Both Bowser and Rika had the same issue as Nadia, their kinetic strike module and gauntlets respectively unstrapped themselves from their arms and fell to the floor. For Bowser this was only inconvenient, the King promptly abandoning the punch enhancer in favor of charging in and proceeding to try and deliver a series of regular punches to one of Robin’s legs.
Rika, however, dropped to the floor alongside her gauntlets, dragged down both by the cables attaching them to her back, and by her need for their anti-gravity effect to support her naval warfare intended form. She scrambled to put her hands back inside of the gauntlets, while sending her ichor queen to fight for her, the massive wasp queen buzzing forwards, prompting Bowser to leap out of the way, giving the striker room to swing its massive blade at the same leg he had been delivering a beating too.
Back around Primrose, Jr and Kamek first dropped their casting implements (paint brush and wand respectively) before the prince himself hit the ground a moment later, out like a light, taking their way of undoing the slumbering curse with him. He should, it seemed, have kept that in their back pocket.
The prince slipped seamlessly from the waking world to the one he had just freed Primrose from, though of course he had no idea about any of this. Instead he glanced around, scratched his head, and then called out ”Hello? Where did everybody go? Is anyone there?”
"Hello!" a familiar voice from somewhere else in the room called, before an even more familiar silhouette appeared atop one of the low walls in the arena-like rooms.
”Mario?” Jr asked, surprised to find his dad’s (and technically his) arch enemy here. They hadn’t seen him since he wandered off to do his own thing at some point early in their adventure after all (and the Troop hadn’t run into him in smash city. Nor did they know he was dead).
"It’s a me!" the plumber confirmed, which left the prince rather relieved for all of half a second before the plumber leapt into the air in an arch that was even more familiar than anything that had come before, and promptly drove a shoe right down atop the utterly taken by surprise prince’s noggin.
”Young master? Young master! This is not time for dozing” Kamek shouted in the sleeping prince’s ear while shaking him, but to no avail.
”Oh dear.”
Defeated, the mage glanced too and fro till he found his wand, which he moved to retrieve inorder to use it to summon a set of toadies which he could use to at least transport the sleeping prince out of the battlefield.
Primrose immediately realized that this is what had happened to her. That dust had put her into a magical slumber. Maybe he would even have a bad dream of his own. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to wake him since no one else in their party had a counter spell or cure that she could recall. If only that lizard copycat had seen fit to come with them.
"I'll cover you, Kamek," Primrose told the elder mage. It was the least she could do since it seemed the prince had dispelled the sleep cast on her while the others had made sure she was safe. The dancer was now fully recovered and eager to destroy the 'Goodfellow.' Her lance had already fallen from her hands when she'd been put to sleep, but she still had her magic to fight with.
She gathered a swirling spiral of darkness in one hand as she stepped forward to better return the favor and protect the prince and Kamek. She closed her fist, sending the wave of shadow of her Night Ode spell to wash over the three enemies. Though large enough to crash against Titania and Robin, it did not reach Oberon.
Though Primrose's fellow Orsterran had appeared to be missing from the fight, his striker the junicorn rolled onto the scene at that point signaling that he was at least close by. His camouflage was far from perfect, but in the dark on the fringes of battle it was easy enough to remain undiscovered or ignored while the combatants had bigger threats to focus on.
Therion was not a strategist by any means, and all he could really glean from watching the three enemies was that they all seemed very troublesome. Not getting stuck in the middle of it had been a good call, but once his striker's timer ran out he wouldn't have much of a choice. As much as he might complain, and no matter how hard his instincts wanted him to flee, he didn't intend to abandon everyone to the fight.
The junicorn moved as a big iron ball rolling through the area. The goal Therion had given it was to get closer to the archangel in order to deliver its payload in the form of the lance on its head, while being less likely to miss - and it made a beeline towards that goal.
”You…” Ganondorf muttered, getting back to his feet after the interference of Oberon. Ganondorf glared at the ox-like warrior that Robin had summoned, ”You’re about to learn just who it is you picked a fight with.” he raised his right hand blade, a signal to his Moblin archers who then resumed their fire arrow volleys against Robin. The Gerudo King squared off against Oberon, sizing the armored creature up a bit before going for his first attack.
Ganondorf made a lunging thrust with his right hand sword. Immediately after he spun himself around with a circular slash utilizing the left sword. Then he briefly crouched down after the spin, in case Oberon attempted to retaliate. And then from that crouched possession, Ganondorf brought his right arm up in an attack that appeared to be fusion of his Gerudo Dragon uppercut and an upward slash with the greatsword his right hand wielded. That last hit aimed to launch Oberon upward, which Ganondorf would capitalize on if successful by performing a short series of upward slashes with his blades that would effectively juggle the enemy in the air a moment before finishing with a double upward slash delivered as a power attack.
When the two bruisers clashed, Ganondorf had the range advantage, so he struck first. His attacks clanged off Oberon’s Aegis, and each impact seemed to fuel the flames that ran through both weapons, increasing their critical and status chances. The warframe executed a horizontal swing with Silva while blocking the second blow, but the blazing head of his golden mace passed over Ganondorf’s head as the man went low. Immediately he carried the momentum into another bash that traded with his foe’s uppercut, but while both hit each other, only Oberon got launched. Still, Ganondorf’s follow-ups came late as a result, and he only managed to land two before his target fell out of range and performed an ukemi off the ground. Oberon rolled backward, then used an ability of his own. Hallowed Ground ignited a field of bright green flame around him with a ten-meter radius, burning and inflicting constant radiation damage for fifteen seconds. Of course, that was just step one. After setting up area denial, Oberon used Smite; with a crushing fist motion he detonated the vital energy within Ganondorf. That dealt radiation damage, caused a hard knockdown, and inflicted Confusion. While he dealt with that, the warframe prepared to return to Robin to aid in its fight against the other Seekers.
Meanwhile, Sectonia weaving in and out was for the best as Titania turned her guns upon her. While the first shot missed, once Sectonia got close, the shots got more accurate until the third shot which hit home. She was a tanky bug, so she was able to retreat but it still hurt. The worse part was what came next, a spell that made her new axe fly out of her hand. It was at this point she learned that such effects weren’t actually as bad as they could be, as she could recreate her axe without needing to pick it back up unlike the koopa troop. Her antlers were also just floating helplessly from this power as well. Still, that could be quite the annoying thing, especially with this paper monster putting Jr. to sleep next.
At least Titania had to partially let go of her shotgun to use that power of hers, and Nadia was capitalizing on that. To make sure Nadia succeeded, Sectonia gave her a bit of haste to make her even faster at grabbing that stupid gun. She then buffed herself with her Chaos shield before going back on the paper goat again, blinking around to strike him with her large axe again.
Jesse wasn’t even going to bother with her Service Weapon seeing the trouble some of the others had. Instead she crossed her arms and flung the debris Nadia had used to jump to shred into Titania. “Rocks incoming, Fortune!” She warned beforehand. Keeping it simple she wrenched a rock from the stone beneath the dirt floor and flung it into Titania to smash into her ‘armor.’
Nadia perked up, her ears swiveling as she heard Jesse’s warning. “Got it!” She crouched down, then threw herself to the left in a blood-propelled dash. Though she saw the slabs headed her way, Titania made the executive decision to track Nadia’s evasive action in order to cast Tribute. Not sure what was happening, Nadia took a burst of impact damage -like a slug from a giant fist- that extracted a buff alongside a burst of blood from her body. The buff gave Titania Thorns, reducing her damage taken by twenty-five percent, just in time for the debris from Jesse’s shield to hit her like a stony shotgun blast. Wiping a little blood from her lips, Nadia grinned to see the warframe stagger. “Off to a rocky start!”
Titania wasn’t about to sit still and take any more punishment, though. She sprang into the air, narrowly avoiding Jesse’s next rock, then whipped out her own shotgun. The simple act of aiming in the air lowered her gravity while boosting her horizontal movement, leading to a very action-movie style of bullet jump as Titania took aim, first at Nadia and then at Jesse. Her Corinth thundered twice as the hurtled through the air, and when she flew into a pillar, she clung to it hands-free to unload her weapon’s alternate fire. A grenade flew through the air that Titania manually detonated to unleash an inaccuracy-inflicting Blast in an area of ten meters.
When her opponent took to the air, Nadia sprang upward to follow suit, but she quickly realized she couldn’t keep up with Titania’s aerial mobility. Blocking the first multishot left her in blockstun long enough that she couldn’t do much before hitting the ground again, at which point she watched the warframe sail away like a butterfly on the breeze. “Guess I shouldn’t take our advantage for granite,” she muttered. Well, if Titania was going to be flighty, she might as well join those attacking Robin. Nadia sprinted across the earthy, husk-littered ground toward the towering archangel to join the royals’ assault.
Robin had stayed mobile, trying not to just stand there and take whatever its opponents could dish out. After the Moblin arrows and the first spell from Primrose, it maneuvered to a safer distance, but Bowser, Rika’s striker, and Sectonia still managed to chase it down. Their efforts left a dent in its body, especially Bowser’s mighty mitts, but Robin did not buckle. Instead it lashed out with its huge hoof, repaying the Koopa King in kind with a hefty kick. It was the queen that really earned Robin’s rancor, though. Protected by some sort of strange matter that coated her as a damage-absorbing barrier, Sectonia warped in to cleave into its body again, and now the archangel turned her way. This time, Sectonia hadn’t retreated after her attack–a big mistake. “...Figments.” Nadia approached fast, but not so fast that she could stop Robin casting Fairy Dust on Sectonia. As the big bug’s gilded wingbeats slowed and she began to falter, Robin reached out with its free hand and snatched the sleeping queen from the air to hurl her body at Bowser.
With the gauntlet of obstacles behind them, Geralt walked forward with Sandalphon to greet the defenders who were coming to block their progress further. The Witcher wasted no time in drawing his steel blade and casting Quen, eyes narrowed at the enemies before him. The one with the machine like Hal’s drone near her was either a coordinator or a serious threat herself, and he didn’t like not knowing which it was. The woman with the gauntlet he should be able to outreach and avoid more easily than the one with the mace, though he could likely fight her like he did Imlerith. Finally, the one with the twin pistols would be a hassle.
He started with an aggressive dash, to bait out an attack from Ishmael which he could parry and use to get into her guard. His target moved toward him to help close the distance, but despite her opponent’s impressive stature, her expression didn’t waver, and her composure did not break. She put up her guard when he got into range, then when he didn’t attack, took the initiative herself with a shield bash. If hit it would inflict Blunt Fragility, increasing his susceptibility to impact attacks, even if it didn’t shatter his Quen shield. Even if it meant taking damage, she needed to keep Geralt’s attention, so she continued her assault with big swings from her mace.
Behind her, Nao immediately moved to assist. PDA in hand, she sent her VIGIL drone out to fly toward Geralt’s position. A hit would just deal some damage and knockback, but she gave it the halt command beforehand. It stopped and projected a triangle-shaped field of unstable energy instead, which would remain for the next three and a half seconds, growing in size and power as it did. Right after, she sent a round proximity drone to hang out nearby, ready for Ishmael to touch if she needed it.
While those two set up a gameplan to stall Geralt, Leanne and Parvati went on the offensive. They split to either side of Ishmael, circling around the Witcher to attack Sandalphon. “Yoo-hoo!” Leanne called as she leveled her pistols. At this range Sandalphon had the accuracy advantage, so when the bioroid started blasting the archangel returned fire. Shooting from the hip in a sideways firing stance, she got off two ether bolts while taking a handful of low-caliber rounds in return. Her first missed, but the second hit Leanne’s shoulder, making her wince. By that time, though, Parvati sprinted into Sandalphon’s peripheral vision, too close for comfort. Knowing she couldn’t take aim in time, the archangel flipped her gunstaff in her hands, then turned toward the assassin with a swing at Parvati’s head.
Her opponent went low. “Hup!” Like lightning her gauntlet, Office Supply, struck the side of Sandalphon’s knee in a ruthless hook punch, and the archangel buckled. She went down on one knee, her gunstaff planted for support, but she wasn’t done yet. Sandalphon took her weapon in both hands and jabbed its barrel toward her attacker, then swung it horizontally. Parvati coolly sidestepped the first blow, then dipped back from the second. “Ha-at!” Planting her foot, she jumped forward and delivered a cross to Sandalphon’s jaw that jolted her head sideways. She saw stars, her pupils turned to X’s, and when her vision cleared she could see Leanne a dozen feet away with both pistols aimed at her chest. Leanne winked, then fired, and the bullets knocked the kneeling archangel flat on her back.
Geralt backstepped the shield bash, taking his sword in two hands and swinging at the side of Ishmael’s shield to batter it aside. When the VIGIL drone approached, Geralt watched it warily, keeping away from the machine’s energy field, losing the chance to capitalize against Ishmael and cursing as he parried a swing of the woman’s mace. Around that time, he saw Sandalphon being knocked on her ass and sighed, quickly barking out orders for his Strikers. “Judicator!” He shouted as the massive eldritch horror appeared between Sandalphon and Leanne, screaming to induce stress in both of the angel’s attackers. “Zero, gut the brawler!” he called to the assassin Striker, which dashed at Parvati with katanas at the ready.
He pulled away from Ishmael as he did, egging her to chase, as he quickly shifted from sword to crossbow, taking a shot at Leanne before turning back to the shield knight and drawing Igni, focusing it into a stream of fire to force her behind her shield, and superheat the metal.
The shrieking abomination took both ladies by surprise, preventing any finishers on Sandalphon as they flinched away from the wretched abyssal terror. With her focus wholly occupied, the last thing Leanne expected was a crossbow bolt, and Geralt was practiced enough with his weapon that he placed his shot even in haste. “Oww!” the bioroid whined as the bolt sliced a gash through the top of her thigh, making her stumble for a moment longer. Meanwhile, Parvati whirled to face her new attacker, eyes narrowed. She dashed away from Zero, then reached out as if grabbing something and yanked it to use Customer Service. Doing so precipitated some sort of silvery glint in front of her, but even if the striker could recognize what had happened, its action had already been decided. The next second Zero bulled straight into a web of slicing wires, and not only did Office Supply boost their damage, it also made them cut into the ninja’s attack by 20%. His efforts went into cutting through the wires instead, and by the time he vanished he’d transferred some slices back to Geralt as well.
Right now though, the Witcher had other problems. When he shifted his focus, assailing two of her allies at once with different summons, his seemingly unremarkable opponent took action. “Pay attention.” Her body shimmered, changing slightly, as if some subtle shift in past events overlaid the World of Light with a slightly different reality. Suddenly Ishmael was decked out in riot gear, her round shield replaced by a tower shield of polycarbonate plastic, and her mace replaced by a pistol. With her target protected by Quen, precise aim wasn’t necessary. She pounded his shield with Quake Rounds, then raised hers to absorb his Igni while backing away. Seeing this, Nao sent out a new sentry drone, and when Ishmael backed into the triangle, it launched her forward at a breakneck pace. She burst from the flames back in her default form, then went low with a high-impact slide kick.
At the same time, Nao threw a proximity mine to Leanne to heal her, and Sandalphon was on her feet as well, and ready to even the playing field. With a slam of her gunstaff she cast Angelic Praise to send out divine ripples, healing her team for 51% followed by another 13% every 3 seconds for the next 15 seconds. Being in Concentration protocol, she also gained Rapid Analysis. This skill certainly did the trick, but the fact that she’d been forced to use it early might be a problem.
The impact of bullets against his Quen shield was the first sign that something was wrong, given that Leanne was not looking at him and also just recovering from being shot. The second sign was the fact that Ishmael looked completely different. Her completely tanking Igni while backing off wasn’t the worst outcome, however, the hits she’d snuck past earlier, the damage carried over from Zero being hurt, and finally the shots she’d taken with her pistol had managed to crack Quen, leaving Geralt less protected now.
Until Ishmael was suddenly flying at him, boosted by an explosion and sliding along the ground to topple him. Geralt wasn’t quite able to dodge out of the way in time, so he instead crouched while stowing his crossbow, ready to catch Ishmael’s slide with his own claws and grapple her. He wasn’t able to defend Sandalphon from the others just yet, though, and he kicked out at Ishmael to break off from her and get back to his angelic teammate. Scrambling up and drawing his steel sword, he slashed out several times at Parvati while trying to keep her at sword’s length.
The slide hit with more force than Geralt anticipated, partially crushing his claws and inflicting three stacks of Tremor. While that injury would be soothed by Sandalphon’s power, it made him unable to get a good grip on his target. Even if he couldn’t grapple Ishmael, though, he could definitely deal her a kick as she tried to rise that knocked her back down and gave him a moment to his own devices. Parvati fled the moment he went after her, and off to the side, Nao moved to keep her ally in range. As Geralt chased Parvati down, Nao sent another sentry drone that separated her from Geralt with a triangle facing him.
Ishmael stood, a frown engraved on her face. “Ignore me at your own peril.” She shifted again, adopting a different identity. In a flash she changed into sailor attire, after reeling back, she hurled a snagharpoon over three feet long at Geralt’s back. In addition to piling up three more stacks of Tremor, it would cause Tremor Burst to turn all that Tremor into stagger, debilitating Geralt enough that Ishmael could start reeling him with her snagharpoon’s rope like a beast from the sea.
Able to focus on Leanne, Sandalphon was able to give a better account of herself. When the archangel received a Warning Shot she found herself marked, with both her attack and her evasive ability diminished, but she returned fire with a well-aimed ether bolt to Leanne’s leg. Though that first hit just slowed the bioroid, the second dropped her, and Sandalphon spotted a chance to finish her off. Just then, Parvati revealed why she’d been so willing to cede ground whenever attacked. “Quickly!” She used Speedy Precision, drawing a wire to slash Sandalphon despite the distance between them.
As the archangel bled from fresh cuts, she saw both Leanne recovering and Geralt harpooned, and had to make a decision. Rather than go for Leanne, she turned toward Ishmael and unloaded suppressive fire. While Ishmael staunchly refused to let her quarry go, she did take a few hits. “...Pain in the ass.”
Geralt stepped away from the triangular field projected by Nao’s drone, a low grumble in his throat at being constantly harassed and dodged. It was getting frustrating, but he took a deep breath, only for the snagharpoon to crash into him and grab hold while staggering him. Unable to properly keep his balance, he felt himself being dragged backwards towards Ishmael and sighed. Fine. If she wanted to die that badly, he’d oblige her.
He turned violently, grabbing the rope with one hand and slashing at it with his blade using the other to try and sever it with his enhanced strength. He then summoned the Judicator once more, this time ordering it to heal Sandalphon, and quickly fished around in his bags for a Grapeshot bomb, pitching it at Ishamel’s feet to harm and stumble her.
Finally, he gave Ishmael what she wanted, running right at her and planning to use his speed, strength and size to bowl her right over and pin her into a grapple.
The sudden slack of her rope being cut sent Ishmael off-balance, and the spray of grapeshot against her unarmored body and scrap-metal shield only made things worse with an agonizing blast of metal shrapnel. “Argh!” She gritted her teeth, squinting as Geralt charged. This was where the going got toughest, the dark before the dawn: when her opponent’s anger drove him to pull out all the stops. As he rushed toward her, she changed identity again, switching from her most fragile version to her most formidable. The moment before the Witcher bulled into her, she exchanged her sailor garb for a huge, heavy suit of teal slime, her long hair stained the same color, and she tried to use Corrosive Splash. Instead Geralt tackled her and the two went down. Having lost the clash, Ishmael dealt no damage, but that very loss delivered her assailant a five-stack of both Tremor and Rupture, and regardless of outcome, it heightened Geralt’s aggro. Ishmael struggled beneath Geralt, trying to protect her head with her new shape-shifting baton. Between the aggro and the slime he was here to stay; now she just needed to survive.
Though she didn’t express it any more than usual, Sandalphon wasn’t happy to receive healing from Geralt. It wasn’t just that support was her role; the lingering heal-over-time from Angelic Praise would have been enough to patch her up anyway, so now its aftermath was wasted. She couldn’t really blame him since he couldn’t possibly know how her miracles worked, but the waste still perturbed her. Still, she had bigger problems right now. The moment Geralt got distracted, Parvati used the sentry drone Nao laid down to launch herself instead, speeding back toward Sandalphon. Leanne was up too, also closing in to negate the archangel’s range advantage. They were right back to where they began.
Sandalphon had no intention of letting history repeat itself, though. Raising one fist across her chest, she turned to face Parvati. Seeing something new, the assassin slowed up just enough to be ready to dodge. Then Sandalphon abruptly pivoted, casting her hand -and a Frost Lock- to Leanne instead. That icy cluster took the bioroid by surprise, freezing her in place right as she took aim with her pistols, and as Parvati closed in the archangel vaulted high into the air. There she floated, well out of her foe’s melee range. Of course, Parvati extended her hand to cut from afar with Speedy Precision again, but she didn’t expect her opponent to start shooting on the wing. An ether bolt struck her in the right bicep, eliciting a cry of pain as Parvati’s PDA clattered to and smashed against the ground.
Ishmael’s continuous changes meant that she was an unpredictable opponent. Unpredictable opponents were dangerous. They both had the other exactly where they wanted them, but Geralt had a few more tricks up his sleeve as well. Grimacing through the tremors, he hooked Ishmael’s baton on the crossguard of his sword and made the Sign of Axii before Ishmael’s face, flooding her mind with psychic energy. Taking the distraction that the magic created, Geralt dropped his sword at his side and drew his hunting knife, stabbing it down at Ishmael’s throat to kill her.
“I’ve got your back!” Before the knifepoint descended, Nao’s proximity drone hit Ishmael and burst with a wave of repulsive force. It both healed her and knocked Geralt a few feet away, saving the tank’s life. She knew he wouldn’t stay back for long, though. “I never let a teammate down,” she stated, hurling VIGIL into the mix. The sentry drone shot out to set up behind Ishmael, the triangle pointed back toward Nao for the purpose of getting her teammate to safety. For the moment though, the redhead’s mind was still addled by Axii as she attempted to rise in her ponderous suit.
Behind them, Parvati took off running to avoid more shots from Sandalphon, one hand on her wounded arm. After another moment Leanne unfroze, shaking off the ice crystals with a shiver. “Talk about the cold shoulder, goodness me!” She took aim and shot up at the floating archangel, her smile murderous. “We’ll have to knock you down a peg or two.”
Still gliding but now peppered by bullets, Sandalphon began to circle around to throw off her attacker’s aim as she returned fire. Neither could really hurt the other like this, but the ineffective firefight gave Parvati the chance to put her weapon skill to good use. Thrusting out her gauntlet, she executed Risk Elimination, and around the airborne archangel closed a snare of razor wires. They bound her tight, pinning her arms and gunstaff against her body, and with a big tug Parvati yanked her out of the sky. Sandalphon landed in a heap, still bound and bleeding thanks to the wires, and Leanne saw her chance. “Sit tight now…” The bioroid submitted a Headquarter Support Request, and from the sky a handful of spotlights locked onto Sandalphon’s position. A moment later a deluge of red canisters began to rain down across a wide area with Sandalphon in the middle. “This will all be over soon~”
Shaking off the repulsive blast that separated him and Ishmael, Geralt was poised to leap in and press the advantage, but the sound of Sandalphon crashing to the ground took his attention elsewhere. Seeing the angelic support battered, bloodied and at risk of being killed by whatever was in those canisters made Geralt’s eyes narrow into catlike slits as his protective instincts flared to life.
He screamed, jaw distending well beyond what a normal human’s would be capable of, and from nowhere a torrent of lightning crashed into the ground, spreading out in waves and threatening the defenders of Arahabaki if they didn’t make an effort to avoid them. Ishmael took the hit, but had the durability to sustain it, while Nao evaded the electric tide. Parvati had the reaction speed and agility to jump, but Leanne got electrocuted. As Geralt’s jaw clicked back into place, he sprinted back Sandalphon’s way, thunderously loud steps heralding his approach as he leapt to the angel’s aid, roughly hefting her into his arms and running her out of the area of the red canisters. He used his knife to sever the razor wire, then quickly tried to unwrap his ally. “Sorry about that, saw an opportunity to put her down, but it didn’t quite pan out. I can call back the Judicator if you need more time to charge your magic.” He offered, standing to put himself between Sandalphon and the lady defenders.
“Thank you,” his teammate told him. The spot where she’d fallen had been carpet bombed, disappearing beneath a horrific maelstrom of vivid green flame, and everyone could feel its chemical heat. With Parvati’s wires cut through, they were slack enough for Sandalphon to brush off, and to her credit she managed to ignore the lacerations. Relief would be coming soon, after all. No use agonizing about it in the meantime. Seeing that Geralt was fine, she turned her attention outward as she rose -somewhat shakily- to her feet. The Seekers’ enemies were gathering around them, more or less surrounding the two. Parvati rolled the shoulder of her injured arm, a cold look on her face. Leanne couldn’t hide her pain or frustration as well as the archangel, so she reloaded her pistols with an indignant scowl. Nao stood close to Ishmael, who’d gotten the moment she needed to recover. “Let us begin anew.”
Before they could take initiative, Sandalphon unleashed Angelic Wings, surrounding her and Geralt with rotating screens of miraculous water. While they looked like shields, they weren’t, and after a brief moment the skill went off to restore both herself and Geralt completely. It also purged her bleeding and her teammate’s Tremor, then boosted their maximum health by 20%. Seeing this, Nao raised her voice. “Take them down!” The moment the ‘shield’ went down, the quartet attacked. Leanne started shooting, not caring who she hit. Sandalphon ignored her and took aim at Parvati, trying to prevent more Customer Service wire traps. Nao made up for Ishmael’s lack of speed by shooting her forward with a sentry drone, and the tank came in swinging at Geralt with her Tremor-inducing, slime-coated bludgeon. It changed shape as she attacked, growing longer and thicker mid-swing for greater momentum and impact, then shrinking to decrease endlag and startup. Each strike would build aggro, but with Nao in her corner, Ishmael knew the odds were on her side.
Geralt drew his lightning katana in response to Ishmael’s new, transforming weapon. With his steel sword still where he’d left it, he was forced to use the less-familiar weapon, but he would not be deterred by that. Witchers might have preferences, but each was familiar with a wide variety of weapons. He was ready for Ishmael, and as she approached and attacked, Geralt replied in kind, his blade flashing out with cold precision. He couldn’t properly parry the weapon, as its shape would change, but he could trade blows for a moment to give the wrong impression. He concentrated for a moment, summoning a bombing flight of Abyssals to attack both Ishmael and Nao, forcing the healer to either choose or split her concentration, while hopefully providing a distraction against the tanky warrior.
He wasn’t done, yet, though, as Geralt used this opportunity to shift his katana into one hand, grabbing his knife with the other and trying to use it to break into Ishmael’s guard. He could feel the damage he was taking, so he pressed the offensive.
New weapons in hand, Ishmael and Geralt clashed with renewed vigor in a sloppy mess of weighty blows and squelching ooze. The suit of remarkably viscous slime just about negated blunt attacks while resisting slashes, so with just one hand on her bludgeon while she raised the other in front of her head as a living shield, Ishmael was a tough nut to crack. The knife pushed through though, and that definitely hurt. And on each impact, the katana’s lightning coursed through the slime, making her wince. When Geralt deployed bombers, she couldn’t initiate enough of an offense to stop him, and suddenly her healer was in danger. “Nao, look out!”
The sight of the Abyssal squadron, like a fleet of demented toy planes, took Nao aback. She breathed in sharply as her heartbeat quickened. With her lips pursed she sent out VIGIL, knowing it wouldn’t achieve much. Her drone destroyed one incoming bogey, but the rest shied away to avoid the ensuing blast. Unable to think of any other option, Nao waited for the planes to descend on her with her heart pounding. “This is the power…” Then she used Lifeline, blinking right next to Ishmael. On arrival the ensuing burst of ghostly energy turned her Elusive and restored half of her teammate’s stagger, while most of the bombers exploded behind her. “Of Clarion!” In terms of positioning and expenditure this was a risky gambit, but Nao had no other choice. She was all in, and the proximity drone she laid down for a burst of healing was confirmation.
Ishmael couldn’t afford to waste this chance. “Enough.” She changed identity again, adopting a high-tech suit of armor and a heavy rod that blazed orange, like the almost crystalline horns that sprouted from her head. “Rrrrgh…” Ishmael clapped a hand to a face scrunched up in pain, then charged Geralt with Flaying Surge to bring her Mind Staff down. “Let’s end this.”
Meanwhile, Sandalphon dealt with the other two as best she could. After stopping Parvati, she turned her aim on Leanne. Even as bullets pierced her body, she held firm and aimed true. The next second, a headshot flipped Leanne onto her back. As the bioroid hit the deck, squirming as she held her eye, Sandalphon whipped back toward Parvati, but the assassin was already here. Her gauntlet slammed into the archangel’s stomach and doubled her over, followed by a jumping knee to Sandalphon’s face that broke her nose. As she reeled, Parvati swept her leg and took her down. In a flash wires closed around her arms, head, and neck, and the assassin seized them for a final, deadly pull.
Focused on the kill, she realized what Sandalphon’s extended hand meant a little too late. In an instant Frost Lock flash-froze her, and the archangel coolly planted the barrel of her gunstaff against her would-be killer’s chest. Then she pulled the trigger until the ether bolts punched through her foe’s body and out the other side. After a moment she ceased, firing no more than was absolutely necessary, then tried to extricate herself from the wires. Parvati did not move to stop her–there wasn’t anything left beneath the ice to move. Just a statue of frozen ash.
Another transformation meant Geralt was dealing with yet another fighting style. This time, Ishmael brought out armor with what looked to be a strange energy pack on it, powering her mace-like staff. Dropping his knife, he took the katana in both hands, returning to a fighting style more suited to his skillset. Ishmael’s staff came down like Imlerith’s mace, energy crackling along it as Geralt met it with the flat of his katana, pushing the weapon to the side and trading follow-up blows. Ishmael’s armor insulated her from the katana’s blade and most of its lightning, with Geralt coming out of the exchange worse off as Ishmael crashed the staff into his side, the blunt force transferring through the plate, which inflicted Sinking and gave Ishmael Charge.
As they turned back towards each other, Geralt grunted and lifted his hand, backstepping while casting Aard to push Ishmael, and hopefully Nao given how close she’d gotten, off balance. The sign knocked Ishmael back a bit, but passed through Nao thanks to Elusive–though it still convinced her to back off, as that protection wouldn’t last much longer. He stepped in, katana flashing for Ishmael’s face, the only unarmored part of her body now, and put his weight behind the swing, aiming not for his opponent, but behind her. Through her. This was an all-or-nothing attack, and if it failed, he prayed that whatever mysterious force had been preventing his death was still in place. If this failed, he’d be exposing himself to counter-attack from both Nao and Ishmael.
Normally his opponent would have composed herself to strike back, but the terrible headache that had been afflicting Ishmael since she assumed this identity picked the worst possible moment to flare up. The redhead reeled, stricken by the agony that was the price for this superpowered form, and Geralt’s life-ending slash closed in. Nao saw this, realizing instantly what was going on, and what little she could do to help. “Ishmael!”
Nao threw herself into her teammate, tackling her out of the way. Geralt’s blade hit her back, cutting to the bone. She cried out in pain, and the two went down in a heap. The next moment, her sentry drone deployed to launch them both backward, away from the Witcher. Wincing, Ishmael sat up to find her teammate grievously wounded. “Nao!” she moaned. “Why?”
“Stop using Reindeer,” Nao hissed through clenched teeth, using a proximity drone on them to staunch the bleeding. The two were definitely on the back foot now, and on the other side of the battlefield she could see that Parvati had been killed while she’d been distracted. Nao didn’t have a lot of fight left in her. Ishmael did, though, and she could channel her pain into anger. With one arm around Nao’s shoulder she rose halfway and lashed out at Geralt with Mind Whip to trigger his Sinking in a burst of sanity damage and break his poise.
Behind him, Sandalphon was still trying to get free. The wires from Parvati’s final Risk Elimination bound her tightly, and excessive haste would only cut her more. Her careful approach gave Leanne all the time she needed to get up and stagger over, one hand over her left eye and the other holding a pistol. “That hurts, you know,” she snapped, glancing at Parvati’s remains. “Dearie me. You might look like an angel, but in the end you’re a killer just like us, hm?” She came to a stop, her expression cloyingly saccharine, and took aim at Sandalphon’s head. “I suppose I’ll be taking revenge now. Bye bye~”
The archangel threw a Frost Lock at her. It would take two of them to freeze Leanne this time, but she didn’t know that. She jerked away from the icy cluster, firing prematurely. The bullet grazed Sandalphon’s arm as she twisted, throwing off the wires despite the extra laceration in order to swing a long leg around and sweep Leanne’s out from under her. Now it was a race to see who could get up first.
Geralt was caught off-guard by the save from Nao, though the grievous wound he inflicted in turn made up for it. Whatever had caused Ishmael to falter had turned the fight in his favor, though when the pair rose and healed up, her follow-up blow had plenty of time to land, sending the Witcher reeling this time. He staggered to his feet in time to catch another blow to the chest, which sent him into a roll. As he lifted himself to his knees, he saw Leanne and Sandalphon struggling to their feet as well.
“F-Fizz…” He muttered, pointing towards Leanne as Ishmael’s staff was raised. “Kill her.” He ordered as it crashed into the back of his skull, sending him crashing violently to the floor.
Before his light faded, his striker surged forth. The abyssal trickster dashed into and through Leanne with Urchin Strike, and the wounds left by his seastone trident as he stabbed in quick succession bled for several seconds. Leanne stumbled, unable to rise. She shot wildly at Sandalphon as the archangel rose to her full height, but she couldn’t place anywhere near enough rounds to stop her. Sandalphon whacked the bioroid with the head of her gunstaff, laying her out, clamped down on her neck with her heel, and planted her weapon’s barrel on Leanne’s head. “Go in peace.”
She did not pause to scrutinize her handiwork, but immediately cast her newly refilled Angelic Praise. Her own wounds disappeared, and if Geralt had yet to cross through death’s door, he’d be pulled back from the brink. When Sandalphon turned to look, she saw Ishmael in her normal identity, panting in relief, and Nao still on the ground as she sent a proximity mine her teammate’s way. “Damn it,” the healer rasped, shaken by the demise of another ally even if they hadn’t known one another. Her failure didn’t hurt as much as her injury, but it wasn’t far behind.
Getting used to death was…rather morbid an idea. Nonetheless, Geralt was getting used to dying. This was…what, the fourth? Fifth? Time he’s died thus far? Or come close to it, if he wasn’t truly dying here. He rose to his hands and knees, taking a slow breath, before rising and sheathing the lightning katana. He drew Odysseus’s Bow instead, nocking an arrow and loosing it at Nao. He followed up with more as he backed up, trying to trigger the magical bow’s chain lightning as much as possible, either hitting Ishmael or Nao, whoever he could.
After what Ishmael did to Geralt, none of the women -his teammate included- expected him to rise again. But rise he did, and the position Ishmael had taken to defend Nao from Sandalphon did not cover her against the Witcher. Appalled by the sight of him hauling himself upright, Ishmael was just a little too slow to intercept his arrow, and Nao’s stamina hadn't recharged enough to evade. It slid right past her outstretched shield and lodged in Nao’s sternum. In shock, she fell without a sound.
“Nao!” Shifting into her riot gear, she dashed to position herself in front of her teammate. She glanced at Sandalphon, who seemed to be standing by in support mode rather than attacking, then back at Geralt with her face tight. “Don't die on me,” she hissed, standing firm to return fire with Quake Rounds as the lightning arrows pounded both body armor and shield. The moment she realized that the chain lightning between her and Nao was only hurting the healer further, Ishmael did the only thing she could. With uncommon urgency, she charged while shooting to try and knock Geralt down.
Seeing Ishmael charge, Geralt quickly stowed the bow and drew Quen, a few of her shots making it through beforehand, while the rest crashed against the magical barrier. As she got close, he drew the lightning katana again, ready to meet her in melee now that he was refreshed, and Nao was wounded and unlikely to be able to assist. He swung to stop her charge, and stood his ground defiantly.
The katana might not have much brute force by itself, but with Geralt’s size and strength behind it, the blade’s impact with Ishmael’s riot shield was enough to crack the polycarbonate and stop her cold. Shaken by the blow, the redhead fought to defend herself with only her damaged shield standing between her and death. As she weathered the onslaught that followed, she dared to look over her shoulder to check on Nao. To her horror she saw Sandalphon approaching the fallen healer to finish her off, expressionless but moving with purpose. Ishmael narrowed her eyes and turned halfway around, leveling her pistol at the archangel as she paused over Nao’s body. The gun clicked empty, and for a brief moment her eyes widened in dismay. Then a mighty blow from Geralt struck her across the back, shearing through her hair and into her suit as it bowled her over sideways.
Ishmael tumbled, her useless gun sliding across the ground. She fell in a heap, crushed by both the Witcher’s strike and the weight of her failure. Spitting, she planted her shield and used it to pick herself up. “Well. If there’s nobody left to protect, my mission is simple.” She began to change, but not in the same way that she changed identity. Reality itself seemed to waver within a spherical area around her, not overlaying the one the Seekers knew, but pushing into it. For a brief moment the woman disappeared, encapsulated by a vision of a bright pink shoe on a satin bed. Then the vision melted away to reveal Ishmael, not just wearing the shoes but wrapped in pink ribbons, even her shield and the enormous metal anchor that trailed behind her like a flail. Her eyes looked cloudy, a rosy pink, and her stoic demeanor had been replaced by a crazed smile. “Let’s finish this…” she croaked drunkenly. “Before it swallows me whole.”
After confirming that she didn’t seem to be in immediate danger, Sandalphon looked back down at Nao, then knelt over her. Leaning on her staff with one hand, she placed the other on her chest. “This world needs fewer killers,” she said as she created a Friend Heart. “And more healers.” She placed it on the woman’s heart, and in an instant her agony had ceased. As she lay there, physically restored but mentally overwhelmed, Sandalphon turned her gaze back to Geralt and Ishmael. Then she stood, ready to assist.
Geralt watched the strange vision appear, brow furrowed. “Huh.” As the woman he was fighting was revealed in a strange new form, he frowned. That…was not right. Especially not on a battlefield like this. Watching Sandalphon spare Nao out of the corner of his eye, the Witcher sighed. He kept his katana at the ready, but took a half-step back, looking Ishmael up and down. “You wouldn’t happen to know, Roland, would you?” He asked simply. “Remind me of him a bit.”
Ishmael’s reaction was to swing the anchor at him, forcing Geralt to take a step back, raising his katana to deflect the blow. As he did, however, the ribbons attached to her reached out seemingly of their own accord, grabbing his arm. He was able to yank free, but the distraction cost him a moment, which Ishmael used to bring her anchor around and swing again. Grunting, Geralt took the hit, Quen shattering violently as he was staggered by the heavy blow. Sandalphon fired a shot that slammed into the drunken woman’s back, but she kept coming.
Geralt brought his sword up and along Ishmael’s side, while Sandalphon continued her sniping. Ishmael’s ribbons lashed out at Geralt as she lifted the anchor, grinning wickedly and swinging it overhead like an executioner’s axe. He was able to bring his own sword up in time to deflect the blow, but the impact sent aches through his arms, even with his strength. Between the weight of the anchor and Ishmael’s own enhanced abilities in this form, she was proving to be a dangerous opponent. Geralt wrestled his arm free and cast Igni, sending a concentrated stream of flames into Ishmael to try and burn the ribbons off her.
Burn they did, but an instant later they were back, and Ishmael prepared to swing her anchor at Geralt once more. A frost lock exploded against her back as she wound up, freezing Ishmael in place. Geralt took a powerful swing at her head while she was vulnerable, but the ribbons wrapped around her seemed to shift despite the freezing, thickening to shield her from what could have been a lethal blow. Geralt grunted in frustration, swinging again while Sandalphon took a shot at Ishmael’s back.
The freeze didn’t last very long, and soon Ishmael was back to swinging her anchor around. Each hit sapped Geralt’s strength a little, and her ribbons kept grabbing at him, slowing him down and making each follow up attack easier for Ishmael to land. The shots Sandalphon was taking were doing their own work, but Geralt found himself flagging again. He raised his hand to cast Quen, and as soon as he did, more ribbons snared out to grab him.
Seeing her ally visibly slowing caused Sandalphon some concern, even if she was not one to show it. Her Angelic Praise was not quite charged yet, so she took careful aim and waited for an opportunity to hit Ishmael’s head. When it came, she took her shot, the ether bolt slamming into the side of Ishmael’s skull and staggering her for a moment, which Geralt took to free himself from the ensnaring ribbons and quickly get away from the drunken woman attacking him. Now that he was able to get a better look at Ishmael, she seemed to be even more heavily covered in those ribbons.
Ishmael did not take kindly to his retreat, and rushed forward to prevent his escape. “Not…getting away from me.” She slurred, swinging her anchor at him aggressively. Without the ribbons on him, Geralt was able to deflect the blow somewhat, taking weaker slashes at her with his lightning katana.
Another Frost Lock hit Ishmael, fresh off its cooldown, but this one didn’t freeze her. It would take more this time, so until Sandalphon could apply more frost, Geralt was on his own. But no, that was acceptable. With how Ishmael’s frenzied strikes weakened their target and built up momentum, every second that passed meant that the scales tipped farther in her favor. Those ribbons were the main issue. Acting like they had a life of their own, they moved when Ishmael herself did not, both protecting her and impeding Geralt for her. When he attacked less, they bound him more. Could they do both at once?
After Ishmael’s next anchor smash, Sandalphon blinked to Geralt’s side. She reached out and grabbed the pink ribbons, provoking them into a reactionary move. They lunged like snakes and began to constrict her. Just as she planned. These anomalous ribbons might be dangerous, but like their host they lacked critical thinking. In taking the easy prey, they’d left Ishmael exposed for the real hunter to go in for the kill.
Geralt nodded at Sandalphon, exhaustion evident in the languid movement of his head, but upon seeing his opening, he pushed himself and took the opportunity for what it was. If he couldn’t finish Ishmael here, their proverbial goose was cooked. His katana flashed, splitting air and flesh alike, and a spurt of blood from Ishmael’s face marked the beginning of the end, as a pained grunt escaped the drunken sailor. Blood flowed freely from a cut over her eye, the blade not having carved through the socket but ruining her eyelid, and with her vision blocked and her ribbons grabbing Sandalphon, Ishmael whirled on Geralt to keep him in sight, further forcing the ribbons from her to bind the angelic healer.
As his opponent hefted and swung her weapon, the Witcher threw himself back into her blind side, cutting a deep gouge into her gut, forcing Ishmael to her knees. The ribbons were split between entangling the threat Geralt posed and keeping their other target from escaping, and that combined with the damage he’d already done made Geralt’s final strike simple enough. He kicked the inside of Ishmael’s elbow, preventing her from leaning on her anchor, and brought his katana up and through her torso, finally putting an end to the deranged defender.
All at once, Geralt’s burst of energy left him, and he stood there, panting heavily as he turned back to Nao while Ishmael dissolved into dust. Would she take revenge for her fallen allies? Or would she repay Sandalphon’s mercy with the same? The bruised, battered form of the Witcher, who had already died once before the healer, was almost a perfect test, the perfect crossroads for how Nao chose to continue onward.
By this point Nao had come to her senses somewhat, but it was clear -even without Sandalphon standing over her- that she wouldn’t be doing any more fighting. She was bewildered, disoriented, and afraid; one might wonder if she was even a fighter. When the woman saw the corrupted Ishmael wounded and on the brink, Nao only averted her gaze, squeezing her eyes shut. At least it was over soon, and the staunch defender went down without much outcry.
Once free of the pink ribbons, Sandalphon strode over toward her fellow healer. “I am sorry for what happened,” she said gently. “For both your allies, and the whiplash of awakening.”
Nao was reflexively trying to smooth out her hair, her suit, everything she could to try and bring herself some peace. During the fight she’d been remarkably composed, but setting foot on death’s door had broken her facade. “I-it’s fine…” She made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a gasp. “I-I mean, it’s not fine. Nothing about this is fine. But I…they weren’t my friends at least.”
She tightened her tie, then her gloves. “Well, Ishmael…we weren’t close, but I knew her. She knew the risks. The others…they scared me, a little, but Ishmael was almost normal. They just grabbed whatever healers they could, combat-ready or not. I’m just an office worker. And now…” She shook her head. “I don’t even know why I’m here. This isn’t Clarion. Or Ahten City.” She looked at her allies ashes’ sadly. “How many people are dying for reasons they don’t understand?”
“Too many,” Sandalphon replied. “That’s why you need to live. Please, leave the Shinra Building immediately. The Machines are about to invade. Get as many people as you can to a safe place.”
“Okay.” Having a plan seemed to give Nao strength. She stood, helped to her feet thanks to nudges from her VIGIL drone. “What about you?” Nao seemed uncertain if she should even ask.
“We’re here to deal with the root of the problem,” Sandalphon told her. When she offered no more explanation, Nao nodded and hurried on her way.
That left the two Seekers alone with the fallout from the battle. The archangel used her gunstaff’s innate function to create a small healing ring that, while weak, was enough to patch her and Geralt up over time without having to spend a skill. “That altercation aptly illustrates the merits of a four-person team, that being my preference, over a duo,” she mentioned matter-of-factly. “We were able to prevail, but despite our disadvantage, I do regret my inability to properly play my role. This also brought my lack of fighting ability into stark relief” She looked over at the remains of her enemies. “I believe both of us could benefit from these spirits. I do not wish to take more than my fair share, but the two in white could shore up my weaknesses.”
Geralt nodded, having watched the pair converse as he caught his breath. “Take ‘em. I’m reluctant to do anything but crush that last one, anyway. Already been fused with one…probably female Spirit, any more and things might get awkward with Yen. My wife.” Geralt added the last bit for context, then frowned. “Been a few days since I sent a message back to Alcamoth, but once we get the Guardian dealt with, we should be able to figure a way back at least.” He reached into one of his many pouches, pulling out some salted pork rations he’d been holding onto, and looked to Sandalphon. “Not exactly quality fare, but I have a bit more if you need something quick to snack on.”
“Thank you, but the honey I had earlier is sufficient.” Sandalphon gave him an appreciative nod in turn, and went to collect the spirits of Parvati and Leanne. She also took Ishmael’s and gave it to Geralt, though her gaze lingered on it a moment. “Her equipment was nothing special compared to her abilities and unflappable demeanor. Crushing seems almost a waste, but what’s yours is yours.” Once she offloaded the Witcher’s reward, she unceremoniously inserted the other two into her heart.
Notable spirits consumed: Parvati and Leanne The host has shrunk down to an average height of 6’2”. Her skin is very slightly darker, as if lightly tanned. Her hair is a little longer, shoulder length, tied into a short braid in the back, and though predominantly light gray has an auburn gradient toward the tips. The symbols in her eyes are much thicker, as if bolded, and are more of a sea green with a splash of pale red. Her office clothes fit much better; her white shirt has sleeves that are a little rolled up, about one-third of her midriff showing, and slacks that are more like capris, dark gray in color but still rather tight. Her shoes resemble high-heeled black boots with both buckles and laces. Her outfit is just silly with black belts everywhere: around her waist, the bottom of her shirt, her thighs, her biceps, atop her chest, and even as suspenders. She is now capable of expressing emotion and is quicker to act, although she’s still quite calm and collected. Parvati’s spirit confers the Power Process Optimization, which allows her to draw out silvery razor wires. Doing damage with them increases her skill recharge speed by 30%. Leanne’s spirit confers the Power External Information Network, which allows the host to scan enemies within a certain area to get their vitals. If she scans new enemies in this manner, her allies gain a small buff to evasion, elemental resist, and damage reduction. Parvati’s spirit also confers the Weakness Fire Weakness, reducing the host’s fire and burn resistance by 30%. Leanne’s spirit also confers the Weakness Human After All, which reduces the host’s ability to push herself to her bodily limits and work herself like a machine, making her much more easily physically and mentally overwhelmed
Geralt frowned at the Spirit in his hands, thinking things over even as his ally transformed beside him. Sandalphon was right that she had some rather amazing abilities, though what Goldlewis had said the day prior was also bouncing around his head. “Unflappable demeanor, huh…” He muttered, thinking through things. If ever there was an opportunity to see if he could calm the raging tempest that was the Orphan of Kos, this was it. Despite the last transformation she took on being a bit unhinged, Ishmael had proven to be quite the cool character during their battle, impassively chastising Geralt’s whirlwind style as she relentlessly hunted him down. Loathe as part of him was to risk transforming into a woman, let alone losing even more of the impressive size the Harbor Water Demon’s spirit had given him, he was a risk to his allies as it was, and himself. The question remained- did he fuse with her as he had the others, or risk a mental fusion? Taking a deep breath, he decided, and slowly pressed the Spirit of Ishmael into his chest, ready to accept the consequences, whatever they might be.
Notable spirit consumed: Ishmael The host has become female, and shrunk to 6’8”. The ghoulish quality imparted by the Orphan of Kos is almost gone, now just making her look a little unhinged and bony. Her hair is incredibly long and voluminous, all the way to her ankles, with a bright white into rich orange gradient. She has a hairband with a little ribbon on either side. Thanks to the Harbor Water Demon, her chest is an impressive size, and her hands -and claws- are still larger than normal, though also somewhat diminished from before. Her outfit is now a predominantly black and white mix of formal wear and armor, accented by red. This includes a jacket with pauldrons and cuffs, pants, chain mail vest over white undershirt, and a windowed cuirass that also includes a red tie, with practically no skin showing. The host’s personality is more calm and in control, much less inclined to fly off the handle into a rage, but also more critical of allies. This spirit confers the Power Identity, which allows the host to switch out her current set of weaponry, equipment, and proficiencies to a different loadout, with additional identities available via level investment. Spirits applied to an identity will only affect that identity. This comes with the identity LCCB Assistant Manager, which comes with a set of riot armor that resists blunt and explosive damage, a tall ballistic shield, a pistol that shoots tremor-inducing Quake Rounds, and associated skills. This spirit also confers the Weakness Fatal Slash, making the host take more damage from unmitigated slash-type attacks
Geralt sighed, looking herself over to see what had changed with this fusion. The good news is that she felt some immediate relief from the ever-present pressure in her mind, the undying rage of an orphaned god, but the bad news was that she was a woman. A woman with rather voluptuous breasts, now that he got a second look. Her armor was messed up yet again, though in this case it was a more familiar set of cuirass and chain, not terribly dissimilar from the gambeson and chain she’d had when appearing in the Land of Adventure. At least her chest wasn’t showing through the window in her armor, though she’d still have to get that fixed, again.
Stomach rumbling, she remembered what she’d been doing before Sandalphon, who was now much shorter and somewhat more conservatively dressed, had handed her Ishmael’s Spirit. With the same voracious appetite she’d had in the diner where they’d met Zenkichi, Geralt tore into the salted rations she had, her stomach settling somewhat after all of the beatings she’d taken. Taking a deep breath, she decided to test out the ability she’d seen Ishmael using, and transformed into LCCB Assistant Manager form, her armor, swords and bows transforming into a riot shield, pistol, and riot gear. “Interesting.” She stated simply, before transforming back. “I’ll have to take care to use that efficiently.”
After a moment, Sandalphon gingerly lifted a hand to her face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, much to her own surprise. “...Strange.” Eyebrows scrunched together, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, one and then the other. The flow quickly began to slow down, but for now the tears kept coming. They dripped down from her jaw and onto her shirt, prompting the archangel to dab at them with her sleeve.
Geralt frowned at that, though she knew spirit fusion often entailed changes in personality, it was strange to see the normally-impassive seeming angel openly weep. “Everything alright? Fusing with two at once might have been a bit ambitious…”
Wiping away the last few tears, Sandalphon nodded, her breath wavering just a little. Her pupils had become stress marks. “I think so. For some reason…I was thinking of the others. Raphael, Gabriel, Raziel…their sigilbound humans as well, all of them. Especially Regina, my own partner. And…Metatron most of all. My sister, dearly departed. I think of them often, but…” She shook her head, her eyes closed. “I find myself missing them. Quite a lot.”
