[center][h3]Skies of Dystopia[/h3]
Level 8 Goldlewis (53/80) Level 7 Sandalphon (11/70)
Blazermate, Susie, and Roland’s [@Archmage MC], Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man], Pit’s [@Yankee], Roxas’ [@Double]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3589[/center]

After all of Z’s fanfare, the battle was on. From the outside, divorced from its context, this fight might look like a cinch. The Seekers, fresh from a victory against an alphabetically adjacent Consul and the Guardian he was supposed to protect, stood united against a single foe. Even the addition of a Zeustrike mob shouldn’t have moved the scales all that much. Unfortunately, Sandalphon could not bring herself to give her team the vote of confidence. With her allies worn out from their efforts this morning and only barely starting to recover thanks to the few hours they spent in Everdream Valley, this battle against Z was much too soon. Though finding the Virgin Victory seemed like a lucky break at first, running into the Consul who’d evidently been tailing it turned that rare blessing on its head, and failing to escape him put the airship -and all of its occupants- in a precarious position indeed. From the moment Z cast his first bolt, Sandalphon had realized his intentions. This wasn’t a question of whether or not the Seekers could beat him; it was a question of whether or not they could beat him before the Lord of Lightning knocked them out of the sky.

Such a thing was easier said than done. The heroes, spurred on by the self-evident risk of their current situation, came out swinging. Everyone who wanted a piece of Z quickly found out that they ignored the Zeustrikes at their peril. Their Energy Shots were near-instant beams of lightning, while their Thunder Blasts strike with electricity followed by wallops of air. Energy Waves, icy Blizzards, and buffeting Hurricanes, while more rare thanks to their greater MP demands, could hit multiple Seekers at once. If given half a chance, they could buff themselves with Raise Arms or Dodge as well, or sacrifice some HP to create a Lightning Wall that could soak three non-reactive hits apiece. Still, the Zeustrikes were ultimately the easier targets. Roland could build up his Emotion levels by fighting them, Geralt hunted them down, and Roxas diverted their attention while speeding around.

The real problem, of course, was Z, and despite Pit’s remarks, his ride alone gave him a tremendous advantage. Perched atop his airborne chariot, Z circled the Virgin Victory at a comfortable distance, interfering with the fight as he pleased. This distance plus the speed with which he moved through the stormy skies made hitting him almost impossible even with bullets, let alone slower projectiles, and with the atmospheric conditions plus the shaking of the Virgin Victory in play, preternatural levels of accuracy were required. Though Fortune managed to charge up her railgun in safety thanks to the cubes placed by Roxas, his strategy ended in disappointment when her shot failed to connect, missing Z by a good 10 feet. Zenkichi’s shots faced similar issues. Projectiles that homed like Pit’s light arrows and the Flygon’s cactus spikes fared a little better, but if they lacked the speed to keep up with the Consul they could get swept away in the storm. Sandalphon tried sniping the Consul several times with the Eye of Sol, but even with her inhuman powers of mental calculation she found it prohibitively hard to land her shots. Only by tuning out the fight against the Zeustrikes completely could she attain the necessary focus, but that meant abandoning her role as support.

Instead the archangel shifted between follow-up shots and healing miracles, patching her allies up when the shields provided by Goldlewis broke down. After all, Z didn’t just let the Seekers shoot at him. He seemed to take every attempt to hit him as a personal challenge, and happily answered in kind. Once Susie’s magicrystal got his attention, Z destroyed the missiles that the robot sent his way, even after the static discharges in the atmosphere detonated a few prematurely. He sent chain lightning bouncing among his enemies, using his Aegis shield to make up for any breaks in the chain, then dutifully detonated each one. While Blazermate, Zenkichi, and Sandalphon herself could cleanse the Charge and Jolted statuses he inflicted, Z could dish them out a lot faster, to the point where even if Blazermate forsook healing entirely she still couldn’t keep up. Besides, Charge only lasted a few seconds, and her teammates scarcely stopped attacking to wait for a cleanse. Compared to dealing with everything the Consul could dish out, fighting the Zeustrikes sounded pretty good, even if that alone wouldn’t land the heroes a win here. All the while, Z saved his heaviest bolts for the Virgin Victory itself, pounding the ship again and again with lightning to bring it closer and closer to destruction.

