Breaching the level's entrance, Ichiban stopped a few steps in to take in his surroundings. A large swath of ancient ruins sat before him, each brick a piece of cheese, each statue or decoration lovingly sculpted out of cheese, and generally just being very, very cheesy. Mold grew on a lot of the ruins, taking the appearance of overgrown vegetation. "Eugh, I hate bleu cheese," Ichiban grumbled. "But I guess I can't leave it out in case those trolls like it."

Having expected a serious scuffle to obtain his cheese, Ichiban found that the level wasn't all to hostile towards him. The hardest part was getting around - he was forced to take circuitous routes, clamber up helpfully guide-marked brick walls, leap across chasms, and etc. But the enemies left him alone, for the most part, a veritable army of Cheeseslimes milling around the space, too clueless to do anything except gloop around and stare vacantly upwards. Their biggest threat was slipping Ichiban up and sending him plummeting to his cheesy doom.

Meandering and bumbling his way through the obstacle course of ruins, Ichiban had plenty of time to both admire the locale and collect the goods. Hunks of various cheeses were easily broken off from the walls (sometimes as handhelds that came right off in moments of sheer terror), which Ichiban greedily stuffed in his sacks. He walked through a delicately detailed courtyard about halfway through the level. "Jackpot!" He took his time, since it seemed like nothing was after him just yet, taking provolone pedestal toppers and feta frescos for the loot. He didn't want to linger too much, though, everyone was counting on him!

Eventually, Ichiban reached the level's Pillar John, taking only a second to contemplate the living, sentient, heavy-breathing support structure before turning his attention to his task. "Man, I dunno if I can grab enough cheese," he thought aloud. Already he was nearing full capacity and barely had enough for a dozen pies. "Two bags wasn't enough at all. Maybe I can come back for round two?" Steeling his nerve, Ichiban charged the Pillar John, bashing into it with a heavy dropkick, toppling him right over. The whole room - the entire ruins - rumbled ominously. "Guess that's my cue to book it!"

Ichiban turned about face and sprinted the way he came. He was dreading the climb back down, but huge blocks of tiny purple faces had appeared in his path, helpfully(?) funneling him down a completely different route, one that was more straightforward to get around, though still lousy with obnoxious Cheeseslimes and precarious platforming. Still, Ichiban was prepared from the trek through the level the first time, so as the clock ticked down he traversed his way back to the exit with ease. Just as he neared the wonderful sight of the open doorway, he skidded to a halt, kicking up a dustcloud of cheese. Right across from the exit, a few paces and one large leap away, was a tall tower made, much the same as the rest of the ruins, out of cheese.

He barely had to think twice. He tossed both full sacks of cheese through the doorway before turning towards the tower: his new target. "Alright you leanin' tower of pizza," he taunted the inanimate building, "let's do this!!"

A dash, a yell, and a leap, Ichiban soared through the air for the second time in the same amount of days, crashing through some brittle brie bars, tumbling into a middle floor of the tower. Wasting as little time as possible, with mere seconds left for Pizza Time, Ichiban rushed down several flights of stairs to a lower floor, around the second or third, and started to beat into the wall. "Take! This! You! Stupid! Tower!" Ichiban punched and kicked the blocks of cheeses making up the tower, succeeding in wedging them loose and knocking them freeze, like a sticky game of Jenga. Eventually Ichiban had bashed enough bricks away to cause the structure to shift: it was about to topple, and that meant it was time to run again. Ichiban hurried back up the stairs as the tower tilted, steadily at first, then suddenly all at once as its weight came down on its weakened foundation.

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit-" Ichiban took the stairs three at a time, just as a long, droning ding sounded, followed by a malicious laughter coming from everywhere at once. "Aw hell!" Ichiban was thrown down as the tower fell, aimed right for where the exit sat, door wide open for anyone - or anything - to leave through.

A thunderous crash rose in volume from the other side of the level's entrance, and with it came a total avalanche of cheese, bricks and hunks and peddles worth of it crashing through into the hall. After the cheese dust settled, a massive pile of the stuff sat, blocking up Ancient Cheese's entrance entirely. Ichiban was nowhere in sight.

...until a section of the cheese pile shivered, and an arm burst through the side, one in a maroon sleeve, giving one hell of a thumbs up.

Level clear!

---

Within a few minutes, Goldlewis and the rest of the debate attendees stood out in the open air of another Midgar night. It might be smoggy or stifling in other sectors, but the City of Glass was a city of the future. Even in the periphery of its most industrial area, the air felt clear and breezy, its clear skies affording a view of the stars obstructed by the oily shimmer of the Extinction Belt that floated far above Midgar’s loftiest heights, a beautiful but deadly aurora borealis. During the course of the debate, as tension mounted and tempers flared, it had gotten pretty stuffy inside Dendemille Showcase Theater, so Goldlewis took deep breaths of the fresh air with gratitude in his heart. In this brief moment of respite he looked out over the scenery, past the attention-hogging spotlights and glitzy golden floodlights of Circuit Royal, the grand public entrance of the Vandelay Campus, and across the water of Regatta Bay.



All the cloud-white yachts and sailboats that wandered the waterways during the day now moored peacefully at their docks, like cattle brought into their stables for the night, but the City of Glass itself never slept. Enormous electronic billboards and company names writ large in eye-searing neon crowned many of its tall buildings, their glare seemingly strong enough to diminish the distant radiance of the cosmos above. Further down, light panels on many of the buildings that lined the waterfront bathed the quiet boardwalks and gentle waves in a serene pink glow, reflected by the bay and the austere glass facades that encircled it like so many mirrors to make Regatta Bay into a soft, surreal dreamscape. It was a nice night, but Goldlewis was hardly at peace. His mind still raced from everything he learned thanks to the theatrical machinations of Consul C. What this knowledge meant for Midgar -and the Seekers’ campaign as a whole- he could only imagine. Even if C spoke truly about the location of Midgar’s elusive Guardian, the veteran knew that his troubles had only just begun. He dreaded the possibility that these revelations would keep him up tonight when tomorrow promised to demand all his strength, but in order to even find out, he and the others would have to get out of here.

The prospect of navigating back through the City of Glass was one that appealed to no-one. With the added traffic it could be hours, and from the looks of it, the friction generated during the debate had brought even more of Vandelay’s security out of the woodwork. The docks and parking lot exits were swarming with company robots, not just SBR and GNR units but plenty of beefy ES units as well, some with different colors probably denoting different special equipment. Good thing the team had an ace in the hole.

“Princess Midna,” Goldlewis began, approaching the cheeky imp. “I know ya already bailed us out earlier, but if it ain’t too much trouble, I was hopin’ you could pull off that portal-makin’ trick again. We could really use an easy way outta this place, not to mention a quick an’ easy way back in case somethin’ else comes up with Vandelay.”

Thankfully, Midna agreed. Not long after, the group’s wait came to an end, as Goldlewis spotted a handful of familiar faces hurrying over. Giovanna, Sakura, Geralt, Blazermate, Pit, Tora, Benedict, and Partitio moved quickly, driven by their uncertainty at whatever fate might have befallen their friends inside the debate venue, but the sight of everyone in one piece set their hearts at ease. The two halves of Black Team reunited in a corner of the parking lot, walled in on two sides by the Greco-Roman-styled strip mall of guest facilities that served as bulwark between the public face of Vandelay Campus and its staff-only industrial factories. Though relieved to see that nothing bad happened to any more teammates today after the bomb scare, they couldn’t breathe easy just yet.

“How’d it go?” Giovanna asked her comrade breezily.

Goldlewis heaved a mighty sigh, a helpless expression on his face. “You won’t believe what happened right afterward.” The screech of tires distracted him, and to his shock he spotted an extravagant fuchsia six-wheeled convertible peeling away and zooming off into the night with none other than Consul C behind the wheel. After a moment of silence Goldlewis shook his head in resignation, his incredulity quickly turning to caution. “We’ll go over everythin’ once we get back to base. Let’s hustle before the bots start gettin’ suspicious of us hangin’ ‘round past closin’ time. C’mon!”

Though the team didn’t have enough time to be choosy, they quickly settled on a clever spot. After ducking out of sight from the security robots into a mostly walled-off lot full of dumpsters, Midna affixed her twilight portal to the underside of one of the circuit’s suspended racetracks, where no normal person would ever think to look. Using it, Midna could discreetly warp the team straight to the Seiran hideout.

Only Giovanna stayed behind. “Come back for me in five minutes,” she murmured to Midna. Once the others left, she turned to face the otherwise empty lot, a frown on her face. She closed her eyes and sniffed, and sure enough, there it was again. Ever since she met up with the rest, something strange had been happening. She’d been smelling someone, hearing someone, and seeing someone, only to repeatedly forget who it was. As her keen senses caused the process to repeat, the lingering sense of unease grew, and she’d become more and more certain that someone was tailing them. At first she assumed the use of some sort of cloaking device, but it didn’t line up. It wasn’t her senses playing tricks on her–it was her cognition itself. Upon making that realization the savvy secret agent figured it out. She was forgetting about someone the moment she became cognizant of him, but if she didn’t become cognizant of him, she didn’t forget. As long as she couldn’t assign this smell to a person, that person couldn’t be wiped from her mind. So it was that, with her eyes closed, Giovanna prepared to face an unknowable pursuer.

“I can smell you,” she said ominously. “The nose knows. Whoever you are, this is the end of the line. I heard that if you try to use this portal without Midna’s help, you’ll get stranded in some corner of the Twilight Realm, cursed to wander until you become a mindless beast. So if you want something from us, might as well speak now.” Behind her, Rei manifested, electric sparks dancing through her thick green coat as she growled at Roland. “...Or forever hold your peace.”

---

Once back in the hideout, Goldlewis finally allowed himself to relax. He stood his coffin up by the front door, loosened his tie, hung his suit jacket on the back of the same chair he used earlier, and sat down at the table. It was late -the clock in the former clinic’s kitchen read 11:03- but while he hadn’t eaten dinner, he didn’t feel terribly hungry. The others could fix themselves a bite to eat from the supplies in the pantry (granola bars, chips, jerky, and other snacks) or refrigerator (a none-too-fancy mix of cold cuts and frozen food) if they wanted, but right now the veteran needed his focus elsewhere.

Such was the import of the team’s brief conversation with C that Goldlewis sorely missed not having some sort of recording device. He’d done his best to internalize everything in the moment, but C spilled the beans fast and hard, and even a single missed detail might spell the difference between victory and defeat. As such, Goldlewis enlisted the help of Raz -and his handy-dandy notebook- to make sure that his retelling of the encounter with one of Midgar’s Consuls wanted for nothing. After going over the team’s questions and C’s answers, with special emphasis placed on the bonus reveal of Midgar’s other Consul Y, Goldlewis added one extra detail of his own.

“Y’all mighta been wonderin’ what that li’l exchange was between me and C before I asked about the Guardian,” he began. “The truth is that C, which is to say Happy Chaos, comes from the same world as me. Not too long before this whole Galeem mess got started, he staged an international incident at the White House during the G4 summit. Hijacked the whole place, holdin’ the world’s leaders hostage while puttin’ on one hell of a show. Not all that different from what happened tonight, come to think of it. The debriefin’ from that debacle shed a little light on who he really is, and it ain’t pretty.” He paused for a moment, his face deadly serious as he swallowed. “Accordin’ to the Gear Maker, he’s the Original. The man who brought magic into the world, and the strongest magician there is. As far as we know, there ain’t anythin’ he can’t do. He can manipulate the world around him, minds, bodies, magic, tech, everythin’. He’s…well, terrifyin’. The one savin’ grace is that he doesn’t care about anythin’, either. Only gettin’ people riled up to amuse himself.” He stroked his beard. “If he’s on Galeem’s side, he could very well be their greatest strength, or their greatest weakness.”

After that, the floor was open. Everyone could offer their two cents on the day’s events, try and puzzle out new conclusions from the gathered clues, or workshop a plan for tomorrow. Or, like Tora, they could just go straight to bed. The Nopon didn’t care about politics or Consuls; even the Guardian was a secondary concern to him right now. Before he could face any of that, he needed Poppi. But Tora didn’t know what to do. His attempts to combat the Logic Virus in Poppi’s arm had been utterly futile so far. He didn’t know if he should keep trying, pivot in the direction of making a new body for Poppi her consciousness could be transferred into, or ready for battle in the hopes that his allies could force the Machine leaders to restore Poppi herself. He knew only one that–that tonight, he would be on his own for the first time, and without Poppi, Tora was nothing. Utterly miserable, the young engineer wrapped himself in blankets and secluded himself in his cot, weeping until he fell asleep, his furry cheeks wet with tears.



“Huh? No petting!” Nadia tried to shake off Sectonia’s antlions when they came for her just prior to her planned excursion. Bugs weren’t exactly beauticians, after all, and Nadia didn’t know how much stock she put in the swarm queen’s idea of ‘proper’ anyhow. Prim and proper might befit some prissy princess, but a puckish rogue-slash-tomboy like Ms. Fortune did things her own way. Still, it’s the thought that counts, as they say. “Uh, thanks anyway, Sec. Secky? …Toni? Ah, forget it.”

As she stepped up to the doorway labeled ‘Crust Cove’, Nadia steeled herself. She had no idea what to expect from one of Pizza Tower’s levels, and though this would hardly be the first time plunging face-first into the unknown and she had no qualms doing it, the many misadventures that had already befallen her as Purple Team’s point man told her that she’d better be ready. Despite that, she was not at all ready for what happened the moment she hopped through.



For a couple seconds straight she wound up struck blind by a dazzling light, brilliant to the point of being painful. “Meowch!” she yelped, squeezing her poor eyes shut as she reeled like a drunk, only finding stability on all fours. For once she actually found herself grateful for the bangs that had been insistently hanging over her left eye since her fusion with Kronya. When her eyes adjusted, however, she opened them and witnessed a breathtaking scene. She found herself standing on a tall, cylindrical tower of glass, emblazoned with fanciful swirls of bronze that made it look more like a giant goblet than a medieval rampart. All around her lay a gorgeous shoreline of sparkling, bubbly water, pristine sand, and lush grass. Birds -or were they flying fish?- flapped over the glinting waves in small flocks. Even more miraculously, the whole scene lay bathed in the golden rays of a glorious sunset over the open ocean.

For a few moments Nadia just sat there, enchanted. A full day and a half had passed since she last glimpsed the light of day, and she hadn’t realized just how much she missed it. She felt the sun’s warmth on her skin, and a gentle breeze toyed with her hair. It felt a lot like that incredible beach back in the Deep Blue Seaside near Limsa Lominscuttle Town, Heaven’s Edge. That much-needed, blissful afternoon wouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon. Had that doorway in Pizza Tower really transported her to some far-off, picturesque coastline in the World of Light?

Well, no. When Nadia looked a little closer, she began to notice the flaws. For starters, the horizon didn’t look right. Past a certain point, it seemed weirdly solid and stationary, and it didn’t take the feral long to realize that she was looking at the painted wall of what she ultimately determined to be a huge, cylindrical room. Here and there she spotted bits of equipment poking out of what should otherwise be solid terrain, like fans and wave generators, and she realized the sun must just be a very big, very hot light. Still, it managed to be a pretty convincing illusion, and she appreciated that. The sun and the sea were where Nadia Fortune belonged, not caves or castles. When she looked back at the door, however, she realized with a start that it seemed to have slammed shut behind her. “Huh? When did that happen?” She scratched her head, and as she looked around, her eyes landed on that sack she’d brought. “Oh, right,” she chuckled. “Almost fur-got.” She was here to get food for pizza-making, and judging by the movement on the shore and beneath the waves, she wasn’t alone. I can just get directions outta someone, she reasoned, pushing the sack into her belt. Might as well get to work.

As she went to jump, a sudden voice in her ear made her jump in a different sense. It was Primrose, and she came bearing good news. Nadia grinned. If the others found a way out, all the more reason to gather ingredients as fast as she could. Then the whole team could eat and be on their way. She tensed up, wiggled her tails, and threw herself from the top of the tower.

“Waaaaaaaahooooooooooooo!” she yowled as hurtled through the air in a daredevil high dive. Extending her arms in front of her head, she made a perfect entry with barely any splash, and swooped through the water with grace. To her surprise the water actually seemed to be carbonated, the whole indoor ocean fizzed up like one giant jacuzzi, but pleasantly cool in contrast to the warmth of the artificial sun. To Nadia, dirty, sore, and bedraggled from a rough day and equally rough night, it felt like heaven. She could finally relax, feeling clean, awake, and alive. Even better, this wasn’t just some sterile simulation; the shallows were full of life. In addition to verdant beds of seagrass and shelves of blue coral like pebble mosaics, she spotted vast schools of minuscule anchovies with scales like glittering silver coins, and loads of vivid pink shrimp making their rounds on the white sandy seabed. They, Nadia realized, must be the point of this place, both for her and Pizza Tower itself: habitat for the cultivation of the freshest possible seafood pizza toppings. Her eyes twinkled. “This is AWESOME!” she wanted to say, but bubbly sea water filled her mouth the instant she opened it, so before anything else she swam back up to the surface for a breath of fresh air.

A moment after she breached the surface and filled her lungs, though, a problem occurred to her. She couldn’t possibly catch any sealife with a burlap sack. Too much drag. With neither nets nor a fishing rod -not to mention the patience to use one- she needed a fresh idea, and after a couple seconds of treading water she dove down again to search for one.

Rather than the fish, she focused on something else she caught a glimpse of before. Trudging along the bottom of the shallows were bulbous bipeds in old-fashioned diving helmets. These Water Workers wielded shock prods, and they didn’t seem happy to see her. She raised an eyebrow at one slowly hopping toward her, then both when she realized what its weapon could do. Electricity arced through the water in an area around it as it thrust at her, but she managed to swim out of range in time. Unable to treat the little jerk to any quips underwater, she furrowed her brow and got straight to business.

She extended her legs in a perfect split and began to rotate her whole lower half like a propeller, picking up speed until she was cruising through the water at a good clip. The Water Worker readied its prod to jab at her the moment she got into range, but it did not anticipate her detaching her forearms to drill through the water like torpedoes. They swerved around the mook’s guard and pierced into its suit. Its water drained through the holes and diffused into the ocean, quickly thinning the worker out until it no longer existed, leaving an empty suit behind. Nadia gaped at it as it drifted to the sea bed. Yikes…

Her ears perked up at the sound of electricity from behind, and after quickly reattaching her forearms she twisted around to find the other three members of the Water Worker’s squad. They charged at her, nice and slowly, and Nadia fired off her arms. She punctured the two frontrunners, but that left her without anything for the last as it leaped from the seabed to close the last few meters. Think, think! she fretted internally. I’ve got to use my…oh! With a grin she launched her head, beaning the Water Worker right on the helmet with a long-range headbutt. As it stalled in the water, she grabbed its slowly sinking shock prod and shoved it through the mook’s torso, and in a burst of electricity that was that. As the shriveling suit joined the others on the sand, she looked around to see if the workers left behind any nets or anything, but they did not. With a defeated expression Nadia swam up to the surface to get some air. “Yeesh,” she gasped, still zinging from her near-electrocution. “Not much of a challenge. Barely ‘wetted’ my appetite. Thank goodness I didn’t get shocked though, otherwise…”

Wait a second. She held up her hand. Thanks to Cat-5, she could do that too! With a grin she dove back down and propelled herself to the nearest school of anchovies. When she got close, she let her veins fill with lightning and willed herself forward in a burst of energy. Almost to her surprise she blasted through the shoal as a streak of lightning, sowing destruction in her wake. After coming to a stop and making sure she was still in one piece, Nadia turned to find a wealth of stunned fish just waiting to be scooped up. Don’t mind if I do!

