Archmage MC

World of Light

Level 11 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (25/110)
Level 3 Susie - (24/30)
Level 9 Sectonia (holding 3 level up) - (20/90)

Location: Twilight Town
Word Count: 2113

For Blazermate

Notable spirit consumed:
Ingraham (Head)
Blazermate's face has become more human, including a mouth and nose shape, although they don't move, and she now has black glasses as well as red eyes beneath her current cyan lenses. Wisps of artificial hair, brown in color, extend from beneath her helmet. Her helmet and by extension twintails are less futuristic and primarily machine gray with both red and blue plating. The hexagonal caps on the twintails' hubs can pop open to deploy her new drones. This spirit confers the Power Support Robot Mark IV. Every 20 seconds, she can deploy a small, bear-themed healing drone that can fly over to and hover around an ally. Each one heals the the target for 5% of its maximum health every 3.33 seconds with a 'zap' of reconstructive energy. This spirit also confers the Weakness My Glasses, which decreases her optics' perceptive ability without spectacles on for calibration

The teams finally rejoining and spending some time to socialize was long time coming. Blazermate saw some new faces that were picked up on Yellow Team, but she had seen most of the team as well. Susie was the newcomer, and for the most part waited politely for her turn to talk so she could gauge the personality of the others. That just left Sectonia, who had no issue speaking up after Cadet introduced himself. Upon meeting Peach, Sectonia made sure to recycle the plant monster spirit she had absorbed into a striker, as it wasn't doing much for her beauty, and overall it was a downgrade even in the power department it seemed like.

Speaking of Peach, when she was done with that request she gathered everyone together to try to get everyone to introduce themselves, seeing as everyone here was all of the strikers. Susie hadn't seen anyone on the other team before, although the large bee lady looked.. familiar. And sounded almost like her! That was a bit jarring, but nothing she couldn't handle. First was Band, followed by Tora and Poppi. only Susie didn't know these guys, although Blazermate didn't know much about band as well. Susie found it almost cute that Tora built poppi, considering his stature compared to hers. Blazermate meanwhile did notice that what Band had been saying didn't make Nadia react well, and a few of the things he said matched up to things she had said. It was a clear case of them being from the same world as the skullgirl was mentioned, something Blazermate remembered Bowser had turned into a striker as is his need to be a father to wayward children. That was going to be one spicy conversation Blazermate didn't want to miss.

Next was Raz and Red, people on Sectonia's team. Blazermate found it weird that Raz, if he touched water, died. That feels made up, like wouldn't he just die in the rain? Could he never bathe? That last bit really bugged Susie, but she had an idea she could always robotize the boy, that should fix his water weakness. Psionics were something both robot ladies didn't know too much about, although Susie knew way more about it than Blazermate. The other guy sounded like some kind of super sentai or something. Susie knew how to dealt with those types if it came to it. Blazermate knew more about them if anime was to be believed, but she wasn't much one to care for their shenanigans. They were too showy and not as hunky. Still she wondered if he had some kind of fancy gun or something. "Sorry Raz, I don't think you can fix robot brains. Appreciate the idea though." Blazermate said, being nice to Raz and his offer. While Sectonia knew the boy could do this, it was still a bit unnerving.

Roxas's introduction was new to Blazermate and Susie, but only Blazermate really understood what he was talking about. "Huh... I guess it makes sense that they came from a world somewhere. Although since you look like a pretty anime boy, I doubt the people I saw were from your world." Blazermate had seated herself close to Roxas, as she liked pretty boys like him. They reminded her of home in a way. "And uh, you don't need to be so formal, Loosen up a little... I mean I don't think your like that silver haired anime boy that ran off right?" Blazermate continued, looking over at Roxas like she had a bit of a crush on him, although due to her face, that was hard to tell.

Primrose and Ace were people everyone had met, so there wasn't much for anyone to think of them. Although Blazermate did have to get him hooked up with Nadia, so there was that. Something the other two girls weren't aware of. It was nice to get a clarification on what they all did though, since Blazermate and Sectonia could only guess.

The koops troop went next, but they really didn't put on much of a show. they mostly bragged about what they could do or how strong they were, with only Kamek having anything that really interested Sectonia since they last met. Sectonia was a bit interested in Bowser's mention of having gone through this a few times before. Either he was lying, or he was smarter than he let on. She doubted the latter though, so only time would tell. Rika was the last one of the group and Sectonia could see that she wasn't the smartest in the drawer, much like Bowser, but in her case it could be excused.

When it was Sectonia's turn she didn't disappoint. "As those who have journeyed with me know, I am Queen Sectonia, ruler of Floralia." Sectonia started, having only her natural presence being shown, but when she reached the next part of her speech, she fully opened up her wings to make herself look bigger and get even more attention, if that was possible. "I am a powerful sorcerer and spellsword and now thanks to journeying in this hodgepodge of a world, now command space and time alongside my magnificent beauty!" Having said that line, she then went back to a more rested pose. "Those who serve me as my minions are justly rewarded. What Queen would be without her subjects?"

That last line might've actually caught even those who have traveled with her a bit off guard, as it had been one of the nicer things she had said, although since it was more of a subtle thing, it was very much possible not many would see it like that. She then demonstrated her powerful magic, requesting someone to join her in the demonstration. Seeing as Blazermate needed to also show what she did, she figured it should be ok? She knew Sectonia's magic didn't seem to hurt the other seekers when she used it. Blazermate herself would need to build up her medaforce to show what she could do anyway, so she figured she could go while Sectonia did.

Sectonia demonstrated by first showing her mastery over Time. To do so she requested Blazermate just fly around. Blazermate did this, but also used the opportunity to overheal people to get medaforce, Sectonia and Bowser being wonderful wells of medaforce due to their significant constitutions. Sectonia demonstrated that she could both speed up and slow down the flow of time for either individuals, or in an area, with Blazermate going both faster and slower when she did so. Sectonia then conjured a glowing dark rainbow shield around Blazermate, telling all who were watching. "From the powers of this 'Chaos Heart', a powerful shield that makes whoever is shielded highly resistant to all damage."

With her buff abilities shown, Sectonia requested Blazermate sit back down, with Blazermate flying on top of and resting on Bowser's shell as she healed him to generate paltry amounts of medaforce. Sectonia then said to look at the sky as she summoned a giant crystal, then finishing up with a grand finale of shattering the space and the crystal; a fair bit above the picnic table. A sound akin to shattering glass, although more ethereal, could be heard far and wide when she did this, causing the detonated area to shatter like said glass and become a white void that slowly regained color as the world repaired itself.

"And being a proper Queen, I can control who is affected by all of my spells. Even the destruction of space won't hurt my minions." Funny enough, Sectonia didn't show she could summon her antillions, her rings of light, lightning, nor her swordplay, although she figured she had shown her destructive power fairly well and it was always best to not show one's entire hand.

Considering both Peach and Bowser and mentioned they were the leaders, Sectonia threw her crown into that ring as well. "A Queen lets others do things for her. Her royalty is here for all to see and is without question." Although it was annoying there were so many royals in this group truth be told. Each one did have a different rank of royalty, so there was at least no contention there, but it was still quite annoying having to 'share' the limelight with a turtle and an admittedly useful punk princess. Sectonia also did somewhat regret having turned that plant thing into a striker now, as knowing this 'snackivator' thing could be extremely useful. Sectonia would have to keep in close contact with Kamek seeing what this thing did, as it drastically increased Sectonia's abilitiy to take in other spirits. A bit of petals to replace the yellow trim on her lower half would look lovely, but that opportunity had passed and that fire vulnerability was far too severe for such paltry power in return as it was.

Blazermate had been spending her time building up Medaforce, as her powers were both supportive and harmless in nature. Flying to hover above everyone, getting off of Bowser's shell, Blazermate said "Hiya everyone, I'm Blazermate and I'm your main healer. Make sure things don't get to me. I can defend myself ok, but I'm made more for healing than punching or shooting things. Of course those that I was healing could probably feel that healing energy that made you better than you were, for a short time anyway." She then pointed at Roxas, the anime boy who was her current anime boy crush, and said. "It takes me a bit, but if I heal enough, I can do this." and with her healing beam on Roxas, turned the boy a metallic blue as he became invincible for a good 12 seconds, Blazermate also having the same sheen. "IE turn you invincible. Its really useful. I can also instead turn that invincibility into extra damage. Damage that I've had Bowser here use and oh man, that skullgirl didn't know what hit her when that critical fireball came barreling towards her!"

Blazermate then explained a few of her other support abilities, IE the ability to heal most status effects, her engineer buddy who could make fun buildings which she summoned at Rika's request, making a dispenser for everyone. She showed her new drones that deployed whenever she started to fly, marking weakpoints on enemies, and her projectile shield that she said "Does some insane damage if an enemy decides to try to push through it. I managed to kill an enemy medic using this and they couldn't outpace the damage even with all their healing on them!" The last thing she mentioned was her ability to turn things into zombies and command them, but she gave that as little fanfare as possible since that was more offensive and less supportive. Out of everyone who had demonstrated stuff, she seemed to have a slew of abilities. When asked, she said. "Well, I was one of the first seekers, so..."

Seeing those around her, Susie felt a little inadequat in the lack of things she could do in comparison, but it would be tough to match such varied skills. Still, one common thing was shown with everyone. Bar Blazermate, no one here was even remotely used to technology or science. Most seemed to use raw strength or magic to accomplish everything. Getting up from her seat Susie introduced herself. "I am Susie Haltmann, CEO of Haltmann Works Company. A company that specializes in robotics, technology, science, harvesting planetary resources, robiticizing, and making wishes come true." She then moved to an open area to pull out a remote and summon her Business suit, the drill shaped mech being a first for many to see. "This is my business suit. A powerful mech suit that lets me tangle with the biggest of threats. Susie then hopped out of her business suit which disappeared in a small burst of light. "Although I'd prefer it if one of you could handle those for me.~" Susie said, finishing off with a cutsy tone and winking at Bowser.

Susie then went over a lot of business jargon that went over most of the seeker's heads. What they could all gather though was she was good with money, so money wouldn't be as big of an issue as it had been. Sure Peach had been funding some of the seekers, but others had to get by with almost no money or mercenary work. This was quite gladdening for Sectonia to hear, as she was growing a bit tired of having to be a mercenary queen.

