Lugubrious

Caravan: An Episodic Fantasy with Worldbuilding! [Always Accepting]

I'm happy to hear that you've recovered. The original RP had a lot of promise and garnered a lot of interest, and you disappearing was a heartbreaker. I find myself in a busier than usual season for RPing, since I'm currently in two extra RPs compared to my usual none, but I'll like to give this another shot. However, I would not be applying as Hoogarth if so. As much as I liked that idea, I'm already playing several fools in other RPs, and I've recently had a better idea cooking that I wanted to put into practice somewhere.

Legend of Benkei

Sinmara

For a solid moment, it seemed to Sinmara like Fae was going to rain on her parade. It wouldn’t have surprised her if he did, since his appearance and demeanor all suggested that he belonged to some stuffy, self-important intellectual caste, so focused on intellectualism and ‘progress’ that there was simply no time for quaint notions like ‘fun’. By this point, the huntress was also somewhat used to rejection; few people ever bothered to humor her, let alone actively engage with her, so her efforts to drum up enthusiasm in situations like this typically fell flat. It was to her surprise, then, that even as Fae verbally decried the idea of such immature tomfoolery, his body sprang into action. He proceeded to launch himself up after her, and though the strength of his mechanical limbs naturally fell somewhat short compared to her incredible physical might, his ascent was still an impressive feat of engineering. When Fae casually joined her on the upper deck, she extended her hand for a fist-bump with a smile on her face. “You’re alright!”

Less alright was the remainder of the entourage. Marissa willfully abstained from enjoying herself, using the chance to bolster her ego. With her arms crossed, Sinmara watched her rival amble up the ramp, shaking her head in exaggerated disappointment. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Guess we all know who’s the rotten egg in this situation,” she said aloud, her lack of inner dialogue still in full display. Still, the others didn’t even give her that much. Once it became clear that none intended to board with any fanfare, Sinmara gave up and turned away from the railing, not even really caring if the rest embarked with her or not. After all, this was her big adventure, and she didn’t need any extras dragging her down.

Very soon, the ship began to move. Distracted by the grand vistas of the surrounding sea and land that being so high up afforded to her, Sinmara didn’t even notice until the scenery began to move around her. “Whoa,” she breathed. “I can’t even feel it! How’s something so big moving so quiet?” Full of energy, she sprinted toward the battleship’s bow, her huge ponytail trailing behind her in the salty sea breeze like a black-and-white flag as she ran. When she reached the very front, she clamped one hand on the railing and leaned out over it, one fist extended in emulation of a classic ship’s figurehead. “Finally, we’re going places!” she crowed, her Heart of Darkness pumping with exhilaration. After all this time, the huntress was finally embarking on her first real adventure. No more random hunts or fetch quests–this was an epic journey to save the world! Or something like that. The final destination didn’t matter as much as the road to get there, and on a campaign of this scale, Sinmara just knew there would be oodles of suitably epic battles

Sinmara could already picture it in her head. An island home to all manner of evil, awash in perpetual storm clouds and darkness, infested with terrifying monsters. Towering cyclopean giants, abyssal leviathans, horrific spiders, ghouls and goblins, and majestic dragons. What was a quest without dragons, after all? She imagined herself leading her band of adventurers through haunted forests, pitch-black caves, and lava valleys, overcoming challenge after challenge in style. Then they’d finally arrive at the impregnable citadel, where the Denizens of the Damned (who would logically be demons, based on the name) amassed in droves, armed to the teeth and outnumbering the heroes a hundred to one. The image came easily of herself wading through the battlefield, waist-deep in enemies, cheerfully comparing her kill count to that of Fae (who’d be doing well without even trying) and Marissa (who’d be bringing up the rear despite all her bluster, yikes!). Then after cresting a mountain of bodies, she’d slide right down using a demon as a surfboard in order to blow apart the citadel’s gates with a single mighty punch. Finally, they’d run into the Demon Lord of the Damned, a huge red devil with bat wings, a forked tail, and horns almost as cool as hers. What a fight that would be! Destruction waves, dive kicks, blocking blows that could crush cars, sawing through limbs twice her size, and just when the Demon Lord seemed defeated, he’d molt down to a true form the same size as Sinmara for the final showdown, fist to fist! After the brawl to end all brawls, they’d clash one final time, coming together with such ferocity and power that the amazed onlookers couldn’t even tell who hit who. But then they’d see: the True Demon Lord’s punch had barely missed, while hers struck true! Cue the dramatic death scene, ominous final words hinting at a still greater threat, and then a big explosion. Finally, a feast with all her loving fans, bathed in the attention and fame she’d always deserved!

The ship’s horn suddenly snapped Sinmara out of her starstruck daydream. She blinked rapidly, readjusting to reality. No victory feast. No Demon Lord. No mammoth citadel. No legendary monsters. No perilous island. At least, not yet. Just the blue sky and the blue sea, stretching all the way out to the horizon. Sinmara sank down onto the railing dejectedly, bent over it like laundry on a clothesline, and stared down at the waves. This was going to be a long, long boat ride.

“Wait.” After a minute, she perked up, her brows raised and her eyes wide. “The hell am I moping around for? I’ve got super strong people I can fight!” Pumping her fists, the huntress turned around and took off running. It was time to do laps around the battleship, and the moment she saw any of her fellow weapon finders, it was Go Time.

World of Light

Quarantine Valley - Empty Lot

Level 6 Goldlewis (84/60) Level 4 Sandalphon (49/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man
Word Count: 1667

With their numbers bolstered, at least for now, the Seekers engaged the gang of protolegions. Despite appearances, these were no ordinary chimeras; the fact that these normal, seemingly uncorrupted Lupo could see them was proof positive of that. Goldlewis knew that disaster was continuing to unfold in the background as the Redshift Cascade swept across the outskirts of Quarantine Valley, corrupting everything in its path. Yet he had no choice but to focus on the threat directly in front of him, praying that this stepping-stone would bring the Seekers one step closer to the answers they’d been searching for.

Nine protolegions, eight Seekers, two tenuous allies. With Blazermate and Sandalphon on support duty, the fighters were slightly outnumbered. These enemies fought with more intelligence and cohesion than one might expect, forcing their opponents to answer in kind. Still, with the buffs from False Promise and plentiful healing on their side, the Seekers had every advantage.

Penance took the fight to a big protolegion immediately, putting her thorny flail against its enormous cleaver-arms. Protected by a thorny barrier for 40% of her max HP, she attacked with a ferocity that flew in the face of her drab, stately appearance. That gave Roland the chance to flank it and start laying on the damage with quick strikes from dual-wielded weapons. In turn, that allowed Penance to charge up and then unleash her Last Word technique, a withering downward lash that dealt 200% damage and stunned the astral butcher more than long enough for Roland to finish it off.

One protolegion, wielding a shield for one arm and a grisly spiked mace head on the other, put up its defense and charged Blazermate’s turret to take it down before it could rack up any more damage. Goldlewis decided to lend a hand. He ran in and intercepted the protolegion with a shoulder barge. From there, a far slash knocked it back just a touch, and a down-forward-up Behemoth Typhoon popped it off its feet. Normally that would’ve been the end of a combo, but at that moment Vigil vaulted over him with an impressive flip, firing his revolvers at the protolegion while upside-down throughout the arc of his jump. The bullets kept the monster juggled, allowing Goldlewis to get down and launch it even higher with a slow but powerful crouching heavy kick. While Vigil landed, Goldlewis canceled into a back-up-forward Behemoth Typhoon to smash the protolegion down with a ground bounce. Once again the gunslinger swooped in to extend the combo, this time sliding along the ground and emptying his revolvers upward. From there, a tremendous coffin swing spelled the protolegion’s end.

Goldlewis planted his coffin beside him and wiped his brow. “Mighty fancy gunplay you got there, partner,” he said, nodding at Vigil.

The young man allowed himself a half-smile as he reloaded his revolvers with an expert hand. “Not too bad yourself, old-timer.”

Of course, the next moment a blazing arrow from a bow protolegion destroyed Blazermate’s turret, anyway. Without a word the two men advanced, charging through the melee toward the back lines. One protolegion with giant claws turned their way. Vigil nimbly dodged around, but it managed to catch Goldlewis in its flurry of berserk slashes, only for a purgatory ghost from Blazermate to swoop in and blow it back. Goldlewis dashed in, knocked it off its feet with a crouching kick into sweep, then brought his coffin down in another Behemoth Typhoon to send his attacker tumbling away.

Roland and Zenkichi were now working together, their blades pitted against those of two very aggressive protolegions, but as soon as one gained some ground missiles from Susie turned things back in Zenkichi’s favor. He wasted no time obliterating his foe with his Persona. At the same time, Penance had moved into the middle of the brawl to use Stoic Atonement, exchanging her ability to attack for a damage-reducing Sanctuary and constant pulses of crushing force around her. By targeting the protolegions’ knees, Karin kept her enemies inside Penance’s crumplezone where Geralt and Susie could carve them up, one axe-wielder in particular. When Roland whipped out a scythe and beat out the attack of the remaining dualblade protolegion, the monster rounded on Karin unsuccessfully and got sent back toward its original opponent for mopping up. Then, without missing a beat, the street fighter dealt with the clawed protolegion softened up by Goldlewis and Stoic Atonement seconds earlier. Despite her help, Roland couldn’t catch a break, and right after he finished off his opponent one showed up with an enormous curved greatsword to catch him by surprise with a spinning slash. Susie came to the rescue for him too, leaving the big-fisted protolegion she’d opened up for Geralt in order to get the attention of Roland’s attacker. By then Vigil had reached and shot up the bow protolegion somewhat, only for the situation to go sour when the monster forced him to evade with an arrow rain and then nailed him with a charge shot after his roll. Penance stopped Stoic Atonement and hurled her flail out to snatch the bow protolegion with its thorny coil, then pull it in. As it stumbled forward, Vigil clubbed it in the back of its head, then cleared the way so that Goldlewis could smash it flat. Right after he gave the protolegion pancake a shot in the head for good measure, Geralt felled the fist protolegion with a ruthless chop, and the battle was over.

Immediately, a divine pulse of healing water washed over everyone at once, restoring 51% of their maximum life and imparting a heal-over-time for an additional 13% every three seconds for the next fifteen seconds. Blazermate’s continuous single-target sustain was without parallel, but for topping up the whole team nobody compared to Sandalphon. “Excellent cooperation, everyone,” the archangel complimented the team, her feathers very much unruffled. Everyone had worked together seamlessly, helping out one another when needed, and nobody really slacked off. Zenkichi brought up the rear, with only a single kill he could claim, but everyone else pitched in for two minimum, with Roland and Geralt scoring highest. Not that she planned to give them any performance reviews (for now at least), but her eye for efficiency was as keen as ever.

Nodding in satisfaction, Goldlewis stopped his watch. “Fifty-two seconds. Not bad.” He glanced at the purple-tinged protolegion spirits, wondering if they counted as corrupted.

It was Geralt who asked the all-important question of what came next. Karin mentioned their person of interest, but she also recognized the potential obstacle in the way. When she questioned Penance, though, the Judge just gave her a tired look.

“I think we have bigger things to worry about,” she told Karin humorlessly. “The last twenty-four hours have thrown the city into crisis. The Machine attack, the debate, DespoRHado’s attempted coup, movement amongst insurrectionists, a Redshift Cascade and Other deluge within an hour of one another…”

At that, Goldlewis’ eyebrows shot up. Wait, an Other attack? Right now?

“Don’t forget all the civilian unrest!” Vigil piped up helpfully.

Penance winced at him. “It’s all building up to something, and whatever it is may very well spell disaster for Midgar as we know it.”

“Or perhaps, salvation.”

At the unfamiliar voice, everyone turned to look at the source, many with an educated guess in mind as to just who it might belong to. They directed their gazes up at a third-story balcony on the opposite side of the empty lot, where an unkempt woman with wild blonde hair and a dirty lab coat stood. It was the very person they’d been dying to meet. To either side of her stood a pallid young man, one with messy dark hair and a crossbow, and the other in white, with a deranged look of elation and a strange, technological cane.

“Jena Anderson,” Sandalphon said evenly.

“So, we finally meet,” Jena called down, her arms crossed. “A decisive victory over the protolegions. I should commend you all. If only your strength wasn’t wasted in service of a tyrannical regime, steering humanity deeper and deeper into a spiral of suffering and self-destruction. Spineless, heartless, feckless government dogs…” If looks could kill, the Turks and Goldlewis would be dead. Jena sounded like she was on the brink of despair. “And maggots in the filth, too busy preying on the weak to fathom just how far you’ve sunken.” She glared at Sandalphon and Vigil, the latter of whom just rolled his eyes. “Surely, you can’t be blind to their machinations? Their lies? Shinra, Konoe, Zanotto, Vandelay, Armstrong, and Yoseph…for all their power, not one of them has saved a single soul! How many must die before people like you wake up? Take control!?”

Gritting his teeth, Goldlewis pointed up at her. His voice was vehement, full of furious vigor. “And what about you? Sure, they’re all bastards, but how many people has Reunion killed, huh? Doomed to a slow and painful transformation into aberrated monsters? Have you even seen what’s happenin’ right this instant to Zone 09!? To the Hermits, so desperate to fight for a brighter tomorrow that you chewed ‘em up and spat ‘em out? You ain’t a lick better than anyone you mentioned, sister! So what, you figured you’d pay evil unto evil? The way I see it, you’ve taken so many eyes the whole damn world’s gone blind!”

“You’re the ones who are blind,” Jena yelled down before composing herself. “But it’s not too late for you to see for yourselves. Here!” She held up a projector that displayed an enormous screen on one side of the empty lot, allowing everyone to watch. As the Seekers looked on, an image appeared of a masked man with gray hair…

Suoh - the Otherlobe

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double, Luka, Yuito, Hanabi, Lili, Norma, Raz

All over the buildings on and within Main Street, from shops to skyscrapers to underground Other shelters, screens suddenly switched on. Whether in the form of Visions or conventional TV screens, they displayed one universal image: the visage of a man known to all, with long gray hair, a dark gray trench coat with a fur trim, jackal ears, and silver pieces of armor, including a pointed mask. It wasn’t just Suoh either; this same forced broadcast was occurring throughout all of Midgar, on every screen connected to the city-wide psychic network.

“Major General Karen?” Yuito breathed. “What’s…”

“Attention, all citizens of Midgar!” Karen thundered. “Or should I say, New Himuka. You blind fools who denied the truth before your own eyes. Pitiful citizens, don’t turn your eyes from the truth. This nation is insane. They control the city, the information, and the people with Psynet. Not even your thoughts are free. You are nothing but cattle, born to be used by the state. New Himuka is a regime that eliminates those that threaten them by rewriting their personalities, or turning them into Others. They slaughter Pokemon to fuse with citizens, turning them into submissive livestock they can control. There is no justice! The powers that be have never intended to quell the Ever Crisis. Why would they, when fear and loss make you dependent? Amassing power, not to protect anyone, but to ensure you’re all trapped under their thumb. For ever, and ever. This cannot continue.” Pausing, Karen removed his mask, allowing every citizen to see the true face of the ultimate soldier fused with the ultimate mercenary, with only green irises between vivid red sclera and red pupils. “Starting today I, Karen Travers, Septentrion First Class and Major General of Psych-OSF, have joined Seiran with my allies in rebellion against the Administration of President Shinra. Against a society that would control human beings like cattle, stripping them of their human rights and dignity. What begins now is an escape from oppressive control. A revolution!” He lifted and clenched his fist. “To those of you who are awake. Those who wish to awaken. Come join my cause in the undercities! Help me destroy the New Himuka regime! And put an end to their tyranny forever!”

The broadcast ended suddenly, restoring control. In the seconds that followed, Suoh was quiet, with only distant sirens disturbing the poignant silence. After a moment, Luka breathed a heavy sigh. “Well, I guess we now know what Karen was talking about down in the tunnels yesterday.”

“So Karen’s actually leading a rebellion against Shinra’s Administration?” Yuito shook his head. “I can hardly believe it. But I can hardly deny it, either.”

Hanabi clenched her fists, her brows furrowed. “It’s completely justified! We saw Brain Drain’s lab, what they’re doing to people down there. Including poor Dexio and Sina. Who knows how many people got subjected to personality rehabilitation? Or made into P-types for that matter! And we never thought to question things ‘til now…” The girl seemed almost as angry at herself as she did the people responsible. “Guess Armstrong’s accusations weren’t just shots in the dark.”

Luka seemed both deep in thought and deeply disturbed. “I have to wonder. Not just about the conspiracy, because it seems like this New Himuka business goes all the way to the top. I mean the rebellion. In order to make a broadcast like that, Karen would have to seize control of Psynet at its source.”

“Arahabaki?” Hanabi asked, her eyes widening.

“The city computer,” Yuito mused. “It’s deep underground beneath the Shinra Building, sealed away and heavily guarded. Not even an army could get in there under normal circumstances, but with this Other attack…”

Luka pursed his lips. “That’s not all. You remember this morning? DespoRHado’s attack on Vandelay Industries. I can’t help but wonder if it’s connected. But DespoRHado got destroyed, and Karen mentioned ‘allies’...” He glanced at the others. “Just who else is waiting in the wings?”

