DracoLunaris

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

The Capital - Nieve - Red Light District

Rayne really, really did not want to be looking at the pulp the butterfly lady had been reduced to by the pillar impacts. She might have been a monstrous murderer but the Witch Knight was still very much not one who dealt in death. There were other things to focus on fortunately, such as a clearly very sick Sanae and her goddess who had done the annihilating Rayne did not care for, who was not making the best impression by delivering a disapproving head chop and mini lecture to the kneeling shrine maiden rather than offering her support for her sorry state.

Somehow Rayne did not find it in herself to be surprised that this goddess also had issues.

Still, that did not mean she shouldn’t be polite (or maybe it even meant she should be even more so given this was the first to be willing and able to do some divine smiting) and so she tipped her hat in greeting upon being addressed and introduced herself as “Rayne, Knight Witch” and then adding that “Sanae’s been no trouble at all?” with her tone indicating that she wasn’t sure what kind of trouble the goddess expected her maiden to have been getting up too.

As she did this, she approached, landing beside Sanae and crouching down to offer: “do you need a hand? Or a shoulder?” because she very much did not seem to be in a state to be walking or flying around unsupported, and the ever helpful Knight Witch was more than willing to lend that support.

Frankly, she felt inclined to insist.

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

wordcount: 5293 (+6 Edward) (+3 for Minda / Rapport)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (183/100)
Edward Portsmith: Level 3 ////////////////////////////// (24/30)
Location: The Avenger

After hurriedly finishing his cooling meal that he’d left unattended in the name of jotting down as much info as he could, Edward had three things he needed to do.

First, he headed back to his room and equipped his armor and weapons, despite the fact that neither magelock was going to be of much use in the magic suppression field that would be keeping them safe.

With his sword flattened in the train crash after he had dropped and failed to retrieve it in time, that left him potentially entirely unarmed in the magic suppressor, something his second task would hopefully rectify. That task was a quick jaunt to the spirit chamber, within which he donned the absurd hat that supposedly would improve his odds of a good item.

He had, after using his striker to heal himself, mixed feelings about if his odds had actually been improved or if the harmful headgear was merely perceived as doing so.

More data would be required.

for Edward

Dove Plume: an enchanted feather reinforced with silver normally worn in a hat or helm that slightly increases the wearers reaction time

Giant's Canopy: a cloak that can transform into a blue bubble shield protects against environmental hazards with a for 30 seconds before fading away

Feather-bow quiver: a large quiver that attaches to a belt via hanging strap, causing it to rest next to the hip. Useful if you have wings where a quiver might normally go, otherwise somewhat impractical.

Carnelian Pendant: grants +1 base PP (or an equivalent resource)

Bloody Rose Lollipop: dramatically increases attack power while being consumed, though it comes in a rather modest size.

Cheater's Lament: a decorative headpiece that can be worn alongside others which grants a level 1 aura of incorruptibility (this does nothing)

Sousaphone: a brass musical instrument that can be used to fire a long continuous magical beam in a straight line. It can only do this once however, after which the magic burns out, leaving the user with an entirely mundane sousaphone

Halos(x40): these facsimiles of symbols of divinity still hold some power that might be of interest the right buyer, and to the wrong one they still glitter like gold.

Golem Mask: A decorative paper mache mask styled after a stony faced being

Carven Stone: harvested from a Construct Sentinel, this enchanted stone is one third of the ingredients of a powerful amulet

Enchanted Buckler: a durable buckler that can wielded hands free (though it is rather heavy). The crystal can absorb energy from kinetic impacts, and can then release them as a radial shockwave when performing a ground point.

war scythe: a one handed blade of an unorthodox design usable for stabbing and slashing.

The results were, well, interesting. Partially because he wasn’t sure what everything did. What was a feather going to do to help? Was it a quill for writing? It certainly looked like it. But then when he picked it up he felt a subtle effect taking over him once again, so perahpse not.

Properly assessing things would, it seemed, be relying on him waiting for Midna, but there were at least a few things that he could feel/see the value of right away.

The first was the Pendant. He could already feel how it would add to his store of PP when holding it, which meant one more deflected de-buff which he wasn’t going to complain about. So around his neck it went.

The second was to replace the Heavenswing Shield with the Enchanted buckler. The latter might have been heavier, but it left his hand free, which would make using a shield alongside two handed weapons such as his rifle still doable if a bit cumbersome. Not that he was going to use the rifle during the initial magic draining section of the fight, but still.

The old shield went into the crucible, permanently adding the minor boost to him, which was odd to think about, but most certainly useful. He could only imagine how absurd tossing dozens of pendants into it could get, assuming he could acquire them.

As for everything else, well, it looked like he had a very strange replacement for his lost sword in the form of the war scythe (one that certainly did not fit the scabbard he had well at all which was going to be a problem) and then beyond it there was a whole load of. Well. Very strange things was perhaps the best way to describe it. Flimsy masks, an odd quiver, and some sort of golden rings styled after halos.

Oh and a massive musical instrument. That last was very much what made his subsequent trip to the armory quite a bit of a pain, though at least the quiver helped out, attached to his belt and stuffed with odds and ends as it was.

He dearly missed both his horse’s saddle bags and his empire’s enchanted armory in that moment… which spurred on an idea.

Hopefully his arrival carrying a load of dubiously useful gubins wasn’t about to get in the way of him making an arrangement with whoever was operating the armory.

There was only one way to find out, and that was to carefully shave open the entrance to it with a shoulder, and then to say ”Good morning, I am here to inspect… to view the armory, and to make an addition or two” to the person he found waiting on the other side, while trying to angle his neck so he could see past the Sousaphone.

Sagi, the Avenger's quartermaster, received him with a polite smile. With all of the Seekers back on board, alongside a few new additions having come to and fro from the ship's stockpile, she was busier than ever that day. This man was yet another new face, but she welcomed him - and his donations - all the same.

"Good morning. Feel free to look around. Just let me know if you take something. Oh, but first, what have you got for us?"

Edward carefully deposited the pile of debatable quality loot on a convenient sorting counter, and felt like he needed to justify the musical instrument taking up most of the space, saying ”One of the kinds of false angels in skyworld used these to fire beam spells of some kind” but having no such explanation of the mask.

The quartermaster said not a word at first, just cataloging everything Edward placed down with both her eyes and her hands, her pen rapidly flowing over the clipboard she held in her hand. She didn’t seem disappointed in any of the items, even the ones that seemed useless at first glance, but she did crack an amused smile when the man started trying to explain some of them.

“I see. No need to explain yourself - if you have no use for these, we’ll find one. Even if I have to meld some items into entirely new ones, none will go to waste.”

”Melding? I am aware of a process to break down magical items into essence that can be forged into new ones, is it something similar?” he asked the quartermaster as he watched her work, looking on with approval of her efficacy and skill.

"Indeed it is," she responded, surprised but pleased that he already seemed familiar with the concept. "I use a technique called Wyverian Melding to break items down into their base properties, not necessarily magic essence, but they can then be combined into a talisman. Unfortunately there is no real way to predict or influence what properties the created talisman possesses afterward, but they're certainly more useful than a handful of items collecting dust."

”Ah, more ‘gambling’ with fate. Fascinating” Edward said, both intrigued and maybe a little disconcerted regarding how much was being left up to random chance when it came to their armaments. Then again, was it any different from gambling that the ruined wizard tower or other ancient wonder you where raiding would contain useful magical equipment instead of yet another kettle helm with a minor armor enchantment? He supposed not.

His words seemed to further amuse Sagi, and she murmured, “Isn’t every day alive a gamble with fate?” as she continued jotting things down.

After dropping things off, Edward took a look through what they already had, and came to a similar conclusion to Goldlewis, which was that it really was something of a dumping ground of various odds and ends. Now some did seem powerful to the right user, but for every specialist axe, there was an icicle, vial of blood or ”Is that a necklace of children’s teeth?!”.

Still, it did have one thing that the Drednaught found useful, and that was a very unusual pistol that apparently fired energy bolts via entirely non magical means. Its clunky size and rather grotesque adornment of fleshy trophies were rather major downsides however. It made for tolerable temporary replacement for his magelock pistol, at the very least. Though frankly between it and the war scythe, he would not like to get into any actual combat while they were magically suppressed, and so would be focusing on his job just as he said he would.

”We really do need to sort out the logistics of this place. Some of these weapons don’t even have ammo” he said, not as a complaint but as a statement of intent.

Sagi looked up from her notes, this time regarding Edward with a raised eyebrow.

“I realize you must have only recently been destoried, but do you know how many different kinds of ballistic weapons there are in this world? How many different kinds of ammunition they use? If you have a supply request, by all means let me know, but I thank you not to question my methods. We’re all working with what we’ve got,” she said. She didn’t seem upset, but she did speak more slowly as though that would get her words through to Edward better.

”and I shall endeavor to improve what you have to work with as best I can” the Dreadnought replied smoothly, attempting to smooth over the way he had misspoken rather than directly apologies for his ignorance, before segueing into a way he might be able to assist: ”Speaking of, there is another reason I am here which may make your life just a bit more hectic I can imagine, but it should be of some value to operations”

As he did this, he pulled out a smaller, lesser tome of magic, flipping through the pages, and then setting it down on the bench, revealing an arcane ritual detailed as a set of schematics, which he proceeded to explain.

”If you allow me to set this up, it will be able to provide remote armory access to anyone anywhere in the world who has been properly aligned to our faction via a simple binding spell. They will then be able to summon objects from the armory, which will prompt them to be teleported to them post haste” he explained the upside, before getting to the slight downside which was ”Unfortunately, while they can send things back, the process is a touch more involved. I can invest suitable power here, you see, to power the transfer near instantly, but on field operations will gather that power more slowly and so the returning ritual will take several seconds to complete. Still very useful, you might agree, but not so for rapid equipment swapping like Princess Midna performs unfortunately”

Edward Level up

Imperial Armory: the user can designate a medium sized location (such as a royal vault or set of storage rooms) to be his armory, and can make it so that anyone in his confidence can gain instant access to anything found therein from anywhere in the world. This can include anything from consumables to weapons, armor, and even personal transportation such as mounts or vehicles, as long as they actually fit in the designated locations.
However, putting things back is a more involved process, requiring a small ritual that the armory itself can avoid due to the power invested in it. This makes it better for retrieving the tools specifically needed for the job than hot swapping out equipment on the fly, unless the person using it is willing to throw away the team’s shared supplies.

Though the silver haired woman read through the ritual notes with some interest, as she listened to Edward’s explanation her expression gradually flattened into a frown.

“This sounds like it could easily lead to an organizational nightmare,” she said. She didn’t mind people coming in and taking what they needed while leaving what they didn’t - that was what the armory and stockpile was there for after all. But she was able to easily keep track of everything when she was present and speaking with said people. If she let Edward perform his magic, then anyone could take anything at any time. However, she did understand the major benefits of such a ritual. It took a few moments as Sagi thought it over, then she turned to face Edward, holding her clipboard to her chest.

