Zenkichi Hasegawa & Roxas Word count: 4,045 Exp: +5
Zenkichi nodded at Roxas’s comment, shrugging. ”History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.” He quipped back, pointing at the hideous form of Nyx, which was in the process of absorbing a Flood combat form. ”Whatever that thing is, it’s bad news. Eating the smaller guys. Dunno if it’s just eliminating the competition or if it’s getting something out of that, but I’d rather not find out the hard way.” Summoning Ragnell, he started forward. ”Let’s make this quick.” He decided to keep Preservation Protocol as the active protocol from Sandalphon's covenant for now.
”I got your back!” Roxas said, agreeing with the detective’s assessment that they were better off getting this over with. Before he got too far away from him, Roxas gave Zenkichi a temporary speed buff with Tailwind. It seemed pretty obvious that the big devouring one was the main threat here. But even just getting close meant hacking and slashing his way through the demons and undead that surrounded it. And also, well, it was literally eating things that got close, so… did Roxas even want to take that risk? Even so, he had to at least try to eliminate some of the smaller fry before they could be devoured, just in case the nasty one actually was getting something out of it like Zenkichi theorized.
”Thunder!” Roxas cried after using his StepSword to instantly move himself in the center of a group. The lightning was called down after the slash from his energy blade allowing for a solid bit of opening area of effect damage on the group. After that he went on the defensive, using his Keyblades to block an incoming strike and then retaliate with Dual Counter, allowing for a wipe-sweeping circular slash to enable some extra crowd clearing.
Zenkichi, having given a quick “thanks” for the speed boost from Roxas, proceeded to harass the edge of a group of demons, swatting Empusas from the sky with Ragnell’s energy blasts. From within the group fighting off the floodfestation came a few blasts of hell energy, Hell Razers turning to fight off the attack from the Phantom Thief, who quickly dodge rolled out of the way, calling on Valjean to attack the group before it could scatter. ”Triple Down!” He wasn't as concerned with each of the three area shots hitting as he was with softening up the group before going in, though a few Empusa and Hell Razers took the full brunt of the attack, the Empusa bursting and the Hell Razers roaring in anger before doubling down and turning even more attention his way. The defense boost from Preservation Protocol would probably come in handy as he dodged and tanked even more attacks from the demon swarm.
The Flood and Infested that the demons had been fighting took advantage of this, charging in and overwhelming the group as Zenkichi continued to fire explosive blasts of holy energy from Ragnell, but following not far behind them was Nyx, now sporting a Hell Razer's energy weapon from feasting on a weakened one before the others could kill it. ”Roxas, we got a problem! This thing is absorbing them and now it has a laser gun!” He called out to his teenage companion, breaking off from his attack and moving to regroup with him.
So that’s what the monster got when it devoured things? It could gain their abilities? Well that… certainly complicated things. With another quick Thundaga he gave himself enough space to disengage and then regroup with Zenkichi. Roxas put up a medium-sized wall of virtual blocks between them and Nyx, hoping it could take at least a few shots without breaking so they could formulate some kind of strategy. ”Should we focus on the big one instead?” He asked, taking a moment to use his RockGun to fire a charged shot at Nyx, a potshot more than anything else. ”What do you think happens if it eats one of us?”
”Do you want the serious answer or the hopeful answer? Because I’m pretty sure if it gets one of us, the other one is dead basically right away.” Zenkichi sighed as the B.O.W.’s attention turned away from the wall of blocks and back onto the hordes of demons and undead around it. ”And frankly, I think we divide and conquer. One of us gets its attention and keeps it distracted, while the other mops up the hordes and keeps it from getting stronger. You’ve got some pretty smooth maneuverability, and dealing with groups of weak enemies is sort of my specialty. But if you have any other ideas, I’m open to hearing them.”
”Get its attention and keep it distracted. Got it!” Roxas repeated with a nod of confirmation. ”I think I’ve got just the thing for that.” Then he ignited the energy blade of his StepSword and dispelled the wall of blocks. He vanished on the spot after that, only to reappear directly behind Nyx and slashing it with his StepSword. It wasn’t a decisive blow, but it wasn’t meant to be either. It was just a means of repositioning Roxas to a spot where he could cleanly get the creature’s attention. He followed that by summoning Poltergeist, and thanks to the fight having gone on for a bit the bedsheet ghost girl was able to use The Sun Isn’t Kind to endow Roxas with a number of buffs that would last for 10 seconds. The most pertinent of these was Taunt and Stealth. Taunt would clearly draw the aggro of Nyx toward Roxas, while Stealth would help keep him out of the line of fire of that laser gun weapon.
Roxas had to make sure he didn’t waste the 10 seconds he was given by Poltergeist. He darted to the side and got himself on the move. Thanks to Stealth, Nyx had a hard time finding him to attack in spite of being Taunted. When precise shots from the laser weapon failed it, the Nyx then resorted instead to swinging and flailing its arms and tentacles. These were wilder and less predictable attacks, but was able to manage for the time being. During these 10 seconds, Roxas took whatever pot shot he could, whether that took the form of a charged shot from the RockGun or an instant movement with StepSword to position himself behind the Nyx for a back attack. Of course he knew his attacks on their own wouldn’t bring this thing down any time soon, but it was better to start wearing it down as he could for the time being until it was time to coordinate an actual attack alongside Zenkichi later.
Once the buffs from Poltergeist wore off, Roxas had to get a little more creative with his strategy. No longer under Stealth, this meant that Nyx could start better focusing attacks on the Nobody. In response to this, Roxas had to make more use of his virtual blocks. He could put up small walls to help defend against shots from the laser weapon or just generate floating platforms he could launch himself from with Flow Motion as a means of maintaining his momentum and helping to avoid incoming physical attacks. Of course, this wasn’t always successful, case and point one of the tentacles managed to barely catch him in its swing and sent him sprawling to the floor. Thankfully Roxas wasn’t hurt too much and was able to get back into the swing of things in mere moments, but he knew couldn’t afford to let too many attacks like that slip through or else this thing would end up wearing him down.
While Roxas was doing a damn good job of keeping Nyx distracted, Zenkichi focused on dealing with the hordes of demons and floodfested. At least this one wasn’t nearly as massive as the previous group, and their numbers were actually a lot more fair, though he’d given the undead an advantage over the demons with his initial strike. To that end, he charged the floodfested horde, casting Tarukaja on himself to trigger Preservation Protocol and stack a defense boost on as well. As he reached the undead group, Zenkichi leapt in, Ragnell carving down an Infested runner. A reddish-looking volatile runner took the distraction for what it was, charging at Zenkichi with reckless abandon. The Phantom Thief didn’t quite catch the difference in time, pulling Ragnell up to cut it down a touch too slow to avoid the explosion.
Staggered, Zenkichi took a few moments to recover, giving an opportunistic crawler time to latch onto his leg and start wailing on him. Once he regained his composure, he kicked the infested creature in the head. This knocked it onto the ground, letting him stab Ragnell into it and the floor, groaning. ”Let ‘em catch me off guard. Can’t do that again.” Despite the successful combo, Zenkichi wasn’t terribly wounded, thanks to Preservation Protocol and Ragnell’s own defense boost. To these monsters, he was a one-man army, and it was time to start acting like it. Hefting Ragnell again, he went to work as Roxas dodged and ran around. Infested, Flood, and demons fell to blows from Ragnell, the holy energy burning the creatures into light.
As he made his way through the hordes, Zenkichi called on his new Striker, Sosha, for what felt like the first time. The Dragoon appeared, stepping back before thrusting forward with her spear and impaling a runner, whipping the spear to toss the decaying Infested off before sweeping it along a line of Flood combat forms. She then changed up her attacks, thrusting her spear in rapid succession as Zenkichi dodged a Charger’s rushing attack to carve at its flank. As the Charger stumbled, Sosha jumped in to finish it off before despawning, leaving Zenkichi in the midst of the horde. ”Alright, Valjean, let’s Triple Down!” He called, another trio of gunshots peppering the horde around him and finishing off a good portion of already-wounded undead. By now, about half the original amount of undead and demons remained. Good progress.
Roxas had to hand it to the detective. He wasn’t kidding about specializing in taking on large numbers. That was mostly based on glimpses the Keybearer caught of Zenkichi fighting while he himself was seemingly zipping and flying around. So far he managed to avoid another hit from the tentacles. And one of the main reasons for that was because Roxas realized that there was nothing stopping him from using Tailwind on himself. Once he figured out he could do that, Roxas was practically buzzing around Nyx like a fly that refused to be swatted. And with the speed buff from Tailwind, Roxas could afford to be a little bolder in how and where he got in his shots. In one instance he switched to his Keyblades immediately after using a teleport-slash with StepSword to get off a follow up flurry of three strikes before he quickly moved on his way to avoid the inevitable retaliation.
All the while, Roxas was using his silver jackal mask to keep track of the cooldown for Poltergeist. As soon as it wound down, he summoned the bedsheet ghost again and allowed her to once more give him the benefits of Stealth, Taunt, Defense Up, and Healing Up. Once again, Taunt and Stealth were the most pertinent buffs, although Defense Up would certainly be helpful in the event Roxas slipped up and got struck down again. And now with that combined with the boon of Tailwind, Roxas could afford to be that much more bold in how he got his occasional shots in. This involved setting up a set of scattered virtual blocks that surrounded Nyx from multiple sides, off of which Roxas then launched himself between them in order to get off a few hit-and-run Keyblade slashes while zipping by Nyx. He’d just gone from being an annoying fly, to a full blown hornet.
But at one point, Roxas’ more risky maneuvers got the better of him when one of Nyx’s tentacles managed to catch him again and swat him away through the air - good thing he had Defense Up or this would have hurt him a lot more. Thinking fast, Roxas managed to generate a small wall of virtual blocks to catch him in his trajectory, so he could then kick himself off of it to go right back on the attack against Nyx. Just as Poltergeist’s buff was wearing off, Roxas seemingly transformed into a streak of light that zig-zagged toward Nyx only for Roxas to re-emerge and unleash a frontal Cross Slash on the B.O.W.. After that he had to let himself land back on the ground so he could touch a non-virtual surface, which would let him instantiate a new set of virtual blocks if needed.
Zenkichi could barely catch any glimpses of Roxas flying around Nyx and harassing it, but that was a good thing- if he couldn’t track the kid, it meant Roxas was doing a good job of keeping himself out of harm’s way. Which, in turn, gave Zenkichi plenty of time to focus on his enemies. With Sosha’s quick cooldown, she was fairly safe to call in often, though he was careful to keep her on the periphery of enemy groups so she wouldn’t get bogged down. With his own self-healing from each enemy he hit, Zenkichi was tough to bog down, especially for the many weaker demons and undead that fought on the battlefield. As the lesser enemies fell, though, Zenkichi was left with some harder threats: a carnis slithered out from behind a group of undead and swiped at him with its clawed limbs.
Zenkichi had to endure the hit, but he brought Ragnell up for a counterstrike before jumping back to put a little room between him and the giant centipede monster. It pursued and took a swipe as it ran, using the momentum to increase the power of its attack, but Zenkichi blocked the attack and kicked at one of the carnis’s primary legs to knock it off balance before stabbing the holy blade into its body and pulling it out through the side. Ichor and infection poured out of the monster, which chittered angrily and limped forward, sagging to its injured side. Zenkichi almost felt bad, but whatever this thing used to be, it was just host to a horrible infection now. Even as it tried to swipe at him, he dodged back and swung Ragnell, a beam of energy exploding in its face and stunning the carnis for Sossha to appear and finish off.
With the horde slowly abating and the tougher enemies dwindling with it, Zenkichi was satisfied that the mutant Nyx wouldn’t be able to get much else out of the remaining undead and demons. Looking over to Roxas, he called out, ”Alright, man, I think we can do this from here!” As he did, he made his way over to the B.O.W., swinging Ragnell to fire blasts of holy energy at it all the while.
Roxas ran after Zenkichi to start fighting Nyx for real. The first thing he did was re-establish the Tailwind buff for Zenkichi, then did so for himself. He resumed his harassment strategy, at least first. Tailwind and Flow Motion gave him all the agility he needed, and summoning virtual blocks would give him platforms to vault or launch from even in midair. In the time since he’d left Twilight Town two weeks ago, he’d gotten quite good at carrying on fights without hardly ever needing to touch the ground save for an occasional moment or two, and this was no different.
Unlike earlier in the fight, Roxas let himself be more aggressive with his attacks now that Zenkichi was fighting alongside him. This meant he executed longer strings of combos that usually opened with a teleporting slash with his StepSword as a means of putting himself in a favorable position, then following that with 4-5 Keyblade strikes. He thought about using spells or his Keyblade techniques a bit more, but he wanted to save what was left of his MP in case he needed to cast an emergency Curaga.
So instead he let one of his strikers get in on the damage-dealing - Kayano. Not wanting to accidentally repeat what happened the last time he summoned her, Roxas made sure he backed off a bit before bringing her out. When white-dressed beauty appeared this time, she did not shift around everyone’s position. This time she cast some kind of sacred spell that summoned a spectral geyser of water that erupted from underneath Nyx’s position that dealt both dark and water elemental damage.
With the speed boost Roxas granted, Zenkichi reached Nyx in fairly short order. He stayed back a bit as he approached, drawing his revolvers and emptying both cylinders into the mutagenic B.O.W. The more solid portions, the ones that had absorbed some of the various undead and demons from across the battlefield, seemed to be taking damage more readily than the main body, more jelly-like in form and hidden behind bone plates and the consumed corpses of demons and whatever the Flood and Infestation had taken. Indeed, after only a few shots, the torso of a Flood combat form that Nyx had absorbed collapsed, falling off of Nyx’s body and dissolving into ash.
”Roxas, focus on the stuff it’s absorbed! If we destroy that, it’ll be weaker and easier to hurt!” Zenkichi called out, stowing his guns and drawing Ragnell to fire a blast of energy at one of Nyx’s elongated arms, carving off an Infested runner’s oversized arm.
”Fire!” Roxas cried, aiming a Firaga spell at another of Nyx’s arms. And sure enough, a part of it that was absorbed from some other victim fell off in a flaming heap and turned to ash. ”Looks like you called it. Thanks for the tip!” That allowed Roxas to re-adjust where he targeted his spells and attacks. And the Medabot spirit he had fused with back in Midgar made calculating his aim a quite simple task. So Roxas strung together attacks at specific parts of Nyx’s body now. An arm here, a leg there, all while still maintaining his current strategy of harassing the mutant rather than engage it directly.
He tried to keep an eye out for how Zenkichi was fairing, too. He wanted to be ready in case he needed to swoop and heal them both up with a Curaga. Then he also decided to test the waters to see how effective the RockGun was when its charged shots were aimed at actual weak spots. And it turned out to be a marked improvement, not enough to destroy the absorbed spots in one shot, but enough to soften them up for a follow up strike by either himself or Zenkichi.
Zenkichi rushed in as Roxas started using his RockGun, hitting Nyx from behind with Ragnell and catching its attention. As a beam of hell energy swept across the battlefield, he performed an acrobatic front flip over the laser and focused on the Hell Razer Nyx had absorbed, the holy blade slicing into the engorged tentacle-limb that the demon was part of. The main body of the demon was buried beneath a few others, floodfested and demon alike, which implied Nyx could manifest weapons and attacks wherever was most convenient, annoyingly enough. It would have been too easy for the laser blaster to be buried under a pile of flesh, though.
As Nyx flailed and violently slammed its arm into Zenkichi, he brought up Ragnell in time to block the blow, but it had more momentum behind it than Zenkichi was expecting, sliding him back a good ten or so feet. ”Damn, this thing’s tougher than it looks. You got any ideas other than just…keep doing the same thing?” he asked.
”Just one.” Roxas answered with a quick nod. Then he summoned Oathkeeper to his left hand and held it above his head, ”Light!” It was the sign of his sharing his light with an ally, in this case - Zenkichi. The Phantom Thief would find himself empowered enough to immediately summon his Persona, Valjean, to perform a wide-reaching whip attack with his chains before disappearing again.
After that was a hail of gunfire and bullet spray as Zenkichi was able to unload a volley of explosive shots from his revolvers, which were instantly reloaded for the Limit attack. Meanwhile, Roxas hurled both Keyblades forward and the weapons proceeded to zip around Nyx’s body making numerous cuts and slashes while the Nobody himself charged up a finishing blast that he fired from the RockGun embedded in his right gauntlet.
”Oh YEAH!” Zenkichi whooped, immediately rushing forward with his Greatsword to attack the battered Nyx, which had lost a large portion of its accumulated biomass and was now almost fully exposed in its gelatinous form. ”Oh yeah, this thing looks a lot different now. And…grosser. I regret everything.” Zenkichi joked, jumping back for another attack from Valjean. ”Valjean, One-Shot Kill!” Before the B.O.W. even had time to react to the previous strike, a massive bullet summoned from Zenkichi’s persona crashed into it, sending it stumbling backwards.
”Ugh, you’re not kidding.” Roxas said. He had no more MP now, but it didn’t seem that would be an issue anymore. He also charged forward, managing to trap Nyx’s gelatinous form between an array of virtual blocks that surrounded it from different angles. Then the Nobody simply launched himself between those blocks and sliced and diced with his Keyblades as he passed by the B.O.W. until he was ready to put that momentum into one more downward thrust of his Keyblades from above.
”Yuck, please tell me it’s gone now.” Roxas said hopefully.
Watching Nyx stumble and fall, its slowly pulsating inner core slowly fading from Roxas’s thrust attack, Zenkichi sighed in relief. ”Looks like it.” As the B.O.W. faded into ash, leaving its Spirit behind, Zenkichi’s vision began to tunnel as a trio of cards appeared, each showing an image and a block of text, like playing cards. ”Huh?” He wondered, reading them over. The one that appealed to him most, though it was not an easy choice, earned his selection, and once he touched the card, his surroundings returned. ”That was weird.”
Sworn Strike - increases the damage of basic melee attacks and causes them to apply Hitch for 8 seconds, which causes foes to take 30% of the damage taken by other foes with Hitch
Roxas, meanwhile, had been having his own little experience. When his vision darkened and tunneled, he too had a trio of cards floating in front of them. They looked like they were granting some kind of power up, maybe as a reward for beating that nasty gelatin thing? All three of the powers seemed incredibly good to have, so choosing just one was tough. But Roxas did choose one in the end and touched the card in question. ”Brilliance without measure, talent without equal.”
And then his vision went completely back to normal. ”So whoever’s behind this tree is trying to… help us… destroy the Guardian?” Roxas wondered, utterly confused now by the design and purpose of this place.
Super Nova: Your casts/spells increase in size up to 40% as they go on, until they expire.
”Might be. If this thing is alive, maybe the Guardian is the source of the infection. If that’s the case, let’s pop open another vein and get going. It ain’t gonna wait for us, after all!” Following his own advice, Zenkichi started making his way over to the edge of the battlefield, scooping up some Spirits to crush later along the way.
Roxas nodded in agreement and let a smile form on his lips. ”Right behind you!” He replied as he followed after the Phantom Thief, stopping only to pick up Nyx’s spirit. He wasn’t about to fuse with something this disgusting, and making it a striker wasn’t appealing either. Could result in a useful item if he could hold onto it until they got back to the Avenger. After that he followed Zenkichi through one of the freshly unlocked veins, ready to put this hollow behind them.
Feat. Pit and Captain Falcon @Yankee@Double Word Count: 4,394 (+5)
"Pheeeew!"
Once he’d managed to cut his way free from the vein further up the tree, Pit shook his wings free of liquid and released his held breath, gladly taking in a fresh one. Riding up the vein had definitely been effective, and truth be told it wasn’t the grossest thing about the Qliphoth. At about the same time as the angel himself arrived, another Seeker popped out from a nearby vein.
"Oh, Captain Falcon!" Pit greeted him with. "Yeah, it happens all the time. I guess things would be too easy if all of us were always fighting together, huh?" He put one hand on his hip as he spun the Palutena Bow in the other to rid it of the demon tree’s blood while he answered the man’s question. Pit didn’t seem to be troubled by the separation, it was just a fact that it was going to happen at this point. Maybe Galeem actually was awake and subtly making this kind of thing happen? If only portions of the Seekers could work together to defeat Guardians, then all of them combined could take on any threat easily. Well, mostly any… definitely anything in here at least.
