Zoey Boey

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Level 5: 43/50
Location: Mafia Town - > Avenger
Word Count: 2167
Points Gained: 3
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 46/50

---

Juri cackled, watching Fortune disappear into the air. She saw an opportunity and she took it, her finger always on the trigger. Only now, after the fact, did she think she could spin that into a lesson for Fortune, for their later conversation. ”...Stinky. She’s the stray cat who just spent the last week up to her elbows in fish guts.” She said flippantly, to herself, leaning down to pick up her weird Fulton pack thing.

Juri wasn’t the sentimental type, so she didn’t bother looking over her shoulder at Mafia Town. And she tried to ignore that Fortune was more friendly with whats-her-face at Mafia Town during the thirty seconds they knew each other, compared to the entire week Juri was working with them. Even that robot, Blazermate, didn’t seem to like her.

What a waste of time. The world was full to bursting with idiots and clowns. Juri didn’t need, or want, any of them. She yanked the cord and watched the world be pulled away underneath her. For a little bit, up in the clouds, her life hanging by a literal thread, Juri had nothing to do but think. She hated this stupid balloon.

—

Juri hadn’t waited for Fortune directly, instead she had gone to her room and changed back into her cyberpunk bodysuit outfit she got when she merged with Sombra. So she ended up having to stalk the halls, looking for her. When she did, she skitted up behind her and swept around her shoulder, getting into her face, before pulling away.
”Enjoy the ride up? Consider it a point well made, Fortune. It’s easy to stab someone in the back.” She said, turning from her and looking at her nails. Juri thought about the throne room incident and scoffed, some anger stinging her insides once more before she shoved it down.

”I have to admit, I didn’t expect it, considering the only reason we have this little back-and-forth is because you think you’re better than me. So to try and get me killed while I’m trying to earn money for your goodie two-shoes world saving cause?” She shrugs and smirks. ”It’s impressive. But it does limit our options.” Her voice was cool and collected. In one hand, she held two bottles of beer from the bar.

”See, Fortune, I don’t think you meant to try and kill me. I just think you’re a soft little pussy cat who lives in la la land, with a desperate lack of foresight. So I’ll fill you in on something: I kill people for money.” She says, casually. ”You only ever saw me on vacation, shakin’ down chumps for their chump change, so I’ll let ya off easy for not knowin’ that.” Juri winked.

”I only bring it up because I can be very patient. I want you to imagine a future where I wait to do what you did. While you’re fightin’ zombies or robots or aliens or wizards or whatever the fuck, I want you to imagine trying to do it with me in the back of your head. Waiting to swoop in give you a little love tap. Ya really think you could stop me so easily? You couldn’t stop me from yankin’ yer little balloon cord. I’m not sayin’ this to brag, or to say I’m better than you. I’m just bein’ honest. I’m fast, Fortune, and patient. Even if you went for my throat right now, I could get away, hijack a pod and be outta this ship.” She wiggled her fingers, and digital particles wafted off of them.

”And then you’d have to think about me. Forever. Unless you holed up somewhere and abandoned this little crusade, which you could do if you wanted.” Juri laid out the facts, thinking them fairly indisputable.

”So those are two options, where we are now. Either you continue being a Seeker until I eventually find the right moment to strike and kill you, or you buzz off to work at a sushi restaurant somewhere.” She shrugged and made a face, like she found both choices undesirable.
Then she locked eyes with Fortune, her artificial eye glinting from underneath her asymmetrical bangs. ”The third option is the one where you grow a brain and realize that like it or not, we’re on the same team now. I do so enjoy our little back and forth, kitty. But there’s a difference fucking with someone and fucking them over. Stick to the first and you’ve got nothing to fear from me except maybe waking up to find a spider in your bed.” Juri grinned and leaned forward, the double entendre intentional. She extended her hand and flexed her fingers so that one bottle was bottom out toward Fortune, offering it to her.

So far, despite her well-deserved reputation for mouthing off, Nadia has ended up uncharacteristically tongue-tied. From the moment Juri showed her face and started dressing her down, the feral’s mind had been racing at a mile a minute, fueled by a mix of fresh emotion and fermented resentment bottled up over the course of their many encounters. But she was getting nowhere, just spinning the hamster wheels in her mind as she attempted to whip up a half-dozen half-formed retorts and annoying puns that never got past the conceptualization phase. Nadia sputtered and scoffed, trying to deflect and downplay while failing to find the perfect comeback.

Part of it was that she still felt conflicted. Her rivalry with Juri combined personal distaste with a sense of duty. At the end of the day Juri was a bully, and it was Nadia’s job to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't have fun doing it, which was her modus operandi in general. This nutjob certainly deserved it. But she also didn't want to stoop to Juri’s level and take sadistic enjoyment in putting others down. It was a tough balance to strike, and everything coming from Juri’s mouth made her mad enough that it was hard to focus. As the martial artist wound down, though, Nadia finally got something to work with. She lifted her eyebrow at the proffered beer, then crossed her arms.