“I may allow it… though I do have some questions first. When items are transported back here, can you specify where they end up? It won’t do to have them randomly dropped around the room. And can the ritual be reversed or blocked? Either on the whole or an individual basis? On that note, can people be transported? You never know if someone will turn coat, become possessed, lose their mind to someone else’s whims, fall back into Galeem’s hold…” she went on to list a number of unfortunate things that could befall anyone that would be granted access to the armory, and therefore access to the Avenger - and endangering the ship was something she would not tolerate even if the pros of ritual access outweighed the cons.

Very good at her job, Edward concluded, before going down the list, specifically by flicking the tomes pages and finding additional lists of additional information: ”Naturally the spell involves designating arrival areas for received items, which comes with an arcane control circles to vet what is being received. Notably the control circles can be accessed anywhere in the ritual space, or with some additional work they can be bound to an object for remote access beyond the confines of the designated chambers. This allows for the creation of secured, sealed, chambers to be used to contain any hypothetical cursed artifacts, primed explosives or the like”

”The same controle circles can be used to approve the addition of, or remove access from, any individuals from the armory access spells, which need to be passed on from one access holder to the next. Preventing enthralled, converted, or hostile reanimated heroes was very much a known concern” he explained. Looting the enemy armory was more or less the first thing any fledgling warlord thought of upon capturing one of their foe’s champions after all, so measures had to be taken to prevent such things. As for shutting it down entirely, well, he was entirely aware that he was a potential weak link, and so explained that ”The magic will also be bound here, specifically, so if you need to destroy it due to myself being compromised, you will very much be able to do so”

As for the limitations of what could be transported, he was very insistent that it should include ”No people. Living minds do not take kindly to the process, and while a being intended to be used as steeds could be prepared to endure the exposure to the astral sea, performing such a process would damage the capacity for autonomy. There is another ritual that can be used to that, but the infrastructure for that is far more intensive”

Sagi committed all of the answers to mind, and to paper as she copied some of the information in the man's tome down. With these contingencies built into the ritual, Edward's proposal was a lot more palatable for the Avenger's quartermaster. After she was finished writing her notes, Sagi tapped her pen against the writing surface a few times as she considered the matter. Ultimately this would be helpful, she decided, and told Edward the good news.

"Alright, I'm satisfied. I'll get an arrival area set up properly... hm, let's put it over here," she said, leading him over to a spot she deemed would be good for it.

”Excellent, then let us begin”
The rituals were both surprisingly complex and yet also straightforward. No great expenditures of magic or gratuitous scribbling of magic symbols all over. Instead the man simply went to the four corners of the room, traced a rhythmic gesture in the air that quickly vanished in each, before returning to the center and making a clean and simple statement: ”I claim this place, in the name of the commonwealth. Let all who serve its glorious name lay claim to the contents, such that they may build a brighter future for all”
There was no great flash or explosion of sound, no sudden magic bond held by all. Instead the man simply held out a hand to Sagi, a circle forming in it, and it was then that she felt a connection offered.
”Now you simply, copy me and-” the executed the same simple ritual to call up the screen again, ”-there you have it”

---

The Dreadnaught exited out of the armory and out into the vehicle bay where he expected to find some people waiting to set off, having gotten their affairs in order. While that might have been the case, what stood out was a woman who had apparently decided here was the place she would be getting her affairs in order, namely Princess Minda, who was doing her best to repair a giant bipedal canine skeleton, as well as its buckled armor.

He was fairly certain that the hulking undead had fallen from a great height and shattered its lower legs in the process, something he’d seen more than one over eager shocktrooper do to themselves in an attempt to get a (literal) drop on their enemy.

”I was unaware you were also a necromancer” he commented with forced casualness, not exactly the greatest fan of such sorceries. While hypothetically usable for good, an undead was functionally an automaton after all, they tended not to be due to how many dark paths to power it held, tempting the practitioner into doing vile deeds in the name of whatever goal they had.

”I dabble” the princess replied with a wiggle of one hand as she used the other three to carefully stuck shards of bone back in place ”But this is my only undead right now, and also my most durable summon, so try not to get to upset about it. You won’t find me toying around with skull and bone much otherwise”

She then glanced up at him, took one look at the mismatched weapon combo he’d acquired (not to mention how it barely fit on his person due to both being so awkwardly shaped and sized compared to what they were replacing) and gave a snort of a laugh.

”That’s the best you could do to replace your magic guns? Hang on let me see if I have stuff stashed away that will work for you” before she looped up and away, presumably seeing her own personal armory through some magic means.

”That would be appreciated-” Edward began to reply, but Midna already had found what she thought he needed.

She produced a Machete and Pistol and ‘Viral Rifle’ for him, more or less perfectly finding replacements for the equipment he wasn’t going to be able to use in the magic suppression field. Suspiciously perfectly, in his opinion.

”Made a lot of use of these?” he asked as she handed him the equipment.

”Haven't touched the sword and pistol, and the rifles, eh, not had much luck hitting stuff with those. Also I really don‘t like how you can shoot either healing or harming shots from it, it's- just begging for shooting the wrong person with the wrong thing” a light pause in her words making him very worried she might have in fact done that already

”That. Yes. The entire design goes against a basic firearm safety principle” the Dreadnought agreed, and then was quietly horrified when she had no idea what he was talking about.

”Remind me to give you some pointers on that, but, for one, do not ever point a gun at something you don’t want to destroy. For right now, I’ll have to politely decline the offer of this weapon. I would need to acquire straps for it anyhow” he decided, before inquiring ”Do you have more firearms?” more to assess just how much of a risk this amateur in firearms was going to present rather than seeking a replacement.

”A fair few. Plus a few other blades if you want more options, though they are all weird. I never get a straight forward sword or scimitar for some reason.” she replied, missing his intention thankfully, which confirmed his suspicions that she was holding on to a lot of items for herself, which prompted him to ask ”Have you considered donating some to the armory?”

”A few, but we’re basically never here, and I tend to break or throw or lose the less important ones so having spares is always good” she replied casually, apparently not at all concerned about the casual attrition of the Seeker’s supplies of equipment.

”If its having replacements on hand while on campaign that is your worry, I have just made an improvement to the armory that should let you stop-” he paused and chose his words carefully ”-needing to hold on to so much redundant weaponry”

”Uh uh? Hoarding you mean? Fine, show me” she replied, cutting right through his attempt at tact this time. Rather than beleaguer the point, in instead simply did so, linking her to the system and showing her how it worked. ”Slower to use than my portals, so I’m still going to hold on to some spares, but I suppose I can toss a few more things in there”

‘A few’ turned out to be exactly what she offered, adding a pistol, rifle, pair of grenades and a bizarre gun-sword hybrid to the armory (which were sent back (a whole half dozen meters) along with the plasma pistol and war scythe she had admittedly just replaced for him). Edward would have pushed her for more, assuming correctly that the woman was holding onto a fair amount out of self interest, but that topic was derailed when she summoned two bizarre mechanical contraptions which were, apparently, called motorbikes.

”Think these’ll go work with your summoning magic? They’re like mechanical horses in a sense, though much much faster” she explained, which at least answered the question he’d had in the back of his mind as to what this machine’s sibling (that belonged to Juri apparently) currently sitting in the vehicle bay was.

”The Amory can be used to summon steeds so… hmmm… Well, we might as well see how well the formulas adapt to adding these ‘vehicles’ to the equation” he pondered, before setting out to apply the same ritual he had to the armory to the vehicle bay as well. It helped that they were right next to each other, adding a bunch of intervening corridors would have been quite the mess.

”Looks like its worked” Midna confirmed as she checked the menu and found the newly added room’s content showing up the list, before adding that ”bet the Captain is going to be happy about this, I have no idea how we were going to get any use out of that thing without it being my responsibility” she jerked a thumb towards the Blue Falcon.

”Excellent.” the Dreadnought declared, dusting off his hands, before saying that ”In that case all that remains is to wait for everyone to arrive, so I can make a quick announcement/induction into the system before we set off”

”You can help me put some bones together till then, then. Actually, with that striker of yours, I can probably skip waiting for Blazermate once I’ve put all the pieces back in pace” she told him, simply (and correctly) assuming he’d help.

---

”Before we set off, I’d like to take a moment to inform you that I have augmented the Armory and Vehicle Bay with a summoning and sending enchantment that will give us remote access to them” Edward stepped in to inform everyone on the heels of the information regarding how they’d be getting down there. He followed this up by offering to link everyone up, giving a quick tutorial on how to use the system, and the quirks of it, and then giving his reason for why he thought this would be relevant which was: ”I’d recommend depositing anything that might not work due to magic suppression, or indeed items that will slow us down, behind. They can then simply be remotely retrieved once we enter the tree and disable the magic suppressor”

He also had one more addition to their base equipment, thanks to Midna doing some assessing of the gear he had received from his spirits, which the princess had taken possession of keeping track of: ”we’ve also acquired an item called a ‘Giant's Canopy’ which we believe will be able to block the rain entirely for 30 seconds, so if there comes a moment where we need all our magic, that will be an option to temporarily replace the suppression field”

After that, it was time to pick up equipment, which prompted a slight issue caused by his new wings. Not only did the raincoat need some dramatic altering (via cutting holes in the back) but the personal shield pack was meant for the back too, and so ended up awkwardly strapped to his waist. It had to share space with a BB as well, resulting in quite a busy setup to say the least.

That would have been fine, he was used to carrying his own gear as much for self reliance as to connect with the troops while on campaign, but everything seemed much more precious with a baby strapped to his chest.

”Well then. Hello Mario” he said awkwardly to the infant that had been identified by the short turtle person, receiving a wave from baby Mario in response. Which was not at all disconcerting.

It must have shown on his face, because an armored up and tree spear carrying Midna agreed with his unvoiced sentiment that was ”Yeah, this does not feel right does it”

”No, no it does not” he concurred, before saying that ”I hope putting children in the line of fire this is not normal for this organization” which received the beginning of a shake of the head before she had to concede that ”Well I mean there is Bowser Junior” which resulted in a whispered argument/discussion that took them most of the flight to the dead zone.

Once there, both of them focused on the task at hand, having at least agreed that Minda was going to be the backup BB carrier should anything happen to him, prompting her to stick close to him for the duration of the mission.

With regard to said mission, Edward had thoughts about the way they should proceed with it:

”We should adopt a consistent policy as to how to warn people about the presence of these BTs. I propose we use the tree as a set landmark, and then use angles from it to point out threats, rather than attempting to use gestures or references to terrain or personal location” he recommended, as he moved to the front of the group, in order to give a demonstration of his reference method.

”For example, if I were to say say ‘90 degrees right, 40 meters’ then I’d be identifying a location that would be 40 meters to my right if I was facing the tree, irregardless of my actual facing at that moment” he gestured with an arm to additionally denote the example location.

”If we do this, it should let us better chart a path rather than simply denoting which ones are closest as these devices to” he added, referring to the odradek attached to the BB container.

”As for movement, I recommend a staggered advance. Two carriers on each side. One keeps watch, the other moves forwards in tandem to the field moving forwards. Then we all stop and let those look outs catch up, before repeating the process”

With his statement delivered, only time would tell if it got picked up, and he turned his focus from any resulting discussion to keeping watch. That was his main task after all. A task made all the harder by the constant rain slicking his ad-hockley modified coat, and sodding through his wings, rendering them more or less just a burden rather than a help to navigating the slick terrain, other than maybe adjusting his balance.

