Lugubrious

World of Light

Ms. Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (122/40)
Location: The Maw - Kabuki Theater
Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Blazermate’s [@ArchmageMC], Hat Kid’s @Dawnrider, Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy, Mirage’s @Potemking
Word Count: 2031

Though she had a hold of herself for now, hidden from the snake-tailed terror in the shadows atop the chest of drawers she scaled, Nadia was still rattled by what happened to Glenn. Being no stranger to loss did not prepare one to witness such a jarringly sudden end. Naturally she wanted to believe that the young swordsman still lived, but with her every instinct telling her otherwise, she didn’t dare get her hopes up. In stories the band of heroes would always escape every crisis unscathed, pulling through no matter the odds, but real life wasn’t always so convenient. It shouldn’t have come as a shock, but it still managed to. If her team’s run of good luck through the gauntlet of horrors so far had convinced them that they really would all escape this wretched place, this tragedy was a stern reminder. With the end so near, one mistake or moment of carelessness could spell death.

Resolute in the face of despair, Link chose to dance with the devil. From her refuge on high Nadia watched the little hero creep across the room to the weakened floorboards beneath the Lady’s heaviest furnishing. The purposefulness of his movement and the impossibility of a straight fight led her to the same conclusion that Ace struck upon, and after taking a deep breath she crouched down to watch Link’s plan unfold, ready with magnet in hand to interject if necessary.

The tense atmosphere, deadly quiet except for the hissing breath of the monster, the slide of demonic metal against wood, and the frantic pumping of young hearts, finally shattered as Link made his move. He summoned the Resentment’s attention to himself with an outburst of sound, and only too happily did the menace oblige. Its faceless hood swerved his way, locking on, and with a gleeful sigh that said ah, there you are it lunged across the room. It fell onto its belly, pulling itself along with its arms even as the undulation of its muscular tail pushed it forward, and extended a cluster of grasping arms from its hood as it closed in on its prey. Before it could take Link into its multifaceted grasp, however, Larry manifested before it.

Man and monster slammed into one another hard enough to make the room shake, and though the butcher’s strength paled in comparison to the demon’s, the Resentment quickly found itself hard-pressed. Try as it might, it just couldn’t cram Larry’s ponderous bulk into its hood. Instead it choked, having unexpectedly bitten off a lot more than it could chew, and though it fired off its accursed beam in an effort to make the bloodstained adult more bite-sized, the foul sorcery did nothing. Instead Link’s striker held the demon at bay, quickly exhausting the transient power that sustained his existence, but not before Ace and Nadia tagged in to finish what the young hero started.

Following her friend’s example with all the nimbleness her tired little form could muster, Nadia scampered up to the Resentment’s right side while Ace took the left. She’d been watching for the monster hunter’s signal, and though neither exchanged any words the plan seemed crystal clear. Even if she had her moments of foolishness and scatterbrain on occasion, the cunning cat burglar Nadia Fortune was the queen of crazy ideas, and she wouldn’t for the life of her miss an opportunity like this. By the time the demon finally dispelled Larry and pounced on the spot where it saw Link last, only to shake the unstable floorboards as its demonic hands closed on empty air, the Ace Decoys had already raised their magnets toward the highest metal knobs that the dresser looming above it had to offer. With nothing else they could do, the two willed their saving graces to pull, and the magnets obliged. Beams of red and blue energy tethered their targets like lassos, and with an all-out double yank for good measure Ace and Nadia pulled the teetering colossus down.

The mass of wood fell on the Resentment like a hammer on an anvil. Ordinary timber meant almost nothing to the infernal monster’s armor, but the force carried straight through to the floor beneath, and in an instant the impact pushed the already-strained planks well past their breaking point. With a screech the demon smashed through, plunging into the darkness below. Its howl faded away into the darkness, and try as she might Nadia never heard it hit the bottom.

For a brief moment the joy of a hard-won victory filled her, but it withered just as soon as she realized both that she didn’t seem to be turning back to normal, and that the demon had taken any chance of saving Glenn with it. If the Resentment left his fate ambiguous before, its defeat made one thing clear: the boy who would one day become Frog was lost to them. The thought of leaving anyone behind made her heart ache, but in a way she was relieved that his life was out of her hands. In her mind, it was time for the survivors to cut their losses and move on. Did that make her a bad person? Well, there was no way they could possibly do anything now, was there? So there was no point in beating themselves up over it. Surely the boys wouldn’t jump down there to try and save him--surely even the most valiant and idealistic heroes weren’t that crazy. Nadia looked between Link and Ace, her expression grim and a little fearful. “C’mon, we gotta go,” she whispered, her eyes on the mirror tucked beneath the Cadet’s arm lest she accidentally meet Link’s gaze. “Can’t stay. Can’t go down. We’ve gotta get the mirror to the others, beat that damn Lady, and get the hell outta this place.”

Nadia swallowed and took Ace’s hand, which she squeezed, followed by Link’s in her other. There followed a brief moment of solidarity and assurance, of hope that the others would accept the path forward alongside those still here rather than agonize over the one who’d gone. Then she took off toward the stairwell, running alongside whoever cared to join her as she hurried back the way she came.

---

Just as in the Lady’s Chambers the arrival of the towering Resentment demon sparked a sudden panic among the merry band greedily looting the place for all it was worth, but unlike Ace, Link, and Nadia the Koopa Troop was a whole lot better equipped to deal with it. A flurry of frying pans and other hurled objects, bouncing off both the monster and any shelves in the way, created enough visual and auditory chaos to keep the Resentment from homing in on the scattered heroes while they hurried to reunite. Angered by the clamor, the Swindler of Progress swept its thorned lance back and forth, wreaking havoc among the aisles of the Storeroom as it sought to clear some space. In the midst of the tumult, however, Bowser presented himself, and with dreadful speed the Resentment snaked across the floor toward him. It bore down on the gaggle of children with killing intent, noticing but ignoring Kamek’s projectile on account of its own inherent toughness, only for the accursed blob to hit and polymorph it on the spot. Unable to attack and only barely able to scoot around, the tempura soon fell victim to Junior’s brand-new hook, totally oblivious to the fresh hell it was then dragged into.

Finishing off Larry had been visceral and savage, a grim product of necessity and fear, but the beatdown that befell the Resentment-turned-tempura as the tots all dogpiled it was an altogether different beast. Spurred on by the pain of powerlessness that this faceless monster inflicted on them, the Seekers went to town, using every method at their disposal to vent their anger on the oversized foodstuff before them. Of special note was Geralt, his damage output empowered by Blazermate’s donation of lentil stew to a staggering twenty-one times. Where the other attacks only dented or marred the tempura’s exterior on account of the demon’s unchanged defense, the Witcher’s nail pierced straight through, again and again.

All too soon the fun came to an end. A short time to begin with, ten seconds flew by in an instant, and at the curse’s conclusion the Resentment poofed back to normal. It regained its former size in explosive fashion, hurling the kids crowded around it backward to slam into shelves or tumble down aisles, but after that it merely slouched there, taking no further action. Even in the poor light it was easy to see the abundance of injury done to it, especially the multiple skewer wounds that went straight through it from one side to the other. Its waist, the smallest part of it, seemed to be barely holding together. Yet the monster was still alive. It lurched, filling the room with a metallic screech, and began to attack blindly. Its tail and lance raked across the shelves, lockers, floor, and anyone not fast enough to get out of the way. But in the midst of that flailing onslaught, it left itself open enough that anyone with enough speed and strength could charge in and, with a solid blow to its nearly-destroyed midsection, part the demon’s upper and lower halves.

When the deed was done the Resentment fell, hissing its last as its body disintegrated. Its spirit rested among the ashes, shining innocently at the epicenter of the utter mess the monster made of the storeroom. If the Troop expected to return to normal the instant the demon died, however, they soon found themselves disappointed. The key to dispelling the curse must, it would seem, be elsewhere. Whatever other trinkets and treasures the place might have offered were no more, although for better or worse Isaac remained where the Seekers left him under his shelf, a miserable heap blind and deaf to his surroundings. With little else on offer in the Storeroom except the possibility of more mimics, and the incredibly loud disturbance sure to draw attention, it was high time the looters returned to the Lady’s nightmare theater.

---

As bad as the curse felt, the sensation of being unable to do a thing about the anguish of someone Bella cherished rankled her insides worst of all. It filled her heart with sorrow and her eyes with bitter tears, leading to wonder what the point of awakening to her own consciousness had been if she was still just a useless monster, after all. What good was intelligence without knowledge? What good was empathy without experience? Never in a million years would she regret the kindness Sakura showed to her, but becoming aware had so far been almost constant pain. First came the crashing wave of regret after realizing for the first time just how much loss and suffering she’d inflicted throughout her life, next came the hammering of bloody battle, and now the carnival of terrors that rained down every agony upon the sorry group of kids while Bella got to see her precious, beloved sailor worn down bit by bit, until all that remained was a crying wreck. Even Bella’s biggest, most heartfelt hugs had done nothing to reverse this woeful degradation.

So when Sakura asked -no, implored- Bella and Mirage to leave, the Seaplane Tender remorsefully prepared to obey. She could offer the little street fighter nothing except the assurance that Bella would listen to her, and since as far as she was concerned Sakura knew best, Bella knew that it must be the right thing to do even if it felt wrong to leave her alone. Mirage, however, refused. Instead he filled the silence with a whispered story, and the Abyssal listened. He told the story of a young man who blamed himself for every tragedy that haunted his life, but who never stopped doing his best for those he cared for, nor turning away from the mother that loved him, even when she was unwell. Why would he blame himself again and again? Bella wondered. It’s not his fault his brothers were marched off to war, or that his mother got sick. It was then that she began to reflect, applying the story to her own situation, and her eyes went wide. For someone with no past of her own to fall back on, desperate to accumulate the human experience, the tale hit hard. Thinking about it made Bella realize that she shouldn’t be wasting time blaming herself, agonizing over not knowing what to do, or letting Sakura send her away. She cleared her throat and put on a determined face. “I trust ze others to do what zey must,” she told Sakura, lifting up the mannequin’s kimono to look her friend in the face as best she could. Her leviathan tail slunk out and gently curled around the little girl, sliding her out of her hiding spot and back among her friends. “Ze place I belong is right here.”

