Having never participated in a game like this, Sandalphon absorbed the rules of the upcoming game from Ballyhoo with an expression far greater seriousness than one might expect of someone about to engage in a game of glorified hide-and-seek. Concentrating completely, she internalized both the tasks and objectives of the two teams and the advantages both brought to the table, since she couldn’t be sure which side she’d be on until the competition began. Her daily operations in DespoRHado had demanded subversiveness from her from time to time, but never had she been obliged to hide her physical form. Even without the potential spirit rewards, this minigame roulette offered a lot in terms of novel experiences.

Her powers of perception had made her wise to one other important detail about the Witch One minigame as well: that this would be the Seekers’ last one on the house before Ballyhoo’s Big Top started demanding recompense. Having immersed herself in the modern world of computers and software since her arrival in Midgar, and found herself remarkably suited for it, the archangel had experienced her fair share of shady free trials. If he considered that little aside -barely a slip of the tongue- sufficient warning and planned to pull everyone into a fifth game right after this, Sandalphon would need to intercede. Without full knowledge of the price point per person per minigame, she and the others could not afford to be caught up in all the excitement. With that in mind, Witch One would be the group’s final minigame today, and after doing poorly in two of them Sandalphon wanted to end on a strong note. With only two teams in play, after all, this last game was for all the marbles.

When she and the others arrived in Morgenstund, the archangel spared only a moment to look around. Given the quantity of allies at her side, it looked like she’d been assigned the role of ‘hider’. While Sandalphon would have preferred the role of predator versus prey, she could only play the hand the gamemasters dealt her, and that meant finding the perfect spot to hide.

Despite the festive autumnal atmosphere, Sandalphon scoped out the town through a strictly tactical lens. Theoretically it would only take one hider to win the game for the whole team by avoiding the seekers for six minutes, but this town didn’t seem that large, and its overall quantity of sufficiently sized objects would be limited. While using the unicorn horns on ordinary items would endanger the Seekers, she didn’t see any reason why they couldn’t use their hands or other weapons to sniff out illusions, blitzing through all the viable objects in each building one at a time. This would not be as easy as it seemed, especially given the roster of Seekers. By process of elimination she identified Kamek, Rika, Geralt, and Pit as her opponents. The first two she knew less about, but one could fly and the other could at the very least jump high and fall slow, which ruled out hiding on rooftops. Pit certainly had a lot of energy, and if his light arrows could seek targets, hiding in an isolated spot could be a bad idea. Geralt, as mentioned by Zenkichi, possessed superhuman senses, and of the four she most likely wielded the greatest intellect, making her the biggest threat. My apologies, Pit. With all that in mind, a target-saturated environment or a hard-to-find nook indoors would be best. Of course, finding somewhere sizable enough to accommodate her -not to mention her halo- would be difficult.

Around her, the other Seekers scattered. For a moment she considered trying to rally everyone to actually fight the Seekers rather than hide from them, given the hiders’ far greater numbers, but after Ganondorf’s outcry Sandalphon quickly decided against it. Time was not on their side. As the others spread out around the town, the archangel gravitated toward the library, the building with the most indoor space. Moving with unusual vigor -for her at least- she followed in the footsteps of Bowser, Midna, and Junior, a contingency plan forming in her head. Zenkichi, Goldlewis, Roxas, Roland, Blazermate, and now Ganondorf…perhaps even Pit or Geralt, if need be. Once inside the library, she ignored the chaos caused by the Koopa Troop and headed up to the second floor to search for a suitable prop. Unfortunately she could not find many good options, especially given the second floor’s limited area. Most of it happened to be a balcony that ringed the central atrium. In the reading nook above the doorway, however, Sandalphon’s ship came in. She found a grandfather clock, blocky but tall and thin, perfect for her to hide inside. She couldn’t say the same for her halo, though.

“Hmm,” the archangel mumbled, eyeing the rug next to the coffee table. With reluctance she took it and threw it into the air, draping it over her halo. Doing this felt a little sacrilegious, but Sandalphon knew of no specific prohibitions, so it should be fine. After that, she used her Mimic Veil to assume the appearance of the grandfather clock, then headed over to another reading nook to get some distance from the original. Two in the same area would be highly suspect, after all, and any attempts to destroy or displace the original would be clumsy and obvious. The archangel did not feel confident about this disguise, but hopefully this strategy would give her contingency plans the buffer they needed.

Compared to Sandalphon, Nadia did a lot less planning and overthinking. Instead she grinned at Therion, told him “You too!” and darted off the moment she arrived, scouring Morgenstund for the perfect hiding spot. While typically the cat instead of the mouse, she figured she could play the part of prey well enough–after all, she just needed to think like the hunter. If I were a seeker, where would I look…? Of course, compared to the average hider Nadia wielded one major advantage: she could make herself very small indeed. Instead of a hidey-hole, she needed the spot that would allow her to pull off her idea the best.

Her first stop was the Potter’s House. All those jars, vases, urns, and pots would be perfect for the scheme she had cooking–a plan so simple and yet so devious that she could not help but snicker as she scampered around. Unfortunately, there turned out to be a couple problems with her first choice, and their names were Roland and Therion. Both of them turned up at the Potter’s House as well. Even if it seemed to be a promising location, too many hiders in proximity only worsened the chances for everyone. That would be putting too many eggs in one basket, and while Nadia wouldn’t hesitate one nanosecond to give away a friend if it meant escaping, it would be better not to give herself any disadvantages.

Leaving the guys to it, Nadia skipped the workshop and moved on to greener pastures, literally. The moment she slipped into the Botanist’s House, a gleeful smile spread across her space. “Purr-fect.” This building, half a residence and half an overgrown greenhouse, was just what she needed. With plants and pots of all shapes and sizes it presented a lot of visual clutter, but that wasn’t the only sense it stymied. This place was a smorgasbord of earthy, floral, and herbal smells, cut by the heady aromas of burning incense that also contributed to a smoky haze. Those smoldering spices, gums, and resins made for a potent mixture; just one deep breath of the dwelling’s funky bouquet proved enough to confound the feral’s own sense of smell. This was going to be easy.

With only so much time on the clock, Nadia moved quickly. She selected a hanging pot by the entrance, reached down, and detached her lower leg to stow her foot out of sight. After hopping over to a tall, grassy shrub, she planted her tails inside it. Bit by bit she scattered herself throughout the interior, ferreting away each part of herself in a plant or pot just large enough to contain it. Her torso, the largest part of herself, she inserted between bags of dirt and fertilizer beneath a table, where she hoped nobody would look. Finally, she hopped her head into an empty spot on a shelf of succulents, wearing the Mimic Veil stripped off her now-discarded witch’s hat. Once her hand -hidden in a potted rosebush- snapped, the illusion of a clay pot appeared around her head. Just in time, the cat burglar was good to go.

Meanwhile, Goldlewis had a much tougher time. He couldn’t find any objects anywhere both big enough to hide in and not hilariously obvious. Keenly aware of the clock ticking down, he jogged around and examined several abodes in quick succession, but he couldn’t find any feasible spots. After a couple tries he gave up on the houses and headed for the central tower, the largest building not occupied by Bowser. In addition to a small dormitory with bunk beds, the barracks included an armory, and it was there that the veteran found his best bet. Arrayed within were suits of armor of all shapes and sizes, and when Goldlewis used his Mimic Veil in there, a suitably corpulent armor appeared around him. This wasn’t great still, but with time running out he couldn’t find a better option now. He just needed to stand still and hope that whoever stumbled in here was…well, stupid.

Rika, having not exactly had the best time, promptly sat herself and her sore, exercised legs down onto the piton laboratory’s table, dangling the unicorn horn in between two fingers. She sighed, before asking ”So what dumb thing is it this time”

”I believe it is a somewhat more elaborate game of hide and seek” Kamek, who was once again on the same team as her, replied as he hovered over to the potion making table.

”Hide and seek?”

”Indeed.” the mage replied, before clarifying for the young lady ”It’s exactly what it says on the tin. They hide, we seek them out. Only they have the ability to disguise themselves as part of the environment, it seems, where as normally they’d hide in or behind things”

The ship girl thought for a moment, and then related it to the closest thing she knew from her life as a naval warmachine ”So like… submarine hunting then?

”I suppose?” Kamek replied, not entirely sure himself it had to be said, before pondering out loud ”Can’t say I’m sure why there is a potion laboratory involved with the game however?” as he examined the fairly familiar setup.

"Maybe it's just for show?" Pit suggested. The angel was currently leaning out of the window, squinting down at the town far below. Getting a bird's eye view of the area would help when they were down there looking for the others. He fiddled with the rainbow unicorn horn in his hand, antsy to get going. Hide and Seek was easy, he could definitely do this one. The added complexity provided by the mimic veils would just make the game more fun.

“Could be. Just adding a variety of places, and objects to hide as.” Geralt added, looking over the alchemical array. “Hmm. Wonder if I could make anything useful here…or even keep it after this thing ends.” Mixing together a few vaguely-familiar seeming ingredients, Geralt sighed when the potion produced a fart sound and a green cloud. “Or maybe not…”

After staring for a little while and trying to memorize the layout of the town, as well as spotting any of their roof-jumping friends and getting a look at the general direction they were headed (and not so subtly snickering at the potion effect), Pit turned back toward his teammates. He was with Rika and Kamek again, which was an interesting coincidence. Did he have some kind of affinity with Koopas, honorary or not? Although instead of the Koopa King or Bowser Jr., this time the last member of the squad was Geralt. It had been days since their sparring debacle, and had said she'd forgiven him a while ago - plus she had changed so much that hopefully Pit could get over the very last of the awkwardness he felt around her through teaming up now.

"Okay team! We are definitely, totally, 100% going to win!" Pit said. He held his horn up in the air. "There's no way they can hide from all of us! Step one, strategy meeting!"

Rika seemed a lot less enthusiastic it had to be said, giving an unconfident groan and pointing out that ”I mean we haven't exactly been winning so far”

”Now, now, a good villain doesn’t let a string of failures stand in the way of giving their all with their next scheme. Perseverance is key young mistress, so pick up both yourself and your spirits, because one day, yes one day very soon, we shall at last have our due” Kamek lectured the princess with dubious wisdom.

"Or a good hero!" Pit made sure to amend. Still, he got where Rika was coming from. Even if the games were fun, losing every time wasn't. He was in the same boat; in fact everyone on the seeking team was. Although for Rika, who'd told him earlier she only just started existing a few days ago, it probably sucked a lot more since there weren't as many victorious memories to fall back on.

Pit gave Rika his best reassuring grin. "Don't worry, I'll make sure we win this one no matter what. You can count on me!" he said, his voice full of determination. This was the last minigame after all, so it was now or never!

The ship girl gave him an entirely unfiltered by social sensibilities look that amounted to : can I really though?

“Plucky determination aside, we have a genuine tactical advantage on our side: I can track better than a bloodhound with my nose. With all the people around, it might not be perfect, but I can at least get us to their general area instead of us bumbling around thoughtlessly.” Geralt added, having finally joined the others. She wasn’t swimming in tokens, but she was doing well enough for herself so far.

"Wow, really?" Her nose was better than a dog's? Pit had no idea! "...um, have you been able to smell us all this whole time?"

”My condolences if so” Kamek said, because between dank caverns, desert heat and the sweat and blood of combat, said smell wasn’t exactly stunning ”I hope this ship of yours has baths because we could all, I think, do with one”

Geralt rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I’m used to the stench of death, decay, and blood. Bad body odor barely registers anymore, so don’t feel overly conscious about it.”

"Anyway, that's great! It'll make this a whole lot easier." Especially since Pit wouldn't be able to rely on his own supernatural sense. With all the witchy-ness of the playing field, and the large number of players that had some form of magic, he had already ruled out being able to narrow down any areas just by feeling them out. Although he'd probably still be able to vaguely sense Sandalphon's general area, since she was the only one that had that divine sort of feel.

"We can go around together until Geralt sniffs something, then one of us can find the person hiding in that area while the rest of us continue to the next one. You guys think that will work?"

”But what if they move to a place we’ve already looked while we are looking somewhere else? There’s only four of us, and there’s a lot of town, looks like” Rika nay sayed.

”hmmmm.” Kamek pondered for a moment before saying that ”For that, I can make us some lookouts to watch the streets” before taking a few moment to conjure a wisp, a small gang of glowy winged orbs that floated up onto the table next to Rika as the mage explained that ”If I pop some of these at the highest points of the town, and I should be able to spot any obvious movement from building to building”

"Good idea!" Pit said, poking at the wisp. "And since we're in a Halloween town, they don't even look out of place."

From there Pit returned to the window seeing if he could get any last minute information. Ninety seconds had to be up soon. "Where should we start? He could head right to the center of town from here."

“Might be best just to circle outwards from the tower, until I catch a trail. Like you said, Pit, once we get close, we can have one of us separate and hunt down the hiders, and the rest of us keep going. Only concern is finding them without wasting all of our attempts. Only nine mistakes until we lose? Bit tight to mess around with.” She tried thinking of a better strategy, but given that they had little more than a minute to strategize in total, she didn’t have much luck at all.

"That works for me," the angel replied, glancing over his shoulder. "We'll just have to look for anything out of place! And maybe we can spook them into giving themselves away. Y'know like with a feint or something."

”Like this?” Rika asked, before firing her grappling hook, to the end of which he had attached her prop hunting horn. The colorful shank flew through the air, and then right over the top of a random pot before striking the wall just above it. Then she flicked the rope of the grapple to toss it back over the demonstration prop and had her shank wizz right back to her.

The sudden nature of her maneuver would definitely lend itself well to making hidden players flinch. "Yeah, like that! ...as long as hitting the wall doesn't count as making a mistake?" As he said that, Pit's eyes flicked around and above Rika looking for some kind of indicator, though it seemed like they'd just have to keep track themselves.

”That’s gonna be trickier to do” Rika replies before doing a few practice twips where she reeled it back before it hit anything, which had an unfortunately high failure rate.

”Might be best to keep that for if we have any runners” Kamek suggested, before clicking his beak in thoughtfulness.

At that point, eddies of magical energy began to swirl around the four Seekers. “Time’s up, hiders!” Ballyhoo’s voice rang out throughout the wonderworld, sounding a little more prerecorded than usual. “Ready, seekers? Then the hunt is on!”

With an arcane flash the tower around the hunters disappeared, replaced by the wooden cottages and coarse cobblestones of Morgenstund proper. Giant orange numbers manifested in the night sky, glowing like the light of jack-o-lanterns. The six-minute seeking period was underway, and the game was afoot.

With the timer begun, the four Seekers of Light chosen to be seekers of hiders got a move on. They committed to the simple, impromptu plan they'd agreed upon while they waited: follow Geralt's nose until she caught a strong enough scent, then split off one by one to suss out their hidden quarries. As Kamek set up his wisp watch-lights, the other three wove through town. Hide-and-seek was one of the most basic games of all time, but it was usually pretty fun - so the anticipation of getting started excited Pit. As he'd promised Rika and the rest of his team, he was determined to clinch the win this time. So when Geralt pointed out the large library in town, Pit wasted no time heading inside. "On it!"

Within the town, the library was definitely one of the bigger buildings. It made sense in a way; since the area was used for a game, nothing should be overly large or it would give the hiders more of an advantage than they already had. Stepping into the two-story establishment, Pit could already tell that Geralt was right about a player hiding here. For one, the front area had a bunch of books and papers scattered everywhere on the ground around them. That probably wasn’t normal for a library. And for two, although Pit's angelic senses couldn't compete with the Witcher's nose, he was definitely picking up on something—or someone.

The angel made no attempt to disguise his entrance. In fact, he announced it. "Alright! Come out come out wherever you are!" he said, hopping up onto the pile of bookshelves as he surveyed the area.

Silence was, naturally, his response. None of the hiders would be so easily spooked by that mere announcement, committing fully to their hiding positions.

No matter how terrible.

After all, part of the reason that there were papers and such scattered around everywhere became clear almost immediately; even if the angel had not trusted Geralt’s nose, the line of toppled bookshelves made it very apparent that someone had been here and had made quite the mess of things in the process.

Pit's attention lingered on the chaotic clutter, trying to figure out if it was a fake out or the actual path of destruction someone had left in their haste to hide. So far he spotted a few places that might be good to hide in, but definitely nowhere as large as a big pile of wood, leather, and paper. He probably shouldn't over think it. He spared a moment to trot back over to the library's front door and kick it closed before he followed the trail of shelves to the haphazard pile of them.

He moved some out of the way to make moving around a little easier, shoved them aside with his leg and stood a few back up while shoving them back against the walls they came from. Despite his small, lightweight form, lifting them was practically nothing to him - so when he arrived at the largest amount and went to actually check underneath the pile to see if anyone was hiding there, he was surprised that the topmost bookshelf was so... heavy!

"Huh?" He struggled to lift it at all one handed, but didn't want to put the unicorn horn down to use two just in case some wise guy got it into their head to take it from him. It took a moment, but realization snapped through Pit's brain. The mimic veil, right! He'd thought someone would be hiding inside of the pile of shelves, but they were actually hiding right on top in disguise!

"Heheh, not good enough!" Pit poked the tip of the horn into the heavy shelf.

In response he got a ”Bah!” of frustration, followed by the veil dropping and revealing a half way through trying to emerge from his shell Bowser who then explodes into celebratory confetti. Or, well, there was an explosion of confetti and he was left looking both at and through the spectral form of Bowser.

”Huh” he said as he picked himself up off the floor and into the air before fading entirely from view as he was put into spectator mode.

The initial surprise of Pit's quarry bursting into confetti passed fairly quickly. He gave the king a cheeky wave as he faded away to wherever the game's losers went. When the angel was done, the whole town was gonna be filled with confetti! With one person found, Pit took a lap of the first floor. After discovering it was Bowser that was hidden, he could easily assume it was the Koopa King alone that had caused all of the mess. Since that was the case, there was no guarantee that anyone else was still hiding here - but he had a feeling there was. Both a literal feeling and a hunch. He peeked under desks and behind one sort of large potted plant, taking care to pay attention to how easy it was to push them, though so far there weren't any other weight-based hints. As he made his way back to the front, Pit hopped up onto a long table to get a slightly different viewpoint.

He tipped his head, glancing at everything a second time. If it was him, he'd... well, he probably wouldn't have picked a library to hide in, so he wasn't sure where he'd hide. He tapped the unicorn horn against his hip as he thought about it, beginning to hop from table to table. Maybe it was time to head upstairs? He'd checked all the expected spots on the ground floor, except maybe the oversized grimoires. They were pretty huge for books, but could someone really fit in one? On the last table, Pit squinted down at the tome laid on its surface. It looked pretty much the same as any other book - in fact he was pretty sure he'd already passed one that looked exactly like it. Unfortunately since the cover was plain besides the title (which amounted to just a bunch of random lines to Pit), he couldn't be sure. He huffed, kicking the tome off the table in a fit of minor pettiness.

Rather than sprain his toe, the book suddenly shot off the table to that tap, gliding across it as if it was on ice, before dropping off of it, only the floor, and careneing onwards till it hit the banister of the stairs and came bouncing right back. Exactly like a koopa shell.

If that hadn’t given things away, the cry of ”Oh come on!” that the sliding book gave out certainly did.

The shells weren't unfamiliar to Pit. Even if he hadn't participated in a few Smash tourneys already (giving him a much closer look at those kinds of shells than he wanted in the form of being attacked by them), he considered himself an industry veteran, and so he immediately knew what he was looking at. Unfortunately the Koopa himself, who gave himself away regardless.
"That was clever!" Pit said, jumping down to intercept the shell as it hurtled back towards him. He brandished the horn and smacked the tip right into the moving book. "But I got you!"

And just like before, the Koopa exploded into confetti. Two down! Pit thought to himself with a smile. How long did that take? Must have been pretty quick!

It was common to find Jr. somewhere close to his father, so it wasn't a surprise that the prince had been hiding here too. And yet, there was still that little divine buzz in the general area. He'd searched the first floor as thoroughly as he felt he could on a time limit, so he went to find the stairwell leading to the next one. He bounded up the stairs two at a time, stopping on the landing to survey the immediate space. Since the shelves on the second floor were undisturbed, there was less open space making for better places to hide. However, this floor was also only half the size of the first, or even less, so there wouldn't have been a ton of choices. She's gotta be up here.

Pit jogged down the rows one by one, looking up and around for anything that might be suspicious. He knew that if someone was transformed due to the mimic veil they were still roughly the same size, so large furniture or... something else big that might be in a library. The rows of shelves were orderly and symmetrical, so he discarded the thought that there was another shelf disguise. There was a nook set in the wall of the first row he went down, but it only featured a clock and a few armchairs. As he came upon the opposite wall he spotted another reading nook, only this one had something very suspicious indeed.