The Justice Society

@Archmage MC That's fair, and hey I could be wrong depending on the powers everyone else has. Time will tell.

I could definitely tell this character was based on a game due to the fairy ability being described as having 'stacks'. What game is it if you don't mind me asking? Either way, I think you are in a cool position to re-flavor those powers the way you want to, and to better fit the roleplay medium.

@Birdboy

Lobotomy Corp and Library of Ruina.

library-of-ruina.fandom.com/wiki/Binah

I didn't use her Lobo corp variant since that involves a sanity system and shes a boss in that game instead of being a player character, so shes 'stronger' in lobo corp. Also you can tell I got lazy on the name and just reused it because... I'm bad at names in general and this name sounds cool anyway.

The Justice Society

@Archmage MC Hey I think the image you used isn't working, I'm curious to see what your character looks like!

I also don't mean to be a prude, but this character feels very powerful. Fitting for someone based on doctor fate but for a group of new members to the JSA, we might want to have more toned-down abilities or more egregious weaknesses. Again, I don't mean to be rude but if we are going to be on a team together I'd like to have my character feel on par with every one else.

@Birdboy

I wasn't sure on powerlevel, so I just put her stuff in as it appears in the game I got her from. But I can twaek stuff. Maybe get rid of the sin ability and have that be a part of one of her stories at whcih point she gets it.

I will mention that as I got her from a video game charcater, in that game she is more of a support character instead of a pure damage character. Fairy does let her do things solo, but thats where her damage comes from.

The Justice Society

Character

Name – Binah
Alias – Binah the Runekeeper
Age – "Don't ask a lady such a question." (Over 30)
Powers –
Passive Enhancements - Binah has enhanced durability, strength, speed, and sight. She is highly intelligent and knows a lot about mystical powers, especially runes. Her mystical knowledge has exposed her to horrors not meant for any individual, making her immune to psionic attacks or anything that would manipulate her emotions as nothing could compare to what she had seen.

Extreme Perception - Binah's perception is on another level, able to learn much about someone and how they think and act by just looking at them, and finding the truth from the smallest of glimpses.

Runes of Unlocking (Fairy) - Binah can manipulate the runes of unlocking, which can open or unlock anything either physical or conceptual affectionately named "Fairy". All of Binah's attacks inflict Fairy, which attempt to open wounds or cause new open wounds using their powers to open up anything. Fairy does more damage the more of it is stacked on someone, with Fairy stacks being lost after a bit of time. Fairy deals damage when the target moves or attacks, or when it expires. Binah's basic energy blasts are just blasts of pure fairy runes.

Runes of Locking and Sealing - Binah can also manipulate the runes of locking and sealing, allowing her to lock or seal anything either physically or conceptually while doing damage. These are used in the forms of her Chain and Lock attacks, the first slowing down the opponent for a time, while the latter sealing one of their abilities for a time making it unusable.

Stasis Pillar - Binah creates a pillar of stasis, a large runic object conjured then launched that pauses and carries anything caught within it and inflicting lots of damage/fairy when it explodes as it expires. Any attacks caught within the pillar are negated, although strong attacks will destroy the pillar.

Shockwave - Binah pulses a shockwave of spacial distortion that disrupts the area around her, canceling any projectiles and most magic the wave hits, disrupting the concentration of those it hits, and greatly increases the durability of <name> and her allies for a short time. This comes in the effect of a three wave burst that does little damage but disrupts more things, or a single wave explosion that does much more damage and can warp the very terrain. (Usually forming a small crater.)

The Weight of Sin - While in the heat of combat, Binah passively exposes the sins of herself, her allies, and her enemies. These sins weigh down the thoughts of all involved, and can be transferred to others by hitting them with attacks. When an individual receives 10 sins, they take a large amount of damage and all sin is removed from them, just to begin the cycle anew.

Weaknesses – Binah will prefer to observe an enemy or situation and will often need to be forced to intervene. Binah will gladly debate with a villain who monologues. While Binah can often see the secrets of others at the smallest of hints, she will refuse to speak of what she knows unless absolutely necessary (But will point out to that individual in a cryptic fashion that she knows...). When Binah speaks, her speech is very roundabout and rarely direct. Her melee combat skills are lacking outside of her basic enhancements. Her attacks deal low damage overall, often needing Fairy or Sin to deal significant damage, something Binah enjoys.

Personality – Observant, Cryptic, Calm, Intelligent, Sadistic.

Experience –

Appearance/Face Claim –

image

BRIEF Bio –

Binah wasn't always known by that name, but her former name had been forgotten when she laid her eyes upon the things that exist in the abyss in her search for magical secrets. She wasn't always 'heroic', and even now she doesn't tend to be as heroic as the others in the justice society, enjoying watching those criminals she fights try to cling onto life, as one can't feel truly alive unless they are nearing death. However she never actually does more than that, as its not the way of the hero and she would much, much rather be on the good side of these strong beings than the bad side of them and the world. Almost like something from her past before she gazed into the well of the universe is telling her not to go too far and make the same mistakes she possibly made before.

But of course completely changing oneself isn't possible, you can only really mellow out and observe.

Golden Age Legacy – Dr. Fate (?)

Sample Story Arcs –
The Beast of the Apocalypse: A seemingly benign trio of birds have been reported to be terrorizing a forest nicknamed "The Black Woods" due to very little light ever shining through the canopy of the many tall trees and a feeling of dread and despair that permeates the forest. There is a prophecy that if these birds ever meet, a beast of apocalyptic proportions is formed.

The Depths of the Abyss: There are many, many things that are just outside the sight of the average person. Stuff that they ignore that would drive them insane...

The Human Mind: Why is it some heroes or villains seem to develop out of nowhere. What is it that gives them their power and determination?

Monsters of Emotion and Sin: Monsters have been appearing recently near people who have been exhibiting severe levels of stress or heightened emotion. Each monster is different, of different disposition, but most seem to be extremely hostile.

Additional Notes – Binah lives a modest life when not doing hero work. She is rarely ever seen out of costume even when relaxing. She tends to spend most of her time in public spaces, often sitting down and drinking tea as she observes the lives of those around her.

Secondary Character -

I'm trying to figure out the time period so I know how to write her bio. Is a secondary character needed?

The Justice Society

I should ask before I make my sheet. Will characters gain new abilities during the RP, or should they start with everything they'd have? Also notice this character is far more marvel than DC, as a lot of attacks are kind of similar to ghost rider, although shes ranged instead of melee.

The Justice Society

I've got a character I'd like to use that might be fun, mostly because I wanna try using someone of her type. I will say though, she would technically be original.

library-of-ruina.fandom.com/wiki/Binah

This might be fun or not, I don't know. Its why I'm going to try a character of her archtype.

World of Light

Any Port in a Storm

Bowser: Level 11 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (175/110)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (244/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(153/100)
Rika: Level 5 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (36/50)
Blazermate, Geralt, Ace Cadet, Sakura, Pit, Karin, Rubick, Susie, Omori, Level 9 Nadia (107/90), Peach
Word Count: 7385 (+8)

”Welcome aboard, Seekers!” Karin called out, hand on her chest and foot on the railing. She cut quite the dramatic figure. Unfortunately, her high energy of victory was not met by anyone else, a fact that somewhat annoyed her. Everyone was moping. ”What is it?”

Risky, bound to the Tinkerslug’s cracked center mast by an excessive amount of rope, gave the newcomers the stinkeye. “Thank goodness. If they all wanted to gloat as badly as you do, I’d probably off myself then and there.”

”Silence.” She shot a look at Risky and began attending to the situation at hand.

Jr’s clowncar limped over to the tinkerslug in response to Karin’s call signaling that they’d taken it over. Then when it landed the battered Troop piled on out, exhausted Kamek immediately finding somewhere to nap, while Bowser and Jr both went running to go find the resident healer with a wounded lady slung over their shoulder.

”Blazermate! Blazermate! Blazermate! Help!” Jr demanded as he hurried over and presented the doctor with the crippled and unconscious form of Annetta the sea fairy and leader of Port O' Panic.

Bowser was hot on his son’s heels, and presented Rika in much the same way, the poor shipgirl having had an even worse time in her 2vs1 than she had in her 1vs1 with the bot in question.

Blazermate came when Jr. called for her, having swooped over to pick up the healer shipgirl’s spirit. It had been awhile since she had found any kind of medic spirit, so she could see what it did. Although if it was only the drones, that may or may not be good depending on how strong they were compared to her medigun.

”Alright, everyone gather round for healing.” Blazermate said as she hovered near Jr. and began healing his request and everyone else. She also summoned the engineer to make a dispenser to heal everyone passively as well, seeing as they finally, finally had some solid surface.

Not long after the designated healer arrived, Peach pulled herself up onto the Tinkerslug’s deck, having scaled the ladder. Though Blazermate’s speedy treatment closed her wounds and fixed her broken arm, her right eye remained closed. While able to accelerate the body’s recovery to phenomenal levels, it seemed that even hyper-advanced medical technology could not restore everything to exactly how it once was, just as the body itself couldn’t regrow a lost limb. And though physically sound, the princess herself appeared to be in a troubled mental state. Since the Tinkerslug, being a living thing beneath the ship built on top of it, lacked any interior decks, Peach staggered over to a sheltered part beneath the shell to curl up in silence.

”Urrgh, my everything,” Rika groaned as she woke up in Bowser’s supportive arms ”What happened?”

”You kind of got exploded. A lot.” Bowser informed her, before quickly adding ”But everyone’s good,” before she could worry about the outcome of the battle, only to glance over at where Peach was curled up and guiltily adding ”Kinda. Well, alive, anyway.”

”Wha-” the ship girl pulled herself to her feet while processing all of this and then arrived at the reaction ”I… lost? Again!” with aghast anger, before letting out a pained sigh and then half collapsing to the flood, where she wrapped her hands around her curled up legs and buried her face in her knees in self pity.

”I’m just dead weight, aren't I?” she mumbled, not taking her defeat well one bit.

”Wow hey, no, it worked out in the end. We beat them up enough that they, uh, well they ran off,” Bowser told her, before sitting down next to her and clapping the ship girl on the shoulder with a big clawed hand. ”I shouldn’t have left you to fight them on your own either, so it's kinda my bad,” he replied, which unfortunately just made the women feel worse.

