TruthHurts22

World of Light

Rank 6
42 / 60 EXP

Before the newly-reunited crew set off for the next step of their "Stop Midgar From Imploding" plot, Raz borrowed some spirits off of Midna. He was so focused on clearing out the Other that he forgot to snag any himself, and with the way things were shaping up, his brand of endearing acrobatics and psy-abilities might end up falling short. There were these ones that exploded, and Raz was pretty sure that could be a fastpass to the fabled head explosion power!

For, you know, safety.

As he held the spirit in his hands, ready to fuse with it, his head jerked to the side. "Whuh!" It happened again, then again, and on the fourth time, the source of it revealed itself: the head of Ford Cruller. He popped out the side of Raz's head. "Hold it, now jus' hold it!" Ford shouted, needing to shake himself to get reoriented.

"Ford?!"

"Yeah I know, been a while since we seen each other. Maybe if yer head wasn't so empty I'd be gettin' out here faster!"

"Heeey!... that's not nice."

"Razputin, whatever idea you had that you were about t'do, it was a really, really bad one." The disembodied head of Ford gestured towards the spirit in Raz's hands. "That thing's givin' out some major mental juju. The kind y'wanna avoid, you see."

Raz looked down at the spirit, a little dejected. "Aww man, was really hoping it was something cool and, uh, not bad." No point in letting it got to waste tho. Raz stashed it. "Say, Agent Cruller, since you're here and all we should really touch base. Brief and debrief. There's been a lot going on here, I even met this world's version of the Psychonauts, and- hang on, where are you exactly?"

Ford didn't say anything for a moment, staring off into the distance, before springing back to life. "Ope, sorry there, Razputin, but this was more a don't-blow-yerself-up check. Gotta be gettin' back to, uhh, important psychic stuff, old man mumblin'. As much of a distant hope this is, don't be doin' anything stupid while I'm gone!" And just as quick as he showed up, Ford pulled himself back into Raz's head before Raz could even utter half a word.

"Huh. Kinda weird." Putting that into a folder for later, Raz fell in line with the rest as the crew headed out once more.

...and soon enough (relatively speaking) everyone managed their way into Sector Six. Seeing that they teleported into a restroom, Raz piped up, "oh, uh, gimme a sec," before ducking into one of the stalls. Back when he made the excuse of using the restroom to sneak out of Psych-OSF that morning, he actually really had to go, but things just got too out of hand after that to really... go.

With it taken care of Raz stepped out into the city proper, once again in awe at the sight of the world. "Geez, and all of this isn't Visions? Pretty impressive." He fell in with the others discussing how to get across the water, watching Sakura go ahead with her own, bold, simple plan. "If it's any help I do have my Oarsman patch," Raz offered, "so if we managed to get a boat I can sail everyone across. Iiii'd really rather not swim if I can help it."

Once a lull formed, Raz cleared his throat, hoping to get everyone's attention. "So... there's a company called Cyberlife here, right? That sounds an awful lot like Supernatural Life, the place that..." He glanced around and lowered his voice. "That those soldiers who took Peach use as a hideout. And so far this place doesn't seem to have a lot of coincidences. Do you think they'd be related somehow? If we can find where Supernatural Life is, maybe we can trace it back to wherever they took her and the other Others?" Raz balled up his fists close to his chest. "I know that if I can get close to her again I can help change her back! Some... way."

---

704 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 987 (+2) (B and K only)
Bowser: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (201/120)
Bowser Jr: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (89/120) 59
Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (74/120) 42
Rika: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (85/70)

featuring Ichiban: Level 3 (Level Up!)

