles and tapestries of spider silk, big enough to entrap entire subway trains, complete with bulbous cocoons hanging from the ceiling. Peach thanked her lucky stars that a few of the overhead lights in this tunnel somehow seemed to be working, since without them to illuminate the way it would’ve been the easiest thing in the world to bumble into and become hopelessly ensnared in these sticky nets. Of course, that left just one big issue: whatever artisanal weavers were capable of spinning webs this big.



What the team found here weren’t spiders, however. In an open area amongst the webs were three Others that Peach recognized as members of the slime-like Pool family, although they differed visually from the Bile Pools and Scummy Pools she’d seen so far. These ones featured artificial aluminum plant fronds, and five pink bulbs branching off from the curled trees on their heads. While Pool-type Others had been pretty consistently weak in Peach’s experience so far, the sight of these particular specimens made Luka wince. “Doppel Pools!” he called out, teleporting forward. “We have to act fast, or-!”

As he appeared above one Pool and brought his hammer down, the Other split into three that quickly spread out in different directions. Sina took a few shots from afar with her Refrigerant Ring arm cannon, but missed due to the distance. The other Doppel Pools divided into three as well, and as soon as possible all present copies began to shoot blasts of impure water. “Only one of each trio is real!” Luka called out. “It’ll just keep replacing any fakes we destroy, too. If only Tsugumi was here to give us her Clairvoyance.” Without any way to tell the originals from the doppelgangers, he, Peach, Dexio, and Sina could only try to brute force the solution.

Ultimately, there were only three Others though, and once flushed out they weren’t too tough to dispatch. With the interim threat quelled, Luka Platoon got moving again. This time, as her squad swept through the tunnels, Peach gradually became aware of noise from up ahead. “I think I hear…people fighting?” Voices, explosions, the discharge of weapons–it sounded pretty definitive. Luka nodded, and the team picked up the pace until they came upon a larger underground chamber where a boss battle already seemed to be in progress.



The first thing Peach saw was the Other, and though all Others were both bizarre and intimidating to some extent, this one took the cake. It resembled a huge, shaggy-haired, six-legged beast, with cagelike forearms tipped with red rubber gloves and a strange masked head with keyhole-like sockets. Metal garden hoses sprouted from its body as both a mane and tails, and on its back -within a bed of long spines amidst green roses- lay a red tank full of viscous, boiling-hot oil. So tall that Peach’s head would only reach the very bottom of its mask, the Gunkin Fisher looked like a fearsome opponent, but she could see another squad fighting it with everything they had. Septentrion Sixth Class Seto Narukami used twinblades and his electrokinesis to fight with careful precision, safeguarding another electrokinetic, the baton-wielding Shiden Ritter, who looked like he’d taken a bad wound. Peach recognized the pink twintails of Arashi Spring as she blitzed around with Hypervelocity with her chainsaw, Innocent Rabbit Hug. She did not, however, recognize the green-skinned redhead who appeared to be commanding a small swarm of giant spiders to fight on her behalf. Oh, that’s where they are, Peach thought, creeped out as she was impressed. She also spotted a man in a stylish suit of OSF red and black augmented with gauntlets, boots, and a grimacing facemask of blue-green metal beneath his ruby-red glasses. With Atmokinesis he created localized weather phenomena, mostly rain, and as Peach watched he managed to wash off a quantity of movement-impeding oil that the Gunkin Fisher blasted Arashi with just before the Other tried to crush her beneath its massive weight. The last member of Seto Platoon looked to be a young man with a spiky plume of hair, long coat, and studded scarf. Akira Tadokoro worked to manipulate the monster’s mind with illusions created by his Hallucikinesis, but he succeeded in making the Gunkin Fisher a little too angry, and got whipped by its tail-hoses for his efforts. It looked like this team could use a hand.

“Luka Platoon, moving to assist!” the team leader announced, and Peach hopped to it.





Regardless of whether or not Sierra might have any more slivers of useful information for the Seekers, Band backed off to let her rest after her initial explanation. She needed some time to decompress, and the detective needed time to think. That was just as well, since for now the small team had nothing but time. With the EMPD out in full force after the dramatic incident at the Noumenon, and no doubt whipped into a frenzy by the showdown with their top dogs, it’d be a good idea to lay low until the whole thing blew over. Or at least, until nightfall, when the dead would rise and give local law enforcement a far more widespread -and far less complicated- problem to worry about. It looked like the team might be at odds with the police from here on out, but that was nothing new to Band. It had been a long time since his early retirement from the force; since then, as an operative of the supposedly shuttered Anti-Skullgirl Lab 8, he’d gotten used to working in the shadows.

