Lugubrious

World of Light

Midgar Zone 09 - Through the Dragnet

Level 5 Goldlewis (98/50) Level 4 Sandalphon (10/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man
Word Count: 2181

Within the span of about five minutes, the Seekers managed to coalesce on roughly the same area of the Sector 08 undercity, where the brink of the troubled but tenacious dystopian sprawl called Detroit overlooked a sequestered cityscape long since given over to isolation and redshift corruption. This unofficial ninth sector went ignored and unacknowledged, a blight on the city’s history and a remnant of its darkest hour, and with its very existence too painful to embrace it lay here, hiding in plain sight like a homeless veteran. This was Quarantine Valley, a realm even lower on the rungs of Midgar’s sociopolitical ladder than the undercities, yet safeguarded against intrusion with the fierceness of the City of Glass. As Goldlewis took it all in from the sidewalk behind the metal railing, he couldn’t help but feel a profound melancholy borne of his sense of responsibility. Even if it wasn’t his call that left this place -these people- desolate, it saddened him to them abandoned to this terrible fate

Guided by an expert at high speed, Goldlewis and Karin seemed to arrive first, and once they turned up the fliers could zero in on the position and join them. Susie, Blazermate, and H’s drone had navigated over the tumultuous streets with little to no issue; even if people down below spotted them, they probably had more pressing matters to worry about. Roland turned up soon after, drifting to a stop on a slick black motorcycle inexplicably come into his possession. He knew he had little to fear from his wanton theft; the law of the Administration seldom lifted a finger to save anyone down here, least of all from itself. Geralt had taken advantage of Detroit’s sky-lines, using them as intended with his sky-hook to make good time weaving around and in some cases through the various buildings. Though Sandalphon used the same means of transportation, her method of sliding atop the sky-lines (while an impressive feat in its own right) took her long enough that Zenkichi joined Geralt, courtesy of a former colleague’s good-natured assistance, before she did. With 2B and 9S still in Sector 07, probably for the best considering the fugitive status of DespoRHado’s android corps in Sector 08, that left only two conspicuous absences: Benedict and Partitio. Goldlewis didn’t know where they’d gotten lost along the way, or even if they’d set out along with the rest at the start, come to think of it. Maybe Partitio had decided to stay behind to help the poor people of the slums, leaving the Seekers right where he first joined them. Benedict, as a former Turk, posed more of a problem. Goldlewis had a hard time imagining that the old tactician would run off and turn his coat now of all times, but who could say what seemed wise to a traitorous mind.

With everyone more or less here, Goldlewis set down his coffin with a thunk and crossed his arms. “Alrighty then. How do we get in?”

As he hoped, Mr. H had an answer for them. “Well, there’s a couple options, but none of them good. There are cameras positioned all around the valley to catch anyone trying to fly in, whether they’re using vehicles or even parachutes. All official routes in and out have been closed down or blocked off except one, and while it’s closely guarded, it’s probably our best bet. This way.”

H led the team about half a block to the north of the interplate subway station, where the remains of a sky-tram station stood on the edge of the valley. It had been shuttered long ago, and the coiled steel tram lines that once connected it to a matching rooftop station down in the valley, severed. In the vicinity, however, stood an unassuming reinforced door in the yellow glare of a single light, plastered with holographic restriction warnings. A Dandelion Security CCTV Camera hung over it, turning the fan of metal petals that surrounded its lens left and right as it scanned for unwelcome visitors. The Seekers stopped up the street a short ways, standing outside a run-down laundromat. “That’s our ticket in,” H told the others. With the recent reduction of personnel, eight wasn’t a huge group, but it was enough to be conspicuous. “I can hack the camera to freeze its intake just long enough to get us inside. The bigger issue…well, I’m sure you’ve already noticed.”

Sandalphon narrowed her eyes. While a casual observer might not notice anything, she spotted something curious after a moment. Next to the doorway stood a trash can, and every few moments its lid cracked open to admit a pair of binocular lenses with a slight red glow from within, betraying the presence of Gleaming eyes. Furthermore, at the closed pawn shop across the street, the blinds parted slightly to let red eyes take a peek of the area. “G-men,” she answered. “At least two on stakeout.” When she looked again, however, she noticed a strange abundance of small trash cans on a road where the alleys already featured dumpsters, all concentrated within a hundred feet or so of the entrance. As well as two simultaneous blind-pulls. “Make that six.”

“All of them probably equipped with walkie-talkies,” H added, his voice grim. “We need to take them all out at once if we’re going to get inside. I can’t help since I’ll already be performing the hack.”

Sandalphon thought for a brief moment. “A coordinated strike may do the trick. Even if we’re unable to exploit their disguised forms’ low health in order to kill them instantly, they’ll be forced to transform and fight us once damaged. If we time it right we can end it before it even begins.” Immediately she turned her gaze upward, searching for a vantage point in the vicinity. “I can snipe one of them.”

Goldlewis stroked his whiskers, considering his options. “Hmm…what if the UMA floated a Thunderbird way above one o’ them trash cans, then dropped it? Doggone G-man wouldn’t know what hit it. And if I got close enough somehow, I could smush another one with my coffin, and that’s all she wrote.” That left three hidden G-men to take care of: two more in trash cans, and one in the pawn shop. Luckily, that establishment featured a second story with a balcony, no doubt due to being a living space at some point in the past. While the fire escape was locked up tight, one of the second-story windows had been smashed, and someone could get in.

Everyone quickly made their choices and got into position. Goldlewis strode down the street alone, aware of all the eyes sticking to him like glue, past the pawn shop, and stopped at the small, weed-infested parking lot opposite the sky-tram station with one of the trash cans right behind him. “I’m an undertaker, and this here’s my coffin I put dead folks in,” he declared loudly so that the G-men could hear, trying to get their attention. “Boy, there sure are a whole lotta dandelions ‘round this parkin’ lot. As a coroner, I need flowers for my funerals. Guess I’ll grab some!” He crouched down to pretend to pick dandelions, keeping one hand on the chain of his coffin.

Down the street, Sandalphon used her new power Vault to leap up onto the roof of the laundromat, where she could crouch down behind a noisy AC unit and take aim at the pawn shop’s storefront window. H piloted his drone close enough to connect to the security camera. Once everyone gave the signal that they were ready, Sandalphon spun up her rifle and waited until both G-men in the pawn shop were peeking at the exact same time. “Now.”

As H froze the camera, Sandalphon’s rifle shot blazed down into the street, through the window, and into the head of one of the faceless goons. Goldlewis whirled around and smashed his coffin into the trash can behind him with a mighty Behemoth Typhoon, crushing it and its occupant against the brick wall behind it. A split second later, his Thunderbird grenade dropped down on another can, blowing it up. The three other members of the group did their thing, and the G-men were taken care of. H opened up the door, and everyone hurried inside. Less than thirty seconds after the operation began, the reinforced door slid shut again, and the valley-side street was quiet.

After a moment, a woman standing on a higher rooftop breathed a long, slow sigh, and snapped her notebook shut. Her pale yellow eyes, as sharp as a predator’s fangs, and her long lupine ears had taken in just about everything. First Benedict, then Zenkichi, and now Roland, who’d been by her side as recently as last night. Three disappearances in three days, only to turn up alongside the same strange group across different sectors, from the debate to the Vandelay raid to Detroit. And now a member of DespoRHado, formerly affiliated with the Lateran church. Had all three really betrayed General Affairs? Why? What brought them all together, and what were their goals? It just didn’t make sense. A dozen questions ran through her head. Nevertheless, she had a duty to figure this out. Having been on the trail of these renegades for a little while now, she felt close to a discovery of vital importance. On the cusp of some revelation.

“Looks like you had the right idea.” Behind her, rather than any fellow official peacekeepers, a young Lupo man in a dark pinstripe suit and a purple overcoat stood with his arms crossed. “They’re the ones all right,” Vigil remarked. “What d’you suppose they’re up to now?”

As the former judge rose, the pale golden chains of her hammerhead flail jingled softly, their thorns shining softly in the strange day’s halflight. “I intend to find out.”

“What, not gonna call it in?” Vigil put on a mischievous smile. “Going off on your own with a schmuck like me instead of your police squad? You’re a bad cop, Lavinia.”

The woman gave her old friend a withering glance, then frowned at the street below. “If that’s the case, Leontuzzo, it’s because I care about one thing only.” She stepped to the edge, pausing to utter one more word before she jumped down to pick up the trail. “Justice.” Hoping to close this bizarre case for once and all, Penance was on the hunt once more.

---

After climbing down a ladder, H and the Seekers reached a large enclosed area. Ahead of them lay a maze of corrugated metal walkways and platforms suspended over a deep, dark intersected by large pipes and other such Detroit utilities, spanning multiple levels connected by stairs. They appeared to be anchored around the huge concrete supports littered the open space, and the ladders that rose up into the higher reaches of the restricted area alongside them granted access to a dangerous alternate path along unsecured, elevated struts. On the other side of the labyrinth, lower down, lay another door like the one the Seekers just came through: the point at which Sector 08 stopped and Zone 09 began.

“That door back there is the only way to the exclusion zone,” H explained. Between the team and their goal patrolled a handful of guards, not G-men this time, but armed troopers. “As you can see, we’ll have to sneak past a few guards to get to it. And the door itself won’t open without a security keycard. The guard captain should have one on him we can use.” In front of the door stood a mustached soldier in camo fatigues and a gray longcoat, his manner impatient and bored but his eyes alert. “Of course, we can’t just ask him to lend it to us. We’ll have to take it from him somehow.”

Sandalphon queried her internal database, searching through her memory for the familiar face. “I know of him. He predated my time in DespoRHado, one of the few to ever actually leave the organization. His name is Charles, but most know him as the Closer. An expert fighter.” Her eyes drifted upward. “That high ground doesn’t grant much access, but I can vault up there and provide overwatch, directing everyone from above.”

“Sounds good. We gotta be fast, and we gotta be careful. This could get real hairy real fast if you guys don’t take the stealthy approach, so if you end up going loud, make sure you’re good and ready.” H’s drone transmitted a deep, somewhat shake breath. “Alright! Nothing to it but to do it!”

Suoh - Beacon Mental Hospital Medical Ward

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Gemma

Unfortunately for Midna, it turned out that Sandalphon had terminated their magical connection when the previous mission came to a close. Anyone who knew the value of information also knew the value of privacy, and since the archangel had no further need nor desire to perceive or listen to everything the Twilight Princess encountered, she hung up to better focus on the handful of perspectives she’d be directly working with in Midgar’s undercities. Furthermore, while Sandalphon -as the source of the power- could reach out to anyone she’d previously connected to, that didn’t work in reverse. Midna was on her own, and the fate of the still-breathing patient was in her hands.

Back by the operating room, Gemma was beginning to get antsy. He knew he wasn’t well-suited to subtlety and didn’t want to jeopardize anyone or anything due to impatience, but as a senior Psych-OSF member he couldn’t help but worry for his companions. After a few more tense moments, listening to the Doctor at work, Gemma reached out to Sakura via Brain Talk. ”Hey. Everything alright?”

At that moment though, Sakura was in the midst of another conversation. Brain Drain stared at the girl, unblinking, as she tried to steady herself and work her way through a response. She ended up babbling somewhat, repeating herself a couple times, all the while quailing under the psionic’s mental pressure. Brain Drain let her go on, his nerves of steel as calm and collected as ever. It was only natural that an inferior mind -let alone one trapped in a prison of fleshy impotence- would shrivel in his presence, caught as she was in the headlights of his sheer intellect and metal majesty. Though Sakura wore the colors of Psych-OSF, meaning she had to possess at least a modicum of combat ability, Brain Drain wasn’t flustered in the slightest even by the sudden, unannounced appearance of such a suspect individual. After all, what had he to fear?

“Peach, yes, I get the picture,” he responded at length, when the girl was quite finished. ”I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. I don’t know of anyone by that name, and I haven’t dealt with any transfigured unfortunates. We do keep some monsters on the premises to help deter intruders… As he floated over the floor toward a clipboard to double-check, he gave Sakura the side-eye. ...But evidently they’re all old hat. I trust you’re at least passingly familiar with my colleague, the Doctor? I’d wager you’re too composed to have run into Anima, though.” He glanced over at a dark-haired man in a faded green vest and red tie, lying unconscious in a tub previously obscured to Sakura’s point of view, muttering hopelessly as he slept. ”A little fickle, that one, but quite unstoppable so long as the host remains.”

Realizing he was rambling, Brain Drain snapped his attention back to Sakura. ”Regardless, while what we do here is of utmost importance and demands privacy, I assure you this is no ‘evil hospital’. This is where people come to be fixed.” He crossed his arms. ”Oh, don’t bother asking. I don't have to read your mind to know what you're thinking: what does he mean, ‘fixed’? Well, I don’t see the harm in telling you. We’re not open to the public, but our clientele is guided here through certain channels. When they have nowhere else to turn. When they are broken beyond repair, or hate what they see in the mirror, and yearn to be made whole. When they need a medical solution to an ailment without a cure, be that boredom, depression, who they are, or even death itself. I tend to their minds, and the Doctor, their bodies. It is far too complicated for a layman like you to possibly grasp, but if you’re still curious, I invite you to ponder the paradox of the Grandfather’s Axe.”

Brain Drain turned to gaze up at the giant, glowing tank. “Yes, we have quite the collection here. ‘Donated’, yes…you could say that. Surrendered. To the Brainframe, for scientific study and experimentation, to learn more about the mysteries of the mind. They are networked, not just with one another, but to psynet. Extra servers to bolster the psychic pool of the populace. A rising tide raises all ships, as they say.”

He ran his hand along the side of the apparatus, almost lovingly.”Of course, I…could not do this without Psych-OSF. We have something of an arrangement, you see. They help keep the lights on, and in return I provide some services to them. The rehabilitation of certain criminal elements, who would otherwise be subject to execution. They’re brought here, and I help make them better. But that is the extent of our affiliation. My true allegiance is, as ever, to the Greater Good. And that requires that I bend all my efforts to the eradication of the single greatest threat to mankind: not the Ever Crisis, but the Skullgirls.” He huffed, his mental tone irate. ”And I would be all the closer if not for the rash of recent thefts. Someone has been stealing brains. MY brains. The sheer nerve it takes to steal from ME…it’s enough to make a man sick.”

Brain Drain turned to glare at Sakura. ”You, my uninvited guest, wouldn’t happen to know anything…would you?”

World of Light

Suoh - Beacon Mental Hospital, Medical Ward

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Gemma

Though rather unsettling, both in terms of appearance and the way he crawled around on the hospital’s ceiling, the Doctor didn’t really intimidate Gemma. Sure, he seemed inhumanly large -inhuman in general, in fact- but the Scarlet Guardians regularly beat larger foes, and while holding that ungainly bloated mass aloft probably took some serious strength, the Doctor looked ill-suited for combat. Still, given the inexplicable invulnerability possessed by the patients it sounded reasonable to abide by Midna’s suggestion and not get tangled up in another fight needlessly. Although, the Seekers ought to know as well as Gemma did that investigations like this tended to culminate in the act of beating answers out of somebody. If this uncanny physician didn’t strike him as incapable of human speech, he might have objected, but for now he allowed the smaller, more agile members of the team to take initiative and sneak around.

Behind door number one: a surprise death drop. Midna actually fell in, much to Gemma’s dismay, but thanks to the special talents of the Twilight Princess she managed to save her skin. Soon she returned with the bad news, and though Gemma was relieved to hear it her cautionary tale was cause for concern. “I didn’t think we were that far down,” he murmured in a low tone. “This area of the plate may be heavily undermined. We’ll need to tread carefully.”

Sakura wisely chose a different exit. After taking pains not to disturb the Doctor as he worked, she reached the doorway silhouetted against a pink-green glow and made her way inside. On the opposite side lay a circular room in the same style as much of the hospital, with faded green tiles and splotchy off-white concrete. A strange machine stood in the middle, visually somewhere between a hot water heater and a lighthouse, with a spider’s web of cables stemming outward from the top and a ring of glorified bathtubs around it, all standing in a depression filled with ankle-deep murky water. Medical stands with monitoring devices could be found parked along the walls, and cables lay everywhere on the floor. However, this apparatus appeared to be offline, and judging by the dusting of cobwebs, not used for some time. Moreover, this wasn’t the source of the green light; that lay deeper in, beyond another set of doors, where it got much stronger. When Sakura ventured in there, she quickly realized that the squat, neglected chamber she’d just left had been nothing more than a prototype.

Though also circular, this room was much larger and high-tech, its better-kept machines connected not just via insulated industrial cables but holographic orange vision cables. Gone was the standing water; each tub had its own dedicated machinery with it on a checkered platform. There was a set of elevator doors on the room’s right side, and a stairwell on the left that led up to the second-story observation deck. Over the central hub a much larger nexus of oblong pods connected to the inverted glass dome of an enormous, oval-shaped tank that formed much of the room’s ceiling, and inside the tank were thousands of brains.

Those aside, the room wasn’t empty. In one of the tubs, unconnected to any machinery, slept a gaunt, wiry young woman with a stitched mask, brown hair in a bun, a scant beige dress, and nails protruding from the black veins in her skin. On one side of the tub, four enormous blades dangled from the cord that extended from the small of her back. Next to the central hub floated a figure in a dark brown trench coat lined with cream-colored fur. At first glance he appeared to be wearing a white metal helmet and gauntlets, both laden with spiky points, but in truth he was a robot. Or a robotic body encasing a glowing pink brain inside his head, bent as if asleep or meditating, deep in thought. Psychic pulses emanated from the mystery man at short, rhythmic intervals. When Sakura entered, however, he awoke after a few moments, his red eyes blinking on as he slowly straightened up. His glowing white irises turned the Street Fighter’s way, and she could feel a faint psychic pressure. ”What have we here?” A deep voice intoned directly to her mind. ”Not another surprise visit, surely? Hmm…interesting. I think not. You’re not here on business.” Brain Drain adopted an upright posture as he descended, his feet not quite touching the ground. “I’ll make this simple, then. Tell me who you really are and why you’re here, before I pry your mind.”

The Under - The Hive

Level 11 Nadia (147/110)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud, Barnabee
Word Count: 1340

Nadia moved through the remainder of the underground marsh quickly. Now that she'd gotten wet and dirty she didn’t play around jumping between the trees, instead skating across the surface of the rust-colored muck with the speed and lightness of a water strider. She would have preferred to put what just happened out of her mind and focus on the mission, if only she could. Instead the unfortunate event pursued her doggedly. While she hadn’t known this Ah Muzen Cab whatsoever, and the exact circumstances meant she didn’t get the chance to see or hear his morbid fate, the whole thing left her in a sour mood with a bad taste in her mouth. As she wound her way through the fridge of the bug-riddled bog, close enough to the edge that she could gauge her progress, she passed everything else right by. Not even the sight of an infested settlement amongst the trees, home to the malignant insectoid cleric known as The Thrall, gave her paws.

Soon enough the feral ran out of swamp. Though it provided good cover for bypassing the wasp legions in the end, she was glad to leave the fetid mire behind. Toward the back of the great Hive cavern, where the honeycombs were richest and the hexagon-based architecture the most grand, a tiered series of cliffs about a dozen feet high led like gigantic stairs up to a magnificently archway, opulent with gold and amber, that led to an immense hallway. Nowhere in the Hive seemed fancier or more important than that, meaning that nowhere was more likely for the usurper of Vespa’s queendom to be. After thinking about making her way up with a series of blood-pressure rocket jumps, Nadia realized that the hollow hexagonal cells in the cliff faces formed perfect handholds and pawholds, while the filled-in ones yielded readily to her claws. The climb up to the entrance turned out to be a breeze, especially since the wasps that would’ve normally been guarding this area had abandoned their posts to join the fight against the Seekers. As she ascended, cresting ledge after ledge out in the open after all the pains she’d taken to be stealthy, the feral couldn’t help but feel small and exposed after. Like a mouse scurrying around a storeroom for morsels of cheese. By now, with so many slain by the intruders, the wasps’ leader had to be getting desperate to hunt down and squash every last Seeker. Once they pushed through and regrouped, however, the hunter would become the hunted.

Despite her delay at the ruined temple, Nadia actually arrived first. Maybe the others had really kicked the hornets’ nest by going loud right off the bat. At one point a platoon of reinforcements buzzed down the hall to go join the battle, forcing Nadia to make herself scarce. There wasn’t anything in this big, empty corridor to duck behind, but by going to pieces she could easily fit herself into an empty hex cell on the wall and avoid their gaze. She hid there until the others arrived, then rolled out the welcome wagon by dragging herself out of the cubby like a mummy from a catacomb. “What took you guys so long?” She asked, working harder than usual to force a cheerful smile. “I thought you’d bee here ages ago.”

The Hive Knight was breathing heavily. His fuzz was stained with the gunk of dozens of wasps, and the teeth of his Yato blade moved slowly, chewing through the caked-on remains that had yet to turn to ash. “Justice,” he told her flatly.

“...Right.”

Together the team proceeded through the gilded hall, its waxen walls and hexagonal tiling polished to a mirror sheen. At the other side they found yet another cavern, this one with walls of scintillating royal blue and a honeycomb platform leaning out over a yawning abyss, with a minecart track looping around the circumference of the cave between the platforms' opposite sides. In the center of the great hollow hung the usurper, a colossal wasp in appearance, but not quite in truth. Though no expert on either bugs nor engineering, even Nadia could tell that this six-legged titan was no more than a robot. A stupidly huge robot, maybe even comparable to that leviathan that surprised the Seekers back in the Bottomless Sea, but still. She could easily picture herself sliding down that tube protruding from the mega-bug’s middle, which on second thought looked rather like a giant yellow teapot. Regardless, the Wasp Queen’s glowing red eyes fixated on the Seekers the moment they set foot in her throne room. No backing down now.

“Intruders!” The queen cried, her fake wings flapping back and forth furiously as she dangled from the ceiling on an immense chain. Her resounding voice sounded like it was being projected by a megaphone. “How dare you challenge the Queen?”

On either side of her, more wasps began to swarm, forming a couple enormous clouds of them. “Don’t challenge our queen!” they called out in chorus.

“Exactly! Attack!”

The Queen herself did not attack, however. Instead her wasps fought for her, attacking not as individuals, but as a cohesive swarm. They packed themselves together into huge, floating shapes, like swords that span through the air, hammers that came down hard on large areas, and pairs of scissors that chased the Seekers down, snipping ominously. Not sure what to do, Nadia took off running, dodging hammer after mighty hammer. “Bahahaaa! Run, you pests!” her foe sang. Those ‘weapons’ struck with serious force, the hammers in particular sending out ‘shockwaves’ of wasps that spread out in all directions on impact before wheeling around to rejoin the swarm. With a smirk the feral leaped over the ‘blades’ of a giant pair of scissors as the swarm tried to snap shut on her, then ran for the platform’s edge. When she jumped onto the minecart track, she slid along the metal rail with improbable ease, away from the assault swarms and around the hanging Wasp Queen. That gave her time to think about how exactly she’d go about attacking this distant metal monstrosity.

As she circled around, her ears, hair, and tails streaming behind her, she noticed the big orange bandages on the robot’s hull, one pair each crossed in an ‘x’ on the front and back of both her thorax and abdomen. Seeing no other possible weak spot except maybe the eyes, Nadia put together a plan and leaped from the track. She airdashed toward the Queen on jets of blood, then flung Athame directly into the bandages on the back of the abdomen to weaken it. Then she blitzed into the spot with Charge like a living lightning bolt and dished out a handful of air-to-airs, culminating in a dropkick that acted as Battery, triggering a pair of electric crits. She yanked out Athame and kicked off, flying back toward the rail to continue her grind. Her sneaking suspicions proved to be correct, as the Queen was not happy about that. “Managed to tickle me, did you?” she asked as Nadia’s slide came to an end. To either side of her, wasp swarms formed into giant mitts that flew toward her to try and squash her flat. “Let me give you a hand!”

The Wasp Queen would continue to ‘attack’ with swarms in a variety of shapes, covering different angles but not all angles. To defend her weak spots she would call upon her underlings to form shields and block with their clustered bodies, but if enough wasps got minced, burned, or blown up, she’d be vulnerable until reinforcements arrived. When each bandaged spot took enough damage, the yellow shell covering the corresponding front or back of the Queen’s abdomen or thorax would break off and fall away, revealing the metal skeleton and parts beneath. But only when all four parts were destroyed, leaving more or less just the wasp bot’s head, would the fight progress to the second phase.

World of Light

Midgar - Sector 07 Slums

Level 5 Goldlewis (92/50) Level 4 Sandalphon (3/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Giovanna
Word Count: 1844

Once Karin consented to bring her up to speed, Sandalphon sat facing her at rapt attention. She neither broke eye contact nor so much as blinked for the duration of the martial artist’s explanation, her only signs of life the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest and the occasional split-second outage of her glowing green pupils. Of course, while her body might be nigh-motionless, her mind moved with astonishing speed, cataloging and cross-referencing every tidbit of intelligence she received. The Consuls, the Guardians, Galeem… The archangel possessed perfect recall when it came to information, and in light of some of the new details flooding in since her chance meeting with the Seekers, some things were beginning to make an awful lot of sense. While Karin’s mention of leads on the Dystopiascape Guardian’s location made her curious, she assumed a purpose in her new acquaintance’s omission and did not pry further.

Sandalphon tabled her inferences and extrapolations for now, and when Karin concluded her speech, the statuesque supervisor bowed her head in gratitude. “Thank you. You’ve helped me paint a clearer picture of your organization’s goals and status.” With that, she turned away and projected a variety of screens around her. Sandalphon had some calls to make. While the men around her took a load off, finding common ground and drinking together, the ladies sipped water in silence, and the robot girls wandered, the archangel opened a dozen lines of communication at once with the remnants of DespoRHado’s android faction. While the PMC took a huge gamble with their attack on Vandelay, risking their top brass, loads of Unmanned Gears, and tons of cyborg soldiers, they hadn’t seen fit to blow every last resource on the raid. Perhaps due to underlying feelings of distrust, most of DespoRHado’s android forces had stayed home, including all of the Type H, Type D, Type S, and Type O units. The Winds of Destruction had kept their friends close, but they failed to keep their enemies closer, and now the android corps -YoRHa- stood to inherit everything their predecessors left behind.

Of course, this was by no means the android revolution Sandalphon had been hoping to achieve. By staging its rebellion DespoRHado had earned itself a death sentence, and it was already going the way of the dinosaurs. Though the Bunker still stood it would be only a matter of time before the forces of the Administration arrived to finish the job.In the course of juggling the various conversations, Sandalphon became aware of the complete breakdown of DespoRHado’s command structure. Upon catching wind of DespoRHado’s defeat, the cyborgs that remained had deserted en masse, some of them going on rampages. A few even attacked the androids, claiming what happened was their fault, or that Sandalphon had betrayed them. While technically true, that fact did not help them, and when the dust cleared from the infighting the androids remained, awaiting orders. Once properly connected, Sandalphon obliged. She ordered the androids to eliminate all records of themselves, Sandalphon, and generally ‘YoRHa’ from the company databases (including the androids’ own backups, meaning that if they were destroyed now, they’d be gone for good) then escape, leaving the building and everything ‘Desperado’ for the authorities to find. “Split into small squads and navigate around Quarantine Valley and into the Sector 01 undercity, Zaun. Use rooftops, sky-lines, and byways; try not to be seen and stay off the comm lines. Once in Zaun, make your way up to Piltover and find the Lateran Church. Speak my name, and they should offer you refuge. Even if DespoRHado burns to the ground, we will rise from the ashes, and continue to fight. For the goddess Illia, and the glory of mankind.” Her androids echoed the salute, and the network went silent.

