“You don’t?!” Rayne, her fingertips on forehead with disbelief, replied with shock to the confused look and “Eh?” she got in response to asking what the stampede stopping plan was, before throwing her hands up in alarm with an equally alarmed cry of “what do we do!?”
She certainly had no idea, and at first it seemed neither did Fran, as both of them were helpless to stop the cows from smashing through what remained of their enclosure. Then when Fran had an idea Rayne had every right to be concerned about what it was, especially when the woman leapt in front of the stampeded she’d made and shouted for them to cover their ears
“Wait look out what are you-” Rayne called after her, before seeing her breathing in deep and going “oh no” before clamping her hat and hands over her sensitive pointy ears.
It only sort of helped.
Unnatural fear spiked through her heart and gripped her throat as the Knight, entirely unused to any kind of magical mental effects, floundered under the onslaught that physically forced the levitating woman back. Only it wasn’t entirely true that she wasn’t used to having her mind affected by others, it was just that the Link’s two way connection was one of hope and heroism rather than fear, and it was to that Link Rayne clung to in-order to steel herself against terror.
Then, all of a sudden, it was all over. The cows, unable to cover their ears even if they had been able to understand the warning, had fallen, while the people still stood. Mostly. Rayne wasn’t entirely sure if her legs would have supported her had she been standing rather than floating.
She was also too busy checking first her own breathing and then that of the farm hands to worry about the cows, but given that Fran seemed to think they were fine after a touch to the neck, maybe they were? She’d leave that to the farmers who would know the health of their livelihoods far better than her.
After half catching her breath she managed to respond “I, well, yes” to Fran’s short declaration that the cows had indeed been stopped. Which they had. But it certainly had been quite the dramatic ordeal, for them, the cows and “Wait. Oh no, the town!”
She suddenly spun on the spot after that declaration, and blink dashed back the way they had come, clearing the walls of the town a few moments later and then calling out to the citizenry who had 0 context for the lightning and screaming: “Don’t panic, everything’s fine! Frankenstein just had a, uh, really noisy way of herding the cows? But again, everything’s fine. Mostly. I mean the cows fainted but I think they’ll be ok?” after which she glanced over her shoulder to check that things were indeed ok back there.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
Unlike the others, Midna didn’t have time to relax away from Midgar right away. No, she was going back again to pick up some Bridges people to bring them out to the Virgin Victory so they could do… some kind of technology thing. She wasn’t sure really what the specifics were, nor why the little portable device she was lent to organize where they’d meet up wouldn’t just do the job either, but she had to assume they knew their stuff.
At any rate, that left her time to kill inside the city itself, and it wasn’t exactly in a state where she could go to the spa either. The mood of the city was… tumultuous to say the least. Not only had the people been told that it would be unwise to stay, they had also learned they did not belong there in the first place. The latter certainly helped motivate acting on the former, but it wasn’t like people could just up and leave on short notice, especially when other people were trying to also do the same. The amount of congestion that was causing also meant that the Bridges people were going to have a problem getting to her.
She spent the start of this just sort of fiddling with the Eliacube, turning it this way and that, putting a little mana into it, and just generally trying to figure it out more. She didn’t get very far, and eventually put it away again, though her mind kept drifting back to it like a puzzle she just couldn’t crack.
TO try and distract herself instead she tried to do a bit of self reflection on how they could have done things better in Midgar, only to realize something ”wait… the psi-fish wouldn't have gotten Karin‘s message down there”
Indeed, the strange psychic creatures, the previous victims of Midgar’s attempts at mass producing psychic soldiers via raising and slaughtering of beings who could grant psionic abilities via fusion before they’d switched to pokemon, were still down in the polluted reservoir. They too were now free from Galeem, and yet unlike everyone up top, entirely unaware as to what that meant, not to mention unaware that the city was being evacuated. Not that they could really evacuate alongside those above, given what had been done to them and the enmity that had caused, but still.
They deserved to know.
Her expected guests might have been slowed by the city’s refugee packed streets, but the princess was not. Traveling first by portal to their Seiran Clinic hideout, and then hopping from shadow to shadow, the princess effortlessly made her way down through the undercity, and then down into the reservoir below.
This had, admittedly, been a bad idea last time, but without any footsloggers in tow, she didn’t have to worry about navigating the perilous walkways and pipes that they’d need to get up and down last time, nor about being ambushed by the creatures living down there in the dark.
That didn’t mean she was safe. Last time she was here one of the bigger psi-fish had done … something to her, that left her with a missing any form of memory regarding a short yet impactful space of time, one during which she’d had to apparently be carried up and out by the others due to her unresponsive state.
Not a thing she could have happened again now that she was on her own.
So, not getting seen, that was for sure on the top of her list of priorities. But that was fine. All she needed to do was be a messenger from the shadows.
The psi-fish weren't exactly hard to track down moving at her speed, what with them glowing and all. So in a short amount of time she’d found, one, and then from it hopped to larger and larger groups till she found a swirling storm of psionic energy managed by numerous psi-fish that was slowly coalescing into a titan of psi-fish kind
It looked to be a slow, slow process, but one that was nearing completion, and whatever it was, she was quite sure it was another point in favor of the people of the city leaving as soon as possible. Still, even if this was built specifically to spell devastation upon those above, the psi-fish deserved a chance to take another path, especially the one that had now opened to them.
So she did her best to share the news via shouting it out of the shadows, and repeatedly changing her location to avoid being located as she did so
”Listen to me. I’m one of the ones you let go before and I’ve come back to tell you that Shinra and psych-OFF are dead and the city is dying because of what we returned to the world above” which she suspected they might take as good news, given the misery that had inflicted upon them. It was hard to tell the actual reaction though, given they did not so much speak as project thoughts, a thing she did not want to happen because it meant they might be able to project other things in to control her. Still, it certainly caused a stir among them, the psi-fish forming up defensively in response to her intrusion.
”The people there are free of the delusions of Galeem, the thing that made the world the way it was, that stole your ancestors from their home and put them in this one where they could be captured and killed by Shinra. Now they are going to leave this cursed trap of a city Galeem put them in, and you should too. With them gone, the Others, those things in the tunnels that eat brains, which rain down onto the city above in far greater numbers, will have nowhere to hunt except down here. You should go, find a better home. The machines to the south are in disarray. Punch through what’s left of them, and find the freedom of the ocean past the mountains to the east, to the left, of their bases. It's a great expanse of clean water, it might even be where they took your people from, where you might even find the rest of your kind” she called down. It was not a safe way by any means, but it was the only way they could go, and, she hoped, one that most of the civilians from the city would not be going to. It would be rough, but it had to be better than here, surly?