Like the battle that awaited the two of them now, for example. The area Pit and Captain Falcon had ended up in was mostly made of the same kind of stuff the bottom floor of the tree had been, complete with little patches of infected tissue here and there. But somehow, it looked like a whole church had gotten sucked into the Qliphoth and had ended up where they were standing. Broken pieces of what were once stone walls littered the area, and the dilapidated remains of the building itself were lodged right in the middle of the arena. With the arrival of the two Seekers, a pack of walking carcasses dragged themselves out of the ruined church and began skulking towards them. Four creatures, all distinct but equally horrific looking, barred the pair’s path forward.
The Captain assumed his fighting stance, ”These things just keep getting uglier and uglier.” He said while he eyed up the four walking carcasses. One with fists shaped like spiked clubs, another with an arm shaped like an oversized bulging club with the other looking slimmer with pointed claws, another with what looked like a big shield bulging out of its bicep, and the last one looking to be carrying some kind of weapon - an axe maybe?
”Ryuugeki Sen!” Cap declared, channeling chi into fiery discs that he could launch at the creatures from his hands for a high shot and legs for a low shot. ”What’s the play here, Pit? Should we turtle up or split off and divide and conquer?”
It was no surprise that Pit favored the second option, and he was quick to tell the bounty hunter so. "All offense is kind of my style, Cap! There's only four of them, so if we each take two... we'll be done in no time!"
While he said the last part, Pit started to move. He rushed to meet the quartet of monsters, drawing his bow back as he did and firing to cover his approach. The carcasses weren't grouped tightly together nor did they appear to be a true cooperative team - so Pit made it easy when he picked the couple he was going to engage with, which were just the two most on the right hand side. The light arrows zipped forward and struck each of his chosen targets, the giant axe and shield arm wielding creatures, and the two of them directed their attention to the angel. Pit ascended part of the church's exterior with one wing assisted leap while they chased after him, just before another wave of warm blue lights streaked through the air and crashed down upon the carcasses.
”Divide and conquer it is, then.” Cap agreed before he sprinted into action. He veered left to take on the remaining two carcasses that Pit did not target. They didn’t appear to be armed much in the way of actual weaponry which suited the Captain just fine. When the heavy carcass tried to throw a small series of slow-but-power punches, Falcon was able to duck and weave around them easily enough with his superior speed. Then he countered the punches with one of his own, uppercutting and staggering the carcass back a few steps with a ”Ryuuga!” That also consequently sent Falcon himself upward several feet. And before he landed his fiery body shot downward toward the Bloated Carcass, delivering a ”Falcon Kick!”
By then, the Heavy had recovered enough to try launching another punch, but Falcon lunged forward with his palms outstretched. ”Ryuugeki Ken!” A short ranged blast of fiery chi exploded from Falcon’s palms in a close-range blast that briefly staggered the Heavy again. He still had 2 Power Gauge stocks leftover from the previous fight, but the Captain chose not to use any Special Moves for now. Better to save those for later after wearing his opponents first. Plus he could build up an extra stock in the interim time by keeping his attacks simple for the moment.
Not far off Pit's battle had long been underway. He played keep away for a little bit, shooting at his opponents as they kept after him. The almost fluid nature of his arrows made it easy to strike them from unexpected angles, especially the bulbous shield arm carcass. Its engorged limb had initially taken the shape of a bludgeon, but it mutated into a strong barrier once the arrows started falling upon it. While it was protected from the front, the light arrows could just curve around and pierce it in the back. It eventually staggered, falling forward onto one knee.
"Gotcha now!" Pit had been in the middle of another backwards hop to keep a steady amount of space between himself and the carcasses, but once the shield arm made itself vulnerable he dropped down to land in a crouch, then dashed directly towards it.
The axe wielding carcass seemed the faster of the two monsters, and its reflexes were fast enough that it was able to quickly change gears from chasing the angel down to intercepting him. While still in motion the carcass threw itself sideways into Pit's path. Colliding with the young angel they both tumbled to the ground, and both quickly got back to their feet. The monster spun with a fast horizontal swipe, though the head of its axe clanged against a quickly summoned Guardian Orbitar. The two combatants broke apart, and while the giant axe carcass dragged its weapon up over its head in preparation for another attack, Pit swapped out his own weapon completely. His bow and orbitars disappeared, and the golden gauntlet of the Upperdash Arm formed around his limb. "Fine, I'll deal with you first!"
The two weapons crashed against each other, the blade of the axe smashing into the whirling disc of the Arm. The carcass was powerful, but Pit was no slouch in that department either. They traded a few blows, and though the angel could feel some kind of status ailment take effect on him he seemed to gradually be getting the upper hand. His health was slowly being chipped away at by the decay the monster carried and passed on to him, but in return the charged up Arm was dealing stronger blows to it. Pit pulled the weapon back and then drove it forward in a single quick motion, punching it into the creature's side. It stumbled backwards, let out an enraged gurgle, and came back at him with abandon.
And then Pit noticed something else. In the middle of battle, his divine weapon seemed to lose its luster. Whatever handicap the carcass had hit him with seemed to be affecting the Arm too - and when the first hairline fracture formed after the latest clash with the carcass the angel's eyes widened in shock. Without thinking about it he dispelled the Arm to protect it from further damage, which was a bad move when he had been entangled in melee with a monster. It took a heavy swing at Pit with its own weapon, cracking against the angel and sending him flying backwards. He struck the stone wall of the church, the hard impact making part of it crumble down on top of him.
Pit gasped and coughed as he sat up in the rubble, bringing a hand up to his chest plate. Even with armor on, that had really hurt. At least he hadn't been cleaved in half, just left with an ugly bruise most likely.
Lady Palutena! Can you hear me inside this tree? Can the divine weapons break?!
You're loud and clear now. No need to worry though, Pit. If something did manage to damage your weapon, it'll come back as good as new in a little while. Then again you could always use that as an opportunity to get a different one. Try the Volcano Arm next!
Sure, next time I—
Catching movement he looked up, just in time to see the axe armed monstrosity hit the peak of its leap as it sailed towards Pit's location. Pit scrambled to his feet and dove out of the way just before the carcass swung its axe overhead as it came down, smashing up the stone where Pit had been upon landing.
Not a moment later the recovered shield arm barreled in from Pit's flank. He ducked under its wide swing, evading around to the carcass' back side, jumping and kicking off of its hulking form to put some distance between himself and them. As he did, he felt the Goddess of Light reach out to him through their telepathic connection once more.
I didn't suggest the Volcano Arm just for fun. These things are mutated test subjects, but there's no helping them now. You'll have to put them down, and the best way to do it is with fire and lightning.
With his elemental arrows that was doable; with Captain Falcon's natural fire affinity it was doubly so. And now that he didn't have to worry about his weaponry, Pit could get right back into the battle.
"Got it!" He said aloud, summoning the Palutena Bow back to his hand. He pulled the bowstring hard, charging a light arrow as the two carcasses charged at him. The arrow's color shifted from blue to purple as its power grew, and when he loosed it the streak of light shot straight through one of the carcasses before looping back around to strike at the second as well. Static electricity began to jump around their bodies, and though it certainly didn't look like they had taken any extra damage, Pit trusted the hint he'd been given.
Pit dashed out of the way when they reached him, avoiding the axe and club as he let loose a dash shot for good measure. He charged up another Electro arrow, sending it sailing through the giant axe carcass and willing it to come back around again - but the arrow missed the mark when the shield arm ran forward to make up for its electrocuted partner. The carcass slammed its arm in bludgeon form down at Pit, forcing the angel to avoid it. Thundering Sands saw a burst of lightning catch the carcass as Pit skated backwards, and he grinned when he jumped right back towards it a moment later. He connected with a flying kick, sending the carcass tumbling much farther than he'd intended - putting the monster on a collision course with Captain Falcon.
"Oops- Uh, heads up Cap!" Pit called out as the giant axe carcass shook off its static and leapt to continue its assault on the angel.
The Captain, for his part, had been holding his own well enough given the circumstances. He was much faster than his opponents and therefore had little difficulty avoiding their attacks. Right up until the Bloated Carcass switched tactics and started attacking him with its leaner arm, resulting in surprisingly faster swipes. In pure one-on-one this still wouldn’t be difficult to manage, but when coupled with the Heavy Carcass attacking at the same time, it became a little more challenging. After weaving around a series of punches from the Heavy Carcass and staggering him with another ”Ryuuga!” Cap was getting ready to launch a counter strike on the Bloated Carcass when he heard Pit’s warning.
Falcon had little trouble rolling himself out of the way of the incoming Carcass. After he did so he watched in amusement as it instead barrelled into the Bloated Carcass sending them both staggering away. ”Much obliged.” The Captain commented as he spotted the Heavy Carcass recovering from the earlier Ryuuga and lunging for another punch. Falcon responded in kind by launching forward and smacking it what-good with a ”Raptor Boost!” The fiery uppercut proved especially effective thanks to the flame property, resulting in the Heavy Carcass getting blown back slightly farther than intended, where it would end up in the thick of Pit’s engagement with the Axe-wielding Carcass.
”Whoops, looks like we’re trading partners.” Falcon said, turning and tightening his stance to ready himself for the imminent attack that was coming from the recovering Bloated Carcass and Shield-Arm Carcass.
That wouldn't be a problem for Pit. As the Heavy Carcass careened towards his side of the ruined church battlefield Pit dashed towards it, prompting the Giant Axe to leap in an attempt to catch the angel with a deadly slam. Instead all three combatants came together violently - Pit stooped just in front of the heavy monster, ensuring that the axe of his other opponent crashed down onto it instead of him. Then with a quick summoning the Upperdash Arm made its return, driven into the Giant Axe Carcass with a mighty uppercut. The damage the weapon had developed still remained for the time being, but Pit trusted it would go back to normal eventually as Palutena had said.
The axe flew from the carcass' grip as its gangly greenish body was sent flying. It landed in a splayed heap nearby, just about finished by Pit's estimation. He went to hop over the downed carcass in front of him, but then something seized his leg. The angel let out a noise of surprise as the Heavy got to its feet, yanking him up and holding him upside down as it did. Little embers still clung to it, flashing against the emerald-like protrusions all over its body. It pulled its other fist back to strike its new punching bag, unfortunately slower than said punching bag reacted. Pit quick summoned the Guardian Orbitars, but instead of defending he willed the shields to smash into the carcass' face. In conjunction with Shield Smite the weakened monster reeled back, allowing Pit to get free once his bow was back in hand by slashing up at the creature.
He flipped to land in a crouch, but transitioned in a kneel for better stability as he lashed out with a leg cutter against the monster's inner calf. The blade struck deep, once more putting the carcass on its back. When Pit was on his feet again he hopped backward, a push of his wings sending him toward the Giant Axe Carcass. "Like I said, you first!" he told it, spinning his bow and driving the pointed end into its chest.
Over on the other side, Cap was having some issues of his own. He could still handle the Bloated Carcass well enough as before. But that Shield-Arm Carcass was proving to be a tough customer. Attacking it was like punching and kicking an opponent that was constantly blocking. Falcon figured he just needed the right opening and he could break through that guard. The trick was actually finding that opening, which proved difficult when he had to divide his attention between the Shield-Arm and the Bloated. As the Shield-Arm mostly seemed content to turtle up and tank hits, Cap decided to shift gears and attempt to focus his attacks on the Bloated one.
And since he’d built back up to 3 Power Gauge stocks, Falcon decided now was the time to go a little more hard-hitting. He dodged and weaved his way around yet another flurry of swipes and big punches from the Bloated Carcass. After that he hopped up and performed a triple spinning kick in midair that staggered the Bloating Carcass back. But rather than shift to his opposite target as he had been doing all this time, Cap instead decided to press the attack on the staggered Bloated Carcass. ”Let’s turn up the heat!” The Captain declared as his body momentarily flashed blue. He lunged forward in a single stride and managed to catch the Bloated Carcass before it could finish recovering. ”Ryuuko Ranbu!” Falcon shouted as he connected his flurry of punches and kicks, before adding the Ryuuga uppercut at the end for the finisher.
And while he was still midair, Falcon reoriented his body and aimed a fiery ”Falcon Kick!” That launched him diagonally downward at the Shield-Arm Carcass. It endured most of the blow, albeit not completely thanks to the fire affinity of the technique in question. The main point was that Cap was maintaining his momentum, and sustained it further when he kicked off of the Shield-Arm and landed back on the ground right in front of him as he winded up his fist. ”Let’s see you block this! Falcon… PUNCH!” His fiery fist went smashing into the bloated arm of the Carcass. Cap had no idea that these things had a weakness to fire, but that became increasingly apparent as the monstrosity reeled in pain from the explosive punch, and only now did the bounty hunter notice the overloaded explosion from some electro arrows that Pit had earlier shot it with.
”And stay down!” Cap said victoriously. Now he could turn his full focus toward finishing off the Bloated Carcass, which he saw was just about recovered from the earlier beating it took from the Ryuuko Ranbu.
With two of the carcasses done and dusted, the Smashers turned Seekers had the battle well handled. It wouldn't be long before they put the remaining monsters down and could move on. The heat of the Falcon Punch and the ensuing explosion washed over the arena, briefly taking Pit and the Heavy Carcass' attentions away from each other as they glanced at the fiery spectacle.
Though Pit had always found the F-Zero pilot's special move to be super cool, he didn't want to be outdone by it! Pit skipped backward away from the carcass and fired his light arrows at it, swapping between the faster, weaker streaks of light and the larger, stronger dash shots as it went after him. The angel ducked or dodged every punch it threw, its speed lessening as it took more damage. Its strength had already been flagging by the time Captain Falcon had sent it over to him, and Pit was careful not to let his most precious weapon take even one hit of decay. The pattern of dodge, slice, back away, shoot, and then dodge again continued for a few moments until the Heavy attempted one last ditch attack. It took a huge step forward and lunged with both of its club-like limbs at Pit, bringing them in from the sides to try and crush the angel between them. If it had tried that while it was in better shape it might have connected - but Pit leapt up as its arms crashed together, vaulting over the carcass' shoulder and landing behind it. He swiveled, bow already drawn back and charging a light arrow into an Electro one.
"You're done for!" Pit declared, firing the purple projectile. It shot straight through the carcass, and as it stuttered and turned to face Pit the arrow curved and came back around to deal the final blow. Electricity scattered throughout its body just before it fell face first onto the ground for the last time.
"And now I'm done here," he said, pleased with himself. With two down he flitted over to Captain Falcon, eager to see if he'd managed to finish his fight before the man.
As it turned out, they were wrapping up their fights around the same time, give or take a second or two. What Pit saw was Captain Falcon weaving out of another onslaught of attackings from the Bloated Carcass before he cracked back with ”Gen’ei Kyaku!” The rapid kicks barraged the carcassed and left it stunned long enough for the bounty hunter to spend one of his left over Power Gauge stocks in order to channel chi through his arms and out of his hands. ”Haoh Shoukou Ken!” Shouted the bounty hunter after aiming his cupped palms in the direction of the Bloated Carcass.
What followed was another fiery display. Not a punch this time, but instead a big fireball that surged forward from the flats of the Captain’s palms and went hurtling into the carcass with a fiery crash. The Bloated Carcass found itself similarly engulfed in a fiery blast much like the Shield-Arm was. And after the smoke cleared, the carcass fell over in a smoldering heap. ”Ha!” Captain Falcon posed victoriously, ”And that’s how it’s done!”
Pit approached him with a wide grin. If the angel didn't still have his bow in one hand, he might have applauded.
"Nice one, Cap!" he said. "Now we can move on to the next level!"
Unbeknownst to the two of them, there was one last order of business. A wave of darkness washed through the area, taking the both of them separately to what could only be described as some kind of reward area. Of course it might not have appeared that way at first, given the slightly ominous solid shadow surrounding them and three unexplained cards on offer.
Phalanx Shot - your projectiles can also bounces opponents' projectiles back toward them Interstellar Construct: Safe Load - when shielded, your attack is boosted by 40% of the shield's durability, up to a maximum of 140% Mid-Air Strike - 50% damage boost while in the air
"Good thing I can read now," he murmured, leaning in close and squinting as he worked through the words. Bouncing back... pro... projectiles. I can already do that, but it would be pretty cool to be able to shoot them back with my arrows! Next... attack up when shielded... hmm. Do I have to stick with the Orbitars to use this one? Pit tucked a fist under his chin, curling his other arm around his elbow as he thought about the options. Being half as strong in the air though? Why would someone pick... wait, twice as strong? 50% is half, so half a boost... uh... He decided it was a power up for sure, which would be great if he could actually keep himself airborne, but then again...
Umm... they all seem pretty good. Which one do you think I should pick, Lady Palutena?
...Lady Palutena?
Well it seemed like there was more interference again, or considering that Captain Falcon wasn't around, some kind of personal vision. Left to decide by himself, Pit's hand alternated between hovering over each of the three. In the end, he grasped the rightmost card. It might have been wishful thinking, he couldn't get the thought of a souped-up flying version of himself out of his head. So in the interest of being more useful in the future, he went with the mid-air strike.
The bounty hunter was about to give a celebratory thumbs up when he suddenly found his vision darkening, and not just because of the visor on his helmet either. Then he spotted the three glowing cards floating in front of him. They depicted names, images, and even small descriptions of what Falcon could only assume were power-ups of some kind. ”Guess I’m supposed to pick one…”
After reading each one carefully, Cap made his choice and reached for the left-most one.
Molten Touch: Attacks deal bonus damage to armor.
As soon as he grabbed it, the other two cards vanished. Then the Captain heard a gruff voice in his head. ”The strongest metal still bends effortlessly to his will.” And before Falcon could even register what he heard, his vision was normal again and he was back in the hollow with Pit.
”Uh… thanks, mysterious voice.” Cap murmured in confusion before adding with a shrug, ”...I guess.”
Pit blinked as his eyes readjusted. "That happened to you too, right? The whole place suddenly went dark and you got to pick a power?"
”Pretty much, yeah.” Cap confirmed. ”Did a voice say something to you in your head too?”
"No, even though I asked her to," Pit huffed, clearly not on the same page as the F-Zero pilot. He found it kind of unfair that Captain Falcon got some kind of telepathy through to him, not considering the implications of that whatsoever. He didn't dwell on it for long.
"Do you think we'll keep getting prizes all the way up to the Guardian?" he asked, turning his attention across the hollow to where more veins snaked up the tree's interior. "C'mon, let's go find out!"
”’Asked her to’?” Cap asked curiously, ”What does that-?”” He started to ask but then paused in realization, ”Oh right, that goddess of yours. Lovely lady, green hair, right now I remember.” He mused and then said, ”Bit weird for this tree to be giving us power ups since we’re here to, I dunno, defeat it? Ah well, I’m sure things’ll become clearer as we get further in.”
Pit nodded vigorously in response to both of Captain Falcon's observations. And as for the latter, since they definitely wouldn't learn anything else by sitting around this ruined area they'd have to move on to the next. He led the way over to their exit, but at the last moment seemed to remember something and bounded back over to the battle site. "Don't wanna forget these," he said as he collected the four spirits, bringing them back over to Captain Falcon before they ascended.
This close, the massive tree that was the Qliphoth loomed even larger. And when no apparent entrance could be seen, it was the archangel Sandalphon who made the first move by drawing her weapon and opening fire on the trunk. This gave way to a cacophony of weapons and other blasts being let loose on the tree by the gathered Seekers there. Unfortunately, Roxas and Captain Falcon had little in the way of equipment or attacks that were suitable for this task. Roxas hacked away with his Keyblades, but the weapons’ shapes were obviously not optimized to be used like this. And Falcon had nothing but his fists and never-used sidearms.
Thankfully though, they had Ganondorf around. The warlord brandished his newly-acquired greatsword - Litania - and went to work with his immense strength. And soon enough an entrance into the tree was carved out for the intrepid group to enter through. Inside was the comfort of being out of the time fall - what little the atmosphere of the Qliphoth offered that is - and the almost immediate appearance of infested creatures of all sorts likely as a defense mechanism. Many were grossly misshapen insectoids, but others looked as though they might have previously occupied the city that was once located in this zone as well.
