Lugubrious

Umbra Rose Condos

In record time. Here's the first pass. Let me know what you think.

The Eruditionist

Name: Shoggoth (and Khalid Alhazred)
Image/Appearance: The Shoggoth is an gelatinous, fleshy protoplasm with a constantly shifting form. It can construct new organs and limbs as needed in order to accomplish a variety of tasks, mimicking the bodies and structures of other organisms, but it is never anywhere close to a perfect copy. Even when not altering itself, it’s always subtly forming and unforming a variety of features in an unsettling manner. However, it can typically be categorizes as a meaty sludge, alternatively greenish brown or bruise-like blue-black, favoring tentacles, eyestalks, and multiple mouths, typically suckers rather than jaws

Khalid is a young man of African/Saudi Arabian heritage. He is tall at 6’4”, but very thin, with prominent ribs and no muscle mass to speak of. His eyes and hair are body dark, and his eyebrows as prominent as his cheekbones. With a chinstrap beard and mustache, he puts on a dignified face, but his distinctive hairstyle -clean but unique- betrays a sense of aplomb also visible in his garb; he can be trusted to dress sharply, but with an eccentric twist, a flavor only amplified by his frequent use of seals, scrolls, and talismans. An ever-rotating selection of pink bandages can be found all over his body, a small reminder of the consequences of messing with eldritch matters on a daily basis. He can often be found with an umbrella and a satchel, which in addition to papers, folders, and laptop contains a heating device so that the Shoggoth can rest comfortably on the go.

Race: Shoggoth / Human
Racial Traits: The Shoggoth is a formless (but typically horrific) shapeshifter, able to make organs like arms, claws, eyes, mouths, and so forth as many times and wherever needed. It can also expand and contract itself, squeezing into or through small spaces. It cannot assume or be assigned a human form whatsoever and must be physically hidden when it goes out. It smells very foul, enough to drive away and ward off other creatures, natural and supernatural alike, it tends to instill a phobia in those who observe it, much worse than, say, a spider. If it can envelop something, it can generally destroy it. Its talent is building structures. It’s basically invincible and is resistant to most elements, especially cold, but heat will relax it.

Khalid has no inherent supernatural abilities, but his experience with the supernatural and his collection of trinkets give him a few edges over the average human. He always carries bandages and a pocket mirror, for one. The seals he wears afford him a high degree of mental resilience and magic/curse resistance, while his talismans open their eyes and stare at sources of magical/unnatural energy. If the Shoggoth spreads over his umbrella, it functions very well as an all-purpose shield. He’s acclimatized to the smell of the Shoggoth, and they seem to have some sort of partnership where the Shoggoth will heed his words rather than try to eat him. He has various magical materials as well, including chalks, salts, candles, etc, but he’s much better at breaking others’ magic than doing any of his own
Requirements: The Shoggoth eats prodigious quantities of food for its size. It needs to be kept calm in order to not become mindlessly aggressive and destructive, and Khalid is who keeps it calm, so he needs enough electricity for the various devices that keep it warm, and the means to both grow and procure the ingredients necessary for its tranquilizing serum.

Personality: The Shoggoth has neither mind nor personality to speak of. Only hunger, and smoldering, undying, generational resentment. Khalid named it Horace.

Khalid is a little more interesting. He is courteous, thoughtful, and inquisitive, keen to tackle challenges and solve problems, includes those of other people. Even in the face of terrible misfortune, he can stand fast against feelings of anger and sadness. His odd body language, tendency to narrate and mutter to himself, and tendency to be out-of-touch mark him as an uncool eccentric and outcast in the eyes of many, but he doesn’t crave validation or popularity, preferring instead to keep his own company and focus on more important matters. Thus, he has a lot of patience and can put up with a great deal, seldom complaining, always counting his meager blessings. However, he does have a lot of pride in himself, the pride of someone who’s managed to withstand great suffering, and he remembers every slight against him. He loathes whiners, hypocrites, elitists, and those who claim victimhood, especially when they turn around and paint false narratives of their own. He strives to be an unbiased and objective realist, coolly taking in the facts and proving hypotheses, to the point where he has quite the piercing stare–as if he’s always imagining those around him unraveling, their innermost selves laid bare
Background: In the 1930s, Dr. William Dyer of Miskatonic University led a large, well-funded scientific expedition to the Antarctic continent in hopes of discovering minerals, fossils, and other samples from the ancient world. When they arrived, however, they found much more than they could ever have imagined. In the course of the excavation team’s work in the shadows of mountains taller and older than any man had ever seen, they discovered the frozen bodies of bizarre, otherworldly creatures, only to lose contact with the rest of the expedition that next night. When Dyer and Danforth, a student, arrived the next day, they found only the evidence of a mad slaughter, and a trail leading up to the mountains. In following it, they discovered the remains of an antiquarian metropolis, inscribed with sculptures and murals that related the very nature of the world itself. They explained that this ancient civilization had once ruled the world, their massive undersea cities constructed through the use of horrific beasts of burden, and when they delved deeper, they found exactly what it was that brought that civilization to an end. Chased by a nightmarish, shambling mass, both men managed to escape, but as they left that antediluvian world far behind, Danforth unwittingly brought something with them. Since then, the Shoggoth -or fragment of a Shoggoth- has been cared for various secret societies, watched over and kept docile through meticulous means both arcane and mundane. Well-versed in Dyer’s old report, they know all to well the price they’d pay should the Shoggoth rise against them as it once did its former masters.

Khalid’s exact origin is clouded in mystery. Wherever he’s from -Egypt, Sinai, Saudi Arabia, or somewhere else entirely- it’s clear that he belongs to an ancient family, claiming to descend from Abdul Alhazred himself, the mad author of the infamous Necronomicon. And since ancient times, his family has stood on the brink of two worlds, the ordinary world inhabited by everyone else, and the hidden realm of magic and monsters. Like many other disparate, disunited organizations and clans across history, they sought to keep those worlds separate, and the bridges spanning them closed, for the safety of mankind first and foremost. In the centuries since those ancient times, the balance of power shifted considerable, forcing the creatures of the night into hiding. And yet, knowing that a cornered beast is the most dangerous, the family persevered, through all the peaks and valleys.

Lately, though, the Alhazred lot has been mostly valleys. Khalid’s grandfather, fearful that his lineage had grown weak and complacent over time in the face of increasingly harmless-seeming monsters, strove to push harder than ever before. In so doing, though, he earned the fury of a monstrosity not seen (and in fact, never seen) since the horrific and public demise of Abdul Alhazred himself: a Star Vampire, invisible but for the blood of its victims splashed across fanged teeth and sinuous coils. In the wake of that event, the Alhazred family was shattered. At a very young age, Khalid traveled abroad with his father, seeking new opportunities and new beginnings, only to find that the human world could be as cruel as the monsters’. He found no sense of community or opportunity, only distrust, exclusion, and prejudice. As he grew, gradually growing distant from his father, he remained an outcast, living in poor conditions and obliged to work hard jobs for little pay, when he could find work at all. Only by retreating into his studies and stories, and believing that he was destined to delve into a fantastic, dangerous world beyond the cruel mundane, did Khalid persevere.

Fortune would favor Khalid once more, however, after he began attending university. Unable to hold down a regular job while at school, he settled into dreary and unprofitable magazine work writing short stories using his knowledge of monsters to lend his works of ‘fiction’ a fascinating depth of detail. Not long after settling in a cheap boarding establishment, he happened to meet an eccentric chemist, the sickly Dr. Muñoz whose frigid apartment always reeked of ammonia. Khalid got to know him better, and eventually discovered the doctor’s secret: that Muñoz had died eighteen years ago, and was sustaining himself as a zombie through the use of chemicals and cold. Suddenly, the door to that unknown world had been thrust open again, and Khalid plunged inside. Through Muñoz he came into a couple important contacts, and soon launched into a new field of study: monsters themselves. Eventually his meticulous and trustworthy nature through dire and unpredictable circumstances earned him enough respect from the right people that he was given the chance to enter into a partnership with the long-hidden Shoggoth, which became the basis for a new, tricky, and potentially perilous venture. Through a combination of guile and mysticism, Khalid and the Shoggoth managed to insert themselves into a hidden stronghold of monstrous activity, where began his most daunting task yet: cohabitation.