Location: The Under - Home of Tears

warp locations

Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth
Accessible locations:
Peach’s castle
Limsa Lominscuttle Town
Lumbridge
Twilight Town
Kosm’s Beach

Nadia’s guess that the old koopa would be the one to explain things to Ichiban turned out to be entirely correct ”Ah yes. My apologies for not doing that sooner, but, well other things where weighing on my mind” he said, before clearing his throat and beginning

”So, if you will look up into the … ah, well, I suppose that won’t work down here” he faltered almost immediately, before thinking and re-adjusting ”If you were to look up into the sky, you would see a great ball of light. It is not the sun, for it has wings of every hue, and it is the source of your confusion: Galeem”

”If you think back, to a time before you were here, and at the end of when you were in this ‘Japan’ place, you might recall a bright light before everything changed. That was Galeem, ending your world. Ending all worlds. Stealing them away, ripping them apart, and then once it had done that, it stitched them all back together into the world we are in now. A world made from many worlds, perhaps all worlds, and home to people from them all too” he explained, painting the tapestry of what had been done, before turning around and talking about how things where now.

”Those people are all like you were before today. Blinded by Galeem to what it has done, ignorant, and thinking that this is all that has ever been. We call them the Galeeming, and you can spot them, clear as day, all around us, with Galeem’s red ‘lifelight’ filling their eyes. On top of making them blind, it also makes them unwilling to back down from a fight until they are beaten, so ah, try not to provoke any of them unless, because only strength will get them to back down, not words.”

”We, meanwhile, are the ‘seekers of light’ according to some, and ‘de-storied’ according to others, but, well, in my humble opinion we are simple the ones who are free” the mage concluded, a bit smug in his simple refutation of the other two groups terminology.

”and what we are gonna do with that freedom is crush the 9 left over guardians who are still stopping us from getting to Galeem, and then we are gonna ride up into the sky and smash that stupid glowball like the cheap baubles it is! It's a jumped up nobody! Doesn't even have a unique gimmick! Some guy called tattoo already did this whole making your own world out of bits of other ones while controlling the master hand jazz, and I punched him in his stupid face for that, just like I’m gonna punch Galeem!” Bowser declared confidently, while again misremembering Tabuu’s name.

”Wow, that’s…” Ichiban didn’t finish his sentence, not sure how to really sum everything going on in his brain. ”Whatever ‘world’ I’m from doesn’t have anything like this,” he continued, ”back what I remember I was just tryin’ to figure out who killed my boss. Now it’s all, world collidin’, Galeeming, guardians?”

Ichiban paused, staring at the made of the under they had on the table, and took a sip of his tea. ”.......that’s freakin’ awesome!” In a sudden change of mood Ichiban stood up, hands planted on the table, toppling his chair over. ”I mean, it’s super terrifying and I’m sure once I have a moment to process things will feel even weirder, but- man, this has been my dream for years! Becomin’ a hero, fightin’ bad guys, saving the world and shit!” (+1 Passion!)

There was a little moment of silence caused by the unexpected hard right turn in the man’s reaction, which was broken by Bowser giving a single ”Ha!” and knee slap before declaring that ”Now that’s the kinda spirit I like in a new recruit” despite the whole hero part of it, and then offering a raised handshake and a ”Welcome to the team!” to the newly filled in member.

Ichiban wasn’t one to leave a guy hanging. He took Bowser’s hand, despite how much it dwarfed his, and shook with all his might. ”Yeah!” Then he looked around the group and his excitement diminished a little. ”I mean… if it’s alright with all of you. Savin’ the world, fighting some huge powerful god thing, sounds like you need a lot of good muscle. I’d be happy to lend a hand, though I’m not sure I could stack up with what’d be needed…”

”Hey, any extra hands are a help” Bowser insisted as he released the man’s own (and silently approving of his hand shaking skills), before explaining that ”Plus, there’s this whole spirit power stuff that can help you stack up” before turning to his mage and telling him ”Hey Kamek, explain the whole fusion thing again”

”We really do need a pamphlet or something for this, but yes, I shall quickly cover it” Kamek agreed, before swiftly outlining the 4 uses of spirits, namely fusions for power or skills, cruising for items, and recruitment for strikers.

”All of these can be used to increase your power. Plus, with this little device” he showed him the snacktivator ”we can limit the fusions, which are normally full body, to just a certain body part. That can help mitigate the, ah, side effects somewhat, or at least the visual ones. It is not quite clear if the downsides are also reduced, but we can only hope and gather evidence I suppose”

”Usin’ these, uh, ‘spirits’ of other people to make yourself better? Huh… that’s kinda like XP.” Ichiban rubbed his chin. ”Maybe I’ll fit in around here better than I thought…”

”Dunno what you mean by that, but yeah, that’s the spirit!” Bowser declared giving the new member a thumbs up as his initiation/catch up session came to a close.

