“HM!” The moment Band regained his feet, mere inches away from the partner in crime of the zombie he’d unceremoniously dropkicked, the undead wretch lunged for him. All it got for its efforts, however, was a mouthful of beige cotton gabardine so densely woven it barely even tore. It couldn’t even get its infectious jaws around the detective’s broad metal frame, much less bite off a pound of flesh. Of course, Band barely even noticed–while normally one to respect the dead, he hadn’t the slightest bit of pity for corpses like these. He had already crouched down, and now two trombone slides shot out like straight punches to soften the hapless cadaver up. Then, while it tried to catch its balance, Band unleashed a massive tuba that walloped the zombie with a heavy slam, then blasted it away in giblets with a deep, almost flatulent blast of sound. BWAAAAAAMP!

With the first two shamblers taken care of, Band took a quick look around to check on the others. He did not expect to see a medieval knight, well-armed and armored, expertly decapitating a zombie as he approached the embattled detectives. The stranger didn’t look like a member of Martira’s guard corps, so Band could only assume him to be some sort of drifter or sellsword. Either way, he clearly knew what he was doing, so while he didn’t think he needed help against rabble like this, he wasn’t going to object. “Hello yourself, sir knight!” He called back, a tone of mild, metallic amusement on his voice. “Knock yourself out, but don’t go thinkin’ you’re gonna get paid for it!”

The far bigger surprise, as it turned out, was the Icebreaker. After ditching a few articles of clothing, he unveiled a hidden blunt instrument and drowned out the zombies’ ravenous groans with an almost bestial wail, as if his very soul had given vent to its turmoil. He then vaulted over Band -a very impressive feet given their height difference- and charged straight into a mob of zombies with reckless abandon. Holding back nothing, he went to town with an onslaught of brutish bludgeoning and theatrical special techniques, as if working his way through all the signature moves he’d ever seen on the silver screen. It was a jaw-dropping display, especially because his nonsensical fighting style somehow seemed to be working. Zombie after zombie fell to his feverish assault, astounded by feats of acrobatics that not even Band could emulate. Taken aback, the cyborg could only glance over at Amaterasu to confirm that she was seeing this too, only to release a burst of helpless laughter when he found the wolf as slack-jawed as he was. That settled one thing, at least: that this wolf was at least as smart as a person.

Amaterasu didn’t just stand idly by and gawk, though. When a couple zombies came at her, the first few seemed to fall apart on her own, and for the stragglers the white wolf unleashed a handful of unnaturally agile kicks. Not once did she attempt to use her canines’ crushing biteforce like a normal wolf might, perhaps sensing the deadly contagion lurking within these monsters’ failing frames. Band nodded his approval, his expectations thoroughly exceeded. In fact, he was sufficiently distracted by Amaterasu’s antics that he didn’t react to another zombie coming his way until it had already pounced, sailing through the air with claws extended.

Of course, Big Band wasn’t one to be caught unawares. He tilted his body and extended two halves of a titantic tambourine to catch the wretch mid-leap in its vicelike clasp. Once he’d caught his prey, Band rattled the instrument, shaking the zombie to its bones with the reverberation. “Beat…Extend!” Stricken by Sound Stun, the monster felt nervelessly from Band’s grasp, a sitting duck for a definitive double honk from his bike horn. Its head popped, and Band disdainfully scattered its ashes as it slumped to the ground. “Hmph! Deadbeats!”

By then, the combined efforts of the detectives, the dog, and the plate-mailed interloper had put the little horde to route. Whether or not the zombies had ever been alive, they were definitely dead now. As the action dwindled, however, Band became aware of some stomping noises that were quickly getting louder. He turned toward the front doors of Curien Mansion, brows furrowed, and a moment later they burst open to admit a huge multi-limbed horror, a brute seemingly fused together from multiple corpses. Band inhaled sharply, then stepped forward, his stance wide. Two Brass Knuckles deployed from beneath his coat, and with his head tucked in, Band put up his dukes. “Stay back this time, y’all. This one ain’t goin’ down to cartoon super moves or puppy paws!”

The juggernaut roared, its chains and armor pieces clanging normally, but when it stopped the rumbling kept going. When he realized where the new sound was coming from, Band blinked, then looked back over his shoulder. Through the gates thundered a war machine the color of barley corn, its design somewhere between a tank and a high-tech train. Green lights shone all over its chassis, and as the turbine in the front of the vehicle rotated faster and faster, the same light built up inside. For a second Band thought it was going to shoot at him, but the Atom adjusted its aim and belted out a gigantic green laser. It smashed into the abomination and melted it away, blasting what remained back through the mansion’s front door to leave the whole entrance in shambles. Then, just as quickly as it came, the beam disappeared, and the train came to a stop. A hatch on top popped open, and none other than the big, muscular gray conductor Stein climbed out. The sight of the others’ stunned expressions brought a big grin to his face. “You guys look like you’ve got something to say. Maybe…’wow, thanks for the save Mr. Stein, you’re so cool!’ …Somethin’ like that? Heheh!”

His daughter, Tesset climbed out beside him. “Um! Is everyone o-okay?”

“...Uh huh.” Band shook off his bemusement and raised an eyebrow at the unexpected pair. “Just wonderin’ why ya’d go to the trouble, after what happened in the Friendly Arm.”

Stein hefted himself out of the Atom, landed on the ground, and turned to help Tesset down before patting the dust off casually. “Well, after hearin’ that you’re out to solve the missin’ kids’ case, I couldn’t turn a blind eye.” He patted Tesset on the head, prompting her to adjust her hat with pretend indignation. “Not with a kiddo of my own, y’know? So with my help, I figured findin’ this Heismay guy would be a cinch.”

Band nodded, his internal opinion on Stein shifting from ‘jerk who loves his daughter’ to ‘good day with a tough exterior’. “We probably had it handled, but thanks. Monsters like these ain’t much of a challenge, but…” He narrowed his eyes, kicking at a nearby pile of ashes. “Urgh. Sometimes it feels like I can’t go anywhere without the dead rising.”

Stein crossed his arms, a wry smile on his face. “Whaddya expect, comin’ to the house of the dead?”

“You sayin’ this place got some kind of resident evil?” Band gave the newcomer the side-eye.

He shrugged. “Just sayin’ there’s probably evil within.”

“Yeah,” Band turned back and began to approach the front door. “I bet there’s evil within, too.”

He led the way toward the yawning, dark opening that Stein’s laser left in the front of Curien Mansion, with the man himself plus Harry in tow. The wolf could do as she pleased, and now that Kit knew what his new acquaintances were up to, he could make introductions and tag along if he liked as well. Tesset retreated back into the Atom and locked it up to provide support from afar as the team set out to explore the mansion. With the light of day behind them, the newcomers could look forward to plenty of dark rooms, tall bookcases, and nooks and crannies where any number of unknown entities could be hiding. Finding Heismay in here would be like finding a needle in a haystack, and there was no way the fugitive hadn’t heard all the commotion. Still, Big Band was determined to see the expedition through.

As the last of the zombies fell, Kit sheathed his sword and placed the shield on his back. "Excellent work," he said to all in his vicinity. He was about to ask just why the group had come to this place when the doors of the mansion shot open, a giant monster stepping through. The big man stood ready to face the beast and Kit reached for his sword again, but they were both stopped by the arrival of a giant mechanical vehicle the likes of which Kit had never seen that soon fired a massive green laser that decimated the beast.

Out of the vehicle came a man and a young girl, the two seeming to be father and daughter. Kit wondered for a moment just how safe it was for a child to be here, but the man seemed capable enough of defending her. The man from the vehicle spoke to the big man, who seemed to be the leader of this party, and Kit finally gleamed just why the group had come here: missing children. Must be from that town nearby. He had never been there personally, but he still felt the need to protect it; after all, he had been hunting the beasts in the forest just outside the town.

As the conversation wrapped up and the group all entered the manor, Kit looked around at his new companions. They were certainly a motley crew, yet there was something about them that made him feel the need to help them with their quest. After all, they were doing something worthwhile, certainly more than just camping around the forest and killing beasts. Then it hit them that he didn't know any of their names.

"I believe introductions are in order. My name is Kit. I have been hunting beasts around these parts for a good while now. I'd like to aid you in your mission to recover those missing children."

Getting a ride from Sectonia was…an experience. It wasn’t a terrible experience at all, and with Blazermate (and Juri, if she deigned to help) nearby, they’d be well-equipped if it came down to battle. For a while, the ride towards the crash site was fairly uneventful. Scrublands as far as the eye could see, filled with tall, yellow grasses and cacti. It reminded him of stories he’d heard of the Great Plains of America, hundreds of miles of wide-open space where scenes like this played out daily. While he certainly didn’t hate living in Japan, he would’ve loved to see it. This was a good substitute, he supposed.

Eventually, signs of civilization emerged, shacks and stores, an inn and a cafe. They flew past them all, intent on reaching their goal as quickly as possible. Not too long after the last shack was in their proverbial rear-view mirror, the terrain started to become more hostile. Plumes of gas emerged from bogs, and the ground became rockier and more solid.