Either way, she was sure she’d had some kind of effect now, as the mostly organized defensive line was wavering, turning to what she thought was discourse. Or it was just confused by the way she’d moved after every sentence to avoid being located. They were certainly trying to find her at least, several of the larger hunters, the same kind that had locked down her mind, where roving through the air trying to track her down while the ranged psi-fish held their crumbling defensive formation.
With them narrowing down the positions she could broadcast from, and the information more or less delivered, she decided she’d done all she could, retreating from the storm and going back the way she came.
After that, all she had to do was wait a little bit longer for the Bridges team to show up, and she could get on with her job. The actual task was done in very short order, the princess ferrying the humans from the city to the docked ship in the blink of an eye, and then leaving them to get on with their task.
With that done, it was finally time for some well deserved RnR. Or, more specifically, lunch. She’d helped take down 2 pseudo-gods and an entire city state on just a donut, and she was absolutely famished as a result.
wordcount: 1,436 (+3 for J and R) (+5 for B and K) Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (184/140) (+1 bonus pending) Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (67/140) (+1 bonus pending) Kamek: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (64/130) (+1 bonus pending) Rika: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (83/90) (+1 bonus pending) Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
Rika and Jr ended up going with Theon rather than hanging around to listen to whatever Asgor was going to go on about. Kamek would no doubt fill them in on it later, and both of them felt like their time could be better spent hanging around town to see if there was anything fun to do/get while they waited. Like milkshakes. Or toys. Or cool weapons.
To get to the city all they needed to do was go down the pipe near the base of the tree, which should have been a non issue. Except when Jr stepped on it, and remembered that it came out at the bottom of a pool of water, he felt a sudden and unexpected spike of fear.
”Huh what?” the prince said as he found himself pausing before stepping in, not anywhere close paralyzed by fear, but certainly slowed enough that had to stop anyway out of confusion as to why he was feeling that way. ”Why am I…. What is the… oh come on Omori are you scared of water too!?”
That was the only explanation. It certainly couldn't have been Undyne he inherited this fear from, that would have been silly, seeing as she was a fish.
As he was seething on top of the pipe, the prince actively glowing red with an aura of anger, he was actively stopping anyone else from going down it, which was a touch of a problem, and one that caused Rika, next in line, to ask ”You ok? Are we not going?”
”I’m fine I’m just going to prove a point real quick” Jr growled in response as he hopped off of the pipe and matched down to the edge of the water that surrounded the sandbank they were on. Then he took a casual step into it without any concern. ”See! This is fine! Stop being such a wuss” he told himself, even if he was phrasing his ire like Omori was here in spirit and it was all his fault.
He was a little confused as to why he hadn’t felt anything at all from that little dip however, and so took another step into the water. Then another and another till he was up to his neck, and then finally when he moved to move his head under the water, and specifically his mouth and nose, that was when the fear came back, and his mind conjured unbidden images of the water flowing into those orifices.
He stood there for a moment, then violently dunked his head under the water and then came back up and declared ”I’m in control here Omori, not you. Me!”
He then glanced up to find Rika floating on the water’s surface next to him, looking down at him with a mix of confusion and concern. Mostly confusion. No one had ever thought to tell her what a phobia was after all.
”What? I’m good! Omori was just scared of drowning or something, but I’m better than that!” jr insisted as he stomped back on to dry land, water dripping off of him.
”Oh. Well. I mean. Drowning is bad so why wouldn’t you be afraid of it?” she asked as a result of the prior mentioned ignorance.
”I mean he must have been, like, super scared of it. Drowningphobic or something. Freaking out if it ever even seemed like it was going to happen, which’d just make stuff worse” Jr replied, finding himself trying to fill in a gap he wasn’t exactly sure how it worked either. He just hadn’t been paying attention whenever a lot of things were explained to him, making him rather the poor teacher for this kind of thing.
”Huh. Ok. So. Would you need me to carry you up through the water at the other end of the pipe or…?” she asked, but jr shot the idea down, biting back that ”I’m fine! I’m fine. I can do this. I’m tough, not some stupid kid like him”
”Oh… Oh wait, can’t you just turn into Undyne so you straight up can’t drown?” she asked, an idea which gave him pause, and snapped him out of his angry state. The prince raised a finger, lowered, it raised it and then finally said ”No, because I can do this, she’s in heavy armor she she can’t swim and also the town would probably freak out about their guard captain coming back from the dead or going un-missing and that would just be this whole thing we’d have to deal with”
Rika gave a sad little ”Oh…” at her idea being shot down, and Jr was still in a bit too much of a mood to tell her how it was a good idea in general.
At that point they were back at the pipe. There, Jr took a deep breath, then let it out, before stepping up onto it and finally, after another moment of hesitation, descending. Despite having been told she didn’t need to help him, Rika descended quickly after him, just to be safe.
A few moments later they popped out the other side in quick succession, entering into the underwater race track who’s raving searchlights had fortunately already activated thanks to those who had gone on ahead while the prince dallied on the beach.
Immediately fear flared in the mind of the puffy cheeked prince as the water surrounded him. But it was fine, all he needed to do was swim up. He’d done this before. He’d be fine.
Unfortunately last time he had not had an arm covered in metal tattoos, which not only weighed him down as he started to breaststroke up towards the surface, it also bled heat like nobody’s business. As he rose towards the surface, and his air began to go down, so too did the fear rise, and his temperature drop. His right arm rapidly became numb, stiffening, unable to aid in his swim to the surface. Panic started to build, the prince’s controlled swim becoming increasingly frantic.
He wasn’t going go make it, he wasn’t going go make it HE WASN’T GOING TO MAKE IT
Or so his mind began to scream as he floundered, oh so close to the surface and yet oh so far, only for an arm sporting a massive gauntleted hand to reach up from the depths and grab him around the chest. This sparked one last moment of panic before he was suddenly launched clear up, out, and above the water, as Rika tapped her featherfall rune, launching herself upwards and bringing Jr along for the ride, carrying the prince in a single massive metal hand.
The other hand thrust out, launching a grappling hook to spear to the bridge over the pool, before reeling both of them over to it, and letting her deposit them both safely on solid ground.
Jr fell flat on his butt as soon as he was set down, gasping even as he cursed the names of all the things that had led to the situation ”Stupid Omori. Stupid fusion. Stupid metal arm. Stupid pipe builder. Stupid brain not just using Undyne or Dazzle or anything when stuff started to go wrong. Stupid stupid stupid” and clutching his shivering metal tattooed arm.
Rika sat down next to him awkwardly, not sure what to do in this situation. She then opened her mouth to, of all things, start apologizing for helping him when he’s said not to, only to find herself pulled into a hug by jr, by her brother, and taking a few moments to work out how to reciprocate the gesture before hugging him back.
They sat like that for a few moments longer before Jr broke the hug, sniffed, and muttered an awkward ”thanks” to his sister, now looking pretty embarrassed about the whole situation, about his shows of weakness, even as his arm kept shivering.