Some time later, the two splinter groups snuck back into the theater. The Koopa Troop seemed a little banged up but not much worse for wear, with everyone having apparently found something that may or may not help out in the showdown that awaited them. Only Geralt looked wounded, but what at first glance looked like blood from his mouth turned out to be nothing more than a smear of vibrant red lentil soup, easily wiped off with the back of a hand. When the detachment to the Residence returned, however, the headcount came up one short. Quiet, reticent Glenn, the green-hued shadow trailing behind the Seekers as they forged onward through harrowing horror, was gone. In exchange they gained an ordinary hand mirror, unremarkable until Nadia mentioned that every other mirror in the Lady’s Quarter’s had been destroyed. ‘It seems important’ wasn’t much to go on, so hopefully Bowser’s intuition about a secret weakness was spot on.

For her part, Nadia was absolutely relieved to see everyone else okay. It had been way too easy to imagine the Lady appearing in the dark, reducing poor Sakura to a cone-headed nome without even a struggle. It soon came to light that the Koopa Troop not just found but actually killed the other Resentment, which along with the safety of the stay-behinds in the theater invited a critical conclusion: that the enigmatic Lady, mistress of the Maw and all its monsters, lurked in the shadows of the kabuki stage all by herself. Meanwhile, the Seekers commanded a dozen members, at least one potent polymorphing ability, a variety of weapons, and the mirror that Nadia felt increasingly sure would play a pivotal role.

The tension in the room was rising. Everyone was restless, upset, angry. They were beyond sick and tired of all this, and it was past time they confronted the one responsible. “It’s time to do this. To bring the nightmare haunting this place to an end,” Peach murmured, giving voice to the general sentiment. “Prepare yourselves. Eat if you need to. Does everyone have something?” she asked, parasol at the ready. Link’s knife, Geralt’s nail, Mirage’s dart gun, Nadia and Ace’s magnets, Bowser’s hammer, Junior’s hook, Kamek’s teacup, Bella and Rika’s Abyssal armaments, Blazermate’s metal body comprised their armory, to say nothing of newly gained powers. That left just the mirror, and one set of empty hands.

“Here,” Peach said, offering the mirror to Sakura. “You’re not a screw-up. You’re our friend, and we trust you. There’s only one person to blame for all this, and she’s up on that stage. I want you to take this and show her. Show her who’s the hero, and who’s the monster.”

In the black stillness of the nightmare theater there could be no rallying battle cry, but the group was in agreement. Trusting in the safety of numbers they crept through the darkness, past the rows of faceless mannequins and into the central aisle. Step by step they approached the stage, inching toward the lone spotlight to do battle--to put an end to the mistress of the Maw.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

I would be interested in joining this rp, if there is still room for one more person.

@Eviledd1984

Oh hey, it's good to see you again. You've been missed. I've been curious about how we'd get more people involved in here if anyone new displayed an interest, and I think we can make that happen. Go ahead and start working on a character. We can work together on how to get your character situated into the timeline once I see the personality and backstory at work.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Barney Rynsburger

Although the chief and most tangible takeaway from Barney's awakening not too long ago had been to ask for help when he needed it, old habits died hard, and the big guy might have taken a few hurried steps too many and fallen flat on his face before thinking to request Dakota's. Luckily the punk rocker could figure things out on his own, and without a second thought made an expenditure from his avian Persona's dwindling spirit reserves to undo some of the damage. As the Dia took hold, Barney found himself awash in the magical sensation of healing. It was bizarre and quite unlike anything he'd ever experienced. His bruises mended, his cuts closed, the clothes repaired themselves, and even the lightheadedness of blood loss faded. Whether or not that meant the spell somehow put more blood in him Barney couldn't spend time contemplating, but he was grateful nonetheless, "Thank you!" he told his new comrade, echoing the same appreciation he'd shown Caelum earlier. While needing to rely on others stung him just a little, the knowledge that other people really did care about him filled him with both relief and joy. Any leftover regret could be stymied by assuring this dude he'd return the favor. "I owe you one," he vowed.

A moment later the two were out of there, hustling down the dirt footpath of the alley between jailhouses as fast as their wearied legs could take them. They didn't need to look back to know that more Shadows were headed their way.

While they got a move on Dakota voiced a question that left Barney kicking himself for not thinking of earlier. Unfortunately the police girl could do little to assuage either of their concerns. "I saw 'em run into one of the jailhouses," Spindle reported. "After that...well, I can't say for sure. The Metaverse is a dangerous place. But y'all seem like a lucky bunch, so here's hopin."

Hands lightly against his hips, Dakota looked a bit discouraged. "Crap... Hopefully they found a good place to hide out until we can get there."

It was during his sprint that Barney learned the difference between health and stamina, since even though Dakota's healing had put him back near mint condition, he was every bit as tired as if he'd done a full loop around Barclay Waterfront University's perimeter running track. By the time he and Dakota reached the basketball court, skirted around its unsettling players, and climbed the dumpster the frontrunners left behind, Barney was gassed. He practically flopped over the top of the chain-link fence, landing on a faded navy blue suitcase. "Whew!" he breathed. "Man...I was feeling great just a minute ago...why'm I so doggone tired all'va sudden?"

Dutifully Spindle radioed down from her overwatch on high. "I bet ya done worked your way through all the adrenaline ya got from awakenin'," she told him. "Folks get a sudden surge o' energy along with their Personas, enough t'deal with the problem at hand, but it peters out pretty darn quick."

Chest heaving, Barney glanced at Dakota and found him on the haggard side, too. "That's...bad!" he gasped. "How're we gonna keep fightin' then? We have to keep everyone else safe until we get out!"

"Sorry, but I think you're fightin's done 'til the both of ya get a nice, long rest." Spindle sounded unsurprised by anything that was happening, which spawned more questions the more Barney thought about it. "But as luck'd have it, there's a pretty good shot of passin' the torch. People don't last long in here without facin' their demons. It's like destiny; either you're drawn to them, or they come to you."

Still panting as he tried to get enough wind back to make it through the rows of household junk ahead, Barney asked another question. "How d'you know all this? Has this happened before?"

"You're darn tootin'!" Spindle called down. "Didja think y'all were people who ever fell down here?”

Dakota scratched his chin, thinking back to their conversation in the courthouse as he tried to catch his breath.. "Well... That guy with the huge mallet seemed to believe our story pretty easily." He noted, recalling how Pondwater didn't even really care to see any evidence. "I guess it's not impossible this happened to someone else, but if that's the case, where the heck are they?" He questioned as he glanced back, thinking to those human-like figures in those weird machines. “Some of them had to make it this far, right?”

“Uh…” This time Spindle seemed less certain. “I’m sure they’re out there somewhere.”

Barney’s brows furrowed as he stood. “Wait, aren’t you one? Someone from outside, I mean?”

“Nuh-uh. I’m from here,” Spindle replied matter-of-factly.

"What exactly is 'here" anyways?” Dakota questioned. "I mean-- It's unreal. Flaming lion heads, birds with eyes on their wings? This Metaverse thing is like some sort of screwed up fantasy."

As the two proceeded through the littered heap, wary both of enemies and to not over-exert themselves, Spindle explained as best she could. “It’s a cognitive world. It’s kinda like the collective unconsciousness of all humanity. Your fears, your stories, your dreams, and your struggles all rolled up into one big, scary ball. Like your shadow. Always down there below ya, whether ya see it or not.”

“Paints a real freakin’ bleak picture of humanity,” Barney grumbled.

"Why couldn't we end up in a place with good freakin' dreams, right?" Dakota added in acknowledgement to Barney's words. "But wait," He instinctively looked up at the sky, even though Spindle could hear him fine all the same. "If this place is a big crumpled mess of humanity's fears and dreams, then where do you fit in? If you live here, then you're a part of that, right?"

“You betcha!” Spindle sounded happy that the two seemed to be catching on quick. She offered no further explanation though.

That left it up to the Persona users to field more questions. “Why’re you helping us, though? Not that I mind, of course, you’re super amazin’. But everything else in here wants to kill us.”

Spindle laughed as if Barney was being a goof. “‘Cause it’s my job, silly! ‘Serve and protect’ ring any bells?” The bearded man, currently climbing over a couch, said nothing. “This place’s hostile ‘cause of Pondwater. He’s the Warlord ‘round these parts.” She sniffed in disdain, her cheer evaporated. “Must be causin’ a heckuva lotta grief out there to have built up a Stronghold like this in here.”

Dakota felt an imaginary lightbulb turn on in his head, as he slowly navigated the terrain. "Wait, if he's causing trouble outside, then Judge Jackass is a Shadow, too?!" That explained his strength with that mallet, even before doing any of that transformation crap his own Shadow pulled. Though, that name kept coming up. Pondwater. "That Pondwater guy sounds kind of familiar, but I don't think I know any supervillains that’d have a damn personalized hell like this hanging around."

“He’s the president of B.W.U.” Barney put forward. “Basically the guy in charge of our...well, everyone’s education. But he seemed pretty normal in reality?”

Spindle reached out to the two again. “By the way, I don’t mean to alarm ya or nothin’, but those three guys quit headin’ north a minute ago and went inside one of the houses.”

“What? Why?” Barney was baffled that anyone would want to spend any longer here than they had to.

“Reckon he felt someone callin’,” Spindle said, her tone serious. She’d begun to descend, swooping down to an area ahead of the pair on her Persona kite. “Let’s get in there. Even if we can’t do much, we oughta lend a hand.”

Taking a deep breath, Barney picked up the pace. Dakota was behind a little bit, still quite winded but with anyone potentially at risk ahead, he wasn't about to complain about having to keep going. He'd just be trucking a little slower than his taller, bearded friend.

