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Blazermate

Sectonia

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (111/130)
Level 12 Sectonia (holding 4 level up) (92/120)

Location: Hammerhead
Word Count: less than 750.


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

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

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

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

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

Sectonia

Roland

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (110/130)
Level 12 Sectonia (holding 4 level up) (91/120)
Level 7 Roland (15/70) - (Holding 1 level up)

Location: The Avenger > Hammerhead
Word Count: 789






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

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

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

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

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

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

Stolen Moments

Roland, Zenkichi, Captain Falcon, Sandalphon
Word Count: 3314 (+4 EXP / +1 REXP)


Roland had decided after getting back on the Avenger after such an intense fight to go get a drink to settle his nerves. Unlike the others, he wasn’t aware of Ace’s ability to avoid death for him and some allies so when he got to the Avenger, he was surprised to see some of those that ‘perished’ in the fight being totally fine even if the giant bee was more or less forcing people to get clean. That wasn’t something he was going to argue, so after a quick shower to wash off the gunk of battle, he went to the bar to grab a drink and relax. He hadn’t seen Midna or Goldlewis on the ship… had they been actually killed?

Captain Falcon was of a similar mind. Victory or not, as soon as he was back on the Avenger. He too made a beeline to the bar. He’d never been one for drinking, personally. Such vices usually didn't find their way in the bounty hunter’s system. But this? Losing two comrades and most everyone else ending up beaten down to some degree as well? This definitely seemed the kind of occasion that called for an exception to his usual rules. And so he sat perched on one of the barstools, nursing a glass of whiskey. It wasn’t a drink he chose out of any personal taste or preference. No, he picked it because Goldlewis seemed like the kind of man who enjoyed a whiskey. And so Cap figured he could drink one in his honor if nothing else.

”You had the same idea too, huh?” He asked Roland, briefly turning his head to acknowledge the fixer before going back to nursing his drink.

”Yeah. We don’t get much of a chance to drink without consequences. Gotta do it when you can!” Roland said, starting with a basic lager. Cirrus, on duty behind the bar as usual, obliged without comment. In the silence that followed, calm, jazzy piano notes wandered throughout Stolen Moments, played at a low volume by a small portable radio.

As the pair chatted, Zenkichi entered the Stolen Moments with Sandalphon by his side, catching sight of his fellow Seekers having a drink and talking. He made his way over to the bar, sitting next to Roland and offering the seat on his other side to Sandalphon. ”Great minds think alike, huh?” He joked somberly as Cirrus came over. ”Just a dark ale, please.”

The scruffy-looking bartender nodded. With more people here, the rather gloomy place was looking a little more lighthearted and lively. “Coming right up.”

Hearing the piano notes on the radio, everyone could see Roland’s free hand visibly tense up before relaxing. It was only when the piano was playing, as if something involving one really tormented him. ”Wow, more of you coming for a drink huh? Guess we can really get to know each other then.” Roland said, trying to ignore his own problem and just get some casual chat going.

Cirrus seemed to share his surprise, especially when it came to Sandalphon. “Miss angel,” he greeted her, an eyebrow slightly raised. “Here for holy spirits?”

His wordplay was not lost on Sandalphon, but she did not crack a smile. He ought to be careful; making jokes like that around somebody like Ms Fortune would give him a lot more puns than he bargained for. “Just coffee, if you don’t mind.”

That request only made the man more incredulous. “Just coffee? Not even a shot of honey bourbon for a little burning sweetness?”

That felt targeted–word about the archangel’s dietary habits must have gotten around. Unfortunately for her, he’d’ made the right call. Sandalphon’s pupils were loading rings only for a moment before blinking into check marks. “I will give it a shot. No pun intended,” she clarified stiffly. Cirrus smirked, and with everyone’s orders placed, he got to work. Sandalphon then turned her attention to Zenkichi, reasoning that in order to invite her here with him, he must have some purpose in mind.

”Another shot for me, while we’re at it.” Falcon said briefly, ordering another round of the whiskey he had been nursing.

”If we were still at the library, I had a colleague who was really into coffee. He probably knows some coffee that tastes like honey or something. He kind of ruined my taste for coffee by showing me I had been drinking it wrong my whole life.” Roland said, giving some conversation.

Noticing Sandalphon's look, he explained his reasoning for bringing them to the bar. ”Figured I could use a drink and some company after all that. And I kind of wanted to see what you'd end up getting, too.” he admitted simply. When Roland spoke up, Zenkichi turned to his fellow Ex-Turk with a puzzled look on his face. ”Wait, how do you drink coffee wrong?” He asked, incredulous. The archangel, as someone who just assumed she had the science of coffee down pat, couldn’t help but be interested as well.

”Well uh… you know how in the lower plates of Midgar there were those coffee shops that all tasted the same where they added tons of cream and sugar into like, instant coffee? It's good for a ‘pick me up’ but isn’t really all that tasty? Chesed was a coffee fiend and would constantly get me and everyone else to try all these different coffee blends he made. It's crazy how coffee can be sweet, bitter, sour, spicy… once you’ve had tons of gourmet coffee made by someone like that you kinda learn that what you’ve been drinking on the streets to stay up after a long night isn’t right. Kinda ruined coffee for me really.” Roland said, explaining his story, taking a sip from his drink afterwords. He was pretty cheerful recounting the story regardless of how he ended it.