There was a matching grandfather clock in this one, which wouldn't have been strange on its own, but this one had a round carpet floating about a foot above it. It seemed to be floating anyway - the sides were draped down, but it didn't look like the top of the clock at all. And who covered a clock with a carpet anyway?

"Pffhahaha!" He blurted out when he saw it. He wasn't laughing at her (that huge halo would give anyone trouble hiding), it was just pretty funny looking. Target spotted, Pit burst into a sprint toward the clock with the horn in hand ready to strike.

By charging forward, the young angel had made clear his realization and thrown down the gauntlet. The grandfather clock a few dozen feet in front of him dissolved, disintegrating like cinders from a campfire, revealing the woman hidden inside. Sandalphon had hoped that her guise would buy her more time, but in Pit’s case, ‘illiterate’ hardly meant ‘stupid’. Her halo made her discovery a foregone conclusion from the start. Now, staring down the proverbial barrel of her would-be catcher, she had only a second to enact her contingency plan. But that was enough.

She bent her knees and turned sideways, couching her right hand, then lobbed an icy cluster at Pit. On contact it froze him solid, stopping him and his unicorn horn just a couple feet from his target. “I commend your efforts.” Disturbed by the archangel’s movement, the rug on her halo slipped off and fell into her waiting hand. “Please excuse me.” Sandalphon tossed it onto Pit’s frozen form for good measure, then stood up straight and disappeared in a pillar of light. She couldn't know if her destination, Blazermate, would be safe for her, but it couldn't be much worse than here.

Three whole seconds went by before Pit was free from the ice. He ripped the carpet off of him and shook his body in canine fashion, especially to get any lingering frost out of his feathers. "What the heck!" he complained aloud, his body getting out a few shivers as it warmed right back up. He figured some of the players would be using their own abilities, but somehow he didn't expect it from Sandalphon.

She'd escaped from right in front of him! But she could still be nearby. Pit leapt up onto the top of the nearest bookshelf, then up higher until he was in the building's exposed rafters. He shimmied forward quickly until he had a good view of the entire library - but there was no sign of the archangel.

"Aargh! She teleported!" Which meant he had no idea where she was. Maybe Kamek's wisps had seen where she ended up though, and whoever was closest could catch her. Pit stood up, jogging further down the wooden beam with the intent to leave the building and let the old mage know. However, as he was still in a searching mindset, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

He whipped around, looking across to another section of the rafters. Various bulbous chandeliers were bolted to the underside of some beams, but one of them was very clearly being held up by a hand - which he never would have seen from the ground. It was a shadow hand in fact, which could only belong to one person.

"Midna!" Pit exclaimed after a moment of being surprised at just how many people had chosen the library as their hiding place. He leapt from his spot directly towards the chandelier.

Having once again announced his detection, the hider wasn’t going to stick around and wait to get caught, though unlike the previous lady, she’d had her own long ranged teleportation disabled due to how unfair the shadow hiding prerequisite would have been. The disguise dropped, revealing the aforementioned princess, who had the witch hat awkwardly perched on one of the ‘horns’ of her helmet. She herself did not drop, however, and instead proceeded to curl up and then hurl her body forwards and into the window of the library, shattering it like a wrecking ball, sending her and a shower of glass flying down onto the grass outside.

A moment later and she was racing through the streets on wolfback.

Determined not to let her get away, Pit followed directly after her - grabbing the beam she'd been hanging from with his hand as he flung himself through the air and swinging himself out of the same window. He landed on the cobbled street, catching sight of the wolfos' tail as it turned a corner. Pit sprang directly up, putting himself on the roof of the next building as he followed her path from higher ground. Although pretty fast, normally the angel wouldn't be able to keep up with her four legged mount. Within the boundary of the game though, it would only be a matter of time.

As he chased Midna, he passed by some of the wisps that Kamek had stationed around town, which led to him basically shouting out his report to them, as he wasn't sure if his voice carried far enough for the advisor himself to hear it. "Kamek! Sandalphon escaped, she teleported somewhere, so I don't know which way she went!"

In response the closest wisp did a little swirling dance as if to communicate ‘message received.’

With someone else able to keep an eye out for Sandalphon, Pit moved in to complete his capture of the Twilight Princess. Just as Ballyhoo said, he could feel himself speeding up the longer he ran. Soon enough he overtook Midna, jumping down from the rooftops to block her path.

"Gotcha!" he said, rushing toward her as though he was using his Arm, swinging the unicorn horn up and out directly at her.

”oh no you don’t!” the princess retorted, slashing a spear out of thin air and attempting to parry the horn away using the horn like she had with the ganondorf mirror.

She succeeded, a flash of surprise crossing Pit's face before he grinned. So that's how she wanted to play it? Fine by me!

He pulled back so that he could keep his grip on the horn. He then twirled it in his hand, this time as though it was part of his bow. It was almost half the size of the weapon, meaning it was just about equal to the size of one of his dual swords - and weighted about the same too. Pit closed in on Midna, aiming to get inside of her spear's range with several quick, unrelenting jabs. All he had to do was poke her once, and it was his win.

"I. Really. Need. An. Actual. Sword." Midna cursed as she held him back for 6 more probes before he got past on the 7th, poking her and eliciting a "Gah" of frustration as she was taken out of the game, leaving a very confused and alarmed wolfos wondering what had just happened. And in front of it, a very satisfied Pit.

"Heheh, victory!"

Well, partial victory. There was still the whole rest of the game to go. After celebrating by patting the wolfos on the head, Pit turned on his heel and sprung back up onto the nearest rooftop. With his area cleared out, it was time to help capture any other fleeing players around town!

As Geralt sniffed around the market, Pit went to check the library and Rika scanned around their starting point, Kamek set about setting up his surveillance network. The pre-prepared hovering whisps spread out across the town under his direction, seeking out and then perching themselves atop the highest points in it.

He intended to use this to spot any runners or sneaky spot switchers, but as it turned out he unintentionally ran into his first hider in the process of doing so. Though calling her a hider seemed like it might be a bit of a misnomer given that the woman was casually laying on her back on a tower roof without even having donned a disguise.

Nevertheless, he (or rather the glowing fairy winged orbs now hovering on the roof near her) had found her, and so the mage took to the skies atop his broom and started to float over her way, wondering if this behavior had anything to do with how she had just been freed from Galeem, been ‘unstoried’ as Asgore had put it, or not.

Juri lazily swatted at the winged orbs like they were pesky mosquitoes. When Kamek herself arrived, Juri swatted in her direction like she was a bigger, peskier mosquito. ”Ah, buzz off, would ya? I don’t care about this stupid game.” Juri complained with a frown. Her eyes were now the vibrant green and purple they should have been from the start.

”I’m so sick of this crap.” She added.

”Then you won’t mind if I eliminate you from it then?” the mage replied as he drew his unicorn horn and floated closer to do just that, but not before offering ”If you have any questions, I will be more than happy to answer them after this. Miss Fortune’s timing for this has been rather poor I must say”

”That’s just because she’s ‘rather poor’ herself.” Juri said with a cackle. She crossed one leg over the other, and frowned again, her mood re-souring on the spot.

”Just buzz off! I don’t wanna go back to that gibbering idiot’s clown tent. I’m not goin’ anywhere.” She protested.

”I am afraid I have a young ward who’s not been having the best of time with these, so I’ll have to turn down that request” he replied with polite affluence, before grinning, declaring ”this will only take a moment” and then tilting down the tip of his broom and swooping towards her at a speed that seemed to surprise even him.

”I don’t care about your freaking ‘young ward’- you’re so annoying!” Juri yelled, erupting from the ground with an invulnerable spinning wheel kick to knock Kamek away. She landed on the roof, frustrated. All she wanted was a bit of dignity and respect!
”Give me the stupid horn! I’ll do it myself.” She shouted. ”I don’t want you pokin’ me.”

The mage stabilized himself, paused for a moment, shrugged and tossed her the horn ”if you would, I’d appreciate it”

Juri caught the horn, and threw it away as far as she could. Would you believe her if she told you that wasn’t even her plan? Up until the point she had it in her hands she really was going to poke herself with it. ”Oops!”

”and as you haven’t you may suffer the consequences” he added without much surprise in his tone, not even rushing after his capture implement. Instead he waved his wand, and caused dozens of skeletal hands to rise up around her, followed by the rest of the dry-bones pulling themselves from the roof and attempting to swarm and grab her.

While they did that, the mage disappeared in a poof of smoke, and then 6 seconds later was back with his horn.

Juri chuckled as the hands rose up to meet her. ”Ew! Creep.” She dropped herself onto her back. ”Who knew you were into this kind of thing?”

”What was that?” the mage replied, having been both away and briefly dazed upon returning for some reason. Either way once there, he approached, dagger raised with ominous poise.

”Ugh.” Juri rolled her eyes. ”What are you, sacrificing me to a volcano? Hurry up, these things got cold hands.”

”Not particularly my style that” the mage replied before raising up the horn and then staking it downwards towards her heart (for extra dramatic flare).

Juri smirked. ”If it was, you’d know I’d be no good as a sacrifice. I’m not a-” Then she exploded into confetti.

”Huh, wonder what that means?” Kamek asked himself, before shaking his head and dismissing the drybones with a wave of a hand, before finally turning to take a look at the rest of the area he had to investigate.

A quick check of the hider’s spawn point revealed nothing/no-one of note, nor some of the nearby buildings, but as it turned out the barracks was somewhere that would bear fruit. He initially drifted past the suits of armor found within, thinking them far to cliche a spot to hide, only to come drifting back a short while later.

”Well none of you have come to life, which really is a let down. So let’s see if I can encourage that” he joked, before approaching the first in the line of armors, and then with a hand gripping the helm and pulling it off with a dramatic flourish, revealing its empty interior.

”Hmmm, not you, but how about…” before waving his wand, summoning his toadies who moved, grasped the helmets of every helm that wasn’t Goldlewis and hefting them off to reveal nothing once more.

The mage gave a ”tch” of disappointment as he dismissed the minions and looked thoughtfully at the final suit of armor. Then, absurdly, he drifted away- only to suddenly appear in a poof right in-front of it and make to remove the helm, a move only slightly let down by the two second between his appearing and being able to move to de-helm the hero

Of course, his hand passed right through the illusion, but by that time Goldlewis was already moving. From the moment Kamek first appeared, the veteran had been on high alert, and the tension only grew the longer Kamek drew this out. The magikoopa seemed to be playing with his food, which quickly evaporated any trace of sympathy on the part of Goldlewis. Old or not, he would show his would-be hunter no mercy.

He burst from his hiding spot with his Burst, an omnidirectional blue energy wave. “Take a hike!” It made him invincible for a split second, and the hit also sent Kamek tumbling painlessly across the ground.

The mage shook his head to clear it, and then rather than grab his broom to fly, grabbed just the fallen horn and then actually ran after Goldlewis. Had this not been part of the game it would been a foolish notion, but the seeking speedboost worked overtime to give the old man a chance, causing the turtle to cackle with glee as he became a hare for a few moments, racing through the halls of the barracks after the mighty glacier till, inevitable, the chase came to an end.

Confetti was spilled and Kamek lost his speed boost, much to his disappointment and the complaint of his old joints.

”Ach, well, that was fun, but maybe I’ll stick to the broom from now on” he commented to himself, before letting out a sigh and hobbling back to the armor room to fetch it.

With the performance he’d put on inside, it might have seemed like he’d wasted a fair bit of time on the theatrics, but thanks to his whisps, the mage wasn’t restricted to simply his own sight when it came to searching.

While he was messing about with the armor, one of his whisps headed down into the basement, found the dungeon located down there, and encountered Roxas’ keys and locks schemes. Unfortunately for him, the little winged globs of mana didn’t even try and open the cell doors, as they phased right through them.

Fortunately for him, they did the same to him as well when they got close, and so their inspection was merely visual. In doing so they found the keys that had been tossed into one of the cells however, and a moment later there was a ‘poof’ and a puff of smoke and that cell now contained Kamek.

”Interesting, interesting. You aren't supposed to be here now are you?” he said to them as he picked up the keys, before glancing at the bedding in the room with him, and then dismissing it as a possibility. Whoever had done this surely would have at the very least have tossed the keys into the next cell, or so he guessed.

”Why not simply put them in a pocket to deny them entirely I wonder?” he asked out loud as he unlocked the cell and stepped out, before strolling too and fro to examine the contents of the other cells.

”hmmm, hmmm, hmmm,” he then pondered out loud as he examined each in turn, before striding back to the one with Roxas in it and saying that ”this one seems far to generously furnished for a prison cell” referring here to the excess bedding found therein. He then stepped in and before waved his wand through the bars of the cell, summoning his toadies once more, and instructing them to ”give the ‘prisoner’ a rude awakening” prompting them to drift down and toss the sheets aside.

Well, Roxas was indeed jostled out of his hiding spot. But since none of the propeller hatted minions carried a unicorn horn he was still safe for the time being. He also had an unusually smug look on his face for a hider who was just exposed, ”Good work on sniffing me out.” He said with arms confidently crossed in front of his chest, ”But you can’t tag me if you can’t get inside.” Which was an interesting thing to say to someone who clearly held the cell keys. But it would become clear as soon as Kamek tried them on the cell door. Not a single one of them worked. Well, one of them would have worked, if not for the fact it had been recently overridden by a Keyblade’s magic. Any lock sealed by a Keyblade, could only be subsequently unsealed by a Keyblade.

”Interesting. I assume you have sabotaged the lock then?” Kamek guessed before also thinking ”hmm, and even if I do get in, I will be an old turtle who you might well try and wrestle the horn from the hands of” out loud.

That did seem like quite the predicament, but the mage simply smiled and waved his wand, causing around him 4 more hims to appear and with a cackle, declaring that ”you best hope you grab the right one then!” before all 5 horn-armed Kameks disappeared in a puff of smoke, and reapered behind him, knives raised like treacherous senators, that held that pose for 2 seconds exactly before driving their blades down in unison.

The plan, it turned out, was not to try and wrestle away Kamek’s unicorn horn. The second he vanished, Roxas was able to safely assume he was preparing a teleport attack and thus lunged himself forward and then spun around to summon a checkered wall of virtual cubes between himself and the five Kameks who reappeared in his cell. The cubes probably couldn’t do any harm to him in this virtual game world. But they would obstruct him from immediately being able to pull off his backstab. After that he could unlock the cell and try to escape to the outside. But was he fast enough to do this before Kamek could teleport again and attack with greater speed thanks to the seeker buff? That was gonna end up coming down to a roll of the dice.

Unfortunately, the architect of the building had rigged those dice, because the last thing you wanted in a dungeon was to give your prisoners an easy time escaping. There was one way in/out, and the mages re-appeared appeared in it, blocking the top of the stairs like the barrack’s troops might appear to stop a breakout. Unfortunately the only option now was to fight. And he tried, for about two seconds. It turned out that 5 invincible speed boosted turtles around made for a nearly untouchable opponent in a fight, so it didn’t take Kamek long after this point to tag the Keyblade Wielder and explode him into confetti.

”Aw, man.” his spectral form complained, ”Why did it have to be the one person who could teleport? My plan would have stumped literally anyone else.” He grumbled for only a brief moment before laughing it off with a shrug.

”Such is fate” the mage replied as his copies where dismissed, before admitting that ”though it was fun to be on the other side of the coin for once I must say”

The koopa made a final sweep of the building after that, but was fairly sure it was clear. The next few structures were the same, by which point he’d skirted most of the outskirts and drifted into Geralt had ended up. Which looked to contain quite the host of structures, so the mage offered to help him out.

A little bit later, and with only a little bit of time remaining, the mage drifted into the bar and immediately wafted a hand in-front of his nose at the smell.

”Ack, a place that sells just that… whatever it is that wretched drink that Bacchus fellow his majesty did not like was imbibing” Kamek complained, before declaring ”delightful” in a sardonic tone.

His dislike of the smell made him stay clear of the barrels at first, prompting him to head upstairs first, but it was only a matter of time till he returned and started poking about behind the bar.

Knowing it was only a matter of time before the mage started to search the ale barrels, Captain Falcon believed he should perhaps try to make an exit. And when Kamek had gone upstairs, Cap knew now was the time to either fish or cut bait. So while he was still alone in the tavern main floor room, Falcon started creeping toward the doors that would take him outside and out of Kamek’s line of sight. He could try a full run and be out the door a lot faster but that would make more noise and more easily alert the seeker. This resulted in Cap creeping a little more slowly while also diligently keeping a close eye on the stairway in anticipation of Kamek inevitably coming back down. And unfortunately Cap didn’t quite make it to the door. Instead he had to reorient his veil to disguise him as a table and set of chairs and simply hope the mage didn’t keep count of the tavern tables. He also had to hope he wouldn’t be spotted between the legs of the table and chairs, but hopefully in the room’s lighting maybe he wouldn’t be noticeable at a glance?

It was fortunate indeed that the mage tended to float everywhere on his broom, because the short fellow was at head height with a dining top. As things stood (or rather floated) the mage made a little ”hm?” upon appearing at the top of the stairs, but did not immediately zero in on the new bits of furniture. Instead, he sighed, and approached the barrels behind the bar.

”alright let us get this over with” he sighed before murmuring ”it is a shame I can’t simply blast the things to bits or…” before making an ”oh!”[ and then a laugh of ”oh ho ho ho” and asking himself ”why didn’t I think of it sooner” as he brandished his wand.

”Bip, bap, whoop and zing!
Turn these barrels into an itty bitty thing!”

He chanted, and then with a zap of magic, chain blasted each and every barrel with spells that shrunk them down to the sizes of mugs while the mage crackled manically.

”ahahahahaha ha ha ha ahhhhh that was fun” he concluded as the last barrel was shrunk, before coughing with a touch of embarrassment and hoping no one had actually seen that. Which was just the right or wrong moment to realize that ”Wait a second!” and then pausing to count ”..ng, hm, and eight” which was not the amount there had been in here when he’d gone up stairs.

Of that he was quite sure, so he announced ”Ah ha ha, well then, I know you’re still here, I had a wisp watching the street you know” before making a show of inspecting the room again.

Against all odds however, he seemed to end up concluding that ”Hmm, perhaps I was wrong. My old age must be getting to me” with a dramatic sigh. The mage then moved to head out the building after that, only to suddenly pull the horn out of his pocket and slam it towards the ”terrible place for a table!”

For the time being Cap was still fast enough to dodge roll out the way of the incoming horn stab. Then he made a blistering sprint for the nearby door. He hadn’t initially made it to the door but he made it close enough to successfully burst through them and outside. He’d be out of Kamek’s for probably like a second before the wizard teleported outside however. So Cap made a hail mary attempt to re-hide himself as a water barrel right next to a nearby identical water barrel that sat only a few footsteps away from the tavern’s doors. Had Kamek been paying enough attention outside the building to notice the difference? That was Falcon’s only hope of escape. If he got caught again? Well, at least he gave it his best effort.

”ha ha- huh?” the mage became confused upon recovering from his two second teleportation sickness, having expected to find a fleeing captain, and yet no matter where he looked, be it through his eyes or through his whisps, there was none to be found.

”Hmm” he went, before guessing that the captain ”can’t have gotten faaaar” drawing out the ‘a’ as he did a quick sweep of the nearby objects.

His eyes darted to and fro beneath his spectacles and then he darted forwards, driving the horn forwards like a tiny lance and stabbing it into the water barrel … next to the captain.

Falcon was practically sweating bullets now, especially after such a close call. But he really had no choice but to stay put. Trying to run now would get him tagged. But at the same time, it was almost inevitable that Kamek would eventually poke at his disguise. After all he was spot on in his assessment that the Captain couldn’t have gotten far. So at this point Cap may as well have been living on borrowed time.

”Tch, I could have sworn” the mage said to himself as he glanced at his now far more depleted tagging implement. He started down the barrel, only to suddenly glance off in another direction, towards the library, tilting his head to hear shouting that should have been much too far off for him to hear.

”So many down” he said to himself, before putting a finger to his ear and having a remote conversation with Rika, which further drew out the time during which Kamek loomed over the hidden captain.

Once it came to an end, the mage had another thought and decided ”Well, it seems your numbers have dwindled so why not” before thrusting the shive at the second barrel as well. The barrel, or more specifically the F-Zero pilot it concealed, proceeded to explode into confetti. Now all that was left of Falcon was a spectral ghost version of him. But he didn’t look particularly angry or disappointed. In fact he offered his tagger a congratulatory thumbs up.

”Well played!” The Captain said, unsure if the mage could even hear him when he was in spectator mode like this.

