Lugubrious

World of Light

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Level 9 Tora (21/90) Level 8 Poppi (91/80) Level 3 Big Band (12/30)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Yoshitune's @Rockin Strings, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Mao’s @Potemking, Primrose’s @Yankee, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey
Word Count: 1565

At Kan-Ra’s command several of his clerics moved forward to begin restoring the Seekers with healing spells. Rather than healing all at once or at a slow but constant rate, their magic undid the wounds they’d gained in chunks, making them well again bit by bit. Tora took only a moment of one’s time thanks to the comparatively few injuries he’d sustained along with his out-of-battle, after which he could consider the situation at large.

As it turned out, his team had come across quite the interesting crew of worthy opponents. Though all of the Resistance members present had been either beaten by their opposite numbers or flattened by Klee’s explosion, they still did pretty well for themselves, maybe the best on average out of everyone Tora and his friends faced so far. Except the bosses, of course. And maybe that nest of snipers back at Spiral Mountain--now that was an ordeal. Still, an interesting if rather motley crew, kind of like the Seekers in a way. In a different story, these people might have formed the odd bunch galavanting across a broken world to defeat Galeem.

Back to the matter at hand though, since it seemed like none of the rebels died, it sounded like the mummified sorcerer planned to take them all into custody. It took a second for Tora to associate the bloodlust Kan-Ra spoke of with the inexplicable tendency of Gleaming folks to fight to the bitter end. Wondering about what would become of them left a sour taste in his mouth. If they couldn’t stop fighting, would they be locked in cells to bang on the walls for the rest of their days? Would they just be executed after being squeezed for information? A dozen scenarios leaped out at him, and none of them pleasant.

Tora looked to Poppi, then his friends for advice, and found them in similar turmoil. Judging by the look on her face Midna didn’t like the implications here either, but unlike him she had a plan in mind, and one she soon put into action. First she demonstrated the use of a Friend Heart on Big Band to bring him back to mint condition. He stood slowly, a little confused, but didn’t waste time thanking Midna for healing him. Then, while he grabbed hold of Mao to keep him from struggling, Midna approached Kan-Ra to say her piece.

The Grimleal’s third captain rubbed his chin, that ghoulish smile of his ever present, and considered the princess’s suggestion. “Fascinating,” he said at length, mulling the new information over. “So, you’re saying that their behavior can be attributed to a false god. Considering some of the intelligence we’ve amassed, this is rather...hmm, plausible.” His glowing white eyes regarded the squirming child in the grasp of his bandages. “These are Al Mamoon’s criminals. Dealing with them is our business, not yours. At least, that’s the sort of stance many would take. But if we can bring them to their senses, why, I see only...benefit. But first, I would like to see a demonstration. Two, in fact, to make sure the results are reproducible.” He lowered Klee to the ground and unwrapped her, leaving behind a single bandage that tied her to the handle of the open garage door above her. “This girl, and…” He glanced at Band and the second captive at hand. “Him, too. Show me this way you have to ‘clear’ their bloodlust.”

"You're turning ME into a guinea pig?!" Mao piped up, though Big Band's grip made him pipe right back down, with a few spiteful attempts at biting being all the white-haired boy could muster.

Poppi stepped forward, putting a hand on Midna’s shoulder. “Poppi and Masterpon can help!” she declared. “We barely even scratched anyway. That way friend Midna not exhaust herself.” Although taken by surprise at being volunteered, Tora didn’t take much prodding to get moving, and the duo approached the captives together. Klee and Mao watched warily, but in their post-exploded states they couldn’t do much to object as Tora and Poppi both manifested a Friend Heart. They popped the little pink motes into their respective targets to work their magic, and in just a moment’s time they were back to their normal selves.

Eyes wide, Klee stared up at Poppi, who crouched down and gave her most encouraging smile. “Hello, little one! You okay?” she asked.

“Um...yes,” the child murmured, still working through the bewilderment that typically accompanied a Hearting. Memories returning and realizations that things weren’t how they should be were a lot for a young mind to come to grips with.

“Does Klee feel like blowing people up with bombs?” Poppi continued, without much in the way of discretion.

Klee looked appalled. “No, no! I would never! My ‘splodies are only for Hilichurls, and...and fish! But, but please don’t tell Jean I said so!”

Relieved that the warehouse wasn’t due for another explosive beating, Poppi smiled. “No problem, Poppi not say thing to Jean. Just be good girl, okay?”

“Okay…?” Klee replied tentatively, still not exactly sure what this was all about but possessed of a sinking feeling that she’d done something very bad. Her eyes landed on Baz. “Oh, no!” she cried. “Is Mr. Baz going to be okay!?” She rushed over to try and shake him awake. In the midst of her worries, however, she became distracted by a sound from above, and Poppi followed her gaze upward. Together they spotted, along with any of the other Seekers who cared to look, a familiar UFO flying above the buildings. It hovered for a moment, then buzzed off.

Meanwhile, Mao awoke from Galeem’s influence surrounded by Tora, Big Band, and Kan-Ra, in whose bandages his wrists were bound for his captors’ safety. The other Seekers, more or less healed by the Grimleal clerics, stood or floated around in front of the warehouse. “Hello, meh!” Tora piped up. “Okay mummypon, he all good now!”

Kan-Ra’s eyes bored into Tora’s soul. “I am not a mummy. I am Babylonian. Long before their time!” When he saw the Nopon’s lack of understanding, however, he didn’t press the matter, but groaned before he turned to Mao. “Hmm. He appears completely unharmed. And he is not attempting to kill us.” He bent down, bringing his ghoulish face within inches of the demon’s. “Yet it is too soon to say if your involvement with the Resistance was coerced or voluntary. So we will have a trial run.” He straightened up, looking between the Seekers. “While it would be ideal to cure each of the captives, we do not have time to waste. My compeers approach the other hideouts even now. Since we are now allies, I will entrust this one to you, so that he might betray and lead you against his former comrades. And of course, given the faith placed in you, it would not behoove you to lose him.” All this he said through that indelible toothy grin. “Meanwhile, my acolytes shall make our new captives comfortable at the temple.” His gaze rested on Mao, then meaningfully on Baz and Klee. All of a sudden the demon was very important to the Seekers, and his cooperation important to everyone.

At that time something in the southern section of the parking lot began to draw attention, first from Kan-Ra’s Grimleal acolytes. The heroes gathered in front of the warehouse watched as a familiar black-haired youth jogged into view with a large-headed cat by his feet, followed by a blonde dude in a tank top, a girl with two pigtails and one snake tail, an alluring dancer, and two strangers they didn’t recognize. One seemed to be about the other teens’ age, in a crisp white shirt that really highlighted his slenderness, and the other was a woman grown with vivid orange hair. Unbeknownst to anyone but Fox, who’d received a call from Necronomicon on the way over, the newcomers had been there long enough to hear from everyone and get a decent grasp of what was going on. Though Kan-Ra’s followers tensed up, ready to face Resistance reinforcements, their leader noticed the lack of alarm common to all of Fox’s group. “Friends of yours?” he hazarded a guess just as Primrose approached, giving a question by way of greeting.

“Yep!” Tora confirmed both happily. He waved to the Phantom Thieves and their pretty accomplices. “Hi hi, meh! Boy do we have story to tell you!”

Joker slowed to a stop, his hands sliding into his pockets. He and his companions looked over those assembled, noting a couple fresh faces. Among the Thieves only Ann had really been in the loop. “Likewise. But it’ll have to wait.”

Clasping his hands behind his back, Kan-Ra agreed. “Indeed. What you see here is the tip of the iceberg, as it were. A fight just concluded that has effectively removed a third of the Resistance from play. But the other portions are soon to follow. Azwel and Ciella are leading assaults on the other bases right now, so if you all wish to minimize bloodshed using this heart power of yours, it seems as though you’ll need to divide and conquer.” Kan-Ra stood at the center of the three groups, and pivoted between all of them as he spoke. “I can accompany one division to steer them in the right direction, while our new friend here can guide the other.” A number of expectant eyes followed his gaze to Mao. “We should set out poste haste, so if any preparations must be made, now is the time.”

Ms Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (64/40)
Location: The Maw - the Depths
Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Bowser's @DracoLunaris, Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Frog's @Dark Cloud, Mirage’s @Potemking
Word Count: 1415

Despite the naysayers Mirage proceeded with his investigation, and it quickly bore fruit. Although it lacked a manual, the pilot seat had been designed by an actual engineer for its convenient and intuitive use by customers, and once in the seat he realized by looking upward that the inside of the machine’s headcase featured step-by-step instructions. Flipping a switch on the armrest turned the whole thing on, pressing another button lowered the main apparatus, and by standing Mirage could almost stick his head inside.

Nadia’s eyebrows rose as she saw an opportunity to help--and to get away for a moment. “Oh! Just a second!” she called as she scampered over to where Moreau had been existing prior to the kids’ arrival. After whatever happened to Carl, Sakura had turned utterly despondent, which in turn had sped her on the way to the workshop. She just couldn’t deal with someone that empathetic. What was someone supposed to do? Tell her it would be okay? The idea of a robot that believed it was human made her uncomfortable enough, but an outburst like that really piled it on. At the same time though, Nadia felt bad for distancing herself. Guilty, even. Like Sakura still feeling bad was her fault. Nadia grit her teeth as she sifted through Moreau’s clutter. What can I even do? After another moment of searching she grabbed a shoebox that seemed to contain some stuff belonging to that tumorous wretch. After dumping them out she returned with the box to put on the chair for Mirage to stand on.

With the shoebox’s help he could reach the headcase and let the mechanism settle around his cranium. Though somewhat disconcerting it didn’t extend any needles or anything, but merely surrounded his head with pads. A screen blinked on in front of him, and the program’s bootup sequence initiated. As it got underway it sounded out a few short tones and deposited some text on screen. Haimatsu Pilot Seat SCX-303 Neural Interface online. Remote control uplink engaged. Searching for Universal Helper…searching...searching…

While he experimented with the pilot seat, the koopas focused primarily on the pit in the center of the room that led to the water below. After Moreau’s trip and fall it became clear that the door on the cage’s back side wasn’t securely fastened, and it didn’t take much work to either pull it fully open or lock it in place. There would be no need for Geralt’s scissors (a good thing given their intended use on paper and/or fabric) or copious amounts of fireballs. A closer look at the water revealed nothing more than an ominous murkiness, especially once Blazermate confirmed that their dramatic new acquaintance was just hanging out down there, but at least everyone could access the submarine now.

Before the kids got up to anything else the Cadet brought up a good point. How resilient was this thing, really, when it came to sea monsters? That little girl with eel tentacles could probably smash those windows in, and when Nadia pictured that ultra-gigantic shark chomping it like a malt ball, she shivered. At least the Megalodon couldn’t possibly fit inside this place.

After some pondering Bella offered an idea. “Maybe we need a distraction,” she suggested. “Some kind of bait to draw the monsters off. Loud, or bright and flash, just generally being a spectacle. Then someone else can slip by unseen.”

Peach toyed with her hair anxiously. “That would mean we need a decoy, too. We could...throw in the diving suits? Or maybe climb back up to the catwalks and drop pieces in the water?”

Without anything of her own to pitch into the discussion, the feral joined some of the others by the water. While Bowser trundled off to take a more thorough look through Moreau’s meager possessions and Blazermate fretted about getting wet, Nadia turned her bright eyes on the submarine hanging above the pit. Now that she thought about it, why would a vehicle clearly designed with passengers in mind need a fancy techno-chair to control it? She was no gearhead, but that just seemed redundant. The two couldn’t possibly link up. Something occurred to her, it being her simplest and most sane idea today by far. She shimmied up to the chain link fence and put her fingers through to grab hold, then put her feet through holes below. And then started to climb.

With feline grace she worked her way up the fence. Being child-sized had a couple advantages after all, it seemed. Her tail swished back and forth as she made her ascent, pleased to be in her element, although while climbing some of her other feelings intensified. Just ignore the hunger. Just ignore the pain. It’ll be worse later. Gotta get ready for it. It didn’t seem likely that she could get the submarine down, but at least she could get a better look at it. Once at a good height she could jump to grab hold of one of the arms holding the submarine up, then clamber on top of the vehicle itself. Right away she identified a hatch with a twistable seal, and though it took a little wrenching she managed to turn, then pop it open. From there it was just a small drop and she was in. Piece of cake.

She looked around at the interior, mostly clueless. The controls seemed pretty simple, but given the much more mechanically inclined people in the group she didn’t actually want to drive this thing. That begged the internal question of course: what was she doing here, then? Just to do something, I guess, she thought. Not like she was going to be helpful down there. Nadia sighed and shuffled over to one of the big, round windows in the submarine’s side and leaned on it. She spotted her fellow children below and waved. Then there wasn’t anything else in here to do, so she used the rungs in the back to climb on out.

“Looks good to me. Sub-lime, even” she called down to the others. “I’m thinkin’ it could fit four of us in there pretty easy. Not seein’ any way to get it down, though.” She took another look around and noticed a blue-coated wire leading between the visible portions of the submarine-holding arm. “Hm.” Feeling lucky, Nadia followed it up and a short way across the ceiling before it disappeared into the panel. By looking in the direction the cable pointed, however, her gaze passed over the Command Center’s forward window to land on the communication station that sat there. That’s it! On second thought, the cable couldn’t go through the window, but maybe it passed through the nearby wall or something. “Maybe there’s a button down there?” she called down.

Over in Moreau’s nook Bowser’s probing brought to light a couple interesting items, both laying around and from the shoebox Nadia emptied before. His rifling turned up a porcelain doll in a dress, an ancient-looking key with black wings, a couple random jars stopped with corks including one that read ‘alcohol’, and a much bigger jar with something inside he couldn’t identify as anything other than vile. He also found at least two barely-started jigsaw puzzles plus a bunch of pieces, an incomplete deck of playing cards, and a meager-looking fishing rod.

Universal Helper found. Commencing uplink.

Before Mirage’s eyes, the screen inside the pilot seat’s headcase switched to a live feed of a metal hallway, that being the same corridor his team just came through despite its lack of identifying features. From both bottom corners of the screen a clawed robotic arm extended upward, and through experimentation it became apparent that he could give mental commands to whatever machine he seemed to be interfacing with. All the while he controlled his real body as well and could remove himself from the machine, although the screen would flash a warning that doing so would terminate an uplink when the sensor pads shifted too much.

For Nadia, a few tense moments passed by without anything happening in the Command Center. Neither the submarine nor any of the diving suits moved an inch, leading her to wonder what exactly the machine connected to. From up here, though, she could see a small cluster of metal barnacles on top of the headcase, complete with a couple luminescent blue nodes. What a mess. For now she remained on top of the submarine, waiting to see what would happen next.

Cold Monastery

Location: Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline
Linkle’s @Gentlemanvaultboy

After some time, Albedo closed the book on the etchings of the triptych, both literally and metaphorically. He rose from his seat and slipped his sketchbook back into his coat, then turned to see Linkle ready to move on. Her manner seemed different somehow, maybe a little reverent, or perhaps just restful. Hopefully the Skullgirl had found some semblance of peace in this place. “Good to go,” he told her. “Our next step is to find someone who might know these runes, and thus, the deities of the world they hail from.” Putting a hand to his chin, he narrowed his eyes. “Thinking logically, this is the best place we know for cultural and religious information. So we’re probably not done with this monastery just yet.”