His explanation seemed to bring Sandalphon some amusement. “Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. This Chesed sounds like a fellow connoisseur. I never attempted to make my own coffee, but I did go to great lengths to source quality beans. The coffee that most people make do with -even on the upper plates- is rather alarming. Perhaps ageusia was more common in Midgar than one would think.” The archangel paused for a moment as Cirrus delivered the latest round of drinks, eying her mug of fresh honey-bourbon coffee. To the naked eye, it didn’t look any different. She picked up the mug and let the warmth soak into her palms. “Funny that out of everyone in Midgar, the three of us -two General Affairs Agents and a DespoRHado officer- wound up here together.”

”Huh,” Cap hummed, accepting his newest shot of whiskey, ”never much of a coffee guy, myself.” He said with a shrug, taking a sip. ”I can usually get by on sports drinks if I need energy. I’ll drink maybe one coffee in the morning if I’m feeling extra groggy. After that, I’m usually good for the rest of the day.”

”Well, from the looks of it, a lot of the others aren’t accustomed to city life or they are children or mythical creatures. A couple of them would look odd in MY world, and the City had no shortage of crazy looking people.” Roland said, getting a top off on his beer. ”We’re probably some of the most human looking of the people on this ship. Well, besides the people from the medieval period.” Roland said. ”Although I’d say we’re all human at the end of the day regardless of if you look human or monster.” He said on a somber, ominous note.

He then changed tacts quickly, in a practiced manner. ”You know, I wonder what would happen if you gave some of them coffee? Like would it even affect the bee? Or have the medieval people even tasted coffee? Although probably not wise to give it to the kids.” Roland said, giving a bit of idle chatter. Surprisingly he was a bit of a chatterbox once you got him going.

”From what I’ve seen of her?” Cap commented, ”The last thing someone like Nadia needs is caffeine. Otherwise you’ll be getting puns at a thousand kilometers a second.”

”That sounds kinda fun.” Roland said, thinking about it.

Zenkichi, on the other hand, blanched a little. ”I’m…not so sure about that. Her and that Ace guy…like two peas in a punny pod. I’d be scared to make it even worse.” He chuckled, shaking his head at himself for making his own pun.

“Considering that there’s coffee available in the mess hall and that’s where she appeared to be heading, you may be closer to the truth than you realize.” By now Sandalphon had tried her beverage. The flavor combination was quite enticing, but as someone who never consumed alcohol, the archangel knew that her tolerance would be low and was trying to pace herself. She considered Zenkichi’s observation. “Those two do seem to have an affinity for one another. I have yet to conclude whether such fraternization is foolhardy, or wise. On one hand, should this campaign succeed, any such pairs would be permanently separated. On the other, if this campaign peters out, such a bond could give rise to more Lost Numbers.” She glossed over the implications of her matter-of-fact explanation with remarkable composure. “Our new allies here, and the Avenger itself, are all products of our predecessors’ investment in the future. Without them, sieging the Qliphoth would have been far more costly, if not outright impossible. We would have never reunited with the remnants of the Alcamoth Mercenaries, and we might have been destroyed alongside the Virgin Victory by Moebius Z.” Her monotone voice sounded more somber than usual, somehow. “We owe them a great deal.”

Zenkichi, however, was much less uncertain. ”I think it’s worth it. Even if we go back…I think it’s better to have tried to find happiness where we could. And…if we do fail…our lives will have been better while they lasted. I guess I am a little worried about going back with all my memories and knowing I’ll never see you guys again, but I’d rather remember you as friends and comrades than distant allies I never got to know.” He concluded with a sip of his ale. His words seemed to resonate with Sandalphon, who followed his example with a sip of her own drink. She’d focused more on the quantifiable benefits, while he considered the psychological aspect.

”They do seem to have a lot more skin in this game, don’t they?” Falcon observed, speaking about the Lost Numbers. ”Take me for example. I only just joined the effort a week ago. But for the Lost Numbers? This has been their whole lives.” He paused and let the silence hang a moment while he took a drink of his whiskey shot. ”Don’t think that’s occurred to me much until now. Really puts this whole thing in perspective and makes me wonder about all this.”

What they all said hit Roland a bit too close to home. But at least this time he wasn’t forcing apart a couple… again. ”Well… that's quite the heavy thing to think about. Not the first time I've seen stuff like this. Lets just hope their love pushes them to great heights to maintain it. “ Roland said, being quite a bit guarded and calculated in what he was saying now even while a bit tipsy. ”The whole ‘only being here for less than a week’ thing is also kinda familiar. Has it really only been that short and we’ve made so much progress? It took months and months for the Library to get this far. That's kinda impressive on its own.” Roland said, swapping the subject more for himself than the others.

Zenkichi shrugged. ”Me and the kids toppled a national conspiracy that was overtaking the entire country and was about to spread to the rest of the world in like…two months? A little less. Once you find what you’re looking for, you strike. Police work’s the same, though those investigations tend to take a bit longer. We were finding bad guys and hitting them within a week, though I guess it was a little easier for us because they were…pretty obvious.”

”Kinda feels weird though that things are going at their pace, at least for me. I guess it makes sense why Nadia and Ace got together so quickly… which worries me but that's another discussion. Even more concerning that you took apart something in weeks. Where I come from, time frames don’t work like that. Well… I guess they do and don’t? I did take out quite a few Stars of the City when I worked for Charles office and they were a few days of recon, then striking and having… usually… a 2 hour fight. Yet anything thats like… world altering takes millions of years if what I saw what Angela went through is anything to go by.” Roland said, taking a sip to wet his lips. ”Although if you guys say things go over this fast normally in your worlds… maybe mine is the exception.”

