Edward had sat himself next to the Ace Cadet and Miss Fortune to eat lunch, and immediately regretted doing so as he found himself functionally third wheeling as the two focused on each other. An entirely fair thing to do, given the circumstances of what they’d just lived through, but it certainly managed to be a fair bit awkward on his end. As such he made a concerted effort to hustle his way through his meal, though by no means as fast as the feline-form had her first burger, so that he could then politely excuse himself.

He did, to be fair, have things to do.

Setting his cutlery neatly down, the man lightly cleared his throat and then said ”Well, it has been lovely, but I will need to head off take a stint in one of the workshops repairing my magelock rifle, if it is at all salvageable” intending to be on his way.

Ace gave the man a quick nod of acknowledgement, almost half forgetting he'd been there in the first place, but a few moments after the man had departed the hunter properly registered what he'd said. Repairing a rifle. Ace had taken note of the man's equipment during the day when he could (as he took an obvious interest in that kind of thing) and found that while there was definitely an air of magic around what he carried, it was far from what Ace had come to expect from the magic users among the Seekers. There was also a technological aspect as far as he could tell. Ace had only really spoken to him just recently when they both ended up out of the fight, but he didn't get the sense that the dreadnought was a loner or anything like that... so this might be a good opportunity, for a couple of different things.

The Cadet stood up rather suddenly, scooping the couple's empty plates up.

"Sorry, there's actually something I wanna work on too," he told Nadia. Rather than offer her any more explanation or an apologetic smile, the hunter leaned over the table to give her a fleeting kiss. Then he moved to dump the tableware with the rest of the dirty dishes, calling back, "I'll see you later!"

The feral wasn’t one to dwell on such things. She just made an exaggerated smooch sound and waved Ace off. “See ya!”

Edward hadn't actually gotten too far, so it was easy enough for Ace to catch up with him. The monster hunter fell into step next to the other man.

"Hey! Uh-" Oh, dungpods. Had they actually been introduced? "They call me Ace. Is it Ya-cool with you if I tag along?"

Edward seemed a little surprised at Ace’s appearance by the look on his face as he turned to Ace, but it was quickly put away, the man nodding and saying that ”By all means” Ace was free to come along.

That journey could wait for a moment however, as he paused his stride and turned fully to Ace, before saying ”My apologies for not introducing myself after you saved my life” before offering Ace a hand to shake and rectifying his mistake by introducing himself as ”Edward Portsmith, at your service”

Now it was Ace's turn to be surprised. Not having expected his newest acquaintance to stop he ended up a couple steps ahead. Edward's formal tone didn't bother him, though it did make Ace take the introduction a little more seriously. He grasped the offered hand to return the handshake firmly, though it wasn't long at all before a friendly smile made its way onto Ace's face.

"I can't really take credit fur the felynes. Or at least not full credit," he said honestly. "Nice to officially meet you though!"

With the introduction complete, the two could continue on to Edward's workshop of choice. The day before Ace had used one of them to make a bunch of ammo, and he considered going to collect the materials he'd taken from the Qliphoth that he'd dumped with the bulkier pieces of his armor for now. Ultimately though if he got to crafting it would be more of a distraction than anything.

As they walked, Ace didn't hesitate to start a conversation. "When we were crossing the Dead Zone, I saw you use a bowgun that could heal. I was Quru-ous if it used special ammo or if it was something built into it. Is that the rifle you mentioned?"

”Ah, no, that would be… something Midna acquired…” he paid briefly, rather than simply roll forwards without a moment of silence for the dead, and in that moment decided to retract the complaints he was going to make about the rifle’s design and instead simply answered the question.

”and it was the ammunition that did most of the heavy lifting there, which is now spent” He explained, before giving it some thought, saying ”Though it did have a somewhat interesting firing mechanism now that I think of it, hmmm” mostly to himself, before getting to the point, which was that ”The rifle that was broken was of the same origin and design as my magelock pistol”

He retrieved the firearm in question from its holster, holding it by the barrel as he showed/offered it to Ace. The gun mostly appeared to be a flintlock pistol (a bit one with a spiked finger guard) where it was not for the amber glow leaking out from both the barrel and the point where the hammer was intended to strike.

”Much more effective and reliable than a flintlock, self loading, and entirely self powering, mana wise” he explained, indirectly confirming the weapon's magical nature.

So it really was a magic gun. Unlike a staff, or a wand, or simply conjuring spells from thin air, the Cadet could more easily intuit how this weapon worked. He still hesitated to take it though, some wariness showing on his face. After too long a moment he accepted the pistol gingerly, like it might explode if he handled it wrong.

"I'd like to get a look at the one Midna brought back too, see if I could alter it to accept new ammo," Ace said as an aside, mostly to make sure his nervousness didn’t come through too much in his voice. He’d been able to tamper with the Breechshot enough to do the same, so he figured he could do it to any gun that wasn’t totally outside of the scope of his knowledge. Not to mention it wouldn’t do to just set aside something useful just because the person who’d found it wasn’t around anymore. There was no way either Midna or Goldlewis would have wanted that. Ace kept his eyes on the magelock as he went on.

"So it uses... magic to ignite instead of a real spark." He slowly turned the firearm over in his hands, avoiding the glowing parts where he touched it. He thought about opening it up and getting a look at the chamber, but he wasn't quite there yet. "I guess it wouldn't need a firing pin, but in that case why does it even fire rounds at all...?"

He glanced at Edward. "Or does it?"

”It both does and does not. Here, I can show you in a moment” Edward replied as they entered the workshop Edward had been guiding them too. It contained advanced fabrication tools, but also a number of humble workbenches and more conventional tools.

It was one of these Edward claimed, tapping away at the armory interface as he did until it summoned the rifle he needed to repair onto the bench. The burn, bent, and broken weapon looked entirely unsalvageable, but it took only a bit of levering and unscrewing for Edward to retrieve the core part of the weapon, namely the source of the glow, which turned out to be a series of ritual circles going up the barrel warped, all hovering in front of a glowing stone that the hammer of the gun would strike instead of a flint.

”It’s rather simple, excluding the specific bits of spellcraft” Edward said, removing the gem so that the weapon was no longer live as they inspected it

”The hammer strikes this” he said, referring to the gem, holding it up, before pointing back down at the core of the gun and continuing ”which produces the energy to launch the round forwards via the generating an explosion, just as gunpowder would”

”The clever part is that the other circles then absorb the excess heat and energy left behind, converting it into energy for them to cast a spell to conjure a fresh round directly into the chamber of the gun, and another to pull back the hammer, thus automatically reloading the weapon”

Ace wasn't quite hovering, but he did pay the dreadnought curious attention. He put the pistol down on a nearby table for Edward to reclaim when he was finished, instead peering at the broken rifle as Edward took it apart. He watched from a slight distance, feeling the now unfortunately familiar unease when the magical inner workings were exposed.

"Huh." Ace crossed his arms, regarding the weapon. Its design really wasn't all that different from the firearms he'd come across in this world, or from the bowguns in his, but if it actually worked as Edward said it did then it really would be a lot more efficient.

"When it... 'conjures' ammo, is it... summoned from a stockpile, or created from thin air?" he asked somewhat clumsily, still not very used to the terminology. His eyes then flicked to the gem. "And is the energy in the igniter unlimited? 'Cause that would be Kut-kurazy."

”You’d be surprised how much more complex moving matter in space is than creating it” Edward replied, before explaining that ”the round only needs to exist for enough time to strike its target, which rather simplifies things. Magical constructs decay without a constant supply of mana, you see, but if they only need to exist for moments to minutes, things become a lot simpler” the man having left out some of the complicated pre-battle operations needed to prime the gun to be fired in the first place.

”The stone, meanwhile, can draw in the ambient mana of the surrounding environment in the exact same way any mage does, but, ingeniously, without the training such a spellcaster requires. Thus we bring the power of magic to the masses. In this case, sadly, for war, but the basic principles have innumerable civilian applications that we can apply once peace is achieved” he continued, that last sounding very much like a much repeated line despite the honest desire also evident behind it.

At the mention of ambient mana the Ace Cadet blinked in surprise, and he looked up from the workbench briefly as if he might be able to see such a thing.

"Hm, yeah, if it can ignite a bowgun's firing mechanism then it could light a stove or a forge, or turn a steam wheel," Ace mused. "I think... maybe Edinburgh Magicapolis ran on something like this. I was pretty distracted at the time but they had lights and carriages and all kinds of things with those glowing circles around them."

Edward's explanations were all informative and to the point, which the hunter appreciated. Though he couldn't understand how, exactly, the gemstone worked to absorb mana, he likened it to any other system that drew power from nature - like a windmill. The basic principle behind the magelock, how and why it functioned, was easy enough to grasp.

This was good. Magic in small, easy digestible doses like this was much easier to handle.

"Though it wouldn't work if you were in a place that didn't have mag... mana," he finished with, cutting another glance at Edward.

"That's what my world's like. We have fairy tales and stuff, and there were a couple of times another world's magic kind of crossed over into ours, but it didn't last long. Normally there's no magic at all." If anything, Ace sounded sort of glad for that fact. "At first I thought all the magic was pretty radalos, but the longer I was with the Seekers the more it kind of..."

He trailed off, motioning with his hand to try and grasp the words from the air. "...started to bother me. It seems like there's no logic to a lot of magic. Once, we ended up trapped in this sea vessel where a woman had turned us all into little kids. And everything was trying to kill us while we were stuck like that. There was cursed food, and all this stuff started growing on my arm... It giggisucked. After that's when magic really started to freak me out, but everywhere we go seems like all the enemies we face can do more and more dangerous things with it."

He chuckled a little at himself. If no one else felt like he did, then his fear was irrational - and though his uneasiness with magic had been somewhat manageable at first, lately it had caused all kinds of problems. Maybe he wouldn't have been defeated in the final hollow if he could better control his reactions.

"That's why I tagged along, I figured if I could sort of understand how it worked I wouldn't be as jumpy around it. And since a magic bowgun is more technical than a magic sword, I thought it would be easier to get if I saw the pieces while you worked on one." Ace gave Edward a small grin. "So far so good! ...you don't mind, right? I could even help out if you need it. Might not look it, but I'm pretty good with my hands."

Edward had to resist the urge to start taking notes despite his intense urge to do so when presented with so many hanging threads of information, but resist it he did, just as he resisted the urge to pull on those threads. He’d seen this sort of fear before, as when faced with the horrors magic could be used to create even the most hardened soldier could lose their nerve, and it was important to take it seriously.

”Caution around the unknown is entirely rational” he affirmed, before expositing on his own philosophy around the topic ”but as you intuited, learning about what you do not understand, and thus making the unknown known is an excellent way to ward against the fear it can induce. Then, once you begun to peeled back the curtain and have burned away the veneer of mysticism, it becomes clear that all things, be they magic, miracle or material, have an explanation just waiting to be discovered”

”and I’d be entirely welcome to your help. Perhaps we can even learn some things together, seeing as I will need to salvage some spare parts to get my rifle working once more” he then replied to the request, before tapping at the armory screen again and summoning the Charr Pirate Musket to the table.

”I was thinking of dissecting this one to see how it ticks, and to see if I can salvage components from it to replace the broken ones from mine” he explained as he moved the dismantled rifle parts to the side and set the musket at the center of the stage.

Now this was really something the Cadet took interest in. He was no Ace Gunner, but ever since she'd taught him how to customize bowguns it had been a fun and cathartic hobby to soup them up. Plus if they were going to rebuild the rifle, isolating the practical parts from the magic components would be easy and he'd get a much better look into how it all functioned together. Even better was that Edward seemed an old hand at things like this, and though Ace assumed he'd been around magic all his life he didn't treat it like common knowledge, nor balk at the hunter's misgivings with it. Ace didn't necessarily need validation in his feelings, but truth be told it was kind of nice to have it anyway.

"Does the gemstone need a special piece to hold it in place? If it doesn't then I don't see why scavenging parts off other guns won't work. There were a few others in the armory too, and I've got a bolt action I've worked on if needed."

He didn't mind giving up the Breechshot in the name of fixing the magelock if it meant he'd be able to work on his weakness. Ace got closer, though he gave the screen Edward had used a funny look. He sort of recalled the dreadnought mentioning the system before they’d set out in the morning.

"I'm surprised Sagi let you set that up."

”Possibly, but this one seemed the most in line with the magelock, as opposed to say, this” he tapped the screen again to summon the Glyphid Trophy Hunter Deepcore GK2 which, as he noted ”has a somewhat different design”

”Not that I amn’t incredibly interested in taking it apart, at a glance it seems to be entirely mechanical bearing the trophies, but that might be a task that will take longer than we have before landing” he said, entirely genuine in his disappointment it seemed.

Placing the gun aside he then replied to the question regarding Sagi’s allowance of the armory system to be used, saying ”A very thorough women that” approvingly before explaining that ”we went through all the potential issues beforehand, and supplied her with notes on the subject as well” and then asking ”I take it the two of you are familiar? Don’t suppose you might have an idea of what sort of thing she might appreciate as a token of thanks for her hard work?”

"Not anymore than you might," Ace replied with a tilt of his head. "I only got to the Avenger a day before you all. Just spent a lot of my free time in the armory so far, and since she looked Wyverian I got to talking with her."

The small familiarity on the high tech ship had been a welcome surprise, even if Sagi also happened to sport a very un-Wyverian set of wings.

"If I think of something I'll let you know. For now..." The Cadet went to fetch a set of his own tools in the workshop, and dragged another table perpendicular to the one they'd already been standing at. More room to take things apart and sort pieces. "Let's take a crack at fixing this thing! If we have time we'll take more apart too."

He grinned at Edward again. "Have you met Tora yet? If we can't get the rifle working again he might be able to help. He's a mechanic... or an engineer? But he makes all kinds of things. I’m sure he could fashion replacement parts, but who likes taking the easy way out first thing?"

That little bit of bravado got a grin from Edward, before he replied that he had ”Unfortunately not” met Tora, but saying that ”You’ll have to introduce us”

He then began a proper inspection of the musket, and was quickly disgruntled by the state of it saying ”This had not been particularly well taken care of. Or rather was created in a state of poor care I suppose” unaware that Midna had simply stolen this weapon rather than gotten it from a spirit. Either way, the weapon could have very much done with a good oiling, as patches of rust scarred its outsides, and discoloring on the stock and cloth wrapped around the barrel.

”Still, does not mean we can’t make some use of it, or see what makes it tick” he said, as he began to carefully disassemble the weapon, a process that required a bit more brute forcing of rivets than his own had required.

Completely lacking any sort of firing pin or internal mechanisms, the entire inside of the barrel was instead carved with rather simple runes that looked almost like scratch marks that seemed to all be at least a little bit misshapen. ”Almost like an inverted wand” Edward described it with interest, due to the complete lack of mechanical components, before pointing out ”see how the runes are warped? I think they might have engraved them on a flat sheet of metal and then bent it around into the tube shape afterwards. I can’t say if I am appalled by the crudeness of it or impressed by the durability of the spellcraft to endure that process”

Ace had pulled the Deepcore assault rifle over to him out of curiosity, but otherwise separated the pieces of the magelock out to get a better look at them all, more easily tell which were damaged even if slightly. Thankful he was still wearing his gloves and kote, he gently picked up the gem stone that served as the core and conduit of the weapon. It looks polished. I wonder if its naturally occurring or man made...

He looked over at the runes when Edward pointed them out, noting that it seemed to be an entirely different kind of 'practical' magic.

"How does that even work...?" he wondered aloud. "I guess pulling the trigger activates it same as any bowgun, but without a spring or a pin what tells the 'runes' to start... doing whatever they do?"

And that wasn't even going into how in the world inscribing runes produced magic anyway. Ace turned his attention to the musket's trigger itself once Edward held it up. "Would it have a matching engraving...?"

”Good question, let’s find out” Edward replied as he slid the musket back together, sans the entire barrel, leaving them with just a stock and trigger sections, before promptly aiming it at the closest wall and pulling the trigger. There came a small flash, and from the chamber a glowing bolt of magic flashed forwards, before impacting harmlessly into the metal it had been aimed at.

”Interesting. I think the trigger itself might be a wand that casts upon being flicked? That spark flys forwards, lights up the runes, and does something to create the projectile” he said before thinking for a moment.

”Here, maybe if I just replicate this” he said, getting out a scrap of paper, and then making a copy of one of the scratch mark runes on it with his quill and ink, before setting it down on the workbench. After that, he crouched down, aimed the baraless musket over the scrap, and fired it again.

Again, the bolt flashed forward, but, as it passed over the rune, it pulled something from it, and, in doing so, became both more solid and moved faster, making a light but audible ping as it hit the wall, scattering a fine mist of metal shavings out from the impact site. Said site was notability below where the man had been aiming.

The paper, meanwhile, had been shredded as a result of the spells passing, limited investment of power spent in the singular shot.

”Fascinating” Edward described the result of his test, before saying that ”I can see why the warping of the runes didn’t stop the weapon form working, as even if some fail the round is still made solid enough by the sheer volume of them”

Ace blinked in surprise at the demonstration, trying to wrap his head around how that had even worked at all. Leaving aside the nature of 'wands,' Edward had only copied the lines of the runes - he hadn't even cast a spell or anything like that. So the rune shapes were all there was to it? Letters that powered up the projectile as the trigger itself cast it through the barrel? That was so... weird... but a little ingenious too.

"And the runes being carved into metal must prevent them from being destroyed after shooting, so it can keep firing at least until the barrel itself eventually breaks down."

It was a completely different make than the magelock, but... the Ace Cadet was sort of starting to get how and why these strange weapons worked. It was interesting to see the differences and similarities, even if the major thing they had in common was still beyond his grasp. Hopefully it wouldn't stay that way for long though.

”Along with a less ad hoc investment of power, a better environment to do it in and so on and so forth. There are many ways to do it, because magic is inherently very flexible.” Edward added, before giving some context as to why he thought that way.

”The world I was born on was connected to many others, and in my travels across them, I found numerous different ways in which magic was made to do more or less the same thing. I can only hypothesize that Galeem’s patched together world will be like that, but even more varied” before adding that ”why this is I unfortunately cannot say. Some hypothesis that all magic made by mortals is a lesser imitation of some true, perfect works used by higher powers to create reality. Others that magic reacts more to intent and repetition, and that ways to do magic are not discovered, but instead imprinted onto reality by mortals”

”It is not exactly my area of expertise, you see. Laryssa, a dear friend, would know more. My focus is more on the practical implantation of magic, and the meddling of wit with machinery, rather than the deep dives into the hows or whys of its roots” he apologized.