---

As the broadcast concluded, Jena lowered her projector. “Now do you understand?” she called down at the nine assembled below. “Midgar is nothing but a den of vipers. And it’s time we started cutting the heads off the snakes.” She turned her gaze upward, looking out through the gap in the wall across Quarantine Valley, up toward the plates. “By now, one should have already rolled. But that’s just the beginning.” Her attention turned back toward the Seekers. “Ten minutes ago, Neuron scrambled all units. After ignoring Zone 09 and its people for so long, they’re finally headed here, toward the epicenter of the Redshift Cascade. Leaving their headquarters undefended. As we speak, Reunion is marching on Neuron HQ. There, the great deceiver awaits. The man who would trick all of humanity into giving their lives for his twisted vision. Once my troops flush him out, I will eliminate him myself.”

Jena extended her arm down toward the Seekers, as if holding them in the palm of her hand. “Come with me. Forget your petty grievances, this is about more than a handful of lives. The Existence as we know it is at stake! Kill me afterward if you must, but together, we can put an end to his misanthropic megalomania. Will you fight to save mankind?” She closed her fist. “Or will you die like a dog?”

The Under - Hollow Bough

Level 12 Nadia (106/120)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 1523

Though far apart, and beleaguered by nasty surprises of all sorts, the two halves of the Hollow Bough contingent managed to pull through with no losses. Despite an initial run-in with a Metal Attacker parasitized by energy-manipulating Xynach Charge-suckers, and a most unwelcome appearance from the angry Kingtusk to cap off their hacking sequence, the team members who faced the bamboo grottos and cultivated caverns of Montoj pulled through. Things had been even crazier in the Stranga sub-biome, with bizarre environmental hazards followed by a mind-bending hack job courtesy of a very quirky local, but the brave souls withstood the surreal experience to finish the job. Of course, wild as those detours had been for everyone involved, dwarves and Seekers alike knew that the main event was yet to come, so they savored the walk back to the central cavern as a much-needed and well-deserved chance to catch their breath.

With the giant boar out of the picture and a negligible amount of glyphids around, the trip back through the tunnels of Montoj was a peaceful one. If any wind blew through these subterranean passages, it might have created a soothing melody in the patches of grain and the leafy copses of bamboo. The Kirikuris and Twirligigs that guarded the crops watched Sectonia, Cyclops, Overhard, and the Koopa Troop as they passed, but they did not aggress. This time the dwarves didn’t get too greedy about snatching beer ingredients; they stuck to mining mineral resources at a leisurely pace, knowing not to rush toward the confrontation that lay at the end of these tunnels.

After the run-in with Kanna and her reality-warping Wonder Effects, even the thrill-seeker in Nadia was thrilled out for the moment. She took her time on the return journey, happily sitting down on exposed roots and such to rest whenever the dwarves spotted some ore and went off to mine. Everyone needed to be fully prepared for their final fight against the Caretaker, whether that meant scrounging up enough Nitra to eke out another supply drop, or mentally recovering from the beating their psyches had taken from Kanna’s inexplicable mischief. Nadia didn’t regret letting the plant woman off easy for her crimes against normality, but man, she and that freaky rabbit of hers were a real handful. Part of her still felt bad for leaving the overly friendly fool on her own, since she seemed to be social, but Kanna definitely seemed to be more trouble than she was worth. No matter how powerful her abilities might be, that kind of chaos wasn’t something that anyone could stomach. “At least ‘thistle’ make for a good story, eh?” With a sigh and a shake of her head, Nadia tried to put the bizarre encounter behind her, and focus on the path ahead. Navigating Stranga in reverse wasn’t that difficult, but it did force the team to confront that Void Sunflower she saw earlier. Stetson came up with the idea of having Paintbrush throw a cluster grenade through it. When the team heard the muffled blast and ensuing rumble from the other side, they concluded it must be safe enough to try. Sure enough, the flower put them back in the big cavern with the floating water, no muss, no fuss. From there, it was smooth sailing back to the main cavern.

The two teams reunited at the Data Vault, where the slumbering Caretaker awaited them within its rippling orange bubble shield. “Hey, buds!” Nadia greeted the others, waving as she approached the rendezvous point. Bowser, his family, Sectonia, and the other two dwarves looked pretty much fine, though with Kamek and Junior to provide healing she couldn’t rightfully tell whether or not they ran into trouble during their expedition. Still, she somehow doubted that things went as awry for the others as it did for her own team. Realistically speaking, what could possibly be crazier? “Things got pretty whacky on our end, I ain’t dande-lyin’. Iris you’d been there to see it. We ‘rose’ to the occasion, though.” She pulled a flower off her jacket with her nails and flicked it at Sectonia. “Peony for your thoughts? Take it or leaf it.”

“I’m glad to see everyone’s in good health,” Tingyun told the others politely. She spared a half-smile at Nadia as well. “And also that our colorful experience didn’t end up dulling your sense of humor.”

Paintbrush, Stetson, Overhard, and Cyclops all grouped up as well, exchanging high fives, jokes, and complaints about all the problems they’d run into while separated. Even with Paintbrush as tacit as ever, they made quite the din, which Stetson eventually had to try to reign in. “Alroight, alroight already. When we get back, first round o’ beers is on me, eh fellas?”

“Hear, hear!” Overhard agreed. Paintbrush just gave an enthusiastic nod.

“Ah, I can taste it already,” Cyclops groaned longingly. “Could sure go for a nice cold Arkenstout roight about now.”

“Well, don’t start slobberin’ too soon, ‘cause we ain’t earned anythin’ just yet,” Stetson warned, turning toward the Data Vault. “Shield’s runnin’ on emergency power now. Once we take out the batteries, it’s go time.” He looked over at the Seekers. “You’ve all done pretty good so far. Don’t get too comfy though, ‘cause this sonuvabitch’s gonna put us through the damn wringer. Better get your arses in gear.”

Between them, the dwarves were just short of enough nitra to call down two resupply pods, which elicited a round of vehement groans and curses. While they radioed in the one they could afford, Overhard got to work setting up his turrets, while the others used their pickaxes to mine some sections of the petrified wood around the data vault into usable cover. “We’re lookin’ at three phases,” Overhard explained as he worked. “In all four, there’s gonna be robot arms that’ll try to shoot an’ hit us. If you step on the platform, it’ll start deployin’ energy cells that’ll shock ya real good, too. Once we hit the vents enough, the Caretaker’ll open its eye-thing, and that’s what we’ve gotta hit. When we hit the second phase it’ll send out reinforcements, and on phase three it’ll start droppin’ phase bombs on us, so keep movin’. You guys all got that?”

Tingyun nodded. “I’ll be in your care. Good luck, everyone~”

“Yeah, ‘eye’ think that sounds easy enough,” Nadia replied. “Hit the vents, whack its peeper, caretakerblooey.” Not planning to use her somewhat flimsy boxcutters against a target made of high-tech metal alloys, she took off her jacket and laid it aside with her hilts. Once she made sure Athame was positioned for quick and easy use, she sharpened her claws, ready to rumble.

Once everyone was ready, Cyclops and Paintbrush climbed onto the rim of the Data Vault and started removing the batteries. “Ejecting the power source!” That meant bludgeoning them with their hammers until their cores popped out. The shield generator started humming faster and faster until it finally blew out, and the force field died along with it. Right away the machinery noisily came to life, the pyramid-shaped robot rising into the air. The eyes on its four faces opened as the lightning pylons emerged from its base for a test-fire, pulsing once before the eyes slammed shut and the Caretaker gave a mechanical roar. Then four towering robotic appendages emerged from the base, the huge machine’s vents opened, and it began to spin. Overhard forgot to mention just one thing: tha at certain intervals, while its vents were still open, the Caretaker would emit alternating waves of plasma barriers that would block incoming shots while damaging and knocking back anyone hit.

Without further ado, the dwarves got down to business. They used their long-ranged weaponry to shoot at the vents as they spun into view, and the more damage they took the faster it spun, forcing them to lead their shots more and more. Rather than waste precious ammunition on the robotic arms, they hid behind cover when necessary. Saying, “Evils begone~” Tingyun rang her bell to empower Sectonia with an attack buff, then worked to suppress the Caretaker’s robotic arms by striking them with her fans when not in danger. Nadia took a more proactive approach, weaving around the shots and sudden lunges of the robot arms to rush down the Caretaker itself. Just as Overhard said, it began to deploy its pylons the moment she set foot on the Data Vault, but it took a few seconds before they could discharge, and Nadia was faster than that. She jumped onto the base, then shot upward, either with a blood pressure jump or a Charge, to scramble onto the Caretaker itself. Once there, she could cut a vent’s defense with Athame and slash at it with her claws, using Battery after every Charge to maximize her damage. Doing this would make the boss send out shredders to try and cut her up, forcing her to flee when the swarm got too thick, but her strategy was sound. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

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

Lewa

Ruined Church

After making his pronouncement and taking up a defensive position, Lewa stood watch. Normally he’d be neither so patient nor steadfast in waiting for potential enemies to come to him, instead happily rushing ahead to solve the problem proactively. For now though, it took about everything he had to just stand firm dealing with all the bizarre stuff in here, let alone out there. Better to take it one step ahead rather than charge off into unknown danger. Still, he could hear all kinds of sounds that found their way into the decrepit church from outside. The clash of metal against metal. Death screams. Butchery. If he had skin, it might have crawled as he struggled to imagine what could be causing those horrible noises. Gradually, though, the din of battle subsided. Voices and heavy footfalls faded into the distance, after another few moments those who’d ventured beyond the church to make corpses drifted back inside.

Upon landing, Sanae gave her report: the enemy was routed. Lewa let out his breath, not even realizing that he’d been holding it. The pulse of his heartlight slowed down somewhat, though his inherent discomfort in this place kept it from dwindling down to a level that could be considered ‘calm’. As it turned out, the same went for the very small creatures; any hint of relief on the little boy’s maskless face quickly turned to horror, but as to why, he didn’t say. Maybe all these strange people distressed him like they did Lewa? Everyone else had a lot more in common with one another than he did with them. Either way, he didn’t even try to figure out what the matter was. Instead he took a step back from the group that was beginning to coalesce, slung his axe onto his back again, and crossed his arms to wait for someone to start explaining.

The best he got was the warrior of metal and black cloth, the only one here whose face Lewa couldn’t see in all its unnerving detail. Unfortunately for him, that knight shared no insight about who, what, or why, instead telling everyone that their task wasn’t done yet after all. He asked the others to join him and the tiny organic he seemed responsible for in order to ‘give chase’. “What? Why?” Lewa raised and rubbed his masked head with one hand, glancing around at the alien beings arrayed before him. “Hold on just one second-moment. I didn’t want anyone in pain-hurt, so I wanted to protect scared little-things, but I’m just completely stumped by…everything!” He shrugged helplessly. “Don’t think ill-little of me, but let me explain. My name is Lewa, and I'm the Toa of Air, defender of Le-koro. One minute I was patrolling in Le-wahi. Swinging through the jungle, hunting for stray Bohrok. Then, light-flash! And I’m here. What is this place? Who are you? What are you? In my whole life, I’ve never seen such flesh-meat creatures before. Never thought-dreamed such a thing could be possible. Thank Mata Nui we’re even able to talk-speak with each other. I mean, is this a dream? Has the war-fight against the Swarm scrambled my noggin-brain like a Gukko egg?” He clapped both hands against the sides of his mask, his bright yellow-green eyes rolling around like lost marbles. After slumping over for a moment in defeat, he straightened up again, his mask somehow molded to portray his confusion. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to help if I can. But this is all so nuts. I need to go home. The Matoran need me. My brothers need me!” He stared at the humans entreatingly, hoping that one of them might have an answer.

World of Light

Quarantine Valley - Redshift Cascade

Level 6 Goldlewis (81/60) Level 4 Sandalphon (46/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man
Word Count: 2669

Leave no man behind. That was a mission statement that had shaped the whole military career of Goldlewis Dickinson, from gung-ho cadet full of youthful vigor to grizzled battlefield captain, holding fast in the face of devastating loss. Did that principle apply here? Maybe not. These Hermits were never ‘his’ men, as their masked leader just made abundantly clear. Now, they weren’t even men anymore. Just crystalized husks, animated and compelled to slaughter by some otherworldly malice. Yet his body had moved as if of his own accord, compelled by a force even stronger: the will of preservation. And so Goldlewis flung himself away from his allies into the newly-birthed throng of murderous aberrations, using a stunt that was hard enough to pull off let alone make count, to save a stranger who moments ago would’ve been his enemy. Almost without thinking, he sacrificed a small part of himself to form the friend heart needed to free Mudrock in her final moments as herself. And against all odds, it worked.

Of course, that was just the beginning. Mudrock might be saved from aberration, but the rest of her crew hadn’t been so lucky, and the monsters were more than willing to make sure no living thing walked away from this rooftop alive. It was up to the Seekers to make sure that didn’t happen, and they hardly needed Sandalphon’s call to action in order to grasp the situation’s urgency. Heeding the veteran’s call, Geralt booked it in the direction Iron went, and despite the dangerous close quarters that lay ahead of them Hal sent his drone in after him. These aberrations were a clear and present danger, but detaining Iron -the only link the Seekers had right now to Reunion- was still the mission objective, after all. Everyone else could handle the monsters.

Everyone got to work, Roland attacking first. Still emotionally charged from the skirmish in the Astral Realm, he could start dealing damage right out of the gate, and his assault kept the enemies at bay while Blazermate and Susie scrambled to respond. Feeling resentful over the betrayal maybe, Zenkichi allowed the axe-bladed aberration to whale on the despondent Hermit leader while he lectured Kyle about shortcuts. He wasn’t heartless, though, and after a moment his Persona rained down Almighty devastation across the rooftop, throwing the gang of aberrations into chaos before jumping into the fray alongside Roland. On the far side of the mob, Goldlewis got just the moment he needed to extend a hand to Mudrock and lift her up to her feet. “No time to explain,” the veteran told her. “We gotta fight for our lives!” He could not see the grim expression on the woman’s face beneath her helmet, but she seemed to understand the life-or-death situation, and was willing to do whatever it took to survive.

With that settled, Goldlewis led by example. The aberrations on his side of the mob had regrouped, and now half a dozen charged him at once, the air filled with their grotesque screams. The veteran roared back, his coffin seized and upheld like a massive shield that he drove forward to scatter the mutants like bowling pins in an unstoppable Wild Assault.

For Goldlewis

New Power:
Wild Assault
An advancing, hard-hitting special move that uses up half of Goldlewis’ Burst. Strike and projectile invincible on startup. Can be canceled into but cannot itself be canceled. Causes guard crush on hit and drains the opponent’s burst, especially if charged.

His attackers hit the ground en masse, dazed and left floundering by the weighty impact. A few more turned at the commotion, a filthwing archer among them taking aim, only for the lid of the coffin to fly off and smack the filthwing out of the air. From the cosmic void within the coffin burst a handful of arms that seized most of the downed aberrations. Then, with help from Goldlewis, the UMA bodily flung them over the edge of the rooftop to plummet down to the streets of Quarantine Valley far below. Whether they lived or died, they weren’t his problem any longer. The other aberrations surged forward as the UMA’s arms receded into the coffin, but Mudrock charged in to meet them. Using Crag Splitter, she brought her hammer down hard enough to fracture both the aberrations and the ground beneath them, stunning one or two in the process.

“Duck!” Goldlewis barked. When she did, his Behemoth Typhoon whirled over her head. Its crushing weight smashed two of the monsters’ upper bodies apart like ceramic, while knocking the other two down. “Crumble!” The veteran went to finish them off, while a larger aberration with an axeblade came at Mudrock from the side. It swung at her with timber-felling force, but the juggernaut stood fast and intercepted it with her hammer. After blocking the strike, she forced her attacker off-balance, then took out its knee with a horizontal swing and an unsettling crunch. An upward swing to its head launched it off its feet, and when Mudrock followed up with an overhead slam, the aberration was destroyed. Meanwhile, Goldlewis had run into a new problem: the aberration that had been Kabal, still possessed of the masked man’s superspeed. It raced around him, keeping him under pressure with quick attacks from every angle, until a brief pause telegraphed its next rush a little too much. “Hold your…” When the monster burst toward him, he stepped forward and delivered a massive cowboy punch that clotheslined the aberration, knocking it head over heels as it flew off the edge behind him.

By then, the two sides had just about pincered all the aberrations between them. Supported by Susie’s missiles and Blazermate’s healing, the others had also made quick work of the aberrations. Karin had dispatched the most dangerous one personally, the aberration that had been Bernavas. Though wounded thanks to his former friends, Kyle was still alive, albeit slumped down on his knees. “It’s all over…” he muttered. “We’re through…”

Brows furrowed, Goldlewis looked around. The aberrations might be gone, but the team’s troubles were far from over. He hadn’t noticed it while fighting, but the Hermits’ aberration had thrown something out of whack. All across the rooftop, patches of the ground were in flux, shifting unnaturally or bleeding crimson energy from glitchy wounds. The air itself seemed to crackle in places, and as Goldlewis watched, small outcrops of red geometric crystal began pushing through into this plane of existence. His eyes went wide, and bared his teeth in a frightened grimace. “Aw, hell!” His gaze landed on Mudrock, and he pointed at Kyle. “Can you get him back to Sector V?” She nodded, and as she jogged over to him, the gate that everyone fled from the Astral Plane through suddenly tore open once more. Everyone beheld a vision of Tartarus with terrifying clarity, followed shortly by its massive coal-black arm reaching through the Gate to claw at the ordinary world. As if in response the crystal growths began to accelerate, and the Gate itself to widen.

