[center][h3]Midgar Zone 09 - Through the Dragnet[/h3]
Level 5 Goldlewis (108/50) Level 4 Sandalphon (20/40)
Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1626[/center]

With the brief exception of his surprise pocket sand, Barlow had been on the backfoot against Goldlewis from the outset, but as the big man pushed him farther and farther back with his overwhelming offense Barlow just couldn’t find an opening in his overwhelming offense. Finally Goldlewis steered their one-sided skirmish toward its conclusion with a stomp, coming down on the younger soldier’s foot hard enough to knock him off his feet and face-first into the catwalk’s cold metal. On instinct Goldlewis raised his coffin to deliver a crushing Behemoth Typhoon finisher, but with a conscious effort he managed to stop himself. Instead he dealt Barlow a kick to the ribs that sent him tumbling back into the railing with a yelp. 

Figuring that’d be it, the veteran turned to make his way toward the budding brawl between Zenkichi, Geralt, and the Marcias sisters. Things had already gotten chaotic, with Miwa slowing her opponents’ roll with Confusion and Natsuko’s Zoolingualism bringing angry animals out of the woodwork to cause havoc. No doubt they’d appreciate the help, especially if the Closer got into the mix. Goldlewis did not expect for his fallen opponent to come back for more. Even while lying prone with a bloody nose, Barlow used his Sunakinesis to reach out with a big hand of sand to grab his opponent’s ankle. “What in the-!?” Despite his low center of gravity, he’d been in such a hurry to back up the others up that he tripped and fell forward. The walkway vibrated beneath his weight.“Gah, darnit!” He landed on his forearm for support, his coffin slamming down next to him, and he quickly pushed off to roll himself over to get a look at what was happening.He’d been wondering how that shrimp managed to snag him with such force, but a psychic sand construct fit the bill. As Goldlewis tried to rise, the hand yanked on him toward a gap in the railing, but the veteran fought back.

“Need assistance?” Sandalphon asked through his glyph.

“I’m handlin’ it!” He banged his fist on the lid of his coffin. “UMA! Thunderbird!” Obligingly the lid slid open and a cosmic hand slid out with a spiked heligrenade in its palm. The Thunderbird’s rotors spun up as the alien tossed it, allowing it to fly toward Barlow. With a frustrated grunt he let go of Goldlewis to defend himself with the hand, but by the time he struck and detonated the grenade, his foe was on his feet. Goldlewis surged through the sand-riddled smoke and knocked him senseless with a swift kick. 

Goldlewis huffed, unhappy with his performance. For such a small fry, Barlow had sure managed to eat into the veteran’s time. He turned and thundered down the walkway toward the central area. Her services declined elsewhere, Sandalphon had come to the aid of Zenkichi and Geralt instead, and when she returned to her sniper’s nest Blazermate showed up to help the men finish the fight. The Marcias sisters fought well, but not well enough. Roland and Susie were just now dispatching two of the others, and when Goldlewis turned his attention in the direction of the guard captain, he found that Karin had skipped straight to the end. By isolating the Closer, Karin cut him off and took him down with speed and power that outstripped even his own. After that, she needed only to cut through the noise that the last private threw at her to render the whole guard force neutralized. Goldlewis didn’t even get the chance to help, and he didn’t mind one bit–victory mattered far more than any personal glory. With an approving nod, he clicked his stopwatch. Ruthlessly fast, and clinically precise. Another successful mission.

“Yeah, you all did great!” H echoed Karin’s congratulations. “Didn’t even know what hit ‘em. Let’s keep moving.”

Goldlewis reached the platform where Karin waited at the same time as Sandalphon, who descended from above at a leisurely pace using her giant, elaborate halo like a glider. When Karin offered to do the honors, Goldlewis nodded, waving his hand at the door. “Go right ahead, miss.” With a swipe the mechanical door unlocked and slid open to grant the Seekers access. Happy to bring up the rear, Goldlewis took a final look at the area and the downed soldiers. Despite his antics with his coffin, guns reigned supreme on the battlefield, and he wouldn’t have minded snagging one if only these soldiers’ sidearms weren’t so piddly. [i]Give me a good sawed-off any day,[/i] he mused. At least one of the swordsmen could have relieved Charles of his high-tech greatsword. 

