MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

World of Light

Geralt of Rivia

Midgar- Seiran, Abandoned Subway- Underground Nexus

Lvl 9 (213/90) -> (214/90)

Word Count: 561 words

Geralt grunted as they were warned that the Other was, or had been, Peach, but a swipe of the arms forced him to step back, lashing out with his sword to keep the oversized limb from striking his body as he stepped back in when it retracted. He had no idea how she could have been turned into an Other, nor any ideas on how they could return her back. His specialty lay in curses and transformations that he knew about, though he supposed with enough information provided by the Psych OSF should they continue working with them, he might be able to try to reverse whatever happened. If it were reversible at all, of course. Not everything here, in fact the vast majority of things, worked on different rules than he was used to.

He wasn't able to stand there and take punishment as effectively as Goldlewis, but his size, his armor, and Quen let him take quite a few hits without having to risk disengagement. With as many targets for it to focus on, as well as its seemingly laser-focus on Sakura, this meant Geralt could focus on offense, stepping away from the larger, more telegraphed attacks, even if he wasn't always quick enough. Quen shattered after a few hits, but enough time had passed that he could reapply it without issue. He kept his focus on the thing's legs, moving to let Goldlewis try to keep its attention.

When the Other sagged in defeat, Geralt took a deep breath, looking around. Sakura had taken quite the beating, and that left Geralt rather pissed off, but it seemed they'd be okay for now, once it finally dissolved into Ash, hopefully leaving Peach behind.

Geralt blinked a few times before sighing, realizing what was happening as the sentry gun shot away, and the Other stirred once more, its temporary defeat more of it simple being a bit winded. Dammit, Geralt thought. Just their luck.

The monster flipped itself over, its heads now facing the ground, and stabbed its ribbons into the stone floor. The sentry gun was quickly and unceremoniously destroyed, while Sakura, still wounded on the ground, was hit, then impaled upon the ribbons.

Even with the dust in the air after its roaring, his eyes watering slightly and his nose irritated, Geralt could tell she was hurt. Badly. He didn't recognize Blazermate healing the Street Fighter. He took a deep breath, his enhanced sense of smell allowing him to track where the Other had disappeared to. The sound of a sword being sheathed dominated his mind before his fist buried itself in his gut, ripping itself out with a gush of blood and bile, the Hateful Flesh coming with it. "FIZZ! IMPS! JUDICATOR!" Geralt yelled, summoning his Strikers while rushing madly towards the Other.

His Protective Instincts drove him forward and the influence of the Orphan [Rager] blanked his mind, lightning wreathing around the siderite blade as he devolved into a snarling, swirling mess of violence and chaos, as much a threat to the other Seekers who dared get close to the berserking Witcher as he was to what Peach had become. He fought with no concern for his own safety, his Strikers joining him, somewhat insulated from his berserker fury but still acting on his command, which was simply to attack, attack, attack.

---

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Valley of Ruin

Lvl 2 (11/20) +3 Collab +15 Fight EXP +3 collab -> Lvl 2 (33/20)

Word Count: 224 words

As Tora and the youngsters raced off on the Tallneck to chase down Poppi and fix whatever was going on with her, Zenkichi and the others had a job to do: get back to Midgar, stop the Machines, and make sure they didn't all get immediately arrested for it. Simple enough.

Zenkichi half-jogged to the back of the truck, climbing in with a call to the others, "What's the plan when we hit Sector 7? Rally the troops or just handle it ourselves? I'm fresh out of ammo, and to be honest, I'm pretty darn tired too. I can still swing my sword, but now that the adrenaline's wearing off...hoo boy. He took a deep breath and sat down, resting his hands on his knees as the exhaustion really started setting in. "I can keep going, promise...I just...need a second. Damn." Resting his head against the wall of the truck, he closed his eyes and tried to relax as they set out.

When the truck finally got back to Sector 7, Zenkichi was quick to disembark and head towards the gates, calling back to Partitio and the others. "I'm gonna hold the line. You guys run and grab help, and be quick about it, would ya? I'm only one man. A hundred machines I can take, but two is pushing it."

World of Light

Geralt of Rivia

Midgar- Seiran, Abandoned Subway- Underground Nexus

Lvl 9 (197/90) +15 XP combat reward -> (213/90)

Word Count: 465 words

Geralt, Midna, and Goldlewis did one hell of a job keeping the Cleansers off their backs, with the Twilight Princess knocking one so far back that even Geralt's eagle eyes had trouble spotting it for a moment. Their victories heralded a greater Victory, however, as Blazermate unleashed her powerful Medaforce beam now that she was free of the burden of keeping them alive against an onslaught of explosive foes. The camera defeated, it spiraled through the air, giving off an ominous red glow, and as suddenly as they found themselves in the Infinite Corridor, they were freed from its endless clutches, back where they had started.

Geralt sighed, not wanting anything to do with the damn thing, and followed Goldlewis' lead. Not worth it, even if Blazermate's explanation made the technology seem less sinister. They swiftly carried on, reuniting with Karin, who had been spared the surreal experience, even if she got a firsthand explanation courtesy of Midna.

After a bit of walking, they came upon a group of OSF Troopers, whom Geralt didn't pay terribly much mind. It wasn't that he distrusted them; if anything, the OSF was much less ambiguously Good than the other organizations keeping this horrible city intact, but he was very much not interested in blowing their cover with his obvious lack of psychic abilities. He could pass off his Signs, he supposed, but his understanding meant that such a hollow disguise wouldn't last more than a few seconds under heightened scrutiny. So, he slightly played up his usual standoffishness, and let Goldlewis handle the deception.

When they passed on, Geralt hurried with the others, eager to catch up with the rest of their team. When the roar of what could only be a monster, an Other, resounded throughout the cave, he joined the others in hurrying even faster. When he saw the thing, his mind took a minute to comprehend just what he was looking at- which seemed to be a pattern with these horrific monstrosities. He'd deign to call even some of the more hideous monsters he'd faced back home downright normal compared to these things.