“It’s a Redshift Cascade!” he roared, memories of the catastrophe in the Sector 07 highways flooding back to him. “We gotta haul ass outta here! Move, move, move!”

By that time, Geralt and Hal had made it through the gauntlet left for them by Iron. Though waylaid and obstructed, they were still in hot pursuit, but as Geralt burst from the apartment complex to catch up to Hal’s drone they both got a good look at the disaster unfolding down where the chase began. The latent data corruption in this part of Quarantine Valley had been kickstarted by the massive red matter spike introduced by the Hermits’ aberration, and to disastrous effect. For a few moments, the backdrop itself changed like a TV channel. Suddenly it wasn’t city buildings in the distance, but an off-white haze surrounding the formations of the Astral Plane, complete with red matter cubes afloat in the sky. They could see large spikes of red matter crystals cropping up all over the place, in some cases blocking off or breaking up bridges, though floating platforms started to appear as well. More Gates ripped open, disgorging Aellos and other chimeras.

“Oh man…” Hal piped up weakly. “Don’t tell me Blue Evolve caused all this…?”

Sandalphon’s voice cut through the haze. “I see you,” she said. “Everyone, use this shot to follow them.” From her distant vantage point, the archangel fired near Geralt and Hal’s position, showing everyone else where they needed to go. “There’s nothing we can do about this cascade. Hurry, before you succumb to redshift, and Iron gets away.”

As bad a taste as it left in the heroes’ mouths, she was right. Geralt and Hal resumed the chase, charging through the condemned upper floor of a building where a couple panicked squatters were trying to gather their belongings to flee. “Oh, good, there’re still survivors,” Hal breathed, not realizing that by the time Goldlewis and the others made it up here, there would be new aberrations waiting for them instead. After exiting back out onto another highrise rooftop, a loud reverberation swept over Quarantine Valley, originating from a spot at the edge where it met Detroit. There, the two could see an explosion of pink energy like lightning, which continued to swirl around some sort of mass wedged between the perimeter buildings. “What the hell is that!?” Hal wondered, close to panicking. “None of this makes sense! But I’d bet my life it has something to do with Iron. “We’ve gotta find her!”

In between them and that point of interest lay the only place Iron could have gone: the building on the other side of this rooftop. Before Geralt and Hal could get there, however, a Gate burst open above the empty helipad, and a humanoid chimera with curved horns, red armor, and a huge flaming poleaxe dropped through. Diomedes spotted Geralt and leaped down to challenge him with an angry roar.

As it approached, however, there came a shimmer of divine light, and Sandalphon warped in to stand alongside the Witcher. “I lost sight of you when you went inside,” she mentioned matter-of-factly, crouching down with the barrel of her gunstaff trained on the chimera. “It seems I was right to come in person.” She fired, her shot shaving off one of Diomedes’ horns and cutting a furrow through one side of the chimera’s helmet. With a slight sigh she stood, then jumped backward, taking up a support position with her weapon held like a staff. “Please continue.”

That encounter delayed Geralt, though if the other Seekers caught up fast enough, they could help. Still, the team hadn’t lost the trail while the scent of Iron’s sweat -not to mention her fear- hung in the air. At the head of the pack, Geralt led the way into and through the next building. While rushing through the dingy, trash-littered halls they ran into civilians bolting the other way, who stumbled and in some cases collided with the Seekers as they fled. Sandalphon, who already had to stoop to fit in these corridors, wasn’t strong enough to shoulder past the runners and got tripped up several times. The scent trail led to a stairwell, which had a surprise aberration in it that jumped out when the door opened, and climbing those stairs led to a dark, quiet hall on the building’s top floor. “End of the line…” Hal muttered. After another moment, though, he suddenly raised his voice. “Look! Someone’s there!” he called out, forgetting that the others didn’t have his drone’s sensors. “Trying to ID ‘em…I think it’s Iron. Go, go, hurry!”

When Geralt reached the room he indicated, however, he found a sorrowful sight. Iron was dead, her body gradually dissolving into ashes atop a stained mattress on the floor. Beside her lay a sleek black pistol. “We’re too late,” Hal observed, his tone morose. “I guess that’d be her gun, then. I don’t see any signs of a struggle. Check her pockets, would you?” Within them Geralt found a strange keycard that Hal seemed to recognize. “That’s a passkey for the Zone 09 gate. Wait…Iron worked for the ARI?” When he got a blank stare, the technician explained. “The Aegis Research Institute. Supplier for Neuron. Take a look around the room, there may be something else we should see.”

Geralt quickly found the other clue: an open case surrounded by discarded vials. “Looks like all these vials are empty. That means someone must’ve…” Hal turned his drone to look back out at the hallway. “There was a security camera in this hall, right? Maybe it can answer a few questions for us.” When he hacked in, he quickly set up a 3D holographic reconstruction of its data. It showed Iron running into the hallway and slowing to a stop as another woman stepped out of the room she died in, holding a case. With a start, Hal realized who it was. “That’s Jena!” he exclaimed, referring to the woman on the wanted poster he’d shown everyone earlier. “Ugh, the audio is really rough. Must be all the corruption.” The two women seemed to talk briefly, until Iron sagged down like a puppet with its strings cut, and as Jena turned to leave, Iron lurched into the room.

By this time, everyone had caught up, so everyone knew just who had been on the scene until mere moments ago. As they gathered, the sound of gunfire echoed through the building. “Could that be her?” Hal asked. “Let’s check it out!”

Everyone hurried through the building, exiting into what looked like an alley. “We’re still technically in Zone 09,” Hal told everyone. “Must’ve hit the outer wall by now though. We’re below Detroit.” After several back-and-forth turns, the alley finally opened up into a large square courtyard, surrounded on all sides by buildings that lit the area with the glow of huge neon signs. Through a rift between two buildings on the left side, the Seekers could look out across Quarantine Valley, but the scene right in front of them demanded their attention. People were already fighting here, and not anyone the Seekers expected to see. The enemies, nine strong, resembled chimeras, but sleeker and more artificial in appearance, with silvery exoskeletons and purple energy instead of red. Fighting them were just two humans, both Lupo judging by their wolf ears and tails. One wore a dark blue pinstripe suit that matched his hair, his purple overcoat fluttering as he discharged his twin revolvers. By now, just about everyone should recognize the stoic, almost drab attire and pale golden thorns of the other as she fought with a hammer-headed flail.

“The Judge,” Sandalphon observed, pausing at the entryway to the hidden underground plaza. “I do not know the other. Judging by his attire, a potential scion of an undercity crime family.”

As luck would have it, a bone-shattering slam to the jaw of a clawed Protolegion as she took it to the ground turned Penance the newcomers’ way, allowing her to spot them. “Oh, there you are,” she said wearily, wrenching her weapon free of the monster’s head with a schlorp. “And at the worst possible time.”

“Or maybe the best possible time,” Vigil joked offhandedly. “The first dozen of these things were fun enough to toss around, but this bit is starting to wear thin.”

Penance dodged away from the lance of another Protolegion, wincing as she put too much weight on her wounded left leg. “I suppose it can’t be helped,” she muttered before raising her voice. “Would your cohort consider a truce?”

Bringing her gunstaff down, Sandalphon’s Angelic Praise sent out a divine ripple of healing light for the sake of all allies present, both old and new. “I would consent,” she suggested to the others. “Whatever’s going on is bigger than petty politics.”

“It’s us against the chimeras,” Goldlewis agreed, glowering at the enemies of mankind. Anderson had to be close. He readied his coffin. “Team, let’s help ‘em out.”

After kicking away her attacker, Penance gave a stiff nod of thanks, her health and her morale restored. She and Vigil made a break for the Seekers, joining their ranks to turn on the Protolegion threat together.

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

Lewa

Ruined Church

With his weapon now in hand, ready to carve a path toward freedom or channel his elemental power if need be, Lewa felt his confidence returning. If he was going to have any one friend in a bizarre and unfamiliar place like this, full of unknown organisms and dangers with no sign of any way home, it might as well be his trusty axe. It had enabled him to brave the island of Mata Nui with all its perils, from infected rahi to the Bohrok swarms. It should help him brave this new realm, too. And besides, wasn’t the discovery of new and fascinating creatures something he enjoyed? Lewa took long, slow breaths, pragmatically trying to push past the unreal superficiality of everything in front of him to find common ground. Once he had that foundation, he could build on it to reach a functional level where he could interact with his surroundings more or less as normal–or at least, the toa sure hoped so.

For one thing, Lewa wasn’t the only one who seemed to be a fish out of water here. Even among the fleshy ones, there were some who recoiled from the others. One, garbed predominantly in black and adorned with a long curtain of burgundy plant fibers that extended from her head, fled toward the wall in an odd manner. Her biology might be foreign to Lewa, but her body language struck him as oddly familiar, suggesting heavy fatigue or some sort of injury. He hoped she’d be okay; even if he possessed the medicinal knowledge of the Le-koro healers, it would be useless against organisms like these.

There was another, clad in heavier garments of beige and white, with fibers like polished silver. Instead of panic, she moved with an air of certainty, and her decisive action made one thing crystal clear for Lewa. These creatures might be short like matoran, shorter than him by two feet or more on average, but they were far from powerless. As he watched, his yellow-green eyes shining through his mask, this organism smashed a huge door off its hinges. “Such strength,” he marveled, having assumed that creatures of meat must be far more frail than beings of protodermis like himself, only to witness physical might on par with Onua.

Once she went to leave, Lewa focused on another organic who was talking. This tiny one, and the even smaller thing next to him, were pitiful enough to make even a matoran look like a toa. As he tried to explain what was going on, several of his words went over Lewa’s head, but the Spirit of Air found his heartstrings tugged nonetheless. These minuscule, pleading creatures needed help, that much was for certain. The others seemed inclined to oblige, even the black-and-burgundy one that seemed unwell earlier, and Lewa decided that he would, too. As an appointed guardian of Mata Nui, it fell to him to defend those who couldn’t defend themselves. How could he call himself a toa otherwise?

Of course, that decision was hardly the end-all, be-all. Even if his answer to their cry for help was ‘yes’, the questions of ‘how’ and ‘against what’ remained. Lewa watched, impressed, as the one who called herself Sanae floated into the air. That power didn’t look elemental, so clearly these people didn’t need masks in order to access supernatural abilities. Just one more preposition he needed to throw out the door, he supposed. She flew away, and the others went to action. A tiny organic that Lewa thought amongst those who needed aid instead marched forth to render it, watched over by a warrior in strange gray armor. Lewa shook his head, his doubts beginning to resurge. Could he assume anything? He needed ground to stand on if he was going to make a move.

As the others took action, Lewa couldn’t keep track of all of them. There was too much going on. He understood by now that there were enemies outside, though that concept by itself would’ve felt foreign to him if not for recent events. Before the Bohrok, Mata Nui had no ‘enemies’. Just the adversary, Makuta, and the rahi possessed by the infected kanohi masks. If not for him, the only real dangers of the island would be running afoul of one of those rahi just trying to survive day to day. That changed when the Bohrok arrived, though. Those monsters were weapons made for war, meant only to destroy the beauty of nature and all that Mata Nui’s people held dear. They had no right to live, if they could even really be called ‘alive’, and they represented an ‘enemy’ that Lewa and his brothers should exterminate without reservation. Were these ‘Raven Heralds’ similar?

Regardless, he did not join the others as they exited the church. Maybe the enemies were out there, but the creatures he needed to protect were in here. Leaving them alone to go out and kill seemed like missing the forest for the trees. Instead Lewa crossed the interior of the building and knelt a few feet away from the children. “Fear not, little-things. I, toa-hero Lewa, pledge to uphold your right to live. Whatever might come our way.” So saying, he rose to his full height and turned his back to the children, fixing his eyes on the church’s entrance with his axe at the ready.

World of Light

The Astral Plane

Level 5 Goldlewis (128/50) Level 4 Sandalphon (43/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man
Word Count: 2401 / 1069

It went without saying just who Goldlewis, and by extension Geralt, planned to ‘take out’. They were the only ones who could attack Chimeras after all, and they wasted no time doing so. As flimsy and flighty as the winged trio looked, airborne opponents posed a problem that the two needed to take seriously Goldlewis stayed put while his comrade burst off the remark, chasing down one Aello to grab hold before it could gain altitude. He managed to bring it down, getting the attention of one other in the process. Goldlewis wasn’t so fortunate. The hail of bullets belted out by the veteran’s Skyfish minigun passed right through the third Chimera. “Dagnabbit,” he breathed, realizing what had happened. He might’ve spiked himself with a trace amount of Blue Evolve, but why would that apply to his weapons? That meant the big man needed to get up close and personal. But still, thanks to Geralt’s efforts, he needed only to deal with one Aello. Surely that would be easy.

Not so. For starters, this red matter arena wasn’t that big, and the fight against the Antimatter Legion took up a lot of real estate. Those Voidrangers were fond of big, sweeping dual blade attacks, and as the Seekers found out, they were a little tougher than they looked. Only physical and electric damage ate into their Toughness and could cause a Weakness Break. The Eliminators, meanwhile, fired their plasma cannons in bursts, and Goldlewis had to make sure as he chased his Aello around not to get hit by those volleys. Still, Zenkichi, Roland, Blazermate, and Susie managed to destroy them one by one. Although, when Roland eventually got an EGO page, the area change around him distracted and threw off everyone. The real problem was the Trampler. When it brought its hooves down, it created shockwaves, and more than once Goldlewis almost got his hands on the Aello only to get thrown off by a shockwave. He also almost got hit by its End of Bow attack, barely Roman Canceling in time to avoid the enormous quantum arrow as it hurtled off into the distance.

By that time the enemy’s numbers had thinned out though, and as the Aello went off to help dogpile Geralt with its sisters, Goldlewis chased it down. He jumped, airdashed, and tackled the extradimensional harpy to the ground. Pinning it beneath him, he sat up and started to pummel, only to take a huge hit from Geralt’s Hateful Flesh as the Witcher whirled the meaty cleaver around him in a wide area. “GYAHT, DAMN!” He bellowed, his hands flying to his chest. A huge gash had been cut across his pectorals, through his clothes (cutting his tie in half in the process), and into the skin. Blood was quickly soaking his shirt, and as he sagged backward the Aello wriggled flee. He sucked in his breath with his teeth gritted, wincing. He looked over and called Blazermate. “Need a medic!”

Luckily, the medabot wasn’t too busy. He flew over long enough to heal the veteran up, but while the wound was gone, his front was a mess. “Much obliged,” he groaned, narrowing his eyes at Geralt as he eviscerated two of the Chimeras in a blind rage. “Go-lly. That boy ain’t right.”

Seeing him vulnerable, the Aello that got away swooped toward him to make the most of the opportunity. It lunged toward him with its talons wreathed in red light, kicking repeatedly with both legs. Rather than tear Goldlewis up any more, however, its talon slashes clanged off his Faultless Defense, not even dealing chip damage. “Tough luck.” When the onslaught ended, the veteran reached up and grabbed the Aello by the ankle. “Try this on!” It squawked in dismay as he yanked it down toward him, then slammed it against the ground with a mighty hammerfist. Before it could get up, he brought his leg down on it hard enough to fracture the red matter beneath. As the Chimera lay there, Goldlewis took a deep breath, then jumped. He twisted in the air and fell on his foe with a titanic elbow drop, killing the Aello instantly in the miniature crater the impact left behind.

While Karin picked up where the others left off to terminate the last Voidranger standing, Goldlewis collected the Aello spirit and headed over to Geralt. The Witcher had been an intimidating man even before his Harbor Demon and Orphan of Kos fusions, and now he stood panting in a pit of chimeric carnage. Goldlewis did not balk, however. Instead he marched right up and gave Geralt a good view of his blood-soaked shirt. “You got me pretty bad. If we didn’t have Blazermate and Sandalphon to patch us up in an emergency, I coulda bled out.” He raised his hand slowly and pointed a finger at Geralt. “Whatever the hell that was, you need to get it under control. Where I’m from, friendly fire’s called a blue-on-blue, and it’s the single worst thing a soldier can do. Grounds for immediate dishonorable discharge. Those flyin’ chimeras were pains in the ass, yeah, but we got way bigger fish to fry, partner.”

Geralt nodded, letting a small breath out of his nose.

"I mentioned earlier that ever since I absorbed the Spirit of the Guardian of the Blue that my mind...isn't as clear as it was. There's something constantly pressing against it from the inside like a painless hangover. A sort of persistent rage. Even if Peach were here to get it out of me, somebody else would need to absorb the Spirit, or it'll just come back. They'd have to take on its power, and the mindless rage of an infant god torn out of the womb and left to fend for itself."

