After spending days in The Under, going through the cat-majority metro, and ending up in a town full of walking skeletons and cacti all while being with a group half made of monsters, suddenly adding a bunch of humans (and one robot) to the ensemble seemed almost novel. Though some might have extra limbs, or a horn or a halo, they were pretty much all fundamentally human. Even so, Therion didn't feel any more or less comfortable with such a big group. At least he knew that everyone was on the same side.

The same thought, about everyone being on the same side, emboldened Pit. He already knew that Bowser and his family were part of the crew, but seeing that they'd picked up Ganondorf while underground was both good (?) news and kind of funny. The funny part being that it brought the whole Subspace thing to mind, which just meant the villains were not only working together again, but also they'd teamed up against a greater threat. Again. The good part being Pit knew how strong Ganondorf was, and it was always nice to see a fellow Smasher... though when your whole thing is being "the ultimate evil that can't be killed," it kind of puts into question whether it was a good idea to have him on your side. And like with Bowser, at one time Pit might have been nervous around the King of Evil - especially when he was disconnected to Lady Palutena. But the past was the past, and right now Ganondorf was one of the good guys!

If only we could have kept everybody with us, he thought, as the addition of new members brought to attention the disappearance of old ones. But people came and went, and there was no use for negativity, especially right now. Once everyone talked enough at decided to head to the giant circus tent, Pit ran ahead toward the front of the group.

When Midna came over to reconnect with Primrose and Sectonia while the group made their way to the big top, Therion picked up his pace in order to let the three of them converse on their own. There were conversations of all kinds going on around him, but the thief was content not to participate in any of them. He maintained that he didn't really know these people; it was enough that he was with them and willing to do this game-based team building. He was actually pretty good at games - darts and cards and things of that nature. Although he couldn't help but think that given the venue, the hosts, and the lack of actual explanation that these games weren't going to be the kind he was used to.

As Ballyhoo disappeared behind the curtain, Therion made this observation aloud. "No one's explained what a 'mini' game even is."

Maybe someone was explaining it somewhere on the other side of the room, but with the large group in the loud, jovial atmosphere Therion hadn't heard it. Since he had found himself toward the front of said group going in, he was around some of the more eager members who were all too happy to explain.

"It's a game within a game!" Pit said, turning to give Therion his attention after marveling at the inside of the place. "Like when you're playing a fighting game and there's suddenly a crypt maze, or when they add fishing into a game for no reason."

Therion stared at him blankly, clearly not grasping the explanation. The angel didn't seem to notice though, as he went on. "It feels like its been a while since I've played any! Oh, but... hm... how exactly is it gonna work if we aren't already playing a game?"

Pit's expression morphed into a thoughtful one. He tucked his fist under his chin, considering if there was maybe an arcade behind those curtains or if the minigames would be more like the stuff they used to do between exhibition matches as Smash tournaments. If they had Target Smash he was so gonna win.

Taking the chance to slip out of the boy's attention radius, Therion moved to the outside edge of the group. There he could better see the prize counters, and nothing really drew his notice besides the giant sphere. Ballyhoo had described it as getting "character orbs," but now that he was close enough Therion could see that inside were spirits. Or what really looked like spirits. He blinked in surprise.

The implications of this are kinda grim, he thought. Of course it seemed normal for everyone still gleaming, but it meant someone must have been filling this daily with the remains of the deceased. Maybe the minigames were actually some kind of death game, and losers get put in the machine? That would be seriously macabre. He was already feeling less enthusiastic about this whole thing.

Pit either hadn't noticed or didn't care that the weird cat guy he explained minigames to had moved somewhere else. He was just excited to play with everyone. This kind of reward after last few hard days was sure to be a blast, and after everyone relaxed they could go back to the Avenger, catch up more, and then he'd convince everyone to plot a course to Skyworld. Good things were ahead for the Seekers - and much sooner than expected, because yet another surprise made himself known. Captain Falcon announced his presence and his intent, making Pit swivel to look at him with wide eyes. Seriously, just how many strokes of good luck could happen in one day?!

The man strode boldly through the curtains to follow after Ballyhoo, and the only reason Pit didn't go right after him was because he wanted to stick with the group. It wasn't like he was going anywhere, plus when he head Roxas ask about the man, Pit felt the need to add on to Ganondorf's explanation.

"He's also a famous racer!" he said, coming up on Roxas' other side. "You should see an F-Zero race sometime, they go crazy fast. Maybe they have them here if Captain Falcon is here!"

The angel did agree with Ganondorf though, they definitely had to recruit him! The sooner the better, though maybe they could save the whole friend heart thing for after the games were done. It would be unfair if they shattered the pilot's world view in the middle of competing.

Eager to get started, Pit hopped up above the crowd and stayed airborne for as long as his wing flapping allowed. "Is everybody ready? Come on, let's play!" he said, practically holding the curtain open for everyone once he landed.

Hearing about the minigames, Blazermate was super happy to participate. It was about time they had some competitions that weren't fights! Well, competition was fighting, but... not like punching people or anything! Well ok there was boxing but... While Blazermate was struggling with her excitement, Roland watched the bot fidget a bit and raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything else about it. Out of everyone, he was one of the ones that was the most apprehensive about this whole 'mini game' thing. He didn't feel like he had much of a choice though, with the rest of this group all going in to deal with these things, so he decided to join with a sigh. Unlike Sectonia, Ganondorf, or to a lesser extent Blazermate, the coins weren't on his mind. He still hadn't adopted to a world that was... frankly way better than what he came from and it'd take him a very long time to adjust.

Looking at Captain Falcon, Blazermate only asked "So, is he from a sentai anime or something? Something about him seems familiar." She then scratched her chin for a bit before shaking her head. "Nope, don't recognize him. I like his enthusiasm though!" with Roland saying. "Well... He lives here it seems so I guess this is how he relaxes? Good for us though. Maybe we can have some fun after all!"

”Yup” Bowser answered straightforwardly to Pit’s question about if Ganondorf was indeed, well Ganondorf, before clarifying, that, in a way, it wasn't: ”Well except he doesn’t remember last time we had a big get together. Or how he stabbed me in the back that time. Some kind of time nonsense, I dunno” dorf

”Doesn’t remember me from the two times we ‘met’ and stabbed each other either, so very much a load ‘time nonsense’ yes” Midna agreed in passing, having easily picked out the name of that man from the chatter that had started building.

Meanwhile the words ‘food’ and ‘games’ got Bowser and his son’s attention respectively, and both were quick to agree, especially upon hearing the name of the tent

”Ballyhoo’s Big Top? As in MC Ballyhoo?” Bowser asked rhetorically ”I know that guy, he runs the Star Carnival back home. I had a good time messing with people during that one”

”Oh hey, I missed that one!” Jr added clearly excited to replace that missed experience, before adding, even more excitedly ”Do you still think he’s got a prize that’s a year's worth of candy?”

”A year’s worth?” Rika echoed, interest piqued, mouth watering, to which Jr replied ”Yeah! Papa for sure should have stolen that instead of that crummy star rod or whatever it was, all that candy sounds like a way better prize than some silly magic wand”

Kamek was rather glad his king had not stolen that candy, and also that this turned out not to be the prize anymore, as instead, once they got there, it turned out that the rewards were tokens to be used for fashion or in a gacha machine of some kind. Both kids where a fair bit disappointed by that, but the prospect of mystery prizes and candy now rather than later quickly perked them back up again

Still, before they could get any snacks, captain falcon casually blasted past them, resulting in a whole host of questions about who he was, which Pit answered some of, while Bowser filled in a bit of the rest, saying ”They’ve got kart racing at least and our guy Captain Falcon was right on top of the leaderboards. Kinda a big shot around here looks like” before adding ”Probably because I wasn’t around to take that top stop!” boastingly.

The other question was, absurdly (to the troop sans Rika anyway) what a minigame even was.

”Yeesh, really? No one else? Fine fine fine” Bowser sighed, before trying to explain it ”It’s like, well, like a short competition kinda thing, where you race to do a little task or, uh, hmmm” before foundering a bit because really, they were so diverse, how did you narrow it down. It didn’t help that he was often on the other end of the arrangement, forcing people to play his unfair minigames rather than playing them himself.

Jr, who’d played in a few more parties than his papa, jumped in to explain that ”it’s like a party game, or a carnival game, but with way more effort put into making it big and epic. So you could be just skating candy out of a jar, or dodging fuzzies in a plane, or looking for a heart, or racing to be the first to the middle of a platform covered in banana peels, or riding trikes or nabbing pancakes or catching falling fruit, or herding penguins, or copying poses or, or, or,” before running out of breath

The panting prince was handed a cup with straw and lid by his sister, which he slurped upon noisily to parch his throat, finding a tasty non-brand cola drink within, and then before he could start up all over again wondered where she’d got it from. Glancing back, he found that the princess had taken an unsupervised moment to purchase five grab bags worth of snacks and drinks which were now hanging from a finger each on one of her oversized gauntlet hands. She had, it seemed, made little distinction between healthy and unhealthy options, as she had to finish crunching on half a carrot stick before commenting that all that ”Sounds neat!”

”Yeah, that’s coz it is neat” Jr agreed, before reaching up a grabby hand and demanding ”Now gimmy” and receiving a bag dropped into his hands by a little flick of his sister’s finger.

”I got some for everyone, and two for papa” Rika said as she did the drop, before artfully flicking the other bags over to the two elder koopas, who replied ”This might be a little much?” and ”good thinking kid” in an entirely predictable manner to her casual clandestine food shopping.

Kamek sighed, accepted that what was done was done, and said ”Let me at least reimburse you for all the rest, so you aren't using your funds for us” as he reached for his pocket to get her some cash, only for Rika to shake her head and reply ”I wanted to buy this stuff for you, so it's something I wanted to buy for me, i guess?”

”Oh? So a gift then? How very kind of you Rika” the mage replied with a smile of encouragement, realizing that it was not really a concept she’d have been directly introduced to, and then feeling a little bad about that.

”Is that what it is?” Rika asked with a head tilt, before nodding and agreeing that ”Then yeah, its a gift” which put a smile back on Kamek’s face.

It dipped a little when Jr complained that ”Aw ew what’s this squishy fruit thing” complaining about an apricot, and then returned along with a little snort of a laugh when Rika to lean in and said ”oh, I wanted to try those, can I have them? I’ll trade you something I tried already” to Jr, the mage realized what was going on.

A quick glance at what was on offer and a rough guess at the size of the bags in comparison confirmed his suspicion that she’d bought one of everything, and was now engaging in what was a recurring trend of food trading so she could sample each and every thing on offer.

At that point, everyone was heading inside, and so Bowser swallowed the mass of treats he was chewing and declared ”Let’s not get left behind, Troop! First we trounce everyone at those minigames, then we Mc Ballyhoo dry of prizes, and after we’ll go out, have some more fun, and get Rika a gift of her own!” which got a cheer of excitement from Jr, and ”oh is that how gifts work?” from RIka, and a proud smile from Kamek, who hadn’t even had to suggest that last idea.

Their pieces said, Geralt and Zenkichi were rather taciturn for the remainder of the meetup, with Geralt mulling over the loss of Omori and the other Seekers, and Zenkichi just trying to people-watch and piece together who was who, and what everybody meant to each other. It was a bit of doing, and he definitely got the heebie-jeebies from Ganondorf, and a bit from Sectonia, but by the time they made it to the Big Top, the detective felt like he had a basic rundown of some of what was going on. Geralt did make sure to find a moment to give Nadia a short nod, though part of her still felt a bit uneasy at her current situation.

Cocking an eyebrow at Ballyhoo's over-the-top explanations, Geralt quickly made her way to grab a quick snack, getting some kind of confectionary consisting of peanuts covered in chocolate. The snack was rather tasty, though just as quickly devoured. Still, having something in her stomach after that fight with Z helped settle her nerves more, and she sighed. Competition for rewards, huh? With the possibility of getting a powerful Spirit to bolster herself with? It was almost too good to be true. Was it, in fact, too good to be true? What she was overhearing from some of the others indicated that these sorts of things were normal, but she was still a bit put off by the fact that this all seemed to be effectively free, except for the snacks. "Are we...sure this isn't some kind of trap?" She asked, eyes narrowing to slits.

"Honestly, this seems legit to me. This is classic video game stuff, and uh..." Lowering his voice, he slide next to Geralt and leant in. "Where I come from, I know for a fact Peach and Bowser come from a famous series of games. I don't know what that means about Galeem, or multiple universes, but...well, some things really are just what they seem." He stood back up as he said that last part, biting his lip nervously. Should he have said that? He felt like he recalled Geralt mentioning something about multiple worlds where she came from, but he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to even give those ideas to others. It was just...

So weird to him!

After linking up with a bevy of allies, confirming the elimination of a sixth Guardian, and getting the good news about a new mobile base in the form of the Avenger, Nadia was riding high. Leading the pack to Ballyhoo’s Big Top through Carnival Town, she practically skipped through the streets, her smile indelible. She and the others who’d slogged through the depths of the Under had already been planning to reward themselves for their hard work, but a lucky break like this went beyond anything she could hope for. Even though the road here had been hard, paved with painstaking effort and more than a couple sacrifices, the feral felt completely confident that the Seekers really could do this. And with literal fun and games next on the itinerary, things were only going to get better from here. What a homecoming this was turning out to be–insofar as Carnival Town could be called her home.

By the time Ballyhoo concluded his introduction and explanation of the Big Top’s workings, Nadia was pumped to get started, but the heroes didn’t charge after the cartoonish carnie straight away. Someone new showed up to say hello, a larger-than-life hotshot with a braggadocious attitude, and for good reason. Even with just half an hour under her belt in Carnival Town, Nadia had seen her fair share of that distinctive blue racing suit, red helmet, and lantern jaw. As it turned out, he wasn’t just some highfalutin local celebrity, either. According to Ganondorf and Bowser this man had a history with the Seekers, or at least the few who challenged Galeem ‘in the beginning’. That turn of phrase left her intensely curious, since she’d never heard anyone mention anything like that, nor considered whatever preceded the worlds’ destruction. It seemed important. That aside, though, she understood the importance of this Captain Falcon, and that the Seekers should save him from Galeem’s grip. If he planned to join them for games, they’d probably get an opportunity to do so.

With that in mind, Nadia treated the Captain to a smile. “Sure! I’m game if you are. Just don’t expect us to take it easy on you!”

Given how much ground they’d covered, and how much they had yet to cover with one another, it made sense for the Seekers to take a quick break to get ready before plunging into a minigame bonanza. Some heeded Ballyhoo’s pleas and went to the snack bar to chat over some food, but the pita pockets Nadia bought in Al Mamoon had satisfied her, so she looked elsewhere. With a huge cast of twenty compatriots to interact with, the catty chatterbox found herself spoiled for choice when it came to conversation, but at the same time, she didn’t feel compelled to go after people just yet. After all, they’d have plenty of time to get friendly in the days to come, especially aboard this ship of theirs. Right now, though, something else occupied her. When Ballyhoo mentioned token rewards for doing well in the upcoming minigames, he ignited her competitive spirit. “Five tokens for first place, huh? Well, you guys better watch out then,” she declared, looking around at her friends with an air of mischief. “‘Cause if there’s money on the line, I’m all in!” With that in mind, the cunning catgirl set off to make some new friends: any bystanders who’d already played these games and could tell her a thing or two about how they worked.

Of course, Sandalphon meant to do some data collection of her own. With no need for food after the tasty pumpkin soup noodles she enjoyed back in Everdream Valley, she went the other way to see what she could find among the aisles of apparel in the Big Top reward center. If her efforts would be rewarded, it made sense to learn what she stood to gain. Most of these items offered no tangible benefit, but like Therion she took interest in what Ballyhoo referred to as an Orb Machine, and moved in for a closer look. She quickly confirmed that it contained real spirits, which cast this whole affair in an entirely new light–not in terms of macabre implications, but of value proposition. The random nature of distribution, paired with the fact that nobody could see what any of the spirits were capable of beforehand, would make efficient use of them tricky. She couldn’t fully believe what Ballyhoo said about customers getting ones they wanted either, since how could that possibly be quantified? On the other hand, if the players would receive one rift token per game for the mere act of participation, that meant only three games to attain the ‘guarantee’ he mentioned, and a whopping five guarantees for winning just three games. They were practically handing out spirits like candy.

Sandalphon quickly concluded that the people in charge here must not have the slightest clue about how valuable spirits could be. Of course, the average customer here probably didn’t know either. If they saw spirits as nothing more than sparkly but useless collectibles that faded after a time, it made sense that they’d spend their rift tokens elsewhere. That very ignorance, though, left an enormous potential bounty for the Seekers to claim, and they could not pass up this opportunity. If nothing else, they could trade the spirits they received amongst themselves, and maybe Roland’s ability to transmute spirits into more informative books would be of use. Pit had alluded to one other way that even the most undesirable spirits might come in handy, as well. “If all else fails, we can offer these spirits to the individual Pit mentioned, Vulgrim.” Something about that name and his alleged trait of eating spirits rubbed her the wrong way, but for now Sandalphon reserved her judgment. “That way we can transact unwanted possibilities for more certain gains, be they material or informational.”

Meanwhile, Goldlewis browsed the cosmetic rewards, wondering what sorts of incentives the team could redeem their tokens for. He found a wide assortment of outfits, mostly stereotypical getups associated with various professions like policeman, doctor, firefighter, biker, and so forth rather than anything he’d consider fashion. It reminded him of a Halloween costume shop more than anything else. It did feature an abundance of different hats, from what he’d consider fairly ordinary to stuff that looked downright wacky. “What in tarnation,” he muttered, shaking his head at a ridiculous propeller cap. Even if its propellers could actually be used to hover like the label claimed, he wouldn’t be caught dead in that thing. He did inspect the different kinds of combat fatigues, but overall Goldlewis wasn’t all that impressed. Where were the spurs? The horseshoes? The metal skulls and extra belts? He had a very particular sense of style that he couldn’t just toss out for ordinary garb like this. His fusions had already watered down his iconic look a little, and subsequent fusions would make it worse. At least if fusion messed with his hairdo, it looked like he could count on Karlie to fix it up. After watching her in action with a customer, he could only describe her as a miracle worker. How else could she not just cut, but also lengthen somebody’s hair to style it like that?

After a couple minutes Goldlewis headed back toward the curtains, where he found Nadia with a handful of strangers she’d accosted. Evidently the cat burglar had cornered them just a few moments after they pushed through the curtains, a round of minigames freshly concluded. Though she planned to pester them with questions, Nadia changed her mind when she saw the man bringing up the rear, a dour farmer with a huge nose, no chin, and a haunted, distant expression. “Whoa, you okay?” she asked, her genuine concern overriding her plan to get ahead. She raised an eyebrow at the curtains. “Was there something wrong with the games? Is this place actually some kind of carn-evil?”

The farmer shook his head, a little bemused by the pun. “Nah, it ain’t like that. Took some gettin’ used to, but it ended up bein’ pretty dang fun. I didn’t want to come, y’see, but my farmin’ buds here dragged me out.” He motioned to his companions, who’d made sure his new acquaintance seemed friendly before heading toward the snack bar. They were an odd bunch, consisting of a bipedal sheepdog, a mustached agave farmer, and a biomechanical warlock with black metallic flesh shaped into a hood over an inhuman face. Given his current company, though, Goldlewis knew he wasn’t one to talk. “I had a good time, though, honest. It’s just hard to get my mind off what happened, is all.”

Nadia knit her brows together. “Aw. What happened?”

Putting his hands in his pockets, the farmer took a deep breath. “Well, a li’l while back, a tornado came outta nowhere an’ tore up my whole doggone farm. My equipment, my crops, my animals, years of effort, all that money…all gone.” He gritted his teeth, his hands tightening into fists. “I ain’t never been angrier ‘bout anythin’ in my whole life. For a while I just about lost myself, ragin’ against the storm.” He sighed, shaking his head. “But it wasn’t any use. After things calmed down, my friends helped me get back on my feet. Reckon that’s why they brought me here, to get my mind off what happened.” He chuckled, a defeated look on his face. “But here I am bein’ a stick in the mud, like always.”