After repeating the process a couple times, both for anchovies and shrimp, Nadia emerged from the surf with a sack filled to the brim with seafood over her shoulder. She made her way to the nearest beach chair, then plopped the bag down, followed shortly by the rest of her. A convenient towel worked to dry off her hair, though her jacket would be wet for a while. “Shockingly fun,” she joked to herself. She relaxed for a moment, enjoying the relaxing seaside peace and quiet while chewing on some raw fish as she air-dried. It wasn’t long, though, before her ear twitched, and she flipped away just in time to avoid the salvo of asparagus spears that messily punctured her chair. She landed to see a platoon of Pizza Box Goblins, and each of the squat green guys in their red boxes wielded either asparagus spears or broccoli clubs. “Avast!” the one in charge, who wielded a cannon made of celery, spat at her. “What be the meanin’ of this, lubber? The only thieves in these waters be us, the Green Pizza Pirates!”

“You’ve gotta be kitten me,” Nadia groaned. “Look, guys. It’s cool if you like veggies, but ya can’t just go killin’ everyone ya meat! Sooner or later ya might make…” Suddenly she whipped out her Bait Launcher. “A mis-steak!”

If the sight of a slab of meat plopping down at their feet affronted the goblins, the tiger that sprang into existence right by it scared them out of their wits. In the chaos that followed Nadia made her escape, her bulging bag of seafood slung over her shoulder as she ran down the beach. Only after rounding a corner did she pause for a break, putting a hand against a big, dark rock for support as she breathed. Of course, the rock then spoke to her. “Hello?”

“Yahh!” Nadia sprang back, her ears and tails rigid with fright. When she realized the big blockhead wouldn’t be going anywhere, though she relaxed. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“Just minding my own business I guess.” Despite the nice environment, he sounded emphatically unhappy.

Nadia winced, feeling like she’d ruined this poor rock’s day all of a sudden. “Uh…well. Sorry for droppin’ in then. What’s your name, pal? B-rock? S-tony?”

“...John.”

“Right. John!” Nadia clapped her hands together. “D’ya know how to get outta this beach area, John? It’s nice and all, but-”

“Just smack me and it’ll start the timer.”

Nadia grinned. “Oh great, thanks!” She smacked him, and when he fell over he promptly crumbled to nothing. Nadia blinked a few times as she watched him die, her smile fading. “...Wait, timer? John…?”



The level changed. As the sky turned redder, all the flying anchovies, pizza goblins, and other inhabitants previously ambivalent to Nadia’s presence uniformly turned to look at her. As if that wasn’t enough, John-faced portals manifested to spit out even more foes. Bizarre, terrifying clock faces were appearing everywhere. In mere moments, this tranquil seaside had become hell. “Oh…crap.” Her jaw dropped as she watched the doorway at the very top of the goblet pop open. “I have to get back up THERE!?”

All the enemies began to move, so she did too. She hoisted her sack and took off running toward the water, engaging Massachusetts’ power to skate across the surface as asparagus spears, artichoke heart cannon balls, and Gushens flew toward her. Picking up speed, she sped across the water, zigzagging left and right. The goblins on shore she left behind, but now their captain’s ship could take potshots at her. She had no idea what the ‘intended’ way to escape was, and she didn’t care to find out. A stupid idea struck her, and she altered course for the ship, watery eruptions caused by its cannonballs on the way.

When she got close enough she jumped and airdashed onto the deck, surprising and then bashing the pirates overboard with a few energetic swings from her sack. Nadia aimed upward, her veiled eye shut and her tongue out, then fired off her free hand to knock the ship’s cannon into a vertical position. Then she blasted off with a pressurized jump and landed nice and snug in the cannon, just in time for it to go off and send her soaring sky-high, leaving the flying fish in her dust. “WOOOOOOOOOO!” she screamed, as much from adrenaline as terror. As the cannonball beneath her lost momentum, she leaped off it and sailed through the air, waiting for just the right moment to use Charge one more time. She blasted down onto the goblet like a bolt from the blue, landing right in front of the door. The goblins lobbed their health foods at her, and their captain angrily waved his fist, but they fell far short, so with a smile a mile wide Nadia took a bow and jumped through the portal, not even paw-sing to collect her A-rank.

A few seconds later, she arrived in the Hub’s pizza kitchen, her sack of fresh seafood in hand. Though still a little wet, she looked cleaned-up, energized, and in high spirits. “Heya! I’m back!” she greeted everyone, including the eager Pizza Trolls. “And if you think I’m quite the catch, wait ‘til ya see THIS!” She plopped down her soaking-wet sack and opened it wide, inviting everyone feast their eyes on the bounty of the sea before everyone got busy making stuff they could feast their stomachs on, too.

Thanks to the collective efforts of everyone who went out to gather ingredients, the pizza-makers found themselves with a bounteous selection of toppings. Bowser, Kamek, and Ganondorf delivered a wealth of pork products: sausage, pepperoni, chorizo, ham, and more. Ichiban had risked life and limb to collect the most vital pizza ingredient of all, cheese. From the bizarre stony jungle known as John Gutter Therion brought a boatload of fruits, far more than could -or should- ever be piled on a pizza. Sectonia, Junior, and Rika came with a smorgasbord of sweets from the Peppibot Factory, none of which made a lick of sense to Nadia, but she didn’t plan to question it. Barnabee had gone to Gnome Forest to collect honey, but he returned with plenty of mushroom’s that he’d chopped off too. Last but not least, the feral’s own offering of anchovies and shrimp from Crust Cove. One after another the Seekers dumped their ingredients into the pizza kitchen’s Incredible Pizza Machine, and from there they could simple select what they wanted and watch the machine belch out a pizza ready for insertion into the pizza oven. While the red pizza bags wouldn’t accept anything but pizza boxes, they’d accommodate any number of boxes pizzas, so the team could afford to splurge.

Unable to bear the sight of amateurs throwing together crap pizzas, the trolls stepped in to lend a hand, offering plenty of advice about what to pair together. With their help, Nadia went with two pizzas: one with shrimp, the other with anchovies, and both with plenty of mozzarella and parmesan. Some olives, onions, garlic, and extra tomatoes would have been excellent additions, if only the Seekers had them. Unfortunately, with Rubick, Omori, and Jesse staying behind in the Hub, the team of gatherers hadn’t been at full strength. Still, there were plenty of extra ingredients, enough for everyone to share. Once she made her own, Nadia tried her hand at making the pizzas the Trolls wanted, starting with one that had pepperoni and cheese.

“Something must go!” Arno proclaimed, though he didn’t say what.

“Is that all I get?” Willa asked, disappointed, but not as much as Nadia when she didn’t get any hints for what else Willa might want.

“Something on there’s not good for me,” Shyler fretted, also not bothering to specify.

Nadia quickly gave up. Cunning schemes, clever puns, and sharp wits were her strong suit. Logic, not so much. Instead she sat herself down by the fire to finish drying off and, eeing no sense in wasting perfectly good food, chowed down on the pizza the Trolls refused. Not a normal breakfast by any means, but food was food, and she wasn’t going to complain. The only problem, she realized, was the silence. “Sheesh,” she piped up after swallowing a mouthful of pizza. “It’s like we don’t even know each other. C’mon guys, let’s liven things up a little! Ooh, why don’t we catch up on some of the crazy stuff we’ve been through? None of you were there with me in the Dead Zone, so I could probably knock your socks off with the story of…the haunted police station! WooOOooOO!” She gave a spooky wave of her fingers, then grinned and grabbed another pizza slice. “Buuut it’d be a hard act to follow, and I don’t wanna hog all the attention, so I’ll just save it for the end. So who’s up first? Any takers?” She looked around the gathering. “C’mon, don’t by shy! This is our chance to get closer as a team!”



With a plan in mind, the Seekers need only wait until nightfall once more. Though they planned to do more or less the same thing as they did yesterday, the stuff that had gone down since then made the events of yesterday’s afternoon and evening seem a lifetime away. The fight between Linkle and N, the destruction of Alcamoth, and everything else that the other teams were doing wherever they’d ended up–those stuck in Edinburgh had missed it all. Yet that still only turned out to be the very tip of the iceberg when it came to their ignorance, as revealed by their run-in with the Consuls in L’s mansion. Who were L and N, really? Why were they here? How did they attain such roles and power? How much suffering had they perpetuated? How much death?

Though it felt like their organization had only just now crawled out of the woodwork, Band had already begun to get a sense of just how deeply entrenched the Consuls were in this world. There was no doubt in his mind that they would stand in the way of the Seekers’ goals, and after hearing Albedo’s account of his ill-fated voyage to Edinburgh four days ago, it seemed just as likely that L and N were the custodians of the secret weakness harbored by the Frozen Highlands’ mighty Guardian. The Consuls had to go, but the degree of power they possessed disturbed him. How nice it would be if they could really team up with Linkle to take down this terrible threat together. Red, Ace, and probably Mewtwo all saw a road to victory in that possibility, giving them the strength to fight on even after a brutal defeat at N’s hands. How unfortunate it was that only Band knew the truth. Linkle was dead, and if anything of her remained, it wouldn’t for long. If the Skullgirl wasn’t destroyed, Edinburgh -and maybe even the world- would be the price the heroes paid.

While Ace prepared his gear, refining his weapons and armor to peak condition and amassing consumables, and Red ventured back through the city in an effort to circle around the EMPD’s patrols and find out more from the Aether Resort, Band went on a journey of his own. At its core Edinburgh was a city of both magic and knowledge, and when it came to solving mysteries any detective worth his salt knew how to look for clues. To weather the coming storm, Band went in search of items and enchantments capable of making him more effective against undead, and his hunch turned out to be correct. Whether zombies, skeletons, ghouls, or even fouler monstrosities, undead seemed to be a common threat in fantastical worlds, which meant solutions for them weren’t uncommon, either. Of course, the steady rise in skeletons at night recently meant that such items were in demand, and Band couldn’t boast that much cash to begin with, but he managed to stock up on six holy water pots and purchase a Salve Amulet, inlaid with bright pink amethyst, to make his attacks fifteen percent more effective. He stopped for a cheap bite to eat at Danny Missiles on the way back, so by the time he returned from his trip, night was already beginning to fall.

The Seekers rallied together, meeting downstairs in Grammeowster’s Kitchen. With the old cook’s last few customers gone and the shop closed up for the night, they had the place to themselves. Mewtwo, Wonder Red, the Cadet, Albedo, Lucia, and himself made six, since Frisk did not show up. While her absence disappointed him to an extent, Band couldn’t really blame her. Even without formidable foes like the Consuls around, one couldn’t expect a normal person to just charge out into a night of the living dead. The power of a Skullgirl tended to grow with terrifying speed; tonight would be far worse than last night, and the team would have their work cut out for them. Better to leave such work to monster hunters, alien battlers, seasoned brawlers, genius alchemists, and ASG soldiers like himself.

“Alright, y’all,” Band began. “We’re gonna work our way toward the great pumpkin. We got a lotta city to cover, and I don’t want us splittin’ up, so we’re gonna have to go fast. There’s no tellin’ what’s out there. Not just ordinary skeletons, but policemen, mages, Pokemon too. Maybe even the Consuls. But we ain’t tryin’ to get into a rematch before we find the Skullgirl. She’s the source of the dead risin’, so chances are we’ll find her wherever there’s a skele-ton of ‘em.” He smiled as cheerfully as he could, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. “I hope y’all rested up and rounded up some healin’, ‘cause we’re in it for the long haul.”

Lucia nodded. “I figyahed we would. So I went out and got some eneahgy drinks.” She lifted up the blue cooler bag slung over her shoulder and unzipped it to reveal nine aluminum cans. “Just say the wahd and I’ll chuck one ovah. They’ah even bettah than cuaffee in a pinch, so gulp one down and it’ll getcha healed up in a jiffy!”

“I made something as well.” Albedo withdrew a plate from his Inventory, revealing a hearty helping of his special fish dish, Woodland Dream. “You may have noticed that when my Geo powers react with other elements, they produce crystals. If you pick one up, it will give you a shield for a short while. If someone eats this, those -and any other shields- will be much stronger for five minutes. And not just for the consumer, but the whole party.”

Band whistled, impressed. “Good work, y’all.” He reached up and gingerly parted the restaurant’s blinds with a mechanical arm. Clouds over the city blocked off the moon and stars, casting a pitch-black shadow over the streets of Edinburgh. Just like last night, the magical street lamps weren’t the only things lighting up that stygian dark. Ghostly blue flames blazed in the eyes of fleshless undead as they moved through the quiet streets. The witching hour had already come. Band took a deep breath in through his nose, then out through his mouth. Whatchu nervous about? he asked himself. You’re literally made for this. Maybe his nerves were still raw from the fight with N, or he feared for the safety of his allies, or he dreaded the inevitable fight with the Skullgirl and the old wounds it would surely open. But no matter what, Benjamin Birdland wasn’t going to call it quits. “Let’s go.”

The team hit the streets. Grammeowster waved them off, urging them to stay safe, and locked the door behind them. Right away, Band noticed that things were more intense than last night, just as he expected. Before, they mostly lurked in secluded spots, with only a few shambling along the streets. Now, though, entire troops of them trudged along the sidewalks. They rummaged through trash cans and mailboxes, knocked on doors, and peered into windows. None made a sound beyond the steady rattle of their bones that accompanied their footsteps as they strode purposefully through the byways and avenues, as if on patrol. Their greater numbers, of course, elicited a greater civilian response. Glintstone Sorcerers in dark blue robes and stone masks challenged the skeleton gangs with staves in hand, casting brilliant blue pebbles, rays, and blades to destroy their foes from afar. Shadowy-faced Black Mages conjured destructive magic with their rods, destroying attackers with ice, lightning, and fire. Most impressive of all was the colorful quartet of wizards who fought with sword and sorcery, combining different elements and casting styles to great effect with various projectiles, rays, and magic mines, able to shield and heal one another.

Of course, in emerging from their homes to fight at all they were risking their lives, for their enemies were vicious. Run-of-the-mill skeletons were the most abundant, many of them wearing tattered gear and wielding weapons or magic from their own. The bones of warriors, mages, and archers, some bound in ice, lightning, or fire, attacked in groups anywhere between three to a dozen strong. Finding one with a gun was an unpleasant surprise. The living could also fear inhuman skeletons, from small fry like Dry Bones and beastmen, to bigger, scarier Stalhounds and Beasts to undead brutes like horned Gigans, armor-strapped Giants, and Horrors with bony tails and tusks. Pokemon skeletons could be found as well, all seemingly able to use the same moves they could in life.

“...Right,” Band grunted, getting into a fighting stance. “Let’s do this.”

He began to move, either sliding across the roads with his music streaming behind him, or advancing one ground-shaking stomp at a time. A well-aimed Brass Knuckle could not only close the distance, but also power through attacks, and one mighty slug from Band’s huge mechanical mitt was enough to reduce most skeletons to bone meal. When the shamblers stepped to him the detective solemnly pulverized them one at a time. He blew them away with the tube from Overblow, crushed them with cymbals, took out their legs with the organ pipes from Low Rank, and sent them packing with his dropkick, the Five Thousand Pound Slam. Blunt force and raw strength, backed up by armor from Bagpipe Blues and the damage boost from his new Salve Amulet, worked wonders. If his play attracted a crowd Giant Steps could lay out a whole bunch at once, dialing things down a notch, and when a mob of incoming skeletons were nice enough to come at him roughly single-file Band treated the whole line to Super Sonic Jazz. Propelled by blasts of sound from the giant French horn, he plowed down the street, launching the few skeletons not fortunate enough to already be splintered with a stylish flip at the end.

Things didn’t stay simple for long, though. As the Seekers got closer to what felt like the epicenter of skeleton activity, more choice specimens began to show up. At one point a whole pack of skeletal beasts jumped him at once. Unfortunately for them, Band liked nothing better than catching overconfident fools in the act. He let loose his Satchmo Solo, freezing the entire pack in the air around him. Striking up a tune on his trumpet in that stolen moment, Band played the birthday jingle, alerting the others to his position. Then he unleashed his fists, pounding the beasts’ skulls and cracking their bones until only ashes remained.

“Whew…” Band breathed as the dust, ash, and snow began to settle. Despite the cold, he was managing to work up something of a sweat, so he deployed a little arm to dab at his brow with a handkerchief. “Three streets down, three to go. Piece of-”

An enormous slam cut him off, blowing away his hat and handkerchief. When Band’s trench coat stopped billowing and he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a horrific monstrosity. Though bestial in shape, it towered far large than any ordinary quadruped, and to its enormous, yellowing bones huge tufts of raven-black fur still clung. The fleshless face of Darkbeast Paarl stared at him with the hideous semblance of an enormous grin as lightning danced across its bones. Not far away, a Revenant touched down, the rocket launchers affixed to its shoulders trained on new targets. Band crouched, keeping his eyes on the monsters as he felt for his hat. “Finally. Thrashin’ all that small fry was startin’ to lose its savor.” He placed his hat back on his head and tightened it in a businesslike fashion. “Bring it on!”

Sectonia ended up being the first of the group to speak up after Nadia had figured that while they ate their breakfast of pizza, Sectonia trying one of the fruity ones as she had all the time in the world to eat the tons of dessert pizza they had made. "Yes, I wasn't there long, but that 'Dead Zone' was a dreadful place. I wasn't there long though." Sectonia said, adding her own thing. "If we are talking about what we've seen so far... the great desert was quite annoying. We had to defeat a grotesque giant worm thing using a train that had some kind of rail gun on it. There was a land of sweets there however, I didn't grab many of them at the time, so I decided to make sure I gathered as much as I could this time around."

Munching on her bit of pizza, she then thought of something to say. "Its a shame that consul chased us out of that city. It would've been a lovely kingdom to add to my own. It would need some remodeling, but its art aesthetic worked for the environment in most places. I'm sure whoever I found to be reagent there would do a much better job than that P."

She used this downtime to smelt the other worm trinkets she had gotten off of rika and Jr, making her projectiles even more of a pain to dodge. Thinking of how that would be useful, Sectonia had another story that not many here had seen. "With these odd trinkets having their power transferred to me with no downsides, It reminds me of how at one point during that little desert adventure how I had to deal with this strange, black spiky thing that could warp around, stop time, and pull out some incredibly painful guns. the creature was very fast. Perhaps the unpredictability presented by these trinkets will benefit myself should I run into such a creature again."

Looking at the group, Sectonia noted a few of them hadn't cleaned themselves up properly. Or at least, her version of proper. So as the group ate, she summoned some antilliosn to touch up a few of the group. (You can choose if you interact with this or not.) The antillions tried not to get in"While we have some time to ourselves, I should make sure you are all presentable." And with almost a 'tut tut' motion, Sectonia said. "Its best to be beautiful. Its a bit of a shame I don't have a mirror to see my own beauty. But that doesn't mean I can't make you all beautiful in hte mean time."

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With the lunacy of Consul C concluded, Susie followed the group thinking about what she had heard. Some things this Happy Chaos said were... interesting. Susie thinks he gave more info than he even meant to, as if it was so casual to him he didn't even consider the group not knowing about any of it. This 'Flame Clock' was new to her. And considering he kept trying to infer to the two political forerunners that what they thought wasn't the core of this city... could this clock be what he meant? It didn't take long for both groups to merge, and soon after everyone was together again.

As they looked for a place to put Midna's portal to head back to base, Blazermate had her scanner ping something. But for the life of her she couldn't remember what it was. She looked at it, but it vanished as soon as it appeared. The only thing she could remember is that it was some kind of shadow or something. And with how often her scan went off and how often she felt like she was looking at shadows, she could only rub her eyes. "I think my head part needs some fine tuning. I keep looking at shadows." Then she was reminded of that dark ship, that horrifying dark... With Midna opening up a portal, Blazermate having just spooked herself jumped in trying to be one of the first ones in.

Susie could only shrug. What had gotten into that girl? Well, they had a lot to discuss about Happy Chaos there. A group of individuals that could freely control those under the influence of Galeem was not something to be taken lightly. And get her explination she did, as Goldlewis apparently knew Happy Chaos. He had come from his world! Well, that was helpful as that meant they might know what things he could do.