Movement at the other end of the area caught his eye. From a distance, he caught a glimpse of two unfamiliar figures, a man in a dark suit beneath a vivid indigo coat, and a woman in brown whose left arm glimmered with golden thorns. Both featured long wolf ears and bushy wolf tails. He and Penance made eye contact. [i]We’re being followed?[/i] Goldlewis thought, squinting with his brows furrowed. Unluckily for these two, whoever they were, the Seekers had just snagged the last ticket through to Zone 09. Once everyone entered the passage, Goldlewis followed them in, and the door slid shut behind him.

[hider=Results][b]Party:[/b] Karin, Blazermate, Roland, Susie, Geralt, Zenkichi, Goldlewis, Sandalphon
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] +5 EXP[/hider]

This restricted zone connected to Zone 09 via a covered bridge, and the Seekers wasted no time clattering across it. Luckily there was no security on this side to complicate things, so Sandalphon could afford to scope out her surroundings to her heart’s content. By now, she and the rest were well and truly in Quarantine Valley. Hundreds of feet below lay the ground floor of the sunken district, awash in redshift corruption so thick even she could see the matter-warping distortion. Those [url=https://i.imgur.com/PXVrEm7.jpg]streets[/url], lit only by the faint glow of neon lights from above, harbored no signs of life. Only dust and debris. After a few moments she stepped out from the shelter of the bridge and onto the first building, staring at the lost cityscape that languished in the shadows of Midgar. Just about every living thing that could still be called ‘human’ eked out a living on the rooftops of this modern ghost town, in shacks and shanties cobbled together from reclaimed scrap packed tight enough to form crude semblances of community. Exposure to the elements had turned everything down here a dull rust-orange. Nothing looked reliable or new. Yet people lived here nonetheless, and it was the most entrepreneuring among those survivors that the Seekers had come to see.

Maybe half a mile out, across the rooftops linked together by wobbly sheet-metal bridges, stood the largest of the Zone 09 communities, identifiable thanks to its big, well-guarded [url=https://i.imgur.com/oU0jHRM.jpg]gate[/url]. To get there, the team would need to make their way across this treacherous labyrinth where anything and everything could very well give out beneath them at the drop of a hat. Little outposts lay here and there, some scarcely more than a few dirty plastic chairs arranged around a fuming dumpster or tire fire. One step up were the rooftop shacks, most in isolation but [url=https://i.imgur.com/nNhfehp.png]some grouped together[/url] with girder structures or lines of laundry between them. Piles of trash bags and mounds of deposited dirt could be found most everywhere, as well as defunct rooftop AC units and antennae stripped of all useful parts. Within the gaps between buildings lay a hidden lower network of fire escapes, ladders, and catwalks even more convoluted than the restricted area, though perhaps able to offer different routes through this mess than the rooftops themselves. Sandalphon could imagine all sorts of secrets lurking just out of sight in a place like this.

One needed to be careful, too, since H quickly identified a few pockets of red matter lingering around the area. Nothing that would cause an uptick in data corruption, but best avoided nonetheless. Wherever the corruption was higher, the odds of finding a Gate were higher, too. It seemed highest somewhat close to the entry bridge, where At least the handful of haggard-looking locals that lingered around didn’t seem liable to give the Seekers trouble. If spoken to, the men and women here -who seemed to be outsiders among outsiders given their distance from the main community here- might very well yield some information about the shanty-town or even the Hermits themselves.

One exile not far from the gate, doubled over and panting, seemed eager to vent about something. “That guy at the gate’s all, Hermits’ orders this, Hermits’ orders that…screw the Hermits, let me in!” He leaned back, filling his lungs with his hand over his heart. “I gotta get back in. If I don’t, my clothes’ll be ruined!” Not far from him, a man loafed around on one of the low-lying rooftops, trying to soak in what little sun filtered down here on a cloudy day like today. Farther away, a woman leaned against one of the buildings near a long drop, watching the newcomers with her arms crossed when they got close.

Sandalphon set her sights on the tallest structure in the area, a derelict rooftop water tower on one of the higher buildings. From there, she could even look down on the shanty-town. “Go ahead and find out what you can from the locals. I suspect gaining entry to their community will be the first step. I’ll provide support from afar, just like before.”

As she went off to climb up there, one vault at a time, Goldlewis wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. Unfamiliar territory or not, it was time to get busy.

[center][h3]Suoh - Beacon Mental Hospital, the Brainframe[/h3]
Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Sakura’s [@Zoey Boey], Pit’s [@Yankee], Roxas’ [@Double], Luka, Gemma[/center]

Despite Sakura’s good intentions, there was no way that any of the mind-controlled proxies here would listen to reason. Each had their orders: the Psych-OSF soldiers to extinguish the fatal curiosity of the dangerously inquisitive few who’d borne witness to metamorphosis (burying this place along with them if need be) and Painwheel, to kill Dexio before he could bring Brain Drain’s ambitions down on top of him. With lethal intent the two melee fighters rushed together, but while Dexio could avert his collision course with Sakura’s heavy hadoken, Painwheel’s mindless aggression drove her right into it.