One big problem throughout was communication. Between the chaos of fighting in a live thunderstorm and the roaring wind, it was difficult to request help or follow-up attacks even for those inclined to do so, with or without Sandalphon’s group call. Almost none of the Seekers said much of anything, and even those that did mostly just remarked on the state of things.

The battle came to a head when Z, perturbed by the mounting losses among his Zeustrikes, kicked off some teamwork of his own. “IRON FILINGS!” he yelled down as he passed overhead. “THEN LET ‘EM HAVE IT!” At his command, the lightning beasts started using a certain status move. It applied the Conducted debuff to their targets for a whopping thirty seconds, causing every electric attack in the fight to deal an additional jolt of flat damage. Then the Zeustrikes began to spam their lowest-cost attacks, Spit and Energy Bolt, to push the amount of electric attacks in play through the roof. Within seconds everyone present was in a state of constant shock, quickly chewing through a fresh round of shields from Goldlewis and forcing Sandalphon to use both Angelic Praise and Angelic Wings.

Both realized right away that this couldn’t be allowed to continue. “This ain’t workin’!” Goldlewis howled, gritting his teeth. Figuring that Pit had the lowest health among his allies, he used his Shield Charger to grant the angel a tough barrier to keep him standing for a little longer. Not even he could take this passive electrocution forever, though. Midna had already fled with an injured Asbestos covering her retreat, and it wouldn’t be long before more of them couldn’t keep on fighting. “We gotta get outta this storm!”

Sandalphon nodded, her expression neutral but her pupils in the form of stress marks. “Commander, we’re suffering up here. Is there any way we can escape from this situation?”

Clearly, this was not the news that Commander Nelson had been hoping to hear. “Perhaps. The Virgin Victory cannot take much more of this. Our best bet may be to ascend through the cloud layer to clear skies. We can close the upper deck to shield you from the storm as we do.”

Without hesitation, Goldlewis agreed. “Do it, now!”

“Okay,” Alice MacGregor replied calmly. “Can you give us an opening? If he destroys the shielding, we’re through.”

Sandalphon narrowed her eyes. “Affirmative.”

As Z flew in for another electric bombing run, the archangel conjured a laser targeting device, then used it to indicate the deck ahead of him. At the same time, Goldlewis reached up a hand and activated his goggles, shooting a red laser pointer in the same spot. A moment later, his Burn It Down and her Headquarter Support Request activated simultaneously, bombarding the upper deck with a napalm cluster bomb and a heavy blue satellite laser that tracked the Consul’s path. Together the two forced Z to veer away from the Virgin Victory, damaging both him and his Zeustrikes in the process.

Without a moment to lose, the shielding slid up from both sides of the upper deck and slammed shut overhead, separating the Seekers from both Z and the storm. Then the Virgin Victory began to ascend, pushing up through the stormclouds. As the team finished off the Zeustrikes sealed inside, lightning bolts battered the ship from all sides, rocking the boat back and forth as the lights flickered. Stress levels went through the roof as the turbulence increased, threatening to rip the Virgin Victory apart any second. Finally, after a tense few seconds, the ship burst through the clouds. The shaking subsided, and when the shielding fell away the Seekers could see nothing but clear blue skies above a sea of clouds, a vista of staggering vastness and beauty. Goldlewis breathed a sigh of relief, but neither he nor Sandalphon could rest easy. “Look sharp, folks,” he advised the team. I got a feelin’ this ain’t over yet.”

“We’ve taken heavy damage,” Alice reported. “Our best bet is to get as far away as possible, land, and begin repairs immediately.”

The Commander groaned. “Agreed, full speed ahead. Charting a course for-”

A ball of lightning exploded up through the clouds, and after brushing away the snow-white fluff their pursuer made himself known. “DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU’D GET AWAY?” he thundered. “YOU’RE IN MY WORLD NOW. YOU’VE ONLY GIVEN YOURSELF FARTHER TO FALL!”

