DracoLunaris

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 781 (+2)
Amaterasu: level 8 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (9/80)
Location: Dead Zone Hinterlands

It had not, perhaps, been in a goddess’s infinite wisdom to use up her last inkwell on that little hat trick, given that her assumption, that when the zombies where done the fight would also be done, had been very wrong. Fighting was noisy, and noisiness attracted attention, in this case that of a horrible multi-armed affront to nature.

It wasn’t it that she turned to face however, having to hope that Not Kim would be up to the task, but instead the source of the rumbling approaching from behind that her keen senses picked up before any of the humans. She hopped round, stance low, ears alert, fangs bared, a growl on her lips but she was not ready for the machine that came rolling through the gate.

She’d seen the wrecks of the mortal’s motor vehicles in the deadzone, but never in this life had Amaterasu set eyes on one in motion, let alone something that looked quite like this. She was briefly caught like a deer in headlights, before crouching and preparing to lunge and grab Icebreaker to haul him to safety when it started charging some sort of power. Fortuitously, the resulting blast of power took out the horrid creature instead of striking towards Not Kim, and then it slowed down to a standstill and a hatch popped open on its side.

As it turned out, this machine belonged to someone the big man knew, namely another big man who was apparently called Stein. The following conversation between the two large lads promptly filled her in on what they all were even doing here, namely looking for lost kids. It turned out putting her trust in fate had indeed paid off, as she was now exactly where she was needed to be.

She wasn’t the only one who was getting filled in on what fate had brought to this place for, as the knight had also walked that same path of destiny and stumbled right into a worthy quest indeed. Kit was his name, and that he immediately offered to help certainly got her divine seal of approval, which she communicated mainly via briefly meeting his eyes briefly before turning to go, rather than just ignoring him entirely as she would have otherwise had he not been worth her time.

Before she entered the building, however, she took a moment to feel smug about her plan of getting the hat working out as Icebreaker retrieved and stored it for her. Fate really was smiling on her, given that little mistake hadn’t had any consequences, and that her little stunt would surely have no future karmic consequences when the hat dried out.

None at all

Fully secure in her certainty, and blind to her hubris, the divinely wise wolf padded into the hole blown by Stein’s big machine, only to glance over at Icebreaker, or, rather, Harry, in a moment of surprise as she suddenly learned his actual name as he made a rather professional callout to the home at large to try and get the attention of one Mr. Heismay.

That latter certainly sounded like the name of a living person, and Harry treated him as such… Well, given the nature of the man, it didn’t exactly confirm that suspicion but it was certainly a weight of the scales in its favor. Which raised the question of why he was here, and why he was suspected of kidnapping children to this place of all places.

She very much did not like the implications of those bits of information, that was for certain. Some man stealing away kids and bringing them to a place probably crawling with the undeath? The mere thought of what reasoning he might have for doing so made her fur stand on end for a moment, before she steeled herself and set her mind to the task at hand with more seriousness than she had had when it had just been wandering alongside the stinky man and his metallic companion and seeing what might come of it.

With that in mind, while the humans called out to or scanned the halls, the wolf stalked to the side and to the door they hadn’t used to get in. There she put her nose to the floor in-order to begin sniffing for signs of the scent of the living that might have come in through the proper entrance to this place, rather than the hole they’d just blown, while her ears stayed perked up and alert for the sound of whatever trouble their announcing of their presence would bring.

If she found a trail, she’d follow it, and just assume the humans would follow after her.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Chaos Aligned

Juri and Edward
Words: 4508 (+5)

Edward surveyed the Locusts as they closed in on the massive six wheeled vehicle with only mild concern. He’d known they were there, and also that they were none too friendly thanks to them shooting the pair of scouts (that he’d sent their way to work out their intentions) on sight.

Thanks to his portal power, he could have simply bypassed them, but marauders, as he thought of them, were also, again in his opinion, free game. To an extent, his empires had run on the salvage of slain enemies, and so while some might have seen simply an obstacle to be removed, the dreadnaught, leader of a culture of reavers, saw here resources to be claimed.

Not that he intended to put himself on the line for them, his towering form was, he well knew, something of an easy target, but then that was what disposable assets were for.

One such asset had spotted the erupting battle and slowed her motorcycle to a halt, presumably considering whether to get involved or not. All she needed was a little push, one he was more than willing to provide.

Juri came out here looking for a fight, but not some crazy desert battle on an unarmed motorcycle. Especially since there was no obvious reward for diving into the fray, but if she lost her bike she could kiss her chances of finding any loot goodbye. She set a hand on her hip and stood up on her back as the fight moved away from her.

As a few of his scout drones closed in, their master opened a portal and stepped through, exiting a respectable distance for Jur. The now three people tall, hunched-backed, finger-covered winged Edward removed his helmet to reveal his mostly unchanged face as he exited, and then greeted her with a cordial ”Good afternoon Juri”

”Ewww!” Juri yelled in response. ”What the hell happened to you?! Did you fuse with the mold under the fridge?”
”A powerful demoness actually, one that gives me the ability to offer what you desire” he replied, before waving a hand and opening a portal. On the other end, they briefly caught sight of a confused locust as it drove past the hole in reality, before the beastial humanoid andit’s machine exited stage left, revealing the rest of the battle beyond. Before any stay or intentional shots could come their way however, the Dreadnought closed the portal, and concluded his offered devil’s bargain: ”Plunder acquired through violence”

Juri narrowed her eyes under her helmet at the new magical ability. That would make things a lot easier. She wouldn’t have to risk her bike, and wouldn’t have to worry about getting trapped on a vehicle. ”Humph.” She crossed her arms. ”Might be a good time. If you want a share of the loot, better make sure me or my bike don’t go splat.” She said.

”Can you keep up?” She asked.

Edward simply flicked a hand, a flurry of portals opening and closing, to demonstrate that he could indeed keep up. He then offered ”I can even send that back to the armory, to be retrieved once you need it again” because he’d rather not keep guarding it, and then asking as an afterthought ”Or would you like to ride it into battle?” because to him fistycuffs did not exactly seem like a fighting style suited to be used from (mechanical) horseback.

”Hell no, you had it right the first time. Drop me right onto that big sucker! If those guys are chasing it, it might have good loot onboard. I could nab it first.” Juri said, rubbing her hands together. She took off her helmet and rolled her neck, then sent her helmet on her bike for safe keeping. She rubbed her hands together.

”Ready when you are, Fingers.”

The man might have objected before, but he had come here for loot had he not? So instead he simply replied ”As you wish” before snapping his fingers for dramatic effect, and opening a portal directly under the streetfighter. The other end of it opened directly above the giant cannon the six wheeled base on wheels sported, very literally dropping her onto it.

”Kyaha-!” Her shrill laugh was interrupted as the noise was taken by the wind above the vehicle she was dropped onto.

Then with her on her way, the man turned a brief moment of focus to the bike she’d left behind, taking a few moments to initiate the armory recall sequence. As he did this, a squad of his scout drones zoomed closer to the battle, skimming around the periphery and doing their best to kite any attention they got so that Edward could keep track of what Juri was doing.

As both marauding seekers now saw, the owners of the vehicle turned out to be armored human soldiers called Gears, armed with bayoneted lancer rifles, Gnasher Shotguns and snub pistols. Not that either of them would care to find out any of these names.

A dozen of these Gears were in the midst of attempting to repel boarders, namely the flying Reaver squid monsters and their pairs of locust riders, several of whom leaped off the back of the beasts to engage their foes on foot. Armed with hammerbursters, or combat knives boltok pistols, these locusts where exchanging fire with or coming to blows with the Gears who had been firing from the banisters of their vehicle.

Things seemed to be going rather poorly for the Gears, one of whom went down right as Juri arrived as a bullet struck his chest. He did not turn to ash however, as his durable armor took most of the blow and gave a medic among the Gears enough time to toss a stim gas grenade to revive him.

By contrast the locust’s armor was far less advanced, one of them being turned to dust by a near identical bullet to the chest that had failed to take down the Gear, but they were big and tough, and glancing hits were not taking them down. And that was before the fling cannon mounted warbeasts got involved.

It was, all in all, an absolute mess of a situation, and Edward had put her right in the middle of it.

Juri landed and pounced up to the wall, clambering up it to get the top of the vehicle. Her eyes flitted about as she surveyed the situation, and concluded these Gears were losing up here. If she wanted the most amount of time to herself, she would nudge the battle so that neither side got the advantage too quickly. If there was any loot, it was going to be in some kind of cargo area inside, she guessed.

Juri sprinted along the top of the massive vehicle, leaping up to promptly snatch a passing Reaver pilot and kick it right in the face, sending the vehicle off course and over the side. ”Haha!” She cackled. Pissed off, the Reaver turned around to take another pass at her. Juri shifted from side to side, avoiding the bullets coming her way before sprinting to catch it, leaping up with a spinning cleave of her Ghoulsaw. A huge chunk taken out of it, both locusts moved to abandon ship before it crashed and burned, but they would find Juri waiting for her, and with a swipe and two kicks both locusts turned to ash. Juri snatched up one of their handguns and holstered her Ghoulsaw, moving along the top again. A green streak dragged behind her as she got to the other end with a burst of speed, sliding and dropping cleanly. The speed made it difficult for any participants in the pitched battle to lock their attention on her.

She parkoured over the side and went a layer down to where the doors led into the control room. The locked doors weren’t electronic, but that was no concern to Juri. She hefted her Ghoulsaw and brought it down hard on the handle with a spray of sparks, but it didn’t take long for the nasty weapon to start rending metal and digging into the locking mechanism. ”Open Sesame!” She cried out gleefully. This loud entrance wouldn’t go unnoticed by the Gear squad inside the control room, or the circling aerial Locusts. A streak of bullets came in towards Juri, who raised her arm and her shoulder as a bullet glanced off her body. A Reaver was coming in hot, but this one wasn’t going to get too close, and while she was on this balcony-like outcropping of the Mammoth she didn’t have much maneuverability to reach it.
Juri side-stepped the next few shots and then crouched behind cover as the bullets came raining in, the Reaver flying alongside the Mammoth from a safe distance. This was hardly Juri’s specialty, but her extreme hand-eye coordination went a long way in making it possible. She peaked over the edge and returned fire. ”How’s this?” She shouted, her boltok pistol firing off heavy rounds that stuck into the Reavers thick skin or sailed past the Locust riders. Still, they drew back and away as they returned suppressing fire, not wanting to let Juri get a bead on them. They stayed there long enough for another Reaver to show up. The squid beast itself and its two riders descended to meet Juri, apparently having figured out she was going to bust her way in, or maybe just going after a lone target.

”Oh, I’ve got time for all’a you handsome baldies.” Juri said, dropping her pistol and letting her Ghoulsaw hang at her side as she beckoned with her free hand.

As she was saying that, however, a portal opened above the reaver, and a massive armored fist smashed out of it and into the side of the Reaver, sending it careening to one side. As its pilot tried to stabilize it, he flew right into the grasp of another hand that reached out of a portal, grabbed the pilot, and then pulled it back through the portal, leaving the other locust one scrambling to grab the controls of the panicking warbeast.

It did not get the time, as the missing pilot then reappeared, coming hurtling at high speed straight into him, sending both locusts crashing down to the dust below.

”Haha!” Juri laughed.