He sighed. "You have my apologies, and if you'd prefer I stay far away from you, I will." Geralt, for what it might have been worth, did look truly contrite, but with that came the knowledge that a mere apology couldn't undo the trust that had been lost. "But I can't promise that I can just grit my teeth and control it. When we get a moment to take a breath, I'll meditate and try to think of ways to channel it, keep myself present while the Orphan's rage is threatening to overwhelm me. And as you can imagine, I'm reluctant to mess with more Spirits, unless they've proven to be the most unflappable man you or I have ever met."

Goldlewis grunted. “I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe there’s more ways to offset it. Or to nullify your rage once it flares up. If fusin’ caused this problem, maybe fusin’ will solve it.”

With their red matter contamination slowly crying, the Seekers got moving again the second Karin finished off the Trampler. Any further conversation or looting could happen once they got out. Using Hal’s biosignal tracking and Geralt’s nose, they quickly navigated the remainder of the archipelago and found (much to their communal relief) a Gate they could use to return to their original dimension. At the very end, they found the woman they’d come searching for lying in a daze near the edge of the final island. Much to their relief, they also found a Gate just beyond her; she’d collapsed just before making her escape. Goldlewis and the others raced over, only for Hal to cry out in alarm. “Heads up, there’s a new one!”

And by ‘new one’, he meant a Chimera of unprecedented size. Shaped like a gigantic, demon gorilla to the point of walking on its knuckles and crowned by blood-red horns, the coal-black monstrosity dropped onto the island behind the Seekers hard enough to shake the whole formation, then unhinged its massive, toothy jaw to terrify them with a roar they could feel in their bones.

“We can’t fight this!” Goldlewis bellowed, turning to make a break for it. “Grab ‘er and get the hell outta here!”

---

After a few moments spent in crimson limbo, they’d made it. The Seekers reappeared on a rooftop back in Quarantine Valley, a ways off from Sector V but still able to see it. Though they’d only been in the Astral Plane for about fifteen minutes, it seemed much more dark than they remembered. The already-cloudy day looked cloudier, its gray clouds thicker and angrier. Rain could start falling any minute now. Maybe, for Midgar’s plates high above, it already was.

“There you are, I see you,” Sandalphon called everyone. They couldn’t find her amidst all the scenery right now, but it was a comfort knowing that their guardian angel was watching over them once again. “Welcome home.”

Goldlewis let out a heavy breath, bending over with his hands on his knees. Blazermate had made sure that nobody was wounded after the battle, but everything the Seekers had been through in the Astral Plane and prior left the Seekers pretty gassed, and nobody more so than the portly veteran. Getting back to reality did him a world of good, though. Like a weight had been lifted from every part of his body. It looked like the same held true for Iron, too. Carefully piloting his drone, Hal set the woman down on the rooftop, and after a moment she picked herself up onto her knees, doubled over with her dark hair hanging in front of her bespectacled face.

“I don’t understand…” she mumbled, sounding a little delirious. “What the hell went wrong? I mean, I know it was still experimental, but…but…it was supposed to help people…that’s what she said…” Suddenly she looked up, panic on her face. “...Wait, m-my case! W-where’s my case?”

“Alert,” Sandalphon warned everyone urgently. “I’m seeing multiple bogeys closing in on your position.”

The case was lying a couple dozen feet away. When Goldlewis spotted it, he also noticed the figures on the other side, approaching at a measured pace. Their leader stopped behind the case, reached down, and picked it up. As he did, the Seekers became aware of more movement all around. Hermits showed up a couple at a time, including the four they’d sparred with back at the hideout, all of them armed. As Goldlewis watched, wondering just what the hell was going on, the Hermits grouped up around their leader. Kyle grinned at his new friends and held out the case for a subordinate to take.

When the Hermit opened the case, Kyle took one of the vials inside. Its contents glowed bright purple, and he held it up into the air with the grandeur that befitted an elixir of immortality. “Heh…the Administration’s abandoned us here for twenty years. And this drug gave us the claws to fight back.” He lowered the vial, looking down at it. “But now, we’ll really show those bastards up top…a thing or two. And Reunion’s out of the deal…” His gaze turned suddenly to the Seekers. “Y’know, I thought we’d hit the end of the line, BUT…now we know there’s somethin’ even stronger.” He held out his hand, grasping. “Your, uh…spirits, was it? Hand ‘em over.”

Behind him, all his Hermits passed around the remaining vials, quaffing a full dose each. Crimson wisps of power began to swirl and streak around around them, and their weapons and bodies alike hummed with energy. They hefted their weapons, ready to fight. Goldlewis glowered at them, nervous. They’d beaten the main five and a couple lackeys, but there were four times as many now, and while the Seekers had been working, the Hermits had probably been resting. Kyle’s holographic face turned into a scowl. “Get ‘em!”

As the Hermits moved forward, something happened. Without warning one suddenly gave off a red pulse, doubling over with a groan. As the others looked over, alarmed and confused, another one pulsed. Then another one. A chain reaction rippled through the entire gang minus Kyle, including Kabal, Lester, Mudrock, and Bernavas. Worried, Kyle stepped forward, putting a hand on Lester’s shoulder and turning around to face her. “Hey! What’s wrong?” Angular, dark red crystals began to push through the skin and clothes of the first Hermit to drink. The outcrops grew larger, and they began to burst out of other Hermits, too. Some collapsed, and turned to run, but they didn’t get far. Kyle whipped around, his projected face horrified, then looked down at the vial in the palm of his hand. “Oh, shit. This ain’t happenin’!”

Behind everyone, Iron stumbled to her feet, eyes full of terror. “This…this wasn’t supposed to happen!” She took off running for her life, fleeing into an abandoned apartment complex nearby.

“Redshift,” Sandalphon observed from afar. “They’re aberrating!”

After the crystals emerged, chimeric flesh quickly followed. It spread across the Hermits’ arms, turning them into twisted axes, claws, and bows. Their masks fell apart, revealing faces mutated beyond recognition. The elites had stronger constitutions, but it was only delaying the inevitable. Goldlewis stood, his teeth bared. Not if I have anythin’ to say about it! Some of the others had used Friend Hearts during the sparring, but not him. If he was fast enough, there was a way to save the opponent he’d come to respect. He jumped, and right as he started his air dash with a burst of speed, he performed a Roman Cancel. It preserved his momentum at that instant, turbo-charging his momentum and sending him flying across the rooftop. Aiming for Mudrock, he brought his coffin down on her from above, dealing just enough damage to reach the threshold. The next instant he delivered a Friend Heart, restoring her just before the redshift corrupted her spirit data irreversibly into an aberration’s. Mudrock slumped down, mentally overwhelmed but still human.

Goldlewis breathed a sigh of relief. If only the others were so lucky. By that point almost every other Hermit had already aberrated. Kyle just stood in the middle of them, dumbfounded. “H-hey, what’s goin’ on?” The aberrations began to attack, striking him again and again with no resistance. “Snap out of it!” he cried. “Don’t you recognize me!?”

Just as one lifted its axe to bring it down on Kyle, a blue bolt streaked across the sky and popped its head. The aberration slumped down, and Sandalphon took aim at the next one. “All units, begin operation. Eliminate the enemy.”

Goldlewis lifted his coffin, ready to fight. “And someone go after Iron!”

Suoh - Psionic Scramble

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

Given their greater numbers, the two opposing platoons pressed their advantage right away. For his part, Luka led his band by example, teleporting past the frontrunners immediately to shatter the opposition’s backline before they could set up. In the scramble that followed, what might’ve turned into a chaotic all-out brawl split up into a handful of one-on-one or two-on-one skirmishes, separate enough to keep things clean. When humans clashed, unspoken rules of engagement like these benefited everybody; nobody needed to worry about getting blindsided by a stray shot or third-partied, at least until one of the duels concluded. Sakura managed to grab the attention of Hanabi’s former squadmates to keep them from fighting one another, which nobody involved objected to whatsoever. Roxas went for the youngest and least aggressive psychics, Ninten and Lucas, hoping to mop the boys up fast. Midna and her newly-evolved Flygon took on the P-types Sabrina and Will, matching their varied and potent powers with her own. That left just the four substitutes, and their fight with Luka had already begun.

He’d warped directly in front of Yamaguchi Wolfe as the only male soldier among the four reinforcements nocked a lightning-infused arrow to his sizable compound bow. Surprised, Yamaguchi gritted his teeth and took the first blow from Luka’s Weight Hammer as best he could, his bow arm in pain and his aim knocked askew. When Luka swung back around, Yamaguchi dodged backward, the hammerhead missing his dyed blond pompadour by mere inches. In a remarkable gymnastic display he performed a retreating cartwheel without even using his hands, nocking an arrow as he did to fire the moment he was perfectly upside-down. Luka blocked it with his hammer, but the added jolt from the archer’s Electrokinesis pushed him back in extra blockstun, and it was at that moment that Kotone attacked.

The stick-thin beanpole of a woman flung one knife as she ran in, then the other, both bouncing off Luka’s guard but keeping him locked down. As one stabbed into the ground she rolled to pick it up, then leaped to catch the second mid-rebound, and descended on the much smaller psionic with a double overhead stab. Luka teleported behind her and brought his hammer down, only for the latina’s Umbrakinesis to activate and render the immediate area pitch-black. In the darkness she rolled behind him, but even if he couldn’t see her, he could hear her. He whirled around as the shadows receded and thrust his hammer’s shaft into Kotone Aguilar’s stomach. She gasped, and the next moment she found herself thrown over Luka’s shoulder and onto her back.

That meant Tanabe Row, crouching with her sights on his head, had a clear shot, and she took it. Her Pantera rifle fired vertical sawblades, each with an extra oomph thanks to the Rotational Ergokinesis that intensified their spin. Luka teleported a couple feet to the right to avoid her first shot, breaking into a run. As he teleported to avoid her sawblades she whipped her aim left and right to track his movement, the golden beads in her pile of coffee-black dreadlocks jingling as she did. When he appeared right in front of her, Tanabe unleashed her contingency plan, launching a flash kick that just kept on going as her Ergokinesis sustained her backflip’s momentum, carrying her higher and higher. Luckily for Luka, he’d opted to sweep in under her firing line with a slide attack, so he low-profiled her flash kick, too.

He couldn’t wait for Tanabe’s kick to end so that he could punish her, though. At that moment, Kasumi Tucker made herself known by firing off her grenade launcher. Luka dodged away from the explosion, but thanks to Kasumi’s Audiokinesis, the blast itself was just the beginning. She amplified its sound into a deafening, almost physical blast that stunned Luka and left him reeling. Immediately Yamaguchi jumped off the ground to fire an electric triple shot at Luka. Kotone threw her knives, Tanabe squeezed off three more sawblades, and Kasumi’s second grenade landed a direct hit.

Luka slid back out of the smoke, the Sclerokinesis he’d borrowed from Gemma to survive the onslaught timing out a moment later. The whole exchange against the four psionics lasted only a handful of seconds, but already his heart was pounding. Private or not, these four were well-armed and well-trained. Yuito and Hanabi ran up behind him and slid to a stop on either side, their faces serious. “Need a hand?”

“Do I ever,” Luka gasped with a wry smile.

Sneering, Yamaguchi drew his bow. “Come and get some!” He turned his aim straight upward, electrified his arrow, and fired into the sky. A moment later a deluge of lightning bolts began to fall on the trio’s position, and they quickly scattered.

Yuito immediately found himself faced with Kotone and her throwing knives. He spun his sword in front of him to block her projectiles as they rushed together, and the knives bounced off. Thinking his foe disarmed, he went to attack, only for Kotone to then throw herself feet-first in a drop kick. The unexpected move staggered Yuito, knocking the wind from his lungs. Kotone teched backward when she hit the ground and caught her knives as she rolled to her feet, which she promptly hurled into Yuito’s chest. “Agh!” he grunted. Thanks in part to his clothes and mental health, the wounds weren’t deep, but boy did they sting, and he could feel blood running down his skin. As Kotone rushed in he tried to put that aside and focus on her, but when she used her Umbrakinesis everything went black. With no other option Yuito swung blindly to try and catch her, but he found himself grappled before Kotone painfully wrenched the knives out.

“GAH!” Angered, he whirled his sword around himself in a tornado of steel, catching his foe as she went to kick him down. “Don’t like fighting fair, huh? Fine!” Yuito turned on her with a burst of psychic force, causing her to stumble backward, but he quickly grabbed a piece of rubble behind her with Psychokinesis and pulled it into her to send her right back toward him. He lashed out with a two-hit sword combo into launcher, then jumped after her to keep the pain train rolling with disjointed sword hits. For the finale he seized a stop sign and brought it down on top of her, spiking her into the ground before landing himself. After a deep breath, Kotone performed a ukemi, and once on her feet she hurled her knives once more. Frowning, Yuito plucked them out of the air with his power, then sent them sailing off down the street. Kotone growled in frustration, realizing her error, and charged. Darkness enveloped Yuito, and a moment later Kotone loomed behind him, her hidden blade flashing as she drew it from her belt. When she tried to stab it just below his collarbone, however, her knife snapped against his Sclerokinesis-hardened body. Her vehement swear got cut short as Yuito elbowed her in the face, stomped on her foot, and finally delivered an uppercut that knocked her clean out.

Meanwhile, Hanabi went after Tanabe. All the sawblades that Tanabe fired earlier meant that she needed to reload, and with her Prometheus Torch in hand Hanabi raced toward her to try and take her out before the gunner could cut loose once more. She reached Tanabe just as the new magazine clicked into place, but rather than fire her Panthera, the Black woman launched a roundhouse kick. Her Ergokinesis boosted her centripetal force, causing her to whirl around like a ballerina with her leg extended and her dreadlocks splayed out like helicopter rotors. Hanabi dodged away twice to avoid the kicks, putting herself at a perfect range for Tanabe to slide to a stop, crouch down, and start shooting. While Hanabi took off into a strafing run, a couple saws clipped her, one leaving a painful gash in her arm. She winced, thinking about just how hard it would be to approach this lady until she got an idea. “I’ve got your back, Hanabi,” Yuito’s recorded voice said as SAS Psychokinesis activated, quickening Hanabi’s heart in a way the fight did not. As Tanabe fired, Hanabi began to grab and collect her sawblades. After a moment the redhead launched four of them right back at her, and Tanabe flinched, hunkering down as she turned her face away. Hanabi got in, Pyrokinesis engaged, and attacked with a fiery three-hit combo, once with both sides of her staff and then a revolving bash.

After staggering, Tanabe hopped backward, firing a sawblade down into the ground as she did. It bounced up and flew straight toward Hanabi’s head, prompting her to reel back in fear. With her eyes upward, Tanabe went low, curling up into a ball and rolling forward at high speed thanks to her Ergokinesis. “Whaa!” Hanabi yelped, swept off her feet and splatted flat on her stomach. Tanabe got to her feet and turned to fire more sawblades into Hanabi’s back, but the girl protected herself with Gemma’s Sclerokinesis. Try as she might Tanabe couldn’t keep her opponent down, and when her last-ditch rifle bash traded with Hanabi’s wakeup attack, the younger woman blew straight through it and knocked the Panthera from Tanabe’s hands. As Sclerokinesis deactivated Hanabi then went on offense, striking with three flurries of flaming jabs, the first straight forward, the second behind her back, and the third through the crook of her leg. Tanabe fell to one knee, and as Hanabi tossed an ember onto her, the older woman activated Brain Drive. Her hood flipped on and she kicked off phase two with another quintuple flash kick, nearly knocking her adversary out as she took a foot to the jaw. Hanabi braced herself, however, planting a foot behind her, and snapped her fingers. Her ember went off in a fiery explosion, flinging Tanabe to the ground smoking and unconscious.

At the same time, Luka faced off against both Yamaguchi and Kasumi. The punkish sharpshooter and the bookish grenadier didn’t have a lot in common, but together they kept Luka from making any progress at all. Since even the general area of Kasumi’s grenades could be brutal thanks to her Audiokinesis, he avoided them at all costs, but the farther away he got the more effective Yamaguchi and his lightning bow became. Things changed, however, when he made a crucial gamble. Ignoring Kasumi, he teleported right on top of Yamaguchi and started bashing. The dude tried to get away with his acrobatics, but Luka clung to him like a bulldog, hammering him again and again. “Hey!” Yamaguchi yelled. “A little help here!” Kasumi hesitated, though. She hadn’t trained alongside him long enough to know what to do in this situation, and all she had was a hammer. Well…in the end, it was just math. An ally and an enemy versus just an ally. Yamaguchi was toast anyway. The young-looking girl pushed up her glasses, took a deep breath, and fired. Hearing the grenade launcher, Luka promptly teleported away, and the grenade did the rest of the job for him.