He received a thumbs up in return, the mage seeing the very start of it before the captain faded entirely from view. He held it just a little too long to be cool, before giving a cough, adjusting his hat, and then saying ”Well then, that’s this area clear I think” with a more satisfied nod, before taking off to see if Rika needed a bit of a hand with her final hunts or not.

After settling into his hiding place, Therion hadn’t expected the door of the shop to open before their ninety second time was up. He tipped his head back against the wall with a thunk when he saw both Roland and Ms. Fortune enter the potter’s house. Thankfully the latter left as soon as she realized that three would be a crowd, though Therion understood why this was her first pick, just as it had been his. The two of them seemed to have a lot in common in addition to being thieves, and that the similarities kept growing as they took in spirit fusions hadn’t escaped his notice.

Roland though, he could only guess at. He knew almost nothing about him, but from what he’d seen in the minigames so far the man was swift and dark. Maybe he was some type of rogue himself. When it was apparent he was staying put, Therion was initially annoyed - but quickly realized this was a boon for himself. Roland was disguised as a vase, the same as him, but he had gone for a “natural” spot while Therion was hidden even while disguised. The shop wasn’t that large, so if someone came in and found Roland, it was likely they’d leave without a second glance at the rest of the pots. In his little vase form Therion nudged the door so it would close again, then crouched and held still. It had been a few seconds since their time limit ended, so all that was left to do now was wait.

Meanwhile Roland’s plan was… close to what Therion was thinking but not quite exactly what he’d be expecting. Roland would wait for seekers to come in, and if they didn’t discover him, he’d leave and go to their spawn tower and hide there. They’d be very unlikely to discover him there as it's rare for people to look for others in places they think are safe.

Zenkichi, meanwhile, silently awaited the inevitable arrival of one of the seekers in the Ironworks, the ambient sounds of the Halloween-themed town providing a somewhat ominous backdrop to his wait.

About a minute after the game had begun, Geralt arrived in what could be described as the mercantile area of the fictional town, nose drawing him ever closer to the hiders. Her first stop was the Weaver’s House, driven less by the pull of her nose and more by a desire to be sure. If she overlooked places because her senses didn’t draw her to them, she could easily miss the others.

The abode was stuffed to bursting with textiles and cloth, which Geralt frowned at. Most of these wouldn’t serve terribly well to hide the others, but she still did her due diligence, knocking over quilts and blankets on small shelving units, tearing tapestries off the wall, and overturning pieces of furniture. After about a minute, she moved on, satisfied that she’d torn the place up enough to dislodge any hiders that might have been around, and having found none.

Next, she entered the Ironworks, the heavy scent of iron and coal in the air, masking all but the slightest whiff of cheap cologne. Zenkichi she thought, and set about the place, searching for the Phantom Thief with ruthless efficiency. She knocked on anvils, tipped over a few cauldrons, and even stuck her sword into a dummy. When she reached a safe along the wall of the building, Zenkichi struck in a panic, shoving her aside in a moment of surprise, before she went after him. A familiar cry of ”Sukukaja!” had her biting back a curse, as the Phantom Thief suddenly picked up a burst of speed. Her feet thundered as she chased the man into the town.

“Dammit, get back here, you know I’ll catch up!” She called out, every step taking her closer.

”All I gotta do is waste enough time!” Zenkichi taunted, taking a corner and running for his proverbial life.

As they sprinted by the other shops in the merchant quarter, the players inside them moved not a centimeter.

That was fast, Therion thought to himself, listening to the pair of footsteps gradually get further away before turning and coming back around. Every second Zenkichi used up was another in his teammate's favor, so hopefully he could keep it up for a little longer. Roland meanwhile was already looking for his exit as they sprinted through. He waited a bit for Zenkichi to get further away but when he was sure eyes weren’t on him, he noticed a commotion at the spawn point and went back to his spot. Seemed like someone else had an idea similar to his, so it would be a bit before he could make his move.

Geralt’s chase with Zenkichi was quickly becoming a rushdown, so Zenkichi did whatever he could to slow Geralt down. He turned corners, climbed into the Weaver’s House when they ran passed it and tossed a rolled-up carpet Geralt’s way, and slammed the door behind him, pressing his weight against it to keep Geralt out. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten Geralt’s strength underneath her feminine physique, and she kicked the door right off its hinges, sending the Phantom Thief sprawling to the ground. He hardly had a chance to get to his knees before the Unicorn horn plunged into his back, with an ”Ah, dammit” marking his defeat.

With one down, Geralt returned to her search, though she was a bit less methodical now that Zenkichi had wasted so much time. Instead of going places her nose wasn’t directing her, she went straight to the place she could smell the most activity at: the Potter’s House. Opening the door and closing it behind her, Geralt’s smirk belied her brutal, yet effective tactic. Lifting one hand in the air, she cast the Sign of Aard and shattered about two-thirds of the pottery in the place in one fell swoop.

“Well, thats just cheating!” Roland thought. He’d need to slip out when Geralt wasn’t looking his way. Granted if she just kept doing that, doing that might be hard..

With a majority of the pottery out of the way, Geralt took a deep breath and surveyed the room. It’d be at least a few more seconds before she could even think about using another Sign again, and even that’d be pushing it. So, she grabbed the nearest vase and shoved it over into the one next to it, then spun and kicked the one that was now behind her.

The situation wasn't looking great for the two men hiding, since Geralt's magic left only a few pots standing. Naturally, the hiders disguises remained untouched, which was just about the most suspicious thing ever. Thankfully for Therion, since he was nearby the door where Geralt stood, the blast of Aard in front of her didn't hit the pottery alongside his wall. But things were still too close for comfort, especially for him, since now it looked like she was just going to break every vase in this place. And his was just about next. So Therion was of the same mind as Roland - he would escape at the first chance he got.

Unlike Roland though, Therion was putting a plan into action. And throwing Roland under the bus while he did it.

As Geralt surveyed the interior, Therion quickly flicked a dart at the pot Roland was hiding in. Technically they were on the same team, but if given the choice of course the thief was always going to prioritize himself. The clink of the dart against the ground where Roland hid would hopefully draw her attention that way instead.

Geralt’s head jerked to the side, eyes locking onto the sound of the dart hitting the ground as she carefully watched each pot. Slowly walking over, she took another deep breath and decided to go all in. It’d be a pain, but she’d dealt with worse. Once more, her hand raised, and she drew a Sign in the air, launching another blast of telekinetic force at the remaining pots on this side of the room, destroying all but one. “Found you.”

And while Geralt dealt with Roland, as her back was turned, Therion practically slithered up and out of the open window. His disguise broke as crossed the threshold into the outside, at which point he broke into a sprint. He didn't even feel bad about it.

”That little…” Roland said, making a break for it now that he was discovered. He was much faster than Zenkichi and made a run for it like Therion, although in the opposite direction. Now Geralt had to make a choice on who to go for. Although if he didn’t go after Roland, finding him by sound would be difficult as Geralt noted that as Roland moved, even if he stepped on the shattered clay pottery, no sound was made.

Geralt went for Roland, drawing the Unicorn Horn into her hands even as she called out for the other seekers to hunt Therion down while he made a break for it. She wasn’t sure if anybody was close enough to do so, but it never hurt to try. And while Roland was fast, unless he had some serious tricks up his sleeve, this would end just as it did with Zenkichi- the speed boost from continuously chasing him, combined with Geralt’s own natural speed, would inevitably overwhelm the Fixer.

Roland did have a trick though, thanks to his silent movement once he left the building he clearly moved left, with Geralt being able to see him do so. However once he was out of line of sight, he did some fancy acrobatics to hop over the doorframe and instead ran right moving a few dozen feet before finding a new prop to disguise as outside. Although this time it was just a tree, nothing fancy.

Geralt paused when she turned the corner, and Roland was nowhere to be found. She looked around for any disturbances, before sighing and taking another deep breath. The fresh scent trail Roland had left behind filled her nose, and followed it to the outside of the Potter’s House. With how recent and fresh the trail was, Geralt wasted no time in bullrushing the disguised Fixer. There weren’t enough other props nearby for her to run her lives out on, and with two lost ‘tries’ in her haste, Geralt tagged Roland after a moment. “Okay. Who’s left…” She mused, looking around and taking another deep breath to find another trail.

Therion's plan hadn't gone perfectly considering Geralt had noticed his escape, but at the very least it accomplished what he'd wanted: getting the seeker to go after someone else while he escaped. Now, while Geralt was dealing with Roland, Therion was already a few blocks away. He ducked into an alleyway, crouching and pressing his back against the wall of a building. He peeked out around it into the street.

Geralt wasn't the only seeker he had to worry about, just the closest one. He'd heard the shouting from somewhere near their starting point, so someone was likely over that way - leaving two other seekers unaccounted for. He stuck to the ground because the rooftops were just wide open space, way too easy to spot someone moving up there. On the streets, he could find cover a lot easier. Not to mention he knew that Kamek would be flying and the other one, Pit, probably was too considering he had wings.

After a moment to make sure the coast was clear, Therion moved again. He slipped down the alley and took a turn, continuing to put distance between himself and the potter's house. He went in a new direction, keeping under awnings as much as possible while he scoped out potential new hiding places. As he entered another alley, a shadow passed above him. The hairs on his neck stood up and his tail fluffed out. His senses, both naturally honed and the acquired cat-like ones, told him to run.

He dove into an evasive roll just as the shadow dropped down onto the space he'd just been in, the unicorn horn striking the cobblestone instead of its target. "Dang it!"

As Therion popped back up onto his feet, he saw Pit doing the same. Exchanging no words with the boy, Therion broke into a run away from him. Naturally Pit gave chase. Until Pit's speed boost kicked in, the thief was going to put as much distance between them as possible by leveraging his higher natural speed. Ultimately he couldn't lose Pit though, no matter how much he weaved through town, and when accidentally led them into a dead end the angel assumed the jig was up.

"There!" he said thrusting the horn at Therion's back as the thief came up to the wall in front of them. He was met with a retort, and the horn striking brick as Therion jumped up and kicked off of the wall back over Pit's head. "I don't think so."

He took off again, chucking pumpkins and various other items behind him as he ran. More than once he successfully fended off the angel's horn, causing an accidental 'mistake' for the seeker as he jabbed forward. Although Pit would have much rather had Therion take a stand like Midna had, the chase was kind of fun too - until he got a jack-o-lantern in the face. "Bwh-!"

Therion sped off the way he'd originally come from. He zipped around the side of another shop, breaking line of sight, with the intent to quickly find a hiding place and fool his pursuer. Unfortunately when he turned the corner, he ended up staring Geralt down just a few dozen feet away. She must have finished up with Roland already and doubled back!

"Crap," Therion muttered under his breath. He slid to a near-stop and turned in one fluid motion in order to flee - which is when Pit caught up, sandwiching Therion between the two seekers. The angel lunged, finally catching Therion with a poke. When the thief exploded into confetti, he heaved a sigh and flicked his tail in spectral form. The game was against the hiders from the start, so no big deal.

Pit grinned at Geralt, giving her a peace sign with his fingers. "Almost done!" He informed her before running off to continue the hunt.

“Good catch.” Geralt simply said when she saw Pit take Therion down. That distraction out of the way, she returned to her searching by way of nose. Of the three that entered the Potter’s House other than her own, only one remained: Nadia Fortune. Knowing what she was capable of, Geralt wasn’t looking forward to the search. She could have launched herself into some near-impossible to reach spot, or hidden her body parts in random locations all over the town. With only ninety seconds to hide before they started, however, the smart bet would not be to hobble halfway across town to her last spot.

Following the blood-tinged smell of wet cat, Geralt stood outside the Botanist’s House. The scent trail was heavily muddied by the earthy aromas filling this place. Opening the door, Geralt hummed. She didn’t have terribly much time. Igni could make short work of this place, though it risked Nadia being hidden in the smoke, or some actual harm.

Instead, she went back to her previous tried-and-true method: Aard. Clay shattered with the telekinetic burst of force, sending dirt and leaves all over the house. A table splintered against the wall, bags of soil bursting under the pressure and spilling their contents. “Know you’re in here.” Geralt muttered, knocking over one of the remaining pots, part of a leg falling out. “Wonder if this’ll work.” She mused, poking the leg with the Unicorn horn.

With a puff of confetti, Nadia was eliminated from the game. “Huh. Honestly wasn’t sure, but it makes sense. Would hardly be fair to have to get every part, or just one specific one to get her.” Shrugging, Geralt stepped out of the Botanist’s House and closed her eyes.

Primrose had made herself as comfortable as possible, although as time went on she was starting to regret taking the lantern. It made her camouflage even better, but she had to hold it still over her head for six minutes. It was possible that a seeker would notice the minute movements of her hand, especially if she swapped which one was holding it if her arm got tired. If she set it down next to her, its glow might be visible from outside of the veil’s illusion. If she threw it away, that could easily draw a suspicious seeker to her location. She knew she hadn’t planned that far ahead when she decided this would be a good idea, but there was one other thing that could blow it for her: Ganondorf.

The warlord had declared his intent to do battle, even going as far as summoning his moblins. And his own hiding spot wasn’t all that far from hers, both being within the area the hiding players started in. He seemed serious enough that he’d even struck that boy, Roxas, which made Primrose narrow her eyes. If whatever chaos he caused reached her, her hiding spot would be easily revealed. She might even reveal it herself if he actually planned to harm one of the members of the seeking team. She hoped he wouldn’t though - this was only a game after all.

Primrose had a fairly wide open view in front of her, so when things kicked off she noticed Kamek’s wisps beginning to spread around the rooftops of town. She could hear the small group tasked to catch them somewhere nearby, but when one appeared in her vision it wasn’t the old mage, but Rika.

The day old did not, it had to be said, look like she was having the best time, armored boots scuffing along the dirt road as she looked around with a mix of confusion and frustration on her face. She paused at an intersection to scratch her helmeted head with an oversized finger, before gesturing that same hand around palm up accompanied by a look of bemusement

After giving a sigh and then raising the gauntlet she counted off three fingers while muttering ”Ok. Right. So. Ganondorf, Primrose, Blazermate. Somewhere. Kamek said to look for stuff that is out of place but, well,” to herself making a sound of ”eeegh” to express her self assumed inability to do this.

Poor girl, Primrose thought. The former abyssal really didn't seem to be having a good time. Since the whole point of the minigames was to wind down and have fun, maybe she would give Rika a freebie and let herself be found after all. Subtlety, as though she'd made a mistake instead of turning herself in. Of course during the few seconds she mulled the thought over, the thing she was actually concerned about began...

Finding something out of place proved to be both easier and harder at the same time. The Town Square was dotted with a litany of crates, barrels, urns, and other assortment of random furniture items that Ganondorf’s Moblins had had time to place about the area. This may as well have been a flare signaling that there was hider among these objects somewhere. But figuring out the right one to check? The only option was to check each one and either get lucky, or get unlucky enough times that Rika would risk accidentally eliminating herself. All the while, ignorant of the fact that at least one of her targets was in fact disguised as the largest object present in the Town Square. The assortment of other objects had created an effective mask to hide what could otherwise be the potential obviousness of Ganondorf within the horse cart.

Not that the warlord intended to remain hidden for much longer. Above the Town Square, his five Moblin archers were spread out on different rooftops. They were under strict orders not to take any lethal shots so as to avoid violating the rules of the game, should such a rule exist. Instead they were lying in wait for a certain signal to spur them into action. Then seemingly at random, a deep-voice laugh could be heard. It was the voice of Ganondorf, albeit from within his hiding spot as he had not moved out from there just yet. Was it an attempt at an intimidation tactic? Partially. But it also served as the signal the Moblins were waiting for.

So moments after hearing Ganondorf’s menacing laugh, Rika would also hear the distinct twang of a snapping bowstring followed by the whistling sound of an arrow flying through the air. And immediately after that she found an arrow sinking into the ground at her feet with a thunk. If she looked fast enough, she could spot the Moblin archer scrambling from its spot over to another cover spot it could hide behind. That shot wasn’t supposed to be a killshot, instead its purpose was to divert Rika’s gaze in the opposite direction of the horse cart that hid Ganondorf. So during that moment he lifted the illusory veil and stood with his trident at the ready before flinging it forward in her direction. It wasn’t a spear or javelin style throw, either. Instead the weapon spun around as it flew through the air. This way, even if it did strike Rika there was little chance of any lethal or lasting damage.

The precaution turned out to be unnecessary, for though his distraction worked perfectly, the hurled trident’s heft struck a theretoo invisible barrier rather than her chest as it should have done. The golden spartan energy shield shimmered into existence across her torso and head, taking the blow for the princess and, as the ui on her helmet indicated, suffering 0 actual damage for the trouble. A moment later a massive hand closed around the weapon before it hit the ground, grasping the weapon.

”Did thou taketh me for a coward?” Ganondorf said to the ship girl with a grimace. ”If thou wish to eliminate me, ye shall have to defeat me first!” With an outstretched hand he summoned the trident he threw back to his hand. If Rika wanted to tag him with her unicorn horn, she’d have to fight him for it.

After blinking in surprise, she replied ”I can do that too!” before summoning her cannon butted halberd into her now empty hand. After spinning it around once for flare, and then following it up with a ”thanks, this makes things so much easier” before charging forwards towards the king of evil, the game’s seeker speed boost kicking in and turning it from infantry to cavalry charge speed.

As she closed in, she’d suddenly flare thrusters to close the gap with a burst of extra speed as she swung her weapon low, attempting to use its unusual curved blade like crook to trip the king rather than a futile attempt to impale him. That’d be a lot easier said than done, given the king’s tall stature and immense physical strength. He actually did have a legitimate weak spot she could potentially exploit, provided she could spot what that was.

The incoming charge didn’t come as a complete surprise to Ganondorf. He knew from the rules that any seeker pursuing him would be granted a boon to their speed. Rika being able to further enhance that boon was something he had been unaware of until right now, however. But for the low-aimed sweeping attack, he need only plant the trident into the ground to take the brunt of the force while crouching down in order to reinforce his stance and make him harder to knock off his feet. And since he was crouched anyway, he decided to use that positioning to spring himself into a Gerudo Dragon uppercut that could launch her away from him if it landed.

Around them, meanwhile, the Moblins were taking aim with their bows and looking for any opportunity they could find to take potshots at Rika to either annoy her or distract her focus on Ganondorf himself.

She certainly made for an easy target as she was launched up into the air, several arrows smacking harmlessly yet distractingly into her as she tried to orientate herself. Rather than come crashing back down a moment later however, the princess’s tiny wings buzzed, and her antigravity gauntlets and feather fall rune slowed her fall, letting her, pivot in the air, aim a palm down, and proceed to start blasting at the king with ink from her grozco-blaster. At the same time, she pulled back and began charging her other, unicorn horn tipped, gauntlet, prepping up for a meteoric return to land.

While none of the ink blasts could harm the warlord, they could still blind him with a shot in his face. So it was only natural that he held up his right arm in order to shield his eyes from stray ink shots while he spun around and used Bullet Jump to slide several feet away from her in anticipation for what he assumed would be some kind of followup attack. Then he planted the trident into the ground so that he could call down a lightning blast on top of it as a form of punishment for any attempt to charge into him. Whether he was fast enough to do this before he was outrun by Rika’s ever-increasing seeker speed buff would be a matter of luck in the end.

It wasn’t that speed he needed to worry about however, as Rika hammered her fist forwards, flared her boosters, and fired her rigging guns backwards all at the same time she fired her grappling hook.

Her unicorn horn tipped hook.

The tagging weapon blasted forwards boosted by every speedboost she had and arrived in a flash. He tried to grab a nearby barrel and hurl it up into the trajectory of the grappling hook, but all those speed boosts made this last ditch hail mary next to impossible to pull off. And so the king instead exploded into confetti for all his efforts.

His spectral form merely stood there with crossed arms, looking almost uncharacteristically calm and, well, not enraged. These odds were stacked against him from the start. His chances of actually overpowering the seekers were always going to be slim at best. Honestly all he wanted out of this was to end this farcical game sooner rather than later and to go down fighting rather than cowering. So he still basically got what he wanted in the end regardless of the game’s actual outcome.

”That was for my papa!” Rika decade boldly after she picked herself up from having crashed down into the confetti shower, before adding ”Because he doesn’t like you that much, which is why people say that kind of thing, maybe?” rather ruining any impact her declaration had.

After watching it all play out, Primrose let out an audible sigh. It had turned out just fine. None of the moblins' shots had gone wide either, leaving the dancer safe and sound in her front row seat. She shifted in place, the light cast by the lantern turning a little behind Rika.

Rika ”Hm?”’d at one of her shadows (she was making her own with her tail light after all) moving a little bit. At least she thought it did, and so she turned to look behind her, finding there a tree flanked by two hay bales each with a pumpkin lantern sat on top of them. Well, that and a bunch more lanterns scattered around as well. Someone really did like them as an aesthetic it seemed.