Infactorium: A New 4Xpansion (Overlord RP) [DISCONTINUED]

I did post last before him, as well. I'm not going anywhere.

World of Light

Ms. Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (119/40)
Location: The Maw - Kabuki Theater
Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Blazermate’s [@ArchmageMC], Hat Kid’s @Dawnrider, Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy, Mirage’s @Potemking
Word Count: 1855

It had been a little unfair for Nadia to quiz the group as if she expected everyone to suddenly have an answer for this daunting threat, she knew. Considering the atrocity of what they just collectively witnessed, the feral couldn’t blame anyone for being shaken, especially poor Sakura. A part of her was too, after all, no matter how much she buried her true feelings underneath quips and puns. It was heartbreaking not just to see the brave but ill-fated Runaway Kid reduced to that homunculus-like thing, but to be so close to the end of this twisted realm and have their hope snatched away from them. Still, most of the others shared her resolve to oppose the Lady however they could, and in the lowest of voices exchanged their ideas in the crushing darkness of the nightmare theater.

It took no deliberation to conclude that direct assault was out of the question. Even with Bella’s newfound size and strength, plus Link’s striker and Kamek’s power, facing this place’s master plus her demonic accomplices on her terms was asking for trouble. A different plan soon cropped up, however, and it was one Nadia found herself agreeing with. “I know splittin’ up’s kinda the classic horror movie blunder and all, but I think it makes sense. She can’t be in two places at once, and anywhere’s gotta be less dark than in here,” she whispered. Hopefully the way the Lady taunted them meant that she wouldn’t come after them at all, instead inviting them to come try their luck as she waited in front of the door she knew they must enter, but it wasn’t a gamble Nadia planned to risk her life on. Not that she wasn’t risking her life regardless, of course. If Mirage was right about the Lady being able to track them, versus just hearing where they were thanks to their speech in this quiet place, they were all screwed.

Nadia took a deep breath. Her foe was powerful, fast, and cunning, able to strike from stealth and kill (or at least mutilate) with terrifying speed. As vile and strong as Moreau, Bongo Bongo, and the chefs had been, this would be the group’s toughest encounter yet. Still, the Koopa Troop managed to keep themselves together, trading a few harebrained schemes as they conferred in their typical not-so-serious fashion. It helped Nadia to realize that, as dangerous as this might be, it wasn’t really that different from before. Keep hidden, move fast, stay sharp. Find a way to turn the tide against the dangerous foe and survive. Psyching herself out over this challenge would only do more harm than good, Nadia knew; she just needed to do her very best, and everything would be alright.

Or it wouldn’t, and she’d be dead.

Gulp.

Well, whatever. Blazermate joined the Bowsers and their Koopas on the way to the storeroom, and the Cadet voiced his intent to raid the Lady’s residence, which left Nadia’s participation a foregone conclusion. “I’m in,” she whispered, scampering over to her pal’s side. If anyone was up to the challenge, it had to be the Ace Decoys. “Let’s just make sure we’re twice as careful as last time.” Link and his shadow, the green-haired Glenn, followed suit, lagging behind as always to stay as safe as possible. Although Nadia, like any seasoned thief, knew that ‘safety in numbers’ did not apply to stealth operations, she did not object. She did jump to accept the magnet from Mirage, however, and the moment she took his blue magnet in hand both it and its red partner still in Ace’s possession thrummed with power, even more than when the little legend and kitten held the pieces. It puzzled Nadia, making her wonder what occasioned the extra potency, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouse. Instead she and Ace hurried off, confining their steps to the carpet to keep their footfalls quiet, and watching the dummies with wide eyes lest any reach out a ghostly pale hand.

The moment Sakura elected to remain behind, Bella naturally followed suit, but if she hoped to help her dear friend feel better the Seaplane Tender would find no solace in the oppressive blackness of the theater. As Sakura curled up in the sheltering shadows of the geisha mannequins Mirage sat beside her to comfort her as best he could, much to Bella’s chagrin. Since she didn’t know what words might lift the little street fighter’s fallen spirit, however, she nodded her gratitude to Geralt, then consented to sitting down by them and trying to make herself seem as small as possible. Doing so, of course, had the unfortunate side effect of demonstrating just how big she’d become. Miserable and disconsolate, the odd pair sat between Mirage and Peach as they did their best to keep their friends from sinking any deeper.

---

Moving quickly but quietly, Ace and Nadia led Link and Glenn toward the door that promised access to their enemy’s dwelling. It lay closed, the wooden eye on its down staring down at the children as they approached, but the duo knew what to do. The sturdier Ace joined his hands together to boost the lighter Nadia up, granting her enough height to grab onto the handle and weigh it down. Courtesy of her momentum the door swung inward, and the four scurried inside.

Inside they were greeted by a vision of velvet-cushioned furniture, hideous portraits, and patterned pink wallpaper. As Nadia hoped, it wasn’t nearly as pitch-black as the cavernous theater, but enough dark corners remained to present an issue. Add to that the mannequins here and there, and the kitten kept her eyes well-peeled. Weapon, weakness, something useful, she repeated in her head, scanning every nook and cranny she could as she carefully advanced, scampering between hiding spots. Nothing really jumped out at her, and it seemed like a bad idea to pick through each and every drawer, so she kept moving. Four pairs of eyes turned every which way for any sign of danger.

The four made their way up the stairs, momentarily exposed but comforted by the knowledge that attack could come only from only so many angles. Nadia counted herself lucky that she’d eaten herself large enough to not have any trouble with the steps. In only a few seconds she and Ace reached the top, but found nothing out of the ordinary waiting for them. There was just one way forward from the landing, its door ajar, and pushing through with a small creak brought the kids into the Lady’s personal quarters. The room that lay before them featured many dressers and wardrobes, their doors looking rather climbable for children the intruders’ size, as well as a fainting couch, a few tables, vases, and chairs. One wall featured a large and fancy vanity against the faded paper, but despite being otherwise the most cared-for article of furniture in the room, its mirror appeared to be smashed. Nothing reflected in its shards. In front of it lay a hairbrush and a clay doll of the Lady herself. There was a body mirror by the really big dresser too, also destroyed. “Masked, and hates mirrors. She must be one ugly puta madre,” Nadia whispered.

Broken mirrors meant sharp shards, however, and with a little prying the others could arm themselves with emergency shanks. Nadia went for the body mirror by the dresser, although when she got close the creak and bend of the planks beneath her feet made her pause. “Unstable,” she hissed. Maybe the weight of that wooden giant was a little too much for it. With her breath held the feral tiptoed over to pull free a shard, then hurried on to the next room. No signs of danger...yet, anyway.

Next was the bedroom. In it lay a simple four-post bed with white sheets, and the rest of the furniture was just as ordinary. Paintings of children adorned the walls, and a china vase lay on top of the nightstand. Nadia hoped that Link would be able to avoid smashing this one, since the crash could probably be heard all the way back to the theater. Without any sign of better weapons, hidden weaknesses, or anything else useful, she was starting to get a little worried. Why would the Lady put the key to defeating her in a place like this, anyway?

Then she saw it. A closet door, almost invisible in the shadows on one wall. Nadia sprinted over and ducked inside. To her surprise she found a stark and colorless room, empty except for a whole bunch of broken mirrors, and a little cabinet. On top, nestled in a brown pillow, was a small round hand mirror--the only one of its kind still intact. “This can’t be coincidence,” she murmured.

A sudden noise nearby nearly made her jump out of her skin, and in blind fear she hurtled out of the closet, leaving Ace to take the hand mirror. Once she Across the bedroom and through the door to the other chamber she could see the concentric crimson diamonds of one of the much-reviled Resentment demons, its tail trailing out of the door to the stairwell, its immense body looming over Glenn in the middle of the room with the vanity. Crap, crap! she seethed, running across the bedroom as fast as her legs could take her. While she, Ace, and Link forged onward, Glenn brought up a sizable rear, but the fatal flaw in his strategy revealed itself when an enemy came from behind. She and the boys ran toward the demon, brandishing their various weapons, but they were too late. The headless snake man sucked the poor boy into the demonic void of its hood and swallowed him whole.

“No!” Nadia cried, only to get interrupted as a shockwave erupted from the Resentment’s position, rattling the whole room and throwing the kids off their feet. Glenn was gone, but with him went the necessity of a fight with the superhuman monstrosity. As much as it pained Nadia to forget about him, her survival instinct allowed her to cast the lost boy aside and think of herself. “Hide!” she urged the others, and rather than get up to charge forward into certain death, she shimmied up a nearby chest of drawers into the concealing darkness at the top. By the time the Resentment stood ready to find its next victim, hopefully all three kids would be in hiding, leaving the monster to prowl around in search of them. After getting control of her breathing, Nadia considered the situation. She and the others could sneak around the monster to get back out of here, but that giant dresser was still teetering dangerously on the unstable floorboards. Maybe, with a little ingenuity, they could drop it on the demon and send both crashing deep into the Maw. It was worth a shot, but for the life of her Nadia couldn’t come up with how to do it. Instead she stood ready to follow Ace and Link’s lead, whatever they might decide.

---

At the same time, the Koopa Troop plus Blazermate and Geralt slipped into the Storeroom. There the decor of the kabuki theater and the restaurant immediately gave way to more drab, utilitarian walls and floors, and though it seemed to be mostly coat and hat racks nearest to the door, bearing articles of clothing the Guests deemed unnecessary for their feast and subsequently never returned to claim, most of the large room was quite different. A veritable maze of shelves, lockers, and racks arrayed into turns, junctions, and aisles awaited the Seekers, each laden with all manner of random objects. With only white and yellow lights serving to distinguish the opposite ends of the place, it would be easy to get lost in here.

And as the intruders soon found out while exploring the Storeroom, it harbored a couple of hidden tricks up its sleeve. The first, rearing its head when anyone attempted to shift something heavy, was startling but harmless: a couple nomes skittered out like cockroaches when their hiding places were disturbed, making unintelligible alarmed rasps as they made their mad dashes for new cover. Though this meant nothing by itself, given what the group just witnessed in the theater, it made them wonder if the sorry soul they’d seen transformed into one of these things might very well still be alive.