She inhaled deeply through her nose, then cleared her throat. When she opened her eyes, her pupils were back to normal, and she then looked around. “Quite the shift in perspective. As impressive as my stature was, I do not regret becoming shorter. This world was not made with giants in mind. Coffee and honey will be more effective, for one. And I can actually use this.” Sandalphon unslung the sniper rifle she’d gained last night, and when she handled it she found herself much more appropriately sized for its use. If Geralt looked closely, she could see her smile. Once she put the Eye of Sol away, Sandalphon looked up at Geralt, her expression ever-so-slightly curious. “Quite the change, yourself.”
“Looking for my daughter, myself. Had just found her, just stopped the people hunting her when Galeem did…all this. Massive pain in my ass..” Geralt sighed. Looking back at Sandalphon, she chuckled a little. “Yes. To be honest, I enjoyed being larger somewhat, though those complaints about the world not being made with larger folk in mind are too true.” She admitted, looking over her gear. “I’ll miss the intimidation factor, though. And the sheer weight behind my swings.” Still, at least she would fit a little better in doors now. “And if you would believe it, this isn’t the first time fusing with a Spirit put a hole in my armor for the world to see my chest better. This time it has a shirt, at least…”
Sandalphon listened, unblinking, as Geralt mentioned her own loved one and then provided her perspective. It sounded like they could both sympathize with one another. More than that, though, her anecdote about her armor piqued the archangel’s interest. “The logic that governs fusion is fascinating. I cannot fathom it myself. Given the sheer potential it offers, I would be very interested in studying its workings.” From the outside this exchange might seem like a waste of time, given what was going on in Arahabaki, but both of them definitely needed this breather to keep operating at peak efficiency. Still, they’d probably waited long enough. “That is a matter for another time, however. Since I have not been called for help so far, I assume the others are well. Let us then proceed to our objective.” Identifying the bridge from this module that would take the two closer to Arahabaki’s central pillar, she took a couple steps before slowing and turning around. “Oh, I should say. Good job back there, Geralt. I look forward to working with you further.”
Geralt nodded in agreement with Sandalphon’s views on fusion, though she’d personally seen much of its downsides as well. “I can’t wait to show you the Breaching Bastion.” She mentioned, turning to the bridge to the center. “Thank you. Feel like I got given the runaround for a while, but we made it to the other side of that fight in one piece. And that’s the most important thing. That healing you can give is quite a boon, I’ll say.” Taking a deep breath, she continued onward towards the central pillar.
By the time Sectonia got thrown through the air, Nadia was close enough to act. “Enough already!” she cried, pumping out blood to create a Hydro Mimic of a familiar, greatsword-wielding berserker. “Just call it a knight!” Her Artorias mimic leaped forward with his trademark somersault to bring down a heavy slash on Robin’s stomach area. The feral slid to a stop beneath it and hyperextended both legs in an upward kick that blew through the mimic’s back, covering Robin’s chest in her own blood. Her Charge turned her into a lightning tiger that blitzed through the archangel and burst through his back. Lightning reacted with hydro to form electro-charged, and as the sparks flew she twisted around to execute Battery by way of a Curtain Shredder drop slash. “It’s curtains!” The respectable burst of damage made Robin stagger forward for a brief moment, after which he unceremoniously raised one leg and kicked Nadia in the stomach. “MEOWCH!” As she stumbled back, two more of the diamonds in Robin’s halo lit up for a total of four.
Bowser, who had been in the middle of picking himself up, promptly went ”Gah!” as the sleeping form of Sectonia came flying at him and promptly floored him again. He grumbled in complaint, and promptly hauled her off of himself so he could actually get up while complaining about this being no time for beauty sleep.
Once he was up he turned as he heard a call of ”Sire! Throw her over here,” from Kamek, who was gesturing at two of his toady minions.
Rather than question how they were going to carry the big bee, the king simply did this without a thought, hauling the queen up and then hurling her in the intended direction. Her large form should have squished the floating minions like bugs, had Kamek not thrust out his wand, chanted ”compound eyes, transportable size!” and cast a shrinkification spell on her as she flew, resulting in a much smaller and more portable bee who the pair caught with ease, and proceed to transport her the same way others had Jr.
”Owwww!” Jr complained as he rubbed his freshly stomped face ”What you do that for! We’re on the same team right now!”
"Not’a so" the plumber who had performed a little spin before landing to now face Jr’s again replied, before declaring "Im-a take you down!" and then running forwards to give the prince another stomp.
This time, hearing the run up and the following "Hup!" the prince ducked, bringing his spikes up defensively, wrestling in the plumber landing right on them with a cry of pain.
”That’s what you get for messing with me!” Jr shouted, before popping out of his shell and starting to demand ”Now stop this before-” getting confused when he found the plumber lying motionless on the ground ”huh?”
The prince poked him a few times, giving a very confused ”Mario?” not understanding that the hero had died in a single hit. Before he could understand this however, a familiar silhouette jumped up onto one of the walls of the arena, only this one was wearing white and red instead of blue and red.
"It’sa me!" declared mario number 2, this one empowered by a fire flower, before he started bouncing around and hucking flaming balls at the very confused prince.
With the queen being transported after Jr, and thus out of the room and into the middle of a pile of drybones acting as a unliving walls, the two koopas nodded at each other and then focused back on the fight. They were joined in this focus by Rika, who had got her gauntlets back on at last, and who promptly noted the obvious yet awful truth which was ”So is it just going to keep knocking people out?”
”It seems so, so speed is of the essence” the mage assessed, before declaring ”So let’s pull everything out of the bag”
His first step to this was summoning all of his strikers. Quiet and then end promptly opened fire on the titan with their rifles of the lethal and nonlethal variety, while the small green knife armed lizard that was the tonberry started slowly waddling after Robin, with no hope of reaching his evasive form.
”Ah, do you mind delivering that for me?” the mage asked, which got a nod from Rika, who just assumed this was a good idea rather than questioning what the little creature could do. She promptly scooped the striker up in ome massive hand and held it under one arm before dashing forwards.
Not towards Robin directly however, but towards Bowser, at whom she shouted ”Give me a boost!” before firing her grapple at him, and rapidly closing the gap. The king was momentarily confused, but caught on just in time, putting both hands together so she could step into them, before hurling her through the air towards their foe in a team jump maneuver.
Maneuvering thrusters flared as she jetted forwards, followed by her grappling to Robin himself. She winched forwards, launching a distracting swarm of flashing electrical motes as she flew to throw off her foe’s accuracy as she approached, and then should she get in close enough, hold the tonberry striker up to his form so it could stab him. Robin wasn’t stupid, though. Once Rika grappled onto its arm, its gaze turned on the incoming threat, and even she deployed some firefly-like distractions, Robin could tell where she was coming from by tracing her grapple line. It yanked its arm to throw off Rika’s timing, then lashed out with a giant backhand.
In danger, she released the grapple, then fired her rigging disruption cannons to blast herself back with the recoil, while also squeezing her featherfall rune to fire her upwards and out of immediate danger. Unable to be delivered, the tonberry fell to the ground, transferring a little damage to Kamek. Since it hadn’t attacked yet though, it continued to stay active, now much closer to its target.
Rika’s retreat would be covered by Bowser, who, after punching his shell to smash it and give himself an attack and speed boost at the cost of armor, rushed in to take another swing at their foe. As he tried to deliver another leg beat down, he’d summon Marie Korbel, former skullgirl, to raise a wall of skeletons behind Robin to restrict his movements, before blasting him with a volley of flaming skulls.
Once it was clear that Kamek had a handle on defending their sleeping comrades, Primrose left him to it. She could cast her magic while aiding in said defense, but that wasn't what she wanted to do. She needed to go on the attack more aggressively, not just to put a stop to the mule-headed menace as quickly as possible but to release the frustrated tension that she'd built up since its appearance. Though there were better uses for her skills, and allies that she could help out in battle, her sights were set squarely on the archangel.
She moved in, avoiding the battles with Oberon and Titania when they got too close. She collected her lance from where it had fallen and rushed towards Robin. When she used her Ravaging Confession again to teleport behind the angel, she expected him to see her coming and avoid the back attack. She used it anyway to get in close that much sooner, risking retaliation to use her Rites of Termination and summon a large, shadowy lance down on top of Robin.
Unlike Jr. who had a clearly defined nemesis, Sectonia wasn’t as fortunate. As she slept her dream had her in roughly the same room, but fighting a shadow that seemed to shift between a blob and someone wielding a hammer. The star warrior of pop star, who would have been a thorn in her side in her plans of conquest.
Being an enemy Sectonia didn’t know made fighting this apparition strange. While she could strike at it, either her magic would hit or the apparition would morph out of the way dodging the hit entirely as its nebulous shape changed. And not having a voice, it was completely silent, short of how it moved.
It was frustrating that even its attacks were amorphous, coming in for a swing of its hammer, only to have that hammer move around her sword guard and hit her with a fist. Being asleep was something she really, really didn’t like in this case, but beating this apparition was the way to wake up? So annoying, she’d blast that creature when she was out of this…
From nearby came the angry roar of a newly-enraged Ganondorf. The radiation damage had largely ceased by now, but the man was wildly swinging his swords around himself as a result of the confusion he was inflicted with. But now that, too, was wearing off. The Gerudo King was livid, practically seeing red as he set his sights squarely on Oberon. Unfortunately for the summoned warrior, Ganondorf was far more than just a mere bruiser. He summoned a fresh squad of Moblin archers and ordered them to open fire on Oberon. Then he summoned Riptor who immediately used her Mortar attack to lob a fireball at him, then vanished afterward as was the norm for Strikers. But the angry Ganondorf was far from done. He summoned Phantom Ganon and ordered him to float forward and begin hurling dark energy balls at Oberon as well. The warframe got moving, taking advantage of the various projectiles’ slow travel time to run out of their paths.
And then Ganondorf finally re-brandished his swords, ”DIE!” he roared as he charged forward in a dead sprint. The fire that Oberon was surrounded by did little to deter Ganondorf. Whatever radiation damage he suffered from getting close to Oberon was a price he was willing to pay. He lunged for Oberon and went for any and all openings to strike as he could possibly get. In this instance that wasn’t especially hard, thanks to the near constant cover fire the Gerudo King was given by his servants’ ranged attacks. Ganondorf’s attacks were aggressive and fueled by his own sheer rage. The building power in his Swords of Darkness was also proving to be a key factor in how he was hitting harder and with greater strength than previously.
For his part, Oberon fought defensively, bullet-jumping around his Hallowed Ground at high speed to keep his foes from pinning him down and let the radiation damage pile up. Ganondorf wasn’t veiling his anger at all, and if he’d gotten this mad after taking only a couple hits, Oberon was happy to exploit his blind fury. Rather than fight the warlord head-on he attacked mid-jump and with slam attacks, taking a couple sideswipes but avoiding much of Ganondorf’s fury while the green flames burned.
At one point while trading blows with Oberon, Ganondorf slammed his right hand sword into the ground, tip first. Then he tightened his hand into a fist and went for a powerful Warlock Punch directly at Oberon’s front. The attack was telegraphed enough for Oberon to raise his shield to absorb the blow, but Ganondorf did not rescind his attack. Instead Ganondorf’s Triforce shined with power and he just pressed the attack in an attempt to force through Oberon’s guard as well as his flames and at least knock him down if nothing else. No warframe worth his salt would ever stick around for such a laughably telegraphed attack, however. Rather than get in front of Ganondorf and wait for the Warlock Punch to hit his guard, Oberon slid away through the flames and switched weapons. His ivory-white Sybaris was a lever-action rifle with a two-round burst fire, and Oberon squeezed off shots whether sliding, running, or bullet jumping. Though he looked like a sturdy warrior, Oberon was still first and foremost, a ninja.
Although one that was hopefully still susceptible to an ambush. A white, black, and dusty blue blur shot towards Oberon from the room's shadows; Therion in his beast form, now appearing in battle himself since his striker's time had run out. In his jaws was the Kamura blade, with which he sought to cut a chunk out of the warframe. After the initial surprise attack, the thief's strategy defaulted to his familiar hit and run - trying to anticipate where Oberon would run to avoid Ganondorf, then intercepting him.
While Ganondorf dueled with Oberon and the others battled with Robin, that left Jesse to face Titania. When she dodged her second rock Jesse shifted behind a pillar to avoid the sniper shot, and moved out of cover to avoid the follow up grenade. During that time her Service Weapon reappeared in her hand. Going easy on the Paranatural powers to let her Energy recharge, she switched to Spin. Jesse opened up on Titania as she ran, aiming with one hand, spraying a large volume of bullets for her to avoid. Then she slid behind a fallen rock pillar and switched to Grip, putting out more accurate, more damaging shots at a semi-automatic rate of fire. Jesse would try to navigate to where she could put a pillar or some kind of debris between herself and Titania on a relatively short notice, staying on her feet instead of floating around like she usually did. All that would do would leave her more exposed to fire.
The shootout between the two quickly picked up in both speed and intensity, becoming a high-octane shootout and a race to see whether Jesse or Titania could pick the other gunslinger off first. Though the FBC director had seldom been truly threatened by her fights throughout the World of Light thus far, she quickly realized that this enemy would give her a run for her money. Titania moved at blistering speeds, not just bullet-jumping and aim gliding through the air much faster than Jesse herself could hover, but changing direction on a dime. This made the warframe hard to hit, even with the sheer output of Spin–and that firing mode’s innate spread didn’t help, either. Even when Jesse switched to Grip for crucial accuracy, the shots she landed exposed a new problem: the fact that Jesse wasn’t the only one around with a rechargeable personal shield. If the redhead didn’t place her shots consistently, Titania’s energy shield would just refill itself. Worse still, the warframe stole her strategy of hiding behind the underground chamber’s many columns to give her shields that exact opportunity. Both sharpshooters could do this; the difference was that Titania could also use those moments to shoot at the Seekers fighting Robin Goodfellow, her Corinth shotgun blindsiding them with chunks of damage. Still, Titania wasn’t going to settle for a stalemate with Jesse for long. She kept an eye on Robin, waiting for an opportunity.
At this point, Robin definitely needed her help. After Nadia opened it up with a flurry of attacks, her allies followed suit. Knowing the sting of Bowser’s blows, the archangel tried to backpedal away from him, only to run into a wall of bones brought forth by the Koopa King’s Marie striker. Taken by surprise, Robin got battered by the former Skullgirl’s fusillade of skulls. Primrose surged forward in the wake of the skeletal tide, and this time Robin stepped forward to give the dancer a bone-crushing kick. Instead she vanished and reappeared behind its back, a shadowy slash to his ankles both boosting her critical chance and precipitating a cross-shaped spear of darkness from above. The Dark Lance both pierced its eldritch form and continued to release bursts of pitch-black miasma for a short time, keeping the archangel occupied long enough for Primrose’s friend to lend a hand.
“Tagging in!” White hair streaming behind her, Nadia leaped in after Primrose brought down the Dark Lance to keep the combo going. She flew in and sunk her claws into Robin’s arm, using her momentum to swing around it like a gymnast’s high bar. On the third revolution she let go and flew upward, avoiding Robin’s angry thrash just in time, then airdashed toward his head on jets of blood. She landed a quick three-hit air combo, leaped away, and detached her head to launch toward the archangel with Cat Spike. “Service with a smile!” Her long hair hardened as her head flew, becoming a huge buzz saw that sliced into her target’s chest. As it lost momentum, New Moon activated on the final hit for a burst of damage, and both feral and head fell away. “Saw right through you!”
There. Turning away from Jesse, Titania extended her hand toward Kamek and cast Lantern. A swarm of razorflies immediately coated the magikoopa’s body, creating an irresistible floating beacon. The eyes of every Seeker present were riveted to that spot, and anyone drawn to Kamek within the next ten seconds would also fall victim to the razorflies’ eventual detonation. In quick succession, three things happened. First, Oberon cast Renewal, releasing waves of nature’s power to restore health to himself and Robin, who was within its range. The next second, Robin cast Fairy Dust, instantly plunging Nadia into sleep. Finally, Robin cast Night Mare. A dark presence manifested around all three sleepers, and when horrific eyes stared out from that abysmal miasma, all of them took a chunk of unavoidable damage. As the archangel laughed, two more diamonds appeared in its halo. Six out of ten.
”What’s this?” Kamek exclaimed, confused as his body was surrounded by a swarm of strange bugs, ones that oddly enough they seemed to be doing nothing but being rather freaky.
”You alright Kamek?” Rika called over from where she had landed after bailing out on the attempted tonberry delivery run.
”Seems so, which is its own kind of concerning” he replied, before deciding that ”So I shall back off and prepare for the worst”
To do so the mage first teleported back up to the top floor of the prison, and then used the rather long period before detonation to create 4 copies of himself (which the flies promptly spread doo, giving warning of how they worked). He then proceeded to turn 3 into green mages, which promptly stacked defense buffs on him, along with a white mage which healed up the damage he’d taken from the failed tonberry attack. When the lantern finally exploded, it did so in a larger area than he expected, but with all his preparation the blast was entirely manageable.
He wasn’t the only one able to restore himself unfortunately, as the Oberon warframe promptly showed off by restoring both it and its master’s health. Rika, despite having befitited from this many battles before, considered this most unfair, and promptly switched targets, maneuvering thrusting into the fray alongside Ganondorf with a call of ”Backing you up!”
Her medium of doing so was to go all guns blazing, gauntlets held up with palms facing forwards, unleashing blasts of burning goop that detonated in mid air, rifle fire, while her rigging blasted out disruption globs, and her hangers unleashed a swarm of shocking bugs. Alongside her she deployed her cloyster striker, which added a rapid fire burst of 5 icicle spears to the mix. The ensuing barrage caught Oberon as he went to resume his dance with Ganondorf, landing a handful of status-inducing shots. With his Sybaris still in his hands instead of Silva & Aegis,the warframe couldn’t block, instead rolling away from Rika’s onslaught.
Somewhere in between Therion and Rika’s interventions, Ganondorf felt himself approaching his last legs. Just being in proximity to Oberon incurred near constant radiation damage. And adding on top whatever attacks Oberan landed, it all left the Gerudo King finally beginning to reconsider his strategy or lack thereof. For a moment he considered assuming his true form, but decided against it - not wanting to waste it on a warframe that at the end of the day was just a peon to the main enemy. So instead he quickly pulled out his last strong instant health potion and downed it. That at least undid a lot of the damage he’d suffered. But he didn’t go back on the attack, Ganondorf instead finally cooling off, choosing to reassess the situation.
With Kamek protecting himself and Rika switching targets, that left only Bowser out of the Troop still facing Robin, and his own back up dropped by one when Nadia was put to sleep.
The king promptly caught her with a ”I got you” before she fell apart on the floor, and then after realizing Kamek wasn’t around to order his toadies about, used his trowlon striker as a self propelled stretcher, laying her on it and then having it fly over to the area the sleepers where being stored. Of course, now he and the others knew that Robin could hurt every sleeper no matter where they were, and that realization spurred the Seekers to action.
Then he promptly slammed his fist into his own shell, causing glowing cracks to form all over it as he gave up defense for offense, and then re-engaged Robin with a new and surprising burst of speed, mixing up claw swipes followed by bursts of fire breath. While the King tried to blitz down their foe, the entirely forgotten by everyone Tonberry had picked itself up, and began to waddle towards that same foe, it’s deceptively plain knife raised to strike just as soon as it caught up.
”Why won’t you stay dead! How many one ups did you farm?!” Jr yelled horsley, while surrounded by dead marios. Yet the 2 hit wonder still kept coming, this latest one sliding in on his belly wearing a penguin suit, avoiding the metal spike Jr had fired at him the moment he had sensed movement in the process.
Then the plumber hopped to his feet, and began to hurl ice balls at the prince, freeze-burning his scales before he formed an iron shield to protect himself. Unfortunately raw iron was very conductive, and just like the fireballs before them, it rapidly shifted temperature, cooling immensely and rapidly sapping the strength from his arm far faster than it should. Unable to hold it up, the prince was quickly prevented from keeping up this guard, his shield dropping to the ground, and arm to his side, completely limp from fatigue.
The rest of his body wasn’t doing much better, but he still pushed himself to keep fighting. He leapt to try and get away from the frost balls, and as he flew through the air he breathed in, charging fire, before spitting a fireball back at the plumber when he landed.
It missed.
Agile as ever, the plumber leapt over the shot and up onto a low wall, which he began running along while continuing to try and pelt the prince with ice shots. The prince was forced to duck behind another one to avoid being frozen to death. Once behind it he grabbed his frozen arm, shaking it violently in an attempt to get it to work again, before shoving frostbitten fingers into his mouth and burning them with his own fire.
When the plumber slid around the corner, he came face to face with a prince holding a ruined hand with the other, and then face to face with a burst of metal shrapnel. With a distinctive wup wup wup the plumber lost his power up, but was not dissuaded, instead coming at the prince with first and boot till a lucky claw swipe took him down.
Panting hard, one arm dead from fire, ice, and mana burn, the prince tried to use his other to hold himself up, only to fail and slump against the wall. In no state to face the latest Mario, this one accompanied by eight mini hims and yet even so, he tried to push himself up with a near inaudible taunt of ”come on, whats, what’s nine more?” only for his arm to give out, along with his body.
The prince fell to the floor, consciousness fading … and then he woke up.
For once, Nadia failed to land on her feet. Before she even hit the ground, a terrible heaviness settled over her, far weightier and more inescapable than gravity. It felt like sinking deep underwater, or being blackout drunk, as her muscles went slack for want of oxygen and her mind shut down. In a way, it was a great relief, all her pain and stress sliding away into a sweet oblivion. Then she smacked into the floor, and though her general numbness masked the pain somewhat, the impact was sudden and surprising to bring her to her senses and jolt her awake.
Or was she awake? The sounds of magic, technology, and battle had instantly given way to a dreadful silence. Raising her head from where she’d fallen, Nadia opened her eyes and recognized nothing. Though still underground, and reminiscent of a prison, she’d wound somewhere new. Or more accurately, she’d been sent somewhere new. For a moment her memory had been hazy as her mind struggled to recollect itself, but the details of the fight with Robin Goodfellow quickly came back. He did something to her, that much was clear. On high alert, she picked herself off the ground, scoping out the area. It looked to her almost like some kind of arena, surrounded by a couple levels of cell block. There were no guards or prisoners, though. She could hear nothing but the tense inhale and exhale of her own breath, and see no movement except motes of dust in the air. Though the more she peered at them rather than past them, those motes seemed strange. They shone softly, and they bore beautiful, intricate geometric patterns, rather like snowflakes. The more Nadia thought and remembered, the more sure she felt. “Is this…am I dreaming?”
“You’d have to be.” A cruel, smug, teasing voice. Delivered with an air of upper-class sophistication and superiority. Nadia turned in an instant. Second ago there had definitely been nobody there, and she hadn’t even heard the disturbed air currents of an aerial approach, but now a woman leaned against the wall. She wore a black cocktail dress, a cape shaped like a doily, a white opera glove on one arm and a huge drum-fed shotgun on the other. Behind her dark veil, a vicious smile that sent an icy chill down Nadia’s spine, freezing her in place with a look of unmasked horror on her face. “Poor little alley cat. How long has it been since I filleted that family of yours? Yet here you are. The one who got away.” Pushing herself off the wall, she put one hand on her hip and swaggered forward, slowly. “You know, if they really meant that much to you, why didn’t you hunt me down? An avenging daughter, dead set on righteous retribution…yet you never even tried. You just frittered away your carefree days in Little Innsmouth with other Dagonians.” She stopped, putting her hand in front of her veiled face as she tittered. “Heehee. Did I really scare you that badly? Or…did you just not care? This fish or that fish, it’s all the same to a cat, isn’t it? Whatever nets you a full-!”
“MRRRAH!” Nadia hurled herself forward, her face one of abject hatred. Black Dahlia turned, bringing her cape up as a shield, and as Nadia’s claws sliced through it she teleported a couple dozen feet away. “SHUT UP! I’m not scared of you! I’ll kill you, right here, right now!” Nadia was screaming, spittle flying as she charged in incoherent rage. “I’ll slice you to pieces and make you BEG for it!” Dahlia produced a handful of giant shotgun shells, flipped them into the air, and caught them in her gun to load it. Behind her veil was a nasty grin, but Ms Fortune wasn’t smiling.
Primrose's gaze had been fixed to Nadia as she succumbed to sleep, then forcibly to the afflicted shining form of Kamek. Once the Koopa left, she could refocus on their enemies in the room. She blinked away the bright spots from her eyes, noted that Bowser had got Ms. Fortune out of the immediate danger zone, and turned right back around to face Robin once more. The Seekers had been sustaining damage, herself included from the pot shots Titania had been sending their way, and many of their healing sources were asleep or gone at the moment. That power Robin had used on the sleeping was particularly worrisome. Primrose remained, and with a dance she could spread the healing flame of Warmth to all of her allies... if doing that had crossed her mind at all. She wasn't in quite such a rage as Ganondorf, but she was single-mindedly focused on taking down the archangel all the same. His defeat would mean he would be unable to keep casting his tricks. Her eyes flickered to the diamonds collecting around his head, and though unsure what they meant the mystery didn't dissuade her from attacking.
She called on her magic again, this time while Boosting herself. Her body's glow flickered against the shadows in her hand. Her arm trembled with the effort of condescending and empowering her magic.
New Strength: Dark Magic Mastery. The power and potency of Primrose's innate dark elemental spells has increased. She also has gained access to the spells Dirge of Dusk (deals dark element damage to a foe up to 3 times and lowers their resistance to dark element) and Spell Song (deals dark element damage to all foes in a wide area and lowers their physical and magical defenses). ***
The shadows surged into each other, creating three dark spheres by way of the spell Dirge of Dusk overhead. Primrose released her hold on them, flinging her hand forward as though she was throwing them at Robin, and the spheres obeyed. "Suffer!" The stygian orbs, heavy and thick as the night itself, crashed against Robin’s form, threatening to smother him in darkness.
Therion gladly let Rika take his place facing off against Oberon, shifting targets himself to the other warframe after being freed from the lantern spell's pull. He sprinted around the long way towards Titania, intending to flank her while Jesse, the only other Seeker engaging her, was on her other side. His feline body propelled him along all the faster, and when he leapt at Titania it was with blade brandished and the claws on both his paws extended to maximize the slashes aimed at her.
From what he'd seen so far, both warframes were incredibly quick - enough so to evade and be able to recover afterwards. Hopefully more pressure from more combatants could better break through their defense, even if it did mean less people contending with the archangel. Restricting their movements was another option. Therion followed through with his attack on Titania by stowing the blade, rounding on her again. He bared his fangs, reared up and let out a loud, paralyzing roar.
Having noticed Therion incoming, Jesse shifted so that she was on the exact opposite side of Titania. The Warframe was fast no doubt, but Jesse could cover a short gap nearly instantly with Evade. Jesse was glad to have the help because while she was holding her own, she wasn’t able to stop Titania from shooting at her allies. Jesse ripped a heavy chunk of pillar up and then let it float by her menacingly. Titania knew the Launched projectiles could barely be dodged on reaction. And Jesse was only going to Launch it once Therion had done his work, or Titania had somehow avoided it.
Not knowing what this warrior of the lower realm was, Sectonia was just fighting shadows. Even if she crushed it with her lightning or her axe, it would just dissipate into shadow to coalesce into another shape and begin again. And when she summoned her Antlers to fight it, she just found that was a poor choice as the hero’s shadow would swoop in and absorb one of them, gaining its elemental powers and using them against the Queen.
”How many times must I crush you before this ends?” Sectonia said, her various defensive powers gained from the objects and spirits she had absorbed so far making her tougher for this shadow to take out, although unknown to her, this was just making her sleep for longer. And this seemingly endless battle vs what was an inscrutable foe was making her extremely angry.
Titania had a lot going for her, but battlefield awareness wasn’t necessarily one of them. Unlike Oberon, she hadn’t been summoned here to heal or protect Robin Goodfollow. Her role was the hunter, weakening his attackers one by one before going in for the kill. That meant zeroing in on her target of choice, even if Jesse was taking more time to chew through than she thought. That also meant that when a second vicious tiger jumped Titania out of the blue, she did not see him coming. While she was busy taking potshots at Jesse, Therion’s cutting edges carved into her as he struck her in passing. Though his slashes didn’t reach her bio-metal exoskeleton, they just about wiped out her shield. As the two rounded one another, the barrel of Titania’s Corinth shotgun a deadly promise the moment it aligned with Therion’s chest. In the nick of time the thief managed to save his own skin by paralyzing his foe at the speed of sound, which left her at a standstill just long enough for Jesse to pound her with a slab of rubble.
That hefty projectile did a lot of damage, blowing through the remnants of Titania’s shield and way into her health. It also knocked her down, even if she sprang back up with an ukemi the next moment. Wanting to avoid more hits like that, she began to pick up speed right away. Faced with two agile and punishing opponents, she used Tribute to extract a buff from Therion. The ability dealt a little damage and gave her Dust, which would passively decrease the accuracy of her enemies for the next twelve seconds. Corinth in hand, she began to fire off explosive grenades to keep her enemies on their toes without having to aim as she built up momentum.
Though the sight of seeing their hard work undone might induce despair in the average fighter, the Seekers were not dissuaded by Oberon’s healing. If anything, his Renewal galvanized them into attacking all the more viciously. Bowser slashed Robin’s papery form with raking claws and scorched it with guttural flame, followed shortly by the threefold dark eruption of Primrose’s Dirge of Dusk. Yet, strange as it might seem, that all paled in comparison to what happened the moment Robin stepped up to take its turn. The tiny, unassuming green goober summoned so long ago had finally reached its target, and once the tonberry lifted its carving knife, it stabbed the blade into Robin’s hoof.
The disproportionate burst of damage that caused was enough to stagger Robin, bringing the archangel to its knees even if just for a moment. That assault more than made up for Oberon’s healing, leaving Robin at about half health. For the moment though, that was all. With Sectonia, Junior, and Nadia asleep, Kamek gone, and Therion, Ganondorf, Rika, and Jesse fighting the warframes, only Bowser and Primrose were left to oppose the main threat. After a moment Robin stood and took action. First it used Trick, randomly inflicting Resonance ⅓ on Bowser. For a brief moment a sensation of glasslike fragility coursed through his body, accompanied by the sound of vibrating glass. Then Robin glared at Primrose, and the dancer knew what was coming. A shower of Fairy Dust fell on her, and she plunged once more into the depths of sleep where her hated enemy awaited her. That left just one koopa standing against Robin as two more diamonds in its halo filled in. Now only two remained unlit.
Giovanna / Midna’s @DracoLunaris vs Erendira Quinn / Commando / Annette Durand / Parnell Word Count: 5,823 (+6)
Midna had dodged and weaved in pace with Giovanna, or rather her wolfos had, until they’d reached the conveyor belt. At that point, said wolfos got shown up by the agent’s own spectral wolf as she used it to burst ahead, while her own only made slow progress.
Fortunately, the princess had other options, and so promptly decided to approach the problem from outside of the design parameters, by hurling herself off of the side of the conveyor, and then being caught by a swooping flygon that had replaced her wolfos, and upon its back taking to the skies.
The pair swept forwards, rising up above the laser drones and blasting a few of them from on high to ease their allies running of the laser gauntlet, before swooping down to land down next to her. As she dismissed the flygon, Midna began to make a half jokey suggestion about Giovanna using the lovely little garden as a place to take a short rest, only to be interrupted when something came flying down from on high towards them.
Midna took a half step back, concerned that whatever it was might be a bomb, before glancing at Giovanna and then copying her nonplussed response, assuming that she knew what the pod’s deal was. She had to admit, she was still a bit surprised when it turned out to be a personnel deliverer, but her mask/helmet combo covered the accompanying look.
”Alive if we can?” she murmured in query to Giovanna as the bike wielding leader told them to stop or else, before summoning, catching, and starting to charge Hanabi’s old Prometheus polearm with electricity as her own equivalent of a taunt.
The secret agent shrugged casually. “Sounds like a lotta extra hassle.” Dealing with brainwashed allies and friends was one thing, but these goons were choosing to fight -and possibly kill- her of their own volition. Turning sideways, almost backwards, she raised her hands with fingers splayed like claws and gave her foes a sidelong glance. Rei swirled behind her, teeth bared. “I’m not that picky.”
”If we can” she reiterated. She wasn’t going to risk much, but there was an opportunity to disarm, or simply cripple and then run, she’d take it.
Seeing the two ready to fight, Quinn turned up her nose. “Hmph. Very well. I don’t mind doing this the hard way.” Couching her lance in the crook of her left arm, she extended her right with a dramatic flourish. Behind her, the Commando flicked the safety off his machine pistols, while Parnell pumped his meaty-looking shotgun and Annette powered up her scatter laser. “Brynhildr!” Erendira cried, springing into the air. Beneath her, a wellspring of cosmic pink and blue energy manifested a sleek, supernatural motorcycle. When Erendira landed in the seat its engine roared and it shot forward in a burst of speed, an opalescent shield conjured before it. As Parnell and the others sprinted behind it, the enemy team’s tank raced across the battlefield with lance extended to scatter their opponent’s formation and leave them wide open.
”Two can play at that game” Midna countered, summoning and mounting her wolfos steed with a burst of more subtle twilight glow. Then with electrically thrumming bo staff tucked under one shoulder, she counter charged, facing the biker to an impromptu joust that was entirely out of place.
Said glorious bout was sadly interfered with when Annette thrust a seemingly empty hand towards Midna, or, rather, her steed, causing the wolfos to stumble for a moment as its mind was assailed by hallucinations. With the princess’s urging and tugs on its fur, it had enough confidence to charge on relatively blindly, but its mind was now ripe for further interference.
It certainly wasn’t in a state to react to the Commando bashed one of his guns into one of several launchers he had strapped to his back, specifically one that was inexplicably made of cardboard where as the rest where much sleeker and modern. The built it yourself launcher proceeded to spit out a volley of 12 missiles that flew over the head of his charging comrade, and towards both of the seekers.
While some dived down towards Midna, who had to manually tug her steed to and fro to barely avoid them (but not the edges of their splash radii which clipped her steed) the rest flew onwards and then down towards Giovanna.
Part of Gio had wanted to jump astride her own lupine companion and charge at Erendira alongside Midna for a clash of epic proportions, but she wasn’t impulsive enough to heed that urge. Besides, she boasted neither a long lance nor an energy shield, so she didn’t feel confident giving the enemy tank a run for her money. Still, that motorcycle was badass, and as Gio dashed after Midna she kept her eyes on the opposition. If she intended to back her partner up, though, the Commando’s Seeker-seeking missiles further solidified Midna’s lead by forcing Gio to slide to a stop and block, which meant that when the two frontrunners came together, she couldn’t do much about what happened next.
Erendira’s lance had the range and accuracy advantage in a situation tailor-made for thrust attacks, and any hope that Midna and her off-kilter mount might have of landing a counterhit came to an end against Brynhildr’s shield. The lance pierced the chest of the wolfos, turning its forward momentum into extra damage as Erendira lifted it off the ground. It flipped over and landed on its back, dragged across the artificial rock garden’s rough surface for a couple dozen feet before Erendira raised her lance to send the poor beast flying.
“Sheesh.” Giovanna zig-zagged to avoid the makeshift projectile as she darted in, getting closer. Seeing her, Erendira swerved in order to drift straight into the secret agent with Brynhildr’s chassis. Gio narrowly jumped in time to avoid the maneuver, side-flipping right over Erendira’s head and striking a three-point landing on the motorcycle’s other side a second later. Her opponent came to a momentary stop out of melee range, but Gio had a way to hit her. She slammed the ground with a Seismic Hammer to cause a shockwave explosion beneath Brynhildr, but the move failed to unseat its rider. Engines revved, Erendira sped toward her. When Gio jumped, planning to bring down a dive kick and knock her foe from her seat Erendira eased off the gas and thrust her lance upward. It stabbed into Gio’s stomach, and Erendira performed a spin to whirl the agent around before launching her off the lance. She hit the ground and tumbled back onto her feet, one hand on her stomach. “Urk.”
She ended up practically back to back with Midna, who was a bit roughed up from the unhorsing, as well as, thanks to portal shenanigans, the princess’ equally chest stabbed Wolfos.
”Not the best start, so time flip the hourglass and start over” she declared, as she summoned her skywave striker, which immediately turned its gun to the floor and started a three shot volley of healing blasts. They needed to stick together to get optimum use of this however, which meant the enemy runners had plenty of time to close in. In response she brought out Roadblock, who raised a shield just in time to block a volley of pistol bullets, shotgun shrapnel, and a spread shot of laser blasts from them.
From behind that cover, the princess returned fire using less than accurate pistol fire followed up by a twilight volleybomb that prompted the trio of close range assault specialists to scatter and take individual more covered protected approaches. All three took at least a little damage from the arcane explosion, so Parnell got a head start on healing. Mutagen Shotgun at the ready, he held his fire to wait for an opportunity to deal some of his own and charge his Heal Burst.
This barrier did nothing to cover them from the bike riding Erendira however, who was in a perfect position to rear charge Midna’s defensive position. Knowing this, Giovanna turned to face her, a more serious than usual expression on her face. As crazy as work got for the Special Operations Unit, this was something she hadn’t trained for. Rather than charge straight at her, though, Erendira performed a wheelie and jumped her bike into the air with its rear tire engulfed in flame. “Better move.” Unable to protect Midna, she could only save herself by dashing away, and Erendira descended atop her motorcycle like a miniature meteor.
After the fiery impact she bounced twice, chasing Gio down as the Commando peppered her with bullets. That’s where Erendira got a little overzealous, though. On the second bounce Gio got a bead on the timing, then leaped up toward the threat rather than dodging away. She met her foe in the air, vaulted around Brynhildr’s chassis with one hand, and did an airthrow. Her legs locked around Erendira’s neck and she twisted around, hurling the surprised woman off her ride and into the ground. The moment she landed she cannoned forward with a Trovão flying kick, only for Erendira to right herself and resummon her motorcycle in front of her like a shield. As such Gio’s kick only knocked her back a little, and as the agent rose, Erendira mounted up. Unable to focus on one enemy like this, Giovanna clicked her tongue and dashed over to take cover behind a rock monument.
”Goddesses this is not going smoothly” Midna complained through clenched teeth, having resisted some but not nearly all of the fire damage thanks to a charm on her rosary. Her wolfos really wasn’t doing well either, as she’d only managed to get limited healing off before their skywave got blown away by the flaming impact. At least Roadblock was still up, though it was about to not be.
”Ok, time to switch this up” Midna said to herself, intending to switch out the wounded minion for something more durable that would actually have her back. Yet instead of hopping down into the portal she opened, her wolfos turned its now much to wide eyes upon her instead.
The princess barely got a moment to go ”Huh?” before her own minion lunged towards her suddenly, jaw opening wide before it sunk its teeth into one of her arms. Fortunately it managed to grab a magical instead of a fleshy one, but she was still too surprised and confused to react for a moment.
Then the shield dropped as Roadblock timed out, and she was in trouble. She struggled and punched her beast on the snout to no avail, before remembering that the arm that was being bitten wasn’t real. She canceled the spell, freeing herself even as she grabbed a nearby bolder with her shadow hand, and used it to haul herself up and out of reach.
The confusion as to what was going on was resolved by Annette, who, after Parnell forced the princess to drop down behind the rock to avoid being riddled with shotgun pellets, did a gesture akin to pulling on a lash towards wolfos, before pointing and sending the mind controlled beast running around the flank of the server towards the princess.
”Goddess curse psychics, down thing!” Midna shouted, jabbing her own minion with her bo staff, delivering a painful electric shock. As its mind was not its own however, the wolfos had zero survival instincts, and indeed it was to Annette’s benefit when it did get hurt, and so it came on still. Only a blast of sand to foul its vision prevented it from immobilizing her with another bite hold. Instead it just rammed into her, knocking her out of cover.
Both of them where promptly racked by pellets as the two shotgunners closed in for inorder to deliver more decisive close ranged kill shots. Cursing with pain, the princess opened another portal to summon her flygon, enlarged, which promptly grabbed her and soared through the air to deposit her at a different point of the battlefield, one conveniently near the rock Giovanna had just taken cover behind.
”She stole my wolfos!” she shouted to the other woman as an explanation as to why the beast was currently racing ahead of the two shotgun armed foes she’d just bailed on ”Also we need a plan!”
Giovanna’s gaze flickered toward the enemy team. Rather than speed her enemies’ way immediately, Erendira had picked up the Commando on her bike, then momentarily grouped up with the other two while Parnell switched out his shotgun for his rocket launcher. When he fired a single Generyst Rocket at his feet, it exploded in a burst of biotic energy, healing the whole team in an instant. Then they moved in, Erendira leading the charge with the Commando in tow, both protected by a barrier. “...No kidding.” Her mind was racing, trying to figure out an angle. She felt confident that she could outbox any one of these goons, but the biker would take some doing, and she couldn’t multitask. How would she get any of them on their own? Then she snapped her fingers. “If I can land a high kick on one of ‘em, I can take ‘em out. Guaranteed. Takes a whole second to do it though. Maybe you can grab one?”
And just like that, the two were out of time. A thin blue Phase Round shot straight Gio’s cover, missing her head by a hair. Her eyebrows shot up. “Huh.” Then Erendira zoomed in, circling around the pair’s cover. Sitting behind her, the Commando threw a frag grenade toward the Seekers, then opened fire at six rounds a second. “Tch.” Gio dashed out from her cover to avoid the grenade, right in front of Parnell. The futuristic paladin pulled the trigger, and while he stood a little outside his shotgun’s effective range, that blast still hurt. “Ugh.” She dashed toward him, then paused to block, rinse and repeat, but before she could reach him in this fashion Annette joined in. Then Gio was stuck blocking, the chip damage gnawing her health away.
”Knock them down! Midna commanded as she rolled to her feet, having leapt out of the way of the grenade. In response to her call, her 3 initiate strikers appeared, and then immediately retook the cover two of them had just abandoned, before charging up and then hurling psychic spears at the pair suppressing Gio. The mental attacks struck with surprising force, staggering the pair for a moment and cutting off their alternating shotgun blasts.
As they fired, the princess joined in on the spear tossing by hurling her boa staff at the incoming barrier protected duo, and though the impact was negated by their defenses, it prompted a trio of lighting bolts to strike down from the sky in front of it, bypassing the shield in the process.
Though she had briefly distracted the humans with mental and magical might, her wolfos was still part of their squad, and it came rushing in towards them on its own, still utterly uncaring about what little of its life remained. The most she was willing and able to do about that before it reached Gio was blast it with a sand attack to further foil its accuracy.
Given just enough of a reprieve to make a move, Giovanna picked her target and darted in. Going for the Annette meant that Parnell would be free to heal her, but that was better than getting double-teamed by two soldiers on offense. Plus, rattling the psychic might help Midna’s own wolf, who Gio definitely felt sorry for. The agent transferred her momentum to a speedy triple side kick as she leaned on Rei for support. Her pawprint shoe slammed into Annette’s belly, chest, and chin in quick succession, which flowed right into an upward crescent to pop the psychic off her feet. Parnell was coming, but Gio worked quickly, darting forward with her special dash Chave to flip forward into an enhanced Sol Poente. The ground bounce that caused allowed her to land and keep Annette juggled with a high knee, but a shotgun blast from her right suggested that she end the combo quickly. Gio knocked her foe away with a roundhouse, then turned to dash away from Parnell’s gunfire. She didn’t manage to avoid everything, but by zig-zagging the agent managed to close in on the healer in hopes of taking him out before Annette could stop her.
Meanwhile, the other two kept up the pressure on Midna. Still pretty comfortable even after the lightning strikes, the Commando kept on blasting, only pausing to fire off a defense-piercing Phase Round every three seconds. Erendira joined in with her own ranged attacks, first firing an aura spear from her gunlance, then sweeping her weapon to unleash a horizontal shockwave.
All but the piercing round slammed into an extended shadowhand Midna was using to ward herself, while that shot itself punched through, causing the princess to stumble and almost fall as she grappled with her Wolfos.
Then Erendira gunned Brynhildr to run Midna down, pincering the Twilight Princess between wolfos and motorcycle, yet at just that moment, Gio got her hands on Annette, pummeling the psychic enough to break her concentration. The wolfo’s to wide eyes returned to normal, and instead of continuing to try and bite her, its ears flopped down to its side and it emitted an apologetic whine as it tried to back away.
Midna didn’t have time to accept the apologies, instead shoving the beast down into a portal while she herself was launched upwards into the air via Skywave ascend, resulting in the pair going under and over the bike charge.
Unable to run her target down, and noticing Parnell possibly in trouble, Erendira broke it off and veered toward her teammates to assist while the Commando kept shooting at the princess as she and her striker reached the top of their arch.
Skywave dissipated under the hail, but rather than being left to fall, Midna was caught upon the back of her flygon who arrived via portal to replace the battered Wolfos. It immediately caught fire itself of course, but that caused it to emit bursts of homing needles that rained down on the two bike riders. The Commando returned fire, but without a shield to protect him from the back, he took a number of needles from the Flygon. It swooped down, almost matching the bike in speed for a moment, before slamming into the ground just behind it and quaking the earth around it with its impact. Thinking that Brynhildr was the target, the Commando planted his legs on the bike and leaped off, shooting down at the Flygon as he vaulted overhead. The impact unsteadied Erendira atop her motorcycle, causing her to swerve.
Ahead of them Annette picked herself up from her plumbing, and, having dropped her gun that was too short range to interrupt Gio’s charge of Parnell, reached out a hand towards her foe instead. Psychic energy leapt across the gap, sinking into Gio’s mind and battling her will for control of her fight or flight response, attempting to induce a brief but potent panic in her.
“Agh!” Giovanna stumbled, gripping her cranium. As close as she was to her target, she couldn’t suppress the urge to take cover, but with no hiding spots nearby she did the only thing she could: hunker down to block. Immediately Parnell laid into her defenses. His shotgun clicked empty, but right away he empowered himself with Righteous Fury, boosting his reload speed by 67% and his fire rate by a staggering 80%. The fusillade of shotgun shells started chewing through Gio’s guard with chip damage. Stuck in constant blockstun, she couldn’t stop Parnell using Heal Burst to patch up Annette either, were she even in the right mind to do so. Right now, there was only one thing she could do.
Gio unleashed her Burst. The omnidirectional blue wave radiated out from her, hitting Parnell and Annette right after. It didn’t hurt them whatsoever, but it completely broke their composure and knocked them down. That freed Giovanna not just from blockstun, but from the psychic’s panic. Even Erendira, already wobbling from the Flygon’s quake, had to slide to a halt. The tank wasn’t about to stop, though, and as she dismounted her bike she used her momentum to hurl Brynhildr right at Giovanna. “Whoa.” The agent threw herself sideways to avoid getting splattered, only to see Erendira resummon her daimon the next moment. “Man,” she groaned. Annette and Parnell (who still had his buff) were already back up, and now she had no burst. This way going poorly. Choosing the lesser of three evils, she dashed away from the gunners with Chave and toward Erendira, dodging her lance shots as she moved in. Hopefully Midna would see the chance for a pincer maneuver.
She did indeed, her flygon lunging forward, its claws glowing with purple draconic energy. The real prize, however, was a struggling captive commando who, having vaulted over said flygon, had failed to take into account its rider, who had lunged up and grabbed him out of the air with her shadow hand.
The two shotgunners where not happy to be left in the dust however, with Parnell firing a Generyst Rocket at the pincered Erendira in anticipation of the damage she was going to take, while Annette sent out the tendrils of another psychic attack at Gio, this one the same kind that had filled Midna’s wolfos’ mind with hallucinations.
Putting her faith in her teammates to deal with Giovanna, Erendira whipped around atop her bike with a swing of her lance to strike the flygon with an energy slash. That wasn’t enough to stop it though, and the pokemon pounced to return the favor twofold with its claws. Their struggle left her burned and torn, holding off the flygon’s claws with her lance held laterally for protection. Then Parnell’s rocket healed her, and she found the strength to push back. Brynhildr’s tires screeched as the lancer performed a flaming donut to slam the flygon with her motorcycle’s rear end, setting the ground alight as she did.
Once again, Gio found her assault cut short by the gunner’s interference. Her mind was not as weak as that of the wolfos, however, and the strength of her frustration helped her pushed back against the psychic attack. “Enough of this…” she growled, her jaw clenched against the pain as her vision swam. “Crap!” If she couldn’t fight Erendira like this, might as well go for the root of the problem. She brought her fist down in a EX Seismic Hammer, and the ground beneath Annette’s feet erupted. That knocked her down yet again, and Gio performed a high jump utilizing jets of air from her shoes, followed by a sigil-assisted airdash that kept her one step ahead of Parnell’s shotgun blasts. That left just one problem: Annette taking aim with her own firearm as Gio cruised in from above. She just needed to be faster.
“Fear on the wind.” Giovanna let loose Tempestade a little early, instantly altering her trajectory as she shot down with a supremely fast divekick. Rather than her target she hit the ground in front of her, but the shotgun blast went over her head, and Gio was in melee range at last. She immediately went with a low kick into low dust, and Annette hit the dirt yet again. Gio blocked a distant slug from Parnell, then hit Annette meaty as she tried to rise, sweeping her once more. Desperate not to take another humiliating, painful pratfall, Annette finally tried to defend her legs. In that full second of hesitation, Giovanna’s breathtaking charged high kick struck the psychic overhead and launched her like a baseball. Howling, Annette sailed into the sky, a swirling air current in her wake. “This is gonna hurt.” Gio smirked, crouched down, and soared after her.
With Gio having pivoted back to fight the shotgun toting pair, and apparently doing quite well, Midna was left holding the commando in her shadow hand with no one to land a high kick on him. Fortunately a different opportunity presented itself when her Flygon instinctively flapped back and away from the fire Erendira’s donut had produced, as the princess proceed to throw the commando down at his ally, and, in the process, the ring of fire she had just created.
Forced to catch her teammate lest he fall into her own hazard, the moment left Erendira vulnerable to Midna’s flygon slamming down into the ground again outside of said hazard to cause a second earthquake. As the ground shook and forced both foes to do nothing but hold on to the bike, Midna reached her shadowhand over to a nearby stream of coolant, dipped it in, and then surged the hand forwards, sending a wave of it splashing over pair, soaking and chilling them, while also extinguishing the flames.
The tremor dislodged the Commando, both from Erendira’s tenuous grip and the bike. He hit the ground, then got bruised black and blue as he bounced up and down. Brynhildr couldn’t stay upright, so its rider used her leg as a kickstand to try and stop a fall, which was painful. When the spray of coolant came, some of it splashed against Erendira’s weakened energy shield, icing it over like a windshield on a winter’s morning. As the chilled Commando got away with a tactical dive, Erendira wiped away her shield, leaving her open but able to see Midna as the screech of her tires drove her forward, lance first. High above, Gio went to work with uncommon gusto. Despite Annette’s best attempt to fight back, no amount of training could prepare her for this, and as she sailed through the air she took a rapid-fire barrage of kicks. Generyst Rockets from Parnell down below, more desperate than practical, whizzed by the two by a large margin as they flew. This damage was nothing to scoff at, but it wasn’t necessarily Gio’s end goal. After using up all her jumps between hits to keep her foe juggled, she finished with a stylish Burning Kick that blasted the psychic away in a burst of flame. Her trajectory took her over the edge of the rock garden module and over the long drop to Arahabaki’s jagged, piping-hot floor, turning a probable survival into certain doom. A second after Annette disappeared over the edge, Giovanna landed next to it, sliding up against the server rack wall. “Whew,” she sighed, turning around to find that she’d descended quite far from the action. “One down.”
Back in the action Erendira rammed head first into the summoned shield wall of Roadblock while Midna had her flygon steed leap to the side after the soaked in coolant Commando. In response to her doing so he fired a round that punched through both steed and rider, harming both, and earning him a shower of needles in the process. The damage that was caused was nothing compared to that he felt when the princess ripped a longsword out of nowhere in a crescent moon slash that flicked a bolt of lightning down atop of him.
Electricity arched over and through his coolant soaked suit from the first bolt, which was quickly followed up by a vortex of three pillars of lighting which spun around, trapping his body between them. As she maintained the storm assaulting the Commando, Midna’s flygon dropped into a portal beneath her, being replaced by her Darknut which arose to block the charging Erendira.