”Did, did one of those move maybe?” she said while tapping a hull blade with a gauntlett-ed finger, before giving a little excited gasp as she realized ”Does that mean one of them is a person?” before wondering out loud ”But, hmm, um, how do I… know which one it was?”

Well, the way she started to try and work it out was pacing up to each one and just sort of, staring at it intensely as if doing so would let her see through the disguise which included, eventually, Primrose's own bale topper.

The girl's genuine excitement at having potentially found someone made up Primrose's mind. Even concealed, she pressed her lips together to suppress a smile as she let her arms fall a little lower, slowly sinking the lantern somewhat into the hay under Rika's gaze.

The princess blinked behind her visor, made a little ”huh?” as she leaned in closer and then an ”ah!” of understanding before she suddenly lept backwards into the air, she brought up a gauntleted fist and fired the grappling hook mounted horn down at lanturn and hay bale.

To really play into her role as an unfortunate hider, Primrose too threw off her veil and revealed herself. She stood up in one swift motion, looking like she was fully prepared to flee. But the hook, and the unicorn horn attached to it, struck her leg as she moved.

"Oh no~!" she gasped, and then her short performance was ended with a fanfare of colorful paper bursting out from where she once stood. In her now invisible spectral form, she brought a hand up to her mouth and chuckled lightly.

The ship girl looked positively delighted with her first actual catch, and entirely unaware of the handicap she’d received in doing so, doing a happy little head bob before looking more serious again.

”Ok, still one more to go though” she said to herself, before glancing around and wondering where Blazermate might be, only to receive a little complication in her ear, namely that: ”Pit found Sandalphon, but she seems to have teleported away somewhere” from Kamek who then added that ”I did not see her appear anywhere with my whisps, so she must have arrived inside a building. You may need to recheck inside some places unfortunately”

”Haven't looked in there yet so its fine”

”Ah, I see” Kamek replied, before cautiously inquiring ”and how are you faring, might I enquire, young mistress?” only to be delighted when the ship girl replied that ”I’ve found two so far!” in a chipper tone.

”Very well done young mistress” the mage praised, before wishing her ”good luck with the rest of your hunt” before returning to his own

”alright, so, Blazermate aaaaaand that Sandalphon lady” Rika then said to herself, giving a confident nod, excited rather than put off by the additional target on her seeking list, regardless of how unlikely it was, at least with the information she had, that the angel would have decided to teleport anywhere near where either she or Blazermate where.

As it turned out however, Blazermate was watching all of this from her perch on top of the tallest building, the stone carver mansion, using an awning to hide from Kamek’s little eye in the sky. She was doing pretty well so far, no one had even bothered to look up at her as they were too preoccupied by looking at props to think to look up, although she wasn’t too surprised at Ganondorf going down the way he did. She thought about saving him, but with how fast things were happening and his bulk, Blazermate didn’t think she could do much of anything to get him out of there in a speedy fashion. Plus if the hiders won, he won, so she stayed put.

Although her hiding spot was doing well so far, the giant Sandalphon teleported onto the roof with Blazermate, too big to hide under an awning like the much smaller bot. ”Hey, you're going to give me away!” Blazermate said.

The angel crouched down, offered an apology as she cracked open the window of the stone mason’s home and slipped through, with Blazermate only rolling her eyes

Unfortunately for both of them, just a little while later, Rika came along, and, well, even she could not miss the giant angelic halo floating above one of the statues down below, though she still felt pleased about her discovery. Well, pleased up until the point that Sandalphon teleported away again, but she did at least get a little bit more praise when she reported what had happened to Kamek, even if neither could figure out how they were going to stop this seemingly very unfair ability.

Having found one person in the building could have given Blazermate an edge
in not being discovered herself, however, unfortunately, while people did often fail to look up, they did tend to look out of windows.

”Hi Blazermate” Rika called out as she cocked her wrist mounted horn and then declared ”I’m going to wind this time!” again spoiling her own cool declaration, this time with a slight verbal hiccup, before letting it fly out of the window Sandalphon had come in through anyway. Blazermate had good reaction time though, and while it would’ve been close with only her scan pinging rika when she appeared, Rika giving her forewarning before using her little horn launching trick gave Blazaermate time to dodge out of the way. Well, now was the time to start running! Although before she left, she had to correct Rika. ”it’s win, not Wind! Speaking of, off I go!” Blazermate said, flying up and over the roof, now standing on top of it. Now was the time to play tag, and Blazermate was good at that game.

Rika came bursting out of the window a moment after, and then tapped her feather fall rune, launching herself up into the air. As she rose she spun around thanks to the little buzzing wings on the back of her rigging, letting her turn and find Blazeramte on the roof. And with her flight, it was time for the game of chase to begin. ”Cool, let's see if you can catch meee~~.” Blazermate said as she dove down under the awning of the roof and got herself ready for a big aerial chase.

Maneuvering jets flaring, Rika boosted down after her before grabbing the edge of the awning with a hand and swinging around under it that way, blindly firing her hook back into the space they’d just vacated. Blazermate wasn’t there though, and had zoomed off to the side and back into open space. She giggled like she was having fun before she zoomed off, being much faster and maneuverable than Rika. Blazermate did give her a bit of healing as she left though, but Blazermate wondered if Rika knew what she was planning.

At least, she should have been faster, but the game was hide and seek, not tag, and so the game’s systems stepped in and gave swiftness to Rika’s feet as she dropped to the ground and started sprinting across it at an absurd rate. So fast that she got ahead of Blazermate, and then processed to wall jump up the nearest building before launching herself into the air towards the medabot, grapple hook mounted horn lashing out again.

Blazermate expected this though, and as Rika got near, she put her healing beam on Rika and echoed her massive burst in speed, easily evading the grappling hook. Although now that Rika was starting to get a massive speed boost, Blazermate would have to keep inside her healing beam range to match her. And with that the two started playing ‘tag’ like Blazermate intended, gaining more and more speed until they started to move at near supersonic speeds.

”Wait. What? What! Get back here!” Rika shouted up at her as she tried to run after the speed matching bot, the pair going faster and faster and faster as Blazer weaved in between grapple shots, until all of a sudden Rika’s horn struck something and caused it to burst into confetti.

It just hadn’t been Blazermate.

”Huh?” the ship girl said, halting her pursuit as she got a brief afterimage of Sandalphon before she faded away into spectator mode, and then wondered ”Where’d she come from?”

Blazermate shrugged, then zoomed off once Rika started to move as well. Since Rika was so fast now, Blazermate was essentially tethered to the ship girl which Rika could potentially use to blindside her team mates… something blazermate didn’t think about. Granted she figured they’d all be hidden, not running, so… At least if blazermate could keep up the chase for a couple more minutes, it’d be over and they’d all have won!

She was proven wrong on that first point moments later when she caught sight of a big bee who’s cunning tree hiding spot had been rather spoiled by the appearance of Sandalphon right next to it, and the appearance of Kamek next to her a moment after that. As a result of all that, she’d had to make like a tree and leaf with post haste, as she was now being pursued by Kamek through the skies. Sectonia’s movement wasn’t fast, at least until she started to use her teleport. Kamek would have to be careful not to stab at her afterimage when she started to rapidly teleport around him, but the elder koopa knew a thing or two about teleporting and since Sectonia’s side made it so that he couldn’t stab anything but air, he had no worry about losing ‘tries’.

Seeing this, Rika pivoted, and pointed her now absurdly stacked speed boost towards the queen bee instead, boots hitting the side of a building which she practically ran up the side of, before blasting into the air with ludicrous speed a whoop. Her flying form reached Sectonia’s position half a breath before the sound itself, blindsiding the bee entirely.

Well… Rika was for sure using the boost in chase speed quite well, and now Kamek was on her tail now too! Was she the last one? It seemed Sandalphon escape mechanics ruined the hiding position of a few people, and she made it worse by making Rika super speed! But as long as she held out til the end, it’d be worth it!

Blazermate’s thoughts were by the sight of Rika racing towards her … and getting larger as she did so. Much much larger. Under Kamek’s magic, the ship girl grew and grew till she was a titan towering over the town, which should have made her slow, but. Well.

Speed boost.

To the sound of Kamek cackling, the now battleship sized boat girl blitzed forwards with her fist pulled back, charging a punch, and then, before getting into medi beam range, pulled off her everything propelled horn firing trick, sending the now ballistic missile sized shive blasting forwards at about the same speed as one of those would go towards a not at all speed boosted Blazermate.

Which was a good move by kamek, as the hook was too big for Blazermate’s projectile shield to block. And with that, the shipgirl, after minutes of running, finally caught the medabot medic.

As the seekers sussed out the hiders one by one, the lantern-orange numbers plastered on the sky ticked inexorably downward, getting closer and closer to zero. The hunters ignored the timer in order to focus on the quarry, but their prey didn’t make it easy for them, with the vast majority running once found in order to try and waste time–some much more successfully than others. Both the seconds and the number of hiders dwindled fast, and in the end it came down to Blazermate’s aerial chase. Even with her cheeky resourceful and airborne maneuverability, however, the seekers’ speed boosts made any pursuit a foregone conclusion. Finally, with just under thirty seconds left out of the original three hundred and sixty, Rika and Kamek pulled out all the stops to take the medabot out and win the game for their team.

Before Blazermate’s confetti even settled atop the cobblestones, the Morgenstund wonderworld collapsed, crumpling into nothingness like the display on a CRT television set. Just like before, the process kicked everyone back to the lobby, that giant roulette table that acted as the liminal space between manic minigames. With all of the spectators -and several of the hunters- focused on the outcome of the game rather than the timer, then abruptly deposited throughout the lobby, not everyone could tell who won right away. Whether excitement, disappointment, annoyance, or confusion, emotions were high, and while several people started talking at once, others just looked around in search of answers.

“Maaan, I thought I did such a good job hiding!” Nadia pointed, trying and failing to be angry with Geralt for spoiling her carefully-laid schemes with such ruthless pragmatism. “Why you gotta be all smart and stuff? How’d you know I was there to begin with?” While the two had been companions all across the Deep Blue Seaside, from the sparkling waters of Heaven’s Edge to the eldritch depths of Carcass Isle, the feral and the Witcher hadn’t gotten very close. She’d been more chummy with Sakura, Mirage, and especially Ace. From Geralt’s stunt with the Helmaroc King over Blackwater Bay, and her general fighting prowess Nadia had known the Witcher was good, but sniffing her out in the Botanist’s House was downright scary.

Goldlewis rubbed the back of his head as he squinted at Kamek. Due to his remarkable dimensions he’d been up the creek without a paddle from moment one, so it didn’t come as a surprise that someone managed to suss him out pretty quickly. After all, Witch One was ultimately a magical derivative of a game for children, enjoyed by those for whom the households and items of the world were large, rather than small. And it had been a very, very long time since the veteran’s childhood. “Good huntin, partner,” Goldlewis told the Magikoopa in the spirit of good sportsmanship.

Conversely, Sandalphon said nothing to the person who found her, in part because her discovery had been an unfortunate accident perpetrated in ignorance. Though this might have frustrated the average hider, Sandalphon seldom felt strongly about much of anything, and this outcome was no exception. Given that her contingency plan ultimately came down to luck, failure in some form was to be expected. Could she have done better? Almost certainly, and in any other circumstance, abject failure would have been excruciating. This, however, was just a game. The stakes were low, and she didn’t need to spend her mental energy on a masterstroke plan. If anything, being able to fail and have it not matter came as something of a relief. If anyone glanced Sandalphon’s way after the fourth game’s conclusion, they would find her pupils in the shape of cheerful carets. “This was fun,” she remarked.

In short order, Ballyhoo arrived to sort things out. “Wow-wee! What a stupendous six minutes of hiding and seeking! Witch One usually favors the hiders, especially when the seekers don’t know the map, but you four sure flipped the script, ‘cause you four overcame some serious odds to seize victory! Congratulations on a JOB WELL DONE! Here’s a token of my appreciation–or more accurately, five tokens! APIECE!” Ballyhoo snapped his fingers, and in the distant sky behind him, four brilliant stars sparkled. The next second, five-token stakes shot down like blazing golden comets into Geralt, Rika, Kamek, and Pit, ragdolling them comedically.

Then the gamemaster doffed his hat, giving the rest of the players a bow. “But don’t feel bad, hiders! Your clever hiding spots and tenacity for survival sure were something! I appreciate you too–just eighty percent LESS!” With that he hurled his hat into the sky, which exploded into a red-and-gold fireworks display of Ballyhoo’s own face. More rift tokens rained down onto the remaining sixteen people, one each. “Now, who’s hungry for ANOTHER ROUND? You ready, Balan? Let’s spin. The. Whee-!”

“That won’t be necessary,” Sandalphon cut in, bringing the butt of her Aether Lance down against the roulette table’s center with a loud clack. “We’re done for the time being.”

Nadia crossed her arms as she sent an indignant look the archangel’s way, complete with raised brow. “Huh, why? We’re still havin’ a good time, right guys? Can’t roulette out just yet!”

Sandalphon’s pupils became inverted triangles. “Starting now, they intend to charge us all per game and present the grand total at the end.”

“Oh.” In an instant Nadia’s attitude changed, and the catgirl turned her narrowed eyes toward Ballyhoo, who’d donned his most innocent expression. “Yeah, forget that! Get meowtta here, chief!“

While Ballyhoo moped, Balan shrugged and created a white rift at the edge of the roulette table, which he guided the guests over to with a grin. Once the Seekers stepped in, they found themselves pushing out of the curtains and back into the spacious checker-floored foyer of the Big Top in reality. As soon as he set foot on solid group, Goldlewis let out a breath he’d been subconsciously holding, a hand on his slightly queasy stomach. The end of the minigame roulette came at a good time for him; he’d definitely had his fill of spatial distortions and whimsical illusions for a while. As the weight in his pocket could attest, though, the rift tokens that he and the others received were very real, and now that the gift exchange lay before them, everyone could put their hard-earned rewards to use.

As everyone stepped away from the curtains, a forlorn Ballyhoo waved a handkerchief. “I hope you all enjoyed yourselves! Please come again sooooon!” he called after them. Still smiling beside him, Balan tipped his hat, and like streams of paint washing down a drain the bizarre pair spiraled back into the surreal realm of whimsical wonderworlds just behind the curtain.

Given her tendency to scan her surroundings, it didn’t take Sandalphon long to notice the presence of someone else in the Big Top’s foyer. Having just obtained a fantastical Hundred Layer Sundae (Zero Calories) from the Big Top’s snack bar, a familiar thirty-something woman wearing black, white, and a good-natured smile made her way toward the gaggle of heroes and villains fresh from their minigame extravaganza. “Hey everyone!” Dawn greeted them. “How’s it going? You guys have fun in there?”

Sandalphon nodded. She couldn’t speak for everyone, and a couple of them certainly seemed to be in a rather foul mood, but the archangel had experienced something that would reasonably fall within the standard definition of ‘fun’. “Yes. However, further engagement would incur payments, so we declined to continue.” she told Dawn. “May I ask why you’re here? Has something occurred with the Avenger?”

“Straight to the point, huh?” Dawn chuckled before downing a big spoonful of ephemeral ice cream. “Well, nothing just yet. Our long-distance scanners picked up movement down near Zurvan Amp Station though. That’s Consul H’s territory, and he’s got a serious ace up his sleeve. Some of our poor Alcamoth survivors know it firsthand: a gigantic carrier ship, packing more soldiers and military vehicles than you could shake a stick at. Probably headed toward Midgar, but to get there it might fly right over Carnival Town, and we don’t want it anywhere near the Avenger. After a little scrying, that Mona girl said we shouldn’t risk it.” She took a big bite from one of the chocolate bars, then shrugged. “So, I figured I oughta come down and round everyone up. No big rush, but no dilly-dallying, okay? Grab a snack, some clothes, spirits, whatever you want, and let’s Fulton outta here.”

As Dawn spoke, Goldlewis listened in rapt attention. Even if he hadn’t witnessed the ship for himself, he knew firsthand just how much of a military powerhouse anything called a ‘carrier’ could be. “Got it. We’ll wrap up here ASAP.” He turned to the others. “Y’all heard the lady. Let’s grab whatever we can and extract on the double.”

Sandalphon nodded once more. Her expression had relaxed somewhat over the course of the minigames, but she looked totally serious now. “Let’s save usage of the spirits until we’re aboard, as well.” With that, she made a beeline toward the Orb Machine, ready to extract her allotment of spirits. Though her solitary victory and three consolation prizes in the minigame roulette had awarded her a total of eight rift tokens, she only planned to spend three on spirits, enough to reach ‘pity’ once. The rest she planned to spend on clothes, since outfits that could be quickly equipped or unequipped offered a lot of utility, and there was no telling where this journey would take the Seekers next.

Blazermate had enjoyed herself all in all with the minigames, even though she only got 4 tokens. She had no desire in the costumes in the other room, as being a medabot, she'd just get better costumes from the spirits anyway or useful items for herself or her allies. Walking over to one of the orb dispensing machines, she put 3 of her coins into it and pulled the crank. Using 3 of her coins, she pulled out three orbs from the machine, getting...



Blazermate wasn't sure what their enigmatic host meant by the third orb being 'super good' in Blazermate's words, but soon she understood looking at the third one. Well... maybe? To be fair, her first spirit was some edgey anime lancer boy, the second was some tentacle anime boy, and the last one was some sort of demon made of shadows. According to Ballyhoo though, the third spirit pulled would be really good and adhere to the desires of the person who pulled it? So was this demon like, really good at helping allies or something? Well, she'd see later. If only she had 2 more tokens, she could try the pity thing again and see what she got.

Seeing Blazermate staring at the machine with 1 token left a bit dejected, Primrose approached her offering her two tokens to use. "Thanks Prim! Let me know if you want any of the ones I get. Hopefully I can understand this pity system thingy." Blazermate said, taking the two tokens with gusto and putting them right into the machine, happy she got a second roll of the dice here. Turning the crank again to get another set of three balls, what she got was...



One was a strange hamster looking thing driving a balloon thing? And another being a lady riding a blocky motorcycle? These were some weird spirits! But they were the normal ones, the pity one was what she wanted to see. And this time it was some... well, Blazermate couldn't really describe it. Some kind of warrior priest boy? Well, the kindness radiating from the spirit was for all to see, although something about the spirit made it seem like it was a bit off as if it was from a different place and time than it should be.

With her spirits gotten and her coins ran out, Blazermate took her little capsules of spirits and waited for everyone else to get done. Apparently many people were going to pool their spirits together and dole them out based on what spirit would fit whom.
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Roland did pretty well in the games all things considered. Sure he didn't like the whole 'exploding into confetti' thing, but it wasn't actually painful. It was an actual game in VR, not like some weird horrible murder game like hes seen before. Curious at the costume room, Roland decided to give it a look having won 7 coins, leaving 6 for the spirits which would give equipment. He'd really prefer to have his two piece suit instead of his current combat suit if possible; looking good at what you do in the city was important for a high level fixer. Looking like a slob wasn't going to get you many jobs even if you were the Red Mist, nor would it let you fight well.

It wasn't difficult for Roland to find a costume that matched his original outfit, although he read the disclaimer on costumes before he bought one. It did what he wanted, which was rare; any outfit or equipment he put on himself would be 'hidden under' this costume when applicable, but would still be fully active. After that, Roland went to the machines, having seen Blazermate walking away with her 6 orbs. Wait, didn't the bot only win 4? Someone must've given her tokens, well... thats reassuring. Roland went up to his machine and operated it, getting a first series of spirits



The first thing he noticed when he got his spirits is that unlike the others, his spirits came out as books. This was something he was much more used to, and knowing how the library books worked, he flipped through each book to learn a bit about the spirit contained within. The first was a red dragon girl with power over fire and lightning. The second was a dog. An ordinary dog, with what seemed to be extraordinary mental attacks. All walks of life, Roland mused, before flipping to the book of Grimstroke, his 'pity' pull.

This book hit Roland a bit harder than he was expecting. The story of an appointed guardian of his people trying to intensify the power he was granted, only for it to whiplash and cause everyone he knew and loved to be inky shades under his control. Unlike a madman though, he still held love for those he knew, although Roland assumed he was a bit mad. The inky powers were quite strong though, wails of the spirits silencing foes and being able to bind or copy enemies in multiple ways. Interesting book.

Roland then put his books away and put in 3 more coins, getting his next sequence of spirit books.



Roland's next pull was an old knight with a shield. All in all he was pretty plain. The second one though was also simple, but more interesting. A raging minotaur cursed with unending anger. But beyond that he was simple, these two not the first super simple books hes encountered. The last one was more detailed like before. And yet it was another book that resonated with Roland, someone who lost his family to an unforeseen force and was out for vengeance against what took his peace away. When they said these pity rolls would resonate with the person who rolled them, they weren't kidding.