”In all fairness,” Captain Falcon piped up, ”we often find ourselves in the position of going through a lot of things happening over the course of a single day. So I can imagine even a period such as a week can feel like half a lifetime when you’re surviving so many fights and other dangerous missions per day.”

”I suppose. We only got one reception a day at the library most days. ” Roland said.

The amount of jargon and unexplained proper nouns Roland sprinkled throughout his speech tended to make his chatter hard to follow, even for someone like Sandalphon. In her opinion, he seemed to be making much ado about nothing. If he thought that some of his allies were too quick to give romance a chance, these weren’t the right people to be saying that to. “In my experience, significant events always happen fast, but long periods of downtime tend to separate them. By their very nature, periods of normalcy tend to get glossed over and undocumented, without significant events to mark the time.” She tilted her head slightly, her pupils shaped like inverted triangles. “There’s also the matter of altered perception due to Galeem’s influence. For all my fastidious attention to detail, I cannot say for certain how much time I spent in Midgar prior to the Seekers’ arrival. I can only say it felt like years–an indecipherable blur of conflict and tedium.” When she tried to calculate just how many years, though, Sandalphon’s pupils became stress marks, and her grip tightened almost imperceptibly on her mug.

”Yeah, tell me about it.” Zenkichi concurred, shaking his head with a sigh. ”I've got such a jumble of memories up there I still have a hard time figuring out which set some people are from. The really important ones are easy to remember, but some of my coworkers? The random cops I'd run into day to day? I can kind of assume the ones with Japanese names are from the same world as me, but anybody in Midgar with a Japanese name would get lumped in with that group.” But he shrugged, seemingly resigned to the fate of forgetting some people, and took a long drink of his ale.

”Tell me about it. I can at least sort between the Galeem world and my world memories at least; the good day to day ones are from the Galeem world.” Roland said.

The more Roland brought up his world, the more it sounded like a hellscape. “Odd to think that would be the case,” Sandalphon observed. “And you’re fighting in the hopes of returning whence you came someday?”

”If I had a choice…” Roland said, thinking about it. ”I’d like to have my few friends from my world here, but otherwise either keep or expand this Galeem world. But I see problems with this conglomerate world as well… so… it's all the same no matter where you go.” Roland said. ”I’d rather not have all the necessary fighting but.. yeah.”

He then thought for a little bit. ”Wait, thats a question for everyone. If this is a world made of multiple other worlds, and it's supposed to encompass most of reality or whatever, why are there so few people? There's gotta be something weird going on there.”

While Sandalphon knew a tidbit of information that might be relevant, it did not serve to explain everything, and she did not deem it wise to share at this juncture. “I doubt any of us have the answer.”

”Ha!” Falcon laughed somewhat, ”You think your memories are jumbled? Try having memories of this world, your world, and memories of other similar excursions against two giant sentient hands and an invading army of extradimensional beings from Subspace along with all the rest of the confusion.” He said jokingly as he knocked back his glass and downed the remainder of the shot within it. But there was at least one interesting thing included in his joke: the existence of two giant sentient hands rather than just the one the Seekers had seen thus far.

Zenkichi let out a whistle at Captain Falcon’s own issues, nodding at the bounty hunter solemnly. ”Oh jeeze, that sounds like fun. But more of those hand guys out there? Greeeaaaat.” He sighed, shrugging. ”Ah, oh well. We’ll just have to deal with that when it comes up, I guess. As for all the missing people, I mean…this could just be one world out of a billion he made. Unless we get a rocket ship and go out into space, we can’t really tell, can we? And with the whole ‘system’ churning out new copies of people, could just be that people are assigned to different planets based on a bunch of random factors.” Zenkichi ventured a wild guess on the matter of how many people were present, though it was clear based on how he said it that it was an off-the-cuff guess without much thought behind it.

”Ha, it’s not quite as bad as I make it sound.” Falcon assured the detective. ”Just a little joke more than anything.” With no more drink in the shot glass he stood up from the stool he had been sitting on. ”Anyway, I think I’ve reached my drinking limit for now. Good to talk with everyone. Let’s do it again sometime.”

Sandalphon stood up as well. Despite her own drink being two of her favorite things, she’d managed to exercise enough moderation to stop before she actually felt tipsy–a sensation the archangel did not by any means want. “Likewise. It won’t be long before the Avenger lands. We should all make ready for departure.”

Roland finished his drink, a bit miffed that there was still more work to do. ”It never ends. If I’m still tipsy when we land I’ll go get some Coffee.”

wordcount: 2699 (+3 exp and +2 rapport for all)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(272/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(188/100)

Blazermate

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (106/130)
Location: The Dead Zone


The Kids drew back a step as A came towards them, but fortunately that was when the others caught up with them and laid into him, giving the pair the space to back off, the pair running past Juri and taking inside the entrance to O’s moonbase. They tried to use that space to steady their breathing, but all of a sudden, it was over. Primrose ripped A apart from the inside using her magic, and Ganondorf had shredded the gravemind with his own.

Both glanced up at D, but it seemed like he was done, and proceeded to bail on the situation rather than fight to the death.

And, just like that ”It’s over”

Both children sighed with relief and as one slumped to the ground, consideration of what they needed to do next was not really on their minds, though in the backs of their minds Jr’s paint portals were there to facilitate an escape should it be needed. But the sky was empty above them, no moon of doom descending, and so they had time.