Less hope-inspiring was the second, far nastier surprise. In the corner of the storeroom lit by the lambent glow of a yellow incandescent bulb, any enterprising scroungers would find that a number of the objects there featured little yellow post-it notes attached, visible only at a second glance on account of the lighting. Written on in pen, each one of them read not a mimic. When a looter passed by a certain mug, however, it speedily morphed into a four-legged black mass, revealing itself to be very much a mimic, and leaped at the offender to pierce him or her with its legs. If it succeeded in ensnaring a victim and ramming one leg down a vulnerable throat, it could rapidly drain its nutrients and impose forced fission into four more mimics. If fended off, however, it could not only re-camouflage itself to get the drop on its attackers, but leap around with agility impressive enough to deftly evade most melee strikes.

In the white side of the room lay a different surprise. A slight sobbing sound clued the Seekers into its location, leading them to a small form huddled underneath a shelf. There lay a hairless pink child, shuddering without end in a pool of his own tears. No action taken against him except an attack would come to any effect, although if Galeem’s influence was triggered Isaac would weaponize its own tears to destroy his assailant. On top of the shelf that sheltered him lay a strange brown nugget, a giant bacteria, and a vile blob with eyes and a frown, all floating like classic pickups.

Every player with characters that entered the room can submit to me up to three items of their own choosing from any game that makes sense. Two must be of questionable use (1-2 stars out of 5) and one can be moderately useful (3 stars)

Bowser’s posse didn’t get too long to rifle through the place, however. It wasn’t long before the door they came through slammed open, and into the maze of shelves slithered one of the terrifying Resentments. Spiked lance at the ready, it pushed through the aisles in pursuit of the children, eager to dive upon them with withering speed and pull them one by one into the void of its hood, never to return. The only thing standing between predator and prey was the labyrinth itself, although that didn’t mean the monster wouldn’t lunge through a shelf into an adjacent aisle if given a reason to. If they wanted to escape back into the concealing darkness of the theater they would need to be both quick and careful. The demon’s strength and lethality made fighting it normally an impossibility, but tricks and traps were always options for clever minds.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Barney Rynsburger

Given the available space Barney’s dramatic run into battle for round two lasted only an anticlimactic couple seconds, and just like that he was back in action. His remaining enemies seemed to be no less tenacious for the loss of their comrade, and both took their shots at him as he drew near. The lion-faced leg wheel surprised Barney by spinning in place to build up and shoot a rippling fireball, and since the young man did not fancy his new clothes going up in smoke he swerved sideways to evade the flare. That dodge put him right on course for a chop from the long, sharp beak of the Shax, and remembering the pain of being hit by its magic, Barney instinctively flinched. When the monster’s head whipped out on the end of its long neck, however, its scything strike barely scratched him. Unlike the bloody gash left by a Shax beak earlier, it dealt only minor damage through Barney’s priestly garb. That puzzled him; if this demon stork’s magic was so much stronger, why would it use anything else?

No time to think about it--this was still a fight, after all. He followed the Shax’s head as it retracted and delivered a solid wallop with his wheel, enough to send it reeling. Then he focused on the bigger threat, willing Gregor Samsa back into existence to lunge at the Buer before it could come at him. “Get him!” His Persona obliged, leaping forward to crunch down on one of the monster’s many legs and elicit a fiery roar of pain. Still a little giddy with excitement, Barney ran forward through the dissipating flame of his partner to capitalize, only to clash with his enemy mid-swing. Propelled by some unseen force, the Buer threatened to sweep the young man off his feet, but Barney pushed back with all his might. For a moment he was face-to-face with the monstrosity, so close that he could make out the fur on its nose and feel the heat of its fury. The intensity of the moment ignited a surge of strength within him, and with a triumphant grunt he began to push the monster back.

A sudden voice cut through the excitement, banishing Barney’s tunnel vision. “Behind ya, look out!”

Trusting in Spindle completely, Barney didn’t even turn to look, but dove to the side. Sure enough, a dark blade of magic sliced across the ground where he stood just a split second prior, cleaving through one of the Buer’s legs before it shrank away. As he regained his footing Barney glared at the Shax for taking a cheap shot. He did not let his anger get in the way of good manners, though. “Thank you, ma’am!”

“Don’t ma’am me, mister!” Spindle shot back. “Just be more careful! From the way ya went down earlier, I’m guessin you’re weak to Curse, and that birdbrain’s dishin’ it out by the bucket!”

“Weak?” Taken aback by the worrisome revelation, Barney quickly moved to put the Buer in between himself and the Shax. With just two opponents, he could use the bigger one as a shield, and if it took any more damage from its ally, so much the better. Having a weakness was alarming; normally one’s shortcomings were things like foresight, or cooperation, or reaction time. Not certain attacks.“Like a video game?”

“Say what now?”

That conundrum could wait. As he maneuvered himself Barney found himself standing side by side with Dakota again, with the other guy’s Buer reinforcing the leftover enemies. For a moment there was a standoff, with the monsters re-evaluating the opposition somewhat, and in that lull Barney noted with some surprise that his ally had already dispatched both of his storks. I’ll chalk that up to this weakness thing, he decided, although that thought provoked a more productive one right after. “Hey uh, Spindle?” he asked the airborne police girl. “Do those things have weaknesses?!”

“Them Shaxes seem weak to wind,” their guide affirmed. “Probably why Dakota’s goin’ off on ‘em. Can’t say for the others though. Don’t be surprised if ya don’t got the right element.”

Element, Barney repeated inwardly. He opened his mouth to ask Spindle if she happened to know what his was, since the blue energy Samsa pumped out didn’t ring any bells, but before he could say anything his foes began to move. Rather than let them have their way, Barney ran forward, and with his wheel held by the rim in both hands let loose a colossal strike to try and hit both Buers at once. His attack connected, although one roasted him with an Agi in return. Luckily his clothes didn’t instantly burst into flame, and he hefted his wheel by the spokes to strike again. This time, however, he kept himself alert enough to notice the Shax’s Agi incoming and get out of the way. It’s targeting me, he observed, irritated.

Spindle noticed it too, and reached out to Dakota. “Hey, try hittin’ that thing with another one o’ yer Garus,” she advised. “You’re way better off fightin’ that dang thing than Barney there.”

Once his ally got the Shax off his back, Barney could focus on the Buers. Though ferocious and quick, they boasted little in the way of range, making their attacks telegraphed enough that Barney felt confident in dealing with them. One charged up an Agi while the other flew out to strike him in a cunning display of cooperation, but even with Dakota otherwise engaged, Barney could show off some team work of his own. He remembered how his Persona emerged earlier, and without any time to experiment decided to run with this idea. “Samsa, catch!”

”I’m up!” Gregor Samsa emerged from the dirt in a spray of soil and flame, latching onto the Buer with his vicelike jaws and pedipalps before dragging the monster to the ground with its weight. Although he vanished once he sank back down, Barney used the opportunity to jump off the demon like a spring board and slam his wheel down on the other Buer by the rim. The monster had other ideas, and ceased its fire to spin out of the way instead. It kicked Barney in the shoulder, and with a cry of mixed pain and anger he wheeled around with a heavy bash. It connected to great effect, but the overswing left Barney wide open.

Without missing a beat he extended his other hand. “Samsa!” A screech rang out as his Persona surged forward from beneath him and drifted sideways to slam the Buer with his tail. It skidded to a stop by its ally, leaving both much worse for wear. Victory was within Barney’s grasp. “Hah.” He took a step and fell to his knees. “Agh!” Even with the adrenaline of battle, everything hurt. “Why…” he gasped, “Does it hurt...so much?!”

“I was tryin’ to say earlier, quit usin’ so many Persona skills!” Spindle warned him, her voice a little panicked. “They cost your own vitality t’use!”

No wonders, Barney groaned, too beat up to spend much energy on being frustrated. “Then...what do I do? I can’t get close like this, they’re comin’ any second!”

He did not expect what Spindle told him next. “You should have a gun!”

“What?!”

“Jus’ trust me! Try makin’ a motion t’pull out an imaginary gun, quick!”

With no other options, Barney obeyed. He let go of his wheel, not even watching as it disappeared, and reached up as if to pull down a rifle he’d slung across his back. When he brought his arms down, however, it wasn’t a gun he held, but a ramshackle flamethrower. His eyes went wide, but with no time to be boggled, he aimed the flamethrower’s nozzle at the incoming Buers and held down the trigger. A spray of caustic blue energy rolled out to engulf the monsters, stopping them in their tracks. Teeth clenched, Barney kept the trigger held until his enemies were reduced to tar and seeped into the ground.

There was a quiet moment before Barney collapsed, breathing heavily. Dakota received Spindle’s message the next moment. “Heal him up, quick! If you’re gonna spend your spirit on anythin’, make sure it’s on healin’ yer buddies. I’m guessin’ your Thamyris fella’s a supportin’-type Wind persona, and creepy-crawly Samson’s an attacker through and through. Nuclear-powered, t’boot!”

“Nuclear..?” Barney muttered aloud before realizing how much like a parrot he must sound. The power of the atom in the palm of your hand was no small thing, though. [i]Hopefully I don’t get radiation poisoning.

“Once he’s fixed up, y’all gotta move,” Spindle told them. “There’s more o’ them bozos comin’ fast. Better hustle after the others, pronto!”

And so they did.

---

Considering the overall state of the Prison of Indictment, the basketball court behind the jailhouse was pretty tolerable, although to call it ‘normal’ would be to tell a lie. The prisoners playing there lacked the helmet devices used to drain the other inmates dry in the Proving Grounds, but they weren’t wholly human. A closer look as Vincent, Caelum, and Nick hurried to scoot the dumpster through their arena would reveal that the players’ skin appeared to be the same rubbery orange leather as the balls they dribbled and shot with, deflated enough to create unsettling creases and folds. This affected their faces the most, where they formed warped mockeries of eyes, noses, and mouths stretched and distorted in expressions of perennial torment. They played like their lives depended on it, ignoring the intruders to the point of running straight into them if the three weren’t careful. Still, the lack of outright hostility meant that the ghastly players didn’t trouble them too much, so with a little luck and a lot of elbow grease the trio got the dumpster over to the chain-link fence. With it in place, climbing was not a problem, and both could leave the freakish spectacle behind.

