The first thing Captain Falcon did was not immediately activate the fulton he was given. After all, Midna had offered to try and use her portal abilities as a workaround for his Blue Falcon. As such, he led the Twilight Princess to the garages of the Big Blue racetrack where his F-Zero machine was parked. He raised his eyebrow with intrigue after watching her do her thing. Seemed like a really useful ability. Not something he suspected would get heavy use in a combat scenario, but the utility of it was certainly undeniable. He just hoped that they’d be able to arrange something for the Blue Falcon on the Avenger later, since the hangar was technically supposed to be for air vehicles only. But he figured he could cross that bridge when he got to it.

As Midna deployed her fulton and the Captain was about to do the same for his own, something delayed him briefly. Samurai Goroh, one of Falcon’s long-time rivals had apparently now arrived at Big Blue and had caught wind of Falcon having to drop out of the grand prix race. If he knew Goroh, then Cap knew he’d be none-to-happy about this and probably accuse him of being too scared to face him in a race. Cap just sighed, honestly not having enough time to explain everything to the former bandit, not that it would have done any good anyway. So Falcon tried to keep the interaction as brief as possible and instead just wished Goroh luck in the race and then yanked on the fulton chord before the man had any time to protest or stop him.



As for the method of transportation back to the ship? Balloons were certainly not on Captain Falcon’s bingo card, that was for sure. In fact the Captain found himself hanging in midair for a time until he was finally brought on board in the ship’s hangar bay. Speaking of the hangar, it certainly looked like it had room enough to house the Blue Falcon, so surely he could work something out with these Lost Number people. But that would need to wait, because for the time being everyone was more interested in putting their spirits to use and that meant getting a tour of the ship’s Spirit Chamber.

Once in the Spirit Chamber, Cap was able to get a firsthand look at exactly how these spirits worked. Not only could they be turned into summonable strikers or fused with, but it looked like it was able to undo those as well and return you to your normal looks and abilities. Alright, so this all seemed like a way to make tweaks and adjustments so you weren’t stuck with whatever initial result you got. That was good, he guessed. It also clearly meant he had nothing to really fear from fusing, so he saw no reason not to give it a try.

But there were others who wanted to use the Resonator and so Cap decided to wait his turn and turn his attention to his other two spirits while he waited. Apparently this worked by trying to make some kind of mental connection with the spirit in question as a way to request that they become your strikers. At least that was how Falcon had interpreted it. As for these two spirits in question, they looked rather soldier-like. Well, the archer girl looked that way. The other man on the other hand looked more like he meant business. Either way both of these two looked like they'd had plenty of their share of combat before and so becoming strikers probably wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for them.



When the spirits seemed to vanish, Cap took that to mean that it was a success. He’d have to teach himself how to actually use them a bit later, because doing so right here in this crowded room was a recipe for disaster. He heard mention of a room specifically intended for practice and training so he figured he could pay that area a visit later on. And then there was the martial artist’s spirit. Judging by his choice of wardrobe, the guy looked like he’d clash heavily with Falcon’s own looks. That gave Falcon another idea that he implemented by applying the 3-piece suit costume he’d purchased earlier. A sharply dressed guy like this spirit would probably blend pretty well with the formal attire. And this would also give the added benefit of letting Falcon keep his F-Zero suit unchanged.

With the formal suit on and his helmet temporarily set aside, the Captain finally took his turn with the Resonator. Just as he’d seen others do before him, Cap slotted the spirit into the Resonator and stepped into its chamber.



The Captain looked himself over when he stepped out of the Resonator. It was about what he expected, and his suspicion that Robert’s spirit would match better with the dress suit was practically spot on. He scratched his chin a bit when the newfound facial hair made it itch. That was also something he was expecting. Falcon never thought he was that good at pulling off facial hair like this, although the changes from Robert did have a way of making it work. But at the end of the day, Cap would always prefer a clean shave. As such, he’d probably give himself a quick shave later on after he was done settling in. For now, the Captain gave a few quick kicks with his legs. Yeah, it definitely felt like his kicks were faster and more precise than before, probably because of Robert’s fighting style. He wasn’t sure how that would impact his own fighting style, and so Falcon made a mental note to ask someone for a sparring session later so he could test the water and figure things out.

But that appeared to conclude his business with the Spirits for the time being. Falcon switched back to his F-Zero Suit and also made sure to put his helmet on. After looking at himself again he concluded that, yeah, the facial hair really didn’t work for him - especially with the helmet on. So the first thing he’d do is finish settling in, then give himself a shave. After that, maybe a meal and then a sparring session assuming he could convince anyone to join him for one.

After acquiring both Falcon and Juri’s vehicles and stuffing them into her otherworldly garage, the princess headed on out, and then a little bit later, up up and away to a floating hight she most certainly would have been nervous about had she not brought her flygon out to keep her compnay once she was up there.

Once collected, it was off to use all the spirits they had gathered, using the tools that the Lost Numbers and, apparently, the other team had acquired in spades to improve the results.

”first thing’s first“ Midna said as she borrowed the greed hat, removing her help to put it on, and then raising the spirit of the knight with the shining blade in her had ”let’s make a new beautiful-“



”-set of armor????“ she gaped in horror at the defiance of her expectations, before near tumbling forwards due to the weight of it.

”What gives, I thought it was meant to make something better? So why isn’t it a sword?“ she complained to Kamek, who had been on had to advise about the under team’s acquisitions, and who was stealing glances at where her fused shadow was sitting on the ground between them, doing his best to resist the temptation of its dark power.

”Better, but getting exactly what you desire would be rather against the spirit of things” Kamek, who was mostly supervising at this point advised/joked, before pointing out ”besides, perhaps it is what you need? You have those pauldrons, but your chest only has fabric defending your soft flesh”

”The burn scars are hardly soft“ Midna grouched, unconsciously touching them at the collarbone, before thinking for a moment, and realizing ”but perhaps I don’t need them any more if I have this?“

Kamek merely inclined his head rather than offer input, seeing as she was coming to a positive concussion on her own. He did however offer a squire-like hand in getting it on, leaving the princess much more of a knight than the weak bodied spellcaster she had started out as.

”Interesting, I can feel it boosting my magic as well. It really is almost perfect“ she commented, finding it suited the fighting style she’d developed near perfectly. That made the result of her touching the reset machine all the more amusing as the once again imp sized Midna close to toppled over in her new armor that did not fit her at all.

”Ok, faster we sort this out, the better“ she decided, making only a quick stop to trade for a spirit she had spotted and liked before heading into the chamber, sans the harbinger but bringing along the harpist (Norah) the grey-skinned caster (Shemira) and the draconic warrior (Ariel) because damn the consequences of overfusing.



Midna whistled, first tunelessly, then pivoting unconsciously into a tune you might hear when opening a treasture chest as she checked herself out in the Mirror of lost Battles (which thankfully did not release another Ganondorf this time) before declaring ”Now this, this is better“ with a nod, before thinking out loud ”Now I just need a good sword or five and I’ll be set“

”Swords? Well now, why didn’t you say that is what you needed? I happen to be carrying quite the collection off sharpened odds and ends around for their majesties you know” Kamek informed her ”I believe we were mostly intending to sell them, however if they might be of use of you, I am sure we could be convinced to part with some”

She rather doubted him, till he started pulling out and enlarging tiny objects out of his robe’s many pockets. These included a serrated knife, what she assumed was a sarated shortsword till she saw the size of the grip that meant it was actually also a knife, just one for a giant, a Machete and Pistol that where apparently bound together in some way and, as a fusion of those in a way, a gunblade.

Somehow, however, that last was not the most absurd, because the final pair of blades just kept growing and growing till they towered over both of them.

”Those are not meant to be that size? Surly?“ Midna said, balking at the weapons that unlike the second knife had handles fit for human hands, and swearing ”Goddesses, what kind of monster was that made for?“

”A human woman with twintails and a flowers red dress, and similar taste in red, black, and gold as you now have funnily enough” Kamek informed her, before adding that ”the mirror produced her when Rika attacked some kind of living train monster, terrifying it in the process. She did indeed wield it with a meer two hands, which I imagine would be impossible even for the humans here”

”With two hands, yes, but-“ Midna replied, grinning to herself, before launching her shadow hand up from her head and then grabbing the blade’s handle and hauling it up into the air above while boasting ”I can do it with one!“



”Impressive, though actually his mightiness can wield it as well. The issue is also what do do when not wielding-” Kamek began to say, right before Midna opened a portal and deposited the chainsaw blade down into it for storage ”-ah”

”I can pull bladed weapons out to slash just“ she snapped her fingers ”like that as well. Not that I will demonstrate because that was already, well, quite space consuming“

”I see, hence the desire for swords” Kamek replied, regarding the ability she was attempting to feed

”That and they just feel like what I am best with, which makes it a shame that there’s not a conventional blade in your arsenal. Can’t say I’m surprised, I suppose. I’ll just have to be proactive about acquiring a proper scimitar instead of relying on whichever spiteful god of dice is laughing at me right now“ she resolved, before saying ”but I’ll still take what you have“

”Ah, ah, ah, payment first”

The princess sighed, and then tried to barter with the spirit she had not used, but the koopa was not particularly interested. It was then that she remembered that she did, in a way, have a reserve of spirits. Or at least several she wanted out of something.

A few moments later a portal was open, out of which a massive mechanical paw extended. This was then pushed into the reset machine, causing the paw to vanish and 3 spirits and a very confused wolfos to be spat out in its place. The beast received quickly, and made a right nuisance of itself (in Midna’s opinion) running around excited at having a brain again.

As it did that, Midna collected the spirits, and offered one to Kamek

”Here, your little prince likes machines and robots, correct? Well this one was 30 feet tall and made that thing into a pilotable war machine“ she told him, before admitting that ”It, uh, didn’t really work out as a fusion. Just wasn’t practical to use around anyone else, and to clunky in a fight, but the guy who used it against us as a striker was a real piece of work“

”You had an enemy use strikers against you?”

”Ah, right. Midgar knew how spirits worked as well,to the point that most of its top fighters were fused with at least one other spirit. They were even farming pokemon inorder to make an army of people with their powers. It was a nightmare of a place“

”Well now, that’s one more thing to worry about, I suppose” Kamek said as he examined the spirit, before deciding that ”Yes, this will do well I think. The young master was needing to change up his striker strategy anyhow, given his current army of them tactic is not good for his health” and then letting her take the other blades



With that all sorted, and her new blades stored, she called out ”Come here, thing“ summoning the wolfos back to her side, only for her to wipe the happy wagging mood it was in away when she held up 3 spirits.



The results were both a lot less drastic than before, given that it still had a brain for one. However the odd dragon-ish creature did have wheels on it, and seemed to not be able to float, which made her rather annoyed at the waste of all those rocket boosters. Well at least until it rubbed its back legs together in response to a phantom itch, and promptly face planted when a massive wheel formed in between them.

After a little laugh at its expense, she dismissed the beast so it would stop taking up space, and got to the last business, which was some itemisation of the two spirits she knew no one would come asking for, namely the Pendran her wolfos had been fused with, and the harbringer who was no-longer ruining her beauty.



The wand was certainly interesting, though she herself was not going to get much use out of what seemed to be an affinity for ice magic. Perhaps someone else? As for the mask, well ”Not on your life“ was she wearing that thing, that was for sure.

However, she was reminded of the crucible item Kamek had shown off, and, out of curiosity, decided to try it out with this, and suffered seemingly no effect, at least, not one she would notice until something tried to set her on fire or poison her.

All in all, a very productive half an hour.

"That looks fun! Hope no one falls though..." Blazermate said, seeing how they'd be getting back to the Avenger. Surprisingly, with all the stuff in the City, air travel wasn't one of them so Roland was apprehensive about all of this. Meanwhile Sectonia was heavier than the weight limit of the Fulton, and instead told Blazermate to 'call her' with a phrase so she could teleport up to the Avenger. There was no need for a "if you don't..." with the medabot, as she so far had been pretty subservient. Out of the two that went up, Roland walked off the Fulton when they arrived in a daze, while Blazermate was cheering at how fun it was before remembering to summon Sectonia on the deck, the Bee Queen appearing through a large pink portal much like how she summons her Antlers.

Once they all got onto the Avenger, they followed the others to what Blazermate called 'The Super Spirit Chamber!" and with that respec orb that Sectonia's group had found in the Under, they got some kind of super respec spirit machine up and running. Nadia decided to go first, and once she came out, she looked a lot like how she used to. "So thats how its done?" Roland said, trying to work out what was going on. Sectonia was much more interested in this though, as this device would allow her to make herself even more beautiful with these spirits, maybe even with this and the Snackvator, broaden her horizon of spirits to allow her to get some of those that seemed to have sold their beauty for greater power.

"Oh, Me! Let me try this whole thing! I've got new spirits to fuse with anyway. And I've got ideas on how I should do that, it should be really cool!" Blazermate said as she saw Ganondorf and Falcon have their turns, grabbing her two pity spirits of Anduin and Shadow Demon and leaving the rest in the spirit pile for everyone else to sort through. Blazermate wasn't sure how this respeccing thing would work, but it felt like swapping out parts without actually doing it. "So now everyone can be a medabot! This is cool!" Blazermate said as she fiddled with the Resonator with her old and new spirits. Granted, her Medabot base nature didn't give her the same resonance effect as everyone else, instead just fusing more spirits to her parts.



Coming out of the chamber, Blazermate looked at her left arm and right arm, two parts that had been changed. She waved her left arm in front of her to see the cool shadow effects, while she noticed the crystal on her right. "Huh, I guess the healing spirit went to the healy arm, and the demon went with the demon. Cool! I wonder if I can eventually look like some JRPG final boss or something!? Imagine fighting THAT in a robattle!" While Blazermate's resonance was a lot less useful compared to the others who had gone before them, Roland decided to give it a try after the... frankly concerning things the medabot was saying. He only had 2 spirits to try, after having read their books. Although handing books instead of spirits got a strange look out of the operator of the machine, but he shrugged and gave it a try.



Roland came out and immediately went to a mirror. Great, he now had blue skin and yellow eyes. He looked like a freak! But considering what that robot girl looked like, he wasn't surprised it didn't go over too well. Well, at least he was a bit stronger looking now, although in his line of work muscle didn't mean much with how the augments of the City worked. Hm... That Bee queen was into beauty, perhaps she had an idea on how to fix the 'skin' issue, the yellow eyes he was OK with. He'd have to give these new augments a try either way, and at least they were really high quality ones, not the low quality one that Ganondorf used on his minion with the genetic mutations and all that.

Last out of everyone was Sectonia. She wanted to get a good look as to how everything worked. Plus... She knew she wouldn't get everything right on the first go. Beauty was hard work, and she wanted to make sure she was happy with what she got. And of course spirits that didn't play nice with, she'd have to get rid of or use the Snackvator on, depending on what was more appropriate. Still, she knew that she'd be taking some time so best not to hold everyone up. At least Ganondorf gave her an interesting little benefit in this fairy... bug... thing that had some interesting powers. His intelligence over Bowser made him easier to deal with for her sanity, although Bowser felt like he'd be easier to manage if she took over. Quite a conundrum all things considered. Did he and Midna finally settle their scores?



When it was her time, she went to unfuse and refuse, having done the unfusing once before. Although now she had the power of the Resonator on top of the Snackvator to fine tune her look and get something she liked. Since she had been selective of her spirits before, she didn't really need to un-fuse with any of them unless they misbehaved, and decided to give her pity spirits a try. There were no downsides, and from the looks of her second pity spirit, while it was draconic in nature, it was a dragon that loved beauty which should help a lot.

It took here some fiddling with the various methods of fusing at her disposal, much to the annoyance of anyone who stayed to watch, but eventually she got something she was happy with.



With Sectonia satisfied, she left the chamber to go socialize with the others on the Avenger, letting them bask in her new radiance. Much like the others, the spirits that no one else claimed she threw into a pile to be dolled out to those who wanted them. She was in a good mood now.

The hellpod had been a lot of fun, so when it was time to get back up into the air via fulton Pit was one hundred percent on board. He strapped the pack on quickly, practically bouncing up and down while waiting for Dawn to complete the short and simple explanation. When she deployed her device, the angel was right behind. "Woohoooooooooooo^{oooooooooooooooooooooo!}"

Being airborne had never bothered Pit, in fact it was something he wished he could be a lot more often. Obviously not every Seeker shared this sentiment. Some preferred to keep their feet firmly on the ground as much as possible. When Sandalphon first mentioned the travel method, Therion's features tightened into a small grimace. When Dawn demonstrated, he visibly paled. Some days it really felt like this entire adventure was designed to test him specifically; and really didn't appreciate it. Unfortunately for him, it looked like everyone else was willing to go along with it. He wouldn't exactly be able to refuse.

"Connect me," he told Sandalphon, his voice slightly strained. If he had to do this, at the very least he wanted all the life lines he could get. And he could do worse than an archangel. When she was finished with whatever magic she cast, the thief closed his eyes and ripped the cord from his pack to get it over with. Primrose waited a few seconds afterward just to make sure her friend was alright before she pulled hers as well.

It was a small mercy that the whole experience took only a few seconds. It was also easy enough for the Orsterrans to put behind them in the face of the futuristic flying machine they were currently inside of. As soon enough everyone was pulled on board and up and about, Dawn launched into an official welcome. The option for all of the Seekers to have their own rooms made it plain that the vessel was huge. Primrose's eyes were drawn to one of the maps of the interior; she was curious just how huge, but she also wanted to know where the dormitories were as soon as possible. The day wasn't over, but resting in private sounded particularly nice at the moment. If this place was to be their new base, she would certainly be claiming her own room. A room also appealed to Therion as a place to store some things at the very least, but truth be told he was more interested in the bar in the short term. But all that could come after the debriefing - and even that after they figured out what to do with all of the spirits they'd walked away from the Big Top with.

"I've been there, I can show you guys the way!" Pit said after Dawn brought up the Spirit Chamber. The route was only a little different than the first time he'd visited so he made it without issue, as did a majority of the others. "Huh, that demon isn't here."

Even without Vulgrim, with so many people and only so much room the inside was a little cramped. On that note Therion stood outside, close enough to hear Deadman's explanations. Once he got the gist he made to explore a little.

Inside, Ms. Fortunes reset and refusion was completed. Pit let out a soft 'ooooo,' impressed by the spirit technology. Primrose gave her friend a smile and a compliment. "It suits you very well. You look good."

From there, a swap-meet began. Without the knowledge that the spirits were basically just data, the whole thing would have been excessively morbid. The thought amused Primrose... but truth be told, she had no real plans for her own spirit usage beyond the one 'pity' she'd ended up with. As such she easily parted with her two other spirits, giving the boy to Roxas and the winged woman to Midna. She also needed to part with at least one Striker, if Deadman was to be believed. Weighing the options in her mind... she ended up depositing both Hippowdon and the Animus of Will. The latter she hadn't gotten much use out of thus far, and though the former had been with her almost as long as she'd been part of the mission she felt that she could afford to leave it behind for now.

She moved on to offloading many of her items as well, namely through use of Queen Sectonia's smelter. Her scarf, badges, gauntlet, enchanted accessories... all melted down to bestow their benefits to her directly. As she did this, she watched the spirit proceedings going on around her. Strikers being spiritbound, items being crushed into existence, and of course people taking their turn in the Resonator.

Pit was one of the latter. His rough rapport with the Koopa Troop made it easy to trade one of his spirits for one of Junior's, and Rika gave him another for free. Paying the kindness forward Pit gave the spirit of Marduk to Goldlewis when he was asked. Now he had seven glowing orbs, and intended to fuse with three of them. Throughout Pit's time spent with the Seekers of Light, he hadn't had much exposure to spirits. Well, to using them. He'd been around plenty. Whether it was holding on to one too long and discovering the time limit they had, being too busy to even think of collecting them let alone utilizing them, or the orbs being transformed into books... he'd never gotten use out of them, until now. When would there be a better time after all?

"Let's see how this goes," he said to himself, plugging the spirits in to the machine. All three appeared to be archers, which was Pit excelled at, and one even looked like an angel if the halo was anything to go by. He paid little attention to the buttons and switches on the machine itself besides what he'd seen others do, meaning that two were flipped one way and the remaining set the other. Only when Pit stepped inside did he start to feel a little anxious about the whole thing, but if things got weird then he could undo it all. With a nod he shut the door, letting the light wash over him as the Resonator fired up.


The Pit that stepped out of the machine was still recognizable, given the whole point of it was to smooth out fusions. He was a little taller now, though only by an inch or two. His hair was still brown and fluffy, though it was longer, reaching just past his shoulders and the nape of his neck in the roughest of jellyfish cuts. His fringe especially had lengthened in the middle, though it also curled upward slightly. The tips of his hair faded into different colors (some into white and some into blonde), and the two locks that fell on either side of his face had become short braids. In comparison to his hair, his eyes had changed a lot more: irises fading from his usual blue into electric green at the bottom, along with his pupils turning gold.

The fact that his outfit hadn't been altered in a crazy way was a relief to Pit. His chifon remained, though all of the red accents on it had become a dull purple - and his leather belt had morphed into a cloth sash of the same color. The sash was secured with a golden clasp in the shape of an hourglass, the same kind that had replaced the brooch on his shoulder and the buckles on his sandals... which had become closed toe boots with fur straps. The wool that topped them had also become the same type of fur, like that of wild animals. His scarf was the last piece to turn to fur, along with getting longer and its color dyed a dull orange. The sleeve worn on his left arm under his bracer had gotten longer, reaching his bicep, with a matching one now on his right arm as well. Both of them were capped, one by a gold band and the other by a dark kerchief. The singlet he wore beneath his robe increased in length, the legs going all the way down, and he'd gained a choker of the same color and material.

The most eye catching change out of all of them was the laurel wreath that he normally wore. It remained, and it hadn't changed in size or shape, but it now glowed a radiant gold as if it were an actual halo of his own.

The angel looked down at himself, twisting around to see any and all changes. He brought his wings in close to inspect them as well, though he quickly noted that they hadn't changed at all - still the pure white feathers he'd always had, which was another relief to something he hadn't even realized he might have an issue with. All the really mattered in the end though was that Lady Palutena could recognize him. "Heheh, not bad right?"

He made space for the next person, spiritbinding the golem Rika had given him in the process.


As for what to do with the last three spirits he had... there were still some things Vulgrim had mentioned that he was curious about. He felt a little dubious about dealing with the demon, but if he really had the kind of information he claimed to then it would be worth it for sure. Pit stashed the spirits, still in their capsules, for later. Then he pulled at his (now furry) scarf. The room was kind of stuffy now, what with everyone moving around and all the light shows.