”Looks like they’re not taking too kindly to us.” Falcon commented as he cracked his neck and knuckles, entering his fighting stance.
”What even are these things?” Roxas asked with a disgusted look on his face as he summoned Oblivion and Oathkeeper to his hands.
”Hmph, fodder, as far I’m concerned.” Ganondorf grunted in reply, brandishing his trident - Vapor. The warlord was looking rather pleased that he was finally going to be able to handle an enemy the old-fashioned way rather than having to run and hide like outside. He also summoned the newly-upgraded Phantom Ganon with their flowing crimson cape and sharp sword-like nail they brandished along with their default trident weapon. In addition, he summoned a squad of Moblin Spearmen.
And then the fighting started. A chaotic cacophony of shouts, clashes, blasts, and spells that rang throughout the inside of the Qliphoth. Ganondorf wasted no time in charging right in, pausing only momentarily when an illusory spell of some kind was cast on him courtesy of Blazermate. When the dark cloud of smoke around him cleared, the Gerudo found himself flanked by a pair of doppelgangers of himself that wielded tridents of their own. He could tell they were only half as strong as the original, but even that could still be plenty strong considering who it was they were mimicking.
Between them, the moblins, and Phantom Ganon - Ganondorf was practically commanding a “Legion” of his own much like the minions commanded by Sectonia or Midna. And they were able to cut a large swathe into the attacking Floodfestation before them.
Meanwhile, Roxas also took to the fighting with his usual agility and flare. Enclosed corridors allowed him to launch himself between the walls with Flowmotion to cut down the Flood that were caught within the trajectory of his movements. Occasionally he would even pause to let off a crowd-clearing Thundaga spell whenever he needed to create some space for himself to get moving again. Unlike outside, for once he was almost completely in his element here. These infested creatures may not have been the same thing as Heartless or Nobodies, but they still similarly attacked in swarms which made the battle tactics feel familiar enough to the Keybearer.
Between the three of them, it was unfortunately the Captain who was having the roughest time. Most of his techniques were geared toward taking down enemies in 1v1 fights. So dealing with a swarm like this was less than ideal for the bounty hunter. But he didn’t let that deter him, as Cap sprinted in and opened his fight with a fiery punch on what looked like the remains of an infected citizen from Redgraccoon City. He couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the poor souls whose existence in this world was tied to this dreadful place. But now wasn’t the time for empathizing.
Falcon kicked and punched his way through a handful more small fry. He wasn’t as built for taking on an army like some of his compatriots were, which was why the Captain smirked to himself when he managed to single out a not-so-small fry enemy. Whatever it was, it looked like some kind of giant sentient pelvis that oozed with infection. And… was that a freaky-looking face in the central segment? Or maybe that was just the bone structure and muscle tissue giving a disturbing optical illusion? This thing looked less like an infected victim and more like a pure monstrosity. ”Okay then, this is definitely… a first for me.” Falcon commented, rolling his shoulder muscles and tightening into Robert Garcia’s martial arts stance.
”Let’s see what you’ve got, show me your moves!” The Captain declared before he dead-sprinted toward the monster in question. When he was close he leaped forward and smashed into the Saxum’s midsection with a powerful ”Knee of Justice!” And then after landing he planted his foot on the ground and launched his other leg into a ”Gen’ei Kyaku!” That barraged the monster with a series of rapid straight kicks. Falcon’s strikes appeared to land, but with the way this creature looked, it was surprisingly hard to tell how much damage he was actually doing.
Cap also didn’t initially notice the projectiles shooting out of the thing’s shoulders until he had to jump back and even use his bubble shield to prevent himself from taking the brunt of a counterstrike. And even after avoiding the initial onslaught, the projectiles themselves left dangerous areas that dealt constant lingering damage to whoever stood in them. And that meant that the Captain would have to continuously keep watching his footing otherwise the lingering area damage could catch up to him.
Elsewhere, both Ganondorf and Roxas were still more or less thriving. The King of Evil had been taking full advantage of the illusory doubles that had been granted to him for coordinated attacks alongside them. His Moblin Spearmen fought as long as they were capable, but it was all but inevitable that they’d fall eventually. Even Phantom Ganon, with his new powers granted by N Corp’s Nail and Ripping Bear, couldn’t last forever. He was still fighting but it became clear that he could only last so much longer before he was either overwhelmed or his time ran out. After Ganondorf’s doubles wore off, he paused long enough to consecrate some Hallowed Ground for Phantom Ganon to remain near in order to benefit from some of its regenerative effects. This would hopefully let him last long enough for his time to run out so that his defeat wouldn’t cost Ganondorf any extra energy. After that he summoned a fresh squad of Moblin Spearmen and went back on the offensive against the Flood.
As for Roxas, his efforts were similarly bearing fruit. His tactic of launching himself between walls in tight spaces allowed for him to sustain a remarkable amount of momentum in his fighting style. This also meant that he had to spend MP on spells a bit less often, allowing him to conserve his resources a bit while still maintaining his effectiveness. He coupled that by occasionally summoning his striker, Poltergeist. Her Psi attacks were a good way to soften up clusters of enemies so that Roxas could zip by with his Keyblades for the finisher. Her ability to grant him buffs with The Sun Is Not Gentle after a while was also a welcome addition to Roxas’ repertoire.
Meanwhile, Captain Falcon found himself in a tough matchup against the infected Saxum. Its size and ability to cover its surroundings in hazardous damaging zones made it difficult for the Captain to maintain a proper melee engagement with the warframe in question. It was fortunate for Falcon that he had a striker like Bianca to help him in this kind of pinch. Her ability to shift the types of arrows she fired combined with her fairly short cooldowns made for a useful bit of versatility to get off occasional ranged damage or slowness on the monster in a way that also gave Falcon some breathing room to try and study the monster as he fought it.
Through this, Falcon managed to figure out that the two femurs that served as the creature’s shoulders appeared to be taking more damage. So Falcon started concentrating on them. When he was able to get close enough, he could strike at them with punches or kicks. But while away from them, he could have Bianca concentrate her shots on them. Then at one point the Captain shifted gears a bit and summoned his other striker, Tyr. The man appeared and began to hack and slash away at the femurs with telekinetically controlled greatswords. After the damage that was already dealt, Tyr’s attack even managed to destroy one of the femurs before he vanished.
With this, Falcon saw what he thought was an opening and launched forward hoping to take advantage of the creature’s damaged flank. But when he saw corrosive bombs begin to spew out from the spot where the femur had been he zigzagged away and had to rethink his plan. The lingering damage from the projectiles was going to start catching up to him if he didn’t do something now. Then - as if answering his prayers - Captain Falcon found himself being healed. It was Sandalphon, one of her uses of Angelic Wings included the Captain within its twenty foot radius. This got the bounty hunter’s health back up to full and then some.
”My turn!” Falcon declared, flashing blue momentarily as he renewed his frontal charge against the infected Saxum. He attacked from the side containing the other femur to avoid getting a face full of explosions. And the lingering damage zones didn’t concern him quite as much when he was now at above full health thanks to Sandalphon’s timely divine intervention. All the fighting he’d been doing had allowed Cap to build up a full 3 stocks of Power Gauge. And now it was time to capitalize. ”Ryuuko Ranbu!” The bounty hunter shouted as his rush connected. He launched into a high-speed flurry of punches and kicks against the Saxum’s femur before launching straight upward with a Ryuuga as the finishing touch.
The tall warframe staggered back as the second femur exploded and was destroyed. After that more corrosive explosions spewed out. But Falcon noticed the warframe’s movements became increasingly weakened, realizing that the explosives spewing out was the monster’s own way of bleeding out, as it were. So all Cap had to do from here was keep a safe distance and let the monster finish dying off. He grabbed its spirit, unsure what could be done with it but figuring the group could figure it out later. Roxas and Ganondorf, meanwhile, were mopping up the rest of the section of enemies they were fighting against as well.
From here, all three heard the recommendation from Sandalphon about ascending the tree to escape the area. And at this point, neither of them were particularly inclined to argue with her logic. For Roxas, this wouldn’t be hard at all thanks to Flow Motion. Falcon and Ganondorf would have to put a little more oomph into it, but between the former’s athleticism and the latter’s Bullet Jump, they could make the ascension as well. Of course, the transit up the tree eventually landed all three in different hollows with different people acting as their temporary partners.
Roxas found himself in a hollow alongside Zenkichi. ”Separated into pairs.” The Nobody quipped before adding, ”Again. It’s like Arahabaki all over again.”
Ganondorf found himself in an entirely different hollow. And when he looked around, the only ally he could find was Primrose. ”Is it only the two of us here?” He asked. ”Seems we’ve all been separated again.”
And then the Captain, who looked around in the hollow he was in and could only find one of his fellow former Smashers. ”Just us?” Falcon asked Pit. ”Does this sort of thing normally happen whenever the Seekers complete their missions?”
Everything seemed to be going well at first. Roxas, who had been close to the head of the pack at the beginning, had what was probably the easiest time minding his footing and avoiding any unnecessary stumbles. Captain Falcon, while not as acrobatic as the Nobody, was still very athletic in his own right, even to a superhuman degree. For him, all he had to do was remember some of the climbing tricks he and Roland had employed during the race up the icy mountain. Of course he couldn’t just go full tilt, since he had volunteered himself to stay nearby the Ace Cadet and watch his back to help guard the Emitter. Speaking of guarding the Emitter, Ganondorf had also been nearby during this time. He wasn’t nearly as maneuverable as Roxas or the Captain. In fact he was just about as miserable as Edelgard was. Still, he’d said he was going to help guard the emitter and that was what he was going to do.
And it was at the chasm when problems started arising, not the least of which being that no one could agree on a direction to go in. Sectonia had opted for the straight and direct path, even summoning a crystal platform that the others could use as a makeshift bridge to cross on. And for Roxas, Ganondorf, and the Captain, this seemed like the no-brainer choice. Why anyone would want to spend extra time detouring through tunnels below the chasm or ignoring the mission altogether to go exploring a crashed spaceship was beyond any of them. By this point, Roxas had pulled up his hood. The Emitter was shielding him from the effects of the rain, but it didn’t stop him from getting wet. Meanwhile, Ganondorf and the Captain exchanged a few words about the fork in the road.
”Fools!” Ganondorf grumbled, ”Where do they think they’re going?” He demanded, clearly referring to the group that was splintering off to go explore a ship. There was no time for that kind of nonsense!
”Hmm, yeah…” Falcon tentatively agreed. ”...I don’t really get it, either.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. To be fair this was his first real mission with the Seekers, so he added, ”Is this, uh… normal… for the Seekers?”
”Tch.” Ganondorf continued to grumble. ”Unfortunately.” He confirmed.
For his part, Roxas didn’t really understand the need to go exploring either. Not in a place this hazardous. He couldn’t be too surprised about someone like Jr. or Rika getting distracted, they were kids after all. But a grown up like Juri? He shrugged it off and focused on continuing to cross the bridge instead. And that was when the problems really started to happen.
From all three of their positions, Roxas, Ganondorf, and Falcon suddenly heard the loud crying and wailing of one of the BB’s. Falcon’s first instinct was to make a dash for the poor kid and see if he was okay, Roxas having a similar instinct. Both managed to focus on their own part of the traversal, however. Ganondorf, on the other hand, grumbled some more.
”Someone shut it up!” His deep voice demanded, “”Or we’re all going to get-” He was interrupted when abominable creatures started making themselves known. Whether it was the invisible BT’s with hands for feet, the tar-like invisible corpses reaching up from the ground, or the lion-like monstrosity that could easily tower over the other creatures.
”-caught.”” Falcon finished for Ganondorf. Now they both knew they had to move or they would doom themselves and everyone with them. For Falcon, as well as Roxas, this was relatively easy for the most part. Falcon had always been a superhuman sprinter so between that and putting more of the fast climbing experience he had from the minigames to use, he could keep himself mostly out of harm’s way save for a hiccup or two that force him to use some of his fighting techniques to get free and continue. Roxas arguably had an even easier time of escaping. Between Flow Motion and Virtual Cubes, he could keep a pretty good rhythm going, giving himself solid footing in a way that would also help keep him out of reach of the tar corpses trying to grab at him.
Instead it was the King of Evil who was facing more of a challenge here. Not only was Ganondorf’s first instinct to fight, he was quick to realize how ineffective fighting actually would be. Nothing made that more crystal clear than when, from a distance, he witnessed Geralt’s failed attempt to attack the large monster. Loathe as the prideful warlord was to admit it, escape was the only option. The other challenge facing Ganondorf was his overall lack of maneuverability compared to many of the other Seekers.
Indeed, he was very much in the same boat as Edelgard, weighed down by his armor and his own body size to boot. Ganondorf could give himself some wiggle room with Bullet Jump, but that meant his faster movements had to come in bursts rather than simply being constant like most of everyone else. And that meant more perilous moments of his needing to clear a swath of invisible tar corpse hands around him to give himself room to use Bullet Jump to dash or leap away. The speed buff from Zenkichi’s spell was actually a very welcome boon, though good luck getting Ganondorf to admit that outloud.
Moments after this, the worst happened. The Ace Cadet, for all his carefulness with the SFE, dropped the device causing it to smash to pieces and sink into the ground. The main thing that was protecting everyone from the Time Fall, was gone. Immediately, personal shields activated for Roxas, Falcon, and Ganondorf. It protected them from the rain for now, but it also put them on a strict timer to get to their destination, serving only to add to the pressure.
But it wasn’t without at least some silver lining. With the SFE gone, magic and other similar abilities were no longer being dampened and could function fully again. For Roxas, this meant his Flow Motion could help keep him going as fast as it always had done, and it also subtly meant his Virtual Cubes were back to their full durability as well. Even Falcon and Ganondorf were now able to use their full powers, for what little good they would do to these monstrosities. Instead that would have to be channeled to aiding their escape. And for the Captain, it meant he could utilize his techniques to help him maneuver himself around a bit more while he made his mad dash for the other side and in the direction of the Qliphoth.
For the King of Evil, his Bullet Jump was a bit more effective, so that combined with the speed he had been granted a bit earlier meant he could make something of a mad dash himself. He couldn’t make nearly as good of time doing this as Roxas and Falcon, and indeed would likely be one of the last in line to finally reach the safety of escape, such as it was. But as he fought off tar-creature hands and dashed and doubled jumped his way across the remainder of the chasm toward the other side, Ganondorf couldn’t deny the increasing amount of frustration boiling in his blood. Compared to Roxas and Falcon, Ganondorf’s slower speed meant he’d be cutting it close with the time limit of his personal shield.
”DAMN IT!” He barked in anger and frustration, ”I am GANONDORF! And I will NOT be slain by some damnable rainstorm!”
For Roxas, the battle prep was pretty much nonexistent. He wasn’t carrying any excess items, and his weapons were either built into his wardrobe or in the Keyblades’ case, summonable. But he paid a quick visit to the Armory out of curiosity. It certainly had an eclectic collection of things, not all of which were weapons or armor as the name of the facility suggested. But he did spy the Mana Potions and decided to take five of them, leaving the rest behind in case someone else needed them. Roxas had been getting himself into an increasing number of situations where he found himself out of MP and unable to do much while waiting for it to recharge, so he hoped these potions would help him better mitigate that problem a bit.
Mana Potions x5
Actually, he was also tempted to leave his Pokemon behind for this mission as well. The Dead Zone was a far more dangerous place than any he’d been to so far and he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of risking Scamp and the others falling prey to the timefall or something else. But in the end he decided to keep them with him, resolving not to call them out of their Poke Balls unless he absolutely needed to or it was safe.
Captain Falcon, meanwhile, had similarly decided to skip out on visiting the Armory. Weapons and armor just weren’t his thing, and he was confident his fists could still get the job done regardless of the Stable Field Emitter - which he planned to volunteer to help guard. So instead Falcon had spent most of his prep-time doing warm up moves in the training center. He wanted to start getting a better feel for the martial arts moves he was learning from Robert Garcia’s spirit, especially now that he knew some of those moves weren’t going to be as strong as they normally were. So he figured some extra practice and mastery of them would help him make up the difference.
More Moves: Falcon gains the moves Ryuuga and Ryuuko Ranbu. The Ryuuga is a normal Special Move that launches Falcon into a high uppercut that launches the opponent upward if it connects. The Ryuuko Ranbu is a Super Special Move that costs 1 Power Gauge stock. When used, Falcon's body flashes blue for a split second before he dashes at the opponent in a full stride, if he connects he will then launch into a high-speed flurry of punches and kicks that ends with him launching the opponent upward with a Ryuuga.
That left Ganondorf, who did in fact pay a short visit to The Armory. His initial purpose there was to ensure that the bottled spirits he’d sent up over the past week had been stored as instructed. Once he confirmed that this was the case, he decided to also give the rest of the Armory a quick perusal on the off-chance there was something he could make use of. The headband with the horns attached to it seemed like it could be amusing, but the warlord had no interest in wearing such a silly thing. Maybe at a later time he might consider fusing the item with himself but for now, he chose to leave it.
There was also the matter of the Spirit he obtained from defeating the Bandit King, Twinblade. Ganondorf had mulled it over in his head what he wanted to do with it and eventually settled on itemizing it. Which he did by crushing it.
Litania A greatsword blessed by the power of prayer, with respectable stopping power. Wielding it prevents status ailments/afflictions like Dizzy and Daze that affect one's aim, effect rate, and/or hit chance.
Getting a greatsword came as no shock to him. When the sword itself appeared to possess a degree of holiness to it, however, that did surprise him. A bit odd a weapon like this to be the product of a bandit’s spirit, but he wasn’t going to question it. He decided to store one of his Gerudo blades and carry the new weapon in its place. A bit asymmetrical, but nothing he couldn’t handle easily enough.
The ride on the Pelican was certainly… something. To say it felt cramped would be an understatement. Roxas found himself squeezed in-between Pit and Jr. Meanwhile, Falcon had volunteered to remain standing for the duration of the ride in order to help save on sitting room. And Ganondorf…? Well, he was seated rather uncomfortably in a spot that was beside the wall in order to prevent him having to be squeezed against too many other people. Not the most fun ride in the world.
Once everyone was on the ground, Cap was quick to volunteer himself for guard duty for the Emitter. And surprisingly, so was Ganondorf. ”Wait, you’re volunteering for guard duty?” Falcon asked him teasingly, ”And here I thought something like that was beneath you, Ganondorf.”
Ganondorf wasn’t nearly as amused. ”If I can’t conquer this cursed place by force, then there is no reason for me to charge ahead in the front. It’s as simple as that.” The Captain merely shrugged in response.
As for Roxas, he was among those closer to the front of the group. He wasn’t carrying a BB or one of the personal shields, he wanted to be near those in the most direct danger in case maybe he could help them with a Curaga spell or some other form of healing should it be needed. Plus, even under the effects of the Emitter, his Flow Motion still gave him an edge at keeping his footing compared to most of the others.
Midna acquired a plate consisting of an odd onion omelet, some carrot sticks, and a Mint mango. Oh and also 3 plates of nothing but sausages. With these in (four) hand(s) she set about finding a spot to sit, her dark orange eyes scanning the room till she decided on touching base with a familiar fellow.
”Good morning Goldlewis, mind if I join you and…” Minda asked politely after she strode up to the table of the Secretary of Defense and his insectoid seating companion, trailing off in such a way as to invite the name the latter to be offered to her.
When choosing a table, the veteran had come equipped with not one but two plates. If the first platter, with its ample portions of diced, southwest-seasoned, skillet-fried oca oca spuds accompanied by chicken sausages, sliced prickle pears, and fresh cuberries might have implied a balanced breakfast, the second one piled high with oniony scrambled eggs shattered that illusion. It took a lot of food, and especially protein, to sustain a physique like his after all. That was why Midna’s arrival with twice as many meat-laden plates took him by surprise, but after remembering her many familiars, Goldlewis reasoned that the extra chow must be for them. At least, he hoped so…
“Howdy there missie, go right ahead,” he told her, answering on Grimm’s behalf as his senior. Midna’s question, though, made him realize something important about the unusual insect: that he’d never provided his name. Whenever he came up in hushed rumors along the narrow streets of Meridi-at-han, the tale-spinners agreed that the master of the Grimm Troupe must share its name. Maybe he was overthinking, but he couldn’t be so sure. Then again, following those whisperers’ example right in front of the bug might provoke a correction to clear the air once and for all. “This here’s Grimm. Ringleader of a travelin’ bug circus.”