He pulled up on the ship’s port side, lifted his hand, and conjured his most massive thunderbolt yet, a spear of lightning as long as his chariot. Before throwing it, however, he paused, seemingly staring at the Virgin Victory. After a moment, Sandalphon followed his gaze to the ship’s starboard side, where she saw a disturbance among the clouds. They were being kicked up, like dust behind a sprinter, or water behind a boat. Something else, she realized, must be pushing up from underneath–something obscenely huge. As far as she could tell from her limited perspective, something [i]was[/i] displacing the clouds as it rose upward, but she couldn’t tell what it was beyond some kind of big shimmer, an area slightly at odds with the background.

Then the [url=https://i.imgur.com/VAC7Q9p.png]unidentified flying object[/url] uncloaked.

It was a massive ship, much bigger than the Virgin Victory. Four huge tilted turbines kept it aloft as it lifted higher, capturing the smaller airship entirely with its shadow. Its armor looked heavy, forged from space-age alloys with cutting-edge technology. Unlike the Seekers’ vessel, this one seemed to be made for in-atmosphere flight. Goldlewis stared with his mouth agape, practically shaking in his boots. Was this another enemy? Things were bad enough as is. 

When he glanced over at Z, however, the Consul seemed similarly stunned. After a moment, Z clenched his jaw beneath his helmet, his eyes narrowed in an irritated sneer. “HMPH. SO YOU’VE FINALLY DECIDED TO SHOW YOUR FACES. THE LOST NUMBERS…”

[i]The Lost Numbers?[/i] Sandalphon turned her gaze back toward the new ship. Whatever this interloper was, it seemed to be no friend to the Consul. This time, she noticed figures emerging from an exterior door high atop the ship. A handful of figures made their way out onto the ship’s surface, braced against the wind. Her keen eyes spied a surly-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/juNVQm4.png]twenty-something[/url] in a blue coat and a [url=https://i.imgur.com/t1TKgcZ.png]scruffy man in his forties[/url] in a red one, both with white hair and a greatsword slung across their backs. At their heels followed three smartly-dressed demon women with white hair and eyes as red as their collared shirts. Finally, a third man followed them, somewhere in his mid-thirties, with messy black-blond hair and beard, sunglasses, and a flashy suit. He carried a bottle of [url=https://i.imgur.com/cGAt6ge.png]electric yellow wine[/url] in one hand, and some sort of power seemed to be flowing from him to boost the others.

“Looks like you got the party started without me!” Dante called breezily as the wind whipped at his hair. He grinned at the Seekers. “But don’t worry, ‘cause we’re here to bring down the house. Ready, Cerberus?”

The triplets [url=https://i.imgur.com/oE3X2gg.png]jumped onto him[/url] “Ready!” they chorused.

“Right, let’s go!” Dante summoned his greatsword, which immediately slammed into his chest. His body exploded into flame, transforming into a huge, six-winged, four-horned [url=https://i.imgur.com/n5SgM2U.png]demon[/url] of craggy brimstone skin atop a molten core, with Cerberus still clinging to him, unbothered. The sight of such a strong demon made Sandalphon cringe, but if she’d clocked this newcomer correctly, he might just be the team’s saving grace. With a beat of his wings Dante took flight, soaring from the new ship toward Z. Nero blasted off his own prosthetic arm, turning it into a missile he then jumped on to ride it like a surfboard through the sky.

Having already realized what was about to happen, the Consul let loose everything he had. He unleashed a bombardment of lightning javelins like the arrows of an entire army. Dante hurtled through the storm, soaking it all up, and closed the distance. Taking his namesake sword in both hands, he brought it down on Z’s Aegis shield in an impact that rang across the sky like the bell Jondo. It stunned them both, but as Dante reeled backward, Cerberus took action. “Woohoo!” The three springboarded off him, manifested elemental weapons as they ran down the backs of Z’s Ixion steeds to attack him directly. Striking in perfect sync, they got in a handful of hits before the Consul composed himself and blasted them back with a burst of electricity.

“Augh!” As they faltered, Dante reached out his hand, and the three fused into a pair of massive nunchucks, with one head apiece of fire, lightning, and ice. The devil grabbed the lightning head and twisted around, whacking Z’s head with the other two to set off a temperature shock. He staggered backward, almost falling from his chariot, then manifested and hurled a point-blank thunderbolt. It struck Dante in the chest, but as he fell back he tossed the nunchucks into the air. They turned back into Cerberus, and the triplets dropped into the Ixions, where they immediately started ripping throats. Their attack on his steeds incensed Z so much that he scarcely noticed Nero flying in over their heads.