In contrast Minda, who moved up beside him, was going to have less of a problem. Clawed mechanical boots offered good grip despite being heels, her tail helped with balance, and the spear she was carrying was being used as a walking stick much like Sandalphon was using her gunstaff. Still she looked a bit unsteady despite this, the women seeming to have less grip than she should on the slick surfaces.

”Something I got ages ago made everything more slippery, and the field’s messing with the way I’ve been compensating” she explained (the latter presumably referring to the purple claws on her feet who’s purple hue had dulled since they entered the field) when he asked about it, before insisting ”But I’ll still watch my step and yours, and you focus on tracking BTs and keeping mario safe”

”Appreciated” he replied, before returning his eyes to the horizon, surveying the terrain for foes.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

The Capital - Nieve - Red Light District

“Go away!” Rayne shouted at the butterflies as her blasting at their mistress switched to blasting at the swarm of butterflies due to the latter getting in the way of her primary target. With how many of them there were, there was at last no end to the amount of mana globules being spawned, though the issue was that. Said issue was that she had to get close to them to absorb them, which would mean getting close to the butterflies and, well, they were losing ground.

Especially once Rayne’s triple shot sputtered out.

“No no no” Rayne half panicked, though not for her own safety it seemed, as she turned towards and stretched out to Sanae and began to call out “Link with me! I can at least get you out of here alive!” only for that defeatist plan to be put on hold when their foe screeched out in outrage at the appearance of a new ally.

Or, as Rayne realized as the blue-haired woman spoke her response to their foe in a familiar voice, it was, as far as Rayne was aware, the miraculous return of “Qing!”

The Witch Knight cried out in delight, both at the women’s survival, and for her impact on the battle, which turned a hopeless situation into one filled with opportunity.

In Rayne’s case that opportunity was tunnels opening up in the swarm, holes filled with the mana globules of their fallen swarm-mate, into which the witch-knight dashed to seize hold of that power. Spell one was turning her magic shots into a flame tower like stream. Spell 2 an automated turret that copied that stream. Spell 3, a barrage of bombs that dropped down and cleared the space below them. Spell 4, two massive wrecking balls launching out to the side.

With each burst of power, more space was cleared in the discordant swarm, exposing more mana for the furnace of burning spell cards, leaving Sanae more clear to execute her prayer for divine intervention.

And what an intervention it was.

If her own goddess could have done, or paid attention enough to do, such things, who knew what problems her world could have solved before it was too late.

Rayne was going to have to ask them for tips on how to goddess correctly, assuming she was still in place to assume divinity upon returning home, because of all the ones she’d been blessed o(or ‘blessed’) to be influenced by, Sanae’s patrons were certainly winning when it came to straightforward helpfulness.

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

Bless This Mess - Sandalphon, Zenkichi, Edward, Ganondorf, Primrose

Word count: 2286 (+3)

Edward Portsmith acquired himself some good old fashioned bangers and mash (admittedly the silver flecked with gold ginger was not a standard coloration of said meal) and did his best to avoid any wing related accidents as he sought out a seat. The new appendages were very much a thing he was debating on whether to keep or not after the nuisance they had been to sleep in.

They were also, as it turned out, awkward to sit in, which is why the man picked himself an empty table to avoid inflicting the process of trying to fit the flappers against the backrest comfortably without batting any neighbors with them. Sandalphon joined him soon after.

The King of Evil’s breakfast was a lot more modest than one might expect. Rather than a lavish feast like one would expect a royal to eat, his plate instead contained a simple omelet with chicken-sausage wrapped within, and a side of toasted bread with cheese on it. Even his choice of drink was a surprisingly humble mug of apple cider, albeit the mug was indeed of a size big enough to suit someone of his stature. Perhaps he was more of a drinker than an eater? Or maybe it was because the Gerudo hadn’t just come to the table to eat. He also had a handful of parchments placed out next to where his plate was sitting, and he himself appeared to be reading them over while he ate his meal.

”I believe you might be interested to see this.” Ganondorf said with a gesture toward Sandalphon followed by tapping the parchments on the table before pushing them across the table for her to read for herself. ”Communications between a bandit faction in the Sandswept Sky and Consul H.” He let the designation of the Consul inquisition hang in the air a bit due to the implications before adding the confirmation. ”The one who was supposed to have been killed, I believe? Well it seems he’s still alive after all.”

The archangel, who’d been making slow progress on her food so far despite the extra honey, seemed immediately attentive to the new intelligence. “H,” she repeated. “If memory serves, Dawn alluded to H when she met us in Ballyhoo’s Big Top following our games. She mentioned that the Avenger’s scanners detected the launch of a Bastion Fleet Carrier -possibly the same one that assaulted Alcamoth- in the vicinity of Zurvan Amp Station, a New Conglomerate base in the northern reaches of the eastern desert. We assumed the worst-case scenario, that H himself had mobilized it in response to the encounter with Z, but we could not confirm.” She nodded at Ganondorf. “This does confirm our suspicions, then. Both Consuls who attacked Alcamoth returned home unscathed.” After a moment, she tried to put a positive spin on her next statement. “At the very least, our sources indicate that L has ceased hostility following her defeat.”

Zenkichi, who himself had a plate with an omelet and rice, the former drizzled with a bit of ketchup, shook his head. ”Well, that's a shame. But given that they brought enough people to take down Alcamoth, I guess I can't say I'm too surprised. I'm just glad we got out of there before having to deal with another Consul fight. Three in one day was a few too many…” Between Y, C, and Z, Zenkichi could go the rest of his life without seeing a Consul and be happy about it.

“Good morning, detective,” Sandalphon took the time to say, though she did not go any more in depth into pleasantry than that. “Luckily, we have been moderately successful in minimizing contact with Moebius since then. Yesterday’s brief encounter with Consul Ɪ is the exception. With our comrades’ presence in Mafia Town discovered, their evacuation last night was timely.” Even in this state the archangel could talk non-stop if she wanted to, so she made a conscious effort to pipe down and make progress on her meal.

”I don’t suppose there is a glossary available which would let me brush up on half the terminology you just used? The information I’ve received has been rather grapeshot in nature” Edward asked after looking mildly bemused during the conversation that had just been had, making this request entirely straight face.

Upon hearing the request, Sandalphon’s pupils immediately changed to loading rings. “Just a moment.”

After acquiring their own plates of food (humble ones when compared to some of the other Seekers), the Orsterran duo moved to sit at what could reasonably be called the "quiet table." The make-up of the other three seemed to consist of the rowdier members of their group, and it didn't seem like the early hour was going to make any difference there. Primrose arrived first, gracefully taking a seat while she set her plate down. Before Therion got the chance, the table's last chair was snatched away by a witch. He blinked at the woman, then with a silent sigh dragged himself over to another table.

Hiding her amusement behind her coffee mug, Primrose took a long drink. The warmth spread through her, perking her up after the earlier meeting.

"Good morning," she greeted everyone, eyeing the documents Ganondorf had spread over a section of the table. Then she glanced at the gray-winged man, offering him a sympathetic smile. "I'm afraid not. To my knowledge anyway. Though creating an informational pamphlet has been discussed."

She paused to lift a cuberry to her mouth. Mm, it's good. "I'm sure someone has gone over the... more important things with you? Though if you were curious about anything else, I suppose before we leave would be the time to ask. Mr...?"

”Portsmith-” the man replied crisply, before adding ”Edward Portsmith to be exact.” and then tapping a finger on the table twice has he fought, before coming up with a question.

”I am aware of the broad strokes of the objective and the opposition, though these were delivered under battlefield conditions and such there was little fine detail involved” he explained, ”I am aware this is not exactly time for a detailed run down on the state of the war either, what with the impending deployment, so I’ll keep the purview of my question related to that”

That question turned out to be a very practical one, namely ”How, exactly, would you describe the threat level of these Consuls, Guardians, and this ‘Master Hand’?”

“They are all servants of Galeem in some way, but Guardians merely exist, while Consuls enforce its will, albeit without direct guidance. We know precious little about Master Hand, but out of all our foes it seems most akin to Galeem’s direct subordinate. Here, perhaps this will help.” As her processing came to an end, Sandalphon waved her left hand in front of her, summoning a two-dimensional screen of softly glowing yellow, like a tapestry woven in midair. At her bidding the screen collapsed, but after casting her hand at Edward it expanded in front of him within arm’s reach. Listed therein were dozens and dozens of terms, each with a plus sign that could be pressed to expand the section, which revealed a definition and links to related entries. The miraculous page even came with a search bar, which would automatically tap further into Sandalphon’s powers to create a keyboard.

“This is all the non-sensitive information I have about the key players in this conflict, including those you mentioned,” the archangel told Edward. “I regret that you cannot take it with you, but as long as we’re in proximity, this interface can be used to partake in what I know.” With that she returned her attention to her breakfast, her focus unnecessary.

Primrose hummed in appreciation. "You've been busy," she told the archangel. "Is this something you've been working on, or did you just create it now?"

Edward certainly considered it ”Fascinating” as he was immediately all over this wondrous creation. He tapped open a few terms, and then upon seeing the depth of information on offer, pulled out a small journal within which he began jotting key facts down.

Zenkichi hummed at Primrose’s comment, swallowing a spoonful of rice. Not sure about that one specifically, but busy doesn't even begin to describe it. She's been doing research nearly nonstop since we got picked up. " He stopped short of describing the state Sandalphon's overworking had put her in, but gave the archangel a small smile, commiserating in the plight of an overworked professional having to hunt down every little detail to put together intel. Somewhat surprised by his expression, Sandalphon couldn’t help but smile in return, which looked a little silly with a full mouth.

”Then again, the kids and I took down J over in Shibuya, so…can't exactly say I took it easy, myself." That comment was more for the sake of Edward and Ganondorf, to help keep them up to speed on that front. His earlier melancholy about how that venture ended had mostly abated, but to say it vanished would be inaccurate, and a slight pull at his features betrayed it.

The dancer's gaze flickered over to Sandalphon. She seemed better today, but last night when she'd come to greet the Seekers at Meridi-at-Han she did have a weary look to her. It was hard to say for sure of course, given that Primrose still wasn't very familiar with the other woman. Primrose then glanced back at Zenkichi and the lines drawn by the expression on the older man's face.

"Hmm. Don't over do it, we've still got a long road ahead of us," she said. She lifted her drink to her lips again, adding to herself, and a time limit to walk it.

“Nevertheless, we cannot afford to waste any of the precious days we’re given,” Sandalphon pronounced, her pupils stress marks. “For any of us, tomorrow could be our last.” Her grave sentiment seemed to echo Primrose’s unspoken addendum, though one could not in good faith call that accidental. When the archangel looked over at the dancer, however, her eyes were back to normal. As normal as hers could ever be, anyway. “To answer your question, it’s all stored up here.” She extended a slender finger to tap her temple, her pupils shifting through a dozen symbols in the span of a second. “It takes some time to sift through and make presentable, but I can recollect and redistribute anything I’ve learned. 9S once called it a ‘photographic memory’, though if you’re anything like I was, you likely lack the context to give that phrase meaning.”

"You're right," Primrose admitted easily. "Though I've learned a few things. I think I get it." It was an impressive skill, superior to even the most learned scholars.