The team exploded into action, Midna summoning companions and riding forth, Karin moving to reinforce Sakura, Goldlewis rushing directly at it, Benedict moving to attack the legs while imploring others to do the same, and Blazermate summoning her sentry-creating Engineer and staying back to heal.

Geralt started with the customary Quen shield, rushing forward to attack the Other's legs, his size and strength making him an ideal front-line combatant against a large monster. He slashed at its legs, hoping to get its attention, and circled around to its front, silver sword in both hands and ready to carve at its eldritch flesh. "Pick on someone your own size." He taunted.

World of Light

@Dark Cloud

Partitio Yellowil & Zenkichi Hasegawa

Word Count: 1,635 Words (+3 XP)

"Can-do!" ears ringing from Zenkichi's firearms blasting any unlucky machines who dared near them, he thrust the lodged spear forward just as a ball of crackling energy got within distance to make the hair on his arms stand on end. The quadruped jerkily moved forward before gaining its legs and galloping in a line lurching as it turned with the spear steering it "Woah there." he called pulling their steed to a halt, he looked back at the giant ape of a machine then to his partner "Got something fancy up them nice sleeves of yours friend?" he asked, leading the quadruped between its cohorts and even trampling over a few.

Wolf shook his head, swapping his greatsword for one of the grenades he’d picked up and tossing it at the Goliath and the smaller machines that were near it, frowning when it failed to destroy the larger machine. ”Not much, unfortunately. Though I figure I can take it down mano e mano if you want to pick me up again in a minute.” Buffing himself with Tarukaja would likely be more than enough to take the Goliath down, frankly.

Their steeds joints groaned as it turned, still some fight left in it but not enough to clear them right off "Well sometimes-Hngh" he ducked as a volley of bullets whizzed by "Sometimes a simple plan is good as any." not like he could do much, without needing one hand on the spear and another to hold on for dear life.

Nodding, Wolf kicked off the quadruped and drew his sword, calling out to the Goliath, ”Right here!” Giving himself a buff with Tarukaja, he charged, sword lashing out at its leg as the Goliath charged up a whirlwind uppercut, but the Phantom Striker was out of the way far too quickly for the slow, telegraphed attack to even have a chance at landing, along with its follow-up hammer smash. Wolf took the opportunity while it was distracted and recovering to get off a short series of slashes, the backswing taking down a biped that risked getting close. When the Goliath raised up again, Wolf backstepped, watching its movements carefully for a tell.

Another smaller biped windmilled its arms, charging him, and was batted aside by the Phantom Thief’s greatsword, only for the Goliath to do the same. He couldn’t block or counter that, and he knew it, so Wolf backpedaled some more, grunting as he lashed out at the Machines trying to block his path. So they did have some coordination. Well, lesson learned. Probably the hard way, as the Goliath approached. ”Valjean, Triple Down!” He called, the Persona appearing to lash out at the large singular enemy with its chains, the Gun damage being somewhat reduced by its armor, but still enough to put a dent in the Machine.

Meanwhile the merchant had been bearing down on the bucking quadraped, losing some control on it as it trampled through the battlefield, Partitio noticed the spear was getting jostled out of the thing’s back and the loose wires were sparking. Now he wasn't all that well versed with machinery so he couldn't have anticipated his next gambit to be a shocker, taking the wires and pulling on them was a bit more painful than expected as the merchant was shocked by a jolt of electricity.

Yet Partitio endured, using his tenacity and endurance to bring the Onailgun at his side to his hands and get to work on this bucking bronco of a machine. He got the feeling that their steed wouldn't last if he didn't have an easier way of controlling it so he ripped out a decent length of wiring nearly shocking himself to death had he not used Rest. By this point the two had been galloping willy-nilly taking out smaller bipeds that got in the way.

A handful of weird looking string to the merchant was more than enough for what he was thinking. Dislodged spear in hand he decided to take the dangerous but much more efficient option of taking the damn bull or rather machine by the horns or rather wires. He grabbed onto the wiring once more and tugged grunting painfully as he gained some control over the quadruped again, it'd have to do for now.

He took the assault rifle off his shoulders by the strap and with one hand on the wires and the other gripping the handle of the gun he cried both in triumph and a tiny bit of pain as he turned his steed and galloped back across the vale. He pulled the trigger of the rifle letting loose a volley of bullets going every direction as he went missing more machines than it hit, but taking out quite a few unfortunate fliers that had decided to tail the merchant as well as several more bipeds that were either trampled or shot.

As Partitio and his mount rampaged through the machines, Wolf carved through the smaller bipeds blocking his path, as the Goliath finally finished its tantrum. Snarling, he turned around, stabbing his greatsword into its arm and following up with a heavy, over-the-head circular slash which carved through the thin beam-like structures supporting one of its arms. The machine stumbled, lopsided, and a final slash put an end to its existence. Breathing heavily, Wolf turned to a group of bipeds with a multilegs that were approaching and called for his Persona once more. ”Megido!” The Almighty spell managed to destroy a couple of bipeds and deal a pretty serious amount of damage to the Multilegs while he reloaded his revolvers, taking advantage of a momentary lapse in the attacks against him.

With a shrill whistle the merchant came from behind in the breadth of a moment looking a bit worse for wear but he persevered, thanks to his indomitable vigor and knack to shrugging damage off. Possibly the other man's fancy ability also saved him from getting downed by a stray bullet. Anyhow, he rejoined his ally just as his steed finally buckled and collapsed.

As gracefully as he could Partitio leapt from the quadruped as it collapsed landing by Zenkichi with a grunt, firing a slightly more accurate spray of ammunition at the few other bipeds that were standing around them as he got to his feet "Dunno bout you friend but I'm all outta tricks, looks like we're settlin' this the old fashioned way." his arm as sore from the guns recoil, nerves shot from the electric shock but most of all he sounded disappointed that the metal bucket kicked the bucket, but now wasn't no time to complain.