The Troupe Master merely bowed his head in acknowledgement. ”A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” With all those limbs, after all, Midna wasn’t too far gone from a bug herself. Grimm tossed a sausage to the floated Grimmchild, then lifted one to his mouthless, masklike face. It split open along an invisible seam, scarlet fire shining from within like a furnace flame, and after Grimm flicked the morsel into the inferno his maw closed again, all but disappearing.
It was safe to say Midna was a touch taken aback by that, the princess blinking a few times as if trying to properly process what she had just seen, before attempting a smooth recovery.
”Neat trick. Can you teach me how to do that? Would make taking a drink in a quiet moment in a fight much easier” she said as she sat herself down (giving Goldlewis a nod of thanks as she did so) before setting down her plates and then removing said helmet that she had been wearing this whole time. Her armor was stored somewhere, but the corrupting artifact stayed with her the whole time, and in this case was set in her lap.
”Midna, princess of twilight. Nice to meet you too” she then introduced herself in turn, before also engaging in feeding sausages to minion (as Goldlewis had predicted) in this case via using fake magical limbs to offer them to a portal out of which wolf-ish and dragon-ish snouts snapped. She did not trust them to not wreck the plates, and it would simply be indigent for the royal serving things to drop their food on the floor.
Sectonia took a bit to grab her food, as while she could eat meat, she’d much rather prefer sweets and fruits. Thankfully with another fan of honey aboard the avenger and that person being one of the people who managed all the food stuffs, honey was in good supply. Fruits however were a bit trickier to grab, and sweets were pretty barren. She’d need to fix that… perhaps something in that village of candy could make infinite sweets if they went back there?
Looking for a table to eat at, she decided to join Midna, Grimm, and Goldlewis. More so because Grimm was a new bug with a bit of flair to him and her familiarity with Midna. Since she just floated, she floated over a part of the table. She only caught the tail end of their conversation, but it was clearly introductions. ”I’m Queen Sectonia. No relation to Midna, although we have similar views on statecraft.” Sectonia said. ”Although her view of aesthetics needs a bit of work.”
While Grimm made no reply to either Midna (whose question he did not understand) or to the newcomer, Sectonia’s remarkable size (especially compared to his own) left him momentarily blindsided. While he did not flinch away, the Grimmchild did seem afraid, and hid from the big, brightly-colored bug behind its father. Rather than reassure it, though, the Troupe Master stared at Sectonia a moment longer. His red-hot gaze saw something in her that he despised, antithetical to everything that made him who he was. When he realized that this aspect of Sectonia was merely borrowed and not her own, however, his intense look subsided, and Grimm turned to try and coax his child out with a sausage.
It took an extra couple minutes for Captain Falcon to show up in the common room with his breakfast in tow. Not because he wasn’t a morning person. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Cap had arisen a good couple of hours before anyone else on the ship did in order to do some morning workouts. No, the only reason he was a latecomer to the breakfast table was because he was very particular about his food, wanting it to be just right in a “you can’t rush perfection” kind of way.
As such, the bounty hunter brought a full tray with him. It contained two plates - one holding a beautifully crafted southwestern omelet with jalapenos and sausage topped with a strong smelling salsa, and the other a side dish of classic flaky biscuit topped with creamy white gravy - as well as two drinks, a cup of coffee - black - and a glass of milk. ”Nothing beats the classics.” He said aloud to nobody in particular, then sniffed the air a bit before shooting a look at Goldlewis, ”Is that oca oca spuds I smell, Mr. Secretary? Guess I’m not the only one around here with a taste for the spicy, eh?”
“Mm-hm.” Goldlewis nodded in approval at the racer’s hearty food choice. “Them oca-ocas ain’t exactly like potatoes, but I reckon they’re close enough. Close enough for government work, as they say.” The big man chuckled as he lifted up another forkful of scrambled eggs. “There’s no tellin’ when and where the Lost Numbers can get supplies, so we don’t got the luxury of bein’ picky. If ya like ‘em, enjoy ‘em while they last.” As he chewed, he narrowed his eyes at Falcon, studying him. “Lemme think…you were with us last week in Carnival Town, but if I’m rememberin’ right, you weren’t with the Under team, were ya?” He cracked a grin at the Captain that he shared with Grimm. “Seems like wherever we go, we end up findin’ new folks willin’ to go the distance. Today’s gonna be your first time doin’ what we really do. Stick close to me, an’ I’ll see y’all home safe.”
”Ah, no. I’d been racing in Carnival Town for a couple days when you all showed up. It was just a stroke of luck that Pit, Bowser, and Ganondorf were among you. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been brought in.” Cap said back to the veteran. After a couple bites from his omelet, the bounty hunter gulped some milk from his glass to settle the spice down a bit before taking a sip from his coffee mug. ”Mmm, word of the wise to anyone looking to try spicy dishes: drink milk instead of water. Water has a way of making the spice even worse, in fact.”
”Speaking of food stock, I'm aware of a few places to get quite a few supplies. Assuming the Lost Numbers don’t mind some manual labor. Such as a land made of candy.” Sectonia said, remembering a place she had visited before. With such a large ship able to move through the world at a decent pace, she’d prefer them to make a stop there. She had quite the dangerous sweet tooth, although she got the feeling none of the others really did.
”Land of candy?” Falcon repeated with a look of intrigue. ”Now that sounds like a mouthful of painful cavities waiting to happen.” He said with a hearty chuckle. ”What the stockpile really needs is some good tripe, preferably beef but any is good. Bound up in a thread, it makes a tasty delicacy that’ll boost your perseverance and resilience. You can even wrap it around some veggies or other forms of stuffing, like a dumpling. Good stuff!”
The prospect left Goldlewis dubious. “Candy? Tripe? We ain’t got time to make trips for junk food and delicacies.” He swept his arm around the Mess Hall. “Y’all can see how much chow it takes to feed an army, and the Lost Numbers ain’t even eaten yet. Every supply run’s gotta count.” After a moment, he shrugged and went for another forkful of eggs. “But, if ya do think of somethin’, run it by Sandalphon. I hear she’s workin’ to map out supply routes.”
”What can you do anyway…. Grimm?” Sectonia said, trying to recall the strange word she heard at the tail end of their introductions. ”I have magic that rivals the gods, for example.” Sectonia said, referring to her normal power, but now boosted by the guardian she absorbed. Something that Grimm could sense within her, but Sectonia wasn’t entirely sure of the connection between the two.
The Troupe Master finished incinerating another sausage before turning to look at Sectonia. ”How impressive!” He lifted up his cape so that the now-full Grimmchild could take shelter, then continued. ”I once led the Grimm Troupe, but now, I am but a humble fire-dancer,” he rasped. Now that the others had seen his mouth, they might find it strange that he didn’t need to open it to speak. ”If that ignites your interest, let us dance together sometime. Through twist and turn, frolick and footwork, all is revealed.”
”Ah, another dancer. Primrose might like you. She uses dancing as well in order to fight. Although ‘fire’ makes me think your dancing is less supportive and more destructive.” Sectonia didn’t comment too much on dancing with Grimm. She wasn’t a great dancer, she was more of a singer.
Another figure stepped through the open frame leading into the Mess hall, revealing them to be the scarred, grizzled soldier-type Falcon had brought aboard the night before. The man gave a cursory glance of everyone present, and it was obvious to the more seasoned of the members there that he was very much out of his element even if his stoic appearance tried to hide it. The man locked his eye to Falcon for a microsecond before he strode over to the open countertop and dished himself up a plate of eggs, sausage, toast and bacon before grabbing himself a styrofoam cup of straight black coffee. While the majority of other tables were unoccupied, Snake knew he’d have a chance to meet up with the other members of this outfit later. For now, he headed to the table with the only member he recognized. He’d been too late to see the others the night before and, clearly used to being to himself, seemed rather awkward as he strode up to the table with a curt nod toward the group- as if he were a highschool freshman trying to join a senior table. ”Mind if I join you?”
”We’ve got space if you don’t mind squeezing in” the princess replied, meaning that quite literally because they’d unintentionally ended up with the two largest seekers at one table.
Goldlewis himself seemed cognizant of this fact. “Sure thing partner, here.” Grabbing his plates, the unexpected self-conscious man tried to scooch over to give the newcomer more room. By now, Goldlewis could sort out the fresh-faced recruits (as much as this man defied that description) from the veterans, so he planned to extend Snake the same hospitality that he did Grimm. And the Witch, if he got a chance to make a better impression.
”You also joined up over our week hiding out?” Midna asked, slightly indicating to Grimm with a half nod, before also enquiring ”how are you finding our mess of an association?” with a toothy grin.
Snake nodded toward the man’s offer; taking heed to the princess’s words as he maneuvered to sit alongside the open space next to the larger man. It was an interesting outfit of people, to say the least. Though, he did have his own motley crew of crazy back home. Snake looked to Midna, dipping his head in a nod toward Falcon. “Courtesy of the Captain here. Were it not for him, I’d still be in that damn town I’m sure.” Snake said, taking a gentle sip of the steaming vantablack liquid from his cup. A quick hum emanated from the back of his throat as he addressed Midna’s follow up. “Interesting for sure. First impressions have been nice so far.” The people were welcoming, and the coffee was good. Not to mention, it was rather bizarre to enter the Mess without lingering glances of acknowledgement, stares of adulation, or quick salutes at his presence. Not that he’d come to expect or desire any from this group. His actions were his own, with respect being the one thing he sought to earn among this group of fighters. His next question came after a quick bite of sausage. “How long have you all been here?”
”No worst enemies on it then? Lucky” Midna replied, her eyes flicking over to Ganondorf, before actually answering the question with ”Just about two weeks or so? Seekers only started up, hmm, two days before that though? We were making heroic pace before we went to ground for a week in places like the silly sounding little seaside town you were in. Did it have some of Galeem’s favorite horrors tucked away in it?”
”Oh, come now.” Falcon said to the princess as he chewed a bite of his spicy omelet. ”Is carrying old grudges really the most productive thing to do? Besides, he seems like he has no idea who you are, so it sounds like this grudge of yours is a bit one-sided, no?” He paused long enough to take another drink of milk from his glass. ”Not that I condone any of his actions, of course. From what I heard about him from Zelda, yes, he is indeed a pretty bad egg. But so is Bowser and his family. As long as they’re all helping us out I don’t really see what the problem is.”
Before Snake could respond to Midna, Falcon beat him to it. Finishing off his sausage and eggs, he opted to listen to the two converse as he weighed the situation in his head. Tensions were definitely high around here, what with that catwoman and the punk girl having fought during that fight against Mabuchi in the theater, and now it was something between the princess and the massive red-armored figure. They’d have to sort it out among themselves, which Snake found himself grunting in the affirmative to Falcon’s reasoning. “Falcon’s right. Holding on to grudges makes the enemy’s job a lot easier.” Beyond that, seeing as the majority of those present were only here for two weeks, it would make sense that people who naturally held rivalries or were bitter adversaries would still be tense around each other since they were all forced to cooperate.
Midna simply rolled her eyes at this and replied that ”Don’t worry about it. I’ve resigned myself to tolerating his existence as long as he’s being useful to our shared cause” with the not so subtle implication that was about as long as her amnesty would last.
”Besides the’ ‘star warrior, or the ‘warrior of the land’ I really don’t have much in the way of enemies. At least ones from Dreamland. Here though, I’ve made quite a few but that just comes with the territory. That black hedgehog for one…” Sectonia said, remembering an older altercation with someone who managed to escape her wrath.
While the others spoke, Goldlewis had been mostly munching, but he could not say he liked where the conversation was headed .Ultimately, though, one’s thoughts and feelings didn’t matter to the campaign as a whole. Only the end result. “Ya don’t have to like him, or anyone,” the veteran affirmed. “But as long as we’re doin’ this thing, we’re comrades-in-arms. Y’all gotta have each other’s backs, whether we like it or not. Comprende?”
The declaration seemed to prompt another long look from Grimm at Sectonia. ”I understand,” he whispered after a moment. ”We have all taken the stage for a reason. Each one of us has a part to place, and if a single player misses a cue, it may very well be curtains.”
”Why are you looking at me like that? Captivated by my beauty?” Sectonia said, a bit unsure of Grimms intentions, putting up a front to mask her confusion. If she had to guess with him looking like the bugs from the Under, perhaps it was something related to the guardian of the area she absorbed but she wasn’t sure.
”As I said, I’ll see this through till we reach the epilogue, but in that it's him not me you’ll need to worry about. I’ve seen his story play out twice already, and the third’ll be just the same” Midna replied while playing tangentially into Grimm’s mannerism, before sighing and apologizing. Not about her attitude regarding Ganondorf, but instead specifically to Snake, saying ”Sorry, didn’t mean to make this all about me. We’ll try this again after we get back from the mission” before preparing to leave, having chomped through her meal while she’d been being lectured.
Venom Snake looked up at Midna, offering a reassuring smile that tugged at the corner of his right lip.“You didn’t, don’t sweat it.” He could only surmise that whatever Midna had been subjected to- or witnessed with what the enemy of hers did, left a scar not to be forgotten. He hoped his words were of some consolation, at least.
After Goldlewis drained the last of his milk-spiked coffee, he looked down to find his plate empty. “All out, huh? When did that happen?” he mumbled. Then, clearing his throat, the veteran rose. “Well, good talkin’ to ya. I got some stuff that needs takin’ care of before we get goin’. If we’re takin’ the Pelican, I reckon I’ll see y’all up in the hangar.” He glanced at the two newbies. “Aft side, second floor from the top, just past the armory. If ya reach the Bridge, ya gone too far.” The big man checked his watch. “...Fifty minutes and countin’, folks. Be there, or be square.” Goldlewis raised his eyebrows over his glasses as he gave his dramatic ultimatum, as if being square was something the others ought to dread. Then he headed off to make his preparations.
Looking around to the table and giving a curt nod, Snake stood up and excused himself to dispose of his tray and beverage. As he strode out of the Mess, his color gradually returned into his vision as he followed the big man’s directions. He really wasn’t sure who was in charge of this outfit- be it him or the angel. Perhaps it was a collaborative effort shared between the two. Stowing speculation to the best of his mind, Snake reached the briefing room and stepped inside; taking a look around the area as he moved to lean up against the wall to the front of the room.
Sectonia let out a tick of disappointment and disgust at the mention of the Dead Zone. ”A land of horrors made out of random masses of flesh. That place is ugly with no redeeming factors.” She said, not mentioning that's where she was found, a spot of beauty in an ocean of ugly.
”And those packs that are supposed to protect us?” Falcon brought up, having finished off his omelet and was now working on finishing his biscuit and gravy side dish. ”Using babies like that. It doesn’t sit right with me. Not one bit.” Finally he finished off his food and all that was left was a swallow or two of coffee in the mug that he reached for in order to down the rest of it. ”I don’t know if that’s a product of Galeem or someone else, but whoever came up with that system is one seriously sick person. Anyway, I’ll be in the training center ‘til mission time if anyone needs me. Good talking to everyone.” He said as he was now done and took his tray and plates to be washed before disappearing back into the Avenger’s facilities.
Word Count: 10,349 Level 7 Ganondorf: 3/70 Exp Gained: +11 (-5 for Friend Heart) NEW EXP Balance--- 9/70
Kings of Thieves & Bandits
The Sandswept Sky ~ Gerudo Town/Desert
Tuesday
Ganondorf’s arrival in the early hours of the morning had a bit of an awkward start to it. Obviously his wardrobe had changed significantly, and the lack of gaunt features that Ikana’s spirit had given him meant that he wasn’t recognized at first until the two gate guards got a better look at him. But after that he was allowed back in and things were back to business as usual. As per his communication with Riju the night before, the first thing Ganondorf was asked to do was have an audience with her in order fill her in on the pertinent details he had learned about the Consuls and the Flame Clock.
That, however, was not the first thing Ganondorf actually did. There was another smaller bit of business he wanted to take care of beforehand. Something that he knew would have to be the first domino to fall on the eventual path toward freeing all of Gerudo Town. And her name was Nabooru. Being from the same era Ganondorf himself hailed from, Nabooru knew the King of Evil better than any of the other Gerudo in town. And that meant she trusted in him the least out of everyone. If he was to free anyone else from Gerudo Town, then the last thing he wanted was for someone as distrusting as Nabooru to be questioning his every move. As such, his old rival from their younger days would have to be the first to be de-storied.
”A moment, Nabooru?” The warlord asked after he found her in a war room poured over a tactical map of the desert territory. A room like this was obviously used for planning campaigns and sorties into battle. Nabooru herself looked up from the map table with a skeptical expression on her face. She was obviously not thrilled to see him.
“Is it true?” she asked, “You actually managed to find your mothers?”
”I have a lead on their location, but I have not had the chance to investigate it yet.” Ganondorf replied. ”But that’s not why I’ve come to see you.”
“Well what is it then?” Nabooru shot back, “Spit it out already.”
There was no good way to explain what he was about to do. And so Ganondorf decided it was better to just rip the bandage off and provide the explanations afterward. Hopefully this basement level room was soundproof enough for this not to draw too much attention from anyone in the upper levels. Ganondorf said nothing, and without warning made a surprising lunge for Nabooru’s neck that managed to catch her off guard. That let him get her with a hard hitting Flame Choke that left her singed and winded, gasping for breath. Surely that had to be enough for this to work.
”You’ll thank me for this, later.” He said, doubting that this sounded reassuring to her. But nevertheless he produced a Friend Heart and thrust it down into her as she was staggering to her feet. And just as he hoped, the Heart did its job. Nabooru’s colors all returned to normal, the red glow left her eyes, and whatever injuries she sustained from the attack were healed to boot.
“What…? What did you…?” Nabooru coughed out, still trying to get her breath back. She looked like she was a mix of confused and angry, which was no surprise at all. “Did you put these memories in my head?” She demanded.
”No.” Ganondorf said, then explained. ”I restored your memories to how they should be. You’re welcome.”
“What do you mean, Ganondorf? Explain yourself!”
”Everyone in this world has been under a spell.” Ganondorf said. ”Galeem’s spell. It purges Galeem from your knowledge and memories, and makes you susceptible to being controlled by the Consuls.”
“Galeem?” Nabooru said, looking as though she was simultaneously remembering that name and learning it for the first time.
”The false god I warned Riju of yesterday.” Ganondorf clarified. ”The one whom the Consuls serve.” Then he added. ”But now I have broken that spell on you. But only you.”
“Why?” Nabooru demanded. “Why me and not Lady Riju?”
”Because you would have tried to stop me.” Ganondorf said simply. ”Ergo, you needed to be the first.”
“First?” Nabooru asked, beginning to comprehend Ganondorf’s intentions. “Then you intend to break the spell for us all?”
”I do.” He confirmed. ”But doing it one person at a time is too inefficient. It will be much smoother to free everyone in one fell swoop.”
“Is that why you are so interested in the Flame Clock? Will destroying it break the spell on the town?”
”So I’ve been told.” Ganondorf said. ”But for now the priority should be to break the spell on Riju.”
“The best chance to do that is to break the hold on Bulliara first. With the both of us freed from that spell, then freeing Lady Riju from it will be much easier.” Nabooru suggested.
”Simple enough.” Said Ganondorf. ”For now I have an audience to attend to.”
About fifteen minutes later, the King of Evil stood before the throne yet again. Lady Riju sat upon it, and both Nabooru and Bulliara were at her sides as before. But one critical difference between this audience and the previous one, was the lack of a crowd. Ganondorf’s return to Gerudo Town had not elicited nearly as much gossip and attention as the first arrival had. Also Ganondorf was now alone, with none of his allies from The Avenger here to back him up in the event things went poorly. So he would just have to make sure that didn’t happen.
“You say you’ve learned how to destroy the Flame Clock?” Riju asked, wanting to get down to brass tacks.