“Eat this!” Nero performed a backflip, hurling his Punchline missile-arm straight into Z’s chest for a taste of his own medicine. Before he could fall, he shot out his wire snatch to grapple onto the left arm of Dante, who’d just resummoned his sword to finish off what Cerberus started. The three jumped onto him again, and with one mighty cleave apiece, he dispatched the Ixions, and in karmic reversal of fortune the Consul’s chariot began to fall.

Of course, Z just took flight himself, crackling with electricity as he floated in the sky. Even still, he sounded plenty mad. “Damn you!” he growled. The next second a sunlight thunderbolt slammed into Dante, its holy might dealing heavy damage. With a pained grunt, Dante whirled around, whipping Nero toward Z as his nephew dangled from his arm.

The line caught Z mid shield toss, and Nero’s momentum sent him spinning around the Consul, pinning his arms to his sides as he got wrapped up. When he ran out of slack, Nero grabbed hold of Z himself, then equipped an Overture arm that he promptly attached to Z’s helmet. “Get a grip!” With a smirk he kicked off. “See you next fall!” He used Air Hike to reach Dante, and after grabbing hold, he pulled out the Blue Rose. Hanging on beside him, Cerberus pulled out a trio of pistols of their own.

Dante’s demonic face seemed to smile. “Jackpot!”

His hangers-on pulled their triggers, blasting the Exploder that Nero had placed. The huge explosion knocked Z from the sky, sending him into freefall. The Consul glared upward as he fell, considering his options, then scoffed. “Hmph.” He twisted around to face downward as he disappeared into the clouds.

As much as he wanted to soak in the Seekers’ admiration, Dante had to hustle back toward the ship that brought him. “Gotta dip for now, so if you want an autograph, you better hustle!” Once he and the others reached their ride, it peeled away, headed toward the now-visible edge of the stormcloud expanse.

“...Well then,” Commander Nelson's voice reached the Seekers through Sandalphon’s group call. “I suppose we should follow them.”

[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FBmHQb4.png[/img][/center]

Only once both ships settled down in the middle of nowhere, somewhere on the dusty, arid peninsula between Gutsford and the Satisfactory Industrial Zone, could Goldlewis, Sandalphon, and the others really begin to appreciate the sheer size of the massive ship that had come to their aid. It was like a floating fortress, beefier even than Rufus Shinra’s immense helicopter, and after seeing Dante there was no telling who might be inside. Curiosity came hand in hand with gratitude to the Seekers, after all. With the loss of Alcamoth, it seemed like the away teams were all alone in the world, and yet unexpected allies had come to their rescue. The faces of the heroes’ rescuers might be unknown to Goldlewis and Sandalphon, but at least one person on the team had met Dante and Nero before. At the same time, though, the inexplicable and rather drastic change in the legendary devil hunter’s appearance only begged further questions. Only one lay on everyone’s mind, however: just who were these Lost Numbers?

Eager to get their questions answered, the most curious team members left the Virgin Victory, trekked a short ways, and grouped up at the rear of the unknown vessel. After a brief delay, the huge bay doors swung down to settle in the dust, creating a ramp up into the belly of the best. A handful of people descended. Nero was there with a freshly-equipped Gerbera arm, exactly as Pit remembered him from their road trip together through the Paved Wilderness with Yuri and Banjo-Kazooie. Beside him strolled a very different Dante compared to the one Blazermate met in Redgraccoon City, still with those clingy dog girls hounding him.

There were also two complete strangers, including the down-and-out dandy Sandalphon spotted before, as well as a woman who bore obvious resemblance to him. Also in her mid-thirties, she was sturdily built, with a set of baggy black overalls over a white sports bra, and spiky black-blonde hair tied in a low ponytail. In sharp contrast to her counterpart’s bottle, the woman carried a [url=https://i.imgur.com/m8mKwR1.png]huge black hammer[/url] on her back like it was nothing. Probably brother and sister, the two shared a distinctive eye color, a bright red-blue gradient. The more that Roxas, Pit, Susie, Blazermate, Geralt, Zenkichi, and Sandalphon looked, the more oddly familiar the siblings became. Neither bore any trace of Galeem’s influence.