”It’s okay, Rika-chan.” Sakura said, still soaking wet and bruised all over. ”I got exploded, too.” She sniffed. That was it- she wasn’t exactly the picture of high spirits at the moment, either.

”Yeah, everyone was getting hurt bad, and I’m our only dedicated medic for such a large group. Usually there would be more than 1 healing medabot in a party this size.” Blazermate said, trying to also reassure Rika and the others. The fact Peach was missing an eye that Blazermate couldn’t regrow was a bit concerning. But considering this wasn’t her default medabot medigun, and it did some weird things, could it be possible it could actually regrow parts like that?

”I should be able to handle myself,” she insisted, ”Be unstoppable like everyone else and….”

She stopped her self-deprecation when she saw something strange, namely what Jr was doing with the person he had come running to Blazermate to heal, and so she had to ask ”Wh-why are you tying her up like that?”

”So she can’t attack anyone when she wakes up,” Jr replied, and then pre-empted the obvious question by adding, ”And no, I can’t heart her because I already did that, and she still fought us close to death because sooooomeone went and stabbed someone’s grandpa in the heart.”

It took a few moments for them to parse that, and then all eyes were on Omori, skulking in a far corner.

”Wait, what? Why’d he do that?” a slightly confused Bowser asked

”I dunno, I totally had everything in the bag but nooooo,” Jr replied sardonically ”So now that town over there’s leader,” he gestured to it and then Annetta ”both hate our guts and it's all his fault. Well, him and that weirdo consul guy or whatever. No idea what his deal was, but it seems like he tricked everyone into thinking we were here to kill ‘em or something, and all these idiots fell for it like chumps.”

At that moment Nadia poked her head up at the top of the Tinkerslug’s ladder, having taken to long way around to avoid the front of the living ship; even if the three-eyed leviathan didn’t betray any sign of hostility, just the thought of it eating her freaked her out. Exhausted from her brutal fight with Massachusetts on top of the chaotic river ride, she climbed aboard hoping to take a well-deserved break, only to hear Junior mention people being ‘tricked’ into thinking the Seekers would kill those who stood in their way. Nadia swallowed nervously. After climbing up she put her hands in her pockets and ‘casually’ strolled toward the back of the ship, whistling badly as she went.

”Why’d anyone want to do that?” Rika asked, to which Jr shrugged.

Bowser, meanwhile, had a bit of badguy insight on the ploy: ”Classic bit of villainous trickery, that. Get heroes to fight each other or some random group of chumps that’d have helped them otherwise. I mean it allllways backfires in the end and just makes everyone involved mad at the bad guy, but still, 3rd rate villains try it anyway.”

This got a few impressed looks from the two youngsters, before Rika asked ”So, what happens now then. Everyone gets mad?”

”I know I am,” the miffed prince added.

“”I’m feeling disappointed, myself,” Rubick admitted. “I was hoping we could find a nice shop to peruse and buy some wares from.”

”Now’s the bit where some hero explains the whole deal to the people that attacked them. Which, uh, we’re not gonna be able to do because, you know, bad guys,” Bowser explained before hollering, ”Hey, some hero come and explain to this fairy lady that we’re cool or whatever,” and just kinda handing the whole problem off to someone else.

"I wouldn't mind someone explaining it to me either," the Ace Cadet admitted, rubbing the back of his head. The lighter mood he'd shared with Karin after the successful raid on the Tinkerslug was long gone, as what should have been a celebratory regrouping turned into a more solemn affair. Between the badly wounded (that Blazermate had thankfully worked on), a killing, and the other Seekers saying that all of them, on both sides of the battle, had been manipulated... Well it was a lot of information all at once. "So this wasn't a random pirate attack, someone set us up?"

Karin’s brows furrowed, taking in all of this information. Her fingers came to her temples. ”What an utter disaster.” She managed to reign in her temper, for now. Sakura was quiet, not sure what to say or even what was going on.

Rubick shrugged. Death was an unideal state of being, but it was something that happened to everyone eventually. It certainly happened on a regular basis around him, sometimes even because he was the cause, and he had already gotten used to that fact.

The accused in question had been doing his best to ignore their reactions. No matter how angry or unconcerned, they all would have sounded the same to him. He screwed up. Omori might’ve looked unphased on the outside, but he could still feel himself reeling from everything. …Was this what he was feeling? Fear, and guilt? Technically. But technically not. He wasn’t certain yet. But he was sure about one thing. These guys are going to hate his guts now. Would they even be willing to hear him out?

Welp, he might as well head inside if they’re going to reason with Annetta. The boy didn’t want to jinx that just by being in her line of sight. Omori pushed himself off the ground and stepped away into the captain’s quarters hidden beneath the shell. He had been needing to update his journal anyways.

Wait, Omori killed someone!? That sweet little boy? Nadia’s head span around on a dime as she stopped, even more horrified than she’d been when the fluffy round creature shot her in the solar plexus. She watched him shuffle past her toward the back of the ship. After a moment spent turning the gear in her head, she cleared her throat. “W-well, that just happens in a fight sometimes, right? Self-defense, yeah? When you’re fightin’ for your life, it’s you or them.” Though her words were reasonable, it sounded a little like she was trying to convince herself, as well. “‘Specially with enemies who’ve got that Galeem in ‘em.”

”Only they weren’t enemies, and it wasn’t self-defense.” Karin said sharply. ”They were innocents who were convinced they were defending their town, correct?” Karin said, raising her eyebrows in a vaguely insulting manner.

Nadia smiled, though her eyes held contempt. Despite her numbness and the healing received from Blazermate, her torso still ached from getting torn in half, while this sneering princess didn’t seem to have a scratch on her. Just how much fighting for her life had she done?

While Pit had been absorbing the information flying around and trying to make sense of it, he also felt the need to come to Omori's defense, given the events of earlier that morning. It was unfortunate and downright tragic that the monochrome boy's opponent couldn't randomly come back to life like his had.

"But he didn't know that! Just like they didn't know we weren't the bad guys!" Pit huffed, throwing an arm in a vague gesture to the Port. "You're making it sound like he did it on purpose. They were trying to kill us, if you forgot!"

”Nah, it was totally obvious from where we were standing,” Jr added informatively from where he and the rest of the troop had parked themselves on the sidelines of this whole thing (with Bowser keeping an eye on both Peach and Kamek as they rested). ”What’s his face was right there, egging them on and everything”

"Egging them on to attack you guys, you mean?" Pit asked, crossing his arms.

”The turtle prince said he had it ‘in the bag’. And whatever Omori did, not even freeing Annetta from Galeem’s curse de-escalated the encounter. Unless you are calling him a liar, I fail to see any excuse for lethal force, outside of sheer incompetence.” Karin said.

"He's a kid - a human kid! Humans make mistakes, it's kind of like your thing." At this point Pit was surprised that she couldn't seem to let an accident, however regrettable, go. He was getting defensive, he knew, but somebody had to stick up for Omori. It's true that Pit hadn't been there when the event in question had happened but he wouldn't believe that Omori, or any among them, would maliciously slay someone.

"Maybe now's not the best time to argue about all this," the Cadet cut in. His own thoughts on the matter were scattered. The topic of letting the young ones like Junior and Hat Kid travel with them and be exposed to danger had come up before, and while he could confidently say no one was comfortable with it they generally let it slide. As far as killing another person went - over the course of their campaign over the last several days, they would be hard pressed to name one among them that hadn't killed someone. They were never able to save every person they'd come across. It sucked, but that was the whole reason for their journey in the first place - to set everything back to normal so this kind of thing wouldn't have to happen.

Regardless of how everyone else thought, an argument right here and now seemed pointless. "Once we're back on dry land we can worry about it then, okay? We're still due in Twilight Town, but it looks like we have to finish up here first," he said, nodding towards the 'captives.'

"Hmph..." Pit relented, a frown sealing his mouth closed. Stubbornly he stayed put right where he was, intending to survey the rest of the events on deck.
After getting his point across the Ace Cadet gave the rest of them some space, seeking out the now not-as-familiar form of Ms. Fortune. Besides the changes from her fusion, he'd also noticed the tension she gave off. He intended to get the story from her later, but for now he went to simply stand by her side, brushing their shoulders together as he did.

Susie then spoke up, summarizing the conversation in simple terms. ”So essentially it was a false flag operation, and these ‘people’ fell for it.” Susie said, thinking to herself. ”The question is… who told them this and was so trustworthy they would ignore the fact it could be a lie? I’m unconvinced it could be something as simple as a kid.”

Impatiently, Karin glanced over at Annetta. ”Is she going to wake up soon? I must speak with her.” She said. ”This is a situation that must be dealt with using diplomacy and tact.” After Blazermate refilled Annetta’s health, the nymph had remained where Junior deposited her, evidently still unconscious. The team could wait for her to awaken on her own, or expedite the process.

Karin watched her for a few moments before clicking her tongue. ”For goodness sake. Someone fetch me a bucket of seawater while I make Miss Annetta more comfortable.” She propped Annetta up against the side of the ship so she wasn’t laying on her side. Glancing derisively down at the restraints Junior had applied, she undid them. If she had been so thoroughly defeated by a small turtle child, then there was no way she would pose a threat with nearly all of Blue Team on board. All the ropes would do would be stoking her apparently well founded fears.

Twirling his staff, Rubick proceeded to cast Telekinesis on a bucket and walk it over to the edge of the Tinkerslug. From there, it was a simple matter to dip it underneath the water and bring it back up, now full of seawater. Rubick then guided it over to Karin, placing it in her hands. “There you are Ms. Kanzuki, one bucket of seawater,” Rubick said.

”Ah.” Karin said, nodding politely. ”Thank you, Mister Rubick. The salt should aid in bringing her to consciousness.” She didn’t intend on totally disorienting the woman with a douse of water, but she would increase the volume as needed.

”Miss Annetta, darling, can you hear me?” She asked. Producing a monogrammed handkerchief she dipped it in the water and gently squeezed it above her face to let the water trickle down it.

