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Expedition to Isekai

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So it was decided: as one group they would go back the way they came and head to the clearing. From there, the stream. And from there, hopefully, a source of cleaner water. Masato didn't say anything else while the students prepared to leave, biting back the urge to snap at their tallest classmate. He'd never gotten along with Duncan Stewart; the boy was brash and a rule breaker. The comment he'd just made - what the fuck was that supposed to mean? Was it just a dig at Masato out of frustration, or was he implying he knew about...? No, someone like Stewart wouldn't keep that to himself. Masato took a deep breath, let the passive aggressive remark slide off his skin, and took up his post at the back of the group as they got a move on.

It was slow. Masato knew it would be, even though they didn't have that far to go in order to reach the bus and the clearing. People were tired and hurt. On the way they passed a pool of dark, mostly dried blood. No sign of a struggle, or a survivor. The student council president narrowed his eyes as they continued away from it, his gaze lingering there for a long time. It was the right choice. It was the right choice, was repeated in his head like a mantra. There was nothing else to do now but move on.

When they arrived at stop one, he was... relieved? Yeah, that was the best word. There weren't any bodies to be found, so for the optimistic there was still a chance the other kids were out there. But there was a mashed up smear of meat on the grass that vultures were picking at. Was it the remains of a monster or a friend?

Masato shoved his hands into his pockets. The tattered remains of his jacket were tied around his waist again, and he glanced between the scrap piles and the birds wondering if he could bean one hard enough to kill it for some extra food. Probably could, right? It would have to be just as edible as wolf-bear meat... Ah, wait, what if what they're eating is... would the be like, second hand cannibalism? The random thought brought a tinge of green to his face. As long as we don't eat the stomach just in case it'd be fine...

Ryuugasaki spoke up again, drawing Masato's attention. He blinked at her while a few of the other students moved to scavenge the area.

"...If possible I don't want to spend anymore time here than we have to," he said. "The monsters attacked us here twice, if we start a fire we could be giving them another signal that we're here again. They might come back."

He looked at his flock, and his hard expression softened just a little. "If you all think we can walk a little longer, then let's keep going as soon as we're through here."

As the group got to work, or else huddled together, Masato decided to try his hand at hunting... or whatever. He got closer to the vultures, scooping up one of Inaba's discarded by still intact spears. Throwing a spear couldn't be that much different from throwing a baseball. He aimed, drew his arm back, and chucked the makeshift weapon at the nearest bird. He felt the force of the throw as the wood left his hand, but when it struck its target it clattered to the ground instead of piercing through. Plain surprise swept over Masato's face as the birds took flight.

What the fuck? Now I can't even kill a bird? Still ignorant as to the strange protective aura that surrounded the creatures of the Otherside, he was left to stew.

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A Spectre Is Haunting The Guild

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Expedition to Isekai

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Last night had been rough, but the morning was rougher. After a fitful night's sleep, the adrenaline and paranoia of yesterday had melted away and left Masato to sit with the knowledge of what he'd done. That, and a pounding headache. He sat with his back pressed to a tree, his head tipped back against the bark and his eyes squeezed closed.

Leaving their camp in the middle of the attack was the right choice, of that he was certain. If they didn't move everyone away from the fight there was no telling what might have happened to them - slashed, eaten, trampled, shot full of holes... escaping into the forest was the correct move to protect the most amount of people. But what did that mean for the ones left behind? They weren't that far away, but none of the changed students had come to reunite with them. Did they stay in the area?

Or maybe they really did all die.

Masato let out a long, slow breath. There was the other thing too - Akito and Okumura. When day broke and the full knowledge of what he'd asked Akito to do actually registered in his brain, his stomach had turned several times over. If he'd had anything left in it he might have thrown up again. Was that the right choice too? No beasts had followed them or attacked them throughout the rest of the night. But could he chalk that up to ditching Okumura and not just coincidence? He had to if he didn't want the guilt to eat away at him. It was easier than he thought it would be... in regards to Okumura. But Akito was missing, he hadn't returned. What had become of him? He and Masato had never really been friends, but they'd known each other for a long time. They used to run in the same circles. Even if they had been strangers, if his choice meant that Akito had gotten into trouble and died too then...

He blinked his eyes open, glaring at the sky for a while before looking over his class as they roused from sleep. Everyone was hungry, thirsty. Exhausted physically and mentally. His eyes naturally found Sato as they usually did. There were still students with really bad injuries, and he had no idea if they could recover. That and... wait. Something was off. Was there was another missing?

Masato startled, standing quickly as he raked his eyes over the group again. Including himself, there were twenty. Accounting for Akito and Okumura, plus those they'd left behind (Kogen, Hoshino, Inaba, Todokawa, and Kanamori) there should be twenty one still with them.

...Higasa, he realized. Sato's friend. They were together a lot, so of course he'd notice if the boy was suddenly gone from his vision when he looked at Sato. When did he...? Was he with us before?

The student council president pressed a hand to his forehead. Just how was he supposed to keep everyone safe...?!

"Masato!"

Ah, someone needed him again. He joined the group once everyone was awake, taking in their haggard expressions up close. It had been less than 24 hours since they arrived here.

"Okay, so... plans," he began slowly, massaging one temple as he spoke. "We're back at square one. Worse than that even, since... uh, well. But for now, we're alive.