“You can't kill me,” she said flatly. “Look. I know you act like this tough-ass punk chick. But you get your kicks in the little leagues, and now you're in the majors. That shtick isn’t gonna fly.” Her ears lay flattened against her head, and her indelible smile was gone “You think I'm soft? That you know anything about pain?” Wearing an incredulous look, Nadia gave a slow shake of her head. “I've had my neck slashed. My lungs punctured. Last week, I got torn in half.” Nadia ran a finger along the huge scar on her bare midsection. Then she inserted her fingers into the scar tissue of her neck. “I was cut into pieces. By an actual assassin, by the way. I leave every battlefield coated in my blood because I pull myself apart to fight. And nowadays, I barely feel any of it. I. Can't. Die.”

Nadia gave Juri a wry smile. “So, y’know, you don't really scare me. You can drop that act–I bet it gets tiresome, anyway. But you're right about one thing.” Her grandstanding done, the feral sighed. “I went too far. I thought I'd give you a taste of your own medicine, but we’re not the same. We’ve both been fooling around, I guess. I may be stupid, but I’ve learned you’re not just some asshole. You’re an actual psycho. Now that I know that, this isn’t fun anymore.” She shrugged. “So forget it. I’m done playing with you. I’d say sorry if that meant anything to you. If you’re actually gonna stick around here, you’ve got villains and monsters you oughta be kicking instead of beggars and grandmas. So if you can’t help screwing over innocents anyway, I guess I’ll take responsibility. For dragging you into this mess.”

The feral stepped back, an uncommonly dejected look on her face. She couldn’t fathom what happened to Juri to make her such miserable person–then again, maybe she was just like this. Either way, Nadia wanted nothing more to do with her. Whether the two stayed away form one another or came to blows for real, though, was anyone’s guess. After a moment, Nadia reached into one of her pockets and pulled out the Free Lemonade. She extended the magically-filled pitcher as if to clink Juri’s beer glass in a toast. Her grin had resurfaced, her frustrated turmoil buried. “So here’s to new beginnings, hm?”

Juri scoffed, looking a little confused. She was growing frustrated with Fortune’s dour attitude, but when Fortune smiled and offered her lemonade, Juri relaxed. ”Sheesh.” She clinked their glasses together. Guess she’d keep the second beer for herself. ”You saw me as just some asshole and tried to get me killed by the mafia, and I’m the psycho who showed her true colors?” Juri teased. She popped a bottle open with her finger and took a sip.

”And if you wanna talk about how you know more about pain and loss than me or whatever, you probably shouldn’t follow it up by demonstrating how you’ve perfectly recovered from every injury you’ve ever had and can’t feel pain.” Juri giggled. Oh, maybe Fortune had her own little tragic backstory, but who didn’t? She’s acting like being able to come back from being chopped in half was a terrible curse, like she’s not looking at someone with a missing eyeball.

Though, maybe, considering how unobservant Fortune is, she just hadn’t noticed. Juri lifted her bangs and showed Fortune her green eyeball. ”This one’s an advanced prosthetic, in case ya didn’t know. Let’s just say I didn’t lose the original on purpose. So you know, boohoo for you that you can just pop yours back in.” Juri let her hair fall back into place.

Then she let out a breath, feeling like she had to make herself clear. ”One more thing, since you missed it: I wasn’t saying how I could easily kill you with my own bare hands and feet. I was just saying that I could come up behind you and push you five feet to the right and fuck you over while you’re distracted. Like you did to me. I mean, use your imagination, chick. If you’ve never had a situation where you’re one misstep away from death, then this Seeker shit isn’t the ‘major leagues’.” Juri used air quotes.

”I wasn’t trying to scare ya. I was just sayin’ if you wanna escalate things, you’re gonna have to worry about me full time. I assumed you’d know the difference between on and off-duty. You didn’t, so, here I am makin’ myself clear.” Juri leaned back and let herself flop against the wall. If Juri was constantly putting on an ‘act’, it looks like she had slipped out of it without noticing at some point between Fortune speaking, and Juri’s own rebuttal.

Drinking her lemonade while listening, Nadia maintained an expression of bemusement (achieved mostly through her eyebrows). For a little bit now, Juri had been talking like more of an actual person, and less of an insane caricature. To an extent she’d thought that the martial artist’s absurd attitude had to be a charade, especially given her own persona, but all of a sudden her theory seemed a lot more plausible. Of course, that didn’t mean Juri was being reasonable. For one, she was missing the point when Nadia brought up pain, but the feral really didn’t feel like explaining anything. Though, she couldn’t suppress her instinct to banter completely.

She put her pitcher away, then brought up her hands in mock resignation. “Okay, okay, I get it. I thought you could Han-dle things if I spiced up the action a little, but I was wrong, so consider me rebuked. I’ll find someone else to goof around with.” Nadia turned to go, no mirth on her face. Ever since Carnival Town, the two of them had butted heads time and time again, but through all the fights and arguments they’d never grown to respect one another. This not-so-friendly rivalry had run its course. “After all, with friends like mine, why would I need enemies?”

”Aw, don’t be such a sourpuss, goin’ and makin’ me feel lonely.” Juri smiled, still low-key. Relatively speaking, anyway.