It took a bit more squeezing, but the cold water did the trick. The nymph’s face scrunched up for a moment before her eyes blinked open, both her vision and her memories a little fuzzy as she slowly surfaced from a place both deep and dark. She focused on Karin first. “W-who…who are you? And…where am I? There was…I was…”

Karin knelt down and put the handkerchief into whatever rich person dimension from whence she had produced it. ”Relax, Miss Annetta. You’re safe now. Before I answer any of your questions I must impress upon you that you and the people of Port O’ Panic are free of any danger from us.” She said gently. “I am Karin Kanzuki, with the Seekers, and you’re onboard the recently commandeered Tinkerslug.”

A look of unease crossed Annetta’s face despite Karin’s urge to relax. Everything was trickling back. “W-wait, what do you mean? We were fighting, and the pirates…they were helping us. Everything was fine, until…” She looked around, noticing the other members of the group. Her gaze quickly roved beyond the confines of the Tinkerslug, which she neither recognized by name nor from its deck. She spotted the Raptor, dead in the water, and Port O’ Panic as well. Not much remained of the sea tower there, and she knew why. Annetta’s eyes suddenly widened.

“We lost, sunshine,” Risky supplied helpfully, a rueful smile on her face. “And these are our captors. Say hello!”

“Risky Boots!?” the nymph gasped, shocked by the sight of Port O’ Panic’s infamous nemesis tied to the mast. That was the nail in the coffin on top of everything she’d already realized, and a panic attack took hold of her. She began to hyperventilate as she tried to back away, only to realize to her further horror that her legs wouldn’t obey her commands. Whimpering, she tried to drag herself away by her hands. “Go away! Please! Leave me alone! Don’t kill meee!”

”Can someone shut that infernal pirate up?” Karin snapped at the people behind her before turning back to diplomatically address the panicking nymph. ”Miss Annetta, as I said, you’re- you’re safe. Miss Annetta please, be reasonable. No one is going to kill you and you’re free to go whenever you’d like, but I’d feel terribly sorry if you hurled yourself off the side of the boat and drowned, so I must ask you to remain calm!” Karin admittedly spoke quickly as she moved to the side of Annetta. She firmly, but not roughly, took her by the shoulder and made her look her in the eye. Without someone to shore up her spirit, the nymph didn’t have a lot of fight in her. Unable to struggle or escape in any meaningful way, she resigned herself to a teary silence.

Karin let out a breath. Sakura had stood up at this point, lingering a short distance behind Karin and tapping her index fingers together. ”Thank you. I’ve been told you’re the leader of the Port O’ Panic, and I am interested in parley. Now, stand up, would you?” The smile faded a bit as she herself rose to her full height. ”Act respectable. I intend to treat you as an equal.”

The whole thing made Nadia uncomfortable. She not only kept her distance but turned and moved away, making no attempt to heed Karin’s request. Of course, averting her gaze only reminded her about Peach, who probably needed attention herself, but the feral wanted to deliver the apology she was workshopping in private.

Blazermate moved next to Nadia, giving her a one armed hug seeing how shy she was being after it was mentioned they had killed people they probably shouldn’t have. Bringing Nadia’s ear to her ‘mouth’ Blazermate said ”Hey… don’t worry too much about it. Medafights are exactly like this, so it was more their fault than yours.” Blazermate Then gave her a thumbs up saying. ”Plus we are the people who have to eventually fix this world, so the occasional part helps out loads. We can’t be making ourselves out of just monster parts, otherwise we might turn into big squid monsters with multiple mouths. I thought Bowser was going along those lines until Kamek got that snackivator…” Blazermate continued, glancing at Bowser. Nadia said nothing; the well-meaning medabot had abandoned Peach to an almost certain death just as she herself had.

It was at this moment that Geralt finally climbed onto the Tinkerslug, a bound and gagged LeFwee on his shoulder. “Bird brain just wouldn’t shut his damned mouth.” He offered as way of explanation, dropping the pirate captain to the deck and sighing. “Alright, what now?”

He returned to the pitiable scene of Annetta attempting to stand as Karin commanded, only to find that she could not do so. “My legs…won’t work,” she whined, but after a moment the nymph used her wings to lift off the ground instead. Her legs dangled limply beneath her. Somehow, she managed to sink to an even greater level of despair when she saw LeFwee tied up too. Certainly she had no love for the egotistical coward, but now she could appreciate just how total these strangers’ victory was. “Both of them…” she quavered. “We really are finished, then. Even with the pirates’ help, I couldn’t save the Port…” Rubick stared at Annetta for a moment, then turned to Karin, then back to Annetta. He could say something about the situation, but why spoil the fun so soon? In the end, he remained silent, save a giggle he could barely stifle.

Karin blinked, briefly casting a look at anyone paying attention to the conversation. ”...Perhaps you were still too delirious to understand me. We are not invaders.” She pinched her index and thumbs together and let the sentence hang, staring emphatically at Annetta. ”We are not going to hurt you.” She said again. ”I don’t appreciate being made to repeat myself. We’re moving on. Ask me, or anyone, any question that you desire.” She said with an upward flourish of her hand.

Still seemingly dubious, Annetta went for the straightest shot she possibly could. “Uh…then, why don’t you let me go, and go away?”

”You’re already let go.” Karin said, gesturing to Annette just floating there. ”And we’re already on our way out. But if you leave now, we’ll be forced to release these two pirate captains into the wild since we cannot take them with us.” She pointed at the two of them with her thumb. ”If that is ideal for you I suppose this conversation is over.”

After some time had passed, Omori finally emerged from the captain’s quarters, looking over his journal. It was a bit difficult, sketching out S’ armor from memory. But hopefully he could figure this guy out in due time. He had to get stronger, he reminded himself. Once the boy overheard Annetta venting her rage towards the two pirates, he looked back up to see that… Well, crap. Maybe he should’ve waited a bit longer to come out.

Glancing over to the captain’s quarters, Rubick noticed that Omori had finally emerged from his hidey hole. Seeing a prime opportunity for social interaction, he blinked next to Omori and placed an arm around the boy. “You’re just in time!” Rubick said happily. Gesturing towards their band of seafaring prisoners and leading him towards them, Rubick continued, “Grab a snack and enjoy the show! We’re just getting to a good part now.” Geralt gave a snort at that. Omori wasn’t as amused.

Indeed, the sudden realization of her position left Annetta speechless, but only for a moment. “W-wait, you’re going to just, let them go, too? They’re…pirates! They rob and hurt innocent people just because they’re stronger!”

LeFwee squawked angrily into his gag, but the nymph just glared at him bitterly. “We had to work ourselves to the bone to keep up with payments, just so you’d fight on our behalf! And even then, you weren’t satisfied!” Annetta’s lip curled at Risky next. “And you! Your constant raiding is the reason we had to hire LeFwee in the first place! Were you even gaining anything!?”

“Eh, that’s fair,” Risky said, shrugging. “At a certain point, it was mostly for fun. And to knock that featherbrain down a peg or two. Still, lucky you had ne’er-do-wells like us, mm? Up north near the salt plains, the pirates kidnap poor, defenseless villagers and sell them into slavery.”

Though surprised for a moment by the pirate’s casual manner, Annetta composed herself. “I don’t really care what you do with them,” she told the Seekers. “All I want is for people to leave the Port alone. We’re not strong, or wealthy, or important. We just want to live. Like a weed. All people need to do is not go out of their way to tear us up.” Still wary, she prepared to leave.

“Ugh,” Risky sighed, rolling her eyes. “This is all the Consul’s fault. If he bothered telling us how strong you people really were, I wouldn’t have bothered. You were supposed to be in rowboats, for goodness’ sake…”

"Well, it's true that we were just passing through when you all ambushed us. We're not gonna do anything to your town," Pit chimed in, his irritation from the argument receding after hearing Annetta out. He glanced then at Risky Boots. "I gotta ask: you've all been enemies all along, and started working together - why? Just 'cause that guy in the red armor told you to?" Like most of them he was curious what kind of sway that man had, but more importantly how he'd known about the Seekers' operation and why he'd tried to stop them.

Raising his other hand, Rubick interjected, “I’m still curious about who this ‘Consul’ is. He seems to be quite the individual to call you evidently fine ladies and gentlemen to action.”

”..Yes, we’re all rather curious. My plan was to give the pirates to you, as your prisoners. Because letting them go is foolish and executing them would be quite barbaric. And in return, you’d tell us all about this nefarious liar. From what I understand, his machinations led to the death of one of your citizens, yes?” Karin said. ”Terribly, terribly sorry to hear of that. We hope to learn more about him so future loss of innocent life could be prevented.”

Annetta waved her hands in protest. “We don’t want them!” Geralt’s eyes narrowed at LeFwee when she said this, hand closing into a fist.

“Look, I’ll tell you everything I know without any blubbering,” Risky quickly offered. “Most of the time we’re on our own, but Consul S helps us out from time to time. He lets us know where to find stuff, gives us jobs to do, and warns us about enemies. He’s not our boss or anything, seeing as I’m the Queen of the Seven Seas and all, but he helps keep us afloat. He doesn’t share a lot of personal details, though. When I asked him why, he just said it’s his job. Some hoity-toity stuff about ‘keeping the flames alight’.”

Annetta blinked a few times, her brows knitted together. “That’s…pretty much the same as us, weirdly. I mean, we had to get LeFwee to fight for us, but we did other jobs for him sometimes. Nothing…sinister, I don’t think. But we’ve been enemies the whole time. Why’d he help us both…?” She scratched her head. “Maybe he wants everyone to succeed?”

_{”Would someone innocent try to skewer someone with a harpoon? Sheesh.”} Omori couldn’t help mumbling, furrowing his brows at Karin’s words. Though soon as Risky started to explain who S was to them, he prioritized taking notes for the moment. When Annetta suggested a reason why the Consul would “help” them both he properly spoke up, albeit rather bluntly. ”Or he just wants us dead?” He raised a brow.

At this the Cadet blinked. "Wouldn't that mean that he's actually, uh - awake? Seems like it's a bit much to assume he was just being controlled by one of those big floating hands."

Susie thought to herself for a moment, before saying. ”I haven’t heard of this man, and from the sound of things none of you have either until now. If that's the case… does he work for someone you do know and wants everyone here dead? Or was this just something he convinced all of you,” Susie said, gesturing to the foes they had just defeated and captured. ”to do in order to get you out of the way for plans of his that you would get in the way of?”