That wasn’t all, though.

“Meh, meh, meh! Wait for Tora!”

A familiar furball bounced down the ramp after the others. With his stripy fur, big brown eyes, flapping wings and denim overalls (as well as him stating his own name) there could be no mistaking him. It was Tora, the gregarious Nopon engineer they left behind in Midgar the other day. When Geralt and Midna bid him farewell, there had been no trace of hope left in his lightless, crestfallen eyes. Yet now he seemed to be full of delightful energy, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Alongside him ran his other half, his indispensable companion, returned from the dead. She looked a little different, rather like a Vandelay robot mixed with YoRHa android thanks to her sleek robot parts and modern attire, but it was Poppi all the same.

“Friends!” Tora cried, already weeping tears of joy. “Meh, meh! Tora so, so happy to see everypon again!” He went around hugging everyone who’d let him, especially Roxas, Pit, and Blazermate. Poppi followed in his footsteps, shaking hands with gusto. Even Goldlewis got the chance to scoop both inventor and invention up in one big bear hug. He hadn’t gotten to know the two that well since Al Mamoon, but he did know two things: that neither deserved the bad hand dealt them, and that both deserved to be happy.

After greeting everyone, Tora stepped back and tried to compose himself. “Meh meh! Tora know everypon welcome her back already, but Tora want give Poppi proper introduction, meh!” Threatening to burst with happiness, he held his wings out toward his companion, and Poppi used her pleated skirt for a curtsy. “Now presenting Tora pride and joy: Poppi Quixotic Tutelar Perfect Artifice 2000, AKA Poppi QT-PA-2T!”

Poppi treated the Seekers of Light to her most joyful smile. “It Poppi’s pleasure to make -and remake- your acquaintance.”

With the dynamic duo having broken the ice, the woman put her gloved hands on her hips and gave a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad you all made it,” she told the Seekers, her voice kind. “When that Consul engaged you, we feared for the worse.”

“Not all of us,” Dante grinned, nodding at the team. “I know you guys are the real deal. If only we'd had you on the homefront, eh?”

The woman shot him a look, then turned a gentler face back toward the Seekers. “So you know them already? Not me though, I’ll wager. I’m Dawn, and this is my baby brother Cirrus.” Her brother averted his gaze, his lips pursed in thinly-veiled annoyance. Smiling, Dawn gestured up at the ship. “This is the Avenger, and we -the Lost Numbers- are here to help.”

[center][h3]Sandswept Sky - Gerudo Town[/h3]
Level 13 Ms Fortune (118/130)
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Ganondorf’s [@Double], Osvald’s [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1065[/center]

When she heard where she and Primrose would be meeting Sectonia, Nadia caught herself and doubled back. “I’ll catch up with you!” she called as she took off back the way she just came. “I better grab a bathing suit. Don’t wanna ruin these duds!” She jogged back down the street, passing and earning a curious glance from the hammer-wielding craftswoman on the way, then slipped back into Yuria’s shop. The seamstress looked surprised to see her client back so soon, but welcomed her gladly, especially when Nadia revealed why she came. It didn’t take long for the two to find the swimsuit that the feral liked best, and after forking over another 1300 zenny, Nadia walked out with a ruffled mint-green two-piece stuffed in one of her pouches.

From there, Nadia hustled through the side street a third time, passing up a couple stores and hole-in-the-wall eateries only with great reluctance. A bar called the [url=https://i.imgur.com/Onbdh4o.png]Noble Canteen[/url], with a distinctive bottle statue inlaid with blue mosaic tiles, almost convinced her to stop, but she kept going. She rounded its corner and emerged into the wide-open Gerudo Town bazaar, where she took a moment to orient herself. Broadly speaking, this bustling marketplace occupied the desert settlement’s center, with Lady Riju’s grand palace plus the  barracks of the city guard to the east, opposite the main entrance to the west, where those beefy sand seals were stabled. Evidently her destination lay to the palace’s north, in Gerudo Town’s northeastern quadrant. With no visible path around the palace itself she’d need to circle around a bit, but that’d hardly be a problem.

