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Yankee God of Typos

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Do not fear the known


Edward Portsmith: Level 4 (12 cells) ///////////////////////////////// (43/40)
Ace Cadet - Level: 9 - Total EXP: 313/90
Location: The Avenger
Word Count: 6032 (+7 exp/rexp)




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He glanced at Edward. "Or does it?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sectonia

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (108/130)
Level 12 Sectonia (holding 4 level up) (89/120)

Location: The Avenger
Word Count: 1218 +2 (+2 rapport)


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hidden 6 hrs ago 5 hrs ago Post by Yankee
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Yankee God of Typos

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Roomies Playing Cards

Pit & Roxas

Level: 10 - Total Exp 1/100
Level: 8 - Total EXP: 217/80
Word Count: 2446
Exp: +3
Rapport: +3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"How about this?"


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The plan to take their minds off of the serious and solemn events of the morning had more or less worked. While Roxas retired with his Pokémon to their shared room, Pit flitted off to see what else he could get up to.
Hidden 5 hrs ago Post by Zoey Boey
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Zoey Boey Spider!

Member Seen 4 hrs ago

Pit & Juri


Level: 8 - Total EXP: 22/80
Level 6: 47/60
Word Count: 4,924 (+5 exp)


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

”Understand, twerp?”

"Toady?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Or that was Pit's assumption, anyway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Quick, help me out here Lady Palutena!

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

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

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

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

Now its helping save the world!

Let's go with that.

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

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

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

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

"Huh? Here?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dead Zone Hinterlands - Martira, Old Castle Town

Harry’s @Eviledd1984, Amaterasu's @DracoLunaris
Word Count: 801


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

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

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

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

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

Paved Wilderness - Hammerhead

Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (59/150) Lvl 8 Sandalphon (24/80) Lvl 5 Grimm (7/50)
Junior, Rika, & Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate, Sectonia, & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt, Zenkichi & Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Ace Cadet, Pit, Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Roxas, Ganondorf, & Captain Falcon’s @Double
Word Count: 2474








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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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