The biker was more than able to drive around this obstruction, only for the still summoned Roadblock to slam his shield behind her, drawing her attention. It was enough obstruction for the princess to burn through her power, leaving the unconscious body of the Commando to hit the floor.
Before Parnell could get a chance to revive him, the princess bodily leapt onto him, fingers glowing purple as she clawed and slashed at him, but not to end his life. Instead the rocket packs attached to his suit were severed, and then both them and his guns tapped by her un-clawed hands, stealing them away into the twilight realm.
A moment too late, Parnell’s rocket arrived. The princess leapt off of her foe, leaving him to stir awake, only to find himself completely disarmed and, unlike Annette would have been in such a situation, now a mostly worthless asset to his team.
At that point, the race between Parnell and Giovanna to get back into the action reached its conclusion. While the medic could propel himself into a superjump with his jet pack, Gio had both superhuman speed and Rei on her side. When it became clear he couldn’t beat her to the punch and help the Commando, his priority shifted to avoiding Gio. He altered his flight path and fired at Gio from above, forcing her to veer away. If he could supercharge himself again, after all, he could pin her down and chew her up at a moments notice. Of course, bullets moved faster than Giovanna, and taking even part a shot while trying to evade hurt like hell. Still, she managed to evade the worst of it, and Parnell’s jet pack wouldn’t last forever. He made for the computer garden’s biggest cable tree and tried to land on its upper boughs, thinking himself beyond Gio’s reach. He was not. The agent cannoned into the tree’s ‘trunk’ with a burn kick, partially melting the insulation. Then she struck the weak point with Thunder Knuckle, again and again. Parnell shot down at her through the trees while holding the wires tight, thinking his foe was trying to knock him down, but Gio stayed mobile and kept knuckling. After a couple seconds, she smashed through the last of the insulation and struck the wires inside with her electric glove.
“Hnnnnghghghghghgh!” Parnell gurgled, electrocuted by his contact with the wires. He used his heal burst to undo some of the damage, but he still slipped from his perch a moment later, numbed by the shock. He landed on a lower ‘branch’ groin-first, making him see stars, and when he swung off the branch upside-down Gio finally got the satisfaction of laying him out with a big punch.
Roadblock had gotten the better of Erendira for a brief moment, but the striker timed out soon after. That meant all she needed to do was get around Midna’s massive undead obstruction in order to put her lance right where it belonged: between Midna’s ribs. Engine roaring, she circled around with her lance couched to fire shot after shot, then finally gunned it and charged forward, ready to chase Midna down and spear her wherever the Twilight Princess fled.
Instead of fleeing however, the princess held her ground and called upon the final set of strikers in her repertoire, her chilfos. Four spindly icey undead rose between her and Erendira, ice armored forms shrugging off the energy blasts as they raised a spear wall in the way of the charging mechanized cavalry woman.
Yet guarded by her shield, Erendira dared face the stone with her superior scissors. Icy polearms snapped upon impact with her defenses, and then frozen bodies smashed aside by her mechanical steed as she broke through Midna’s protection, and burst right into the space beyond. A space who’s ground had turned black as shadow, surrounded by a ring of orange.
Right before she could be skewered, the princess snapped her shadow hand’s fingers, causing the trap she had laid to spring to life, her dark energy zone stunning her foe, and empowering her minion to deal a final blow.
With magically aided speed, the darknut crossed the gap between itself and Erendira with a lunge, driving its massive blade forwards to stab it through the front of her bike, skewering the machine. Then, with its broad headed blade firmly lodged in the bike, it pulled both it and her back towards it, and slammed it's shield down on top of the rider in a knockout blow.
The difference between unconsciousness and head trauma was a fine one, however, and when Giovanna jogged up to scrutinize the concluded battle, it looked like Erendira wasn’t moving. “Wow,” she deadpanned. “I didn’t even really see what you did there.” Annette was history, the Commando was senseless, and even though Parnell was definitely still conscious, he was too injured (not to mention concussed) to continue. Giovanna crossed her arms, exhaling as her adrenaline drained away. “Guess we’re done here. That was kinda tough. Could’ve been worse though. Hopefully there aren’t any more where they came from.” Given just how monolithic a company Shinra was, however, she wasn’t going to put any money on that.
”Let me just grab some things” Midna replied while tapping Erendira’s lance with a finger, before jogging to collect her previously tossed bo-staff and grabbing any other still intact weapons while she was at it. Avoiding killing didn’t mean she was above robbing people while they were down.
Commando auto-pistol (x2): an auto pistol able to fire off 3 rounds a second, as well as firing a piercing phase round every 6 seconds. Unlimited ammo and no reloads necessary.
Mutagen Shotgun (12 rounds available): a 7 round capacity shotgun with 120 RpM
Erendira‘s Gun-lance: a long lance that, aling with being able to be used for stabbing, can also shoot small purple aura bolts, or swept to the side to launch a wide angle projectile. It must be charged by supernatural energy to use projectiles
Disposable Missile Launcher: a cardboard assembly that can be used to fire a swarm of 12 homing missiles every 45 seconds.
”Ok now we’re good” she concluded, as she regrouped with Gio and set about healing them a bit using Skywave (she could have used the last of Parnel’s rockets, but she’d left the launcher somewhere he’d be able to reach once they were long gone), before asking ”But what happened to the psychic one?” having to embroiled in her own bit if the fight to see Annette’s end.
“Took a hike,” Giovanna replied off-handedly. She did not elaborate further. A gun or two might have been useful, but her ally had gathered everything up like lightning. She didn't care to make a fuss about it, though. Her gaze lingered on Erendira for a moment, frowning. That woman was tough and probably wouldn't be down for long. She also couldn't help but admit that summoning a motorcycle was pretty badass. Still, might as well let sleeping dogs lie.
“Let's get going,” she said, summoning Rei to ride on. Elsewhere in Arahabaki, other fights raged on. The sooner the two reunited with the others, the better, something Midna readily agreed with, remounting her wolfos alongside the agent and then, a moment later the two were racing forwards once more.
Raz’s / Roland’s @Archmage MC vs Rude / Reno / Joryu / Moira Word Count: 3199 (+4)
Being split from the rest of the group upon using the teleporter, Roland found himself with the psychic kid Raz. The area wasn’t anything remarkable, just your basic industrial urban graveyard much like most of the lower class areas of Midgar. Roland didn’t really care much for those in PsyOPs, mostly because they gave him headaches when he was around them for too long. ”Hey, the teleporters messed up. We’re all split up!” Roland said over the linkpearls he had gotten from the rest of the group. Soon though, he was informed as to why, and could only sigh. Looking at Raz, he said. ”Well, I guess we’re stuck together for now.” Having almost no idea exactly what kind of person Raz was, he would hold his sarcasm and witty banter for now.
”I wouldn’t say we’re stuck together,” Raz replied as he donned his goggles, a clear sign of things getting real, ”I see it more as an… opportunity for stronger, uhh, team cohesion!” He hadn’t passed the Psychonauts’ “Positivity Training” yet, but he had a good feeling about it. Whiiiich was a form of positivity! See, he was nailing it. ”I keep getting paired off with other people with R-names, though. I wonder if that means anything.”
As if they were waiting for someone, a welcoming party appeared hopping off from a high perch to intercept Roland and Raz.Two were Turks which Roland knew, Rude and Reno, who were quite the infamous duo within the organization. The other two he didn’t recognize, though one looked like a Turk -maybe a newbie- and the other looked like someone from R&D. “Well now, look who the cat dragged in.” Reno snarked. “Y’know, I kinda had you pinned as the turncoat kind of guy.”
Roland only rolled his eyes saying. ”More like the guy hunting the guy who has Rufus mind controlled, but who's keeping track.” He then turned to Rude, saying. ”How have you been Rude? Asked out that bartender lady yet?” Rude did not dignify the rather personal question with a response, his eyes inscrutable behind his trademark sunglasses. Seeing this, Roland quipped, ”C’mon man, you gotta make your move sometime before fixer life catches up to you. Especially with those assets…”
Reno interjected, cutting Roland off near the end of that though, saying. “You better watch that big nose of yours, plainface. It’s gonna get you into trouble.”
The “third” Turk, the one Roland didn’t recognize, kept to the back of the four-man group. He regarded Roland coolly, sizing the man up in both physical form and attitude. Even though his fists were clenched at his sides, he wasn’t prepared to brawl like the others. His focus turned to Raz, who himself was gearing up in classic psi-pose. More to himself, he simply said, ”...a kid?”
“Hmph.” Moira, the newcomer, crossed her arms stuffily. “They’re already in trouble, so if you’re quite done palling around, let’s cut to the chase.” She lifted her right arm, her mutated, clawlike nails extending as a purple orb of necrotic energy took form above her palm. “And begin operation.”
Well, it was time for combat. Roland knew Rude and Reno, and not the others. One of the newcomers, the one who was using energy, seemed like more of a threat than those two. Nothing good ever came from an enemy that wielded strange energy in his experience, especially something with that color. And that energy reminded him of a specific fallen Arbiter who was the leader of the Floor of Philosophy.
Roland started with a dash at Moira, swords out as she fired her energy ball at him. Rude however intercepted Roland, seeing him go for his medic and fists met sword in a clash of power and wills as Rude knocked Roland away, Moira’s ball taking away Roland’s counter as he countered it and finding that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it’d be. Instead of being one big blast, it seemed to just be a lot of small hits that siphoned his life, which was a lot easier to manage for him. It still tingled in a bad way though. Still, he was open from an attack from Reno now, before swapping over to his lance to clash with Reno’s followup attack and push him away.
Having clashed, he reached Emotion level 1, and with it gained the power of Long Arms, with a chirpy solemn voice echoing “I condemn you, but you will still commit more sin without end…” and with it, everyone saw a series of two pictures within their minds. The first depicted a forest in forever twilight, saying. “Once upon a time, three birds lived in a dark forest…” with the second picture appearing soon after saying. “To keep the forest’s peace, Long Bird weighed the sins of those who entered the forest. For Long Bird’s scale was just and could weigh any and all kinds of sin.”
“What the?” Reno said upon seeing this weird play in his head. “I knew you were a weird one.”
He and Roland clashed again, Roland matching him this time with his durandal and with it, getting to emotion level 2 and acquiring Big Eyes, a deeper chirpy voice saying “With just one simple act, I’ll give you a permanent and comfortable rest…”. And with it, another scene played out, this time of Big Bird and his many eyes, with the caption “Big Bird, with its many eyes, decided to watch over the forest for intruders. For Big Bird’s eyes could see very far and see things we cannot see.”
Roland had gotten the first strike, drawing most of the attention away from Raz. ”You get ‘em, Roland! Wait, we aren’t doing codenames, are we?” The peanut gallery shtick drew Rude’s attention, and with Roland preoccupied with Rude (who was supported by Moira, keeping his vitals up with her healing spray), the Turk rounded on Raz. Raz, only slightly daunted by Rude’s imposing glower, leveled his psychic aim on him. ”My turn, huh?”
Rude dashed towards Raz. The junior Psychonaut fired off a volley of Psi-blasts, the first two nailing Rude in the chest before he ducked the third. Raz was pulling his punch a little - they weren’t robots, monsters, or cyborgs, but real people. Though it was moot since the first hits had already set Reno and Rude into telltale ‘Galeem Fight Mode’, locking them in a fight to the death.
Rude was on him quicker than expected. A straight jab, nothing Raz couldn’t have dodged himself, but the moment Rude pulled his fist back his arm stopped short of throwing it; with a barely audible wrrzt, thin wire coiled around Rude’s wrist.
”Hmph.” Joryu, the as-of-yet identified man and last person to participate in the fight, scoffed. His arm was outstretched, the wires holding Rude back connected to his watch. ”I can’t tell if this was part of the plan,” Joryu mused, still mostly thinking out loud rather than addressing anyone else, ”but frankly, there’s no way I’m gonna beat on a kid.”
With that, he turned tail and ran. ”Hey, do you know something? Get back here!” Summoning his levitation ball, Raz took off in pursuit, chasing Joryu out of the fight and down a set of conveyor bridges leading away from the area. Of course, that short-sighted maneuver meant misfortune for Roland, who found himself abandoned and pitted against a team of three enemies by himself.
Roland kept his clash going with Reno, first with his daggers, coming out about even with Reno winning a bit, then continuing on with a clash with his hammer, which also came out about even. Getting tired of this, Roland then decided to pull out his big sword and finally overpower Reno in the third clash. He’d find that dealing with Moira’s energy balls wasn’t that bad, but Reno was tactically retreating to her as Roland pursued him and he’d find she had another power that he couldn’t parry when he got close, a more direct draining type move. This made Roland retreat for now, with Reno chastising him for retreating from their medic.
Although with those three clashes on Reno, even if he didn’t do all that much damage, he got Emotion level 3, and gained Tilted Scale with the same solemn voice from earlier saying “My scale won’t cease its duty until the day all evil beings disappear.”. He also gained the EGO page Lamp. Being a more utility based EGO, Roland didn’t use it right away, but instead would start to deal with that medic by pulling out his gun and just shooting her from range, keeping his distance, before going to intercept Rude who was trying to break the restraints of his… ally…? Was binding him with. That was… odd… Was this guy the one controlling Reno and Rude?
Using his lance to knock back Rude, but doing very little damage, Roland said. ”Are you doing ok there? I thought PsyOPs could fight a bit more than that.” At least shooting the full hp Moira healed Roland a bit from Tilted Scale, so he wasn’t in as bad of a situation, but they did need to make some headway somewhere as Moira could heal Reno with her yellow healing beam.
Headway would eventually come as Roland clashed again with Rude, finding him a bit easier to clash with than Reno. While not as hard of a hitter, Rude was for sure tankier as he erected a barrier around himself and his allies, reducing the damage they took from the duo’s attacks. Which was helpful for Rude as Roland was starting to overpower him having gotten his emotion level up. As he clashed, Raz was dealing with the 4th member that Roland hadn’t even bothered with, with Moira still healing Reno before he went in with another round with Roland. And as Roland clashed and won his clashes against Rude, he healed himself, although slowly. And also gradually increased his emotion level, getting to level 4 and getting Small Beak, a high chirpy voice saying. “Thus, punishment must uproot sin…” and another scene flashed into the heads of those in combat with Roland, this time showing a small bird with a strange portal on its body, the caption saying. “Small bird decided to punish the creatures’ wrongdoers with its beak.” Roland also gained the EGO page Twilight.
“Something is coming. We should wrap this up before things get complicated.” Moira advised, still acting stoic but was getting a bit unnerved by these weird images flashing in her head.
“Yeah, I get whatcha mean. That one’s from the OSF, it's probably coming from him.” Reno replied, looking at Raz. He then got an idea, and as Rude kept Roland busy, Reno dashed to Raz and threw a device at him, which trapped Raz in an energy shield the shape of a pyramid. “There, that’ll keep you busy until we deal with your friend!” Reno said, before powering himself up to deal with Roland.
Roland wasn’t a huge fan of this, and decided to start to use his EGO pages. He started with Lantern, causing the area to turn into a twilight lit forest of dark trees seen in the first scene, which were so tall the canopy couldn’t be easily seen, with Roland donning the appropriate EGO and revealing an antique lantern. As he did, the area went pitch black, with the only light source being his lantern, and as a low ‘dong’ echoed through the area, Rude, Reno and Moira, all getting unnerved as when the lantern flashed, they saw thousands upon thousands of large yellow eyes looking at them from every direction in the dark forest, before the area returned to its twilight lit aesthetic for 10 seconds. Roland used this time to strike at Reno, who found his powerup had been canceled by the eerie light and eyes that had unnerved him.
Seeing Reno getting hurt pretty badly, Moira had no choice but to keep healing him as Rude had his attempt to get Roland off Reno clashed with, and as the two Turks soon realized as Roland topped off his emotion level to 5, it wasn’t Raz that had been causing those images, but Roland. Upon reaching emotion level 5, Roland gained The Beast, and turned into a horrifying visage of some creature that would make any metal band proud. A voice of a monster saying. “I can’t let evil take all these precious things away.” An aura of dread emanated from Roland, which Rude soon found out made his barriers completely useless and any empowerments also useless. Roland also gained the EGO Apocalypse, and the final scene of Apocalypse Bird played out, accompanied by its deep bird like roar, the caption saying. “Then, in the middle of all the chaotic cries, someone shouted: “It’s the beast! A big scary monster lives in the black dusky forest!”
“The hell is THAT? You’ve been holding out on us?!” Reno said, shocked and a bit horrified at what Roland had turned into, but soon shook off his fear as he engaged him.
”Yeah, I learned a lot paling around with this group.” Roland said, his calm voice coming from such a monster. Raising his hand, Roland used Twilight, turning the area into a dark forest much like before, but this time it was pitch black, with the only light emanating from a 50 meter tall monstrosity in the back, the light coming from its many, many yellow eyes along its wings. Eyes that started to pepper the area with laser beams that Reno and Rude had to go onto the defensive to deal with as they rained down. He then took this opportunity to rush Moira with his large sword and powered through her orb to deal some damage.
Moira couldn’t help but take this damage, but she also gained her ult from this and said. “That's ENOUGH, I’ll end this now!” and put her hands together and unleashed her ultimate, a massive beam of both positive and necrotic energy that healed herself, Rude, Reno, and damaged Roland. Or that was the intent as Roland unleashed his second stored EGO, Apocalypse. Pointing at Moira and the rest of them, the massive creature in the back roared and lifted up one of its massive claws, intending to crush Roland’s enemies. And thanks to the size of this claw, Moira found her beam couldn’t overpower it as the creature’s claw crashed right through it and stomped down hard, crushing Moira into ash and dealing some heavy damage to Reno and Rude. She was the weakest in her group, so Roland wasn't expecting her to go down as easy as she did.
Roland turned his gaze to Reno and Rude, and pointed at them again. This time though, he tried the technique he had learned before as the two Turks decided what to do, and pulled out a Friend Heart for each of them, before dashing to them in his monstrous form and Friend Hearting both Turks.
”I’d rather not take the lives of people I used to pal around with if I can help it.” Roland said as the area turned to normal, but Roland still stayed in his apocalypse form. Rude shook his head, his head getting cleared as the influence of Galeem left him.
Reno had to blink twice, his sword in his hand raised in a defensive position looking at Roland. “Urk…” Reno groaned, trying to process what was going on. Memories came flooding back to both Turks, but seeing as this area of the world was roughly what they knew, the only thing they really realized was that Roland wasn’t originally a Turk, and just ‘appeared’ one day with the position.
“Ugh… why do I have the feeling I just woke up from a nightmare,” Rude murmured.
”Eh, that's normal I guess? That's how I felt when they did this to me. There's some like…. Angel thing up in the sky you guys can see later.” Roland said. ”And yeah, I don’t know if you guys remember what I said, but there is a thing controlling Rufus and all the Shinra high ups. They are named Consuls, And they might be the ones behind the ever crisis? Their plan is to use Midgar as some sort of playground for their sick games, and they will mind control whoever they can to make that happen.”
Reno put his baton away and could only scratch his head at hearing that. “Oh, I remember them telling us that you betrayed us and we were supposed to hunt you down, then… something else happened I can’t remember.”
”Yeah. Although I think after me and this group fix what's going on in Midgar, they say there is something even bigger out there. That angel thing I was talking about. I got a feeling I’ll have to deal with that. And also more of those Consuls out there. Then there are these weird shadow robed people you can’t see unless you break out of the mind control I freed you and Rude from. And the guys controlling Rufus and the rest of Shinra can’t influence you now.” Roland said, before sighing and saying. ”It's just a huge, huge mess…”
“Well, uh… I guess we’ll go look into that. Sucks that the medic bit the dust, but between you and me, she was pretty creepy.” Reno said, confused on what was going on but accepting what Roland had said.
Rude nodded solemnly with him. “Although not as creepy as you are now Roland.”
”Yeah, this’ll turn off in a little while, not much I can do about it until then. Believe it or not this is something I used to do back where I’m from. I was only reminded of it when I got freed. Maybe you guys can find something cool you forgot as well.” Roland said. ”Oh, and go find that lady you're into Rude. Maybe you can protect her from that mind control thing, and that’d score some big points for ya.” Rude nodded vigorously at this, and with that, Reno and Rude made their way off to do their own things.
With the combat over, Roland moved forward, hoping to find Raz and the man he’d gone to pursue. It wasn’t long before he discovered another teleporter, which he figured the others must have used. After taking it though, Roland found himself alone, and maybe even farther from Arahabaki’s center than the first place he ended up.. ”Uh…. I dealt with the Turks that were sent to ambush me, but I got separated from Raz again due to a teleporter. Where do I go?” Roland said, and soon after got a bit of direction from Sandalphon, Roland made his way there, getting some time to rest as he traveled.
When Primrose found herself in the same eerily quiet arena again, she already knew what was in store for her. As soon as her eyes opened her gaze found her foe, and her dagger found its way to her hand. Simeon was standing in the room's center, his arms tucked behind his back as though he'd been waiting for Primrose. When their eyes met, he smiled pleasantly.
"Unable to resist the poet's pull, the dancer returns to the stage. Even though she knows--"
The start of his monologue was cut off by a clipped cry of pain as Primrose's Vengeful Spirit blew through his body. She did not intend to entertain the man whatsoever - no speeches, no plays, false Simeon or no. She gave him only a cold stare swiftly followed by the threat of her dagger. The blade nearly sunk into his chest, caught at the last second by Simeon wrapping his hand around Primrose's wrist. Their struggle was brief. Changed as she was, Simeon could not overpower Primrose; neither could he trip her up again like the last round. He moved to disengage and draw his own weapon. He conjured his dark magic to force distance between them, but Primrose pursued. She raised an arm to haphazardly shield herself from his spell and charged forward through it.
"You're not going anywhere," she said. Her Hippowdon appeared and snatched Simeon by the leg with its Crunch attack, stopping his retreat. At the same time her Makami manifested and wrapped its long, papery body around the man's throat and sink its Double Fang into him.
"Prim...rose...!" Simeon gasped. He'd been surprised, but even hurt and choking he still looked amused. Primrose wanted to see him begging for his life, but instead it seemed like he was almost excited to see what would happen next. That she would happily let him know.
Primrose's dagger found its mark as Simeon tore the Makami from his neck. She sunk the dagger into the left side of his chest, seeking his heart. "I'm going to kill you," she told him simply, her voice low. "And when everything is over I'll kill the real you, too."
Blood gurgled out of Simeon's mouth as she twisted the blade. He smiled through it, his eyes glittering dangerously.
"Is that so? That is what your father wanted for you?" Simeon paused, wheezing as she pushed the dagger further in. Then he chuckled. "I would love to see the darkness in you, Primrose."
"You will."
Bowser Jr woke up to a mess. His body hurt, though not from the wounds from his dreams. Someone or something had kicked him while he was down, apparently, and had gotten past the idle horde of dr bones standing around where he had been laying to do so. Laying beside him were two others still sleeping, and as he glanced out at the battlefield, he saw another, Primrose, falling as well, which a strangely shimmering like glass Bowser promptly grabbed to prevent falling to the ground. Then he did his best to back up and get away while holding her, which was going to be tricky with no one to keep Robin pinned down.
There where others fighting, but they were all tied up by the two agile humanoids, be it because they where a threat, or because they were, in Ganondorf’s case, vindictively going after them due to being nuisances that they couldn’t hurt.
”Yeesh, you take a quick nap and everything goes wrong,” the prince thought to himself, before calling out ”Ganondorf! Leave that thing to Rika and back up my papa! Stop that count down!” to try and get the king of evil on a target he was better suited for.
Rika, hearing this, moved to make sure Ganondorf could safely disengage, charging up a Vault Breaker punch and then using it to lunge towards Oberon to tie him down in melee. He switched to his melee weapon in time to block the big slug with his shield, though its strength jarred him. Then while that gauntlet was rebooting, she summoned her long spear into the other one, and brought it around in a wide sweep to strike at the warframe with the sharpened spines on its spear head. Finally she summoned her knight striker, and had him either block or bash with his shield depending on what was needed. Oberon fought toe-to-toe with the both of them, the wide swings of his golden mace leaving trails of blue flame as it danced from side to side. Though he prioritized offense over defense and took the slices to prove it, he gave Rika as good as he got.
With the tactical situation cleared up a bit, Jr turned to the sleeping situation, raising an empty hand and then pausing, realizing he didn’t have his paint brush to use as a spell catalyst. He glanced around again, and spotted it laying where he had dropped it somewhere in the middle of the room.
Thinking quickly, he plucked a pokeball from his bandolier and threw it across the room, where it landed next to the brush and released Dazzle the Brionne. The pokemon glanced around the room, and then behind himself at his trainer, who called for him to ”Toss me that brush!”, an order that he quickly obeyed, popping his clown nose under it, tossing it over head onto his sea lion tail, and then using that to catapult it clear across the room and into the prince’s awaiting hand.
”Got it! Good job! Now blast the big guy!” jr called back with praise and new commands, prompting Dazzle to turn back around and to start forming and catapulting orbs of water at the papery Robin. He was joined in this by a surprise re-appearance of Kamek, who having weathered the explosive end of the insectoid curse, now returned to the fray. Having empowered his own defense to do so, he now dared to get in close, before blasting Robin with 4 short ranged lasers. Their special beams and projectiles all connected, helping out the group effort to wear the archangel down, but they didn’t quite get the results of Bowser, Nadia, Sectonia, and Primrose. Still, by getting close Kamek provoked Robin into smacking him rather than using Trick or Treat, so that was something.
While his pokemon and mentor covered his papa, Jr released his other pokemon, Mimi, and told her to ”Mimic me!” to which his minion responded with a nod of its fake head. Only then did he raise his paintbrush and cast, ”Esuna” upon the sleeping Sectonia, awakening her from slumber.
There were a number of things that kept Ganondorf on the backfoot these past several moments. Whether it was the razorflies swarming Kamek that prevented the Gerudo King from focusing on the object of his ire, the appearance of Rika giving him a surprising moment of respite, or just the sheer amount of damage the man had suffered just from being in close proximity to Oberon - let alone the actual damage the warframe’s attacks had dealt. It all left Ganondorf in what felt like a long moment of pause.
It was Junior of all people whose voice snapped him out of it. The first thing he did was re-summon his Moblin Archers and leave them there to provide cover fire for Rika and Junior. Then he finally had the wherewithal to shift his focus.
He moved his gaze over to where Robin Goodfellow appeared to be preparing some kind of spell or ritual. Whatever that was, it certainly wasn’t going to be good. He wondered for a moment if he should have assumed his true form, but was quick to dismiss the idea. He wouldn’t need it, Ganondorf decided. It would be a waste to use it on this filth.
The Gerudo King broke away from the engagement with Oberon as soon as Rika gave him the opportunity. Then he broke into a sprint directly toward Robin. All those blows he traded with Oberon had charged up his Swords of Darkness quite nicely. And now he saw what he believed was a perfect target to unleash it all on, ”Ngah!!” he grunted, hurling both swords at Robin once he was within range. That was just a feint, though. Ganondorf’s actual attack came in the form of him lifting up and then dropping back down onto Robin’s general area while channeling all his charged up darkness through his hands so that he let loose the biggest dark explosion he could muster, ”DIE!”
Jesse and Therion continued their fight with Titania. “Gotta wrap this up!” Jesse said to Therion as they put the pressure on Titania. That was a good hit from her rocks and his slashes but they needed more. Firing, she noticed the effect of Dust as her bullets went wide. Titania was trying to get going again, but fortunately, Jesse still had Energy, having saved it up as the fight got started. Jesse sidestepped the first explosive, getting caught by the edge of it. On the second one she reached out her hand, and as soon as it left the barrel of her gun she flung it right back into Titania to blow her up. That, Jesse knew, wouldn’t miss. The grenade detonated in Titania’s face, its Blast decking her with a hard knockdown.
With dwindling energy and few other options, Titania unveiled her ultimate ability. In a burst of fae magic she shrank down to a fourth of her original size, becoming a pixie in possession of permanent flight and a 50% evasion boost. In her hands she held Dex Pixia, and despite their small size, the gilded pistols were Exalted Weapons that packed one hell of a punch. At the same time six razorflies exactly as big as her appeared to run interference for her, slashing with their wings. With Razorwing engaged, Titania was the ultimate glass cannon, more than capable of slicing her attackers to ribbons if they didn’t swat her fast enough.
Therion agreed with Jesse that they had to take care of the warframe sooner rather than later. He had to assume that she was just as powerful, even shrunken down, and now that she was harder to hit and had further protection he didn't want to take any chances that she might slip through their attacks and do some serious harm. There were a couple of things he could think of to do, but with little time to actually think about them he went with the absolute best he had in his arsenal: his divine skill.
He transformed from beast to man while in motion, rolling into a kneel. The aura surrounding him fluctuated and glowed brilliantly, signaling the use of his Battle Boost. Aeber's Reckoning was unleashed swiftly - the air around him distorted for a moment and the dagger assault burst through the room, ripping through any and all of the enemies in its wide range. With their sheer volume, those knives pierced a couple of the razorflies straight through, reducing the overall distractions with appreciable haste. Only one dagger managed to hit Titania, however, and that wasn’t enough to put her down.
Hoping that would take care of the interfering razorflies at the very least, if not blasting Titania herself, Jesse pulled out her secondary Toolgun and switched it to Inflate. The Toolgun had a fast rate of fire and no recoil, so she aimed and began spamming blue beams in the deadly pixies direction. Each shot would increase Titania’s size if they connected, though Jesse no doubt made a few stones and fallen pillars behind or next to Titania a bit bigger in the process. Which Jesse then used with Launch, lifting two large disc like boulders and hurling them at Titania with all her telekinetic might. With an instantaneous travel time, the Toolgun shots’ only problem was accuracy. Small and fast, Titania was very hard to hit, and as she flew her Dex Pixia roared, pumping Therion’s hide and Jesse’s shield with lead. The volume of Toolgun shots meant that some would hit, but not enough to make the launched boulders connect. It soon became apparent that the Seekers wouldn’t win this shootout by eliminating Titania, but by surviving until her finite well of energy had run dry.
By now, despite the terrible situation at the end of the last exchange, the scales had started to tip back in the Seekers’ favor. Both warframes were otherwise engaged, leaving Robin alone, and while a barrage from some of the oppositions’ lesser damage-dealers didn’t phase it, Ganondorf’s Swords of Darkness sure did. That unholy eruption sent Robin reeling, and as it staggered backward, it knew that it couldn’t take an assault like that again. The archangel sent Ganondorf to slumberland with Fairy Dust as fast as it could, then cast Treat on itself. It got the random buff Spring-loaded, which was useful but not the windfall it needed. Still, its attackers would get what was coming to them soon enough. As the last two diamonds in Robin’s halo were filled, the whole ring of ten began to pulsate violently. If the Seekers wanted to stop its Angelic Attack, it was now or never.
Sectonia woke up thanks to Jr. And she was not having any of this thing’s crap. ”Thanks. I’m going to finish off this farce.” Sectonia said, uninjured thanks to her Chaos Shield unlike what Jr. had to deal with, and went back into the room. She had a plan for this. Sectonia summoned her Florami striker alongside some of her red Antlers to cause chaos and hide her a bit while she enacted her plan, a fully charged reality shatter on all of this. With the warframes preoccupied and a wall of minions, both her own and the other seekers, in front of her, she was going to end this in a flashy finish.
The struggle quickly escalated into a vicious back-and-forth as Nadia strove to rush her archenemy down and tear her limb from artificial limb, while Dahlia worked to keep her at arm’s length. There were no lines drawn in this fight; instead it took them from one side of the underground gulag to the other in the blink of an eye, the still air filled with the thunder of gunfire and the screech of maddened voices. The Medici’s number-one hitwoman revealed a hoard of hidden weapons built into her body, from literal stilettos in her high-heeled shoes to sawblades, sawed-offs, beartraps, and even gun barrels beneath her prosthetic kneecaps.
Each new trick set Nadia back in her relentless and unforgiving, a painful thorn in her side. In her numb anger, however, the feral barely even felt it. Thanks to Dahlia, she barely felt anything anymore; she was not the same cat burglar she’d been when Black Dahlia butchered her. Though that experience literally tore her to pieces, she’d come back stronger, and her travels through the World of Light had only made her more powerful since then. The ability to rely on others had been one of this world’s greatest gifts, but with nobody else stuck in this dream alongside her, her fusions served her just as well. Rhodeia’s Hydro Mimicry meant that she was never quite alone, able to gang up on Dahlia and hem her in, while Massachusetts’ rigging turned the blood she spilled into even greater mobility and firepower. Cat-5 gave her the shock factor she needed to close the distance on Dahlia whenever she teleported away, Kronya fueled her slashes with extra lethality, and Kanna lent her a tiger’s savage strength.
No matter how many elemental slugs or hidden blades wounded her, Nadia chased Dahlia down, opened her up, and made it count. Soon the gulag’s floor was littered with broken or discarded weapons, splatters of blood, and shreds of the assassin’s outfit. The writing was on the wall when the feral’s tiger claws carved off Dahlia’s gun arm, but when she baited out an Infinity Burst, the fight seemed well and truly over. Nadia finished her opponent off with an air combo that ended in a New Moon-triggering Feral Edge that plunged her boxcutter -and Dahlia- into the floor.
Then there was silence. Backing off Dahlia’s body, Nadia stumbled woozily. She closed her eyes, letting out her breath. But when a familiar chk-chk reached her ears, they shot open in time to see the fire shot before it exploded against her, flinging her away in a burst of steam. “Gyaaaah!” When she hit the ground, she looked up to see Dahlia rising from where she’d fallen, slowly, jerkily. Unnaturally. “What!? How!?”
“Hee hee, poor widdle kitty cat,” the assassin cooed, smirking behind her veil. “Did you really think you got rid of me? You’ll never be over me, as long as you live.” She lifted up her gun arm, somehow reattached and in mint condition, then loaded it with Another Round. “And since you can’t die, I guess that’ll be…forever!”
Roxas’ @Double / Blazermate’s @Archmage MC vs Blaze / Fortune / RockTrans / HeartRoll Word Count: 7,004 Exp: +8
”Um…” Roxas looked around and was able to put it together that something went wrong. He stepped on the teleport pad like he was supposed to but even he could tell this was the wrong place. His first clue was the fact that he didn’t see any of the other Seekers around except for Blazermate. Did someone rig the pad at some point? Was that even possible? But wait, wouldn’t that mean that someone in Shinra was on to them and knew they were coming?
”Sandalphon, can you hear me?” Roxas asked, pressing his fingers to his ear and hoping the glyph the Angel had given him was still there, ”I got sent to the wrong place, what should I do?” He didn’t have to wait long to hear a response.
“Come in, everyone,” Sandalphon’s voice broadcasted through her personal network. “It appears that we tripped some sort of intrusion countermeasure and have been sent through a number of connected teleporter relays, effectively scattering us throughout Arahabaki. I am with Geralt, and we’re both unharmed. Please confirm your status ASAP.”
It sounded like they weren’t the only ones who got lost, ”It’s Roxas. We’re still in one piece over here. Blazermate’s here with me, too.”
Speaking of Blazermate, she was looking around the area to see what exactly was going on. They were in some weird Japanese themed industrial park with pagoda shingles mixed in with industrial scenery. At least she knew thanks to Sandalphon’s report that everyone was fine. ”Well, I’m glad everyone is fine. A bit weird we got split up like that though.” Blazermate said.
”Sure is. Man, just when I thought we had all this figured out.” said Roxas with an exasperated tone, ”Why can’t these things ever stay simple?” Not that groaning about this was going to help anything. So instead they might as well just get started, ”It’d be nice if we had any idea where this is so we could figure out where to go, though.”
The Keybearer had no idea that he was being watched. How could he? The woman was spying them from a long distance away through the scope of her large rail gun. She currently had it trained on the boy and was waiting for a clear shot. Personally she didn’t like the idea of having to kill a kid, but orders were orders. And these people were apparently extremely dangerous if the reports were to be believed, so nothing could be left to chance.
“Sorry about this, kid. It’s nothing personal.” she whispered to herself, and then squeezed the trigger.
”Well, I know we will be fighting something at SOME point, so might as well keep us both topped up.” Blazermate said, giving Roxas and herself an overheal. This was well timed as the railgun shot, coming from a large distance out of nowhere, hit Roxas and took out the full overheal and a bit of his actual health. ”Sniper, get cover!” Blazermate said, noting that she couldn’t scan where the shot came from.
And it knocked him clear to the ground to boot, ”Ack! What was that?” Roxas said, staggering to his feet and frantically looking around. His instinct was to find some cover, and yet for some reason another shot didn’t appear to be coming yet and he had no idea why. He couldn’t possibly have known that the weapon of his would-be sniper needed a cooldown before another shot could be taken. But before Roxas could begin thinking about it he heard some rather loud and metallic footsteps that honestly sounded more like stomps. Coming toward them head on was a space marine piloting a big bulky suit of power armor painted reddish orange with actual fire decals on the arms and a fiery yellow skull emblem painted on the center of the torso.
”That… doesn’t look very friendly.” Roxas said, pointing at the hulking Firebat stomping their way. As it got closer, he also realized that it wasn’t alone. It was flanked by a pair of robotic figures that bore a striking resemblance to Blazermate. One of them looked like a male and the other a female. The male medabot looked mostly blue and indigo, except for his eyes which glowed green. Also his right hand appeared to be replaced by some kind of cannon weapon. The female medabot was almost all pink and possessed similarly glowing green eyes. And like her male counterpart, her left hand appeared to be replaced by a… cannon? Or was it a crossbow? It sort of looked like a fusion of the two actually.
”Um… friends of yours?” Roxas asked Blazermate on the off chance that maybe she knew the robots. But something told him he wasn’t going to be that lucky and so he summoned both his Keyblades and brandished them in preparation for the fight he was pretty sure was coming.
”Uh nope. They aren’t ones I know. And they’re the fancy limited edition models too!” Blazermate said. ”The male one is model RME00, or RockTrans. The other is RME02, or Heart Roll. I’ve only seen them in catalogs!” She then looked at Blaze and said. ”Nope, I don’t know him. I guess he's their medafighter.”
And as the battle was about to start, out of a chimney popped out an old man in a sports official outfit. For all intents and purposes he just appeared out of nowhere for the group. Even Blaze was a bit confused at seeing this man appear out of nowhere saying “What the?” in a deep voice. As he appeared and began his speech about the oncoming Robattle, Blazermate said. ”Oh it's Mr. Referee! I haven’t seen him in forever! Roxas, he isn’t our enemy and don’t attack him. He just officiates Robattles.” and seemingly oblivious to the actual conflict in front of him, he called the names of both Blazermate and her medabot opponents before declaring a start to the robattle from his slightly off the ground perch.
With the battle starting, Blazermate summoned her striker who got to work making his buildings as she kept her healing beam on Roxas. While she knew what the two medabots names were, she wasn’t entirely sure what they did. ”If I had to guess, RockTrans will shoot you with his gun and be agile. The Heart Roll could either be a healer or an elementalist. It's hard to tell until they do something. Aim for the arms to disable their weapons, or their head to win the robattle.” Blazermate said, giving Roxas info on their medabot opponents She also said. ”That blaze guy is also really tanky, so he’ll take awhile to take down.”
And taking the robattle declaration to begin the fight, Blaze commanded the two medabots under his control to go after the pair as he himself used his jet fist to rocket towards Roxas, as Blazermate flew out of his reach. Much like Blazermate said, RockTrans began to shoot at the pair with his arm cannon, firing out pellets of energy at Blazermate who used her shield arm to block them. Heart Roll meanwhile shot her crossbow at Roxas, but needed a much longer time to reload compared to RockTrans’ cannon.
Roxas was pretty sure he couldn’t block an attack like the one Blaze was using. So instead he dodge rolled out of the way, his agility easily making him faster than the hulking Firebat. But that was also when the pink medabot started taking slow, measured shots at him with her crossbow arm. He deflected the first pellet with his Keyblades and dodge rolled away from a second one moments after. But he also seemed a little distracted by something. He glanced around himself on occasion, and seemed anxious. Whoever had tried to snipe him was definitely still hiding somewhere, and it was only a matter of time before they shot at them again.
He almost didn’t see the attack from Blaze coming. The Firebat sweeped his arm out in front of him and fired a gout of flames from his arm-mounted flamethrower. It almost caught Roxas due to his worrying about the sniper, but he snapped out of it and threw a Waterga spell out in front of him at the last second to keep the flames from getting him, ”Geez, who is this guy?” Roxas wondered, hurling one of his Keyblades at the Firebat. It hit, but didn’t appear to damage the armor very much. And right after that Roxas was nearly caught off guard by another arrow from Heart Roll. He avoided a direct hit, but it did glance him.
Elsewhere, the sniper’s railgun finished cooling down. Now she was leveling it, training it on the enemy medabot in the air. All she needed was the bot to pause for even a moment, then she’d squeeze the trigger and take her shot.
As Roxas managed to dodge Blaze’s jet punch, Blaze followed up with a can of oil, followed by his dual flamethrowers to light the oil and hit Roxas with all that fire. Although that being said, all of his abilities were spent for now so all he could do was try to use his smaller flamethrowers on Roxas until his fuel pressure recharged. Blazermate meanwhile was constantly healing Roxas, and blocking the RockTrans with her suffering shield. While a shield was very good against bullet type medabots, it wasn’t invincible. But that's where healing Roxas and herself got her a projectile shield, which seeing as it also did a lot of damage, she’d deploy right away. And just in time too, as another sniper shot aimed at her came at her, but fizzled when it hit the deployed projectile shield. At least now she had a bit of a better idea of where that sniper was as she moved up to start to approach and roast her two medabot enemies with the shield.
Seeing as this was similar to something a nutranurse would do, at first RockTrans and Heart Roll didn’t do much but reposition as they noticed really quick their shots couldn’t pass by the shield. What was new was that when Blazermate’s shield made contact with RockTrans, the medabot found that it hurt a lot, and used its superior agility to jump away as Heart Roll fired a healing arrow at him to heal. Using this, she moved to touch a crack and spawn a purgatory ghost, which zoomed in on the closest target, this being Blaze, and blowing up when it reached him. He was tanky though, and took the hit with a grunt as he moved on Roxas, entering his own fire and healing a bit.
Having some time to himself, the Engineer striker managed to build his sentry and began upgrading it. The gun attacked the closest target, Blaze again, and dealt some steady damage to the tank. Seeing the automated gun attacking him, he commanded RockTrans to fire on it and destroy it, delaying its upgrade to level 2 as the engineer whacked at it and repaired it when it was shot at. At least for now Rocktrans was distracted attacking the sentry, and with that Blazermate moved her shield over to try to zap Heart Roll and get into range to start to brawl with the ranged healer. She knew from experience that ranged medabots like her really didn’t like getting punched. Although like her partner Rocktrans, this medabot was also evasive and did what she could to stay out of Blazermate’s shield and melee range. Although it couldn’t fly like Blazermate, so this was only delaying the inevitable.
Even so, she was only tapped by a bit of Blazermte’s projectile shield before Blazermate had to retreat back to Roxas, but she could at least smack Blaze in the back with her ubersaw a couple times before she came back to hover around Roxas again. She got some uber from Blaze though, and when Roxas went to clash with him again, she’d get more uber from him.
Roxas had been quick to realize that Blaze was somehow being healed by fire. Given the Firebat’s apparent affinity for flame weapons, Roxas had never exactly intended on trying to throw any Firagas at him. But now he was doubly certain about not doing that. Instead Roxas combatted Blaze by wielding an element of his own. He used magic to repeatedly fling Waterga spells at the Firebat and the flames it was causing. By doing this he could not only deal water damage to Blaze’s armor, but also douse the fires he was setting and at least for the time being essentially cut off the guy’s ability to heal himself. And the space marine didn’t seem particularly happy about that, either. Which was probably why he kept trying to focus his attention on taking out the Keybearer.
And as long as Roxas could keep his distance and focus on throwing water spells, that would be all well and good. But there was an inherent flaw in Roxas’ strategy. Namely the fact that his MP wasn’t going to last forever. He’d run out sooner or later and then what? He’d have nothing to combat Blaze’s flames with at that point. So he’d have to get a bit bolder and try something to hit the tanky armored marine a bit harder. But what? His Striker wouldn’t do any good here, and in fact their fire attacks would just serve to heal Blaze! Since he had no other options he could think of, Roxas decided to hurl one more Waterga and then rush in against Blaze while he was still doused.
Being more agile, Roxas was quick to close the distance. He let loose a flurry of swings with his Keyblades against Blaze’s firebat armor. He honestly couldn’t tell how much damage this was doing. After a handful of strikes, Roxas leaped back and hurled another Waterga in anticipation of more flames from Blaze. This seemed like it was working, but Roxas was about to be in for a harder time. Blaze used some kind of spell that seemed to summon a literal bunker that dropped out of the sky and that he was now hidden within. Roxas’ waterga spell crashed into the bunker’s walls and damaged some of its HP, but within Blaze was completely safe and able to use his flamethrowers as if they had a much lower cooldown.
”Hey! No fair!” Roxas shouted. Evidently Blaze had done this out of a growing frustration over not being able to use his flames. Well now it was Roxas who was getting frustrated. Blaze even started throwing out fire from within the bunker. This? Roxas could dodge well enough. But the real trouble was figuring out how to get at the guy inside! And to make matters worse, RockTrans and Heart Roll also retreated into the bunker as well!
Blazermate could see the hp of everyone, even when they entered the bunker, although the bunker’s hp pool overrode theirs while they were inside it. ”You can break the bunker, it took a fair amount of damage from your water spell. The big guy was looking kinda hurt as well from your magic.” Although she wasn’t sure if they were healing inside of the bunker. Still, without RockTrans peppering his sentry, the engineer upgraded it to level 2, and the gun’s damage doubled as it peppered the bunker launching jets of fire at Blazermate and Roxas.
Being unable to really do much with ranged attacks besides grab more ghosts, Blazermate did just that as she healed Roxas, flying out of the range of the flames. The ghosts assaulted the bunker with their explosions, and with that, the sentry gun, and Roxas’ magic, it didn’t take too long for the bunker to crumble. Still, this had given Blaze and his medabots some time to prepare, and as the bunker went down, Blaze threw more oil as he started to charge Roxas again, but this time zooming past him with his jet fist to instead activate two of his abilities, one caused him to emanate intense heat out from himself, and another slowed him down a bit, but he built internal pressure to unleash a wave of powerful fire. He was still getting shot at by the sentry gun though, with Heart Roll healing him and RockTrans doing his best to target Blazermate and Roxas and keep them within Blaze’s fire AoE with some leading shots.
Seeing the automated sentry was starting to be a problem for her allies, Fortune decided to use her next shot to shoot the sentry itself. Being immobile, the sentry took the rail gun shot full on and caught on fire and looked worse for wear, but was still barely standing. Unfortunately for Blzermate, due to RockTrans delaying the upgrade and this new bout of damage, the engineer timed out before he could fully repair the gun. Seeing the gun being so damaged, after unleashing his wave of fire, Blaze turned to the automated gun and used his dual flamethrowers to take it out and alleviate himself of the damage he had been taking. Still, that gun had taken its toll and he wasn’t looking super good, even with Heart Roll healing him with her healing arrows.
The massive fire DoT was something that Blazermate could cleanse from Roxas and heal him up. From what little she could gleam from Blaze though, he seemed to be running out of fuel himself as that combination of attacks was far and away the most damage he had done in this fight, and it seemed to at least take a lot of prep time and be telegraphed if he was to do it again. But if they didn’t take out Heart Roll or RockTrans, their numbers could overwhelm them.
”Hey Roxas, we should go after the medabots while Blaze is behind us, he's kinda slow when he's not using his jet punch.” Blazermate said. And it was true, Blaze, to make sure his close range AoE fire attacks could go off, had gone behind Blazermate and Roxas, leaving his medabots exposed.
“Oh no ya don’t!” said the gruff voice of Blaze. He used his last emergency trick to give himself a neural stim to refresh a cooldown and attempted to use his jet fist to stop Roxas, but the Nobody was far too agile and managed to disengage. And with that, Blaze was left to waddle to protect his allies, having severely overestimated himself.
Roxas charged in the direction of RockTrans. The medabot fired a shot at him, but Roxas was able to bat it away with his Keyblade. Roxas didn’t have much MP left, having used most of it on all those Watergas he was previously throwing at Blaze. So he put the last of his current MP into one more trick. Roxas became a streak of light that zig-zagged its way toward RockTrans at blinding speed. It was a good thing he did this when he did. Less than a second after Roxas streaked away, a shot from the sniper’s railgun blasted the spot where he had just been running. When the streak of light collided with the medabot, Roxas emerged and unleashed his powerful Cross Slash on RockTrans. The last thing he expected was for RockTrans to have a way to safely absorb the blow.
The medabot had disengaged with his arm cannon and switched to his Step Sword, a beam saber that ignited from an emitter mounted on his left wrist. With the blade up he was able to use it to take the brunt of the damage from Roxas’ Cross Slash. After that the two began swinging at each other, beam sword clashing with Keyblades. Roxas hadn’t counted on having to trade sword slashes with this opponent, but at least this was a type of fight that was more his speed. He’d adapt to the medabot’s tactics a bit more easily than he did for Blaze.
Up in her hidden perch, Fortune muttered a curse to herself. It wasn’t like her to miss a shot like that. She’d never known luck to be on anyone else’s side but her own. Somehow these targets were managing to put even her own supernatural luck to the test. She would almost be impressed, if she weren’t also simultaneously frustrated by it.
With Blaze unable to catch up to Roxas in a snappy fashion, he was just left to walk to Roxas now to get him off of his medabots. Blazermate took this chance to ubersaw him in the back which got Blaze to turn around. “Oh, now you’ve done it little lady.” with the space marine turning around to deal with the healing medabot. This led to a bit of a back and forth between the two, with Blazermate taking some flames and Blaze taking her ubersaw. But while Blaze could only do damage to Blazermate, Blazermate was getting uber.
And with that uber, she was going to do what she did in medafights, and pointed at RockTrans as Heart Roll healed Blaze, and fired her medaforce beam at him. Being distracted by needing to parry Roxas, the medaforce beam blindsided him and dealt significant damage, alongside disabling his sword arm and healing Blazermate for the damage it dealt, healing whatever damage she had taken from Blaze. She then continued hammering on Blaze, hopping over him when he brought his flamethrowers up to hit her and zooming away when he threw oil under himself. She escaped with a fair amount of Uber as she distracted him and dealt her medaforce blast damage. And zooming away, she decided to touch some more ghost fissures as Blaze lacked any ranged attacks that zoomed at either Blaze or Heart Roll, whoever was closer. While Blaze could only take the ghost, Heart Roll tried her best to dodge the one zooming at her, but she couldn’t escape and took her first damage of the battle as well.
Meanwhile, Roxas and RockTrans were still going at it. At a glance they looked evenly matched. But if at any point Blaze looked down at his medawatch, he would see the energy levels of RockTrans begin to gradually dip. RockTrans was skilled, but he was a Shooting type Medabot first and foremost, and his Step Sword was mostly just a backup weapon. His build was obviously focused more on ranged attacks with the arm cannon, so being forced into a drawn out melee like this was not good for him. There was also the numerical advantage Roxas had in that he wielded two blades against the medabot’s single blade. This allowed Roxas to get in shots on RockTrans that the medabot simply lacked the ability to prevent or punish.
After one such successful strike on RockTrans, Roxas noticed the colors of his right arm appear to darken slightly. After that the arm became limp, as if it could no longer be used. Again, if Blaze was paying attention to his medawatch, he’d hear it announce the serious damage to the bot’s arm part and its status of being disabled. Nearby, Heart Roll saw the damage her partner medabot was taking and attempted to fly in and use her Heart Hand to heal him. Before she could get close enough, Roxas spotted her and threw one of his keyblades at her to deter her approach.
As this happened, Rock Trans lunged forward for one more last ditch attack against Roxas. The Nobody readied his remaining Keyblade and lunged forward as well. Both combatants appeared to pass by each other with their slashes. Like something out of a samurai film, they both stood there for a brief moment before the sparks flew from RockTrans’ body, eventually resulting in his Medal being ejected out of his back, signaling his defeat. Roxas tilted his head in a moment of curiosity and it picked it up off the ground. It looked like a gold, hexagon-shaped coin. Roxas flipped the medal over in his fingers so he could look at both sides of it. He knew nothing about medabots, but based on the fact that this came shooting out of RockTrans after he was defeated, Roxas could at least guess it was important somehow.
