Sakura took in everything she had seen while hunkering down against a projectile storm. Sasha could turn off Sclerokinesis, meaning relying on the ability was a non-starter. Sakura looked at Pit, they nodded to each other, and then they rushed at Sasha from the sides. She curved her run to come at him from a different angle from Pit. If she managed to reach, she leapt forward with a spinning kick to try and knock him forward, closer to the wall of fire.

On his opposite side, Pit closed in with the floating shields orbiting in a circle directly in front of him. Both orbitars fired bolts of energy at Sasha. The shots could hardly be compared to the man's wind bullets, but they were meant to provide some cover while he and the street fighter got within melee range.

When the new foes approached, Sasha promptly opened fire. Though he himself targeted Sakura, triple-shots hammering her in quick succession, Prism Break meant that a refracted barrage flew toward Hanabi and Pit as well. Those shots proved to be too much for the pyrokinetic’s fire wall and blew it out just as Hanabi partially Luka with a persimmon-flavored Medium Jelly. Sasha did not anticipate that the angel approaching in his peripheral vision would come packing something special. His wind bullets reflected off Pit’s orbitars and bounced right back to deal some damage. He stumbled briefly but collected himself to face the angel, not sure what had happened. As the orbitar bolts flew in he dodged away, then put his fingers to his head to nail Pit with a flurry of powerful psi-blasts.

Sakura had tried to dodge the shots aimed towards her, but getting clipped all she could do was try and find her footing and grimace as the triple-shots battered against her guard. In between shots she dashed and tried to move further to the side to continue to divide Sasha’s focus. When he turned to fire upon Pit, she figured this was as good a time as any. Sakura leapt forward, moving fast and bringing her arms up, and tried to slam Sasha from behind to knock him into the ground with a ranged Sakura Drop. Unfortunately for her, she hadn’t quite grasped the nature of his Prism Break ability. Even when he seemed to target Pit, Sasha’s refracted body fired toward her and Hanabi as well. Mid-attack, she got counterhit by the first refracted psi-blast and juggled by the rest. ”Bwah!” Hanabi only avoided a similar fate by forfeiting any attempt at offense and running sideways the moment she got Luka to his feet. Right now, it was Pit’s time to shine.

A boost of confidence from catching Sasha off guard brought a small grin to the angel's face. He continued forward in doggedly pursuing Sasha, knowing that so long as he could see the Septentrion's attacks he could dodge, block, or reflect them. But because the Orbitars were so highly defense oriented, once he did get in close he'd have to assume some risk and quick swap to another weapon for the best chance to actually deal some damage and leave him open for their close range specialist to move in too. Even if the man fought with his mind, Pit doubted Sasha would go down that easily under a physical assault from just the Orbitars - after all he was slinging around those two big weapons.

Pit evaded the first couple psi-blasts, waiting until he was a little closer to reflect the psychic beams back to their originator. Staggering the man again would be great, but if he could just make him think twice about firing due to the bounce back it would be enough for Pit to close the gap with a burst of speed. His trusty Upperdash Arm would be able to give Sasha a taste of his own medicine and pop him into the air for follow up attacks while simultaneously giving Pit a moment's worth of protection, so long as he didn't miss.

As Pit approached, he narrowly evaded a few psi-blasts, and while Sasha’s excellent aim meant that the angel took a couple as well, those were hardly enough to stop him. This time, Sasha got the full scoop on how exactly Pit managed to shoot him, not to mention a faceful of his own psychic bolts when the orbitars returned them to sender. He stopped shooting, momentarily at a loss while Pit closed the gap. For a brief moment he thought he saw an opening as his foe sped through the final stretch, but when he leveled the barrel of his manacaster at Pit, his target armored straight through the spread shot to launch him off his feet and into the air. “Ugh!”

Seeing the chance, Hanabi skidded to a stop near Sakura in a cloud of flame rather than dust, her eyes landing on the spot where Yuito had fallen. Back on his feet, Luka blinked over to take hold of Yuito and teleport him to safety, but using Brain Talk the injured psionic sent a message Hanabi’s way. ”Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Seize this opportunity!”

Hanabi nodded, her face serious and determined. “Let’s go!” she cried, charging forth alongside the street fighter to join her for a tag-team combo on Sasha.

”Iku yo!” Sakura shouted, her headband trailing behind her. I’ll go high and send him down! She informed the pyrokinetic Hanabi.

Sakura leapt high into the air to meet Sasha before he could recover. She delivered a swift barrage of punches and kicks to various parts of Sasha’s body, each one causing them to almost float in the air just a bit longer. When she felt gravity begin to take purchase after a few strikes, she flipped and slammed Sasha down towards Hanabi, hoping she had something special waiting for him down there. The psionic did not disappoint, whirling around in a miniature hurricane of flame to deliver a home-run slam that didn’t just ignite Sasha, but also throw him dozens of feet down the street.

The Upperdash Arm had faded away by the time Pit came to join the girls, letting out an excited "Yes!"

As Sasha’s momentum petered out he recovered in the air to land on his feet with the help of Levitation. It would take more than one big combo to knock him out, but this was a good start. Hanabi realized the bigger problem when her focus shifted from the Septentrion to the war machine behind him.

By now, the Sectopod had more than enough time to turn back around. Narrow lateral vents had opened along its hull to give off steam as its internals cooled down from using its Wrath Cannon, but it was still very much in action. While the Seekers scrambled to catch Sasha, it adopted a high stance, towering almost twice as high and boosting its aim. The moment it had a shot, it opened fire with three crimson plasma bursts from its top-mounted blaster, one for each of the three. In the heat of the moment, Hanabi hadn’t noticed the threat until it was too late and wasn’t ready to dodge - but nearby, her angelic ally was just quick enough to pick up the slack. He had the means to prevent another vicious volley like the one that had downed Roxas and nearly himself earlier, so with a beat of his wings he pushed just ahead of Sakura and Hanabi. "Not this time!"

The Guardian Orbitars glowed brightly and projected the giant winged shield of their charge shot. This one couldn't reflect, only protect, but it was wide enough to cover both girls and Pit himself. The plasma shots broke apart against the shimmering energy wall, rocking the projection but unable to shatter it. A few seconds later the shield dropped, and Pit's arms along with them when he'd thrust them forward with the Orbitars. He was sweating from the exertion so soon after the wounds he'd so recently taken, but the three of them were unharmed from the assault and could continue after their target.

Hanabi swallowed. Her heart was pounding, and she’d be lying if she said her knees weren’t a little weak. With the damage she’d already taken, she might have been toast. But for the moment, she was safe. “Th-thank you!” she squeaked before clearing her throat, trying to regain her composure.

Sakura lowered her arms, the oncoming plasma beams having caught her by surprise as well. ”Ah! Thank you, Pit-kun!” She said, grabbing his shoulder reassuringly. The magic must have been taking its toll on him. ”Do you think you can keep that up?” It was a question worth considering.

"Not constantly," he replied, giving the girl a quick smile to let her know he was alright. "but I've got a couple more in me!"

Sakura nodded, turning her back on the Sectopod to focus on Sasha. Charging up a more powerful but slower hadoken, she launched it towards the psychonaut and followed behind it. It would block some shots thrown her way and hopefully give her some free space. If he moved to get around it, she could just readjust accordingly. Then she afforded a glance over her shoulder to keep an eye on the Sectopod and what it was aiming at. A dangerous game, splitting her attention like this. It made her sweat.

Sasha used SAS to activate Levitation. He flew up into the air, well out of the hadoken’s range. Prism Break had timed out at some point, so the refractory effect around him was gone, which he naturally knew better than anyone. While he had all the stacks of Enemy Insight he needed to make Dirge Shot a pulverizing deathblow, he needed to land some more attacks to charge that skill again. His manacaster floated out of his hands and took the place of his giant crossbow on his back, which itself floated into his hands. Done with close quarters for now and ready to snipe, he activated his second skill, Sunpiercer. His new weapon began to refract, and when he fired the harpoon-like bolt at Sakura, a second one shot at Pit.

Sakura was ready for it, watching the magic weapon aim at her. When he let the bolt loose, she sidestepped it and preemptively blocked any area of effect while its twin struck one of Pit's sturdy orbitars, falling to the ground. She looked up at him, tilting her head back, mouth falling open as she worked her brain to think of a way to get up to him. He just started to reload.

Of course, part of what enabled Sasha to assume a less aggressive fighting style was the threat of the Sectopod. After only a few seconds, it was ready to fire again. That was when Luka’s voice cut through the chaos of the battlefield to enter Sakura and Hanabi’s minds with Brain Talk. ”Watch closely.” The captain teleported across the street in a series of blinks, his final jump putting himself right next to one of the Sectopod’s legs. He transferred his momentum into a huge smash into the walker’s armored ankle, then ignited his Weight Hammer in Hanabi’s flames and brought it down on the huge metal foot. Whipping around, he dealt one final blow to the Sectopod’s other leg before teleporting away again, and a second later the Sectopod unleashed a flash of lightning in a circular field around its legs. With that out of the way, it began targeting the Seekers again, only for Luka to reappear and stub its toes once more. He promptly fled before the war machine could shock him, disappearing into a hiding spot to recharge his Teleportation while he helped the others fill in the blanks.

”I’ve fought alongside Sectopods before. They’re designed to electrocute anything that gets into the blind spot directly beneath it. However, they can only execute three attack commands in quick succession, so each shock is a shot it can’t take.” He paused for a moment while the Sectopod used its last action, firing at the car he was hiding behind. With it primed to explode, Luka started running, but he continued transmitting as he did. ”I have one other idea. We can try teleporting above it to take out its blaster. We’ll need to coordinate it though, and we’ll get shot if we try it while Sasha’s on overwatch.”

”Okay!” Hanabi replied back.

’That sounds like a plan!’ Sakura chimed in. They needed Sasha distracted, and Sakura was right underneath him. But she wasn’t sure she was best for the job of air-to-air combat. With a frustrated little sigh as she ran around the battlefield, she turned and ran back towards the Sectopod. She sped along the street, the big robot growing in her field of vision. With a leaping spin kick, she aimed to slam into one of its knees with both her feet. ”Hiyah!”] She yelled. Bending her knees from the impact she pushed away, back flipped, and looked to see if that had successfully triggered a shock from the robot. Her success was confirmed when her hair began to float and get staticky, the electricity gathering beneath the bot before it shocked the entire area. Sakura circled around it, keeping it having to circle, dashed in, kicked at its knee joint and then dashed back out. While she worked at this important but repetitive task, avoiding the occasional deadly stomp, she kept an eye on the battle with Sasha to see when he was distracted so she could target the cannons with the others.

”Alright, I’m babysitting this big ugly robot, go get him!” She reported over Brain Talk.

Though not quite privy to the plan, Pit was aware enough to recognize what his allies were doing. If they had something in mind to deal with the robot, then he would keep his focus on the Septentrion. So it was that while the Sectopod was being engaged, Pit took the fight to Sasha once again. "Here we go!"

He couldn't fly, but at least he could use his wings to get up high. He leapt up, beat his wings and kept going up in what amounted to a triple jump. The Orbitars still circled around him, firing at their target while ready to protect their user. This time his goal was to get a hand on Sasha, bring him down onto a more even playing ground, and surged towards the man with that in mind.

Sasha instinctively aimed the tip of his newly-loaded crossbow bolt at Pit when the angel rose up to meet him, but he didn’t fire. Instead he focused on evasion, dashing through the air. Those orbitars were a big issue. One might say the only issue. The spectacular aim and overabundant output of Psych-OSF’s Septentrion Third Class could spell the end for almost anyone, but a projectile reflector was a hard counter. Oh well–maybe it would be fun to put in some real effort for once.

Simultaneously, he used SAS to activate Sabrina’s Psycho-ergokinesis and Will’s Precognition. He began by using Future Sight, foretelling an attack that would befall Pit in twenty seconds on the dot. Then he let go of his crossbow with one hand and thrust his palm forward, emitting a heavy force wave with Psychic. This wasn’t a projectile; just raw motive force. He was interested to see how this experiment would turn out.

In response the Orbitars ceased their fire and came together in front of Pit. They didn't bounce the psychic wave back, but their divine protection blocked Pit from damage and even from being pushed. It also slowed his own momentum considerably, resulting in the angel falling short. He grabbed onto a light post on his way back down, swinging himself up on top of it and getting ready to try again. He couldn't let up lest the man interfere with Luka's plans to take down the Sectopod. And... if Sasha was playing defense, then he might be able to get away with switching to something a little more offensive. Maybe even take the man by surprise again by quick-summoning the Orbitars into being this time.

It could work, but it could also fail spectacularly. Without Lady Palutena's risk assessment, Pit quickly made his choice. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

He felt he had to take the chance that the Septentrion would try and focus on the opponent in front of him rather than those battling the Sectopod. Pit fired off a few more shots from the Orbitars at Sasha for a little cover, then switched over completely to his bow. As one weapon faded away and the other faded into existence, Pit leapt towards Sasha again. The bow should work - its arrows faster and stronger, its reach longer, and since he wouldn't be caught in the slow effect he could still use angel ring for some last ditch defense if he really needed to. Pit drew the drawstring back and fired, the arrow of light already tracking its target. The angel himself followed soon behind, ready to bring the man to ground.

Sasha hung in the air while Pit broke his fall and gathered himself up for another go. If he wasn’t moving, his stock of borrowed Levitation power decreased at a negligible rate, so he calmly loomed above the battlefield to take stock of his experiments’ results. As expected, the orbitars couldn’t reflect a wall of force, but it looked like those wings of Pit’s weren’t much good for actually flying. The Septentrion cataloged that factoid and readied himself for round two. When more shots flew up toward him he kept moving, steadily hovering just fast enough to outpace the divine volley. When his opponent changed weapons, Sasha found himself intrigued. Why would Pit trade out the orbitars that had already proved themselves rather effective against his own abilities? Once fired the arrow homed in on Sasha tightly, and while he didn’t manage to dodge it, it dealt low enough damage that he could focus on cutting short Pit’s ascent. What a novel concept. He took hold of his crossbow with both hands and fired–not a crossbow bolt, but a single psi-blast from his forehead, fast enough that Pit might not notice the difference until it was too late.

A veteran despite his youthful looks, Pit reacted swiftly and simply. He saw something headed his way and flicked the bow in his hands to deflect it. Whether it was a physical, elemental, or psychic attack, Pit was sure that heavenly material could handle it. The psi-blast in flight curved slightly to miss his weapon, not unlike his own arrow, and strike Pit instead. A brief moment later, Future Sight took effect, dropping a payload of psychic energy directly on top of the angel like a huge sack of flour.

"Guh!" The psi-blast he could have powered through, and fully intended to, but the mysterious sudden force sent Pit plummeting to the ground again. He bounced when he hit the pavement face first, that impact snapping him back into action. He was on his feet again faster than one could blink, wiping the blood that dripped from his nose while his face burned hot with embarrassment.

That was a cheap shot! He thought, having fallen for the invisible, unknown sucker punch of an attack completely. But more than that, the sight of the Septentrion just floating up there... Stupid PK levitation... If I could fly on my own, this would be a totally different fight!

But he couldn't just stand there and seethe. He was fine sticking to the role of defending if he had to, really he was. He'd learned a little while fighting together with Giovanna, so he knew he didn't have to try and handle the bulk of a fight on his own. Still, he'd wanted to at least try and soften Sasha up more for when the others were done with the Sectopod. To keep him busy but also deal damage... Pit needed a totally new kind of weapon.


The Palutena Bow in his hand disappeared, gold sparkles falling to the ground. In its place a bright, shimmery rainbow orb of energy, the Violet Palm, was willed into being. Pit raised his right arm, hand open as the orb was absorbed into the center of his own palm. The rainbow aura wrapped around his entire limb, staining his skin from fingertips to shoulder with colorful, glowing ribbons.

This was a pleasant surprise. How much of his old divine arsenal could he summon if he just wished really hard? Regardless, Pit grinned and took aim.

"Just what I needed!" The colors of the tattoos surged, and from the center of Pit's palm a fusillade of prismatic energy shot out, converging toward Sasha all at once with speed rivaling that of his light arrows.

Just as Sasha geared up to take Pit down with a psychic barrage, the angel pulled out something new from his bag of tricks. Rather than be impetuous he paused to see exactly what form the weapon would take, and what Pit unveiled did not disappoint. “Hm.” The Septentrion began to move, dashing through the air to avoid the barrage. This was quite the bullet storm, but the sky was vast; he knew he’d be able to avoid it as long as his Levitation held. Which wasn’t much longer. He could see the SAS gears for his entire squad in his mind’s eye, and Milla’s Levitation was almost out from all his aerial maneuvers. Precognition and Psycho-ergokinesis were dwindling too, so Sasha switched them all off so they’d start recovering faster. Of course, the moment he hit the ground, this fight was on for real.

Once he switched back to his manacaster and engaged Prism Break, the dance began, filling the street with divine rays and roaring winds. Pit and Sasha ducked, dodged, and swerved like hummingbirds in flight just above the ground, belting out an absurd amount of shots that polluted the area with magic. Neither could avoid them all, and nor could they really tell how much it was working on one another, so they both kept at it, confident they could wear their opponents down before they themselves succumbed. While their shootout couldn’t be called ‘tame’ from the get-go, the party got even crazier as both gradually moved closer and closer, as both their weapons grew stronger at close range.

It was an intimidating display, a veritable tornado of fireworks almost impossible to get into, but Hanabi knew she needed to help. As hard as it was to tell, it looked like Prism Break might be giving Sasha the advantage. With only one opponent in range, each triple-shot turned into nine all aimed at Pit, and since they could hit no other targets they all received a damage boost on hit. She couldn’t just sit on the sidelines, and despite the danger, she had an idea. Borrowing Yuito’s Psychokinesis, she seized a large street sign and brought it to the ground. Once she jumped on, she tried lifting the sign beneath her to fly into the air, but in her haste and unfamiliarity she couldn’t get the thing off the ground. “Urgh, come on!” she grumbled, stomping the sign.

“Here, let me help.” A certain hand fell on Hanabi’s shoulder, her face reddening as she realized who it was. She turned to see her childhood friend climbing onto the sign behind her. “You can’t force it. Why don’t we work together.”

“Yuito!” Hanabi couldn’t help but smile, though she also looked a little worried. “Aren’t you still hurt?”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. Besides, if we can’t help our friends through this, it won’t matter if I spent a few more seconds resting. Let’s do this!”

“Let’s!” Applying their Psychokinesis together, the two floated into the air atop their street sign. It began to fly through the air like Gisu’s hoverboard, the weighty object quickly picking up speed. After a moment it soared into the divine windstorm, soaking up stray projectiles with the sign’s underside. Sasha was so laser-focused on solidifying his victory in the firefight that he didn’t notice the soldiers flying in until it was too late–and it smacked him right in the shoulder, bowling him over with a grunt.

With the projectile storm on pause, Pit's allies could get a more clear view of him. He was littered with the evidence of Sasha's Wind Bullets and their effectiveness; his chiton torn near to shreds, leathers scuffed, and body wind scorched. Raw, red wounds dotted his form. There was a particularly painful throbbing in his wings where he'd been hit, unable to keep them completely protected, and he was so out of breath that it looked like he might double over at any moment. Stubbornly he stayed upright.

"Nice going!" he gasped, sucking in a breath of air at the same time. Pit let the energy in his Palm coalesce and moved in. "I've got him!"

Pit wasn't a master martial artist, he much preferred his ranged weaponry to anything else, but he was a soldier and he knew his basics. Not to mention the Violet Palm was uniquely suited to this kind of "unarmed" combat. First, an angled strike, not unlike a beast attacking with its claws. A quick follow up with the back of his knuckles let him pull his arm back only to thrust forward again in an open palm attack that poured the divine weapon's gathered power into it.

Sakura dodged a stomp and rolled through the legs of the Sectopod and stood behind it. ”Are we ready to take this thing out?!” She asked in Brain Talk.

“It’s now or never!” Luka replied.

Sakura leapt on top of the Sectopod, there being a long half-second as she pinwheeled her arms as she ascended. But she managed to land, grabbing onto the top with an exhale. She eyed the troublesome cannon from the side. Clambering up, she grabbed onto the top of the cannon for balance and began slamming her fist into the futuristic steel. There was a dent and a few resounding bongs, but Sakura pulled her fist away and shook her wrist, wincing.

In a flash Luka had teleported up beside her. Rather than try to push his small frame against the blaster, he ignited his Weight Hamer with Hanabi’s Pyrokinesis and attacked the weapon itself. “Just hit the stupid thing!” The weapon itself was a lot more delicate than its mount. Unfortunately, they’d made less-than-stellar use of precious seconds. Recognizing the atypical behavior at last, the Sectopod began to withdraw its blaster to seal it in its compartment, preventing further attack. With a grunt of frustration Luka made the call, jamming his hammer into the mechanism to halt its movement–at least until his weapon broke. He activated Psychokinesis to reach for anything he could use to strike the blaster with, but right now it was on Sakura to make this moment count.

”I’m gonna try something!” Sakura yelled. The problem was she didn’t have the leverage or balance to really lay into this thing like she normally would. Sakura had enough stored power for an EX-move or two. Time to put it to use. She crouched and eyed a small gap between the cannon itself and the chassis. Grabbing onto the gun with one hand, she pulled her other fist back. ”Midare Zakura!” Modifying her uppercut she slammed her fist into that gap and then wrenched it upwards. For a moment she almost vibrated as she pulled against the cannon. Then she flew up into the air as she pried it off, the cannon flying high into the sky. Flailing in mid-air, she used Mental Connection to attach herself to Luka and pull herself back onto the top of the Sectopod.

Thanks to the pair’s combined efforts, but especially Sakura’s flashy finale, sparks flew and the Sectopod staggered as if in pain. ”...Critical damage to secondary weapon. Secondary weapon inoperable,” its deep mechanical voice confirmed. Of course, that was only the beginning of the walker’s problems while multiple bogeys remained perched atop its chassis. The Sectopod wasn’t built to emulate a bucking bronco, but there were ways that its artificial intelligence could try and salvage a situation like this. Turning ninety degrees, the Sectopod started moving toward the nearest building. It quickly covered the distance thanks to the huge stride of its high stance and showed no signs of stopping.

“Time to bail!” Loathe as he was to abandon his weapon, Luka wanted to get smashed through a solid wall even less. After a final fruitless tug of his hammer’s exposed shaft, he teleported away.

”Crap crap crap! Sakura yelled, and joined him, leaping away into the air before teleporting herself down far away from the ground. The next moment the Sectopod banked and slid into the brick facade of a three-story craft brewery, hard enough to send anyone still standing on it into the wall. Of course, the Sectopod could easily just walk through the building if it wanted, but the Septentrions’ directive had been clear: property damage at an absolute minimum.

Meanwhile, Sasha had picked himself up off the ground. It had been a while since he’d hit the pavement like this; Pit’s assault following his allies’ interference wounded his pride as much as it did his body. Still, a Septentrion could take much more than that, and Sasha wasn’t about to lose his cool. He had five foes to work through here, and couldn’t spend any more time on this one. “Hmph.” Letting go of his manacaster, he activated Brain Drive, and as his hood popped up to veil his face in shadow he put both index fingers to his head. Immediately a psi-bolt surged forth, split into three by Prism Break. Two of them shot in the direction of Hanabi and Yuito, who were in the middle of recovering after their shared spill, but Sasha assumed direct control. All three curved toward Pit, snaking through the air at high speed. Tuckered out and with Palm still equipped, it was all Pit could do to try and avoid them, but it was no use. They chased down his dodges, confounded his blocks, and bypassed his attempt to reflect by curving around the quick-summoned orbitars. After an all-too-brief moment they converged and hit home, each boosted by 225% percent and converted to physical damage. Pit got launched and comboed in the air by subsequent hits, and just when it seemed to be over Sasha sealed the deal with a bolt from his crossbow. Prism Break had just run out, but Sasha was still armed and dangerous.

Yuito and Hanabi ran in, their weapons ready to beat Sasha down before he could shoot them first. The Septentrion seemed to read their mind, however, and practically the second they both activated Sclerokinesis, Sasha dispelled it. “Karmic Quietus!” The next instant a psi-blast shot out Yuito’s leg from under him, bringing him down hard.

“Yuito!” Hanabi cried, turning to look at him. Almost immediately she took a psi-blast to the gut, doubling her over, followed by one the jaw. She went slack-jawed and saw stars, barely even feeling it when she hit the ground beside her friend. The air behind Sasha distorted, and Luka teleported in to grapple him from behind. He grabbed hold and strained with all his strength, but to his dismay the strength he’d spent so long trying to cultivate in his tiny body wasn’t enough. Sasha held firm and fired two psi-blasts that arced around and struck Luka in the back, prompting him to release his hold with a gasp. The Septentrion whirled around with a backfist, then calmly reloaded his crossbow and fired it point-blank. Luka hurtled backward, struck a trash can that bowled him over, and did not rise.

By that time Yuito had picked himself up to one knee, cradling Hanabi in his arms. She just groaned, completely dazed. Without a word, Sasha levitated his manacaster again and took it in his left hand, the crossbow in his right as he used his mind to put a new bolt in its place. Just one foe left standing.