Not long after Sandalphon’s business concluded, someone else in the group got a call: Giovanna. She answered the magic glyph and went paced over in one corner by the pool table, alternately listening and talking, succinctly and in low tones. After a few moments she hung up and headed back toward the others. “That was Vernon,” she announced, talking mostly to Goldlewis. “Something’s come up and he needs my help. I’ll be heading topside, so…buh-bye. Wish I could say it’s been fun.”

“Vernon?” Goldlewis furrowed his brow. “Everythin’ alright, G?”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “Oh yeah, I mean, pretty much? No big deal, I got it handled. Oh, but, something else is coming your way. After I told him where we are, he said Mr. H will be with us soon. Should be here any minute. Needs your help with something. Good luck out there.” At a snap of her fingers, Rei jumped up from where she’d been curled up to float behind Giovanna, and with a wave the secret agent was on her way.

Her estimation turned out to be correct. Shortly after her departure, an odd customer pushed in through the saloon doors of Seventh Heaven. It was a small yellow drone, with an articulate drum-shaped rotor holding up a central unit with a pointy antenna and big, round eyes like a pair of goggles. Those eyes roved around the room, flitting between the different members of the team. “So you’re the Seekers! It’s an honor to meet you all face-to-face. Or face-to-drone, as it happens. Follow me, please!”

Goldlewis stood and followed the drone outside, and Sandalphon followed his example without complaint. With the lunch rush just about to kick off, Seventh Heaven wouldn’t be a private place much longer. He paused only to glance at Clara. “You gonna be alright, missie?”

“Yep!” The little girl looked happy. “Once Miss Tifa closes up after lunch, she’s gonna show Mr. Svarog and me the militia! I think we’ll really be able to help around here!”

The veteran nodded, offering a rare smile in return. “Right on.” He looked around for a moment, wondering where Svarog was, before settling on Tifa. “Take good care of her now. We ain’t really acquainted, but I get the feelin’ she’s something special.”

Tifa smiled. “You can count on it.”

Once the team gathered outside the building on the right in a huddle, the drone addressed them. “So how’s it going? Heard you got into some hot water up in the City of Glass.”

“Not too bad, all things considered,” Goldlewis replied. Realizing that the others might not be as familiar with the newcomer as himself, he added an explanation. “This is our tech guy. Used to be in the Neuron tech division, handlin’ all their programs and stuff. Real miracle worker, and he does it all remotely. Never even came into the doggone office once. He’s the one that helped get y’all the fake IDs”

So this is H? Sandalphon thought. Was this one of the Consuls that Karin mentioned, or just a coincidence?”

The drone wiggled, then did a flip. “Ah, that was nothing. I know a guy in Night City, is all. You can find just about anything there if you know the right people. Right now though, I’m not as interested in Sector 04 as Sector 08. Anyone here at all familiar with Quarantine Valley?”

“I’m well aware,” Sandalphon replied. “Also known as Zone 09, it’s the enormous canyon separating Sectors 08 and 01. A perennial hotspot for Astral Plane contamination, sealed off from the rest of Midgar, with entry -and exit- strictly prohibited.”

“That’s right! Except, as they say, rules are meant to be broken.” Using a hologram projector the drone displayed a symbol that anyone present at the grand mission briefing in the SOU headquarters might remember: a beady eye above a slavering grin. “If you’re familiar with the place, you’ve probably heard of the Hermits. A gang of near-superhuman hackers who style themselves as protectors of the people. They’re based off-the-grid down there in Quarantine Valley, away from prying eyes, though their operations often take them through all the undercities. Just recently I came across something pretty interesting that I thought Vernon’s friends ought to know.”

H switched to a display of a wanted poster, showing them the image of a disheveled woman with blonde hair in a dirty lab coat, a purple skirt, and torn stockings. “This is Jena Anderson, the leader of the Reunion movement. The other day, a couple new hotshots in Neuron tangled with her, and she ended up giving them a data card before making her escape. It included lab documents about an anti-redshift drug from years back given out at around the time of the Pandemic, news links about the Hermits, and some really detailed maps of Quarantine Valley, one area in particular. I also heard about some sort of big deal going down between Reunion and the Hermits. Rumor has it they knew DespoRHado’s goose was cooked even before they began the raid today. Some sort of setup.”

Sandalphon’s pupils turned into question marks, and she tilted her head slightly. “Perhaps my servers weren’t as secure as I believed.”

“Hm?” Mr. H turned his drone toward her. “Uh, a-anyways, the point is, if everything lines up, Jena’s gonna be there today. In Quarantine Valley, at some point within the next few hours. If you can get in and catch them in the act, you can figure out everything they know about what’s going on. And…if need be, put a stop to them.”

“Hmm,” Sandalphon mused. “I would be in favor. As a former ARI researcher, Jena would have intimate knowledge of secret Administration activities, and if the Hermits really did tap into DespoRHado, there’s no telling what sorts of critical information they might possess on what’s going on behind the scenes in Midgar.”

“I believe so. As for navigating into Quarantine Valley, I can be of assistance. This drone comes equipped with an IRIS scanner that can detect red matter and perform corruption readings, so you’re safe as long as you’re with me,” Mr. H added.

Goldlewis hefted his coffin over his shoulder, relieved to hear Mr. H’s assurance. “Sounds like a plan to me. Reunion and the Hermits, huh? Looks like we’re tickin’ off all the boxes today. Two at a time!”

Before entering Quarantine Valley, however, the Seekers would have to reach it. That meant crossing through two undercities, including the Sector 07 Slums and Detroit. While the former might not present more of a challenge than somewhat winding, unstructured paths, Detroit was in quite the state. Of the YoRHa androids there was no sign, which was a comfort, but the rogue DespoRHado cyborgs had caused quite a ruckus, and the arrival of Administration forces -even more quickly than expected- fanned the flames. Peace Preservation troopers and G-men from General Affairs were out on the prowl, and even a few Turks put in an appearance. Going on foot would take too long and create too many opportunities to be discovered, but the Seekers needed to choose their modes of conveyance and their routes wisely, or they’d be right out of the frying pan that was the Vandelay Campus and into the fire.

Suoh - Beacon Mental Hospital Medical Ward

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Gemma

For a brief moment, Gemma thought it might just be a trick of the light, or even a product of his imagination. Not likely, of course, but not impossible. There were few OSF soldiers more seasoned than himself, but with the power of a psionic mind to make thoughts reality, one could never know for certain, especially in a place like this. Though long abandoned, the cluttered and confined halls and rooms of this medical ward weighed down on the intruders with an ominous gravitas, its atmosphere an odd, off-putting blend between prison and mortuary thanks in particular to those eerie mannequins. It was hard not to mistake them for people, or Others for that matter given how Rummies looked, but Gemma tried not to let them spook him. He was made of sterner stuff than that, he knew. But after another moment and the lights went out, the patient that seemingly twitched before began to move for real, and it was go time. “They’re alive,” he said aloud, his low voice urgent but not panicked. “We’re under attack.”

Like Midna he attempted to fight back. In a way, actually getting to hit these things came as a relief. No more beating about the bush wondering if and when they’d make their move. However, also like Midna the bruiser quickly realized that these things weren’t going down so easily. When he slugged one right in the chest as it reached out to grab him, it stumbled backward, but his armored fist didn’t so much as leave a dent. “What?” The patient lurched toward him for round two, and he wound up a much stronger hook punch that he let fly with explosive force, slamming the thing into the wall hard enough to leave a web of cracks, but still it showed no signs of damage. He’d encountered Others with hard metal shells that resisted damage until the shells shattered, but these seemed different. They also lacked the expected compositional diversity. “I don’t think these are Others.” By that time another had activated, tottering toward the team past its non-moving kin down the hall and through the now-open gateway.

He attempted to fight them off, his movements a little more hasty. Midna had gotten the attention of a few as well, but with all the darkness around she was in her element, able to slip through the patients’ fingers like smoke and lead them on a wild goose chase. Gemma possessed no such advantage. It was difficult to see the patients in the dark, let alone fight them, for all the effect fighting them had. He ended up relying on his Sclerokinesis to protect himself when one managed to grab hold so he could wrench out of its grip. By the time an unseen crawler grabbed his ankle and refused to be dislodged, he knew this situation wasn’t tenable. “We’ve got to move,” he told the others. “I’ll light the way.”

He reached out through SAS, and a Vision of Hanabi appeared snapping her fingers. ”Need a light?” Borrowing her Pyrokinesis, Gemma covered his arms in psychic flame. He intended it to find a way through the darkness of the medical ward and maybe boost his attack, but the light yielded an unexpected effect. Once illuminated the patients stopped moving, halting mid-attack in some cases, and stood still as statues. Gemma stared for a moment. “It’s the light.” He grabbed the patient from his ankle, turned its head sideways to put it through the barred gate, then turned its head back to trap it. At the same time he also noticed other patients twitching thanks to the fitful firelight and anything that happened to block it. “We’re on a timer. Let’s move.”

Together the three booked it through the medical wing. For every half-dozen patients they found sitting or standing around, one began to move toward them, at least until the light of Gemma’s Pyrokinesis stopped them. They smashed through doors, vaulted over obstacles, and pulled open gates for about fifteen seconds. Then, just as they entered a door-lined hall with an open elevator at the far end, the Pyrokinesis timed out. Instantly mannequin arms burst out of the windows and bean slots of the doors on either side, reaching, clawing, and trying to grab the trio as they passed. Gemma swerved around the clusters of arms, running down the hall toward the exit. Behind him the doors began to slam open, multiple patients pouring out of each one. Some crawled out beneath hospital beds that partially blocked the hallway, or leaned out from behind dressers. His heart pounded, but his feet pounded the floor harder, and after a tense moment Gemma and the Seekers made it to the elevator. The overhead bulb lit up, freezing the mob right in front of the door as the doors gently slid closed and the team began to descend. Gemma leaned against the back wall, catching his breath with furrowed brows, until the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened once more. Ding!

This lower level looked very similar to the medical ward above, albeit a little better lit and lacking the abundance of patients, although some prosthetic parts could still be seen around. After a few moments, the main difference became apparent: the sound. At irregular intervals a rumbling or banging sound could be heard, continuing for a couple seconds before going quiet for anywhere between a half-dozen and a couple dozen. Gemma inched forward, slowly at first, but it became clear that the sound originated at least a couple rooms over. Watchful in the gloom, the team proceeded. They passed hospital beds, gurneys, wheelchairs, and various pieces of equipment, some of them laden with patients -often incomplete ones- that never stirred. A couple times, Gemma spotted red pinecone flowers growing straight out of cracked floor tiles, or even weirder, empty beds. All too soon the trio approached the source of the noise. When a rumble stopped, Gemma could begin to hear other sounds: a clumsy rummaging, a heavy strained breathing, and a slight, distressed moaning. At the threshold of an operating room, Gemma paused, searching. Something jostled two tall shelves full of medical supplies directly ahead, but couldn’t see anyone there. Not until an enormous, bulbous, pale shape swung down from the ceiling to reach a lower shelf.

After a moment, the Doctor found what he was looking for and bent back up. Despite his size, he then began to crawl along the ceiling, slipping his hands and feet between the ceiling panels to find purchase. He positioned himself above an operating table where a patient laid motionless, then leaned down to operate, inserting the joint he’d found in order to attach a peg-leg before bandaging it together. It looked like he hadn’t noticed anyone yet. This square room sported three other exits, one leading to a small, softly-lit room that a steady beep…beep…beep came from, one with a set of closed double doors, and one leading toward a larger room with a pink-green glow.

Suoh - Beacon Mental Hospital Residential Wing

Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double, Luka

As the young trio cautiously advanced through the heavy, stifling silence, more and more albedos turned up, and though they lay perfectly still -in some cases very well hidden in the area’s nooks and crannies- and betrayed no signs of life, nobody could shake the feeling of an imminent ambush. And despite their best efforts, disturbing the lurkers turned out to be an inevitability–more of a question of ‘when’ than ‘if’, and the answer was ‘too soon’. When the intruders drew too close, the albedos wrenched themselves from their pallid morass to thrash and stagger around like the living dead, rasping in angry desperation with parched throats as they tried to slake their thirst with blood.

Pit, Roxas, and Luka were well-prepared for this eventuality, however. Stealth might not be their collective strong suit, but all three could hit the albedos hard and fast. Though slathered in sticky psychoplasm, their bodies were hard but brittle, and like ceramic they crumbled when subjected to blunt force. Luka’s Weight Hammer and Pit’s Upperdash Arm proved very effective, but the ungainly monsters had no answer when Roxas combo’d them either. Together the three dispatched the albedos, a lot more ‘quickly’ than ‘quietly’, but the end result was the same. Silence settled over the residential wing once more.

When they reached the second common room, however, things got more complicated. The arrival of the Watcher forced the trio to take cover. Luka crouched down behind a faded green couch covered in psychoplasm. It swung its head around on its serpentine neck, its vile compound eyes wriggling around in their sockets as the nightmare surveyed its milk-white dominion. All the while, it filled the residential wing with the echoes of its horrible gurgling, clicking voice. With that in the background, Pit discreetly posed a question to Luka, but the Scarlet Guardian shook his head.

“I can only teleport one person at a time, and it makes a distinctive noise. Plus, if I were to teleport too hastily, the result of a matter overlap would be comparable to a nuclear bomb.”

But maybe there was another way. Despite all those bloodshot eyes crammed into the Watcher’s sockets, Roxas was on to something. It couldn’t peer everywhere at once. Luka noticed the red glow those eyes cast on all the waxy white puddles, splotches, and smears. That made it possible to gauge where the monster was looking without having to risk a peek. Luka pointed out the crimson spotlight on the wall, tracing its path with his finger as it roved around so that the others would be sure to notice. By moving individually rather than all at once, it would be easier to avoid the glare, but that meant it would be up to their judgment to move quickly.

The Watcher continued to peer around. When it was time, Luka kept a low profile, moving as fast as he could while still crouching. He kept Teleportation as an emergency last resort, but that meant contending with pockets of white ooze that squirmed and pulsated abhorrently, threatening to catch his foot if he took a careless step or snag his hand if he put his hand on the side of some cover without looking. But by moving carefully, and freezing if the Watcher’s gaze so much as veered his way, Luka made it to the far side hallway.

Once out of sight he picked up the pace in a hurry, running down the hall. At the far end, past a couple abandoned gurneys and wheelchairs, a heavy metal security door stood in their way. Its bars seemed slightly bent and clawmarks could be seen on its surface, but it had endured whatever had attempted to force its way through in the past. When Luka grabbed the handle, it refused to budge. “Locked,” he whispered.

Unfortunately, jerking the door prompted the security system to come online, revealing a wide, eye-shaped lens on the console above the handle. Nothing happened at first, but after a second the system got impatient. “Please open your eyes wide and lean close to the scanner,” a robotic voice requested, its tone just a little too loud in the area’s dead silence.

Almost instantly the Watcher leaned over to peer down the hallway, and right away it registered the intruders. It shrieked, its skull practically exploding as all its eyes extended outward on loathsome stalks, like the tentacles of a sea anemone. Enormous goopy arms began to burst up from the psychoplasm pools in the hall, each of their fingers formed from waxen facsimiles of human hands. Luka readied himself for a fight, but before he could, Roxas showed off one of his special talents unprompted; he took aim with his keyblade and unlocked the door. The trio hustled through and slammed the door shut., and though the Watcher beat on the other side, it could not break through. After a few moments the slams stopped, and the three could breathe easy.

Well, they could breathe easier. The room where they now found themselves looked like a cafeteria, situated in the northeastern-most part of the building. It was tall, occupying three stories and featuring large windows, but the bars outside the glass further reduced what little light filtered down from the gloomy sky, making it eerily dark. Mounted in all four corners were large Tvs, but they only played static, filling the room with fitful light against its faded, flaking blue wallpaper, as well as a constant low roar of harsh noise. The long tables lay barren, many of the benches that accommodated each six-person segment fallen over. Most strangely, various objects hung from the ceiling on ropes, from wheelchairs to dead TV sets to large plastic bags filled with something heavy.

“No signs of human activity here either,” Luka murmured, quiet enough to not disturb the silence that hung over this place. “The suspects may not be working on the ground floor at all. Let’s hope there’s something deeper in that might lead us to Supernatural Life.” There was only one other set of doors here, so Luka went that way, wondering why the room felt so cold.

As he reached for a handle, the doors suddenly burst open, and into the room charged Yuito and Hanabi. Both their faces were wide-eyed, slick with sweat, and white with terror. There was no sign of Raz. When she saw Luka and the others, Hanabi didn’t stop to explain. She just yelled one word. “RUN!”

“Run!?” Having avoided a collision with a quick teleport, Luka was instantly on guard. “From what?” As they ran past him, he looked down the dark, flickering hall they came from. All the way at the end stood a woman, gaunt and stooped, with rags and black hair that slowly flowed around her as if she were underwater. Luka stared, stunned for a moment. The woman took a slow, tottering step, then another, then suddenly shot down the hall. As if she were on a film that had been fast-forwarded. Anima reached the cafeteria with a scream that threw both Luka and Hanabi off their feet. The doors slammed shut behind her, and with a click they locked tight.

The former saved himself with a teleport, but as she fell Hanabi hit her head on one of the cafeteria tables and writhed on the ground, clutching her head. The ghost stalked toward Hanabi, ignoring the others, but Yuito wasn’t having any of it. “Hey! Over here!” He yelled, using his psychokinesis to draw and throw his sword. Its blade slashed through Anima several times, but to no effect, other than getting Anima’s attention. Giggling horribly, she fast-forwarded right into him, and after grabbing Yuito’s face in her hands, she began to inhale. The young man’s life force drained into her in a matter of seconds as he yelled, leaving him hollow and lightless–but rather than fall, he continued to stagger around once released, not unlike the albedos from before. Anima, meanwhile, rose into the air, letting out a victory cry. In response the tables and all the furniture in the cafeteria began to levitate. They floated around for a moment, then slammed down, creating a maze of overturned tables and benches. Now blocked from the exit, Luka hid behind one table, stricken by horror. ”Yuito? Hanabi?” In a panic he attempted to reach them both with Brain Talk, but he could hear nothing from one and cries of despair from the other, though at least those were confined to Brain Talk. ”Hanabi!” he tried to tell her. ”You have to be quiet, or it’ll get you too!” Luka couldn’t see anyone except Anima, who slowly walked through the air looking for a new target.

This was very, very bad. Somewhere Hanabi was hiding beneath a table, paralyzed by fear, with only her weeping to clue the Seekers in to where she was. Yuito was here too, clearly not dead, but Luka had no idea how to restore him, and he couldn’t teleport with all this clutter around. Everyone needed to get out of here as soon as possible, hopefully recovering the OSF members while avoiding the ghost’s attention, though that would be tricky with pieces of furniture constantly floating up and coming down elsewhere, rearranging the maze. Next to this, the Watcher looked like a warm-up. Now it was time to sneak for real.

World of Light

The Under - The Hive

Level 11 Nadia (144/110)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud, Barnabee
Word Count: 3352

For a few moments the team lingered around the mouth of the tunnel they’d entered through, quietly assessing the situation. Though the beauty of this scintillating space, this palatial gallery of gold and amber, wasn’t lost on them, they needed to focus their concern on the invaders who’d set up shop throughout the fallen queendom. The Seekers briefly discussed how to tackle this challenge, but they knew this calm before the storm couldn’t last long, not with their infuriated Hive Knight itching to tear through the wasps’ ill-gotten domain like a fox in a henhouse. Sectonia pointed out that stealth wasn’t really this group’s forte anyway, which Rubick quickly echoed. Between Sectonia, Bowser, Ganondorf, and Artorias, the team had quite a few big, high-profile warriors, and apart from Nadia, Therion, and perhaps Primrose, the rest weren’t exactly well-versed in the art of subtlety.

Of course, that wasn’t necessarily a problem for Nadia. “Well, if I don’t get caught, I don’t need to do any fightin’.” she replied with a sly grin. Off-handedly she wondered if Sectonia might have any second thoughts about killing other wasps.

“Off with thee, then,” Barnabee snapped. “And any others of like mind too. While I welcome thy aid, I will fight, with thee or without! Now that I have returned to reclaim my motherland, nothing will stand between me and my long-awaited vengeance! So make up thy minds with haste, friends. I will not stay my hand for much longer!”

Primrose proposed the idea of a diversion, which sat well with many of the others. With the Hive Knight (and Bowser too it looked like) spoiling for a bloodbath and a fight more or less inevitable, that sounded like a good way to make the most of it. While she honestly didn’t want to fight against a massive swarm of wasps if she could help it, Nadia hadn’t actually been planning to abandon Barnabee at the eleventh hour; she wanted to help. “Sure, yeah. If a couple of ya help keep the wasps busy, the rest of us can honey-comb the place for the boss, and if we find any workers we can turn ‘em loose.”

“Fine.” As a wasp patrol drew close to the Seekers’ position, Barnabee gripped his saw-toothed swordblade. “Then let us begin.”

The team split apart in a hurry, with Nadia darting off behind some buildings to sneak around the Hive’s perimeter while Barnabee stepped out into the open. Almost immediately the wasp patrol spotted him. The sight of an armed bee on the loose would have been enough cause for concern, but the strangers at his back put the insects on high alert instantly. “Intruders! Intruders!” they chorused, their strange voices harsh and buzzy. As they fanned out the five of them brandished their weapons, and at a nod from the squad leader the first wasp dashed at the Hive Knight to skewer him with her halberd. Barnabee waited for a crucial moment, then swung Yato with both hands to knock the poleaxe aside. The next second he slashed upward with the blade, sawing the halberd’s head off fast enough to send it flying upward, then lashed out to carve straight through the wasp’s narrow waist. As it fell apart, neatly bisected, Barnabee grabbed the halberd’s head and hurled it at the squad leader like a throwing axe, which she narrowly blocked with her own polesaw.

Her mandibles ground together in annoyance as she lowered her weapon. “Get him!” she rasped, and the others attacked. The second wasp attacked with dual swords, and the two bugs met in a clanging flurry of blows. As they fought the shieldbearer wasps surrounded the Hive Knight on either side, and his blade got caught on his opponent’s they charged in to crush him between their shields, but instead they smashed together hard enough to throw both off balance–Barnabee had disappeared. Before they could collect themselves, their foe appeared behind one shieldbearer and chopped her into pieces with a single stroke. He warped behind the second, his fiery blade singing, and cleaved through her middle as well. The sword-wielder panicked, turning and looking around in a panic to spot the Hive Knight before his next warp-strike could connect, but she didn’t look up. Her enemy fell upon her from above and mercilessly sawed her in half vertically, leaving her blades to clatter against the ground.

By that time the squad leader reached him, and chainsaw met buzzsaw in a vicious, sparking clash. As the big wasp threatened to push him back, Barnabee let out both a roar and a hiveling, which headbutted his opponent to throw her off. He flashed behind her as her polesaw swung side, and the next second the insect’s decapitated head fell from her shoulders. Barnabee landed and turned to see more squads heading his direction to start the fight for real. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the fight of his lift, then at the top of his lungs let loose his mighty battle cry that filled the air with a dozen hivelings. “HUZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Meanwhile, Nadia skirted around the Hive’s perimeter near the wall. The fighting had already started back near the entrance, but it looked like the somewhat selfish, inattentive, and uncoordinated wasps weren’t inclined to descend upon the intruders all at once. Instead, they’d be engaging them a couple squads at a time as the Seekers moved through the Hive to threaten their papery domiciles or their food supplies. That meant things would be manageable for the others, but it meant enough wasps loitering around to ensure that Nadia’s stealth mission wouldn’t be a walk in the park. She moved quickly and quietly. The floors here were naturally uneven, and the different levels plus honeycomb outcroppings and pillars meant plenty of hiding places she could move between to avoid the wasps’ sightlines. Sprinting on all fours worked well enough, but when things got hairy she found she could resort to a Charge to near-instantly travel between two spots in a straight line. At one point though, near a wasp nest where a couple of the bugs were feasting on ill-gotten honey, she used Charge close enough that both could hear its electric zapping sound.

“Huh? Who’s there?”

“What’s that sound?”

Nadia ducked down, holding her breath. For a tense moment both wasps stared at the hexagonal honey-barrel she’d hidden behind, and she couldn’t risk peeking out. After a couple seconds, though, they turned away again to go back to their meal.

“Eh, probably nothing.”

“Must’ve been my imagination.”

Unfortunately, Nadia moved just a touch too soon, and both wasps caught a glimpse of her head out of the corner of her eyes and whirled back toward her. ”Huh?! Who’s there?!” they exclaimed at the exact same time, their voices so perfectly synced -and doubly loud- that Nadia froze in momentary terror, her ears flattened against her hair just out of sight. Wondering what the heck that was, she waited another couple seconds until both wasps’ alert level bottomed out again, prompting them to turn away saying, “I swear I saw something” and “Must’ve been my imagination” at the same time. Then she waited another second to be sure, and once the wasps resumed their chat exactly where they left off the cat burglar took off running.

She made her way toward a section of the Hive that didn’t look anything like the rest. While most of the underground queendom appeared to be hexagonal and immaculate save for the wasp infestation, one part off to the left side seemed weirdly overgrown. The hexes gave way to moist, dark earth covered with murky, dark-green ferns and thickets, and rusty orange water pooled around the trunks of big, knobby cypress and willow trees draped with curtains of hanging moss. Maybe some hardy specimens from the Arboretum had somehow grown downward into the golden glow of the Hive as well as upward toward the luminous lightroot? Either way, she couldn’t spot many wasps around there, and all that foliage meant low visibility–in short, a perfect short cut to reach the far side of the cavern. Nadia darted over and into the trees. Rather than get her footpaws soaked with dubious liquid, she latched onto the trees themselves with her claws, jumping and airdashing between them. In this manner she made good progress until she happened to cross the edge of a clearing amidst the fetid grove.

In it stood a set of stone ruins, the remains of a temple from some ancient civilization, complete with a quartet of monoliths. Toward the back, on a dias at the top of a set of stairs, lay an intricately-carved throne. There, trapped in place by constructing roots, sat a strange man. At first glance he appeared to be human, albeit decked out in a set of strange, ceremonial armor, but as Nadia paused to get a better look she realized that wasn’t the case. He might have a human head and silhouette, but four gossamer wings and an extra set of limbs extended from his honey-yellow carapace, and beneath the elbows and knees his arms and legs looked positively insectoid. At Nadia’s arrival, he stirred in his chair, his fetters clinking softly, and though his sunken eyes lacked any light of hope he jerked awake in surprise when his half-lidded gaze settled upon her. “A human? Here?” Moving his arms what little he could, he urgently beckoned her over. “Quickly my child, come here!”

For a moment Nadia didn’t move as she contemplated the situation. While her first instinct was to leave well enough alone, she’d already failed to get out of here undetected, but the stranger didn’t seem inclined to raise the alarm. Those bindings marked him as a captive, same as the poor worker bees forced to toil away for the wasps in their own queendom. Enemy of my enemy and all that. Making her decision, she jumped down from her tree and jogged across the stone bricks toward the throne. “Not human, but purr-etty darn close,” she piped up as she approached. “What’s goin' on here? You with the wasps?”

“Heavens, no!” The bizarre being looked affronted. “You stand before Ah Muzen Cab, god of bees! It was the wasps that trapped me here. Any day now they’re going to burn me alive as sacrifice! You must free me, please! Free me and I’ll grant you my boon!”

That sounded pretty good to Nadia. As she went to respond, however, a shrill voice rang out from behind her. “The intruder! There she is!” The feral whirled around to see a squad of four wasps, two with cleavers, one with a shield, and one -worryingly- with a torch. “She’s trying to free the bee god!” the leader yelled. “Change of plan! Burn him now, and kill her!”

Nadia’s ears and face fell. “Uh oh.”