After getting his thoughts in order, Band began to play music to pass the time. He selected some chill, low-key blues just to set the mood, and though he only intended to practice, the rehearsal of a skilled player sounded nice enough. His slow, jazzy notes filled the restaurant’s upstairs habitation and drifted down to the diners below, where they complimented a cozy, altogether pleasant experience. Eventually, Ace returned from his chores and conversation downstairs with food for everyone, which Band gratefully accepted. He might not need nearly as much sustenance as his massive frame would suggest, but the flesh-and-bone part craved a good meal as much for the nutrition as a reminder that, underneath all the brass and bionics, he was still human. It helped that Grammeowster’s cooking was to die for, hearkening back to warm, homemade dinners on the cold winter nights of childhood. Just one mouthful of roast chicken and savory potatoes filled Band with warmth, and he relished it with his eyes closed. “Mm-mm,” he murmured, smacking his lips. “My compliments to the chef.”

When the sun went down, the Seekers went to work. They went their separate ways in search of any sign of the Skullgirl, or any leads on their new enemies the Consuls. Band moved through the streets of Edinburgh with an abundance of caution, careful to be as inconspicuous as a trench-coat-clad titan could as he swept each area, giving each and every pitch-black nook and cranny in his path at least one cursory glance. He looked over his shoulder almost as often, wary of any potential pursuer. The light of magical streetlamps provided ample light in certain areas, but elsewhere he relied on the dim, eerie glow of the scar-faced moon high above. Unlike New Meridian, this city seemed to be a remarkably clean and well-kept place, thanks perhaps to the abundance of magic that made everyday chores and appearances easy. Of course, that brought any abnormalities into sharp relief, and it wasn’t long at all before Band found his first gang of skeletons. There were three of them, clad in tattered clothes, and they meandered together in a small group along the sidewalk. Silent except for the rattling clank of their bones as they walked, they lurched along without paying Band any mind, and the detective didn’t bother them either. There seemed to be some semblance of purpose to their movement, although he wondered if those bones might be aping the motions their owners made in life. He tailed them for a few minutes until they reached some sort of office building. They rattled the knob, but after finding it locked, turned back the way they came.

At that point Band moved on–he did have somewhere to be, after all. He continued through the streets to his destination, spotting more skeletons as he did. Some wandered around, scratched at dumpsters or doorways, or ran down the roads as if they had somewhere to be. At one point Band spotted a group of five standing in a circle around a magic car, motionless. He couldn’t see anyone in the car, but the sight disquieted him nonetheless. Not all of the skeletons were permitted to go about their business unimpeded, however. Some of Edinburgh’s citizens closed their blinds and cowered in their beds, but others took to the streets themselves to challenge the undead with might and magic. Band skirted around two separate large-scale scuffles where local mages were mopping the floor with skeletons before he finally reached the spot. Crashed against a magic streetlamp was a familiar van, its engine dead and the driver long gone. The detective’s nose drew him to the driver-side door, where he discovered a lot of frozen light-blue goop on the sidewalk and the vehicle’s exterior. Despite the darkness, he also found a number of burn marks, several of which even now faintly smoldered with pink embers. No doubt about it, he thought.

Moving to the back of the van, he ripped open the doors. Inside he found four cages, just as he expected, and inside those cages were four rotund, terribly dispirited Spheals. At the sight of Band, however, their sad eyes light up with joy. “There y’all are,” Band crooned, using what he hoped was a soft, sing-song sort of voice to comfort the scared Pokemon. “Don’t fret now, I gotchyou. There’s someone I think ya oughta meet.”

---

The next morning, after a good night’s sleep, Band could be found in Grammeowster’s Kitchen, seated in a corner booth with the table removed to accommodate his size. He held a pot of coffee in one hand like a normal person might hold a mug, and with the other he paged through the morning newspaper across his lap. As happy as Sierra’s reunion with her Spheals had been last night, and as cute as the sight of her asleep with her four best friends all snuggled up with her had been, Band now wore a rather severe expression. None of the other early-morning customers dared come near him, but when his fellow Seekers approached, he quickly opened up about what he found.

“Although I wouldn’t call my time ‘wasted’, I didn’t turn up much in my investigation last night,” he began. The others’ efforts had been similarly fruitless, but that was understandable. Edinburgh was a huge and unfamiliar city, and the heroes couldn’t be expected to stumble upon the critical path every single time. That wasn’t to say, though, that they hadn’t missed anything. “Take a look at this though. Looks like somethin’ else went down at that big library after nightfall. Somethin’ serious. Accordin’ to eyewitnesses, a whole boatload of skeletons showed up. The police still there cleanin’ up ended up tanglin’ with ‘em, which went on until a strange girl showed up.” Band narrowed his eyes. “A pale girl in green, with hair and rabbit ears comin’ outta her hood like icy-blue fire. They say she wiped out the cops in an instant, includin’ that fool I laid out. ‘Kurtis Stryker’. But get this. Right afterward, a Consul showed up and fought her: Consul N. There ain’t much details after that, but it says that despite both fightin’ tooth and nail, neither won. The Skullgirl escaped into the night. Sure tries its damnedest to make N look like a hero though.”