Deprived of its intelligent riders, the Reaver lashed out wildly at the air with its tendrils, but by then the presence that had taken them had moved on to to other prey, as down below a string of hands reached down trying to grab a locust off of a chopper, before then opening and letting the riderless vehicle roll through once they succeeded.

Juri glanced at a nearby scout drone that flew in, knowing it belonged to Edward. ”C’mon! Need your portals to get outta there with the loot. ” Juri said. She turned away from the chaos and hacked into the door with her Ghoulsaw. As she split the door open, she was met with a shotgun blast to the chest that knocked her far back and clear over the railing. ”Oogh! She vanished from sight.

The Gear inside pumped his shotgun and stayed behind cover, but was surprised when Juri came in through the top of the doorframe like some kind of horrible spider and leapt clean over his shot and kicked him in the chest. A few more kicks lifted him off the ground and launched him clear across the room. He landed with a heavy thud, winded but not out. There were some shouts of alarm. ”Hello boys and girls!” Juri said, looking for an exit deeper into the Mammoth. She spotted a couple different doors, and fortunately the inside of this place was big enough to need to be labelled. Juri could see the driver and the rest of the squad responsible for protecting the interior and manning the turrets.

The driver had to stay concentrated, trusting her team to keep her safe while she kept them all from crashing. Two more Gears opened up, but Juri wasn’t interested in fighting. She dashed to the side, staying ahead of the bullets, and hacked open an electronic door. She waited for the scout drone to follow her and slammed the door shut behind her, locking it.

”You can open a portal inside here, right?” Juri asked the drone. And by extension Sandalphon who could also relay the message, but that would take a bit longer than the drone just ‘nodding’.

Unfortunately for her, the remaining drone (one had been destroyed by stray fire) looked her right in the eye and then glanced left and right several times in quick succession. The specific explanation that he had to see where he was opening portals would come later, but for now the message was clear enough. She’d need to get out herself.

”Good for nothin’ scrap heap.” Juri frowned.

As to where she’d found herself, it looked to be the bay that the little wheel tanks had deployed out of. Now sealed shut to prevent boarding through it, it was now mostly empty, and entirely uncrewed, except for a half dozen crates with the Ficsit logos on them. Four were fairly normal looking cargo crates, but two were a distinctive red hued design and sealed with a hefty padlock. Not the sort of thing you’d store common commercial goods, that was for sure.

Just as she was taking it in, a message relayed via Sandalphon arrived, one that had been sent to her when she’d first mentioned using Edward’s portals to evacuate the loot. It informed her that Edward would like to remind her that he's demonstrated how to send and receive things to and from the ship's armory, and offered to remind her how to make use of said ability to requisition the crates if needed.

Juri was rubbing her hands together, looking at the good stuff. ”Haaah? What the hell is he talking about?” Juri picked up one of the Ficsit crates and shook it around. She knew this was the area with the vehicles in it.

”I’m gonna hack open the bay doors. Could you portal all the loot out then? I can’t carry all these crates outta here. I’d have to stick around and clear the entire damn vehicle if we wanted all of ‘em.” Juri surmised.

The drone, which had just finished rolling its eye 360 degrees in response to the comment she’d made to its controller’s relayed message (which Sandalphon had taken all of the snippyness out of), paused for a moment, and then nodded twice.

Juri targeted the bay door control panel with her hacking ability and disabled the ‘close’ function, causing the bay doors to slowly begin to shift downwards. Immediately she was greeted with the sound of gunfire from the frantic battle outside. Not just that, but another door into the bay opened, four Gears coming to stop her from making off with the loot and opening up the bay door. If they were trying to maintain a defensive position, they stopped when they realized the bay door was opening. ”Finally got some nerve?” Juri taunted.

Three came in with shotguns, while one, a medic, stayed in the door frame to shoot his assault rifle. They spread out and began firing at Juri from three different angles. For the first three shots, she used Drive Parry to swat all three blasts aside with her leading foot, and then dashed to the side. She cracked into one Gears knee to send him toppling to the floor, and then jumped over another blast to bring her heel down on the next Gears head, before grabbing her to throw her to the side and to the far door where the medic was. The third Gear rushed Juri, and smacked the butt of his gun against her face, interrupting her grinning attempt to keep up her own offense. He kicked her to the ground, where the medic blasted her with a spray of bullets. Juri hissed as she took a few painful shots before she rolled out of the way.

By this point both tossed Gears had stood backup, but Juri pounced upon the nearest one and disarmed him with a furious few kicks followed by a chop towards his gun. Wrenching his arm out of his socket she turned him to face the others and used him as a human shield, two bullets smacking into his chest piece before the medic raised his gun with a swear. Juri launched this Gear towards the other one, downing him for the count and knocking the one that hit her earlier over.

The female gear and the medic opened fire, but Drive Parry made Juri prove impossible to hit, though it did lock her in place on the defensive. ”This is actually pretty fun!” Juri crowed.

By this point the bay doors had opened. Juri could see Zenkichi doing battle against the Locust bandits. The medic tossed a stim grenade to the two downed troops, and the standing Gear made a dash to the bay doors control panel. Juri interrupted her run with a slashing projectile that the Gear jumped over, but before she could find her footing Juri slammed into her with a running spin kick. Juri once again used her has a human projectile, wrapping her foot around her head, dragging her around, and launching her at the others with a kick. This time they managed to dodge, but the medic’s magazine had ran dry so he couldn’t return fire, instead dropping his spent mag to the floor and reaching for a fresh one.

The marauders outside had noticed the opened bay doors and were now trying to force their way past the battling LAVs to get inside. Juri glanced over her shoulder at the loot, expecting to see an escape portal or something better.

What she found was a portal opening underneath the loot, and for it to all tumble down into it. They had already crashed out of the sky after all, anything fragile was already done for. Then another opened, human height and ready for her to escape through and onto the patch of land beyond. Unfortunately, while the portal was static, the vehicle she was on was not, given its attempt to escape its attackers, and so from her perspective the portal began to run away from her and towards the incoming foes.

It also moved towards their fire, a bolt of which smashed into and annihilated the remaining scout drone, while the Gears behind her all scrambled to take cover from it.

”Better hurry” Edward casually called from the other side.

And hurry she did. Juri Drive Rushed forward, headlong sprinting into the trailing portal. ”See ya chumps!” She cried out before vanishing into it, reappearing with Edward. She dove through and landed on her back.

Juri clutched her stomach and guffawed, kicking her legs with impish delight. ”Ahahahahaha!” She laughed. ”Not bad, not bad!” She rose to her feet belly first, her head and arms dragging behind her as she settled bizarrely into a standing position.

”You’re not such a stiff after all, Edward!” She said. ”I like you better like this! With those portals and my skills there’s nothin’ we can’t steal.”

Juri excitedly made her way over to the boxes. ”We can keep the Ficsit boxes closed if we want for the reward, but I’m popping these two bad boys open for sure.” Juri pointed at the red crates. ”There’s one for each of us.”

”In just a few moments. I can only open portals where I can see with my own eyes, you see, and well…” the sound of approaching engines made it clear why that was an issue.

”So if you will follow me” he then added, and property solved the problem by opening a portal and stepping through, while the loot crates were simply dropped again. A few steps and a bit of weaving put them past the battlefield entirely, and in a nice secluded spot where they could inspect their spoils without fear of interruption.

”If you're amenable to a continued 50/50 split, then I can certainly see this being a fruitful partnership as well” He agreed as they walked, while being privately amused about the additional spoils of a handful of locusts spirits, a reaver spirit, and an undamage chopper that where currently sitting on his side of the scales, which he’d acquired and sent to the armory while she’d been busy doing the majority of this smash and grab.

A moment later, they were home free, Edward putting terrain in between them and any pursuers, and putting them closer to the high tower to boot, the scouts drones that had not run into the battle having already looped round and mapped out the terrain on the other side of it.

”Now then, let's see what spoils we have reaved, shall we?” the man who had already been no stranger to the idea of looting and pillaging for a higher cause before the demon’s curse said, gesturing to the two red weapon crates.

”More like 60/40. It was my ass on the line, after all. ”Juri said. ”But we can split the red ones.

”And what the hell were you talkin’ about back there? The armory?” She asked.

”I’d note that you’d have been unable to get away with the prizes without me, and would be stuck physically dragging through this wasteland. You performed your end perfectly, but this operation would have never been without my new power” Edward replied smoothly, before opening a portal and putting a hand through it, causing it to repeat on the other side of him, and then joking ”besides, I did risk life and limb, did I not?”

To actually strengthen his case, he then deigned to answered her question:

”With just a simple combination of gesture and will, you can do this” Edward explained as he flicking a hand and summoning a hovering menu suspended within a magic circle that listed the content’s of the ships armory, which he then showed her ”and retrieve objects from both the armory and the vehicle bay of the avenger”

He then stepped over to the other crates, and made a slightly more complex gesture, forming another hovering circle, explaining ”you can also do this, to send things back” before he then drew a line around the 4 regular cargo crates till it formed a ring. This ring flashed, and then formed a magic circle on the ground beneath the crates, a circle around which another ring started to form, which turned out to functionally be a loading bar, as once the ring was complete, there was a pulse of magic and the crates were gone. Or rather, as he showed her on the armory screen, now within the armory.

”It’s how I stored your bike” he then added, flicking the screen to scroll it to where her personal transport was listed, alongside one of the choppers sat next to it.

”Huh.” Juri mimicked the gestures to confirm they worked. To test, she picked her bike out from either.

”Not bad. I like that a lot. Make sure not to croak like that Princess did.” She said, impressed.

Then, flatly: ”60/40. Let’s just say I get one more crate than you. I couldn’t have done it without you, you couldn’t have done it with me. Difference being if something goes wrong, I’m the one who’s in danger while you’re safe on the backline running support. It’s hazard pay. If you wanna run any more ops like this with me, or anyone like me, I’d recommend getting used to that concept. Fixers and operators.” Juri said. Maybe it was the Sombra in her finally coming to surface, but she sounded reasonable and emotionally unaffected. ”Think about it. You know it makes sense. You can run a ton of heists like this without breaking a sweat. Meanwhile, I’ve still got some yummy little aches from where those goons blasted me around.” She set a hand on her hip.

”Either way, I saw that Chopper. That counts.” Juri said with a nod. ”We can do 50/50 this time if you insist, but don’t expect me to put my ass on the line for you again. It’ll be a one and done arrangement. But give me that extra 10 percent and I’ll accept the greater risk for greater reward.” Juri said.

”Then we’d best aim even higher next time. Here” Edward said as he summoned his feather staff striker and had it heal her of her ”We can hardly have you anything less than 100% for your next mission” implicitly agreeing to the deal, before saying ”Now how about we find out what we’ve acquired” and turning their attention back to the still unopened red chests.

Juri grinned, happy she and Edward could come to an agreement. ”Hell yeah.”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 1,512 (+3)
Amaterasu: level 8 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (7/80)
Location: Dead Zone Hinterlands

Everything was going just fine till the hat ended up on her head. She could handle the silly name (she’d had to put up with people giving her silly names before, it wasn’t like she could tell these people hers after all) and the offer to sniff him that she did not take because she could smell his badly washed stink just fine thanks, but the hat! The stinky trashy hat! That was just a new low.

And yet.