”If I see you goofing around with someone else using your little claws, I might get jealous. Don’t be a stranger, kitty!” Juri called out to Fortune, and then pushed herself off the wall to head in a separate direction. She took another sip of her beer. Maybe Fortune would get it in time, maybe she wouldn’t. And maybe Juri would change her mind later. That was the best part about being Juri; she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Hypocrisy was for suckers. Now she had to find something to kill the time on this ship.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Blazermate

Level 5: 40/50
Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 2 level up) - (57/130)
Location: Mafia Town
Word Count: 1599
Points Gained: 3
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 43/50

---

She had earned it, hadn’t she? Juri had taken a few steps forward after the Boss had reached into his pocket, hand outstretched. Even after refuting her demand for more respect, Juri was going to suck it up and walk away. It would have been a real big moment for her. Instead, he scattered her money all over the floor, and then just looked at her. Like she was a starving peasant, scrounging for scraps. All of them like vultures. The smile on her face was a corpse’s smile, uncanny and false.

The nerve to treat her like gutter trash. To treat her like she would ever kneel to anyone. Juri didn’t feel like she was asking for much. Just a little respect. Her fists clenched, for her real eye shone with violence. Juri wanted to reach out and rip his throat from his neck. She was right there. He wouldn’t see it coming. Smug bastard. Her prosthetic eye, cool and collected, led the other to Blazermate, over her shoulder. That helpful little robot. She’d do whatever Juri wanted, right? She showed up in the fight and just started doting on everyone. You don’t have to kill anyone to walk out of here with your dignity, Juri.

”Blazermate…pick up those pons.” Juri ordered, like she did it all the time. Even though this was the first time speaking to Blazermate at all. She only knew her name through other people saying it on the Avenger.

Juri didn’t really have to ask though, Blazermate was used to this whole ‘collecting things’ thing and made a bit of a game out of it, zooming around grabbing poms and making a ‘wakka wakka’ sound while grabbing them, well, saying that in her voice. She was fast, so it didn’t take her all that long.

Juri watched all this go down, and let out a sharp bark of a laugh, clapping her hands together. Her mood brightened considerably, and she took the opportunity to get her real revenge on the mafia boss.

”Too cheap for a little burlap sack, huh?” Juri asked. ”What a dump. Remember on my first day when I said the pizza was okay? I lied. I never tried any of your tacky, overpriced, greasy pizza. Not that I ever would. It probably tastes as cheap as you. See ya, losers.”

Blazermate gave a polite wave herself saying. ”I like your boys, they’re pretty nice. Keep good care of them boss man!” Blazermate said, as she followed suit but much more friendly than Juri.


The boss scoffed at the martial artist as she turned to depart. "You must not have had real Mafia pizza then. Feel free to go get some...on your way out!" Since Juri was already going, though, his statement lacked any real punch. After giving a quizzical look at Blazermate, who he really did know what to make of, the mafioso called over his underlings in order to get a situation report on the Battle Royal Rumble and issue fresh orders, with no further mind paid to the irate quitter.

Indeed, Juri just opened and closed her hand a few times as she went out the door. Out in the open she wrapped her arms behind her head, acting cool and casual like she wasn’t just nearly driven to murderous rage. ”What a phoney.” She said derisively to Blazermate.

”Guy doesn’t know the first thing about runnin’ a mafia. He was just coastin’ on my competency. Only a matter a’ time before someone actually dangerous comes along and takes his place. You know, throwin’ money on the ground like that starts wars back where I’m from.” She said. Then she opened her palm expectantly for her pons.

”You can keep some of ‘em if you want. You did help out back there. Like, I dunno. 10% or something.” She said with a sniff. Really, Blazermate saved her a whole lot of trouble, blowing her gasket over some insults.

Blazermate shrugged, giving a counter point and for once putting on a more serious tone as she gave up the pons. ”Why would you want them to be a real mafia? Being all serious, not fun, being rude, violent in a bad way… and serious. Why would you want that? This is way easier to deal with and you don’t have to be on edge around everyone.” Blazermate then went to a more casual tone of voice. ”I’m sure you would rather deal with goofs than people who like ripping fingernails off. Or brand you.” Blazermate said with a sagely nod. The Yakuza were still a thing back where she was from, although they only did basic thug things. The Rubberrobos were the ones who did the supervillain ‘take over the world’ stuff, and they were goofs. Although unlike these Mafia goons, they actually had a way to easily deal with medabots.

”Tch.” Juri scoffed defensively. ”That’s just how the real world works. The only reason that guy didn’t get killed by someone more ruthless was because he had my help. But he treated me like trash because he doesn’t live in a ‘serious’ world. It’s only a matter of time until someone else comes along and kills him for real.” Juri said.

”Someone who had spent a little time in darkness would have respected me.” Juri looked at her fingernails, making her way to the edge, and then dropping down to the nearest platform. ”Speakin’ of which. I’m gonna give Fortune a piece of my mind.”

”Pretty sure if someone is too ruthless, they end up without anyone helping them and then a hero comes and takes them out. Power of friendship is a real thing you know.” Blazermate said, shrugging since she knew about half of what she thought juri was talking about..

”Why what happened? Did her puns get on your nerves?” Blazermate asked, not sure what was going on there.

”And yet here I am, walkin’ away from that idiot because he tried to treat me like dirt. This ain’t a hypothetical, robot.” Juri said.