"Hmm... hes a super powerful magic user? Thats a bit concerning. Knowing how his abilities work might help though. Perhaps there is a scientific way of dealing with it. Part of my company motto was to make your wishes come true. That is almost literal. Well, it would be if I had contact with the Access Ark..." Susie said, trailing off as she started to annoy herself. But she snapped back to getting to her point. "My point is, with proper technology, even magic can be made to heel."

Blazermate, having been told what had gone on when the feed was cut out, pointed at something else. "So, that logic virus thing 'corrupted' people unless they got 'formatted', IE reset? That... is really weird. There has to be a way to fix that. Poor Tora is beside himself with worry." She glanced at where Tora had gone, the Nippon heading to bed and not joining in with the conversation. "Wait, doesn't beating the guardian kinda do a 'reset' on those nearby? Or the friend hearts? If we can even trust that guy. Hm... Man, this is so confusing. "

"Either way, it sounds like we will need to hack quite a few systems to get into wherever this guardian is." Susie said. "I can handle that. But something still doesn't sit right with me. If Shinra has this guardian under lock and key, but he doesn't know about the Consuls, that is... odd." Susie said, offering that question up to everyone.
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Roland had been tailing these people for a little while now. Thanks to his mask, he hadn't been noticed really. Well, he had been noticed a few times, but just ducking out of view before they really paid attention to him was usually enough. For the most part, even when they noticed him, they seemed to not be overly cautious about being followed or anything. Roland could pass this off as possibly people getting caught up in a shady business they weren't even aware of, if it wasn't for the presence of a couple folk that worked for the city. Roland didn't know the likes of Giovanna, Goldlewis, Benedict, or Zenkichi personally, he could recall that a couple of them worked for the city itself. Especially since two of them are turks, you have to at least know those faces if they are the office your working for.

Seeing the time and considering the heightened security over what had just happened, the group seemed to be worried about being caught after hours. A valid concern he guessed. That was when he saw something interesting. The shadow lady opened some kind of portal near a group of dumpsters and everyone in the group barring Giovanna entered. Sniffing the air, she looked at Roland, eyes closed as to not be affected by his distortion mask. She then got into a battle stance, summoning an electric minion to assist her but also giving Roland quite a helpful tip.

Seeing her sniff in Roland's direction, Roland then sniffed himself saying. "I don't smell that bad. I know I was sweating bullets during the debate, but..." His voice wasn't harsh at all, but instead very lax and carefree, swapping gears, he said. "Thanks for the tip ma'am." Shuffling a little bit, Roland then continued, undisturbed by her combat stance. "What is a member of the secret police, two turks, and a director head doing moving around with random people?" Roland then put on a serious voice for a moment as he said. "And what is your group's connection to that 'Happy Chaos' person."

Roland had no real reason to distrust Giovanna or the other members of the group yet, and he harbored no ill will. This was reflected in his tone of voice afterwords. He had a very 'I don't wanna be here.' kinda tone to his voice as he said. "I'm just doing my job. You helped me out before, can ya help me out now?. Then, turning his voice to a more curious sounding tone, he said. "I noticed I couldn't understand a few things that guy was sayin'. Yet it looked like the people your with could. Considering how on edge everyone was, I can assume your not allies. But something doesn't add up here. Care to explain?"

”Young master! Young mistress!” Kamek called out with a mix of frustration and chiding in his tone as he floated over to the pair. Quite relief that the pair seemed to have gotten out of the surprisingly dangerous pizza tower levels unharmed had been replaced by dismay as to what they had acquired.

”Did you really get sweets? For breakfast of all things? And you’ve been eating them already too, you’ll spoil your appetite!” he told them, having spotted a smear of chocolate on Jr’s cheek.

”That’s funny. The weird cookie baking meat grannies said that too before Sectonia banished them from the face of the world” Rika commented, not actually getting what she was being chided over, while Jr quickly hopped in to deflect blame ”Also it was 100% her idea. Sectonia I mean”

”Wha-! Why?” he demanded to know, only for jr to reply simply ”She’s a giant bee” as all the explanation needed

”Ah…” the mage replied, deflating, while Bowser caught up and immediately asked ”Oh neat, are those cookies?” before helping himself to one of them ”Mmm, those are really good. But why do you have them”

”You can put them on pizza papa!” the prince replied, which Bowser found a weird but neat idea.

”Yes, well, perhaps go for something else for breakfast” Kamek suggested before the king started to set a bad example for his children.

”Sure, I wanna try all the other stuff too after all” Rika replied to that suggestion, having had her fill of sweets for the moment, to which jr nodded in agreement with strength away, making Kamek wonder just how much sampling the pair had done while gathering. Probably as much as their father, he then immediately guessed, which given the king had snacked at every shop they’d been through, was probably a lot.

Still, despite this, there was nothing like running for your life to work up an appetite all over again, and so all of them had space. Kamek especially, seeing as the area he had been to had not been compatible with his dietary habits.

He was thus very pleased with the dancer and the thief for having acquired a whole host of fruits, and said as much, after which the mage immediately went ahead and ruined the troll's day by putting far more of those than should ever be on a pizza, well, on a pizza. Then he put some honey on-top for good measure.

When presented with the veritable fruit salad Arno and Willa were understandably appalled by the fruit itself being on there, while interestingly Shyler, who had asked for more toppings when presented with just Sectonia’s fruit pizza now objected, presumably due to the presence of the honey.

They were then all horrified to be next presented with Rika’s everything pizza, which, well, had everything on it. There was barely any pizza to be seen under the complete food pyramid she was having. Admittedly she had made it so that there was a spread of toppings across her pizza rather than everything being everywhere, resulting in an extreme version of a half and half pizza. An eight eights perhaps.

Regardless, none of the trolls were having any of that, getting her a chorus of “there’s something on there I don’t like!” equivalents. So she stuck her tongue out at them, and then moved on.

Bowser meanwhile drizzled some pork sausages in honey to get the closest he could to honey glazed ham (Willa and Shyler where not fans of something on there, Arno wanted more), mushrooms and peppers (no one liked that combo) and then finally a prawn and claw grated lemon zest combo (S more, W + A no).

Finally Jr went with a pepperoni pizza (W more, A+S no, indicating a difference between plain and spiced sausage in terms of preference categories).

Incidentally Kamek was the only one keeping track of all this out of the 4 of them, the rest far more interested in chowing down after having made their snubbed pizzas.

”I see, I see, it's like a puzzle in a way. How interesting” the mage noted to himself, before declaring that ”Well there’s only one way to go about solving that, and it's to find the ingredients they do like individually, and put them together after the fact”

Then, rather than get up and do that himself, he just snapped his fingers, and summoned some dry bones to do that for him. What should have been an easy and lazy solution hit a snag as, having reviewed 8 pizzas already that didn’t meet their vague requirements, the trolls were starting to get antsy. As a result, after a pizza with just peppers (W more, S&A no) and just sweets (A more, S W no) a frustrated Willa gave the offending skeletal server a slap that sent it skidding backwards a few steps, unharmed, simply displaced, alongside the usual cry of dislike.

”Well now, there’s no need for that” Kamek complained from over where he was dictating pizza production ”Here, how about, hmm, just honey, how do you feel about that?”

“MORE TOPPINGS!” Arno shouted as he delivered a powerful looking right hook that, rather than breaking the dry bones as the force involved would suggest, instead launched it ceiling-wards. Like a rocket. Or someone at 999% damage being hit with a home run bat.

”Wha-” Kamek began, only to be even more flabbergasted as the skeletal minion somehow penetrated through the ceiling and just kept going, phasing through a dozen floors of the pizza tower, through solid bedrock and then out into the open air high above.

”Whaaaaat!” Kamek, who had a vague amount of sense sharing with even the dry bones, cried out as he jolted to his feet. Around him, the other dry bone’s slowed as the increasing distance added significant tax onto Kamek’s mana reserves.

He was too transfixed to simply cut the connection however, and instead got to watch as the drybones flew high high into the sky, then arched down to go diving straight back towards Peach’s castle, the place where Kamek had started his journey.

It fell, fell, faster and faster, and then suddenly physics switched around and it started to decelerate to the point that it ended its journey by softly touching down outside the castle gates.

A gobsmacked Kamek, surrounded by collapsed manaless drybones, got a hazy vision of a very wary looking toad peeking his head out from behind the gate before both the bag of bones and its summoner collapsed from the manadrain caused by the extreme distance involved.

”He launched it all the way back to peach’s castle. All the way. Intact!” he murmured in awe as Bowser picked him back up, dusted him down, and settled him back down into a sitting position.

”Gotta admit, that’s pretty impressive” Bowser replied, before frowning down at a half eaten pizza now splattered on the ground ”Though he did also make you drop your pizza, the jerk”

”Guess I’ll make you another one” Jr offered, and before Kamek could weakly protest commanded ”Goombas! Go make him another one!”

”Yes I suppose that would work” he muttered as the trolls said something about the goombas not being fleens as they set about making pizza, before starting and crying out ”No wait!” right before an unfortunate goomba was smacked in the face for having the audacity of making the same pizza twice.

Unlike what Kamek had shouted out in fear about, apparently knockback did not apply to the spirit’s control, and as the slap did no damage, well, the only consequence was that another goobma had to catch his pizza, and the toad at the gates of peach’s castle got even more confused by the second falling and then disappearing Bowser minion.

”Speaking of Peach’s castle-” Bowser moved on from all this as if this was the most normal thing in the world, and people weren't going to have to either copy Jr or request his aid when it came to making their pizzas from now on, (which was going to make mass production somewhat of a pain till someone solved the puzzle) ”none of the rest of you had joined up by that point, right? Guess I should fill you all in on how this all started”

”See, while you lot were minding your own business when the worlds ended, I was right there, at ground zero, facing down that big glow ball and his army of master hands. We were all going to take down a couple hundred of them each, when that loser of a lightbulb pulled its cheap trick and blasted everyone and everything. There was a buncha big deal heroes like Link, and Mario, and Samus and Snake and stuff there, along with big bad guys like me, and we all got blasted away” He started, which wasn’t the most encouraging beginning to the tale it had to be said

”All except one. No idea how, but Kirby, he’s like a round pink ball this size who just eats and stuff apparently, he got away somehow. Flew faster than those beams of light and survived it all free from Galeem’s influence” he told them, ”and then he crashed down at the top of this hill. Now I don’t know what I was doing there, but me, Tora, Blazermate, and a few others were already there, and I guess maybe someone used that power F used in the city, because we all tried to take him down”

”Now, uh, obviously I knew something was up, and was holding back with my super strong willpower or something, because the pink ball beat us up, and free’d us all using those heart things. Handy that he knew how to use those” Bowser said, downplaying how he got his butt kicked.

”Anyway, then he went off on his own, and the rest of us, well we saw Peach’s castle in the distance and so I set us off to go there. Along the way we fought some robots and other stuff. Oh, and we met that Master of Masters guy who told us how to use spirits. I think he said he learned how to do it from use in the future or something it was weird” he added, casually dropping some kind of time travel or clairvoyance into the picture before going on ”oh and then the master hand also summoned a bunch of people the others cared about and forced them to fight. Not me though. Kinda weird, but I guess it was a bit pointless seeing as most of the people I cared about where inside Peach’s castle already”

”Wouldn’t that have made summoning us easier. You know, just have me or Peach or whoever walk out the door?” Jr asked, finding this very odd

”yeah, I dunno why that didn’t happen. Anyway, some of the others beat up their friends and freed em, and some, I dunno, gave up and became Galeeming because they didn’t wanna fight, and then we had to beat both of them up” Bowser explained, dropping yet more knowledge, and finally finishing with ”and the after that we went inside and beat up another version of me. One with wings and things. Not sure what the deal with that was but apparently there can be more than one of you in here”

”It was you from that time with the rabbids when the mega bug mind controlled you, so maybe it was really just that bug looking like it did when it was at its strongest. Though I guess Mario did kill that bug so, um, more time travel?” Jr scratched his head, not entirely sure if he was right ”maybe, I guess, well, the Consuls are servants of Galeem and they’ve had time powers so far so, maybe Galeem also ate all of time as well as space? Which is, you know, kinda scary”

And wasn’t that some fun information to mull over over breakfast.

For a brief moment, despite the assurances of her sense of smell, Giovanna had worried that her hypothesis might have been mistaken. Seeing was believing in most cases, after all. When a tired male voice called out to her in reply, however, her fears were laid to rest. His jokingly indignant first remark made her snicker; given that her sense of smell transcended human limits thanks to her bond with Rei, she didn't need this guy to reek in order to detect him, but it was way funnier if he thought he stunk.

This wasn't all fun and games, though. Whoever this guy was, he'd come to extract information from her. Quickly putting two and two together, Giovanna realized that the Seekers' pursuer must have not only been tailing them since Dendemille, but also been privy to the conversation within it. Happy Chaos? She recognized that name from the security breach in the White House back in her own world. In the moments prior to that incident's dramatic climax she even got the chance to lay eyes on That Man herself, and she counted herself lucky that she never played a major role in those proceedings. Giovanna operated in the wiggle room left by a certain set of rules -the laws of the United States of America- but a man like that broke all the rules. If he was here, that did not body well.

Unfortunately, her ability to answer Roland's inquiries stopped there. Not being present for whatever went down inside Dendemille, she'd been relying on an explanation from Goldlewis in order to get a hold of the situation herself. If anything, Roland probably knew more than she did. That made bargaining for the continued secrecy of the Seekers' activities difficult. But maybe she could still work something out.
Sensing no immediate hostile intent, Giovanna relaxed a little. "We know him only by reputation. We're trying to figure out what he's up to ourselves. I don't know whose side you're on, but here's the deal: we're not involved in Midgar's affairs. We're just looking for a powerful monster hidden somewhere in the region, maybe even Midgar itself. If we don't take care of it, the whole city's in danger. Once it's dealt with, it'll be back to business as usual. You'll all be free to play your political games to your hearts' content. So we're not anyone's enemy, okay? Leave us be and we'll be outta your hair in no time."

Roland rolled his shoulders. So whoever this Happy Chaos was, they did know something about him. Or rather, it seemed like they knew about him, but hated him. Roland knew what knowing a crazy was like... Assuming this girl was telling the truth. Considering how her face looked when he mentioned the name of that distortion, she probably was. "Well... I suppose I can understand why you are with some nobodies if that is the case. My job is to protect President Shinra. As long as your not interfering with that, we're good." Roland said, giving a bit of a sigh.

He wasn't happy about what would come next, as walking into a trap wasn't really good for one's health. But considering how that man seemed to be able to destroy entire plates of the city, Roland had no choice. "I've still got questions for those that were there at the time. And if this guy is your enemy too, I don't see why we can't work together for a little bit. "

"Work together?" Giovanna crossed her arms, an eyebrow raised. As odd as doing that with her eyes closed felt, she couldn't be sure that her new acquaintance did away with his vanishing act just yet. For all she knew, this could be an elaborate ploy to make her perceive and then forget about him again for the sake of a clean getaway.

"What makes you think that's in the cards? Either your loyalty's to Shinra, or the common good, and you've gotta know the two don't exactly overlap. The Turks in our group--they ditched Shinra in a heartbeat after realizing what's at stake, and I bet General Affairs isn't happy. Is that why you're here? I can't smell any more goons nearby, but what reason do we have to trust you?"

So far, the fact that none of the new recruits turned traitor -even if a few abandoned the team along the way- was nothing short of miraculous. That could change at any time, especially since it stemmed in part from the recruits' awakening. For this man to join the team, he would need to wake up, too. "...If you really wanna do this, there's something you need first. That stuff you said you didn't understand? It's because they've got you. But I can snap you out of it. Then you can make the call. So before we put any trust in you, you're gonna have to trust me first."

What was this 'common good' talk? This person was a bit naive if they thought this city worked like that. Although that being said, Roland wasn't the biggest fan of how things were either. But thats that and this is this. And all of this talk of 'they' got to him and all of this about trust and stakes made Roland a bit skeptical. "Hey hey. Why does it sound like your trying to get me to join some kind of cult?" Roland said, Giovanna sounding a bit like she was trying to start something big. Although considering that portal looked vaguely demonic, them being a cult wasn't off the table... But then how did they get two turks to join a weirdo cult?

"Huh...I guess it probably does sound like that," an amused Giovanna admitted, running a hand through her hair. While a healthy amount of skepticism about the Seekers' deal would ordinarily be a pretty normal reaction, but so far plenty of new recruits joined in without question. On second thought, both Turks had been press-ganged into it, either with a luster purge from Roxas or a post-fight friend heart. Oof. Giovanna furrowed her brow as she scratched her head, then shrugged. "Well, them's the breaks, I guess. As long as you're under, you're a liability," she told Roland, comparing his state to an anesthesia-induced stupor. "Live in ignorance if you like, we can't save everyone. Just know there's so much more at stake than you could possibly realize. Your call."

Roland was confused for a lack of a better word. While this all sounded like a cult sorta deal, there were things that didn't make sense and they had some answers about... something? What was this about him 'being under' something? Wait... was he under something when that Happy Chaos fellow was at the debate? He did mention something about being able to control... something... And there were Turks with them, all having been 'fixed', and they were no pushovers. Roland started to scratch his head in annoyance at what was going on. "Gah... what would this involve..." Roland said, defeated. Granted if it was anything he knew was bad, he'd retaliate. He wasn't going to be some weird test subject for a wing.

"A shock to the system." Giovanna put one hand on her hip and held her other up, manifesting a friend heart above her palm. "This thing can free you, but you'll resist it if you don't loosen up first." Discarding the heart, she crossed her arms. "By the way, you turned off your stealth power yet? It's pretty awkward talking with my eyes closed, you know."

Roland looked at the cartoony looking heart. Well, he hadn't seen anything like that before. And it was far, far too pretty to be anything from this city... And come to think of it, Roland didn't have his mask on at the debate until things started to get hairy, so they did already know his face... "Sigh, either your telling the truth, or your even higher up than I am and are just running experiments on turks." Roland said, taking off his distortion mask to reveal his tired, slightly worried face. "Come on, lets see what this does..."

"Did you just say 'sigh' out loud?" Giovanna laughed, incredulous. When she opened her eyes, she found a rather ordinary-looking man in dark suit. Though she hadn't been paying a ton of attention to the debate broadcast, she remembered seeing a lot of people in that sort of attire over on Shinra's side, which made sense given Roland's stated allegiance. Rei, who'd been sniffing him, slunk over to take up her usual position behind Gio's back as the secret agent approached.

"Alright, what's the best way to do this..." she muttered to herself. She stopped right in front of Roland, her chest barely an inch away from his as she sized him up. Tall, thin, composed. Clearly professional, but that 'sigh' and that funny exchange about smell hinted at an inner dorkiness. Plain, but not bad looking. "...'Kay. I'm throwing you."

Before he could object, she pounced on him like a tiger. Her legs clamped down around his neck, and as Gio pulled him off balance, she twisted her midsection to slam him down into the hard asphalt. The hard landing left him stunned, winded, and, more critically, pretty hurt. Enough for Gio to conjure the Friend Heart again and smack it into the forehead of the man asphyxiating between her thighs. Roland was instantly healed, and as Giovanna released her headlock, suppressed memories flooded back into his mind just as the oxygen flooding back into his lungs.

Roland gacked and sputtered, having just been crushed between this woman's thighs in a surprise attack. "Gah, what is wrong with you?... Well, at least it wasn't as painful as Ms. Head Librarian's introduction into her little book club." Roland said, getting up and cracking his neck. "So is that it? Crack a man's neck and shove a heart into him? Are you sure your not part of some freaky dominatrix cult or something?" Roland said, on guard now, but having been friend hearted, his memories came back. A bit slowly at first, but as the two just stood there, he remembered more and more. "Wait... This isn't the city I know. Whats going on?" Roland said, glancing at what he'd assume would've been the backstreets. They were remarkably clean, and it was still too early for the sweepers to be out and about.