”Fine by me,” Wolf replied, drawing his revolvers and firing at the approaching bipeds and the multilegs which survived his Megido, then turning his aim skywards and knocking a medium flier out of the sky. ”Don’t forget the ones above us,” he warned Partitio, reloading his last rounds and drawing his greatsword to fight, a few more multilegs, these ones with blades instead of cannons, approaching. He stepped forward to meet them, sword stabbing out to attack the main body of the closest one. It scored a retaliatory hit, but Wolf stepped in rather than back away, and brought his sword around and down while the Machine was preparing a follow-up, carving one of its legs off and throwing the thing off-balance. He took the opportunity and with a hefty overhead swing, bisected the creature’s head and torso.

As it crumbled to pieces, the next multilegs attacked, scoring a couple of hits in quick succession, but Wolf turned with a back-handed slash, knocking the blades aside, staggering the multilegs, and following up with a pair of lighter slashes before stepping back and calling for Valjean, ”Triple Down!” The Persona appeared, raising its chains to lash out, and struck true, damaging both multilegs pretty badly. The one that Wolf had hit before was on its last legs, both literally and figuratively, and the Phantom Striker rushed forward, bringing his sword down and dissolving it into ash. The other Machine cried out and charged, but Wolf was ready, stepping forward with a warding slash to meet it, and following up with a pair of crossed slashes to destroy the thing. As the rest of the machines continued approaching, he moved back to help cover Partitio.

Partitio hadn't the luxury of a big fancy world companion to fight by his side just his gumption and a big ass gun, which after running out of ammunition the merchant switched up his tactics and started fighting tooth and nail, taking on several medium bipeds with his spear and nailgun before the former Turk rejoined him to fight as a combined force.

The pair managed to make quick work of the medium bipeds, moving on to hardier targets with renewed confidence and vigor. Even large bipeds found themselves quickly taken down, though Goliaths proved a bit tougher of a target. Wolf kept Partitio covered with Rakukaja as best he could, fighting more aggressively when the merchant wasn’t protected, both to regain his own lost vitality and to keep him from being harmed when his defense wasn’t boosted. Between spear, greatsword, nailgun and revolvers, after abandoning the destroyed quadruped, the pair found that more mobility meant quicker results, not having to fight their mount to get where they wanted to go.

Even after Wolf’s guns clicked dry and the pair were battered and bruised, they still fought, the Phantom Striker focusing harder and harder on offense to regain his lost vitality, tossing out Megidos and Triple Downs like they were going out of style. Each AoE attack cleared a few of the smaller enemies, and with hard, heavy breaths, Wolf planted his greatsword in the ground, the carnage around the two a sure sign of their efforts.

Tally (Zenkichi & Partitio):
Medium Biped x71, Large Biped x24, Goliath x6, Legpower x2, Multi-leg x18, Reverse-Joint x6, Quadruped x9, Small Flier x46, Medium Flier x25
Total (Zenkichi & Partitio): 207/200 machines defeated.

World of Light

Geralt of Rivia

Midgar- Seiran, Abandoned Subway- Infinite Corridor

Lvl 9 (196/90) -> (197/90)

Word Count: 386 words

Geralt grunted once he realized that his crossbow wasn't going to manage to land any hits on the flying camera, the intense speeds they were moving at more than he was used to working with. After a good few shots completely failed to land and it became obvious none would, he switched tactics, drawing his silver sword and working to keep the Pounds off the few who could do anything to the damn thing. Aard was particularly useful here, though Quen kept him from the worst of the damage if he didn't manage to shove or blast any away in time and had to tank an explosion. It still hurt, but far, far less through the protective shield.

The signs were a pain to deal with, but with his attention less focused on a single object, Geralt was easily capable of reacting in time and getting out of harm's way. As time went on, they managed to chip away at the eldritch object, though it felt like Goldlewis was doing a lot of the heavy lifting there (literally and figuratively, with that damn coffin).

That, however, triggered a change in their situation. As the Session Pounds ceased appearing, they were replaced by something equally strange, but...different in a way that was hard to put his finger on. As the creepy creatures raced up to their lifts and began shaking them to pull them off-track, Geralt cursed and steadied himself, turning to the thing and snarling. Midna's creature had nearly been taken out by that oppressively bright light and...something happening, though it took Midna's callout for Geralt to realize what it was- that light was suppressing its Spirit Fusion abilities. As more of the things appeared to attack their lifts, Geralt cursed and moved into the light, sighing as his mind felt a little clearer. Hmm. That boded poorly.

Ignoring that ill omen for now, the Witcher hefted his sword and began his assault, casting Igni to scorch the Cleansers hands and following up with a cut as it tried to punch at him, drawing blood and a pained cry. "Doesn't feel good, does it?" He taunted, hacking away at and fighting the thing, before being forced to disengage and leap to another lift when a sign nearly wiped him out. "Dammit! Just...gotta keep them busy!"

---

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Valley of Ruin

Lvl 2 (9/20) -> Lvl 2 (11/20)

Word Count: 871 words

Thankfully, with the quick actions of Roxas and Pit, who flew- one literally and the other only mostly figuratively- Susie managed to make some distance from the robots she'd engaged, and the trio quickly beat a hasty retreat and rejoined the main group. Zenkichi didn't have anything to say, as Giovanna had more than made her point clear earlier, and frankly it wasn't his job to tell anybody what to do. Besides, right now? They had bigger fish to fry.

As they all gathered around the salvage truck, Zenkichi's eyes narrowed when the Tallneck started approaching. He knew Tora was a good hacker, based on how he overrode the trucks' autopilots, but that thing? He was wary, waiting for the inevitable kicking rampage, but...it just stood there. Until Tora's little wings popped up in their vision and his voiced carried over. "Hahahaha, no thank you!" Zenkichi called back, getting in the truck before anybody else had any bright ideas about stealing a spot from him. The kids could get on that deathtrap, bunch of adrenaline junkies he knew they could be. Not him, no way, he was taking the truck even if he had to drive it himself.

