Double

Wicked Wings: An Interest Check

@AtomicEmperor
Yep, I've got Discord. My name there is the same as it is here.

Wicked Wings: An Interest Check

@Lyla
I'm not sure why you need my permission. But go for it if our benevolent GM allows it.

Wicked Wings: An Interest Check

I'm already starting to formulate a picture in my head of a character and mecha inspired by the legend of Saint George and the Dragon.

Wicked Wings: An Interest Check

Do we get to have a gloriously cheesy transformation sequence for when we summon the mechs? Because I'm okay with that.

Wicked Wings: An Interest Check

@AtomicEmperor
One thing that's been appealing to me lately is classical chivalry. So in the context of this setting I find myself imagining a mashup of sorts between Arthurian Legend and the Knights of the Inner Sphere from Battletech. Sort of a Space-Paladin, I guess?

Disparate Ideas for Expansion

I too have been playing Armored Core and Wicked Wings looks very intriguing. I am curious about the mecha aspect of it, though. Are the mechs themselves magic or are they simply fueled by magic? I'm not particularly clear on that detail.

World of Light

Suoh

Roxas vs Ninten & Lucas

Word Count: 3,601
Level 7 Roxas: 11/70
Exp: 4
NEW EXP Balance--- 15/70

Roxas was already exasperated by the time he managed to regroup with the others. The Others that he had fought his way through managed to drain him of much of his MP, and now he only had enough for one or two spells before it would have to recharge. But it wasn’t long before the group’s troubles took another bad turn. Suddenly they were confronted by more members of Psych-OSF, and unfortunately the Seekers were outnumbered. They were calling Luka’s entire platoon traitors, and Hanabi and Yuito too since they were there as well. This was not a battle Roxas wanted to fight, but it became increasingly clear that he wasn’t going to get a choice.

”I may not be a Scarlet Guardian, or even a psionic at all.” Roxas said, summoning both of his Keyblades, ”But these are my friends, and that’s all I need to know!” The two psionics who happened to be nearest to him looked like kids - no older than Raz, Lili, or even Roxas himself. Still, with that SAS link of theirs, Roxas knew he couldn’t take them lightly. He took a deep breath, and then Roxas went on the attack. He tested the waters first by throwing his Keyblades, one at each of the boys.

From the beginning Lucas looked nervous, standing behind his friend Ninten despite being taller. He clearly didn’t want to follow through on the challenge posed by the other OSF soldiers, and when Roxas stepped up to take them on, he reflexively took a step back. Unfortunately, he’d have to run a lot farther to escape from the Seeker’s double keyblade toss. As one hurtled toward him he hunkered down behind a psychic bubble shield, his eyes squeezed shut, but as ever his companion took the initiative. “Hyah!” With practiced timing Ninten whacked the first keyblade with his baseball bat, returning it to sender with interest. The other bounced off Lucas’s shield, depleting it by about a third though it’d recharge fast once he lowered his guard.

“You’ve gotta be brave, Lucas!” Ninten called out with determination, his bat at the ready for more projectiles. With an enemy in their midst, it went without saying why Ninten needed a partner in this fight. “We can’t let these baddies win. Just think what Commander Camilla would say!”

Lucas took a deep breath and lowered his guard. Both his friend and his platoon leader were right, and he couldn’t afford to let either of them down. Instead he clenched his teeth and balled his fists, the sight of which made Ninten smile. “Alright, let’s do this!”

His PSI energy surged around Lucas as he used OffenseUp, granting him an attack boost just before Lucas let loose some power of his own. “PK Thunder!” An orb of intense lightning appeared and flew through the air, guided by Lucas to home in on the location of his opponent. While it traced a serpentine path toward Roxas, a trail of electricity in its wake, Ninten prepared to use QuickUp to grant his ally a speed boost as well.

When his own Keyblade was suddenly flying back at him, Roxas wasn’t too worried. He reached out and recalled the flying blade to his hand with a flash of light. The other weapon also vanished shortly after colliding with Lucas’ bubble shield. From there Roxas made a split decision on who to focus on first. The blonde boy used his powers to summon a bolt of lightning that he could apparently control in its trajectory, while the boy with a red hat used his powers to apparently buff himself and his partner. Roxas chose to focus on Lucas first, seeing the PK Thunder as a more immediate threat to deal with.

Roxas tried dodging away from the lighting at first, but this was how he figured out that Lucas was actively controlling its trajectory. So instead of trying to run he whipped around and threw his Keyblade a second time, hoping this was sudden enough for the weapon to collide with the lightning before Lucas had a chance to maneuver it around. Immediately after this, Roxas summoned his other Keyblade and pointed it in Lucas’s direction, ”Fire!” he cried and shot a Firaga from the tip of the Keyblade that hurled toward the blonde psionic. These two weren’t the only ones capable of wielding elemental attacks.