Ichiban raised his styrofoam cup of tea in a mock toast. ”So, where to first?”

World of Light

Ichiban

Lv. 2
████████████████████

Location: The Under - City of Tears, Terminal Cafe
(@DracoLunaris / @Archmage MC)

"Yo, can I ask, just what the hell's going on?"

Revealing himself on the fringe of Nadia's, Sectonia's, and the Troop's discussion, Ichiban leaned over the table, a cup of hot tea in hand, though he was quick to stash it inside his jacket, however that worked out for him. Whether he followed them to this point or merely happened to be in the same location due to the comedic laws of the universe, who knew.

"I'm pretty sure when I woke up this morning the world wasn't full of freaky skeletons or pig monsters." He gestured vaguely at the undead-filled cafe. "Now though, it's all here. Feel like I just got over a head cold and everything's like, clear in my head. And you guys seem to know a lot about what's goin' on."

Ichiban pulled up a chair from an empty table, slotting into place between Nadia and Bowser. "Know I'm just some guy you all met today and you probably don't need to explain anything to me, but Iiiii'm... kinda really freakin' out right now."

To help make his point, Ichiban jerked a finger up at Bowser. "Like, this guy's Bowser! The real one! An' the P kid we just beat up, I'm like, seventy percent sure he was from a game too. We're in a world full'a video game characters!!" Despite the nervous breakdown he was bordering on, Ichiban dug around his pocket for a mini muffin. He took a bite, opened his mouth to continue talking, stopped, then spat it out onto the floor. "Uggghh, right, poisoned." He looked at the muffin with disappointment and disdain before stowing it away again.

"I'd just, I'd really like to know what kinda thing I'm dealin' with here. 'cuz it obvious I ain't home in Japan."

---

296 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

Rank 6
38 / 60 EXP

Midgar
Underground Nexus

A sharp pain seared through Raz's skull. In hindsight, maybe trying to read the mind of warped psi-adjacent creatures was a bad idea. If only Raz had completed that correspondence course for gaining Foresight, he wouldn't need the hind part at all.

"P-Peach?" Raz called out, the sense of familiarity hitting right before he cut their connection. It really was her. "Wait, don't, it's definitely Peach!" Raz shouted further, raising his voice, though between being literally invisible and the din of battle his words fell on deaf ears.

A bit of backhanded luck struck, with the Peach Other (ohh, the Other Peach!) getting contained in a psychic box of some kind. That's the scientific term for it. The box blinked out of sight, revealing a new group parked by one of the entrance tunnels, having arrived during the fight most likely.

"Wha--" Raz started to say, then stopped. His active Brain Drive was extending the usual bounds of his Invisibility, meaning that even with the clearing smoke he couldn't be seen - or even sensed, since these were other psychics they were dealing with.

So Raz made a choice.

He made a mad dash for the truck, not wasting much time in standing around being gobsmacked, and reached it just as it started to peel out. Raz leapt onto the back of the truck, clinging along its bumper as it sped away. It wasn't the best of places to be, especially since his Brain Drive conveniently powered down at this time. Knowing he'd become a visible boy any moment Raz, as quickly as he could managed, clambered down under the truck's bumper, scrambling through its undercarriage, clinging to bars and axels and whatever else the underside of a truck had.

It'd be a bumpy ride, but he'd been through bumpier.

---

304 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

Rank 6
37 / 60 EXP

Midgar
Underground Nexus

Raz's tactics yielded pretty good results, effectively helping his teammates - Sakura the most, it seemed - dealing with the monster on the ground. Of course the thing would wise up to their attacks, as the Others so far have been pretty adept at counter-play, so while it did look down for a moment Raz didn't let his guard down. He did let himself down though, floating until he touched the concrete.

"Be careful everyone!" Raz said to the others - err, the other Seekers that had joined, not the capital-o Others - as he and the rest watched. "This thing is... Peach? Not the weirdest thing I've seen," he muttered. Battering it might not be a good idea moving forward, in case the Peach they knew was still in there.

