Archmage MC

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (21/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (44/120)
Level 6 Susie - (3/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 1619

Susie and Roland didn't have as much luck as some of the others of figuring out where the Hermits were, and as they rejoined the group alongside Blazermate who had just been helping out the town passively. The others had found a proper way to get in contact with the hermits, and it was about time to go and see them. And when they got there, it seemed that they'd all be getting into another fight.

Still, before that, both Susie and Roland caught some of what they said in the converstaion they ended up easedropping on for a little bit, about how the hermits 'traded in information'. Both knew what that meant, but in their own ways. Blazermate meanwhile, not really having to deal with subtly like that, just bemoaned. "There has got to be a reason everyone wants to fight all the time. You usually only robattle once or twice a day normally..." if only she knew what some of her allies in other areas knew...

Well, there wasn't much for it since they were going into a fight, so the group chose their opponent. Blazermate, as she noraally did, stayed out of the way as best as she could, summoning her engineer striker to give her a turret for cover while she flew and healed whoever needed it. Since she could fly through the air, a vast majority of the hermit forces couldn't even touch her. A few would throw molotovs at her, but hitting a fast airborn target wasn't easy with such throwables. The gun drones they threw her way meanwhile were a bit more trouble.

Susie decided to fight the person who attacked using chemical warfare. Being a robot, she was immune to most of the things and Lester was well aware of this fact. Susie decided to take this person not only to show that she could fight well and smartly, but also because she was more or less looking for something worthwhile in this area if these 'hermits' were so powerful and tech savvy. Lester meanwhile attempted to try to change her opponent to someone that could do reliable damage and that she could reliably fight, but the person she tried to swap with, Kabal, was already engaged with someone and Susie, knowing how to abuse the whole 'Galeem' state, fired a shot on Lester with her blaster which got her attention and forced her to fight Susie instead of using her poison to harm all her organic team members.

Speaking of Kabal, he was fighting Roland, one of the few people who could probably keep up with his speed. Keeping him from assisting Lester, Roland clashed and intercepted his first move with his own, a clang of hooks against swords. As the clash finished, due to Roland's memories of the library ability, a short storybook picture appeared in the minds of everyone, A picture of thousands of stylized gothic eyes with the words "Big Bird with its many eyes, watched over the forest to seek trespassers. For Big Bird's eyes could see very far, and things we cannot see." being heard as a creek of an ancient forest could be faintly heard. This didn't interrupt their vision, but there was some creeping dread of what that meant.(Big Eyes) This had the effect of Enchanting Kabal, making him more likely to target Roland, forcing Roland to take more damage from Kabal, but also increasing his power when attacking Kabal and healing slightly upon successfully landing an attack.

The second clash between Roland and Kabal didn't go nearly as well as the first, with Roland's hammers being overpowered by Kabal's quick and brutal combo string with his hatchets. Roland countered the next onrush with his own using his two handed sword, but only managing to parry Kabal, instead of overpowering him. The next memory triggered, with another story page manifesting, a message in that same storyboard narrating voice saying. "To keep the forest's peace, Long Bird weighted the sin of those who entered the forest. For Long Bird's scales were fair and just, and could weigh any and all kinds of sin." giving Roland (Long Arms), making him immune to all types of status damage, including the bleeding that Kabal would inflict with his next series of attacks that would overpower Roland's counter.

Susie meanwhile had flown up in her transporter after blasting Lester a bit with her blaster to keep her aggroed, Lester commanding some of the less prominent hermit goons to attack Susie and assist her, as her poison was ineffective on the robot secretary, instead needing to use their weapons as weird makeshift explosives instead of their intended use of slow acting poisons. Susie flew up to not only dodge the rush of the melee reinforcements, but to summon her business suit to deal with the new oncommers. Crashing down in her mech, Susie caused those below her to scatter to not be crushed. Those that had molotovs waited to throw them at her when given the signal from Lester, but they did deploy a drone or two to give them some ranged support. Susie, seeing one of the hermits that had dove out of the way, picked them up and threw them at one of the drones to destroy it, before getting in a boxing match with a few of the others and trying to toss bodies at Lester to keep her distracted and clear some space to Susie could get into position to end the fight.

Blazermate did what she did, heal and well, heal. Her engineer turret had defended her from a few of the drones aimed at her, but not being stupid, the hermits then threw their molotovs at the much easier to hit sentry eventually destroying it. This exposed Blazermate to more of the gun drones, but she had been healing enough to at least defend herself from them a bit more with her projectile shield, either blocking or zapping the drones. While this was temporary, hermit didn't know that and as Blazermate healed up Roland who had taken another losing clash from Kabal as he was unable to keep up with his speed with Kabal leaving his hatchet in Roland after a hit, before zooming behind him to rip it out. Kabal noticed Blazermate was a healer as the damage he had recently inflicted upon Roland was disappearing fairly fast. Since he was unable to really get her in a melee combo like he could Roland, he did show something he could do that he hadn't used yet, and threw his hatchets at the flying medabot. While Roland didn't know what this attack would do, he did get in the way and deflect them with his club. "Your fight is with me." Roland said, trying to get in a cool one liner as he moved in on Kabal with his giant sword and crashing through the defense that Kabal put up to protect himself.

Susie having cleared a few of the goons around her mech, had also cleared herself to be open to a combo move from Lester and the few of her support left that let her combo her explosive gas and their molotovs to make a large explosion around Susie's business suit. The suit absorbed most of the explosion, and thanks to all the smoke it caused, Susie was able to fly out with her transporter under a smoke cover and get up and over Lester as she looked into the explosion she caused to see if it took out the large mech. This let Susie decend from above and pick up Lester and piledrive her into the ground, causing a bit of a shockwave that also caused whoever was near her to stumble and knocking the poor lady out.