”Indeed.” Ganondorf confirmed. ”I learned that one of the Consuls decided to defect and turn against his fellows. And so I was able to ask him directly about the Flame Clocks.”
“And…?”
”To put it simply, we will need a specific kind of individual. No one such as you or I will be able to damage it.” Unfortunately Ganondorf had to be a bit vague for now since Riju was not yet de-storied and he didn’t know how she would take to the idea of people being born inside and outside the “system”, as Consul S had put it.
But Riju was catching on to his vagueness and asked for clarification. “What kind of person do we need, exactly?”
The only thing Ganondorf could do was make up an excuse. ”I still haven’t confirmed those details yet, I’m afraid. But when I do, you will be the first one I inform.”
Riju cocked an eyebrow but ultimately nodded and accepted the answer. “See that you do. Now, you also told me you have located your missing mothers, correct?”
”Indeed. I know their location, I’ll just need time to plan an expedition to get to them. They’re in a place called The Courtyard, beyond a mountain range far to the west of here. Once I can find them and bring them back home, they’ll be of great service to the tribe, I can assure you.” After this, Ganondorf gestured back toward Riju. ”But for the time being, I have been given a few days of free time that I decided to spend here to see what I can do for you against the Bandit Horde.”
“Have you any ideas on that front?” Riju asked.
”If these deserts are anything like I remember them, then there will be nomadic tribes marking their territory in the regions outside of the town’s walls. I wish to approach these tribes and bring them under our banner to expand Gerudo Town’s sphere of influence and bolster our manpower.”
“Those tribes are of monsters.” Nabooru chimed in, “This sounds an awful lot like the same campaign you previously waged against Hyrule.”
”That was an effective strategy then, and I believe it will also be effective here.” Ganondorf retorted. ”So long as a certain someone doesn’t try to turn the tribe against me this time, of course.”
Nabooru bristled a bit, but said nothing in reply.
“In any case, Nabooru has been managing the scout parties.” Riju said. “So any intelligence we’ve gathered on the roaming tribes can be obtained from her as needed.” It sounded like she was in agreement with Ganondorf’s proposal. “Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?”
”One last item.” Ganondorf said, holding up an index finger for emphasis. ”You told me before that Consul X periodically visits you. She must not discover my presence here, or it will cause trouble for all of us. Simply give me an advanced warning for her visits so that I can plan to be away from town during that time, that should be all we need to do.”
“Simple enough.” Riju responded. “And speaking of which, I received word earlier that Consul X plans to visit the town tomorrow afternoon.”
”Then I shall spend tomorrow putting our plan for the tribes in motion. I’ll depart in the morning and return after sundown.”
Ten minutes after the conclusion of the audience, Ganondorf found himself in the war room again. He was meeting Nabooru down here to get the intelligence about the tribes from her. Well, that and one other purpose that wasn’t discussed in the audience chamber. “These are the largest of the tribes.” Nabooru said, pointing to areas on the map that roughly served as the tribes’ territories. “One of them is a Lizalfos Tribe, so I’m guessing you already know what to expect from them. Just one word of warning, their chief is a Dinalfos, so expect to have to deal with fire. The Konoc Tribe seems to be the friendliest of the bunch. Scout reports say they can sway foes into friends with their music. If that’s true, then they might be able to help you sway the other tribes.”
”And what of this larger tribe?” Ganondorf inquired, indicating a third area of the map that Nabooru had not yet pointed toward.
“That’s Morthagi Tribe territory. I wouldn’t bother with them, if I were you.” she advised. “Those creatures seem more like machines than anything else, might be too dangerous.”
”’Dangerous’ is exactly what I need.”
“If you’re going to insist on approaching them, save them for last so you can minimize the risk.” Nabooru said with an exasperated sigh. Just after this, another Gerudo entered the war room. It was Bulliara - aka the other reason Ganondorf and Nabooru had convened down here.
“So what was so urgent that you needed me down here?” she asked Nabooru, who had been the one to send for her. But while Bulliara’s attention was Nabooru, she did not notice Ganondorf maneuvering behind her. The warlord grabbed the bodyguard from behind and put her in a Nelson hold, also managing to clamp a hand over her mouth to prevent shouting or screaming. It was Nabooru who acted next, grabbing a nearby dagger and sinking it into Bulliara’s side from the front, looking like she hated every moment of this. But Ganondorf had told her that this was the only way it would work. Then Nabooru produced a Friend Heart as Ganondorf had instructed and also thrust it into Bulliara. The Heart did its job, breaking Galeem’s spell and healing the Gerudo Bodyguard as a bonus.
“What was that?” Bulliara demanded after Ganondorf released his hold on her, “Why am I suddenly… learning or… remembering things?”
As Ganondorf had done before, this time it was Nabooru who explained that everyone in Town was under Galeem’s spell and that this was how the Consuls maintained their control of territories. Bulliara was a bit easier to convince than Nabooru was, probably because she trusted Nabooru a lot more than Nabooru trusted Ganondorf. Regardless, as long as this was going smoothly, that was all that mattered to the warlord in question.
“So if I understand all this,” Bulliara said while rubbing her temples. “Destroying that Flame Clock will break this spell on everyone in town at once?”
”More or less.” Ganondorf confirmed. ”You could slowly do it one person at a time like this, but, well…”
“Too inefficient.” Bulliara finished.
“We need to break the spell on Lady Riju as well.” Nabooru said, “That’s why I needed to get you down here.”
“What about the Consul?” Bulliara asked, turning to look at Ganondorf. “Will she sense something amiss if she notices some of us are free of spell?”
”If she sees that Riju is de-storied, I have no doubt she’ll find us out.”
“Then we wait until the Consul departs and can know for sure that she won’t be back for a while.” Bulliara said, “Then we can free Lady Riju from this spell.”
”Until then, we go on as normal.” Ganondorf said. ”You may also want to consider making sure you’re away from the palace when the Consul visits. Minimize the chance that she sees you up close and realizes you’ve been freed.”
Both the Gerudo nodded in agreement. With all of this business completed, that ended Ganondorf’s first day back in Gerudo Town.
Wednesday
That morning, Ganondorf had a small breakfast in order to give himself an early start. As such, it was only around 9:00 AM when he departed Gerudo Town through its front gates. Accompanying him was a small squad of five Gerudo scouts and his Moblin Squad to serve as an entourage. Ganondorf wasn’t anticipating much of a fight from the place he was going to, with him leading the charge they were probably more than capable of handling the situation if things went awry.
Ganondorf followed the map sketch he had obtained from the war room that would point him toward where the tribes were last seen moving. He took Nabooru’s advice and decided to avoid the Morthagi for now. And while he was certainly capable of dealing with the Lizalfos Tribe as is, he also wanted to minimize how much he actually fought these tribes. After all, they wouldn’t provide nearly as much manpower if a number of them were slain in battle first.
As they were traveling, Ganondorf spotted something in the distance, barely visible. He almost thought it was a mirage at first. It looked like some kind of structure, unnatural, possibly manmade? It was hard to say from this distance, but whatever it was it also looked like there was a constant lightning storm around it, too far away to hear any thunder from the lightning strikes. Ganondorf decided to ignore it for now, as he had another objective he needed to focus on.
A couple hours later, Ganondorf and his entourage had reached what should have been the territory they were looking for. This was confirmed by the faint sound of music being heard from further on, past some sandy dunes. At this, Ganondorf held up a hand to halt his company. He instructed them to stay back so that he could approach the tribe alone. Better to look like a lone visitor for now than to look like a conqueror with an army. Ganondorf climbed up over the dunes ahead and was able to look down into what he assumed was the tribe’s encampment.
They didn’t look very advanced, relying on teepee shelters and outdoor campfires. They appeared to be some kind of cyclopean reptiles, with purple scales and what looked to be prehensile tails with… stingers of some kind on the tip? But his information had told Ganondorf that it was this tribe’s music that would be of special interest to him. So before he actually went down from the top of the dune, he waited a bit and listened to the music they were playing - which was mostly on drums and maracas. It didn’t seem particularly magical to him. Although perhaps it had no effect on him because he wasn’t a monster? Or maybe this was not the same music they used to sway hostile tribes? Well, there was only one way to learn more, and so Ganondorf descended from the dune to make his approach.
It didn’t take long for him to be spotted. The music faded to a stop as members of the Konoc tribe stared at the stranger visiting them with a mix of caution and curiosity. Ganondorf held out his arms as a gesture to show he was not going to draw any weapons on them. In response, the members of the tribe turned their eyes toward an older member who was likely their shaman or chief. The older Konoc approached Ganondorf with a bit less caution than the others were showing, probably as a show of confidence or perhaps to even return the gesture of nonviolence.
”I am Ganondorf.” the Warlord said. ”I speak for the Gerudo Tribe.” he clarified, unsure if his words could be understood.
“We know Gerudo.” the Elder Konoc said, though his speech didn’t sound fluent. “Powerful tribe, at war with Bandit Horde.”
”Those bandits have been raiding territories all over the desert, I am told.” Ganondorf said, ”I imagine they’ve been sighted here in your lands as well. That is why the Gerudo wish to form a pact with your tribe.”
“Make pact, fight together?” Elder Konoc asked. “Konoc sing and dance, not good for making war.” This seemed like a reasonable protest. The Konoc were not described as warlike like some other tribes.
”Your music is said to sway enemies and make them become your friends. Is that true?”
“Some music make friends of enemies, yes. But too dangerous to play for whole tribes, might cause war.”
”And if I were to promise the protection of the Gerudo Tribe? Would you be willing to help me persuade other tribes to join us, then?”
There was a long pause. Clearly the elder was considering the offer. And he even murmured some things among his people for a few moments before he turned back to Ganondorf, grabbed his hand and raised it up alongside his own. “Konoc welcome friends from Gerudo Tribe!”
After this, Ganondorf called for his entourage to come to the village. He spent a few hours negotiating terms with the Konoc Elder. This was a bit challenging at first due to the Konoc not being fluent in Ganondorf’s language, but they eventually made things work in the end. There was also some food and songs all throughout as a celebration of the alliance being formed.
During all the celebrating, Ganondorf was looking out into the distance toward where the sun was beginning to hang low. And it was then that he spotted it again. The strange, unnatural structure from before. It wasn’t quite as far away as before so he could occasionally hear faint sounds of thunder with the lightning strikes. But the reduced distance allowed him to make out a few more details than before. Namely that structure looked like an animal of some kind and appeared to be… moving? And the colors made it look strangely familiar. He was certain he’d never seen that structure before, so why was he getting a sense of deja vu from it? His mind thought back to his time in the Under. While down there he had a dream once where he battled a Consul in the fields of Hyrule, and said Consul summoned a colossal beast machine down from Death Mountain. Was this somehow related?
”Tell me, what is that in the distance?” Ganondorf asked one of the Gerudo as they were all traveling back to Gerudo Town, he was pointing in the distance at the moving structure.
“That is Divine Beast Vah Naboris.” the Gerudo answered. “An ancient weapon from a bygone era. It used to serve as a protector and guardian of Gerudo Desert, but no one has been able to control it for a very long time.”
”Interesting…” Ganondorf said, but did not say anything more. Could he find a way to control that weapon? It was something he would have to consider looking into on a later day. For now, he needed to return to town and follow through with his current plans. Better to learn to walk first before he tried learning to run, after all. The group’s return to Gerudo Town marked the end of Ganondorf’s second day here.
Thursday
It was a little after 9:00 AM, and Ganondorf had once again traveled to the Konoc Tribe. He was accompanied by the same entourage as yesterday, and he had a straightforward plan for today. He requested a handful of Konoc musicians to join his entourage so that he could make his approach to the neighboring territory of the Lizalfos Tribe. As for the remainder of the Konoc Tribe, Ganondorf left behind instructions to begin fortifying their camp. Eventually he wanted it to become a proper garrison to better defend the area.
After this, Ganondorf and his expanded entourage departed the Konoc Camp and began to make their way further out into the desert wastes. The Lizalfos Tribe he was targeting today were a reptilian lizard people that Ganondorf was much more familiar with. They were generally hunters and more warlike, and capable of effectively fighting in coordinated pairs. They would make for strong shock troopers against the Bandit Hordes. But he had also heard that this particular tribe was led by a Dinalfos chief. Dinalfos were a stronger cousin of the Lizalfos, generally smarter and tougher as well, and capable of attacking with a fire breath. Ganondorf didn’t want to kill this chief if he could help it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to, if push came to shove.
When the encampment came into view in the distance, Ganondorf could already tell that the Lizalfos Tribe was different from the Konoc. Faint sounds of clashing weapons and high-pitched barks and battlecries indicated that there was some form of fighting going on. But upon listening more closely, Ganondorf could also hear the sounds of a training drum being rhythmically beaten. So there wasn’t actual battle being fought, instead it was training. And this became clear once some of the forms of the Lizalfos came into view. They seemed to have been paired off into partners who were sparring with one another. They wielded spears or bladed boomerang weapons.
At the center of all this was the one who Ganondorf assumed was the Chief. He was brawnier for the most part, and his scales were a darker hue. He also wore more armor than most of the others, in particular a helmet that masked the upper part of his face. His horn looked much more sharp and wicked than most of the others. And while the lizalfos were training with bones and bladed boomerangs made from fallen monster parts, the Dinalfos Chief instead carried a man-made sword and shield, probably scavenged off of a slain opponent. The tribe was caught up in their training ritual and had not yet noticed the approaching Ganondorf until the Konoc accompanying him began to play their befriending music.
The Dinalfos shot a glare at the visitors and barked out a warcry that was likely an order to attack. But the Konocs’ music appeared to be working for the moment, as the Lizalfos remained calm and did not yet move to attack. When he realized this, the Dinalfos screeched a fiercer battlecry and seemed to be deciding to deal with the music players himself. He lunged for an attack and attempted to spew a gout of fire from his mouth at the Konocs. But Ganondorf wasn’t having any of this. He moved to put himself between the Dinalfos and the Konoc which resulted in him taking the fire breath attack instead.
The Dinalfos looked ready to celebrate a victory over this, but only for a moment until he and the Lizalfos saw the glow of the Triforce on Ganondorf’s hand pierce through from within the cloud of smoke. Then the warlord used his cape to strongly blow away the smoke and reveal that he was completely unharmed. The power he gained from the spirit of Ceruledge had rendered him all but completely immune to flames. This display combined with the swelling music of the Konoc was enough to make the Dinalfos finally relent and kneel before the warlord, causing the Lizalfos to follow suit.
”Hmph, that’s what I thought.” Ganondorf said with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Without the Konoc, he probably would have had to challenge the Dinalfos to some sort of duel to the death to subjugate the rest, but thanks to the swaying power of the Konocs’ music, that wouldn’t be necessary today.
As with the Konoc earlier, Ganondorf gave instructions to increase the fortifications of the Lizalfos Camp. Similarly, he wanted this to eventually become a proper garrison of some kind to defend this area. About an hour or two after the work began, some lizalfos drums began to beat as a warning of approaching bandits. It was some kind of bandit horde raiding party, probably around 30 strong. They were probably confident in their ability to take on the Lizalfos Tribe, but weren’t anticipating the presence of Ganondorf’s Entourage. In all honesty, Ganondorf actually somewhat appreciated the chance at some action. He could see this Bandit Horde for himself, and if he could achieve a resounding enough victory, it would further solidify his commanding position among the Konoc and Lizalfos.
Although when Ganondorf actually saw them, he wasn’t very impressed. Simple leather armor, brown hoods, and… were they all wielding daggers? This didn’t seem like the threat that Riju had made them out to be. He’d expected some form of command structure, at least. But these men all seemed quite indistinguishable from one another. If there was some kind of leader or commander, then they looked and dressed exactly like all the rest. Which in itself could have been some kind of strategy, but that may also have been giving them too much credit.
In any case, Ganondorf ordered his moblins to line up behind the defensive palisade barricades. And he also ordered the lizalfos to line up among them. He could order a charge and likely win that way, but he decided to hedge his bets in the case the bandits had ambush parties ready to charge down the dunes in the event the defenders were drawn out. And so for the moment he instead ordered volleys of spears and fire arrows to be lobbed into the charging bandits. And then Ganondorf even threw his own trident into the midst of the bandits and called down a blast of lightning upon it to take out a small swathe of them. After this there were very few left and that was when the charge was ordered. Ganondorf led the Lizalfos out from their defensive position and they crashed into the staggered remains of the bandit horde’s ranks.
But as he anticipated, Ganondorf spotted a second wave of bandits, this time around 25 strong making their way down the nearby dunes for a charge. And unlike the first wave, this time Ganondorf spotted a more distinct bandit among them, wearing a red hood rather than a brown one. Ah, so they did have at least some command. ”Fall back and soften them with projectiles!” Ganondorf was quick to order. But he himself decided to remain where he was, Trident at the ready. The fighting style he had adopted from Volga’s spirit made him quite suited for fighting large numbers, especially if he was being covered by arrows and thrown spears from his own forces further back.
The brown hoods fell about as easily as the first wave did. The red hood did put up more of a fight, showing themselves to be quite hardier than the brown hoods they seemingly commanded. But whatever elite strength they had still paled in comparison to Ganondorf, and so they too were felled in the end. That had to be the last wave, Ganondorf reasoned. Why else would the more elite red hood have been among them, otherwise?
But now Ganondorf found himself among a battlefield littered with what he assumed would be fading spirits. ”Bottle as many spirits as possible.” Ganondorf instructed the Gerudos in his entourage. He’d made sure they were equipped with a supply of glass bottles for this specific purpose. Ever since he had acquired the capsules containing spirits from the Orb Machine, Ganondorf had realized that spirits could be indefinitely sustained if they were kept in sealed containers. And so that gave him a method of being able to store large numbers of them for later use. Spirits such as these would have little use as strikers or fusion materials. And he also doubted they could provide very useful items, as well. But what they could be was a source of currency for information from Vulgrim.
Ganondorf’s entourage wasn’t able to successfully salvage all the spirits, but they did manage to bottle up 40 of them at least. During this, Ganondorf used the glyph in his ear provided by the archangel Sandalphon and made contact with her. He told her that he wanted The Avenger to send him someone who could pick up the spirits he’d claimed and take them back to the ship. Or, failing that, he requested a supply of extra fultons so he could use those to send them back a package of sorts. In the end, a hellpod shot down to the desert just outside of the Lizalfos Camp. Inside was a set of extra fultons - four to be exact. And Ganondorf used one immediately on the 40 bottled spirits after he had them tightly packaged together for stability. Also attached as a note instructing whoever received the package to store them in the ship’s armory.
By this time it was getting late, and Ganondorf decided to remain in the Lizalfos camp for the night. So rather than report to Riju in person, he did so using the linkpearl instead. And that marked the end of his third day in Gerudo Town.
Saturday
Friday had been largely uneventful. Rather than stretch himself thin, Ganondorf instead used that day to consolidate the grounds he had made on Tuesday and Wednesday. He spent that day traveling back and forth between the Lizalfos Village and the Konoc Village in order to oversee the progress they made in fortifying their villages. There obviously wasn’t too much they could build in a single day, but they were able to get up some more barricades and the beginnings of actual walls to protect them more efficiently.
The only real item of note from Friday was another raid from the bandit hordes. This time they had targeted the Konoc Village. But by this time, Ganondorf had already ensured that some Lizalfos warriors were present to defend the Konoc, in addition to himself being there of course. The raid itself was largely identical to the first one, with the only difference being the number of waves. Instead of two waves of 30 and 25, it was three waves - 20 in the first, 20 in the second, and 25 in the third. And unlike the first raid, there was no elite red hood for Ganondorf to deal with personally. After it was over, Ganondorf was able to successfully bottle 45 spirits and have them sent back to the Avenger, once again to be stored in the Armory. Other than that, Ganondorf again decided to remain outside of Gerudo Town for the night to give himself as early of a start as he could the next morning.
Because this was the day Ganondorf decided that it was time to take on the Morthagi Tribe. This tribe was larger and more dangerous according to Nabooru. She’d said they were more like machines than anything else, ghastly and supposedly incapable of being reasoned with. The Warlord was certainly anticipating that he would have to subjugate them with a show of force, convince them that he was more beneficial as an ally, or at the very least too dangerous to risk trifling with.