As Ah Muzen Cab wailed about not wanting to be burned, all four wasps surged forward together. In a flash Nadia pulled out her Bait Launcher and fired a steak into their midst, but the leader knocked it aside with her shield. It plopped down by one of the choppers and a tiger promptly poofed into existence to tear the big bug limb from limb, but the shieldbearer moved a lot faster than Nadia expected. She flew into the feral with a powerful shield bash that knocked her down onto the steps before the bee god’s throne, her Bait Launcher flying from her grip to skitter across the stone and into the orange muck. The shieldbearer turned away, distracted by the surprise tiger attack that had befallen her underling, but the other chopper descended on Nadia as she tried to rise. With a hiss, Nadia detached her right arm to avoid the cleaver, which clanged against the stone steps, then grabbed that arm by the wrist with her other hand. Wielding it like a bludgeon, she smacked the wasp across the mouth. “Careful, I’m armed!” To her surprise the hit let off a blast of blood to give to blow extra explosive oomph, courtesy of the Multitarget buff conferred by the impact from the wasp leader’s shield. More than happy to roll with it, she chained into Flip Flop, then a One-two Pun-isher before whirling around to knock the wasp away with a triple tail lash.

Before she could follow up, a shrill yell from behind her grabbed her attention, and she turned to see the last wasp about to thrust her torch into the root mass that held the squirming, panicked Ah Muzen Cab in place. “Nyat gonna happen!” Gritting her teeth, Nadia hurled her detached arm at the firebrand, and on contact she wrapped her arm around its neck in a tight headlock. The wasp stumbled, her torch forgotten as she scrabbled at the choking arm, but that was all Nadia could do for now. The shieldbearer charged her again, forcing her to dodge roll out of the way. As she stood, Nadia shot blood from the stump of her right arm to form a Copycat limb replacement, then grabbed her head and rolled it across the ground. When the shieldbearer turned her way, the feral charged toward her, and she raised her block. That’s when Nadia sneezed, launching her head up behind the wasp to hit her unprotected back. Successfully opened up, the wasp took three explosive slashes from El Gato before Nadia spun up her left forearm and drilled into her abdomen. A final explosive burst finished the bug off.

Before the cat burglar could so much as catch her breath, a painful burning sensation erupted on her arm. She turned to see the firebrand trying to dislodge her chokehold by pressing her torch against the offending arm, and at the same time the other chopper was back for more. “Ugh. You guys are startin’ to bug me!” Turning her back to the chopper, she hardened her tails and then fired them off with bursts of blood, turning them into pointed javelins. They speared the chopper through the middle, and she dropped like a sack of flour, her blade lodging point-down between the stone bricks. Nadia released her headlock on the last wasp only to dash towards and sweep its legs out from under it. “I hope you bugs like vegetables,” she said, grabbing the fallen leader’s shield and lifting it up over her head. “‘Cause here’s some SQUASH!” Splat!

She let out a sigh of relief, her Multitarget fading away, but yet again Ah Muzen Cab yelled out from behind her. “Watch out! There’s more!”

When she turned she found not just four more wasps, two of which wielded torches, but a hulking Temple Guardian. Instantly Nadia realized she might have bitten off more than she could chew, but she couldn’t back down now. With a deep breath she snapped her head and right arm back on, then sharpened her claws. “Come on, then! I’ll bee here all day!”

The Temple Guardian charged, and Nadia blocked, but she didn’t think to block low. Before the juggernaut reached her, it threw itself on the ground hard enough to cause a tremor. Nadia hit the ground, and as both of them rose, the torch-wasps made a beeline for Ah Muzen Cab. “No fair!” Nadia hissed. Thinking on her feet, she ran for one of them, and as she did she created a Copycat to send after the other. While it went to tackle the wasp out of the air, she used Charge to blitz through her target, then used Athame to strike twice with Battery, leading to two defense-reducing crits. She twisted around and hurled the wasp at the Temple Guardian as it charged at her, and when the monster swatted the projectile aside, the defense cut caused the bug to burst like a rotten pumpkin. It then came down with a tremendous slam, forcing Nadia to jump backward only for her to bounce off a tree trunk. The wasps were nothing if not relentless, and both halberdiers came at her with huge swings. She popped off her head, then separated at the midriff to dodge both axeblades, but by the time she came together the Temple Guardian had arrived to punish her for her tomfoolery. Its gigantic uppercut launched her up into the tree branches with a series of loud cracks, where she hung for a moment, dazed.

From up there, she could blearily see the other firebrand blow up her Copycat by causing a Vaporize reaction with its torch, then turn to go for Ah Muzen Cab. “Ughhhhh.” The two halberdiers flew up to meet her, their pointy ends held at her throat. “Just my luck.” Then a terrific crack rang out from below as the Temple Guardian struck the tree, and it began to fall backward. Nadia took advantage of the distraction to leap forward and catch both wasps with X-scrape Claws, then flip upside down to batter them with Wheel of Fortune like a feline helicopter. The next second she rocketed downward with her super Feral Edge, piercing both wasps with Athame as she sped toward the ground. When she hit the ground, tearing the knife free finished both defense-compromised bugs off. Not wasting any time looking over her shoulder for the Temple Guardian, she rose and ran for the startled firebrand, only for that same monstrosity to erupt from ground in front of her in a blast of rusty water and stone brick.

This was it, the final moment. The torch-wasp was about to burn the bee god. Nadia leaped into the air, lifting her leg as if to stomp on the Temple Guardian’s head. Instead she revved up her lower leg and launched her clawed paw like a drill, straight toward the monster’s exposed brain. “Buzz OFF!” Her makeshift torpedo struck–but the next second, the horror’s enormous arm loomed in front of her, and its hand closed around her head. “Mmmmmf!” As it went to slam her down into the muck, Nadia detached her head, allowing the rest of her to stay free. That was when her luck ran out, however. Once plunged into the opaque, stinging water, she couldn’t see nor hear nor breathe. Her body had no direction save the sense of touch. Her only hope was that her parting shot would kill the monster fast enough to relinquish her head in time. The seconds passed; she held her breath, her eyes and her mouth squeezed shut. She forced her body to attack, swinging and slashing blindly. Her claws hit wood, plants, and masonry, and she could alternatively feel dirt, stone, and water beneath her footpaw. But she never connected with an insect body or limbs. All she could feel until her body finally tripped and fell was the ambient heat on her skin.

By the time the Temple Guardian slumped over and Nadia’s head bobbed to the surface, only the sound of roaring flame remained. The bee god was history, and the swampy copse was starting to burn too. No sign of the firebrand. Nadia grimaced, watching in miserable silence for a moment, then began to puppet her body to put herself back together. Already almost fully regenerated, she gathered up her fallen parts and weapons in silence. She crushed the spirits that now laid around the clearing (keeping the Hivestone from Ah Muzen Cab, the Lumenite Crystal from the Temple Guardian, and the Geo) then hurried off. This ‘shortcut’ had turned into quite the costly detour, and it was past time she made her way to the Hive’s royal palace.

World of Light

Midgar Sector 06 - Deep-Paris

Level 5 Goldlewis (89/50) Level 3 Sandalphon (30/30)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Giovanna, Chai, 808, Korsica, Clara, Svarog
Word Count: 2846

The instant Goldlewis set foot on the dash pad, he launched downhill like a bullet from a gun, and his heart rate spiked accordingly. His heart raced a mile a minute as he zoomed downhill, his legs a blur moving far faster than should ever be possible. None of this made a lick of sense, from his speed to his heightened reflexes to the forces acting on his body that by all accounts should be tearing him limb from limb. It was cartoon logic, plain and simple, and Goldlewis didn’t just have to accept it–he had to accept it fast, because this wasn’t an open road. Ahead of him, the street leading downward through Deep-Paris featured all kinds of clutter, from slow-moving cargo vehicles on sisyphean treks up the incline to vintage trams to pedestrians, some of them hauling cargo or young family members. Goldlewis quickly joined every Seeker who preceded him in veering left and right to weave past the obstacles, not at all wanting to find out what happened if he slammed into something at these speeds. He found himself racing alongside Giovanna, who to his disbelief seemed to be taking this in stride somehow.

Still, she wasn’t enjoying it as much as Chai, whose constant cheers and exultations told Goldlewis that he was having the time of his life, despite the protests from Peppermint that rang out from 808. Like Gio, he took a more inventive approach with the obstacles in his way, flipping off of them, wall running, swinging from ceiling fixtures with his grapple arm, and even sliding beneath them. He was having fun with this, and despite the dangers ahead and the threat of Motor Ball behind them, Goldlewis couldn’t say he wasn’t feeling a little exhilarated himself. Even Sandalphon raced along with everyone else, her utterly nonplussed blank expression completely at odds with the high-octane absurdity around her. When Roland ran into a pit up ahead -though in reality it was more of a giant underground ravine that happened to intersect the roadway just before a big left turn- the archangel looked for a solution. She spotted a sky-line that had been set up to get people over the rift, then flew off a ramp truck in order to sail over the gorge and land on the rail.

With angelic grace she slid along the top at high speed toward the turn, 2B and 9S following her example. In the wall above the turn, Sandalphon took note of the muted sunlight filtering through a huge turbine that helped vent fresh air into this part of Deep-Paris. Such a machine no doubt required maintenance, and sure enough, she spotted an access hatch she could reach via a different rail. She leaped and changed tracks, lifting her gunstaff to take aim as she slid up toward the hatch. Once her weapon spun up she shot the big red button on the wall to pop open the panel, and without bothering to slow down and dismount the rail the archangel flew off the end, dove forward, and shot through the door. She sailed out over the walkway and away from the sheer face of the earthen sector’s eastern-facing cliff, through the open air above the Sector 07 undercity. After a moment she triggered Heavensent to slow her fall, and with the androids holding onto their pods behind her, the three drifted safely downward toward the ramshackle slums far below.

Back inside, the downhill rush continued for the others. Goldlewis, Giovanna, Chai, Korsica, and Svarog had all jumped the ravine behind Karin, Geralt, and Roland, then slowed down to take the turn before more boost pads sped them on their way. That ravine seemed to mark the end of the ‘upper’ Deep-Paris town that parasitized the underbelly of Vandelay, but there were more settlements in store for the team along this winding underground route. In the middle of another little town they came upon a construction site. The smaller and/or nimbler Seekers could navigate their way around, but when faced with a heavy bulldozer Svarog made a split-second decision. He couldn’t smash through anything with Clara in his arms. He slid to a stop in a cloud of dust, inches away from the big rig. Not far away, Chai hit a section of wet cement, and despite quickly losing speed he forged onward right until he got stuck just a foot or two away from the end. “Oh, crap,” he groaned, tugging at his shoes. Around him the workers not already sent into a panic by the other Seekers began to scatter, yelling, and when Chai turned around he saw why. Repeated collisions with the walls of the downhill tunnel, especially on the turns, had damaged Motor Ball to the point where it was essentially just a flaming, tumbling wreck. And now it was tumbling Chai’s way. “OHHHHH CRAAP!”

Thinking quickly, he grappled to a nearby excavator, pulling him out of the cement with a wet shlorp. He swung over to an alley between a couple houses and ducked in there to hide. Once there, he spotted Goldlewis coming to a stop by Svarog and Clara, his worry writ on his face.. “You okay, missie?” he asked.

“I’m fine!” the little girl looked around, then back at Motor Ball, now only seconds away. “But we have to help all these people.

Svarog’s cyclopean eye took in the situation, his calculations instant. “Understood.” He unleashed a barrage of missiles at Motor Ball, blanketing it in explosions that tenderized its chassis. Then Svarog turned and hunched over to protect Clara with his body. Rather than hide, though, Goldlewis stepped up next. The veteran took a deep breath, his coffin held tight in his hand as he stared up at the large robot. He’d done this once; he could do it again.

Now!

“DOWN THEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-!” Goldlewis grit his teeth, the veins on his neck and forehead bulging out as he planted his foot, pledging not to move a single step. As the wreck descended upon him, he thrust his coffin skyward, and unstoppable force met immovable object. “SYSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!” With a colossal crash, Motor Ball bounced off and, as Svarog turned his head up to watch, hurtled into the air. From inside the coffin three Thunderbird drones zipped out. They flew after the wreck, and when Svarog lent more missiles to the cause, the ensuing explosions reduced the mean machine to smithereens. Tiny fragments of hot metal rained down on the terrified civilians, burning a little but nothing more than that, and Goldlewis lowered his coffin, panting. “Reckon that takes care of that,” he announced to nobody in particular.

If Svarog could have blinked in surprise, he would have. “Recalculating capability index.”

“You saved everyone! That was so cool, mister!” Clara hopped down and ran over to Goldlewis, her expression of terror turned to one of excitement.

“That. Was. AWESOME!” Chai echoed as he emerged from his hiding place, metaphorically blown away. “You were all- it was like- how’re you so freakin’ strong!?”

Goldlewis rolled his neck. “Aw, it’s nothin’. I don’t mean to show off or anythin’.” He lifted his coffin over his shoulder. “We oughta get movin’. Everyone else probably reached the bottom already.”

With the aid of some more dash pads, the stragglers reached the end of the tunnel before too long. It terminated in a large, roughly circular cavern at ground level, full of tunnels that connected to other parts of Deep-Paris. In the far wall were a set of giant metal doors that opened up to the brick and rusted metal expanse of hovels, markets, and factories that was the Sector 07 slums. Just about everyone else had already arrived, and as Goldlewis, Svarog, and Chai came to a stop, Sandalphon descended from above -the very picture of an angel from heaven- to alight among the Seekers in the clearing outside the doors. 2B and 9S landed right after her, letting go of their pods, and Goldlewis hunched over with a sigh of relief.

“What took you so long?” Gio quipped. She’d already plopped down against Rei, using the wolf spirit as a living(?) cushion, and her chest heaved from exertion.

“Whoooooo-wee!” Goldlewis breathed, ignoring her. “After all that, I reckon we could all use a break.”

Though Sandalphon didn’t look particularly fatigued, sweat glistened on her pale skin. “...Agreed. It would appear that we reached the Sector 07 undercity. While I observed the destruction of Motor Ball through my link with Mr. Dickinson, it would still be prudent to put some more distance between us and our escape route. Unfortunately, the layout of this undercity is poorly documented, so I’m unable to suggest a place to rest.”

“Why not head back to that bar we took a breather at yesterday?” Gio piped up. Partitio, Susie, and Zenkichi would remember the place. “It’s gotta be lunchtime by now, right? And a little day drinking never hurt anyone, either,” she joked.

Sandalphon nodded, then turned to 2B and 9S. “What is the status of your Flight Units?”

“No response,” 9S told her, his tone worried. “Have you…heard anything back from Laxi and Mascula?”

“I’ve lost my link to them. Anything beyond that I cannot ascertain.” Sandalphon kept her tone even. “I would like you two to perform recon in the slums. Make use of whatever facilities are available to you.”

2B nodded. “We should have enough materials and currency from the spirits we collected during the fight to procure and upgrade weapons.”

“Hopefully there’s a weaponsmith around here,” 9S added. The two androids turned and went on their way, 9S chatting about the uniqueness of the human civilization around them and 2B listening in silence.

Chai walked over to the ground, 808 in cat form on his shoulder. “Listen, uh, I just got done talking with Peppermint. I’d like to join you guys, but we’ve gotta take care of Vandelay first. We never reached Kale, and if he gets SPECTRA online, everyone with Vandelay augment’s gonna be in danger.”

“I believe that’s taken care of,” Sandalphon reassured him. “Two of the people who went with Luka, Sakura and Roxas, challenged Kale himself and managed to destroy his SPECTRA machine. The threat should be neutralized for now.”

The wannabe rockstar blinked. “...Oh. Sweet! I guess we can take it easy then, huh, Peppermint?”

“I…guess?” His friend sounded stunned, as if she never planned for anything after she achieved her goal. “Kind of…I dunno, anticlimactic. But hey, the world’s better off. One less crisis, eh?” She paused. “...Though, getting rid of Kale and SPECTRA are really just the beginning. DespoRHado’s gone but Peace Protection’s still here on campus, and we’ve got a huge mess to clean up. Get back up here, will you?”

The news had taken Korsica by surprise, too. “Hard to believe,” she murmured. “But what’s done is done. I should come as well.” She walked over to Chai, then shot the Seekers a grateful look. “Putting out fires is my job, after all. Thank you all, we’ll be sure to repay you in the future.”

After another few moments Chai, 808, and Korsica went off to find the nearest train station, leaving everyone else to take a breather in the slums. Goldlewis, Sandalphon, Karin, Roland, Blazermate, Susie, Geralt, Zenkichi, and Clara all ended up looking at Giovanna. “Lead the way,” the archangel said.

She led the way riding on top of Rei, relying on the giant green wolf to clear a path for the team through the slums’ narrow dirt footpaths. The group drew some odd glances but nobody stopped them or said anything, and before long, the Seekers arrived at Seventh Heaven.

After climbing the steps and stepping inside, the Seekers found the Texan-style bar and restaurant quiet and empty but for a few patrons. Pretty soon it would be noon and more workers would start showing up for their lunch breaks. As luck would have it, Tifa was here to run the place, and the black-haired young lady looked every bit as stunning and composed as ever, happy to serve drinks and fry up some hot meals. While Seventh Heaven didn’t feature the biggest menu, it did offer simple fare, so the team could indulge in a light lunch, snacks, and however much liquor they felt inclined to pay for. Svarog had cloaked himself after arriving in the slums to not scare anyone, but one could trust him to be nearby as Clara entertained herself with the jukebox, darts, and billiards table. While the others settled themselves in, Sandalphon had something else on her mind, and excused herself to the restroom. When she returned after a couple minutes, she looked a little different.

For Sandalphon

Spirit consumed:
Vigilant
The host has gotten only two inches shorter (all exosuits being big enough to fit an adult man comfortably inside). Her white coat now has a hood, a synthetic feel and pattern to it, and three long flaps past the waist rather than a single curtain all the way around. She now has black gloves with light armor of a futuristic metal, which also now adorns the lower legs of her pants/heels, the latter of which now have metal talons on their fronts. There are glowing blue lines on her belts and the clasps are black metal instead of gold ornaments. This spirit grants the power Vault, which allows the host to launch herself high into the air by firing her rifle during an upside-down flip. Vault has an eleven-second cooldown. This spirit also confers the Weakness Prehistoric Nemesis, making all dinosaurs / special reptiles hate her with a burning passion to the point where they’ll attack her on sight

New Power:
Shapeshifting
After building up enough power through use of her skills, particularly Angelic Wings in Concentration Protocol, Sandalphon can transform into her draconic form Heavenly Wings. While in this larger, stronger form she switches from support to raw damage output. Angelic Praise is replaced by Celestial Skewer, which creates an eruption of divine water spears around her and can consume a Rapid Analysis stack to hear nearby allies for 42%. Angelic Wings is replaced by Celestial Castling, which creates a divine star above her that rains down seven rays of frostbite-inducing light. It can also inflict either poison, burn paralysis, stormlash, flashburn, shadowblight, or scorchrend randomly. It can also consume a stack of Rapid Analysis to heal nearby allies for 42% and refresh Celestial Castling for use

The spirit she requested from Midna augmented her white attire with a little black armor, and she didn’t mind the stylish alterations to her coat, either. Vigilant promised to expand upon her sniping abilities, and Sandalphon had no doubt she’d need them on the road ahead. For now though, the team deserved a break. “We should make sure that everyone’s up to date on the details of the operation,” she suggested, a tall glass of soda in her hand. Without access to coffee, she’d settle for fizzy sugar water. It helped that her time in the Lateran Church had given her something of a sweet tooth. “Including myself. I would appreciate a full briefing on everything there is to know about the mission to counteract Galeem. I intend to provide my full support to your organization going forward, and the more information I have, the better I can do so.”

In the course of the conversation that followed, Clara pulled herself up onto a stool and asked for a glass of water. “What’s it like living out here?” the girl asked Tifa. “I’ve been stuck underground for so long, this place is like a whole new world to me.”

“Aw, you poor thing.” Tifa gave the kid a sympathetic look. “Well, it’s not all sunshine and roses down here, but we do the best we can. The people down here are tough, and we look after one another. We’ve gotta be when the Machines come knocking, and neither DespoRHado nor the government feel like lending a hand.” She nodded at the news playing on the old TV set in the corner. “Though it looks like DespoRHado won’t be doing much of anything anymore. Such insanity…things can’t continue like this.”

“This place under the city reminds me of Belobog. It was just the same there.” Turning sideways, Clara whispered for a moment to nobody in particular, then turned to Tifa again. “Miss? Mr. Svarog wants to know if the people here need someone to look after them. If he can set up shop here, we can definitely help keep people safe!”

Tifa lifted her eyebrows. “Oh? How…nice of Mr. Svarog. He must be very strong and kind. Er, tell him we appreciate the offer, won’t you?”

Clara nodded emphatically. “Oh yes, he really is!” She fell silent for a moment and listened before continuing. “He wants to know if there’s any local group familiar with the area who we can work with!”

Taken a little aback, Tifa smiled at her. “Oh, well. We have a sort of neighborhood watch that’s based near Scrap Boulevard, rest next to the Salvage Depot. I have some friends there. If everyone else is settled here, I can give you the tour if you’d like, little lady.”

“I’d like that very much, thank you!” Clara beamed. With Svarog hidden, Tifa needed at least one more person to ‘chaperone’ Clara on the trip, but if someone filled the role the little squad could take off on the side quest while everyone else hung around.

Suoh - Beacon Mental Hospital

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double, Luka, Raz

Using Luka’s borrowed power, the small team made a series of jumps across the City of Glass in order to leave Sector 06. Despite the speed with which they needed to leave the highly dangerous -and highly public- conflict consuming the Vandelay Campus behind, they needed to move with cautious deliberation. Any teleport made too hastily could lead to catastrophe, after all, if the warp happened to cause an overlap between two different instances of matter. Luka’s pair went first, always warping to a spot that everyone could clearly see from the last one so the others could follow suit with more confidence. In this matter the group quickly but carefully left Vandelay Campus behind, moving around the periphery of Midgar’s plates. Not even the sector’s high walls stopped them; they could simply teleport up to one of the guard towers, then use the high vantage point it provided to zip down into Suoh before the security could catch them.

Though primarily a glistening red metropolis, the city known as Suoh wasn’t evenly distributed across the Sector 05 plate. Its densest concentration of big buildings stood much closer to Midgar’s hub, with the vivid red glass of the Otherlobe often cast in the shadow of the monumental Shinra building between sunrise and noon. Toward the far edge of the plate, though, Suoh got less grandiose, with the enormous Visions visible only to psychics far less omnipresent. It was at the far edge of the plate that the team’s destination lay. Right at the edge, overlooking a breathtaking view of the Valley of Ruin, stood Beacon Mental Hospital. The team’s final jump brought them right to its main gates.

Compared to the supermodern brain punk cityscape of Suoh, the hospital looked like a relic of the past. Wrought iron fences, pitched green tile roofs, tall steeples, white pillars, and timeworn masonry gave it an almost gothic appearance, and beneath the stormy reddish-gray sky, it looked foreboding indeed. Everyone quickly jumped the fence and headed not to the front door, but an open window Luka indicated. “This place was shuttered years ago for practices the Suoh council deemed inhumane,” he explained in a low tone. “This part of town is usually very quiet, but it seems like there’s been clandestine activity around here for a while. When I asked around, the citizens were pretty hushed about it. The suspicious people we saw are supposedly here about renovations, or a historical society, or something. But when I asked further, I found out that some of those who live around here have disappeared. ‘Got a little too curious’, that’s what one lady said. After I told the others, we decided to take a look.”

When everyone jumped in, they found a welcoming committee there in the lobby waiting to greet them. Raz recognized Yuito Sumeragi from his encounter with Lili’s squad outside the Sumeragi Tomb two days ago. Though a little plain-faced and somewhat forgettable, the young man wore a warm smile as he recognized Raz in return. Sakura, and to a lesser extent Roxas, meanwhile would better remember the other two from Anistar Gym, especially the tall, brawny Gemma Garrison with his distinctive armor. They hadn’t gotten to know the red-haired Hanabi Ichijo as well, but the staff-wielding girl had been sitting on a threadbare green couch at Yuito’s side. “Ah, speaking of,” Luka began. “These are the friends I mentioned. Guys, these are Sakura and Raz, my new squadmates, plus two new friends.” He gave Pit, Midna, and Roxas a chance to introduce themselves.

“We’ve met,” Gemma replied. “Had a good couple rounds of sparring at the gym…the day before yesterday, wasn’t it?” He crossed his arms, his eyebrow raised at Sakura. “I’m a little surprised to see you in the OSF, though. I thought you weren’t a psychic?” His frown widened as he rubbed his chin. “Maybe Armstrong’s accusations during the debates weren’t as outlanding as they sounded?”

Yuito gave Sakura an apologetic look. “We don’t mean to pry. If you’re here with Luka, that means you’re as concerned about this place as we are, so we’re on the same side.”

“Exactly. We’re all here to find out what’s really going on in Suoh right beneath our own noses.” Hanabi furrowed her brows, her expression one of concern. “What Luka said about your friend turning into an Other…the ‘P-types’, and the weird changes in behavior. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.”

“We found three spots that warranted further investigation, once we got some backup,” Yuito explained. “Since there’s nine of us, we should split into three teams. And we should link up to use SAS.” He put a hand on his chest. “My power is Psychokinesis. Think of it like Telekinesis, but a bit stronger.”

“I’ve got Pyrokinesis!” Hanabi chipped in with a cheerful smile, creating a spark of psychic flame with a snap of her fingers. “So if you need anything burned, I’ve got you covered.”

Gemma nodded. “You all can borrow my Sclerokinesis. It’ll make you basically invincible, but it goes fast, so make sure you don’t waste it.”

“You all know about my Teleportation already,” Luka mentioned, turning to look at Raz. “And yours is ‘Marksmanship’, right?”

”Uhh…yeah! Psychic laser blasts from my mind and all that!” the Psychonaut replied, just now remembering that psionics were supposed to have only one power.

As everyone connected the necessary SAS cables, they quickly decided on teams. As the ones more familiar with Beacon thanks to their recon, Luka, Gemma, and Yuito would each lead one team, and after Hanabi stuck with Yuito, Raz elected to join them, and the three proceeded down the hospital’s center route. That left the other four to choose between Luka and Gemma in order to comb the place.

Once formed, Luka’s team headed toward the right. That third of Beacon comprised the more residential section of the hospital, its multi-tiered common rooms connected by hallways lined with patients’ rooms. However, something seemed to be wrong with this area. It was filled with a viscous, bubbly white psychoplasm that coagulated and dripped like candle wax, slathered over the walls, floor, and furniture. The team proceeded in quiet caution until they came upon several humanoid figures laying in the wax, cracked and calcified as if molded from plaster. “We decided to wait for backup after seeing these,” Luka whispered. “They may just be here to dissuade intruders, but if they’re enemies laying in wait, we need to destroy them quickly and quietly. There’s no telling what’s lurking in this place.” His suspicions turned out to be well-founded. When anyone got within a certain range, the Albedo would jerk to life and begin to stagger around, muttering in strangled, dry voices as they searched for something to tear apart. Starting in the second common room, a pool of wax began to bubble and froth, and as the team took cover a monstrosity emerged from within. At first it looked like a serpent, with a long body covered in wax that twisted around to look for intruders, but the head on the end appeared to be a melted, jawless human skull of unusual size, with glowing red compound eyes in each socket. If the Watcher spotted anyone its countless hands would emerge from the wax to drag them in, turning the exploration into a heart-pounding stealth mission.

