Within a few minutes, Goldlewis and the rest of the debate attendees stood out in the open air of another Midgar night. It might be smoggy or stifling in other sectors, but the City of Glass was a city of the future. Even in the periphery of its most industrial area, the air felt clear and breezy, its clear skies affording a view of the stars obstructed by the oily shimmer of the Extinction Belt that floated far above Midgar’s loftiest heights, a beautiful but deadly aurora borealis. During the course of the debate, as tension mounted and tempers flared, it had gotten pretty stuffy inside Dendemille Showcase Theater, so Goldlewis took deep breaths of the fresh air with gratitude in his heart. In this brief moment of respite he looked out over the scenery, past the attention-hogging spotlights and glitzy golden floodlights of Circuit Royal, the grand public entrance of the Vandelay Campus, and across the water of Regatta Bay.
All the cloud-white yachts and sailboats that wandered the waterways during the day now moored peacefully at their docks, like cattle brought into their stables for the night, but the City of Glass itself never slept. Enormous electronic billboards and company names writ large in eye-searing neon crowned many of its tall buildings, their glare seemingly strong enough to diminish the distant radiance of the cosmos above. Further down, light panels on many of the buildings that lined the waterfront bathed the quiet boardwalks and gentle waves in a serene pink glow, reflected by the bay and the austere glass facades that encircled it like so many mirrors to make Regatta Bay into a soft, surreal
dreamscape. It was a nice night, but Goldlewis was hardly at peace. His mind still raced from everything he learned thanks to the theatrical machinations of Consul C. What this knowledge meant for Midgar -and the Seekers’ campaign as a whole- he could only imagine. Even if C spoke truly about the location of Midgar’s elusive Guardian, the veteran knew that his troubles had only just begun. He dreaded the possibility that these revelations would keep him up tonight when tomorrow promised to demand all his strength, but in order to even find out, he and the others would have to get out of here.
The prospect of navigating back through the City of Glass was one that appealed to no-one. With the added traffic it could be hours, and from the looks of it, the friction generated during the debate had brought even more of Vandelay’s security out of the woodwork. The docks and parking lot exits were swarming with company robots, not just SBR and GNR units but plenty of beefy ES units as well, some with different colors probably denoting different special equipment. Good thing the team had an ace in the hole.
“Princess Midna,” Goldlewis began, approaching the cheeky imp. “I know ya already bailed us out earlier, but if it ain’t too much trouble, I was hopin’ you could pull off that portal-makin’ trick again. We could really use an easy way outta this place, not to mention a quick an’ easy way back in case somethin’ else comes up with Vandelay.”
Thankfully, Midna agreed. Not long after, the group’s wait came to an end, as Goldlewis spotted a handful of familiar faces hurrying over. Giovanna, Sakura, Geralt, Blazermate, Pit, Tora, Benedict, and Partitio moved quickly, driven by their uncertainty at whatever fate might have befallen their friends inside the debate venue, but the sight of everyone in one piece set their hearts at ease. The two halves of Black Team reunited in a corner of the parking lot, walled in on two sides by the Greco-Roman-styled strip mall of guest facilities that served as bulwark between the public face of Vandelay Campus and its staff-only industrial factories. Though relieved to see that nothing bad happened to any more teammates today after the bomb scare, they couldn’t breathe easy just yet.
“How’d it go?” Giovanna asked her comrade breezily.
Goldlewis heaved a mighty sigh, a helpless expression on his face. “You won’t believe what happened right afterward.” The screech of tires distracted him, and to his shock he spotted an extravagant fuchsia
six-wheeled convertible peeling away and zooming off into the night with none other than Consul C behind the wheel. After a moment of silence Goldlewis shook his head in resignation, his incredulity quickly turning to caution. “We’ll go over everythin’ once we get back to base. Let’s hustle before the bots start gettin’ suspicious of us hangin’ ‘round past closin’ time. C’mon!”
Though the team didn’t have enough time to be choosy, they quickly settled on a clever spot. After ducking out of sight from the security robots into a mostly walled-off lot full of dumpsters, Midna affixed her twilight portal to the underside of one of the circuit’s suspended racetracks, where no normal person would ever think to look. Using it, Midna could discreetly warp the team straight to the Seiran hideout.