Well, they should have. Then Sandalphon popped in to get them to fulton themselves back home to the avenger, forcing them to get up again with a pair of fatigued groans. They where joined a second later by Peeka, who’d been very confused and alarmed by their fusion and only just now found them again, prompting the mon to tackle hug the duo.

”Alright alright, chill out Peeka” Jr told his mon, raising a hand to pet her without a thought, and in the process releasing the grip he’d had on Rika’s gauntlet the whole time since they’d become two people again.

”oh, uh” he said as he realised this consciously, glancing towards his sister, only to find her faintly smiling as she freed a hand from her gauntlet and used it to pet Peeka as well. Then she caught him looking, turned that smile to him, relife visible in her expression about the fact that they had made it through all the nightmares of the deadzone in one piece.

He shared that smile, then both faded at once as they were reminded that not everyone had. It hurt. They might not have known Midna, Goldlewis, or the Witch too well, but still, it hurt, and it hurt no less than the times it had happened before. Plus, unlike with Omari, there wasn’t even anything left of the people they’d lost.

Or at least it seemed, till Grim and Geralt retrieved Goldlewis’ coffin weapon. It was much too large for either to use, however, so they passed up taking on his legacy.

Then it was back up to the avenger whereupon they fell upon the snacks with such reckless abandon that both children were plenty distracted while the adults were offered opioids to dull the horrors they’d witnessed.

After acquiring a small pile of goodies, the question was: now what? They had 18 hours till they were needed, which was plenty of time to kill on the ship. Thing was, last time they had been on here spending down time it had involved a lot of wallowing in their room, and after after they’d escaped from that (or in a way been tricked out of it) neither wanted to go back

Then again, most of their toys and things were in their room, making it a bit of a conundrum until Jr came up with an idea after having glanced at the ship’s map: ”Oh! There’s a common room! We could grab some stuff and go hang out there instead in our room!”

”How’d that be any different?” Rika asked, to which her brother replied that ”It’ll be bigger, and there’ll be other people there we could see who can join in”

”Oh. Neat I guess” Rika replied, though, ultimately, she didn’t really know any of the others well enough to be enthused about this too much. Still, in the spirit of the idea, she turned around and asked the ever reliable Blazermate ”Would you like to play some games with us?”

Blazermate, as one of the few members of the group who couldn’t restore her stress by eating, drinking, or drugs, perked up when the koopa kids came to her asking to play some games. ”Yeah sure, a lot better than just mulling over what happened and uh, yeah. Thanks.” Blazermate said, happy but annoyed that while she did save everyone she could, A had something that just superseded healing. Especially since all the people that ‘died’ before A were saved due to Ace.

Jr had’t exactly expected this from Rika, she wasn’t exactly the most outgoing, but recovered swiftly and enthusiastically saying ”Yeah! Then come on! Let's go grab some stuff!” before leading the way to the kids room.

They had not tidied it before leaving, and between being kids and being in a bit of a bad state mentality before leaving, meant that Blazermate had to wait while the pair picked between wrappers, unwashed plates, assorted tools and random bits of machinery to find the fun stuff.

Soon enough however, they reemerged, with handfuls (and with Rika’s gauntlets that was more than it sounded a lot, despite one of them holding an entire cr-tv) of games and consoles they’d nicked from Consul P.

”There’ll be something in all this you’ll find neat I’m sure” Rika said to Blazermate, the girl finding herself putting more emotional weight on that statement than she’d expected she would. She did not, she found, want to disappoint.

”For sure. P had all sorts of stuff, but he only had a bunch of robots to play it with” Jr added, then realized what he’d said and to whom and added ”Uh, dumb robots not people robots”

”Yeah I get you. The little toy things that just move forward. Granted Medabots are a kind of toy but uh…. I try not to think about that.” Blazermate said, scratching her faceplate.

Soon enough they were heading back up to the common room where they’d had breakfast only a few hours ago. It felt like it had been longer. There, they commandeered a table, and then spread the various games and consoles out across it for perusal. The Consul’s collection had consisted of all sorts of odds and ends, and as a result of the hast and ignorance involved in the splitting of it between the royal kids and the orphans of the home of tears, further filtered through what the kids had thought would be interesting to bring up, made for quite the eclectic selection.

It certainly did not help that a lot of it consisted of what the phantom thieves would have recognised as legally distinct knock offs of games from Earth. From Minecroft to the Legend of Lonk and Pacmon, everything was ever so slightly off. Still, despite this, they were fully formed packages of fun in their own right if the player didn’t know any better, and the koopa kids certainly didn’t.

”So! What you wanna play?”

”Oh, you guys found video games! Uh… well, I don’t know if any are from my world so what you find with a decent name will work. What we’ve got here is like some random grab bag sorta deal; we don’t know what we’re going to get! Although I used to play fighting games a bit. I was pretty ok at them.” Blazermate said, looking over all the weird games. No meda fighter or Medawing or anything like that. But this was like a merging of tons of worlds and with how little medabot stuff there was in general, she really shouldn’t have her hopes up for stuff she sees.

”Fighting game huh? Like, hmm, uhhh” Jr replied as he started to pick through the games, but got a bit blindsided as Rika hopped in with suggestions

”We’ve got smash bronx, path fighter and skullguys” she replied, finding games respectively about bunches of new yorkers, country folk and skeletons duking it out. Upon getting a look of confusion from Jr about how she knew this explained that ”I read all the boxes and manuals while you were working on my gauntlets”

”Well I’m just telling you what I’ve played before. I’m fine trying new stuff. We kinda fight like… every day or thereabouts? I’m pretty sure we’re better fighters than anything we can do in a video game.” Blazermate said, although she had another idea. ”Wait…. Wasn’t one seeker once mumbling about how some of the other seekers were video game characters in their world? Could we like, learn something super cool we could use somewhere in the world from these video games?”