Lucky for them that they had a psychic on hand to figure that out.

The Peach Other sprang up, flipping on its head(s) and unleashing a new attack. Fog fell over the battlefield, totally obscuring vision for everyone. Raz nearly avoided getting skewered by a ribbon, and in a panic, cloaked himself in Invisibility. "Oh drat, I didn't mean to do that one! Mentally fat fingered it..." Seems this Brain Drive was a little touchy. Raz didn't have the wherewithal to decloak at the moment, so he had to go unseen, doubly so, diving away whenever he sensed a tremor underneath.

"Peach!" Raz sent a Brain Message out, hopefully directed at their transformed friend. "It's me, Raz! You know, the short kid with the big head! Please tell me you're okay in there!" Rather than hoping to hear back exactly, Raz reached out with his personal mind-reading capabilities, also using it to try and pinpoint just where in the fog the Other was at. He made his way towards it, slowly fishing out his Psycho Portal from his bag as he neared the beast, still in its head to try and find Peach. If need be, he'd have to go in, in a more literal sense, to get her out.

---

345 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

Level 3 (XP: 21/30)

Edinburgh MagicaPolis - Aether Paradise

With everyone in agreement, Wonder Red pivoted to face the Center's exit. It was true that this could very well be a trap in its own right, the Consul luring these interlopers into the open with a public gathering and news of war on their HQ. Red wasn't blinded by vengeance. He knew it was entirely possible, even likely. It was a risk. But if they didn't take the bait now, then what happened yesterday - the library, Sierra, the wanton destruction of their own city and endangerment of their own people - would probably happen again.

Jumping into the fray to stall the enemy was part of the job description.

"On me," Red commanded, before he broke into a dead sprint out of the Center, retracing their steps back to Aether Paradise. The crowd, while thinning out as the speech was over, was still dense enough that the four Seekers had to bustle and barge their way past them all, at least to match Red's speed. They soon reached the lakeside railing again, with Red skidding to a halt and, in one swift motion, ripping the cloak off himself. As the piece of clothing fluttered in the air, taken by the wind out to the water, Wonder Red fixed his eyes up at the floating platform.

"Wondeeeeeeeerrrr JUMP!"

Wonder Red's CENTINEL suit thrummed with energy, the very ground beneath seeming to vibrate just the same, reaching out to the feet of his teammates as, before everyone's eyes, Red rocketed off the ground, springing high into the air, a feat which the other three, despite being suit-less, was granted in the moment.

Wonder Red and his fellow Seekers soared up, the ambient nanoparticles generated by the CENTINEL suit forming a rainbow colored trailed behind him, until they all touched down on the front-most edge of Paradise.

"Team!" Wonder Red shouted, snapping to an at-the-ready pose as he stared ahead at who or whatever stood in their way. "The mission: locate and confront Consul L! Be on your guard and leave nothing to chance!"

---

348 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

Rank 6
36 / 60 EXP

Midgar
Underground Nexus

Raz was trying to give the beast a wide berth, continuing to pepper its center mass with Psi-blasts, but the thing was pretty damn nimble for its size. The big house head (was that it's head? Or was it the two... heads?) swung towards him, dragging the rest of it behind, but the ribbons were even faster; they lashed ahead of the Other, swiping at Raz, each strand long enough to reach him. Luckily ducking under sharp whip-like things was part of his forte. The Aquato family had been on rotation for lion replacement ever since they lost the original lion while on the road in upper Ohio. It was kind've like a chore wheel, but less painful.

Jump, bounce, duck, slide, Raz slipped past every ribbon strike by the skin of his teeth. Part of him, beyond the show-boating hoops and hollers he did with each successful dodge, was sure it was all thanks to this fancy 'Brain Drive' capability his new outfit came with. He was more focused than he'd ever been before, his brain running so fast and clearly that the world almost moved in slow motion.