As for Fortune... ”Hah. Yeah, right. Nah. She’s just another moron living in la la land. She was messing with me, swiping and sniping at me while I was trying to help the Boss. She thinks she’s so clever, but if she thought for even half a second she would realize pissing me off is a bad idea. Do you think it’s hard to stab your ally in the back? Because it really isn’t. If I wanted too, I could bide my time and do the same thing to her, only I’d end her permanently.” Juri kicked the ground on the last word.

”What does she think I’m gonna do with the money? We need the freakin’ money, robot. As much as we can get our grubby little paws on.”

”Not really? I mean I guess we do for cool items or something, but Susie is handling all that. Ask Sectonia and Ganondorf, or Jr., those guys seem to have a lot of really strong magic items on them they use a lot. I’ve even got a couple myself. This world is kinda more ike a video game trying to merge to be a real world instead of like, the actual real world. So thinking of it like that kinda helps a lot. Pretty sure you can find some item that just gives infinite money if you put your mind to it. I know a few areas where the money is literally just flying in the air waiting to be grabbed.” Blazermate said, not really sure how to handle this. Were these two fighting over MONEY of all things? Money that often just floated in the air in a lot of places? She’d need to hear Nadias side of the story, who knew she would stumble into this hot mess.

”God, you’re clueless. What do you mean, ‘not really’? Anything you have right now, you can have more of with money. If you’ve ever actually played a video game you’d know how many valuable items you can get with it. That’s why they put the coins in the game, bolts for brains.” Juri said. ”Now shut up about backsassing everything I say. I don’t wanna hear it.”

’Kay. We should head back to the base thing then. Oh, and I’ve gotta go pick up the action heroes autograph. He looks like someone I might know! Maybe? IDK.” Blazermate said, happy to go somewhere else. Juri was going to be a weird one to talk to.

”What? What are you talking about? Base thing? Action hero? Gimme a proper noun to work with here.” Juri said.

”Uh…” blazermate said, thinking. ”Rambo and the Avenger?” Blazermate said, shifting a bit sheepishly.

Juri knew what the Avenger was, but… ”Rambo? You saw Rambo walking around? You’ve seen the movie Rambo?”

”Yeah, that black ops guy that was around here somewhere. He looked like Rambo!” Blazermate said. ”He’d be super useful to have on the team too, if he’ll come.”

Juri stopped, looking around, and then lifted her hands indifferently before letting them slap limply against her thighs. ”Well, good luck finding him. I’m sick of this stupid place, so, I’m going to where Fortune is and then I’m splitting.” Juri continued downwards.

Blazermate shrugged too, and went off to look for Venom Snake. She thought to herself. ”Well shes abrasive. I don’t even think that ‘king of evil’ was that abrasive, and the title would make you assume that! Even if both of them were a giant turtle or a giant knight guy.”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Level 5: 38/50
Location: Mafia Town
Word Count: 647
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 39/50

---

Juri didn’t expect it. She would give Fortune that much credit. As her calf was snatched and she fell onto her chest, rolling to the left narrowly avoiding a knife that scraped against the floor. ”Hey!” She yelled. Juri snapped to look at Fortune with something akin to moral outrage. It was a weird look on her.

She turned her attention to the henchmen, weaving in and out, using them as human shields against each other. She kicked a shotgun out of ones hands, snapping it half with the force of the blow, and smashed him into the pistol wielder with a spin kick. Three rushed her with claws and she bent and twisted her body away and backwards from the strikes. That was when she slipped on some of Fortune’s blood and took a claw across the face. ”Ugh!” She span away with a flash of yellow sparks, getting slashed a few more times before she rolled away.

”You’re seriously pissin’ me off, Fortune!” Juri growled. All Juri asked was that she stay out of her way. She’d underestimated Fortune, assumed her to be the goodie two-shoes type. But now she was trying to get Juri killed, cackling all the while. Or maybe she just didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, living in some carefree bubble where life and death didn’t exist. Juri would have to remind her that it did, one way or the other.

That would have to come later though. Juri struggled through the fight, having to play it far safer than she normally would have let Fortune swing back again. She baited the cat girl into lunging too early by pretending to be distracted and launched her away with a pinwheel kick. A small amount of damage, but an anti-air with big push back. ”Back off!” She warned. Then Juri jumped into the air and flew away.

Wait, what?

Juri flailed her arms around as she floated helplessly through the air into the mafia ball. ”What?!” She yelled, infuriated. Juri wasn’t some two-bit henchperson to be used in a special move! Fortune cackled, but she left, having done enough damage to satisfy herself, apparently. Juri wrenched an arm and a shoulder free and waited until she was rotated towards the top, behind Mabuchi. She burst forth and aimed to stab her fingers like a knife into his back like she was trying to pry apart his vertebrate. She slammed her elbow into the same spot and then roundhouse kicked him off the ball. Then she turned an accusatory finger towards the boss of the chef mafia.

”Don’t ever use me in a special attack ever again!” She said. All she wanted was her money. A part of her wanted to kill the boss, too, for this humiliation, but that would be more trouble than it was worth. When she did kill him, what would she do? Run mafia town? No thanks. She’d learned her lesson after taking over SIN after Seth. Boss knew where the money was, he couldn’t give it to her if he was dead.