Catching the other man's tone, Ace shook his head once. "It's fine, this is good - groovios even."

It was a great bridge between the understood and the misunderstood. The hunter could only hope that from here he could move up to getting comfortable with the more... esoteric and strange stuff, but he'd leave that for later.

"So was none of this-" Ace waved his hand in the air to gesture very generally. "-that weird for you when you got freed, if you were already used to other worlds?"

”My home of Athla was but one world hanging in a space known as the astral sea, a fact we were rather brutally introduced to when worldgates connecting our home to other worlds opened and the Godir marched fourth from them to conquer it. In the process myself, Laryssa and an army of the Commonwealth that we had assembled to stand against the Godir were tossed out into the astral sea, which is a rather unpleasant place, and then eventually wound up on another world entirely. It was quite the unpleasant introduction to the whole affair, to say the least, and it only got worse from there” He replied, retelling part of his story, before hypothesizing on the nature of reality by saying ”Given what has been explained about this one, however, I have to assume that the astral sea in its entirely must itself have existed in some greater ocean of some sort. One that contained numerous other worlds or seas of worlds that Galeem devoured and then used to make this a singular world. Thus it is both strange and yet also familiar”

Even abridged, it was quite the tale. Ace let out a low whistle.

”You mentioned your world briefly interacted with others that had magic earlier, so I assume you were at least somewhat in the same boat in that regard?” Edward added.

As he talked, the man began assembling all the parts he had acquired onto the one table, and in his head considered how best to assemble them together again. And also if that was even a good idea in the first place.

"Not even close. It only happened in the New World, and it was only two days I think," he told Edward. "A few monsters popped out of some portals, some people followed them, and once everything was taken care of they left. That was that - nobody had a clue what caused it."

There had definitely been an adjustment getting used to the current world they found themselves in.

He looked over the pieces again himself. "The rune bowgun looks like it's too simple to be able to replace all the broken parts in your rifle... but... how do you think the engraved barrel would work with the rounds the magelock summons?"

Edward said magic was flexible, but he had to wonder about two entirely different systems. Besides that it would also be nice to use parts from the Deepcore rifle after all since it was looking like just one extra gun wasn't going to cut it. The thing had a nice quality grip, among other things.

”I have to agree, it seems like they are too different to really be safely combined. I can’t exactly say what the two would do together, but I’d certainly prefer to test such a thing in a firing range rather than a workshop for one” Edward replied, before adding ”and with a golem pulling the trigger to boot” because the result could be quite explosive if the summoned round got coated in enough extra metal to jam the barrel before it exited.

”An entirely mundane weapon might well be a better bet as a basis, despite the outward appearances being so different” which gave them both the excuse they needed to take a look at the deepcore rifle.

That said, while it did not have magical components, it did have an electrical one, one that powered a glowing display, currently displaying 0/25 on it, facing the user. Other than that, it seemed like an entirely mundane rifle, but there was the slight issue in that neither of them had really worked with one of those, or, in-fact, seen them up close.

”What do you think?” Edward asked Ace, as he began carefully taking the weapon apart to see how it ticked.

"Well the fangs on the front are pretty cool," the Cadet said first. He studied each piece as Edward pushed them over to him once his own look over was done.

It was definitely the most high tech gun Ace had handled so far, in pieces or otherwise, but compared to a magic weapon? He felt like he already had a better grasp on it. Once opened up and disassembled he could see how the ammo would have been stored and loaded, how the bolt and springs could work together to push rounds into a firing chamber. The wire and display connected to the lower receiver probably just counted the number of times the trigger was pulled (or more specifically that the hammer was released) after a new case of ammo was locked into place, but he could be wrong and it was actually able to keep track of each individual round.

It was sophisticated, with a lot of little parts working together, though the overall process wasn't actually that complicated as far as Ace could tell. But as for how it would interact with the gemstone igniter?

"...seems like a lot of internal parts with functions already handled by the magic can be taken out, which should leave room for the gem without having to file anything down, but it could end up being too much room. It might need a custom piece between the hammer and the gem, and one to hold the gem in place, 'cause if you just replace the pin with the stone... see how there's a track? I think it will be moving around while the bowgun... while the gun is firing. You'd know better if that will interfere with how it works though."

The hunter scratched at his head, considering some things. "It won't need this port for spent husks, so maybe something could be fit in there to help instead. Probably doesn't need this shielding either if it will be able to siphon its own heat away..."

”Yes. I can see what you mean. It would be overall quite the task to retrofit this to be a one shot rifle, and likely one we’d need extra materials for as well” he replied, before admitting ”I think I might have been over ambitious, and in hindsight, and as a result all I’ve achieved is breaking two more guns rather than fixing one. Something I could fix, where it not for the hour at hand”

Indeed, while he could probably put the weapons back together, the reality was that such a process was a fair bit more complicated than taking them apart, and as a clock on the wall helpful informed them, time was ticking away.

"Raincheck?" Ace said. He didn't sound put out, as the prospect of building a chimera-gun was something they could look forward to in the near future.

”Can’t say I am familiar with that expression?” the very British sounding despite not being British man replied.

"Oh - like when a festival is gonna be held, you check the sky for rain, and move it to another day if the weather doesn't cooperate."

”Ah, I see, another time, yes. Perhaps with some extra local expertise like that Tora fellow you mentioned” He replied after it was explained to him.

”Still, I can’t say this was entirely fruitless” Edward added, as he neatly sorted the 3 dismantled guns into piles of parts for storage until the metaphorical rain was off ”as we certainly learned a thing or two”

"Definitely," the monster hunter agreed with a smile. "I could barrel-ly stand to be around magic a few hours ago, but seeing it put together with something more familiar... now it kinda feels like my brain is firing on all cylinders."

Edward grinned at that, before declaring it the "The power of learning" before adding "Speaking of, I think we're all set to learn who’s actually running this whole operation" as he set the broken down guns to be sent back to storage via magic circle.

As the seekers came onto the Avenger from their fight with the Guardian, Sectonia strongly insisted that people clean themselves before doing much else. Although she couldn't be everywhere at once and some Seekers got past her without her noticing. Much like Blazermate and the koopa kids as Sectonia was distracted by the horrific appearance of Ganondorf's new form. Maybe he'd look better when hes clean and fixed up, but... He will probably need quite the bit of makeup to deal with that guardian spirit's downside.

She'd have to plan that out later though as now was the time to unwind for many of them and regather their senses especially after what happened with a few of their allies. Which lead to some splitting off to get some drinks from the bar, others to the cantina. Sectonia was of the latter group as her taste in alcohol was fairly particular and she wasn't sure if the Stolen Moments had good meed, it was fairly rare of a drink all things considered.

Although the current serving in the Cantina really wasn't her fare either. The only seeker that truly got Sectonia's interest in food was Sandalphon, although Sectonia thinks Sandalphon should broaden her horizons beyond just honey to general sweets. Speaking of... she wasn't here? Well, As annoying as it was, Sectonia could give this food a try. It was prepared properly at least.

Blazermate entered the cantina around this time looking for Jr. and Rika, unaware she had just missed them in the workshop. "Huh... Where are those two? Well, guess I can just socialize until the come in." Blazermate said as she floated around and ease dropped on the various conversations going on. She learned from Ganondorf and Edward that apparently Ganondorf's new spirit made him impossible to heal? Well that was no good! And to see if this was true, Blazermate put her healing beam on him to verify and yep. He couldn't be overhealed or anything.

"Well that sucks. Hopefully he can handle that himself." Blazermate said, still voicing her concern. She then saw Sectonia more off by herself, the Queen sitting at her own table as she was one of the later arrivals and decided to glide over. Sectonia herself having just gotten her serving of Hemborger and eating it with apprehensive grace. Granted Blazermate wouldn't know the difference between all that and decided to see if she wanted to chat.

"Hiya Sectonia. Glad you survived that fight. Sorry I was dealing with some of the people fighting O and D so I couldn't' save ya from the roller coaster thing. Kinda crazy it did so much to you, your really tough." Blazermate said, moving to sit down on the other side of the table; Sectonia's size making her basically take a table by herself.

"Hmph." Sectonia said, not really used to talking to Blazermate outside of fighting situations. She forgot how... matter of fact the bot was under the guise of childish curiosity or praise. But she did help deal with the Gravemind as much as she could so it might be best to guide the conversation instead of just shut her down. "Yes... At least that creature went down and from here I saw you helped a lot with that." Sectonia looked over to Ganondorf, whom had to absorb the spirit, and felt a bit of pity for the dark lord. Although that pity wouldn't override her weariness of a fellow combative royal, she'd at least help him look pretty if she found something that'd work. "A shame the spirit is such a curse on how it makes you look. Considering the Guardians I've seen, I suppose I got the lucky one."

"Oh yeah, I don't know what your Guardian was like but there was this giant robot under Midgar which Susie took that looked pretty neat. It wasn't a monster like a lot of the others. The one that you missed in the dark sea was a monster too, but Geralt took it in stride." Blazermate said. She then remembered what she heard overhearing Ganondorf and Edward talking. "Speaking of that, he can't be healed by me anymore. Man I hope the powers are good enough to offset that. Hes gotta eat 'biomass' to heal."

"Hmm... So living things. Well, I suppose the healing thing isn't a concern for me, but the biomass thing... hm..." Sectonia started to think about that. She'd have to see if her Antlers counted for that, if so she could get some leverage over him. But she doubted they would as they're constructs of magic. It'd have to be something to see. Letting him be in the frontline and such and keeping him there to keep them off of herself would be quite useful. Especially after what had just happened.

"Thank you for that information." Sectonia said as she started her little plan. "Your welcome. Man, I hope we don't have to fight more monster stuff like that. I've yet to see a Guardian I like. Heck, you weren't here for the first Guardian, but that was this magma corrupted Bowser." Blazermate said, before starting another track of thought. "The koopa king? A clone of him?" Sectonia asked. "Yep. Apparently there can be copies of people. I'm a bit surprised that's the only one, but considering how much Bowser said hes done... I wouldn't be surprised if we see another version of him again or something." Blazermate clarified.

Sectonia gave this some thought, wondering if she'd see a clone of herself. Although she was much, much stronger than she was before.She did fight a mirrored version of herself that one time, but that was more mirror magic instead of an alternate version of herself... right? But knowing that, considering how Midna mumbled so much about Ganondorf and how clueless the dark king was about what she was saying but not refuting that he couldn't do those things... She'd have to think about all of that.

"You know, if we have to deal with fusions like that... Keep your eyes out for cosmetics and other such things to make people beautiful. I have a feeling we'll need it. Ganondorf for sure needs it now." Sectonia said, finishing her meal. Blazermate had distracted her from it which allowed her to finish it without much worry. So it was at least adequate, overall. "Yeah. Probably. I'd also need some paint. You know, Susie can probably get us that stuff. Shes good with money." Sectonia thought, and agreed about that. Blazermate than asked. "Besides that, got anyone else that needs the help?"

Sectonia went over some of the ideas she had for the others, including Blazermate. Although most of it was just keeping people pristine, using makeup on some of them, or getting better armor for some. She had already helped out a few before so they only had to keep themselves clean. She also offhanded mentioned how she'd love to get her hands on some flower perfume. Blazermate made note that Sectonia had some ideas of putting Rika in an admiral's outfit and Jr. getting some crystals to adorn him. Sort of like the metal bracelets his father had, but made of crystal.

Although Pit had intended to go right to the cafeteria as he was (still very fresh from the fight), the master of the ship's stockpile caught the angel in the hall and ushered him into the infirmary next door. Pit complained that he was fine, and Eleison had yet to return from tending to whomever needed it at the Seekers' arrival point anyway, so instead Sagi basically just hosed the angel down before letting him loose in the Avenger once more. Thankfully, other Seekers that happened to pass her by had already taken the time to at least rinse before they even thought about being around food.

So it was that Pit was still slightly damp when he got to the mess hall, was handed a plate of food that smelled mouthwateringly good, and parked himself at a table to dig in. The timing meant he wasn't one of those that had already come and went, nor was he one of the last to drag themselves into the cafeteria. He was just in time to see a friend join the food line and call him over, though.

"Over here!" he called to Roxas, raising one of his wings since his hands were busy tearing apart a meat patty with a pair of forks. The Nobody lit up a bit and approached to sit with the angel.

”Looks like everyone had the same idea.” Roxas commented as he pulled his plate closer to him. Before he could do anything with the food, he felt a familiar nudge at his shins. ”I know, I know.” He said as he plopped a second plate down on the floor for his Yamper to eat from. ”Don’t worry, Scamp, I didn’t forget about you.” Only then did he finally start digging into his own food.

”Figured it’s easier just to give him his own plate so he doesn’t get tempted to swipe from mine.” Roxas commented as he chewed his bite. ”Things got... pretty rough back there, didn’t they?” He was referring to what happened in the final hollow of the Qliphoth naturally.

Pit had peeked under the table to greet Scamp as well, though as usual the Pokémon was more preoccupied with getting fed.

"Oh. Yeah..." It had definitely been rough. The general mood going into the Dead Zone had been sort of grim from the start, and even after returning victorious there was a solemn air that lingered in the common areas for obvious reasons. Pit glanced at Roxas, wondering how close he'd been to those that had sacrificed themselves. Rather than bring it up though, he went in a slightly different direction. "I can't believe so many Consuls teamed up against us. And all of them played really dirty too."

He huffed, then tried a heartening smile. "But we still won, didn't we?"

”Heh, define ‘winning’.” Roxas replied with a small chuckle, ”I’m no stranger to having the bad guys team up on me, though.” He added, briefly setting his fork down and sipping from the cola he had brought to the table along with his food. ”They tried that a lot in the world I came from. Still… they’re only gonna come at us even harder, though. If every fight against them goes like this one did…” He trailed off, not really wanting to think about that.

For a moment Pit didn't say anything, just chewed on his food with his wings slightly droopy. Roxas was right of course, even with a numbers advantage that should have been overwhelming, 'pretty rough' was still an understatement in regards to how the battle had gone. And now, two of their comrades were gone as well. It stunk to say the least, but they had prevailed. Even if celebratory was too much, now that it was over the mood should be a little more cheery, he thought.

Pit lifted his plate up and shoveled the remainder of lunch into his mouth. Then he stood up, placing his palms on the table with a light smack.

"We'll deal with that when it happens," he said, his tone confident. "But right now, let's go do something fun instead! Hurry up Roxas! Scamp's already done eating too!" And he was right. Scamp was looking up from his now empty hand and gave his little ‘bow-wark’ in reply.

”Yeah, sure!” Roxas said as he quickly scarfed down the rest of his plate before grabbing the cola can and taking a long gulp out of it to wash it down. ”So what kind of fun things is there to do on the Avenger, anyway?”

As the boys and Scamp left the cafeteria, Pit's eyebrows pulled together in thought.

"Uh... good question." When he suggested it, he hadn't considered where they were. But the Lost Numbers weren't all serious old people, surely there was something on the ship that could entertain them. "I bet we could find something though!"

He lead them over to one of the many maps of the Avenger. "Maybe there are board games in the common room. Or we could kick something around in the gym - or we could go see what kind of other things they're inventing in the labs?"

”Board games in the common room?” Roxas echoed. That didn’t seem likely. Then again, all the Lost Numbers were kids at one point. And they had to have had some way to entertain themselves, right? ”Guess we won’t know until we look. A game’d probably be a good way to destress after all that chaos in the Qliphoth.”

Pit grinned and nodded. "Game it is, let's go!"

Considering that they were looking to unwind after the battle, they didn't really need to rush around the ship - but even so they had another friendly race to the common room with the Yamper at their heels. Unknowingly Roxas and Pit had ended up trading places with Rika, Blazermate, and Bowser Jr. as the latter all headed for the dining hall after using the space, while the former had arrived after already eating their fill.

The common room was pretty simple, with all of the comforts one might expect from a small recreational space. Although there were actually video games in the room due to its prior occupants, they had been collected and stowed in one section of the room somewhere near the TV, tucked away enough to be overlooked until their owners could return to claim them. The angel didn't seem to notice them as he went over to some shelving, rifling through drawers and cabinets to see what he could find. There were regular playing cards, a chess board, a puzzle in a box, books of riddles and number games... nothing particularly interesting, at least until he spotted something at the back. He pulled the box out and opened it up, finding a board and a deck of simple cards, along with a six sided die that had letters one it instead of pips. There was also a small pamphlet that couldn't have been more than three pages that Pit tossed to Roxas without thinking, momentarily forgetting he could read in his curious drive to get the game set up.

"How about this?"


”Whoa!” Roxas yelped in surprise as he barely managed to react in time to catch the pamphlet. He opened it up and skimmed over the three pages. ”Triple… Triad?” He read aloud. ”It says we deck turns placing cards from our decks onto the board. When opposing cards are placed next to each other, they clash with the numbers that are directly pointed at each other, the higher number determines which card is stronger and wins the clash. The winning card flips the losing card over so that it’s controlled by the winning card’s owner. When all the board’s spaces are filled, the player with the most cards under their control on the board is the winner.”

There were actually more complicated rules than that pertaining to card elements providing certain bonuses that should be applied when cards clash on the board as well as optional styles of play. But those were on a page that Roxas hadn’t fully read yet. ”Sounds easy enough. Are we giving this game a try?”

"Why not?" Pit picked up a card, getting a look at it. There was some kind of person or character on the front (he noted others had monsters and animals) with four numbers arranged in a diamond shape in the top corner. It definitely seemed simple enough for anyone to grasp, which was good for quick play. Pit set the card back down with others in the same color, of which there were only two.

"It sounds kind of like a battle game." But with the flashy cards, less boring than the likes of chess, and with less rules to remember. "You want red or blue?"

”Red, I guess.” Roxas said with a shrug, assuming there wasn’t much difference between the colors. What he didn’t realize was that the red and blue deck utilized completely different characters and monsters for their cards, and the red deck he picked seemed to lean a bit more toward monsters. The first card he noticed in the deck he picked up looked like a big fireball with a scary grin on it. Another one looked like a picture of a humanoid cactus in the middle of running. The cards' names were ‘Bomb’ and ‘Cactuar’ respectively.

”Guess I’ll start with… this?” Roxas said as he tentatively played the Bomb card in the lowermost left hand corner of the board’s 3x3 grid.

"So I just have to match a higher number against your lower number... Alright, let's see...!"