Eventually, the group came around a bend, and before them was a massive landship engaged in battle. Its size reminded Zenkichi more of a naval vessel than a land vehicle, but it sped along the ground at a surprisingly fast pace nonetheless, all the while under attack by alien creatures. Zenkichi pointed at the attackers, calling out to Sectonia, ”Oh jeez, we oughta give those guys a hand. They might be able to give us a lift, too.” He added, in case Sectonia was of a more practical mindset.

Once she slowed down enough for him to safely dismount, Zenkichi hit the ground running, his Phantom Thief attire appearing on him as he watched the Choppers chase around the Mammoth, soon setting their sights on the smaller vehicles that deployed from within the landship. Their explosive shots tore up the ground as they rode around, and as one turned to realign its guns with its target, Zenkichi struck. He raised his revolvers as the Chopper bled off its momentum into its turn, firing one after the other into the side and back of the Locust pilot. Its initial reaction was a panicked jerking of the controls which led to a swiftly-corrected spinout, but the blood pouring from its side gave away its dilemma.

After a moment, the Chopper turned for Zenkichi, who quickly stowed his revolvers for Ragnell, throwing himself aside as the massive wheels of the vehicle nearly churned him into paste. He pushed off the ground, swinging the holy blade at the pilot, and the second beam of light connected, sending it into another tailspin. The undersized rear where the pilot sat was an obvious weak point, and while the oversized, armored wheels and forward-mounted guns were an obvious counter to that weak point, they weren’t enough to make the thing unstoppable by any means.

By the time the pilot got the Chopper under control again, Zenkichi had gotten close enough to fire a few more blasts from Ragnell, and a moment later, he was close enough to tackle the Locust right off the vehicle. Stronger than it looked, even bloody and battered from gunshots and holy energy blasts, the Locust pilot drew a brutal revolver and fired, striking Zenkichi in the gut. Staggered by the surprise blow, Zenkichi stumbled a step back, allowing the Locust pilot to close the gap and hit him in the face with the butt of its pistol, the loud smack of the metal on his skull ringing in his ears. As the Locust aimed to fire again, Zenkichi rallied and threw Ragnell into the air, evading the shot with Aether. As he came down, he could feel the vitality he regained from the blow, even as the follow up launched the Locust back, its formidable hide entirely ignored by the second blow.

It weakly raised its arm into the air, before the limb dropped limp as it dissolved into ash. Zenkichi quickly scooped up the humanoid creature’s Spirit, a quick flash of guilt running through him, before he shook it off and jumped on the Chopper. The controls were alien, but far from overly complex, so after a few moments of jerking around with the few things there we to manipulate, the vehicle got going again. He jerked forward in the strange hovorbike, before correcting his inputs and slowing to a steady pace, turning towards the hoversled that Armstrong had given a pummeling. Once the Striker had dissipated, it had returned to attacking the LAVs that had come from the Mammoth, leaving its back open to Zenkichi.

He carefully crept up on them, careful not to touch the very obviously-marked firing button. Whatever made this vehicle, did so with little estimation for its rider’s intelligence, which he appreciated right now. Having to parse some alien language would have been annoying. Once he got a good shot on the pilot of the sled, he pressed down the button, a salvo of explosive rounds slamming into the hoversled and its pilot, though most went slightly off-course due to a combination of his momentum and the recoil throwing his aim off in the unfamiliar vehicle.

He heard the Locust bandits grunting and yelling before the sled turned around, and Zenkichi threw it into reverse, keeping the massive wheels between him and his enemy as he continued firing, explosive rounds peppering the hull of the other vehicle. ”Could use a hand over here!” He called out, turning a little out of the way to try and dodge a few shots, but the turret operator was quick to pivot his aim, a few plasma bolts hitting him and the ground around him, causing Zenkichi to hiss in pain and jerk his arm, sending him into a short tailspin.

While the unpredictable maneuver saved him from further shots for a moment, it also left him facing the wrong way. The Prowler beared down on him, the turret ominously turning as the Locust grunted victoriously. Then, a line of sword crashed down directly in front of it, causing the forward momentum of the vehicle to suddenly become upward momentum as the lopsided vehicle tried to keep going forward but couldn’t. It flipped over in the air, landing on its top and bouncing, before rolling to a slow stop, pinning the Locust on the turret to the ground as the pilot and side passengers scrambled to get out from under the vehicle.

Zenkichi angled his Chopper to face them, holding down the fire button and using short taps of the controls to keep his aim relatively on point, the explosive cannons quickly mulching two of the Locust bandits, leaving behind only their ash and Spirits. The third managed to get enough distance that it could raise its assault rifle and fire off a few bursts of high-caliber shots at him, but the oversized wheels of the Chopper blocked all but a few rounds, which pinged off the sides or landed in the hard dirt behind him. Zenkichi turned his aim on the Locust, continuing to fire, when one of the Bloodmounts crashed into his vehicle, sending it careening out of control in a tailspin.

Dazed, Zenkichi grunted as a burst of fire from the surviving Locust found its mark, crashing into his shoulder and breaking his focus. He let go of the Chopper’s controls, abandoning the vehicle and dodging a swipe of the Bloodmount’s claws, summoning his revolvers. He only had a few shots left in each, but he quickly spun to the Locust bandit and fired everything he had, only a couple of shots landing before the Bloodmount was on him again.

Rather than flesh and scattered armor, however, its claws slammed into a massive sword, Zenkichi having favored the Greatsword Sandalphon had bought him over Ragnell. Its size and power made it somewhat better as a shield, even if its attacks came slower. He pivoted and stepped backwards, letting the Bloodmount push forward and lose its balance as it lunged towards where he had been a moment ago, leaving an opening for the massive lump of iron to cave its spine in. The Bloodmount proved tougher than that, however, and lashed out with a kick pushing Zenkichi back at the surprising force.

Remembering how quickly the earlier Locust fell to Aether, Zenkichi repeated the move, hurling his oversized Greatsword into the air and coming down on the Bloodmount like a meteor, healing a bit from the attack and shredding through its formidable hide with the second. It wasn’t enough to finish the mount off, but it had been weakened noticeably. Another lunging claw swipe was blocked with a fair amount of ease, and Zenkichi swung his sword, crushing one of the monster’s claws beneath its weight and breaking the bone. It tried to rise, then collapsed as the accumulated damage overwhelmed it, dissolving into ash. Zenkichi grabbed the thing’s Spirit, then looked to the overturned Prowler, where a group of Sectonia’s Antlers had eviscerated the last two Locust, one of which had returned to help its comrade escape being pinned beneath the vehicle while Zenkichi was busy with the Bloodmount. Nother pang of guilt slammed into Zenkichi at the empathetic action, but he sighed. Nobody said things would always be easy, and if these things were this intelligent, then they had chosen a life of banditry. And antisocial behavior like that was bound to earn you enemies in a world like this. They’d be back eventually, and the cycle would repeat anew.

Shoving off the existential dread of that, he approached the Antlions to offer his thanks and work with them to right the Prowler, the minions proving to be intelligent enough to offer their aid. He left the vehicle as it was, not wanting to risk friendly fire now that the battle was calming down more, the LAVs having made short work of the majority of the bandits while he and Sectonia had fought off the rest, with Blazermate’s support. Speaking of which, he sighed as he felt her medibeam land on him, giving the robot girl a thumb’s up. He’d been moving around a bit too much on the Chopper for her to have been able to safely follow before, even with the speed matching the healing gun gave. Besides, with his own natural bulk and self-healing, he was more than fine to fight a few grunts. It was Sectonia and the soldiers on the Mammoth who needed the most help, with the Queen being such a large target and the soldiers being fairly bog-standard human.

A race proposal was completely unsurprising, especially from Ms. Fortune, and though Therion didn't know Roland as well he also wasn't surprised when the man accepted. There was definitely a little bit of a competitive streak in the guy, or just want for something fun.

Though the thought had crossed his mind to throw some obstacles Nadia's way, ultimately the Orsterran thief was just along for the ride, so he left it at that. He'd pulled his arm in and tucked both of his hands behind his head as he leaned back in the seat and looked out the windows. Up until the time the light show in the sky ahead of them caused Ms. Fortune to lose control of her vehicle in their rearview mirror, Roland and Therion's had been pretty nice. Therion had gotten a sense of driving a couple of times already, and riding passenger. Much smoother than a horse and carriage. He could get used to it.

Although he should probably check on the feral since she'd disappeared from view.

Therion pressed two fingers to his feline ear, utilizing the linkpearl there. It had been a few days since anyone in their linkshell had used it to his knowledge, but it probably still worked. As long as Nadia still had her pearl in.

"We saw that," Therion said first, tone bland but with underlying amusement. "Call back if you need help. We'll swing back around after we find all the lost loot."

If it turned out she actually needed help that would be a different story, but otherwise Therion just turned his head toward Roland. "Let's keep going. If that ship up there crashes in our path maybe we can check that out too."