Bearing that in mind, the second tower offered little else for the pair. Cluttered with icons and objects of power to an intense degree, it served as more of a repository of divine artifacts than an actual temple where people spent their time. Not everything could have its own shrine in the main building, after all. Though Linkle and Albedo could easily head back into the first tower, at least checking out the third tower seemed obvious. The two proceeded carefully through the veritable army of statues around them, seeking to avoid any divine entrapments and sped on their way by the increasing sensation they were being watched. As they retraced their steps past the black clock from earlier, the one ensconced by three one-winged angels of gold, it turned to face them, which made Albedo realize that it must have been floating the whole time. He watched it warily, ready to summon his sword. When the Norn took no other action he hurried on his way.

Unlike the court that preceded the first tower or the walled yard between the first and second, the route to the third tower was a little more precarious. It stood upon a separate mountaintop, a lone sentinel amidst ice and wind and stone, and so necessitated a bridge across the open air. A suspension bridge, no less. The sight of it made Albedo want to die inside at first, but he quickly realized this wasn’t some ramshackle, slap-dash sham destined for disaster. The ropes that round through and around the tightly-packed slats were almost unnecessarily thick, rich yak hair corded together to ensure the safety of monks and visitors alike. It moved only slightly in the wind, and when the alchemist set his foot down he found he could breathe a sigh of relief. For a suspension bridge, this seemed about as sturdy as one could ask for. The handful of monks, priests, nuns, and so forth currently using it certainly didn’t look troubled.

Before crossing, however, he moved to the edge of the balcony-like liminal space between the bridge and the second tower to look out over the view. A grand vista sprawled out before him, no doubt the lowlands whose juxtaposition made the rest of this region the Frozen Highlands. What lay down there he couldn’t make out due to the sea of clouds at rest down there, but from the puffy mists rose more mountains, and not all of them were stark, foreboding monoliths. Instead he saw mountains wreathed and connected by ropes bearing myriad banners and flags, their vivid colors flapping in the wind. There seemed to be an entire network of the giant streamers down there that linked up what appeared to be mountain settlements. He could see grass, trees, bales of hay, quaint little houses with roofs covered by tough little plants. The sight took him a little by surprise; he hadn’t expected to find civilization in such a remote place. But there it was, colorful, cheerful, thriving even. It must be warmed down there, he reflected. Looking farther, he spotted a birdcage, a volcanic mount with molten rock flowing like a lava cake, and an enormous bell. This place, he realized, could make for many a good drawing. “Breathtaking,” he whispered.

As nice as the sight was, the answers the pair sought would not be found in that alpine vista. They proceeded across the bridge to the third tower. Once inside, it quickly became clear that this one served a more humanitarian purpose than those that came before it. Here, it seemed, the denizens of the Cold Monastery fed, slept, and otherwise quartered themselves. They proceeded through the heavy doors into the warm, quite liveable atmosphere within. Right away they could see that this place did not quite embody the same extravagant pluralism as the other towers, with only modest decorations to be seen here, the rest replaced mostly by practical and personal effects. Various people went about their business throughout the place, some in much more casual attire, and one such person seemed to take an interest in the newcomers the moment they arrived.

The man in question was an older gentleman, solidly built, with a gray-tinged mustache and a receding hairline, with strong brows and kindly eyes in between. He sat on a cushioned bench next to a a little table with a lamp, a cup of steaming coffee in one hand and a book in the other. For a moment Albedo’s eyes lingered on the book, binding humble and nondescript, unmarked except for a single black cross on the cover. When he looked up the storied reader met his gaze, and he gave an affable wave inviting Albedo and Linkle closer.

When they walked up he set his items aside and smiled at the pair warmly. “Ah, some new faces! Welcome, welcome. Father Guerra, at your service.” He noticed a look at his coffee cup and gestured toward it. “Ah, care for some coffee? I’d be happy to brew for you. If you're cold, please take a seat by this lamp.” Obligingly he scooted over sideways to make room.

Albedo shook his head, a little surprised by the sudden offer. “Oh...no. No thank you.”

“No problem,” Guerra told him. He crossed his legs and clasped his hands together in his lap. “Well, if there’s anything I might be able to help you with, I’m all ears.”

World of Light

Experience: 2 ( 9/20 EXP)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Word Count: 2337

As Laharl picked his way through alleys, sequestering himself away from the unfairness of it all, the noise of his aimless trash-kicking eventually found itself rivaled by a contender. Not far away the little demon could hear another sound--a shuffling and shifting among discarded items. Laharl made a beeline for the source of the disturbance, picturing some pest or ne'er-do-well that he might be able to vent some frustrations on, but after passing an electrical unit and a few dumpsters he came upon something unexpected.

A white dog with brown spots the color of cheese was sniffing around in the rubbish. With a collar on but no owner in sight it seemed more like a lost dog than a stray, and when it saw Laharl it began to wag his tail and walked right up to him. It looked dirty and hungry, which lent a little extra piteousness to its cause as it begged him for treats.

Laharl wasn't inclined to give the lost dog anything, as he had no food to give the poor animal and likely wouldn't if he even did. However something made him hesitant to just let the dog starve, he felt something sorry for it.

'Huh, why do I feel such things!?' Laharl suddenly became nauseous at the mere thought of taking pity on the animal, deep down though he wanted to help the poor dog. 'Gah, damnable dog now I must help you so I can stop feeling this disgusting emotion!' with a sigh of defeat he knelt down and let the dog sniff his hand.

"Hey boy, I'll give you some food." Laharl told the dog with some effort not to look pained while saying it "Look I'll get you some damn food." he pat the gold pouch at his side.

The mention of a familiar word made the dog's tail wag even harder. The nametag on his collar even started jingling. Now Laharl had gone and done it--the lost pet expected to be fed. That meant leaving the alley to find a nearby store and purchase a few morsels for the newfound animal. Luckily Laharl wouldn't even have to drag it; even without a leash the creature suddenly seemed quite intent on following his new friend wherever he might go.

"Ugh, hey sit still a second." not sounding very enthusiastic Laharl took a second to check the dog's name tag before leaving the alleyway.

Though the pet was a little fidgety, the demon could read his collar easily enough. Cheese Legs. The name sounded familiar; indeed, if Laharl had been paying attention at the train station earlier while the odd group went over the available jobs and bounties, he might remember a certain commission that promised a reward for the safe return of a dog by that name.

Once out of the dingy alley, the chorus of different sights, sounds, and smells confronted Laharl once again. He was spoiled for choice, since practically everywhere he looked he could see some establishment or another selling things, and even though lunchtime had passed the food stands and carts had yet to close up shop. The closest one appeared to be a multi-floor pizza joint called Pizza Install, and the aroma of sizzling hot slices of cheese and meat reached Laharl through the windows.

"What kind of moron names a dog Cheese Legs?" Laharl muttered under his breath as he and Cheese Legs stepped out from the alleyway, however upon his senses being greeted by the aroma coming from the nearest shop he forgot his questions.

Laharl's stomach instinctively growled now remembering that he hadn't eaten since he was freed by the others in Parnasse. If there was anything that the demon was known for it was his "evil" laugh and his insatiable hunger for food, especially curry.

"Alright 'Cheese Legs' let's go there, it smells good right boy?" without thinking he scratched the dog behind the ear affectionately, it took a moment to realize what he had done but for some reason he didn't feel pain.

'Huh, shouldn't I be puking right now?' he felt a tiny bit nauseous but oddly the act of petting the dog didn't seem to cripple him in any way, shrugging it off he and Cheese Legs made their way to the establishment.

Even more enticed by the delicious smell than Laharl, the dog trotted alongside him happily as he headed for Pizza Install. The demon opened the door to be greeted by a pill-shaped waiter in a blue jacket. "Welcome to Pizza Install, sir" he told Laharl. "Are you here to sit down or take out?" His eyes landed on the dog behind him. "No pets allowed inside, I'm afraid."

Laharl gritted his teeth looking between the waiter and Cheese Legs, then with a gruff sigh he said "Well actually mister pill-man, he is my service dog," he lied, the boy once heard that some human used animals as assistants but never understood why.

"I'll just have take out, since..." he waved to Cheese Legs who looked rather dirty "And uh, we'll take your finest meats and largest take out pizza. Whatever a hundred gold can buy." Laharl produced a pouch of coins from his side and tossed it to the waiter.

The rudeness on display instantly turned the waiter against Laharl, but its speedy juxtaposition to overwhelming overpayment left him confused. He could only conclude that the impetuous child before him hailed from out of town, suddenly come into a heap of gold that made him feel awfully self-important. A hundred gold was way too much for a single pizza, but if this kid wanted the finest money could buy, the waiter wasn't about to stop him, and he wasn't going to grumble about the dog, either. "...An extra-large Royal Meat Lover's it is, then," he concluded, his tone purposefully temperate. He removed fifty gold pieces from the sack and handed it back to Laharl. "Please give us ten minutes to prepare your pizza fresh from the oven. If you'll just wait outside...?" he asked with a rather resigned look, not expecting much in the way of discretion.

"Sure, come on Cheese Legs let's go," he called to the dog as he stepped outside the shop, the demon prince was glad the waiter hadn't immediately thrown him and his new companion away "We gotta wait a bit, so sit." Laharl took a seat by the door of the shop, beckoning the dog to sit with him.

Cheese Legs followed Laharl over, although either he didn't register the command or he didn't feel like listening, since he simply stood by where the demon sat. Regardless he kept close by, and since all in all the dog had been unusually cooperative thus far, there were no problems. With food on the way the two could afford to just relax and take it easy, soaking in the desert sun's rays as they watched people go by.

One thing was for sure about this place: it harbored quite the cast of colorful characters, all going about their business despite their differences as if nothing at all was wrong. As Laharl chilled he bore witness to a girl with a shark-tooth chainsaw, a purple bird, an old raptor herder, an enormous wrestler , a beast rider, a silver-furred cyborg, a purple-haired samurai, and Earl, to name just a few. With so much to catch his eye no time seemed to pass at all before there was a rap on the glass. The waiter was calling Laharl in to pick up his food.

"Foods ready Cheese Legs," Laharl told the dog, who seemed to understand him most of time "Let's go." Shortly after entering the store he wondered exactly how long he had been separated from the others, maybe they were looking for him? 'Of course not, jerks.' Laharl made his way over to the counter and shook his head slightly 'Never mind those weirdos, I'm starving.' he thought dismissively.

Dutifully the waiter delivered the pizza, and what a pizza it was. Easily two feet in diameter, it demanded not just any pizza box, but a specially made Royal Meat Lovers cardboard case with purple and white accents. Steam gushed from the slits in the side, and the pie's vivacious heat could be felt even through its container. Should Laharl dare to open it, he would be assaulted by an olfactory overload of sublime, carnivorous goodness as he beheld the smorgasbord of offerings piled on the supple, chewy crust and adorned with golden cheese. Truly it was a feast fit for a king. Or an Overlord.

If it smelled good to Laharl, it appealed to the keener nose of his canine companion even more once he got outside. That said, to let Cheese Legs chow down right now would be a cruel choice, as the heat would cause some real pain to the dog's sensitive stomach and force him to throw up. The mild-mannered pooch sat in front of Laharl, his tail swishing back and forth across the ground, his expression as pleading as could possibly be.

Looking around the demon tried his best to find a decently shaded area for Cheese Legs and himself to eat in peace away from the sun beating down on them. Laharl frowning concernedly as his red eyes shifted it's gaze from place to place.

Luckily, the street had a lot to offer for someone looking for a reprieve in public. Some stores, for instance, featured benches below their awnings or overhangs with no expectation of purchase beforehand. Other structures cast plentiful shade from their arches, or overshadowed an entire cross-section of road with a high tower. In a desert the shade could be only so much cooler than the sun, but anything was an improvement, and with no humidity the heat wouldn't cling to Laharl's skin once he found shelter.

If Laharl wanted true privacy, however, he and Cheese Legs would need to hoof it a little farther south. Moving where people weren't pointed him in the direction of a desolate church, closed to the public with shuttered windows and barred doors, but to an enterprising demon and an attentive hound it would be no trouble.

"Come on Cheese Legs." Besides being hungry Laharl was interested in the abandoned church isolated from the bustling streets of Al Mamoon, why was it all boarded up? It was too mysterious for the demon to ignore, Laharl was eager to see what could possibly be hiding in the quiet of the church.

As he made his way towards the church Laharl walked at a suitable pace as having the poor dog run after him in the hot sun would cause the pooch some distress most likely, and so they made for the church. There, in the cool and lonely stillness, the pair could enjoy a meal in contemplative solitude. Though small Laharl was no one to scoff at in terms of strength thus he made quick work of the barred entryway, letting the door swing open with the rush of cool air from within. Laharl put a hand up to tell the dog to wait as he listened for any movement in the dusty old church. Once a moment passed with no sign of threats within the boy walked in the empty church, still tentatively searching the dark corners of the room for anything.

Laharl relaxed, finally deciding to sit in a pew "Alright boy let's eat!" the demon patted beside him on the wooden pew, setting a big slice of the mouth-watering pizza next to him. And the two unlikely companions shared a feast fit for royalty together, the demon was almost sad he couldn't keep the dog as Laharl had admittedly begun to enjoy the company. Still he felt like the name 'Cheese Legs' rang a bell, if anything Laharl would need to check-in at the commissions office.

* * *

After their sumptuous meal the two had an uneventful trek further into the city and back to the commissions office, however Laharl slowed down as the office came into view. His gaze shifted to the little beagle following him, wagging his tail happily 'Why,' he sighed looking from the dog to the commissions office 'Why do I feel...Attached to this damn dog?!' it wasn't like Cheese Legs was a person, he was a dog and nothing more yet for some reason the usually overcompensating demon felt as though the creature was something more than a pet. Cheese Legs was the closest thing Laharl had to a friend.

In the end he shoved those feelings deep down and locked them away then Laharl took a deep breath and entered the commissions office with the beagle in tow, the boy walked straight up to the secretary and cleared his throat loudly. The lady on staff peered down at him through his glasses, mildly curious, but in a day full of strange occurrences, what was one more on the pile? It didn't take her long to determine that yes, Cheese Legs was a lost dog, whose return was so anticipated by his owner that she offered the demon an entire seventy-five gold in exchange. Once notified the owner came running from her workplace to pick up her dog, and the two were utterly rejoiced to see one another. The display of affection bothered Laharl a little, but after spending some time with the affectionate hound himself, he felt as though he could begin to understand. With his reward in hand he set out back into the city again, on the hunt for something else to catch his interest.