Roland meanwhile had gotten to emotion level 3, and with it, had gotten his new memory. With a chirpy voice saying "If I punished them, then there won’t be any more bad people, right?" (Punishment), giving him his next power. And at this time he was now moving on par with Kabal in speed, and with his new ability Punishment, was now winning these clashes and getting some damage on him. As whenever he took damage from Kabal, Roland's next attack was much stronger and could overpower his attack. And with Blazermate healing up Roland when he got hit and Roland throwing himself to intercept the counter attack from Kabal, the two were keeping each other up pretty well as Roland made some progress on widdling down and beating Kabal. As Roland started to get the upper hand on Kabal, and only grew in power as he fought, Kabal was still moving as he always did. And while Kabal had the upper hand at the start of the fight, Roland had quickly caught up and was surpassing him.

Seeing this, Kabal decided enough was enough, and after parrying Roland's dagger strike, went in to use everything he had in a large combo. Having broken through Roland's attack once again, this caused Roland to falter and get Staggered. While Roland had seen everything Kabal had at this point, Kabal was going in for the most brutal moves he could including enhanced versions of his hook stab and slam. And with Roland staggered, he was fully open to this barrage. Seeing Roland taking a large amount of damage, Blazermate ubered him halfway through Kabal's combo, causing Kabal to go from doing massive damage, to no damage to Roland and allowing him to recover from his momentary lapse. And with this inability to be hurt, Roland took this into his advantage to do his own combo using his gun, swords, and giant sword to out power Kabal and put him in a wounded dizzy state before the combatant collapsed from his battle damage leaving Roland the winner of his fight. Roland gave Blazermate a smile and a thumbs up, as something like her was rare even in the advanced technological city he was from and extremely helpful for a fight like this.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (18/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (41/120)
Level 6 Susie - (0/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: Less than 750

As they progressed through the area, the two bot ladies and Roland were not too enthusiastic with what they saw. Blazermate was constantly worried about Red Shift herself, since it was some super aliment she couldn't help anyone with, and from what little she could understand or gather, even the low levels of red shift if exposed long enough would turn people crazy in a depressed way, from what she could tel by looking at the towns people around here. There wasn't really much of interest for Susie herself around here from what she could tell as she went through the area. And finally Roland was just apathetic to the suffering of the area, having seen this and far worse from the backstreets. It sucked sure, but there wasn't all that much he could do about it right now, so there wasn't much point in putting any brain power behind it.

Still, even with her apprehension about the whole red shift stuff, if she came about someone who was injured that wasn't outright hostile, she wasn't against healing them to get them off their feet. Susie and Roland meanwhile decided to go on that lead Blazermate had found, looking for that path that was mentioned that would lead them to the seeming location of the hermits. Although not knowing the area super well, they would have to ask around.

Seeing the two robot ladies as mere robots, some of the more nefarious people in the area attempted to remote hack them. They'd find no success however, as Blazermate's medabot nature combined with her lack of any wireless connection capabilities made her oblivious to the attempts. Susie, asking around with Roland meanwhile, was just too complex of a robot to hack. But unlike Blazermate, she knew someone was trying to do so, commenting. "It seems someone thinks they can take control of me. They had better not show themselves, otherwise they might have a fun meeting with my blaster." This made Roland think. He knew a fully robotic woman back before all of this, and not once did either of them think about 'hacking'. And for a moment, he was reminded of Angela while looking at Susie, but only for a split second.

"There weren't any pure AI robots where I'm from. The Head outlawed pure AI, and because of that no one really hacks it. Do you have to worry about that often?" Roland asked Susie, curious as to how... something like that would work. Susie replied. "Most aren't dumb enough to try. Haltman Works is the most advanced corporation in the galaxy and we have made sure to not allow our own products to be turned against us or our paying customers. So its not really 'worry', just annoyance if anything." Susie said. Roland nodded, before saying. "I heard you mention that name once before. What exactly does your company do?" In truth Roland was only half curious, as he wasn't a fan of the Wings or their singularities form his world, but this was something that was apparently galaxy wide not from his world, so maybe it wouldn't be as cruel as he was used to.

That thought would be quickly quashed as he heard Susie's little sales pitch of her company. Unlike Blazermate though, he paid full attention, and while the 'wishes' part sounded like BS, the whole 'harvest worlds' bit was kind of like something he expected. "So you like, mine worlds or something? That's impressive I guess. Where I'm from, we have corporations that have things called 'singularities' that are basically magic. Like making infinite resources from black holes or packaging time and other weird stuff." Roland said. Little did he know Susie hadn't mentioned the whole 'mechanizing' the world before harvesting it, which would be something almost straight from his world in scope and craziness. Susie herself was intrigued about what Roland had said as well, but she decided it would be better to ask him about that stuff when they were in a more private area. Although she got the idea that he might not know all that much about it anyway besides the basics.

World of Light

Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (14/110)
Location: The Under - Kingdom's edge
Word Count: Less than 750.

Sectonia did ask Kamek about these 'past adventures' of Bowser, and things sounded pretty surreal overall. She knew Kamek wasn't one to lie either, so that just made things more concerning if anything. "Hmm... No wonder why there is so much distrust for this 'ganondorf' if that happened. And from your stories, he tends to be betrayed quite often. He is quite the trusting person." Sectonia said, thinking about it. With how grandiose, yet even grounded these stories had been, it was... again, concerning yet comforting n a way. "I find Bowser boarish at times, but I'd be lying if I said he hasn't earned my respect for his power alone. You can tell him he doesn't have to watch his back with me at least. I doubt his plans and my plans conflict, I'm not interested in Peach and betraying allies would make for a poor kingdom." Sectonia did find the whole 'wedding' thing amusing at least. Perhaps they had just come from that, with Bowser having wore that suit for awhile. This did lead the the morbid question of Bowser being a widower or something, something Kamek was sheepish to answer and deflected with another tale. Sectonia could get the hint, and this story did explain two people she met. One that she had taken the spirit of, and the other she had turned into a striker. Quite interesting they were involved in some multiversal plot.