That thing was pretty fast, too, so Zenkichi was definitely glad at his choice to not board it. No way, screw that. The bad news was that they were almost too late. Midgar loomed nearby, as the truck and Tallneck stopped atop a hill overlooking the road leading to its entrance.

"Wow, that is...really bad." Zenkichi summarized as he looked down upon the thousand-strong army of Machines marching on Midgar. They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some fairly humanoid, some a twisted mockery of the human form. Shaking his head at Poppi's estimation and Giovanna's quick math, he steeled his resolve. A hundred machines. He could do that. He and the rest of the Phantom Thieves routinely dealt with hordes of Shadows in the Jails, especially when they had to protect Oracle.

The other Seekers began making their preparations, Partitio getting a rifle from the Rust Crew, Poppi changing into a more defensively-oriented configuration, Susie getting in her suit and providing long-ranged artillery, and Zenkichi taking a slow, deep breath as Partitio gave him a hearty slap on the back and an offer to co-operate. Though, it seemed like the merchant was already pretty damn hyped up, as he didn't even wait for an answer before sliding down the hill, hooting and hollering like a man possessed. Zenkichi just shook his head, letting the persona of Wolf out.

"Valjean! Let's do this!" He cried, leaping into the fray, chasing Partitio down and cutting a machine straight down the middle that thought it had an easy target. "These bones may not be as young as they once were, but I've got plenty of life left in me!" He called to the merchant, drawing one of his revolvers and blasting a machine that was coming close, knocking it off balance for a clean sweep of his greatsword, severing it in half. "Valjean, Rakukaja!" He cried, pointing at Partitio. The merchant could feel, just for a little while, a little sturdier in that armor of his, as Wolf went to work carving through the horde in front of them.

As he fought through the machines, giving a helluva lot harder than he got and regaining a little bit of lost vitality for every hit, Partitio managed to pull off a gambit that he never would have expected to work, mounting one of the quadrupedal machines like a horse and bringing it on by for Wolf to climb on board. "Alright then!" He simply replied, taking a mighty leap and landing atop the mechanical steed, revolvers flashing out as he stowed his greatsword, bullets flying and knocking out a few of the smaller flying machines rather quickly. Reloading from atop the slightly safer spot their mount gave them, Wolf looked out over the battlefield. Explosions, elemental energy, Tora and Poppi's Master and Blade onslaught, and the Rust Crew's gunfire ripped through machines, and he took a deep breath.

"Valjean! Megido!" He cried, swirling orbs of Almighty energy appearing among the Machines before exploding, scrapping a few bipeds and damaging a large biped that was nearby them, to which he followed up with a fusillade of gunfire, cracking and destroying its head, causing the Machine to collapse, defeated. "I'll hunt you down!" He yelled in challenge to the other machines, dumping both revolvers into the horde, taking down another couple of bipeds and catching the attention of a Goliath. "Incoming! He called to Partitio as it approached, quickly stashing his guns and drawing his sword, hefting it to block the swing of its giant arm. Their quadruped stumbled, but Wolf roared, forcing all he could into the block, pushing against the Goliath's strength, and won out in the end, even if his arms were aching like hell.

"Get us away from that thing!" He called to Partitio, pointing at the Goliath, which had stopped and was belching out crackling balls of slow-moving energy towards them. "Don't wanna know how much those hurt!"

Count- 8 small fliers, 4 medium fliers, 26 medium bipeds, 5 large bipeds. Total: 43 machines defeated.

World of Light

Geralt of Rivia

Midgar- Seiran, Abandoned Subway- Overgrown Transfer

Lvl 9 (185/90) +10 Reward XP -> (196/90)

Word Count: 487 words

Horrible monster dealt with, Geralt watched as Goldlewis boarded a train, hijacked it, and launched the thing at the other Other, Geralt taking the healing Blazermate and her drone were providing with quiet thanks and some deep breaths, making sure he was really back in one piece. Burning a dose of Swallow was never fun, especially when Blazermate was nearby, but after a hit like that he couldn't take the risk that she didn't make it back to him in time.

Shaking his head, he joined the others in following Goldlewis. He noted Midna clearing the Ashes of the fallen and taking the Spirits, but other than a momentary look towards where the Others had been feasting, did nothing to indicate his feelings on the matter. It was unfortunate, but to him it was the sort of unfortunate that came with a rainy day when you were hoping for sun: Not particularly important or uncommon.

The labrynthian tunnel system that followed their battle was bothersome to get through, to say the least. Branching tunnels, even going upwards in some places and downwards in others, kept them moving to try and find their way to the infiltration team, but it was far from a simple task. So many different branching pathways.

Eventually, however, they found themselves in front of the massive lift, from atop which emanated an enticing red glow. Something weird had to mean something in this place, even if it wasn't exactly good, it was better than wandering forever.

Geralt, however, had no idea what in the hell it was, and it seemed Midna was in a similar position. Geralt was equally sure as her, however, that it was not supposed to float, sing some strange music, and cause the entire lift to activate, launching them down a seemingly-infinite tunnel. As if that wasn't bad enough, more lifts appeared along with the exploding Others from earlier, as well as massive signs that blocked off portions of the tunnel and had to be avoided.

Joyous.

Geralt drew his hand crossbow, taking shots at the floating device, and keeping an ear out for incoming Session Pounds. If one got close, and Midna hadn't taken it out, he would deal with it by either shooting it at close range and hopefully destabilizing it enough to be taken out, or launching it away with Aard and letting it explode harmlessly away from himself.