World of Light

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Level 9 Tora (25/90) Level 8 Poppi (94/80) Level 3 Big Band (9/30)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Yoshitune's @Rockin Strings, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Mao’s @Potemking
Word Count: 1274

Things got out of hand quickly as the reinforcements joined the battle. On instinct the fighters of the two sides spread what would have been an all-out brawl into more isolated clashes, one-on-one or a couple on one, to avoid inviting absolute chaos. Nevertheless the battle began in earnest. Tora and Poppi faced off against their opposing duo of Cass and Daemon, giving Yoshitsune the moments he needed to recover. With a little help from Sectonia and a lot of grit, Band fought back against three at once, taking on Mao, Klee and Baz. The insect queen herself decided to hunt down the pink-haired assassin, while the Twilight Princess zeroed in on Koga. Without Red or Laharl around to help even the odds, that left both the stealthy Sombra and the crazed Tira to Fox.

First on the scene after Band and Midna, the dynamic duo managed to resolve their situation first, flooring Cass and enraging Daemon. The gang leader did not anticipate, however, that Yoshitsune would rise from the ground to cross blades with him a second time. Standing on near-even footing, with Kamui pitted against Stealth/Sleep, the swordsman would see their duel decided for once and all.

Despite Midna’s overwhelmingly varied magical arsenal Koga stood against her with all the cunning and savvy in his position, but in the end the ninja was outclassed. His foe laid him out just as the immense trade between Mao and Big Band rocked the warehouse, and when a dazed Baz rose to his feet to try bothering someone else Midna sent Koga flying to hit Baz squarely in the chest with his fellow man. The two fell in a heap, giving Midna the chance to nurse her wounds.

Meanwhile, the encounter between Maeve and Sectonia had gotten off to an odd start. When the wasp demanded her opponent yield, Maeve held her hands up in surrender, no knives to be found. “Okay, okay, I give! I’ll just out of here, you’ll never see my face again, promise!” So saying she turned tail to leap away into the heights of the warehouse, but halfway through her escape the assassin suddenly pivoted in the shadows. She activated Prowl to boost her speed and jump height by a noteworthy fifty percent, then Pounce to dash away in an instant and disappear from view. In midair she triggered Nine Lives to reset her cooldowns, allowing her to Pounce again at a downward angle, right at Sectonia’s back. She intended to fulfill her promise -making sure her target would never see her face again by slaying her first- but the bug queen was wilier than Maeve gave her credit for. Her backstab failed and the two began a mad scramble, dashing and teleporting faster than the typical eye could see. Maeve never seemed to run out of daggers to throw, but Sectonia’s magic more than evened the playing field. After twenty seconds passed the assassin could use Nine Lives again to restore her own health, and as a last ditch effort she unleashed her ultimate, Midnight, to blind Sectonia for an attempted instant kill.

Tira and Sombra proved to be a troublesome duo for Fox once they united against him. The mad harlequin’s unorthodox ring blade and unpredictable movement made fighting her a chore, but the pilot could keep her at bay while Sombra hounded him. Sombra could Hack him to temporarily disable his technological equipment and disappear or translocate to reposition at a moment’s notice. And whenever given an inch Tira took a mile, fighting viciously to take Fox down. If he focused on either Fox could deal with them effectively, but neither would allow him to concentrate on the other. In the end his pattern recognition allowed him to deal with her momentarily, so that he could address Sombra fully. His Friend Heart wiped Galeem’s influence from her spirit and pacified her for a few seconds, but when she met his eyes Fox could tell that something in them was still wrong.

As the fight raged on, Klee picked herself up from where Band left her. The little girl held her head and groaned, tears in her eyes, but with a glare of sunset-red determination she blinked them back. What would the boss say to her if she saw her now, after all? Or her mother, Alice? She couldn’t be beaten so easily. She wouldn’t! For her mother, for her faithful Dodoco, for her friends Mao and Baz, and the boss!

Klee stood up shakily, an angry look on her face. “Blow them all up!” She called on her magic to produce a special explosive plushie, pulled it until it glowed white with power, and tossed it into the air. Magic blossomed above her in a burst of petals and sparks. Magic circles appeared floating in the air, seemingly at random, each four red inward-facing hearts with a fiery ring. Each one spat out an explosive payload before vanishing, effectively carpet-bombing an entire section of warehouse. The battle ended in an all-consuming chaos, a maelstrom of fire and force that more or less decked everyone still on their feet.

Results

Rebel Ambush Ruined
Party: Midna, Sectonia, Tora and Poppi, Yoshitsune, Mao, Fox
Reward: 6 EXP

As the smoke cleared it revealed that the blasts left nobody unaffected. Scattered across the warehouse by both their brutal struggle and then Klee’s bombing, the two sides could scarcely fight any longer, try as those under Galeem’s influence might. Toward the back of the battlefield Tora and Poppi fared perhaps the best, owing to their low sustained damage and high defense against Klee’s indiscriminate revenge. In the hazy aftermath of the bombardment they could see more figures approaching the warehouse from the parking lot, and Poppi’s keen optics recognized the man in front. “Mr. Kan-Ra!” she observed, recalling the sorcerer’s distinctive, ghoulish appearance, with all the wrappings and trinkets. She waved an armored gauntlet from across the battlefield. “We’ve made contact with Resistance!”

“So it would seem,” the Grimleal Captain grinned, arms clasped behind his back. “After your earlier indecision, you’ve put on quite the show.” Tora and Poppi shared a wary glance as Kan-Ra continued. “Some gratitude is in order for sparing us the effort of fighting them ourselves. By my count, you’ve managed to put about a third of the Resistance’s whole roster out of commission. That’s something to be proud of--indeed, you’ve done well for our fair city.”

Tora and Poppi made their way across the battle-worn ground toward the Grimleal, with the Nopon looking pretty happy. “Hooray, mehmeh! Another win in bag for hero team!” He waddled over to help Big Band up and restore him with Nopon Rescue Service, while Poppi focused on Kan-Ra.

“So...what next?”

The mummified sorcerer's grin did not falter. “We will deal with these miscreants. Regrettably their bloodlust is now awakened, so drastic measures are necessary to ensure the safety of the populace.” As Klee got up to bomb him, Kan-Ra extended bandages like tentacles to bind her, wrapping the little girl so tightly that she couldn’t move. “Regrettable, yeees...but most necessary. We will collect them for...interrogation. You, meanwhile, may receive healing from our clerics as our thanks. If by now you understand the untenable menace this so-called Resistance poses to peace, consider joining my colleagues.” He tilted his head slightly. “They are already en route with their squads to the other hideouts. Your actions forced our hand a little early, but we can and will make do. The Resistance, as we know it, is finished.” His words hung in the air like acrid smoke, stinging and powerful. Big things had been set into motion, and whatever the heroes planned to do, they could not afford to hesitate.

Museum of Vanity

Location: Al Mamoon
Primrose’s @Yankee, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, the Phantom Thieves
Word Count: 8384 (+7 EXP)

The Distorted Misadventures of the director, the dancer, and the Phantom Thieves

When Jesse poked her head through the door, she observed an ordinary-looking area shaped like a capital letter L, its walls adorned by works of art without any trace of the eldritch. The door to the Shadow Gallery, heavily locked for all that mattered, sat at the bottom-right of the L and gave her the chance to get a feel for the room’s layout. More of a decorated hallway than an actual gallery, its design would have helped traffic flow from the skewed cutout doorway at the bottom to the double-doors at the top, if any guests ever came here. Heading up the intended way seemed to be the best option, and only one guard strolled around on patrol to obstruct it.

Jesse took a moment to appreciate the visual of her face just sticking right out a door. Then she retracted, turned, and relayed what she saw to the team.

Had these guards been normal men and not monsters in disguise, it would have been a simple thing for Primrose to flaunt her stuff and make a temporary new follower out of him, easily clearing the floor and increasing the party's overall power and options. As it was, she could still act as an attention grabber - distract it, draw it closer, and let the others jump it. Considering the area didn't quite set the stage for the guard's true form to be a monstrosity like the last one, Primrose felt this simple plan had a good chance of success.

"I will bring it over, be ready," she said quietly, stepping into the hall. Jesse nodded and got into position. She made her way to the corner, taking a quick peek before slipping around it and out of sight of the others. For a few long moments there was no movement, no sound. Then came the heavy footsteps of the guard, chasing the crimson clad intruder as she rounded the corner back into view. She winked at the others as she passed them, the guard following after with it's club raised high.

Through the solid wood of the door itself lashed Panther’s whip to strike and wrap around the Shadow’s upper body. Taken totally by surprise, it offered minimal resistance as the lady thief yanked it off its feet and dragged it across the floor into the Shadow Killer. It slid to a stop directly between Jesse and Joker, pistols drawn and leveled at its toppled form.

A noisy few moments later the group made for the end of the hall at a brisk jog, and together Joker and Jesse pushed through the doors. The moment they forced it ajar a brilliant yellow-white light shone through, requiring a moment for everyone to adjust once they entered. When they did, they found themselves faced with a reality that had taken leave of its senses. Impossible, illogical constructions of blocky masses and staircases connected in odd, inexplicable ways floated in a lambent void. Paintings plastered them where nobody could possibly get close enough to read their plaques, and trains of jagged screens flowed like ribbons through empty space, ambivalent to gravity. And naturally, every inch of it save the canvases of the paintings themselves glittered with aurous opulence.



Panther squinted as the group moved up to the nearest edge and got a good look at the unreal room in its entirety. “Ugh. All this gold still hurts my eyes. I never understood how that grizzled old counterfeiter managed to drum up so much self-worth.”

“That’s for damn sure. Makes me wanna kick his ass all over again.” Skull sauntered up and put a hand on her shoulder. “I hope we don’t gotta do the thing with the fake Sayuris again though. That was one hell of a drag.”

“Heh, you said it,” his friend laughed, still a little woozy from the previous fight. “You know, at this point I’d be surprised if we didn’t get to fight Madarame. Now that we know his gimmick it won’t be nearly as much of a pain.”

“Don’t get too excited,” Mona cautioned. “Our goal today is to save Fox. We can come back later if we wanna take down the ruler.” He shaded his eyes with a white paw as he surveyed the room like a seasoned expeditionist. “I don’t see any Sayuris. I see some enemies, but nothing that serious.”

“How about that?” Joker pointed straight ahead.

Mona narrowed his eyes. “How about…? Whoa!” With a start he realized something else was different about this room. Inside the huge central space that the golden superstructure surrounded, there appeared to be a massively upscaled version of the Infinite Spring sculpture. Its slide spiraled from the haze on high all the way to the bottom like a tornado of gleaming gold. At its apex there appeared to be a disk of some sort, or perhaps a plate. “Good eye, Joker! That definitely wasn’t there before. I can’t say for sure, but it given the circumstances we should definitely climb up there and take a look.” He glanced between the group members. “That said, there are a number of ways we could go about it. What do you think?”

Jesse cast an annoyed look at the room in front of her, like she just realised she had to talk with an unpleasant family member at Thanksgiving. This room was a familiar type of obstacle to her. “If I could fly, this would be a lot easier.” The Director commented off-handedly.

“I mean,” she gestured to the area around her. “Where are we even going? Is there an obvious exit point?” She stepped closer to the edge and looked around.

“We could leave the way we came without too much trouble. Or maybe get out through an upper window,” Mona hypothesized. He crossed his little paws. “First though, we need to get up to that platform up there. At least to check it out.”

Skull gave his furry friend the side-eye. “What about you? Can’t you get us up there?”

“Did you forget what I said last time?” the not-cat questioned him. “I could drive us up if we reached the sculpture since it spirals all the way to the top, but I can’t fly us or anything.”

“Ohhh...right.” As Skull rubbed his head it seemed clear that he had, in fact, forgotten. “But...maybe there is a way you can fly us.” He gave Jesse a thoughtful look, a sudden excitement in his eyes. “Just like that old guy flew around. What if we stuck a whole buncha balloons and rockets to ya?”

“Wha...huh!? No way!” Mona protested, but when he looked to Joker for support he found the thief leader smiling. “Oh no. You’re not actually thinking…?”

Jesse reached into her jacket holster and drew the Tool Gun. She considered Skull’s proposition. “The paracriminal made it work. I attach balloons to each corner of Mona so he’s balanced, and one thruster on each side of him. I get four channels for the thrusters so I can activate them individually. Then it’ll be a controlled ascent to get where we need to be.” Jesse concocted their scheme.

“It’ll be me controlling you, Mona.” The Director said, looking to the not-cat seriously for a moment. “And that goes for everyone else inside the Mona-mobile. You’ll have to trust me. I like to think our shared near death experience has bonded us somewhat. That’s how I bond with pretty much everyone I know. But still, I’m basically a stranger. So that’s your call.”

“I’ll do my best not to crash us, but I don’t have a lot of, uh...balloon thruster cat van flying experience.” She shrugged. “It might be fun, though.” She said, a smile in her eyes and voice, if not necessarily on her face.

Everyone’s eyes had fallen expectantly on Mona, and he got the sense that he’d been volunteered. Many a time had he stood on the shoulder of the team’ leader as he was dealt such a hand, but only now did Mona start to get a feel for the sensation. “Ugh. Fine,” he grumbled, flicking his ears. “It’s definitely crazy enough to be a Phantom Thieves plan. But we’re gonna be careful.” He addressed Jesse directly. “I want you on top to add more balloons if something happens and they start popping.”

Once he had her assurance, Mona jumped up and transformed. Everyone piled inside save the redhead who went around attaching thrusters and balloons. By taking to the sky the group would be able to avoid the Shadows patrolling the golden room’s stairs and walkways, but they couldn’t dismiss the possibility of airborne enemies, either. After a few moments the makeshift dirigible was ready, with enough balloons stuck on to float the living vehicle’s tires just above the ground. “Can’t say I like this,” Mona remarked, an edge of nervousness in his voice. On the back of the car his cat-tail flicked recklessly. “Let’s get going already. Get it over with, you know?”

It was a sentiment everyone could get behind; in just a couple moments the Morgana-car was airborne and on his way to the top.

Their ascent began slowly but without issue as Jesse got a feel for how to control her ride. Though no strangers to peril, the Thieves inside were a little uneasy. Of all the ways they’d thought up to get from Point A to Point B, this was a real contender for being the most hackneyed, and over yet another bottomless pit, too. Skull fidgeted one leg up and down as he sat, one arm against the car door while he surveyed the surreal surroundings. “How long ‘til somethin’ attacks us, ya think?” he asked the others, more rhetoric than anything.

“Ten seconds seems about right,” Panther mumbled.

Primrose smirked at their pessimism. She couldn't help it, the almost playful way the teens went about bringing up potential danger was humorous, in a dark sort of way.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, smoothing her expression. While the Thieves fretted, Primrose scooted closer to the driver side window. She hadn't been present when the 'paracriminal' was active, and having no frame of reference she'd kept silent while the others discussed how they could fly to the top of the sculpture. When the plan ended up being this - carried inside the Mona-mobile while it floated gently up assisted by whatever contraptions Jesse had attached to it... well, the dancer took it in stride.

Now she peered out the window as was becoming a custom of hers. With no airborne enemies in sight (yet, at least, she thought, mirroring her companions' suspicions), she leaned out of the opening a little and glanced towards the roof, seeking a head of red hair.

"How is it going?" she asked the Director, light and conversational.