And yet.

Technically, arguably, it was an offering. Certainly she could feel the strings of praise that were now bound to it, ready to be strung together with others to empower her such that she could do more good in the world. It also gave her an impression of how upset he’d be should she refuse the hat or ‘accidentally’ destroy or lose it.

So this was it, this was the lot of the great Amatarasu. This was how low she had fallen.

Or rather, this was the lot of ‘Dog Mullens’ trusty detective dog.

Oh the indignity of it all.

Still. It had worked, she was in, and so it was off to wherever it was these two were heading she now went alongside them.

As it turned out they weren't going far, and soon enough ended up at the mansion she’d seen in the distance while traveling around the village, but never thought to instigate before. Whoever owned such a grand and defensible place was likely doing just fine, and so it had been low on her priority list.

This assessment had, however, been wrong, as when Not Kim found and ‘opened’ the entrance it turned out that the locals were in dire straits.

Namely they were dead. Yet even more dire, they were still walking.

This did not particularly take Amaterasu back, she was mainly just upset that even the death of the death zone had not put to bed the undead scourge in the area. What partially took her back was how previously huffing and puffing Not Kim had first revealed himself to have the power to smash down gates like that, and then also the ability to go to absolute town on the zombies with musical gusto.

What really took her back was Icebreaker following the big man up with an unexpected flurry of martial prowess of his own, one that left her jaw hanging open in shock.

She was so shocked that she barely registered the knight approaching from behind, though fortunately he seemed to be of no threat, stepping past them to engage the zombies. He seemed competent enough, and so what little of Amatzur was paying attention put him squarely into the future problems/considerations department, and kept focusing on the nonsense occurring before her.

Unfortunately she also didn’t take in the zombie shambling towards her until Icebreaker turned and asked if she was ok, and in so doing would have spotted the closing in undead, his eyes going to it drawing her attention to it.

This wasn’t enough to actually get her to move, but it was enough to handle said very minor problem.

From the perspective of Harry, the zombie took another step towards Dog Mullens, only for its ankle to disintegrate as its foot came down. This caused it to trip, falling face first into the floor next to Dog Mullens, and at which point its head popped off, killing it before it could lay a claw on the dog detective.

Having paused the world in-order to draw the slices through the zombie’s body that had manifested in ways that looked a bit like it had just come apart from its own decrepit nature, the stunned divine recovered enough to recall she could do that, and promptly did so a third time.

Rather than start drawing however, she left the world trapped as a canvas, and instead took the time to think, process, and actually come to terms with her misjudgment of Icebreaker. Or, rather, to adjust the mental box she’d put him in.

The man clearly lacked much in the way of self restraint, and was quite possibly full of foolishness, but then, were mortal heroes not all fools full of self confidence in some sense? Throwing themselves at things far greater than themselves, and coming out on top through sheer force of will? A regular human could probably do what the Icebreaker was doing, if they had zero common sense, self preservation, or self control, and threw everything into what they were doing in a way humans rarely did so as to not hurt themselves in the process.

He was, she thought, like a man she had known called Susano in a way. He was a drunk and egotistical man claiming to be the ancestor of a great hero, who despite his flaws had begun to live up to the legacy he had claimed. Tragically however, the man had been annihilated in the destruction of the dead zone before he could truly come into his own.

It was enough of a sobering thought to fully bring Amatarasu to her senses, a task that had taken an eternity and yet, at the same time, not even a heartbeat had passed since she had begun to behold the papered world.

Fully back in the moment, she allowed said moment to continue, and put down her brush. Time resumed, and she gave a bark to confirm she was indeed ok, and took an aggressive pose, preparing to do battle alongside this unlikely hero who now had a lot to live up to in her new estimations of him.

Icebreaker then immediately let her down by ripping his pants as part of a failed nut punch.

She mentally sighed, paused time again, and drew over the rip in his clothing to stitch it back up again. Only then did she get stuck in, dashing forwards into the fray. Unfortunately, she’d used up all three of her inkwells on the 2 slices and 1 pants repair, and so had no access to her divine instrument as she took on some of the rapidly dwindling horde of zombies.

She kept it simple, leaping up unnaturally high as pouncing towards and delivering a double kick to its chest with her two front paws to knock a zombie to the ground. She landed with her back to another zombie, which she delivered another kick to with her hind paws, almost like a horse bucking, sending it crashing to the ground.

It wasn’t exactly how a wolf fought, but the goddess was well aware that slashing to inflict bleeding wounds or biting out throats wasn’t exactly going to help here. Also she really didn’t want to get any of these thing’s meat in her mouth, a fact she had learned the hard way back in the Dead Zone.

So instead of going to savage the dropped zombies like wolf might, she pounced up like an arctic fox intending to dive into the snow, and then her fore paws, one set atop the other, came slamming down onto the skull of the second zombie with all her weight behind it crushing the skull into the mosaic plaza.

It cracked, but did not quite break, prompting her to leap up out of its attempts to claw at her, before slamming down again, shattering the skull she’d already been cracking with her second attempt.

At this point, the first zombie had gotten to its feet, and came shambling at her, but also by this point, nine seconds had passed since she sliced up the other zombie. Her divine instruments returned as an inkpot refilled, just in time for her to throw her reflector in the way of its attempts to swipe at her, blocking the blow with the divine disk, something that looked mostly like it fumbled the attack to the mundane observer.

The follow up was a bit harder to dismiss as something mundane however, as the zombie was launched skywards alongside a leaping Amaterasu, who then proceeded to snag it with her claw and then Fox spirit slam it back down into the ground in a spiraling piledriver which smashed the zombie into smithereens.

This left her covered in rather a lot of gore, which she proceeded to shake off of her like a wet dog, an act that worked far better than it had any right too, and left her white coat spotless once more.

Unsurprisingly, the hat made for a human head had not stayed on during this sudden burst of violence, and now lay fallen on the floor, splattered with blood and gore. In a moment of self indulgence, the goddess paused time once more, and drew a looping line towards the fountain, causing the hat to be swept up in a gust of wind and promptly dunked into the water.

She could hardly wear it now that it was drenched.

What a shame.

Icebreaker would just have to keep a hold of her gift for now till he could at the very least have it properly washed.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 2697 (+3 exp/+1 rapport)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(278/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(194/100)
Lvl 14 Geralt (111/140) -> (114/140)
Lvl 10 Roxas (4/100) -> (7/100)

As the ramp to the avenger lowered, the first thing to exit it was Junior’s once again repaired clown car. The machine had had a bit of a retooling as well. Its insides were now distinctly more random weapon free, the assortment of extra gear having been trimmed down to just the balloon launcher, the sentient meat hook, and Padwah's Wheel. As two out of three of these replaced existing components, the device was more or less back to its original weapon load, which when added to the size increase the incorporation of the egg mobile had resulted, had left plenty of space for armor.

Inside coppra and galvanised steel had been used to harden the internals, but it was the outside where the real added durability was found. Despite Tora’s derrision of Jr’s magically produced iron, as it turned out, when you had an unlimited supply of it, it had its uses. In this case this involved adding it as ablative armor to the outsides that acted as a buffer for the real armor below, a buffer could be ever so easily replaced by the prince. It didn’t even sacrifice the aesthetics, because thanks to his magic paint brush, redecorating the replacement panels was a snitch.

Despite Junior’s pride at his ingenuity (which had involved taking a leaf out of Tora’s book using the internet to look up how to make good armor designs) he was, surprisingly, not at the wheel.

Instead he was whooping encouragement while clinging on for dear life as his sister took a turn at the wheel in this low stakes situation. Putting the limited driving education she’d gotten from Kamek during their taxi driving minigame to work, she barreled off the bottom of the ramp and into the scrubland beyond, without even a hint of slowing down.

At the sight of the fleeing Ceratonoths, she turned towards them, a little predatory spark in her pile of fusions giving her the idea to chase after them just for something to do. They did have time after all, it was going to take a while for all the slowpokes back on the ship to file out and get in order, but to anyone watching it certainly looked like they were driving off in the entirely wrong direction, and at great speed too, gradually climbing a slope up towards a ridge, therenting to disappear over it.

For Roxas’ part, he couldn’t say he was particularly surprised that Junior and Rika took off somewhere on their own. They did have a tendency to do that. Still, he didn’t want them to get lost on their own, did he? ”Uh, hey! Wait for me!” Roxas called as he tried rather futilely to run after the clown car. Naturally it was, of course, faster than him. Eventually he ran out of breath and slowed to a standstill. ”Sheesh… those two…”

Watching Junior and Rika, with Roxas following shortly after, barrel out of the Avenger, Geralt merely sighed as he watched them run ahead. Shaking his head and sighing as he descended the ramp, he lazily leaned his head over his shoulder, halfways looking back to the other Seekers. “I'll look after them.” He announced wearily, before turning ahead and taking a deep breath. With little preamble, he burst forth in an inhuman display of speed, gaining on Roxas incredibly quickly.

The kids would have claimed to need no such thing, despite instantly demonstrating why they needed it as the clown car went careening off the top of the ridge and soaring up and over the surprisingly steep drop on the other side.

As they vanished out of sight Jr’s whoop turned into a panicked cry as he lunged for the controls and, moments before they hit the ground below, activated the flight mode to slow their descent.

”phew, close one” the prince sighed, while his sister gave a semi-apologetic ”oops?” before adding ”I mean the dinos got down just fine so I thought…” as they climbed back up the steep but not anywhere close to vertical cliff she’d ramped off of in her race to overtake the stampeding Ceratonoth.

They appeared back up above the ridge line a few moments later, having shuffled around so that Jr was actually in the driving seat as he flew them down for a landing. As a result, Rika had a chance to look back at the valley she’d almost crashed into, and true to Nadia’s later reading about it, it sure was strange.

Plants like seedless avocados slices covered in scales instead of skin floated above a desert landscape hosting scattered metal orbs and large round plants with chimney-like growths. In the distance, a rectangular tower could be seen, a red glow atop its peak.

This wasn’t the only thing that towered over the land however, as, twice as tall as the trees, were creatures that initially looked like three legged giraffes until the front of their ‘neck’ peeled back and revealed itself to actually be a massive maw.

As the ship girl watched, the Great Gaaahr inhaled through this mouth, creating a miniature sandstorm as it sucked up something or other into the floating orb of gas that hung above it, one which was presumably letting the absurdly large creature not be crushed under its own weight

Another visible creature floated above the ground, though it seemed to have no gas sacks, and instead was held aloft by a red beam shooting down from the central hole of its body. This beam also seemed to be its preferred method of hunting, as the ship girl just barely spotted a small hapless creature being sucked up it and into the central hole, where the massive tongue-like tail lapped it up and deposited it into the square toothed maw up front.

What else was down there was hard to tell from on high, other than the Ceratonoth that had just fled there, naturally, but from the two megafauna alone it promised to be a land of the strange and bizarre,

Rika, in all her eloquence, thought it was ”Neat”

They touched down a moment later atop the ridge line, just in time for their pursuers to catch up, who Rika greeted with a cheerful ”Hi” as if everything that had occurred was not her fault.