“Fuuuuuuuuu-” Kasumi groaned, hanging her head. When she brought it up again, Luka had been joined by Yuito and Hanabi. “Uh oh.” She tugged the cord at her collar, engaging Brain Drive, and when she stuck her fingers in her mouth she let out an ear-piercing whistle. To the three soldiers, it felt like two drills piercing their brains, threatening to knock them unconscious even with their hands clasped over their ears. Furthermore, the aftershock lasted longer than it took Kasumi to fill her lungs again for another whistle, meaning the soldiers would black out before she’d drop from lightheadedness. In intense pain, Yuito opened one eye that he fixed on the bent streetlight not far from Kasumi. Normally he used his hands for this, but in theory that wasn’t strictly necessary. He reached out with his Psychokinesis and tore the streetlight from its base. Fighting against the deafening noise, he guided the pole directly over Kasumi, then unceremoniously dropped it on her head.

A shattering noise rang out as she fell to her knees, her mental health destroyed. “Brain crush!” Hanabi called, her own ears still ringing. Though the others might not hear her, they recognized what she was doing when she extended her hand toward her opponent, holographic Vision rings appearing around it. A giant holographic port appeared behind Kasumi’s head, and when Yuito and Luka joined in, another appeared on either side of it. Then, gigantic SAS cables as thick as paint cans manifested behind her, their plugs like rapiers. In quick succession they stabbed into the ports, connecting straight to Kasumi’s mind. Hanabi furrowed her brow. “How about…every episode of every season of every romcom I’ve watched this year!” In an instant, an immense amount of foreign data was forcibly injected into her target’s brain, overwhelming her senses and knocking her out instantly. She dropped like a log, and the battle was over.

Yuito shook his head, his ears still ringing, then raised an eyebrow at Hanabi. “...You watch a lot of romcoms, huh?”

“I…heheh..” His friend averted her gaze.

Everyone met back up in short order. Their opponents had all been soundly defeated, although in some cases it had taken a lot out of them. It was another victory. Unfortunately, their journey was far from over. After catching their breath, everyone hurried down the rest of the avenue to its intersection with Main Street. Finally they’d arrived at Suoh’s center. The battle damage and plentiful ashes told the newcomers that a lot of action had gone down here, but for now the fighting seemed to have moved elsewhere. At the opposite end of Main Street loomed the Otherlobe, like a giant red apple waiting to be picked, but before the team could head there they had one other order of business to attend to. They hurried across the roads and the parking lot toward Musubi’s, where several of them had eaten two nights before. When they reached the front door, however, they didn’t find Raz where he said he’d be. Instead they found two Psych-OSF soldiers, the lovely duplicating crossbow-wielder Kyoka Eden and the quiet plant-loving gunslinger Tsugumi Nazar.

“Luka?” Kyoka’s eyebrows rose, her surprise clearly evident. She and Tsugumi both had their weapons out, and a group of civilians they’d evidently been protecting could be glimpsed throughout the restaurant behind them. Luka’s grip tightened on his hammer as he wondered whether he’d be in for a fight; there was no way Kyoka didn’t know about the APB. As if sensing his worry, however, the motherly soldier shook her head. “Oh, don’t worry, we’re not gunning for you. We’ve got bigger things to worry about, after all.” Tsugumi just nodded.

Luka breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing a little. “We’re looking for a boy named Raz,” he explained. “Big head, goggles…?”

“Oh yes, he was here just a moment ago with Morceau Platoon, though naturally Morceau’s nowhere to be found. Nagi and Poo were injured defending this place, the poor dears, so they’re still here. But he, Lili, and Norma ran off for the Otherlobe all of a sudden. Something about a call for help from the Grand Head.”

“Zanotto?” Yuito furrowed his brow. “Perfect, thank you!” With that he, Hanabi, and the rest turned to go.

Luka lingered for just a moment, looking back over his shoulder at Tsugumi. “Where’s Kagero? I don’t see him.”

“That’s the point of invisibility,” Tsugumi replied flatly. Not really having a reply to that, Luka hurried on his way.

---

Pacing themselves so as to not exhaust the remainder of their strength, the Seekers and soldiers made their way down the wartorn Main Street to the Otherlobe. A couple times a stray Other reared its ugly head, but against six fighters none stood a snowball’s chance in hell. Things only got complicated a little after the halfway point, when the team spotted something up ahead. It seemed to be a large, fearsome construct with a body the size of a truck, all angular silvery armor accentuated by glowing lines of a vivid, unfriendly red. It stood upon two enormous, thickly plated legs, like a colossal roboticized ostrich. Luka, Yuito, and Hanabi would recognize this immense war machine as one of the Psych-OSF’s most prized pieces of military hardware: the mighty Sectopod. None of them even wanted to see it here, much less be on its business end.

As daunting as the armored walker was, however, the two people standing at its feet scared the soldiers even more. In a way, the two seemed like peas in a pod. They were decked out in the Psych-OSF’s characteristic red, gray, and black, and both featured long, dark hair that turned silver the farther it went, though the woman’s extended far longer. She gave off the impression of flashy, romantic secret agent, her dark gray ruffled dress with a diamond cutout just below her black tie lined with bright red, just like her dark gray overcoat, while gold-clasped belts and black boots with red clasps completed her look. Two long red horns rose from her somewhat floppy fedora, and in addition to the wicked-looking dagger sheathed in her belt, she wielded a forked staff of demonic aspect. A dark energy seemed to surround her, a portentous blend between Catastrophe Messenger and Renegade Spitfire. The man, meanwhile, seemed to epitomize the cold, consummate marksman. He wore a heavy dark gray coat, stylized and armored, over a striped black and gray turtleneck with a triangle cutout, pants, and thighboots with armor belted on. He had two scarves, a red one around his neck and a blue one that trailed from his left forearm, as well as two weapons, a heavy crossbow slung across his back and an automatic rifle in his hands. Even through his glasses, his gaze felt like an eagle’s, owing to his mix of mercenary sniper and Sinful Marksman. Almost immediately, the Sectopod released a warning shot, a spray of plasma bolts from its main cannon that burst against the ground in front of the team.

“That’s far enough,” Sasha told the group.

“We heard you ran into our platoons. Gave them a good thrashing, too!” Milla shook her head in disappointment. “Tsk, tsk. I expected better of Gisu and Morris. And those reinforcements were no substitute for the real thing, hmm? Of course, we shouldn’t be missing people to begin with. Good soldiers running off, disappearing, turning traitor. What is this world coming to?”

Sasha sighed joylessly. “There’s too much going on to waste any more time. By order of Grand Head Zanotto, you’re all under arrest. Lay down your weapons and come quietly.” He clicked the safety off on his rifle. The wind seemed to pick up. “Or be destroyed by Septentrions Third and Fourth class, Commanders Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello.”

Milla winked. “That’s Camillia to you all, though.” Darkness welled around her as her staff blazed red, taking the form of a terrifying, spectral goat skeleton. ‘Well? Don’t keep us waiting, now~”

The Under - Hollow Bough

Level 12 Nadia (89/120)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2574

Well, great. Just when Nadia thought she’d finally reached a spot where she could take a break, a huge horde of slavering alien insects showed their ugly mugs to kick off the biggest bug fight yet. Getting here in the first place certainly hadn’t been easy, after all. Even with everyone pitching in to light up the way with flame or magic and clear out threats, the going had been treacherous. The frustratingly uneven, unpredictable terrain throughout these peculiar caves and caverns involved more climbing, clambering, and jumping than running, though at least petrified wood proved to be a bit easier for Nadia to sink her claws into than solid rock. Add to that deathtraps like the Worm Grass, and it had been far from a walk in the park with her new dog. After that trail of thrills and spills led her here, she’d been hoping for a chance to catch her breath, but it looked like the Hollow Bough wasn’t done with her just yet.

As the first wave of glyphids dug out from the cave walls, Nadia drew her box cutters and snapped new blades into place. She assumed her typical side-facing fighting stance, one blade down in front and the other on her shoulder. “Come and get me then, creeps! I’ll slice you up in-sections!” Bugs swarmed her way in packs, but after learning how to fight them on the way here, the feral felt confident. She’d already found out that their attacks did very little to break her stance, meaning she could just beef through them to cut the offending glyphids down, but their bites and leg slashes did slow her down. That made it easier for other glyphids to join in, and they could quickly surround her. A death by a thousand cuts sounded unlikely, but with no means of escape, it was a real possibility. So Nadia fought them at arms’ length, severing legs and splitting heads with her boxcutters before the glyphids could land attacks of her own. This meant a lot of kiting them around, and in the tunnels the feral had to be methodical, relying not on the others’ inconsistent light but the certainty of her own senses. Her keen eyes meant she could see them okay, but she could hear them very well–the skittering of their legs, their aggressive shrieks and squeals, and the snapping of their jaws. Right now though, Stetson’s flare gun bathed the entire area in light, meaning that Nadia Fortune could go to town.

“Hah, hah! Mrow, myao!” The feral dealt each glyphid death with two strokes, the first to cut through as many legs as possible, and the second to carve through its body as she stepped in. From there she could strike again the other way, or dash to reposition. A couple came at her at once, so she extended her leg for a disjointed spin kick made all the more impactful by her heavy Mantread boot. It knocked all three sideways, stunned briefly, and Nadia cut them to ribbons with a double spinning edge. When a pack came her way with a glyphid guard at the head, the frontrunner put its hard-shelled front legs together to protect its head, and Nadia’s blades barely made a dent. It snapped at her, slowing her just enough that bugs could start spreading around to either side, but the feral wasn’t about to get surrounded. “Good luck blockin’ this!” As the defender put its guard up again, she jumped forward over the shield, leaping right into the middle of the pack. With a little boost provided by jets of blood, she became a vertical propeller that carved across the guard’s back and through several glyphids behind it. “Saw that comin’!” She stuck the landing with a grin, and as the rest of the pack closed in, she decided to bust out her new Blockbuster. Bloody hydro energy welled up around her arm as she spun it up, and when she stabbed it into the ground a Preda-Torrent whirlpool roared to life on the spot. All the glyphids around her got soaked, sucked in, and minced up by Kitt N’ Spin.

That was just one wave though, and by now the whole cavern had become one enormous battlefield. Sectonia’s antlions evened the odds, and her elements plus Cyclops’ roaring flames obliterated a bunch of bugs through temperature shock alone. When her Tesla Coil wreaked havoc among groups of glyphids with chain lightning, Stetson added his electric boomerang to the mix to leave entire crowds at a time shocked, stunned, and sitting ducks for the wasp queen’s AoE. When orange acid spitters and purple web spitters reared their ugly heads, though, Sectonia took to the heights of the cavern to skewer the ranged bugs that the Koopa Troop didn’t shoot down first, which was a big help. Speaking of, it looked like Bowser’s group had somehow set up a palisade of iron spikes during the first wave, creating a defensible position perfect for managing the horde. As more kinds of bugs began to arrive, and incoming Macteras proved that Sectonia wasn’t the only airborne bug around, Nadia hastened toward the makeshift spear walls to join her team. The dwarves, who’d already grouped up, did the same. Together, they and the Seekers held the line. Rika’s guns blazed alongside Stetson’s DRAK-25 Plasma Carbine, Overhard’s turrets, and Paintbrush’s impressive ‘Hurricane’ Guided Rocket System, making things easier for Kamek. Together they cleared the air and cut down as many bugs as they could before the horde could reach the melee fighters.

As mactera dropped like flies, Nadia focused on the earthbound glyphids crawling her way. With the arrival of Praetorians and Centiwings, things were heating up. “Earn your stripes!” ”She pulled out her Bait Launcher and fired it at an incoming Praetorian, and as the yoked tiger appeared to start shredding its armor, Nadia circled around. A trio of glyphid slicers came at her, but she intercepted the first one with a double overhead slash that severed both its bladed forelegs, allowing her to cut through its front half with an x-slash and then scatter its quarters with a disjointed spinning hook kick. Another one cut in a split second later, but Nadia somersaulted into the air away from the lunging slice and dropped her heel on its head in an El Gato axe kick. Before it could rise she sank one blade through its body and into the wood below, pinning it to the ground. “Goin’ nowhere!” As the third slicer attacked, she tried to pull the blade out, only to find it had stunk. In the nick of time, her new pup Chucho tackled the bug, stopping it short. “Good dog!” Nadia crowed. She squeezed the trigger on her handle to leave her blade there, then turned around to strike back with limber up. “Careful! The devil’s in…” The glyphid popped into the air, and Nadia bent forward to shoot off one of her tails like a javelin, impaling her target mid-air. “De tail!” Turning once more to face it, she jumped and grabbed the slicer by the embedded tailspear to slam it down into the ground. That third his activated New Moon, and with a silvery gleam the bug burst into a shower of green guts. “Bug-ger off!”

By then the tiger had timed out, and the Praetorian unhinged its jaws to belt out a spray of corrosive poison. Nadia put away her tail and hilt, then took off running with Chucho floating after her, parting several glyphids from their legs on the way. She dipped and dodged, but the Praetorian just wouldn’t leave her alone. “Normally I hate to cut and run, but sheesh! It’s a thirsty one, huh boy?” She timed and spaced things so that just as the stream ended, she closed the distance as a bolt of lightning with Charge, appearing right in front of the big bug’s shredded face with a level one Purrge of Vengeance rippling in her hand. “Well, here’s a drink…on me!” She slammed the maelstrom sphere into the Praetorian’s mouth, then performed Charge again to blitz straight through the monster to the other side. “After all, it’s zappy hour somewhere!” She grinned ear to ear, and behind her the monster promptly exploded into stinky, bright green chunks. As cool as that must’ve looked, she had to scramble back to safety a moment later, coughing from the noxious gas that got in her lungs.

By that time the battle seemed to be winding down. The Koopa Troop had dealt with the Centiwings, managing to avoid getting skewered by their awful lancelike probosci. Most of the hordes had been cut down either by the Seekers or their new dwarf friends, who really seemed to know their way around a battle. After calling in a supply drop, Stetson brought out his scanner and yelled out his report. “Swarm’s peterin’ out, we’re almost through!” As if on cue, the last few packs of glyphids showed up. Nadia moved forward to help wipe them out, approaching what looked like an alien clump of wood and vegetation to jump on it for the high ground advantage. Instead that mound burst from the ground, taking her by surprise with the sudden reveal of a Stalker, camouflaged by its color-changing skin to look like just another part of the environment as it lay in wait for the ambush. “Me-YOW!” Its huge foreleg raked across her, and as it went to grab her and pull her into its mouthparts, she backdashed in terror. “Nyagh! That’s not very…KNIFE!” Still wielding one box cutter, she used her other hand to hurl Athame into the Stalker’s head. Then she dashed forward and sheared through both its forelegs and long, lobster-like antennae with a horizontal cross cut. Falling on the ground, the feral bent the monster backward with Limber Up, then snapped up to her lower legs. After an aerial backflip she landed directly on the Stalker’s back. 2700 Pounds of Justice, her Mantreads, and the debuffs to the bug’s already-low defense combined to instantly splatter it beneath Nadia’s effective weight. Its limbs went flying off in different directions on jets of green gunk, leaving Nadia not just victorious, but immensely satisfied. “Whoo!” she yelled, her heart pumping. “I’m just that goo-d!”

As crazy as the swarm had been, it was just another day at the ‘office’ for the dwarves. In the aftermath of the fight, Stetson, Cyclops, Paintbrush, and Overhard all resupplied at the newly-arrived drop pod, meaning each only got 50% of their total health and armor back. “We’ll ‘ave to be stingy with what we got left and mine all the nitra we see,” Stetson reasoned, taking stock of the team’s inventory. “But with our new friends along for the ride, we oughta be able to take out both generators at once, long as we’re bloody careful. Keep an eye out for red sugar too. Heal ya right up in a pinch. ” There was no time to rest, so once everyone caught their breath and handled the leftover spirits, it was time for the four dwarves and the ten Seekers to split up and follow the generator cables to their sources. They pointed the teams toward two tunnels leading out from this central hub. One seemed greener, with more soil and leafy plants around it, not to mention a load of dirt blocking the way. Overhard and Cyclops went that way, the latter using his drills to clear the obstruction. On the other side, pink flowers grew around the mouth of the tunnel, and a strange noise issued from within. Stetson and Paintbrush opted for that route, and once Nadia went with them, Tingyun did as well.

---

Hollow Bough East - Montoj

The eastward tunnel system from the cavern where the Caretaker lay in wait sloped generally downward, and pretty soon its explorers got a good sense that they’d entered another biome. If Hollow Bough proper was a forest in decline, petrified and parasitized by maggots and invasive vines, this area was a quiet, tranquil garden of healthy vegetation. Instead of briars and lichens, it grew tall stalks of bamboo and sugarcane, golden fronds of wheat and even rice in the low-lying pools of mineral-rich water that had collected in pockets around the tunnels. How did all this grow without sunlight? The dwarves didn’t know, and they didn’t care. Instead they homed in on certain kinds of crops like mice to cheese: red barley bulb stalks, droopy blue yeast cones, teal malt start sprouts, and pink starch nut bushes. “Them’s good beer-makin’ ingredients!” Cyclops explained with gusto, enthusiastically collecting all of them that he could get his hands on. He and Overhard deposited them, as well as all the gold and nitra they mined, into the four-legged walking storage box that accompanied them, frequently yelled for it to hurry up or get out of the way.