Albedo furrowed his brow. “As expected of one of the World of Light’s rulers. Thankfully it sounds like he wasn’t able to defeat Linkle, but the fact that she’s using the Skull Heart’s power is cause enough for concern. We need to find her tonight, before the situation worsens.”

That wasn’t all, though. Flipping back to the front page, he brought the others’ attention to the main story. The headline read Edinburgh MagicaPolis declares war! “Check this out,” he read aloud. “Consul L announced a state of emergency yesterday after receivin’ word that the foreign city-state Alcamoth had begun a campaign to overthrow world leadership and destroy the world itself.” His tone sounded grave. Even though he’d never been to Alcamoth, the crumbs he heard about it from other Seekers made it sound important. “In response to this clear and present danger, L vowed swift and decisive action. While her plans must remain confidential, Edinburgh citizens can rest assured that her forces are more than sufficient to overcome this adversary. Provided all goes well, we can expect to hail her triumphant return to Aether Paradise at approximately one o’clock today.” He looked up at the others, raising his eyebrow with a frown.

Lucia’s eyes widened. “Wait just a second. Aethah Paradise as in Aethah Foundation? The hell’s L doin’ at a consahvation centah?” She gasped. “UNLESS…the Aethah Foundation’s just been a front this whole time!? All that cute and cuddly stuff with Pokemon ta boost theah public image, but L’s in chahge doin’ all kinds of screwed-up stuff?“ Scowling, she cracked her knuckles. “Maybe we oughta pay those dahtbags a visit.”

“This might be a trap,” Albedo cautioned immediately. “L might believe that Frisk and I are dead, but by now the Consuls must be aware that several of their enemies are somewhere in the city. If they do indeed control the presses here, this may be an attempt to draw us out.”

Big Band harrumphed. “Bastards must be pretty damn confident callin’ us out like that if so. Worst part is…well, they might have our number. If not for that flashbang from Ace, we mighta all kicked the bucket back in the Noumenon. If we nearly got outmatched by N’s pet project, chances are we ain’t strong enough to fight him straight-up. Still.” He folded up the newspaper and slapped it down. “We don’t gotta go loud the minute we get there. Long as we play it cool, we might learn a thing or two. If there’s gonna be a crowd, we can blend in. Sound like a plan?”

---

Contrary to the newspaper’s report, L didn’t return at one o’clock. Instead, it was almost three by the time the people in the crowd began to a spot a purple-and-cyan Galaxy dropship flying in over the snow-dusted buildings from the southeast. It made a low-altitude beeline straight for the artificial island known as Aether Paradise that floated due north of the city’s humongous central pumpkin, in a circular body of water within the city itself fed by countless canals. While this lake wasn’t much larger than the island itself, no bridges spanned it to create a walkable or drivable connection from Aether Paradise to the rest of Edinburgh, leaving it accessible only by water or air. Thus, the citizens that did turn out to witness L’s triumphant return clustered along the railings that surrounded the lake on the east side, hoping to catch a glimpse of Edinburgh’s most important woman.

Finally, the Galaxy set down on the structure’s eastern helipad, and when the rear doors lowered L herself walked down the ramp to a chorus of cheers. She waved like a celebrity on the runway, but even at this distance Band’s sharp eyes could tell that something was off. She moved stiffly, as if in pain, and despite her attempts to hide it she walked with a limp, favoring her right leg. That, plus the extra time it took her to get here, convinced Band of one thing: things hadn’t gone quite as well as she might have hoped. He also noticed some people who came out from inside Aether Paradise to receive the dropship on the landing pad, which included a scientist in white with big green goggles and -much to Band’s exasperation- Wicke.

“Good people of Edinburgh MagicaPolis,” L’s voice rang out, amplified via some magic. Practiced -or maybe forced- charisma oozed from every word. “Thank you all so much for your support, both here today and every day. It is your tireless effort that has made our fair city the shining diamond of the frozen north, and inspired me to do whatever it takes to see that it never loses its luster. Today, I am proud to tell you that your city, your loved ones, and your tomorrows are all safe and secure, for the looming threat of Alcamoth is no more!”

More cheers echoed across the water from the people, reaching a fever pitch. L bowed her head, full of gratitude. “Thank you, Thank you! And I assure you. Now that I’ve laid your fears abroad to rest, your fears here will soon follow!” With a final wave, L turned to strut across the helipad toward the central building of Aether Paradise, still noticeably limping.

Midna’s ploy worked like a charm, the little-er princess and her dragonfly wing-pack slipping through the pipes, while the flashing explosive first bumped into them, and then had to navigate around. That gave her the breathing room to take in the fact that the smoke was clearing.

Not that that helped much with the blinking light rapidly trying to get back in her face

”Hmmm, Hmmm, ah ha, got it!” she snapped her fingers, having an idea, and then commanded her Vibrava to ”Dragon breath it!”