Roxas had been about to say something to Junior and Rika when he finally caught up. Instead he caught sight of the Great Gaaahr and just stared at the creature blankly. ”That thing looks… weird.” Was all he could really say. After another moment he remembered something he’d wanted to ask of Junior. ”Are you out of Poke Balls, too?” Roxas asked as he patted the ball pocket of his trainer. ”’Cause I am. Well, almost. I think I have two left. I was wondering if you wanted to look for materials so Dr. Yu can make more for us.”

Now that he thought about it, he decided to let Scamp out of his Poke Ball. After emerging, the Yamper gave his trademark bow-wark and immediately set out sniffing around in his new surroundings.

”Eh, I’ve got some” Jr replied, but it wasn’t that many, and, given what he’d read about them, it might not be enough if he wanted to catch anything on par with the rest of his team, and so he said ”But if she can make some of the better balls that’d be good”

”More money would be neat, seeing as we’ve got none left after giving it to Tora for that cleaning bot. Oh and more, tapes so we can do more experimenting with em” Rika suggested as she sat herself on the rom of the clown car with her feet dangling out of it, before pointing at one of the tower block sized beasts and saying ”I mean imagine if we could turn into one of those! We could just step on a Consul!”

“Be a sight to see.” Geralt added, looking out over the plains with them “Got a few of those things, myself. Wouldn't mind lending you one or two, Roxas.” He continued, pulling out the great balls he'd snatched from the shop in Gutsford.

”Oh, I didn’t know you had any Poke Balls, Geralt.” Roxas said as he looked at the great balls, ”These ones are blue. I wonder what that means?” Unfortunately, Roxas hadn’t yet learned the difference between Poke Balls, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls yet.

”You not used em?” Jr asked, as he pulled a pokeball off his bandolier, tossing it straight up and then headbutting it like a passed football to release the mon inside into his clown car. Dazzle poked his head up over the side of the vehicle a moment later, flippers pulling him around so he could take in the dry surroundings, before giving Jr a questioning look.

”You can use them to catch a Pokemon like Dazzle or Scamp.” Roxas explained. ”And Dr. Yu said she can make more Balls for us if we bring her the materials. What were they, again?” He scrolled around on his Rotom Phone, relatively sure it could tell him what he needed to know. ”Here we go! We need Apricorns and Tumblestone ore.” He turned his Rotom Phone around to let the others see what was showing on the screen. Apricorns growing on trees, and Tumblestone found in what looked like some kind of red-colored ore deposits. ”I wonder if we can find some around here?”

”Or something like em” Rika added, as she tossed a golden spinner (a device that acted very much like a pokeball) up in the air and then caught it again.

“Hm.” Geralt looked at the Rotom Phone, mentally cataloging the required ingredients. “I'll keep an eye out, then. But no, never got to use these things,” he added as he put the great balls away. “Between helping out with Sakura and Karin's new settlement with Yen and Ciri, and everything else, haven't had much of a chance to. If we see some of them out there, might try and hunt one down myself.”

”Then we’ll keep an eye out for Pokemon, too.” Roxas suggested, pocketing his Rotom Phone. ”If we find one you think you’ll like? We’ll show you how to capture it.”

”Yeah for sure!” Jr agreed

Rika meanwhile had hopped off of her brother’s clown car, and was peering down the cliff she'd driven them off of, eyes spying the Ceratonoths down below. She then took a few steps back from the edge, before saying ”See you down there” before sprinting forwards and leaping into the open air.

”Hey wait up!” Jr called as he moved to go after her, not seeming the least bit worried about this other than a concern that he might get left behind.

Rather than plummet, his sister used a double jump and then a tap of her feather fall rune to slow her descent, while using maneuvering thrusters and a vault breaker to gain distance from the base of the cliff. Just as she approached the ground, she then launched out her grappling hook, snagging the three prongs on the back of the largest Ceratonoth, reeling herself towards it.

The beast, naturally, freaked out about this surprise presence on its back, but the ship girl merely told it that she’d ”Caught you” in a cheerful tone, before jumping back off of it. She touched down lightly, and then waved up to the others to come join her.

“Well, alright then.” Geralt muttered, taking a few steps to the side before transforming into his Ardor Blossom identity, draconic wings unfurling from his enlarged form. He found a path that wasn't too steep and stepped down, beginning a slide down the ridgeline, wings opening wide to catch as much air as they could and slow his descent. As he slid down the dusty, rocky ridge, clouds of dust and dirt kicked up in his wake, but after a short while, he reached the bottom. Rolling his shoulders, Geralt transformed back into his normal identity, approaching Rika casually.

Roxas, meanwhile, had to recall Scamp back into his Poke Ball before he got moving. But once he did it was a simple matter of using Flow Motion to quite literally run straight down the cliff face until he reached the bottom where the others had gathered. ”Apricorn trees sound easy enough to find.” He said, ”But I’m not sure about the Tumblestone, though. Think we might have to find a cave or something for that?”

”Yeah, probably” Jr agreed, the prince having just flown down in his clown car the same way he’d flown up.

Once they where all down, Rika said ”Get ready to heal me, please?” to her brother.

”huh? Oh right, yeah” the prince replied, grabbed his bush, just in time for his sister to grunt in pain as she summoned a fresh whale using her life force, which her brother rapidly restored.

After sighing with relief as her wounds closed up, she declared ”Alright, let's ride” as she hopped up onto one of the turrets of the great sea creature, as it half sank into the ground, ready to swim through the sand like it was water.

Geralt had to take a moment to mentally remind himself that yes, Rika summoning a giant whale that could swim through the ground was normal. Once he did, he climbed aboard the cetacean with the others and readied himself for the ride. “I'll keep an eye out for any of those trees or a cave that looks promising.” He informed the others.

”Whoa!” Roxas exclaimed just before he, too, climbed aboard the whale. ”I didn’t know you could do that. Cool!”

”Yeah. Good thing too because they keep getting exploded” Rika replied cheerfully, before adding ”we’ll be good tho” as something of an afterthought. Jr gave a little nod of confirmation to this, but did not climb aboard, mainly because it would be somewhat redundant given that he had a ride of his own.

“Ready when you are.” Gerralt grunted simply. “Oh, right.” He added, lifting a hand to his ear and activating the glyph to contact Sandalphon. “Sandalphon, this is Geralt. Just wanted to let you know that I'm with Junior, Rika, and Roxas. We might be out here a while.”

”Oh oh, and I can get us over too hammerhead, if we still wanna go or its faster or whatever, with a portal” Jr piped up to add, before explaining this was ”coz I’ve been there”

”Sounds good to me.” Roxas agreed, ”The others know we’re heading out now and we’ve got a quick way back in case we get lost. I’d say we’re good.”

“Oh, right, you do portals too…” Geralt grumbled, sighing. “Alright, let's get going.”

”Neat” Rika replied simply to that info, before pointing a finger forwards and commanding her white whale to take them ”Onwards!” setting them sail upon the sandy sea.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 832 (+2)
Edward Portsmith: Level 5 (14 cells) (1 level up benefit stored) ////////////////////////////////////////// (8/50)
Location: The Dead Zone

Having left the source of his new power with instructions that he simply assumed would be carried out, Edward immediately began to make use of his no power and delighting in what he found. With simple will, he could flash open a portal to anywhere within hundreds of meters that he could see, and then step through and arrive there instantly. A quick second test had him summon a golem squad, and send them through instead, resulting in them arriving at their destination with no issue whatsoever.

”Remarkable” the man declared, before an annoyed look crossed his face as had the impulse to start writing notes, only to realize that with how large his hands were now, this might not be possible.

Rather than make a fool of himself trying to do so in front of others, he informed them that ”I will go on ahead” and then, upon also finding out where to head and what to look for while doing so, set off into the wilds on his own, a chain of portals taking him there one step at a time.

Once the motorized vehicles caught up, the man was only recognizable from his new distinctive shape, having acquired the Blacklight Armor from the armory, which made him appear even more monstrous than the twisted wings on his back had already done.

Given that the man already had human levels of movement speed, or at least human levels of movement speed for his size, he had found it entirely without downsides. Well, other than a diplomatic penalty due to its fearsome appearance. But in a way, he found himself thinking, was that not also a boon.

He’d also examined the zombie soldier's soul, and in the process absorbed it. While a rather limited ability in normal hands, when combined with a portal, the man could drop the grenades anywhere he pleased. The practice of using this, and also just regular attacking, that he had done just outside of hammerhead probably factored a bit into the intimidation, as the man launched punches, stomps, kicks through portals, and also grabbed things through them.

He was, notably, only using his body as part of this practice fighting, because said body was now far too large to use any conventional weapons. Even the deceased Goldlew’s coffin was a toy in his hands. The only exception was the enchanted buckler he had been wearing when using the spirit, due to it being functionally a piece of clothing.

He did not quite have time to get round to practicing with his golems as well, but was already envisioning the strategic positioning possibilities, not to mention the ability to launch attacks through portals, when the rest of the seekers rolled into town.

As such, he had all his mana fuel cells charged up and ready to use when he found out about the lost cargo, and the spoils that might be found scattered around this high tower.

”Our enemies are many. They hide their cities and lairs in deep dark places and they may strike from any angle, so they must be found. To the humble scout, this task did fall, and yet so often did they fall in that line of duty. No more. Let iron eyes take to the skies, let them soar across the land, deep into enemy realms and unexplored lands, and find fortune and opportunity for the people to claim!” Edward quoted from the now very small tome, before making an amused sound and amending the last part of that to: ”fortune and opportunity for me to claim”

This didn’t impact the spell however, as around him a dozen pairs of observer drones appeared, hovering in the air. The central eyes that made up the core of their body immediately began glancing around, taking in the surroundings, and feeding the information back to their creator.

Without a word, he sent them forth towards the high-tower in a wide spread, intending to have them fan out and scan the area further out from the crash site for any easy pickings. Fast, keen eyed, and able to traverse even the most difficult terrain with ease thanks to their hovering nature, they would be capable of finding anything that had been missed by those restricted to moving by foot or wheel.

The main spoils, however, surly lay around the tower itself, and so even should they fail to find scattered loot, they would at least provide him with ample scouting information of the area, and what threats might be found within.

The man himself took a short rest to recover from the exertion of his training/practice, before following after his minions at a casual stroll. Portals opening and closing as he followed the course of a route he’d plotted across the land using information his drones had collected on the land they had already scouted, each step taking him from optimum vantage point to optimum vantage point as he made his way to his destination.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 463 (+1)
Amaterasu: level 8 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (4/80)
Location: Dead Zone Hinterlands

Once she’d gotten over the bizarre look one of the newcomers was wearing, and despaired a bit at her life choices, Amaterasu was forced to commit to them, as the oddly clothed one and the metal melded on set off together with purpose, and specifically or the edge of town.

This was her chance to see if they had figured anything out about what was going on around town that had the locals so down. Assuming, of course, that they were even doing anything in that regard. Oh and also assuming that they had achieved anything of merit in that investigation, a prospect onto which the smaller of the two’s fashion sense was throwing a great deal of shade on.

It only got worse as she closed in, cutting through the woods at a far faster pace than either man could manage. One look at the finer details of the one called ‘Icebreaker’ almost had her turning around and spending the day reforesting the chopped down forest instead of throwing more effort into this endeavor.

But, ultimately, she had invested too much time in it to turn back now. And besides that, the roads were by no means safe, and so she worried that these two might not make it to wherever they were headed without escort. The one who was not Kim certainly looked sturdy, but his labored breath did not inspire confidence, and the less said about the mess of a man that was ‘Icebreaker’ the better.