Again, Rika didn’t quite know how to handle this, at least not till she thought about what would make her happy in this situation (how to practice empathy being another thing she’d never been taught to do either, so this was something she came up with doing entirely on her own), and as a result ended up asking ”Do you... Do you want to go get some hot chocolate?”
Jr blinked a few times, sniffed again, before tuning to her and nodding.
And that was how when the Asgor talking crew caught up with them at the station, they found Jr and Rika had spent their unsupervised time and funds going through several takeaway cups of piping hot coco.
As the group was preparing to split up, again, the previous split rejoined them. Riding across the dunes on beetle back came the troop, kicking up sand as they galloped over the seekers the rest have just traipsed over. Just above them flew Jr’s latest addition to his poke-team, the primal pokemon known as Flutter Mane to explorers of area zero, and as Peeka to the prince.
They slowed a bit as they approached, the trio of royals calling out greetings while a rather pooped looking Kamek only managed a little wave. Drained of mana from maintaining the 4 steeds all the way through their journey, the Mage dismissed them as soon as they caught up and then proceed to support himself using his broom as he said, tiredly, but with more than a hint of pride; ”and here we are, just as I said we would be”
”We miss anything?” Jr asked as his new spirit hovered around above everyone’s heads, getting a good look at them all, before adding ”You about to go see that old goat guy?”
”Some of us," Therion replied. "I for one can't wait to get topside. I'm gonna go on ahead, find the station."
”I for one could use a break, so if we could stop by the tree, I shall takes seat and try and absorb what information I can” Kamek said in response to this news, prompting the rest of the troop to say they’d come along as well.
”That reminds me,” Ganondorf brought up now that the Troop had returned, ”I believe it would be wise if we create for us a quick way to return to the flame clock in Holograd, as we may need to return to it in the future. But that can wait for now.”
Therion's arms were crossed beneath his poncho and his tail swished back and forth. He had spent most of the trek to the lake in feline form for easier traversal, but now he was back to being human. He was looking forward to leaving the Under behind like he'd said, but he also knew a deluge of water awaited in the city below - which he wasn't looking forward to. Rather than stick with the group he figured he'd get through it as fast as possible and wait somewhere secluded in a hopefully more dry train station. If his friend had been planning to see this mysterious king alone he would have reconsidered splitting, but at least one person had already mentioned sticking around up here. Primrose and Ms. Fortune could definitely handle themselves, so Therion was less inclined to say. Plus he was hardly interested in whatever revelation the king was cooking up - if it was something so important that it would directly impact the team, then they'd all hear about it later.
The thief didn't spend much more time there, moseying toward the pipe that Primrose had indicated earlier. The dancer herself gave him and anyone leaving with him a casual wave before turning back to the rest.
As tempting as it was to follow the thief’s lead, Ganondorf had already resolved to at least hear what this other king had to say before he returned to the surface. Or at the very least get Jr to create one of his warp paintings at Castle Holograd. Only after these things would he finally be satisfied enough to leave the Under.
The path that Primrose retraced was rougher than last time, but they'd all made it in one piece. She felt a little anxious, but it wasn't about to stop her from getting answers.
"Shall we?" she said.
”Yes.” Ganondorf responded, while the Troop mostly nodded in agreement
As the Seekers approached the tree, the sand underfoot changed. It became softer, darker, and colorless, not minuscule grains of silica but powdery flecks of carbon, piled higher and higher. Ascending the dune from which the ancient trunk protruded, the inquirers couldn’t help but kick the stuff into the air with every step, and as it settled on their clothes and skin a mild scent of acrid smoke suffused them. Nadia’s sense of smell might not be much better than the average human’s, but it didn’t take a bloodhound to tell what she was trudging through. “It’s ash,” she murmured, craning her neck upward. This tree, though unimaginably colossal in its own right, had clearly been burned at some point. Its charred, ruined upper reaches fell well short of Ash Lake’s cavernous ceiling, while the other archtrees penetrated through the roof. But Nadia still felt unsettled, unable to put aside the dread that gnawed at her. In this world, there were more ways to get ash than burning wood.
Still the Seekers pushed forward, approaching the crack in the trunk’s exterior through which they could enter. When they finally crested the sooty hill, they found the periphery of the great tree overgrown with small, low-lying bushes. Despite the poor soil, the prickly dark green tangles seemed to be thriving, with abundant yellow flowers in full bloom. The opening in the hollow, much taller than it was wide, still offered sufficient width for the visitors to enter two breast. Within, a bed of ash formed a shallow basin, almost completely blanketed by the flowering gorse plants. Around the center stood seven simple, cylindrical altars in hexagonal pattern, each laden with an instrument of destruction so masterfully made and visually impressive that they could all be legendary weapons in their own right: a fanged daylight greatsword, a lance of purefying light, an insectoid longbow that gleamed like emerald, a decorated staff of enlightenment, a greataxe hewn from stone dragonscale, a massive, overgrown shield of solid gold, and a thunder-crackling hammer. On the far side of the hollow, the ashes rose into a sharp incline, hundreds of feet tall and impossible steep. Atop this pale mountain stood a lonely throne, turned away from the hollow’s entrance and toward a gigantic hole in the back wall, looking out across the still, dark waters of Ash Lake. The sight left Nadia with a vague sense of awe.
In the very center of the imposing scene, dramatically positioned in its natural focal point, sat the exiled king. He looked tall and quite broad-shouldered, if his huge pauldrons were any indication, but a dark cloak, covered in the wear and tear of battle, shrouded his whole body. Only his head could be seen, his goatish, white-furred visage wreathed in shaggy hair and crowned with hooked horns. The former king of monsters sat with meditative stillness, his eyes closed as his chest slowly rose and fell.
The scene looked quite the same as the last time the Seekers had been there. Primrose didn't comment on the weapons or the ash. She had already come to the conclusion that they were the remnants of people that had come to challenge the monster king, but she didn't necessarily want to put her companions any more on guard. It was for the same reason that she didn't bring up the clock nearby - given that Asgore was alive and idle, she didn't think it likely that F had shown up here for it. They weren't looking for a fight.
Bowser did however mention the clock, but only to comment that it was a ”tough nut to crack that thing. Smashed it right out of the tree giant style, and not a scratch on it”
Ganondorf’s eyes narrowed slightly. So there was a clock here as well? Interesting. Something he’d have to remember for the future.
Primrose stepped forward, eyeing the hole in the wall for a moment before she called out to the king. "Asgore?"
His eyes opened immediately, betraying no startlement. Nadia wondered if the old king had really been in some sort of meditative trance, or just happened to be sitting there with his eyes closed, unable to be at peace. Though his white fur somewhat disguised the creases etched into his face and the sunkenness of his eyes, he looked terribly tired. Primrose mentioned that he’d been press-ganged into unwilling service for the Consuls for a long time, and looking at the old goat now, Nadia could definitely believe it. She already felt bad for disturbing him, her uneasiness not helped by the location’s pronounced intimidation factor.