Going north behind the jailhouses prompted a lot less anxiety than the Proving Grounds. It was simultaneously more open and more cluttered, offering better sightlines and more places to hide thanks to the wealth of objects lying scattered around. There appeared to be many articles of luggage and personal belongings piled high among parts and materials for the prison’s upkeep, and maybe because the staff did not believe that any escapees would get this far, the two encountered almost no security. Still, the uncountable pairs of glowing eyes peering down from the barred windows of the jailhouse meant that neither were without scrutiny.

The farther the two went, the bigger the heaps got. Soon there weren’t just household objects but bits and pieces of households themselves, entire sections of rooms and furniture, all discarded and neglected. One could only guess, looking at it all, that they represented the lives that the university’s students left behind. Of the three, it affected Nick the most, and as he went on the young man couldn’t ignore a steadily worsening tugging sensation that pulled him along through the place, and not just in the direction that Spindle said an exit should be. His wandering eyes searched for something, unwittingly, until they found it.

Half-buried in the heaps of junk was part of a house--an ordinary suburban home. And though there were many like it, this one was Nick’s.

World of Light

Evening in Al Mamoon

Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Primrose’s @Yankee, Yoshitsune and Sora’s @Rockin Strings, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Mao’s @Potemking, Raz’s @Truthhurts22, Tora, Poppi, and Big Band
Word Count: 2034 (+3)

”Ahh, well I’m glad that's over. Looks like the sneaky guy wasn't as good a spy as he thought huh?” was the first thing Midna said when they left, stretching as she did so in an attempt to get the stress and tension out. It didn't really work, much to her disgruntlement. ”urgh… I don’t know about you lot, but I could use another bath.. And a foot massage. And dinner, and a drink” she said, before pausing for a moment and at least solving that last problem by flicking a finger and summoning a bottle of water from the twilight realm. It was lukewarm, but after the fighting and the talking it was still a relief on her throat.

For the second time in just a few minutes Tora leaped into the air with a cheer, seemingly even more enthusiastic than when Validar rendered his verdict on the prisoners’ fate. “Dinner, dinner, dinner-dinner-dinner, meh!” he sang. “Tora could eat Tasty Sausage the size of Poppi!”

”Better. So, how about you all? Do you have any ideas for the evening now that it looks like we have to spend the night here” she asked, before adding ”Not that I’m complaining, better here than halfway up a frozen mountain, yes?”

”Dinner and a spa date to get rid of this combat grime are my plans. “ Sectonia said. ”The lack of fruits here is a bit disheartening but we haven’t experienced the fine dining here, which should be interesting.”

"We're trading sand for snow once we're out of here?" Mao questioned, regretting his own words insulting sand before if that was the case. A mountain didn't seem like a problem, but he didn't blend with cold terrains very well. "Feh. The cold'll hinder my physical abilities, but I bet whatever's creeping around up there could use the handicap anyways!" As much as Mao wanted to go ahead and express his weaknesses, he couldn't let himself look too weak, so a boast following it was a classic form of balance.

Primrose rolled her eyes at the demon's posturing, but at least this definitely confirmed that Mao would be continuing on with them rather than striking out on his own. Primrose brought her bag around and reached into it, pulling out a certain item she'd purchased from the Starlight Memories shop earlier that day. Now that she looked at it all the closer, it was more of a circlet than a tiara, but she could feel the warmth emanating from the ruby - which was the important part.

"Here," she said, presenting the jewelry to Mao. "We bought it earlier for situations like this. It is enchanted to protect the wearer from the cold." It was as much of a "welcome to the team" statement as any.

One might expect after such a sudden burst of bravado that Mao wouldn't accept a piece of jewelry to add to his person, some point of pride about maintaining an image. Fortunately for him, his image was more about strength than appearance, but despite this it was quite a nice piece as he quickly discovered upon accepting it. Even though he was not 'royalty' by regular means, a ruler deserved his headpiece, right?

He decided to try it on, the darker desert night not exactly being the warmest now that his clothing was more barren. The effect even here was obvious, making this invaluable for the mountain trek ahead and providing a return to his usual red-colored fashion, which he enjoyed more than he’d admit. "Well now anything up there has no chance." Mao acknowledged, obviously pleased by this. Not to mention Primrose was potentially saving him from a lot of embarrassment up there if he got into trouble from his weakened state. He couldn't express it in such a way, but he tried to show appreciation nonetheless. "I'll make sure to get it back to you once we reach somewhere warmer. But until then, I'll repay the favor by making this hike a cakewalk!"

""A fair trade," the dancer replied with a small smile, "it suits you perfectly.”

”Sure does” Midna agreed with dubious sincerity. Sectonia wasn’t as subtle as Midna, shaking her head before laughing quietly.

Mao took the compliments at face-value, using them as a small boost up the ego ladder. "Of course it does." He responded, playing it off as an obvious fact. Much safer for the image than getting embarrassed, which remained crammed in the back of his mind where it belonged.

”As for evening plans..." Honestly, everything Midna had mentioned sounded heavenly. Whatever could relieve the tension of the day, and remove all the built up sweat and grim from running throughout the city. They'd been through a tornado, a museum heist, an underground battle, and generally hustling back and forth between the palace and various places of interest. A little down time would do them wonders. Primrose let her shoulders droop slightly and sighed, "All of the above."

”Then you and me, at least, should go have a night on the town and put these” Midna flicked her gold pass up and then caught it again ”to good use. Maybe the spa first? As long as Mr Gibdo was just making a lame joke and they aren't a literal deathtrap that is. Anyone else want to come with?”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Goldlewis rolled his shoulders. “You go ahead, li’l miss. I ain’t whatcha’d call the public bathin’ type. Much rather get some grub in me--I barely had a crumb since breakfast!”

The news seemed to excite Tora even more, if that were possible. “Woohoo, perfect! Big feast for big boys, meh!”

“Sure thing, pardner,” Goldlewis chuckled, unbothered by the innocently-made comment and instead just happy that Tora wanted to hang out with him. Though he towered over the Nopon in terms of stature, the Secretary of Absolute Defense knew from the raid on Khamoon Temple that Tora was a formidable little guy, and anyone who could take it easy whiling enjoying life’s simple pleasures was alright in his book.

“Mr. Goldlewis know place to go?” Poppi asked. Although unable to eat herself, the artificial blade relished the thought of savoring the aromas of whatever the others might get. Although she knew little about the big man, he seemed more knowledgeable about Al Mamoon than either her or her Masterpon, so she looked forward to his recommendation.

Stroking his whiskers, Goldlewis gave a slow nod. “Reckon I do. Not the fanciest joint in town, but it’ll fill ya up somethin’ fierce. Been itchin’ for an occasion t’go.”

Mao, drawn in by Tora and Goldlewis' topic of food, couldn't help but find the large man's description enticing. Mao recalled that he'd skipped lunch, instead allowing for Baz and Klee to tear that pizza of theirs apart. Having been beaten to near death twice in the span of a day, Mao's stomach definitely wasn't surviving off of whatever he crammed away while raiding Rocket Inc, either. "If the food's that filling, I've got to try it myself." Mao commented, seemingly inviting himself though he actually managed to vocalize his request a little less rudely. "Room for one more?"

"I heard something about food?" Sora asked, approaching Goldlewis, Tora, Poppi, and Mao. "Mind if I join you?"

“Always!” Tora assured him, although a mischievous air overtook him. “As long as skinny friend can handle it!”

Mao's eyes squinted behind his glasses, feeling challenged despite being painfully unaware of the potential the rotund little Nopon had. "I might not be egg-shaped like you, but I can pack it away all the same!"

”Just show some beauty when you eat. It would be unbecoming if you just shoveled food down your gullet like a barbarian.” Sectonia said, wagging her finger.

The Phantom Thieves, meanwhile, had naturally gathered on the periphery of the group, and in the midst of their casual conversation Panther popped over to wave at everyone. “You guys go ahead! Although a spa sounds, like, crazy nice, we’re gonna go off on our own to catch up.”

Given that they'd had very little time between rescuing their friend Fox and diving right back into the thick of battle, that made sense. Though Primrose had planned to invite Panther along with them, getting some time to relax with just her close friends would probably be good for all of the young Thieves. "Try and get some rest," she told them.

Ever on his ladyship’s heels, whether wanted or not, Mona added, “We’ll see you all tomorrow morning! Just remember to get to bed early, and don’t drink yourselves into hangovers or anything!”

The cartoonish cat’s advice brooked a smile from Big Band. “Just you try an’ stop me, big chief,” he joked, but his joviality faded as he took a sweeping look around at the city painted pink and orange by the desert sunset. “Sadly, my work ain’t done for tonight. Gotta see about this little girl o’ mine after all. Once I grab me a long drink of the blues its back to searchin’.”

Goldlewis put his hands on his hips, concerned for his new friend’s acquaintance, but he got the feeling that if Band thought he could be of help, he’d say so. “Alrighty then, good luck. If ya need a hand make sure ya let me know.”

Hoisting his coffin, the big man prepared to lead his company to dinner. Tora followed along eagerly, but Poppi thought to look back at the others. “Anyone else want come?”

“I could eat,” Jesse said, following team dinner.

”I will try some fine dining. And some minion bonding time over dinner doesn’t sound bad either.” Sectonia said.

“Can I come too?” Once again trying awkwardly to wedge himself into the pre-established group, Raz quite literally wedged himself into the group, needing to push his big head past a couple of them to join the conversation. “I know I’m not, y’know, officially a part of, uh…” he gestured around. “Whatever it is you all are doing, but I think I was pretty helpful with Validar in there, right? Enough to tag along to a celebration dinner?”