This moment of distraction gave the sniper a shot she had been waiting for. She leveled her railgun and aimed it at the Keybearer. She held her breath and then squeezed the trigger.
Roxas was hit, and it definitely hurt. He screamed out as he went sprawling onto the ground. Unknown to him or the sniper, the medabot’s medal was also caught in the crossfire of this attack. It landed on the ground nearby Roxas with a metallic clang, now cracked and looking like it was ready to fall to pieces.
Seeing her first example of a robattle since coming here and the medal eject, instead of RockTrans turning into a spirit right away was very reassuring to Blazermate. Although that left a lot of very uncomfortable questions she had to ask herself later, if she even had the mental strength to or if she even wanted to. But that was put aside as Roxas was sniped again, not having as much overheal this time to tank the shot and getting hurt pretty bad. But he also took out RockTrans, so it was just the sniper, Blaze, and Heart Roll left, with the latter starting to panic a bit as one of its allies fell. That was usual for support medabots without too much offensive power themselves.
Blaze was running on fumes himself, not hp wise as Heart Roll was healing him, but just on flamer fuel (mana), and with Blazermate finding his fire punches weren’t really all that strong, she could farm uber off of him without too much issue. Yes he out damaged Blazermate’s passive healing, but she could heal back any damage he did with her medaforce beam. Either way, right now, the sniper was the biggest threat and she had to heal Roxas. Smacking Blaze a few more times with her ubersaw, she then hovered out of his reach and began to heal Roxas again. She could build uber quickly though, so this fight would end pretty soon she hoped, as long as that sniper didn’t have a trick up her sleeve or Heart Roll busted out a medaforce beam or something…
Roxas groaned a bit, once the heal beam got under way. He pushed himself into a sitting position, and then summoned one of his, ”...Heal!” he cried weakly. The Curaga spell worked its magic, and coupled with Blazermate’s heal beam he was back on his feet and feeling ready to continue fighting. He didn’t like having to spend all his MP only after having just recovered it, but that railgun shot left him no other choice. It was either that or hang onto death’s door while Blazermate risked her neck trying to heal him and fight at the same time.
Roxas staggered up to his feet and brandished both his Keyblades. Nearby out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the damaged medal turning into a spirit. But the Keybearer couldn’t dwell on this. He sprang back into action and chose to run toward the armored space marine, ”Keep her busy!” he called out to Blazermate in reference to the other Medabot. His plan was fairly apparent. If Blazermate could keep the heat on Heart Roll, then she should be able to prevent her from healing Blaze while Roxas worked to try and finish him off.
”You’re done!” Roxas shouted at Blaze as he went on the attack. Blaze was momentarily stunned in surprise at the fact that this kid managed to get back up after taking a direct shot from Fortune. At this point he really was running on fumes, and so he lacked almost all the tricks he had been employing against Roxas earlier in the fight. Then again, Roxas himself was more or less on fumes too - at least until his MP recharged again anyway. But Roxas did have the edge in that he was a lot more mobile than Blaze was. And the Nobody was quick to take advantage of this, even managing to use flowmotion to keep himself on the move while attacking Blaze with hit-and-run slashes of his Keyblade.
“Argh, dammit kid!” Blaze shouted in frustration, “Hold still so I can kill you, already!”
Blazermate, being the more aggressive of the two medics, rushed at Heart Roll as she had to decide between attacking Blazermate, or healing Blaze. And being unable to fly, she couldn’t evade Blazermate for long. What made this fight even worse for Heart Roll, Blazermate could keep up with her jumping based evasion and also summon homing ghosts that couldn’t be evaded if she got too far from Blaze. And even if she shot Blazermate, having a shield part made any lasting damage on Blazermate difficult to inflict.
This led to a bit of a cat and mouse game for a bit until Blazermate got close enough to hold Heart Roll inside of a deployed projectile shield and roast the poor medabot medic until her medal ejected. If Roxas knew things about robattling and medabot medals, he’d also know that Blazermate was just overall stronger than these two simple medabots due to her rare medal, but that would be a bit too much to point out. Fortune knew what this shield was this time, so she knew to hold her shot until it was gone, but that also held her off as Blazermate went back to support Roxas with Blaze. And with both medabots down, Mr. Referee declared the robattle over and Blazermate the winner, before hopping backwards back into the shaft he had come out of and disappearing like the enigmatic man he was.
”Looks like you’re fresh outta healers!” Taunted Roxas when he noticed that Blazermate had finished off Heart Roll. His own one-on-one against Blaze was starting to wind down now too. With him so low on flamer fuel and his medabot support gone, there just wasn’t much Blaze could do against the fast and agile Keyblade Wielder. And now with Blazermate making it a two-on-one, the odds were even more stacked against him. His only hope now was if the sniper could take one of the Seekers out with her next shot. Of course, Blazermate’s shield and Roxas’ near constant movement wasn’t exactly doing her any favors right now in finding a clear shot.
Using flowmotion, Roxas launched himself off of Blaze’s armored form and toward a nearby shrine gate structure. He used his Keyblade to hook onto it and slingshot himself right back around toward Blaze with increased momentum, ”And stay down!” The Keybearer put his momentum and whatever strength of light he could muster into a downward thrust on top of Blaze that also released some Light as an additional source of damage. And that seemed to be what did it, since Blaze’s armored form finally toppled over and didn’t appear to be moving anymore.
”We’ve gotta find that sniper. And that medabot’s spirit is still back there too, we probably shouldn’t leave it.” he told Blazermate, still unable to relax his guard knowing that their sniper “friend” was still lurking out there somewhere.
”Yeah, I have an idea of where she is, we’ve just gotta get there. Use that cool movement thing and we can get over there quickly, I can follow you no problem.” Blazermate said, keeping her beam on Roxas and pointing him in the direction of Fortune. Her shield would be going down soon, but she got some uber so she could at least uber Roxas a bit after the shield went down to block a final shot and hopefully get them close enough to take them out.
Roxas took off in a sprint. But he wasn’t going in the direction Blazermate pointed to just yet. Instead he worked his way back to where RockTrans’ spirit was still waiting. The Keybearer had to stop long enough to scoop the spirit up off of the ground. And that was the risky part of this move. He’d be giving the sniper a window - however small - to take a shot at him. But he did have Blazermate flying close behind him. So he would trust that her shields could stop another shot from hitting him.
Roxas’ prediction came true. In the fraction of time he had stopped in order to grab up the spirit, another shot from the sniper’s railgun threatened to take him out for good. But true to her word, Blazermate had no problem keeping up with his flowmotion. And when he had stopped, she took that moment to uber off of him and took the shot intended for him with her shield. This was also their chance to close the distance on the sniper while she waited for her weapon to cool down.
”Now’s our chance!’” Roxas cried and went right back on the move again. Flowmotion made it easy to weave through and past the structures and other obstacles. And unlike the first time, now he was going in the direction Blazermate had pointed them in. They had a precious window of time to reach Fortune before she could take another shot. Roxas could close the distance easily enough utilizing flowmotion, and it looked like Blazermate was hot on his tail thanks to her ability to fly and her medibeam copying his speed boosts. In moments Roxas spotted a figure holding a large rifle of some kind on her shoulder. That had to be her.
”Gotcha!” he cried, shifting the direction of his momentum to swing toward her. His MP had also finished recharging by now. So now it was his turn to aim and take a shot, ”Firaga!” he called, shooting the heated fireball out of the tip of his Keyblade. The spell went flying toward the sniper and then… somehow swerved at the last moment and missed her, ”Huh?” Roxas didn’t have much time to analyze that. He was already rapidly approaching melee range. So instead he followed that up by hurling both Keyblades at the sniper, sending them both on opposite circular arcs toward her. And just like with the Firaga spell… they appeared to swerve at the last moment and missed her entirely.
”What’s going on?” Roxas questioned, not having caught on to Fortune’s possession of what seemed to be superhuman luck on her side.
”No clue, let me have a crack at her!” Blazermate said as she zoomed up and tried to ubersaw Fortune, only for her to get knocked back. ”Shes got some kind of like, force field or something.” Blazermate said, her metal body being knocked back by the magnetic field that protected Fortune.
“No one has ever been able to hit me in combat.” Fortune said as she turned her gun on Blazermate, now unable to miss her being at such close range. Blazermate was ready for that though, and before the shot even rung out, she ubered herself and Roxas to give them some seconds of invincibility to figure out what to do here. Wait… what about her ghosts? Magnets and stuff wouldn’t work against them, and they were relentless when they found a target.
”I got an idea, Stay with me Roxas.” Blazermate said as she looked for a purgatory crack to summon a ghost from. Seeing the red crack on the floor wasn’t all that difficult to spot, with her zooming over to touch it. Once it was touched, the ghost summoned out like it normally did, and Fortune was confident it wouldn’t do anything to her, nothing had done anything to her. But she’d be mistaken here as the ghost screeched and zoomed at her, missing her on the first dive due to her field, but taking a sharp turn to try to dive at her again. It took a couple turns, but eventually there wasn’t any speed for the ghost to rubber band and miss her with, and it finally exploded when it made contact with her.
Not without Fortune managing to get off one last trick. She pulled her sidearm, a Baretta 49F and attempted to take a last ditch shot at the ghost, Roxas, and Blazermate. Her shots bounced off the uber Roxas and Blazermate, but did nothing to the incoming ghost, and so its explosion attack went through unstopped.
”First time for everything, huh?” Roxas said in response to the successful ghost attack. And it indeed managed to surprise even Fortune. The ghost attack did its job, maybe even a little too well since all that was left of Fortune after the dust cleared was her spirit. ”Guess you weren’t as untouchable as you thought you were.” He picked the spirit up and stared at it a moment before pulling out the spirit of RockTrans that he picked up earlier.
”Well? What should we do with them?” he asked Blazermate. He knew what could be done with spirits like this, but… he still hadn’t really reconciled with the idea of fusing with one. Would it change who he was? Would it still be him underneath it? For someone like Roxas, who once fought so hard to prove his own existence… well it was no wonder he had his fears about something like this.
”Well, if you're afraid of the fusion stuff, fusion with a medabot might be just for you! I’ve noticed that I tend to not have as many side effects when fusing than the others. I mean you saw how Bowser looked that one time, and I have fused with almost as many spirits and don't look nearly as chimeric as he did before the snackvator!” blazermate said, puffing out her chest in pride. ”Although you’ll have some robot bits once you fuse with that, and well, I guess it’ll be up to me and Susie to teach ya how to deal with that. But hey, you can then have a gun arm!” Blazermate continued. ”And you’ve gotta fuse sometime, this’ll just help you with that.” Blazermate wasn’t aware of the actual conflict Roxas had with the whole thing about losing his identity or anything, she figured he was just worried about looking weird.
”Will I still be… me?” Roxas asked with some hesitation, ”Will my Heart still be in there?” He closed his eyes and thought about it all. Was it really so different from when he had to return to Sora? He could accept that back then, so why did he hesitate now? Even though he faded into Sora’s Heart for a time, deep down he was still there through it all. He and Xion both were.
”I can’t let fear control me.” He finally said, ”Not when I know that Xehanort is involved in all this. Here goes…” Roxas squeezed his eyes shut and hugged the spirit to his chest, and then all that was left was to hope for the best.
Notable spirit consumed: RockTrans The host is slightly paler, and his spiky hair is darker toward the bottom, a dirty blonde shade. He has been equipped with bulky yet sleek blue metal boots and gauntlets, with a matching helmet that has a deployable green visor for shielding his eyes. The palm of the right gauntlet has a red energy core in it, while the back of the left gauntlet has a module that resembles an arrow pointing toward the knuckles. The host is a bit less hot-tempered and a bit better at mental math / calculation. This spirit confers the power RockGun / StepSword, giving the host two handy abilities. The right gauntlet can fire an unlimited amount of energy shots at a rate of 2 per second. They have mediocre power and range but can be charged to boost both, with a full charge taking 1.5 seconds. The left gauntlet can be used to perform short-range a dash slash with an energy sword that expands from the module. This dash tracks targets, even ones in stealth, and it can be used every few seconds. This spirit also confers the weakness Medal Eject. If the host is reduced to low health, a medal will be automatically ejected from the helmet. With the medal out, none of this spirit's abilities can be used. It must be manually reinserted to regain functionality
After a short flash of light, Roxas tentatively opened his eyes, ”Whoa!” He cried out in momentary surprise at the sight of his new gauntlets and boots, then felt his head and realized he was also now wearing a helmet, ”This… it is still me!” He called out in triumph, only to accidentally shoot an energy shot out his right gauntlet, ”Oops… That’s gonna take some getting used to. But can I still…?” He held out his hands and, sure enough, both of his Keyblades still appeared to him as usual. He gave one of them a swing to see if it felt any different under the weight of his newly worn gauntlets, and accidentally triggered his dash slash, ”Whoa! Guess the gun’s not the only weapon this fusion gave me…”
”Aw lucky, you got two powers! But I guess the sword is redundant since you got those keyblades.” Blazermate said, patting him on the back heartily. ”I dunno what you were mumbling about back there, but I haven’t seen much in the way of anything but getting stronger with everyone who has fused with stuff. Except Geralt, but uh… he fused with a Guardian spirit so I guess those are special. I can totally understand your apprehension if you were thinking about those. He didn’t always go on those berserker rages ya know, that's kinda new.” Blazermate said, more or less going off a bit of what she has seen with the various fusions and everything.
”Wait, what?” asked Roxas, though naturally the fusion was already done so no point in being worried now, ”Uh, I’m gonna check in with Sandalphon and let her know we’re done here and on our way.” Roxas then pressed his fingers to his ear… only remember that the helmet. Would the glyph still work with the helmet? He was about to find out.
”Halo? It’s Roxas. We got ambushed, but we’re fine. Do we have a rendezvous point?”
After a moment, he heard the archangel’s voice. It sounded subtly different from how he remembered it, both in voice and intonation, though given how little time he’d spent around Sandalphon, maybe he was imagining things. “Good to hear from you. Unfortunately I have been unable to confirm an exact exit to this labyrinth. Advance toward Arahabaki’s central structure however you can. Be on the lookout for security turrets, mines, laser grids, and mobile conveyors.”
”Central structure.” Roxas repeated, ”Got it! We’ll see you in a bit… I hope. Roxas, out.” He then ended the communication and looked back at Blazermate, ”We may as well bring the other spirit with us. Maybe we’ll figure out what to do with it once we’re back with the others. Let’s get out of here for now.” Blazermate nodded and hovered next to Roxas, keeping them both healed and overhealed as they moved juuust in case.
Goldlewis’ @Lugubrious / Susie’s @Archmage MC vs Hank Allen / Jack-8 / Jacqueline / Deckard Pain Word Count: 6926 (+7)
Between the stolid soldiers and unfeeling automatons, there weren’t any more words to bandy, so without further ado the fight was on. Jack and Jacqueline both took off like sprinters from a starting block, the former swinging his massive arms like an ape as he took large, clumsy strides while the latter dashed headfirst on pointed stilettos with her arms and long hair extended behind her. For the moment, Goldlewis held his ground. Considering he was up against a team of four, they probably had a strategy. He and Susie had nothing but their weapons and their wits. While the veteran’s methods might employ a lot of brute force, his greatest strength was the experience and cunning he’d honed over the course of more battles than he wanted to admit. As such, though he didn’t want to give his foes the positional advantage, he needed a moment to scrutinize them. To slow them down he smacked his coffin’s lid and received his Skyfish minigun from within, with which he opened fire. And as the bullets flew, his mind raced.
Jack-8 closed in at the enemy team’s forefront. Clearly a robot of some kind despite his human face, he looked like a heavy metal juggernaut. Probably the equal of Goldlewis in strength, and he couldn’t assume a lack of intelligence or skill, either. Despite her much smaller size, Jacqueline seemed closer, but strangely built. With those crystal skewers especially, she struck him as a product of magitech, perhaps made in Piltover. Her lack of speed made him wonder what supernatural abilities she had in store. Behind the two jogged Hank, a heavy cannon in his hands. Normally someone with defensive abilities would take point, so Goldlewis assumed his plan was to stay back, stay alive, and keep putting shields on the frontliners to keep them alive. If that was the case, going for the tank first might actually be the best option. That came down to the healer, though. Old Deckard moved at a walking pace, staying well away from the frontlines. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat though; just that he was where he’d be most effective. In war medics were protected by the Geneva Convention, but in a fight like this victory hinged on eliminating enemy healers. Especially considering that the Seekers didn’t have one of their own.
Well, Goldlewis couldn’t strategize for long. Jack was almost here, and Skyfish hadn’t chewed through his shield. “Get the old guy!” he barked at Susie, figuring that her mobility and ranged attacks would give her the best shot. He dropped his minigun and grabbed the coffin as Jack charged in, then readied himself to block. Like a madman, Jack went for a running tackle right away, and as the throw beat the veteran’s guard Goldlewis went down with Jack on top of him. The robot began to punch, arms like pistons, and Goldlewis put up his own to shield his face. After four punches Jack grabbed hold for a cross arm lock.
Any attempt from Susie to intervene found opposition in Jacqueline, however. The doll used Dark Moon, accelerating her leg boosters to zip behind Susie in a blistering burst of speed, where she whipped her skewers in a two-meter circle to stun her opponent while she stealthed herself. That stun gave Hank the time he needed to jog over and take aim with his laser cannon. A moment after Susie regained control, its powerful beam would blaze her way.
Susie, seeing this coming, transported away and just barely avoided the beam as Hank adjusted his aim to chase her. She hadn’t had a chance to get into her business suit yet, but with their hand shown, she could finally get some height before dropping with her business suit right on top of Deckard. The healer was hurt by this, being the old man he was, but it was soon found that while he lacked in mobility, he gained in the ability to heal himself until help arrived by chugging his potions and tracing a triangle upon the ground using some scroll. Not knowing what this was, Susie started to punch Deckard and push him out of it, and while she managed that, she found her mech was rooted when the rune completed while she was still inside of it. The damage was low, it was just a root, but if Deckard had followed up on the stun from Jacqueline properly there wouldn’t have been anything she could’ve done about that beam.
To finish his retreat before Susie could continue the beatdown, he threw a cube that expanded and exploded in a red flash, causing 3 small red potion vials to spawn around Susie. Bottles that would soon disappear as she spun up her business suit’s spinning fist charge and hit the stealthed Jacqueline as she dashed forward towards Deckard. The healer wouldn’t take this lying down though and as he drank his own potions, he also summoned a tornado of books that Susie couldn’t dash through, instead they knocked her back as she dashed through them, eventually causing her to go around it and clip Deckard instead of hitting him full on with the tornado whirl.
In going after Deckard, Susie forced the enemy team to adapt around her. While Hank’s laser cannon ran through each charge too fast for sustained DPS, it could belt out a lot of punishment in a short amount of time, and the moment he could he unleashed the sizzling blue-and-red beam into Susie’s business suit. His weapon’s recoil was such that he seemed to be fighting it as much as his opponents, and when it petered out, he switched it out for a strange two-handed projection device that looked like something between an accordion and a belt buckle. A little after Deckard’s initial shield burst and he healed himself with a potion, Hank’s Shield Charger placed another, beefier shield on the healer to help keep him alive. Jacqueline joined the attack with Burst Harpoon, slamming the ground to create a fissure beneath Susie’s business suit. From the gashes that left behind the machine began to bleed, not blood but coolant, the loss of which would lead to higher internal temperatures.
Meanwhile, the shift in battle had left Goldlewis in the dust, forcing him to go toe-to-toe with Jack-8. After the arm lock Goldlewis managed to dislodge his opponent and rise, and Jack came in swinging with a series of rushing uppercuts. The veteran blocked them while standing, trying to get a feel for his foe’s strength, and the moment the barrage slowed he tried to check Jack’s offense with a couple low elbow jabs. When they caught him, Goldlewis went straight into an up-forward-down Behemoth Typhoon as an overhead. He did not expect Jack to nimbly backdash, moving with deceptive ability, then circle around and struck with Dumptruck, a forward elbow smash right to his target’s padded ribs.
“Bah.” Goldlewis composed himself in time to block the first two hits of Jack’s Pivot Gun, only for him to delay slightly while charging the final two-fisted blow. Goldlewis knew a frame trap when he saw one, and wasn’t about to challenge this combination. Unfortunately, he was wrong; when that double piston punch blasted forward, it turned out to be unblockable, and the impact threw Goldlewis onto his back. “What!?” As he hit the floor, Jack dashed in to deliver a meaty Rocket Kick, but Goldlewis wasn’t having any of it. “Get the hell off!” he roared, planting his foot hard enough to crack the ground as he rose. “Down the…system!” His heavy reversal dealt a chunk of damage and launched Jack off his feet. By the time the robot landed, he’d be reconsidering such impunity in the future.
Susie meanwhile saw what was going on dealing with the three around her. At least she was causing a lot of chaos and forcing the others to focus on her while Goldlewis dealt with the other person. Deckard saw that his 4th team member was getting attacked, but soon his weakness was shown; he had to get fairly close to toss a potion to them. And with Hank having given his shield to Deckard to protect him from Susie, the only thing she had to really worry about was the assassin doll and the occasional blasts from Hank. At least they attacked her suit, and not her.
And she was going to take advantage of all of this. Grabbing Jacqueline and Deckard with her mech, Susie gave them a toss towards Hank and shot the trio with her cow mangler as Deckard and Jacqueline flew through the air at Hank. Seems like she’d have to keep them together to deal with what Hank and Deckard were doing before they caused her business suit some serious damage.
With his Shield Burst recharged, Hank primed it the moment Susie’s mech managed to grab hold of his teammates. To her credit, neither the medic nor the doll saw it coming either. In their efforts to stay alive and bring the pain to the business suit, they’d ended up underestimating the range of its free-floating limbs. What she did with her captives, however, could’ve used some second guessing. Hank’s eyebrows went up as Susie tossed his teammates toward him. Rather than crush them in her grip, pound them against the floor, or even slam them together, she thought she’d try and take them out in one fell swoop? Well, this bot had another thing coming. Hank turned and rolled out of the way; his joints might creak with age, but his muscles had been forged in fire. His Shield Burst went off to give everyone a little extra protection, which Deckard definitely needed as he hit the ground, but Jacqueline ignited her leg thrusters to recover in the air for a graceful landing.
“You wanna play rough?” Hank spat, rising to his feet. “Fine, we’ll play rough. Round ‘er up, fellas.” Jacqueline obeyed without question, running toward Susie. She whirled like a ballerina to cast Crescent Moon, the pointed tip of her leg drawing a semicircle that then fired out toward the business suit. By now, her attacks had generated enough heat to activate her passive Thermoelectric Shield. When she attacked, the residual heat from each strike got converted into a barrier that would help her keep the pressure on for about seventeen seconds. Meanwhile, Deckard shuffled into position to cast Scroll of Sealing again, aiming to root Susie in place.
With their enemy softened up and pinned down, Hank was ready to take her out. He leveled a strange-looking pistol at his enemy, registering her with a harmless laser pointer. After a brief delay, his Orbital Drill joined the party, a pillar of plasma from on high that would track its target as it lasted for ten seconds, wreaking havoc all the while.
Over by the wall, Goldlewis was having trouble with his own opponent. It wasn’t Jack-8’s strength or intelligence that challenged him; it was that this robot moved like nothing else he’d ever seen. In addition to dashing in and out of range in a fast-paced stop-and-go dance, he moved sideways with uncanny speed and precision, sometimes circling halfway around Goldlewis before his Behemoth Typhoon even descended. On one such exchange Jack counterhit him with an uppercut launcher, then kept him juggled with a knee strike on the same side followed by a stubby hinge kick on the left. As if the metallic impacts weren’t bad enough, Goldlewis came to the shocking realization: this machine knew his combos!
Well, that wasn’t going to fly. “Eat shit!” He yelled, using his Burst to break out of the combo much to Jack’s surprise. The energy wave floored Jack just as Hank’s Orbital Drill dropped on Susie, and Goldlewis grumbled as he charged forward. “How does his work underground?” Jack woke up with a low turn kick, but his opponent had taken to the air. Goldlewis airdashed in and landed with a UMA slapfest practically unopposed, allowing him to gatling into an aerial forward-up-back Behemoth Typhoon, land, and get another Behemoth Typhoon on the ground for good measure. Still Jack came back for more. Time to see if he really couldn’t anti-air. Pressing his advantage, Goldlewis jumped again with a knee strike for an instant overhead. That worked too, so after thanking his lucky stars Goldlewis followed up with aerial down-back-up coffin swing, then landed, got close with a shoulder barge, slammed the coffin down, and finished with a meaty back-down-forward Typhoon.
When Goldlewis went for an empty jump low, however, his good luck went bad on him. Jack might be bad at anti-airs, but he could react to this. He performed a low parry, and before Goldlewis knew what hit him, he’d been flipped onto his back and bounced off the ground. His foe struck with an uppercut into a strong hook punch, ran after him to hit the knee, then launched into a three-punch sequence that ended by firing out his forearm like a piston. Goldlewis hit the ground and slid up against the wall, sore from a barrage of hits mostly to his legs and belly. “Oooogh,” he groaned, struggling to rise as Jack dashed in. The robot stopped short to bait the super, but Goldlewis didn’t bite, going for a grab instead. Jack promptly teched the throw, and just like that the two were back in neutral.
Well if Hank thought Susie was slow and going to take that laser, he had another thing coming. Revving up her business suit, she dashed forward with the mechanical arms of her business suit whirring like a buzzsaw, first bashing through Jacqueline’s crescent moon (which both damaged her suit and inflicted more bleeding), then escaping Deckard’s slow to deploy root, and outrunning the orbital laser as she dashed right for the trio who hadn’t really separated much.
And much like a bowling ball running through pins, she rushed through all 3 of them, dealing some hefty damage and knocking them in various directions. With his jetpack Hank had the mobility to take minimal damage, but Jacqueline and Deckard were not nearly as mobile and got caught off guard by the sudden speed of the business suit, granted their various shields dulled some of the damage. Turning Hank’s own weapon against him as she could still turn while doing her rush and made the laser trace a line to her, having Hank in its destructive path, swerving around in a large circle to take another swipe at them.
Deckard got busy, tossing a health potion to Jacqueline as he moved away, after which he cast a Horadric Cube toward Susie to stymie her approach. The doll regretted using Dark Moon earlier, as its stun paired with the Orbital Drill would’ve been a killer combination, but that ability was still on cooldown. She spread out from the others to force Susie to pick a single target. Once Hank landed, his jetpack needing to recharge, he fired up his laser cannon and let it rip once more.
After their reset, the fight raged on between Goldlewis and Jack-8. Both landed a couple short strings on each other, neither overcommitting. Though the robot managed to open up Goldlewis more with his amazing movement, he discovered one other problem for Jack other than anti-airs: projectiles. When he got enough space to let out a Thunderbird, the flying grenade tracked Jack down despite his attempt to sidestep, and paved the way for Goldlewis to close in behind it and overwhelm his opponent with a hard-to-see jump-in. In the middle of his combo, however, Goldlewis dropped it, and Jack bit back. “Ah, hell!” the veteran spat, counterhit and then sent spinning. He slammed the wall behind him and slumped down, allowing Jack to close in and land another few hits before the hapless southerner finally went off to the side.
That robot sure hit like a truck, but Goldlewis wasn’t out of the running just yet. “Got my back against the wall, huh?” he muttered, getting to his feet as Jack marched forward with an ominous Dark Greeting. He sidestepped the unblockable attack, then lashed out with a backhand that pushed Jack back. He applied pressure with a couple hits, microwalking forward between each one. Then he ran forward as if for a throw, only to shimmy backward at the last second. Jack bought it and flinched in anticipation, allowing Goldlewis to actually grab hold, turn him around, and bash the robot with a triple headbutt. “You! Damn! Fool!” Now cornered, Jack fell to the ground, and Goldlewis tapped him with a stomp to force a quick rise. Then he whipped out his coffin for an uncharged dust, and unfortunately for Jack, he read the attack wrong and blocked low. The UMA’s fist hit him overhead, staggering him long enough for Goldlewis to jump with another UMA slapfest, bang him off the wall with an airborne smack, and airdash cancel that into another one that splatted Jack against the wall. At that point, a third and final coffin thrust smashed Jack right through the wall and sent him flying into the distance.
“Whew,”Goldlewis panted, wiping his forehead. If only he could afford to take a break. Instead he turned and took off running for Susie’s fight, hoping he wasn’t too late to lend a hand.
Susie meanwhile had to guard from the counter attack of Hank. Deckard’s cube didn’t really do much but mildly inconvenienced Susie as he wasn’t really meant for doing damage, but Hank’s laser pushed her back towards Goldiewis. Her suit was durable, but not invincible, and it was looking a bit rough now.
”I see you’ve finished with your opponent. Care to help me with these three?” Susie said, a bit annoyed but more focused at the moment. ”Their combination of shields and heals makes them quite durable. And that puppet seems to just inflict constant attacks that cause my suit to leak coolant. I really don’t want to have to deal with an overheat scenario.”
The enemies who might have otherwise been too focused on Susie to notice the incoming veteran (until his heavy footfalls alerted them, anyway) got plenty of forewarning thanks to her speech. “Yeah, yeah, I’m comin’!” Goldlewis called as he jogged over. He didn’t relish getting bogged down by just one opponent while his comrade fought three, but that robot had been one hell of a fighter. Combatants with those sorts of skills were rare, and in terms of raw fighting ability, an outlier. Hopefully the rest were more typical fare.
He stopped and dropped his coffin. It hit the ground with a slam, then cracked open so that the UMA inside could deliver a Skyfish minigun into the veteran’s waiting hands. “Eat lead!” he yelled as he opened fire, trying to draw off one or two opponents. Hank heard the roar of gunfire and scattered away from the others, instinctively looking for cover. As a soldier, he knew what those kinds of firearms were capable of–and he didn’t know that the Skyfish could only fire thirty rounds maximum. What it could do, however, was lock Hank in hitstun when the bullets clipped him, which most bullets couldn’t do.
The arrival of Goldlewis forced the others to adapt, too. Also identifying him as a shooter, Deckard shied away, trying to put Susie and her business suit between him and Goldlewis. Jacqueline, not being a tank who had to concern herself with Deckard’s wellbeing, decided that she’d rather shed blood than coolant. She used Dark Moon, jetting across the battlefield with terrifying speed to get behind Goldlewis and strike him with a thermoelectric burst. The red-hot wave jolted his nervous system, stunning the man for a couple seconds. “Gaaah, the hell!?” With no more bullets coming his way, Hank switched to his shield projector in anticipation of Susie going after the healer, and began to apply a strong shield to Deckard.
Susie knew that going for Deckard wouldn’t work. Hank would shield him and he’d just heal himself. So instead she decided to go after Hank, with Goldlewis keeping the third member distracted. Hopefully he could handle her as Susie hopped over to deal with the two supports.
Now, she wasn’t all that fast in her business suit without engaging the dash drive, so her hopping over or scooting over to Deckard and Hank was more a power move than anything as she had an idea. Deckard was an old man, and she noticed that to heal people, he had to get somewhat close, so the question became; could she take out Hank before Deckard got close enough to heal him? Well, it was time to test that. Giving Hank and Deckard some time to prepare and put their guard up, she attempted to psyche them out by whirring her charge again, before halting it and grabbing Deckard and chucking him as far as she could to separate him from Hank.
Of course Hank wasn’t going to take this lying down and shot at her suit again with his cannon, seeing Deckard was flying out of the range of his shield. While he would like to shield Jacqueline, the approaching mech was a bigger concern. While Susie threw Deckard, showing her back to Hank, he unleashed his beam on the giant mech that was looking damaged at this point having had to tank so much punishment.
Susie did this maneuver on purpose though, and used her transporter to ditch her business suit as Hank’s gun started to run out of charge. She then charged up her dash itself and dashed into Hank to grab him and push him away from Deckard in the opposite direction, slamming him down on the ground after doing a bit of a heart shaped loop with her metal body. This momentarily stunned hank, and Susie used this opportunity to resummon her business suit and as Hank was getting up from the ground and revved up his jetpack to jump away, Susie grabbed him as he started to fly and throw him back onto the ground before using her business suit’s drill bottom to hop up and down on him.
Deckard wasn’t going to let his ally perish that easily though, and walked his way towards Hank. Not being able to get into range to heal him as Susie’s heavy mech jumped on him, he pulled out his book and started to retell a story of his, using his Stay Awhile and Listen. Susie was barely in range of it, and upon hearing the magical words, fell asleep in her business suit which allowed a heavily injured Hank to get out from under her. As Deckard read his words in order to keep Susie asleep long enough to heal Hank, Susie’s hand hit a switch in her suit, and as hank started to pull out his shield generator, the mech fell on top of him, causing his demise and a sleeping Susie to spill out of it. She’d remain asleep for a good few seconds, but Deckard just had his final ally to heal now before he was all alone.
Of course, by this point he was a ways off from Jacqueline, and for most of the time they’d been separated he hadn’t been able to see her. Under the veil of stealth, the doll of destruction had been kicking Goldlewis while he was down, each blow from her bladelike legs leaving a gash or a bruise on his body. He was a titan of a man though, and he recovered from the stun with plenty of health to spare only to find his opponent completely invisible. “What kind o’ doggone hogwash-!” When he took a blow to the face, knocking off his glasses, he wheeled in the direction it came from with a huge backfist, but for all its speed and range his blind flailing failed to connect. “Hmph!” He set up his coffin vertically, deploying a Wall of Light. While he quickly found out that Jacqueline was on the same side of it that he was, the blue energy barrier created a wall he could put his back to, and the probability of being discovered warded the doll off for the last few seconds of her stealth.
When she reappeared, Goldlewis locked onto her immediately. “There y’are.” Jacqueline launched a crescent moon at him, but he whirled his coffin around to intercept the bloodletting blade with his block. His opponent approached behind it, striking his guard with a flurry of kicks. After a brief pause, she looked down, then dropped one leg to stab into the veteran’s foot. “Ow!” Having opened Goldlewis up, she crouched down and supported herself with one arm to launch a double twisting dropkick. Though he almost stumbled, Goldlewis planted his back foot and pushed forward with a mighty stomp just after Jacqueline landed in a crouch. She dodged away from the blow and threw herself forward with a flying kick, only to be met by her opponent’s haymaker. “Go to hell!” The spectacular cowboy punch flipped the doll end over and, and she landed a couple dozen feet away.
Her thermoelectric shield had absorbed most of the damage, though, and the next moment Jacqueline was on her feet. Goldlewis turned to see her readying another move, so he unceremoniously dropped his coffin on the floor with a bang. His opponent hesitated for a moment, not sure why he’d disarm himself, and in that moment Goldlewis dealt the coffin a mighty kick. It slid right across the floor and slammed Jacqueline’s legs out from under her. Without a word, or even a sign that she felt the hard landing, she got to her feet and began to ignite her thrusters. She did not notice the coffin sliding open behind her, or the arms reaching out, until it was too late. “...Hm!?” Hands clasped around her wrists, her elbows, her shoulders, legs, and neck, pulling her off her feet and onto the ground. They dragged her back to the coffin and pinned her against it, locked around her neck and limbs as she struggled uselessly. As their grip grew tighter, her mechanical body began to spark and crack.
Goldlewis sauntered up. “Thanks, UMA.” He frowned at the trapped robot, rubbing his face before replacing his glasses. “Reckon your time’s just about up, partner. Better hurry up and make your peace.”
For the first time, Jacqueline spoke. “Booster, maximum output. Meteor Strike.”
“Meteor…?”
“Initiate!” Jacqueline’s eyes flared orange, and in a blast of air pressure she broke from the UMA’s grip, knocking both Goldlewis and the coffin back. Golden gears unfurled from her back like wings, three on each side. As she crossed her arms, pink crystalline spikes extended from the gear wings like enormous feathers, and she shot into the air. As she flew upward, she fired both of her other spikes upward, which combined into a huge pink drill lance. She flipped upside down, inserted one leg into the top, and swung the whole thing downward. A moment later she reached the apex of her leap, and after that, she began to rocket back down.
“No way,” Goldlewis muttered, speechless at the sight of the giant drill descending toward him. Try as he might, he could think of any good way out of this. His heart pounded, and he gritted his teeth. “This is dumb as hell.”
Susie woke up from her impromptu sleep finding herself outside of her business suit, and a spirit under it. She shrugged and grabbed it, before using her transporter to get her over to Deckard who was trying to get into range of his ally. ”Oh no you don’t!” Susie said as she approached and summoned her business suit again to try to attack the old man. She’d… find this actually a bad move. While he took all the hits she laid into him and could only really root her or throw cubes at her, he didn’t really bother using the cubes as he just chugged potion after potion, able to completely outheal whatever damage Susie did to him as he moved closer and closer to his ally.
Susie could toss him again, but that didn’t matter when it came to dealing with his healing. All while…. Well, there wasn’t much she could do against what Goldweis was dealing with. That could be a fun spirit to use, but… well a drill from the sky like that could be pretty painful. Hopefully her ally could handle that…
When Goldlewis tried to run away from the impact zone, Jacqueline altered her flight path to follow him. No use beatin’ a computer when it comes to calculations, I suppose. Would he bet it all on his Wall of Light, which could stop a platoon’s worth of gunfire, and turn his coffin skyward? Or would he go with his gut? Goldlewis breathed in deep, filling his lungs. There was no time to plan. Only just enough to act.
“Best defense is a good offense,” he muttered, bolstering himself. He grabbed his coffin and mustered his strength. His blood pumped, his muscles bulged, and he called forth every ounce of power of his body. “DOWN THEEEEEEEE…”
“SYSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!”
His coffin, thrust upward like a mountain rising from continental collision, met the spinning tip of Jacqueline’s crystal drill kick in a calamitous whirlwind of sparks, lightning, and sheer force. For a brief moment they contended, but as Goldlewis held firm, cracks shot up the sides of the crystal drill lance. The next second it shattered, flying apart into chunks propelled by its spent momentum. As the glittering pink shards rained down and Jacqueline got thrown back, three Thunderbirds emerged from the coffin and flew after her. Together they slammed into her and exploded midair like fireworks in a terrific send off for the doll’s flashy ultimate move.
Then Goldlewis slumped down, panting. Down With the System might be invincible, but the aftershock had broken his arm, though between the jarring numbness and adrenaline he couldn’t even really feel it.
Well, Susie didn’t seem to have anything to worry about there, although Goldlewis looked exhausted after doing that. Susie really didn’t have a super move like that, she was more consistent in her abilities. Although having a discussion on that wasn’t something she’d really bother with as all that left to what she could see was Deckard, who just seemed to chug a potion as Susie bashed his face in. For an old guy, he was incredibly durable even without Hank healing him, and his potions seemed to be bottomless. At least his damage was basically non-existent, but Susie wondered why he didn’t give up. Was there something he was waiting for? Or was this just a factor of being Galeem-ified? And with all the healing a friend heart wouldn’t even work on him to break that cycle. Sure Susie could interrupt him every once in a while, but those potions were strong. Maybe he’d run out after enough time passed?
As Goldlewis took a quick breather, he glanced over at Susie with mild bewilderment, wondering what was going on between her and the enemy team’s last man standing. Most medics couldn’t come out on top against a bruiser if left to their own devices, but sure enough, that old man just kept on trucking. As strong as those potions must be to negate Susie’s assault, the experience of getting beat down indefinitely must not be fun. At least he wasn’t going anywhere, so Goldlewis took the moment he needed to compose himself.
That wasn’t to say that he relaxed, though. Always alert, he continued to monitor his surroundings as he fixed his outfit and hair, which meant that when something flew in over the arena’s outer walls, Goldlewis was the first to know. He spotted Jack-8, hanging beneath some sort of jet-propelled flying machine. “You gotta be kiddin’ me,” he complained as he hefted his coffin and got moving. If Deckard and Jack reunited, he and Susie might be in for history’s longest boxing match. He ran in, grabbed the medic, and dealt a triple headbutt that ended with a knockdown. The man could chug potions or get off the floor, but not both. He then joined the assault to whittle Deckard down before Jack arrived. A moment later the robot hit the ground a couple hundred feet away, posed once, then started sprinting the Seekers’ direction.
With Goldlewis helping keep Deckard under control, Susie could help finish him off using the drill bottom of her business suit, drilling through the surprisingly durable old man before Jack got here.
Susie’s decisive conclusion to the storied healer’s attempt to sustain himself made Goldlewis frown. As someone who’d experienced warfare firsthand, he was no stranger to death, but that didn’t mean that he had to like it. He tried to put Deckard’s gruesome end out of his mind as he turned to face Jack-8, ready for another round with the scrappy machine.
Without hesitation, Jack turned the momentum of his run into a sliding low kick, but Goldlewis had good enough reflexes to crouch and block it in time. He replied with an equally audacious up-forward-down Behemoth Typhoon to smash Jack overhead, but the robot managed to rise and block it standing. It still guard crushed, though, which kept Jack in blockstun long enough for Goldlewis to dash forward. They traded jabs, a metal punch for a beefy elbow. Jack went for a launcher in hopes of counterhitting his opponent, but his opponent’s forward-down-back Typhoon was disjointed enough to wallop him. “Try this on!” Its recovery prevented any kind of combo, though, and when Goldlewis ran in for a throw on Jack’s wakeup, the robot deftly sidestepped his grasp and grabbed him instead. “Dagnabbit-!” Jack hoisted him off his feet and kept him airborne with a barrage of piston punches.
Well if the first teamwork move worked, why not another? Hopping out of her business suit as she doubted it would be fast enough for this, she charged up her dash and got into position as Goldlewis went to clash with this final enemy and waited for her opportunity. Which came fairly quickly as Jack was able to outmaneuver Goldlewis and get him into a combo of his own, a combo Susie would break with her own suplex move coming from a very different angle.
After Jack got snatched, Goldlewis hit the ground with a groan, but hurried to pick himself up. Jack was back on his feet just as fast. Now the robot had two targets to worry about, which wasn’t something he was necessarily designed for. Of course, that didn’t mean that he felt any fear. Unconventional foes just demanded unconventional moves. After dashing backward, Jack spread his arms wide and launched off the ground to deliver a Giant Foot Stomp to his fellow machine. Goldlewis had already airdashed toward him and couldn’t change his trajectory with a double jump, so for the moment Susie had to fend for herself.
Jack had a fair amount of distance to cover though, especially as he dashed back, so in order to deliver his foot stomp, he had to deal with getting pelted by Susie’s blaster fire with Susie also retreating back since she was going to stay at range for now. She underestimated the distance he’d cover, since he could jump again several times midair, but he’d pay for knocking Susie back with his foot stomp by taking quite a few blaster shots before he made contact. After her bit of flight, Susie got back up, dusting herself off. Her shield she had grabbed earlier absorbed most of the damage from that attack, but that didn't’ really matter since getting kicked like that made her a bit annoyed as she pulled out her cow mangler and began shooting Jack with it.
The Cow Mangler’s shots traveled a lot slower than Jack could dash-dance, and they didn’t apply hitstun either, but with Goldlewis on the case he couldn’t just chase Susie down. He got Jack’s attention again with the help of an exploding Thunderbird, and their duel quickly resumed. In a flurry of fists and heavy metal the two titans traded blows, mechanical might versus one hundred percent home-grow American muscle. Putting what he’d already learned to good use, Goldlewis made ample use of jump-ins, abusing his coffin’s range and Jack’s lack of anti-airs for all they were worth. Jack didn’t give him a lot of room to work with, but he also utilized his ranged weapons, throwing out a Thunderbird for oki whenever he managed to knock Jack down. Of course, his opponent was a tough nut to crack, and the robot struck back with blistering speed and force.
Their exchange came to a head when, after taking one too many Behemoth Typhoons, Jack threw caution to the wind and went ballistic with a ten-hit combo of steel-bending slugs. That barrage overwhelmed Goldlewis early, before he could commit to Faultless Defense. “Agh! Augh! Gah! Ow!” When the final strike sent Goldlewis spinning, Jack did not rush in to pressure him one wakeup, but did something strange. Seemingly unbothered by Susie, he stood still and began to whirl one of his arms around like a cartoon character. From out of nowhere, an omnipresent voice began to count his arm’s revolutions. “One…two…three…four…”
Well if this guy was going to dodge her shots…. Wait, these were energy rockets right? Why not shoot the ground under him? He couldn’t dodge the explosions! And using this idea, Susie shot her next rocket at his feet. He wasn’t trying to dodge, so that part of it didn’t come into effect. However, what she did cause him to do, was drop the massive hit he was about to do to Goldlewis by making him go airborne and interrupting his concentration.
Goldlewis had been way too alarmed by whatever it was Jack was going to risk getting anywhere near him, so the help from Susie was just what he needed. As the robot popped into the air, his Gigaton Punch cut short, the veteran charged in. “Thanks, li’l miss!” He jumped up and caught his opponent with a quick air combo, and the flurry of hits ended with a tremendous slam that obliterated the last of Jack’s health beneath Goldlewis’ weight. With a sound almost like a duck, the robot’s body burst apart into pieces that quickly began to dissolve, leaving Goldlewis to lie on the floor for a spell and still his pounding heart. “Whoo-wie!” he breathed. “That sumbitch knew how to fight!”
”It was 4 of them vs 2 of us, and they had support as well.” susie said, dusting herself off and making herself presentable before she went over to take a look at Goldlewis. ”Hmm…. I suppose I should pay you for being my bodyguard this time…” Susie said, looking through her bag of random stuff and pulling out some healing mushrooms she had gotten earlier in the quarantine zone. She held them out for Goldlewis to grab.
“Bodyguard? For you?” Thinking of just whose security detail he’d coordinated in the past, Goldlewis chuckled. When presented with stripy fungi, he was hesitant for a moment until he received the unmistakable aroma of fried pork belly. “Bacon?” He took the mushrooms and ate one tentatively. To his surprise, he felt his injuries begin to recede. “Wow. What in the world?” Quickly he devoured the second, and he almost ate the third before he paused, mouth open to take a bite. “Hmm. That’s probably fine for now, better keep the last one.” He handed the last mushroom back to Susie, then got to his feet, his eyes on the immense pillar that seemed to form the core of Arahabaki. “After all, we ain’t done yet.”
”Yes, we had best get going.” Susie said. She was about to get going, before she remembered about the field of spirits of all the things she had just fought, and moved over to pick up all 4. ”Hm…” Susie thought to herself before remembering the pain some of them were. For now, she figured that the old man she had to deal with, the healing one, could be incredibly useful as a new employee. And taking the military Deckard spirit, she enlisted her in the PMC division of the haltmann works company, gaining him as a striker.
New Striker: Deckard Pain A support striker with a medium cooldown. He can do three things: Healing Potion, which places a potion on the ground that can heal anyone on contact, Horadric Cube, which is a projectile that deals minor damage plus a slow, and Scroll of Sealing, a channeled ability that creates a rooting triangle on the ground upon completion.
The other spirit she had an idea of was that stealthing doll that did a fair amount of damage to her business suit. She did notice her out of business suit capabilities were lacking, and that thing had some interesting functions. The stealth most of all the most useful if she got focused to get her out of there and into a better position…. Well she shrugged and figured the two of them looked fairly similar knowing what this spirit fusion did to a few others, so she shrugged and decided to give it a try.
Notable spirit consumed: Jacqueline The host is a bit taller, with more humanoid proportions, such as a smaller head. Her skirt now has side slits and she has actual legs beneath them, though they terminate in points with brass heels. Her floating hands are now five-fingered and white in color with poofy ‘sleeves’. Her head now has a simple face, though it more resembles a motionless mask, with a simple mouth and more detailed eyes. Her hair is also realistic and is longer, now a pink-to-white gradient, but kept in two twintails with pink diamond fixtures on their tips. This spirit confers the Power Thermoelectric Shield. When using an ability that expends energy, some of that energy is now converted into a protective shield, which can also be released for a burst of dual electric-heat damage. This spirit also confers the Weakness Slow. Her baseline movement speed, regardless of transporter or business suit use, is slower
While she did that, Goldlewis collected the other two spirits. He hadn’t been able to pay too much attention to what Hank could do, and he wasn’t sure that he liked the other soldier’s attitude, but both he and Jack packed some serious firepower. Still, better to hold on to them than shake things up mid-operation. With Susie’s changes complete, he looked her over briefly before jabbing his thumb at the other conveyor bridge leading away from the arena. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Zenkichi’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN / Sakura’s @Zoey Boey vs Sigma / Dr. Muto / Caustic / Colress Word Count: 4709 +5
Heat Riser- a superior buff skill that combines Tarukaja, Sukukaja, and Rakukaja, increasing the recipient's attack, defense, and speed for roughly 1 minute. Has a cooldown of roughly 3 minutes, separate from the individual buff skills.
As Zenkichi ran through the teleporter, he frowned when he noticed that the other Seekers weren’t present. ”Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding…” He groaned, looking around. At least Sakura got through the teleporter with him, but nobody else he was familiar with was anywhere to be seen. Moments later, though, Sandalphon came through their intercoms and requested a head count.
”Hasegawa here, I’m with Kasugano. Uh, Zenkichi and Sakura. We’re okay.” He reported back, before turning to Sakura. ”So, uh…apparently Japan is a giant hole in the ground here? But uh…this place is definitely Japanese.” He awkwardly commented.
”Hole in the gr-...” Sakura just shook the weird comment off and glanced around. ”Y-yeah. Um. Oops. We gotta find the others?” Sakura said, nervous. If there was any consolation, it was probably that this wasn’t her fault in particular. That entire infiltration mission went off the rails towards the end there. Platforms and towers and conveyor belt bridges all around.
Sakura smiled a bit at Zenkichi, and then began to speak in japanese. Assuming that he spoke it as well. She toed her boot into the dirt. ”It’s a dry garden.” She said. They were in a wide courtyard, and had been dropped next to a flat plain of gravel-like rocks with a few knee high boulders sticking out. ”No time to stick around though. We gotta go.”
When Sakura started speaking Japanese, Zenkichi switched over to the language as well. ”Yeah, we just gotta keep going, we’ll meet up with the others in the center area, I’m sure.”
But it wouldn’t be that easy. A drop pod descended from the foggy cavernous expanse above and dropped into a nearby building. ”What’s a trap without ambushers?” Sakura said, nervously amping herself up for a fight. ”Whoever they are I’m sure we can take ‘em, Hasegawa-san.”
Getting through the first section wasn’t terribly difficult, though there was one area where the ground moved almost like an elliptical machine, and Zenkichi’s knees were not happy about that one bit. Still, soon they came upon a group of four defenders, much like the others were.
Once the pod landed and lifted its doors, an unusual quarter stepped out to form up opposite the two Seekers. Most striking was the old man in strange, high-tech protective gear, with a chiseled face and strong brow, who floated about a foot (not to mention barefoot) off the ground. His eyes were on the intruders immediately, hard, suspicious, but smoldering with a barely-contained manic light. Less intimidating but far stranger was the wiry little scientist with wild hair, a checkered tie, green-rimmed glasses, and an unsettling grin. Compared to those two, the man in yellow looked almost normal, yet his composure belied the malice that radiated from him as strongly as an acrid chemical smell. Finally, the last man on the job turned out to be a familiar face, at least for Sakura: Dr. Colress, who she met the night before.
“Can’t believe Hojo let me get roped into this,” Colress was saying as he stepped from the pod. “I’m not exactly dumb muscle. Do those dolts really think I’m expendable?” When he saw who he was up against, that really took the went from his sails. “Oh, no.”
Sakura waved awkwardly at Dr. Colress, grinning sheepishly.
Caustic shot Colress a look, clearly as unhappy with the arrangement as his colleague. “What, don’t have the stomach for a little pest control, doctor? Hmph.” He tossed a gas grenade in his hand. “Well, just do your job and keep us alive. Leave the extermination to us.”
Sigma cracked his neck, first to one side, then the other. “Ik sta te popelen.”