"I'm gonna look around the Avenger some more. See you guys on the bridge!" he said, making his exit with a wave. He ran right by a couple of signs on the outside of doors along the hallway, too used to ignoring them to immediately realize they were no longer just squiggly lines.

Others had filed out as well after they finished their business. Left with only the spirit of the other dancer, Primrose would most likely follow suit. She wasn't sure if she needed to use either the Resonator machine or the Snaktivator for just the one, so she didn't. She lifted the orb to her forehead and gingerly pressed it in.


Her own physical change was subtle. Her magicked dress remained the same, just as Nadia's outfit from Yuria had. The only change was in the shoulder pieces - the fabric that draped down from the feathers joined into one long piece, circling her back with each end fluttering down along her arms. Meanwhile a small ruby now adorned her forehead, and her huge ponytail had twisted itself into an impressively large braid. While the majority of her hair was still brown the red portion of it got a little bigger, leaving only a small section of blonde at the bottom of her new braid.

"There we go," she said, satisfied with the little change. She felt the top of the braid and pulled her hair forward to inspect it, finding it just as long as it had been but firmly tied. That make taking care of her hair a lot easier, which was a plus.

She did stick around a little longer just to see the results of everyone else's spirit usage, more curious than anything else (and so far, no one's changes had been as striking as Midna's). She moved to stand by a wall, making sure she wasn't in the way of anyone trying to get to the various machines. As she waited, she set the linkshell to produce more pearls just in case. She hadn't yet become a part of Sandalphon's network so she wasn't sure if the pearls would even be necessary once she was, but it didn't hurt to have extras.

As things were winding down, Therion reappeared. He poked his head inside the Spirit Chamber and then slipped inside, coming to stand by Primrose and watch the goings on.

"This place is huge," he told the dancer. They both had already figured that, so the fact that he'd said it meant it was even bigger than either of them had guessed. "Not that hard to get around though. Rooms are on the opposite side from here, but there's lifts to move people around quicker."

"Noted," she said. With a glance she could tell that he'd already picked one out for himself, since the majority of the large items he'd had were no longer on his person. Namely that silly umbrella, and the sword Yato.

Therion slipped passed her then, smelting some of his own items down, though most he kept as is on the off chance they could be worthwhile outside of just their effects. Between the two water spirits he thought he had, he turned one into a Striker which brought him up to two. He couldn't see himself stashing the junicorn anytime soon anyway. He'd gotten kind of attached that that ugly thing. Then, when the Resonator was free, he darted right over to it and claimed his turn inside. The other water spirit he plugged in immediately, and after a moment's hesitation he slotted in two more spirits as well. His goal, which he'd only half-told Midna about, was to make up for the weakness that the wraith's spirit had introduced to him. He hoped this would do the trick, and at the same time maybe he could shore up some of his own strengths too.


The thief was unconcerned about what he looked like, only interested in knowing if his plan had worked. He flexed his hands, noting that his gloves were now brown leather and had a fur lining. He didn't really feel more or less like falling into a pool would melt him, so... inconclusive. His ear flicked at the sound of a soft snicker though, and he looked up to see Primrose with her hand pressed to her mouth. Roxas, Ganondorf, Blazermate, Roland and Captain Falcon had come out just fine. Nadia, Midna and even Pit had looked good. Compared to all of them, Therion looked silly.

He glanced down at the changes. Besides the gloves, his boots also had a fluffy fur lining. His belt had turned to leather similar to his gloves, and they now held his poncho closed since it seemed to have split down the middle. It was also longer again, and darker with a blue lining. His clothes overall seemed to have gotten darker, now a muddy brown which wasn't doing him any favors. His undershirt was visible, but calling it a "shirt" now was kind of a stretch. The sleeves were gone and it looked more like a gi top than anything else. The bottom also had shrunk enough to expose his midriff. Plus his pants were now more like shorts, the cuff stopped at his knees. The fringe of his "poncho" had become checkered, and the same was true for his scarf which had mostly escaped the worst of the fusion changes. Now, it had a pattern of alternating black and purple squares.

"...wasn't this thing supposed to blend everything together better?" Even he had to admit that he looked ridiculous. Now he actually was grateful that Primrose had enough foresight to grab an outfit for him. It was probably still in his bag too. Therion pulled off his scarf and with a flick the new clothes appeared on his person, completely covering the patchwork get up his normal clothes had turned into. Then he wrapped the checkered scarf back around his neck where it could still cover up his mouth if he nestled down into it.

Without the distraction of a fashion disaster, his physical changes were much more apparent. He'd gotten a little taller and his hair had grown much longer, reaching a few inches down past his shoulders. It also had gotten fluffier, and was back to being mostly white - only fading into blue and then into black at the very tips. That included his ears and tail. The bangs on the left side were back to being long enough to obscure that part of his face, while on the other side a long lock of hair drooped down but a small greenish line of beads tied into the front prevented the hair from falling into the right side of his face. His eyes were still mismatched, though even more now - the covered eye retaining the chalky film over green iris while the other was clear but now more gray. Even mostly covered up it was clear he'd gained more muscle, enough that his bones no longer showed through his skin anywhere besides his torso. His skin also had a healthier look to it, having gotten paler but no longer having a blue tint... for the most part. The blue still remained in his hands and forearms. All in all, he looked a lot more put together.

Since he'd spent pretty much all of his tokens at the Orb Machine, he was still left with four. None of them looked that interesting to him as a summoned battle buddy, and since none of them looked very 'water' he wasn't even going to try fusing. They'd all be turned into items, though before he got started Primrose tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the spirit of the blonde noblewoman with wings and horns.

"May I?"

He shrugged, turning it over to her. Although Primrose did consider fusing with her, ultimately she decided to go right back up to the recommended maximum striker limit.


Now she was well and truly done. After Sectonia's fusion results (which also earned her a compliment from Primrose, as it had come out very regal and pretty looking), the dancer went to go claim a room of her own. Therion remained, dealing with the last of his spirits while everyone else finished off with theirs as well.

As everybody gathered and activated their Fulton devices, Geralt grimaced. She'd already been dreading this, but now that it was time to do it, nearly every part of her wanted to rebel against it. The only solace was the inevitable unconsciousness that blissfully rendered her unaware of the insanity that was this decision. Almost as soon as the fulton pulled them upwards, Geralt blacked out. Zenkichi, following in her footsteps with a gulp and a sigh, was out moments after.

When they came to, it was back aboard the Avenger. Some of the others marveled at the technological masterpiece before them, while others were more focused on the current goal: use some of these Spirits they just got! Neither Geralt nor Zenkichi were opposed to the idea, so they went along with the others without complaint. They'd be gathering for a meeting afterwards, likely to decide the Seekers' next destination(s), but for now it was off to the Spirit Chamber, whatever that was.

Fitting name, Zenkichi mused, when the group arrived at the Spirit Chamber, the strange machine at the center of it all taking most of the group's attention. He wasn't sure what Alcamoth had been like, but hearing this thing be described as like it, but 'creepy' gave him a few ideas, none of which he was sure was entirely correct. Still, as Deadman began to give his explanation, he almost agreed with her. It was a little creepy, but nonetheless extremely useful.

Both he and Geralt hummed ever so noticeably at the mention that the Lost Numbers had no Spirits, though that tracked based on what Dawn had mentioned earlier. They weren't part of Galeem's 'database' or whatever they had called it, which posed some incredibly awkward questions about the people who were a part of it. What, exactly, happened to Spirits when they faded being the first.

Putting those morbid thoughts aside, Geralt and Zenkichi took part in some quick trading before things really got underway. Geralt traded one of his capsules to the dour-looking thief, Therion, and gave one to Goldlewis with an apology, "For what happened in the fight with those Chimeras." Zenkichi, meanwhile, traded a Spirit capsule with Kamek, marking their first interaction. He still had no idea how to deal with his own knowledge about Bowser and his family, though he got the feeling Rika wasn't related to them by blood. With how Spirits worked, though, that was all it was.

With the Spirit Chamber back up and running thanks to Nadia, and some valuable info having been granted by the Magikoopa, all they had to do was wait their turn. Geralt was looking over her capsules, thinking about what to do, while Zenkichi already had a pretty good idea.

Eventually, Geralt's turn came, and she stepped into the Spirit Chamber with a deep breath, ready to see how much she'd change.



Stepping out of the Spirit Chamber with the Harbor Water Demon Spirit in his hands, Geralt looked at himself, gently patted himself down, and breathed a tremendous sigh of relief. "Finally, I have a...I'm a man again." He quickly corrected, not wanting to be too vulgar, especially in front of Junior. Stepping out of the way to enjoy his new identity and get used to his new armor and appearance, he looked at the other Seekers before his eyes paused on Nadia. A quick memory from the Deep Blue Seaside flashing through his mind, he gave the faintest ghost of a smile before approaching.

"Nadia. Seem to recall you having an eye on this." He simply said, holding the Spirit of the Harbor Water Demon out in offer. "I think you'd make good use of it."

As they spoke, Zenkichi stepped into the chamber, anticipation building through him.



Stepping out, Zenkichi hummed as he looked himself over. "Oh, that's a hell of a tan. Like I spent all summer in Okinawa." He joked. Overall, the appearance change wasn't too bad. He even got some armor out of it. "Oh, wait a second. Oh, I'm taller. Oh wow." Chuckling, he quickly got out of the way of the next person, running his hand through his hair. "Like, I wasn't short before, but now I am tall. I feel like an American." Looking over his other Spirit capsules, he sighed and decided that was best left for later. Maybe that Vulgrim guy would have something for him, or he could try to get the giant Bee lady to let him use that stuff to get better things from his Spirits. And fusing that vest would be useful, just so he didn't have to worry about it...

---

Juri scoffed and rolled her eyes at Pit, crossing her arms. ”Buzz off, cupid. Didn’t ask for your input. I can go where I want.” She said defiantly. She glared out of the side of her eyes as Sandalphon handed out something called a ‘Fulton’. The tall clumsy robot angel chick, Sandy, pretended to drop one. Juri grit her teeth and snatched it up. She fiddled with it, figuring out how to use it, and watched the others equip it.

Juri hid her surprise when one of the Seekers took off at absurd speeds. Was this a trick? Was she seriously expected to get on one of those things?

Juri was the last to go. They had all done it. It was either blindly go along with this, or… she turned over her shoulder at the carnival.

”Oh, fuck it.” She attached the Fulton to herself. She screamed the whole way, and when she reached the top and floated in the air, she kicked her feet and cackled, delighted. Luckily she managed to maintain hold on the spirits she was most interested in.

—
Once inside, Juri was frustrated with waiting around floating above the earth and was eagerly disconnected from the balloon. She started to peer around ”It’s pretty high tech, alright.” She said to herself. From the outside it was some kind of floating aircraft carrier. Not completely unheard of where she came from, but pretty rare.

Juri watched the others do their thing and got the gist of it. So these Spirit thingies give you powers, and rare magic could undo it. These things were definitely the edge. A little bit of weakness could go a long way to give a whole lot of strength. The guy with the stupid name, Deadman, explained everything pretty well. To be honest, it felt like Juri was getting in on the ground floor of this little war against ‘Moebius.’ Like, everyone in the room was barely even more informed than she was. What the hell have they been doing this whole time? Just stumbling around blindly? It seemed like Juri had run into another bunch of heroes trying to save the world, with all the pitfalls that came with. Only this time, the world was…some kinda fucked up dream world, or something. Juri was puzzling this all out, when she saw Fortune come out of the spirit chamber looking totally revamped. That wasn’t going to do. No way could she let herself fall behind.

Juri imbued herself with the spirt of the hot purple haired techno chick, since they seemed like they at the very least shared an aesthetic.



”What the-?” She turned around, looking herself over, craning her head. She felt her hairstyle with her hands. She was covered head-to-toe in a bodysuit, which reminded her of her motorcycle suit. Still, she couldn’t exactly call her new outfit modest, even if it wasn’t showing anymore skin besides her face. And she felt even more intune with technology than she was before.

”I get it…I get it. So we drop the suckers and take their souls. Pretty ruthless. I’m guessin’ there must be a ton just lyin’ around for free, though, unless Ballyhoo is the mass murderin’ type and you guys ain’t got a sense of justice after all.” She said. Then Juri crossed her arms and waited, looking to listen in on the rest of this. They didn’t seem too bothered to have her around. As for the rest of her spirits, she wasn’t too interested in them so she stored them for now. She wanted to get used to her new body first.

”And we can show these ‘Moebius’ chumps whose boss and kill that stupid orb in the sky? That’s the plan, right?” She asked. ”I’m basically a pro at this kind of thing, so, you’ll definitely want my help.” She said, crossed her arms.

”Only two? Come on! That’s nothing!” Jr complained loudly, arguing with his father ”what am I supposed to do with only two squads of minions anyway?”

His father did sort of agree, he was having to give up a whole lot of handy but not vital strikers because of this. Then again, when having thought through them all, he did have to ask, based on his own habits ”When was the last time you used the goombas?”

”I- I mean. That’s not the point! They’re my goombas. Besides, I got loads of age to brun-n stuff. Who wants to be as old as Kamek anyway, jeeze” The prince retorted, his point parried but not beaten

”You can put them in the machine, and they’ll still be yours, no-one else can take them out” Bowser replied evenly, before inclining her head to Rika, who had sat down and was tapping away at a game on an off brand gameboy while they were arguing, saying ”Your sisters already done that”

”That’s coz she just had some lame knights to store, while she’s still got that giant wasp lady. It was a super easy choice when you’ve got a standout like that, jeeze”

”Might I offer you a stand out of your own then, young master?” Kamek said as he shuffled back into the group, having been talking and trading with Midna for a bit, before holding out a hand and offering him the spirit of spirit of Blodia ”I have been told it is a giant robot that made for quite the formidable striker in the hands of one of the Midgar team’s foe”

That should have raised questions, but none of the other troop members had the thought to do so the same way Kamek had, instead focusing on the prize in question.

”Seems neat” Rika commented as she looked up from her game, while Jr was far more enamored, eyes sparkling, prompting his father to suggest that this was ”Bigger and better, yeah?”

”Urrrgh, fine, you win. Stop making this moment less cool jeeze” he complained as he grabbed the spirit, before saying that ”You owe me at least one more cool big robot before I stop being upset about this” and then obliging with his elder’s request to put the other strikers away.



Naturally, those elders followed suit/had already done so.



”Alright alright, now that that’s over with, let's get to the fun part” Jr said, as if he’d not been the one holding them back. He then immediately did so again by being picky, fusing with two ladies in his arm (one of which he’d gotten by trading), only to have miss judged both how human it would make said arm, and what mind fusions would give, having been aiming for the empowerment of his knife creation and missing the mark entirely.

Fortunately, the reset machine was right there, allowing him to set things straight. Sort of. The first thing he did was itemize the second lady, aiming to get the she rocket propelled knife lance things had, and get them he did, along with, for some reason, a pair of gauntlets.



It took a few moments of experimentation to figure out his mistake, the first was that: ”Oh come on! Stupid humans with your stupid weird hand shapes urrrrgh” due to, well, his own big ol three fingered lizard mitts not fitting in the slim gloves

Rika took no offense at this, not considering herself one of those, but Jr certainly took offense at her ability to utilization of the gloves to control the flying weapons with a fair bit of skill right off the bat thanks to her practice directing her little scout planes. At least when it came to slowly hovering about, she very much admitted that if she started trying to attack stuff with them things might get a lot more complicated, but that this was ”For sure not a good place to practice that stuff”.

”Besides, I’d prefer to have my gauntlets anyway” she plainly stated, before commenting how ”it’s kinda funny how if I wasn’t fused, I’d be able to wear them inside the other gauntlets”

”Wait! Would that work? If we unfuse you, have you wear them, and then re-fuse you, would that just absorb them into the gaunlets?” Jr asked, fascinated by the prospect.

As it turned out, yes, it did. Unfortunately, they’d already been pushing the limits of the gauntlets with all the additions they’d made, and so between two guns, articulated fingers, hangers for scout planes, grappling hooks and chainsaw blades, it was already at capacity, and it was, frankly, a miracle that by the time they re-defused her neither she nor the gauntlets were damaged beyond repair, though they were still damaged.

”They better have a workshop on this thing” Jr grumbled, prompting as he did a patch job to both sets of gaunlets, prompting Bowser comment that ”Oh hey, if there is, I bet Torra’ll be there. Be good to check in on the fuzzy guy and Poppi” which neatly resolved what they were gonna be doing after the fusion work.

First things first however, namely re-fusion followed by the villains checking themselves out using the mirror of long lost battles to examine the resulting re-fashion



”Welp, hand’s still human ish. Yay. Also now it’s taunting me because I could wear that glove if I didn't need this hand free to do metal stuff, urrrgh” the prince complained, but, as a plus, at least he could wear the cool hat that came with his new outfit now. The later examined power was a nice addition to his control over his knives as well



”Hmm, yeah, not bad. No more talking through those things, and I don’t look like that schmuck minibus any more too” Bowser said, misnaming the snout nosed Midbus he’d brawled with during one adventure, before flexing his shoulders and causing a silver aura to cover his shell, and spikes ”Gah ha ha, try stomping on me now Mario, I’ll do way worse than stub your toe!”



”Still a somewhat ridiculous headpiece, but then where would the ears go I suppose” the mage said to himself as he contemplated the split hood on his robes, before examining his gloves and deciding they where suitably villainous to keep on, particularly when he flexed them and caused dark threads to hang from the pointed finger tips, prompting a short villainous chuckle at the delightful aesthetic.

”What an interesting woman she must have been” he mused.



”Huh. Yeah. Ok. Looks good I think? The gold’s nice. I think I like gold now” Rika commented as she examined herself, having not really had strong options on the subject of fashion before other than wanting to fit in, but now finding glittering gold had its appeal. She looked expensive, and this was, for some reason, good.

She just rolled with the feeling.

What she did not roll with was Bowser pointing out that ”Hey look, you’re pretty short now too” in a cheerful tone, intending to comment as to how this was more accurate to her being functionally a kid, but accidently sounding a bit like he found that fact amusing and was insulting the girl.

He did not get to finish this, as Rika experienced a new feeling, that of being personally insulted, cutting him off with an incredulous ”Short?!” before raising her gauntlets up into a fighting stance, breathing heavily as fury rose from the depths.

”How dare you insult me you… you… You Pleb!” she barked furiously, prompting Bowser to take a step forwards hands raised and trying to wave of her fury while saying ”Wow hey no I didn't mean to-” only for Rika to wind back a punch and Bowser to go ”Uh oh” right before he was launched skywards and head first into the ceiling by a vaultbreaker punch.

Thanks to his new horns, he got stuck there for a moment, arms cartwheeling and legs kicking at air as he tried to get loose, which he did so a few moments later, crashing to the ground with an ”Oof”, and ending up laying on the ground dazed and confused, which Rika’s mind took as a victory.

Once it had, however, and her rage abated with a few more heavy nasal breaths, the fog of anger and refusal to be defeated both cleared enough recognise what she’d done, and to become quite alarmed by it

”Oh, oh no papa! I’m sorry I don’t know what happened!” she said as she crouched down to check if her adoptive father was ok, the confused king blinking a few times and looking up at her distraught face.

”You just made me feel like… like… like I was burning up inside” she told him, scowling slightly at the memory of why she had felt like that.

”Well at least you didn’t turn into a sky high fury filled titan” Jr said with an attempt at humor, only to clarify that ”Papa did that once, it was a mess” when Rika’s gaze snapped to him

”Young mistress, I do believe there has been a misunderstanding. I’m sure his eloquence was not intending to insult you at all” Kamek insisted, prompting Bowser to chime in that ”yeah, I was just gonna say your more kid sized” earning him a kick as Kamek facepalmed.

At least, he supposed, it had taken this long for the latest member of the koopa royal family to lose her temper. As a result of that familial trait she’d apparently picked up, Kamek had some experience with that sort of thing, though it took a little while to resolve the situation and for everyone to make up, not least in part because Rika herself was not at all used to getting mad.

The little incident certainly put a pause on any more spirit tinkering for a little bit, that was for sure.

Feeling rather fabulous and pleased with herself (thanks in part to Primrose’s praise), Nadia sauntered away from the resonator machine with some spring in her step so that the others could follow her example. Having started out hungry for power but wary of what she might become, she’d certainly come a long way with her attitude in regards to spirit usage. Power was a must, but it certainly wasn’t everything, and with so many tools at her disposal there really seemed to be every reason to both get strong and look good doing it. She owed much of that progress to Primrose, really, starting with their conversation in that undead cafe down in the Home of Tears and culminating in their memorable visit to Yuria’s tailor shop in Gerudo Town. Now more than ever, the feral felt more at peace with who she was, flaws and all. That in turn allowed her to focus on who she wanted to be, embracing change without fearing the loss of her old self. So now, Nadia felt like she’d managed to put together the broken pieces into someone that really shined.

Of course, Nadia didn’t spend too much time indulging her vanity with self-admiration. How could she , when there was so much going on? Spirits were like purses, after all; you could never know what you’d find inside until you cracked them open. For about a minute, the feral just leaned against some innocuous-looking machines, stroked Chucho’s spectral fur, and watched the others make use of their hard-earned rewards. As people sorted through their spirits, figuring out what they wanted to use and how, a collection of unwanted spirits gradually took shape on one of the empty operating tables. While she felt satisfied with her looks and abilities for now and didn’t want to risk any more changes, the cat burglar couldn’t help but be curious when it came to loot. She actually had some spirits she didn’t want all that much, either. Pushing off her resting place, Nadia headed over to the makeshift spirit depository, where she carefully laid down the capsules containing her Tsukuyomi, Kromer, Raine, and Arunka spirits. Out of the four, she parted most reluctantly with that last once, since the warrior within appeared to be a fellow catgirl. Still, she didn’t want to pigeonhole herself too much. As long as the feral kept her ears and a tale, she didn’t want to get too catty.

Having made her donation, Nadia then perused the other rejects. With men, women, and creatures of all kinds among their numbers, these spirits really ran the gamut, but nothing caught her eye until she spotted an orb depicting an adorable Border Collie. “Oh no,” she gasped, instantly crestfallen. “Aww, poor thing! What heartless bastard did this to you…?” Without even asking Roland’s permission, she picked the capsule up and held it to her face. “I mean, I know these all belong to dead people, but seeing a dog like this feels so much worse somehow.” Nadia seemed genuinely heartbroken, and when Chucho sensed her sadness, he rubbed up against her cheek with a hollow whine. After petting him for a moment, though, his owner seemed to get an idea. “Wait…” She stepped back and stared at her Polterpup, who gave her a confused look, then at the spirit in her hand. A smile spread across her face. “We can give him a new col-lease on life! Every dog gets his day, right?” She carefully wrapped her arm around Chucho, then pressed the spirit to his chest.