The mon obeyed, detaching from her back and firing off a tight beam of distinctive purple dragon energy. The close range light wasn’t fun for the princess, but the unmistakable flesh of color shooting off in a specific direction was just barely enough for her to follow its path towards the source of the blinding flashes.

”Gotcha, you blinking nuisance!” she declared, as she unleashed a torrent of electricity from her long sword, joining in with her mon’s blasting, the pair slowing the living bomb, and then halting it as current and breath combined to paralyze it completely, halting it entirely for a few moments before death claimed it.

”Serves you right for being so obnoxious she told the disintegrating Other as she rested her sword over her shoulder, before she glanced down at the fight below. As her vision returned she got her first and last look at the leggy bombs as the last of them splashed against Goldlewls’ staunch bulwark.

”You good down there?” she checked, and then once that was confirmed she drifted down to rejoin them on terra firma. There she rode around a little bit on her wolfos’ back, flicking open twilight portals to stash away any unclaimed spirits for later, and finally after that left the pipe room and hurried to catch up with the foot sloggers.

She found them embattled with some nasty water spraying creatures, ones that Minda arrived just in time to be forced to witness their bizarre reloading method, one that took the Other’s twisted mockery of humanity’s form and concepts an extra uncomfortable step further.

”Well that’s disgusting,” she commented, before finding herself yelling get a room!” at them which got her water blasted at her in retaliation forcing her to steed to leap to the side and back into the cover of the entrance tunnel.

There, she had a think, and then prepped some tactics based on what she had observed so far. Namely that they couldn’t move, and, as she saw when she glanced around the corner again, that they didn’t like people getting close.

”Well, how about we ruined your personal space then” she schemed. Step one was to duck out from cover, and pump 3 revolver shots into the ceiling light above the solo Santa (or well, one into it + two into the ceiling around it). The second was to shadow hop to that now darkened patch of ceiling and perform her shadowy drop maneuver on this other.

She was getting a fair bit of mileage out of that one

”Heartbreaker, coming in!” she yelled, as she snatched out her shadow hand and grabbed the water shooter by the head tentacles to prevent it and its conjoined lover from ducking into the box. As it struggled she raised both hands, summoning forth a sized up wolfos and mecha bear combo on either side of the other. Both beasts lunged in with mighty bites, teeth sinking into the two halves of the Other, which they then proceeded to try and pull them apart.

Aiding in this was her third summon, the princess utilizing the regular sized but still towering undead Darknut for the first time, and having it drive its mighty broadsword in an overhead chop right between the other’s two bodies.

The monster writhed in pain as it was ripped at the seams, but its otherworldly vitality meant that even this mighty combo was not the single life serving stroke Midna had hoped it would be. Instead it ripped itself out of her grip as her two maxed out summons timed out, and then ducked down into its box.

”Cowards” she belittled her foe, even as she dropped down to take cover behind her undead knight, already knowing what would come next thanks to Goldlewis’ inevitable experience with them. The undead warrior raised a guard against the incoming defensive attack, but even with this it was still blasted back by the same watery explosion that had knocked Goldlewis away from it a little bit earlier.

”Back up more” she commanded her knight redundantly as she willed it to move away, putting itself between her and all of the sniping Other’s, its armor and shield bearing the brunt of their assault. That assault only abated because Midna used portal magic to dump some cargo crates in between them and the Others, though not for long, as wood began to splinter under the water blasting.

It was long enough however.

”I got you right where I want you, eat explosions sucker” the princess taunted the octopus tentacled creature that had popped back out to start shooting at her as she tossed a twilight volleybomb blindly over her wooden defense, and at the same time swapped out her darknut for her Vibrava to have it deliver an eruption of earth power from directly below the Other.

The explosions met in perfect unison, the giant runic ball of teal magic touching down just as the fissures forming below the Other erupted, the power of earth and twilight creating the mother of all detonations that scoured the other from this plane.

”And the curtains fall on that tragedy” the princess declared, before being reminded that there was still at least one more act on stage when an explosive blast of water vaporizes the remains of her box wall. She cried out in alarm, shielding herself from the wash of wet splinters and being thankful for her mask keeping them out of her eyes.

”Wait your turn!” she demanded of them as she dived for the cover of one of the left side pillars, which, thanks to her clearing that side’s Other, could now actually be used as mostly reliable protection from the right side’s water blasters.

From there, she was able to shadow hop between pillars and harass the Others using volley bombs, musket fire, and Vibrava moves, but she didn’t manage to pull off her drop trick again, the other Others having learned it from the death of their fellow.

She could try and grind down the other Others like that, especially if she got the aid of Blazermate’s healing aid which would guarantee that she’d win when it came to any damage trading, but she hoped the other’s would be able to figure out a trick or two of their own to deal with the puzzle box foes.

Whatever way the rest of the battle went down, she would claim her kills at the end, and then join up with the others for the next leg of their cleaning run.