The real issue hit her when her eyes fell on the bazaar’s food carts, and she found herself unable to move on. It was well past lunchtime at this point, as her rumbling stomach reminded her; she’d been so focused on purr-loining from the Nyakuza in the Metro that she missed her chance to try out the countless food carts. The fact that the [url=https://i.imgur.com/aORevCf.png]food here[/url] turned out to be incredibly aromatic. Tandoori roast chicken, gilded tajine, biryani, samosas…all fragrant with mouth-watering herbs and spices. As she watched a Gerudo shopkeeper expertly shaving meat from a vertical skewer to use as shawarma in a flatbread wrap, Nadia realized she was actually drooling. “Alright, alright already,” she muttered to her stomach, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Within moments the feral had purchased some [url=https://i.imgur.com/lV0FVA9.png]pita pockets[/url] laden with crunchy vegetables and flavorful lamb, perfectly complemented by cucumber yogurt sauce. “Alright, pita pocket. You’ve done me a great disservice by tempting me so. Time to ‘meat’ out justice!” When she bit in, the combination left Nadia stunned, wondering how in the world someone so ordinary could be so good. With very little dignity, the feral wolfed down the rest. Then she headed north at a brisk jog to make up for lost time, smacking her lips all the while.

Her trip brought her out of the town’s more commercial, cultural center and into its residential zones. After a couple minutes she could go no farther, as the road stopped short in a T-junction at the edge of a massive pit. If Nadia expected to see sparkling pools of water down there, she was mistaken. Instead she beheld the glitter of gold, almost blindingly bright in the afternoon sun, and after a moment she realized that within the pit lay an elaborate Egyptian temple half-buried in dunes of what could only be gold dust. The sight left her in awe, not to mention confused. What could possibly convince people to destroy their riches like that? Some kind of tithe? “Jeez, what a waste. If someone ground up my gold, I’d start a rebullion.”

Shaking her head in dismay, Nadia turned and headed east. As she passed by various buildings, she scoped out each one, searching for Primrose or Sectonia as she tried to figure out which one was the bathhouse. None fit the bill though, and pretty soon the feral wound up at the end of the street in front of a huge, elaborate structure, easily the second-biggest building in Gerudo Town after the palace. When she studied it with brow raised, however, she came to a sudden realization. “‘Bath of Tefnut?’ Wait. This is it? No way!” Eager to be proven wrong, she raced inside.

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rv1uNYofP8][img]https://i.imgur.com/6VvdJTC.png[/img][/url]
[i]Click for music[/i][/center]

Once she made her way through the parlor, itself a rather elaborate affair of impressive stonework, the interior took her breath away. In front of her sprawled an immense natatorium of such lavishness and beauty that to call it a mere ‘swimming pool’ would be a gross understatement. It was nothing less than a work of art, a seamless and gorgeous integration of nature and tradition with ingenious design. From atrium-style glass panels in the vaulted ceiling high above, natural light streamed down on a fringe of tropical greenery that lined what must be a hidden perimeter aqueduct, for water streamed down in perfect curtains past the immense, stoic statues of towel-clad Egyptian gods and into a pool of spectacular enormity. Its waters seemed to glow from within, suggesting some sort of illumination below, but except for that and the glow from incense-filled braziers no artificial light could be found anywhere. Everywhere Nadia looked, she found more impressive decor, from the colorfully-inscribed pillars and obelisks to the luxurious cushions and recliners. And an ancient boat, just hanging above the waters, why not?

“Jeez. Whoever built this place must’ve really pooled their resources.”

After chuckling to herself. Nadia took a deep breath in and out. Despite all the guests throughout the Bath of Tefnut, everything was calm and peaceful. After half a day spent traipsing around the treacherous Chasm, the vast and varied Underground, and cities at the continent’s extremes, it seemed like she’d arrived at paradise. It was finally time to relax.

After finding the others, Nadia quickly got changed, then neatly piled her outfit, rigging pack, and other items at a chosen deck chair. Then the two-tailed feral slid into the pleasantly warm water, eliciting a happy sigh. “I’m home.”