At that moment, however, he heard one word that shattered his composure. Sasha. Letting go of his weapons, he whipped around and fixed his gaze on the fallen woman down the street, over whom Midna and her flygon were looming. An ice-cold hand gripped his heart. He and Milla were unstoppable together, but they’d fought separately, their trust in one another complete. Now, though, he realized he’d made a critical mistake. “MILLA!” he bellowed, breaking into a headlong sprint. His weapons floated after him as he sped away, his speed boosted by Levitation–the one thing that told him that his beloved Milla was still alive.

That left just the Sectopod against Sakura, Pit, and the Psych-O soldiers. It also realized what was going on, and ran to position itself in between Sasha and his opponents to make sure that he could make it to Milla safely. ”Assuming point position,” it said, shifting to low stance. Its Wrath Cannon, the only ranged weapon it had left, began to charge. ”Hurry, commander.”

Sakura’s jaw dropped, watching several of Luka’s platoon including Luka himself be down for the count. Sasha was distracted, though, after that. Breathing elevated, Sakura stared down what was still her primary target- the Sectopod. It began to charge up its big one, the one it already fired. ”There’s nothing for it, Pit-kun! We gotta!”

The street fighter ran straight on. She used Teleport to cover the rest of the distance, and then slammed her foot into the knee joint of the Sectopod. Dropping onto one leg she spun, flashing orange and blue as she did a low, sliding spin kick into the very same joint, before punishing it even more with a final straight kick. In her desire to interrupt its cannon, she didn’t relent, kicking and punching and trying to break this thing's leg to get it to cancel its Wrath Cannon. ”Can we knock it onto its back?! Watch for the zappy!” She exclaimed. If they could get it pointed skyward the blast would do nothing!

After Pit picked himself back up, he let out a vague little noise of agreement. With no real support or healing to offer, getting back into action as quickly as possible was the only thing he could do to help. The tattoos on his arm faded away, though for a moment nothing replaced them. Pit blinked, refocusing - it just took an extra second or two. Right now he determined the best thing he could do was to bring the Guardian Orbitars back into play. If they couldn't disable the Sectopod, at the very least he could stop its cannon fire... assuming his shield held.

It will hold, he told himself, and then launched himself forward to join Sakura's attempts to topple the machine. If she, Luka, Yuito, and Hanabi destabilized it, he might be able to give it the final push to knock it over using the same heavy uppercut that he had when first breaking through Sasha's attacks. Until the chance came up the orbitars fired upon any of the Sectopod’s perceived weak spots, ready to defend against its cannon if their gambit failed.

Despite its damage and its lack of options, the Sectopod held off against the nimble fighters as best it could. By pre-charging its electric pulse and then bringing a foot down with a stomp, it could take its shockwaves to its opponents, but it met with only limited success. Sakura (who could take more hits) fought offensively, while the rest (who could not) helped out more conservatively, spread out enough so that even if a giant laser blazed their way, it couldn’t erase them all. This was a dangerous game, after all, and it had reached its final round. Between Sakura’s attacks and the psionics’ thrown objects, damage to the walkers’ legs mounted, their armor weakened. Its Wrath Cannon was its last chance. It stepped back, its targeting lasers locking on to Sakura, and braced itself.

”Firing main cannon.”

”Oops.”

The huge beam illuminated the street once more, breaking the fog of war with a crimson dawn.

Sakura’s form was completely consumed by the light as she stuck out her hands and turned her head away, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Sakura!" Seeing the Sectopod focus on her, Pit banked in her direction with the orbitars stretched as far from his body towards her as they would go. He hadn't expected it to fire on someone so close to itself, so he was farther away from the girl than he should have been. Now it looked like his shields wouldn't make it in time to cover her.

When the light cleared, she was laying on her back much farther away from the Sectopod than she was before. She opened one eye and rolled onto her side with a groan. Her whole body was stinging. It was hard to breathe, and she certainly couldn’t take another hit like that. But on the whole… ”That’s…not even the biggest giant laser I’ve been hit by.” Sakura said, genuinely surprised she was still conscious. She was thinking it would be worse than Ryu’s Shinku Hadoken, but in reality it wasn’t even as powerful. If she had the meter for it she probably could have clashed with it with a Shinku Hadoken of her own and tied, or even come out on top.

”I-I’m okay! I really thought that would be a lot worse!” She exclaimed with a nervous laugh. ”Just gimme a second.” She began to push herself to her feet. If she had just face tanked it, she’d probably be down until Round Two as it were. Instead, though, she had used her defensive ki to block it.

It was a surprise, and a huge relief, to see that the street fighter was alright. Well, maybe not a total surprise; she was one tough cookie after all. Still, her laugh broke the tension, and so Pit turned back to the Sectopod. "Okay then," the angel said, taking a deep breath. "Let's finish this thing off already!"

He led the charge while Sakura recovered, moving in with the Upperdash Arm and ready to smash the thing apart. With its limited arsenal, the Sectopod couldn’t do much to stop it. The Upperdash Arm crashed into its leg strong enough to momentarily destabilize the walker, proving the the damage levied against it earlier was adding up. It then went for an electric shock to try and capture the angel in a defensive blast of lightning. It was only the fact that he knew what was coming thanks to Luka's earlier demonstrations that Pit could avoid the electricity in his fatigued state. He hopped back twice, getting out of the lightning's range. With the Sectopod standing in one place and unsteady, he didn't have to worry much about missing with his Arm either - so once the electric field petered out he repeated the motion, this time dashing in and jumping up to smash the robot's main chassis, where he hoped some control center would be close to frying.

Sakura re-emerged from behind and spun forward with an EX-Tatsu, slashing three times into the back of the bot's leg before slamming into it with a mighty straight kick. ”Seyah!”

Thanks to their combined efforts, the two managed to close it out. Impaired motor functions meant that the Sectopod couldn’t mitigate the damage to its legs for long, and after a little more punishment, the walker’s limbs buckled beneath the weight of the chassis. It hit the ground hard, cracking the asphalt of the street. For a brief moment it just lay there. The fight was over, as it could no longer mount an assault. There was only one thing left it could do.

”Forgive me, commander.”

The Sectopod’s red lights began to blink as its five-second self-destruction sequence began.

“Get away from it, now!” Luka yelled hoarsely, his voice uncharacteristically panicked.

”Yup!” Blinking red lights always meant a bomb. Sakura promptly booked it and then dove away, covering the back of her head. Letting the Arm fade from his own, Pit also retreated. He turned to watch the explosion from a safe distance, shading his eyes with one hand as the force pushed hot air out around it.

Now that they were both clear of the explosion, Sakura sat up. ”Phew!” She rose to standing, and then lifted her hand to Pit for a high-five which the angel enthusiastically obliged.

Before moving onto rejoin the others, Sakura scratched her head and looked upon the ruins of the Sectopod. She didn't expect for it to talk to itself... Sakura looked away and moved on.

While the Sectopod made its last stand, Sasha made a beeline for his partner. Given wings by his fear, he closed the distance in mere moments. One of the enemies that Milla had engaged, Roxas, was down for the count, but the other stood over her with something bright and pink in her hand. Milla herself was in dire straights, covered in electric burns and losing blood from horrendous claw marks on one shoulder. Sasha wasn’t one to give into his emotions, but in this instant all his panic and anger boiled straight to the surface. “You!” As Midna dumped something on her, the striped pattern in his hood blazed orange, alight with his ice-cold fury. “What have you done!?”

He unleashed a barrage of tracking psiblasts, but not to try and kill Midna just yet. Instead, these were meant to ward her off while he sprinted the final stretch. He could see that something had just happened to Milla, and her life was his number one priority. As he slid up to her on his knees and reached out to take hold of her, his anger turned to confusion. “What the…Milla! Are you okay?”

In his arms he held his partner just as she used to be. Milla’s skin, her hair, her clothes, and even her emerald green eyes were just as they were when they first found one another in this psychic dystopia. That included her health; somehow, she seemed to be in perfect physical condition. Next to her lay the spirits of Earthspirit and Bellina. “...Sasha?” she murmured, blinking blearily up at him as if she’d awoken from a bad dream. “What happened?”

“I wish I knew. You’ve been defused somehow.” He helped her into a sitting position, then gave Midna a guarded look. She’d gone from almost killing Milla to restoring her somehow, and she had yet to attack, so he hadn’t a clue what might happen next.

The princess for her part also looked guarded, but she had stepped back to give them space when Sasha had come running over, and she wasn’t priming to attack them either. She had also taken the liberty of poking the spirits that had popped out of the psychic with her stick in order to portal them away before doing so, thus ‘disarming’ her.

She’d also slid her mask down so they could see her face, and more specifically one of her eyes, so that Milla would be able to see the difference between her’s and Sasha’s ”I removed the glare Galeem put in your eyes, the one that prevented you from seeing that what it has created isn’t how things should be” she explained loosely, adding ”you’ll find you can remember what used to be now, where you really come from” and relying on the woman’s own memories to bring more context to her statements.

Nearby, Roxas had once again managed to push himself back up into a kneeling position, ”She’s telling the truth.” he said, to add to Midna’s explanation. He struggled his way back onto his feet and slowly moved to stand beside the Twilight Princess. His steps looked a bit uneven and forced. He hadn’t been healed from all the damage and he was still exhausted. So naturally he would be looking a bit haggard right now.

”I know it sounds unbelievable. But we swear it’s the truth. It’s the whole reason we came to this city in the first place.” Roxas then took a few more uneven steps forward, so that Midna and the two Psychonauts were the same distance from him. Then he weakly held his arm straight up and summoned one of his Keyblades, ”Heal!” his MP had come back and he used it to cast Curaga, which undid the remainder of the injuries he had sustained. But it didn’t affect just him. It also affected Midna… as well as Milla and Sasha. So whatever damage Sasha had taken would be mostly healed now. This was as good of a show of faith as Roxas could think of doing.

Sasha stayed quiet while the two spoke. He didn’t grasp every last thing they said, and he couldn’t, but he considered their words. How things should be…where you really come from. Was there something that had been kept secret from him? He remembered where he came from, from his childhood in Germany as a shoemaker’s son through countless adventures up to the recent crisis of Maligula’s revival. Then…Midgar and the Ever Crisis. A new psychic organization to face a new threat. Serving, protecting, growing more powerful to combat ever more dangerous enemies. And growing still closer to Milla. Was there something even now that he wasn’t remembering? He knew how things should be, too. As well as how far short Midgar fell. Things were bad everywhere in this city, even on the plates. In order to keep moving forward toward a brighter future, one small step at a time, hard choices had to be made. Now, though, Sasha felt less certain.

Before he sorted out his thoughts, Roxas cast a healing spell. Milla was in perfect condition, but the damage Pit and the others worked so hard to inflict on Sasha vanished. He scarcely realized how much he’d been aching until it all disappeared. After a moment he stood, helping Milla to her feet. They’d been through so much already. Fighting together. Changing together. But now, she really was just as perfect as he remembered, while he remained rather different. Still, however they might find themselves, they still had one another. After having come so close losing her, Sasha realized there was nothing more important to him. He turned to face the Seekers.

“I don’t know what to make of all this. Or what to believe. But Milla is alive, and we have you to thank. If you were really our enemies you could have struck her down, and my heart along with it, but you did not. Whatever the truth of your case may be, we owe you. If not our lives, then at least…an apology.” Sasha looked down at the ground. “Go. Don’t make us regret it.”

Milla flashed an apologetic smile at Midna. “I’m sorry, dear. I did see you take my spirits, though. It may not mean much to you, but I don’t have the power to fight Others on my own. I hate to ask more kindness of someone I fought in bad faith, but I’d appreciate them back…”

She was, Midna thought, well within her right to demand them as payment for damages caused to her minions, but ultimately she decided against that selfishness. She dropped her weapon into a portal, before crouching down and retrieving the spirits from another, before stepping forwards and offering them back to the women in an outstretched hand.

”Here, use them well”

The Septentrion took them with a grateful nod. It wasn’t clear whether or not she actually expected Midna to oblige her. “Thanks.”

Midna nodded as well in reply, before stepped back, and then actually had a moment to check the status of the others, asking ”We good to keep moving?” before portaling in some bottles of water. Fighting was, after all thirsty work.

By now, the rest of the team had arrived from the other side of the street, where the burning wreckage of the Sectopod lay in the fresh crater of asphalt caused by its climactic self-destruction. All were banged up, with Luka, Yuito, and Hanabi faring the worst thanks to their multiple downs at Sasha’s hands. Pit and Sakura seemed a little better, but not by much. Everyone was beat, but alive. Luka accepted water from Midna, which thankfully didn’t bear any traces of matter from the Twilight Realm, and the others did likewise. “We should hurry,” the diminutive captain told the others, despite the team’s collective condition. “Raz still hasn’t responded to me. Anything could have happened at the Otherlobe.”

“The Otherlobe?” Sasha’s brows furrowed. “It was under heavy attack, but the Others were pushed back. By now all the noncombat personnel should be fully evacuated.”

Luka nodded wearily. “Then it’s up to us to make sure. Let’s go.”

While the Septentrions went to regroup with their squads, the Seekers went the opposite way, headed for the towering crimson citadel at the far end of Main Street. Scarcely had they parted ways, however, than two more Psych-OSF soldiers appeared. Roxas and Yuito both recognized Lily and Norma immediately, the former having met them a couple days ago and the latter being part of their squad. “You’re safe!” he exclaimed as they ran up, a relieved look on his face. Of course, the presence of just the two of them left him with a pressing concern. “But where’s Raz? Kyoka said you all went together.”

“We got split up by a pack of Others!” Lili vented, her intense frustration writ plain on her face. Though she and Hanabi both specialized in Pyrokinesis, Lili was the actual fiery one in contrast to Hanabi’s energetic sweetness. “He turned invisible and ran off toward HQ to find Zanotto. We finished dealing with them a minute ago. Then we saw you fighting Milla and Sasha.”

Norma seemed to be in disbelief. “How the heck did you guys do it? I mean, you look terrible, but you took on two Septentrions and actually won! You guys are monsters!”

”What gave it away?” the even more heavily fused than their opponents had been princess asked rhetorically, though her tone made it clear she was making light of the situation.

So they stood back and watched rather than try and lend a hand? Luka couldn’t exactly blame them. This had been a battle even he didn’t want to fight, and he hadn’t been confident in winning, either. “There’s no time to waste. Let’s hurry and find them, then.”

The group of nine hurried the rest of the way as fast as their heavy fatigue would let them. Along the way they did little preparations for what may come. Pit swapped back to the trust Palutena Bow, Roxas used Curaga to patch up anyone still injured from the previous fight once his MP had recharged, and those that could stomach it ate and drank while on the move. It was a moment Midna finally used to check in with Hanabi about their shared armament, starting with a question as to why it was only fiery in her hands and then, after a brief compare and contrast, swapping the weapons over so the specialist had the upgraded variant and Midna had the one that worked better as a big heavy metal stick.

In short order, they reached the gate in the stone wall that encapsulated the Otherlobe’s courtyard, but even before they entered they could see something amiss. Only when they got closer did the gruesome details become clearer. They could see Raz, his back facing them, looking down at something in his hand. At his feet lay the body of a middle-aged man with yellow skin and a bushy brown beard, clad in a dark suit with red accents, stained even more red by blood from a vicious wound. Though partially dissolved, the body was instantly recognizable as that of Truman Zanotto. Hanabi covered her mouth in shock, and Luka came to a stop, his eyes wide. “Raz?”

When Raz turned around, a horrified look on his face, everyone could see the bloodstained dagger in his hand.

The scene in front of them put Pit on alert, despite the seeming lack of enemies around. That wasn't the expression of someone victorious, or even one of someone who'd had to defend themselves. Something was wrong here.

Shocked by the sight, Sakura put her hand over her mouth. The sight of such a brutal death of an innocent made her hesitate, but she stepped forward to close the gap between her and her friend, Raz. ”Raz-kun, are you…c’mere, it’s okay.” She said, gently as she could with a tremor in her voice.

As she walked forward she extended her hand to make her intent apparent that she was going to take the knife. What was Raz doing with a knife? It didn’t fit in his hands. ”We’re here, now.”

Midna meanwhile was stuck between a bout of paranoia that someone or thing like Braindrain had gotten to Raz, and not wanting to do something drastic to break Sakura’s approach. So rather than speak up and shatter the moment, she clamped her lips shut with her teeth, and moved to circle round slightly to the side of Raz, trusting Sakura go first, but ensuring she had an angle to intervene should things go south.

“H-hey, wait, it’s not what it looks like!” Raz yelped, throwing the knife on the ground like it burned his hands. “I didn’t- it’s not even my- that blonde guy, he-”

His voice faltered as his gaze landed on one of the new arrivals in particular. Lili stood stock-still, her eyes wide and her mouth ajar as she stared at the dissolving body of her father. While the others fretted about Raz, she slowly turned her focus his way. She put her hands on her head, her teeth clenching as her lips twisted. “...Dad?” Lili began to tremble, the orange cords across her outfit glowing more brightly. “How could you!” She shot forward, conjuring a giant psychic fist wreathed in flame.

“Waitwaitwait!” Raz conjured two of his own to catch the fist before it could smash him down, trying to hold her off. “If you’ll just gimme a sec, I-!”

Lili was having none of it. “You killed my dad!” Two more hands appeared to either side of her to perform a massive clap and crush Raz in the middle. “Get out of my way!”

“Just…hold on!” Mustering all his strength, Raz heaved Lili’s fist (as well as the rest of her) over his head, tossing her above and behind him. She flipped in the air and landed in about the middle of the courtyard, skidding for a couple feet in a trail of flame. In her rage, she grabbed the cord on her jacket and yanked it

But not to activate Brain Drive.

Instead she doubled over, groaning in pain. Three sets of triple-layered holographic ports appeared over her upper back and head, and behind her, Visions began to take shape. Red cables flickering like TV static appeared, over a foot in diameter, tipped with points the size of rapier blades. They lunged like vipers and stabbed into Lili, not just her ports but her brain and nervous system. Lili arched her back and screamed, her world turned white and her mind pushed to the point of snapping.



Then her face disappeared into shadow, and the cables pulsed, turning a brilliant scarlet. BWAOM! A dark digital landscape swallowed the area, encompassing everyone and everything. When Lili drifted down to the ground, the pattern on her mask blazed. With lingering cables activated and protruding from her back, the girl faced the boy who’d betrayed her, ready to take revenge.

Pit twisted around, watching the area around them be enveloped right before their eyes. He knew the psychics had all kinds of tricks, including the hooded power-up, but this one was intense. Was it even normal? "What is she doing?!"

“It’s Lili’s Brain Field!” Yuito yelled, readying himself. “In her mindscape, she’s all-powerful! Brace yourselves, everyone!”

Then the dark dimension blazed with flame, a hellish inferno poised to swallow all enemies whole.



Sakura had no idea the man on the ground was Lili’s father. This was a worst case scenario, and Lili’s rage had driven her beyond reason and reasonable power. Enveloped in her psychic power, Sakura had no idea what to do. But she knew Raz would never murder the father of his friend! Interposing herself between them, arm in front of Raz, she spoke. ”Lili-kun I- I’m so sorry! Please don’t do this!” She begged.

At this point, though, Lili was obviously gone. “Aahaahahahaha!” she cackled, lifting her hand above her head. A palm of flame the size of a truck appeared above her head, and it began to descend onto her enemies. “Raz, Raz, RAAZ!”

”No no no!” Sakura ran and dove out of the way. Kneeling, she put her hands on her head, distressed. ”This is terrible!”

In the meantime a second massive hand went sweeping towards Raz, this one belonging to Midna who grabbed and pulled the shell shocked boy out of the way of what may or may not have been justified vengeance. She didn’t know him well enough to make a judgment like Sakura, but she knew enough that there were plenty of ways this situation could be not what it seemed.

Roxas had to dive out of the way of the fire. After that he slowly pushed himself to his feet. After all the running and fighting that seemed to be nonstop that day, his arms and legs were starting to feel like jelly. At this point his body wanted to crawl into a bed somewhere and pass out. But this wasn’t over just yet. He remembered Lili being a pyrokinetic and just had to hope that meant she could be stopped with ice.

The Nobody weakly held out a Keyblade and leveled it in Lili’s direction, ”Freeze!” he weakly chanted, and began shooting Blizzaga spells at the berserk Lili. He didn’t really wanna hurt her, but maybe the ice could immobilize her or slow her down a bit. Try as he might, though, his ice was of no use. In her Brain Field, Lili’s pyrokinesis was exponentially stronger than before, and it overpowered his ice effortlessly.

Pit's wings were tucked as tightly against his back as he could make them as he did his best to avoid the blasts of flame. The appendages were feeling a lot better now thanks to Roxas' healing magic, but he couldn't risk his feathers catching in the blaze. Seeing Roxas' sluggishness due to fatigue, Pit leapt to protect him from another huge blast of fire. He intercepted the flames, spinning the bow and making a vortex that dispersed them in a small area around the two boys. The fire and heat was definitely burning his hands, but right now it was all he could do short of focusing just on himself and dodging the plumes. The orbitars were too small, or didn't last long enough while projecting the larger shield, to do anything against this inferno.

”We just have to wait her out like the other power up, right?” Minda called out as she set down and then pushed Raz away from her.

In between teleports to avoid the massive spurts of flame, Luka shouted out a reply. “Brain Field places a huge stress on the user’s brain!” He interrupted himself with another teleport to not get squashed like a fly beneath a giant fiery hand. “If she doesn’t end it, it’ll kill her in less than a minute!”

That information, delivered so suddenly, shocked Pit enough that he jerked his head around to look at Luka and failed to stop a blast of flame. He backed up quickly and coughed, beating away any licks of fire that clung to him. Then he looked to the girl in the middle of the courtyard who was already on her way to dying according to Luka. Though Lili was a stranger to Pit, and he to her, she was the friend of a friend - which made her Pit's friend, too.

"What- so we have to stop her! Calm her down or-!" Would it even be possible to convince her to stop? Apparently the stabbed man was her dad, and seeing him caused her to snap. Maybe they could knock her out?

”Alright then” Midna replied, before summoning Roadblock and getting him to beat on his shield while she called out ”Over here. I stopped your revenge, so come and fight me!” and pulled out her sun on a stick from a portal, not to do harm with, but to use its fire eating ability to defend herself.

Lili didn’t really need to give her any special attention, though. Waves of flame rolled across the floor of the Brain Field, and burning meteors descended from its ‘sky’. At the ten second mark, however, Lili staggered on her own, stumbling as she held her own head. Her flames raged on and she went back to normal after two seconds, but that was all the evidence the Seekers needed to see that Luka’s warning was very real.

“This is dangerous!” Yuito yelled at Lili. “You have to shut it off!”

“Lili, please! Don’t do this to yourself!” Hanabi added.

Whether or not Lili even heard them was anyone’s guess, though. “Aahahahaaa! This feels amazing!” Holding out her hands, she sent forth a gigantic flamethrower as long as a bus. “Die already!”

Sakura’s eyes were wide as she avoided the flamethrower only to get struck by a meteor. Grunting, she got to her feet. Lili was about to kill herself! She couldn’t just stand there and watch! ”W-we have to stop her!” Sakura sprinted forward, jumped, and teleported into the air above Lili, to try and bring her hammer fist down hard on Lili.

”Ok guess this is the plan” Midna, who had weathered the aoe fairly well thanks to her summon’s shield and 50% fire resistance, agreed as she moved to follow up the street fighter. Not able to run in as fast as Sakura however, she instead launched skywave ahead to hit both woman with a blinding/healing flash, before she tried to shove the fire starter with the palm of her shadow hand.

Despite the danger, Sakura landed her hammerfist on Lili’s large head, doubling her over somewhat. She seemed to be drunk on power, so much so that her defenses weren’t on point. At the same time, she didn’t have to be, and that one blow wasn’t anywhere near enough to down her. Lili clenched her fist and struck the ground beneath her, giving rise to a huge plume of flame that consumed her and her attacker. Skywave’s Optics Jammer rolled in the next moment to take the edge off for Sakura, but while it did blind Lili, it hardly mattered. With a terrific yell, Lili unleashed a clusterbomb of fiery explosions around her, blowing up everything in her vicinity that didn’t get away–including Midna’s shadow hand, tearing the magic apart.

With firepower like that, Luka couldn’t get in on her. There were no constructs in this Brain Field for Yuito to throw, and Hanabi’s flames didn’t hold a candle to Lili’s now. Of course, their main concern wasn’t beating Lili in the first place; it was that any second now, she could experience sudden brain death.

Lili wasn’t completely lost, though. At the five second mark, she became stricken with pain once more. This time her vision was completely blurred, and she couldn’t even see let alone fight. In that instant she realized that she was about to die. There was only one thing she could really do, and with all the strength she had left, she switched her Brain Field off.

The dark mindscape receded, replaced by the Otherlobe’s courtyard. Lili fell to her knees, groaning and clutching her head as tears ran down her face. Raz, who hadn’t even been trying to fight her, ran over tentatively and knelt down beside her. “Lili…”

“I don’t understand,” she murmured. “Even if you…even if you didn’t, why…dad…”

When she looked over at what little remained of Truman Zanotto’s corpse, however, she found something odd. A spirit lay in the ashes, but it wasn’t her fathers. Instead it belonged to a portly, balding man with violet skin, with a green button-up and orange tie. His was the face of a stranger, contained within a body it did not match.