”They really weren't kidding, this place is infested” Midna commented as they came across a pair of weird horse tree things ”I mean what in the world are they even eat ing down here” she went on, only to pause her commentary as she saw the ash piles ”oh”

That was not a good sign.

Nor was the moment where one of them turned invisible.

”Goddesses save me from these hiding cowards” she cursed as her wolfos steed leapt to the side to avoid being washed away by a torrent of water.

”Where is it, where is it? Come out wherever you are!” she asked/demanded, trying to spot it as she dashed away from the water sprayer and leapt up onto one of the rusted trains, only for a growling to draw her attention. She glanced in the opposite direction she had been looking, following her steed’s snout and ears and, while she did not see anything in that direction, she had to assume that it was picking up their stealthy foe with its superior senses of smell and hearing.

”Third time’s the charm!” she declared as she vented sand out of twilight portals around her, and sent a thin cloud of it singing ahead of her steed till it bounced off of the invisible foe.

”There you are” she declared, sweeping the sand back around to try and re-tag the foe, only for it to not be there. ”Huh?” she said, confused, only to feel her steed tense and realize that ”It’s on to me!”

The invisible something slammed into the train car, crushing its front as the princess backed up. She blasted it with sand again, but the flash of vague clarity wasn’t enough for her to clearly make out the fist swinging at her till it punched her right off of her mount, sending the princess tumbling across the roof of the train.

She coughed blood up against the filter of her mask as she pulled herself up onto her hands and knees. She didn’t need the sand to know that the slippery foe was approaching, the train groaning under its weight as it pulled itself up onto it and started to trot towards her.

Her wolfos fled before it, running up to her and crouching down, grabbing her by her clothes and trying to help drag her back onto its back. They weren't going to be fast enough to escape, this she knew, and so instead she acted.

Sand swirled forth, outlining the Slippery as it lunged for them in a full body slam, only for it to meet metal instead of splattering soft flesh. In a split decision the princess had summoned a towering darknut on the ground to the side of the train and then in one swift motion the giant whose head scraped the roof had moved its shield in the rampaging other’s path.

There was an almighty clang as Other smashed into the bulwark, but said bulwark only lasted a few heartbeats more before it returned to her realm. Enough time both for Midna to be clinging to wolfos back once more, and for the other to recover from its concussion and be ready to come after them.

As she started to move, sand dashed across the area behind her, once again giving a glimpse of the other approaching.

”Vines” she commanded, summoning up her amazonian initiates, the hooded sisters of oblivion appearing on the platform beside the train as if they had been waiting to board it. As she commanded, they bent a knee to place their hands to the ground and unleashed their psionic powers, causing dark purple roots of psychic power to erupt across the train’s top, and for them to blindly grope for their foe. Some found their mark and snapped a few moments later under its pulling force, but their discovery let more and more vines reach up, lashing around the tree headed monster, restricting it, and sapping some of its like like poison ivy around an actual tree.

They would not hold it forever.

They didn’t need to hold it forever.

”How-” the princess coughed in the middle of her taunt, and then finished it ”how about a new coat of paint” as her mecha bear was summoned on the other side of the train from the strikers. It rose to the same height as the train, and its mighty cannon even higher.

Energy thrummed as the electrical powered launcher sucked up power from the bear’s systems, and then with a mighty wumf it fired its preloaded payload: an also enlarged swoopin stu, an ammunition type provided courtesy of Bowser Junior.

The oversized dumbo octopus looking slime soared forth, and then slapped into the front of the Slipper Other, bursting on contact and splattering the entire front with burning goop, outlining it in red and orange for all to see.

”DOn;t be sad, you look good in red- huh?” the princess’s elated taunting was interrupted when the mecha bear beside her seemed to sag under its own weight all of a sudden, or rather under the weight of its metal parts, and an electric hum sounded and then swiftly died, signaling that the cyborg had used up the last of its energy stores with that supersized attack.

”Goddesses cures it what’s the matter with you” the technologically inept princess swore, and then cursed again as the goop covered Other broke free from its vine-y bindings and came after her once more. Rather than stand and fight, raced back towards the others, or rather specifically towards Blazermate to get aid, and to bring the now semi detectable foe into the other’s range so they could take advantage before it figured out some way to clean itself.

The melancholy he felt as the desolate landscape shifted to the ruins of crumbling civilizations melted away when both the merchant and nopon engineer took the time to bond over a shared fascination over machinery though different in their perspectives they may have been, Partitio was more than willing to just happily listen to Tora expound upon his pride and joy.

"Well I'll be, guess techno-logical thinkin' runs in your family." the merchant chuckled, he shared a similar sort of upbringing as Tora so he could appreciate that someone else learned their craft from their folks just like he did growing up learning everything about trade with his old man "My pops taught me everythin' there is bout business." he also learned to value people more than their wealth and that hard work pays more than money but that was besides the point "Can't say I ever heard of something like a fancy 'Ether Furnace' that like a sorta steam powered contraption what keeps Poppi a running?" something rattled at the back of his brain, faintly recalling hearing about steam power back when life was good and silver had been a prosperous commodity.