It took a second longer than it should have for him to reply with a weak smile. “You’re back. I was hoping I’d see you again.” His gaze slowly turned to Nadia. “Brought a new friend, eh? Or maybe an old friend, just new to me. If you made it back, does that mean y’all did what you came for…?”
”It is done, and as a bonus so too is the infestation” Kamek confirmed before saying ”Now if you don’t mind, I shall be taking a seat as well” before doing just that, plopping down onto the ground to rest his old bones.
Finally, with noticeable reluctance, the king’s eyes settled on Ganondorf. They hold no warmth whatsoever. His expression held notes of annoyance and resignation, but more than anything else, Asgore stared at the warlord with disappointment. He sighed, his head drooping down. “You again.”
The warlord in question held no particular expression either. Not that it would be seen behind the shadow of his open helmet, ”...Pardon?” he finally asked after a long pause, ”Tis true that my reputation doth precede me. But I hath no recollection of meeting thee.” Although Ganondorf did have to admit that Asgore looked an awful lot like a certain other person that he had met. But surely that didn’t mean anything, or so he thought.
“Well, you wouldn’t. I s’pose I oughta make sure.” Asgore’s right hand pushed through his draped mantle, and as he held it up he turned it so that the back of his closed fist faced the newcomers. His eyes were hard, his focus unwavering. “The Triforce. Show it to me.”
Ganondorf allowed himself to smile a bit behind the shade of his helmet. Silently he held up his fist and revealed the glowing triangle that branded the back of it. Even in spite of the spirits he had acquired, the Triforce had remained unchanged. Finally, after a seemingly eternal pause he spoke. ”Pray, tell.” he said, ”What crime hath I done to thee, a King I hath never even heard of until this day?”
Nadia swallowed nervously, her gaze flickering between the two royals. What should have been a peaceable, even amicable encounter had taken an unexpected and very bad turn. She hadn’t considered the possibility of beef between Asgore and one of their own, though at the same time, the old goat’s hostility came across as confusing -bordering on unreasonable- given Ganondorf’s testimony, provided he wasn’t lying. “The heck’s going on?” she muttered.
Of course, Asgore didn’t hear her. His focus lay on Ganondorf, and despite the warlord’s changes the golden sigil on his hand told him everything he needed to know. “I am no king,” Asgore rumbled. The hint of down-to-earth friendliness he’d displayed earlier had evaporated completely. “Unlike you. Are you not the King of Evil? Born to kill. To conquer, to destroy, to…antagonize. Maybe ‘you’ have yet to slaughter innocents and topple nations…”
His eyes shifted downward to the twin greatswords sheathed at Ganondorf’s hip, their elaborate bronze crossguards unmistakable. “But it’s only a matter of time. I see you failed to heed my warning.” His armor clanked softly as he rose from the ground, reciting familiar words. “Here lie the ashes of the evil king who brought doom to this once-great city. Let these blades stand as a reminder that those who walk the path of evil will always be brought to justice.” At his full height, and quietly menacing, Asgore made for a daunting sight. “A bad seed will always be just that. Whenever it grows a weed in my garden, the only thing to do is pull it out.”
The Gerudo remained completely unfazed as he lowered his fist. He was not going to be intimidated, ”Aye, ‘tis true. he confirmed, ”But thou still hast not named any actual crime that I hath committed against thee.” he added, not allowing himself to show any anger or even malice at that time.
He kept his tone even. He'd been in royal courts enough times to know how to properly conduct himself. And he knew that right now, he needed to show that he was not the aggressor here. ”My quarrel is not with you nor yours.” Ganondorf said flatly, ”I come to thee only to learn more about my real enemies. Nothing more and nothing less. If there is to be war here, then it shall be you who ignites the flame, not I.”
“Yeah, hang on, let’s not fight just yet, please?” Nadia held up her hands placatingly, though she’d also taken a couple steps away from Ganondorf just in case. “We just came to ask you about something. Something you didn’t tell Primrose last time, right?”
Asgore frowned at her, clearly not pleased with her alliance with Ganondorf, but he had yet to make a move.
Being surprised at the animosity, Primrose had kept quiet and just watched. Out of all the "villains" composing their group, she trusted Ganondorf the least. However, what the dark lord said about 'real enemies' rang true. He hadn't betrayed the Seekers this entire time, clearly willing to work with whoever necessary to get to the target of his ire - this being Galeem. She didn't forget that he'd been imprisoned when he was found though, and his earlier comment about staking his claim in Gerudo Town didn't exactly sit right with Primrose no matter how destined it was for him. All in all it made Ganondorf a complicated ally, but for now an ally all the same. And besides, if he was really so dangerous then why had Asgore seen fit to imprison him, rather than add his ashes to the collection here?
Primrose took a deep breath after Ms. Fortune's words and stepped forward even more. Though it seemed Asgore's issue was with Ganondorf only, she splayed her own hands open peaceably as well.
"She's right. You promised to tell us what you knew about the true state of this world. As Kamek said, we've defeated that source of the Infection, the monster the Consuls were protecting inside the temple, and claimed its spirit. One of those Consuls, P, has also met his end by our hand." She didn't mention F, frustrated as they all were by his latest escape. "So it is done. Did you not feel it when the Guardian died?"
After a moment, Asgore allowed Primrose’s news to distract him. “You’ve done good. Just as I hoped. And I do mean to make good on my word. Had this whole little set-up going to ease you folks into it.” He scowled at Ganondorf. “But with him here, that ship has sailed. I’ll still tell you, of course. But the lesson plan’s a little different.” He extended an accusatory finger. “What crimes, you ask? Well for starters, where’s my wife? Where’s Toriel? Whenever I wander the Under, I make sure to check in on her. But when I went yesterday, I found ashes and broken shackles.”
Asgore hung his head in sorrow. “I should have killed you when I had the chance. But violence is a vicious cycle, and I wanted to end it. Figured that if I spared you, maybe things would turn out different this time.” The old king laughed mirthlessly. “All these years, and I’m still the same old fool.” He lifted his head, his expression woeful. “There’s no escaping what we are.”
Slowly, he looked between his various visitors. “So you want to know, huh? Well, I hope you’re ready.” Asgore nodded at Ganondorf. “I know he’ll do bad things ‘cause he did bad things, and he only stopped ‘cause I’m the one who stopped him.” He stared at the warlord, his gaze cold. “Our battle in Holograd. You fought something fierce. But by then, my Level of Violence was way too high.” His eyes drifted toward the holy lance, Gae Assail. “I cut you down, and I left your swords as a reminder that evil will always receive its just reward. And yet, here you are.” He chuckled. “Tell me something, folks. You ever dream…of dying, horribly?”