His efforts were rewarded with a solid bonk to his target’s oversized head, eliciting an “Owie!” as Lucas recoiled. When a roiling blast of fire followed it up, Lucas panicked, his fight-or-flight reflex activated. He managed to put up his PSI Magnet just in time, meaning that the Firaga got absorbed by the rippling nexus of energy and partially converted into health. Rather than drop the Magnet, however, Lucas continued to hide behind it.

”Why are you doing this?”” Roxas suddenly demanded, ”We haven’t done anything!”

But Roxas wasn’t about to leave himself open from trying to talk. While he asked his questions, Roxas snapped his fingers on his free hand and summoned Burn Rooster. The robotic Reploid leaped into action and proceeded to launch into a fiery flying kick at Ninten. Roxas meanwhile ran forward intending to keep focusing on Lucas while his Striker hopefully kept Ninten distracted.

Ninten’s buffs only actually affected his target, so when Burn Rooster threw himself at the boy, Ninten wasn’t quite ready. The Reploid’s kick sent him into a tumble with a yelp, his clothes asmoulder with flaming embers. Though Lucas had squeezed his eyes shut while defending himself with PSI Magnet at first, he’d opened them in time to see his friend hit the ground. “Ninten!” he cried, his means of defending himself momentarily forgotten.

“Kid!” Rope Snake yelled urgently as Roxas approached. “Get your head in the game!”

Roxas raised his weapon, but found himself unable to actually bring it down for a strike. This just didn’t feel right. None of it did. Roxas shook with anger and confusion, ”I’m not your enemy. I don’t want to fight.” he said after he stayed his Keyblade, ”And I have a feeling you don’t either.” That last part was for Lucas in particular. Roxas could see that the kid didn’t seem to want to actually be here right now. There had to be some way to end this without fighting. And while Roxas knew he could be making a big mistake right now… he dispelled his Keyblade.

If he or the others were really the traitors that these Psych-OSF agents were told they were, then why would at least one of them be so reluctant to fight right now? He hoped maybe this would make Lucas and Ninten think and maybe even question their orders. Of course, they might not. It was a giant risk Roxas was taking, but he preferred it over the alternative of wielding his Keyblade against two kids who didn’t know any better.

Somewhat paradoxically, the Nobody’s heart was in the right place, but the die had already been cast. Diplomacy would never win in the World of Light while Galeem reigned. After Rope Snake’s urging, and his attacker’s hesitation, Lucas quickly mustered up the willpower to do just as he was told. He lashed out with Rope Snake himself, snatching Roxas and reeling him on. Taken by surprise, he received a couple PSI sparks from the psionic’s oversized cranium before Lucas used his power to fling his disoriented opponent over his head and behind him. As he took a tumble, Lucas clasped his hands together and lifted his head up. “PK Freeze!” From the ether he formed a miniaturized ice storm and flung it in an arc after Roxas, the wintry singularity growing bigger and stronger the farther it went.

By that time Ninten had risen, and he used this opportunity to cast DefenseUp on himself.

Roxas was acrobatic enough to right himself in midair after the psychic throw. Deep down he knew it was pointless to try and talk them down, but he couldn’t help himself. He saw something icy arcing its way toward him and had to act fast. Before he even started falling back down, Roxas summoned Oathkeeper and pointed it straight forward, ”Freeze!” he called out. Once again he was using an elemental spell of his own. This time it would be ice vs ice as Roxas’ Blizzaga clashed with Lucas’ PK Freeze.

Unfortunately that was the last of Roxas’ MP. His feet touched the ground and he simply readied his Keyblades, knowing that now he’d have to outlast these two long enough for his MP to recharge itself. The enormous mass of ice crashed to the ground between the two sides and shattered noisily, filling the air with cool diamond dust. Once Ninten finished up his pre-fight buffs with OffenseUp on himself, he hefted his bat and ran forward through the mist to challenge the keyblade wielder head-on, prompting Lucas to run after him. While he gauged his opponent’s strength in melee combat, Lucas circled around shooting PK Fires to try and keep his friend covered.

This was not a particularly great situation for the Nobody to find himself in. He was obviously no slouch in melee combat so fending off even the buffed Ninten’s strikes was something he would ordinarily not have much difficulty with. It was Lucas who was making this harder than it otherwise would be. He fired off a series of little yellow lightning bolts that suddenly burst with fire as soon as they touched anything. And without any MP, there wasn’t much Roxas could do about them. Not while Ninten was staying in his face and keeping him from disengaging.