Partitio stepped out of the vehicle with a grunt as his slacks met the dirt, the ground was wet and muddy in some areas. The merchant dusted off his pant legs while he adjusted the metal cuirass he wore beneath his coat, he surveyed the wreckage of the plane through squinting eyes neath his fedora like a mockingbird searching for a shiny object to add to its collection. All he saw though was clothing and other assorted commodities strewn about, nothing special but it did give the merchant an idea. Using the time he had, he went to work hauling as much of the cargo as he could within the time they had, unaware of the things going on with the others as they tampered with things.

Partitio knew that people must have owned the things in the suitcases but they weren't around no more probably thus their belongings would probably serve folk back in the slums a lot better than out here.


When they piled back into their trucks, he bid the engineer farewell with a smile and a wave, flipping his silver coin as he sat the merchant couldn't help but speak up as they began to once more rattle along in the truck "Ya'll are quite the strange bunch," the Seekers came in all shapes and sizes it seemed, from a little critter like Tora to a normal kid like the one sitting towards the back brooding "Interestin' people doing interestin' things, I can admire that." was all he said resting his hands behind his head and leaning back listening to the truck hum as they drove to wherever they were going.

Goldlewis' verbal bombardment on the group's return was...fair. Generally unappreciated, the Witcher suspected, but fair. They had survived, but not by their own talents. He wasn't sure whether Goldlewis was being literal when he mentioned that the Psi-fish would pop their heads with their powers, but he'd seen enough strangeness in the World of Light that it probably wasn't worth taking that chance again. Had the reservoir been slightly less busy, he likely could have used the Breaching Bastion to put some serious dents in the wildlife population, but ultimately that was the crux of the issue: there was too much there to get anything properly done.

Taro being shuffled away for treatment was...unfortunate, given the likelihood of him being arrested for being Fused, but the man was in no shape to join the Seekers proper. Unfortunate as it was, hopefully his jailers would still allow him to receive treatment. Staying down there, continuing to suffer physically and mentally...it would do him no good.

Geralt didn't respond to Goldlewis, but the half-hearted frown on his face indicated that he was, at least, somewhat chastised, even if he damn well didn't like it.

Especially given that they had to go back. A bit of a shame that they hadn't done any proper scouting, but Geralt wasn't going to lose sleep over it. The journey to the tunnel system was fairly uneventful, thankfully, even though they had to use those damned ziplines again. At least these ones were less circuitous than the ones in Detroit.

Casting Quen once they entered enemy territory proper, Geralt stayed towards the back, all the better to get a good look at their enemies before engaging. The Others were a bit more tricky than the average thug, he'd heard, and he'd prefer to not get caught off guard by anything they might be able to do.

Such as explode in your face once they got in close proximity. That was...oddly terrifying. And unnatural. No creature threw itself to death like that unless it was serving a greater purpose, some higher cause. All living beings held within them a sense of self-preservation, be it as basic as 'move away from large predator' or as complex as 'I need to work to eat, and eat to live, even if I hate the work I have to do to eat.'

That these...things...so casually disregarded that basic fact of biological function...disturbed him. Yes, the Abyssal Fleet was similar, but his experience with Rika and Bella indicated that they were somewhat incomplete. Hollow creations, with only the most bare-bones souls within them. The Strikers he'd bonded to from the Fleet were little more than automatons in his eyes. Their lack of self-preservation made sense: they were not created with it, all the better to wage a ceaseless war.

But the Others...they had been presented as a biological phenomenon, an eldritch and foreign one, but living creatures nonetheless.

Shaking his head to clear the disturbing ruminations, Geralt took Goldlewis' offer of protection and stayed behind the man, his giant coffin, and the massive shield he summoned, endured the wave of self-destructive monsters handily. Geralt sighed when it was over, shaking his head at his own sense of helplessness. He certainly could have fought, but being caught in the explosion of even one of those monsters...could have had catastrophic results, especially if it left him vulnerable to other attacks. "Thanks." Geralt simply stated when the coast was clear, giving Goldlewis a nod. Even if he wasn't exactly thrilled with the man at the moment, there was no grudge being held. He understood why he had been upset at them.

As they continued, Geralt renewed the shielding of Quen, keeping his breathing steady and his pace solid. He knew that wearing himself out would come back to bite him in the ass later, so he made sure to conserve his stamina as best he could. Even with his enhanced abilities, he was not a workhorse nor a limitless font of energy.

Coming out to the train platforms, Geralt scowled when he saw the Saliva Santas. "What in the..?" He mumbled, still not quite used to the unusual forms the Others took. He went with Goldlewis to the right to attempt to attack the thing, only for the pair to be blasted back by an explosion of warm saliva, Geralt shaking off a glob from his arm. "Disgusting..." He muttered, drawing his bow. "Looks like a blade won't help."