Colress crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at Zenkichi and Sakura. “How about a deal? My healing isn’t all that great, and I can only do it ten times. I won’t attack, and if you get through the others, you’re free to go. No strings attached.” He gave them an apologetic smile. “I should warn you, though. I’m not much of a fighter, but I can do something very annoying, so if you trigger me, this may end poorly for you.”
The proposed ‘deal’ seemed to annoy Caustic. “Whose side are you on?”
“Oh, just think of it as a little experiment. You’re a man of science, aren’t you?” Colress gave his teammate an inquisitive look. “Surely you’re not afraid.”
At that, Caustic turned back toward his enemies. "We only fear what we do not understand. And I fear nothing."
With the fight imminent, Sigma raised his right hand, releasing two hyperspheres that floated above his palm. “Dit wordt leuk!”
Sakura wondered about Colress’s deal, but, if he wasn’t going to fight them, she’d feel bad about punching him. And she didn’t want to find out what annoying thing he could do. ”Works for me!”
”Okay, I don’t know what the German guy is saying, but if all you’re gonna do is give em a bit of healing, I guess that’s better for us, huh?”
“Dutch!” Sigma interjected irately, switching to English.
Zenkichi shrugged as he drew the Closing Statement. ”Don’t like the look of those grenades, though…” He muttered, shrugging. The little scientist-looking guy was almost, by virtue of how out-of-place he looked, more intimidating. Between him and a super-powered street fighter, though, Zenkichi wasn’t all that worried. He started by running right at Caustic, boosting his speed with Sukukaja to try and catch him off guard and get in a few hits before things really popped off. Miniboss fights like this always required a little more care.
”Let’s go!” Sakura shouted, looking to dish out some damage as she followed behind Zenkichi. But their opponents were more than ready for a fight. Immediately getting a sense that their opponents were close-ranged fighters, Sigma acted quickly, using Accretion. In a matter of moments he had used gravity to gather a large orb of debris, and flung them at Zenkichi. The damage was decent but the main advantage here was the kinetic force of the rocks that would Knock Down anyone hit by it, and send anyone caught in the radius flying away. ”Watch out!” Sakura cried out.
”Nice try!” Zenkichi taunted as he evaded the attack, the boost given by Sukukaja enough to dodge the projectile, though it gave Caustic enough time to react himself. He took Zenkichi’s mutterings as an invitation, throwing a Nova gas trap directly at where Zenkichi’s dodge took him. The trap burst as soon as it detected an enemy in proximity, namely Zenkichi, and the sudden field of noxious fumes caused him to cough violently, stumbling to his knees rather than standing. Meanwhile, Dr. Muto had begun his transformation, turning into a strange gorilla-human hybrid, possessing all the strength of the former, with the head (and brain) of his normal human form.
”Oh no!” Sakura had dodged the other direction, and she was reluctant to enter the toxic fumes lest she succumb as well. She reached out with her psychic powers and offered a lifeline to Zenkichi, using Mental Connection to pull him out of the cloud and over to her. Probably latching onto thoughts like ‘wow this really sucks!’ Or something like that.
Smirking, Sigma began to launch small orbs that did a small damage explosive after a short delay, in pairs. Caustic was faster than he looked and strafed around the side, firing his assault rifle. Sakura deflected the ranged attacks with her forearms, but it was just to distract her so the massive man-gorilla that barreled at her could sock her on the mouth, which it did. Sakura spun and then ducked under a follow up punch, kicking the gorilla in its chest. Dr Muto figured she would have strength, so it wasn’t surprising when he had to stumble back from the kick. Off to a bad start, Sakura thought! They’d have to turn it around.
Climbing to his feet outside the poison gas, Zenkichi waved a thanks to Sakura as he stood, looking between the opponents ahead of him. Sigma and Caustic had harassment for days, but Muto was a literal gorilla. Sakura seemed to be at a similar strength level, though, which was a good sign for them. Zenkichi decided to target Sigma first, because as bad as that gas was, those explosive little balls were probably more of a hassle.
Sukukaja was still up, so Zenkichi charged at the Dutchman, Closing Statement ready to tear into him. Caustic turned to fire on him, but Zenkichi grit his teeth and ran at Sigma, dodging to the side to avoid a pair of hyperspheres that the flying man launched while backpedaling. With the speed boost, dodging and closing the distance was a simple affair, and Sigma knew that his projected barrier would be useless against a melee weapon. “Caustic, they’ve sent hard counters!” He bellowed, kicking at Zenkichi rather uselessly as his shields were being ruthlessly cut down.
“No such thing,” The grenadier replied, preparing another gas trap in a line with Zenkichi and Sigma. “Just send ‘em my way!” He prompted, causing Sigma to grunt and push himself and the Phantom Thief back with a hypersphere shot, then follow up with Accretion. Zenkichi managed to dodge the main boulder, but the splash was wider than he expected, sending him to the side and away from the gas trap. “Truly cannot trust any of you to help!” The legend shouted, hefting his rifle and peppering Zenkichi’s back with rifle shots.
Unfortunately, Sakura was battling a gorilla, and for the moment wasn’t in much position to help. He was fast and strong, but Dr. Muto was no street fighter and raw power wasn’t much against refined skill. His fists slammed into concrete but not into Sakura herself, who fired back with vicious cross punches and chin kicks. Colress stood at the back, and cast a heal at the gorilla. Sakura deflated a bit as she saw the gorilla heal up in front of her eyes. She just had to do that nine more times? She jumped over a grab and brought her head down on his forehead, before transferring into a combo that ended with a shouoken to send the gorilla flying. Into another heal, but one that wasn’t enough to totally mitigate the damage.
Sakura charged up a fireball and smashed her hadoken into the gorilla’s guard before he could even get up. ”How you holdin’ up?!” She called over to her ally.
Grunting, Zenkichi found himself between a rock and a hard place. Whichever target he went after, the other would just pelt him from afar. Caustic’s rifle shots were a bit less damaging on their own, but headshots hurt a hell of a lot more. Sigma’s hyperspheres possessed a bit of knockback, though, which made them rather dangerous as well if he wasn’t paying attention to dodge them.
”Hangin’ in there!” Zenkichi called as he stabbed Closing Statement into the floor, drawing one of his revolvers and taking a few shots at Caustic, causing the Legend to lower his rifle and dodge after the first two shots landed center-mass. Sigma took the opportunity to fire another pair of hyperspheres, but Zenkichi was already stowing his revolver and dodging, sword back in hand. Pointing aggressively at Sigma, he called for his Persona. ”Valjean! Hit him with Deathbound!” Given how low Sigma was floating off the ground, the spectral hands shouldn’t have had any trouble grabbing hold of the Dutch man and dealing some damage, while Zenkichi ran back in to attack him. They had to burn through Colress’s heals before they took too much damage on their own. Even Zenkichi’s self-heals would only go so far. At least he had that protective vest to mitigate some of the damage he was taking.
”Okay, just lemme know!”Sakura was slowly getting the hang of her one on one with the gorilla. Dr. Muto was no match for Sakura in fisticuffs. She was really beating him up, and it was clear he was on his last legs. After smacking the man-gorilla in the nogging, she jumped up in the air to swipe across his face with a spin kick. There was a flash of blue energy, and the man-gorilla turned into a man-mouse! He went right under her kick and onto the other side, squeaking. Dr. Colress took the opportunity to heal up his geneticist companion.
There was another flash of blue energy and the man-mouse turned into a man-scientist, holding his remote-control / gun thing. “Hrmmph! I might need to borrow some of that DNA of yours!”
”Uh, what? No way! I’m sick of you mad scientists.”
“Mad? Not mad! I just need enough power to power a device that can rebuild an entire planet!” He explained, flicked a switch, and shot a crackling stream of electricity at Sakura. She crossed her arms and slid backwards, grunting. She walked backwards, leaving the range of the zapper, and fired an ex-hadoken at Dr. Muto- and anyone behind him. He scampered out of the way but the blazing blue fireball caused a grenade-prepping Caustic to sidestep back into cover.
“Close one!” Dr Muto said, doing a little dance.
”Why are you even fighting for these jerks, anyway?” Sakura asked.
“I’ve no lab, no money, no home, no nothing! It’s the only way!” Dr. Muto said, clicked a button on his gun, and turned into a revolting man-spider hybrid. And not a little spider, he was man-sized.
”Ew!” Sakura said. Dr. Muto fired some web out of his hands that Sakura blocked. But he just zipped towards her using the connection and span, sticking all his legs out and smacking Sakura seven times across the face in rapid succession. ”Ow ow ow ow ow ow!” Sakura spun away from the impact, squeezing one eye shut.
As he skittered away, he started dropping explosive eggs to hinder Sakura’s approach. Both with the danger of the explosions, and Sakura’s aversion to even wanting to touch him. She’s seen some really gross things in her time but something about this was really getting under her skin! ”C’mere!” Sakura chased after him, running around the eggs. She cast a look over at Zenkichi’s battle. If pursuing Dr. Muto was too hard, she could always break off and engage one of those other chumps and help her friend.
While Zenkichi was attacking Sigma and Sakura was dealing with Muto, Caustic had spent time placing a number of traps around the battlefield, seeing that Zenkichi and Sakura were both rather close-range fighters, even if they had some potential for fighting from a distance. He and Colress were fairly well protected behind a semi-circular barrier of gas traps, while he took potshots at both Zenkichi and Sakura now. That fireball almost hit him!
Meanwhile, Colress had spent another heal on Sigma, who was launching hyperspheres whenever he managed to backpedal a bit from Zenkichi. Accretion was proving valuable as well, but it was also fairly dodgeable, which was moderately frustrating. When Sukukaja wore off and Zenkichi swapped buffs to Tarukaja, though, the two were trading damage much more. Both were rather tanky fighters, though with the attack buff Zenkichi was starting to melt through Sigma’s shields and into his health pool.
With Dr. Muto trying to lead Sakura on a wild goose chase, Sakura broke off and ran to slam into Sigma from the side! She swung towards him using momentum gathered from Mental Connection and kicked him in the side. Dr. Muto rapidly turned to chase after her, and Caustic popped out from behind cover and started shooting, though he had to be careful to not hit his ally.
For a moment Sigma really was having to Tank, though going up against two heavy hitters close range meant Colress would have to step in. “Get them off me, you fool!” Sigma complained.
The man-spider came up from behind and shot a web at Sakura, sticking her back. Yelling in surprise she was yanked and pulled towards a Nox trap. It popped and Sakura immediately began to sputter and cough. It burned her lungs and eyes! Sakura rolled over and smacked the trap, breaking it, causing the gas to dissipate. But not before Caustic started blasting her side with his gun. The bullets pierced into her side with yellow sparks. Sakura grit her teeth and dove to cover. Dr. Muto fired another thread but this time the crouching Sakura incinerated it with a short ranged blast of ki, having learned her lesson from last time.
Even with Muto helping to pull one of the brawlers off of him, Sigma was having a rough go of things. Colress had to burn yet another heal to keep him up, though the Dutchman seemed much less perturbed by this than Zenkichi might have expected. About the time he realized something was up, Sigma lifted his arms and began charging gravitic energy, singing “Het universum zingt voor mij!” as he started to float above the battlefield. Zenkichi found himself rooted for a moment, then slowly, helplessly lifted into the air.
Sakura couldn’t afford to be pinned down. Her jaw dropped at Sigma’s impressive ability, and she knew it wouldn’t end well. Sakura sprinted forward, and Caustic threw a grenade in her way, preparing to release its deadly poison. Sakura flipped over it and blasted downward with an aerial hadoken, destroying the canister and resulting in a diminutive little burst. Landing on her feet she reached out with Mental Connection. ”Here, again!” She shouted. She plucked him from the air and tugged him out of the anti-gravity radius. It was a rush job so he ended up slamming into her and knocking her over. A few moments later the solid ground dented inward a few inches in the wide radius that Sigma had affected with a tremendous crash of gravitic energy.
”Holy crap!” Sakura shouted in surprise.
Pushing himself up, Zenkichi took a deep breath. ”Yeah, wow, that was close. Thanks for the save, Kasugano.” His thanks given, he offered a hand to Sakura. ”This isn’t working, that scientist guy just keeps healing them. Even if he can only do it ten times, I don’t know how much longer we’re gonna last, we gotta get creative.” Right as he finished, Muto, now back to gorilla form, leapt at the pair, arms swinging wildly. Hefting the Closing Statement awkwardly, Zenkichi managed to just get pushed back a little, retaliating quickly with a heavy overhead slash that Muto made no effort to evade, just punching the Phantom Thief in the chest.
”Yeah. New plan. Get the guy with the gun to shoot their healer.” Zenkichi wheezed, trying to catch his breath. ”Gorilla dude hurts like hell.”
Sakura jumped on Muto’s back, wrapping her arm around his head and neck and yelling loudly. ”DAAAAAAAGH!” Muto, strangled, started flailing and grabbing at her and the two went off in a random direction. Looked like Zenkichi might have to execute his plan himself. That was Muto off Zenkichi, but he would have to take cover quick because Caustic and a particularly miffed Sigma were looking to rain bullets and rocks down upon him.
Sighing, Zenkichi made a break for a large rock protruding from the ground, taking a quick breather before clambering up and over, leaping from the rock towards Caustic. If he was going to get this to work, he needed to be fast. Tarukaja was still up, though, so Zenkichi had to work without a speed buff. Tanking a burst of shots before dodging out of the way of a follow-up blast, he was at least far enough away from Sigma that most of the hyperspheres were off-course by the time he moved. Even trying to predict Zenkichi’s movements, the floating scientist had trouble landing his shots on target with the erratic dodging he was doing.
Finally closing in, Zenkichi smirked while Caustic did the same, pulling out a hefty revolver and firing it nearly point-blank into the Phantom Thief’s chest, causing a grimace as he staggered a bit behind the force of the bullet. That complicated things a bit, but all Zenkichi had to do was steal or destroy this gun and force him back to the rifle. From there, get between him and Colress and dodge at just the right time for Caustic to shoot his ally. Easy peasy.
Dodging the follow-up shot, Zenkichi whiffed his first swing as Caustic simply side-stepped, then combo’d into a sweeping slash that caught the Legend in the chest, pushing him back while Zenkichi quickly drew his revolvers, loosing a quickfire burst of shots into him and rolling to evade his opponent’s much heavier revolver shot. ”Not gonna be able to touch me with that thing again, now that I know what you’re up to, man. My sword might be slow, but I can still dodge that thing!” It wasn’t a particularly inspired taunt, and while it didn’t do the trick right away, the seed of doubt was still planted.
In order to get her off, Dr. Muto turned back into a spider, but this time Sakura wasn’t letting him go. She leapt after him and tackled him to the ground. “Bwah!” He shouted, scrabbling his many weird leg-arms, causing Sakura to grimace. As she began to rain punches down upon him, he popped out an egg that threatened to explode. ”Ew! Eep!”” Sakura jumped away, and he just ended up blowing himself up.
Sakura skidded to a stop, glancing over at Zenkichi. Dr. Muto was about to be healed again, anyway. Why not give him a chance? ”No choice, huh? Well how about I give you one!” Sakura pulled a friend heart from her chest and sprinted ahead. She jumped over a bomb and flung it down. It hit Dr. Muto and immediately the clarity struck him. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked and Sakura, who landed and took an expectant fighting stance.
“This requires further evaluation!” He shouted. Sakura blinked. “So long, you uppity blind fools!” He called to his mercenary companions. He pointed at Caustic. “Your poison is amateur,” and looked to Sigma, “And your singing is, too!” Having apparently decided once and for all to be a scientist and not a mercenary, Dr. Muto scuttled along the outside of the walls of the platforms or this strange place and out of sight.
”Oookay! Works for me!” Sakura said, turning her attention to Sigma.
Not taking the convenient escape of Dr Muto for granted, Zenkichi kept the pressure on Caustic. He stowed his revolvers and out came his normal greatsword, its longer range and lighter weight better for harassment than pure damage, which was his current goal. Even if it meant abandoning an attack during the wind-up, Zenkichi was solely focused on getting Colress to aggro instead of heal. It meant carefully dodging every trap, every shot, and trying to dance in and out of point-blank range, where the revolver was more maneuverable, and low-mid range, where his assault rifle’s rate of fire would win out.
While Sakura was working on Sigma, Zenkichi pulled a gambit and called for Valjean. ”Megido!” He yelled, intentionally using a lower-powered attack to rile Caustic up more, rather than deal serious damage.
“Ugh! Take this seriously!” The mad gasser demanded, pulling out another gas grenade and hurling it at Zenkichi before drawing his assault rifle and sending a spray of fire into the gas, to suppress Zenkichi and keep him from moving.
“I must say, I didn’t quite expect you to realize this was an option.” Came the stoic voice of Colress, before a bolt of lightning slammed into the Legend, paralyzing him and causing him to stagger, while Zenkichi coughed and stumbled out of the gas cloud.
”That was…marginally…successful.” He groaned, violently coughing while Colress followed up on Caustic with an air slash, which, boosted by Serene Grace, caused him to flinch and whiff his return fire. ”Dude, that’s mean.” Zenkichi wheezed out when he realized what Colress was doing.
“It is the optimal tactic, given my abilities.” Colress simply replied, firing off another air slash. Caustic’s body simply locked up from the paralysis, and he dropped to his knees, while Zenkichi sighed. Part of him wished he could do what Sakura had done, and try to save him, but that would mean fighting Colress himself now, to Heart him and get his aggro off.
But that was the lot that Galeem had forced on them. It was a shame, but…Zenkichi approached Caustic carefully, while Colress launched yet another air slash at Caustic, who flinched yet again, sending a spray of assault rifle fire into the floor. As the Legend grunted in frustration, Zenkichi attacked, launching a devastating combo of attacks, draining a little bit of energy due to his vampiric strikes, and finally, after yet another air slash from Colress, Zenkichi’s greatsword came down in a mighty overhead blow which cleaved through Caustic’s body, killing him and dissolving him into ash.
”Sorry about that…” Zenkichi sighed, to both Colress and the now-deceased Caustic. Feeling a wellspring of motivation inside him, he turned to his Street Fighter ally. ”Sakura! Finish this! Heat Riser!” He cheered, the ultimate Support ability buffing her attack, defense, and speed for the next minute. ”Oh hell yeah, I’m back!!!”
Sakura let out a breath, looking down at her hands. ””W-wow! This is amazing!” She shouted. She turned her gaze upon Sigma, and the scientist grit his teeth.
”You’re mine!” She sprinted forward, bouncing on her feet with incredible speed. Sigma began firing his hyper sphere but they mostly bounced off the ground as Sakura stepped to the sides. And the ones that did hit her, she just grunted, shrugged off, and kept charging.
Gathering a ball of rocks he chucked them at Sakura who jumped clean over them. Sigma was backing up but he was quickly coming to the edge. And once Sakura was upon him, she unloaded a devastating combo, slamming her fists and feet into his body. ”Shouoken!” She ended it with an uppercut that sent him flying. Sigma was made of tough stuff, and quickly got to his fee, but without support there was no where for him to go. His close combat skills were lacking, and any time he blasted Sakura in the body with hypersphere it didn’t seem to slow her down. She just pushed through the pain and kept up the pressure.
”KURAE!” She yelled, lighting up orange and slicing into him with a forward pushing razorblade of a spin kick. ”It’s over!” She slammed her foot into his chest and watched his eyes nearly pop out of his head before he was sent flying away, over the gap in the void and onto the next ‘island’, crashing through the roof of a building.
Breathing heavily, Sakura turned around to face Zenkichi and gave him a peace sign and a big grin.
Colress studied the aftermath with a dour expression, his arms crossed. “Well, that certainly took a turn. Unexpected…yet informative. At the very least, there’s no love lost between us.” He turned toward the Seekers and shrugged. “Either way, that’s more than enough field work for me, and a deal’s a deal. Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing. I’d probably better get out of here and lay low for a while.” He spread his white wings and prepared for takeoff, but paused for a moment. “Oh, here. A show of good faith, let’s say.” With the last of his PP, he used Heal Pulse two more times to patch Sakura and Zenkichi up. Then he beat his wings and flew away, albeit a little clumsily.
”Bye-bye, Colress-san!” She waved after him, feeling especially better now that he healed her. She jogged up to Zenkichi, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him reassuringly. Glancing regretfully upon Caustic’s spirit, Sakura did some mental math. Maybe her time in the World of Light was making her jaded. But she didn’t feel that bad about his death, given that he was a mercenary whose special move was violating the Geneva Convention by deploying deadly home-made poison gas. He also just seemed like a jerk.
”...Come on, let’s go find the others. We’re at the finish line, Zenkichi-san!”
While both Sandalphon and Geralt were smaller, they still made the most of long strides as they left their battleground with the business team behind. Despite her inclination to check in with the other teams and confirm their status, the archangel suppressed the urge to reach out to them for now, since she could not discount the possibility that some could still be fighting. If they needed her for guidance or emergency healing, they could always call, and she drew some comfort from the fact that none had. Only when Roxas and Goldlewis contacted her first did she engage in communication, though she couldn’t be as helpful as she would have liked.
Other than that, she left the Seekers undisturbed. As a veteran correspondent, she knew just how disastrous an innocuous distraction could be when paired with the worst possible timing, and no matter the battlefield, it paid to assume the worst. That said, she had no reason to doubt her new allies’ capabilities so far. Those she fought alongside in Zone 09 last night, as well as above the Neuron headquarters in Veles, had proved themselves quite capable. Once she completed an operation with the whole crew she’d have a much better idea of where they stood in terms of competence, and how she could help even the odds. Although, with the fight against Midgar’s guardian just around the proverbial corner, the time for constructive criticism had probably passed.
Of course, she and the others hadn’t reached the big, bad boss just yet. Sandalphon doubted that Arahabaki’s security system would place any intruders right next to its core, so everyone had a lot of ground to cover before they reached their final battle. The archangel and the Witcher navigated across the archipelago of elevated computer modules, and the unpredictable conveyor bridges that connected them, as fast as they could. As they gradually approached Arahabaki’s center, the different pathways began to coalesce like river tributaries, growing closer and finally connecting. Though Sandalphon paid attention to where she was going, she kept a sharp eye out for any of the others. This meant that when a few of her allies finally appeared -an elegant woman with distinctive ringlets of long blonde hair and a young man with angels’ wings- she spotted them immediately. Reaching up, she pinched one of the mouthpieces that dangled beneath her halo between her thumb and index finger, then held it up to her gray lips.
“Pit, Karin, do you read me?” she asked. “We’re on your right. I’ll jump so you can see us.”
Using Vault, she flung herself into the air, then began to slowly float down. This also gave her a chance to survey the array of modules up ahead, and her all-seeing eyes mapped its layout in an instant. “We’re getting close to the center. I see a possible rendezvous point up ahead, just in front of a large staircase. Let’s reconvene there.”
After another minute, different conveyor bridges brought the two pairs together on top of a tall, octagonal module. Though most of the spiritualistic decorations around Arahabaki belied some mechanical function, this particular tower seemed more like an actual rest stop than anything, with benches against the railings on the sides without bridge connections and a strange artifact floating in the middle that gave off a soothing blue light. When Geralt and Sandalphon got close to it, the beacon shimmered and topped off their health through unknown means. “How useful,” the archangel murmured, appraising the others’ condition. “It looks like we’re all in good shape. We met with some resistance on the way, but as you can see we were able to claim victory and subsume their power.” It turned out that Pit and Karin managed to get here unopposed, if one didn’t count turrets, lasers, and mines as opposition. “We’ll continue together then, but please stay alert. It’s very unlikely that we’ve seen the last of what Shinra has to throw at us.”
It did not take long for Sandalphon to be proven right. When the four set off, they climbed the massive staircase leading off from one side of the rest stop, which led to a much larger, higher-up module nearby. Since the area where she wound up featured a below-average elevation, Sandalphon was grateful for more of a vantage point with which she could get a grasp on Arahabaki’s layout. Climbing the stairs took some effort, but when she and the others reached the top, they found themselves on a large square module. Very tall, ornate computer towers stood on its four corners, greatly resembling pagodas. Along the railings between them were poles that supported drooping arches of bundled red cables, giving this area a particularly ceremonial look, like some sort of festival ground. As far as the archangel could tell, this mega-module appeared to be some sort of processing center, one of three that ringed Arahabaki’s central pillar if she had to hazard a guess.
Her speculation came to an end, however, as a loud noise from Arahabaki’s ceiling high above signaled another emergency deployment. When she looked up, Sandalphon spotted the first of three more drop pods headed her way. In a few moments, this place would become an arena. “Incoming hostiles,” she warned the others. “Prepare yourselves for escalation.”
After another moment, the drop pod slammed down, its bright green thrusters flickered out, and its doors slid open. This time the carapace did not release another team of four, however. Instead a familiar man could be seen inside, idly rolling a silver coin across his knuckles. After a moment he flicked it with his thumb, the steely ting ringing out across the silent festival grounds. Then he caught it in his palm and stepped out from inside the drop pod with a ghastly, red-eyed, purple creature at his heels. Hideous teeth bared, it trotted alongside its master, its collar connected to him via an arched energy beam. The man ran a gloved hand through his stylishly coiffed blonde hair as Darkstar bared his teeth. “You’re the same group from last night, aren’t you?”
“Rufus Shinra,” Sandalphon said flatly, one hand on her gunstaff and the other ready to reach for her rifle. “I’m honored.”
“Yeah, you should be honored. It’s not every day I welcome visitors in person.” He coolly inspected his foes for a moment, then gave them a wry smile. “Still, I’m a busy man.” Darkstar snarled, and as Sandalphon pulled out the Eye of Sol, Rufus whipped out a beefy carbine that he split into two guns, training them on his foes. “Let’s make it a morning to remember.”
Goldlewis and Susie exited the fortress-like walled module and proceeded across a winding bridge, which at least had the good grace to not convey the two backward. This one traced a serpentine path up, down, and around the open air, snaking between several stone monoliths. The veteran had to admit that even with some of the strange places he’d been to over the years, this one really took the cake. Its construction and aesthetic, so culturally identifiable and yet so alien at the same time, just struck him as incredibly surreal. Like some artificial intelligence had studied Japanese architecture, then attempted to recreate what it had seen. This supercomputer, he knew, stored the knowledge and facilitated the communication of an entire civilization, and he wasn’t just seeing it, but walking and fighting on it. If he wasn’t on a mission, and this place wasn’t so dangerous, he might have liked to wander around for a while just to absorb the brainchild of whatever demented creativity created this place. Unfortunately, he and the others had a job to do, and they could neither dilly nor dally.
While riding the conveyor, he did take a moment to tap the glyph from Sandalphon in order to contact the Seekers’ coordinator. “Come in, Halo.”
“This is Halo,” Sandalphon replied immediately, still happy to use the codename from yesterday. “What do you need?”
The speed and intensity of her response made Goldlewis chuckle. “Oh, nothin’, we’re fine, I’m just checkin’ to make sure y’all are too.”
“Oh.” For a moment, the archangel sounded genuinely taken aback, which involved more emotion than Goldlewis was used to from her. Just as he suspected, she was more used to being the one who considered others, and not the one who received consideration. “How thoughtful. Geralt and I are well, thank you. Be advised that we did both undergo fusion.”
“Gotcha,” Goldlewis replied, spotting some turrets up ahead. “Over and out.”
He and Susie bashed through the next section together, taking turns to demolish various turrets with their long-distance attacks. They seemed to be set up in the form of a gauntlet to funnel enemies through choke points in order to accumulate maximum damage, but neither of them planned to play by the defenders’ rules. Once they dealt with that, the two continued through the chain of technological ‘islands’, past heat sinks that radiated overpowering warmth, storage vats of emergency coolant, and all manner of gizmos styled after Shinto shrines. They even found a bright blue gizmo floating inside one of the shrines that healed them when they approached, and though that meant that the bacon agaric might have been unnecessary, the existence of health-restoring checkpoints in Arahabaki was useful knowledge to have.
Aside from the turrets, mines, and a few other rather optimistic methods of keeping out intruders, the trip toward the pair’s destination went smoothly. A little too smooth for Goldlewis’ liking, in fact. He reckoned that this must be the calm before the storm, since he couldn’t possibly imagine that the people thrown his and Susie’s way were the extent of Arahabaki’s resistance. Part of the way through his journey to the center, Goldlewis caught sight of movement in the distance, and after slowing down for a better look he realized who he was looking at. Nobody would wear that much black, or a collar that high, other than Zenkichi. Despite his lack of peripheral vision, he and Sakura had evidently trounced their opposition and even gotten ahead of their less speedy allies. “Hey!” Goldlewis bellowed, waving his free arm as he barreled across a ceremonial courtyard. “Wait up!”
The four quickly came together, exchanging brief accounts of what they’d run into. It sounded like Zenkichi and Sakura ran into a fully-kitted team too, albeit one composed of unscrupulous scientists rather than soldiers and war machines. It also sounded like they’d managed to get through with less fatalities, although Goldlewis wasn’t sure whether or not he should count Jack-8 and Jacqueline for the purpose of that comparison. Regardless, a win's a win, and with more battles sure to come the four could be that much more certain of future victories by working together.
Scarcely had they come to that consensus, though, before enemy reinforcements were dispatched. More pods rained down from on high, and with his crew Goldlewis closed in on the nearest one. If the reinforcements turned out to be another team of four, this would probably go more smoothly than last time, but by that same logic Goldlewis figured that this couldn’t possibly be another team of four. They had already proven themselves, and it was onto the defenders to up the ante. And once the pod came down and opened its doors wide, Goldlewis was proven right.
Strangely, the man who exited the pod didn’t look like a fighter. Of average height and build, he sported a brown goatee, sideburns, and well-combed hair, and he wore a navy blue suit casually over a simple white shirt. To both Goldlewis and Zenkichi, however, this was no ordinary businessman. No, he was Akira Konoe, head of Public Security for the Shinra Administration and the second most powerful man in Midgar, higher in station than either Truman Zanotto of Psych-OSF or Rufus Shinra, boss of General Affairs and the president’s own son. His ordinary appearance belied a staggering amount of authority, not to mention history. For Zenkichi, this also happened to be a man who’d almost brought Japan to its knees, nearly succeeding in establishing his dominion over the minds of every citizen with the power of the collective consciousness.
“A warm welcome to the terrorists and traitors who’ve been sabotaging Midgar in its darkest hour,” he declared, wasting no time. “As if crushing Vandelay, crippling Neuron, and tearing the OSF in half weren’t enough, now you’re here to take Arahabaki, the beating heart of our city’s infrastructure. Its life’s blood! It’s because of you that we don’t have the manpower to keep Midgar safe. Working with murderers like Jena, and psychopaths like Karen. How many must die before you’re satisfied?” He raised his fists. “Well, your rampage stops here. In the name of justice, I have vowed to exterminate evil!”
At that moment, something huge fell from the sky, hitting the ground with enough force to send out a shockwave that knocked the Seekers over. Goldlewis hit the ground with a grunt, the wind knocked from his lungs, and as he struggled to fill them he raised his head and saw a huge machine of black, white, gold, and red. Konoe was walking toward it, speaking as he went. “There are no real heroes left. So…why not make our own?” As he climbed a golden staircase of hard light toward the machine’s cockpit, gilded silver armor constructed itself on him piece by piece. “The world needs someone willing to fight for its people’s justice. A hero to lead them, to unify them. A hero like me!”
Konoe took his place at the machine’s controls, and its lid closed as the Seekers rose. With titanic tread the Zephyrus Mech plodded forward, shaking the ground with every step. It lifted its fists, tightening them with grand determination as it projected Konoe’s voice. “And if I’m the hero, that makes YOU the villains!”
With the help of their respective wolves, Giovanna and Midna left the technological rock garden in their rear-view mirror. After wrapping her arms and legs around her mount’s neck and sides respectively, Gio awarded herself a much-deserved break and let Rei take over, relaxing in her green fluff as she bounced along to the tune of padded footpaws pattering across plastic. The two were spiritually in sync, after all, and the same bond that allowed them to fight like one being let them navigate the treacherous obstacles of Arahabaki’s module network with barely a word between them. Though Midna’s changed form burdened her twilit wolf more than usual, the shadowy beast managed to keep pace as the duo progressed toward their goal. Naturally the duo didn’t pick the right path every time, or get through the hazards unscathed, but their speed and agility meant that they were never waylaid for long. Still, Giovanna couldn’t rest easy; this infiltration was far from over. Sooner or later, she knew, the other shoe would drop.
First, though, the two had a happy accident. Without meaning to, they stumbled right into another pair of Seekers lost in the maze. Rei and Giovanna’s sense of smell helped facilitate the chance encounter, but Gio couldn’t say for sure (and Rei couldn’t say, period) who they’d run into until they met Blazermate and Roxas face to face. The reunion took place at an intersection of bridges, in a sort of large gazebo, where metal lanterns shone with immense amounts of data. “Oh hey, it’s you.” By now, Gio knew very well what the medabot was capable of, and after Rei pulled up alongside the team healer to make things easy. “Patch us up?”
Once the last traces of the fight against Erendira’s firing squad had been smoothed over, the four could get going together. The team-up went without question, and with Arahabaki’s core construct looming over an increasingly dense array of interconnected modules, it didn’t seem much longer until they’d run into the others too. Before they could reunite with the other teams, however, the Seekers’ luck ran out.
More drop pods fell from Arahabaki’s ceiling, though half as many this time compared to the first wave. Giovanna couldn’t help but wonder if that meant whoever was orchestrating all this had traded quantity for quality, but she didn’t want to jinx it. The first two pods fired off in quick succession, and after a moment’s delay the third began to descend as well, which happened to be the one headed her way. “Yeahhh, I figured that was too easy,” she complained. The pod descended to the module just ahead of her crew on the path they’d be forced to take. Gio sighed and slid off Gio onto her feet, where she jumped up and down to stretch her legs. “Well. Guess we’ll go and say hi.”
The four rode the next conveyor bridge and arrived at the largest module they’d seen yet. Situated pretty close to Arahabaki’s main pillar, it looked like a large pavilion, decorated with all sorts of artificial flora. Some appeared to be bundles of cables, wires, and so forth bound together in an approximation of plantlife, while others were just holographic. Power lines bound with red cords were arrayed like thickets of bamboo, and there were pagoda lanterns with vivid lights that hummed like bug zappers. In the middle of this pavilion stood a round bed of ‘grass’ around a huge, fake tree whose practical purpose could not be discerned, with a foot-thick braid of cable wrapped around its trunk. By now the drop pod had already landed, crushing one of the techno-flowerbeds. As the Seekers watched, it opened, and a burly man stepped out. At first glance he didn’t look like much, with a standard collared shirt, slacks, and yellow tie, accompanied by thick-rimmed glasses, a receding hairline, and plenty of blemishes. This was not just any man, though, and his frame proved it. ‘Swole’ didn’t do him justice; his clothes seemed liable to burst apart at any moment. Moreover, Giovanna knew his name, and anyone who’d paid any attention at all during the presidential debate would, too.
“Huh! So this is what Arahabaki looks like!” The musclebound politician commented, one arm supporting the other’s elbow as he held a smoking cigar. “Not bad! A little phony for my tastes, but I like the spirit!”
For once, Gio actually looked surprised. “Armstrong? The hell are you doing here? Wait, don’t tell me…were you secretly working with Shinra all this time?”
Armstrong turned, seemingly noticing the four for the first time. His lip curled in a smirk. “Hah. Don’t be stupid. I’m here for a little business. A hostile takeover, you might say. As a matter of fact, I just got done tearing the president in two.” Grinning, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a mote of prismatic light that could only be a spirit. When he held it up, Gio could just barely make out the face of a mustached man inside. More obvious were the bloodstains on Armstrong’s fingers, poorly wiped off. “...With my bare hands!”
Faced with that revelation, Giovanna found herself lost for words. Shinra, dead? The most powerful man in Midgar, and the architect of the current state of affairs, killed by his rival with neither publicity nor fanfare? Gio blinked rapidly, shaking her head for a second, then put her arms akimbo. “Huh. Out with the old, in with the new, I guess?”
“Oh yeah.” Armstrong laid his fist against his chest. “Shinra was a coward, and a weakling. A chicken-shit bureaucrat, hiding away at the first sign of trouble, and that limp-dick cabinet of his is just as bad. Midgar needs ACTION, not words. Strength, not committee! All that work setting up a damn police state, and they can’t even crush a couple tin cans. Pathetic! So I’m draining the swamp. In my Midgar, the weak will die, and the strong will survive to live as they see fit.” He spread his arms wide, as if before a crowd. “To fight and kill for themselves!”
Gio held up her hands appeasingly, more than a little concerned. “Whoa, whoa. You oughta save, uh, gems like that for the campaign trail, mister. The tin cans are out there, you know. Why are you in here?”
“Right, that!” Armstrong pushed up his glasses, then crossed his arms. “Well, right after I got done with Shinra, I saw he got a little message. So I patched it through, and I saw everything going on down here. Including you people. You know, this whole draining-the-swamp thing would be a lot easier if I still had DespoRHado around to get their hands dirty for me.” He glowered at the Seekers. “I was watching, you know. I saw ‘em all get trashed during the raid yesterday, thanks to you punks and that angel bitch. So I figured I’d come on down and help myself to a nice big breakfast of revenge, served cold!”
Armstrong pounded his fist into his palm strong enough to send off a wave of air pressure as his hands turned jet-black, their veins bright silver. He cracked his knuckles, grinning. “So let’s start cracking some eggs!”
”That can’t be good,” Jr assessed as the ring around Robin filled up and started pulsing. He glanced between the slumbering Nadia, at his papa retreating with Primrose in hand, and then at the falling asleep Ganondorf and made a decision about where to assign his time.
First he grabbed Mimi and tossed her to his papa, shouting for him to ”Relay her to Ganondorf!”, a request the king obliged, hand catching the mon like she was a baseball before pivoting and pitching her onwards towards the slumbering king.
He groaned a bit as he pushed himself to his feet. Where was this? What happened? Was he in one of the cells, or some other chamber of the prison? Ganondorf didn’t know. What he did know was that he had to get out of here. But all other thoughts had to be put aside the moment Ganondorf heard the voice. It wasn’t words. If anything it was a glorified grunt. But it was one he knew well, and one that made his blood absolutely boil. That grunt telegraphed an incoming attack, a sword slash that Ganondorf was just able to avoid falling victim to, ”...YOU!”
Ganondorf glared with hatred at the young man standing before him. The teenaged Hylian with his green tunic, Hylian shield, and that accursed Master Sword. The so-called “Hero of Time”. The Gerudo King grit his teeth. He knew he had other priorities right now. If anything, he should be recruiting this would-be Hero to help the Seekers. But his hand reached for the hilt of his sword regardless. There was simply too much hatred in Ganondorf’s heart for this young man for him to see or listen to reason, ”You want to settle the score, Hero? Fine! Let’s settle it, then!”
The warriors both lunged for one another in unison. Their blades clashed with intensity, both burning with the same desire to defeat the other one. The Hero may have wielded the legendary Sword of Evil’s Bane, and he may have even possessed his own glowing piece of the Triforce on his sword hand just as Ganondorf did. But he was still just a kid. An inexperienced warrior fueled by the powers of the Triforce and Master Sword. And then there was Ganondorf, who was quite the opposite. A fully seasoned warrior and commander, bearing only his own piece of the Triforce and fueled primarily by his own burning rage and hatred. But the kid was quick on his feet and used that advantage to step around Ganondorf’s powerful swings in order to take shots at the Gerudo King’s back with the Master Sword.
”You’ll have to do better than that, Hero!” Ganondorf raged. He attempted to unleash a dark explosion with his Swords of Darkness, only for the quick-footed Hylian to raise his shield in order to absorb the blow and come out of it looking almost completely unharmed. This of course enraged Ganondorf, spurring him to attack even more fiercely. This pattern repeated itself until the Hero finally unleashed his signature Spin Attack technique - catching the Gerudo King across the chest and with enough force thanks to the enchanted gauntlets he wore to knock Ganondorf down to the ground. Ganondorf scowled up at the Hero, who remained infuriatingly silent and raised his sword in preparation to plunge it into the Gerudo’s chest as a finishing blow.
”Wake him!” Jr called after his mon, and then promptly cast ”Esuna!” on Primrose, while Mimi did the same on Ganondorf.
Ganondorf awoke with an angry grunt. Clearly whatever dream he was having was not a good one. But he was to recall where he was and what was happening. After that he brandished his swords and let out an enraged battlecry as he went right back onto the attack against Robin Goodfellow.
As for Primrose, in her second go around she awoke with much more grace. As soon as she felt the pull of her consciousness she let it take her out of the dream. Though she didn't snap at her rescuer this time given she knew what was going on, once back in the waking world she extracted herself from Boswer's claws immediately. She was uncomfortable, and not at all satisfied with what she'd seen in her dream, but neither stopped her from quickly focusing on the task at hand.
As the spell took effect, the prince called out to everyone who was waking, or was handling the sleeping like Bower, to ”Get back in there, get him everything you’ve got!” because ”We don’t want to find out what that spell does!”
”Good call son!” Bowser agreed before charging back in and, as strategized, giving everything he had. Or, rather, everything one of his strikers had as he summoned Scylla: terror of the seas.
The great beast who towered even over Robin appeared before the fowl fae, and promptly slammed him with a pair of its vicious hull breaching claws. The King who had summoned her visibly faltered in his steps, the use of the striker having ripped away most of the stamina he had remaining, and so instead of trying to continue on foot he curled up into his shell and fired a volley of spike torpedoes over the titan, which rained down atop their foe.
The appearance of the great beast and the awakening of those in trouble would have let the not really used to taking hits Kamek back off, however despite the wounds he’d taken he stuck close to try and finish this now as Jr had commanded. Chugging a mana potion, the mage unleashed a point blank cosmic spray into Robin, holding the beam for as long as his reserves could manage.
Sectonia was ready for another go. That spell around Robin was probably very bad news, but she was intending to finish this fight off with her next spell. Her red antlers marched forward, flames being sprayed at him while her Florami just shot its laser beams at whatever enemy was closest. She continued to charge her Reality Shatter, the crackling purple energy now visible in her hand.
With Robin too far for any of Therion's melee skills, and Therion too wary to get closer now that Robin was poised to cast his mysterious ability, the thief contributed to the assault against the archangel by chucking the magic imbued crystal darts. Primrose's magic was much stronger in comparison, her Moonlight Waltz spell encircling Robin.
Scylla’s withering double impact shook Robin to its core, and the spikes, magical rays, and other projectiles that bombarded it were icing on the cake. The archangel faltered, its eldritch form clearly driven to the brink by the sheer amount of punishment it had taken. Seeing what had befallen his employer, Oberon found himself faced with a couple tough choices. He had enough energy to cast Renewal or Reckoning, but not both, and he couldn’t divert his attention from Rika without leaving himself vulnerable. Still, a warframe had to do what a warframe had to do. Oberon sprang away from his Abyssal attacker to get into range, then cast Renewal to heal Robin Goodfellow. For his efforts, the warframe received a swift spearblow to the back, but it had come too late to stop his intervention.
Bolstered just enough by the healing, Robin unleashed its last ditch resort. A horn appeared in its hand, which Robin held to its lips and, with all its strength, blew. The pulsating purple segments of its angelic corona coalesced, becoming an enormous portal behind its body as it cast Fairy Horde. From the vortex streamed a swarm of glittering, winged motes like a magical meteor shower. Filling the underground chamber with whimsical light, they streamed forth to bombard the Seekers in a ceaseless deluge of arcane power, but even with absurd numbers those fairies could still be avoided–and Robin, standing in the midst of the torrent to blow its horn, could still be attacked.
And attack, Ganondorf did. Or tried to, having to slowly force his way through the swarm of fairies to even get to Robin. But he’d dealt with fairies in the past, so he had no fear of this fairy horde. He swung his swords around as he advanced, deliberately attempting to build up some power in his Swords of Darkness by cutting down the swarming fairies. If he could build some power up he could unleash another explosion on Robin. His blades could not be everywhere, however, and in wading straight through the horde Ganondorf accrued a wealth of deep, painful slashes.
”Benediction!” Jr shouted over the sound of the horn, restoring his father to full hp, before tossing out a pokeball and commanding Dazzle to ”Return, you’ve done enough” because the mon was not at all nimble enough to avoid the fairy storm, nor durable enough to endure it.
Out of mana and not built for tanking either, Kamek also got out of there, leaving the durable Bowser to charge forwards with renewed vigor to join the tiny target that was Mimi in melee range. Arcane magic burst against the king’s regrown vine armor as he barreled into Robin’s leg tusks first, gorring it with them in an upwards slash before pounding his fists into that same limb. Mimi meanwhile scurried around, taking what chances she could inbetween dodging the deluge to scratch at those same legs with her tendril-like limbs. Mimi managed to avoid most of the vicious little pixies, but Bowser took a lot of punishment. So much that if not for his restored health and boosted defense, he’d certainly have succumbed to the fairy horde.
Lacking in defensive options, Therion had to make do. He had hitched a ride on the Koopa King's shattered shell, letting Bowser take the brunt of the horde's bombardment while unwittingly carrying the thief forward. Once they'd made it into melee range, Therion looped around behind the archangel and faerie portal, where hopefully the horde was thinner as they streamed forward from their point of summon. With the greed shield equipped in one hand for what defense it could offer and his short sword in the other, Therion joined the desperate offensive up close this time.
Having missed her chance to perform Sealticge's Seduction, Primrose's ability to help with healing was limited. With its short range she could only really cast Warmth on herself and anyone right nearby. She shored up her own health as the carapace of the Baldur Shell she carried was quickly used up during the faerie onslaught. She swapped to the Flame Fan spell, batting and burning away any that she could. Thorns of Agony lashed out from her person whenever she was struck to tear apart more faeries. Though it seemed the stream was never ending, she would outlast it.
Sectonia wasn’t afraid of Robin’s next move as well, having sustained relatively low damage from Titania so far and still having her Chaos Shield to guard herself. As Bowser charged forward, Sectonia unleashed her Reality Shatter, causing reality around Robin (but unfortunately not his warframe allies, who were too far away) to shatter like glass as a purple-ish black void absorbed all the color and texture of everything in the area as well as the life of any enemies caught within it. As the darkness faded, all that was left was white basic shapes and those that survived it or her allies, with the area slowly having its color restored as reality realigned itself. In ignoring the fairy horde, however, she got a lot more than she bargained for. The torrent of destructive magical power shredded her shield and cut into her body, leaving her wounded.
”Presence of Mind! Lucid Dreaming” Jr chanted as he increased his casting speed and mp regeneration, before calling out ”Mimi, Esuna Papa!” as he turned to first ”Cure!” Sectonia and then rushed to provide support to the two kings, weaving in between some fairies while others received small shields launched into them to prematurely detonate them.
Bowser meanwhile had Heel the rabbid supporter striker, provide some healing to himself, but the main thing that kept him standing was Mimi doing as she was commanded, casting Esuna via “Mimik!” This caused the self-inflicted glowing cracks on Bowser’s body to close back up, rearmoring him at the same time as it reduced his offensive capabilities. With Jr getting within 15 feet and casting ”Medica!” to create an aoe heal that hit everyone trying to melee the their foe, the boy had bought them all more time before they expired, now they just needed to use it.
Bolstered by various buffs, much-needed healing, and raw determination, the Seekers pushed into and through Robin’s Fairy Horde together. Every shot landed and every blow struck pushed the archangel closer and closer to the breaking point, until finally, the heroes’ herculean efforts meant that Robin could stand it no more.
Robin hit the ground hard, and a vast, unnatural creaking noise issued from its body, as if the earth itself were groaning. The awful sound subsided after a moment, but the archangel continued to writhe feebly. Beside it lay its book, splayed open but still intact, though the same couldn’t be said for its horn. Its ten-diamond halo hung empty, listless, and faded. Robin was dying.
”THIS ISN'T HAPPENING,” it wailed after a moment. Badly wounded and thoroughly exhausted, Robin could do little but raise a desperate, imploring hand upward, though unfathomable amounts of earth separated it from the sky. ”LORD OF LIGHT. WHY AM I HERE? JUST TO SUFFER, FOR YOUR DISTANT AMUSEMENT? HAVE PITY ON ME.” Robin grit its teeth, and the pages of its tome began to turn. ”GIVE ME ONE. MORE. CHANCE!”
Robin used Treat, giving itself the random buff Multitarget.
Robin used Fairy Dust.
In that moment, the eyes of every Seeker began to droop. Even the warframes seemed to short out. Everything grew hazy; the darkness closed in. Their limbs, heavy as stone, could not be lifted, and their heads lolled as they sank to the ground.
Then their eyes opened again, and for a moment it seemed as if nothing had changed. Around them towered the underground chamber’s pillars, and over them hung the darkness of its vaulted ceiling. The Seekers could see one another as they stirred. In the air above them, however, hung weightless motes of faint, soft light. Each an intricate, unique circular pattern. The walls of this room seemed to be overgrown with quietly whispering roots, their wood inscribed with barely-perceptible spirals and rings. And the flowers. All around them, the long-dead, withered flowers that they crunched underfoot by the dozen in their struggles against Ten Piedad and Robin Goodfellow were not just alive, but in full bloom. These lumenflowers were even larger than sunflowers, but with milk-white petals, and centers as pitch-black as the inky night.
“Whuh?” Nadia’s head popped up from inside a cluster of lumenflowers, held up by her hand. She looked both angry and bewildered. “Where is…where am I now!?” After seeing her friends, the rest of her appeared and she replaced her head on her shoulders. “You guys too? I’m still dreaming, so…I guess you’re not real, either? Unless we’re all sharing a dream somehow, in which case, hoo boy…”
"That seems to be the case..." Primrose replied, picking herself up once more. When she had felt the now familiar pull of sleep due to Robin's spell, she had expected a third round with Simeon. This was entirely different, but she could tell that she was dreaming too.
Off in the distance, the surreal flowerbed stirred. From them rose the unmistakable shape of a being that should’ve been dead. Robin assumed its full height without a scratch on its body or anything in its hands. It took a deep breath, then held its right hand upward.
Nadia swallowed. “Uh oh.”
Immediately, the room began to shake. Cracks opened in the walls, letting in peach-colored light. After a moment they broke apart and fell away in immense, jagged slabs, and as they crumbled they revealed a boundless sky of gentle clouds and floating islands, interspersed by enormous floating symbols like snowflake dreamcatchers, no two quite alike. The ceiling floated away above the Seekers. Wherever they’d been taken, they were clearly not underground any more.
White motes began to coalesce above Robin, gathering into a storm that slowly spiraled downward like a tornado to its outstretched hand. “EVEN IF THIS IS IT,” the archangel murmured. “THE PITIFUL SUM OF MY EXISTENCE…” The light of dreams slammed together in its palm, and in Robin’s grasp it became an ethereal sword that the archangel held half in front of its face with both hands. “I WILL NOT GIVE IT UP.”
One of the first responses to this was a cry of ”Esuna!” followed by one of ”Oh come on!” as the cure spell failed to awaken Jr’s target from within the dream.
”Hmph!” grunted Ganondorf. He’d had just about as much as he could stand of this Robin Goodfellow, ”Asleep or awake, it makes no difference!” he declared, brandishing his twin greatswords and pointing one of them at Robin in a threatening manner, ”Victory will be mine!” and he charged forward in order to continue his relentless assault of twin sword attacks against Robin.
”Ugh, not this again. I suppose it makes sense this happens considering we need an item from this creature...” Sectonia said, annoyed as she began to throw out her homing spell shots.
Wielding its dream nail in both hands, Robin swung it well before Ganondorf got into range. Its ethereal edge created a shadowy lightwave that flew through the air in a dazzling diagonal arc. It cleaved through the lumenflowers in its way as it surged forth, threatening everyone in its path, and in its wake Robin launched a second lightwave at the opposite diagonal angle. Ganondorf had to halt his advance altogether just so he could jump aside in time to avoid being cleaved by them.
Behind him, Bowser, Jr and Rika had a bit of a better go of it, good at jumping as they where, the pair leapt over the center of each diagonal arch, either one after the other like hurdles in Bowser, and his sons’ case, or all in one go with the featherfall launched Rika. Kamek meanwhile just floated over the problem entirely.