“Rragh!” she snarled, rounding on the street fighter in blind rage. The momentary distraction allowed Sina to freeze her lower leg to the ground with an ice shot from her Refrigerant Coil, and her partner wasted no time capitalizing on the crowd control. Dexio decked Painwheel with a bone-cracking right hook from his spiked cestus that smashed the girl out of the ice and onto the floor. He unleashed his Seismokinesis with a stomp that popped his opponent off the ground and into the air. Reaching out, he snatched Painwheel by the ankle and yanked her directly in front of him to drive his other fist straight down. That withering punch not only pounded her against the floor, but shook the whole room for the third time. Dust fell from the ceiling ominously, and plenty of equipment rattled. A couple vials even fell over and smashed on the ground.

That whole exchange took just a couple seconds. Though Midna had used Roadblock to definitively shield herself and Sakura once she arrived, she’d lacked the context -and the means- to protect what looked like enemies from one another while she talked. Now Painwheel lay on the floor, sprawled out and still, at Dexio’s feet. Brain Drain returned the Seekers an angrier and more malevolent glare by far for their interference. [i]”What do you think you’re doing?”[/i] he seethed psychically. [i]”They’re clearly not under my control. If that man brings this place down, it’s curtains for you, too.”[/i] So saying, he fixed his gaze on Painwheel. [i]“Enough slacking. Get UP.”[/i]

Purple electricity jolted through the girl’s body, and with a shriek she rose, holding herself up with her arms as her synthetic parasite Gae Bolg went to work. Black blood burst from her legs and feet in the form of spikes and needles in order to pierce Dexio with [url=https://i.imgur.com/wkepPyO.png]Warm Spasm[/url]. While he reeled from the pain she inverted herself to take out his legs with [url=https://i.imgur.com/zzuts9b.png]Malice Clover[/url]. Her Buer Drive blades sawed into his calves in sprays of blood, and as he fell Painwheel snatched him with her command grab [url=https://i.imgur.com/fRHECre.png]Buer Reaper[/url] to bring him into her grasp and slam her down onto the ground, head-first. [i]Crack.[/i]

Before she could act further, a splash of cryokinesis burst against her body, coating her in ice. Sina aimed two more shots to lock Painwheel down and freeze her in place, then formed a long icicle spike to finish the job. It zipped through the air toward the girl’s head, but she managed to maneuver her Buer Drive in between to block and shatter the icicle. Then dozens of spikes burst out from beneath her skin to break the ice, and with a roar Painwheel took off running. She chased Sina down on all fours, and when the soldier created an ice slick with a freezing spray, the young horror leaped into the air and flew the rest of the distance with her Buer Drive blades spinning like helicopter rotors. In no time at all Sina got command grabbed too. After slamming her into a tub Painwheel turned to go finish Dexio.

At about that time, things got even more interesting. Gemma burst through the doors behind Midna and Sakura. There was no sign of the Doctor other than some echoed moaning from down the hall, and some fresh blood on the soldier’s gauntlets. “Came as fast as I could,” he breathed, trying to make sense of the scene unfolding before him. “What’s going on here!?”

On the other side of the room, the elevator doors opened once more. From within spilled a quintet of familiar faces: Yuito, Hanabi, Pit, Roxas, and Luka. They’d unknowingly followed Dexio and Sina down here on the hunt for Peach or maybe Raz (as Hanabi told Pit that Raz disappeared the moment Anima showed up, giving her the slip) but they couldn’t have imagined what they’d find. Right away Luka recognized all his friends and allies present in the room, though none of them concerned him quite so much as his wayward squadmates. “Dexio! Sina!” In a flash he teleported behind Painwheel, and before she could properly react he drove his Weight Hammer into her like a massive baseball bat. The girl howled as she tumbled across the ground toward Midna, Sakura, and Gemma. Trusting them to take care of the aggressor, Luka then teleported back to Sina. “Sina!? Are you okay?”

He put one hand on her shoulder as he rummaged in his pack for a health-restoring Orange Gel, but before he could find it, Sina jerked awake. She grabbed him, picked the very surprised Luka up, and plunged him face-first into the tub Painwheel smacked her against. After pushing her struggling captain under the water, Sina began to freeze it over, trapping Luka beneath the ice. “No witnesses!” she growled.