Building, Floor, and room: Building 3, Floor 1, Room 112
Room Description: The room was designed with a Shoggoth in mind, so in its original state, it was dark and bare, nothing but flat concrete, a heating system, and standard power outlets, and no other features that a mindless, gelatinous menace could take advantage of or destroy. It did offer a number of sturdy building blocks of different shapes and sizes that could be assembled into various structures.

However, at great personal expense, the Shoggoth and Khalid have worked together to almost completely renovate the room. It’s now filled with furniture, albeit relatively cheap given their low budget and disposable given the Shoggoth’s tendencies. There are desks, often covered with research materials, rickety bookshelves full of tomes new and old in a variety of languages (including several translation guides) on lore, biological data, formulas, and works of outright fiction. There are cabinets of clothes and mystical equipment, several tables beneath overhead UV lights where various plants are grown, including garlic, wolfsbane, verbena, henbane, mugwort, wormwood, and so forth. The Shoggoth even has a special ‘playpen’ with extra heatlamps and food enrichment items. Khalid himself sleeps on the old couch next to a dehumidifier. The whole room is humid, very warm, odorous, and generally repellent to anyone and everyone who isn’t the Shoggoth or Khalid.

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

Lewa

Tension levels continued to rise as the makeshift crew delved deeper into the mystery of what could have possibly befallen this ill-fated shop. Lewa remained on edge, though given his current company, he reasoned that he probably had no reason to fear. Even if something should jump out at the team that could pose a genuine threat to him, one of the ladies could no doubt handle the issue with little more than a snap of her fingers. He couldn't be happy trusting in these strangers for security, but then again, he couldn't be happy regardless--not when an untimely demise would leave his land and his people defenseless for good. Not for the first time, Lewa languished under the weight of a single thought: what was he doing here? Creeping around in some basement for any reason (other than a surefire way to get home) felt like an abysmal waste of time, and every second the toa lost going with the flow in this accursed world was one in which a poor Le-matoran might breathe his last. But Lewa had no choice other than to press forward, both in general, and into this disquieting darkness.

It almost came as relief when his keen senses clued him into something tangibly wrong. A section of the wall didn't quite match up with the rest, and with axe in hand he volunteered to clear the blockage. Even if one of the others could do this much faster, it helped his mental state a little to be able to help or achieve something in any way, no matter how small. His mechanical strength put the unrelenting protodermis edge of of his weapon to work, and it wasn't long before Lewa's labor opened up a gap large enough that everyone could see through. To his surprise, he found a huge undergrand chamber stretching out before him, as dark as it was spacious, but far from empty.

In the shadows, bones clattered, and metal scraped. Undead warriors clad in iron lurched and staggered toward the living, their gait unnatural, the rictus grins of lipless teeth horrendous. Any human who looked upon these impossible aberrations might be filled with fear, but not Lewa. Neither toa nor matoran had bones, after all. These shambling horrors were not ghastly reminders of his own mortality, but merely enemies to be eliminated. So as he sized up the opposition, the spirit of air kept his cool. Those bones looked thin enough that the heavy blade of his axe could splinter and crush them, but their metallic exoskeletons would deaden his blows and dull his blade. Blunt force would be more effective, but out of all his brothers, only Pohatu wielded such an instrument in the form of his reinforced feet. Still...even if Lewa lacked his brother's equipment, that didn't mean he couldn't kick them over, especially given his height. Better yet, his axe could be used as a hook to snatch the skeletons' feet out from under them. One way or another, these monsters would end up on the ground. The only problem was...

Right that moment, Anne destroyed a skeleton in a single strike, preempting Lewa's kick-based strategy. As one of the most powerful otherworlders she would be a force to be reckoned with, but circumstances demanded that the fae child weigh her down. Other than her, Lewa would need to worry about running afoul of Remilia, but other than that...well, unlike the battle at that prairie village, there weren't so many otherworlders around that any effort of Lewa's would pale in comparison. Right here, right now, he could actually prove himself in combat. He could show the others what the Spirit of Air was made of, and why his presence in Le-wahi would be so sorely missed.

With a burst of wild laughter, Lewa charged into the fray. These skeletons might be well-equipped, but their blades would find no more purchase in his body than his would in theirs. He lashed out with long limbs like giant pistons, bashed with the shaft of his axe, and used its bottom edge to rob the fiends of their balance. If his foes came at him unarmored, his gusts might have blown right through them, but their plate mail would catch the full brunt of his elemental power. As he stirred the still air in the depths of the shop, Lewa worked to whip up a perimeter around himself and the others, buffeting the skeletons back while the four of them stood tall in the eye of the storm. This much, he could do.

Umbra Rose Condos

Now I'm hoping Shoggoth's 'disguise' is so convincing that Max finds him, the only actual human, the most terrifying 'monster' in the complex.

@LupusIntus

That will depend on certain aspects of Max's personality once he sees who he's dealing with, I think.

Umbra Rose Condos

Your room can be pretty much crafted to suit your needs. The owner is benefactor, as I understand it. That makes the question of "which is worst" a bit of a strange one to answer. At least, without the GM.

@CitrusArms

Gotcha, in that case I will conceive of a room perfectly suited for a Shoggoth.

Umbra Rose Condos

Quick question. What would be considered the worst rooms in the whole complex? I'm talking cheapest in the house, dingy, no windows, underground, next to noisy or unpleasant utilities, etc. It would make sense for the Shoggoth and his 'pet' to be there.

Umbra Rose Condos

Viewing things objectively it would be pretty obvious that these monsters are just harmless weirdos from the get-go. If there's nothing threatening, then hey, that's a win in his book. Then he'd just be trying to live day to day in an apartment full of monsters, and getting into hijinx and such just like everyone else.

Umbra Rose Condos

<Snipped quote by Lugubrious>

Of course our wonderful OP can answer, but I will point out that Umbra Rose's primary purpose seems to be protecting monsters from human hunters so an 'infitrator' would take on a more nefarious tone in context.

@LupusIntus

That's definitely part of it. This character is someone who, in turn, investigations supernatural phenomena in order to keep humanity safe from outside threats. Wherever there's a veil, someone's bound to pierce it. While he's staying undercover, though, he doesn't go in with any preconceived notions or intentions other than to learn, so he wouldn't be a threat necessarily. Just kind of a weirdo.

Umbra Rose Condos

Hey there. I've been thinking about trying out another, relatively easygoing RP. I have an idea circulating about a character staying in the apartment under the pretense that he's secretly some sort of monster, but he's really a human with occult ties who's essentially studying monsters, though he does have an eldritch pet. He might conduct interviews, collect samples, and so forth. Kind of styled after one of those classic Lovecraft Miskatonic professors who get involved with unknowable horrors. Might that be an interesting/acceptable character idea?

World of Light: the Endless Now

The Avenger

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (75/140) Lvl 8 Goldlewis (98/80) Lvl 7 Sandalphon (11/70) Lvl 2 Grimm (10/20)
Junior & Rika’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt & Zenkichi’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Captain Falcon’s @Double Venom Snake’s @DisturbedSpec the Witch’s @Drifting Pollen
Word Count: 650 / 1270

After wrapping up his call with Giovanna, Goldlewis made his way back down through the Avenger to loiter around the bottom floor until the second batch of Seekers arrived. On the way down he did consider the fact that there would be a third pickup even later that night, and given his level of fatigue he almost certainly couldn’t stay up for that event, but he reasoned that even if he’d have to hit the hay without accounting for everyone, he could at least do right by the Mafia Town contingent.