Sakura propped her upper body up on her elbows, laying a short distance away. She saw Raz and Lili reunited, and followed Lili’s eyes to the ashes of her father. Or perhaps, someone else? That would be lucky. But that was a problem for future Sakura to ponder. Letting out a sigh of relief and exhaustion, the soot-speckled street fighter dropped flat onto her back.

Minda entirely agreed with the general sentiment expressed by that sigh, and promptly took a seat on the ground next to the street fighter, though simply doing that was not a way to rest befitting royalty, and so she promptly summoned her wolfos to act as a fluffy backrest.

At some point Pit had squeezed his eyes shut, as they'd been hurting from the heat, fire, smoke, and explosions inside the Brain Field. Even the inside of his throat hurt. But he could feel the inferno disappear and opened them back up again, blinking the spots in his vision away.

"Is it over?" He asked, though when he spotted Lili he changed his question to "Is she okay?", taking a few tentative steps closer to her and Raz.

”I hope so.” said Roxas wearily, ”I don’t know how much more of this I can take in one day.”

Lili’s misery had given way to a mixture of confusion and anger the moment she beheld the spirit laying in the ashes of her father’s body. “Wait…” She jumped up and ran over, snatching it up. “This isn’t dad’s!” She stared down on the ashes as if the answer might also be found among the soot. “But then, how…?”

“I think she’s okay,” Raz ventured. “But it looks like we have yet another mystery on our hands.”

”Mind control, full body disguises and conspiracies all the way down. Is anything not a mystery in this town?” Midna asked with a mix of humor and resignation, before adding thoughtful ”Although didn’t the consul do something like that? Wear a different face for the debate? Maybe that wasn’t something he could do, but something he stole from the regime?”

”I dunno, it’s all just flying right over my head at this point.” Roxas said with a shrug. His shoulders sagged with fatigue and exhaustion, but he hadn’t passed out. Yet. ”And that’s not even mentioning our own troubles on top of all that: Galeem, the Guardians, all of that. How does anyone manage to keep track of it all?”

After Kuebiko was ready to roll under Junior’s control, Overhard went ahead and pressed the big red button on the hacking pod. Hack-C’s monitors lit up, lines of code pouring across them faster than any human could ever possibly read, and Hack-C began tapping its keyboard like a robot possessed. The Power Station detected the security breach right away and started fighting back, and while the progress bar on its top monitor indicated that Hack-C would win that battle eventually if left to its own devices, the network monitoring the Rival Tech in this sector would not let that happen. Almost immediately, a squadron of Patrol Bots showed up out the blue, either hovering through the air in spread mode or rolling around on the cavern floor in tower mode. Their orange laser bolts were an issue, but not the only one; small swarms of Shredders appeared as well, eager to slice all living things into ribbons as they viciously darted around.

“Contact!” Cyclops bellowed, switching to his semi-automatic Subata pistol to try and pick swarms off at a distance. “Lock and load!”

Overhard’s turrets went to work while the engineer’s Shard Diffractor blazed. “And protect Hack-C!”

While numerous, the Shredders that approached Sectonia were in for a shock, literally, as her tesla coil zapped them out of the air. While evasive and small, they were extremely fragile and couldn’t stand up to more than a tiny bit of punishment. The Patrol bots on the other hand were much more tanky and had almost the same level of evasiveness. Her antlions also assisted, but they assisted by dealing with the glyphids that showed up due to the noisy robots about and the commotion of Hack-C.

Using this opportunity, she tried out those new spells that she had gotten from her new spirit. Normally these spells would be a little weak it seemed, even if she could cast them easily, but when cast in triplicate, they were a bit more of a threat. The triangles, after being summoned, didn’t have their own projectiles affected by that mask, so they could shoot straight even if they moved in weird ways. The other spell, the homing balls however, were similar to Sectonia’s own arcane orbs, but homed in which in combination with a few of her other items made them somewhat difficult for an attacking Patrol Bot to dodge even at range.

Bowser started off the fight right this time, spitting a mega fireball into the air to slowly float through the cavern, providing light as it did. Then he got to air scrubbing, exhaling out wide gouts of flame to wash away whole swarms of shredders in a single breath. Kamek hovered above his King, flicking fast moving fira spells at any foes that got around Bowser’s waves of death, while havng his healing clones keep the king topped up when they weren't bobbing and weaving to act as decoys.

Rika meanwhile sailed to and fro on her pre-prepared sea of slime, which gave any patrol bots that tried to roll over it a nice coat of shocking goop on the orbs they were balancing on. The ones in the sky she weaved around the projectiles of, and then blasted them with bursts of flaming goop, threatening to overheat the machine's internal circuitry, especially when she triggered all out assault every dozen pulls of the trigger, which let her hammer any unfortunate bots nearby with a burst of rapid fire triple spread shots.

Finally jr got plenty of use out of his new trigun tractor, letting loose a hail of bullets from its main triple barreled cannon and keeping on the move like Rika was. It was a little tricky to combined moving and shooting like that, particularly against the small/agile bots, but in a way that just made them very good practice.

The initial response from the Rival Tech network proved wholly inadequate to resolve the threat posed to its Power Station. Just the dwarves would’ve been able to hold the bots off on their own, but with the Koopa Troop and Sectonia to help them, their attackers didn’t stand a chance. Shredders dropped like flies, and even the most resilient Patrol Bots turned to scrap metal when the Seekers focused them down. In fact, Rika’s All-out Assault ended up feeling like overkill, most of her ammunition wasted as the last few targets really weren’t crowded anywhere near thick enough to make the most of it.

Still, Hack-C’s progress bar remained half empty, and the team wasn’t out of the woods just yet. Stirred up by the commotion in the fight against Rival Tech’s response unit, bugs began to crawl out of the cavern walls. In addition to glyphids, with a greater percentage of guards and slicers, speedy tickers began to appear in groups of three. To the dwarves’ delight they behaved just like glyphid exploders, able to be detonated early when shot, but their huge burst damage and ability to come from every angle (including dropping from above) made them high-priority targets. It wasn’t long before things much creepier and crawlier showed up, though. Like nightmarish elite versions of the web spitters, two huge Bloodstalkers lurked in the dark of the cave’s upper reaches, shooting out webs to grapple targets and pull them in for evisceration against their blood-sucking spikes. One of them snatched Overhard right out of his turret nest, causing the dwarf to yell as the webs dragged him up into the darkness. “Eeeeeelp! Somethin’s got me!” As he rose, he was also horrified to glimpse masses of icky black spiders, packed so tight together and moving with such cohesion that they resembled centipedes. These coalescipedes were fast, vicious, and terrifyingly stealthy, their aggression limited only by the size of their chains and their aversion to light–though even then, familiarity would eventually bring contempt.

A moment after he cried out, an amber bubble wrapped itself around Overhard as Kamek cast an arcane barrier around him in-order to give them more time to get him out of there. Then he summoned Quiet, in-order to have the sniper striker take down the grappling bug with her well aimed shots. He had the End take her place on counter sniping duty after she timed out, while the mage himself set about reanimating the dry bones from earlier to once again act as bait. The skeletal koopas were not much of a threat to the glyphids, but they were near impossible to keep down, repeatedly drawing attention away from actual targets whenever the self resurrected.

Rika, out of reactant to get the explosive slime in her grizzco blaster to detonate, and not really looking forwards to refilling the tank with her spit, switched up her strategy as the insects replaced the robots as their main threat. First, to do something about the spider swarms she sent out her own, launching her electric fire flies and sending buzzing up into the ceiling to chase after and zap them till she used up all her SP. The spiders instinctively fled from the light, but in reply they began to group into larger coalescipedes, pooling their health and damage together.

After that she held her non renewable rifle ammo in reserve, using it only to pick off the exploding tickers, and instead used her gauntlets and hullclaws vs the glypids, sailing across her shocking sea of slime and delivering a beatdown on any bug foolish enough to enter her domain.

Bowser spat up another cavern lighting mega fireball, before he and Jr both want mobile, both monster and machine leaping to and fro in the cavern, stomping on glyphids and making it very difficult for them to get a devastating surround on either of the royal koopas. In addition to hard landings, Bowser’s stomps caused fiery shockwaves, while Jr pointed his tank turret up and blasted wildly at anything up there that moved.

While the royal koopas were doing their thing and keeping the riff raff at bay, Sectonia decided she’d do something with these giant spider centipedes. Giving herself some buffer room with her antillions and with her tesla coil zapping the exploding bugs, Sectonia began to charge and then unleash a spacial shatter upon the coalescipedes as Bowser’s fire made them all horde together into much longer, larger variants. Seeing one that was more charged, the dwarves could see what it did as reality around the bugs shattered like glass and darkness overcast the area for a bit until it disappeared, leaving a white void behind that slowly, slowly reformed back into the reality of which it was.

If not for the long-range rapid-fire capabilities of Kuebiko (not to mention Kamek’s protective quick thinking) Overhard might’ve been toast, but thanks to his new allies’ help the engineer managed to avoid getting gored on the Bloodstalker’s probosci. Given that crucial moment, Overhard seized his Shard Diffractor and turned it up to eleven. A bright orange beam of energy refracted through the weapon’s crystal burned through the webs reeling him in, and Overhard plunged toward the ground. Rather that yell out in panic, he kept his cool and waited for the right moment to activate his Hover Boots to break his fall. “Argh!” he growled, turning his beam upward to finish the job. “It’s like a bloody Stingtail on steroids!”

Exposed to the light, countless spiders had collected into nightmarish coalescipedes, but once Bowser and Rika grouped them up, the others could cut them down. Kuebiko’s chaingun worked well enough, but Cyclops’ flamethrower was just the ticket. When a coalescipede got just a little too big for him to roast, Sectonia arrived to wipe it off the face of the planet with her reality break. With the number of fodder bugs quickly dwindling, only the other Bloodstalker really remained to challenge the Seekers. When Overhard saw it, he marked it with its laser pointer, giving the monstrous arthropod a glowing outline that everyone could see. “There it is!” he yelled. “Take it down!”

As the others started shooting up at it, Cyclops had an idea. “Hah, watch this!” He pulled out one of his grenades, took a moment to aim, and then threw it down. It promptly expanded into a springloaded ripper that started slicing through the ground, mincing a couple stray glyphids as it ran before hitting the cave wall. It climbed right up the surface, approached the flushed-out Bloodstalker, and chopped up one of its legs like green onion. Losing its grip, the Bloodstalker promptly fell from the wall and became easy pickings.

A moment later, an alert sound rang out from the hacking pod. “Hack-C’s done!” Overhard announced happily. “Good job lads, we’re through here!”

As if on cue, a big stretch of ground by one of the cave walls began to rumble. When Cyclops glared at the engineer, his helmet’s single eye somehow conveyed every ounce of his irritation. “Nice goin’ there, poindexter.”

After another moment, a freakish brown-and-white monstrosity with a huge segmented tail, wings of radiant green energy, and lobster-like pincers dug its way out of the ground with a shriek. “I don’t believe this, it’s an alien!” Overhard exclaimed, like they hadn’t been fighting alien bugs until now. He rushed over to resupply his turrets, while Cyclops loaded up a fresh can of fuel. The alien raised its claws and prepared to attack, only for the cavern wall behind it to explode in a gigantic eruption of rock, soil, and plant matter. Through the chaos plowed none other than the Kingtusk, majestic and imperial, to land on and squash the alien bug beneath its immense mass. As the husk turned to ashes around it, the Kingtusk sucked in its breath, then shook the entire cavern with its ear-piercing squeal.

Wincing, Cyclops cracked his neck and lifted his flamethrower into position. “Awlright. Guess it’s time to pull some pork after all! Suuuuuuuuuuuuuey!”

In response, the Kingtusk lowered its head, and charged.

“Hmph, a beast will be a beast.” Sectonia said, casting her Slow on the Kingtusk as it approached the group, setting it up for the koopa clan to deal with it as they seemed eager to beat it up.

Never one to back down to a challenge, be it a mighty meal or mighty battle (or both in this case) Bowser counter charged, which would have been incredibly foolish had he not called out for ”Kamek!” to ”Make me huge!”

Now there was logic to be found here, for if the cavern could support the big pig, then surely it could support the king too. Both however? Well that was a question that was just about to get answered, as the mage saw no choice between using his magic and letting his king get trampled.

He quickly landed next to the hacking station, raise his his wand over his head and began chanting.

Unfortunately to do this he had to sit still, while making an awful lot of noise, which had the inevitable result of drawing attention to himself as an excellent Bloodstalker grapple target.

So up he went.

”Kamek” came a cry of alarm from Rika who had seen this happen, and who then did the only logical thing, and grappled the mage from below. Her own hook launched up, grabbed a leg, and then with a cry of ”I’ve got you” Rika began to pulled in the opposite direction from the bug, resulting in some rather pained sounding chanting as the mage kept up the spell even as his life was in danger.

Then there was a wooshing sound, and light briefly blazed as a trio of rockets slammed up into the ceiling as Jr expended some of his Metal Attacker’s limited unused stores to free his caretaker. Said caretaker was pulled down with quite a bit of force, and it was a near thing that he did not get slashed by Rika’s chainsaw bayonet’s blades as she caught him.

”See, told you I had you” Rika reassured him, preparing to set him down, only for Jr to powerslide to a stop beside them, throwing open the door to his tank and urging his sister to put Kamek ”In here!”

”Huh? Oh! Good idea” Rika agreed after only the smallest delay, before quickly popping the mage inside and strapping him into the copilot's seat.

She stepped back, and then, with the source of engreatening power safely secured, had a chance to take in the spectacle Kamek was enabling.

Intentionally or not, the mage had only increased the king’s size to on comparable to the big pig before he had been distracted by his abduction, meaning that dragon met sow on a mostly level playing field.

With each step the king had grown, until he’d been big enough to grab the boar by the tusks as it charged him, causing him to grind backwards through the dirt, boots carving furrows into it till he brought it to a halt. The two roared at each other as they struggled, claw vs tusk, before the king slammed his own head into it, and then lashed out with his vine tendrils, driving them into his target, releasing electrical shocks at each thorny impact site.

The pain gave the Kingtusk a burst of strength, wrenching its head up into the air, kicking the king with its front trotters, and then slamming its head back down, smashing him back and freeing itself from his grip.

It was the kings turn to roar in pain, and then retaliate recklessly, the king swinging a wild punch forwards, having expected his foe to follow up a charge with a charge. Instead the Kingtusk stomped the ground again, sending a line of roots to spike up from the ground one in a wave like pattern, forcing the king to step to the side to avoid being skewered.

His slowness meant he still suffered a glancing blow, the spikes clipping his arm and sending him stumbling. Perfect for an ungrabbable charge, which the Kingtusk wasted now time in executing, the pig thundering forwards towards the king.

Yet unlike it, the King was not alone, and in that crucial moment his family and allies came to his aid. Missiles and triple cannon fire slammed into its side fired by Jr’s Metal Attacker, along with a barrage of sticky disruption globs from Rika, that clung to the beast and sapped its strength. Sectonia helped out as well, using the fact it was such a huge target to fire her large Rings of Light at it, which would be incredibly difficult for that thing to dodge with its size, their size, and the limited cave room. Still, she kept her attention on the smaller bugs to keep them off of the others while they dealt with the big guy with her antlions, lightning, and tesla coil.

Those knocked it off balance and weaned it, but what really did a number on it was the dwarves, with Overhard’s Shard Diffractor and Cyclops‘ flamethrower igniting parts of the decidedly plant like pig and making it squeal in pain. It rounded on them, which was particularly bad for Cyclops who had had to get into close range, but Bowser was quick to repay the favor.

”Eyes on me bub!” the king, who had recovered from the root attack, demanded, as he charged back in, winding up and then driving a punch into the side of the boar’s head.

The baor reeled, and then, naturally, focused back on the main target before it got mashed to a pulp. The two struggled for a moment before a voice chimed in Bowser’s ear thanks to the linkpearl.

”Burn it papa! The dwarves’ stuff seems to be really working out, but no one can top you when it comes to fire power!” his son helpfully chimed in like one of those helpers Mario seemed to acquire a new one for every adventure. Unlike them, Bowser would never find his son annoying, particularly when the advice was so useful (for him anyway, anyone else would have been able to work out the weakness for themselves after all)

”Now you're gonna get it!” the armed with new information Bowser told the pig, before he breathed deep and unleashed a sea of fire breath upon his foe.

As predicted, the flames ravaged the plant-based pig’s body. Not predicted, however, was the way that the Kingtusk’s face became engulfed in its own source of liquid flame, and its tusks grew even larger, splitting off thorny branches wrapped in energy as burning hot as its anger as it entered an enraged state.

Burning roots burst from the ground all around it, an explosion of power that slammed the king back again, the king staggering and then finding his footing to face down the rival king once more. There was the briefest moment of stillness, and then the two charged each other again.

Bowser tried his tusk grabbing trick again, but the spikes and flames on them made them too hot to handle, harming first his hands and then his chest as he was properly gored by the beast for the first time.

He roared with pain even as he drove his elbow down into the forehead of his foe, and then trying to shove it away, only for the beast to stay right on top of him, tusks stabbing and scraping his shell as it did so. He would have flame breathed it again, but ironically, he too was part plant, and the red hot tusks were already threatening to put the vines growing out of the back of his shell aflame, and so there was no way he was risking burning washback.

Instead he and it engaged in a grueling bout of punching and stabbing, till Rika chimed in to relay some details, which from the other koopa’s perspective sounded something like ”I can’t do shock damage that’d burn my roots! … No … Ask them what they mean by that … Well why didn’t they just say so!” after which the king slung a single cannon over his shoulder.

Doing so exposed part of his back, and the mass of vines beneath, which the burning farec boar immediately tried to take advantage of, trying to hook a tusk around the side of the shell to drive it into Bowser’s innards. The jab landed, but not before the cannon fired, blasting the beast not with bullets, acid, or light bullets, but with water.

The initial incoherence of this move was quickly replaced with dwarven genius as the fire on the pig’s face was extinguished, stealing away the power boost, and the rapid cooling from the water sent the pig into temperature shock.

Flesh and tusk disintegrated and several eyes turning to hollow sockets under the damage, sending it stumbling back. Bowser immediately capitalized, stepping forwards, driving a vine covered fist into it to deliver a different kind of shock. Then he fired up his kinetic strike module, slamming into the kingtusks’s lower jaw with a devastating uppercut, shattering both its tusks and sending it staggering up onto two hooves.

Not at all done, the king grabbed his porky foe and hauling it over his shoulder, suplexing it directly into the power station, before turning around to face it. His jaw opened, breathing in gallons of oxygen, and then he exhaled all that built up fuel, blasting a mega fireball into the stunned target, the giant fireball near as large as it absolutely incinerating the foe in a single devastating finisher.

When the flame and smoke cleared, the heavily-damaged kemono was deader than dead, its massive carcass quickly burning to ash that blanketed the compromised Power Station in a mound of black powder. The dwarves watched with slack jaws, not just sweating from the intensity of the fight. “...Bloimey,” Cyclops muttered. “This fecker’s a bloody monster!”

“Glad you’re on our side,” Overhard laughed somewhat nervously. “Uh, well, that’s the Power Station sorted. Back to the Data Vault then lads, that Caretaker ain’t gonna crack itself.” He recalled his turrets, and together the dwarves packed up to leave the burning bamboo forests and wheat fields behind.

With the battle over, Bowser rapidly shrunk down to his usual size, as a rather exhausted Kamek released the spell as soon as the battle was won. The kids meanwhile gave their papa cheers and adulation for his mighty victory, which did plenty to boost the king’s already sky high ego.

After they’d all calmed down a bit, Jr looked back to ask Kamek to make his toadies do some spirit collecting, only for the exhausted manaless mage to shake his head. It would be a while till he was back in fighting shape, but at least he was going to be able to ride out his rest period in Jr’s new ride.

That left the others to quickly salvage what spirits they could from the battlefield before they all started fading. Naturally the two big bosses, fought and unfought, were salvaged, along with a smattering of others.

There wasn’t that much time however, seeing as the dwarves wanted to get moving, and the threat of more swarms was still hanging over their heads. So soon enough they were back on the road, and heading back the way they had come.

With their numbers bolstered, at least for now, the Seekers engaged the gang of protolegions. Despite appearances, these were no ordinary chimeras; the fact that these normal, seemingly uncorrupted Lupo could see them was proof positive of that. Goldlewis knew that disaster was continuing to unfold in the background as the Redshift Cascade swept across the outskirts of Quarantine Valley, corrupting everything in its path. Yet he had no choice but to focus on the threat directly in front of him, praying that this stepping-stone would bring the Seekers one step closer to the answers they’d been searching for.

Nine protolegions, eight Seekers, two tenuous allies. With Blazermate and Sandalphon on support duty, the fighters were slightly outnumbered. These enemies fought with more intelligence and cohesion than one might expect, forcing their opponents to answer in kind. Still, with the buffs from False Promise and plentiful healing on their side, the Seekers had every advantage.

Penance took the fight to a big protolegion immediately, putting her thorny flail against its enormous cleaver-arms. Protected by a thorny barrier for 40% of her max HP, she attacked with a ferocity that flew in the face of her drab, stately appearance. That gave Roland the chance to flank it and start laying on the damage with quick strikes from dual-wielded weapons. In turn, that allowed Penance to charge up and then unleash her Last Word technique, a withering downward lash that dealt 200% damage and stunned the astral butcher more than long enough for Roland to finish it off.

One protolegion, wielding a shield for one arm and a grisly spiked mace head on the other, put up its defense and charged Blazermate’s turret to take it down before it could rack up any more damage. Goldlewis decided to lend a hand. He ran in and intercepted the protolegion with a shoulder barge. From there, a far slash knocked it back just a touch, and a down-forward-up Behemoth Typhoon popped it off its feet. Normally that would’ve been the end of a combo, but at that moment Vigil vaulted over him with an impressive flip, firing his revolvers at the protolegion while upside-down throughout the arc of his jump. The bullets kept the monster juggled, allowing Goldlewis to get down and launch it even higher with a slow but powerful crouching heavy kick. While Vigil landed, Goldlewis canceled into a back-up-forward Behemoth Typhoon to smash the protolegion down with a ground bounce. Once again the gunslinger swooped in to extend the combo, this time sliding along the ground and emptying his revolvers upward. From there, a tremendous coffin swing spelled the protolegion’s end.

Goldlewis planted his coffin beside him and wiped his brow. “Mighty fancy gunplay you got there, partner,” he said, nodding at Vigil.

The young man allowed himself a half-smile as he reloaded his revolvers with an expert hand. “Not too bad yourself, old-timer.”

Of course, the next moment a blazing arrow from a bow protolegion destroyed Blazermate’s turret, anyway. Without a word the two men advanced, charging through the melee toward the back lines. One protolegion with giant claws turned their way. Vigil nimbly dodged around, but it managed to catch Goldlewis in its flurry of berserk slashes, only for a purgatory ghost from Blazermate to swoop in and blow it back. Goldlewis dashed in, knocked it off its feet with a crouching kick into sweep, then brought his coffin down in another Behemoth Typhoon to send his attacker tumbling away.

Roland and Zenkichi were now working together, their blades pitted against those of two very aggressive protolegions, but as soon as one gained some ground missiles from Susie turned things back in Zenkichi’s favor. He wasted no time obliterating his foe with his Persona. At the same time, Penance had moved into the middle of the brawl to use Stoic Atonement, exchanging her ability to attack for a damage-reducing Sanctuary and constant pulses of crushing force around her. By targeting the protolegions’ knees, Karin kept her enemies inside Penance’s crumplezone where Geralt and Susie could carve them up, one axe-wielder in particular. When Roland whipped out a scythe and beat out the attack of the remaining dualblade protolegion, the monster rounded on Karin unsuccessfully and got sent back toward its original opponent for mopping up. Then, without missing a beat, the street fighter dealt with the clawed protolegion softened up by Goldlewis and Stoic Atonement seconds earlier. Despite her help, Roland couldn’t catch a break, and right after he finished off his opponent one showed up with an enormous curved greatsword to catch him by surprise with a spinning slash. Susie came to the rescue for him too, leaving the big-fisted protolegion she’d opened up for Geralt in order to get the attention of Roland’s attacker. By then Vigil had reached and shot up the bow protolegion somewhat, only for the situation to go sour when the monster forced him to evade with an arrow rain and then nailed him with a charge shot after his roll. Penance stopped Stoic Atonement and hurled her flail out to snatch the bow protolegion with its thorny coil, then pull it in. As it stumbled forward, Vigil clubbed it in the back of its head, then cleared the way so that Goldlewis could smash it flat. Right after he gave the protolegion pancake a shot in the head for good measure, Geralt felled the fist protolegion with a ruthless chop, and the battle was over.

Immediately, a divine pulse of healing water washed over everyone at once, restoring 51% of their maximum life and imparting a heal-over-time for an additional 13% every three seconds for the next fifteen seconds. Blazermate’s continuous single-target sustain was without parallel, but for topping up the whole team nobody compared to Sandalphon. “Excellent cooperation, everyone,” the archangel complimented the team, her feathers very much unruffled. Everyone had worked together seamlessly, helping out one another when needed, and nobody really slacked off. Zenkichi brought up the rear, with only a single kill he could claim, but everyone else pitched in for two minimum, with Roland and Geralt scoring highest. Not that she planned to give them any performance reviews (for now at least), but her eye for efficiency was as keen as ever.