“Don’t say that!” Nadia interjected. Perhaps sensing he was needed, Chucho floated over to the former to be petted. Though surprised at first, the man obliged, and some of the misery drained from his face. “I mean, it’s totally understandable. You had your whole livelihood ripped away. But you still have people who care about you, and you’re still moving forward. I know I’m just some girl you just met, but to me, it looks like you’re doing alright. So…I hope things get better soon!”

Despite everything, the farmer managed a smile. “Thanks, miss.” He sighed again, much faster this time. “Guess I oughta catch up with the guys. See ya ‘round.”

“See ya!” Nadia waved as the farmer took his leave.

By that time, all the Seekers who’d dispersed throughout the Big Top’s parlor were gathering up again. With everyone refreshed, satiated, motivated, and somewhat informed about what minigames were, the team seemed ready to start the party. Nadia grinned as she looked over the gathered heroes, trying to imagine the likes of Therion and Ganondorf catching fruit or herding penguins. “Alright, team!” she sang. “Let’s have some fun!” With that, the twenty pushed through the curtains and tumbled weightlessly through a tunnel of kaleidoscopic color. After a moment spent stunned by the sheer sensory overload, Nadia and the others plopped down onto a solid surface, cold, hard, and shiny as a golden coin.

“Oof,” the feral grunted, more than a little dizzy. With some help from Chucho she got to her feet and looked as the discombobulation wore off. She and the others appeared to be atop a large golden disc, with red and black stripes radiating outward from its edges. Each one sported a rut separated from the next by small dividing walls, as well as a number. Beyond the outer rim lay a sloped ring of wood with perimeter walls, and above them Nadia could see only a strange expanse, less like a sky and more like a static texture boxing everyone in. Her immediate surroundings intrigued her more, though. “Is this…a roulette table?” Even if she’d never been rich or welcome enough to see one in person, she recognized the imagery from TV. That said, all this felt uncomfortably like getting trapped in a dream last night, so who could say. “Well, can’t roulette out, I guess.”

Goldlewis rubbed his head. “Y’know, for some reason I didn’t think it’d get this weird. We’re sure in for it now.”

After studying her surroundings for a moment, Sandalphon glanced at Nadia. “I was under the impression you’d done this before?”

The feral gave a nervous laugh. “Uh, heheh. I mean, I wanted to, but I never got the chance. It's no big deal though! We’ll just…y’know.” She shrugged. “Roll with it?”

Just then, Ballyhoo and Balan poofed into existence in a double blast of confetti, accompanied by a chorus of goofy party horns. “Welcome to your very own private lobby!” Ballyhoo declared to the Seekers. “The minigame roulette is about to begin! To find out what’s next, we’ll just have to SPIN!” Lifting his hand, the gamemaster conjured a white ball with a ghostly face on it and hurled it down into the table’s outside ring. It began to hurtle around the perimeter at high speed, and at the same time, Balan floated down to give the roulette wheel itself a push. Much to Nadia’s relief the plate beneath the Seekers didn’t actually spin, but the red and black grooves around them whirled for a moment before slowing to a standstill, and after another few seconds the roulette ball came to rest in one of the many pockets, number twenty-three. That number held no significance for the Seekers, but both Balan and Ballyhoo seemed to light up, smiling with arms spread wide.

“Connected Climbing Chaos!” Ballyhoo exclaimed. “For this minigame, everyone will be divided into teams of two!” He held up three fingers. “It’s a race to reach the top of a snowy mountain! Sounds like a breeze, but boy is there a catch! Each of you will be given climbing gloves and physically tethered to a random teammate. You’ll have to work together to make the climb, leveraging your weight to swing and fling around! All damage is disabled, but so are special movement abilities! Ready, Balan?”

His companion bowed silently, his toothy smile even wider.

Ballyhoo took this as affirmation. “Then away we GO!”

Before anyone could object, their surroundings dissolved in a wash of color, quickly giving way to a brand-new wonderworld of peaceful purple skies and gentle snowfall.

Much to Sandalphon’s relief, her feelings of queasiness and disorientation faded much faster this time, allowing her pupils to switch from spirals back to power symbols before anyone noticed. From the beginning she'd wondered how exactly the Big Top functioned from a practical standpoint, but after seeing Balan work his magic firsthand, she supposed that it all boiled down to dimensional trickery, with custom pocket dimensions serving as these ‘wonderworlds’ to host a variety of games. She didn't like the idea of being at this enigmatic entity’s mercy, but as long as it abided by the rules Ballyhoo laid out, the archangel reasoned that she could endeavor to be less suspicious for once. Plus, now that the Seekers had arrived, the competition was about to begin.

Sandalphon looked around. True to Ballyhoo’s explanation, Balan had deposited them at the foot of a small mountain, a couple hundred feet in height. Around them stood a smattering of tents, and plenty of friendly-looking penguins milled around the area. Soft, powdery snow covered the whole area in carpets and drifts, creating a winter wonderland where the flightless birds fished, threw snowballs, and made snow angels. Large rock formations surrounded the penguin village on both sides, reaching upward alongside the mountain to form an intricate vertical labyrinth of ledges, tunnels, wooden platforms, icy slopes, and death-defying jumps. It looked like a good challenge, especially if she couldn't rely on movement abilities like Vault or Heavensent like Ballyhoo said. Though that disappointed her somewhat, she knew that an even playing field was the basis of any true competition. Otherwise people like Blazermate could just fly right to the finish line.

After taking stock of her surroundings, Sandalphon noticed the more subtle changes on her person. She’d been given gloves with a very grippy material on their palms, but she'd also received a nice white scarf and a beanie, and a glance at the others confirmed that every Seeker had received a slight costume change. Nadia’s even had holes for her ears, while Goldlewis got one in red, white, and blue. He also spotted a rope tied around his middle, and when Sandalphon’s eyes followed it, she found that it connected to the rope wound around her waist.

She blinked. “Oh.” The archangel stared at Goldlewis. “This must be the tether.” She looked around with a slight frown on her face, wondering who happened to be tethered to Zenkichi.

Goldlewis took her expression to indicate disappointment with her teammate. “I’ll try not to let you down, ma’am,” he told her. “Even if they ain't gonna let me airdash, I reckon I'm a bit more spry than I look.”

“I know,” Sandalphon replied, shutting out distractions as she locked onto her teammate. “My only fear is not pulling my own weight. Let’s do the best we can and win this together.”

The veteran grinned. He's been pretty dubious of this whole affair since arriving, but after seeing that the first challenge was just a little rock climbing, he was getting fired up. “Hell yeah!”

Meanwhile, Nadia has been so distracted by the adorable penguins and not thinking about the implications of none of them being real that she didn't even notice that she’d been tethered to someone until she felt a tug on her midriff. “Huh? Oh, I'm with you?” The feral smiled, jumped to her feet, and looked up at the mountain as she fearlessly pumped her fist. “Alright, it's snow problem! Whenever you're ready, cl-I’m good to go!”

”Scaling a mountain? Easy! I could do that in my sleep!” Bowser, who was dressed up like Santa, sans the beard but with a red coat and hat and all the rest (for some reason) declared.

”Why are you dressed up like Santa again?” Blazermate said, having no place to perch herself on his shell thanks to his outfit and instead walking around the big koopa, noting much like him her flight was greatly reduced with the ‘rules’ of this game.

”Because Santa Bowser’s gonna steal all the coins!” the king declared, retorting to criticism of the garb he didn’t even chose, before adding that ”It’s kinda my thing in a lot of these minigame parties most of the time”

”.. But the Namahage are what steal things during xmas, not Santa…” Blazermate said, confused. But then she quickly recovered. ”Wait, you’ve done this before? And multiple times? Huh… Well I guess that means I’ve got a vet on my side! Hope I can pull my weight, hehe.” she said, putting that whole thing aside.

”Ah, but then I’ll be giving them to the good little boy and girl. Or, well, big girl, but she still counts” the king replied, which almost worked out if it weren't for the fact he was competing against said kids as well. As for her praising him as a vet, he agreed that ”and yeah, you’re gonna have to give your best to keep up with this super star!” boastfully

”Don’t worry, I got this. I’m one of the scarier medabots even though I’m a healer. Funny thing, I know you haven’t seen many, but I’m actually one of the faster models hehe.” Although Blazermate, doing her own boast, left out the fact that she was also one of the few medabot models who could both heal, and keep up with the shooting bots with medaforce spam. ”Well, let's get hooked together and ready to climb! No flying for me, but I can climb.”

Although once the two got harnessed, it was almost comical how the under 5ft tall bot was tied to the ginormous koopa king. Blazermate could almost hide behind his leg, and with her lightweight frame, it was almost like Bowser was just climbing by himself.

He did not see the problem with this, and indeed his first thought was to simply too pick up the tiny bot in one claw, check that she was ”Ready for liftoff?” and then to crouch, tense and then leap into the air! Unfortunately, while he did an impressive jump by anyone else's standards, the king’s ability to jump good had also been disabled, and so rather than launch to the top of the cliff face he’d stepped up too, he just face planted right into it. Seeing this, Blazermate hopped out of his claw before he faceplanted along the wall with an ”oof”

Being unable to fly, Blazermate glided down and around Bowser to grab onto him on his side, ”We can’t really use powers, remember? But that means the others can’t as well. And uh… don’t try to squish me against a wall. I saw that happen to a metabee, it didn’t end well.” Blazermate said, almost chastising Bowser a bit after he almost smashed her into a wall with himself. She then, a bit more gracefully, jumped to the next platform. ”C’mon!”

Bowser shook his head clear and then, feeling a tug on the rope attached to him as Blazermate reached the limit of its short length, grunted and said ”Alright alright!” before leaping up alongside her with some regular jumps.

This worked for all of about 2 stories of jump throwable ledges that they could take one at a time, only for them to find a small pit with a floating platform hovering in the center. The first jump should not have been an issue, were it not for the fact that the rope was not long enough to go from one side of the other, which had predictable consequences as Blazermate, who was ahead, went ahead and attempted it first.

She thought she could make the jump, but soon found that the short rope held her back, causing her to miss the platform and glide down slowly before the rope and Bowser held her suspended in the air, the Koopa king soon reeling her back in. ”OK uh…. I guess we need some teamwork on this one. Any fun ideas?” Blazermate asked.

”Hmmmmm. Jumping while holding you didn’t work sooooo” Bowser replied, tapping his chin thoughtfully, before snapping his fingers. A moment later, Blazermate had stepped onto a lower pair of palms and tossed into the air. Naturally, she stopped about half way across the gap, but also far higher above it than she could have jumped herself, and started to slowly glide down. At this point the king leapt across himself, causing him to tug her floating form along behind him like a kite that swooped down to land beside him.

”How you like that!” ”It works, but you're making me feel like more of a toy than I already am!” Blazermate said as she floated down, more teasingly angry than actual angry, still having fun.

When they tried to do this again however, there came an issue: the king simply did not have the legs to leap across the second, longer, gap, resulting in him plummeting down into the snow and dragging Blazermate down with him, her jets stalling in mid air as she struggled to glide with the king in hand. The bot landed on her feet beside him as he pulled his head out of the snow, resulting in both of them getting a good look at the animated signpost of a penguin swinging a second penguin on a rope below the platform.

”What?” Blazermate was confused as well, until she got an idea. ”Oh, maybe we gotta have someone under the platform, someone on top, then we swing them to the next platform and do some weird… uh…. Teamwork thingy instead of both jumping or something. yeah…” Blazermate said, this place confusing her a bit much like Bowser.

”Yeah. Gotta be it” Bowser agreed, before glancing back and seeing that there was a fairly easy way back up to the start of the jump. As such, a few moments later, they were up there and ready to try it. Blazermate glided over to the platform, getting a grip on it so Bowser could swing over. The rope was super, super strong so she was sure it wouldn’t snap… right? Well, this was the best way to find out! She didn’t want Bowser to lose his grip and fall on her, that’d be uncomfortable.

”Alright, here goes!” the several times her size king declared, before leaping back the way they had come, plummeting down into the pit till the rope went taught and then Blazermate was held flat onto the platform as the king swung below her, holding onto the platform instead of the rope so Bowser wouldn’t drag her under. At least unlike before her jets were not’ stalling, but she was still blushing with effort on holding the giant koopa as he swung under her and eventually swung to the proper platform. At least once he managed to get a good jump, his weight mostly carried Blazermate’s jump with the ladybot being much more graceful than the king.

”Phew, we just gotta do that… a bunch of times now I guess. ” Blazermate said, more relieved than tired.

”Then let’s get started!” the king declared, though as it turned out they had to do a bunch of tandem jumps up a set of rising cliffs first, before doing one more swing, before immediately getting stuck again when they got to an awkward overhang

As it turned out, the drop under the overhang was deceptive, as it opened up into a deep pit after they tried and failed to just jump it anyway, which forced them to redo a dozen or so jumps to get back up to said overhang.

”What kinda level design was that, yeesh” the king complained upon getting back up, before glancing at the signpost and trying to work out how they were supposed to be doing this. This one seemed to show a penguin grabbing the side of the wall for another to dangle down from and swing from.

”Someone who likes pain, I think.” Blazermate said, just as confused about the sign as Bowser. Still, they had been making good progress with Bower’s might and Blazermate able to at least help him along and not get in the way over a few others. ”Any ideas? I don’t know what this sign is asking of us either. I’m more for fighting and doing casual stuff. I fly so I don’t need to do parkour…” Blazermate said, looking confused and trying to think of what this meant for them to do.

It took a bit, but after a bit of scouting from Blazermate, she saw a bit of a platform on the other side of the wall, so what they were meant to do was jump down, one holds onto the wall while the other swings. Blazermate suggested Bowser hold the wall til she swung over, since she doubted he could hold all his awesomeness.

Of course, the problem was that after he did this, claws and mits groping the wall nicely, bot easily swung up and under to the other platform …. He now had to come after her while she held the platform and reeled him in, which was, safe to say, a fairly slow process, the little robot heaving with all her might to raise the king up an inch at a time while Bowser climbed the rope himself.

With a claw, he pulled himself up and suggested that they try ”Maybe the, uh, other way around?”

As it turned out they had to try it that way anyway, as they ended getting to some underhangs soon after, where they had to swing one another up and under to get across. Which took time.

Taking time was the best way to describe their progress, as without their supernatural/science abilities, both king and bot proved to not make the most mobile pairing. Said progress made the section involving moving platforms even more infuriating to the king, who fumed at being made to wait for the same platform for the 4th time after failing a subsequent jump and losing piles of progress because of it. Blazermate did what she could to sooth his rage, but to be honest, she was just as annoyed as he was at waiting. They were getting behind!

”Hey, everyone is passing us! We’ve gotta do something!” Blazermate said as they got back to the start of the mine after that fourth tumble.

”I know! I can see that! Stupid jumping people! Gotta be cheating somehow!” Bowser roared up at them, clearly getting very frustrated with this course not just because they were losing, but also because it offended all his own level designing sensibilities.

Being "awake" in this world meant seeing a lot of things one normally would never get to see - from unique kinds of beings to ridiculous powers to being sucked into dreams. So it was that falling through the curtains into some kind of... alternate dimension? Wasn't all that surprising or strange. Therion doubted he'd ever really get used to it though.

He found himself in a wintery land along with everyone else. He looked up. And up, and up. Being so close to the base made it look larger than it was, but even after taking a few steps away to get a better view all Therion could think was, another mountain. Great.

On the bright side there would be no way this would be as rough as ascending Split Mountain. For one, there seemed to be all kinds of platforms and handholds, and no mountain could compare to the sheer size of the one that towered over the desert. The potential to fall would always be there, but seemed way more tame here than in the pits the Under featured. With all the cutesy animals and a whooping number of boisterous allies around, the atmosphere was upbeat too.

The thief let out a sigh and shook out his body, from ear to tail tip, limbering up and dispelling most of his negativity. He was good at games, and he was good at scaling things, and he had pride enough that he wasn't going to phone in his performance. The prizes up for grabs actually interested him less than doing well and feeding his small ego, since if he really, really wanted something he could just... steal it. But he wouldn't turn down tokens regardless.

The issue was being tied to another person. Almost any of the other Seekers would probably slow him down. Therion glanced at the rope around his waist, visible thanks to the shrinking of his poncho over time, and gave it a tug. Which is how he discovered that his randomly assigned partner was none other than Ms. Fortune. Was that on purpose? None of the other pairs seemed to have any kind of theme going on. Weird coincidence then. Either way, it was good news for winning.

A black and gray striped knit beanie was fit on Therion's head, though rather than holes for his ears like Ms. Fortune's hat featured, his was a longer hat that resulted in two distinct cat ear shapes pushing up from the top. Besides that and the climbing gloves, nothing else about his outfit had changed - though the tall collar of his poncho was pulled up to cover his mouth.

"We lucked out," he told her, with a not so subtle glance at the rest of the pairings. "Should be pretty easy for us, huh? I’m ready. Let's head right to the top."

Already full of energy and ready to trounce the competition, his feral partner agreed wholeheartedly. “Yeah, let’s go!” Even though Therion had declared himself ready, the speed with which Nadia launched herself forward on four legs still took him by surprise. With ten pairs in play -including Sectonia and her unfortunate but hilarious partnership with a literal rock- Nadia predicted that the first few moments of the Seekers’ competitive climb would be a helter-skelter stampede. If the two didn’t want to get shouldered aside or trampled underfoot by heavies like Bowser and Ganondorf, they needed to get out ahead of the pack with a burst of speed, and she assumed that her fellow thief knew that, too. In less than a second, however, she ran out the slack and the ten-foot rope between them went taut, yanking her backward and Therion forward, albeit only slightly.

Surprised, Nadia looked back for a split second, encouragement for haste on the tip of her tongue. Before she could say anything Therion huffed and picked up his pace, his gaze sharpening in focus. He might be part feline now too, but he was currently in human form and wouldn't be able to match her speed on all fours, and shifting would cost them a little time. "I'm good."

Without further delay, the two dashed forward, the feral running on two legs to match her partner. Their lean muscles, well-suited to this sort of exertion, sent them shooting through the penguin village in the direction indicated by helpful wooden signs. Nadia made extra sure to kick snow behind, hopefully to splatter in her frenemies’ faces, as she sprinted toward the first step in their long climb to the top: a thirty-foot sheer rock wall with a cheeky snowman on top. A five-foot ledge lay at its base, with two platforms of wooden planks arranged at different heights. To Nadia, the strategy was obvious, and when the two got close she sprang from the snow in the first of three back-to-back jumps.

Therion was less than a beat behind her, sizing up the spaces between ledges and coming to the same conclusion instantly. Both of them easily made the first jump. The second went just as easily. The third was a little trickier; Therion leapt up and kicked off the stone wall in order to account for the higher distance while Nadia leaped up with muscles coiled like springs, her legs momentarily separating in the process. She did it without thinking, just as she tended to jump a little quicker than Therion each time, and as she crested the ledge a split second early the rope between them almost went taut again.

When they made it to the top of the wall and spotted a suspended platform between it and the next ledge jutting out from the cliff, they didn't slow. Therion assumed that Ms. Fortune would continue on as quickly as possible and made sure to keep the pace, but only after getting closer and landing on said platform did Therion realize the next jump wouldn't be cleared as easily. Ms. Fortune might be able to make it - with her blood jets she definitely could, and he might have been able to clear it in his beast form - but he couldn't leap quite that far as he was now, and he skidded to a halt on the wood, cutting the duo's momentum.