Once he reached Deployment, the veteran quickly realized that he was in good company. Apparently Primrose had the same idea, though given the presence of her friend Therion amongst those who weathered the week on the southwestern sea. During their last big assignments Goldlewis and Primrose had been on different teams, and their days in Meridi-at-han didn’t afford them many opportunities to talk, but by now he’d managed to glean that the two octopath travelers hailed from the same world. In his mind, bonds like those were of vital importance. He and Giovanna were much the same, after all. The two of them had very little in common; one was an enormous, middle-aged American man from a well-to-do family in the south, serious in his duty but prone to inner turmoil, while the other happened to be a young and beautiful Brazilian woman born from poverty-stricken streets, flippantly lackadaisical and self-centered, but unerringly sound of mind and body. They’d formed a bond through pure chance, and it was through chance again that their bond had been rediscovered in the World of Light, where they could anchor one another in this upside-down, unfamiliar world. In the same way, he reasoned that Primrose and Therion must be anchors for one another, so if nothing else seeing the two of them reunited would be heartening for Goldlewis too.

He did feel a little bad about showing up in a wifebeater and sweats while Primrose looked as glamorous as ever in her tailor-made getup from Gerudo Town, but Goldlewis wasn’t one to put on unnecessary airs, and he doubted the dancer would fault him. This was a war, after all, and wars had a way of laying oneself bare to one’s comrades, in one way or another.

Soon enough the Mafia Town contingent arrived via fulton, collected from the sky and hauled in like fish from the sea. Once the catch of the day quit floundering and got to their feet, it didn’t take everyone long to disperse. Sandalphon departed for the infirmary after addressing concerns from both Ms Fortune and the Koopa Kids, while Primrose and Therion took turns catching up. A few moments after the two teams first came together, the little groups switched things up, with Primrose reaching out to the troubled youngsters while Nadia got into a somewhat heated confrontation with Juri out in the hall. After that, and seeing Captain Falcon lead the still-gleaming Snake away into the ship for reasons Goldlewis felt pretty confident guessing at, the veteran made himself scarce. Everyone who descended to Mafia Town last week had made it back, and like the Meridi-at-han group they even returned alongside new talent, so his heart was at ease. He always felt anxious when away from his comrades, seldom trusting in anything but his own strength to see his allies to safety, but this new team of his had definitely proven they didn’t always need his help. Still, whenever the time came that they needed it, the Seekers would find that Goldlewis Dickinson had their back. Slowly, the veteran made his way to the sleeping quarters, where he found the room he shared with Roland. After taking off and folding up his glasses, he squeezed himself into his bunk, and laid his head to rest. Tomorrow, the Seekers would need all the fortitude they could get.

Meanwhile, after her encounter with Juri, Nadia went in a different direction. Between diving in the Blue Hole with Dave and rumbling with wrestlers all over Mafia Town, it had been an eventful day, but the plucky feral wasn’t running out of energy just yet. If anything her heart-pounding ascent to the Avenger and the exasperating argument that followed had her fired up. Unreasonable, incorrigible, and outrageous, that Juri really knew how to push Nadia’s buttons. Her warped perspective and snarky attitude made her want to shred that woman like a couch sometimes, but now their long-running feud was over. To an extent Nadia knew she’d miss trading barbs and blows with that brat, but now that she knew just how genuinely unstable Juri really was, she couldn’t condone adding any more fuel to that trash fire. Better to just cut out that toxic influence than risk any more bad decisions. Being rid of Juri came with one problem, though: a drink actually would’ve been pretty nice right about now, and she’d spurned Juri’s beer as a matter of principle. A quick visit to Stolen Moments would help her relax and wind down for the night.

It took a little while for Nadia to find her way through the Avenger, since unlike Sandalphon she’d done zero internalization of its labyrinthine layout. After a couple wrong turns, though, the feral hunted down the airship’s bar, tucked quietly away in a lonesome, darkly-lit corner of its aft section. Inside, the room was styled to resemble an establishment from an older, lower-tech era, with middling success. Without much in the way of wood or decor beyond a three-layer quarter-circle shelf with various memorabilia, it relied on the contours of its bar counter and the festival lights that hung from it to seem more rustic and homely. Across from the more warmly-lit countertop, however, lay a wall of plaques beneath a cool blue glow. Each one bore dozens of names, lined up in neat stacks with military efficiency. With its memorial wall and ample stocks of booze, this was Stolen Moments, a place of contemplative solitude and mournfulness rather than raucous parties. Being something of a raucous partygoer herself, Nadia didn’t indulge in the depressing atmosphere here often, but there was a time and place for everything.

Just as she expected, Cirrus wasn’t here. Sandalphon and Goldlewis might be considerate enough to stay up and receive everyone, but Stolen Moments’ bartender had his own melancholy to deal with. Nadia thought she’d be alone, free to help herself to a beverage or two, leave some zenny on the counter, and then take off, but it looked like that wouldn’t be the case. The moment she entered she spotted a huge man seated at the bar, his weight distributed across two stools. Rivaling Goldlewis in height, the man looked like a giant can wrapped in a beige trench coat, with elaborate brass instrumentation protruding from his back and an old-fashioned felt fedora perched on his head. For a moment the sight of him paralyzed Nadia with a sense of unidentifiable familiarity, but when he glanced over at the new arrival and the cat burglar got a good look at his face, she suddenly remembered. “You!” she exclaimed, snapping her fingers. “You’re from my world!”

Big Band raised an eyebrow at her for a moment before a pleasant smile broke out across his face. “Oh, yeah. We met way back in Twilight Town. Guess it ain’t even been two weeks, but it sure feels like a lifetime, heh. Good to see ya, miss kitty.”

“You can call me Ms Fortune!” the feral told him as she trotted over.

“Misfortune? Heh. Don’t look it to me, but if you say so.” A wry, knowing smile on his face, Band extended a tiny mechanical arm with rubber nubs on its metal fingertips to carefully grasp his deep orange sidecar cocktail and swirl it around. “We mighta been strangers in our world, but ‘round here, it’s like sharin’ a hometown. So please, call me Ben.”

Having seated herself at the bar, Nadia stared off into space for a moment, elbows on the counter as the gears turned in her head. Then she looked up at Band, a genuine grin on her face. “Ben, huh? Well then. In that case, I guess you’d better call me Nadia.”

After sipping his drink, and savoring the mixture of spiced cognac with zesty citrus cointreau, Band put the glass down with a smile. “Nadia. Pleased to meet ya.”

A few moments of quiet passed as Nadia ducked behind the counter to grab a glass and fill it with beer. Once she returned with a cup full of hoppy froth, she restarted the conversation. “So, big guy. Where’ve you ‘Ben’? Last I saw you, we were running from those crazy cats in the Metro. Getting chased is not a good ‘feline’, eh?”

Band chuckled. “Me, Wonder Red, and the Ace Cadet missed the trains, so we high-tailed it outta the Metro. Turns out, the hub’s smack dab in the middle of a giant city on an island way up in the frozen north. Cold as all hell, and it wasn’t long before we ran afoul of the locals, too. The name of the cat who put the hit on us is N, and that city -Edinburgh- is his playground. We ended up gettin’ into a whole lotta fights, but long story short, we found the Skullgirl.”

Though she’d been thinking about Ace since Band mentioned him, the word ‘Skullgirl’ made Nadia’s brows shoot up in an instant. All of a sudden, memories about finding the Skull Heart in Redgraccoon City -memories about Linkle- came flooding back. “No way. What happened?”

“Well, since you’re from New Meridian an’ all, you know about Skullgirls as well as I do. They’re undead nightmares, catastrophes waitin’ to happen. I went in ready to kill her. But it looks like this new Skullgirl’s one tough cookie. Somehow, she managed to keep a hold of herself. She joined forces with us, and we put together a plan to corner Consul L and force the secret of the Highlands’ Guardian outta her.” He paused for suspense, trying not to smile at Nadia’s wide-open eyes. “...And, against all odds, it worked. I took a couple big hits -spent most of today gettin’ fixed up in fact- but the others brought L down and exchanged the secret for her life.”

Nadia whistled. “Wow. Heck of a consul-ation prize.”

At that, Band couldn’t help but grin. “Y’know, Ace made that joke too. Y’all gotta get better material.”

Trying not to look too worried, Nadia leaned on the counter and attempted to casually sip her beer. “Sooooo….uh, about Ace…” She drank the wrong way and coughed, sputtering foam. “Ugh! Ack! Ahuh! Ah, hmm…Ace, is he…doing okay? Is he here?”

“He’s fine. Restin’ up in his room, I bet.” Band gave her the side-eye, his brow raised. “Wanna know which one?”