Something about the way he said it sent a chill down Nadia’s spine, making the hairs on her neck rise. She breathed in sharply, still as a statue.
“When you go to sleep,” Asgore continued. “How d’you know you’re the same person as when you wake up?” He shrugged. “Memories, right? And if you didn’t remember, wouldn’t every day be your first?” Once again he paused, clearly having some trouble finding the right words. “Do you all think you’re the first? The original? The bonafide one-and-only you? Well…what about those awful dreams, of losing lives you never lived?” His voice grew quiet. “What if I told you they were all completely true?”
He stared at the Seekers of Light. “Well, I hate to break it to you. You’re not the originals. Not even close. Those dreams, they aren’t just your imagination. They’re little traces of your past lives. Bugs in the system. We live, die, and live again. Over decades. Centuries. Countless lives, recycled over and over again, for ever. And ever.”
Asgore took a deep breath. “That’s why our timeframes don’t line up. That’s the World of Light. A wheel spinning in place for perpetuity, stuck fast between past and future. The Endless Now.”
”You, uh, you sure those aren't just other versions of us from other words? Because I’ve already punched another me in the face this week for being a dumb jerk. And a Guardian” Bowser asked, before also pointing out ”also it can't have been that long, because of Kirby. Galeem pulled a cheap shot on us, the lil guy got away, and then he showed up here a week ago. And he’s a hungry lil guy so he can’t have been traveling that long”
Though Asgore didn’t know what Bowser meant by ‘other versions’, he said nothing. He had no interest in arguing. The others’ acceptance hadn’t been part of the bargain; only the truth.
While Bowser questioned Asgore, Primrose had gone quiet again. Well, wasn't this a mess? So Ganondorf had killed the old king's wife, and in his anger Asgore had dropped his information on them all at once like a bomb. Primrose wasn't sure if easing into something like that would have made it any easier to take though. It was the truth as Asgore knew it though, and the dancer stood, statuesque with drawn brows and a hard expression, as she parsed the information. Dreams... she hadn't had any like that, but Therion had confessed to her just this morning that he had. The archangel Robin Goodfellow's rambling, the regret that Confessor Jiji conjured, even the words of the Organization member that had helped them seemed to fit the picture Asgore painted. Even so, Primrose hoped it wasn't really true.
By now, Ganondorf was scowling beneath the shadow of his helmet. Who did this whimpering excuse for a goat-man think he was? Spouting off absolute nonsense about dreams being memories of past lives, and somehow using that as his justification for imprisoning him? And oh yes, it seemed that this Asgore had been the one who personally shackled Ganondorf to that black egg. The warlord’s fists both became clenched and trembled with rage.
”You…” he said in a low, bestial tone. He marched right up to Asgore and fixed his malicious and hateful gaze squarely on him. But he still did not draw any weapons. At least… not yet. ”Thou art the one, who shackled me?” he demanded, his tone remaining low and full of malice, ”For crimes thou claimeth I committed in a time that I conveniently hath no memory of?”
And then his booming voice exploded, ”Thou expect me to believe thy drivel? With no proof?” Ganondorf demanded, ”Thou would command thine own wife to execute me instead of being man enough to come down and do it thyself? That is thine own fault! The price you pay for your sniveling cowardice!” and then he lowered his tone once again, almost to a whisper. ”Dread the coming days, Coward King. For after I hath slayed Galeem and his Consuls, I shall come for THEE next.”
The silence that followed Ganondorf’s tirade was heavy, the tension unbearably thick. Once the warlord had his fill of yelling and threats, Asgore began to speak.
“Fine. If that day comes, I will add you to the Clock, as well.” Asgore turned around. “None of our lives matter, not one whit.” He sighed. “In truth…I’ve seen Toriel come and go so many times. I can’t pretend I’m not numb to it all. And after all I’ve done, I can’t pretend to have any principles, either. I’ve never made the right call. Not even once.” He didn’t know it, but Ganondorf’s expression returned to its original blank state, his anger now deflated.
”We’re not so different, it seems.” the warlord replied, ”I hath no more claim to having principles than thou.” he finally admitted, ”Maybe I did once upon a time, but… that was a lifetime ago.” For all his insults toward Asgore, it didn’t change the fact that he was able to relate to him, if only for this fleeting moment.
In the quiet that followed, Nadia slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. For a moment, a fight between the two kings felt like such an absolute certainty that she’d unwittingly braced herself, her every muscle tense. With the situation seemingly defused, Nadia sighed in relief. Contending with Asgore’s words was tough enough.
”I say we destroy them.” Ganondorf suggested, ”F toldeth us that those Clocks give the Consuls their long lives. So their destruction would surely deal them a crippling blow.”
The thought of ever allying himself with Ganondorf in any capacity made Asgore scoff. “Clock’s out back,” he grumbled. “Knock yourself out.”
”Yeah if I can’t do it you sure can’t either” Bowser commented, full of self sure pride, before adding ”But sure, have a swing so I can rub your nose in your failure afterwards”
”And how, pray tell, did you go about it?” Ganondorf asked the Koopa King with an incredulous tone, ”Let me guess: thou puncheth’ed it, very very hard?” then he shook his head, ”Nothing is truly indestructible you fool. Everything has its weaknesses. The flame clocks are no exception. ‘Tis only a matter of possessing the right tool. All I need is but to find that tool.”
”Yeah, but you don’t have it, do you?” Bowser retorted with surprising smoothness, before adding that ”the magic doomsday device has a magic weakness, big whoop, not exactly a super smart take there. Seen it a dozen times” because what the Koopa King lacked in smarts, and wisdom, and general intelligence really, he sometimes could make up with raw experience.
"Oh enough," Primrose finally said, touching a hand to her temple. She narrowed her eyes at both the king of Koopas and the king of evil. "Go outside if you must continue."
Then she looked back at Asgore. "As awful as it is, what you've said... is believable. But..." she faltered, unsure what she wanted to ask. "...how do we... come back? If you know?"
The old goat seemed markedly happier once Primrose sent the bickering royals outside to take a crack at the Clock, leaving him with just her, Kamek, and Nadia for company. After turning back around, he replied. “That’s something that puzzled me for a good while. Sometimes I’d leave a ghost town, then come back the next day to find it full of people. Or somebody I’d never seen before would show up while my back was turned. After a long time, I came to believe it’s got something to do with this symbol.” He walked over and took the Gae Assail lance from its altar, then used its tip to draw in the ash. “It’s everywhere. At least one in every settlement with a Flame Clock, if you look hard enough. Always on a square tile. I’ve messed around with ‘em, but there’s nothing special about ‘em, or anything hidden beneath.” After a moment, he finished his etching. For the most part it looked like nothing more than a sun, but a slight bent to all its outward flares gave it the fleeting impression of some kind of spiral.
