[center]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 5,518 (+6) (+3 rapport)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 14 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](189/140)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 10 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](108/100)
[b][color=0054a6]Witch: Level 2 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=0054a6]/////////////////[/color](17/20)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Avenger
[/center]

Plates and cutlery were not set neatly away as the kids and the Witch bailed on the mess hall and headed for the Armory. Most of Jr’s minions accompanied them, with Peeka the flutter mane floating along above them, and Mimi the mimikyu sat on his shoulder (Dazzle would only slow them down and so was stored in his ball). As a result it was the stubby legged koopa prince doing the slowing, or more accurately occasionally scampering to keep up with the two taller humanoids. Well, only somewhat taller in Rika’s case, she’d lost a fair bit of height thanks to one of her fusions.

As they walked, Rika tried to engage in some light conversation [color=Aquamarine]”Soooo, um, oh! What is it you do that not having magic won’t let you do?”[/color]

[color=0054a6]“Can’t you tell? I’m a Witch.”[/color] Even in other worlds, where science had grown dominant, people must have heard the age-old tale of the wicked sorceress. [i]Beware the woman who becomes too wise, who becomes too strange. If she grows powerful beyond her station, it may be that she consorts with unholy powers.[/i] A false accusation more often than not, but in her case it was quite an apt description.

[color=0054a6]“What the uneducated call magic, I call thaumaturgy. And with it, I can do just about anything I please.”[/color] Burn things, freeze things, zap things with electricity—what more could a young lady need? [color=0054a6]“If what they’re saying about this place is true, though, I’ll have to get creative. Weapons never really were my strong suit, but I suppose I’ll try anything once.”[/color] This Rika seemed to know where she was going, and so the Witch stuck by her, though not without a curious glance at some of the Seeker’s more mismatched and exotic features. Was she part machine, or was all that mess around her hips just part of the elaborate outfit?

[color=Aquamarine]”Oh? No, I couldn't tell”[/color] Rika replied without a hint of embarrassment or shame at this ignorance [color=Aquamarine]”I’ve never met a witch before, or got told what those are. I don’t think they had any at sea. Or the Abyssal Fleet didn’t care enough to distinguish between different kinds of magic - or, uh, ‘thaumaturgy’ - users. Probably that one. They didn’t teach their cannon fodder much at all”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Couldn't tell either. You don’t have the hat”[/color] Jr poked his head into their conversation to add, before clarifying to his confused sister that the hat in questions hat he was referencing [color=SpringGreen]”Pointy, wide brim, like that one Kamek’s got but black usually”[/color]

[color=Aquamarine]”Oh”[/color] Rika replied, before saying [color=Aquamarine]”I don’t think there were any more pointy hats, but there was an ice-y wand of some kind? For after the magic suppress-y stuff is done“[/color] to the Witch in another attempt to be helpful.

[color=0054a6]“Hmm.”[/color] The Witch looked idly thoughtful. [color=0054a6]“I used to wear a lot of hats. Helmets, circlets, crowns… Perhaps I ought to dress up more, now that I’m in such high company.”[/color] Whether or not she meant that part seriously was hard to tell. She sounded a little sarcastic, but then she nearly always did with that flat tone of hers.

All the same, Arika’s mention of a potential treasure drew immediate and obvious interest from the young sorceress. [color=0054a6]“A wand? There’s little I’d like more. If I lend you a hand, would you give it to me?”[/color] They’d probably give her a gun just to help with the upcoming trials, but a powerful magical object would be another story. The Witch understood how relationships worked: you gave someone a thing they wanted, and they’d give you something in return. [color=0054a6][i]So what do you want, lost sailor girl?[/i][/color]

[color=0054a6]“Your Abyssal Fleet? Are they still afloat?”[/color] Her look was one of pity, but it was hard not to see the mocking twist to it. [color=0054a6]“They didn’t value you very well, did they? Or else you’d never have deserted them.”[/color] She leaned in eerily close, lowering her voice as she did. [color=0054a6]“Help me gather treasures, and grow powerful, and I’ll sink them all for you. You can even listen to their screams while I do it.”[/color]

Rika leaned back just a little, more confused than unnerved by this sinister closeness, and then of all things was apologetic when she said [color=Aquamarine]”Oh. Thanks? But they’re mostly gone. Some of the others sank their leaders and the rest are mostly lost without them”[/color]   before adding [color=Aquamarine]”I… Probably should have done something about that, helped them or something, but didn’t really know what… so I just… didn’t”[/color] with little in the way of disguising the emotion in her voice, a mix of embarrassment, failure and genuinely feeling lost.