The Morthagi themselves occupied a lone abandoned factory of sorts, perhaps it was once the centerpiece of a settlement at one time, but now it looked more like the remains of a ghost town occupied by ghastly mechanical monsters. And when Ganondorf’s entourage made their approach, the Morthagi were quick to show that they would not be negotiated with so easily. Ganondorf found his forces to be under attack, charged by scores of crawling scorpion-like Spectiks and a handful of hulking Batchbie. It was as Ganondorf anticipated, so the warlord summoned his trident and flew forward into a lunging charge that allowed him to smash into the onslaught of Spectiks before he immediately hurled his weapon into a circular throw around him as a way to clear the small fry. Then he threw it straight at a charging Batchby before switching to his swords to engage the remaining few. They had numbers, but Ganondorf had the raw power to overcome them. And so it didn’t take long for him to almost single-handedly dispatch the “welcoming party”.
After this, the monsters of the Morthagi were noticeably less quick to outright charge at him. In fact they appeared to be keeping their distance now as Ganondorf approached the factory itself and prepared to enter the proverbial belly of the beast. Instead another creature of the tribe came out of the front doors as if to greet him. It was a three-legged creature with an elongated skull for a head and appeared to only possess a single arm. And then it spoke, using a deeply mechanical-sounding voice that highlighted its machine-like nature. “Butler.” The creature said, as it used its one arm to gesture toward itself. It was introducing itself as the “Butler”, and Ganondorf surmised that it was likely not the true “leader” in the traditional sense, but acting instead as a spokesperson for the collective as a whole.
”Ganondorf.” The warlord reciprocated. ”I speak for the Gerudo Tribe.” He added. There was a pause before he heard any kind of response from the Butler.
“What… is your purpose here?” It finally inquired. Clearly it was intelligent enough to know that if Ganondorf had wanted pure conquest, then he would have brought a full army. It meant that the Morthagi were at least curious about this strange man approaching them so brazenly.
”An alliance.” Ganondorf replied bluntly, ”I intend to wipe out the bandit hordes plaguing the region, and to do this I require cooperation from the neighboring tribes and factions… yours included.”
Another pause. Another moment of consideration. Whether the Butler was thinking and calculating on its own or if it was somehow communicating with the entire collective at the same time, Ganondorf couldn’t tell. Finally it spoke again, “And what… does the Morthagi gain from this… proposal?”
Of course, Ganondorf could have been brutish and simply threatened them into submission. But the fact that they were even willing to ask this meant that they were at least open to the idea. Which meant he could instead play the role of negotiator rather than conqueror. And thankfully he already knew a thing or two about this tribe thanks to what Nabooru’s intel had suggested. ”You use… parts… from the slain order to construct yourselves, do you not?” Ganondorf asked, not continuing until he got a nod of confirmation from the Butler. ”Then my terms are simple. You fight on our side, do not target the Gerudo Tribe nor their allies. And you are welcome to any of the bandits you slay to harvest for your… parts.”
Another pause. This one was especially lengthy. Clearly the Marthagi were calculating and weighing the options. Ganondorf even began to tense a bit as he wondered if this negotiation was about to fall through. But finally, after what felt like an eternally long pause, the Butler finally delivered the Morthagi’s deliberation. “These parameters are… acceptable.”
Ganondorf exhaled and let himself relax a bit. For the briefest of moments he was worried he may have started another war. Almost. But instead his gambit had paid off and now the Gerudo had a third ally in their war against the bandit hordes. For the rest of that day, the Warlord explained that the Konoc and Lizalfos were already work fortifying their settlements into full garrisons and suggested that the Morthagi begin doing the same with their facilities. Communications and supply lines could then be established between the garrisons so that they could withstand any bandit raid that challenged them.
But it was toward the end of the day that Ganondorf received the most interesting bit of news. A message reached him from Nabooru. According to her scouting party, they found what they believed was the bandit horde’s stronghold. The place from which they were launching all their raids and then retreating back into. And as it turned out, it was a place that was most familiar to the likes of Ganondorf and Nabooru. Gerudo Fortress, series of sandstone buildings connected by a network of tunnels. The Gerudo Tribe used to inhabit them long ago back when they were still bandits themselves and before Gerudo Town was established. This, Ganondorf immediately decided, could not be allowed to stand. That fortress traditionally belonged to the Gerudo, and the Warlord was determined to eradicate the bandits occupying it now in order to commandeer it once again for the Gerudo Tribe’s purposes. And now that he had established alliances with three of the tribes neighboring Gerudo Town, he was confident he could retake it.
Monday
The sun slowly rose in the east as the desert’s cold night gradually began to give way to a warm morning. Its orange glow cascaded over the dunes as it slowly became more yellow. With the sun’s rise, a small army was gathering near a specified rallying point. Made up of creatures from the Konoc, Lizalfos, and Morathagi, they were gathered under a banner that was not their own - but of Gerudo Town and the Gerudo Tribe that governed it. Among this motley army stood Ganondorf, his armor fitted and weapons prepared and ready for battle. Yesterday, though mostly uneventful, had sowed the seeds for the current scene unfolding as the Warlord looked across the dune to the desert canyon walls, where he knew the old Gerudo’s Fortress was tucked away. It had some additions that he didn’t recognize, such as an increased number of barricades and a gate that protected its main front perimeter. But beyond this, it still mostly looked like the same Gerudo’s Fortress he remembered. And that would be his greatest advantage here. His knowledge of the Fortress’ layout that its current occupants did not know he possessed.
Ganondorf inhaled calmly as he recalled the conversations he had had the day prior.
“You want to do what?” Nabooru had asked, full of skepticism and incredulity. This only elicited a smirk from the Gerudo voe.
”You heard me.” Ganondorf had replied, almost a taunt. ”You wouldn’t have given me that intel if you weren’t intending for me to do something with it. You want to retake that Fortress as much as I do. Admit it.”
“Fine, let’s pretend - for the sake of argument - that I’m willing to go along with this.” Nabooru had said, trying to remain incredulous despite a momentary flicker of relenting crossing her expression ever so briefly. “What’s your plan? Throw wave after wave of the tribes against them? That seems hardly effective. And you know as well as I do how easy it is to hole up and hold out in there.”
”My plan involves the tunnel network that connects the sections of the fortress together.” Ganondord told her. ”If memory serves, they were also designed with an escape route in mind. Which means…” He trailed off, expecting her to be able to finish the thought herself.
“...It could be used as a way in.” Nabooru admitted, the wheels beginning to turn in her head as well. “So then we, what, sneak a group in through that tunnel network and they get the gates open for the forces on the outside?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. “Sounds good in theory, but what if they have the tunnels guarded?”
At this point Ganondorf’s smirk became a full fledged wicked smile. ”Oh I’m going to make sure they’re far too busy to be able to spare men for that task.”
“You… you’re going to distract them by casting yourself as the decoy?” Nabooru furrowed her brow in thought before shaking her head. “You’re insane, do you know that?”
”I’ll make sure their focus is on me. And since you’re the only other one here who knows the layout of the Fortress as well as I do, that means I’ll need you to guide the infiltration team through the tunnel network.”
Finally, Nabooru offers a curt nod. “Fine.”
Back in the present, Ganondorf opened his eyes and raised an arm. By now Nabooru and her unit will have reached their entry point. And that meant that it was now up to Ganondorf to signal the start of battle. He closed his hand into a fist, then lowered his arm to point forward as a signal for the march to begin. His forces began to take their positions in a formation that allowed them close in on the narrow entrance to the canyon alcove where the Fortress was located.
Meanwhile, within Gerudo's Fortress, the bandits had spotted the approaching invaders. One of the watchmen took off running into one of the many sandstone buildings. Inside he approached their leader, a giant of a man who sat in a chair like a king on a throne. Nearby two massive greatswords were stabbed into the ground, like a testament of the man’s monstrous strength. “So, the man who’s been putting up a fight has come knocking has he? Fine then, let’s see just what this would-be commander is made of.”
Outside, Ganondorf gave his first command. When he did, the Morthagi among his forces produced a number of Sommelier and Weldlings that moved to approach the barricades. The Sommelier used their pump-like bodies to shoot sprays of acid to damage the fortifications, while the Weldlings produced searing flames from their oven-like maws for the same purpose. The Lizalfos readied bows and throwing-spears to take ranged shots at defenders attempting to attack the Morthagi from behind their barricades. Even if the projectile weapons couldn’t always hit their mark, they were a good way to make defending bandits think twice about moving out of the safety of their positions to take shots.
Twinblade, kept informed of the activity outside, merely scoffed. “He intends to burn his way in? I thought as much. But he’ll never flush us out from the tunnels.” Twinblade’s confidence remained in place. He wasn’t foolish enough to send any men out to meet the invaders, but he did call for some reinforcements from within the tunnel network to join the defenders at the wall.
And for Nabooru, whose unit had made it into the tunnel network from the intended escape route, this was a crucial point to take advantage of. Guards within the tunnel being sent out to aid the defense meant fewer and thinner patrols - perfect conditions for sneaking through undetected.
At this point the battle was a waiting game. Keep the feigned pressure going to draw as many patrols out of the tunnel as possible to make it easier for Nabooru to reach the control mechanism for the gate. And right now Ganondorf could only think of one way to increase the pressure. After some thought and deliberation, held out his left hand and summoned his trident to it. He signaled his forces to hold their current positions while he himself made a break for the barricades and the Morthagi currently attacking it. Bandit archers took their shots at him, but between the swift movements of his trident and the Lizalfos concentrating their fire on covering him, Ganondorf made it to the battle lines none the worse for wear. He walked right into the flames of a Morthagi Weldling, unharmed and freshly empowered by his Flash Fire ability before he launched himself up and over a sagging section of barricades with his Bullet Jump ability.
Ganondorf landed with a crash on the other side, the look on his face inviting anyone brave enough to step forward and take him on. And he got plenty of response, when more bandits began to pour from the doors of the inner fortress to charge at him. The Warlord readied his trident and met them head on. Swift, sweeping attacks with the shaft of his weapon disoriented opponents and knocked them into positions that clumped them together for him to run through with a plunging thrust. When a group managed to circle around him, he threw his weapon in a manner that made it spin around him in a circular arc to dispatch his would-be attackers in a single swoop. And then… he finally emerged.
Twinblade - self-proclaimed band king - stepped out of the building he had been inside of. He had to duck in order to fit himself through due to his height and imposing figure. A pair of giant swords were gripped in his hands, too heavy for any normal man to lift one-handed, let alone wield. But for him, it was child’s play. “Got impatient and stormed in yourself? You’re an even bigger fool than I thought if you think you’re going to leave here alive.”
”Am I?” Ganondorf said back as each hulking man sized the other one up. ”Or maybe my infiltration party finally moved into place?”
Those words dropped onto Twinblade like a bombshell. “What do you-?” But he got his answer a moment after that. Nabooru’s unit activated the mechanisms for the gate, allowing it to creak and rise open before they sabotaged them so that the gate could not be closed again. And as if on cue, the surviving Sommeliers and Weldlngs finished burning openings in the barricades as well. That allowed the Lizalfos and remaining Morthagi to come in like a flood behind where Ganondorf stood.
”Ha! Ha! Ha!” Ganondorf laughed, sounding increasingly like a megalomaniac who was enjoying the pure conquest. ”The Gerudo Tribe built this place you fool, and dug those tunnels. Did you really think we were incapable of slipping inside?” Pandemonium began to erupt around them as Gerudo, Lizalfos, and Morthagi engaged with Twinblade’s remaining bandits. Remaining just outside the gates, the Konoc began to intensify their song to invigorate any and all of their allies who could hear it over the sounds of battle.
But Twinblade refused to be intimidated. He focused a determined glare at Ganondorf. “I’ll end you myself, and your little alliance will crumble without you at its head.” He declared as he brandished his giant swords.
Ganondorf dismissed his trident with a wisp of dark magic. Then he reached up behind and drew his own twin greatswords from their scabbards and brandished them. Both men appeared to circle one another for a moment, a clear calm before the storm. And that storm struck hard when they both lunged for one another at the same time. Each made sweeping swings of their blades which clashed and then their weapons momentarily locked long enough for them to lock eyes before each was pushed back by the immense strength of the other.
Blades swung and clashed with mighty and powerful metallic clangs. The two brutish men lunged at one another again and again, seemingly an even match for one another. Occasionally a combatant from either side would attempt to sneak in an attack at the opposing commander only to be swatted away. But Ganondorf did have access to something that Twinblade did not, and he was not above using it to give himself the edge.
After one of their several evenly matched clashes, Ganondorf changed things up a bit and summoned one of his strikers. The cybernetic dinosaur - Riptor - charged the bandit king and pounced on him with her Talon Rake. It was fast enough to get through before he could move a blade to block it, however he was bulky enough to shrug off most of the damage. But what this did do was momentarily distract him enough for Ganondorf to take advantage and get in a good slice on the bandit’s bare shoulders with one of his greatswords. And then the two were back at it again with another even clash of blades.
And then Ganondorf mixed up his strategy yet again. This time he summoned his other striker - the reploid Blast Hornet - who appeared behind Twinblade’s flank where he wasn’t immediately noticed. And then while Ganondorf and Twinblade clashed, Blast Hornet locked onto the bandit king and fired off a volley of three seeking bee drones three times in a row before disappearing. Twinblade’s attention was too focused on Ganondorf and the Search Attack successfully caught him in the back, giving Ganondorf enough edge to push him back off of his footing.
Ganondorf pressed the attack while he had Twinblade on the back foot. Twinblade was able to dig in his heels and fend off Ganondorf’s relentless attacks right up until Ganondorf changed up his tactics a third time. This time he surprised Twinblade when he momentarily stabbed one of his weapons blade first into the ground next to him just before he locked his remaining weapon with the bandit’s own swords. With Twinblade on the back foot, it gave Ganondorf enough of an advantage to momentarily overpower the bandit and throw him back a step before suddenly following through with a strong Gerudo Dragon uppercut with his free hand that caught Twinblade’s jaw and sent him staggering a bit further back.
While Twinblade was staggered, Ganondorf grabbed the sword he’d left in the ground and then channeled his Warframe energy to consecrate the ground where the bandit kind was and turn it into Hallowed Ground. Suddenly Twinblade found himself suffering a constant stream of Radiation damage as Ganondorf pressed further, unwilling to give the bandit king any room to breathe. And while fatigue began to settle in for both men, it did so more for the battered and burned Twinblade. They may have been evenly matched at the start of this, but it was beginning to become clear who was going to emerge victorious.
”Long live the King.” Ganondorf said in a low voice as he brought his blades down in an x-shape onto the weakened Twinblade. With that, that bandit had become too wounded to get back on his feat, and thus his fate was sealed. In another life, against another more… Heroic opponent, the bandit king might well have been spared. But Ganondorf was no such Hero. And the Warlord brought his blade to the bandit’s neck and ended his life once and for all. That sent the right message to the surviving bandits who turned tail and fled into the desert dunes. Victory belonged to the tribe that day.
And while the Morthagi had already set about harvesting parts from the fallen bandits and some of the Lizalfos and Konoc had begun collecting their spirits in glass battles as they’d been doing for the previous engagements, Ganondorf looked at the spirit produced by the fallen Twinblade. He picked it up and bottled it as usual, but instead of sending it back to the Avenger with the rest he kept it on himself for the time being. Such a spirit would be wasted being fed to Vullgrim, so the warlord decided he wanted to do something with it instead.
Unfortunately, harvesting on the part of the Morthagi reduced the number of spirits that were safely bottled before fading away - resulting in only 15 to be sent back to the Avenger.
“Ganondorf.” It was Nabooru, looking tired and bloody - though not her own blood he wagered. “You should see this.”
Ganondorf followed her into the section Twinblade had come out of. Instead was where he had been coordinating the bandit raids. Nothing here seemed like anything that would be out of the ordinary. But Nabooru did point some particular parchments on one of the nearby desks and said, “Seems as though that bandit was communicating with a Consul.”
That was enough to get Ganondorf’s attention. He looked over the parchments with curiosity. ”So he was.” Sure enough, Twinblade had indeed been in communications with one of the Consuls. But it was the specific Consul that was most curious - Consul H. Wasn’t he the one that was reportedly defeated at Alcamoth? This meant he was still very much alive and active. Wouldn’t be good news for the rest of the Seekers and Lost Numbers to hear, but at least this intel meant that H wouldn’t be able to hide behind his alleged death any longer.
And speaking of Consuls… ”Wasn’t Consul X supposed to visit today?” Ganondorf asked Nabooru.
“Yes. And she says that after this visit it will be some time before she is able to come back again. Maybe your allies’ handiwork, I hope?”
”I would hope so.” Ganondorf responded. ”I’m heading back to Gerudo Town. We’ll break the spell on Lady Riju once the Consul has left.”
After spending the entire morning retaking Gerudo’s Fortress, Ganondorf then spent a chunk of the afternoon making the trek back to Gerudo Town. By the time he approached the town gates, it was already 4:30 PM. He wasn’t sure how much time remained before the meeting ended, so he wasted no time in finding a place he could stay in where his presence wouldn’t be detected. And the best place Ganondorf could imagine was the Gerudo Town Secret Club.
It was a shop he’d been to once before, and its existence was only known to its members. And since Ganondorf was fairly sure Consul X was not a member, he was confident he could lay low there until he could confirm the Consul’s departure. From here, it was simply a waiting game. And before too much longer, Ganondorf could hear small commotion outside. When he carefully peered through the slit on the door, he could see that it was because of the Consul leaving the palace in order to take her leave.
The Consul herself didn’t look like much, appearance-wise. She had a smaller-than-average adult female build. She wore pinkish armor and a helmet fashioned after a large ornate mask with big, rectangular wings seemingly protruding from the side. She didn’t look like she was saying much, and what little Ganondorf could hear sounded withdrawn and almost… sarcastic? She didn’t exactly exude the aura of someone taking pride in their work, or even enjoying it for that matter. He couldn’t help but wonder why, if she seemingly disliked the job of a Consul, did she even agree to be one in the first place. Then again, based on everything S had said, it sounded like many members of Moebius weren’t necessarily there because they wanted it.
Well, whatever story there was behind Consul X, it didn’t change the fact that she was Moebius. And that made her his enemy. Sooner or later, he’d be dealing with her… one way or another.
Once it was certain that the Consul had left and was gone from Gerudo Town, Ganondorf emerged from the Secret Club entrance and back onto the streets of the desert town. Now there was only one item remaining on his agenda - Riju. And to do that, he began making his way toward the palace.
In the Gerudo Town Palace, Ganondorf had a debriefing meeting with Lady Riju - Nabooru and Bulliara were present as well. This time the meeting wasn’t held as an audience in the throne room, but instead down in the war room. This had been Nabooru and Bulliara’s doing, managing to convince the chief to hold the meeting somewhere where they could free her from the spell without it drawing too much attention.
“So you’ve really taken it?” Lady Riju asked.
”Indeed.” Ganondorf reported. ”Gerudo’s Fortress is ours once again. As it should be.”
“And combined with the garrisons we’ve established among our allies,” Nabooru added, “our territory can stay more secure than ever.”
“Good, good. Excellent, even.” Riju replied. “You broke the stalemate and gave us control of the desert, just as you said you would. You have my thanks, Ganondorf.”
”Of course.” Ganondorf said with a short bow of his head. ”The safety and prosperity of our people are, as always, my goal. Now, if I may settle one more matter of business?”
Lady Riju was a bit surprised. “What business would that- HEY!” She was cut off when Nabooru and Bulliara moved to grab a hold of the young chieftain and restrain her. “I thought you said the matter of the throne could wait?! What is the meaning of this?”
”This has nothing to do with the throne, my Lady. It will all make sense momentarily.” Ganondorf said even as he picked up a dagger from the table and plunged it into Riju’s side, not in a place where it would be fatal, but it would weaken her enough. After this, Nabooru and Bulliara released their hold, and it was Bulliara who was quick to produce a Friend Heart that she then used on the chief.
Riju gasped for breath as her stab wound was immediately healed completely. “What… What is the meaning of this? What did you…?”
“You were under a spell, Lady Riju.” Bulliara said. “We all were. And now you’ve been freed from it.”