Well, unlike the others, Roland had books, many of which he might not use. He wasn't sure, but watching not only the medabot but the queen bee holding onto theirs instead of doing something with them right away, Roland followed suit. Maybe they were all gathering their loot and splitting it evenly perhaps?

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



Surprisingly, if it wasn't for Sandalphon, Sectonia was on track to winning that last minigame! Even she was a bit surprised that tree disguise worked as well as it did. Well... at any rate she got 7 coins, so she had some stuff to buy. With the spirits being the origin of power here, she'd be spending 6 coins on them. The lsat coin... well, she spent quite a lot of time looking over the various costumes to see if she could find something she liked. She did find some royal costumes, but they were not exactly to her liking; there were a massive lack of heart shapes on them for starters as well as a lack of heart gemstones! But for some temporary stop gap until she found something better, she took one of the royal queen costumes just in case somehting horrible happened later on.

With her costume choice set, SEctonia then went to the spirit gotchya machines, and put in her first three tokens.



The first spirit here was something Sectonia wasn't interested in besides perhaps crushing it, a sentient tank. The second one was some robot sniper girl, perhaps if Sandalphon properly apologized for her conduct last game, it would make for a good spirit for her. The last one however was something she didn't expect, nor was she happy about how it looked. Some... weird almost zombie like guy in an ornate outfit? She'd have to really decide on this one as perhaps the snakivator could make use of it, but for a pity it was very strange and not what she expected.

Well... the first pity had to be either incredibly powerful to make up for its ugliness or something that synergized with her or something, but ti wasnt' something she was particularly happy with. Still, she chalked it up to a possible fluke and deposited another 3 tokens to see what she got after mulling over it for awhile.



Her second pull was some cat humanoid with... wind powers? It was unclear to her. The other non pity pull was some mech girl with a gun, almost like the previous one she got. Well, with Susie also being on the Avenger, perhaps she could make use of this? But it feels like for some of these, crushing them would be best. The last one, being her 2nd and last pity was something she didn't get a good look at, as her mulling over the costumes prior and now the previous pity before pulling more didn't leave her time to view what was going on with this one as the others were leaving already to head back to the avenger. She'd have to view it there.

”Wait… did we win?” Rika, who was towering over everyone else due to still being large. Kamek naturally dropped the spell and let her start shrinking, but it wasn’t quite fast enough for Rika’s cheer of ”Woo hoo! we won! we won!” to force everyone nearby to cover their ears lest they be deafened by her delight.

”Ah, yes, we did indeed, young mistress, very well done on your catches” Kayak praised her after he had his hearing back and she was back down to size. Jr hurried over to chat to his sis about who and how she’d found people, while Bowser did some slow metal math and realized something with a ”Buh” and a slack jaw: namely that he was the only member of the troop to not win a single podium position at all.

One of the few people to be in that pile even, and for them, there wasn’t going to another chance because of their frugalness was putting a stop to the fun before they ran out of free games. That got some a shared ‘awwww’ from the troopa kids, with Rika having done a full U turn on the games thanks to her win, and that was probably the whole plan of the tent, to get kids to beg their elders for more, presumably pretty expensive, games after the first taster.

Fortunately these particular elders, while not exactly masters of parenting, did at least know how to get out of this situation, namely with twin bribes of ”We can go check out some of the races, catch those koopa kids and maybe get on the track ourselves yeah?” and ”Don’t you want to cash out for some prizes?” which did the trick.

Unfortunately they weren't going to be able to follow up on that former idea, and would have to hurry on the latter, because it looked like they had another reason to put an end to the games: trouble was incoming.

”Heading to Midgar?” Midna piped up on hearing the final destination of the ship that had apparently laid waste to their old home base ”We’d best warn Sakura and co, because it sounds like H is looking to fill the power vacuum we made and that can only be bad news for, well, everyone involved”

”Why let them get there at all when we can bust their heads here and now” Bowser immediately declared, only for Kamek to suggest ”Perhaps let’s get to this ship and assess its capabilities first, sire? To see if it is a worthy vessel for the Koopa air fleet of course” cleverly leading his king by the nose to avoid an unwise and blind dive into that confrontation.

Midna, it had to say, didn’t entirely disagree with the nation, but as they had taken on a whole city of heroes, she was not sure if they were strong enough. Fortunately, there was, well, power to be claimed here, though as Midna was finding the more fusion power took it, the more it took from you.

No reason to not to roll the dice and find out what was on offer however.

Well, other than fashion anyway.

Bowser, at the very least, could do with some of that. His suit was a wreck, the consequences of being someone who took hits rather than avoided them, and the hat that had once gone with it had been lost somewhere along the road. It was somewhat of a dated look anyway, given that the wedding he’d been wearing it for had been ever so rudely crashed right before this whole thing had gone down.

Now was as good a time as any for a new style then, and the offer of something that wouldn’t get mix and matched by every fusion had a lot of appeal. Sure, it wasn’t power, but properly looking the part of a big bad tough guy had power all of its own, certainly when compared to looking like a raggedy mess.

Then again, Bowser’s usual fashion sense where some spiked bands around his arms and one around his neck like a dog collar, so it was easy to argue he rather missed the mark when he ended up picking a biker getup consisting of ripped jeans, sleeveless front open leather jacket and finger-less gloves

Jr, following his papa’s example, ended out picking out an orange and black pokemon ranger uniform, which came with a cool hat but unfortunately the cat ears he had refused to share head ornamentation space with anything else.

Rika meanwhile was already costumed up with her armor, and so passed, while Kamek was just fine with the robes he already had and which had also not changed a dime thanks to the snacktivator.

Speaking of those, while it was not time to fuse, it was time to get a whole load more options to be used for real soon. With that in mind they headed too and started using the gatcha machine, and got to rolling the dice to see what would come up. Bowser, naturally, went first, and was also done the quickest due to his complete lack of podium positions in the games



Opinion wise, the first was interesting due to the stabby back arms that might fit with his existing souped up shell, the second he found was trying way too hard to look dark and evil, and as for the third, well, ”Hey, look at this dime a dozen guy, copying my style” he complained. At least till Kamek pointed out that ”would that not let you regain some of that style, your fashionableness?”

That certainly showed the power of pity, though when Jr stepped up to the plate, he realized that he was a token off getting a second pity thanks to his clothes buying, and promptly badgered Kamek into giving him one of his.



Of the regular roles, was hard to say he was particularly enamored with the pair of muscled humans or the Pit alike, but the lady of the group he did show Rika given that ”Hey, look at this one, she’s got punchy gloves like you, and some kind of rocket knife squadron?” which the princess assessed was ”Neat”

For his pitties however, well, they weren't regular old humans, which was a plus, but they were also super out there and jr couldn’t make heads or tails of why he’d gotten them till it clicked: ”Ohhhhh. Sea creature for Dazzle, weird tentacle thing for Peeka, duh” which seemed pretty good.

Next up was Kamek, and, well, if Jr’s pity pulls had been briefly confusing, Kamek had to admit he was stumped by the bearded old man and mostly featureless blindfolded little girl. In-fact, between the scroll and poison wielding mages, it seemed that the regular rolls were more him than those generated specifically for him.



”How very odd”

He also had no idea what to make of ‘woman with axe’, but the lance knight also seemed up Rika’s ally. Speaking of her. She was up next and last, and got herself an extra Token from Kamek after the mage became thoroughly disillusioned with the whole rolling affair.



She got a big rock golem creature, which caught Midna’s eye when she happened to spot it, and then a whole pile of ladies (and one guy) with rather interesting looking weapons for her regular pulls. Energy blades, a big wheel, and an odd double ended blade that none of them had any idea how it worked.

”Might be able to integrate some of those maybe? Or if not they probably sell” Jr supposed as they looked over all the assets. They all paled in comparison however to what looked to be a hoverbike sized lance wielded by a tiny (probably ship) girl she got for her first pity, and even that wasn’t anything compared to what seemed to be an entire giant mechanical shark her other pity pull got. Its purpose at least was pretty clear as she guessed that it would ”Probably upgrade my whale?”

That would have to wait however, as it was high time to hit the road, and check out this ship the other team had found themselves on.

Only question was, if they had been launched down in one way trip pods, how were they intending to get back up?

After the games were done and Dawn informed everyone to get ready to head back to the Avenger, nearly everyone went right to the big gachapon machine with spirits inside. Of course some drifted over to the prize exchange or the food counter (which is where Pit initially stopped at, refueling after all the games with a bag of peanuts), but there was still a line forming. And Pit wasn’t really one to stand in a line.

Cutting wasn’t an option (that’d just be rude), and since he wasn’t interested in a new haircut or outfit Pit glanced around for any type of distraction while he waited for the crowd to thin. His eyes skimmed over all of the Seekers, and when they found Captain Falcon he remembered the fighting that had happened right before the last game.

Oh yeah! He’s still Galeem-ified. Pit squinted at the man, making sure to check for the light in his eyes behind the visor. That had to be remedied if they wanted the Captain to come with them. Though Pit wasn’t privy to the Underground Team’s chat about recruiting the F-Zero pilot, he figured it was a given that they would. Scarfing down the last of his snack, Pit waved at the man while he approached him.

"Hey Captain Falcon! You remember me, right?" he asked first. He knew sometimes the Gleaming had spotty memories. Unfortunately for him, Falcon was one of those cases of a spotty memory. Instead he merely assumed that Pit was simply a fan he might have interacted with at some past event.

”I always do my best to remember my fans.” He responded, attempting to be nice about this. Pit’s near ever-present smile turned into a slight grimace at the reply.

"Well, whatever, it’s fine. Anyway, I’ve still got some energy left to burn. Do you wanna spar? I bet we could find a good place and it’ll be just like a Smash match!"

”I’m not sure what ‘Smash’ means,” Cap said with a clueless look, ”But what the heck, why not? Haven’t got to stretch my fighting muscles in a while, so they could probably use a good workout.”

"Alright! Let's go! Be right back guys!" Pit called out to the other Seekers before he nodded at Captain Falcon. He led the way out of Ballyhoo's Big Top, head on a swivel. It was hard to tell how much time had passed while they were playing the minigames, especially since Carnival Town was just as lively then as it had been when they started.

There was a stadium in the city, but judging from the fanfare and balloons over the top it was already in use. The two of them had to make due with a mostly empty courtyard a little ways from the tent. Dutifully Pit tried to shoo away any onlookers, though most were glad to get back to a livelier section of town anyway. The angel did a couple stretches, then turned to face his soon-to-be opponent. He bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Ready?"

Falcon was stretching his rotator cuffs for a moment when this was asked. Then he shifted into cracking his gloved knuckles simultaneously with his neck, after which he performed a lightning fast kata of punches followed by a high-sweeping kick before making a “come on over” gesture with his right hand.

”Show me your moves!”

Despite the seeming invitation to strike first, Cap instead launched into a blistering sprint toward the angel that quickly and seamlessly transitioned into a ”Falcon Kick!” that propelled him forward in a fiery sliding kick that left a blazing trail of flame in his wake.

One advantage that Pit had over the man was that while Captain Falcon didn't remember him, he remembered the Captain. You didn't easily forget the first time you were blasted head on by a Falcon Punch, that was for sure. So for Pit, the pilot's arsenal of moves was a known factor - and his opening a familiar one.

Pit grinned as he deftly dodged the kick, sweeping himself just out of the fire's range so that he could quickly retaliate. The Palutena Bow came to his hand and he flicked the bladed weapon forward into a rapid spin, a divine buzzsaw headed right for the Captain's side.

It wasn’t hard to predict a retaliation after the opening attack was dodged. So Falcon prepared for it by defensively holding up his arms, which of course conjured a reddish pink bubble around his body that shielded him from the buzzsaw attack. Or at least it would until the bubble popped, which was why Falcon only shielded for a split second before he dodge-rolled past his attacker so he could then launch forward with an attempted Raptor Boost aiming to throw a fiery uppercut at the angel’s rear flank.

Pit pivoted, reversing the spin of the bow so that it acted as a makeshift defense. Fist struck the metallic gold, and then the two combatants broke apart as Pit jumped backward aided by a flap of his wings, putting some much needed distance between them.

When Pit brought the bow up into a firing stance, it was clear what he was about to do. Light coalesced into arrow form near instantly, and then shot straight for the pilot - followed up by a few more for good measure.

Falcon pivoted his upper body to dodge the first arrow. For the next couple he once again shielded himself, so that the reddish bubble would absorb the shots. But it shrank over time and with each shot it took, and so before it could reach a breaking point Falcon canceled his guard and took the last arrow in his left shoulder. For a fraction of a moment he reached a gloved over to the spot at which he was hit. Something about that show felt… familiar somehow. Had he fought something like this before? But then the red glow of his eyes flared up underneath his visor as he shrugged it off.

Then Falcon leaped up into the air, flames beginning to build around him again. ”Falcon Kick!” He called out as he diagonally shot back downward toward Pit. This was a pretty telegraphed attack that the Captain anticipated would be easily dodged, and so its primary purpose was to close the distance again and force Pit back into close range combat. The instant he hit the ground, Cap launched into a forward smash that took the form of a double roundhouse kick.

And Pit played right into his hands - almost. He dodged backward to avoid the first fiery kick, but not far enough to avoid the follow-up. His eyes widened, but he did have a shield of his own. In a blink his bow was gone and the Guardian Orbitars appeared between the two fighters. Falcon's feet crashed hard against the shield, driving Pit back slightly while locking him in place, lest he drop it too early.

Just as fast as usual! Pit thought. Then he burst right from his Orbitars into his Upperdash Arm, hoping to take Falcon by surprise with an aggressive follow up and send him flying, putting some space between them that way instead of with a riskier movement - though the Arm was risky in and of itself.

The Captain was lucky in this particular instance, because his shield had regenerated just enough for him to quickly put up his arms and tank the incoming Upperdash Arm. Seeing an opportunity to strike back, Falcon wasted no time in delivering punishment. But fortunately for Pit, Cap’s idea of a punishment was to use his infamous signature attack. ”Falcon…” he said as he winded up his fiery fist. ”...PUUUUNCH!” His baritone voice roared as he threw the fiery punch that produced its signature flames in the shape of a falcon. The punch was strong. Damn strong. Infamous for a reason, in fact. But the wind-up also made it telegraphed and more possible for Pit to avoid it and then proceed to punish the punisher.

Since Falcon had opted to block instead of dodge when the Arm struck Pit could pull it back without issue, though he was a little put out that his plan hadn't worked. The point blank punch that the pilot attempted next spooked Pit into backing off instead of following up, having been hit by it one too many times in casual matches before. He hopped backwards once, twice, three times until only the heat of the fire bird surrounding Falcon's fist could reach him.

"Close one!" he said, willing his bow back into his hand. He'd pinged the man with an arrow, so he knew that Captain Falcon was playing for keeps now. It was about time he did the same. His goal was to free Falcon from Galeem, so he could go all out knowing that he wouldn't be making a mistake like last time. Any damage he did would be swiftly undone. Of course he actually had to get a few good hits in, or at least one strong clean one.

"Round two!" he shouted, breaking the bow into dual swords. He dashed forward, the blades overlapped in front of him for some semblance of defense until he was close enough for a cross chop. Then he transitioned into a flurry of slashes and jabs, keeping Falcon at blade's length.

The Angel’s blades may have kept Falcon from getting in any good punches, but he could still kick just fine. After all, Falcon was still taller than Pit and thus his longer legs still had enough reach to match up with the dual swords. Mostly. Falcon Kick aside, the Captain wasn’t exactly a kicking specialist. So he knew had to try something sooner or later. That eventually came in the form of him dodge-rolling past an incoming slash from Pit’s blades, so that he ended up standing back to back against him. That was when Cap whirled around with a sweeping kick before launching himself at Pit with a ”Knee of Justice!” that - as its name implied - was an electrified knee smash aimed at the angel’s head.

For all of Falcon’s strength and speed, as usual his showmanship proved to be the fatal flaw in his fighting style. His apparent compulsion to call out his attacks made them increasingly predictable to any opponent who fought against him for a long enough period of time. And it was that which saved Pit from the head blow. He ducked, practically letting himself drop to the ground in order to avoid it as soon as he heard Falcon start to speak the name of his move. At that point he could leverage his own, shorter height. He rolled and pressed his palms to the stone floor of the courtyard, shooting up feet first in a handstand kick.

Falcon’s response was to shield against the kick. But the bubble was pretty shrunk down and had not regenerated as much since the last time he used it. That miscalculation resulted in Cap suffering a catastrophic shield break. The bubble blew up on him, throwing him right to the ground. He struggled back to his feet but was still in a dizzy and stunned state. That meant he couldn’t immediately retaliate - and worse - was totally vulnerable to whatever follow up Pit wanted to punish him with.

The angel continued up, tucked while still airborne and then found himself looking down at Captain Falcon. Got him!

He came back to ground with a double slash, slicing down from Falcon's shoulders. Back on his feet, he pressed the attack with a series of quick strikes. While Cap was dazed he had to work in as much damage as possible, and he did so with flashes of blue and gold. For the flurry's finisher he made an overhead cut, brought the hilts of his swords together and swung the now single blade in a lateral slash.

The next thing Pit did was press a hand to his chest and pull the friend heart out, practically in a rush to throw it into his sparring partner. And so close, there was no way he could miss! And the heart did its job as intended. The angel watched as all the damage he dealt to the Captain was washed away in an instant. But it wasn’t just the damage that disappeared. Indeed, the muteness in the man’s colors also washed away in addition to the red glow that tinted his eyes underneath his visor.

As Falcon pushed himself to his feet, he rubbed his chin with gloved fingers. Clearly the memories were beginning to flood back to him. ”I… I’ve fought you before, haven’t I… Pit?” He asked, rhetorically. He remembered it all beginning with himself and eleven others, plus a giant white-gloved hand. But then he remembered more fighters showing up, along with a second giant hand. Then vague memories of invaders from another dimension surfaced alongside the appearance of more fighters still. The last stand against Galeem proved to be the most “recent” thing he recalled.

”That thing, with the army of Master Hands? Did it really do this to me and my memories?” He figured he knew the answer to that question already, but asked anyway for confirmation’s sake.

The boy let out a sigh of relief, though it was quickly replaced by a wide, toothy smile. That had gone great - now just to get Cap up to speed.

"Yeah," Pit said in answer to both of the man's questions. "Galeem. When it beat us, it brainwashed everyone... everywhere! It somehow made a whole new world out of a bunch of pieces of other ones, which is where we are right now."

As if Falcon needed more proof, he pointed behind both of them into the sky where the shining second sun was nearly always visible. And without giving him more than a moment to come to term with all this, Pit went on.

"But we're fighting back against it! Trying to fix everything it did one boss at a time. Y'know, typical hero stuff." Pit clenched his fists and brought them up on either side of him in excitement, adding, "And with you helping us it'll be that much easier!"

”Ah, so you do need my help, then.” Cap said, his stern expression lacking any of the usual sportiness it typically contained. There was a time and a place for that sort of thing, and this clearly wasn’t it. But something about all of this was still nagging at him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. At least not until he felt the rift tokens in his pocket, anyway.

”Hold on a minute.” Cap suddenly said, pulling out one of his rift tokens and then glancing back at the Tent they both exited from. ”Those ‘Character Orbs’... don’t tell me Galeem is responsible for that as well?”

Pit blinked in surprise. Cap caught on quick, didn't he? "Oh, yeah, they're..." He trailed off for a moment, his brain whirring as he thought about how he could explain. While there were a number of other people who'd be better at giving the newly freed Captain Falcon a rundown, Pit gave it his best shot. "...like copies of people's souls. We even call them spirits. I haven't used any yet, but they can make you stronger in a bunch of different ways."

After a beat he added, "But they aren't like actual ghosts or anything!"

”’Stronger’...” Cap repeated with his gloved hand clenching into a fist. Normally he’d just remain staunchly confident in his own skill and ability. But clearly that hadn’t worked the previous time he recalled facing Galeem. He might have to swallow his pride and add the strength of these ‘spirits’ to his own if he wanted to make sure things went differently the next time he had to fight that villain.

And then he suddenly smiled, ”Then it looks like I’ll have to put my racing on hold again, because we’ve got work to do.” he put the rift token back into his pocket with the others and turned back toward the tent. He competed hard to earn his tokens, so he may as well spend a few of them. But he turned back to Pit, ”You coming?” He didn’t like having to abandon the upcoming F-Zero Race at Big Blue, but obviously saving the world and stopping the bad guy was more important than a Grand Prix Race.