With Painwheel distracted, Dexio heaved himself upright. His orders were clear. He began to pound the ground, ravaging the unstable medical ward with geokinetic power. The whole room began to shake and crack; any minute now the floor -the only thing separating Beacon’s bottom level from a lethal drop into the toxic Reservoir- would begin to give way.

Everything was going to hell with terrifying speed. [i]”No!”[/i] Brain Drain poured his psychic power into Painwheel. The moment she could act, she would be granted [url=https://i.imgur.com/byKyJfM.png]Hatred Install[/url], amplifying her already impressive power and speed. He would not allow all his work to crumble, no matter what.

[center][h3]The Under - The Hive[/h3]
Level 11 Nadia (154/110)
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Ganondorf’s [@Double], Rubick’s [@Scarifar], Artorias’ [@Dark Cloud], Barnabee
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3141[/center]

By now, Nadia’s adventures with the Seekers had taught her to expect the unexpected, but the feral was still in for quite the shock when Rumor Honeybottoms not only brought down the boss arena that she and most of her teammates had been taking for granted, but deposited them on a stack of magical floating hexagons that quickly proved to disappear mere moments after one of them made contact. After almost falling when the very first one vanished out from under her, and barely clambering up using its neighbors before they timed out as well, she began to jog across the layer’s surface. What began as an expansive sheet of interlocking hexes would quickly erode into a handful of disconnected sections beneath the tread of several survivors, separated by strips of nothingness like rivers in a delta, then diminish further into distant archipelagoes and isthmi. Nadia could make it work, but not for long, and just as she began to get a sense for the timing and dared to look up, the bombs started raining down.

“Damn it, this is stupid!” Nadia yowled as she dodged and dived, hopping and airdashing between the remaining hexes as explosions went off around her. The blasts didn’t destroy the platforms, but they could definitely knock her down, whether to a lower layer or into the honey itself. Down below, that golden tide was inexplicably rising in all its ominous opulence, swallowing everything in its way as it steadily climbed. Nadia knew that the rigging drum still attached to her waist just above her tails would let her skate across water, but would it do the same for honey? She didn’t want to find out; that stuff was so sticky and viscous that if she did fall in, she’d be beyond screwed. Those who’d already fallen to a lower layer might be safer from Honeybottoms’ deluge of bombs, but they could still slip through any vanished hexes. Two blasts grazed Nadia in quick succession as she scrambled, almost knocking her down. With so much to worry about, and nowhere near enough time to pressurize for a rocket jump, the feral couldn’t even begin to fight back against this demented miniboss. As cartoonish as this situation seemed, it was no laughing matter. While some Seekers could take to the sky like Ganondorf atop his nightmarish steed, the rest were in some very hot water.

At least, they were until Sectonia came to their rescue. Only a few moments after catastrophe befell the Seekers down below, the team’s resident queen conjured a giant, shimmering pink crystal in the midst of the hexagons, allowing everyone to jump aboard and finally get some solid ground beneath her feet. Nadia jumped at the chance immediately, and after an extra-strength airdash to go the distance she skidded to a stop on the new platform’s glassy surface. She heaved a sigh of relief, half-inclined to fall to her knees and kiss the crystal like an adrift sailor finally coming to shore. “Bee-utiful!” Nadia knew she had work to do, though, and like Bowser she immediately turned her attention skyward. Up above, Ganondorf galloped through the air with swords in hand to both slash and burn Honeybottoms whenever their paths crossed. Sectonia put her air mobility to work pursuing the bomber as closely as possible to electrocute and skewer her with her swords while avoiding her buzzsaws. Unlike Bowser and Junior, though, Nadia couldn’t take suboptimal long-distance potshots from below. Her only ranged weapon, the Bait Launcher, would summon a tiger where the meat landed, not on what it hit. That left Nadia with quite the conundrum, but luckily she wasn’t the only daredevil around.

Her answer about what to do came in the form of Rika. After a save from Kamek, the abyssal joined him on his broom to gain enough altitude to open fire, but when her ammunition dried up she took a more audacious approach. With a little help Rika closed the distance and grappled onto Honeybottoms herself. She hung on as long as she could to lay on some damage before the usurper queen finally shook her off, but even before Rika pulled off her outrageous aerial stunt, Nadia was convinced. “That’s fanTASTIC idea!” she purred with a grin, crouching down to build up blood pressure within her limbs. “Might just have to steal it!”