“Err...” Jesse replied, unsure. The Director had welded her boot to the roof of the Morgana-Car. As evenly as possible she had applied the balloons. Now the vehicle was slowly floating upwards. With very gentle activation of the thrusters she nudged the crew in the direction they needed to go. The Director had her arms out, her posture low, to maintain balance.

“I think it’s going all right. There’s no better place I operate than on the brink of catastrophic failure.” She said. She looked down at Primrose and smirked, giving a little wave with her free hand. The dancer shared her expression. This too was that dark sort of humor that tickled Primrose for some reason. It was a kind of making the best out of a bad situation, she supposed, though given everything their situation could be much worse.

"Well. That is reassuring," She said playfully. The precarious swaying of the car followed her words. After a few moments of quiet where Primrose made sure that her distracting Jesse wouldn't result in any disastrous consequences, she rested an elbow on the window's ledge and went on, starting with a quote.

"'Our shared near death experience has bonded us somewhat'... I had a similar thought this morning." She glanced back at the Thieves before her attention returned to Jesse. "There is truth to that. We've only just met but... I've come to find you reliable." There was no mention of the word "trust," but the way Primrose's lips quirked upwards at the ends implied that she was leaving some things unsaid. Maybe it was the red haired woman's easy snark, or their perceived similarities with bonding with the people in their lives back home, but she was warming up to Jesse more quickly than she usually would. "Of course, one doesn't expect to have so many in one day," she added offhandedly.

Jesse chuckled at that last addition. “You’d think so.” Jesse concentrated for a few moments. “I’ve only gotten used to being relied upon recently. I won’t let you down.” She fiddled with the Tool Gun. “Well, in this case, I’ll let us all down easily.” Cue laugh track.

After what felt like ages the flying circus that was the Morgana-Car finally crested the edge of the great golden disk that fed the infinite spring. In front of them stretched a large garden, much like the one in between the two buildings of Madarame’s gallery, but far bigger and more grandiose. In the midst of the endless, tasteless gold lay a haven of verdure, of green grass and pink cherry blossoms, all washed in the light yellow hue of the strange void but beautiful nonetheless.

But the pretty scenery didn’t even register with the Phantom Thieves. They climbed out of the Morgana-Car so their companion could turn back to normal, the thrusters and balloons falling off or drifting away. Jesse sighed sharply, relieved and amused. In this museum of distortion every detail from the paintings to the petals was a product of just one man’s vainglorious ego, unchecked and allowed to impose its will upon the cognitive world. Nothing that the eye could see was original, least of all this place, a homage to a cultural legacy to which Madarame so proudly lay claim. When the Thieves moved closer and got a better look at what it housed, their disgust only grew.

Scattered across the garden was a collection of easels, each surrounded by canvases and art supplies, and at each a painter was laboring. Joker observed a man with a thin mustache and big head, a girl in a beret with floppy rabbit ears, a Pokemon, a strange painter who looked like a wooden figure, an haunted painter in old-fashioned clothes, a lovely ninja who stood before an evil-looking work of art, and a young man in spectacles. Each and every one of them looked haggard and tormented, utterly miserable, as if made to brute force their craft without adequate food or rest. Horror and anger welled up within him, but as much as his heart went out to the others Joker needed to find just one man right now. “They’re trapped here and forced to paint for Madarame. Or whoever runs this place,” he growled, and with purpose in his stride he moved forward.

The others followed close behind. “This is beyond fucked,” Skull swore through gritted teeth. “It’s freakin’ inhumane! How could this even exist?”
Jesse was silent, dark eyes scanning the situation.

Panther looked close to tears. “It’s so messed up. If Yusuke is really here, this is way worse than just being a symbol of how Madarame treated people in the real world. It’s actual torture!” Her gun had already appeared in her hand, and her finger itched to pull the trigger on whoever was responsible.

A gentle hand glided over Panther's shoulders, comforting but only briefly. Primrose moved about the prisoners, posture unusually stiff. No shackles held them in place. So what kept the artists there? A spell, a threat of force?

"Can we take them with us...?" Primrose wondered aloud, her brows pinched beneath the masque she wore. Mona had said getting out the same way they came wouldn't be too much trouble, but they couldn't fly everyone back down at once. They'd have to take the long way down, and who knew how long that would take - or how dangerous it would be. She knew that their priority was saving 'Fox,' the Phantom Thieves' missing friend, but leaving the rest of the suffering there seemed cruel, even if they intended to return.

Joker looked grim. “They must be here both because of the palace ruler, and there being no way down. Taking them with us may be difficult, but we’re not going to leave them here. We could return with the full team and a way to rescue them, or else tip off the authorities so they raid this place. Either way, once the ruler is deposed, they’ll all be free.”

Primrose nodded, having figured that was the case. Between the two options, returning themselves with the full force of the other Seekers seemed the best bet... but they also had the Grimleal and Resistance to deal within Al Mamoon, and more outside of the city. Slowly she stepped away from the artists, though she cast her eyes about looking for any that might seem similar to the Phantom Thieves. There was at least one they could save now, after all. "...is there any sign of your friend?"

“There,” Mona alerted the others in a low, flat voice, his expression stormy. He pointed toward a waterfall feature that fed the central pond. A young man, stick thin and with dark blue hair, sat on the stone there by an easel streaked with purposeless paint. The Thieves recognized him instantly, and were wracked by pity. As one they broke into a headlong sprint, running for their lost friend.

“Yusuke!”

The boy’s head turned upward. “...What?” His Gleaming eyes widened. “...How!? ...Oof!”

Together the Thieves surrounded him in a multi-man group hug, tears streaming down more than a couple faces. “Yusuke…!” Panther bawled, holding him close.

Jesse stood at a polite distance, hands in the pockets of her jacket. She smiled at the heart-warming sight. Without a doubt, her tagging along was worth it. Glancing over at Primrose, Jesse said, “Not bad, huh?”
"Not bad at all," the dancer replied, coming to stand next to the other woman.

After a moment the friends broke apart, and at close range they could really tell the sort of condition that the captives were in. Exhausted, malnourished, miserable, and worst of all, hopeless. Though Yusuke did his best to greet his companions’ arrival with the joy it was due, even that was troublesome for him. “It’s...so good to see you all. I fear...I am not well. I’ve been...wasting away up here.” He looked at Panther, perplexed. “It would even seem that I’ve gotten shorter, as well…”

“Oh no,” the girl laughed, blinking away tears. “I just got taller, is all. It’s a long story.”

With as formidable a smile as he could muster, Skull squeezed his friend’s shoulder. “We’ve got a whole lot to tell ya, dude. We’re gettin’ you outta this hellhole.”

Yusuke nodded, his gaunt face resolute. “The overseer was too strong for me, but with all of you I know we can make it.”

“Can you summon your Persona?” Joker asked.

“I...don’t know,” the young artist admitted. “There’s no spell stopping me, but...I’m so terribly weak. I don’t know if I can sustain it.”

Panther bent down and picked up Mona by the scruff of the neck, although the not-cat didn’t seem to mind. “Here then. Come on Mona, heal him!”

“Lady Panther!” Mona exclaimed, clearly distracted. “I-I mean, I could heal his wounds, but it’s not just that he’s wounded. He’d need some kind of total recovery.”

Joker laid his hand on his chest. “Got that covered.” He pulled out a friend heart and offered it to Yusuke, who didn’t know what to make of it but accepted it regardless. The moment he touched it a wave of wholesome magic flowed through him, restoring him to his default state.

Yusuke blinked, stretching his fingers and shoulders. “...Fascinating. I feel completely refreshed!”

“Hell yeah!” Skull cracked his knuckles. “Then let’s bust out of here!”

The arrival of the strangers had drawn not just the attention of Yusuke, but the other artists as well, but their slacking off did not go unnoticed. As the group prepared to move out, a stranger appeared in a burst of magic. Like Validar he looked very much the part of ‘evil sorcerer’, but the clownish aspect to his look and garb gave him an entirely different sort of flavor. He wore a bright red smile and wielded a staff with a plume of magic shape like a paintbrush. Three colored scrolls -ocean blue, light yellow, and grass green- floated around him. “Such a touching reunion,” the sorcerer sneered. “But Is much as it pains me to so much as look at such inferior creatures, I’m afraid I must cut it short. You’re not going anywhere.”

Together the other Thieves opened fire, but the painted scrolls flashed elemental barriers to protect the newcomer. Yuga yawned, snickering, until the Thieves ceased fire a moment later. “Had your fun, worms?”

Yusuke stepped forward, glowering. “I’m afraid I must insist otherwise. Though long overdue, I’m taking my leave of this place. And neither you nor your master will stop me!” He placed a hand across his face. “Goemon!”

Blue flame burst from nothing to rake across his body, and behind them they left an outlaw with a kitsune mask. The dancing azure blaze then resolved itself into the shape of an extravagant warrior, awash in splendid color.

Yet Yuga was unfazed, for he’d gazed upon Goemon once before, and emerged the victor. As he whirled his staff it took on an inky darkness. “If you will not make art for the Master, your blood and flesh will be pigment and canvas for the others! Fade to black!”

He struck the ground, and streaks of ink spread out in all directions. From the ribbons of blackness climbed creatures of darkness, a horde hundreds strong. Cackling and with arms upheld, he floated off the ground. “Take them, Heartless!”

Can't say something like this wasn't expected, Primrose thought.

"Please cover me," she whispered to Jesse, taking a step back from the horde of Heartless. Her body was already starting to thrum with energy as she prepared to dance.

Jesse only nodded, producing her Service Weapon. Now it was time to paint some strokes of her own. She wrenched a heavy white limestone from the Earth and Launched it at the horde of shadow creatures. It carved a swathe through the dark horde, crushing them under its weight before bursting on the ground and shredding several legs of the creatures. Heartless, as they were so called. Unfortunately her Service Weapon was only a semi-automatic weapon, but the gun could be fired as fast as she could pull the trigger. The Director was intending to hold the line. Each shot she landed- and it was hard to miss- carved a hole into a Heartless that returned it to the shadow.

At the same time the Phantom Thieves leaped into action with gusto. No strangers to facing hordes of enemies, they executed strings of techniques designed to combo as many enemies as possible, finishing them off with bombastic flourishes and tactical invocations of their Personas. Joker’s knife carved through Heartless like butter as he dashed to and fro, a dark blur whose deft movement and well-placed pistol shots more than made up for his weapon’s range. After taunting to give himself a sunny sheen, Skull fought with everything at his disposal, stomping and smashing the Heartless into the ground and shrugging off stray hits all the while. With acrobatic grace Panther struck wide swathes of enemies again and again with her whip, and once she’d gathered them up she unleashed a blast of flame to put them down. Even Mona got in on the fun: since he lacked the stamina to use Zorro, he just changed into the car to batter through the ranks of the Heartless, simple but brutally effective.

This performance of Primrose's was a particular one. Sensual and powerful, Sealticge's Seduction wasn't a dance that she performed often. With divine power channeled through her body, it could be incredibly tiring - but making sure they all escaped in one piece, with friend in hand and in good enough shape to return for the others, was a worthy cause.

"With the grace of Sealticge," she breathed. A step forward, a step back. She lifted her arms up over her head, shimmied her hips, then brought her hands back down over her chest, her curves. She threw her head back, hair splaying out through the air. A turn in place, then another, faster, clockwise then counter clockwise. Because it was her first time performing the steps since regaining her connection to Sealticge, every little action was careful and deliberate. It wouldn't do to make a misstep here. The dance ended with her arms brought slowly up, palms out, and when she gently wrapped them around herself the performance was over and she practically shivered with power.

This time it was a self-buff, and it transitioned well into the Lion Dance. Well practiced, the next performance was much faster and fiercer, and when it was finished it empowered not just one of them, but all of them. Jesse, every Phantom Thief, and even Primrose herself saw an increase in their attack power.

The Dancer’s use of support magic, however, did not go unnoticed. As she finished her first dance Yuga sprang up from the ground in a burst of magic. Sorcery swirled around his staff as he swung at her, but Panther wasn’t about to let her friend get sucker punched. “Look out!” She jumped in to take the hit for Primrose, and Yuga’s magic imprisoned her in a picture frame. He cackled as lightning coursed from his staff as a ruthless follow-up, and Primrose’s dance finished to the tune of Panther’s shocked cry of pain.

“Panther!” Skull bellowed, turning on a dime to sprint her way, only for the resident redhead to beat him to the punch.

Feeling her increase of power and looking to experiment, Jesse wrenched another boulder from the garden grounds and flung it, this time directly towards Yuga. The stone sailed through the air and smashed into the sorcerer’s barrier and was deflected, sliding off at a tangent, but the force carried through enough to put Yuga off-balance. Ceasing his electric attack he sneered at Jesse. “Boring, trite, and utterly typical! My defense is impreg-!”

“RAAAGH!” With all of Skull’s magic-boosted strength behind it, the pipe crashed down on the barrier, once, twice. The boy leaped forward and stomped on it, but bounced off. Irritated by the stupidity on display, Yuga tossed the painting aside to changed back into a dazed Panther and turned his electrocution on Skull. But even as the torrent of power struck him Skull powered through, planting one foot in front of the other as he advanced with arms crossed, charging. Strength welled up around him, and after a moment Captain Kid appeared with cannon outstretched.

“...Get smoked!”

A staggered series of yellow lightning bolts dropped in front of him, turning the tables on Yuga. Lacking Skull’s resistance to his own element, the sorcerer staggered, and as the arcing electricity destroyed ocean-blue scroll that floated at his side its barrier also faded. “What!?” Yuga cried, reeling. Just two remained: light yellow and grass green. In petulant rage he stomped one foot on the ground, then disappeared back into the second dimension. Skull knelt at Panther’s side, helped her to her feet, then turned to give her a chance to use Diarama to heal herself as the Heartless closed in.

From where he stood near Jesse, Joker watched the whole thing, and it made a lot of sense. “Those are elemental barriers!” he called. “Just like with Madarame, we’ve got to hit each one with the element it’s weak against!”

"Then leave the fire to me," Primrose said. Her voice was tinted dark from the storm brewing within her. She'd summoned her dark magic while Skull was on the attack, and she let loose her wide range spell to rip apart the Heartless making their way towards the two blonde teenagers. Primrose changed over from shadow to flame, sparks dancing between her fingers as she prepared to summon the pyromancy at a moment's notice. If Yuga dared to show his face again he'd feel her burning desire to get back at him for hurting Ann.

A moment later Yuga appeared--three of him, in fact. That meant two had to be fakes, but the electricity unleashed by all three was very real. Skull soaked the attack with negligible damage but Mona ran like the wind to avoid taking extra damage. The Yugas then prepared fireballs, targeting Fox in order to exploit his weakness to flame, but only one of their staffs glowed. Panther shot one with her submachine gun and the copy turned into a spear-wielding soldier. She hissed and turned her gunfire on the Heartless coming to get her.