“...Huh,” Nadia said after a moment. She really didn’t know what to make of all this, but for some reason, she didn’t feel as bothered by the possible revelation as she maybe ought to be. Asgore’s secret inspired worry in Primrose, downplay from Bowser, and disbelief from Ganondorf, but for whatever reason the feral found herself looking on the bright side. “Well…not doubting you or anything, but if all that’s true, it’s kinda…fine? With me? Maybe even a relief. It sounds like there’s a real possibility that even if we fall, we’ll get another chance down the road.”
“Without any memory of your current life,” Asgore interjected, a little incredulous about Nadia’s attitude. “Not to mention you’ll come back ‘storied’, and have to break free all over again.”
Nadia flipped up her hands and shrugged, a carefree smile on her face. “Hey, better than nothing!”
Primrose let out a ghost of a laugh. That attitude was so very "Nadia Fortune," as the dancer had come to know her.
"I'm glad all this doesn't bother you so much. Truly." She told Ms. Fortune. She didn't look at the other woman though, just stared at the image Asgore had drawn, committing it to memory. "It doesn't sit as right with me."
But maybe the feral's positivity would rub off on her. For now though, Primrose felt a headache coming on. There was so much to think through. And she burned with curiosity about what had happened to her since being spirited away to this world in the first place. How had she died the previous time? What memories had she made that were now lost forever? Now I understand why he thought to keep this information from us.
Primrose grew quiet again for a few moments, still thinking. Then she blinked up at Asgore.
"...as unsettling as it was to hear, thank you for telling us all the same," she said.
The old goat just grunted. He’d known from the beginning that this conversation wouldn’t do anyone any good, but he’d fulfilled his word, for better or worse. A not-so-small part of him still itched to kill Ganondorf, but he knew better than anyone that such an action would be petty self-satisfaction, and not solve anything. But if he had helped the Seekers bring ruin to the Under’s Guardian, and he intended the Consuls to share in her fate, then maybe this motley crew really could tear it all down.
“...Go,” Asgore said after a moment. “And dismantle this wretched world. Good luck.”
Nadia saluted him, and after a glance at Primrose to make sure she was good to go, turned to leave.
”Well, that was not at all restful” Kamek groaned as he massaged his temples and then got back to his feet, burdened now with cursed knowledge along with his general fatigue.
”I still don’t get the kirby thing though” Bower grumbled as he too turned to go, prompting another groan for Kamek, as he then attempted to explain how traveling fast enough to outrun light itself would affect how a person experienced time. They had barely gotten started, however, before they reached the warp pipe leading down to the Home of Tears. Ganondorf joined them, having been unable to so much as scratch the fallen Flame Clock, and together the Seekers descended into the city of dark waters.
It was somewhat difficult to tell if her ramblings had been coherent and useful to Frankenstine, Rayne found. All she had to go off was a somewhat contemplative look. It was better than one of confusion or annoyance at least, she supposed, so she’d air on the side of optimism and hope that it had indeed helped.
A few moments after she’d finished her spiel, they’d passed through the gate and out into the farmland beyond. She’d seen it before already of course, but it was a bit different to be traveling through the wreck rather than looking down at it in a detached fashion. At least there was farm land further out that was ok.
For the moment.
At least some of it probably got hit as collateral damage as part of what happened next.
Rayne was nodding along with the farmer as he explained the issue with the animals being spread all over, and observing how there was no way to keep them back in their broken pens even if they were herded back, when Fran had an idea. One that started by pulling a massive mace out of nowhere, which was shocking to see anyone else do, and then blasting off in a mighty leap towards the beasts.
“Wait no no no we want them alive!” a panicking Ryne shouted as she started to go after Fran, misinterpreting what her plan was immensely, only for the women to call down the lightning, the thunderous explosion drowning out Rayne’s accompanying shriek of shock and fright. She wasn’t the only one spooked by this, that was for sure, as it prompted the already running about animals to do so even more, now in utter terror.
When Rayne saw Frankenstine proceed to leap and do another lighting flash to spook them in a specific direction, she did at least get what she was doing, but, well it could very much be argued whether Fran was herding the beasts, or just creating a stampede.
The witch knight blink dashed the herd and herdswoman, and, upon catching up, then shouted “Please tell me have a plan to get them to stop!” because that was very much the issue here. Despite her massive misgivings with the plan she didn’t know the specifics of (who knew whatever other powers this metallically augmented lady had after all), the little lady helped out how she could, because she couldn’t exactly stop it.
Thus she went blinking dashing here, there and everywhere, waving her hat, “yaa”ing and even body checking individual animals that weren't worth a flash of lighting. She was also very much on rescue duty, because panicked animals were not at all considerate of smaller, slower animals that might be in their way. As such a lot of her time involved things like chucking chickens out of harm's way, or blink dashing to the side with young animals in tow, lest they be trampled.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”Ah. Right. Gloating, taunting and threats followed by ultimately getting away to fight another day. That does indeed shape up to most instances of being at the mercy of villains” Kamek sighed with very retroactive hindsight. Not that anyone in the troop was going to learn from at this point if they hadn’t already.
”At least no one started monaloging and we got some answers out of him, vague as they were” he added, on for Jr to pipe up that ”Well he didn’t answer mine! I want my treasure!”
He hadn’t answered Rika’s either to be fair, but she seemed like an exception to their number given that her take away was: ”So should I just shoot him next time?”
”Next time!? We shoot him now!” Jr insisted, and while Kamek were both about to say about how he was gone Jr had an idea, no matter how foolish, and that was that Kamek ”Make me a beetle. Make me a bunch of beetles! We dig!”
”Young master I’m not sure if-” Kamek began to object, only for Bower to clap him in the back and command ”Jump to it Kamek, my boy’s got a plan!” which prompted both grumbling and compliance as the mage began to create a small herd of tunneling beetle steeds for the troop. Rika went without, as she popped on a pair of headphones, clicked on a music track, transformed into The Beast and then got to using that mega centipede's burrowing capabilities to help try and track down where F had dug off too.
While the Troop got ready to bug out, Nadia watched them with brows upturned, her head still cradled in her lap as she leaned back with her palms on the ground. “I wanna tear that jerk a new one as much as the next girl, but he could be anywhere. You dig?” Even if F had resorted to other, more subtle means of egress when it came to making his getaway, Nadia hadn’t forgotten that he could teleport. That notwithstanding, he could have tunneled in any direction. Tracking him down would be like finding a needle in a haystack the size of the entire Underground, and for her part, Nadia thought Sectonia’s idea of rest and relaxation sounded pretty sweet.