His partner did no such thing. Right now the only word in her mind was go, go, go, and by the time Therion realized this she’d already hurtled across the wooden platform. “Hup!” Nadia took to the skies and attempted to airdash, only for the blood to come from her scars in a trickle rather than a burst, and the next second she plummeted downward. “Wha!?” The moment the thieves’ tether went taut, Therion underwent a terrible revelation of his own: that Nadia was almost three times as heavy as she looked. Without any time to brace himself, the thief got dragged right off the planks, and the two dropped with a hefty splat into the chilly snow below, between a penguin’s igloo and a large wooden sign.

“Puh!” Nadia spat out a mouthful of snow, then vigorously shook the rest from her hair. Luckily for all her bare skin, this winter wonderland wasn’t anywhere near as cold as it should be. “The hell? My blood didn’t work!”

Therion dusted the snow off of him, a flash of annoyance passing his face. "Remember the host said movement abilities were 'disabled'? That must be why you couldn't shoot your blood." Which meant that neither of them could get over the gap naturally right now. Actually, thinking back, Ballyhoo had already given them the solution to that. He glanced up, seeing a few other pairs arriving at the same crossing. At least they had messed up at the start rather than farther in. But before getting back to it...

"And 'what the hell’ is right - how much do you weigh...!? We're practically the same size," he said, completely devoid of tact. It would have been nice to know that she had swallowed a ton of rocks ahead of time!

Nadia reddened slightly. “H-hey, isn’t it rude to ask ladies that? Maybe you’re just ‘weigh’ too weak!” Of course, being sprawled out in the snow wasn’t very ladylike. She hopped to her feet, glancing upward with gritted teeth and a worried expression. “Drat, we’re losing time! All ‘cause I forgot about the blood thing.” Nadia gave Therion the side-eye. “Not to be a-negative Nancy or anything…”

Therion was not amused. "Alright, let's just go again. This time stop at the ledge, I know what we have to do."

“Okay!” Together the two scrambled back the way they came, up a convenient ledge to the top of the wall with the snowman. By now both it and the wooden platform were getting crowded. “Hey, hi, how are you? Ice weather today.” Neither of the two burglars were strangers to surreptitiously weaving through crowds, however, and they quickly managed to jump to and nab some real estate on the platform. She hunkered down, not eager to get knocked off while the others tried stuff. “Okay, now what?”

"Now just hold on to the rope," Therion said, preparing to jump and swing. Just before moving on though he realized that his partner would have to actually know what he was thinking in order to jump herself, otherwise neither of them would be going anywhere. Communication wasn't exactly either of their strong suits, he found. He changed gears, figuring it would be easier to have her swing than explain the timing.

"We’re gonna swing across, when you’re almost as far away as you can get," he tugged on the rope to make sure she knew what he meant by that, "I’ll jump too. Once in the air, the momentum should help pull us over."

Or so he hoped. He didn't have an academic level of knowledge of physics. Though it seemed Therion might say something more, perhaps doubting if he could actually support her weight even while ready for it this time, instead he nodded once and then executed the plan.

At his urging Nadia jumped off of the platform at an angle and swung beneath him. Above her, Therion served as the anchor for his much heavier partner, as much as that strained him, and as soon as possible he jumped after Nadia on the upswing to send her sailing across the gap. The thief followed, very neatly clearing the ledge himself.

“Whoo! Nice!” Nadia grinned as she skidded to a stop. By going in a single, decisive swing rather than building up centrifugal force (and confidence) over multiple spins, the two got a leg up on most of the competition. This was their chance to put some distance between themselves and the pack. Nadia popped off her noggin, flapping her ears like wings. “Let’s hurry up and get a-head!”

They moved swiftly on up to the platform above them, then across to the next, and across again onto and on top of a suspended hunk of rock. They fell into the same slightly mismatched pace they had at the start, Nadia a beat ahead and Therion one behind. The rope connecting them sometimes pulled for a second, and though it was never enough to hinder them on these simple jumps it had become noticeable. By the time they were moving onto the next ledge looking up at another platform they'd probably have to swing from, Therion figured they'd have to start actually trying to get into sync.

"We're gonna have to swing again. Me first this time, on three." he decided, his muscles still sore.

“Okay!” Having seen how Therion did this before, Nadia felt pretty confident she could do the same. However, she could also see that if they fell here, they’d plummet all the way back down to the igloo, maybe even smacking into another duo on the way. As funny as that would be, Nadia didn’t want to push her luck with excessive haste. She planted her claws (tearing through the fingertips of her gloves in the process) while Therion dropped, and after he began to teeter back and forth to build up swing momentum, she called down, “I wanna time this right, go for a couple loops!”

A moment later Therion was swinging around her in a circle, and Nadia took a deep breath. Gotta thread the needle. Or in my case, pick the lock. “One. Two…” On the third loop, as her teammate passed beneath her, she withdrew her claws and charged. “Three!” Unfortunately she went a little too early, and as Therion swung up he found Nadia leaping alongside him, their jump arc horizontally distant but not quite high enough. “Uh oh.” The next second, both slammed into the opposing ledge. “UGH!” Nadia half-expected the impact to drive the wind from her lungs, but with damage disabled, she could focus enough to grab hold of the ledge and drive her claws into the dirt-brown stone. “Got it, got it, got it!” With another grunt she hauled herself up, rolling onto the snowbank in front of a slab of ice. “...Just as planned!” After exhaling she turned to help Therion up if he needed it, figuring that since she hadn’t needed to drag his weight up with her, he’d managed to at least grab the ledge’s side with his gloves.

Well they'd made it, though not exactly as planned. "You can't just say three while you're jumping," Therion said. He was already most of the way up the ledge himself and wouldn't have any issues making it the rest of the way (the gloves were pretty handy), but after a moment's hesitation he took the hand Ms. Fortune was offering him. "...but it was close enough, anyway."

With no time to lose, the two pressed on. When they clambered over the hunk of ice, careful not to slip, Nadia’s body reacted with it on contact. Rather than freezing her, though, it gave her Multitarget, causing tiny green arrows to appear around her like hearts or sparkles which split and then disappeared. At the moment Nadia paid the reaction no mind, not even self-aware enough to count her own blessings, as her focus lay on the next challenge. In front of them yawned a small but treacherous-looking pit with walls of sloped ice, much deeper than it initially appeared. The only place to go seemed to be a plank attached to an overhang above. A sign stood next to the conundrum, but Nadia kept her eyes on the board, cooking up a clever idea.

“I think we can cheese this,” she told him. “I can’t purr-essurize my blood in here, but I can still stretch. If so, I’ll need you to jump right away, or we both drop. Okay?”

Therion's eyes flicked over to her after actually trying to parse the sign. He paid little attention to the odd turn of phrase the feral used while attempting to visualize what she had in mind. Snapping herself like the recoil of a band? He thought he'd seen her do it before, so that might actually work. The cost of failure wasn't that high at the moment either.

"As long as you know what you're doing." He shifted toward the edge of the rock. "Ready."

Nadia got down on all fours and turned around, then launched her legs in an explosive diagonal extension. “Legs-a-go!” This move, Fiber Upper, normally served as her armored reversal, but by now she’d already made ample use of its other handy quirk. Once her muscle fibers stretched out to their limit, they snapped back, but instead of pulling her limbs back they pulled Nadia up as Therion took a leap of faith. After snapping up to her legs she flipped once, then grabbed onto the plank with both hands. The next moment Therion’s dead weight hit her, which meant she couldn’t haul herself up, but once her partner climbed up the rope (and then Nadia herself) she could follow him onto the ledge. “There!” she gasped. “Nothin’ to it.” When she glanced up, though, she found an almost identical situation just ahead of her.

"Tired already?" Therion teased, as though they hadn’t both been getting a workout this entire time. He couldn't deny her plan had been a good one, but could they keep relying on it?

"Wanna try doing that again, or how we're probably intended to do it?" he asked, glancing down to where they'd come. He couldn't see the post with the traversal tip in it from here, but he could hear the next fastest pairs start to arrive there.

The feral wasn’t too proud to seek alternatives. “If you’ve got a better idea…”

Therion pointed up to the lower cliff face above. "Basically the same swing. We'll jump, you grab that overhang and I'll be able to make it to the plank." And from there she could figure out what to do. But for swinging to work this time, she'd definitely have to be the one to play 'anchor' first: she had a higher vertical leap than he did, and it would be much easier for him to keep hold of the tether for her and prevent them from falling if he was wedged between wood and stone.

"Got it? On three again. Actually on three this time."

“Okay,” Nadia grinned. “Three!”

Maybe expecting something like that by now, Therion threw himself after her with only the briefest delay. Nadia jumped up and smacked the wall with her gloves, where she hung by arms with the rest of her body dangling. Once again Therion swung beneath her, and after his arc brought him up alongside their destination, he grabbed hold and hunkered down. Then, at his signal, Nadia could release her grasp, hang down beneath him, and use the rope to climb. With their teamwork ever so steadily improving, the maneuver went about as well as it could have, and from there, only a few easy leaps and another horizontal swing separated them from the next, more intimidating looking section.

Nadia narrowed her eyes as the two ran up to the edge. Unlike the other two, she couldn’t see the other side of the overhang from here, and could only assume the existence of a matching handhold on its backside based on there being no other apparent way across. “Kay, let’s do it your way. On your mark?”

"Yeah. Here we go." Once Therion counted it out, the two jumped together. After they both grabbed onto the wall, Therion dropped down, then swung back and forth to build up enough momentum to fly up around the other side, where it became his turn to hold tight. Unfortunately he bounced off the wall before managing to get a grip, and Nadia let go the moment she felt the impact, resulting in both dropping. “Crap!” Panicking, Nadia twisted around and extended her arms in an attempt to reach the ledge they started on and salvage the situation. Her claws dug in, but when her and Therion’s combined weight bottomed out, her fibers snapped and both dropped. “OWWWwww!”

Their fall ended much sooner than expected, however. “...wugh!” A bowl-shaped formation below these overhangs turned out to be a lifesaver, preventing a sudden and unwelcome return to the penguin village. When Nadia looked around, she found a sign pointing to a chute they’d just jumped over, with scaffolding that’d permit a quick return. She let out a sigh of relief, then let her arms drop from the ledge so that she could collect them. “Jeez, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I shouldn't be rushing so much.”

As much as Therion wanted to be annoyed with her (and, alright, maybe he already was a little), he was self aware enough to know any mistakes they made weren't entirely her fault. If he'd secured a handhold, or they'd both extended their countdown call outs, they most likely wouldn't have fallen. Their saving grace was that this was a game, so they really didn't need to beat themselves up about it. Then again, they obviously both wanted to win.

"It's fine," he said, standing back up and shaking excess snow out of the folds of his clothes. He glanced at his partner with a competitive glint finally showing in his clouded gaze. "I'll let you know as soon as I'm ready for you to swing. We can make up the time."

“Yeah!” Nadia clenched her fists, her determination renewed by Therion’s understanding. If they could overcome a setback like this without infighting, a mountain should be no problem at all!

With that the couple of thieves bounded up onto the nearest platform, sending themselves across the gap and up through the narrow chute in order to attempt the steep underhangs again. Their plan hadn't changed at all, save for the one small detail. Once they were up there once more it took Therion two go-arounds to attach himself to the stone on the other side, much to his frustration, but as soon as he felt the gloves stick and braced his feet against the stone he called to Nadia. "Go!"

“Going!” A scary split-second passed after the feral let go, but her lifeline went taut and her drop turned into a swing. After the briefest of glimpses at Therion above her, she reached the zenith of her arc. “Now!” Then Therion let go, allowing Nadia’s momentum to carry her forward onto the next platform. “Yes!” From there, all the cat burglar needed to do was help pull Therion up. “That was great! We’re really getting into the swing of things!”

They saw themselves onto the two next suspended planks after a final vertical swing. From there the two got something of a break - without the need for deeper coordination with the tether they could both focus on sprinting through the smaller jumps and snowy straightaways that followed, leveraging their speed. Nadia had one other idea, as well; if her blood couldn’t be used to jet around, she could still use it to trip the others up. As she ran, she pumped blood from her scars to stain the snow red behind her, much to the horror of the penguin camping nearby. “Let’s give our friends the slip, eh?” The bloody slick would make it that much easier for the others to lose their footing. Therion didn't have any issue with the less than fair play. His tail twitched up behind him, the only sign that a small, approving grin had come over his face beneath the collar of his poncho.

Together they sped across a series of smaller cliffs with icy sides that spelled an embarrassing slide down for any that fell until they leapt onto a platform floating before the entrance of a cave carved into the mountainside. With one final swing, timed by Therion as the anchor, they launched toward the cave mouth. Though Nadia landed on the ledge, her partner smacked into the side below her, and by the time he got up both were breathing a little heavily. “Huff. We’ve been going non-stop,” she observed. “We’ve got a little lead, so maybe we should take a second to breathe? Don’t wanna wear ourselves out just yet.”

Therion pulled off his beanie, letting the cool air wash over his ears and head. "Sure."

A pause gave them time to gauge what would be ahead of them, as well as how well their competition was doing. At the mouth of the cave they could see that more of the same awaited them above, which bolstered their confidence. At the back of the cave voices echoed up from a vertical drop, signifying that a larger portion of the other pairs were making it to wherever it led out. Curiously Therion and Nadia looked out over the edge of the cave's entrance to see just what was going on with the others.

A climbing challenge, eh? That was nothing Captain Falcon couldn’t handle. A race to the top through harsh environments? As far as he was concerned that was practically like an F-Zero race only without the machines involved! Of course there was the matter of the rope tied around his waist and the rule that he’d be tethered to someone and would have to work with them. Something like that was a little less familiar to Falcon, but all he needed to do was be able to work on a team. How hard could that be? Speaking of which, he tugged the rope and traced its line to find the man he had been paired up with and spotted Roland.

"Guess we’re in this one together, eh? Let’s win this thing!" Cap said with a smile and a thumbs up. It was when he gave that gesture that he noticed the mittens on his hands. He also realized that his scarf had become longer and its fabric more wooly, plus it was wrapped around his face like a full blown muffler. He suddenly realized that his racing jacket felt a bit heavier too and noticed that it was heavier and also lined with fur for greater warmth. And… wait, where was his helmet? Now he was wearing a furry ushanka hat and black tinted goggles wrapped around his eyes. That was quite the more startling realization, especially when he worried for a moment that his identity had been accidentally revealed. But the hat and goggles combination still managed to mask him, perhaps even more so with his wooly scarf now covering part of his face.

Roland could only sigh as he was paired with the guy they were trying to ‘recruit’, if what he heard before was true. The new guy trying to recruit the new guy, was this how these guys operated? Well that wasn’t unfamiliar to him in a way. Well, either way, he was forced to be a team player again and he’d at least give it a good ol’ fixer try. Especially since the monsters of the group were very interested in the stuff here, and they seemed to know way more than they let on.

”Sure pal. I’ll give it a good try. Although I gotta wonder how this works, do we both just jump together or…?” It was soon shown though as Roland was hesitating to get the lay of the land to Captain Falcon’s annoyance that the rope was very important and the two had to basically swing in tandem, using the rope as a fulcrum, to navigate the course in a timely manner. Rubbing his chin with a ”Hm… Ok I see what this is…” Roland made a move to the first platform and gave a quick explanation to Falcon.

"Roger that." Captain Falcon confirmed. "Now let’s show ‘em our moves!" And as he exclaimed this, the Captain - without warning - broke into a run toward the edge of the platform and leaped. Since Roland was the one who’d figured out the trick and explained to him, Falcon naturally just assumed he’d be able to follow his lead so they could give themselves a good running start before the real trick got going. Aerial maneuverability wasn’t that tough for the Captain. His Raptor Boost and Falcon Dive techniques gave him a way to boost himself forward and upward respectively so that he could put some extra oomph into his jump distance. And as long as he could coordinate with his partner, he saw no reason why they couldn’t easily slingshot themselves forward with that swinging maneuver he had explained.

Roland wasn’t too surprised this guy had moves like a fixer, and while Roland didn’t have his fire based mobility, he had his own stuff with his own skill and agility. While he wasn’t a fan of the initial vertigo caused by swinging on the rope so fast, it didn’t take him long to get used to it. And while the larger jumps were difficult for the larger members of their group that didn’t have hacks, Falcon’s competitiveness and Roland’s cooperativeness were all that were needed. That and the ability to actually hold each other’s weight and everything. Granted Midna and Roxas were cheating, but besides them, Roland and Cap were in the lead.

Frankly, even if Falcon did have any abilities that would allow them to “cheat”, he’d still refuse to use them. The man was nothing if not one who showed proper sportsmanship. And that meant completing games and challenges exactly as they were intended, on his own skill alone and nothing else. It was quite the point of pride for him, and in some situations it might even put him at a disadvantage against competitors more inclined to cheat or use dirty tactics. But much like he had done against the two Koopalings in the Kart race, the Captain had proven multiple times that he had a certain talent for overcoming such cheating with his raw skill and determination.

He didn’t know what kind of a competitor his partner was, however. "Cheaters never prosper." He said offhandedly in reference to some of the other teams who weren’t playing completely by the rules, "A man who overcomes a rigged game gains a lot more bragging rights than the one who does the rigging." Was this mostly just a philosophical belief? Yes. But it was one he had built his entire career on, and Cap wasn’t about to abandon that belief any time soon. Roland could agree with Captain Falcon, but in his mind honor was the choice of the winner.

Their first real platforming challenge came in the form of a wide gap. Too far to jump, even with the swinging technique they’d just lose altitude along the way and not be close enough to grab the ledge at the other end. Instead they’d have to make use of the three awkwardly placed overhangs, by grabbing the wall, swinging themselves underneath it and back up to the opposite side and then use that to launch themselves forward to the next overhang. Cap didn’t find this particularly taxing, but he wasn’t sure the same could be said for his partner. He just had to hope Roland had the same kind of determination to see this through that he himself had.

Roland had determination in spades, although for this he was just winging it. Doing the cliff hang so Falcon could swing over, using his daggers to hold himself until he could follow his would-be partner. While looking like a beanpole, Roland was quite strong. Give it one thing, at least the City had some amazing augmentations. Looking back, after making it through this section, it was obvious those having trouble before were having trouble now as well. ”I guess this course shows who is athletic and who isn’t huh?” Or he figured, who used their superpowers and who was ‘normal’.

"Separates the men from the boys, you might say." Cap said in agreement. Now climbing up to the top of the structure they’d just been swinging under, they could see the next platforming challenge up ahead. A series of precarious jumps with little more than small blocks worth of platforms to land on that elevated upward toward a long overhang that blocked the path to the next platform above. ”This looks like it’ll take a lot more careful aim and precision than the previous jumps." Falcon warned. But rather than look worried, he instead flashed an eager smirk. "Just the kind of challenge I like!"

Roland looked behind them and besides the cheaters in front of them, so far they were far in the lead. ”Well, so far it’s been pretty easy, so this shouldn’t be that bad.” Roland said as they got ready for this crazy jump. Falcon on the other hand, just cracked his knuckles and neck. They’d gotten this far, so by now he had full confidence that they could do this no problem.

The first jump, for Cap at least, was a near miss. In fact he had to use his Falcon Dive to be able to reach the target and not plummet down to the bottom of the climbing challenge. The jumps after that weren’t quite as far apart. And the overhang proved to be relatively simple to deal with. As some of the only challengers actually performing the climb as intended, that had the unintentional side effect of giving Roland and Cap quite a bit of practice in the art of swinging themselves under and onto the other sides of these things. But then there was a tiny pixel of a platform they had to jump to. Now that looked intimidating but the jump still wasn’t quite as far as that first nearly disastrous one was. After that they were in the clear.

"Yes!" Cap chanted with a victorious arm pump. Up ahead the two saw an entrance to what looked like a mine of some kind. So climbing and jumping in a dimly lit or even dark cavern? That was certainly going to be one way to up the ante on this challenge. But Cap wasn’t worried. They’d done excellently so far so what harm could a little darkly lit spelunking do here?