Who knew, maybe they were some kind of sky pirates that were participating in the 'scavenger hunt' as well.

After a moment Therion also asked, "...you know where you're going, right?"

He'd heard Roland tell Ms. Fortune that he had a place in mind, but for all he knew the guy was just aimlessly following the road.

”Well, more or less. These streets are a lot less maze like than the City or Midgar. I figured we should check out that mysterious building no one knew much about.” Roland said, driving fairly casually. ”Why? Place a bit too spooky for ya?”

"We haven't even seen the place yet," Therion scoffed. "Though if it does turn out to be another waking nightmare, could you really blame anyone for wanting to avoid it?"

Especially after the morning they'd all had. The thief turned his gaze back outside of the truck, watching the passing landscape and the dog fighters circling their prey. "Though I guess there are people that like that kind of stuff."

His tone subtly implied that Roland was probably one of them, what with the anecdotes he often brought up and the weird, kind of creepy way some of his transformations looked.

”Yeah, I hear that. Hopefully none of that gross stuff we were just involved with. I’d much rather some kind of mystery than just…. zombies.” Roland said, sort of both confirming and denying Therion’s idea of him at the same time.

”Really, I don’t know if I can apply any logic to this place. But if I did, I’d assume there's probably some guy holding out at that place that knows lots of weird stuff or is like, weird? Usually spots like that can have intel that no one else has though.” Roland said, justifying his idea of wanting to go there.

Realistically, what Roland claimed was baseless and, frankly, should have been absurd. However, the amount of times Therion and his fellow travelers had met someone or something out in isolated areas of Orsterra, let alone everything they could find in this world, well... the thief really couldn't argue that logic.

"Guess that makes sense," he said instead.

As they drove, a point of interest caught Roland’s attention. It was the crashed airship. A little detour wouldn’t hurt, Roland turning off the road and heading for the crash. As they got near, they found there were survivors. Numerous Froggits were running around in a panic around the wreckage of the medium sized airship, clearly in distress as they had survived the crash.

Roland looked at the cartoon frogs and quickly figured that they weren’t much of a threat. In fact they seemed kind of pathetic in a way. ”So… Do we just send them back to Hammerhead? I really have no idea what these things are...” Roland said to Therion.

"Sure, give them directions if you want," the man replied. He popped the truck's door open and hopped out, intending to get a look around the vessel and see if his hypothesis was right. Hopefully before the crew's pursuers caught up. He certainly didn’t want to give the frogs a ride or anything (even though he’d hitched one in the first place), and correctly assumed that Roland didn’t either. Roland pointed them back towards the town, although corralling the froggits was a lot… easier than he thought? They really didn’t have much of a brain among all of them, but they could at least follow the road in the direction Roland pointed.

As the two men found themselves in the wreckage of the ship itself, they came upon some of the cargo that they were told to retrieve. Three crates, with one odd crate that looked like it contained guns. Besides those, there wasn't much else intact. Finder's keepers still applied in this situation, as far as he was concerned.

"Strongboxes," Therion told Roland, dragging the only one that didn't look the same out from under some debris. He could tell just by sight the lock would be simple to pick, but figured they should at least get everything loaded into the back of the truck first. Once they were sure they'd ferreted out everything worth taking, they carried their free finds to the truck's bed and shoved them in.

Out of the three, only the gun box really seemed to have anything that interested Roland. Guns were rare in his world due to their extreme cost and oftentimes relative ineffectiveness against extremely skilled opponents. But this wasn’t his world and there were weird things here.

”Hey, want to see whats in the gun case? Might be something good.” Roland said.

Figuring he meant the red one, Therion obliged Roland and opened that crate first. It took only a few seconds of fiddling with the lock until it clicked open.

"We'll keep whatever's really worth it and sell the rest back to whoever owns the cargo," he agreed.



”Huh. Well, I wasn’t sure what I was going to expect. I kind of like two out of three of these guns.” Roland said, looking over the items in the cargo crate, mostly pointing at the plasma weapon and the shotgun.

Therion held up the remaining one by the chamber chain, giving it a strange look with a raised eyebrow. Was it... supposed to look like that? He still hadn't gone out of his way to learn more about firearms besides how to identify them and, vaguely, how they worked.

He tossed the gun back into the crate. "Have at them. These things are too loud for my liking."

Roland gave the two guns he had interest in a try. Therion was right, guns were often noisy. However his gloves made his movement and weapon attacks silent, so Therion would hear no sound from the two weapons Roland gave a try with. Well, no sound from the guns firing although the impact sound of a smiley face of bullet spread from the shotgun hitting the side of the airship did make quite a bit of noise. The silent way the Fixer did everything was enviable, really.

”Thats uh, strange. Well, guess we should get going then. I’ll have to test to see if my shotgun and pistols do more than these or not.” Roland said, putting the pistol and shotgun into his gloves and throwing the last gun into the back of the truck.

It didn’t take too long before the two had loaded up all the crates they were going to keep, so basically all but the gun chest they had opened, and started to drive back off towards the factory again.

Edward surveyed the Locusts as they closed in on the massive six wheeled vehicle with only mild concern. He’d known they were there, and also that they were none too friendly thanks to them shooting the pair of scouts (that he’d sent their way to work out their intentions) on sight.

Thanks to his portal power, he could have simply bypassed them, but marauders, as he thought of them, were also, again in his opinion, free game. To an extent, his empires had run on the salvage of slain enemies, and so while some might have seen simply an obstacle to be removed, the dreadnaught, leader of a culture of reavers, saw here resources to be claimed.

Not that he intended to put himself on the line for them, his towering form was, he well knew, something of an easy target, but then that was what disposable assets were for.

One such asset had spotted the erupting battle and slowed her motorcycle to a halt, presumably considering whether to get involved or not. All she needed was a little push, one he was more than willing to provide.

Juri came out here looking for a fight, but not some crazy desert battle on an unarmed motorcycle. Especially since there was no obvious reward for diving into the fray, but if she lost her bike she could kiss her chances of finding any loot goodbye. She set a hand on her hip and stood up on her back as the fight moved away from her.

As a few of his scout drones closed in, their master opened a portal and stepped through, exiting a respectable distance for Jur. The now three people tall, hunched-backed, finger-covered winged Edward removed his helmet to reveal his mostly unchanged face as he exited, and then greeted her with a cordial ”Good afternoon Juri”

”Ewww!” Juri yelled in response. ”What the hell happened to you?! Did you fuse with the mold under the fridge?”
”A powerful demoness actually, one that gives me the ability to offer what you desire” he replied, before waving a hand and opening a portal. On the other end, they briefly caught sight of a confused locust as it drove past the hole in reality, before the beastial humanoid andit’s machine exited stage left, revealing the rest of the battle beyond. Before any stay or intentional shots could come their way however, the Dreadnought closed the portal, and concluded his offered devil’s bargain: ”Plunder acquired through violence”

Juri narrowed her eyes under her helmet at the new magical ability. That would make things a lot easier. She wouldn’t have to risk her bike, and wouldn’t have to worry about getting trapped on a vehicle. ”Humph.” She crossed her arms. ”Might be a good time. If you want a share of the loot, better make sure me or my bike don’t go splat.” She said.

”Can you keep up?” She asked.

Edward simply flicked a hand, a flurry of portals opening and closing, to demonstrate that he could indeed keep up. He then offered ”I can even send that back to the armory, to be retrieved once you need it again” because he’d rather not keep guarding it, and then asking as an afterthought ”Or would you like to ride it into battle?” because to him fistycuffs did not exactly seem like a fighting style suited to be used from (mechanical) horseback.

”Hell no, you had it right the first time. Drop me right onto that big sucker! If those guys are chasing it, it might have good loot onboard. I could nab it first.” Juri said, rubbing her hands together. She took off her helmet and rolled her neck, then sent her helmet on her bike for safe keeping. She rubbed her hands together.

”Ready when you are, Fingers.”

The man might have objected before, but he had come here for loot had he not? So instead he simply replied ”As you wish” before snapping his fingers for dramatic effect, and opening a portal directly under the streetfighter. The other end of it opened directly above the giant cannon the six wheeled base on wheels sported, very literally dropping her onto it.

”Kyaha-!” Her shrill laugh was interrupted as the noise was taken by the wind above the vehicle she was dropped onto.

Then with her on her way, the man turned a brief moment of focus to the bike she’d left behind, taking a few moments to initiate the armory recall sequence. As he did this, a squad of his scout drones zoomed closer to the battle, skimming around the periphery and doing their best to kite any attention they got so that Edward could keep track of what Juri was doing.

As both marauding seekers now saw, the owners of the vehicle turned out to be armored human soldiers called Gears, armed with bayoneted lancer rifles, Gnasher Shotguns and snub pistols. Not that either of them would care to find out any of these names.

A dozen of these Gears were in the midst of attempting to repel boarders, namely the flying Reaver squid monsters and their pairs of locust riders, several of whom leaped off the back of the beasts to engage their foes on foot. Armed with hammerbursters, or combat knives boltok pistols, these locusts where exchanging fire with or coming to blows with the Gears who had been firing from the banisters of their vehicle.