As simple as his plan, was, however, the fact that the lifts began to drop out from under them complicated manners. Gruffly landing after a hurried leap, Geralt pointed to the floating camera and called on the Striker Panther once more, directing him to shoot the damned thing. "Of course, Senor." The anthropomorphic cat replied, though Geralt couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or not. At least Blazermate was taking care of Benedict and still providing healing for when a Session Pound inevitably got too close.

---

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Valley of Ruin

Lvl 2 (8/20) -> Lvl 2 (9/20)

Word Count: 424 words

As he was fighting the Simians, Wolf noticed Partitio joining the fray, brandishing his Machine Spear and stabbing at one of the Machines. Giving the merchant warrior a quick nod, Wolf continued with his wide, heavy swings, always managing to catch at least one of the Simians, but rarely more than a couple at once. He was getting as good as he gave, however, and by this point he was starting to flag. Thankfully, the Machines weren't terribly powerful, and their aggression was eventually overpowered by Wolf's relentless nature, wide-arc swings, and extreme strength.

Hearing Partitio's warning just as he cut down one of the last Simians, Wolf looked up to see the Spider being hit by the crane, Giovanna having changed targets and heavily damaging the giant Machine, for Tora and Poppi to come charging in with an-oh crap that was going to be a big explosion!

Diving to take cover, Zenkichi felt the heat and the wind blow over him as he was sent tumbling, thudding into a pile of damaged construction materials and groaning as his head spun. Wobbily standing up, he looked around at the carnage and destruction, noticing the Spirits of the destroyed machines. Quickly crushing them as per the quick rundown he'd been given earlier, he collected the random goodies they dropped and joined the others as Giovanna was lecturing Tora and Poppi, a weary smile on his face. "Little more warning next time you set off a giant explosion next time, eh?" He half-joked, stretching out his arms and back, before looking around. "Still, quick thinking on that manuever there. That thing looked pretty darn tough."

Nodding as the others mentioned a 'long-neck steelypon', which he assumed was Toraspeak for 'Long-necked Machine', he joined them as they ran off to find it. Tora and Poppi took a quick flight up top to hack into it and steal whatever data they could find, while the rest continued their fairly relaxing breather. That is, until Giovanna pointed out from her cliffside vantage point that Susie and Pit were having a...less than ideal time with the Machines they'd attacked. "Of course. Alright, sure, no problem, just gotta get down there, rescue them from the robot crabs and crocodiles and hippos. No problem, not at all. Except the whole getting to them part." Was it immature of him to complain? Yes. Was he going to anyway? Yes. He was an adult, and that's what adults did. They complained and then did the thing they just complained about anyway.

World of Light

Geralt of Rivia

Midgar- Seiran, Abandoned Subway- Overgrown Transfer

Lvl 9 (184/90) -> (185/90)

Word Count: 236 words

Between Blazermate's little flying contraption, the Judicator's healing (even if he took a few hits through the oversized thing), and his Swallow, Geralt was...doing well enough, let's go with. He was still achey, but it was quite a bit better than the pain he was in when that thing first launched him across the damn place. Midna and Karin were able to help as well, the Princess dousing the flames and launching projectiles at the monster, while Karin took a much more direct assault against the Slippy Chinery. As it began thrashing wildly about, Geralt put a bit more distance between himself and the thing, watching it carefully as the others took its attention for a moment.

Karin came back in after Midna's projectile volley, dashing under its legs and striking a devastating blow into the Slippy Chinery's hindflank, destabilizing the monster and sending it stumbling forward. Geralt charged, stabbing his silver sword into the Other's skull, and stepped back, leaving the blade inside as his hand made the Sign of Aard, launching a cone of force into the creature's skull, but most importantly, the hilt of the sword, and the blade buried itself even deeper into the creature, which began to dissolve into ash.

Picking up his weapon, he turned to the other monster, watching as Goldlewis and Blazermate fought it, and taking a deep breath. "Ow. Fuck." Yep, his ribs still hurt like hell.

---

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Valley of Ruin

Lvl 2 (6/20) -> Lvl 2 (8/20)

Word Count: 831 words

Well, that went...poorly. Susie was serious about just going out and grabbing a bunch of random scrap. Giovanna not-so-warmly reminded Susie of the reason they were here, which seemed to set the merchant guy who had joined them off, but with Pit behind her, the Little Pink Lady summoned her massive mecha suit and went to town on the robots. Meanwhile, he, Partitio and Giovanna were making their way all sneaky-like towards the crane. Zenkichi was nervously looking between Partitio and Giovanna, a bit surprised that he genuinely thought they were here for scrap. Had he not been obvious enough when he warned him that there would be a fight? Usually the scrap crews did their best to avoid getting into combat with the machines. Besides, they'd commandeered and sabotaged the salvage trucks. Any chance of them being ordinary scrap recovery team had died with that.

Still, Zenkichi didn't say anything to the man. Better not risk making anything worse with his big fat mouth. Besides, they were trying to be stealthy right now, and even a hushed conversation could get them caught. While not quite as speedy as Giovanna, he was able to keep up at a short distance as they approached the construction yard. The place was fairly well guarded, if lacking in actual defensive positions, but even though his official status as a Turk was no more, Zenkichi wasn't any less dangerous now than he was yesterday. He could handle a few Machines no problem. Noticing Giovanna's attention redirect skyward up the crane, Zenkichi's eyebrows rose as well. "Seriously?" He hissed, shaking his head. "Ugh, fine. You'd be better at getting up their than my old bones, anyway. I can cover you." Whispering carefully so he didn't get overheard, Zenkichi turned to Partitio. "Listen, I'm gonna make a distraction. Don't worry too much about me, and do whatever you can to take these things down while I've got their attention. After that, we'll figure out what's going on. Alright?" Not really waiting for much feedback, Zenkichi ran to another hiding spot, this one a bit further away from the crane.