"Food, water, shelter." Forced to leave most if not all of their meager supplies behind, they had none of those. Though separated by trees and inadvertently echoed Kanamori at the same time, saying, "Even if it was small, we did find a stream yesterday. It might be the best option right now. And I don't think it's a good idea to stay in that clearing anymore. But... we should... see what happened. See if we can find any of the missing people."

He knew that a majority of the students would want to see for themselves what befell their friends and family. But Masato didn't want to see, he was too scared to find a pile of carrion that had once been his classmates. He glanced at Stewart, the only other changed person with them at the moment with his lips pursed. Maybe they could each take a group, one to water and the other the check on the state of the clearing? Though he would hate to separate everyone even further.

With his thoughts laid out Masato spread his hands, offering the floor to anyone else to voice their opinions. His palms were smudged in red and black and this heart thumped dully against his chest. He was certain he could lead them back to the stream, but if the will of the group decided on another option then he'd go along with it for now, provided it wasn't something completely stupid. And if they all wanted to move as one to check on status of the others, then he'd just bury his feelings about it like he always tried to do.

"...we should get moving as soon as we can."

World of Light

Vandelay Campus - Security

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Pit’s @Yankee, Benedict’s @Dark Cloud, Giovanna, Sandalphon
Word Count: 5995 (+6 exp)

With the Vandelay under siege, the combat-capable machines had come flooding out from the Security division to face the DespoRHado interlopers head-on, leaving entire swathes of the campus engulfed in warfare. While the cyborgs, Unmanned Gears, and assault androids of the attacking force made great headway at first thanks to the element of surprise, Vandelay’s robots rallied to push them back. The two sides fought bitterly, often locking themselves into stalemates throughout the company’s facilities, but through the chaos Mistral and her chosen elites had carved a path. Over the flames, smoke, and sparking wreckage loomed the formidable towers of the Security division, left critically understaffed as its squadrons rolled out in force. That was Mistral’s destination, so naturally Giovanna’s team would be heading there too.

Sandalphon, connected via Gio’s communication glyph, guided them through thanks to the intel fed back to her by her androids. “Come in, callsign Vertigo,” she’d hailed the Seekers at the outset. “This is callsign Halo. In order to reach the Head of Security, you’ll need to take a roundabout path. Enter the forward watchtower, descend to its depths, and catch the L.I.F.T. to access the main tower.”

"Got it!" Pit dutifully responded. He was accustomed to getting directives just like this, but it had been a while. He was energized by it despite Sandalphon's inflection-less voice, eager to get up close and personal with some of Midgar's big players and help them see the error of their ways.

That forward watchtower, stationed strategically at the forefront of the campus, was easy enough to find; the carnage left behind by DespoRHado’s advance led straight to it. Getting in would be a problem, however. The whole area in front of it was a warzone, with squads of DespoRHado soldiers and Vandelay robots duking it out with seemingly no regard for collateral damage. Benedict’s age made high-speed operation a difficult proposal, although he could overcome his slowness with smart use of his abilities. With two sides so focused on one another, however, the Seekers were able to sneak through and into the watchtower. Once Giovanna locked the door behind them, ensuring that the forces outside would stay outside, her team could focus on the tower’s dark, purple-hued interior.

Of course, their troubles were just beginning. Full of floating platforms and security nodes, this place had already been a mess by the time DespoRHado’s advance teams reached it, and now it looked like a disaster. DespoRHado forcing their way down the elevator in the tower’s central yellow node had disrupted the data streams and left the place in lockdown, blocking the way forward.

“There are three data hubs accessible from this main room,” Sandalphon reported. “You’ll need to reconnect and reboot the data nodes in each to lift the lockdown on the elevator and reach the basement. There are Vandelay robots in each, so stay sharp. My androids reported a blade-wielding model that specializes in counterattacks, so beware them in particular.”

Giovanna crossed her arms, charting a course across the floating saucers and bridges to reach one of the data hubs. “We can handle a few each, right? Wanna split up to get this done faster?” Without waiting for a response, she took off, a red-haired blur dashing and leaping past hapless TEC units in order to reach her objective.

"Sounds good! But—" When he looked over Giovanna was already getting a head start on their objective, taking Sandalphon's guidance with her and leaving Pit and Benedict on the ground floor.

Benedict shook his head, sighing out of exasperation as the agent dashed away "Ah yes, a rhetorical question." He looked to the cherub then back to the passage where Giovanna disappeared with a frown. "I may be more a burden to accompany anyhow, run along."

"Sure, but—"

The tactician drew his weapon, already making his way to one of the data hubs the agent had not already run off to.

The angel stared after the both of them for only a second before he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "...but I have NO IDEA HOW TO REBOOT A DATA NODE!"

His outburst drew the attention of a nearby TEC unit, who loosed his hat and wiped his metallic forehead with the back of his hand. “Say whaaat?” He shook his head in bemusement. “Dude. Why’d they send a repairman who, like, doesn’t even know how to fix data nodes? Total bummer, dude…”

Huh? Repairman? Pit blinked at the robot worker, complete with a painted metal uniform. Maybe a big tech company like this would send in people to fix their systems while they were still in the middle of an active raid.

"Um, I'm in training?" It was the best he could come up with. Pit jogged over to the TEC unit, clasping his hands together. "And I don't wanna fall behind! Could you help a guy out?"