Juri leapt off the ball towards Mabuchi. With Fortune gone she could finish this. Trying to bait out an anti-air attack due to the seemingly predictable nature of her jump arc, Juri front flipped midair, halting her descent for a moment before streaking down with a divekick strong enough to lift Mabuchi from the floor on impact. Juri would turn and do several elegant, sweeping spin kicks to knock him up and away.

Juri would be fighting hit and run style on Mabuchi. She was pretty sure she was faster than him, so all she had to do was clear out when the mafia ball came rolling through. Even better, she would try to dodge his attacks and knock him into its path. Caught up in all this, she hadn’t noticed Venom at all.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Level 5: 37/50
Location: Mafia Town
Word Count: 465
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 38/50

---

Juri landed at the top plate, and glanced around. There were spirits everywhere.

”Oh, my god…Tony, no! Alfonso? I can’t believe it.” She gasped as she strolled through the wreckage. With a nudge she kicked one of the identical goon spirits with her boot. ”Ricardo, you too? Benny? Paulie? I can’t believe- okay, forget it.” She let out a little chuckle at her self-satisfied humor.

”They really don’t make bloody aftermaths like they used too, huh?” Juri sped inside. ”Guess it’s gang warfare after all.” How could she make money off of this? It all depended on what she’d find inside. If the old boss was already dead, she’d probably just buzz off, since the Seekers were leaving soon anyway.

Spider dashed inside and, to her surprise, saw the boss man holding his own. And to her delight, he immediately offered her money for violence. For a moment she thought she was going to have to extort it out of him with some sarcastic crap, but luckily the chef mafia knew exactly how things worked. ”Let’s go, then!” Juri widened her stance dramatically, a grin spreading across her face. One of her eyebrows raised, though, as she heard a familiar voice behind her.

”Did you follow me all the way up here? Have a little schoolgirl crush, do ya?” Juri asked with that usual faux-earnest sarcasm.

At Nadia’s hesitance to join the fray, Spider just rolled her eyes. ”So you’re allergic to fun and money. Gotcha. Just stay outta my way, then.” It’s like every time Nadia was offered a chance to prove her worth, she chose the worst option.

No more wastin’ time. It was time to shed some blood and ash up the place. Juri was told to serve up some small fry, so she decided to clean up the chaff. There were eight goons left. Juri figured she could take ‘em out. She strafed to the side alarmingly fast and rattled into them with her tommy gun. She zigged, zagged, and then tossed the gun aside to get into the crowd. She popped one up with a light tap of her foot that let her charge up a sweeping projectile. She sent it forward to knock several of them off their feet with a sweeping ki strike.

”Guess no one can get any help around here, huh?!” Juri crowed. All she wanted to do was take them out, whether that meant crippling or killing them was of no concern to her. Inevitably she would have to turn her sights on Mabuchi, and she tried to keep the henchmen inbetween her and Mabuchi so he wouldn’t easily get the drop on her.

If he decided to keep going after mafia boss, she’d interrupt her own massacre for a cheeky divekick to the spine.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Level 5: 36/50
Location: Mafia Town
Word Count: 518
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 37/50

---

Juri’s ears perked up at the promise of immediate, random acts of violence. They rattled against the roof and cracked the cobblestones of Mafia Town. Juri had been having fun acting as Spider again, but this was sounding like it’d be all out war.

”Well, sounds to me like the circus has come to town.” Juri said. She had little interest in protecting Mafia Town, unless someone paid her too. But if there was going to be a fight, she wanted to be involved. And on raiders and invaders, she could really let loose and even be rewarded for it, just for free. It was pretty much a win win.

Juri sprinted outside, gun slung over her shoulder, an excited grin spreading across her features.

”These idiots are literally raining from the sky! Bwahaha!” Juri spotted a wrestler chasing after some chump, looking to scoop her up into a suplex. Juri’s boot cracked into his skull while he was distracting, and she thrashed him around until he went flying into a brick wall. He stood up fast.

“Th-thank-” The woman began, before Juri turned on her. ”BOO!” She exclaimed, and the victim shrieked and ran off. Juri giggled and turned her attention back to the wrestler, who was already charging her way.

She responded with a heavy kick, planting her front foot and twisting her rear foot forward to slam into him. Then with a cackle, she launched him upward with a wheel kick.

”Come on!” Juri taunted, slashing her foot upward with a streak of energy, which she followed up by sending it along the ground like a wave. When the wrestler went to step around it, she unleashed a fusillade of bullets towards him. Most bounced off his muscled arms, forcing him against the cracked wall. Juri rushed forward, kneed him in the chest hard enough to lift them both in the air, and then spun kick him through the wall. That was the end of that, and Juri took a few moments to kick him while he was down, before standing on his chest and using him as a vantage point to look around.

In all the chaos she saw Chrom and Rosanna raining fire down upon the invaders. Juri scoffed. ”Shouldn’t you two be doing your jobs right about now?” She looked in the direction of the plate. If the mafia boss had any rivals, now would be a time to try and serve his head up on a silver platter.

Didn’t matter much to Juri. She wasn’t getting paid to protect him, she was getting paid on a contract basis to attack his enemies. Besides, the Seekers were nearly done with this place.