Roxas did manage to avoid most of the PK Fires, but at least one of them nailed him in the back while he had his Keyblades locked with Ninten’s baseball bat. The only idea he could think of after recovering from that was to jump a step back from Ninten and then throw both his Keyblades in a circular arc around himself. That would at least give him a moment’s reprieve to reposition himself so that at least his two opponents weren’t flanking him. Then he recalled his keyblades to his hands and immediately threw one in Lucas’ direction. Then he readied his other Keyblade to try and block what he anticipated would be another direct melee strike from Ninten.

Unlike Roxas, unfortunately, Ninten wasn’t a trained fighter. He generally fought with the finesse (and strength) of the little boy he was, refined by his experience in the OSF but still no great shakes. His stat boosts helped even the odds somewhat, but he’d generally given worse than he’d gotten. When Roxas launched a keyblade revolution the unexpected trajectory of his weapons resulted in a clock to Ninten’s head that left him a little dizzy, but when Roxas hurled one at Lucas he knew he couldn’t relent. He dashed in and performed a big bat swing that Roxas blocked, leaving himself overextended and vulnerable. Lucas managed to roll out of the way of the other keyblade, and when he saw his friend in trouble, he knew it was his turn to save Ninten. “PK Thunder!” The thunderhead snaked its way toward Roxas, cast because Lucas was now too far for PK Fire, but his projectile’s travel time left a little to be desired.

Roxas was about to follow up against Ninten only to spot the PK Thunder arcing his way. This was starting to become repetitive, but until his MP recharged all Roxas could do was keep holding out. He shoved the overextended Ninten aside and took off in a sprint, with the PK Thunder seeming to give chase. Roxas wasn’t sure he could outrun it for long, or even how long Lucas could sustain the attack. And so the only solution Roxas could think of was to charge straight in Lucas’ direction. He’d have to snake around to try and dodge the PK Thunder but if Roxas could get in striking range he could probably hit Lucas and hopefully break the psionic’s concentration to dispel the thunder attack.

When Roxas broke into a run to evade the seeking thunderhead, Lucas knew that his PK Thunder didn’t have the longevity -or speed- to give chase. Instead he sent it into the ground to cut it off early, and as Roxas sped his way he cast off a second one. Rather than try to tag his agile opponent with it, however, he sent it in an loop above and behind him. If Roxas thought that this was a misfire, though, he’d be sorely mistaken. The moment Lucas guided the PK Thunder into his own back, an explosive reaction launched him forward in a headfirst corkscrew, armored against interruption. His aim wasn’t perfect, but if Roxas wasn’t ready, he’d find himself on the receiving end of a surprise headbutt. With the pressure off him for a moment, meanwhile, Ninten went to heal himself with the PSI skill LifeUp.

Roxas was utterly confused when Lucas fired a PK Thunder that he turned around onto himself. The Keybearer had no idea what the kid was actually trying to do, and so when Lucas suddenly came flying forward at him head-first, Roxas could only put his Keyblades up in a defensive stance. But the sudden attack left him no time to properly brace himself. And so when the charged up headbutt collided with him, it resulted in Roxas getting knocked down the ground. His Keyblades being up prevented him from taking serious damage, but that didn’t stop him from having the wind knocked out of him. Roxas lay there a moment, realizing that Lucas had to recover from launching himself and that Ninten was nearby appearing to heal himself. Roxas pulled out his last Potion, put it up to his mouth, and drank it.

That at least dealt with the damage Roxas had taken so far, or at least a portion of it anyway. But he was still catching his breath from being winded even as he pushed himself to his feet. But just then, his MP was finished charging. So far Roxas had been fighting with the equivalent of an arm tied around his back thanks to having no MP. But not anymore. He dashed forward toward Lucas and aimed the tip of one of his Keyblades at him, ”Fire!” The firaga spell shot forth and rolled through the air at Lucas. Afterward Roxas suddenly lunged to his side and attempted to rush Lucas with his Keyblades from an angle that was different from the firaga’s trajectory.

A fireball Lucas could handle, and he put up his PSI Magnet to do just that, absorbing it just like the spell he’d soaked before. Thanks to his speed, however, Roxas turned his simple cast into a two-pronged attack, and when it came to physical strikes, PSI Magnet did nothing at all. And Lucas soon found himself being knocked a few feet upward by Roxas bringing his Keyblades around into an upper slash. And that was all the opening Roxas needed to leap up and strike at Lucas a few successive times, four to be exact. On the fifth attack, Roxas hooked his Keyblades onto Lucas and brought him back down in a sort of suplex slam.

At this point Roxas chose to cast yet another spell, ”Thunder!” he cried with both weapons pointed straight up. This called down a short-lived rain of thunderbolts around himself. Lucas would naturally be within the area of effect, but if Ninten had tried to approach with any baseball bat attacks, then he’d be inadvertently putting himself within the area of effect as well.