Nodding in satisfaction, Goldlewis stopped his watch. “Fifty-two seconds. Not bad.” He glanced at the purple-tinged protolegion spirits, wondering if they counted as corrupted.

It was Geralt who asked the all-important question of what came next. Karin mentioned their person of interest, but she also recognized the potential obstacle in the way. When she questioned Penance, though, the Judge just gave her a tired look.

“I think we have bigger things to worry about,” she told Karin humorlessly. “The last twenty-four hours have thrown the city into crisis. The Machine attack, the debate, DespoRHado’s attempted coup, movement amongst insurrectionists, a Redshift Cascade and Other deluge within an hour of one another…”

At that, Goldlewis’ eyebrows shot up. Wait, an Other attack? Right now?

“Don’t forget all the civilian unrest!” Vigil piped up helpfully.

Penance winced at him. “It’s all building up to something, and whatever it is may very well spell disaster for Midgar as we know it.”

“Or perhaps, salvation.”

At the unfamiliar voice, everyone turned to look at the source, many with an educated guess in mind as to just who it might belong to. They directed their gazes up at a third-story balcony on the opposite side of the empty lot, where an unkempt woman with wild blonde hair and a dirty lab coat stood. It was the very person they’d been dying to meet. To either side of her stood a pallid young man, one with messy dark hair and a crossbow, and the other in white, with a deranged look of elation and a strange, technological cane.

“Jena Anderson,” Sandalphon said evenly.

“So, we finally meet,” Jena called down, her arms crossed. “A decisive victory over the protolegions. I should commend you all. If only your strength wasn’t wasted in service of a tyrannical regime, steering humanity deeper and deeper into a spiral of suffering and self-destruction. Spineless, heartless, feckless government dogs…” If looks could kill, the Turks and Goldlewis would be dead. Jena sounded like she was on the brink of despair. “And maggots in the filth, too busy preying on the weak to fathom just how far you’ve sunken.” She glared at Sandalphon and Vigil, the latter of whom just rolled his eyes. “Surely, you can’t be blind to their machinations? Their lies? Shinra, Konoe, Zanotto, Vandelay, Armstrong, and Yoseph…for all their power, not one of them has saved a single soul! How many must die before people like you wake up? Take control!?”

Gritting his teeth, Goldlewis pointed up at her. His voice was vehement, full of furious vigor. “And what about you? Sure, they’re all bastards, but how many people has Reunion killed, huh? Doomed to a slow and painful transformation into aberrated monsters? Have you even seen what’s happenin’ right this instant to Zone 09!? To the Hermits, so desperate to fight for a brighter tomorrow that you chewed ‘em up and spat ‘em out? You ain’t a lick better than anyone you mentioned, sister! So what, you figured you’d pay evil unto evil? The way I see it, you’ve taken so many eyes the whole damn world’s gone blind!”

“You’re the ones who are blind,” Jena yelled down before composing herself. “But it’s not too late for you to see for yourselves. Here!” She held up a projector that displayed an enormous screen on one side of the empty lot, allowing everyone to watch. As the Seekers looked on, an image appeared of a masked man with gray hair…





All over the buildings on and within Main Street, from shops to skyscrapers to underground Other shelters, screens suddenly switched on. Whether in the form of Visions or conventional TV screens, they displayed one universal image: the visage of a man known to all, with long gray hair, a dark gray trench coat with a fur trim, jackal ears, and silver pieces of armor, including a pointed mask. It wasn’t just Suoh either; this same forced broadcast was occurring throughout all of Midgar, on every screen connected to the city-wide psychic network.

“Major General Karen?” Yuito breathed. “What’s…”

“Attention, all citizens of Midgar!” Karen thundered. “Or should I say, New Himuka. You blind fools who denied the truth before your own eyes. Pitiful citizens, don’t turn your eyes from the truth. This nation is insane. They control the city, the information, and the people with Psynet. Not even your thoughts are free. You are nothing but cattle, born to be used by the state. New Himuka is a regime that eliminates those that threaten them by rewriting their personalities, or turning them into Others. They slaughter Pokemon to fuse with citizens, turning them into submissive livestock they can control. There is no justice! The powers that be have never intended to quell the Ever Crisis. Why would they, when fear and loss make you dependent? Amassing power, not to protect anyone, but to ensure you’re all trapped under their thumb. For ever, and ever. This cannot continue.” Pausing, Karen removed his mask, allowing every citizen to see the true face of the ultimate soldier fused with the ultimate mercenary, with only green irises between vivid red sclera and red pupils. “Starting today I, Karen Travers, Septentrion First Class and Major General of Psych-OSF, have joined Seiran with my allies in rebellion against the Administration of President Shinra. Against a society that would control human beings like cattle, stripping them of their human rights and dignity. What begins now is an escape from oppressive control. A revolution!” He lifted and clenched his fist. “To those of you who are awake. Those who wish to awaken. Come join my cause in the undercities! Help me destroy the New Himuka regime! And put an end to their tyranny forever!”

The broadcast ended suddenly, restoring control. In the seconds that followed, Suoh was quiet, with only distant sirens disturbing the poignant silence. After a moment, Luka breathed a heavy sigh. “Well, I guess we now know what Karen was talking about down in the tunnels yesterday.”

“So Karen’s actually leading a rebellion against Shinra’s Administration?” Yuito shook his head. “I can hardly believe it. But I can hardly deny it, either.”

Hanabi clenched her fists, her brows furrowed. “It’s completely justified! We saw Brain Drain’s lab, what they’re doing to people down there. Including poor Dexio and Sina. Who knows how many people got subjected to personality rehabilitation? Or made into P-types for that matter! And we never thought to question things ‘til now…” The girl seemed almost as angry at herself as she did the people responsible. “Guess Armstrong’s accusations weren’t just shots in the dark.”

Luka seemed both deep in thought and deeply disturbed. “I have to wonder. Not just about the conspiracy, because it seems like this New Himuka business goes all the way to the top. I mean the rebellion. In order to make a broadcast like that, Karen would have to seize control of Psynet at its source.”

“Arahabaki?” Hanabi asked, her eyes widening.

“The city computer,” Yuito mused. “It’s deep underground beneath the Shinra Building, sealed away and heavily guarded. Not even an army could get in there under normal circumstances, but with this Other attack…”

Luka pursed his lips. “That’s not all. You remember this morning? DespoRHado’s attack on Vandelay Industries. I can’t help but wonder if it’s connected. But DespoRHado got destroyed, and Karen mentioned ‘allies’...” He glanced at the others. “Just who else is waiting in the wings?”

---

As the broadcast concluded, Jena lowered her projector. “Now do you understand?” she called down at the nine assembled below. “Midgar is nothing but a den of vipers. And it’s time we started cutting the heads off the snakes.” She turned her gaze upward, looking out through the gap in the wall across Quarantine Valley, up toward the plates. “By now, one should have already rolled. But that’s just the beginning.” Her attention turned back toward the Seekers. “Ten minutes ago, Neuron scrambled all units. After ignoring Zone 09 and its people for so long, they’re finally headed here, toward the epicenter of the Redshift Cascade. Leaving their headquarters undefended. As we speak, Reunion is marching on Neuron HQ. There, the great deceiver awaits. The man who would trick all of humanity into giving their lives for his twisted vision. Once my troops flush him out, I will eliminate him myself.”

Jena extended her arm down toward the Seekers, as if holding them in the palm of her hand. “Come with me. Forget your petty grievances, this is about more than a handful of lives. The Existence as we know it is at stake! Kill me afterward if you must, but together, we can put an end to his misanthropic megalomania. Will you fight to save mankind?” She closed her fist. “Or will you die like a dog?”



Though far apart, and beleaguered by nasty surprises of all sorts, the two halves of the Hollow Bough contingent managed to pull through with no losses. Despite an initial run-in with a Metal Attacker parasitized by energy-manipulating Xynach Charge-suckers, and a most unwelcome appearance from the angry Kingtusk to cap off their hacking sequence, the team members who faced the bamboo grottos and cultivated caverns of Montoj pulled through. Things had been even crazier in the Stranga sub-biome, with bizarre environmental hazards followed by a mind-bending hack job courtesy of a very quirky local, but the brave souls withstood the surreal experience to finish the job. Of course, wild as those detours had been for everyone involved, dwarves and Seekers alike knew that the main event was yet to come, so they savored the walk back to the central cavern as a much-needed and well-deserved chance to catch their breath.

With the giant boar out of the picture and a negligible amount of glyphids around, the trip back through the tunnels of Montoj was a peaceful one. If any wind blew through these subterranean passages, it might have created a soothing melody in the patches of grain and the leafy copses of bamboo. The Kirikuris and Twirligigs that guarded the crops watched Sectonia, Cyclops, Overhard, and the Koopa Troop as they passed, but they did not aggress. This time the dwarves didn’t get too greedy about snatching beer ingredients; they stuck to mining mineral resources at a leisurely pace, knowing not to rush toward the confrontation that lay at the end of these tunnels.

After the run-in with Kanna and her reality-warping Wonder Effects, even the thrill-seeker in Nadia was thrilled out for the moment. She took her time on the return journey, happily sitting down on exposed roots and such to rest whenever the dwarves spotted some ore and went off to mine. Everyone needed to be fully prepared for their final fight against the Caretaker, whether that meant scrounging up enough Nitra to eke out another supply drop, or mentally recovering from the beating their psyches had taken from Kanna’s inexplicable mischief. Nadia didn’t regret letting the plant woman off easy for her crimes against normality, but man, she and that freaky rabbit of hers were a real handful. Part of her still felt bad for leaving the overly friendly fool on her own, since she seemed to be social, but Kanna definitely seemed to be more trouble than she was worth. No matter how powerful her abilities might be, that kind of chaos wasn’t something that anyone could stomach. “At least ‘thistle’ make for a good story, eh?” With a sigh and a shake of her head, Nadia tried to put the bizarre encounter behind her, and focus on the path ahead. Navigating Stranga in reverse wasn’t that difficult, but it did force the team to confront that Void Sunflower she saw earlier. Stetson came up with the idea of having Paintbrush throw a cluster grenade through it. When the team heard the muffled blast and ensuing rumble from the other side, they concluded it must be safe enough to try. Sure enough, the flower put them back in the big cavern with the floating water, no muss, no fuss. From there, it was smooth sailing back to the main cavern.

The two teams reunited at the Data Vault, where the slumbering Caretaker awaited them within its rippling orange bubble shield. “Hey, buds!” Nadia greeted the others, waving as she approached the rendezvous point. Bowser, his family, Sectonia, and the other two dwarves looked pretty much fine, though with Kamek and Junior to provide healing she couldn’t rightfully tell whether or not they ran into trouble during their expedition. Still, she somehow doubted that things went as awry for the others as it did for her own team. Realistically speaking, what could possibly be crazier? “Things got pretty whacky on our end, I ain’t dande-lyin’. Iris you’d been there to see it. We ‘rose’ to the occasion, though.” She pulled a flower off her jacket with her nails and flicked it at Sectonia. “Peony for your thoughts? Take it or leaf it.”

“I’m glad to see everyone’s in good health,” Tingyun told the others politely. She spared a half-smile at Nadia as well. “And also that our colorful experience didn’t end up dulling your sense of humor.”

Paintbrush, Stetson, Overhard, and Cyclops all grouped up as well, exchanging high fives, jokes, and complaints about all the problems they’d run into while separated. Even with Paintbrush as tacit as ever, they made quite the din, which Stetson eventually had to try to reign in. “Alroight, alroight already. When we get back, first round o’ beers is on me, eh fellas?”

“Hear, hear!” Overhard agreed. Paintbrush just gave an enthusiastic nod.

“Ah, I can taste it already,” Cyclops groaned longingly. “Could sure go for a nice cold Arkenstout roight about now.”

“Well, don’t start slobberin’ too soon, ‘cause we ain’t earned anythin’ just yet,” Stetson warned, turning toward the Data Vault. “Shield’s runnin’ on emergency power now. Once we take out the batteries, it’s go time.” He looked over at the Seekers. “You’ve all done pretty good so far. Don’t get too comfy though, ‘cause this sonuvabitch’s gonna put us through the damn wringer. Better get your arses in gear.”

Between them, the dwarves were just short of enough nitra to call down two resupply pods, which elicited a round of vehement groans and curses. While they radioed in the one they could afford, Overhard got to work setting up his turrets, while the others used their pickaxes to mine some sections of the petrified wood around the data vault into usable cover. “We’re lookin’ at three phases,” Overhard explained as he worked. “In all four, there’s gonna be robot arms that’ll try to shoot an’ hit us. If you step on the platform, it’ll start deployin’ energy cells that’ll shock ya real good, too. Once we hit the vents enough, the Caretaker’ll open its eye-thing, and that’s what we’ve gotta hit. When we hit the second phase it’ll send out reinforcements, and on phase three it’ll start droppin’ phase bombs on us, so keep movin’. You guys all got that?”

Tingyun nodded. “I’ll be in your care. Good luck, everyone~”

“Yeah, ‘eye’ think that sounds easy enough,” Nadia replied. “Hit the vents, whack its peeper, caretakerblooey.” Not planning to use her somewhat flimsy boxcutters against a target made of high-tech metal alloys, she took off her jacket and laid it aside with her hilts. Once she made sure Athame was positioned for quick and easy use, she sharpened her claws, ready to rumble.

Once everyone was ready, Cyclops and Paintbrush climbed onto the rim of the Data Vault and started removing the batteries. “Ejecting the power source!” That meant bludgeoning them with their hammers until their cores popped out. The shield generator started humming faster and faster until it finally blew out, and the force field died along with it. Right away the machinery noisily came to life, the pyramid-shaped robot rising into the air. The eyes on its four faces opened as the lightning pylons emerged from its base for a test-fire, pulsing once before the eyes slammed shut and the Caretaker gave a mechanical roar. Then four towering robotic appendages emerged from the base, the huge machine’s vents opened, and it began to spin. Overhard forgot to mention just one thing: tha at certain intervals, while its vents were still open, the Caretaker would emit alternating waves of plasma barriers that would block incoming shots while damaging and knocking back anyone hit.

Without further ado, the dwarves got down to business. They used their long-ranged weaponry to shoot at the vents as they spun into view, and the more damage they took the faster it spun, forcing them to lead their shots more and more. Rather than waste precious ammunition on the robotic arms, they hid behind cover when necessary. Saying, “Evils begone~” Tingyun rang her bell to empower Sectonia with an attack buff, then worked to suppress the Caretaker’s robotic arms by striking them with her fans when not in danger. Nadia took a more proactive approach, weaving around the shots and sudden lunges of the robot arms to rush down the Caretaker itself. Just as Overhard said, it began to deploy its pylons the moment she set foot on the Data Vault, but it took a few seconds before they could discharge, and Nadia was faster than that. She jumped onto the base, then shot upward, either with a blood pressure jump or a Charge, to scramble onto the Caretaker itself. Once there, she could cut a vent’s defense with Athame and slash at it with her claws, using Battery after every Charge to maximize her damage. Doing this would make the boss send out shredders to try and cut her up, forcing her to flee when the swarm got too thick, but her strategy was sound. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

”It really is all happening today isn’t it?” Was Midna’s first comment after the city wide announcement that the rebellion was going above ground, before pondering out loud ”I wonder if they’re just capitalizing on each other’s actions or if someone is egging things along? That Other shower wasn’t predicted after all, and the way they came in was strange, right? Almost like they were transported in by whatever those flying machines were?”

Looking at the others, Midna could see that she definitely wasn't the only one feeling it. As a veteran soldier Luka might be more well-adjusted to this sort of exertion, but Yuito and Hanabi were both breathing heavily from the battle through Suoh. When Midna addressed them, though, they couldn't help but consider the truth behind her words.

"That's right...Others come from the Extinction belt, but in pods, not in buses," Yuito mused, putting his fist to his chin.

Hanabi scratched her head, her eyes narrowed. "Those ones are called Battle Buses, I think? Pretty sure they're used in some sort of game show. A one hundred person survival island kind of thing, you know. But even if they can fit a hundred people apiece, there's no way all those Others could've fit on them."

"The timing is too convenient, too," Yuito added. "How could Karen know what was about to happen and use it to break into Arahabaki, if even Arahabaki couldn't see the Other rain coming?"

Midna did not have time to reflect on what in the world a survival island gameshow was, because her brain lept straight to ”I … oh goddesses I hope I am wrong, but if you can fit 100 people on there, then you can move them to a location, and then turn them all into Others when you get there. I know they had to shoot Peach individually, but what if there was a way that could do it en mass…” That was quite the terrible weapon, both in terms of effectiveness and sheer monstrousness.

Both of Midna's comrades looked horrified. "You don't really think that's what happened, do you?" Hanabi shuddered. "That's almost too horrible to consider."

Yuito furrowed his brow, disturbed, but also a little incredulous "Wait, you mean this was the work of the same people responsible for metamorphosis? Why would they use it to attack their own territory? Especially since that not only gave Karen the perfect chance to break into Arahabaki, but also led to the Grand Head's assassination?"

"That does sound pretty...I don't know, counterproductive? I mean, if it's their fault, that either means they're working with Karen in order to destroy themselves, or they're insanely stupid." Hanabi crossed her arms.

”Well … Unless Karen got his hands on how they did it. He’s definitely the one who benefited the most” Midna pointed out grimly, before musing ”though it could also be someone else stole it, or the regime is coming apart at the seams. Wasn’t there some conspiracy inside of it …. Konoe! Konoe controles Psych-OSF, Neuron, the G-men and he did have Vandelay till it got destroyed. It and Project Armstrong, which was a big part of his overall plan”

That was something of a save for Karen, which she extrapolated upon ”The guy just suffered a big loss, and he hates Shinra. So maybe Karen just took advantage of some hit Karen was making against Shinra? Or Konoe wanted them to make this move for some reason, maybe to make them Shinra’s problem as well as his? Or does he also want something down there? I’d be a good distraction” and while it was a bit of a stretch, after all he was in control of the organization at the heart of the Rebellion, it could have been part of some play of his. ”Either way, he has the means, and a potential motivation, so I wouldn’t put it all on Karen yet. Yet”

Since Midna was more or less spitballing, neither Yuito nor Hanabi tried addressing all her hypotheticals, though it was definitely food for thought. They didn't have all the answers either, after all. "Well, I hope it wasn't Karen," Hanabi said after a moment. "He's definitely benefiting from all this the most. If he's somehow responsible, that makes him almost as bad as the people he's rebelling against in the first place."

Yuito nodded. "At that point, we'd have to wonder if he really did want freedom for everyone, or if he had some other, more selfish agenda. With Arahabaki, almost anything's possible. Whoever controls it controls the information, even Midgar itself."

”That powerful huh?” Midna asked, before noting that ”And yet despite that it’s not even the thing that’s deepest down apparently. You have to wonder what Shinra has that they want to protect even harder. Other than the area guardian I mean, but they don’t know how important that is”

Luka had stayed quiet throughout this time, ruminating on all that he'd heard. At this point, though, his eyes went up slightly, and he cleared his throat in order to present a new possibility. "Maybe, but...if this 'guardian' is that important to the people behind the curtains, wouldn't it make sense to make it vitally important to the people actually defending it, too?"

”Thing is they can’t know what it’s for, as that'd involve knowing about Galeem, so I’d think it would be something that’s important for another reason as well?” she informed him, before thinking about it a bit more and postulating that ”Or one of the Consuls managed to convince them it's important? But I think we should prepare for it to be something that has consequences when it goes down”

The others nodded their agreement, though none felt especially confident. 'Be ready for anything' was a phrase everyone could agree with, but never truly put into practice. Whatever came of these new crises and discoveries, hopefully their strength and their bonds would be enough to see them through.

”Alright, I think I’m recovered enough to get moving again” she said, before asking the group in general ”Got anywhere else we need to be, or should we try and regroup? I can portal us to a few places if I make another one here” entirely willing to fill them in on where those where if they had a desire to move out. It wasn’t the only fast transportation option either, as she pointed out ”Or seeing as we’re fugitives now, there’s no laws stopping us from driving somewhere instead”

After beating another round of enemies, the boss of the area showed up. Or at least thats what Blazermate guessed based on what they had all seen before. And like a villain, just went on their monologue on how they were going to change things and yadda yadda, with Goldweis being very much against this person. Blazermate only had the idea of who they were,, with Susie just being annoyed that there was yet another fight while they were dealing with the whole red shift storm chasing them. Roland had the more informed take out of the three, noting that this girl had the same energy about her that the blue sicko did. Considering they had roughly the same plan, or this one was grander, he wasn't all that surprised. What did surprise him is being in this situation, perhaps thats how his whole band felt when he invited them?

Well, this person was open to questions. But as the group would find out, while they said they would take questions, they really weren't that great at giving concrete info. Roland's first question of how they'd treat the cityfolk was answered with "Without Shinra's boot pressing down on their faces, the people of Midgar will be able to live, not just survive. Moreover, if Yoseph isn't dealt with, they'll never get the chance to live as human beings. And I mean that literally.". Which seemed noble, but then when asked her question, it was disregarded which made Blazermate and Roland basically summarize Jena's stance and dispositon as "Are you stupid? Shinra is worse! Anything I can do is better than Shinra!", or so thats what Blazermate and Roland thought. When Roland asked his question about how the person's group would improve the city or Susie saying how the collapse of the city's worth would cause many, many issues. Blazermate got a bit of a different response, but it was more an affirmation of what she thought. "If you want us to help you, you gotta stop causing red shift." which she got the reply of "Redshift is caused by contamination from the Astral Plane. I didn't cause this storm; I'm just the one who's able to stay afloat." But after that question and Susie's question, she wasn't much one for talking anymore, having been annoyed from the barrage of questions.

Blazermate was pretty well set for another fight, even charged from her healing. But she did note that everyone else was getting tired. Roland was still in his fighting mode, but having been fighting for so long was getting tiring, and Susie was just getting frustrated at the whole situation, but keeping herself composed. While the bots were fine with whatever happened, Roland spoke for himself. "Yeah... If you have no plan that benefits anyone but yourself I suppose thats just the way the city works. But I'm not interested in helping another insane person gain power in what is a pretty decent place overall. Just sounds like you want to cause chaos for chaos sake and taking no responsibility for anything. So no, I'm not interested." Although him saying the city was fine when they were in such a terrible district was really hypocritical. But at least this was still better than the Backstreets. For one, no Sweepers, and there was no district 23 in Midgar either.

At least this little chatting would let Blazermate top up people. It was nice having a co healer that could do AoE healing as well, as she lacked that ability. She just hoped people weren't too tired for another fight.

So here the Seekers stood, staring up at what could only be the lightroot. It was like a circle of massive tree roots that snaked their way upward in a vaguely dome-like shape. They also appeared to glow and give off their own natural light, especially in the center of the roots where the light was at its brightest. It also looked like there was some kind of lift at the center of it. Where it led to, Ganondorf couldn’t say. But if that direction was upward, then maybe this was a way to get closer to reaching the surface? Only one way to find out. Without waiting for any input from Rubick or Jesse, the Gerudo marched right into the brightness of the lightroot and boarded the lift. Rubick outstretched a hand as he hurriedly ran after Ganondorf. “Hold on, now, friend! Wait for me!” he said, barely making it into the lift with the Gerudo. The moment they did, the lift began to rise and take them into a blinding light.



When they could see properly again, the Seekers found themselves transported into… somewhere. It didn’t look at all familiar to Ganondorf. Whatever the place was, the stone tiles that made up the floors and walls were cut smoothly. Very smoothly. In fact it almost looked as smooth as granite or marble. They were also covered in seemingly unfamiliar markings. Ganondorf had to admit the markings sort of reminded him of Hyrule, but he couldn’t be sure. Perhaps this was some form of Hylian architecture from ancient times? Or maybe it wasn’t and the similarities were just a coincidence? Either way, Ganondorf supposed that it didn’t really matter. Up above them the ceiling appeared to glow with a soft, bluish white light. It also appeared to bear the unfamiliar markings on the floor.

Directly in front was a small set of steps leading into a larger room. At the bottom of the steps on either side were ornate pedestals containing glowing blue gemstones that floated directly above them. Similar pedestals could be seen in the corners of the larger room as well. For a place located in the darkness of the Under, this… shrine or whatever it was certainly seemed to be surprisingly steeped in light. Ganondorf could practically sense as much coming from deeper inside. This fact did not please the King of Evil, but it looked like he had no choice but to proceed for the time being.

As the Seekers made their way down the entrance steps, Ganondorf caught sight of an object sitting almost directly in the center of the first room of the shrine. It was a chest, one shaped almost perfectly cubical in shape. And right next to the chest there was a wooden sign that someone had apparently left behind a message on. It read: The pearls will take you where they fly. It was now that Ganondorf noticed that there did not appear to be any other exits from the room, except for where they had walked in from and a second one dead ahead that looked to be barred shut.

Rubick vaguely recognized the shape of the chests from his time in Limsa Lomiscuttle Town. They were often used to store the potions he brewed. Flicking his staff upward, Rubick opened the chest with his magic, revealing a cluster of green pearls, as advertised on the sign. He gingerly picked one up and examined it, wondering what secrets it held within its shiny, blocky exterior.