On the other side, Gemma led the way into the hospital’s medical wing, with dark rooms lined with pale green tiles, gurneys and hospital beds everywhere, and an unusual profusion of barred metal gates. It wasn’t long before the team began to find bizarre mannequins in increasing numbers. Assembled like dolls from all kinds of prosthetics, straps, and bandages, the hospital’s ‘patients’ could be found sitting, standing, and prone just about everywhere in a variety of poses. Some had hook arms or peg legs, or heads that were nothing more than masks or wind-up teeth on metal prongs. There were plenty of spare parts, whether hanging on the walls or in boxes, and it was very, very quiet. A gate blocked their way, but Gemma inserted a spare fuse that he found earlier in the fuse box beside it, then cranked the lever to open the gate. A bwaaamp rang out as the door slid open, causing one behind the team to slide shut at the same time. It also made the room’s power grid fluctuate, including the light in the ceiling, and as it did Gemma glanced suddenly at a nearby mannequin. Had that thing just twitched? A moment later the fuse box blew and the overhead light along with it, and in the dark about a sixth of the patients began to totter forward–impervious to damage, deceptively fast at close range, and bent on squeezing the intruders to death within their iron grasp.

The Under - Holograd, the Termite Capitol

Level 11 Nadia (140/110)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2580

Light on her feet as ever, Nadia took the steps two at a time as she left the train station and its eldritch presence behind. Once she crested the top of the staircase and set paw back in the ramshackle emptiness of Falldown Mall, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. It might be a far cry from warm sunlight and a refreshing breeze, but she still very much preferred the lightroot rays and cave mists that filtered down through the shattered glass lattice roof to the oppressive atmosphere of the train station. While she hadn’t been lying when she said that aura didn’t feel as bad as it did before, its absence still took a weight off her chest, and she was ready to enjoy more snooping around with Jesse.

While Nadia got the impression that the song that echoed through the building might not have been anything special even if the place’s stereo systems weren’t butchering it, she couldn’t help but like it. Even though the feral’s own world lacked malls, the details Jesse shared gave enough context to help the song characterize this place as something nostalgic. Retro. Somewhere that time forgot. Since her breath of fresh air put some pep in her step, she skipped along to the tune, humming as she did with an easy smile on her face. “Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm, hmm-hm-hm-hm-hmmMMmm-mm~”

She took a left from the stairwell in order to do a counter-clockwise sweep of the mall, assuming that the walkway went around the back of the big central structure. Jesse followed behind her, neither humming nor skipping to the warped tune. To a more pessimistic individual the more serious woman might have seemed like a chaperone, but Nadia liked having her along. At first Jesse seemed sort of aloof, brooding, and detached, not to mention a little scary, but her little jokes and asides ended up making her a lot more human and personable. Besides, anyone who deigned to trade puns with Nadia Fortune couldn’t be all bad. As she passed by an abandoned toy shop, Nadia raised her hands and performed a cartwheel, landing deftly on her footpaws despite the added weight of the blade case that affected her balance. “Still got it,” she grinned, pleased with herself. “I’m still getting used to the changes, but it ends up ‘feline’ weirdly natural. You haven’t fused through, right Jess? I was worried at first, and I’m not totally over it, but it’s been alright so far.” She brushed her hair out of her eyes, only for it to immediately settle back over her left again. Funny that her bangs ended up being the least pleasant of her new features. “Still, I’d like to turn my hair white again, and I wouldn’t shed any tears if I ended up ditchin’ the paws and extra tails.” Hopefully before I meet back up with Ace, she thought, although she didn’t say that part. She felt like she needed to be careful lest this whole fusion business tamper with whatever the Monster Hunter -and by extension, all her new friends- liked about her.

Nadia spotted a jewelry store, and though she didn’t bother getting her hopes up since the whole city looked pretty picked-over, she couldn’t suppress her curiosity and slipped inside for a quick peek. Maybe her instincts as a cat burglar could alert her to something others missed. Upon entering, she found every display smashed and empty, as she predicted. Not even the cushions that the dazzling accessories might have rested upon remained. At the very back, however, she discovered a big, black safe. “Ooh, what do we have here?” It lay on the ground behind the desk, very scratched and banged-up thanks to all the looters who’d tried to open it by force, but still shut tight. She knelt down and ran her hands over it, getting a feel for the hardware. It looked much sturdier than the safe she breached back in the Home of Tears, and she doubted she could bust it open. While not one much for arithmetic, she knew by heart that four places and ten digits meant ten thousand combinations, way too many to brute force. Still, it looked like someone had tried. Scrawled on every inch of the walls were different four-digit codes, evidently ones that some enterprising treasure hunter had tried. Above the safe itself was one code in particular, nine-five-zero-three, which Nadia quickly found out wasn’t the code.

“Hmm…” Standing up, she got a closer look at the big code. When she looked at it just the right way, the five shimmered in the light that managed to filter through the wrecked storefront all the way to the back. “Wonder what that means.” Did that mean the code started with five? She tried five-zero-three-nine, then reversed it to make five-nine-three-zero, but had no luck. Not even five-five-five-five did the trick. “Ugh,” she groaned, standing up. “Guess it takes this one. Safety in numbers and all that.” Nadia went to leave, but on her way out of the shop, she noticed something odd. Among the countless wrong combinations scrawled on the walls, one happened to catch her keen eye with a subtle glint. Curious, she went over for a closer look, climbing on one of the tables. Six-six-nine-one, and the one at the end shimmered like the five. Instantly the wheels in her head began to turn. “Aaah, I get it! Diamonds in the rough.” Nadia tore through the remains of the store like a whirlwind, hunting for the last two combinations. In less than a minute she was crouching by the safe again. “Four five eight one!” The safe clicked, and with a gleeful grin Nadia pulled it open to peruse its contents.

For Nadia and Jesse

We have obtained:
Soul Link
At the last, we pushed the Ravager back when we realized that destroying it was not as important as protecting each other. Five percent of the damage dealt by the wearer’s summons is returned to the wearer as health.

Generating Band
The source of N'Erud's power is not a natural phenomenon. It is a replica, a miniaturized version of the star that once warmed our homeworld. Creating a star --however small--is no mean feat, but we believed that if we could do so, then there was nothing we could not accomplish. We were almost correct. Regenerates a little health every second while a shield is active

“Catch!” Nadia tossed the gray ring to Jesse, then put then aquamarine one on herself. “This whole treasure-huntin’ business has a nice ‘ring’ to it, eh? Sure looks nice, but I guess we’ll have to get Toni to tell us what they do, if anythin’.” The glint of gold drew her greedy gaze back to the safe, and after a moment of rummaging she pulled out a handful of lustrous coins. “Check this out Jess, we’re rich!” Something caught her eye though, forcing Nadia to furrow her brow. Carefully she peered back the golden foil with her nails, revealing a brown substance beneath. “Ohh…” She sounded heartbroken, her ears drooping down accordingly. “It’s chocolate. Chocolate coins. They musta been here for years.” As she turned to Jesse, her ears perked up. “Want some?”

Munch, munch, munch. Fearing nothing, least of all Jesse’s judgment, Nadia chowed down on the stale sweets as the pair continued on their trek. They continued to avoid the beasts that prowled Falldown Mall until they reached the back of the place, which brought their journey to a screeching halt. In front of them stood a massive crowd of shambling, half-rotted undead. “Zombies!” Nadia just about choked on her chocolate as she reflexively leaped backward, her claws sharpening. She hadn’t heard their groans over the song that permeated the mall, although she hadn’t exactly been paying that much attention, either. In a flash she drew one of her boxcutter hilts, and once she pressed it against her case a blade clicked into place. “And here I thought they all went extinct when the Dead Zone went up in smoke. Just my luck, huh?”

Teeth gritted, Nadia stood with her blade at the ready, waiting for the mob to make the first move. She waited, and waited, and waited some more. Then she finally relaxed her stance, looking as sheepish as she felt. Unlike the Dead Zone zombies, these seemed to be both remarkably slow and oblivious, their muscles as rotted and inoperable as they reasonably ought to be. When one finally noticed the newcomers, it plodded her way like a drunk, waving its arms. Nadia stood her ground, took her boxcutter with both hands, and brought it down on the zombie in the middle of a rather feeble lunge. Its decaying body split apart like butter. Very smelly butter. The feral wrinkled her nose as the monster dissolved. “False alarm, I guess. I honestly thought they’d zom-be a bigger threat. More like the ‘obliving’ dead, right? Haha...uh, guess we’ll go around ‘em.”

With the moans of the meandering mob in the background, the ladies continued their mall run, starting with a visit to a pair of bright red doors nearby that signified a maintenance room. Inside they found a workbench against a wall plastered with blueprints. As Nadia read the labels on them, her eyebrows went higher and higher. “Defiler…paddlesaw…plate launcher? These all seem a little…demented? Wait, laser sword!?” The feral glanced at Jesse in disbelief, since the blueprint simply said to combine gemstones with a flashlight. “No way that works, right?” Her eyes landed on a flashlight laying on a nearby table all on its lonesome, and with wide eyes Nadia withdrew the gems she’d gotten from Pizza Face from her pouch. “I’ve gotta know.”

To Nadia’s complete and utter amazement -not to mention delight- the blueprint worked exactly as instructed. Somehow, the jewels, flashlight, and provided duct tape combined to create a weapon that, when clicked on, worked exactly as advertised. “Holy frijoles!” Nadia flinched away from the humming green laser blade that appeared. She shook her head at Jesse, laughing. “Guess I’ve gotta give Galeem one thing. This world never gets old!”

Forgetting all about the zombies’ distasteful smell, she immediately went to try it out on the nearby horde. Sure enough, the laser sword sliced and diced the walking corpses with ease, cauterizing their wounds as it went. Nadia mowed through the horde for a solid twenty seconds before her new weapon shattered in her hand, leaving the surprised feral surrounded by zombies with her mouth agape. “The hell? That thing sucks!” She pulled out her box cutter and dispatched her attackers before storming off in a huff. “I can’t believe I spent my gems on that, what a rip-off! More like…like…loser sword! Pah!”

Not long after she and Jesse left the zombies behind, the two got a call on their linkpearls. It turned out to be from Primrose, whose escapades with Therion in the Arboretum had borne fruit for the whole team. The two had managed to locate a tunnel that seemed to lead downward into a gigantic underground hive. “Nice goin’, guys!” she told them. “Ya really ‘rose’ to the occasion! The buildin’ with all the trees, right? We’re on our way then. Don’t ‘leaf’ us bee-hind!”

Jesse and Nadia hastened out of Falldown Mall, leaving its mysteries and melodies behind. After making a mental note to tell the others about the train station, the feral navigated through Holograd’s streets, avoiding all the clutter and critters as she headed for the giant domed structure with branches poking out of it. Once inside, which itself demanded a little agility since the front door was blocked by roots, she made quick progress thanks to the efforts from the Octopath Travellers to clear the way. Some mouthy plant monsters could be seen and heard in the desiccated underbrush, but none jumped out at her, and the cute little korpokkur she found just helpfully pointed her in the right direction. The highest level of the arboretum seemed dead and dry, with only cactus still in bloom, but as she descended Nadia found much more verdant gardens below, full of flowers and greenery and sparkling blue pools with lily pads big enough to run across. While she wanted to look around, the cat burglar ignored most of the details to get straight to the temple at the end, carefully darting around the thorny red vines. There she found Primrose, Therion, and their newest acquaintance. While no Harbor Water Demon, the Water Lily Siren still boasted an incredible stature that left Nadia feeling small indeed. Her presence here alongside the Archangel that Magikrab mentioned made her wonder how many more powerful beings were lurking here in the Termite Capitol. Once Barnabee and the others arrived, the Seekers proceeded through the tunnels and onward to the Hive.

If Nadia had wondered how Primrose and Therion knew that this route would lead to their destination, one glimpse at the tunnels dispelled all doubt. Entire swathes of the dark rock gave way to golden honeycombs, and honey dripped down from them in slow-motion waterfalls. Yet these tunnels seemed oddly abandoned. “Oh yeah. Hive gotta good feelin’ about this one.”

“Be on the lookout for any wasps, my friends,” the Hive Knight warned everyone. “They are a barbaric lot, vicious and prideful, and they shall not suffer thee to set foot on their supposed territory.”

Nadia brought out her box cutter again. “Don’t worry Barnie, I’m ready for any funny bees-ness.”

Even before getting through the tunnels, the team started running into wasps. Decked out in metal armor worn atop their black and yellow stripes exoskeletons, wasp warriors brandished their vicious-looking, saw-toothed weapons at troops of ragged worker bees that made and gathered honey at their bee-hest. Further on, the tunnels finally opened up into a jaw-dropping view of the interior of the Hive. The vast open space featured honeycomb walls like brazen hexagonal tiles, tall columns that made it look almost like a grand, gilded cathedral, and ethereal hexes of shimmering golden light that formed and unformed in the air, as fleeting and intangible as dreams. The place formed a sort of town, but paper wasp nests could also be found stuck to the walls of its buildings or hanging from the ceiling, and the wasp invaders clearly enjoyed complete dominion over the local bees with the help of their Bee-Boop drones. Through the air hovered the massive Heavy Drone B-33, on constant looking for any bees slacking in their production while the wasps enjoyed the town’s facilities. The entrance to the throne room seemed to be on the far side.

“Looks like we got our work cut out for us, huh? That’s a lotta wasps…” Nadia glanced at the Hive Knight, who was seething and spoiling for a fight with the invading army. She scratched her head, her eyes narrowed. “But stealth might not bee an option.”

Edinburgh MagikaPolis - Dead of Night

Level 8 Big Band (105/80)
Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Albedo, Lucia
Word Count: 2019

Ace made it alongside Lucia and Albedo, but try as he might, Big Band couldn’t see hide nor hair of either Mewtwo or Wonder Red. Where the hell did they go? he wondered, more than a little angry, and not just at the no-shows. Surely they hadn’t gotten mobbed by skeletons during the mad dash over here, but if they had, the detective knew he’d be responsible. Though to his shame, part of him couldn’t help but think that their demise would prove beyond all shadow the magnitude of the threat the Skullgirl presented, not just to Edinburgh but everything the Seekers held dear. Even if the ‘Seekers’ in this wintry city only amounted to the four standing right here, right now. Either way, taking stock of the situation would have to wait until Darkbeast Paarl and the Revenant were dispatched. And thanks to that lifepowder, he was good to go.

Ace took the initiative against the lightning-wreathed monstrosity, and Albedo quickly moved to join him. As the monster hunter drew Paarl’s attention, the two swordsmen stood together. The alchemist might not be as heavily armored or equipped as his counterpart, but he was no less determined to defeat this nightmare and find his lost friend Linkle. Paarl accepted the challenge and stalked towards the two, its bones creaking awfully as the raggedy tufts of raven-black fur that clung to them fluttered in the piercingly cold midnight breeze. “As I use my skills, my Geo will react with its Electro,” Albedo told Ace as the gaunt horror approached. “Pick up the purple crystals to gain shields. They’ll help immunize you against lightning but are too weak to take physical blows.” He could spare no further time for explanation, as Paarl attacked. It lunged toward Ace, its hideously grinning jaw wide open to crush his flesh between knifelike yellow fangs, but the monster hunter cracked it right in the chin with an upward shield bash. It was well-struck, but Paarl reacted far less than either swordsman would have liked. As Albedo created a Solar Isotoma to send out pulses of Geo energy, the unliving thing reared up and came down with electric claws, its huge slashes deceptively quick and hard to see even in the pale moonlight.

“Two pair, huh? Against a coupla o’ jokers,” Band mumbled. With Albedo and Ace against Paarl, that put him and Lucia on Revenant duty. Together the two former cops turned to face the skeletal bioweapon as it landed on the grim plaza’s tombstone-ringed central monument, standing between the two pillars with the statue at its back, where it trained its Multiple-Launch Missile Batteries on them in turn. While the Revenant looked far less imposing than Paarl, those weapons presented a unique and possibly even more troublesome challenge for a couple melee fighters trying to take it down. Sure enough, the ghoul started the fight off with an uproarious, hollow cackling and a salvo of rockets from its launchers. Band tensed up, his eyes narrowed as he gauged the distance. “Spread!”

“Ya think?!” Lucia took off running, booking it to the right away from her partner in crime prevention. Not as mobile, Band put up his guard and tried to parry. He wanted to seize whatever advantage he could, but the missiles weren’t evenly spaced, so while he deflected a couple he also ate a handful when he mistimed his parries. Leering in satisfaction, the Revenant took aim and fired off a pair of more powerful homing missiles at him. They hurtled toward him and erupted against his guard, pushing him back, though the first thing the monster saw when the smoke cleared was Band’s angry face. Lucia didn’t outrun all the splash damage that came her way herself, but when she slid to a stop she was ready for action. “Hey, bonehead!” A flare to its left drew the Revenant’s attention as Lucia performed Flipper Shot, her burning upward kick creating a fireball that she then kicked up toward the demon like a soccer ball. “Think fast!”

Unfortunately, all the Revenant needed to do was lean back and lift its foot up as if from a splashed puddle. Then it returned fire with homing missiles, and Lucia barely took cover behind a tombstone in time. Even then, she got scraped up and thrown down when the rockets obliterated her hiding spot. Laughing, the monster tilted its head back and let out a bloodcurdling screech. Immediately all the skeletons wandering around in the periphery turned and ran toward the battle, charging through the graveyard to attack Lucia and Band. With no other options, the detective buckled down and got busy. The first skeleton that reached him got popped up by a trombone slide to the face from Band’s knee, then launched even higher with the Air Mail Special so that a follow-up soundblast from the upward-facing saxophone could blast it to pieces. Two skeletons showed up, taking turns to dive at him. Band blocked, then push-blocked the first one, then interrupted the second with Low Rank, splintering out its knees with the downward organ pipes. From there he used Giant Step, crushing the latter’s skull with the stomp that deployed his giant drum pedal, which in turn pulverized the former. It also knocked down the incoming mob of skeletons, but at that point a couple rockets from the Revenant flew in, and by the time Band blocked those the horde was upon him.

Forming up into a curved line around him, the skeletons swiped, punched, and swung at him with everything they had. One even stabbed at him with a bone insect glaive, its accompanying Culldrone cutting into his coat. In the end though, bone could do only so much against iron. Band deployed his huge mechanical arms to seize the glaive, wrench it out of the skeleton’s hands, and snap it in half. From there he swung the halves like drumsticks across the entire arc of skeletons, playing their skulls like a xylophone. The sight of a Typhlosion skeleton brought his jam session to an end as Band threw the drumsticks at it. “Looks like I gotta give ‘em the goods.” From beneath his coat his little arm produced a clay plot aglow with golden runes, which it tossed up for Band to catch in the palm of his big arm and crush in his fist, coating it in holy water. His massive hook punch then wiped out the entire line of skeletons in one mighty blow, giving him enough time to use Brass Knuckle and armor through the Typhlosion’s charge and crack its skull. The undead Pokemon jumped back, wound up, and breathed out a stream of fire. Band hopped back, though for a moment, then leaped over the flamethrower to come down with Jelly Roll into a giant dropkick that blew it away. When he hit the ground, however, vines sprang up around him and bound him in place. He looked up and got a brief glimpse of a skeletal Serperior as it lunged to bite his head. With a grunt he deployed his seldom-used gramophone horn from the machinery behind his head to hold the monster’s jaws off long enough to blast through his restraints with Base Drop. He sprang to his feet just in time to block a double water cannon from a skeletal Blastoise, then found himself beset on three sides.

Meanwhile, Lucia had been dealing with adds of her own. Dry Bones might not be threatening, but they wouldn’t stay down no matter how many times she knocked them, and when a skeletal Blaziken came calling they made things difficult. The undead chicken put her kicking prowess to the test as they traded blows, but before Lucia could prove herself Quaquaval and Chesnaught skeletons showed up to rain on her parade. The featherless duck struck her with Water Pule, and when she tried to shoulder bash the Chesnaught she took damage from its Spiky Shield. She staggered backward into the middle of them, shook her head, and scowled at them. “Alrighty, bustahs You asked foah it.” Quaquaval and Blaziken attacked together with kicks of fire and water, but Lucia ducked and the two clashed in a cloud of steam. Lucia cut through the haze with an EX triple kick. “Toahnado Spinnah!” After decking those two, she rounded on Chesnaught, who went to block again for the second time in a row. Instead Lucia burned through its Spiky Shield with Firecracker, then kicked it in the chest to make it stumble back. Blaziken kicked at her, but this time Lucia caught it against her stomach with a grunt. Then she dropped her elbow on its femur, breaking it, and swept its other leg out from under it. By that time, Quaquaval was back on its feet, and Lucia was tired. BANG, BANG! Her pistol, snatched from its holster on her hip, smoked as her gunshots struck the undead Pokemon in the head. It didn’t go down, but after she dialed in her aim a third shot to the neck sent its skull spinning to the ground. The Chesnaut took five before it went down (two to each leg after missing the first) and Lucia dispatched the Blaziken skeleton before it could rise with her last shot.

Then she zeroed in on the Revenant, all high and mighty on its monument, and had an idea. She took off a Dry Bones’ head with a football kick, then grabbed its shell. “This oughta…” With a yell she hurled it at the cackling ghoul. “Shutcha up!” The shell struck the Revenant, then proceeded to bounce between the pillars around it and the statue behind it, smacking it again and again. Shrieking, the Revenant activated its jetpack and boosted away toward the corner of the plaza, ready to start the keep-away game again.

At the same time, Band had grabbed the Typhlosion and rattled its bones inside his bell, then smashed the skull when it hit the ground. The Serperior ensnared his right arm with vines to get the holy water out of play, but when it went for his head again Band snatched it out of the air with Beat Extend. After getting jangled by the giant tambourine and left in sound stun, the Serperior couldn’t do much as Band grabbed it by the tail and hurled it at the bony Blastoise. As he wrenched his hand free, he saw Lucia’s stunt with the Dry Bones shell, and inspiration hit him. “I like the way ya think, lady,” he said, charging at Blastoise with Brass Knuckle only to cut himself short with Emergency Break and grab it with Take the A Train instead. When he deposited it, the skeleton fell on its front, and Band took hold of it with both hands. “But we gotta think bigger!” With a humongous heave, he sent the giant shell hurtling across the ground. The Revenant didn’t know what hit it; suddenly its legs shot out from under it and it hit the floor. Screeching, it took aim with its rocket launchers, but Lucia closed the gap with Rough Chase. After bashing its head with her three-hit Cyclone Spinner, she went from the spinning backfist into a jumping split kick to knock away its missile batteries. It swiped at her as it rose, but she backflipped away, and beneath her Band came in with Brass Knuckles to make the Revenant see stars. After the holy water-drenched blow, it began to flash orange, and Band went in for the kill. He tore off its missile launchers with his mechanical arms, threw them down, then clapped the ghoul’s head between them to take it out for good.

The two officers panted, their sweat terribly cold in the freezing night. Though a few skeletons still congregated in their vicinity, their focus lay on the fight with Paarl. If Ace and Albedo finished off the Darkbeast, the Seekers were done here.

World of Light

Midgar - Burning Vandelay Campus

Level 5 Goldlewis (86/50) Level 3 Sandalphon (27/30)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Karin and Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Susie and Roland’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Giovanna
Word Count: 2657

In a blink the ominous boundlessness of a stormy sky, its dark clouds rendered iridescently oily by the Extinction Belt, was traded for the cool, dark confines of the DespoRHado troop transport. Sandalphon laid her hand on the back of her chair, trying to steady herself. Her halo cast her cluttered workstation in a soft golden glow, very restive. Right now she wanted nothing more than to sink down into it and sit a while in peaceful, contemplative solitude. After all, she’d just concluded her coordination of five separate missions, each involving both allies and enemies with unknown abilities in wildly different sections of the Vandelay Campus, and all happening simultaneously. Though she planned to intervene personally if need be from the very start, she’d ended up hopping between all five teams to provide assistance, sometimes bringing fresh wounds from one fight right into the next without so much as a moment to breathe in between. Even by her standards, it had been quite the ordeal. And at the conclusion of the final counter, what reward did she receive? Nothing less than the complete and utter annihilation of her current worldview. So very much to deal with, and so very little time.

Rather than sit down, Sandalphon propped her gunstaff up and bent over her desk, rummaging through her coffee cups. Her pupils flashed low-battery signs as she checked each one, able to tell their contents by weight. Empty, empty, empty, and empty but for meager, earthy dregs that would achieve nothing. These cups were sized for the average human, after all. Sandalphon pulled the coffee pot from the machine and held it up to the light. Bingo. It might be the least appetizing shade of brown known to man, but to the angel it was good as gold, and still warm. “Thank Illia.” Her pupils turned into hearts and she lifted the spout to her lips to drink. Two point seventy-three seconds later an explosion shook the room, and though Sandalphon furrowed her brow, she kept on drinking until a huge explosion rocked the entire dropship. The shockwave nearly knocked her off her feet, and as she choked in surprise she accidentally blew coffee out her nose. She gasped, her pupils blinking fire symbols, and she quickly dabbed at her face with the napkin she’d eaten her breakfast burrito over earlier that morning. Her gaze landed on the coffee pot, shattered on the floor, and sighed through her nose. It seemed like she couldn’t delay any longer. She picked up her gunstaff and ran through the dropship until she reached the cargo ramp, from which she could peer out at the crisis unfolding in Circuit Royal.

For the time the authorities remained at the perimeter they set up to assess the situation, but now, with reinforcements arrived and the signal given, they had begun their assault. Both Peace Preservation and General Affairs had turned out in droves, with several squads of Shinra troopers backing up a veritable army of G-men, which was a frankly terrifying sight. At the head of the columns of G-men strode their commanding officers: the curly-haired tigress Swire, the one-horned shieldbearer Hoshiguma, the devilish guardswoman Matoimaru, and the grim, wolf-eared visage of Penance with her golden thorns. Of course, the Turks Sandalphon saw were just the tip of the iceberg; it was the Turks she didn’t see that worried her. And even without them, the situation was worrisome enough. The Administration’s forces were attacking DespoRHado wholesale. One wave at a time, the G-men revealed their true forms and charged forward to fight against the androids and cyborgs holed up around the dropship.

“So you’re making your move, Shinra,” Sandalphon muttered. Reasonably speaking the authorities should be impartial when it came to corporate warfare, but Vandelay was Shinra’s favorite. She watched for a moment as shadows like Loa, Cyak, Troll, and Lillim faced off against her androids in a furious struggle. Quickly she pinpointed the source of the giant explosion as the many-headed great serpent, Ananta, hammered the dropship with another massive blast of Nuclear power. 9S, who had arrived from Production to provide air support with his Flight Unit, ripped into Ananta with his chainguns, prompting Penance to send one of her G-men after him. It erupted into the demonic manta raw Forneous, his wingspan as wide as a jet’s, and flew up to challenge 9S in the air, forcing him to stay mobile. It was a brave effort on the part of the DespoRHado remnants, but with so many G-men, this was impossible. The Winds of Destruction had been destroyed, and its forces depleted by Vandelay’s defenses during the assault. It seemed that the PMC was destined to die here.

That didn’t mean that Sandalphon intended to die here, however. Thanks to Roxas, she could see clearly now. All her hard work, her carefully laid machinations, mattered as much as dust in the wind. She knew the face of her true enemy, as well as the only faction that would lead to this world’s salvation.

“Sandalphon!” The archangel looked down to see Laxi and Mascula, both lightly damaged by elemental attacks. Laxi’s face betrayed no emotions, but Mascula looked distraught as he stepped toward her. “There’s too many of them. What are your orders?”

At this point, it was too late to order a full retreat. DespoRHado was in the heart of enemy territory, surrounded and under siege. They could neither escape on foot nor in the troop transport, which would never get off the ground. Sandalphon made her decision. “It’s time for DespoRHado to collapse. And for us to disappear. You two, with me.”