Sectonia overall enjoyed the strange stories as the two of them ascended easily through the clouds and eventaully made their way to their next destination, being met by... honestly a shady fellow, literally! Apparently to get to the next area, they had to go through some kind of... weird resort or something? And had to sign some contract? Well with how long it was, Sectonia wasn't going to sign it blindly like a few of the others were, and took some time to read it. While she knew statecraft, legal mombu jumbo wasn't her forte as she often just overpowered what caused her issues. And it seemed like this would be one of these times as the terms looped and twisted and turned in ways that she hadn't seen before and confused her enough that she decided on that fallback and signed, although she was one of the later signs because of that.

And overpower it seemed the name of the game was, as apparently somewhere in that scroll was 'you forfeit your soul to the dungeon boss' or something like that. And this was some crypt, which denizens seemed to dance to the beat. Those that had signed the contract could also feel the music flow through them, and Sectonia would find if she didn't move or attack to the beat things were quite annoying in general with her constantly seeming to 'flinch' "Hmph... This is going to be frustrating." Sectonia said, used to dancing to more opulent music than this. She'd also have to control her motions a bit so that she didn't flail about, especially with her able to knock over a few of the smaller people if she did with her abdomin.

She took her time here to figure out how her spells and such worked here. She found her sword swipes and her faster spells, including those new spells she had just learned, worked totally fine if kept on beat. But her longer spells such as summoning her antilions and her rings of light were no gos unless the song was slower. It also seemed like her Haste wasn't as good here, but slowing down an area might be powerful in combat perhaps, if it made the enemies flinch to the beat of the music. "Hm... Well... this is new." Sectonia said, more perplexed than anything. "i have a feeling this "Necrodancer" might have one of those mask shards, if the pattern repeats itself. I suppose we have some work to do." Sectonia said, joining the others in having a snack. She had gotten a great amount of her fill since pizza tower, and eating too much before a stressful dance session would be bad, so she just had a little bit of her dessert pizzas for now.

World of Light

Nobody’s Here: Shmuetax

Word Count: 2373 (+3)

”Well then-” Kamek, who had also expected the hooded figure to vamoose on out of there once she’d pointed them in the right direction vamoose, began once it was clear that this one would be sticking around ”- I don’t suppose you’d be open to answering some more questions we have?” before glancing at the others for support in this.

He did this just in time to see Rika launch herself into the air via featherfall rune, the ship girl leading the way up the platforming challenge by virtue of not being in any danger whatsoever thanks to said rune’s primary feature. Bowser meanwhile gave him a thumbs up of support, before immediately leaving via leaping up a cloud as well, while finally Jr was busy tinkering around with a commendation of his new ferromancy to weld some of the Zonai machine parts they’d gotten earlier onto a pogostick, prompting Kamek to mentally direct his toadies over be available should the mad contraption he was creating fail to live up to expectations.

With the royals to whom he was advisor to all uninterested, he ended up looking elsewhere for support/interest. Sectonia, both being able to fly and bypass the platforming challenge above, and more astute than the other royal, did stay behind to ask her questions as well. Although she doubted she would get much of anything. His fellow spellcaster in Primrose lingered behind as well, curious to hear the hooded person’s answers. During the time she’d spent with Kamek so far she’d found the old Koopa to be very thorough, but she was sure she’d have a few questions of her own to help fill in the blanks. Assuming, of course, the young lady was willing to answer them.

The Organization girl herself looked far more interested in watching the less cerebral Seekers start their climb than answering any questions from Kamek, but after a moment she gave a shrug. "Ehh, I guess? Just don't ask anythin' shtewpid."

Ah, of course, Primrose thought to herself, amused. Let’s hope she isn’t one to equate simple ignorance with stupidity… The dancer thought the chances of that were slim.

”What do you know about these Consuls and their strange powers? It seems you know a fair amount about the area.” Sectonia asked, noting that these black robed figures and the letter named people seemed fundamentally different.

Her inquiry made the girl give a derisive huff. “Psh. Right tossers they are. There’s twenty-six of ‘em, one for every letter of the flippin’ alphabet, and they’ve got all kinds of nasty abilities. They’re the farmers in a world of sheep, pittin’ everyone against one another and gobblin’ ‘em up when they can’t fight anymore. Hats off to you lot for bumpin’ off P, that rotten little blighter ‘ad it comin’. Unfortunately, that leaves you with the Under’s other Consul, F, and he’s way worse. Sure, P was a problem, but at the end of the day he was just a bully, a bratty idjit spoiled rotten by too much power. F is smarter, meaner, and a whole lot stronger. He’s been after me for ages, and I nearly got myself killed just tryin’ to keep ‘im busy while you muppets mopped up P in the city, so take it from me. He can tap into spirits to use their powers, switchin’ ‘em out whenever he likes. So far I seen ‘im use six of ‘em. But he’s got somethin’ else, a trump card I en’t been able to pin down exactly. Somehow he moves me around in the blink of an eye. So when he shows that ugly mug of ‘is again, I hope you’re all good and ready.”

”I had the same experience when I tried to stand up to him. I was taking cover somewhere, and then in a flash I was back out in the open” Kamek added before theorizing ”Thinking about it, I might have ended up exactly where I was only a few moments earlier? P was able to jump back in time, so perhaps F can rewind it? It might be a common trend of abilities among them, though I certainly hope not. Take it from someone who has tried to use it in a scheme, time travel is quite the headache”

"Farmers, you say?" asked the deep voice of Ganondorf, who had also apparently elected to delay his climb. At first he had been busy binding one of the Spirits he collected earlier into a Striker. But now, he was becoming interested in this conversation, "If they are the farmers, then what does that make you? The wolves?" his analogy of course painted the Organization as a group that may not be any better than the Consuls, "If the name of your little club is anything to go by, it sounds to me like you're outnumbered two to one. While we seem to number at least equally to the Consuls if not more so. That all sounds to me like you need us more than we need you."

The warlord’s words seemed to make the kid sound more smug than ever, almost to the point that it sounded forced. “Heheheh, ya think so? Well, since you’re so smart, ‘ow about you wrap that thick ‘ead of yours ‘round this one. Let’s say I uh, I dunno, took a stick an’ snapped it in ‘alf. If someone offed me, would that fix the stick?” She held her hands up as if searching for an answer. “Eh, maybe I oughta put it in terms a big, tough bad guy like you can understand. If you went and slaughtered some poor village, and then some big ‘ero cut you down to take revenge, would that bring anyone back?”