Once the light of the solitary fusion died down, Nadia regarded her spectral pet with a look of utter delight. “You’re so cuuuuuuute!” she cooed, grabbing Chucho in a big hug to rock him back and forth. “You’re the best boy! The very best boy! Truly a diamond in the ‘ruff’!”

Glancing over, Goldlewis smiled at the two, then returned to his business. While fusion seemed to be first and foremost in everyone’s mind right now, and the veteran did have a good candidate in the form of Pritzker, his attention right now lay on one other facet of spirit usage: spiritbinding. Despite his pragmatic tendency to employ everything at his disposal to secure victory, he’d completely neglected to use strikers at all. While using strikers did incur some risk, he knew that the fault mostly lay in an old man’s tendency to shy away from new things–it had been something of a miracle that he tried fusion at all, in fact. Now that he could rely on stalwart teammates, though, it was about time he seized a little extra power, as long as he didn’t go over the two-striker limit that Deadman warned of.

Goldlewis considered using Emperor and Bongkoos, but given the spirit stockpile he felt like he could do better. Initially he kept an eye out for ones that looked like soldiers, since he figured that he’d be able to command them most effectively, but after noticing a couple spirits in particular an idea popped into his head that amused him enough to act on. “These two…they’re the same doggone guy. If I grab ‘em, I’ll basically be a mobile ol’ folks home. Heheheh…” With this in mind, the veteran quickly negotiated with Pit and Zenkichi, who were both agreeable enough to give him what he wanted without stipulations. “Don’t sweat it,” he told Geralt, offering her a smile. Once Goldlewis had the two spirits in hand, he stepped aside to recruit them to his cause.



The spirits vanished once bound, leaving Goldlewis to speculate on what exactly they could do. Hopefully they could really use the weapons he glimpsed in their images, but he would need to visit the training center that Geralt, Midna, and Roxas used in order to make sure. With any luck that could come later though, and there wouldn’t be any more action today, because Goldlewis was beat. Looking back on it, he could barely believe that the final confrontation in Midgar had all gone down just this morning. While he’d managed to get through the rest of the day well enough, there was nothing left in his tank if more conflict arose before the day was done.

Goldlewis turned his attention to the others, who by now had more or less made their choices and started to roll the dice. After some literal spirit binding of his own, Roxas pulled off a conservative single fusion with a very suitable spirit, changing little. Nadia wasn’t the only one who tried out spirit fusion on a minion, as Junior did the same with his Pokemon, Midna with her wolfos, and even Ganondorf with a fearsome spectral horseman. Between Phantom Ganon and all the big-bodies present, the Spirit Chamber was getting pretty cramped. When Ganondorf finished, his heavily-armored underling looked fearsome indeed, and the warlord himself sported a menacingly cohesive look. Of course, Chucho had them all beat in the cuteness department. Even the newcomer Falcon, here courtesy of Pit’s quick thinking and action, gave spiritbinding and fusion a try.

While Ganondorf impressed Nadia, she’d been aware of his dark grandeur from beginning, so it was Midna’s transformation that amazed her most. When they met back up in Carnival Town, the imp had been something of a mess, but thanks to the resonator she’d managed to reinvent herself as a majestic draconic warrior. “Wow, you look badass!” Nadia remarked, grinning. “Like some crazy warrior princess.” Having not been on the same team at all so far, the feral didn’t know how right she was.

Even more incredible was her ability to wield the Dead End Express, a weapon so massive that even Goldlewis held up his hands in surrender. “Knock yourselves out, I ain’t about to bust my back liftin’ that thing.”

Nadia smirked at him. “I bet you could…with enough ‘training’!”

Various other changes took place. Sectonia hogged the machines for a while, but between her, Blazermate, and Roland, Nadia only remarked on the latter. “Oof, you don’t look too happy. Feeling…blue?” She didn’t know Pit at all, but his new look suited him, and even after another change Primrose was as lovely as ever. The same couldn’t be said for Therion, who made himself into a comedic mishmash that had Nadia trying -and failing- to suppress her laughter until his friend’s foresight came to the rescue.

Geralt went after that, correcting an unwanted side effect of his fusion with Ishmael that morning. While the fusion process suppressed dysphoria somewhat, there were some changes that just didn’t belong. Nadia was glad to see him more or less back to his former self, and especially glad to receive the long-coveted Harbor Demon spirit from him. “Hell yeah!” she cheered. “I might not be a pirate, but I can’t say no to a great chest!” Giggling at her joke, she went ahead and spiritbound a second miniboss from the Deep Blue Seaside.

The sound of Juri’s voice got her attention next. When she looked over, Nadia spotted a slightly different version of her rival. Zero hesitation, huh? “You learn fast,” she said, referring to both spirit usage and the Seekers’ overall plan. “Yeah, that’s purr-etty much it. Welcome to the winning team, bestie! Feel free to thank me for saving you any time, by the way~”

As the spirit action wound down, thanks to a violent outburst within the Koopa Troop, Sandalphon showed up again, her timing as impeccable as ever. “Hello again. What was that noise?” She gave a nod to Deadman, who returned the polite gesture, then resumed tapping at his pad. Evidently the coroner had been noting down all the changes that happened that he could, as fast as humanly possible. After a quick look around the Seeker-filled room to internalize all the alterations, as well as who’d already left, Sandalphon cleared her throat. “Ahem. I’ve gone over our roster with the quartermaster. As large as this vessel is, its interior is by no means unlimited, and all space is at a premium. Unfortunately, in order to accommodate everyone, it will be necessary to share lodgings at a minimum of two per room. It would be prudent to determine cohabitation prior to bedtime tonight.”

“Tonight?” Goldlewis chuckled. “I reckon I’ll be lucky if I last ‘til dinner. After all the excitement today, I’m plumb tuckered out.”

Nadia let out a heavy breath, her eyes closed and ears drooping. “....Yeaaaah. Those games were fun and all, but I’m wiped. Still gonna explore this place, though! It’s so big I keep forgetting we’re actually flying through the sky. The whole thing's just crazy. I mean, Dawn said there's a bar somewhere, right? Hell, I bet it’s even got a pool!”

“I don’t believe so, although it does have showers, if you’re looking for refreshment. It and all the Avenger’s facilities are open to everyone,” Sandalphon continued. “I recommend that we continue to familiarize ourselves with it and reconvene in the Bridge in thirty minutes. I’ll set a timer, starting now, and notify everyone in my network once it’s time.”

Nadia stretched herself. “‘Kay. Guess I’ll go find a room then.”

As the Seekers began to leave and spread out throughout the ship, Sandalphon entered the spirit chamber. With very little ceremony, she produced the three spirits she’d already decided upon and used them, turning two into strikers before inserting the third into her heart.



When the light died down, Sandalphon took a deep breath in and out through her nose. She removed the white cowboy hat from her head and set it down on a table, then ran a hand through her hair. Compared to her first couple of fusions, these changes felt more significant, but she liked them. The fact that she ‘liked’ anything other than coffee and honey came as something of a shock, as well as the fact that she could be shocked so easily, but the archangel reasoned that the more human she was, the better she could understand and help them. Of course, there was no telling if her former comrades would recognize her if they met again. She could easily picture Uriel and Raphael joking in their own ways about her height, but she couldn’t imagine what Regina would say if she saw her like this. Hopefully, someday soon, she’d find out.

Sandalphon turned, bid farewell to Deadman, and left him to his studies. As much as she’d changed, the dirt and fatigue of a long day remained. A visit to the showers before the big meeting would work wonders, giving her a much-needed chance to steel herself before delivering the very bad news.

While the Seekers piled out of the room housing Spirit Chamber, Zenkichi belatedly realized he'd forgotten one step of the process, shaking his head in annoyance. Can't believe I forgot to do that Striker thing. The capsule containing the Spirit he'd gotten from Kamek sat in his hands, and just as he was about to step forward to get back into the Spirit Chamber, Sandalphon beat him to the punch. He nodded as he leaned against the wall, waiting to see how she'd come out.

Geralt, meanwhile, took the time to leave the majority of his legion of Strikers in the 'dugout', resulting in only the Judicator and Monsoon being available for him to call upon until he chose to exchange them later. He did not wait to see what Sandalphon emerged as, leaving as soon as he was done with a nod to the detective.

When Sandalphon emerged from the chamber, Zenkichi's eyebrows climbed. She was actually shorter than he was now, though he knew better than to mention that directly. "Oh, man, Goldlewis would get a kick out of that." He joked, giving the archangel a small smile. "It looks good. Definitely different from your original look, but also not? I was never really a fashion guy, it's kind of hard to explain." Chuckling as he reflexively rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, he nodded. "Forgot something in the chamber, so I hung back a bit. Don't let me keep you, Sandalphon. See you at the meeting?"

Naturally, Zenkichi wasn't the only one who noticed the newfound height difference. Having previously looking down on the detective, physically if not metaphorically, Sandalphon now found herself peering upward to meet his gaze, then coolly inspecting his altered form. If anything, his changes seemed more radical than hers. One would be hard-pressed to recognize the man as Zenkichi Hasegawa with his new appearance, and Sandalphon couldn't help but wonder what his daughter would think. Regardless, she still possessed her halo, which technically gave her the edge in height.

"Thank you," the archangel told him after a moment, her pupils briefly becoming stars as she returned his slight smile. Even if she didn't mean to emote more, her increased capacity for expression would be plainly evident. "I believe you look good as well," she added, being a little more direct than her counterpart. "It feels somewhat strange to look up at you now, but I don't mind it. There's something almost...angelic about you. I can only speculate, but perhaps one of your spirits happened to be of holy origin."

She ran her hand through her hair, shifting her weight slightly. For Zenkichi, subconscious displays of awkwardness or discomfort were old hat, but this was something new for Sandalphon. "I did consider going to freshen up, but I do not mind you keeping me for a moment longer, if something concerns you. I could assist you in recovering what you lost?"

Oh, that's adorable Zenkichi thought as Sandalphon's eyes transformed into stars for a moment when she replied to him, and a little bit of blush snuck through, even on his now-darkened skin, when she complimented him directly. Conflicting memories flashed for a moment, before being blinked away at Sandalphon's comment about sensing something angelic in him.

"Could be. Can be hard to tell with the Spirits, but one of the ones I fused with definitely seemed to have something like that going on." He replied, nodding slightly. When she offered to help him find whatever he had lost, he shook his head. "Ah, not quite like that. I traded with Kamek for a Spirit, and wanted to bind it to be a summon like some of the others have. Nothing too important, but figure'd I'd get it out of the way before breaking the news to Akane that I look nothing like her father anymore."

Frowning slightly, Sandalphon nodded as she realized her misunderstanding. Still, she wasn't about to move on just yet. Though Zenkichi mentioned the dissonance in an off-handed way, she was determined not to let that slide. Her sense of humor might be highly limited, but she knew that humans didn't just make jokes to make others laugh; they also sometimes joked to mask pain or misgivings. If she couldn't help out in one way, maybe she could lend a hand in another

"I see. If you're concerned, you could always try a different methodology of spirit usage. After observing the Koopa Troop, I am confident in my ability to correctly utilize the device they referred to as 'the Snaktivator' to localize spirit mutations to certain body parts. While our objective demands that we strive for more power, I believe it prudent that we endeavor to preserve what is important to us."

Zenkichi paused for a few moments, thinking it over, before nodding softly. "That's...a good point. Kamek did a quick demonstration on it, but I guess with how hectic everything was, it didn't occur to me to ask about it. Might be a good idea to track them down and see if I can get a redo...though I'll probably do that after the meeting if I do. Thanks, Sandalphon." Smiling more fully and gratefully, he turned his head over to the Spirit Chamber again.

"Definitely still planning to bind that summon, though. As long as we don't do more than two, shouldn't affect anything, at least." He added. "I'll see you at the meeting, Sandalphon. Thanks. For everything you've done for us. For me."

The archangel bowed her head, her halo dipping slightly as she did. "You're welcome, please think nothing of it." She paused for a second, considering her phrasing. Did she want Zenkichi to think nothing of it...? After a beat, though, she straightened up and gave him a tentative wave. "Goodbye for now." Then she turned to go, headed toward the showers. Though uneventful and less efficient than Sandalphon might hope, this exchange struck her as a positive interaction, and if trivial talks like this continued she couldn't imagine herself being too displeased. Her conversations with Zenkichi, Pit, Geralt, and the others had been highlights of her journey as a Seeker thus far. Hopefully, by the time the looming meeting concluded, none of them would think less of her.

After Sandalphon was gone, Zenkichi entered the Spirit Chamber and activated it once again.



He didn't feel very different once it was done, but he did feel something, so he wasn't terribly concerned about it. He'd have to ask the others how they did it. With his business concluded here, he left the Spirit Chamber’s room and headed to the bunk area where he’d left Akane before, shooting her a text to let her know he was on his way.

Peaking his head into the room she was in, Zenkichi called out to his daughter. ”Don’t freak out, it’s me. I fused with a couple Spirits, though, so…sorry about that. I know I look a lot different.” Stepping into the room fully, he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. ”How’s Maru?”

“Holy crap, dad, you’re dark! And tall!” Akane shot out of the sofa she was sitting on, eyes wide as she looked at her father. “I’m sure Sandalphon was happy about that.” She snarked, turning away a little and folding her arms. So much was changing, and she hated it so much. Even if this ship was kind of cool, she was starting to understand why her father buried his head in the sand a bit. This was all so much, and she couldn’t do anything to help! Unless…she used her streaming skills?

“Umm, forget about her, actually, dad. Do you remember back when we lived in Japan, how I did that Phantom Thief streaming?” She hated talking about her obsession with the Phantom Thieves with her father, or at least she used to, until he tried being a good dad again. Kind of.

”Uh, yeah, I do. Why?” He asked, ignoring the comment about Sandalphon. It couldn’t have been easy for her, so he didn’t let it bother him.

“Well, I wonder if they have anything like that here? Like, to get people to rise up and fight back! Like the Phantom Thieves did with their calling cards!” Akane’s hands where held up to her chest, determination plainly visible in her eyes.

Chuckling, Zenkichi shrugged. ”Dunno, but propaganda is pretty powerful. We could ask the Lost Numbers at the meeting if they have anything like that. If not, maybe you could put that technical know-how to use with Tora and Poppi. Help them build gadgets or program stuff.” He didn’t know exactly what went into streaming, but he knew it had to involve a bunch of tech support and troubleshooting.

“I’m not really a programmer, but I guess?” Akane shrugged. She wasn’t really the engineering type, but if it helped, it helped. “Just lemme know. And, dad? You look…I dunno, kinda weird. But like…cool, too? That’s gonna take some getting used to, so don’t go and turn into a woman like that old grumpy guy did.” Zenkichi chuckled at the mention of Geralt, shaking his head.

”Actually, he just turned back into a man a few minutes ago. We got a bunch of Spirits at the carnival and used this weird super-soldier chamber on the ship to fuse with some of them.” Zenkichi explained, thinking that at least he wouldn’t go fusing with a bunch of female Spirits and risk becoming one himself. ”You good if I head on to the strategy meeting? I can text you when it’s done and we can hang out and look around the ship or something?”

Akane actually smiled a little at that, nodding. “Sure, dad. This place is huge.” Nodding, Zenkichi left the bunkroom and made his way to Bridge for the meeting.

Fusion done, and everyone having finished their trading, all that was left was to crush the remaining spirits in order, which Midna got right on.



She let out a twittering whistle as she turned and examined the glowing gemstone that seemed to be soaked with familiar draconic energy, before flicking it up and into a portal, adding it to her list of crafting materials. The fans too, were a prize for sure, even if they were rather odd weapon wise. The little practice gusts felt right, charging some new well of power she had gained from fusion. Combined with the ability to quickly draw their bladed forms, they were a fine addition to her collection.

Once everyone was all sorted with their own itemizing and such, and starting to drift out of the room, Minda found herself at a loss as to what to do with the time she had left before that meeting, only for her gaze to slide across and then flick back to Juri. The princess had something of hers after all, and it would be best to hand it back over rather than leave it languishing in her pocket dimension. It was also a good excuse to try and get to know their stylish newbie, with the rush to get both her and the captain’s vehicles stored in time for departure she hadn’t said more than a few words to her, so setting out to kill two Kees with one arrow she strode her way over to the streetfighter

”Hello again“ she said with a wave as she approached, before pausing for a half step, reaching up, and removing her helmet so they could actually talk face to face. That was going to take some getting used too, she thought, as she tried to work out what to do with it (it would hardly do to leave a corrupting artifact of doom simply sitting around after all) and settled for tucking it under her arm right in time for her to arrive.

Juri was taking a look around the place, getting acquainted to her new surroundings. She was also looking for insecurities and places to exploit, but she kept that to herself. These people were real trusting just to let anyone on board. If they let her on, let’s be honest, they’d let anyone on. That was when Midna made herself known to Juri. The street fighter turned away from a computer keyboard and casually leaned up against a wall, looking the Princess over.

”You’re the one who vacuumed up my bike, right? Everyone’s kinda changin’ faces around here. You guys should probably invest in some name tags.” She said. As if to memorize Midna’s face, she leaned really far forward toward Midna.

”That I did“ she confirmed, before assuring Juri that ”You’ll get used to it“ with regards to fusions. Then leaned in the rest of the way so they were almost nose to nose, her lips turned up and open just enough to expose a pointy toothed impish grin that had somehow survived all the fusions ”Soooooo, tell me about yourself. What got you and Miss Fortune cat fighting and then onboard, hmmm?“

Juri sized Midna up and tilted her head, before standing up straight and turning to lean up against a doorframe. She propped her feet up on the other side of the frame and floated in mid air. ”Fortune’s a nobody who doesn’t know how to mind her own damn business.” She said, checking her ‘fingernails’ which were now covered up by her suit. Or rather, gloves, as she found the seam at her wrists. When she let it go, the fabric merged right back together.

”You’re the Seekers, right? Like hide and go seek? Since everyone else got hit by the brainwash beam I’m assuming you’re trying to do something about it.” She said.

”That’s what organization XIII called us, but they never did explain why. Cryptic, and up to their own schemes that lot“ Midna explained, though her voicing of that oddity was more or less the first she’d thought about the strangeness of the granted name. After which shea attempted to rationalize it while filling Juri on their plan and progress.

”But we do intend to bury the light that devoured all our worlds, and for that, we need to destroy the guardians safeguarding it. We have 6 down, 7 more to go. Then we crush Galeem, and put an end to this cruel death driven patchwork of a reality“

”Organization what now? You mean you didn’t pick the name?” Juri frowned, displeased. ”What kinda band of wimps doesn’t even pick their own name? It can’t be that hard if you’re already almost halfway there.” She said.

”Nobody jumps me twice.” She said. ”Big stupid ball in the sky. Once all these guardians are down we just need a big enough gun to shoot a big laser right up where its sun doesn't shine. Probably can’t go two feet without stumbling over one superweapon or another.”

”What you do is more important than what people call you. The heroes crushing Galeem’s minions beneath their heels doesn’t exactly have a nice ring to it, but it's far more descriptive, don’t you think?“ she said, making the motion of grinding the mechanical and dragon clawed heel of her new footwear into the floor.

”Can’t say Galeems left too many of those laying around, nor, it seems proper goddesses who could meet it on its level. It's not that stupid sadly, though I think someone did mention that there was a demon who’d trade spirits for secrets, so who knows. Maybe we just didn’t dig deep enough“ she sighed. That would, after all, make things a lot easier. If only they could get all the pieces of her fused shadow, or the triforce, this would all be a lot more straightforward.

”Wouldn’t be surprised. None of you here strike me as the snooping type.” She said. ”Just going by the fact it hasn’t blasted everyone again already, ‘Galeem’ can’t be all powerful. I think the answer lies in just getting a big enough gun, or spell, or whatever.” She waved her hand vaguely and dismissively.

”And these Moebius people are, what, its cronies? Its cultists? We can play hit and run all day long and take out its top members, way I see it.” She knocked against the walls of the Avenger. ”But this thing is a bit obvious. That’s why the bike’s important.”

”Not cultists. They seem more or less roped in or self serving to me. One just wanted ‘fun’ chaos, the other had his own scheme of some kind to do with ascending to godhood“ Minda replied, ”Least that’s how the two in Midgar. The one who chased us after we left, I don’t know, but he seemed a bit more commited“

”As for this thing, well, it snuck up on that pursue pretty good at the very least, and seeing as they’re now pursuing us I’ll take speed over trekking across the land like we have been any day of the week“

Juri rubbed her chin and rolled her eyes. ”Typical. Okay, self-serving assholes who suck up to the biggest bad they can find in a vain attempt to find power. I’ve seen it all before. Hell, I’ve done it myself.” She said casually.

”Alright. I want to see some action, and soon.”

Minda raised an eyebrow at that admission, particularly because of how unflatteringly she described those who did it. If she where to hazard a guess as to why it would be ”and it never works out for them, does it?“

At that, Juri tapped the side of her head. ”If they’re anyone but me, maybe.”

”As for action, well, I think a lot of people are getting close to their limit after or last bit of action and are going to want to rest up before striking out again. Best you’ll get is a spar for now I think“ she then said, implicitly offering. She could do with testing out her reconstituted body and fresh powers.

”Real action. The kind with blood in it.” She said, getting out her phone. ”Wonder if this place has wifi. I’m gonna poke around.” She switched gears pretty fast, and took off down a random hallway.

”Prickly and proud, now won’t that be fun to work with“ Minda said to herself, unintentionally putting voice to her analysis of Juri a bit louder than she thought given that her hearing was making her misjudge her own volume.

Juri stopped and turned over her shoulder. ”What was that?” She asked.

Minda looked more confused than concerned about being overheard, before shrugging and saying that it was ”Just my first impressions. Please, do, feel free to prove them wrong“

”Don’t mumble, sweetheart.” Juri turned away. ”That’s for broken people.” She stalked off down the hallway to explore the inner reaches of the Avenger.

”Not doing well so far“ Minda, who was psychologically unable to take that cruelly delivered ‘advice’ even if she wanted to, replied before stepping into a shadow and sliding through the ship that way. She could only hope their other new arrival was more personable when she checked in on them.

Having left the Spirit Chamber, Geralt made his way straight to the training center. He wanted to try to get an idea of what had changed before going out into battle again. While being a bit later, Roland would end up joining Geralt, as well as Blazermate although the latter came more to make sure people weren’t getting hurt with their new training.

First, Geralt transformed into his Ardor Blossom identity to see how much the dragon Spirits had affected him. The first thing he noticed was that he was quite a bit larger, probably about 7 and a half feet tall. His skin was darker, and felt rough to the touch, like scales. He was still unarmored in this form, though he wondered if his skin would mitigate damage in this form. He could feel horns growing out of his head and wings on his back, and he noticed that his hands were once again clawed, like when he had originally fused with the Harbor Water Demon.