On the way down, following the generator cable as it wound around the spacious tunnels, the team found only a few scattered packs of glyphids, and maybe one or two Praetorians. Here and there they found odd scarecrows in the plots, and while these Twirligigs turned out to be animate plant creatures, they were neither terribly fast nor aggressive. Their remastered forms, the samurai-esque Kirikuri, stalked among the fields, keeping them glyphid-free with a defensive fighting style based on splinter contact damage. As long as the newcomers didn’t disturb them or steal crops from under the cassette beats’ noses, it was pretty peaceful for the most part. Still, given the sheer amount of enemies they just fought, the presence of Twirligigs and Kirikuris didn’t fully explain this area’s tranquility.

When the explorers reached a larger area, they began to understand why. A loud grunting noise alerted them beforehand, and when they emerged from the tunnel, they spotted it: a gigantic kemono, part pig and part plant, the Kingtusk. It seemed to be feeding, rooting around in the vegetation and chowing down on everything in its path. While the beer ingredients seemed to be its favorite, it gobbled down whatever it felt like, including any glyphids or cassette beasts that took issue with its wanton gluttony. “It’s eatin’ our damn starch nuts and barley bulbs!” Cyclops whispered angrily. “Who’s up for makin’ pork chops?”

“Ignore it, you dolt,” Overhard told him, elbowing the driller in the ribs. “We’re spread thin enough as is. Gotta focus on the generate first. Look!” He pointed out the tunnel that the cable led to. “We can get around it, nice and easy.”

Cyclops huffed. “Fine, but if we got time afterward, that pig’s history,” he grumbled.

For the time being, everyone snuck past the optional boss. On the other side of the tunnel Overhard pointed out, they found the final cavern in the area. It looked like one big wheat field, surrounded by a forest of bamboo, and in the middle stood the Power Station, a sophisticated computer tower-esque machine of thick gray armor and orange lights.

---

Hollow Bough West - Stranga

Nadia, Tingyun, Stetson, Paintbrush, and the three others took the western route, moving at a quick pace. Whenever the dwarves found a deposit of nitra or gold, the pickaxes came out. Everything they mind went straight into their pockets and pouches. Nadia kept watch as the two did their thing, sticking to just one box cutter that she rested on her shoulder for now. At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly, despite the rather winding nature of a tunnel that twisted, turned, and doubled back on itself without rhyme or reason. They cut down vegetation, collected minerals, and exterminated any stray glyphids that they happened to run into. Without much need to communicate, they kept quiet for minutes at a time, with only the skirmishes, the crack of ore struck by pickaxes, and the intermittent ring of Tingyun’s attack-boosting bell offering disturbance. Still, there was that odd, underlying noise. It started as a whisper, but it began to sound more like a drill constantly spinning up and down. The deeper the team went, the louder it got, and the weirder things became.

It started slow. Thickly tangled, corded green vines replaced the walls. They had red flowers that span like wheels, and from the ceiling strawberries grew individuals on long, upside-down stalks. Patches of bulrushes littered the floor here and there, but instead of the brown sausage-shaped clumps, they had three round, gummy bulbs stacked on top of one another, pink, white, and green. They looked like dango. They began to encounter strange glyphids and other bugs. Nadia had already torn through half a pack when she realized that they weren’t fighting back. Instead they just stood there passively, with pink flowers sticking out of their heads. “Freaky.” Still, Nadia and the dwarves were unanimous when it came to wiping them all out, just to be sure. Next came the odd-looking elevator plants, which adjusted between a high and a low position when stimulated. Riding on one mildly amused Nadia for a few moments, but none of them were remotely useful for actually getting around the area given how long they took to move and how random their high and low positions were. So when the tunnel suddenly went almost vertical, Nadia needed to climb manually. While she clawed her way up the wall, Stetson used his grappling hook to scout ahead, and Paintbrush silently set up a zip line so he, Tingyun, and anyone else could ride slowly upward.

At the top of the chute, the tunnel opened up into the first cavern, and the sight left Nadia baffled. The walls were dark stone, overgrown with vines in a lattice pattern like a gigantic net. Large plant towers grew straight upward, the two triangles at the top jumping every few seconds, or bent around to grow right back down again toward the ground. Strewn throughout the place among the green vines were large void sunflowers, towering flower rings, and strange, round blue bulbs big enough to fit a person inside. Some just sat there, but others gushed out fountains or blasts of water from their green ‘lips’, the latter of which flew into weird tube plants (either bent or straight) with a flower on either side, which redirected the water. Strangest of all though was the phenomenon several of the blue bulbs seemed to be sustaining. In the open air, near docile, tentacled brain-creatures that hovered obliviously around the cavern, bodies of water just floated in the air. They took on random but constant shapes. One even looked like a face.

Nadia blinked, taken aback. “Wow…this is so weird!” A smile crept across her features. “This crazy, messed-up world never ceases to amaze!”

Legend of Benkei

Sinmara

After her little stunt, the huntress went ahead and dismissed her Heartbreak. As much as she liked showing off, a weapon wouldn’t do her much good right now if she didn’t mean to use it, and it seemed like a change of scenery might be imminent. Sinmara was all for getting straight to business, none of the ‘you have ten hours to prepare’ or ‘we depart at dawn’ crap. The agony of waiting in anticipation of something hurt her more than blades or bullets. After her chainsaw spear melted away into tar, she brushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes, then crossed her arms beneath her chest. “So what’s next?”

Her answer came in the form of another mysterious woman, this one masked and clad in a tight-fitting flight suit, with long teal hair and fake rabbit ears. Sinmara narrowed her eyes as Ayaka approached, sizing her up. That outfit of hers was pretty extra, but not in a super cool way. And whoever heard of two big, grabbable handles sticking out of someone’s head? Seemed like a design flaw. Oh well; as the huntress soon found out, this woman was here to set the stage, not join the main cast.

She mentioned a ship, which made sense. That was, as she understood it, how most people crossed large bodies of water, because most people were wusses. Not Sinmara, though. She could swim like a fish for hours on end. How else did she get across that ocean? The fishermen that found her unconscious on the far shore told her it was ‘just a lake’, but she knew better. Only an ocean could be that big. Still, going by boat meant she could save her strength for later. Or better yet, spar with one of the others in transit! A mobile battlefield sounded pretty exciting. It was true that Acacia didn’t say anything about a boat, but she didn’t seem like a good leader, especially in comparison to the biggest boss around, Sinmara. So such irresponsibility was to be expected.

Sinmara’s distaste for Acacia only compounded when Ayaka read off a checklist of ‘names’ left for her by the masked menace. “Again with this ‘ogre’ crap,” she complained, rolling her eyes. “Cacy wouldn’t know a bombshell if one slapped her upside the head. Which I’m gonna do the next time I see her, by the way.” She turned up her nose, her nostrils flaring in triumph. “At least she’s got the brains to know that if I were an ogre, I’d be the queen! Damn straight! All the other ogres better bow before me! Y’know, maybe I’ll wear this insult as a badge of honor. It’s never been more ogre than it is right now!”

Once the huntress finished being an attention hog (for the time being), Ayaka sent them on her way, bringing Sinmara in line with the promise of more food. She followed the group’s guide through the Unity Organization superstructure. On the way Ayaka mentioned that the members of the brand-new taskforce ought to come up with a name for themselves. “You got it! Uhhhhhhhhhh…” Sinmara wasn’t exactly the creative type, but was that going to stop her? Hell no. She shifted both her brain cells into sixth gear and quickly belted out the perfect answer. “Sinmara’s…Sinners!” With a winning smile, she pushed up her sunglasses so they actually covered her eyes. “Pretty badass, right?”

Given the philistines she’d taken to associating with, however, her genius went unrecognized.

Pretty soon everyone reached the transport. It looked like nothing Sinmara had ever seen, and as much as she oohed and aahed over it, her wonderment only compounded when the trip began. She pushed her sunglasses up between her horns nad watched, slack-jawed with fascination, as the ground fell away beneath the rising airship. “No way! We’re flying! Ahahaha!” She pressed her hands against the window, smudging the glass, followed promptly by her face. “This is so cool!” she garbled. The miracle of flight amazed her for a solid five minutes until she suddenly came to the realization that, despite the world passing by beneath her, she was actually just standing there, waiting. And she would be for the next hour. “...Ugh,” she groaned, sumping down with her back against the window. “Y’know what? I’m just gonna conk out for a little while. Mighta worked myself into a little bit of a food coma back there. Wake me up if something happens.” Within seconds, the huntress passed out, and her thunderous snoring filled the ship. She clearly did nothing by halves, even unconsciously.

Eventually someone woke her up, and she joined the procession of Sinners stomping down the ramp out of the ship. They’d reached the seaside, and before Sinmara rested an utterly gigantic vessel. “Whoa, mama!” she called out, delighted. Oblivious to the chaos occurring amongst the dockhands around her -which from her point of view was hardly unusual- she ran over toward the ship. “I thought we were in for a sailboat or something, but we get to ride on THIS? It’s like a floating castle.” Grinning, she looked over her shoulder. “Last one aboard’s a rotten egg!”

With that, she crouched down, gathering her immense strength. Amber cracks began to form on her legs, spreading until they’d formed a glowing web. Then they snaked from her limbs onto the dock itself, spreading out in an area around her a couple yards in diameter. When Sinmara jumped, the downward force of her leap triggered her Fault Lines, causing a geyser-like explosion of destructive energy that sent her even higher. Sinmara soared upward like an artillery shell, whooping and hollering, until she reached the top of her arc and fell (on her back) onto the deck of the Yamashi. Seeing stars from the impact and more than a little dizzy from all the spinning she’d done mid-flight, Sinmara lurched over the railing. She leaned over it and waved, yelling down at the others. “Wow, you guys stink! But who’s gonna stink the worst? Better hurry!”

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

Lewa

Le-wahi Wilderness

To some, the vast, stony expanses of Po-wahi might impart a sense of majestic grandeur, making one feel small in the shadows of monoliths that stood, weathering the desert sands, since times immemorial. The trackless snowfields and icy crystal spires of Ko-wahi, each radiant and perfectly unique as the snowflakes that dusted them, weren’t without their charms. The volcanoes and lava flows of Ta-wahi and the unfathomably vast depths of Onu-wahi were truly awe-inspiring. And who could ever summon up distaste for the gorgeous, sparkling coasts and bays of Ga-wahi, where waters teeming with life broke against the idyllic shores in a ceaseless, soothing lullaby? But to Lewa, there was no land more breathtakingly beautiful than his home, the jungled southernmost region on the island of Mata Nui, Le-wahi.

What’s not to like about it, after all? The endless sea of verdant green, a vast tapestry of countless species, all dancing to the whisper of the wind and the heartbeat of mother nature. The prospect of boundless discovery, be it new species of plant or animal, or behaviors of creatures never before seen, or even something as mundane as an interesting fruit or mushroom. With that, of course, came the guarantee of adventure: few pathways and signposts could be found in this pristine landscape, meaning that the intrepid explorer could enjoy getting lost time and time again. So too could new perils be found around every corner, creating an endless smorgasbord of thrills. Most Le-matoran would never venture too far from the safety of Le-koro, so when it came to charting the unknown, Lewa really had the run of the place. And yet, perhaps most beautifully of all, being in the jungle meant that he was never really alone.

For a few minutes now Lewa had been sitting on the edge of a forested cliff, reclining against the gnarled roots of an old tree that stood on the precipice. With his hands laid behind his head he watched the dance of Gukko Birds over the jungle, appreciating their display. These two seemed to be males butting heads over territory, and though some might dismiss them as mere Rahi, these birds fought like seasoned swordfighters. On four long, slender, bladelike wings apiece that beat with the speed of a dragonfly’s, they maneuvered around one another with unparalleled agility, testing one another with thrusts and swipes of beaks like giant rapiers. Though both fought with skill, the larger one fought with the acuity of a veteran, and before long he managed to clip his rival’s wings. The challenger darted away and disappeared into the leaves below, bringing Lewa’s gaze out of the glorious sky and to a stretch of terrain ruined and rendered uninhabitable by vast amounts of acid.

Despite the distant birdsong and the gentle brush of leaves in the wind, he couldn’t help but sigh, his good mood soured somewhat by the bleak reminder. So far the Bohrok hadn’t been able to obliterate Le-wahi’s natural beauty, but they had certainly tried. The swarm was insatiable, unrelenting. They rampaged across every region of Mata Nui, sowing destruction in their wake, but nowhere did their unthinking cruelty hurt Lewa more than here. Entire swaths of the jungle had been smashed into pulp or melted into slag as the vile Lehvak crawled from the woodwork to assail Le-koro, time and time again. The near-constant fighting made him all the more grateful for brief moments like these, where he could catch his breath and cherish the miracle of life that he was fighting for in the first place.

Yet he couldn’t relax forever. Not when he had many kios left to patrol.

Lewa rose to his feet, one hand laid against the trunk of the ancient tree for support. He brushed a couple twigs and leaves off his armor, made sure he was ready to roll, and finally picked up his axe from where he’d laid it. His eyes lingered on the weapon for a moment as he hefted it. Some might think it a strange weapon for a hero and a protector of nature, but the law of the jungle demanded that one kill or be killed. Death was a quintessential part of the cycle of life, and as many Bohrok had already learned, the Spirit of Air would not hesitate to cut down anything that threatened this land’s precious peace. Lewa placed his axe on his back, swung himself around the tree, and resumed his patrol.

Within a few minutes, however, the jungle filled with a new sound. The steady beat of many powerful drums, played in sync and to a very specific rhythm, reached Lewa all the way from Le-koro. Each rhythm represented a message, and Lewa knew this one well. It wasn’t a Bohrok attack, thank Mata Nui, but it told Lewa that he needed to return. Without delay the toa set off at a run, building up speed to leap into the trees for speedy travel. But he didn’t get far. Almost immediately he slammed into an invisible barrier that sent him reeling, completely thrown for a loop. “What in the?” One hand on his mask, he tentatively reached out a hand and confirmed the presence of an unseen obstacle that rebuffed even a concerted effort to break through. “Some kind of air-wall?” Only when he looked down did he notice some kind of energy welling up beneath him, of a kind he couldn’t for the life of him identify. “A trap! But how!? Who!?” He looked in every direction for the culprit, every fiber of his being filled with the sense that something bad was happening. But it was to no avail. With an anguished cry, Lewa threw himself against the wall in the direction of the Le-koro drums. “Friends! I’m coming, don’t worry! I’m-!”

---

The light that engulfed Lewa receded slowly, leaving him stunned, dazed, and confused. When he regained his sight, however, he felt even worse. Rather than the lush Le-wahi wilds, he found himself confronted with the interior of a stone building, cluttered with furniture. That alone told him that he was far from home; even if Turaga Matau somehow brought him home instantly through some unknown power, Le-koro housed no structures like this; the treetop village built with nothing other than wood. Yet daylight poured through the broken roof, so this couldn’t be Onu-koro, either. The atmosphere in this place reminded him a little of the Suva shrine in Le-koro, but even the faintest traces of familiarity vanished when Lewa’s baffled gaze landed upon the individuals who’d come here before him.

“Mata Nui!” His jaw just about hit the ground when he realized the things he was looking at were living beings. Living people. He’d seen some odd things throughout his adventures so far, but these beings went beyond anything Lewa could have imagined in his wildest dreams. Towering over most of them was nothing new, since most Matoran stood at half his height, but that was about where the common ground came to an end. Their bodies featured strange, smooth, pale coatings that overlaid and disguised their inner workings, those outer layers themselves also covered by garments of woven fabric. In his world, only Turaga wore such ceremonial vestments, but here there was such variety. At least one of them possessed metal armor at least. At first he thought their masks incredibly expressive, but it didn’t take a genius to realize that they were masks at all. They were faces. Displaying one’s face was an unthinkable taboo; after all it was the masks, not the identical, featureless metal plates beneath them, that made toa and matoran who they really were. One of them did seem to be wearing a mask, but it covered his face only in part. Those faces, though…they were all completely unique. Somehow, they were more incredible -more alive- than most anything Lewa had ever seen.

Overcome with shock and wonderment at the utterly alien creatures he’d been faced with, Lewa could do little more than gawk for a few moments. Some of them spoke, superficially confirming intelligence on par with the people of Mata Nui and also helping Lewa to identify their genders, since he was totally at a loss otherwise. They seemed to be confused. At least Lewa wasn’t the only one. “This is incredible,” he breathed. “Unthinkable. Like something out of a dream. Or maybe a nightmare. What is this…?”

After a moment though, something happened that he could begin to understand. A hail of arrows tore into the bizarre scene. Some kind of attack? At the moment Lewa understood nothing, but if he or these small, helpless-looking, fleshy creatures were in danger, he couldn’t just stand there. Narrowing his eyes, the toa unslung his axe and readied himself for action, his mind still racing as it tried and failed to make sense of the situation.