By then, the Fire Orb was forming in the palm of Primrose's hand and ready to cast. She sidestepped the lightning as best she could, her own elemental defenses woefully low for a magic user. She was a little singed, but not as much as Yuga's barrier was going to be. Primrose drew her arm back and threw the orb, the magic growing in power as it absorbed any of the mage's fireballs in it's path. With a keen eye the dancer aimed the pyromancy at the clone wielding the glowing staff, though ultimately when the spell collided with Yuga's barrier and burst, it didn't matter. Flames spread out from the point of impact, and while Yuga's clone was quick to escape the worst of the explosion the main mage himself was engulfed. His barrier kept him safe, until the green scroll caught fire and burned up and took a portion of his defense with it.

"How dare you...!" He shouted, his visage melting away and then reappeared to shed the flames clinging to his last remaining barrier. Primrose just narrowed her eyes, letting out a tsk.

Though none of the Heartless could get close enough to Jesse to harm her, she was still looking for ways to contribute against the real threat. She didn’t have elemental attacks. The barriers were magical in nature, but they were present enough to be physically pushed around by her Launch ability. If this next strategy didn’t work, there wouldn’t be much opportunity cost. Switching to the Tool Gun, she activated No-Collide mode. Levelling up a shot she briefly turned away from her fight with the Heartless and aimed a little blue beam at the final, remaining yellow barrier. Unfortunately, even if it interacted with physical force, the barrier was still energy and not matter. The No-Collide bolt struck it with no visible effect. To follow this up she reached out, wrenched a smaller rock, about three feet across, out of a nearby pool in the garden. A shiny pond stone- did this count as a water attack? It was just a big, wet rock. “Eh.” She flung it at the Yuga with the glowing staff nonetheless. But though the infuriating barrier shook, under the weight of the stone, it held--if Jesse’s rock counted as a water-aspected attack, it wasn’t the right element to beat the radiant, pale yellow. With malicious laughter Yuga turned and blasted more lightning her way.

Meanwhile, Skull and Joker went to help Panther with the Setanta that now attacked her. The hound-slaying maverick attacked with both sweeping spear strikes and loci of nuclear energy, and since the team had no Psy on deck, they were obliged to deal with the Setanta the old-fashioned way. Joker called Leena to shoot the spearfighter with One-hit Kill, then stepped back to allow his spent health to recover while the others got to work. After a series of whiplashes Panther unleashed Ominous Words to drive the enemy to despair, giving Skull all the time in the world to charge until he glowed with energy and could send the spearfighter soaring with a brutal baseball swing. “Whew!” the rogue breathed, wiping his brow as he shouldered his pipe. When a Heartless ran at him he kicked it like a football into the pond. “Really feelin’ Noire missin’ after fightin’ those guys again.” He followed Panther’s gaze as she watched Jesse’s soaked stone bounce off Yuga’s barrier, and shared her confusion at what she’d been trying. Even if that was the yellow of electricity, water didn’t exactly beat it, but there was no way that subdued, pastel color indicated the energetic power of lightning. “Hey Joker! That look like bless to you?”

The leader of the Thieves nodded. “One Eigaon, coming right up. Arsene!” The daunting Persona appeared behind him, wings outstretched. Joker would need to get a lot closer to use him, but luckily he had someone already in position. “Fox, slow him down!”

Yuga sneered when he heard him. “Yes, come and die!”

Dauntless, the outlaw sprinted the sorcerer’s way, carving through the Heartless in his path. “Try all you like!” With elegance he dashed out of the way of fireball after fireball, only to slide to a stop directly in one’s path with his hand on the hilt of his katana. When the attack struck him he disappeared in a blue flash, and when he appeared he stood calmly, eyes averted, and slid the blade into its scabbard with distinctive slowness.

Clack.

A whirlwind of slashes appeared around Yuga’s barrier, falling upon it with enough force to jar the bubble and disorient the villain within. Fox turned back, roaring, and unleashed a flurry of energy slashes on the barrier at high speed. None breached it, but they applied such constant, frenetic pressure that Yuga couldn’t compose himself. Then Joker leaped into the air, and behind him Arsene slammed down his arms. A dark detonation, like an accursed mine going off beneath the ground, burst up beneath Yuga to disintegrate his final scroll.

“What!?” Yuga cried. “How could such loathsome insects…kuh!?”

The Eigaon also wiped out most of the other enemies around him but triggered the other copy, causing a second Setanta to appear, but Mona had his eyes on the prize. “Yeah yeah yeah! He’s wide open guys, let’s finish the job!”

“Darkness.” Jesse pointed out the answer like it was a Jeopardy question. “Maybe I could have tossed an umbrella at him, or something.” Jesse levelled pocketed her Tool Gun and got out the Service Weapon, levelling it at the Setantas. Those spear wielding guys that looked like they might be tough? It was hard to tell. The only way to find out was to shoot something in the face, and she didn’t want them getting in the way of the Phantom Thieves getting their revenge.

"I'm sure that would have gone over well."

Despite the masque on her face, Primrose had much the same idea to leave the Phantom Thieves to their own. While Jesse took on the lancers and the Thieves surrounded Yuga, Primrose focused on cleaning up the remaining Heartless with her spells, keeping them from interfering.

Though by no means excluded from laying waste to the defenseless sorcerer, Primrose and Jesse elected to tend to the other enemies littering the rock garden, leaving the Thieves the chance to square things with Yuga personally, which suited them just fine. As they charged in the colors of the area warped in a way familiar to the dancer, with solid objects turning black and the backdrop fading to red. Even the Phantom Thieves themselves vanished into dark blurs as they fell upon their hapless target. Empowered by the thrill of victory they struck faster than the eye could see, black streaks of punishment across a blood-red canvas.

A moment later most of them cleared out and the discoloration faded, leaving just Fox to take the stage. “It’s Showtime,” he called, his mask disappearing to summon Goemon behind him. Using his fingers the boy outlined a frame around Yuga shere he reeled, bleeding from a dozen wounds. Goemon unleashed a stream of glittering powder that spread across the rock garden, coating everything before him in a thick layer of ice. “Such beauty!” he declared before breaking into a headlong sprint toward Yuga, his hand on his katana’s hilt. “Better than you deserve. Now die!”

He disappeared for a moment as he dashed through his target, executing a single sweeping slash. Nothing seemed to change, but as he slid to a stop Yox slid his blade back into his scabbard once more. “It was fun while it lasted.” Clack. “Goodbye.”

All around the spires of ice slid apart and fell over, severed like tree trunks in the forest, and Yuga’s prison was no different. His top half his the ground as his lower half stayed behind, and with a shocked look frozen on his face he groaned his last. “Curse...you...miserable...ugh…”

As his body dissolved, the Phantom Thieves relaxed. Their allies had disposed of the remaining enemies as they enacted their coup de grace, and though partially frosted over the rock garden in the golden void was still and serene once more. The others celebrated, with Mona and Skull in particular congratulating him on a job well done. But Fox sighed, his features covered by his kitsune mask once more. “Unfortunately this is far from over. That wretched overseer merely kept us in line at his master’s behest. And he is already likely on his way. As much as it pains me to leave my fellow artists behind, we have no choice but to flee for now.”

With a nod Mona jumped up and turned back into the Morgana-car. At the same time haunted-looking man had approached the newcomers, his manner jittery but hopeful. “You...have you come to save us?” he asked.

Joker frowned. “I’m sorry, but we only anticipated Fox being here. We don’t have enough room for every...huh.” He blinked as he remembered Jesse’s Tool Gun shrinking everyone before, and everything clicked. If the car stayed the same but the passengers got smaller and lighter, everyone here could escape with room to spare. The ground started to shake, galvanizing him to action. “Jesse! I need you to make everyone smaller. We can all get out of here together!”

“On it.” Jesse held the Tool Gun in both hands. Like she was at the firing range she hit every artist's center of mass with a few well placed beams of blue light, shrinking them all down to size. Starting with the suffering soul that had approached them first. She snapped from target to target with practiced efficiency. “Everyone stay calm, we’re getting you out of here. One of us can turn into a car.” She explained helpfully. Each artist was nine inches tall, the same size as she turned herself into earlier. She and her allies could gently scoop a couple up and place them in the back of the rescue vehicle.

The team worked quickly as the rumbling intensified. Spurred on by the hope of escape from this hell the artists rushed forward, each assenting to being shrunken and stowed without question. Even if they didn’t understand one bit who these people were, how they were doing this, or what a gun or car even was, all recognized their shot at salvation. As the enormous golden saucer itself started to rock, Mona bounced his chassis impatiently. “C’mon, c’mon! This is gonna be close! Jesse, start sticking the balloons on!”

“Working on it!” She replied.

Scarcely had the words left his mouth(?) than a swarm of paintings shot up over the lip of the platform. They flew skyward in a gigantic stream, like a reverse waterfall of paint, canvas, and golden frames. Once high enough they floated over the ground, arranged in a humanoid shape, and turned to face the hasty heroes together. Each painting bore a piece of a much, much larger depiction of an old man with garish, revolting makeup in a kimono of threaded gold. One apiece contained each eye, his mouth, and his nose, making a face that glared down at the escapees with unbridled contempt.

“All you good for nothings!” the Shadow growled. “Barging into my museum and doing whatever the hell you want! How dare you try and rob me of my art!”

Fox bared his teeth at the false curator of vanity, unafraid. “Such drivel, coming from the likes of you! You, who used me like an object once again! You, who have stolen the futures of promising young artists, driving some to suicide! You, who allowed my mother to die so you could profit off my work! You are a hypocrite and a fiend, and you will rue the day your distortion overtook you once more!” He drew his katana and leveled its tip at Madarame’s fragmented face.

A red glove fell on his shoulder. Fox looked behind to see Joker, his face stern. “He will face justice--no doubt about it. But our stamina is depleted, and we need to get these people to safety. It’ll have to wait.”

Outrage bubbled up within the young artist, but he knew Joker was right. “Then...when the time comes, his defeat will be a masterpiece.”

As Jesse applied the balloons she cast a look up at Madarame. “Fuck you, by the way.” She added off-handedly.

He accepted the hand and was drawn into the Morgana car. Madarame raised an eyebrow. “So you thieving scoundrels won’t so much as face me? I will not let you scuttle away into your holes! Hrah!” As one the paintings broke formation, becoming a golden cyclone. The heroes jumped into the car and slammed the doors, but something was missing. “Not enough balloons,” Joker noticed, teeth clenched. He watched the paintings flying toward them in the side mirror. “We’re not going to make it!”

“Good thing I’ve been saving a little magic!” Mona piped up. “Zorro, it’s Showtime!”

His Persona appeared behind the car, and with a flick of his wrist summoned a whirlwind. The wind tunnel swept up the car, lifting it into the air, and after another moment of gathering power Zorro flourished his rapier to send the car flying off the platform and into the air.

For a moment Joker’s heart was in his throat, not even daring to beat. With everyone inside it the vehicle soared through the empty space. The others were flailing, yelling. Maybe he was too; it was hard to tell, or to think. A couple seconds passed like molasses before the car finally touched down, the impact enough to jolt everyone to the core. Mona pumped his brakes as he slid into the wall on the other side, managing to slow down enough to not mash his front on. “Oww, my face!” he whined.

Jesse landed with a breathless laugh, ensuring the smaller artists among them weren’t squished by the impact.

Joker smacked on the dash. “Good work Mona! We’ll get you sushi later, but for now we’ve gotta motor!”

“Sushi?! Now we’re talking! But where are we going?”

“Just go!”

The storm of paintings bore down on them, but Mona quickly threw himself into reverse before burning rubber up the nearby stairs. Only barely did the vehicle keep ahead. Joker tried to stabilize himself from the constant jarring of going up stairs in a car enough to tap his mask. “Necronomicon! We need a way out of here.” His eyes fell on the Tengu, long-bodied Inugami, and Dead Fish in the way. “And fast!”

The heavy shaking and jostling of the car hardly made for a performance-worthy stage. Though granting Mona a speed boost would help them escape, there wouldn't even be time enough to attempt a two-step before Primrose would be thrown off balance. Instead she held fast to the seats as much as possible, trying hard not to get sick. At times one of the miniaturized artists would be shaken out of their hiding place and be bounced into the air, only to be snatched by the dancer and tucked safely into the hippo robe bedding within her bag before she went back to trying to keep herself still. It was all she could do, really, as she knew that wildly slinging spells wouldn't exactly work out.

She had tried it anyway, reaching out of an open window and throwing a fireball at the nearest batch of paintings as soon as the car hit the staircase. The bumpy ride did nothing to help her accuracy and she watched as the spell sailed right passed her intended target. If it burst and managed to hit anything, it would be the pursuers at the very back of the pack, and still more followed.

Jesse would have more luck. Launch wasn't fickle, guided more by intention then it was accuracy, dexterity, or knowledge. “Excuse me, Primrose.” Jesse said. The Director brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face and stuck some of her upper body out the window. She tore a section of golden material out of the stairs behind them and flung it at a high speed toward the nearest paintings. Launch only worked on objects incapable of resisting, usually inanimate ones. Curious if these paintings counted as alive or just remote piloted, she reached out for one of the paintings in the golden cyclone and attempted to tear it out from Madarame’s control. She quickly found that the paintings resisted her plenty, but her hurled projectiles did the trick. Hitting her flying targets wasn’t difficult, but circumstances meant that she couldn’t strike down enough to matter. Still, she managed to strike down the frontrunners as the Morgana-car slowed to make turns.

With some added gunfire from the other Thieves from the three other windows it combined to give Mona the space he needed to keep ahead of danger, long enough for Necronomicon to plot a route out of this place. “There’s a exterior window not too far. Make a left, then head up the stairs and straight out.”

“Make a left when?” Joker pressed her.

For a second she was silent. “Now.”

On instinct Joker just about jerked the wheel, but he restrained himself after realizing that the van and all its contents would flip end over end into the abyss. A couple of Madarame’s paintings struck the van and nearly helped tip it over. Fox spared a few shots for them from his rifle before turning his steely focus back to the Tengu. Though typically unflappable, Joker was beginning to feel the stress of the situation. “Gah! More...more notice next time, please!”

“Sorry! Well, um...once you hit the next wall, there’s a staircase down into a painting that should teleport you to the other side of the room. There’s a door to the left that leads to a gallery, with another window.”

“Painting, right.” Joker remembered the warp paintings his team encountered in this place the last time. With a heart still racing he followed Necronomicon’s instructions. Passage through the painting stopped his heart for a moment, but the Morgana-car landed smoothly on the other side. Once the vehicle swerved to the left he bashed through a double-doors and out of the impossible room’s celestial atmosphere, into a more normal gallery. Half driving and half sliding, the unlicensed teenager piloted the Morgana-car around the displays and through several Japanese demons. A moment later he plowed through the vivid blue glass of a window, crashing back into the afternoon sunlight of Al Mamoon--about six stories up.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mona cried, yowling over everyone screaming inside. “We don’t take fall damage in the Metaverse, but you guys might! We need balloons, more balloons!” he pleaded with the FBC director.

“Oh, my God.” Jesse said, exasperated. Once again she leaned out the window. Wind rushing past her face she spammed the trigger as fast as possible at the front corners of the roof of the Morgana-car. It all happened pretty fast, she couldn’t exactly afford to be the most accurate. Some beams missed the roof and balloons appeared on the rooftops below.