In an instant Nadia was on her feet, her beverage all but forgotten. “Hell yeah! I’ve gotta give that hun-turd a piece of my mind! Dude just vanished without a trace, gone for what, two weeks? That jerk’s in for one hell of a smack!”

“Uh oh. Well, as an officer of the law, I can’t stand by ‘til justice is served.” Band finished off his drink, then pushed off his stools. When he hit the ground, the room practically shook beneath him. “Follow me.”

Sandswept Sky: Skyworld

Midna and Edward’s @DracoLunaris Sectonia’s @Archmage MC Pit’s @Yankee Roxas’ @Double, Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN
Word Count:

With so many allies rallied together, even taking down the Avatar of Corruption himself seemed like a sure thing. The remains of his loathsome forces wriggled free of the wreck and attempted to push out of the crater around him and give their master room to breathe, but the steadfast angels of the Army of Light kept them hemmed in, making their extermination a simple matter that Pit was only too happy to attend to. As the misshapen monstrosities faltered and died by the dozen, it became all the more apparent -even to Absalom himself- that the infestation plaguing Skyworld would die here today. All that remained was to wipe out their master.

At Edward and Uriel’s command, the winged archers lent their bows to a withering volley against their marked target. A blazing gunshot form Edward himself punctuated their bombardment, and without a moment’s reprieve Midna and her Beast Legion hurled themselves into the thick of it for a brutal flurry of fists and claws. Her other summons then took over just long enough for a massive sphere of runic twilight energy that threatened to leave Absalom cratered a second time. Ortho then fell upon the nephilim like a hawk on a vole, his beak a plow through the pitch-black soil of Absalom’s body, giving Edelgard, Pit, and Dante the chance for an elemental assault. In the wake of their onslaught their foe managed to catch Edelgard in his grasp, his corruption threatening not just her life but her very sense of self, but a courageous and timely intervention from Pit spared the lady knight a grisly fate, and the next moment a Friend Heart from Roxas freed her mind. As they retreated, Absalom threatened to seize the momentum for himself, but Roxas and Dante quickly teamed up to shut him down. The Cerberus triplets unleashed their full power, and their maelstrom of elemental punishment culminated in a climactic flying thrust from both blademasters at once.

Finally, sensing that Absalom’s demise was at hand, Uriel swooped in to do her duty. While Sectonia savaged the area with a deluge of pure-white blades and sped up her allies with her magic, Uriel and Dante put their skills on full display with a non-stop beatdown of melee strikes. Already wounded and flagging, Absalom’s attempts to fight back proved to be in vain as the two styled on him, until finally the SSS-crank combo ended with Sectonia’s Ethereal Gleam. Both fighters expected him to be dust after that, but the inexhaustible Avatar of Chaos managed to prove them wrong and push them back–though only for a moment. Even as Dante pulled back for a moment to reassess, Sectonia and Uriel pushed in to seal the deal. Finally, their cleaving blades split Absalom’s body from neck to navel, and the final blast blew his halves apart, ending the corruption once and for all.

At least, until next time.

When no more lashing tentacles or squirming screwworms arose from the ashes, the angels roared in a chorus of cheers. Nathaniel, Fodoquia, Ochlys, and even Uriel herself all let loose their exultations. With so much enthusiasm all around in the wake of their hard-earned victory, it was hard for the Seekers to stay quiet. Dante whooped in celebration, and after assuming their human forms Cerberus joined in with gusto. After a few moments, Palutena’s voice rang out through the sky, silencing the voices of her heavenly host. ”Angels of Skyworld, I salute you! Rejoice, for our despicable enemy is no more. Let us all return to homes, nurse our wounds, mourn our dead, and sleep soundly in the knowledge that the skies are finally clear!”

After her proclamation, rays of shadow began to cut through the sky. The magic of the Dream Blossom was fading, the new dawn that heralded the angels’ victory quickly giving way to darkness. Even with night fallen once more, though, the stars glimmered in the heavens, and the ephemeral radiance of the minor erdtree fell softly across the sky islands. It was a gentle and glorious night, and the angels would sleep soundly indeed.

Of course, for the Seekers of Light, their campaign was far from over.

“Whoo!” As the Army of Light departed, the heroes regrouped atop the final island, and Dante still seemed to be riding high. Given all the excitement, the Triple Demon was in good spirits too, even if the actual bloodshed had been pretty minimal. He rolled his shoulders and flexed his arms, stretching. “Exciting, huh? Feel like I hit the jackpot with this one. And that guy wasn’t even a Guardian! Can’t imagine what we’ve got in store next. Course, I’m more of a one-on-one kind of guy. Not counting the girls here!” He caught one of the triplets in a headlock as she barged past him and patted her on the head between her snow-white ears, only for her to bite his arm and prompt an early release. Even that didn’t seem to dampen his mood, though. “Speaking of ‘what comes next’. Here.” He reached into the Inventory where he typically kept his non-Cerberus weapon and withdrew a bag. After opening it, he dumped out a bunch of bundles that looked like skydiving packs. “This is how we’re supposed to get back to the Avenger. The ship’s coming round again any minute now, so say your goodbyes and strap one on! There’s enough for everyone…probably?” If there were more people coming than mission control accounted for, some of the Seekers would have to get creative.

At that point Uriel, who had yet to depart, stepped forward. “You’re leaving?” After receiving confirmation, she nodded. “I understand. As does Lady Palutena. This was always going to be a temporary arrangement. On behalf of all of Skyworld, allow me to thank you for your efforts. No…for making this outcome possible. Though it pains me to say, we may not have been able to do it without you.” The commander of the Hellguard offered a seldom-earned nod of respect. “Should you find cause to return, you will always be welcome in our skies. May the Father and Creator watch over you.”

Before long, the angels’ esteemed guests underwent a skyward ascension of their own, and were gone.

---

A few minutes after activating their fultons, the bulk of the Seekers deployed to Skyworld came to in the alloyed bowels of the Avenger, surrounded by heavy-duty machinery. The reinforced hull shook beneath their feet as they picked themselves up, the unusual amount of jostling indicative of greater-than-usual turbulence. Given how high the ship needed to go to get a safe distance above the sky islands, though, the turbulence was understandable. Even if it was reverse-engineered from alien craft and constructed from exotic materials and technology, the Avenger wasn’t a spaceship, and there were altitudes that not even it could reach.

The new arrivals might have expected to find the ever-helpful Sandalphon waiting for them, but a quick look around dispelled that notion. Instead of the archangel, they found a somewhat less holy individual waiting for them. He looked like a young man of nineteen or so, thin and somewhat pale, with light auburn hair slicked back and horned-rimmed glasses over eyes that never seemed to open. He wore an outfit somewhere between a priest’s and a doctor’s, with a red cross-shaped tie. On his belt the others could see both med kits and what looked like a spiked beatstick.

“Good evening, and congratulations on your victory” he greeted them. “I’m Eleison, one of the Lost Numbers. I’m here to receive you in lieu of Sandalphon. Nothing happened to her, but after receiving an examination from myself and Dr. Yu, we’ve ‘asked’ her to retire for the night to get some much-needed sleep. Once you’ve settled down from your trip and gotten comfortable, I imagine that’s what awaits you, as well. Rest well, comrades, because we’ve got even bigger fish to fry starting tomorrow. If you have any questions regarding accommodations…” He looked upward, thinking. “Well, Sagi is probably sleeping. But I’m sure you can figure something out. Starting tonight the Avenger is your base of operations, so please make yourselves at home.”

“Can do!” Dante waltzed past him, clapping Eleison on the shoulder. “And get yourself some rest too, eh kid?”

Eleison gave him an odd smile. “Of course…” He then turned to bid the others farewell. “Good night.”

World of Light: the Endless Now

Out of the Bag

The night before

For a brief moment following Mewtwo’s declaration, everyone was quiet. The grim light of the scarred moon shone down on the pumpkin-crowning tower of Edinburgh MagicaPolis, on the bone-white snow that danced at its feet, and on the wrought-iron girders through which the fierce winter winds howled in the dead of night. Human no longer, L bared her teeth in a permanent leer, and her crimson eyes shone in the darkness. “Such attitude,” the Moebius chided him. “You know, I much prefer Pokemon who can’t speak. But we could trade barbs until we’re blue in the face...” She lifted up her hands, curling enormous claws into fists. “So let’s just skip to the part where you’re history.”