Shaking her head, she crossed her arms again. “The universe en’t a big spring that Galeem’s keepin’ stretched out, just waitin’ to snap back into place the second you beat it. Once it’s outta the way, somebody’s gotta actually go and fix everythin’. Or, in our case...” Summoning her blade, she planted its head in the ground and leaned on the hilt casually. “Nobodies.”

Her sentiment was one that Primrose knew well. It also put some things concerning the Organization into perspective for her. Her own interactions with them had been limited, going off of the stories she'd heard from her fellow Seekers and how one of their members had helped them in the desert, it was quite clear that to her that the Organization and the Seekers of Light were working towards the same goal... even if they weren't exactly on the same side, so to speak. The secrecy surrounding them still cast their members in a suspicious light, but there could be any number of reasons for that. Primrose had her own guesses as to why, but perhaps the helpful young lady would enlighten them.

"It seems to me that if we want the same thing, more cooperation between our two groups would only benefit us - yet you hide most everything about you all." The dancer realized the hypocrisy in the words she’d said and those she was about to say, but she smiled in a way she hoped was disarming. "You would trust us enough to let us take care of the Guardians, but not with anything else?"

“Uh, no?” The girl’s tone suggested that this might be one of those ‘stupid questions’. “Look miss, I’m sure you’re all very strong and cool, but you lot en’t the first buncha ‘eroes to take a crack at the Guardians, and unless you’re really, REALLY lucky, you en’t gonna be the last neither. We’re not the expendable ones here, awright?” She sniffed. “I’m already stickin’ my neck out enough as it is.”

As I thought. Her remark didn't surprise Primrose in the slightest. Based on the information they'd painstakingly collected, she'd judged that this was the case. Why go to the effort to really incorporate would be heroes if they weren't likely to succeed? As much as being on the side left in the dark irked her, and mostly like quite a few of her allies as well, she really couldn't blame them.

"Then how long have you all been doing this for?"

This time, the Organization girl kept quiet for a couple seconds. Only after really thinking did she reply, her response accentuated with a noncommittal shrug. “I dunno. It all sorta blends together. The Clocks don’t tell what time it is, after all. Only ‘ow much is left.”

This made Ganondorf silently narrow his eyes, recalling what he saw in Holograd Castle. So it was important after all. But the man said nothing, not wishing to share information with this girl from the Organization.

”Clocks… Clock… Are you talking about some special type of clock? I was told of something called a ‘flame clock’ but is that what you're talking about? Do you know anything about those?” Sectonia said. She then thought for a moment, thinking, before saying. ”... How many ‘heroes’ have been before us, and how are you sure of all of this?”

“Yes, the Flame Clocks! Could you tell us anything more about them? We attempted to open one earlier, but even our combined efforts proved fruitless,” Rubick said, suddenly popping in. “Because of that, it’s rather difficult to perform research on them. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that those devices are sturdy.”

”And how did anyone else escape Galeem in the first place? Kirby was, as far as I am aware, the only person who was themselves aware of Galeem’s existence who survived its opening attack. No one else had time to prepare or anticipate the end” Kamek added.

Jesse had lingered near the outskirts of the conversation with her arms crossed. Only now did she realize she was looming or brooding again. She uncrossed her arms and cleared her throat to look a little more approachable and stepped in. Not exactly a vote of confidence. We have someone on our side but they view us more like a rising and falling tide than actual allies. Time left until what, anyway? The whole thing rubbed Jesse the wrong way.

What the Organization girl assumed would be the perfect spot to end the conversation, as evidenced by the drama of her vaguely ominous send-off, turned out to be merely a lull in the storm. As soon as Sectonia popped back in to ask about the clocks, the floodgates were open once more. Rubick and Kamek quickly piled on faster than the stranger could answer, and she recoiled as if from a pit of vipers. “Whoa, whoa, steady on!” she exclaimed, her hands held up placatingly. “Look, forget about the Flame Clocks, they don’t matter one way or the other to you lot. You’re free, innit? Free to focus on the stuff that really matters, eh mates?” She pointed a finger at the immense cavern’s distant roof. “There’s plenty you en’t aware of, and you don’t ‘ave to be, neither. And I en’t some encyclopedia, you ‘ear? Best crack on before I get tired of all these flippin’ questions.”

Upon hearing that she had no answers, Rubick lost interest in the topic immediately. No sense trying to find answers where there were none. Instead, he would turn to the Organization girl herself. She was a mystery, and Rubick wanted to see what abilities she possessed.

Sectonia could take the hint, this one wasn’t all that knowledgeable herself, or just wasn’t going to budge. Honestly due to how she spoke, memories of a certain king koopa surfaced for Sectonia, and that was the feeling she got from this person. ”Come on, Kamek. I got a feeling she knows about as much as your ‘king’. In her own methods and ways.” Sectonia said, offering to at least carry the mage up. It could be noted her tone wasn’t mocking or anything, more just ‘well, I guess that’s that.’ than anything.

”I’m quite sure his majesty has more experience in these things to be frank. He has, after all, been part of putting an end to two multidimensional crises already” Kamek replied, as both a refutation and a way to join in on the flippentry. He was in no need of being carried up, however, as he planned to simply teleport to the top once they were done here (and after supplying a flying steed or two for those who wished to bypass the climb as well).

”Hmm. Perhaps you could recount some of those tales if you are aware of them. If they really happened, it could give us all some insight on the bigger picture.” Sectonia said as Kamek gave his little jab at the organization member, declining Sectonia’s aid as he had it covered himself.

“Oh, sorry,” Jesse said dismissively in the Nobody’s direction. “Wouldn’t wanna make you mad. What are you gonna do, expend us even harder?” She said with mock fear in her voice.

“Any of these Consuls ever get offed before?” Jesse asked. “Would they have to find a replacement that had the same letter in their name, or would they just swap the letter over?” Those last two questions were rhetorical, obviously.