”and I look forward to learning them” Edward commented over the sound of a quill quietly scribbling across the pages. Notably it was not the one he had started with, as the man had harvested one of his own new feathers to keep writing when the old one broke. The ink meanwhile flowed endlessly, painting characters in hues of steel as it engraved the knowledge in sorcerous scripture.

His food sat mostly untouched as a result.

”As for time, it is certainly a fine line to walk. Particularly as overexertion can be just the invitation your end is waiting for” he added, before pausing his writing looking up at Sandalphon and saying ”So while I appreciate this greatly” referring to the terminal ”please do not see my enthusiasm for this wondrous technology as motivation for more overwork. I have plenty of other research material to fill my time with”

By this time, Ganondorf had read all he wanted to on the parchments and stacked them back together so they would take up less room on the table as more began to gather there. That and he wanted to finish his meal before it got too cold. So he began cutting bites out of his omelet and taking occasional swigs from his rustic mug of cider. ”I kept my own interactions with Moebius to a minimum as well.” He reported in case anyone was curious about it. ”But I did fight a war against one of their proxies. A faction of bandits with little to no leadership structure, except for one man who called himself their king. They had numbers, but not much else beyond that. Defeating them was practically child’s play.”

Sandalphon wondered what purpose that served, given the World of Light’s cyclical system of slaughter and repopulation, but she did not do so aloud. No good would come of courting conflict with Ganondorf, after all. His aura of darkness, so much like a demon’s, still made her reluctant to interact with him at all, so she opted to spare them both unnecessary conversation. Of course, with everyone’s attention split between their meals and Sandalphon’s study material, the archangel’s silence contributed to the conversation at her table trailing off. She and her comrades had a lot to think about, after all, and not much time before their mission began. Once the Seekers burst back onto the scene from their week-long hiatus, anything could happen.

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

wordcount: 1,542 (+3) (+15 for all for bounties) (M&E +4 from colab)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(189/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(108/100)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (180/100)
Edward Portsmith: Level 2 //////////////////// (38/20)
Location: The Avenger

A girl wearing swimwear and two lumps of crude metal who’s ends were twisted into snarling human toothed maws filled with guns skimmed across the waves. Around her sailed her twisted sisters, some looking just like her, others deformed and barely humanoid, all of them paling when compared to the terrible beauty of the railgun tailed princess commanding the assault.

Their target was a luxirouse vessle that had foolishly sailed into their waters, and yet what should have been a soft target had turned out to be anything but. Onboard the ship, an eclectic force returned fire with arrows, lasers, bullets, sorcery and more, their deadly rain cutting down the fleet’s forces with frightful ease.

The girl saw her sisters’ bodies shattered, melted, and punctured as they fell around her, familiar reflections suffering familiar fates.

Then she saw her own death.

A figure, unknown to the girl then and yet well known to the girl (or so she had thought anyway) now stomped over to the side of the ship she was attacking, hoisting a massive fireball cannon over his shoulder. With a pair of roars from weapon and wielder, the oversized weapon fired, and the memory came to an end.

That one hurt a bit more than the previous ones.

Then yet another began.

Enemy ship girls, sea monsters, grineer troopers, actual full sized war ships and more all put an end to the girl. Over and over and over death came, and over and over the system remade her to be fodder.

There was no towering height before a Consul cut her down, no running away to live a peaceful life in some quiet backwater. There was no story that was her own to remember, because this was it. This, out of so many lives, untold re-spawns, was the only time she had ever been anything more than a pawn with a lifespan measured in weeks at most.

Next time it would be more of the same.

It was that, not the replays, that was the real nightmare. The lives, real or imagined, blurred together until everything clarified into the sight of a spiky shelled turtle walking away from her as everything she was now turned to ash, rotting away, revealing the infinitely replaceable peon within.

Then it ended with a light slap on her cheek.

Rika’s eyes blinked open sleepily and she tried to move, only to find herself more or less ensnared in blankets as a result of her tossing and turning. She groaned quietly, and then her eyes found the scribbled face of a haunted patchwork Pikachu doll staring at her from where it was perched on her shoulder.

That had really freaked her out the first time it had happened, but now she just moved her eyes down to where Mimi the mimikyu’s actual eyes where (namely in the doll’s torso) and found them looking concerned,

Rika (that was her name, she had one, she’d picked it, it was hers) made a incomprehensible grunt of ”mnya before sighing and trying to getting her vocal cords to actually work so she could apologized for waking the mon, only for it to push the cotton filled head of its disguise forwards to rub against her cheek.

She sighed again, staying still and enjoying the moment for a moment, before glanced over at the other bed where a spiky turtle shell lay atop a pillow alongside two other pokemon. A soft muffled snoring came from within the shell, while a bubble inflated and deflated at Dazzle’s nose, and Peeka’s spectral form was clipping through the mattress in a way it somehow found comfortable

She was relieved that she hadn’t woken anyone else.

”Thanks“ the ship girl managed to say drowsily to Mimi, sleep coming for her again, before scooping up the little eldritch horror that had woken her from her nightmares in her arms, and cuddling it while she drifted back to sleep.

Her second harvest was fortunately/sadly a much more meager crop of night terrors than the first.

---

In another room, Edward tossed and turned as well (though for him this was mostly due to trying to work out how in the world you slept in a bed comfortably when you had two massive feathery wings sticking out your back) while in a third Midna dreamed of her past life as conqueror of the Dead Zone again, mind drifting to and from battles fought in places that no longer where.

Blessedly the alarm went off before the dream could reach the fatal encounter with D, but even dreaming of that place reminded her of him, and that was not, in her mind, a good omen for the mission it turned out they were going to be going on.

Edward arrives at that meeting by virtue of operating under military time schedules and sharing a room with a man who did the same, and who seemed disinterested in small talk. Midna got there on time thanks to shadow hopping from her room to the briefing in no time at all after initially running late (her new sea of hair was an absolute face to keep tidy). Finally, Rika and Jr were late thanks to the former soldier needing to badger the spoiled prince into not just going back to sleep after the alarm had finished going off.

The yawning sleepy eyed prince got a pair of wake-up calls in short order however.

The first was the knowledge that they were going back to the dead zone (he’d muffled Hope’s announcement with a pillow), which he’d only been in very briefly, and had very much not enjoyed during that short stint. Neither had the other Koopas during their varying length trips to it, which cemented his distaste for the place.

Rika had heard about those misadventures second hand as well, commenting ”That’s the place Papa really didn’t like, right? So isn’t it kinda good that it got exploded?”

”yeahhhh, but now we gotta clean up the mess, urgh” he grumbled back quietly, only for the second shock to really wake him up properly.

Midna, Edward and many others might have balked at the use of infants of all things as detection devices, but for Jr it was the specific infants that he took issue with, namely: ”what, no way I’m going to carry Mario around like some kind of yoshi! Not him, not Luigi, not Peach or Rosalina!” and not just because caring around his Papa’s worst enemy around in the same way Kamek’s one had done felt a bit like a betrayal. No, the real reason he was indigent was because ”Those babies can walk. And drive! And all sorts of stuff! Hanging out in pods like that is just being lazy”

That certainly got him some befuddled stares from Minda and Edward at least, neither able to really handle the absurdity of this outburst (also, when it came down to it, knowing the names of the infants just made the entire situation worse).

”The sensor things look pretty heavy though” Rka suggested, but Jr just huffed and said ”If he can swing a baseball bat and get a home run he can handle a sensor thing” with a level of spite that made it pretty clear who’d been on the opposing team when that home run was hit

Edward coughed awkwardly in an attempt to put anything between that fever dream of a conversation and his own words, before saying ”Well. Given that without access to magic I will be of considerably less help, I suppose I could handle taking care of one of the young fellow’s… associates”

”Enemies” Jr clarified pointedly, earning him an ”I… See…” from Edward before he went on ”at any rate, my focusing entirely on the BT detection task will free up other less magic focused to handle the combat side of things, assuming there is even anything alive to fight alive in this wasteland”

”If there is, then it's good I’ve gotten better at stabbing things then, because I’d have been useless without magic before all my fusions” Minda commented, mostly because she had some tangentially relevant info/scheming to provide ”Speaking of: D is one of the Consuls of the Dead Zone, and I expect he won’t be happy about his energy source being wiped off of the map. He killed me in a past life when I was riding high on demonic power, annihilated an army I conjured effortlessly with his sorcery. Those magic suppression fields might let us turn the table on him, if we can get one and some physical fighters close to him” a notion she grinned with glee about.

There was nothing wrong with wanting a bit of revenge after all, at least as far as the princess was concerned.

With Jr refusing to carry things despite his own magic reliance, and Rika very much on the far end of the useful without magic end of the spectrum, that was all their contributions to the mission sorted out. Which meant it was time for breakfast, a most important meal both to fuel the mission and, for Edward, as a chance to meet and observe the very strange group of people he was now working with.

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

Edelgard von Hresvelg, Edward Portsmith, & Midna

Skyworld -> The Avenger

Word Count: 3494 words (+4) (+2 rapport to each)

The moment Roxas’s friend heart made contact with Edelgard, she was slammed with memories of Fodlan. Her life flashed before her eyes, from the torture she endured under Those Who Slither in the Dark, to the years of war she had plagued her beloved land with for the sake of its future. Memories of her teacher, her friends, of a Fodlan finally united with the totalitarian reign of the Church of Seiros destroyed.

All gone. Torn away for whatever sick, twisted game she was being used as a pawn in. Bile burned in the back of her throat as Edelgard forced herself to her feet, a dark look in her eyes as she witnessed Absalom’s defeat. How much time had she spent fighting somebody else’s war? Being used in a fight not her own? Angels? Demons?! What dark magic had taken her mind that she couldn’t see how preposterous the world around her had become?

Perhaps more unsettling than that were the eyes of the celebrating angels around her. She had almost balked at the violent red glow in the eyes of one of her Black Eagles. And wasn’t that such a sick joke as well? Enough of her had remained to name these faceless hordes of monsters after her class? Her friends?! Palutena’s voice cut through the celebrations, and it took almost all of Edelgard’s resolve not to scream at the disembodied voice that had used her. Did Lady-did Palutena even know? Was she another victim of whatever was happening, or the puppetmaster? And why did these newcomers, these so-called Seekers all lack that same ominous glow in their eyes?

She had to know more. The man who had appeared from the sky offered an array of some sort of backpack to the Seekers, telling them that it was their way back to the ‘Avenger’. She could only assume that was their ship. Was it what had blown away the clouds earlier? The unseen force that had worried her so? Before she approached them, however, she went to where Absalom had fallen, plucking the Source of Corruption’s Spirit from its final resting place. ”Foul demon. Perhaps something could be made of you.”

”Seekers of Light!” She cried out, striding towards the others. ”Thank you for your assistance. Must you leave so soon?”

”The Avenger probably shouldn’t stick around any one place for very long” Midna stepped forward to inform her somewhat unhelpfully.

”and the Avenger is…” Edward, who had somehow both returned from being AWOL and was among the Skeer’s number given his lack of glowing eyes, asked as he followed after her.

”An invisible flying ship, which we get to by strapping these to ourselves” the princess replied, a touch cryptically as she portaled in and then tossed a fulton device at each of the newly recruited humans.