Although, now that he thought about it. ”By the way, my Blue Falcon is parked at the Big Blue racetrack over the harbor. I’d hate to abandon it there…”

With Captain Falcon's confirmation that he was officially joining the team, Pit returned his smile with a bright one of his own. He let out a celebratory whoop, joining Falcon to head to the big top once more. Tough and reliable, the angel was sure he'd make a good addition.

As for the iconic vehicle, Pit wasn't sure. "Maybe you can take it with you? The Lost Numbers - you'll meet them - have this huge flying ship. It could probably fit your machine inside, but I dunno how you'd get it up there."

Dawn had explained the 'fulton' system to him and half of the other Seekers already, but whether it would work on something like the Blue Falcon he had no idea. Thankfully Dawn herself had come down to pick them up, so they could find out pretty quickly.

---

Juri was sick of Ballyhoo’s crap, and was ready to get out of here. The fact that this group of chumps was shrewd enough to rip him off and leave him without any reward for the games he let them play amused her. Juri would have done the same thing, though only by coincidence as she was just sick of this fake stuff and his annoying personality.

Still, she was interested in this ‘spirit’ stuff they were talking about. Juri got her rewards. They were like, a bunch of little pictures with people on the inside. There were a few monster looking things, an old guy, and some hot chicks. One of them, though, was purple. Really purple. She had short black hair with purple tinges, and some kind of tech implant in her head. It reminded Juri of herself. Of all of them, that was the one she was most interested in.

Problem is, she wasn’t exactly sure how it worked. She got the idea it was some kind of magical ability. Given how much that talentless cat had changed, maybe it was about stealing powers? Juri grabbed the purple lady spirit she wanted, and kept a few extras, too, but she dropped a lot to the ground.

She hung around in the outskirts of the Seekers conversation and not-so-subtly eavesdropped with a frown on her face. What were they doing? What were they talking about? Were they trying to fix this situation? Juri wanted out of here, ASAP. That weird turtle-ish mage wanted to explain something to her.

”I’m blowin’ this joint.” She said to them. ”Don’t think after all that annoying crap you put me through you can get away without me crashing at your place.” She said to all of them.

Then she looked at Kamek. ”And if you wanna explain what you think you know, that’s just fine by me. That giant laser dork should have put me somewhere more interesting if it wanted me to not come after it. Since this game sucks, I’m officially done hanging around here.” She said.

”You guys got some kinda giant ship or something? I’ve got a bike stashed in town. Don’t tell me you people just walk everywhere. It’s pretty fast and badass, so…” She shrugged. She could always just steal another one, but her current bike was really good.

Regardless, it was clear Juri was trying to tag along.

The freshly de-storied Captain Falcon re-entered the big top with his eleven rift tokens in tow. Now that he thought about it, Cap wasn’t sure he really needed that many tokens all to himself. As such, he found himself willing to hand a few out to others who asked for one. Of course he didn’t just give all of them away, having kept a handful for his own use. Speaking of which, the line for the Orb Machine was all but gone now that most of the Seekers had had their chance to spend rift tokens on it.

”So… this thing will give me spirits that will make me stronger?” He said to himself as he eyed the gacha machine up and down. ”Well, may as well give it a whirl.” Cap said as he fished out a rift token from his pocket and popped it into the coin slot to activate the machine and pulled the crank. As advertised, the Orb Machine spat out what Captain Falcon assumed as a spirit. The person depicted appeared to be a young woman with long blonde hair wearing some kind of blue and white dress or uniform, he couldn’t tell exactly what the outfit was. She also appeared to be holding some kind of hi-tech looking recurve bow in her hand. So she was some kind of archer? So did that mean he could also become an archer like her? Falcon wasn’t sure he liked the idea of having to rely on weapons, but maybe there was some other use for these spirits besides combining with them.

Falcon shrugged and inserted a second coin and then pulled the crank again. As before, the Orb Machine produced a spirit that Cap held up and examined closely. This one was a man with short brown hair, dressed in some kind of business uniform. And his depiction showed him wielding an assortment of electrified blades and other weapons. Like with the first spirit, Cap wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to become reliant on weapons. But not only that, this fellow didn’t look like a very nice sort. In fact he looked almost downright villainous. How comfortable would Cap be in relying on power like that? Then again, he’d fought alongside other villains before so he supposed this wouldn’t be that different of a situation.

”Hmm, well, third time’s the charm I guess.” Cap said with a shrug. He popped in a third token and pulled the crank. The spirit he got this time featured a sharply dressed martial arts fighter sporting a goatee and dark ponytail hair. This one made Falcon nod his head in approval. Now this was more like it. A strong looking fighter capable of throwing punches and kicks with the best of them, that sounded like the kind of spirit Cap could get behind using. He’d have to make sure to ask how to use these things later since he forgot to get the details from Pit earlier.

But with only two remaining rift tokens, Cap decided not to spend them on the Orb Machine. Instead, since he knew he was about to depart on a mission, he thought it might be pertinent to check out some of the clothing items he could trade them for. After all, a spare set of clothes or two certainly couldn’t hurt to have around. He ended up buying two “costumes” which when not worn took on the appearance of a neatly packed bundle of clothes. One of them was a formal-looking 3 piece suit, black in color with white dress gloves to cover the hands. There was no headgear to this suit so his helmet and visor remained in place. This sort of thing wasn’t Cap’s usual style, but that said, having a nice suit he could change into could come in handy in the event that he needed to get into some formal event or establishment with a dress code. The second “costume” was a generic white martial arts dogi with a black belt. The outfit also replaced Cap’s gloves with white bandages tightly taped around his hands and knuckles, in addition to a white headband that replaced his helmet and was tied around his forehead. This, he figured, would be perfect for training and sparring sessions.

And with that, the last of Cap’s tokens were now spent. Sure, a few of them were given out to others. But he figured it was just as important to help the others get stronger as it was to get stronger himself. So he thought of it as an investment of sorts. Of course, now he needed to figure out what to do about the Blue Falcon. Pit mentioned they had a ship that could possibly house the machine, but he didn’t mention anything about where that ship was docked - if it even was at all.

So the only thing to do was ask about it. He recalled there being a woman who had informed the others that they needed to return to the ship because of a threat that was potentially on its way here. So Falcon figured she might be the person to ask about his F-Zero Machine. What he learned was a bit disappointing. Their ship, the Avenger, did indeed have a hanger bay with room enough for the Blue Falcon. But she said it was for air vehicles only, since they had no intention of landing the ship due to a lack of available time. They had a system in place for transporting people and objects back up the vessel, but that system was limited to a maximum of 500 pounds, which the Blue Falcon obviously exceeded.

Well, that was a shame. Falcon didn’t much like the idea of having to leave his beloved racing machine behind. But it didn’t look like he was going to have a choice. Well, he’d just have to make sure it was properly locked down where it was and hope he’d get a chance to come and retrieve it at a later date.

Given the number of people who were trying to get their turn at the Orb Machine, needless to say that Roxas had to wait a bit for his turn to come up. So instead of immediately lining up for the Orb Machine, Roxas instead decided to spend a couple of his tokens elsewhere. They mentioned cosmetic prizes before the games started so maybe Roxas could get something interesting there. He’d been mostly changing back and forth between his now-modified Organization coat and his Twilight Town outfit, so maybe he could use some other clothes to wear once and awhile too?

And there didn’t seem to be any lack of options for clothing pieces and even full suited costumes! Roxas ended up spending 3 of his 6 rift tokens on these prizes. In the end, he walked away with a school uniform for some place called Naranja Academy, a set of sporty-looking clothes were described as being used for challenging Pokemon Gyms, and finally a simple tropical outfit that contained a comfy light blue tank top with black shorts and a pair of sandals - oh and also sunglasses. Apparently the last outfit was supposedly from Alola, where Roxas remembered Professor Koa’s parents originating from. As for the first two outfits, Roxas had never heard of Naranja Academy but according to the costume’s description it was apparently a school for Pokemon Trainers. He’d also never heard of Galar, but the name of that region was familiar to him since his Pokedex mentioned it being the home region of Yampers like Scamp.

Well, with half of his tokens now used up, Roxas figured it would be smart to hold onto the last 3 for the Orb Machine. Speaking of which, by now Roxas was finally able to get a turn at it. ”Let’s see, so I just put in the tokens and pull, right?” He asked as he inserted all three of his remaining tokens. Then reached for the crank and gave it a pull. Like it had done for others, the Orb Machine proceeded to spit out a trio of spirits that Roxas then examined more closely.

The first one was a pale woman that looked like she was covered in spots by these strange paper tags. He didn’t understand the symbols written on them, but they did look remarkably like some of the language used in the signs all over Seiran back in Midgar. The second one appeared to be a girl or woman who was literally just dressed like a bedsheet ghost. What kind of power could a spirit like this have? The only way to know would be to use it and find out. But for now there was still the third spirit to look at.

This one was a bit different. It was a boy around his own age. He also wore what looked like a mix of chainmail and plate armor. The armored plates looked like a teal green color, while the mail sections looked to be a darker hue, possibly black or a dark gray. Roxas also had a weird feeling that he’d seen this boy before. But, wait, no, that couldn’t be. He was sure this was the first time he was seeing someone like this, but then… Why the weird feeling of familiarity? He shrugged and wrote it off as his imagination.

And that was all of Roxas’ tokens now spent. While waiting for his turn at the Orb Machine, Roxas overheard Dawn coming in and speaking with Sandalphon. It sounded like that Consul Z guy was on the hunt for them again and they were gonna have to get out of Carnival Town pretty quick to avoid him catching up to them. That was a shame, since Roxas was kinda hoping to give the kart racing a try. But avoiding that Consult was more important so Roxas would just have to hope he’d get a chance to come back and try out more games and attractions later.

---

Finally, the farcical games were over. And Ganondorf had managed to walk away with a decent bounty of rift tokens to boot. Now the only thing to do was claim the real prize. The only reason he’d even bothered to suffer through those games was so that he could claim some spirits from the Orb Machine and further expand his power. And so to that end he went straight to the Orb Machine and remained there in order to get his chance to use it. He cared nothing at all about clothes and costumes, and instead intended to spend every last token on more spirits.

When he eventually did get his turn, Ganondorf wasted no time. He’d seen how others had used the machine so he had a decent idea of how this thing worked. And so the warlord inserted all eight of his rift tokens and then reached up to give the crank a pull. Then he just smirked and waited for the machine to do its thing. One after another, the Orb Machine spewed out spirits until Ganondorf had a total of no less than eight in his possession. Now he would have to actually examine them to try and get an idea of what power they might possess.

Three of them were modern soldiers wielding technological weapons that Ganondorf wasn’t overly familiar with. He’d seen guns and blasters before thanks to his experience with the original Smashers, but never bothered to familiarize himself with them. Still, spirits like these could prove to be useful strikers so he certainly wouldn’t be throwing them away. One of the spirits was a strange one, appearing to be a woman in a red coat wielding some kind of black and white cutting device. He couldn’t imagine what kind of power this spirit had, or if it would even interest him. But still, a spirit was a spirit so leaving it behind was not something he was about to do. If nothing else he could potentially trade this spirit for another that one of the others had? Two of the other spirits appeared to be men in armor wielding some kind of blade weapons that didn’t look immediately familiar. Ah, these spirits certainly looked like the sort that would interest him. He’d have to consider what to do with them, since they could be useful as strikers or fusion material.

But the last two were what truly caught his eye. One was an armored warrior in red wielding a spear. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar to Ganondorf in some way and yet he could not put his finger on why. It gave him a feeling of deja vu similar to what he felt when he found his twin greatswords in Castle Holograd. Could this man have been from the same world of Hyrule as himself, perhaps? And the other spirit simply looked like a fierce creature in general, with its ghostly blue armor and apparent blades that replaced its hands. He recognized it as a Pokemon, having seen plenty in his time with other original Smashers. But he did not know which specific Pokemon this was. There were so many of them, Ganondorf couldn’t possibly be expected to be able to recall them all at any given time.

”Hmm, excellent.” Ganondorf said at the conclusion of his examination. Yes, these spirits were quite the bounty, he concluded. But then a strange woman entered the tent and told everyone that Consul Z was apparently on his way there and that the Seekers needed to depart as soon as possible to evade his wrath.

”Run? Why?” Ganondorf questioned, ”We hath felled four of their number already. Why should we fear one more?” It was clear he preferred to fight instead of run. Even Bowser appeared to also agree that they should just simply fight. But it was also clear they were likely going to be outvoted on this matter.

”Bah, fine!” Ganondorf relented in the end. ”Have it thy way. But know this: Thou cannot evade the Consuls forever. We shall inevitably have to fight them sooner or later.”

There was, well, a line for the gacha machine and as poor luck would have it, Midna ended up arriving when it was already pretty long. She could have looked at clothes in the meantime, but she’d somehow ended up with a pretty coherent police uniform and besides, why accessorize when there was power on offer to be grasped with all four hands.

Though with that though she also had one where she maybe shouldn’t have squandered a token on an in game item. Then again, maybe she only had 5 because she’d done that. Then again again, saving the world was a team effort, so had getting a leg up on her allies really been worth it?

These questions Midna shoved to one side in the interest in being nosy about what people were getting out of the machine. In particular she was very curious about why Therion was visibly sweating as he went over his results. She hadn’t, she realized, spoken very much with Primrose’s traveling companion, so in the interest of killing time and learning about him and the machine she was going to be using, she leaned in to ask: ”Soooo, what’s got you all worked up, hmm?”

One of the man's feline ears flicked in her direction, but Therion didn't turn to look at her. He kept his eyes on the orbs in front of him, squinting into the motes of light at the visages of the people inside. He was looking for a certain trait the spirits might have, that was what had him worked up. And he hadn't known until now that he was being that obvious about it.

It took him a moment to answer her. He wasn't sure he really wanted to tell anybody. It was only earlier this morning that he'd discovered one of the spirits he'd fused with was apparently deathly allergic water of all things, so he wanted rid of that weakness. He didn't know Midna all that well, but since it was pretty clear she'd fused a ton of times (and she'd done so even for the short time he had fought together with her), maybe she had some insight into this kind of thing.

"...I'm trying to get something specific. To counteract one of the spirits I took in," he said. "And gambling's not really my thing."

”Shame the best way to acquire power involves exactly that huh? Especially when your odds get worse the more you fuse, or so it seems. I’ve started losing abilities. Can’t even levitate or use strikers any more” Midna replied as she casually leaned against the wall, four arms crossed ”Although I suppose the crippling fear of sword, shield, and lighting users I received from the very first one has been the worst so far, at least when its come up”

Way back, when she’d first lost her throne, she’d have never been so open about her vulnerabilities and failings, but she’d come a long way since those days. Well, that and when her guard was down the loose lips she’d gained from a fusion were far more capable of running free.

Her easy admission surprised Therion - but he listened, finally turning his head in her direction. If she was scared to face something as simple and common as a sword, how did she even fight? More than her weaknesses though, hearing that she'd lost some of her skills was more worrying. Levitating... he was pretty sure that was something she'd always had, and even that had been lost? He couldn't imagine being unable to pick a lock or scale a wall anymore.

Jeez... he scrubbed a hand down his face. This was going to get complicated. So now he not only needed a spirit that would reduce or cure his weakness, but it also couldn't be so radically different from himself that it would affect his own skills.

"How do you even deal with all of that...?"

”I had people shoot lighting at me earlier till i learned how to resist it using another spirit, and the proportions I have now closer are closer to the real me, so I can actually walk and run places again rather than relying on floating around” she replied, as if the first thing was entirely sane, before clarifying the second with ”Being an imp was a curse, I am actually tall and beautiful, so after all this fusion I’m more-” she paused for a moment and then gave a little theatrical sigh before say that ”well I’m taller at least now”

Ah, exposure therapy or whatever it was called. Something Therion didn't really think worked, considering he hated the falling sensation every single time he'd had to experience it - and it had been a lot of the last few days. The thought of gradually standing in deeper and deeper tubs of water did not appeal to him at all, so there was no way he'd be doing that. Back to the spirit drawing board.

"So you're basically just making do," he said. Couldn't really blame her though. He huffed in amusement at her last comment, and when he rolled the proverbial dice for yet another capsule to add to his growing spirit collection only to receive a gorgeous woman who didn't appear to be water aspected whatsoever, he clicked his tongue and casually offered it to Midna.

"If you're trying to get back to how you were, take as many as you want. Just trade me any water-looking ones," he told her. He'd already given one of his first spirit rolls to Geralt, as he didn't have any use for the ones that wouldn't help him out. "'Cause no offense, but I'm not looking to have people splash me with a bunch of water until I get over it. Rather take a short cut."

”I can do that if you’ll let me sneak in after you” she replied as she examined the spirit, finding her certainly pretty, but not sure she’d get any use out of harp playing talent. Still she pocketed it anyway, before saying that ”I’ve got five chances. One off that second pity, though I’m not sure if that’s much of a loss” as she popped them out of a portal and caught them in an open hand.

”Had one of those yet?”

"A 'pity' pull?" He had, though he didn't get how exactly it was different from getting a random spirit. So far he'd gotten two of them, and though he had to admit they were both much more interesting options than his other gets while also being closer to how he currently looked, neither of them were what he'd actually wanted. Well, third time's the charm as they said. "I'm about to get another one."

He slipped the token into the slot and turned the crank handle. The Orb Machine rumbled and dropped a capsule down into the prize space. The blue colored base immediately caught his attention - maybe this was actually the one? Popping it open revealed a man with some promising wave patterns on his clothes.

"Huh, this could be it." Therion rolled his last remaining token between his fingers.

”If that’s what you need, then maybe those pulls are worth a fair bit after all” Midna guessed, before leaning in and asking ”Saaaay, how many tokens did you have again? Because if it isn’t a multiple of 3, it’d be better for the team to get as many of those as possible.” before adding ”I’ll even trade you something for it so you’re not going empty handed. I’m carrying around quite the arsenal you could pick from”

Therion dragged his clouded eyes from the coin in his hand to Midna's face. She made a fair point, although he was inclined to just keep the token and try to get lucky again. However, her offer made it clear she didn't expect charity - which the thief appreciated. He thought on it for a moment, then a wry smile formed on his face.

"Here," he said, flicking the token with his thumb in her direction. "Take it. And let's just say you owe me a favor, alright?"

She caught it, looked a little tepid on that point of a nebulous favor for half a second, before smiling back and replying ”allright, but don’t hold onto it for too long. In a few days we’ll have Galeem in a grave and then who knows what the future holds after that”

"Of course." A favor could be a powerful thing, so he would be taking advantage of it as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Given the nature of the Seekers' collective mission, he was sure it wouldn't be very long.

Therion moved out of the way of the machine, jerking his head toward it so Midna could take her turn next. "All yours."

”Why thank you” the princess replied with grace, before stepping in and, with much less agonizing over her results than the man had exhibited, popping out all her rolls one after the other without even taking a look at the results in between. Then she too stepped aside to swiftly make space for those she’d cut inline in front of, before finding a spot to examine her winnings



For her random rolls, well, for the first she could only comment that ”That, well, that’s a lot” before moving on to less hilly pastures. The second she had more interest in the weapon the woman was holding than the woman herself because she couldn't figure out ”What in the world is that? Is it a hammer but with a bow as the shaft? How? Why?” and promptly resolved to find out the answer once they where on the ship.

Next up was a blindfolded woman in a dark dress that very much fit her fashion sense. Also her inhuman skin color. That certainly made her a fusion candidate on aesthetics alone, though was that worth whatever the price was? Something to consider. Finally, a lady with a familiar looking weapon, more or less exactly like the thing that had dragged Goldlewis up in the film those freaks game, which is the only reason she knew what it was for. Probably another item candidate.

As for the pity rolls, the intent for the first was obvious ”A floating beast for one of my things to fuse with. Funny is that because I mentioned losing my own ability to float or?” but the second had her stumped while looking at the man, only to understand when her eyes went up to his magnificent weapon.

”Ohhhh, well now. Hopefully that’s not a flimsy piece of junk like the last two swords I got. I really do need a replacement for those” she said, before adding just a little sadly ”and for Maos”

She hoped the demon was doing ok, wherever he was, regardless of his abrasiveness.

At any rate, with that sorted, it was high time they prepped to get going, the princess moving her way towards the exit so as to avoid any rush. While doing so she overheard that this Captain Falcon fellow, who they had apparently recruited, wanted to bring his vehicle along, but was unable to do so due to the weight limit of the ‘fulton devices’ they were going to use to get back.

”I can help with that” she popped into the conversation to inform him that ”I can send stuff to a parallel dimension via portals, like this” she briefly demonstrated by portaling in and out a motorcycle ”So if you have it on hand I can do the same with this transport of yours”

That didn’t help the whole air hanger only, no landings permitted, problem, but they could figure that out at a later date she was sure.