The group was certainly not subtle about their frustrations or disdain. Primrose chuckled lightly at Jesse’s comments as a few of them went back and forth badgering the poor girl. If they'd been trying to goad the hooded stranger into giving them more information, they were going about it the wrong way... but honestly it seemed they were just venting without an ulterior motive. Time to get a move on, then.

"Thanks for indulging us a little," Primrose said to the Organization member, the scarf around her neck beginning to glow as she turned to take her leave.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (17/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (40/120)
Level 5 Susie - (49/50) - (Holding 2 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 1269

When Goldlewis had found a gate, gone in, and come out with what H mentioned as only 1% redshift, Blazermate had to re-calibrate her sensors. She thought it was going to build really fast, but with Goldlewis being super, super high compared to everyone else, but only 1%, perhaps things wouldn't be as limited time wise as she thought. "Huh... well, go figure." Blazermate said, scratching her cheek. "Glad your still safe."

Taking back to the skies, Blazermate spotted some sort of lookout that was... injured? Well, he was for sure hurt. And a lookout would have a lot of info, since it was his job to actually look out around things. Figuring since they were looking for info, Blazermate did what she did, flew over and healed the guy and pulled him to a place of relative safety. He was grateful for the rescue, and much like his job said, he knew a lot. The gunner drone wasn't something Blazermate really needed, but she took it all the same since it would be rude to refuse a reward. The info about how to get to sector 5, and the warning, was nice either way, and Blazermte thanked the guy. She then flew back to inform Sandalphon so she could inform the others about what she had learned and found.

Susie meanwhile spotted the crates that Sandalphon was talking about. She used her transporter to head on over and grab a few, investigating them to see if they were worth anything before mentioning anything. She quickly found the crates were full of... basic things. While probably somewhat valuable in the area shes in, they weren't all that great. Still, loot was loot, so perhaps they could be useful. She still informed Sandalphon, saying. "I see the crates and I'm collecting them now. Have the others continue to look for information. " Susie flew to each crate, grabbing each item and not too enthused by what she found, finding some Medicine, some Gasoline Jelly, and an Electric Spike. All items that she guessed would be useful somewhere, but weren't super valuable. She'd let the others know what she found when she got back, perhaps they would find a use for such common items...

Susie has gained

Medicine x1, Gasoline Jelly x1, Energy Spike x1

Roland meanwhile was looking about the area himself. He had heard the report about crates from Sandalphon, and as he was moving through the town, he saw a rattling Cargo container. Since he hadn't seen these crates, he wondered if this is what she meant. Outside the crate was some dead flowers, but considering the area, that wasn't anything strange. Strange sounds could be heard from inside the cargo crate, and it was locked, but from what Roland could gather from the sounds, they sounded vaguely human. And from the looks of the crate, it was locked from the outside.

"With how crazy these people have seemed so far, I shouldn't be surprised one of them locked another in a crate." Roland said, rolling his eyes as he conjured one of his swords to break the lock on the crate with little effort. This was a mistake, as the thing that sounded human wasn't human, at all. It was another one of those Other monsters. Having its freedom, it immediately charged out and rushed at Roland, who himself got into a combat stance and began to fight, clashing its charge with his two handed Durndel and breaking through its initial attack, dealing very little damage.

At this time he was reminded of those monstrous abnormalities on the floor of language, and with that, tapped into said power. His first memory was that of Little Red Mercenary, who's voice echoed around Roland for everyone nearby to hear. "I’m a pro. I can handle that easily."(Prey), and with that, Roland struck the creature with his daggers and with that, a mark appeared on it as it was now his 'prey'. The creature still took almost no damage from this attack, with its next attack, an overhead smash, being clashed with by Roland's hammer. This broke Roland's attack however, and he took the damage instead.

The next attack came, and with that, Roland swapped back to his swords. A few slashes with its claws that Roland dodged, parried, clashed, and struck through. This reminded him of Red's nemesis, the Big Bad Wolf, who's gruff voice howled out "A wolf needs no name, it just obeys the role it was born to fit in…"(Role of the Wolf) around Roland, which came into effect immediately as Roland used his Counter on the creature's next attack, a slam from its helmet. This counter had managed to finally do enough damage to reveal its weak point, a mass of eyes.

The creature didn't like that however, and jumped away from Roland to initiate a special attack, where it stood on its hands and a blood like ooze dripped from its eyes and began to create a puddle in the area. Roland jumped on top of the crate this creature had been inside to avoid the puddle of liquid, pulling out his rifle to shoot at it in retaliation. Soon after it had done the attack, the ooze seeped into the ground, causing whatever plantlife it touched to wither and die. "Yikes, I've gotta watch out for that one." Roland said as he jumped off the crate as the ooze disappeared and came down on the creature with his giant sword, it now taking proper damage from his attacks at last with its head exposed.

Enraged by this, the creature began to thrash around wildly and slammed its body into Roland, who only managed to barely deflect its attack thanks to his recent buff. It didn't stop there though, and slashed at him again with its claws, which Roland clashed using his twin swords. The first two swipes of the creature broke through his clash, but Roland overpowered the third. He then used his hammer to smash in its head, dealing some damage as its next series of claw swipes clashed against the large hammer, dealing minimal damage to Roland.

Again Roland clashed with the creature, dealing significant damage as he pulled out Durndel again to slash at it and breaking its claw swipe attacks. This reminded him of that... mountain of smiling bodies, and with that, an echo of multiple voices saying "More bodies… will… make us… stronger…" (Absorbtion) chittered out, and Roland attacked once again using his mace this time. The monster, weak however, wasn't having that and as Roland was going in for the attack, did its ooze attack again, hitting Roland as it was much stronger than his mace.