”They did? Who?” Jr asked, while Rika wondered if it was ”like that book that Kamek found that had the Angel in that prison pit place in it, that that angel really didn’t like knowing about?” referring to Robin Goodfellow who they’d met and killed in the Under.

”I dunno, maybe?” Jr said, which worked as an answer to both questions, before thinking about what they could learn ”Like, a secret cheat code? Oh, or how to break those stupid clocks?” and then adding offhandedly that ”Huh Kamek really should looked those up in that other book he got”

”Well, I’m more thinking of cool loot or something. I doubt they’d have anything that specific. Although cheat codes might be a thing too?” Blazermate said, scratching her head. ”Someone smarter like Kamek would probably know yeah. I’m just taking a shot in the dark.”

”ohhhhh like a super fancy magic sword or something? Yeah that’d be cool” Jr agreed, but Rika pointed out that ”Wouldn’t it be kinda hard to find where Galeem put that kind of thigh though?”

”Thats what the video games are for! If something looks similar to the video game, we might find something cool!” Blazermate said, which got a pair of ohhhhh’s from the pair of kids, who both thought this was very smart.

”So where do we start?”

”Uh…. I guess we can just pick something and start from there?” Blazermate said, sorting through the games and picking out Skullguys first. Although this one almost confirmed Blazermate’s theory as it seemed to be a warped version of the story of the Skullgirl that Blazermate had actually met in the Dead Zone. ”Oh huh… We already met this thing. It was called the skullgirl and if I remember right Bowser tried to adopt her, before Linkle absorbed her and went off on her own adventure.” Blazermate said. Continuing with an idle thought. ”Your dad loves to adopt kids Jr. He's a real family man huh?” Blazermate said, more impressed with Bowser giving everyone a chance than making light of the situation. If she didn’t act like this mix of kid and adult, she was sure Bowser would’ve probably adopted her at some point too. Or maybe he did and that's why he let Blazermate ride on his shell without much complaints?

”Hm… Maybe we should stick away from the fighting games then. What about this one?” Blazermate said, grabbing a game named Marsria that everyone could play instead of there being 1 person left out that was about digging through the ground to find treasures and items to make gear that let you beat stronger and stronger things.

Rika, for one, was sold as soon as the prospect of treasure came up, saying it ”seems neat!” with a fair deal of enthusiasm, to which her brother nodded with agreement before he set about plugging and setting up the specific console said game would run on.

Soon enough, the television crackled to life, its screen began to glow, and the gaming session began in earnest.

There was a bit of a floundering start as they tried to get a hang of the game, particularly when they encountered the first night time and got swarmed by zombies in space suits, and flying saucers with big ol eyeballs. They proceed to repeatedly respawn and die again, dropping tombstones on every death that converted their spawn point into a haunted graveyard which made the game basically unplayable.

They promptly restarted said game and, now forewarned of the dangers of night, built a defensible home. From there they made a bunch of progress, exploring around, digging into the ground, recruiting a little colony of NPCs that performed helpful functions.

The entire colony was then wiped out when Jr impulsively used a ‘suspicious looking saucer’ item, which summoned the game's first boss, an even bigger flying eyeball saucer, right into the heart of it.

Rather than lose heart, they now had a clear goal in mind and proceeded to geared up for the challenge. Alongside gold plated space suits for everyone, they also diversified their gear, with JR acquiring a bunch of bird shaped drones as minions, Rika a golden air rifle and Blazermate a magictek staff.

With these, and a prepared arena away from their colony, the trio faced down the eyeball ufo again and this time emerged victorious, and there was much rejoicing. Along with 2 rumbling stomachs from the kids, which demanded actual sustenance instead of the snacks they’d eaten for lunch.

”Do you think they’ll be using all that crab we got with dinner?” Rika asked, wondering what the Bracket Brace would be cooking up in the kitchen

”Dunno, but whatever it is gonna be I really want some now” Jr replied, also feeling the pangs now that the focus invested in beating the first major obstacle in the game had been passed.

”I don’t eat so… I guess I’ll go check on everyone while you two get a snack? Make sure people don’t need heals? Should probably get a tune up as well after such a big fight come to think of it.” Blazermate said, not really into the whole eating thing but knowing people got pleasure out of it.

”Oh... ok” Rika replied, sounding just a bit upset about this

”Sorry, not sure what else to do at the mess hall but chat.” Blazermate said, shrugging.

”I mean everyone’ll be coming here anyway, right?” Jr pointed out

”Good point! Well, assuming they’re still not in the shower. That place was nasty.” Blazermate said, nodding and following the koopa kids.

The pair of kids, who had not had a shower, nor washed their hands before eating their snacks earlier, and who where only not visibly dirty due to spending a lot of time not being themselves, glanced at each other, then themselves, before Jr said ”uhhhh, actually I just remembered we gotta do something else real quick. See you here in like 15!” and then practically dragged Rika out of there.