…Still. She knew the route up. It wouldn’t take much to check up on him. Saving his life could earn her some big bucks, and there would probably be some skulls to crack on the way up, or down. The goodie two-shoes could run around saving people if they wanted too. Juri turned and ran, making her way to the familiar cannons that she used to launch herself up there.

Young Justice

The Incorrigible Iceburn!

Interactions
Infiltrator Team

---

Iceburn scoffed good-naturedly at Viktor's dry banter back at her. "Okay, those might be literally chill pills, but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. And besides, the 'chill' part is also because it's cold. And it's a cylinder so it's pill shape. But it's also forcing them to- okay nevermind. It's Chill Pill. Fuckin'- fuckin' Chill Pill technique." Iceburn dusted off her shoulder even though there was no dust, to figuratively settle the matter.

She took a few breaths into her palms and then rubbed her hands together, making sure her C-Mist was topped off. Plenty of magic ice juice left in the tank, as long as she had a moment to catch her breath. Without a source of water (humid air helped) her ability to create ice drew from her stamina instead.

Iceburn moved inside, hands up and broiling over with mist, her stance low. She didn't notice the bad guys before Viktor did, but of course she would take his word for it. When Viktor fired his sonic emitter she followed his line of sight and saw some of them. They had regular guns, not the advanced stuff some of the others had. Of course guns were lethal, but they lacked the supernatural punch required to deal with her powers.

"Making cover!" She responded, using the moment of time Viktor bought to her advantage. She fired a blast down at the floor in front of her and created a wall of ice that leaned forward slightly, about seven feet tall. Bullets fired her way would crack and burrow into the ice, dealing little structural damage. A big sonic boom gun probably could have broken it in, like, one and a half shots. "I think making cover is better than taking cover. Haha." Iceburn quipped.

"Suppressing Icefire!" She shouted almost gleefully, and punched a few rolling uppercuts into the edge of her ice wall. The chunks arced towards the enemies in cover like kicked soccer balls. They would explode on contact, knocking anyone caught in the radius off balance. The ice would disable any guns on direct hit with the enemy's body, and of course knock them on their ass. The idea here was to force the baddies into hiding so they couldn't shoot her teammates. Still, one overeager gunman was flattened by a direct hit, their gun becoming useless as it was soaked in water and snow chunks. He stumbled to his feet, grabbing a sidearm and diving behind one of the pillars.

"Pow pow pow!" Iceburn shouted, making a show of it.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Level 5: 35/50
Location: Mafia Town
Word Count: short
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 36/50

---

Juri chuckled lowly at Rika and Junior, seeing them as floundering for excuses. At Rika’s question about whether or not she was going to betray the mafia, she sighed. If she cared about them admitting to doing anti-Mafia activities, she didn’t show it.

”’Bad guys’ huh? Yeah, you really are just a couple of kids. I don’t follow anyone’s rules, and I do what I wanna do. Any doctrine tellin’ you how people are ‘supposed’ to act is just a buncha bullcrap trying to get you to do what someone else wants.” She said, shaking her glass around before taking a sip.

At Junior and Rika’s suggestion about her gun, she glanced over her shoulder at the thing. ”What are you, some kinda whiz kid?” Guns weren’t really her area of expertise. In her experienced they tended to pale in comparison to her martial arts. Juri had been viewing the tommy gun as a toy and a noisemaker, to be used for fun. Pull the trigger and make some havoc happen. When she got serious, she would use her hands and feet. But if the little turtle could make it shoot fire bullets or something, why not? If he broke it, he would owe her. If he succeeded, she could set three hundred things on fire per minute. It was a win-win.

”You wanna make it set stuff on fire? Sure, knock yourself out.” She said. She wasn’t going to offer to pay for their services unless they asked. She made no move to hand it over at the moment, though, assuming he had some type of toy workshop they'd have to visit first.

Juri turned to Geralt. ”Not just any ol’ giant bird. A huge one. A supermassive bird. If you think ‘maybe’ then it wasn’t big enough. From what I heard we’ll know it when we see it.” She narrowed her eyes at the fake pons.

”A counterfeit ring?” She asked. ”Gimme that.” She reached out to snatch the pon and look it over between her fingers. She wasn’t aware of anything like this. ”Someone else must be muscling in. I woulda heard about this if it was the Chef Mafia.” She went to take a bite into the fake pon, trying to get an idea of what it was made of.

Now came Therion, speaking about Consuls, and some town called Limsa. Which Miss Fortune followed up on.

”So, messing with their little forever war operation draws the Consuls out of hiding, huh? Might be worth dropping by to see if we can’t whack a few lieutenants while they’re busy. We don’t want them messin’ with us while we hunt for Guardians, right?” Juri said.

”To them, bloodshed is a product they export. We break the supply chain like we would to rattle any other criminal operation.” Juri grinned. ”Won’t do much good to the innocent chumps of Limsa or whatever, the Consuls will sic some other attack dogs on it as soon as we leave. But playing peacemaker does give us the opportunity to snap the right necks and make our lives easier down the road.” She said callously, pushing her plate away.