“Oboy.” Already not planning to go toe-to-toe with Robin now that it had a giant sword, Nadia took off in a run to circle away from the huge lightwaves and around the archangel for a flanking maneuver. By ducking down to dart along on all fours, she kept a low enough profile to use the lumenflowers for cover, though with Robin mowing down the flowerbed her cover wouldn’t last for long. “This is NOT my idea of a dream battle.”
“It’s probably really boring from the outside.” Jesse said, Levitating to get into the left ‘quadrant’ of the light waves, going over one and under the other. Doing the usual, she found a big rock in the chamber and chucked it at Robin before following up with Grip shots towards his weird face. For a brief moment Robin held up its dream nail inorder to protect itself, but the stone fragments and the bullets that followed still pitted its body.
It might have been the feeling of dreaming, or seeing that Robin was on his last legs, but Primrose did not immediately go on the attack this time. She avoided the dark waves produced by Robin's sword, then stood her ground. It was the final push, and with everyone here, conscious, and fighting together, she decided to empower the Seekers so that they might get this done all the quicker. She started with Lion Dance and flowed into the Peacock Strut, increasing the offensive capabilities of her allies.
Therion was more than nimble enough to get out of harm's way as well. Once he did, he summoned the ever reliable junicorn to use it as cover to slip into the dwindling flower patch the same as Ms. Fortune. The striker rolled forward, firing its lance at Robin once it came to a stop. The rose-red horn impaled the archangel’s shoulder, then disintegrated after delivering its piercing payload, leaving the junicorn to fade out and start its countdown. Its master had already decided his next move, he just had to get a little closer in order to carry it out.
Ganondorf spotted Robin holding his weapon in a defensive manner and knew he couldn’t waste any time. He lunged forward and attempted his assault on Robin once again. Hopefully with less distance to cover and Robin’s momentary distraction he could catch the archangel unaware and snag him in a flurry of sword slashes. The archangel’s stance had hardly been a big commitment, though, and Robin turned while stepping away to perform a revolving wide slash. ”HAH!” Ganondorf refused to be deterred this time. He held both blades vertically with their tips planted into the ground so they could absorb the brunt of the attack to minimize its damage. Then he went back on the attack. Only now he was close enough that he could clash his blades with Robin’s weapon and hopefully stop it from conjuring anymore lightwaves. His guard certainly blunted the blow, but it hardly stopped Robin in its tracks. After the sweep failed to connect, the archangel lifted its giant dream nail to bring it down on top of Ganondorf. RRRAH! Ganondorf had no other option at this point. He pushed himself into a backward leap to avoid the nail. But that of course meant he now had to lunge back into melee range. Thankfully his allies chose that time to jump in and give him a much-needed moment to breathe.
The troops were hot on his heels, but rather than rush in to do their own thing like they had in a lot of the awake half of the fight, Jr was in a position to organize their tactics from the get go, commanding the squad to focus on pulling off a ”Elemental combo! Water and metal, then a shocker!” which they followed his lead in doing. Jr started out by peppering the titan with numerous metal spikes shot from his wrist while Bowser sprayed him with water from his cannons and Kamek used his Crimson Rod to rain down bloody harm. Then once they’d sufficiently soaked and lightning-rodded their foe, Rika unleashed a swarm of electrical fireflies from her gauntlet hangers and sent them forward as she also summoned her Ichor queen striker inorder to have her unleash a lightning bolt, timing it so they’d both deliver their electrical payload at the same time as Mimi (riding her trainer’s shoulder) hit Robin with an electro ball.
Nadia hadn’t been expecting the Troop to actually coordinate much of anything, let alone elemental reactions. More than anything else, though, those seemed to be what all the powers she’d gained from her fusions lent themselves to. “Hey, wait up!” While Ganondorf bought the others precious time by risking his life in close quarters with Robin Goodfellow, Nadia’s flanking maneuver brought her close enough to strike. First, she leaped out of the bed of lumenflowers to slice at the archangel’s hip with her claws. As the iron spikes flew in, she got the great idea to double jump directly into one’s path. The piercing pain elicited a gasp, but it also caused a Conducted reaction, and the Multitarget that gave her boosted her attacks’ range with bursts of blood. When the others’ plan unfolded, she could reapply more instances of wet to keep the pain train rolling with even more procs of electro-charged.
Of course, being close to Robin meant dealing with its massive, dangerous melee attacks, and Nadia wasn’t the only one in that predicament. Having had a second to breathe and to think, Ganondorf sprang back into action. He tried summoning Blastocyst so that it would drop directly down onto Robin Goodfellow from above - primarily to ensure Robin was momentarily distracted as it lashed out against the giant glob with its ethereal blade. Then he lunged forward to put himself back into direct battle against the archangel, ”I’m getting sick of you! DIE!” he hacked at Robin with a handful of swings then followed that up with unleashing whatever dark explosion he’d managed to build up since the last time he used the attack.
About the same time, Therion made his move and used Shackle Foe. Now that Robin had been forced to take a more direct approach to combat instead of just defending himself and casting, Therion could tell that the archangel's attacks would be difficult to contend with. Anyone backed into a corner would fight ferociously, and the same seemed to be true now. Therion's skill would lower Robin's offensive power, for what it was worth, and he got out of the way quickly when he noted Ganondorf's imminent explosion.
Ganondorf’s barrage met with resistance as the much bigger archangel fought back, trading blows, but Shackle Foe made sure that the red-haired warlord could take it until he let loose with a devastating ender, against which Robin had no reply. The entity reeled for a moment, its arms flailing as it strove to regain its balance.
Choosing to be daring, Therion darted right back in toward Robin. In his periphery he could see several other Seekers doing the same to capitalize on the opening Ganondorf had made. With a burst of speed Therion beat them there, stacking another debuff onto Robin with Armor Corrosive to lower his defense. Then Therion skirted around the archangel, slashing Robin's sides as he made way for his allies. His fellow thief dashed in on his heels, hardened claws at the ready. Nadia raked through the unnatural skin of Robin’s leg twice in quick succession, then chained into a moonlight-empowered Charge that carried her through and past her target in a jagged streak of yellow and silver. Her starting point meant that she ended up a ways behind him, out of melee range but not out of throwing range. She turned and hurled Athame at Robin’s back, and while she wasn’t a good enough knife-thrower to sink its blade, it still further debilitated the archangel’s defense on hit.
Once Robin got unbalanced, Sectonia saw a bit of an interesting scheme brewing. Seeing the debuff Therion was putting on him, she decided to hit him with Slow to make his counter attack quite the easy affair to dodge, before following up with her void globules. Might as well let those in melee take the brunt of the hits, but she could make their job easier at the very least.
All too quickly Robin planted a hoof and regained its poise, seizing the hilt of its dream nail with both hands. If its foes had it right where they wanted it, it was time to shake things up. ”RAAAAAAAGH!” Robin rampaged across the arena, swinging the dream nail as it advanced to clear out its melee attackers, then close in on and scatter the shooters.
While Robin was unbalanced, Primrose had moved into the steps of yet another dance - the speed enhancing Panther Dance. It was finished not a moment too soon, an aid to help the party evade Robin's rampage. Primrose herself took no evasive action, instead using the speed boost to swiftly transition from dancing to bringing her weapon up in front of her. She attempted to parry the archangel's swing and found that even with an attack debuff he was still quite powerful. Unlikely to overpower him, she cast a Vengeful Spirit to burst in and through Robin, and in turn his rampage cast her aside.
Ganondorf had to dive out of the way of the archangel’s rampage. This was getting ridiculous. How much more could this thing possibly have in it? Surely it had to be on its last legs by now. The problem was, the Seekers were getting close to their last legs as well. Where was a Bottled Fairy when you needed one? Reluctantly, the warlord retrieved one of the potions on his person and smashed it against himself. The splash healing potions weren't as strong as the instant health potion he drank earlier, but at least it was some healing to get rid of the injuries and damage Ganondorf had been taking.
”I grow tired of this.” he muttered, channeling his dark magic into summoning his Phantom. Once it appeared, Ganondorf grabbed the Phantom’s hand and let it lift him up. After a quick spin around, the Phantom was able to throw Ganondorf toward Robin, allowing him to come down onto the archangel from above. He attacked - not with his swords - but with his Warlock Kick. The kick wasn’t as strong as the Warlock Punch, but it was faster and less telegraphed in exchange. Ganondorf could then follow that opening move by again going head to head against Robin with his twin greatswords. The archangel was getting on the Gerudo’s last nerve and he was determined to kill the bastard once and for all.
The king of evil was joined in his self made projectile attack by Rika, who crossed the last of her hurled distance on the back of a vaultbreaker punch. To follow this slammed her hull claws forwards, as well as firing her rigging disruption cannons, both generating recoil to push her back and away from their foe a bit rather than landing right at his feet.
As for the troop, while Kamek had floated well above sword range as a matter of practice, and from up there continued to harry their foe with what little mana he had remaining, the other three had been in harm's way. At least for a moment till Bowser tossed his children out of it anyway, and left only himself in the way of the rampage. As a result of taking the brunt of it, he was down, but not out, as Jr (who had been the one to hurl Rika after Robin at her request) rushed to his side, helping him stand and using some of his dwindling mana reserves to cast ”cure!” on his papa to get him off of death’s door.
Ganondorf’s intercession prevented Robin taking advantage of the state its frenzied advance left Bowser in, as the shadow-shrouded Warlock Kick smashing into its check took all its attention. Giving the archangel no time to breath, the warlord pressed his advantage with a savage offense, supported by a flurry of dark magic from Sectonia and constant gunfire from Jesse. Robin brought down its dream nail again and again, but Ganondorf did not relent, deftly evading or blocking the blows as his swordblades bit deep. As the rest of the close-quarters fighters closed in to join their furious frontrunner, Robin saw only one option. It inverted its grip on its dream nail, holding the ethereal weapon downward as the fantastical colors gathered around the blade. Then it plunged the weapon downward, creating a column of prismatic power around its body that was breathtaking to behold. Ganondorf, Nadia, and the others were forced to leap clear, lest they be consumed by the unnatural radiance.
Jesse lifted her gun at the sight of the massive column of energy, and switched to Pierce. She began to charge up a round of Pierce. “I’d like to tell you all a story about a dream my brother had once, if you don’t mind.” Jesse said, projecting her voice. She was talking to the Seekers and Robin both.
That deadly x on the end of her barrel formed once again, and a little bead of lead began to vibrate and heat up the obsidian-like rocks that made up her gun.
“See, my brother went to a dark place, and there was a dark man there. His name was Mr. Door.” She says the name, amused. She did some mental math and lined up the shot on where she estimated Robin’s head was behind the pillar. She figured that after all the punishment he had taken, it was time for the Seekers to start going for the finishing blow. For her part, she was targeting his head.
“And he told my brother that there are many worlds, side by side, on top of each other, some inside of others. In one world, there’s a writer who writes a story about a cop.” Jesse said, shutting one eye. The barrier fell, and Jesse had a clear shot. Right between the eyes.
“In another world, the cop was real.” The superheated psychic bullet shot out like a cannon, aiming to punch a hole in Robin’s 2D head.
”Ack” Sectonia reflexivity said at the bright column of light laid out before her. She was further away than the melee fighters, so she was just blinded by it, not in any real danger. Still, she noticed that robin wasn’t moving, and she’d make use of that assuming her spell could go through.
Using her own bit of light magic, she summoned her large rings of light and fired them at Robin, in an attempt to use the light buzzsaw rings to cut through his own light pillar. ”I am tired of this dream world. Vanish.” Sectonia said.
Despite the lightshow, the Seekers’ target wasn’t moving, and the director’s aim was true. Her shot cleaved through the light of dreams, then through the archangel’s self-image, and Sectonia’s spell followed suit. In an instant the pillar of light died, and Robin froze in a stricken position, eyes wide. After a moment a flood of white particles began to spew from its wounds, the same ethereal, radially symmetric patterns that floated throughout this dream world. Its body thrashed limply as it floated there, like a balloon losing its air through a rupture, and the voice that echoed through the field of unreal flowers rang loud and clear with notes of despair.
”NOOOOOOOOOOO! THIS CAN’T BE IT!’ Robin howled. ”I HAVE NOTHING TO WAKE UP TO. I DON’T WANT TO DISAPPEAR!”
Then its body exploded into light, and when the light faded, not the faintest trace remained.
But then a new light began to shine.
Throughout the battle, the floating garden island had been rising through the fathomless expanse of colorful clouds. Now, its upward journey -as frenetic as the pace of the fight itself- finally slowed, coming to an end as it crested the sea of orange clouds to come to a rest beneath a gentle, sunset-orange sky. Motes of light floated calmly here, and the fluffy clouds were piled together like scenic hills. Up through the clouds reached curved stony spires, pointed like ribs or horns, and they framed the gathering glow that now bid the Seekers to turn and look. At first, it looked like the sun itself, brilliant and orange as it would be at dawn or dusk. Yet somehow it seemed far closer. Closer to the dreaming Seekers than they could have possibly managed, closer than it ever should be, and blindingly -searingly- bright.
In moments, the all-consumed splendor of that light had burned everything away, and when all that remained was white, it slowly faded to darkness.
Groaning, Nadia hauled herself upright into a sitting position, rubbing her eyes. As a thief who did her best work by night, sleeping in was one of the few comforts she could afford to routinely indulge in, and once she’d passed out she did like getting dragged back into the waking world prematurely. This was way worse than usual, though, and not just because another long day of constant exertion had left her totally pooped. It felt like she’d been struck by a flashbang. Or maybe this was how divers hauled up too fast from the depths felt? Then again, what little she’d heard about barotrauma suggested excruciating pain rather than dizziness and mental fog, so maybe not.
Either way, it took her a few seconds to collect herself and get her bearings. Dream or not, her experiences in the last few minutes had left her shaken. Chucho, who’d been hanging back away from the action, came to cover her face with big, slobbery licks, which made Nadia feel a lot better. The images of milk-white flowers, boundless cloudscapes, and blinding lights ebbed from her mind, doomed like all dreams to fade and be forgotten. As the fantasy receded, Nadia remembered who and where she was, her eyes blinking open to rediscover a dark underground vault full of broken stonework and crushed chaff. With the awareness came the soreness and fatigue, accumulated throughout the day and weighing on her now that her adrenaline was gone. By now, her healing factor had definitely slowed down. “Oww,” she murmured, rubbing her head. “No more fighting today, purretty please.” Around her the rest of the Seekers, more or less beaten to hell by the back-to-back fights with the Jailers, Ten Piedad, and finally Robin Goodfellow.
Speak of the devil, or archangel in this case, she couldn’t see Robin anywhere. Sure, everything was still a little bleary, but she figured that a being of that size must be hard to miss. Instead of Robin, her search turned up a patch of whispering root, freshly sprouted from a large bed of ash. “That wasn’t there before,” Nadia said to herself, slowly standing for a better look. The leafless branches joined together to form a thicket, eerily similar in shape to a large body curled into a fetal position, its head laid against its knees. Next to the roots lay the thick, magical-looking tome used by Robin in the first phase of the fight, haphazardly splayed out on the ground. Nadia crouched down for a closer look. “Ars…Gouda?” she read, one eyebrow raised. After picking the book up and closing it properly, she glanced at the others. “And here I thought we left all the cheese puns back by Pizza Tower. Un-brie-lievable.”
Also nearby was a conspicuous keyring, glinting silver in the fickle light of the few candelabras that went untouched by the battle. Always on the hunt for treasure, Nadia also quickly found the mask fragment Robin had been wearing. “Hehe. All that just for this,” she remarked with a wry laugh. Never in all her life had a fetch quest demanded as much of her as this one. “Please tell me that’s all of ‘em.”
With so much fighting, though, it was easy for her to lose track of what she was fighting for. “Wait, wasn’t there supposed to be something else?” As she tried to fix her tangled hair, Nadia took another look around. It looked like the warframes had fallen asleep the same as everyone else, but Oberon and Titania had yet to rise. In fact, they weren’t moving at all, and though their damage didn’t look lethal they showed no signs of life whatsoever. At the same time, they hadn’t been reduced to spirits, either. Weird. After another moment, Nadia snapped her fingers. “Oh wait, yeah! That thing the little squirt said we needed. The dreamcatcher! Robin didn’t have it.” Perplexed, she flicked her tails, her eyebrows furrowing. “I kind of assumed he would. What now?”
Before the Seekers resumed their search, though, Nadia did have one insight to share. While scanning the room she’d noticed the symbol on the section of ground that had risen up when Robin made his dramatic entrance, the red ring with a white downward arrow, and she wasn’t the only one who’d seen it before. “Check out that symbol. It was in King’s Station, and this station-looking place in the mall Jesse and I found. We met a talking crab with a wizard hat who said we could use the train to travel between all the stations.” As she spoke, the feral got more animated, her excitement palpable as she reached her logical conclusion. “So once we’re done here, we can ride back up to that town we arrived in! I dunno about you guys, but I’m dying for some fresh air. So that’s what I’d choo-choo-choose.”
Other than the subway entrance, this room had no more secrets, so if the Seekers meant to find the dreamcatcher it would probably be found back in Mercy Dreams. Armed with the silver keys, they retracted their steps to find the prison somewhat different than the way they left it. Before it had been quiet, but not silent, possessed of an eerie, trancelike calm as the whispers of prisoners yet to wake formed a subtle chorus, unnerving chorus. After Robin’s death, what remained of the captive populace had stirred from their pleasant dreams, and now the halls where jailers once patrolled now resounded with the anguished tortured cries of those whose wondrous fantasies had given way to cold and dark, pain and isolation.
To Nadia, this merciless, dreamless prison was downright horrible. It did remind her, though, that she had business that she needed to attend to. Leaving the task of recovering the dreamcatcher to the others, she excused herself and made her way to the third layer. There were still a couple illuminators scattered around the fourth layer, but all the mindflayers had been cleared out from this one, so Nadia had nothing to worry about. Other than the howls of the damned, of course. Chucho stayed close, growling at the doors, and Nadia tried to shut out the noise as she made her way to a certain cell, one of the silver keys in her hand.
When she arrived, she pressed her ear to the door, but heard nothing from inside. She took a deep breath and rapped on its surface. “Minette?”
“Nadia!” The Dagonian’s voice, typically cheerful and bubbly, sounded close to tears. “You came b-back!”
“Of course!” Nadia put on a brave face. Minette couldn’t see it, of course, but it wasn’t for her. “I know you’re a waitress and everything, but I figured you’d waited long enough!”
She heard a helpless giggle behind the door. Or was that just what she wanted to hear? “Thank you, Nadia. For always c-coming to my rescue. For always being there when I need you. You’re the best friend I could ask for.”
That one really tugged at the feral’s heartstrings. Were those really tears, coalescing in the corners of her eyes? How long had it been? Swallowing, Nadia pushed them back, and began to toss her key up and down in her hand. “Hey, it’s my pleasure. Listen, I’ve got your one-way ticket to freedom right here. How about we bust this bad boy open and you say that to my face?”
“Huh?” Minette sounded surprised. “Well, uh, can’t we t-talk a little longer?”
“Sure.” Nadia spun the key one last time, then caught it in her palm and leaned against the door. “We can talk when you’re out of there. Right?”
For a moment, Minette hesitated. “I-I-I…” Nadia heard her take a deep breath. “I, well, it’s just…I can’t explain it, but I’ve got this terrible feeling. That if…if you o-open that door, then something terrible will ha-happen. I…I might never see you again.”
Nadia stared at the floor. Chucho whined, pressing against her leg. “Like this is too good to be true? That you’ll wake up from a dream, and forget everything?” When Minette didn’t respond, she shook her head, her lips pressed together in quiet anger. “It’s because you’re not her.”
“Not her?” Her friend sounded confused. Worried. “H-how could I be anything but…but me? I remember everything. Good times and bad. My dad. Yu-wan and the restaurant. Little Innsmouth. Getting kidnapped. And you, Nadia. All the times we laughed and cried.” She paused. “It’s dark in here, but when I look down, I can see my hands. When I pinch my arm, it hurts, but I don’t wake up. I’m hungry, and cold, and alone…” She raised her voice suddenly. “Please, don’t leave me! I’m your best friend. I’m Minette!”
Nadia sank down to the floor, sitting against the cell door, and sighed. “That’s why it really, really sucks that you’re not real.”
A couple seconds passed before the voice spoke again. “Are you?
A shiver went down Nadia’s spine. “What?”
“You’re telling me my memories aren’t real, or my body, or my feelings. Well, what about you? You have memories. You can see yourself. Feel yourself. What's the difference between you and me? What makes you so sure that you’re real? That the real Nadia isn’t out there somewhere, and when she wakes up, you'll vanish like you never existed?”
Nadia inhaled sharply. Then she stood. “Well. For starters, I can do this.” She inserted the silver key into the lock, and it clicked, fit like a glove.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Minette’s voice was shrill with panic. “Please!”
The door swung open, and a chill swept over Nadia’s body. Chucho growled, his ghostly hackles raised. Goosebumps covered her skin, and every hair on her body stood on end. Her heart quickened as she stared into the darkness, but there was nobody there. The cell was empty except for a cracked mirror, showing Nadia’s broken reflection. Looking at the woman depicted within, she barely recognized herself. Still, after everything, it was her. And only her.
After a moment, Nadia exhaled, the surge of emotion gone. “Now that’s a bad joke.” Wiping her eyes with the back of her hands, she turned and stalked away through the prison.
Word Count: 2,204 Level 6 Ganondorf: 24/60 Exp: 3 NEW EXP Balance--- 27/60
It was finally over. Ganondorf had at last reawakened after the death of Robin Goodfellow in whatever that dreamworld was. The two warframes lay lifeless on the ground. Dead, or at least he thought so at first. When they continued to lay there and not become spirits, that was when he became somewhat curious. It didn’t take him long to surmise what had happened. They were still sleeping, still trapped in that dreamworld perhaps. And that meant they were also totally helpless.
”My, how the tables have turned.” he mused as he stood over the seemingly lifeless body of Oberan, who had infuriated him so much. He sneered down at the warframe, hand tightening its grip on the hilt of one of his swords. He could have waited for the Seekers to come to some kind of consensus on what to do with them. In fact he probably should have done just that. And the King of Evil drew his sword anyway and brought it crashing down into the head of the helpless Oberon. And only now did the Warframe finally dissolve into a spirit that Ganondorf quickly snatched up for himself.
”I told you victory would be mine.” Ganondorf said to the spirit, even though it couldn’t actually hear or understand him, ”And now your power belongs to me.” The Gerudo King didn’t give much more thought before he hugged the warframe’s spirit against his body in order to consume it.
Notable spirit consumed: Oberon Prime The host is a bit smaller and slimmer, though still sturdy and strong. His armor is more exaggerated into large, intricate plates (trimmed with gold) over a sleeker, more futuristic undersuit of dark gray. His pauldrons have blunt serrations like battlements, his hair is shorter, and he's now wearing a helmet with four horns (two curved upward, two curved forward) that extends down over his nose spartan-style. Small purple lights dot his attire. This spirit confers the Strength Bullet Jump, substantially boosting the host's movement abilities. The host can launch into a quick slide, double jump, aim glide, wall run, wall climb, and high jump. This spirit also confers the weakness Warframe Reactions, causing a certain status affliction when affected by any two of the following elements at once: heat, cold, electricity, and poison.
Like the first time he had done this, there was a brief flash of light that covered his body. When that faded, a different-looking Ganondorf was left standing there. Slightly smaller, so the spirit likely canceled out some of his increased size from the Leo sigil. Also his hair was a little shorter, but that didn’t bother Ganondorf in the slightest. He preferred it being short over being long anyway. It was his clothing and armor that changed the most. The plates were a bit more exaggerated, his clothing underneath them became a dark gray undersuit, and all of it was dotted with small purple lights. Most notably was the helmet he now wore, with its pair of horns curved upward and another pair curved downward in addition to its front slit that extended over his nose. Ganondorf was almost tempted to discard the helmet, having never much cared for wearing those, but decided against that and held onto it for the time being.
The Geurdo bent his knees into a crouch before suddenly launching into a slide that led into a fast sprint. From that sprint he then leaped high until he reached a wall, at which point he began actually running along it for a few steps before launching off and then jumping a second time while in midair in order to land roughly at the same spot he had started from. Just as he had hoped, the Warframe’s spirit had vastly improved his mobility both on the ground and in the air as well. No longer would he have to worry about sluggishly fighting an opponent that was faster than himself. And so Ganondorf gave himself a satisfied smirk, ”Yes… excellent.” he remarked to himself about his newfound mobility, ”Let’s see you try and out-maneuver me now... Hero.”
After a moment of pause Ganondorf looked over at the rest of the Seekers, ”Think I’ll give the prison one more sweep to make sure we’ve cleared it. I could use a chance to stretch my legs with this new form of mine.” he announced to them before he exited out of the lower chamber and worked his way back up the previous layers of Mercy Dreams.
Soon Ganondorf found himself back up around the first layer of the Prison. This was part of an area he had not explored, having entered through the third layer alongside Jesse due to the detour they had previously taken. So this all looked new to him. Still, it was a far cry from the disgusting appearance of the lower layers, so it was at least a slightly more welcomed change of scenery.
In his exploration, Ganondorf found a door that led into someone’s office. This presumably belonged to the prison’s warden - who no longer appeared to be present. Either they had left or - more likely - one or more of the Seekers had already dealt with them. Either way, this left the Warden’s office open for the Gerudo King’s perusal. He didn’t find very many things of interest, apart from a curious set of bronze keys. They looked like they might snap in two just from being used, but in Ganondorf’s experience, keys like this often led to rooms that potentially contained treasure or other useful secrets. Or perhaps some prisoner’s cell that could also lead to a useful discovery.
Ganondorf didn’t have the patience to search through several rooms, so he took only a single key for himself and left the remaining four where they were found. Maybe one of the others could make use of them, it didn’t matter much to him. On his way out, the Gerudo spotted what looked like Bowser and his troop entering a nearby cell. Ganondorf hadn’t paid much mind to it on the way in, but now that the Troop was showing interest in it, he did wonder for a moment if that cell contained anything important. Only for a moment though, as he had no intention of actually joining them inside. It was probably already crowded there as it is and Ganondorf had other things to do at the moment, so in the end he let them be and went on his way.
A little further down on the second layer, Ganondorf finally happened upon a cell with a bronze lock keeping it closed. It wasn’t hard to guess that it could be opened by a bronze key, and that guess turned out to be exactly right. Not only that, but Ganondorf was also correct in his earlier assessment of the key as it indeed snapped into pieces upon turning the lock open, rendering it useless afterward. Before Ganondorf could even open the door, someone came bursting out of it from within the cell. Ganondorf was able to pivot aside and avoid getting skewered by their weapon thanks to his newfound mobility courtesy of Oberon’s spirit.
The young man looked to be a soldier. Some light-scaled armor worn underneath white and green silk clothing. He’d probably be noble and elegant-looking if not for whatever time he spent here making his overall countenance looking more tattered and ragged from the prison cell. Surprisingly, he wasn’t unarmed. He held a fancy-looking trident that he gripped tightly as if his life depended on it. Despite his seemingly maddened state, one couldn’t help but notice a hint of intelligence and studiousness buried somewhere beneath it all. He was probably a skilled commander in his own right once upon a time in another life. A pity then, that fate placed him here in this place that turned him into such a mess of a prisoner, “I-I will see your vision through! I swear it!” Jiang Wei said, even though Ganondorf had no idea what or whom he was talking about.
”Such talent, wasted.” Ganondorf mused in response, showing a rare display of pity for the young soldier as he shook his head, ”A shame.”
The warrior said nothing else and went on the attack. Despite his obvious madness, his actual attacks still contained their original discipline and gracefulness. He spun his body around in order to put as much weight and momentum as he could into his thrusts and sweeps. Ganondorf had drawn one of his swords and used it to block the incoming attacks. But then the warrior did something unexpected. He swung his trident upward, which somehow summoned a quick whirlwind that took Ganondorf by surprise, sweeping him into an upward launch. The warrior leaped up into the air to do a followup in order to capitalize, but encountered a surprise of his own.
Ganondorf used his newfound bullet jump to perform a midair jump as a means of dodging out of the way of Jiang Wei’s follow up attack. This resulted in both men landing back on the floor to effectively reset the state of their duel back to where it was a moment ago. Ganondorf then used a bullet jump to slide forward for a quick slice as a way to go on the offensive and try to put Jiang Wei on the back foot. This seemed to work for the moment, Ganondorf’s aggressive attacks managing to press the attack and push Jiang Wei back a bit. But then he leaped to the side and then pushed himself off the corridor wall in order to try and attack Ganondorf from above with a downward thrust of his trident. Ganondorf spun around in order to sweep his blade upward to parry in the incoming thrust. Instantly he reached a free hand up and caught the falling Jiang Wei by the neck and then slammed him onto the floor with an explosive Flame Choke.
Despite that, Jiang Wei kicked himself back onto his feet. He was certainly persistent, Ganondorf had to admit that at least. Jiang Wei tightened his stance and wound himself up for another attack. As he did, an aura of might appeared to emanate from his form. Then all at once he exploded forward in a whirlwind of circular swings of his trident in Ganondorf’s direction. In fact his initial lunge seemed to release a shockwave of sorts intended to loosen the footing of his target and get them off balance so this attack could go unstopped. This did catch Ganondorf at first and resulted in him having to tank the first couple of swings. But as tough as this Dynasty Warrior was, even he couldn’t account for the sheer might of the King of Evil. Ganondorf was quickly able to regain his footing and absorb the remaining blows by blocking it with his greatsword.
Then the Gerudo King went right back on the offensive. He used a bullet jump to slide toward the corridor wall then sprang off of it in order to launch himself into a passing slash of Jiang Wei’s now-tiring body. Then Ganondorf caught himself on the opposite wall and launched back off of it. This time he crashed into Jiang Wei with a fiery Warlock Kick that knocked the former Shu General back and off his balance. Then the Gerudo lunged past the tired Jiang Wei with a final slice of the greatsword. With a last gasp of pain, the defeated Jiang Wei slumped, first to his knees, then fell forward onto the floor and ceased moving. Ganondorf’s victory was signaled by his form disappearing and turning into a Spirit, which Gerudo then picked up.
”Hmm… not bad.” Ganondorf mused. He thought for a moment about how best to use this Spirit. The young man would make for a decent striker, certainly. But the weapon he wielded also reminded Ganondorf of a weapon he himself had once wielded long ago. With a nod, Ganondorf squeezed the Spirit and crushed it, allowing it to then become a new weapon for the Gerudo to then add to his growing collection.
Vapor An ornate, but well-made Trident. 298cm in length, it was once wielded by a warrior of the Three Kingdoms.
King of Evil’s Trident: When wielding a trident or other polearm, Ganondorf adopts a somewhat faster fighting style than when he wields great swords, though not quite as hard-hitting. In addition, his attacks forgo being Dark elemental in favor of Lightning. This weapon style consists of quick thrusts, sweeps, and mid-range projectile attacks by way of throwing the trident. When thrown, the trident can then be used as a makeshift lightning rod that can attract powerful bolts of lightning summoned by Ganondorf's magic. Also after being thrown, the weapon can afterward be summoned back to Ganondorf's hand via summoning magic. Attacks with this type of weapon cannot build up the Dark Meter, nor does it possess any kind of chargeable meter of its own.
Ganondorf gave his newly-acquired trident a few quick swings and thrusts. It’d been a while since the last time he wielded one of these, but he hadn’t lost his touch. Ganondorf even gave the Trident a quick hurl, sending it circling around his body before he lunged forward to catch it in midair. Then he jumped straight up and threw the trident straight back down toward the floor at an angle. And then before he could even land, he used magic to summon a big lightning bolt that struck the weapon like it was a lightning rod. Then after he did land, Ganondorf reached forth his hand and the weapon was quickly summoned back to him in a cloud of purple dark magic. He smirked, satisfied with all of his newfound acquisitions. But he had toyed with these new powers for long enough. It was time to regroup with the rest of the Seekers.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The troop groaned awake, collectively tried to get up, and then collectively collapsed back down to the floor out of a dire need for rest. Fortunately, as it turned out they were almost done. Silver keys would surely unlock the way to what they had missed, and they had a ride home to boot.
”Who even puts a train station in a creepy jail anyway?” Jr asked upon hearing this news
”Galeem, for badness knows what reason” Kamek replied, before making a pained sound as he tried to correct the crick in his back sleeping wrong had left him with
”Oh. Huh. Well thanks then Galeem, for your weird level design” jr said to the ceiling, before waiting for a few moments, sighing, sitting up, and asking ”Ok who needs healing?”
Rika raised a hand and reapplied with a ”Me” before adding ”Oh also I need to melt down that weird armor” and then rolling over to yell at Sectonia ”can I borrow that item melty thing?” followed by a ”Thanks,” when she agreed, and then finally a groan when she had to get up and go get it rather than having the queen deliver it to her.
Given that there were 4 items in the Prisoner in Deep Confinement set however, the cooldown on smelting items meant the process ended up taking quite a while, which was fine by her, as it let her keep her brother company while he patched everyone up.
It also left her time to poke at the still forms of the warframes with the tip of her spear in between smeltings.
”Huh. They aren't moving. Is this like a pre-Galeem bodies thing again?” she asked, poking away at the one with the wings on its hips.
”Dunno. I mean they were moving before. Maybe he was puppeting them or something? It's not like they came with us when everything got put to sleep” Jr said in between healing casts.
”Shame. They were pretty strong and tough, and pretty neat looking too. Would have been good spirits” she thought, preparing to give up and blinking her spear onto her back.
”Seeing as their robots, I guess we could scrap them for parts” Jr replied, before looking again and wondering ”Or are they humans in armor? If it is, you could just take it off and use it. Same with their weapons either way”
”Wait, you can just do that?” Rika asked, to which the prince nodded, ”Huh. Neat”
Before she could attempt to go about that however, there was a sickening crunch as Ganondorf snapped the neck of Oberon, prompting a wince from Jr, and a nonplussed comment of ”Huh. Guess it was alive after all” from Rika before she proceeded to immediate yet another poor role model and executed Titania with her own gauntlet powered neck snap.
While that had been occurring, Bowser and Kamek had re-entered the central chamber of the prison. Kamek had first had to poke his master awake seeing as his response to waking had been to roll over and go right back to sleep, which might have been concerning was this not something that occurred every morning.
There would be no more sleeping now however, because prisoners were awake now too, and making quite the ruckus.
”Urgh, lay off it would you!” Bowser yelled up at them, to little avail, before grumbling and finishing strapping his kinetic strike module to his first.
”I do not believe they are going to do so, your oversleepyness” Kamek replied as he mentally wished for some earplugs for both the prisoners and the kings yelling at them.
Bowser just groaned again, and then together they started making their way up, Bowser walking, Kamek floating. While doing so they had to move past the cells full of prisoners banging and yelling, which they tried to ignore.
Bowser cracked first, wondering out loud ”You know, maybe they aren't crazy now that ol what’s his face is dead?”
”I’m not so sure that logic tracks” Kamek replied, attempting to dissuade his king from this line of action, but to no avail. The king had already taken one the ring of copper keys from Kamek’s pockets, and promptly unlocked a random cell, revealing a short turtle of all things.
"Finally! Good job my Schwarzen Guard” the turtle said to Bowser with an air of authority, while at the same time looking at him with somewhat unfocused eyes
”Hey see, it worked” Bowser said to Kamek, before turning to the turtle and telling him ”I’m not a guard though, you’re free to go thanks to me, Bowser, the Koopa King!” only to be cut off by the person they had just freed sharply to that introduction indignation “King? King!? I’m the turtle in charge of the Turtle Terrorists! Me! Devan Shell, not some king … which must mean … must mean … That you’re a filthy traitor!”
”Wow hey now wait a second, what kinda gratitude is this?” Bowser demanded to know, only for the turtle to pull out a plasma gun from his shell which he proceed to blast the king in the gut with a cry of “die mutineer!”
The king ”oof”ed and grabbed his scorched shell in surprise, but the attack was hardly enough to really hurt him. Kamek’s response however could very much hurt their foe, as the mage unleashed the spell he had already begun conjuring as soon as the accusation had been called out, blasting Devan with a close range cosmic spray, bombarding him with a spectrum of elemental damage.
Surprisingly the little turtle took the bombardment with the toughness of a penultimate boss, before turning his gun on the mage who had caused him such pain. Unfortunately for him, doing so turned it away from the Koopa king, who lunged a hand forwards, snatching the turtle terrorist up in his claw, before he promptly spun him around and hurled him down into the central shaft. Devan plummeted down the central shaft and hit the ground with a crunch, body mangled, only for it to start warping further as he transformed into a decidedly more demonic form.
Devil Devan took to the air, reinvigorated, mad, and spitting fire. The moderately sized fireball blazed up towards where Bowser and Kamek were leaning over the railing to see if he’d been dealt with or not.
Bowser promptly spat one back, bigger and better which demolished the opposing fireball before careening into the demon turtle.
”That all you got?!” Bowser demanded to know, and, for once, his ego didn’t result didn’t result in an immediate dose of irony, as it more or less was all the demon had. Well, that and an absurd amount of durability, which was something of a problem for the two elder Koopas, who had been at this all day, while Daven had just woken up from a lengthy nap.
Still, as the demon ascended towards them, he was still met with the last vestiges of the pair’s stamina, Bowser hucking flames, while Kamek, once again out of mana, had to rely on strikers, resulting in Devil Daven receiving a high caliber sniper round to the head as he got close, and then getting a Tonberry hurled at him by a cooperative Bowser.
This second attempt at delivering the incredibly slow but destructive striker also failed, as it just sorta bounced off of their foe due to not having the reaction times to deliver an aerial stab sadly, and so the the winged fire breather arrived back at the floor he had been hurled off of in one piece.
He then experienced a moment of deja vu as Bowser grabbed him by the snout, and promptly spun him around again and threw him into a wall this time, before commanding Marie Korbel to ”Rattle him!”. This prompted the striker of the former skullgirl to appear, look briefly confused, and then to call up a bunch of skeletal mobsters with tommy guns to blast the demon, their bones rattling from the recoil.
”Yeah, how do you-” Bowser had to pause to catch his breath, before finishing his taunt ”- like that?” only to groan thirdly as the Daven once again survived, and took back to the air to keep on spitting fire.
Just then there was a little click, followed by the sound of something being reeled in, and then Rika appeared over the banister behind them. She immediately began to ask ”Hey, Kamek can I borrow-” before being interrupted by having to lean out of the way of a fireball, and then calling ”-borrow the snaktivator?” over her shoulder as she rushed the demon.
A gauntlet smashed him back into the wall, before she rammed two hull blades, a chainsaw bayonet, and four disturbing globules into him all at once. Then she kicked off of him as her gauntlet came back online, grabbed her spear in both hands, and then stabbed the demon repeatedly with it alongside her strikers, which delivered chops and icey spike blows till the demon fell.
In the aftermath, she gave a little ”Phew” stored her weapon, and then explained ”Ganondorf showed me how to get a spirit out of those flippy warrior people” before showing them the spirit of Titania.
”Ah, well, I see” Kamek replied steadily, before offering her the requested item.
”Thanks!”
Notable spirit consumed: Titania Prime (Waist) Spreading out from the point of snacktivation, the host has gained a thin, roughly romper-shamped undersuit of flexible teal and cherry-red alloy lined with black, and her armor in the vicinity has slimmed down somewhat and turned predominantly black decorated with gold. This also includes a sort of skirt of sleek, tapered flaps. The rigging has also been affected, partially converted into a set of gilded, hollowed-out, hip-mounted wings that are less articulate and usable as weapons. This spirit confers the Strength Bullet Jump, substantially boosting the host's movement abilities. The host can launch into a quick slide, double jump, aim glide, wall run, wall climb, and high jump. This spirit also confers the weakness Pixieweight, decreasing the host's effective weight, strength, and durability by 15%
”Oh wow, I feel lighter, let me just” Rika said after the flash of light, promptly hopping into the air, and then hopping again. She declared this ”neat!” she before promptly leaping off of the banister and calling down ”Jr! Watch this” before she began to combine wall runs, air glides, and feather falls to climb all the way up the central chamber without touching a floor, and then descend all the way back down to where her brother was down on the bottom floor in no time at all.
”Ah, youth” the mage commented jealousy, before glancing at the turtle Rika had just finished off for them and enquiring ”Would you mind If i took it?” to which Bowser had no objections.
Spirit absorbed: Devan Shell The host is a little younger, taller, and lankier, and his scales are more green than yellow (except on his undershell), while his shell is larger and patterned with purple. He has a bigger, sharper beak, and a much bigger pair of glasses. He has only three fingers per hand. His personality is more egotistical and cartoonishly evil. This spirit confers the Power Devil Inside. When all of the host's mana is exhausted, he will transform, becoming larger and more muscular with a long, spiked tail and impressive draconic wingspan. In this form the host can't really use other abilities or equipment, but can spit out an infinite amount of explosive fireballs while slowly regaining mana, and once his mana is restored (or his stamina depleted) he will turn back to normal. This spirit also confers the Weakness Hesitancy. After using a special movement ability, like a teleport, the host will be unable to move or two seconds
”Taller, but still me, and I can feel a dark power deep within, ready to be unleashed when I most need it. Marvelous” the mage commented, before enquiring ”Shall we continue?”
Bowser, again, agreed, and so they headed up together, an uneventful climb which eventually brought them before the door that was sealed by a silver lock, the one located by the warden's office which they had failed to enter earlier. Aware now that nothing had changed about the state of the prisoner’s mental states, they followed Jr’s prior advice properly this time, putting an army of dry bones between them and the door, and having a Toady open it up for them so they’d be clear of whatever, if anything, came bursting out of there. The two meanwhile were further back, with Kamek matching his king in size thanks to his using of the small amount of mana he’d recharged since the last fight switching him into his new devil form.
The cell, at least, was unlike the others. Before, those outfitted with bronze locks seemed more intentioned for keeping intruders out than the prisoners in, pacified as they were by unnatural yet blissful dreams. Following the death of Robin, that state of affairs had been turned on its head, with the denizens here awakened and driven mad by the revelation that their realities had been nothing more than dreams. The entire jail now resounded with their anguish, be it tormented cries or uproarious banging on cell doors. Not this particular cell, though. Instead, a discreet ethereal light issued from under it, along with a quiet humming and the intermittent scrape of a knife against wood. It didn’t sound like the sort of noise a human voice could make, but it sounded peaceable nonetheless, unchanged by the shift within Mercy Dreams.
When a toady inserted its key into the lock, the sound of humming and whittling stopped. A voice issued from within, strange but still intelligible. “Please, wait-” Then the door swung open, and a chill swept down the Koopas’ shelled spines. The cell was full of carved statues, at least a dozen of them, all very similar to the ones they, Nadia, and Therion had recovered elsewhere in the prison. No two were quite alike, however, and only through their gestalt could the true shape of Robin Goodfellow be gleaned. Against the back wall leaned a strange staff, wrought black metal affixed with ceremonial beads and shining with the light of a crescent moon inside its head. But there was nobody there.
”Huh, did you hear something just now?” Bowser asked, but his aged advisor simply shook his head in response. ”Weird.” the king concluded, before dismissing it as just another sourceless piece of ambiance. After all, no one had responded when he’d tried to ram the door down earlier, so the cell being empty wasn’t exactly unexpected.
”Ah, but look, might that be what we are here for?” Kamek asked rhetorically, as he pointed out the staff which certainly had something of a dreamcatcher look about it. Add to that the magical half moon at its center, and it was 100% something of value, and so the mage had his minion collect it.
Both had had quite enough of Robin Goodfellow to give the collage of statues more than a raised eyebrow and a quick dismissal, so that got to stay where it was. After having acquired what they came for, and writing everyone left here as a lost cause, there was little interest in letting anything keep them around.
Unfortunately, people had wandered here and there post bossfight, and so once they returned to the room by the stagstation, they had to park their tails and wait for everyone to regroup. Kamek reported about their acquisition of the dreamcatcher, and then also inquired if anyone had found the code to the safe they had found in the warden’s office, unaware that they had just ended the flimsy existence of the person who knew it. As such he also inquired if anyone had any tricks that might let them bypass the lock entirely.
”We don’t have time for your petty revenge or your awful ideology, so please, do one good thing for this city-” Midna said she formed a massive shadowhand before driving it forwards in a massive punch as she concluded her request with ”-and die quickly!” in a pretty clear indication that she was dropping her avoiding of killing plan for this man.
”Great…” said Roxas. He too wasn’t exactly hiding his irritation, ”...Just what we needed.” He quickly aimed the palm of his right hand gauntlet in the direction of the Senator as Midna threw her punch and began charging. Once her attack was done he let off a charged shot from his newly-acquired RockGun. He figured he may as well get in some practice using his new gear.
”You know, I like muscle guys, but you took it wayyy too far.” Blazermate said, trying to find something the others didn’t say. This guy was a complete loon. Well, either way, he probably hit like a truck so time to overheal.
For a moment, Giovanna hung back. The low-key secret agent lacked Midna’s short temper, and when faced with Armstrong, one all-important question had come to mind. When the senator boasted about killing Shinra, he’d very suddenly revealed true colors that even Gio couldn’t have imagined, but she hadn’t known whether or not to take him at his word. Then, when he pounded his fist, she could help but wonder: could this guy actually fight?
So she let Midna charge in to find out, and Armstrong did not disappoint.
“Hmph!” His tie flapped in the wind as a sudden burst of air pressure accompanied the rapid deceleration of Midna’s punch. Despite a solid attempt to deck Armstrong, the Twilight Princess had failed to lay him out flat–in fact, he’d barely even moved. With coal-black fists he’d caught her shadow hand in his grip, and now he wasn’t letting go. “Cocky little shit, aren’t you?” Seeing Roxas charging his RockGun, he put his incredible strength to work and yanked Midna off her feet by her hair. He swung her around in a circle, using her to catch the charge shot for him before hurling her at Roxas and Giovanna. “You’re going down!”
By that time, Gio was already running. She slid under the living projectile, then came to a stop in a tensed crouch and leaped into the air. After a somersault she cannoned down with a divekick, only for it to slam into Armstrong’s crossed arms. A jolt went through her body; that felt like kicking a wall of solid steel. She bounced off and flipped to the ground, where she immediately pivoted around into a barrage of side kicks with Rei for support. They struck fast as lightning, several ramming into the senator’s unprotected chest per second. Unbelievably, he didn’t even budge. After a moment Gio’s fight or flight reflex activated, and she spent half her tension on a purple Roman Cancel to stop herself short and slide backward. The next second, Armstrong’s huge hand swiped through the air where her neck had been an instant prior, and his grab barely missed. Giovanna dashed backward, wincing at her aching leg. “...What are you?”
Armstrong laughed, pushing up his glasses with a smirk. “Why don’t you stick around and find out?”
Unfortunately for Roxas, he didn’t have enough time to react before the body of the Twilight Princess came crashing into him. It of course knocked the wind out of him and sent them both sprawling, but after a moment the Nobody pushed himself back to his feet, ”Ugh, did someone get the number of that speeding tram?” he asked as he recovered from the sudden and unorthodox projectile attack. He shook his head and then redoubled his efforts.
Not yet ready to give up on his ranged weapon, Roxas decided to run a circle around Armstrong and pelt him with rapid energy shots from his RockGun. But despite the attacks appearing to connect, if they were doing any damage then it was impossible to tell. ”Jeez, what’s this guy’s deal?” Roxas questioned as he activated the StepSword on his left gauntlet while summoning his black Keyblade in the other hand. Then he shot forward at Armstrong with a dashing-slash of the energy blade. And with his Keyblade already out he could instantly follow up on that with another slashing attack.
Unfortunately, both attacks similarly didn’t appear to do much damage to the man that Roxas could see. Even more unfortunate was when Armstrong’s big hand managed to snatch the Nobody by his wrist mid-attack, “You’ll have to do a hell of a lot better than that, kiddo!” said the Senator as he wrapped his other massive arm around Roxas’ body. He then seemed to lift the kid up only to whirl him back down and slam him back-first onto his knee. After letting Roxas hit the ground he then lunged forward and kicked the downed Nobody, which sent him careening off a fair distance, “Don’t fuck with this senator!” He made a show of the giant punt, as if he could hear the crowd cheering from the bleachers. The sight made Giovanna balk. “I played college ball, you know,” Armstrong admitted with a cracking of his neck and knuckles. Of course, there was no way football alone was an adequate explanation for his apparent superhuman abilities.
Somehow not deterred by being used as a flail, the princess rushed past the punted Roxas, hands empty of weapons till she got close and flicked one out into reality with a crescent moon slash. The supernatural strike seemed to work for just a second, only for the second of Zanzo’s cleavers to break just like the first, shattering when it impacted with the senator’s skin, leaving the princess holding just a handle.
“Nice knife” the senator taunted.
”That was my bad one!” she retorted as she flicked second sword into reality, in this case Mao’s longsword he’d hand-me-downed to her, only for a hand to grab it before it could even strike.
“Nice trick, but you can’t fool me twice,” Armstrong told her, before squeezing the blade as she watched in horror, steel buckling under his grip before this well made blade broke just like the terrible one. Midna, who had been trying to wrench the blade free, fell back when the blade snapped in half, which was the only thing that prevented her from having her face punched in. Instead she landed on her back, and had to scrabble back once on all 6 limbs like a bug to avoid being stomped like one.
Then using skywave launched herself up into the air and, she hoped, out of harm's way for a moment. As she fled, Giovanna made her move. Shrugging off blows and snapping swordblades were no mean feats, and she’d seen that before each clash Armstrong’s skin turned black, like the pigment of a cuttlefish or octopus, in anticipation of contact. But what if she took him by surprise? When she unleashed Seismic Hammer to rupture the ground beneath him, however, he barely reacted. “Huh?” Was he not controlling the ability like she thought? Either way, she’d have to worry about it later. Armstrong barreled toward her with his arms spread wide in a humongous running bear grab. She leaped up into the air to avoid it, only for him to spring after her, his meaty mitts like crocodiles lunging for their prey. Only with an airdash did she manage to escape his grasp, and the senator fell heavily to the floor.
When she touched down, Gio turned in a flash and zipped toward him. Her mobility, she knew, was her key to victory. Before Armstrong could round on her, she extended her leg to strike the side of his knee. In the sporting world this was an illegal move thanks to its tendency to cripple people, but here her shoe stopped short against rock-hard skin. “Oh, come-!” The senator turned with a mighty backfist that struck Gio’s jaw, making her see stars as she spun around. She fell to her knees facing away from him, a hand on her poor chin, and Armstrong unceremoniously kicked her in the butt to send her sprawling face-first on the ground. “Guh!”
As people got knocked back and away and someone else distracted Armstrong, Blazermate could heal them up and overheal them as they were picking themselves up from being thrown. ”Man, this is going to be a long fight.” Blazermate said as she healed Roxas. She then got an idea, and as Midna went up to bat, then Gio, she took that time to zoom over a bit to summon her striker, the engineer, to make his equipment before going somewhere else to continue to heal people and generate her resources.
Once recovered, Roxas was back on his feet and already moving to take another shot at Armstrong. He deactivated his energy blade and replaced it with Oathkeeper - his second Keyblade. Clearly this was not the kind of fight for him to be experimenting with his new weapons or abilities, so from this point he would be fighting with his more familiar abilities and tactics. Roxas first turned into a streak of light that zig-zagged at Armstrong with blinding speed. As soon as the light touched him, Roxas instantly reappeared to hit him with a powerful Cross Slash.
Similarly to Gio’s attacks, Armstrong’s skin seemed to turn black at the spots where the Keyblades’ struck him, as if in reaction to the imminent damage that was incoming. But the Keybearer’s assault didn’t end there. He continued forward with a flurry of rapid Keyblade strikes. But each time, the blades were met with the same blackened spots that appeared on Armstrong’s skin. The Senator sweeped his arm and attempted to catch Roxas with a sweeping lariat. But Roxas was quick and able to jump back to avoid the hit. Then he had an idea, ”I need your help, Burn Rooster!” the Nobody said as he summoned the striker. But before the reploid moved, Roxas appeared to target him for attack, ”Freeze!” he called, casting the Blizzaga spell at his own striker. The tactic certainly seemed to surprise Armstrong, who tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow.