“Not bad.” He nodded, before a ball of flame appeared in his hand and was launched at a target, scorching it. “Seems to function about the same as before. Just to see what those dragons gave me.” After throwing a few more fireballs to get a feel for his new body shape, Geralt followed a newfound instinct and lifted his leg, stomping harshly onto the ground. When his foot impacted the floor of the training center, a series of dark explosions burst forth, knocking out a wide swathe of targets. “Oh.” He simply exhaled, blinking. “That feels like the power of a dragon, alright. At least, what a human could handle of one’s power.”

A few moments after, Geralt suddenly returned to his normal form, a grunt of confusion escaping him. “Huh?” He questioned, focusing on Ishmael’s transformative ability with no result. “Oh, don’t tell me…” He sighed, looking up at the ceiling above him. Could he only handle so much power in his Identities now? Trying the LCCB Assistant Manager Identity, he was pleasantly surprised to see that that transformation still worked.

It didn’t look or feel terribly different from how it had before, though that was to be expected. He fired off a few shots of his pistol to get a feel for how to use the weapon properly, before deciding to take another minute or two to get some target practice in. He wasn’t quite as accurate as he’d have hoped, but his skill with the hand crossbow translated somewhat well to the pistol. He had to adjust his aim lower, as the bullets traveled much faster than even the quarrels of his over-tuned hand crossbow, but otherwise it wasn’t terribly dissimilar.

At around this time Roland and Blazermate came in, with Sectonia instead touring the ship to let others bask in her platinum splendor. Roland had been watching Geralt for a bit of the tail end of his little transformation and skill work, before silently deciding to join him and practice his own new tricks. Granted, unlike Geralt, he didn’t have too many new things to try with his new, blue skinned physique. Blazermate waited until the two boys were done with their fun, since she’d need them to kinda… fight each other a little bit to test out her things.
With some time having passed, Geralt transformed into Ardor Blossom again, breathing a sigh of relief when the transformation occurred without a hitch. “Didn’t take too long to come back, at least.” He muttered, before stomping once more to see if that was the trigger. This time, however, nothing happened. Taking a deep breath to exhale his building frustration, Geralt paused and thought on it. How did that ability work? Last time, he did it after feeling the instinctual desire to do so, though that hadn’t appeared until after he’d scorched a few targets with fireballs. Was that the key? Damaging something, even something as simple as a practice target?

Roland meanwhile tried his new Ink powers. Well, the first one that involved summoning a spirit. What he wasn’t expecting was the spirit to look like Angelica. He did read in that book about Grimstroke’s sorrow over losing his wife, but he wasn’t expecting it to morph to match Roland’s trauma. Although this spirit was more… corrupt wasn’t the right word. Dripping with ink was more accurate. That and just being some sort of ‘summon’. He’d have to get used to something like this, but he for sure wasn’t going to mention anything about what this spirit represented.



Now’s the time to test these things, Geralt thought, tossing out a few fireballs to scorch up a series of targets. After hitting about five, he followed through on another new feeling, and this new attack summoned a swarm of 14 shurikens, which flew threw the air and knocked over a large swathe of targets. “Huh. Not bad.” On top of that, he somehow felt invigorated, as though he’d had a good meditation session. He didn’t quite know what that was about, but he continued his testing, firing off more fireballs before he suddenly returned to normal once more. “That was about twenty-five to thirty seconds. Must be time related, then.” He surmised, though it wasn’t exactly a well-tested idea. He only had so much time before he needed to be on the Bridge, though, so it’d have to do.

Drawing his steel sword, Geralt twirled it with a flourish before slashing the blade, sparks emitting as it just barely touched the ground, and a battle cry escaped his lips. “Demon Fang!” He cried, and a burst of blue energy travelled along the ground, crashing into another target and sending it crashing back to the ground. “What.” Geralt simply uttered, before scrunching up his face. “Did I just call out an attack? What kind of weirdo did I fuse with?!” He complained.

Still, it didn’t seem to be a bad attack. He attempted to do it again, though this time the irrepressible urge to shout the name of the attack did not come, and he hummed. That could be worse, he supposed.



Lifting his sword, Geralt began to channel energy, a circle of light emanating from his feet, and he uttered a chant. “Come forth, sacred spirits! Luminant Scythe!” As he finished the name of the spell, he swung his sword until it was parallel to the ground, and a veritable light show appeared around the target he pointed his sword at, battering it with energy until it was violently blasted back to the ground, clattering loudly against the floor. “Oh. Oh, that was…actually powerful magic.” He wondered what Yen would say to that. At least he didn’t have to face her as a woman.

Roland meanwhile was trying his other inky attack, a swelling of ink around him that… didn’t seem to do much of anything. He’d have to wait for Geralt to back off the training dummy before he went to see what this move did with some ‘targets’ around. It was pretty clear at that point though what this move did, it sucked the life out of whatever enemy was near the ink, causing it to grow and eventually explode in a shower of ink.

Geralt stepped back, giving Roland a nod and a gesture to let him know that he had the floor. “Looks like ink off a quill.” He commented about Roland’s new abilities. “Blazermate. Came here to test your fusions as well?” The Witcher inquired, giving the Medabot a glance up and down.

”Uh huh! Well, that and also making sure people don’t get hurt in here. You never know with these powers and all that.” Blazermate said ”So it seems yours went well. I wanna try mine, but I think mine are more support based so uh… Might need you two to hit each other a little bit.” She continued, looking at the gemstone emitting a warming light from her right hand.

Geralt hummed, nodding in reply. “Makes sense enough, I suppose. With how much I’ve been fighting lately, it’s almost like I’m on the Path again. Or a Skelliger, given how many friendly spars we’ve had so far.” And some of those spars were just as bloody as they were for Skelligers. The only thing he hadn’t done yet was go fisticuffs with somebody, though given how tough the Seekers were, he wouldn’t be an easy champion like he was on the continents. “Roland, when you get a minute, Blazermate wants us to fight so she can try out what she has.” He announced, solidly throwing Blazermate under the proverbial bus, with a ”Hey!...” from the bot.

Roland pulled back from trying out his new ink powers, something that reminded him a bit of what some gangs used for enhancements back in the City, and said simply. ”Well, if the little schoolgirl wants to see two men fight for her amusement…” Roland said, giving Blazermate all sorts of sass due to her request, seeing if that’d make the bot a bit embarrassed. It did a bit, but seeing blush on a bot was basically impossible so he let that sit a bit before saying ”Yeah. I guess we can do something light. Although we shouldn’t go too hard. Who knows then that Consul Z will jump us again.”

”Hey, you know it's kinda hard to test what healing abilities do if people don’t get hurt you know!” Blazermate said, retorting at last. Roland waved her with a “yes yes” sorta gesture before agreeing to do a little bit with Geralt.

“Alright, then. Just something simple, rough each other up a bit, then let her do her thing.” Geralt said, rolling his arms. “I’ve got a few things I could try out, but it seems like some of them take a few seconds to do. I’ll stick to the quicker stuff right now.” Once they were both in position, rapidly crossed his arms in front of his chest and swung them apart, a blade of Hydro energy appearing in each hand as he launched forward into a flurry of rapid blows, fusing them into a large twinblade mid-flurry.

Roland followed in kind, conjuring his twin swords to meet Geralt’s hydro blades. It was clear right away Roland’s new physique made him a bit slower, with him losing a few of his clashes with Geralt. The rapid slashes he could match with, but once the blade was fused that caused him to get hit. He felt like he got hurt more on top of that, but without having fought Geralt before, he wasn’t sure of that. He followed up though by pulling out his hammer and giving Geralt a few defensive swipes with it. It was around this time he noticed himself getting a bit faster, as if his new body just needed to warm up when entering a battle. A bit annoying, but it couldn’t be helped. On his last defensive smash, Roland decided to use another of his new abilities, empowering the attack and bashing through Geralt’s guard to deal some damage. Only Geralt and Blazermate could see the attack was infused with magic, with Roland unaware of that fact.

Well, with the two guys hurt, Blazermate tried her first new move, Divine Star. She shot a holy bolt out at the two which didn’t seem to do anything. However once it reached down the shooting range and came back, it had grown into a giant light wave that washed over the two boys and herself. The healing was stronger than her medigun, but it was more in a burst instead. Seeing that Roland was on the losing end of the exchange, since he tended to take some time to wind up, Blazermate tried another trick of hers and as Geralt went for another blow, she used Disruption on him. Roland now being suspended in a weird black bubble and Geralt’s attack completely missing him. This bubble lasted for 3 seconds before Roland came back, but instead of 1, there were 3 Rolands all going after Geralt now. Two of them were illusions, but they did do real damage. Roland was as surprised as the other two about the illusions, but shrugged.

The Hydro blades were rather quick, but once Roland got back up to speed and pulled out his hammer, Geralt was put on the back foot instead, taking a powerful, magically-enhanced blow to end the exchange before Blazermate intervened with a heal. Once Geralt saw the bubble of energy protecting Roland, he backed off a little, shocked to see three come out, and he dismissed the Hydro blades in favor of his lightning-infused katana. Skirting the blade along the ground, he shot out a pair of Demon Fangs before rushing in, hefting the sword and plunging it into the ground just before the three Rolands were on him, crying out “Guardian Field!” as a field of blue energy appeared to give Geralt some extra healing while keeping the Rolands back with the threat of punishment.



Roland himself hopped out of the way, making it clear to Geralt who was the real one while the Roland illusions, under the command of Blazermate, dove into Geralt’s attack and took the attack.The illusions had no fear of death, although that was more because Blazermate was testing them out to see what they did, and as such they took the whole holy field. They also didn’t swap weapons or do anything advanced, they just hit Geralt with their hammers until they finally poofed.



Before the two could get ready for another go, Sectonia entered the room in a gesture that yelled “Gaze upon my brilliance!”. She was still in quite the good mood and from the looks of things, she had been touring the ship a bit on her way there, making it clear to everyone she was beautiful and wanting their adoration. Blazermate gave her a clap, with Roland being half and half on her posturing. He didn’t know this bee queen much besides the minigames, so he wasn’t sure how he should react to her but gave a polite clap just in case. Blazermate made sure to give the two guys a top off as Sectonia showed off, but once she was done, she said. ”I’m here to test these new powers now that we don’t have to test them in the field. I assume the three of you are the same?”

Geralt nodded, though he was breathing a bit heavily thanks to the beating he took from Roland and the taxing use of Guardian Field. Putting his hand up, he stood to his full height, took a deep breath, and released it, immediately looking much heartier as he regained control of his breathing. “Yes. Roland and I were sparring so that we and Blazermate could test some of her new abilities, and since so many of them revolve around healing magic, it made sense to do it all together.”

As he started to regain some of his stamina, Geralt hummed, another instinct tugging at him. He held his sword aloft, and chanted a new spell. “Divine energy, fill me. First Aid!” As he cast the spell, restorative energy suffused him, restoring a good chunk of the damage he’d taken immediately. “And it would seem one of the people I fused with had something along those lines, as well.”

”Hey, I had you!... but good to know you can do that. If only Big daddy B could do that.” Roland looked at Blazermate and said, a bit worried. ”Who?” with Blazermate giving a bit of a giggle saying ”Bowser. Wait til you see more of him. He likes adopting kids left and right. He even tried adopting a sea monster! It didn’t work out, but boy did he try!”

Sectonia let out a single cough to get attention back onto her. ”Now then, I will give it a go if you could stand aside.” Sectonia said, fiddling with her new abilities. At first she tried her new Reaper’s Scythe ability, but noticed upon the dummy it did barely any damage. She let out a little ”Huh…” when this happened, a bit unsure of what happened. She did note that, as she used the ability, the surrounding death in the area seemed to focus on the dummy so… perhaps it would be something that she couldn’t use in good conscience in a training session. She did note that the dummy was completely locked down before the scythe hit though. Her second ability she decided to try the Death Pulse, which unleashed green skulls that radiate out from her in a limited area, the skulls homing in on Roland, Geralt, and Blazermate, Sectonia just being outside the range of the attack for the dummy.



Instead of causing damage though, these skulls healed the three as well as the pulse healing Sectonia herself. She’d have to wait a little bit before getting closer to the dummy, getting an idea of its limited range but finding that it did damage to her enemies, and healed herself and her allies if they were nearby. One very notable thing about these skulls was that they moved kind of slow. Still fast as a projectile, but weirdly slow at the same time as if someone who was fast enough could outrun them.

“Huh, I wouldn’t have expected that to help…” Geralt muttered when the healing skull hit him. A skull felt sinister, though it might have simply been a thematic thing with whoever that ability came from. “I think I’ve gone through everything I’ve gotten.” Geralt mentioned to the others, but he looked at Blazermate. “We didn’t get much done for you, however. What else do you need?” He asked outright. Instead of having her on the sidelines for a spar to clean up the aftermath, they could just whack each other a bit and have her heal them between, perhaps.

While Geralt was asking that, Sectonia was busy trying to figure out how her power from her dragon fusion worked. She’d try a few various poses with no success other than a faint ‘poof’ of glitter which really wasn’t something she was hoping for in an attack. She even took this opportunity to hit the dummy with this short ranged ‘glitter’, but nothing came of it. A bit annoyed, she decided to use a bit of her Radiance powers for once and blasted the dummy with rays of light and skewered it with swords of light.

Blazermate shrugged, saying. ”I’ve got one more I wanna try, but it's a bit weird. I kinda don’t get it, but something tells me it's good.” Blazermate decided that, since she was going to try another support power, moved in between the two boys and behind Sectonia, who was still blowing off a bit of steam on the dummy. She channeled some of the light in her hand, then raised her hand in the air and nothing happened. She did this a couple times until she started to say ”We stand together as one!”. Once she started to say this phrase a giant holy dome encased everyone and healed them for a significant amount and would make them immune to damage, although only Blazermate could notice that last part. It didn’t last long, only 3 seconds, but it looked really cool.



Sectonia meanwhile, after relieving herself of her frustration, decided to focus and try her attack one last time. This time however, as she had charged it up by using light attacks, instead of glitter, a large, very powerful beam of light came from her hand, dealing some heavy damage to the dummy and impacted the back wall, scorching it as the beam collided and eventually fizzled out.

”Huh… why did it only work when I said something?” Blazermate said, scratching her head. When everyone was quiet about it, Sectonia piped up. ”It was probably some verbal spell component. If what you did was magic.” Sectonia said, nonchalantly answering Blazermate.

“Looked pretty magical to me.” Geralt replied, somewhat sarcastically. “Though with some of you, it’s hard to tell machines from magic.” He added in admission. “Still, good progress overall, I suppose. Thank you all.” Nodding at Roland, Blazermate, and Sectonia, he gestured at the exit to the training center. “We should probably get going to that meeting, though.”

After fusing, the group had another run through their spirits, and decided what to do with the rest. They had planned to crush them, but a last second change of intent saw both Rika and Jr taking on another striker each, with the ship girl stashing her cloyster one in the storage room.





Testing those spirits would have to wait in the same way the fusions would have to wait, so just how good of an idea any of it had been would remain to be seen. All that remained then was items.



The result was a mixed bag:

Kamek got a new item he intended to do flybys with using doplegangers, while Jr had an idea for a massive flaming yoyo if he ever got his clown car fixed. Yet another reason to visit engineering.

The boosting items mostly went in the pot, except the book that seemed to work just fine sitting in a bag which was handy. Said book and the eyepatch went to Kamek (which combined with the 10% magic crit he had from the hat he ended up smelting made for a pretty potent combo), and the amulet to Rika, while the mug was stashed due to being just too impractical really, but certainly worth something to someone.

Finally there were the two ”Oh come on!“ worthy items: the driver’s license and the coin, which were both simply stashed in random pockets.

Then, as they were finishing up, news arrived that they’d be needing to share rooms. For others this might have represented quite the conundrum, but for the troop, well:

”I call dibs on one with Rika!“ Jr called out, resulting in the predictable question of ”What is a ‘dibs’ and why are you calling?” from the shipgirl in question

”It more or less means ’I stake a claim’ young Mistress” Kamek explained, to which Rika responded with a simple informed ”oh” followed by adding that ”Well then I call ‘dibs’ on a room with Jr as well then”

”Then you’ll both have it” Bowser assured them with a grin, prompting jr to initiate a high five between the pair

”and I suppose for simplicity I shall double up with you, your soft sleepiness” Kamek said, to spare others the Koopa King’s frightful snoring, to which Bowser responded simply with a grunt that communicated ‘yeah, obviously’ putting that non-conundrum to rest.

Having easily sorted out the room situation, the troop where left to kill a bit of time before the meeting Sandalphon had suggested, and so set out to check out the ship a bit, and also to catch up with an a pair of allies wh where aboard, but who had apparently split themselves from the active teams: the tinkering Tora and his robotic companion Poppi.

Well, that and Jr wanted to check out engineering in general as well, and simply assumed they would be there. As such, after only taking two wrong turns on their way to the room that was practically next door, the Troop were filing into it and seeing what there was to see within.

In the few hours that the Seekers spent down in Carnival Town, Tora and Poppi had made some incremental progress in reconfiguring a corner of the workshop to suit the nopon’s needs, but nothing too drastic. While he hadn’t slain any guardians today, Tora had been through a lot already, so like his comrades he wanted to take it easy for a little while. Of course, for Tora blowing off steam meant doing what he enjoyed, which happened to be robotics anyway. Dispensing with the usual table, the diminutive engineer opted for the floor instead, where he’d already begun to arrange the various pieces of mechanical scrap on hand into the rough shape of his latest and greatest idea. For now, it just looked like an enormous hockey puck, but its size suggested that the nopon had something special in mind. Still, for now the hodgepodge assembly seemed to be a concept, and Tora was busy prototyping with modeling software on his little computer. Crude white sketches were taking shape on blueprints that dangled from nearby workbenches like banners, held in place by the weight of spare tools.

Poppi, meanwhile, was entertaining herself with an odd contraption: a cubic device with each of its six faces split into nine colored segments, able to be freely rotated in various directions by virtue of some highly sophisticated inner mechanism. She seemed intent on manipulating the device until all of its faces featured just one unified color, but this was evidently easier said than done. When the Koopa Troop arrived, she’d just removed one of the stickers in order to manually paste elsewhere, and when she saw the newcomers she seemed grateful for the distraction. “Oh! Hello friends, long time no see!” Though her chassis looked quite different from any iteration of Poppi that the koopas had seen before, she greeted them with the same cheerful smile as she tossed the cube over her shoulder. “Welcome to new workplace of Tora and Poppi! Say hello, Tora!”

“Hello, Tora!” The nopon chuckled at his own joke, then set down his white marker and got up. “Haha, just kidding, meh. Good to see friends again!” The dynamic duo and the Koopa Troop had been on different teams for two assignments now, but Tora had a special place in his heart for the four, especially Bowser. After all, the two of them had been there since the very beginning, a feat that only Blazermate could also boast of. “If shellypons here for machinery, Tora not ready yet! Need set up fabrication before work really get starting, meh. Custom parts is backbone of all Tora projects!”

Having made her way to her Masterpon’s side, Poppi patted him on the head. “Tora, they not here to order something! We should take chance to catch up!”

“Oh, right!” Tora crossed his little arms, smiling up at the newcomers. “What is up, friends?”

”Not much, just being the king of awesome, taking names and punching faces“ Bowser declared with not an iota of irony in that self declaration while behind him started whispering a quiet answer to Rika’s not at all quiet question of ”Who was this again?”

”Also heard you’d had some kind of rough time over at that Midgar place, so wanted to check if you’re good?“ the king then asked, the delivery of that info having been pretty light on details after all, and for all his self declared evil the king certinly cared about anyone he considered ‘his’. Jr meanwhile much more selfishly told them straight up that ” I just wanted to check out the workshop you’ve got“ while examining it all.

“That sound like Bow-Bow Tora know,” the nopon replied, using a customary double-name as a term of endearment. Fittingly enough, Tora ignored Rika, and while Poppi gave her a brief look, she assumed that the Koopa family’s hanger-on had simply tagged along regardless of who she might be meeting. When Bowser mentioned the pair’s experience in Midgar, both nodded gravely, their expressions suddenly serious. “Meh, meh…it get pretty bad back there, yeah. For while, Tora thought Poppi gone for good. Very scary.”

His companion patted him on the head again. “But in end, Poppi back and better than ever. Still going to be little bit before Tora and Poppi back in swing of things, but we together, and that what counts.”

Tora gave her a hug with his wings.He then turned his attention to Junior. “Well, littlepon check out whatever want, but no touch, meh. Everything in its place, yes? There method to Tora madness.”

He did this right in time to stop Jr from picking up to examine one of the more interesting looking tools, prompting a little grunt of frustration as he halted his hand, and then a huff of ”-s fine, I got my own anyway“ as he pulled it back.

Having said that, he retrieved the yellow toolbox from his duffle bag, had Kamek enlarge it, and then settled down in front of Tora’s tinker space, popping it open beside him. He then turned his neck around and said ”Come on sis, let’s get those fixed up, yeah?” prompting a little nod from Rika, before the ship girl settled down beside him, popping off the gauntlets so her brother could tinker with them.

As they did that, Kamek, now free from explaining who the pair were, poked his nose into the chat to ask ”Might I inquire into the nature of the scare? Anything we should be worried about in future?”

Tora and Poppi exchanged a glance for a moment, the latter giving an unbothered shrug to make sure her masterpon knew she wouldn’t be bothered if he talked about it. The nopon nodded and returned his attention to Kamek. “Well, while subject matter rather new, Tora did become teensy bit obsessed and learn everything possible, so Tora explain best as can.” He glanced at Junior for a moment, trying not to be too distracted by his rival engineer’s new project. “It kind of complicated, so bear with, meh. In Midgar, we dealt with big hullabaloo called Ever Crisis, meaning all kinds of nastypons attack all time. That include army of machines, and while not very tough, Machines turn out to have awful trick up sleeve. It called Logic Virus, and it infect robots like disease infect people, except instead of make sick, it change them, making crazy and violent. Mehmeh…as it turn out, this include Poppi. Poppi…started going haywire, then force herself to run away so she not hurt us. Tora, Roxas, and Pit-Pit all give chase, but in end, we unable to save Poppi.”

The artificial blade shook her head, her face one of consternation. “Poppi really not remember very well,” she admitted. “Entire incident corrupted in memory. But after lots of hard work making new body, Tora brought Poppi back thanks to Xatow from Organization XIII, who fetch Poppi spirit from Dystopiascape.”