World of Light

Midgar - Quarantine Valley

Level 5 Goldlewis (129/50) Level 4 Sandalphon (41/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man
Word Count: 1827

Faced with a massive, treacherous landscape of rusty rooftops, riddled with countless hazards, unknowns, and enemies laying in wait, Goldlewis wouldn’t have known where to begin if not for a certain fortunate coincidence. While the Seekers might not have any bloodhounds on hand, if a strange turn of events they found themselves with someone who smelled like one, and in several respects. Once Geralt received the lost bag of their missing VIP, Irons, and took a deep whiff, he not only picked up the scent but also began to blaze a trail. “Well, I’ll be darned,” Goldlewis remarked, impressed. Just how many tricks did these people have up their sleeves? Ready to roll out, the veteran hoisted his coffin and began to follow his guide. “Lead the way, sir.”

With Sandalphon and Hal watching over their progress from on high, the Seekers set out. There was a lot of ground to cover, so they elected to split up to take different routes through the area and pursue different points of interest. This decision was made when the team drew near a large section of rooftop patrolled by a huge, menacing robot, smack dab in the middle of their intended route. Though badly corroded by prolonged exposure to the elements without maintenance and covered in damage accrued by many battles, the bipedal Unmanned Gear known as the Tyrant was fearsome to behold. Modeled after the Tyrannosaurus Rex of old, it blended its inspiration’s primeval savagery with the dispassionate cruelty of modern heavy weapons. Iron’s scent trail led around it, and most of the Seekers chose to give it a wide berth too, but not all of them. Supported by Roland, the gynoid duo of Blazermate and Susie decided to take the metal monster head-on. As they fought, azure energy bolts from Sandalphon’s rifle streaked through the sky above the others, hammering the Tyrant from afar to help pile on the damage. Their skirmish meant no healing for the rest of the team until the Tyrant fight concluded, but Goldlewis did not object. Even if the trio just wanted to do it for the rewards, their work would help make Quarantine Valley a safer place for everyone.

Yet, these rooftops were more dangerous than even he could have realized. When Zenkichi took the low road, delving into a dark area suspended between a couple buildings, his conscientious attempt to help out young Aurele got him a lot more trouble than he bargained for. None of the others saw what happened down there, and Zenkichi wasn’t inclined to regale them with the details, but in the end he secured a route for Aurele to escape Ny’agai Street and head back toward Sector V, unaware that he’d never see his friends again.

For Zenkichi

Items obtained:
Verut Spirit
Spirit of a young boy who loved to play
Lovi Spirit
Spirit of a young girl who loved to play
Lady Ny’agai
Spirit of a ghostly entity with the form of a pale, fancily-dressed woman whose curses could transfigure unlucky people into her servant ‘children’
Cecile
Spirit of a former knight who broke under the weight of the horrors of war, becoming a reclusive sharpshooter in exile with an unhealthy addiction to manachew
Devinder Crousley
Spirit of an internet-famous paranormal investigator, amateur cryptozoologist, and aspiring inventor who, despite his weapons and gadgets, looked into one mystery too many
Vest of the Dead
A Protector that takes the form of an old-fashioned suit vest. It provides a surprising amount of defense but has no secondary bonuses
Can of Sham
A can of high quality Shamway ham, the number 1 maker of meat-like products. The lunch of champions. The recipe is top secret and better left undisclosed. Provides a little health when eaten. Can be used to make much tastier, heartier Sham Chowder
Ammo Box
A rusted metal tin that can be set down and opened to fully resupply long guns and handguns (no more than one apiece) for up to three people

Once the detective called Sandalphon to request her oversight, she fixed her attention on Aurele to make absolutely sure that he got home safely. Her gunstaff might not have a scope, but her eyes were sharp, and as she watched the teary-eyed boy go she precisely calculated the path he’d take based on his movements. Twice he ran into danger, once when an aberration dragged itself out of a patched-up lean-to and once when a bright red crate Aurele ran by turned out to be a mimic in disguise. The first monster Sandalphon nailed with a headshot before it even rose from the ground, but when she shot at the transforming mimic she missed twice. It was able to fully get up and run after Aurele, its spiked tentacles swinging. As it closed the distance, Sandalphon took aim, narrowing her eyes as her pupils turned into neon green reticles. With projectiles that had travel time, this wasn’t easy. She led her shot, and as the mimic ran down Aurele on the bridge back to Sector V, her third shot slammed into its head and knocked it over the railing to plunge down to the corrupted streets far below. Sandalphon’s pupils became stress marks as she watched the boy disappear to safety, then turned to resume her overwatch. 33% shot placement is unacceptable, she admonished herself. I need an upgrade.

Not long after that, Geralt’s nose led him and Goldlewis to their destination. Both were duly warned about the red matter signature present at that location, and upon arriving they found the broken vial spattered with trace amounts of Blue Evolve. Barely did they get the chance to identify it, though, then they were attacked by an invisible foe that struck with the deadly pierce of a lance and the crushing might of a heavy shield. Geralt made the spur-of-the-moment decision to dose himself with Blue Evolve then and there, and though such a small amount barely allowed him to see or strike the chimera, it made a crucial difference. After taking a few hits and being utterly unable to fight back, Goldlewis followed suit. Was this unwise? Probably. Was it hygienic? Definitely not. But the veteran was used to doing whatever it took to survive. Once he quaffed the drops in the very bottom of the cracked vial, he could see the demonic-looking outline of his enemy, taller than the average human but shorter than either Geralt or himself. The Laius attacked with brutal simplicity and lackluster speed. Its attacks were almost too easy to dodge or block against now that he could see them, and it wasn’t enough of an adroit defender with its shield to protect itself all that well, either. A little Blue Evolve really does make all the difference. Though they both dealt drastically reduced damage against the monster thanks to their low dosage, the pair’s combination of might and magic killed the thing after a few moments, leaving its spirit -as unsettlingly red and glitchy as those found on the highway that first night- for Geralt to collect. The Witcher called it in, reporting what the scouting party had found.

“Understood,” Sandalphon replied. From her perch she’d seen the fight -or more accurately, two thirds of it- go down, unable to help. Even if Hal’s scans could somehow give the sniper a bead on the chimera, there was no guarantee it would stay put long enough for her shot to hit. Or that her allies wouldn’t accidentally get in the way. Not that her shots could hit a chimera anyway. She wasn’t frustrated, per se; the situation was just nonoptimal. But now that Goldlewis and Geralt had inoculated themselves with Blue Evolve, they were the team’s best bet against any more chimeras they ran into. Sandalphon quickly brought everyone else up to date. “Goldlewis and Geralt followed Iron’s trail to a dead end, where they found traces of Blue Evolve that they used to fight and kill a chimera.”

Hal’s drone was en route to their location. Upon arriving at the rooftop, he re-scanned the area. “I’m picking up less red matter than before. But it’s not completely gone…” When he probed closer to the source, a localized crimson lightning flash went off in front of him, and a glitchy, bloody wound ripped open in reality itself. “And there it is. A gate to the Astral Plane. And bad news: Iron’s scent trail leads right into it.”

“Just like with Wind Chimes,” Goldlewis reasoned. He glanced at Geralt. “We can get in, grab her, and get out. ‘Specially now we got a chance in hell of fightin’ ‘em.”

“A gate has opened in their vicinity,” Sandalphon reported to Blazermate, Susie, Roland, Zenkichi, and Karin. “It sounds like they’re going to proceed inside to retrieve the VIP. Please proceed to the location and stand by to provide assistance if necessary.” The gate stuck out like a sore thumb, so the others would be able to find it (not to mention fly or grapple to it) easily. While they might not be able to fight chimeras, they could feasibly help out in other ways.

The two big men geared up to take the plunge, and Hal’s drone went to join them. As he sighed, his drone performed an agitated flip. “Welp, here we go.” Together, the three leaped in.

This time, the transition between dimensions wasn’t as fast, and when they arrived it wasn’t an arena Goldlewis found himself in. Instead he found himself in the middle of a ton of geometric formations like an angular mountain range or city buildings, all black obsidian streaked with narrow golden swirls and cluttered with outcrops of red crystal. Being here was just as uncomfortable and unnerving as Goldlewis remembered, and worse, instead of a path ahead there lay just a couple disjointed slabs and islands, separated by empty space over the infinite abyss.

“I’m picking up a biosignal. It might be Iron!” Hal reported. ”The signal’s still strong. Let’s find her before that changes!”

Goldlewis whistled. Just the thought of falling forever, or until he aberrated, made the hairs on his neck stand up. “Halo? We’re gonna need folks with more mobility.”

Back in the World of Light, Sandalphon heard him loud and clear. “Roger. All units, proceed into the Astral Plane with utmost caution.”

Once inside, Susie, Blazermate, and Karin could put their flight and grappling to good use. They found strange geometric loci of red matter that seemed to function as switches when a group of them were struck simultaneously, which started platforms moving back and forth over the void that the others could use. The path forward was treacherous, sometimes featuring other sliding blocks that could knock people off ledges or red matter singularities that steadily fired corruption clusters down corridors or across bridges. Still, after a few twists, turns, and downward slopes, the team reaches a more open area.

Almost immediately, a burst of dark energy went off atop the soon-to-be battleground, and from within appeared a handful of strange figures. Two were bladed Voidrangers, two wielded cannon-wielding Eliminators, and behind them the one that walked behind them on hooves like a horse’s, arms crossed, was a Trampler. These beings were inorganic and alien, but not really demonic in appearance, and not even a little bit red. “What the heck are those?” Hal exclaimed as the others readied their weapons. “Whatever they are, they’re not chimeras, that’s for sure!”

As if in response to him, or perhaps the intrusion, a keening cry rang out through the area. From above swooped three winged creatures with bodies of pale purple-white, bladed legs, and fleshy pastel-green ‘feathers’, seemingly feminine in shape. Hal’s drone shrank back. “But those are! WIG-C-76E8F-01, ‘Aello’. It looks like we’ve wandered into some kind of turf war!”

“And Iron’s on the other side,” Goldlewis grunted. It’d naturally fall to him and Geralt to eliminate the chimeras, but as he’d learned in the fight against the Laius, his weapons weren’t effective against these things. Only his body. Flying enemies would be tough if he couldn’t shoot them. He cracked his knuckles, then his neck. “Well, we’ve got plenty of targets. Let’s take ‘em out!”

Suoh - Other Onslaught

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

The moment the action began, the fighting was furious and nonstop. Though together the Seekers and the Psych-OSF soldiers made for a formidable united front, these Others had a serious numbers advantage, so the heroes’ saving grace was that their foes were neither coherent nor organized. Rather than taking the monsters all on at once, they could fight and exterminate them a handful at a time, though that didn’t mean that any encounter couldn’t be their last if they weren’t careful.

Luka knew the danger, but he couldn’t afford to be slow and methodical with the lives of so many innocent civilians on the line. A gang of four Kitchen Rummies were working their way down the sidewalk, burning everything in their path that they couldn’t whack to pieces with their hooked steel pipes. The young man gripped his Weight Hammer tight and teleported into the fray, covering dozens of yards in a single bound. He appeared and swung in a full circle, building up centripetal force, then snapped the jet-colored mannequin’s curled brass leg out from under it. He transitioned his momentum into an overhead smash directly into the monster’s core lattice, breaking it in half. Two of the other Others tottered his way while the third stuck the burner it had for a head through the window it had just shattered. Without hesitation Luka teleported past the pair. Appearing behind the Kitchen Rummy, he dropped his hammer, grabbed its legs, and pulled. The Other fell forward against the building, landing on its knees, and the instant he could do so Luka grabbed its body and took it down with a German suplex. Its burner slammed into the head of his hammer and smashed to pieces. As it slumped down its fellows encroached, so Luka grabbed his weapon and sent the fallen Rummy flying toward them with a baseball swing. They went down in a pile, tangled up long enough for him to finish the job with a few well-placed hammer swings.

Next he turned his attention toward a pair of Saws Paws breaking through a makeshift barricade, teleporting past a handful of Pools to reach them. His target heard him coming and ducked backward out of the way, making Luka overswing, and as he tried to recover the other Saws Paws leaped at him with its blade-wielding legs extended. It landed a couple slashes on his shoulder and back, then tried to floor him with a hefty whack from its giant Rafflesia bloom. It was delayed just enough for Luka to dodge away, then dodge again as the first charged him. He rushed after it, dragging his hammer along the ground, then launched it with an upward swing as it turned. It flipped over onto its flower, and with a revolving blow Luka sent it spinning away. By that time the other Saws Paws reached him, slashing again and again. Luka blocked until his wily opponent used its tail to coil around the hammer’s head and yank it out of the soldier’s grasp. Surprised, Luka threw himself out of the way of its follow-up leap, but as the Saws Paws faced him again his weapon lay out of reach. Tapping into Yuito’s Psychokinesis, however, Luka retrieved his hammer in time to parry the Other’s pounce and leave it reeling. He paused just long enough to aim, then cannoned his hammer head-first with Psychokinesis, plowing into the Saws Paws and crushing it against the side of a building. Even before its ashes hit the ground, Luka was off to the next batch of targets, his hammer floating back into his little hands.

Meanwhile, Yuito had engaged a flock of Pendus, throwing objects and jumping off bits of the scenery to get their attention. Scummy Pendus were nothing to write home about, falling to his remote-controlled swordblade like wheat to the scythe. The Plateau Pendus were a little trickier, their electric shots and divebombs demanding patience and perception in the midst of a chaotic battle, but Yuito could manage. Dodging bolts from two of them, he used his Psychokinesis to interpose a hefty metal bench into its path, stunning it on impact. As the bench fell he surged forward to pull off a three-hit triangle slash, severing the monster’s wings and then the neck. The two other Plateaus prepared to shoot again, but Yuito focused on the storefront behind them. When he reached out with his power, the glass window shattered, and its deadly shards hurtled forward to pierce the Others’ bodies. From there he used the bench again and sideswiped the pair hard enough to break the bench, killing one Other but stunning the other. When a bulb popped out of its chest, Yuito performed a Brain Crush, simply yanking the bulb out of the monster’s body with his Psychokinesis to kill it. The moment he sheathed his sword, however, another Plateau hit him from behind, first clubbing his head and then grabbing him beneath the arms to lift him into the air. He grunted in pain and anger as he rose, the ground receding beneath him. Unable to use his arms, he drew his sword with Psychokinesis and embedded it into the Plateau’s head. A quick kick to the blade’s handle broke its neck, forcing it to release him, and as he spun away Yuito dispatched his foe with a distant crescent slash. Its halves reached the ground before he did.

His Pendu troubles weren’t over, however. When he ran at the next one, a specimen with dragonfly wings and red arms, it darted away at an incredible speed, leaving afterimages in its wake. Just like Arashi, Yuito noted, narrowing his eyes. This Other has Hypervelocity: a Bandeau Pendu. He wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on it normally, but luckily Yuito had the counter. “Luka, I need this.” Using his friend’s Teleportation, the young man closed the distance, then appeared above the Other. After a quick one-two with his sword he dealt the Bandeau Pendu a sort of drop kick, throwing it to the street. Its Hypervelocity wouldn’t work for a moment, and a moment was all he needed. Once he landed, Yuito yanked a sidewalk advert from the ground and sent it spinning into the Other, knocking it flat. His projectile broke in half, but he hammered his foe with the halves anyway, prompting another bulb that a Brain Crush quickly took care of.

Yuito, Hanabi, and Luka ended up converging on a small horde of lesser Others, including Pools and Paws, and together they dispatched them quickly. “Nice going, guys!” the girl exclaimed before refocusing on a new threat. “Might wanna stick together for that one, though.” It was a half-equine, half-metal monstrosity with scaled fruit and pruned branches: the Juttie Chinery. As it charged, the three soldiers went to work. Both Luka and Yuito empowered their melee attacks with Hanabi’s fire, dealing enough damage with hit-and-run attacks to send the Chinery into a berserk rage, at which point Luka and Hanabi switched to long range with Yuito’s Psychokinesis to pound it with random objects. Luka ended the barrage by throwing his Weight Hammer at the Chinery’s head, then catching it as it bounced off for an impressive overhead slam. The monster roared in pain and lifted its arm to grab him, only for Hanabi to use her Prometheus Torch to vault over him and pour salt on the wound with a flaming heel drop. In blind rage the Other lunged at them, but the two dodged to either side, and as the Chinery looked up it witnessed a bus careening toward him under the power of the psychic riding on top of it. The withering impact sent the Other onto its back with a shriek, and from the base of its spine popped its bulb. Yuito used his Psychokinesis to wrap its own tail around the bulb and pulled the tail tight to sever it, killing the rest.

The battle raged on, the heroes steadily accruing fatigue and wounds and the number of Others steadily dwindled. Fighting all the way down the avenue to Main Street would be brutal, but it looked like they wouldn’t have too. Another force seemed to be fighting down the avenue from the other direction, slaughtering Others as its members advanced. Things finally came to a head when the two sides met in the center of the avenue, the local population of others pincered and squashed beneath them. All that remained was the Dispen Perry, but as the Seekers watched, the other team tore it apart. While four troopers -Pvts Yamaguchi Wolfe, Kasumi Tucker, Tanabe Row, and Kotome Aguilar- fired on it with a compound bow, a grenade launcher, a sawblade launcher, and throwing knives respectively, three duos pounded it with their psychic abilities. Clad in sleek yet theatrical red and black that masked their physical changes, the P-types obeyed their commands to the letter, Sabrina with the mind-bending might of her Alakazam fusion and Will with the precognitive mastery of his Xatu fusion. The PSI prodigies Ninten and Lucas worked together, the more courageous boy covering for the more timid one while he dished out damage with PK Thunder and Freeze. Lastly, Morris Martinez used his psychic trampolines to evade and knock around the monster, allowing Gisu to strike it with her weaponized hoverboard. Despite its strength and hydrokinesis, the Dispen Perry was quickly overwhelmed, the killing blow struck by Gisu when her board sliced through the monster’s exposed bulb.