At first, Ganondorf tried to use his blades and sheer strength to break through the barred exit by force. But he quickly realized that wouldn’t be possible. The barred gate was protected by powerful Light magic, and even with the Triforce his own power was simply too steeped in Darkness to overcome it. Rubick felt a similar revulsion at the Light energy, the Silitha instincts in him urging him away from the gate as fast as possible. Clearly, they were going to have to play by the rules. And as much as that annoyed him, Ganondorf was just going to have to swallow his pride and accept it.

Ganondorf returned his attention to the chest and the sign next to it. What those words meant and how that was supposed to be of any help, he had no idea. But he did at least open the chest to see what was inside it. He found a handful of greenish pearls, five of them to be exact. Ganondorf assumed these were the pearls the sign referred to, but he had no idea how they were supposed to help. He read the sign again and noted the wording: where they fly. Well these certainly weren’t flying, unless… he was supposed to make them fly? Just as a test, Ganon palmed one of the pearls and threw it to the floor in front of him next to the barred exit. And Ganondorf was taken aback when he instantly teleported to the spot the pearl landed on. There was no sign of the pearl, so it must have vanished or shattered when it hit the ground. Still, the fact that these things apparently just teleported the thrower to wherever they were aimed at was quite the surprise.

And that was when the solution to this room became clear. Ganondorf took the remaining 4 pearls from the chest and approached the barred exit. Earlier he hadn’t noticed the gap between the top of the gate and the ceiling - primarily because the gap was too narrow for a person to squeeze through. But it was certainly large enough for one of these pearls to fit through. Ganondorf took aim and carefully threw a pearl through the narrow gap where it would be able to land on the opposite side. Instantly the Gerudo was teleported to the other side of the barred gate. And then the gate itself opened as if in reaction to the puzzle being solved.

Rubick had been too distracted by his own musings to notice, and by the time he looked up, Ganondorf had already thrown the second pearl. Only after seeing the Gerudo King teleport to the other side did Rubick finally fit the pieces of the puzzle in his mind. “Oh, goodness no!” Rubick cried out in frustration, throwing the Ender Pearl after Ganondorf. Reappearing on the other side of the gate next to him, his arms crossed, Rubick said, “To think I would act so slowly in a test of intelligence… my mind must be getting dull.”

”We just came from a hard fought battle in the Hive.” Ganondorf offered in response, ”Could just be fatigue.” As he spoke, Ganondorf began making his way into what he assumed would be another room with a puzzle to solve. And that was exactly what it was, but not at all like anything the Gerudo King expected.

Unlike the first room which had been simple and modest in size and layout, this next room was much larger. There was also almost no floor to speak of, seemingly replaced instead by what could only be described as a bottomless pit. Instead there were platforms of various sizes and elevations that dotted the room. Some of these platforms were stationary, while others moved forward and backward, or left and right, and still others moved up and down vertically. On the far end was an opening that the Seekers could probably presume was the exit they needed to reach. But there was also a more ornate looking treasure chest situated on a small platform that looked difficult to reach and would almost certainly require the Seekers to go out of their way to claim. A similar ornate chest could be spotted just beyond the room’s exit. Nearby almost directly next to the room’s entrance was another chest, this one twice as large as the previous and containing yet more Ender Pearls. Must have been around a couple dozen more, in fact. The objective here was ostensibly the same as in the previous room.

”Great,” Ganondorf grunted with slight annoyance, ”more platforming.” He could never understand how people like the Mario Brothers could stand to do this sort of thing all the time. Personally, Ganondorf just found it to be tiresome. But if this room was anything like the previous, then it was a safe bet that any attempts to bypass the puzzle would probably be met with resistance thanks to the Shrine’s magic. And so with an irritated sigh, Ganondorf scooped up a handful of 10 Ender Pearls from the chest to add to the 3 he still carried from the previous room for a total of 13. Hopefully that would be enough.

Rubick took a couple full sets of 16 Ender Pearls, intent on securing the ornate chest that was away from the intended path. “I like to think of it as a challenge to my intellect. And I have no doubt we will be rewarded for our troubles,” Rubick said, casually tossing a pearl up into the air and catching it as it fell. It was a simple matter of calculating the correct timing of the moving platforms, the arc of the throw, and the margin of error for his hand-eye coordination. Sure, he could always just use his Blink Dagger or Weaver’s Warp to access the chest, but that would be boring. So he would proceed to throw the pearls, landing on platform after platform.

The platforming challenge, though dangerous due to the precarious nature of the floating platform, proved in the end to not be quite as daunting as it first appeared. With a bit of patience and observation, Ganondorf was able to realize that some of the moving platforms came within reasonable distances of one another, provided he was patient enough for the movement pattern to go just right. And so, while it was somewhat slow, the Gerudo King’s patience ultimately allowed him to reach the other side of the room with little incident. He did end up using the majority of his 13 Ender Pearls, but perhaps the next room wouldn’t be so reliant on them? He hoped so, by this time he had begun to notice a few aches and sores in his joints that appeared to be the result of using the Ender Pearls. If they were actually causing harm each time they were used, then he and Rubick would need to take care not to overdo it with them. He took a glance behind him to see how Rubick was faring.

Rubick teleported from platform to platform, casually tossing an Ender Pearl every time he did so. By now he had gotten the hang of using them, even to the point of throwing a Pearl as soon as he landed. It wasn’t long before he finally made it to the chest. “At last…” Rubick said, lifting the lid and claiming his prize.



Rubick held it up and examined it for a brief period of time, noting its effects. Then he stored it away in his robes. Its effects may prove to be useful. He then checked his supply of Ender Pearls, noting that he had used more than half of them to reach this treasure. Fortunately, he didn’t have to travel too far to reach the end, so Rubick wasn’t worried and knew he would make it back.

Seeing that the magus was clearly trying for the chest nestled out of the way, Ganondorf figured he was handling himself well enough and instead turned his attention to the ornate chest next to the barred door that had now opened as soon as Ganondorf reached this side of the room. He knelt down and opened the chest, then pocketed its contents.



”I think those pearls might be causing a side effect.” Ganondorf noted to Rubick once the pair of Seekers were making their way into what they hoped would be the final room, ”Did you start having any aches and pains as you made your way across the platforms too?”

“Ah, so you too experienced it. But not to worry, for I’m already prepared to handle that sort of minor discomfort,” Rubick replied, lifting a foot to reveal his Tranquil Boots, glowing green with restorative energy. “As long as I have these, I will be fine,” Rubick reassured Ganondorf, putting his foot back down.

When the two Seekers finally entered the third room, they found this one to be quite different. Rather than a large bottomless pit, it instead was like a wide corridor featuring water rushing down it and into a chasm at the starting end of the room. This canal had platforms floating atop its surface at various distances from the canal’s walls that all eventually went careening into the seemingly bottomless chasm. And yet, the platforms never stopped floating down the canal, as if some invisible force was simply conjuring new ones to replace the previous ones. The corridor itself appeared to stretch for at least a couple hundred meters or so, at which point a barred wall blocked all passage save for the canal and the platforms floating atop. The wall left a narrow gap above the water’s surface, just large enough for the platforms to float beneath it, but that was it. And so even if the Seekers reached it they would have to use an Ender Pearl throw to get themselves to the other side. Beyond the barred wall, the canal continued for another couple hundred meters until there was finally the opposite side of the room along with the room’s exit and an ornate chest on the ground next to it.

Near the room’s entrance was yet another double chest containing several stacks of Ender Pearls. Ganondorf couldn’t help but groan a bit, ”So not only are we still doing platforms, but now we’ll have to race against the flow of a river that leads into a bottomless waterfall?” he asked somewhat incredulously as he peered down into the chasm that the waterfall fell into. But with a sigh he opened the double chest and pocketed two stacks of 16 Ender Pearls. Then he walked to the edge of the chasm, took aim, and threw a pearl at the surface of an approaching platform.

The challenge here was quite apparent. No longer could they just sit and wait for the platforms to move how you wanted them to like in the previous room. Now it was a race against the clock to either teleport their way down the canal to the room’s exit, or go tumbling down the waterfall to their doom. But when Ganondorf threw a Pearl and teleported to the next platform he was aiming for, another layer of the room’s challenge made its presence known. Ganondorf saw a humanoid shape seemingly appear out of nowhere within the water, and then watched as a green-skinned zombie with ragged clothes and covered in seaweed or algae grabbed onto the platform’s edge and pulled itself up. And it wasn’t alone. A second watery zombie climbed up onto the platform from the opposite side, except this one was wielding a green trident.

But if they expected the Gerudo King to panic, what they actually got was quite the opposite. Instead he just grinned a wicked smile, as if relieved that all he had to worry about was defeating enemies rather than something more complicated or puzzling. Ganondorf decided to put his newest treasure to use and brandished the silver and gold sickles he had acquired in the previous room. Dispatching these creatures was simple enough. They seemed rather straightforward and dull in their attack pattern. But their purpose in this room was clear: to make getting from platform to platform a slower process than it otherwise would be. Not that Ganondorf was worried, he’d gladly just cut down whatever foes tried to attack him as he progressed and pocketed whatever they dropped as result of being killed.

“Well, it wouldn’t be a challenge if it were easy,” Rubick said, also replenishing his supply of Ender Pearls from the double chest. Rather than shirking away from the challenge, he relished it. He was about to join Ganondorf on a nearby platform when the Drowned emerged from the water’s surface and attacked. Rubick was surprised for a moment; clearly there was more to the challenge than it first appeared. Rubick quickly regained his composure and continued to progress through it. He would throw Pearl after Pearl onto the platforms, blasting away at the Drowned and looting what they dropped. Rubick laughed in delight; he felt it had been a while since he last received some entertaining mental stimulation, and he would be determined to spend every second of it wonderfully.

Ganondorf, on the other hand, was more eager to just get to the end of the room. So he tried to focus on throwing Pearls from platform to platform rather than let himself get distracted by the Drowned. This proved impossible at times, and he would occasionally be forced to fight off the abominations that managed to attack him before he could get away from a platform. As this happened every now and then, one of the Drowned dropped a green gemstone that he almost thought was a Rupee at first, but turned out to be emeralds upon closer inspection. Obviously he’d pocket those whenever they dropped along with anything else. He thought about taking their Spirits too, but decided against it because it seemed likely they’d just fade away before he could do anything useful with them. And then there was that barred wall at the halfway point. The Gerudo King knew he had to be quick there if he wanted to reach the other side without incident. He did, for the most part.

About five platforms and nearly ten more Drowned later, Ganondorf was finally - FINALLY - at the end of the canal. When he teleported off his last platform he breathed an exasperated sigh of relief. And he also muttered to himself that this had better be the final challenge. But still, the ornate chest awaited and so without any further ado, the Gerudo knelt and opened it.



He was not expecting a living creature to be in the chest. But then, was this flying creature even living at all? With its bony exo-skeleton and what appeared to be exposed muscle tissue it almost looked like it could be some form of undead. But more importantly, the creature didn’t appear to be hostile at all. The Phantom instead just slowly soared around Ganondorf in a gliding motion. Like some kind of pet falcon or the like.

Rubick popped into existence next to Ganondorf, the purple particles from the Ender Pearl coming off him. “Ah, I didn’t expect a companion to appear from the chest! How wonderful! Perhaps it can act as a Courier," Rubick said.

”Perhaps.” replied Ganondorf. But he could study this creature another time. For now he just wanted to get out of this blasted temple. And so the two Seekers exited the canal room and entered the next. And this room was yet again quite different. It wasn’t large, nor was it long or wide. Instead it was closer to medium-sized. And at its center, a pair of unfamiliar statues appeared to stand atop a circular pedestal on an elevated platform, flanked on both sides by stone pillars.

Rubick stared at the two statues, pondering their purpose. The history of the room didn’t concern him so much as the secrets it held, though. And where there’s secrets, there’s knowledge to gain. He chuckled, anticipating more challenges to test their mettle. After all, knowledge is power, and Rubick was keen to wrest it out of here and into his hands.

Ganondorf stared at the two statues for what felt like a very long time. They weren’t familiar to him at all, and yet… somehow they were familiar at the same time. The woman depicted was clearly a Hylian, confirming the Gerudo King’s suspicion that this Shrine was of Hylian origin. But the goat-like man? He didn’t look like any race or species Ganondorf had ever heard of. After that long moment of staring, Ganondorf finally spoke. ”Odd. I’m sure I’ve never seen these people before.” he said in reference to the statues, ”So why, then, do I get such a strong sense of deja vu from looking at them? There is no mistaking that this shrine originated from my world. The markings looked vaguely familiar to me and the woman is of a race of people that inhabit my world. But that alone doesn’t explain the striking sense of deja vu these statues give me.”

“Hmm… this is likely the result of the nature of this world,” Rubick theorized. “Galeem has pulled people and resources from many worlds, each with varying degrees of development in many different fields. As a result, time and space aren’t as linear in this world as in ours. Perhaps these statues come from your world’s future, and you’ve simply yet to experience it.”

Ganondorf offered no verbal response. But he did make a mental note to himself. When all of this was said and done, he was going to make a point of investigating these Shrines further. Whatever secret they held could prove to be of use to him once he was able to return to his own agenda.

Without warning. The ancient Hylian markings began to glow a soft green and even became projected in the air all around. As if the magic of the Shrine was gathering and coalescing into this room. Then suddenly, the glowing symbols quickly converged into an orb of golden light that was slowly drawn and absorbed into Ganondorf’s right hand - the one bearing the Triforce. The pillars then sank down a short way, as if activating some kind of pressure switch. Walls slotted down from above around the statues, obscuring them from view. And then the spot the two Seekers stood glowed with a greenish ring that circled them and then lifted them up in a way nearly identical to how they first entered the Shrine. They were lifted up into a bright light only to find themselves transported away.

The sudden increase in activity brought Rubick into high alert, and he readied his staff in anticipation. As it turned out, however, there was no need for alarm just yet. A platform simply lifted him and Ganondorf into the air, presumably to tackle whatever this place had in store for them. However, the Seekers would find themselves not in another room of the Shrine. Instead they discovered that this was in fact the end of the Shrine and that they had now successfully cleared it. As a result: Ganondorf, Rubick, and even Jesse - who did not enter the Shrine with them - were transported elsewhere by the Shrine's power.

The sight that now greeted the Seekers was the warm, orange glow of a setting sun… for they were now finding themselves on the surface once more.

Just when it seemed things would be winding down, other factions within the city stirred. It was a constant at this point, every day for the few days the Seekers had been there something was going on. And now, a new rebellion. It was impossible to miss the broadcast, what with all of the monitors around the area - plus it was actually viewable by non-psychics. Pit watched the man on the screen, listened to his words, and did his best to understand them. General Karen was intense, but he condemned the city's corrupt leadership and spoke of awakening, freedom. Although Pit might not know much about Midgar and frequently found himself confused with the vast political web cast over, he could tell that the people in charge were bad guys. Most of the people that wanted to replace the guy in charge were also bad guys. So Karen, who opposed all of them, must have been a good guy... or, at least, less of a bad guy.

Moreover, going off of what Luka and Yuito said the general had found a way into the deepest part of the city. That was where the Seekers needed to go, wasn't it? One of Galeem's Guardians was there. If at all possible Pit wanted to help the people of this city, but the campaign against Galeem was their main priority. If Karen already knew the way, and had even secured the space, that would be a huge step forward for the Seekers! Plus he must know something about the whole "turning people into Others" thing, he'd mentioned it himself. They could learn how to turn Princess Peach back to normal!

The caveat being if the man was an ally.

Pit approached Luka. The angel was tired, his clothes dirtied and torn from battling since morning, and his wounds only just healed over from Roxas' magic, but his eyes were bright, curious, and hopeful.

"Ka-ren. He knows about the Others and everything, do you think he knows who's behind it? How to get to them or stop them or...!"

He then stopped himself, recalling a piece of information from a couple of days ago. "I mean, we should try and meet up with him either way! We could help him, team up. He's your brother, right?"

Luka remained quiet following Pit's first question, the gears turning in his head. His expression made his internal conflict clear enough, but the angel's follow-up brought the young soldier's worry into even sharper relief. Clearly, Pit wasn't the only one this had occurred to.

"Yes, you remember correctly. Karen is my older brother. We both came from nothing, in more ways than you might realize. Growing up, we had nobody but each other for the longest time. Given everything that's going on, you probably have a right to know. We were both born as duds, and sold off by our father to the Administration for experimentation. Its thanks to them that we gained psionic powers at all. I always believed that to be the extent of it, granting power to the powerless. But looking back, it's easy to see how this would change after the discovery of fusion. Begun with the psifish, and eventually perfected with P-types."

Though initially confused with the tangent, Pit let him tell his story once he realized what it was Luka was saying. As might be expected, Palutena's loyal solider showed not a hint of judgement in regards to Luka's past. If anything it brought to light the unique perspective Luka had on everything that was going on.

After taking a deep breath, and looking around the area, Luka continued. "I said that to say this. Although we've drifted apart since Alice's death, I believe in my brother. Karen is principled to the point of disobeying orders he disagrees with, so much so that he's been written up at least fifty times. He may very well already know what I've recently come to expect. That the same scientists have developed -and weaponized- other means of transformation. As for who this mystery faction is, I can only guess. Given the sheer scope of this operation this might very well go all the way to the top, but Karen didn't just say 'the Administration'; he said 'New Himuka.' Still, it's hard to imagine that Zanotto and Konoe aren't involved somehow. And as far as scientists go, there is none more infamous -and secretive- in Midgar than Hojo, Shinra's head of R&D."

Luka furrowed his brow, crossing his arms. "One other thing. I doubt that Karen went to the troubling of breaking into Arahabaki just to make that broadcast. Arahabaki is the server for Psynet, which theoretically includes records of everything ever sent through it. If Karen could access it directly, he might be able to uncover classified data. Maybe the answers we seek. All the more reason we should go there and see for ourselves."

Luka's answers assuaged many of the misgivings Pit could have had about the sudden change in situation. They were of the same mind that Karen had, or had access to the information they needed. Since meeting Luka for the first time up until now fighting alongside him, Pit felt he could trust the young man's judgement - so if he would put his faith in his brother, Pit would do so as well. They could help Karen overthrow the city's corrupt leaders, get Peach and any other victims of Other-ization the assistance they needed, and be that much closer to destroying the region's Guardian.

"Then we'll go," Pit said, completely decided on their next course of action. He grinned at Luka, hopeful and reassuring. Now that the poor guy had to worry about his elder brother on top of his squad mates, going to see said brother in person would hopefully ease some of that worry. Then the angel glanced at everyone else. "On to Arahabaki! No arguments, right?"

As some discussion continued, another question came to Pit's mind. "New Himuka"... He didn't think he'd heard that term before, and was having a little trouble fitting it into the vast puzzle that was Midgar itself. Another name for the city, maybe?

He turned back to Luka and asked, "By the way, what do you mean by 'New Himuka'?"

"That's actually what I want to know, too," Luka confessed, giving his attention back to Pit after chiming into the talk between Midna, Yuito, and Hanabi. "Back when it was just Suoh and the OSF, 'New Himuka' was the name of the country's governing body, which commanded authority over the OSF and all its dealings. In Midgar, though, it's the presidential administration that's in charge. The continued existence of an organization called New Himuka makes me think of another faction trying to seize power, but Seiran's backing the rebellion against New Himuka and the Administration. And then there's the fact that the brainwashed soldiers were saluting it..." He took his head. "It's messy, and hard to piece together from the outside. We can be reasonably sure of one thing, though: New Himuka, and anyone involved with it, is our enemy."

'Just Suoh and OSF'... I guess a lot of this stuff is from the same world, Pit thought. If those familiar with it didn't know the answer, then he probably had no hope of figuring it out. But ot wasn't exactly a leap in logic to consider anything working with the rotten ruling party to be working against them. So Pit nodded, committing Luka's words to heart.




After leaving the strange area behind and reuniting with the other half of their underground expedition group, brief greetings were exchanged and breaks taken. Primrose stood with the others, listening to everyone else catch each other up on their separate experiences. She hadn't the slightest idea how to explain what had happened on their side so she simply refrained, letting the other group piece things together between Stetson's words and Nadia's puns.

At the same time Therion found a rock to sit on. Though Tingyun mentioned the dwarves could give them a lift, he wondered if they would ultimately find themselves at the place as them in time for those beers. It sounded good, regardless if the offer was even meant to extend to the Seekers. What he wouldn't give to be hunched over the bar of some tavern right now, rather than in a dark cavern miles underground about to head into another fight.

He and Primrose both listened to Overhard's explanation of what was about to happen, appreciative that they had a heads up for once. Primrose wasn't sure if her fairly newfound physical strength would cut it against a robot, but she had her magic to fall back on. Speaking of magic... while they had the time before starting she performed a series of dances for everyone present, bolstering their defenses and their physical and magical attack power.

With his attack power shored up, Therion rolled his shoulders and braced himself for battle. If nothing else he knew he could avoid the line of fire pretty well and get in quick to strike at the thing's weak spots once they were exposed while some of the others handled fighting up close.

He met Primrose's gaze and gave her a nod. In turn she looked to Stetson. "Ready when you are," she said.

Once things kicked off, the Travelers separated from each other to join in flanking the Caretaker.

Primrose went right. When the robotic limbs emerged she summoned her newest striker into being near the one closest to her, letting the Animus of Will have a go at it while she cast a spell. The dark magic of Moonlight Waltz crashed against one of the Caretaker's vents. She cast again, enjoying the protection of her Baldur's Shell against the laser rounds of the other robot appendages as she did so. The one nearby was battered by the Animus' thorny, lance-like arms - and when the striker's time ran out Primrose jabbed it with her own Ice Lance.

Therion went left. With his quick reaction speed he flicked a pair of crystal darts that would deal magic damage at one of the machine's open eye ports, then once they closed he backed away from the robot arms that snaked out into the open. He stayed in the back line for the most part, letting the others draw fire while he focused exclusively on the Caretaker. If he didn't need to donate his mana to any of the team's casters, then he could use it to fire off magic knives straight at the thing. He helped stack damage onto the vents even as the machine started to spin faster and faster, getting closer only when one of the eye slots opened.

Seeing his chance Therion darted in with his short sword in hand. With the robot arms otherwise engaged he thought he had a clear path, but a flash of orange in front of him abruptly halted his advance. The plasma barrier came up unexpectedly, and Therion was mentally kicking himself for not expecting something unexpected even as it singed him and shoved him away. "Damn." He backed off again to avoid a burst of laser fire turned his way.

His fellow Orsterran had gotten closer to the Caretaker as well, and since she wasn't as fast as her friend she had more time to stop herself before colliding with a barrier. Primrose focused, casting Vengeful Spirit to fly right through it toward the eye of their target.

This was doable, she thought, but she remained conscious of the fact there was still much more to go. Overhard had laid out three distinct phases of the battle that would play out as the Caretaker's energy depleted, the second of which was about to begin.

By the time more robot arms appeared alongside new, four legged robots, Primrose had discovered that her pyromancy was a bad match up against them. She stuck to her dark magic and the rumbling of earth provided by her Stone Gauntlet. A tremor running along the ground could trip up the patrol bots for just long enough for herself or someone else to take them out, but it was slower going than she would have liked. So many new sources of enemy fire made avoiding all of it incredibly hard, and the shield of her Baldur's Shell got used up quickly.

"Ugh!" After a nasty hit she used her teleport to get away from further harm, ending up directly behind one of the metallic arms. She attacked it since she was already there, a flare of darkness erupting from the impact point, then planted her feet and conjured a boulder to give herself some cover with one hand. The other swapped between healing and offense.

Meanwhile, Therion had returned to his usual hit and run tactics. Taking full advantage of any openings he could, he gradually helped pile damage onto the Caretaker's vents and eyes. He was much more successful in dodging the attacks shooting throughout the cavern until one of the machine's deployed sentries got a bead on him. He noticed the red tracking light on him before the first shots came, diving out of the way and summoning his striker.

Therion hunkered down behind the Junicorn, safe from direct shots from the sniper turret. It continued firing its rounds, each shot getting progressively stronger - so much so that the damage started to leak through the Junicorn's defenses and affect Therion himself. He tapped the striker, willing it to shoot down the turret while it still could. The red lance shot out of the monster and destroyed the unit, and once another grew back the Junicorn turned to fire at more. One less thing to worry about for now.

It was a pretty casual trip back all things considered, as the practice dummy like monsters patrolling their fields were still about doing their thing, and presumably keeping the local bug population nice and low as a result. Plus this time there was no dwarven thievery to enrage them.

In contrast, it seemed like their area had been more straightforward than whatever weirdness was vaguely alluded to via puns by Miss Fortune regarding their team’s trip when they caught up, that was for sure.

”I got a tank!” was jr’s main input to explain what had happened to them, as if him having to pop open the hatch of it to tell them this didn’t make that obvious in and of itself. Although in his defense, the Kuebiko could be easily mistaken for a tractor, if not for the massive triple barrel gun on the front.

”His majesty also fought a giant pig, with my enlarging help, so I am afraid I will be sitting this next bout out from in here” Kamek, who was also in said tank, informed them in a very tired tone.

”I punched it right in the snout! That sure showed it who’s boss!” the King confirmed, ever so proud of this apparently.