”Wasn’t this supposed to be a ‘mini’ game? There is nothing mini about this if we can't see the finish!” Roland said, a bit annoyed at how long this was taking. They had left the slower pairs in the dust at this point. Well, so far they didn’t see the end, so he guessed the mines were the way to go. ”Well, unless there is some invisible exit or something, I guess that's where we gotta go. Why do I feel like a mouse in a maze?” Roland said, agreeing with the captain.

"Go big, or go home, I say." Cap said, maintaining his fearlessness. He entered the mine and noticed something kind of surprising. "Ha! Look at that!" He’d spotted another team that apparently managed to break ahead of the pack. It was the ones who had been getting around the jumps by somehow creating platforms of their own. " We aren’t the only ones ahead." In addition he also saw moving platforms. Great, so that meant they’d have to have the right timing in addition to everything else. This challenge was just getting better and better.

”I saw those two cheating earlier. Considering the big bee can’t fly here, I wonder how they got their powers working?” Roland said, rubbing his chin while he thought. But then he could summon his weapons from his gloves, so maybe that wasn’t owers, but items or technology or something. Well, either way, these moving platforms weren’t too bad looking at them. The pair had been pretty good working together so far, so Roland was sure they could handle this bit pretty well too. He went to take the first platform, not having really any of the captain’s flashy fire moves but he had kept up with the guy’s moves so far with his natural agility. Honestly Roland was waiting for the rub here, so far it had been pretty straightforward and just required teamwork and basic physics understanding. Was there going to be something to mess them up soon?

In a manner of speaking… yes there was at least one drawback veering its head now. Cap’s darkly tinted goggles were now making the dimly lit mines even harder to see in. And yet for some unspoken reason he was adamantly not taking them off. The first time this cropped up was when he nearly overshot the first moving platform, but was able to correct himself with a Raptor Boost. And the reason he was refusing to take off the goggles? Well that would mean showing his face to someone. And Captain Falcon’s number one rule in all of his career was to not reveal his identity unless he was first beaten in a race. So unfortunately, honor was taking precedence before reason here. But it wasn’t actively slowing them down… at least not yet anyway.

An Ushanka and 4 climbing mitten wearing Midna looked up at the tall tall mountain and, after a moment, joked ”Hopefully this one doesn’t have a `don’t freeze to death` challenge at the top of it” before having a thought, tensing, and then the rope connected to her to find her partner, breathing out an audible sigh of relief when that man was not found at the end of it.

Instead it was Roxas, who she hadn’t exactly spent that much time with (they’d somehow managed to end up on different sub teams for every leg of Midgar) but between facing her fears earlier, and the cart racing of all things back in Twilight Town, she only had good experiences with the guy, resulting in her flashing a genuine pointy toothed grin before she asked if he ”had any experience with this kind of thing?”

”Nope.” Roxas answered. But before he could do anything else he looked down and noticed poor Scamp shivering between his legs. And so Roxas put him back in his Poke Ball for the time being so the little guy could stay warm. ”That guy said movement abilities were disabled, right?” He asked, realizing that meant he wouldn’t be able to coast through this with Flow Motion.

”Seems like it” she replied, as she watched her flygon try and fail to take off before unsummoning it.

”Wait.” Roxas realized, ”I wonder if…” He tried to use the Phantom Ruby necklace to summon a virtual cube as a test. And sure enough, it worked! Movement abilities were disabled, but summoning abilities like this one still worked just fine it seemed. And if all damage was also disabled…

”This’ll be a cinch!” Roxas exclaimed. Then he used the power of the Phantom Ruby to summon a set of cubes in a diagonal line. This made them look like a floating staircase. And it also gave them an elevated platform to use as a small head-start for the climb to come. ”I can use virtual cubes to give us extra platforms whenever we need. Normally they hurt other people, but that guy said damage is disabled so you should be able to stand on them, no problem!”

”Only one way to find out I suppose” Midna agreed, before taking a tentative step onto the first step of the stairway. And true to Ballyhoo’s word, the cube was harmless to her. At least inside of this minigame anyway.

”This is as many cubes as I can have out at a time.” Roxas explained, though admittedly he was still fairly new to this specific power. ”But I should be able to re-summon them as we go along without much limitation. So as long as we’re creative with them, they’ll give us an edge. I hope.”

”Say, how good are you at jumping?” He asked when they reached the top of his construct, ”I’m pretty good at it myself, want me to jump first and try to swing you over afterward?”

”Not exactly something I've done a lot of. Used to be able to float after all and the royal life didn’t exactly call for leaping around rooftops” Midna replied, before her face became contemplative, before rhetorically asking ”I wonder” before her hat suddenly rose up off of her head, carried skywards on the middle finger of her shadow hand

”Now that, that is going to help make up for my lack of jumping legs a lot” she said, pointing up at the hand while it gave a thumbs up. And that prompted Roxas to vault over to a nearby natural platform. Of course he couldn’t dispel his cubes right away while Midna was still standing on them. Since he was obviously a lot more “parkour-inclined” than she was, it seemed like he would have to be the one to make some of the first jumps.

”You can try jumping, but if you drop straight down we should be able to swing you back up onto this platform.” Even if he couldn’t actively use flow motion, that didn’t mean he couldn’t still draw from his knowledge of using it to figure out their momentum and the distances it could carry them. Especially since he was able to calculate a lot of that pretty quickly in his head thanks to his Medabot spirit.

”Sounds good, but for these” Midna replied, as she simply reached up and grabbed the first thin platform she had to jump up too, before hauling herself to it ”That’s not going to be necessary”

This strategy worked for about all of the first little cliff, as after that they were presented with a jump that was longer than the rope between them, meaning that it was together or not at all. ”On the count of three?” Midna suggested after eyeing up the gap.

Roxas nodded. ”One-” he counted.

”Two-”

"Three!" they called together and then took a short run up and then leapt up and across the gap. There was a brief moment of panic as Midna’s lack of friction caused her to slide towards the opposite edge of the little platform they’d jumped to, but before she reached it purple dragon claws erupted from her sandal exposed toes and dug into the terrain, preventing any kind of fall.

”Phew, close” she said, before asking ”alright, what’s next” and taking a look across the gap to the other side of the little pit the platform was floating above, one that looked a little bit wider than the one they’d had to just do.

Others had had to use elaborate swinging tricks to pass this, but them? They had tricks of their own to bypass this. Roxas himself was the source of one such trick. With a gesture he was able to generate a basic bridge of virtual cubes they could simply walk across. Of course he assumed it wasn’t always going to be this simple. And he was right. The next platform was a bit elevated and too far for a bridge of cubes to reach. But there were a couple of narrow, vertical wall structures hanging down along the way. And the mittens were able to stick to vertical surfaces for short periods.

"I think we’re gonna have to do some swinging this time around." He admitted, "How do you wanna do this?"

In response to that, Midna reached out with her shadow hand and grabbed the bottom of the first overhang while she was still standing on their jumping off point before saying that ”I think we can get away with just one”

Roxas was pretty sure he had an idea of what she had in mind and nodded. "Got it. You swing us forward and I’ll give us a place to land so we can try to jump the rest of the way." He said and then grabbed her non-shadow hand as a signal that he was ready to go whenever she was.

Midna blinked once in the most miniscule moment of surprise, before flashing him a confident grin as she wrapped the remaining three of her four hands around the back of his hand for a secure grip. Then it was a ”1- 2- 3!” before she leaping off of the edge, using her shadow hand as a rope to swing both of them down under the overhangs and then tossing him forwards, bypassing the 3 underghangs others were using, and sending him towards the end in one fell swoop.

It didn’t look like they quite reached all the way. They would have barely missed the platform, but for the virtual cubes Roxas summoned on its edge in order to make it close enough for them to touch down without any problem. He was also quick to dispel the cubes afterward, to prevent any other teams from utilizing them. Climbing up onto the top of the structure they had just swung underneath was a simple affair. But the next actual platform challenge was… less simple. It started with a long jump onto a very small floating platform, in order words a target that was easy to miss or overshoot. And then three more jumps onto similarly narrow platforms that also increased in elevation followed by a long overhang that blocked anyone from being able to reach the next elevated platform.

"These just keep getting crazier, don’t they?"

”They really do” Midna agreed, before also adding ”Also if you mess up-” as she looked down and down and down at a drop that could well them take them all the way to the start ”well, it's a good thing damage is off but that is a long way to get back up”

Still, they seemed to be making good time, she spotted at least one team down below making much slower progress, but that was no reason to let up the pace. ”You can make it bigger, and even if we miss, I can make a grab for it, so it’s going to be ‘crazier’ for everyone else I think”

”Sounds good.” The Nobody agreed. They pretty much followed that plan exactly. Roxas used virtual cubes to expand the landing area of the jumps. And as for the overhang, they did have to do a bit of momentum swinging to pass underneath. But once they were on the other side, they kicked themselves off the side of the overhang in order for Roxas to instantiate another “staircase” of virtual cubes they could climb to reach the elevated platform. ”Nailed it!” he celebrated. ”Haven’t had any chances to practice with my virtual cubes much, so this climbing race was just what I needed.”

”Still getting used to not being able to levitate here too, so it’s working out for me too” Midna agreed before adding that it was a ”Shame those will only work for you out of here tough”

"What do you mean?" He asked in confusion. A split second later he realized what she meant. "Oh the cubes don’t hurt me at all. They only hurt other people who touch them." He clarified. "Anyway, where are we going next?" He looked around and the only thing he could see was some kind of cave entrance. "I guess we’re going in there next?" He asked as he pointed at the entrance to the mine.

”Right, but i’m going to have to unlearn that they are safe and useful is the thing” the princess clarified before nodding and agreeing that ”that it does seem like it's the only way forwards”

With that said, there was nothing to do but step inside and see what it had in store for them, which turned out to be a bunch of slow moving and fairly narrow platforms. ”So now we have to time the jumps with those? Crazier and crazier” Midna observed, before correcting ”or, well, everyone else does, you can just pop some wherever we need them”

"We gotta be careful about it though." Roxas warned. "I can only create more platforms after I’ve touched a non-cube surface. So we have to make sure we touch the natural platforms in between my virtual ones. Other than that, we should be good." Their somewhat shady tactic had gotten them ahead of most of the other teams. Well, there was one other team that was equally ahead. And that was Captain Falcon and Roland, who’d been managing to blaze through the platforming. And they didn’t even use any virtual ones or anything!

"I think I just figured out who the team to beat is going to be…"

”Look at them go” Midna commented as she stood and watched for a moment, impressed by their straight up skill, before saying ”well then, let’s not get left behind” because the two had definitely been a bit lax in that department thanks to their cheating abilities.

"On it!" Roxas said. The first moving platform was intended to be used to let a team swing their way onto an overhang they could then climb up to where a vertically moving platform awaited. At least, that was the intended way of doing this. Roxas, on the other hand, gave himself and Midna another staircase of virtual cubes that would allow them climb up directly toward the second moving platform, skipping the first one altogether.

Midna then casually reached up to grab onto and pull herself to a little rock below said second platform, only for it to shake in a worrying manner, prompting her to let go. A few moments later, it fell down, only to be replaced by another little rock.

”Nasty. Can’t trust these ones it seems” she said in reference to the rock, but, fortunately, again, they didn’t have too. That was a super easy fix for Roxas, who could just give them a few cubes in about the same spot they could safely stand on without them crumbling beneath their feet. And that also made timing the vertically moving platform easy as well so making it that far was a snap.

”Problem solved. Onto … however many more problems there are” Midna said, before commenting ”You know, I thought these were supposed to be ‘mini’ games, but this is already a lot, and I can only imagine how bad it would be if we fell” right on time for a roar of frustration to come echoing up below that sounded rather distinctly like Bowser being furious about falling who knew how far back down.

”Or maybe there’s some shorter route that we don’t know about?” Roxas suggested. Some of the next sections looked like they relied more on the falling blocks from the looks of it. On the bright side, by now Roxas had figured out that the blocks only crumble and fall when one stands on top of them. So that at least meant they could be trusted so long as the two of them were clinging to the sides. He supposed it wouldn’t matter too much so long as they could keep using his virtual cubes. But that did make him wonder if they would eventually reach a section where those alone weren’t going to cut it.

Though a couple moments to catch their breath was a major relief, neither Nadia nor Therion could get too comfortable. Next to infighting, nothing would screw up their chances at winning more than overconfidence. So rather than risk re-enacting the tale of the tortoise and the hare (especially with tortoises like the Koopa Troop around) the two decided to press on after less than a minute’s rest. “Alright, let’s kick things up a notch!”

The thieves’ reprieve gave them a chance to plan out their next move, too. With a solid roof to this cave, the only way seemed to be back the way the pair came, involving a climb up to a higher elevation and then a swing back out the entrance. As much as Nadia wanted to cheese it to make up for lost time, Fiber Upper wouldn’t work with the distance and angle involved, so the two set out to do it right. Together they hopped over a pit, up the back wall, and onto the board, where Nadia hunkered down so that Therion could fling them over. Once he stuck to the wall, the feral whipped around the other side to latch on herself, only she grabbed on a little too high for her teammate to clear the bottom. “One sec, I’m adjusting.” She let go and grabbed on again about a foot down, giving Therion the necessary clearance. “Okay, go!” He swung beneath her, and she kicked off the wall to backflop into a pile of snow, safe and sound. When Therion stood and looked down, he found a fresh snow angel laid out beneath him, but Nadia quickly jumped to her feet with a grin and the two got a move on.

Another swing-jump awaited them to get across the next gap to where a penguin sat with a fishing rod lowered. With clouds floating to either side of the platform, Nadia tried not to look down as she dropped to perform the first swing. This time Therion got moving just a little late, but after smacking into the top of the wall the two managed to salvage the situation with a quick clamber. The fisherguin gave them a dubious glance as they hauled themselves up. “Should’ve been a fall,” he grumbled.

Nadia looked at him quizzically as she went by, not missing a beat. “But it’s clearly winter?”

When she saw what was next, however, she had to get serious. Just ahead hung a trio of pillars like stalactites. Using the same strategy as before, the two would have to grab and release a whopping five times. They’d need to be fast before their grip failed, and careful, too–there was no safety bowl this time, only icy slopes funneling hapless climbers toward a long fall. The feral took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. Let’s not rush this.” Her ears perked up suddenly. “Hey, we should see how long we can hold on! Let’s cling to this first wall together, then fall back here once we lose our grip.”

Though Therion wasn't the most talkative fellow and she was the one doing all of the joking, Nadia could probably tell that beyond the mild frustration of mistakes, her fellow thief wasn't having a bad time. Once they'd figured out each other's timings for the most part, stretching their muscles and skills had actually been kinda fun. But after a certain point, the higher up they got the more serious Therion started to grow. He wasn't nervous, because they'd already seen proof that they wouldn't take any damage in this place, he just really didn't want to fall. Of course there was the fact that a tumble would reset some of their progress, but more than that the awful, stomach lurching feeling of a free fall was what he wanted to avoid. So when his partner suggested testing their grip out first, Therion blinked at her in appreciative surprise.

"Good idea." He flexed his fingers, taking a step back to prepare to pounce. "On your mark."

On three the pair sprung up onto the overhang, digging in with their gloves or claws and holding fast. They stayed perched there for as long as they could. Seconds ticked by until Therion felt his grip start to slacken well before the strength in his arms did. He glanced down at the ledge they'd jumped up from, and before he lost his handhold entirely he tapped out.

"Time's up," he said, letting go. Ms. Fortune let go too, else the tether drag her down anyway, and the two of them landed back on the snow. That was the time limit they had to work inside. They allowed themselves a moment to steel their nerves.

"Ready to go for it?"

The feral cracked her knuckles, resolute. “Born ready! Three? Two. One…go!”

They moved on Ms. Fortune's countdown again so that their first jump would be close to perfect. As before she started off their vertical swings, which meant this time she'd be anchoring to the wall once more than her partner. When she latched on, Therion swung up under her, able to make it onto the other side. He gave Nadia the all clear and she wasted no time unlatching so she could swing to the next outcrop. When she was sure her grip was secure she gave the signal, and Therion let go.

Midway through his swing he could already tell that his arc was too shallow. Either he didn't have enough force, or the feral was a little too low on the underhang. He reached up for a handhold anyway, managing to catch it with one hand.

"Hold on," he called, grunting and pulling himself up properly. The window was going to be tight, but in the middle suspended over nothing they didn't have any options besides succeed for fall. As soon as he was clung on with both of his hands, he let Nadia know. "Go. You're gonna have to be quick."

Which was never a problem for her. She let go, sailing under Therion and straining his grip. As soon as he heard the all clear from her mouth he pushed himself off of the rocks, making sure he had enough power to complete his final swing in one go. He came up onto the wooden platform and anchored himself for Nadia, catching her outstretched hand as she completed her final swing as well.

Therion's breathing was harsh after the brush with failure, but he actually grinned at Nadia once she was on her feet.

"Nice job."

His partner’s breathing was a little shaky. “That was freaking scary!” she admitted, but when she saw Therion smile she couldn’t help but return the favor. “But we rocked it. Let’s keep it up!”

They didn't take much time to celebrate, both of them eager to keep their lead. They went up onto the next platform and the top of the rocks they'd just hung from, moving over ice and snow (Nadia shedding blood once more) to yet another large gap. There were chunks of rocks to grab onto like there usually were, only this time they were much, much smaller.

In even worse news, though, the long sightline revealed one of the other pairs -Roland and Captain Falcon- just as they disappeared from view into a distant mineshaft. “What? No way!” Nadia’s ears drooped in dismay. “How’d they get so far ahead? We’ve been doing great!” Sure, they’d slipped once or twice, but they’d never screwed up big-time. Had those two really not made a single mistake? When she saw Captain Falcon boosting around with fiery dashes, though, she got her answer: they were cheating too. The next moment she also saw Midna and Roxas, abusing their powers much more blatantly. “Well that sucks,” she moped. Until now she’d assumed that she and Therion were in the lead, but apparently they’d been so far behind that they didn’t even notice other pairs ahead of them. Well, at least she didn’t feel bad about her own exploits anymore.

“It’s ‘snow’ big deal,” Nadia decided, focusing on the task at hand. The spot she and Therion needed to land on was little more than an outcrop, but the two of them could do it. Once more the two prepared to swing, Nadia serving as the anchor. A couple seconds later, the two flung themselves toward their tiny destination. Both touched down–but it was there that things went sour. In her haste not to skid through the snow and off the ledge’s other side, Nadia backpedaled too much and fell backward, while Therion did slide off the front. The next instant they stopped cold, the rope that connected them stretched taut across the top of the block. Of course, Nadia’s greater weight began to tip the scales, and the thief found himself suddenly dragged upward as his partner flailed for purchase.

Therion released his held breath. That was a close one. His reprieve lasted barely half a second before the two of them were in danger of falling yet again. They had to reverse this fast. He twisted when he was close enough to the stone, bracing his feet against it and taking hold of the rope. Then he pulled, practically standing perpendicular to the block's side as he struggled to get Nadia back on the ground. "Stop squirming!"

It was a near disaster, but finally he was able to get her high enough that she could grab the side, climb back on top and reel Therion in too.

After composing themselves, the two pushed forward in a quick series of jumps. Nadia imagined herself skipping across stepping stones in a river, and at the end the two reached yet another hanging wall. “Just go!” The two leaped together, using their momentum to reach the surface. While Nadia held on, Therion swung below, and the two reached the other side without issue. The next step, though, left Nadia incredulous; it was a board scarcely wider than her own foot, a single plank that stood between progress and ruination. In the end it just took a normal jump, but it left the feral’s heart pounding. A couple hops and a quick sprint brought the pair to the mouth of a tunnel, reinforced with supports like a mineshaft. “In here?” They plunged into the passageway, and it quickly opened up into a large, dark cave, its chilly gloom interspersed by burning lamps and wooden bowls that moved along chainlike rails, ferrying loads of frozen fish mined from the ice to and fro.