”and these will do that how…?” Edward again began to ask, only for Midna to give an incredibly quick crash course in how to strap one of the devices to herself with a ”like this” before adding that they should pull a specific cord ”like this” and then promptly shooting up skywards.

”Ah. Well.” the dreadnought said as they both watched her, and a few of the other seekers, blasting off into the air, before glancing back at his fellow freshly unstoried compatriot and saying, not without sympathy, ”Welcome to, roughly, the last half hour or so of my life.”

Edelgard’s eyes had grown to the size of saucers in trying to contemplate the sheer density of the information she had been given. As one of the Black Eagle angels approached to offer Edelgard a hand in returning to Skyworld, she shook her head. ”Inform Lady Palutena that, for the time being, I must accompany the Seekers. She will understand, I’m certain.” The Feathershield was surprised, to say the least, but nonetheless saluted and returned to the others.

”I suppose…shall we?” Edelgard asked confusedly, her fulton now ‘equipped.’

”Answers lay skyward it seems” Edward agreed as he too strapped in, before adding that ”And yes, she will. Apparently she is free from… the red light as well.”

Edelgard’s eyes narrowed at Edward’s revelation regarding Palutena, but after a moment she shook her head. He said ‘free’, implying that she had, at some point, been under the same influence they all apparently had. ”I see. Then, let us not tarry any further.”

”Yes I suppose n-” Edward began, as he moved to tug at the cord of the now secured device, only for his last word to be drawn out into a ”oooooooooooooot” as he was rapidly whisked away skywards

---

The first fultoning unsurprisingly did a number on the pair of fresh recruits, and so Eleison had to wait a fair little bit before delivering his spiel, but deliver it he did nonetheless. It, unfortunately, did not really cover the specifics that Edelgard might have wanted.

Indeed, Eleison’s speech was blatantly not intended for the newcomers among them, but given that the person who would have normally greeted them was apparently otherwise indisposed, she supposed it was understandable. Still, Edelgard was very confused, and voiced that confusion. ”Who are the Lost Numbers? And what is this…place? You said the Avenger was your ship, but this is unlike any ship I could even begin to imagine.” Edelgard half-asked, half-demanded the Seekers around her.

”Indeed. The sheer mass it must in order to have had to be able to cause that disturbance, how in the world does it work?” Edward asked, equally if not more awed by the machine they were now in thanks to his magitech background.

The first round of questions stopped Eleison mid-way through leaving, freezing him in place as he realized and then considered the newcomers’ predicament. While the others exchanged words, the gears in his head turned, and after a moment he turned back to them with his hands clasped. “Forgive me. You must be new. I’m not really an ambassador here; that typically falls to Ms. Lockheart. But as the resident healer, I can definitely recommend that you all keep calm, have a deep breath, and take it slow.” He elongated the last handful of words to make the point, his palms held out in a placating manner. “I know this answer may be…unsatisfying. But there is simply too much information to take in all at once, and to be honest, you don’t need to know everything. If you’ve just been freed, then coping with the revelation is enough to deal with for a while. Stuff like ‘the Lost Numbers’ and ‘ship engines’ can wait. For now, focus on recuperation and acclimatization. Find somewhere to store your things, get some food and water, and relax.”

”Seconded. There’s lots of technical specifics, but those can wait. The lost numbers are friends, the ship works, that’s all that matters right now” Minda agreed before adding ”We'll find you rooms and… well they are shared and split by gender so that might be a complication” and then quickly conversing with Eleison to confirm that, unsurprisingly, the other team had also picked up newbies.

”Well I’m, what’s the word they used, nocturnal anyway so I can sort this out. Well. Me and-” she glanced up at the ceiling for some reason and asked ”Hope?” which surprisingly did get an answer of “yes?” from a little box mounted on one of the walls.

”Can you get the other new arrivals to group up in the Spirit chamber? Might as well make use of what Edward’s collected and answer some questions while I’m at it” she again asked, and the source-less voice replied that she could indeed do that.

”Can we at least have an answer to who that is?” Edward asked.

”Hope… controls the ship? But also is the ship. But also isn’t. Its complicated as most things are” she began, before turning and motion for them to ”walk and talk with me and I’ll give you the basics” which she did indeed do, but only so much as she could fit in the trip to the spirit chamber. The basics of Galeem, the guardians, and the Consuls were outlined, but the more, well, mind shattering stuff was left out for the sake of not having to repeat herself.

Ironically, Edelgard was less confused about an artificial intelligence than she was about the ship itself. ”So, Hope is like a golem? Albeit significantly more intelligent.” She attempted to clarify for herself and Edward.

”What are… oh like Edward’s spear constructs? Hmmm. No. Or. Ok. First, imagine one of those that was a person. We have a few people who are like that. But instead of stopping there, then remove the bit that is a person from the Golem, and make it so that it can instead be attached too less smart Golems in order to control them” she tried, having asked and only somewhat understood how it had worked, before adding the key snarl which was ”also there’s no magic involved in this process at all. Or at least no mana anyway”

”Technology running entirely magic-less fuel source?” Edward asked, and upon receiving a nod looked perhaps the most animated either of them had ever seen him as he described this as ”Fascinating. So anyone could make something like her, no spark of sorcery necessary? Assuming you did all the requisite learning of course. But still it opens up the field to so many more possible innovators and creators who would have previously been held back by their inability to touch the flows of magic. What a world of wonders they’d be able to create”

Edelgard, knowing what she did of Fodlan’s history, was more skeptical, though not entirely so. ”Or a world of horrors.” She sighed. ”Arrows capable of destroying cities, launched from miles away. Or, if one were to be more optimistic, carriages that did not require horses and could move much faster. My world contained the former, ancient weapons created by a people who were driven into hiding by our most revered goddess’s own daughter, a dragon masquerading as a woman.” Venom unlike the other two had heard before, even in battle against the Corrupted, seeped into Edelgard’s voice, before she paused and shook her head.

”My apologies. I am still…reconciling my recollection of my past. I suppose it is…refreshing…to see the good that can be done without the influence of gods and charlatans.”

”I’ve seen both in this mixed up world we’re in.” Minda replied evenly, before laying down her own philosophy ”Like all power, it's entirely about how you use it that decides if it makes dreams or nightmares come true.”

As they spoke, Hope trawled through the ship’s security network, tracking down the other new Seekers, and directed them to the princess’ impromptu late night seminar.

---

Hope’s disembodied voice found Grimm wandering the Avenger’s halls, and though the phantom entity alarmed him at first, the ship’s AI worked fast to demystify itself in order to deliver its message. In the course of his conversation with Roland, he’d gotten an introduction to spirits, but it never hurt to have more information. Plus, he would have plenty of time to go about his business for the night afterword. Thus Grimm chose to heed Hope’s summons, and before long the Troupe Master made his presence known among the mystic mechanisms of the Spirit Chamber.

Once she was fairly sure everyone had made their way to the spirit chamber, the twilight princess launched into a little spiel, which she presented from a seat atop one of the consoles in the room.

”Alright my little cuccos, this right here is where power drawn from spirits, you know those little motes everyone killed here turns into, is found” she declared, before making a few gestures at the various surrounding machines and artifacts.

”First things first, the two main draws of this room are the stabilizer” she directed a large shadow hand finger at the chamber at the center of the room, before pointing another at the rather horrible looking hat which was sat on a somewhat out of place table and called it ”this horrible looking hat” due to them not knowing its official designation as the ‘symbol of avarice’.

”The hat will make it so that any spirits you crush, which creates items if you aren't aware, will result in better outcomes. You are way more likely to get actual equipment or usable items instead of things that might be able to be made into them” she informed them, before pointing to a mid sized pot sitting next to the hat and adding ”Oh and in tandem with that, this thing here will transfer any passive enchantments from an item melted down in to you permanently. Like that shield Edward has for example”

She pointed out the bulwark strapped to the Dreadnaught’s arm and explained that ”if he put that in the pot, then the passive boosts to… I think it’s reflexes mostly… will go to him without him having to keep wearing it”

”Now, chamber meanwhile, that helps with fusion.” she added, before doing a quick segway to how that worked, saying ”Head for skills, talents, and inactive magics, heart for active abilities. To put it simply, if you have a dragon and want to breathe fire, heart, if you want to know how to fight like one, head.”

Then she got back to the point, which was ”this stabilizer chamber can reduce the way fusing tends to turn you into a mix and match mess. Do it in here and the outcomes will be a lot more consistent and nice to look at” before pointing at a strange gismo that Mis Fortune had combine a cloudy sphere with and explained that ”that works very nicely with this thing, which can pop out all the spirits in you, so you can then use them again in the stabilizer again, or ditch ones that weren't working for you. So don’t worry too much about fusing if you need it for the moment, you can always modify yourself again back here at base”

”Finally there’s apparently some entity called Vulgrim who’ll trade spirits for secrets, but I’ll be honest I haven't made use of his services yet, so you’ll have to ask someone who has if he’s actually worth tossing away potential power for” she added at last, before opening the floor for general questions, namely ”and that’s all that. I think Edward had some spirits on hand if people want to check them out, and if not, I can answer any questions you have”

The Dreadnought did indeed have some spirits on him, specifically one of every feather (damningly in his eyes) and a number of their corrupted equivalents, plus golems and false angels, most notably 3 Enraptured.

”It might be prudent to give, as examples, that I was once entirely human but, after fusing with both of these” Edward pointed to a feather shield and bow, ”have gained the wings you now see me sport. Alongside gaining this shield from a feather sword well. As well as, finally, this ‘striker’ from a feather staff” he added, pointing out the relevant angels and then summoning a copy of the feather staff for a few moments to show off that ability.

”Right. Those. Can’t get them any more due to fusion downsides, but you get those by requesting they serve you, you should only have two max if you value your lifespan, and you can store excess in that device over there” the princess added, pointing out the final fusion relevant artifact as she did so.

”Now then. Questions?”

Edelgard shook her head. She had nothing, for the moment at least. Grimm said nothing, questioning or otherwise.

”While this all is fascinating, truly it is good to know its here, I do believe such body altering decisions might be most wisely left til we are rested of mind?”

”Right right. The other reason I thought to have this little meeting is that you all need rooms. And roommates” Minda replied before explaining that simply with ”Ships low on space, so its two people per room, generally gender segregated.”

Edelgard blinked a few times. ”I would certainly hope so!”

”Well it does narrow down your options a bit doesn't it?” Midna replied with a bit of a bite in her smile, mainly because she was aware of just how interesting some of Edelgard’s roster of possible roommates was.

Moving on from that matter, Edelgard though on the Spirits she’d collected. ”I did collect some fallen Spirits that I would like to make use of.” She informed the others, walking towards the Symbol of Avarice. ”I simply don this…thing?” She tried not to sound too disgusted, but failed to disguise the apprehension she had as she placed the Symbol on her head, immediately feeling the damage and grimacing. Quickly, she took the Spirits of Absalom and beloved, crushing them in turn.