Then she shook her head and the feelings were put away as she tried to pivot away, only to run right back aground and dredge them up another set of raw hurt [color=Aquamarine]”Um. Anyway. Wand’s in the armory so it's more or less free for anyone to take. But I can keep an eye out for magic-y stuff if that helps you help take down Galeem if you want? You don’t need to make it scream or anything, I just don’t want to go back to the fleet when I die”[/color]  

[color=SpringGreen]”You're not going to die”[/color] Jr insisted from behind them, but Rika seemed more or less resigned to the fact that [color=Aquamarine]”I mean I will. Eventually. Something'll get me and then Galeem’d bring a me who isn’t me back as part of the fleet and I’ll never be the me I am now ever again. And I [i]hate[/i] that”[/color]

How disappointing. The Witch would have loved to try and ruin that fleet herself, all the more if there’d been a juicy reward waiting for her at the end. Now it seemed like she’d get her prize without a fight, and as convenient as that was, it just didn’t feel as satisfying.

Perhaps she’d perk up again once she had a chance to kill something with it? Her eyes drifted off into space for a moment, seemingly no longer focused on Rika—only to suddenly swing back when the conversation turned in an interesting direction. Death? The Witch knew plenty about that. It wasn’t a topic she often got to talk about in polite company, but this girl had gone and brought it up all by herself.

And the sorceress, like a shadow, was at her side again. [color=0054a6]“Life is fleeting. Everything dies, and we’d be fools to pretend otherwise.”[/color] A pointed glance at Junior accompanied that last part, before her almost doting attention returned itself to Rika. [color=0054a6]“It’s not death that you fear, though. Only what comes after. A you who isn’t you, your soul twisted back into a shape you’d thought long abandoned. Poor, poor thing!”[/color] She might have grinned at the end there, and even felt sorely tempted to do so. Just this once, though, she exercised restraint.

[color=0054a6]“But you shouldn’t go along quietly. I wouldn’t.”[/color] People feared and reviled necromancers, but for what? Perhaps it was only their terror of death itself, spilling over onto all those who danced with it. [color=0054a6]“Who’s to say a soul can’t stick around after dying? I’ve seen it done. Some of the dead even chose to enter my service.”[/color] She raised an eyebrow, and extended one pale hand towards the girl. [color=0054a6]“If you’re going to die anyway, you may as well come and work for me. Under my guidance, you won’t end up anything like you were before.”[/color]

[color=Aquamarine]”It can? I mean the fleet was resurrecting people, but it really messed the ones they used it up. All jumbled up bits instead of looking like me and you.  Plus Kamek tried to copy that power but it never seemed to work. The spell needed the body and the spirit and with the body going all ashy here it was basically impossible to stop it from blowing away or getting, like, messy with other dust or ash or something”[/color] Rika replied with somewhat casual frustration at this having not worked. 

[color=SpringGreen]”Yeah I didn’t even try to learn that stuff when I got that spirit off of him. Keeping people alive in the first place with this cat’s magic is way easier than that mess”[/color] the cat tail sporting Jr added in, hurrying to catch up, before asking the Witch [color=SpringGreen]”also do you mean like, ghosts, when you talked about people sticking around? Coz I mean that’s what these two are”[/color] and then pointing at both of his ghost type pokemon. 