Taking a deep breath, he summoned Valjean (and his Phantom Thief attire) and stood up, walking out into the open. The robots were quick to raise their weapons, but so was Wolf. A pair of shots took the first one out, and Wolf dodged to the side to avoid the incoming fire from the others that had reacted quickly. "Rakukaja!" Wolf shouted, the familiar feeling of a solid defense boost coursing through him. "Oh yeah!" He cheered, turning his aim to take down another pair of robots before aiming upwards, putting the rest of his cylinders into whichever Simians he could get his eyes on, not focusing any down, just trying to get their attention and get them out of Giovanna's way.

When his revolvers ran dry, Wolf quickly stowed the weapons and drew his greatsword, rushing in to attack. Bullets flattened against his body, the enhanced durability of a Persona-user and the boost granted by Rakukaja keeping the Detective from becoming a bullet-riddled corpse, and he cut down a pair of Assault Shooters that hadn't managed to get out of his way in time. A Rapid Shooter charged out from cover, making a semi-circular pattern to keep him away, but Wolf was quicker, launching himself with a burst of speed and tackling the Machine to the ground, following up with a brutal overhead swing, destroying the robot with a mighty crash.

Another burst of gunfire crashed against his back, and Wolf turned with a scowl, facing a small group of robots, all opening fire. Lifting his sword to try and block whatever he could, he snarled, "Valjean! Triple Down!" His Persona responded accordingly, raising and lashing out with its chains, mystical gunfire tearing through the robots and ripping them to pieces. Stashing his sword and drawing his guns to reload them, Wolf looked up in time to see the Simians final approach, having gotten quite a few of their attention. Replacing his revolvers with his sword once more, he beckoned hem towards him. Rakukaja had since worn off, but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Backing up as the monkey-like machines descended, he called out for his Persona again, "Megido!"

Some of the Simians, a little quicker than the Shooters, managed to get out of the way of the attack, though a few others found themselves fried by the Almigthy spell, and Wolf followed up with a vicious horizontal swing, taking out another of the Simians right off the bat. Its fellows charged, crying angrily and swiping, kicking, and punching at him, but Wolf stood resolute, slashing and crushing his way through the ones that had targeted him from on top of the crane, determined to keep as much attention off of Giovanna as possible, and steering clear of the monolithic structure she was planning to crush.

World of Light

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Valley of Ruin

Lvl 2 (5/20) -> Lvl 2 (6/20)

Word Count: 353 words

As the trucks lumbered on, Zenkichi didn't have much else to say, the melancholic mood admittedly getting to him a bit. Some old habits died hard, and even with his re-discovered dedication to justice, Zenkichi was prone to melancholy since Aoi's death. So he sat, mostly quietly, in the truck, watching the landscapes pass him by, enjoying the sights and taking in the devastation. "It's wild...just how much stuff there is out there, ruined... He sighed when they passed a particularly wrecked area on their way to the salvage zone.

Once they stopped, Zenkichi was quick to get out and stretch his legs, half-hearted grumbling about his age. The sight of the massive plane crash made him whistle. While Tora got to work on disabling the automated routing of the salvage trucks, Zenkichi and the others joined Giovanna in keeping an eye out on the local 'wildlife'. Thankfully, these machines weren't hostile, but there was no telling what was and what wasn't, so he kept on alert. Soon enough, they were back underway, the two truck teams splitting up.

When the truck Zenkichi was in stopped at its second destination, the Investigator stepped out and immediately began looking around, balking at some of the machine forms in this place. "Definitely don't wanna get close to the water. I'm not sure how closely these things take after the animals they look like, but hippos and crocodiles are some of the deadliest animals on Earth." After pointing out the machines he was referring to, his attention shifted to the construction site. "I'm thinking we check that out," he told the group as he pointed towards the giant crane, "Might be some goodies lying around that we can use, and there's bound to be plenty of machines wherever we head."

Summoning Valjean, Zenkichi drew his revolvers and looked at the others. "Open to other suggestions, of course, but...well, we're here to scout, right? Figure that's the place to do it, nice and high, fairly open sightlines. Might just be a pain to get there...definitely be a fight and a half."

World of Light

Geralt of Rivia

Midgar- Seiran, Abandoned Subway- Overgrown Transfer

Lvl 9 (172/90) +9 collab XP -> (184/90)

Word Count: 1,567 words

Goldlewis' verbal bombardment on the group's return was...fair. Generally unappreciated, the Witcher suspected, but fair. They had survived, but not by their own talents. He wasn't sure whether Goldlewis was being literal when he mentioned that the Psi-fish would pop their heads with their powers, but he'd seen enough strangeness in the World of Light that it probably wasn't worth taking that chance again. Had the reservoir been slightly less busy, he likely could have used the Breaching Bastion to put some serious dents in the wildlife population, but ultimately that was the crux of the issue: there was too much there to get anything properly done.

Taro being shuffled away for treatment was...unfortunate, given the likelihood of him being arrested for being Fused, but the man was in no shape to join the Seekers proper. Unfortunate as it was, hopefully his jailers would still allow him to receive treatment. Staying down there, continuing to suffer physically and mentally...it would do him no good.

Geralt didn't respond to Goldlewis, but the half-hearted frown on his face indicated that he was, at least, somewhat chastised, even if he damn well didn't like it.

Especially given that they had to go back. A bit of a shame that they hadn't done any proper scouting, but Geralt wasn't going to lose sleep over it. The journey to the tunnel system was fairly uneventful, thankfully, even though they had to use those damned ziplines again. At least these ones were less circuitous than the ones in Detroit.

Casting Quen once they entered enemy territory proper, Geralt stayed towards the back, all the better to get a good look at their enemies before engaging. The Others were a bit more tricky than the average thug, he'd heard, and he'd prefer to not get caught off guard by anything they might be able to do.

Such as explode in your face once they got in close proximity. That was...oddly terrifying. And unnatural. No creature threw itself to death like that unless it was serving a greater purpose, some higher cause. All living beings held within them a sense of self-preservation, be it as basic as 'move away from large predator' or as complex as 'I need to work to eat, and eat to live, even if I hate the work I have to do to eat.'