With the Bomb on the side of the board and its largest value at its right, the only option would be to put something directly above it. With a glance at his own hand Pit put down a Gesper card, which showed a funny looking humanoid. More importantly, its southern number was four, which would beat the Bomb's northern two. Of course that left the Gesper with its own openings of one and five.

”How about… this one!” Roxas said as he placed a Tonberry card directly above the Gesper. It’s southern four was more than a match for the Gesper’s northern one. And now the only way to take either of those cards back was to play something that beat their eastern six and five respectively.

Which unfortunately, Pit did not have in his hand. He could match the five, but... He turned his eyes to the center and right hand lanes.

"Okay, let's go with this!" he said as he rather dramatically put down a card called Belhelmel, a clown-looking totem on its face, into the top right spot on the board, with its western three and southern five open.

”Hmm…” Roxas reread his cards and found one that could work. ”Let’s go with… this.” He placed a card called Grendel to the west of Belhelmel. Its eastern four managed to beat the latter’s western three. Its opening was a southern five. Its weakest side, the western two, was protected by the Tonberry that was still in Roxas’ control.

Suddenly Roxas had an overwhelming advantage, with four cards on the board to Pit's single one. The angel blinked, then squinted at the playing space. And all of the open numbers were five! "What the... that was so quick! But I'm not out yet!"

He still didn't have a card that could beat an eastern five, but what he assumed was one of the strongest cards in his deck could beat the two southern ones. He slapped down a Chicobo in the center space, capturing the Grendel card and evening the playing field. "How about that! Your move, Roxas!"

”Huh?” Roxas said, surprised. ”How am I supposed to top that?” He asked as he frantically re-examined the remaining couple of his cards that he hadn’t played yet, seeing that none of them could capture the Chicobo’s southern or western sides. He decided to mirror Pit’s move and play his strongest card as well, called Cerberus. Ironically, Roxas had no idea that Cerberus’ western A was actually stronger than the Chocobo’s eastern four. So what he did was play the card at the bottom right corner of the grid, thinking it was a defensive move that would keep him from losing any more cards for the remaining two turns.

And with Cerberus’ western A and its northern seven? Roxas’ guess may well have been correct.

Of course, seeing the letter on the card made Pit tilt his head and ask, "what does that stand for? A... eight...?"

He was completely wrong of course, and figured as much because then why would there be two ways to show an eight? Regardless, Pit thought for a moment before putting down an Iron Giant in the space above Cerberus. Its southern six didn't beat the number on Roxas' card, but since Cerberus was already played it didn't flip the Giant. But the Belhelmel that was previously Pit's returned to his control, which just left the last open space on the board on Roxas' turn.

”Wait, what? Aw, I completely forgot about Belhelmel.” The Nobody groaned, realizing he couldn’t win now. Roxas’ remaining card - which was Cockatrice - couldn’t beat the Chicobo. He slapped it down anyway, which ended the game. ”Looks like you won. Not sure what the ‘A’ means, though…” Roxas thumbed through the pamphlet again for answers, and what he found made him groan even more.

”Are you kidding me?” He exclaimed, ”’A’ beats any number? But that means I could have beaten your Chicobo and-”

"Hahahaha! I'm still counting that as my win!" Pit said, pleased with himself even if either of them had taken the time to read all of the rules the game would have ended very differently. He scooped up the cards and went to shuffle both of the decks again so they could draw new hands. "C'mon, let's go another round!"

After both of them actually read through the full rules the boys set up again, carefully choosing their spaces and slapping cards down dramatically. It was simple fun, but fun nonetheless, especially as they traded wins and losses. They kept their commandeered table for a little while, trying out the other play modes in the rule book (finding that some were too confusing to play more than once) until they'd had their fill.

The plan to take their minds off of the serious and solemn events of the morning had more or less worked. While Roxas retired with his Pokémon to their shared room, Pit flitted off to see what else he could get up to.

Even after winding down with a few card games following the battle, it was hard for Pit to actually relax. Sure his stamina had taken a hit with the whole marathon of morning fights but he was already feeling better, especially after eating. So even though his energy level wasn't high enough to warrant working through in the training center, he also didn't feel like sitting around and doing nothing. He was looking forward to stopping at Hammerhead, but in the meantime he toured the Avenger like he'd done the day before - heading first for the Spirit Chamber to take care of the handful of carcass spirits he had on him, then the armory to drop off what had come out of them.


Before finally just wandering and continuing to flex his new reading skill on the signs posted along the hallways.

Which is when he ran into another Seeker making her way out of the vehicle storage. Although it was really more like he'd spotted her leaving and turning down another hall and picked up his pace to follow after her.

"Hey, Juri!" Pit called, flitting over and smiling at the woman. Where normally he might be looking up at her, with their spirit fusions the two were about the same height now. It was curiosity more than anything else that drove him to talk to her, that and want to find something to do until they landed.

The angel figured she probably wouldn't mind. She hadn't seemed that affected by the events in the final hollow compared to many others, and besides ever since the minigames in Carnival Town he knew Juri was a team player even if people thought otherwise.

Pit glanced back toward the doors of the vehicle bay before. "Do you like cars and tanks and stuff? Have you been to Hammerhead -where we're going- before? They have this thing called a Rocket League where the cars drive upside down in this cage and..." he started saying, more or less rambling to Juri as she walked.

Juri stopped walking and let her currently unpainted Ghoulsaw swing from one hand. With the other, she reached over her own shoulder and tried to reach her back, like she was trying to scratch at it.

”Oh, sorry,” She said. ”I was just wonderin’ if someone put a note on my back that said: ‘annoy me’.”

Juri took a big step forward, leaning towards his face. ”Who even are you, again?”

"Wh- I'm Pit! We just fought together and we did all those games before!" He was not actually as offended as he sounded. He also completely ignored her comment about being annoyed. A thought occurred to him and he said, "Wait, did we skip the big introductions when you... did you not know my name? That's why you were calling me those nicknames!"

Pit rested his hands on his hips, now pleased like he'd figured something out. "Well like I said, I'm Pit! Easy to remember, right?"

If she was being honest with herself, keeping track of whose who when people are either dropping dead or changing appearance was a real pain in the ass. Juri figured she recognized him, now.

”Pit?” Juri grinned, and poked Pit in the forehead.

”What kinda sorry ass name is Pit? Your momma hate you or somethin’, kid?” She asked.

”But yeah, I remember ya now. I had to go in there and finish off that wimpy old man you somehow failed to kill.” Juri stood up straight, folding one leg behind the other and setting a hand on her hip.

He reached up to rub the spot Juri had poked, intending to argue that Pit was actually a very cool and heroic name and he was not, technically, a kid - but her bringing up Consul O made his eyes widen slightly, and he focused on that instead.

"I didn't fail!" he said sharply, though his next words were less sure. "I wasn't trying to– I was going to but then he... he said he was giving up!"

Pit frowned as he remembered the whole unpleasant encounter. "He didn't look like he could fight and he seemed... scared. And he said he surrendered, so..." The angel sighed roughly. "But then he trapped me in a tiny little fish tank with a bunch of cute otters and left us to drown!"

He actually might have if Sandalphon hadn't come to save him. The near death experience didn't bother him so much as it being implied he'd failed in his duty, though.

"He didn't try to trick you when you found him?"

For a moment, something in Juri’s eyes flickered. Then, ”Pfft,” She cupped her bottom lip and puffed out her bangs to reveal her green eye like a blink. ”’Course, tried to bribe me cuz I ain’t soft like you. But even that didn’t work, so I broke his damn neck, because I didn’t fail.” She said emphatically.

”I can’t believe you fell for that. I can’t believe you told me! You grow up in candyland or somethin’?” Juri asked.

The last comment fell flat, as Pit only thought a land of candy sounded like a neat place to live. Still, his cheeks colored slightly in embarrassment. "Yeah, well, if I hadn't fallen for it then he wouldn't have told me D's weakness! And... I'm the one that found him in the first place!"

Of course once it had become clear that D was a vampire, someone would have probably figured out his weaknesses anyway. Pit didn't point that out, instead crossing his arms defensively.

"Why wouldn't I tell you? You're a Seeker too. We're basically friends!" he spoke defensively too now, even as he stated that he considered Juri an ally and, probably, a future pal. "I found him, you finished him. Teamwork."

”No, see, ‘cuz I had to find him again. So it was more like,” And Juri counted on her fingers for this, ”You failed, I found him, I killed him.” She teased.

Her tone took on a more serious tone. ”And we’re not friends, twerp. I can’t stomach most of these Seekers, let alone one dumb enough to fall for a puppy dog eyes act from a wretched geezer like O.”

She lowered herself to lean forward and push her face up at Pit, her eyes widening. ”I tore him into him with my saw, kicked him outta his wheelchair and broke his neck with my foot as he begged for mercy. I had a freakin’ good time doing it, too. Still wanna be my friend?” Juri asked, retracting once more.

Pit bristled when Juri got into his space this time, but he didn't shrink away. He let out a quick sigh through his nose.

O had been an unrepentant villain, even if Pit hadn't been able to see it at first. He needed to be defeated, and he'd had a chance to save his own life only to squander it when he pulled one over on the angel. Just because Pit was wont to take people at their word and was personally hesitant to take the life of a human, what humans did to each other was ultimately not his business unless it threatened the world.

"He was a bad guy," Pit said simply. Juri claiming to take pleasure in his killing was maybe a little unnerving, but should a good guy not enjoy triumphing over evil?

And as for if Pit wanted to be her friend, well, he countered with, "And it kinds seems like you need one."

”Oh, God,” Juri rolled her eyes and stuck a finger into her mouth, making a retching noise. ”Hurk! Barf!”

Juri shouldered her Ghoulsaw, shaking her head. ”The good news is, I won’t have to put up with you very long. Won’t be too long before some Consul tags you as an easy mark and stabs you in the back after tricking you into makin’ ‘em cookies. You know our ‘lives’ mean less than nothing to any of these people, right? Mercy is a weakness, especially in this world.” She said.

”If you really wanna be my toady, I wanna see you ice the next freak you down. No hesitation. Put one of them lil’ cupid arrows right between the eyes.” This time she poked herself in the forehead to drive the point home.

”Understand, twerp?”

"Toady?"

Like a lackey, Palutena supplied him with a hint of amusement.

Pit squeezed his arms a little tighter, his wings twitching briefly. He'd been called that so many times by a lot of different people, but at this point he could let it go. He fixed Juri with a bright stare.

"I'm not gonna get tricked again," he told her, though he half said it for himself. "And... I'm gonna do whatever I need to do, not what you tell me to!"

He looked to be a few moments away from sticking his tongue out at her, but instead he just said, "So you don't have to worry about me."

”Trust me, I’m not.” Juri glanced over her shoulder, down the hall.

”I’m ‘unna go get this thing painted while everyone’s at that waste of time funeral.” Juri said, referring to her Ghoulsaw. And also calling the funeral a waste of time, casually, to see if that would get more of a rise out of Pit. ”I don’t need to get it cleaned, though, the blood goes away with the corpses. So that’s a plus.”

Her callousness didn't rankle him as much as one might expect. Because if she really didn't care about what had happened with O, or about the people they'd just lost, she wouldn't have brought it up. If she really was as annoyed by Pit as she said she was, she would have ditched him. And if she really detested being part of the team, she wouldn't have joined in the first place.

Or that was Pit's assumption, anyway.

He shifted his posture, his frown fading as he remembered something he'd thought about Juri before.

"I know you aren't as nasty as you pretend to be," he said, quickly, like he'd caught on to some secret and might have been trying to turn the tables in the conversation - though it was more likely the angel just couldn't grasp why she'd 'pretend' to be like this in the first place and was pointing it out the only way he knew how, directly.

”Wanna bet?” Juri asked coldly, lashing out to kick his legs out from under him. The sudden movement easily caught Pit off guard, and he fell onto his back with a little yelp.

”Who do you think you’re talking to?” She leaned over, her smile hollow and angry, like her face was about to fall off and shatter into porcelain shards. Her visible eye was a dark hole in the earth.

”There’s nothing I can’t stand more than self-righteous pricks who think they’re better than everyone else. You wanna reach down to me, like I’m beneath you? Be my friend because you think I need one? I’d beat you senseless if it wouldn’t cost me my best shot at Galeem. You don’t know anything about me. Got it?” Juri hissed. A moment passed, and she went back to ‘pretending’. Whatever she was pretending to be. She stepped away from Pit, her smile lessening and becoming natural again. She ran her tongue along the front of her teeth.

”Now do us both a favor and don’t even bother next time.” Juri said. She rolled her neck and started stalking off down the hall.

For a few seconds after Pit sat up he only watched Juri go. He was surprised, and even kind of insulted, but it was hard to tell if it was on his own behalf or Juri's. He scrambled to his feet and -perhaps unwisely- followed after her.

"I don't think like that!" he tried to clarify. "I'm not trying to be your friend 'cause I think I'm better than you - like I said, we're on the same team! And everybody needs friends!

"Plus I know enough about you! Like..."

Quick, help me out here Lady Palutena!

You got yourself into this one, Pit, the goddess responded. Still, she wasn't about to pass up the chance to flex her extensive knowledge of fighters.

Juri Han... she's a master martial artist with a mean streak. She really does enjoy making her opponents suffer, so she wouldn't go easy on you if you were to fight.

So that part about her was true. Surprise briefly flickered on Pit's face. So you don't think I could win?

Now, now, I didn't say that. There was a brief pause as Palutena collected her thoughts, or else collected the information on Juri from wherever she pulled her other world knowledge from. Besides that, Juri prefers motorcycles to 'cars and tanks.' She even has one of her own. She's a thrill seeker and a scofflaw, but without a goal to chase she gets dreary. It used to be that her goal was revenge, but now...

Now its helping save the world!

Let's go with that.

The telepathic exchange was quick, but there had been enough of a pause to be noticeable before Pit spoke up again.

"...like I know you like fighting and having fun, and you have a cool motorcycle, and... and even if you're gloomy, you really want to help."

Juri, stopped, turned over her shoulder and stared at Pit, her face twisting into a bewildered sneer. ”Haaah? You’re still following me? Still talking?” Juri asked.

Then, she started laughing. ”Because, what, you like my motorcycle? Let me show you somethin’ I’ve been working on.” Juri gestured Pit over to a nearby supply closet, tapping a button to open the vertically sliding door.

"Huh? Here?"

Wait, had he actually gotten through to her, even if only a little? Both optimistic and oblivious, Pit did not hesitate to approach for a closer look.

”Yeah, right in there.” Juri palmed the back of his head and shoved him inside, before pressing the button to close the door again. With a quick hack, she made it unable to be opened from the inside. After that, she broke open the control panel and unplugged a couple wires, making the effect permanent.

”Hahaha!” Juri laughed loudly. Amused and satisfied, she walked away again.

The sound of banging, shouting, and the door rattling against its track and latch followed after her instead of an annoyingly plucky angel.

At least until there was a muffled whirring noise from the closet she'd left behind, swiftly followed by a loud crash as the now heavily dented door was blown open and out of its track, smashing against the opposite wall.

Pit hopped back into the hallway as the Upperdash Arm dissolved into light. His face had once again taken on a pink color after that little humiliation, especially after he'd just told Juri he wasn't going to be tricked after O. His wings were also half open, his feathers ruffled literally and metaphorically, puffed up like a little animal trying to make itself look bigger.

He hoped he wasn't going to get in trouble for breaking something, but technically Juri had broken it first.

At this point Pit didn't really care whether Juri wanted to be his friend or not (she'd made it pretty obvious that the answer was not), but considering what Lady Palutena had told him, how she'd looked after knocking him to the ground, and how she seemed to try inserting herself into the group while simultaneously keeping herself at arm's length, Pit knew he was right about her. So it was really a point of childishly making sure she knew he was right about her too. If they ended up graduating from estranged people with the same goal to tumultuous teammates, it would just be a bonus.

"Okay, I get it, maybe you really are that mean!" Feeling stubborn, Pit pointed at her retreating back and made sure she could hear him as he went on. "But I also know you have a heart somewhere in there! If you didn't then you wouldn't be helping us fight Galeem, and you wouldn't have been trying so hard to get revenge for something before you joined up with us!"

He didn't know what for, or if she'd eventually gotten her vengeance or not, but like he'd thought earlier Juri clearly cared more than she let on. Recalling her threat and the Goddess of Light's words, Pit let out a puff of air before giving her a brash grin.

"And I know you'd have to try, really, really hard to beat me."

Juri, without turning around, let her Ghoulsaw fall to the ground with a thud. It’d just slow her down. Then she turned to face Pit once again, teeth gleaming.

”You’re stupid, Pit. But if you wanna play, let’s play.” She lifted her front leg and rested her elbow on it. Then she flicked her foot upwards, gathering black and white energy around her ankles.

Though he had taunted her, Pit was still a little surprised that she intended to fight him here in the middle of a corridor. He could practically hear Lady Palutena's facepalm in his head, but she didn't offer anymore advice and Pit didn't ask. He might actually be stupid as Juri said (but smart enough to read now! he thought), but he kind of already felt a sense of victory since she hadn't called him 'kid' or 'twerp.' It showed in his gaze, too.

Pit tensed up, prepared to summon any of his divine weapons at a moment's notice. And then he acted unwisely again, darting forward to shrink the gap between them.

Juri spun low and sent a grounded wave of energy streaking towards Pit’s legs. She followed it up with a dash of her own to close the distance, and there was a burst of pink energy as she inflicted Weak upon Pit, lowering his damage by 30% for a few precious seconds. At the same time she went to kick out and over her projectile before it sliced into his legs. ”Haha!”

Ready for her this time, the heavenly shields that made up the Guardian Orbitars flashed into existence. When they came into being it was slightly ahead of Pit himself, and though they couldn't stop the pink wave of Weak they could reflect Juri's monochrome energy right back at her. The shields didn't fade away afterward, one took the brunt of Juri's kick while the other just shot right towards her center mass for a blunt impact.

Juri’s own leg was caught by her projectile, causing her to be unbalanced, while the second orb struck her center. ”Ooh-” She grunted, shoved backwards, though her Weak spell was still in effect to reduce the damage she took.

The Orbitars were not that strong in the first place either, but Pit the slight advantage while he could, whirling the crimson and gold shields in a tornado-like fashion that pressed in at Juri.

”Tch,” Juri rose her arm and leg, the tornado scraping against her. She let herself get pushed back and then grabbed one of the shields to halt the tornado in place long enough to kick out at Pit’s torso in hopes of disrupting the spell.