Primrose stretched her arms over her head briefly and retied her ponytail once the games were done, making sure she looked as put together as always once she exited back into the lobby. This had been a productive day - slaying a Guardian, picking up a new outfit, relaxing in a spa, and then playing games to limber up again. It was enjoyable. Taking even just one afternoon to unwind after all the fighting they had to do was well worth it, and the dancer probably wasn't alone in thinking that.

Therion hadn't said it, but he did find that the mingames had been fun for the most part. Now though his eyes flicked to the woman approaching the group, and Primrose followed his gaze. She was unfamiliar to them, but given Sandalphon and several other Seekers appeared to know her they figured she was a part of the team in one way or another. The woman informed them all a consul sighting nearby, ushering everyone to finish up in Carnival Town so that they could get out of their path. Wisely, Sandalphon mentioned that they shouldn't waste time with fusing, binding, or crushing their results from the Orb Machine before she took first in line. Now that the two contingents of Seekers were united again, they'd be moving as one onto the mysterious air ship soon.

Before that, there would be a lot of meandering in the lobby while everyone queued up to spend their tokens.

Pit had gone outside with Captain Falcon, his intention to free the man from Galeem's glow obvious. Therion had seemed to realize something and staked out the Orb Machine, paying close attention to every spirit that came out of it. Finally, Primrose was headed over to the prize counter. But before she went, she donated two of her tokens to Blazermate (and brushed off the loaded nickname afterward), and then recouped them from Therion.

She held her palm out to him, drawing his attention from the Orb Machine to her. He raised an eyebrow.

"I'll pick out some clothes for you, so give me a few tokens," she explained.

"...? What are you, my mother? What's wrong with what I have?"

"Trust me, you'll thank me later."

With an exasperated sigh he pressed two coins into her waiting hand, and before he could change his mind the dancer weaved through the group towards the counter.

Given how long her hair had gotten, the dancer considered a cut. However since it was still manageable, she decided to peruse the outfits instead. The dress she'd gotten from Yuria was tailor made for her; she liked it and planned on keeping it, but it wasn't an outfit for every situation. Primrose had neglected to pick up a swimsuit earlier when Nadia had gotten one, and she found no lack of them up for grabs here. She selected one she thought was cute that came with a sheer sarong and matching sandals.

She noticed that most of the outfits seemed to have specific themes. There were uniforms of various occupations and stereotypical looking clothes of various hobbies in a couple different color schemes, just to name a few. There were dancers garments too, which drew her eye. Many looked similar to the ones she normally wore back in Orsterra, but a few stood out. One of them, with a long sleeved short coat and long ruffled dress, seemed like it would be perfect for cold weather. She took it and continued looking.

"Hmm~" She didn't see much else that interested her, or that she thought she would need. Her dress was good for both warm and temperate weather, and armor was an automatic no. She glanced around at what other people were buying, especially those she was closest with, to give her more ideas. Ultimately she stuck with her two selections, and two more for Therion: an alternate colored set labeled as "sneakthief" and a winter set which claimed to be for scouting.

With that done, she made her way back to the Orb Machine. Therion had just stepped away from a brief conversation with Midna, a whole host of spirits in his possession. With 11 tokens to spend and all but 3 used on random chance, he came away with... a man with the traits of a mythical lion (which he'd gotten in a trade with Geralt), a stylish woman with rabbit ears, a winged and horned noblewoman, a girl wielding a large hammer, a woman with a device affixed to her teeth, a sporty looking catgirl, a spooky marksman, and a martial artist... after giving one of his rolls to the Twilight Princess.

"Here." Primrose handed the packaged outfits she'd picked for him over, and then it was her turn to raise an eyebrow when he had the gall to scrutinize them. Still, at the very least he said, "Thanks."

They swapped places, Primrose taking her turn at the machine after Midna while Therion stowed most of the motes of light he'd gotten. Some he took another, closer look at. He was going to take his chances with some of these later, and if things went wrong then... at least there was that weird orb for resetting everything back to square one.

With only three tokens left, Primrose didn't occupy the machine for very long. Ultimately she ended up with... a steam powered boy, a battle dragon in the shape of a woman, and a red haired dancer.

By that time, Pit and Captain Falcon's match had come to an end. Pit bounced back into the big top quite pleased with himself. Whether the famous pilot would join them was never really in question, someone just had to free him - buuuut since Pit had been that person, he still felt accomplished.

There were still a couple of people waiting for their turn, but the line was all but gone. With 8 tokens burning a hole in his pocket, the angel joined in to wait. For about a six seconds, then he curiously poked around the hair stylist and the gift shop without any plans to spend his tokens on them - until the person behind the prize counter pointed out an outfit set specifically for Angel Pages. Normally, Pit would refuse a different set of clothes. His chifon was his uniform, and he was proud of it. But if he was going to get stronger by eventually fusing and that uniform was altered, then... maybe having something identifiably angelic was the next best thing.

When it was his turn at the Orb Machine he spent everything else he had on spirit rolls. It was kind of fun to see the different kinds of spirits he got, and even if he didn't use them maybe someone else could. And there was also Vulgrim, he guessed. After the final turn of the knob, Pit walked away with... a grizzled solider with an eyepatch, a friendly looking redhead, a muscular woman, a diminutive aristocrat, a spunky elf, a charismatic archer, and a young hunter.

It was getting down to just about everyone being ready to leave. The Avenger awaited, and their next destination, awaited. And although personally Pit agreed with Ganondorf (Ganondorf of all people!), he was fine with leaving the Consul alone for now. He was itching to get back into the air, and to try and convince the crew to set course for Skyworld. The sooner, the better. While the last few finished up, another newcomer loudly declared her plans, which... were a little confusing as to whether she planned to strike out on her own or join the team. Ms. Fortune had destoried her, so probably the latter?

"Do you wanna come with us?" Pit asked the street fighter, arms bent at his sides. "'Cause it seems like you wanna come with us. You could just say that!"

And if she did, that would mean two new allies. Who knew minigames could be so productive!

When Geralt opened her eyes again, it was back on the roulette table, with Ballyhoo getting ready to bring the Seekers into yet another game. Sandalphon, however, interrupted the magical MC, much to the surprise- and consternation- of some of the Seekers. Her quick explanation that they would be charged for the next game and any after, however, got the Seekers' immediate thanks for sparing their wallets such a horrible fate.

When the group was deposited back in the Big Top, Geralt and Zenkichi both took a moment to get their heads on straight. They'd done a lot of gaming, and a lot of teleporting, much to the Witcher's annoyance. At least, for now, it was over. Geralt stepped away from the others and took a series of deep breaths, shaking off the teleportation fatigue. Zenkichi, on the other hand, was staring at the Orb Machine that had been mentioned. It was, basically, a big old Gachapon machine that allegedly gave out Spirits. That would be useful, though Zenkichi hadn't really done anything with any Spirits so far, just fusing with that one guy, and basically crushing everything else, even Konoe. Though, he wouldn't want to fuse with Konoe anyway, either for the megalomania, the delusions of heroism, or the trauma.

While the others lined up to get Spirits, Geralt went to the barber and decided to get her hair cut and styled into a short ponytail, not unlike one she'd used herself as a man back on the Continent. While the color was a bit more vibrant now, it was not terribly different from how she'd previously styled it. "Thank you," Geralt simply offered, furnishing the cost of one token. Compared to the potential of a Spirit, a haircut felt a bit costly, but she also wasn't terribly keen on having to handle a dozen Spirits.

Zenkichi had gone straight for the outfits, grabbing a simple black suit like the one he wore normally, a policeman's uniform, a HAZMAT suit, a smart-looking bowler hat, and a cute little tiara (for Akane). He got a bag for his purchases, and then got in line to get some Spirits from the Gacha machine. "Man, a Gacha machine, huh...been a while since I played with one of these guys." He casually mused, hands in his pockets. "Reminds me of home."

Geralt had also picked up a few outfits, one a refined noble's outfit not unlike she'd been forced to wear to King Bran's funeral. It was more suited for a man, but she could make it work, assuming the Spirits she got didn't tip the scales back that way anyway. She also picked a strange-looking outfit that was described as a "Military BDU". She didn't recognize the random-looking patterns on it, but it seemed interesting enough to take. Finally, she got a more modern-looking semi-formal outfit, consisting of a button-up shirt, pants, and a charcoal gray sports jacket before joining the line to get Spirits from the Orb Machine.

As the others got their orbs and mingled, Geralt thought on what she overhead Sandalphon and Dawn talking about. Another Consul. They've really stepped up their activities against us. Can't say I blame them, with five Guardians already down. Must be worried by now. It was to be expected, she supposed, that Galeem had more agents than the seemingly uncaring Guardians. They did little beyond stay in their domains, as far as she'd seen. Though part of her dreaded the idea that they'd start acting against the Seekers alongside the Consuls. It was no matter. They'd fight them if such a thing came to pass, as they fought them already.

Finally, the pair had grabbed their six orbs each, not taking much time to examine them carefully. They could do that onboard the Avenger. While a few people complained about not standing to fight, Geralt nearly rolled her eyes. They'd all fought a Guardian today, half of them fought two Consuls, and she had a feeling the Under team likely had to deal with one, or at least their schemes, as well.

Running to live and fight another day was the smart move.

With the team’s time in Carnival Town suddenly rendered finite by Dawn’s news about incoming Moebius forces, the Seekers quickly queued up to make the most of the orb machines. It was a shame that their carefree adventure in Carnival Town was already being cut short, but such was the life of a soldier, Goldlewis knew. With the particulars of the pity system fresh in everyone’s mind, they fell into the pattern of stepping up to cash out their prizes three at a time, then lining back up if they wanted a second or third round. Of course, the expansive cosmetic section over on the north side of the Big Top’s lobby -arrayed like costumes in a Halloween store- offered plenty of tempting options as well, especially once someone’s stock of rift tokens fell short of reaching the next pity roll.

While Sandalphon never moved at an inelegant nor overeager pace, someone who valued optimization and efficiency so deeply could still make tracks when she wanted to. With her long strides she spearheaded the communal movement toward the orb machines and coolly inserted her tokens as the first in line. One by one plastic capsules containing colorful spirits rolled down the chute and into her waiting palm. Rather than obstruct her allies, the archangel moved on without so much as looking at what she received. Only once she’d cleared the way for the others did she pause a moment to scrutinize her rewards, especially that third one of supposedly guaranteed quality.

Her first was a cheerfully smiling woman with red hair, tight black and white clothes, and a massive hammer. Though her second appeared to be coquettish sharpshooter, featuring lustrous black pigtails and an enormous sniper rifle with a distinctive coiled barrel, which definitely piqued Sandalphon’s interest. In the end, though, she saw a semblance of truth in Ballyhoo’s promise, for her ‘pity’ roll was another sniper, this one a deadeye cowgirl in blue and cloud-white. Right away Sandalphon began to concoct a plan for her rewards, inferring what she could about her news spirits’ abilities. Regarding the snipers, it made sense to fuse with one and itemize the other to boost the ‘combat’ side of her ‘combat medic’ role, and the one that complimented her appearance would naturally be the better fit. The other she could trade, simply donate, or perhaps even soulbind as a Striker in order to offer her enemies an unexpected surprise at close range.

Regardless, usage of the spirits would need to wait until she returned to the Avenger. While the others got more spirits, Sandalphon quickly perused the aisles of cosmetic items. With her five remaining rift tokens, she could expand her selection of outfits. Since she did not care too much about fashion beyond presenting a professional and unified aesthetic, the archangel sought attire that would suit various extreme situations. Off the top of her head, she wanted to be prepared for extreme heat, extreme cold, toxic conditions, and aquatic conditions. A hooded heavy winter coat lined with snow-white fur was easy enough to find, and she nodded in approval when she found that it came with heavy white thighboots. While the store offered various swimsuits, Sandalphon chose a standard black wetsuit with scuba equipment instead. A white padded hazmat suit with a full-face gas mask would give her a better shot in hazardous environments, and not far away she found something to satisfy her trickiest demand: an ultra-shiny fire proximity suit for extreme heat. That expenditure left Sandalphon with just one rift token that she couldn’t find an efficient use for. As she strode through the aisles, though, she found herself lingering in the area with formal wear. While none of it seemed very practical, some part of her wanted to deck herself out in stunning finery. So in the spirit of an afternoon of enjoyment, she spent her final rift token on a lovely white dress with light blue accents.

Compared to Sandalphon, Nadia was a lot more enthusiastic when it came to splurging her tokens on hard-earned rewards. Since she didn’t scramble to the very front of the line, though, the feral needed to wait for a moment before she could take a crack at an orb machine. In that moment, Chucho reappeared from the ether with a burst of excited barking, much to Nadia’s delight. “Chucho! There’s my good boy! You been waiting for me?” Feeling bad about leaving her polterpup outside while she enjoyed Balan’s wonderworlds, she made sure to give her spectral pooch a super-sized portion of petting. In no time at all, though, Nadia’s turn to get her spirits arrived, and she stepped up to the plate with six of her eight rift tokens in hand. She wasn’t about to get in line again; whoever came after her would have to wait their turn.

She jammed her tokens in like a kid at a gumball machine, snatching each precious orb as it popped out of the mechanism, taking a quick peek at each. One she obtained a pile of six spirit capsules, she sauntered away with her haul, checking out what she got as Chucho frolicked around her. Her loot included a lightning-wreathed kunoichi in black armor, a smirking blonde catgirl, a stern but gorgeous desperado, a one-eyed piratess, a crazy-looking inquisitor, and a sensational wrestler. All women, funnily enough, and while not all seemed like winners, Nadia could see a couple right away that she really wanted to use. Still, she couldn’t indulge just yet, and so turned her attention to the other kinds of the rewards. With her new duds from Al Mamoon, though, she wasn’t in a big hurry to get any new clothes. She quickly settled for a flashy pair of sunglasses, then headed out through the Big Top’s main entrance into the afternoon sun. “C’mon Chucho, how about a quick game of fetch?”

Goldlewis was in much less of a hurry. After going over to retrieve his heavy coffin from where he left it, he lined up with the others and got to the front after a minute or two. When he plugged in his rift tokens, however, he ended up disappointed. His two random draws turned out to both be animals, one an emperor penguin and the other some sort of rat. “What in tarnation?” On the other hand, both wore clothes and clearly wielded guns, so maybe there was more to them than met the eye. Fusion was out of the question, but maybe they’d make good Strikers. If nothing else, he could crush that first one for its handgun. The veteran struck gold with his pity roll, though: a powerful-looking old man decked out in cowboy boots, ripped jeans, elaborate belt, and folksy hat. Goldlewis didn’t know about the black nail polish, but he could definitely appreciate the man’s style. The image within the spirit evidenced some sort of sorcery, which an outsider might not associate with Goldlewis, but the southerner hailed from a world of magic. That spirit seemed like a good candidate for fusion.

Having just one silver medal under his belt, Goldlewis started out with seven rift tokens, which left him with four after the spirits. He considered handing out the others, but after Bowser nabbed a fairly impressive biker outfit from the cosmetics store, the veteran gave the clothing aisles a second look. Goldlewis ended up getting his own biker set, along with a more humble, low-key gear set, a set of combat fatigues with urban camo, and a tall brown cowboy hat.

After collecting his spirit capsules and costume packets into a plastic shopping bag, Goldlewis joined the growing crowd that now gathered outside of the Big Top. He spotted Sandalphon talking logistics with Dawn, who seemed to be polishing off the last few layers of her Hundred Layer Sundae, then watched Nadia playing fetch with Chucho using her Hive Stone as a tennis ball. The organic artifact glimmered with a noxious energy even in the daylight, but the polterpup didn’t seem to care. As more people congregated, the question of how the Seekers would board the Avenger came up. Sandalphon, who’d already thought of this and asked Dawn, happily provided the answer.

“These Fulton devices will return us to the ship,” she explained, holding a sand-colored pack that looked like a parachute. “Each one is suitable for the retrieval of one to two individuals up to a maximum load of five hundred pounds. Once attached and deployed, they will rapidly elevate us into the atmosphere for airborne retrieval by the Avenger itself. After observing our reunion with the Under contingent earlier, Dawn was thoughtful enough to bring extras with her.”

Goldlewis furrowed his brow. “Five hundred pounds…?” he muttered, glancing down at the little pack he’d been given when he dropped from the ship. Last time he checked, he weighed at least fifty pounds more than that, but he’d also lost a decent amount of weight thanks to his two fusions. Hopefully it would be enough.

Meanwhile Nadia, who’d never seen nor heard of anything like this, treated the idea of being hurled thousands of feet skyward with bright eyes and bushy tail. Plus, she’d get to fly on a plane or something afterward! Taking to the skies had been an impossible dream of hers, and yet the World of Light was about to make it a reality. “That sounds awesome! Four of 'em could handle a full ton of fun!”

Some of the more egotistical Seekers present objected to fleeing from H’s approaching forces, which earned a disapproving look from Dawn. “I’m sure you’re very confident in yourselves, but the main risk is to the Avenger,” she pointed out for Bowser and Ganondorf. “Not everyone aboard is as strong as you people. There are civilians and young children aboard. Thanks to your efforts today, Moebius is on high alert. When they’re serious, they’ll take control of the storied and back each other up. I’m sure you can take one of them. We’re counting on it, in fact. But four of them, or eight, or twelve? And backed up by their armies, plus every civilian in Carnival Town? Forget it.” She sighed. “Above all else, we can’t lose the Avenger. So let’s be smart about this, please.”

The team couldn’t say much to that, beyond dubious blustering. While Sandalphon passed out Fultons, making sure to ‘inconspicuously’ drop one where Juri could yoink it, Dawn demonstrated how to put one on. “Just attach the straps on the harness, make sure it’s nice and tight, then pull this cord!” Slipping her thumb into the loop on the end, she winked at the Seekers. “See you aboard!” When she yanked the cord, a balloon popped out of her pack, rapidly inflating. She floated into the air, hung there for a moment while waving, then shot upward like a bullet from a gun.

Nadia stared with her mouth open, shocked by the sheer speed. Her earlier enthusiasm was fading past, but after a quick swallow she donned her characteristic smile. “Okay,” she breathed, tugging the straps extra tight as she tried to control her breathing. “No big deal. Haha. You ready, Chucho? Usually it rains cats and dogs, but today it’s the opposite, huh?”

“If anyone experiences an equipment failure, I can teleport to you and slow your fall,” Sandalphon mentioned to nobody in particular, staring off into the distance. “As long as you’re in my network, of course.”

Nadia pursed her lips. “Uh…am I?”

Sandalphon looked at the feral evenly. “Not yet. I can connect you easily if you like, though.”

“Uhhhh…” After a moment Nadia shrugged. “Sure. Couldn’t hurt, right? Hook me up.”

Once everyone was ready, it was time to start pulling cords. One by one the Seekers deployed their balloons and shot skyward, hurtling up into the azure blue at literally stunning speeds. Even hardened Goldlewis, for whom evacuation methods like these weren’t foreign concepts, couldn’t keep a hold of his consciousness when faced with the staggering g-forces involved. In seconds, the clear blue skies gave way to the black of oblivion.

---

When Goldlewis woke up, he sat up to find himself in the belly of the Avenger, stowed safely in the deployment bay not far from the Hellpod launching system. He could see the others around, taken care of by Lost Numbers aboard the ship once they arrived. Though blacking out in a situation like that felt like a weakness, Goldlewis counted himself pretty thankful that he didn’t have to experience the sensation of floating thousands of feet above the ground, dangling from a glorified balloon. The important part was that everyone made it safely, somehow. He breathed a sigh of relief and got to his feet.

Dawn waited for the Seekers to stir and compose themselves. “Whether you’re returning or brand now, welcome to the Avenger!” she greeted everyone, putting a hand on your chest. “For you first-timers, I’m Dawn, an ordinary soldier of the Lost Numbers here in our sky-high home.” She put her hands on her hips with a smile. “We’re already flying away from Carnival Town, so we’ve got nothing to worry about from the Consul’s forces. You guys have been busy, so take all the time you need to decompress. The whole ship’s open to you, so feel free to wander around, relax, grab a snack, or even find yourself your very own room. If you want a drink, you can find my brother Cirrus in the Stolen Moments bar, and I’m always up for a chat! Long as you don’t mind my kids, that is.” She giggled.

Sandalphon looked around at her allies. “I would recommend that everyone convenes in the Bridge in a little while, perhaps twenty or thirty minutes. Both teams have experienced a great deal, and the exchange when we first convened in Carnival Town is by no means sufficient. We should recount and compile all we know for the sake of a unified effort going forward.”

“I’m with ya there,” Goldlewis agreed. “In the meantime though, I bet y’all wanna make use of all the spirits we got.”