“Uhh…” The TEC unit scratched his big chin, running a finger over the chip in his jawline. Then an idea occurred to him. “Well, I guess everyone’s gotta start somewhere! And once you figure it out, I can totally leave everything in your hands. Naptime, here I come!” He crouched down and began drawing lines on the floor with chalk, first creating a big circle. Pit leaned over him curiously to watch his work.

“See this thingie here, li’l man? That’s the main node. Waaay bigger than these ones here. First you gotta, like, resync the ones closest to it.” He drew couple smaller distended circles, then used arrows to illustrate their compaction. “Basically, just shoot the big ol’ buttons, but make sure you time it right. Then smack the main node juuust right, and bingo! Home free.” He raised a mechanical eyebrow at Pit. “You… catchin’ all this, dude?”

"Yeah, totally! Shoot the buttons next to the big main thing, then hit it the... big main thing." The boy nodded to himself like it was the simplest thing in the world. If the robot's explanation was right and he just had to do some manual labor, then he was sure he'd be okay.

"Who knew this tech stuff could sound so easy?" Not wanting to be the last one back into the main tower area, he started towards the final side room and waved over his shoulder to the TEC unit. "I think I got it from here! Thank you!"

Naturally, Giovanna reached her hub room first. With Rei at her back she moved like lightning, and as she went along many of the walkways in her path assembled themselves, magnetizing together out of triangular segments floating in the air with no regard for gravity. When she reached the circular platforms, ringed around the sides be curved rectangles layered to form a sort of peripheral shell, she also found that Vandelay’s reserves tended to teleport into battle around here. The first squad appeared in flashes of electric-blue code, a trio of SBRs led by a BES. She dashed in without hesitation, denting the first grunt’s chassis with a trio of side kicks while leaning on Rei for support, and when it doubled over a knee sent its head flying. While the other two grunts charged into the grinder, the elite put up a blue bubble shield, and when Giovanna cannoned into it with Trovão a moment later it stopped her flying dropkick in its tracks.

She fell to the floor and rolled backward in time to avoid an overhead slash, but the BES thrust his weapon skyward to extend the length of its blade. Gio narrowed her eyes and blocked the ensuing flurry of sweeping long-range slashes, then charged forward. Rather than waste time on the shield she used it as a springboard to repel her up and out of the arena, quickly going where the BES couldn’t follow. Three AIR-1N units flew down to stop her, only to unwittingly become her stepping-stones as she swung off the first two. The last one she held onto while swinging long enough to flip up and land on top of it, and while it flailed in confusion she seized the bomb from its hand. With a grin she leaped into the air, hurled the bomb back to take out her pursuer, then airdashed to bring her right to the ledge she’d been aiming for in the first place.

After dashing down the hallway, and startling a couple SCR-UB units in the process, she arrived at a smaller domed room with a handful of curved platforms attached to its walls. A few normal data nodes floated in the air, but the halves of two of them appeared to be opening and closing sporadically, their interior lights red instead of blue. On the highest platform lay a giant node, its front pointed toward a receiver in the direction of the main room. She spotted a couple technicians here, but none of the robots bothered her, sith some help from Rei and liberal use of her double jump, Giovanna began to climb. Once she got a good angle on the first weird node, she realized that its movements seemed to be out of sync with the general click, click-click-click rhythm of this place. Gio also realized that she had no idea what to do about it.

She approached the railing of her current platform and leaned over it. “Hey, how do I fix this?” she called down to a VA-SER unit.

“Eh? How would I know, I just work heah!” he replied in a light Boston accent, clearly not some sort of technician. “Whenevah I see those TEC guys, they always just end up hittin’ those things.”

With no better ideas, Giovanna tried that next, though without any projectiles of her own she needed to be a little creative. Trovão did the trick, though it took a couple tries to time it right. After repeating the process a few times, climbing higher after each one, she reached the main node and its conspicuous red ‘DO NOT HIT’ button. When she touched it, Rings of light began to move in toward the center, which she quickly learned were meant to indicate when she should whale on the button. This time she got it on the second try, and when she finished the sequence beams of brilliant blue letters and numbers began to flow freely from node to node. “This place must be big with preschoolers,” she muttered before jumping down to the bottom level.

The moment she touched down, a special WA-ES unit armored like a samurai flashed in, seated with his legs crossed. “Protect bosses,” he murmured, rising to his feet and deploying his laser blade with a flourish. “At all costs.”

“Hey, we got a lot in common,” Gio snarked, readying herself for a fight. “Let’s be friends.”

Without a word, the WA-ES adopted an iajutsu stance and stalked around, waiting to strike. Gio dashed forward, but the moment she went to kick it the robot burst forward with a dash-slash that knocked the woman down in a spray of blood. “Ugh.” Jumping to her feet, she turned in time to dodge a series of laser slashes launched by the WA-ES at long range, zig-zagging after the second blade beam. This time she ended her dash-in with a block, and though her foe slashed again, she took only a smidgeon of chip damage. “Hmph.” Rinse and repeat, but third time was the charm. On her third dash-in, she went from baiter to baiter, provoking her foe’s reflexive slash only to bull through it with the invincible startup of Ventania. Her whirlwind kicks stunned the robot and gave her a free combo, allowing her to pile on the damage with a barrage of kicks into Sol Nascente launcher, then finish with her wolf kick Sepultra.