Still, she knew her words wouldn’t get through to the stubborn Koopas, and as the dirt began to fly the feral skittered away. After getting to her feet, she saw that the excavators’ progress was nothing to shake a stick at, and tried to think on the bright side. They’d just beaten a Guardian, after all. A victory like that could bring on a serious rush, and if the Seekers could do that, maybe they really could do anything. “Good luck down there!” She held her head out over the hole in order to call down after the delvers. “If you do catch that creep, give him a noogie for me! I’ll burr-owe you one!”
As if on cue, however, the Troop’s luck took a sudden turn. Digging straight down carried an inescapable element of risk, and as it happened, the pursuers dug straight into a section of loose, loamy, clumpy earth. Already disturbed by F’s sudden passage, the dirt began to shift beneath and around them, sweeping them up in a crumbly tumble through a twisting, turning tunnel like a tube slide at a water park. After a few moments the decidedly unfortunate excavators burst from the roof of a cavern in a shower of earth, entering freefall as they plunged into somewhere new.
”Gah the boxy lady was riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight”
Just a second later they landed, unharmed, on what looked like a cliffside promontory blanketed by dark, cushiony grass. A huge open space stretched out in all directions around them, not nearly as large as Ash Lake, but still impressive in its misty, pale green vastness. Out in the empty space, alien trees loomed large, each composed of multiple trunks threaded vertically through what appeared to be giant lily pads. The land beyond this promontory itself looked like a high-altitude maze, sheer drops on all sides, their opalescent turquoise stone crowned by inky purple-black foliage and more strange plants, from tubular stalks to perfectly round bushes to small black trees that smoldered like sticks of incense, their smoke oddly fragrant. Swamps of mint-colored water could be found all over, in many cases feeding waterfalls that led straight into the abyss where lantern bonsai floated, and wherever the newcomers looked the waterways offered still more fascinating flora. They could also see movement all throughout the alien archipelago, creatures familiar but a little weird. No sign of F, but if he’d dropped down here before them, there was only one direction he could go.
Bowser and a centipede body’d Rika uncurled themselves from where they’d protectively wrapped themselves around the smaller, squishier, members of the digging crew. Unlike them, the beetles that they’d been using to dig had not survived the fall, and had insead acted as functional, if not very soft, cushions to soften their impact with the ground.
”Urrrgh… everyone good?” Bowser asked, as he rubbed his head and sat down his son, who murmured an affirmation, before getting another pair from Kamek and Rika, the latter of whom dropped her Beast form to do so.
“You guys okay down there!?” Nadia’s echoed voice called down from far above, to which Bowser yelled ”Yeah! Takes more than a fall to do the koopa troop in!” in response.
As he pointed his focus back up, the rest of the troop focused it around.
”Well, it looks like we found something down here at least, but not our escaped F” Kamek noted as he glanced around the chamber, taking in its beauty ”Still, it makes a nice change from all the barren caves and the mining pit above”
Jr meanwhile, rather than admiring what was around him, was looking beyond, and assessing that there was ”He must have gone over there!” as he pointed across the maze of cliffs to an outcrop flanked by two carved pillars with pink crystals on them. If there was an end goal to the wall-less maze, it was there.
Rika seemed to agree, in that by the time Jr had made that assessment, she had run forwards, leapt out over one of the pits and then with a set of mid air jumps and grapples, landing on the other side. Not one to be left behind, Jr called ”Hey wait up!” before pulling his grapple worm out of his duffle bag, and using the strange bug to latch onto and pull himself to one of the lanterns. From there swung under it, grappled to a weird tree, formed a platform out of iron on it and then leapt into the void, summoning his vespikan strikers to hold up their massive cleavers to act as a quartet of stepping stones before he used one last grapple to finally clear the same jump Rika had just effortlessly made.
”Children wait!” Kamek called after them, but it was already too late, and so he was forced to float on after them with an ”Oh dear oh dear oh dear” leaving Bowser still shouting up at those still above, the king having entirely forgotten about the link pearls they all had.
”There’s a whole cave down here, wet and swampy but kinda nice I guess? Goes on for ages but there’s some kind of end goal over one end and-” he was calling up when he noticed, and only then realizing that the rest of the troop were moving down ”Gah, and now everyone’s run off, I gotta go!”
After those closing words, there came a little jingle of a bell as Bowser hooked one to his spiky collar and transformed into Meowser. In it he took his own singular running leap and launched himself off of the cliffside after the others. He missed the other side, but his claws dug into the cliff face when he hit it lower down, allowing him to clamber back up it and continue his pursuit.
This slapdash chase could have been a call for calamity had the environment contained many dangerous beasties, but fortunately for them all the cave system seemed to have avoided infestation by anything particularly dangerous. The little Barracuda Plants where only really a risk to a fool who stuck thief fingers in them, while Stalking Molds where much to slow to pursue, and one that did pull off an ambush more or less only delivered a hug while doing so. Indeed that might have been what it was trying to do rather than harm or kill. It was unrequited regardless however, and the mold found itself tossed off a cliff for its efforts.
A few obstacles floated through the air, but the oversized Rotfly Mutants mainly made for convenient grappling hook points rather than threats, as much as they tried, while the rather strange Glimmets drifting around where simply left in the dust.
Somehow the worst thing managed to be outcroppings of Cosmic Quartz which when approached emitted a multitude of overlapping sounds, like an entire universe of sound all both uninterpretable and somehow still distinct, which was not the sensory overload you wanted while platforming.
Well. those and some xeno grapes that gave a trying to restock his stamina Bowser a tummy ache.
Still, other than those nuisances, the lush environment and freedom of movement was a welcome change of pace from the claustrophobic black egg temple and somehow simultaneously claustrophobic and agoraphobic dream realm with its narrow platform hanging in an endless void.
Eventually however, it came to an end as the troop gathered up at the 2 crystal pillars Jr had identified as the exit, and found themselves looking down yet another long drop. It looked like a pitch-black hole in the green mists that hung over the swampy cavern floor down below, much deeper and much darker than the hole they’d tumbled down to get here. None had seen hide nor hair of F on their way through this beautifully bizarre marshland, and if the Consul truly had gone this way, jumping in after him seemed like an especially risky proposition. That aside, of course, staring down into such an unknown abyss could give practically anyone pause.
”Given how long that took, and that we did not see him at all, he must be far far ahead of us by now” Kamek pointed out as they, indeed, paused at the precipice.
”Yeah, but this is the only way he could have gone, and if he didn’t see us following, maybe he’s slowed down now. Or his lairs right down there, ready for looting” Jr retorted, more enamored with the latter prospect than the former, it seemed.
”Or he’s gonna ambush us like those monsters did when he dropped us down the start” Rika added, not really for either side, but more because it was the obvious tactical thing to do, especially with how they were now split from the others. Unfortunately she didn’t point out the latter issue, having assumed it obvious, and so it led to Jr declaring ”If it’s a trap, we should spring it! It’s the last thing he expects us to do” and her being entirely confident in accepting his take on the situation.