As Honeybottoms came around again, Nadia blasted off on a high-pressure torrent of blood. She flew high into the air, leaving Sectonia’s crystal behind, but not high enough. As the cat burglar began to lose momentum, she narrowed her eyes and focused in on the latest batch of dropped bombs. After aiming carefully, she used Charge to dash upward as a bolt of lightning, straight into one of the false queen’s bombs. It blew up, hurting her but more importantly, resetting her air action. Another Charge brought her close enough to launch her arm out and grapple to Honneybottoms by sinking her claws straight into her foe’s undercarriage.

“Ow!” the usurper grunted, but right now she could afford to pay the little sting any more notice. Not with Ganondorf, Jesse, and Sectonia still buzzing around. Even Rubick was in the air, though the odds weren’t on his side for his Web Wrap. But Nadia was far from done. Connected via her hyperextended muscle fibers and flying behind Honeybottoms like a feline flag, the feral pumped out a huge mass of blood that quickly took the form of three Copycats, racing after one another on all fours up the line in toward the bomber’s undercarriage. Upon reaching the top, they grabbed hold of the muscle cord with both hands and began to swing around it in a loop, slashing into Honeybottoms repeatedly with their toeclaws at the top of each one. “Urgh! I [i]cat[/i] believe this!” Angered, she dropped another handful of bombs, and as they fell their air resistance slowed them enough that they threatened to hit Nadia on the way down.

“I think ya mean, ‘ya gotta be kitten me’!” Nadia instructed her, a wide smile on her face. Though wackier than ever, this was starting to be a whole lot of fun. She used jets of blood to push herself left and right to dodge the bombs. Unfortunately she was a little low on blood at the moment, and one hit her. It hurt like a bitch, but having stomached worse, Nadia held on. Honeybottoms went into a barrel roll to try and throw her the way she threw Rika, but the feral had seen this coming from the start. Doggedly she held on, slung around in a crazy spiral as the miniboss spun through the air, until at the height of her arc she finally wrenched her hand out. Nadia hurtled upward, dangerously close to the ceiling. It took a couple seconds to snap out of her disoriented dizziness and course-correct, but once she did she snapped her arm back into place, absorbing her Copycats as she did. “Alright, ya big bug. Hate to pun-ish a fellow jokester, but…” Then she jetted downward back toward her enemy with her most death-defying Feral Edge to date, diving toward and sinking Athame right into the top of Honeybottoms’ head. “It’s been KNIFE knowin’ ya!”

The false queen cried out in pain, her wings flapping like a penguin’s flippers. After a moment they morphed into saw-arms to reach over and carve Nadia up, but the feral worked quickly. She grabbed Athame in her mouth as she drew her boxcutter hilts, snapping two fresh blades into place from the case on her back. Then she sunk them into the softened-up exoskeleton and sprinted forward, plowing down the bomber’s back, leaving the saws behind and two deep furrows in her wake. She kept on carving until she reached the living plane’s tailfin, at which point she yanked the boxcutters free. Knowing another barrel roll was imminent, Nadia leaped off into the open air, twisting as she did. When she squeezed the hilts’ triggers, a final parting gift sailed Honeybottoms’ way in the form of the detached blades, and the catgirl began to fall. Carefully she inserted her hilts back into her belt, then boosted herself toward one of the huge room’s walls to bury her claws into the waxy surface and gradually slow her descent. Once she got low enough, she leaped back toward the crystal platform.

By now, Honeybottoms had taken a huge amount of punishment, and at last she could stomach it no longer. “Gyaaaaaaaaagh!” she screamed, morphing back from bomber form to bee form. She fell through the great hollow, only managing to catch herself about a hundred feet above Sectonia’s gemstone island. By now, the honey had risen all the way to the level of the throne room’s entrance, turning what remained of the platform by the arched doorway into a jetty overlooking a lake of honey. Its luminous golden glow plus the bright, almost crystalline glint of the blue wax walls made for quite the spectacular contrast, befitting such a spectacular battle. After slowing her descent, the usurper queen looked haggard, but angry, too. “Enough of this!” she roared, magically summoning her scepter to hand. “GRAVITY!”

Her spell swept over the Seekers, instantly afflicting the Weight status. The fliers dropped from the sky, and those standing on solid ground were floored beneath a crushing force ten times stronger than that of gravity. Nadia groaned in pain, pinned to the ground and unable to do much more than writhe.