“That’s not my squad,” Yuito muttered. He had a bad feeling about this–one that his friends all shared.

As the Major Other died, the ten psychics formed up facing the four Seekers and their three friends. “Well, well, well, look who it is,” Morris taunted them from his trademark weaponized chair atop his Levitation ball. “The fugitives. We’ve got orders to haul you back to base, so I’m afraid this is the end of the line.”

Gisu glared at Hanabi. “What are you doing? You should be fighting alongside us. Your platoon! Instead you’re with these traitors?”

Hanabi could only fidget, her hands behind her back. “I-I know how this looks. But listen, we’ve been set up! We found out a bunch of horrible stuff that dangerous people don’t want the public to know. Knowing this, I can’t go on like normal, and I can’t surrender. If you’d just…”

“Save it for the judge, traitor” Will interjected, unfurling the wings that had been acting like a robe. “Whatever your reasons, you’re coming with us.”

“I’ve informed Commanders Sasha and Camilla. We’re clear to proceed, and authorized to use lethal force if necessary,” Sabrina added flatly. Her face remained stoic as spoons began to levitate around her. “Do not resist.”

Luka took a deep breath. Red-on-red. Nothing more needed to be said. He and the others had already come so far; they couldn’t afford to back down now.

The Under - Hollow Bough

Level 12 Nadia (86/120)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 3180

In less than two hours, the Seekers’ misadventure in the Crypt of the NecroDancer had already come to a close, with their unexpected detour meeting an unexpected end. For the most part, Nadia felt pretty relieved that she didn’t actually end up having to stake her life on the dance routine she’d thrown together with Primrose. If she’d been up against any actual professional performers, the feral knew she’d be toast. Whether or not she had a knack for the art, success was the result of practice, practice, and more practice, for which there was no substitution. Whether dancing, fighting, or thieving, the story was the same. Still…she did feel a little let down. Some part of her really wanted to strut her stuff out there–to see what she was capable of. Oh well. Maybe another day, without the shadow of impending doom hanging over her head, another opportunity to dance her heart out would come her way. For now, she and her teammates needed to get a move on, out of this tomb and on to greener pastures. Next stop: Hollow Bough.

Before they could leave this soniferous sepulcher, however, the others brought up something that had almost slipped Nadia’s mind: the three who hadn’t entered the Crypt. “Oh yeah, yeah! We oughta let ‘em know they’re free to enter!” With the NecroDancer deposed and his dominion dismantled it stood to reason that those three could get in to rejoin those who signed the Snatcher’s contract. Normally there wouldn’t be a chance in hell of communicating this properly, but thanks to the miracle of her linkpearl, Nadia was able to ring up her contact of choice among the trio who abstained. “Heya Jesse!” she greeted her fellow mallrat in a chipper tone. “We’ve just about wrapped up here. The NecroDancer just sang his swan song, though between you and me, he REALLY couldn’t carry a tomb, heehee. Ah, anyway, the Crypt should be open now, so hurry and catch up to us!”

The FBC director offered an alternative. “Actually, we kind of found another way. ‘Big Dorf’ recognized it, and said it’s a kind of shrine that should lead us to the surface. There’s loot, too. You guys go ahead for now, we’ll catch up if this turns out to be a dead end.”

Her news about an alternate route took Nadia by surprise. Still, it didn’t come as a shock that Jesse would manage to find and forge her own path. Whether their separate ways would link up again was anyone’s guess, but they’d been lucky so far, and anything was possible. “Alrighty then, if you say so. Good luck out there!” For a moment the catgirl paused, the faintest hint of the worry she felt breaking through her sunny disposition. Then she went ahead and cut off the link. Precisely because anything was possible, everything was uncertain. Nadia didn’t want to say goodbye to any more friends. But she had to trust in Jesse and the others, and that she’d see them again just the same as she’d see Geralt, Sakura, Ace, and all the rest.

With that settled, she and the others navigated through the remainder of the Crypt. Between all its rooms, staircases, and hallways, it was something of a labyrinthine dungeon, but once they reached the central Nexus it was a clear shot to the exit. On the way they passed by multitudes of skeletons, zombies, ghosts, and other ghoulies also clearing out. Those who possessed sufficient humanity and/or sentience could depart through either the back door, which led to the Kingdom’s Edge and, as Bowser helpfully explained, the Home of Tears via Pizza Tower, or they could leave through the front and explore Hollow Bough alongside their saviors. Plenty of undead had no intention of leaving, however. Whether they found new meaning or purpose in the Crypt or simply lacked the wherewithal to leave, they’d remain here, partying, chilling, and dancing. Not for eternity, but until the worlds were saved. As she looked around, Nadia gave a wistful smile at the lost souls. If you had nowhere else to go, this wasn’t an awful place to be.

As she lingered, a ghost suddenly popped up from the floor in front of her, taking her by surprise. “Whoa!” Nadia sharpened her claws on instinct, ready to fight, only to find the specter bowing in front of her playfully, wagging its ghostly tail. Though a little unnerving with those big, glowing eyes, its cute appearance disarmed the tension, and Nadia cracked a smile so she could laugh at herself. “Aww, you little stinker. C’mere!” When she held open her arms, the Polterpup jumped right into them, his tail whipping from side to side as he licked her face with a big, pink tongue. “Ah, ack, ptoo, ugh!” Nadia couldn’t have guessed what touching a ghost would feel like, but as it turned out, he both looked and felt like a giant, soft marshmallow. Giggling helplessly, she craned her neck from side to side to try and escape the Polterpup’s licks.

Tingyun tittered as she watched the scene unfold. “Looks like you’ve got quite a handful, Ms. Fortune.”

“Nah, I’m a dog person. Love ‘em to bits, ‘specially small ones. Crazy, right?” Nadia crouched down and set the dog on the ground. “Who’s your owner, chucho?” When she looked around though, she didn’t see anyone searching for a lost pet. The Polterpup just rolled over, begging to have his tummy rubbed, and naturally the catgirl had to honor his request. As much as he delighted her, the implication of his existence also made her a little sad. “Poor little guy. Probably got loved to death.”

After thinking for a moment, Tingyun tilted her head. “This place is full of lost souls, but perhaps he’s found somewhere to belong. Or more specifically, someone to belong to.”

“You think?” Nadia raised her eyebrows, then looked down at Polterpup. “Well, I am incredibly lovable. Guess that makes us two peas in a pod, eh Chucho?” She smiled and held out a hand. “Whaddya say, pal? Wanna be paw-tners?” To her delight, the Polterpup put up its little ghostly paw to shake, and they were agreed. “Wow, that’s a way better deal than I got from that other ghost. C’mon, Chucho!” Her new friend jumped on her shoulder, his back half hanging down on her back, and Nadia joined those headed toward the mausoleum’s front entrance.

---

Stepping out of the dark, relatively cramped stone chambers of the Crypt and into Hollow Bough made for quite the drastic change. The Seekers had entered an enormous, sprawling cave system of tunnels, overgrown grottos, and vast galleries not of stone, but of petrified wood. Branches and roots of immense size curled and twisted through the musty air alongside the trunks, and almost everywhere they looked they could see familiar, spiky, blood-red tendril. Evidently the source of the Creeper Vines, this region also featured their bloated, stationary cousins with horn-like spikes and retractable white spines large enough to be wielded as weapons. Nadia wished that she could say that this underground biome possessed the sort of peaceful silence you might expect in a forest (apart from the shuffle and clatter of feet from the handfuls undead setting out on their journeys) but unfortunately that was not the case. In addition to ominous creaking and crackling, the place hummed with the angry wingbeat of Deeptora wasps, loudest around their horrid-looking papery nests that smoldered an vivid orange from within. Smiling wryly, Nadia zipped up her jacket right away. With the changes to her outfit much less of her skin was showing than usual, so hopefully those wasps’ stingers couldn’t pierce clothing. If only she still had a hood.

Tingyun winced at the sound of wasps as well, sneaking an envious glance in the feral’s direction. “Well benefactors, here we are,” she began, mustering up her courage and walking a few steps across the wooden ground. “It’s something of a hostile environment I’ll admit, and woefully easy to get lost in.”

“Hm? You said you know where we’re goin’, right?” Nadia double-checked.

“Of course! I certainly wouldn’t be much of a guide otherwise.” She knelt down and picked up what looked like a discarded piece of junk, a tinted plastic cylinder partially encased in steel rings. “These spent flares mark the route we took to get down here. Unless things have changed, they should also serve to lead the way back.”

The Seekers set off, but the following the breadcrumb trail of flares was a little tougher than they bargained for. For one, the flares had been tossed haphazardly, leaving them stuck in random places sometimes, and never on a slope they could slide or bounce down. Additionally, unlike most of the underground areas the heroes had visited so far, it was actually very dark in Hollow Bough. Some things shone or gleamed a little, but this wasn’t a smorgasbord of bioluminescence like the Azure Weald beneath Carcass Isle. Nadia could see pretty well in low light, but not total darkness, and most of the others were worse off, so everyone needed to work together to light the way. “Really wishin’ I didn’t get rid of that night light right about now,” she grumbled. At the very least, Tingyun proved quite useful in this regard. After producing her fans, she could wave them to create swathes of bright golden electricity to briefly illuminate their surroundings. Bowser might be surprised to find that he could use his fire breath in such a flammable-looking environment, but it looked like it’d take a lot more fire than he had to ignite the Hollow Bough.

Working together, the Seekers forged onward, their path alternating between tight, winding tunnels and enormous hollows. All over they found thorny weeds and lichens both round and tubular, brown and green and red. When she stepped into one of the dry thorn tumbleweeds, Nadia quickly kicked it off. Overhead hung branches of bough cones the size of beach balls, which would detach from their withered sprigs at the slightest provocation. Thorn Pots were large plants that resembled meaty crimson flowers with clusters of yellow thorns in the middle that would discharge if the plant sustained damage. Likewise, the yellow, five-segmented, bulbous Goo Sacks would burst into a sticky ochre paste once ruptured. Larval Corpse Feeders extended from the walls in certain places, but they shrunk away whenever someone approached with only a dry scraping noise to betray their presence. The worm grass, meanwhile, was much, much more dangerous. After seeing a careless Crypt zombie get reduced to a skeleton in seconds, Nadia didn’t even want to get close to the worm grass, let alone fight it. Luckily, even if the worm grass traced her movement in a creepy way, their patches were pretty easy to jump over.

Their passage through the Hollow Bough hardly went uncontested. Within minutes of entering the Seekers encountered their primary threat: the Glyphid swarm. These eight-legged, eyeless alien arachnids came in many varieties, from the standard grunts to the armored guards with shieldlike forelegs to the vicious slicers with bladed limbs. After equipping her boxcutters, Nadia happily went to town on any disgusting bugs that came at her, slicing them limb from loathsome limb in spurts of green fluid. At first the guards gave her a little trouble, but when crossing one up with a jump-in attack the feral discovered that their abdomens were weak. This trend help true even when the first of several much larger and better-protected Praetorians appeared; the acid-breathing green juggernauts had vulnerable, brightly glowing behinds that could be used against them. Nadia quickly found her favorite strategy: Charge through them as a bolt of lightning, then mess up their weak spots with the free two-hit crit from Battery. The real problem turned out to be the red-shelled spitters, hiding up in the dark to rain down bolts of much stronger yellow acid on anyone who dared stand still for too long. Those spits did a shocking amount of damage if a couple connected, and Nadia quickly learned to watch the walls and ceilings.

Tingun turned out to be a huge help. By chiming her little bell, she could grant a single ally an appreciable attack buff for thirty seconds, and doing so empowered her own fan strikes with some of that ally’s strength. Once sufficiently energized, she could also perform a dance to boost an ally’s speed and give them a bunch of meter for super attacks. Jolted by her lightning, a glyphid Praetorian could do little but shriek in frustration as Tingyun finished it off. “Hmhmhm. Nothing like a fan for cooling you off when you get too heated,” she giggled.

She had to get a little more serious when a couple abnormalities showed up. In one cavern the group ran into a pair of Brother Long Legs, each an ink-black bundle of flesh and mouths only visible in the gloom thanks to their amber x-patterns. They used their incredibly long tentacles to both move around and grab prey, which at one point included Tingyun. “B-benefactors!” she yelped, trying to maintain her composure. “I could use some of your benefice right now!”

“I gotcha!” Nadia propelled herself into the air and used jets of blood to turn herself into an enormous flying sawblade. Her boxcutters sliced through the offending tentacle and Tingyun dropped to the ground, gracefully slowing her fall with her fans.

“...You’re too good to me~” She replied jokingly after getting her breath back.

Nadia just grinned and rejoined the fight. “Think nothin’ of it!”

After dealing with the Brother Long Legs and a couple freakish Centiwings, things quieted down for a little while as the Seekers resumed travel. At least until they heard echoed voices arguing up ahead. Some were reedy, and some were bassy, but all were grouchy. When the team exited the next tunnel they stepped into potentially the largest hollow yet, though this one seemed to be by design. In the middle stood a huge mechanical dias like a vault buried in the ground, and on top of it was an enormous bubble shield protecting an inverted machine pyramid. The voices belonged to a quartet of dwarves next to what might’ve been the shield’s projector, with three of the four in a heated debate.

“...We’ve barely got any nitra left after that Nemesis nearly buried us, you arsewipe!” The one in blue was saying. “If we split up now, we’re just askin’ to be killed!”

“We’ll just mine more nitra then, you blockhead. We ain’t pansies, we can each take a generator on our own! The longer we faff about, the more glyphids are comin’ to crawl up our arses!” the one in yellow disagreed.

The one in red objected. “What about Molly then? She can’t be in both places at once. How’re we gonna cash in our nitra if the mule’s not around to collect it?”

Chucho barked at all the excitement and scampered down toward the dwarves, and Nadia jogged after him, amused. “Hey, boys!” she called, greeting them with a wave. As she approached, she realized they really were dwarves; each stood about a head shorter than herself. “Whatever happened to ‘mining’ your manners? What’s all this about?”

Together the four looked her way, curious looks on the faces of those with their faces showing. Though gruff, they seemed friendly enough; after all, despite being incredibly well armed, none even reached for their weapons. The dwarf in blue seemed to speak for them. “Hey. We were just talkin’ about whether to split up and take out the generators for the Caretaker’s shield here, or tackle ‘em one at a time.”

“We can handle the generators no problem. As long as we meet back up for the Caretaker, we’re fine,” the one in yellow interjected.

After picking up Chucho to hold against her chest, Nadia raised an eyebrow. “Caretaker?”

“That big ol’ hunk o’ metal,” the one in red explained, jabbing a finger at the machine inside the energy shield. “It’s the biggest deal ‘round here. We’re plannin’ to wipe it out and pop open its vault for a crack at the goodies inside.” He pointed out two thick power cables leading out from the vault into two neighboring cave systems. “But to do that, we gotta find and hack both power generators, then get back here and take out the backup batteries to start the fireworks.”

Nadia tilted her head. “Kinda sounds like another boss.” She glanced at the others to see what they thought. “Maybe we can lend a hand. Won’t be a problem splittin’ up if we tag along with you?”

As the leader tugged his whiskers, considering it, the masked driller crossed his arms. “Wot’s the catch? You lookin’ to split the payout?”

“Well, naturally,” Nadia replied with a teasing grin.

“I’m sure we can work out something fair afterwards,” Tingyun reasoned. “You dwarves usually delve down here in digging machines, correct? I happened to come down with an earlier crew. Giving us passage upward would be reward enough.”

Before any other dwarf could interject, the leader agreed. “Roight then, you’re on. We can use the help, things’ve been rougher out here than normal. Wouldn’t be a stretch to call it Hazard 5 at this point in fact. You can call me Stetson. These are Cyclops, Paintbrush, and Overhard. We’ll go half n’ half, take out the generators, then…”

He went quiet. The sounds of shifting earth, scrabbling legs, and beating wings reached the Seekers, and Stetson sucked in his breath. “Swarm! It’s a big one!”

“You sound just like bloody Mission Control,” Cyclops groused as he pulled out his CRSPR flamethrower. Overhard started building a pair of turrets immediately, and without a word Paintbrush flicked off the safety on his heavy multi-rocket launcher. “Never thought I’d miss the boot-lickin’ bastard, but here we are.”

Shouldering his yellow launcher, Stetson launched a flare into the ceiling of the cavern, bathing it in light. It illuminated a horde of glyphids, mactera, and insectoid monsters even more reprehensible. “Contact! Lock and load!”