But that ice spell - despite damaging Burn Rooster and Roxas by extension - had an interesting side effect. Taking ice damage caused Burn Rooster to explode with a strong, fiery aura that boosted the power and damage of his fire attacks. He then unleashed that on Armstrong in the form of his fire breath attack. In response, the Senator held up both arms to cover his face. The skin on those arms blackened and were able to blunt much of the fire damage he otherwise would have taken, ”What? How is that even possible?” Roxas demanded in disbelief.
The senator then barreled forward as Burn Rooster disappeared and managed to catch Roxas in a choke-hold, “Nanomachines, son!” he yelled before spinning around and putting momentum into hurling Roxas away from him and careening into Gio.
”Ugh.” Roxas groaned, having the wind once again knocked out of him, ”Nano…what?” he finally said when his breath came back to him.
”I don’t know but rushing in one at a time clearly isn’t working!” Midna pointed out as she landed a fair bit away from the big guy, having been caught by her Flygon after launching herself. She slipped off its back and launched a pair of autopistols she’d stolen from the Commando into her hands, gripping each with two hands to steady them better before opening fire with a hail of small arms fire interspersed with more dangerous phase rounds.
The peashooters weren't much on their own, but with a call of ”Blast him!” the princess dipped a hand into every other pool of firepower she had, summoning arrow penetrating psychic spear throwers and ice javelineers to her side, while her flygon unleashed its dragon breath, and she herself formed a twilight volley bomb to slap down at her foe. Her remaining striker not on cooldown, she kept on reserve.
As the barrage of projectile attacks rained down on him from Midna and Blazermate’s turret, Armstrong breathed in deep, filling his lungs. Giovanna and Roxas had both picked themselves up to rush the senator down again, but hearing Armstrong suck in air -and seeing a huge magic bomb from Midna- made Gio hesitate. A second later, the big man yelled, and the nanomachines throughout his body released stored-up energy in an omnidirectional yellow wave. While it lost its repelling power beyond melee range, its sustained output was enough to crumple bullets, shatter ice, thwart mental energy, and detonate the volley bomb. It didn't protect him from everything by any stretch, but it made quite the statement.
With no other ranged attacks, Gio helped with what she could: a heavy Seismic Hammer. Armstrong laughed it off, then concentrated stored energy into his fist. “That's all you got?” He then aped her, slamming his fist into the ground. A glowing fissure ripped through the arena’s surface, spreading like a bolt of lightning beneath the Seekers and the turret. “Go big or go HOME!” Gio instinctively dashed to safety, and the next moment Armstrong pushed his arm even deeper, detonating the fissure–and with it the annoying turret.
Midna’s strikers were at least all gone by the time the explosive wave, so it was only her and her flygon that had to dodge out of the way, each of them leaping to either side to avoid getting blasted.
”Does nothing phase this guy,” Midna complained as she ditched the two guns she’d been using into portals, and tried to plan, before deciding, simply ”I’ll just have to hit him hard enough that he’ll feel it.”
Rather than follow up on this statement right away however, she instead started dancing. Dragon dancing. The princess stepped and spun with rhythmic grace, building up more and more power every few seconds, power which was visible as a gradually intensifying royal purple aura. As she did this, her flygon hovered nearby, ready to swoop in to defend its mistress if need be.
Whatever kind of attack Roxas had planned was cut short by the literal explosion that Armstrong caused around him. Unable to get close while that happened, Roxas did the opposite and backed off. He hoped that by putting some distance between himself and Armstrong - and if Armstrong continued to pay more attention to the other Seekers - Roxas could prepare another plan of attack without being noticed.
And so after he backed off and found a spot he could squat behind and be out of sight, Roxas retrieved the unused spirit of Fortune from his person and looked intently at it, ”I think we’re gonna need your help here, Miss Sniper. Hope there’s no hard feelings.”
The sudden retreat of both Roxas and Midna moments after the Twilight Princess said that everyone should attack together left only Giovanna standing before Armstrong as he stood to his full height. Taken aback, the secret agent briefly glanced between her allies before refocusing on the man in front of her. “Uhh…” He took off, picking up speed like a charging bull. Gio tensed up, ready to dodge, and when the moment came she ducked under Armstrong’s clothesline haymaker. She got clear rather than trying to attack, but even avoiding one of the senator’s felt like an achievement. When she turned to face him, however, Gio saw that he’d kept right on going. His true target wasn’t her at all. Instead he stampeded toward Midna, arms pumping. “Think you’re cute?”
Waiting for just this moment, her flygon dove down on its own. Armstrong had seen it on guard duty, of course, and when it acted predictably, the senator was ready. He cannoned off the ground and intercepted the pokemon mid-dive. His shirt gained some fresh clawmarks, but nevertheless he snatched the flygon by its long neck, then returned to the ground in a chokeslam strong enough to shake the arena. After kicking it onto its belly in Midna’s direction, he raised his fist and struck the ground to send a chain of flame geysers toward the pair.
In response the princess stepped onto the sliding form of her minion in what seemed an absolutely callus move, only to use the motion of leaping off of it to also kick it down into a twilight portal out of harm's way, followed by slamming her shadowhand down onto the ground and narrowly tossing herself over the wall of flames that only got a few licks on her. Then she kept dancing.
New Striker spiritbound: Fortune A striker that specializes in firepower. She has only two attacks, which have wildly different cooldowns. Using her Beretta 92F handgun has a short cooldown, but shorter range and low damage. Her Lockheed RG-590 Experimental Aircraft Rail Cannon has a long cooldown, as well as a long charge-up time, during which she can be interrupted and banished at any point. Once fired, though, that railgun does huge, highly destructive damage, capable of demolishing heavy armor, terrain, and so forth. When in use, she confers a passive ability to both herself and Roxas that increases the likelihood of enemy projectiles missing.
Then he summoned her. She wasn’t like other strikers, who typically went for their attack immediately. Instead Fortune stayed put and leveled her big railgun to take aim at Armstrong. Then she started charging the weapon. Seeing how it worked up close, Roxas now understood why she had earlier elected to stay hidden and take shots at them as a sniper. Clearly that was the safer and more strategically sound use of her rail cannon. If he wanted this to go off without a hitch, then Roxas was going to have to offer himself up to Armstrong as a decoy.
He moved away from his hiding spot and then took off in a run, specifically choosing to circle around so that the Senator would be in between himself and his striker, ”Hey, Senator Blockhead!” Roxas shouted with a taunt, even hurling a Waterga spell at Armstrong for good measure, ”Are all those muscles of yours compensating for something?”
Armstrong stood, turning from the havoc he’d sent toward Midna to give Roxas a sneer. He put up his arm to soak up the Waterga, then casually brushed the droplets off his shoulder. “Gotta work on your mudslinging, son. I’ve heard way worse.” Gio approached from a different angle, and for a brief moment Armstrong debated the options before him. “Still…” Launching forward, he made a beeline for Roxas anyway to send him flying with a mighty side kick. Gio dashed in after him. “I’m gonna knock you out!”
Blazermate could only really help with her healing for the first part of the fight, but once her striker’s turret got destroyed and he despawned, she had another idea. She could heal two people using her healing drone and her healing beam, but that wasn’t her plan. She’d be the annoying ranged person that hid behind her team, moving from purgatory crack to purgatory crack to summon ghosts that zoomed in and exploded on Armstrong.
Now if they did damage was anyone’s guess, but that was some damage she could do until she got an uber or a good chance to use her shield. Considering how threatening Armstrong was in melee, she really didn’t wanna get close to him with her shield, at least not yet. But it didn’t take too many ghosts until Blazermate got unlucky and a crack spawned under Armstong, leaving her back on healing duty but with her shield ready to use. Now the question was… offensive or defensive? She’d know after Armstrong’s next move.
Unfortunately for Armstrong, Roxas had learned his lesson, and he was clearly more agile. He first dodge rolled out of the way of the Senator’s incoming kick. Then, remembering what happened moments ago, he kept his distance and proceeded to pelt the man with a few Firagas. They didn’t seem that much more effective than the Waterga was, but at least it gave the Nobody a means to keep Armstrong’s attention on him. One thing Roxas remained paranoid about was keeping himself out of the man’s reach. He really did not want to get flung around and punted again like earlier.
Meanwhile, from her hidden spot out of sight, Fortune kept her rail cannon trained on Armstrong. It was almost finished charging up, so she began to look for an opportunity to take a clean shot at the Senator, preferably while his back was turned. They’d soon be able to learn just how good his nanomachines were at blocking a fully charged rail cannon shot from behind.
Roxas was fast, but he was not infallible. He was playing a dangerous game, and before his number came up, Giovanna was determined to help. Just after the Nobody slipped out of the grasp of one of Armstrong's big grabs, Gio struck from behind with a grab of her own. In a flash she was in the senator’s shoulders, her legs locked around his throat in a vice grip. Nanomachines might harden in response to physical trauma, but a squeeze was a little different. By the time they stiffened, Armstrong was already being choked. Rei joined in, chomping the big man’s wrist in an attempt to distract him. Finally, Gio slammed her fists into his head, discharging a massive amount of electricity from her gloves to make sure there really was nothing between his ears.
It was an incredible feat, and most incredible of all, it seemed to work. “Raaaaaaaaaagh!” Armstrong bellowed, struggling against Rei and pawing at Gio’s legs. After just a couple precious seconds, however, he clenched his teeth and sent Rei flying with a sweep of his arm. He reached up to grab Giovanna, but she managed to lean and duck away from his grip. A moment later, though, her wild ride came to an end. Armstrong jumped up, fell backward, and as he crushed the agent beneath his weight the air filled with the awful sound of cracking bones.
”Get off of her!” Midna shouted at the man, having arrived, glowing with power, and once again lashing out with her shadow hand. Not to punch this time, because that would end poorly for Gio, but instead the princess took a leaf out of the agent’s book and tried to grab the man with her mighty mitt. To haul him up. And then to hurl him as far as she could from the source of the move’s inspiration. Her boosted speed and strength allowed her to lift Armstrong off Giovanna, then throw him away from her wounded ally.
Blazermate’s scanners informed her of Giovanna’s now injured state as the massive meat man landed on top of her, only to be thrown away by Midna. ”I’m coming!” Blazermate said as she zoomed up to start to heal Giovanna, the same sickening bone snapping sounds happening, but in reverse as the bones knitted themselves back together. It was probably painful, but healing wasn’t always painless. Stil, Armstrong wasn’t a dumb guy even though he was a mountain of meat, so Blazermate kept her eyes on him and she had her shield ready for if he did anything.
Roxas admittedly froze up for a moment. Not only at the sickening sound of Gio’s severe injuries, but also because he knew he was partially to blame for it. He’d gotten a bit too overzealous in attracting Armstrong’s attention, and she was obviously the one who now paid the price for it. But after that moment of guilt, Roxas sprang back into movement. He ran past where Blazermate was healing Gio in order to put himself between them and Armstrong. As was becoming the norm, the Senator was already back on his feet and was now barrelling toward Roxas.
It was now or never, ”Freeze!” Roxas suddenly cried out. He shot the Blizzaga from the tip of his Keyblades, but it was aimed slightly low. He wasn’t aiming for Armstrong’s body, but rather his legs. And even though the nanomachines in his skin protected him from the damage, they weren’t able to stop his feet from becoming momentarily stuck to the ground. He had still managed to get close enough to slam Roxas with an uppercut that knocked him back to the spot nearby Blazermate and Gio. After that he had no choice but to tend to getting himself unstuck. With a giant yank, he broke one leg loose in a spray of ice shards, then went to free the other.
And that was all Fortune needed. She had a clear shot now, and so she squeezed the trigger and let loose her mighty rail cannon shot.
To say that the railgun’s payload finished Armstrong’s job for him was an understatement. The sheer force it communicated was enough to throw the man a couple dozen feet to the floor, and that was just from the aftershock of its absurd kinetic energy. That magnetically-propelled projectile simply moved too quickly -and struck too suddenly- for the nanomachines to fully absorb the immense damage. His shirt had been blown off, and the shot left a gruesome wound in his chest. Even after the fact his nanomachines did not recede from the impact site, as if their presence was needed to hold them together. Still, not even a shot that would have turned an average man into mist took the fight out of this Senator. After gritting his teeth, his face contorted in pain, he began to laugh.
“Hahahahaha!” he chortled, rising. “That one hurt!” When he stood, the others could see something unusual about his bare chest. It was covered in healed scar tissue, especially around the left side and radiating outward in streaks like swollen veins, too clean to be the result of injury. With no glasses to hide them, Armstrong’s pupils were glowing red.
Extensively healed by Blazermate, Giovanna picked herself up gingerly. Shaken by the traumatic pain of grievous injury and treatment that felt no better, it took a lot of effort just to face Armstrong once more. The Seekers’ foe looked more menacing than ever, but they could all see they were making progress. These next few moments might be the toughest yet, and Gio certainly couldn’t fight at her best, but this was the final round. Only so many seconds remained on the clock. One way or another, this was about to be decided.
”Together?” Midna asked, preparing one final joust against their bulwark of a foe.
”Yep.” Roxas said, ”All for one.” he then added in spite of himself. Sora really had rubbed off on him, not that any of the other Seekers would know that. He brandished Keyblades and gestured with both of them toward the nearby Gio and Midna, ”Light!” And on that command, he spent the last of his MP and shared his light with the two of them, empowering their abilities.
Gio took a deep breath. “Yeah.” Rei manifested beside her. When she ran forward, she’d build up the last bit of tension she needed to max out and cause her passive to kick in, turning her eyes white as her skin and hair began to glow with the power of a damage and defense buff. She couldn’t spend any tension without losing the boost, but as long as the four of them were working together, there was a chance they could win. And Roxas was sprinting right behind her. Seeing her allies on the attack, Blazermate also decided to join in as her kritz was almost charged and she still hadn’t gotten a use on her shield.
The three of them rushed Armstrong together. Both of their mobilities enhanced by Gio’s built up tension and Roxas’ light, they assaulted the Senator with a blitzkrieg of lightning fast kicks and Keyblade strikes. Blazermate was able to keep up thanks to the properties of her medibeam as well. And while they did that, Midna used her shadowhand to begin charging a super large Volleybomb. Armstrong’s nanomachines struggled to keep up with the speed and aggressiveness of his attackers, but he was at least able to shrug off some of their blows as they came. His fists met his opponent’s keyblade and kicks again and again, giving as good as he got, although he had no real answer to Blazermate’s damaging shield, as the speed inherited from Gio and Roxas made her incredibly difficult to even touch as she evaded his moves and kept her shield on him. As Roxas and Gio became little more than vicious streaks of gold and green, however, the output of Armstrong’s artificial heart finally reached its limit. “Grrrrrah!” he roared, reeling in an explosion of brilliant sparks. “You little shits!”
”Done!” cried Midna, leaping up above and readying herself to hurl the Volleybomb she had charged up. But she didn’t do it alone. Gio and Roxas both backed off from their onslaught and leaped up to join her, with Blazermate latching her medibeam onto Midna to give her a dose of kritz to make this vollybomb really hurt. They helped spike the bomb down at the Senator still standing there on the ground, now recovered enough to clench his teeth and tighten his fists. He crouched, muscles bulging, then leaped upward, one jet-black fist extended to pit his strength against the Seekers’ head-on. The next second, his megaton punch met Midna’s amped-up magic, and for a moment everything disappeared in an explosion of orange and teal.
When the light died down and the smoke cleared, Armstrong was down on one knee, his entire body grievously wounded. Over half of his right arm had been destroyed, and he was breathing heavily, no doubt in great pain. Nevertheless, he managed to raise his head and glower at the Seekers. “Huh…huh…not bad.”
”You wanna know what the sad part is?” Roxas asked the man as he dispelled his Keyblades, ”I couldn’t really disagree with you in all honesty. You were right when you said the city was rotten. We’ve all seen that for ourselves by now. But it didn’t look like your methods were making things any better. Are money and politics really the only things people care about here? Seems like a pretty sad way to live your life if you ask me.”
”Seemed like more of a might makes right type, which works all well and good till a hero comes along to stop you” Midna commented matter of factly, before gesturing to the spirit of the man Armstrong had used his might to usurp, asking ”Which took, what? An hour this time? Minutes?” before preparing to move, seeing as it had taken ”Too long for my tastes either way, seeing as we have a city to save”
Armstrong had no choice but to let his enemies’ smugness wash over him as he fought to compose himself, though at this point no amount of catching his breath would give him a second wind. “You still don’t understand,” he grumbled. “It was never about money. It’s about freedom, damn it. The freedom to live as we see fit, without anyone getting in our way!” He clenched his fist. “Do you know how long it’s been? Fighting for causes we don’t believe in. Dying for reasons we don’t understand. Midgar can’t be saved. But if they’re strong enough, its people can save themselves!” Armstrong faltered, but still he laughed. “You know it, too. You’ve taken things into your own hands. You’re dismantling things, piece by piece. Making things change, not letting legal bullshit get in the way, and if it costs a few lives? So be it.”
”Don’t give me that!” Roxas shouted, ”You may be okay with sacrificing lives to get what you’re after, but we’re not! And unlike you, we’re intending for everything and everyone to go back to their lives when this is all over, including the ones who were lost along the way!” He crossed his arms and turned away, no longer wanting to look this guy in the face, ”You may have been right about the rot in the city, but you’re dead wrong about everything else after that. You may have thought you were taking things into your own hands, but you weren’t, and what happened at the debate stage should have been your first clue.” he said, in reference to the Consul who had all but hijacked the debate and made it crystal clear that he was the one pulling much of the strings.
”A fully militarized society is ridiculous anyway. The ‘weak’ forge the soldiers’ arms and armor, they bake the bread that feeds them and build the walls they guard. Your ideas will result in ruins lorded over by starving brutes armed with scrap metal” Minda replied dismissively.
”I mean, you're not wrong, but you don’t have the whole story. Ever wonder why all of this was happening? Well the sun there is actually some super powerful seraphim ball angel thing named Galeem and it destroyed and remade every world and mashed them together, then gave ya false memories to trap ya in a never ending cycle of, this. If you wanted true freedom, you had to figure that out.” Blazermate said. She then remembered. ”Oh right, while under their control you can’t even understand that concept unless you're really introspective or something… huh..” She then looked at the ground for a bit, mumbling so that Armstrong couldn’t hear. ”Why did the super muscle guy have to be evil….”
“You prattle and prognosticate, but at the end of the day, you don’t know jack,” Armstrong declared. “There’s no such thing as good or evil. Just dead, or alive.”
Until now, Giovanna had kept quiet. She didn’t care much about post-victory proclamations, and she didn’t have much in the way of principles she could preach about. She more or less saw all that as a waste of time, and it sure felt that way now, so when Armstrong said something portentous she spoke up. “Right, yeah, that kind of leads in to how this is gonna end,” she said off-handedly. “Soo…”
”Your right, this is a waste of time” Midna agreed, being reminded in this moment of what should have been her last meeting with Zant, before slamming her shadow hand forwards, purple claws glowing at its fingertips. It plunged into the chest of the man who would tear down what little kindness Midgar had in the name of his animalistic definition of freedom, and then ripped out his monstrous heart.
”Brutal.” Blazermate said at Midna’s finisher. Giovanna narrowed her eyes, her lips pursed, and turned away. After calling out Rei, she climbed aboard and began to ride her wolf spirit across the devastated computer garden, toward the huge set of stairs leading toward Arahabaki’s center. Blazermate went over and picked up Armstrong’s spirit. She’d figure out what to do with it later, and went with the rest to the center.
When the transmission came in, Pit skidded to a halt. "Hey, it's Halo! She sees us!" he said, though the street fighter next to him could probably hear the angel of information just fine.
”Oh?” Karin had said, looking to her right and searching the myriad structures of this place for her allies. When Sandalphon rose into the air, Karin raised her hand. ”Ohoho! There you are! Splendid! Then all must be well.” Even from this distance it was obvious when Karin ran her hands through her ringlets from the way her well maintained hair caught the light. If only her servants were here to compliment her.
The two groups proceeded forward to where the paths converged to meet up with each other. Sandalphon didn't even need to inform them that a fight had taken place, that was clear in the way their appearances had changed. Pit was stuck silent in surprise at their new looks, both Sandalphon's silly number of belts and Geralt's entire gender change, but it didn't phase Karin in the slightest.
”Sandalphon, Geralt. Very good. This setback is ultimately minor, I believe.” Karin said. ”If they had something worth truly being concerned over they no doubt would have deployed it by now. Even with this teleporter trick the odds are still with us, I’d wager.”
A brief rundown of how the other Seekers fared revealed that most of them had also run into a squad deployed to stop them. So the bad guys didn't have enough people and figured the combo of young looking girl and boy were the least dangerous to let pass? That ruffled Pit's feathers. As soon as Sandalphon finished her warning to stay alert, Pit was already heading to the stairway next to them.
"Okay, let's get going!" he said, eager to see some action and prove himself to present company.
As they climbed the stairs (Karin had climbed larger), Karin couldn’t help but notice the distinctly east asian aesthetics of this place, particularly the pagodas. They would make good places for her to use a grappling hook should she need too in the upcoming fights.
And fight they would. None other than Rufus Shinra had deemed fit to oppose them. Well, him and some displeasing looking guard dog. ”Esteemed company indeed.” She said sarcastically. ”You are going to have to clear your schedule, I’m afraid.” Karin eyed the guns and the dog. She didn’t imagine Rufus would be lacking in firepower, so even if the bullets wouldn’t shred through her like paper she still didn’t want to be forced to block or deflect them for too long. And the beast was most likely a formidable foe in its own right.
Karin, alongside Geralt, would be the two closed ranged fighters, while she imagined Pit and Sandalphon would deal damage and support them from afar. Karin strafed to the side and then moved in a zig-zag fast enough to nearly blur to make her a harder target as her opponent opened fire with a barrage of bullets. While she came up on Rufus she was anticipating a lunge from the beast and was ready to plant her foot and slam a kick into its side. Darkstar obliged, its coiled sinews propelling it forward with fearsome speed. Karin’s kick connected, but the attack dog was hefty, a bio-engineered freak of nature composed of unnatural knotted muscle. Having moved much less than she might have thought, Darkstar swerved to clamp its jaws down on her extended limb, but the street fighter wasn’t alone. A blazing orange shot from Sandalphon’s Eye of Sol slammed into the beast’s shoulder to keep it momentarily at bay.
While Karin was dealing with Rufus, Geralt, who switched into the LCCB Assistant Manager Identity while Rufus was monologuing and showing off his gun (why did people insist on monologuing?) was approaching. Bullets pinged harmlessly off her riot shield, and when the barrage ended, Geralt returned fire with a few Quake rounds, though her aim was somewhat impeded by all of the movement and trying to avoid friendly fire with a relatively unfamiliar weapon.
Though under suppressive fire that made him more stagger-prone, Rufus stayed cool enough to recombine his guns into a single heavy carbine. He was still far enough to be reasonably safe, but he stepped backward anyway, and as he did he yanked Darkstar’s lead to launch it like a living cannonball (or in Karin’s case, one of Blanka’s Rolling Attack). Then, with a pull of the trigger, he followed up his beast’s attack with a new firing mode: a shotgun blast.
That was when Pit jumped in, leaping into Darkstar's path while summoning up a Guardian Orbitar. He couldn't actually reflect the beast back like with a true projectile, but stopping it was no issue. With the right angle, and the dog's own momentum, he tried to at least bounce it into Rufus' line of fire. Of course, he wasn’t quite so lucky, but the beast did get deflected, and his shield took care of the ensuing blast. When the Orbitar disappeared and his bow took its place, Pit ducked out of the way of his teammates and fired arrows of light that snaked toward Rufus himself.
Karin found herself supported by Pit and Sandalphon both. She made a displeased noise at the back of her throat and then zipped around Pit. She doubted the beast could be calmed down even without Galeem triggering its bloodlust. It would have to be subdued with force. ”To heel!” Karin shouted, spinning her leg and slamming it down on the beast’s head like an axe. Preemptively she dashed forward and over the creature and lunged for Rufus to slam her palms into him with advancing, thunderous steps, following after the arrows.
The kick to Darkstar’s head forced it to bow, but it was by no means broken. Its master turned his shoulder against Pit’s arrows, one arm shielding his face as he mitigated the damage in a defensive stance. Karin had taken her leave to chase Rufus down, with no further mind paid to Darkstar, but she’d end up regretting it. Enraged by the blow to its cranium, Darkstar used Subdue, glowing red before it pounced. Its jaws snapped shut on Karin’s calf in the middle of her assault, and after dragging her to the ground it tossed her into the air. ”Aah!” Karin cried out in surprise and pain. Rufus recovered from her palm strike and took aim like a skeet shooter.
At that moment, in the height of his distraction, a bolt of pure solar power smashed into Rufus’ forehead. That fiery payload did not pierce his body, but it singed his hair and left a nasty burn mark. His shot went wide and Karin fell back down with only a glancing blow, causing his lip to curl at Sandalphon in a mix of smoldering pain and anger. It was obvious now that he had to pay much more attention to the more distant members of this projectile-heavy team. He used Heel to yank Darkstar back to his side, who immediately extended its tendrils to go on the offensive with Spear Whip. Rufus himself aimed at the ground behind him, then fired to send himself flying away through the air.
Karin landed on her back and then rolled to her feet, gritting her teeth. She had cleared the line with her assault, even if she herself wasn’t the one doing the damage. Karin swatted away the oncoming tendrils with a few meaty impacts, ducking under one and then going low. She had to target Darkstar. Figuring its defense wasn’t strong she went full offensive, looking to slam and smack it back and to the ground with a series of advancing elbow strikes.
As Pit and Sandalphon were firing away at Rufus, and Karin handled the beast, Geralt slowly approached while taking potshots at Rufus. Between the man’s multiple weapon forms, longer range, and dual pistols, she couldn’t afford to fully expose herself, but Geralt made progress nonetheless. Taking Ishmael’s strategy to heart, she used every moment Rufus was focused on somebody else to close the distance between the pair, and when she felt fairly close, emerged from behind her riot shield and let off a burst of Quake Rounds, these shots carefully aimed and intended to punish any distractions.
When Rufus’ flight came to an end, Sandalphon had already trained her sights on him. Naturally she’d noticed that the man had escaped from the others on a route that took him back across the battlefield and closer to her. Normally she’d stop shooting at this point and switch to defense, but the presence of her allies and the comfortable weight of her new weapon in her arms made her feel something akin to courage. She barely missed a debilitating leg shot as Rufus landed, then adjusted and took aim at his torso. He anticipated her and doubled back, reaching into his coat, to dodge the shot. Having kept track of her ammunition in her head, Sandalphon began to reload, but Geralt’s intercession prevented him taking advantage. He rounded on the redhead and they exchanged fire, his shotgun blast into her riot shield and her Quake Rounds into his torso. The shots sent tremors through his muscles, promising to leave him reeling the next time he took a hit.
Meanwhile, Karin’s assessment was correct in that the beast couldn’t block or anything, limiting its defense to its bestial dashes in and out of range. Her strikes wore down its vigor one hit at a time, but Darkstar bit back. After a few moments of frenzied fighting, it unleashed Whirlwhip, leaping into the air to slam Karin with its tentacle hard enough to knock her down if it connected. It wouldn't if Pit had anything to say about it.
After the last few days of battling in pairs or as a team, the angel was getting the hang of actually fighting together. Keeping track of his allies was part of it, and now that Geralt had moved in to engage Rufus in earnest one of the three of them could break off and support Karin. The street fighter had been taking damage, and since Pit didn't want Sandalphon to switch to healing so early in he would be Karin's back up.
Pit pivoted away from focusing his fire on Rufus, dashing back to where she was fighting. A dash shot at the same time meant a stronger arrow sent Darkstar's way just before Pit kicked off the ground to meet it himself. "Bad dog!" he called, breaking his bow apart into two blades and coming at it with a heavy cross slash.
Karin’s arms would be marked with tooth and claw marks if it wasn’t for her ki. She looked to sidestep the beast’s tentacle whip when Pit came into view. ”The beast is hardly my equal.” She said defensively, not wanting Pit to get the idea that she needed his help. But she knew that it would be faster if they worked together and thus all four of them could focus on the real threat, Rufus.
Though picking up on her tone, Pit couldn't help but tease. "Really? Could have fooled me!"
”Tch.” Karin grit her teeth.
As Pit went in for a slash, Karin stepped to the side and fired her grappling hook into its side and then attached Darkstar to the ground beneath it. Nothing more than a cheap trick to hamper its mobility for a moment or occupy its claws. Then she would try to circle behind it and knock it back to the ground should it attempt to take into the air or dash away. Once anchored, Darkstar strained at its binding for a brief moment, then turned on the line, got its jaws around it, and chomped through the wire. That gave Karin and Pit a chance to land another hit which they did with gusto. In the moment after Darkstar freed itself, the situation changed.
Geralt took the opportunity as she got closer to Rufus to commit to a charge, aiming to capitalize on the tremor she’d induced with her Quake Rounds with a hearty shove. At the same time, she hoped to keep herself between Rufus and Sandalphon, or at least enough that their healer could still get a shot off while Shinra was occupied. As she approached Rufus used Heel to recall his guard dog. Darkstar hurtled away from the other two Seekers, somersaulting through the air. He braced himself for the tall woman's shield bash, but his defensive stance wasn't enough. Triggering her foe’s tremor stacks, Geralt sent Rufus sprawling.
Just then, Sandalphon finished reloading. Though unsatisfied with her speed, she knew that she'd get faster in the future, and right now at least she could rejoin the fight. With Geralt in melee range, she held her fire for now, especially when she saw Darkstar barreling toward her. “Behind you,” she called, warning the Witcher about the imminent attack. The next moment Darkstar struck, its appreciable weight making for a solid blow.
As Geralt contended with his beast, viciously kicking it off of her leg, Rufus pulled himself up. In his gloved hand he was holding two shiny silver coins. Keeping Geralt between himself and Sandalphon, he flipped them into the air. In a flash he pulled apart his carbine, took aim at the falling coins, and pulled the triggers. When his bullets struck the coins, two red lasers streamed across the arena. Though narrow, his Bright Lights blazed bright and flew fast, catching Sandalphon off guard. The beams blasted her to the ground, alongside Geralt, who tried to block the attack, but was staggered and knocked off-balance by the unexpected force behind the lasers.
Without missing a beat, Darkstar sat and howled, casting Thundaga. Rufus held his recombined carbine upward, and after the spell struck it to infuse his gun with lightning, he readied his aim.
Darkstar's sudden return to Rufus' side meant that Pit and Karin's attention followed it over, and they got to see the Shinra heir's Bright Lights and the dog's Thundaga from a different angle.
What the heck was that?! Pit thought. He'd been thinking that the modified beast might be their main issue with its master relying on it for protection, but he was starting to see that the two of them worked in tandem a lot better than he'd initially assumed. Regardless, the revelation didn't slow him down.
Pit bounded back to where Sandalphon and Geralt were fighting while snapping his bow back together, coming up between them where he could best move to protect either one of them. He was betting on his speed of quick summoning an Orbitar shield in order to keep the Palutena Bow out and ready, with which he fired an arrow by drawing back the ethereal bowstring as far as it would go. A fireball erupted from the arrow as soon as it was loosed, the more powerful shot headed directly at the pair of enemies.
For obvious reasons, Rufus couldn’t perform a recoil dash right now, but he still tried to evade the incoming firebolt. It struck his left arm as he swerved to the right, and though it elicited a grunt of pain, Rufus still managed to level his carbine’s barrel at Pit and return fire. KRAKOOM! He let rip a lightning bolt across the battlefield in an instant to deliver a high-voltage jolt to the angel’s chest as Sandalphon got to her feet behind him. He'd lost the bet, the electrified shot too fast. When the bolt hit him Pit let out a gasp of pain and surprise. He was sturdier than he looked though, so when the initial shock faded he could recover quickly.
Bullets peppered Rufus and Darkstar from afar, Geralt covering the pair of angels before nodding at them and hiding behind her shield. After a moment, the riot shield vanished, and in its place was Geralt, who had swapped back to her default state, swords and all. “Cover me.” She simply requested, drawing Quen to further bolster her defenses and rushing forward, flaming katana in hand. She rushed for Darkstar, relying on Pit and Sandalphon to keep Rufus’s attention while she and Karin wore the mutant hound down. As she approached, Geralt swiped and slashed at the dog, aiming to finish it before it could become more of a threat. Darkstar ducked back and lurched forward in the way that wily predators tended to do, leveraging its tentacle to lash out from a longer range. After he reloaded, Rufus supported from behind, using the halves of his gun to distract the Witcher as she fought–or perforate her while she was distracted.
In the moment after Geralt arrived, Karin aimed a kick at the beast's knees to lock it down and then she popped it up into the air with a low palm strike to leave it suspended long enough for Geralt to easily slice through it. Dashing to the side as she slashed, Karin fired an EX-Palm strike into it to knock it back towards Geralt so that the witcher could strike it even more. Instead the wounded Darkstar got yanked out of danger and toward Rufus, while the gunslinger rewarded the two with a coin in exchange. When he shot it, it dispersed a cloud of short-lasting but shockingly acrid smoke. Two shots flew in from Sandalphon, the first striking his shoulder and the second whizzing past his head. Clearly annoyed, Rufus turned and hurled Darkstar over toward the archangel instead, who arrived with a corkscrew attack that Sandalphon barely rolled to avoid, then started to hurry after his hound. Knowing that Karin and Geralt would have recovered by now, he quickly produced a handful of five coins which he tossed in the ladies’ direction. When he recombined his guns and fired, the coins detonated in a magic scatter bomb.
While Quen protected Geralt from Darkstar’s lashing tentacles, and even most of Rufus’s support fire, the follow-up scatter bomb left more than a few minor cuts and burns all along her body where shrapnel and heat had hurt her. Overall, though, Rufus hadn’t managed to wound her terribly. He had, however, managed to completely nullify her strategy to target Darkstar, instead sending it after the two who would be least effective at fighting it. While Rufus assisted his hound in assaulting Sandalphon, Geralt punished any assumption that this form was melee-only by drawing Odysseus’s bow and taking aim. “Pit! Cover Sandalphon!” She ordered, firing arrows off at the Shinra executive and his hound.
"Already on it!" Pit had been firing light arrows that whizzed around the battle, striking at their opponents whenever they could. Shinra and his dog were quick on their feet, so they ended up missing more than they hit. But with Geralt switching her weapon for a long range one, Pit did the opposite. The young angel snapped his arm out straight, dismissing his bow and letting the strong melee Arm encase his own. He swung the limb hard like a bat into Darkstar's side, following up with a few discs fired out. He kept an eye on Rufus' advance, ready to blast through either one of them with an uppercut.
Though Sandalphon had avoided Darkstar’s initial Corkscrew, the archangel looked practically helpless as the vicious beast attacked. But while it was true that she lacked the strength, speed, or durability to contend with the hound in a straight-up fight, appearances could be deceiving. After lashing her with its tentacle, Darkstar smelled blood and went for the throat, but before its fangs found her its lunge came to a sudden stop in midair. The tension of impact created a series of shimmers, revealing razor wires stretched between the poles and lanterns around the spot where Sandalphon had retreated. They cut into Darkstar’s hide, especially its tender lips, and the next moment the beast rebounded. Those wires, courtesy of Sandalphon’s fusion with Parvati, bought her just enough time for Pit to come to the rescue. While Geralt’s arrows from afar were about as effective as the angel’s, his powerful Arm got the results he needed against the attack dog’s already-bruised ribcage.
With an angry yelp, it jerked away, then rounded on Pit. The hound attacked in a flurry of flashing fangs and cruel whips, but with its bloodlust elsewhere, Sandalphon could take action. By now everyone had taken some punishment, be it from painful chomps that left bleeding bitemarks, stinging lashes, calculated gunshots, or incendiary magic. With the brief moment Pit had given her, she stashed her rifle and summoned her gunstaff to cast Angelic Wings. The miracle would heal all her allies by over fifty percent, probably more than any of them needed, but with her Concentration Protocol engaged it charged her Shapeshift, too. It also allowed her to start recharging her skill with attacks, which she began to do immediately by firing off ether bolts at Darkstar to help Pit keep the beast at bay.
Rufus, meanwhile, got off a couple shots to follow up Darkstar’s attacks, but the arrows from Geralt only helped Karin close in on him, and he couldn’t ignore the heiress for long. He turned to face her, coolly sidestepping arrows as he sized up his fellow elite. “Let’s see what you’re made of.”
Karin pushed through the smoke of a leftover explosion like a rocket through the clouds. ”I’ve nothing to prove to you!” She exclaimed, punctuating her defiance with a spinning overhead kick aimed for his head, looking to punish that sidestepping of his. Her kick connected with a satisfying impact that brought on a surge of assurance. Karin was confident she was a match for just about anyone in close quarters combat, as long she could avoid their tricks and spells. She fired her palm towards his gut and then when he moved to block them, snatch his wrist to try and throw him over her shoulder.
Rufus didn’t try to block with his arm, though. When he recovered from the kick, he turned his carbine in his hands and held it like a baton to catch Karin’s strike. Of course, she went for a throw instead, but hers weren’t the only fast reflexes around. He managed to tech the throw, converting his momentum mid-flip to essentially roll over her and land behind her, neither of them at an advantage. Naturally, he went for an immediate point-blank blast, then jumped for the second one so that its recoil could launch him away in an acrobatic backflip. Karin sidestepped the first blast, but as she went in after the second blast caught her in the chest. ”Gff!” She fell backwards and rolled to her feet immediately, moving to chase after.
While flying, Rufus broke apart his gun for a rainstorm of gunshots, more to harry Karin than inflict real damage. When he landed a few dozen feet away, though, he tossed his guns into the air and pulled out two coins. As the coins flipped up, his weapons fell into his waiting hands, and he crossed his arms to shoot both in another pair of Bright Lights, one laser for Karin and the other for Geralt–even as an arrow from Odysseus’ bow struck him in the hip.
Karin narrowed her eyes, aligning the course of the falling coins with the aiming of his guns in her head, giving her close to an exact moment of when to expect the beam. She ran forward and predicted the blast. With a sudden jump she flipped over the beam, changing direction at the last second to throw off Rufus’ aim. She landed with a twirl and kept moving forward. Geralt, now having gotten a hang of the trick, dodged out of the way of the beam, though she did so with less acrobatic grace and more of a haphazard leap to the side. Even though it cost her some time on the offense, that thing hurt.
“Hngh…” Rufus groaned, the pain from his various injuries starting to add up. Meanwhile, thanks to Sandalphon, the Seekers were all healthy. “That’s a real headache,” he remarked, frowning at his enemies’ healer. “I think I’ll indulge as well.” He snapped his fingers, and Darkstar sat down to howl. Both Pit and Sandalphon could get in free hits, but the fact remained that the attack dog used Curaga on its master, restoring a lot of his health. Rufus ran his fingers through his hair, smiling, and recombined his gun. “Let’s go again.”
”I’d be happy to oblige!” Karin aimed her grappling hook towards his legs and fired. But she wasn’t aiming at him yet, she just yanked herself forward to give herself a burst of speed to dash towards him. Her target did not allow himself to be grappled, but latching onto the ground behind him gave Karin the same effect. As she sped in, Rufus stepped to the side in the hopes that she'd zip past him, and fired. Karin knew he wouldn’t just stand there and wait to be hit, which is why she halted her momentum when she saw him sidestep and flipped into the air, changing course, the gun scattered the ground where she had just been. Landing on her feet she strode forward in her stance, having closed some of the distance.
When Darkstar paused its attack and began to sit down, Pit recognized that it was going to cast. He also recognized the opportunity presented with it casting so close to them. He didn't move to interrupt the spell, instead dashing backwards a couple of steps to charge the Upperdash Arm. He glanced at Sandalphon briefly, his intent to make the most of this opening and extend it further clear. With the Arm powered up Pit plowed forward, smashing it into Darkstar. The force would drive the beast up into the air, this time on the Seeker's terms; reversed from its earlier use of Subdue. It was a prime target for Sandalphon, and while she did her thing Pit shifted in order to set the Arm up for yet another charge shot. He didn't discount the possibility that Darkstar could retaliate mid-air with its whips, but after the healing courtesy of their archangel he was sure he could withstand it. The Upperdash Arm had little in terms of defense anyway.
Though Pit's launcher popped Darkstar up too fast for Sandalphon to switch back to the Eye of Sol, the archangel was by no means going to let this chance slip through her fingers. “Well struck,” she told Pit, calmly calculating a trajectory. When she threw a Frost Lock, the icy cluster struck Darkstar in the middle of its fall, leaving it frozen solid as it hit the ground. The shatter damage left it reeling, and in that brief window Sandalphon took a step forward to cast a handful of glinting wires. They tightened around the hound’s legs and body, not an attack but a possibility–a chance that if Darkstar got sent flying, the wires would cut it limb from limb.
And Pit would sure try to send it flying. He watched Sandalphon's off-the-cuff plan begin to unfold, grinning widely. "Perfect!"
A forward charge with the Upperdash Arm was no less powerful than a back dash charge. Pit deployed it as soon as Darkstar touched down and the wires wrapped around it. If he hit it hard enough to send it flying over the side of the platform, would the holographic leash still hold? There was only one way to find out! He surged straight at the beast with the bulky weapon poised to crash into it.
Geralt, meanwhile, had taken a moment to catch her breath and prepare the next phase of her attack: a swarm to overwhelm Rufus while Darkstar was being absolutely thrashed by the angelic pair. First, a Bombing Flight appeared and zoomed for the Shinra heir, followed by a flurry of arrows while Karin was charging at him. Second, Fizz and the PT Imp Pack appeared, with orders to use the bombing flight as cover for a hit-and-run attack. Finally, Geralt herself, steel sword in hand, following behind her summons, ready to back Karin up and put some real pressure on Rufus.
The sudden and dramatic numbers advantage took Rufus by surprise and forced him to get very serious very quickly. Though a skilled marksman, he worked best as a duelist and even better with Darkstar to divide his enemy's attention and coordinate follow-up attacks. A brawl with a gang just wasn't his style, but Rufus rose to the challenge. He split his carbine and started to run as arrows flew his way, firing into the pack of miniature bombers to down or detonate them. Geralt’s strikers closed in with Karin in the lead, so he flicked a handful of coins toward the pack to scatter them with a chain explosion.
That might work for the minions, but not Karin. She emerged from the smoke and met Rufus in a brief but furious trade of blows. It ended as quick as it began: with Rufus using his carbine to deftly parry an elbow strike, leaving the woman who'd underestimated him off-balance just long enough that he could whirl around behind her and blast her away with a scattershot to the back. Without missing a beat, Geralt burst from the smoke behind Rufus in turn, her immense head of hair further magnifying an already fearsome silhouette. Her steel sword carved across the Gunner's forearm as he tried to disengage, staining his expensive coat in blood. The next second, Geralt took a pistol whip to the chin, and as the last couple bombers swooped down the two staggered apart.
Though Rufus managed to deal with a whole gauntlet of attackers in quick succession, there was one thing he couldn't do. Pit’s weighty Upperdash Arm bashed the wounded mutant hard enough to launch it off its paws and hurl it bodily through the air. When Sandalphon’s wires pulled taut, their razor edges sliced into Darkstar’s flesh like they might a ripe cheese, leaving its hide criss-crossed by a web of deep gashes. Unfortunately the wires snapped rather than slice straight through, which left Darkstar mostly intact, but plenty of damage -and motive force- had been inflicted. Since its leash wasn't physical, there was nothing stopping the hound as it sailed toward the arena’s edge. Until its tentacle caught and wound around one of the poles, stopping the beast right on the brink.
“Together,” Sandalphon announced, crouching beside Pit as she took aim with her gunstaff. “Three, two…”
Pit gave her a quick nod, instantly swapping his weapon once more. The Arm faded away and the Palutena Bow fell easily into his hand. At the range they'd knocked Darkstar to, the arrows would be more effective than chasing the dog down. Pit pulled back and conjured a light arrow, holding and charging it to max power. Another ball of flame began to swirl around the arrow's head.
"...one, fire!"
The shots from bow and gunstaff flew forward, catching Darkstar as it pulled itself back to land on the platform. The Curaga it had cast applied only to its master, and as wounded as it was it couldn't stand up the angels' final attack. The shots slammed into its head and chest, drawing a deep whimper and sending it sprawling to the ground. It laid there bruised and bleeding for only a moment before its body began to disintegrate.
Staggered but not bowed, Geralt rose to her full height and faced Shinra again, moving to keep up the pressure while Pit and Sandalphon finished Darkstar. With Karin backing her up, it wouldn’t be the hardest thing she’d done for sure. Focusing less on damage and more on keeping Rufus buried beneath a flurry of sword slashes that cut off his movement, she set Karin up for a devastating comeback blow.
Thus, Karin Seppo dashed around the side, and then leapt straight towards Rufus, spinning her body and arms gracefully before bringing her hand down upon Rufus like a hammer. ”Ressen Ha!”
Her strike, delivered in the perfect opening between Geralt’s barrage of steel cleaves, caught Rufus cleanly. Its full force pushed him back, eliciting a pained grimace, and he let off a suppressive blast as he retreated with a big jump. Only then did he notice that the energy link to Darkstar had been severed, and no sign of his attack dog remained. “Hmph.” He reloaded, his fingers a bit more unsteady than before, and switched things up. He began to move by firing his carbine behind him to propel himself in different directions at a blistering pace, aiming to outmaneuver his foes and gun them down–though this strategy demanded more frequent reloads, as well.
With Rufus flying around the arena, Geralt found herself at a bit of a disadvantage. She lacked the mobility to keep up with him, and while she could shift back into LCCB Manager, that would leave her without a viable melee option beyond shield bashes for when he got close. Though, given the level of rapid-fire attacks he could put out while on the move, it might be best to let Karin and maybe Pit handle the rapidly changing distances with their foe, while she covered herself and Sandalphon from being chipped down. Making the decision as Rufus blasted himself Karin’s way for a hit-and-run shotgun blast, Geralt transformed into her LCCB Assistant Manager Identity, trading her Witcher gear for riot weapons once more. Rushing straight to Sandalphon before Rufus could really put the hurt on her, Geralt took a defensive position, covering their sniper/healer’s non-dominant side with the shield and her own body. “I’ll keep you covered and take shots at him. I think Karin has a bit of a grudge against this guy for not using his wealth properly or something.”
Geralt was close, but right now Karin’s grudge was more about how he kept escaping her wrath. Rufus was fast, faster than Karin, but unlike Karin his mobility was predicated on his weapons. Weapons that he needed to reload. Thus, Karin stopped worrying about punishing and catching up to his every dash, and started focusing on putting just enough pressure on Rufus that he had to put distance between them.
Rufus opened up his gun to slot more ammo in, and Karin brought the hammer down again. ”Ressen Ha!” Had very long range, especially when predicated by a Seppo dash. She swung dramatically through the air and took his legs out from under him with a slide, but Rufus never stayed on the ground for more than a moment. The two exchanged strikes, but after sending her away with a strike to her jaw that bloodied her lip, he found the moment to insert his shells and blast her away. Beginning the whole process over again. Karin rolled to her knee and her eyebrow and eyelid twitched, watching him zip around the place. Unfortunately he had no incentive to fight any way but reactively. Karin began the arduous progress of getting in once again, feeling the stinging pain of getting shot whenever she failed to predict where or when he would shoot. But this strategy was running out of legs, and both of them knew it. Karin was managing her temper and not over-extending anymore, and he was no doubt bruised from their brief but furious melee encounters. Each careful shot from Geralt’s pistol was slowly building up Tremor on him, as well, and the moment it reached a critical mass, Karin would have an opportunity to wail on him without pause.
The two were keeping Rufus on a short leash, and it got even shorter once Sandalphon and Pit arrived to help them. Together, the four of them could surround their highly mobile foe and hem him in. Instead of resuming her overwatch, Sandalphon joined the chase with her gunstaff held like a halberd. Seeing an easy target, Rufus practically threw himself at her, but the moment she goaded him into approaching she coldly rebuffed his advances. The gunner’s instincts told him to avoid her Frost Lock at all costs, but in dashing away from the icy cluster he inadvertently dashed right back toward the archangel’s allies.
Instantly, Rufus recognized the bad situation he’d put himself in. Thanks to his injuries and his Tremor stacks he felt jittery, hard-pressed, and -for once in his life- afraid. It was time to pull out all the stops. As he slid to a stop, he split his gun and whirled around with his arms extended, shooting in three hundred and sixty degrees to make sure that no matter where the Seekers were, they needed to slow their roll. Then he tossed his guns, seized two handfuls of coins, and hurled them upward. When he caught his guns he aimed up into the cloud of glimmering silver and opened fire. From above him, over a dozen Bright Lights blazed outwards like rays from heaven, ravaging the arena and all who dared to oppose him.
Or at least, that was the idea. To Sandalphon, this all-out attack looked a lot like her own Celestial Castling–not to mention a desperation move. “This is our chance,” she called out. “I’ll keep you alive. Go!”
"Aye aye!" No other motivator needed, Pit darted right into the laser barrage. With so many in a relatively small area he couldn't avoid many of them as he weaved through - and they hurt, a lot. But he'd had a lot worse, and he trusted Sandalphon's words besides. Pit soldiered through with his wings folded tight against his back lest a laser punch right through one and came out of the light storm at Rufus with the bladed bow ahead of him in a wide inward slash. He flipped the weapon in one hand and brought it back the opposite way, moving into a cutting combo.
”Hmph!” Karin charged, zig zagging and dashed to and fro, weaving between the lasers. Like Sandalphon predicted though, she caught more than one due to the sheer number and her aggressive movement. But even with the scorch marks Karin pushed ahead, dodging swiftly between the last few between her and Rufus.
Geralt blinked owlishly as Sandalphon charged off into melee range, but shrugged and slowly approached, focusing on keeping Rufus busy with constant fire and trusting her armor to keep her safe from the worst of his counter-fire. She wasn’t necessarily close to him when he tossed the coins up into the air to create a wide field of Bright Lights, but she wasn’t terribly far away either. Taking Sandalphon’s call to action, she charged in, Suppressing Rufus with volume of fire so that the others could lay on the punishment, her shots now building up Rupture to increase the damage Rufus received. Pit’s swift strikes triggered all the Tremor Geralt stacked up, shattering their target’s poise. Rufus got popped up, spinning like he’d been struck by a Crush Counter and very vulnerable.
Karin stepped in. ”Tenko!” With an upward palm thrust she smacked into his back and popped him up. Spending an EX-Meter she followed it up with yet another palm thrust as he fell back into it, with a flash of gold and orange power. ”Mujinkyaku!” She followed it up with a stabbing pair of upward kicks and a roundhouse to send him tumbling along the ground.
Rufus rolled onto his feet but only got halfway up before falling back to one knee, his strength and stamina faltering. Teeth gritted, he recombined his guns and readied another shot at whoever might want to come his way. At that moment, Sandalphon used Angelic Praise, and a divine ripple spread out around her to sooth her allies’ wounds. With that vital boost, the other Seekers could make the final push through whatever Rufus had in store and seal the deal.
Geralt rushed in then, shield to the side to bait out Rufus’s shot, trusting her armor yet again to prevent any lethal damage, with Angelic Praise’s recovery making sure she was topped off as well. She fired as she did, aggressively keeping the Shinra scion’s attention on her as Quake Rounds pounded into him.
Pit moved in as soon as Rufus pulled the trigger. He didn't need to worry about avoiding the shot when Geralt had already moved to take it, so the angel flashed forward with his bow yet again. He swung it to catch Shinra's wrists and disarm him, but the man kept a tight hold on the weapon that was his only lifeline. Pit continued to swing, getting his cuts in where he could, and the combination of up close and ranged badgering left the Kanzuki heir her opening.
Geralt blocked the shot, and Karin found her moment. If she did the correct string of attacks, she should be able to build up enough meter to execute her final attack. Swooping in from the side, she got right up in Rufus’ face and paused. The implied threat prompted a counter that Rufus turned into a swing, but he wasn’t the only one who could counter. She caught his arm between her two palms and twisted, and with a painful crack he was sent spinning. Golden eyes glinting, the heiress moved in for the finisher.