”Right uh, I guess I should get this stuff off me too. You guys distracted me!” Blazermate said with a bit of sass as she wandered to the workshop to run herself through the pressure sprayer to get clean lickity split.
Blazermate

Roland

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (98/130)
Level 7 Roland (9/70) - (Holding 1 level up)

Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: under 750


Blazermate's kritz did its work, with her buff and many others Ganondorf raged and raged and tore the Gravemind apart, literally. Although it wasn't dead, instead it had separated itself into 5 different pieces. 4 pieces that were trying to distract everyone as the biggest piece turned into some kind of balloon and started to fly up towards that giant flesh moon in the sky. Well, uh... hopefully if they beat the Consuls in time that thing would go away, but if the Guardian grabbed it, that might not be the case at all and that would be REALLY hard to fight.

Being basically the only flyer left in the fight, and being highly resistant to the spore attacks of the Gravemind, it was up to her to bring that big balloon down. Granted she didn't have super high attack power, she could at least do something on this thing. Maybe she could drag it down enough that Ganondorf could finish it off. Heck, since her attacks generated Uber for her, she could even just tank whatever big hit Ganondorf wanted to do with an Uber to really set him up.

With a plan in mind, Blazermate flew up to attack the flying core of the Gravemind. The spore grenades were annoying to fly around, but thanks to her Scan ability, she could track it through the spore clouds and find its main body. Holding onto it with her suffering arm shield, the shield biting into it, Blazermate tried to push it down as she smacked it over and over with her Ubersaw, attempting to punch it down to the ground and gain uber while doing it. And if it wanted to defend itself, it'd have to stop using its spore grenades to propel itself and instead use them to rocket itself down towards the ground.

Roland meanwhile had enough of A. A wasn't looking good, so it was clear he was taking damage, but it was a shame that his ability seal didn't seal that... horrible attack. And with Furioso spent, Roland would have to build up his combo again. He did have a couple hard hitting attacks left though, but rebuilding his momentum could be tricky if he spent them all at once. Although if A could do that sacrifice thing again, there wasn't much time to worry about things.

The two kids Roland had chatted with earlier had managed to fuse together into something new... using the tapes they had possibly? They were trying their hardest after seeing another ally be taken away and were going into A with everything they had Much Like Roland was about to do. Although A managed to outlast their transformation and began to rear his fury upon the two kids.

Well, now it was Roland's turn. He intercepted A, starting by throwing his specter and a wave of black ink at A, he then moved to use Harvest. A, not being as strong as D, or as martially skilled, and having most of his attacks sealed, wasn't able to block the eldritch barb Roland fired at him. A barb that allowed Roland to fly towards A wearing a bloody scarecrow outfit with a horrible, large rake which he used to slash at A to deal a hefty blow.

Being next to A, Roland then followed up with his last EGO, Forgotten Memories. Wearing a forgotten, almost decaying beautiful dress, Roland unleashed a heavy mist that smelled of cinnamon, showing A that he wasn't the only one that could attack the mind. Although unlike A, Roland just caused damage instead of stress. One could mistake the attacks Roland was using as being from A's world in a sense, as his EGO often looked eldritch in nature itself sometimes. This mist would also slightly empower any allies that inhaled it for a few seconds, and one of those allies was approaching A. Using his brush again, he gave Primrose Ink Swell as she approached. This would be Roland's last attack on A for a time though, as A took Roland's distraction to hit him with one of the few attacks he could.

While the loss of Goldweis and Midna didn't outwardly seem to affect Roland, It still affected him mentally. That and with A's attacks that attacked the mind, Roland's fighting stance broke and he was Staggered, pushed away from A and unable to defend himself.
Blazermate

Roland

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (97/130)
Level 7 Roland (8/70) - (Holding 1 level up)

Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: under 750


\Well... Whatever A did seemed to go away when Midna gave herself up to him? Whatever that was, it was bad and Roland couldn't let him do that again. Unlike some of the others, Roland had seen his allies perish countless times before and had been hardened in battle making A's stress abilities much, much less effective on him. That still didn't mean he wasn't worried at all, he very much was, but he wasn't going to let that overtake him as it would mean doom for everyone. And if dealing with A was the plan, he'd have to spend everything on A so he didn't become that giant again. With that in mind, Roland used Emerald, one of his EGO pages, on A sealing one of his abilities from being used again. He then went in, clashing with Puncture using Furioso; canceling the attack and hitting A with the mana blade powered Furioso he had wanted to use previously and sealing another ability of A's thanks to Rake.

Although due to the random nature of his sealing abilities, Roland could only hope that he managed to get rid of that very problematic ability, but so far A had stopped using whatever attack seemed to cause people the most stress. He'd need to really keep up the pressure though regardless so that he didn't use that ability again.

Blazermate meanwhile had moved over to the people dealing with the Gravemind. Much like Sectonia, the other royal was having issues with it and needed healing. Also like Sectonia, Ganondorf did hit really, really hard when given the opportunity... Well Blazermate found her uber target! Putting her healing beam on him, Blazermate said "Tell me what and when!" to inform him that she could either kritz or uber him to let him deal lots of damage. She herself using her projectile shield for its damage regardless.
Blazermate

Roland

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (96/130)
Level 7 Roland (7/70) - (Holding 1 level up)

Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: under 750


Roland swapped over to A, giving them relief from the Consul as some of the people fighting A swapped to dealing with D. Mostly those with holy power to deal with the Consul. Well, A was more up Roland's alley anyway. A creature using flesh and other horrid, unspeakable things to attack. There were far more people like this in the City than bloodfiends. Although Roland would soon find that A was a really bad opponent for him to face as he attacked the mind more than anything.