Only Giovanna stayed behind. “Come back for me in five minutes,” she murmured to Midna. Once the others left, she turned to face the otherwise empty lot, a frown on her face. She closed her eyes and sniffed, and sure enough, there it was again. Ever since she met up with the rest, something strange had been happening. She’d been smelling someone, hearing someone, and seeing someone, only to repeatedly forget who it was. As her keen senses caused the process to repeat, the lingering sense of unease grew, and she’d become more and more certain that someone was tailing them. At first she assumed the use of some sort of cloaking device, but it didn’t line up. It wasn’t her senses playing tricks on her–it was her cognition itself. Upon making that realization the savvy secret agent figured it out. She was forgetting about someone the moment she became cognizant of him, but if she didn’t become cognizant of him, she didn’t forget. As long as she couldn’t assign this smell to a person, that person couldn’t be wiped from her mind. So it was that, with her eyes closed, Giovanna prepared to face an unknowable pursuer.
“I can smell you,” she said ominously. “The nose knows. Whoever you are, this is the end of the line. I heard that if you try to use this portal without Midna’s help, you’ll get stranded in some corner of the Twilight Realm, cursed to wander until you become a mindless beast. So if you want something from us, might as well speak now.” Behind her, Rei manifested, electric sparks dancing through her thick green coat as she growled at Roland. “...Or forever hold your peace.”
Once back in the hideout, Goldlewis finally allowed himself to relax. He stood his coffin up by the front door, loosened his tie, hung his suit jacket on the back of the same chair he used earlier, and sat down at the table. It was late -the clock in the former clinic’s kitchen read 11:03- but while he hadn’t eaten dinner, he didn’t feel terribly hungry. The others could fix themselves a bite to eat from the supplies in the pantry (granola bars, chips, jerky, and other snacks) or refrigerator (a none-too-fancy mix of cold cuts and frozen food) if they wanted, but right now the veteran needed his focus elsewhere.
Such was the import of the team’s brief conversation with C that Goldlewis sorely missed not having some sort of recording device. He’d done his best to internalize everything in the moment, but C spilled the beans fast and hard, and even a single missed detail might spell the difference between victory and defeat. As such, Goldlewis enlisted the help of Raz -and his handy-dandy notebook- to make sure that his retelling of the encounter with one of Midgar’s Consuls wanted for nothing. After going over the team’s questions and C’s answers, with special emphasis placed on the bonus reveal of Midgar’s other Consul Y, Goldlewis added one extra detail of his own.
“Y’all mighta been wonderin’ what that li’l exchange was between me and C before I asked about the Guardian,” he began. “The truth is that C, which is to say Happy Chaos, comes from the same world as me. Not too long before this whole Galeem mess got started, he staged an international incident at the White House during the G4 summit. Hijacked the whole place, holdin’ the world’s leaders hostage while puttin’ on one hell of a show. Not all that different from what happened tonight, come to think of it. The debriefin’ from that debacle shed a little light on who he really is, and it ain’t pretty.” He paused for a moment, his face deadly serious as he swallowed. “Accordin’ to the Gear Maker, he’s the Original. The man who brought magic into the world, and the strongest magician there is. As far as we know, there ain’t anythin’ he can’t do. He can manipulate the world around him, minds, bodies, magic, tech, everythin’. He’s…well, terrifyin’. The one savin’ grace is that he doesn’t care about anythin’, either. Only gettin’ people riled up to amuse himself.” He stroked his beard. “If he’s on Galeem’s side, he could very well be their greatest strength, or their greatest weakness.”
After that, the floor was open. Everyone could offer their two cents on the day’s events, try and puzzle out new conclusions from the gathered clues, or workshop a plan for tomorrow. Or, like Tora, they could just go straight to bed. The Nopon didn’t care about politics or Consuls; even the Guardian was a secondary concern to him right now. Before he could face any of that, he needed Poppi. But Tora didn’t know what to do. His attempts to combat the Logic Virus in Poppi’s arm had been utterly futile so far. He didn’t know if he should keep trying, pivot in the direction of making a new body for Poppi her consciousness could be transferred into, or ready for battle in the hopes that his allies could force the Machine leaders to restore Poppi herself. He knew only one that–that tonight, he would be on his own for the first time, and without Poppi, Tora was nothing. Utterly miserable, the young engineer wrapped himself in blankets and secluded himself in his cot, weeping until he fell asleep, his furry cheeks wet with tears.