She’d slowed her supernatural quick galop to a more natural trot as she got close to the two figures, which was how she’d picked up on the conversation about the miss-naming of the one who was not Kim and gotten names to refer to them as. She was, she was fairly sure, too far out for them to have seen or heard her in turn, and, in theory, she could have kept things that way, stalking the strangers as they went about their journey.

That would have gotten a fair bit harder once they reached the scrublands however, but ultimately that was irrelevant. She was a divine being of light, not a skulking demon of shadows, and as such creeping around like a snake in the grass was beneath her.

Thus, instead of doing the patient thing and playing things by ear, she instead excited the woods at a dignified trot, head held high, tail down at a casual low. The picture of a noble wolf at ease in its natural environment.

At this pace she simply strode straight towards the pair, intending to simply attach herself to their party by sheer force of will.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 2342 (+3 exp/rapport)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(275/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(191/100)

Rika boon

Spare drone parts: Rika gains access to Col. Droneman, a satellite shaped drone who boosts the capabilities of all of the ship girl’s mechanical minions (including himself) as long as he is in one piece. All of said minions gain 50% attack speed and cooldown reduction, as well as a bonus gimbal mounted automatic chain gun and mini missile launcher (both with infinite ammo). If it's both funny and practical, the mechanical minions may instead gain a robot arm holding a pistol instead of the chaingun (both have the same firepower, which is nine 10 mm rounds per second). If Col Droneman is destroyed, the boons are removed, but Rika’s gauntlets can rebuild the Col while she can get a good night’s rest.

Currently this improves her scout planes, red baron drones and Moby Dick.

Jr boon

Magma Rush: Jr can quickly ]dash in the direction he is moving, leaving a floating disk shaped magma mine in his wake. This mine lasts for 4 seconds, and can float towards foes at a slow pace, and will explode into a large burst of lava if it makes contact with one, damaging and igniting all foes in the radius. The mine has a 5.5 second cooldown, but the dash itself can still be used while it is on cooldown, it simply won’t spawn a mine.

crushing

Converted

Drzyr zombie spirits x8
Possessed Drzyr spirit
Crawler (deeprock galactic) spirits x 19
Skeleton Biker (Castlevania 64) spirit x 9
Skeletonised Grenadiers (march of war) x 11
Super Soldier (Return to Castle Wolfenstein) spirit x 7

Into

Energy Diverter: an amulet made from the pried out of the inner workings of a security drone. While worn, and a shield is active, the wearer gains 10% Critical Chance and 15% to all damage dealt.

Galvanized Iron x2: a sought-after material known for its flexibility and durability. Its value lies in its ability to withstand the harsh conditions of the ruined world and the relentless attacks from dangerous creatures.

Longun ammo magazine X2: a universal ammo for two handed firearms

Scrap metal X4: recycled metal, usable as a low quality crafting material or as a currency

Barrel of liquid morkite: a rather subpar fuel found in vast quantities on the planet Hoxxas IV

Lump of Croppa x8: a green-purple mineral useful for upgrading weapons

Company Scrip x6: tokens that can be redeemed with the deep rock galactic corporation (and nowhere else) for minerals and item cosmetics

Barley Bulb x4: an alien beer hops that can be used to brew a variety of buffing beverages

ww1 bike X1: a military motorcycle from the great war. Good for its time, pales in comparison to modern bikes

ww1 sidecar X1: can be attached to any motorbike to bring a passenger along for the ride

Spare tyre x2: spare wheels for motorcycles.

Red gem x5: mildly valuable gem

Diesel fuel canister x1: used to fuel diesel engines. Simple enough.

Brodie helmet x1: a simple metal helmet that protects the wearer against shrapnel, though not much else.

80 Euros

Zombie Soldier soul: if absorbed, allows the use of the granade spell, which has rather poor range, but is also rather cheap mana cost wise.

Small Health Pack x3: a satchel contains enough medical supplies to heal light wounds

Panzerfaust x2: a one shot disposable rocket launcher

Venom Gun Project Book: contains notes about the specs and design process of the Venom Gun, a handheld minigun.

Super soldier cyberleg X1: the skull emblem kneecapped legs of a supersoldier of the X-Creature program. Seems to be intended to fuse with a (horribly mutilated) human leg.

Rika removed the hat of avarice and beheld the pile of loot they’d generated. Which was perhaps the most polite way of describing the mess they’d just made, and given it contained a pair of spare wheels and a severed leg, a pile of junk might have been even more accurate.

Still, that was only at first glance. At second glance the pile contained all manner of baubles and trinkets, five of which the princess immediately made a grab for, namely the 5 red jewels glittering amid the metal. Jr meanwhile was pretty interested in all that metal as he needed to make repairs to his clown car.

Again.

The vehicle had survived a whole 3 encounters before Lilith had promptly, and repeatedly, exploded the thing into in-operability.

”Yup, that, and that, and maybe that I dunno” he said as he checked bits out, only for Rika to sniff out the real prize in the pile which was the ring with a tiny sun glowing in the middle of it. Upon picking it up, her shield rippled, and then it and the device linked, causing her weapons to glow ever so slightly with a light the same color as the one of the minute sun.

”neat”

After helping, or being made to help, tidy up everything else (with plans to then untidy it afterwards by bringing it down to engineering) the duo set off to get started on repairs. Or rather to go and badger someone else into doing them for them.

”Hey Tora, I need you to fix my car again!” Jr called as the two stepped into the Proving Grounds, while his sister gave a little (she had her gauntlets off) wave to both the mechanic and his mechanical companion Poppi.

Tora looked up from his welding a bit more sharply this time. He didn’t mind interruptions every now and then, but this Nopon was definitely the type to get into the zone, so focused on whatever happened to interest him that he could even forget to eat. At the moment, the frameworks he’d been attempting to couple together weren’t fully attached, which left Poppi straining to hold the pieces in place with her new body’s diminished strength. “Again? Meh-meh!” Her masterpon quickly grabbed one of his last scraps of spare metal in order to prop the frameworks up and relieve his assistant from her duties.

“Friend should seriously consider making clownmobile tougher. Or at least not overloading with so many features, meh. Tora still not get how it work.” The engineer waddled over with a resigned expression to see what he was working with. When he spotted all the junk that Junior and Rika arrived with, he gave an approving nod, which given his lack of neck was more like a full-body bounce. “Good thing that friend bring own materials. Tora running out of parts for own projects.” Of course, the sight of Bowser Jr’s clown car in a state that could only be called ‘advanced disrepair’ left him a lot less enthused.

”But more weapons makes it more fun!” Jr replied, exactly a child talking about toys, but Tora very much had a point. Less complicated components would leave more space for armor. Not that that would have helped against Lilith where she’d done enough damage to kill them several times over had they not had 2 healers on the field, but the principle remained.

”It’d have been fine if that Hat wearing Kid hadn’t run off with the fix everything hammer” he complained

”Or if healing magic worked on it” Rika added as she sat down on one of the work benches next to Poppi, her now satellite shaped drone landing in her lap.

”Yeah it, uh, definitely doesn’t” Jr replied, glazing at the wrecked car, and his paintbrush, and then casting ”Cure!” to no effect.

”See” he said, as if this outcome had been 100% guaranteed.

”Yup. It's lame. Or. Not as cool as it could be I guess” his sister replied, having corrected her statement because ”being alive is nice”

”Uh, yeah, anyway” Jr continued after that little segway, before asking Tora ”So why haven't you got any parts?”

Tora gestured at the corkboards full of tacked-on blueprints, various half-finished minor projects, and the big machine frame in his workshop’s center still in the early stages of assembly. “Because Tora use them all up! Half of time spent tinkering to figure out what even possible, which involve much pulling-apart, trial, and error. Power sources, wirings, servos, programs…technology from many worlds offer incredible potential, but very difficult to integrate in practice, meh. Half of time spent undoing what Tora just did! Already had three explosions this morning!”

“Four,” Poppi corrected him.

“Then there matter of Tora own inventions,” the Nopon continued, massaging his temples with both little hands. “Since there no such thing as ‘industry standard’ in World of Light, all machines need custom parts. Would be hard even with foundry, but without? Meh-meh! Tora wish we could collect entire junkyard near Bow-Bow’s castle. Really missing Vandelay workshops now.”

Poppi eyed her masterpon, sensing that all of this was leading up toward the same sort of pitch that Tora gave to Geralt.

”Yeah there was a whole load of stuff in there huh” Jr replied, his car had, after all, been pulled out of said scrapheap, but there where obviously a load of issues with doing ”kinda be hard to balloon it all up though, and like, where’d we even put it?”

He said this while looking up at the Nopon’s cork board with great interest, the mechanically minded child speed reading through all the various designs, before pointing to exactly the one Tora had been about to make a pitch about, asking ”Hey what’s that one? Some kind of tidying robot?”

Rika leaned in as he said so, also interested for the exact same reason her brother was: if such a thing was made they would not have to personally deal with the mess their room was in.

Their interest seemed to perk Tora right up. “Yep yep! After seeing original prototype online, Tora decide put own spin on, meh. Because it not made for combat, can pack in as many useful features as want! It can even cook yummy pancakes!” He then made a big show of looking woebegone, staring sadly at the huge vacuum’s blueprint in his hands. Though young himself, the Nopon was clever enough to know how to push the younger child’s buttons. “Sadly, Tora not have enough moolah to finish development. So if friends make more money out there than friends need, would appreciate generous donation, meh! Once prototype working, biggest investors get service first!”

”Just money? How much? Also wait, where are you buying stuff from anyway?” Jr asked, bombarding the mechanic with question.

”Also what kind of money, coz we have a bunch of different kinds of money right? Buncha Geo from the under, those coppery triangles, gold coins, those paper dollars, plus now these Euro things” Rika said, picking through her pockets and then showing Tora a fabric slip with bronze coloration, sorting the depiction of an arch and the number 10 on them.

As Tora scratched his head, wondering not how much he might need but how much he could get away with asking for, Poppi lent him a hand. “We requisition parts from inter-knot, then schedule pick up. Current plan is for Poppi to go down with extra Fulton and extract that way, same as with foodstuffs and other supplies for Lost Numbers.”

“Three hundred thousand zenny!” Tora piped up at last. “That not just for vacuum either, meh, but to kickstart whole production pipeline. With that, Tora Industries officially up and running!” He peered over at Rika. “Oh, and not to worry. All money exchangeable for zenny if you know right people.”

The ship girl in question’s jaw dropped open at the number, joining Jr’s in the same state, collectively signaling their shared thought that, dang, that was a lot of money. Then they rallied, regrouped at one of the tables and worked together to work out how much they even had, which was, as it turned out, a fair amount and yet also not anywhere close to Tora’s requirement:

3505 Geo
70 Euros
50 Gold
882 Copper Reeves
And 1000$

”There’s also these but I dunno how much they are worth” Rika added, putting her five red gems on the pile, prompting Jr added a pair of rubies on it as well.

”Guess we could sell stuff as well if people are buying on the internet” Jr supposed, before he asked ”you sure you can’t use any of our junk? Or I could, like, make you some of the bits?” before holding out his right hand and producing a small handful of iron screws using his ferromancy.