“Bahahahaha! That’s right, kneel!” the big bee crowed. “Bow your filthy heads before Her Majesty Rumor Honeybottoms, almighty mistress of magic, queen of all that is golden!”

As she raised her heavy scepter to cast, however, a blurred flash passed before her, and the Hive Knight touched down on the giant crystal. His blade blazed in his hand, its teeth grinding in anticipatory relish. When Honeybottoms began to cast Gravity, Barnabee had recognized the spell in store for the team and warped out of range. “Mine apologies, friends. I failed to warn you. As I’ve failed so many times in the past. But I will not fail now.” He turned his black eyes on the usurper, burning with anger. “Traitor! Betrayer of thy own people! Thou took everything from me! From us! Thou art no queen. Only a pale, pitiful imitator! In the glorious name of Her Majesty the true queen, Vespa, I am here to fulfill my oath!”

“Hah!” Honeybottoms spat, gathering magic around her scepter. “I beat you once, little drone. This time I’ll finish the job!” With a wave of her catalyst, she sent a torrential cascade of pink magic shapes flying toward both the Hive Knight and the Seekers. “BEE-GONE!”

The Hive Knight breathed in deep. Sectontia’s crystal had already taken a beating, and any second now it would shatter, sending the Seekers to certain doom. He needed to be faster than fast, and stronger than strong. His choice had already been made. A prismatic light surrounded his body, and when he opened his eyes, they radiated a brilliant yellow. 

“HUZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

From his wide-open mouth poured a flood of hivelings, a tide of brown that slammed into the wall of pink. Immediately the hiveling swarm began to beat Honeybottoms’ sorcery back, sacrificing themselves faster than the false queen could cast. After a moment they blew through her magic and poured over Honeybottoms herself. En masse they gave up their own lives by plunging their stingers into her body, their collective heat so overwhelming that the usurper couldn’t even fight back. Her scepter fell to the crystal’s surface from her nerveless grip. As the hivelings worked, Barnabee bashed the hilt of his blade against the crystal. From the honey lake flew dozens of golden globules, floating up to surround Honeybottoms before growing eight needle-like spikes apiece. By the time his hivelings wiped themselves out, the Hive Knight began to warp-strike between them, both releasing the needles when he reached them and slashing Honeybottoms on the way. He blitzed around her as a fiery blur, dicing her up as over a hundred needles pierced his mortal enemy’s body. Finally, he dashed straight above her, hung for just a moment, and then dropped. His burning blade sang as it carved through the shocked usurper in half vertically, finishing with a tremendous flame wave that sent Honeybottoms hurtling backward over the honey lake.

“IMPOSSIBLE…!” she cried as she flew through the air, desperately trying to hold herself together. “I’M…THE QUEEN! THE QUEEEEEEEEN-!” Her voice cut off as she slammed into the far wall of the hollow, flying apart into halves that soon sunk beneath the lake of ill-gotten gold.

Her Gravity spell ended, freeing the others, and the Hive Knight landed on the crystal. He looked horrible, his body ripped and torn from within by the strength of its own exertion. Prismatic ichor eked from his countless wounds. A sigh of relief escaped him, and he allowed his swordblade to fall to the ground beside Honeybottoms’ scepter. The next second, he warped away.

Nadia stood gingerly, swallowing. That had been one hell of a trump card from Honeybottoms, perfectly tailored to this environment to slaughter anyone she deemed a real threat. But it had nothing on the Hive Knight’s awe-inspiring finisher. He’d dispatched the false queen with style, not to mention hitherto-unseen power, but what had happened to him? By the time the lightshow came to an end, he looked like he stood on death’s door. “What was that?” she breathed, still astonished by the boss battle’s climactic finale. “And…where’d he go?”

With Honeybottoms’ demise, the throne room seemed to respond. Magical hexes appeared just over the honey lake, connecting the entrance to another, previously inaccessible door on the opposite side. These ones didn’t disappear when stepped upon, and Nadia could help but be curious where they led. She jumped from the crystal to the bridge, jogged down its length, and entered the door. On the other side of the passage she found another room, its floor tiled with solid honey like burnished bronze and its ceiling resplendent with hardened honey drips like countless gleaming icicles. Against the back wall, fully visible from the overlook where Nadia stood, rested the long-dead husk of an enormous queen bee, and on the edge of the precipice knelt the Hive Knight. His body slowly dissolving away.