“This is fun,” Nadia remarked, taking off her head to get a better look at the Fishy Mines. She could see another pit below, and a way up on the other side. If ridden, those conveyors would demand another level of timing. Looking up, though, she could see a chute leading upward above them too. “Branching paths?” she wondered aloud, examining the ledges opposite her and the boards above her with her hands on her hips. “Well, we can cheese this one just like I did earlier,” she observed, crouching down. “Let’s do it!”

A hyper-extended Fiber Upper, executed just as Therion jumped, snapped her high enough that she could grab hold of the platform, and the two could climb up the cavity. When they jumped up onto a blocky protrusion to wait for another fish bucket to descend, however, their foothold began to crumble beneath them. “Aw, nuts.”

Luckily it was just a short fall, and they’d learned a valuable lesson. Plus, that cracked block reformed, meaning the two could go again. It took just a moment to repeat their stunt and ride the bucket upward, where they needed to quickly spring off more crumbling blocks to land on a horizontal conveyor, but at that point the cavern opened up in enough directions that Nadia stopped cold. “...Not sure where to go from here, to be honest,” she said, squatting. There were at least two ways upward, and a possible connection to another mobile bucket. When Therion looked her way, he found one of the fish already in her mouth. Her brows furrowed together when she discovered its rubbery consistency, and she turned her face away to spit it out. “Arti-fish-al.”

Therion didn't comment, not keen to encourage more of Nadia's eccentricities. He stood looking at each option as their platform moved, his tail swishing back and forth. Immediately he discounted the other bucket, since it wouldn't bring them up. If anything it would just take them to another area where they'd have to choose between a few paths. That left the western route, with an underhang and some planks, or the eastern route with an underhang and empty air between it and the next small ledge.

"That way seems easier," he said, pointing out the former route. Then he looked back toward the other as the bucket they were on started going back that way. "But let's go with this one. If it's harder, it must be faster."

And at this point, even while making a few mistakes their coordination had improved so much that he was confident they could pull it off.

Nadia nodded in approval at his plan. “Sure.” Before doing anything, though, she took another moment to scope the route out. “That looks like a crumbler,” she observed, pointing at the block next to the underhang. After another moment, her eyes went wide. “Wait!” She turned to her partner, smiling from ear to ear. “We can’t hurt each other, right? What if I use Fiber Upper to kick you into the air, then snap up so we can grab on?”

"Seriously?" he asked, dubious. But with damage disabled and a floor just below the conveyors to catch them if they fell, Therion couldn’t find any grounds for refusal. Though not for a lack of trying.

They got into position, and once the bucket advanced they launched into action. A spring-powered kick hurled Therion right into the wall, which he grabbed just in time as the slack ran out and Nadia shot up after him. From there, he just needed to let go again, regain his grip strength, and swing over to the board with a caution sign, where he could pull Nadia up. Easier said than done, but having done it a few times already he pulled it off without a hitch. One more tandem toss through the open space to a vertical hauler, and the pair settled in for a short ride.

Just then, though, a most unsettling yell made Nadia jump. She looked up to see two flailing shapes, one black and one blue, plummeting down through the main mineshaft. After missing every possible foothold, they shot by -less than two feet away from the feral’s face- and plunged down toward the bottom of the cave. “Yes!” Nadia grinned as she looked down, knowing the two would be fine. “Have fun at the bottom, fellas!” she called down. “Make sure you stick the Ro-landing!”

Now she and Therion had a good shot at second place, as long as they could avoid making the same mistakes. The section above them, full of cracked blocks, looked awfully tricky. The two proceeded with caution, quickly discovering that while the cubes would crumble if stepped on, they wouldn’t when one of them clung to the side. Together the thieves moved fast, straining their muscles to the point of soreness as they faced fragile blocks, several tiny planks, and a treacherously stubby overhang. When Therion’s first jump fell just short and Nadia’s foot hold began to give way, she opted to jump back to the safety of a fish bucket, kicking several into the void as she caught her partner’s weight. Once she pulled him up and the block disappeared, the two could try again. They didn’t need to worry about perfection–just salvaging their mistakes.

From there they reached a fast-moving conveyor, then climbed up a series of blocks they needed to grab onto, swing away from, and then jump across. The higher they got, the brighter and more open the cavern got, tinted an icy pale green by the reflected daylight from outside. At a fork in the path, they followed the sign pointing northwest through a small cavern. When Nadia tried landing on a cube and then jumping again before it crumbled, her jump fell short and they both nearly slid down another chute. “Urgh,” she groaned, backing away from the edge. She looked up at their destination, then at Therion. These caves were getting brighter, but they showed no sign of stopping just yet. “This is getting ridiculous. Maybe another quick break after this…?”

At some point Therion had lost his beanie entirely. He took in a few deep breaths, stretching and massaging one arm before swapping to the other.

"We have to be getting close to the end," he said. Or else how could this really be called "mini?" "...but, yeah. We'll find a better spot to break, and once we catch our breaths we'll sprint for the finish."

Now that those guys, Roland and Falcon, had fallen down into the depths of the mine, he couldn't imagine there was anyone else ahead of them besides Midna's pair. Seeing as those two had practically circumvented the entire obstacle course, it would be rough beating them for first. However that didn't mean he didn't want to try.

He cut Nadia a sly glance. "...at the same time, we'll have to figure out a way to deal with the front runners." He could think of a couple ways, and he suspected Ms. Fortune could think up a few more. Before any of that though, the next section awaited them. "Ready?"

Nadia cracked her neck from side to side. “Ready.”

They pushed forward again, this time clinging to the side of the fragile stone foothold. As usual the duo had Nadia lead, so that at the end she'd be able to haul the lighter Therion up instead of the other way around. She clung on at the same time her partner swung up to grasp the other side, then performed a swing herself with his go-ahead to bring them both to the next platform. They leapt over the icy gap in tandem, continuing their sprint across the flat rock. Ahead of them were more straightaways leading to simple jumps... which wouldn't fool the thieves. Between the both of them, they could tell that the paths were likely to crumble away. But if speed was required to get through this part, they had it in spades.

"Keep going until we're on stable ground." They dashed across the first part, though the low clearance between it and the next unsynced their pace. Therion could feel the rock shifting too quickly under his feet, but fueled by adrenaline and pure desire to avoid falling, he pushed himself to catch up with Nadia and together they leapt up onto the next couple of ledges, stopping not at the next solid rock but one higher, where a penguin frozen in an ice crystal stood.

Nadia let out her breath in a big puff of mist as she slowed to a stop. “Alright.” She sat down, trying to regain some stamina. If someone else popped up, maybe she and Therion could push them back down, but hopefully they’d have a moment to rest undisturbed. Her eyes lay on the frozen penguin. “As demonstrated by our friend here…” The feral smirked. “It’s a good spot to chill.”

It had been quite a while since the race began, and yet Kamek and Rika’s progress could be best described as 0. Not that they hadn’t tried, but Kamek was, unfortunately, arguably, a worse thing to be tied to than a rock. They’d tried using his a as a grappling hook, but his weak constitution meant he was hardly able to manage such a feat. They’d tried draining all his mana so he transformed into a cat demon thing, but that had a limited life span, and the process had left the mage physically drained even when his mana was back up.

Hence, they were back down at the start again.

All was not lost however. Rika had had a sit down to think, come up with a plan, and was now in the midst of executing it.

She stood atop an igloo home of one of the penguins, who’s front had been blocked up with unfortunate npcs, who’s surroundings had been stripped bare of snow. Said snow, and a bunch of snacks, had been converted into Brachydios goop by way of Rika’s digestive system, which now filled the interior of the igloo.

”I know that I've let you down RIka, but maybe this is a bit drastic?”

”Nah. Damage is off. I tested it by trying to cut off my arm earlier” she replied, and then, before Kamek could get over his horror, made a sucking sound as she gathered saliva, and then masterfully spittooned it into a little hole she’d bored into the top of the igloo.

”Oh badness, oh badness, oh badness” Kamek stammered from the baby carrier position he was tied to, while Rika just steadied herself, took a superman pose, and then.



The igloo exploded, sending ice shafts and penguins flying in all directions, while the princess and age went flying up, up, up, and away! Past the swing rope sections, past the under-hanging stalactite section, past even the entrance of the mines before slamming straight into an angled wall in the mines, before pin-balling all around it, Rike having instinctively wrapped her arms and legs around Kamek to protect him from damage he couldn’t take. After being a hazard to everyone actually doing the climb, the pair crashed down into the same pit Bowser and Blazermate had ended up in down at the bottom of it.

”Oh, uhhh, hi papa, why’s there 4 of you?” a very dizzy Rika asked as she tried and failed to stumble to her feet, while Kamek was even more out of it, eyes swirls of dizziness.

More portals… Geralt thought as she was transported to a strange, disk-like space with seemingly endless sky beyond them, the other Seekers looking around curiously. Ballyhoo gave a fairly succinct explanation before the platform they were on was spun like a roulette wheel, thankfully leaving the Seekers in place while an attached apparatus randomly determined what activity they were going to participate in. A tandem climb to the top of a snowy mountain while tethered together? Hmm, not necessarily overly difficult, but working that closely with somebody she’d known for, at best, a week or so was not Geralt’s idea of an easy time.

Another teleportation left Geralt blinking away discomfort, but she recovered and noticed that her partner was the same man Midna had been having issues with earlier. “I don’t think we were ever properly introduced. Geralt of Rivia.” She introduced herself simply, and though a part of her wondered what bothered Midna so much about this man, she also didn’t feel too invested in getting involved in somebody else’s interpersonal conflicts.

What was it that this woman was called again? The “Witcher”, whatever that meant? So this was to be his partner for the time being? "Ganondorf Dragmire." He responded and then added, "I hath been called many things. King of Thieves, Demon King, King of Evil. It becomes rather… tiresome… after a while, truth be told." A funny thing to say, when the Warlord’s infamy was entirely his own doing. "But enough about that. I hath just the answer for us to claim a swift victory." It was quite the boast, and he immediately set about proving that he meant business and summoned his Phantom Steed.

"Ha! The fool!" Ganondorf said in celebration, "He hath taken my movement abilities, but not my summons! Come, Geralt, let us mount the horse and be away from here. He shall take us straight to the top of this challenge." Ganondorf mounted the horse himself, and then once Geralt had followed suit he commanded it to gallop upwards. Except… it couldn’t. The most it could do was a form of hovering. The steed could not gain any height with its gallop. So even a summoned creature had its movement capability dampened by this minigame’s magic? "Bah, it seems the ringmaster was not quite the fool I first took him for. No matter."

Geralt gave a raised eyebrow to the self-described ‘King of Evil’ immediately complaining that he was called that. He could have just…not mentioned it, but she supposed he might’ve been getting ahead of the title before she heard it from somebody else, so she left it at that.

The fact that he had a horse he could just summon was interesting, and Geralt climbed atop the Phantom Steed without much hesitation, looking around and wondering if it really would be that easy. When the steed merely hovered over the ground, she made a blank face and nodded. “Well, I suppose it would have been interesting to just fly over everything, but not in the spirit of the challenge.” She dismounted the Phantom Steed and looked towards the first obstacle. “I have a feeling that'll just make this harder on us. Shall we?” She asked, gesturing to the platforms?

”Indeed.” The Gerudo confirmed. He dispelled the horse as soon as they were both dismounted. It wasn’t hard to realize how the challenge was meant to be played. One look at how some of the other Seekers were tackling it told him that the two of them would need to swing one another forward in order to give themselves the momentum. Not much of a problem for Ganondorf given his immense strength, but he did wonder whether or not his partner would fare as well - especially with how much larger he was than she. But in a world like this, appearances meant nothing, really. The only thing that might have worried Ganondorf was his inability to use Bullet Jump for the duration of this little game. That would make the actual platforming itself somewhat… awkward.

He was also just now noticing that his shade cloak had seemingly been shifted into a black fur cloak of some kind. For the sake of warmth in the snowy environment, he assumed. And he also assumed it would return to normal once the game was concluded. As predicted, the jumps were not the easiest thing in the world for him with his size and weight and inability to compensate for it with Bullet Jump. Was he seriously going to be the weak link here? Bah, no! Surely he just needed to keep going until he learned some kind of trick to this whole thing.

Geralt was no slouch in the strength department, easily able to clear jumps and pull Ganondorf up via their tether. She was, however, ever so slightly hesitant in some movements, as she was still getting used to having lost a foot of height from what she had been for a few days. Still, her hesitation lasted only short moments, and she found herself a bit…frustrated with Ganondorf’s lack of jumping prowess. “I’ll admit to being a little surprised, though that armor does look heavy. I imagine if I were still in my chain mail, I’d be having my own issues with these jumps.”

She did her best not to let the frustration she felt show on her face, but her words lingered as she observed their next obstacle, another wide gap that one would have to anchor another to swing across. “I figure I ought to anchor for these.”

Ganondorf grumbled a half-hearted agreement. The supposed “trick" he had yet to figure out was in fact merely to work together as a team. This was something that under most circumstances just simply did not compute for him. It also didn’t help that Ganondorf was mostly only doing this because he was interested in the Orb Machine. As such he wasn’t exactly enjoying himself like many of the others were. But he still agreed to let Geralt be the anchor for this swing in spite of his own frustrated grumbling and made it across in the end.

Of course the challenge was only going to escalate the further they got. This included sections where they would have alternate anchoring for each other to get across gaps too wide for a single swing to make the distance. And yes, Ganondorf fell at one point during this. He absolutely despised not being able to use his Bullet Jump. Otherwise this would have been nothing for him. It didn’t help that he noticed the blatant cheating some of the other teams were doing. ”This ‘minigame’ is beginning to feel rigged!” He grumbled with frustration. He had no other way to interpret this, given that some of the other Seekers clearly still possessed their powers while most of Ganondorf’s felt stripped away from him. Whoever had arbitrated these rules was clearly biased! Or so he had convinced himself, anyway.

“Figure some of them can do things that they either didn’t account for, or are too general to count as a ‘movement’ ability, whatever that even means.” Geralt neither agreed nor disagreed, though she absolutely saw where Ganondorf was coming from. “My strength and speed are intact, and Nadia looks like she’s having a blast throwing her limbs around like they aren’t part of her, but you could easily argue that’s just a part of our bodies.” She seemed less put-off by the vast differences some of them had, though she had noticed. “Not all contests are made for equals, especially in this confluence of worlds, after all.” It was a lame conclusion, and even she felt it, but it was the truth. Some people were just better suited to certain tasks.

Taking a moment to mentally plan their next move, Geralt looked to Ganondorf. “So, heard you and Bowser both remember Captain Falcon. I assume you know Link and Pit then, as well? Peach?” It was simple conversation, but it was better than listening to Ganondorf keep complaining.

”Aye.” Ganondorf confirmed. ”We know all of them. We - among a few others - stood against Galeem when it first appeared, for all the good it did us.” Falling was painless due to the disabled damage of the game’s arena. But falling also meant having to redo previous jumps to make it back to where they initially fell. Needless to say, Ganondorf and Geralt weren’t exactly going to be leading the pack anytime soon at this rate. ”If only I had the full might of my army…” Ganondorf mused, clearly no stranger to war and conquest. But at this point they’d made it back to the place they first fell from. So it was time to give that blasted jump another attempt. And thankfully, he made it this time. Perhaps distracting himself with conversation was the way to go.

”Pray, forgive my curiosity.” Ganondorf inquired not long after the jumps were finished, ”But I understand that thou once were a man before consuming many spirits. Is this true?”

They were at least making some progress, so Geralt didn’t find herself bothered by the conversation. “Back when it first appeared, huh…” Geralt mused, wondering just how long ago that must have been. She knew something was going on involving time, though she wasn’t sure what exactly that was. The World of Light existed long enough for children in their twenties to have been born, but many of them had barely any memories of existing here at the same time.

“But yes, I was a man. Fusing with a few female Spirits turned me into a woman.” Geralt replied before they went over another jump. “I fused with a male Spirit after our battle with the Guardian, but it seems that wasn’t enough to tip the balance. I’d prefer to be a man again before the end of the day, but apparently as long as we play in a few of these games, we’ll get enough tokens for some more Spirits. As long as one is a man, I’m likely going to fuse again.” It wasn’t the wisest of strategies, but upon seeing what she got, she’d make a decision then. A few more jumps appeared before them, after which they had to swing once more. “More jumping. With these gloves, I don’t know if I’d mind actually climbing, but they seem to be enchanted against that.” She mused.

”Hm, good to know.” Ganondorf himself had so far not been aware of that potential side effect of fusing. Now that he knew, though, he could be more wary of it in the future. He, too, preferred to remain a man if he could help it. With how small some of the platforms ahead looked, it was hard to even see them. Would they even hold someone his size? Unfortunately there was only one way to be sure. He made the first leap and nearly fell but for his hand managing to catch the edge of the small block platform that he then hauled himself up onto. So it was at least possible. And the next couple looked slightly easier to make save for them being a bit elevated in altitude. The swing under the overhang was what he dreaded though. Those had been giving him the most trouble.

And this one was no different. He successfully managed to swing himself but he didn’t make the platform ahead. But this time he was fortunate, because unlike him Geralt had made the landing. So all she had to do was anchor down and Ganondorf could use the rope tethered between them to pull himself up the ledge he had initially failed to reach. Ahead he saw the entrance to what looked like a mine. ”That appears to be the way forward.” He said, and then added. ”If memory serves, I believe Ms. Fortune possesses a curious orb device that can strip thee of the spirits that thou possess and return them to original orb forms. Perhaps thou could use that to rearrange thy fusions into a more preferable form?”

Geralt took a squat and made sure to keep her footing steady as Ganondorf climbed the rope to reach the platform. She didn’t offer a hand up, unsure if doing so would undo the work they’d put in and send them toppling below. Once he was up she followed his gaze to the mines, nodding. “Sounds handy. Might be worth looking at after all is said and done and we get on the Avenger. The ship we came in on.” Geralt clarified, moving towards their shared goal.

“Saved us and the Virgin Victory from Z barely an hour or two ago. Brought some old friends from Alcamoth too, so you’ll get to meet some of the Mercenaries we were working with.”

”Hmph, another Consul?” Ganondorf grunted in reference to Z. They’d rapidly become his most hated enemies since his release down in the Under. He also was walking toward the entrance of the mines. ”We fought two of them in the Under. One was slain and the other fled like a coward after we slew his pet Guardian.” Once actually inside the mine, Ganondorf grumbled to himself about what he saw. Moving platforms. As if reaching the stills ones wasn’t enough of a chore. It was also dimly lit, but the glow of Ganondorf’s Triforce could give them some extra light if they needed it.

“Same for us in Midgar,” Geralt commiserated, “Killed Y, and C ran off after having us fight a doppelganger. Apparently it was somebody from Zenkichi’s world, and…he wasn’t happy about that. Looked damned distraught about it, even though it was one of the bastards in charge of that corrupt place. Though, I understand most of the other Seekers are of a more heroic bent. I get that killing folk isn’t always necessary, but there are times where it’d have saved a lot of heartache to just cut a whoreson’s head clean from their shoulders, too.” Geralt didn’t have too hard a time seeing in the dim light of the mines, but she frowned a little at the moving platforms. “Suppose it’s a bit like Witcher training, then.” She muttered, watching the platforms as they moved about the mines. “Just don’t fall off.” Were it so easy.

Being transported into a new plane of existence would always be a strange and slightly unnerving experience, no matter how many times Primrose went through it. Seeing as it wasn’t even the first time that day that it had happened to her though, she recovered fairly quickly.

‘Connected Climbing Chaos’ was going to be their first event, and it was really all in the name. Ballyhoo was nice enough to elaborate further before their location was changed once more, with the mountain they’d be climbing towering over them.