”So, what? Maybe some of us could scout for the Guardians, some others go kill some Consuls? I’m partial to assassinating at least one in the area before hunting the Guardian. In my experience, going after the boss is easier when you’ve cut off their right hand, first.” Juri rolled her right wrist from side to side to demonstrate. The idea of some uncontested Consul tracking them down while they themselves were trying to track down a giant bird was an annoying one. She’d much rather kill her enemies on her own terms, which meant going on the offensive.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Level 5: 33/50
Location: Mafia Town
Word Count: 860
Points Gained: 2
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 35/50

---

Was there any better feeling than wiping a smile off an optimist’s face? Well, yes. But it was definitely up there. It was hard to ‘get one over’ on someone like Juri. If all she wanted to do was annoy someone, she could get satisfaction from them pretending to not be annoyed. But messing with Miss Fortune was just a bonus, she was here to give a status report. When Miss Fortune sped off to make her something spicy, Juri looked around the place. There were some other Seekers over there. A turtle? And some weird looking girl.

”Okay, so, are you two just literally actually babies or what? I don’t get it.” She said suddenly, in return to Rika’s little greeting. As far as she could tell, the little turtle kid was an actual kid. She didn’t know what the deal with Rika was, though. She had a hard time parsing what kind of creature she even was. Her current choice of company inclined Juri to believe that she was also a baby, because who would hang out with a baby other than another baby?

Then she got on her phone, scrolling through social media. And some pictures of some chumps she had beaten up recently. Hearing Korean of all languages on the cool song that was playing was surprising. Juri probably hadn’t spoken a lick of the language since her fake life started here. So hearing the lyrics was a nice surprise.

Eventually Miss Fortune returned, smelling like fresh fish and fresher blood. Juri chuckled in disbelief. ”Did you have to go kill a fish right now? That’s so funny. I’m surprised any of it even got to me, kitty cat! Great job.” Juri ‘praised’ Fortune’s effort.

Juri wiggled her head and said a verse of the Hot Tuna Pepper song in Korean as she took a bite. She paused, eyes widening. Juri’s mouth formed a small ‘o’ and she sucked in a few breaths, to combat the spice, and then rapidly chewed the rest. ”This is-” She took another bit of tuna and ate it.

This was actually good. This was actually a good meal. ”All they had in that other place was fuckin’- cotton candy.” She said to the room, mouth full. This was the best meal she had eaten in a long time. Even before the World of Light. Something was different about Juri at that moment, but it was hard to put your finger on.

”Not bad. And Fortune had to work for a living. All in all, a good day.” She reached into a pouch and pulled out an appropriate amount of coins, plus tip. For the poor working cat girl, who she winked at with a snicker.

Eventually some more Seekers arrived, and Fortune had to stop playing pretend chef. When it seemed like everyone was ready to pay attention to each other, Juri began to speak. ”Okay kids, time to share what we learned. Show And Tell.” Juri grabbed her phone and flipped through her photos. Once she found the ones she was looking for, she flipped it out to hold it to the rest of them. Her smart phone had a pink case around it, and at the top were two plastic devil horns. They looked exactly like her old hairstyle, though only resembled her current ponytail.

When she spoke, her tone became more serious. ”There’s an underground community of poachers here that like to hunt rare, endangered animals. You know, for delicious dishes, trophies, bogus potions, or even real deal magic stuff. It only makes sense that a cooking mafia would want an edge over the competition with some uncommon morsels. Grease the right palms and you can meet up with anyone. Guardians can be big ugly monsters, right? Who else would know more about something like that?” She flipped through her phone and pulled up some blurry photos of what looked like a giant bird. The scale was hard to tell, but it was big.

”Giant bird. Not just any old bird, a super massive beast. The kind that isn’t so easily hunted by little jerks with little peashooters. Most of them have given up, and are going after easier prey. Between the dragon and the giant worm, I figure a freakin’ huge bird fits the bill of a Guardian. Reports say it’s nesting somewhere in the Twilight Forest, or at least it visits that place often.” Juri rolled her neck.

”I figure that’s a lead worth looking into. Not to mention this cool new gun and a boatload of money I made.” Juri said, smug. ”The Spider is back in business. Nothing like an honest days work, huh?” She flicked off her phone and put it back into her back pocket.

She rolled a spare coin from her pouch between her fingers. She looked off into the middle distanced and scoffed, thinking aloud. ”Poachers. Real skeevy, arrogant bastards. Definitely wouldn’t want to invite any to my birthday party. Might even mug one on the way outta town. But in this case, they turned out to be good for something. And considering we’re after rare beasts ourselves, we wouldn’t want to be hypocrites, would we?” Juri noted with a tilt of her head.

”Okay, who's next?”

Young Justice

The Incorrigible Iceburn!

Interactions
Infiltrator Team

---

Iceburn shook some mist off her pale-blue hands, exhaling. That always shook the ice from her veins. When she turned her attention to the rest of the battle, it had already wrapped up. That was the advantageous of a four-on-four surprise attack!

"Nice goin' everyone! Thanks for takin' a hit for the team, buddy." She pointed an appreciative, high energy finger at Quiver. It was good that Mirage was looking over him. Iceburn had similar first-aid training, but she didn't want to crowd the space.