Thanks to this heightened sense of attention Raz was able to catch sight of the emerging group of allies down one of the dark tunnels, even while dealing with the Other. "Hey guys!!" Raz called, waving as he spun around and dealt three more blasts in rapid succession, two of which missed the mark just barely, disturbing some butterflies clinging to its limbs. Guess he wasn't all that perfect still. "Made it in time to help with the big one!"

With the added backup, Raz changed tactics - most everyone who joined were grounded, so he'd take to the air above the Other to keep its attention split. Having made a little more than a semi-circle around the monster Raz stomped down hard, skidding to a stop for a brief moment as his Levball, boosted by the Drive, sprung him high, high, high up, managing to almost match the two stone heads. At the zenith Raz began to levitate, in the more classic sense, borrowing Sakura's power again. He wasn't sure how much control he'd have now, but it didn't really matter.

"Hey, jerkface!" Raz shot at the Other, verbally. "Or, uhh, Jerk...faces? You big thing!" Witty as ever, he aimed Mental Connection at one of the heads, sending himself careening fast towards it. He wasn't going in for a dive-bomb, however, instead managing to slingshot himself right past and end up about where he began, just floating in the air now, the momentum placing him just above the Other. There, Raz used TK, the tell-tale hand floating down to the rubble that had trapped them moments ago. TK, too, was significantly improved thanks to the Drive, allowing Raz to grab hold of a real hefty chunk of concrete and lift it up.

In one swift motion Raz swung his arm overhead, willing his TK to follow suit, circling upwards into the air behind, then over himself. "You might have two heads, and that's better than one..." He said, performing a karate-esque chop-esque swipe downwards. The hunk of stone mirrored it, Raz effectively slamming it down on the Other's head(s). "...but that just means you have twice the mouths to eat concrete with!"

---

560 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

Rank 6
35 / 60 EXP

Midgar
Underground Nexus

"Aw man! Can't believe I'm stuck on this side and not there fighting the bad guys!" Raz rolled back and forth atop his glowy Levball, so practiced with it that he barely had to think to work it like an anxious pace. He paused briefly to add, "because, uhh, I want to help everyone, of course. Not so I can keep doing cool bad-guy-fighting things," before continuing to circle around. The sounds of their friend in combat muffled, all Raz could do was bound around in wait. If only he had Clairvoyance he could at least see what was going on.

From the sounds of it the going was tough, especially with such a large amount of Other while the team was split. It wasn't that Raz didn't trust the others of pulling their weight, but it felt wrong to just be standing there when half his team was in trouble!

Luckily they could teleport, only Luka only managed it after the fight had concluded. Or, so they thought.

"Whoa! Didn't miss all the fun I guess." Raz prepared for the fight, tugging his goggles over his face, and following Luka's lead - not that Raz had done this before himself - pulled on a chord tucked just below his coat's lapel. The peacoat's collar sprang up, curling over his head, completing the psycho-isolation field around him. Raz's own display flicked on, a criss-cross of diamond lights forming two crosshairs where his goggles were.

"Woooow..." Raz's thoughts strayed for a moment as the Brain Drive's effects hit him, affording him more focus and reaction speed than he was normally used to. He was quick to acclimate though, and just as quickly sprang into action. "I'll run the flank!" Springing back onto a Levball, Raz tore across the concrete, drifting around the huge Other's berth, peppering its side and rear with a flurry of Psi-blasts, each one hitting harder than the last, to try and divert its attention.

---

Level 3 (XP: 20/30)

Edinburgh MagicaPolis - Aether Paradise

Wonder Red's sudden outburst was, thankfully or otherwise, ignored, and any follow-up was put on hold by Band coming in to pull him back. Red didn't even open his mouth to argue, only nodded thoughtfully. True, he'd nearly sold out their position for no valid reason. He was just not used to running blind.

"Of course," Red agreed, no hint of anger or annoyance to his voice. "I'll handle myself better in the future."

This was put to the test almost immediately, though, once Mewtwo divulged more information. Only the group could hear the Pokemon's thoughts, which was good, considering how dense the crowd still was. Red's face was hard to read as Mewtwo explained the severity of the attack, not just because of his iconic mask, though the more he heard the more Red clenched his fists. It was strange that L took the fight to their home base with a consul other than N, but it wasn't anything he commented on in the moment. He looked back up to the floating Aether Paradise, to Mewtwo, Ace, and finally back to Band.