That these...things...so casually disregarded that basic fact of biological function...disturbed him. Yes, the Abyssal Fleet was similar, but his experience with Rika and Bella indicated that they were somewhat incomplete. Hollow creations, with only the most bare-bones souls within them. The Strikers he'd bonded to from the Fleet were little more than automatons in his eyes. Their lack of self-preservation made sense: they were not created with it, all the better to wage a ceaseless war.

But the Others...they had been presented as a biological phenomenon, an eldritch and foreign one, but living creatures nonetheless.

Shaking his head to clear the disturbing ruminations, Geralt took Goldlewis' offer of protection and stayed behind the man, his giant coffin, and the massive shield he summoned, endured the wave of self-destructive monsters handily. Geralt sighed when it was over, shaking his head at his own sense of helplessness. He certainly could have fought, but being caught in the explosion of even one of those monsters...could have had catastrophic results, especially if it left him vulnerable to other attacks. "Thanks." Geralt simply stated when the coast was clear, giving Goldlewis a nod. Even if he wasn't exactly thrilled with the man at the moment, there was no grudge being held. He understood why he had been upset at them.

As they continued, Geralt renewed the shielding of Quen, keeping his breathing steady and his pace solid. He knew that wearing himself out would come back to bite him in the ass later, so he made sure to conserve his stamina as best he could. Even with his enhanced abilities, he was not a workhorse nor a limitless font of energy.

Coming out to the train platforms, Geralt scowled when he saw the Saliva Santas. "What in the..?" He mumbled, still not quite used to the unusual forms the Others took. He went with Goldlewis to the right to attempt to attack the thing, only for the pair to be blasted back by an explosion of warm saliva, Geralt shaking off a glob from his arm. "Disgusting..." He muttered, drawing his bow. "Looks like a blade won't help."

Geralt used Midna's assault on the singular Other as an opportunity to attack the pair on the other side, the special power of Odysseus' Bow triggering and spreading lightning between the two, though he focused his arrows on one of them. Doing his best to avoid being hit by blasts of water, Geralt nonetheless took a few hits, re-applying Quen midfight to keep himself sturdy. His other Signs lacked the range to deal with the Santas, so he focused on shooting with his bow, calling upon Panther to launch a few blasts of his laser weapon alongside Geralt. One arrow managed to trigger the missile launcher on his shoulder, which certainly helped deal some major damage to the Santa it hit, but even that was not enough to fell it.

Overall, it wasn't quite as clean as Midna's efforts on the solo Santa, and he most certainly had not slain his by the time she was done on her side, but he was assuredly wearing them down for the others to assist with a cleaner finish. It was times like this he missed the open ocean, being able to bring the Breaching Bastion to bear on foes, though it was only reasonable that it wouldn't last forever.

Once they cleaned up the rest of the Santas, Geralt and the other Seekers followed after Goldlewis, and saw the results of...something...having been freshly killed. Two equine Others, one with leaves on its branch-like antlers, the other without, stood among a pile of ashes, the leafed monster cleaning blood from its nails, the bare one still eating. They'd interrupted quite the fresh kill, then.

The Slippy Chinery covering itself in oil made Geralt hum. What were the odds that igniting that oil would harm it, and what were the odds that it would only become a flaming, rampaging nuisance? He wasn't sure he wanted to test that just yet, but perhaps when it was suitably weakened he would. The Winery Chinery he wanted nothing to do with, what with using metal swords as his primary form of combat. Sure, he could stay back and shoot the thing with his bow or crossbow, but after having just done so with the Santas, he was less inclined to ignore a chance to use his silver. Once more applying Quen to protect himself, Geralt moved to color, mimicking Midna's attempt to locate the Slippy Chinery via smell. It looked like the Twilight Princess and her hound were a more appealing target, though, and Geralt's witnessed the train she perched upon being crushed by the thing's assault, running to her aid as she was launched by the follow-up attacks.

It was incredibly difficult to properly see the beast as it attacked Midna, but blasts of sand gave Geralt a good idea of where it was, and by the time it was clashing with her Darknut, Geralt had clambered aboard the damaged train, slashing his blade across one of its hindlegs as it reeled, quickly repositioning his blade to deflect the retaliatory tail strike. Sensing Midna as the greater threat, the Chinery continued attacking her, and she responded by trapping it in swarms of grasping vines, rooting it to the body of the train. Giving the Princess an appreciative nod, Geralt plunged his blade into the Chinery's side, calling forth a spray of blood, before moving out of the way of the cyborg bear's swoopin stu cannon. As the Other burned and thrashed, Geralt added to its misery with a concentrated stream of flames from Igni, covering its side with flames in addition to the ones on its front.

Unfortunately, the Slippy Chinery also broke free as Geralt was dousing it with flames, and with Midna retreating to be healed, that left Geralt as a perfect target for a body slam. Unable to react in time, Geralt was bodily launched from the train, silver sword clattering and sliding along the ground as his Quen shield explosively shattered, and the oversized Witcher crashed to the ground and rolled for a good twenty or so feet, crashing hard into an advertisement stand. Groaning, he forced himself to his feet and clumsily shuffled towards Blazermate and Midna as the Slippy Chinery came at them, summoning the Judicator behind him. "F-fuck...need help here..." He groaned, and the massive monstrosity screeched, beginning to self-flagellate to heal its summoner while he stumbled to his sword and grabbed it.

Geralt fished in his pouch for a dose of Swallow, quickly swallowing it and standing to his full height as the potion quickly began hypercharging his already-good regeneration abilities. He wasn't back to 100% instantly, but it would allow Blazermate to focus on Midna while the Judicator and Geralt turned towards the Slippy Chinery and began a renewed assault, Geralt calling for backup from whomever was free to assist. The thing was burning, bleeding from Geralt's stab wound, and angry, but still standing. It likely wouldn't last for much longer, but for now...it was still a threat.