“Understood.” Laxi and Mascula took off down the ship’s ramp with Sandalphon right behind them, matching their speed with her long strides. Escorting their leader, the two androids carved a path through the chaos of battle toward Production, following the path Team Mustang had taken. Mascula fought with his katana and the power of water, while Laxi wielded katana and knife alight with flame. She shot out phantoms of herself in quick succession to slash from a distance before teleporting above her targets to assassinate them from above as a meteorite of piercing flame. Sandalphon supported them with rifle shots and healing, and together the three cut through to the edge of the battle. Just as they drew near Production, however, two men in black suits appeared to block their path.

“Going somewhere?” Reno grinned, his electro-mag rods at the ready.

His partner Rude said nothing, but raised his fists.

“We’ll hold them off,” Mascula told Sandalphon, brandishing his weapon bravely. “Don’t worry about us. You can escape.”

Sandalphon was quiet for a brief moment. “I order you both to survive this.”

“I aim to please,” Mascula said, a melancholy smile on his face.

Before anyone could attack her, the archangel warped to 2B, appearing suddenly atop the android’s Flight Unit in midair. She stood there with her staff planted, her coat billowing in the wind as she surveyed the scene, before she put in a call to all the Seekers at once. “The Administration is here in force. Far too many to fight. Their goal seems to be the extermination of DespoRHado, but I doubt they’d turn up the chance to squash you as well. We need to rendezvous as soon as possible. What’s your status?”

Goldlewis answered her first. “All accounted for over here in Production. After the fight ended Rekka turned tail, and we ended up followin’ her back down to ground level along some kinda emergency escape route. Sounds like we’re ahead of the curve.”

Giovanna responded last. “We’re a-okay in security. Managed to capture Korsica, and while she woke up after Pit went to open the door for Benedict so he could follow us, we ended up reaching an understanding thanks to our new buddy Chai.” She paused for a moment. “She wants to talk actually.”

“Oi, what’s this magic rubbish? Can anyone hear me?” An unfamiliar woman’s voice with a pronounced Scottish accent could be heard over the comm line. “Uh, one of you said somethin’ about an escape route, didn’tcha? All the department heads got a personal L.I.F.T. that heads straight there. It leads down from the City of Glass right through Deep-Paris. Got it set up just in case we ever needed to disappear, boost pads and everythin’. Since Vandelay’s literally burnin’ down and the Administration’s here to clean shop, that’s your best bet for a clean getaway.”

Sandalphon nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Ms. Korsica, I can give everyone an exact route there if you can provide me with campus schematics.”

“What, like an upload? This magic symbol thing doesn’t exactly have a port.”

“If you have computer access, just display them on screen where Giovanna can see,” Sandalphon instructed her. “I have a photographic memory.” Luckily, the interior of Korsica’s miniature L.I.F.T. came with a computer terminal, and once she obliged the archangel’s request, Sandalphon proved the truth of her words. Each of her Seeker contacts received a heads-up display marking their destination and indicating the way to get there via dotted line. “Hurry, everyone. There’s no time to lose.” She gave 2B her coordinates, and the Flight Unit swooped down to head in the right direction.

---

About twenty minutes later, the teams arrived in a circular open-air courtyard. On one side lay the big reinforced gate that led down into Deep-Paris, and on the other five railways came to an end after emerging from the five tunnels, one for each division. As the mini-L.I.F.T.s came to a stop at each terminus, the Seekers on board piled out. Goldlewis, Roland, and Partitio arrived from Production, having bid farewell to Rekka when their paths diverged. Geralt and Midna arrived from Research and Development without Tora; instead, they brought with them a little girl with white hair and a red coat. She introduced herself and her giant, dangerous-looking robotic companion as Clara and Mr. Svarog, then somewhat bashfully explained that she wanted to get away from Vandelay campus. Pit, Giovanna, and Benedict arrived from Security with not two but three new acquaintances, those being Chai, the black cat-bot 808, and Korsica. Geralt, Karin, and Blazermate arrived from Finance, and lastly came Sakura and Roxas from the Signal Tower, looking very out-of-breath. Of course, Sandalphon, 2B, and 9S arrived before any of them thanks to the Flight Units, which deposited them before soaring away to find Laxi and Mascula, and Susie showed up too. That left everyone accounted for except Tora, whose absence his teammates could explain, and Raz, whose absence his teammates could not.

That is, until a noise only Sakura would really recognize signaled the arrival of a familiar face. It was Luka, the young-looking, hammer-wielding Psych-OSF captain. More specifically, he was the captain of the platoon to which Sakura and Raz had been assigned yesterday morning. He brought the Psychonaut with him in fact, and the first thing he did was bow in apology. “Forgive me for not arriving sooner,” he told them. “I came as soon as I spotted you two on the news. I figured you must be in trouble, and a platoon leader never leaves his soldiers behind.” He put on a wry smile. “Even if his soldiers leave him.”

After a second he held up his hands to placate them. “I, uh, don’t mean to guilt you though. Or to keep you here if you’re in a hurry, so I’ll be brief.” Korsica nodded stiffly, then went over to open the gates for everyone. “Fact is, I was hoping to tell you both something. And maybe get your help. Some weird stuff has been happening around the Otherlobe since yesterday. When they got back, Dexio and Sinah couldn’t stop talking about what they’d seen, trying to recruit people to go back down into the tunnels and find Peach. When I saw them again this morning, they were acting completely different. Pretending that Peach had been killed, and not remembering anything else. So…I linked up with Gemma, Yuito, and Hanabi, and we did some snooping around.” Luka’s frown deepened. “I found this old hospital that’s supposed to be abandoned. But there were people there, up to something. Shipping something somewhere by truck. We kept hearing the phrase ‘Supernatural Life’, and Raz said-”

“That’s where they took Peach!” Raz chimed in excitedly. “I knew you’d want to go, so I told Luka he’d have to ask you, too.”

Goldlewis looked serious. “If y’all got a lead on Peach, that’s some damn fine news. How many of us can ya take with ya, Luka?”

“Aside from these two…” Luka furrowed his brow. “If I share my power, us three can take one more person apiece as we teleport.”

Just then, a strong smell filled Giovanna’s nostrils. “Well, whoever’s going, pick fast. We’re about to have company!”Just then, a mean, green, six-wheeled machine smashed through one of the courtyard walls, sliding to a stop in a shower of dust. Huge, menacing, and as heavily armored as it was armed, it stared down at the crowd of heroes with a head like a medieval helmet. “Oh, GREAT,” she groaned, rolling her eyes. “Shinra’s pursuit robot, Motor Ball.”

“We can take it,” Goldlewis asserted, raising his coffin. He projected a Wall of Light from it to block the robot’s attacks. “There’s, what, twenty of us?”

“If it can find us, so can his army,” Sandalphon pointed out. “Every second we spend here is another they have to close in on us, and we can’t ‘take’ them.”

“Over here!” Korsica called. Thanks to her Vandelay authorization, the reinforced emergency gates were open, revealing a street leading underground at a somewhat sharp angle as far as anyone could see. Lights affixed to the ceiling illuminated it from above, and the buildings of Deep-Paris stood quietly on either side. For their inhabitants, proximity to the surface probably came with certain advantages, both for them and for Vandelay.

Gio divided her gaze between Motor Ball and the downhill road. “Uh, on foot? Not even I’m that fast.”

“Didn’t I mention boost pads?” Korsica stepped onto one and immediately got launched downward, somehow running at blistering superhuman speeds. “See you at the bottom!” her voice echoed back.

Goldlewis’ jaw dropped. “This is ridiculous.” As Motor Ball smashed through his Wall of Light, however, he heard voices in the distance. The emergency gates creaked, beginning to close. “Aw, hell,” With Sandalphon giving covering fire, he ran through the gates, stepped onto a dash pad, and zoomed downhill. “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”

Giovanna ran after him, followed shortly by Chai, Svarog (with Clara in his arms), and then Sandalphon herself. It was up to everyone else to either follow suit, stand firm against insurmountable odds, or join the Scarlet Guardians as they teleported away. Out of all the Shinra forces only Motorball got through the gates before they slammed shut, and without delay it began to careen downhill through Deep-Paris, plowing after the Seekers like a runaway truck.

The Under - Holograd, the Termite Capitol

Level 11 Nadia (140/110)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2701

Once everyone gathered in the misty outskirts clearing and the Hive Knight outlined their new mission objective, the Seekers split up, deciding where to explore based on the landmarks they’d spotted on their descent through the immense hollow. Naturally, rather than plan anything out they essentially just picked various directions to go and then went. For once, though, the team’s designated point woman found herself uncharacteristically indecisive about where to look. With her arms up and her hands clasped behind her head, she ambled after the others at a leisurely pace, even after she entered the city limits and strode carefully across a fuzzy Mothfly bridge. As she considered her options she watched her teammates head out in different directions, trying to guess at their reasoning.

Bowser’s stomach led his capricious quartet not any closer to the Hive but to Holograd’s marketplace and restaurants, evidently not satisfied with the smorgasbord of pizzas stowed away in the team’s infinite pizza bag. Sectonia and Rubick happened to share an interest in the ruined city’s residential quarter, and since those derelict homes seemed to house the Termite Capitol’s biggest spider infestation, Nadia happily left them to it. More eager to fight than find a way forward, Artorias wandered off in the direction of the colosseum, while Ganondorf set his eyes on what had been Holograd’s grand castle. Out of all the places, the Arboretum seemed the most promising due to what Barnabee said about roots, but Therion and Primrose were on their way, and Nadia did not want to be a third wheel for the two old friends. Those two made quite the pair. Idly Nadia wondered if they harbored feelings for one another, and she resolved to ask Primrose the next chance she got. Her thoughts drifted toward Ace. Hopefully, wherever he ended up after that train station kerfuffle, he was doing well.

Jesse watched the others split up, and rolled her shoulder, as she tended to do. Everything looked interesting, but Jesse usually opted for what looked the most bizarre. That, or should we go with whoever went by themselves. “Look at everyone go.” She said. “It’s like…it’s like herding cats.” She glanced at Nadia who was nearby. “Eh? What do you think? Right?”

The feral glanced at her with wide eyes. “Hey, that’s racist!” Then she grinned. “Haha, just jokin’. Now I know you like puns though, so you’re in for it now.”

For a moment, Jesse seemed genuinely alarmed, wondering if she had made the same mistake as she had with the rabbit person. “Oh, heh, oh. Okay.”

In the end, Nadia’s mind could only wander so far from her feet, especially with that bizarre song in the distance that dug its hooks into her like an ear worm. It sounded like singing, at least, but she couldn’t make out the words for the life of her, and if those were instruments they sounded unlike any she’d ever heard. Unable to suppress her curiosity, she came up with the plausible justification that any option might benefit the team in some way and made her decision. Tapping the linkpearl in her ear, the feral tried letting everyone else know. “Uh, hello? How the heck’s this thing work, is it on? Uh, well, assumin’ it’s on, I’m gonna go figure out where that weird song’s comin’ from. Guess I’m just mew-sically inclined! If anyone finds a way down to the Hive, ‘bee’ sure to let everyone know, ‘kay?”

Damn, she’s good. Jesse thought to Polaris, before turning her thoughts to the music. “Weird sound waves are basically my entire wheelhouse. I’m tempted to check it out, too. Just in case there’s some creepy shit going on.” Jesse said. “Unless you wanna go it alone.”

“Nah, let’s check it out together! It’s like last night all over again, ‘cept it’s just us gals, huh?”

With that Nadia scampered off on all fours down the twists and turns of Holograd’s cobblestone pathways, jumping over the rubble that had spilled down from the husks of nearby buildings. In a city of rounded, red, domed buildings, the one the music led her towards stuck out like a sore thumb. Big, blocky, and predominantly white, it almost looked like a courthouse to her, but instead of columns or statues it featured the ravages of time, with giant cracks along its walls, smashed windows, tattered advertisements, and collapsed stonework. Nadia could hardly call its atmosphere inviting, but the weird song’s volume confirmed that this was the place. It was loud enough that the feral could just about start to make out the words, but still tantalizingly hard to grasp. She sighed and gave a shrug. “Well, I came this far. Not gonna puss out now.”

Inside the structure lay a wide-open space, not-so-quietly sinking further into ruinous decrepitude along with the rest of the Termite Capitol. It seemed to feature a square center structure with two floors, ringed by a wide walkway with planters and white plastic trees. Many of the tiles in here were smashed and dislocated, exposing the meager dirt beneath, along with a few sprigs of the bone-white plants that seemed to grow in this cavern. Broken glass, rotting wood, and peeling paint could all be found in abundance. Recessed into the walls were a variety of long-neglected storefronts. Parts of the floor featured yawning black crevices with no discernible bottom. Strange masses of darkness with red eyes floated aimlessly about here and there, and what looked like giant animate toys stalked around. The big, pill-shaped, one-armed pink ones with lime-green halos and metal claws unsettled the feral more than they reasonably should have–the Mascotoys themselves looked less alive than the cream-colored stuffing that poked out of them like living tissue. Throughout the place echoed that music from barely-functional loudspeakers, their quality so laughably low that what should have been an ordinary song sounded distorted, wistful, and haunting.

“What is this place?” Nadia wondered aloud, baffled.

“It’s like a…fucked up version of a rundown mall.” Jesse said, answering Nadia’s external thoughts. Setting her hands on the railing, Jesse peered through the halls. Her eyes tracked the floating red-eyed shadows. “Though with way more abominations than I’m used to seeing. D’you think they’re friendly? What are the odds?” Jesse asked.

A mall? Nadia blinked, looking around. So that’s what this was. She turned away from Jesse so that the other woman couldn’t see her rapidly-growing mischievous grin. “Surprised ya recognized it so fast. But I guess if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen a mall, right?” Barely able to hold it together long enough to get it out, Nadia doubled over, cracking up. Jesse let out an instinctual ‘ugh’ noise, before Nadia continued: “Pff, hahahahaha…but, uh, no way these things are friendly. That’s your idea of a joke, right? I like a good scrap as much as anyone but I’d be fine not killin’ stuff the second I go somewhere for once.” Putting her hands in her pockets, she began to walk around, giving the lumbering Mascotoys and other critters a wide berth. At least there weren’t that many of them. “So this is somethin’ normal in the world you’re from, Jess? Abominations aside, I mean.”

Jesse shrugged: she didn’t want to fight either, so if those things left them alone, she would leave them alone. “A mall? Yeah.” She answered. There was a brief pause.

“Oh, uh, yeah. A mall. Basically a big marketplace, except it’s just one huge building and everyone puts stores and stuff there. There’s food courts and attractions, movie theaters, some even had roller coasters. And basically their heyday was forty years ago and they’re going out of business. So there’s a lot of malls that see sparse visitors, are occasionally empty, or on rare occasions, entirely abandoned like this one. A place like this used to see thousands of people a day. Now?” Jesse said, wiggling her fingers mysteriously. “...A modern-day ghost town.”

Nadia pursed her lips, reflecting on that. “Huh. Sounds kinda…I dunno, sad. There’s a boardwalk in New Meridian that sounds kinda similar, roller coasters and everythin’, but it’s always jam-packed with people just havin’ a good time. Not just rich folks either, ordinary people havin’ fun in the sun, eatin’ ice cream, ridin’ the ferris wheel. So nice you could almost forget about all the ugliness everywhere else.” She shrugged. “D’you know why the malls ain’t doin’ so hot back where you’re from?”

“Eh,” Jesse said, clearly not feeling too upset about the plight of the American mall. “There’s still amusement parks and boardwalks, like you’ve got. The main appeal of the mall was shopping, and shopping,” Jesse pointed at the ceiling. “Can now be done online.” Jesse explained. Nadia gave her a blank stare.

“Just hop on the computer, click on a few buttons, and the thing you want can be delivered to your door in as much as a week or as little as a day. It’s crazy. So, way less reason to go to the mall.” Jesse concluded. Nadia’s stare somehow grew even blanker. Nothing was going on behind those eyes.

“And, then, I guess, in this case, all the monsters move in. Or wake up. Though, now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s gonna be a creepy mall full of something Paranatural out there somewhere, someday, back where I’m from.” Jesse mused.

“Yeah, haha.” The feral scratched her head as the two continued to walk around. After a moment of silence, Nadia spoke up. “Y’know, out of everyone in the group, I feel like I know ya the least, Jess. There’s others who don’t talk about ‘emselves a whole lot, like Big Dorf, but I kinda understand his whole deal. You, not so much.” She furrowed her brow slightly, still smiling. “Sorry if this seems…I dunno, mean-spirited or somethin’, but wouldja say you’re ‘normal’ in the world you’re from?”

“Big Dorf.” Jesse replied absent mindedly, before blinking and looking at Nadia. “Oh, me? Hah, um, no.” She said good-naturedly. “Not exactly.”

“Between the powers, the gun, Polaris, the job, and, y’know…how much I hate normalcy. No. I’m not normal. But I can’t imagine many of us can claim that. Whoever could would be the odd one out in our little group, wouldn’t they?” Jesse asked rhetorically. “I don’t mean to come off as enigmatic. But it does make me seem cooler.”

“Hah, that’s true,” Nadia admitted with a chuckle. “On both accounts. I mean, I don’t…think…I’m weird? I mean, what I am is purr-etty unique. Y’know, feral. Three tails. Split apart. But other than how I look, I’m just your average outgoin’, fun-lovin’ gal.” She smiled. “Then again, maybe some of ya think I’m weirdly upbeat.”

“You do seem to have a good head on your shoulders.” Jesse admitted. “Most of the time, anyway. Ba-dum tsst.” She briefly mimed a drum set in front of her.

“It’s just, and maybe I’m wrong, but in my experience most people go away from scary things rather than towards them.” She said.

Nadia smiled. “I guess it’s easy bein’ happy-go-lucky when nothin’ can hurt me.” She shrugged. “At least, not in any way that matters.”

After another couple moments, the sight of something familiar prompted a double take. It was a red ring supporting a white arrow that pointed down, stuck to the wall over a downward staircase. With the memory fresh on her mind, Nadia was able to recall where she’d seen it before. “Hey., isn’t that…didn’t we see that last night?” It had been dark and very rainy, but she’d glimpsed that same symbol hanging over another somewhat ominous abandoned entryway. The feral led the way down the stairs, and when she reached the bottom she found a large room of dark green and beige tiles, with ticket machines, turnstyles, and pitch-black doorways blocked by metal bars. “It’s another station!” she realized, her eyes roving across the room until they found a familiar one-eyed crustacean with a wizard’s hat as a shell. “And another magic crab!”

“The one and only Magikrab,” the critter corrected as the ladies approached. “As the custodian of these railways, I have been blessed by the Stagmer-line to be able to visit any station within this underground land.”

“Oh, uh, hello again.” Jesse said with a wave.

Nadia nodded sagaciously. “That’s magic, alright!” She then glanced at Jesse, her eyebrows raised. “I guess that means there’s more of the stations down here? Maybe we can use ‘em to get around!” In her excitement she ran toward the big barred tunnel, but before she could disassemble herself to slip through she stopped cold, her ears going flat “Urk…I’m gettin’ that feelin’ again, all the way from here,” she winced. “Although…maybe I’m just gettin’ used to it, ‘cause it doesn’t seem quite as bad. That pizza guy gave off the same aura, but aside from that one gimmick, he really wasn’t anythin’ to write home about.” Still, Nadia stepped away from the bars and looked back at Magikrab. “If we go in…would we get attacked another horrible monstrosity?”

“You mean an archangel?” The Magikrab nodded. “Most certainly. The Stagmer-line’s next of kin are many and varied, and each possesses a favorite station.”

Nadia’s disappointment led her to gloss over the implication of what the crustacean said. “Aw, kitty litter. I was hopin’ we could get around easier.”

“Oh, you still can!” Stepping aside, the Magikrab revealed a much smaller passage, about six feet in height, and the bars in front of it slid upward with a grinding sound. “Routes to other Stag Stations, now boarding at Platform B. Now with two connections to the Metro! Just ring the bell.”

A grin spread across the feral’s face. “What an a-track-tive proposition! Whatcha think, Jess? Once we deal with the Hive, this oughta make the boss hunt a helluva lot easier. A tram-endous help, you could say, heehee.”

“Heh, yeah, um.” Jesse said off-handedly, her thoughts elsewhere. She raised her eyebrows and glanced back in the direction of the symbol. “I’m sorry-” She looked at the wizard. “The Once and Future Magikrab- you said archangel? Of the Stagmer-line? Is that secret, or can I ask what that is?” Jesse asked.

The Magikrab thought for a moment. “That’s the name given by the people of New Wirral, where the Stagmer-line last rested. They’re just…beings. Unique and different, no two alike. Given life and form by the collective archetypes of humanity, their thoughts and motivations are a complete mystery. Those that ride the Stagmer-line can be…unfriendly. They’re castaways, after all. Wandering far from home, trapped in the liminal space here. But you don’t need to worry about them if you stick to Platform B. The Last Stag is a little gruff, but he’s nice on the inside.”

Jesse scratched her head, trying to take that in. “Thanks, Magikrab. Sounds like the Stagmer-line is both a magical source and… a literal train line?” Jesse tried to parse through the multiple ways the word Stagmer-line had been used by Magikrab. “And Archangels are somehow related. I guess they don’t have to do with Galeem though, so that’s good. Maybe.”

“Mm-hm.” Nadia didn’t quite get everything Magikrab said, but her discovery of a fast-travel system left her in even higher spirits than usual. “We’ll be seein’ ya again pretty soon then, li’l guy! Wanna head back up and keep lookin’ around, Jess?” The feral gestured back toward the stairway. Even after this amazing find, it felt like Falldown Mall had more for the two to discover.

Jesse was of the opposite mind, a little too focused on weird esoteric lore to fully appreciate how helpful fast travel would be. “Uh, yeah! Sure, Nadia.” She gave Magikrab a grateful wave and then turned back to the stairwell.

“I wonder if any of the attractions still work.” Jesse wondered aloud.

“Alright, mall run round two!” Nadia grinned, jogging toward the stairs with pep in her step. “Let’s see what else is in…store!”

World of Light

The Under - Forsaken Land

Level 11 Nadia (137/110)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 1987

For a couple more minutes Nadia sat there on the cliff’s edge. Though she admired the view, listened to Barnabee, and watched some of her more-daring teammates trailblaze a way down the kingdom’s edge, she mostly just spent that time decompressing. Maybe her mornings in Smash City Alcamoth, Limsa Lominscuttle Town, Lumbridge, and -to a lesser extent the Home of Tears yesterday- had spoiled her, but she wasn’t used to fighting tooth and nail just to get breakfast. Even back in New Meridian, where she relied on guile and thievery to win her daily bread, the generosity of friendly Little Innsmouth restaurateurs like Yu-Wan made sure that even on bad days Nadia wouldn’t go hungry. Of course, her adventure in Crust Cove had been a breath of fresh air in a couple ways, but that simulated seaside would never compare to the real thing, and that whole Pizza Time deal meant her time in that level ended on a sour note. Add to that the run-in with Pizza Head, which had been a chaotic scramble even by her standards, and it had been quite the eventful morning already.

Still, Nadia might have relaxed by now if not for the occasional bit of precipitation. Once or twice a minute, a shape silhouetted against the lightroot above would plummet down through the open air, seemingly from the cavern’s vaulted ceiling. Though little more than dark blurs as they hurtled down, they looked rather like bugs to Nadia’s keen eyes, especially when one happened to land on a floating island and promptly burst into chunks of slimy chitin. After seeing Jesse meet with the Koopa Troop on the island with what looked like a giant antique gumball machine before continuing there descent, Nadia exhaled deeply and got to her feet. “Welp, I’m nyaat gettin’ anywhere just sitting here. Better get a mewve on.” Still, the extra break helped center her, and she felt a little better prepared for the challenges ahead.

For Nadia

New Strength:
Su-purr-conductor
The Lightning type gleaned from Cat-5 helps shore up some of Nadia’s weakness while granting new strength. Now, instead of being flash-frozen by Ice attacks thanks to her purr-manent Hydro status, Ice attacks grant her Multitarget for thirty seconds, and so do Air, Metal, and Water attacks. Multitarget causes her attacks to burst on successful hit, dealing splash damage in a 5 ft radius of an appropriate type (her normal attacks ‘burst’ with blood, which is treated as Hydro/Water).

With another certified Nadia Fortune great idea in mind she turned in the direction of the giant dandelion, but before she got going her ear swiveled toward the sound of footsteps behind her. When she looked over, she spotted Ichiban on his way over. His expression looked uncharacteristically sheepish, so she crossed her arms and greeted him. “Heya, Ich. What’s up?”

“Hey, Ms. Fortune,” he replied, preemptively giving her an instinctive half-bow of apology. “Look, uh, I’m gonna be straight with you. I don’t know if I’m a great fit for the group. I mean, I’ve dealt with some crazy stuff, but that pizza guy? That was a whole ‘nother level.”

Nadia felt like she could intuit where this was going. She gave him a resigned nod of encouragement. “Yeah, I totally getcha. I mean, a guy with a face made of cheese? Un-brie-leavable. Still, we cashed out in the end, so all in all, a pretty gouda time.” The feral giggled to herself. “Best part is, that isn’t even the freakiest muenster I’ve dealt with in the last twenty-four hours. Let alone the last couple days! You’ve gotta be a special kind of crazy to put up with this whole hero business.”

Ichiban winced. “Yeah…I do wanna help out. Maybe even become a real hero. But I’ve gotta…work myself up to it, you know? And besides.” He jabbed a thumb back at the tower behind him. “I’m worried about Omori. Poor kid’s even more out of his element than me! So I was thinking I’d take him back to Home of Tears. The people there must’ve calmed down by now, right? I’ve got some friends there, too.” His face turned to one of determination. “But I know what’s at stake. Once I’m ready, I’ll find you guys and join the team for real. A real hero!”

The irony of someone looking up to her as a hero made Nadia want to laugh. Even as she approached a full week with the Seekers, with one slain Guardian under her belt, she still didn’t feel like one. Nor did she suspect that she ever would be; it just wasn’t who she was. Like many of the others, she suspected, the feral’s plan boiled down to ‘fake it ‘til you make it’. But she didn’t actually want to goad Ichiban into staying, so instead of her true feelings Nadia gave him a big smile and a thumbs up. “Sounds like a plan! You take care of whatever ya need to, Ich. We’ll keep on truckin’.”

Once the two bid farewell, Nadia jogged over to the giant dandelion. She crouched down, pressurized her blood, and launched into the air, not to seize a dandelion sprig to act as a parasol, but to grab hold of the little dangling legs of a Morbula Cave Angel. The alien creature gave a squealing noise like air escaping from a balloon, no doubt thanks to the downside of her Massachusetts Fusion, but despite its cat-eared cargo the living hang glider remained aloft–it just wouldn’t be able to ascend. That worked just fine for Nadia though, and with a huge grin on her face she glided down through the immense cavern, yowling in exhilaration. By tugging on one of the legs she found she could steer the Cave Angel in her desired direction, so she swooped and banked around to her heart’s content, her tails streaming behind her.

On the way down through the Forgotten Lands, she got a good look at the sprawling ruined city far below. Nestled within the rocks at the bottom of the cavern lay what remained of the Termite Capitol, Holograd. Very irregular in layout, its jagged roadways and clustered city blocks sculpted around its stony surroundings, the city boasted a distinctive architectural style of reddish stone, replete with arches and grand domed roofs, no two exactly alike. In its heyday the place would have been a sight to behold, but true to Barnabee’s story of sudden and utter calamity, the Termite Capitol lay in a state of pitiable ruin. Virtually all of the domed roofs had caved in, many buildings had been reduced to rubble, and everything of value had been looted, leaving the place a picked-over corpse. Worst of all, many of the streets and even the buildings themselves lay caked in foul-looking tar, pitch-black but alight with an evil red glow from within. From that sinister morass sprouted tendrils tipped with clawed, inhuman hands, the baleful light of their freaky palm-eyes visible even from up here. Nadia’s lip curled reflexively. That had to be the ‘fetid mire’ Barnabee mentioned.