Geralt crossed his arms at the offered explanations. “Sounds to me like he’s working for a Guardian, or even the big guy himself. Keeping the flames alight? That’s damn near religious talk. And they’ve had to have noticed us killing a few of his Guardians already, so they may be desperate to put us down.” Sighing, he shook his head. “And you have no idea what I’m talking about anyway.”

”You mean those powerful Galeem monsters that all have to be destroyed to take out that ball of losing profits.” Susie said, correcting and reassuring Geralt in her own way.

Geralt nodded. “Yes. We’ve taken a few out already. Mecha…Dragon…Bowser? I think. Some version of our big guy. That was before I met the others. The Ender Dragon. The Orphan of Kos. And Yellow Team took out Red Eye. Should be nine left.”

Blazermate didn’t have too much to add to this conversation, instead just checking up on everyone and making sure they were all good. She was a bit surprised the new scar Nadia had gotten didn’t heal up, as her medigun often managed to heal recent scars no issue. Perhaps the feral was making a subconscious effort as part of her sorrow to keep that scar as a reminder or something? Well, that was a bit above her expertise to figure out, so all she could do was make sure everyone was well.

At the moment, Nadia was too busy mulling over the new information to realize that Blazermate was examining her. She moved a little closer in from the sidelines to rejoin the group conversation, sitting on a leftover red barrel as she did. “Whatcha said makes sense,” she told Geralt, drumming her feet against the barrel’s side. “I’m still not totally up-to-date on everythin’, but if we’ve managed to take out a couple Guardians in a couple days, and there’s only thirteen total, someone’s bound to take notice. If that creepy Hand was the only thing that’s actually tryin’ to stop us, that’d be too easy, right? Plus…well, even if that Consul didn’t actually try to fight us, and he thought the parrot deserved to bite the dust, he did look like a bad guy, huh?” She pulled her ponytail over one shoulder and fiddled with it as she thought out loud. “Question is, was he a Guardian? Aren’t they all big monsters just waitin’ around for someone to come fight ‘em?”

”Sounded like a walking cliche too.” Omori glanced over at Nadia. ”I did try to fight him, but he knocked me into his clown car-thing with no effort.” He explained, pointing a thumb at Junior.

”He made me fall asleep at one point too, which coulda been bad, and he was the one doing all those shields on the fairy too. I think?” Jr added, before pondering that ”You know, if he wanted us dead, it’s weird that he didn’t help more, given that when he did act he was pretty dangerous.”

”Wouldn’t surprise me if that was his doing, but I think she was keeping those barriers up. You know, survival instincts.” The boy nodded his head towards Annetta’s direction. ”She’s pretty sturdy.”

”Dunno, she seemed like she was surprised every time they came back up but eh, whatever” the prince shrugged, not to invested in this

”Have you guys noticed each Guardian is like a giant monster or something? Why are they all giant monsters? Couldn’t one be like, just a normal dude?” Blazermate said, thinking about what had been said. She had been one of the very few that had been with the group since the beginning..

”Big monsters are boss monsters, duh,” Bowser pointed out what he thought was obvious. ”Little people are either chumps or heroes, and neither’d make good Guardians.”

Geralt rolled his eyes at Bowser’s surety. “Not taking a jab at you, boss, but I’ve put down plenty of mindless beasts at least your size. Ain’t easy, but a veteran warrior in proper armor is a fight I’d rather avoid compared to a Fiend. A thinking mind can outclass near any size difference.” He was thinking back to his fight with Imlerith in specific, the elf warrior having taken almost as much effort as Eredin himself, and Imlerith fought without magic. “Add potent magic or something else into the mix? No thank you.”

”Right, but, hear me out, another guy in armor ooooooor a dragon? Or that weird whale baby weirdo thing? Or me, but like, more of a jerk. See, why go for a dude in armor who can think and do magic when you can get a big monster in armor that can think and do magic?” Bowser pointed out, and to drive it home said point, pulsed some dark magic in his claw to modify his size up and down. ”Like these Guardians have to be on par with me! So like, someone who’s a challenge to you wouldn’t be up to snuff, they have to be a challenge to a whole pile of heroes, not to mention me!”

Geralt was about to interject when Bowser said that something that challenged him wouldn’t be up to snuff, but paused and nodded when he continued. “Hmm. Fair enough, I suppose. The Guardians have so far all fit that model. Extremely powerful monsters, though where I come from whether a dragon is a monster or not is debatable. And if one guy with a silver sword, Witcher or no, could take down a Guardian, wouldn’t be much of one, no matter the shape or size. Still, there’s nothing saying it has to be a little guy.” Shaking his head, Geralt stopped. “No. No point in speculating while we have no idea what we’ll face next. Suffice to say, this Consul likely wasn’t a Guardian himself, given that we’re still ostensibly in the Ender Dragon’s territory.”

The Cadet weighed both of Geralt and Bowser's points. The thought of an elder dragon with armor and magic made him very uncomfortable, that kind of enemy would probably be almost impossible to deal with, but at the same time he had to agree that a cunning mind made fights a lot more unpredictable. He wanted to jump in on the debate, but it was something that would have to be brought up later - like he'd said to Karin and Pit before, they had other matters at hand.

The angel himself spoke up then anyway. "So we've got a whole other element to deal with now. Who knows how many other people he's convinced that we're going to harm them, or how many other 'Consuls' are out there!"

”Well, as morbid as it might sound to you, if they come at us, that's just more parts for our group.” Blazermate said, being one of the group who had no issue actually felling their opponents for their parts or powers as that was just the medabot way. ”Sure once their numbers thin out we can recruit, but the first few… Free parts!”

“Agreed,” Rubick said, nodding his head. He was a mage who lived off copying others’ abilities, and this seemed like an approach that worked just as well, if not better. He was also no stranger to killing, having done quite a bit of it himself in the past. “We should prioritize our own lives, and if they’re going to try and kill us, we might as well take what we can from them.”

While she took no joy in killing, Nadia found herself nodding along. “We’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do to survive. We can try goin’ about it all heroically whenever possible, but if someone crosses the line…well, them’s the breaks, right? Not everyone has the luxury of bein’ able to do the ‘right thing’ all the time,” she said, putting air quotes where appropriate and making sure to say it in a dopey way. Karin got just a little bit of side-eye as well.

”The ‘right thing’ isn’t a luxury, it’s an obligation!” Karin protested.

The monochrome youth remained quiet despite their reasoning. There were just…worse things to worry about than himself.

“I don’t mean to interrupt all your rationalizations or anything,” Risky interjected. “But if you’re going to do something with us, could you get on with it? These ropes chafe, and I’m starting to lose circulation. I’m practically turning purple!” She laughed, remarkably confident still despite her situation. “Oh, and, uh, for the record. I don’t really have any useful powers or parts, so…cut me some slack, will you?” Her eyes landed on LeFwee. “Bet he does, though. Think about it: how could such a sniveling little chicken get strong folks like Rip Tide and Rakkam to do what he says without mind control or something?” Luckily, LeFwee’s gag rendered his enraged response muffled and unintelligible.

”Well… thats the thing, it's surprising what you can get from even lowly zombies that can’t even talk…” Blazermate started to say, a gleam in her eye.

”Besides the fact that your co-conspirator was a bit too easy to defeat. Doubt he’d be useful to us besides that sword he had on him.” Omori told Risky with a shrug.

Though he'd defended Omori earlier and was happy to do it, Pit didn't necessarily agree with Blazermate's cavalier point of view. His wings drooped and he ignored that conversation, saying to Risky and LeFwee, "No one's going to kill you, you already lost. So just don't try to kill us when we let you go."

He paused. "Whenever that is."

"I guess we should take them with us after all, find some kind of jail to stick them in. Feels weird to just let them loose if they've been terrorizing that town."

Nadia crossed her arms. “I guess that works. They ‘arr’ pirates after all, just like Annetta said.”

“Oh, so we’re not killing them?” Rubick asked, feeling a little disappointed. “Very well, then.”

Geralt had a bit of a frown on his face, but nodded. “I’m not much of one for executions. Up to you what you want to do with them.”

“During a fight is understandable,” came a new voice. The Seekers turned to see Peach headed over from the back of the Tinkerslug’s deck, her tone and pace both measured. “After the fight’s over, though, it’s cruel. Despite what happened here today, we’re not villains. If someone is trying to make it seem like we are, we have to prove them wrong.” She then turned to Port O’ Panic’s leader to offer her something only Karin had so far. “Annetta, we really are sorry. We were all mistaken and misled. When those Abyssal bombers appeared, it was all I needed to know to assume that you all were our enemies. We’ll leave you alone, and without the pirates around, hopefully those weeds of yours will become a flourishing garden. If people from Alcamoth come by again, it will be as friends to try to repay the debt we incurred.”

”....I’m sorry.” Omori spoke up to Annetta after Peach had the ghost of a regretful frown on his face.

A few eyes turned to Jr, but he just shrugged. As far as he was concerned none of this was his problem any more.

Annetta nodded slowly. “I don’t know if I can accept all this. Or if I even have the right to. Reme is dead, after all, and the Port…I’m really not much of a leader. But…it seems like you’re all pretty serious about it being a misunderstanding, and making amends. I hope it’ll be like you say.” With that, the nymph flew off, her flight pattern limp and lopsided from the dead weight she carried along with her.

”You know… If we’re turning them in, we could probably claim some kind of bounty.” Susie said, having tuned out of the conversation a little while ago as she pulled out her PDA to collect and redistribute the money she had been making at the Grand Exchange.

”...Indeed.” Karin said. ”The releasing them thing was just a bluff for information, anyway. Southward, yes?” She strode to the bow of the ship, planting her foot and pointing forward. ”Onward, Triumph! To Twilight Town.” She commanded the Tinkerslug. Their journey was underway once again.

She set her hands on the upperduck and looked solemnly down upon the Seekers. ”Of course it is natural that our enemies may be slain in battle. But today it has been made clear that our true enemy intends to weaponize the innocent against us. We must hold each other accountable and act with wisdom and restraint. Need I remind you that we are not trying to save the world, we are trying to save the people in the world. That is all I have to say on this matter.” She turned and went to attend to the front of the boat.