[color=SpringGreen]”But I think they got taken here rather than died here? They were Galeeming after all”[/color] he added, before adding unsurely [color=SpringGreen]”if that’s even how ghost type pokemon work?”[/color] prompting Rika to shrug and give him a ‘why are you asking me?’ look before getting back to the point 

[color=Aquamarine]”Anyway, um, yeah. Dying is like, I've done it before. A lot. At least I remember it in dreams how it was like to be thrown to my death over and over like some peon. So I do not want to go back to that, and the way to do that is punching Galeem in its stupid face”[/color] she flexed her hands and balled them into fists, the gauntlets on her back doing the same while staring off into the distance, before turning a smile to the Witch [color=Aquamarine]”So if you can, pick me back up so I can have a second run a it that’d be great!”[/color] probably not entirely aware of what that might involve getting herself into.

[color=0054a6]“A ghost would only be a hassle. I was thinking of a spectre: much more reliable.”[/color] There were so many wonderful types of undead: spirits, skeletons, zombies, phantasms, wraiths, Gemlings, Liches, the Pocked… And yet she’d never encountered anything quite like those pets the not-dragon had with him. For a short moment she fell silent, examining them with clear curiosity as she considered the benefits and risks of trying to dissect one of them.

But such investigations could come in their own time. [color=0054a6]“Don’t worry, Rika: I’ll make sure your death doesn’t go to waste. I might not have the power yet, but soon…”[/color] Oh, if only they knew the heights she’d once reached! Her current paltry handful of spells was nothing compared to the godlike arsenal she’d once wielded. On the other hand, she was growing again, and this visit to the armory would be yet another step in regaining her true strength.

[color=0054a6]“...Soon I’ll grow strong enough to cut that god’s heart out and eat it.”[/color]

On that delightful note, here was the armory. The Witch vaguely remembered the map of the airship, but ahead of her now lay a chamber she’d never physically explored before, one so filled with treasures she could practically smell them. Almost in a trance, she stepped forward and took in the Avenger’s hoard, murmuring words of appraisal that no one but her could hear.

[color=SpringGreen]”Weren't we going to the spirit chamber first?”[/color] Jr asked as the Witch became enthralled with the armory’s eclectic contents, to which Rika replied that [color=Aquamarine]”I didn’t want to keep her waiting. She seemed so excited and helpful”[/color] very much misreading the situation.

They decided to have a look as well, noting that the armory had gained few new objects, including, of all things, dozens of spirits of various bandits.

[color=SpringGreen]”Wow, someone’s been busy- and also kinda lazy given they just dumped these here”[/color] Jr commented as he picked up and examined a bottle containing a noteless fading spirit [color=SpringGreen]”like, what, are they expecting someone else to crush hundreds of spirits for them?”[/color] 

[color=Aquamarine]”With that hat on and everything. Its ouchy even with you healing me up while using it”[/color] Rika agreed, before adding that [color=Aquamarine]”still it is kinda fun to find out what you get”[/color]

The Witch carefully perused the objects on display, picking up and examining several before tossing them back with a sigh. [color=0054a6]“Too. Much. Clutter.”[/color] The quality wasn’t great either—most of the items here were far from their full potential. She’d need to get in here and do some serious crafting later, but for now she sequestered just a few small pieces: health and mana flasks, the ice wand Rika had mentioned earlier, and a horned circlet that she daintily set upon her head.

[color=0054a6]“...And this must be the snake gun.”[/color] With unhesitating precision, she seized it from among the myriad firearms and turned it over in her hands. [color=0054a6]“Hmm.”[/color] She’d never used a firearm before, but this one seemed as though it’d be quite useful indeed, albeit perhaps not in the way its maker had intended. Nothing like a bit of synergy to really make things fun.