After nodding, Tora tried to look more upbeat. “During reconstruction, Tora research viruses tirelessly, teaching self ins and outs of advanced cybersecurity. No virus ever infect Poppi ever again, meh! So word to wise: if friends get into artificial intelligence, make sure to have top-of-line antivirus programming! Meh, meh. Better yet, just leave it to Tora!” The Lost Numbers’ newest cybersecurity expert put his little arms on his hips, posing for dramatic effect.

”You’re gonna have to hope we never find our castle and the royal PC, I gave up on that thing“ Jr joked, having only been half listening, only for his brain to bring it up again and make him fully pay attention in-order to ask ”wait did you say they got you her spirit?“

”Wait, so did you figure out how that respawning thing works then?“ Bowser asked, before Kamek could get a word in, prompting him to sigh and suggest ”ah, let’s not jump to conclusions” before enquiring ”but yes, how did you do that?”

“Meh?” Tora gave Bowser a quizzical look, then his aide, then Poppi, but his companion knew just as little as he. He very much wanted to know what Bowser meant by that, and rather than let it be swept under the rug, he planned to do just that. “Xatow just retrieve spirit from where Poppi old body went offline, far as Tora knows. Since spirits just data, and Poppi artificial blade to begin with, she was ‘writing’ to it throughout journey, so it final piece of puzzle Tora need to bring her back.” He crossed his arms and began to stare at Bowser, regaling the king of koopas with his trademark discomfort-inducing, unflinching eye contact. “What friend Bow-Bow mean by ‘respawning thing’?”

Kamek simply sighed and, having anticipated the question unlike his king who had done a classic mouth open ”Guh“, decided to simply lay it out to the young Nepon ”It is, well, not a secret, more of a ‘I’m not sure how to tell you thing’ but seeing as its partially out in the open now, and to preempt speculation, I shall give a brief lecture on the topic” before hovering over to a convenient whiteboard and upon it drawing the symbol they had been shown by Asgore.

”According to a fellow who had been de-storied (which is what being freed from Galeem’s control is apparently called) for a long, long, long time, these are why Galeem’s world has not been depopulated despite how violent and, literally, death fueled it is'' he began, before explaining ”According to this fellow, he has seen places that were wiped out one day become filled with life the next. Specifically ones that have one of these symbols in them, which he believes ‘respawn’ those who are killed. Or others? Regardless anyone who dies will, at some point, in some place, be brought back to life with no memories of their past lives in this world”

”Including. Seemingly. Supposedly. All of us. Over, and over, and over and over again” the mage said, rapping his wand on the whiteboard with grimly delivered each ‘over’ for emphasis, before ditching the dire enunciations and returning back to a scholarly tone as he finished with ”Which concludes the lecture. Any questions about the cursed knowledge you now bare?”

Tora plopped down and just digested the new information for a few moments. While he understood the gist of what Kamek told him well enough, he still hard a hard time wrapping his head around that being the case, much less accepting it. In some ways it made sense, but in others it defied all logical explanation. And they had just the word of some old guy to go on? The nopon didn’t know what to think, and for all her sensibilities, Poppi didn’t know much better. After all, she’d already died and been brought back, skewing her perception of her own mortality somewhat. But Kamek did mention memory loss, which terrified her. Memories were what made her, an artificial being, who she was. Without them, she wouldn’t be Tora’s Poppi, who stood at his side in the World of Light since the Mushroom Kingdom. She would just be a copy, a second Poppi. For a machine, being replaced was as bad as dying.

“...Meh, meh. Scary words hurt Tora noggin, so Tora try not think too hard about it right now,” her masterpon decided after a few moments. “Maybe…come to terms with later. Tora need proof, for one thing. Either way, it can wait.” He leaned back and exhaled deeply, none too happy, then gave the Troop a weak smile. “Thankings for drop by?”

Poppi crossed her arms, pacing. “Maybe we should take walk around ship to clear head?”

As much as he tried to refocus on his blueprints, Tora could only look at them like he’d lost his appetite. “In little bit, sure. Tora want satisfactory stopping point before step away, or it take longer to get started again, meh.”

“Alright,” Poppi confirmed, turning to the others. “See friends at meeting, then? Poppi have sneaking suspicion that disturbing news not over.”

”Huh?“ Bowser replied, confused as to what had just happened, while Kamek sighed and agreed ”I suppose so” in response both to the suggestion to leave the pair alone for a bit, and to the worry that there might still be dire truths waiting to be revealed.

”One more second“ Jr said before there was a little flash of sparks and he finished resoldering a damaged component in Rika’s arm, prompting the metal fingers to twitch jittery, and then flex much more naturally, confirming that ”Ok done”

With that the pair got up to leave, followed by Bowser benign ushered along by an insistent Kamek, and in doing so they ran more or less straight into Roxas.

Roxas had indeed decided that he wanted a bite to eat. It hadn’t actually been that long since lunch, but between fighting that Consul and playing through those minigames he’d already worked up an appetite. So he figured some kind of snack would tie him over until it was mealtime again later on. And of course he wasn’t about to leave Scamp out either. The little Yamper was following right behind him and could probably smell the food he was carrying. Roxas had in fact just come from the Research Center, where Professor Koa had given him some Pokemon food to feed to Yamper. Before that he had been in Stolen Moments where he snagged a sandwich for himself.

”Oh, hey guys!” He said to the troop when he ran into them, ”Those minigames made me hungry so I thought I’d get a snack for me and Scamp here.”

”They have snacks on this flying ship?” Rika asked as if it was somehow unusual for a ship this size to not have food available on it ”They aren't cursed like last ships’ one are they? I didn’t get to eat those“ due to her experience on the Maw.

”They’ll be fine“ Bowser assured her, before asking ”Now where are they at… uh“ and floundering on the boy’s name.

”Roxas“ Kamek supplied. Jr meanwhile, was not focused on the food in Roxas’s hand, but instead the electric puppydog that his father and sister were acting way too much like.

‘Cursed snacks’? Roxas was definitely missing some context there, and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to know what it was. ”I got my sandwich from the Stolen Moments Bar, right above us on the next level up.” He said, even pointing a finger upward for emphasis. Meanwhile, Scamp had begun to return the attention that he was being given by Junior, until he eventually spun himself around in a circle with a cute little “Bow wark!” earning him a little snort of endeared amusement from the prince.

”Alright, next stop, the bar“ Bowser declared, with Rika nodding along, only for Jr to say that ”I’ll catch up” and Kamek to, in response to that, give a little sideways nod to say that he would too. Rather blatantly to keep an eye on the young prince due to a paranoia earned from that.

A few nods and “see you at the meeting”s, and jr got the time to ask his rather simple question, which was ”So you're a trainer too then, huh? Same“ as he puffed up his chest a little (and the 3 pokeballs strapped to it in the process) and locked eyes with Roxas, clearly expecting something that would not be forthcoming.

”What, whoa, hold on - you don’t want to…?” Roxas stumbled. ”I don’t think we can battle here. Too cramped, and we might damage something important.” He explained, hoping not to be drawn into a battle of three Pokemon against his one. ”I promise I’ll battle you later if you really want to. That reminds me…” he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ”There’s someone here you might wanna meet later - Professor Koa. His lab is in the research area below where all the living quarters are. He studies Pokemon for a living and he might wanna give you a Rotom Phone like mine, see?” Roxas said, holding out the phone for Junior to see. He was also kinda hoping this would distract the prince from his desire for a Pokemon Battle.

”A phone?!“ Jr said, entirely successfully distracted by this as his eyes lit up at the sight of it, before demanding to know ”Where? What can it do? Does it have games?“ because ”I didn’t have mine when I got dumped here it has been sooo lame“

”You were grounded at the time, young master, so you did not have it before“ Kamek reminded the prince from where he was leaning on his broom, only half in the conversation, which made him miss the brief side to side glance the prince gave that might have given away that the latter had not actually been the case.

”I’ve never tried to play any games on it.” Roxas said, admittedly curious about that himself. ”But it’s got a camera. And the Pokedex on it lets it record useful information about the Pokemon you encounter so you can learn their types and stuff.” He went ahead and opened the Pokedex App and brought up the entry it contained for Yamper and then let Junior see it for himself.

Jr was up on his tip toes as he ”Ooo“’d at this, before saying that ”This guy sounds way better than the Stone guy who taught me stuff. He just made me do school work to learn a type chart, bleh“ only to then wonder what had happened to the man post smash city’s fall. Or indeed even Peach’s castle where he’d been when they’d last met.

They should maybe check that out.

But only after he got a new phone. Being able to take pictures alone would be worth it with how much wild stuff they’d seen that he now wished he’d had one to record, let alone being able to get more info on mon.

”Oh, oh, now do mine“ he then said after that last thought, taking a moment to pop open his pokeballs to release his trio of mon who were, well, a bit unusual to say the least. A Brionne named Dazzle with a ghostly skeletal whale tail, a Flutter Mane called Peeka with a necklace of living energy eyeballs, and a mimikyu named Mimi who had a metal jaw, battery on her back, and a cloud-like body.

Only this last prompted any comment from Jr, and that was ”Huh, maybe we should rejig you so that it's just the lower body Mimi? That way no chompy jaw?“ which got a few side to side tilts of thought before an enthusiastic nod from the little monster.

Roxas, having never seen any of these Pokemon before, had no context whatsoever about what they were supposed to look like. Thankfully the Pokedex could use the Rotom Phone’s camera to scan them so it could automatically search up their entries. It did this without issue for Dazzle and Mimi. But when he tried to do it for Peeka he instead got a confused look on his face. ”That’s weird.” He said as he fiddled with the Rotom Phone, ”Something about Peeka is confusing the Pokedex somehow. It gave me two search results instead of just one.” He showed the screen to Junior, which displayed the images of what looked like two similar-looking Pokemon. One was Flutter Mane, and the other was of a Pokemon identified as Misdreavus. Also, Flutter Mane’s entry seemed to not have as much information as the other entries did. Mostly just boiled down to speculation and conjecture about whether or not it was an ancient ancestor of Misdreavus.

”I wonder if the Professor would know anything about this. Maybe we should ask him later?”

”Huh, and it’s not even the fusion that’s messing with that, coz the other two where fine“ Jr noted as well as adding that ”and that’s not what she fused with either“ while pointing at the Misdreavus entry. Peeka herself wasn’t exactly a source of answers for this, that was for sure, the mon just tilting back and forth above their heads as it examined this other thing that was not it on screen.

”Also wait what do you mean later? I wanna get a phone now!“ Jr whined a moment of realizing what Roxas had said, only for Kamek to remind him of ”The meeting, young master, will be quite soon I believe“

”Aw come on we can get in and out real quick, it's only…“ he glanced at the time on the phone, went ”uhhhh“ and then asked ”How long ago did that tall lady-“ ”-Sandalphon-“ ”-Sandalphon say we’d be having a meeting in 30 minutes?“

”You could try to go now…” Roxas said for a moment, but then tried to tempt Junior another way. ”But if you go after the meeting you’ll have more time to ask him questions and stuff?” He suggested, seeing if maybe this would be enough to convince the prince to be patient. But also added that, ”You also won’t have time for snacks if you go now, too.”

Jr just narrowed his eyes ”You don’t remember either, do you?“ managing to see through at least this ruse. Partially anyway. He wasn’t exactly running off to try and harang the professor with a 10 second smash and grab after all.

”Uh…” Roxas stumbled, unable to answer because he too had forgotten. ”Okay, ya got me. I forgot too.” He finally admitted with sagging shoulders. ”But if Scamp doesn’t get to eat he might try to steal other people’s food.” He added in a tone that strongly implied that he was speaking from experience. It was how he’d met the little guy in the first place, after all.

Jr gave a little nose exhale of a laugh at this, and declared that ”You should have him better trained“ while at that very same moment one of Mimi’s very long arms was sneaking into his duffle bag inorder to steal a trio of poke puffs.

”Gimme a break…” Roxas said as he scratched the back of his head. ”...I only just adopted him a couple hours ago.”

Kamek, too amused to comment on this, instead simply suggested that ”Then perhaps we should begin heading up there young masters? I imagine the young mistress will have acquired a generous selection of snacks once again and we can skip that part of the trip in order to catch up“

”Sounds good to me. Snacking by myself wouldn’t have been much fun anyway. What do you think, buddy?” He directed the last part of that to Scamp, who gave a little hop and offered another one of its cute little bow-warks in response.

”Then let’s go already!“ Jr declared to, in a very like his father's manner, take charge of a decision that had already been made. He store forwards three steps, paused, then went back and hoisted the less land mobile Dazzle up into a princess carry, and then resumed leading the way, Mimi on his shoulder, Peeka floating above him.

The minagary was apparently getting to stay out and about for snack time.

To get to the dormitories, Primrose walked the length of the Avenger from the Spirit Chamber near the front to the vessel's rear. She wasn't exactly in a hurry, so she took her time noting a couple of the locations along her path. She stopped once to chat with some of the Avenger's regular inhabitants who pointed her in the right direction, and then she was riding one of the lifts Therion had mentioned.

She wasn't the only person inside it, but it was large enough that the few people riding could space themselves out comfortably enough. Primrose leaned against the elevator's interior as it took her up, idly watching the little number flick as it moved between floors. The convenience of things like this would be something she missed when the whole ordeal with Galeem was finally over, assuming she remembered it. It was possible she wouldn't if the fabric of reality imploded. Folding her arms, Primrose tapped her fingers along one elbow. She wasn't going to try and guess at conceptual outcomes. What she was going to do was unwind from unwinding, wipe her skin down and make sure her earlier soak wasn't all for naught, and then prepare herself for a more formal meeting.

The next horrible monsters to tackle, more disturbing truths about the world, getting back to the Alcamoth... she thought, listing off likely topics. She wouldn't complain; it was all necessary. As for the Seekers' base itself, she wondered if it would be alright. The Avenger, as had been briefly explained, was a mobile mini-fort. It had weaponry and ways to hide. The city was, well, a city. It might be best to move everyone or find some other vessels like this one... if that was possible. Personally, Primrose didn't mind if the main fighting force stuck with the Avenger. It seemed more secure.

I'm getting used to all this much too fast, she thought to herself with an upward quirk of her lips. When the lift slowed to a stop on her floor and its doors slid open, she stepped outside and started down a hallway that began to branch out into multiple.

"Primrose," Therion's voice said, filtered through the linkpearl in her ear. She blinked, pausing to answer.

"What is it?"

"That tall lady, you know, the one that kinda seems in charge? She came by after you left. Said we're all gonna have to room together with at least one other person."

Looking out for me, Therion? Primrose smiled to herself. Though she disagreed about Sandalphon being in charge - she was probably just one of the most capable people around, which considering some of the people they had on the team... well. Not that high of a bar. She appreciated that the archangel had even though to check to something like that. It made sense - taking in more than twenty people at once was bound to lead to some growing pains no matter how huge the ship was.

"Alright. Good to know," she replied. "Did you want me to move your things elsewhere then?"

"Hell no, finder's keepers. If someone else wants the same spot they're just going to have to share."

Though her friend couldn't see it, Primrose shook her head humorously. She left the conversation at that and continued on into the living quarters. There were random open rooms as well as a block that seemed to have been set aside for the Seekers separate from the family areas, though she couldn't be sure if it was a recent change or not. She perused the obviously open rooms, not wanting to disturb anyone else living there if they were 'home.' There weren't many differences between them, so in the end she just chose one and closed the door.

It was a nice room, compared to many Primrose had stayed in throughout her life. With the two beds on opposite sides of the room it made the whole space look a little smaller, but it was no issue. She'd shared rooms with Ophilia, Tressa, and H'aanit plenty of times, and before that in a communal dorm. She didn't mind sharing, though she did have some preferences for roommates.

Primrose set her bag down and sat on the bed on the right. She felt the sheets and then fell back, letting her head hit the pillow with a sigh. After the morning's battle and the well deserved relaxation and fun, she was about ready for the day to be over. She stayed awake though, just resting for a while until everyone would meet in a little bit.



In the midst of the last few fusions (the consequences of some pretty amusing to see), Therion crushed the remaining spirits he had in the palm of his hand. He wasn't about to tempt fate by binding more than two Strikers even if he could chuck one into the 'dugout,' and further fusion would probably start turning him into a chimera. He'd stick with what he already had. The three motes of light transformed, becoming items.


The thief ended up with a truly random assortment that he hadn't expected. A creepy tooth necklace, a couple of crystals, and a whole plate of food. Guess I know what I'm eating for dinner, he thought to himself while he inspected the crystals. He'd have to get Sectonia or Kamek to take a look at them, or some other magic user. Maybe the necklace too, though carrying it around sort of felt like an anti-good luck charm.

His next order of business... well, he wanted to see what new tricks he could pull out, but since it had sounded like a couple of others were headed to the ship's training areas he'd put that on the back burner. Even though he had warmed up to the group (which was surely a result of his fusions), he'd rather do it in private. Later, then. For now, maybe it was about time to go get that drink.

Just before he left, Sandalphon returned with one piece of news: everyone was going to have to find a roommate. It wasn't exactly surprising - if anything the solo sleeping arrangements they'd had for the most part was more shocking for such a large group. Therion himself didn't really mind. Back in his home world, he and the other seven in his group of travelers either camped together or split rooms at inns to save money. He'd gotten used to it, as more often than not he'd bunk with Alfyn whenever they passed through towns. So long as whoever he ended up with kept their hands out of his stuff, it'd be fine... and he did realize the hypocrisy of that, being a thief and all.

"Thanks for the heads up," he told the archangel, then followed Ms. Fortune out of the Spirit Chamber before ultimately going the opposite way as her.

Since he didn't really care who his room mate ended up being, he didn't feel the need to go back to the dormitories and move his stuff. He'd already deposited some things into a room, so it was ultimately on whoever decided to pick the same one. However, he did know that Primrose was a lot more picky than he was, though for fair reasons. He pressed a hand to his ear, activating the Linkpearl there to fill her in.

With thirty minutes to kill, Therion did in fact start making his way towards getting a drink. It was getting on in the day, so no one could blame him. Especially after the toll the whole trip through the Under had taken on everyone. He was also curious to see just what kind of tavern this was. He'd always used taverns as an easy way to gather information, and if the Avenger's bar was a busy place then it wouldn't be the exception. There had been talk of the Spirit Chamber's merchant trading spirits for hints, but free gossip was better than paid.

He followed the signs to the bar, finding the white and yellow lit Stolen Moments at the end of a hall. It certainly wasn't like any alehouse he normally frequented, especially with the wall of names... but there were spirits behind a counter and a dartboard hung up on the wall, so it must be the right place.

Unfortunately for the purposes of intelligence-gathering, this bar didn’t seem to be a busy place. In any typical tavern one could usually find boisterous folks drinking and making merry, but in Stolen Moments a melancholy atmosphere reigned, more a spot for somber reflection than lively camaraderie. Right now, only two other people appeared to be here. Naturally one was the bartender, and though Therion hadn’t been part of the team that witnessed the Avenger’s dramatic reveal from the clouds over Everdream Valley, he could see the family resemblance even if Dawn didn’t identify the man as her brother Cirrus. Their similarities ended at their features, though. Whereas Dawn seemed kindly, upbeat, and full of vitality, Cirrus instead looked gloomy and withdrawn, his flashy suit disheveled, like someone who’d given up on self-care. He fit Stolen Moments very well–or maybe, it fit him.

The other man looked very different. Though in his thirties, he sported a lithe figure, with dark skin, fine hair of a dark mint green done up in a man bun, and bright eyes that mixed seafoam green with lilac purple. He wore what looked like a hunter’s attire, with light leather armor over an outfit of modest earth tones, though the crop of his shirt exposed a well-muscled midriff. Most unusual were the long rabbit ears that protruded from the top of his head, one of them permanently bent at a roguish angle. Despite the presence of a pale red beverage in his hand, he seemed sharp and alert, but unlike Cirrus he turned toward the sound of footsteps with an easy smile on his face.

“Ah, hello,” he greeted Therion. “Not often we get a new face around here. Welcome to the Lost Numbers. My name is Lakota. You’ve probably met Dawn? I happen to have the distinction of being her husband.” He tilted his head in the bartender’s direction. “And of course, that makes Cirrus here my brother-in-law! Not to worry though, we weren’t getting into any family matters.”

“God forbid,” Cirrus muttered, almost imperceptibly.

Lakota chuckled, beckoning Therion to join him. “Come on over! This place is a little dreary for my taste, but the booze is mighty fine. Here, first drink’s on me. Consider it a housewarming gift.”

Therion felt he'd never really get used to being on the receiving end of generosity no matter how often it happened lately. Still, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he approached the bar and sat down, leaving a seat open between Lakota and himself.

"Thanks," he said, for the offer and the welcome, nodding at Cirrus as well. "Therion. Good to meet you."

He cataloged the familial information by habit more than anything else. Married with kids, in this kind of world? Rough. It brought to mind that they really had civilians on the ship, which seemed dangerous for them, but then again where would be safer than some kind of high tech untraceable sky vessel?

Therion turned his thoughts to the liquor on the wall behind Cirrus, fully intending on taking Lakota up on a drink. They could probably tell that Therion was one of those 'medieval' types, so he didn't bother to point that out himself besides asking the bartender, "you serve ale?"

“Ale?” Cirrus lifted his eyebrows questioningly, apparently to Lakota’s amusement. “As in, beer? Yeah yeah, sure. Not a ton of it, mind you, but we've got enough people aboard who like the simple stuff.” Getting the impression that Therion wasn't too discerning when it came to booze, he lifted a chilled glass to a spigot on a small metal keg and filled it at an angle to minimize the foamy head. The bartender offered it to Therion without ceremony, who took it just the same.

Lakota leaned on the bar in an easygoing manner. “I figure we're probably in the same boat, Mr. Therion. My mom and dad hailed from a world of magic and dragons. Even though I've been exposed to all manner of newfangled conventions from birth, none of it speaks to me like a good, ‘old-fashioned’ bow and arrow. With a magical twist of my own, of course.” He lifted his own glass and swirled the ice around. “Still, I've grown partial to new styles of drink. Rum, mint, and lime is a delightful combination.” After taking a controlled sip, the archer set it down. “But let me know if I'm being too chatty. I've been with the kids all day, so I'm only now getting a chance to talk man-to-man, as they say.”

"Alright." Though the rabbit-earred man might be disappointed to find that Therion wasn't the best conversation partner, even after a few personality changes and some team building games. He had loosed up a little though, so he had that going for him at least. "...just Therion, though."

He took a long, satisfying drink from the glass. He didn't mind sticking to 'simple,' but he did wonder what kind of drink could possibly fall outside of that range. Some kind of spiced wine, maybe? That was usually out of the thief's budget. In comparison, Lakota's mention of mixed rum was something he was a little more familiar with. He remembered arguing with Tressa about it while they were in Goldshore. How she hated the smell of rum and grog since it was what they served on the coasts, and to keep the group out of the alehouses as often as possible she'd purposely get on Therion's nerves and poke fun at how much time he usually spent in them, despite his protestations that it was for his 'work' more than anything else.