Ninten had watched the combo Roxas performed on Lucas with dismay, unable to intercede with his bat while the keyblade wielder kept his friend in the air. In a panic he used the SAS to activate Umbrakinesis, Audiokinesis, Telekinesis, and Precognition all at the same time, desperately trying to find something he could use as an attack. With everything at his disposal though, Ninten got overwhelmed, and he ended up doing nothing. Only when Roxas brought Lucas back down to earth could he do what he did best, and run in to whack his foe with his baseball bat. Instead he took a thunderbolt to the head, but as much as it hurt, he could see -and hear- Lucas getting worse. “Stop!” he yelled, his voice boosted by Audiokinesis to a shockingly loud level. Finally getting an idea, he used Telekinesis to hurl his baseball bat like a boomerang, then tapped into his own PSI. When he cast Hypnosis, Roxas fell asleep where he stood, slumping over limply.

Lucas hit the ground at his opponent’s feet as the lightning storm abated, and Ninten ran toward the both of them, his bat returning to his hand on the way. “Coming your way!” he yelled, empowering himself with OffenseUp. As Lucas rolled away onto his feet, Ninten struck Roxas with a home run swing, sending him flying toward the kid he’d electrocuted. Lucas snatched him with Rope Snake, whirled him around, and buried him in the ground headfirst. Somehow that didn’t hurt very much, but what came next very much did. Lucas performed a dash, slid to a stop right next to Roxas in a cloud of dust, and delivered PK Love “HYA!”

First was the shout, big and loud enough that Roxas was momentarily disoriented. And that, apparently, was all Ninten needed. The baseball bat came crashing into him, and then Roxas felt drowsy all of a sudden. He fought to keep his eyes open but the Hypnosis was too strong and the Nobody fell asleep. He was awoken by a bit swing from Ninten that sent Roxas flying. Then he got snared by Lucas’ rope snake and then hurled upward by his powerful crackling PSI attack.

Roxas was in trouble. He was taking serious damage at this point and would go down unless he healed himself. But if he did that, he’d lose all his MP and would once again have to survive long enough for it to recharge. He wasn’t sure he could do that a second time against these two. Especially not with Ninten being able to heal himself and presumably Lucas too with his LifeUp. So the choice was either risk having the two outlast him, or try to go all out now and hope it’s enough to end this now. Either way he was taking a gamble.

Roxas managed to right himself while he was in midair. And then he came shooting straight back down at the unsuspecting Lucas in the form of a streak of light that exploded into a Cross Slash as soon as he hit the boy. Ninten came charging in for a swing of his bat, but it just met Roxas’ Keyblades. And Ninten wasn’t expecting an instant response that came in the form of Roxas sweeping his blades around himself in a circular slash that was Dual Counter. And then, with only a sliver of MP left, Roxas thrust both his Keyblades skyward.

”You can’t stop me!” And upon that command, columns of bluish light shot straight up from his Keyblades and into the sky only to come crashing down onto the ground around Roxas. The columns of light were fast, difficult to avoid and could hit hard when they struck. Ninten avoided the first couple of columns but his own mental and physical fatigue started getting the better of him and he started taking hits. Lucas instinctively tried to put up his PSI Magnet, after all it was able to absorb the Nobody’s spells earlier so why would this be any different. But PSI Magnet could only absorb so much before even it was overpowered by the strength of Roxas’ light columns. And then Roxas floated up a few feet, ”Give me strength!” he cried bringing both his back down and bent at the elbows as if to fully exert himself. At this, the columns of light increased in size, strength, and speed. If this Magic Hour attack was hard for the boys to avoid before, well now it was bordering on impossible.

In moments, Roxas’ Magic Hour petered out and ended. It left him drained and exhausted. But luckily for him, it looked like the gambit paid off. Ninten and Lucas were both sprawled on the ground, neither were able to overcome the barrage of light columns. But they were only unconscious, which was a relief to Roxas. He never had any desire to fight these two boys in the first place, so if they had become spirits he would have felt terrible.

”I’m sorry it came to this.” Roxas said softly to the unconscious Ninten and Lucas. He staggered toward them, with Oathkeeper still in his hand. ”May my Heart be my Guiding Key.” He performed a Keyblade Purge, first on Ninten and then on Lucas. With them being unconscious, the technique went off without a hitch and so they were both freed. But it was after this that Roxas finally dispelled his Keyblades and plopped down with a thud. He was so tired he couldn’t even stay standing. This was now the third and fourth people he had used the Keyblade Purge on within a relatively short period of time. And that fact was definitely beginning to take its toll on the Nobody.

”I hope we can be friends after all this is over.”