[hider=for Witch]
Health Potion x 2
Mana Potion x 2
[url=https://i.imgur.com/TPtYfIM.png]Dagon[/url] A rare twin-headed ice wand that boosts the power of ice spells and has a 50% base chance to inflict Frozen if used as a melee weapon, although its melee damage is fairly low and it loses extra durability when used that way.
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/DTQhywe.png]Snake Shotgun[/url][/b] A shotgun with recoil and other stats comparable to a sawed-off. When its trigger is pulled it shoots three green snakes at once. The snakes are alive and can be killed but don't have spirits. After being shot they single-mindedly pursue the nearest living thing they can smell in order to bite them. The bites are venomous, causing pain and paralysis that builds up over multiple bites. The snakes can and will attack both allies and the shooter if they're too close. The trigger can be pulled ten times for a grand total of thirty snakes before the shotgun is useless. Ammo pickups do not replenish the weapon.
[url=https://i.imgur.com/vNi2bBH.png]Loki’s Horns[/url]: A removable horned headband. When the wearer shoots/throws/otherwise uses a projectile, there is a 25% base chance that three copies of that projectile fly out in different directions: 90 degrees to the left and right of the original direction, and the opposite of the original direction.
[/hider]

She let it dangle from one hand in a profoundly unsafe manner as she wandered back over to Junior and Rika. [color=0054a6]“They don’t seem very strong…”[/color] She examined the spirits with a frown. [color=0054a6]“Still, we might get lucky. Why don’t you try first?”[/color]

[color=Aquamarine]”Well we’ll need to get the hat to do that. Which maybe should just be up here anyway?”[/color] Rika replied, before asking [color=Aquamarine]”Do you, um, know how to use one of those”[/color] as she took in the way the Witch was holding her new gun.

[color=SpringGreen]”Yeah that is not how you… Ok we go down to the spirit chamber with some”[/color] Jr suggested, not even needing to get talked into ‘stealing’ from the public storage apparently, while adding on that [color=SpringGreen]”and while we do that, we can give you some tips on how to, you know, not shoot yourself with snakes. Or us. Or any of the thing’s that’ll be stopping us from being turned into old people down in the rain”[/color] 

[color=0054a6]“I don’t know,”[/color] the Witch answered, as she stared absentmindedly down the barrel. [color=0054a6]“I like surprises. Besides, the Inter-knot made it sound easy enough.”[/color] Pursing her lips, she raised the shotgun and aimed it with both arms outstretched, like she was holding a pistol. Just squeeze the trigger, and out came the snakes, wasn’t that it? She’d have happily demonstrated right there and then, were it not for the weapon’s unfortunately limited ammunition.

[color=Aquamarine]”ah, um, yeah not like that, you'll hit yourself in the face if you don't drop it. Here, let me just-”[/color] Rika said, before stepping in close to try and physically adjust the firing pose: 

[color=Aquamarine]”this hand up here, not there, then pull it all back like this to brace this bit against your upper arm here and then pull it all up like this so you can aim down the sights and that's how you should be doing it with a bigger gun”[/color]

The Witch’s skin was cool to the touch, her bones tangible underneath. All the same, she played along nicely enough, offering no resistance at all to Rika’s adjustments. Her blue eyes narrowed as she squinted down the barrel, perhaps picturing some unfortunate creature about to receive a faceful of writhing serpents.

[color=0054a6]“…I see. It feels more comfortable this way.”[/color] Her finger waggled uncomfortably close to the trigger, only to pull away just a blink before disaster.

[color=Aquamarine]”oh and that goes here, so you don’t accidentally pull the trigger when something hits you”[/color] Rika helpful added, going so far as to move this threatening finger so it was outside the trigger guard. Only then did she step back, taking the aura of heat that had been like standing at a comfortable distance from a roaring fire with her, and looking quite pleased with herself. The girl, whatever she was inside, ran hot.

[color=SpringGreen]”Ok, yeah, that’s better”[/color] jr said, having left his sister to do these adjustments, and having gathered up an armful of spirit bottles [color=SpringGreen]”Now let's get down to the chamber and crack these”[/color]

The Witch’s gaze followed after Rika, the expression beneath it unreadable. Then, a moment later, the sorceress slowly nodded. Lowering her shotgun and tucking it at least a little more safely under one arm, she gathered a few bandit spirits of her own and followed behind the young Not-dragon.