"But, y'know. Don't be afraid to stay in the backlines." She narrowed her eyes and shrugged, tilting her head forward in a 'whaddya gonna do' type of way. Quiver was injured, so, him getting hit felt pretty bad. Iceburn would much prefer she take the hit instead, since she was healthy and her C-Mist could absorb some of the damage. As a non-meta archer person, Quiver getting the attention of the baddies was a sign of something going wrong with their tactics. "Cuz, y'know, you gotta sit the rest of this one out if your stitches break." She added.

Iceburn set a hand on her hips and glanced around. "Garage works for me, as much as that other, unmarked mysterious hallway calls to me. We'll see if things stay 'too easy' the further we get into the facility. We just jumped four henchmen on their smoke break, not exactly Hero of The Year material." As she spoke, she went around and sprayed mist over all of the bad guys, solidifying them in place with iceblocks. They were very durable and would melt in a couple hours. The ice was cool to the touch, but like always she turned down the temperature so it wouldn't cause any damage to their skin or bodies. The iceblocks were more half-cylinders keeping them bound to the ground, it didn't cover their head or their feet.

"I was thinking of calling this one my Chill Pill technique. Eh?" Iceburn grinned, looked around at the others for approval.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

JURI HAN

Level 5: 31/50
Location: Mafia Town
Word Count: 854
Points Gained: 2
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 33/50

---

Juri Han was good at a lot of things. But the thing she was best at was crime. Turns out, she was the hardest criminal in this entire city, so it made her work a lot easier and lot more fun. It wasn’t that much of a step up from Carnival Town, unfortunately, but it was enough to sate her boredom. And now she was really getting paid, and they even gave her a big gun, which was currently strapped over her shoulder. One of those old school American type guns, big and loud. Probably not the most effective tool in her toolkit, but certainly an entertaining noisemaker and more than capable of blasting some holes should the need arise. The identical mafia goons were easy to boss around. This was the ideal place for Juri, a freelancer with authority! She didn’t take orders from anyone without getting paid by the act, but actually trying to be a responsible leader was just way too boring.

Juri had kept to herself from the others, to the degree that one might suspect she had just hitched a ride to find a new place to commit crimes. As she carried out various deeds for the Mafia, she ran into Miss Fortune a few times and they got to play on opposite teams. Why the Seekers went to Mafia Town and chose to still be goodie two-shoe salary workies, she literally couldn’t even imagine. It was fun to break stuff, steal stuff, and earn a boat load of cash in the process. Money was going to be important on this little adventure. Money was the multiversal language. Info, supplies, equipment, weapons, vehicles, bribes… all of it.

But despite doing her own thing and even actively attacking any of the Seekers who got in the way of her mafia business, she was still taking her job seriously. This was all in the pursuit of not just a good time, but finding the Guardian. At least, certainly more seriously than that goober Miss Fortune, who Juri was currently coming to visit. She figured the other Seekers wouldn’t be too far. She had a potential Guardian lead she thought was worth looking into. As far as rumors and intel went, nothing beat the criminal underground. The cops are always trying to play catch up with what the crooks of the world already know. There were underground cooking rings here, using ingredients from endangered and rare species. Poachers and pirates came and went, and when their palms were greased they spoke of a gargantuan bird. It was spotted in the distance in the Twilight Forest, easily large enough to blot out the sun, or so they said. That area’s Guardian hadn’t been eliminated from what Juri heard in the meeting. And so far a lot of them had been big scary monsters. A massive bird fit that description. Needless to say, she was pretty smug about hearing that little tidbit, so she was eager to share it with the other Seekers.

Juri’s hair was still in its new asymmetrical undercut ponytail hairstyle inspired by Sombra, and her slightly darkened skin tone had only tanned further. Her outfit had changed as well to fit the maritime mood. Though Juri’s idea of swimwear seemed to be some kind of leather biking outfit but without the pants. There was the crowd of simple minded townsfolk, and then there was the space around Spider, like she might bite out at them if they accidentally touched her. Which was only a partial exaggeration of the imagination, really.

”Oh, boy, I can’t wait.” Juri said with a grin, her voice carrying through the bustle of the crowd as she pushed her way inside. ”I want somethin’ fresh and spicy!” She demanded, taking a seat on a barstool. Obviously, she was going first. None of the other customers were going to object.

”Then maybe we can chat business on your-” She stifled a laugh. ”On your lunch break.” She giggled. Clearly amused at the prospect of Fortune working a regular job.

”The customer is always right, y’know.” She said. ”So I better not see any hairballs or hair strands or anything gross like that.” She wagged her finger. ”And when I say spicy, I mean spicy. ” Juri leaned over the bar.

”...But not too spicy.” She added, cheekily, sitting back down. Apparently done with her order, she tapped her hands and looked around at the place. All the ingredients here were found in the magic hole that was too stupid to make up its mind as to what kind of ocean it wanted to be. This place would need to up its military force if it didn’t want some serious pirates to roll in and claim the place for itself. But maybe this stupid ‘endless conflict’ Galeem had put all its stooges up to meant that nothing actually changed…what a joke!

The Spider was no one’s action figure. Juri would never abide by such a thing, so her conviction for being with the Seekers were real, even if her methods and attitude might leave a bit to be desired.