World of Light

Level 9 Sectonia (holding 3 level up) - (16/90)

Location: Twilight Town
Word Count: 1212

While the others were enjoying their time trying to enjoy racing, making cars and mumbos workshop, and whatever they were doing, Sectonia spent her time looking at the places that Roxas had highlighted during his improptu tour of the city at her request. After all, Sectonia had no need (or ability) to drive around in a vehicle, so she figured she'd look at what Roxas recommended to see if they were any good. Although she really only wanted to try out the salon. Even if she was going to remove and replace these plant bits, it was no excuse not to make them at least presentable. And considering her size and the salon's... confusion at her request, it took her about an hour to get all prettied up. Even then, Sectonia still wasn't all that satisfied with the vines...

With that done, Sectonia went to go pick up the others as they would be going out to beat more guardians, get more power, that whole thing. Knowing that most of the group was driving cars or making them, Sectonia went to go grab those people first. And she ran into none other than Tora who had just completed his repairs on Big Band. And the nopon was... looking quite unsightly. He was covered in lots of grease, which made sense considering what he was working on but still, he seemed to not care much at all about that!

"Oh, hello Sectonia!" Tora greeted her, just having departed from Mumbo Motor's alongside Poppi and Big Band. Though all seemed to be in good spirits and the detective in particular looked well-composed, Tora's fur was smudged all over by machine grease, especially his wings. "We just now going to find friends and bring all together for lunch!"

"Looking like that, covered in all that... what I'm going to assume is grease?" Sectonia said, gesturing to all the grease covering Tora, especially on his wings.

The hard-working engineer glanced at his wings as if only just now noticing the state of them. "Meeh...maybe little dirty. But nothing unusual for Tora. If see puddle on way, can wash off easy!"

Sectonia looked at Tora with a peculiar look, a mix of disgust and pity. "Oh your not using road mud and standing, stinky water to clean that off! We're going to get you cleaned up properly." Sectonia said, looking for a spot to grab Tora so she could drag him to the salon she had just came from if he resisted. No way she was going to have him parade around like that!

Once Sectonia's detached, floating hand grabbed him by the overalls, Tora couldn't do much but wriggle in the big monster's grasp. "Meeeeh!" he cried. "Help, Tora being pon-napped! Poppi, save Masterpon from bathtime!"

His companion followed along behind the two with an amused expression. "Poppi could, but this much funnier."

Sectonia, carrying the squirming nopon glanced back at Poppi and Big Band, saying. "You two should get cleaned up as well. I take it I don't need to stop you from taking a bath in goddess-knows-what water?"

"Of course not. Sectonia not be silly," Poppi told her.

Big Band did not humor the bug with a response, although his expression made his thoughts on her question crystal clear.

Sectonia nodded and carried Tora to the salon she had just been at, not wanting to clean the nopon herself. "Now Tora, its time to make you the prettiest nopon you can be... Or close to it. I don't have my handmaidens but these guys should do a decent job." Sectonia said, at least trying to console the lad.

The trip through Twilight Town to the hairdresser's took a good few minutes, and despite his protests he quickly got tired of struggling. Big Band broke off from the others to head for the docks, so only Poppi accompanied her Masterpon and Sectonia to Seabreeze Salon on Market Street. When faced with Tora, however, the owner looked against. "This is a salon, not a bathhouse, or a vet for that matter," she told them. "We don't handle fur here. Just hair. If you want him cleaned up, a groomer might be more suited to the task."

"Hm..." Sectonia said, glaring at the receptionist through the window, the shop being a bit too small for her. She relented though, and after a slight bought of confusion, was redirected to the proper place to clean up Tora. At least he stopped struggling, accepting his fate to become beautiful.

Unfortunately, beauty was not on the menu for Tora at the place he and Sectonia found farther down Market Street, in the slightly less posh part of town near the docks. After peeling off his shirt and overalls Tora joined a stately, copper-colored English Setter and a few adorably energetic mutts in getting soaped up and hosed down in a steel tub. A lot smarter and more cooperative than the average dog, the nopon breezed through the process in just a few minutes. Once rubbed dry by an employee with a towel, which he enjoyed quite a bit, Tora emerged clean as a whistle.

Poppi had mixed feelings about her Masterpon receiving the same treatment as a pet, but if he didn't mind, then neither would she. "Masterpon not put dirty clothes back on," she advised after paying the groomers. "Need get them cleaned, too."

Sectonia was a bit mixed on Tora's treatment as well. She would've much preferred a more elegant method for getting him clean. Perhaps this town would need some remodeling or discipline in the future, if they treated non humanoids like this... But at least now Sectonia herself could do a little bit to make him pretty... starting with needing new cloths. "Agreed Poppi. Although we'll have to see if this place even has cloths of your size. they seem to be... lacking... in some things here. Perhaps the two of us can find an outfit for Tora that looks cute." Sectonia summoned some antillions to at least help the groomers in an attempt to clean off what they could so that Tora didn't have to wander around town naked, although from her recollection, he didn't really care too much about that.

"Tora not need more clothes!" he declared, putting his little nub hands on his waist. "Not wear clothes is normal for nopon, anyway. Just wear to fit in with humans, and help them tell nopon apart."
Poppi nodded. "In that case, Poppi can hold on to clothes for now. We should not take any more time gathering friends. Other team arrive any minute!"

Sectonia relented at that, at least Tora was clean. "Fair enough. Seeing as we are close to the docks, finding the others shouldn't be too bad then." Sectonia was a bit annoyed at not being able to make Tora look better than his usual self, but at least he was back to normal. Perhaps after they met up with the other team she could have more time to work on the nopon. Hm... maybe adding some flowers to his attire would work... Tora, as they went to gather the others, could notice Sectonia eyeing him up and could guess what she was thinking about.

World of Light

Pick of the Litter

Location: Sea of Serendipity
Level 9 Nadia (71/90), Blazermate and Susie’s @Archmage MC vs Massachusetts and Ingraham
Word Count:

Back on the water, the seafarers’ own fight raged on at an even more frenetic pace. Nadia and Massachusetts tumbled together across the waves, splashing through their crests in sprays of seafoam, for a moment before the shipgirl found her footing. She planted her feet and skidded backward along the water as her rigging corrected her balance, well aware that the cat burglar who'd just given her a black eye was still clinging to her tower. With her teeth bared she took an anchor in one hand and craned her head around to swing, only to take a kick to the jaw as Nadia jumped onto her right-side cannon battery. "Taste of de-feet!" As the shipgirl reeled Nadia crouched down to follow up with her one-two punisher. "...And cattail!" Incensed by another tail slap to the head, Massachusetts twisted around fast enough to sweep her attacker's foothold out from under her, allowing her to seize the catgirl's neck. Quick as Ever, Nadia sliced a set of red claw marks across her foe's face, but Massachusetts pushed through to smash Nadia in the gut with her anchor, hitting her up hard enough to leave her wide-eyed, stretched-out, and windless. Wasting no time, the shipgirl reached up, grabbed the feral, and slammed her into the sea with a massive powerbomb. With her opponent stunned by the back flop, Massachusetts trained her cannons as she skated backward, then unleashed a six-barreled blowout into the spot where Nadia fell.

Ingraham raced in as water rained down from the geyser-like eruption. “Everything alright?” she asked, sending her healing drone to her comrade’s side to patch up her wounds. Without giving an answer, Massachusetts scanned the water for any sign of her foe. She half-expected a handful of body parts strewn around the water, but she saw nothing, not even a blood-red chum on the surface to suggest where her opponent went down. Her warrior’s intuition told her that this wasn’t over just yet–but it couldn’t predict what happened next. A bloodied but very much alive Nadia burst from the ocean to her right with a pirouette, having propelled herself through the water with her Full Mrowtation like a living torpedo, and launched both arms at Massachusetts again. Now turned to face her foe, the shipgirl blocked with her anchors only for Nadia’s hands to grab hold. “Gotcha!” With a tremendous effort Nadia cracked her stretched-out fibers like whips, sending a wave all the way down the springy line that lifted Massachusetts off the water by her arms and slammed her right back into the sea face-first. “Drink’s on me!” PLOOSH!

The feral then rubber-banded her arms, zipping in close to springboard off her foe’s head as she tried to pick herself back up. With her momentum she thrust her hand into the support drone’s ‘face’, then swung around to land on top of it, crouching. Despite downing Massachusetts for a moment, her mismatched eyes were on Ingraham. “I can tell I’m not gettin’ anywhere long as you’re around!” she told the medic. With a yank she extracted a bundle of vital components from the drone, greasy and sparking, then sprang again off the drone as it fell. “So you’re first in line!”

Ingraham gasped and boosted sideways, firing her mini-turrets. Nadia hurtled through the air as a corkscrew, boosted by blood jets from her thighs and tail, to try and cut her off. Cornered, the medic raised her hull shield just in time to block Nadia’s x-slash, but the feral had momentum on her side. “How’s this for a heel?” she grinned, somersaulting to bring her axe kick down overhead. Ingraham narrowly raised her shield to take the blow, prompting Nadia to realize that she hadn’t thought about anything after that. Seizing her chance, her opponent put all of her strength into a shield bash to throw her off, but as Nadia sailed off the persistent feral just airdashed back in. This time she saw Ingraham’s attempt to defend herself coming, and from her blood conjured a copycat to shoot down, grab hold of the shipgirl’s shield arm, and peel it away like the lid of a can. Ingraham panicked, and in that moment Nadia dove down, her extended arms spinning like drills. “Points for trying!” Her ruthless Feral Edge drove Ingraham into the water, but before Nadia could pierce too deep, an anchor shot hooked around her bicep.

“Huh? …NyaaaAAAAA!” The feral went flying, whipped around by Massachusetts’ superstrength like a giant meteor hammer. Nadia circled around, yowling the whole time, until the battleship slammed her against the water. When pulled from the sea for another slam, a dazed and disoriented Nadia yelled, “Anyone!? Need a hand here!”

Nadia would soon get her help as she could hear a verr-ing sound as Susie came to intercept Massachusetts with her mech, the robot girl having been fully healed by Blazermate in the meantime. The healer bot then came into view and started to heal Nadia, saying. ”This is one chaotic battle. I’ve got charge now though.” Blazermate said as Susie inside her mech clashed with Massachusetts, Susie learning that she had to be a bit more careful with her business suit now.