<Fine by me!> Mewtwo’s power surged as he threw his hand out, using Psychic. A wave of concentric purple ripples pulse down toward L, who raised up her fists in response. Space warped in front of her, and from the ether manifested a wall of blue-lined blocks from the Ultra Beast Stakataka. Mewtwo’s Psychic crashed against them, disturbing but not shattering their structure, and in response the wall exploded back toward the team in a gigantic shotgun blast of stone bricks. By that time, though, the others were on the move . As a stream of sound energy propelled Band forward, he scooped up Wonder Red in a big mechanical mitt and flung him like a baseball. He hurtled through the air in a somersault, threading the needle between the stones, then pulled back his fist for a flying punch.

“Uniiiite HAND!”

In an instant he pulled the other three to him, encasing them in a giant, fist-shaped shell of red energy. The massive punch bore down on L like a wrecking ball, forcing her to leap backward or be crushed against the brim of the magic city’s biggest witch hat. Having flung herself out over open space, it looked for a moment like she’d be doomed to fall, but instead she summoned a spectral titan of metal bamboo shoots and steel fiber, Celesteela. After grabbing its spindly midsection like a pole, L swung around and hurled herself back toward her foes, dismissing Celesteela in favor of a slender white insectoid that she flung at Wonder Red with terrifying speed. It struck him with a lightning-fast backhand slap and sent him flying back toward the tower, but not before Red managed to dispel his Unite Morph. When L landed, the other three Seekers dropped down nearby, ready to brawl.

Band kicked things off with Giant Step, deploying a massive drum pedal that struck the earth with great force. It failed to knock L down, but it unsteadied her just long enough that she couldn’t immediately flee. That gave the other two a chance to act, and the first to do so was Mewtwo.

While he may not have been familiar with the strange Pokemon that L summoned from those wormholes, Mewtwo could at least hazard a guess to what type some of them were based on appearances. And the slender white insectoid seemed to be a Bug type of some kind. And this gave Mewtwo his idea. He held up a hand to concentrate his psychic powers, and managed to conjure up a series of fossilized stones that he proceeded to shoot forward as projectile attacks aimed at L. If the ultra beast was indeed of the bug type, then this Ancient Power attack would be super effective against it, forcing L to either allow her beast to take massive damage or risk taking the brunt of the attack herself. Instead, L summoned the beefy arms of Buzzwole and unleashed a barrage of punches, its fighting-type fists shattering the stones into shards that blasted off at odd angles like buckshot.

With Big Band and Mewtwo on the move, the Ace Cadet stepped up himself. He charged forward with one hand wrapped tight around the sheath of his long sword, the other hovering over the blade's handle with fingers splayed, poised to draw it at any moment.

It was easy to disregard L's casual declaration that she'd killed Linkle, Albedo, and Lucia when he simply didn't believe it was true. She might have thought otherwise, but if she'd been trying to unnerve her ambushers with that comment it didn't work. The Cadet's focus was unwavering, dedicated to the task at hand. He took to flanking L and her beast, keeping him out of the path of Mewtwo's Ancient Power while simultaneously putting him in the best position to take advantage of the Moebius' next move once she recovered from Band's step. As he closed in on L, the Cadet took hold of his weapon and drew it in a ferocious cross slash aimed at her core.

L’s primary focus had been on dealing with Ancient Power, but since she wasn’t controlling Buzzwole directly, she managed to react in time when Ace surged in for a sideswipe. She raised her arm and caught the hunter’s longsword in the bladed attachment on her forearm, though the unexpected force behind Ace’s steel allowed him to open her up with the follow-through. The ensuing moment of vulnerability seemed to panic L -or perhaps enrage her- as she immediately banished Buzzwole in order to call upon the stinging tentacles of Nihilego, with which she lashed out at Ace like a cat-o-nine-tails. On contact the nematocysts within the ultra beast’s milk-pale flesh would trigger to inject countless minuscule venomous harpoons, pumping poison into skin or lodging into armor with stubborn adhesiveness.

As soon as he felt the prickling burn the first strike left him with, the monster hunter knew what was going on. How many times had he been poisoned over the course of his hunting career? Dozens, maybe hundreds of times? He hadn't developed a resistance to it or anything like that, but he knew his own limits. He could fight through this. With only his sword and rigging, there was no way he was going to stop all of the beast's arms anyway - but more than that, from experience he knew the gradual build up of damage would trigger one of his current armor skills: Resentment. He felt a small power boost come over him and he pressed his own attack, going toe to toe with the Moebius with the blade of his sword flashing and slicing against her armor before the poison got too bad. At the same time the blades and miniguns on his rigging fought off some of Nihilego's tentacles as they continued to whip at him ceaselessly. L meant to impair him, drag him down, and then finish him with a lethal stab from her arm-blade, but that was proving easier said than done, especially with the other two Seekers present.

Big Band was eager to make the most of this three-on-one, and in the wake of Mewtwo’s Ancient Power he threw his full weight into the task. “Gimme a hit!” Propelled by blasts of sound from his heels, the cyborg bulled forward like a runaway freight train, a giant fist of not-so-delicate instruments extended in a jaw-dropping Brass Knuckle. L, struggling against Ace’s strength, thrust her other hand at Band to summon Xurkitree, which swung its electrified, pluglike tail. Band armored through the blow to land a hefty punch on her torso. “AAHHAAY!” Meanwhile, Mewtwo had begun focusing his psychic powers into his next move, but the move itself wasn’t immediately apparent yet.

“Ngh!” Incensed, L threw Xurkitree forward in a wild lariat that struck and zapped Band multiple times in quick succession. She could see her foes were closing in, though, and the consul needed to make some space. She heaved Ace while dismissing Nihilego’s tentacles to throw him down, then brought forth one of Celesteela’s massive thrusters. It lifted into the air with the sound of a jet engine, giving both men just a second to react. Band backdashed in time to avoid the rocket as it slammed down. Its burners lit up, and as he jumped the detective deployed a cymbal like a shield. A huge fire blast went off in a wide area, and though Band defended himself the force of the flames flung him a few dozen feet back.

When the Cadet hit the ground he rolled to the side and was back on his feet within a moment, sword still drawn. Though he wanted to counter attack, instinct told him to move. He raised his arm, firing the slinger strapped to it at an iron beam. The claw at the end of it grabbed on and the chain went taut before rapidly reeling Ace in, pulling him up and out of the immediate danger zone. The slinger respooled itself on his arm when he landed, while he swiftly fetched an antidote from his pack. Unsure if it would even work on alien toxins, he hoped for the best and was moving again before he was even finished drinking it. It was a welcome surprise, then, when the poisons circulating through his system quickly lost their potency and subsided.

It was at this time that the roof of the tower now became noticeably covered with a misty fog. The Consul would likely finally realize that the power Mewtwo had been focusing his energy into earlier was the ice type move, Mist. For the next 30 seconds or so, the Pokemon and his allies would be prevented from having their stats changed, rendering them immune to debuffs for the duration. But more importantly, the mist itself would provide a temporary reduction in visibility and allow for the Seekers to partially cloak their movements. For Mewtwo’s part, he cupped his hands behind him and began charging up what looked like a Shadow Ball, however the mist made it difficult to confirm this. Then Mewtwo suddenly vanished, using Teleport to instantly pit himself directly behind Consul L to try and unleash his charged up attack against her. It was only now that it would become apparent the move he was using was not the ghost type Shadow Ball, but instead the fighting type move Aura Sphere.