"Yeah... that hurt..." he said, getting hit but not letting up on the damage and came at the creature with his lance, stabbing it three times and finally putting the thing down. A sickening squelching sound could be heard as Roland started to look much better. Not at full health, but darn well close as Absorbtion healed him at the death of this creature. And with that, the battle was over and he could claim the spirit as a prize. What he'd do with it, he wasn't sure yet. He could use a bit of a patch up either way... hey wasn't that blue robot a healer? He probably looked like he hit the ground a bit too hard right now, so getting topped up wasn't all that bad and he went to go back to the rest of the team, a spirit ready to be crushed in his hands.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (15/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (38/120)
Level 5 Susie - (47/50) - (Holding 2 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 977

Redshift was something Blazermate had heard she couldn't cure, and something she'd have to be wary of. Roland knew of this part of the Ever crisis too, but with how shady the city has been with his eyes opened, he wasn't as adverse to this as he would be. He still didn't like how the area looked though, with it being all dilapidated and ruined and everything. "Well, I heard the rumors of this place, but seeing it yourself puts it in a different perspective." Roland said, really not sure if this was the best idea.

"Well, I guess this is the first time I'm seeing this red shift. Best make a unique alert for it, since apparently I can't cleanse it and it going critical is instant death..." Blazermate said, looking at all of her allies and making note of their red shift levels. Although without a 'critical' example, she could only guess at what the values she was scanning meant.

"Finding this 'blue shift' stuff would be useful as well. Considering the... mental state of these people, being exposed for too long sounds horrible." Susie said, not liking the sight of this part of the city at all.

"Well, lets hope your intel was right and they are hiding something here. Walking into a death sentience isn't the greatest thing for one's health." Roland said.

With their aerial ability, Susie and Blazermate stayed just that, in the air, looking for whatever these 'hermits' were. Although they had nothing to go off of. Roland didn't have much either, but he knew the city better than the bot girls, so he at least had an idea of what he was looking for.

World of Light

Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (10/110)
Location: The Under - Hive
Word Count: Less than 750.

It seemed this false queen had a trump card all along, a powerful gravity spell that would have brought everyone into the honey pit if it wasn't for a combination of Sectonia's crystal platform, and knight Barnabee sacrificing himself in yet another 'final smash' to end the false queen and save everyone, avenging his queen. A queen that had been long dead everyone found out as they progressed into the throne room proper, Barnabee perishing soon after seeing his queen. A bit of a somber end all things considered.

However inside the chamber behind the throne room, the treasure room, three were a fair amount of very nice goodies. The most potent of which being an orb that, when Nadia touched it, returned her back to normal, with all the stuff she had fused with laid out before her. And with that choice, Nadia could change how she fused with stuff, and all in all, it was a very powerful item. Speaking of spirits, Sectonia grabbed the rumor spirit and alongside the iron queen spirit she was going to put into her wings using the Snackvator, decided to fuse. She wasn't sure exactly how the rumor one would go, just placing it on a part would probably be.... pretty poor. She did take a final smash to remove from the board, so there was that. Although Sectonia hoped she could turn someone else into that plane...

For Sectonia

Notable spirit consumed:
Iron Queen
Sectonia’s cape has returned to its original wing based structure, however its structure is now made from a striking bronze rather than its original gold material. In addition, numerous trailing ribbons now hang from her wings, all fluttering in the breeze even if there is none to be found. These are passively white, but when the queen is in rapid motion or in the depth of casting, they shift to the spacy blue of the inside of Bleck’s cape, out of which small stars seem to fall, either trailing behind when she is on the move, or radiating out from her when she display the full might of her magic.

Strength of Gaia: the queen has gained the strength of the living earth, enhancing her physical strength by 20% and giving her proficiency in earth and nature magic (allowing her to more easily learn and cast such spells). She can also form a layer of rapidly regenerating bark over her chitin when in combat. This bark has a collective vitality equivalent to 10% of her hitpoints, and will regenerate any damage done to it in just a few seconds. The bark is, naturally, vulnerable to fire.

Weakness: Rooted Magic: Sectonia’s magic is now drawn from the might of the leaving earth, meaning that the further she is from the ground, the slower her energy regenerates. For every meter she is above the ground, any spellcasting she does using her own power is 25% more taxing on her stamina reserves (externally furled casting such as chaos heart magic is exempt).

Notable spirit consumed:
Rumor Honeybottoms
The host’s blue ‘skin’ has turned black, with horizontal yellow stripes of appreciable thickness. Her head, torso, waist, and abdomen are all a bit rounder and more clearly divided. Her irises are a bit smaller and her eyes and more pronounced whites, which alongside dark eyelashes help make her eyes a lot more visually expressive. There are little cartoon divets in the side of each iris. Her crown is slightly smaller, more golden, and has orbs at the tip of each spire. She now has arms that connect her gloves to her big, poofy shoulders, black in color. This spirit confers the Power Prism Sentence, which grants access to two new spells. One summons a purple tetrahedron that fires off pink triangles from its tips three times as it flies around. The other summons a shimmery pink sphere that will home in on a desired target. Both have a low mana cost and can be cast quickly. This spirit also confers the Weakness Cast Aspersions, which requires the host to use a casting catalyst of some sort in order to cast spells.

Sectonia found these new spirits... Well, the iron queen one brought back her majesty a bit, the rumor one though... she wasn't a fan of the color scheme it added. It did exemplify her curves a bit more though, so if she could only change the color she wouldn't be so against it. The arms she figured she'd have to just learn to live with. Seems like basically any spirit with limbs was going to give her some, and basically everyone had them. "The wings worked right, but I'm not a fan of this... color scheme. I suppose I'll have to find a way to fix that later." Sectonia said. Also this bee queen had some... horrible starting spells all things considered. It would make Sectonia's projectile spam even more unbearable. The big thing was that this gave her access to more male spirits, with the two female spirits not changing her all that much, but for sure saving her from that... side effect.

Either way, that wasn't the end of everything. Beyond the spirits was all the loot. A ton of it besides the respec orb. Seeing as none of the other magic users could even lift it, Sectonia took the staff that Rumor had been using, noting that it was solid enough to be as powerful as her swords while having no limit on what spell it could cast. She did find out rather quickly however she needed to channel her summoning and rings of light through this staff now, a bit annoying but not all that bad. Her magic from that hatted man she absorbed, the one that controlled space and time, didn't need to be channeled through her staff.