He straightened his back and raised his chin. "Detective Band. This is a dire situation; Alcamoth has been hit with an attack of an extreme severity. Casualties we are not sure of, even if some of Alcamoth managed to escape. And the civilians..." Wonder Red paused, raising his fist in front of him. "For all we know Alcamoth could be razed to the ground right now. L has to answer for this. As Mewtwo said, L is injured, her main method of attack is hobbled. She can't be expecting news to have reached us - she's holding a public ceremony, so she isn't worried for an attack, meaning she very well could be unprepared for it. I can get us up to the structure from here."

Wonder Red lead into the end of his little speech by turning his gaze to Aether Paradise once more. "This could be our only chance to engage Consul L, Detective Band. If we leave her now, we're giving her the opportunity to recuperate, regain her resources, tuck herself away behind her organization and all its members... whatever the case may be, I trust your judgement," he concluded, meeting Band's gaze, the intensity clear even through the mask.

---

[center]333 Words
+1 EXP

390 Words
+1 EXP

Disc Fall: Fictional Drive (A Multifandom Adventure of Cosmic Proportions!)

Always love crossover goodness so count my hat in the ring

World of Light

Rank 6
34 / 60 EXP

Midgar
Underground Nexus

The platoon's tear through the underground tunnels was proving challenging, but very fruitful. The Others, as bizarre they looked and tricky they were to handle, had been just a step away from being cakewalks for the crew, especially once they joined up with a second platoon to trek further in. He would've chatted more but honestly a lot of his focus was in avoiding the patches of water that were all over the place. And, shooting bad guys, obviously.

Their pass through a strange, red-bathed section of the tunnel, filled with disparate thoughts loosened from the minds of countless others, definitely skeeved Raz out a fair bit. Being reduced to just a mote of intellect or memory, well, it was sorta a psychic's worst nightmare. Luckily they didn't hang around in there for much longer.

Raz noticed the relative lack of Others since the big fight a while ago, assuming they just never stuck around in these back parts for whatever reason. Luka pointed out the tire tracks, and Raz went over to check them out too, squatting down to poke at them, as if that would cause them to reveal their secrets. "Are you sure these aren't like, Other prints? They're all made out've random junk. Some gotta have tires, right?"

It was then that something happened. To put it in more words, a literal stampede of Others emerged from a dark offshoot towards them. Raz sprang into an action-y pose. "Wah! Sorry, it's actually nice junk you guys are made out of!"

Panic compliments aside the fight never actually happened, with Dexio collapsing the entrance before the Vase Paws could make it through. This, of course, had the side effect of collapsing the entire room, with Raz only just managing to roll out from a chunk of concrete that would've turned him into a psychic pancake, and not one of the tasty kind.

"I'm alright," Raz answered through Brain Talk. Luka took control, as leader and all, so Raz hopped up onto a Levball, helping to at least somewhat light the collapsed part of the tunnels they were stuck in now. "Just my luck that we didn't get stuck on the side with the big hole, huh?"

---

Level 3 (XP: 19/30)

Edinburgh MagicaPolis - Aether Paradise

With the night having passed uneventfully for himself and their hideout, Wonder Red was just a smidge eager to get back to action the next morning. 'Action' meant danger and imperilment, most of the time, though Red was more hoping to be of further use to his comrades. Pick up the slack he felt he was giving.

The group gathered to discuss the daily news; the story about N's fight with a woman in green, apparently known by Albedo and Frisk, was noteworthy, but even more pressing for them was the headliner, the "War on Alcamoth". Definitely something to worry about, though with the news only being announced today, surely the campaign has yet to start.

...

Later, when the crew arrived at the hearing Consul L was conducting (Wonder Red still beneath his trusty dull cloak), it was clear that no, actually, whatever this so-called war actually was was actually already over, courtesy of L herself. Wonder Red was taking the statement with a grain of salt, as it was just as likely to be a lie on L's part, though she did appear physically injured, at least from how far away Red could see her. He turned to the others first as L was on her way out, masking the conversation with the din of the crowd.