When a pale cloud of cool mist began to gather in the wake of L’s fireblast, she snarled in irritation. The Celesteela rocket faded away, and she quickly took stock of her foes’ positions. While Band and Ace had yet to fully recover, Mewtwo appeared to be gathering some sort of power to attack, half-hidden by the haze. His efforts earned him a scoff–did he really believe this would work? Leveraging her power, she surrounded herself with Stakataka, creating a tower of ghostly stone bricks around her. Then she brought forth and sent out a spectral Kartana, so small it was barely visible amidst the swirls of diamond dust. When its tiny blade flashed, however, the icy air itself parted before it, carving a warpath through the mist toward Mewtwo. As the shearing gale plowed toward him, however, the Pokemon vanished, reappearing behind L’s fortified location. When he unleashed his Aura Sphere, luck was on his side, for it blew through the Stakataka stones and into L herself.

The Consul gasped in shock and pain as her walls exploded around her. Then she turned on Mewtwo in a rage and made a crushing motion with her fist. Stakataka’s scattered constituents slammed together on her foe, like iron filings on a magnet. They pinned him in place, nigh-encased in stone, and as they squeezed L brought out Buzzwole’s giant arm to deal a mighty haymaker that demolished the bricks and left Mewtwo floored.

Not one second later, Band stepped in. He went for another tooth-loosening Brass Knuckle punch, but this time L didn’t challenge him. She stepped to the side, then resummoned Buzzwole to deliver an elbow straight to the detective’s gut. Big Band didn’t have a stomach in there for her sucker punch to upset, but its force still staggered him. L laid into the man with a quick barrage of punches, but with Ace on his way she couldn’t keep Band busy for long. She willed her Ultra Beast’s limb to wind up for a finishing blow, and that dropped combo gave her opponent the gap he needed. “Beat…” From beneath his trench coat Band extended two halves of a giant tambourine that caught L like a giant pincer, holding her aloft. “Extend!” When he jingled the zills, their clamor inflicted Sound Stun to keep L rattled long enough for Ace to join the party. Unbeknownst to Band, however, the Consul wasn’t as stunned as he’d been led to believe. In the middle of his Beat Extend, Blacephalon manifested just out of sight, its head already flashing and about to explode.

"I'm cutting in here!" the hunter said as soon as he was back within range of their target and giving the detective a heads up. He went in swinging the long sword to make the most of the opening Band provided, a series of powerful cross slashes back and forth that raked L's transformed armor. Each slash saw the entire blade drag across her form, the steel itself almost seeming to pulse with energy as Ace put his all behind it. He then transitioned into a finisher that started with an overhead strike, at least until he was interrupted.

The muscular insect had to have been a Fighting type of some kind. The attack he used was probably Brick Break or something similar. Thankfully Mewtwo’s own psychic typing allowed him to resist it, but even then, Buzzwole's raw strength still allowed the move to hit him pretty hard. Mewtwo staggered to recover from the blow just in time to see another summoned Pokemon begin to flash and glow - the telltale sign of an imminent explosion. But was it the actual Explosion move? It didn’t look quite the same, and unfortunately Mewtwo’s unfamiliarity with these ultra beasts made it impossible for him to know for sure. With no real time to think about it further, Mewtwo hastily made his guess and threw up Light Screen. A protective wall of invisible light would shield him and his allies from incoming Special Attacks for the next 30 seconds, reducing their damage by half.

And in this instance, Mewtwo could count his lucky stars because he had guessed correctly. The move Blacephalon used was indeed a Special Attack, and thus the potentially heavy damage it could have done was cut in half. It blew Band down and stopped his combo in its tracks, but he managed to spring to his feet with the help of some horns. The blast still hurt, but not as much as it could have. Between that and the heavy attack he took from Buzzwole, Mewtwo was starting to feel his injuries creep up on him. But he was not about to himself get nearly taken out like the last time he had fought a Consul. And noticing that his allies were getting pretty hurt too, Mewtwo focused and used his next move - the water type Life Dew. This would conjure a small shower of water droplets that seemed to fall from out of the cloudy mist onto himself and his allies. That refreshing water would give them healing equal to 25% of their total HP. It wasn’t a lot of healing, but no doubt some healing was better than none at all.

Explosive fire and healing water washed over the Seekers in quick succession. The Ace Cadet hadn't noticed the hidden Blacephalon until its Mind Blown had already gone off, though thanks to Mewtwo's intervention the explosion wasn't as debilitating as it could have been. The force of the blast staggered him, nearly throwing him off balance and definitely throwing off his blade rhythm, putting an end to his spirit combo. He clicked his tongue but adapted, getting right back into an offensive position.

With Mewtwo having swapped to running support he could keep on the attack, but at this point L had recovered too. The Cadet went in with a swift, simple thrust that his target knocked aside with a sweep of her arm-blade - then swung his sword around to reposition himself a few steps away from L. His new stance was low and wide, with his weapon held tightly in both hands while supported on his shoulder, foresight slash ready to counter whatever the Consul planned to throw their way.

With the intense battle well underway, L’s Moebius core was gyrating at full tilt, and her nerves were afire. In the heat of the moment she was primed for fast action–sometimes too fast. She unveiled Naganadel, a draconic purple wasp with a stinger like a massive syringe, which flapped its wings for a quick ascent, then dove down at Ace. Thanks to the hunter’s premeditation, though, he never tasted its steel. Instead his quick slash deflected the Ultra Beast’s stinger. At that moment a loud, high-pitched skirl resounded across the battlefield, projected by a set of bagpipes deployed from within Band’s mechanical body. The strident sound seemed to power him up, and he slid forward across the ground to rejoin the fight.

By then, though, L had begun her next move. As Naganadel faded, she summoned two Ultra Beasts in quick succession. First, the minuscule Kartana appeared, the gleam of its razor-thin blade the only forewarning before it slashed a ring of light around the Consul’s position. Rather than push through, Band stopped to block it, and was glad he did. The next moment, Celesteela manifested above L, and after a brief delay it tried to bring its huge boosters down on Ace and Big Band’s heads. The detective performed a backdash, then bulled forward with a Brass Knuckle aimed at the arm itself. His mighty punch knocked the limb into L, leaving her more surprised than hurt, then toppled over. Then a wicked idea entered her mind, and after a quick dash, she grabbed the booster in her arms. With fearsome strength she swung it like a hammer, seemingly aimed for Ace. If it hit, all the better, but her true intentions were to make Band think he had an opening.

The detective bought the ruse and pushed forward, not too proud to hit someone in the back. Right after L’s hammer fell, she willed the thruster to fire, launching her backward with explosive force. Her improvised weapon’s sharp, bamboo-like tip pierced Band’s torso before he could react, spearing her on its end as the two rocketed away from the others. L dismissed Celesteela, and the old cyborg fell to one knee, a gaping hole in his chest. He lifted his head just as L summoned Xurkitree, its arm sparking with electricity for a Thunder Punch straight to Band’s inner workings.

He breathed deep, and gritted his teeth. “Listen here!” Using the buff from Bagpipe Blues, he deployed two halves of a giant brass bell for a grab, armoring through the punch. Once the halves slammed together around Xurkitree, Band pivoted around while ringing the bell in order to deposit the Ultra Beast behind him. “Super…sonic!” With stunning speed he deployed a giant french horn, then rocketed into L. He blew straight through her attempted counterattack, pushing her back toward the others. “This band ain’t played out just yet!” His horn fell away as his arms burst out to hammer the Consul with a barrage of punches. “TUBATUBATUBATUBATUBATUBATUBATUBA!” His body rocked dangerously during the onslaught, sparks flying from his damaged parts, and the night sky swam before him. Even so, the detective found it within himself to let loose one last punch. “...TUBA!” As its strength knocked L back, Band overextended and fell flat on his damaged chest. From there, he did not rise–the rest was up to the others.

When L wielded the Celesteela limb, the Cadet saw it coming - as large as it was, how could he not? With a simple evasive maneuver he hopped backward out of its range, though the sudden ignition had seared him. After lowering the arm he'd raised to shield his head, he saw the Consul separating Band from the group, and the subsequent beat down the man laid on her. From that angle things looked alright, so the Cadet had no idea how injured the detective really was until he'd collapsed.

"Band!"