Things seemed to be going rather poorly for the Gears, one of whom went down right as Juri arrived as a bullet struck his chest. He did not turn to ash however, as his durable armor took most of the blow and gave a medic among the Gears enough time to toss a stim gas grenade to revive him.

By contrast the locust’s armor was far less advanced, one of them being turned to dust by a near identical bullet to the chest that had failed to take down the Gear, but they were big and tough, and glancing hits were not taking them down. And that was before the fling cannon mounted warbeasts got involved.

It was, all in all, an absolute mess of a situation, and Edward had put her right in the middle of it.

Juri landed and pounced up to the wall, clambering up it to get the top of the vehicle. Her eyes flitted about as she surveyed the situation, and concluded these Gears were losing up here. If she wanted the most amount of time to herself, she would nudge the battle so that neither side got the advantage too quickly. If there was any loot, it was going to be in some kind of cargo area inside, she guessed.

Juri sprinted along the top of the massive vehicle, leaping up to promptly snatch a passing Reaver pilot and kick it right in the face, sending the vehicle off course and over the side. ”Haha!” She cackled. Pissed off, the Reaver turned around to take another pass at her. Juri shifted from side to side, avoiding the bullets coming her way before sprinting to catch it, leaping up with a spinning cleave of her Ghoulsaw. A huge chunk taken out of it, both locusts moved to abandon ship before it crashed and burned, but they would find Juri waiting for her, and with a swipe and two kicks both locusts turned to ash. Juri snatched up one of their handguns and holstered her Ghoulsaw, moving along the top again. A green streak dragged behind her as she got to the other end with a burst of speed, sliding and dropping cleanly. The speed made it difficult for any participants in the pitched battle to lock their attention on her.

She parkoured over the side and went a layer down to where the doors led into the control room. The locked doors weren’t electronic, but that was no concern to Juri. She hefted her Ghoulsaw and brought it down hard on the handle with a spray of sparks, but it didn’t take long for the nasty weapon to start rending metal and digging into the locking mechanism. ”Open Sesame!” She cried out gleefully. This loud entrance wouldn’t go unnoticed by the Gear squad inside the control room, or the circling aerial Locusts. A streak of bullets came in towards Juri, who raised her arm and her shoulder as a bullet glanced off her body. A Reaver was coming in hot, but this one wasn’t going to get too close, and while she was on this balcony-like outcropping of the Mammoth she didn’t have much maneuverability to reach it.
Juri side-stepped the next few shots and then crouched behind cover as the bullets came raining in, the Reaver flying alongside the Mammoth from a safe distance. This was hardly Juri’s specialty, but her extreme hand-eye coordination went a long way in making it possible. She peaked over the edge and returned fire. ”How’s this?” She shouted, her boltok pistol firing off heavy rounds that stuck into the Reavers thick skin or sailed past the Locust riders. Still, they drew back and away as they returned suppressing fire, not wanting to let Juri get a bead on them. They stayed there long enough for another Reaver to show up. The squid beast itself and its two riders descended to meet Juri, apparently having figured out she was going to bust her way in, or maybe just going after a lone target.

”Oh, I’ve got time for all’a you handsome baldies.” Juri said, dropping her pistol and letting her Ghoulsaw hang at her side as she beckoned with her free hand.

As she was saying that, however, a portal opened above the reaver, and a massive armored fist smashed out of it and into the side of the Reaver, sending it careening to one side. As its pilot tried to stabilize it, he flew right into the grasp of another hand that reached out of a portal, grabbed the pilot, and then pulled it back through the portal, leaving the other locust one scrambling to grab the controls of the panicking warbeast.

It did not get the time, as the missing pilot then reappeared, coming hurtling at high speed straight into him, sending both locusts crashing down to the dust below.

”Haha!” Juri laughed.

Deprived of its intelligent riders, the Reaver lashed out wildly at the air with its tendrils, but by then the presence that had taken them had moved on to to other prey, as down below a string of hands reached down trying to grab a locust off of a chopper, before then opening and letting the riderless vehicle roll through once they succeeded.

Juri glanced at a nearby scout drone that flew in, knowing it belonged to Edward. ”C’mon! Need your portals to get outta there with the loot. ” Juri said. She turned away from the chaos and hacked into the door with her Ghoulsaw. As she split the door open, she was met with a shotgun blast to the chest that knocked her far back and clear over the railing. ”Oogh! She vanished from sight.

The Gear inside pumped his shotgun and stayed behind cover, but was surprised when Juri came in through the top of the doorframe like some kind of horrible spider and leapt clean over his shot and kicked him in the chest. A few more kicks lifted him off the ground and launched him clear across the room. He landed with a heavy thud, winded but not out. There were some shouts of alarm. ”Hello boys and girls!” Juri said, looking for an exit deeper into the Mammoth. She spotted a couple different doors, and fortunately the inside of this place was big enough to need to be labelled. Juri could see the driver and the rest of the squad responsible for protecting the interior and manning the turrets.

The driver had to stay concentrated, trusting her team to keep her safe while she kept them all from crashing. Two more Gears opened up, but Juri wasn’t interested in fighting. She dashed to the side, staying ahead of the bullets, and hacked open an electronic door. She waited for the scout drone to follow her and slammed the door shut behind her, locking it.

”You can open a portal inside here, right?” Juri asked the drone. And by extension Sandalphon who could also relay the message, but that would take a bit longer than the drone just ‘nodding’.

Unfortunately for her, the remaining drone (one had been destroyed by stray fire) looked her right in the eye and then glanced left and right several times in quick succession. The specific explanation that he had to see where he was opening portals would come later, but for now the message was clear enough. She’d need to get out herself.

”Good for nothin’ scrap heap.” Juri frowned.

As to where she’d found herself, it looked to be the bay that the little wheel tanks had deployed out of. Now sealed shut to prevent boarding through it, it was now mostly empty, and entirely uncrewed, except for a half dozen crates with the Ficsit logos on them. Four were fairly normal looking cargo crates, but two were a distinctive red hued design and sealed with a hefty padlock. Not the sort of thing you’d store common commercial goods, that was for sure.

Just as she was taking it in, a message relayed via Sandalphon arrived, one that had been sent to her when she’d first mentioned using Edward’s portals to evacuate the loot. It informed her that Edward would like to remind her that he's demonstrated how to send and receive things to and from the ship's armory, and offered to remind her how to make use of said ability to requisition the crates if needed.

Juri was rubbing her hands together, looking at the good stuff. ”Haaah? What the hell is he talking about?” Juri picked up one of the Ficsit crates and shook it around. She knew this was the area with the vehicles in it.

”I’m gonna hack open the bay doors. Could you portal all the loot out then? I can’t carry all these crates outta here. I’d have to stick around and clear the entire damn vehicle if we wanted all of ‘em.” Juri surmised.

The drone, which had just finished rolling its eye 360 degrees in response to the comment she’d made to its controller’s relayed message (which Sandalphon had taken all of the snippyness out of), paused for a moment, and then nodded twice.

Juri targeted the bay door control panel with her hacking ability and disabled the ‘close’ function, causing the bay doors to slowly begin to shift downwards. Immediately she was greeted with the sound of gunfire from the frantic battle outside. Not just that, but another door into the bay opened, four Gears coming to stop her from making off with the loot and opening up the bay door. If they were trying to maintain a defensive position, they stopped when they realized the bay door was opening. ”Finally got some nerve?” Juri taunted.

Three came in with shotguns, while one, a medic, stayed in the door frame to shoot his assault rifle. They spread out and began firing at Juri from three different angles. For the first three shots, she used Drive Parry to swat all three blasts aside with her leading foot, and then dashed to the side. She cracked into one Gears knee to send him toppling to the floor, and then jumped over another blast to bring her heel down on the next Gears head, before grabbing her to throw her to the side and to the far door where the medic was. The third Gear rushed Juri, and smacked the butt of his gun against her face, interrupting her grinning attempt to keep up her own offense. He kicked her to the ground, where the medic blasted her with a spray of bullets. Juri hissed as she took a few painful shots before she rolled out of the way.

By this point both tossed Gears had stood backup, but Juri pounced upon the nearest one and disarmed him with a furious few kicks followed by a chop towards his gun. Wrenching his arm out of his socket she turned him to face the others and used him as a human shield, two bullets smacking into his chest piece before the medic raised his gun with a swear. Juri launched this Gear towards the other one, downing him for the count and knocking the one that hit her earlier over.

The female gear and the medic opened fire, but Drive Parry made Juri prove impossible to hit, though it did lock her in place on the defensive. ”This is actually pretty fun!” Juri crowed.

By this point the bay doors had opened. Juri could see Zenkichi doing battle against the Locust bandits. The medic tossed a stim grenade to the two downed troops, and the standing Gear made a dash to the bay doors control panel. Juri interrupted her run with a slashing projectile that the Gear jumped over, but before she could find her footing Juri slammed into her with a running spin kick. Juri once again used her has a human projectile, wrapping her foot around her head, dragging her around, and launching her at the others with a kick. This time they managed to dodge, but the medic’s magazine had ran dry so he couldn’t return fire, instead dropping his spent mag to the floor and reaching for a fresh one.