With that done, Ganondorf could go about explaining Galeem and finally the true nature of Moebius. Lady Riju listened, confused but the wheels started turning as she did. “So the Consuls really do just use us playthings? Despicable!”
Now Ganondorf had to explain the real nature about what he learned from S. He left out some of the things that would sound too unbelievable. But he was able to get across that everyone in this room had been directly tied to the Flame Clocks while under Galeem’s spell. And that only someone born outside of that system they created could be able to destroy the Clocks.
“So because we all were tied to one of those Flame Clocks, none of us can damage them? Even you?” Riju asked Ganondorf.
”Not even with the full power of the Triforce.” Ganondorf confirmed, looking like he was still seething about this particular fact. ”But someone who was born without being connected to one? They would have the power to break them.”
“But where could we find such a person?” Riju questioned. “Even if a vai and voe were to conceive a child, well, it would still just be a child and incapable of destroying one.”
”Consul S told me of one other way.” Ganondorf said. ”A power he called ‘Interlink’. He said it can be done by two people such as us, but only if they have built up enough trust and rapport with another.”
Nabooru had to stifle a laugh. “I can’t believe the irony.” She commented. “The one power you can use to destroy those Clocks, and it requires something you of all people are incapable of doing.”
”It is what it is.” Ganondorf answered, unamused. ”I care not who achieves the power and does the deed, so long as it gets done - I’ll be satisfied.”
“This is… a lot to process.” Lady Riju said. “But progress is progress, so I won’t complain.”
”One more thing.” Ganondorf said. ”The bandit was communicating with Consul H. He is someone my allies thought had been defeated over a week ago when he attacked their previous base of operations. But now that I’ve discovered that he still lives, I need to return to my company and make sure that information reaches them.”
“So then you’re taking your leave again, I take it?” Riju asked.
”I’m afraid so.”
“Well then, you’ve done plenty for us already.” Riju said. “So don’t let me keep you here any longer than you need to be.”
”Keep that linkpearl handy.” Ganondorf advised. ”And I’ll keep you informed on the matter of the Consuls through it.”
“Very good. Farewell, Ganondorf.” Lady Riju said as she adjourned the meeting.
Once free of the debriefing, Ganondorf could only make his way back outside of Town. He made his way back to the Oasis, the same area his hellpod had originally dropped him off. Once there, he strapped his Fulton onto his back and then ripped the cord. After that? The usual nausea and blackness that accompanied being yanked up into the sky.
It was already very late at night by the time Ganondorf’s pickup had completed. When he came to, he found himself alone in Deployment, save for the single Lost Number who had retrieved him. He saw no one else, Seeker or Lost Number alike. But given the late hour it was likely everyone had retired for the night already. And honestly, he was glad to do so himself. After conducting a morning-long siege battle and then trekking across the desert two separate times, the warlord was quite tired. The intel he brought with him about Consul H could wait until the morning.
And so, the Gerudo took the lift up to the Living Quarters and retired to the room that he shared with Therion. Whether the thief had already gone to sleep or not, Ganondorf was too tired to check. Instead he went straight to bed and let himself drift off to sleep.
The Mercenary stood at the exit of the pool; beating his target to it as he drew his .45 to hold-up the emerging suited man, halting his escape. Before he could speak, however, a voice shouted from behind him toward the pool hall doors.
“Wait! Whatever this guy’s trying to pull on you, let me be the one to deal with him.” The Mercenary's body bladed to the right as he kept his .45 trained on the figure, stepping to the side to allow the men behind him to speak to the man called Mabuchi. As the men conversed, his suspicions were confirmed: his contact with this 'Consul-I' happened to be the sole cause of the mysterious cargo ship's arrival. The Mercenary's aim steeled onto Mabuchi, yet any perceived wane of composure was quickly quashed.
”Snake?”
That got the Mercenary's attention, involuntarily turning his head to look at the man. That name sounded familiar, so how did he know it? When the man finished speaking, the Mercenary glanced back at Mabuchi, still holding him at gunpoint. A pawn to this Consul's scheme, now reaping what he sowed with blood on his hands. The man made an offer to join him and assist his organization in stopping Moebius, perhaps even the Consuls themselves. He got all he needed out of the soaked mobster, yet now he had a new set of questions poised for the two men. The Mercenary eyed Mabuchi for a moment longer, before thumbing the safety on his pistol and holstering it. Even if Mabuchi was solely responsible for the attack on Mafia Town, killing him would be a waste of a bullet, and his failure was enough of a punishment. Turning toward the man, the Mercenary met his outstretched hand and gave a firm shake. If they needed people like him to help stop this approaching threat, he wasn't going to shirk at the request.
"Where to?"
When Captain Falcon met with the other Seekers in Bancho Sushi with Snake in tow, he of course had a little explaining to do. Not that that would be difficult. ”New recruit.” Cap explained with a thumb pointed in Snake’s direction. ”He’s someone I used to know from, well, the start of all this.” Cap added, trying not to say anything specific about Galeem since he already knew that wouldn’t work around someone who was still Gleaming. Not that this would make anything any clearer from Snake’s perspective. If anything it probably made him even more confused to have a total stranger treating him like an old friend.
He was right.This man- he had only seen him zipping around the lower levels of Mafia Town on his bike- winding between back alleys and performing insane acrobatics- too fast for any of the irritated Mafia guards to catch. Now he was claiming to know him as an ‘old friend’? He didn’t remember ever being introduced to him prior to today. Not to mention, the name he referred to him by: Snake.
Distant echoes sounded, faint and nearly obscured in his mind against the backdrop of chittering seagulls and the gentle breeze of seawater air. Some were yells, others were short quips. By him? By who? Why was everything so familiar, yet alien all the same? This was where he was, wasn’t it? The more the man’s repetition of this name resonated through his head, the more familiar it seemed. Why
”Like I said, It’ll all make sense once we’re back on the ship.” Cap reassured Snake. Speaking of which, not long after this was when Sandalphon dropped down with a delivery for the Mercenary - a fulton device that the man would turn out to be rather familiar with using. Which was pretty convenient, since that meant it was something that wouldn’t need to be explained to him. When he was ready, Cap activated his own fulton and - just like time - passed out after feeling it yank him upward.
When the device was passed to him by Sandaphalon in her hasty introduction, little more than what resembled a safety harness with a parachute-style pack secured between the six harness straps, yet another tirade of scattered, blurred whispers assailed his mind. The familiarity of this device was second nature. Even as the other man mounted, secured and unceremoniously flung himself skyward, his own procedure was seconds behind; threading the harness through the attachment loops on his suit, synching them tight, and pulling the ripcord as he dangled like a marionette before ascending to the Heavens. He had no time to question it, yet as darkness overcame him, he continued to wonder just who this man was, and what he just signed himself up for.
The briefing commenced shortly after Snake came to, adjusting himself aboard the bizarre ‘ship’ that behaved more like a floating aircraft carrier, at least seeming to him. Everyone who had presumably arrived in the same manner as himself had long since dispersed, leaving himself, the man from before, the familiar-looking catwoman from the theater, and Sandaphalon, who had passed him a Fulton. The man listened in silence as she went into her speech, no doubt having done so minutes prior to his ascent to the Avenger, and within moments had even more questions swirling around his head- almost tempted to echo them out loud. The Avenger, a mobile base of operations? Amenities? Flying Fortress? Just like..
The catlike woman mused aloud. The one thing the man noted her for why she was recognizable, was the near-incessant puns she made every other sentence. Now about his eye no less. Twice! The man’s ocean blue gaze narrowed to glare at her in slight irritation at her lack of decorum, but it was quickly brushed aside. It was something he had to live with, and if they were going to be working together, he had to live with it. After the angel and the catwoman went their separate ways, just as he was going to explore himself, the familiar visage of the musclebound man from before had arrived into Deployment, and made a beeline straight for him.
When Falcon had awoken, he and everyone else were in the hangar aboard the Avenger. He could have dispersed and returned to his quarters, but instead he stuck around so that he could make good on his promise to Snake. Cap was a man of his word, after all. ”Welcome aboard the Avenger.” He said to Snake after he found him and made sure he woke up from being passed out. ”It’s a mobile aerial base. We can drop back down to the surface using those hellpods over there,” Cap said pointing over to where the devices in question were waiting. ”and you already know how we get back up here.”
As the man explained, he looked around to scrutinize every minute detail of Deployment. It was much like an aircraft hangar in its construction, albeit filled with a smattering of devices he’d never seen before. Illuminated terminals with lit keyboards, sliding hydraulic doors, the ceiling that, judging from the four equidistant lifting pistons across the four corners of the hangar, suggested that it was able to be lowered and raised to facilitate the deployment of vehicles and personnel to the (presumable) flight deck at the top. Considering his circumstance, he had taken a leap of faith in trusting this man after the chaos of the night, and now it was time to get some much needed explanation like he’d promised.
”Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve never met you. How do you know that name?” His voice sounded rough, as gravelly and weathered as his expression, with a notable lisp to boot. He was puzzled, but didn’t give much emotion to his question as his nature was unusually reserved. There was a slight baritone growl of the Snake that Falcon swore he knew, yet this man seemed different. Not an imposter, no. Blazermate thought she knew him from somewhere, even commenting how he looked like a renown “action hero”- but Falcon knew his name. As the horned Mercenary scrutinized the man’s details up close, he at least hoped he didn’t sound too aggressive to the cobalt-clad figure who convinced his signage onto this odd task force.
”Hmm, well…” Falcon said with a slight bit of hesitation in his tone. How could he even begin to explain? Well the simple fact was that there was no way to really explain, at least not while Snake was still gleaming. That meant that the most direct way for this to make sense was to… But should he really do that right here in Deployment? Might cause some unintentional collateral damage if he did. The best possible place to carry this out was no doubt going to be the training room. ”I was about to hit the gym to unwind a bit. If you’d care to come along I’ll be happy to tell you the whole story there while I do some workouts. Whaddya say?”
The Mercenary let out a low grumble as he reached up a hand to rub at the back of his neck. He really wasn’t feeling like physical conditioning right now, but he might as well accompany the man along on his endeavors. Why specifically they had to venture to the gym so that he could get more answers, he didn’t know. “..Right, fine. Let’s go.”
With that, Cap led the way out of Deployment. They passed by one lift section that he explained to Snake would take them up to the Proving Ground where new weapons and machines could be properly tested, the Stockpile storage facility, Common Room, Laboratory and Living Quarters. They continued on a straight shot out Deployment via the far end door which would eventually take them to the lift section for the opposite. This was the lift they took, with Cap explaining that this lift could take them directly to Engineering and Cargo Bay, and further up would be the Stolen Moments Bar, Isolation Ward, and the Workshop. He decided to leave out explaining the Spirit Chamber for now, figuring it was best for him to process the big concepts one at a time, starting with getting de-storied first. He could learn about Spirits afterward and probably after he had a chance to sleep on all this and process it first.
But it was at the Workshop where the lift stopped and he and Snake entered. Inside was Tora, assuming the little guy hadn’t already gone to bed for the night, whom Cap offered a quick wave to as he took the Mercenary to a door on the far end of the room. Through it was the Training Center, situated between the Workshop and Laboratory. And as it turned out, it was actually more than just a gym. There was gym equipment in here, sure. But there was also a compact boxing ring for sparring and even a fully functioning firing range for target practice. ”Here we are! Pretty spiffy, eh?”
The Mercenary glanced around the ‘Training Center’, beneath his stoic nature impressed at the design of such a facility. It reminded him yet again of a room so familiar, yet blurred beneath the veil of fog that seemed to obscure what he already knew. After a moment of contemplation, he mused with a gravelly noise. ““Whoever runs this ‘ship’ knows what they’re doing. Kudos to them.” The Mercenary had taken position on Falcon’s left, turning his head momentarily to meet his gaze. “Suppose you’ll get to physical conditioning while I ask some questions, then? I’ll start. What’s your name, kid? And how do you know me?”
‘Snake’ spoke with an air of creeping suspicion now. That's why he was brought here, wasn’t it? He mentally chided himself for asking the others’ name so late, but he was sure the man would forgive his tardiness. Yet it was odd, how this man seemed to dance around his word choice before he spoke. He’d noticed the angel Sandalphalon doing the same earlier, back at the coastal eatery before he was brought to the ship. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust the man or the members of his organization, he just didn’t know them well enough, and their caged nature he observed while they interacted with him erred him on the side of caution.
Kid? He couldn’t even remember the last time anyone had called him a kid. But he answered nevertheless. ”Captain Falcon.” Cap then grew eerily quiet, not exactly thrilled about what he was about to do. But there was no other way. ”I’m sorry about this.” He muttered just before, without any kind of warning, his body twisted and winded up into a high spinning kick aimed squarely at the Mercenary’s head. Cap himself was fairly superhuman, and Robert Garcia’s spirit had added an edge of expertise into his martial arts strikes. So the kick was swift, hard, and precise. Essentially designed to stun a target and leave them open to a follow up strike. But Cap had no way of knowing that this single kick would end up dealing way more damage than he thought it would as it connected with the Mercenary’s head and, most critically, his “horn”.
The Mercenary’s suspicions had been confirmed at Falcon’s murmur. Microseconds of minute movement made the horned man instinctively tense; only able to bring his arms to form a crossguard over his chest- but his reactions seemed much slower, much more delayed compared to Falcon’s stunning speed. He’d merely braced to block his chest, but that wasn’t what his opponent was aiming for. Falcon’s leg extended diagonally upward, and for a brief moment, the Mercenary’s grizzled expression, grimaced into a scowl of sudden combat, showed fear.
The carbide-titanium ‘horn’ that was mounted into the upper right front of his head was kicked; barely a budge from the structure itself, but it was what was contained within that rattled around in his brain. A starburst of color erupted across his field of view; with flashes of red-and-white dominating the edges of his peripheral vision as every color seemed to take a monotone hue. Snake’s head snapped back, mouth contorted in silent agony as every muscle tensed. Within the next second, he was on the floor. No sound came from the downed man as he lay sprawled out across the floor, and should Falcon have approached him, he would see the unmistakable golden ‘glint’ of Galeem’s effects shining brightly within his singular blue eye. However, Snake was far from being out of the fight. Little by little, his condition stabilized. Through the jerky movements of his muscles returning to functionality, his hands flailed, clenching and unclenching into fists as his arms began to reach over to his holstered guns. Impressively, and alarmingly, it seemed as though the Mercenary was fighting against his own seizure to kill his newly acquired target. Whether this was a byproduct of Galeem’s influence was unknown.
A stunned Captain Falcon stared for a moment. ”W-What?” He stammered, unable to comprehend why a single opening kick like that could leave the Mercenary like this. He was just trying to weaken him a bit, not outright kill him! ”I’m sorry! It wasn’t supposed to be that hard! Hang in there!” He said, putting his gloved hand over his chest and practically scrambling to produce a pink Friend Heart as a result. ”This’ll fix you back up and make you remember everything, I swear!” Cap vowed as he knelt down and shoved the Friend Heart he had produced into the writhing Mercenary.
“G-UhA!” A strangled croak came from the horned man as his muscles tensed, then finally relented as he went lax against the ground. The pinprick of ‘glint’ that constituted Galeem’s influence lit with a single bright spark, then died out into the air above Snake’s eye. His eye was now wide open, locked into place and staring at a nondescript point at the ceiling above him. If not for his steadying respirations, he would’ve assumed to be dead. Yet something else was happening. A deluge of memories flooded into his mind. The color of the world faded into negatives of their contrast as he lay on the floor.
Snake blinked, and for another moment, he was in his helicopter. Paz lay on a combat stretcher, screaming in agony as a bomb was wrenched from her abdomen by the Medic close by. Then, a frantic transmission from Miller. XOF attacked Mother Base in a sudden ambush while he was rescuing Paz and Chico- the base was scrambling to evacuate. Time dilated; moving from scene to scene as Snake screamed in rage, holding a MSF soldier who had been shot in the head seconds earlier; one-handing his rifle and firing into the group of XOF soldiers as he climbed back into the Helicopter at Kaz's plea. Then, back to Paz- as she wearily stood up, the helicopter door still open, and dove backward out into the open waters below to save them from a secondarily implanted bomb. Snake let out an anguished cry, as the Medic positioned himself to shield the man from the coming explosion. "NO!" A flash of orange-white light, heat, and darkness followed.
“P-Paz… Chico.. XOF..” The Mercenary muttered, barely above a whisper.
The hospital in Cyprus… he survived the attack on Mother Base, awakening from a nine year coma. The Assassin, strangling him mercilessly before being attacked by another patient. The man lit her on fire as she screamed, falling out the hospital window as the patient introduced himself as Ishmael. They made their escape as the hospital came under siege by a towering Man on Fire, and a levitating figure in a gasmask. Stealing an ambulance, they made their hasty escape- only to be thrown off the road as the patient was killed; sending their vehicle crashing into a ravine. When he came too, he saw his former rival and old friend Revolver Ocelot, riding atop none other than the Boss’s horse. The Russian cowpoke caught him up to speed in the time he had missed. The formation of PF’s across the world, the disbandment of FOX, the rise of the Cold War…The attackers. XOF. The rogue CIA detachment that had succeeded in destroying Mother Base, succeeded in killing Paz and Chico.
He’d make them all pay. He was going to rebuild Mother Base. Bring The Legend back to life.
He just had to find Kaz.
“Ocelot..” Snake whispered, his eye twitching as more memories assailed his mind relentlessly.
Snake was standing on the Medical platform, having just stepped off the Blackhawk with his arm wrapped around his injured friend Kazuhira Miller. The man had just been rescued from his Soviet captors, missing an arm and a leg as he leaned into Snake for support. Delirious, dehydrated, wounded in body and spirit.
‘The world calls for wetwork, and we answer. No greater good. No just cause.’
‘Kaz..’ Snake said. The man needed rest; he was in no state to launch into another one of his tirades. Kazuhira Miller turned to Snake, sweat glistening off his ashen pale face as his aviators darkened from the sun's blinding light. Snake felt the man's arm tighten around the broad length of his back. ‘Cipher sent us to Hell.. but we're going even deeper.’ Kaz growled.
‘I know... I'm already a demon.’ Snake responded. Something in his mind tugged at him; calling to question the nature of that statement. Maybe to Diamond Dogs, to Cipher, Skull Face, XOF, even that bastard Huey... but not here. Not here. Heaven had no place for people like him, either. Was this Purgatory?
“Kaz..” The man said, voice barely a rumble.
The PF they’d formed was no longer MSF. Diamond Dogs, it was decided. Everything was coming back. D-Horse, D-Walker, the wolf pup, rescued from the Afghanistan mountains and named DD. Every single one an invaluable companion he’d bonded to, yet there was one who left the greatest impression on him- even though she nearly killed him the first time they met. Her.
The XOF Assassin sent to kill him in the hospital, somehow surviving and then hunting and killing Soviet patrols under the Afghanistan moonlight. He defeated her after a long and grueling duel, and captured her to bring her into the fold of Mother Base. Initially escaping the Aerial Command Center just as it left the ground, it was later proven feigned as she watched him under her organic cloak; coming to aid when the helicopter had been strafed by a jet sent by XOF. A single shot from her sniper rifle two miles away inside a moving helicopter had found its mark as the fighter jet came around for another pass; the plane losing altitude and plummeting into the ocean below. ‘Quiet’ was the name the Soviets gave to her due to her silent nature- it was a perfect addition to the ragtag nomenclature that constituted the Diamond Dogs. He preferred to work alone in the field, yet her sniper support became invaluable during their various missions together. Despite Miller’s protests, Snake vowed to take personal responsibility for her should she betray them, but it never happened. The guards antagonized her at first; degrading her with venomous whispers and defacing the entrance to her cell on the Medical platform with scribbled messages such as ‘freak’, ‘witch’, ‘mutant’, and ‘monster’. Every night after his rounds on base, Snake stopped by the Medical platform to see her. Every night, he’d scowl at the defaced sign and scratch it out with his knife, much to the chagrin of the guard on watch. Every night, he would make that guard leave his post, and go visit Quiet to sit with her in their shared silence. Their fate was bound by lives lived not of their own volition, and that commonality, he believed, was what made them so close.
Yet that peace off the battlefield was never destined to last.