Still, signs of life remained. Nadia’s keen eyes glimpsed a couple odd, stone-bearing specters both big and small haunting Holograd’s dark recesses. Within toxic purple webs lurked pairs of steely spiders adorned with death masks, sometimes headed by one crowned in bygone glory. Though the crumbling vestiges of forgotten dynasties trundled troops of hunchbacked claymen, the spears that they used to scratch and dig at the dirt tipped with fragments of glinting meteorite. Parasitic Hoppers, their bellies full of stolen fluids, obliviously bounded along the streets with their proboscises swinging. However, the ink-black, mostly-docile mothflies seemed to be the most ubiquitous, sometimes so much so that they formed huge clusters that blocked off a lot of doorways and windows, though they also seemed to form bridges where the originals had fallen into the gloom-filled gorge that ran through the town.

Nadia’s lofty viewpoint also gave her a look at a few points of interest. Most prominent was the destroyed Holograd Castle, surrounded by giant green-tinged shards from what had once been enormous glass windows, possibly the site of the desperate last stand of the city’s royalty against the despot Barnabee mentioned. If anywhere in the Termite Capitol had quality loot to offer the Seekers, it would probably be there, though any leftover traces of that legendary destructor might be, too. Off to one side stood a domed arboretum with a huge tree growing from the holes in its ceiling and roots reaching outward from its front door like twisted fangs. At the city’s opposite edge stood a ruined colosseum, its walls slick with corruption, and for a moment Nadia thought she spotted something big in there. One eatery called ‘DineMite’ seemed relatively intact, even if the bomb shop next to it had evidently exploded at some point, and not far from there, on the other side of a ransacked marketplace, stood the wreckage of an inn with burnt-out neon lights that labeled it the Dome Hotel. Faint, almost completely unintelligible music filtered through the forlorn streets from Falldown Mall.

After that though, Nadia needed to focus on landing. Those who went down before her had congregated at a misty clearing on the city’s outskirts that sat at the very base of the stony Kingdom’s Edge. A river flowed behind it and promptly dropped away in a large waterfall, and when the feral glanced down into the gorge, she found not more gloom but a whole ramshackle shantytown on the walls, built by the survivors who fled their home’s destruction and returned at a later date. With just one hut and no visible enemies, the clearing looked like as good a spot as any, so Nadia steered her Cave Angel there. She swooped down to the clearing and let go of her makeshift hang glider, and after landing amongst her allies she looked up to watch the critter flap its wings and fly away.

Nadia crossed her arms and looked at the others, starting with Sectonia, who asked a question and then followed up with a statement the cat burglar didn’t understand in the slightest. “Huh?” Unbeknownst to her, the group had amassed four mask fragments so far: one from Silitha the Brood Mother, one from It Lives, one from Asgore, and one from Pizza Head. Four down, five to go, according to those who’d been to the Black Egg in person.

“Guess we gotta keep our eyes out for anythin’ that looks like a big, bad boss,” Nadia observed, reusing the memorable words uttered by Consul F last night.

“I can think of neither bigger nor badder than the usurper to Her Majesty Queen Vespa’s throne!” Barnabee exclaimed. “And should thee agree, thy objective is not so far away. Forsooth, it lay beneath thy very feet! Oh, to feel mine homeland within arm’s reach, so near and yet so far! How I’ve longed to taste of its sweet vapors once more…”

Nadia scratched her head. “We’d ‘bee’ able to taste them faster if we knew the way down. Do you remember the route you used to escape in the first place?”

The Hive Knight’s face fell. “Pray forgive me. I know not the exact location. Only that, in my flight from the usurper’s legions, I fled through tunnels of strange, virulent roots wont to regrow with such speed that only this fanged blade of mine could carve a path. I could not tarry long enough to memorize the spot.” He turned to stare at Holograd. “I am certain twas within the city bounds, however. I have no doubt thy heroic company will discover the path erelong.”

With that, the team’s mission was more or less clear: head into the Termite Capitol and explore its points of interest until someone found a way down into the Hive.

World of Light

Vandelay Campus - Production

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Level 5 Goldlewis (76/50)
Roland’s @Archmage MC, Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Goldlewis Dickinson
Word Count: 765

A massive crash the trio of Seekers plowed through the glass front of the Production head office with Goldlewis and his coffin in the lead. He, Roland, and Partitio slid to a stop amidst the shattered glass, leaving behind the jump pad they’d forcibly twisted to point in the right direction from the cooling center’s upper balcony, and looked around. The interior of the Production center’s pinnacle turned out to be quite futuristic, full of hexes and glowing lights around the spot where the Seekers landed. There even seemed to be a technological throne up here, floating off the ground with the help of anti-gravity. When he turned his attention down the stairs, though, the top floor’s design took quite a turn. Most of it appeared to be a big, empty square that this section with the throne looked over, almost like a colosseum arrayed before an emperor’s personal viewing box. Of course, he couldn’t miss the huge woman standing in the way, either, whose back had been turned to the windows until their sudden destruction caused her to whirl around.

This must be Rekka, Goldlewis knew. Though her reputation preceded her, seeing her in person was something else. Her bulging white collared shirt, little round glasses, and loose red-and-yellow striped tie were the only pretenses she bothered making about being an office worker, and even then she wore a sleeveless red longcoat with giant zippers over it. Her ostentatiously-patterned gloves and pants, her lace-up boots with red steel toes, and her giant golden belt harkened to her true calling: wrestling. In her voluminous side-swept hairdo were spiky, colorful streaks in red, yellow, and white, and little fangs visibly poked upward from her lower jaw. Most incredible were her height and brawn, very comparable to Goldlewis himself, but having already removed her gloves he could also see her enormous mechanical forearms. With those added on, she looked even less like a wrestling businesswoman and more like a gargantuan grappler. “HEY!” she exclaimed in a thick Texan accent. “The hell’d you do that for, you lookin’ to throw down, too?”

“Now, hold your horses, ma’am,” Goldlewis told her, holding out his hand. “Couldn’t ya give us a chance to talk things through?”

“Well now, ain’t this somethin’! Another big ol’ southerner!” Down in the middle of the arena stood Sundowner, just as big and bald-headed as the veteran remembered him from last night. He shared his grin between Goldlewis and Rekka. “Welcome to the dance floor, partner. Me an’ this belle were just about to have ourselves a good old-fashioned hoedown, heheh.”

Rekka sneered. “I ain’t one much for dancin’, but if you wanna couple tickets to the gunshow.” She flexed her arms, bursting out of her sleeves. “I’m more’n happy to oblige!”

Goldlewis only gave the two a stern glare in reply. “Southerners we might be, but if even half the stuff I’ve been hearin’ about your companies is true, you brutes ain’t any kinfolk of mine.”

Sundowner laughed. “Hah! You sure you’re up for this, old-timer? Ah, well.” As Goldlewis watched DespoRHado’s leader grabbed and ripped off his enormous trench coat. Beneath lay a hulking cyborg mass of black armor, red lights, and little gray plates almost like scale mail, all overlaid by another coat, this one of sleek white atop gray hexes. His forearms in particular bulged with heavy white braces that glowed with blue light, and when his black mask extended around his mouth, white clasps also closed around his eyes like goggles. Out from behind him unfolded six red-and-black plates on mechanical arms for even more protection, creating an formidable powerhouse somewhere between scourge of the south and titan of the north. Laughing, he drew two gigantic machetes, one in each hand. “The more the merrier!”

“You’d do well to address me as ‘sir’,” Goldlewis snapped at him, hoisting up his coffin. “And this ain’t my first rodeo, hoss.”

“Finally ready to CRUMBLE?” Rekka leaped from the raised section, sailed over Sundowner’s head, and came down on his other side with a superslam. Then she turned and pounded her fists together. BANG_BANG. “Then let’s GET IT ON!”

Without hesitating Goldlewis jumped down. He’d come here expecting a fight, but now this was personal.

Vandelay Campus - Research and Development

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Geralt’s @Multi_Media_Man, Tora, Sandalphon
Word Count: 1391 (+3)

Macaron mulled over Sandalphon’s words as the team jogged up through the server room’s spiral staircase. “Huh, so you’re essentially working to reform DespoRHado from the inside?”

“Essentially,” the archangel replied, conversing second-hand with the engineer through the communication glyph still affixed to Midna. “I have no personal or idealistic stake in the PMC itself, nor any connections with its major shareholder, Senator Armstrong. With the exception of Khamsin, who is more of an upjumped grunt, and Samuel Rodriguez, who joined due to his belief that ‘the victor is justified’, the Winds of Destruction form a tight-knit group. The rest of the organization is merely a tool, including myself. I believe they think I am merely a high-functioning machine myself, which is not the case, as my somewhat stoic manner might imply.”

Sandalphon went quiet for a moment, switching to another team’s line to give them some advice before switching back. “Despite my purely functional role in the organization, I recognized that the sheer amount of resources at its disposal means that it could achieve great things for Midgar and its people if it were more intelligently, morally, and efficiently managed. That is why I concocted this scheme to slowly shift the balance of DespoRHado from cyborgs, whose enlistment involves a great deal of cruelty, to androids, as well as to slowly assume more power and authority. Shortcut, on your right.” She paused again to speak with another team, during which time the Seekers used her shortcut to exit the server room and enter one last testing chamber. “I did by working harder and for longer hours until the easiest option for them was to simply give me as much responsibility as they could. I also overemphasized the threat Vandelay posed to DespoRHado, though, hoping for an opportunity just like this to expedite my plans.”

“Pretty smart,” Macaron mused. “Y’know, we’re a lot alike, I think. Both stuck with a job in a terrible company that we know could be so much better. At least you had the wherewithal to take action.”

“It’s never too late to begin,” CNMN pointed out. As the team stopped in front of one of the walls, the robot knocked on it with his fist. “And you can start with this wall, sir. According to the schematics I dug up, Zanzo’s personal laboratory should be just on the other side.”

Macaron nodded, filled with determination. “I’m on it!” He got ready, flexing his fast, and punched. “HM!”

He, Geralt, Midna, Tora, Mayer, her Robotters, and Clara all burst into a big metallic room, warmly lit by the glow of the facility’s power-sustaining magma core behind the glass on the other side. The sudden, tremendous noise and commotion came so unexpectedly that Zanzo, standing in front of the glass, instinctively adopted an exaggerated pose of surprise before course-correcting into a more normal one. ‘Normal’, of course, being relative for a man such as he. Clad in a sleeveless lab coat lined with gold and crowned by an absurd circular collar, he boasted arms and legs of shiny blue metal and a hairdo almost as wild as the look on his face. The cord connected to his head, vibrant green like his mohawk and goatee, thrashed around like spider legs as he gesticulated.

“So you’ve finally found me, DespoRHado dogs!” he exclaimed. “Well, you may have made it here, but here’s where your merry little journey…wait.” He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not the ones who’ve been tearing up my labs!

Tora laughed nervously. “Uh, yes, that not us in slightest, meh…”

“Well then, who in the world are-” Zanzo blinked as he recognized Macaron, even if only just. “...Oh, you! I was meaning to send you an email or something, but this works, too. So listen, even though I pulled money from the employee bonuses to help fund my latest AWESOME idea, it wasn’t enough, so I’m gonna need you to-”

“You did WHAT!?” Macaron clapped both massive hands to his head in dismay, just about falling over.

Zanzo raised an eyebrow. “What’s the matter, you feeling alright? Just so you know, sick days need to be submitted four months in advance. Ah, we’ll talk later. As for you…” He squinted at Mayer, clearly not remembering her in the slightest. “Uhh…keep up the good work with your, uh, ferrets or whatever.”

Mayer crossed her arms, a little offended. “They’re clearly otters, my guy.”

“I said ‘or whatever’, didn’t I?” Zanzo rolled his eyes indignantly, which happened to land on Clara. “Wait, what’re you doing here?”

“Um, I work here?” Clara scratched her head nervously. “A-actually, Mr. Zanzo, I was hoping to talk to you about these things I heard about called ‘child labor laws’...?”

The green-haired inventor groaned. “Ugh, for the last time, you don’t technically work here if I don’t pay you!” He shook his head. “The bottom line is, where’s Mon-”

For the second time Zanzo got interrupted, this time by a giant blue HG-0M unit smashing through a different wall. It slumped down in the debris, offline, and from the hole leading to the AR labs stepped a lone figure. He possessed an almost completely cybernetic body, its exterior black with a slight bluish tinge, painted in DespoRHado red but with glowing green rings on them, three on each bicep and thigh, one on each forearm and calf, and two in an X on his chest. Around his waist hung a belt with two huge sais in the back beneath two sheathed katanas, and on his thighs lay knife racks. His only visible skin was his lower face, since a rounded module with three vertical green lines covered the rest, and a mix of black an white hair spilled out from the back. Part vicious nihilist and part enigmatic swordsman, he climbed down the HG-0M unit and slowly approached the others.

Though surprised once again, Zanzo recovered quickly. “...So you’ve finally found me, DespoRHado dogs!” he exclaimed. “Or…dog!”

“I am Monsoon of the Winds of Destruction,” the newcomer declared, his voice coarse and snakelike. “I learned long ago that this world, and all its people are diseased. And yet I’m always finding greater depths to which they can sink.” He glanced at the Seekers, frowning, then back at his primary target. “Zanzo…feasting on the weak and powerless, feeding them in droves to your machine of development without a shred of remorse. At least you’ll be able to die,” He drew his sais, spinning them slowly in his hands. “With a clear conscience.”

Zanzo posed with one hand covering his face. “Spoken like a true lackey. A measly little footsoldier like you couldn’t possibly understand what it takes to be a genius!”

Monsoon smirked. “Now there’s a pretty meme. Exquisite!”

“Besides,” Zanzo continued, “Who’s to say I’ll be the one biting the dust? I can stand up for myself, you know…” Robotic outlines began to appear around him: a lithe sharpshooter, an airborne medic, a massive obstacle, and a deadly warrior. Tora blinked in surprise at what looked disturbingly like Strikers, wondering if the Seekers didn’t have these two that outnumbered after all. As Zanzo’s shoulders shook with laughter, they formed up around him, striking a dynamic group pose. “So if anyone’s dying,” Zanzo declared, dramatically pointing right at Monsoon. “It’s YOU!”

“Looks like we’re doing this!” Mayer declared cheerfully. Her Robotters tensed up, ready for action, and she raised her Short Circuit. “Good luck everyone~”

“Ohh, man,” Macaron moaned, reluctantly raising his fists. Tora readied his hammer and shield as well, saying nothing. As much as he wished that Poppi was here, he knew he should save the pining for later. For now, it was time to fight.

Monsoon turned up his nose. “The wind blows. The rain falls. And the strong…” He brought his facemask down to cover his lower jaw, his sais held tight. “Prey upon the weak.”

Vandelay Campus - Security

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Pit’s @Yankee, Benedict’s @Dark Cloud, Giovanna, Sandalphon
Word Count: 1569 (+3)

For once, no complications arose to make the Seekers’ commute any more difficult, so they arrived at Security Wing 2 with no issue. The L.I.F.T. came to a safe stop at the platform and the team disembarked promptly. That vehicle would be going no farther, however, as Giovanna could see the wreckage of another L.I.F.T. on the tracks ahead. When she and the others advanced across the station toward the security tower proper, they found the smoldering, smoking wreckage of many Vandelay robots, be they armed combat bots like SBRs or harmless workers like TECs, PGRs, or VA-SERs. The handful of dead cyborgs and androids left no doubt as to what happened here. “Looks like the DespoRHado crew made quite an entrance,’ Giovanna remarked.

As he ran patch the scrap, Chai gave it a good look. “It’s weird not having to do a fight myself for once.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching him, though.

“Just get to the door. I’ll hack it open, and we’ll make our way…” When 808 and the others got closer, Peppermint saw that the console had already been smashed and the doors frozen solid, then smashed open wide enough to admit someone -or several someones- inside. “...through.”

Giovanna spotted movement through the opening. Down the hallway, what looked like a figure in a tan trench coat and hat ducked around a corner, disappearing from view. She launched into action and ran after it, barely stopping to squeeze through the gap. “C’mon!”

After a few twists and turns through the halls, encountering no enemies but never quite escaping that sensation of being watched, the Seekers reached the interior of Security Wing 2, emerging onto a semicircular balcony. Within the tower itself lay a massive cylindrical space, dimly lit, with columns of green code flowing up and down the black sections of the walls. If Giovanna had to pick any one detail that she liked the most, though, she had to go with the tower’s rotating central pillar and the utterly absurd number of eye-searingly bright red lasers projected outward from it.

Both Chai and 808 shared an expression of terrified shock, and Giovanna was only marginally better at hiding hers. “You’ve gotta be kidding,” she complained. “This is serious overkill.”

“Korsica’s office is at the very top,” Sandalphon informed everyone, displaying a readout of the tower’s interior. “There’s a way, but you’ll have to contend with those lasers, as well as any resistance on the way up.”

808 locked onto a disc-shaped lift directly ahead of the team. “Well, what about that?” Peppermint asked. When Chai walked over, the cat-orb popped out into the shape of an actual cat, and laid its paw on the control mechanism. “...Looks like it’s still operational.”

“It better be, dude!” A TEC unit that had been sitting out of sight by the door piped up. “Korsica disabled elevator access to keep that weird chick from gettin’ up to her, but she, like, found a way anyway. Just about fried my circuits gettin’ it working again, man.”

Giovanna gave a wry smile. “Wow, is getting somewhere gonna be simple for once?”

As if on cue, the Seekers suddenly became aware of movement on all sides. Over the edge of the balcony clambered at least a dozen strange black robots, their red-eyed pods ringed by three very humanoid arms apiece. There came a sound behind them as the trench-coated figure dropped down behind them on bizarre hand-legs, its head lolling weirdly, before it cast aside its coat to reveal three more Dwarf Gekkos stacked on top of one another. Four others formed up into pairs as the DespoRHado drones spread out to surround the team.

“Aw, man. People really have to stop saying stuff like that,” Chai groaned.

“Everyone, on the lift!” Sandalphon urged them, her tone as imperative as it gets.

The team made a mad dash for the elevator, shooting, slicing, and kicking Dwarf Gekkos on the way. Right after Benedict hobbled aboard, 808 slammed a paw down on the controls, and the floor began to rise. It quickly peeled away from the tower entrance, and though a few pesky Gekkos clung on, most of them got left behind. Gio kicked one of the little UGs off like a soccer ball, and Chai happily took care of the rest in a quick game of whack-a-mole. Their ride carried the Seekers swiftly and safely past the huge laser grids, and in no time the elevator came to rest snugly inside a ring-shaped platform directly in front of a set of locked doors, with just the label that everyone wanted to see. They also saw that a nearby vent, and a needlessly large one at that, had been ripped off its hinges. “Mistral made quite the entrance. That’ll be your ticket in, too.”

This was it, the point of no return. If anyone had preparations to make, they had to make them now, and if anyone couldn’t make the jump over to the vent, they simply wouldn’t make it. Chai downed a small, bright green energy drink and rolled his shoulders. “Alright, everyone ready to rock?”

He grappled to the vent, and Giovanna followed him with a jump, airdash, and triple flying kick to close the gap. Soon she was sprinting after him beneath grates and jumping over pipes. “Remember, we need Korsica’s cooperation,” Peppermint reminded Chai as the team went along. “There’s no other way to get her SPECTRA password.”

Her reminder threatened his composure. “You keep telling me that, but we still don’t have a plan! What am I doing?”

Peppermint’s reply sounded less than confident. “...You’re gonna have to wing it, and…talk to her.”

“Remember the last time I tried to talk it out? Didn’t end well,” Chai muttered.

“What’s all this, now?” Giovanna commented. “You guys wanna try reasoning with a Vandelay boss?”

“Well, Korsica’s pretty reasonable. I don’t think she’s totally bought into what Vandelay’s doing. In fact, I think they’re keeping her in the dark,” Peppermint replied.

Sandalphon put Korsica’s file on display for Gio to see. “Level-headed, hard-working, responsible, no sense of humor. Prizes efficiency. All the qualities of an ideal boss. Compared to the caricatures rounding out Vandelay’s roster of bosses, she seems rather normal. It may be possible to communicate with her if you can keep Mistral from killing her.”

Giovanna pursed her lips. “I’ll keep that in mind.” A moment later, everyone came to a giant hole in the bottom of the vent. The voices of two women could be heard below, one with a Scottish accent, the other mostly French, albeit tinged by something else Gio couldn’t quite place. Without any hesitation Chai dropped down, and Gio followed right after him. They dropped down into a clean white room full of security screens, adjoining offices, and elevated sections, with a large glass circle in the center over machinery and ringed by blue light.

She also spotted the VIPS. Korsica was a tall woman in her early thirties, with poofy spikes of fuchsia hair done up in a ponytail, a red jacket with rolled-up sleeves and a big yellow collar over a white turtleneck, jean shorts, black tights, and white boots. Built into her attire were a number of segments of sleek, blue-accented white armor of an unknown, possible alien material, most notably her shoulder pads, her gauntlets, and the almost beak-like visor she wore like a baseball cap. She looked somewhere between a consummate professional and a graceful destructor. Opposite her stood Mistral in a tight, high tech suit, half black with vivid red DespoRHado branding and half white with bright blue tech lines, though the port-covered apparatus around her neck and back was all black. The vermillion hair that lay over one eye grew straighter and blonder the longer it got, fanning out in the back to reach her waist. Around her danced a pack of Dwarf Gekkos. Though by all accounts a purposeless killer, her appearance also evoked an icy secret agent.

“Great, more intruders,” Korsica groaned. “Like this wasn’t enough of a mess to begin with.”

Mistral smirked. “Our little chat was just about done with, anyway.”

“...Quite.”

“Wait, we’re fighting already!?” Chai exclaimed in dismay.

Both women moved at once. Mistral’s Dwarf Gekkos swarmed her in a massive dogpile, pulling off their own arms to jam them into the ports in her harness. Korsica drew her collapsed batons and leaped into the air to extend them, striking a pose surrounded by lightning. As she landed the Gekko cores rained down around Mistral, their arms both attached to her body and formed into a pole. With a smile the killer plucked a throwing knife from her leg brace and passed around the arms until one in her weapon took it and held it straight, creating a spear. Chai assembled his guitar, assuming a defensive posture, and Rei swirled behind Gio as she prepared to fight.

Vandelay Campus - Finance

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Blazermate’s @Archmage MC, Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Sandalphon
Word Count: 751 (+2)

Moving quickly, the Seekers left the well-decorated overlook behind. At the end of the hallway they emerged into a huge office decked out even more lavishly than the entryway, with fancy light fixtures, enormous framed panels around Japanese text, giant scrolling stock price tickers, and two rows of samurai-themed WA-ES units in display cases. At least, that had been the case before Khamsin arrived to carve a warpath across the room, awakening every single WA-ES in the process. Once inadvertently broken out they fought back against the marauding mech, a couple at a time doing dash-slashes past Khamsin while the rest shot sword waves from a distance. Though much less powerful and durable than the intruder, they made Khamsin work for it, and by the time his enormous axe ground the last one to scrap metal the soldier ended up a little short on breath.

“Looks like you made it,” Sandalphon observed. “Good thing Roquefort had some extra security on hand to slow Khamsin down. Be advised, I don’t have a lot of data on him. Just a general bad reputation. Smart, but short tempered, very money-minded. Described as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. I wouldn’t underestimate him.”

“Hah!” Khamsin laughed, stomping through the mess toward the desk on the far side. Blazermate remembered Khamsin’s war machine well from their encounter in Detroit: a an engine of destruction blended with a bovine titan, every bit as imposing as it was enormous. “How’d you like that, little man? Looks like your last line of defense just broke down. Now all you got left is last words!”

The man seated behind the desk in front of him curled his lip. Though short, stout, bearded, and balding, something about the white-haired Roquefort seemed off. Maybe it was how he just sat there as a walking tank with a rocket-propelled chainsaw axe wreaked havoc in his expensive office, or the strange blue glow in his eyes behind Galeem’s glaze of red, or the bright pink tie worn just low enough to expose some chest hair. His slacks and suit vest were an odd mix of purple and peach, with a fancy cape thrown over his shoulder, lending him the semblance of an ominous dandy. “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” he told Khamsin, his voice a grouchy British growl. “It’d be a waste of time telling you, though. And do you know what time is? MONEY! And I’m not about to waste any more of that.”

With a last massive footfall the mech stopped in front of Roquefort’s desk. “I’m gonna waste you,” he declared, revving his axe like a motorcycle.

“Well then. You’ll have to tell me how it feels…” The glorified accountant slowly stood. “To underestimate someone.”

Roquefort jumped on top of his desk and, much to everyone’s surprise, howled. As his voice echoed through the chamber, a third of his personal shields discharged, slamming into Khamsin and inflicting him with paralysis. Then he began to transform. His mechanical body began to open up and reconfigure, his limbs lengthening dramatically as extra armor swiveled and clicked into place. Blue energy claws flared from new digitigrade legs and powerful arms, and as Roquefort smirked, armor closed around his upper body to form the torso of what could only be described as a giant wolf, tail and all. A mass of parts deployed upward and settled into the shape of a head, ears and fangs extending. Plates of purple and gray settled over a mesh of artificial sinew, orange with teal and white wires, and gray armguards plus a matching collar settled into place. Taking control of the exoskeleton, Roquefort turned his face, half-masked in teal plate, upward. An ear-rattling howl resounded from the mechanical intersection of apex predator and unchained berserker.

“That explains that expression I mentioned earlier,” Sandalphon mentioned idly. “This may be somewhat difficult.”

“Shit!” Khamsin yelled as he got his mech under control, stumbling backward. Roquefort now stood as tall as he did, if not taller. He barely brought up his axe in time to block before his opponent swiped him with a massive claw and sent him skidding backward with a chuckle. Inside his cockpit, Khamsin gritted his teeth. “Laugh while you can, freak! I’ll be picking that ugly mug out of my chainsaw’s teeth!”

“Talk is cheap, jarhead,” Roquefort leered at him. “Put your money where your mouth is!”

Vandelay Campus - Signal Tower

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Raz’s @Truthhurts22, Roxas’ @Double, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Sandalphon
Word Count: 1012 (+2)

After Sakura’s question about Strikers, the short ride up to the Signal Tower’s actual entrance grew quiet. The young Seekers weren’t anxious to broach conversation with this dangerous, self-assured stranger. Sandalphon, meanwhile, stood in the safety and privacy of her control center aboard the DespoRHado dropship back at Circuit Royal, with 2B and 9S newly returned from their flight mission for extra protection. In addition to keeping track of the other four missions on top of this one, including both their statuses and any conversations going on in her glyph’s vicinity, she’d continue to provide assistance to DespoRHado itself. The PMC’s cyborgs might not enjoy the archangel hovering over them, so to speak, but the androids still needed her support. Even after withdrawing all the androids she possibly could to the dropship, that meant a lot of balls to keep in the air, even for a juggler of her caliber.

With a moment to breathe at least, she gulped down her newest coffee and set the empty cup by the standing desk alongside the others. While the press arrived a while ago, the authorities appeared alongside them. Both of those posed a huge problem. Regardless of this raid’s outcome, the optics would be bad, but the Winds of Destruction went ahead with it anyway. They probably reasoned that DespoRHado had the power to simply do what it wanted, but Sandalphon didn’t think so. Peace Preservation might be content with the perimeter they set up, but the moment any Scarlet Guardians or Turks arrived, she’d really need to worry. Assuming they hadn’t already. The PMC’s dropship wasn’t exactly subtle, either. Sandalphon sighed, rubbing her temples. After this operation, DespoRHado as Midgar knew it would cease to exist. If she could pick up the pieces like she planned, no trace of the private military company once known as Desperado Enforcement would exist. Only the android element, derived from YoRHa, and whatever Unmanned Gears could be retrofitted with android intelligence. It was all a lot to deal with. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone better to do it.