The marauders outside had noticed the opened bay doors and were now trying to force their way past the battling LAVs to get inside. Juri glanced over her shoulder at the loot, expecting to see an escape portal or something better.

What she found was a portal opening underneath the loot, and for it to all tumble down into it. They had already crashed out of the sky after all, anything fragile was already done for. Then another opened, human height and ready for her to escape through and onto the patch of land beyond. Unfortunately, while the portal was static, the vehicle she was on was not, given its attempt to escape its attackers, and so from her perspective the portal began to run away from her and towards the incoming foes.

It also moved towards their fire, a bolt of which smashed into and annihilated the remaining scout drone, while the Gears behind her all scrambled to take cover from it.

”Better hurry” Edward casually called from the other side.

And hurry she did. Juri Drive Rushed forward, headlong sprinting into the trailing portal. ”See ya chumps!” She cried out before vanishing into it, reappearing with Edward. She dove through and landed on her back.

Juri clutched her stomach and guffawed, kicking her legs with impish delight. ”Ahahahahaha!” She laughed. ”Not bad, not bad!” She rose to her feet belly first, her head and arms dragging behind her as she settled bizarrely into a standing position.

”You’re not such a stiff after all, Edward!” She said. ”I like you better like this! With those portals and my skills there’s nothin’ we can’t steal.”

Juri excitedly made her way over to the boxes. ”We can keep the Ficsit boxes closed if we want for the reward, but I’m popping these two bad boys open for sure.” Juri pointed at the red crates. ”There’s one for each of us.”

”In just a few moments. I can only open portals where I can see with my own eyes, you see, and well…” the sound of approaching engines made it clear why that was an issue.

”So if you will follow me” he then added, and property solved the problem by opening a portal and stepping through, while the loot crates were simply dropped again. A few steps and a bit of weaving put them past the battlefield entirely, and in a nice secluded spot where they could inspect their spoils without fear of interruption.

”If you're amenable to a continued 50/50 split, then I can certainly see this being a fruitful partnership as well” He agreed as they walked, while being privately amused about the additional spoils of a handful of locusts spirits, a reaver spirit, and an undamage chopper that where currently sitting on his side of the scales, which he’d acquired and sent to the armory while she’d been busy doing the majority of this smash and grab.

A moment later, they were home free, Edward putting terrain in between them and any pursuers, and putting them closer to the high tower to boot, the scouts drones that had not run into the battle having already looped round and mapped out the terrain on the other side of it.

”Now then, let's see what spoils we have reaved, shall we?” the man who had already been no stranger to the idea of looting and pillaging for a higher cause before the demon’s curse said, gesturing to the two red weapon crates.

”More like 60/40. It was my ass on the line, after all. ”Juri said. ”But we can split the red ones.

”And what the hell were you talkin’ about back there? The armory?” She asked.

”I’d note that you’d have been unable to get away with the prizes without me, and would be stuck physically dragging through this wasteland. You performed your end perfectly, but this operation would have never been without my new power” Edward replied smoothly, before opening a portal and putting a hand through it, causing it to repeat on the other side of him, and then joking ”besides, I did risk life and limb, did I not?”

To actually strengthen his case, he then deigned to answered her question:

”With just a simple combination of gesture and will, you can do this” Edward explained as he flicking a hand and summoning a hovering menu suspended within a magic circle that listed the content’s of the ships armory, which he then showed her ”and retrieve objects from both the armory and the vehicle bay of the avenger”

He then stepped over to the other crates, and made a slightly more complex gesture, forming another hovering circle, explaining ”you can also do this, to send things back” before he then drew a line around the 4 regular cargo crates till it formed a ring. This ring flashed, and then formed a magic circle on the ground beneath the crates, a circle around which another ring started to form, which turned out to functionally be a loading bar, as once the ring was complete, there was a pulse of magic and the crates were gone. Or rather, as he showed her on the armory screen, now within the armory.

”It’s how I stored your bike” he then added, flicking the screen to scroll it to where her personal transport was listed, alongside one of the choppers sat next to it.

”Huh.” Juri mimicked the gestures to confirm they worked. To test, she picked her bike out from either.

”Not bad. I like that a lot. Make sure not to croak like that Princess did.” She said, impressed.

Then, flatly: ”60/40. Let’s just say I get one more crate than you. I couldn’t have done it without you, you couldn’t have done it with me. Difference being if something goes wrong, I’m the one who’s in danger while you’re safe on the backline running support. It’s hazard pay. If you wanna run any more ops like this with me, or anyone like me, I’d recommend getting used to that concept. Fixers and operators.” Juri said. Maybe it was the Sombra in her finally coming to surface, but she sounded reasonable and emotionally unaffected. ”Think about it. You know it makes sense. You can run a ton of heists like this without breaking a sweat. Meanwhile, I’ve still got some yummy little aches from where those goons blasted me around.” She set a hand on her hip.

”Either way, I saw that Chopper. That counts.” Juri said with a nod. ”We can do 50/50 this time if you insist, but don’t expect me to put my ass on the line for you again. It’ll be a one and done arrangement. But give me that extra 10 percent and I’ll accept the greater risk for greater reward.” Juri said.

”Then we’d best aim even higher next time. Here” Edward said as he summoned his feather staff striker and had it heal her of her ”We can hardly have you anything less than 100% for your next mission” implicitly agreeing to the deal, before saying ”Now how about we find out what we’ve acquired” and turning their attention back to the still unopened red chests.

Juri grinned, happy she and Edward could come to an agreement. ”Hell yeah.”

”Oh hey, it's those banana tree lizards from the land of adventure” Jr called over to the whale riders as they sailed through the sands, pointing skywards to a small herd of Tropius soaring above them, before asking ”wonder what they’re doing out here?”

”My Pokedex says it’s called a… Tropius.” Roxas said, looking at the screen of his Rotom Phone.

“Could be migrating.” Geralt guessed, though he could do more than that, having little knowledge of Pokemon habits and biology.

Having been staring up at the flying plant dinos as well, Rika didn’t notice when they went over the rim of a perfectly circular pit with steep slopes of sand till it was too late. Initially, however, everything was fine, just an unexpected little dip, but then when the whale started to climb back up, it found the loose grains offered no grip to its supernatural sand swimming, causing it to start sliding backwards deeper into the pit and towards the center, where a faint glow could be seen.

”Huh? What’s going on?” Rika asked, as they slid down what Jr, who had halted at the edge of the pit, identified loudly as a ”Sand trap!”

“Dammit!” Geralt cursed, holding tightly to the whale even as he tried to see what it was that had laid the trap. It was well-hidden, though, so he gave that up in favor of keeping a grip on their summoned mount.

The whale sunk and sunk, and then when it got close, the glow in the center suddenly burst up as the Balahara that had dug the pit burst from the sand, lunging for the whale, prompting a shriek of alarm from Rika as she panic tapped her featherfall rune, launching her straight up into the air. The Balahara just barely missed her, but it had not been aiming for her, and instead plunged down onto the back of the whale, smashing its spine in the process and then crushing it beneath its weight.

”Again!” was Rika’s complaint as she double jumped, and then used her grapple to latch onto a nearby tree, and reel herself to it and, thus, to safety.

Knocked off the whale by the Balahara's impact, Geralt scrambled up the edge of the sand pit they'd tumbled into, only looking back to make sure the others had escaped as he escaped the trap.

As for Roxas, when they started to fall he generated a platform of virtual cubes that he could land on to avoid falling toward the waiting Balahara. ”What even is that thing?” He asked.

Below, the beast started to rip chunks out of the crippled whale while it was still alive. It seemed content to simply do so, till Jr launched a hail of iron knives and his Brionne a bubble beam at it in retaliation for the attack on his sister.

Unfortunately, the hastily forged knives simply shattered against its scales, and the beam of water failed to leave any lasting harm. Double unfortunately, the beast took issue with this, raising its head opening its maw, revealing its glowing interior, and promptly spitting a massive glob of water (large enough to engulf the Ace Cadet) at the prince and his mon, prompting both to duck into the car, and then to be blasted back as the water splashed into them, drenching them with a stamina regen reducing waterblight debuff.

The Balahara then turned this attack on Roxas and Geralt in turn, aiming, it seemed, to shoo off these morsels from its prize.

The glob of water was simple enough to dodge, though Geralt had trouble regaining solid footing in the sand when he landed hard. Assistant Manager would be too slow to fight here, so he transformed again into Ardor Blossom, hurling a fireball in retaliation at the monster.

”Reflect!” Roxas cried out, instinctively managing to recall and cast a protective Reflectga spell on himself. It conjured an omnidirectional shield around him that was only up for a second. But in that second the water glob collided with it and as a result the intended damage was reflected back at the Balahara instead.