Since her opponent's shields were free floating, the one not caught in her grasp could simply rush back to Pit's side. It wasn't quite fast enough to completely block the blow, but between it and Pit's bracer as he raised his arm in defense the angel took a much less painful hit to the arm instead of the chest. Then the Orbitar Juri was holding suddenly faded into golden particles just before reappearing with its twin to hang in the air beside Pit. His expression was cheeky as if to say see? You'll have to try harder. Just before the Orbitars began to glow to fire projectiles of their own.

”Hope you plan on doing more than a lightshow, twerp!” Juri swatted the projectiles away with her leg, generating more fuha stocks. Then she bent low under one, and hopped over the other, before suddenly diving through the air with a long ranged dive kick. If the first hit, she would follow up with a spinning volley of other kicks that carried them both through down the corridor.

It connected when she slipped through, roughly shoving Pit back and losing the ground he'd gained - and then even more as she rushed him. The Orbitars had abandoned their assault to dedicated themselves to what they were meant for, defense, as angel and weaponry hurried to lessen each subsequent blow.

"I can do a lot more!" Though getting an opening was another matter. Before they got more than halfway back to where they'd come from Pit stood his ground and shoved both Orbitars together at Juri's leg as she kicked out, just enough to make some breathing room. Then the shields dispersed again, and no weapon seemed to replace them. Instead, the skin showing on his right arm lit up with prismatic tattoos. He went to grab Juri's attacking limb so he could retaliate in kind with a vertical stretch kick, and use the leverage to lash out with his own opposite leg in a high roundhouse.

”As if,” Juri’s leg hit Pit’s palm with force, making grabbing it difficult, especially as she retracted it with practiced ease and swiftness. She leaned her body to the side to avoid the stretch kick and then spun under the roundhouse, returning fire with a sweep to Pit’s leg still on the ground.

Finishing her spin she brought her foot down like an axe towards Pit, leaving a streak of empowered black and white energy behind it. ”I’ll crush you!”

Pit fell for the sweep again, but this time he used his wings to beat the air and push himself to roll out from under Juri's follow up. "You'll only try!"

As there wasn't a ton of space in the hallway his back hit the wall soon after, though he used it to spring right back at Juri. With the Palm Breaker equipped his hand to hand strikes were empowered to the point of a proper martial artist, and he struck out with the heel of his palm at her core.

The fuha empowered strike lent Juri more mobility, and as Pit sprung towards her she smoothly transitioned into two sweeping side kicks, the streaks of energy and her long legs outreaching Pit’s diving punch. If it worked it would kick PIt into the wall, only for a gust of wind to pull him into Juri’s waiting rib-cracking elbow strike and follow up thrusting strike aimed towards his neck. ”Come on!”

Her plan seemed to work as Pit felt his back connect with the wall yet again, only much harder this time. When he was pulled back toward her he raised his arms in a crossed guard, his bracers absorbing the worst of her attacks. He winced - it still hurt. Pit uncurled from his guard swiftly, throwing his glowy arm out with a chop toward the side of her head. At the same time his hand exploded with light, his own energy channeled into multiple little bright arcs that would home in on her had they not been locked in melee, but with the close proximity could pretty much instantly strike her.

Juri met the chop with her forearm, and then half-shielded herself as the blasts knocked her backwards. She swatted away the last of the blasts with a sparking clash, and then launched a near instant projectile of her own with purple ki colored kick. Then she backdashed, using her new skill to create a sharp air vortex in her wake that pulled Pit towards her and slashed into him, long enough for her to send an elbow towards his face. She had him against the wall and was intent on not letting him go. She was confident that her skills up close were superior to his, magic or not.

Pit managed to avoid the blast of energy, just barely, but Juri was right to be confident. Even though the Breaking Palm boosted his power, hand to hand was not his strongest suite, especially compared to a dedicated martial artist. His head snapped back when her elbow connected, but thankfully he had a really hard head.

"That all you got?!" He said after a hissed out breath. He let another round of light shots out from his palm while he reached out to grab her and stop her flurry. As long as he could get a hold of her he'd bring his leg up in a knee strike before going to shove her away.

Juri wasn’t going to let a perfectly good head hit go without followup. Ready for the next round of blasts, she turned perpendicular and braced her shoulder to not lose any ground, steadied her self against his grip and brought up her own knee to meet his. She held the pose, her face inches from his. ”I like it!” Juri cooed, before shoving him away instead.

She zig-zagged the distance between them away before going to hook her foot behind his head, knee him up into the air and then launch him suddenly to the left. Her green eye glowed, and suddenly a heavy bulkhead door descended from its safe storage place in the ceiling and dropped onto his back!

In the blink of an eye Pit used the break to swap weapons again. The tattoos on his arm snaked towards his palm, though the gathered light in his hand took the shape of a bow rather than firing out at Juri. With his favored weapon he'd be able to meet the street fighter at her level, eliminating the advantage she had! Unfortunately, he wouldn't get a chance to really use it.

He used the armor on his shin to block her knee, but he was still thrown to the side at her whim. He didn't fight that, instead bringing his bow up and about to spin the blade at Juri. But he had not expected a hunk of metal to suddenly drop down onto him. The heavy door slammed into Pit, winding him and flattening him to the ground. He laid there pinned as the bow dissolved back into light, for a moment not moving with all six of his limbs splayed out. Then he looked up at Juri sharply, a petulant scowl on his face.

"If I was a human that could have killed me!" He was thankful it had only struck his lower back, if that had managed to break the more delicate bones in his wings he would have been really mad. And in a lot of agony, but also mad.

Juri grinned and stooped over to him, squatting in front of him. ”Who cares?” She asked, resting her cheek in her palm. ”No, really. Who cares?”

”Buncha dust walkin’ around, thinkin’ it’s people? Hardly counts.” Juri tilted her head from side to side.

”You think I have a heart because I’m helping you Seekers burn everything down?” Juri lowered her face towards Pit’s again, looking him in the eyes.

”Nah. It’s cuz between spending forever as ignorant dust, or as some warden over a plastic toy sandbox, or killing the fucker that did this to us, going after Galeem is the only choice that even remotely matters.” She stated this with conviction. Juri stood back up.

”Eternity is for chumps. I’d rather die than hit thirty.” Juri said, and then stretched.

Her tone lightened. ”I’m ‘unna leave ya there cuz you already proved you can’t take a hint. See ya around, twerp.” Juri waved over her shoulder and lumbered off, scooping up her Ghoulsaw as she did.

By the time Pit would be able to wiggle himself free (or someone came along to help him), Juri would be long gone - so there wasn't much else he could do besides watch her leave and sit with her words. Maybe her outlook was just too different from his, but he still thought he was right about her. If she didn't insist on being a loner, she might not be so much... like that. Not that it mattered much at the moment after she'd thrashed him and left him stuck.

"Uugh." Pit let his forehead fall back to the floor with a dull thud.

When Band spotted Harry headed toward the tailor as well, he changed tactics and decided to let the man choose his garb for himself. Honestly, if he were in the same shoes he’d want to pick out his own clothes too, but as always, money was the problem. Band didn’t think the two thousand zenny stipend he gave Harry would get him very far. Hopefully he could manage a full outfit and still have enough cash left over for soap and water, or the poor guy would be scrubbing himself off in a very cold mountain stream.

The detective left Harry to his own devices and stomped off to tie up a couple loose ends, mostly inquiries he’d been meaning to make with people who hadn’t been where he’d expected them last time he looked. Unfortunately one of them -a grocer whose daughter had been among the recent disappearances- wasn’t open for business today either, which Band understood and was actually relieved to see. He’d had second thoughts about questioning the grieving man but resolved to do his due diligence, so having the choice taken out of his hands suited him just fine. He met with the parents of the missing girl’s young friend, but they refused to let the hulking stranger ask their son anything, and with that well within their rights Band had no choice but to look elsewhere. He did manage to catch a clemar guard who’d been on duty the night of the last kidnappings according to Bardon, but the man was defensive, and even after Band guilt-tripped him into cooperating his answers yielded nothing substantial. He settled for directions to Curien Mansion, which the clemar supplied before making himself scarce. With almost nothing to show from his efforts, the detective could only sigh in frustration and head back down to the plaza to rendezvous with Harry. How could this case already be so cold?

When Harry arrived, the sight of his new getup wiped every other thought from Big Band’s mind. “Holy smokes!” He chuckled, shelving his new partner’s question for the time being. “It’s a good thing I ain’t the fashion police, or I’d have to lock ya up and throw away the key!” Harry’s new duds, mismatched and ill-fitting, didn’t look that much better up close, but Band didn’t want to give the man too much of a hard time, given what he’d been through this morning already. He assumed that Harry was not much happier about his new look than anyone who had to see it was, and was simply making do with what he’d managed to acquire. At least, he hoped so. He was happy that Harry had cleaned himself up, though, and now that he got a better look, Band couldn’t help but be impressed by just how many articles of clothing the Icebreaker had managed to acquire. “Gotta say, you sure know how to handle your money. Got it all on clearance or somethin’? Musta been a real steal.” He paused just long enough to make Harry wonder about the intentionality behind his word choice, then turned to go. “But yeah, I’m ready to roll, and I know the way. Let’s bounce, slick.”

The two proceeded through Martira’s main gates and began their trek up the mountain. Heeding the directions he’d been given, Band led the way along the road until he reached a footbridge, then took a hard left and began to follow the little river up the forested slope. Near Martira the woods had been thinned out by loggers for timber to build the town’s houses with, but the woods quickly got thicker as the mountainside got steeper, and the pair’s progress slowed down just as fast. While Band’s mechanical body featured countless sophisticated subsystems and hidden sound-based weapons, its bulky frame and proportionally puny legs were not built for hiking, and soon the detective was wheezing and steaming like a locomotive. Engaging his thrusters and taking to the air would have saved him a lot of trouble, but it would have left Harry up the creek without a paddle, and Band wasn’t the type to let a partner down.

On the way up the mountainside, he happened to cast his mind back to something that Harry said earlier. “Hey, Icebreaker!” he called back as he paused between heavy steps. “Earlier, back when we split. Coulda sworn you called me ‘Kim’ or somethin’.” He raised an eyebrow like a cross-examiner, his tone playfully accusatory. “I know you ain’t forgotten my name already, so what’s the deal? Am I the spittin’ image of some gal you knew back home?” Where he came from, Band had only ever heard the name ‘Kim’ as short for ‘Kimberly’, so he’d been thoroughly unable to wrap his head around Harry’s misnomer.





Were any of the Seekers to look over their proverbial shoulders as the Avenger zoomed away from the Dead Zone, they might have caught a glimpse of the parasitized Qliphoth as it withered and died. Suddenly robbed of the floodfested tissue that had subsumed so much of its inner structure, and unable to sustain itself through the nourishment of stolen blood, it quickly succumbed to the timefall pounding its trunk and rotted from the ground up. Within minutes, the titanic, demonic tower of Babel crumbled, sloughing off desiccated masses the size of office buildings as it vanished into the chiralium-laced clouds below.

None of the Seekers looked back on the Qliphoth’s demise, however, so its mammoth grave went unmarked. Some things were better off left in the past, with naught but nightmares to mark their passage, ephemeral as life itself.

Given the Dead Zone’s proximity to the Paved Wilderness, the Avengers reached its destination quickly, even while flying at the lowest possible speed. The Seekers were only about an hour into the afternoon when the ship began to descend, and while it didn’t feature many forward-facing windows, anyone in the bridge could avail themselves of the camera feeds arrayed there to lay eyes on the not-so-trackless wilderness unfolding in front of them. Hope engaged the ship’s cloaking to hide the Lost Numbers’ flying fortress from prying eyes, and as Avenger continued to lose altitude, it wasn’t long before Hammerhead itself came into view in the distance. Of course, cloaking or no cloaking, the Avenger was much too big -and noisy- for its artificial pilot to set it down at the truck stop’s doorstep. Instead, the airship veered away from the crossroads and toward a distinctive rock formation in a more desolate-looking scrubland off the beaten path. The Avenger came in for a landing behind the curved crag, its massive thrusters kicking up billowing clouds of sediment until the roaring engines finally quieted down. Then the cargo bay door lowered amidst the haze, and the Lost Numbers could set foot on solid ground for the first time in a while.



“Mrrrrrrooooooow!” Nadia yawned as she plodded down the ramp, extending her arms to an unnerving extent as she arched her back. It hadn’t been long at all since she last stretched her legs, but to do so free of worry -at least for a while- was a liberating relief. It helped that the Lost Numbers had actually opted to land this time, sparing the Seekers from another nerve-tracking drop in the hellpods. No matter how many times she used those things and lived to tell the tale, the feral just couldn’t get used to falling from the sky in those deathtraps. Once her mantreads hit the dirt, Nadia pawsed to take in the scenery, breathing in the fresh air. The area looked rocky, arid, and dry, with plenty of long, yellow grasses but only a few scattered trees. The Avenger’s arrival had disturbed a number of scaly-shelled Ceratonoth that had been wandering and grazing the land in herds, each group of females clustered around a single male, distinguished by the tall keratin spars on their backs. “Guess I was right not gettin’ dessert with lunch, ‘cause we’re in for a rocky road to Hammerhead!”

Her ears perked up as she heard a familiar groan behind her. “Man, if I hear one more bad joke outta you…ice cream.”

Nadia grinned and turned to see Nero. From the look of the humorless, white-haired punk’s face you’d never guess he’d just made a pun of his own, but to Nadia the contrast between the young man’s hard shell and gooey insides just made him that much funnier. “Hey, Nero!” Though she thought she spotted him aboard the Avenger at some point, the two hadn’t really spoken since the Seekers’ first trip through the Dead Zone. “What’re you gettin’ up to at Hammerhead?”

“Just got the sneaking suspicion this girl I know’s gonna be there,” the devil slayer replied, brushing the dust off his navy-blue coat.

Nadia snapped her fingers. “Oh, right! Your friend from the dead zone. Ni…Nick…Nicole!”

Nero smirked, wondering how Nico would take to being called that. “Close enough.”

A quick glance over Nadia’s shoulder confirmed that Nero wasn’t the only one coming along for the ride. Plenty of Lost Numbers were as eager as the Seekers to experience natural, wide-open space. Like Sagi, the quartermaster, who had Caesar on a leash as both strolled out onto the ground, the latter so excited for a walk on solid ground that his wagging tail was a fluffy white blur. Once enough people were out of the way, the Lost Numbers’ two Armadillos rolled down the ramp after them, each armored car capable of transporting twelve passengers in comfort. One was driven by grouchy nopon mechanic Lulubi, while the other seemed to have Tora and Poppi behind the wheel. “All aboaaaaaaaaaaard, everypon!” the little inventor sang. “Next stop: Hammerhead!”

Only a few people hung back aboard the Avenger. Grimm took one look at all the sunshine, shrank back with a hiss, and disappeared into the shadows, while Sandalphon just looked on. Having been keeping tabs on her allies, she’d warped to Pit’s side seconds after his brawl with Juri concluded, and even after freeing and healing him she had hovered around him since then. Maybe something had her on edge? Nadia waved up at the archangel. “Not comin’?”

“I have…some calls to make,” Sandalphon called down.

Her zero-shaped pupils suggested some sort of inner conflict, but Nadia wasn’t going to probe. “Alrighty. Halo and goodbye!”

Still weary from the morning’s ordeals, Nadia was happy to hitch a ride aboard an Armadillo and ride the rest of the way to Hammerhead, watching out of a window. True to her pun earlier, the going was rough for a while, but before long the trucks discovered a dirt road, followed shortly by one of the wilderness’s titular paved roads, which soon led like a river tributary to a highway. From there it was a smooth ride across the flat expanse toward the region’s iconic landmark, Hammerhead.



One after another, the Armadillos turned off the highway and pulled into the parking lot to discharge their passengers. As an all-in-one blend of gas station, truck stop, service shop, and garage, Hammerhead had always been impressive, but among all of today’s visitors only Tora, Poppi, Bowser Jr, and Blazermate could appreciate how different it was since last time. Hammerhead as a whole had undergone a surprising amount of expansion in just two weeks, gaining not just its own oil refinery but a new forge hut for the local manufacture of custom parts. The previous adjunct restaurant, Grillby’s, had also been taken over and completely remodeled into Cheesetopia, a more traditional retro diner.

It was a lot to take in, and today it seemed that the whole place was already bustling with activity. Whether it was loading, unloading, gassing up, or breaking down, dozens of drivers and technicians were hard at work all over the place in a cacophony of voices, industrial sounds, and radio tunes. Both Nadia and Nero were drawn to a familiar-looking van parked next to the forge hut, but Tora’s eyes were more drawn to its owner out front. The glasses-wearing, chain-smoking country girl Nico seemed to be in a heated conversation with a the mechanic Cindy and two of the forge’s smiths, the red-headed Minayle and the blonde Gemma. In fact, the nopon’s eyes were practically bugging out of his head. “Tora must be in heaven!”

Embarrassed by him around so many people, Poppi quickly smacked him in the back of his head. “Masterpon should be careful around mechanics, lest they ‘fix’ you like dog you are.”

Nadia, meanwhile, zeroed in on a different quartet, and not for the same reasons. Nero had spotted four young men in black by the garage and gone to talk to them, so the feral followed him over. While Noctis, Ignis, Prompto, and Gladio had retreated from the Dead Zone well before the Seekers reached the RCPD station, she’d heard about these boys from Nero afterward, and was happy to see they made it. “Hey fellas! What’s up?”

The guys fired off a round of friendly greetings. Nero had just asked what they were up to, prompting Prompto to give a good-natured smile as he shrugged. “With no kingdom or empire around, we’re basically stuck on one big road trip, right? All we gotta worry about is making ends meet.”

“Which is why we accepted a collection job,” Ignis mentioned in his posh English accent.

Gladio grunted. “Us and every other buncha guys in the whole Wilderness, looks like.”

Unperturbed, Ignis continued. “Indeed. All we know is that yesterday evening, a Ficsit company freighter crashed into a very tall structure to the northwest just last night. Fittingly known as ‘Highertower’, it apparently extends so high into the air that it poses quite the hazard to air traffic. The tower survived, funnily enough, but the ship and its cargo were scattered all over the Wilderness. Ficsit has issued a region-wide commission offering rewards for retrieving their lost property, which would be enough of the occasion on its own, if not for the rumor that illegal firearms were being smuggled among the cargo.”