Disney & Dragons 5e

*sigh*

World of Light

Suoh

Concealed Atrocities

Word Count: 917
Level 7 Roxas: 9/70
Exp: +2
NEW EXP Balance--- 11/70

After they left Peach with the rebels, Roxas couldn't help but clam up. He replayed that conversation in his head over and over. It was clear he regretted what he said at the end. Even if the Power of Waking could help, he'd still have to find Sora. And Roxas couldn't even begin to think of where to start there. Last he knew, Riku and Kairi were tirelessly searching for their missing friend. They even enlisted the help of Aqua and the others to take the search into the Realm of Darkness. And as far as Roxas knew, none of them had had any progress in locating him. So how exactly was he supposed to do so while in this completely unfamiliar world?

Well whatever doubts Roxas had needed to be set aside. Next thing he knew, Luka was announcing a message he'd received from one his peers in the Otherlobe. Apparently their entire platoon now had an APB out on them, and that sounded like bad news. But among the cacophony of names getting dropped, Roxas actually managed to recognize at least one of them: Oleander. He was that coach guy Raz introduced Roxas to the other day. The one who Raz asked to let some of the seekers join the platoon, unaware that it was meant only for psionics. Had he really brought Sina and Dexio to Beacon Hospital? And did he know they were being controlled?

Roxas was equally concerned about hearing of Raz being injured and in hiding at Musubi's. He was just as eager to get over there and rescue Raz as the rest of the Seekers were. But then the alarms started blaring, signalling an Other attack just like the one from the other day, "What? Now? You can't be serious!" Roxas bemoaned, but then found himself agreeing with Luka, "You're thinking that someone did this on purpose?"

Roxas wouldn't put it past someone in the upper echelons of Midgar to orchestrate this kind of disaster. The problem was that Roxas had no earthly idea how this could even be done. But regardless, it looked like the Seekers would be fighting against Others again whether they wanted to or not. And thus the Keybearer was quick to leap into action.

At first things were more or less straightforward. Roxas hacked and slashed his way into a small group of five Rummies, and then lit them up with a Thundaga Spell to finish them off. And then Roxas suddenly heard what sounded almost like... hoof beats. He turned and yelped in surprise when a ram-like Wither Sabbat came charging past, nearly trampling him. It let out a snorting sound as it pounded its front hooves in preparation for another charge. Roxas turned and sprinted, but he knew he'd get overtaken unless he did something. So he ran for a nearby street-light pole and then hopped up and pushed himself off it.

The Sabbat crashed into the pole, but Roxas was already airborne. The Nobody flipped and oriented himself to land squarely on the Other's back. He immediately grabbed the creature's horns and held on with all his strength and for dear life as he was bucked around on the back of the monster. After what felt like a very long seven or eight seconds, the Wither Sabbat lunged into another charge with Roxas still riding its back and clinging to the horns some kind of desperate rider in a rodeo.

"Whoa! LOOK OUT!" screamed Roxas when he realized where the Sabbat was going. It was attempting to charge into a pair unsuspecting civilians currently firing at different Others. Roxas yanked the creature's horns aside as hard as he could to try and force it to turn a different. At the same time the two civilians heard Roxas' warning and dove out of the way. So that was at least a couple casualties averted. But Roxas himself was still kind of stuck on this Other's back. He could jump off, but then he'd just get charged at again. Meanwhile the Sabbat in question went into another charge, and so Roxas had to act fast. He tightened his grip on the horns and yanked at them again, once more trying to forcibly control it's charge.

The Keybearer managed to direct the Sabbat's charge into a trio of Rummies. At that point he finally ditched the creature and quickly leaped backward to put some distance between it and himself. He pointed both Keyblades forward and fired a Dual Shot, whose explosion manage to catch the Sabbat and the Rummies and finish them off, "Uh oh..." Roxas said to himself as he realized this maneuver had apparently separated him from his friends and allies. He hear their voices but they were a ways away and he'd have to make his way back where he had just been brought from. To make matters worse, a growing crowd of Rummies and Paws were slowly trying to close in on him.

After taking a calming breath, Roxas stared down the crowd of Others before him, "You don't scare me!" he shouted as he ran right for the enemies before him. He was determined to make it back to the others even if he had to fight his way there every step of the way.

World of Light

Despite the Pain

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double, Luka, Yuito, Hanabi
Word Count: 3143 (+4)

Sakura gave a little embarrassed wave to Crenshaw. For some reason she kept assuming she wouldn’t see any of these people again, and it was weird when she did. She would probably have to come clean to Gemma soon about her Fusion, if he hadn’t figured it out already.

”The conspiracy..? Oh, man. Another one?” Sakura asked, tired of all these shadowy groups. Sakura brightened, however, when Crenshaw revealed he could take them to Peach! ”So she’s safe? That’s amazing!” She exclaimed, relieved. ”Let’s go, let’s go see her!”