A large gray knitted band fit over Primrose’s head at an angle, protecting her ears and forehead from the chill but leaving her hair and the rest of her face uncovered. A matching pair of knitted leg warmers covered the area from her ankles to her knees, putting her bare thighs into contrast whenever her dress shifted enough to expose them. She glanced down at the climbing gloves on her hands before finding the rope tied around her waist and tracking its length to one of the more unassuming and plain looking men from the city team.

The brief introduction earlier painted Zenkichi to be on the more friendly side, but even so Primrose couldn’t help but think with some irony about being tethered to a man, physically this time. Hopefully he didn’t catch the sharp, wry smile on her face before it quickly morphed into a much more pleasant expression.

"Zen-ki-chi," she said, putting emphasis on the syllables of his name. "My name is Primrose, if you didn’t catch it earlier. I’m not sure how well I’ll do at this kind of game. I’ll be in your hands~"

Looking around the mountainous area they’d been teleported to, Zenkichi completely missed the look on Primrose’s face, a small shock of disappointment running through him that he hadn’t been tethered to a different woman, but it was replaced with a small smile and a nod.

”Ah, don’t worry about it. With some of the other guys we’ve got, I was definitely not gonna be doing too hot, myself. Let’s just do what we can and maybe it’ll be fun.” And maybe it wouldn’t destroy his knees, but something involving lots of climbing was probably going to wreak havoc on this old man.

Content with not placing very highly, the two of them set off on an almost leisurely pace. Their first obstacle was barely one at all, merely a pair of platforms to be jumped upon, but the series of jumps after looked a bit more daunting. And just looking at the rope holding the two together showed Zenkichi that this was going to require some technique. ”Yeah, that rope is definitely not long enough for us to go one by one…” He said, frowning a little.

"And it looks like they did something to my floating scarf, so no taking the easy way out," Primrose said, picking at the shimmery white material. The runes that allowed its wearer to fly had all dimmed as if they'd already been spent.

They engaged in some people watching, gathering information as other pairs tried, failed, and tried again to get across the long jump until they made it. Some had more unique ways of getting to the other side, but one way seemed to be the most straightforward and successful method: leveraging each other's weight and momentum to swing partners across almost at once. Primrose looked at Zenkichi.

"Want to give it a try?"

Watching the gap, Zenkichi pondered the best way to make use of their tether, before coming up with an idea and nodding. ”I think I've got it.” He replied, before stepping backwards and hopping off the platform.

Primrose took a slightly wider stance to better support the man's weight. Thankfully she wasn't partnered with any of the larger members of the group, else she might have trouble. As it was, the dancer was a little stronger than she looked and kept on her feet while holding tight to the tether. While Zenkichi swung, Primrose looked between him, the platform's edge, and their intended destination. Understanding what to do was different than actually pulling it off, so she braced herself for the feel of the rope's pull in order to time her own jump.

Zenkichi whirled under the platform and forward, the momentum of his fall pulling him in a circle and towards the front of the platform. His stomach lifted a bit, but he grit his teeth and trusted Primrose to time the jump properly, though if they messed this up the fall wouldn’t be terribly harsh, at least.

The rope tying the two of them together kept its slack and both were sailing the small distance to the rock face on the other side of the snow filled pit. With the benefit of seeing the practice of others' for their first time trying the swing and fling technique Primrose and Zenkichi did pretty well. As the second jumper, Primrose didn't quite clear the gap entirely, but she stuck to the cliff with the aid of the climbing gloves until her partner reeled her in.

They could see part of how the course continued from there. It went diagonally up at a steeper angle than the path they'd just come from, but it didn't look like there would be another wide gap for a little while. It would still take coordination to continue the climb, but it was doable. They began to make their way up, taking the time to pause or go at the same time while they jogged to each jump. Above and below them they could hear shouts and thumps of fallen pairs who were taking a less slow and steady approach.

"Let me know if you'd like to pick up our pace," Primrose said casually as they came upon the next place they'd have to swing. "I have something for that."

”I wouldn't say no to that. It's funny, I've actually got a speed buff spell we could've used, but I'm not sure I can summon Valjean in this place.” Zenkichi paused, thinking. Could he summon Valjean? Sukukaja would be useful here…

A moment later, Zenkichi transformed into his Phantom Thief attire, and behind him, a spectral figure appeared before slowly fading into invisibility. ”So yeah, that's Valjean. My Persona. Lets me do a bunch of cool stuff. Just wanted to check if I could still get him in here. You said you had something we could use?”

Primrose had stepped away from him in order to prepare for a dance, but she put that on hold since the surprise revelation.

"Persona?"

The way Primrose said the one word, it was that she was surprised Zenkichi had such a thing rather than being confused about what it was. So he was from the same world as Ann, Alibaba, and their friends? No, more than that, his outfit change indicated something else...

"You're one of the Phantom Thieves?" she asked. She wasn't sure, since he seemed much older than they were. Perhaps he was a mentor figure of some sort?

Zenkichi’s guard rose when Primrose asked him if he was one of the Phantom Thieves. Staring into her eyes, he let out a breath and relaxed. ”I am. The latest addition to the team, but back in our world we worked together to take down a corrupt businessman and the AI program he was trying to use to control the world. I guess you were on that other team with them before you all got split up?” He asked, concern evident in his voice for his allies.

That he was their latest edition, instead of the mentor Primrose figured, was an amusing detail. Still, hearing the worry Zenkichi held in his voice for the kids made Primrose soften somewhat. She hadn't been hostile to him, instead keeping up her more friendly facade around the man since he was still basically a stranger, but the genuine concern he showed for the Phantom Thieves went a long way to endearing himself with the dancer - though unbeknownst to him entirely.

"I was," she replied. "They've been looking for their lost friends. We managed to find two of them before we parted ways, but there are still some out there, somewhere." Alibaba's other half, Sakura, came to mind. Primrose shook her head slightly, then flashed Zenkichi a small, warmer smile than before. "I like to think I got to know some of them pretty well. If you're a part of their group, I'm sure they'll be delighted to see you when we manage to meet again."

Zenkichi smiled a little at the thought. ”Yeah, I kinda miss those kids. And it’d be good to know they’re doing alright in here, what with everything going on…” Trying not to let everything that happened in Midgar get to him, he nodded. ”And I think I heard Joker made one of the freakin’ Guardians into a Persona?” Somehow, that just fit that kid so well.

"Oh yes," she said, recalling the Red Eye's defeat and absorption quite well. It was probably the best outcome.

Eventually they really had to get going if they didn't want to end up last. So on that note Primrose bid Zenkichi to mind the rope between them as she took her starting pose.

"The Panther Dance," she purred, beginning to flow into the motions of her performance. It was a smooth, quick-footed dance that increased the speed of whomever she performed it for, which was only Zenkichi at the moment in order not to spread the effects to all of her allies, on the off chance every other pair was suddenly boosted. Of course she'd have to buff herself as well in order to keep up with him, but with practiced step she could move from the end of the first dance into the start of the second seamlessly as though it was a single dance.

When it was finished she glanced at partner. "How's that?"

Zenkichi’s eyebrows were raised at the dance, and at the very noticeable effect that it had on him, making him feel lighter, not unlike Sukukaja did. ”Dang, that’s actually pretty good. I just remembered that my speed-boosting spell can only affect one person at a time, though. Still, was worth a thought.” He mused as he looked towards the next obstacle, another rather long jump that would likely require them to swing underneath the platform.

His partner chuckled. "I've something for that too, if you're so inclined." She supposed if it resulted in accidentally giving the others a speed buff too, it wouldn't be the worst since collectively she and Zenkichi would have two.

”I mean, it’s worth a shot, I guess. Valjean!” Summoning his Persona once more, Valjean appeared in a burst of blue flames, raising his chains above him. ”This one only lasts a minute, though, so once you’re done, we better get a move on!” He warned.

Primrose nodded, and went right into the steps of the more sensual Sealticge's Seduction. This dance was as potent as it was provocative, and once she was finished she let her audience of one know so he could cast his spell.

”Sukukaja!” Zenkichi cried, another burst of energy flowing through him. As advertised, the energy poured not just through him, but into Primrose as well, spreading its effects.

Zenkichi wasted no time in dropping below and swinging, and this time, they cleared the jump easily with the benefit of both their boosted speed and a bit of practice from earlier. ”Now that’s what I’m talkin about!” He cheered.

Primrose joined him not a moment later, jumping when he was at the apex of his arc. She didn't voice her thoughts aloud like he did, though it was clear she too was having fun with their newfound speed.

Together they made short work of the next couple of sections, though not without several close calls. The increase in speed was exhilarating, but also made traversing the mountain more treacherous. The ice and snow didn't help that fact, and just when the unlikely duo had actually managed to pass a couple other pairs the danger of going too fast hit them. After another successful swing, Primrose landed on one of the small floating rocks but promptly slid off, her momentum sending her slipping forward over the side of it. She let out a soft "oh" in place of a gasp, about to go into free fall and take Zenkichi with her.

Zenkichi, right behind Primrose, watched the Dancer slide right off the edge of the rock and managed to get out a panicked ”Oh shi-” before he went right over the edge with her, flailing in mortal terror, watching the ground get closer and closer until they landed with an unceremonious thump, Zenkichi breathing heavily before realizing he was still alive. ”Oh, right, the hat guy said damage was disabled, didn’t he…?” The Phantom Thief mused, scratching the back of his neck. ”That was still terrifying though. Let’s, uh…not do that again.”

Standing up, he offered a hand to Primrose, sighing. ”And there goes all that lead that we got there, though I guess that’s what we get for trying to rush through it so much. Ah, oh well. It was still pretty fun until the whole ‘falling to your not-death’ thing.” A bit on the optimistic side, but he hadn’t expected to have ever really been in the lead in the first place, so it wasn’t much of a loss to him.

Primrose gingerly took his hand and let him help her to her feet. Dusting herself off she glanced up from where they’d fallen. "It was fun," she agreed. Also with the fact that maybe two speed buffs was too much. ”And I suppose there's nothing more we can do than go again."

”All there is to it, yeah.” Zenkichi agreed, turning back to the climb ahead of them. It’d be quite a bit of work to get back to where they were, but having already done it once, they had a fairly good idea of what would work and what would land them in the snow. On the way back up, without the exhilaration of their enhanced speed, however, Zenkichi noticed something…odd. There were streaks of blood in the snow, though when he stopped to look at them, the volume reminded him that the other team of Seekers did have somebody who could disassemble their body on a whim. ”Well, that’s not gross at all.” He nevertheless complained.

"Courtesy of Ms. Fortune, I'm sure." Primrose knew she was partnered with Therion, and having gotten to know both thieves (whether in her home world or here) she certainly didn't put it past either of them to set up some kind of trap.

Stepping over and around the blood, a small grimace on his face, Zenkichi jumped to the next platform and prepared to swing once more. ”So, how did things go on your end? Aside from getting the job done, that is. Midgar was…a bit of a mess. Always has been, at least as far back as my memory living there goes.”

"I've heard some about it from Midna already. As for the Under..." she trailed off, not very keen on going into detail about what they'd seen and done after already chatting about it a little with the Twilight Princess and Queen of Floralia. A byproduct of her pause was the slightly dramatic effect it created, but rather than leave Zenkichi in suspense she gave a simple answer. "...it was unpleasant. Hopefully it improves now that the source of its plague is gone."

And, because she just couldn't help herself apparently, she asked after a moment's hesitation, "...how far back do you remember? You've been in that place, Midgar, the entire time?"

Zenkichi paused at the question, stopping to really think. ”It’s…really fuzzy and vague. I know I’ve lived there for a few years, but trying to remember how long, it just…doesn’t work. I don’t know if my memories are even real, or if Galeem just created a facsimile of my life in Japan and replaced a bunch of places in my head. But I can remember at least two or three years of living in Midgar. That much I know for sure.” It was sort of existentially terrifying, knowing that at least some of his life was either false, or an implanted copy of a memory from the life he lived before Galeem.

He tried not to let it bother him, though his face betrayed some of that discomfort. ”I…haven’t really thought much about what that means, to be honest. I’m trying not to.” It was freaky to think about, really. They had plenty more climbing to do, which Zenkichi gestured towards, careful not to get too lost in conversation. When things got intense, he made sure not to distract Primrose, or himself. But when they found another series of short jumps, he added one more thing.

”What’s weirdest about it is that I’m basically trying to unscrew up my relationship with Akane again. My daughter,” he added quickly, ”Because boy, was I a rotten father for a while both times around after Aoi died…Ah, sorry, that got heavy all of a sudden.” He backpedaled quickly, knowing how weird it could get when he got reminiscey.

The dancer mentally filed away Zenkichi's timeline. The big mystery of it all, or part of it anyway, had already been revealed to her - but she still felt it important to keep track of how far back people could remember. For her, it was a scant few weeks. She didn't reply, especially since her partner hadn't asked, content for now to listen to Zenkichi tell part of his story as they gradually climbed back up the mountain.

The next piece of information he volunteered came as a surprise. Not only did Zenkichi have a daughter, but she was with him. He'd said "trying" - present tense. Primrose didn't say anything for a few moments, full of conflicting feelings as she was. Figuring that Zenkichi's apology might mean he thought she was uncomfortable with the conversation, she was quick to tell him, "it's fine."

A daughter, hm? she thought. In her opinion, Zenkichi was much too forthcoming with things like that. If he told the wrong person, it could put her in danger. Moreover though, the relationship between father and daughter had always been something of a sore spot for her. She didn't know Zenkichi well enough to dispute his comment about being a rotten father; but even if it was true and the man was trying to make amends, then Akane probably didn't know how lucky she had it that he was still in her life.

Eventually, after some awkward silence, Primrose offered him some advice. "...the best thing you can do, I think, is let her know you're there for her. And, then, be there for her."

Zenkichi paused, nodding. ”I think, for now, that’s probably the best thing I can do. She’s hanging out with her new pet on the ship we came in on now, sounded like she thought a carnival was too old-fashioned for her. Gotta admit, compared to an invisible flying ship the size of a small town, she’s probably right, but…am I really that old?” He complained rhetorically. His knees could tell him that he was.

At this point though, the conversation really was distracting Primrose and slowing them down. If they wanted to even complete the course, they'd have to pick up the pace. "Well, let's get going."

They hunkered down for a few more swings, focusing on cooperation instead of speed. Steadily making up for their lost time, they arrived at the mines.

As they crossed the threshold into the mines, Zenkichi breathed a sigh of relief. It was a little warmer in here, though as he looked ahead and noticed platforms moving, his relief turned into mortification. ”Ah. I see it’s only going to get worse.”

The way forward did seem daunting. They'd gotten a pretty good workout so far, exercising some muscles seldom used (at least on the dancer's part), so Primrose would be fine bowing out at this point. Then again, maybe that was against the spirit of the game. She took her time catching her breath at least, glancing down to see how far a fall would send them.

"Taking our time has worked so far. " Hopefully it would work the rest of the way too.

Jr’s feet crunched down into the snow a fair bit deeper than an observer would have guessed based on his size. He raised a fingertip-less gloves hand to his forehead as he looked up the tall tall mountain, hand touching the fabric of a green and orange striped bobble hat who’s, well, bobble had been removed to allow for his topknot, still pierced by Omori’s tulip hairstick, to poke out instead.

”Huh, starting us off with a big one I guess?” he assessed, before declaring ”Good! If we’re only doing four, way better this than some cookie cutting thing” before turning to see who his partner was and going ”Oh hey… Pit” after taking a little moment to remember the angel’s name.

The hesitation in the young koopa's voice did not go unnoticed by his partner.

"Don't tell me you seriously almost forgot my name! We've been in two tournaments together!" he complained.

Atop Pit's head was a brown woolen ushanka with long sides that went past his ears and hung by his chin. His laurel crown had somehow ended up on top of it, holding the hat snugly in place, and the loose white scarf he already wore over his chiton was upgraded to a larger, puffier, warmer fabric. The climbing gloves ended just where his bracers began, leaving more than half of his arms covered.

"Plus I must be kind of famous by now! You know like when they mention the greats it’s 'Mario, Samus, Link, and Pit!'"

”Ehhhhh” Jr replied, doing a little side to side hand shake before slapping him with the distinction of being ”More like Olimar tier” which was an extra slap seeing as the kid apparently didn’t have any issue recalling the tiny carrot leading space man’s name.

"What?! That's- No way!" Pit sputtered. Olimar?! Not even Donkey Kong or Kirby?! He looked like he very much wanted to argue that point but he snapped his mouth closed, let out a large huff of breath through his nose, and just shook his head.

"Okay forget about that right now! We've got a mountain to climb!" The angel flared his wings out, hopping and turning in place to face their obstacle and pointing up to its peak. "And we wanna win, right? Let's get a head start!"

”Yeah, enough standing around! Let’s show them who the superstars of this game are gonna be!” Jr cheered, turning attitude on a dime thanks to his competitive spirit, before pursuing the penguin village, and pointing towards a set of platforms leading up one side of the gully it was in and saying that ”It’s gotta be that way” before immediately scampering off in said direction.

Pit jogged alongside him, squinting up at what he could see of the path. It was more vertical than anything else, which he guessed made sense since they'd be going up a mountain. Predictably they weren't the only pair that thought to get a head start, but the boys were confident.

They quickly came upon the first of many jumps they'd have to make, a sheer rock face with a ledge leading up to then two suspended wooden platforms Junior had spotted. No problem! Pit thought.

"You guys are pretty good at jumping, right?" he asked Junior, talking about Koopas in general. "And with my wings this whole thing should be easy!"

”You know it!” the prince agreed, before pausing and correcting ”Well except Kamek” because the old Koopa was not going to be having a good time, that was for sure.

The angel easily leapt up onto the ledge, not paying much mind to the rope that attached him and his partner since he figured they both knew what they were doing. As soon as he landed he swiveled to go into the next jump immediately, and further from there. The prince effortlessly followed his lead, only a half step behind, resulting in there being plenty of slack in the rope as they made their way to the top of the little cliff face.

They arrived there just in time to see the rather absurd sight of Bowser swinging under a platform with Blazermate acting as his anchor, before the bot leapt up at the end of the swing, the momentum carrying both of them across a big gap that they couldn’t simply jump across. The other pair had gotten a head start by virtue of simply being closer to the way up, and not bickering about relevance for a bit, so the two boys had some catching up to do. Still, it also meant they could simply steal the lessons learned from those in the lead, Jr saying ”ohhh, so that’s what the rope’s for” as he got the minigame’s gimmick.

"That's pretty clever." Pit watched the proceedings with some interest, but quickly turned to Junior.

"We won't even need it though! With my wings I can make it across and hold you up at the same time, no problem!" He boldly proclaimed. Of course a moment later it hit him: everyone else ahead of them seemed to have issues with how they normally moved around. Wouldn't the same be true for him? "...but let me test it first!"

As expected, his wings seemed to be weakened. He couldn't fly in the first place, but now he couldn't even get any higher than a single leap up. Disappointed but not discouraged, they'd just have to play the game the way it was intended.

”Don’t need em huh?” jr echoed, followed by a snort of a laugh, before grabbing the tether in one hand, jabbing the thumb of the other behind him and telling pit ”jump, and i’ll get to swinging chicken”

"I'm not chicken or a chicken!" Pit retorted, flustered. But since Jr. was already in position to anchor, he did as asked and started their swinging process.

Jr just grinned at the outburst, and then proceed to show off his disproportionate strength by, rather than simply swinging the angel under him, whittling him around up and over several times before launching him up up and away right as he took a run up and a jump of his own. Besides the initial surprise, the circle throw was actually pretty fun.

After that hurdle, neither of the boys had an issue with the next couple of sections of the climb. Without outpacing each other much they jumped up, and up, and up a series of wooden scaffolds and small rocky ledges. The benefit of both of them being familiar with platforming was that they could quickly and accurately get across these areas, until ultimately having to pause at the next wide gap that required true teamwork.