“Yeah, turns out, it’s totally true,” Prompto chirped. After a surreptitious look around, he opened his jacket to reveal a huge, blocky revolver that seemed to be made of ice. “We found a weapons cache on our first trip. Worth way more than the two thousand we woulda got handing it in! Cool, right?”

“So as you can imagine, there’s quite the hullabaloo,” Ignis summarized.

Gladio crossed his arms, clearly impatient. “So we were just discussin’ our next move. Right Noct?” His big hand descended to pat the team’s quiet leader on the shoulder, pressing him for an answer. “Can’t sit around forever while the others make off with the goods.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Noctis sighed as he stood. He gave Nero and Nadia an apologetic nod. “Join in the scavenger hunt if you want, but we’ve gotta get going.” Without disclosing where they’d be heading, the four took off and jumped in their convertible to hit the road.

Nero and Nadia exchanged a look, the latter raising her eyebrow. Then the devil hunter gave a curt wave and began to jog in Nico’s direction. “Happy hunting.”

Nadia rushed back toward the largest group of Seekers with a pep in her step. While spending her break snoozing somewhere warm sounded pretty nice, a fun diversion was more the catgirl’s style. “Hey, guys! Found out why it’s so crazy around here. Some flyin’ cargo ship crashed and s-cat-erred cargo everywhere. We can earn some money findin’ their stuff for ‘em, or…” She leaned forward as she lowered her voice. “Keep it for ourselves!”

With her plan outlined, Nadia hustled over to the nearest map board, where a handful of other miscellaneous treasure-hunters were gathered. It gave a top-down view of the whole Paved Wilderness, including countless race tracks and many points of interest. In the southern plains lay Chutes Meat Plant and to the southeast stood the mountain pass leading to the Land of Adventure, both so far from the impact point that neither could possibly have much salvage. To the east lay Scorched Gorge, a network of red sandstone canyons home to particularly unusual wildlife, and a little farther north beyond stood a somewhat ominous complex known as the Refinery. Farther to the northeast the racetracks gave way to Cheese Land, which as far as Nadia could tell was supposed to be made of actual cheese. Reminds me of those cheesy caves near the Home of Tears, she thought. Way to the north lay the Rocket League Arena, as well as the attached settlement Noctis.

Nadia blinked. “Huh?” Did the village on the map have the same name as that broody guy from the boy band? That was a funny coincidence.

She quickly finished off the map. Hightertower could be found to the northwest, and as the crash site, it promised to be a hotly-contested area, especially if the murmurs Nadia was hearing about psychotic bandits held water. Apparently the scrubland where the Avenger landed was called the Windward Plain, and the ecosystem only got stranger the closer one got to a settlement called Outback. “Lots of choices,” she muttered.

In the midst of the feral’s pondering, Tora pushed his way through the crowd to stand beside her, Poppi hot on his heels. “Wherever you go, you not get anywhere without set of wheels.”

Nadia blinked. She hadn’t thought of that. “Ah, crap.” She took off her head and held it up to look over the crowd, disturbing almost everyone in her immediate vicinity. In terms of transport, her only options were the Armadillos and maybe Nico’s van, if the gunsmith wasn’t gone already. Then something else Tora said clicked with her, and she looked down at him. “Wait, you’re not doing the scavenger hunt with me?”

He shook his head. “Much more interesting things going on here, meh.”

“Double crap!” Nadia groaned. Kooky Cabbies had proven that she could sort of drive, but she did not feel confident about the Armadillos, even if they were hers to use. All the locations within walking distance were probably picked clean, too. What was she going to do?

That was when she saw it as she scanned the whole station from her elevated perspective: a splendid red dune buggy with impressive suspension and room for two. What caught her attention wasn’t the vehicle, though, as much as the little guy who’d left it purring at the gas pump to go attempt to flirt with Cindy. Nadia promptly stuck her head back on, wiggled her eyebrows, and scampered over.

Once she’d gotten over the bizarre look one of the newcomers was wearing, and despaired a bit at her life choices, Amaterasu was forced to commit to them, as the oddly clothed one and the metal melded on set off together with purpose, and specifically or the edge of town.

This was her chance to see if they had figured anything out about what was going on around town that had the locals so down. Assuming, of course, that they were even doing anything in that regard. Oh and also assuming that they had achieved anything of merit in that investigation, a prospect onto which the smaller of the two’s fashion sense was throwing a great deal of shade on.

It only got worse as she closed in, cutting through the woods at a far faster pace than either man could manage. One look at the finer details of the one called ‘Icebreaker’ almost had her turning around and spending the day reforesting the chopped down forest instead of throwing more effort into this endeavor.

But, ultimately, she had invested too much time in it to turn back now. And besides that, the roads were by no means safe, and so she worried that these two might not make it to wherever they were headed without escort. The one who was not Kim certainly looked sturdy, but his labored breath did not inspire confidence, and the less said about the mess of a man that was ‘Icebreaker’ the better.

She’d slowed her supernatural quick galop to a more natural trot as she got close to the two figures, which was how she’d picked up on the conversation about the miss-naming of the one who was not Kim and gotten names to refer to them as. She was, she was fairly sure, too far out for them to have seen or heard her in turn, and, in theory, she could have kept things that way, stalking the strangers as they went about their journey.

That would have gotten a fair bit harder once they reached the scrublands however, but ultimately that was irrelevant. She was a divine being of light, not a skulking demon of shadows, and as such creeping around like a snake in the grass was beneath her.

Thus, instead of doing the patient thing and playing things by ear, she instead excited the woods at a dignified trot, head held high, tail down at a casual low. The picture of a noble wolf at ease in its natural environment.

At this pace she simply strode straight towards the pair, intending to simply attach herself to their party by sheer force of will.

@Lugubrious @DracoLunaris

Word Count: 509
Level: Lv: 6 EXP: (3/60)
Location: Dead Zone Hinterlands - Martira, Old Castle Town

Harry was still catching his breath from the running he did from the shopkeeper. There was a big chance she would ban him from the shop. As well as telling others they should be wary of a smelly, mustached man. “Oh yeah, it sure was a steal.” He said, laughing but feeling uncomfortable doing so. Big beads of sweat were running down his greasy face. Harry wiped his face, noticing there was a lot of sweat. But his discomfort was broken thanks to Band’s little joke. “I don’t know. I think I look pretty good.” This comment from Harry made someone laugh. But he assumed that was the voice in his head. Harry adjusted the bowtie, thinking he looked pretty suave with it on.

“Let’s go, partner.” Harry said, winking and giving Band a pair of finger guns. He clicked his thumb against his hand like it was a gun. Before they had gotten to the gate, Harry noticed a white-furred wolf staring at him. Harry felt the wolf was following him, even watching him while he was washing his clothes. Slowly, Harry approached the wolf, being cautious in case the wolf would try to bite him.

“If it does, you can should just rip its fucking throat out with your teeth.” Endurance said with intense rage in its voice.

“I’m not gonna hurt an animal. What am I, Cuno.” Harry said, shaking his head. He extended his hand for the wolf to sniff. “Hi, doggy, I ain’t gonna hurt ya. My name is Harry.” He said, widening his rather frightening grin. Amaterasu could see how yellow and dirty Harry’s teeth were.

“How do you know it’s even a dog? Obviously, this animal is a wolf.” Perception said

“That is not a wolf; that is a god.” Shiver said, correcting Perception.

“PRAISE THE SUN!!!” His ugly tie yelled from inside the plastic bag, which seemed to pierce Harry’s ear.

Harry wondered if this dog could join their merry band of misfits. “How about you come with us? You can be my trusty detective dog.” He rubbed his chin, thinking of a name for the wolf. Clicking his fingers, figuring out the perfect name for the wolf. “I will call you Dog Mullens, like famous book detective Dick Mullens.” Harry was searching his bag for anything he could give Dog Mullens. Eventually he pulled out a dirty looking fedora from his bag. Placing it carefully on her head. Amaterasu could smell a mixture of garbage and soap coming from the hat. He motioned for the wolf to follow him and Band to Curien’s mansion.

During the trek, Harry could feel his legs getting quite tired. The thought of resting briefly came to mind, but he thought Band would want to keep going. As they walked, his attention was focused on Band. The mention of Kim made Harry quite miserable. He felt like he had not only lost a good partner but also a good friend. “Umm, no Kim was my partner.” The detective said, shoving his hands into his pocket.

---

Juri walked down the ramp of the Avenger with her motorcycle at her side and her new green and purple repainted Ghoulsaw strapped over her back. From the windows she could tell this place was wide open and massive, so her motorbike would be necessary to get around without relying on any other Seekers.

Juri had on her helmet, a pink, black and blur full helm that obscured her features, though on top were two colored protrusions that mimicked devil horns.

It didn’t take long for Juri to start getting antsy and looking for trouble. The last thing she wanted to do was hang around here, even though like Tora she couldn’t help but notice the most common type of mechanic.

Fortunately, Fortune came to her rescue by informing her of loot available. Juri grinned under her helm, and it reflected in her voice. ”Gee, that’s just swell.” She said.

”I’m gonna head over there and hope there’s some cold dead hands I can pry some loot from.” Juri said, stepping over her motorcycle and sitting on it. It had been too long since she got to go for a ride. She brought her cycle around to the map board to clear the way. Once she had her fill of info on where the Highertower was, she sped off in a cloud of dust, looking to get there ahead of the other Seekers.

Who knew what she would find? Even if it wasn't anything useful on its own, cash was never out of style. And no way she wasn’t headed towards a fight. Juri had been preoccupied at Mafia Town to enjoy too much of the fighting, and since then she’d just been stepping on gross undead bugs and shitty old geezers. Or swatting that annoying cherub, Pit. She wanted a real fight with some real blood. And the mercs and bandits she pictured running around picking up valuables would be perfect for a scrap or two.

A few seconds passed after Harry replied, quiet except for the wind through the forest’s leafy boughs, occasional spurts of birdsong, and the gentle babble of the stream. At that point it became apparent that the detective wasn’t keen to say much else on the subject, so Band turned his attention away from his new acquaintance to resume his uphill trudge. He’d intended to spice up the rather glum mountainside foray with a little casual conversation, but with the way Harry clammed up at the mention of his old partner, Band felt no need to try and pry further. The cyborg didn’t mind the quiet, after all; if Harry felt like talking, then the Icebreaker could break the ice.

Not long after that, the two had an unexpected encounter. While in Martira, Band had heard his fair share of nervous murmurs about wandering zombies, wild beasts, and ravenous sandworms from the townsfolk, so he’d been more alert throughout the journey so far than it might seem. Even then, the sudden appearance of a white wolf took him by surprise. Graceful yet deadly, the predator emerged in near-silence, blowing out of the treeline like a flurry of winter snow. Still, while the sight surprised Band, it didn’t necessarily alarm him. Having not seen a wolf in the flesh before, he hadn’t realized just how much bigger they were than dogs, but the creature still didn’t hold a candle to him. Should the worst come to pass, he felt very confident in his abilities to defend himself, but right away he realized that such measures shouldn’t be necessary.

This wolf was, after all, not hostile–that much was immediately clear. Its body language was relaxed, upright, and undefended, with no sign of aggression or fear. It could have ambushed the two men at top speed, but instead it approached at a carefree lope, friendly as a dog. For a wild animal this was undoubtedly strange, but then again, Band had seen all sorts of strange things in the World of Light. If a cat could cook a pot roast, a wolf could be a friend. Only a moment after the critter arrived, Band relaxed as well, a smile in his eyes as he gave the wolf a genial nod. He had no reason to suspect that it was sentient, but a friendly wolf was special, so he’d treat it with respect. “Hey there, li’l one,” he greeted Amaterasu, watching Harry. He expected the man to be a lot flightier about a wild animal than a five thousand pound cyborg like him, but the Icebreaker reacted pretty well. He offered the wolf a hand to sniff, a nickname, and then a hat. “If you wanna tag along, be my guest.” He tilted his head in the direction of the stream, then turned to continue onward.

After a few more minutes of travel, the unlikely trio found themselves closing in on their destination. Up ahead, the wooded slope evened out, then gave way to high stone walls. At least two stories tall, they towered over everyone, Big Band included, and though festooned with moss and ivy they looked very formidable. Hesitant to pit his mechanical might against such solid stone, Band led the others in a minutes-long search for the actual entrance. He could see what must be Curien Mansion itself looming large over the walls in the distance, so he guessed that the main gate must be opposite, and his hypothesis proved to be correct. A gap in the stone brick turned out to house a huge, elaborate gate of gothic wrought iron, all buckled up in various chains and padlocks. Band deployed a spindly mechanical arm to grab one of the bars and give it a good rattle. Though the gate made a lot of noise, it barely budged, and after it stopped clanking Band gave an impressed whistle. “Whoever did this sure didn’t want anyone gettin’ in. Or out.” If Heismay could scale Martira’s walls like Morris said, though, these defenses probably posed no challenge for him. He looked back at Harry with an eyebrow raised. “How’s your lock-pickin’, Icebreaker?”

Regardless of Harry’s reply, he spun back around, his trench coat flying open. From within his mechanical body extended a gigantic fist of black steel, brass tubes, and nickel-silver pipes. Pressurized gasses hissed and screeched, propelling the Brass Knuckles forward with pneumatic strength. One massive punch was all it took to bash through the chains and blow the wrought iron gates wide open with a tremendous cacophony of crunchy metallic reverberation. Busted chain links scattered noisily over the cobblestone pathway ahead, and then there came an ominous, heavy silence–until the newcomers heard the moans.



In front of them lay a massive courtyard, huge to the point of absurdity, with multiple layers of wrought-iron fences within, enclosing wilted flowerbeds, twisted dead trees, and mosaic plazas. Frog-mouthed gargoyles squatted grotesquely around fountains full of scummy, fetid water, while the channels beneath the arched footbridges seemed even worse. At a word, this place looked dead, which also aptly described its denizens. Right away Band’s eyes were drawn to sudden movements, only for them to roll when he saw what he was up against: zombies. They came in all shapes and sizes, in various states of decay and undress, but that all shared that familiar lifeless stare, that unnatural pallor, that maniacal gait. About a dozen of them were in the process of converging on the newcomers from all directions, their groans and growls getting louder.

Band heaved a sigh, much more annoyed than afraid. “Figures.” Judging by his reaction, Harry could probably infer that this wasn’t his fellow detective’s first rodeo. Band widened his stance, his tone sharp and authoritative as he took on a more menacing appearance. “You just a normal guy, right? Better stand back and let me handle these chumps. I was built for this, literally.” He didn’t expect Amaterasu to understand him, but hopefully the wolf could sense the danger she’d followed him into and would know to stay away. “Whatever you do, don’t let ‘em bitecha. Don’t want ya spoilin’ on me before payin’ back that cash you owe, eh?” He was joking about the money, but when it came to the undead, Band was deadly serious.

“...Impression!” Band started the fight by deploying a giant drum pedal that slammed the ground hard enough to shake it, knocking the two nearest zombies off their feet with the tremor. He then used Brass Knuckle again to slide across the ground toward them, only to cancel the ride with Emergency Break. One zombie had cracked his decrepit ankle bones as he fell, keeping him down longer, and when the other fought its way to his feet he found Band looming over him. “Hot socks!” Band clocked the creep in the knee with a smaller drum pedal, then brought his other leg forward with a knee strike that popped out a trombone for extra kick. “Bee’s…knees!” Finally, he hopped up just high enough to deliver a massive (if clumsy) drop kick that sent the zombie soaring into the derelict fountain in pieces. “...Lay BACK!” He landed on his back, but a burst of sound energy from his pipes allowed him to bounce off the ground and straight into the face of the second zombie to keep the pain train rolling.

The sky above was dreary, the threat of rain in the gray clouds. Sitting at a campfire with his helmet removed and gear laying in front of him was Kit, the knight's eyes closed as he sat in a sort of meditation. Breathing in and out slowly, he tried his best to clear his mind of any thoughts, focusing on the rise and fall of his chest. In. Out. In. Out. In-

*CLANG!*

Kit's eyes shot open at the sound of crashing metal not too far away. He grabbed his helmet and slid it on, then grabbed his sword and shield as he stood and stomped the fire out. The Mansion he had been camping outside of had an ominous feeling about it, and he intended to venture through it one of these days to cleanse it of whatever evil was infesting the place. The only problem was he didn't have a key to the gates.

As he marched his way towards where the sound had come from, it dawned on him that it came from the front gate of the manor. Maybe someone had broken right through the gate. It wasn't long before he arrived there, finding that his suspicion was correct and the gate had been blown right open, with a behemoth of a man leading a man in strange attire and a white wolf. Now, the question was whether they were friend or foe.

It was only a moment later that Kit noticed the walking corpses advancing towards the three. The mountain of a man met them head on, beating on the undead with impressive swiftness despite his size. Friend or foe, Kit decided that it was probably best to stick with this small group against the horde of zombies. He approached them from behind, pulling his sword from the sheath on his back and readying his shield as he walked past the strange man and wolf to join the behemoth in battle.

"Greetings, big man!" Kit shouted out, slicing a zombie's head off with his blade. "Need a helping hand?"

As the Avenger prepared to land, its occupants gradually began to congregate in and around the hangar. Even those that did not plan to venture out into the Paved Wilderness gathered, if only to see their comrades off. Such was the case for Primrose, who after a visit to the Spirit Chamber was content to spend more time on the ship acclimating and resting up rather than gallivanting across the dusty landscape.


She stood slightly off to one side so as not to block those more interested in leaving. Though planning to get out of the ship himself, Therion loitered near her. Until the ramp actually opened, he didn't have anything better to do anyway.

"I didn't see you around after we got back. Where did you go off to?"

Therion blinked at her, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. An expression that said wouldn't you like to know? Primrose recognized it quickly and simply looked back at him. While it might have seemed like he'd gotten up to trouble with a look like that, she'd known him long enough that she figured he had probably just kept to himself.

Which was pretty much true. Therion had stopped by his room and ferreted away some things there, as well as collecting others he'd left behind that morning. He'd also roamed the Avenger's halls, going unnoticed for the most part as he eavesdropped -intentionally and unintentionally- on many conversations going on in the rooms he passed.

He had actually stopped by Primrose's room once too, but since the dancer hadn't been there he didn't stay longer than the time it took to flick the lights on, snoop around what would have been Midna's half to see if the woman had stashed anything useful away there rather than in her portals, then leave without a trace. Primrose would probably be upset if she knew that, so he didn't tell her.

"Were you looking for me for something?"