“Huh? No petting!” Nadia tried to shake off Sectonia’s antlions when they came for her just prior to her planned excursion. Bugs weren’t exactly beauticians, after all, and Nadia didn’t know how much stock she put in the swarm queen’s idea of ‘proper’ anyhow. Prim and proper might befit some prissy princess, but a puckish rogue-slash-tomboy like Ms. Fortune did things her own way. Still, it’s the thought that counts, as they say. “Uh, thanks anyway, Sec. Secky? …Toni? Ah, forget it.”
As she stepped up to the doorway labeled ‘Crust Cove’, Nadia steeled herself. She had no idea what to expect from one of Pizza Tower’s levels, and though this would hardly be the first time plunging face-first into the unknown and she had no qualms doing it, the many misadventures that had already befallen her as Purple Team’s point man told her that she’d better be ready. Despite that, she was not at all ready for what happened the moment she hopped through.
For a couple seconds straight she wound up struck blind by a dazzling light, brilliant to the point of being painful. “Meowch!” she yelped, squeezing her poor eyes shut as she reeled like a drunk, only finding stability on all fours. For once she actually found herself grateful for the bangs that had been insistently hanging over her left eye since her fusion with Kronya. When her eyes adjusted, however, she opened them and witnessed a breathtaking scene. She found herself standing on a tall, cylindrical tower of glass, emblazoned with fanciful swirls of bronze that made it look more like a giant goblet than a medieval rampart. All around her lay a gorgeous shoreline of sparkling, bubbly water, pristine sand, and lush grass. Birds -or were they
flying fish?- flapped over the glinting waves in small flocks. Even more miraculously, the whole scene lay bathed in the golden rays of a glorious sunset over the open ocean.
For a few moments Nadia just sat there, enchanted. A full day and a half had passed since she last glimpsed the light of day, and she hadn’t realized just how much she missed it. She felt the sun’s warmth on her skin, and a gentle breeze toyed with her hair. It felt a lot like that incredible beach back in the Deep Blue Seaside near Limsa Lominscuttle Town, Heaven’s Edge. That much-needed, blissful afternoon wouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon. Had that doorway in Pizza Tower really transported her to some far-off, picturesque coastline in the World of Light?
Well, no. When Nadia looked a little closer, she began to notice the flaws. For starters, the horizon didn’t look right. Past a certain point, it seemed weirdly solid and stationary, and it didn’t take the feral long to realize that she was looking at the painted wall of what she ultimately determined to be a huge, cylindrical room. Here and there she spotted bits of equipment poking out of what should otherwise be solid terrain, like fans and wave generators, and she realized the sun must just be a very big, very hot light. Still, it managed to be a pretty convincing illusion, and she appreciated that. The sun and the sea were where Nadia Fortune belonged, not caves or castles. When she looked back at the door, however, she realized with a start that it seemed to have slammed shut behind her. “Huh? When did that happen?” She scratched her head, and as she looked around, her eyes landed on that sack she’d brought. “Oh, right,” she chuckled. “Almost fur-got.” She was here to get food for pizza-making, and judging by the movement on the shore and beneath the waves, she wasn’t alone.
I can just get directions outta someone, she reasoned, pushing the sack into her belt. Might as well get to work.
As she went to jump, a sudden voice in her ear made her jump in a different sense. It was Primrose, and she came bearing good news. Nadia grinned. If the others found a way out, all the more reason to gather ingredients as fast as she could. Then the whole team could eat and be on their way. She tensed up, wiggled her tails, and threw herself from the top of the tower.
“Waaaaaaaahooooooooooooo!” she yowled as hurtled through the air in a daredevil high dive. Extending her arms in front of her head, she made a perfect entry with barely any splash, and swooped through the water with grace. To her surprise the water actually seemed to be carbonated, the whole indoor ocean fizzed up like one giant jacuzzi, but pleasantly cool in contrast to the warmth of the artificial sun. To Nadia, dirty, sore, and bedraggled from a rough day and equally rough night, it felt like heaven. She could finally relax, feeling clean, awake, and alive. Even better, this wasn’t just some sterile simulation; the
shallows were full of life. In addition to verdant beds of seagrass and shelves of blue coral like pebble mosaics, she spotted vast schools of minuscule
anchovies with scales like glittering silver coins, and loads of vivid pink
shrimp making their rounds on the white sandy seabed.