It felt so long ago now, in the wake of everything. He didn't mention any of it, tucking Lakota's suggestion away for another time. Perhaps if they found Tressa, the strong scents and tastes of lime and mint would make the drink more palatable for her. It was another comment that Therion took slightly more interest in.

"Not exactly the same boat. If you told anybody you'd seen a dragon where I'm from, they'd just call you crazy," he said. Which is why no one in Orsterra had lauded them as heroes after they (well, mostly H'aanit) had slain one. Dragons were tales of a bygone era, which made the thought that a family could live with them and metal flying machines pretty unbelievable...

Therion scrutinized Lakota out of the corner of his visible eye. Judging someone's age was hard enough when everyone was a regular human; throwing in all these other races made it almost impossible. Still, assuming his ears were natural and not the result of some spirit, Lakota was human-looking enough - and he appeared to be at least a couple years older than Therion himself. So how did he grow up around advanced technology if his parents were from a more archaic society? Had Lakota's home world had some kind of crazy technological revolution in the space of one generation or something?

A look of mild confusion crossed Therion's face as he thought about it more. With one half of the Seekers having a lot more information than the other half, it led to situations like this: where some of them had no idea about the true nature of the Lost Numbers just yet. "You had this kind of stuff in your world?" he asked, lazily gesturing to the room, and the Avenger, at large.

“Oh no, no,” Lakota replied, shaking his head. “I mean, I was born here in the World of Light, so I've never seen my parents’ world. Just had their stories to go on.” He paused, sighing heavily. “It sounded nice, though. Simpler, like Cirrus said. There's so much weirdness in this world. Bits and pieces of countless places and times. People like me end up…well, adrift. Trying desperately to hold fast to something, find some sort of foundation to build ourselves on. But nothing lasts forever, eh?” Rather than elaborate he took a sip of his drink, longer this time. “Still, I'm glad to be alive at all. There's a lot riding on us, whether or not we're up to the task.” He put on a grin. “So, I'm pretty glad we've got some new recruits in to lend a hand!”

Born here...? That answered the technology question, but that would mean... the World of Light had existed for a least a few decades. Therion grappled with the thought for a few seconds, some scattered pieces of information falling into place and others remaining loose. Ultimately, though, he tried not to think about it too hard. No matter what messed up stuff he learned about the world, it wouldn't change much of anything, or so he figured. Left with questions that he didn't particularly want to ask, he looked back at Lakota.

"Sure," he said, not too convincingly, bringing his glass to his lips again. Realizing how that may have sounded, he added, "...we're not planning to go anywhere until this is all over."

Lakota nodded with a smile and raised his glass. “Good to hear. I’ll drink to that!”

After a moment's hesitation Therion raised his too, clinking it against Lakota's.

As she found her way toward the ship’s living quarters, Nadia took it slow, and not just because of the weariness gnawing at her muscles and bones. She felt very out of place here in the bowels of this mechanical monstrosity, a monolithic construct from a time far, far removed from her own, when the simplest of planes were still in their infancy and dirigible airships dominated the skies. Alcamoth had instilled in her a similar sensation, but it at least offered bright, wide-open spaces, with man-made parks and other such features that gave her room to breathe. Plus, its style of architecture somehow looped back around from the far-flung future to give her the impression of mysterious antiquity. Meanwhile, the cramped corridors, chambers, and stairwells of the Avenger, often dimly lit in artificial light, seemed almost purely functional, designed to economize the limited space as much as possible. The whole ship moved subtly around and beneath her, not as severe as the pitch and yaw of an ocean-going vessel, but still very perceptible to someone not used to it. If nothing else, she felt better knowing that everyone she’d meet here would be an ally, and every facility lay at her disposal if she could figure out how any of it worked. If this would be the Seekers’ mobile base of operations going forward, it would be a good idea to get familiar to know it better, and maybe set her sense of unease to rest.

Then again, there would be plenty of time for that later. Right now, Nadia just needed a break by herself. Getting around in the Avenger wasn’t too complicated, since its walls featured plenty of signs and arrows for the sake of direction, and in their absence a Lost Number was never far. The closer the feral got to the rooms, the more she sped up, her competitive streak ignited as she sought to claim a better room before the others could. When she finally arrived, though, she couldn’t help but be disappointed as she popped from one to another. All the available rooms looked pretty identical, their designs and contents spartan. With a sigh, Nadia finally settled on an untenanted chamber where she could stake her claim. She did this by taking off her blade case, belt, and jacket, which she left leaning against the bed, then jumping into and rolling around in it. Though the sheets felt nice enough, the wooly green blanket felt a little scratchy. After a little wriggling Nadia lay still for a moment, staring up at the ceiling. “My new home,” she murmured.

This accommodation, barebones and small, wasn’t a whole lot of fun. She’d had worse, of course–there were times in her life where even having a real bed was a pipe dream. But things were different now. Maybe she could collect some decorations, extra blankets, and other furnishings while out adventuring, and turn this meager space into a cozy little vacation home. Of course, that’d depend on having a cool roommate, she realized. Primrose would be a great roommate. Nadia and Sectonia would definitely have differences of opinion, though. And Juri didn’t even factor into the equation. I pity whatever poor soul winds up with HER, she thought, snickering. But who could say? Maybe someone on the team happened to have both infinite patience and a nonfunctional nose.

Nadia sighed again, closing her eyes as she tried to get comfortable. “How far I’ve come,” she said aloud. “The Mizzenmast really spoiled me. Give a mouse cookies, I guess.” Nevertheless, she’d doze off until the twenty or so minutes that remained before the big meeting were up.

Goldlewis felt pretty tired himself, all things considered, but rather than deposit himself somewhere he took this time to amble around the Avenger’s interior at a leisurely pace, using elevators rather than staircases whenever possible. He’d already made his rounds once before, after first boarding the ship alongside the rest of the Dystopiascape team, so rather than the layout he wanted to better acquaint himself with the Avenger’s denizens. The Lost Numbers intrigued him a great deal. On one hand, they seemed like uncommonly ordinary people for the World of Light, plagued by everyday concerns as they tried to live their lives day to day. On the other hand, their existence was a shocking anomaly, something that shouldn’t be possible in a world where countless souls fought and died under the thumb of the tyrannical Consuls. The fact that love and new life managed to blossom in such barren soil ignited a spark of real hope within him, but it also filled him with fear. These people were living on the razor’s edge, and all their eggs were in this one flying basket. Goldlewis felt duty-bound to protect these poor brave souls, but they weren’t children to be coddled, either. He wanted to meet them on their own level, and join them as a comrade in arms to fight for a better future.

Having already reunited with Tora and Poppi, and met the small but spunky head chef Bracket, the veteran went around greeting and introducing himself to everyone he could. Though careful not to intrude, he visited a number of facilities throughout the Avenger to meet the Lost Numbers staffing them, and they turned out to be quite the interesting bunch. He met the priest-doctor Eleison, and sensed a certain fury behind the young man’s polite smile, buried deep. In their work centers he exchanged a few words with the affable Professor Koa and the mysterious but pleasant Dr. Yu. In the common room he encountered not just Dawn but her three rambunctious daughters Ciel, Soleil, and Aurora, all bearing Sylvan rabbit ears inherited from their father. A number of the people that he assumed to be Lost Numbers actually turned out to be Alcamoth survivors, the former members of Vandham’s Garfont Mercenaries. This included Guile, a long-serving mercenary, Leon, a young go-getter who’d evidently survived the Dead Zone as well, Ness, Nero, and even a majestic Great Pyrenees by the name of Caesar.

From them -minus that last one- Goldlewis got a better picture of one big piece of the puzzle that he’d been missing out on: Alcamoth, the campaign’s former base. Naturally, much of what he heard concerned its fall. The survivors described an all-out war waged by the Consuls against Alcamoth and its defenders courtesy of two enormous airborne carrier ships filled to the brim with well-armed soldiers. War stories were never easy to hear, no matter how many the veteran had under his belt. If the Consuls could muster power like that against their enemies, he definitely understood the Lost Numbers’ desire to stay mobile and under the radar.

Goldlewis didn’t rush himself, wanting instead to give each encounter its due diligence, so he could cover only so much ground throughout the Avenger before Sandalphon’s sigil appeared by his head. Goldlewis tapped his stopwatch and nodded in approval at her punctuality. Thirty minutes on the dot. Just the sigil’s appearance, manifested for everyone who’d connected to the archangel’s information network so far, said everything the Seekers needed to know, but Sandalphon went ahead and said her piece anyway. “Attention all Seekers, please make your way to the bridge at your earliest convenience. To get here, simply ascend via staircase, ladder, or elevator, and you will inevitably reach the rendezvous.” With that, the sigil vanished again, but by that time Goldlewis was already moving. Having already tracked down the Avenger’s bridge, he didn’t need to rely on trial and error, but made his way there with a purposeful stride.

When he arrived, he found Sandalphon waiting for everyone, though after a quick double take Goldlewis realized that she’d changed somewhat after he left the spirit chamber. Though she elected to leave behind her new cowboy hat, he could still sense a faint southern twang from her, and he gave an appreciative nod before seating himself around the geoscape. Several Lost Numbers were already in attendance, including both Dawn and a dashing rabbit-eared fellow carrying three little girls between the two of them, all of whom sported a distinctive mix of very dark green and blonde hair. Goldlewis spotted Eleison and, somewhat to his surprise, Cirrus, though he didn’t see Bracket anywhere. More and More Seekers showed up to join them, Tora and Poppi among them. Nadia arrived at the rear of the pack, looking very much like she’d rather be snoozing. Sandalphon made the rounds, handing out cups of coffee to whoever wanted one. Finally, after an additional four minutes fifty-one seconds according to the veteran’s stopwatch, everything had settled enough for the host to get started.

“Welcome, everyone,” Sandalphon began. “It is currently five thirty five, Tuesday afternoon. Thanks to the Lost Numbers, our group -referred to first by Organization XIII as the Seekers of Light- is almost fully reunited, safe from harm beyond our enemy’s grasp. Regrettably, I understand that some of our members remain unaccounted for. Identifying all of them and putting together a plan for their recovery is one of our objectives today. At this moment, however, our goal is to pool our knowledge, so that each and every one of us are fully informed in our fight against our enemy, which we now know to be not just Galeem, but Moebius, the World of Light’s ruling elite. This may seem trivial, but as the Angel of Information, I assure you that there is no weapon more powerful than knowledge. So, I thank you all for coming.”

Placing her elbows on the geoscape table, Sandalphon clasped her hands and continued. “I request that we recount the events that led us to this moment. We need not bog ourselves down in nitty-gritty details, stating the obvious, reiteration, or personal anecdotes, so please stick to major events, but supplement them with any important discoveries and loose ends that have not been tied up. It should go without saying that we should pay special attention to the two groups with a meta relationship to the World of Light: Organization XIII, and Moebius. Anything you have to share about these groups and their members is fair game. Once our exchange concludes, we will concoct a plan for what to do next. Please take turns and give one another ample time to speak.” She lifted her mug of coffee, then paused before drinking to glance around. “With that in mind, let us begin.”

With all the spirit business done and concluded, Captain Falcon could focus on settling in. Or he would have, if it hadn’t been for the fact that everyone was going to figure out who they wanted to bunk with. That meant Cap would have to figure out who his roommate would be before he could actually get settled in and get that shave he wanted. Oh well, he’d have to cross that bridge a bit later, he supposed. At least for the time being he could do the other thing that he wanted to do and that was get a feel for the abilities that the spirits were giving him.

Finding the training center wasn’t that hard. There were enough signs to follow that prevented even a newcomer like him from getting lost. Although he did get momentarily side-tracked when he passed by the Stolen Moments Bar. After all the athletic games he had just been playing in Carnival Town, Falcon realized he was feeling a bit parched and could use a quick drink. So that’s what he did. Nothing alcoholic of course. Cap was never overly fond of that stuff and the rare occasions that he did drink did not include when he was about to train or attend any serious business like the upcoming meeting. But he was able to get himself a glass of refreshing ice water to wet the whistle with nonetheless.

He thanked the bartender for the drink and continued on his way to his intended destination. It was probably a good thing he got side-tracked, because when the Captain did get to the training center he found a few others wrapping up their own practice sessions which told him that he wasn’t the only one who had this idea. And he also wasn’t the only one still in need of a turn either. Nearby the figure of Ganondorf stood with his usual looming presence. With that dragon helmet he had on in the Spirit Chamber it was tough to recognize him. But he had the helmet sitting nearby, having evidently chosen not to wear it for the time being. And so without it he was a lot more recognizable.

”Huh, I never pegged you for the patient type.” Cap said to him after approaching. If they were both going to be waiting for a turn, then some conversation to pass the time wouldn’t kill either of them. ”I figured you’d have been the first in line, even.” Cap had to admit it felt a little strange talking to Ganondorf like an old friend. Since he technically only first met him earlier that day. That strange time and memory business from Galeem really had a way of messing with one’s head when they thought about it for long enough.

”Hmph.” Was the only response Ganondorf could offer along with a brief shrug. ”You’re still in your usual good spirits, I see.” He said, looking almost relieved to be speaking normally again after that stint with the strange speech he got from one of his Spirits. ”I suppose that means your Spirits didn’t change you all that much?”

”Apart from this?” Cap asked while rubbing his itchy facial hair. ”Doesn’t seem like it, no. But I won’t know for sure ‘til I take myself for a quick test drive. That why you’re here, too?”

”More or less.”

It wasn’t too long after this that they both finally got a shot at using the facility. Ganondorf was fine with using the shooting range targets to try out his new Psycho Cut move. But Cap on the other hand was looking like he wasn’t taking to it as well. He was hoping for a full on spar, not to punch or shoot at some dummy or paper target. So after a few moments he called over to the warlord in question, ”Hey, why don’t you go a round with me? I prefer an actual person over some test dummy, don’t you?”

”It makes no difference to me.” Ganondorf replied. But he decided to throw the captain a bone and summon a squad of Moblin Spearmen. ”You can go against them if you want to fight so badly.”

Falcon did just that, though not before switching his martial arts costume. He got it for this exact sort of thing after all. As the Moblins came at him, Cap was able to use their relative weakness as Minions to get a good feel for how that Robert fellow’s techniques worked. Apparently it revolved around channeling chi through regular attacks and then unleashing that chi in the form of stronger techniques. But as Falcon took down the Moblins one by one, he still didn’t feel all that satisfied.

And evidently neither did Ganondorf. Watching the Moblins get defeated made him shake his head and once they were gone he stepped up to Falcon himself. ”Fine, have it your way, Falcon.” He took the stance of his warlock strikes rather than brandish any of his weapons, assuming Falcon preferred it this way. And he wasn’t exactly wrong, either. Ganondorf made the first move by lunging with a Warlock Punch.

But such a thing was no problem for Captain Falcon. Rather than dodge it like most people would, Cap instead met the Warlock Punch head on with his own fiery fist. ”Falcon PUNCH!” He shouted out as their fists collided. Their power was roughly equivalent to one another and so both attacks effectively canceled each other out. But on the plus side it looked pretty spectacular to anyone watching from the sidelines.

And then the sparring actually started in earnest. Falcon was obviously the faster of the two. Even though Robert’s spirit had slowed his speed somewhat, he could still run circles around the warlord if he wanted to. But by sharp contrast, attacking Ganondorf was a lot like attacking a brick wall. Unless you were going all out and really bringing your A-game, the Warlord would just shrug off most attacks sent his way. And it was against Ganondorf that Cap could really test some of Robert’s techniques. Clashing with him proved a much more effective way to charge up his Power Gauge so that he could test out of the Super Special Moves he’d inherited from the martial artist.

The first one Cap tried was to charge up a moment and then, ”Haoh Shoukou Ken!” he shouted out at the top of his lungs as he thrust his hands forward. The big fireball hurled forward at the King Of Evil, who simply put his arms up defensively to tank the attack. And given the two very much fire elemental spirits he’d recently consumed, tanking that fire blast was pretty easy enough for him to do. But then Cap revealed that to only be a first step in his attack. While Ganondorf was momentarily blinded by the smoke of the fireball, Falcon dashed forward and then proceeded to launch into a rapid ”Gen’ei Kyaku!” which barraged Ganondorf with a series of blisteringly fast kicks. Or at least, it would have, had it not been for Ganondorf’s ear suddenly starting to buzz.

”What’s up with your ear?” Cap asked after he halted his intended attack.

”The archangel, Sandalphon.” Ganondorf answered. ”It’s time for the meeting, it seems.”

That was slightly disappointing, since Cap was really only just getting warmed up. Still, this training - however brief - would just have to be enough for now. ”Guess we’re cutting this short then.” But nevertheless he changed back into his racing suit and the both of them begun to make their way to the Common Room as requested by Sandalphon.

After leaving the Spirit Chamber, Pit's plan was to continue exploring the massive airship. He'd only seen a small chunk of the Avenger after all, and from the sound of it there were plenty of places that no one (in the Seekers group) had been to yet. He only had to find them, which was part of the fun. Earlier that day he'd just wandered up from the cargo bay looking for anything that seemed interesting, and finding no reason not to just do the same now he took to the elevator that would bring him up to the level above.

His exploration took him down more of the same hallways. One lonely hall, which seemed like it might be a dead end, had a simple sign bolted to the wall to signify there was at least room down it. Pit glanced at the sign, started down the hall out of curiosity, and then a few seconds later returned to squint at the sign in confusion.

"...? Iso...lation... Ward...???" he read aloud, bewilderment in his voice. He knew what those words meant! But how had he known the letters on the sign combined to form them? ...is this what reading was? Had one of the three spirits he'd absorbed given him the ability to read?!

"Whoa, that sure beats studying!" He looked around, growing eager to further test his new literacy, but there weren't any other signs around. The closest area was still the Ward down the hall - that'd probably have some words somewhere in there, and he'd just been about to check it out anyway.

When Pit opened the door, he wasn't sure what exactly he'd find inside. Some kind of sickbay maybe? But the room was dark, especially after the door slid closed behind him, and the light from the new glow of his laurel wreath only cast so far.

Within the Isolation Ward, he found a familiar figure posted up inside. Though Pit had never gotten to know her, he would recognize Asbestos from his mercenary mission at the Rocket League arena last week. Her standoffish, thuggish nature wasn’t easily forgotten. Until now, the Savra girl seemed to be playing on her phone as she slouched against the wall opposite the chamber’s main cell, her enormous tower shield within easy reach. That position, and the speed with which she reacted to Pit’s arrival, suggested some sort of guard duty despite her lackadaisical bearing. “Oh, it’s you,” she grumbled. “Ya made it, huh? Well, I’m watchin’ youse, so don’t get any funny ideas with the prisonah. I take guahd duty seriously.”

Her visible eye briefly narrowed at the glass wall of the cell, its interior darker still than the rest of the already-gloomy Isolation Ward and further obscured by some sort of mist. From here, only the vaguest shapes could be discerned within. Its door featured an intricate, heavy-duty locking mechanism, and next to it a push-to-talk button enabled communication with the cell’s occupant.

Pit blinked at the salamander girl, recognition coming quicker to him than her name. "And it's you!"

Asp, Alberto... Asbestos! That was it. He recalled that she wasn't very charming, but Pit shot her a smile anyway. The question of what she was doing here, in the room, she answered on her own.

"Prisoner?" Almost as soon as the word left his mouth, he recalled his brief chat with Vulgrim. The demon had said he was free to roam, not locked up 'like a certain someone.' At the time Pit had wondered if they actually had a captive on board, and why; and now it turned out that they did! "So there really is a prisoner!"

Less than half an hour ago the angel probably would have disregarded Asbestos' warning and bounded right up to the glass. Instead he only stepped closer, trying to get a better look. He glanced back at Asbestos. "Did anybody tell you why? What'd they do?"

Having already focused on her game and attempted to tune Pit out, Asbestos didn’t seem pleased to be dragged back into a conversation. His question seemed to amuse her, though. “Heh. Hehe.” She bared her sharp teeth in a nasty smile. “Why doncha ask him yahself? Then again, ya might not need any wahds.”

What's the supposed to mean? Pit thought. He guessed he'd find out soon enough - since being permitted, if not directly encouraged, to talk with the prisoner, Pit walked up to the cell.

Through the glass, Pit could now make out a silhouette, seated in meditative stillness on a boxy shape that was probably a cot. Though he appeared to be humanoid, the odd shapes and contours around the figure’s outline defied immediate identification. Perhaps he was wearing an unusual suit of armor, though that didn’t explain the long extensions on either side of his head. Most glaringly unusual were his proportions. He seemed remarkably tall and thin, in the ballpark of 6’8”. Whoever he was, he had yet to react to Pit’s presence.

The angel's eyes flickered over the shape behind the foggy glass before finding their way to the mechanisms on the outside of it. Vulgrim and Asbestos being vague and kind of mysterious about this guy only served to stoke Pit's curiosity, so there was no way he was going to leave without seeing what was up for himself. He found the speaker and button fairly quickly, though he glanced back up at the prisoner before pressing it. He wondered if the person inside could hear anything that was going on. Did he not want visitors or did he not even know he had any? Well, only one way to find out!

Pit tapped his knuckles on the glass, knocking first, then he pressed the button to enable communication. "Hi, new recruit here. Looking around, meeting everyone, y'know... including you," he said to break the ice, which was about the best he could do since he had no idea who was in the cell or what they'd done to end up there. So, like ripping off a band-aid he just went ahead and asked.

"So... why're you locked up in there?"

At the unfamiliar voice, the prisoner stirred slightly. The direction of his head honed in on Pit’s silhouette behind the glass. While the angel couldn't see his eyes, he could now make out something glowing purple in the center of the tall man’s chest. It seemed to be some sort of futuristic machine core composed of concentric circles that rotated in opposing directions as the amethyst light shone from within. Asbestos just watched, her eye narrowed as her game’s pause menu music played.

Even after waking, the stranger took a few seconds to respond. He breathed in, slow and deep, then spoke with a sophisticated, old-fashioned Indian accent. “For everyone's safety, I suppose. My own included. This cell has signal blockers, you see. Were I outside, Moebius could track my whereabouts, and above all we cannot allow this ship to fall into their hands. Its populace is more precious than words can describe.”