She withdrew something strange looking from her bag and held it out to him - the bundles of bio-knives. Therion looked at them, then looked back up at Primrose with a slightly furrowed brow. There was clearly an unspoken ew on his face, but he still took them. If those tendrils hadn't tried to attach themselves to her in the many seconds she'd held them, then it was unlikely they'd do anything weird to him either. But he did hold the bundles pinched between his fingers, holding them slightly away from him as he inspected them.

"And these are..."

"Knives, I think," Primrose said. She pointed out the sharp end which she knew Therion had already seen, and the fleshy flap that housed the weapons. "If you don't want them, I can take them back."

He just stowed them in his own bag rather than confirm he'd take them verbally. Just from looking at them, he could kind of tell how they worked - some kind of delivery system like a bee's stinger, probably. They could come in handy in the future.

"If you're doing all that spirit stuff anyway, you might as well take back the one you gave me last night. Get the other one too if you do," he offered. It wasn't like he was going to use them. They were keeping them just to keep them at this point, and even stored in a container they wouldn't last forever.

She hummed an agreement. And since she would be staying behind anyway, she offered to the group at large, "if anyone has some leftover chores to take care of… spirit crushing, item sorting… I'll drop things off in the appropriate places."

She had a good grasp on the ship's layout, but it would help to get even more used to it since they were in this together with the Lost Numbers for the long haul.

"And if there are any fusion plans… I have this one left over as well," she said, displaying the demonic spirit she, Grimm, Zenkichi, and Roxas had fought together.

”Someone seems to have gone through the ones we left in the armory from the one encounter that generated them. Hard to say exactly what was left or taken from the results, but there are new items in the armory” Edward approached to say, though of course this was more to Therion than Primrose herself so that he’d be aware of the situation. The thief's ears flicked towards him in acknowledgement. He'd have to go check it out later on, not that he expected much from the scores of crawlers they'd sent back through the magic circle.

Edward did however lean in a little with an inquiring eye to inspect the demon, the eyebrow of which was raised at the sight of it.

”What an unpleasant looking creature. Or creature and rider?” he said, before asking ”what did it do?” to gauge if it would be of any value to him. With his failure in the most recent battle, he was considerably more open to taking edges he’d have been wary of before.

"They seemed of two minds, but were fused together into one being," Primrose told him. Malphas had been a ghastly demon to be sure, although it was because of what it could do that Primrose had had second thoughts about merely crushing its spirit.

"This was a dark sorceress... It conjured ichor to attack with, although most troublesome were its portals. That... bird part of it was particularly strong, and able to strike out from anywhere when combined with them."

”That certainly is a way to have both might and magic in great supply” Edward said, with some distaste, but not so much as to be immediately rejecting the possibility of utilising it.

”A striker would make a great deal of sense, but, hmmm, well, fusion is reversible, so it could be prudent to experiment” he supposed, mostly to himself, before coming to a partial decision as he half-rhetorically asked ”only question is heart or mind I suppose?” and then actually asked ”and, of course, what you’d want in return?”

Primrose raised one delicate brow, amusement playing at her features. At the same time Therion looked between Edward and the spirit of Malphas, a skeptical look clear in his one visible eye.

Leaving aside the triple humanoid body the demon sported, personally the thief wouldn't want to risk being fused with a malformed chicken even temporarily.

"These scholarly types," Therion scoffed lightly, having already pegged Edward as a learned, inquisitive man.

Primrose glanced at Therion, and then simply handed the spirit over to Edward.

"I'd like to see the results," she said, naming her price as only that. So far she had not fused with monsters like these, for a number of reasons, but she liked seeing the changes. If the time came in the future that she chose to fuse with something like this, it would be good to have as much reference information as possible.

”Well then, In that case I won’t chicken out and take the easy path” Edward said, having clearly spent too much time around the Ace Cadet, before accepting and then applying the spirit to his chest.


The results were not pretty, to say the least, and very difficult to ignore as the man towered over them, hunched over from looking down at them. It was a good thing they were in the hangar, because he’d have likely been crushed or destroyed some walls had they been anywhere else on the ship. He blinked in confusion, took a heavy step back, and then with a mere thought opened a pair of portals before him, looking through one to see himself out of the other.

”Well, isn’t that dramatic” the man said, with a tone far closer to a mad scientist than merely an inquisitive academic, as he examined himself. Then he ran a hand across the opposite arm and remarked ”and internal changes as well? I should dissect myself to see what it has done to my bones because they feel very strange” as if this was an entirely reasonable course of action.

Portal flashed open and shut as he took the entirety of himself in quick succession, as he mused ”Fascinating, far more change than Ganondorf in terms of the shape of the physical structure despite the utterly inhuman nature of his fusion. I wonder why that is”

The Orsterrans regarded the changes with about the same mix of surprise and distaste. Therion was much more obvious with it, and he was quick to extract himself from the conversation when Edward brought up dissecting himself - especially as he wasn't entirely sure if it was the spirit making him talk crazy or if it had merely brought out some deeper facet of his personality. You never knew with scholars.

"I'll leave you to figure out," he said, heading for the ramp without a second glance at either the dreadnought or dancer as his tail swished behind him.

Primrose watched him go out of the corner of her eyes, keeping most of her attention on Edward. Malphas had been very powerful, and the demoness' dark magic would certainly have been nice to wield for herself, but... now she was very glad she hadn't tried. Hopefully she would have still wanted to de-fuse afterward. Speaking of...

"You... don't look very comfortable in your own skin," she said. So far her experience had been that most feelings of unease passed after a few moments as the changes blended together and felt natural, but going from what he'd been before to this, well... it wouldn't be a surprise if he didn't settle into it.

She folded her arms, looking up at the changed man. "Although at least you didn't split into three. I don't suppose it gave you the power to change shape?" Malphas hadn't displayed anything like that, and her comment was more teasing than anything. "How does the magic feel? Worth it, or do you want to change back?"

She glanced back at the hallway leading into the hangar, unsure if he could even fit through the corridor. Could he even fit into the Spirit Chamber if he created a portal that led to it?

”Oh it is deeply unpleasant, but I have felt many unpleasant things in my life, from death to far worse, and so i am willing to endure it for knowledge at least” he replied, before adding that ”the impracticality however is certainly a reason to dispose of this. I'd rather not crawl through the halls of the Avenger, so you’ll get them to move the de-fusion device to save me the trouble once I return”

Briefly Primrose wondered if the death he endured was meant in regards to the cycle they lived through in this world, or if he'd died in his original world before ending up here. Primrose herself had almost ended up that way. There was also the option that he'd been resurrected or something like that. She might have asked, if not for the tone he spoke in.

She raised another brow at him.

"Is that a request or a demand?"

Edward, it seemed, had taken it as a given, as he had begun and did not stop to half turn and then walk into a portal, taking him outside of the Avenger in a single step. He then glanced around, and entered yet another portal, stepping to parts unknown.

Roland was expecting more of a break after dealing with such a tough fight, but that wasn't the case here as they all landed in Hammerhead. Much like he said, he had to grab some coffee to sober himself up just in case. As he left the Avenger alongside the others, he saw the giant bee flying besides him and offered her a bit of coffee more out of previous curiosity than anything. He wasn't sure what to expect, but her rejecting it outright seemed about right. In her words "Not enough sugar" as Roland tended to drink coffee black.

This area was new to Sectonia and Roland, although for the former, this eerily reminded her of the area before they dropped down into the Underground in a way. Everyone soon learned what was going on around the area, and learned there was this 'scavenger hunt' going on. This got Roland and Sectonia's attention, the former more interested in gaining intelligence about the area, and the latter more interested in the loot. As such, the two chose very different ways of going about this hunt. Surprisingly Sectonia and Juri had the same idea, even if the two didn't interact much with going to the main source of this scavenging crash, Highertower. Meanwhile Roland would head to the mysterious Refinery in an attempt to figure out its mystery.

Sectonia, unlike many of the others, had the stamina and ability to move about the area without a vehicle using her magic. Although she'd need to skim low to the ground to keep her mana up but regardless she could keep up with Juri as she made her way to Highertower, making a battle plan of dealing with an entrenched stronghold. She'd decide what to do with the goods once she had an inventory of what they found. Seeing two people go towards what was clearly the dangerous area, decided to go with Juri and Sectonia to make sure they were safe. She owed it to Sectonia for not saving her during the Consul fight as it was anyway. Much like Sectonia, she didn't have to worry about getting tired and followed the two girls.

Roland meanwhile decided to go find a ride himself. He'd rather not run a long distance as he didn't want to be tired once he reached an unknown building that might have hostiles. So he looked around for a ride. As he looked around, a few others took vehicles in the area and went off seemingly not caring too much about who owned them or anything. This got the attention of the guy who made these cars whom... really didn't seem to care too much overall Roland got the impression of. He did seem to keep his eyes on the direction Nadia had driven off to in her red buggy though, being more interested in her than anything. Roland decided to head on up to get an idea of what was going through this guy's head.

"Darn cat. Stole my buggy. That took me minutes to make." He said, holding up his strange gun and fiddling with a device on it. "She really needs to be taught a lesson about stealing from others." Roland saw a bit of an opportunity, and decided to take him up on that. Maybe also save the catgirl in the process so that someone worse didn't go after her. "Well, its your lucky day. Roland, Grade 9 fixer at your service. I can go and catch that girl for you if your willing to pay." Roland really shouldn't go about saying he was a grade 9, the City's rules didn't really apply anymore, but that had been drilled into him and it'd take some time for him to get used to his newfound freedom.

"eh? Fixer? Whats that? Eh nevermind. You say you can teach that girl a lesson?" "Yes sir." "Hmm... I don't need the car back, just teach her not to steal from people again. Hold on a moment." With that the man fiddled with his gun a bit more before pointing it at an open space and creating a simple truck for Roland. Sturdy, but it wasn't going to win any beauty rewards. "There. Thats your payment. Go teach that cat not to steal from good honest folk." he said. Roland, nodding, made his way to the truck and started to fiddle with the controls. As he did, Therion, also wanting to go to the Refinery, hitched a ride with him in the passenger's seat. Roland didn't mind, it was good to have backup. And as they were off, it didn't take them too long to catch up to Nadia.

Having left the source of his new power with instructions that he simply assumed would be carried out, Edward immediately began to make use of his no power and delighting in what he found. With simple will, he could flash open a portal to anywhere within hundreds of meters that he could see, and then step through and arrive there instantly. A quick second test had him summon a golem squad, and send them through instead, resulting in them arriving at their destination with no issue whatsoever.

”Remarkable” the man declared, before an annoyed look crossed his face as had the impulse to start writing notes, only to realize that with how large his hands were now, this might not be possible.

Rather than make a fool of himself trying to do so in front of others, he informed them that ”I will go on ahead” and then, upon also finding out where to head and what to look for while doing so, set off into the wilds on his own, a chain of portals taking him there one step at a time.

Once the motorized vehicles caught up, the man was only recognizable from his new distinctive shape, having acquired the Blacklight Armor from the armory, which made him appear even more monstrous than the twisted wings on his back had already done.

Given that the man already had human levels of movement speed, or at least human levels of movement speed for his size, he had found it entirely without downsides. Well, other than a diplomatic penalty due to its fearsome appearance. But in a way, he found himself thinking, was that not also a boon.

He’d also examined the zombie soldier's soul, and in the process absorbed it. While a rather limited ability in normal hands, when combined with a portal, the man could drop the grenades anywhere he pleased. The practice of using this, and also just regular attacking, that he had done just outside of hammerhead probably factored a bit into the intimidation, as the man launched punches, stomps, kicks through portals, and also grabbed things through them.

He was, notably, only using his body as part of this practice fighting, because said body was now far too large to use any conventional weapons. Even the deceased Goldlew’s coffin was a toy in his hands. The only exception was the enchanted buckler he had been wearing when using the spirit, due to it being functionally a piece of clothing.

He did not quite have time to get round to practicing with his golems as well, but was already envisioning the strategic positioning possibilities, not to mention the ability to launch attacks through portals, when the rest of the seekers rolled into town.

As such, he had all his mana fuel cells charged up and ready to use when he found out about the lost cargo, and the spoils that might be found scattered around this high tower.

”Our enemies are many. They hide their cities and lairs in deep dark places and they may strike from any angle, so they must be found. To the humble scout, this task did fall, and yet so often did they fall in that line of duty. No more. Let iron eyes take to the skies, let them soar across the land, deep into enemy realms and unexplored lands, and find fortune and opportunity for the people to claim!” Edward quoted from the now very small tome, before making an amused sound and amending the last part of that to: ”fortune and opportunity for me to claim”

This didn’t impact the spell however, as around him a dozen pairs of observer drones appeared, hovering in the air. The central eyes that made up the core of their body immediately began glancing around, taking in the surroundings, and feeding the information back to their creator.

Without a word, he sent them forth towards the high-tower in a wide spread, intending to have them fan out and scan the area further out from the crash site for any easy pickings. Fast, keen eyed, and able to traverse even the most difficult terrain with ease thanks to their hovering nature, they would be capable of finding anything that had been missed by those restricted to moving by foot or wheel.

The main spoils, however, surly lay around the tower itself, and so even should they fail to find scattered loot, they would at least provide him with ample scouting information of the area, and what threats might be found within.

The man himself took a short rest to recover from the exertion of his training/practice, before following after his minions at a casual stroll. Portals opening and closing as he followed the course of a route he’d plotted across the land using information his drones had collected on the land they had already scouted, each step taking him from optimum vantage point to optimum vantage point as he made his way to his destination.

Though he wasn't excited for anything in particular, Therion was one of the earlier people to disembark from the Avenger once it touched down. He was, maybe, a little eager to see a new environment - the desert had been fine, but it was... well, a desert. Plus it had that cold mountain. The Under had not been pleasant, and needless to say the Dead Zone hadn't been either. The week spent in Mafia Town was alright, but it had been small and surrounded by water. He probably shouldn't count the Avenger, but its metal hallways were just that.

The Paved Wilderness looked like if someone had taken the Clifflands and flattened it down before drawing roads through it. There were some notable landmarks, like the one they were parked relatively close to, but otherwise it seemed a fairly normal place. That was just fine with Therion. He scanned the landscape and then made his way into one of the transport vehicles, claiming a spot. Primrose was staying behind, but that didn't mean he had to. A little excursion sounded good.

As for the others that were coming along, it seemed most of the Seekers were planning on getting out of the Avenger in one way or another. The Ace Cadet -suited up again, and this time with his deceptively spacious backpack included- was of course among those up for a little adventure. He took in the landing area and what was around it with interest, studying the scaly herbivore herds for a moment before a pear-like object (in both color, shape, and size) floated in front of him, blocking his view as it lazily passed and then hovered in his general vicinity.

His curious expression flickered with annoyance. The hunter had gone ahead and itemized the spirits of the three Neopteron demons after splitting up from Edward, and while one gave him a simple but handy herb, and another turned into a very interesting looking bow, the last had resulted in... this thing. This orb with an aghast expression that just floated around him ever since he'd touched it. It definitely wasn't anything normal, and so far it seemed attached as throwing it or stowing it didn't seem to stop it from finding its way back into his orbit. He'd gone to see if anyone could get rid of it, but Primrose had taken one look at the orb and deemed it "helpful" rather than harmful. For now it was just more exposure therapy, he guessed.


The herb he'd put into his gathering pouch, the bow folded into his backpack. With all the wide open areas he hoped he would get a chance to test it out soon.

Finally, Pit made his way down the Avenger's ramp. He was completely recovered now, from both the morning in the Dead Zone and his encounter with Juri. He turned to wave at Sandalphon as he left, calling back to her, "lemme know if you want a souvenir!" Not that they could probably find much besides bobbleheads or something.

After the archangel had rescued him yet again, and then stuck close by to him after he'd thanked her, Pit had thought he actually might be in trouble. He hadn't exactly meant to pick a fight, but he'd thought that maybe Juri was the kind of person that talked better with her fists. Metaphorically speaking, since she preferred using her legs. A lot of martial artists were like that. However, Sandalphon hadn't mentioned anything like that.

"I admire your determination, Pit, but while Juri clearly needs help of some kind, trying without the necessary qualifications may only make things worse. The average doctor spends ten years studying before being officially qualified to treat patients without magic--and how much harder is it to heal the soul than the body?" was what she'd said.

It had sort of felt like an admonishment, so Pit had folded his arms and just said, "yeah, I guess." He hadn't even been trying to 'help' her really, but... well, whatever, it was done with now.

He loosened up soon after, since he liked Sandalphon and didn't mind her company. Of course he still peeled himself from her watchful gaze as soon as the Avenger landed, hopping onto the top of one of the Armadillos and letting his wings unfurl to feel the wind as they got going towards Hammerhead.

---

The outpost was busier than Pit remembered it. Of course he'd only stopped there very briefly, but it seemed to have been a sleepier place than it was now. There was a buzz of excitement to Hammerhead now, which energized the young angel. He flitted around the edge of the group until everyone was out of the two Armadillos, and then he went to get a better look at the place. It wasn't huge, so it wouldn't take him long to see most of it.

Ace's attention was drawn to the group of gorgeous girls, but not for the same reasons as some of the other Seekers. They were pretty, yeah, but they also all looked like crafters - and even more impressive was the forge behind them. Though it was putting out all kinds of metal machinery pieces, not just weapons or armor, the sight of it rang pleasantly familiar for the hunter. He definitely wanted a closer look. Maybe he could get some new stuff - Actually I think I'm kind of broke. Maybe I can trade for it though - or some upgrades. Hell, maybe if they asked really nicely they could even convince a blacksmith to join up with the Seekers. The Land of Adventure wasn't that far away, so they could always swing by and ask Rena, Ramona, or Renee in Lumbridge about that too though.

If all else failed it would be nice to just shoot the breeze with them too.

When Nadia brought the news back that there was a massive search in the region for scattered cargo, killing time trying to find someone of it did sound like fun. However, if everyone was splitting up then the hunter figured he'd just leave them to it so he could actually spend time checking out the forge.

"I'm gonna stick around here," he told his companions. "Good luck though! Happy hunting!"

Meanwhile, Therion needed to hitch a ride. Finding valuable junk was kind of his thing, though he normally found it in manors and coin purses rather than out in the wilderness like a real treasure hunter, but this sounded like it could be interesting. Juri had already left, not that he would have even tried asking her. He wasn't about to ask Blazermate for a ride, and though he was tempted to ask Sectonia, the queen bee ended up leaving pretty quickly too. He wasn't sure he wanted to be stuck in close quarters with Ms. Fortune, especially if she was behind the wheel, so that really left only one option.