”When is there ever not a conspiracy?” asked Roxas with a deadpan tone, ”At this point I'd be more surprised if there wasn’t one.” He reached up and pushed back the hood of his black coat so it was no longer covering his head. Then with a relieved exhale he wiped his forehead with a gloved hand. These coats were necessary but sometimes they made warm weather feel a lot harsher than it actually was.

”Maybe we should start asking if there’s conspiracies inside the conspiracies then? Men behind the men, puppeteering once conspiracy to serve their own” Minda suggested, half joking, before realizing ”Actually that might just be the Consuls”

Pit rubbed his eyes, adjusting to the new area through the portal they'd taken. This was the facility that Peach was being held in. It seemed no less strange than anywhere else they'd been in Midgar. Speaking of, he wondered where exactly in the city they were. "Supernatural Life" they'd called it, so they could be back in the same sector they'd started the day in... if he recalled the layout of the plates correctly.

The interior was unlike any factory Pit had seen before, but to be fair he hadn't exactly seen many. What these rebels could possibly be using the brains for must have been on everyone's minds, though as before there wasn't much of an answer when Yuito questioned it.

"I hope we find out it's something good. Kinda hard to say you're the good guys when you're sneaking around with a bunch of brains," Pit said, eyeing the conveyor belts. This whole thing felt so... weird. Distasteful. Wrong, even, despite hopefully being for a good cause.

Sakura covered her eyes and prepared for take-off, and when it faded she tilted her head up and down and all around to get a good idea of the space. Only a few moments later did she gag and pinch her nose. ”Yeah, it’s weird. I still don’t know how those brains are even real.” Sakura said, her voice nasally. She breathed in through her mouth and then coughed.

Midna meanwhile just slipped her mask back up over her face, and though its filters only somewhat reduced the scent/taste, it was better than nothing.

”If you think that’s weird, try wrapping your head around the idea of creatures who exist without hearts.” Roxas replied, a subtle reference to some of the weirdness from his own world, ”Alongside other creatures who are essentially hearts that have been corrupted by Darkness, and yet those are the ones named Heartless rather than the former creatures. Did I mention my world was kind of confusing? Because it is.”

"Yeah you should definitely complain to whatever god is naming stuff there." This was of course coming from a proud citizen of Angel Land, a place where they called a lot of monsters by the name of which ever individual they happened to meet first, leading to species called "Micks" or "Phils." Pit wrinkled his nose as the smell finally started getting to him, though not quite as much as their street fighter friend.

”It wasn’t exactly a god that named them.” Roxas said, beginning to hold his nose in response to the smell, ”Just a guy trying to become one.”

”Ugh- I’m just tasting it instead! It’s worse! Bleh!” Sakura was eager to hurry out of the room.

She gasped in fresh air and was surprised when she saw the massive hallway.

”Do giants live here or something?” She asked in amazement, though she whispered it because the place was so quiet.

“In a sense,” Crenshaw muttered darkly.

When she heard the voice in her head, she stood up straight and gasped. She made eye contact with Luke because she knew that he heard it and he knew she did too. ”Peach-san!” She exclaimed, and began sprinting with Luka, trying not to get too far ahead of everyone.

Unable to hear the psychic voice, Pit nonetheless ran to follow Luka and Sakura. He wasn't quite dimwitted enough not to understand that when Luka had exclaimed "it's her" after hearing something, that he meant Peach. Pit had been informed of his fellow Smasher's fate, so he steeled himself for however they would find her - but he was still surprised once the group burst through the door. Sakura was hopping up and down as the door was unsealed, and she rushed inside and literally skidded on her heels to come to a stop as she looked up at a giant Other.

”Peach-san!”

"This is... Princess Peach?!" Pit asked, wide-eyed. She was huge, a mismatch monster like the 'Others' he'd seen before.

”It is now” Midna confirmed, the princess arriving just a bit behind the others due to having simply walked swiftly instead of running. She already knew what she was going to see after all.

Sakura turned over her shoulder and glared at Pit like he had said something offensive. Then she turned back and bowed in greeting at Peach. ”It’s- it’s really good to hear your voice again.” She said, folding her hands in front of her with a sigh of relief. ”I’m sorry you got shot like that. Must have been really scary.”

”At least she isn’t being controlled or trying to blow herself up.” Said Roxas somberly. He was referring to Poppi of course, but didn’t yet realize that her fate would not have been reported to Peach just yet. Thinking of both of these situations just frustrated him. Like he should have been able to do something, yet instead was powerless to do anything.

”What… exactly have they been doing with you here, Princess? Is there… any way to reverse this at all?” It was especially frustrating in this case. With anyone else they could probably reverse the change with a Friend Heart. But Peach was already freed from Galeem so a Friend Heart would have no effect on her.