”Also there was, uh, bugs and stuff I guess. And robots. But you probably had those too?” Rika concluded the summary of what they had been doing rather less bombastically ”Which we should probably handle the spirits of before we fight this triangle thing, right?”

That got some confirming nods from the rest of the troop, except for Bowser who decided that ”Seeing as the big pig was pretty tough, I think I’ll fuse with it. Get my own big tusks or more root powers or something” for which he borrowed the Snaktivator from Kamek to do, while Rike as usual borrowed the mimic shaped hat from their reisdent bug queen to do some crushing.



”So. How do I look?” Bowser asked after the fusion, which caused the others to trade a few glances and for Kamek to offer that ”The tusks look, ah, very regal, sire. Like a second set of horns” while clearly avoiding talking about the obvious, namely that ”You've got a pig snout. It looks a little silly”

”What?!” the King balked, before booping his own snoot and then groaning as he confirmed what Rika had told him

”I’m sure the fusion will come in handy though, that great beast was quite devastating on the charge after all” Kamek quickly pointed out, before admitting ”Though perhaps not against such a large stationary target like that one” referring, of course, to the pyramid.

Somehow that was only the first half of the warping of Bowser’s face that went down, as he foolishly forgot the danger of pedestal items and proceeded to poke the bat floating on one. Admittedly, it could have been worse, because the resulting v shaped hairline and extra pointy tooth didn’t actually do much other than add a few strands to the front of the King’s locs, while the tooth mostly blended in with all the other sharp ones.

The other items consisted of some valuable looking metal, which got shrunken and stashed, along with the giant alien green diamond. Bowser held onto the mine, peering at some very small instructional text scribbled under much larger warning text, and while Rika attached the helmet bot on top of one of her gauntlet ‘heads’, intending to use it as a replacement for her destroyed scout plane.

They got use of the turret by physically strapping it onto Bower’s shell via metal bands made with Jr’s Ferromancy. Mounted atop one of his existing turrets, and with the trigger controlled by a vine, it would give him quite the boost in long ranged fire power. Given that the king wasn’t exactly the best marksman however, the main form of help it would be providing would be adding to the volume he could output.

With all that out of the way, they were ready to go, just in time for Overhard to give them a heads up as to what was going on.

”Alright, see you guys on the other side” Jr said as he hopped into the tractor tank, and snapped shut the hatch, before revving up the machine, raring and ready to go. Rika meanwhile finished filling her grizco blaster’s primer tank with her own saliva and slotted the cylinder onto it, while Bower just cracked his knuckles and got ready to throw down.

Just as explained, the caretaker’s first mode of defense was its big mechanical tentacles, which immediately started blasting at them. Rika and Jr both got moving, the ship girl using her shot slowing vision to evade fire while Jr backed up the metal attacker while spraying retaliatory fire back at their foe.

Bowser wasn’t nearly as evasive, and so he was very thankful for Primrose’s defense buff, and some overhealing provide vines Jr had provided before taking command of his tank. That and his little mecha mit shield let him withstand the initial barrage, but none of those were much help when the tentacle decided to slam forwards to try and skewer him with its four pronged tip.

Fortunately, he’d just had a bit of practice with something just like this, and so instead of being gored by the 4 prongs the king just barely managed to grab a pair of them in his claws.Monster and machin struggled against each other till the king got a good grip, and then pulled and pulled, till the mechanical limb was ripped from it’s socket, flailing on the ground for a few seconds till it went still.

”That the best you’ve got?!” the king, just a bit out of breath, taunted, just in time to find himself facing down giant walls of energy that someone had forgotten to mention where going to be an issue.

As the king scrambled to run out of the way of the blasts, and Jr had to do some of the best driving of his life to weave between them while avoiding running any one over, Rika handled them with far more ease.

This was mainly because she could go over them, the ship girl dodging the first, and then squeezing her feather fall rune to launch herself clear over the top of the seconds. The tiny wings on the back of her rigging gave her just enough thrust to help her buzz over the wave as it slipped under her, after which she took a leaf out of Miss Fortune’s book, and also went for a mount of the machine.

Her grappling hook shot out, attached, and then pulled her atop it, where she proceeded to scramble over to a different vent from the one the cat girl was clawing up. Once over there, she promptly gave it five barrels of fun, hammering 4 disruption gobs and several rapid fire blasts of electric goop into it, really gumming up the works, and debuffing the machine’s damage output by 20% for 30 seconds in the process.

Rather than simply flee with her glowing cotton tail between her legs when the shredders came however, she instead left them a parting gift, dumping out a shocker swarm from her hangers, and also summoning her cloister striker. The very tough shellfish didn’t have to worry too much about the cutting attacks of the shredder bots, particularly when it proceeded to summon a whirlpool around itself. The resulting swirling vortex spun the drones around, either tearing them apart, smashing them into the cloister’s shell, or leaving them soaked through and thus extra vulnerable to the electric swarm Rika had left behind.

As that dance of elements played out, the ship girl grappled too one of the tentacles, and used it to swing across the electrically charged platform below, only avoiding being blasted to bits by friendly fire due to her shot slowing sunglasses and her little wings giving her just enough extra air controle to weave between them.

”Rika!” came a panicked buzz in her ear as she landed, coming from one of the sources of that near friendly fire accident, which proceeded to tell her to ”Call in that you’re going to do that next time!”

Over in his tractor tank Jr got a sheepish ”Sorry” and ”will do” from Rika, before focusing back on the fight. The vehicle he was in certainty was fun, wheezing around at impressive speeds, turning practically on a dime, and laying out a whole heap of fire power, but the Prince was getting a bit frustrated at his lack of options.

Options that the blinking red ammo and fuel reserves constantly reminded him that they had been wasted by the ”Dumb plants!” that had infested it.

Still, when he did manage to stop power sliding across the dirt and got to line up a shot, the triple barrel cannons laid waste to anything in front of them. He just wished things would stop moving and stay in his line of fire.

Sectonia watched as the koopa clan decided to fuse with some of those horrible creatures they had just fought. Just as he was starting to slightly endeer himself to Sectonia, Bowser had to go and do something foolish by fusing with such ugly things, and he was rewarded with it. As the other koopa members decided to make their little comments on her change, Sectonia had a zinger of her own. "Your face looks like what that self proclaimed 'king of evil' turns into. " Sectonia said, pointing out the pig similarities to Bowser's current new form and Ganondorf's transformed form.

But there was time for making fun of Bowser's poor life decisions later. Right now they had to deal with a giant pyramid in front of them. As the dwarves started it up, it sprung to life and much like they said, it summoned 4 mechanical tentacles to defend itself. Getting a buff from Tingyun, Sectonia decided to observe a bit high in the air as she summoned her Antillons to swarm the tentacles and bring them down. While the ground would electrify and poof the antillions soonish, their sheer numbers did a ton of damage before the caretaker's defenses would come online to zap them.

Sectonia learned fairly quickly however, that when the caretaker shot those barriers out, they didn't cover its top. In fact, it seemed the only thing that covered its top was the arms, as everything else was just off. And that gave Sectonia her in, teleporting above the caretaker and showering its vents with her lightning. And with everyone else dealing with the arms, she could more or less freely rain damage upon the top of the caretaker. And being in such an advantageous position she was in, when the swarmers finally came into play, they just got zapped instantly by her lightning rain and her tesla coil making them a non issue.

The occasional claw would shoot at her, but her Chaos Shield and bark shield put an end to that chip damage. The phase bombs weren't too difficult to dodge either when they appeared, all she had to do was blink away and back to continue her assault. She'd summon antillions from time to time to give the arms more things to shoot or smack, but she was mostly just casting down her lightning on the immobile caretaker. When the eye opened up, it was a simple matter to blink to it and fire void globules and her new arcane orbs at it. She'd like to melee it, but considering all the other ranged here, friendly fire was a real concern.

Sakura’s mouth had fallen open as she watched the message being played on the screen. It was a succinct call to action. ”Seems that way, Midna-san.I guess it’s up to the people.” Sakura said, eyes wide. ”But, wait, forget all that for a second. Raz-kun… what the heck happened with the guy and the knife and all that? Please?”

Still a little nervous about getting framed and almost killed for the murder, Raz was happy to oblige. "Uh, yeah, yeah, sure. I was...well, basically, we all got a proximity chat through Brain Talk from the Otherlobe. It was Zanotto, so we couldn't, you know, ignore it. Most of the Others were gone, and the fighting moved closer to the Shinra Building, but there were still some stragglers here and there. And those Septentrions made things even trickier. So we got split up, and I decided to rush to help Zanotto. I reached this courtyard just as he rushed out of this, like, side door? He saw me and ran over, carrying this heavy box he had cuffed to his wrist. He was super panicked, said he needed help getting out of here fast, and that someone was after him. The next second..."

Raz pantomimed a knife being driven into a back. "Shink. Blood everywhere. I couldn't see anyone, so I thought I thought someone shot him at first. I tripped in a panic, only to get grabbed by someone I couldn't see, then lifted onto my feet. Then he appeared. Tall, blonde, one eye red and one eye yellow. Black and red clothes, a Psych-OSF soldier. I swear I've seen him before, but I don't remember his name." Raz rubbed his head ruefully. "Joke's on me for not bothering to memorize everyone's names, I guess. Anyway, he said something like 'hate to do this to ya, but I've got places to be'. He pushed the knife into my hand, grabbed the box Zanotto was carrying, and ran away, turning invisible." The boy sighed. "Then you all showed up the next second. It all happened so fast, I was kind of in shock. Didn't even realize what it looked like at first."

Sakura took in the story with a sigh, rubbing the back of her head. So, it wasn't Raz, and if they ever see the murderer she'll have some very punchy questions to ask. "Seems like some spy stuff. I have no idea who that is.”

"Um...sorry about all that, by the way." Lili looked very embarassed as she walked over from where Zanotto's body had lain. "I really flew off the handle. I guess...you know, it'd been a really bad day already, I just snapped." She glanced at the orange cables encircling her clothes. "Maybe they shouldn't have picked me for BIAS after all. A Brain Field is way too much power. And it's an incredible rush. That stuff's dangerous."

Sakura nodded at Lili. "It's okay. I mean for me getting blown up, if that's what you meant. You thought your dad just died so...I can't even imagine." Sakura said sympathetically.

But she looked over at Raz out the corner of your eye. "A quick 'I didn't do it' couldn't have hurt, though."

"I know, I know! You were in shock. Sorry."

"...but still. Couldn't have hurt."

Raz looked defensive. "I did say I didn't do it!" In fact, he'd been in such a hurry to get that out as fast as possible that he'd tripped over his own tongue trying to say it. He crossed his arms. "Since we're, uh, apologizing though. I should say I'm sorry for running off and leaving you guys in that creepy hospital with that ghost. What the heck happened down there?"

"I didn't hear that. I heard 'oh gimme a second, oh, wait, hold on, just wait.'" Sakura opened up and closed her hand like it was a mouth, and made her voice more higher pitched.

"Oh, uh, the creepy hospital? There was a really bad guy down there who was stealing brains somehow. And I met two of my old squadmates who got freaking brainwashed. And the whole thing is like, on purpose, being done by Psych-OSF. So now we're wanted criminals because the bad guys are in charge." Sakura explained.

Letting the mimicry slide for now, Raz stared at Sakura with his mouth ajar. Lili seemed a little more composed, but she didn't quite manage to hide her horror, either. "You're not kidding? That's crazy!" Raz shook his head in disbelief. "Sounds like something Dr. Lobato would do. I guess you didn't find out how they're stealing them, or why?"

Sakura looked between the both of them and their horror. She got most of her horror out at the place itself, though.

"Uhh..." She scratched her head, recalling the details. "Something about a psychic pool, the psynet...the Brainframe? Just hundreds of brains all hooked up like a big computer. The scientist there was using them like batteries, I guess. More power." Sakura said.

"And the leftover bodies were turned into monsters, so...yeah." Sakura finished with a frown, puffing out her cheeks as she exhaled. "P-pretty bad. Pretty bad."

The two former Psychonauts couldn't help but concur. Without knowing more details about Brain Drain's lab, its nature was going to remain a mystery unless the group paid a visit, and the encounter with Anima by itself had been too much for Raz already.

In the silence that followed, Lili held up the spirit she'd taken from her father's body for a closer look. "I swear this guy looks familiar," she muttered, squinting at the individual pictured within the spirit. "Maybe I saw him somewhere around the Otherlobe? But he doesn't look like a soldier. What was this random spirit doing in my dad's body?" Her face scrunched up with discomfort, tears welling up in her eyes despite her fierce attempt to control them. "And what about my dad? Does this mean...he's..."

Sakura looked thoughtfully on at the spirit, wondering what he was up to, what his schemes were. Her face fell as Lili began to fear the worst.

"H-hey, y'know it- it doesn't mean anything." Sakura said. She tried to think of the advice Geralt gave to her.

"It just means people like and trust him so he'd be a good disguise. I'm sure he'll turn up if you don't find him first." Sakura said, trying to cheer her up.

Her vague assurances weren't all that effective, but it wasn't like Raz could offer much better. To her credit, Lili didn't break down blubbering, instead taking a deep breath and keeping as stiff an upper lip as she could manage. After all, she was a soldier. "That box you mentioned," she said to Raz. "Must be why that guy killed him. Or some personal vendetta, maybe. If dad, or...whoever that was, really was involved in all that shady stuff. Maybe he had it coming." She carefully withdrew a small hard case from her belt and placed the spirit inside. "Still. I won't rest until I get my answers."

"Well, good." Sakura said with a serious nod.

Sakura tuned back into the main conversation. "In the meantime, it looks like we’re heading to Arahabaki to find the Guardian."

"Arahabaki...it sounds japanese, but I have no idea what it means." Sakura mused.

"But if there’s nothing standing in our way anymore, we should get right too it." Sakura was ready to keep moving. "Probably gonna be a long trip though and I don’t know if we’re going to be able to easily rest in all the fighting…" Sakura thought aloud. "But there’s nothing for it. We have to try."

The face that appeared on all the monitors was completely unfamiliar to Roxas. Most of what he talked about was too. But he did say one word that stood out: Arahabaki. That was the place the Consul talked about during the aftermath of the debate. So all this traced back to the Guardian somehow? When the transmissions all ended Roxas just found himself plopped down on the floor and slumping against the nearest wall. Man, he sure was beat. If they had to fight anymore tonight then he wasn't sure he was gonna be able to be of any use to anyone. He was even too tired to talk, instead just leaving it up to Midna and Pit to put the pieces together about Arahabaki.

Nearby was Sakura, grilling Raz about what he knew about Zanotto. Once again Roxas was just too tired, his legs and feet were just too tired to get up. So instead he just leaned his head and rested it against the wall, closing his eyes. So much information to process. So many names, people, and places to mull over. And somewhere buried under all of it was the identity of whoever killed Zanotto. At least that was what Roxas had convinced himself. They had the pieces of the puzzle, they just needed to assemble it. Maybe. Probably. Ah, but Roxas was never exactly the puzzling type. Not really. That sort of thing was always handled by others around him. Well now none of them were here. And that meant he'd have to wrack his brain and figure this out himself.

"Tall, blonde, one eye red and one eye yellow. Black and red clothes, a Psych-OSF soldier. I swear I've seen him before, but I don't remember his name."

Roxas managed to overhear Raz's description, and... huh? Come to think of it, he too could swear he'd seen a guy like that before. But where? And why? Ugh, so much stuff had been happening the last few days it was so hard to keep track of it! Come on... think, Roxas! Think! The Nobody was squeezing his eyes shut trying to make himself remember.

"...ran away, turning invisible."

Roxas' eyes shot open, and he practically rocketed back up onto his tired feet, "That guy!" he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, no doubt getting everyone's attention. "I remember now! A few days ago, when our group first got here in Suoh. Me and Raz, we met a few members from Yuito and Lili's platoons at that Sumeragi Shrine - right before we freed Lili and the Others attacked. He was there too, even showed off his power to us!" Now the Nobody was desperately snapping his gloved fingers over and over. "But what was his name? Argh, come on!" Roxas tried to recall, feeling like the name was on the tip of his tongue.

His outburst got Luka's attention. While he'd been distracted by snippets of conversation with other Seekers, mostly Pit, he now furrowed his brow and bent his mind to the task of reiterating the description given by Roxas in his head. He also replayed his memories of that first day, right before he and Arashi rescued a few members of this very group from the press. After a moment, Luka's eyebrows rose suddenly. "Wait, Kagero?" He glanced down the street, back in the direction of Musubi's. "I don't know him very well, but his power is Invisibility, and he's in the area. Or at least, Tsugumi is, and they're never far apart. It must be him!" That begged the question, though, which Luka asked as he grimaced. "But why? What did he have against Zanotto?"

"Or whoever it was," Raz reminded everyone. He'd been in the same boat as Raz, not quite able to identify the killer based on the description so far. "If it's not Zanotto's spirit, then it wasn't really Zanotto, no matter what he looked like. I mean, that's how it works, right?"

"I don't know," Roxas admitted, "But it's the best lead we've got. The only one, really." Roxas was finally feeling a tiny bit renewed, like a small second wind. Or maybe it was more like his third or fourth one by this point? Well, either way, he was done being tired and mopey. It was time to actually get something done. And then something else dawned on him.

"We're... gonna have to split up again, aren't we?" Most likely no one wanted to make or hear that suggestion. But between reaching Arahabaki and pursuing Kagero, well, that was two different objectives that needed to be looked into. "Or I guess we'll have to table Kagero for the time being and focus on Arahabaki first." Well no matter what, at least they had a clear objective for once. It was starting to feel like those were in short supply over the last couple of days, so this was almost like a refreshing change of pace in a way.

---

Karin watched the screen and listened to Jena prattle on, her lip curling indignantly the longer she was forced to endure it. Finally she could suffer it in contemplative silence no longer. Especially when she said she was the only one who could stay afloat, as if she was not the one who brought the flood waters in the first place.

Treacherous snake! How dare she?! Anyone standing close enough to Karin would hear her whisper these words through clenched teeth. She had no idea she even said them.

”Join you? You must be delusional. You have poisoned the commoners you claim to protect for your own gain! Revolution. Hah!” Karin was a woman of immense privilege herself. And for a long time she abused that power for her own gain, and treated the people beneath her like garbage. It took a long time to crawl out of that hole and she hadn’t done it by herself, and in many ways she still had a long way to go. But if there was one advantage of her shaded past, it was knowing corruption when she saw it.

”As if Karen Travers and Seiran and yourself aren't of the same ilk that tyrannize this city. This is little but a glorified military coup. Despots clawing at despots while the innocent suffer. The people of Midgar will only be truly free when they hang the lot of you!” She shouted, impassioned. ”If we didn’t have better things to attend to, and if I wasn’t so sure you were plunging headlong into your timely demise already, I’d come up there and destroy you all myself.”

Jena’s callous, desperate arrogance had annoyed Karin greatly. She let out a breath and straightened up her posture, clearing her throat. Regathering her composure, she turned the next part of her words towards the Seekers. ”We shall remain here, and do what needs to be done; protect the people.” She said to them with a nod, knowing without a doubt her assertion about the Seekers intentions were true. Never would her noble cohorts align themselves with such a villain. It was a shame that as far as Karin knew, no one with power in the city had good intentions at heart. A great deal of suffering would be yet to come before the citizens reclaimed their agency and took back Midgar for themselves. In order to do that, they needed to be alive, and the Seekers had the strength and skill to do their part in making sure the community survived.

At least, at least Artorias took solace for the time now that he was whole and his feet were planted firmly upon the ground. The knight however was reluctant to let himself relax yet, he would save that for when he felt the warmth of the sun and the light he was conflicted to believe could be anything but evil upon him.

It was afterwards on the long return journey, it was admittedly less than noteworthy but the other Seekers took it as an opportunity to recuperate from the experience.

Artorias could be seen every so often rubbing his shoulder reflexively, as if he was worried it might disappear again. Since he had joined the Seekers the knight maintained a bit of a distant demeanor, but this was borne not from lacking social skills it was due to the fact his speech seemed to be confusing or at times offensive to others.

Along the way he found himself at times wishing to speak but holding his tongue out of respect to let those around him speak amongst themselves. Still he was there to help deal with swarms if there were any or to just take the time to listen to his comrades discuss and recuperate from Kanna's meddling.

Artorias would have been a bit more in line to make sure the odd plant woman and her rabbit be kept supervised or even contained were they somewhere like Anor Londo but that was neither here nor there and she was no evil spirit of the Dark.

Kanna was best left here to her own devices, more importantly far from him and anyone else. Though Artorias did find her outgoing and bubbly demeanor amusing, it was not oft he met people so cheery considering the world he came from. These Seekers were a mixed bunch, almost alien at times while others were more closely human but still at least they were out to fix whatever this Galeem character had done to cause them all to be here.

It wasn't long before they arrived to where this vast metal behemoth towered, an odd machine with cables running from it like tentacles that apparently powered it from what he gathered listening to the dwarves and his companions conversations.

This 'Data Vault' as the dwarves called it apparently was what they had come there and back for, he left the technical stuff to everyone else feeling a bit at odds with the tech of the DRG crew.

Artorias felt like he'd never really get used to feeling out of place in such a setting. He could only hope maybe somewhere up on the surface there was a place for him, as his sword could only cut so much and cutting metal was not something he was capable of.

Once everyone was ready, the dwarf Overhard had set up some standing machinery that seemed to buzz and whir.

Then when the others in the DRG crew finally finished working at the batteries did the Caretaker make itself known, raising four robotic pillars and causing sparks of electricity to arc. Leaping out of harms way, Artorias grunted trying to find higher ground to keep out of the way of the Caretakers arms.

Once again the Wolf Knight took a back seat to the fight, playing support as he came to the aid of one of the Travelers, the Dancer whom called herself Primrose "Watch thy back. " the knight said simply after he rolled to his feet, leaping from his place to play the part of bodyguard.

He hesitated before speaking again "Do not take that as what thou may think," he added holding Finstertöter at the ready "Thou arte no damsel in distress." though he hadn't spoken much to either of the Travelers he had enough experience to say they could hold their own but even then it was smart to lend each other a hand or in this case a sword.

Thus the towering knight kept the Dancer’s proverbial rear covered while she cast her black magic, of which caused Artorias to raise a worried brow at but for the time he would put it out of mind as he kept his focus on the dangerous arcs of electricity and the deadly grasp of the Caretaker.

After Jena offered the Seekers their two choices, a couple tense moments passed. Goldlewis wished that they’d passed in silence, a period of quiet and calm in which he could collect his thoughts, but Quarantine Valley was anything but silent. Strong winds whipped viciously around the strange contours of the buildings that formed Zone 09’s perimeter, carrying the distant echoes of roars, screams, collapses, and explosions. However, those same unsettling noises helped speed him to his conclusion, as the veteran realized that he really didn’t need to think about his decision much after all. Some of the others started questioning Jena, as if this preposterous proposition were some sort of interview. Reunion’s leader seemed more interested in the Seekers’ answers rather than their questions; between her terse manner and vague but ominous replies, nothing came of it, other than a solidification of the same inclination that everyone had been feeling since moment one.

Soon enough, Jena got her answers. Roland dismissed her coolly, not the first person to call the woman insane. Even if her goal was to overthrow tyrants, neither Geralt nor Zenkichi would abet someone who would cause such wanton catastrophe to achieve it, and they made their thoughts clear. Penance, initially surprised to see Reunion’s leader in person, bristled at the very suggestion that she’d cooperate. “I will not negotiate in any respect. By my authority as an Auditor of the General Affairs division, you are hereby under arrest.”

Jena ignored her, which prompted a smirk from Vigil. “I don’t think you’re going to get through to her, Lavi. You’re the Judge, why not skip all this preamble…” One bullet at a time, he refilled his revolvers to capacity. “And get straight to the death sentence?”

Karin rebuked Jena vehemently, pointing out the seriousness of her crimes and condemning the depths to which she’d fallen. She stated her scorn in no uncertain terms. Goldlewis didn’t start off quite as strong, but after he began to speak, he finished in much the same vein.

“Anderson!” he yelled, his face deadly serious. “You’re right about one thing. This city’s full o’ bad people in high places. They need to answer for their crimes, for each and every evil deed they’ve done, and mark my words, they will someday.” He clenched his fist and glared up at Jena. “Maybe at some point you really were doin’ the right thing. But at some point you crossed the damn line and fell right off the wagon. You ain’t some tragic hero, doin’ the right thing ‘cause no-one else will. How many innocent folks have you and the monsters you let loose killed, left homeless, or doomed to redshift? What about everyone able and willin’ to fight for a brighter future that you sacrificed? Look out there!” Furiously he pointed toward Quarantine Valley. “You see what’s happenin’? That ain’t a necessary evil. That’s just evil! You’re just as bad as the sonuvabitches you condemn!”

Sandalphon’s eyes were narrowed as she stared at Jena, her pupils shaped like reticles as she calculated for trajectory, travel time, wind speed. “Worse, perhaps,” she added quietly. “Evil for evil’s sake is deplorable, but evil for the sake of good is hypocrisy.”

“In my line o’ work, we gotta make hard decisions all the time,” Goldlewis continued. He thought of the choices he’d made throughout his political career. Every trade off. Every sacrifice. Trying to please everybody. Pleasing nobody. He extended his finger again, pointing at Jena. “This ain’t one of ‘em. You wanna know our answer? If we’re gonna throw out everythin’ we stand for? Well, lemme tell you somethin’. I ain’t ever gonna forfeit again. So here’s our answer.” With a dramatic scowl, he turned his hand to make a giant thumbs down. “Go to hell!”