The WA-ES crashed down, then rose surrounded by an orange aura, his spirit aflame. Drawing a second katana, he clashed them together in an odd rhythm, then began to swing. His slashes extended just like the BES unit’s, albeit faster, and they quickly locked Giovanna down in blockstun. She grimaced, not happy about the chip damage dealt to her arms, and charged in only for the WA-ES to parry all her attacks. It then repeated the blade storm from earlier, but this time Gio knew the rhythm well enough to dodge it. Rather than get parried again, she just threw it, using her legs and the twist of her body to slam him down like she did Roland the night before. An angry stop hit him OTG, and when he rolled to his feet he unleashed his final attack. A wave surged out from him that unceremoniously knocked Gio down, much to her chagrin, allowing the WA-ES to plant his swords and pose with one foot up while he delivered a mumbling, unintelligible haiku. Giovanna tensed up, waiting for the kicker, and heard a series of Japanese drum beats echo through the room. Doom, doom, doom, doo-doo doom, doom. Then the WA-ES attacked. Moving by instinct, Gio blocked on the same rhythm, her precise timing turning each into an Instant Block that slid her closer to her target. By the time the sequence finished, she was close enough to Tiger Knee her Tempestade divekick, instantly crushing the robot’s head beneath her heel. “Whew,” she breathed, wiping her forehead. “That was kinda fun, actually.” With the data stream repaired, she went on her way.

At the same time, Benedict contended with a similar gauntlet, but without Giovanna’s agility he would need to forge his own way. Even if the bridges constructed themselves in front of him, the little arenas they led him to would wear him down with repeated run-ins with gangs of Vandelay robots. Though this mostly SBRs and AIR-1Ns, the last platform in his path would ace him with a towering HG-0G, armed with multi-grenade launchers and armor that couldn’t be broken by ordinary means. Past that, provided he even made it that far, a similar set of malfunctioning data nodes waited to be resynchronized inside the data hub, but reconnecting them and rebooting the main node would confront the tactician with a WA-ES of his own if he didn’t manage to give the deadly machine the slip.

On another side of the tower, Pit was doing his part. After getting through the doorway from the main lobby he ran down the hall into the area on the other side, darting over and around what remained of the SBR and GNR guards. He hardly fought them at all, focusing on making up time and getting to the data node. His bow only made its appearance when one of the larger BA-B00 units appeared to block his way. It moved as if to summon a barrier, but the angel was faster. He manifested his weapon as he swung an arm up, spinning it in hand so its bladed edge could chew into the robot's metallic body. It severed the hoses running from the back of its head to its arms, shutting down whatever ability it had tried to use.

"I had plenty of practice smashing machines yesterday, don't even try it!" he told them. With a push the BA-B00 fell backwards and Pit rushed over it into the next room, the other robots in vain pursuit.

Once inside the data hub room itself, he zeroed in on the largest machine he could see. Just as the TEC unit had shown him, there were smaller versions of it nearby. Shoot the buttons, time it right... how am I supposed to know when's the right time? He squinted at the small nodes while he moved up closer to the main one, watching them flicker and flash. He didn't really get what he was supposed to be looking for, but he did find himself bobbing to the steady beat thrumming throughout the room. Strangely enough it seemed a lot of the lights and screens inside blinked to the same cadence.

...oh. Duh! Bow drawn, he let loose his arrows to strike the mini nodes until their red lights turned to blue, then turned to deliver a kick to the main one on the beat. It's like a rhythm game!

He knew he'd gotten it right when a bunch of lit up squiggles flowed out from it. Well, he was pretty sure that was a good thing anyway. Turning to run down the self-assembling walkway, he noticed another robot teleporting in. It wore a kabuto on its head and with extra matching armor, resembling a samurai. Pit's interest was piqued, and when it activated its laser katana the angel let out an ooooh!

"Are you the counterattacking robot?" he asked it, leaping from the higher platform in order to meet it on the bottom floor of the room. The WA-ES might have answered, had Pit not dove right into battle.

He brought his bow down in an overhead slash as he fell, and the samurai bot raised its own sword to block. It easily threw Pit off of it, adopting a lower posture and sheathing its blade, its hand hovering over the handle. In this stance it shrugged off the volley of arrows Pit fired at it, the light constructs plinking off its body. It's tough! Just as Pit was about to switch tactics and engage it in melee again, the WA-ES shifted and shot towards him with its sword drawn. And fast!

Pit blocked in the nick of time, but the speed and size of his opponent bowled him over. He tumbled along the ground, not quite recovering fast enough to avoid a second dash attack. It started its slashing combo immediately after, catching Pit with a few slices before he could get the timing right to block them. Pit hadn't connected the dots that all machines, including the robots made for battle seemed to operate on a specific rhythm. It was mostly instinct that allowed him to strike during the very few openings the WA-ES gave him until it finally clicked. After that it was just a matter of peppering it with his strongest arrows, letting the draw and release follow the tempo.

When the WA-ES changed mode and its second blade was drawn, Pit happily met the samurai robot's challenge and split his own bow apart. They struck, countered, and parried each other all to the background beat, but as the skirmish went on Pit began to find himself on the back foot. He was up against a machine that seemed like it was built to deflect attacks, and simply put it was better than him at it. But he didn't intend to lose. Before the flurry of swords wore him out too badly he made a snap decision.

"Gah, sorry, but I shouldn't waste time with you!" He broke away from the robot for only a second, just enough time to charge back towards it with the Upperdash Arm quick-swapped in. It blew past the WA-ES' guard and slammed into the machine, the impact sending it hurtling off its feet and into the far wall where it left a samurai shaped crater. Sparking like crazy but still functional it struggled to dislodge itself, though its compromising position made it hard to counter the charged arrows shots that Pit sent its way to finish it off.