Yoshitsune watched as everyone grouped up to get food, a spa trip, or whatever jobs they were doing. Each one sounded enticing. Deciding food could wait a bit longer, he approached Midna's group. "Mind if I come along?"

”By all means,” Midna agreed pleasantly, adding muttering ”at least someone has some hygiene around here” unkindly, very much expecting/hoping that said spa would have/be around a place where she could was of the grime of battle. The other spa-goer was not as quick with her assent. Primrose looked purposefully down at Yoshitsune's metal legs and the wheels attached to them with a raised eyebrow. How exactly that would work in a bath she didn't know. When she looked back up to meet the samurai's eyes, her expression was somewhat guarded. Ultimately, she ended up agreeing with Midna, giving the man a small nod of approval.

”Also, before you run off to eat, your majesty” she said to Sectonia, ”You and I really should check in with your minions and my ride’s search of the desert. Not to put a damper on things, but they’ll either have results or have failed at this point, I would think?”

Yoshitsune sighed. Either they'd have their allies back or they'd be lost forever. "Any more time spent on the search is wasting resources, right?" he asked the Twilight Princess and the Bee Queen.

”Unfortunately once I’ve given my antillions a task that’s it. I don’t have any long range communications. Although once they’re done, they tend to search me out or expire. ” Sectonia said.

Yoshitsune turned to Midna, "Didn't you send some wolves too?"

”One. And I’m bringing it home once the sun sets one way or another. Not that it can tell us if it found anyone really, but we’ll at least know if they all expired or not.”

"Then we'll know soon enough," the samurai sighed in understanding.

With everyone decided on a course to take, be it alone or in a group, the Seekers bid the others farewell and were on their way.

World of Light

Ms. Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (116/40)
Location: The Maw - Kabuki Theater
Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Blazermate’s [@ArchmageMC], Hat Kid’s @Dawnrider, Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy, Mirage’s @Potemking
Word Count: 1738

Even on its own the giant, vaulted space filled to the brim with pitch black was a daunting sight. Its sheer empty vastness, quiet as the grave, lay heavy across the shoulders of its newest visitors, a sheer force of oppression targeting the most primeval instincts inside them. After already bearing witness to a host of monsters big and small, the intrepid children couldn’t help but imagine terrors innumerable clinging to the walls and ceilings on high, or a single nightmarish behemoth waiting just out of reach. So needless to say, with the added pressure of five imposingly enormous Guests of Honor, the frontrunners hunkered down by the entryway for the rest of their team to arrive.

In hushed tones the Seekers exchanged a few quick words, daring not to raise their voices loud enough to disturb the blanket of dead silence that tucked the Kabuki Theater in. Mirage seemed to take the Lady’s departure in stride, but Nadia couldn’t find it in herself to see it as a good thing. If the pitiable dweller in the Depths was to be believed, the Lady was much more than just a distributor of curses, but the mastermind behind the whole damn Maw. That made her not just a step above the likes of Bongo Bongo and Moreau, but the one to blame for the captive children, the cannibalistic cooks, and the whole grisly cycle of gluttonous consumption. Nadia had a hard time believing that she or her new friends would be getting out of here without getting through her.

While running through her thoughts Nadia kept her eye on the stage. She could make out no active threats, but with such a threatening scene it hardly made a difference. As the others kept whispering, however, her gaze shifted toward the suite of special Guests. Apparently, the koopas recognized one of them, who happened to be the nearest one. Looking at him again, Nadia could see that he did seem to be the smallest and least vile of the bunch, being more or less a big crocodile with a cape and a crown. Kamek spoke true, though; however good an ally the croc might be, recruiting him lay beyond their means. As Geralt rightfully pointed out, the team still wasn’t well-suited for combat. Against the chefs they’d been lucky, and Nadia wasn’t so foolhardy as to think her crew could now take on whatever new opponents that might appear to block their way. Stealth was the best, and probably only, option.

Back on the subject of the Lady, though, Ace took Mirage’s confidence to another level. By now Nadia figured that was just his positive outlook, putting on a brave face to keep everyone’s spirits up, and to be fair it almost worked. Just in case anyone went and got any ideas, though, the feral gave voice to her suspicions. “No way in hell is that Lady a normal person,” she hissed, using the name that Moreau called the masked geisha. “She runs this place. The monsters we fought all work for her. If she ran away, it can’t be ‘cause she’s scared. It’s probably so that when we do face her, it’ll be right where she wants us.” Sighing, she laughed softly to herself. “Man, this place is really gettin’ to me. I can’t even think of any puns.”

Sakura seemed mortified too, and for a similarly tangential reason. Apparently this area, as well as the Lady herself, borrowed elements from the little street fighter’s culture. Naturally, Bella hastened to her friend’s aid. “Oh no,” the Seaplane Tender assured the smaller girl in her arms. “I’m sure your homeland is nossing like zis twisted place, mon cherie!”

“Yeah, jus’ cause the kitchens back there didn’t pan out well doesn’t mean we’re gonna hate chefs forever,” Nadia added, way too pleased at coming up with her joke given the gravity of the current situations.”

Though Bella had more to say on the subject, it was at that moment that her height afforded her -and her cherished cargo- a view across the theater. “Wait...look!”

Gulping, Nadia followed the pudgy Abyssal’s gaze toward the theater. Where before even her keen cat eyes couldn’t make out anything still shrouded in darkness, she could now see a little spot of light near the stage. It was flickering on and off, being off more than on by a good margin, or perhaps being blocked by what Nadia assumed must be weirdly shaped theater seats, with narrow backs featuring high central headrests. Taking a deep breath, Nadia left cover to dash across the shadowy aisle and to the rearmost row of chairs. She hopped up, sank her claws into the seat back, and climbed, trusting in the darkness to hide her as she tried to figure out the source of the light. Only once on top did the feral realize exactly what she’d scaled. Right beside her, about half as tall as she was, was the masked face of a geisha, and Nadia was crouched on her shoulder.

Frozen with terror, unable to so much as squeak or even drop back down to the ground, Nadia stared into the white mask’s black eyes. One second passed, then two, then three, until it dawned on the kitten that the geisha wasn’t moving. With a tentative finger she poked the mask, gouging a small line with her claw. Then finally, feeling like she’d lost years of her life, Nadia sighed in relief. It was just a mannequin.

As she looked out across the theater, however, she realized that this heart-stopping moment was just the beginning. This was the sort of theater that did not have chairs, but cushions or mats, which meant that each of the hundreds of slender shapes catching the nearest hint of light from the stage was a mannequin, too. A deep chill rolled down Nadia’s spine, and she swallowed. Her team’s assumption that the Lady wasn’t here had been wrong. In the smallest possible voice, Nadia quavered, “She could be any one of them.”

By that time the distant, bobbing light reached the stage. A small shape jumped up and climbed on top of it, revealing itself to be none other than the Runaway Kid, a flashlight in hand. The moment he stood atop the stage he took off at a run across it, headed for the back, and his flashlight illuminated a set of big, important-looking double doors against the wall. Over it Nadia could make out a welcome set of words. Helm. The kid was booking it across the well-lit stage, no opposition in sight, the command center of the ship within reach. Nadia’s ears perked up. Please, she prayed. Please make it!

A second passed. Then two. Then a thunderous slam resounded through the theater, sudden and loud enough to tear a short scream from Nadia’s lips, as the stage lights went out. All the elaborate Japanese scenery disappeared into darkness, and only a single spotlight shone down upon the wooden stage. If the sound of the shut-off was scary in the back, it had been far worse up front; the Runaway dove to the ground, arms tucked around his head as if he’d been shot at. The flashlight slipped from his grasp and rolled toward the darkness on his right. Quickly the kid got up again and sprinted right at it, but before he could reach the things a crimson glare split the pitch. Facing the boy from the darkness was a sinkhole of concentric scarlet diamonds, all collapsing inward to a central point in a hypnotic manner Nadia found hauntingly familiar. Red arms of demonic energy reached from the Resentment’s hood, but the kid leaped back toward the center of the spotlight, and forsaking his flashlight prepared to swerve the other way. Like clockwork the second demon appeared to the left, its grasping hands eager to grab and pull the child in with them. That left the poor child just one option: the center. But even as the kid ran forward, braving the danger to either side to forge into the shadows ahead, his feet parted ways with the ground. A black aura surrounded him, lifting him into the air, and from the stygian dark in front of him emerged the Lady.

“No,” Nadia breathed, tears forming in her eyes, wishing she could help, but it was too late. The Runaway was too far. She could only watch as the Lady held out her hands toward the miasma that floated the boy off the ground, and something vital flowed from him into his assailant’s body. He writhed and shook violently, like a piece of paper crinkling up at the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner trying to suck it inside, getting smaller and smaller until all that remained was a shrunken, featureless husk, its skin the color of clay. It plopped down to the stage alongside its former clothes, and with the violence over with the oppressive silence resumed. The Resentments backed into darkness, hiding the light in their hoods, but the Lady remained a moment longer. Slowly she raised an arm and beckoned toward the theater’s back right corner, where the Seekers resided. Then she disappeared, leaving the room empty and black save for the boxes of the honorable Guests and the sole spotlight on the stage. Or so it looked, anyway.

Worse still, several of the Guests of Honor began to clap or laugh, clearly enjoying the macabre show. It was all a bit much. Fighting to control her ragged breathing, Nadia dropped to the ground. Horrified by the totality of the situation, she steadied herself against the mannequin, her laughter humorless and despondent. “Heheheh. Isn’t she nice, treatin’ us all to both dinner and a show?” She sniffed and looked at the others, her tears of despair replaced by bitterness and rage. “Well, anyone got any ideas for how we kill this bitch?”

If the heroes looked around the theater, putting their eyes and/or scanners to work perceiving alternatives to facing the Lady and her minions head-on, they would see a couple different doors other than the pair that would have promised salvation if not for the enemies hidden around them. In fact, it appeared as though the theater offered a secondary function as a sort of hub, with various other rooms branching around it, including the Washroom, the Storeroom, the Smoking Lounge, and the Lady’s Chambers.