While the first projectile got the Balahara’s attention as it scorched the tough armor notably but not significantly, the second reflected one very much caught the monster by surprise. Receiving a mouthful of its own spit was not something it could have ever expected, and though it was more confusing than it was damaging, the beast having to swallow gave the seekers a moment to act against it.

Rika did so by deploying her many drones. Two scout planes launched from her gauntlet’s hangers, the red baron drones from her back, all of them forming an arch of machines hovering over her head and arms. Col. Droneman joined them, floating up to the top of the formation, and deploying his solar panels, drinking in the sun, and activating his boon.

All at once all the drones and planes had a small gimbal turret mounted minigun spawn under their nose, except for one of the red baron drones which had an entire robot arm holding a handgun sprout from one side. With these, the ship girl immediately opened fire, resulting in an onslaught of 81 rounds being fired every single second at the Balahara.

Unfortunately, just like her brother’s knives, these small projectiles shattered or were deflected by the beast’s tough armor that seemed to have no real weak spots. The volley of mini-missiles fired from every drone in response to every 1/10 bullet impacts certainly had more of an impact however, though the damage to the armor was rather spread out.

Geralt took advantage of the Balahara's confusion to lob a few more fireballs at it, but he noticed that they didn't seem to be having much of an effect in its tough hide. “Hide’s too tough for weaker attacks! We need to hit it with something big!” He yelled to the others.

Roxas wasn’t faring much better with his Firaga spells. They didn’t appear to be doing much more damage than Geralt’s fireballs were. He switched it up and tried a Blizzaga instead that appeared to garner the same result. Then he switched up again and fired a couple of charged shots from his RockGun for the self-same result.

All this incoming fire very much convinced the Balahara that the smallfry were very much a threat, prompting it to lunge forwards into the sand, corkscrewing its body as it did so to drill into the sand of its own pit. Then the ground beneath Geralt began to suddenly stink down into a minute sand trap before the beast burst up from below. It rose up half its length, and then arched its form down towards Roxas’ floating platform, before burying back into the sand at a shallower arc, the land bulging as it passed beneath the Seekers and emerged atop a dune behind them.

There it lunged at Jr, who’d only just emptied his clown car, forcing the prince to deploy his clown car’s wheels and race back towards the rest of the seekers to avoid the attack, dashing between them as the Balahara bore down on them.

Geralt had too little time to react, and was tossed into the air by the Balahara's emergence, landing roughly in the sand with a grunt. He forced himself to his feet slowly, turning to find the Balahara atop the dune, preparing for them to attack. He transformed back to his normal Identity and quickly cast Quen on himself to protect from further attack.

Roxas ditched his platform just before the Balahara crashed into it. And while the cubes obviously did their touch damage, that too didn’t appear to phase the creature much. Roxas landed on the sand just outside of the pit and hurled his Keyblades down toward where the Balahara was. He was starting to wish he had his Fortune summon, thinking maybe her railgun shot would actually hurt this thing. But unfortunately she was still in storage and Roxas still only had Kayano and Poltergeist to work with. So he summoned Kayano and had her blast the beast from below with a geyser of dark water.

The water blast threw off the Balahara’s charge, causing it to stumble off course, and then to roll the side to get the spectral water off of it. The actual impact of the water seemed to have had little impact, but the darkness within it had caused some of the already damaged scales to blacken as it seeped into small gaps.

The striker also shuffled the seekers around, mainly by putting Roxas up in the tree Rika had grappled too, and shoving both royal children into the frontlines. It was only thanks to Balahara taking a sand bath that this didn’t have dire consequences, but a moment later it reared up, jaw opening up, preparing to deliver a face slam down on the pair.

Before it could however, Jr recovered from the confusion of his relocation just enough to panic summon Blodia, or rather its massive fist, which slammed into the side of the Balahara’s head, knocking the blow it had been attempting to deliver off course, and briefly leaving it stunned, face first in the sand. While Dazzle hit it with a blast of his disarming voice Rika took this opportunity to dash in (the accompanying tidal burst also doing little to the monster) and to then deliver one, two, and then a third (Kayano empowered) punch into the spot the giant robot’s fist had impacted with. As she struck gauntlet’s Denting Blows stacking up and then on the third blow triggered it, cracking some of the armor on the beast’s face on the final hit she delivered before backing off.

Roxas was momentarily taken aback by his sudden relocation, having forgotten about this aspect of Kayano. And so he saw his places had been switched with Rika, and that she and her brother had been forced into close range against the Balahara. ”Uh oh, forgot about that, uh…” His mind raced on what to do about this and an idea popped in his head, ”Wind!” He chanted, successfully recalling how to cast the Aeroga spell. A shielding whirlwind swirled around Jr’s body which would halve all incoming damage against him for the next 18 seconds. And then he cast the spell again, targeting Rika. She would benefit from the same shield of wind as well as the shield itself dealing minor wind-elemental touch damage to the Balahara while she was striking it.

Geralt was standing on the ridge, steel sword in hand as he recited the chant for one of his spells: “Oh divine spear, run mine enemy through! Holy Lance!” As he finished the chant, the telltale five spears of light appeared around the Balahara, the sixth hanging overhead like a sword of Damocles. Each launched itself into the monster, taking advantage of its stunning to inflict its massive damage.

Five of the spears punched into the beast’s dark water weakened armor, getting about half way in and then leaving bleeding holes after they dissipated. The sixth struck right into the patch of armor Rika had softened up, skewering all the way through one of the beast’s two lower jaws. It roared in pain as it staggered to its feet, but the skewered mouth part didn’t manage to close, leaving a third of the fleshy interior of its maw permanently weak and exposed.

”Yeah! We got it on the ropes now!” Jr cheered, only to make a panicked shout as it whipped around, slapping both him and his sister with its tail, and sending both tumbling backwards into the sand. Fortunately Roxas’ wind barriers softened this blow considerably, causing it to only pop Rika’s energy shield, and smash jr’s clown car’s ablative armor. It still left them concussed however, but rather than follow up on this, the beast kept facing away from them and began to hustle away on foot, now unable to burrow through sand thanks to its broken jaw, leaving six trails of blood as it did so.

“Go after it, or let it be?” Geralt asked, starting to slide down the sand to the others. “Your trip, your call.” He added, looking at Junior and Rika.

The answer which Rika at least had already decided on before being asked came in the form of the sand beside the Balahara before her white whale burst from it, having escaped the sandpit now that the beast that had dug it was no longer maintaining it. It was also in a terrible state, and yet by the will of its creator it still fell upon the monster that had tried to eat it with all the might it had left. A volley of three bombs was spat out of its mouth, colliding with the beast and tossing it to the side, before cannons roared, punching shells into its underbelly.

This was not quite enough to fell the beast, and so the whale fell upon it, biting at it while being clawed at and bit in inturn, two great monsters wrestling in the sand as the lifeblood rapidly drained out.

Well, until Jr picked himself up and cast ”Benediction!” upon the wounded whale, fully healing it and giving it the edge. After that it was all over, and with a last crushing bite the Balahara’s armor finally buckled and broke, allowing the whale to crush the life out of it, causing it to burst into ash in its maw.

”Finally” Rika sighed, as she called the whale back to them, delivering the spirit to them in the process, balanced atop the whale’s snout.

”Glad that’s over.” Roxas murmured, dispelling his Keyblades and using Flow Motion to parkour his way back onto the whale’s back. ”I feel a little bad taking down something that was just trying to eat, but… Self-defense, I guess.” He concluded with a shrug.

”Shouldn’t have messed with us!” Jr replied, the prince having hopped out to repair his clown car. Thanks to the new ablative armor tech, all this involved was him forging new armor plates out of his magic iron, before slapping them onto the outside of his vehicle, and then with a swipe of his paintbrush applying the machine’s ‘makeup’ at which point he was ready to go.

Rika merely nodded to the sentiment as she stepped up and retrieved the spoil of her vengeful whale attack, before asking ”Anyone? Or store it to make stuff with?”

“Store it. Ace might know the best way to use that thing. His folk make weapons and armor out of monsters I'd never dream of fighting.” Geralt advised once he climbed back atop the whale. “Any healing needed?” He followed up.

”Not me.” Roxas confirmed. ”I think the whale was the one who took most of the punishment here.”

”I’m good” Jr replied from his car (which had taken most of the beating and mostly rattled him and Dazzle around inside of it while it was knocked about) to which Rika added a ”Same” as she got them underway again, sailing deeper into the desert, and now keeping a closer eye on where they were avoiding to avoid any more sand traps.

Even if the well-traveled, sun-baked road was a little bumpy, with plenty of cracks and its fair share of potholes, the experience of simply watching the environment roll by from the comfort of a vinyl barstool was nothing to scoff at. The magnificent painted desert, rolling plains, and enormous buttes, interspersed with scrubland-clad serpentine rivers that shone like diamonds in the afternoon sun, possessed a beautiful grandeur, especially for a city-bound alley cat who’d missed her chance to see the Sandswept Sky in all its glory. At the same time, the sheer scale of the Paved Wilderness meant that the surroundings changed slowly, with only the occasional shack or race track to break up the peaceful monotony.