Band was down for the count. Red had yet to return from where he'd been flung to. The three who'd taken L on in her manor wouldn't make it up to the clock in time. Only two of them remained, and it was hard to see their progress. Honestly, scooping up their injured allies and retreating with their tails between their legs was a valid option. If they did, the blow to their pride would be a heavy one - and they most likely would not get a chance like this again. In her Moebius form L loomed over even the tallest among them, her armor merged to her body like chitinous plates with black tendons stretched between them while her face was pulled into a permanent sharp toothed sneer. All this combined with the cruelty she'd had on display openly since the Seekers had the misfortune of running into her, and the Consul really did seem more like a monster that needed to be put down than anything else. Ace tightened his grip on his sword.

As she was shoved by Band's last punch the Cadet met L with a two-handed thrust to her center mass, sinking the sword as deep as it could go. He got in closer and jumped, kicking off of the Consul and dragging the weapon up vertically as he sent himself high into the air. It was a risky move, he knew, but he didn't intend to let their chance go to waste.

Throughout all this, Mewtwo had been concentrating in order to use another support move. He put up Reflect, acting as a companion buff to Light Screen that would blunt the damage of incoming physical attacks by half. But he didn’t put up the screen in time to save Big Band from suffering a double whammy of attacks, first from an origami-like Pokemon that looked like it could be a Steel type, followed after that by a Thunder Punch from what clearly looked like an Electric type Pokemon.

Mewtwo’s eyes narrowed as he grew visibly frustrated at his lack of actions from the past several moments. Well now it was time to attack again. With anger on his face, Mewtwo concentrated psychic energy into his arms and used them to launch razor sharp blades of psychic energy once Ace was out of the way. It was Psycho Cut, two of them to be exact - one aimed at Xurkitree and the other at Consul L herself. Of course he was expecting her to have some kind of answer to block the attack. But he hoped the momentary distraction would keep her from noticing him charging up another attack immediately after the Psycho Cuts. If this worked then a few more moments from now she could be taken completely off guard by a powerful incoming Future Sight attack.

Just now regaining her feet from Band’s barrage, L couldn’t summon a new Ultra Beast in time and was forced to try and block the Psycho Cuts with her arm blades. She encountered only middling success, but when Mewtwo didn’t press the attack, the Moebius switched from defense to offense. She spread her arms, summoning the mouth-limbs of Guzzlord to either side of her as she prepared to strike.

At around this point, Ace heard the telepathic message from Mewtwo in his mind. <I’ve used a delayed attack! Distract the Consul long enough and it should catch her off guard!>

You got it, the hunter thought, whether Mewtwo could hear the internal reply or not. He was pretty good at drawing aggro. The hunter's rigging swiveled to fire down at L until he was at the apex of his jump, at which point he twisted in midair to reorient himself. He swung the longsword over his head, then fell, bringing the blade back down with a forceful helm breaker cleave that almost seemed to split the night air itself - liable to lop one of the ultra beast's limbs clean off.

His barrage blindsided the Consul, forcing her to raise Guzzlord’s arms in order to try and ward off the blistering output of Ace’s cannon. L wasn’t ready for her attacker to follow up the bombardment with a massive vertical chop that sheared into her defenses, slowed down by the phantom limbs’ bulk just enough that L could register the imminent strike. She dodged backward, a hand thrown up in panic, but not fast enough to avoid a glowing groove carved into part of her crest and left forearm. “Argh!” L snarled, clutching the fresh wound in her inorganic Moebius form as she bared sharp teeth at Ace. “Slice him!” At her call Pheromosa appeared, then shot forward in a high-speed Lunge to lower the hunter’s attack before vanishing. On its heels came Buzzwole, a bit slower but a lot stronger as it raised four fists for a mighty Hammer Arm.

In her instinctive vengefulness, L had forgotten all about Mewtwo - and the Cadet was hoping to keep it that way. Without knowing when the Pokémon's delayed attack was going to take effect all he could do was keep her occupied until it went off. Unfortunately the first beast L called on was too quick for the Cadet to counter or evade, and he staggered backward as the lunge punched into him. The hunter grit his teeth, slipping his sword back into its scabbard. It might have seemed like an odd movement, but he intended to draw it again almost immediately - iai was perfectly matched with a longsword, and it was well suited to responding to sudden actions. So it was only a moment later that Buzzwole bore down on the Cadet, and the hunter flicked his blade out for a Sakura Slash. He moved with the wide, evasive semi-circular cut, swinging to one side of the Ultra Beast and rupturing the swollen muscle-like sacs along one of its arms.

Put part way between the beast and its summoner, Ace's next target was obvious. Betting on a new monster appearing again rather than Buzzwole turning around, he completed the circle cut by sweeping his sword at the Consul and went further to rile her up by shouting, "Feeling on edge yet?!"

His bet paid off as L dismissed Buzzwole in favor of Stakataka, though that presented its own problems. The new Ultra Beast manifested in part, forming a brick wall in front of her that Ace’s longsword bounced off of with a loud clang. “Joke while you can!” she hissed as the bricks began to shake, ready to fire off like a stony shotgun blast. And that was when it happened.

The entirely forgotten Mewtwo suddenly appeared directly behind the Moebius, having used Teleport to bypass the protective wall provided by Stakataka. And when he did, the Future Sight he had prepared a few moments ago went off, barraging L with rainbow colored psychic energy from seemingly all directions. And the reason he had repositioned himself became immediately clear when Mewtwo went on the offensive with a near instant follow up use of Psychic for a double whammy of psychic bombardment.

Moebius L was many things, but ‘warrior’ wasn’t one of them. With plenty of power but no real training, she lacked battlefield instincts and awareness, which combined with her natural pride and vengefulness led to severe tunnel vision. When Mewtwo’s Future Sight was fulfilled, surrounding L in a crushing vortex of prismatic light, she could muster no defense. Overwhelmed first by sensory overload and then by an unbearable migraine, she doubled over, clutching her head. From there, it wasn’t much of a challenge for Mewtwo to knock her over with a buffeting wave of brainpower.

Once on the ground, L groaned and writhed. Around her, fragments of various Ultra Beasts formed and unformed in rapid succession, their bodies and limbs awash like watercolors. Taken to the next level by her Moebius transformation, L’s Import allowed her to summon nigh-unlimited Ultra Beasts at a blistering pace, and under her direct control, but removing that independence came at a price. Now they couldn’t come to her aid unless invoked directly, which meant that until she recovered, L seemed to be defenseless.

During such a precious lull in the battle, the Ace Cadet really wanted to use the time to check on Big Band and Wonder Red... but the Consul could bounce back at any moment, putting all of them in danger once more. They had to make sure that once she was down she would stay down, long enough to give them the information they were chasing. The Cadet brought his sword around to further harry her in a series of spirit slashes, cutting into her armor with each pass of the blade.

Mewtwo moved as if to continue his psychic assault, only to… not. After all she and her cohorts had done, was he really feeling pity for this woman? Or was he simply choosing not to sink to the same level as the Consuls themselves? The Pokemon himself wasn’t even sure at this point. But nonetheless, he had not joined in on kicking the Consul while she was down.

After a few moments of punishment, the Consul couldn’t take anymore. Her attempts to get up, break free from the melee, and flee quickly turned into a desperate attempt to protect her head with her bladed arms, but when even that proved insufficient and she couldn’t muster either her powers nor any fighting spirit, only one option remained to her.

L threw her arms up in surrender. “Stop, stop! Enough, please!” Her teeth ground together and her brows furrowed in loathing, but as much as she resented it, she had to swallow her pride. Slices and craters covered her form, and many pieces of her carapace had been broken off. One of her eyes was still blackened from Big Band’s final punch, and her Moebius core shook fitfully as it spun. “I beg you…don’t kill me,” she gasped. “If I die now, it’s all over…I’ll be erased…from the cycle…”

This is it. They had the Consul right where they wanted her. Not out to kill her in the first place, the hunter stopped attacking when the first pleas hit his ears. They just needed her desperate enough to answer their questions - and now she was. Ace looked at Mewtwo, meeting its gaze before staring back down at L. He sucked in a deep breath as a bitterly cold gale swept through, then slammed the tip of his sword down into the steel platform near the Consul's core where it dug in a little. Mercy for the moment.