There were a few more safety tips as they traveled down to the spirit chamber, but overall that talk and trip passed mostly without incident till they arrived at their destination.

Within the chamber sat various machines to do with fusion, naturally, as well as, rather out of place, the awful looking chest with teeth that could for some reason be worn as a hat. Rika put down the helmet she had been carrying under her arm down, and then picked up the stupid hat and popped it on her head, making a little inhale of pain as she did so as the delightful artifacted started, for a lack of a better word, nibbling at her.


She waved an outstretched hand, into which Jr put the spirits one at a time, the ship girl crushing them almost at once and then putting the resulting item down on a table. Then as soon as she was done, she pulled off the hat, and her brother raised the oversized paint brush he carried around and cast [color=SpringGreen]”Cure!”[/color] washing away the cuts and grazes the hat had inflicted in a burst of pure white magic.

Rika let out a little breath of relief, and then leaned over the spoils as she asked [color=Aquamarine]”So what did we get?”[/color] 

[hider=for Rika]
Items obtained:
[b]Copper Reeve[/b] x882
Triangular coins of little individual value. It takes 500 to equal 1 silver reeve
[b]Leather Boots[/b] x4
Basic outdoors footwear, made from tanned hide
[b]Leather Jerkin[/b] x2
Tanned hide made into clothing that can scarcely be called armor, as it's better for the cold than stopping attacks
[b]Bandit Hood[/b] x5 (assorted colors)
Dusty and frayed cloth that's good for keeping the sun off one's face and the sand from one's eyes
[b]Rope Coil[/b] x3
Wound fibers with respectable tensile strength, used for connection and restriction
[b]Iron Knife[/b] x7
Standard make and material, but even a weapon as basic as this has the power to take the life. Also useful as an all-purpose tool
[/hider]

[color=SpringGreen]”Yeesh. Who were these guys?”[/color] Jr complained, to which Rika replied that [color=Aquamarine]”Must have been a load of peons”[/color] as she poked the pile of copper coins with a disappointed expression on her face, before asking the Witch [color=Aquamarine]”think you’ll have better luck?”[/color] not at all sounding confident that she would

The Witch’s best efforts yielded only a similar pile of junk, but that was no matter. She was rather used to having to sift through heaps of trash to find a single treasure, and at the very least some of the items here would help fill out her tattered clothing. In the meantime, while the other two had been trying their luck, she’d kept herself busy tweaking and fiddling with her gear from the armory, adjusting each item so she could slot in the tiny gemstones she used for her spells. While she couldn’t change the properties of an object outright (at least, not with the resources currently on hand), her skilled hands and subtle enhancements would help bring each one a little closer to what she needed.

[hider=Witchy crafting]
Health Potion x 2: Now slowly refill themselves as the Witch kills enemies (average of 5% per kill).
Mana Potion x 2: Now slowly refill themselves as the Witch kills enemies (average of 5% per kill).
Dagon: Additional melee attack effect - guaranteed Chill/slow on hit.
Snake Shotgun: Now has significantly reduced recoil.
Loki’s Horns: When the additional projectile effect is triggered, it now spawns two projectiles at 45-degree angles to the original and one directly behind.
[/hider]

Much better. She settled the horns back on her head, tucked away her new wand, and lastly slid the shotgun into an improvised leather holster she’d put together out of the bandit junk. With this, and a fresh pair of boots, she felt about as ready as she reasonably could be for the chaos to come.

She was certainly having a better time of it than the two kids, who foolishly did not see the inherent value in a free pair of boots. So up in rarity their gambling went instead.

[color=SpringGreen]”We got those two better spirits from yesterday to go through though, so we’ve gotta get something good out of all this, right?”[/color] Junior said as he pulled two jars out of his duffle bag. This resulted first in Rika perking up, and then looking a little resigned about having to go back into head-chewing town.

But go back into it she did, in order to crush the spirits of a very large crab with some sort of wheeled machine stuck to its back and a… smiling sausage man?

The first item resulted in an entire chest materializing in the girl’s hand, which thudded to the ground, clicking open with a puff of cold air, and revealing cut upon cut of fresh flesh.