Mother Base was besieged by an invisible enemy; a parasite that activated through a person’s native language. It started with Kikongo speakers at first, then transferred with the virulence of a virus across the rest of Mother Base’s staff and soldiers. Snake’s only hope of a cure rested within the creator of the Parasite- an elderly Navajo man, embittered by the “civilization” of his people at the hands of the Americans. Code Talker’s cure was a double-edged sword; ridding him and his men of the Parasite’s effects, yet rendering them completely infertile. It was a price he was willing to pay without hesitation.
97 soldiers and staff died under his watch by the time the dust had settled. For six hours, he stood in the rain as the fallen were cremated into ash on a separate platform from Mother Base; their draped caskets ferrying orange embers out to sea as the rest burned away. Even after everyone left, She never did. His revenge was fueled twofold, but nothing would compare to the mistake that was rescuing Huey Emmerich.
”Ngh… Quiet… Huey…” Snake growled out the latter’s name, his single eye becoming more erratic in movement as his brow twitched.
That man was the cause and the effect. A frail egghead with an annoying cadence and shrewd and cowardly demeanor. The sole executioner of the Peace Walker project utilized by Hot Coldman during his operation in Costa Rica. That man cost him everything, and Snake had the naivety to let him into Diamond Dogs. It was innocuous at first, full of apology for previous transgressions. Working with the Soviets, working with Skull Face- Snake should have known he was a Cipher plant all along. Yet, he took him in. Under the guise of building Battle Gear, Diamond Dogs’ own personal Metal Gear for their combat operations, he purposefully mutated the neutralized Parasite and caused a second Outbreak.
The blood he shed that day was his own. He watched his staff, frenzied, attacking each other and him. The men and women he’d personally visit across each and every platform, getting to learn them as soldiers, as comrades- their inspirations, their ambitions, their ticks and quirks. Some resigned to their fate. Some cowarded. A group of them stood at attention, humming a song in solidarity as they were killed at his hand. Not even the last survivor made it; exhibiting symptoms just as he was preparing to leave the airlock with him in his arms. By the time he had left, Snake was covered in blood as he ripped off his mask, dropping to his knees and releasing a guttural howl of rage and anguish.
Just as quickly as it began, it ended. The memory of those lost would live on as diamonds from their ashes. When Huey was discovered to have caused the second Outbreak, he was not killed for his traitorous act. Snake decided to let him go, and let him rot in his failure. Just like Mabuchi, he would let judgment be passed onto those unworthy of a bullet.
With Skull Face dead and Mother Base in shambles, the last of his legacy crumbled when, just mere days after he received the diamond-pressed remains of Amber Fox implanted in the wrist of his bionic arm, Spicy Cockatiel knocked furiously at his quarters. The fiery-haired recruit had been startled by something fierce, only able to say ‘outside!’ The Mercenary rushed out of his quarters, only to be on the receiving end of an atomic flash of light. Sundering metal, rippling waves, and the world had quite literally fallen out from under him. Yet he was not plunged into the icy depths. He’d arrived at the shoreline of that colorful town, with no memory of what had happened before. It was as if he'd lived two lives within one body. He was Big Boss, and he was.. Someone else. Someone he didn’t know, and made no effort to know. He was himself. Now? …Now he wasn’t sure again. His legacy was ruined. His comrades were killed horribly. His companions had been dissolved into the blinding lumination. It was as if he’d been saved from death, only to be damned to a meaningless existence.
No. No, that wasn’t true. Moebius, the Consul- whatever their motives had been before, now he was certain that there had to be some link to the disaster that had upended his life. Wherever that ended, he was determined to get back home, and get back to his company.
”Okay, great! You remember me now, right Snake?” Cap asked. ”The brawls, Supspace, Galeem… you remember all that stuff now?”
A cough was the only response that Falcon received as Snake’s body spasmed; the man groaning as he pushed himself upright. Galeem.. That had to be the thing that caused the flash. As for brawls and Supspace, Falcon was speaking a foreign language to him at that. He never met the man prior to today, and the Captain had introduced himself before decking him flat on the floor. There was only one time anyone had called him Snake, and that was Revolver Ocelot as he was catching him up to speed. Naked Snake was gone, and Venom Snake had taken his place. A new name for a new era. That’s who he was. Venom Snake. He was Big Boss, but that was reserved for his Diamond Dogs- the people who knew him. Still, it didn’t explain how Falcon knew his codename. The man groaned again, releasing another cough as he glared bitterly at the Captain for a moment, standing to his feet. “Hope you had a damn good reason for doing that, Falcon. You -khe- could’ve just told me there was another Snake.”
”What do you mean, ‘another Snake’?” Falcon inquired, genuinely confused now. ”There’s only one Solid Snake, and that’s you...” He said while pointing a gloved finger at Venom Snake, ”...Right?” All of a sudden Cap was feeling like he may have made a big mistake. He was so sure that this guy was the same Solid Snake that he knew. But even after being de-storied, this Snake was still acting like Cap was a complete stranger. ”I don’t get it. You have his hair, his beard. You’re carrying similar weapons, your voice is even the same! Solid Snake was with us when we went into Subspace, and was there when Galeem first showed up! That’s why I was so keen to get you on board and recruit you! How could you not be Solid Snake?”
Well, shit…
“Solid..?” Venom echoed, his tone indicating he still had no memory of this ‘other’ Snake. Perhaps he’d have to differentiate himself after all. “Alright, so there’s a Solid Snake..” Venom mused. “I was given the name Venom Snake by my friend Revolver Ocelot after being caught up when I came out of a coma, but.. I guess it never caught on. Diamond Dogs personnel addressed me as Boss- it was a title I gained after I had to, well, kill my mentor unwillingly. Big Boss, specifically. That clarify things?” Snake asked. Truthfully, he wasn’t expecting anything he said to Falcon to make any sense. Reflecting on it made his shoulders shake with a slight laugh; this situation was getting ridiculous. He composed himself with a sigh. ”Galeem- if that’s the thing that brought all of us here, is responsible for our predicament. I have no idea how it showed up, or why I’m here. We’ve never met before now, Captain. If I’m that similar to this Solid Snake you’re talking about, I’d be intrigued to meet him.”
”Not really, no.” Cap said in regards to any of this being clarified. ”But I obviously got the wrong man. I just don’t get it…” Falcon stared at Venom Snake as if scrutinizing his every detail. ”I swear it’s like I’m looking right at him.” But then Cap shook it off. What’s done was done, there was no going back now. And it sounded like Venom was also pretty clueless on what Galeem’s deal was as well. For that, at least, they were both on the same page. ”Honestly? None of us can say for certain how Galeem showed up, or why. Or even what Galeem really is, for that matter. I’ve heard some of the others refer to it as some kind of God or false God, but… that’s all just speculation on their part. All we know is that Galeem created this world somehow, and from what we understand, the Consuls - Moebius, are tied to it somehow. They have these monsters throughout the world, big special ones they call ‘Guardians’. Killing those Guardians weakens Galeem’s hold on the world, and has the additional effect of releasing some kind of pulse that can undo Galeem’s influence on people like I did for you, only these pulses do it en masse for the surrounding area the Guardian was in when it was killed.”
”Hmh.” Venom Snake grumbled, pressing past the Captain’s speculation- that would be another issue for another time. “Sounds like this thing just wanted to make us its toys. If the Guardians and Consuls act like tethers to Galeem’s hold, wouldn’t killing one attract its attention? Has your organization killed any so far? Snake inquired. He knew it was impossible to go his own way without first learning of the broader situation at large- and what its consequences would bring if this task force had taken direct action previously. His ability to command was all but lost, and gathering intel to help assist this group was all he could do until they were summoned again.
”A handful of Guardians are dead, yes.” Cap answered, then added. ”And at least two Consuls are dead as well. Possibly a third, but that one is not confirmed.” He thought about it some more and figured it was pertinent to further explain, ”There’s one Consul for every letter in the Alphabet I believe. So if only two of those 26 are confirmed dead, that may be why Galeem hasn’t yet paid direct attention to us. Although the Consuls themselves have begun trying to crack down on us, hence why my group was laying low in Mafia Town. As well as a couple other groups of us laying low in other locations too.” Then he yawned and gave a stretch of his arms, ”Come to think of it, you don’t have a room yet, do you? Guess we’d better head up to the Living Quarters and find you one.”
The Mercenary bobbed his head in understanding. The Consuls, the Guardians- each was a direct link to Galeem itself, and it would be nothing short of a full campaign to ensure they were all neutralized. He couldn’t even begin to comprehend the scale of things, and as they were currently, this task force was but a drop in a vast ocean of worlds, environments, beings, and whoever and whatever else resided in this bizarre conglomeration. A noble undertaking to be sure, yet it was one that Snake obliged to support. Otherwise, he reasoned, there was nothing to go back to.
With his questions satisfied for the time being, the man took in a deep breath as the evening’s events began to translate into fatigued muscles and aching joints. Fighting the urge to yawn himself, Snake nodded to the Captain’s question; answering with a gesture of his head toward the exit. “Lead the way. And… thanks, for earlier.”
Word Count: 687 Level 9 Roxas: 29/90 Exp Gained: 1 (-7 for Friend Heart) NEW EXP Balance--- 22/90
Skyworld
Roxas’ own escape from the train wasn’t nearly as much of a close call as some of the others. The quick and nimble Nobody was among the first to make it out into the air in fact. Of course, once he was out there, he was in a bit of trouble due to his lack of wings. But an angel managed to snag him courtesy of Edward’s orders and safely get him down to the ground near the crater of the crash site. But no one got any chance to celebrate, since Absalom made it clear that he wasn’t done just yet.
”Why is there always a second phase?” Roxas wondered to himself as everyone prepared to kick back into gear. But they all, including Roxas, paused when the object came crashing down from the sky above. And like any of the Seekers, Roxas managed to recognize it as a hellpod from the Avenger. And emerging from it was the demon hunter himself - Dante. In a way it was fitting that a demonic fallen angel like Absalom would eventually get targeted by the demon hunter.
And then everyone kicked into gear for real. Instead of immediately jumping onto the Avatar of Chaos like most everyone else did, Roxas spent the first moments providing some Tailwind Buffs to the Featherstaffs so they could reach the injured more quickly. While he was doing that, Roxas caught sight of the nasty attack that hit Edelgard. His instinct was to rush in and heal her but before he could do anything like that, Pit had managed to grab her and carry her away from the fight a bit. But he didn’t look like he had time to nurse her from there.
”It’s up to me, then.” Roxas told himself as he sprung into flow motion action. He ran, leaped and parkoured his way across an ever-increasingly chaotic fight scene to get to where Edelgard had been dropped. He was about to cast Curaga but had a different idea instead. Rather than cast his healing spell, Roxas produced a Friend Heart and quickly threw it at the Flame Emperor. It would de-story her from Galeem’s influence, but it would also give her a much needed full heal.
”You’re not dying on my watch, Ms. Edelgard.” Roxas assured her, but he unfortunately had little in the way of time or opportunity to explain any of the confusing things she was probably now remembering. It would have to wait until after they finished off Absalom and won this war once and for all. Speaking of which…
Roxas sprinted off to finally join the melee against Absalom. By now Midna, Edward, and Pit too had all gotten their licks in. Well now it was his turn. Roxas maneuvered himself until he was standing next to Dante and then, ”Light!” He called out. By now some of the Seekers had come to recognize this as the telltale sign of an incoming Limit attack. And this was no exception. Empowered by Roxas’ Light, Dante threw his weapons straight up into the air where they transformed back into the Cerberus triplets who fused together into their monstrous Queen Cerberus form before crashing back down onto the ground.
“Yeah! Let’s ride!” Dante called with a grin as he and Roxas both hopped up onto Queen’s Cerberus’ back. After that it was a cacophony of fire, ice and lighting as each of the three heads took turns blasting Absalom with each respective element while Roxas did the same from his Keyblades. When that was finished, the Limit entered the final stage of its attack. Queen Cerberus hurled Dante and Roxas both forward at Absalom, Roxas managing to pass one of his Keyblades over to the demon hunter so they could both go crashing into the Avatar of Chaos with a powerful double Stinger finishing blow.
“Alright…” Dante began as he casually tossed the Keyblade back over to Roxas’ hand only for Roxas to finish the taunt for him while Queen Cerberus transformed back into weapons. ”...Who’s next in line?”
Word Count: 1,625 Level 3 Captain Falcon: 28/30 Exp Gained: +3 NEW EXP Balance--- 31/30
Mafia Town - The Pier
In almost no time at all, the pier for the harbor area had erupted into chaos. Wrestlers from the Battle Royal Rumble had dropped here in relatively fewer numbers compared to other parts of Mafia Town, allowing the pier to avoid a lot of the mess it created. But now it became the epicenter of a literal sea monster attack. Half great white shark, half giant octopus - Lusca rampaged across the pier. It swung and writhed its massive tentacles, occasionally fired blasts of colorful ink, all in the hopes of catching what it considered to be prey in order to devour them.
And then there was Tianyou Zhao and Captain Falcon. Having bolted out of Mabuchi’s storehouse mere moments after the monster came exploding out from it - the intrepid pair found themselves on a mad dash toward the inland of Mafia Town. If they could get far enough from the water, then Lusca wouldn’t be able to keep chasing them. And chase them, it did. In fact, even as a variety of pirates - who had been milling around loading and unloading their vessels up to now - drew weapons and employed their various seafaring tactics to bring down the beast, the beast in question still largely kept its focus on the fleeing pair that was Zhao and Falcon. A more perceptive sort of observer might even suspect that this was deliberate, as if someone had literally sicced the monster on them like the owner of a pit bull siccing their dog on intruders. Of course, nobody in this situation had the time to really observe such a thing, given the frantic chaos playing out right now.
Unfortunately, the actions of the pirates did little to expedite Falcon’s and Zhao’s retreat. If anything, them now having to dodge and weave through pirates charging back toward the sea monster made it harder for them to keep up their sprint, instead forcing them both to slow their pace slightly so they could keep themselves from barrelling straight into people. And there were also occasions where Lusca managed to get close enough to enclose its tentacles around their front, forcing them to briefly join the fight long enough to get the tentacles out of the way and resume their hectic retreat. There wasn’t much Falcon’s fists could really do in these situations, as simply punching and kicking the tentacles didn’t seem particularly effective. Zhao at least had a curved broadsword called a dao that he had brought with him, and that at least was somewhat effective at slicing at the tentacles obstructing their escape.
But with one more fiery strike, Cap was at least able to land a Falcon Punch on Lusca’s body causing it to stagger backward briefly like it had inside the storehouse. And just like before, he and Zhao wasted no time in using that opportunity to resume their dash toward the pier’s exit. And this time they were in luck, thanks to there being a crowd of pirates also choosing to capitalize on the opportunity to wail on the sea monster with everything they had. But the duo just kept running until they were off the pier and back onto the main streets of Mafia Town, choosing not to stick around to see if the pirates were successful.
”I’m… hah… sure they’ve got it handled. Right?” Captain Falcon managed to comment between deep inhalations for breath. Meanwhile, Zhao was equally out of breath.
“Y-yeah.” he agreed between raspy breaths, “They’ve totally got it covered.” Then he added, “Besides, we’ve got our own fish to- HOLY SHIT!” He suddenly shouted at the end, pointing up toward the disc that he knew served as the Mafia’s HQ.
Zhao’s interrupting shout caught Falcon by surprise and he jerked his gaze toward where the ex-mafia boss was pointing. For just a moment, he caught a glimpse of something plummeting down from the disc above and it made him wonder. ”Was that…?”
“A person?” Zhao finished the thought. “Hard to tell, could’ve been. If there’s fighting going on up there then I guess it’s possible someone might’ve been thrown off.”
”If it is a person, maybe they can give us some answers about Mabuchi?”
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Let’s go after ‘em, Falcon-kun” And with this, both took off on another sprint, this time toward where they saw the figure plummeting down from the disc.
It was an indoor swimming pool that the figure had fallen down onto. At least, Zhao was pretty sure of it anyway. He and Captain Falcon came sprinting toward the building, where already a crowd was beginning to gather because of the commotion caused by the figure’s fall. And as the two of them got a bit closer, they spotted a familiar figure in a white suit, subdued by a stranger in military clothes with a gun. Zhao had no idea who this was, and just assumed it was someone working for the Mafia of Cooks. Maybe if he explained who Mabuchi was to him, they’d let him question his old right hand man.
“Wait!” Zhao shouted once they were both in earshot. “Whatever this guy’s trying to pull on you, let me be the one to deal with him.”
Mabuchi’s skin whitened like a ghost when he heard the familiar voice of his former boss and friend. “Z-Zhao?” He sounded like he wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or afraid.
“Yeah, you dipshit.” Zhao spat, “Did you really think you were gonna pull something like this and I wouldn’t find out about it?”
“Grr.” Mabuchi growled, “What would YOU know about it?”
But the stranger looked strikingly familiar to Falcon. Had he really been here in town all this time without him realizing it? He supposed it wouldn’t be too shocking, given the man’s specialty in stealth and staying unseen. ”We know plenty.” Falcon said in response to Mabuchi, holding up the ledger that he and Zhao found in the desk at the storehouse.
“Where did you get that?” Mabuchi demanded.
“From your hideout.” Zhao said. “Yokohama Trading Company? Really? The same exact shit you pulled back in Ijincho? Seriously, Mabuchi, how stupid do you think I am?”
”We can tell you about his little scheme.” Falcon assured Snake, ”He’s been contacting someone called Consul 𝙸 - they’re the ones that sent that cargo ship.”
“Right, and he was just about to explain the details.” Zhao said before shooting a cold and threatening glare at Mabuch, “Weren’t you, Mabuchi-kun?”
Mabuchi scowled, but after some hesitation decided to talk. “It started with the attacks on Limsa Lominscuttle Town.” He said. “I observed them and thought I could take over the cargo ship myself, so I led a boarding party. How hard could it be to take on some wrestlers? Or so we thought. But they had someone calling the shots. Called herself Consul 𝙸 - I never learned her real name. She basically beats us single-handed, but instead of killing me, I got an offer instead. She let me redirect the Battle Royale Rumble’s next destination, and I picked Mafia Town.”
“And let me guess.” Zhao cut in. “You figured you could use the chaos to take out the boss and take over his operations? Well, doesn’t that sound familiar…?”
“At least I’m trying to make a name for myself!” Mabuchi snapped back, “Look at you, Zhao! You used to be one of the most feared men in the underworld, and now you’re what, some lowlife chef?”
“You just don’t get it do you?” Zhao asked. “Do you even know why I exiled you instead of lopping your head off on the spot back then? It’s because I was hoping you’d realize there could be more to life than all this crap. He helped me figure that out, so I thought I could help you figure it out too.”
“What?” Mabuchi asked, “You mean that worthless bum of a Yakuza? You really did let him make you get soft, didn’t you?”
“What can I say?” Zhao answered with a shrug, “He has that effect on people, I guess.”
Falcon had stayed quiet. Instead he stole occasional glances at the Mercenary. The more the bounty hunter looked at him, the more convinced he was that this had to be the same man he knew. The real question was how to get him to agree to leave with the Seekers? Telling him about Galeem wasn’t going to work. If he’d been working for the Mafia here, then maybe Falcon could frame it as a job offer?
”Snake?” Falcon suddenly asked him, knowing that it would look odd that a stranger knew his name without asking for it. ”As you just heard, this guy’s just a pawn of someone much bigger and badder.” said Cap in reference to the Consul. ”She’s part of a larger organization called Moebius. The organization I work with has been trying to put a stop to their schemes and operations, and well… we could certainly use someone with expertise like yours.” Falcon explained, while intentionally keeping quiet about subjects like Galeem.
”Our team here in Mafia Town was laying low and looking for new leads. But it’s pretty obvious we’re going to have to go back on the move again. And yes, I know your name. And if you agree to come with us, I can promise you I’ll make it make sense for you once we’ve been picked up by our ship. What do you say?” Falcon asked, holding out his hand expecting the deal to be sealed with a handshake.
Member
wintersoldier
BlazingBark
Izurich
Xaltwind
karishin42
Guardian Angel Haruki
rush99999
Half Pint
Fetzen