After another couple seconds of thought, Sandalphon opened the line to Roxas again. “Come in, Skywatch. I was hoping I could speak directly with Samuel Rodriguez.”

Back on the elevator, the swordsman lifted an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

Sandalphon’s voice replied from the glyph. “You strike me as somewhat different, so I wanted to ask. For what reason have you chosen to cast your lot in with DespoRHado?”

“Oh my, how intimate. Is this not out of line with your operating procedures, ‘Halo’?” Sam joked, smiling slyly. “Relax, I kid. I don’t mind answering, it’s quite simple, really.” He leaned on the elevator’s wall, his hand rested on his scabbard. “I once waged quite the war. A one-man army, you could see. Dedicated to the pursuit of what I believed to be justice. Killing people who needed to be killed. I never fooled myself into thinking I was a good man, but I hoped that by the time I finally died, I’d have made the world a better place.” Sam scratched his chin. “That changed when I met Armstrong. I finally lost. My life, my mission, were in another man’s hands. And I learned that in the end, only the victor can decide what’s right. The loser dies, his ideals along with him, and the victor goes on to make his ideals manifest. I don’t know what Vandelay wants or believes in, but if he dies by my blade, it’s all for nothing, isn’t it? And if I should fall, DespoRHado made a mistake challenging him.” He glanced around at Raz, Sakura, and Roxas. “Remember that, kids. If your ideals are worth anything, you’d better prove it. You’d better win.”

By that time, the elevator was slowing down, almost to the top. With Sam in earshot, Sandalphon kept quiet, and left the implication of the swordsman’s words implicit: that if he could be beaten, he could be swayed.”

With Sam moving quickly at the forefront, the team entered the Signal Tower. Contrary to the building’s lower levels, which were still under construction as the Seekers had seen, the interior looked pretty close to completion. All done up in dark gray with red highlights, it funnily enough matched DespoRHado’s barding better than Vandelay Technology’s, but at least it matched Kale himself.

“Took you long enough,” he complained to the newcomers, turning around to face them from where he stood by the giant SPECTRA control terminal. “I have to say, a corporate takeover wasn’t on my itinerary for today. Shinra really got you guys feeling insecure, huh?”

Sam shrugged, putting his hand on his sword. “Vandelay, DespoRHado. It was always going to come to this. Town’s not big enough for the two of us, as they say.”

In the ensuing lull in the conversation, Raz took his chance to speak up. "Vandelay! We know about your schemes, working with Konoe and Calvert! We don't want to hurt you, all we want is information. We can protect you from guys like him" He pointed at Sam, who pretended to look indignant. "If you help us back!"

Kale looked surprised. “Kids these days,” he complained. “Always getting into stuff they shouldn’t. Well, let’s get this over with.” With a sigh, he threw off his suit and coat, revealing a sleek dark gray cyborg body with red accents, swathes of light gray and a bright blue reactor in his chest. He raised his hand to shoot a hilt from his wrist, and when he caught it a crossguard extended to protect his hand while a blue beam sword blazed from its end. “Loose lips sink ships, after all.” Then a gray mask assembled on his face, bearing a single blunt horn on his forehead and no other features but a jagged grin, completing the parallels with a peerless swordsman

“Hah! I’ll take this dance!” Narrowing his eyes, Sam drew his katana and dropped into a half-crouched stance, ready for action.

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (234/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2041

The slugfest with Pizza Head’s latest lackeys kicked off right away, and though action in the corner of her eyes told Nadia that her friends were busy lending a hand, at the moment she couldn’t afford to pay any attention to anyone’s fight but her own. In short order the very average-sized catgirl found herself staring down all three beady-eyed, slavering heads of an obscenely Big Dog all on her lonesome. They all seemed to want a piece of her, and as the monster plodded its ungainly, tumorous mass toward her the metal of its big, digger-like lower jaws jostled against one another to create a hair-raising chorus of loud clangs. Nadia grimaced. “Maybe we could talk about this?” she suggested. “Don’t wanna bark up the wrong three…”

In response Big Dog began to spin, instantly picking up enough speed to become a top-heavy gray and yellow tornado. “Oh boy.” Nadia crouched down to spring, ready if the cyclone stormed her way, but instead the monster let fly out a barrage of slow red projectiles. Though they moved at a leisurely pace, Big Dog belted out six at a time with enough spread to make their paths unpredictable, and they quickly began to pollute the air. The feral quickly backed up to the point where the shots could be dodged more easily, but at this distance, just a foot away from the rooftop arena’s edge, she couldn’t launch any attacks of her own. Well, except one. Nadia closed one eye and took aim with her bait launcher, patiently dodging a couple orbs until she got a clean shot. “Nice to ‘meat’ you!” Grinning, she pulled the trigger and slapped Big Dog right in the kisser with a succulent slab of raw meat. It did no damage, but it did distract the mammoth mutt, which stopped spinning to snap the sneak up. Nadia laughed aloud when its three sets of eyes bugged out at the sight of the burly tiger that manifested in front of it. As her summon savaged the beast with its claws, shattering one of its eight dog-head icons, Nadia dashed across the tower to take the fight to her target.

To her surprise, her tiger vanished sooner than expected, and it left Big Dog behind in much better shape than the feral would’ve hoped. Just how beefy was this thing? Without giving Nadia the courtesy of an answer, Big Dog started doling out missiles instead. It fired off three at a time in rapid succession, forcing Nadia to take evasive action as she made her approach. “Where the hell are these coming from!?” Exploiting the gaps, she managed to close the distance until she opted to cover the final stretch with a jump into blood-propelled airdash. A missile to the shoulder cut her flight short, demolished one of her eight bell icons, and sent her sprawling in a burst of smoke and flame. It also hurt a whole lot, and Nadia’s vision swam as she tried to spring back to her feet. “Ow, ow, jeez,” she groaned, her hand on her shoulder. After blinking she noticed her body flashing still, which baffled and distracted her long enough that she only noticed another missile headed her way in time to block. Unfortunately for her, the chip damage chopped off another eighth of her lift, leaving her with just seventy-five percent left. “Nyaaagh!” she yowled, only barely staying on her feet. Those flashes happened again, but Nadia also realized something that worried her way more: her new wounds weren’t healing.

A chill shot down her spine as her gaze returned to Big Dog, already sending more missiles on their way. Filled with panic, Nadia dodged like her life depended on it, sprinting on all fours in a wide arc around her foe despite how close it put her to another fight. This was bad. Very bad. Her regeneration was everything to her, and if she couldn’t take hits like a champ, this could go south real fast. The Koopas’ brawl with Grovetender ended up cutting her off, forcing her to take her beast head-on. With no other option she charged toward it, narrowly avoiding its missiles, then went low to slide beneath its massive body and out the other side. On the way she dug her claws in, slicing into its belly, though it didn’t seem like the cuts did any damage when the monster’s body started to flash. Pained and confused, Big Dog started up another projectile spin, and a similarly confused Nadia ended up leaping to one of the tower’s decorative pillars to take shelter behind it, her claws embedded into the solid rock above a long fall. Though Big Dog pounded the stone with its artillery, the stone held for now, and the feral tried to calm the manic beating of her heart. “Holy moly,” she gasped. “Wh…why ya gotta treat me so ruff?”

After a few seconds she leaned out from behind her cover and launched another steak, then ducked back into safety. Big Dog naturally tried to fight its vicious assailant the moment it poofed into being, but its jaws found no purchase and its heads took a heavy slash in return. On contact another dog-head icon broke apart, leaving five, but that weird blinking prevented any extra damage. Nadia watched the whole thing, her mind racing. “Those things above our heads…” It appeared to Nadia like that reality-warping Pizza Head cast some sort of spell that redefined the rules of engagement, changing how the bodies of both Seekers and monsters reacted to injury. Now, instead of damage, it seemed to be all about hits. As she processed this, hindered by Big Dog as it resumed its steady destruction of her cover, a smile slowly spread across her face. This wasn’t the end of the world, not in the slightest. Raw damage was never Nadia’s strong suit; meanwhile, landing hits might as well be her speciality.

Newly fortified, she peeked out from behind the pillar and maneuvered her way to the most damaged part of its front. “Hey, ugly!” she yelled. “You got a face only a mutt-er could love!” Big Dog grunted and fired off another trio of missiles, and as Nadia scurried out of the way, they hit the perfect spot to blow enough from the pillar’s foundation to send it crumbling down. It fell toward the wide-eyed monster and smashed down on top of it with a prodigious crash, though that still only amounted to one hit. With a groan Big Dog shook its heads to get the stars out of its eyes, only to see Nadia sprinting its way. As she jumped into the air again more missiles rose up to greet her, but this time the feral used Charge to zip forward as a bolt of lightning, both threading the needle to zap Big Dog before she reformed behind him. “Watts up, dog?” She laughed and sprang into the air as the beast whirled around, landing with a graceful backflip on its shoulders a moment after its heavy jaws smashed the ground.

“Here’s a head-up for ya!” While Big Dog looked around, confused, Nadia extended her arms and looped them around its left and right heads. “No need to thank me, it’s the leashed I can do!” Big Dog bucked like a wild bronco, slammed its head, and even tried spinning, but even that good trick couldn’t dislodge her. “Get along, li’l doggy!” From on top of the beast Nadia could literally ride out its invincibility slashes, then jump up and stomp in its middle head the moment it became vulnerable. Six, seven! On the cusp of her victory, however, Big Dog wised up and shot Nadia in the back with missiles to knock her off, forcing her to retract her arms blearily. “Me-owch. Whoa!” The desperate monster reared up to come down on her with its jaws, and she scrambled to avoid its smashes. On the third smash, however, something occurred. She had way more hits left than Big Dog, so why bother? That very instant she fired off her heaviest Fiber Upper. “Nothing pupper-sonal!” The two blows traded, leaving Nadia at half and Big Dog at nothing. With a roar the monster died, pitching over onto the arena to slowly dissolve into ash. Nadia stood, breathing out a sigh of relief. At least her pain tolerance meant that she could live at half, provided no other nasty surprises came her way.

When she turned her attention to her fellow Seekers, she found the battle all but done. Bowser and his family had felled Grovetender, Artorias carved up the Dark Quartz Ogre, Rubick blindsided the Eyebrute, and the Octopath Travelers put an end to the Mawlek’s brooding. Everyone had survived, though the greater miracle was how none of the bosses’ stray projectiles hit Nadia’s allies in the middle of other fights. Nadia wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, however–she was too busy looking at Pizza Head as Ganondorf finally caught up to him. After Sectonia softened him up and Jesse put a whole lot of work in, the King of Evil cornered Pizza Head with his Strikers before swooping in to send him packing with a withering shadow blast.

“Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Pizza Head wailed as he flew straight up. Right away he slammed into the ceiling of Pizza Tower’s hollow, leaving a crack, and when he peeled off he fell right back down to smash head-first into the tower’s roof, embedding his noisome noggin in the masonry. Instantly the environment reverted to normal and the icons above everyone’s heads disappeared. Nadia gasped in relief as her healing started up again, almost teary-eyed.

Pizza Head did not dissolve, however. He just stayed there, stuck upside down, but from his pockets spilled a handful of goodies. Geo, pizza recipes, a few precious gems like rubies and topaz, and even a few glowing purple ingots. Finally, a porcelain-white mask fragment plopped down neatly on the stack of treasure. Nadia snatched up a few jewels practically before they hit the ground, which promptly disappeared into her pouches. Hitting Pizza Head more didn’t seem to have any effect, so after trying for about thirty seconds, Nadia gave up. “Well, got what we came for!” she beamed.

Results

Party: Ms Fortune, The Koopa Troop, Primrose and Therion, Sectonia, Jesse, Ganondorf, Rubick, Artorias
Encounter Reward: +13 EXP
Additional Reward: 2400 Geo, Neapolitan Pizza Recipe, Sicilian Pizza Recipe, Margherita Pizza Recipe, Caprese Pizza Recipe, Amber x 5 4, Opal x 4 2, Ruby x 2, Sapphire x 2, Diamond x 1, Eridium x 4, Big Dog spirit, Grovetender spirit, Dark Quartz Ogre spirit, Eyebrute spirit, Brooding Mawlek spirit, ⅓ Mask Fragment

Once everyone recovered from the ordeal, the team could move on. The operative question was ‘how’. After reuniting with Barnabee, who had evidently gotten dogpiled by cheeseslimes and then fallen off the tower during the boss fight’s first phase, he confirmed that his noble kingdom the Hive and its most glorious Majesty lay waiting beneath the floor of this very cavern. Nadia sat on the edge of the cliff and peered around the Forsaken Lands, wondering how the heck she’d make the descent. At the very bottom of the Forsaken Lands lay what looked like a sprawling ruined city, many parts of it immersed in a dark, dubious-looking substance. “Tis the once-proud Termite Capitol,” Barnabee explained. “Once the largest city in the whole Underground, it has since ceded that title to the Home of Tears, owing to the calamity that befell it.”

By looking upward Nadia eventually figured out that what looked by daylight actually seemed to be coming from a gigantic, incredibly bright root structure that grew from the ceiling, but that wouldn’t help. That incandescence gave rise to dandelions the size of trees that grew around the cavern like weeds, including a few by one side of this cliff. Gentle, three-eyed critters like alien manta rays, the cave angels seemed to like them, and when one happened to brush by a dandelion it sent cottony white tufts the size of umbrellas floating slowly to the cave floor. Nadia also spotted what looked like floating islands in the open air, some of which featured strange structures like a glassy globe pedestal, but there wasn’t anywhere near enough to jump between. More than likely she’d end up scrabbling down the cliff face between the various ledges despite the bloated Booflies that floated around down there, but that looked like a hassle. “Quite the conundrum,” the feral muttered, kicking her legs. To be honest, it was pretty nice just sitting here, relaxing and enjoying the marvelous view.

World of Light

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (221/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Ichiban’s @Truthhurts22, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 1851

With the tension that typically accompanied a boss fight thoroughly broken by a hearty round of laughter, jeers, and mockery, everyone was ready to get down to business. Pizza Face’s choice to start the fight by barfing out a bevy of minions sort of set the tone for the whole fracas, since any chance it had of being a serious trial by combat the instant Sectonia, Kamek (as well as Rubick by extension), and Junior summoned an absolute horde of underlings in reply, blanketing what had been an imposing arena with a throng of silly-looking critters slapping each other around.

Out of all the peons she only recognized the Water Workers, but if the rest were comparable in terms of strength, they’d be nothing to write home about either. The crowd sort of blocked Nadia, so rather than beeline straight for the big bad like usual, she hung back for a moment at the edge of the mook brawl, her bemused enjoyment writ plain on her face. Guess I can sit back and relax. Somehow, the goofiness of this throwdown felt oddly appropriate for the bizarre Pizza Tower’s climactic battle. The others -at least those with a shred of humor in their hearts- clearly felt it too. Artorias even took a moment to critique her mouthiness, and after dispatching an airborne refrigerator he followed up with something she didn’t quite understand. Huh? What does that have to do with anything? His crazed grin implied something funny, though, so she placated him with a tentative laugh. “Haha…yeah!” Satisfied, he ran off to join the fray, smashing through the melee two or even three minions at a time.

He wasn’t the only one, either; Ganondorf made his displeasure known through a remarkable display of violence, his frenzied bladework carving a trail of carnage across the arena, made all the more fearsome by Sectonia’s Haste. Ichiban joined the fray in slick new formal wear with an equally sophisticated-looking curved sword in hand, and Nadia’s surprise quickly turned to excitement. “Heck yeah, Ichi! Mess ‘em up! Just don’t cut the cheese!” Of course, by the time she said that, he’d already done it. “...Gouda grief.”

While some of the Seekers’ heaviest hitters pulverized the small fry, the others focused on Pizza Face himself. Artorias reached him first, and gave the greasy entity ample reason to stay as far off the ground as possible. Leveraging his brand-new boxing skills, the knight practically pounded the pizza’s face in. When the flurry ended the oversized pie quickly hovered out of range, his cheesy features covered with welts and bruises. He even had a black eye and bandages, somehow. Things didn’t go much better, though. While the steak Nadia fired from her Bait Launcher bounced off its head to splat down on the arena, where the tiger appeared with only minions within mauling distance, Bowser’s ‘projectile’ worked a lot better. Flung into the air by royal strength, Rika cleaved through Pizza face’s crust and a foot or two of cheese-topped red sauce better than any pizza cutter. She then redirected her aerial momentum with a burst of speed, latched on, and whipped all the way around to lay into the oven-baked boss with everything that cool-ass lance of hers had to offer. The impressive display ended with a perfect dismount that sent her right back to her new dad, and Nadia felt like clapping–she couldn’t have done better herself.

Of course, that was no reason not to try! When Therion and Primrose made their moves, so did she. Saving her boxcutters for later, Nadia charged into the chaos with her claws out. First up, a familiar Water Worker. It went down to a good old Cat Scratch rekka, sliced up by the first two hits and popped like a water balloon when she drove her hardened ears in. “Water you even doin’ here?” Two Forknights charged in, and she went low to trip one well before it reached her with a hyper-extended leg. “Armor, huh?” She turned into lightning blitzed through the other with Charge, electrocuting it. As she rematerialized behind it, she jammed her elbow into its back, then launched it overhead with Limber Up. “You’ve hel-met your match!” Her head blasted off to hit it mid-air, keeping it juggled long enough for Nadia to extend her arms, snatch it, and slam it headfirst into the floor. As the other Forknight tottered to its feet the feral grabbed it by the mouth and pulled the cheese-creature out of its armor, which clanked down on the ground. A Piglin squad bore down on her, and while she kicked her head into one to daze him the others managed to smack her. “Ow, hey!” In return she jammed the cheese-thing into one’s face like a cream pie, blinding it. “How’s that for head cheese?” She promptly took another swing to the shin. “Agh, you little stinker!” The next, however went over her head as she went low to take out their legs with Kitt n’ Spin. “Sorry, piggies…” She flipped into the air and hurled a Purrge of Vengeance straight down to blow away all three in a rippling eruption of pure Hydro. “This one’s a wash!”

A cheeseslime sludged toward her, but an upward claw slash unstuck it with a shlorp and she jammed her other hand straight into its face only to find that it wouldn’t come off. “Eugh. Stick around, why dontcha?” An idea struck her, and she lifted its gooey mass above her head. When span her arm up like a drill, the cheeseslime quickly flattened out and then flew apart, its globules scattered far and wide. “What a spread!”

By that time, Therion had sunk a whole handful of throwing knives into Pizza Face’s ugly mug, and Primrose’s dark magic scored an explosive direct hit. Barnabee had joined the fray too, pelting Pizza Face with bees before he dashed up to deliver some choice cuts with his saw-toothed sword. Nadia watched as Jesse perforated the boss with Spin bullets, quickly depleting the last of its health. “Oh crap, I’m gonna miss my chance!” She scooped up her head and took off, running toward the spit where her allies were polishing off the last few mooks. Wait a second. Grinning wildly, she jumped into the air, springboarding off Ichiban, Artorias, and finally Ganondorf in ascending order. “Thanks for the lift, fellas!” she laughed, sailing into the air. With a final burst of blood she shot straight up to Pizza Face. Nadia shot off her forearms, sinking them into Pizza Face’s cheesy cheeks, then snapped back her muscle fibers to drive her best dropkick of all time straight into his fungal nose. “Call this gratuitous,” she quipped, face-to-face with the big pizza. “But I don’t leave mush-room for error!” With that, she unleashed the blood pressure in her legs in a terrific shotgun-like blast, kicking off him in the process. As he reeled, she plummeted back to earth, twisting around to land -as always- on her feet.

Of course, immediately after landing, Nadia let out a long-overdue breath, hyperventilating with wide eyes. “Holy frijoles! Can’t believe that worked.” After a moment though she quickly straightened up, clearing her throat. “I mean…can you believe that worked? I surprise myself sometimes~”

As she said this, a beat-up looking Pizza Face descended to the ground, seemingly inert. Then he suddenly began to vibrate, scrunching down until finally, it popped open to reveal a strange man, sitting on a toilet and reading the newspaper, a man with blue overalls, a red bowtie, and a white shirt plus gloves. As Nadia and the others gaped, the paper slowly lowered, revealing that the man had a slice of pizza for a head. He laughed nervously, slowly crunching up and setting aside the paper, then cracked a wide smile as he climbed out of the Pizza Face machine.

”Hello, hello”

The moment his foot touched the ground, everything began to change. In the distance the light turned a soft orange, surreal and dreamlike as strange shapes, pizza toppings, and TV sets depicting Pizza Head began to float about. The rock surrounding Pizza Tower and the vegetation transformed, becoming meatballs and green peppers, with flowers and fungi taking on the likeness of Pizza Face. Over Pizza Head, eight likenesses of his own ahead appeared, arranged in two rows of four, and the next moment something similar happened to Nadia. Over her head appeared eight round bells, just like the one she wore on her collar, and the rest of the Seekers experienced a similar phenomenon with iconography of their own. Then the symbols faded, leaving Nadia to wonder just what the hell was going on. The feeling coming off this guy…it felt like the Nowhere Monarch, back in King’s Station. And the Orphan of Kos, the day before that. She could never forget that crawling, pervading sensation of wrongness. Her eyes widened as Pizza Head grinned at them, a pipe in his hand. “Another one. Somethin’ that shouldn’t be!” she hissed, sharpening her claws. “And won’t be for much longer!”

As if in reply, Pizza Head ran over to the far side of the arena, and reached down over the edge to stretch and plunge his arm through solid stone. When he pulled his arm back up, it came with a Brooding Mawlek several times bigger than himself, which he nonchalantly tossed onto the stage. In quick succession Pizza Head dredged up four more minibosses: a Dark Quartz Ogre, Big Dog, an Eyebrute, and Grovetender. Once all five were on the scene, Pizza Head stood idly by, ready for more tomfoolery.

Nadia forced a smile as she drew her boxcutters. Everyone present would need to divide their attention between the boss and the uninvited guests to pull through this. “Guess we’ve got our work cut out for us.” Still, compared to the Mom fight this really wasn’t that bad. She whistled to try and get the three-headed hound’s attention so she could lead him toward one side of the arena. “Here, doggy! Let’s play!”

Until Pizza Head is defeated, all characters take 1/8 of their max health (a 'pip') in damage from every hit they receive. When hit a character flashes invincible for the next second afterward. Healing is disabled

Edinburgh MagikaPolis - Dead of Night

Level 8 Big Band (102/80)
Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Red’s @TruthHurts22, Mewtwo’s @Double, Frisk’s [@Majoras End]
Word Count: 1291

When two more serious threats showed their ghastly faces, the Seekers quickly regrouped. They didn’t plan to just sit around and wait for the Darkbeast to come to them, but Paarl was even more aggressive than they predicted. First off the block, Ace charged in with a speed and tenacity that belied the clanking weight of his kit, his blades glinting in the arcane lamplight as he carved at the emaciated horror’s fleshless leg-bones. He landed a clean couple hits as Paarl tensed up, chipping rather than breaking the bones, before the monster let out a shrill scream. Arcs of electricity burst off it in a wave of concussive force to knock the hunter down in the middle of his pre-emptive strike, and Paarl began to attack.

As it moved, its bones ground together horribly, the sound enough to make Band’s skin crawl. He steeled himself and charged in to give Ace a hand. He bulled forward with Brass Knuckles, but Paarl ignored the cracks it left in its bones to slash at him with lightning-infused claws. Gritting his teeth, Band blocked both, then performed a backstep to avoid a downward slam and set up for another Brass Knuckles. Instead he accidentally backed right into a trash can and toppled over backwards. “Gyat, damn!”

At the same time, Lucia chased down the Revenant, knowing that it couldn’t be allowed to sit back and wreak havoc with those rocket launchers from afar. Pumping her arms, she ran in a zigzag pattern as the demon blew chunks from the roadway with its missiles. It ended its salvo by firing its last two rockets both simultaneously and right at her, aiming to take her out in one deadly blast, but this cop was made of sterner stuff. She pivoted and performed Flipper Shot, a fiery backward scoop-up kick to intercept the missiles and flip them upward. With a daredevil grin she let fly the follow-up turning roundhouse to smack the rockets right back. They blew up against the surprised Revenant’s body and broke its poise long enough for her to close the distance with EX Tornado Spinner, launching diagonally upward to blast it with three fiery kicks. Unfortunately for her, this hellspawn knew fire all too well. When she landed it lashed out with a headbutt, bopping Lucia’s skull with its own, then kicked her backward. She slid to a stop on one knee and looked up to see the Revenant wrench a streetlight out of the ground, then swing it like a bat. “Sonuva-!” Lucia blocked, but the enormous bludgeon shattered her guard and sent her flying with the explosion of its luminous magic crystal.

While those three got started, Albedo had elevated himself to a second-story balcony with a Solar Isotoma. He ran along a section of window ledges and leaped to deliver a downward plunging attack, landing on Paarl’s back. Unfortunately, his swordblade found no real flesh to pierce, and it simply grated along the monster’s spinal column and ribs before lodging in the gristle. Still, Paarl bucked to get the alchemist off, hurling its body into the nearby building. The wind-knocking blow left him stunned and crumpled against the window where Paarl bashed him, and while Albedo’s defense could take it, he felt less confident when the Revenant turned its attention his way. Grunting in exertion, he leaped down from the second story to the ground just as the rockets blew the window -and surrounding section of wall- to smithereens. Several voices could be heard screaming from inside.

Band rose from where he’d fallen with a groan, more angry that he’d tripped himself up than hurt, and found Paarl coming straight toward him. He blocked its toothy lunge and reeled back, from the close-up view of its grotesque, weirdly-human face almost as much as the force. As he slid he grabbed the trash can that tripped him and slammed it against Paarl’s face like a beer bottle in a bar brawl. It recoiled, and Band risked a glance in the direction his fellow officer had flown. “Lucia!?” She’d smacked into another street lamp and bent it from the impact, and while she was on her feet again he saw her clutching her back in pain. That impact broke the street lamp, too, and to make matters worse, a mob of skeletons seemed to be coming up behind her. This street is too narrow, Band realized. There wasn’t enough room to maneuver around these monsters, there was too much stuff in the way, and with two lights out the dark of night was beginning to retake it, too.

The bad news didn’t stop there. A blonde man appeared in the destroyed section of wall, and though in his nightclothes he wielded a fire staff and the determination to protect his family. “Fireball!” he yelled, aiming at Paarl.

“Wait!” Band reached out his hand.

Too late. Aren’s fireball burst against the monster’s dried-out hide, and while it did some damage it also triggered Paarl’s enmity. The monster lunged upward at him and snatched him from the window by the arm with its jaws, hurling him into the ground. He barely got the chance to howl in pain before Paarl dragged his claws through him. Immediately, the poor soul began to resurrect as a skeleton, his staff held tight in his deathgrip.

Band growled in anger, but he knew he couldn’t let it go to his head. “We have to move!” he yelled to the others. “We can’t fight here, there’s too much collateral!”

He spent the meter on another Super Sonic Jazz, clipping both Paarl and the Revenant as he blasted past them . Once the blaze of glory ended he slid to a stop, looking over his shoulder just long enough to confirm that he’d gotten the monsters’ attention. The Revenant bellowed in anger, and with a screech Paarl launched after him, smashing through whatever clutter happened to be in its way as it chased him down. “Hoo, boy,” Band sighed in resignation. Too late to back out now.