[hider=for Rika]
A coldbox full of succulent crab meat: a few dozen portions at least
[/hider]

The second exploded into a shower of green bits of paper that burst upwards out of the girl’s grip, and then rained down over all of them.

[color=Aquamarine]”What was-”[/color] Rika began to ask as she pulled off the hat, before looking up at the shower and identifying it as [color=Aquamarine]”-Oh. Money? Guess that works”[/color]

[hider=for Rika]
1000$ (in various small bills)
[/hider]

What followed was the pair of kids scrambling to catch/pick up all the paper bills and stuffing them into various boots in order to stop them laying around all loose, after which they inspected the chest’s contents. The conclusion to said contents was quite simple: [color=SpringGreen]”Guess it’ll be seafood for dinner again then”[/color] 

Which meant they were going to have to go through yet another detour, this time lugging the chest of fish meat back to the mess hall where they’d started this whole little outing in, before finally hauling the greed hat and crucible to the armory where they dropped off all the junk/treasure they weren't keeping a hold of.

While they were at this, Jr asked the Witch [color=SpringGreen]”So what’s with the crystals and whatever it was you were doing with your new stuff?”[/color]

The Witch paused from her dumping of excess bandit loot to hold up a tiny blue gemstone, partly nested within an elaborate crescent of gold. [color=0054a6]“Virtue gems; nightmare crushed down into pretty little pieces of rock. Mementos from a journey I finished long ago.”[/color] Briefly enraptured by her own demonstration, she turned the jewel so that it caught the light, shining a brilliant azure. [color=0054a6]“The Eternals thought that implanting these in their flesh would let them live forever. And they were right, after a sense… But I think they’re better used as tools. Conduits for my mana, giving it form and clarity.”[/color] She turned the gem slightly, and Rika would see that the gold upon it was sculpted to resemble a comet of raging fire—a fireball gem.

The Witch wasted little time in slotting it back into its place along the stem of her wand. [color=0054a6]“Now it obeys me, just as the fire obeys it. And in time, its cousins will answer to me too.”[/color]

[color=Aquamarine]”Neat”[/color] Rika declared this simply, the way she leaned in to take a close look at the sparkly gem far better conveying her interest, before inquiring, as simply [color=Aquamarine]”and what kind of journey was that?”[/color]

In response, the woman only chuckled ominously to herself. [color=0054a6]“The kind with a sorry start and a beautiful ending. Perhaps one day I’ll tell you… But I’m not much of a storyteller.”[/color] She picked up the rest of her things, and promptly set off. [color=0054a6]“Anyhow, we’ve got more pressing things to worry about right now.”[/color] This second journey of hers hadn’t started all that well either, but she had a feeling things were soon about to get much more fun.

[hr]

Eventually, after much running around from room to room, the Witch and the kids arrived at the vehicle bay again, just in time to hear the twin announcements, the latter of which resulted in Jr throwing up his hands and complaining [color=SpringGreen]”Wait we could have just done half of that now!? Urrrgh”[/color] before also scowling at Edward for taking specifically Baby Mario out of the assorted BBs.

[color=Aquamarine]”I mean, we kinda gotta get ready to go so it’d have been a whole rush. Plus that was fun,”[/color] Rika replied, before she first sat down on the floor, and then reached behind her and started to fiddle with the straps attaching her gauntlets to her back.

[color=SpringGreen]”Urh, right, yeah hang on”[/color] her brother said to her, before stomping around behind her and helping her out with that, before also assisting her in strapping the gauntlets onto her forearms, leaving the giant pile of weird sword machines strapped back there. 

A few moments later, and the ship girl stood back up, forearms now contained with a pair of oversized equivalents that she nonetheless lifted with ease. With two fingers she picked up her helmet and placed it on her head, before tapping a strip of cloth to herself, and instantly gaining a set of full plate armor. Around her hips, the twin sets of guns and two clawed limbs flexed and shifted before returning to a passive state as Rika briefly tested all her gear’s systems. Finally, a spear with a vertebrae themed halberd tip on one end and a double barreled gun on the other teleported onto her back, held there by a long strap.