Dawn held up a finger suddenly. “Oh, right! Why not go to the spirit chamber?” she suggested. “That Mr. Deadman from Bridges ought to be there now getting set up. He said he’s a spirit researcher, so I bet he can help.”

Nadia bounced up and down, eager to get started. “Sounds like a plan to me!”



With a little help from various Lost Numbers, she, Chucho, and Goldlewis found their way to the Avenger’s spirit chamber. Sandalphon took a detour, having already memorized the ship’s layout, but planned to meet back up with everyone in a little while. Like most areas aboard the Avenger this room wasn’t exactly spacious, but the strange machines laid out in an almost ritualistic fashion and the dark, purple-tinged lighting gave it an oddly ominous appearance. It blended together futuristic, almost otherworldly technology with older instruments of an occult nature. In one corner, more dominated by mystical trappings than any other, lay the humble shop of the demon Vulgrim that Pit encountered before, but the skull-faced merchant didn’t seem to be in at the moment. Instead, Nadia’s eyes lingered on the eerie central chamber that housed a purplish glow not entirely explainable by the ring-light that surrounded it. “It’s like Alcamoth, but creepy,” she murmured, having very little experience with sci-fi to reference.

“According to embedded records, this chamber was once used for psionic research for the purpose of making super soldiers,” a distinctive but unfamiliar voice explained. Nadia’s ears swiveled toward the source, and when she looked over she saw an affable-looking man in his mid-fifties, with short gray hair and beard, wearing a red suit and shirt plus a black tie and glasses. He’d shown up unnoticed, as if he’d simply walked through a wall like a phantom when nobody was looking. “Good afternoon, and welcome to the spirit chamber.”

Goldlewis nodded in appreciation for his fashion sense. “Howdy. You must be Deadman. Dawn mentioned you’re a spirit researcher?”

The odd fellow gave a slightly wry smile. “Well, in truth I am more of a coroner. But I am fascinated by death, and in this World of Light, that includes what little we leave behind–our spirits.”

A coroner? Someone who investigates death for a living must have a hell of a time in a world without corpses. Goldlewis stroked his whiskers thoughtfully. No wonder he turned to spirits. “Well, we just so happened to get a boatload, an’ I reckon we’re tryin’ to figure out the best way to use ‘em.”

“Then you came to the right place,” Deadman explained, his frame seemingly possessed by a lively energy all of a sudden. “While Lost Numbers have no spirits of their own, their numbers have been bolstered by the destoried for generations, and since they’ve needed every advantage in their fight against Moebius it seems that they have spirits down to a science.” He went around the room, pointing out each gizmo in turn. “In the middle here is the stabilizer. Since spirits are semi-material info bundles, their energy components possess frequencies that can resonate one another, and this machine boosts their ability to harmonize.”

Next, he pointed out a machine that looked like an aquarium full of colorful vapor. “Over here is what we call the Dugout. According to past studies, bound spirits exert a tax on the host that can become dangerous at higher numbers, speeding up the rate at which we burn our ‘candles’. Two is the recommended maximum, but the Dugout is where you can deposit any extras, so you can switch them out between missions.”

Nadia’s brows went up. “Wow, uh, that’s good to know.” She rubbed her head. “I mean, I kinda forgot about the whole Striker thing for a bit, but still. Wouldn’t want to ‘strike out’.” She then furrowed her brow, glancing around at her allies. “Wait, some of you guys use a lot of strikers, right? If what Deadman says is true, you better offload ‘em.”

The coroner nodded. “I would heartily recommend it. We’re all in this for the long haul, after all. And every life matters.” Next, he directed everyone’s attention to Vulgrim’s corner. “I’m not the only one here with an interest in spirits. At this spot, you can invoke an entity that identifies itself as ‘Vulgrim’ that offers a selection of goods and secrets in exchange for spirits. His tastes may be a bit unsavory, but he has directed Lost Numbers to many locations of interest in the past, so consider spending your extra spirits with him.” Finally, Deadman pointed out a strange gizmo. “This is one of our more mysterious contraptions. It seems able to ‘reset’ someone to a base state, turning the various abilities gained during one’s journey into ‘possibilities’ that can then be reallocated. However, after we used it on Dante to defuse him, the machine overloaded and broke down. It needs some sort of core to provide a fresh source of resetting power, but that’s so esoteric a concept that we may never be able to use it again.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Nadia stood there, oblivious and arms crossed while several people stared at her, until her eyes suddenly widened. “...Wait! Waiwaiwaiwait! I have that magic ball!” She rummaged through her pouches until she finally found and produced a cloudy sphere that she held up in her hand for everyone to see: the Orb of Undoing.

Another half second passed before she connected the dots, her eyes going as wide as saucers. “Wait-”

In a veritable flashbang of prismatic light, the Orb undid her, slamming the feral to the ground with a yowl of dismay. When everyone’s vision returned, they saw Nadia on the floor with her default appearance, some of them for the first time. Around her floated the spirits of Massachusetts, Cat-5, Kronya, Kanna, and Rhodeia of Loch. “Dammit!” she wailed, rubbing her head with one eye closed and an agonized look on her face. “I can’t believe I did it AGAIN!”

Though Deadman glanced briefly at Nadia, she seemed fine, so he quickly turned his attention to the softly glowing orb that now rolled across the floor. “This…is perfect!” He bent down, scooped up the orb, and inserted it into the Respec Machine’s circular opening. Energy spread through the device in an instant, bringing it to life. “This should be just the thing for rolling back unwanted changes,” he announced, clearly pleased.

After confirming that Nadia was unharmed, Goldlewis took a step back to consider the revelation he’d just witnessed. Hearing that Dante somehow got defused a moment ago surprised him enough, but witnessing the full reset of Ms Fortune firsthand was quite the surprise. If this array of machines really allowed more customization and particularity in terms of spirits, the spirit chamber really could revolutionize the Seekers’ abilities. “This all seems mighty useful,” he muttered before turning to the others. “Well, no need to take turns watchin’. Let’s all figure out what we wanna do. If y’all want either o’ the critters I got, feel free.”

Every spread out around the room to sort out their spirits, sparking several conversations at once. Sighing, Nadia got to her feet and began to collect her spirits. “Ughhhh, felt just as nya-sty as the first time. But hey least my new clothes mostly stuck around. That Yuria gal wasn’t lying.” She put on a smile. “Well, if these doohickies can make spirit stuff better, I might as well give ‘em a try. Plenty of reasons to re-fuse!”

Her contradictory pun confused Deadman. “You…don’t want to?”

“Nono, it was a joke. Re-fuse, get it? Uh, nevermind, heheh…could I get a hand with this?” Nadia put the spirits on a table next to the resonator cylinder, then pulled out a couple of her capsules from the Big Top’s orb machine. “I liked what I had going on, but the whole copycat business just takes way too much brain power. It’d be more e-fish-ient to make that mermaid thing a striker, right? And honestly?” Nadia narrowed her eyes at the Kronya spirit in her hand, then crushed it. “I’m good on the creepy clown girl. Don’t need her making me pale OR kooky.” From Kronya’s spirit she received, somewhat to her surprise, a second Athame dagger. After putting that aside with her other weapons, she gathered up the spirits of Cat-5, Massachusetts, Kanna, Angel, and Rosetta, then plugged them into the slots on the resonator as indicated by Deadman. She took off her jacket and belt just to be safe, then stepped inside. “Okay, here goes!” she announced with a steady grin. “Hopefully for the last time. Get ready to meet the ‘mew’ me!” Then the door sealed shut and resonator fired up, its cylinder filling with a whirlwind of radiant light.



When the light began to diminish and the glass doors slid open to admit a rush of steam, Nadia practically shot out and slid to a stop on the metal floor, full of excited energy. “Did it work?” she asked, twisting around to try and check herself out. “How do I look?”

Goldlewis nodded. “I reckon your new look came together well, li’l missie. No extra heads or nothin’, far as I can see.”

“Sick!” Nadia caught sight of her own tail, which prompted a big smile. “Oh, I’m calico! That’s awesome!” She glanced around at the others. “‘Orange’ you glad I got new joke material?”

Her humor elicited a shake of the veteran’s head. “I feel more pun-ished than anythin’,” he muttered with a smile. With the resonator proven, the next person who wanted to fuse could step in without worry. Nadia sidled off to the sidelines with her spirits to make her selection for spiritbinding and itemization, while Goldlewis shopped around, hoping to obtain more fitting spirits. In particular, he set his eyes on Pit’s Marduk spirit and some of the bigger spirits Ganondorf got, though he suspected the warlord would be loathe to part with objects of potential power.

”Ahhhhhh” Was how Jr began his ascent, but once the initial shock was over fear turned into delighted cry of ”ah ha ha, Woooooo!” till he came to a stop in the sky, bobbing on the attached balloon.

He was joined a few moments later by the rest of the troop, Bowser with his arms cartwheeling for several moments after they came to a halt, Rika looking like she didn’t get what all the fuss was about, and Kamek, who sat atop his broom, balloon less, having simply teleported up after them once they’d reached their max altitude.

”So, how was that?” the mage asked, just a little bit smug at having been able to avoid the trip.

”Kinda neat, though we are kinda sitting supply ships up here” Rika replied after Jr had given a simple ”Great!”

To demonstrate her point, she sent out her singular remaining scout plane and had it do a fake attack run on her balloon, making ”Pew pew pew” noises followed by ”Pop, and then down we go” which put pause to Jr’s delighted, prompting him to look nervously down at the mighty drop down below.

”I could catch you with my grappling hook and then just float all the way down, I think” she told her brother, sort of picking up on the discomfort she’d caused, and looking a little pleased with herself when he perked up in response to this news.

”And I will naturally go after your father” Kamek added, preempting the follow up question from his royal majesty.

With worries about falling to their doom put to rest, all there was to do was float, wait, and chatter till they got picked up by the invisible spaceship. They didn’t get a good look at it, unfortunately, due to the whole invisibility thing, which meant the more straightforward among them could not judge its combat capabilities by its cover. Not that they were going to be able to use it as a warship, given the million times punier than Jr children that were onboard, an argument that easily convinced Bowser not to take it into battle when it had been down below in the tent.

Still, they did get to learn about one capability right away, which was the room it had that was dedicated to spirits, which was very convenient. It was lacking in some former functionality apparently, but they had bits and pieces to fill that in. For one, the resetting orb. For two, well, Kamek was more than happy to show off their own little helpful fusion tool.

”For those of you not in the know, this is the Snaktivator” he said as he held aloft an odd little gismo that looked like a fishing rod with the rod part replaced with an aerial or raygun nozzle ”and it can be used to localize the physical changes a fusion causes to a singular body part”

As he said this, Bowser Jr popped open a pokeball, releasing Peeka the Fluttermane, and then held up the spirit of a tentacled being. The spirit was then pressed into the pokemon as Kamek poked the creature’s ‘necklace’ during the fusion process, Jr having already talked about this fusion idea while they were floating.



”Observe how the majority of the effects are localized in the desired area, while the rest of the form is (mostly) untouched” he declared, thinking this demonstration a complete success even if having the half a dozen purple eyes strung around Peeka’s neck stare at him while he spoke was a little unnerving.

It was certainly an alternative to the resonator, and likely one that, well, resonated with those who either desired to keep their true physical form mostly intact, or to limit the changes of a particularly discordant spirit.

A second demonstration was made with Dazzle as well, the other pre-planned fusion the troop had, which showed off its way to counter something Midna had had issues with, namely potentially massive size changes, as despite fusion with a whale, the resulting change was not quite so dramatic as might have been expected.



As something of a trend, however, this also seemed to reduce the pokemon’s mobility, though not quite as badly as the previous dire penguin spirit had, which the prince had removed to replace with this one. Ironically though, he had, as it turned out, mostly replaced one spirit with a functionally similar one given the power he’d later demonstrate, but at least the mon was once again more amicable, the use of the snaktivator seeming to result in personality changes somewhat less often being something of a stealth benifit.

That was not the end of the showing off of tricks however, as Kamek subsequently borrowed Sectonia’s mimic hat, and proceeded to crush the two pity spirits he had received while wearing it while exonerating its virtue of improving the outcome. The first went smoothly, garnering him a new casting implement that, while more cumbersome, he could feel the power within.



As a bonus, he even got to show off Sectonia’s other helpful gizmo, as after finding that the staff was solely empowering, absorbing its stat enhancing powers into himself via her Trinket Smelter.

Very pleased with that result, he swiftly crushed the second as well. It, however, spawned a stone pedestal, which was familiar too, and perhaps detested, by a few of the seekers. Kamek certainly became alarmed as its spawning location caused him to instantly touch the item it held before he could assess it, prompting it to be absorbed.

”Oh badness, what has that done” he worried, patting himself down, only for Jr to theatrically call out ”It’s behind youuuuuu”, prompting the mage to spin around on the spot, only for him to find nothing there.

He began to turn his head back to complain ”This is no laughing matter young master!” to Jr, only to ”Ak!” in alarm as he found the change floating behind him.



”Well then, that could be worse” he said after recovering, as if having a devil looming over your shoulders at all times wasn’t rather horrifying on its own, before pondering what it could do.

With the tight and packed confines of the fusion chamber however, testing out any fusions or weapons would prove rather difficult. Its ability to mimic his spells, free of charge unlike his clones (who also gained one), certainly would prove a welcome boost to his firepower.

With the easy fusion and itemizing work out the way, the troop settled themselves down in a corner to mull over their remaining collection, be be nosy about the other’s ones, and generally go through the hard task of thinking about how to reinvent themselves with all the tools available, if at all.

When it was time to leave, Roxas yanked his fulton chord, not surely sure what it was going to do. So when he was suddenly yanked up high into the sky by a pair of balloons, it nearly made him yelp in surprise. It was a good thing Scamp was still in his Poke Ball, or this would probably be scaring the poor Yamper to death. But after some time literally hanging in the air, Roxas was picked up and transferred back into the Avenger’s hangar bay. Not exactly a fun way to come and go, but if it meant having a mobile base like this? Who was he to complain about it?

Once onboard, Roxas didn’t immediately go with everyone to the Spirit Chamber. Instead he made a pit stop to his quarters so he could drop off his backpack and change back into his monochrome outfit. Since he was about to do at least one fusion, he didn’t want it to affect any of his casual clothes or outfits. Then let Scamp out of his Poke Ball so he could run and stretch his and legs. After this, the two of them went scampering through the corridors until they found their way into the Spirit Chamber.

Roxas had gotten there in time to see Nadia accidentally reset herself with that Orb thing she carried. That sight actually served as a big relief for him. The Nobody had had his fears and reservations about the idea of fusing from the start, but now he was learning that it could actually be undone if he wanted to do that! That definitely alleviated whatever worries Roxas still had about the concept, and so now he felt completely okay with the idea of fusing as long as he knew he could go back to “normal” later.

Roxas didn’t get a chance to use the Resonator right away. While he waited for his chance, he decided to go ahead and do something with his existing Strikers and the Spirits he intended to turn into Strikers along with them. First thing he did was spirit bind with the random ghost girls he got the Orb Machine.



Of course, it was after this that he learned about the apparent tax that having too many Spirits had on the person. But luckily they had the dugout machine that they could store extra strikers in to be swapped out later. As such, Roxas went ahead and put Fortune and Burn Rooster into the dugout, figuring it was only fair to give the two of them a break as well let the two new strikers have a chance to show what they could do. It was around this time that he was able to get his chance to use the Resonator.

”Like… this?” Roxas asked as he slotted in the spirit he wanted to fuse with, garnering a nod of confirmation from Deadman. After that, Roxas left Scamp waiting on the outside and stepped into the Resonator. After it did its thing, he stepped back out again.



Scamp was a little confused at first, but after a moment he realized it was still Roxas and was quick to happily lick at his face. ”Haha, yep. It’s still me, buddy.” Roxas said to him with a grin. And with all this now done, Roxas was essentially finished and could go find himself something else to occupy his time with. Maybe he could squeeze in a nap or get something to eat for himself and scamp?

The last thing Ganondorf had expected was to be lifted up by balloons of all things. He’d thought surely they possessed some kind of portal or warp, but balloons? That meant he was hanging there thousands of feet in the air until it was eventually his turn to be transferred into the large ship’s hangar. That was certainly… an experience. Not exactly a pleasant one, either. But he was just going to have to get used to it if he expected to continue using whatever facilities this vessel offered. Which, given its size, had to be quite a few. It was effectively a flying fortress in that regard, even if Ganondorf had no understanding of any of the technology behind it.

There were certainly a lot of explanations to listen to. The exact inner workings of this flying vessel were mostly lost on Ganondorf. This sort of technological environment may as well have been totally alien to the Warlord. From his perspective, the advanced machines may as well have just been another form of magic as far as his understanding was concerned. Either way, he could plainly see what the various devices and machines could do for him and was certainly interested in making use of them.

The first thing Ganondorf wanted to do was use the machine that would separate his Spirits from him. He had no intention of getting rid of them all by any means, but he was cognizant of the fact that he had a few that just weren’t getting much use anymore in their current form and could probably find a better use in some other way. When it was his turn he stepped into the respec machine and waited for it to do its thing. It wasn’t often he found himself in a position of stripping himself of power that he’d gained, but he knew he'd be able to regain it all momentarily once he sorted through his spirits. With that out of the way, it was time to finally start doing something with his newly acquired spirits. As instructed, Ganondorf inserted the spirits of Oberon, Artorias, Ceruledge, and Volga into the Resonator before stepping inside it himself.



Ganondorf inspected himself and eventually offered the changes a nod of approval. It was definitely preferable to be closer to his original build than to be so tall as he was before. It was intimidating to be sure, but he was also certain it would have become a nuisance eventually when it came time to enter through shorter doors or portals. But this was all just the beginning of what Ganondorf wanted to do. The next thing he did was pick up the spirits he had removed earlier. They’d served their purpose and even did it well when it was needed. But now they needed to serve a different purpose. But for this, Ganondorf would have to do a little… negotiating.

He approached Sectonia, knowing full well he wasn’t exactly her favorite person. He’d managed to sneak a use of her Crown of Avarice before but he knew he wouldn’t be able to get away with that again. This time he’d have to make her an offer. And the offer was pretty simple. He’d use the Crown to crush three spirits in his possession and she would be allowed to keep one of her choosing as a payment. The deal was struck and so Ganondorf donned the crown and proceeded to crush the spirits of Blastocyst, Duke of Flies, and Igos du Ikana.



The Queen elected to keep the fly familiar, which in turn left Ganondorf with the Sheet Music and the Stem Cells. The stem cells he let drop to the floor. He remembered his time down in the Basement and recalled that items such as this would automatically be used as soon they were touched, and this didn’t look like something he wanted to use on himself. But that was fine, because it would play into what he wanted to do next. Before that he took a moment to read the Sheet Music. It was a song that was not familiar to him, but the notes did remind him of that annoying hero and his precious Ocarina. So he had a feeling this song had some kind of magic power to it, but the question was, what? Unfortunately, Ganondorf had no musical ability of his own, at least for the time being, so for now the song would just have to be kept in the back pocket.

And now Ganondorf used his magic and summoned Phantom Ganon. He had not been using the Phantom as often as he used to, and so he decided perhaps it was in need of some additional power. When the Phantom Appeared, Ganondorf took the spirits of Guido and Boris and thrust them into the figure’s chest in order to fuse it with them.



When the fusion finished taking effect, Ganondorf then pointed to the stem cells on the floor in order for Phantom Ganon to pick it up. They instantly vanished into him as expected, resulting in the Phantom becoming a bit sturdier and his projectiles a bit faster, but also produced some bulbous clumps of red tissue in a few spots around his body. It wasn’t entirely savory, but the red cape and the armor did at least make it less noticeable to a certain extent, not that such a thing would be a bother to either the warlord or his phantom. After that the Phantom was dismissed and it vanished back into the dimension that it was summoned from.

Ganondorf now had 4 remaining Spirits. They were random spirits he had acquired from the Orb Machine that were still in their capsules. He suspected the capsules somehow slowed or prevented the spirits from fading which was why they could be kept in that machine until they were awarded to someone with a rift token. As much as he usually craved power, Ganondorf had to also admit he was curious about that spirit merchant who was mentioned earlier - Vulgrim was his name. He wasn’t here presently, but was claimed to be able to offer knowledge or other useful items of interest in exchange for spirits. That intrigued the Warlord enough to hold onto his remaining spirits so that he could potentially use them for Vulgrim’s services once the merchant in question had returned.

And that, finally, concluded Ganondorf’s overall business with the Spirit Chamber. And while others might have wanted to find rest or food, not so with Ganondorf. He instead wanted to test the new powers he had gained. Only a fool would go into real battle without first testing any new powers or skills they learned, after all.