They, Nadia realized, must be the point of this place, both for her and Pizza Tower itself: habitat for the cultivation of the freshest possible seafood pizza toppings. Her eyes twinkled. “This is AWESOME!” she wanted to say, but bubbly sea water filled her mouth the instant she opened it, so before anything else she swam back up to the surface for a breath of fresh air.
A moment after she breached the surface and filled her lungs, though, a problem occurred to her. She couldn’t possibly catch any sealife with a burlap sack. Too much drag. With neither nets nor a fishing rod -not to mention the patience to use one- she needed a fresh idea, and after a couple seconds of treading water she dove down again to search for one.
Rather than the fish, she focused on something else she caught a glimpse of before. Trudging along the bottom of the shallows were bulbous bipeds in old-fashioned diving helmets. These
Water Workers wielded shock prods, and they didn’t seem happy to see her. She raised an eyebrow at one slowly hopping toward her, then both when she realized what its weapon could do. Electricity arced through the water in an area around it as it thrust at her, but she managed to swim out of range in time. Unable to treat the little jerk to any quips underwater, she furrowed her brow and got straight to business.
She extended her legs in a perfect split and began to rotate her whole lower half like a propeller, picking up speed until she was cruising through the water at a good clip. The Water Worker readied its prod to jab at her the moment she got into range, but it did not anticipate her detaching her forearms to drill through the water like torpedoes. They swerved around the mook’s guard and pierced into its suit. Its water drained through the holes and diffused into the ocean, quickly thinning the worker out until it no longer existed, leaving an empty suit behind. Nadia gaped at it as it drifted to the sea bed.
Yikes…Her ears perked up at the sound of electricity from behind, and after quickly reattaching her forearms she twisted around to find the other three members of the Water Worker’s squad. They charged at her, nice and slowly, and Nadia fired off her arms. She punctured the two frontrunners, but that left her without anything for the last as it leaped from the seabed to close the last few meters.
Think, think! she fretted internally.
I’ve got to use my…oh! With a grin she launched her head, beaning the Water Worker right on the helmet with a long-range headbutt. As it stalled in the water, she grabbed its slowly sinking shock prod and shoved it through the mook’s torso, and in a burst of electricity that was that. As the shriveling suit joined the others on the sand, she looked around to see if the workers left behind any nets or anything, but they did not. With a defeated expression Nadia swam up to the surface to get some air. “Yeesh,” she gasped, still zinging from her near-electrocution. “Not much of a challenge. Barely ‘wetted’ my appetite. Thank goodness I didn’t get shocked though, otherwise…”
Wait a second. She held up her hand. Thanks to Cat-5,
she could do that too! With a grin she dove back down and propelled herself to the nearest school of anchovies. When she got close, she let her veins fill with lightning and willed herself forward in a burst of energy. Almost to her surprise she blasted through the shoal as a streak of lightning, sowing destruction in her wake. After coming to a stop and making sure she was still in one piece, Nadia turned to find a wealth of stunned fish just waiting to be scooped up.
Don’t mind if I do!After repeating the process a couple times, both for anchovies and shrimp, Nadia emerged from the surf with a sack filled to the brim with seafood over her shoulder. She made her way to the nearest beach chair, then plopped the bag down, followed shortly by the rest of her. A convenient towel worked to dry off her hair, though her jacket would be wet for a while. “Shockingly fun,” she joked to herself. She relaxed for a moment, enjoying the relaxing seaside peace and quiet while chewing on some raw fish as she air-dried. It wasn’t long, though, before her ear twitched, and she flipped away just in time to avoid the salvo of asparagus spears that messily punctured her chair. She landed to see a platoon of Pizza Box Goblins, and each of the squat green guys in their red boxes wielded either asparagus spears or broccoli clubs. “Avast!” the one in charge, who wielded a cannon made of celery, spat at her. “What be the meanin’ of this, lubber? The only thieves in these waters be us, the Green Pizza Pirates!”