”Huh, where’d papa get too?” the prince asked as they paused at the precipice, peering up ahead beyond the gap, unaware that the koopa king and his mechanical companion had just taken a tumble down the deceptively deep shaft blocking their way.

"They must be far ahead!" At least that's what Pit assumed, given the king was a veteran platformer. And his pair wouldn't be the only one ahead of them, as some smaller silhouettes were higher up the mountain. "We gotta catch up!"

Since he didn't want to fall behind, Pit planted his feet and pointed across the gap. "You go this time."

”Better hold on tight then!” the prince taunted, before leaping back off the platform without any fear, and proving his taunt more of a warning than anything as the little prince proved to be quite a bit heavier than his little frame suggested.

Though unexpected, the burden wasn’t too much for Pit to handle. He kept a tight hold of the rope and launched himself after Jr., then they scrambled to move on.

Immediately in front of them on the cliff was an icy wall that blocked in an even icier hollow, the same one Bowser and Blazermate had fallen down. The next platform up was at an odd angle, but between the two of them they could figure out what to do thanks to actually stopping to read the sign unlike the plummeting pair. A quick leap, wallgrab, and swing, and they were good to go, onwards and upwards

Another awkwardly placed platform awaited them after that, and above it a tall vertical shaft. Pit squinted up into it, trying to see if it went anywhere.

"Think this is a shortcut? We could hop from wall to wall and go up."

”I, uh, never really got the hang of that … but yeah let’s try it!” Jr replied with boundless enthusiasm

"It's easier than it looks," Pit assured him, which honestly wasn't really the case. Not to mention the angel himself was pretty out of practice at it. Either way, if this worked they'd cut ahead and if it didn't they'd just end up right back here, so the reward far outweighed the risk. Pit went on to quickly explain, "just kick off and up from the wall as soon as your feet hit it!"

”Yuh huh” the prince agreed, nodding along like he totally was going to be able to do this, before saying ”alright, let’s do this!” taking a step back to prepare a run up, glancing at Pit, and then once they were both prepared taking off at a sprint for a very short run up before leaping up at the wall.

Against all odds, the prince’s claws found purchase at just the right moment, and he kicked himself off the wall rising higher, prompting him to whoop in delight. Unfortunately, both of them had forgotten about the other key part of this, which was turning in the air so you could then kick off the other wall. As a result, Jr proceeded to slam shell first into the opposite wall, spikes jamming into it and leaving him hanging there, stuck.

With his partner locked in place, Pit couldn't get much higher. When the ten feet of rope pulled taut he slipped and fell down past Jr., ending up dangling in the air under him. The angel hung there silently for a moment, confused about what had happened - then he looked up and saw the koopa prince lodged in the wall. He looked ridiculous, making Pit laugh as if he didn't also look silly just dangling there.

"What happened?" he snickered, trying to swing himself and unwedge Jr. from the cliff side.

”’Just kick up and off the wall’ you said, ‘it’s easy’ you said! Well, no, it isn’t! Now help me down from here!” the prince complained, arms flailing and legs kicking fruitlessly in an attempt to free himself.

"I'm trying!" Though it would take a couple more tugs to get the koopa unstuck. "And it is easy! You're just not supposed to kick with your back!"

After some more aggressive swinging, the little dead weight Pit had was able to dislodge Jr. Naturally when he fell Pit fell too, and the two of them landed back on the ground with a yelp. Pit was quick to hop back up onto his feet, flapping his wings to blow all of the snow off of him.

"Let's try again! Unless you wanna go the other way?"

”’I can do this! I’m an olympian. Just a few more tries and I’ll get it for sure!” the prince insisted, and, true to his word, it did only take a few more tries… Which basically negated any benefit from the shortcut. Still, the boy was happy, and counted for something in some people’s books, the prince cheering ”Did you see that! That Mario isn't gonna be able to get away from me again now that I got one of his moves down!” along with a happy little jig.

The boy's cheering was infectious, leaving Pit grinning. At the end of Jr.'s dance Pit raised both of his hands for a double high five. Although there was a voice in the back of his mind that thought, should I really be happy about making Mario's life harder?

The whole thing had been a distraction from the race itself, which became apparent when the stragglers started to make their way up to where they were. The two of them got back into the game after that. Though still behind, they skipped a chunk of the map and ended up at a shallow cave which they were able to blaze through with little issue. The swinging and flinging continued until they hit the obstacle that had given most of the teams the roughest time so far: the trio of stalactites with nothing beneath them except a long fall.

Rather than slow down, Jr straight up sprinted towards the first stalactites, leaped up, and grabbed it with his claws and mitts, calling out for Pit to ”Go! Go! Go!” we gotta catch up!

Not needing to be told twice, Pit leapt and swung himself around to the other side of the first underhang. As soon as he latched on with the gloves, he called back to his partner. "I'm good! Go!"

What followed was a high stakes, high speed gauntlet beneath the ledges. For the most part it went well, even when on the last swing Pit's momentum threw him too fast into the wall and bonked against it, causing the need for a second try before they both made it and clambered up to continue on. At least with everyone immune to damage, there wasn't any chance of a concussion or something like that.

...which begged the question, if no one could get hurt, why was there blood staining the snow on top of this rock? In their haste it might have gone unnoticed, but Pit stepped right in it and suddenly his foot slipped out from under him. "Whoa!" He fell, landing on his back and forcing Jr. to stop in his tracks.

”He what’s the matter slowpoke-” the prince began to chide, only to, having been forced to stop, tilt his head in confusion at the blood in the snow ”What? Huh? How’d that get there?” before glancing up and spotting the culprit, namely a blood jetting Nadia somewhere up ahead of them. In stopping to check out the competition he saw the perhaps even more egregious example of Roxas and Midna simply strolling across some gaps.

”Whaaaaaat! No fair no fair no fair” the little prince yelled up at them.

When he stood up and saw what Jr. was looking at, Pit couldn't help but feel the same. He ran to the ledge and cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting, "Hey! Roxas! That's totally cheating!!"

Jr. stomped his feet and threw a tantrum before halting mid rage and going ”Wait!”

He then proceeded to grab a pokeball, tossed it and, in a flash of light, brought out Mimi, his mimikyu, who he told to ”Mimic that cheater!” while pointing up at the cube spawning Roxas.

Pit spun around to look at the Pokémon. "It can do that?"

The angel looked enthusiastic about the prospect. Because even as a devotee of the Goddess of Light, the paragon of goodness, Pit was not above a little cheating. Especially when other people were doing it first. To be fair, it helped that Palutena wasn't above it either.

”yeah she can!” the prince replied, as the mon promptly demonstrated her borrowed power with a waft of a tendril limb and spawned a little stair case of blocks for them to use to shorten the next gap a little bit so they could just jump instead of one that needed some tricky swinging to do.

Thoroughly impressed, Pit pumped his fist and grinned at Mimi. "Awesome! Catching up will be easy now!"

Copying Roxas' ability trivialized the next sections of the course. There was a single instance where the boys still had to swing, that being another awkwardly placed underhang, but Mimi provided a way for the now three of them to breeze across wood, stone, and snow until they barreled into the mouth of the Fishy Mines.

”Oh look. Slow moving platforms that you gotta wait to come to you. My faaaaavorite” jr complained as they watched one reel off into the distance, before glancing up and having the exact same idea as Roxas, skipping the whole first section of that by making a staircase up to just below second vertical moving platform.

He then immediately hopped up onto the little rock below, and began impatiently tapping his foot on going ”Come on, come on, come on!” and being completely blind to the rock shaking below him as he did

His partner had hopped up to join him, and it was he who seemed to realize what was about to happen. Pit blinked down at the stone they stood on curiously, noting it felt different, but when it clicked it was too late to warn Jr. Pit hopped backward at the same time the floor gave out. It sent the koopa prince tumbling down, and since he was midair at that moment Pit had no way to catch him. He still tried, furiously flapping his wings as he held onto the rope, but all that accomplished was slightly slowing their fall. The pair fell back down, though thankfully only a little below where they started.

"I hate those disappearing ground things," Pit sighed as he picked himself back up. "There's probably a ton in here."

”Ouch, so that’s what its like to be on the receiving end of those. Nasty” Jr grumbled as he rubbed the head he’d landed on, and mimi just sort of phased up out of the floor into which she’d ghosted. The mon and trainer looked at each other, and then the prince grinned, saying ”Luckly, thanks to the cheaters, we don’t have to worry about those!”

Indeed, just like Roxas had done earlier, once they got back up to the falling platform, they simply had Mimi make a more stable replacement that they could stand on while waiting for their elevator up.

Once they boarded the bucket, it brought them up to another deceptive rock - which was circumvented by Mimi once more. They jumped onto the cubes and the next moving platforms. While they rode it, Pit fidgeted in place as he was wont to do, hopping on one foot then the other in quick succession. Even following the lead pair's strategy and path, they had to wait out the elevator rides, which meant everyone ahead of them would just keep getting farther away.

"I wonder if there's a way to make these things go faster," he pondered aloud. "I could smash it with the Upperdash Arm and send it flying. If we hold on and your weird Pikachu catches us with the blocks, we could skip even more...!"

It was a pretty reckless plan though. Would they get in trouble for something like that? Nah, surely the ringmasters of the Big Top had something in place for property destruction. If it could even be destroyed, with the whole no damage thing.

”Wait for real? That sounds awesome!” Jr instantly agreed, before chanting ”Let’s do it, let’s do it, make us fly!”

Jr. being all in on that course of action dispelled any doubts Pit had. He grinned widely, peering over the side of the bucket and curled his left hand into a fist. "Okay, hold on tight! And hold the rope too!"

As already, but perhaps unwittingly, demonstrated by all of the minigame's participants, the basic laws of motion, physics, and all that good stuff was still at play. It meant that even though no one and nothing could get hurt, they could still move around mostly like normal, and allowed them to make use of the rope to swing each other in the first place. So, naturally, if enough force was applied to the elevator it should be pushed with speed relative to that force... or something. Something something momentum and friction. Pit had no clue how it worked, just that it should work. And anyone that had been hit with the Arm weapon knew it could generate a tremendous amount of force.

Taking care to account for the lack of forward movement due to the game world's rules, he made a small hop off of the platform while summoning the Upperdash Arm at the same time. He struck upward, the spinning disc slamming into the underside of the elevator and sending it screaming up along its track. With Jr. holding the tether he clung on. With no resistance other than gravity, when it reached the end of that track the elevator was dislodged, continuing to hurdle upward. Of course now that it didn't have a track, the unbalanced weight of the boys caused it to start shifting, making for an unsteady ride likely to fling its riders off if they didn't keep their grip.

Jr was, at least, having a good time, laughing and whooping as they rose up, but he didn’t just passively ride along. Instead, mana sparked through his metal tattooed arm, and out from his hand a large pole grew out to either side. Gripping this long rod, the prince tilted and turned it, keeping their balance like a tightrope walker.

Though slightly dizzy, Pit could climb up onto it properly thanks to Jr. setting it mostly straight. The angel shook his head to clear it after he did, then let out a joyous, "alright!"

They rode it as far as they could. When it started to lose momentum and its flight slowed, that was the signal for them to disembark. Otherwise it would drop fast, making it all the harder to leap off.

"Time to abandon ship!" Pit said, pointing towards what he thought were the closest platforms. There were tiny little rocks, larger fragile ones, and more elevators, but none they could reach without Mimi's aid.

Fortunately, the little mon was very used to clinging to her trainer for dear life, and this time had been no different. As Jr tossed away the rod and made to jump, she unreeled one of her arms, and wafted it forwards, creating a platform mid way between theirs and the closest solid ground.

The trio jumped from their impromptu vehicle and landed on the ruby cubes while the elevator they rode up on began to careen back towards the bottom of the mines. Thankfully they didn't even have to worry about it hurting anyone if it managed to crash into any teams coming up behind them. They hopped across a couple more platforms, eventually coming to a steep area with loose, shifting sand lining one side of the mine shaft. Caution signs hung all around them, but the way up wouldn't be as treacherous as it probably should have been if they kept following their cheating rivals' lead.

"Think we're getting close to the top?" Pit asked, squinting up into the dim light above them.

Jr peered up with him before shrugging arms spread out and palms up for extra emphasis on his having no ideaness ”I dunno, but this game sure ain’t mini that’s for sure”

When the race began, Goldlewis and Sandalphon were of like mind. They stepped back to let the younger and more sprightly competitors charge forward, then set off through the wintry penguin village at the rear of the pack. Pairs like the thieves and Roland/Falcon scrambled up the first little cliff face at a breakneck pace, followed quickly by Junior/Pit and Blazermate/Bowser once those duos sorted themselves out. Goldlewis exchanged a knowing glance with Primrose, whose team had taken a similarly patient tact, while he cast a scathing look at Midna/Roxas, who’d instantly given up on any pretenses of fairness in favor of cheating. “Y’all got no shame?” he questioned, shaking his head. Ganondorf/Geralt would have gotten the same treatment if the warlord’s scheme worked out, but his plan fell flat, forcing the two to proceed normally. They quickly passed Sectonia, whose burdensome and inanimate partner slowed her down a good deal, as well as Rika/Kamek. While Goldlewis was well past his prime, he was no frail old man, and come hell or high water he’d give a good account of himself here today.

Following just after Zenkichi and Primrose, he and Sandalphon took each challenge methodically. The archangel timed each and every jump, even the easy ones, with mechanical consistency and precision in her typical deadpan voice. It came as something of a surprise that Goldlewis could jump higher than she could, even with his double jump disabled, but Sandalphon could slow her own fall and turned out to be so light that Goldlewis could pull her after him with ease. Once they crested the first cliff, they paused to watch other pairs slinging across -or falling into- the first pit, more than one of them demonstrating the ban on movement abilities. Since their large size meant the two took up a lot of space, they didn’t bother jostling for position, but hung back and learned from the others’ mistakes. “Slow and steady wins the race, as they say,” Sandalphon remarked.

Goldlewis chuckled. “The sayin’ that came to my mind was ‘monkey see, monkey do’.” He watched other teams flying ahead, in some cases literally. Already he could see which way the wind was blowing. “We might have a tough time winnin’ this.”

“Then I suppose we’ll have to settle for ‘every dog has his day’,” Sandalphon replied. “Still, let us do all that we can.”

With the crowd thinned, the two got their chance. They jumped to the platform and Goldlewis sat down, ready to serve as the anchor. Sandalphon dropped down and began to swing, building up momentum, then gave a comically stoic countdown as she whirled around in a loop-de-loop. “One. Two. Three.”

Goldlewis barreled forward, and together the two soared over the first gap. As he slid to a stop in the snow, he pumped his fist. “Alright, one down! That was fun, eh Sandy?”

Judging by the spirals in her eyes, Sandalphon was a little dizzy, but she quickly blinked them away. “Indeed.”

The unlikely pair pushed forward, following in their comrades’ footsteps. They worked their way across more tandem jumps, taking them in anything but quick succession, then performed another swing. This time, while Sandalphon could reach the ledge, Goldlewis fell short. Despite her best attempt to brace herself, he dragged her down immediately, and both fell a short way to some planks below. Goldlewis landed on his feet, relieved that Ballyhoo’s comments about fall damage held water, then caught Sandalphon in his arms. “You okay?” Her pupils looked like exclamation marks, but otherwise she seemed unruffled. She nodded, and he set her down, breathing a sigh of relief. “Well, that ain’t good,” he muttered, looking up. “Maybe if I did the swingin’ this time?”

Sandalphon thought it over as the two climbed back up. Even with her above-average size, the weight difference between her and Goldlewis was substantial, to say the least. The man was simply a behemoth. Normally she wouldn’t even consider supporting his weight, but if the strain couldn’t actually injure her, it was worth a try. “That’s our only option,” she decided, kneeling down in the middle of the platform. “I recommend jumping off the back to start your swing with momentum, instead of dropping like I did earlier.”

“Good call. Count me out.” On the count of three, Goldlewis jumped and swung. When his full weight hit her Sandalphon’s pupils turned into skulls, but as he arced forward she rose and jumped. Together they flew through the air, and once the veteran landed he pulled her up like a bucket from a well. “Nice goin’,” he told her, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “You good to move on?”

She nodded, and the two set off. By now Zenkichi and Primrose had left them behind, passing Bowser and Blazermate in the process, but it would still take some doing to catch up to those two. That left just Kamek and Rika down below. While not exactly happy with second to last, Sandalphon ignored the big picture in favor of each obstacle before her. When faced with the first overhang, she understood the intention at a glance–and that she would need to support Goldlewis yet again. He went first, allowing the archangel to swing up to the boards on the other side, and once she braced herself Goldlewis let go. Thankfully he possessed the sheer strength to haul himself up by climbing the rope, since it took everything Sandalphon had just to hold steady. Even then it wasn’t enough, as her own strength gave out before her partner could reach her. She tumbled off the planks, and the two plummeted through the ice-lined pit into a big pile of snow. Goldlewis just lay there for a moment, exhaling. “Dahh, hogwash.”

The snowdrift nearby, aglow beneath a conspicuous halo that floated over it, stirred before Sandalphon popped her head out. “My sincere apologies,” she murmured, her pupils shaped like stress marks. “I didn’t realize my weakness would be such a severe liability.”

Her contrition changed the veteran’s attitude instantly, and he sat up. “Nah, don’t sweat it none. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?” He narrowed his eyes. If he hadn’t left his coffin in the lobby, it might have come in handy, but right now he lacked both it and all the items that the UMA within could provide. For a brief moment he recalled his stunt with Roland in Port Meridian, but even if that would meaningfully increase his chances of winning it didn’t justify hitting a nice lady. “Up an’ at ‘em,” he declared, getting to his feet. “We’ll think of somethin’.”

Luckily it took only a few jumps and one swing to get back to the spot where they fell. “Once you’re up there, try stickin’ them gloves to the wall,” Goldlewis suggested. “If they can hold me, and you can’t get hurt, they oughta hold us both.” He turned out to be correct, and by trusting in the gloves rather than her own strength, Sandalphon held out long enough for Goldlewis to haul himself up. After adding that move to their playbook, the two pushed passed a second underhang, more jumps, and a team swing, only to reach a daunting obstacle. Looking down, Sandalphon could see that the penalty for a fall here would be rough, but not calamitous. Still, the two were already far behind, with only echoed voices from above indicating the presence of competitors.

The archangel steeled herself. “Let us begin.”

Unfortunately, the duo ended up falling twice, once when Sandalphon’s attempted slow-fall from the first overhang led to Goldlewis falling behind her, and once when he missed the jump to the second and dragged an unready archangel along with him. The two climbed and trudged back up from each fall, slower each time. “Nothin’ to it but to do it,” Goldlewis insisted. Even if this was all futile, his pride would not allow him to back down until he’d overcome this hurdle. Sandalphon, impressed by his determination, renewed her efforts. On the third attempt, the two finally made it, hauling themselves up to a little snowfield where a penguin sat by a campfire and spilled blood had frozen into a dastardly ice slick.

They took it slowly, but even then, Goldlewis slipped and fell on his butt right at the end. “Ahh, alright,” he half-laughed, half-gasped. He scooted off the ice to sit cross-legged by the fire. Sandalphon joined him without protest. “Mind if we join you?” he asked the penguin. It shook its head, and the two settled down for a break. Goldlewis chuckled. “We barely got anywhere.”

“Every victory is worth celebrating,” Sandalphon said softly.

Maybe they’d push on in a few minutes, or maybe the race would already be over by then. For now, they sat amidst gentle snowfall beneath lovely purple skies, in peaceful calm.