Still, her ability to keep calm under pressure pulled through. Enough balloons took hold of the Morgana-car’s frame to slow its descent, so much so that when the vehicle landed it did so with a jostle rather than a smash, and without a single occupant turned to paste.

Jesse breathed a sigh of relief, deleting the balloons so the car was even on the ground. “Thank you for flying, don’t forget your luggage.”Jesse crouch walked over to the rear doors of the van and flung them open, stepping out into daylight once again. Jesse took a few steps and began to indicate a spot for the shrunken artists to stand, though she sneezed halfway through. “Achoo!”

As the dust cleared the doors flew open, allowing the passengers to stumble out into the open and quell their frenzied hearts. Joker dusted himself off with deliberate slowness, looking upward all the while to make sure no rogue paintings followed them from the building. Nothing came; it would seem that Madarame’s influence ended where his distortion did.

The moment everyone got out and Jesse started restoring the gallery’s refugees to their normal sizes, Mona poofed back into cat form with spirals in his eyes and collapsed. Being in the best shape among his friends Fox wordlessly volunteered to take care of him and picked him up. “Though I could use a rest as much as anyone, we had best not linger,” he advised the others. “More Shadows may appear at any moment.”

“Right.” Joker spotted Necronomicon cruising down to join them, a way out of the museum grounds no doubt already in mind. He quickly turned to address the team. “You all did well. We managed to make it out in one piece, but we’re not out of the woods just yet. We’ll help you get to a hospital as fast as we can. Come on.”

Escapees from Vanity

Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Primrose’s @Yankee, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey

In an unprecedented turn of good fortune the Phantom Thieves and their allies found no further resistance as they fled the gallery of distortion, using the back route Necronomicon so helpfully plotted for them. Once out of danger the Thieves traded out their trademark attire for their everyday outfits, and the strange craft that accompanied them wasted no time directing the group through the streets of Al Mamoon to a hospital. Those able to move helped those who could not, aided by a few considerate citizens who spotted the bizarre procession’s struggle and could not stand idly by. Before long the whole group arrived at the desert city’s sandstone-bricked medical center, having created no small amount of spectacle on the way, and hurried inside.

The next hour passed in a blur of activity. Doctors and nurses bustled to and fro as they worked to handle the huge influx of patients and prepare proper treatment. Though wounded themselves, the Phantom Thieves elected to zonk out in the waiting room instead while Necronomicon flew off to report the whole matter to the Grimleal, the nebulous clerical organization that passed for the city’s police. Throwing dignity to the wind, the exhausted teenagers sprawled across the available chairs and dozed off in various states of consciousness. Despite all they’d been through and the relatively short time spent within, their re-run of the Museum of Vanity still managed to be one of their craziest raids to date. It really broke the mold, and whether or not that was a good thing, Joker wouldn’t be forgetting it any time soon.

Results

Museum of Vanity Burgled
Party: Primrose and Jesse
Reward: 12 EXP
Additional Reward: Metaverse Junk (broken paintbrushes, dirty palettes, empty frames, wadded sketches, and so on, all sellable), Shambler spirit, Yuga spirit, spirits of Japanese demons (three apiece, selectable)

That, plus their new allies. Primrose they already knew well enough to regard as an invaluable asset to the team, but even in the short time they knew Jesse she’d proved herself beyond talented. It wasn’t just her abilities, either; she possessed an unflappable demeanor, pragmatic and calculating in the face of the unknown. Though he didn’t like to admit it, Joker knew that the Phantom Thieves were still kids at the end of the day, regardless of a year’s worth of harrowing paranormal adventuring experience. They could learn a lot from her maturity.

How much time passed he couldn’t say, but eventually a reploid nurse entered the waiting room and approached the Thieves, clipboard in hand. Joker slid himself into an upright position, shifting his glasses to rub at his eyes, and then clasped his hands to await the news. “You’re the people who came in with those artists, right?” When prompted with a nod, her eyes shone. “So you’re the ones who saved them! That’s so nice of you! They were all saying the same things. Trapped on a floating island garden, a golden nightmare, forced to paint for days on end, barely eating or sleeping...you must be heroes!”

Joker shook his head. “Sorry, I think you have the wrong idea,” he told the nurse. “We only helped them get to the hospital. They were saved by the Phantom Thieves, not us.”

“The Phantom...Thieves?” The nurse’s big, shiny green eyes were filled with confusion. “But we would people who steal…? Oh, nevermind! If they helped, that’s all that matters. But oh, I’m babbling again, sorry! I meant to tell you that everyone is mostly alright. Malnourished of course, overworked, and bruised with signs of whiplash, but given enough time to recover they’ll all be okay.”

With a sigh of relief, Joker gave an affirmative nod. “Good. In that case, we should get going.” He put a hand on Ryuji’s shoulder and shook him awake.

“Bwuh? Wuzzat?”

On his other side Ann leaned back with a yawn, stretching. Even her tail uncurled, working out the cramps. When Joker looked the other way he realized Yusuke had gotten a cup of noodles at some point, and was working at them diligently to avoid any brother spattering over the curled-up form of Morgana nearby. With a cheerful farewell and a peppy wave goodbye the nurse went on her way, leaving the Thieves and their friends to pick themselves up and head outside.

Back in the sunlight they found Necronomicon hovering over the parking lot, patiently waiting to rejoin the crew. When she spotted her friends she floated down and waved with a tentacle. “Hiya! You guys ready to hear the news?” Once everyone was ready, she continued. “Well, I went to the Grimleal headquarters. It was really busy actually, with people running around everywhere getting ready for something. I spoke with a few strange people who kept saying ominous things about progress and despair and so forth. But the one who looks like a mummy said he’d file the report and take care of things. Apparently they’d been watching the museum for a while but had other priorities. Speaking of, it seems like there’s something else going down right now-ish. Maybe we should check it out?”

Ann narrowed her eyes. “Oh, yeah. I don’t remember if I told you guys, but there’s, like, a civil war going on in the city or something. These Grim guys versus the Resistance, but it sounds like the Resistance is doing all kinds of bad stuff. We were gonna play it by ear until we learned more about what’s going on. But if stuff’s already happening, the others might need our help.”

Joker nodded. “Okay, let’s do it. We’ve got some stamina back, so let’s stop by a vending machine or something on the way.”

“Even normal drinks you can buy for a couple hundred yen give you health in the Metaverse,” Morgana explained. “This should be the same way. That way we can all heal up without needing to use magic.”

The spaceship made a fist-pumping motion with her tentacles to hype herself up. “Alright, Necronomicon’s on the case! Gonna fly up and plot you a route going north, with somewhere to grab drinks on the way. Be back in a flash!”

A couple minutes later, the team was on the move once more. From the hospital in Al Mamoon’s southeast section they made their way toward the trading district, where Necronomicon’s scanning reported some sort of commotion already in progress.

Ms Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (61/40)
Location: The Maw - the Depths
Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Bowser's @DracoLunaris, Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Frog's @Dark Cloud, Mirage’s @Potemking
Word Count: 1850

Eager to hear a more technically-minded individual’s take on this, Nadia listened with rapt attention while Mirage gave his assessment of the situation before them. So, the door that blocked the way to their destination needed some juice to open, but by virtue of merely existing their new friend threw a wrench in the works. Either ‘Carl’ here unwittingly hogged it all to himself, or obstructed the flow. Was that how electricity behaved? Whether correct or not (and probably not) Nadia always tended to think of it like water.

Apparently the power could be redirected into the door instead, but that could spell some serious issues for Carl. Although not given to wild speculation like Sakura, she shared the girl’s overall sentiment. No matter how deluded it might be, Nadia didn’t want to just shut off what was clearly a thinking machine. Hell, she’d probably still feel bad even if given one hundred percent assurance beforehand that it was nothing more than a simulation. So finding another option sounded good, as long as there was another option to find. And since starting with the other door made sense, that was the direction she roused herself to head in.

Sakura, however, decided to give the robot another visit first. Before she could address Carl the Koopa Troop put its strategy into motion, with both Bowsers, Rika, and Mimi all thundering down the corridor as fast as their little legs could take them to throw themselves against the sealed door together. They barreled into it at full speed and came to an abrupt stop with an appropriately loud series of smacks, all four bouncing right off the solid metal surface. No luck--this door, made of interlocking halves designed to slide sideways with the aid of heavy machinery, wouldn’t crumple inward even under the pressure of the deep sea.

After wincing, Nadia turned her attention back to Sakura. She tried to be as helpful as she could without stressing him, and so played the role of an earnest child. He didn’t know what to make of the glowing mote she showed him, and though he felt rather put-upon by this kid’s antics given his condition, he didn’t protest. “O-kay. Sure thing, kiddo. Give it...uh, give it here.” He reached out his claw to take hold of Sakura’s offering.

The moment he touched it, the heart vanished, soaking into his metal frame. There came a staticky grunt, and he jerked as the power washed over him. As the children watched all the damage done to his body faded away, and the infestation of metal barnacles melted like butter. When the Friend Heart’s magic faded, it left behind a fully restored Universal Helper 3 unit, fully cleansed of structure gel contamination and good as new.

It didn’t move. Nadia blinked twice, waiting expectantly, but even after ten seconds nothing happened. She waved a hand right in front of the robot’s head to no response, then perked up her ear but heard no noise other than the dripping and sloshing of the flooded base outside. “That’s...weird.” Curious as a cat, she even knocked on its head a few times, but to no avail. The universal helper seemed to be totally inert. She turned back to the others and shrugged. “I guess Carl’s shut down? Or maybe it was a glitch? Just a...” she searched for a word or phrase to describe it, and went with the first she came up with. “Ghost in the machine?”

“No idea,” Peach murmured, her thoughts conflicted. The team could spend a while processing what just happened, making inferences and conjectures, but as Nadia pointed out earlier the kids were on the clock. They couldn’t waste time, and as the leader of Blue Team, Peach felt obligated to get everyone back on track. “Whatever it is, we’ll have to think about it later. Some of us should connect the cables while the rest double check Maintenance. Then we’ll press on and get that submarine.” She remained behind to help get everything hooked up, while Nadia followed Mirage toward the other end of the hall.

Scooting through the door brought the pair into a workroom of decent size, its tables and trolleys just low enough for an enterprising child to grab onto in order to climb up. Dingy and disused, with scattered debris, clamps, and tools, it still featured a couple notable fixtures. In the center of the far wall sat a large foundry that radiated a fiery orange from the heat within, presumably there to produce any replacement parts this former factory’s personnel might need for repairs. It looked simple enough that practically anyone could operate it, given a mold for the molten metal to pour into.

Next to the foundry glowed some kind of white board or screen with a handful of x-rays attached, all showing human bones modified extensively by the same sort of weird metal that the gang saw on the robot earlier, and that still protruded from the wall terminal beside it. A photograph lay on the desk in front of it that Nadia made the mistake of looking at. She shivered and set it down, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to expunge the memory of the creature she saw captured therein. “...That’s some trash.”

Meanwhile, Mirage found the terminal that appeared to govern the flow of power between rooms. Unfortunately some sort of lid had been fastened over its panel, nailed crudely in place, and tugging at the metal spikes wouldn’t do a lot of good. Pressing the one button that wasn’t covered caused the room’s only door to slam shut behind the last children inside. It had no handle, just a glowing red node high up on the doorframe, way out of the reach of tiny beings.

Nadia groaned. “Great.” Pressing the buttoning again didn’t seem to do anything, either. While Mirage worked at it Nadia put some distance between herself and the horrible photograph, and in so doing happened to find a strange pair of unusually large items on one of the tables. The detached head of a hammer, about as big as the average four-year-old’s torso, lay right beside a sort of bandolier with three slots in it. In one slot the bandolier held a nail large enough to be a sword in the hand of a child. Trying to lift one of the tools revealed them to be much lighter than either had any right to be, making handling them a breeze. “Huh.” Nadia murmured, looking around at the other Seekers. “Anyone want these? I’ve already got my fan, so I’m good.”

As it turned out, the tools were just what the doctor ordered. The hammerhead’s reverse side could pull the nails out of the terminal, allowing Mirage to access the power controls. At the same time, the nail flew like a javelin when hurled and had no problem piercing the power node on the door, overriding the electronic lock to let the door slide open. Even from here the freed children could see the lights on at the other end of the hallway, with just a push of the button keeping those that remained near the Universal Helper from entering the Command Center. Peach waved the others over, and once reunited, the children pressed on.

The Command Center was a large, square room. A communications array stood in front of the wide window where a factory overseer may have looked down upon and given orders to his workers back in the day, but most of the floorspace was dominated by a fenced-in hold that provided access to the water below. Over it dangled a round submarine. The wall behind the submarine featured a row of diving suits along its length, with a pilot seat in the middle.

More immediately notable, however, was the sound of static. IOn the opposite side of the room there existed some emitter of light and sound, like a broken T.V. Wary, Peach signalled for the others to be quiet, then led the way around the room. The trip provided a good look at the strange chair with its complex-looking head rig, the diving suits (which all seemed to be filled with gunk, machinery, or both), and the bottom of the submersible. Once around the central pit, Peach could more clearly see the source of the noise. In an alcove there was indeed a little television set, along with a table, a bowl, a blanket, and a few other odds and ends.

There was also a strange man, stooped, hump-backed, with ragged black clothes subjected to heavy water damage. As Nadia watched, appalled, the malformed thing gave a wet cough. “Ohh, missus Lady...if it’s for you, I’d do anything!” He lolled his head, and in a stroke of bad luck ended up looking right at the newcomers. His face was no better than the rest of him. “...Uhh?”

Nadia’s ears flattened against her head as she crouched down, teeth bared. Peach didn’t know whether to shiver in fear or reach out in pity, but she squeaked, “Look. We’re not here to cause trouble. We just want to get out of here, so leave us alone.”

“Kids? Leave…?” Moreau repeated. Peach took it as a command and started to backpedal, only for the twisted creature to take a couple plodding steps forward, pleading hands upraised. “Wait-wait-wait! What are you doing? Don’t go!”

His begging made the children pause. Though monstrous, Moreau was more pathetic than terrifying, and Nadia couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy. “If-if you make it out,” he whined, “The others will all laugh at me! B-but if I do better than them-!” Another wet cough wracked his body, forcing him to double over. A spatter of green liquid hit the metal floor.

Peach’s brows furrowed. “‘Them’? ….Maybe we can help you,” she suggested, taking a page from Sakura’s book. “If you mean other mon, I mean, other people overseeing parts of the Maw, we already defeated one. By the time we escape, you could be the only one left. Nobody to laugh at you, or do better than you! It’ll be just you...and the lady.” The princess hoped she was grasping at the right straws.

Nadia nodded emphatically. “Yeah! All you’ve gotta do is let us go. Don’t even have to lift a finger. You could just sit back and…” she glanced at the static on Moreau’s television set. “Watch T.V.?”

For a few moments Moreau kept quiet, the gears turning in his mind. His webbed fingers clenched into fists and unclenched; his indecision was palpable. “The exit’s underwater. If I let you out...” he finally garbled. “The Lady will know! This is my territory. I can’t let you leave.” His was a wretched, almost sorrowful look. Another spasm shook him and he wrenched away, throwing up as he staggered toward the pit. “Ohh...it hurts. I can’t hold it in anymore. God...Lady, why…?”