“Yeah!” Hal echoed with an exuberant cheer. “What he said! We’ll never work with someone like you, Jena!”

After a brief moment, Jena’s lip curled. “I see. And to think-”

“Spare me.” Moving quickly, Sandalphon knelt down, tucking her gunstuff under her arm. By the time the Reunion trio realized what she was doing, it was too late. The archangel fired off an ether bolt that hurtled upward and struck Jena in the face. She staggered, surprised and in pain, and after taking the briefest moment to adjust her aim, Sandalphon fired again. That was long enough, however, for her black-haired subordinate to spring into action. He put himself in the line of fire and squeezed his weapon’s trigger just as his opposing sniper did hers. The two shots met in the air, destroying one another. Goldlewis activated his Wall of Light, creating an energy shield to protect Sandalphon, and the snipers traded shots once again. This time they flew past one another, the archangel striking the crossbowman in the chest and his unblockable bolt shattering Goldlewis’ shield to pierce Sandalphon’s shoulder.

Both fell back, and the next second, a huge sign plummeted in front of Jena’s balcony to slam down on the ground of the empty lot with a tremendous noise. The disruption stopped Vigil, who was about to join the firefight, and the others in their tracks. Everyone looked up to see what had caused it to fall from above, and there, cresting the ridge of buildings just beneath the roof of this enclosed underground space, they spotted an armored quadrupedal titan, whose assortment of bulging crimson eyes lit up the dark and whose coiled back-spikes raked the ceiling. It opened its entire head like a fanged flower and shrieked, the horrible noise reverberating through the whole area.



Sandalphon breathed in sharply through her nose and stood, wincing, to slam down the butt of her gunstaff and heal herself with Heavenly Praise. Ripples of divine water promptly washed away her pain. At almost the same time, however, Jena’s white-haired subordinate slammed down his odd cane to invoke his Originum Arts. A crimson healing pulsed in response, restoring Jena and the crossbowman. “...Thank you, Mephisto, Faust.” Holding her face with one hand, Reunion’s leader made a sweeping motion with the other, and a Gate opened behind her. “Let’s be off. We have a date with destiny, after all. It’s a shame our friends here won’t be alive to see it.” She, Mephisto, and Faust turned and entered the Gate, which vanished behind them. The next second, Homunculus β leaped down to land on the floor of the empty lot, its enormous size and weight sending a shockwave across the ground.

“What the hell is this thing? It’s huge, and like those weird ones earlier, it’s not even a true chimera!” Hal fretted, his drone flying back to a safe distance. “Well, whatever it is, we can’t go after Jena until it’s out of the picture. Let’s take it out!”



Sandalphon turned and ran toward a balcony of the side of the lot everyone entered from, and when she reached it she used Vigilant’s power to Vault right up to it. There, she could set up shop in a makeshift sniper’s nest and provide ranged support or hide inside the building as needed. From there, her healing could still cover a large range as well, so anyone in need could head toward her vicinity rather than call her in. With a snap of her fingers, she switched to Concentration Protocol. “Overwatch established. Ready for support.”

Meanwhile, while Goldlewis knew the others would need his help on the frontlines, there was something else that required his attention. Even if the team triumphed against this enormous monstrosity, they wouldn’t be able to pursue Jena if they couldn’t extricate themselves from this place. After sending a Thunderbird grenade to fly at the Homunculus and explode, he brought up his communication glyph and phoned a friend. “Come in, HQ!” he roared. “Jessie, Jessie, you there? Listen, we need extraction on the double! We’re in Zone 09, in the wall on the Detroit side near the old cable tram station! Get Duke down here, pronto!” He went silent for just a moment, then scowled, turning red. “Forget the doggone codenames, we need outta here, now!”

Without waiting for a reply, banished the glyph and pulled Skyfish from his coffin, then held down the trigger and riddled the homunculus with every bullet at his disposal.



After fighting for approximately a half an hour straight against Others, Psych-OSF soldiers, and even Septentrions, all capped off by a terrifying first encounter with a Brain Field, everyone was physically and mentally exhausted. Still, they’d seen and experienced so much in just one afternoon, out of which Zanotto’s mysterious murder somehow managed to be only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone had a lot to unpack, and they got to it as best they could. Unfortunately, despite their best attempts, their fatigue combined with the sheer amount of newness meant that they couldn’t find an answer to every burgeoning question. Still, the team was able to address their most practical issue: where to go from here. All signs pointed toward Arahabaki, the city’s computer, deep below the gigantic Shinra Building in Midgar’s center. Toward the the very end of the discussion, though, the Seekers did put together one thing: the identity of Zanotto’s killer. The revelation left those who knew Kagero unsettled. Anyone familiar with him knew his charisma and playful mystique, as well as his skill with knives when fighting Others. But killing a fellow human, much less Psych-OSF’s Grand Head? That came as a dreadful surprise.

One other tidbit mentioned by Raz did get Lili’s attention. “Wait, I think you’re right,” the girl remarked after a moment, once she was sure that her logic went beyond wishful thinking. “That couldn’t have been my dad. It had to have been an impostor. Maybe the guy in the spirit was a shapeshifter? Or…just really good at disguises? I don’t know, but I’m positive it wasn’t him.” She turned to look at the Otherlobe. “So I’m going to find Dad. Maybe he’s locked up somewhere while his doppelganger was running around.”

“I’ll help you investigate,” Norma ventured. She’d been pretty quiet up until now, seemingly overwhelmed by the situation, but she wanted to help. “Don’t worry, Lili. We’ll find him, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, me too!” Raz nodded emphatically as he jogged over. “From now on Lili, I’m gonna stay by your side. At least until we figure things out.”

Lili narrowed her eyes at him, crossing her arms. “Ugh. I can handle myself, you know?” As certain softness to her expression made it clearer than usual that she appreciated it, though.

Raz seemed to pick up on this. “Haha, classic Lili…”

Meanwhile, Luka turned a dubious expression on Roxas. “I don’t think we’ll have much luck going after Kagero. His Invisibility makes him almost impossible to track. Even if he went to Musubi’s to link up with Kyoka and Tsugumi, they’ve probably moved on by now. None of them are replying to my messages, either.”

That left everyone else with just one destination: Arahabaki. Of course, getting in there was a lot easier said than done. That meant descending below the Shinra Building, which meant breaching the Shinra Building, which meant getting past its outer defenses, which meant getting across Suoh. At least they had a checklist to go down, but even step one was daunting. The Sector 05 Plate was quite large, and thanks to the chaos caused by the Other deluge, fraught with danger. Public transportation wouldn’t be running either, so that left the team with limited options.

Luckily, Midna was ahead of the curve. When she suggested driving, Yuito agreed. “Yeah, given all that’s happened, we should be able to commandeer a couple cars. That’ll get us where we’re going, but getting in is going to be a lot harder.”

“You mentioned making portals?” Hanabi asked Midna. “It would be easier for just a few of us to get into Arahabaki than all seven. If you could put one inside, the rest of us could get in that way.” She smiled at Yuito as her friend failed to suppress a huge yawn. “Maybe after a nice break. We’re worn out, and it’s almost dinner already. Can’t fight on an empty stomach.”

Yuito nodded in approval at the idea. “In that case, the rest of us should probably find somewhere to hole up for the time being. I have…or, I guess I should say my family has a bunker north of here, near the Sector 04 border. We can use that.” When someone mentioned the Seekers’ own hideout in Seiran, Luka mentioned that the day’s events would probably lead to a complete lockdown of all means of reaching Seiran. Of course, that meant nothing to Midna’s portals. That sealed the deal, and once everyone decided who was going where, it was time to move.

Yuito and anyone else not on board with a strenuous infiltration could pile into a green hatchback with Hanabi behind the wheel. “I didn’t know you had a driver’s license,” Yuito ventured somewhat nervously.

“I don’t!” Hanabi replied with a little too much cheer.

With that underway, Luka and everyone else rolled on toward their destination. The trip involved a couple detours around obstructions, whether in the form of debris, hazards, or lingering Others, but within twenty minutes they were closing in on their destination. Vandelay Tower back in the City of Glass had been needlessly big, but no structure dominated Midgar more than than the colossal Shinra Building, which went past ‘absurd’ to land somewhere at ‘obscene’. Its hulking metal cylinders, stacked together like a child’s toys and aglow with countless tiny lights, each indicating the office of a single worker working late, pierced the stormy heavens and towered above the cityscape in every sense of the word.



The closer the Seekers got, the less Sector 05 looked like a normal city, and the more it looked like an industrial complex. They proceeded through the compounds and factories, still alight with warning Visions, until they came within view of the Shinra Building’s massive gate. At that point they ditched their ride and crept in for a closer look. The place was heavily guarded, seemingly much more so than the Otherlobe itself. Automated searchlights and security cameras roved the area, their lines of sight clearly defined against the dark by cones of light. A few turrets could be seen, patiently waiting for action. Those defenses were most concentrated around the entrances, of which there were a couple, most of them sliding doors that could admit vehicles. There were plenty of workers either performing repairs or transporting cargo in trolleys and trucks, some moving in and out of the doors under supervision. Most worrisome were the Peace Preservation and Psych-OSF personnel on guard duty, because there were a lot of them. Squads of both Shinra Troopers and Advent Troopers patrolled or stood watch around the area, similar in appearance but frosty toward one another in terms of attitude. There were even three Sectopods on hand. Luka also spotted a few people of interest. “Seto Platoon,” he whispered, recognizing Arashi Spring, Shiden Ritter, and Seto Narukami, Septentrion Fifth Class. Sakura would remember those three from the time they cooperated in the subway tunnels yesterday morning.

“Pick up the pace, you slackers!” A growly voice shouted out. It belonged to a mustached man shaped like a piece of candy corn, clad in dark clothes. “We gotta get these holes patched up on the double!”

“And Morceau Oleander,” Luka added, squinting at the Septentrion Seventh Class. “He must have dropped off Dexio and Sina, then come straight here, not sparing a single thought for Yuito, Lili, or the rest of his squad. What’s he up to…?”

Since this checkpoint seemed more corporate than militaristic, the abundance of guards was unusual, but then again, all signs pointed toward a huge battle in the area concluded only recently. The roads, chain link fences, and buildings in the vicinity all featured damage, and among the ashes the newcomers could see pieces of machines, equipment, and Others that hadn’t dissolved with their former owners. As a result, the defenders were scattered, wounded, and weary following what looked like a hard-fought victory. The gate itself had suffered some damage and even a few breaches, including a vent and two entrances. It wasn’t hard to imagine Karen surreptitiously breaking in during the heated battle. It was up to the Seekers to find a way to follow in his footsteps. Luka’s Teleportation would make things a bit easier for himself and Sakura, but the noise it made necessitated careful use. Everyone else had to find their own way.



With a game plan in mind thanks to Overhard’s mission briefing, everyone could hit the ground running the moment the Caretaker’s rippling bubble shield fell and the inverted pyramid roared to life. Knowing what to hit and what to look out for was a nice change of pace, so even when the alien machine came at the team guns ablaze, they could manage. True to Stetson’s guess as to the approximate hazard level, the Caretaker’s damage was no joke. Even a glancing blow from one of its robotic limbs, or a single shot from one’s laser cannon, seriously hurt. If someone took a wrong step and suffered the full three-round burst, or got pierced by a four-clawed tentacle in center mass, that grievous injury could very well put them down for the count depending on the target’s defense.

Unfortunately for the Caretaker, it had a couple major problems when it came to applying that lethal force. It had fourteen assailants, and only four limbs to split between them. Naturally, this only got worse when Bowser managed to catch one in his mighty arms and leverage his strength against the machine’s integrity until it failed and the ball joint, depriving the Caretaker of a fourth of its firepower. Its Shredders could tear through flesh like a mole through worms, but the aerial drones couldn’t take a hit to save their lives. Plus, with the threat of imminent electrocution keeping the melee fighters at bay, all of its opponents were staying mobile, meaning that the more agile Seekers could outpace the rather slow-moving shots and react in time when a limb telegraphed its lunge. Neither could two limbs gang up on one target to take one by surprise. And with Primrose’s defensive and offensive buffs, the odds were definitely on the Seekers’ side

Almost nobody showcased the weaknesses of the Rival Tech robot better than Nadia, who consistently kept herself one step ahead of its efforts. As big and formidable as the Caretaker was, it wasn’t fast, and for a fighter like the feral, speed was life. Her own strategy was simple: trigger the electric shock, then get in once it went on cooldown. If any Shredders caught up to her, she happily swatted them down. She darted around the battlefield, easily evading the attacks that came her way, and as tempting as it was to get tunnel vision on her target, her keen senses alerted her to stray shots as well. The plasma barrier wave took her by surprise, but it wound up being little more than a time-wasting annoyance as she weaved around the walls of orange light. With this plan Nadia helped chip away at the Caretaker’s vents, doing respectable damage for someone wielding claws and knives against refined metal, but it was only a couple runs that her ship really came in. Following the expiration of her last Benediction, Tingyun gave it to the cat burglar next, ringing her golden bell in a Soothing Melody. “All the best~”

A wreath of golden light manifested around Nadia, boosting her attack by 55 percent. “Su-purr-charge! Just watt I needed!” Grinning, she leaped into the air to dodge a robotic arm. As it slammed into the petrified wood beneath her, filling the air with dust, splinters, and clumps of lichen, Nadia planted her feet against the wall and kicked off. She soared onto the top of the Data Vault and scampered across it on all fours, ignoring the electrodes as they rose up in sequence around her. She waited a fraction of a moment for an open vent to spin her way, then shot upward with a Charge of her own. Her lightning blitz dealt the last bit of damage to disable the vent, and as she reformed just above it, Nadia beamed in satisfaction at the well-timed destruction she’d just wrought. “Now that’s what I call vent-elation!” The next instant, the vent cover slammed shut, catching one of her tails. Her eyes practically bugged out of her head. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

She fell and dangled upside-down from the Caretaker by the caught tail, struggling furiously. Between her pain tolerance and her tail’s composition, it didn’t actually hurt that much, but yelling about it helped a little. Remembering that she could just detach her tail helped even more. Her tail still hurt, but at least the rest of her could move. As luck would have it, though, she dropped right into the electrode array as it was about to fire. “Ohm my God.” Arcs of electricity covered the Data Vault, and she scrambled through the storm, yelping and yowling. “GET MEOWTTA HEEEEEERE!”

Unfortunately, her supporter Tingyun wasn’t doing so hot either. In general Foxian was getting way more attention than she deserved, with multiple shots and lunges coming her way. “Aah! Hey! Whoa! What did I do!?” Finally, one managed to swat her, dealing over half of Tingyun’s life as it knocked her right into a yellow Goo Sack plant. It burst on impact, covering her with sticky resin, but at least it slowed the Foxian’s momentum. “Oww! You’ll pay for that!” she cried, her typical decorum momentarily shattered.

Still, for the most part, it wasn’t the attacks aimed at the individual Seekers that they needed to worry about, but accidentally running into one aimed at someone else. In fact, with everyone constantly on the move and relying on ranged attacks to wear down the Caretaker’s increasingly hard-to-hit vents, the Seekers’ biggest problem for now was one another. Some bumped into one another or forced a swerve as they made their way around the Data Vault, especially when Bowser or Kuebiko was involved. Others almost shot each other, as Junior nearly did with Rika, or actually did. For the dwarves, though, friendly fire seemed to be nothing new. At the slightest suggestion that they might have been shot by an ally, they roared over the sounds of firearms, magic and mechanical mayhem, their cantankerous cries filling the Caretaker’s hollow. It was hard to tell if they were actually mad or just annoyed.

“Friendly, FRIENDLY!”

“...!”

“It’s me, you ARSEWIPE!”

“Watch your fire, or yer funeral’s gonna be a sober occasion!”

The ultimatum from Cyclops was a solemn reminder that these dwarves were still under Galeem’s influence. Whether triggered against their allies (or one another, for that matter) or not, however, the four kept their focus on the task at hand: the Caretaker. Everyone was laying into it, whether with guns, spells, thrown weapons, or well-struck melee attacks. Bowser’s attempt to use his newly ‘mounted’ cannon really didn’t work due to massive recoil, huge instability, and difficulty aiming, as the gun would be better used on a stationary mount or vehicle. At least Junior’s heavy weapon more than made up for his dad’s, what with the high accuracy and stability of Kuebiko’s bamboo chaingun. Once all four vents were disabled, the Caretaker’s eye opened, first on one side, then on another. Whoever was closest laid into its obvious weak point with everything they had, and before long the team was one-third done.

When the vents popped back open, Nadia quickly fetched her lost tail and stuck it where it belonged. Despite her little goof, the team had chewed through phase one easily enough, and she was ready to redeem herself in round two. Of course, that meant contending with the Caretaker’s reinforcements. In addition to producing replacement limbs, it belted out a whole swarm of Shredders, enough to actually pose a threat. The Patrol Bots numbered less, but could hurt a lot more, as well as switch to flight mode to evade grounded hazards. “More flyin’ minions?” Nadia groaned, already sick of adds like these thanks to that fake Wasp Queen. “Talk about a buzz kill!” Figuring she might as well use the same strategy, she waited for a crowd of Shredders to descend on her, then unleashed a Fiber Upper to punch through a bunch of them at once with an upward hyper-extended double kick. Then she snapped up to her legs and dug into the rest with an air combo, hitting a couple with every aerial kick and slash to keep the combo up. Once she landed, she figured out the real problem. Concealed by the Shredders, the Caretaker had dispatched a couple machines that rocketed toward the cave roof and anchored in the petrified wood before deploying sniper turrets. Their orange lasers cut through the cavern’s airspace, homing in on their targets. After taking a painful shot Nadia ran for cover behind a bloated red vine, scowling at the turrets well beyond her reach. “Now you’re takin’ it too far!”

“I gotcha, lass!” Popping out from behind a gnarled root, Stetson took aim with his yellow flare launcher and fired upward. A brilliant source of light flew up and attached to the ceiling, illuminating the turrets up there for everyone to see. Paintbrush narrowed his eyes and lowered his rocket launcher, withdrawing a handheld railgun from his pack. He took careful aim, and after the ArmsKore Coil Gun spooled up, it magnetically propelled a solid tungsten sphere with enough force not just to punch through the turret, but also the rock behind it, leaving a trail of red-hot air in its wake. “You rock!” Stetson praised him as he switched weapons, and with a satisfied look Paintbrush twirled his weapon before jamming it in his holster.

After dealing with the added suppression, everyone got to work on phase two. Not planning to let herself get pinched again, Nadia jumped back into action with a vengeance, albeit without Tingyun’s Benediction. Now that they understood the Caretaker’s patterns better, everyone could avoid their earlier mistakes and pile on the damage. Things got a little more interesting when the giant machine showed off something new a little early. Right after the closure of its vents forced its eye to open, the Caretaker began to manufacture phase bombs. The instant each explosive dodecahedron completed it got teleported directly on top of a random Seeker, floating as its one-second fuse counted down before a brutal explosion went off in a small area. What they lacked in range they made up for in sheer damage, and when Paintbrush sidled into some churned-up terrain just a fraction of a second too long, a phase bomb went off on him and downed him immediately and left him groaning.

“I’m comin’!” Cyclops ran toward him, but Paintbrush’s bad luck wasn’t over. Another phase bomb appeared over him just as Cyclops arrived, but with a roar the driller punted it like a soccer ball. It flew just far enough that it’s explosion only singed Cyclops’ beard hair, leaving him shell-shocked and singed as he poured his canteen out on Paintbrush to revive him. As soon as the gunner regained his feet, he dropped a shield generator, which Stetson promptly grappled into, leaving Overhard by himself. As the engineer fled the bombs along a ledge, a robotic limb plunged into the wood beneath it, causing him to fall amidst the cascade of debris. One more phase bomb appeared on him, and there was little Overhard could do to stop it. In her own panic to flee, the bombs, Tingyun tripped and tumbled painfully down a wooden slope to roll to a stop right next to the Data Vault.

For her part, Nadia opted to forget about offense for the time being and focus on not getting exploded. This barrage couldn’t last forever, after all. It went on for about twenty seconds, all told, and the realization that there were no more after the last one blew up made Nadia sigh in relief. If only that was the end. Thanks to those bombs, the Caretaker’s eye was about to close, and maybe even force everyone to redo the second phase. The feral wasn’t going to have that. “Eye’ve had…” Crimson Hydro power welled up around her, and she popped off her head to put into a headlock between her arms, tucked in against her stomach and her chest as she braced herself. “...Enough!” From her mouth surged a torrential beam of blood, her fearsome Cat-aract, that blasted into the Caretaker’s weak point. Her huge expenditure of Dramatic Tension burst the Caretaker down and into phase three.

As such, the Seekers barely got a break from the phase bombs before things went from bad to worse. The Caretaker called in reinforcements once more, and the robots that answered the call weren’t just for suppression. Instead the team got jumpy, chainsaw-equipped Choppers, bulky Smallfry, spider-legged Hot Rods with miniguns, and earth-carving Drillscrews, which made the tunnels that the rest funneled from in droves. While not powerhouses, the robots seemed to just keep coming, and whenever the Drillscrews made a new tunnel more flooded out of that one, too. It was another swarm, and this time the Seekers weren’t united in defensive positions. “This is bad, lads!” Stetson called out, his ammo running low as he hunkered in Paintbrush’s last bubble shield. “What’re we gonna do!?”

Before he even finished, the sound of squealing tired and a roaring engine echoed down an adjoining tunnel. After another moment, the dirt wall leading to the Stranga region exploded outward, and through the rubble drifted another Metal Attacker, sleek, pink, and unmistakably rabbit-themed.

Nadia, crashing down to the ground on top of a Smallfry she’d just decapitated, stared for a brief moment as Choppers converged on her location. “No way, don’t tell me that’s…”

“FLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!” A familiar bubbly voice yelled from the loudspeaker of NORA MA-06 ‘Eir’. The Metal Attacker’s tired revved, kicking up dirt and wooden splinters, and it burst forward to crash into and through a number of robots. “I’m, like here to help, everyoneeeee!”

“Not like you helped us last time, surely!?” Stetson sounded miserable as he threw a Voltaic Stun Sweeper to keep the bots off his back. “We don’t need any more damn mutators, ya hear!”

Eir pulled to a stop, its cockpit popping open so that the plant alien Kanna could step up in all her glory. “That’s why I’m totally gonna do better this time! Like, watch this!”

She squeezed her drawn-on eyes shut and began to concentrate. From her pot she suddenly sprouted six four-leafed clovers, then another Wonder Flower. With everyone too belabored by robots to protest, she balled all seven plants into a single medicinal clump, which she stuffed into the mouth of her support animal, Yacopu. When it ate them and fired off a pellet, a wave of distortion rolled across the cavern, triggering another wonder effect. This time, though, the Seekers were in for a far more pleasant surprise.

Well, that was about what Roland expected. And like the psycho Jena and her gang presented themselves as, they left after their mess started to catch up to them. One of those super large non chimera chimeras showed up, perhaps attracted by the commotion they had all caused. "I knew she was evil. She summoned this monster to fight for her like a bad guy!" Blazermate said, pointing at the huge creature. Well, she was ready to fight this thing having a full ubercharge from the previous fight.

"This city is turning to be more trouble than its worth." Susie said with a sigh. Staying a bit back to get a read on the opponent, she gave it a look and saw that its massive size made it slow. It swiped with ferocity from time to time but from what she could understand it moved in a simple way and besides a sudden sweep, attacking it from the side or behind seemed to be super safe. And with it having its initial aggro on Roland, Penance, Geralt, and finally Goldlewis once he joined in due to them being melee combatants, she shot at it from afar with her pistol for a bit until she was confident to go in with her business suit to lay on some spinning buzzsaw pain when it was recovering after bounding or doing a swipe with its claws.

Blazermate kept her healing beam on whoever was taking the monsters aggro like usual, but seeing as it wasn't all that mobile, she decided to get a bit bold this time around. She decided to spend her first Kritz on Geralt to see what the witcher could do with it. Once that was over, there wasn't much stopping her from doing what Susie was doing and stabbing the monster's side with a few bites from her shield and a few hits from her ubersaw as the monster had a notable delay between its attacks for how ferocious it made itself sound. This let her get ubercharge pretty fast, as long as the other didn't face tank the creature's attacks and she moved out of the way as it started to recover much like Susie leading to a bit of an "in and out" sorta dance with the creature as it thrashed about.

Roland quickly noticed this rhythm as well. Being a single target, a few of his 'debuffs' such as the buff from Home didn't have any effect, but he still had his self buffs and the team buff of False Present. Considering its size though, when Roland tried to use the EGO of Road Home on it, it just swatted away the house that landed on it since the small countryside house was just a tad smaller than the creature itself. The change in landscape really didn't add any tactical advantage or disadvantage either to anyone so the attack was basically wasted besides showing what a large creature would do to grasslands if given the opportunity. And while Blazermate's overheal let him take the hits he failed to clash or dodge when they connected, it did nothing to stop his stagger from lowering.