"Welcome to real life," Giovanna said as she rose, casually dusting herself off and straightening herself out. "Midgar, Dystopiascape, the whole world, it's all a lie. A giant mashup of different worlds, crammed together by Galeem." From here, surrounding by buildings, neither of them could see the Lord of Light in the distance, but it was there. Always there. "Whatever it is, it messed up everything. Sounds like a conspiracy, but it's true. Good news is we can mess it up right back. And the monster I mentioned it just one step on the road to to get there." She put her hands on her hips, smiling wryly.

A few thoughts then went through his head. Without that introversion that just happened, Roland would be stuck in more or less the same grind as before. That, and he noticed pretty quickly that Ms. Librarian wasn't here either. And while his world was messed up, he did have a pretty good group of friends that weren't here, or might not even recognize him if they did meet up again. That... well... "Well... I guess I can take a look at whats going on. Still strange, but thats that and this is this. Name's Roland, a grade 9 fixer." Roland said. Even saying that, it seemed even in another world, the way of the city was ever still present.

"Giovanna." After scratching Rei's head, Gio beckoned Roland to follow her. "C'mon then, Roly-poly. Midna's gonna be back any second, and we've both got a lot to catch up on."

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

Upon entering the portal, Roland found himself in quite the circus. Giving a nervous chuckle, Roland introduced himself to everyone the same way he did to Giovanna. To be fair, he didn't really need to say his fixer grade anymore considering he doubted Hana or the Head was even present in this city. It was mostly habit at this point. Looking at the group, they had been halfway through discussing their plans about dealing with Happy Chaos. And it was quite the strange crew. There were a fair share of humans or human adjacent sure, but there were a couple robots and people who clearly were not human as well. He also got a bit of an earful from Goldlewis as well as Roland was new to the group, and had to be caught up on exactly what was going on in much better detail.

As the Seekers reconvened, Zenkichi was still going over things in his head. That Goldlewis and C knew each other from their world was yet another piece of the puzzle that they could connect- namely, Goldlewis would have insights into C’s psychology and capabilities, though how much those capabilities had changed was up in the air.

Geralt, meanwhile, was still in the dark about what had happened after the broadcast was cut. Missing vital context, he was much less patient than the former Turk, and as soon as they could go, he was through the portal, even if he grumbled about it the whole time. Shuffling to grab himself food to settle his stomach (which was rather upset at going through a second portal in one evening), he dropped into a chair heavily, a bag of jerky quickly disappearing into his mouth.

They gave the newcomer, Roland, a wary greeting, shooting Giovanna a look questioning their new tagalong.

While Geralt didn’t know what a G4 summit was (Zenkichi’s eyebrows rose, though he wondered if their worlds were similar enough that they meant the same thing, given that Goldlewis was from the US), what came after was much more interesting: He was a Source. The first Source of Goldlewis’ world, at that, and with powers that made Ciri look like a Witcher when compared to a proper sorcerer, if what Goldlewis had been told was correct. “Huh. My daughter, Ciri…is similar. Not quite as fantastically powerful, but she’s what we call a Source. A person with a deep, innate connection to magic, and incredibly powerful.” Taking a moment to practically inhale some jerky, he continued.

“She’s also a worldhopper.” Leaving that tidbit to sink in for the others, he frowned. “Which means she could be anywhere, or Galeem…fuck.” Sighing, he rubbed his forehead with his hands, frown deepening. “Fuck, I hadn’t thought of that until now. She’s in more danger than I thought…”

Zenkichi grimaced awkwardly at Geralt’s revelation, but tried to give the man a bit of hope. ”It could also mean she’s fine, and hiding out somewhere. Though, that adds the problem of finding her if she’s not willing to end up here.”
“Not that simple. Her ability to travel worlds isn’t quite so finely controlled. But it’s also not the point. Sources are prone to severe mental instability. It’s possible that this Happy Chaos is similarly afflicted, and as you say, might be a great boon or a great liability to the other Consuls and Galeem. If we can manipulate his insanity properly…”

”We can take him off the board.” Zenkichi finished.

“Or anger him into slaughtering us all.” Geralt hedged, throwing a bucket of cold water onto the whole idea. “It’s an idea, but one we’ll have to think long and carefully on if we decide to try it.”

”Yeah, I prefer not being slaughtered…” Zenkichi half-joked. “As for Shinra not knowing about the Consuls, I actually don’t find that terribly surprising. Chaos went to Konoe first, probably knowing how he’d react when given secret knowledge that he could use to amass power. It’s exactly how it happened in our world. Konoe was a tech genius, whose company maintained a personal assistant smartphone app called EMMA. In reality, it was an AI developed by a genius woman who basically had no emotions, and was using it to try and understand humanity.”

”Things get weird from here. Where I come from, there’s this sort of…collective unconsciousness that lies just beneath the surface of the world, that we call the Metaverse. It very rarely interacts with the real world. The app was taught a way to manipulate people in such a way that it warped the Metaverse by altering their desires, typically by manipulating past trauma they’d experienced. In turn, this allowed those people to manipulate others through the Metaverse, though they were mostly doing it unconsciously.”
Pausing, Zenkichi sighed and shook his head. ”I’m almost done, I promise. Konoe comes in at this point.”
Drumming his fingers on the table, thinking of the best way to phrase it, Zenkichi continued. ”Konoe became one of these people, targeted by his own app, though it only amplified what was already there: an immense sense of guilt that came from killing his own father as a child.” He paused again, letting that simmer. ”Konoe’s father abused him horribly, and one day, when his father revealed that he’d kill Konoe’s mother as well, and was just going to ‘get rid of him’…he killed his father.”

”The guilt’s controlled him ever since. He was convinced that there were no heroes in the world, that nobody would save him…so he became his own hero. EMMA preyed on that, and distorted that guilt, and that conclusion, to make him believe that he had to become all of humanity’s hero. Of course, he did that by using it to control people. His plan was ultimately to rid all of humanity of free will. And according to Consul C, Happy Chaos, he’s back to doing the same damn thing by taking over Midgar from the inside out. Whatever other plans he has under the hood, that we don’t know about…I’d be willing to bet they’ll use a similar method. Reduce people into mindless husks, obeying the whims of trusted leaders, or some grand system that tells everybody how to act on a daily basis.”

”Raz, you…said you might have a way to help? You’re a psychic, right?” Geralt nodded to that, humming in thought.

“Hate to burst your bubble, but how confident are you that he was telling the truth about any of that?” Geralt questioned.

”Pretty confident. Though he could absolutely be manipulating us, it’s perfect. It fits Konoe’s psychology to a T. No free will means no crime. No evil, no injustice. Just a perfect, peaceful world.”

“Then we’ll assume it’s true, I guess. I don’t have much to work off, though, given that we weren’t there.”

”Well, speaking of that: C mentioned some things about the abilities of the Consuls. They can all warp around as they like, though he said it wasn’t very useable in a fight. I guess it takes them a couple seconds to do it or something? It wasn’t clear. Uh…he said they can drain life, and mentioned that they could do so especially well from something called a Flame Clock, which sounds to me like it might involve that weird Machine he brought up during the debate. And they all apparently have one special ability unique to them, which was the least useful piece of useful information we got.”

“Always great to have that.” Geralt sarcastically confirmed. “I don’t have much to add. It’s late. We should probably leave the more involved plan making for the morning.”

”Yeah, probably for the best..” Zenkichi nodded, standing up and stretching a bit, before heading towards the bedrooms. ”I’ll go check on Akane and make sure she’s settling in, too. Night, everyone.”

Roxas didn't say too much on the way back to the hideout. He was mostly just tired from what felt like an eternally long day. Thanks to his earlier side trip to a sushi bar he wasn't hungry. But he sure was thirsty to make up for it. Once they were back Roxas found himself sitting in the meeting room with everyone else sipping on two separate drinks. One was a glass of water and the other one was a bottled energy drink. And that's when all the discussion started.

First to speak up was Goldlewis, offering an explanation that he and Chaos both came from the same world. Well, at least that meant they had someone who knew how this guy thinks. That was at least something. But something about it all still bugged him. And he figured he ought to get the question out there now before it was too late to ask, "About these Consul guys. You guys are telling me they're on Galeem's side, but, well... Why? Why would anyone side with something like Galeem? What are they getting out of all this that they weren't already getting in their own world?" He shook his head, unable to fathom why any of these Consuls would be doing all of this.

And while Roxas waited for his answer, a few more things were happening at around the same time. First was Susie and Blazermate, or more specifically, Susie saying that advanced technology to could bring any magic to heel. Roxas couldn't help but offer a retort, "I wouldn't be so sure of that." He told Susie, "There was once a guy in my world who tried to do exactly what you're describing. He believed that Darkness and the mysteries of the Heart were things he could understand and control by applying science and experimentation. And do you know how that turned out for him? It ended with his entire world becoming overrun and nearly destroyed by the very Darkness he was trying to study. Some things just aren't meant to be controlled or understood."

As for the discussion about how to get to the Guardian, Roxas already knew what he was going to suggest regarding that. But not quite everyone was present just yet and he wanted to make sure everyone heard what he was going to bring up for that. Instead he focused his attention on the conversation between Geralt and Zenkichi. They were talking about the guy that the latter had asked Chaos about. And that led to Zenkichi explaining just what that Konoe guy's deal was. That made Roxas think, and recall a certain individual from his own world, "So he thinks he knows what the world needs and is willing to do any horrible thing to make it happen. Sounds like someone I remember from my own world. He was convinced that Darkness would inevitably destroy everything and so his solution was that the entire world needed to be remade without Darkness in it. I can't even begin to describe the sheer number of lives he manipulated and ruined to try and make that happen. Mine included. He was the real architect behind Organization XIII. He was even willing to travel back in time in order to recruit his younger self to help him with his cause.

"Speaking of which," Roxas added, now looking around at everyone, "I still can't figure out how the Organization fits into all of this. We had a perfectly good opportunity to ask that Consul about it but no one did." Roxas shouldered his share of the blame for that. He would've certainly used his own question to ask about that, had Chaos not claimed that he already wasted it. He was kicking himself for being too quick with his question. After all, the Organization was the reason he was even here now. And he just let what could have been his first real lead slip through his fingers.

But before he could dwell on this topic any longer, Giovanna finally returned and with yet another Turk in tow. He wasn't Galeem'd so he was probably okay. That also meant that pretty much everyone was here now. So Roxas could finally let them all in on what he was actually thinking, "Glad everyone's here, because you all need to know what I'm about to tell you." he said, almost perking up a bit at the prospect of delivering form of good news, "Getting to that Guardian won't be a problem. Doesn't matter how much they have it locked down, not as long we've got this!" At the last word he summoned one his Keyblades and gently set it down on the table, "The Keyblade, it's not just a weapon. It's a key too. One that can open all sorts of locks without fail. Any lock."

Midna exited the arena riding someone’s shadow, mind abuzz with all the information they had just gleaned, and whether they could trust, well, any of it. As a result, she hardly noticed how the city of glass had changed in the dark, which was unfortunate, as she would have appreciated the soft pink, almost sunset like, glow the bay was reflecting onto the area around it had she seen it.

Rather than take in the scenery, what she wanted was to both rest, and talk things over, but there was still a bit of work for her to do before she could do either.

Whisking people back to home base was fairly taxing as a result of the day’s exertions, and the way her thoughts were running in circles inside her stressed skull. She was still in control, and there were no close calls, but it was extra taxing. Then she had to go back, and pick up Giovanna and what was apparently a new member she’d found somewhere.

”Alright? Are you adopting stray dogs out of alleyways now? What was he doing, tailing us?” she asked when informed of the news, and when the latter turned out to be true she was too tired to be surprised or concerned that someone could do that ”Huh. Alright. Another sneak for the team it is then. Could come in handy”

”Welcome out of the light. We’re completely outnumbered, working with barely any information, and fighting a false god” she told him as welcome ”So, you know, typical hero stuff from what I’ve heard”

”Now stick close, I’d rather not lose you in the twilight realm and have you turn into an actual dog” she beckoned them close and then away they went, wheezing across the city in only a few heartbeats.

”This here is our current little base away from our main base. Make yourself at home” she announced as they arrived, before doing the same herself.

The fact that Goldlewis was giving a recounting of events she had been present for gave her the time to do so, the princess storing her armor, giving herself a quick wash, and then getting some water and granola bar into her body. She would have loved cooked food, but, well, she had no real idea how to use the modern kitchen appliances. So snacks it was.

Maybe she could convince someone to make something nice for them in the morning.

Once everyone was up to date on what had gone on after the show, and she was not dying of thirst and hunger, she joined in the conversation on what to do with all this information

”Only way to find it is to capture something infected and try it, I suppose” Midna replied to the two robots discussion about how they needed to “reset” Poppie in-order to get her back, and how a friend heart might do it ”But before we do that, we’ll need to work out how the city’s forces resist it in the first place, so that you are both safe from the virus. Or just keep you well away from it”

She made a mental note to not use her cyber-bear when the machines were around after giving that advice.

”As for Peach, well, we need to work out where the resistance are keeping her, get into the Supernatural Life Research Facility to work out how they make the stuff that gets her her mind back, and after that well, if we can get 10 of the same kind of spirit she can turn into something that isn’t an Other at least” Which might well result in them having two impish princesses, which meant that she was speaking from experience when she said ”It’s not easy, but you get used to not being you anymore after a while”

There was hope then, though she could already think of all the ways it could be dashed. Resetting could not work, the cure Peach needed could be far too hard to use full time, or deeply unethical in its own way.

”Lastly, if that Bede kid is anywhere, he’ll be at that pokemon capture site that they use to produce more psychics” she added a yet another place for them to break into, on top of the end goal of the area’s boss.

Speaking of it, the princess had a theory or two about what it was doing down there ”Maybe the guardian was something made by, or someone working for, Shinra before the merger? Then Galeem promoted it to the position due to being strong, and coming with a whole lot of inbuilt defenses”

”Which is going to be a problem, because while Shinra might be awful if we do a lot of damage while breaking in it’ll hurt the city by reducing the forces they have to use against the crises, and make it much harder to work in the city as well” she worried. Not that they weren't exactly working outside the law a lot already, but becoming public enemy number one would make that oh so much harder.

”Same issue for this Konoe person. If they have most of the regime’s forces under their thumb, then, well, dealing with him is also going to get messy” she added, regarding Zenkichi’s in-depth knowledge of the man who had been put on the path of becoming the, well, secret third candidate for president in a way.

”So as much as I hate to say it, as much as he is probably also bad news, we might need Armstrong. He’s the only one who can fill the power vacuum that we’ll end up causing when we go against shinra” Midna suggested, not at all fond of the idea but as far as she saw it ”What other options are there? Even if we can get them on side, the PSYC-OFF rebels have just been broken, Konoe has his fingers in Neuron, we have no contact or clues about any of the other rebel groups, if they’d even work out as replacement powers”

The idea that they might be able to fix a man with such twisted aims as Konoe never even crossed her mind.

The same kind of thinking guided her thoughts on Roxas’ question on why the Consuls would serve Galeem in the first place ”Given that Galeem already destroyed those worlds, sucking up to the new god to get some power here sounds like something worms would be willing to do for a lick of power in this one”

She had to disagree with the boy’s assessment of Darkness as well ”You can control dark powers, if you know what you're doing. I’ve got proof right here after all” she tapped the ¼ of the used shadow she had set down on a table while they were talking ”and generations of wisdom in my head about it too. There were disasters and horror at the start, my ancestors were not nice people and they didn’t care who got hurt in their pursuit of power, but my people are past that now. Power is power, what matters is how you get it, and how you use it, not if it is light or dark”

She was apparently finding herself arguing a lot with Roxas, which did not feel good, but she then also found herself disagreeing about Organization XIII as well, at least in part.

”If Galeem’s pawns are trying to stop us, the path the Organisation is helping us on must be a right one. Plus, given they probably didn’t know about us till we’d already done a lot of damage, it is probably best not to let them in on the existence of the Organisation either” she retorted, before trying to smooth things out a bit at the last moment by suggesting that ”Plus, it would be far easier to ask one of them, next time one shows up, anyway. We could have Raz read their thoughts or something like that even, no trust in their words needed”

While she and the keyblade wielder had their disagreements, she was in full agreement with Geralt’s assessment that they should leave it for the morning once things started winding down ”Given that everything's going to go wrong tomorrow apparently, that’s probably for the best. The enemy can’t ruin our plans if we don’t have any after all”

Once everyone had had their say, Midna found herself a spot for some well deserved and very needed rest.

Unfortunately for her, her dreams would not be allowing the night to be anything close to restful.

Ganondorf, perhaps wisely, chose to let others have their pizzas made before he did anything himself. Having no idea what the stuff even was, the Gerudo wanted to see what the most common elements of it were before making any decisions himself. From what he observed, the cheese and sauce were mandatory. Without those the food itself, which turned out to be a flat pie-like dish, lost its identity and wasn't "a real pizza" as Bowser seemed to insist. He watched others end up with pies topped with combinations of meat and vegetables. As well as Rika creating a rather disgusting-looking thing that had absolutely everything on it all at once.

Honestly it was almost enough to make one lose their appetite. Almost. When it was finally Ganondorf's turn, he settled on a combination of pepperoni, ham, and sausage. He'd risked his neck to get those meats so he damn well was going to enjoy the fruits of that labor. But having meat only seemed like too plain of a dish. And so Ganondorf chose to also add some of the peppers that Therion brought, which he was solemnly warned would make the pizza very spicy and possibly too difficult to eat.

"Ha, please." Ganondorf boasted, "I'd welcome that challenge." he wasn't about to let a little spice scare him away from the pizza he had decided on. Besides, it couldn't possibly be any worse than the mostly-bug-based dishes that Toriel had been feeding him down in the Ruins. He welcomed the chance to eat some real food for a change.

And so, a bit of time later, Ganondorf was eating a pizza pie that could be best described as a spicy meat-lovers. In fact the peppers on his pizza could be smelled by everyone around him. For some this might be a tantalizing smell. For the faint of heart who didn't like spicy food? Probably not so much. But the King of Evil himself seemed to be enjoying it well enough. Albeit he had a big glass of water next to him on standby in case things got a little... dicey.

But during this time was when the conversation turned to people telling their stories. After Bowser's explanation of being at ground zero of Galeem's attack, the Gerudo raised his hand, "For the record, I was there too when Galeem first attacked." he added. After the Koopa King said his piece Ganondorf decided he might as well elaborate a bit more on how he ended up down here.

"After Galaeem's initial attack, I was chained up down in the Ruins until you all arrived." While he initially said this with a grimace, that seemed to quickly form into a smirk, "Clearly Galeem or his Consuls must fear me to go to such lengths to keep me from rising up. For all the good it will do them in the end. I still got free, and I'll still have my revenge before all this is done. They will rue the day they made an enemy of ME."

Mewtwo unfortunately had no real context for what they were doing. They mentioned something about looking for a lost Seeker, but that was the extent of what he understood. He knew nothing about the missing person in question nor did he know how that one person could make all the difference. But the Pokemon had nothing better to do and so he went along with it for now. He'd have preferred to go back to Aether Paradise but the others made a valid point about L increasing the security there for the time being. They'd just have to wait for another window, as frustrating as that was.

Later that night, he found himself going out into the streets after dark. The way he understood it, skeletons of various creatures rose from the ground at night and Band seemed convinced that if they find the source of that they would also find the missing Linkle. Mewtwo wasn't really sure how he knew such a thing, but there was really no time or opportunity to question him about it. And so here Mewtwo was. Most of the skeletons didn't look at all familiar to him. But there were some that he did. The Pokemon skeletons even appeared to have the abilities they had in life, though Mewtwo wondered if they would all be considered Ghost types. If so that would mean a few good Shadow Balls would take care of them.

And so while everyone else got to work immediately, Mewtwo waited a moment and charged up up one of his Shadow Balls. Then he used Teleport to position himself above where all the Skeletons were rising it and hurled down into them. After that he flew straight down to the ground in the midst of a host of Pokemon skeletons and used Psychic to blow them all away from him in all directions. That sort of became his strategy for this particular group. He'd teleport away, charge up a Shadow Ball, let it fly downward from above and then head down to blow everything away with a Psychic. He repeated this two or three times, but decided not to push his luck on the off-chance that these things were smart enough to adapt to an attack pattern.