That meant that staring off into the distance for minutes at a time, especially with the trailer’s toastiness and the engine’s growly purr, was a rather soporific experience, and Nadia soon found herself struggling to stay awake. “Hooh…” she sighed, leaning more and more on the bartop as her eyelids drooped. “Guess I’m more tired than I thought…” All this dry air was making her thirsty, too, and the more her eyes rested on all the bottles of booze stocked by the semitruck’s onboard bar, the more she licked her lips. The felonious feline managed to reign in her base impulses, though; given how risky it must be to pick up a hitchhiker, how could she possibly think to repay the driver’s kindness by stealing from her? Her mind began to conjure up images of Limsa Lominscuttle Town, especially Heaven’s Edge, with a whole ocean’s worth of cool, refreshing water to soak in followed by a round of free drinks from Karin Kanzuki afterward, all shared with Ace of course. As she imagined paradise, her eyelids’ gradual descent turned into a headlong plummet, and Nadia passed out.

“Hey. Hey. He-eeey.”

The feral jolted awake suddenly, almost falling out of her stool before she remembered where she was. While its engine continued to putter idly, the Steeltusk had stopped, and before Nadia unfurled a network of red rocky canyons littered by rotund barrel cacti and uniquely crooked Joshua trees. All the heat around here was making the air swim, but no matter how surreal they looked, the wildlife the cat burglar saw were no mirages. She witnessed half-racks of ribs that crawled through the crevices like centipedes, mothlike puffs that left trails of cheesy dust as they flapped their crispy orange wings, and peppery scorpions with red-hot stingers. Nadia had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.



“Welcome to Scorched Gorge,” a familiar tired, reedy voice said. Nadia looked down to see the little truck driver staring up at her. Her eyes were impossibly world-weary for how old she looked, which was more than a little off-putting. Still, Nadia had reached her destination in one piece (or at least, with all her pieces together) so she could hardly raise any objections. The girl crossed her arms. “I had to poke you a good five or six times. You sure you’re okay, miss?”

Nadia wiped the drool from her lip with the back of her hand, then gave her most reassuring smile. “Yeah yeah, I’m good! Just dozed off or somethin’. Thanks ‘fur’ the ride!”

“Uh huh. Whatever you say, kiddo. Well, if you need anything, the name’s Piper. Gimme a call.”

Seemingly unconvinced, the driver stepped away, and Nadia hopped down from the truck to the dusty ground. Chucho followed, almost invisible in the bright sunlight. The catgirl took a few steps away, looking around, then reached up to her ear. She’d honestly forgotten about the linkpearls for a while, but hearing from Therion earlier reminded her, so now seemed like a good time to repay the favor. “Hey guys! I’m at the place, and I gotta say, it’s Scorched Gorge-ous. Might, uh, need a ride back though. So when you’re done checkin’ out that other spot, don’t forget to pick me up, or I’ll take it purr-sonally!”

She’d already spotted Roland and Therion’s destination on the other side of all the canyons. Tall, blocky, and gray-brown in tone, the Refinery stuck out like a sore thumb amidst all the pristine natural beauty. Her sharp eyes could make out a strange, dark-red sigil plastered on the side of one of the buildings. She couldn’t see any people or vehicles from this distance, but the fumes billowing from its four smokestacks suggested some kind of activity.

“If you’re meeting friends near here, I reckon you all oughta stay away from that factory,” the truck driver advised.

Nadia swiveled her head back around to see the girl seated at her own bar, a glass full of ice and murky brown liquid in her hand. Both were momentarily affronted -Piper by Nadia’s 180-degree head turn and Nadia by Piper’s premature alcoholism- but after a moment both managed to get over one another’s eccentricities. The feral turned her body around sheepishly. “Uh, why?”

“I hear there’s some real odd folks ‘round there. Strange critters, too. The kind you hear, but can’t see, not ‘til they’re already breathin’ down the back of your neck.”

Despite the heat, a chill ran down Nadia’s spine. Which she thought was honestly weird, given all the horrific things she’d already seen and overcome. “I’ll let ‘em know, but we can look after ourselves. Besides, what if there’s treasure there?”

Piper blinked. “Treasure?”

Nadia nodded enthusiastically. Since the girl had done her a favor, she didn’t mind sharing even if it meant a little more competition. “Yeah! The whole region’s gone crazy over this big scavenger hunt some shipping company started after they lost their cargo. Turn in their loot, and you could win big! That’s why we’re out here.”

“Huh! Well, I’ll be.” Piper scratched her chin lazily. “Guess I’ll let the others know when they get here. Thanks, kid.”

Already regretting her choice somewhat due to the trucker’s patronizing tone and the prospect of even more competition, Nadia moseyed away with Chucho right behind her. Once she reached the nearest precipice, she began to survey Scorched Gorge with narrowed eyes, searching for anything that might have come from the crashed freighter. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to locate a sphere of compressed salvage almost as tall as she was, but unfortunately, it somehow seemed to be perfectly balanced on top of a sheer rocky spire. The feral did a double take, baffled. “Huh? How does that happen?” Chucho didn’t have any answers, though, so Nadia had no choice but to roll her eyes and head on over.

After jumping down into the canyon, she meandered through it at a leisurely pace, preoccupied by scattered pieces of what seemed like ancient ruins. She stopped a couple times to pick through skeletons or pieces of prehistoric pottery for anything valuable, and during one such perusal Chucho seemed to catch a scent on the wind that intrigued him. “Chuch? Where ya goin’, boy?” He floated out of sight, and when Nadia followed him, she found a bizarre plant with bright pink flowers and huge orange stamens that looked like bottles more than anything else. Curious, she pulled one off and sniffed it. It looked like a fruit, but it smelled…spicy?

Just then, a strange noise caused her ears to perk up. Nadia peered up at the nearby canyon wall to find two Ribblepedes staring at her. “Whoa!” Reacting instinctively, she jumped back and hurled the fruit at them. It struck the bigger one and burst into bright orange liquid, coating it, and the smaller one promptly dove at the other, causing both to plummet down to the canyon floor and roll away in a heap of scrabbling, bonelike limbs. No longer alarmed but instead mildly concerned, Nadia watched them tussle, absently licking at some of the fluid that had spattered on her knuckle. She immediately blinked in surprise–it was hot sauce! “Weird…but cool!” Nadia turned to continue on her way, a little faster and more situationally aware than before.

After another minute, she reached the spire. At only around thirty feet tall, Nadia figured she’d have no problem reaching it, but before she could get started she ran afoul of the wildlife again. This time she noticed the checker-shrouded creature well before it reached her, thanks in part to the noise it made. “Bunger, bunger, bunger!” it hollered, charging on curly-fry legs with curly-fry tusks extended.

Smirking, Nadia stood her ground, then leaped up as it charged and somersaulted onto its back. Surprisingly sturdy, the BBQ Bunger bore her weight but went into an immediate frenzy, running this way and that as it tried to buck its passenger off. “Yee-haw!” Nadia laughed as she held on, her tail and arms extended for balance. Only when the Bunger tried to ram into a rocky outcropping did she crouch down and sink her claws in to brace herself. The next moment the critter slammed into the stone and stunned itself, ripe for Nadia to finish the job. “Think fast, food!” She detached her tail, tossed it up like she saw Zenkichi do with Ragnell, then flipped up to catch it and slash down. Hardened like a blade, her tail neatly cut the Bunger into halves, its googly eyes becoming spirals as sweet, savory barbecue sauce eked from within.

Nadia hesitated for a moment, her arms on her hips, then shook her head. “Okay. I gotta know.” She ran over to the nearest river to wash her hands -better than nothing, right?- then carved out a portion of the BBQ Bunger to stuff in her mouth. Much to her delighted surprise, it was identical to an actual barbecue burger. Of course, she’d already eaten plenty of burger for lunch, so Nadia only helped herself to a little bit of the bugsnack’s body before it began to dissolve. But even that was enough to metamorphose the feral’s right arm into something altogether unnatural.

“...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!”

Even after the initial panic wore off, Nadia’s heart pounded as she queasily tried to come to terms with what had happened. Most of her right arm had been replaced by appropriately large, spring-shaped curly fries, approximating the original limb. Her fingerless glove had been replaced by checkered wrapper, and strips of bacon had replaced her fingers. She flexed them experimentally, aghast. “Okay…okay. You are what you eat, I guess?” As she wondered how feasible it would be to trick Juri into eating bugsnax, Chucho sniffed at her hand, prompting her to jerk away, horrified. “Knock it off! I’m not a hamburglar!” The bigger issue was the salvage, since she no longer had claws on her right hand to climb with, and her grip was woefully greasy. Ever inventive, however, Nadia found a solution: she could extend her new limb like a spring in order to grab onto better handholds. Doing roughly the same with her other hand via muscle fiber and pressurized blood, she managed to scale the spire, reach the salvage, and push against it with her shoulder until it rolled off and fell down into the canyon below.