Her signature move, she caught him with a follow up Tenko palm strike. ”Tenko!” Rufus span head over heels, and Karin stepped forward, the ground quaking as she performed a powerful palm thrust, her other hand curving steadily over her head as she took a wide stance. ”Meioken!”
Something within her hissed, and Karin tapped into the deepest part of her being. Gold, red, and blue energy swirled around her as she struck a pose. ”Kanzuki-ryu Ougi!” Before he hit the ground, she struck him with an elbow, a palm, and then a knee. ”Hadorokushiki Hasha No Kata!” The knee seemed to suspend both of them in the air. Karin grabbed Rufus’ arm, turned, and then spun! Karin threw him in the air and he began to spin like he was attached to a wheel. If Sakura was here, she would feel a reflexive pain in her belly.
”Behold!” Karin extended out her arm and palm to Rufus’ midsection as his dizzying spin came to a stop. ”The final attack!” With seemingly no more effort than pushing open an ajar door, she placed her palm against Rufus’ center.
There was a tremendous burst of wind from the impact site and Rufus was little more than a blur of color and motion. He flew to an island across the gap, skipped across its surface like a stone on a pond, and then vanished out of sight into the fog of Arabahaki. Karin hardly noticed, she was too busy laughing and reveling in her own supremacy, like she had won the fight all by herself. ”Ooooho ho ho ho ho!” Then she clenched her bared teeth and quaking fists and glared daggers at the spot she had launched Rufus too. Daring him to return. The blood heir to an empire. Corrupt, selfish, cruel and uncaring. To banish a reflection of one’s self is an uncomfortable thing.
…With an exhale, Karin stopped and looked at Geralt, Pit, and Sandalphon. ”As someone with power…we have certain obligations we must fulfill.” She explained. ”Thank you very much.”
Sandalphon bowed her head for a moment in a sign of respect. “A fitting conclusion. Impressively done.” She moved between her teammates to give them each a quick examination, ensuring that all were ready to move on. If anyone was still hurting, a quick Healing Ring from her gunstaff would help patch them up. As frenetic and demanding as this fight had been, the Seekers’ trial against Rufus Shinra was just an appetizer, a foretaste of what was to come. Everyone needed to get their breath back and stride forward, head held high, toward whatever awaited them next. Of course, that wouldn’t be difficult for Karin. “Separating those two was critical to our success,” she continued as she finished her diagnoses. “Shinra and his hound were strong, but in a master-servant dynamic, there is no such thing as true teamwork. He did not lack skill, but against our numbers advantage he could only go so far. Everyone played to their roles admirably.”
”Indeed! Your skills with the arcane, or, perhaps technology, I’m not sure, are admirable.” She smiled. ”Though I find the fate of the hound regrettable and shameful on Shinra’s part. I would never ask my lions to fight my battles for me.” Karin said disdainfully.
“...Lions…?” Geralt blinked confusedly at the same time that Pit exclaimed the same, "Lions?!"
“You have lions?” She asked exasperatedly.
”Of course! I do so enjoy the company of such noble beasts.” Karin responded cheerily.
Somehow, that revelation didn’t seem to surprise Sandalphon. “I wield divine miracles in the name of the goddess Illia,” she explained matter-of-factly to clear up Karin’s confusion. “As we press on, let's be careful to not let our victories go to our head. If we’re already fighting Shinra executives in person, I struggle to imagine how this gauntlet will continue to escalate.”
”A miracle worker? How apt. I suppose I should have suspected the angel motif was more than just aesthetics.” Karin said with a chortle. Sandalphon tilted her head slightly.
"Hey! Am I chopped liver or something?" Pit was grinning as he said that, and quickly looked back at Sandalphon. "Aw c'mon, like you said it'll be nothing a little teamwork can't solve!"
With a twirl the Palutena Bow vanished to wherever it went when not in use, and the boy held both of his palms up toward the other three for a round of high fives. "So for now, go team!"
Sandalphon permitted herself a slight smile as she leaned down using her staff to give the gung-ho little guy his high five. “Go, team.” ”Forgive me, Pit. But in your case the source of your power was never unclear to me. Go, team.” Karin she rose her hand and let her five be highed as a matter of course.
”Goldlewis-san! Susie-chan! Glad you’re okay.” Sakura said, happy to have met up with some other Seekers in this big place full of enemies. ”I don’t think things are going to get any easier. For them!” Sakura punched her palm. ”Haha.”
When the next drop pod fell, Sakura got into her fighting position. ”You don’t know what you’re talking about!” She said to Akira. ”Once we destroy the Guardian, everything in Midgar will change: I think that’s what you’re all so afraid of.”
Then, a very very big drop pod fell, and Sakura was blasted back with the others. Landing on her back, her bare belly spasmed as she sucked in a few shallow breaths before gasping. Pushing herself up onto her elbows she winced in anticipation as the cyberknight got onto his cybermech. ”Hoookay…one last big robot to close out the week.” Sakura said, pushing herself to her feet.
While Konoe was monologuing and dramatically walking to his mech, Zenkichi quickly turned to the others. ”Okay, quick notes. Electric and nuclear damage, if any of you have that stuff, is gonna hit his mech extra hard, Don’t bother with wind, psychic or holy damage. Thing’s gonna completely ignore it. And, if possible, I’d like to take him in alive. Though, that might get complicated once we unlock the door to the Guardian, he’s one of our ways in. That, and he’s from my world. My problem…”
Sakura just nodded. While Ryu-san’s fireballs could be electric, Sakura’s owns were more fire and light based, so that would be no help. She’d just have to try to find the weak points of the mech and wear it down, while avoiding being squished.
Susie could help with the damage types this thing was weak to, but only if someone supplied her with that element for her weapons. Otherwise she was just stuck with her blaster. ”I only have my suit, my blaster, and whatever elements you can give me. ” Susie said, stating this fact.
“Nuclear?” How was that a damage type? How did Zenkichi even know all this? Goldlewis guessed he’d have to chalk it up to him and Konoe being from the same world. As for what ‘damage’ he put out, Goldlewis couldn’t rightly say. Physical, definitely. Fire, probably. Explosion? Laser? Well, there wasn’t a lot of time to think about it when staring at a gigantic war machine, outfitted with enough futuristic black tech to make the leaders of Zepp blush. And even when they managed to scrap the Zephyrus, Goldlewis couldn’t help but assume that Konoe wasn’t just some upjumped businessman anymore. Taking him alive would be no easy feat, but then again, when had this ever been easy?
Sakura took off at a sprint, moving around to the left of the machine while Goldlewis covered her with a torrent of Skyfish bullets. She figured if they could surround it, it’d make their job a lot easier. The moment of truth! Sakura leapt forward and aimed to slam both her feet into the knee joint of the mech to see if she could damage it through its armor at all. ”Hiyah!”
The blow left a distinct dent in the armor, and the whole mech shifted slightly, automatically adjusting to stabilize after the impact. That one interaction gave Sakura the confirmation she needed: that her martial arts could damage the Zephyrus at all. Of course, it would take a lot more where that came from, and Konoe wasn’t planning to make it easy for her. Sakura gasped happily nonetheless. Her feet still braced against the dent in that stretched moment, she bent her knees and pushed away, flipping back and landing on her feet. His mech lifted one leg and went to bring it down on her, a familiar maneuver she’d seen from the Sectopod last night, which forced her to dodge away or be crushed. ”Woah!”
After that, though, Konoe planted his robot’s feet and fired up the crimson energy core in its chest. A radiant beam blazed forth, blasting the ground to create a circular area of constant, concentrated heat damage. As if that wasn’t enough, he immediately made it everyone’s problem by suddenly boosting forward without moving the Zephyrus’ legs at all; it just slid atop a thin, ultra-dense cushion of air. Sakura preemptively dodged when she saw the core heat up, not looking to get burned, and she had to dive out of the way with a shout when the entire thing surged forward. In that moment it became clear that this machine wasn’t in the same league as the clunky Sectopod after all, but a work of art bordering on fantastical.
Zenkichi summoned his regular greatsword as Sakura shot forward, waiting for Konoe to make a move. He remembered the fight against the giant mech pretty well, but it was a damned shame that the conveniently-placed railguns weren’t around like last time. Oh well. A simple stomp to start the fight, then a quick follow-up sweep of that annoying laser. Leaving no time to change strategies, the Zephyrus shot forward, forcing him to dodge out of the way or be trampled.
”Yep, still a giant pain in the ass…” He muttered, taking a few swings at the mech’s leg once he closed the distance, thinking things over. He could buff one of them with any of the kajas, and somebody else with Heat Riser, but the question ultimately came down to who got what. In the meantime, though, he could still deal some damage. ”Valjean! One-Shot Kill!” He called to his Persona, intent on dealing some serious damage.
When threatened by the mech’s giant laser Goldlewis hastily stowed his minigun and hustled away from the others, ensuring that the beam’s area of effect couldn’t get everyone even if Konoe moved it around. He jumped and airdashed over the crimson splash to smack one of the walker’s thighs with his coffin, and upon landing he hopped backward just in time to see Valjean plug the Zephyrus with a super-sized spectral bullet that seemed to drill straight through its target. It left no hole when it vanished, however, and Konoe showed no signs of stopping just yet. Red emitters on both of his mech’s feet began to glow, and two much smaller beams shot out at knee height to sweep across the battlefield as the Zephyrus turned. Their speed caught Goldlewis by surprise, and the blast of ionized gas took his legs out from under him. “Damn it!” he growled as he scrambled to his feet. “That hurts somethin’ fierce.”
Sakura was lucky in that the beam was closer to Goldlewis than her, so she managed to get her quick feet into the air, eyes widening as it sliced just beneath her. She landed on one leg, teetering. ”Woah!”
Susie meanwhile had gotten airborn with her transporter and took potshots at this thing with her blaster to see if it did any damage at all. This kept her safe from the laser that would’ve been difficult to avoid otherwise. She wasn’t sure how badly Goldlewis was hurt. But she saw he had taken a lot of punishment before, and summoning their only method of healing this early wouldn’t be a great idea.
Zenkichi, having recognized the attack, was quick to react, hopping straight up into the air and over the sweep, though he grimaced when he saw Goldlewis get wiped out. ”Uuuuhhh, right, that’s my bad! He’s got missiles, too! Heat-seeking, of course, because he spared no expense in actually making his psycho robot!!! And he can shoot the fist off like a rocket! You can dodge the missiles if you’re quick, but if you don’t see the fist coming, better guard it!” His piece said, he rushed in for a combo of swings, deciding to give Goldlewis a hand to make up for his mistake. ”Rakukaja!’ He called out, really making him the Secretary of Defense.
”Of course it has missiles and rocket fists…” Susie muttered.
That was a lot of information to receive and act on in the midst of battle as lasers flew left and right, but Goldlewis felt bolstered by both the advice and the defense buff. “I owe you one!”
“How do you know all this!?” Konoe roared in disbelief, his voice amplified by the Zephyrus. “Well, knowing is one thing. Let’s see you use it!”
Sakura strafed to the side, trying to keep the mech in the middle of all of them. With this thing floating along the ground, she wondered how effective attacking its legs would really be. Closing the gap she leapt forward and tried to latch onto the mechs back, grabbing onto some of its many details for a grip. Headband trailing behind her, she looked for something sensitive to start smacking, such as some boosters on the back to prevent it from pushing itself forward so fast, or maybe some kind of weapon compartment. She began to slam her fist into it to dent the armor and create gaps to work her fingers into it to rip something off.
On the mech’s back Sakura not only found its propulsion systems in the form of two giant thruster jets (that her current handholds left her dangling in front of), but also found a blind spot where neither the arms nor lasers of the Zephyrus could seemingly reach her. For the moment Konoe focused on Zenkichi and Goldlewis, firing off a rocket punch at both. Approaching with his coffin as a shield, the Secretary of Defense was big and strong enough to knock the giant fist aside with only chip damage, then let out his chain’s slack and swing the coffin around for a hefty wallop. The sheer size of this thing meant that he could only hit the foot, but he reasoned that if he hit it enough, it would fall. Recouping what momentum he could after the impact, he delivered another mighty strike just as the hands of the Zephyrus reattached.
Then Konoe commanded the Zephyrus to jump into the air, propelled by jets of superheated gas from its afterburners. Though surprised to see the hulking contraption even get off the ground, Goldlewis got a sense of what was coming and jumped, only to be clipped by the mech’s body mid-descent. It struck him and bounced him off the ground as it slammed into the ground, his arms flailing until he came down on his back. Thanks to Rakukaja, though, Goldlewis could take it. Zenkich probably knew to jump over the shockwave (and not toward the mech), so he was more worried about Sakura, both in terms of getting blasted off and then violently jarred loose.
Staring at the thruster jets, Sakura grimaced and scrambled up closer to its shoulders, leaving the blindspot. She tried kneeing at the thrusters to keep up her damage, but it was pretty awkward so it was just relying on her brute strength. Sakura had yelped when she felt the mech taking off, and hung on for dear life as it soared upward. Having found its blindspot she was expecting it to try and back up into a wall to squish her, not something so dramatic as this! Her stomach dropped, and it began to descend. In a panic, she figured letting go and trying to land on her own two feet was better than crashing into the ground. For a moment she was in freefall, feet pointed straight down, arms out to the side. The moment before impact was punctuated by a sharp cry from the brunette before the shockwave blasted her. A breathless Sakura was sent flying before going into an uncontrolled tumble. With a final skid along the floor she ended up winded on her back. ”Itai…” She complained quietly, pushing herself back to standing.
Zenkichi, unfortunately having been mid-charge as the rocket fist was launched, managed to block the attack, though the sheer force of the giant mech-fist did some solid chip damage. It also pushed him back a few feet as he grit his teeth and dug in. ”Oh, I know all about you, man! I know about your plans, I know about your twisted hero fantasy, and I know what you’re doing to people because you think it’ll let you control them and wipe out evil! It’s not gonna work! People have to be free to make their mistakes, to choose to do the right thing!” While he knew he wouldn’t be able to talk down the big bad guy like in some Shounen anime, Zenkichi was still righteous enough that he had to try.
Unfortunately, he also had to jump to avoid the giant blastwave, and grunting midway through his heroic speech definitely took some of the oomph off of it. With Sakura getting pretty seriously wounded by the Zephyrus’ slam, Zenkichi took a quick breath and turned to the Street Fighter. ”It’s coming back, Sakura! Heat Riser!” Once more using his greatest buff skill, Zenkichi let out a little sigh. He’d definitely need a breather after this fight, even if just for a couple minutes. He was putting down a lot of buffs, and there was still a Guardian to face after all this. Rushing back in and wasting no time, he put the pressure on the Zephyrus to keep it off the others.
”Arigato!” Sakura exclaimed, hopping up and down and grinning.
“People are fickle,” Konoe declared. “Given the chance, they’ll choose wrong every time. Those that cannot help themselves need someone to help them!” As Zenkichi attacked him, he struck back, launching lasers to make the detective ease off. “The Ever Crisis is proof positive. Even with such evil right on our doorsteps, people would rather hurt one another! It has brought Midgar to our knees; only united can we stand!”
With Zenkichi’s help, the Seekers rallied, ready to go another round. Goldlewis couldn’t lie to himself, though; this titanic machine was a pain in the ass. It was beefy enough to shrug off his attacks with impunity, and for someone like Goldlewis, that was a problem. His whole gameplan came down to overwhelming his opponent’s defense with crushing, guard-breaking blows and then making every hit count with punishing combos. Against this foe, he couldn’t get started. Still, he wasn’t helpless. Keeping his distance, he sent out a Thunderbird to fly at the Zephyrus and explode against the glass of Konoe’s cockpit. Instead, the self-proclaimed hero swatted it out of the sky with the back of his mech’s hand. Goldlewis groaned. Maybe Zenkichi had been right about those damage types. “Where’s Giovanna when you need her,” he muttered, missing his coworker’s green lightning. Not even the spirits he had would be of any use, as far as he knew. With no other options, he charged in to help Zenkichi in melee range.
Meanwhile, Konoe kept talking as he shot and stomped. “Maybe you don’t believe me. Maybe you too have lost hope! But the night is darkest before the dawn. Justice CAN prevail! It WILL prevail! The people just need someone to remind them that they can do better. Be better!” He paused, spreading his arms wide as the missiles in his mech’s great wings flashed red, arming themselves. “And here I am!”
”Okay, sounds good!” Sakura answered with a verbal shrug. She didn’t really have anything against this guy, he was just in charge and trying to stop them from destroying the Guardian. And with Galeem here it was impossible to talk him down. The only conversation here would be a conversation of strength and skill. With Zenkichi’s Heat Riser on her side Sakura would be remiss if she didn’t push the offensive. Feet nearly blurring as she sprinted forward, she looked to slide underneath the wing and launch a mighty upwards kick into where it joined the main body. She floated in the air and delivered a few slicing spin kicks before blasting herself a short hop away with a mid-air ”Hadoken!” And as soon as she landed she would dash back in and do it all over again. As long as Heat Riser lasted she would attack.
”Man this guy’s head is still so far up his ass…” Zenkichi muttered as the three melee Seekers wailed on the Zephyrus, not holding anything back. ”But we just gotta keep on him. This thing ain’t invincible!” He cheered, trying to keep morale up.
Susie knew her business suit was smaller than this thing, but she might have to use it given what was going on here. She moved into midrage to summon her stryker, Deckard, who did what he did best, throwing out healing potions for people to drink for some healing and trying to throw a triangle of sealing under the enemy to root them, but mostly the first thing. Seeing as the mech hadn’t moved much this fight, Susie doubted if that rooting ability would even help, but at least there were potions about for healing.
When Konoe’s missiles armed themselves, Zenkichi might have realized what would happen were his attention not on hacking away with his greatsword. Sakura also focused on offense, her eyes on potential targets rather than enemy weapon systems. Only Goldlewis caught on in the nick of time. The big man naturally commanded a lot of space when he fought, and the situational awareness honed over the course of many deadly battles could never be turned off. “Incomin’!” he hollered, hopping back to raise his Wall of Light. “Get behind me!”
Susie herself had moved back a bit before pulling out her cow mangler to shoot at the mech with her own energy rockets. That was when Konoe unleashed an immense barrage of bright red heat-seeking missiles, flying en masse from the wings of the Zephyrus in spectacular fashion. “Justice will find you!” When her cow mangler clip was empty, Susie hopped into her business suit, eating several rockets while doing so, using the suit to block the next two. She then unleashed her own rockets from her suit, and soon it was a stalemate of rockets colliding with rockets and causing a fireworks show in the sky. Her two sets of shields really dampened the rocket damage she took, otherwise that would’ve really hurt.
Though she defended herself as best she could, only two places were safe from the inundation of missiles: directly behind the Zephyrus, and directly behind Goldlewis’s energy shield. Even then, the massive damage output quickly put his Wall of Light out of commission, just before the barrage came to a close. He returned fire with the Skyfish, bullets pinging off Konoe’s cockpit. Konoe fired up his mech’s main laser, then scooted backward, forcing the Seekers to scatter. They were definitely doing damage, but it was slow. None of them had the type advantage they needed. Meanwhile, Konoe had everything going for him. Goldlewis knew he needed a breakthrough.
Zenkichi was quick to react once Goldlewis made the call, though his missing the initial trigger meant that a couple missiles tagged his rear as he dove for cover behind the Wall of Light that Goldlewis had so kindly put up. ”Thanks for that one…” He groaned in appreciation.
“All these damn weapons,” Goldlewis grunted as he broke off from the others to try circling around. “I ain’t winnin’ this arms race…” Wait…arms! Just like that, he had a brain wave. He gunned it, going for a conspicuous flanking maneuver. Konoe saw him and lifted his walker’s fist, firing it off on blazing rockets. As it zoomed toward Goldlewis, he came to a stop and got ready. If this was going to work, timing was everything. When the fist got close enough, he lashed out with a Behemoth Typhoon, clipping the metal knuckles. That impact didn’t stop the rocket punch, but it did allow Goldlewis to perform a red Roman Cancel, briefly slowing time for the fist while he phased around to its side. His burly arms clamped down around the flying arm, followed shortly by arms from inside the coffin. Taking notice, Konoe amped up the thrust, trying to recall the arm before his foe could damage it. As the fist dragged the veteran along, swerving to one side and then the other, Goldlewis dug in his feet, and the UMA reached out more arms to help prop its partner up. Together they maneuvered the fist around, straining against its power, and when they had it pointed at the Zephyrus they finally released it. The fist shot off at a tremendous speed, and though Goldlewis promptly fell on his ass, he scarcely felt it thanks to the satisfaction of seeing Konoe’s own fist strike his mech square in the center.
“GAH!” Konoe yelled, his voice almost drowned out by the noise of the terrific collision. It did a lot of damage, leaving his main laser emitter cracked. “Villains!” he cried, getting his machine under control. “You’ll pay for that!”
”Oh, damn, good call!” Zenkichi cheered as Goldlewis turned one of the Zephyrus’ own fists against it, Zenkichi tried to get a look around at the arena they found themselves in. Eyes narrowing at a battery lantern hiding in the corner of the place, Zenkichi made a break for it, pausing once he reached the lantern. ”Now…just gotta…here we go!” Muttering to himself as he looked the thing over, Zenkichi took a big swing with his greatsword, carving through the lantern as if it were made of paper mache, and hefted the top part, still sparking as the high-capacity battery inside poured its energy out. ”Get down!” He warned the others, and in a moment right out of a damn anime, tossed his projectile up, summoning his greatsword again and slamming the flat of the blade into it, launching the lantern-and its discharging battery- directly at the Zephyrus for a concentrated blast of super-effective damage.
He wasn’t alone. At that point Sakura had gotten the idea. Not that anyone did, but much like Konoe Sakura didn’t play well with electricity but once she saw Zenkichi go to town the environment, she let go of her reservations. As long as it didn’t blow up in her hands she’d be fine! ”Chance!” She ripped a battery lantern from its post and flung it towards Konoe.
Well, seeing what Zenkichi was doing, Susie decided to do the same. But she had an easier time than the guy pulling out the lanterns, and their batteries, from the grund with her mech suit and tossing them like missile javelins at Konoe, able to throw two since she could easily one hand them with her suit. It would be nice if she could just imbue her rockets with electricity, but thats not how her tech worked so this was the best compromise.
Now that they were using the environment -not to mention the Zephyrus itself- against their opponent, the Seekers were getting somewhere. Their barrage of brute force and lightning turned the tables, overwhelming both mech and pilot, and before long its systems couldn’t take anymore. All of a sudden Konoe’s controls stopped responding, and the Zephyrus sank to the ground, jerking around feebly as sparks flew. “Scoundrels!” Konoe seethed, fighting the controls as he tried to coax his mech back up. In this state it was a sitting duck, ripe for an all-out attack.
Sakura had been saving up her meter for this. ”Shinkuuu…” She charged up a mega blast of ki energy that began to swirl in her palms. Her hands shook as she struggled to contain the energy before they evened out, the vortex becoming a calm sphere. ”Hadoken!” With that, a fireball three times the size as normal shot out from her extended hands and surged towards the base of his mech.
Zenkichi leapt in, Fury activated and greatsword swinging as fast as it ever had in his hands, tearing chunks out of the weakened metal of the mech. Each blow did further damage as shockwaves of Almighty energy exploded from the tip of Zenkichi’s blade, carving through the Zephyrus.
With the Zephyrus offline for a bit, Susie could fire her missiles at the thing without them getting deflected or shot out of the air, hitting it with her own missiles. They were pretty bulky things too, so that was her contribution to this attack, but unlike the other members of her group, she didn’t have a ‘super’ move like the others.
The Zephyrus reeled, its limbs and joints moving in ways they’d never been designed to. Its weapons had been broken, and its armor shattered. Only the loudspeaker seemed to be working, and it broadcasted Konoe’s bewilderment with satisfying clarity. “But the hero can’t lose!” With a final mechanical groan, his once-splendid mech fell to its knees, only kept from crashing cockpit-first into the ground by a planted fist. It wouldn’t move an inch no matter how much Konoe struggled, seemingly still in denial. “He must be victorious! Work, damn it-!”
From the cracks in his armor, bright light began to shine. He stared at it for a split second as the glow built up, and the next moment, the Zephyrus exploded in a massive fireball consuming the entire center of the arena.
Goldlewis held up his forearm, shielding his face from the heat -and flying pieces of scrap- as the flame gave way to smoke. “Damn. He put on a mighty brave face, but I guess that thing looked a whole lot stronger than it was.”
”Don’t count him out just yet…” Zenkichi muttered, not letting his guard down. ”He’ll still have gas in the tank for round 2, just watch.”
Susie stayed out of this conversation, she really didn’t care. Good and evil weren’t really things, just opinions.
Just then, a voice issued from the burning wreckage. “A hero must stand his ground.” Through the flames strode Konoe, his gilded armor soot-stained but unbroken. “He must not let evil overcome him!”
Goldlewis clenched his fist, getting ready for another round. “You ain’t the hero of this story, hoss. If good beats evil, let’s see who beats who.”
“Hmph!” Konoe took a shining beam saber in both hands, leveling its tip toward his foes. Around him, the ground churned with inky-black tar, producing a trio of shadows, that grouped up around Konoe and posed like action heroes. “You see? Justice is on MY side. Let’s end this.”
”Justice always wins!” Sakura shouted, trying to join in. ”...Just kidding, heh.” She rubbed her nose and got into a fighting stance, ready for phase two. ”Now we gotta deal with these jerks again.” Sakura said. ”Four on four, and we already know they aren’t as good as we are. Let’s do it!”
Sakura rushed forward, looking to take on one of these shady guys for what she figured would be an easy win. She would open up with a sudden kick to the knee before following up with a ”Shenpu!” A spin kick that would leave her right in her opponents face, ready to throw some vicious elbows. Her pre-emptive strikes racked up a respectable amount of damage before the G-man could transform, but once his hat flew off his body melted in a burst of tar to reveal his true form, a demonic Sui-ki with eight horns and a double-sided bludgeon, capable of ice spells and physical attacks–though not as good as Sakura’s.
Zenkichi, on the other hand, drew his revolvers and stood back, calling on Valjean while the enemy was still grouped up. ”Now, Valjean, hit em with Megidola!” Valjean was quite adept at avoiding allies from experience, so the blasts stopped short of Sakura, but still managed to hit the other Shadows, and more importantly, Konoe himself if he didn’t move quickly. The monarch was already in motion, having launched toward Goldlewis to lock the big man down with rapid laser slashes, but Valjean’s magical warhead caught the other three shadows in its blast. They quickly transformed, dissolving into a Fortuna, Ganesha, and Eligor, and while all looked shaken, the war-hungry horseman seemed very hurt.
Against Konoe, Goldlewis was on the backfoot from moment one. That monarch might have looked like an ordinary businessman before, but with that armor on and sword in hand, he moved and fought like a superhero straight out of the comic books. His sword slashes came hard and fast, and they demanded just about everything Goldlewis had just to block his onslaught, let alone strike back. The strikes Konoe landed never led to a combo, but they hit the veteran where it hurt, and he could sense that if his opponent seized the momentum things might go south in a hurry. “Go to hell!” Spending half of his burst, Goldlewis pushed forward with a Wild Assault, armoring through a flurry of laser strokes to beat Konoe back and knock him down.
”Deal with the shadows!” Zenkichi called to Sakura and Susie, unleashing a hail of gunfire on Konoe from the side to push him off Goldlewis for a moment, before rushing in with Closing Statement at the ready. ”He may be tough, but he’s far from invincible! We’ve got this, man!” He cheered, swinging for a combo on Konoe.
”Un!” Sakura yelled out an affirmative as she crossed her arms in front of her, the oni’s club slamming into her forearms. Shoving it to the side she slammed her fist into the demons armored chest, causing him to slide backwards as he grounded himself. Raising his club he brought it down and sent a wave of ice Sakura’s way. She jumped over it. Frost was one of her elemental weaknesses, freezing her stun meter and making concussed far more easier. Today just wasn’t her lucky day. Still, a shapeshifting G-man could never take her out! She landed and met an iceball with her fireball, the two clashing mid-air in an explosion of chunks and steam. Sakura charged up the next one and it blasted clean through Sui-ki’s next iceball. As he sidestepped it, Sakura rushed forward. Sui-ki reacted with a warding swing towards her chin but she saw it coming and stopped on a dime, smacking the club to the ground. Sui-ki still held on but was open to Sakura’s advancing spin kick towards his face. It spun him around and Sakura grabbed his shoulders, hurled herself feet first into the air around him, and then used the gathered momentum to roll forward and toss him a considerable distance.
Susie meanwhile approached a little bit, but mostly stayed at range firing off her missiles at the elephant looking Ganesha. He was a wide target, so she figured he’d be easy to hit. Her missiles were also quite cartoonishy large as well, so it was a sound idea. Said elephant shadow wasn’t the most agile as Susie thought, eating quite a few missiles as it approached Susie. On top of the damage he took while forming, it was a testament to how tanky he was that he took a large amount of firepower before he got into melee range of Susie.
Activating his charge ability, Ganesha rushed at Susie upon getting into range before striking her business suit, the smoke from her missiles clouding his accuracy. While inside the smoke cloud however, he unleashed his ability to discharge a ton of radiation in order to hit Susie regardless of her blocking or not. It was a good thing she was a robot, otherwise this could’ve had some super nasty lasting implications. Still, Ganesha wasn’t looking so well after taking all that damage, but now he was in melee range where he could do things.
As Sakura and Susie dealt with the G-Men, Zenkichi kept Konoe occupied, tanking laser blade hits while pressuring his archnemesis. ”Goldlewis, think you can back them up so those G-Men don’t start hitting us from the side? I can keep this guy busy a minute.” He asked the Secretary of Defense, before buffing himself with Rakukaja. Between his own sustain from Vampiric Strikes and the defense boost, he could last at least until the Shadows were taken care of.
“Fine by me!” With Susie and Sakura taking on one shadow each, that left the other two to back Konoe up, but the boss man himself demanded both Seekers’ attention. If Zenkichi could hold down the fort, then Goldlewis would get the others off his back. After throwing a Thunderbird at Konoe to help keep him engaged, the veteran charged toward Fortuna and Eligor, and once they registered the challenger both turned to face him. “Come get some!” He couldn’t fight just one, so he’d need to occupy them both, even if that cost him.
As Fortuna whipped up wind magic to cast Garudyne from what she thought was a safe distance, Goldlewis lifted and hurled his coffin right at her. “Go long!” The massive object counterhit her with remarkable force, dropping her to the ground in a half-conscious heap. Goldlewis immediately turned his focus to Eligor as the horseman unleashed Maragion as a wave of roaring fire. He jumped up and airdashed over the inferno, coming down with a double knee against the head of the knight’s steed. To someone smaller the horse might have been an intimidating wall to get past, but Goldlewis only saw a target. He fired off a couple heavy slugs, pounding the horse’s head like a punching bag. Eligor aimed his spear and took a stab at the veteran’s head, but Goldlewis deflected his thrust with the horseshoe on his glove, then lifted his leg. Any southerner worth his salt knew a thing or two about horses, and when it came to horses Goldlewis knew just how catastrophic an injured leg could be. He hit the horse’s knee with a door-buster kick that left it reeling. Eligor could have steadied himself as his mount began to fall, but he went for another stab instead, sinking his spear’s blade just beneath the veteran’s collarbone before the weapon snapped. Goldlewis clenched his jaw, grabbed the horse, and wrestled it to the ground. The demon knight found his leg trapped -maybe even broken- beneath his steed, and after pulling the upper third of the spear from his shoulder, Goldlewis plunged it down to finish the knight off.
At that point, Fortuna had not only recovered, but slipped away from the UMA’s attempts to grab her. She cast Matarunda, hampering her enemy’s attack, then Concentrate to amp up her own magical power. All that setup allowed Goldlewis to close in, but the question was whether or not he could deal with what came next. Fortuna cast Vacuum Wave, unleashing a huge tornado out of nowhere. Much too big to avoid, Goldlewis stopped and blocked as best he could, the wind carving into him. After a moment it broke his guard, blew him off his feet, and whipped him around and around as he yelled bloody murder. “Aaaaaaaaah! Why the-! Hell’d I-! Use my-! Goddamn! Burst!” Then, just as quickly as it began, the windstorm stopped. As the pain and disorientation receded, Goldlewis found himself in freefall above the arena. Fortuna was beneath him, using Concentrate again. He knew another cyclone like the first one might be the end of him, but he had an idea. As he fell, he used his airdash to move directly above her, then fell upon the shadow with the mother of all body splashes.
Ganesha and Susie were in a bit of a brawl themselves, giant mech vs giant elephant. Both were fairly slow in how fast they could move, so it was more a matter of who could overpower whom. A battle that was going mostly in Susie’s favor whenever Ganesha didn’t have his Charge available or his radiation burst ready. He was a tanky guy though, so while Susie could lay into him outside of these moments, he was built to take the punishment and distract the mech lady from coming at his boss.
Eventually Susie got tired of this glorified slapfest, and grabbed another lamp post from the ground to use as a weapon. This electrified melee weapon started to put some real damage into Ganesha, who’s regeneration couldn’t keep up with the attacks from what was his weakness. In an attempt to save himself upon his Endure ability activating, he discharged a large area of radiation damage to get Susie off of him and possibly recover. While this did do a fair amount of damage to Susie, wiping out her shield and hitting her directly, knocking her away didn’t really save him when she threw the light post at him, zapping him and finishing him off.
Sakura did her part, avoiding several frost blasts of the frost oni, before jumping on its back and bringing her elbows down on its skull over and over again. The two fell to the floor and Sakura pushed her enemy back with a series of kicks and ducking under swings. There was a big blast of blue energy from Sakura’s hands.
While Susie, Sakura and Goldlewis were taking down the Shadows, Zenkichi and Konoe clashed. ”I know you can’t stop, but I just wanted to say that I would’ve tried to save you. If I knew. I’ve thought a lot about what you said last time we fought. I still think your way is wrong, that people have to have the right to choose. That your beliefs are the result of the things you’ve endured, the pain you’ve suffered. But even knowing all that, all the hurt you’ve caused…I would’ve tried to save you, if I were there.”
Zenkichi broke the clash, stepping back as Konoe stared at him. “I don’t know how you know so much about me, or what you think you know about my past, but you are right that I can’t stop. I won’t stop until all this world is rid of the evil that plagues it!” His declaration came with a new attack in his arsenal beyond just using his beam sword: Konoe held out his hand dramatically, and Zenkichi cursed as he dodged out of the way of the laser that burst forth from his palm, sweeping in an arc past him. Luckily, he couldn’t sweep the whole battlefield and take the others by surprise, but the range on that one caught him off guard.
Zenkichi rushed back in to meet Konoe mano e mano, Closing Statement slashing out in a short combo that Zenkichi finished with a push kick to make some room. Pivoting around Konoe to get closer to a piece of the Zephyrus’s wreckage, he baited out a Cross Slash from Konoe, jumping over the blade and onto the chunk of steel, then in a feat of acrobatics, performed an aerial front flip, landing on Konoe with an overhead slash boosted by gravity. He managed to catch the former Monarch by surprise, slamming him into the ground brutally, only for Konoe to recover with a leg sweep, knocking Zenkichi to his own butt before leaping backwards.
“This is the power to annihilate the wicked!” He shouted as energy began to build up around him, extending outwards and sucking in Zenkichi and anybody else within a wide area around him.
Goldlewis, recovered from his fight with the shadows and headed over to help, found himself sliding across the floor despite his remarkable weight. “What in the-”
In the same boat, Sakura was equally baffled, her feet giving out from under her as she scrabbled for purchase on the smooth floor. ”H-huh?!”
”Oh crap, oh CRAP! Guys, don’t let him suck you in!” Zenkichi shouted as he tried to dig his sword into the ground and prevent himself from being pulled in. He could feel his blade being dragged along as well, however, and after about five seconds of the suction field being up, Konoe triumphantly shouted and cast his ultimate attack.
“MEGIDOLAON!!!” Came the battle cry as a line of energy seemed to descend from the very heavens, detonating in a huge explosion that left Konoe himself completely unharmed, but dealt massive Almighty damage to everybody caught in the explosion, Zenkichi included.
Though repeated backdashes helped slow Goldlewis down, he couldn’t ultimately stop himself getting dragged into Konoe’s vortex. Unable to find a foothold or stop himself with an embedded blade, and unwilling to attempt an interrupt, he could do little but get ready to spend some tension on Faultless Defense as he braced himself for whatever the monarch had in store. A moment later the Megidolaon dropped from the sky like his own Burn it Down, only to erupt into a gigantic outburst of ungodly power. Normally Faultless Defense could eliminate the chip damage from even the strongest overdrives, and here it certainly helped, but even so Goldlewis couldn’t take that standing. He bellowed like a wounded beast as the blast threw him to the ground, down but not out.
Yelling, Sakura emerged from the blast and tumbled along the ground. She came to a stop. Chest heaving, she rolled over onto her belly and pushed herself onto her hands and knees, but if she was being honest that took a lot out of her. She was tough but not as tanky as Goldlewis and with no Faultless Defence to cushion the blow. Sakura dropped to her elbow and then flat against the floor, resigning herself to just riding the aftermath of that big hit out on the ground. ”...itai.”
Standing up with a groan, Zenkichi sighed. ”That’s my move, man. Not cool.” He grumbled, hefting his sword and approaching Konoe. ”But fine, two can play at this game. Valjean. Heat Riser. On me.” As the omnibuff gave Zenkicki a hefty boost to his attack, defense and speed, he ran in with a yell, knocking aside Konoe’s beam sword slash with a swipe of his own, keeping his momentum going and shoulder-checking his old boss. Konoe managed to keep his feet under him, but Zenkichi activated Fury and bashed him in the face with the butt of his sword, following it up with a sweep. Every second drained his already-battered vitality, but as long as he kept up the offense, he could buy himself time for the others to take shots at Konoe. Goldlewis joined in, first with a barrage of bullets from his Skyfish to lock Konoe down, then charging it to help corral the monarch with Behemoth Typhoons. Each battering blow that he landed dealt appreciable damage to Konoe’s armor, softening him up for Zenkichi.
“Ngh…I won’t accept defeat….the hero has to win. Justice has to win!” Konoe bellowed, guarding and gritting his teeth as Zenkichi and Goldlewis beat into him, unable to put forth a counter-attack for fear of taking a heavier hit.
”Yeah. That’s why we’re kicking your ass, if you hadn’t noticed.” Zenkichi replied coolly, sliding his leg behind Konoe’s and pushing the other man, knocking him to the ground. As he struggled to get up, Zenkichi’s foot slammed into his chest, and his sword buried itself in the ground next to the man. ”Akira Konoe, you are under arrest for crimes against Midgar, against Japan, against this world and all others.” Taking a deep breath, he looked over at the others. ”Trust me?” Nodding to himself, he reached deep within, pulled out a Friend Heart, and shoved it into Konoe. He had to trust that his conscience would reign supreme. If not…well, he’d probably just gotten them all killed.
As memories of disparate lives flooded into Akira Konoe, his eyes opened in shock and confusion. He lay on the ground, breathing heavily and staring up into Zenkichi’s face. “You….I….what have I done…?” He panted, looking around. He saw Goldlewis watching in mild astonishment. “What…what happened?”
”What happened is that everything you did in Japan, you did again. You made innocent people into your pawns, stole their free will and used them to consolidate your own power, all while playing into the hands of an even more diabolical manipulator. I’d be amazed if I didn’t do the exact same things as last time when Galeem brought me here. Give it a couple of minutes while you start remembering, but we have to get moving soon. We have a way of freeing Midgar from that monster, but we need you to get us in the door.” Konoe practically jumped at the chance to make up for his crimes, and as Zenkichi removed his foot from the man’s chance, he raised himself to his knees and bowed.
“Of course! I…you…you’re the man that arrested me last time, aren’t you…? I am so sorry, for what I did to everybody, your daughter included.” Konoe’s voice wavered, but he took a deep breath and raised his head, nodding. “If I can help, I’ll do whatever you need me to. Anything to repent for my crimes…”
Zenkichi sighed. ”Now’s your chance to be the hero. For real.”
After the detective seemingly resolved the situation, Goldlewis couldn’t help but shake his head, impressed. “Well, ain’t that a kick in the pants,” he muttered. “I guess this is just round two for you, after all, but you got some serious guts to stick with it.” He wasn’t sure if he believed Konoe’s words. Could someone just see the light and repent, just like that? It seemed too easy. But the man seemed powerless, and if he could be an asset, Goldlewis didn’t plan to refuse. “Nice goin’.”
Sakura groaned and pushed herself up to her feet, laughing through her heavy breathing. ”You did it, Zenkichi-san!” She ran up and hugged him from the side. In Sakura’s experience, it really was that easy about half the time. She skipped up to Akira and nudged him in the shoulder.
”You’re really freakin’ strong! Or, I guess, smart? I know I couldn’t pilot that thing. Welcome to team good guy!” She congratulated the armored man.
Seeing the fight over, Susie got out of her business suit and dusted herself off. ”Well either way, we have more work to do. Shall we continue?” Finding one of those healing stations would be nice, sos he could save her striker for another fight that was inevitably to come.
Zenkichi gave Sakura a little pat on the head, looking over at Goldlewis. ”I was banking on Galeem pulling us from the same time, where Konoe had…well, let me put it this way: he gave up a multi-billion dollar business on national television, confessed to all his crimes, and was about to leave his headquarters to turn himself in when we rolled up to arrest him. And after that, we found out that even he was being manipulated by something more powerful. I still can’t forgive him, but…I had to give him a chance. Besides, he’s our literal key in there. Our chance to save everybody. Maybe not from everything, but at least from being brainwashed.”
____________________________________________________ Level: 10 - Total EXP: 161/100 ------ Level: 7 - Total EXP: 212/70 𝙱𝙿 ●●●●● ---------------------------- 𝙱𝙿 ●●●●● Word Count: 2173 (+3 exp)(+23 collab exp)(+15 reward exp) Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams
Waking was unpleasant. It was less like stirring from a dream and more like coming back to consciousness after fainting: disorienting and sluggish. Out of the two Orsterrans, Therion came to first. His eyes snapped open as soon as his brain told his body he was awake, but a blooming headache stopped him from jumping to his feet. He was not the first of the Seekers to wake, and in their voices he could hear relief mixed with annoyance. The fight was over, then.
He pushed himself up, keeping on his guard just in case. Only after seeing Ganondorf and Rika kill the slumbering warframes did he start to relax. The group had swept through the prison and conquered it, now they just had to find the treasure they'd come for.
Maybe it was the amount of sleep spells she'd fallen under, or her underlying desire to finish her battle with the phantom that had been haunting her during those bouts of sleep, but Primrose woke up later than most of the others. She slowly pulled herself to her feet, regaining her composure after the battle. She'd awakened in time to hear Ms. Fortune explain the lack of Dreamcatcher and the out of place train station. The unexpected exit up was a nice surprise.
"Me too," Therion said, throwing his lot in with Ms. Fortune's choice to ride that train back topside. "And the sooner we leave, the better."
Primrose nodded. That was fine with her. It would probably be both the easiest and safest option for them as well, rather than backtrack into dangerous territory or try and tread forward into the unknown. The dancer's eyes caught the silver key ring that Nadia held. "...then let's conclude any unfinished business, so we can get going."
She exited the room to seek out the Dreamcatcher along with most of the group, taking one of the silver keys for herself. Therion chose to stay by the exit, making no excuses as to why. Therion watched the last of the Seekers filter out and back into the prison proper. Idly he wondered what had happened to the big scholar and even bigger knight after Ten Piedad had perished. Had they been spirited away, or just left preemptively? Either way, if Artorias was around he'd hear any chatter through the linkpearl Primrose had given him.
Alone, the thief inspected the risen section of the floor. To his relief it didn't seem to be trapped. He was completely sick of The Under, and if the random train station here had been fake he didn't know what he'd do. He wanted to be out of here. Once he was above ground, he was sure he wouldn't want to return.
If this connects to all the stations here, that'd include Queen's Station... that leads back to the big one, the Metro, he thought to himself, jaw set tight. I'm sure I can get around in there by myself even if those cats are still on the look out for us. Didn't Primrose say there was some kind of headquarters for the Seekers? I could head there, do some odd jobs or something while the others finish up here.
A little inner voice also reminded him that he didn't have to return to some HQ. He could always strike out alone, like he was used to doing. Though thoughts of leaving had come and gone for Therion a couple of times since he joined up with the Seekers of Light's crusade, he hadn't felt as strongly about it until now. It was just one hellish experience after another, demanding much from their bodies and minds alike. He really wasn't built for this.
...but he could be. He'd already changed himself with spirits, and he'd just watched Ganondorf do it to himself again. It was the quickest way to change oneself and get stronger - and whether he stuck around or left, he would definitely need to get stronger.
Therion pulled out the spirit of the wraith he'd battled earlier. This one was strong; it had taken three people to take him down. Therion turned the glowing mote of light over in his hand. Should he fuse with it? With that orb they'd picked up earlier, it wouldn't be an issue to remove the wraith's spirit if it caused some kind of madness like the Ammomancer had...
Making his decision, the thief pressed the spirit into his chest.
Notable Spirit Consumed: Raziel The host is a bit taller and more gaunt, with bones visible beneath the skin across much of his body, particularly the torso. His skin has a pale blue tinge. His hair is murkier overall in color, and shorter, with a prominent extension on either side of his forehead. His eyes look glassed over. His poncho is shorter and (like most of his outfit) more of a muted brown in color, but rises up around his face to work as a half-mask. There are bandages wound around his forearms. The host's personality is more noble and moral. This spirit confers the Power Wraith Blade, allowing the host to summon a spectral sword. It can be used to fire bolts of spectral energy, and if it's used to destroy a spirit, the wielder will be healed and empowered. If exposed to pure sources of elemental energy, the Wraith Blade can be empowered with them. This spirit also confers the Weakness Hydrothemia, which causes the host to be hurt by sufficient quantities of water. Water-based attacks will do extra damage, and immersion in water will burn the host like an acid.
It wasn't the altered appearance that Therion first noticed, but the change in his state of mind. Now, suddenly, the thought of leaving his unusual allies the Seekers behind while they toiled on seemed abhorrent to him. Heh, would you look at that? he thought to himself, surprised that such a mental change had taken place - and that despite it happening so quickly, it still felt natural. Unless some other cause needed him, it looked like he would be remaining in the world saving business, for better or worse.
Taking stock of his body came after gathering his thoughts. Therion had never paid much mind to how he looked, so long as he didn't look too out of place for his skill set. The orange tone to his clothes that the cat-man's spirit had given him was a bit garish for a thief, but the new color was more workable. As for the rest... he could see that his poncho was more or less a large over shirt now, as the white fabric of his under shirt was starting to peek out. He usually left the under shirt unbuttoned, finding it easier to regulate his body temperature that way when he was wearing a poncho and scarf on top, but now he might change his mind - since the skin stretched over skeleton look that could be easily seen if he took the poncho off wasn't exactly nice to look at. Combined with the blue tint to his skin, he probably looked half on his way to a walking corpse. Not surprising, considering what that wraith looked like. I'm just glad I still have both parts of my jaw...
It was a little easier to look at on his arms, the only other part of him besides his face that was bare. Right, his face! Therion could feel the fabric touching his cheeks and knew the lower half was covered, but what about the left side? He brought a hand up, feeling the skin there and the lack of hair covering it. While Therion really didn't mind how he looked (he didn't have anyone to impress after all), the long bangs obscuring the left side of his face had been a deliberate choice. He wasn't ashamed, per se, of the puckered scar there - running from his forehead to halfway down his cheek, through his left eye, and the green iris had become slightly milky after the attack that caused it (though unbeknownst to Therion now both of his currently mismatched eyes had the same glossy white lens). It was unsightly, sure, but he covered it more for convenience. Scars like that gave off a certain impression, like he was some sort of brigand, and also attracted the attention of the naively curious with questions. He'd been wearing his hair that way for so long it had become a habit.
He supposed that the scar exposed didn't really matter now while he was traveling an unfamiliar world with a huge band of people. I'm still not the weirdest looking person here either, he thought. The thief ran a hand up through his hair a couple of times, clenched and unclenched his fists and generally tested out his movement after the fusion. He had some time to get used to the changes while he awaited the others' return. Primrose had split up from the others to search the fourth floor, though to be honest she wasn't looking particularly hard. Though it was possible that they'd missed something here, she was fairly sure the fourth level was cleared. Unless the Dreamcatcher was housed within a random cell, but she easily dismissed that possibility. From what she could see and hear, the empty cells all stood open while the locked ones all held inmates. There were only so many keys, so it was unlikely that a cell was being used to store anything.
There was another reason that Primrose wasn't taking the task seriously at the moment. There was someone waiting for her.
She approached the hall where "Yusufa" waited in a lonely cell toward the dead end. She could almost feel the shift in the air just before she heard her friend's voice, crystal clear over the screams of other prisoners.
"Prim? Oh, Prim, you're back!"
Yusufa sounded overjoyed, like she'd thought the worst and was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong. "I'm so glad you're alright."
"Yusufa..." It was nice to hear her voice. Primrose wanted to be selfish and indulge herself in the dream a little longer, but she knew that was what the prison did to people - trapped them in a beautiful lie. She was quiet for long enough that "Yusufa" spoke up again, uncertain.
"...you are okay, right? Please be okay."
"I'm fine, it's just... Yusufa..." Primrose pressed her forehead to the cell door. She placed her palm against it too, hoping to feel some warmth of her fellow dancer doing the same. Her other hand, with the silver key held in it, hovered by the lock. "...we're friends, aren't we?"
"What?"
"Humor me. And tell me, please. Were we friends?"
"Prim... of course. I'm still your friend, I'd always wanted to be your friend! You... you think so too, don't you?"
"...yes."
"I'm so happy..." Yusufa's voice was light, brittle. She sighed as she spoke, like Primrose had lifted some burden from her. "...I won't have to be alone anymore."
That was it. Those were Yusufa's dying words.
No one but Primrose herself was privy to them. While Yusufa laid in her arms broken and bleeding Helgenish and his henchmen had watched the whole thing with a sick satisfaction, but it was to Primrose alone that Yusufa had whispered those last words; that she was glad not to be alone in the end. Not even a living Yusufa herself could know. It was as Primrose expected after meeting Simeon in the dream - Yusufa was a figment of her imagination.
Without warning Primrose unlocked the cell. The voice barely had time to squeak a noise of panic before the door was wrenched open. Inside Primrose found nothing but darkness, and her own reflection.
The dancer closed her eyes. She'd known it was too good to be true, but it still hurt.
She lingered in front of the cell for a few minutes, sorting out her feelings. Yusufa, Simeon. Therion, Robin Goodfellow. Her fellow travelers, and her fellow Seekers. Only once she'd calmed down did she open her eyes. Mercy Dreams was a horrible place, but maybe she'd needed this kind of experience to reorient herself, and rededicate herself to destroying Galeem's world. There were so many people that needed justice done on their behalf, including herself, and she would deliver it. When the Koopa family returned they found a changed Therion waiting by the exit that would lead to the station. His feline ears flickered toward them and he looked up, immediately noting the staff in the toady's hands. Could that be the "Dreamcatcher"? He inquired how they'd found it, and upon being told it was just in a locked room on the first floor the thief shook his head in disbelief. While they reported over the linkpearl he overheard the question about the safe. That damn safe!
"I tried cracking it earlier," he said with an annoyed sigh. "No dice though. Code's the only way to open it besides completely destroying it."
Only a little bit later Primrose returned, having heard Kamek's report. She had no answers for him either, so she said nothing but greetings. Besides the general wear that her clothes and person had gone through during their adventure through the Under, Primrose herself put up as beautiful a front as possible. The calm, slightly mysterious smile of her facade was back in place, projecting the image of a strong, elegant woman. It was how she'd get through the last of their mission down here. She took note of some of the new changes her allies had gone through, apparently having fused when they were separated. She was surprised to see Therion's scar visible - though she knew it was there she hadn't actually seen it before. He seemed fine with it though, probably coming to the same conclusion as she had back in the Home of Tears. Hiding their pasts didn't seem as important now.
"We've got what we came for," Primrose said once everyone had arrived. One hand was on her hip while the other gestured to the Koopas holding the staff that was apparently key to the area Guardian's defeat. "So~ is everyone ready to get out of here?"