Okay, all set! The angel turned on his heel and headed back towards the central room, eventually finding himself stopped by the robots he'd run by earlier. With a groan he spun the two blades in his hands and was right back into battle, clearing himself a path in order to regroup with the Benedict and Giovanna.

He arrived back in the tower's central node not long after Giovanna. When she caught sight of him the secret agent gave a nod of approval. "Nicely done."

"Heheh, no sweat!"

Unfortunately, it looked like the divide-and-conquer strategy lost its edge here, since while the trio had divided, not all of them conquered. The third and final hub had yet to fire up, but she couldn't say there was no sign of Benedict. She spotted the tactician roughly halfway to its entrance, his complete lack of agility meaning he got bogged down right away and got stalled out by the HG-0G. Gio put a palm to her head. "Well… crap."

Suddenly, the red lights turned blue, and a brilliant torrent of letters and numbers blasted out of the port above the entrance to the third hub. In quick succession the data stream linked up the rest of the floating nodes, then terminated at the central hub, and just like that the whole tower came back online. Surprised, Gio looked down at the elevator console. It was good to go. Surely Benedict hadn't done this, though. She glanced back in the direction of the third hub. "Who…?"

As if in reply, the doors slid open, and an unfamiliar man hurtled out with a black, cat-eared ball-shaped drone floating alongside him. He looked fairly unremarkable at first blush, with brown hair and a pretty plain face, but his yellow jacket looked pretty cool, and the robotic arm with which he wielded a roughly guitar-shaped bludgeon made of scrap looked even cooler. His red scarf trailed behind him as he dashed along the walkway in bursts of three, quickly reaching the arena where the HG-0G had Benedict knocked down. "Hey, green machine!" He leaped up into the air and launched his robot hand as a magnetic grappling hook, then zoomed toward the four-legged juggernaut. "Why don't you pick on someone a little more your own size?"

The HG-0G whirled around to try and hit him with its arm, but upon landing the daredevil vaulted directly over his foe, leaving the machine utterly baffled. "Uh, hello?" Grinning confidently, the dude tapped the HG-0G on its back leg as scrap flew in to whirl around his bludgeon. "I think what you're tryin' to say is, 'he's right behind me, isn't he?'"

When the robot turned, it instantly took a giant baseball swing full to the face from the enlarged club, strong enough to spin its head like a top. It staggered backward, more disoriented than damaged thanks to its armor, but a moment later the guy strummed his bludgeon like a guitar to unleash a beam of concussive musical power. The Beat Hit pushed the HG-0G just far enough to send it teetering over the brink and into the void. "Whoo!" The dude exulted, pumping his fists as his scrap guitar fell apart. "Finally! Chai one, armored spider bot…well, who's counting, heheh…"

Gio and Pit jogged up to where Benedict and the newcomer were. The agent’s eyebrow was raised. "Hey there. How's it going?"

"Oh, hey!" Chai turned around with an easy smile, happy to have some company. "I didn't expect to see anyone else here! What's up?"

Unable to suppress an incredulous smile of her own at this guy's laid-back attitude, Gio shrugged back. "Uh, not much. Just passing through, I guess."

"Your name is Chai?" Sandalphon's voice echoed from the sigil floating beside Gio's head, which lit up slightly as she talked.

"Yup! Chai's the name, and not getting killed by robots is the game," he declared, probably thinking that sounded cooler than it did. Gio found herself quickly getting a grasp on this goof's personality. He pointed at the cat drone beside him. "Oh, and this is 808! Say hi, 808."

The drone meowed. Something then pinged it, and a girl's voice issued from it. "Chai, you dumbass, you shouldn't just give your name to anyone who asks! They could be the enemy!"

Gio crossed her arms. "Wow, the cat's kind of a jerk."

"Hey! I'm not a cat. 808's the cat, I'm the one who built her. And I'm not a jerk! Chai, back me up here."

He consciously averted his gaze. "Not touchin' this one…"

Sandalphon cut in. "My androids reported an unknown human running around. A swing first, questions later type, they said. And that's the extent, since you swung first."

"Ohh, haha…" Chai laughed nervously, tugging at his color. "Were those…not bad guys? Sorry, uh, it's been a long day. Loooootta robot attacks…"

"Your androids?" 808 gave Gio a suspicious look. "Chai, they're part of the army attacking Vandelay! I knew you were the bad guys!"

"Aren't we kinda attacking Vandelay too?" Chai scratched his head.

"This situation is complicated. I intend to take over DespoRHado to put a stop to this madness, so our current goal is to remediate between them and the Vandelay bosses before they destroy one another." Sandalphon informed them. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Uh, nothin', really. Well, I was locked up for a little while, but no deal. After I busted outta there with my smooth moves, I figured I'd track down Korsica. Kinda need her password for…stuff."

"You mean, Head of Security, Korsica? Whaddya know, we're looking for her too." Gio turned to head back to the elevator, beckoning him to follow. "Wanna go together? We need all the help we can get."

Chai grinned and followed her, joining the group as they returned to the central node. "Heck yeah! I've been fighting all on my own for, like days."

"It hasn't been that long," 808's operator immediately contradicted him. "And I've been helping, c'mon."

"You should all get moving," Sandalphon advised everyone. "You have a lot of ground to cover and not much time."