He tripped and fell into the water, and disappeared with a splash. Then he was gone, and silence reigned over the Command Center once more.

World of Light

@Lugubrious Hey uh, remember Laharl has a separate scenario.

@Dark Cloud

I'll can care of that tomorrow morning, although it may work better as a collab between the two of us. Would you be up for that?

World of Light

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Level 9 Tora (22/90) Level 8 Poppi (91/80) Level 3 Big Band (6/30)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Yoshitune's @Rockin Strings, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Laharl’s @Dark Cloud, Red’s @TheDemonHound, Mao’s @Potemking
Word Count: 2079

Fox waited just long enough for Band to get out the door before making his own address to the remaining party present. “I’m not so sure we can count on any ‘signal’ from him,” he opened, managing his tone and volume short of speaking in hush. “Most of you know this already, but once he starts, he won’t be able to stop on his own.” Calling attention to his still Gleaming state, he let the inevitability of conflict emphasize itself, whilst belaboring the point of finality, should they fail to intervene in a timely fashion.

“That goes for the rest of them, however many that will be.” Tangentially, Fox came clean about his ideal, intended end he wanted to achieve. “We’ll have to snap as many of them out of it as we can. Keep casualties at zero!” Expecting possible question or protest, he preemptively began to elaborate. “They may have their own causes, but they don’t know who their real enemy is. Neither side does. We should give them the same chance we all had to learn that. That goes for the Grimleal too,” he clarified.

“I didn’t go in with them because they were too eager,” he followed from the break in his speech. “I got the feeling they thought they would talk us into blindly wiping out their competition for them without knowing better… but we know what they don’t. I’d sooner enlighten both sides than give either of them what they want; forcefully, if we have to,” he said, knowing well that they would, and recognized the irony in the prospect of bringing peace and unity between factions by force. “Like it or not, we’ll need the manpower for the end, from wherever we can get it, and if they’re as well prepared as they say they are, we can expect them to be there waiting.” The directive was implicitly clear to anyone keeping the overall campaign effort in mind: build/bolster our own army rather than siding with either of theirs; get them on the same side--ours. As difficult as he knew that would be, he would not be entertaining any notion or debating the merits of simply terminating their opposition on the assumption that it would be easier. If they could help it at all, then it couldn’t be excused, but they wouldn’t know until it came down to it.

“We may be in for a drawn-out, three-way fight… more than once. I want to make sure everyone here knows what they’re in for, because we’ll need to be ready for any and all of it.”

Despite the serious content of his speech, Poppi gave him a slight smile. “Of course! No matter what danger, heroes will save the day. Even if many foes, friends will prevail if help one another. So in way, it just business as usual!”

Tora laughed. “Well said, Poppi!”

The length of Fox’s impromptu tableside briefing passed a suitable amount of time, he assumed, to put comfortable distance between them and Big Band to follow his trail without losing him or alerting anyone else. With a moment to consider this, allowing for any responses or confirmation from the others as well, he stood up to make his leave, inviting the others along. “Let’s go.”

“Aw…” Tora could have sat for for hours in the splendidly cool, embrace of the Coffee Spoon’s wintry clouds, enjoying the climate and the various fancy drinks and refreshments, but even if he could somehow find a way to justify such dereliction of duty, he didn’t have the money to loiter around. As soon as Band disappeared from the view on the cafe’s second floor balcony, he knew it was time to bid this little refuge goodbye. As he waddled through its door and back into the afternoon heat to bake, he paused a moment to give the place one final, longing look. Then he moved on, and as he headed in the direction Band took he savored the traces of wintry delight that still clung to him, like a goodbye kiss. All too soon, though, the feeling faded, and the Nopon could do nothing but attend to his duty.

The team that set out from the Coffee Spoon relied on the assistance of Poppi, who soared above the city at a discreet height thanks to her thrusters. Up there she could get a birds-eye view of the pursuit in progress below, and with her zoom feature not each twist and turn in the path taken. As they made their way, Tora and the others craned their necks to see the artificial blade above the buildings as she guided them down the trail their detective friend blazed for them. Thanks to their positioning, neither too close nor too far, everyone could hear the saxophone note that blared through the streets and instantly heightened their heartbeat. The fight had begun, and Big Band was requesting backup.

Tora broke into a run, putting his little legs to work as he hustled in the direction of the noise. Poppi descended from above, her discretion no longer needed, and joined the rest of the team in their rush to get in on the action. Their team took them in the direction of the trade district dominated by the Bazaar, and soon terminated in a parking lot surrounded by warehouses. To the north the hubbub of the marketplace could still be heard, but the Seekers’ attention lay squarely on the fight already unfolding in front of them.

Band had walked into quite the ambush. Through the open garage door the new arrivals could see a whole collection of colorful combatants, at least eight of them, all with distinct weapons and appearances. All appeared to be inside the garage, and Midna had summoned a huge Wolfos to help pen them in, assuming the place featured no other exits. But someone in there had been chucking bombs, scattering them in the direction of the lot, and even as the wolf triggered them the culprit just kept throwing more. That made getting in tricky for anyone obliged to navigate via legs, but they hurried forward nonetheless, as they didn't exactly have other options.

Band held up admirably against the dancing blades of a pink-haired assassin and a crazy-eyed harlequin, belting out a strong tune to play over Tira’s laughter. The sound of glass shattering rang out from deeper within the warehouse, and the flash of activity could be seen, but the others did not distract themselves. After getting thrown, Sombra had spent a few moments shooting from a safe distance, but now she raised a hand and projected a strange set of keys that she tapped in quick succession. When she finished the bullet-ridden Band staggered, sparking with red energy as a purple skull floated above his head, and the next second a young man with white hair unleashed a blast of magic from his fist to blow the big man back. In the opening a recovered Koga turned his weapons on Midna, while Tira ran forward and spun her ring blade like a vertical hula hoop, catching Band several times as he struggled to pull himself up.

As the skull above him faded Tira came in with a horizontal slice that ended up trading with a double trombone thrust. As she swung again he jumped and lashed out with a giant clarinet like a scorpion tail below him, striking Tira’s shins to cause a knockdown. He managed to recover as Maeve dove for him with dagger extended, and he jumped again backward. Cymbals appeared from his jacket, and with a cry of “Head hunter!” he brought them together around Maeve. She reeled, stunned, and Band charged forward with a follow-up that got stuffed by a shoulder tackle from Baz.

“Aha! Weren’t expecting the Baz, were YOWCH!?” His boast got cut short as he took an array of pipe organs to the knees and tumbled down to take Tira’s place on the asphalt.

At that moment Yoshitsune hit the ground a little farther on. Even more rebels closed in on him, a woman with metal bird legs and a masked man with a curved sword. It was time to make a move. “Coming through!” Tora yelled, Mech Arms outstretched, as Poppi QT jetted over the field of bombs with her Masterpon held in front of her. The strange and sudden sight forced the two cyborgs to split to either side to avoid it, and Poppi pivoted her lower body forward to stop on a dime just past where Yoshitsune fell.

At that moment Band, beset on all sides, called “Impression!” and threw down another Giant Step that knocked the unwary Baz, Klee, Daemon, and Cass to the ground. They jumped up quickly, but not so fast that they could stop Tora hopping down from Poppi’s arms to help Yoshitsune up. His Nopon Rescue Service talent kicked in to restore some of the swordsman’s lost health and give him a fighting chance.

“Come on, meh! Need everyone Tora can get!”

Daemon’s glowering mask expressed his feelings perfectly. “So you did have help lurking around. No wonder.” His hands tightened around his sword’s grip as he vanished back into Stealth. With the two sides more or less even in terms of fighters, things were about to become a lot more interesting. “This’ll be one hell of a fight, then! Think fast!”

Tora did not think fast enough, and Daemon emerged from Stealth right in front of him to unleash a plume of colorful chemicals from an aerosol can.The fumes put the Nopon to sleep instantly, alarming Poppi. “Masterpon?!” As he rolled over Daemon started opening bloody gashes, but Poppi blazed forward and seized a Mech Arm along the way. Her foe jumped in time to avoid a heavy blow as Poppi smashed the metal gauntlet into the ground. Before she could catch him with an uppercut Cass came in with a spin kick that smacked her out of the air. A flurry of steel feathers flew toward her, forcing her to block, and with a vile grin Cass raised her foot and crushed Tora beneath its hydraulic might.

Or so she thought. As she pushed down she felt the Nopon’s body squish under the weight of her leg, but only to a certain point, after which she could go no further. Cass scowled, having expected the rotund creature to burst like a watermelon beneath her hydraulic might, but as try as she might he was just too dense. Tora gasped as his eyes snapped open. He brought up his remaining Mech Arm, popped open its missile silo, and unleashed a salvo that flew out and burst against Cass’s body. She stumbled backward, snarling, and Tora hopped to his feet. “Need Poppi Alpha by Tora side!”

“Roger roger!” his companion agreed, jetting back out of the way of Daemon’s spinning Shift Slash. In a storm of sparks and ribbons she shifted into her armored form, with Tora’s Mech Arm replaced by the Drill Shield. Poppi landed behind him to reunite the dynamic duo and started channeling power. As the cyborgs rushed in, Tora lifted the shield to block one, then the other, then jumped to fire a Boom Biter downward that blew all three into the air.

Cushioned by his shield, Tora extended the shield’s drill bit to pierce the ground. When he engaged the motor the shield started spinning rather than the drill, and by clinging to the handle for dear life Tora became a living meteor hammer that smashed into Daemon and Cass as they came down.”Whoa-oah-oah-oah!” he yelled, scarcely feeling the impacts, spraying blood from his cuts like a macabre sprinkler, until his grip finally failed and he went flying himself. Either by incredible calculation or sheer dumb luck he hurtled right into Cass’s head, and like she hit an exercise ball her head bounced back and hit the hard ground. Badly wounded, she could do little as Poppi rocketed into the air and dove with her full armored weight behind the Drill Shield’s extended bit. At the last moment Poppi changed her trajectory to avoid a fatal impalement and instead drove the point through Cass’s robotic waist. It tore through the metal in a shower of sparks and damaged the mechanism beyond repair, ensuring that Cass wouldn’t rise again.

“No!” Daemon snarled. As the others continued their individual or paired battles he charged toward Tora and Poppi, past where Yoshitsune had surely by now recovered.

Ms Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (58/40)
Location: The Maw - the Depths
Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Bowser's @DracoLunaris, Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Hat Kid's @Dawnrider, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Frog's @Dark Cloud, Mirage’s @Potemking, Mr. L’s @ModeGone
Word Count: 1370

After taking the not-so-subtle hint Mirage worked his magic, sticking enough darts to the wall to form a rudimentary ladder up to the nearest catwalk, of which the platform’s railing formed the bottom section. Never one to demand others go where he wouldn’t dare, he then led the way to the flooded factory’s precarious upper level. Though she felt guilty about letting Mirage be the guinea pig for the darts’ trial run, Nadia was glad he did, since she hadn’t been certain that they’d hold. Once he proved that they did, she followed in his footsteps without delay--if there was anything cats were good at, after all, it was climbing.

Not all of the kids elected to follow them, since the submarine could swing by to pick them up later, but those who did prepared to climb. One by one the intrepid tykes made their way from the sodden scaffolding to the Depths’ haunting heights, aided by boosts from their stalwart Cadet. Sakura hyped herself up before beginning on her ascent, and though her words certainly emboldened Nadia’s spirit, they didn’t seem to reach the boy who was no longer Frog, who quailed at the prospect of high-risk platforming. Understandable, Nadia thought, especially as she reached the upper section and for the first time could see the hanging labyrinth of assorted heights in full. Its sheer riskiness, coupled with the way the hunger gnawed at her guts so distractingly, did a number on her peppy spirit for the time being. The wobbliness of the suspended platforms certainly didn’t inspire confidence, and at Bowser’s suggestion the children quickly started spreading out to avoid too much stress on any one section of catwalk. Expert jumpers, the Koopas set out first, with or without hangers-on, and Nadia steeled herself before she scampered after them.

With as much inner fortitude as she could muster Nadia tackled the platforming challenge. Each footfall sent a small rattle through the metal as she ran across the catwalks, jumping across gaps between them, over missing sections of grate, and from higher platforms to promising lower ones. She couldn’t make the jumps that Bowsers Junior and Senior could, but she did have a couple tricks up her ragged sleeves. When it came to sections of bridge that dangled from chains or cables, she could use her fan to start them swinging, bringing them close enough for a daring leap to the next one. Bowser and his magnet offered some help here and there, but it wasn’t strong enough to help consistently, and in the end Nadia managed to cross an entire series of hanging platforms using just her fan.

Around the middle of the course she came upon a long section of catwalk that would have been a breath of fresh air had it not lacked every panel of grating, leaving just the railings on either side. Nadia breathed deep. “Okay. I can do this.” Not at all liking her challenge of balancing on top of the railing the whole way, she grasped the bottom rung as firmly as she could and swung out beneath it. In so doing she could wrap her legs around it as she used her arms to pull herself forward--slow but stable going. “Just...like a jungle gym,” she told herself, laughing weakly from giddiness. “Good old-fashioned monkeying around...heh, heh…” With three limbs on the bar at all times the stress didn’t mount quickly enough to put her in danger of losing her grip and falling. Still, hanging upside down over a dizzying drop to certain death weighed on her nerves, and she scooted along as quickly as she could before hauling herself up on the other side.

After that, things went more or less smoothly. More running, more jumping, more death-defying action, all in a day’s work for a hero. The children took a roughly diagonal path through the aerial maze over the dark waters, until the frontrunners finally reached the ladder above their destination. Kid proportions made climbing one a little trickier than normal, but given what everyone had been dealing with, nobody could complain. It deposited them on another red metal platform like the one they started on, with a door in front of them that appeared to be electronic but frozen half-open due to a lack of power. Squeezing through revealed a wide, industrial-looking hallway that led in both directions. Painted lettering on the walls indicated the Command Center to the left, and Maintenance to the right. Between the doors, and indeed down the length of the whole hall, lay a conveyor belt with a power cable on top of it, and aside from some ordinary-looking machines only one thing stood out as unusual, about a third of the way from the left.

A robot sat on the conveyor belt, hooked up to the cable. It bore heavy damage, with only its left claw remaining, as well as an odd sort of contamination. A dark, tarry substance that appeared to have the texture of metal, but molded in organic shapes, coagulated on the machine’s panels and back. It also protruded in a notable mass from a wall panel nearby, coating the ends of the power cables and connecting everything together. Glowing cyan nodes could be found across the mass.

Nadia just stood there for a moment, not quite sure what to make of it. During that time the robot saw her, and immediately responded. “Hey. Hey! Over here!” It raised its claw and waved it to get the kids’ attention.

The kitten looked at the others, her eyes questioning. “It seems harmless? I can’t see any weapons and it can’t move.”

Noticing the lack of response the machine called again, sounding more worried. “Hey! What are you kids doing? I’m hurt, here!”

“Hurt…?” Nadia questioned, and after a final look at the others she shrugged and pattered over.