“That’s right, follow me!” Turning back to the road ahead, he leaned forward and began to play. Sound streamed from his back and his legs to propel him down the street, allowing him to pick up speed as he ground across the cobblestones and even up stairs, somehow. Paarl rampaged along behind him, growing ever closer, but the twists and turns in Band’s path made it smash into the walls a few times on the turns. Explosions went off behind him as the Revenant shot its rockets, but Band buckled down and forged ahead. The further he went in this somber borough, the darker and more foreboding the architecture seemed to get, and the more skeletons he found. Band made sure to choose the path with more undead each time, plowing straight through them when necessary, until the chase brought him up a couple flights of stairs and through a fancy wrought-iron gate. In front of him lay a circular monument plaza surrounded by the tall, grim buildings of Edinburgh Magicapolis. The clouds had parted, and that old devil moon shone down on the sinuous, sparking bones of Darkbeast Paarl as it crashed through the gates behind him, followed shortly by the Revenant. “Plenty of room to dance.” As Band turned around, he spotted Albedo and Lucia dropping down into the plaza on a different side, having taken to the rooftops to bypass the labyrinth as they followed the commotion. Then ran over, and the Seekers faced the monsters together. “Let’s see ‘em off.”

World of Light

Midgar - Seiran Hideout

Level 5 Goldlewis (66/50)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Karin and Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Pit’s @Yankee, Raz’s @Truthhurts22, Roxas’ @Double, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Tora, Giovanna
Word Count: 3238

Once Goldlewis delivered his account of all that transpired in the last few hours, the discussion opened up to everybody, and it went on for some time. A primary concern for Blazermate and Susie was the fate of their fellow machine, Poppi. Goldlewis couldn’t give them an answer about the fallout of a Guardian’s defeat, having never witnessed one himself, or the nature of Consuls in Midgar, but he urged Susie to temper her expectations. A master hacker she might be, but the systems of the city computer Arahabaki were almost certainly going to be psy-tech. After hearing about Happy Chaos, Geralt offered some interesting insight on a similar phenomenon from his home world, comparing a Source to the Original. Zenkichi went in-depth on the man behind the curtain, Akira Konoe, sharing not just his methodology but his twisted origin story. Though this shed some light on PubSec’s big boss, it didn’t change how Goldlewis felt; ‘sympathetic’ was not always ‘redeemable’.

Roxas chimed in with some dirt on old enemies from his world as well, the original Organization XIII. He didn’t see this new version as anything different, and he didn’t see why anyone would choose to serve as a Consul in the World of Light. Goldlewis could think of a dozen easy answers, some of which Raz and Midna alluded to after the Twilight Princess summed up a few problems that the Seekers needed to attend to, including the Supernatural Life Research Facility. She pointed out that, when it came to the Organization, the enemy of one’s enemy ought to be a friend. That matched up with the veteran’s experience so far, with the Organization members helping to point both the desert team and city team in the right direction, however cryptically. That unlocking power Roxas boasted of would definitely come in handy, though–provided that the entrance to the place C called ‘the Twinning’ lay behind something as simple as a lock.

While Goldlewis wouldn’t call the notion of helping Konoe deal with his psychological issues one of them, Raz brought up some good points about the Psych-OSF. He and Sakura already had an ‘in’ to the organization, but his familiarity and prior experience with Truman Zanotto sounded like a big deal. Though, being Scarlet Guardians meant fulfilling the duty and accountability that accompanied that role. Raz and Sakura had been absent ever since the joint operation ended, and for all Goldlewis knew, the two might already be marked down as Absent Without Leave, and he mentioned as much. “Goin’ AWOL is a huge deal. In the US you’ll get a warrant out for your arrest after thirty days, but it might be different here. Even if there ain’t charges, they might not letcha outta their sights again if y’all go back, and we need all hands on deck bright and early tomorrow mornin’.”

As Karin and Sakura went off for some late-night fighting, the veteran sighed, rolling his neck. “Now that we know where the Guardian is, and we got a rough idea of how to get there, it’s temptin’ to bum rush the Shinra Buildin’ first thing in the mornin’,” he said. “But like Midna and Raz said, we got a billion things we oughta look after. The minute we march on Shinra, we’ll have Peace Preservation, General Affairs, Psych-OSF, and Vandelay too, all ready to rip us limb from limb. Then we got DespoRHado to deal with, Supernatural Life, and who even knows how Neuron, the Machine bosses, and Reunion factor into all this. We can’t afford to go off half-cocked. So we’ll do like C said, and wait. Rest up folks, ‘cause tomorrow, we gotta be ready for anythin’.” Goldlewis then stepped away, his face dour. The worst part of all this was that Pit was right. Even if the Seekers destroyed the Guardian, Midgar would be far from saved. Indeed, its troubles would just be getting started.

For the first time in a good long while, it looked like Goldlewis would be spending the night away from home. It wasn’t much, considering the heights to which he’d risen in his political career, but his little house in Sector 07 was precious to him. No matter how hard the day got, no matter how bitter or complicated, he could still retreat to the privacy, peace, and quiet of the one spot in this cruel world he could call his own. Unfortunately, the same audacious look that made him so enviably stylish also made him innately recognizable, and if any of the Seekers’ enemies identified Goldlewis Dickinson while he was out and about these last few days, it wouldn’t be that hard to find out where he lived. So here he was. After going through his usual ritual of disassembling his layered, highly accessorized outfit, he’d donned a tank top and shorts, then laid himself down in his military-style cot after moving it well away from the others. In a way, its spartan embrace almost nostalgic. But even if he’d been able to sink into the soothing memory foam of his California King, Goldlewis doubted he’d be able to sleep. Even if he didn’t show it, tonight’s events had rocked him. Midgar was a vast and varied tapestry, full of loose threads just waiting to be pulled, but tonight the debate -and the interview that followed it- had slashed open the cloth. A million thoughts ran through his head, and though too weary to start grasping them, Goldlewis couldn’t fall asleep either. After a time spent lying awake, he heaved a heavy sigh and went outside to get some air.

Goldlewis leaned on the railing, staring out across the Sector 07 undercity. Though he couldn’t see the night sky from here, he could still feel a breeze in his hair. Down by the reservoir it might be a stagnant, toxic mess, a foul miasma of pollution and decay, but up here the air was clear. It blew in from the southwestern mountains and wove between the skyscrapers of Seiran like the trees of a massive, concrete forest, its colorful leaves the flags, windsocks, and hanging lanterns found all over the connective bridges and walkways. The scale of this place, complete with its own infrastructure and culture, boggled the mind, and yet it formed just one sixteenth of this unimaginable city. In a place like Midgar, even a very big man could feel very small. Especially with such a big day ahead of him.

He heard the hideout’s front door creak, then a familiar voice. “Wow, I didn’t think I’d actually find someone out here.”

Goldlewis looked over, not alarmed. Giovanna crossed her arms and leaned herself against the wall, a mildly amused smile on her face. Rei lay at her feet. Thanks to the secret agent’s equatorial upbringing, her idea of comfort in a climate like this tended to be a sweater and sweatpants. “In movies, shows, games, you name it, whenever everyone goes to sleep, there’s always that one guy that goes off and stares into the distance. Then someone else shows up and they have a secret, important conversation.”

The veteran chuckled, looking back down at the Reservoir. Far below, its muddy depths pulsed with the synchronized luminescence of the Psifish. “Well, I can’t think of anythin’ important to say. You?”

“Nah. We don’t have enough in common.” Giovanna walked up and leaned over the railing beside him. A few moments passed by in silence. “Hm.” She rested her cheek in her hand. “It’s pretty nice out.”

“...Sure is.”

“Not as nice as Iguazu.”

“Iguazu?”

“You never heard of Iguazu, dude?” Giovanna nudged him with her elbow, an incredulous look on her face. “Iguazu Falls, in Brazil. Right next to Argentina. The biggest set of waterfalls in the whole world. It’s amazing. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“...Sounds mighty fine. I oughta go sometime.”

“You better. You’ve seen so much ugliness. You’ve gotta get out there and see that the world’s beautiful, too.”

“...Yeah, well…okay. Well then, you better go visit Yellowstone sometime.”

“Huh? Why?”

“America can be beautiful too.”

“Hah. If you say so.”

“I do say so!”

“Okay, okay, jeez. First thing tomorrow morning. I’ll send you a postcard, ‘kay?”

“Fine. I’ll wrangle you up a souvenir from the Falls, then. One o’ them li’l wooden gorillas or somethin’.”

“There aren’t any gorillas in Brazil, dude.”

“Whuh!? Well, whaddya want, then?”

“Anything’s good. Just don’t get fleeced at the shops. You’ve gotta know how to haggle.”

“Aw, I hate hagglin’. Why can’t folks just say what they really want up front?”

“Man, you’re hopeless.”

---

As usual, Goldlewis woke up bright and early, though in sunless Seiran it was still dark. Some days he felt like he could just drowse in bed all morning, but even if his accommodations were comfortable enough, today wasn’t one of those days. He cleaned himself up, assembled his iconic outfit, and got something to eat. Milk spoiled fast, but with this many people he’d judged it a wise purchase, so with that and some instant oatmeal he made breakfast. With a little brown sugar as the finishing touch, and freshly-brewed black coffee to wash it down, Goldlewis seated himself in the breakfast to start the brand new day off right. It was six fifty-nine.

Just as the hungry veteran raised his first spoonful of oats to his mouth, a magic glyph sprang into existence by his head, filling the hideout with an urgent tone. “Whoa, nelly!” Goldlewis yelped, fumbling his spoon in panic. The oatmeal splattered down on his tie, and the spoon clunked against the floor the next instant. Groaning, he reached for a napkin to wipe himself off, and answered the call. “Hello?”

“Ah, Mr. Dickinson,” a woman’s voice replied. “Just the man I was hoping to reach.”

The voice was low, flat, no-nonsense, and completely unknown to him, putting him instantly on alert. He rose from his chair with such suddenness that he accidentally shoved the table forward. When he looked at Giovanna, he saw that she’d received and accepted the same call, but said nothing. They shared a nod before he responded. “Who is this? How’d you get my number?”

“I am the mission control administrator, chief communications officer, and android legion commander for DespoRHado Enforcement, LLC. In order to reach you, I used my telecommunications power to hail every endpoint for magical communication in Midgar, in hopes of reaching you. Hear me well: I mean neither you nor your organization any harm. I merely come bearing poignant information, as well as what you might consider a vital opportunity.”

Goldlewis had already narrowed his eyes. While his first instinct was one of exasperation, he recognized a lead when he saw it, so he bit his tongue, swallowed, and replied evenly. “Go on.”

“Thanks to Shinra’s official announcement of his intent to replace DespoRHado with Vandelay Technologies as Midgar’s Machine Defense contractor, DespoRHado’s leadership has decided to move against Vandelay, effective immediately. As we speak, a massive assault force, led by the Winds of Destruction, is assaulting the Vandelay Campus. If you move quickly, you may be able to intercede, and make of two of Midgar’s strongest organizations what you will–be it allies or ashes.”

For a second Goldlewis gaped. His mind was already racing, and he wasted no time locking eyes with Midna. Thanks to her portal, the team could get back to Vandelay Campus in a flash. Before they did anything, though, there was something the veteran needed to know. “Why are you tellin’ us this?”

“The winds of change, Mr. Dickinson,” the stranger replied. “For a long time, DespoRHado has been more focused on its enemies within Midgar than those without. I have attempted to remedy that. My initiatives have succeeded in transitioning the company toward Androids and Unmanned Gears, made not to suppress men, but Machines. DespoRHado can win the fight for humanity, but not under the Winds of Destruction. Of course, I cannot allow Vandelay to crush us, either. Both must be brought to heel, and no better time than while they’re busy fighting one another. I have reached out to you because my countless eyes have witnessed your Special Operations Unit in action, both in Midgar and beyond, still fighting the good fight, while the rest of Midgar fights among themselves. If you choose to take Midgar’s future into your hands, meet me in Circuit Royal as soon as possible.”

The line went dead. Goldlewis stared at the gathered Seekers. Was this what C meant by ‘next morning’? If Vandelay and DepoRHado were really going to war, today was starting with one hell of a bang. “We can’t ignore this,” he said. “This is our chance to either get some vital chess pieces off the board, or get them on our side. Not just for the good of our mission, but for Midgar. Plus, if we left ‘em alone, whoever wins would end up strong enough to be a right thorn in our collective be-hinds if they got half a mind to.” He grabbed his coffin by the chain and hoisted it over shoulder, ready for action. “Let’s mosey.”

As the hideout turned into a flurry of activity, Tora got busy making preparations as well. This was his chance to get hands-on with the leaders of Midgar’s technological revolution. Even if he couldn’t do much on his own, he was determined to take any chance that might get him closer to a future with Poppi in it. Not knowing who it was who reached out to Goldlewis, Tora could only imagine that destiny was calling–and it would be rude to not say ‘hello’ back.

---

When the team emerged from Midna’s twilight portal and rushed out of the dumpster-ridden backlot, they found a very different Circuit Royal waiting for them than the one they experienced last night. Most glaringly, its jumbo parking lot was now dominated by an enormous, hulking transport ship. Goldlewis also quickly noticed that the devastation that had befallen this place, with the broken-down wrecks of dozens of Vandelay robots -primarily SBR units- littering the scene, many reduced to little more than scrap metal and sparking spare parts. Circuit Royal’s facades and fixtures had been perforated by gunfire and blown apart by excessive force; everything lay in wartorn disarray. Goldlewis guessed that the DespoRHado ship, which itself must have been laying in wait for just such a day as this, had landed and taken the basic security teams completely by surprise, overwhelming them before moving into the campus itself. The echoed sounds of fighting off in the distance were the proof in the pudding. Weirdest of all, though, was the sky. Goldlewis hadn’t seen it while in Seiran, but it was dark and overcast. The oily Extinction Belt shimmered threateningly among the clouds, stronger than ever, giving the whole sky a dark, ominous, almost alien appearance. It looked like a good day for bad stuff to happen.

Since the Seekers arrived, the androids and Unmanned Gears guarding the ship had focused on them, but made no move to attack. After a few moments, the bay doors of the transport ship began to open. Goldlewis bristled, ready for an ambush with his coffin primed to shield everyone with a Wall of Light. Down the ramps strode a retinue of androids, two teams of two. The first pair seemed doll-like, one male and one female, the former with a kind expression and the latter showing nothing but callous indifference. The other two, clad in black and blindfolded, regarded the newcomers with stern wariness. All four sported katanas and paper-white hair, but none seemed eager to fight just yet. Goldlewis focused more on the figure that floated behind them: a very tall, very pale woman with short silver hair, its strands curved and sharp as the blades of her android attendants. She wore a sleeveless collared crop top under a suit vest, a massive gold-trimmed white longcoat worn off her shoulders, and at least five black belts with pale gold buckles over curious white pants with attached high-heeled shoes. In her red-tinted black eyes gleamed bright green power symbols instead of pupils, and an elaborate halo floated above her head.

“Greetings.” Goldlewis recognized her voice as his mystery contact from earlier. “I am Sandalphon. These units are Mascula, Laxi, 9S, and 2B. If you’re here to decide Midgar’s future, I am here to help.”

Goldlewis did not allow himself to relax just yet. “You’re puttin’ an awful lot of faith in us, stranger. Why?”

“Out of all of Midhgar’s leaders, I believe only Vernon had his heart in the right place. One would have to be a fool to believe that either Shinra or Armstrong, or the PMCs that back them, offer a true way forward for humanity,” Sandalphon answered matter-of-factly. “Neither Vandelay nor DespoRHado as they are can be allowed to survive. As Vernon’s trusted friends, I trust you will all do what you must. If diplomacy fails, I will be content to pick up the pieces, and forge a better DespoRHado from them.”

After a moment, Goldlewis nodded. “With so many key players gathered in one place, we can’t afford to look away. So what’re we up against, Sandalphon?”

The angel nodded, and began projecting screens one at a time. “DespoRHado’s troops, primarily cyborgs, have already swept into the campus. The Vandelay robots are out in full force to stop them, but the Winds of Destruction have divided and conquered, each carving through a different sector of Vandelay campus.” Sandalphon put up an image of a volcanic cavern, laden with lava beneath high-tech bridges and platforms, with testing chambers built into the walls. “Monsoon is going after Zanzo in Research and Development to tear down the birthplace of Vandelay’s technologies.” Next came a view of a gigantic, dark purple, cylindrical room, full of moving lasers. “Mistral is ascending through Security to nullify the head of Vandelay’s resistance, Korsica.” She then put up a shot of the campus’s centerpiece, the grand, lavish atrium. “Khamsin marches on Finance to prove to Roquefort that there’s no price tag on freedom.” She projected a view of colorful factories, with fast-paced assembly lines and giant contraptions. “Our boss Sundowner is targeting Production, specifically its boss Rekka, to bring Vandelay’s output of robots to a screeching halt.” She projected a view of a tall, imposing-looking tower. “And Jetstream Sam is in pursuit of the CEO himself, Kale Vandelay.”

Goldlewis stroked his whiskers, thinking quickly. “Sounds like we need to split up too. Catch up to our VIPs before they start wipin’ each other out, and deal with ‘em ourselves.” Himself, Roxas, Raz, Midna, Geralt, Zenkichi, Sakura, Karin, Susie, Giovanna, Tora, Pit, Roland, and Blazermate made about fifteen. Just about enough to send exactly three to each Vandelay division. “I got a bone to pick with your boss Sundowner, so I’m headin’ to Production.”

“Tora go to R&D!” the Nopon piped up, his agenda about as plain as could be.

Giovanna thought for only a moment. “Seems like Security could use a few pointers.”

Once everyone decided, Sandalphon gave a nod of approval. “I can link up with you now and communicate between all five teams here, with no issues. The difference between victory and defeat is measured by just one metric: intelligence. Now hurry. I can provide additional intel en route, and we don’t have a moment to lose.”

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (216/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Ichiban’s @Truthhurts22, Omori’s [@Majoras End], Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2081

As one might expect, the proud and outspoken royals were the first few Seekers to accept Nadia’s invitation to share a little about themselves. Having seen only the tail end of the Dead Zone, Sectonia instead recounted Yellow Team’s ordeal in the great eastern desert, specifically its climactic railroad boss battle against a gruesome grub of immense proportions. Though she could picture both a train and a gun in her mind, Nadia couldn’t quite put them together, especially when it came to a firearm capable of shooting rails. She wanted to see such a magnificent contraption for herself, or at least hear more about it, but the subject seemed to hold no further interest for Sectonia. Instead the big bug turned her mind to confections and conquest. While she briefly mentioned another fight in the desert, she shared barely any details. A queen she might be, but a storyteller she was not. Therion filled in a few details for her, though, mentioning the Seekers’ arduous ascent -and the ensuing breakneck descent- at Split Mountain.

Sectonia also decided to use this time to make the other Seekers ‘beautiful’. Of course, she didn’t actually do anything; instead, she assigned that task to her antlions. Even if the mooks came armed with tools or product of any kind, however, they lacked any semblance of aesthetic sense as well as the dexterity to act upon it. In the end, they just ended up bugging everyone. Chewing on a pizza slice, Nadia shooed away the one that approached her, unafraid to answer its insistence with disproportionate force. “Hey, hands off the merchandise!”

Throughout the pizza-making and the meal so far Nadia didn’t pay much attention to Kamek’s attempts to placate the Pizza Trolls. Not until their displeasure at the conga line of unsatisfactory pizzas rose to such a level that Arno somehow managed to muster up enough force to smash the Magikoopa’s minions sky-high through unimaginable quantities of solid rock. The feral blinked in astonishment, her mouth hanging open. “Did…I’m not seein’ things, right?” When Arno treated everyone to a repeat performance, she could only conclude that she hadn’t been. Swallowing, Nadia scooted a little farther away from the irate trolls to finish her pizza, keeping a wary eye on the trio the whole time.

After that slightly terrifying revelation, Bowser proceeded to tell a tale of his own. He revealed that he’d been there at the very beginning, not just of the Seekers’ campaign in the World of Light, but prior to that as well. His story placed him at ground zero of the reality-level extinction event that Galeem unleashed. Captivated by Bowser's account of Kirby, the sole survivor, and his fateful encounter on Precipice Knoll, Nadia listened at rapt attention, not even eating for the few minutes it took for the king to shed some light on how this whole campaign got started. At its end, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sounds like things have been screwed up since the very start,” she muttered. While some of the details sailed over her head, like the exchange between Bowser and his son about events in the even more distant past at the end, most of the details fell right into place. “You’re sayin’ your first memories were a Consul controllin’ ya and forcin’ ya to fight this poor little Kirby guy? Yeesh. The way you say it, it sounds like the only reason we’re here to begin with is pure, dumb luck.” From that one fateful encounter, a chain of events had spiraled outward across the World of Light, sweeping up all kinds of people in its wake. Even her. If not for Blazermate, Banjo & Kazooie, Ratchet & Clank, Nero, and Nico, she would’ve probably died in the Dead Zone like so many others.

After Bowser’s conclusion, Ganondorf glommed on to his tale, revealing that he too had been there to witness the obliteration of reality at Galeem’s hands. Nadia wondered if that made the two of them special somehow, and just who else might have been there at the start of it all. Of course, the sorcerer’s reminiscence about his experience in the World of Light lasted nowhere near as long. “Oh…right,” Nadia muttered, a little embarrassed to have prompted the King of Evil for anecdotes when he’d spent most of his time chained to a giant egg.

Primrose briefly pointed out something that seemed a lot more important than anyone was willing to admit: the timeline. The memories of some Seekers extended a lot farther back than others, and many of them featured gaps. Nadia couldn’t explain it, but it made her uneasy. If the Asgore fellow the Ash Lake contingent mentioned before had answers, she wanted to see him in person when this underground adventure came to an end, too.

Jesse and Artorias chimed into the general conversation, while Rubick and Omori maintained a tacit silence. Not remembering if she’d already given the knight her name, Nadia introduced herself. “You can call me Ms. Fortune!” Finally, it was time. Pushing the remains of her food away, Nadia held her fist in front of her mouth and cleared her throat dramatically. “Well, my story begins in Carnival Town, way up on the northern shore of the Sandswept Sky, even farther than the giant mountain with the split peak. I was pretty happy there. Life was pretty easy, just sambas and siestas day in, day out. It was nice and all, sure, but I dunno. Just never really clicked for me. Then one night, a strange wagon train showed up in town. Nobody even saw it come in, it just appeared, straight outta thin air. The Zombie Caravan, home to a troop of wanderin’ undead. They turned out to be decent folks, and after chattin’ with ‘em, I decided I wanted to get outta Carnival Town and see the world. So I joined ‘em, and every night the Caravan appeared somewhere new. Partyin’ in Tostarena Town, skydivin’ in Skyworld, Al Mamoon, Gerudo Town, a haunted mansion, the circus, you name it. It was an amazin’ couple months, just travelin’ place to place, makin’ all kinds of friends, seein’ everythin’ the world had to offer. That caravan was the cat’s meow. Until we showed up…in Redgraccoon City.”

Nadia chuckled, her dramatic pause ruined. “Dang, I was hopin’ to say it with a straight face, but that name’s too funny. Still, what happened was no joke. We got overrun by mindless zombies. All the good people of the Caravan ripped apart. I tried to help ‘em, but…” Nadia faltered for a moment, a little choked up, then shook her head and continued with a grim look on her face. “I had to go. I ran and ran. Fightin’ all the time. Until I heard guns goin’ off and found my way to the Police Station. Not knowin’...that it was cursed.” Trying to seem upbeat again, she spread her hands wide in dramatic fashion. “The minute I stepped through the fog, I was trapped. No choice but to fight alongside the survivors there as wave after wave of zombies kept crashin’ in.”

“Dunno how long it was. Days? Weeks?” She’d truly lost track of time during that miserable period. Forget fighting the hordes–even keepin’ a smile on her face for the sake of the others had been a grueling battle. “But we held out. Eventually the Seekers showed up, and you guys helped us solve the mystery. The thing trappin’ us there was a giant ghost called a Preta, tall as the station itself, but with a mouth the size of a pinhole, and hidden away in some kinda warped space. It was starvin’, so to get rid of it, we needed to make it some rice. After that we were dyin’ to get out of there, literally, ‘cause just as we got packed up and ready to leave, the mother of all hordes showed up. We made a break for it, fleein’ through the city ‘til we made it to this big tower. We woulda been trapped there too, but Blazermate’s teleporter got us all out.” Nadia smiled. “Course, I ended up goin’ back later, but that’s a story for another time. And Bowser there knows how it ended, anyway. We all lived happily ever after~” Now that was a joke. Snickering, Nadia fell silent, more or less satisfied with her story. She’d omitted everything to do with the Skull Heart, but the fewer people knew about that, the better. If only she’d been able to sneak in more puns.

After concluding breakfast and packing up all the food they could for the road while Sectonia’s antlions took care of the Deluxe Camping Set, the team prepared to depart Pizza Tower for parts unknown. Thanks to Primrose, the Seekers knew just how to do it, too. Unfortunately, it also seemed pretty obvious that the big boss the Pizza Trolls alluded to would be in the team’s way. As Barnabee pointed out, if Pizza Face was as big a deal as his employees made him out to be, chances were good that he’d have a mask fragment, so the Seekers couldn’t afford to let him slide. Everyone armed and readied themselves to face a new day, practically guaranteed to be just as full of fighting as the last. When Nadia and the others made their way to the hall marked ‘staff only’, they discovered the ‘210’ room just as the dancer described it.

“Alright!” she smiled, tightening her belt. Her bait launcher, Athame dagger, and boxcutter hilts were all ready to go, and after both a nice swim and a hearty meal in Pizza Tower she felt like a million bucks. “Who’s ready for a piece-a Pizza Face?”

When the team proceeded through the doorway, they appeared at the top of a grand, fantastical tower. Thick columns carved by ancient hands surrounded it, sizable stretches of threadbare cloth hung between them, and forked pillars rose around it in groups of three like raised spears. It seemed to protrude from the floor of a large, stony alcove, surrounded on three sides by solid stone and shaded by an equally formidable overhang. On the last side, however, the tower overlooked yet another utterly massive cavern, this one mostly vertical, a pit of unimaginable proportions. On the near side side lay a primarily sheer wall, with countless spigots extruding from its stony face to pour down runoff water from the Home of Tears and the Royal Waterways beneath. The far side seemed to be a vast mosaic of huge, circular shells, stacked and wedged together like the stones of some primeval cairn, with the leafless white branches of long-dead trees reaching out like ghostly fingers from the cracks between them. Somehow, an ethereal white light poured down from above, and every so often a dark shape would plummet past. Before the Seekers lay the Forsaken Lands, the resting place of the Termite Capitol.

Before they could venture any farther, however, the boss of Pizza Tower awaited. Nadia’s ears flicked, alerting her to a strange being descending from above. She looked up to see none other than the aptly-named Pizza Face floating down toward the team, his nefarious green pepper grin, mustache, and eyebrows complimented by evil pepperoni eyes atop a gluey, oozing slab of cheese-slathered crust, with a bulbous mushroom nose to top it all off. He said nothing, but swelled into a hideous leer, his eyes morphing into pineapple rings as he grew extra mushroom teeth. A horrific laugh resounded through the still air, sweeping through the Seekers to echo across the Forsaken Lands.

By the time it finished, Nadia was laughing, too. “What, no chit-chat or monologue? Just gettin’ right to the point, huh?”

In reply, Pizza Face belted out a handful of enemies, including ooey-gooey Cheeseslimes, armored Forknights, grimacing stone Mini Johns, prod-wielding Water Workers, googly-eyed Bad Rats, brutish porcine Piglins, killer Peppibots, rocket-propelled Fridge Bots, and other foes faced individually by the Seekers throughout Pizza Tower. The battle was on.