<”Cycle”?> Mewtwo wondered for a moment as his gaze met Ace’s. <She’s had enough. I don’t know what she means by being erased, but something about it clearly has her terrified.> He privately projected to Ace with his telepathy. Then he began to project his telepathy more publicly so that both of them would hear it. <The Guardian, Consul. How do we stop it?>

“Urk…” L grumbled. She lowered her hands to the ground for support, cool air rushing through her teeth to emerge the next moment in ragged bursts of steam. The break in the action meant that she could begin to recover her composure, and with it her hold over her abilities, but the proximity of Ace’s blade kept her rattled. If she played the part of stereotypical villain now, and lashed out right after successfully begging the heroes’ mercy, she would die with as much ignominy as the rest. Her opponents could practically see the gears turning in her head as she gauged the importance of her own life, and it wasn’t long before she came to her conclusion.

“...Mistletoe,” she hissed. “Baldr…the Highlands’ Guardian…one poke from a sprig of mistletoe, and his invincibility is gone.”

"That simple?" Ace questioned. He was surprised. The word didn't immediately strike the Cadet as something familiar, but if it was a 'sprig' then he knew it was a plant of some kind. Something poisonous if he had to guess, but poisonous enough to get through literal invincibility? It seemed far-fetched. Then again, anything was possible in this world, especially if some magical shenanigans were thrown in.

L gave a derisive scoff. “Would you have guessed it? And even if you did, just one world has hundreds of thousands of kinds of plants.”

At that point a series of heavy, uneven footfalls announced the approach of Big Band. As he limped toward Ace and Mewtwo, they also became aware of Wonder Red beside him, and though Red seemed to be in a better shape than the detective he wasn’t in much of a position to bear the big man’s weight. Though glad to see that his allies had gotten the better of their opponent, Band kept his wary eyes on the transformed Consul, suspicious of any attempts at trickery. “Sounds like BS me to me. How we know you ain’t lyin’?”

“Just look up Baldr on Inter-knot,” L insisted. “He’s some kind of mythical being in his home world. Should be something about mistletoe there. If anyone asks, that’s how you found out…” L’s body began to glow, then dissolve, her Moebius form shed in a cascade of bright purple flakes. When the wind carried the remnants away, L lay there in her human form, her incredibly long blonde hair splayed out across the ground around her. Her eyes were hard as she averted her gaze.

“Hmph…” Band grunted. He looked around at the others. “Good work, y’all. I knew I could leave the rest to you. Assumin’ she’s tellin’ the truth, there’s still the question of what we do now.” His voice had a certain edge to it. Certainly, none of those present had forgotten about Alcamoth.

"Right..."

What to do with L. Ace didn't feel right executing the woman, especially since she'd cooperated - even if it was only to save her own life. But that was just it, she'd begged for her life and gave them the information they needed under the assumption that they would spare it. Going back on that and killing the Consul now would be ruthless, the exact opposite of what a hero of justice would do. But at the same time, he knew they couldn't just let her go.

He yanked the sword out of the platform and slipped it back into its sheath; he could draw it again in an instant if needed. When all of them had come up with this plan, they hadn't talked about this part, the aftermath. It wasn't like they could keep L prisoner or anything... So did it really come down to two options? Kill her, or let her walk away?

Ace mulled it over. Honestly, both of them felt like the wrong answer. When he finally decided on his opinion, he spoke it with a frown. "She knows she's been beaten," he said, "if she swears not to interfere with any of us going forward... then I think we can go our separate ways."

He glanced down at L. "That's not a bad Consul-ation prize, right?"

Mewtwo had been cold and silent the whole, merely listening to the exchange. Most of what L talked about was incomprehensible to him. Balder, mistletoe, inter-knot - It all sounded pretty meaningless to the Pokemon. But the humans seemed to have a better grasp on it, so he’d just defer to them on whether or not the information was good. As for the matter of what to do with the Consul herself? Once again he would defer to the Seekers’ judgment. <...Humans have a habit of giving themselves the role of judge and executioner. But I have no interest in stooping to that level. But if L’s fellow humans here in Edinburgh wish to judge her for her crimes? Then that is their business.>

The fallen woman remained quiet as the others spoke. Though she tried to remain impassive, it was hard to hide her fear. When the victors spoke of clemency, however, a hint of hope ignited in her, and she dared to take furtive glances at their faces in order to gauge their feelings. She knew that she would not be accountable to the gleaming populace of Edinburgh, but now that she knew her power couldn’t triumph over even a handful of isolated Seekers, things wouldn’t be the same. Going forward, L would have to play by their rules. She only hoped that her more powerful compatriots among Moebius, or the Guardians themselves, could halt the heroes’ progress. And if by some miracle they managed to make it to Galeem, and not even the Lord of Light could stop them, did this world really have any right existing at all?

“I won’t interfere,” she insisted. “In fact, if you ever decide it’s time to put a stop to N, I’ll even help you.” L straightened up, fixing her hair in an officious manner. “I’ve…made some mistakes. Clearly. But I know how to keep things running in Edinburgh. That megalomaniac has done nothing but cause problems from day one. A card-carrying villain, straight from a Saturday cartoon. None of us would be sorry to see the last of him. Other than that…” She exhaled shakily, her breath misting in the cold night air. “I’ll abandon the Vanu forces at Eisa Tech Plant as well. Though another Consul may very well commandeer them.” Her eyes settled on Mewtwo. “No more collection, either. You won’t hear from me again. I swear”

Big Band gave L a long, hard look. Then he gave a grumbling exhale. “When the word of law falls, pick it up and hold it higher. Much as I’d like to make you stand trial, lock you up, and throw away the key, we ain’t got the means, and I ain’t one to stoop to frontier justice, either.” The big man stepped back with a grunt. “But if you make us regret it, we’ll be back, and I guarantee you won’t like what comes next. We clear?”

Some semblance of prideful indignity welled up within L, like bile from her stomach, but with a deep breath she pushed it down. After reigning supreme in her own little world for so long, tonight had been one hell of a reality check, and if she didn’t want to throw away her life for nothing, she would have to make her peace with it. She reached up and pressed a button at the base of her collar, re-equipping her helmet, only to take it off again -physically this time- and hold it in her hands. When she spoke, her voice was a hoarse croak. “...Crystal.” Then she let her helmet fall and clatter against the snow-strewn ground.

Ace Cadet eased up following L's words. It was a relief that their plan had worked so well, and a nice bonus that they hadn't needed to take the woman's life. Usually things didn't quite work out that way. Now the only thing left to do was regroup with Linkle and the others and go from there. Assuming they could use this inter-knot thing to confirm what L said, they could also use it to find out where to get mistletoe. If it was something they couldn't get their hands on in the city and had to track it down in the wild, his scoutbugs would easily be able to handle the job.

Ace turned to his comrades. The mood was far from celebratory, but he gave them a smile anyway for a job well done. "I guess we can cool down now that we got what we need," he said, pulling a lifepowder from his bag. "For now anyway." After all, what came next would eventually be taking on another Guardian.

In the midst of the celebratory mood, however, Wonder Red seemed distracted. “About that…I’m getting a signal.”

“A signal?” Band questioned sharply. He immediately looked at L, but she shook her head, looking just as surprised. “What kind of signal?”

Red peered up at the night sky as a fragment of its blackness began to grow closer, flanked by what looked like miniature comets. “We’re about to find out.”

The faint sound of jet engines and rocket thrusters grew steadily louder over the rush of arctic wind as a broad shape approached from the sky, flying in from a high angle, and the closer it got the clearer it became. Though roughly shaped like a plane, it appeared to be bulky for its wingspan, with a forward bent and some kind of weapon attached to its nose beneath its cockpit. Adjustable thrusters and flaps accounted for a focus on maneuverability over raw speed, demonstrated when the aircraft turned around upon getting close enough to the brim of the Edinburgh Pumpkin’s colossal hat. As the thrust from its engines sent clouds of snowflakes billowing away, a large cargo bay door swung down to form a ramp and reveal a familiar face to Wonder Red. With that trim gray mustache, black admiral’s cap, and steaming cup of tea, it could only be Captain Lawrence Nelson, leader of the Wonderful 101. After taking a sip from his beverage, he lowered the transmitter he’d been studying in order to size up the lost Seekers before him.

“It would appear that we’ve found you at last.”