Following a tackle from Susie’s business suit, Massachusetts lost control of her anchor, and Nadia slipped free to plunge, flailing, into the ocean. When she bobbed to the surface she found the welcome sight of Blazermate to heal her bruises, broken bones, and other symptoms of intense impact damage. “Thanks a million,” she sighed, relieved that the throbbing was coming to an end. She kept her eyes on the shipgirl, currently outmaneuvering and putting shots into Susie’s mech only to find it surprisingly resilient. Now that she’d been taught to cover her cockpit with the business suit’s arms, the little robot was soaking up the punishment no problem. With such tech totally foreign to Nadia, she couldn’t help but admire the impressive battle machine. “With her around, we got this, no problem,” the feral announced.

Unfortunately for Susie, Ingraham had arrived, too. With her own critical injuries taken care of, she didn’t even need to risk getting close to the fight thanks to her drones, which she could send to undo Masachusetts’ wounds from afar. “That one’s gonna be a pain in the boat, though. It kinda feels like a me-dic move, but maybe you could take her out? I mean, healers fightin’ one another, that’s only fair, right?” Without waiting for a reply, Nadia dove underwater and took off swimming toward the battle.

”Yeah, I might as well… I’ve got full charge so it's going to huuurt. Just don’t die.” Blazermate said. It sucked there was no spot to put down the engineer and her sentry nearby, so she’d have to go fight this person one on one. At least she had full charge, so some shenanigans could happen. And if she got a zombie medic, that could be neat.

Blazermate looked around for this ‘ranged healer’ who probably wasn’t much of a fighter, making sure she wasn’t being protected by any of her allies either. In a one on one fight, Blazermate figured she could win vs another support medabot no problem, and with her charge and shield ready, she could do some decent damage as well.

Going at a high angle, trying to keep the sun behind her to cloak her approach, and was able to safely approach the other team’s medic with the rest of their team being distracted. That was the downside of being a ranged healer, you were out of the perception of your allies and you were only really noticed when it was too late. Coming down on Ingraham with her ubersaw first, followed by a bite from her shield, Blazermate was ready for a one on one fight. Although considering she was going to use her energy shield for massive damage and defense, it might not be a fun fight for the other medic.

“Ah! Get away!” The glasses-wearing shipgirl immediately raised both of her rigging’s shield arms when Blazermate came down on her, stopping her assassination attempt in its tracks. “Leave me alone!” Her mini-turrets started pelting her assailant, and though they did low damage, the Medabot would need to get around her defense to take her out. And to do that, she went with her plan of deploying her projectile shield, both blocking all the gunfire from the shipgirl and causing a piercing, plasma shield appear in front of her which did intense damage to the shipgirl while she was stuck inside it. And Blazermate would make sure to keep her inside it with her greater mobility. Ingraham cried out in pain as she found that her attempts to break free were in vain. She commanded every drone she possessed to begin healing her at once, but it only prolonged her torment, and Blazermate wasn’t about to relent. After a few agonizing moments with no escape, Ingraham gave up, and dismissed her drones in order to hasten her demise. “I’m sorry, everyone.” She unceremoniously fizzled out, her drones flown off to aid Massachusetts as the lone medic’s final act. Blazermate was a bit surprised at just how fast that shield ripped through that medic’s hp. Apparently that was another downside of being ranged, you had not much in the way of defenses as well.

Susie meanwhile, being in a fight nearby Blazermate, was keeping Massachusetts busy with her business suit. While her opponent possessed some serious firepower, she was having some difficulty dealing enough damage to Susie’s business suit thanks to its raw tankiness. And since Susie knew now to protect her cockpit, she had to use the other methods of attack with her mech, including missiles and the drill on the bottom which really hurt when it hit. Massachusetts’ speed and maneuverability, paired with her mini-turrets for AA purposes, meant that Susie’s efforts at return fire came to naught. “Pretty tough, aren’t you?” the battleship remarked. “You won’t cry if I hit you, will you?”

As she swam closer Nadia sneaked a peek above the surface, trying to find an in. Her first idea had been to climb on top of the business suit and get Susie to throw her, but that looked less feasible by the second. It would only reveal her, make her a target, and make sure Massachusetts knew to stay away. Just how would she get her paws on this elusive, hard-hitting enemy..?

Nadia swam closer, homing in on her target despite the shipgirl’s erratic movement. It took a few moments, but she managed to put herself right in Massachusett’s path, and as her enemy skated overhead Nadia reached up to seize one of her anchors. Massachusetts sped by without noticing until the chain unwound to its full length and began to pull the feral behind her, first on her rear and then on her feet as she found her balance, her tail used as a support. The battleship looked over her shoulder to find Nadia water skiing, a huge grin on her face, and Nadia waved cheekily back at her. Leaving Susie behind, Massachusetts zig-zagged and turned to shake her opponent off, but Nadia would not be dislodged; her grip, core strength, and balance were too great. Her cannons thundered , but at these speeds her shots went wide. Her eyebrow twitched. “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. But that’s enough..” Massachusetts span around, slowed to a stop, and took hold of her chain for a powerful yank.

“Whoa!” Nadia found herself pulled off her feet by the battleship’s superstrength yet again. As she sailed toward her opponent, Massachusetts picked up speed and leaped to meet her in the air, the other anchor held above her head. Cat and boat came together in a flash, with the latter bringing her bludgeon down in a bone-crushing diagonal chop. Fueled by adrenaline, Nadia separated at the bicep and thigh, and the anchor passed through. She breezed past Massachusetts without making contact, but she left something behind. “Gotcha!” Twisting around, she belted out a wad of muscle from both sides, and once they made contact the fibers bound together to reconnect Nadia’s shoulder -as well as her momentum- to the arm with claws fastened around the shipgirl’s throat. “Sorry, lady,” the feral winced, steeling herself. “Maybe necks time!”

The fibers went taut, and the forces at play did their jobs. Both combatants hit the water at the same time, but while Nadia dove beneath, Massachusetts belly-flopped. It was a moment before the cat burglar rose to the surface, but when she dared to look over her blood nearly froze. She watched her opponent stagger to her feet on the water, soaked through, then turn to look Nadia’s way. How is she alive after that!? her mind screamed. Can this woman not die? After a moment though she got her answer. Ingraham’s drones revealed themselves by surrounding Massachusetts, having healed her back from the brink of death. Something primal burned in the woman’ eyes, an anger fueled by both pain and horror, and Nadia’s ears instinctively flattened as she gulped.

Thanks to Nadia able to pin down the evasive Massachusetts, Susie was able to gain some ground. Blazermate meanwhile, having finished her fight with the medic, also came to assist the cat girl with her fight. She had no shield, but her medigun glowed with a full uber charge ready to help. When she came to a stop however, Massachusetts abruptly lambasted her with a six-shot salvo her cannon batteries. The significance of the drones’ arrival had not been lost on her.

Blazermate had been expecting some kind of return fire, and while she had used her projectile shield, she still had something else. When the shots were about to connect, Blazermate hit her ubercharge, and while Massachusetts saw her shots land and hit the medabot dead on, from the smoke emerged said medabot, unharmed and glowing metallic blue. She then put her medigun on Nadia, which gave her the same effect. ”I’ll get the drones, you get the shipgirl. ” Blazermate said. And with Blazermate focusing on the shipgirl herself, all her weak points were highlighted for everyone to target. Susie meanwhile was closing in, and would give Nadia a good spot to anchor herself, as the feral had been having issues fighting on the water without a firm spot to land.

For a moment it looked like the arrival of the Seeker’s resident support hero would end in disaster, but Blazermate’s uber saved the day. “Ya had me goin’ for a second there,'' Nadia admitted as her ally flew in to link up. Massachusetts elected to hold fire once she saw the futility of even direct impacts with her foes shielded like this, watching grimly as the seconds ticked down. Neither could get close enough to get any more use out of the ubercharge in the time they had left. As Susie floated in over the water her gaze shifted to take stock of the new threat. That clumsy metal hulk couldn’t hit her, and Susie seemed to know it, flying over to offer Nadia a hand instead. Still, three against one, with no sign of Rip Tide nearby.

“It’ll take a few more of you to make this a fair fight,” she taunted, her voice a little more gravelly than before.

Nadia jumped up from the water and landed on the back of the business suit, holding on in a position where she’d be shielded from shots in the front. She felt conflicted. The pragmatic part of her urged her to use everything to her advantage. This was a life-or-death fight, after all; what mattered was to win. But she admired this woman, both her strength and her sheer tenacity. While she hid it with jokes, she felt bad enough about her intent to claim her opponent’s life and spirit already. If Massachusetts met a cheap end, it would leave a bad taste in her mouth, the feral just knew it. “Go for the drones then,” Nadia said to Blazermate. “And Susie, get me close, if ya don’t mind. But after that, ya both gotta buzz off.” She lowered her eyebrows, eyes on the prize. “She’s mine.”

”Uh sure. Just don’t die.” Blazermate said, a bit concerned with how serious Nadia was getting fighting this shipgirl. Susie shrugged, not really caring either way. With Blazermate being the fastest of the group, she had to hold back a bit with the other two for a little bit to give them both overheals before flying around, punching the drones with her ubersaw and trying to avoid the shots from the shipgirl. Susie meanwhile did what she was suggested to do, and brought Nadia to the shipgirl. Susie would prefer to shove a drill into this evasive shipgirl if she could, but… well she was just too fast and Susie would have to go find someone who was less dodgy to pulverize.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Nadia assured her friend under her breath as the trio began to move. To think, yesterday the two of them had been scheming about how to win Ace over, and now they worked together to orchestrate a stranger’s demise. How far they’d come. She took a deep breath. “I can’t.”

They approached Massachusetts together, just far enough apart to split their foe’s attention. The shipgirl divided her gunfire between Susie and Blazermate, allotting each one rigging arm apiece in the hopes of bringing them down. Nadia braced herself, but her ride was tough, and soldiered on through the bombardment with its armored arms raised. When she got close enough, Massachusetts began to use her anchors as well, whipping them around on their chains with crushing force. Her punishment left dents and tears in the armor of both Susie’s business suit and Blazermate’s chassis, but the Seekers made it. An assortment of missiles from Susie helped Blazermate take on the somewhat sluggish medical drones, picking them off one at a time, and when Susie got close enough she grabbed hold of Nadia to hurl her like a baseball.