Geralt used Midna's assault on the singular Other as an opportunity to attack the pair on the other side, the special power of Odysseus' Bow triggering and spreading lightning between the two, though he focused his arrows on one of them. Doing his best to avoid being hit by blasts of water, Geralt nonetheless took a few hits, re-applying Quen midfight to keep himself sturdy. His other Signs lacked the range to deal with the Santas, so he focused on shooting with his bow, calling upon Panther to launch a few blasts of his laser weapon alongside Geralt. One arrow managed to trigger the missile launcher on his shoulder, which certainly helped deal some major damage to the Santa it hit, but even that was not enough to fell it.

Overall, it wasn't quite as clean as Midna's efforts on the solo Santa, and he most certainly had not slain his by the time she was done on her side, but he was assuredly wearing them down for the others to assist with a cleaner finish. It was times like this he missed the open ocean, being able to bring the Breaching Bastion to bear on foes, though it was only reasonable that it wouldn't last forever.

Once they cleaned up the rest of the Santas, Geralt and the other Seekers followed after Goldlewis, and saw the results of...something...having been freshly killed. Two equine Others, one with leaves on its branch-like antlers, the other without, stood among a pile of ashes, the leafed monster cleaning blood from its nails, the bare one still eating. They'd interrupted quite the fresh kill, then.

The Slippy Chinery covering itself in oil made Geralt hum. What were the odds that igniting that oil would harm it, and what were the odds that it would only become a flaming, rampaging nuisance? He wasn't sure he wanted to test that just yet, but perhaps when it was suitably weakened he would. The Winery Chinery he wanted nothing to do with, what with using metal swords as his primary form of combat. Sure, he could stay back and shoot the thing with his bow or crossbow, but after having just done so with the Santas, he was less inclined to ignore a chance to use his silver. Once more applying Quen to protect himself, Geralt moved to color, mimicking Midna's attempt to locate the Slippy Chinery via smell. It looked like the Twilight Princess and her hound were a more appealing target, though, and Geralt's witnessed the train she perched upon being crushed by the thing's assault, running to her aid as she was launched by the follow-up attacks.

It was incredibly difficult to properly see the beast as it attacked Midna, but blasts of sand gave Geralt a good idea of where it was, and by the time it was clashing with her Darknut, Geralt had clambered aboard the damaged train, slashing his blade across one of its hindlegs as it reeled, quickly repositioning his blade to deflect the retaliatory tail strike. Sensing Midna as the greater threat, the Chinery continued attacking her, and she responded by trapping it in swarms of grasping vines, rooting it to the body of the train. Giving the Princess an appreciative nod, Geralt plunged his blade into the Chinery's side, calling forth a spray of blood, before moving out of the way of the cyborg bear's swoopin stu cannon. As the Other burned and thrashed, Geralt added to its misery with a concentrated stream of flames from Igni, covering its side with flames in addition to the ones on its front.

Unfortunately, the Slippy Chinery also broke free as Geralt was dousing it with flames, and with Midna retreating to be healed, that left Geralt as a perfect target for a body slam. Unable to react in time, Geralt was bodily launched from the train, silver sword clattering and sliding along the ground as his Quen shield explosively shattered, and the oversized Witcher crashed to the ground and rolled for a good twenty or so feet, crashing hard into an advertisement stand. Groaning, he forced himself to his feet and clumsily shuffled towards Blazermate and Midna as the Slippy Chinery came at them, summoning the Judicator behind him. "F-fuck...need help here..." He groaned, and the massive monstrosity screeched, beginning to self-flagellate to heal its summoner while he stumbled to his sword and grabbed it.

Geralt fished in his pouch for a dose of Swallow, quickly swallowing it and standing to his full height as the potion quickly began hypercharging his already-good regeneration abilities. He wasn't back to 100% instantly, but it would allow Blazermate to focus on Midna while the Judicator and Geralt turned towards the Slippy Chinery and began a renewed assault, Geralt calling for backup from whomever was free to assist. The thing was burning, bleeding from Geralt's stab wound, and angry, but still standing. It likely wouldn't last for much longer, but for now...it was still a threat.

As the trucks lumbered on, Zenkichi didn't have much else to say, the melancholic mood admittedly getting to him a bit. Some old habits died hard, and even with his re-discovered dedication to justice, Zenkichi was prone to melancholy since Aoi's death. So he sat, mostly quietly, in the truck, watching the landscapes pass him by, enjoying the sights and taking in the devastation. "It's wild...just how much stuff there is out there, ruined... He sighed when they passed a particularly wrecked area on their way to the salvage zone.

Once they stopped, Zenkichi was quick to get out and stretch his legs, half-hearted grumbling about his age. The sight of the massive plane crash made him whistle. While Tora got to work on disabling the automated routing of the salvage trucks, Zenkichi and the others joined Giovanna in keeping an eye out on the local 'wildlife'. Thankfully, these machines weren't hostile, but there was no telling what was and what wasn't, so he kept on alert. Soon enough, they were back underway, the two truck teams splitting up.