A's attacks, at least the physical ones, Roland could clash with and overcome. Unlike D, A didn't have monsterous strength. Well, not AS monstrous. His stress attacks though, Roland had a lot of issues dealing with. They were clearly his stronger attacks, and Roland had a bit of a weakness to these kind of attacks making them even more effective on him. He had to close this battle quick, and at emotion level 5, he had the tools to at least give that an attempt.

Donning the EGO of Road Home, Roland wore a dapper suit and with a snap of his fingers a moderately sized farmhouse fell from the sky and landed on A as he was trying to do his Puncture attack, overpowering it and crashing down upon A for a fair amount of damage. Using the damage boost offered by this attack, Roland went in with a massive mana powered swing from his massive sword in an attempt to put in as much damage as he could as he got ready to do Furioso. He also threw one of his spectres at A to deal more damage with the Consul sadly being immune to the silence portion of the ability.

Blazermate healed up those that were low, most of them being involved with the Gravemind. Speaking of said Gravemind, it seemed she was now helping deal with that enemy now. A strong enemy that she had only a few things she could do to help pile on the damage. First she summoned the Engineer, who thanks to the rubble of O's attractions, had more metal than normal and could quickly build up his sentry gun to level 2 and then 3 without needing to wait for dispenser metal. Blazermate herself throwing out a holy bolt to deal some damage and heal everyone it passed by; this notably being her only real AoE heal.

She had a few other things ready, building up another Ubercharge to use on someone soon, who to use it on though...
Blazermate

Roland

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (95/130)
Level 7 Roland (6/70) - (Holding 1 level up)

Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: 550


Roland had been fighting D, although mostly to a standstill now. He had already activated the condition needed for his Decaying Explosion, Sentinel Satellite, and gained Emotion level 4, gaining Emerald, a scheming woman's voice saying "I’ll make your wishes come true. What do you wish for?", and also gaining the EGO False Throne. Much like a few others, the machinations of O and his roller coaster wasn't missed. Although being stuck in combat with D, Roland couldn't offer much to that situation other than to be wary of a roller coaster being built around himself or something.

Combat with D has been mixed so far. As Roland had been gaining power from his allies and emotion level D had been progressively stepping up his attacks. From just sitting firing stronger projectiles, to using his claws to deflect Roland's bullets, to now standing up and using a flaming scythe to clash and fight all those attacking him while throwing meteors about. At least now Roland had started to get going and could now use his speed to start dodging these projectiles instead of attacking them. Especially since a lot of them tended to just... stall him and being stalled when meteors are flying towards you was a bad, bad idea.

A few more clashes, a few more hits, and a heal out of nowhere thanks to Jr. And Roland finally hit his max emotion level, emotion level 5 and gained Powder of Life, a sad woman's voice saying "Here, child… I’ll give you new life.", giving every ally on the battlefield the ability to ignore one lethal hit and get healed for a fair amount. As well as the EGO The Homing Instinct. Roland noted that the scythe D was using was sorta similar to the scythe the blue sicko used, although a lot more gothic in nature and with much slower swings. Still, that didn't make it any less powerful.

Blazermate meanwhile found herself drifting towards the D group. Having been hovering around O, she had been too far away to help Sectonia when she got comboed by a roller coaster. Although, she didn't know that'd even happen since O just DID things and it happened. Nor that it'd chunk her health as fast as it did considering it had only been slowly going down while dealing with the Gravemind who seemed to do way, way more damage due to its size. But that was what a Consul did. She'd be much more worried if she didn't know Ace had something for this, but it would be best that its not used in the first place.

With D and the guardian close to each other, Blazermate could start healing those people now with O having seemingly disappeared, only to reappear in some giant building of sorts? A relief to people like Roland, Ace, and others who had taken some big hit so far. Soon she'd need to turn her attention to the group attacking A, but so far it seemed they were mostly fine. Exhausted but... Well they were fine until Edward got hit pretty hard by the Gravemind. Seriously how tanky was that thing? Wait... looking at it, Blazermate got an idea, although she'd need a fast partner like Roland or Capt to really make use of it.
Blazermate

Sectonia

Roland

Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (914/130)
Level 12 Sectonia (holding 4 level up) (94/120)
Level 7 Roland (5/70) - (Holding 1 level up)

Location: Dead Zone
Word Count: 1437


Thanks to O's ability to just spawn things out of nowhere, it was one of the few things that got around Blazermate's Scan ability. Mostly because these things didn't exist before hand, then suddenly wham! crocodile twice your size is grabbing your leg and dragging you underwater! There was something Blazermate had for this, and that was using Disruption on the giant croc before it could do anything worse to her, banishing it and freeing her from its grasp as it stood in an inky black sphere banished. Now the other problem... getting out of the water.

Well, this wasn't the ocean, so getting to some sides to climb wasn't too bad, and they were pretty easy to climb. Still, she had a harder time getting out of the water than Jr, since he could float to the top when freed while she had to climb with a heavily damaged leg. The thick water at least made it easier for her to get up, as it added a bit of buoyancy even for her. Meanwhile the crocodile was mad when it finally came out of banishment, but was pre-occupied itself as it had two identical copies of itself biting and pulling it down. And with its build, it really couldn't attack the illusions coming at it from its sides as they bit at it letting Blazermate pull herself out of the water.