“You’ve gotta be kitten me,” Nadia groaned. “Look, guys. It’s cool if you like veggies, but ya can’t just go killin’ everyone ya meat! Sooner or later ya might make…” Suddenly she whipped out her Bait Launcher. “A mis-steak!”
If the sight of a slab of meat plopping down at their feet affronted the goblins, the tiger that sprang into existence right by it scared them out of their wits. In the chaos that followed Nadia made her escape, her bulging bag of seafood slung over her shoulder as she ran down the beach. Only after rounding a corner did she pause for a break, putting a hand against a big, dark rock for support as she breathed. Of course, the rock then spoke to her. “Hello?”
“Yahh!” Nadia sprang back, her ears and tails rigid with fright. When she realized the big
blockhead wouldn’t be going anywhere, though she relaxed. “What’re you doin’ here?”
“Just minding my own business I guess.” Despite the nice environment, he sounded emphatically unhappy.
Nadia winced, feeling like she’d ruined this poor rock’s day all of a sudden. “Uh…well. Sorry for droppin’ in then. What’s your name, pal? B-rock? S-tony?”
“...John.”
“Right. John!” Nadia clapped her hands together. “D’ya know how to get outta this beach area, John? It’s nice and all, but-”
“Just smack me and it’ll start the timer.”
Nadia grinned. “Oh great, thanks!” She smacked him, and when he fell over he promptly crumbled to nothing. Nadia blinked a few times as she watched him die, her smile fading. “...Wait, timer? John…?”
The level changed. As the sky turned redder, all the flying anchovies, pizza goblins, and other inhabitants previously ambivalent to Nadia’s presence uniformly turned to look at her. As if that wasn’t enough, John-faced portals manifested to spit out even more foes. Bizarre, terrifying clock faces were appearing everywhere. In mere moments, this tranquil seaside had become hell. “Oh…crap.” Her jaw dropped as she watched the doorway at the very top of the goblet pop open. “I have to get back up THERE!?”
All the enemies began to move, so she did too. She hoisted her sack and took off running toward the water, engaging Massachusetts’ power to skate across the surface as asparagus spears, artichoke heart cannon balls, and
Gushens flew toward her. Picking up speed, she sped across the water, zigzagging left and right. The goblins on shore she left behind, but now their captain’s
ship could take potshots at her. She had no idea what the ‘intended’ way to escape was, and she didn’t care to find out. A stupid idea struck her, and she altered course for the ship, watery eruptions caused by its cannonballs on the way.
When she got close enough she jumped and airdashed onto the deck, surprising and then bashing the pirates overboard with a few energetic swings from her sack. Nadia aimed upward, her veiled eye shut and her tongue out, then fired off her free hand to knock the ship’s cannon into a vertical position. Then she blasted off with a pressurized jump and landed nice and snug in the cannon, just in time for it to go off and send her soaring sky-high, leaving the flying fish in her dust. “WOOOOOOOOOO!” she screamed, as much from adrenaline as terror. As the cannonball beneath her lost momentum, she leaped off it and sailed through the air, waiting for just the right moment to use Charge one more time. She blasted down onto the goblet like a bolt from the blue, landing right in front of the door. The goblins lobbed their health foods at her, and their captain angrily waved his fist, but they fell far short, so with a smile a mile wide Nadia took a bow and jumped through the portal, not even paw-sing to collect her A-rank.
A few seconds later, she arrived in the Hub’s pizza kitchen, her sack of fresh seafood in hand. Though still a little wet, she looked cleaned-up, energized, and in high spirits. “Heya! I’m back!” she greeted everyone, including the eager Pizza Trolls. “And if you think I’m quite the catch, wait ‘til ya see THIS!” She plopped down her soaking-wet sack and opened it wide, inviting everyone feast their eyes on the bounty of the sea before everyone got busy making stuff they could feast their stomachs on, too.