“I’m…just sorry it had to happen like this,” Sakura and the other psionics heard. Though Roxas posed the question, he could not hear Peach’s telepathic response. ”I’m fine…the people here are very kind, even to an Other like me…”

She paused for a moment. Not only did her mental voice sound distant, as if broadcasted through a low-quality radio, but also it sounded strained. ”But when I don’t take the ampoules, it really hurts…gets hard to think…and I can’t communi…cate.” The more she spoke, the more strained she sounded.

“We have no way to reverse it at present,” Crenshaw lamented softly. “I’m afraid that the ampoules merely treat the symptoms.”

”And we’ve just jeopardized the way you produced those, right?” Minda asked rhetorically, before adding ”Not that I wouldn’t do it all over again” with unknowing callousness due to not being tuned into peach’s state of being.

Crenshaw shook his head. "That hospital deserved far worse, and I dread to think what its denizens had in store for those brains. If need be, we'll find another way to make the ampoules."

"I can't stand them," Peach transmitted suddenly, her mental voice bitter. "Knowing where the 'medicine' comes from…why I need it…it's so horrible, it makes me sick…" A grinding noise could be heard as her huge, twisted limbs curled up beneath her in revulsion.

Sakura realized she should probably be translating what Peach was saying.

”Peach-san says the people are nice to her, and that, um, the ampoules let her communicate and think. But…” Sakura frowns. ”She doesn’t like where the ampoules come from.” She said, and received a nod of thanks for her efforts from Midna.

From those brains, right? Pit thought to himself with a grimace, putting the pieces together. He sympathized with the princess. He had been rubbing his arm awkwardly since the scathing look Sakura had sent his way, but now he raised both of them encouragingly.

"It's..." Okay? It really wasn't. It wasn't Peach's choice either, but she knew that. "...just for now. Temporary! Until you're back to normal!"

”Peach-san, you’re not an Other, you’re our friend. We’re gonna find the cure!” She exclaimed. ”For everyone. We have too.”

”I might have… something for that. Not a cure but-” Midna stepped in to say, before pausing to open a portal on the floor next to her ”Here let me just” and summoned from it her vibrava.

The dragonfly shaped, and now thorn covered, dragon fluttered up to land on Midna’s outstretched arms so she could hold it as she explained that ”This thing used to be a wolfos, but after applying 10 of the same kind of spirit it completely transformed into this thing. Or well. Almost this, I added a cactus monster later” The Psych-OSF soldiers present looked on in confusion, but kept quiet to make sure the Seekers had the space to talk with their unlucky friend.

”It’s drastic, and I’m not sure how much it affected this thing’s mind. Its still loyal, and knows how to use portals and such, so it’s not as if its mind got entirely overridden. But as with all fusion, it’ll twist you, I’m almost sure of it. Plus there’s no guarantee it will solve the inability to think issue. It depends on if it's inherent in being an Other, maybe?” She went on, having been thinking about this since Peach had been transformed, and now dearly hoping it would help.

[color=Gold”]Hmm…”[/color] Roxas looked deep in thought. Like he was considering a suggestion of his own. But he wasn’t quite certain if that suggestion would work. Even if it would, Roxas himself didn’t possess that power. And the only person he knew that did have it was not currently present. It might be best to keep it to himself and not give anyone any false hope.

Even as she made the suggestion, Midna knew just how long a shot it was. Ten of the exact same spirit might have worked for a generic kind of Pokemon, but what spirits did Midna have in mind now? Even if by some miracle the process of essence conversion mitigated or undid the damage done to Peach’s human mind, unless the ten spirits belonged to ten additional Princess Peaches, the being brought about by such a change would be even less ‘her’ than the monster that languished before the Seekers now.

”Please, don’t…in fact, just…go.” The huge Other shifted slightly, laying her head down. [i]”Yes. You all have…much to do. The Administration…Konoe…Zanotto…the Guardian of this place, and…and all the rest. You have…to carry on. Please…forget about me.”

At that point, Yuito couldn’t stay quiet any longer. “No! We can’t just leave you here,” he exclaimed, partially translating for the mentally inept. “There’s got to be something we can do. We can get you out!”

”Um…” Roxas was about to say something, but was interrupted.

"None of us are gonna abandon you here!" Pit said, his voice firm. Though he couldn't hear her voice, he got the gist of just what she was saying thanks to Sakura and Yuito's translation. She had to know there was no way they'd go on without her, not willingly at least.

”Thank you, but…there’s no way I’d be able to have…a life, out there. I’m an Other now.” Her voice momentarily dispersed through a hiss of pained static. ”Agh…the ampoule…it’s running out.”