Massachusetts sidestepped the living projectile, swinging her anchor as she did. This time Nadia clashed with her, in a bone-jarring impact, her own hardened fishtail wielded like a battleax. When the shipgirl’s strength won out she flung Nadia away, but before she could sail into the drink the cat burglar expelled a surge of blood from her tail, boosting her back toward Massachusetts as her foe tried to shatter her like a shot put. As she flew in Nadia hurled her tail down, saw it sent flying by an anchor whack, and extended her foot for another painful kick to the jaw. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the opening she thought it was. Massachusetts launched her anchor and caught Nadia out of the air, swinging her around in a circle overhead before she brought the chain down into the ocean. Hitting water at that speed compared to hitting concrete, but when the feline shape crashed down, the battleship couldn’t help but notice the wrong coloration of the blur at the end of her slam.

The next second a high-speed forearm drilled into her back, fired from overhead, and Massachusetts turned with a pained grimace to see her enemy dropping toward her. Nadia had parted herself to escape the hook and put a copycat on the line instead. Before her opponent could counterattack, the feral spiked her own head to hit Massachusetts’, then descended with a somersault slash-talon scratch-knee shot combo into an axe kick. She hit the water, but when an enraged Massachusetts moved to capitalize, Nadia’s head fell upon her. “Omnomnomnomnom!” It chewed relentlessly, all over the shipgirl’s body until Massachusetts grabbed it by the ears and kneed her in the nose, breaking it. As she raised it to hurl it away, Nadia’s body burst up from below with an uppercut to the chin, flipping over her to seize both head and missing arm before landing on Massachusetts’ back, seated on her tower connector. In an instant she had her opponent in a headlock, but the battleship wasn’t about to let her foe slice her throat again. After a moment of straining against her attacker she pivoted her cannons inward. Nadia realized what was happening and tried to jump away, but got caught in the blast as Massachusetts blasted herself point-blank and flew into the air, burnt and torn.

Still, Nadia was nothing if not tenacious. She recovered midair and, using her blood jets to slow her fall, went for her new technique. “MRAAAAAAAAAOW!” the feral yowled as she let loose her blood rush, firing both arms down at her dazed adversary and snapping them back in rapid succession. Her furious flurry of long-range punches hammered Massachusetts over and over, but against all odds the battleship got her beatdown under control, crossed her arms before her head, and pushed straight into the barrage. Nadia’s eyes widened as the shipgirl got closer and closer, until with a final burst of speed Massachusetts burst forward with a revolving anchor slam straight to Nadia’s side, just below her ribcage. It cut straight to the spine, paralyzing the feral with pain.

Massachusetts exhaled slowly, her breathing heavy. Though bruised, bloody, and carved like a Thanksgiving Turkey, she held Nadia’s weight aloft on her anchor. The catgirl had to give her enemy some credit: she was tough as nails. “Look at you, making me get serious like this,” Massachusetts told her. “But this is it.”

She drove in her other anchor from the opposite side, kicked Nadia to send her flying, and at the end of her chains wrenched the heavy axeblades loose. Nadia screamed as the brutal technique split her horizontally in half across the belly button, then clenched her jaw as she tried to push through. Even with her numbness, this hurt a lot. More than anything in recent memory, except maybe that shark giant from Carcass Isle. She scarcely even felt her halves hit the water.

But…compared to then? When that bitch Black Dahlia carved her into pieces, fresh from the horror of watching her family butchered before her eyes? This was nothing.

Massachusetts skated in to make sure that she finished her foe off. She found Nadia’s upper half floating on the surface. “You’re still alive,” she remarked, taken aback. “Whatever it is keeping you alive, I’m sure it’ll do wonders for me. To the winners go the spoils, after all.” The battleship lifted a limp Nadia up by one arm, her anchor back in the other. “You did well, but it’s time to sleep.”

“Heh…” the feral laughed suddenly, her voice small. “It’s been a while…since I got a new scar, huh?”

Her opponent furrowed her brow. “What?”

Blue blood surged from the fresh wound, forming into a doppelganger of Nadia’s lower half. With a grin she lifted her legs and rotated her lower half like helicopter rotors, cutting into Massachusetts’ own midsection. “Agh!” she gasped, tossing Nadia away as she swung her anchor. The copied lower half turned into a blast of blood that propelled Nadia out of the way. As she flew Nadia revved up her right arm, turning its forearm into a corkscrew drill of blood and bone. “One final…” she grimaced, taking aim with her left hand clamped around her right bicep. “Shot!”

The drill rocketed downward. Massachusetts swerved to the side just in time, her cannons trained on Nadia once more. “As if. Now…!” So focused was she that she didn’t notice Nadia’s lower half burst from the water behind her with a copied upper half and kick the drill upward until it was too late. The copycat airdashed up to grab the arm, then plunged it into her foe’s back and out through the abdomen. Massachusetts seized up, let out a small, choked grunt, and died.

Her ashes diffused into the water between Nadia’s halves as the badly-wounded feral paddled them together. Gingerly she reattached them whilst floating on her back, wincing at the enormous fresh scar. “Ow, ow, owww. My poor…organs.”

”Jeez… I leave for like 15 seconds and your already in this poor of a shape. Your like a berserker medabot.” Blazermate said, appearing after the fight seemed over, giving Nadia some healing beam magic. ”I healed up Susie and she's off helping the others, I’ll be joining them soon but yeah, gotta get you back up to working order. At least this’ll give me another zappy shield of DEATH.” Blazermate said, a bit too eager to get her energy shield and use it to zap one of their enemies to dust like the medical shipgirl she had done earlier. She had gotten a taste of that shield’s power and she wanted to abuse it now.

Nadia sighed in relief as the healing washed over her, closing her eyes for a moment. Even when restored to one hundred percent, she figured that massive new scar would remain as a new separation point. Useful? For sure. Pleasant? No way. Aesthetic…? Very doubtful. But at least the feral had something to help with that. Once her condition improved, she grabbed Massachusett’s spirit. “You were one tough beach,” she punned. “From now on, you’re gonna help meowt.” She placed the spirit in her heart, and transformed.

For Nadia

Notable Spirit Consumed:
Massachusetts
The host has gotten a little taller, and her lithe, wiry physique has gained a notably fuller figure. Her scars are now a bright silver-white, with lines branching off a short ways in either direction like tron lines. Her outfit's changed to a black-and-blue two-piece swimsuit beneath a baggy-sleeved zip-up hoodie jacket and spats shorts, both colored with their inner two fourths black and their outer two-fourths sky blue. Her left eye's schlera is white again with a blue iris, while her right is now red, both of which have a downward gradient to her original aquamarine. Her hair is much longer but still flowing, reaching her lower back, and the inside is black. There is a small red mark on her forehead that resembles downward-facing fishbones. Her personality has become a more strong-willed, competitive, and tenacious. This spirit confers the Power Ship-shape Type L, creating a puck-shaped rigging harness that attaches at the back of her waist. It has no armor, guns, or stabilizers, but inside the drum is chain for the two grappling hook-sized anchors that hang down from the sides, and its light weight offers good speed across water. This spirit also confers the Weakness 2,700 Pounds of Justice, increasing her effective weight by 2.7 times via density. This lowers her air mobility, makes her easier to combo, and makes her harder to be carried, lifted, or thrown

As the lightshow died down, Nadia rose, only too happy to feel the strange but liberating sensation of repelling the ocean’s surface beneath her once more. She took a deep breath as she got to her feet, a little shaky for a moment, then flipped her new long hair with both hands to get the water off. “Well, I’ll have to do somethin’ about all this,” she muttered, excising a small bit of muscle fiber to tie her hair up into a big, voluminous high ponytail. She then unzipped her new hoodie, noting the change in her outfit as she felt the sea breeze on her skin. She felt tougher, bigger, and stronger–in a word, powerful. And, well, pretty hot, which the selfish Nadia was not-so-secretly happy about. “Well, it had to happen schooner or later,” she assured herself, rotating her shoulders as she cracked her neck. “Whoever’s up next is in for a hull of a time!”

Results

Party: Blazermate, Ms Fortune, Susie
Encounter Reward: +10 EXP
Additional Reward: Ingraham spirit, Massachusetts spirit

World of Light

Level 9 Sectonia (holding 3 level up) - (14/90)

Location: Twilight Town
Word Count: Less than 750

Sectonia took in the tour Roxas was giving her, enjoying a place that was both decent looking, and wasn't in one extreme temperature or another. Although the boy showed her things that, for the most part, didn't really interest her too much. He was being friendly enough however, and Sectonia figured fairly quickly that Roxas had never interacted with royalty before. Still, the lack of things she was interested in did bore her near the end. Roxas, also not being sure of exactly what he was doing, then shared a blue ice cream bar on a stick with Sectonia and the others, saying it was his favorite, something called sea salt ice cream.

Sectonia tried the ice cream, but she knew from the start she probably wouldn't like it. Salt was something that didn't really agree with her pallet, so only after a lick or two, she was done with the bar. While looking for a way to dispose of it without being too rude to her new minion, the others got off the train and the two groups were going to run into each other. Poppi then made the same observation Sectonia had made with Roxas, and while the boy was distracted, she more or less shoved the ice cream bar at Tora to get rid of it.

More distractions soon came with some kids using what looked like cobbled together vehicles to race along the streets, nearly hitting everyone. Sectonia could easily dodge them by flying up a bit, but the others had to be a bit more careful. After a bit of arguing, eventually Tora had gotten an idea and gestured for everyone else to follow him to where these kids had made their vehicles, being the gearhead he was. While this wasn't much of interest to Sectonia, she really had nothing better to do. So she figured that maybe something could happen that'd amuse her while they waited for the others they were supposed to meet get here. She had some requests to give Peach, as she wasn't really all that happy with the spirit she had decided to try to fuse with in the desert. Sure it had some nice floral patterns, but the rest it gave was... just not to her liking. It made her look more bestial than beautiful, and that was an issue for her.