Tora’s eyes widened at the metal Junior produced. “Iron? That your idea of quality material? Meh-meh!”

”I mean, it's like, Magic iron or. Urgh fine” Jr tried and failed.

Meanwhile, Poppi had been looking over the kids’ savings and come to an important realization. “Hmm. Gold piece definitely much more valuable than zenny. And…Poppi seen currency like this before,” she announced, holding up one of the dollar bills. “These have great exchange rate with zenny, one hundred to one. So if this actually thousand, it really one hundred thousand zenny, so we already one-third of way there!”

“Brilliant!” Tora bounced up and down, flapping his wings, before rushing over to scoop up the cash. “Tora, Poppi, and all future generations thank koopas for generosity!”

And just like that, the kids were left without a penny to their name.

They really should have thought this through.

”Ah. Well. Uh.” said while now having those thoughts too late, while Rika had none and suggested it was ”Stuff fixing time?”

”Sure, right, uh, lets see” he replied, before pulling out the possibly actually useful materials they had, namely the Croppa chunks and galvanised steel, along with the scrap. Plus the cyborg leg for good measure.

”Well it's something. Maybe stripping stuff out would be a good idea after all” Jr mused, before asking ”we got anything in here that can make the ore into useful stuff or?”

Tora raised an eyebrow, which in practice looked more like widening one eye. “This not smeltery, but Tora see what can do, meh. Let’s get started!”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 1,109 (+2)
Amaterasu: level 8 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (3/80)
Location: Dead Zone Hinterlands

Amaterasu's patience paid off, as the pair of newcomers she’d seen enter the inn separately now emerged together, and began to talk to a third figure. Sadly, as good as her eyesight was, she couldn’t read lips at this distance, and so didn’t know what was being said. Whatever it was they were talking about, seemed like it had been a productive conversation however, as the two stuck together after the third man left, and then headed off with a purpose.

Unfortunately, doing so, they moved out of view of her seat upon the hill, and so if she wanted to keep spying on them, she’d need to move herself.

Thus, she wolfed down the last of her root based lunch, and then set out on a trip around the outskirts of town.

Wanting to avoid being harassed by the town guards, she stuck to the woods, which were fortunately rather lush around the town (though they petered out into scrubland further out from it) and thus provided ample cover.

As she made her way through the forest, however, the celestial came across a curious sight: two pairs of colorful monsters facing each other down with determined looks on their faces. Rather than battling as was so often the case with these kinds of creatures, the monsters in question were, of all things, engaged in a spirited game of sport that would have looked an awful lot like volleyball to someone who knew what that game was.

Despite the risk of losing track of the strangers in town, Amatarasu slowed to take in this odd spectacle.

As she watched, a Axolati cheered on as a Kichik bounced a round mushroom off of its head, and then with a hop and a dexterous flip, delivered an overhead kick to it, sending it sailing across a volleyball net and towards a Bildit on the other side of it.

The ball smacked into the Bildit quite hard, but it endured the impact without falling or losing control of the ball, instead batting it of its chest, before using its two digging claws to volley the ball to the final of the four, a lizard like Sprecko. This Sprecko bounced the ball up using a sticky tail covered in berries, and then delivered a calculated headbutt that sent the ball not at one of its opponents like the Kichik had, but instead landing its careful shot down behind its opponents, who were both too close to the net to catch it.

It hit the ground, resulting in a cheer from the Sprecko and Bildit, while the Axolati and Kichik gave goodhearted groans at their misplay, before the Axolati turned to run after and fetch the ball from where it had bounced into the undergrowth so they could start another rally.

This jovial sports-beast-ship came to an abrupt end as all four beheld a wolf looming over the ball, who’s feet it had coincidentally landed, one that had just been presented with an easy meal. The Axolati skidded to a halt and then began to back off, while the Sprecko and Bildit both made noises of alarm from behind the net, all clearly frightened by this predator. The Kichik stepped forwards meanwhile with a look of nervous determination on its face, thinking, hoping, to drive the threat off despite the power difference.

Their alarm, however, was for naught, as the meal Amaterasu had been presented with was not one of meat but of praise. As such, she lowered her snout as if in a bow, before nosing it under the ball, flicking said ball up, and then doing a little about turn hop before finally batting it with her hind paws in order to pass it to the Axolati.

It bounced off the too shocked to react beastie’s round dome, but it then recovered from the surprise and instead vollied the ball to its Kichik partner, who got the game going again. A quick spirited back and forth occurred after that, at the end of which the Bildit was knocked down by a particularly powerful hit, fumbling the ball in the process and evening up the score. It was only then that the beasties looked for the one who’d passed them the ball, finding her now on the other edge of the clearing.

They made inviting sounds for her to join in the fun, specifically to tag in for the Bildit while they took a rest. The celestial however, politely declined, turning away and vanishing into the woods, her hunger for praise sated just a little more from the encounter.

Then a handful of heartbeats later she came back again.

She had time, she felt, for a little diversion.

Thus, the celestial missed the sight of Harry’s crime and public indecency while washing his clothes in public, as she was instead too preoccupied with the important task of learning the rules of beastieball, and having a grand old time playing it.

After a few spirited rounds, the celestial was the only one standing, the little critters all too tuckered out after all the fun to continue. They did, however, have the consolation prize, or maybe just actual prize, of all having scored more points than her, in part due to her unfamiliarity with the game, and in part due to her holding back with her spikes in order to not hurt the little beasties. Still, while she came away from the games as anything but the winner, she did at least get the consolation prize of a little extra praise for her good sports-wolf-ship.

With that in her spiritual pocket, she set off once more through the woods to get back to her people watching. Having expended time on gaining praise, she burned some calories to make up for it, moving at a run through the woods, flowers blooming in her paw prints as she raced through the trees.

Soon enough, she had found another point where she could overlook the town, hopping up and into the branches of a tree to do so. From there, she spotted the bulky stranger and his distinctive brass adornments hanging around town.

Of the other newcomer there was no sight, making her worry she’d been wrong that they’d be collaborating, only for her lower jaw to fall down slack from her upper as she saw the smaller stranger approaching wearing his new attire.

Maybe these two were not her best bet in working out what was going down in the town after all.

Still, they were her only lead, and so she was prepared to burn more energy intercepting them, should they head out of it again. That, and if she needed to buy some extra time, well, she could always draw them a tree or two. That always confused people.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Out of Action Report

Location: Aboard the Avenger
Word Count: 3233 (+4 exp +2 rapport)

Edward blinked, and suddenly the pain, head and heart-ache was gone, and he was staring at a wall of alien metal. He blinked again, raised up a hand, clenched it hard, and then determined that things were ”Real. Not the astral sea” before grunting, and admonishing himself ”You don’t have a throne city, you can die” because he had, in the moment, forgotten that the memories from before the world of light were not the state of things now.

No empire, no lifeline to pull his soul back from the astral sea, and thus, only one life to be spent wisely, not recklessly.

Still. The man had spent his life before, be it foolishly or strategically, had left the sting of life's end and so that was all it took to recover from his brush with mortality. He ceased introspection and turned to take in the place he had arrived, which, as it turned out, was the one he had left from, namely the avenger’s hanger, and he was not alone in it.

Already here was Queen Sectonia and, arriving a moment later came the source of their salvation: the Ace Cadet.

It was more than a little strange, the primitive wooden cart pulled and pushed by a squad of three-foot tall cats running on their two back legs. They unceremoniously dumped the monster hunter onto the ground in the hanger and then turned around, hustling out of sight. No one would be able to find them if they went looking, gone as soon as they disappeared around a corner.

Ace sat up quickly, pressing a hand to his forehead. As soon as he saw he was back on the Avenger he hopped to his feet. "Dalamadammit!" he shouted in frustration.

Sectonia herself was awake, but relaxing and staring at the back of her hand. Sure the Gravemind was big, but being taken out by a roller coaster was something she not only didn't expect, nor did she expect it to hit as hard as it did. She was aware of the strange powers of the apparent Star Warrior, but was it as weird as this? At least the tentacles hitting as hard as they did made sense.

Ace sighed, looking between Edward and Sectonia.

"Well I'm glad you're both alright. And that they brought us here and not just outside the tree. Honestly I wasn't sure where the palicos were gonna dump us after the first of us carted," he said.

Considering it was his ability, hearing that wasn’t what Sectonia needed right now. She needed to heal and rest, clean herself, and relax more than anything. ”Now you tell us.” Sectonia laid her head on her pillow, waiting and using her own magic to slowly heal herself. ”I suppose no one has used this thing yet.”

”Depositing us back into the time rain would rather defeat the effort put into saving us” Edward replied as he actively tried and failed to follow their travel before noting ”Palicos where they? What incredibly useful spirts” and then realizing ”which I assume no longer a factor in the battle now that you are here?”

Ace had, at least, the decency to look a little sheepish at Sectonia's comment. Of course there had been times when his Palico Rescue had saved people before, but they always ended up somewhere different depending on where they'd been saved from.

"They're not spirits, just helpful felynes. I don't control them or anything," he said to Edward, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. "And they're purr-ty serious about work-life balance, so even if I hadn't... used our last cart, we still would have only gotten three."

”Yes. Well, if O had used one of his biggest moves to take me out things should be fine. I remember F being not too bad outside of one big thing he did. The question is about the other two.” Sectonia said, still frustrated she got taken out by a carnival ride.

"I dunno - by the time I carted, the Guardian had morphed into a totally new monster," Ace reported. "Maybe we can keep up with the fight from the bridge."

”I see” Edward replied, with a nod of thanks for the information, before suggesting ”shall we?” with a gesture towards the door, with regards to the suggestion they go and keep up with the fight.

”A was.. Deeply unpleasant. Grotesque flesh warping magical abilities, some of which built up a physical and mental strain that did intense physical harm once a sufficient amount has been accrued” Edward said as they got on their way, filling the others in on the fight they had not been a part of.

”Of course they did that. Rulers of such a hideous zone… or caretakers? Whatever the Consuls are, it's not surprising they power themselves up with such grotesque things.” Sectonia said. Although she could admit, that power DID beat her, so she had to strengthen herself. Now how could she do that?

”I suppose observing the others could at least give us some insight into the Consuls if we have to fight others.” Sectonia said, snapping herself out of her own thoughts.

”Agreed” Edward replied, and soon enough they had crossed through the armory and ascended to the bridge, and there found a way to view the battle.

As the three observed the fight with Sandalphon, it was apparent that things were getting even more hectic. D was starting to get serious, A was going through forms, and the Gravemind was still kicking with Sectonia only having done a small bit of damage with her boost from the looks of it.

Edward did his best to take notes, but the flow of combat was far too hectic to really keep track of what was going on, leading the eyes this way and that and occasionally overwhelming them with explosive light shows. Still, lacking the power of an empire to allow for remote casting, all he could do was try and learn from his failures.

Though the other people in the room might not know him well enough to tell yet, the Ace Cadet was being uncharacteristically quiet as he watched the Seekers' battle continue to rage on with the rest of them. Things in the Qliphoth's final hollow seemed to have reached a fever pitch. Ace took in as much information as he could, though he mostly focused his attention on the area around the Gravemind and D. His eyes tracked the Guardian's new form and he considered where its weak points would be if it were a normal monster, privately contrasting his thoughts with what Sandalphon reported down to those still fighting in her role as handler. Periodically he clenched and unclenched his hands when things got really dicey, his rigging twitching as though reacting to his thoughts. There were a handful of times he could tell that he could have really helped out had he still been down there, which made the fact that he'd carted and was back up in the Avenger -safe while the others were in trouble- feel all the more bitter.