[hider=Results]
[b]Party:[/b] The Koopa Troop, Primrose and Therion, Sectonia, Jesse, Ganondorf, Rubick, Artorias
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] +10 EXP
[b]Not Just a Phase Bonus:[/b] The Koopa Troop, Sectonia, Jesse, Ganondorf, Rubick, Artorias, Ms Fortune
[b]Bonus Reward:[/b] +5 EXP
[b]Loot:[/b] Rumor Honeybottoms spirit, Yato, Honeydipper Scepter, Hiveblood, Orb of Undoing, Watcher Mask Fragment[/hider]

Nadia stood there for a moment in silence, her ears drooping in sorrow. So, Barnabee’s precious queen had been dead all along. It made his quest for vengeance seem a whole lot sadder in retrospect; she thought he intended to return home in glory, a conquering hero, but maybe he’d never planned to live to tell the tale.

Most of the treasures in Queen Vespa’s resting place had been looted by the wasps, but aside from the mask fragment, two still remained. A [url=https://i.imgur.com/JVpOfks.png]hexagonal charm[/url] that could restore the patient lay on a plinth, and in a pile of ash sat a [url=https://i.imgur.com/ISzE0MK.png]cloudy, spherical artifact[/url] that possessed far greater power–the Orb of Undoing, not claimed because the wasps mistook it for decoration like the charm, but because it would undo any unqualified individual who used it.

Of course, after her moment of silence concluded, Nadia picked it up without doing any critical thinking. Noticing that its insides seemed to move, she held it up to peer within, her eyes narrowed. Then the orb flashed with blinding light, physically knocking the catgirl flat. The arcane power that coursed through her being scoured every upgrade and addition she’d gained since the start of her journey, turning them back into possibilities.

[hider=Ms Fortune Undone]
[b]Powers Lost:[/b] Claws for Alarm, Dramatic Tension, Infinity Burst, Full Mrow-tation, Fifth of Dismember, Outtake, Nyawn, Water Purr-essure, [i]Copycat[/i], Cat-aract, [i]Shipshape Type L[/i], Purrge of Vengeance, [i]Lightning Stickers[/i] (10)
[b]Strengths Lost:[/b] Tag Team, [i]Swordfaire[/i], [i]Su-purr-conductor[/i] (1)
[b]Weaknesses Lost:[/b] [i]Watery[/i], [i]Lightning Reactions[/i], [i]2700 Pounds of Justice[/i], [i]Impractical Style[/i]
[b]Defusions:[/b] Rhodeia of Loch, Massachusetts, Cat-5, Kronya (4)
[b]Spirits Unbound:[/b] Rapturous Cultist, Idea
[b]Upgrades Refunded:[/b] 11[/hider]

“Oww, what the hell!” When Nadia regained her senses a moment later, she found herself completely restored to her original state, the exact same vanilla Ms. Fortune she’d been when her journey began. White hair, cat tail, crop top, normal feet. Around her sat her various weapons and the spirits of Rhodeia of Loch, Massachusetts, Cat-5, Rapturous Cultist, and Idea. “I’m…back to normal? Well, hah, normal as it gets for me anyhow.” She gave the orb, laying a few feet away from her, a look of mixed awe and horror. “Wait, does that mean I lost all my powers!?” When she tried to summon a Copycat, all she managed to do was splash a little blood on the floor. “Ohhh, jeez. All gone, huh? Nyahaha...” she chuckled nervously. “Well, uh, that’s some paw-erful magic for sure. I’m gonna need all those abilities though. Guess I’ll try and get everythin’ back the way it was?”

She came to one important realization, though: thanks to the Koopa Troop’s Snacktivator, she could be a little more particular about how she fused. With that in mind she began redoing her upgrades, which took both a little time and a lot of brainpower. Nadia found she could be more intentional with her upgrades, though she couldn't finagle everything when it came to the abilities she gained. Unfortunately, while she fused with Rhodeia and Massachusetts wholesale like before, she got the order wrong and ended up with slightly different results. She also accidentally got Cat-5 and Kronya backwards, using the former with the Snaktivator on her tail, and fusing with Kronya normally.