Wildwood Glades

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

At the witch’s bidding Albedo and Linkle moved to make themselves comfortable. Understandably eager for warmth, the Skullgirl placed herself by the fireplace, and the Alchemist was not far behind. Though the lush, beautiful valley known as the Wildwood Glades harbored a refreshing coolness that Albedo could appreciate after the bitterly cold winds that rolled off the frigid mountainsides far above, actual heat was long overdue. Lacking any compunctions about pulling up a chair or joining Linkle on the bed, he seated himself on the floor by the witch’s hearth with crossed legs, but rather than watch the tantalizing dance of the flames he fixed his attention on his gracious host.

Linkle ended up breaking the comfortable silence with a remark that made the witch of the woods laugh. “I’ll happily accept your compliment,” she told the girl, an easy smile on her face, but when her guest led into a polite request for introduction, she did not appear quite so forthcoming. “Excuse my rudeness, but I’d rather not say. Names have a lot of power, and you surely realize that there must be a reason why I live in solitude, my little house a well-kept secret.” She turned between Linkle and Albedo with an imploring expression. “I trust that it’s one you’ll keep? Though my magic would make its rediscovery difficult, I would rather no-one know to try.”

The alchemist nodded to accommodate her request, but his thoughts were elsewhere. A reason, hm? It made sense, naturally, but it also begged the question of just what that reason might be. If one did not wish to be found, that could only mean that there were those out there whose attention meant danger. A certain vicious stranger, for instance, who Father Guerra described as a man on the hunt, whose warpath across the Frozen Highlands was the result of this relentless search. Since this witch appeared to be in her late thirties, she couldn’t possibly be the daughter Skadi mentioned, but she had to know something. Perhaps this lady was the girl’s aunt, or some other guardian. Or…

No. Albedo’s eyebrows furrowed. I’m making foolish assumptions, and it’s made me wrong. She’s-

“Here.” Albedo blinked, his eyes focusing on the mug of steaming tea before him. The lady held it in front of him, her expression curious and a little impatient. She must have been standing there for a moment or two.

The alchemist tried not to take the cup too quickly. “..Thank you.”

As he feared, however, his host did not move on. “You seem rather restless for a sightseer. Absent, even,” she remarked, her voice soft but cold compared to the heat of the fireplace. “Is a house call on the Witch of the Woods not sufficient to capture your interest?”

“Forgive me, I meant no offense,” Albedo apologized, his own face blank. “I tend to...daydream, sometimes. Lost in thought.” He glanced at Linkle for support.

The witch gave a slow nod. Much to Albedo’s chagrin, it looked like her guard was up. She was beginning to wonder if letting these strangers into her home was a good idea. For now though, she said, “I see. My apologies. Please, think nothing of it.” She too looked at her other guest. “Was there something else I could help you with?”

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Barney Rynsburger

Going through the motions was easy enough, since how many times had he seen some stalwart hero stay behind to buy time for his team in movies and such? When Barney actually turned away from the alleyway to face the incoming guards, however, he couldn’t suppress a nervous swallow. Here he stood with just one ally by his side against a small horde of enemies, the same whose ruthlessness had left the group bloody and broken not even half an hour ago, and whose strength could crack solid concrete, to say nothing of their abilities once transformed. Never in his life had he chosen to fight; instead he’d avoided conflict like the plague, quietly taking pride in himself as he ceded others their meaningless little victories. That meant that opposing his Shadow had been hard enough, but in a way that fight felt destined. This first real battle would be an entirely different beast.

Barney took a deep breath and steadied himself. He wouldn’t back down, but he couldn’t muster Dakota’s bravado, either. As invigorating as this new power was, he knew better than to think that it was the end-all be-all. His problems wouldn’t be solved in a day, and he couldn’t afford to be reckless. Even an ordinary knife had the power to kill, and anyone could wield one. It wasn’t power alone that determined success, but knowledge, competence, and experience. Right now, even as he brought out his wagon wheel and stood tall beside Dakota, he knew he had none of those things.

“But you have me.”

That voice again. Scratchy. Growly. Monstrous, but in the way one might expect of a villain in a kid’s show. Like groundwater it welled up to Barney from deep below, or maybe deep within. He watched, spellbound, as Dakota unleashed his Persona. The same feathered virtuoso that appeared to heal the small group’s wounds manifested with a flourish, revealing Dakota’s fighting spirit to the gathered crowd of prison guards in a grand display. Even the air itself seemed to move at Thamyris’ command.

“What are you waiting for?” the voice of Barney’s Persona grouched. “Let’s go!”

“R-right!” the bearded student stammered, quickly clearing his throat. “Let’s go, Samsa!”

A plume of blue flame erupted from the ground beneath him, and as if crawling out from the earth, Gregor Samsa appeared in all his verminous glory. He lifted Barney up beneath him, fangs and claws bared, his many eyes flaring with nuclear power. The prison guards responded in kind, contorting before releasing geysers of black smoke that unveiled the monsters within. Four of the creatures that Shadow Pondwater named Shax, and two of the leonine wheel demons he called Buer. Three each, if things broke down evenly. But Barney didn’t get time to strategize.

Immediately two of the stork monsters returned Thamyris the favor by beating their own wings. Crescent-shaped dark blades sped toward the defenders, and Barney knelt to get out of their way. Kneeling down for balance he called out, “Left!” and Samsa veered sideways, out of the path of one of the Eiha. The second was already too close to coordinate another dodge, however, and it struck the pair head-on. “Ouch, dangit!” It hurt a lot more than it should have, eliciting a splash of blood as he was knocked down. He only got to his knees before the Buer swung in like a flaming boomerang, smashing into his wheel with cloven feet before flying back to its original position. Blocking mitigated the force, leaving Barney still intact, so even with a fresh wound he was beyond ready to dish out some damage of his own. “My turn!”

Except it wasn’t. Rather than wait for him to come and smack them with his wheel, the demons attacked again. One Shax unwound its serpentine neck and lashed out like a bladed flail, putting Barney on the defensive long enough for a narrowly missed Eiha to prompt an emergency dodge, which ended with another spin kick from the Buer. “Gah!” he growled, paralyzed by indecision. These monsters were already having a field day with him. What was he going to do?!”

“Hey!” Spindle’s voice blasted his ear through her loop of thread. “That ain’t a shield, dude! Stop tryin’ to block ‘em and hit those stinkin’ varmints!” Barney grimaced, barely suppressing the urge to complain that he was trying. This isn’t working! he fretted, starting to panic.

“Because you’re fighting on their terms.”

Barely avoiding another attack, Barney took a swing at the marauding Buer, but it got out of range before he could make contact. Desperate for guidance, he listened as he continued to fight.

“You are no knight in shining armor,” Samsa hissed at him. “I am not your steed. And we are not defenders. We’re meant to ATTACK!”

A herculean effort from Barney turned a near-certain laceration into a glancing blow. “Then attack!”

“I move at your command!” his Persona growled. “You can’t just stand atop me, take your turns, and expect me to do all the work for you. Have me cover you, then in there and mess them up!”

“How!?” Barney hissed through gritted teeth.

“Stop overthinking and do it! You know the word!”

“I…” Barney’s wide eyes watched the Buer spinning up, ready for another burning revolution. Then his brows furrowed, and his muscles sprang into action. “Frei!”

Samsa buried his claws in the ground to steady himself, then unleashed a wave of frothing, sizzling, flesh-eating nuclear energy. It swept across the dirt like a wave over the shore and erupted beneath the Buer, stopping it in its tracks. The Shaxes attacked, sending forth their projectiles, but rather than dodge or try to block, Barney leaped forward, using Samsa like a springboard to soar through the air with his coattails flapping in the wind. He fell upon the Buer with his wheel upheld and smashed it into the dirt beneath its edge. As it roared in pain the nearest Shax prepared another spell, but this time it was the one getting stopped before it could start. A bash with the wheel threw it off balance, and then Barney aimed a kick to topple it just as Vincent had done earlier. By that time the other Shax unwound its neck for another scything swipe, but Barney turned with his hand extended. “Nail it, Samsa!”

With a snarl his Persona appeared beside him, swinging its bladed pedipalps to skewer the stork like a Thanksgiving turkey. Something odd about the heavy blow seemed to strike fear into the creature, and never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Barney followed up with a hearty battle cry and a vertical overhead slam of his wheel. He kicked it in the head while it was down for good measure, and with a shrill cry the demon melted away into shadow.

“Nice!” Spindle called down through the wire. “One down, five to go!”

Barney watched the demon die for a moment, ecstatic, before turning back to the others. If offense was the ticket, he’d keep it up. To avoid being surrounded he backpedaled toward Dakota, but not so much as to leave his effective range. One down, five to go, he repeated in his mind, and ran forward.

World of Light

Ms. Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (113/40)
Location: The Maw - Main Kitchen
Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Blazermate’s [@ArchmageMC], Hat Kid’s @Dawnrider, Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy, Mirage’s @Potemking
Word Count: 2290

For a brief moment the arrival of the Tempura Wizards seemed to spell total disaster, as in a single stroke they reduced the Seeker’s biggest and strongest member to a helpless food item, moment away from a messy end. But when the shock wore off, the kids were left with a couple of rather less formidable specimens in the long string line of monsters they’d faced today, and they’d had their fill of torment. Even as Sakura fretted about an escape route, she could see everyone else on the warpath. Long before the wizard’s slobbering tongue got anywhere near the long-suffering Seaplane Tender, a defensive line formed in front of her courtesy of Peach, Bowser, and Junior. The princess used her parasol to protect her fallen comrade, reasoning that it could block at least one doughy hex, but the koopas placed themselves directly in danger as they used their own spiky backs. Under normal circumstances Peach might have marveled at what a twist of fate it was to be fighting alongside her old kidnapper and his petulant son in such a manner, but right now she cared only for the fight in front of her, and for her allies it was just the same.