The thing watched her as she got close, expressionless, as its joints and servos whirred and turned. It was pretty big compared to a four-year-old, so she kept away from its claw, but it made no attempt to reach for her. “Wait, what are kids doing here?” it asked, sounding confused.

A question Nadia wanted to know the answer to herself. “Wish I knew, buddy,” she told it.

Peach walked up behind her, curious and a little ill at ease. She eyes the strange substance. “What are you?”

“Are you blind?” it questioned, irate. “It’s me. Carl. Carl Semken. Wrangler? Any of this sound familiar to you?”

Taken aback, Peach could only stammer out a response. “Um. No. We’re not from around here...Carl?”

“Well, thanks for being so helpful. Not like I’m knocked out on the floor or anything,” it responded in a hard, flat tone.

Nadia was having trouble processing it too. Whatever this thing was, it acted as if nothing at all was weird or wrong, just like it was a person sitting on the floor. “Are you...human?”

The robot scoffed. “Shit, did--did my body give it away?” It raised its claw and tapped itself on the head twice as if to demonstrate its humanity. “I try hard staying a mystery. Yeah, I’m human. Are you?”

Nadia’s ears and tail went rigid. Something about this was creepy. Weirdly, intensely creepy. In her travels she’d encountered sentient machines, but nothing that claimed to be an actual person. Had someone’s mind been transferred into this thing? Peach found her voice before she could. “S-sorry, um. I’m Peach. Do you know anything about this place?”

Sighing, the robot said, “Oh, you’re new? That makes this slightly...less, weird? Look, I’m obviously hurt. If you see anyone who can help, your parents maybe, just tell them where I am. Okay?”

Nadia shivered, taking a step back. “Uh, okay. Sure.” She looked furtively left and right, toward the hallway doors. The one to the Command Center looked tightly shut, with an emergency light blinking over it. At the other end the door was open, fully powered, and the cable extended through it into the workshop. Hopefully, she reasoned, someone else could make more sense of this. Maybe Mirage. With that hologram projector of his he had to have come from a future world.

World of Light

I presume Laharl's scenario will be posted in the next update?

@Dark Cloud

Pretty much.

World of Light

I was curious if they'd know one another. Admittedly I don't know if their series is contiguous or anything.

World of Light

Dropping a post now, and just a reminder Laharl is off exploring the city. I really want to make that clear @Lugubrious

EDIT: I should have probably @ you in my post now that I think about it.

@Dark Cloud

Oh, I thought he was in a spot where he could get dragged into the conflict. Does that mean you want me to create a special scenario for him? Normally I'd like groups to stay together where possible.

World of Light

Big Band

Level 3 Big Band (3/30)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Yoshitune's @Rockin Strings, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Laharl’s @Dark Cloud, Red’s @TheDemonHound, Mao’s @Potemking
Word Count: 1198

A few moments passed while Big Band’s info sank in for the others, parts of which elicited no small amount of contempt from the royals. Once Midna got up to speed, however, she offered an excellent suggestion that the detective was only too happy to agree with. “Sounds like an A1 plan to me,” he told her. “Won’t turn down some instant backup, no sir.” The Twilight Princess’s contribution prompted Sectonia, who never settled for second best, to offer what she could, but Band turned her down. “Save your bugs for when we begin the beguine. Until then I need the suckas feelin’ like they got me all to themselves.”

Fox’s arrival both gladdened Band’s heart and tied off one loose end in his mind. After confirming both the ruthlessness of the Resistance and their awareness of the Seekers’ presence he would have been lying if he said he hadn’t worried where Fox went. His appearance here no worse for wear put an end to that line of thinking. Succinctly the detective repeated his plan. “I’m gonna show up at the scene of the crime actin’ the fool, with this sophisticated lady in my shadow, and see if anyone rolls up with intentions for me.” He leaned back in his chair with a slight smile. “Chances are I’ll end up in a lot somewhere and they’ll try’n give me the one-o-clock jump. If the two of us can’t bring about a resolution I’ll give the signal, so if you hear my sax come runnin’. Take five ‘til then.”

Once everyone got the plan down, Band stood to get to work. He plodded his way through the cooling mist and out of the coffee shop, at which point he retraced his steps to the Commissions Office. Big Band could be discreet despite his size, but he could also be conspicuous because of it, and now he made no effort to mitigate his presence. In short order he was stomping around the scene of the crime, looking up and down the street, trying so hard to find someone that he could only possibly find someone who wanted to be found. And in surprisingly short order, he found one.

In the course of his faux investigation Band spotted a large man hanging between the public bathhouse and the library across main street. He was blonde and burly, a rough warrior type ridden with showy spikes, and absolutely not a visitor at either nearby establishment. Most tellingly the stranger kept looking Big Band’s way, pretending to look at passing citizens or other buildings for a few seconds at a time here and there, or when the Detective glanced his way. Once sure, Band winked at Hunnigan and took off in the direction of the burly loiterer. Predictably the stranger beat a hasty retreat, disappearing between the buildings. Band followed, rounding the corner just in time to see his quarry’s boots vanish behind the next. “Too easy,” he murmured, more for his passenger than himself, as he gave chase by sliding across the concrete, asphalt, and tile with a stream of music notes.

The pursuit came to an end in a parking lot between a few large buildings. One had a garage door partially open, and the meathead ducked into the dark inside. His perception and intuition told him he’d followed his mark far enough east to be close to the market district again, making these warehouses or offices of some kind, but this particular lot seemed deserted. A perfect place for an ambush. Feeling pretty wise to the act, Band slowed his roll and used a giant hand to slide up the garage door enough to get in. The instant he entered he visually swept the interior, taking in every detail as fast as he could. While the place bore a few signs of relatively recent activity, the current occupants were not workers. He spotted a green-clad ninja with pistol and claw, a masked swordsman, a mohawk-having punk on robotic bird legs, an indecent jester, and last but not least the trio who’d set up the bomb scare: Mao, Maeve, and Klee. Though they stood, sat, or otherwise lounged around in a casual manner, they were positioned to have him almost surrounded.

A noise from behind drew Band’s eye, and when he looked over he shoulder he found the purple-clad woman he’d seen stalking the Seekers early, behind him with a submachine gun. She waved cheekily with the hand not holding her weapon at the ready.

Though instantly on guard, Band betrayed no fear. He turned back toward the rest “Huh! Real nice welcoming party ya got here. Makes me feel all kinds of warm ‘n fuzzy inside.”

“Spare us the brave face,” the demon-faced samurai snarled. “You’re going to tell us every last detail about your group. Who you are, and what you’re doing in the city with Validar.”

Band raised a brow. “You wanna know who I am? I’m all there is of the most real.”

A smattering of bullets struck the ground around his feet. Daemon hefted his sword onto his shoulder and took a step forward, while the other Resistance members got to their feet. “I told you we’re not playing games. We’re-”

“You’re a two-bit, no-account, rat soup eatin’ grab bag of fools,” Band told him, steamrolling right over his speech. “And if ya don’t take this last chance to lay down your weapons and stick ‘em up, you’ll be prosecuted to the full extent of the jam.”

A moment of pregnant silence followed before Daemon gave a derisive snort. “Have it your way.” His mask turned ever-so-slightly to Big Bands’ left and nodded.

Band was moving before the first few shots left Koga’s gun. He slid across the floor like a freight train, soaking up the bullets with a cymbal shield before he got into range. “Gimme a hit!” From his other side hurtled his gigantic fist, and when it connected the ninja got smashed into the wall behind him hard enough to leave a crater.

The sight cowed Band’s enemies, but only for a moment. More bullets pierced Band’s back as the Resistance melee fighters rushed in. “Short stuff!” he called to Midna. “Wipe out miss vanishing act before she hits the tracks!” Tira, Baz, Daemon, and Maeve were nearly upon him, but the detective stood his ground and deployed an enormous drum pedal. “Giant Step!” Its pendulus weight swung and slammed into the ground, releasing a tremor that knocked his attackers bodily to the ground. Only Cass managed to keep her footing thanks to her legs, but when she lashed out with a brutal kick, Band armored through the pain to deliver a mighty sound blast from his sax, loud enough to be heard from a distance. The trade went in his favor, blowing Cass back while he staggered from the body blow, but just a moment the others had gotten to their feet, and the battle was on for real.

Ms Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (55/40)
Location: The Maw - the Depths
Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Bowser's @DracoLunaris, Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Hat Kid's @Dawnrider, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Frog's @Dark Cloud, Mirage’s @Potemking, Mr. L’s @ModeGone
Word Count: 1201

Much to her chagrin Nadia had to leave the pun-making to Mirage for the moment, and she focused on stabilizing herself instead. Her eyes rested on the fan that lay on the floor beside her, and her mind filled with gratitude. Never in her life would she have expected such a mundane little device to be such a lifesaver. And thinking back on it, she was honestly shocked that she’d been able to put the fan to use on the fly like that. She decided to repay it by sitting up and beginning the task of untangling the streamer from the fan blade. Even being turned into a child, it seemed, couldn’t dampen her creativity--her aptitude for making the most of a bad situation.

The thought emboldened her just as much as the others’ celebration. Mirage was right. Despite everything stacked against them, the team had made it through the dark, miscellaneous hellscape and through that shadow beast’s gaze without a single casualty. There was hope for them yet. She nodded her response to Blazermate’s question but did not resist Sakura’s hug, but received it with open (and then closed) arms. “Meowst Valuable Player, huh? Well, it was mostly this thingy, but I’ll take it,” she smiled, patting both her fan and herself on the back. A few of her friends hyped themselves up too, filled with determination by their little victory.

Still, even if things weren’t quite so bleak, Nadia didn’t think for one second that they were out of the woods just yet. Their trip through the vents gained them a little elevation but the Seekers had a long way to go before they made up for their trip through the chutes. Just how big is this place? Worse still, the hunger she felt actually did seem to be the work of some witchcraft. Kamek shared a tidbit of information that Nadia must have missed: the heroes weren’t supposed to eat anything aboard the Maw. With a frown Nadia rose, putting the fan on her back. “Then this is a race against the clock, too. Spend too much time hidin’ or explorin’ and we’re done for.”

Peach nodded, her petite features about as grave as they could conceivably get. “Agreed. Let us proceed, then.” Her eyes fell on Sakura, trying all by her miniature lonesome to shift the obstruction blocking the door. “We’d better give her a hand.”

Many hands made light work, and soon the children dispersed enough of the piled boxes to slip through the doorway and into the dim light on the other side. On the way through Nadia tried to steel herself for anything, so what she saw surprised her only a little, even though it discouraged her a lot.

On the other side of the doorway three metal steps took them onto a red metal platform with railings, its surface about half an inch underwater. Beyond the railing stretched a gargantuan expanse of water, flat as a mirror. Large cylindrical structures of unknown purpose rose from its calm surface like leviathans from the deep. Catwalks of varying elevations, linked by stairs and in some cases wooden boards or hanging chains, snaked throughout the room both above and below the water. Nadia guessed that the place must be some sort of industrial zone, but what for she couldn’t tell, since the Maw certainly didn’t seem to suffer from it being flooded. The Depths had to be at least as big as the Belly, but the kitten got the feeling it extended much farther down. She scampered to the metal platform’s stairs, splashing the shallow coat of water, and saw that they led down, down, down until they finally vanished into the darkness. She whistled.

How deep it went, of course, was none of her concern. What bothered her was what might be lurking down there ready and willing to devour a couple kids who needed to make their way across all this water. “Yuck. This has sea monsters’ written all over it. And here I thought we’d had enough for a lifetime…” Try as she might, though, her cat eyes couldn’t discern much of anything down there, so she turned her gaze across the water for a possible destination.

Bella leaned on the railing and stared into the water herself, unperturbed by the Depths. “That’s unfortunate,” she mused. “I was thinking that Rika and I could just swim. We’re still Abyssals, after all, even if we’re little. But you’re right, there could be anything down there.” It was as clear to her as to anyone else that the team would need an alternative.

“Over here,” Peach called, waving. She’d been looking up at a laminated paper attached to the wall by the door the group came through, but she needed a boost or two to be able to actually read it. Once properly elevated, the pint-sized princess was gladdened to find that it was a map of the Depths. In fact it was four maps, one each for the area’s first, second, third, and fourth floors, the latter of which served as their current location. The first three floors appeared to be underwater, and she quickly caught on to a painful truth. “There’s an elevator but it...it’s...underwater,” she breathed in disbelief.

A sour expression had taken hold of Nadia’s face as she stood with her arms crossed. “Is there another way out?”

After a few moments Peach shook her head, frustrated. “It doesn’t look like it. But…on the first floor, there’s a room called Flow Control. And…!” As she spotted something else of note she turned to find its real-life counterpart across the water on the fourth floor. In a central location on the huge room’s right-side wall a windowed section jutted out, which the map labeled the Command Center, and right beside it was the Submersible Bay. “There! We might be able to...well…” Peach climbed down, looking like she already regretted her idea. “I mean, I know this is going to sound awful, but we could try using a submarine to go down and drain the water at Flow Control. It’s not like we have any other options right now, so we could at least head over.”

Nadia shot the Command Center window a dubious look. It might as well be across the ocean. “How?”

Pointing upward, Bella said, “We could use those hanging and suspended walkways.”

Eyebrows raised, Nadia looked toward the ceiling. The catwalks did form a pretty large, if extremely precarious, network that spanned the whole upper level. Not all were connected to one another, and fewer still in a safe manner, but on the far side a ladder lay right beside the door to the Command Center. The whole thing essentially made for an aerial maze, and one that would take no small amount of daring. But she could see pinpoints of light in the dark that the others probably couldn’t. “I think I see control panels up there. They might extend, raise, or lower the walkways. We’d just need…” Her eyes landed on Mirage and his gun, then on a flat section of wall nearby between the Seekers’ current footing and a low-hanging bridge. “A way up there.”

World of Light

Level 6 Sectonia (holding 1 level up) - (46/60)
Location: Al Mamoon - the Coffee Spoon
Word Count: 251

The sweet worms Sectonia was eating were not unpleasant. If anything they were an interesting experience. Now the Nuka cola however.... Soda did exist on Popstar but it was more of a cream soda this was very different. And energy packed! No wonder why Tora was jittery. Sectonia had more of a presence than the nopon so she held her composure for the most part, although she did move a bit quicker when chatting.

And much like Midna Sectonia was a but surprised at Big Bands normal face under his respirator. "Hmm good to know those aren't permanent." She said. It was either the moon stone, the Nuka cola or something else but Sectonia kind of liked his rugged face. Maybe it was his hardboiled air? Well thoughts for later as he spoke about the rebels and coming up with a plan.

Midna commented a bit about the whole situation between both factions and white she was more annoyed with the evil, Sectonia was more annoyed at how poor both groups are doing. "Hmph why don't both factions just fight each other and get it over with. Both aren't even doing the whole Intel game right." Sectonia said airing her grievances of the whole thing. None the less as Midna offered her help Sectonia offered an antlion if Band needed it. She also told Midna about the situation with the rescue antlions. Or at least what she could as she could only tell if they were alive or dead.