For Edelgard

Items obtained: Absolution A huge, heavy, malefic weapon of unknown origins. Though cleansed of corruption, it is still a weapon of terrifying power in the hands of one strong enough to wield it. Its slow, highly telegraphed swings channel the wearer's wrathful conviction, which erupts in bursts on contact with a solid surface to blast foes away from the point of impact. It's weaker if the wielder is calmer, and stronger if the wielder is madder Midas Testament An ornate bell. When rung, it causes all enemies within a set range of the user to glow gold for thirty seconds. Attacking glowing enemies will cause them to bleed currency based on the damage dealt, and killing one will net a burst of currency. This effect has no cap on the amount of enemies that can be affected within the radius, but the bell breaks after one use

”Well, I suppose it is fitting that I received that demon’s axe, but what is this bell…?” Edelgard regarded the trinket curiously, before shrugging. ”I get the feeling that I shouldn’t toy with it here and now. Another time, then.” She simply stated, placing it in a pouch for her Inventory, with Absolution following after. ”I can use that monster’s weapon later, as well. Better it fall into the hands of one who would use it for good. Thank you, Midna, for the knowledge. I will be sure to make good use of our fallen foes.” Edelgard added, somewhat ominously. She meant well, but…there was no way to say that without sounding a bit ominous.

”Your… ” Midna replied, only pausing for half a moment at the reminder of exactly what using the spirits of the falling really was, before letting it go again and finishing ”-welcome” before adding that ”there’s an armory too if you get things you don’t think you yourself will use but someone else might”

”I’ll have to look into that in the morning then” Edward replied, sticking to his thought about dealing with all this with a clear head, which more or less signaled the end of this little meetup, though naturally it ended with a slight stroll through the halls, one spent sorting out the sleeping arrangements, before it was time to say goodnight.

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

+
wordcount: 4449 (+5) (+5 rapport for Jr and Roxas)
Level 9 Roxas: 34/90
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(171/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(90/100)
Location: The Avenger

For a dozen or so minutes, anyone passing by the training room would be able to hear something strange, namely, the muffled sound of yelling and screaming. Perhaps not the oddest thing to come out of said room, some people did get very into their training and very vocal with their violence after all, but it was odd both because there was no sound of said violence, and also odd that anyone would be training at this time of day, particularly given the amount of activity all of the seekers had been up too.

Roxas was in the next room over in Professor Koa’s lab in order to show him Titan. During this brief conversation he heard the shouts and screams from the Training Room next door. So, out of curiosity, he bid the Professor good night and then made his way next door to see what was going on there.

Upon the door sliding open to the sound of bowser jr yelling ”-leaving me behind and going off with-” only for his mouth to snap shut as his sister, who was looking both tired and out of breath where she was sitting on a chair conveniently facing the door waved at Roxas.

”Hi there. Did you need the room? We where just about done”

”I heard all the screaming.” Roxas said with some confusion on his face, ”Are you guys… okay?”

”What? No? Yes? Everythings fine!” Jr insisted far too frantically while Rika simply started to tell the truth, saying ”Primrose suggested we scream to release the pressure of-” only for Jr to interrupt.

He pointed one finger at the new pokeball the Nobody was sporting, and stated the obvious ”You caught another pokemon” and then declared that ”we should battle! That’s what trainers do when they lock eyes” having apparently at some point over the week looked up pokemon trainer ‘etiquette’ on his new phone since they last met.

Rika just looked sort of bemused by this, before shrugging it off.

If Jr had learned trainer etiquette then there was no getting out of a battle this time. So Roxas would just have to give the prince what he wanted and battle him. He jogged a ways across the training room in order to take up a position, ”As a matter of fact I did catch a new Pokemon.” Roxas said, grabbing Titan’s Poke Ball and throwing it in order to send it out. ”Go! Titan!” Upon its release from the Poke Ball, the Golett struck a pose by flexing its arms and then began awaiting orders.

”Pff, ‘Titan’ but it’s so-” Jr began to taunt before recognizing that he and the pokemon were practically the same size, and promptly pivoting to ”-cool, whatever it is”

”Golett, the Ground Ghost Automaton Pokémon apparently” Rika helpfully informed him, having stolen her brother’s rotom phone out of his duffle bag mainly so she could goof off on it while the trainers did their thing, but providing a bit of help while she was at it.

”huh alright then…. Mimi, I choose you!” the prince decided after a moment’s thought, plucking a pokeball from his bandolier and tossing it forth, summoning his Mimikyu to the field.

Titan surely towered over her, but didn’t let this intimidate her, the pikachu mimicker running electricity through her stick tail in her own little show of power… only to realize that such a power was no threat to her grounded foe and to look a little less confident.

”Yeah we won’t need that. Mimi hone your claws so we can make the next hit hurt!” Jr commanded, prompting the speedier mon to flick out a tendril and run its digits down the stick tail like it was a scratching post. Then when she pulled them back the claw tips flashed as the move boosted her attack and accuracy.

”Use Shadow Punch!” Roxas called, prompting Titan to go lunging forward at the Mimikyu with a ghostly-powered punch with its fist. The move was nearly impossible to avoid due to its nature and its typing was also in fact super effective against a fellow Ghost type like Mimikyu.

Unfortunately, rather than hit the specter's real body, the punch hit her disguise, bopping the fake head so far back it looked like its neck had snapped, leaving the mon herself unashamed. Physically anyway. Emotionally she was quite upset by this, such that she relished to obey the command of ”Shadow sneak!” from her trainer.

She darted away, and then shoved her freshly sharpened claw into her shadow itself, causing it to twist, elongate, and then slip under the opposing pokemon. Once it was long enough to be out the other side, a shadowy copy of Mimi arose and lashed out with sharpened claws at the foe.

That attack hit Titan hard. He wasn’t down just yet, but he would be unless Roxas did something about this. ”Stomping Tantrum!” Roxas called out, eliciting a move from the Golett that was exactly as its name implied. Titan stamped its feet repeatedly and generated a weak tremor in the room that would deal Ground type damage to the Mimikyu and hopefully throw its balance off long enough for Roxas to call out a follow up, ”Iron Defense!” To which Titan responded by ceasing its stomping and then curling up defensively while a metallic sheen covered its body to sharply increase its defense in anticipation of another potential Shadow Sneak.

”Hey no fair, ” jr complained, before commanding ”hold it together Mimi!” but unfortunately the little mon with her busted disguise was rather susceptible to being shoogle this way and that by the stomping strike, the poor little thing being thrown about like she was on a bouncy castle during an earthquake. Only when the shaking stopped did she manage to recover, prompting Jr to call out ”Finally!” before following it up with a command to ”shadow sneak it again!” only for this hit to do far less damage to the iron defense of Titan.

Even with sharpened defenses, super effective damage was still nothing to sneeze at. And at this point Titan was getting dangerously close to fainting. As such, Roxas figured he should recall the ghost type and let it rest, but not before getting in at least one more attack. ”Use another Shadow Punch!” This prompted Titan to launch another shadowy rocket punch at the Mimikyu. At this rate, it seemed like both Pokemon might just go down and it was only a matter of which would fall first.

The spectral fist the size of herself blasted towards the tiny mimikyu, and to say it hurt was an understatement, the little pokemon benign sent tumbling back by the blow, and only barely managing to keep herself up after the strike.

”Come on you can do it Mimi, take them down!” the prince commanded, prompting the mon to initiate another shadow sneak right as Roxas prepared to swap out.

”Return!” Roxas called, quick enough on the draw to withdraw Titan to its Poke Ball before the attack came, ”Your turn, Scamp, go!” This prompted Scamp - who had been standing at Roxas’ side watch, to go scampering into the battle. But the shadow sneak was still coming, and so it was Scamp who took the attack instead. But he was fresh into the fight so it wasn't too difficult for him to shake off the damage. ”Use Nuzzle, Scamp!”

The heavily damaged by the big hit she’d taken, Mimi attempted to evade, but though she’d done her best, she went down to the nuzzle without scoring a K.O, much to her trainers annoyance.

”Sneaky… but let’s see if you can handle this!” the prince retorted to this setback, recalling Mimi and then tossing out a fresh pokeball with a ”Go, Peeka!”

With a little flash of light, the ball opened and released Jr’s modified fusion Flutter Mane, the necklace of living purple eyes around her neck glancing to and fro before locking onto her target alongside her own.

”Hit it with a confused ray!” the prince called out, prompting all of the mon’s eyes to blink, go wide and then shoot a flurry of muti-colored pulsing orbs that showered towards the nimble Scamp.

”Fight through it and use Nuzzle!” Was Roxas’ call. Scamp appeared to stumble a bit before hitting himself in his confusion. Not the best of luck, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t shake it off next time around.

”Now, get in close and hit it with a Dazzling gleam” Jr commanded, taking advantage of the confusion to have his mon deliver a point blank shot. Peeka swooped in, her necklace of eyes glowing brighter and brighter before delivering a powerful flash right before Scamp’s eyes.

Of course, that did leave her right in melee range where the special attacker should probably have not been. A more experienced trainer would have taken advantage of this to inflict a status ailment then use the opportunity to switch to another Pokemon with a clearer type advantage. Roxas… was not that experienced.

”Use Spark, Scamp! You can do this!” Instead the less experienced Roxas went for a high damage hit which in itself was a bit of a gamble due to Scamp still being confused. But his luck held out this time as Scamp rammed his body into Peeka while it was electrified for a physical electric attack.

The Flutter Mane was physically knocked back, tumbling end over end till she caught herself with her ghostly levitation.

”Fly up and stay evasive Peeka, that’ll be the last hit you take!” Jr commanded, getting his ghost to float up to the ceiling before commanding her to ”Psybeam!” prompting the mon to shoot a thin pink beam of psychic energy down at Scamp that connected, the mon’s confusion making it difficult to avoid attacks.

At this point Roxas finally decided to pivot to another strategy. ”Return!” He withdrew Scamp back into his Poke Ball and selected the third from his belt. If Jr wanted an aerial battle, then that’s what he would get. ”You’re up, Shocker! Use Air Slash!” As soon as the Fan-Rotom was out of its ball, it floated up a bit and then rotated its fan-blades to send up a blast of razor sharp wind at Peeka.

Peeka did a half tumble to avoid some of the damage, prompting Jr to command her to dive down and ”Wish!” causing a golden glow to start shimmering around the spot the mon was hovering at, that seemingly had no effect. Yet.

Not yet noticing any strategy in play, Roxas kept up the pressure. ”Keep using Air Slash!” He called to the Shocker, who did as commanded and continued to use its fan-blades to blow sharp blasts of air at the Flutter Mane.

Before the strike landed, Jr grabbed two pokeballs, using one to call back Peeka, and then tossed out a replacement with a command of ”Go Dazzle! Stay in the light”

His Brionne landed in the glowing aura Peeka had set up, took the air slash, and then, right after, the Wish came true, revitalizing Dazzle back to full hp. Now that he was out, the prince commanded ”Now! Icy Wind! Freeze that fan!” prompting his minion to blow a bubble, slap it with his tail, and release a slowing gust of frost filled air towards the flying fan.

Thinking on his feet, Roxas issued his command, ”Double Team!” Prompting the Rotom to start darting around and leaving afterimages in its wake. This would help throw off the accuracy of the Icy Wind and prevent a super effective hit, at least for now.

Indeed, the second icy wind failed to land a strike, the blast of wind hitting nothing but doppelgangers, but after Rika leaned in to point something out on the koopa prince’s phone, he had an idea.