So from this point Mewtwo decided to focus on some of the bigger ones, namely one of Giants. For that Mewtwo would bait it into moving to strike him so that he could stun it with Disable. After that he could use Psychic to lift them up over groups of smaller skeletons and then drop them, letting gravity take care of the rest. And then something screamed by and buzzed him, nearly knocking Mewtwo out of the air. The Legendary Pokemon jerked his gaze in the direction of the flying thing that attacked him and glimpsed a figure he vaguely recognized. It was an... Aerodactyl? Or at least the skeleton of one. Maybe this was some kind of fossil that was resurrected along with the rest? Either way this particular Pokemon could be trouble. They were known for being among the fastest fliers in the Pokemon world. And for having Dark type moves like Bite and Crunch, either of which could cripple Mewtwo if they managed to connect with such an attack.

Of course, only a knowledgeable Pokemon Trainer would really know to exploit such a tactic. A wild Pokemon like this was less likely to take advantage of Mewtwo's weaknesses as a Psychic type Pokemon. And Mewtwo was proven correct as the Aerodactyl came swooping back, not with a Bite or Crunch, but with a looping Aerial Ace attack. The attack itself was a Flying type move, one that was well known for its inability to miss. But thankfully Mewtwo wasn't a type of Pokemon weak to such a move, and so the actual damage he took wasn't too bad. But if the Aerodactyl decided to to use it repeatedly in addition to something like Agility to make itself even faster? That could be trouble.

The Legendary Pokemon focused his attention on the Aerodactyl, trying his best not to let it out of his sight. When the fossil Pokemon attempted to make another run with Aerial Ace, Mewtwo was waiting for him this time. He thrust out his hand and managed to catch the flying fossil mid-attack with his Psychic. And then Mewtwo used his psychic grip to swing the big fossil Pokemon around himself and slamming it down into a crowd of Dry Bones on the ground. Between his own efforts and those of the others, some of the streets appeared to be mostly clear.

But they weren't done yet. a pair of stronger looking undead made their presence known. Mewtwo wasted no time and used Teleport to regroup with Big Band.

With the day so chock full of action and intrigue, Raz was ready to hit the hay, but there was a lot to go over first, least of all being dinner. Eating a lot in short notice was a skill you pick up when your family owns a circus, so Raz cobbled together a tall multi-layer sandwich out of coldcuts that he balanced over to the main meeting table or wherever they were going to be hashing stuff out. He picked away at his food while Goldlewis debriefed the rest on the debate, meaning there were several moments where Raz helped fill in the gaps with a full mouth, but luckily everything was settled without much left out. When the debrief was over Raz still had a decent double-decker sandwich to go, which he was about to finish off when everyone else started discussing what to do next.

"Well I don't assume I know how these Consul guys think," Raz pitched in, sandwich halfway to his mouth, "but I feel like they have everything they don't have access to in their own world? This place is every world after all. Back where I'm from we don't have anything like sentient robots, magic, or Pokémon," he continued, gesturing to whoever in the room best fit the description. "It's probably the same for Happy Chaos and all the rest. Something here they really, really want to keep. For all we know there's some, life-saving medicine for them, or they met their soulmate here." Look at his lunchmeat concoction, Raz put it back on his plate. "Not that it excuses them helping Galeem or messing with everyone else."

His appetite continued to shrink as Zenkichi and Geralt went over everything with Konoe. He drummed the table with his fingers. Raz didn't like the idea of manipulating Happy Chaos, or any of the other Consul, with whatever mental illnesses they had, but that felt like a discussion for a different time. The more pressing bit was one that Zenkichi asked him specifically. "Oh, man," Raz muttered, "I probably shouldn't have said anything. It just felt relevant at the time." Feeling that all eyes were on him now, Raz couldn't not elaborate. He produced his Psycho-Portal, holding it up for everyone to see.

"I don't think you were around when I mentioned it to everyone else, Detective, but me and my fellow Psychonauts have this device that lets his astral project into people's minds. It lets us travel their psyche and help with any mental issues they have. So, uhh, earlier, when you mentioned Konoe having a ton of guilt driving his actions, it sorta popped into my head that I could be able to help him come to terms with it." Now sheepish, Raz set the portal down on the table. He glanced at Sakura, but didn't say anything about his excursion into her mind the other day. "It's a real big responsibility though. It wouldn't be right for me to go into anyone's brain without them being okay with it. It's supposed to be a way to help people, not a tool to deal with a problem."

With a nervous chuckle Raz returned to his sandwich, a little less enthusiastically than before. Midna brought up the Psych-OSF rebellion, which he was quick to jump on after. "We need to go back to Psych-OSF! Even if we can't find the rebels or Supernatural Life, we can still get to the conspiracy Shinra has there. When I was reading his mind earlier he mentioned Zanotto, the Grand Head of the Psychonauts. I'm thinking that if we can get to him, we can get to the larger plot, and we can figure out how they're turning people into Others, and try from there?" There was a little selfishness in the request, which hopefully nobody would pick up on. "And me and Sakura have to report in anyways, I think. We're kinda part of their most important faction and all."

---

663 Words
+1 EXP

—

Sakura was happy to be re-united with her friends after finishing her game of darts. Everything had worked out after all. They got some pretty vital intel, it sounded like. The faster they got to punching the bad guys, the better. That was what Sakura was good at.

At the hideout, they were introduced to a newcomer, Roland. And everyone began talking. About a lot of stuff. If everyone was giving their two cents, this would come to about a dollar.

Sakura’s main contribution was setting a reassuring hand on Mister Geralt’s shoulder when he talked about Ciri. She knew he cared about Ciri a lot. ”She sounds strong. We’ll find her, and until then, I bet she’s fine.” She said. But she knew it wasn’t that easy not to worry, and her tone of voice indicated as much. But that didn’t mean reassurances weren’t worth giving out.

Karin nodded enthusiastically at Roxas’ well-earned boasting about his powerful weapon. ”If you truly believe that would work…well, eliminating the Guardians are our top priority. The Consuls, the politics: it’s all obstacles in the way of that singular goal.” She said.

”As for your Organization, Roxas, well, it’s hard to say what exactly-” Karin said, trailing off.

”I think I’ve only really met one. She helped me in a fight, even after she insisted some horrible mean thing was the only way to win. A grumpy person that was secretly nice.” Sakura said cheekily.

”Hmph.” Karin crossed her arms. She wasn’t going to acknowledge that with a comment.

Roxas and Midna had a minor disagreement, and Karin felt she should speak up. ”Don’t forget you two are talking about two completely different Darknesses. We’re all from entirely different worlds. The same words will describe different concepts.” Karin said.

”Yeah…” Sakura said, thinking about some of the truly horrible things she had witnessed in her time as a ship girl. At Raz's mention of her reporting in, Sakura nodded.

”The team is gonna feel a lot empiter with Peach-san...” Sakura said sadly. ”But I'm right there with you, Raz-kun.” She gave him a salute.

”Hey, Karin-san. You still owe me a fight. Wanna get outta here before bed?” She asked.

Karin looked around at the others. ”If you’ll excuse us. We’ll travel a safe distance from the hideout and keep things relatively quiet.” She said.

”Right!” Sakura said.

So before resting, Sakura and Karin left, and they finally had that spar they’d been meaning to have. Later that night they returned to the hideout and bedded down.

Karin never dreamed, and Sakura rarely had a nightmare. Karin was excellent at sleeping. Karin was the best at sleeping- her body was a temple and well-oiled machine that needed rest, and she could will herself into restful slumber whenever she pleased, and wake up on subconscious command. Sakura just ate oatmeal and drank milk and stuff.

But that was why Sakura was still awake when she heard Tora gently crying, and it broke her heart. Poor Tora. She hadn’t known him long, but she’d never seen him without Poppi. It must be so hard on him. That was why Sakura didn’t fall asleep until after Tora did. But she did spend a while staring up at the ceiling and thinking of her own family, wherever they were. Sakura talked with Geralt a few days ago, and learned not to worry. To be honest, she was just…sure. They were fine. Citizens somewhere, living ignorantly in some Galeem-fueled bliss, probably waiting for her to come home. Sakura sighed and tossed her arm over her eyes.

It was nice of some of the group to go about making pizzas for the trolls even when they had no need to. The Seekers could leave the tower any time they wanted, which Primrose had relayed to them via the Linkshell - and now that everyone was back she went over what she and Therion had learned in more detail, telling the group about the 210 doorway in the staff hall. Anyway, the trolls could make their own pizzas with the ingredients gathered. Neither Primrose nor Therion got in the way of the troll pizza experiments, but neither did they help. Instead they made their own, which turned out less like true pizzas and more like charcuterie boards with baked dough as the serving tray. Freshly cut fruits and cheeses, some with honey drizzled over them, sat on the plain crust. A delicious breakfast for sure. While packing some to-go, Therion added some slices of cured meat to them as well.

They shared their creation with any that wanted some, and they tasted the pizzas slices offered by others. After learning what a pizza was "supposed" to be, some of the slices they tasted were very... unique. But seeing as neither Traveler was picky like the trolls, they didn't mind.

Ms. Fortune brought up the suggestion of telling stories, about themselves or the things they'd seen. Primrose had revealed a little about herself last night and didn't feel the need to repeat herself for those that had been asleep. Instead she thought about the past couple of days after setting out from Alcamoth while others went ahead and talked.

Sectonia mentioned the guardian the previous "Yellow Team" had defeated in the desert, making Therion scoff. He nudged the moon-walking pineapple out of his way with one foot as he finished packing one of the preservation bags with boxes of food.

"You left out the part where we had to climb probably the world's biggest mountain to even get to the worm," he supplied. "Nearly got flattened and frozen, and then we had to get back down the mountain when the thing slid off and almost smashed that town."

Both parts of the journey had been to his consternation. It had happened immediately after Primrose and he had found each other in Tostarena and he'd joined up with the Seekers, so he didn't have any stories to tell that at least part of the group didn't already know. He didn't feel like talking about his past or his haunting dream either. He tolerated letting one of the queen's antillions groom his tail as the others went on to tell their own experiences.

After a surprising demonstration of the trolls' strength (Why didn't they try and stop use when we went to the staff only area...? Primrose thought), the Koopa King took them all the way back to the world's start. It was an interesting tale, including Ganondorf's comment that he'd been there when Galeem had started its destruction and recreation. Primrose, who had long since taken a seat, leaned forward and laced her fingers together, resting her chin on them.

"And that's everything you remember," she said, "but not everything that's happened. Isn't that right?"

That disgraced king, Asgore, had told them that Galeem's world of light had already existed for years at this point. And the people that had been there from the beginning had major gaps in their memories. She, too, didn't recall living in this world for years. In her mind she could remember that burning pain when he had betrayed her - not for the first time, she'd learned. Then a bright, white light. Awakening in the Land of Adventure. Ending up at Smash City Alcamoth, and being freed from the light after the Seekers had finished off the guardian nearby. It had been weeks at most.

"Getting our timeline correct is important. I suspect a visit to Asgore again after we defeat this area's guardian will reveal much to us."

If asked, she would mention the timeline discrepancy brought up by the old king, and his promise to tell all once they finished the job in the Under. As for what Jr. mentioned about Galeem altering time as well, she had to assume that was correct, in some part at least.

With that out of the way, Primrose filled them in on some additional details of the yellow team's adventure.

"After the sweets town, but before the mountain, we made it to a city called Al-Mamoon. That is where we acquired the railway gun. We met Jesse there as well." She glanced at the other woman, happy to let her talk about the art museum they'd broken into with the phantom thieves if she wanted. "The city was in the middle of a standoff between the Grimleal, the queen's advisors currently looking after the city, and rebels that opposed them... I suppose that man, Validar, has gotten comfortable after we left."

Ultimately their job in the Sandswept Sky was completed, so the loose threads were of no import. Would the city, and the area itself be alright with no left to oppose the Grimleal? Would really try to summon a fell dragon as Robin thought he would? And what of that area's Consuls and Flame Clock? The Seekers hadn't seen anything of the sort while in the desert. Primrose didn't say any of these thoughts aloud. Maybe if they wanted to visit that heavenly spa again she would find the answers to those questions in Al-Mamoon, but for now she left them alone.

Jesse had been feeling a little down since her encounter with the brainwashed kids and Rotty. Nadia, though, broke the silence, and Jesse chuckled. “Sorry. Tired.”

Sectonia went first, kinda. Jesse pretended to consider her request. “Thanks, but, I’ll pass, for now. Until we get that mirror.” She said with a wink.

Bowser went second, and Jesse gave an impress frown. “Wooow. Good stuff, good stuff. Entertaining, informative…” She counted off her fingers. “Some other third thing.”

“Craziest thing I ever been through, I mean I fought a monster made of paintings, but we’ve all fought monsters so it’s not that crazy. The weirdest thing was how I got the Tool Gun. It was just some random balding kooky old guy trying to do a museum heist. I stopped him with help from, what I gather, is a bunch of plucky teenagers with attitudes. The Phantom Thieves? I mean this thing-” She indicated her Tool Gun. “-is nuts. And he’s using it to plunder modern art. Paracriminals, man, I just don’t get ‘em sometimes.”

—

A short distance away, the silence was stiffened now and again by the crackle and pop of the slowly fading embers of the fire, reminiscent to something the knight wouldn’t have ever been familiar with when in the Age of Fire, glowing embers danced in the air for he was always in the shadows away from the warmth of day.

Artorias grasped at the air, entranced by the embers drifting softly in the dark and yet the outstretched hand wavered, what good would holding onto such a small glimmer of light do? With a sigh, the knight's hand dropped, crestfallen and unsure of what to hold onto as he bathed in the dim glow of the open flame. And so the once great knight sat on hands and knees staring deep into a fire that held no answers to the questions that plagued his troubled mind.

Stoking the flames with his very hand the wood hissed and popped, the steel of his gauntlet blackened and smoked as he withdrew it from the flames. But he showed no signs of pain or discomfort, just staring at his hand consumed by his own thoughts.

Rubick stood nearby, his back turned towards Artorias. He was focusing on his Puzzle of Perplex, trying for the upteenth time to comprehend its many complexities. After a brief period, though, Rubick merely sighed and put it away. His heart wasn’t in it right now, anyway. Instead, he turned to Artorias, who seemed to be lost in his own inner thoughts. Rubick said nothing though, letting the silence stick around.

“You okay there, buddy?” Jesse asked, walking up beside him. She noticed him off by himself, and felt obligated to check up on him. He definitely seemed like the dramatic sort but there was a real melancholy to staring at a hand you just plunged into some fire.

"Sleep evades me," Artorias almost sounded reluctant, almost weighing his words as he spoke them "And my mind tis clouded by…this terrible light, that in my dreams it burnt everything…my being, my soul and my very existence." a sad chuckle escaped him, the knight shook his head "Surely tis cruel fate that the light I believed nurtured instead burns all in it's sight?" the vision he had of a great celestial being had in more ways than one caused the knight to question his own beliefs, something he hadn't had the pleasure of in his time serving a king who fostered the hatred of the dark.

And so the knight described his vision to Jesse, of him climbing out the earth to the surface where a being of light resided. Though he seemed more and more reluctant to share more.

Jesse furrowed her brow, an uneasy smirk flashed across her face for a moment as she rolled her shoulder. “Um…are you talking about Galeem?” She asked. The knight tilted his head to the lobby roof, for a moment before nodding without word.

Jesse nodded back. “Well, that’s not on you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Probably two different lights, y’know. It’s a big multiverse.” She said.

The knight looked to Jesse with a confused expression on his face "What is this thing you call a 'multiverse'?" Artorias asked obviously not very familiar with such things, or such strange terms.

“Oh, uh, right.” Jesse scratched her head. “Well, you know. It’s the word for the place all the different worlds exist in. So you’re from one universe, I’m from another universe. All the universes together make the multiverse. Right now we’re all squished together. By Galeem” She mashed her hands and fingers together to demonstrate.

“So unless Galeem is from your universe, I don’t see how it’s your fault. The big light got pretty much everyone, from what I can tell.” Jesse said.

Rubick chuckled at Jesse’s words, then sighed himself. He twirled his staff around in his hands, starting absentmindedly at its goopy head. “This ‘Galeem’ entity is certainly very powerful. I pride myself on being an accomplished Magus, and the rest of my world has beings of similar or even greater powers than my own. And yet Galeem tore through it with ease. I still remember the day those beams of light eliminated every combatant on the battlefield, myself included.”

Evidently so too did Artorias "The light…Tore through the sheer darkness beneath the grave of which I wish I had never disturbed." the knight spoke solemnly, reflexively touching his arm as if to check if it were injured "It twas when I had been ready to die, and had this Galeem not interfered…I fear my fate would have been much different."

Jesse nodded over at Rubick when he spoke about Galeem’s burst of power. As Artorias spoke, Jesse shrugged good-naturedly, throwing up her hands. “Oh, there we go, see..? Silver lining. Without you here, I might be injured or worse.” She said.

“Sorry, I’m a little new at this whole optimism thing.” She said. “Galeem snagged me after I’d, well, kind of figured everything out.” Jesse explained. “I imagine there’s a rhyme and reason to it. It all kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“All I know is, things aren’t supposed to be this way. A lot of people are dead, dying, missing, worse. It’s a catastrophe of the biggest proportions. The whole world, if I’m understanding the Flame Clocks correctly, quite literally runs on suffering. So obviously we need to shut this shit down ASAP. I think we’re the ones to do it. We’re still here, aren’t we?” Jesse said.

The knight didn't know a whit about what these Flame Clocks she mentioned but the chivalrous side of him fully understood that no matter if he was without king or kingdom he would uphold his duty to serve others in need, he stood and looked down.

"Your words hath given me hope." the knight for almost a moment had the sliver of a smile on his otherwise stoic face, Jesse had quite a point for had he not been found or brought here he would never have come to her aid or be able to see through eyes unclouded by the veil this 'Galeem' had blinded him with.

Jesse rotated her wrist and bowed a little. “Glad I could be of service.” She said, with a little more flair than usual.

Unfortunately his wordy musings and quiet brooding had mostly spared him the pleasure of fully listening to the others when they arrived with food and tales to tell but now he was more willing to open up to these strange and diverse folk.

Slowly he brought himself along with Jesse where he stood at the edge of the firelight where he stood resting his hands on the handle of his weapon that upright was as tall as the feral whom was wolfing down a strange kind of food he.

"Forgive my lack of manners, might I beg a slice of this strange bread that thou arte devouring in such an unsightly manner?" the knight asked coughing into his hand awkwardly as he inserted himself into the conversation.

"And salutations unto all whomst I am unfamiliar with. I am Artorias, the Abysswalker and one of the Four Lordran Knights." the knight bent his knees slightly and bowed, one hand upon his sword and the other to his side. All rather unnecessary and dramatic, but so far it was par for the course with the antiquated and ye olde' fashioned Artorias.

After the debate broadcast cut out the Seekers in Penguin Sniper made their way to the venue to meet up with the other half of their team. Pit was glad to see everyone present and accounted for. Since no one looked hurt, he assumed a fight didn't end up breaking out. With Goldlewis making the decision to get somewhere safer before going over what happened, the angel hustled through Midna's twilight portal along with the others. Once through, Pit flitted around the space given it was the first time he was seeing their new hideout. He had no qualms with raiding the cupboards with some of the other Seekers, not quite sated by the bar peanuts. Though when Goldlewis and Raz started to explain what had gone down at the end of the debate and afterwards, Pit gave them his full attention.

So much information, so quickly! Since coming to the city, Pit felt his brain was working harder than it ever had in his life. What jumped out at him was the fact that they had a Consul's identity, and possible motive - and that Midgar's entire situation was precarious to say the least. Everything controlled by one maniac, under the president's nose.