Thanks to the collective efforts of everyone who went out to gather ingredients, the pizza-makers found themselves with a bounteous selection of toppings. Bowser, Kamek, and Ganondorf delivered a wealth of pork products: sausage, pepperoni, chorizo, ham, and more. Ichiban had risked life and limb to collect the most vital pizza ingredient of all, cheese. From the bizarre stony jungle known as John Gutter Therion brought a boatload of fruits, far more than could -or should- ever be piled on a pizza. Sectonia, Junior, and Rika came with a smorgasbord of sweets from the Peppibot Factory, none of which made a lick of sense to Nadia, but she didn’t plan to question it. Barnabee had gone to Gnome Forest to collect honey, but he returned with plenty of mushroom’s that he’d chopped off too. Last but not least, the feral’s own offering of anchovies and shrimp from Crust Cove. One after another the Seekers dumped their ingredients into the pizza kitchen’s
Incredible Pizza Machine, and from there they could simple select what they wanted and watch the machine belch out a pizza ready for insertion into the pizza oven. While the red pizza bags wouldn’t accept anything but pizza boxes, they’d accommodate any number of boxes pizzas, so the team could afford to splurge.
Unable to bear the sight of amateurs throwing together crap pizzas, the trolls stepped in to lend a hand, offering plenty of advice about what to pair together. With their help, Nadia went with two pizzas: one with shrimp, the other with anchovies, and both with plenty of mozzarella and parmesan. Some olives, onions, garlic, and extra tomatoes would have been excellent additions, if only the Seekers had them. Unfortunately, with Rubick, Omori, and Jesse staying behind in the Hub, the team of gatherers hadn’t been at full strength. Still, there were plenty of extra ingredients, enough for everyone to share. Once she made her own, Nadia tried her hand at making the pizzas the Trolls wanted, starting with one that had pepperoni and cheese.
“Something must go!” Arno proclaimed, though he didn’t say what.
“Is that all I get?” Willa asked, disappointed, but not as much as Nadia when she didn’t get any hints for what else Willa might want.
“Something on there’s not good for me,” Shyler fretted, also not bothering to specify.
Nadia quickly gave up. Cunning schemes, clever puns, and sharp wits were her strong suit. Logic, not so much. Instead she sat herself down by the fire to finish drying off and, eeing no sense in wasting perfectly good food, chowed down on the pizza the Trolls refused. Not a normal breakfast by any means, but food was food, and she wasn’t going to complain. The only problem, she realized, was the silence. “Sheesh,” she piped up after swallowing a mouthful of pizza. “It’s like we don’t even know each other. C’mon guys, let’s liven things up a little! Ooh, why don’t we catch up on some of the crazy stuff we’ve been through? None of you were there with me in the Dead Zone, so I could probably knock your socks off with the story of…the haunted police station! WooOOooOO!” She gave a spooky wave of her fingers, then grinned and grabbed another pizza slice. “Buuut it’d be a hard act to follow, and I don’t wanna hog all the attention, so I’ll just save it for the end. So who’s up first? Any takers?” She looked around the gathering. “C’mon, don’t by shy! This is our chance to get closer as a team!”
Edinburgh MagikaPolis - Grammeowster’s Kitchen
Level 8 Big Band (99/80)
Ace Cadet’s
@Yankee, Red’s
@TruthHurts22, Mewtwo’s
@Double, Frisk’s [@Majoras End]
Word Count:With a plan in mind, the Seekers need only wait until nightfall once more. Though they planned to do more or less the same thing as they did yesterday, the stuff that had gone down since then made the events of yesterday’s afternoon and evening seem a lifetime away. The fight between Linkle and N, the destruction of Alcamoth, and everything else that the other teams were doing wherever they’d ended up–those stuck in Edinburgh had missed it all. Yet that still only turned out to be the very tip of the iceberg when it came to their ignorance, as revealed by their run-in with the Consuls in L’s mansion. Who were L and N, really? Why were they here? How did they attain such roles and power? How much suffering had they perpetuated? How much death?
Though it felt like their organization had only just now crawled out of the woodwork, Band had already begun to get a sense of just how deeply entrenched the Consuls were in this world. There was no doubt in his mind that they would stand in the way of the Seekers’ goals, and after hearing Albedo’s account of his ill-fated voyage to Edinburgh four days ago, it seemed just as likely that L and N were the custodians of the secret weakness harbored by the Frozen Highlands’ mighty Guardian. The Consuls had to go, but the degree of power they possessed disturbed him. How nice it would be if they could really team up with Linkle to take down this terrible threat together. Red, Ace, and probably Mewtwo all saw a road to victory in that possibility, giving them the strength to fight on even after a brutal defeat at N’s hands. How unfortunate it was that only Band knew the truth. Linkle was dead, and if anything of her remained, it wouldn’t for long. If the Skullgirl wasn’t destroyed, Edinburgh -and maybe even the world- would be the price the heroes paid.