Therion swung himself up onto the side of Roland's new truck, slipping into the passenger window and plopping himself down onto the seat without so much as a word. He did glance at the Fixer though, wondering if he'd be kicked out (in which case he'd just ride in the bed), but the other man didn't seem to mind the company. So the thief settled back into the seat, resting one arm out of the open window casually.

Which left Pit, who'd since returned from his quick self-guided tour of the new and improved Hammerhead. He had wanted to visit the Rocket League Arena again - one because it had been really cool, and two because last time he was there, he'd seen a couple of people he knew. That was where they'd met Asbestos too, and now she was part of the team, even if not the front-line team. But he also didn't want to miss out on a scavenger hunt!

Luckily, a quick glance at the area map showed that the Arena wasn't actually that far away from the place this thing allegedly crashed. Maybe there were things to find over there? It would be two birds with one stone! As for how to get over there... well, there was always hitchhiking! Surely a few of these entrepreneurial adventurers in Hammerhead would be heading north!

As the ramp to the avenger lowered, the first thing to exit it was Junior’s once again repaired clown car. The machine had had a bit of a retooling as well. Its insides were now distinctly more random weapon free, the assortment of extra gear having been trimmed down to just the balloon launcher, the sentient meat hook, and Padwah's Wheel. As two out of three of these replaced existing components, the device was more or less back to its original weapon load, which when added to the size increase the incorporation of the egg mobile had resulted, had left plenty of space for armor.

Inside coppra and galvanised steel had been used to harden the internals, but it was the outside where the real added durability was found. Despite Tora’s derrision of Jr’s magically produced iron, as it turned out, when you had an unlimited supply of it, it had its uses. In this case this involved adding it as ablative armor to the outsides that acted as a buffer for the real armor below, a buffer could be ever so easily replaced by the prince. It didn’t even sacrifice the aesthetics, because thanks to his magic paint brush, redecorating the replacement panels was a snitch.

Despite Junior’s pride at his ingenuity (which had involved taking a leaf out of Tora’s book using the internet to look up how to make good armor designs) he was, surprisingly, not at the wheel.

Instead he was whooping encouragement while clinging on for dear life as his sister took a turn at the wheel in this low stakes situation. Putting the limited driving education she’d gotten from Kamek during their taxi driving minigame to work, she barreled off the bottom of the ramp and into the scrubland beyond, without even a hint of slowing down.

At the sight of the fleeing Ceratonoths, she turned towards them, a little predatory spark in her pile of fusions giving her the idea to chase after them just for something to do. They did have time after all, it was going to take a while for all the slowpokes back on the ship to file out and get in order, but to anyone watching it certainly looked like they were driving off in the entirely wrong direction, and at great speed too, gradually climbing a slope up towards a ridge, therenting to disappear over it.

For Roxas’ part, he couldn’t say he was particularly surprised that Junior and Rika took off somewhere on their own. They did have a tendency to do that. Still, he didn’t want them to get lost on their own, did he? ”Uh, hey! Wait for me!” Roxas called as he tried rather futilely to run after the clown car. Naturally it was, of course, faster than him. Eventually he ran out of breath and slowed to a standstill. ”Sheesh… those two…”

Watching Junior and Rika, with Roxas following shortly after, barrel out of the Avenger, Geralt merely sighed as he watched them run ahead. Shaking his head and sighing as he descended the ramp, he lazily leaned his head over his shoulder, halfways looking back to the other Seekers. “I'll look after them.” He announced wearily, before turning ahead and taking a deep breath. With little preamble, he burst forth in an inhuman display of speed, gaining on Roxas incredibly quickly.

The kids would have claimed to need no such thing, despite instantly demonstrating why they needed it as the clown car went careening off the top of the ridge and soaring up and over the surprisingly steep drop on the other side.

As they vanished out of sight Jr’s whoop turned into a panicked cry as he lunged for the controls and, moments before they hit the ground below, activated the flight mode to slow their descent.

”phew, close one” the prince sighed, while his sister gave a semi-apologetic ”oops?” before adding ”I mean the dinos got down just fine so I thought…” as they climbed back up the steep but not anywhere close to vertical cliff she’d ramped off of in her race to overtake the stampeding Ceratonoth.

They appeared back up above the ridge line a few moments later, having shuffled around so that Jr was actually in the driving seat as he flew them down for a landing. As a result, Rika had a chance to look back at the valley she’d almost crashed into, and true to Nadia’s later reading about it, it sure was strange.

Plants like seedless avocados slices covered in scales instead of skin floated above a desert landscape hosting scattered metal orbs and large round plants with chimney-like growths. In the distance, a rectangular tower could be seen, a red glow atop its peak.

This wasn’t the only thing that towered over the land however, as, twice as tall as the trees, were creatures that initially looked like three legged giraffes until the front of their ‘neck’ peeled back and revealed itself to actually be a massive maw.

As the ship girl watched, the Great Gaaahr inhaled through this mouth, creating a miniature sandstorm as it sucked up something or other into the floating orb of gas that hung above it, one which was presumably letting the absurdly large creature not be crushed under its own weight

Another visible creature floated above the ground, though it seemed to have no gas sacks, and instead was held aloft by a red beam shooting down from the central hole of its body. This beam also seemed to be its preferred method of hunting, as the ship girl just barely spotted a small hapless creature being sucked up it and into the central hole, where the massive tongue-like tail lapped it up and deposited it into the square toothed maw up front.

What else was down there was hard to tell from on high, other than the Ceratonoth that had just fled there, naturally, but from the two megafauna alone it promised to be a land of the strange and bizarre,

Rika, in all her eloquence, thought it was ”Neat”

They touched down a moment later atop the ridge line, just in time for their pursuers to catch up, who Rika greeted with a cheerful ”Hi” as if everything that had occurred was not her fault.

Roxas had been about to say something to Junior and Rika when he finally caught up. Instead he caught sight of the Great Gaaahr and just stared at the creature blankly. ”That thing looks… weird.” Was all he could really say. After another moment he remembered something he’d wanted to ask of Junior. ”Are you out of Poke Balls, too?” Roxas asked as he patted the ball pocket of his trainer. ”’Cause I am. Well, almost. I think I have two left. I was wondering if you wanted to look for materials so Dr. Yu can make more for us.”

Now that he thought about it, he decided to let Scamp out of his Poke Ball. After emerging, the Yamper gave his trademark bow-wark and immediately set out sniffing around in his new surroundings.

”Eh, I’ve got some” Jr replied, but it wasn’t that many, and, given what he’d read about them, it might not be enough if he wanted to catch anything on par with the rest of his team, and so he said ”But if she can make some of the better balls that’d be good”

”More money would be neat, seeing as we’ve got none left after giving it to Tora for that cleaning bot. Oh and more, tapes so we can do more experimenting with em” Rika suggested as she sat herself on the rom of the clown car with her feet dangling out of it, before pointing at one of the tower block sized beasts and saying ”I mean imagine if we could turn into one of those! We could just step on a Consul!”

“Be a sight to see.” Geralt added, looking out over the plains with them “Got a few of those things, myself. Wouldn't mind lending you one or two, Roxas.” He continued, pulling out the great balls he'd snatched from the shop in Gutsford.

”Oh, I didn’t know you had any Poke Balls, Geralt.” Roxas said as he looked at the great balls, ”These ones are blue. I wonder what that means?” Unfortunately, Roxas hadn’t yet learned the difference between Poke Balls, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls yet.

”You not used em?” Jr asked, as he pulled a pokeball off his bandolier, tossing it straight up and then headbutting it like a passed football to release the mon inside into his clown car. Dazzle poked his head up over the side of the vehicle a moment later, flippers pulling him around so he could take in the dry surroundings, before giving Jr a questioning look.

”You can use them to catch a Pokemon like Dazzle or Scamp.” Roxas explained. ”And Dr. Yu said she can make more Balls for us if we bring her the materials. What were they, again?” He scrolled around on his Rotom Phone, relatively sure it could tell him what he needed to know. ”Here we go! We need Apricorns and Tumblestone ore.” He turned his Rotom Phone around to let the others see what was showing on the screen. Apricorns growing on trees, and Tumblestone found in what looked like some kind of red-colored ore deposits. ”I wonder if we can find some around here?”

”Or something like em” Rika added, as she tossed a golden spinner (a device that acted very much like a pokeball) up in the air and then caught it again.

“Hm.” Geralt looked at the Rotom Phone, mentally cataloging the required ingredients. “I'll keep an eye out, then. But no, never got to use these things,” he added as he put the great balls away. “Between helping out with Sakura and Karin's new settlement with Yen and Ciri, and everything else, haven't had much of a chance to. If we see some of them out there, might try and hunt one down myself.”

”Then we’ll keep an eye out for Pokemon, too.” Roxas suggested, pocketing his Rotom Phone. ”If we find one you think you’ll like? We’ll show you how to capture it.”

”Yeah for sure!” Jr agreed

Rika meanwhile had hopped off of her brother’s clown car, and was peering down the cliff she'd driven them off of, eyes spying the Ceratonoths down below. She then took a few steps back from the edge, before saying ”See you down there” before sprinting forwards and leaping into the open air.

”Hey wait up!” Jr called as he moved to go after her, not seeming the least bit worried about this other than a concern that he might get left behind.

Rather than plummet, his sister used a double jump and then a tap of her feather fall rune to slow her descent, while using maneuvering thrusters and a vault breaker to gain distance from the base of the cliff. Just as she approached the ground, she then launched out her grappling hook, snagging the three prongs on the back of the largest Ceratonoth, reeling herself towards it.

The beast, naturally, freaked out about this surprise presence on its back, but the ship girl merely told it that she’d ”Caught you” in a cheerful tone, before jumping back off of it. She touched down lightly, and then waved up to the others to come join her.

“Well, alright then.” Geralt muttered, taking a few steps to the side before transforming into his Ardor Blossom identity, draconic wings unfurling from his enlarged form. He found a path that wasn't too steep and stepped down, beginning a slide down the ridgeline, wings opening wide to catch as much air as they could and slow his descent. As he slid down the dusty, rocky ridge, clouds of dust and dirt kicked up in his wake, but after a short while, he reached the bottom. Rolling his shoulders, Geralt transformed back into his normal identity, approaching Rika casually.

Roxas, meanwhile, had to recall Scamp back into his Poke Ball before he got moving. But once he did it was a simple matter of using Flow Motion to quite literally run straight down the cliff face until he reached the bottom where the others had gathered. ”Apricorn trees sound easy enough to find.” He said, ”But I’m not sure about the Tumblestone, though. Think we might have to find a cave or something for that?”

”Yeah, probably” Jr agreed, the prince having just flown down in his clown car the same way he’d flown up.

Once they where all down, Rika said ”Get ready to heal me, please?” to her brother.

”huh? Oh right, yeah” the prince replied, grabbed his bush, just in time for his sister to grunt in pain as she summoned a fresh whale using her life force, which her brother rapidly restored.

After sighing with relief as her wounds closed up, she declared ”Alright, let's ride” as she hopped up onto one of the turrets of the great sea creature, as it half sank into the ground, ready to swim through the sand like it was water.

Geralt had to take a moment to mentally remind himself that yes, Rika summoning a giant whale that could swim through the ground was normal. Once he did, he climbed aboard the cetacean with the others and readied himself for the ride. “I'll keep an eye out for any of those trees or a cave that looks promising.” He informed the others.

”Whoa!” Roxas exclaimed just before he, too, climbed aboard the whale. ”I didn’t know you could do that. Cool!”

”Yeah. Good thing too because they keep getting exploded” Rika replied cheerfully, before adding ”we’ll be good tho” as something of an afterthought. Jr gave a little nod of confirmation to this, but did not climb aboard, mainly because it would be somewhat redundant given that he had a ride of his own.

“Ready when you are.” Gerralt grunted simply. “Oh, right.” He added, lifting a hand to his ear and activating the glyph to contact Sandalphon. “Sandalphon, this is Geralt. Just wanted to let you know that I'm with Junior, Rika, and Roxas. We might be out here a while.”

”Oh oh, and I can get us over too hammerhead, if we still wanna go or its faster or whatever, with a portal” Jr piped up to add, before explaining this was ”coz I’ve been there”

”Sounds good to me.” Roxas agreed, ”The others know we’re heading out now and we’ve got a quick way back in case we get lost. I’d say we’re good.”

“Oh, right, you do portals too…” Geralt grumbled, sighing. “Alright, let's get going.”

”Neat” Rika replied simply to that info, before pointing a finger forwards and commanding her white whale to take them ”Onwards!” setting them sail upon the sandy sea.

As he, Sandalphon, Roland, and Captain Falcon filtered out from the Stolen Moments bar, Zenkichi made sure to make a stop to grab some water before the Avenger landed. They touched down in a scrublands of sorts, which wasn’t an environment Zenkichi was familiar with at all. He only managed to get in a few seconds of sightseeing, especially at the strange crescent-shaped mountain in the distance, before the Armadillos interrupted and triggered a flurry of activity. Once he took a seat onboard one of the ATVs, he kicked back for the ride.

Edelgard, however, chose to stay behind, looking over the map of the World of Light on the bridge. ”Enbarr…”” She muttered, eyes focused intently on the city’s name. ”I’ve spent too long away already. As much as this battle matters…so too do my people.”

Back at Hammerhead, Zenkichi hopped out of the Armadillo and took a good look around the place, letting out a low whistle at the refinery. That was an impressive piece of work, and must have kept these guys in business pretty darn well, he thought.

Nadia’s return from her chat with news of loot, though her cat burglar antics gave Zenkichi pause. ”Wait, I thought we were supposed to be the good guys…” He breathed quietly, not quite under his breath, but certainly not at full volume either. Still, it wasn’t like he couldn’t just return the equipment for the money. Regardless, he hustled over to the map board after her, using his height to get a good look over the others’ shoulders at the surrounding area.

Plenty of options to choose from, but that Hightower sounded the most promising to him, so Zenkichi set about finding a way to get there. From the looks of it, Roland was headed up that way with Therion, but he wasn’t about to ride in the bed of his pickup through that terrain, so that was out. He could try talking with that guy to get his own car, but his pockets weren’t exactly deep. When Sectonia made her decision on which way to go, he approached the odd Giant Bee Lady and swallowed, a little nervous.

”Hello, Sectonia. Your…majesty.” He belatedly added, remembering her claim to royalty from her world and her obsession with beauty. ”If it wouldn’t be too much a bother, would I be able to hitch a ride? I know you’ve helped carry some of us before, and I certainly wouldn’t hold you back in combat if it came to it, either. Dealing with low-level punks is sort of my specialty, leaving the big guys to the heavy hitters like you.” A little bit of flattery, but he wasn’t lying about culling the chaff being his specialty, either.

As much as the prospect of a high-octane joyride through the Paved Wilderness made Nadia want to put the pedal to the metal and speed out of Hammerhead in style, tires screeching and engine roaring, a good thief knew when and when not to make a scene. Plus, she didn’t want to give that little guy the wrong impression; she’d be returning this dune buggy once her scavenger hunt was over, maybe with a made-up story about how she’d followed the actual culprit behind the theft and taken it back in hopes of a reward, maybe not. She wasn’t the type to steal willy-nilly from people who didn’t deserve it, after all. And she couldn’t exactly blame a guy for shooting his shot with a gal like Gemma, no matter how vertically challenged he might be.

But once Nadia put Hammerhead in her rear-view mirror and hit the open road, with nobody but her ghostly pooch in sight, the feral couldn’t help but go a little wild. “Let’s go, Chucho! Wooooooooooo!” She floored the gas, hollering in exultation as the wind on her face caught her hair and ears. Even her polterpup, incorporeal though he was, had to chomp onto part of the rollcage and hold on for dear life as his lower half flapped like a flag. It took a few moments to get used to the dune buggy’s handling and powerful suspension, but luckily the highways east of Hammerhead weren’t exactly congested, and what was life without a few heart-pounding near misses? Once Nadia got a feel for the vehicle, though, she was cruising along with ease, purring almost as loud as the motor. This whole region was like a massive sandbox, and with her shiny now toy Ms Fortune felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Her plan was simple. She figured that since the Ficsit carrier originally crashed against and went down around Highertower, that area would be the most hotly contested. And for now at least, Nadia didn’t feel like fighting anyone if she couldn’t help it. In fact, while actually finding anything from the wreck would be a sweet bonus, the feral mostly just wanted to have fun driving around until she found somewhere to chill. To that end, heading somewhere far from the crash zone but still vaguely in the hauler’s original flight path made sense, and the mention of unique wildlife around Scorched Gorge caught her interest, so that was her current destination.

As it turned out, she wasn’t the only one headed in that direction, either. After a few minutes mostly spent focused on the road ahead and figuring out how to control her ride, Nadia noticed another car consistently occupying her rear-view mirror. After squinting for a better look, she realized that it was none other than Roland behind the wheel, with her fellow thief Therion along for the ride. “Oh, hey!” An idea popped into Nadia’s head, and she pulled over, waving out the window for Roland to do the same. “Hey! Wanna race?” she called to him over the rumble of their engines.

The well-dressed man waved back. "Oh sure. I'm headed to that Refinery, so we'd probably need to figure out a finish line before then. But it sounds fun."

“Alright, you’re on! Don’t come cryin’ to me when you lose, though. This kitty’s built for speed!” She put a hand on her polterpup’s head and rubbed it. “We’ll go on Chucho’s third bark, okay?”

Once the two were ready, Chucho bowed down, wagging his tail. “Woof! …Woof! …WOOF!”

Engines roared, tires spun, and the race was underway. Both vehicles launched forward with appreciable acceleration thanks to their Dragon engines, but since they both featured the same amount, their top speed turned out to be the same, so for a couple miles the racers were neck-and-neck. Ever the mischief-maker, Nadia bumped Roland’s car with her dune buggy a couple times, but she didn’t actually want to hurt him or Therion of course, so she never got too frisky. With the sun almost directly overhead Nadia couldn’t tell which direction she needed to go, so she stuck to the highway. Doing so made it easier to drive, but it also meant that, aside from the occasional vehicle that she and Roland needed to avoid, the race wasn’t actually that eventful. At the very least, the rocky red badlands that formed their race track were beautiful in their own way, with all kinds of cacti and vulture-picked skeletons resting beneath the monolithic spires and mesas.