Out of all the other items found or crushed however, Sectonia was only interested in the Unstable Tesla Coil. "That is the only item of the treasure hoard I'm interested in." Sectonia said, letting the others divvy out the gold. She then reminded everyone if they had some kind of passive trinket item, she could make it so they didn't have to carry it on their person, smelting the tesla coil to give herself the electric aura. With this and how poor her accuracy was, she'd need to be in close range more it seemed.

For Sectonia

An Unstable Tesla Coil: a lanturn sized accessory that, when equipped will send up to three beams of electricity to zap foes within 1.5 meters of the wearer for low but constant damage. Nearby minions will auto target foes struck by this electricity. It also can be used to attract metal ores from a small distance away.

As for the talk of a 'reward' for liberating the bees. "They will also want a new Queen, obviously. We will have to find a candidate." Sectonia said. Not to subtly hinting that while she is a queen, she would rather have a much bigger kingdom than this hole in the ground.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (9/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (32/120)
Level 5 Susie - (41/50) - (Holding 2 level up)
Location: Sector 8 checkpoint
Word Count: 977

Roland wasn't a fan of PSI ops. This wasn't because of competition between them and General Affairs, although there was a rivalry between all the major factions regardless, but more because of how badly they gave him a headache whenever they spoke or used their weird powers. He had enough of that with R corp, but Psi Ops was far more varied and thus, much more of a headache. Although considering they had to fight monsters, while he had to work next to monsters was... well they both had the short end of the stick but that was life.

Blazermate meanwhile was more on board with the whole fighting thing, although she didn't care about the whole lethal vs non lethal debate, she just wanted to get through and see the new spooky area. So when Sandalphon started the fight with her shot to get everyone's attention with Zenkichi and Geralt taking the front line, Blazermate went with the front liners as she normally did, summoning her shield when the bullets started flying. Although considering how fast the soldiers were dispatched, perhaps that was a bit overkill. Well, all but the two that seemed to be an issue for the two guys, inflicting status conditions that seemed to make them meander about.

While Blazermate cured them of their status conditions so they wouldn't be as open to attacks as they were, Susie used her opportunity to come from below and get around to take out the two first class privates by using her transporter to fly under while Blazermate, Zenkichin Goldlewis, and Geralt distracted/dealt with the first 3 privates and the sisters. Dropping down behind the two who were also looking at the fight below, Susie summoned her Business suit and suddenly made herself a much, much bigger target as she swung a giant mech fist at Fujimori Mosley who just barely shielded himself with his barrier from the large mech fist that appeared behind him, with his partner Kenji McLaughlin shooting the newcomer with a reactionary energy blast using his own psi ability, but only hitting the business suit itself, and not the pilot.

Blazermate meanwhile was found to be a genuine problem for the two sisters. While her shield blocked their plasma rifle shots, what made her a real problem was that they found their confusion status didn't linger on the medabot for very long at all, and with her clearing the two guys in front of them and healing them from the animal damage or the status conditions, it didn't take too long for their efforts, alongside a burst heal from Sandalphon, and a bit of crowd control themselves, to wear the two down and knock them out, Blazermate moving to smack the sister causing all the confusion with her shield arm. She didn't know why they were doing non lethal takedowns, but she just shrugged and went with the program.

While the rest of the soldiers were being dealt with, Roland finally made his move to assist Susie who was in a 2v1 fight currently. With her in a mech and the others either indisposed, distracted, or outright knocked out, Roland was clear to make his way to the upper platform and support the pink haired bot by striking Kenji McLaughlin in the back with one of his maces in an attempt to knock him out. This didn't go as well as Roland thought it would, with the man slowly turning around to look at the masked man with a "Did you just do what I think you did?" look on his face, before opening fire. This did free up Susie to focus on pounding the force fields of Kneji with both hands now, eventually wearing him out and causing him to pass out from the stress of shielding so much potential damage.

That just left Roland against someone he would be better suited against, but was still something he wasn't really good against. While he could deflect the pistol shot and even the plasma rifle shots with his bigger weapons, when the psychic blasts came out, that was a much taller order. While not the psionic lightning bolts of R corp, they were dangerous in their own right and Roland found himself struggling fairly hard as he was unable to deflect the psychic blasts, something that his opponent figured out and capitalized on, keeping himself at range and away from the masked man in order to deal with him. This lasted until his partner went down and Susie could handle him herself, and while he could keep Roland at bay, once the mech came from behind, there wasn't much he could do having taken a blow from Roland earlier. With a grab, Susie started to squeeze the guy until he passed out, but this did leave a hand free, a hand that he had his pistol in and he got a couple shots on the pink haired girl before finally passing out from the pain of being squeezed.

Thankfully this worked as a good testing bed for Susie as well, testing and showing her shield did work, even if it wasn't all that durable, it did shield her from the sidearm shots that headed her way. Roland was thankful that he had a partner in this situation, as he knew he wouldn't do too well, but he held out at least and would get healed up by Blazermate at the battle's conclusion. "Thanks. I'm not a fan of these Psi Ops guys, they have so many weird powers you never know what your going to get." Roland said, with Susie saying. "Its just basic power manipulation at the end of the day. We have robots that can do the same things.", not having either the context or worry of Roland as she hadn't been in Midgar all that long.

World of Light

Level 10 Sectonia (holding 4 level up) - (93/100)
Location: The Under - Termite Kingdom Ruins
Word Count: 823

While Sectonia wasn't much for long range anymore, shooting out lots of projectiles but making them a bit easier to dodge, that fact didn't matter too much with the additional support of the other seekers. While she didn't do much damage to the wasp swarms herself, her debuffs helped a lot at keeping them in a good position for the others to handle, their attacks covering the angles hers didn't. With the more ranged heavy members of the team dealing with the wasp reenforcements, those that were more single target oriented dealt with the wasp robot queen uninterrupted, which after some time eventually exploded, revealing a pilot that... wasn't a wasp. Instead, they were a bee, which made all the wasps that were left flee in disgust.