That Goldlewis knew the Consul, Happy Chaos, on a deeper level than the rest of them surprised Pit. "He's that strong?" he asked, though he didn't sound disturbed by the revelation whatsoever. Instead, Geralt's follow-up made the angel shrink away slightly. Over the last couple days Pit had worked to get over what he'd accidentally done to the Witcher, especially since he wasn't actually dead, but he still felt awkward about it. And the reminder he could have torn apart a family wasn't a nice one.

Giovanna then returned, with a stranger in tow. Another one of Midgar's elites? When the man introduced himself, Pit jumped back into the conversation by returning the introduction with one of his own, complete with his full rank Captain of the Goddess of Light's Royal Bodyguard.

As they continued to discuss Happy Chaos and the Consuls as a whole (and the Organization, of which Pit didn't have a clue so he stayed quiet for once), the angel chimed in here or there with his agreements or disagreements. And of course the area's Guardian was brought up, which was one of the reasons they were even in the city to begin with. It was here. And now, they knew how to get to it.

When Roxas revealed the Keyblade's ability, Pit's face split into a grin. "That's great! Then we won't have to try and get through any weird codes or keys or anything like that! We can get to the Guardian whenever we're ready."

That they'd certainly have to fend off enemies on the way went without saying. Still, basically forcing their way through was a plan that Pit could definitely get behind. As for when to actually do so... well. Pit glanced at Karin when she declared that it was their top priority.

"At first I was thinking the same thing. That all we had to do was beat the Guardian and things would be fine." He turned his eyes from Karin to the group at large. "But now I'm worried about what will happen to the city if we do that without doing anything about the Ever Crisis. If everyone in Midgar is suddenly free, then won't the whole city go into a panic? And if that happens, what about when the Others or Chimeras attack? All the defense forces will be just as confused and disorganized, right?"

The Seekers had been able to handle one half of a machine invasion, and they'd battled against the extra-dimensional monsters before, but they couldn't be everywhere at once. "Maybe we should stop that Konoe guy first, and... ugh, I don't know."

He shared this opinion with Midna, but he didn't have a good answer. Giovanna mentioned the best person to lead the city wasn't up to it anymore. Working together with either Armstrong or Shinra just seemed wrong. Then again, they had Benedict, Zenkichi, and now Roland on their side. Maybe there were good people in the administration they could free and get to help? Pit folded his arms in front of him, annoyed that he couldn't pull the answer from thin air. Or from an all-knowing goddess.

During a lull in the discussion a thought slowly formed in Pit's mind. It wasn't grounded in any evidence, and it was more than a little hopeful, but eventually he gave voice to it.

"I don't know why they'd help Galeem, but they do choose to do it, right? That Happy Chaos guy wasn't under the light's control was he? Do you think the Consuls are so strong that they were never gleaming in the first place?" He paused. No, that couldn't be right. He was there when Galeem took over. When it subsumed everything. Not even the Goddess of Light escaped...

He tried again. "Or maybe they were able to break out of the mind control on their own?"

This was something he hoped might be the case. It meant a lot of very powerful villains might be out there right now, plotting their own take overs, but it also meant that Lady Palutena might have been able to free herself and she just hadn't been able to re-establish her telepathic connection. Regardless of what anyone else thought on the matter, Pit let the thought sink in for them.

Toward the end of the discussion the Seekers began filtering out. Some, like Tora, had left much earlier. As they disappeared, Pit bid them a, "Good night!" He himself lingered in the room, unsure of what to do with himself. He didn't feel up for a spar like the street fighters, but he was too antsy to go right to bed. So for the next couple of hours he familiarized himself with the building inside and out, perching on its roof and serving as lookout until he got tired enough to turn into bed himself.

Once Goldlewis delivered his account of all that transpired in the last few hours, the discussion opened up to everybody, and it went on for some time. A primary concern for Blazermate and Susie was the fate of their fellow machine, Poppi. Goldlewis couldn’t give them an answer about the fallout of a Guardian’s defeat, having never witnessed one himself, or the nature of Consuls in Midgar, but he urged Susie to temper her expectations. A master hacker she might be, but the systems of the city computer Arahabaki were almost certainly going to be psy-tech. After hearing about Happy Chaos, Geralt offered some interesting insight on a similar phenomenon from his home world, comparing a Source to the Original. Zenkichi went in-depth on the man behind the curtain, Akira Konoe, sharing not just his methodology but his twisted origin story. Though this shed some light on PubSec’s big boss, it didn’t change how Goldlewis felt; ‘sympathetic’ was not always ‘redeemable’.

Roxas chimed in with some dirt on old enemies from his world as well, the original Organization XIII. He didn’t see this new version as anything different, and he didn’t see why anyone would choose to serve as a Consul in the World of Light. Goldlewis could think of a dozen easy answers, some of which Raz and Midna alluded to after the Twilight Princess summed up a few problems that the Seekers needed to attend to, including the Supernatural Life Research Facility. She pointed out that, when it came to the Organization, the enemy of one’s enemy ought to be a friend. That matched up with the veteran’s experience so far, with the Organization members helping to point both the desert team and city team in the right direction, however cryptically. That unlocking power Roxas boasted of would definitely come in handy, though–provided that the entrance to the place C called ‘the Twinning’ lay behind something as simple as a lock.

While Goldlewis wouldn’t call the notion of helping Konoe deal with his psychological issues one of them, Raz brought up some good points about the Psych-OSF. He and Sakura already had an ‘in’ to the organization, but his familiarity and prior experience with Truman Zanotto sounded like a big deal. Though, being Scarlet Guardians meant fulfilling the duty and accountability that accompanied that role. Raz and Sakura had been absent ever since the joint operation ended, and for all Goldlewis knew, the two might already be marked down as Absent Without Leave, and he mentioned as much. “Goin’ AWOL is a huge deal. In the US you’ll get a warrant out for your arrest after thirty days, but it might be different here. Even if there ain’t charges, they might not letcha outta their sights again if y’all go back, and we need all hands on deck bright and early tomorrow mornin’.”

As Karin and Sakura went off for some late-night fighting, the veteran sighed, rolling his neck. “Now that we know where the Guardian is, and we got a rough idea of how to get there, it’s temptin’ to bum rush the Shinra Buildin’ first thing in the mornin’,” he said. “But like Midna and Raz said, we got a billion things we oughta look after. The minute we march on Shinra, we’ll have Peace Preservation, General Affairs, Psych-OSF, and Vandelay too, all ready to rip us limb from limb. Then we got DespoRHado to deal with, Supernatural Life, and who even knows how Neuron, the Machine bosses, and Reunion factor into all this. We can’t afford to go off half-cocked. So we’ll do like C said, and wait. Rest up folks, ‘cause tomorrow, we gotta be ready for anythin’.” Goldlewis then stepped away, his face dour. The worst part of all this was that Pit was right. Even if the Seekers destroyed the Guardian, Midgar would be far from saved. Indeed, its troubles would just be getting started.

For the first time in a good long while, it looked like Goldlewis would be spending the night away from home. It wasn’t much, considering the heights to which he’d risen in his political career, but his little house in Sector 07 was precious to him. No matter how hard the day got, no matter how bitter or complicated, he could still retreat to the privacy, peace, and quiet of the one spot in this cruel world he could call his own. Unfortunately, the same audacious look that made him so enviably stylish also made him innately recognizable, and if any of the Seekers’ enemies identified Goldlewis Dickinson while he was out and about these last few days, it wouldn’t be that hard to find out where he lived. So here he was. After going through his usual ritual of disassembling his layered, highly accessorized outfit, he’d donned a tank top and shorts, then laid himself down in his military-style cot after moving it well away from the others. In a way, its spartan embrace almost nostalgic. But even if he’d been able to sink into the soothing memory foam of his California King, Goldlewis doubted he’d be able to sleep. Even if he didn’t show it, tonight’s events had rocked him. Midgar was a vast and varied tapestry, full of loose threads just waiting to be pulled, but tonight the debate -and the interview that followed it- had slashed open the cloth. A million thoughts ran through his head, and though too weary to start grasping them, Goldlewis couldn’t fall asleep either. After a time spent lying awake, he heaved a heavy sigh and went outside to get some air.

Goldlewis leaned on the railing, staring out across the Sector 07 undercity. Though he couldn’t see the night sky from here, he could still feel a breeze in his hair. Down by the reservoir it might be a stagnant, toxic mess, a foul miasma of pollution and decay, but up here the air was clear. It blew in from the southwestern mountains and wove between the skyscrapers of Seiran like the trees of a massive, concrete forest, its colorful leaves the flags, windsocks, and hanging lanterns found all over the connective bridges and walkways. The scale of this place, complete with its own infrastructure and culture, boggled the mind, and yet it formed just one sixteenth of this unimaginable city. In a place like Midgar, even a very big man could feel very small. Especially with such a big day ahead of him.

He heard the hideout’s front door creak, then a familiar voice. “Wow, I didn’t think I’d actually find someone out here.”

Goldlewis looked over, not alarmed. Giovanna crossed her arms and leaned herself against the wall, a mildly amused smile on her face. Rei lay at her feet. Thanks to the secret agent’s equatorial upbringing, her idea of comfort in a climate like this tended to be a sweater and sweatpants. “In movies, shows, games, you name it, whenever everyone goes to sleep, there’s always that one guy that goes off and stares into the distance. Then someone else shows up and they have a secret, important conversation.”

The veteran chuckled, looking back down at the Reservoir. Far below, its muddy depths pulsed with the synchronized luminescence of the Psifish. “Well, I can’t think of anythin’ important to say. You?”

“Nah. We don’t have enough in common.” Giovanna walked up and leaned over the railing beside him. A few moments passed by in silence. “Hm.” She rested her cheek in her hand. “It’s pretty nice out.”

“...Sure is.”

“Not as nice as Iguazu.”

“Iguazu?”

“You never heard of Iguazu, dude?” Giovanna nudged him with her elbow, an incredulous look on her face. “Iguazu Falls, in Brazil. Right next to Argentina. The biggest set of waterfalls in the whole world. It’s amazing. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“...Sounds mighty fine. I oughta go sometime.”

“You better. You’ve seen so much ugliness. You’ve gotta get out there and see that the world’s beautiful, too.”

“...Yeah, well…okay. Well then, you better go visit Yellowstone sometime.”

“Huh? Why?”

“America can be beautiful too.”

“Hah. If you say so.”

“I do say so!”

“Okay, okay, jeez. First thing tomorrow morning. I’ll send you a postcard, ‘kay?”

“Fine. I’ll wrangle you up a souvenir from the Falls, then. One o’ them li’l wooden gorillas or somethin’.”

“There aren’t any gorillas in Brazil, dude.”

“Whuh!? Well, whaddya want, then?”

“Anything’s good. Just don’t get fleeced at the shops. You’ve gotta know how to haggle.”

“Aw, I hate hagglin’. Why can’t folks just say what they really want up front?”

“Man, you’re hopeless.”

---

As usual, Goldlewis woke up bright and early, though in sunless Seiran it was still dark. Some days he felt like he could just drowse in bed all morning, but even if his accommodations were comfortable enough, today wasn’t one of those days. He cleaned himself up, assembled his iconic outfit, and got something to eat. Milk spoiled fast, but with this many people he’d judged it a wise purchase, so with that and some instant oatmeal he made breakfast. With a little brown sugar as the finishing touch, and freshly-brewed black coffee to wash it down, Goldlewis seated himself in the breakfast to start the brand new day off right. It was six fifty-nine.

Just as the hungry veteran raised his first spoonful of oats to his mouth, a magic glyph sprang into existence by his head, filling the hideout with an urgent tone. “Whoa, nelly!” Goldlewis yelped, fumbling his spoon in panic. The oatmeal splattered down on his tie, and the spoon clunked against the floor the next instant. Groaning, he reached for a napkin to wipe himself off, and answered the call. “Hello?”

“Ah, Mr. Dickinson,” a woman’s voice replied. “Just the man I was hoping to reach.”

The voice was low, flat, no-nonsense, and completely unknown to him, putting him instantly on alert. He rose from his chair with such suddenness that he accidentally shoved the table forward. When he looked at Giovanna, he saw that she’d received and accepted the same call, but said nothing. They shared a nod before he responded. “Who is this? How’d you get my number?”

“I am the mission control administrator, chief communications officer, and android legion commander for DespoRHado Enforcement, LLC. In order to reach you, I used my telecommunications power to hail every endpoint for magical communication in Midgar, in hopes of reaching you. Hear me well: I mean neither you nor your organization any harm. I merely come bearing poignant information, as well as what you might consider a vital opportunity.”

Goldlewis had already narrowed his eyes. While his first instinct was one of exasperation, he recognized a lead when he saw it, so he bit his tongue, swallowed, and replied evenly. “Go on.”

“Thanks to Shinra’s official announcement of his intent to replace DespoRHado with Vandelay Technologies as Midgar’s Machine Defense contractor, DespoRHado’s leadership has decided to move against Vandelay, effective immediately. As we speak, a massive assault force, led by the Winds of Destruction, is assaulting the Vandelay Campus. If you move quickly, you may be able to intercede, and make of two of Midgar’s strongest organizations what you will–be it allies or ashes.”

For a second Goldlewis gaped. His mind was already racing, and he wasted no time locking eyes with Midna. Thanks to her portal, the team could get back to Vandelay Campus in a flash. Before they did anything, though, there was something the veteran needed to know. “Why are you tellin’ us this?”

“The winds of change, Mr. Dickinson,” the stranger replied. “For a long time, DespoRHado has been more focused on its enemies within Midgar than those without. I have attempted to remedy that. My initiatives have succeeded in transitioning the company toward Androids and Unmanned Gears, made not to suppress men, but Machines. DespoRHado can win the fight for humanity, but not under the Winds of Destruction. Of course, I cannot allow Vandelay to crush us, either. Both must be brought to heel, and no better time than while they’re busy fighting one another. I have reached out to you because my countless eyes have witnessed your Special Operations Unit in action, both in Midgar and beyond, still fighting the good fight, while the rest of Midgar fights among themselves. If you choose to take Midgar’s future into your hands, meet me in Circuit Royal as soon as possible.”

The line went dead. Goldlewis stared at the gathered Seekers. Was this what C meant by ‘next morning’? If Vandelay and DepoRHado were really going to war, today was starting with one hell of a bang. “We can’t ignore this,” he said. “This is our chance to either get some vital chess pieces off the board, or get them on our side. Not just for the good of our mission, but for Midgar. Plus, if we left ‘em alone, whoever wins would end up strong enough to be a right thorn in our collective be-hinds if they got half a mind to.” He grabbed his coffin by the chain and hoisted it over shoulder, ready for action. “Let’s mosey.”

As the hideout turned into a flurry of activity, Tora got busy making preparations as well. This was his chance to get hands-on with the leaders of Midgar’s technological revolution. Even if he couldn’t do much on his own, he was determined to take any chance that might get him closer to a future with Poppi in it. Not knowing who it was who reached out to Goldlewis, Tora could only imagine that destiny was calling–and it would be rude to not say ‘hello’ back.

---

When the team emerged from Midna’s twilight portal and rushed out of the dumpster-ridden backlot, they found a very different Circuit Royal waiting for them than the one they experienced last night. Most glaringly, its jumbo parking lot was now dominated by an enormous, hulking transport ship. Goldlewis also quickly noticed that the devastation that had befallen this place, with the broken-down wrecks of dozens of Vandelay robots -primarily SBR units- littering the scene, many reduced to little more than scrap metal and sparking spare parts. Circuit Royal’s facades and fixtures had been perforated by gunfire and blown apart by excessive force; everything lay in wartorn disarray. Goldlewis guessed that the DespoRHado ship, which itself must have been laying in wait for just such a day as this, had landed and taken the basic security teams completely by surprise, overwhelming them before moving into the campus itself. The echoed sounds of fighting off in the distance were the proof in the pudding. Weirdest of all, though, was the sky. Goldlewis hadn’t seen it while in Seiran, but it was dark and overcast. The oily Extinction Belt shimmered threateningly among the clouds, stronger than ever, giving the whole sky a dark, ominous, almost alien appearance. It looked like a good day for bad stuff to happen.

Since the Seekers arrived, the androids and Unmanned Gears guarding the ship had focused on them, but made no move to attack. After a few moments, the bay doors of the transport ship began to open. Goldlewis bristled, ready for an ambush with his coffin primed to shield everyone with a Wall of Light. Down the ramps strode a retinue of androids, two teams of two. The first pair seemed doll-like, one male and one female, the former with a kind expression and the latter showing nothing but callous indifference. The other two, clad in black and blindfolded, regarded the newcomers with stern wariness. All four sported katanas and paper-white hair, but none seemed eager to fight just yet. Goldlewis focused more on the figure that floated behind them: a very tall, very pale woman with short silver hair, its strands curved and sharp as the blades of her android attendants. She wore a sleeveless collared crop top under a suit vest, a massive gold-trimmed white longcoat worn off her shoulders, and at least five black belts with pale gold buckles over curious white pants with attached high-heeled shoes. In her red-tinted black eyes gleamed bright green power symbols instead of pupils, and an elaborate halo floated above her head.

“Greetings.” Goldlewis recognized her voice as his mystery contact from earlier. “I am Sandalphon. These units are Mascula, Laxi, 9S, and 2B. If you’re here to decide Midgar’s future, I am here to help.”

Goldlewis did not allow himself to relax just yet. “You’re puttin’ an awful lot of faith in us, stranger. Why?”

“Out of all of Midhgar’s leaders, I believe only Vernon had his heart in the right place. One would have to be a fool to believe that either Shinra or Armstrong, or the PMCs that back them, offer a true way forward for humanity,” Sandalphon answered matter-of-factly. “Neither Vandelay nor DespoRHado as they are can be allowed to survive. As Vernon’s trusted friends, I trust you will all do what you must. If diplomacy fails, I will be content to pick up the pieces, and forge a better DespoRHado from them.”

After a moment, Goldlewis nodded. “With so many key players gathered in one place, we can’t afford to look away. So what’re we up against, Sandalphon?”

The angel nodded, and began projecting screens one at a time. “DespoRHado’s troops, primarily cyborgs, have already swept into the campus. The Vandelay robots are out in full force to stop them, but the Winds of Destruction have divided and conquered, each carving through a different sector of Vandelay campus.” Sandalphon put up an image of a volcanic cavern, laden with lava beneath high-tech bridges and platforms, with testing chambers built into the walls. “Monsoon is going after Zanzo in Research and Development to tear down the birthplace of Vandelay’s technologies.” Next came a view of a gigantic, dark purple, cylindrical room, full of moving lasers. “Mistral is ascending through Security to nullify the head of Vandelay’s resistance, Korsica.” She then put up a shot of the campus’s centerpiece, the grand, lavish atrium. “Khamsin marches on Finance to prove to Roquefort that there’s no price tag on freedom.” She projected a view of colorful factories, with fast-paced assembly lines and giant contraptions. “Our boss Sundowner is targeting Production, specifically its boss Rekka, to bring Vandelay’s output of robots to a screeching halt.” She projected a view of a tall, imposing-looking tower. “And Jetstream Sam is in pursuit of the CEO himself, Kale Vandelay.”

Goldlewis stroked his whiskers, thinking quickly. “Sounds like we need to split up too. Catch up to our VIPs before they start wipin’ each other out, and deal with ‘em ourselves.” Himself, Roxas, Raz, Midna, Geralt, Zenkichi, Sakura, Karin, Susie, Giovanna, Tora, Pit, Roland, and Blazermate made about fifteen. Just about enough to send exactly three to each Vandelay division. “I got a bone to pick with your boss Sundowner, so I’m headin’ to Production.”

“Tora go to R&D!” the Nopon piped up, his agenda about as plain as could be.

Giovanna thought for only a moment. “Seems like Security could use a few pointers.”

Once everyone decided, Sandalphon gave a nod of approval. “I can link up with you now and communicate between all five teams here, with no issues. The difference between victory and defeat is measured by just one metric: intelligence. Now hurry. I can provide additional intel en route, and we don’t have a moment to lose.”