Giovanna nodded. When she reached the elevator terminal she pressed it, and the floor of the central node began to descend.

Of course, it would be too simple if the elevator could descend in peace. After a few moments, a fresh squad of Vandelay robots zapped in. This included three SBRs, two larger, tougher ES units, and one other: a strange blue machine with a head like a traffic light and two tires for legs, arranged like a motorcycle. With a crazed laugh it planted it's lance in the floor of the elevator, creating a beacon that put every other robot in a bubble shield, then engaged run-away mode.

"Those shields shrug off physical and elemental attacks," Sandalphon advised. "Either burst them with energy or destroy the source. That SEN-C0 will keep making more as long as it's online."

"Got it." Gio got ready to fight. "Let's do this."

"Music to my ears!" Chai grinned.

"Right on!"

A little aching in the joints and winded from getting knocked down by the HG-0G, Benedict simply sighed. "Considering these are machines anything can be broken." looking between them the tactician evaluated that the shield itself wasn't impassable but the danger of being within the enemies reach was…

Without a second thought he went through with the idea he was forming, quickly tapping his cane thrice upon the industrial grade floor "But let us have a shield of our own," suddenly the Seekers and the newcomer Chai felt a strange sort of effect wash over them "That should make you withstand an attack, go for the lance now while you can get safely within distance!"

Benedict sounded a bit tired from using such an ability though he didn't look like he was ready to keel over yet as the apparition of a pale woman appeared by him summoned to cast a quick Media on the party to restore a small amount of health to them, specifically the strategist who needed the extra little bit of vitality to put a bit more pep in his step.

Refreshed and ready to rumble, Pit took up a battle stance of his own. He still had the Palutena Bow equipped and wasted no time in raising it up to manifest an arrow of light.

"I bet I could pop a few of those bubbles," he said while thinking to himself, these have to count as "energy" right? I mean, what else could they be? "Then you can leave wheels to me!"

He was banking on the homing nature of the arrows to chase down the SEN-C0, starting the fight off in the way he most usually did by firing upon their opponents. His plan went south when the SEN-C0 turned out to be really fast, speeding between the edges of the battlefield far quicker than the arrows could possibly hope to adjust.

"Aw, come on! Don't run away!" The angel gave chase, firing as he ran, but the blasts of light couldn't catch up. They crashed against the walls as they tried to swivel towards their target.

While his arrows did put cracks in the blue bubbles around the SBR and ES swordbots, it wasn’t a lot; it’d probably take four to pop just one of them. As per Sandalphon’s advice, Gio elected to ignore the shielded enemies and target the projection lance first thing. She took to the air, reinvigorated by the heal from Apsaras, and advanced using the shields to her advantage–their resistance to physical strikes meant she could bounce off them like a pinball to gain distance and speed. In no time flat she reached the lance and began to whale on it, her fiery divekick followed by a flurry of kicks. One ES tried to stop her, but thanks to the protection bestowed on her by Benedict she shrugged it off and finished the job. The lance deactivated with a staticky burst, severing the links that sustained the other robots’ barriers, then flew back into the SEN-C0’s hands. Of course, the minute it got its weapon back the SEN-C0 went full offense, rushing the nearest Seeker down to deliver a ruthlessly fast flurry of stabs.

Naturally this was Pit, as the boy had been stubbornly pursuing the machine as it darted around the elevator arena. His complaining about the robot running away was finally addressed, but the SEN-C0's sudden change from keep away to assault caught him by surprise. The first thrust was completely negated thanks to the Dragon Shield Benedict had cast, but the second and third found their mark in Pit's chest and shoulder before he could even react. He grit his teeth and quick summoned his own shield in the form of the Guardian Orbitars, withstanding the rest of the flurry.

So now it wants to fight, huh? Which to be fair, if he were to fight he would prefer to have a weapon when doing so too. When the SEN-C0 geared up for another rush and Pit's shield dissipated, he lashed out with a wide slash toward the robot's front tire. "Ha!"

The well-timed cut left a horizontal slice in the rigid, tough rubber of the SEN-C0’s tire, and it began to leak air. Whether the robot cared -or even noticed- was another matter though. Rotating on its axels, it wheeled around to perform a low sweep with its back tire, then brought its lance down in an overhead plunge. Pit leapt over the sweep and caught the spear with his bow, both of his pressing to it as he landed again and the two broke apart from each other.

It wasn't quite as fast on just one wheel so Pit was able to get out its way while denting the machine's chassis with the stronger dash shots. The final dash shot took him inside of the SEN-C0's range instead of out of it as Pit went for the back tire as well, trying to stop it from being able to move at all. He swung the bladed side of the bow forward, a moment too late as the robot bounced itself up into the air on the same tire. It came back down cackling with its spearhead pointed at the angel, but seeing as he wasn't taken by surprise this time Pit met the attack with a cheeky smile. Seconds later the SEN-C0 crashed against the energy shield provided by the Guardian Orbitars and was sent sprawling to the ground. Laid out with a flat tire, there was no way it could recover before Pit turned it to scrap.