[color=Aquamarine]”Alright, I’m good to go!”[/color] she declared, setting her eyes on the dwindling pile of rain survival gear. In contrast to this armoring up, her brother was down to just his clothes and a duffle bag, his minions stored in their pokeballs, his paint brush in the armory. He also said that [color=SpringGreen]”I’ma leave the car, it’ll just turn into a bathtub anyway”[/color] to Rika without any extra context for the Witch to go off of.

Looking at Rika now, the Witch had to admit she still had a lot of catching up to do in terms of equipment. Still, she’d come a long way from the scraps she’d relied on back in Meridi-at-Han… Without any trepidation, or indeed any feelings at all, she quietly donned a raincoat and shield pack. [color=0054a6]“...Yes,”[/color] she murmured to herself, almost too quietly for the others to hear. [color=0054a6]“That was fun.”[/color] Putting together a viable kit from a set of wildly varied items reminded her of the old times, of Wraeclast, perhaps the closest place she’d ever had to a home. True, nearly everything on that poisoned continent had been trying to kill her, but it had also been the making of her, the experience that transformed her from an odd young girl into an unstoppable force of destruction.

Perhaps this Dead Zone would be much the same.

Into a smaller ship they filed, crammed together like prisoners whilst that irritating angel babbled on about the challenges ahead. Poor sleep? Nightmares? Thoughts of her own death? The Witch outright smirked at Sandalphon’s warnings, a list of so-called symptoms that more or less described her everyday life. She was no stranger to nightmares, and certainly did not fear them. She’d learned long ago to embrace the darkness, to let it inside and accept it as part of herself. If the fine hairs on the back of her neck now stood on end, it was out of anticipation, the desire to see for herself a land so poisonous and foul. She wondered: would she and it get along?

[hr]

The Pelican touched down and the seekers filed out in short order into the land of rain and mud, water pouring endlessly down from the heavens atop of them, slicking the ground and pounding against the plastic raincoats.

Jr’s already had holes in the back, so it wasn’t helping him much, prompting him to immediately complain that [color=SpringGreen]”They blew this place up and wiped out all the gross monsters and yet it's still the worst! Stupid Dead Zone”[/color] before kicking a clump of mud

[color=Aquamarine]”I mean it's not the Maw-”[/color] Rika replied, causing both to shudder, and put an end to end complaining on their end. Not that they really had any right to complain, as they had both found puddles to stand, somehow, on top of, rather than putting up with sinking into the mud like everyone else was.

The Witch trudged up beside them, staring out at the dull and rain-soaked landscape. [color=0054a6]“How do I keep ending up in such lovely places?”[/color] Her tone dripped with sarcasm, accompanied by far more literal droplets splashing off the rim of her hood. The terrain didn’t look like much to the untrained eye, but she could feel the fear and malice seething just beneath the surface, a vast hostility without direction nor intent.

[color=0054a6]“The dead are restless here. I can almost hear them.”[/color] Her voice was calm, but her breathing had intensified a little. [color=0054a6]“If I only had time to study it, I could master this land… Ah, well.”[/color] The group was setting off, and she knew better to tarry behind. Step by steady step, she began to pick her way across the land, keeping one eye always on the BB carriers and their strange twitching machines.

For whatever reason, her two new hangers on followed along with her, though at the very least they did offer a bit of help. The main manner of this came from Rika, who deployed a pair of little hovering drones (still bearing their pretty freaky [url=https://i.imgur.com/DepMuNJ.png]abyssal designs[/url]) which went and hovered over the leading BB carriers, allowing a much better, constant, eye and ear on them than trying to glance over/through the group could give.

Which was convenient for the 2 short kids, that was for sure, as well as for anyone else near them in the group who overheard her say that [color=Aquamarine]”If they spot something, I’ll know right away thanks to those, so we can focus on not sinking in the mud”[/color]