When the truck Zenkichi was in stopped at its second destination, the Investigator stepped out and immediately began looking around, balking at some of the machine forms in this place. "Definitely don't wanna get close to the water. I'm not sure how closely these things take after the animals they look like, but hippos and crocodiles are some of the deadliest animals on Earth." After pointing out the machines he was referring to, his attention shifted to the construction site. "I'm thinking we check that out," he told the group as he pointed towards the giant crane, "Might be some goodies lying around that we can use, and there's bound to be plenty of machines wherever we head."

Summoning Valjean, Zenkichi drew his revolvers and looked at the others. "Open to other suggestions, of course, but...well, we're here to scout, right? Figure that's the place to do it, nice and high, fairly open sightlines. Might just be a pain to get there...definitely be a fight and a half."

These little bomb guys were kinda annoying. Sure, Blazermate had 3d movement and all that, but since she was the one flying above everyone that also made her a fun target for many of them even if she could see them. She could keep them away from herself though fairly easy, and if she was ever in a position where she was starting to get surrounded, she could stun them all with a loud shriek from her shield arm. It didn't take long for Karin to get rid of them though, using very unorthodox stuff to get them to blow up safely away from everyone.

"Not being able to touch these guys is so annoying. We're like, all melee!" Blazermate said, huffing. Still, the fight was over, and the next room they entered, which was more of a transit room to the next big fight was filled with these annoying water spitting guys. At least thanks to Blazermate's overheal, almost no one took any real damage from them but Blazermate gained full ubercharge and her shield from them.

The third room was the room with more powerful Others. Two big ones, one that seemed more brutish with electricity, and another that soon turned invisible. The invisible one Blazermate could track, having seen it before it turned invisible, so she could inform others if it got close, although that tended to be hit or miss with how much Midna wanted to be a brawling tank and separate herself from the group as she dealt with it, with Geralt following suit. Seeing as it seemed no one was really dealing with the bulky one except Goldlewis, Blazermate used her stuff to deal with that, or at least slow it down as well as she could.

Her engineer spirit would be useless here, so really all she had was her own combat abilities and her energy shield. That did help though, as the Winery Chinery had its attacks aimed at Goldlewis blocked, or slowed down by Blazermate's energy shield. A few of its electric attacks did get through the shield, but not all of them which felt a bit odd, but this shield had to have a weakness somewhere. Both Chinery's had little balls of light glowing on them, revealing the invisible one and telling Goldlewis where to strike with his as Blazermate healed him and zapped the thing with her energy shield. Its friend dealt with by Midna and Geralt, so Blazermate could only offer drone healing for those two, but the energy shield was doing lots of damage and slowing the Winery Chinery down.

Using a new ability of hers, or a striker? Whatever it was, Midna unleashed some weird bear thing that covered the nearby area in... sludge? Blazermate really wasn't sure what was going on there, but it made the invisible Chinery noticeable by everyone. Still, she was pretty hurt and using her little thing as a distraction, made her way towards Blazermate, which Blazermate could only offer drone healing for at the moment as she Ubered Goldlewis when her shield was going down, allowing him to go crazy at attacking it. Blazermate, getting in a pincer formation, flew over it and came at its back, jamming her suffering shield into its back to hold it in place and injecting it with copious amounts of zombie infection as Goldlewis went to town on the squirming thing.

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There wasn't too much to talk about on the truck ride there. Pit offered what little he could, but Susie quickly picked up on the fact that he wasn't much of a thinker. He'd make a decent bodyguard from what he had mentioned, but Susie wasn't into skinny guys like him. He needed more... edge and coolness, or muscles. Still, she could probably fix his 'flying' problem later anyway.

When the trucks eventually stopped, Susie noticed that their truck had gone much further than the rest of the team, leading to some unfinished neighborhood with various robots patrolling about. Remembering that they had to 'hack' these trucks later, Susie went about doing that as the others stepped off to begin their scavenging, remembering the original route but breaking into and reprogramming this rudimentary computer so that she could control the truck when the time came.

With that done, she joined the others in the scavenging, looking for stuff that would be useful. It was then she noticed the other area that Zenkichi mentioned, an area full of robots that he said looked like animals. Robotic animals... Did the Robotizer fall into someone's hands and do all of that work? No, because the ground would also be roboticized... hm... Asking what to do, as Zenkichi wasn't sure but was gung ho for dealing with the animals, Susie replied. "Simple, we're here for scrap right? Well those things..." Susie said, pointing at the Shellwalkers "are what the other robots are collecting scrap for. So they should have all the good stuff. So I think we go after them primarily. No doubt the other robots will protect them, but we can deal with them if that happens."

With that said, Susie summoned her business suit and gestured for the others to assist her as she made her way over to attack the Shellwalkers and claim their goodies.