”Disarming voice!” he commanded, prompting the mon to let loose a barrage of sound that it swept across the room, the charming cry entirely unavoidable if unfortunately less effective than the icy wind it was replacing.

Now was when Roxas noticed that they were grabbing tips from Jr’s Rotom Phone. Well two could play at that game. While Shocker was hit by the Disarming Voice, he wasn’t down for the count yet and was ready to make another move. Roxas meanwhile had used his Rotom Phone and learned something interesting about one of Shocker’s moves. ”Return!” He called, recalling the Rotom back into its Poke Ball and then tossed Scamp’s back out.

A bit damaged from before but no longer confused thanks to having been withdrawn previously, Scamp barked his usual “bow-wark!” before Roxas issued his command. ”Nuzzle!” Scamp barked and charged for the Brionne, a Pokemon that didn’t look very mobile while it was on dry thanks to having a tail instead of hind legs.

It certainly wasn’t and especially not with its tail having been turned from sealion-like to ghost-whale-like. However that transformation had left it with an alternative.

”Counter charge it with a… dive dash?” Jr commanded with just a bit of hesitancy, lacking the proper name (twisting dive) for his fused pokemon’s illegal 5th move. As such, the super effective strike landed on the poor mon, and so rather than a counter charge it was more of a retaliation, as a wash of water surrounded Dazzle as it lunged forwards, briefly stunning Scamp as the electric dog was pushed ahead of the dash. Then, when it ended, the pup was also struck by the concussive splash of the water which continued to wash forwards while Dazzle himself landed on the ground.

Luckily for Dazzle, Nuzzle was not a strong damaging move. So while it was super effective, it wasn’t as hard of a hit as a move like Spark would have been. But on the flipside, Nuzzle making contact also meant that it ensured the Brionne was inflicted with paralysis - halving its speed and incurring a 50/50 chance that it wouldn’t be able to move in order to attack when commanded. But wanting to follow through with the hint Roxas earlier learned from his phone, Roxas made the choice to recall Scamp once again. ”Return!”

Once Scamp was safely back in his Poke Ball, Roxas readied the ball that Shocker was in. ”Back to you, Shocker!” And he threw it out, sending the Rotom back into battle. This was the part that was a gamble, since Dazzle could get in a pre-emptive attack if it managed to fight through the paralysis. But Roxas made his call as well. ”Electro Ball!” which would prompt the Rotom to fire a sphere of electric energy at the Brionne. The hint Roxas had learned would come in here, as Electro Ball could deal more damage the slower the target was. So hitting it with Nuzzle earlier to make it paralyzed would, if this hit, allow it to deal boosted super effective damage.

Indeed, the electro ball careened straight into the very slow sea lion with no chance for it to dodge, dealing devastating damage and taking it down with a singular blow, resulting in an expanded growl from Jr who’d als not been quick enough on the draw to switch out before this happened.

He paused for a moment as he grabbed his final ball, realizing ”Wait… wait.. How am I down to one pokemon and you still have all three!?” utterly bemused at being out played like this, even if a lot of it was a result of bad type match-ups.

”Gah, then it's all down to you Peeka!” He called out, as he re-deployed his paradox pokemon, the specter floating up into the air to face off against its fellow ghost type.

Unfortunately, his one had no ghost type moves at the moment, and she’d also already taken two wind blasts to boot.

”Eye blast it, slow it down!” jr commanded, again not knowing the correct name for Peeka’s new plasma fuson, but that didn’t stop her from being able to use it. Twin orbs of purple plazma burst from the ghost’s necklace of eyes, which had the curious property of benign able to split a part at a pair of right angles to their path whenever the mon desired, making them quite tricky to dodge (and if they did hit, the target would be slowed to a crawl for just a few moments)

Neither Roxas nor Shocker knew what to make of the eye blast attack. It didn’t seem like a normal kind of move for a Pokemon to be using. But then again, there was still a lot about this Roxas didn’t know, so he shrugged and went with it. As for Shocker, being switched out meant he was no longer benefiting from Double Team like earlier. So he took the attack and looked to be in rough shape afterwards. ”Air Slash!” Roxas called, learning only now that the attack had slowed down Shocker.

”Dazzling Gleam, close range!” Jr called out, prompting Peeka to dive right up into Shocker’s face as it pivoted too slowly to line up the shot, resulting in it receiving an eyeful of fairy lights when it did manage it.

Shocker wasn’t going to stay up much longer. Roxas needed to make the next one count. ”Confuse Ray!” He called, hoping Peeka’s close proximity helped in making this hit, which it did indeed.

”Come on, finish it off! Give it another!” Jr commanded, only for the mon to fumble the charging of the next flash, instead searing herself around the neck as the dazzling gleam sputtered and backfired. ”No no no! Snap out of it!”

Roxas had to be quick, ”Return!” Then he fumbled a moment for Scamp’s Poke Ball before finally sending him back out. ”Use Nuzzle!” But his momentary fumble with the Poke Ball meant the attack wasn’t as quick on the draw as he was hoping. That meant Peeka could try to dodge or attack in spite of the incoming Nuzzle.

”Up up just move, that’s easy!” Jr commanded, and indeed gliding into the sky wasn’t something Peeka could really mess up. Or well. She could. She went down instead. But being a ghost the result was, frankly, even better as she simply phased through the floor.

”Uhhhh” jr went as he glanced around, only for Peeka to pop up behind him and to rise up into the air, now seemingly back in control of her senses, allowing jr to command ”Wish again quick!” without fear of her hurting herself.

Great, now what? Not only could Peeka stay out of reach, but was about to get healing thanks to that move. Not unless Roxas had some way of inflicting damage over time to try and counterattack, but he was pretty sure he didn’t have that… right? A quick look at his Rotom Phone later, and Roxas found his answer… and it was a risky play. ”Stay on guard, Scamp, be ready to move at the first sign of movement.” Roxas was choosing not to make an attack for now. Instead he dug into his trainer bag and pulled out one of the potions from the medicine pocket. It was sort of like a spray, and Roxas used it… on Titan’s Poke Ball. Apparently these potions were specifically designed to work even on a Pokemon still in their Poke Ball.

”Oh, we’re doing that are we? Well in that case” jr replied to this use of a potion, by pulling out his own, which he hadn’t had much use out of given that he could, well, heal with magic. As a result of this combination of jr spraying Peeka with a potion and the Wish landing unopposed put the prince’s final mon back at more or less full HP.

Really the only one complaint about this time use was Rika, who gave a little sigh and, bluntly, requested ”Can we not make this training battle take forever please? Save those for actual important fights. Plus I am tiiiiired”

”What, he did it first!” Jr retorted, but his sister was having none of it and simply replied ”K. Now can both of you stop? N’ no magic either”

”I wasn’t gonna!”

In his defense, Roxas had no idea Jr would mimic his move. But Rika had a point, so was this only potion Roxas would use. And Jr healing may well prove to be a mistake. Since now that the Flutter Mane was out from hiding in order to receive the potion, that meant Scamp could attack. ”Quick Scamp, use Nuzzle while it’s back out in the open!”

The mon had indeed had to come down low so Jr could spray it, resulting in Scamp being able to dart in close to paralyze her, slowing and, unluckily, causing her to fail to respond to her master’s command to strike back.

”gah, these statue moves are really strong” the prince complained/observed, though he had also gotten somewhat unlucky with those as well.

Roxas withdrew Scamp. Now was the risky part. He selected Titan’s Poke Ball and threw it to the floor. The ghost automaton struck its pose after releasing from the Ball. ”Use Curse!” The move summoned a nail-like stake that stabbed into Titan, dealing damage and in return inflicting the Flutter Mane with the Cursed status. This would cause Peeka to lose 25% of its total health after every attack it made. The only way to get rid of the status was to switch, which Jr currently couldn’t do as his other Pokemon were both fainted. Now the battle was on a ticking clock. Either Peeka would finish off Scamp and Shocker, or Peeka would go down to the damage from Curse. It all came down to how long Scamp and Shocker could last and press their luck with Peeka’s paralysis. And so Roxas sent Scamp back out.

”Peeka eye blast” Jr commanded, the mon pushing through the shock to launched a plasma fusion blasts at Scamp, before demanding to know ”What did he do?!” when the mon took damage from this as a result of the curse.

”3 attacks before she’s down, and that’s if she takes 0 hits” Rika replied simply resulting in a panicked shout from Jr, followed by her grabbing his paintbrush to stop him from trying to cure his mon with magic.

The girl really wanted to get some sleep at this point.

Still unfamiliar with that strange move, Scamp was unable to avoid it and took the hit. He staggered and stumbled, struggling to stay on his feet. Then, he flopped down, fainted. ”Return!” Roxas withdrew Scamp, and was now also down to his last Pokemon. ”It’s up to you now!” He released Shocker from its Poke Ball, who also was looking damaged. It really was down to wire now. ”Double Team!” Roxas called. A bit longer. Just a bit longer. He just had to last…

”Gah but that’s so… Peeka try to hit em both with an eye blast!” Jr commanded, seeing what the strategy here was, and hoping this could counter it. His mon swooped round til she thought she had an angle, and then shot fourth the twin plasma fusion blast, which then split in between the doppelgangers, one orb shooting off towards each one.

That did it. Shocker was down. The Rotom didn’t have the energy to take any more hits than that. So with Shocker fainted, that was the last of Roxas’ Pokemon. ”Close call.”

”Yesss ahaha!” Jr cheered and laughed with elation, while Rika did a little ”woo” of support that was genuine despite her tiredness. Still once the rush was over Jr really did have to agree that ”Wow yeah, it really was a close one huh?” as he prepped and then used his magic to cure his final badly beat up mon of her curse before she fainted from celebrating her sweep (or really her just barley executed cleanup of Roxas’ beaten and bruised party) too hard.

In short order he’d use that same magic to heal up all their mon as well.

”Well, better luck next time I guess.” Roxas said with a grin and a shrug. ”Hope the battle cheered you up from whatever was bothering you earlier.” Said Roxas with a yawn. ”But we really should be getting some sleep now.”

”Mmm hmmm” Rika agreed, while Jr had paused for a moment, gave a ”I uh. huh” before looking at Roxas a little suspiciously for a second. Then he raised and offered a slightly hesitant fist bump even as he insisted that ”Yeah, good luck next time. You’ll need it, coz I’m gonna be even stronger then”

Roxas widened his grin and accepted the fist bump. ”Deal.”

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

The Capital - Nieve - Red Light District

“It’s not real it's not real there aren't people burning just keep fighting” Ranyna rhythmically told herself as the illusion of a town around her began to, well, not burn, but perhaps remember what it was like to burn. It was unclear, but it was not pleasant. Unfortunately her insistence that no one was burning came to a quick end when, the non flier of their trio got stuck in some kind of oil and…

“Ahhh! No no no,I can get you out, I can-” Rayne cried out in a panic as she tried to race towards Quin, intending to link with and evacuate her, only to be too slow as the woman was evaporated by the flames in close to an instant after making contact with the butterfly. “No!”

Or perhaps her being slow was a good thing, as Sanae yelled at her to not even fly over the black oil at all. If she had gotten close enough for her plan, maybe she would have just gotten stuck too. Even with the warning, she was still perilously close and the oil was now also rapidly approaching her.