The man chuckled dryly, then slowly stood. At his full height, he looked much taller than Pit, staring down with lusterless teak-brown eyes. His gaze contained an indescribable weary sadness, as of a man crushed by the weight of the world itself. “Of course, the Lost Numbers could simply kill me. They would be well within their rights to, and I would offer no resistance. But the commander here knows that I am much less valuable dead than alive. As they say, keep your friends close…”

Asbestos rolled her eyes as he approached, muttering derisively. When he stepped near enough to the cell wall, the ambient light illuminated a set of cherry-red high-tech armor atop a gray-black bodysuit, adorned with a silky black cape and crowned with a masked helmet. “And your enemies closer.”

Pit instantly recognized the armor suit the man wore, as any Seeker of Light would. Shocked, he took a step back from the glass. "You- You're...?!"

Was he seeing things right? The man's mention of Moebius and that adage... there wasn't another explanation. Pit's guess that the mystery prisoner was some kind of mutineer had been way, way off. The angel glanced around, as if reinspecting the cell. He noted there were some additional devices affixed to it, separate from the lock, that seemed to regulate the space. He'd wanted to see what was going on with the captive, but now he actually needed to really see them, to confirm. A few moments later and he'd turned off the frosting effect on the glass. Somehow knowing what he'd see didn't make it any less surprising when the fogginess was dispersed. "A Consul!"

Now the full image of the prisoner appeared to him clearly. He was so unlike the few Consuls they'd run into already. They'd been confident, battle and power thirsty, seeking the Seekers for their own amusement or to put a stop to them. In comparison, this man looked practically beaten. Even so, Pit kept his guard up. They, the Consuls, had been endangering not just his friends but everyone in the world - and this man was one of them... or had been.

He couldn't grasp how the man had come to be here, but for once the angel hadn't missed subtle words the Consul spoke. 'We', like he was an ally protecting the Lost Numbers or something.

"So, what, you gave up ruling the world? Tried to change sides and got caught?" Pit asked, his voice taking on a slightly harsher edge.

“I never wanted to rule the world.” The Consul retraced his steps, then seated himself facing Pit, though rather than meeting the angel’s face he stared off into the middle distance. “I'll won't waste your time with my sob story, but suffice to say, I was desperate to live. I became Consul S because I had no other choice. Or…so I thought. When the truth of my new existence became apparent, I resolved to change Moebius from within and turn the tide.” He shook his head. “But there is no such thing as a good Moebius. I alone could not ease this world’s suffering. But neither will I abide by it, any longer. It is mine intent to aid the Lost Numbers, and the Seekers of Light, in whatever way I'm able. Until my due punishment is delivered.”

For several seconds Pit didn't say anything, just watched S with large eyes. He was still on guard, wings raised slightly and tense, but he felt his anger dampened by the Consul's words. Could he be telling the truth? Being confined to a cell was one thing, but if S was hostile then Dawn would have warned everyone about him, right? Pit folded his arms, unsure about the whole thing.

"...really?" he asked. "You're trying to help us? Is that how they've avoided the other Consuls...?"

S shook his head, shorter and sharper than that. "I can claim no part in that. I arrived but recently, when the Avenger alighted at Markarth, in the Land of Adventure. It was there that I chose to place my fate in the hands of the Lost Numbers, having long ago realized that the life I was so desperate to prolong was worth nothing."

That must have only been a few days ago, Pit thought, slotting the Avenger’s visit to the Land of Adventure with the Seekers’ departure from Alcamoth. The man’s self-deprecating language doused a lot of Pit’s earlier shock and anger upon seeing him, leaving only a smolder. He let his shoulders and wings droop slightly. Notoriously bad at being able to tell if someone was lying to him, at this point Pit could only assume that S was telling the truth.

"Oh. Okay… If you really aren’t on team Consul anymore, then…" The angel trailed off, gaze drifting from the armored man to the cell again. Even he wasn’t dumb enough to let S out, especially since he’d said it was protecting him, too, but now he felt kind of awkward. When Pit looked at S again he didn’t smile, but when he spoke his voice had lightened up. "...nice to meet you…S? Um, I’m Pit."

And though Pit had more or less accepted the true nature of spirits, the Lost Numbers, and everything like that with intent to just ask the Goddess of Light about it another time, he found himself a lot more curious about the Consul’s circumstances. He’d just assumed that the Consuls were your typical villains this whole time, after all.

"But how come you’re nice if there aren’t any good Moebius like you said? What happened?"

S put a hand to his helmet, closing his eyes. “My actions have led to disastrous consequences for the inhabitants of this world. It hasn’t escaped the notice of my ‘colleagues’ that I do not share their cruel appetites for suffering. Once they realized that torment of the storied would torment me as well, there was no putting that djinni back in the bottle. In particular, the other Consul stationed in the Land of Adventure, M, made it his mission to tear down all I built up. Starting with Lumbridge, which I protected from the Land’s weekly regeneration with a World Anchor. Its removal… meant the town’s erasure. Alcamoth, Port O Panic, Haven… all gone, or on the chopping block.” He shook his head. “I knew from the first that my struggle was meaningless. And yet… it is no less painful.” He finally met Pit’s gaze. “So, you see now, I’m sure. I am but weak and afraid, and I could not change anything. The Lost Numbers are our last resort.”

Pit kept his gaze, the Consul's words bringing to mind the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished. He had experience with that kind of thing too; the missions Lady Palutena laid out for the greater good didn't always go according to plan, and it was always humankind that suffered being caught in between contests of the powerful. And he certainly wasn't a stranger to unfortunate consequences to his own actions.

"I get it," Pit said, his face easily betraying the empathy he was feeling for S. He rubbed one of his arms, quiet for another moment, then he mustered up his confidence.

"Well they're gonna pull through. The Lost Numbers and us, we're gonna win this time!" Of that Pit was convinced, though he said it aloud for his own benefit rather than to console the Consul. The odds might not be in their favor, but when had that ever stopped a bunch of heroes? And now they knew there was at least one less Consul on the board to deal with.

That line of thinking made Pit blink as a thought occurred to him. If becoming Moebius hadn't been a choice for the man, then... "Wait, with you in here they're not gonna just go make another Moebius, are they?"

S shook his head. “Not while I yet live.”

That was a relief. "That's good. 'Cause—"

Pit was interrupted when a symbol appeared over one ear, and the voice of the archangel Sandalphon filtered through it. "Attention all Seekers, please make your way to the bridge at your earliest convenience. To get here, simply ascend via staircase, ladder, or elevator, and you will inevitably reach the rendezvous."

Right, the meeting... Pit closed his eyes. He should tell Sandalphon, and bring her and some other people smarter than him to speak with the Consul. He should probably tell everyone about it at the meeting too, in the interest of not keeping secrets. No one would endanger the Lost Numbers by breaking the cell to get at S, would they? When Pit opened his eyes again, he still seemed unsure, but there was more determination in them than there had been when he first walked into the room.

"I'll be back," he told the Consul, meeting the man's eyes for the last time. Pit gave Asbestos a short wave as he turned to leave, heading out of the Isolation Ward. When the door closed behind him he stood still for a few moments, taking a deep breath. Then he all but sprinted down the hallway, his destination the Avenger's bridge.

”Alright, let's start this off with the important bit, which is where this all started” Bowser declared, before rather predictably, egotistically, stating that it started ” with me!” and then added more usefully ”and some other people. Like Captain Falcon over there. And Pit. And Ganondorf. A whole buncha other people who’ve been through the whole multiverse meetup thing who didn’t take to kindly to Galeem showing up to try and rule over everything”

”We fought tooth and claw and other stuff, and it just blasted us with big lasers, the same ones that wrecked every other universe though, so we gotta be on the lookout for stuff that can deal with that. Like this big mirror” he thunked the mirror of long lost battles with a fist, that ever so conveniently showed hazy images of that long lost battle.

”Got us all, except this little pink blob of a guy called Kirby. He zoomed away on a star, and then crashed down a bit away from Peach’s castle, and for some reason me, Blazermate, Tora, and a few others were there and tried to smash him. Probably Galeem or something did that, because if it had actually been me and not some puppeteer I’d have smashed ‘im for sure.”

”Instead he beat us up, and then used those friend hearts to free us, and that’s how we got out from under Galeem” Bowser said, putting emphasis on the we for the sake of the lost numbers, and then not being at all subtle at all as he he insisted ”Which is kinda a big deal”

Tora narrowed one eye as he scratched his chin. “Tora remember we beat up poor pinkypon pretty bad,” he muttered. Come to think of it, though, why didn’t he remember anything before that fight? Try as he might, he couldn’t recall how he got to that knoll to begin with.

”Now, the rest of them are all lost and stuff, but me? I spot Peach's castle and know where to go, so I lead us down there, and we run right into this ‘Master of Masters’ guy, who says he sees all of time at once. Same hood as the Organisation jerks, not related to them though.”

”Sees all of time?” Roxas asked. Despite coming from the same world as the Master, that was definitely a new one on him. He remembered traveling through time being something that was possible, albeit difficult and bogged down with strict rules. But just seeing everything that has happened and will happen?

”So he certainly claimed when he and I had a chat later after we encountered one of their number” Kamek added

”Anyway, he tells us how fusion and stuff works, and then says the reason he knows is because we tell him how it works in the future” Bowser declared confidently, before hammering home his point with ”I haven't met him again to tell him that yet, so if you need any more proof that we’re the big deal winners, then there’s that.”

“After that, we head through mushroomy kingdom,” Tora piped up. “It took while, but eventually we reach Peach-Peach castle, meh. That when giant hand appear from nowhere, alongside scary, evil version of Bowser!” He chose those adjectives in particular as a point of contrast with regular Bowser, earning him an offended ”Hey!” from the turtle in question. “Hand summon brainwashed friends to fight us, including Poppi, but we made of sterner stuff, meh! After friends free, everyone raid Peach-Peach castle and take down evil Bowser. Peach-Peach throw celebrationy feast, and let us spend night.”

Poppi crossed her arms, thinking. “It good long while before we see Organization XIII, actually. If Poppi recall correctly, first one was Gneidxick in Land of Adventure, where he pose as Lumbridge guildmaster. And not see any Consuls at all until…” She furrowed her brow as best an android could. “...Nyakuza Metro?”

“That was after that pirate battle where S showed up, with his big reveal that the Consuls would be coming after us,” Nadia mentioned, sprawled out in her chair. She lifted her head and gave a wry smile. “Kinda funny looking back on it, with how long this’s been going. How many bosses did we wipe out before our evil overlords even noticed?”

"S?" Pit's eyes widened. He had been uncharacteristically quiet since he'd arrived (slightly late), but since he knew that during the first part of the campaign he was still brainwashed in Alcamoth he didn't have much to add, especially since Bowser covered their first encounter with Galeem. But Nadia's comment surprised him. He remembered there being a Consul behind the whole thing, but had it really been S? The remorseful man he'd met downstairs had been the one to set the Seekers against innocent bystanders, leading to death and infighting? Then... was everything at Port O' Panic one of his plans gone wrong, or did he have a change of heart since then? Or... had he lied to Pit?

Sandalphon’s pupils changed from inverted triangles to stress marks. “We’re getting slightly ahead of ourselves. Let’s attempt to keep our accounts chronological.” Then she returned to normal, although the new knowledge revealed by Bowser had already stirred things up a bit.

Although Sandalphon wanted everything laid out according to time, maybe it was better to get something big out of the way - considering that S himself was on the ship with them! "Um, about the Cons—" Pit started, but the conversation moved quickly on.

”When did we go to the Dead Zone full of zombies?” Blazermate asked. ”That was after giant flaming bowser, but wasn’t there something before that? I know that was before the sea and all that.”

Roland laid his back on his chair, getting into a comfortable position. ”I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a long story… Best get comfortable. Anyone got some good coffee?” Roland said, knowing he was in the same position as the lost numbers here. Immediately Sandalphon rose to go fetch him some, since he’d arrived late enough to miss her first go-round.

”I believe it somewhat overlapped with the ocean as well” Kamek said with regard to the Dead Zone adventures ”Quite disconnected narratively you might say, or at least my knowledge of its given that his majesty, the young master, and myself all popped in and out of the area at one point or another via teleporter. In the end we did not even reach the guardian, someone instead blew up the entire area after we left for the second time.”

At the mention of a progressed but unresolved Guardian operation, Sandalphon’s slender fingers tap-tap-tapped away at her screens faster than ever.

”It’s also where Linkle got cursed into being something called a Skullgirl like this little lady” he waved a hand and briefly summoned Marie Korbel, the now former skull girl ”and one of those Organization mooks grabbed her and teleported her away somewhere before we could try and fix that. She’s still out there, somewhere, so keep an eye out alright?” Before Sandalphon could ask for more information about the ‘mook’ in question, another Dead Zone recruit spoke up.

”And this is where I came in. Although at the time I had no idea that this Galeem had hid me away in such a horrible, horrible area full of the living dead. A way to bring beauty to the area perhaps, but not one I agree with.” Sectonia said, giving a side glare to no one in particular, more just disgusted with the whole situation she had just explained.

”Oh yeah, then I got everyone out of there into the Land of Adventure which we went around. It's a good thing you didn’t see us take out all the zombies at the police station. That's where we found Nadia, but uh, she's kinda a zombie with the whole limb thing, so it kinda makes sense she was there.” Blazermate said, clarifying a bit more but still being a bit disjointed.

“I am nyaat a zombie!” Nadia protested. “This kitty’s one hundred purr-cent alive, thank you very much!”

“Enough,” Sandalphon decreed, her tone harsher than normal. “Every unnecessary word only bloats this meeting and creates mental noise for those present. There will be plenty of time to share personal stories later. For now, please include operative details about our campaign, our foes, and the World of Light itself only.”

”The only important information about the Land of Adventure then is that the guardian, a big black blocky dragon, was defeated and the seeker who absorbed their power has gone on their own. Otherwise that Land still resets every once in a while if I’m remembering things,” Sectonia said, thinking about something she had participated in what felt like a long time ago.

Knowing what he knew now, Pit winced at Sectonia's words. Once a week, every town in that area was wiped out along with the people living in them, reduced to spirits if he had to guess... but only because someone allowed it to happen, knowing full well there was a way to stop it.

“Land of Adventure’s where I joined the Seekers.” Geralt cut in, trying to get the group back on track. “Sectonia’s right, but it’s important to mention that after defeating the Guardian there, we first encountered Alcamoth, which served as our base until its destruction by the Consuls.”

Primrose, who had been patiently listening and awaiting her turn, turned her head sharply towards Geralt. "Did you say destruction?" Nadia’s ears perked up, followed by her eyes getting wide.

Her words piled up uproar from the Troop that more or less boiled down to “when and how?”

”Wait, what? How?” Blazermate said. Tora and Poppi seemed to deflate somewhat, their horror evident on their faces.

Amidst the outrage, Goldlewis inhaled deeply. “Pipe down!” he barked. “I’ll tell ya. While y’all were busy trainin’, I went ‘round and asked the survivors everythin’ they knew. It went down yesterday mornin’ at dawn. Two Consuls invaded the Eryth Sea usin’ giant carrier ships they flew in over the mountains, filled with troops an’ aircraft, and they caught the city unawares. Unable to take it down from outside, the Consuls threw their men at the Mercenaries to whittle ‘em down while infiltrators went after the city’s flight systems. Knowin’ they’d die for nothin’ otherwise, the Mercenaries sent their best after the Consuls to get their attention while the rest escaped, usin’ a teleporter set up by an unknown benefactor. The survivors wound up in the Land of Adventure, a city called Markarth. Another Consul, M, showed up to finish ‘em off, but together with that benefactor they stalled M ‘til the Lost Numbers showed up, and together they finished off M instead.”

Sandalphon’s fingers were tented in front of her mouth as she stared at the geoscape, pupils as empty rings. She’d heard about this before thanks to Kurogane, but right now it stung all the more. “And the final state of Alcamoth itself?”

“Sunk,” Goldlewis reported, his face and tone grim.

“So,” Geralt asked, “The survivors of Alcamoth are in a place that will reset and delete them in less than a week?” A dark look rested on his face, despite the news that one more Consul had been taken down. If Yen is still there, we need to get her and the others out as soon as possible.

"But if M is gone, then we can stop the areas from resetting again!" Pit said. He'd only just learned about these "world anchor" things, and though he barely knew anything about them he had clearly heard that was what had prevented Lumbridge from resetting until recently. Compared to earlier in the meeting, he looked more lively now. "If they don't make another M then we could save all the people there!"

”We would need to be quick however. Although that makes me wonder, are flame clocks involved in this as well or is the Land of Adventure resetting because of some other underlying thing?” Sectonia said. She was fine with saving that land, although she’d be wanting a statue of herself out of the deal.

”The resetting certainly would help fuel the clock, however…” Kamek paused, sighed, and then went on, because it was rather relevant to the masses of dead some of which the others might have known ”... however changing the land around is not necessary to bring in fresh spirits to fuel the clock...”

”According to Asgore, a king of the underground who was unstoried by a Consul and then given the task of fueling one of those clocks alone as part of some cruel jape, there are these symbols, like suns, found on the ground across the world, that resurrect the dead. They do not recall their past lives in this world when brought back, but still have the potential to remember the ones before. Like we have now,” before getting to the gist of things, which was ”As a result, as far as we know, anyone lost can be brought back, but they will not remember the time they had spent here, or with us.”

At the news, Goldlewis gaped, while Sandalphon stared. Arms crossed, Nadia looked away, her lack of response betraying the fact that she already knew. Geralt, meanwhile, sighed at this revelation. “So, theoretically, any of us could have lived a thousand lives here and know nothing about them?” That was…existentially horrifying in a thousand ways. As for Roxas, the whole notion of being reset and forced to start over went a little over his head. Was there some previous life or iteration where Axel and Xion were still with him in Twilight Town? And why would they have changed locations if that was the case?

Trying to ignore the revelation of that fact, Sectonia shook her head. ”If that is the case… then wouldn’t anything any of us have done previously have some impact on the world at large even if we ourselves don’t remember it?” She said, more looking for something to say as she grasped the same thing Geralt had figured out.

"She's right! If I was alive before I definitely would have tried stopping Galeem!" Pit agreed. There was no way it was true that they all had been living in a cycle this whole time... it couldn't be! Right?

Sandalphon glanced at him, not happy about what she had to point out. “To stand against Galeem, you would need to have been destoried first.”

Pit crossed his arms and bit the inside of his cheek. Duh, of course someone would have had to free us before... or I could have broken out myself! Or... For all those possibilities, it was just as possible that this had been the first time that any of them had been destoried. A cosmic coincidence. If someone hadn't happened to just pick up a ring, or happened to destroy the Land of Adventure's Guardian, then he would never have been himself again - and he'd never even know it, like Geralt had said. Relenting, he frowned.

"So then we really could have just been doing the same thing over and over, like being stuck in the worst TV rerun ever."

Nadia regarded him with a raised eyebrow. “You know what a TV is?” she muttered.

Geralt nodded solemnly. “I was just doing the usual Witcher work until I was destoried. Would’ve done it the whole ten years until I faded into ash, I imagine. Already been at it for decades, what would one more be?” The idea of having spent the rest of eternity walking the Path on repeat, even if he sometimes found Ciri or Yen…disturbed him more than he was willing to admit.

This got Sectonia thinking, and she came up with a conclusion that they all knew, but now there was much more context behind it. ”So the Consuls found a way to break out of this cycle of resurrection and instead use this infinite cycle of resurrection to fuel their own debauchery. And they call this “Moebius”.”

”Which probably stands for ‘infinite one sided loop’ if I remember what that word means right? So they are claiming in a fancy way to be infinite.” Roland said, trying to give some input on this conversation.

”...Yes.” Sectonia said, not sure if the definition of the word brought anything new to the table. ”What's interesting is that, due to whatever method they used to ‘leave the system’, if they are defeated they die forever.”

Sandalphon’s pupils took the form of inverted triangles as she thought. “That’s something that Lost Numbers and Moebius have -or rather, don't have- in common, then. No spirit–no reference point for their existence outside of the World of Light.” She narrowed her eyes. “I wonder if the Consuls ‘escaped’ under their own power, or with the help of some authority, most likely Galeem itself, given that they assume control of the World of Light to perpetuate the cycle.”

She breathed in, then out through her nose. “Since we've abandoned the chronology at this point, let's specifically recount everything we know about the Consuls. I can start us off with Moebius Y.” She conjured a screen that displayed an image of the late Consul. “We encountered him in Midgar, first at the headquarters of Neuron, a local law enforcement agency. He held a position of overt power over the local government and manipulated events to prolong the Ever Crisis, a ceaseless war between the people of Midgar and various enemy forces. An enemy of his, one Jena Anderson, exposed his original identity to us: Yoseph Calvert. He appeared to obstruct us when we moved to challenge the Guardian, but he seemed acutely aware of the stipulation Sectonia mentioned: that his death would be permanent. To that end he consumed an enormous amount of Mako energy -and Legion cores- and transformed himself in an attempt to merge himself with a dimension known as the Astral Plane. However, he failed to do so, and resigned himself to a final battle in which he was ultimately vanquished. He referred to himself as a ‘slave’, unable to ‘transcend Moebius’, and with his last breath expressed bitter regret.”

”Don’t forget about the other one.” Roxas finally piped up after spending a long moment lost in his own head about the whole “resetting” thing. But now he was finally ready to get back into the conversation, ”I think he was called C, right? That demon guy who was manipulating the debate between Armstrong and Shinra. He was down there too. Waited until after we took down Y before he made his move. What was his real name again?” Roxas paused to think about it, looking between other members of the Midgar Team for a reminder. ”Chaos… something? Right?”

“Happy Chaos,” Goldlewis confirmed, himself somewhat happy to be distracted from the cycle of life. “In fact, he’s from my world. Responsible for a serious international incident, too. Stormed the White House and held world leaders captive almost single-handedly. I ain’t fully informed, but they say he’s the one who gave the world magic.”

”Consul C, Happy Chaos.” Zenkichi summarized, then shuddered. ”Didn’t even fight us, just turned one of his little minions into a monster and then…he made us fight an illusion. Or…maybe it wasn’t an illusion until the end, but he used my old boss as a meat shield and just rode off into the sunset. C just…wanted to cause chaos.” A mixture of anger, disgust, and despondence permeated his voice. His failure to save Konoe was clearly weighing on Zenkichi, and he fell silent again.

”I can retell what I know of Consul P that we met in the Underground.” Sectonia said, getting herself ready for a longer explanation. ”When it comes to Consuls, P is dead, I saw to it myself as I stabbed his ‘Moebius core’ as he said when he died. He ruled the city called the Home of Tears in the underground and was, for all intents and purposes, a spoiled evil child with the ability to change history at a whim. If he was any more intelligent about it, things could have gone poorly.” Sectonia said, retelling of their defeat of P. ”The important thing learned from this encounter, is that whatever makes them Moebius is an object or core, perhaps something replacing their spirit in its entirety that acts as a weak point.”