While Ace prepared his gear, refining his weapons and armor to peak condition and amassing consumables, and Red ventured back through the city in an effort to circle around the EMPD’s patrols and find out more from the Aether Resort, Band went on a journey of his own. At its core Edinburgh was a city of both magic and knowledge, and when it came to solving mysteries any detective worth his salt knew how to look for clues. To weather the coming storm, Band went in search of items and enchantments capable of making him more effective against undead, and his hunch turned out to be correct. Whether zombies, skeletons, ghouls, or even fouler monstrosities, undead seemed to be a common threat in fantastical worlds, which meant solutions for them weren’t uncommon, either. Of course, the steady rise in skeletons at night recently meant that such items were in demand, and Band couldn’t boast that much cash to begin with, but he managed to stock up on six
holy water pots and purchase a Salve Amulet, inlaid with bright pink amethyst, to make his attacks fifteen percent more effective. He stopped for a cheap bite to eat at Danny Missiles on the way back, so by the time he returned from his trip, night was already beginning to fall.
The Seekers rallied together, meeting downstairs in Grammeowster’s Kitchen. With the old cook’s last few customers gone and the shop closed up for the night, they had the place to themselves. Mewtwo, Wonder Red, the Cadet, Albedo, Lucia, and himself made six, since Frisk did not show up. While her absence disappointed him to an extent, Band couldn’t really blame her. Even without formidable foes like the Consuls around, one couldn’t expect a normal person to just charge out into a night of the living dead. The power of a Skullgirl tended to grow with terrifying speed; tonight would be far worse than last night, and the team would have their work cut out for them. Better to leave such work to monster hunters, alien battlers, seasoned brawlers, genius alchemists, and ASG soldiers like himself.
“Alright, y’all,” Band began. “We’re gonna work our way toward the great pumpkin. We got a lotta city to cover, and I don’t want us splittin’ up, so we’re gonna have to go fast. There’s no tellin’ what’s out there. Not just ordinary skeletons, but policemen, mages, Pokemon too. Maybe even the Consuls. But we ain’t tryin’ to get into a rematch before we find the Skullgirl. She’s the source of the dead risin’, so chances are we’ll find her wherever there’s a skele-ton of ‘em.” He smiled as cheerfully as he could, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. “I hope y’all rested up and rounded up some healin’, ‘cause we’re in it for the long haul.”
Lucia nodded. “I figyahed we would. So I went out and got some eneahgy drinks.” She lifted up the blue cooler bag slung over her shoulder and unzipped it to reveal nine
aluminum cans. “Just say the wahd and I’ll chuck one ovah. They’ah even bettah than cuaffee in a pinch, so gulp one down and it’ll getcha healed up in a jiffy!”
“I made something as well.” Albedo withdrew a plate from his Inventory, revealing a hearty helping of his special fish dish,
Woodland Dream. “You may have noticed that when my Geo powers react with other elements, they produce crystals. If you pick one up, it will give you a shield for a short while. If someone eats this, those -and any other shields- will be much stronger for five minutes. And not just for the consumer, but the whole party.”
Band whistled, impressed. “Good work, y’all.” He reached up and gingerly parted the restaurant’s blinds with a mechanical arm. Clouds over the city blocked off the moon and stars, casting a pitch-black shadow over the streets of Edinburgh. Just like last night, the magical street lamps weren’t the only things lighting up that stygian dark. Ghostly blue flames blazed in the eyes of fleshless undead as they moved through the quiet streets. The witching hour had already come. Band took a deep breath in through his nose, then out through his mouth.
Whatchu nervous about? he asked himself.
You’re literally made for this. Maybe his nerves were still raw from the fight with N, or he feared for the safety of his allies, or he dreaded the inevitable fight with the Skullgirl and the old wounds it would surely open. But no matter what, Benjamin Birdland wasn’t going to call it quits. “Let’s go.”