Meanwhile, Gio and especially Chai had been working their way through the other enemies. True to form, the secret agent worked with no-nonsense efficiency; if these simple machines weren’t going to force her to layer her offense, they’d just get methodically pounded into pieces. She deflected an attacking SNR’s sword arm away from her as it slashed, grabbed it by the wrist to break its elbow over her knee from below, shattered its knee with a low side kick, and bashed it to pieces with a turning hook kick. One ES lunged at her with a huge thrust that she managed to block, and when it followed up with a wide cleave she flipped over it to deliver a Sol Poente split kick to the head. The ES managed to maintain its footing and launch a rising crescent slash that clipped Gio’s next attack and popped her up, but with no conversion into combo she just fell to the ground the next moment. When she rose she did so with Trovão, blasting into the ES and driving it before her as she took it to the wall. It bounced off the side of the rising elevator shaft, staggered, so Gio grabbed it and rammed its head against the metal until it had been scraped away into nothing.

At the same time, despite his earlier bravado, Chai managed to genuinely style on the rest. He moved with a strange sense of rhythm, beating his enemies to a catchy tune. He nailed the two SBR with a two-handed heavy attack that left behind a cloudy streak of dust, caught them with a quick follow-up, then launched himself upward with a backflip strike. After smashing the bots back down, he hurled his bludgeon down after them, then came down with a stomp on top of its shaft to unleash a concussive wave of sound. The ES joined the party with a heavy swipe, but Chai seemed to see it coming and brought his weapon up to defend himself at just the right moment, parrying the bigger robot. From there he went with light, heavy, then Shred, unleashing a lightning-quick flurry of off-beat hits. Scrap from the environment whirled around him as it went on, finally coming together around his bludgeon for the grand finale, an overhead slam that hit the SBRs too. Though this sent the ES flying in a spray of batteries that Chai picked up, he grappled onto it and zoomed up after it to continue with a midair beatdown, coming to an end only after he returned the ES to earth and nailed it with a super-cool soundbeam.

“Nicely done. That should be all of them,” Sandalphon told the team. “The elevator will be reaching the transport station momentarily. Take a quick breather, then get ready for more.”

Nodding the ex-Turk agreed "Quite, we should ready ourselves then," Benedict sheathed his blade, and while they waited for the elevator he used the moment to both think and have the white lady Asparas sooth the others with another Media "Hm, maybe we can use the element of surprise to get the advantage on the enemy. Yes, on our way down the elevator have your bow drawn at the ready. If there is another of those shield bearing automatons we should strike at it at first chance." the tactician said suddenly to the young angel after a moment of quiet pondering. Pit blinked at the old tactician and then snorted.

"No need to tell me!" he said, bouncing on his feet and shaking out his feathers before preparing to ready his bow. Better safe than sorry.

As for the others he was yet to think of how they could offer more than fighting front and center. He would have to be ready to give the newcomer a slight edge, Chai seemed quite capable of taking on a challenge so the kid could benefit from Raging Beast to up the damage he could dish.

World of Light

Word Count: 372 (+1 exp)
Level: 4 - Total EXP: 159/40
Location: Dystopiascape - Midgar

In the morning, Pit dragged his feet a little in getting up. He was awake and lounging in one of the random bunks he'd claimed late last night, going over all of the information from yesterday again in his mind. It still felt like he had so, so many questions and barely any answers - and not just about Midgar. The Consuls were such a confusing element of the world. There was the nature of that red spirit too, but when he'd checked on it last he'd found it faded away.

The loud, alarm-like ringing that filled the building pushed Pit into instant action. Nearly tripping in his haste he skidded into the kitchen where the sound had come from. "What's going on?!"

Upon noticing the call in progress Pit tilted his head curiously, but didn't say anything else until the conversation was completed. When it was he shook his head in disappointment.

"I can't believe they're fighting each other when there's so much more important stuff they could be doing, like helping people!" He said. Then, after a beat, "...okay, I can believe it but it's still dumb."

He was through the portal with the rest of the Seekers as soon as everyone was ready, back at the venue of last night's debate within seconds. The scene was chaotic and a little ominous, immediately proving the words of the caller true. Said stranger stepped out to greet the group soon after, going over the current situation with two pairs of attendants at her side. She had introduced herself as Sandalphon.

Pit was surprised that this was the person on the other end of the phone line. He was getting a strange read from her, so much so that it almost distracted him from listening to what she was saying. It was probably obvious to anyone with eyes that she wasn't human, but besides that it was hard to tell. Was the halo over her head even real? He came back to the topic at hand when his group started to declare what sections they'd be tackling.

"I'll head to Security too," he decided. Depending on what they found there, maybe it would be possible to put a faster stop to the conflict.

^{____________________________________________________}
Level: 8 - Total EXP: 185/80 ------ Level: 6 - Total EXP: 124/60
𝙱𝙿 ●●●●● ---------------------------- 𝙱𝙿 ●●●●●
Word Count: 532 (+1 exp)
Location: The Under

The round of stories ended with Ms. Fortune, who as promised talked about her experience in the Dead Zone. It was a harrowing tale, but more than that... it seemed that the Feral also remembered more of her life in this world than some others did. Primrose didn't bring it up again, but she did make a mental note of it. The question of why? stuck in her mind, but as she'd already decided to get Asgore to make good on his promise later she pushed the thoughts to one side.

The Seekers finished up their breakfast and took as many leftovers to go as possible - and then some. The newest addition to the team introduced himself as Artorias, though his title meant nothing to the group. The Travelers gave him the courtesy of their names as well, and once everyone was ready they all trudged into the Staff Only area and through the door that would lead to the way out.