”Hmph, he wasn’t the only brat we defeated down there.” Ganondorf interjected. He’d been standing over in the corner of the crowded common room this entire time, arms crossed and only listening. But since the topic had finally shifted to the Under, he figured now he had a place to speak. ”His sniveling cohort, F, was a brat too. Begged us for his life after we slew his pet Guardian. We tried to take him prisoner but the blasted little bastard managed to slip away from us.” He paused to take a breath in order to keep himself from sounding too angry about that, but the fury and hatred was still very much in his tone as he added. ”I won’t be making that mistake, again. Ever.”

Therion's ears twitched, feeling a little called out considering it was he who'd stopped Primrose from executing F at the time. But going forward, he'd be taking a page out of the King of Evil's book.

”I suppose we did get something out of dealing with F though, the power structure or lack thereof of the Consuls, how they all interact with each other, and which ones to be more wary of. ” Sectonia said, at least salvaging the situation a bit.

Elsewhere around the table came an awkward chuckle. "Heheh, funny you should mention that," Pit said, sneaking a glance at Ganondorf. Going into this meeting, they'd all known there would be new information to share and some disturbing truths to wrestle with. Pit just hadn't expected that he'd had anything like that to share until about twenty minutes ago. He looked up at the ceiling with his eyebrows scrunched together before speaking.

"There's another Consul too. S, the one Ms. Fortune mentioned earlier? If that really was him that we ran into, then he tricked a bunch of people into attacking us. But then he kind of warned us about the other Consuls, and..." Pit looked back down at the other Seekers. He squeezed his folded arms together tighter for a moment before dropping them entirely, splaying his hands open as he said his next piece. "Now he's kind of like, a good guy? When I talked to him, he seemed like he really regretted what he'd done."

While Sandalphon tilted her head in curiosity, Ganondorf shot a look at the angel. ”Explain!” He demanded, unwilling to put up with any shenanigans where the Consuls were concerned.

"It's just that, he said he didn't have a choice and he tried to change the whole 'Moebius' thing from inside, but it didn't work. And now he wants to help us," Pit replied. Despite everything he'd heard so far, he sounded like he was willing to give the Consul the benefit of the doubt. Which was more than some could say, understandably.

"And you believed him?"

While Pit tried to put together a response under pressure, one of the bystanders relieved him. With his unmistakable style and impressive stature, the mercenary Vandham would be recognizable as Tora and Poppi’s friend to anyone who set foot in Alcamoth before. “Oi! Lemme give ya a missin’ piece of the pictcha,” he interrupted, speaking in his typical Australian accent. “That benefactah that Mistah Dickinson mentioned? That’d be S. If not for ‘im, we wouldn’a made it outta Alcamoth alive, none of us. And when M popped in to finish us off, S fought by ah side, keepin’ us alive. I dunno ‘is endgame, but believe you me, if ‘e wanted us dead ‘e wouldn’a ‘ad to lift a fingah.” He shrugged. “Plus, ‘e bloody well turned ‘imself in when these Lost Numbah blokes arrived. ‘E knows ‘is mates’ll kill ‘im for what ‘e did, so now ‘e’s on the run, same as us.”

“A consul on our side, huh?” Goldlewis didn’t sound like he fully believed it himself, but the evidence he’d been given was hard to deny. “Could be mighty useful. Mighty dangerous, too. Hope y’all know what you’re doin’.”

”So he’s here? On this vessel?” Ganondorf asked, though it was obviously a rhetorical question. ”So be it. Then maybe he can give me an answer I’ve been looking for regarding the Flame Clocks.” He said, referring to the plan he’d come up with about destroying them. A plan that so far only half of the Seekers had been made aware of.

”Yes, more information about these Flame Clocks would be prudent. Perhaps they could have a use for us if understood fully.” Sectonia said, her plan being more to use the flame clocks to enhance her own power. Although if they had no use but to extend the life of the Consuls, she would agree with Ganondorf on destroying them if he proposed such an idea.

”The… the Dead Zone, you mentioned it briefly, right? Did it have a city called Redgraccoon city in it, made up of tall gray rotting towers, filled with undead and demons?” Minda chipped in with odd hesitancy with an oddly tangential question.

”that does seem like it fits the bill, yes? Why do you ask?” Kamek enquired but instead she pushed

”and, have any of you seen Consul D? Blood red armor, top of the helmet a bit like a captain’s hat, black cape, pair of bone white spurs coming down the chin like fangs? Aristocratic tone. Magic user. Drinks something that definitely wasn’t wine”

”Nope! Consuls are kinda a more recent thing.” Blazermate said, chipping into the conversation since she was there for the whole dead zone before it went boom. ”I wonder if it going boom took him out too?” Blazermate said, trying to get a cheery thing out of that wasteland of zombies.

”I think he was visiting, only there to claim the contents of the clock” she said, before explaining ”the reason I ask is because, well, I didn’t see or meet either of these places, nor til now know about flame clocks. I dreamed about them, in vivid detail, one night in Midgar, a dream that ended with me dying at Consul D’s hand after I’d conquered the entire region and ended the cycle of war fueling the clock in the process. So if what you say is true, about us living over and over, and if these things I dreamed where true and real despite me having never seen them in this life, then, well”

”Maybe the ones we’ve lived aren't as gone as you or he thought”

It would have been easy to write off someone's dream as just that, a dream, now matter how relevant. However, Asgore himself had told some of the Seekers that they could be a glimpse into past life times lived. And Midna wasn't the only one with a similar experience.

"...I had a dream like that too," Therion said. It had been more like a nightmare really, and the added context made it even more horrifying, which showed in his darkened expression. "Except I didn't work with her. The Consul I saw. I don't know which one it was, but she had a... demonic looking mask, a spear, and commanded lightning. She slaughtered the entire village I was living in. Then I woke up. I thought it was just a really realistic bad dream."

He'd left out some things he'd seen and preferred to keep private, especially if it could have actually happened at some point. The smell of burning and blood had certainly seemed real.

”I thought it was odd, whenever I have a dream about dying it's always … him” she admitted without really intending to ”but with this I’m pretty sure that is what it means. Which means that the Consul are the ones stirring up the violence, and anyone wins a war, then they just wipe out the winner and start things up all over again”

Nadia winced. “Ugh. It’s so depressing.” As she thought over that further, her ears flattened in alarm. “Wait. In the Deep Blue Seaside, we more or less won the war for Limsa and the Azure Navy by taking out the Abyssals’ commander. So if they have no more war to fight…”

“Their Flame Clocks will run out,” Sandalphon realized. “If their Consul doesn’t finish them first.”

“...Uh oh, hehe,” the feral laughed nervously. “Guess we, uh, better add a visit to the to-do list. Make sure Lisma’s not Lomin-scuttled.” The realization that even the places the Seekers had saved might not be safe did little to improve the general mood, and the dead air that followed Nadia’s badly-timed pun lengthened into an awkward silence.

"Might I say something?"

Primrose pushed the mug of coffee she'd taken away from the table's edge as she reclined slightly. The discussion had gone a little all over the place again, but now that they were finished with consolidating information about the Consuls, she felt she had to say what little she knew in the wake of learning what had become of Smash City Alcamoth. Her voice was colder than it usually was, but suddenly learning that the entire place was gone (among many other pieces of new information) would do that.

"First… I've met the Master of Masters as well. He was at Alcamoth, which was where I was when I was... de-storied for the latest time," she said, her voice catching as she thought about how to phrase that. Especially in the wake of learning about the city’s fate. "The group's arrival and departure from there is where Midna and I joined in, headed for the desert. As for what I learned from the Master of Masters when I spoke with him... That ability you mentioned must be the 'Gazing Eye' he told me of. Now, I believe he knew a lot more than he let on." She glanced at the Koopas as she mentioned this.

"It was him that first told me about time being strange in this world. And how spirits are like bookmarks, how they're formed by people losing their ka... and how they can be brought back to life by regaining it." The dancer figured that factored in to everyone's lives recycling over and over again, but she wasn't sure how even after learned what she had from Asgore. A few chairs down, Therion now sat with his arms folded, chin tucked to his chest, and ears standing up alert on his head after speaking earlier. In the past he'd done his best to let a lot of this information intentionally go over his head, but he'd changed somewhat in the last few days. Knowing how important it really was he listened, absorbing the story of everything he'd missed before he joined up - and what he’d missed since.

”Gazing Eye?” asked a confused Roxas, ”I've never heard of that in mine and his world. What exactly is this ‘Gazing Eye’ thing?”

At that, Primrose shrugged one shoulder. "His curse, or so he put it. He said that it allows him to see everything that it, the Eye, will ever see, even long after he is gone. So it appears that is how he sees all of time at once, as Bowser put it. Including an ‘unchanging future’."

”Now I really want to meet this guy for myself.” Roxas replied. He’d already decided he wanted to meet this Master guy a while back, and everything he was hearing so far just solidified that even further.

”I believe I remember him mentioning ‘seeing’ all of the organization members in a ‘city without a name” Kamek noted, before suggesting that ”if we find ourselves to wherever that is, and there are only so many cities on our map, then we might be able to find both him and the leader of Organisation XIII”

Juri had been leaning against a railing, looking down upon the meeting and listening in. Similarly, so was Captain Falcon, only he was seated in a chair among the speakers themselves while taking an occasional sip of coffee. Thankfully he knew at least some of the score thanks to him having been with the Smashers since pretty much the beginning. But something about all this struck him as being weird, even compared to the wild stuff he’d already seen as a Smasher himself.

This got Roland to pipe up, the fixer having listened to everything that had been going on so far. ”He sounds like someone who needs a lesson from that old hag. Sure the cycle repeats, over and over, a wheel that crushes everyone who tries to stand in front of it, but even in my world, we broke that cycle, twice. Well, I helped break it once… but I will say it wasn’t an easy thing.” Roland said, his hand trembling a little at being reminded of the intense emotions of that moment.

”But for the first time the cycle broke, if you want more details, you’d have to ask Binah… assuming she doesn’t just give you the run around like she always does. I don’t want to mention what it took for me to get a single straight answer from her…” Roland said, shaking his head. He then clarified a bit, saying. ”I don’t know the details, but apparently it took either thousands, or a million years of endless human suffering in an endless time loop to break the cycle. Angela would know more as well, but I doubt she’ll want to talk about it.”

"Real encouraging," Therion sighed.

Sandalphon’s eyes lay on Roland as she consulted her mental database. “While little of that may be relevant, I know of someone named Binah. A member of Shinra’s board, the director of his Time and Space division, and even more elusive than the likes of Hojo.”

”I’m not surprised. I used to work with her for months and I know very little. All I can tell you is she used to be an Arbiter in my world, a human superweapon created by the Head, my world’s ruling body, using their best technology and every singularity they could fit into them. But beyond telling you what she is, I only know she likes to watch and drink tea. She also seems to love to play the villain and managed to defeat the strongest fixer in the City, Beyond that...”

Primrose spoke again, cutting in before anyone else could respond to that. "Second… There were many other people at Alcamoth as we all know, but there was also a machine that housed information on all of them and then some. Is it... could something like that be recovered?"

If Smash City Alcamoth was truly destroyed then she wanted to know who had survived and who hadn't, even if they’d eventually come back to life. Rather than further derail the meeting though, she inquired about the device that had seemed like magic to her. Surely that information would be helpful going forward, on top of letting them know who among their Alcamoth allies still lived.

”So we could try to find the other survivors, and…well, figure out who not to look for? As morbid as that is…” Zenkichi asked, trying to figure out where she was going with that. It wasn’t a bad idea, he thought. It could be their next move, in fact.

”Well, if the mission is to stop this ‘land of adventure’ from resetting, I suppose we’ve got something to do then.” Roland said, making it clear and concise. Although he had to ask ”Although, how would we go about doing that? Although it could just be an extraction mission.”

”Well, before that, I believe we need to talk about what came after returning to Alcamoth. The whole desert and sea area cleared, followed by the underground and ‘Midgar’. I can only speak of the desert and the underground.” Sectonia said, she then, having the floor, explained the desert.

”Ugh, the deep ocean. Don’t remind me of the Maw. I’m still scared of the dark because of that horrid place.” Blazermate said, the robot shivering a bit. ”Geralt has that guardian. It was like some… weird lanky fleshy pale demon thing that came from the moon.”

“The Orphan of Kos.” Geralt simply added, frowning. “And before anybody who was there asks, yes, I chose to stay fused with it. Though, as I’m sure some can attest, it has not been without its consequences. Namely, an all-consuming rage that I had to use even more Spirits to try to get a hold of.”

The memory prompted an involuntary shudder from Nadia, though she put on a grin. “An Organization member sort of helped us out in the seaside. Some grim, sophisticated type. She sure liked talking in riddles, but she lent a hand on that nightmare island. ‘Isle’ not forget that place any time soon...”

Goldlewis scratched his head, dredging up some memories of his own. “Right, and that girl we met in Al Mamoon. Said her name was Ram.”

“Ram-Ram help fight off sky snakes when we flew up Big mountain, meh!” Tora pointed out. As dire as the trudging climb through the blizzard had been, he'd never forget the feeling of flying that followed it.

“There was also Gneidxick, who trapped us in some gauntlet of combat until another member of the Organization appeared and demanded he stop. Then, they just…left through a portal of darkness.” Geralt added, sighing. “That one still confuses me. Though the portal he created served as an easy way to get from Lumbridge to the Seaside. Imagine it’s gone, now.”

”One of the organization members named Shmuetax did help us defeat the guardian of the underground as well. Although much like the consuls they didn’t explain why. I do wonder if they are warring factions, with the organization being much better about getting us on their side than the consuls…” Sectonia said, mentioning their help in the Under.

“And then Xatow in Midgar, the Organization member who tipped us off several times,” Sandalphon added. “While they've been helpful, the intelligence shared by Roxas about the original Organization indicates that we must be wary of their ultimate motives. They most likely intend to use us to help them obtain Kingdom Hearts, a power source said to be capable of remaking reality.” She peered at Roxas. “If I recall correctly.” This got a nod of confirmation from Roxas.

”I wonder if it can even do that. Certainly if there are tons of worlds out there, other worlds have such an item and yet nothing has come of it. Really the only question is if these organization people are part of the ‘cycles’ of this world or if they are outside of them like the Consuls.” Roland said.

”It can.” Roxas said, unflinching. ”And even if it couldn’t, that doesn’t change the fact that Organization XIII still believes that it can. Especially considering their leader.” He said and then added, ”Speaking of which, I was able to confirm who the leader of this world’s Organization XIII is, right from the mouth of Xatow herself. He’s a man named Xehanort. Long story short, he tried to use Kingdom Hearts to remake the world where we came from, so if he’s the one giving the Organization their orders, then I’d bet my Keyblades that Kingdom Hearts is his goal again. Even if you’re right and Kingdom Hearts can’t actually remake the world, I have no doubt that Xehanort still believes that it can.”

”Sectonia’s Chaos Heart is also one such item, it was once used in an attempt to destroy and remake several realities, but I have to assume that Galeem put in safeguards against such things?” Kamek noted, frankly rather glad to no-longer had to hold onto that information ”It would be rather foolish of it to leave that power laying around for so long otherwise”

Well, that explains why Kamek seemed to be uneasy around Sectonia at times. She’d have to figure out her feelings towards the situation later, although all things being said, she did never ask. ”That explains its extreme dark power. I’m still gathering power, so perhaps that will come in time.” Granted, her desire was to rule, not to destroy, so that could be a limiting factor on this power instead of Galeem perhaps.

As for Roland’s other inquiry, Primrose answered. "From what the Organization girl in the Under told us, they aren't part of the same loop. Freed by someone or something, she implied that this 'Organization' has been at it for a while. Much longer than we have."

”Do they have their own secret of immortality?” Ganondorf inquired. ”The Consuls have only lived for as long as they have because of their Flame Clocks. Does this “Organization XIII” have an equivalent of their own?”

Goldlewis shook his head, a look of consternation on his face. “Compared to Moebius, we know even less about the doggone Organization. They’re a total wild card. The devil we don’t know, as they say.”

”Speak for yourself.” Roxas muttered under his breath. He knew all he needed to know about the Organization. And even if some people here weren’t inclined to treat them as hostile, well… he would, no matter what.

After taking stock of the discussion Sandalphon spoke up once more. “We’ve covered a lot of ground so far, sharing intel on Moebius, the Organization, and the World of Light itself. Our next step is to solidify a plan for what to do next, including what regions and guardians to target, since our main goal remains unchanged.” She paused, her pupils turning to V symbols. “Before we can do that, however, I must share something of my own.”

Sandalphon straightened up, her arms crossed as she stared at the geoscape before her. “This morning, when I received reports of the Machines massing for a full invasion, I made a number of calls. I reached out to every point of contact I could, including the Sector 07 Militia, my YoRHa androids, the Lateran Church, the Hermits, our allies from the Vandelay Campus raid, Neuron,
and Psych-OSF, both the main force and the rebellious Seiran Garrison. While Shinra consolidated his forces, and we delved deep below his building, an army of our own marched forth to meet the Machines in battle before they could lay waste to the city. Ultimately, our forces were victorious, but victory came at a price.” She paused again, her pupils becoming stress marks. “When the Seiran OSF took the field, they deployed their ace in the hole: their Other Weapons, humans-turned-Others rehabilitated in their secret research facility. Among these Other Weapons was Peach. Following the battle, she…was among the casualties.”

Goldlewis gritted his teeth, downcast. “God, no…”

More than anything else so far, the news stunned both Tora and Poppi. “Peach-Peach…” Nadia stared at them, then back at Sandalphon, swallowing as a chill ran down her spine. This was the first revelation that left her stunned, and for once in her life her cheerful facade was gone.

Geralt looked as if he’d been struck in the face, but he quickly composed himself, closing his eyes and letting out a deep exhale. Zenkichi, on the other hand, looked at Bowser and the Koopa Troop worriedly. He definitely remembered that name in the context of video games, and he was pretty sure Bowser wouldn’t be taking that one easily.

Primrose and Therion hadn't known the princess save for sharing a picnic with her in Twilight Town, so they stayed respectfully quiet. It wasn't the first and surely wouldn't be the last time they lost a member of the team, but the knowledge was sobering all the same. Pit and Roxas stared at Sandalphon with wide eyes. Elsewhere, Captain Falcon silently slammed a gloved fist on the table in front of him, then bowed his head with eyes closed for a moment of silence. And in his own mind he wondered how in the world they would be able to break this kind of news to Mario and Luigi, since he couldn’t imagine they would take the news very well.

"No way, Princess Peach was...?" Pit knew that Peach had become an Other, but they were going to find a cure for her. They were supposed to go back and help her once they'd figured out how! Now she was gone? His heart clenched painfully, but he found himself looking to the Koopa family who had unquestionably known her best. Blazermate was in the same boat, a sad look on her face as she looked at the koopas, knowing Bowser had a very strong thing for Peach. Sectonia was also looking at the koopa family with a worried expression, as she picked up on all the signs of what had been going on through the brief interaction she had seen. Ganondorf was silent, and instead simply watched Bowser in case he needed to stop him from doing something stupid in his inevitable anger.

What he saw was at first simply a look of collective shock, then Bowser began shaking, claws digging hard into the geoscape table, damaging it as he did so and then of all things turned on Midna while roaring ”You! You did this, you left her with them and now she’s-” fists balled up with fury, while Kamek tried and failed to stop him with a ”Sire, wait!”

Midna took a half step back but stood her ground as she yelled ”I didn’t know! They were supposed to help her” back at him, venting her feeling of betrayal at him in the same way he was venting his rage and Peach’s death at her.

By then, half the Seekers in attendance had sprung to their feet, Goldlewis among them. While Tora equipped his shield, ready to jump in and protect someone if needed, the veteran took a more proactive approach. Goldlewis fearlessly interposed himself in front of the giant, enraged dragon-turtle, his bare hands raised. “HEY! Sit your ass down before I seat you myself!” he bellowed. “I get you’re mad, but if you think takin’ it out on us is gonna fly, you got another think comin’!”

Bowser snorted flames in response as if to say “I’d like to see you try” before reeling his fist back and preparing to strike, only to stop as Jr grabbed his leg with a ”Papa wait”, Kamek to grab his upper arm with a shadow clone of the king himself, pupped threads linking it back to the mage, while Rika stepped forwards with much less alarm to grab his shoulder with a ”ah, what they said”

Blazermate began to think for a bit on how to help reduce the tension in the room so they could figure something out. Even if it was temporary it’d help. And after thinking for a bit, she came up with an idea. Now if it was good or would make things worse, she wouldn’t know. ”Hey… wouldn’t she just resurrect at one of those resurrection circle thingies here soon then? Although we’d need to find her, friend heart her, and catch her back up to her missing a week of events…” Blazermate said, putting the admittedly cold idea out there. Her point was, it wasn’t a permanent thing. It was more… a medabot swapping bodies.

”They’re right, your furiousness, we can fix this, we just have to win this, and we need everyone on side to do so!” Kamek agreed/insisted as Bowser tugged his arm against the grip of the doppelganger of himself. As always, the inferior copy was no match, and he wrenched his hand free. He did not lash out however, but instead simply shook it out and replied with a not at all happy sounding ”Fine”

He started to turn away to return to his spot, only for Midna to step around Goldlewis and tell him that ”I’m sorry. We’ve lost too many people” causing Jr to subconsciously reach for Omori’s hair stick that he was wearing, before insisting ”They’re right. We can fix this” as she brought out the Eliacube and symbolically used it to repair the damage he’d done to the Geoscape.

The moment was slightly undermined by how the cube seemed to draw the eyes and attention of those who saw it, the strange artifact claimed from Nox seeming to radiate an inherent importance.

Though Sandalphon found her gaze lingering on the Eliacube, she forced herself to look back toward the Koopa Troop after a couple seconds. Though the artifact’s secondary function had been unintentional, Midna had managed to help de-escalate the situation by providing a potent distraction. “If you must blame anyone, please blame me,” Sandalphon told Bowser. “I failed to consider all the possible ramifications of my actions this morning.”

“Look, it’s fine,” Nadia cut in. “I know you goody two-shoe types are always itching to take responsibility, but it’s the fault of whoever transformed her. Simple as that.” She sighed. “She was my friend, too. When we fought together on the seaside, I saw that she was a good person, just in over her head and trying to do her best, like all of us. We’ll all keep our eyes out for a new Peach out there, okay?” With what the others said about dreams, plus her own dreams of dying, it seemed like reincarnation really was on the table, albeit with memory loss. Still, a part of her wasn’t so sure, even if she made sure not to give voice to it. She glanced at Sandalphon. “Any more bad news?”

The archangel shook her head. “None on my part,” she lied, her expression mildly pained. “All that remains is to construct a plan for what to do next.”