World of Light

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Midgar- Sector 7 Slums

Lvl 2 (4/20) -> Lvl 2 (5/20)

Word Count: 637 words

Zenkichi nodded appreciatively when Partitio confirmed that he was no slouch in a fight. He wasn't sure that'd be enough, but he could always hit the merchant with a Rakukaja to keep his defenses up. It wouldn't be the be-all and end-all of a fight, but his duty wasn't just to bring justice to the guilty, but to protect the innocent as well. And an honest merchant, risking life and limb to better the people who needed his wares? At worst, it was self-motivated in a long-term thinking kind of way. At worst. But given that he was risking his own life and limb? More likely to be genuine altruism. "Then you'll have no complaints from me." He replied simply.

His discussion with the Rust Crew went smoothly enough. It seemed like they were were considering a plan to try and hijack a DesporHado transport, which...well, it was ambitious, for sure. Though it also didn't seem like they were entirely on board with the plan themselves, and were happy to hitch along with a less insane plan when offered the opportunity. He wasn't sure how he felt about Cain's flirting with Poppi, but the android herself didn't seem terribly perturbed, at least not enough to speak up, which he'd gotten the impression she was more than comfortable with doing.

It looked like they'd be getting on the scrapper transports, which were automated to go to the area and leave for home at set times. Giovanna seemed confident enough in the little round guy's hacking skills to assume that he'd be able to mess with that programming. He wasn't in any position to doubt those skills, given that it also seemed like he'd built Poppi himself. He thought he'd heard something about a family project, but even with help, it still meant he was certainly quite the clever little guy.

Partitio speaking to the scavengers to get some better equipment, trading in his old, low-quality gear, was a point in the newcomer's favor. Zenkichi could manage without armor thanks to Valjean, Giovanna had that wolf partner of hers, Poppi was a friggin combat android, Pit was apparently an angel, Roxas had honest-to-goodness magic, and Susie...he wasn't actually sure what Susie's deal in a fight was. She seemed very techy, maybe she had some kind of hacking deal? Still, her robotic nature meant she'd inherently have some protection against damage. Tora was another matter he wasn't sure about, but he very obviously wasn't human, and Zenkichi wasn't going to assume he couldn't hold his own. All in all, he felt confident about their odds against the Machines.

As they all got into their vehicles to be driven to the salvage zone, Zenkichi couldn't help but notice that Roxas was...well, brooding would be the way he'd put it, but that wouldn't go over well with a kid to tell them that. He wasn't sure he had any advice for him, though, so Zenkichi kept his mouth shut. Susie's idea about adding turrets to the border down made Zenkichi chuckle a little. "That's if Upper Midgar doesn't take them for themselves once they hear about us making proper armaments. Can't even be bothered to fix the outer wall..." He wasn't sure why Konoe wasn't taking things more seriously, especially given his obsession with being a hero, but then again, the Konoe he was used to didn't have that Heidegger in his name, and he was a tech guy, not a cop.

As the trucks rumbled on, Zenkichi looked outwards and sighed at the devastation around them. "It's like it's out of some post-apocalyptic TV show..." He muttered, wondering what exactly happened. Had this been placed here, just like that, plucked from some ruined world, or had this been a thriving community that was destroyed?

World of Light

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Midgar- Sector 7 Slums

Lvl 2 (3/10) -> Lvl 2 (4/10)

Word Count: 520 words

Zenkichi concurred with Tora and Giovanna's suppositions on why Midgar hadn't taken the fight directly to the Machines. "It sucks, but...well, it's not all bastards all the way up and all the way down. They make the decisions they make for reasons, not just to be cartoonishly evil. Well...mostly not to be cartoonishly evil," Zenkichi corrected after remember some of the more corrupt folks he'd had the misfortune of dealing with. "It's almost always a question of logistics. What do we get out of doing this? Is the risk worth the potential reward? And...well, the undercities just get counted less heavily in the equation. Not only is it out of sight, out of mind, but there's not many people with money down here to make people care. If you can invest in a bigshot politician's campaign, or even worse, his opponent's, well, they have to at least hear you out. Or it's their job on the line, and their power." Sighing, Zenkichi shook his head. "Politics..."

He watched on curiously as Tora waddled over to Partitio, and let the man know what they were here to help. Unsurprisingly, they didn't mystically round up a posse to take the fight to the robots because everybody was just waiting for the first person to stand up and say "no more", but they did at least get the attention of the merchant himself. "Huh. Uh, well...we're definitely trying to help out, but, and forgive the bluntness, we're not planning a casual stroll. It's gonna get ugly." He wasn't saying that to try and scare the guy off, but it was better to be safe then sorry.

The Seekers carried on, reaching Stargazer Heights on their way to Scrap Boulevard, and that was where they saw the Rust Crew, along with a couple of folks that Roxas recognized and ran after while Giovanna made her way to Scrap Boulevard to try and get them a ride. Poppi's question, or more specifically, the way she addressed him, caused Zenkichi to tug at his collar, a little embarrassed. "Uh, yeah...that's them. But could you...not call me master? It's...kind of weird." He admitted, vividly remembering a time when he...hadn't handled Aoi's death so well.

Shaking his head, he focused back on the Rust Crew. "But, yes, let's give it a shot." Walking towards the three members of the Rust Crew, he waved and called out, "Hey guys! So, heard you were looking for that Hollow Child yesterday, too. That, uh...well, didn't go so well for us. And turns out PubSec is...less interested in doing the right thing than in trying to save face. I probably shouldn't go into detail, but we're on our way to go try and do what we can to keep things from blowing up too badly in our faces. Not officially, of course. If you're willing, we could use a hand?" Zenkichi decided to go with honesty, hoping that they'd be willing to help, for whatever reasons they so chose. As long as nobody was stabbing anybody in the back, he'd consider it a win.