Not that she was really thinking about this trade off. All the hyperventilating Witch Knight could do was stare at the spot Quing had been. She’d never really failed someone like this before. Not really. She’d had deaths on her hands, but they had been slow and, in a way, unavoidable, or choices made by others. This however was, in her mind at least, all her fault, and she did not cope well with this anywhere close to Sanae, and that was saying something

Unaware of Sana considering calling for divine intervention, Ranye threw everything she had out, which in this case involved exploding as she unleashed Armageddon, the spell card blasting both land and sky with a wave of devastation around her. Then she equipped a triple shot cannon and started blasting wildly towards their foe while screaming “you monster!” at her with furious anguish.

She at least had enough of her mind to retreat while doing so rather than get caught by the oil

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

wordcount: 1,243 (+3) (+8 from colabs)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (158/100)
Edward Portsmith: Level 2 //////////////////// (16/20) (1 level up stored)
Location:
Warp Charges: 1

warp locations

Virgin Victory teleport room
Top of the Split mountain
Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage
Tostarena Town
S.O.U. Building
Seiran Clinic
Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts)
Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel)
Vandelay Campus (Alleyway)
Arahabaki’s entrance
Deep Ground - the Source

”I really do not like this plan!” Midna yelled up at the heavens as her astral chain finished wrapping around Absalom briefly pinning him in place. Then flow motion leapt over a retaliatory strike and landed on the back of the Beast Legion, using it to rapidly retreat. It raced away from the foe with thunderous speed, but the question really was: to where? She dared not bring out the flygon after it had been ensnared by the corruption for so long, and without it, she was lacking in wings, which were somewhat needed to get off of this moving train without turning into paste on contact with the ground.

Fortunately, though the man had not, she was frank, contributed much to the fight itself, Edward did have his uses as a commander, as well as a fine set of lungs on him that let him holler ”This way! Egress and wings for the flightless!” loud enough for even the hearing impaired princess to comprehend, his voice echoing through the corridors of the train.

As the divine warning for them to break out came, Midna paused only to grab/offer lifts to people who needed them, and then went barreling through the corrupt halls of the infernal machine. There were, fortunately, none of the corrupt animated engines in her path, and the reason for this was laid clear by the spirits of both them and various angels who had fallen clearing the way acting as a breadcrumb trail towards an exit by which Edward was calling out a countdown.

”We’re leaving in five! Four! Three!”

On two, the princess burst into the room, and also into rays of sunlight streaming through a smashed open door of the train, blinding her at the worst moment. Yet the feathers, ever reliable and dutiful, were there to aid their sister of shadows. A familiar hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her off of her intangible steed, and then another took her other arm, just in time for Edward to finish the count down with ”One! GO GO GO!”

Boots stamped and then wings flapped, and the open air rushed across her exposed ears as the surviving feather-sheilds of Midna and Edelgard’s squads leapt from the train, taking the twilight princess, and anyone else who needed lending wings, with them. Less than a breath after the last of them was clear, and the deafening sound of the train leaping from the tracks and crashing down into the pit overwhelmed them.

The angels, having just leapt off of a moving train, were carried by their momentum clear over the crash sight, and had to spend a good deal of time decelerating, following in the wake of the bows, staffs and swords who had already jumped. While doing this they banked around, eventually bringing them back around and down to land on the right hand side of the crater, just in time for Absalom to begin digging himself out of the rubble.

The feather-shields touched down and deposited their passengers even as the lighter angels fanned out behind them, which gave those that had flown with them a prime view of the condition of their enemy as he emerged.

”Even after all that?” Minda complained with a mix of horror and exasperation at the sight of Absalom’s survival, but the avatar of chaos’ moment of defiant resilience was rudely interrupted by a very welcome arrival. Dante’s appearance was especially so for Midna, who was still very thankful for the man bailing them out when Z had come to take them down, particularly because of the paralyzing panic that Consul had caused in her. As such, his appearance here and now to help with this incredibly durable foe was, in her eyes, very much ”Perfect timing from my favorite uninvited guest”

Edward meanwhile moved to execute a loose plan he’d coordinated among the angels while their foe was standing around shouting at the heavens or watching falling objects. His own questions about what in the astral sea had caused that wind, what the thing that had brought the reinforcements was, and who the man and the transforming women where could wait. Instead, he used the breath he’d saved on not asking questions to instead below one single simple command: ”Fire everything!”

In conjunction with this command he cast Designated Target on Absalom, and then as the arrows of the feather bows flew forth towards the blood aura marked foe, cocked his heavy magelock rifle. Supporting its barrel on his inner elbow while still wielding the shield in that arm’s hand, he breathed out, triggered the stabilization spell as he waited for the shower of delaying and photon arrows to slow and weaken the foe, before squeezing the trigger and unleashing a thunderous crack of pyromantic gunpowder which sent the enchanted musket ball hurtling towards the foe’s skull.

With the amount of debuffs (between Edward’s enchantments and the Bow’s own skills they had just stripped something close to 75% of their foes armor, as well as slow and ignite him) thrown out by this volley, Edward predicted it was highly likely that Absalom would retaliate. Thus with a shout of ”Fall back!” the bows started to retreat while their shield wielding comrades (Edward among them) moved to guard their rear.

Minda wasn’t going to stand idle and force them to take the brunt of their foes ire however, and so as soon as the barrage of friendly shots ended she was racing down the side of the crater towards him. Her Beast Legion, however, had not had to wait for the shots to finish falling, as the friendly projectiles had simply sailed right through it. Thus no sooner had Minda started her charge than her Legion finished its own, leaping and digging claws and fangs into the foe, at which point Midna tugged on the astral chain linking the two in conjunction with a flowmotion leapt forwards.

She went sailing directly towards the foe, propelled forward by Roxa’s technique and reeled in by the chain. As she flew she extended her shadow hand and then flicked it to the side to deliver a massive right hook with the magical limb before she herself slammed into the foe. In doing so she deflected her flight path such that she flew past rather than into him, the princess pivoting in the air and using 6 sets of claws digging into the ground to slow her low friction landing while the foe reeled.

”Eat that you rotten Chus jelly!”

Before he could recover, her two wolfos, one unmodified, the other warped by machinery, emerged from portals by her side and rushed in, both scaled up to a size that rivaled the towering nephilim. The unmodified one full body tackled the foe to keep him off balance, while the cybernetic one charged up and unleashed a powerful point blank lightning blast from its mechanical maw.

Then, finally, as they retreated to the twilight realm, Midna brought down the twilight volleybomb she’d been charging while her minions attacked, the orb large enough to engulf the foe detonating on contact with the ground.After that, however, with her veins burning from the amount of mana she’d just thrown out, she was forced to end her assault. Pulling on her astral chain once more, she dragged herself after and onto the back of her now retreating Beast Legion to get herself space to recover, and give others space to engage.

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

Junior, Rika, & Geralt of Rivia

Mafia Town

Word Count: 934 word (+2) (+1 rapport)

Geralt hummed, frowning a bit before replying. “Sandalphon, Mona was right. Mafia Town was attacked by Consul I and a group of murderous pugilists, looking to prove they were the ‘strongest’. Junior, Rika, myself and a local intercepted I’s ship, but they just taunted us before disappearing and leaving us to fight a giant crab. We were victorious, but Consul I’s ship is currently marooned in the harbor. It has the Flame Clock and those pads on it. Not sure what you and the Lost Numbers want to do with that, but we left it all as is. Still waiting on a few people, will let you know later exactly how many Fultons we’ll need. Not sure if we’ve picked up any locals to bring back with us.”

Turning to the others, Geralt called out. “Sadanlphon’s just called. Get moving, we have an hour to get the rest of the Seekers in one spot for pickup.”

Jr, who had been exiting the sushi joint he and his sister and saved/wrecked holding a pile of splintered furniture, gave a sigh of relief, but not for the reason that might be expected, namely that ”phew, I was worried we’d be stuck fixing this place foreeever”

He promptly dumped the pile of wood onto the street and then hurried back to get his sister, who asked Geralt ”where’d they all go anyway?” because she and her brother had both still been inside the restaurant when everyone else ran off to get into fights.

Geralt, uselessly, shrugged. “Not sure. Think I saw Nadia and Juri heading up towards the mafia boss headquarters, and Therion slinked off…ah, looks like he's already making his way back.” Geralt announced, turning to the returning Thief with a nod. “No real luck with Consul I, unfortunately. Disappeared as soon as we reached them, and left us with a big crab monster to fight. Sandalphon is on her way with the Avenger. We have to leave soon.” Turning back to Junior, Geralt continued. “Not sure where that Captain Falcon ended up, either.”

”Also she said she’d tell the other ones we are here, which is sort of annoying” Rika added as if this wasn’t a massive concern. Then again, they were now leaving, so it wasn’t really unless their foes were really on the ball.

”Shame the crab wrecked that announcer guy’s set up that would have helped out getting them here… wonder if there’s anything even close to that in town so we can put out some kinda signal” Jr wondered out loud before snapp

”Maybe we can spot him from one of those hot air balloons that are sometimes flying about?” Rika suggested, referring to a semi common sight around, or rather above, maffia town

”Hmmm. Maybe.” Jr pondered, before snapping his fingers and declaring ”Oh! I know, I know!” and scampering off, pausing only to call back ”Come on sis!” before he and she vanished into the town.

Geralt stood there a moment, sighing, before following after. “I’m not getting paid enough for this…”

A little bit later, and the three of them were up in the air, partially on the lookout for the others, but mainly showing off the paint job Jr had given the balloon’s, well, balloon. Upon it, painted in neon blue electric ink (which probably wasn’t that safe to be on it but was better than the burning stuff) he’d painted the sun-like symbol of the re-spawn pad they'd just found.

He’d had to be convinced to not just put his own face, that painting Galeem itself would be too time consuming and difficult to parse and that creating a logo on the fly for the Seekers wouldn’t help till people learned it.

Geralt stood in the basket of the hot air balloon, occasionally using Igni to make sure the flame stayed consistent, with his arms crossed. “This is…both absurd and interesting. People come up with such strange technologies when given enough time, it seems.” He was not thrilled to be up here, but his grumbling was not nearly as severe as it was whenever he had to deal with Midna’s portals, at least. “And where exactly do we aim to land?”

”Back at Bansho sushi obviously! That way people will know where to head back too!” the prince replied, confident that he could simply use his Fluter Mane to tow them safely down to their destination.

A few minutes later they crashed into the sushi restaurant’s roof, though fortunately hot air balloons were more smothering than smashing when it came to impacting things.

Hacking and slashing his way through the balloon, Geralt stormed out of the deflated canvas with a sigh. “I see Kamek has his work cut out for him…” He mumbled, waving to Nadia and Bancho. “Sorry to make cleaning up a little harder on you guys.” Gathering up as much material as he could get his hands on, Geralt at least tried to get it somewhat out of the way, though given the balloon’s size, that was a mostly hopeless endeavor.

With a full host of minions and strikers the koopa kids managed to do a bit better, and the balloon was at least dragged off of the roof and into the water by the time the hour was passed. That this would then later get in the way of them getting their boat out was the future problem… that the kids ended up paying to cover with all their vigilantism acquired Pons.