As Mirage flanked around the side, snatching some cookware with which he planned to batter the wizards’ fried limbs, and Sakura worked to drag the shrimp that had been her friend away, the koopa troop readied their own projectiles. They all took action too late, however, to stop their enemies from reaching Peach’s defenses. The farther wizard launched his hex straight into Peach’s umbrella, disarming her in an instant right as his partner reached the shield wall. Blocked from his original target, the hungry wizard opened his eye to aim his rod, and with a globule of batter on its end clocked Bowser over the head. The koopa king transformed and fell to the floor as a tempura, but just when the wizard bent down to scoop up his prize, a volley of pans sailed through the air. The hefty metal disks, proficiently lobbed, smashed into both enemies in a series of highly amusing bongs and clangs, staggering them. A couple even hit the farther one’s bowl, spreading cracks across their dark surfaces, and when Rika loosed her shots at the farther wizard his bowl shattered beneath him. He fell to the floor atop a heap of his own rice, and he couldn’t fight the kids while fighting to stay upright.

While his allies treated the wizards to a projectile onslaught, Link made use of the trump card his and the flagging Geralt’s mercilessness had won him. When he reached out to the spirit of Larry Chiang it gave no response, showing no sentience let alone concurrence, but nevertheless it latched onto him. Like a tick to a passing deer the butcher’s soul adhered to him, using the young to manifest once more. A ghostly Larry appeared in a flash, an ephemeral carcass already in hand, and with remarkable abruptness hurled the hulking hunk of meat right at the Tempura Wizard poised to devour Bowser. The Striker’s projectile bowled Link’s foe right over, but as if that wasn’t enough, the butcher followed up with a cry of “MEEEEEEEAT!” and bulled forward in a headlong charge. He knocked down and trampled right over the wizard before finally disappearing, leaving that enemy, too, at the mercy of the children.

At that point, about ten seconds had passed. Sakura’s heroic, albeit extremely unhappy, attempts to drag Bella out of danger garnered few results when the tempura was only a little smaller than Sakura herself. At that ten second mark, however, her struggle came to a sudden end. The fried shrimp poofed back into the Water Princess in an instant, and with both taken by surprise, neither could do much to stop Bella landing right on top of Sakura. “Eep!” Though totally baffled by what had happened to her, Bella understood straightaway the danger her new form presented, and quickly rolled to the side before she could hurt her friend. She rolled onto her back, bringing the little street fighter with and on top of her, then held her tight to shelter her from the chaos all around. “Are you okay? I’ll protect you, mon cherie! Zos blaireaux will pay!” she vowed, craning her neck as she lay on her back so as to aim her leviathan tail.

Before she could accommodate Peach, Junior, and Tempura-Bowser being between her and her target, the situation took another turn for the better. A familiar set of giant metal twintails rose up from behind the second floor railing, announcing her presence with a cheery, “Eldritch eye hand things floating on rice, of course.... I'm here everyone!”

“Us, too!” Along for the ride were none other than the Ace Cadet and Nadia Fortune, and when Blazermate tossed them they sailed through the air to tackle the farther Tempura Wizard just as he was raising his staff. They brought him down beneath their combined weight and started mashing straightaway with their makeshift weapons. Nadia in particular made use of the empty tin whose sardines she’d replenished herself with on the trip back to the kitchen, although it did a lot less damage than the frying pans of Mirage and the Koopas when they swept in to beat the fallen Tempura Wizards down. The whole pack of kids fell upon the sorcerers like a school of piranhas, made even worse a few seconds later when Bowser’s own polymorph came to an end, and in just a few cathartic moments all that remained of their enemies were spirits.

When it was done Nadia stood, breathing heavily, and dusted off her hands before putting them on her hips. “Looks like we were a li’l late, but you guys made it through, anyway,” she observed, happy as could be to see everyone safe and sound. “We gave that other guy the ol’ run-around. There was this big bird, too. Hopefully neither of them are gonna bother us any more.” Her eyes landed on Bella, standing much taller than everyone else and much plumper than the feral remembered, holding Sakura like a teddy bear and probably needing to be asked to let her go. “You’re different. What happened to ya?”

“Don’t eat anything!” the Abyssal warned her and everyone else. “When ze big man fell, I lost control. I couldn’t stop myself...so don’t have any more zan you need, or ze curse will do zis to you!” She looked down at herself sadly, traces of tears still in her eyes despite Sakura’s encouragement earlier. Her eyes then fell on Geralt, and she did not hesitate to walk over to pick him up too. With one four-year-old on each arm she turned back to the group. “He’s still alive. Only fainted.”

Nadia breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, phew! I was wonderin’ for a sec there. Really had me worried.” She narrowed her cat eyes at him, brows upturned in concern. “He didn’t eat anythin’, right? Well, I had two cans of sardines plus a roll, and I’m still fine. Hell, it was the only reason the two of us were able to keep runnin’ from that fur-reak.” In solidarity with her fellow food-eater and founding member of Ace Decoys she clapped a hand on the Cadet’s shoulder. “Maybe Gerry oughta have somethin’. We can’t have people droppin’ like flies one by one for the rest to drag along, right?”

Peach seemed to agree. “Bella came to her senses, and there’s still food around everywhere, so the hunger must have a trigger,” she reasoned. “Even if the food is cursed, we can work based on what we know. Everyone needs to keep their strength up for the road ahead.”

At the princess’s words Nadia’s ears pricked up, including the one shorted a half-inch by Antoine’s knife. “Oh, about that! Downstairs there’s this hole in the wall that leads into the restaurant. We saw a sign on the wall for the Helm. That’s where ships are controlled from! It should be just on the other side of the atrium!”

“Then we can’t waste time,” Peach replied. “Everyone okay to move on? Eat something if you’re on your last legs. Not meat, obviously. We should take those spirits too. Those powers could be useful.”

When the kids were all good to go, they set off down the stairs. Taking a right at the halfway point and another right at the first floor landing brought them to the main area of the big kitchen, half of it still a terrible mess from Mirage and Nadia’s efforts earlier. Out of all the cooks and monsters that occupied it, only the scalding coffee cups and the sushi chef remained, with Stretch-face nowhere to be seen. The cups were not, however, spoiling for a fight; maybe the rather large party storming into their midst was more than their instincts told them they could handle. When everyone shot an assortment of wary and angry glances the chef’s way, meanwhile, he held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, don’t look at me! I only do seafood!” He nodded down at the prep station and hibachi grill in front of him, laden with an assortment of sushi and seafood stir-fry. Fujimoto gave no signs of hostility as the intruders made their way through and out of the kitchen. Though he had little to share, he planned to answer whatever the kids asked of him should any stop on the way.

In no time at all the Seekers entered the third floor of Grand Atrium and assembled before the railing that overlooked the expanse of stew that was its sunken first floor. To their right was the long dining table to which Antoine lay waste during his pursuit of Ace and Nadia, and on the other side of the creamy lake the bulbous form of Cookatiel could still be dimly seen through the hole it left in the wall. Nadia couldn’t make out Antoine among the wreckage he’d caused upon landing on the fourth floor toward the Atrium’s upper-right side, but even if he’d already recovered, he’d have another think coming if he thought he could take the kids now. Luckily, the sign for the Helm pointed in the opposite direction from where the fallen Guests languished, so they didn’t need to deal with that either. Nadia saw no trace of the Runaway Kid, though. Hope he’s doing okay, she thought.

Now that she wasn’t on the run from a plate-slinging lunatic Nadia could actually get a good look around the gigantic room, and it was honestly pretty impressive. Spooky, atmospheric, and posh, it offered a lot of routes for nimble escapees during a game of cat and mouse. If Blazermate hadn’t come along she and Ace could have probably kept Antoine in their dust for a while. Still, better to be safe than sorry. With her keen cat eyes Nadia peered up into the room’s upper reaches, trying to get a handle on where to head next.

Instead, she saw her.

There she was, up on the fifth floor, standing on a balcony, lit from behind, and staring right down at the uninvited guests. Nadia’s blood froze, her heart pounding, unsure if she was seeing things until the ladylike shape slid quietly back out of view. “Th-that was her! The woman we saw in the beginnin’!” she exclaimed, pointing upward. “She’s up there, on the fifth floor!” With wide eyes she turned to face the group. “Uh, for lack of a better plan, let’s get her?!”

This time Nadia waited for Ace before rushing off, and together the kids went left and made for the staircase. Wide and long, it conveyed them up and then past the fourth floor of famished diners, although not without a cost. Even fighting and running for one’s life wasn’t so taxing as a long flight of stairs, and anyone without the energy (or physique) for the ascent was soon left wheezing. Those better suited for the task reached the top first, and with a large enough group to inspire confidence in at least some reconnaissance, they entered through the eye-marked doorway at the top.

There they went down a short hallway and found themselves in another large room, although this one looked much more like a theater than a restaurant. Most of the room was shrouded in darkness, with the main floor empty but for cushions upon which the audience might kneel. The long wall on the side that the frontrunners entered hosted five large gallery boxes for the Guests of Honor. Her eyes drawn by those individuals, Nadia couldn’t help but glance at each one in turn. Nearest was King K Rool, little more than an oversized crocodile laying about in the lap of luxury. After that, however, was the ghastly angel Jamerah, the scribe seated in a floating throne, his folds of corpulence stained with unknown juices, and his box lined with shelves full of scrolls. Next Nadia could see, reclining against a porcelain-white winged lion upon a lavish bed, the royally garbed Lord Vauthry attended by angels of living marble. On his other side was the green-skinned Zora Queen Oren, her face angry and impatient despite the pretty water features arranged around her. Finally, Nadia’s angle could just permit her to catch a dreadful glimpse of The Evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt.

Her attention quickly wandered, however, to the kabuki stage situated on the theater’s far side, clearly the focal point for the Guests of Honor and any other attendees, herself and the other Seekers included. A number of dark, disturbingly Lady-shaped mannequins stood atop it, barely visible in the darkness beyond the sole spotlight.