As one might expect, the proud and outspoken royals were the first few Seekers to accept Nadia’s invitation to share a little about themselves. Having seen only the tail end of the Dead Zone, Sectonia instead recounted Yellow Team’s ordeal in the great eastern desert, specifically its climactic railroad boss battle against a gruesome grub of immense proportions. Though she could picture both a train and a gun in her mind, Nadia couldn’t quite put them together, especially when it came to a firearm capable of shooting rails. She wanted to see such a magnificent contraption for herself, or at least hear more about it, but the subject seemed to hold no further interest for Sectonia. Instead the big bug turned her mind to confections and conquest. While she briefly mentioned another fight in the desert, she shared barely any details. A queen she might be, but a storyteller she was not. Therion filled in a few details for her, though, mentioning the Seekers’ arduous ascent -and the ensuing breakneck descent- at Split Mountain.

Sectonia also decided to use this time to make the other Seekers ‘beautiful’. Of course, she didn’t actually do anything; instead, she assigned that task to her antlions. Even if the mooks came armed with tools or product of any kind, however, they lacked any semblance of aesthetic sense as well as the dexterity to act upon it. In the end, they just ended up bugging everyone. Chewing on a pizza slice, Nadia shooed away the one that approached her, unafraid to answer its insistence with disproportionate force. “Hey, hands off the merchandise!”

Throughout the pizza-making and the meal so far Nadia didn’t pay much attention to Kamek’s attempts to placate the Pizza Trolls. Not until their displeasure at the conga line of unsatisfactory pizzas rose to such a level that Arno somehow managed to muster up enough force to smash the Magikoopa’s minions sky-high through unimaginable quantities of solid rock. The feral blinked in astonishment, her mouth hanging open. “Did…I’m not seein’ things, right?” When Arno treated everyone to a repeat performance, she could only conclude that she hadn’t been. Swallowing, Nadia scooted a little farther away from the irate trolls to finish her pizza, keeping a wary eye on the trio the whole time.

After that slightly terrifying revelation, Bowser proceeded to tell a tale of his own. He revealed that he’d been there at the very beginning, not just of the Seekers’ campaign in the World of Light, but prior to that as well. His story placed him at ground zero of the reality-level extinction event that Galeem unleashed. Captivated by Bowser's account of Kirby, the sole survivor, and his fateful encounter on Precipice Knoll, Nadia listened at rapt attention, not even eating for the few minutes it took for the king to shed some light on how this whole campaign got started. At its end, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sounds like things have been screwed up since the very start,” she muttered. While some of the details sailed over her head, like the exchange between Bowser and his son about events in the even more distant past at the end, most of the details fell right into place. “You’re sayin’ your first memories were a Consul controllin’ ya and forcin’ ya to fight this poor little Kirby guy? Yeesh. The way you say it, it sounds like the only reason we’re here to begin with is pure, dumb luck.” From that one fateful encounter, a chain of events had spiraled outward across the World of Light, sweeping up all kinds of people in its wake. Even her. If not for Blazermate, Banjo & Kazooie, Ratchet & Clank, Nero, and Nico, she would’ve probably died in the Dead Zone like so many others.

After Bowser’s conclusion, Ganondorf glommed on to his tale, revealing that he too had been there to witness the obliteration of reality at Galeem’s hands. Nadia wondered if that made the two of them special somehow, and just who else might have been there at the start of it all. Of course, the sorcerer’s reminiscence about his experience in the World of Light lasted nowhere near as long. “Oh…right,” Nadia muttered, a little embarrassed to have prompted the King of Evil for anecdotes when he’d spent most of his time chained to a giant egg.

Primrose briefly pointed out something that seemed a lot more important than anyone was willing to admit: the timeline. The memories of some Seekers extended a lot farther back than others, and many of them featured gaps. Nadia couldn’t explain it, but it made her uneasy. If the Asgore fellow the Ash Lake contingent mentioned before had answers, she wanted to see him in person when this underground adventure came to an end, too.

Jesse and Artorias chimed into the general conversation, while Rubick and Omori maintained a tacit silence. Not remembering if she’d already given the knight her name, Nadia introduced herself. “You can call me Ms. Fortune!” Finally, it was time. Pushing the remains of her food away, Nadia held her fist in front of her mouth and cleared her throat dramatically. “Well, my story begins in Carnival Town, way up on the northern shore of the Sandswept Sky, even farther than the giant mountain with the split peak. I was pretty happy there. Life was pretty easy, just sambas and siestas day in, day out. It was nice and all, sure, but I dunno. Just never really clicked for me. Then one night, a strange wagon train showed up in town. Nobody even saw it come in, it just appeared, straight outta thin air. The Zombie Caravan, home to a troop of wanderin’ undead. They turned out to be decent folks, and after chattin’ with ‘em, I decided I wanted to get outta Carnival Town and see the world. So I joined ‘em, and every night the Caravan appeared somewhere new. Partyin’ in Tostarena Town, skydivin’ in Skyworld, Al Mamoon, Gerudo Town, a haunted mansion, the circus, you name it. It was an amazin’ couple months, just travelin’ place to place, makin’ all kinds of friends, seein’ everythin’ the world had to offer. That caravan was the cat’s meow. Until we showed up…in Redgraccoon City.”

Nadia chuckled, her dramatic pause ruined. “Dang, I was hopin’ to say it with a straight face, but that name’s too funny. Still, what happened was no joke. We got overrun by mindless zombies. All the good people of the Caravan ripped apart. I tried to help ‘em, but…” Nadia faltered for a moment, a little choked up, then shook her head and continued with a grim look on her face. “I had to go. I ran and ran. Fightin’ all the time. Until I heard guns goin’ off and found my way to the Police Station. Not knowin’...that it was cursed.” Trying to seem upbeat again, she spread her hands wide in dramatic fashion. “The minute I stepped through the fog, I was trapped. No choice but to fight alongside the survivors there as wave after wave of zombies kept crashin’ in.”

“Dunno how long it was. Days? Weeks?” She’d truly lost track of time during that miserable period. Forget fighting the hordes–even keepin’ a smile on her face for the sake of the others had been a grueling battle. “But we held out. Eventually the Seekers showed up, and you guys helped us solve the mystery. The thing trappin’ us there was a giant ghost called a Preta, tall as the station itself, but with a mouth the size of a pinhole, and hidden away in some kinda warped space. It was starvin’, so to get rid of it, we needed to make it some rice. After that we were dyin’ to get out of there, literally, ‘cause just as we got packed up and ready to leave, the mother of all hordes showed up. We made a break for it, fleein’ through the city ‘til we made it to this big tower. We woulda been trapped there too, but Blazermate’s teleporter got us all out.” Nadia smiled. “Course, I ended up goin’ back later, but that’s a story for another time. And Bowser there knows how it ended, anyway. We all lived happily ever after~” Now that was a joke. Snickering, Nadia fell silent, more or less satisfied with her story. She’d omitted everything to do with the Skull Heart, but the fewer people knew about that, the better. If only she’d been able to sneak in more puns.

After concluding breakfast and packing up all the food they could for the road while Sectonia’s antlions took care of the Deluxe Camping Set, the team prepared to depart Pizza Tower for parts unknown. Thanks to Primrose, the Seekers knew just how to do it, too. Unfortunately, it also seemed pretty obvious that the big boss the Pizza Trolls alluded to would be in the team’s way. As Barnabee pointed out, if Pizza Face was as big a deal as his employees made him out to be, chances were good that he’d have a mask fragment, so the Seekers couldn’t afford to let him slide. Everyone armed and readied themselves to face a new day, practically guaranteed to be just as full of fighting as the last. When Nadia and the others made their way to the hall marked ‘staff only’, they discovered the ‘210’ room just as the dancer described it.

“Alright!” she smiled, tightening her belt. Her bait launcher, Athame dagger, and boxcutter hilts were all ready to go, and after both a nice swim and a hearty meal in Pizza Tower she felt like a million bucks. “Who’s ready for a piece-a Pizza Face?”



When the team proceeded through the doorway, they appeared at the top of a grand, fantastical tower. Thick columns carved by ancient hands surrounded it, sizable stretches of threadbare cloth hung between them, and forked pillars rose around it in groups of three like raised spears. It seemed to protrude from the floor of a large, stony alcove, surrounded on three sides by solid stone and shaded by an equally formidable overhang. On the last side, however, the tower overlooked yet another utterly massive cavern, this one mostly vertical, a pit of unimaginable proportions. On the near side side lay a primarily sheer wall, with countless spigots extruding from its stony face to pour down runoff water from the Home of Tears and the Royal Waterways beneath. The far side seemed to be a vast mosaic of huge, circular shells, stacked and wedged together like the stones of some primeval cairn, with the leafless white branches of long-dead trees reaching out like ghostly fingers from the cracks between them. Somehow, an ethereal white light poured down from above, and every so often a dark shape would plummet past. Before the Seekers lay the Forsaken Lands, the resting place of the Termite Capitol.

Before they could venture any farther, however, the boss of Pizza Tower awaited. Nadia’s ears flicked, alerting her to a strange being descending from above. She looked up to see none other than the aptly-named Pizza Face floating down toward the team, his nefarious green pepper grin, mustache, and eyebrows complimented by evil pepperoni eyes atop a gluey, oozing slab of cheese-slathered crust, with a bulbous mushroom nose to top it all off. He said nothing, but swelled into a hideous leer, his eyes morphing into pineapple rings as he grew extra mushroom teeth. A horrific laugh resounded through the still air, sweeping through the Seekers to echo across the Forsaken Lands.

By the time it finished, Nadia was laughing, too. “What, no chit-chat or monologue? Just gettin’ right to the point, huh?”

In reply, Pizza Face belted out a handful of enemies, including ooey-gooey Cheeseslimes, armored Forknights, grimacing stone Mini Johns, prod-wielding Water Workers, googly-eyed Bad Rats, brutish porcine Piglins, killer Peppibots, rocket-propelled Fridge Bots, and other foes faced individually by the Seekers throughout Pizza Tower. The battle was on.

A guffaw elicited from the knights mouth, taking up arms without so much a moments hesitation with his monumentally sized blade "Thou hast nary a moment where thy tongue is held." Artorias mumbled, shaking his head as he stood shoulder to shoulder-or rather hip to shoulder with Nadia.

"Admirable as it mayhaps be," the knight stepped before the feral slamming his fist into an oncoming Fridgebot causing it to explode on impact head on, seemingly unaffected by the explosion without so much as a flinch he made a bored 'Hmph' and tilted his head back to the cat-woman giving Nadia a sideways glance "And forgive the pun, but do keep the cat in thy bag." maybe she had begun to rub off on him, as he flashed her a toothy wolfish grin or maybe the spirit that was now apart of him filled him with a new sense of vigor and bravado?

Either way he, eager to throw himself into the fray leapt into a somersault performing a wide midair slash slamming his blade down upon the ancient stones atop the tower cracking the ground and decimating a group of fork wielding cheese knights in the blink of an eye, some Peppibots raced towards him attempting a head on rush each met with the brutal edge of his sword. These were nothing but grunts, easily felled by his strength and tenacity alone. Slimes of cheese and bat's swarmed him, he tried to swing his blade to drive the pesky fliers back to no avail.

Bellowing in protest, Artorias leapt backwards shaking the slimes from his plate mail. They only served to annoy him like insects buzzing around one's head. He grew tired as the battle wore on, of slicing down Piglin. After he rammed with full force into a stone faced being, shattering it into pieces he stood in the dust heaving. He wanted more, he wanted a challenge. Not these pathetic minions, not these enemies who only stood little chance of defeating him. And as he let his blade clatter to the ground, his eyes fixated upon one thing and one thing only.

There was no greater rush than in that moment, the rush of the air in his ears, the thump, thump, thump of his heart as adrenaline pumped throughout his body and the thrill of the battle culminating there and then. This entire moment became a pinpoint in his vision as he put his all into driving a haymaker into the almost cartoonishly evil face of the laughing pizza pie.

Slamming with his entire weight behind the force of the punch with all his strength brought to bare. But he didn't stop, becoming frenzied almost as he started landing punch after punch into Pizza Face's…well face.

His strikes doing more damage and getting a considerable number hits in a flurry of expert blows with his oversized gauntlets both thanks to his impressive tenacity and newfound expertise in hand-to-hand combat before is full weight also carried him down.

Landing upon the ground he had only a second to catch his breath before he found himself in the fray once again with lesser foes, those which whom got within striking distance were batted away or slammed by a crushing blow from the knight. He had done quite a bit of damage to Pizza Face but to Artorias' annoyance the villainous cur hid behind a wall of minions.

Artorias growled and howled at the laughing Pizza Face "Face me you craven whelp! Or arte thou nothing but a weak pathetic coward?" he spat his words at Pizza Face, baring his glowing blue canines aggressively.

By the time the Seekers in Edinburgh reconvened on the first floor of the restaurant, the Ace Cadet was ready to go. More than ready, if he could be so bold to say. His equipment was in top condition, sharpened to perfection. His stash of items was topped up too - and though he would have liked to make a few demondrugs or armorskins, or even better their powdered counterparts, he focused on what he had with the limited amount of time and ingredients available. They'd be enough, he was sure.

Big Band's pun certainly worked on the Cadet, who's optimistic expression brightened even further. And with everyone reporting on their preparations, he didn't hesitate to inform them of his own.

"Got plenty of potions and lifepowders to go around if anyone needs 'em. Plus some antidotes, and if I get some breathing room I can make some earplugs or a cleanser for status conditions too." Actually now that he thought about it, would the latter have helped against the Consul? ...oh well, no use thinking about what could have happened. When things calmed down a little, maybe he'd look into getting a lot more support items. Figuring out how to format bowgun ammo for sure in the smaller gun he had would help too, as long as his comrades wouldn't be weirded out by being shot by recovery bullets.

As prepared as he could be, the Cadet met his fist with an open palm and flexed his ship rigging. He grinned at the assembled party as they moved out to tackle what the night had in store for them. "Alright! We'll break some bones tonight, rescue Linkle, and by to-marrow plan our next move!"

For those unfamiliar with how quickly the skullgirl's power could grow, the sudden increase in undead must have come as a surprise. Just last night the Cadet had to really search to find large groups of skeletons in hopes of being led back to Linkle. Now, it was like they were everywhere. He hoped that meant his friend would be easier to find.

He jumped right into combat beside his fellow Seekers wielding the trusty Master Bang. Its versatility would help if he needed to pivot from attacking to defending or supporting, and its shield was the only melee blunt damage option he had. Since the skeletons had no flesh to slice or pierce, it only made sense to bash them. If only the Cadet could get his hands on a properly sized hammer, then he could wreck some real havoc. As it was, he was doing well with just the sword and shield.

Not surprisingly he gave the city's magic users a wide berth and tackled the largest undead in the area. He found it weird how strong the skeletons could be when they literally didn't have any muscles, but even so the hunter was stronger. While his shield did most of the work, his sword saw its share of the battle as well. The broad side of the shield cracked through the bony armor of beasts and giants, and the blade severed vulnerable limbs at the joints after enough damage was piled on. The curves and spikes of his equipment could catch any weapon headed his way before it hit, and the Ace Cadet's sheer power was enough to pulverize the weakest skeletons with one good bash of the Master Bang.

Between his ice-resistant armor and fire-resistant shield, plus Albedo's geo crystal induced protection, the elemental-clad skeletons posed little threat to him either. He'd demolished every undead that had gotten in his way so far. When the number of them increased, he mostly relied on the others to handle crowd control - but he had a few tricks of his own for that when the Seekers ended up more spread out. The anchor and chain swung to crash into groups of smaller skeletons, and Round Force to keep the larger ones away for long enough until he could land a decent shield smash.

As the group fought further and further into the horde, the really dangerous looking skeletons started to appear. While the jetpack skeleton looked like it could be trouble, the darkbeast demanded more of the monster hunter's attention.

"First ribs on the big one," he said, retracting the anchor back into its claw shape on his arm. He waited just long enough for everyone to regroup before he moved to engage. The best way to get a read on it was by fighting it of course, so he went in with a Sword Dance to see how it would defend itself. The sword flashed toward its legs. The Cadet could meet a counter-attack with a parry, catch up to it with his hunter art if it moved, and if it had control of that lightning that jumped up and down its body... well, he'd just have to figure that out if it came down to it.

When Goldlewis mentioned Sakura and Raz had committed a felony, she pulled on her collar, a bead of sweat dripping down the side of her face. ”O-oh…crap.” She gulped.

”That’s not good. I knew I was never cut out for army life. I hope they don’t make us clean the bathrooms with a toothbrush.” Sakura said, glancing worriedly over at Raz.

—
Sakura and Karin woke up bright and early as usual. Well, not for Sakura, who had often maintained an entirely chaotic and inefficient sleeping schedule to have more time for training when she wasn’t in school. But she wasn’t going to school anymore, she was fighting in a war…that did mean less time for training though. Fortunately, experience was a great teacher.

Karin was back in her adventurer’s outfit, golden hair hanging by her shoulders. A sleeveless black and blue waterproof top tucked into dark trousers with knee pads and boots. Sakura was wearing her OSF outfit. White headband, black pants and sneakers. And her red, midriff baring top underneath a thick black vest. Both fighters had their respective gloves on to reduce the risk of splitting their knuckles on the faces of their enemies.

Karin stood to fighting position when Goldlewis was startled, and Sakura did the same after looking at Karin wondering what the heck the problem was.

When the message complete, Karin put her hands on her hips. ”Interesting. I am glad we were made aware of this. I have no problem with mutually beneficial agenda advancements.”

”So, what, we just go there and smack every jerk we see?” Sakura said. ”That almost sounds too good to be true.” She punched her palm, excited to see some action.

—
Once there, Karin regarded the oncoming androids coolly, prepared incase it was somehow a trap. But with the evidence of battle all around them, it was clear the opportunity being presented was real.

”Very well.” Karin regarded their new allies, temporary as they may be. ”I suppose we must make haste.”

”Their petty squabbles born of insecurity and greed will make ample opportunities for justice to rise from the ashes.”

”You and me should stick together, Raz-kun. Our psychic powers can help each other! Plus, we’re a team. And with Karin, that makes three!” Sakura said.

”Not so fast, Miss Sakura.” Karin said with an easy smile. ”With so few members for each time, having us doubling up would be redundant. Best we split up so other teams could use our skills, yes?”

”You make a good point. And that way, you won't have to lose to me in any competitions about who beats up more bad guys.” Sakura said. An obvious undercurrent of ‘I’m teasing you’ in her voice.

Karin’s eyebrow twitched, her smile unfaltering. ”On second thought, perhaps you and I should-”

”No, no, no, you’re right, you’re right!” Sakura said, offering Karin a fist bump. ”See you when it’s over.”

Karin sighed. ”Indeed.” She punched Sakura’s hand.

”I think you fight better when you’re a little mad.” Sakura said, shaking out her wrist with a giggle. With that she went to follow Raz and Roxas to their theater of battle.

In her dreams, the princess drifted over a lake lit up by a crimson moon. In the distance, but growing closer, was a castle, it’s dark stone tinted the color of dry blood by that crimson sky. Beyond it lay a city. A city she had never seen. A city that no longer existed.

A city she still somehow knew was called Redgraccoon city.

In between the two was a rather grotesque looking bridge, one made of everything from broken ships, storage containers to piles of furniture (anything that floated really) all of it tied together by a disgusting looking biomass.

At the city end of the bridge many of the structures were overgrown with the same biomass, creating a pestilent hive, while on the end touching the castle, Midna got a closer look at the creators of that particular brand of horror.

The mass of them where claw like Drones (some of which carried parasites on their backs) which where in the process of rushing breaches blown in the castle walls by acid spitting Mortarbugs. Stalking above the mass of drones were on their long legs where defensive Shieldbugs while at their feet scrambled much smaller Xenonites a stream of which were being spawned by pulsating eggsack like carriers that where hanging back with the mortar bugs.