Sandalphon then had an idea, requesting Sectonia’s antlers to use an ability of hers to hopefully turn the tide of the fight. Indifferent to her antlers being used as batteries if it meant the destruction of such hideousness, she didn’t object giving Sandalphon some red antlers to leech off of to use her ability.

Edward would have offered the same, but the queen’s summoning was far faster than his own construction, and all he could do was clear some space for them to get to work.

As the fight progressed, and A reached his third and final form with O seemingly encasing himself in a building, D turning into some demon, and the Gravemind shifting to another form itself, Sectonia watched as A turned into a giant and… scooped up Midna into nothing? From what could be gathered from the reaction of those on the ground, this A killed Midna just like that?

When the nightmare petered out and the battle resumed in earnest, Ace leaned further in toward the screens they were watching on as his eyes searched the whole arena. And yet, there really was no Midna to be found.

"Did she just...?"

”What a horrifying ability. I suppose when F said A was the strongest Consul, this is what he meant. Three phases of attacks, and this would apparently mean he couldn’t ever lose a duel.” Considering when he did this a second time and solidified Sectonia’s fear, she also realized that she would need more strength to handle things. Strength that might have to come from sources she didn’t understand.

Speaking of such a source, Sectonia pulled out the vial of glowing yellow liquid she had been holding onto. She couldn’t get anything from it outside of one word, Determination, as this was a product of both magic and science. But considering how easily one Consul took her out, and how another took out others but for good, she’d have to take some risks… Well, this was one of them and she injected herself with the syringe.

For Sectonia

Limited Determination
Injecting herself with Determination gave Sectonia limited use of it. Once, should Sectonia die, she will respawn at the Avenger fully restored with all of her items and equipment. Will be the last death prevention ability used if multiple are in effect.

Much to her relief, it didn’t change anything about her. But it also didn’t seem to power her up any? Well, she did have a determination to not die, so maybe that was it? Although she had a feeling as time went on that she had a ‘save’ of some sort. Fragile, but it was there. What that meant she didn’t know, but that could be figured out later as the fight was starting to come to its climax.

”The children appear to have become… that” Edward informed her, catching Sectonia up on what she had been injecting herself, namely the appearance of the towering Monster. His tone was still level and practical but the presence of a snapped quill sat on the consul he was leaning indicated that he had not been unaffected by the loss of Midna.

The replacement had been rapidly scribbling about this new development, but he paused to glance at her and raise an enquiring eyebrow, as if to ask “what was that?” regarding her injecting herself.

”Yes, they got some sort of tape player or something that lets them turn into people. Although a bit strange they fused, I don’t think they did that before.” Sectonia said.

Rather than press his subtle query, Edward discarded it and instead declared the children’s fusion ”fascinating” as he jotted down more notes on the subject, before beginning to say that ”perhaps with this they might take A down before-” only to be proven wrong as the Consul stole another life with, as far as they could see, zero effort.

"Aw no, no...!" Ace said, bringing his hands up to rest anxiously on his head when A's ability went off a second time. He'd felt his stomach nearly drop out when D had ripped Nadia in half, and now they'd just seen someone else get taken. Ace had barely known Midna or Goldlewis, but only the heartless wouldn't feel the loss of a comrade. Honestly he didn't know if it would have been easier to handle had they not been watching the battle live, and were just told about casualties afterward. Both the suspense of not knowing whether your allies were alive or dead, and the gut wrenching horror of seeing it happen were awful in their own ways.

”And there's a second one… Imagine if we could use this against the Guardians. Although from what I notice, no spirit remains whenever he does this. Are they fully dead, or just transported to some weird realm? ” Sectonia said, noticing whatever A grabbed as a giant didn’t stay as a spirit. A bit of false hope, or a weakness of this powerful ability? Sectonia didn’t know, but if he did teleport things to some eldritch realm, perhaps that was a way to take out his enemies without their allies having any way of saving them.

The Cadet glanced at Sectonia. Based on what A had said, he got the feeling that the two Seekers that had given themselves up were gone for real; and he seemed to interpret Sectonia's words as want for some comfort for that fact, or at least a silver lining.

"If they did die," Ace started, pausing only briefly to consider how to word his thoughts, "it won't be an actual dead end for them, right? They'll loop back around. Different memories, but... same people. We might be able to run into them again, and jog their old memories."

”Yes…” Edward replied, not entirely sure, before becoming more confident in the idea upon recalling ”Yes, Midna did mention dreams of a past encounter with D, so it might well be possible”

Ace turned back to the conflict at hand. The state of the battlefield had been changing majorly and rapidly, and something was going to have to give soon. Hopefully it wouldn't be anymore of the Seekers. "Come on guys, you must be almost there..."

As the fight continued, A looked a bit rough after his second abduction and the Gravemind had changed forms yet again after taking more catastrophic damage. This time turning into some balloon and propelling itself towards that giant flesh moon that was going to soon crash into the remaining seekers. Though in a bit of good news after Juri had infiltrated and left O’s command tower following the Monster, there hadn’t been any more movement from the Consul. She confirmed as much herself when she called out she’d taken care of O.

”You know, I notice we have quite the lack of flyers.” Sectonia said, pointing out how the only one that could get the Gravemind back to the ground was the medic with her being the only flyer left of the group.

”Somewhat of an issue, yes. That or additional artillery would have been quite valuable in this situation” Edward agreed, as D casually bombarded the seekers from up on high, something the group who had been fighting him had little to no ability to counteract it seemed. Had they switched out with some of the others, the team might have been able to take the fight to him, but he could hardly blame the focus on the largest threat A, and their primary objective, the gravemind.

He left it unsaid that he and the queen, fliers and artillery both, had both failed to be there when they were needed.

Still, the Seekers that remained in the Qliphoth did their utmost. Even as they struggled they were determined to fight to the bitter end. With a bird's eye view those saved by the palicos could see just how close some of the close calls were getting. Things were tense on the bridge as they, and the other people assembled to oversee the fight, continued to watch - there was little else they could do from there, after all.

There was a breath stopping moment when the Guardian's core was almost within reach of the moon, and the Monster fell apart while A still loomed large... until, finally, the next turning point in the Seekers' favor. They saw the eldritch monstrosity that was A engulfed in an anti-light show, billowing shadow taking over his form. When it faded, Moebius A lay in melting pieces, and those that opposed him were still alive.

"He's down!" Ace said, even before they knew for sure. He let out the breath he'd been holding.

Edward meanwhile simply sighed with relief.

”About time. And he was the ‘strongest’ of the consuls, if what F said in his childlike fear was true.” Sectonia said, glad that F had gone down to quite the mix of attacks.

That left D and the Gravemind, the latter of which having already taken a hell of a beating which wasn't about to let up.

The Gravemind itself after having turned into a balloon, didn’t seem to have too much of an attack to speak of, and after Blazermate bit into it with her shield arm and punctured it with her ubersaw arm, the balloon deflated and fell back to the ground where Ganondorf in his enraged state, the only ‘villain’ of the group left in the fight, finished it off with a hard hitting attack.

”tck, I suppose the consuls didn’t have enough attacks to take out all the priority targets did they.” Sectonia said.

With the other Consuls and the guardian defeated, instead of staying to fight D instead decided to retreat, not one to risk himself for nothing. ”Well, if we see him again, next time we know what to hit him with. And I have holy magic as well to really devastate him.” Sectonia commented.

”That he can seamlessly retreat like that is concerning. We’ll need to find a way to lock him down if we are ever to be rid of him” Edward noted, both verbally and in his journal.

”Which comes back to the lack of aerial superiority when I’m not there. You saw how he just kept whoever was fighting him at a standstill once he took to the sky.” Sectonia said, giving a bit of a humble brag.

With that, the battle was over, and Sandalphon departed to get the remaining seekers in the tree out of there, which as it turned out would be a far more straightforward affair compared to getting up there in the first place, to the extent that they could expect them to start arriving any moment now.

”Well then” Edward said, snapping his journal shut, note taking completed, before suggesting ”I suppose we should go meet them?”

"Of course," the Cadet said with a nod.

”Might as well. No real rewards to divide through outside of the Guardian. And I for one feel whoever takes that thing will be adopting quite a curse instead of a boon.” Sectonia said, although her opinion on what she thought of the Gravemind was pretty common knowledge at this point. Although she did know of the power a Guardian spirit gave having adopted one of her own and that you could possibly unlock even more powers.

Her remark came off as callous to the Ace Cadet. He liked being able to take prizes and trophies from hunts as much as anyone else did, maybe even more, but this hadn't been a run of the mill battle.

"You're Kirin me - its reward enough that most of us made it back in one piece," he said to her with a grimace. Then he turned, motioning for Sectonia and Edward to follow as he headed for the hanger they knew the other Seekers would arrive in. "C'mon, let's go see them!"

A faint smile touched Edward’s lips at the man’s enthusiasm, rather easily discerning at least one part of its source, before nodding and striding after the man. He had less reason to be so enthused, one of the few people he knew in any real regard was among the fallen, but it would still be a relief to see the others face to face.

”We’ll also need to get everyone clean. I’m sure being covered in such foul liquids and leaving an area that could be politely summarized as a ‘gore tree’ would be in need of a shower.” Sectonia said as she followed.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Twilight Post-mortem

A single ray of light pierced the darkness of the great auditorium, cast by some nebulous mechanism above the double-door entryway that droned in an incessantly old-fashioned manner. That ghostly luster reflected off the enormous screen that hung above the grand hardwood stage, blank except for momentary smudges or scratches on the empty film reel. Overhead dangled heavy, dark curtains, their gilded tassels agleam in the spectral light that cast long shadows over the curved staircases, elevated gallery boxes, and many rows of empty seats. Classical columns supported a vaulted ceiling, so high that visitors would need to crane their necks to see it, if only the theater had any. Instead this room was still as a grave, and but for the muted rattle of the projector, silent.

The visitor hadn’t entered through those stately double doors, but nevertheless, she was here. She awoke slowly, heavily, and irritably, like someone roused from the very cusp of a deep, peaceful, and velvety-soft sleep into which she’d gently been sinking. Dreadful memories of horror and pain, almost suppressed and forgotten, returned quickly. She knew what had happened, but she did not know where she’d arrived. Was this strange, grim theater part of the vicious cycle to which she’d supposedly been returned? Though she knew she must have died before, she did not remember this place. Something didn’t feel right–maybe it was her. Cracks ran along her body -her original body, before all the changes- that shone with soft, prismatic light, and grains of similarly-colored sand leaked through them, as if through small cracks of an hourglass. Whatever this place was, she wouldn’t be here for long.

After a moment, the empty screen changed. A film began to play–her film. She could see herself in Smash City Alcamoth, the Sandswept Sky, Split Mountain, Midgar, and a number of other places that she had never been. Visions flashed of vast armies clashed in a war-torn battlefield…peaceful respite in places of incredible beauty…her fingers intertwined with another’s. Lives were flashing before her eyes.