After a while, the race naturally petered out as a result of taking too long over a somewhat monotonous track not designed with entertaining competition in mind. Nadia did spot what looked like actual racetracks here and there, including one with bright blue tarps stretched out between megalithic fossils, and one that ringed a huge quarry complete with giant industrial excavators, but she didn’t feel like muscling in on the competition. Just past the quarry, her route took her through a series of canyons and archways lines with strange machines, but after that it was nothing but straight road for a while as she drove between a river and a large plateau. Getting bored, Nadia allowed Roland to pass her and her eyes to wander. After only a couple moments, she did spot something intriguing in the sky. What originally looked like a high-altitude fireworks display wound up being a dogfight between three old-fashioned airships, covered in rigging, plated in armor, and suspended from unusual balloons. One seemed almost stationary, dangling like a castle tower beneath a balloon like a huge globe, outfitted with enough heavy weapon emplacements to cover every angle. It seemed to be holding off the other two, a light but speedy Goldfish that was more of a distraction than a threat, and a heavier Galleon with three balloons and a bevy of cannons. The two ships seemed intent on outmaneuvering the formidable Spire and taking it down through hit-and-run tactics, but Nadia couldn’t tell if it was working.

As she gawked, the Galleon got too impatient and tried to take a shot from a risky position, opening it up to a broadside from the Spire. A huge chain-explosion went off in the sky, and the airship began to go down. Nadia was so intent on the battle that she forgot to keep her eyes on the road until Chucho gave an alarmed bark. Alarmed, she looked back in time just in time to see a strange green creature in the road, something between a turtle and a penguin. It was ugly in a cute way, and it stared at its impending doom with big, round eyes. Time seemed to slow down for Nadia as her adrenaline spiked, a look of horror spreading across her face. Her first instinct was to cut the wheel as hard as she could, so the next second she swerved away from the critter and sailed right off the road.

Dust and pebbles went flying as she spun out, whirling down the roadside slope until her buggy splashed right into the water. With her head literally still spinning, Nadia was too dizzy and disoriented to do anything until Chucho grabbed one of her ears to stop it, by which point her vehicle had begun to float downriver. “Aw, damn it!” she groaned, trying the pedals and the wheel to no avail. Her engine only sputtered, already waterlogged. As the water rose above her ankles, she sighed, then climbed out of the window and on top of the car. She scanned the riverbanks, but couldn’t see Roland’s truck anywhere. Had the Fixer left her behind? Well, even if she’d forgotten about picking up Massachusetts’ rigging, she could get to safety pretty easily. If only that didn’t mean giving up her car…

While the feral wondered if either of her strikers could be used to save the dune buggy, Nadia the loud sound of a truck horn broke her concentration. She looked back at the road to find a red-and-black semitruck with distinctive tusks. The window was rolled down, revealing a young but tired-looking face, as if the driver had just been asleep at the wheel. “Hey,” she called out, her barely-raised voice almost inaudible over the engine. “Ya need a hand?”

“I’m good!” Nadia crouched down, pressurizing the blood in her legs, then rocketed into the air. She used Charge to cover the rest of the distance, rematerializing on the shore with a sad backward glance at her dune buggy as it floated off. Chucho floated down next to her with a sympathetic whine, and Nadia sighed again. “Easy come, easy go…”

The truck driver scratched the side of her head as she peered at the blood trickling down Nadia’s legs. “You sure you’re fine…?”

“Uh-huh!” Nadia turned, her tail flicking behind her, and crossed her arms. That girl looked way too young to drive, but Nadia wasn’t exactly in a position to talk right now. “Uh, do you know the way to Scorched Gorge?”

“Mm-hm…” The truck driver yawned. “Just a couple miles from here. Hop in, I’ll take ya.” She pulled a lever, and the side of the truck began to lift up. Inside was a mobile saloon-style bar, complete with vinyl stools and all kinds of liquor, strapped tight to survive the highway.

Nadia didn’t need to be told twice. “Thanks!” With Chucho in tow she jumped aboard, then settled in for the rest of the trip. She was not looking forward to the look on Therion’s face when he found out what happened. Maybe he doesn’t need to know.



Compared to the territories to the east and northwest, the terrain to the north of Hammerhead seemed pretty unremarkable at first blush. It featured a few sandstone bluffs and towering wind-carved pillars, but for the most part, the interior of the Paved Wilderness was wide open and flat, dominated by hardy yellow grasses and tall cacti, with only a few withered trees. Here and there one might spot a giant anthill, grassy crag, or herd of wild horses or buffalo, but the ecology here wasn’t as varied or interesting as the Windward Plains to the west, and this area didn’t seem as favored by racers as those to the east, either. This went on for miles and miles and miles, and judging by how far away Highertower had been from Hammerhead on the map, it would go on for many more.



There were a few elements that broke up the monotony, though. Scattered around the grasslands, especially closer to Hammerhead, were a number of little hovels and roadside attractions. Most seemed to be the result of continuous construction over time, cobbled together from different materials and styles as the original structure was expanded upon. Some, little more than shacks roofed by corrugated sheet metal, seemed to be abandoned, with threadbare, sun-faded garments dangling limply from old clotheslines. Others bore signs of habitation, like the inn known as Dieter Restaurant and a three-tier cafe bolted to a white stone villa. Nobody sprang out from these houses or hailed incoming travelers; the residents only watched in peaceful silence as drivers -or fliers- passed them by. The farther the Seekers got, though, the less frequent these structures became, until all that remained was the rumble of the road, the wind in the grass, and white clouds in the blue, blue sky. For a solitary driver, the experience might be meditative–or just really, really boring.

Eventually, though, that all changed. As the five approached the same latitude as Outback, the terrain suddenly got rockier, and the flora more alien in appearance. The lowlands took on an unhealthy greenish tinge, and sulphuric fumes arose from the bogs therein. Given the propensity of the region around Outback for bizarre wildlife, perhaps some of the adjacent biome’s strangeness was seeping through. Either way, things were about to get more interesting. As the travelers rounded a bend, they beheld an enormous, six-wheeled ultra-heavy vehicle. At ninety feet tall and two hundred twenty five feet long, it was mammoth in size as well as name, and it even sported an enormous rotating cannon on its back. Unfortunately, that starship-buster was in fact too big to deal with its current problem.

A mechanical roar like no engine Juri had ever heard resounded from the ridge above her as she drove past, and the next second a Chopper flew overhead. It resembled a bike, but dragged by two enormous, crushing wheels in front rather than propelled by one from behind. It soared overhead, then slammed down on the other side of the road and began to take potshots at the Mammoth with the cannons mounted on either side of the wheels. Brutally but clumsily designed, the Chopper could only shoot in the direction it was facing, so the ghastly pilot had to turn in order to aim. A moment later, another Chopper cruised in, followed by some kind of sled that cruised along with the aid of anti-gravity technology as the gunner on its mounted turret took aim. These reinforcements joined a band of Bloodmounts and Reavers already attacking the Mammoth, which was just now lowering its doors to deploy a green LAV equipped with four wheels, two treads, and a machine gun, followed by two four-wheel Centaur tanks with cannons. A fierce battle quickly erupted within the boggy canyon, threatening everybody in the area whether involved in the skirmish or not.

Of course, all this was no surprise to Edward, whose drones had scouted out the area and the brewing conflict beforehand.



For a few minutes, it seemed like Pit’s optimism would lead him to disappointment. Most people around Hammerhead were very busy, either working on other people’s vehicles or preparing for their next trips across the wilderness. Given the ongoing event quest, most of the truckers, bikers, drifters, and hunters here were slow to trust, wary of any competition and sabotage that might interfere with their next payday. Local transport services were rather expensive today as well, with everyone eager to cash in on the big search. Fortunately, even if most of the Seekers had already driven, flown, or teleported away, Pit had one friend at Hammerhead that he could depend on. The screech of brakes caught his attention as a familiar-looking vehicle ground to a halt behind him, and when Pit turned he spotted none other than the Minotaurus, with Nico at the wheel and Nero riding shotgun, just like before. “Hey, kid,” the devil hunter hailed him with a wave. He knew that Pit wasn’t a kid, but couldn’t help using it as a term of endearment. “You up for another ride? No timefall this time, I hear.”

“Better haul your feathery butt in here then, if so!” Nico called with a grin. “‘Cause I’m fixin’ to peel outta here whether you’re buckled up or not!”

Within minutes, the gunsmith’s van had left Hammerhead in its dust. Given the northern highway’s proximity to the road chosen by Juri, the first leg of Pit’s journey was much the same as the martial artists: yellow prairie interspersed by ramshackle cottages and time-worn waypoints. With a variety of songs on the radio and good company, though, the drive was much less tedious than it would have been for a lone rider. And the farther the team traveled north, the more the land began to differentiate itself from the road to Hightower out west. For one, there were some race tracks. Pit could watch a handful of Excitebots tearing up Wario’s Gold Mine. and after passing by Dingo’s Diner, they caught a glimpse of the Dingo Canyon to the east, its water glittering in the afternoon sun. There were roving bands of treasure hunters as well, some of which also employed Excitebots to great effect. While none of them seemed overtly hostile, tensions continued to rise as the minutes ticked by, and eventually the reason became clear.

After a while, Nico brought the Minotaurus over a ridge and into a broad valley. Both she and Nero spotted something in the distance right away, but neither could quite tell what they were looking at. It looked like a giant circus tent with a large crane or something protruding from the top. The two friends exchanged a glance, then returned to their examination, wary but curious. After another thirty seconds, though, the unknown structure had gotten close enough that Nero could not only tell what it was, but that it was moving, too. It was a giant circus tent, carried on top of unfathomably huge tank treads, much bigger than the crawler-transporters used to launch space shuttles, big enough that the Minotaur could fit underneath the chassis with room to spare. At the end of the crane’s arm there was an enormous clown head, perpetually on fire, and in its jaws it held a huge chunk of the Ficsit carrier, no doubt full of recovered loot. It was Sweet Tooth’s Carnival of Carnage, and a major step up from what the clown offered when the Seekers first visited the Paved Wilderness.

“Holy cow!” Nico swerved off the road, heading for an outcrop of rock to conceal the Minotaurus from whatever lookouts were aboard the CoC. She and Nero had encountered their fair share of huge foes, but this thing was leagues above, and could be carrying hundreds of men or deployable vehicles as well. There was plenty of cover in this valley, but getting around the CoC as it rumbled south would be quite the task.

Nero shook his head, an incredulous look on his face. “Sure, a vehicular stealth mission. Why not.” He raised his eyebrows at Pit. “You’ll make this up to us later, right kid?”



When not overtaken by a season of Fallow, the Windward Plains were a place of great natural beauty, as well as impressive biological diversity. As populous and visible as the pangolin-like Ceratonoth herds were, they were really just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the creatures that intrepid explorers could find in the region. From smaller forms of endemic life such as the birdlike amstrigans and yellow-bellied tracktail lizards all the way up to large predators like the colorful Brute Wyvern Quematrice with their loose scaly flaps and burrowing Balahara leviathans, there were critters to suit almost any kind of fancy. There were even a few wild Pokemon, like Cranidos, Shieldon, Dunsparce, and even refugee Tropius from the Land of Adventure. For the Koopa Kids, however, this region’s charms proved unremarkably mundane, and it wasn’t long before they set their sights to the north.



The arid region to the north represented an even greater level of geological and biological variety, practically to the point of abnormality. Its yellow sands lay atop relatively thin layers of rock visible in canyons and valleys, where their differently-colored strata created a rainbow of color amidst flat, circular mineral deposits arranged like sections of a terrace farm. Pearlescent spherical formations could be found around the area at random, impossibly dense and heavy. What appeared to be bonelike corals revealed themselves as Articulated Angstoks when small prey animals like Trebhum or Tetracrabs drew too near, rapidly growing and branching their husks until fanged maws could protrude and snatch their food and slowly drag it back to the main organism underground. Angstoks weren’t the only dangers here, though, since hideous Tonglegrops could spray viscous, sticky acid, and . And of course, the freakish Great Gaaahrs towered over everything, and avocado-stalks loomed in the distance.

The Outback’s surprises didn’t stop there, though. A number of debatably edible items could be discovered throughout the area, either readily available or hidden away. Only through trial and error would visitors learn that these foodstuffs could spark sudden mutations, each more or less useful in some way. Against all odds, the newcomers could also find a couple pokemon here, albeit atypical ones like Lickitung, Cradily, Rellor, Naclstack, Brambleghast, Revavroom, and Sandy Shocks. Finally, beyond all that, lay the derelict outpost that had failed to outcompete Hammerhead as a truck stop, with even its name fading into obscurity in the wake of its owners’ ill-fated venture. Still, its water tower and windmill evoked some small sense of bygone majesty, as if still trying to measure up to the Great Gaaahrs and avocado trees.

@Lugubrious @Simple Unicycle @DracoLunaris

Word Count: 833
Level: Lv: 6 EXP: (3/60)
Location: Dead Zone Hinterlands - Wooded Slope

Harry didn’t seem to Band that he wanted to talk about his former partner. Talking about Kim would only send Harry into a spiral of depression. But right now, he needed to find that missing kid. Perhaps doing this good deed would lift his spirits somehow. As they approached the mansion, Harry looked at the shambling creatures wandering around. He squinted his eyes, trying to see how many of the creatures were blocking their way. The detective arched his back and head forward to get a better look. But he could hear and see something that one of the voices noticed.

“You notice the zombies who look like they have been rotting for two or so years. A gust of wind would be able to bring them down.” Perceptions said, but was interrupted by another voice.

“You can use your prybar to bash these fuckers brains in.” Endurance said before Perception continued speaking.

“Yes but there is quite a lot of them, so you will have to be careful or you'll be ripped apart.” Perception said, letting out a breath of frustration.

Harry thought he could try to avoid them as best he could. But there was a real possibility that he would need to fight these creatures. The very thought made Harry start sweating profusely. Luckily, they did not engage with the creatures and continued to Curien Mansion. As they came to the gate, Harry stood beside Band.

“Yeah, it looks like it. I could try to pick the…” He stopped speaking as he noticed Band punching and opening the locked gate. “Cool.” He muttered with a grin. He wished he had a huge robot arm just to punch doors open.

“You can get a robot implant if you cut off your arm.” Pain Threshold said, but Logic spoke up.

“If you do that, you won't be used to solving this case.” Logic said, wanting to make sure Harry didn’t do anything stupid.

Harry clapped his hands, impressed by Band’s feat of strength. He looked up beyond the gate, gulping loudly as his legs started to feel like jello. His Composure spoke up to try to keep him from running away. “You must stand your ground; you have made it this far. Just keep going; you can do it.”

Harry took a deep breath and nodded, feeling his courage come back. He then walked along with the others into the courtyard. The whole place gave Harry the creeps. His eyes moved towards the group of undead shambling around the courtyard. Being surprised by Band rushing into the crowd of zombies. The thought of going into combat with the undead scared him considerably. He was afraid of being either infected or torn apart by the horde. But the idea of doing nothing was equally as perturbing.

When deciding to do something, Harry would jump into action. But before that, he removed his mesh shirt and jacket and put them into his plastic bag, taking out the prybar before setting it somewhere safe.

“RIP AND TEAR UNTIL IT IS DONE!!!” Endurance yelled out as Harry let out a loud, bellowing scream. As he ran into the group of the undead, he jumped off Band’s back and towards the horde. Slamming his prybar into the head of one of the zombies before turning towards the others.

Uppercutting the closest zombie unintentionally, its head popped off its neck. “DRAGON UPPERCUT!” He yelled out. This caused his Endurance to cheer Harry on. Encouraging him to keep beating the shit out of the undead. The words “Make them your bitch.” were the words his Endurance said to help keep Harry going.

“Are you okay Dog?” He said to Amaterasu if she had joined in on the fight. He would continue fighting once he had gotten a bark or woof that she was okay. Turning around, he noticed another shambling dead approaching him. Doing the splits and punching the nearby zombie in the balls. “TESTICULAR TRAUMA!” He yelled out. At first, he thought this attack would work, but it only confused the zombies. Harry noticed his pants now had a huge rip in the taint area. Harry quickly tried to get back up, kicking the zombie with a backflip. “SONIC KICK” He yelled out while he performed the kick. The kick sent the zombie into the air, and it landed a few feet away from Harry.

He turned his attention to the other zombies that were coming towards them. Harry ran towards them, kneeing a zombie in the chest. “LION KNEE!” Yelling out as the zombie stumbled backwards. Harry turned his attention to the other zombie. Grabbing the zombie, performing a string of German suplexes before finishing it with a piledriver. “DYNAMIC BOMB!” The piledriver caused the zombie’s head to explode, spraying Harry with a mixture of blood and brain.

Sectonia had more or less been leisurely flying towards their destination holding Zenkichi in her hands. She really didn't like being a taxi service, but he was light enough and respectful enough that she'd let it slide this time. Oh who was she kidding, at this point she might as well call herself the bandit queen with how much she had to get her hands dirty and with no kingdom to call her own now. She would've had one in the Underground in the only spot she found with some beauty to it, but then that Consul chased everyone out before she could close the deal.

Blazermate meanwhile had been flying slightly above Sectonia, not needing to be as ground bound as she needed to be to keep her mana topped up. She really didn't have much to say with the area being mostly desert and dunes and all that and just followed the group looking out for dangers. Dangers that would come soon as a very, very large truck with some large cannons appeared over the horizon, being chased by smaller weird motorcyle kinda vehicles that were hounding it and trying to take it over.

The sound of the engines snapped Sectonia her out of her own thoughts. From the looks of it, Zenkichi was eyeing the vehicles and Sectonia also had some ideas of her own. She wasn't sure if these were all bandits, but clearing out one side could clarify that. After all, diplomacy between sides in this world was exceptionally difficult and she really didn't have the patience to hold her distaste for bandits. Plus this would give her something to vent her grievances on.

Getting into a ready stance, she put Zenkichi on the ground so she could cast her own spells. She decided that helping the larger vehicle could offer the better rewards... and if not she'd take that down too if they were all just bandits. But first things first she got herself involved in the fight by summoning a bed of swords in front of one of the Choppers harassing the Mammoth, the large square area of swords difficult to dodge without killing all of the bikes momentum and leaving it a sitting duck.

Blazermate meanwhile didn't have too much she could do, but she did have one thing that would cause even more chaos. As the band of machines approached, Blazermate let loose Armstrong to charge into the fray at the anti grav sled. If the charge didn't do anything, the earthly eruption of jagged rocks would definitely do something even if the main shockwave was dodged by the grav stuff. Even if that was just to stop it, she was sure that someone else could capitalize on that. Meanwhile like always she was on healing duty, as her only long ranged attack would need time to charge.