[hider=Ms Fortune Redone]
[b]Powers Gained:[/b] Claws for Alarm, Dramatic Tension, Full Mrow-tation, Fifth of Dismember, Water Purr-essure, [i]Copycat[/i], Cat-aract, [i]Shipshape Type L[/i], Purrge of Vengeance, [i]Lightning Stickers[/i], [i][b]Luna-tic[/b][/i],  [b]Preda-torrent[/b] (9)
[b]Strengths Gained:[/b] Tag Team, [i]Su-purr-conductor[/i], [b]Big Mamie[/b] (2)
[b]Weaknesses Gained:[/b] [i]Watery[/i], [i]Lightning Reactions[/i], [i]2700 Pounds of Justice[/i], [i]Impractical Style[/i]
[b]Fusions:[/b] [url=https://i.imgur.com/hTvuk1U.png]Massachusetts[/url] (Cardiofusion), [url=https://i.imgur.com/CINowS2.png]Rhodeia of Loch[/url] (Cardiofusion), [url=https://i.imgur.com/WmS1BS1.png]Kronya[/url] (Cardiofusion), [url=https://i.imgur.com/OGQHohy.png]Cat-5[/url] (Tail)
[hider=New Abilities][b]Luna-trick[/b] - Nadia can power up an attack she makes with New Moon, adding a dazzling silver aura that treats her strike as if her foe suffered Def/Res-30%. After use, thirty seconds must pass before she can do this again
[b]Preda-torrent[/b] - After charging up some Hydro energy in her limb, Nadia can create a whirlpool at the point of impact, drawing enemies toward the center, wetting them, and dealing damage over time for five seconds within a six-foot radius
[b]Big Mamie[/b] - For each ally fighting alongside Nadia, her ranged damage, damage against airborne enemies, and evasiveness increase by 8%, stacking up to 24% at 3 stacks[/hider]
[b]Upgrades Spent:[/b] 11

[b]Appearance:[/b] Nadia has gotten slightly shorter, but is much less lanky/scrawny, and more curvaceous. Her scars have a pattern of interlocking diamonds, silver in color like her nails. Her hair resembles a bob cut with side-parted bangs, albeit long, flowing, and messy, reaching the middle of her back and covering her left eye. Its outside is white in color, its inside vivid orange. She has two narrow, bladelike cat tails tipped with metal diamond fins that look like USBs, all black like her ears. She’s wearing black eyeliner and has a black tear drop beneath her right eye, as well as a bright white triangle on her forehead. Her slitted eyes are red. She’s wearing a crop top that connects to her belled collar, spats, a leather belt full of pouches, strapped thighhighs cut around her calf scars, fingerless opera gloves cut around her bicep and forearm scars, sneakers with their fronts missing, and a baggy, unzipped jacket. All her clothing is shiny black with blue highlights and orange accent lines. The jacket has blue swirls all over and a big, flashy white collar, while the sleeves have three ‘fins’ apiece that hang from the wrists. Nadia’s rigging, fused into her blade case, is attached to the back of her jacket, creating what functions as a metal backpack shaped roughly like a guitar
[b]Personality:[/b] Slightly quieter and less expressive. More concerned with water, particularly its wonders and its purity, and more hateful of contamination/corruption. More sadistic, cheerful, cruel, and crazed[/hider]

Nadia looked herself over, trying to gauge how she felt after going through the bizarre ordeal of redistributing her abilities. “Uh…I thiiiiink this is how I was before? More or less?” She couldn’t ignore certain differences, like her lack of paws, leather-replete outfit, and novel number of tails. Having white hair again made her happy, even if Massachusetts made it way longer again, but where did that orange come from!? After a moment she shrugged and put her hands on her hips with a wide smile. Sure, she’d have to cut her hair short when she found a mirror, but a ponytail would work until then, and overall she was pretty pleased with her appearance. “Eh, good enough! I sure ain’t fiddlin’ around with that crazy orb again, heehee! Anyone else wanna try your luck?”

She watched as the others looked into it, devilishly curious about what would happen and eager to see from an outside perspective, but Nadia also took a moment to use Sectonia’s Symbol of Avarice on the strikers she didn’t really want. With Cat-5’s electricity expanding her kit even further, she felt compelled to reign her number of options in a little. Just too much to think about. After crushing the first one she pocketed the result, but the second auto-equipped itself the instant she touched it, just like the Night Light she’d forgotten about for over a day. The mutation caused her guts to churn as a second stomach joined the first. “Man,” she winced, holding her belly. “I get all the bad luck.” After that sat back to see what her teammates made of the Orb of Undoing.

[center][hider=For Ms Fortune]Obtained:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/I3zW70N.png]Ripened Heart[/url][/b]
[i]On use, provides a quick burst of fast healing (about 20%) provided by a prolonged stretch of slower healing, about 40% over 5 seconds. Only three uses between rests[/i]

[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/fSG8UTo.png]Second Stomach[/url][/b]
[i]A gastrointestinal mutation that doubles the health received from health-restoring items[/i][/hider][/center]