Crenshaw narrowed his eyes. “The ampoule.” He pointed at the injector in Luka’s hands. “Use it on her!”

Though Luka began to move straight away, Peach’s voice gave him pause. ”Wait! I…I don’t want it. I don’t want to…to live like this. It’s not…awful here or anything, but…if this is how it’d be…for the rest of my life…I don’t want that, either. It’s…not living. I’d rather…you put me out…of my misery. When I lose it…I’ll attack you again…try to e-eat your…your brains, so…just kill that monster…and let me rest.”

Bristling, Crenshaw gritted his teeth. “Absurd. We can’t afford to let you die.” He urgently motioned for Luka to finish the job. “Do it!”

"Die?!"

”...Th-the Power of Waking!” Roxas suddenly blurted out. And then he swallowed hard, immediately wishing that he hadn’t. But it was too late now, ”It… it’s a power that exists where I come from. I’ve seen it used to bring back someone who was struck down and killed. It might cure this…” There was clearly hesitation in his voice. It wasn’t hard to figure out that there was probably a catch to it, ”...It’s just that, well, I don’t possess that power. I know the person who does, but… he isn’t here with us right now. We’d… have to bring him here.”

Sakura looked between Peach and Roxas, on the verge of tears. She approached Peach and set a hand on her. ”I’m really sorry. Pl-please don’t give up hope, Peach-san. Not yet. Can you let us leave and come back? To try and save you?” She beseeched the Princess. ”It might not be the rest of your life. A lot can happen in a day.” She looked to the others desperately, hoping they could back her up on this.

”Such as cracking open the conspiracy that did this in the first place and making them spill all of their secrets” Midna offered

Pit nodded vigorously. No matter what method they could find, or when they found it, no one was just going to give up on Peach.

"If there was a way to turn you into an Other, there's a way to turn you back! I know there is." With no actual evidence he was only speaking from a place of blind hope, which he had in spades. Tora would find a way to fix Poppi, and they would find a way to fix Peach. And it only made sense anyway; if it was magic then they could find a counterspell, if it was science then the eggheads could reverse whatever had changed - and they already had some limited degree of success, as macabre as it was. "You gotta stay strong! For your kingdom, and the world, and yourself."

While Roxas and Midna hastened to try and come up with plans of action, Luka rushed forward. He joined Sakura beside Peach’s monstrous form and laid what he hoped would be a reassuring hand beside his former squadmate’s. “I know it hurts,” he began. “And that it seems hopeless. Like you’re trapped, with no way out. But you can’t just give up, not so soon. Have faith in your friends. In a world like this, anything’s possible.”

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, switching to Brain Talk so that only the psionics in his immediate proximity -Sakura and Peach herself- could hear him. ”Before joining the OSF, I was… a dud. No matter how hard I worked, or how I acted, I would always be deprived. Cut off from others. An analog boy in a digital world. But as the younger brother of Karen Travers, I was lucky enough to receive a special, experimental treatment. It was rigorous, and painful, but in the end my brain began to produce the psychic hormone, and I became like everyone else. Even if I may lose it all some day.” He furrowed his brow. ”I don’t mean to compare what I went through to yours. Just to say that there’s always a flicker of hope. So please…”

“...Don’t throw in the towel just yet, Peach,” he finished. He still held the ampoule, clutched tight in his hand. “May I use this?” he asked her for permission.

Sakura compressed her lips and shut her eyes, hoping Peach would say yes.

Heartened somewhat by Luka and Sakura’s support, as well as Roxas and Midna’s commitment to finding a solution, Peach relented. “O-okay. If you guys…think there’s a way…I’ll try and hold out here for a while longer.”

Luka nodded, and injected the ampoule. The pink slurry within flowed into Peach’s body, and its muscles began to relax. Hanabi, clearly rattled, gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you for letting us help you,” Yuito told Peach. “We might not know one another, but I can’t let this injustice claim another innocent life. I promise we’ll find a way.”

”Thank you! You won’t regret it.” Sakura said, setting a hand on her heart and letting out a breath.

"Alright, if we're gonna help her then we can't waste any time!" The sooner they kept their promise, the sooner Peach wouldn't have to suffer anymore. Pit looked around at those gathered. "Let's find the people responsible and get some answers."

“Yes, let’s,” Luka agreed, his face serious. “I suppose our first order of business is to make our way back to Suoh, then. Chances are, we’ll find those answers in the Otherlobe.”

Crenshaw crossed his arms. “My Transport power’s just about worn out for today, but I can probably muster up enough for one more trip. Not as far as the Otherlobe, but I should just be able to get you back to the plate.” Yuito and Hanabi nodded, ready to go.

Sakura nodded, still solemn after what Peach said. She adjusted her fighting gloves, and tightened her headband.