Sectonia wasn't sure what to expect from the first minigame. She also ended up at the end of the day being the odd one out for this one that involved moving through platforms in some obstacle course. She figured that since she could fly, someone would be interested but it seemed that wasn't the case. And with that, unlike the others being tied to each other, Sectonia was tied to a rock. She also found that... perhaps she wasn't chosen because the others understood this game and its limitations better than she did as she found that she couldn't really fly, just lazily glide with Blazermate having the same problem, although she ended up having her own problem needing to carry the weight of Bowser which Sectonia wondered if she could even do if it wasn't for the special magic of this area.

Never needing to 'platform' before, especially with this 'handicap' on her, Sectonia didn't get a very good start. A lot of the more humanoid allies meanwhile made their way through the course at various methods of progression with a few of them actually even cheating using some abiltiies. That was annoying, since she found that she couldn't use any of hers. She did find though, that, after learning to 'jump' by flapping her wings for a down burst, she could platform like the others. But by the time she figured that out, she was pretty much left in the dust besides a few others that were as slow as she was at the moment. Even her fellow heavyweight Bowser had managed to make a fair amount of progress!

What was worse, once she got to the platform area itself she saw a few people struggle with, the use of her rock eventually became apparent. She had to throw it and use it as an anchor to flip herself to the other platform. The good news with this, this was all part of her own skill. The downside, she had never done any of this stuff before while others were speeding through this. So she made a bit of a fool of herself falling off the platform a couple times before she figured it out, with the swing on her side being a bit strange since she couldn't really fly. At least her wings let her descend gracefully when she failed unlike a few of the others...

At least once she learned how to do something, she continued onward getting back to the spot where she fell. Her next point of contention after the platforms was the rock swing. Sectonia was pretty far in the back at this point getting used to everything, and this underhook swing really didn't do her any favors. It took her a bit hanging onto the wall before she got her makeshift grappling hook to latch onto the next platform and she could continue, Sectonia getting more embarrassed at all the vigorous swinging she had to do with this stupid rock. At least the others were more focused on their own progress instead of observing her but that didn't make things less akward. At least with the slow moving platforms, she didn't have as many qualms about them as a few of the others, although once she got into the caves, she saw just how far back she was as she saw the red light of Roxas's cubes momentarily illuminating the mines far, far above where she was. She was at least further along than Goldweis and Sandalphon, who were still far behind. But she had only managed to catch up to Bowser, Blazermate, Kamek, and Rika, whom also hadn't managed to continue that far ahead.

Well... there was nothing to do but push past them while they were talking amongst themselves, Sectonia able to see in the darkness of the caves fairly well all things considered. That didn't help her though when the next jump messed her up and she had to redo the whole section over again...

Things sure were getting busy up there, Bowser saw as he peered up into the gloom of the fishy mines, one which was periodically lit up by the light procured by people cheating. Bright red blocks and firy kicks flashed, prompting grumbling from the king till something outshone them all: a bright flash accompanied by a mighty kaboom.

”Huh? What was that?” a bemused Bowser asked, only to shortly after get his answer as a round shape came flying in from somewhere up in the mines, only to pingpong between the walls all the way down to where they were. At the end of their ricochetting riot, the balled up form of Rika crashed down into the gravel next to Blazermate and Bowser, showering them with harmless shrapnel and leaving an impact crater at her landing site. Having ceased her tumbling, the young lady uncurled, flopping onto her back and revealing Kamek, whom she’d embraced defensively.

”Oh, uhhh, hi papa, why’s there 4 of you?” a very dizzy Rika proceed to ask as she tried and failed to stumble to her feet, while Kamek was even more out of it, eyes swirling with dizziness.

Blazermate looked at the dazed Rika and Kamek, but noticed that besides just being dizzy from the landing, she was unharmed. Well, Ballywho’s magic really did some cool stuff if he turned off damage entirely. ”Well, they’re fine besides being dizzy. Guess they fell from above huh?” Blazermate said

Bowser let out a little sigh of relief at that, offering her a ”Thanks doc” for her medical analysis. Then he offered Rika a hand and helped pull her up, before asking her ”What’d you even do?”

”Kamek no fly, so made big kaboom to fly instead” she replied as she rubbed her helmeted head with an oversized hand

”Hmmmf, and even with that, your still behind those cheating chumps up there” Bowser grumped as he looked up at where the rulebreakers where getting going, having only been briefly disrupted by Rika’s explosive arrival.

”Why can they use their powers, but I can’t fly or use uber or anything. Or my medi gun rubber banding thing, that’d make us follow your jumps but nooo…” Blazermate said, giving her own ‘hrumph’ at the whole situation.

”We’re going to need to work together to take out those cheaters. Maybe some sabotage or something since it seems no one can actually get hurt.” Blazermate said, giving her thoughts, although she also knew there was nothing she could do about that.

”Yeah, if they want to play unfair, we’ll play even unfairer!” Bowser roared in agreement, before assessing what they had on hand cupping and scratching his chin while going ”Hmmmmmmmmmm” before snapping his fingers and saying ”I’ve got it!”

Then he pointed at Rika and commanded ”Grab kamek!” and then at the mage himself and commanding him to ”Make me big!” before finally saying to Blazermate ”and you, start building that glowy power up boost thingy you can do, because if they think we suck at this right now, they ain’t seen anything yet”

Blazermate looked at Bowser bewildered, saying. ”Uh, if Kamek could use his magic and I could use my flight, we would’ve won by now. I’m pretty sure we can’t use those, I know I can’t, I’ve been trying! It seems it has to be something you can physically do… that isn’t flying or easy climbing or something.”

”Who needs to climb a mountain- '' Bowser replied as a still slightly dizzy Kamek waved a wand and chanted his spell, causing Bowser to start to grow. And grow. And grow ”-When you’re as big as one!''

It was a slightly over exaggerated claim, but Kamek’s magic certainly was something. As his body grew, the kin swung his increasing weight around. Or at least he tried too. As it tuned out, disabling damage meant that he couldn’t simply pulverize the environment to make room for himself, and as a result he more or less trapped himself in between the various platforms and walls of the bottom of the mines.

But did he let that stop him?

No!

Instead he poked his head up between two outcrops, emptied his lungs with a slow calm breath, only to then inhale with the force of a hurricane as the king activated his vacuum breath power, threatening to drag everyone in the mines back down to his level.

”Uh, I guess that works but uh… ” Blazermate said, a bit hesitant at seeing how Bowser was dealing with this whole thing. Well, at least she was on the other side of the vacuum breath, that was going to cause some havoc for sure. Although there were other questions about how this would go and Blazermate looked to Kamek and Rika for an idea of how this was going to resolve itself.

Unfortunately one was too focused on the spell to really offer much input while the other was learning questionable lessons (again), so the only real way to see how it would resolve itself would be to, well, wait and see.

Secluded in the icy cave, Therion and Nadia enjoyed their short break in near-silence, allowing themselves a slightly longer reprieve than their first. The only sound seemed to be a rattling noise nearby, which steadily waxed, waned, and waxed once more. While typically a lot chattier than her companion, the feral didn’t feel the need to force any small talk. They’d come a long way together, sure, but with the finish line nowhere in sight just yet, the two needed their heads in the game. For all the ground they covered in Balan’s amazing make-believe wonderworld, it had been only five minutes or so. In some respects it felt like a lot longer, but while in the zone Nadia scarcely felt time pass at all. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun. Of course, winning would be even more fun, so when voices echoed up through the fishy mines, the thieves readied themselves to run what would hopefully be the final stretch.

Right away, a conundrum blocked their immediate progress, but as they rested the two had plenty of time to figure it out. With no possible handholds above and only a floor of crumbly blocks below, they wondered if their route forward might lie below, and when Nadia’s protruding ears picked up that familiar rattling noise, they put together a plan. “Okay,” Nadia murmured, ears swiveling. “...Now!”

As the sound grew louder again they dropped onto the floor, even without any fuss from Therion. It fell away beneath them to reveal another mine cart, which the thieves barely managed to grab onto. They clambered aboard, hearts already racing again, and it carried them on an L-shaped path. From there, more tricky block-jumps awaited them, this time with barely any safety net beneath them. By now, though, Nadia and Therion were hitting their stride. They were adjusting for one another, unconsciously changing their timing to synchronize better. With a lot of dexterity, a little luck, and just a teeny tiny little bit of cheating, the two pushed past a gauntlet of crumbling stones, underhang grapples, and two-person swings. Most tense of all was the cart ride that slid just beneath protruding rocks, forcing the team to hop over each and land back on the cart. At one point, Nadia tripped on one of the stones and slipped between it and the cart, but Therion stuck the landing. With no time to be pulled up before the next block, Nadia swung beneath the cart to land on it from the other side, and the two continued from there.

Finally they jumped from the fish bucket to solid ground, where they found themselves in rosy pink light. A cool wind tousled their hair, reinvigorating them with the knowledge that they were almost outside. Climbing so quickly they almost fell again, Nadia and Therion raced across an open stretch surrounded by stone walls, the pink glow quickly deepening to atmospheric purple. After a couple icy jumps, they reached the open air once more, at a height where strong winds turned idyllic snowfall into buffeting flurries.

Nadia bounced up and down in excitement. “We gotta be near the end!” she told Therion, looking around for any sign of the competition. While a few other pairs blew through the first part of the climb, those mines had been the great equalizer, with different routes -and dead ends- that could confound cheaters as easily as anyone else. Here, though, all those routes converged.

Therion's scarf and shawl billowed with every gust of wind, easily showing its force and direction. It seemed the gale blew down from the mountain top, actively trying to dissuade any climbers from reaching the summit. That summit still loomed over them, but given all the progress they'd made and how distant the penguin town looked, Therion couldn't help but agree with his partner. The end was, technically, in sight.

There was one other thing that quickly became apparent to the two of them. The wind died down in steady intervals, meaning they had to contend with not just the gusts strong enough to threaten to push individuals off of their feet, but remembering the wind's timing so they weren't caught in a gale at the wrong time.

Timing, as much as teamwork, had been the name of the game so far so that didn't come as a surprise. While preparing to start the final leg of the course, Therion's own feline ears twitched and he turned his attention to where Nadia was looking. It seemed like they had company, a few other pairs arriving at about the same time they had. Now they had no time to lose.

"We can do this," Therion said, stated more as a fact than as a mere encouragement.

That wind would make jumping harder than ever, and with a very long fall between here and the entrance to the mines, blunderers had more to lose than ever. The thieves needed to not just finish strong, but get everyone else before they got got themselves.

They’d been making pretty decent progress, all things considered. Even with his goggles debilitating his vision, Captain Falcon was for the most part able to correct himself. And then it happened. They were nearing what Cap was convinced had to be the end of these mines. He’d even managed to salvage a near-failed jump. Well… almost. His boot slipped on something liquid that was splattered on the platform’s surface. A random fish, yes a fish, which had fallen from a nearby bucket, was on the platform and made the Captain slip.

Either way, he slipped and tumbled right over the edge of the moving platform. And the slickness meant that Roland was unable to properly anchor himself to catch Falcon with the rope they were tethered by. As a result, he was yanked over the edge along with the Captain and they both went tumbling down. Down, down, and down. Pretty much all the way back to the bottom of the mines. All that time and progress, gone.

"Seriously?" Captain Falcon grunted as he pushed himself back to his feet, He then looked around the mines a bit before saying "Fish? The mine is for fish? How does that even work?"

Roland stood up, rubbing his head. ”Ugh. I don’t know. I just hope we don't run into anymore weird fish in strange spots.” Roland said, a bit confused and embarrassed at the whole fish tripping situation, although he had work to do so he wasn't going to show that... and probably forget about it later.

"Well," The Captain said as he cracked his knuckles and neck. "nothing for it, now, I guess. We’re just gonna have to start over." He looked toward the initial platform moving back and forth along its horizontal path. The bright side was that they’d completed many of the jumps before so they at least knew what was coming now. And who knows, maybe they would stumble across a shortcut or some other faster route that they’d missed on the first climb?

Roland nodded since just sitting here wasn’t doing them much good. With the whole blood puddle thing now something to watch out for, the two went to continue their scaling through the mines. As they did, they saw some of the Bowser troop having made it to the mines at last. Although much like Roland and Falcon, they fell trying to do a tricky jump, the girl with large hands trying to do some kind of explosive jump but missing entirely and falling back down.

”Hm… I guess you can do self damage if there isn’t any ‘damage’ going out, however they’re doing that.” Roland said, watching Rika and Kamek tumble back down to where Roland and Falcon were beforehand.

Cap supposed the how’s and why’s of the fish didn’t really matter much in the end. It just meant this was going to be more hazardous than it already was. They were at least better prepared for what was ahead due to this being their second attempt at it. But that also meant they’d fallen behind the leaders and would have really hustle if they wanted any hope of getting back ahead of the pack again. Of course, Falcon’s goggles in the darkness weren’t exactly helping matters. He was having to correct himself more and more often because of it.

"What I wouldn’t give for some sunlight." Cap mused. "I’m guessing these mines have to end at some point. Question is, when?" Then he sniffed the air and waved a hand in front of his nose. "And I could seriously do without the fishy smell in here, too."

Roland only glanced at Falcon before saying. ”You could lift up your goggles and you’d see better.” Roland said, a lot more used to dark environments than Capt. As for the smell, Roland was used to weird smells at this point so he didn’t really think much of it except that maybe they were near an ocean or something, how else would the mine get its fish? ”I can lead the way if you still have trouble seeing in the dark. I think we’re close to the exit, the block cheaters are just ahead of us.”

"And show my face?" Cap asked with genuine confusion, "No no no. I can’t show my face unless I’ve been beaten on the racetracks. That’s always been my rule. Fans love a good mystery after all, and rivals get that much more incensed at being beaten by an unknown stranger!" He added, talking as if it was obvious. "But go on ahead and take the reins, if you like. Let’s see those moves of yours!"

Roland nodded and began his climb, directing the Captain to do loops and whatnot as he saw them, Roland using his own clawed gauntlets to grip onto walls when needed. Still, he wondered how the bigger people would deal with this as he went through, noticing the big bee and turtle down below, the bee just using a rock to swing around and the turtle talking with his family. His name was… Bowser, right. Well, as Cap and Roland moved through the obstacle course ahead, behind and below them Bowser grew large. Roland was very confused as to what he was doing, since while he was large, the platforms kept him in place as he seemingly couldn’t destroy them. But then he began sucking in massive volumes of air…

”Gah, what's this giant monster doing? Is he a sore loser?” Roland said, using his gauntlets to grab onto the platform he was on to hold on while the Giant Bowser was using his vacuum inhale.

"I guess he must be." Cap said with a shrug. If he weren’t currently under Galeem’s influence, then he would have already known about Bowser and his penchant for not playing fair. "I imagine he’ll run out of breath sooner or later, but I don’t think we wanna lose any more time than we already have." Falcon looked around and then said, "We’ll just have to work around it. Keep some kind of barrier in between us and Mr. Vacuum Breath down there."

Roland agreed, but they’d have to wait until he stopped, holding on while he was sucking. At least Roland had some of his weapons he could use to hold himself and Cap on the platform. In a way they were also cheating, but it was a lot, lot more fair than the pair that was making their own platforms.

When Bowser had to stop to take a breath, that's when Roland and the Cap moved, getting something done and getting into a good position before Bowser started again. They moved through the mines doing this at least until something stopped the suction entirely. He wasn’t sure what caused that, but it let them progress out of the mines near the lead as many of the others couldn’t handle the suction.

”What in the goddess’ name was-” Minda cried out as something massive exploded back down in the penguin village, only for the curled up form of Rika to come crashing into view, and then tumbling right towards them. With a cry of ”Watch out!” the princess ummed her shadow hand and made to slap the incoming boat ball, knocking it away from them, yet the recoil still took its toll, causing her to stumble backwards towards the edge of the little platform they had been on.

Roxas had instinctively rolled to one side as an immediate reaction to Midna’s warning. By the time he was upright again, she was already stumbling backward. And so he planted his feet, grabbed a hold of the rope tethering them together and yanked it toward him. This would essentially stop her backward stumble and instead redirect her weight forward, ”I got’cha!” he reassured Midna. It probably wasn’t the most graceful way to save her from falling, but it worked nonetheless.

”What the heck was that about?” He asked, looking at the direction the boat ball had flown in from. ”Were attacking us or something?”

Midna made a little ”urk!” as her waist was yanked to a stop, arms pinwheeling for another moment before they spread out as she got her balance back. Then she let out a little sigh of relief and gave him a ”thanks” before stepping away from the edge, only to turn right back around and peering down to follow the flight of this Rika person as she bounced down down down into the depths.

”Not sure, but if she was she looks like she’s smacked herself with her own bowstring because she’s going all the way down to-” Mindwa was saying, only to be interrupted by the distant thud of Rika hitting the ground.

”-to the bottom” she concluded.

And it didn’t look like they were the only ones taking a tumble. Not long after came the flailing forms of Roland and Captain Falcon tumbling down from some place above. "Did you see that?" Roxas asked Midna and added, "If they’re falling down too that means we’re in the lead, right?" That was quite the encouraging development. And he was quick to generate some virtual cubes for them to reach their next platform with.

"Nothing’s stopping us now!" He cheered from the boosted morale.

The princess flashed him a confident grin as her dragon claws gripped the stone and then let her propel herself after him, even as, internally, she was a touch concerned about whatever it was that had knocked those two down a peg. A short time after this, Roxas was the first one to notice another team a bit further below them. It was Pit and Junior. Normally that wouldn’t have been so strange, except they were somehow using virtual cubes, too!

"Huh? How are they doing that?" Roxas questioned. "The Phantom Ruby I have is supposed to be the only one of its kind, so how…?" He squinted his eyes and was able to faintly make out the shape of the little creature responsible for conjuring their cubes. Was it a Pokemon? He couldn’t tell, but maybe the Rotom Phone the Professor gave him could tell him more? So he quickly fished out his silver and white Rotom Phone and held up to try and identify the Pokemon in question. "Mimikyu, Disguise Pokemon?" Roxas said as he read the entry for it. "So it has the power to mimic moves? Is that how they’re copying my virtual cubes? Guess we’ll just have to pick up the pace and not let them get past us."

”neat trick” Midna observed, before reaching out her shadow hand and pulling them up off of their own blocks to a higher ledge and saying it was a ”good thing we have two!”

They certainly needed it, because as they got higher and higher, the dirt walls of the mine were replaced with ice and snow thick walls, which, while it certainly indicated they might be approaching the exit, came with new challenges. Not actual ice, fortunately, but the amount of places to stand started dropping off dramatically, till at one point they found themselves practicing balancing on a pole. Or at least, that was what was needed. Midna nearly instantly crouched down to grab it with one of her many arms for support as she wobbled on the precarious foothold.

Weirdly enough, Roxas was kinda used to this sort of thing. Mostly because of his Flow Motion giving him so much unintended practice with it. But even so, it didn’t hurt to take precautions. And besides, Midna probably needed the extra footholds. So he gave them small virtual platforms to increase their breathing room with the jump distances. He still needed to stand on natural spots in order to instantiate his virtual cubes in other locations as they progressed, so it wasn’t always without an occasional awkward spot. But beyond that, his virtual cubes were almost making this too easy at times.

”We’re… not exactly playing fair, are we?” He only just now asked. But to be fair, several of the other teams had clearly resorted to underhanded tactics as well so it wasn’t like they were the only ones doing this.

Mida simply shrugged, saying ”You take every advantage you can get against your foes, because they’ll do the same” before, with perfect timing, slipping on a blood pool and ending up face an inch from the ground, held up on six spread out limbs.

”See what I mean?” she said as she hopped into a crouch and then stood herself back up.

”Guess so.” The Nobody responded with a shrug.

Still, it was hard to say that, when it came to cheating, they weren't the ones doing the most, and so the pair veritably blazed their way through the rest of the mines and then back out into the fresh open air. The very fresh air, as the wind began to whip through the rather open and airy section of the race. Perhaps the end now was in sight, somewhere up in the icy platforms above.

”Wind, huh?” Roxas said. ”At least we’re out of the dark, I guess.”