"What do you all think? Could she be telling the truth? Is there a way to investigate further?"

Before any proper planning could be accomplished, a new figure suddenly appeared beside them, a strange purple-ish beast that Wonder Red recalled was a kind of Pokemon, though he interacted very little with Mewtwo during his short time in Alcamoth. He too was beaten up, and gave Ace a strained look before he collapsed from his injuries. Between that, L's speech, and Ace's sudden shock of whatever Mewtwo's words were, it was clear that something certainly had happened at Alcamoth.

"...it'll be alright," Wonder Red sternly said. "Commander Nelson would have evacuated as many as he could in the Virgin Victory, if anything happened there." The way he said it made it seem more like he was trying to assure himself than the others. For a moment he looked down at the unconscious Mewtwo, then up to Aether Paradise, contemplating something...

And then he dashed away from the others, through the crowd, towards the lake. It wasn't the smartest play, barely even a thought-out one, but Wonder Red couldn't leave without confirmation. He simply couldn't stay blind.

"CONSUL L!"

With all the lung power afforded to the Wonder One-Double-Oh, Wonder Red's voice boomed across the lake, echoing even over the noise of the crowd. Perched on top of the railing that surrounded the lake, Wonder Red leveled a finger up to the platform, vaguely in L's direction, his cloak still wrapped around himself. "What did you do to Alcamoth to ensure its surrender?!"

There was a pause, a moment where Wonder Red's brain caught up with him, as if he left it behind when he first dashed away and it only just returned to him. He followed it up with, "as a concerned citizen of yours I'm... worried, of Alcamoth's retaliation! I need to know how much you've done... to, to keep us safe!"

Ichiban

Lv. 2
████████████████████

Location: The Under - City of Tears

The meeting with IGV and subsequent plans to take on Those That Slither in the Dark were things that Ichiban just, did not have the mental capacity to deal with in the moment. It was a lot, apparently stuff these people have been dealing with for a while, but Ichiban was just some guy bumming around the city doing oddjobs for cash. Not only was he not quite clicking with the politics and deception, he also felt like he simply was out of his depth. He decided to remain quiet for the meeting, and when everyone left the spooky haunted mansion he took his leave, thanking everyone for the opportunity and for having met them.

That was about it for Ichiban's interactions with the Seekers, at least for as long as it took them all to hunt down the Slitherers and strike them off the list. Only when everyone met back up in front of P's tower, ready to continue Gallo's plot, did his mophaired head crop up again.

"Hey guys!" Ichiban strolled up to the group as if they were old friends which, in a way, they were. "See you all are about to go up the tower, huh?" Ichiban craned his neck to look up at the towers, letting out a low whistle. "Geez, that's really high. Hope there's an elevator to it."

An awkwardness emanated from him after that greeting, one which didn't go away as everyone continued chatting and prepping. Eventually, just before things got on a real roll, Ichiban stopped Nadia and Omori away from the rest.

"Hey, look," he began, rubbing his neck, "I know this whole, dealing with the Consul stuff, it's pretty important to ya guys for some reason. But Consul P... he's just a kid. Kids can be mean, sure, get it in their heads they can act however they want, but that's the worst of it. P is that kinda kid given a prime minister's budget, kinda." He looked back up to P's tower, eyes wandering the top floors in search of the elusive Consul.

"And y'know, I don't like judgin' folks too much, but that Gallo guy, he gave me a real weird vibe." What Ichiban wasn't saying was how that weird vibe extended to most of the others too. Nadia and Omori excluded, the other Seekers seemed a little less scrupulous than Ichiban figured heroes should be. Two of them were even cosplaying as some seriously bad dudes for cryin' out loud! Shaking his head, Ichiban kept on rambling.

"Look, you guys gotta do what you gotta do. I just wanted to try an' say... P just needs to get put in his place. Y'can't hurt him too badly, or let Gallo do whatever he wants to. Guy's got some serious hate on this kid, it's kinda freaky." He looked back to the others nearer to the gate. "Guess I can't really stop you either way."

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