Though they knew it to be the way up the tower, Primrose and Therion hadn't expected to take them right to the top. The view from where they were was portentous, similar and yet so different from all of the caverns they'd seen so far. Just how big is this place? Therion wondered, glancing suspiciously up at the dim light above the area. Did the Under, as its name implied, stretch beneath the entire world of light? Were they going to have to scour every inch of it?

Before that, the Pizza Tower's boss came to greet them. It didn't speak, only laughed, but it was hardly intimidating. Some poked fun at it, which Primrose thought was warranted. Having just learned what pizza was, she supposed to boss of a whole pizza themed tower would also be... pizza.

First to the fray was Artorias, swiftly followed by Sectonia and the Koopa Troop summoning minions of their own. With battle already beginning, the Travelers did their part in the ways most typical to them: outside of melee range.

Therion didn't add to the pile of summons, instead staying behind the front line and aiming his throwing daggers at the boss. He had no idea if this thing was an actual food golem or what, but he tested the effects of his blades on it, probing for a weak point. The daggers sank into the cheese of its face, the nose, the pepperoni and pineapple eyes both.

Since Sectonia had already buffed the Seekers' speed, Primrose decided to go on the offensive rather than offer a buff of her own. At the moment, Pizza Face came off as a pushover anyway - had she danced it might have been overkill.

"Luna Λ," she said, raising an arm and pointing it towards the giant floating pizza while casting the spell. The image of crescent moons traced the ground of the tower's roof, and though they were meant for Pizza Face they erupted in small explosions of magic when a hapless monster stumbled into them. With the stage so crowded, friendly fire with the Seekers' own summons was inevitable. The dancer clicked her tongue and switched tactics, changing to the more familiar and controllable spells. "Moonlight Waltz!" The spell surged at Pizza Face directly, washing him in dark magic.

World of Light

Word Count: 823 (+2 exp)
Level: 9 - Total EXP: 224/90
Location: Edinburgh MagicaPolis

By the time the Seekers in Edinburgh reconvened on the first floor of the restaurant, the Ace Cadet was ready to go. More than ready, if he could be so bold to say. His equipment was in top condition, sharpened to perfection. His stash of items was topped up too - and though he would have liked to make a few demondrugs or armorskins, or even better their powdered counterparts, he focused on what he had with the limited amount of time and ingredients available. They'd be enough, he was sure.

Big Band's pun certainly worked on the Cadet, who's optimistic expression brightened even further. And with everyone reporting on their preparations, he didn't hesitate to inform them of his own.

"Got plenty of potions and lifepowders to go around if anyone needs 'em. Plus some antidotes, and if I get some breathing room I can make some earplugs or a cleanser for status conditions too." Actually now that he thought about it, would the latter have helped against the Consul? ...oh well, no use thinking about what could have happened. When things calmed down a little, maybe he'd look into getting a lot more support items. Figuring out how to format bowgun ammo for sure in the smaller gun he had would help too, as long as his comrades wouldn't be weirded out by being shot by recovery bullets.

As prepared as he could be, the Cadet met his fist with an open palm and flexed his ship rigging. He grinned at the assembled party as they moved out to tackle what the night had in store for them. "Alright! We'll break some bones tonight, rescue Linkle, and by to-marrow plan our next move!"

For those unfamiliar with how quickly the skullgirl's power could grow, the sudden increase in undead must have come as a surprise. Just last night the Cadet had to really search to find large groups of skeletons in hopes of being led back to Linkle. Now, it was like they were everywhere. He hoped that meant his friend would be easier to find.

He jumped right into combat beside his fellow Seekers wielding the trusty Master Bang. Its versatility would help if he needed to pivot from attacking to defending or supporting, and its shield was the only melee blunt damage option he had. Since the skeletons had no flesh to slice or pierce, it only made sense to bash them. If only the Cadet could get his hands on a properly sized hammer, then he could wreck some real havoc. As it was, he was doing well with just the sword and shield.

Not surprisingly he gave the city's magic users a wide berth and tackled the largest undead in the area. He found it weird how strong the skeletons could be when they literally didn't have any muscles, but even so the hunter was stronger. While his shield did most of the work, his sword saw its share of the battle as well. The broad side of the shield cracked through the bony armor of beasts and giants, and the blade severed vulnerable limbs at the joints after enough damage was piled on. The curves and spikes of his equipment could catch any weapon headed his way before it hit, and the Ace Cadet's sheer power was enough to pulverize the weakest skeletons with one good bash of the Master Bang.

Between his ice-resistant armor and fire-resistant shield, plus Albedo's geo crystal induced protection, the elemental-clad skeletons posed little threat to him either. He'd demolished every undead that had gotten in his way so far. When the number of them increased, he mostly relied on the others to handle crowd control - but he had a few tricks of his own for that when the Seekers ended up more spread out. The anchor and chain swung to crash into groups of smaller skeletons, and Round Force to keep the larger ones away for long enough until he could land a decent shield smash.

As the group fought further and further into the horde, the really dangerous looking skeletons started to appear. While the jetpack skeleton looked like it could be trouble, the darkbeast demanded more of the monster hunter's attention.

"First ribs on the big one," he said, retracting the anchor back into its claw shape on his arm. He waited just long enough for everyone to regroup before he moved to engage. The best way to get a read on it was by fighting it of course, so he went in with a Sword Dance to see how it would defend itself. The sword flashed toward its legs. The Cadet could meet a counter-attack with a parry, catch up to it with his hunter art if it moved, and if it had control of that lightning that jumped up and down its body... well, he'd just have to figure that out if it came down to it.