While Sectonia didn't care about this dintinction, she did find it annoying that all the puns that had been said int eh fight continued, but instead now based on bees and honey. Its like this queen bee was cut from the same cloth as Nadia, and the two had a bit of a repour, at least until this 'queen', who was a magic user like Sectonia, did something that just outright dumbfounded her. Instead of engaging the seekers in a bit of a magic fight, Honeybottoms turned herself into a... plane? Sectonia could only look at her with a look of disbelief, saying simply. "... Why..."

But now wasn't the time to be confused at such a weird turn of events. With her emergence, Honeybottoms had destroyed the platforms that the other grounded seekers needed to have any bit of mobility, dropping them into a pit of honey and sparse platforms, a honey pit that kept rising. And who knows what kind of honey that could be, it could be lava for all she knew for how weird this situation had become. Waving her arms, she summoned a large crystal for the seekers who had fell to perch themselves upon, giving them far more space to evade Honeybottom's attacks once they made their way to it. While conjuring the crystal, Sectonia muttered. "First that pizza faced lunatic, now this..."

Now the fact Sectonia was one of the few group flyers, her size, and the fact that summoning such a platform took her a bit of time, wasn't lost upon Honeybottoms, who upon seeing the interloper bee queen casting a spell, focused to drop a few bombs on her in an attempt to interrupt what she was doing. Thanks to her items though, Sectonia took far, far reduced damage compared to the seekers from these bombs than what Honeybottoms expected, even more so as Sectonia seemed to 'ignore' being hit by them. They still damaged Sectonia of course, but it didn't visibly look like they made her flinch.

With her platform summoned for those below, Sectonia went to engage Honeybottoms in the air herself. Some of the others, such as ganondorf, seemed to have some limited flying capabilities, but most of the aerial fighting would have to be for Sectonia. Being able to fly even or above Honeybottoms would make her have to choose between her bombs or other attacks, while Sectonia had only one target, the bee plane herself. And since Sectonia could now be in close proximity, her multiple projectiles would be much, much harder to dodge. Although unlike her melee swings, these did leave her open when she went for them. Well, all but her lightning, which was one of her faster projectile attacks.

And lightning was all she really had the opportunity to use projectile wise, as if Sectonia went to try anything else but her melee swings or her lightning, Honeybottoms would move her wing and turn the tip of it into a buzzsaw before swiping at Sectonia, forcing her to drop what she was doing and blink on top of Honeybottoms to drop a sword swing or a blast of lightning. Rising like this wouldn't last too long though, as there wasn't all that much space left before reaching the ceiling, with the ceiling slowly rising with the pit of honey below. Sectonia wasn't going to question this luminal space, she had enough of this craziness as it was. And in times where she couldn't teleport above Honeybottoms to use her lighting, she'd teleport behind her to do a sword swipe or two. Honeybottoms wasn't always using such a slow buzzsaw attack however, and could instead of dropping bombs, fire off 'fist' missiles that followed Sectonia. They didn't do as much as the bombs, but they were far more accurate due to their homing nature and Sectonia's size.

Hopefully more of the seekers below could help with this fight, Sectonia could tank and deal damage with her chaos shield, her swords, and her lightning, but it'd be nice for more than just her and a couple other attacks to deal with this unruly, weird, pun happy bee queen.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (7/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (30/120)
Level 5 Susie - (39/50) - (Holding 2 level up)
Location: Sector 8 checkpoint
Word Count: Less than 750

Susie and Blazermate, having no real problems navigating the streets thanks to their flight, were among some of the first to arrive. Roland arriving fairly late all things considered even with a high performance motorbike. "Tch. Not as fast as those in the City I guess. Taking it was a waste of time." Roland did park it however where he said he would, using some nearby pole to keep it locked down so it wouldn't be easily stolen. He didn't know if that pair would listen to what he said, but hey, he held up what he said he was going to do.

As everyone gathered, they planned on how they were going to get through to the next area, an area that seemed to hold some answers on what was going on in this city. Plans were being laid out to deal with the G men that were stationed there, 6 in total. Thinking about it, Susie offered to take one out, saying. "A drill dive should take one of them out. With the rest of you dealing with yours, that leaves..." Roland, having worked with these things, but not all that interested personally in helping the shady leaders of the city, knowing what he knows now with his memories restored, said. "I'll take that one. Working with these monsters for so long, only realizing how wrong it was, really doesn't feel great."

As Goldlewis went to start the distraction that'd signal everyone to start their attack, Susie hovered high above the G man she was going to dive bomb, with Roland silently moving to his position, his mask making him less noticeable to the G men compared to Zenkichi and Goldlewis, especially as they were taking up their attention. Blazermate stayed behind, as she didn't have anything that'd let her deal with any of this in a timely matter. Once everyone was in position, the trap was sprung. Roland moved to hit his G man with his massive sword in order to cleave it in two, while Susie summoned her business suit and crushed the G man she landed on into dust. Due to the low hp of these forms, both party members took out their respective targets, and with everything down, they could move on to the checkpoint proper.

Once they got there, it was clear that the checkpoint itself was manned by actual soldiers instead of those monstrous G men. "Well, I think you guys were onto something. Its rare that they lave actual soldiers guarding anything unless it was important. There must be something that they don't want people to see there." Roland said, thinking about what he was observing. Blazermate piped up. "So... I don't see how we're all going to stealth through this. I'm bright blue, Susie is bright pink, and I'm sure the metal detector would go off if we tried to get through one, and I'm sure they got one...." Blazermte said. "But well, if we get into a fight, my projectile shield can protect us from their bullets as well." She then got a look on her face as if she thought of something. "Oh! Oh! Leave some for me to turn into zombies, we could use them to sus out dangerous areas!" The medabot had said she could do this, but Roland had never seen it. At least from what he could gather, she wasn't going to make those puppet abominations from a certain someone he hated...

"I could use a test drive of this shield I got. I'm not a fan of a live fire test, but thats what my business suit is for." Susie said. Roland was silent, he knew it'd probably come to a fight, but he wasn't happy about it. Hopefully this would be worth it, and this wasn't some long long grift.