Still she didn't get out of that unscathed, first needing to shake herself free of the water, then get back into the air with a crunched leg. "OK, that is NOT fair. Spawning things like that... Ugh. At least I've got stuff to deal with that now." Blazermate said, annoyed. And she'd be showing that off soon as she moved her attention to the zombie hippo and saw the Gravemind do some weird stuff and sending flood spawn after it to control it. Blazermate decided that wouldn't do, and summoned her striker Armstrong, to deal with this.

At this time the illusions despawned and the croc was free. Free to make a bite attempt at the closest thing which was Armstrong. Of course... Nanomachines made that bite completely ineffective and the nile croc soon found itself being a bat for Armstrong as he moved in to swipe at the flood spawn. Blazermate meanwhile zoomed over to the zombie hippo to bite it again, mutating it into a bulbous form that seemed that it could rupture at any moment. While Jr, Rika and Armstrong could clear out the flood, there were just too many of them. So instead Blazermate had an idea looking at the zombie hippo waiting to explode. Although she didn't need to really tell Armstrong what to do, as he charged the zombie hippo and smacked it with a force that caused a vicious explosion, harming the enclosure even more and sending the hippo flying towards D like a rocket. Needless to say the croc didn't survive. Blazermate was back on healing and evasion duty, although once Rika and Jr. were fine, she decided to move over to another area to help.

Roland, seeing that Nadia was occupied with Juri now, decided to move onto and keep dealing with D. With his new buffs, D's projectiles soon wouldn't be pushing him back anymore as Roland clashed with another round of fireballs and instead of being pushed back, just stood and deflected them, although he wasn't able to power through them just yet. With his previous clashes, he gained Emotion level 3, and gained Power of the Past, a womans voice saying "I’ll be the one to take things away this time…", making Roland slow down by 10%, but increasing his strength by 40%. He also gained the EGO Harvest. This increase in strength was what he needed to finally advance on D as his fireballs were now deflected by Roland full out, allowing him to advance.

Well, that was until Roland got close enough to D that he had to start using a stronger projectile. One that Roland wouldn't think would be as strong as it was. D pulled out a wine glass and threw it at Roland, the glass shattering as it hit Roland's hammer and pushing him back quite a bit. Then, swapping to stronger fireballs made of dark inferno, fired these at Roland. Roland could protect himself from these, but he'd find quickly they acted like Binah's pillar if not as strong as it took all his effort to protect himself. This essentially made him stay in place while dealing with them.

In the middle of the frenetic duel, though, an unexpected guest arrived in the form of Armstrong's improvised baseball. An enormous zombified hippopotamus, bulbous and pulsating with rot, hurled through the air in a majestic disaster that was as impossible to look away from as a train wreck. For a moment as Roland's eyes traced its inglorious flight path, it seemed like the bizarre projectile might catch D unawares, but appearances could be deceiving. Just before impact the Consul dissolved into mist, and the hippo's momentum carried it into the throne, exploding both in a burst of nasty acidic gunk. The shockwave seemed to disturb the mist, however, and in an instant D materialized, stumbling forward a few steps as if shoved from behind. He knew that Roland would try to make the most of this, though, and the vampire was far from helpless.

Which Roland did, although probably not in the way D expected. Using Harvest, Roland gained the appearance of a bloody scarecrow with a massive rakes for hands as the area turned into a wheat field for a few moments. This continued with Roland firing a spear of flesh from his chest at D. Although D countered this much like Roland has been dealing with his projectiles; batting it away with his hand extended to be a claw and making the attack fail. Clearly Roland would need a lot more power to deal with D's melee attacks. He still had more emotion levels to go, but this clearly wouldn't be easy.

While this had been going down, Sectonia had been focusing the Gravemind, taking its attention. Sure D had an ability to control it, and the Gravemind was still affecting everyone besides her usually, but she for the most part kept it off the others. Although she wasn't agile enough to keep the Gravemind within her more devastating auras such as her heartstopper aura or tesla aura. Its physical attacks on top of that didn't help matters as while Sectonia was very resistant to magical and energy attacks, physical attacks she didn't get a massive resistance to from her items and that meant she really couldn't take too many of the tentacle swipes from the Gravemind.

Much like what Sectonia did by summoning minions to deal with the Gravemind and the flood, the guardian summoned minions in kind. Many of which unlike Sectonia's minions could fly. Although they were also fairly weak in comparison to hers, they mostly focused their attention on her. it seemed they focused on fliers more than anything, but Sectonia had some things she could do to get rid of these things before they were able to explode upon her such as her death pulse, lightning, and her passive damage auras. But this also meant her damage output while dealing with these things was low. Well, until she got an idea.

Thinking about it, she'd have to be careful and teleport away quickly afterwords as to not be sprayed by the blood spray, but she could teleport behind the Gravemind, hit it with a projectile, then teleport behind it again to confuse it. She'd have to not be predictable as this thing seemed to learn quickly, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem... hopefully. Engaging her plan after the blood spurt stopped from its back, Sectonia dodged the tentacle swipe headed her way using this, teleporting behind the Gravemind and hitting it with a blast of holy beams that got dangerously close to hitting, but still missing D with their spread. She then teleported back to her original spot as the Gravemind swung at her, dodging the blow and raining holy swords upon the creature.

As it started to swing and flail wildly in her direction, Sectonia decided now would be a good time to activate her Chaos Shield. While she could teleport to try to dodge the whirling tentacles, their size and unpredictability made that option a poor choice. Especially since the Gravemind was covering its back with all that flailing. So instead Sectonia used her shield to get in close and pepper it with her more close range attacks to keep the pressure up.
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