”Smart bugs” Midna noted as she took in the fairly robust strategy of shield bugs covering for swarmers in front, while ranged and minion spawning support hung back ”Be a shame if someone flanked them.”

A moment later, the princess did just that, shadow hopping to one of somewhat intact boats behind the alien swarm’s backline, and then charging in for the kill on wolfos back. Her shadow hand rose, fell, rose, fell, and pounded the vulnerable support forms into paste, before she surged forwards into the breaches they had formed to help whoever they were attacking.

She expected to find beleaguered knights and foot soldiers, and though there were knights, they were by no means ones in shiny armor. A handful of skeletal blood grinder knights wielding chainsaw toothed blades carved through drones, while dripping hounds known as Gieremund rushed to meet them claw to claw.

After those monsters, however, things took a turn for the strange rather than horrible. Above bizarre harpy-esque creatures. who’s heads sat within large beaks, hurled feathers at foes below or clawed at annoying buzzers, while absurd elephant sized horned cats snarled and clawed at the shieldbug’s chitin barriers.

Ironically it would have been the giant cat that gave away what these were to someone in the know, namely demons. That, and a lone woman with a spade tail who was wearing, of all things, a bunny costume on the battlefield, and delivering swift kicks to her foes.

The princess, not in the know, and also not one to judged based on appearances given her own, did not see this as reason to be anything other than cautious while joining the battle.

Despite the infernal powers of the defenders, they were sorely outmatched, for while the swarm moved and fought as one, the demons fought as individuals, with little concern for coordination or eachother. Indeed, some were simply standing around at the far end of the entrance hall, and made no move to get involved unless the fight came to them.

As a result, even as the princess drove into the back of the bugs, the demons were falling one by one. The giant cat, distracted by the shield bug ahead of it, was swarmed by drones due to having no one to protect it flanks, while a harpy swooped to close to a parasite, and was promptly infested by the leaping horror, causing her to explode into a shower of them a few moments later.

Despite their sizes, said parasites turned out to be the worst, as only the undead knights were immune to them. That at least gave Midna the knowledge of how to beat them, as she summoned up an undead darknut to distract her foes while she struck from the rear.

Explosions of twilight energy blasted away hordes of drones, her shadow hand reached out and crushed the exposed rears of shield bugs, or swirled up miniature tornadoes that sucked in and blended up parasites, Xenonites and buzzers.

Despite her efforts, once the last invader was crushed there were only a handful of defenders left. Not that they seemed to care. They at least didn’t seem to care about her either, be it hostility wise or thankfulness for saving their skin wise, which she found odd.

”So, not even a thank you then?” she asked which got her a brief look from some of the demons, but all but the most human looking one looked away again. For her part, the bunny eared one gave quizzical look and asked “for what?”
”For saving you all?” she clarified

“Pff, the rest of those weaklings maybe. I’d have been fine” the demoness insisted, before scoffed “What, do you want a medal or something? Go ask the master then, you weird little imp, I’m suuuuuure he’ll care about all you’ve done to further his little human extermination plan”

That last certainly raised the princess’ eyebrows, before her gaze tightened and she asked ”And where would this master be at the moment?” tersely.

“What. Are you really going to do it?” the demoness asked, before breaking down laughing at the idea.

For her part, the princess merely rolled her eyes, and floated off to seek out this master who wished to end mankind.

For a time she drifted through the halls of the castle through which demons of dozens more shapes and sizes roamed free. Roamed, she thought, was very much the right word, for the monsters were just as aimless, unguided as the ones at the front gate had been. There were no leaders or even general consensus, and certainly no patrols or guards to stop her seeking out the master of this place.

She found him in a high up throne room, backed by a great window that exposed it to the moon, and would allow the master of this castle to survey all that lay before it.

It came as little surprise that the ruler, a man with alabaster skin, which in places was turning to a crystalline mosaic, a man she knew was Gebel, sat with his back to this view. Blind to what was occurring below.

Her arrival caused the man to start from some form of languishing contemplation, eyes widening with surprise and, for some reason, horror, before everything about him hardened and he locked his eyes upon her.

“Why do you disturb me, imp? Your rightful place is on the field of battle, is it not?” he questioned his unexpected guest sullenly. “Or have you perhaps come to bring me news that humanity has already been wiped from the face of this world?”

Minda was somewhat confused by this man, who looked human, wanted humanity’s death, but she certainly found his confidence amusing given the state of his forces, and decided she could afford to poke fun at this fact ”There’s not much progress on that front. Can’t even make it out the front door after all”

She directed a finger past him, out of the window, to where already a fresh alien swarm was surging forth from hives they had grown within the city. Whatever alien intelligence or instinctual collaboration guided those monsters from beyond the stars, it was going to carry them to victory against the leaderless demons.

”If I hadn’t come, it would be those things disturbing you instead of me soon enough” she told him as the man beheld the state of his forces.

“How truly ironic that the forces of hell, unleashed at last after such wanton sacrifice, turn out to be so…impotent,” Gebel bemoaned, his voice stricken by a crushing mixture of frustration and despair. “To think that my crusade of vengeance would come to such a bitter end, brought low by mere…insects.”

”The complete lack of leadership doesn’t help” Midna noted, before asking ”So … what are we even getting vengeance on humanity for anyway?” curious

“Is it not obvious? Look upon my blighted body, imp.” The patches of sanguine crystal stretching across his skin creaked slightly as he moved, gleaming with unholy light. “Look upon the conspiracy of the damnable Alchemists. Those mad fools, desperate to cling to power in a world quickly leaving them behind, infused myself and others with such shards of demonic power. To be sacrificed, and throw open the gates of hell, so that the world might need the alchemists again. And what you see before you,” he waved his hand at the decimated cityscape. “Is what followed.

”That’s … awful” Minda replied, genuinely appalled, before frowning and pointing out a slight logical consistency ”but you’re also still alive?”

“I do…and yet, I am human no longer. There is no place for me in this world. The greed and cruelty of humanity made me a monster…so a monster I shall be. Humanity deserves the hell they brought upon themselves.”

”All of them?“ she asked ”Aren't they also the victims as well as the perpetrators? Aren't you also human? Aren't there any you knew before who deserve to live?“

For a moment Gebel was silent. He could think of only one face he cared about, and yet she seemed so very, very far away. After a moment his face hardened, and he replied. “Throughout their lives, every human on earth is given the choice. The power to choose between heaven and hell. And what do they choose? Violence. Debauchery. Self-interest. They so the seeds of self-destruction. And so they shall reap. I merely expedite the conclusion of humanity’s sorry tale.” He slumped suddenly on his throne and muttered. “Or…I would. If only these demons could quash some wretched bugs”

”I see“ Midna replied, and really, she did. He was wrong, of course, but she could see what had driven him to this madness. She had not expected to feel bad about putting down this master of demons, but she would now, as there seemed to be something in there that could be saved. Yet there was no time, he was a threat, and if allowed to run rampant he’d eventually break out of this nightmare city and bring devastation to the rest of the world.

Or just be eaten by bugs, but then those bugs would get out and … the princess paused her thoughts, as she realized that should he fall, then it might break an equilibrium and allow the alien swarm to launch forth instead. When he fell, rather.

“Is that the extent of your business with me? I’ve entertained your quest for information, little hellspawn, but the novelty begins to wear thin.” Gebel told her, interrupting her thoughts, or rather bringing a conclusion to them.

”Well, see, I could go out there and just punch bugs, but that’s a losing battle. The demons are leaderless, acting on their own, so they’ll get slowly whittled down one by one. Without a general, your vengeance will never be achieved“ she told him, before swiftly adding that" ”but lucky for you, I could be that very general you seek. All you need to do is make me your right hand woman, and I can take charge. Lead your forces to victory, bring order to this city. Crush all the monsters within and bring it under our rule“

“A bold suggestion. And an intriguing one. For no other demon has demonstrated such initiative, nor conviction. ” Gebel concluded “Very well. I shall give you the chance to serve as my field commander. Lead my forces as you see fit, if you can. Crush the bugs, take this city, and once you are done, sweep forth from its borders wipe out all humanity!”

”Should you still wish it, it shall be so“ The princess agreed with a bow, that in being the crux of her plan. To see if she could peck peck away at his anger and find the part of him that doubted that plan, and bring it forth into the light.

The first part of that plan was quite simple ”As your general, may I recommend that you yourself accompany me for a time, so that you can inform the others of my new position. Plus, a king should be seen by his subjects after all, not languish on his throne, if he wishes to inspire great deeds“

A look of doubt, then a nod of agreement before he pulled himself off of the throne, declaring “Very well. Let us hasten the end of this tragedy” before he and she went forth to do just that.

---

What followed for the princess was a blur, the greatest hits of a violent rise to power. She was proclaimed his general before a throng of demons (including one ever so shocked bunny-eared demoness) and immediately set about organizing and training them into an actual army under her thumb.

Soon after the forces of hell surged out of the castle once more, now drilled into a cohesive fighting force. Harpies scouted out targets, gieremund wolf packs struck swiftly at exposed targets, while cohorts of undead knights steadily advanced under the orders of demoness officers, and demonic cats crashed through the enemy’s defensive positions, along with close to 100 other kinds of demons, all of which she found a palace for in her forces.

Hellfire scorched clear the hives of the alien swarm, and then they pushed out into the rest of the city, crushing undead hordes and mutant scourges beneath her giant glowing orange fist, while subjugating the forces of other hells and incorporating them into her forces.

As for the human survivors, well, Midna’s rapidly growing power allowed her to squirile them away, or simply temporarily transform them into other forms such that they were no longer ‘technically' human any more and thus did not need to be exterminated. Babysteps and logical twists, slowly trying to worm around her “master’s” burning hatred, while she also delicately poked at it from other angles, trying to bring out the person beneath the stained glass corruption.

She even managed to slow the corruption that was still ravaging his body even now, amassing a library of tomes on dozens of different eldritch and demonic lores to draw dark knowledge from, yet a true cure was always tantalizingly out of reach, as if an unseen force was foiling her at every turn. All she needed was one more conquest. One more piece of the puzzle seized from monstrous hands. That was all she thought it would take, until, at last and in the blink of an eye, there were no more hands in the city from which to take.

---

The dream solidified once again, weeks, months, maybe years having passed in minutes of sleep, on the day of victory.

Gebel never truly cared about a throne. Nor did he intend to rule–only to avenge, and destroy. Rather than indulge in hypocrisy by affecting any sort of ostentatious royalty, he wallowed in solitary misery, the throne -and the limelight- ceded to the architect of the region’s conquest. So it was that in a grand hall in his netherworld castle, in which the victorious demons were celebrating their complete and utter victory, their general sat in a throne of her own making to enjoy the spoils of war.

It was good to be a proper princess again, rather than a wanderer with only the title to her name.

Yet it was all to an end. An end to the fighting. An end to the threat of this cursed city. An end to Gebel‘s suffering. All of them now at hand, or oh so close.

And then, like a nightmare, the doors to the chamber crashed open, bringing with it a chill night breeze that extinguished all light in the hall but the glow of the ever present moon, as a masked man showed himself inside.

Gebel turned away from the balcony, where the blood-red moon always beckoned. He watched in tacit silence as a huge man, clad in strange armor crowned by a tragedy mask and accentuated by a black satin cape, strode through the throne room. The heavy oaken doors lay open behind him, revealing half-melted demon corpses beneath the candlelight, massive trail of carnage left in his wake.

The shardbinder quickly moved toward the throne to join the Twilight Princess. His voice betrayed his wariness and confusion. “My lord Consul? To what…do we owe the pleasure?”

“I’m here about your debt,” Consul D announced, his booming voice resounding through the room. “You here in this castle have been living large on borrowed time. Working hard to earn your keep, filling up your Clock, shining ever brighter. I’ve been watching with bated breath to see just how high you’d rise.” Pausing, he lifted a glass to his mask. In it lay a vivid, rich red fluid, though it shone in a way that normal wine did not. What manner of spirits, Gebel wondered, was this man imbibing? Somehow, D managed to drink it through his mask, and he drained the goblet dry. Though he’d satiated his thirst, he seemed rather hungry too, for he was really chewing the scenery. “...Imagine my disappointment, then, when your splendid string of victories came to an end. Were you content with your achievements? No more foes left to conquer, no more mountains left to climb? I suppose it’s true, what they say. Once you reach the top, there’s nowhere to go…but down.” With a swing of his hand, D cast his goblet at Midna’s feet, shattering it into pieces with a noisy crash. His voice was low, menacing, laden with intent. “...And so I am here. To collect.”

For her part, the princess carefully set down the drink she had been enjoying, and then rose to face this new challenge.

”I wouldn’t be sure of that, as it seems like I’m looking at one more mountain, and this one’s a real pinnacle of arrogance by the looks of things“ Minda said as she drifted up from the throne while brimming with her arrogance, arrogance she was actively using to push down a primal fear gnawing at her gut ”one I am oh so looking forwards to mining the secrets out of once we take you down“

Her shadow hand shot up and made a clenching fist, ready to throw down, while the princess raised one of her mortal hands, fingers curling around a pulsing locus of power that called fourth the titanic drake Valac, who’s twin heads pierced in through the grand windows on either side of her throne.

Her exposed eye glanced to the side at Gebel, not forgetting about who this was all for, and then inviting him to join the dance with ”Let’s show this interloper who he is messing with.“

Only silence answered her, however. When she looked back, she found Gebel hesitating, his eyes narrowed and his face deadly serious. Slowly, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. When he did, the undead dragon turned lowered its loathsome heads, bowing to the Consul before them. “Now, now. Let’s not be hasty. As their invoker, these demons are mine. Your authority is but borrowed.” Gebel then put a hand on his chest, and bowed his own head toward D. “Forgive me, my lord Consul. I allowed this foolish upstart to command my army, but I did not anticipate that she’d lose the will to fight, nor lose her mind, as well.”

”Lost my …“ Midna started to echo in confusion, eye opening a wide for a moment, before narrowing back down to a glare as her gaze flicked back to the Consul and demanding to know ”Who are you, really, and what hold do you have over Gebel? Tell me! Because you are both sorely mistake if you don’t think I have the will to fight for what matters“

“What matters?” D looked from Gebel to Midna, then back at Gebel, the annoyance and incredulity hidden by his mask made crystal clear through his voice. “As if prattling knave, an insignificant speck like you, could possibly know.” He lifted his cape, and within roiled an illimitable darkness, smoldering with hellish flame. “I see how it is, Gebel. You’ve made a high-minded friend, amassed a little power, and let it go straight to your head. Well, so be it. If you will not stoke the flames of war, your usefulness…is at an end.”

“Wait!” Gebel extended a placating hand, his voice urgent. “Lord Consul! My aim is as it’s always been: the annihilation of mankind. And I will stop at nothing, I swear.” His eyes landed on Midna, and he grit his teeth. “It was her. She is behind the cessation of conflict. You understand? She came to me in my hour of need and convinced me to put her in charge. Only too late did I realize that I had been usurped. Had I the power to claim the reins once more, I could give you war everlasting…”

”After everything I’ve done for you, you’d just cast me aside?“ Midna asked, half in anger, half in sadness, for surely this could have been avoided if only she had found the cure she had been seeking.

But it was too late for that now.

”Fine then. Call me a usurper? I’ll show you what usurpation really looks like!“ as she rises up her hands and a dozen twilight portals open, spewing out demonic artifacts and tomes of eldritch lore that all swirled around her in a mass of dark power that poured into the fragment of fused shadow she was wearing.

The princess became engulfed in dark power, re-completing the work of her ancestors using her amassed power, while around more portals unleashed a trio of twilit Argorok that took to the air, while before the throne a legion of undead darknuts rose up to defend their princess. Gebel, meanwhile, retreated into the shadows.

”Bow down before the princess of twilight, or face my wrath!“

“And what is twilight?” D spat, his tone venomous as he stood, unflinching. “Nothing but a prelude to darkness!”

The Argoroks inhaled, preparing to let loose torrents of fire, only for two of them to be crushed and immediately killed in immense, hideous twin maws of Valac. D threw wide his cape, and from within erupted a fusillade of unholy fireballs. The hellfire rained down upon Midna and her legion, bursting into pillars of incinerating flame on hit. From parts unknown descended rays of ghostly green power, cutting through the inferno and any monsters yet to succumb to it. Midna strove to power through, pushing her monstrous form through the withering bombardment of dark magic to plunge her trident down upon the spot where the Consul stood, but before she could so much as scratch him he exploded into a swarm of bats. A blazing light shone down on her from above, and when she looked up she caught only a fleeting glimpse before a barrage of flaming meteors pounded her into and through the floor, smashing her all the way to the castle’s entrance hall.

Forcibly returned to normal, Midna lay half-senseless in the dusty debris, broken and bloody. Her Fused Shadow lay beside her, just close enough that she could weakly extend her throbbing arm in hopes of reaching it. Before she could touch it, her hopes were dashed as Consul D stooped to take it for himself, casting it into his cape to disappear. “What’s the matter?” he smirked. “I was told there would be wrath. Can’t you muster some up? Just a little wrath, as a treat? Ahh, a pity, muahahaha!” Chortling evilly, he reached down and picked Midna up, cradling her in his arms. “Well, no matter. You’ll just have to give me…” As he spoke, the mouth of his helmet unhinged, coming apart to reveal a real mouth underneath, filled with cruel, moon-white fangs. D bent down, reaching for her neck. “Something else.”

---

The princess gasped awake, bolting upright and clutching her throat.

”That … was different“ she eventually muttered to herself after she’d steadied her breathing ”Normally it’s … him, but. Instead. A Consul?“

She’d had dying dreams before. She knew exactly what it felt like after all, her life slipping away at the hands of another. At the hands of Ganondorf. But it was always him, always that moment when he had ended her life. Never another. Till now.

”Did… did it all get to me that badly? Or is my mind trying to tell me something“ she asked herself, trying to reach out and grab the already decaying dream and lock parts of it in her memory.

”The clock. Fueled by war. Eternal war. Maybe? That makes sense. Like the clockwork castle Chaos mentioned, feeding on the war“ she mulled it over, far too restless to sleep, and, by the time on her new watch, there wasn’t much night left anyway.

The desire to do something welled up along with her musings, and so when dawn came it found Midna full of milk and oats, and using an old bonesaw she’d retrieved from the clinic base to try and fix the mess Blazermate’s shield had made of her undead Darknut.

It also found her having settled on a mostly accurate, but obviously mostly baseless, guess as to the nature of flame clocks and the Consuls’ interest in perpetuating conflicts to fuel them, but obviously no idea as to why. Other than a plain lust for power.

The other was having second thoughts about her suggestion about working with Armstrong (working for a lesser evil hadn’t exactly worked out in the dream, and she assumed it had been her mind’s way of telling her that) a plan Goldlewis promptly came along and nailed into he coffin she had been putting it into with the news that Riden’s half of DepoRHado had gone to war with Vandelay over the announced replacement.

”I mean in a way I guess my suggestion was right though, if these people can be trusted, and it’s a big if“ Midna commented, but she’d go along with the plan no matter what, because it would mean they could get Tora into Vandelay with plausible deniability about what they were actually doing there, namely trying to find a way to counter the machine virus.

Yes, they needed a reset to fix Poppy, but keeping her fixed and stopping the other bots from being turned were also important.

Either way, she had no objection to opening up a portal, and sending them all on their way to what would likely prove to be an exciting start to the day.

---

Midna hoped the general public either got well clear, or were still in bed, as she took in the devastation of what had once been the gaudy city of glass.

It made the clean and stylish garbs of the ones who invited them to the party stand out even more.

Their leader, Sandalphon, said a lot of the right things, she had to admit, but the twili found herself asking ”Uh, huh, and what about the rest of us that aren't human?“ when the woman spoke of a way forward for humanity.

Still, she did have a point, and was offering a fair amount of support, so the princess was happy enough to go along with this for Poppy’s sake.

”I’m with Tora. I keep my promises after all“ she announced when they started making callouts about where they were going, before summoning her wolfos steed and riding into the fray by the nopon’s side.