“Alright!” Nadia gave Chucho a high five, then winced. Only when she finally began to consider her next step did she realize her much, much bigger problem: how in the world she’d be getting that loot wherever it needed to go. “Oh, hell…”

Things were decidedly less whimsical, though, over by the Refinery. Neither Roland nor Therion saw any signs of life as they drew closer, but the whole place was locked up tight, practically a citadel of concrete, stone, and metal with only a few heavy, reinforced doors and no exterior windows anywhere near the ground floor. All the doors featured mechanical deadbolts sealed by keycard access, invulnerable to conventional lockpicking. Outside of the ability to fly or scale shear walls, the only possible means of ingress seemed to lie at the end of tire tracks: a heavy garage-style segmented door that safeguarded some sort of loading bay, kept in place by the weight of the door itself. While the newcomers couldn’t see anyone, they could see old-fashioned security cameras, so even though their approach garnered no response, it felt like someone was watching.



When Zenkichi, Sectonia, and Blazermate arrived from the sky to assist the Mammoth and its occupants against the gang of Locust marauders, the battle began to swing in the Coalition’s favor, but not without a heaping helping of confusion. The Gears didn’t know who these newcomers were or what their intentions might be after all, and when more fighting broke out atop and even inside their vehicle, the skirmish became even more of a scramble than before. The situation in the Mammoth was helter-skelter, with rapidly changing and often conflicting orders dividing the troopers’ attention between the assailants outside, the unidentified infiltrator wrecking havoc, and keeping the giant machine running at all.

Things were even more chaotic among the units of the Locust assault force, scattered around their target and presented with multiple new bogeys. Wheeling around to try and deal with Sectonia or Zenkichi guaranteed that the COG war machines would gun them down, while not addressing the new threat practically guaranteed a crash into the bug queen’s summoned swords. The dangerous but clumsy choppers got picked off quickly, while the slow Bloodmounts made easy targets. Prowlers and Reavers were more flexible, but as the Locust rapidly dwindled it became clear that victory would be a pipe dream. The retreat order was given, and the last Prowler -which happened to be the newest into the fray- broke off to flee through a swampy ravine. Reavers zoomed away in different directions, and the battle concluded with a decisive victory for the Coalition.

Of course, reports quickly reached the Mammoth’s crew chief about the theft committed during the chaos. Eyewitness accounts described a maniacal woman who fought and defeated veteran Gears barehanded. They said that she shrugged off Gnasher slugs like one might swat flies, then warped away through some kind of magical wormhole, taking all the Ficsit cargo they’d recovered with her. With no sign of the fugitive, the chief could do little but order the Mammoth to be stopped to recover the damaged vehicles. One of the Centaurs had been totaled, but the LAV had enough horsepower to drag the wreck back inside so that salvage and repair could begin in earnest.

If Zenkichi and the others expected to receive medals of honor for their help, though, they would come away disappointed. The troops remained standoffish with them, unconvinced of their motives and suspicious of their involvement with the inexplicable theft. At the same time, though, the woman barking at them through the Mammoth’s loudspeaker tried to downplay the deed with a braggadocious tone, saying, “That stuff we lost? Psh! Small potatoes compared to the haul we took in this morning, and the haul we’re headed toward now! You pipsqueaks wanna see some real action? Follow along and you’ll get to see what happens when we turn this BFG on Sweet Tooth’s circus! Hoorah!” With that, the Mammoth got moving again, headed east with its sights set on a much, much bigger target: the Carnival of Carnage.

Of course, unless Edward’s scout drones were listening in, he and Juri were too occupied by their own payday to catch wind of the COGs’ plans. With just a little finagling, the red chests they finessed from the Mammoth’s hold popped open like trophy cases, proudly showing off the three firearms contained within each.



Once the skirmish with the Mammoth ended, the Seekers had to pack up and move on. With Edward’s drones performing reconnaissance, those still headed toward Highertower got enough of a lay of the land to plot out an effective route. Beyond the boggy badlands lay a biome of oil, tar, and silt, bruised black and blue by untold years of excavation and extraction to fuel the Paved Wilderness and lands beyond. The flatter areas had been turned into sprawling oilfields, while the more mountainous parts were an oil-rich ecosystem all their own, where there dwelt bizarre lifeforms touched by the strangeness of the Outback down south, like colorful Muk, quiet Lurkers, and predatory Rompopolo. It wasn’t an ideal route, but with half of the biome ablaze in an infernal Firespring that filled the sky with smoke, it was better than the alternative. Passing through there brought the Seekers toward Highertower from the south, and after ascending through a canyon roadway up from Oilwell Basin, they crested a hill that gave them a good look at what they’d be dealing with.



The tower certainly lived up to the legend. That sheet metal spire was a legitimate skyscraper, dwarfing everything in the region in height if not girth. Wind’s Gasp? No comparison. The Rocket League Arena? Nowhere near. Noctis, a town built up into a mountain? Close, but no cigar. It was comical in its repetitious simplicity, especially since the only means of ascent seemed to be ramps around the outside, but it was apparently sturdy enough to withstand a collision with a Ficsit freighter. This zone, perched on the precipice of Empty Space, had always been a hotspot for conflict, but with Ficsit’s scavenger hunt ongoing, it looked a lot more like an actual warzone.

There were dozens of psychos camped out everywhere, identifiable by their minimalist orange attire, white masks, and ramshackle weaponry. They wielded all kinds of guns, as well as machetes and saws fused together from scrap. Opposing those gangs were all kinds of soldiers and mercenaries, entrenched in a ceaseless war of attrition. Everyone was fighting over a dozen entrenched stockpiles, capturing and then attempting to extract Ficsit loot via payload while keeping the other factions at bay. The various factions weren't making much progress, since any time one got close to extracting a payload, the others tended to gang up on it. Big team battles were going down farther away from Highertower itself, with cars, trucks, and tanks all going at it in vicious bursts, then limping away to lick their wounds and prepare for the next round. Over everything blazed the purple light of a nearly-full Flame Clock, attached imperiously to Highertower itself. In this place, both danger and opportunity abounded, promising a rich payday to those who picked their fights wisely.

@Lugubrious @Simple Unicycle @DracoLunaris

Word Count: 583
Level: Lv: 6 EXP: (3/60)
Location: Dead Zone Hinterlands - Curien Mansion Courtyard

Harry finished off his last attack with a dramatic pose He stopped posing when he noticed the split in his pants was fixed. “How did that happen?” Muttering to himself as Inland Empire spoke up. Assuming that Harry was wearing some sort of magical pants. He quickly turned towards the remaining zombies. Harry got into another fighting pose before getting back into action. However, he couldn’t do much since Band and his new canine companion seemed to be finishing off the other scrambling dead. “Good job, Band and Dog.” He said, complimenting both their fighting abilities. Harry’s backside was shone in a bright green light. His flat behind being quite noticeable. The detective turned around, wondering where it was coming from. Moving beside Band so he wouldn’t get run over by the large vehicle. He wondered who could have created this vehicle.

“Holy shit that’s awesome.” Harry exclaimed as he watched it atomize the zombies. The thought of shooting laser beams would be such an incredible superpower. He approached the stopped train and ran his hand on the chassi. “What kinda vehicle is this? How did you make it shoot that nifty laser?” Harry asked Stein and wondered if this vehicle was legal.

"Mr. Tank is a Metal Attacker," Tesset replied for Stein. "Unit designation NORA MA-03."

Stein patted her on the head. "Its real name is Atom, and it ain't a train. More like an all-terrain tank. I overcharged its cannon with a Sophinium smack from my thingamajig." Evidently technical explanations were the support droid's specialty.

“This doesn’t seem legal. You should press them to see if they have a license for such a weapon.” Authority said, to which Harry asked if Stein had a license to use this train. After Stein’s answer, Harry fixed his clothes from the fight.

"Uh huh." The big man outshined Harry's yellowish glint with a toothy flash of his pearly whites. "Makes me wonder, though: what d'you think you'd be doin' if I didn't? This mountainside part of your, uh, jurisdiction?"

"Your god dam right roughneck." Authority said but Harry just shook his head.

"No but I try to maintain the law as best I can. It comes with being a police officer." Harry said with a soft smile.

“Oh yeah, I’m all gravy.” Harry said to the girl, smiling, exposing his yellowing teeth to her. “So you're also looking for Heismay too? Were you hired to find those missing kids?” Adding while eyeing Stein and Tesset. “Yeah, I can tell it’s gonna be a dead space.” Harry added to the conversation. As they continued their conversation, Harry picked up the hat he had given to Dog Mullen. Picking it up and sadly looking at it. Putting it in his bag when he was able to find it. Perhaps Dog had dropped it while she was fighting the zombies. So maybe once it was dry, he could give it back to her.

He was worried that there would be worse things than the living dead inside of the mansion. Following the others, he kept his eyes out in case any creep would try to ambush them. “This is Detective Harry Dubois with the RCM; I want to ask you some questions. You're not in trouble. I just want to ask you some questions Mr. Heismay. ” He yelled out, his voice echoing through the mansion's foyer.