The princess was briefly transfixed by the images on the screen, but had enough will to raise up a hand inorder to inspect it, running a finger across a glowing crack on her palm. Then she glanced down and with a sigh said ”Really? Still?” with regards to her still being stuck in her impish form rather than being restored to her true one.

If what was on display in front of her was anything to go by, then it was as if the system considered this cursed body more worthy of scribing over and over than her real one, which was rather insulting, she felt.

Still, her self examination was enough to confirm that she was on some sort of time limit, her body bleeding seconds away like a broken hourglass. What time running out would mean, she didn’t know, but if who or whatever had put her here for a bit expected her to just sit still and watch one of these oversized screen things till that happened it had another thing coming.

She pressed both hands to the armrests, and moved to push herself up into the air inorder to take a drifting explore of her environment.

After a moment, a spotlight snapped on from above. Its light cone shone down on a lone figure seated in the middle of the theater. The fashion of his armor was familiar, but instead of cherry-red, its plates were a dull gold, adorned by a white cape rather than black. A helmet with a tall crest lay in the chair at his opposite side, so while Midna could see nothing but a head of dark brown hair from her current vantage point, circling around would give her a closer look at the man’s face. When he turned to look at her, he appeared to be a normal -fairly unremarkable, in fact- Japanese man with dark eyes and rectangular glasses. The sight of Midna seemed to sadden him somewhat.

“Good morning. Hah, if only it was.” He held out a bowl full of various gummy and hard candies, including chocolate, and put it on the seat between them. “Please, help yourself to some snacks. It might seem like you’re…uh, crumbling away, but that merely reflects that your presence here is transitory. So really, there’s plenty of time to think, talk, and decide…um, about what comes next.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. I know you just made a hard choice. You are brave. Selfless. A heroic warrior. Everything antithetical to Moebius. You don’t deserve this cruel World of Light–nobody does. And yet, this is our lot. That’s why, though it pains me, I have one more choice to offer you. The fact that you’re here means…well, there’s an opening.” His tone lowered. “And a chance, to take back one more inch that Moebius has stolen away.”

”I think that might have been more Urbosa than it was me, in the moment” the princess admitted, pausing for only a moment before deciding ”but I don’t regret it”

She’d approached him with caution, but by this point, this close, it seemed that this man really was the enemy of her enemy, color coded for her convenience and everything. That said, if she was being cynical, that didn’t necessarily make him a friend.

As such, she did not copy him and set down her own helmet on a chair, keeping that artifact of her people donne just in case, regardless of how little it would help if he was as powerful as his opposites, but other than that, she was willing to sit and hear him speak. She did so by picking up the bowl, and then sitting herself on the armrest of the chair it had been sitting on, letting her face him with her feet set where the bowl had been, and said bowl sat in her lap.

Better that than crane her neck the whole time, or risk getting lost in the distracting visions of her past lives.

”So, I-” she began to say, before thinking again and adjusting the assumption she had about what he knew, and saying ”-guess that this not having sound might mean you don’t know my name? Princess Midna, if not.”

The man nodded, smiling. “Midna. It’s nice to meet you.”

”I have a pile of questions that you can probably guess, so let's start by you answering the obvious ones” she, wanting to skip past any back and forth. Plus, it would give her a little time to partake of his hospitality (she naturally knew better than to talk with her mouth full) which she did by picking up and tossing a piece of chocolate into her pointy toothed maw.

She made an appreciative little ”Mmm” as she enjoyed one of the few upsides to this entire nightmare Galeem had made by mixing infinite worlds together: the infinite banquet of different kinds of food that the resulting reality stew had on offer.

Her new acquaintance breathed in deep. “Right. Well, I gave up my name when I took this job. Just part of the ritual. It’s led to some funny stories, but, uh, those are tales for another time. Nowadays they just call me T.” He sank into his seat, staring up at the screen. At the moment it happened to be portraying a part of the Sandswept Sky replaced by the Twilight Realm, in all its dusky glory.

It was a sight that Midna could not help but be drawn to, the facade of confidence she was putting on briefly breaking as homesickness struck her heart. Then she steeled it with iron clad duty, and turned her gaze away once more.

“Before all this, I was a humble guidance counsellor. Doing what little I could to make lives better, one kid at a time. My reality could be, uh, cruel, but it could be wonderful, too. The World of Light is the same, but where I come from, few had the power to change the world, and that’s not the case here. Sadly, those who seized power in this world chose to make it worse. A hellscape where they toy with countless lives on their way to the meat grinder.”

For a moment T paused, his head held in one hand. “This job, it…it simply attracts the worst kinds of people. The sociopaths, the hedonists, the sadists. People full of hate, greed, selfishness, and fear. Capricious gods…and people with god complexes.” He chuckled dryly. “Faced with death, immortality is a tempting prospect. But perpetual life tends to get old, so to ease the tedium of existence, they turn to ever more creative means of entertainment. It has to end.”

He looked at Midna, somewhat sharply. “But destroying the World of Light isn’t the answer. Galeem was wrong to do what it did, but what’s done is done. This world is home to nigh infinite souls, all of whom deserve to live peaceful, happy lives, and snuffing them out would be an evil greater evil than birthing them. It’s not a crime for us all to exist. The true evil is Moebius, or more specifically, the despots who make it up. If that can change, the world can change.” He clasped his hands. “And, believe it or not, we’re making progress. You’ve already heard about P. She accepted this position out of despair, but she’s not a bad person. She’s already trying to make a new kingdom, one without suffering. A handful of bad Consuls have already been dealt with, like F, Y, and M, that last one courtesy of S, another lost soul I plucked from the flow. Depending on your allies, three more spots may be open before noon. It won’t be long before more monsters succeed the fallen. Unless those spots are seized by good people first–people willing to bear this cursed existence for the sake of everyone, and slowly change Moebius from within, so that this broken world might be redeemed.”

”So that’s what this is” she replied, glancing up at the screen briefly as she tried to compose her thoughts. Upon it she saw the world of light from high high above, some past her having traveled to the heavens on some unknown quest. In that moment, something crystalised in her mind, and it was a somewhat simple though: ”It’s so small”

”However many hundreds of worlds, all stolen and used to make just one. Not even a world really, just a continent if everything important being on it is any indication” she observed, before asking what she thought was the key question ”So where’s the rest of it? Where is everyone else? Sure Galeem seems to have put all the ‘important’ people on it given that you can’t go ten paces without running into a legend in their world. But the common people? If they were here the world would overflow with them. So where are they?”

”and when do they get to live?”

“They’re out there,” T told her. “Somewhere. Some time. This world is vast, far more than just this continent. This just happens to be the locus where all the most prominent elements are funneled. But it’s true, it’s impossible for everyone to live at the same time. Instead, the citizens of the world cycle in and out. Sooner or later, everyone gets a turn. Nobody is ever truly gone.” He cleared his throat. “Ahem. I wish I could tell you more, but there isn’t a lot of…um, comprehensive science about the world’s geography or, uh, population dynamics, but if we ever manage to put an end to all the war, it’d make for a fascinating field of study.”

Midna didn’t look convinced by this lack of concrete details, but she set aside that unknown for now to poke at what his victory would look like ”So you replace all the bad consuls with good ones, flip everything from red to gold. What then? How much of this world can you really change? The clocks demanding the churning of lives, the forgotten pasts and endless parade of nightmares Galeem seems to love to spit out? How are you going to hold onto the crown, and stop anyone else from shattering it?”

“The Flame Clocks can and must be destroyed,” T told her. “Interlinks are the key to breaking them. To anything born of the system -of Moebius- they are inviolate, but when two people become one, something new is created, and that is the fatal weakness of Moebius. I believe there is a logic, a sort of director, that governs who appears and where.” He held up his hands. “Think of it like a water valve. Moebius has set it one way, but we can set it another, and stop the flow of nightmares. Once the clocks are gone, and the evils diminish, nobody will have to fight just to survive. People can come together, form communities, and help one another. As for how...” He sighed. “I don’t know for sure. It’s an enormous undertaking, and there’s no one right answer. No such thing as a perfect world–I know that better than most. And human nature, which drives us all to repeat our past mistakes, cannot be changed. But still…” He gritted his teeth, his grip tightened on the arm of his chair. “I have to do something. Anything, and everything, I can. Not just to make amends, but because it’s the right thing to do.”

”Believe, but don't know. Which is the problem with all of this” Midna said, before resting her exposed cheek on the palm of her hand and musing that ”but I guess the only way to find out would be to go through with it, wouldn’t it? Claim all the crowns, and then in victory then try and find out if you can right all these wrongs, or if the system is irreparable, and that being lords of Galeems kingdom is a trap. You’d fight just as hard to preserve it after all. Harder, maybe, even, given you believe in it.”

She sat up then, and brushed her hand towards him in a vague gesture as she asked ”How’d you end up getting one of the crowns anyway? Also does the gold getup mean anything, or are the rest of them really that committed to dressing in bloody red?”

“Uh…” T looked down, somewhat sheepishly. “Heh, well, this one’s…custom. These colors are, um, sentimental? Or maybe just a grim reminder of the weight I’ve chosen to carry.” His smile thinned. “My own position was offered by C. I don’t know what his true goals are, or if he truly has any, and I would not count him an ally, but it seems he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep things ‘interesting’. No matter what that ends up jeopardizing. If I tried to psycho-analyze him, I feel like my head would explode…” He looked down, his expression dour. “As for the system…if it really is irreparable, maybe nothing is better than an irreparably cruel world. It’s a depressing thought. One I cannot indulge. I have to bear the torch, no matter how long it takes. Even if I bear it alone.” T breathed in through his nose, a determined look on his face. “I believe in people. That there are many more good people than there are bad, and that given a real chance, everyone can live good lives.”

The Consul stood, then turned toward Midna, his hands clasped behind his back. “I know I’m asking too much of you. Changing Moebius and the World of Light will be a long and hard road. But I believe its the only chance we’ve got. If you would rather return to the cycle, and hope to rejoin the campaign…that is your choice to make.” He paused, clearly not happy. “I plan to lend whatever help I can to the Seekers’ efforts to eliminate the other Consuls, but if a day comes when the world is about to end…I will have to stand up for what I believe in.”

He smiled wryly, then looked up at the screen. It displayed a path that led up from the stage toward a hill, at which point it forked toward the left and the right. The only difference between them was that the sunset shone above the right-hand path, itself a celestial, winged shape that Midna knew well.

”The end for us, maybe, but maybe not for the people we are copies of. Organization 13 certainly seems to think they can do something after Galeem is done for, though Roxas says they can’t be trusted one bit.” Midna suggested, before asking ”So is that a metaphor, or am I going to be walking a literal path into darkness or the light at the end of this?”

“There are two roads set before every individual.” From the gravity that T gave those words, it could be surmised that they weren’t his own. “The left. The right. If you’ve thought things through, then…it’s time to go.”

”I guess it is” Midna replied, picking up the bowl and passing it back to T, but not before taking one more treat ”for the road”

Then she hopped out of her seat, and without any sort of transition hovering above the path that had been displayed before her. She paused there, popping the candy into her mouth, chewing it as she indulged in a fantasy about climbing the hill between the paths purely for the sake of spite, before sighing and going through with the choice she’d already made

”Into the jaws of the trap it is then” she said, raising an arm up to shield her eyes, and drifting rightwards into the light.