The team hit the streets. Grammeowster waved them off, urging them to stay safe, and locked the door behind them. Right away, Band noticed that things were more intense than last night, just as he expected. Before, they mostly lurked in secluded spots, with only a few shambling along the streets. Now, though, entire troops of them trudged along the sidewalks. They rummaged through trash cans and mailboxes, knocked on doors, and peered into windows. None made a sound beyond the steady rattle of their bones that accompanied their footsteps as they strode purposefully through the byways and avenues, as if on patrol. Their greater numbers, of course, elicited a greater civilian response.
Glintstone Sorcerers in dark blue robes and stone masks challenged the skeleton gangs with staves in hand, casting brilliant blue pebbles, rays, and blades to destroy their foes from afar. Shadowy-faced
Black Mages conjured destructive magic with their rods, destroying attackers with ice, lightning, and fire. Most impressive of all was the
colorful quartet of wizards who fought with sword and sorcery, combining different elements and casting styles to great effect with various projectiles, rays, and magic mines, able to shield and heal one another.
Of course, in emerging from their homes to fight at all they were risking their lives, for their enemies were vicious.
Run-of-the-mill skeletons were the most abundant, many of them wearing tattered gear and wielding weapons or magic from their own. The bones of
warriors,
mages, and
archers, some bound in
ice,
lightning, or
fire, attacked in groups anywhere between three to a dozen strong. Finding one with a gun was an unpleasant surprise. The living could also fear inhuman skeletons, from small fry like
Dry Bones and
beastmen, to bigger, scarier
Stalhounds and
Beasts to undead brutes like horned
Gigans, armor-strapped
Giants, and
Horrors with bony tails and tusks. Pokemon skeletons could be found as well, all seemingly able to use the same moves they could in life.
“...Right,” Band grunted, getting into a fighting stance. “Let’s do this.”
He began to move, either sliding across the roads with his music streaming behind him, or advancing one ground-shaking stomp at a time. A well-aimed Brass Knuckle could not only close the distance, but also power through attacks, and one mighty slug from Band’s huge mechanical mitt was enough to reduce most skeletons to bone meal. When the shamblers stepped to him the detective solemnly pulverized them one at a time. He blew them away with the tube from Overblow, crushed them with cymbals, took out their legs with the organ pipes from Low Rank, and sent them packing with his dropkick, the Five Thousand Pound Slam. Blunt force and raw strength, backed up by armor from Bagpipe Blues and the damage boost from his new Salve Amulet, worked wonders. If his play attracted a crowd Giant Steps could lay out a whole bunch at once, dialing things down a notch, and when a mob of incoming skeletons were nice enough to come at him roughly single-file Band treated the whole line to Super Sonic Jazz. Propelled by blasts of sound from the giant French horn, he plowed down the street, launching the few skeletons not fortunate enough to already be splintered with a stylish flip at the end.
Things didn’t stay simple for long, though. As the Seekers got closer to what felt like the epicenter of skeleton activity, more choice specimens began to show up. At one point a whole pack of skeletal beasts jumped him at once. Unfortunately for them, Band liked nothing better than catching overconfident fools in the act. He let loose his Satchmo Solo, freezing the entire pack in the air around him. Striking up a tune on his trumpet in that stolen moment, Band played the birthday jingle, alerting the others to his position. Then he
unleashed his fists, pounding the beasts’ skulls and cracking their bones until only ashes remained.
“Whew…” Band breathed as the dust, ash, and snow began to settle. Despite the cold, he was managing to work up something of a sweat, so he deployed a little arm to dab at his brow with a handkerchief. “Three streets down, three to go. Piece of-”
An enormous slam cut him off, blowing away his hat and handkerchief. When Band’s trench coat stopped billowing and he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a horrific monstrosity. Though bestial in shape, it towered far large than any ordinary quadruped, and to its enormous, yellowing bones huge tufts of raven-black fur still clung. The fleshless face of
Darkbeast Paarl stared at him with the hideous semblance of an enormous grin as lightning danced across its bones. Not far away, a
Revenant touched down, the rocket launchers affixed to its shoulders trained on new targets. Band crouched, keeping his eyes on the monsters as he felt for his hat. “Finally. Thrashin’ all that small fry was startin’ to lose its savor.” He placed his hat back on his head and tightened it in a businesslike fashion. “Bring it on!”