The creature itself attacked like a large beast for the most part. It swiped at who was in front of it with his front claws, spinning around to get whoever was on its flanks off of it, or doing a bounding pounce with some massive lag if it missed. A few things a creature wouldn't normally do that it did though was attempting a shoulder check on Susie while she was at its side, causing her business suit to be knocked back, and firing a laser beam when it got the opportunity that Blazermate found her projectile shield couldn't block due to its sheer size. The laser itself surprisingly didn't hurt as bad as it looked, but it was hard to dodge and got Blazermate and Roland in it.

Still, with the periodic downtime the creature left open for itself, it didn't take too long for Blazermate to get another Ubercharge, which she saved for either this creature going into a panic, or someone who had an attack that would finish it off. While she had an easier time getting around the battlefield, Susie being in a big robot, was often knocked away with the creature's retaliation attacks to her spinning punches reducing how much she could really do from melee, and when she tried to do some ranged stuff, the creature fired a laser at her to get her off its back. That shield was getting some really good use thanks to that.

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



The fight with the caretaker was going pretty well so far. It seemed like it was built to deal with 4, maybe 5 opponents. Not the huge swarm of opponents constantly pounding at it to bring it down. Thanks to all the people focusing on the tentacle arms, they barely had any chance to do anything while the caretaker was being systematically disassembled. It took until it was nearly broken before it did something with some bite to it, summoning a few of the bots they had run into already that didn't fall over at the slightest tickle from Sectonia's lightning. It seemed they were at the final stretch, and getting through this would be much rougher than the first two phases.

As the dwarves and a few of the people below hunkered behind a shield to protect themselves and give themselves some breathing room from the oncoming robots, another robot, although different as it was piloted by a... well endowed plant girl. From what Sectonia could gather, she tried helping earlier but caused issues? Well, this time whatever effect she used seemed to be helpful? Although the distortion of reality from some kind of plant mixture was... odd. It did seem to have a profound effect as it made all the enemies weaker and spawned magical flowers that gave tons and tons of mana when touched.

Still, keeping a vigil to deal with all the shredders that were still spawning was what Sectonia was mostly doing. With her tesla coil and her own lightning, which she could use more often thanks to the mana regenerating flowers, it wasn't difficult for her to keep them suppressed and also deal with the caretaker itself. Seeing as everyone was having issues hitting the vents more than the eye, Sectonia cast Slow on the caretaker once the vents opened up again, making it spin very slowly and making its vents easier to hit. Still, being a big target that floated in the air wouldn't do super well for her health if and when the bots decided to focus on her, so Sectonia summoned her Chaos Shield, and used the caretaker itself as a bit of cover from its own minions, using her new staff to both cast lightning and smack the robot arm tentacles that she got near.

As the last of the Protolegions fell, Geralt's question was answered once the issue of how Penance and Vigil planned to deal with them was resolved. Given the state of Midgar, which was apparently even worse if yet another Other attack occurred almost simultaneously with the Redshift Cascade, it was a temporary peace. And she was right, they had much bigger things to worry about.

Such as Jena Anderson appearing right in front of them, ready to gloat like a supervillain. Zenkichi just shoved his hands in his pockets as he looked up at the woman, a frown on his face. Geralt, on the other hand, scowled fiercely. That she seemed to think they were on the Administration's side was almost laughable, though given that about half their group was currently or formerly in the employ or service of Midgar, it wasn't like she was barking up the wrong tree. They had all worked for the city, and Zenkichi and Roland still definitely did, even if the former's position was...more tenuous than the latter's at the moment.

Zenkichi bristled when Jena named Konoe directly and called him blind to their machinations, but he remained silent. If she really thought this little of them, they might be able to use that to their advantage somehow. She was clearly much more out of the loop than the Hermits were regarding the Seekers' true intentions in Midgar.

Even with Goldlewis cutting in and trying to lecture a mass murdering terrorist (Zenkichi had firmly come to that conclusion once they'd learned the true consequences of Blue Evolve and Jena's murder of Iron to try and cover it up), Jena still just moralized and monologued from her high horse. As if she hadn't just doomed people to their deaths with this Redshift Cascade.

She did, however, inform them of some current events by kindly showing them Major General Karen's broadcast and cry for revolution. He was laying it on a bit thick at the start, Geralt thought, but he was destroying any semblance of remaining trust people had in the Administration of the city by admitting that the organization he was among the leadership of was murdering citizens and turning them into monsters. Stoking their anger first, then giving that anger a direction to go, was a pretty typical tactic when you wanted to get people killed. Karen was just doing it all at once, unlike some people he knew from the Continent when it came to non-humans.

Zenkichi, on the other hand, was taking it a bit harder. He'd heard what the other Seekers reported on about the OSF from the raid they'd snuck into, he saw the e-mail directing him to let DespoRHado take the fall for 'allowing' the Machines to attack Sector 7 rather than let General Affairs be blamed, but learning that at least one person inside Neuron was working directly with Reunion, and now the OSF was launching a rebellion? It was like nothing had changed. But he didn't have the other Phantom Thieves this time. No Joker. No Skull. No Oracle, no Queen, no Fox or Sophie or Noir to help. Just Wolf. Just Gramps. And she had the audacity to ask them to help her?!

"You're a monster." Zenkichi forced through clenched teeth. "I've met some real pieces of work in my day, but you're a heartless monster, Anderson. Willing to crush whoever gets in your way on your self-righteous quest to be a hero. You're just like Konoe! No better than him and the people you condemn!!!" He yelled, pointing a finger accusingly.

Geralt wasn't entirely a fan of the words that Zenkichi chose, having heard them directed at himself more than a few times, but...he didn't entirely disagree. This woman was cold and callous. Everything she did, every life she snuffed out, was just a means to an end to her. Maybe she genuinely wanted to help by toppling the Administration. But given what she was willing to do to achieve that goal...he didn't give a damn. Djikstra wanted to help the Northern Realms, too. And Geralt killed him for much lesser crimes.

The offer was soundly and unanimously rejected, thankfully. As the Seekers each got in their piece, Jena tried to rebut, only to be cut off by a gunstaff shot to the face, prompting a quick shootout between Sandalphon and one of Anderson's lackeyes. It went nowhere, ultimately, being interrupted by something much, much worse.

A giant Chimera. That they could all see this one was lucky, but that did raise some other questions that they'd have to ask later.

Zenkichi immediately drew his standard greatsword and rushed in. The Closing Statement was strong, but he had a feeling he'd want to be able to block for this fight, even if it wouldn't be nearly enough to stop all the damage. He was quick to buff Goldlewis with Tarukaja when he whipped out his minigun, expecting the attack buff to serve best with the rapid shots it was putting out. As soon as he reached the Homunculus, he began his attacks in earnest. He didn't have much, aside from Valjean's various spells and attacks, that would do a whole lot of burst damage, but thanks to the Homonculus's huge size, slowish attacks, and his vampiric attacks, Zenkichi could sustain a steady output of damage like few others. He, of course, did have Valjean drop a Megidola or two, along with a One-Shot Kill and a Deathbound during the fight, but for the most part, Zenkichi stuck to moving between the planted limbs of the Homunculus and providing a steady stream of rather serious physical damage.

Geralt, meanwhile, was a fair mix of burst and sustained damage. Starting with an application of Quen to protect himself from a stray tree-trunk sized limb, he began his work carving into the monster with the Hateful Flesh after tossing a flesh grenade into its face, hoping to temporarily stun the thing. It didn't quite work as well as he'd hoped, but it certainly couldn't have been pleasant. When he felt Blazermate's kritz on him, however, that changed. Geralt took a deep breath as the power flowed through him, and he took a brief look around. Nobody was particularly close to him, but even still, he called out as the Hateful Flesh became wreathed in Eldritch Lightning: "STAY BACK A SECOND!"

And, in a technique that no sane man would ever attempt, he raised the fleshbound cleaver above his head and began to spin. The first spin took the blade through one of the Homunculus' legs, and as the second finished he launched the cleaver away from his body and into the monster's arm. Retracting the blade, he turned yet again, using the angular momentum to carve a furrow into the Chimera's leg. The Flesh continued on its path, noisily dragging along the ground, and Geralt spun once more, taking the Orphan's cleaver in both hands and tossing it upwards and into the thing's torso. The Homunculus reacted by leaping up into the air to crash land onto Geralt, forcing the Witcher to leap out of the way, the last seconds of the Kritz lost as Geralt saved his own skin.

The fighters continued their carnage, Geralt throwing in a sustained stream of Igni to burn away at the thing's skin while Zenkichi tried to stab his sword into the superheated flesh, but this thing was proving to be quite the tough customer, even with the Strikers Monsoon and Zero coming in to help with hit-and-run strikes.

When its head open up, like some kind of disgusting fleshy flower, Geralt found himself unable to get out of the way of the incoming beam of force, while Zenkichi was lucky enough to be situated well out of the line of fire. The sheer force of the laser and the explosion it caused sent Geralt rolling along the ground with his magical shield gone, Quen not having been enough to protect him fully from the blow. Blazermate's healing beam was quick to top him back up, but she had more than just one person to focus on, so Geralt quickly returned to the fray to keep chipping away at the Chimera...if that was what it really was.

Though there were a few close calls, both from the Caretaker’s own attacks and each other’s, the team made rather swift work of the first phase, popping shut the vents, and popping open the eyes. At this stage Jr’s tractor tank really shone, as he drifted his heavy vehicle around to the right side and then got to unload the triple cannon right into the big glowing weak spot.

Rather than try and keep up, Rika and Bowser ended up mainly radioing in which eye was open whenever one closed, giving the prince all the info he needed to bring the pain.

With how (relatively) painless the first phase had been it was somewhat unsurprising that things really started to ramp up from there. Swarms of bots were their first issue, but the Troop had faced these before, and knew how they worked. Between Rika’s electro swarms and Bowser’s fire breath the shredders didn’t stand a chance, while the patrol bots were a bit tougher due to their narrow bodies, and so Rika ended up using all of her rifle ammo as part of trying to pick them off.

The turrets should have been threatening, but being stationary targets made them incredibly vulnerable to Bowser’s slow moving but heavy hitting fireballs. Indeed the only reason why a turret wouldn't get destroyed by the great balls of fire would be because someone else blasted them before the slow moving shots arrived

Those were threats they could handle. The phase bombs? Not so much.

”Huh, what’s it doing now?” was Bowser’s first question. His second was ”Huh what’s that noise behind me?”. His third was demanding to know ”HOW IS THAT FAIR?!” after being exploded for the first time.

He wasn’t really in any state to ask any more questions after the second destination, which was why he was ever so glad when Jr pulled up next to him and radioed in for him to ”Grab on Pap!”. The king did so as best he could, magically reducing his own size as much as he could to reduce the load he’d put on it, before the metal attacker revved its tractor tires and rumbled away, keeping on the move well enough that the bombs weren't a threat any more.

Of course, Jr couldn't exactly line up a shot while zooming around, but Bowser could, the King launching fireballs, shells, and spike missiles from the back his new ride as they raced around the cavern double dash style, though his self inflicted size down greatly reduced the power of these attacks.

Rika meanwhile had a much more straightforward solution, and it was, as it often was since she got it, her ”grappling hook!” That was what the ship girl called out as she shot it at Overhard while stabbing her spear into the ground with her other hand to use as an anchor point.

Her hook clutched onto the dwarf, and promptly dragged him away from his impending detonation and towards the spear anchored ship girl. ”It’s ok, I have you” she told him reassuringly, only for a shadow to loom over them as she tried to help him up.

”Shields!” she cried out to summon up two strikers, her knight and cloyster, which together blocked the striking tentacle arm, giving her enough time to get Overhard moving. She didn’t stop there however, summoning her ”Ichor Queen!” and ordering it to ”Execute that thing!”

The titanic Vespikan queen obliged at once, heaving her equally massive cleaver over head and then slamming it down onto the ‘neck’ of the arm, namely right where the claw ended and the limb began.

While it did that, the engineer and ship girl booked it, expecting more bombs, only for Nadia to deal enough damage to the caretaker to end its second phase, and, as a result, the phase bomb barrage.

”Oh, is it over?” Rika asked, and then when that seemed to be the case, declaring ”Good. Those things were the worst!”

It was a statement she made just in time for things to get, well, worse. But then also better. First a swarm of metal (instead of the usual chitin) came their way, which would have been about the same kind of threat as the glyphids were it not for the minigun walkers among them.

Well, that and the fact that the bombs had scattered them all over, and left them unable to take a moment to resupply on resources, be it health for Bowser, or Sp and ammo for Rika.

Fortunately the latter problem was suddenly alleviated by the appearance of a second Metal attacker, this one piloted by a potted plant and a rabbit rather than infectious growths, who used some combination of plants to make things funky.

As the Wonder effect took place, Jr was one of the first to notice the effect that would solve the ammo issue, as the dials on his own metal attacker’s empty rocket supply suddenly display a single rocket in stock instead of none.

”Huh, just one? Weak but i’ll take it” he commented before thumbing the trigger and blasting a hotrod before it could blast someone in turn- only for the ammo counter to not go down. A moment later Jr shouted in everyone’s ear ”infinite ammo! We’ve got infinite ammo cheats! Let it fly, blast em all! at the same time as the metal attacker started vomiting rockets out the back which flew up and then crashed down into his foes indiscriminately, the prince simply holding the fire button down and letting the machine auto target his foes.

Rika also massively benefited from this. Having also spent all her strikers (she’d used the war cleric to heal Overhard), she’d been down to just her spear and gauntlets vs the very heavily armored targets, and it had not been going well. Now she simply held down the triggers, rifle blazing bullets at whatever distant targets she pleased while her grizco blaster splattered anything that got near, repeatedly going into all out assault mode and unleashing rapid fire triple shot doom without any fear of it running dry like it had in the last fight. She also got use of her rather situational torpedo bays, jumping over bore holes and dropping the explosive charges inside to collapse them with timed detonations.

Things got even better when happened to step on one of the flowers that had showered down, which caused her to regenerate SP, and let her start adding her rigging guns and electro swarms to the mix. However the person who really benefited from those flowers did so when Jr’s metal attacker ran over one of said plants.

”Do that again, if you could young master, I just got a mana boost!” Kamek told his jr chauffeur, and the prince had little problem obliging, power sliding over a few more as he rained down hell.

Soon enough the Mage was back in the game, and together all three riders (Bowser was still holding on) came up with a quick plan. The tank was suddenly enveloped in a shimmering shield that protected it from the bot swarms physical attacks, and then skidded to a halt as the hatch popped open, and Kamek wooshed out of it. Right after he did, Bowser leapt down off of the back and into view of his son, who cast ”Benediction!” on him to fully heal his dad in an instant.

The moment after he was cured of all wounds, the King slapped the hatch shut, and the tank sped away to continue its rocket rampage. Now fully healed and sporting fresh vines to boot, the King charged into the fray under his own power, re-enlarging himself as he rampaged forwards on all fours, firing off unlimited spike missiles from his back as he smashed into the robot ranks. With his new tusks he sent several of them flying right into that barrage, while his vine tendrils lashed out, zapping foes that did not get trampled or gored in is charge. Naturally they struck back, but with the way he tore through them, his new vampire charm kept restoring his hp, and causing fresh waves of vines to sprout from his back to boot.

Up above an energized Kamek called out ”here’s a little something I cooked up while you were fighting,” as he chanel his power, forming a magic circle just over his shoulder, which then unleashed a shower of cosmic rays. The multicolored beam spread out as they flew, striking a several meter wide area on the opposite side of the battlefield, engulfing a swarm of bots in its blast zone. Then the beam swept to the side, gradually wiping clean an area as it fried anything that failed to get out of the way.



It took a lot of mana to unleash that devastation, but all Kamek had to do once he was spent was swoop through the skies to catch falling flowers to regenerate his supplies. Doing so brought him close to one of the entrance holes still spilling out bots. To deal with that he formed 4 smaller circles, all of which fired out lasers that converged somewhere within the tunnel, causing an explosion at that point which collapsed it atop an unfortunate Smallfry.

While this all helped keep down the bot population, it wasn’t really doing anything to the caretaker itself. Fortunately, they did have a plan, and part of their splitting up and cutting down bots was met to cut through bots as well. Under Jr’s directions the troop spread out to the 4 corners of the cave, and then radioed in that they were ready.

Once they where, Bowser reached into his pocket, pulled out a C-Foam Tripmine and tossed it like a discus, masterfully aiming his throw so that it landed directly under the caretaker, at which point Rika sniped it with a rifle round, setting it off. The mine detonated, filling the area around, and above it with globules of freezing, weblike C-Foam that engulfed the caretaker and brought it to a complete stop.

”Take it down!” Jr commanded when the inverted pyramid paused, and on cue the 4 troop members each targeted a vent with as much firepower as they could muster.

The prince’s own metal attacker unleashed a hail of cannon fire, along with a stream of missiles that pounded his vent, while around him his Primid and Chef Bro strikers used super scopes and hurled pans to add to their prince’s firepower.

Kamek got close and created another cosmic spray, the close range meaning it hit a much narrower area, namely that of the vent, allowing all of its multi element damage to be pumped right into that smaller target.

Rika fired everything she had, rifle, spear base cannons and rigging guns all blasting, while behind her her Vespikan Queen striker charged and then unleashed a lightning bolt over her head at their chosen vent.

Finally, Bowser had preemptively used shell smash to increase his offensive capabilities at the cost of his defensive ones, and now unleashed all his power, fury spike torpedoes, explosive shells and a flash cannon beam laser all blasting out while Marie Korbel unleashed a bombardment of skulls.

If that didn't bring the hurt to the caretaker, nothing would. That said, it also took all of them away from bot killing at once, along with anyone else who also took advantage of the situation, and so the 4 of them had to immediately switch back to that rather than being able to follow up on their icy assisted strike.

The Travelers could deal with a lot of things that came their way, and had adapted surprisingly well to all kinds of foreign enemies and technologies. The bombs that the Caretaker produced, however, they were wholly unprepared for. Though warned about what would happen, the fact that the bombs were not launched from the platform the Caretaker but literally teleported to 'drop' on them was something neither Primrose nor Therion could counter. Both of them had to reply on their speed to try and dodge the worst of the explosions.

It was for that reason that Therion took on his beast form after suffering the fringe of a phase bomb going off. He hoped that literal cat-like reflexes would help him get out of the way more easily. For the most part it worked, which meant Therion didn't have to look out only for himself. He veered toward the Data Vault, where he spotted Tingyun laying. She was practically a sitting duck like that, so he grabbed her with his jaws and flipped her onto his back before setting off, dashing away from any explosions.

It was with great relief that the bombing came to an end. The Caretaker's final phase was heralded by Nadia's own explosive blast of water. Yet more machines poured into the room... and more, and more, and more. It was so much more than the earlier reinforcements, but as dicey as things were getting for Primrose and her dwindling mana, she'd rather face this than another round of bombs. A spider-legged robot turned it's gun on her, until she turned it away by snapping the whip of her Devout Beads around it and yanking it hard enough to swivel the weapon. She stabbed at the Hot Rod with her lance until it crumpled, all the while more machines were attacking. It was at that point that one of the Seekers' newer recruits, the knight Artorias, stepped in to help her.

His assistance was unexpected, and his gruff voice made his warning come off almost condescending, but luckily Artorias saved himself a woman's scorn with his follow up.

"You've got that right," she said with a wink, twirling her Ice Lance and using it to completely skewer a Drillscrew robot as it burrowed up from the ground nearby. Raising one arm she summoned another boulder, smashing it pieces and plugging up the hole underneath it.

When the dirt wall exploded and revealed Kanna joining the fray, Primrose was taken aback. Now they had to worry about the random effects again too?

Her fellow Traveler felt much the same, though he wasn't nearby. The mighty roar he'd just let out while still in his beast form stopped a Smallfry from attacking himself and Tingyun, but then it turned into a Mrrowr? at Kanna's sudden appearance. In quick succession he dropped Tingyun off from his back, leapt up to disable the humanoid robot with the specially made blade fitting his beast form, then shifted back into his human form in order to deal with whatever crazy thing was about to happen to them.

The gold veins forming on the cavern walls, glittering on the edge of the firefight, was enough of a distraction that he was hit with the first of many power-ups that fell from the ceiling. For the love of- he started to curse inwardly, wondering what kind of change he'd go through, but surprisingly he only felt one familiar thing.

Both his mana and his BP were at maximum, he could feel it. He poured three boosts into the next attack with his short sword, striking with four times more power than normal straight through one of the robots, and it fell over while emitting a heap of sparks. Lo and behold when he touched another one of the power-ups, the only kind that was currently falling, his Battle Points went right back up to full.

He had to hand it to Kanna, this was better. And it would make things a whole lot easier.

He started to cross the cavern, heading towards his fellow Orsterran and this time intentionally picking up the fruits of Kanna's intervention. In a normal fight there was no way he'd be able to battle boost so much, so he took advantage of the phenomenon now. His sword arm was at its most deadly, now able to cleave through the metal chassis of their opposition. And though moments when his allies weren't in his line of sight were few and far between, whenever he had a clear shot he conjured Aeber's Reckoning to set a hail of daggers upon the area, ripping through machines and peppering the Caretaker as it spun. All the while Therion's body glowed with a whitish blue aura.

When he got closer to Primrose it was clear that she'd realized what the power-ups could do as well, given she was aglow with the same aura. Unlike Therion who was boosting his physical prowess, Primrose was putting her replenishing mana to use alongside her BP. Her spells were larger, stronger. They covered wide areas in wreathes of black flames, only to follow it up with explosive moonlight. She was wreaking so much havoc that it was almost a shame to ask her to stop.

"Primrose, a dance?" Therion said, figuring she could do it now while she had some extra defense in the form of Artorias. "Sealticge's."

Her eyes flickered over to him. She pivoted, twirling around one side of Artorias to but him between herself and the bulk of the robots. He began her dance with no questions asked, save one. "Have something in mind?"

"Yeah," was all he said in reply. Primrose performed the final step in Sealticge's Seduction, the glow of her body making the spectacle even more entrancing for any that happened to see it during the chaos. With a slight grin and nod of his head in thanks, the thief was off again.

With dance completed, Primrose used her lance to swipe at a Chopper that had gotten too close before rejoining the battle proper. She gingerly touched a hand wreathed in the flame of Warmth to Artoria's armor to shore up his health, reached up to snap a power-up as it fell from the ceiling, and then switched from her healing spell to an offensive one. She gestured for the knight to go on without her, indicating he take the fight to the Caretaker now that the Koopas had put it on ice. Once she was on her own again relatively speaking, she smirked and let loose on all the other summoned robots, watching their weak spots implode whenever she struck them. "Time to really put on a show."

Meanwhile, Therion enacted his plan. It was a simple, but also something that would nearly trivialize the swarm temporarily. Sealticge's Seduction would let him spread the effects of his skills to every enemy currently in the area - each of them, large or small, no matter how many there were. With Primrose's battle boost the dance's effect would last longer, much longer with three boosts. Now all Therion had to do was use his own battle boost, increasing the effect of his own skill, then grab another one of those power-ups and repeat until the Seduction wore off. His target was one of the Caretaker's long robotic arms, given it was stationary enough. Seemingly sensing his intent the limb swiveled around to take aim at him, but dodging its fire only delayed Therion for but a moment. He leapt onto it, not too far from it's base where if couldn't target him and it's thrashing wouldn't be too much of an issue. With his body blazing with his battle boost aura, he used Shackle Foe - heavily lowering it's attack power, along with every other robot in the cavern. A few more uses of that would catch any new arrivals and stack on top of the ones already debuffed, turning heavy hitting turrets into softballs and the weaker robos into harmless nuisances. The threat would be all but nullified for a little while, letting the whole team regroup and refocus. It was a scheme that was only possible thanks to the Wonder Effect.

Blink. Blink.

Cloudy gray eyes were cast about the room as Nocturne came into awareness of her new surroundings. She had followed a light, a beacon among the void that guided her here to this room. Her scans revealed the details that classified this room: Stone walls, small enclosure, metal bars sealing her inside…. She was in a prison cell.

Hmhmhuuum…

Nocturne began to hum a melody to an imagined song, but it was discordant, like she couldn’t quite keep the tune. She stepped lightly over to the bars of her cage, humming persisting, and turned her attention to the door. Lightly she pushed on it, the door predictably hardly budging before the lock caught and prevented it from opening further. She paused as her unflinching eyes consider the reaction as if the door stopping was some novel idea. She pushed again, the door, once again, rattled without budging far.

Closer. Nocturne bent forward to bring her face a few inches from where the door met the unmoving caged wall. She pushed, the door rattled but did not open. Again. Again. The hallway and cell were filled with a duet of a rattling door and strange humming. The maestro of this unmeasured noise making was blissfully unaware of the world around her as the mind searched itself. Memories, processes, equations… they came and went in that fractured mind, but somewhere there was an understanding on how something as simple as a locked door worked. More importantly, how to unlock that door without the key…

She would remember at some point, if she could find that mechanical knowledge. Her eyes soon started to study every part of the door as she kept pushing, tirelessly working and trying to think. It would only be a matter of time before something trivial as a locked prison door would be dissected by the instant genius of one so studied… if only Nocturne could recall.

Nocturne had nothing but time. However, should another hear her humming and door rattling and come to investigate, they’d find Nocturne, unbothered by just standing there and trying to open the door to a new world out there…