Bowser was about to agree with this when is belly rumbled, once again complaining about the xeno grapes, and so instead started to say ”We should wait for a bit-” but by that point ”It’s too late, she’s already jumped in”
Indeed Rika was already dropping down the hole, though admittedly doing so like a feather rather than a stone so they did have time to spare before she reached the bottom. Time enough for Jr to insist Kamek ”Make me a dragon so I can fly down!”
A few moments later, Kamek and Jr had joined Rika in her drifting down, while a doubly grumbling Bowser hung back for a few moments before simply leaping after them, following them down into the dark.
This time, they descended/fell for several seconds. They flew pasts the mists and into the darkness, finding themselves surrounded by waterfalls on all sides. Then they spotted water below them, and the next second splashed down into a clear, rather warm basin. When they surfaced, they found themselves somewhere new yet again, darker than the alien swampland but by no means too dark to see. And what they saw amazed them.
They’d landed in a still pond, its surface interspersed with patches of water lilies and lotus flowers. More interestingly, this pool seemed to be artificial in make, judging by the intricate, geometric marine tiles that lined its angular walls. Beyond lay a huge, misty cavern dominated by vast basins and surrounded by of well-preserved ruins, a sprawling array of towers, walls, aqueducts, and columns with no clear path. Waterfalls and rays of light descended from the vaulted ceiling high above, sustaining trees, ferns, and prehistoric foliage of all kinds. Beneath the surface teemed the aquatic creatures of antiquity, primeval organisms long thought extinct, from the anomalocaris to the helicoprion to the elasmosaurus, as well as equally ancient pokemon like Omastar and Kabuto . It was an incredible sight–and one utterly antithetical to the purpose of tracking down a singular runaway.
Bowser was the one who got the best look at these, as he promptly sunk like a stone down to the bottom of the pool below the drop, landing amidst a small garden of Lileep. They were quite spooked by the giant’s arrival, and began to waddle away in a panic as fast as their stubby legs could carry them.
A curious elasmosaurus too crane its neck over at the commotion, but it was dissuaded by a perfectly able to breath water Bowser growling a bubbly ”Don’t think about it” at it with his fists raised, ready to fight. Remarkably it decided to not indeed try it, and instead happily snapped up a poor lileep or two before they got to cover, leaving Bowser to start trudging his way up out of the water unmolested.
The rest of the troop, thanks to flight or sailing, had not taken a dunk like him, but that didn’t mean they weren't upset, Jr chief among them, the prince swooping around on drake back crying out ”Gahhh where’d he go. Over there? Or over there or?” in frustration.
”I believe it may be time to give up and turn back young master, lest we leave the others thinking we have run off on our own, never to be seen again” Kamek said, already preparing to teleport back to the group to let them know they’d lost the trail and would catch up.
His plan was scuppered when Rika asked ”Maybe we could ask whoever that is, peeking over that wall?” While pointing over to where an azure skinned individual was watching them some distance away. As she had said, they seemed to be peeking over the banister of a set of neary ruins, as only their head, adorned with long flowing hair and ribbons of some kind, and the red jewel necklace around their neck were visible.
”That is assuming they can speak-” Kamek attempted to reply, but Jr was already flying off at breakneck speed to try and talk to them by the time the mage was half way through his sentence.
The prince swooped over a number of large pokeball symbols embedded in the ground in the process of his flight, and then headed up towards the top layer of the ruins, calling out ”Hey you! Have you seen a-” only to pause, raise a fist to his chin as he tried to think of how to describe the person who’d they only known as wearing a mask, and landing only on ”-a jerk!”
Unfortunately, and oddly, when he looked back up the figure ducked down out of sight rather than respond. ”Hey I was talking to you” Jr called after them, landing atop the ruins a few moments later, glancing around in confusion as to where they had gone, until spotting them peaking around the corner at the bottom of a flight of stairs a few moments later.
”Hey!” he shouted down at them, only for them to duck away again, the prince missing the impish look on their face when they did so. Rather than be put off by this evasiveness, the prince instead dismounted and hurried down the stairs while demanding the figure ”Get back here, I just wanna talk!”
Turning the corner, he found the figure peeking around another. They must have been quite a large figure actually given the size of their head, but that was hardly a concern for Jr, who was easily baited into another quick goose chase til he lost sight of them a few more turns down various corridors.
”Oh come on, I just want to know if someone else came down that pit is that soooo much to-” a panting prince started grousing, only for a presence to loom behind him and whisper in his ear “Flutter!” causing him to jump back and spin around in fright. Then he got a second fright as he saw that the person had no body at all!
”Gah!” he cried out in alarm, scrambling back, but rather than attack the pokemon, for that was what this Flutter Mane was, simply curled one of its claw tipped tendrils below its mouth and laughed titteringly at him as it floated back, clearly highly amused by its prank.
”That was not funny” jr growled at it, but the flutter mane simply tilted its head, or rather body, to one side as if to ask “wasn't it?”
”No! …. Ok kinda a bit” he had to admit before insisting ”But now that you’ve had your fun, are you gonna answer my questions or not?”
“Flutter mane” the creature replied unhelpfully, prompting jr to groan ”Right. Pokemon” while rubbing his forehead, before snapping his fingers, grabbing one of his pokeballs and sending out Mimi so that she could ”Explain what the deal is Mimi”
“Mi!” the mon replied with a little salute, before turning to the other, much bigger, ghost and “mi mi mi” ing at them for a few moments to do so. The Flutter mane “flutter”ed in response, as the two established that not only had the flutter mane not seen some jerk of a plant guy come down that hole, it hadn’t seen anyone come down it at all in forever. They had seen a snouty bug man wandering around with bits of paper recently though, but he’d been super elusive and thus not very prankable, so Jr was the first bit of fun it had had in forever.
They also established that it was a she.
Communicating this back to jr wasn’t exactly smooth, but they got to Mimi shaking her head in response ”So it hasn’t seen anyone coming down the way we did at all?” fairly quickly despite that.
”Shoot” a disheartened Jr said while scuffing the ground with a foot in disappointment before complaining that ”well this has been a complete waste of time.” He groaned, sighed, offered a ”thanks or whatever” to the Flutter Mane and began the climb back up to his parked drake steed only to find the Flutter Mane following after him.
”Huh?” What do you want?” he asked, to which she just sort of bobbed to one side and then pointed at him unhelpfully.
”Is it a reward or something? Jeeze fine here” he guessed, before offering up one of the pokepuffs he still had on him, which the pokemon happily scarfed down, but did not make her go away. If anything it made her stick even closer when he tried to get moving again.
”Wait, you wanna come with? Is that it?” jr finally caught on just as they were about to go up the last set of steps, and that got him some up and down nods of confirmation. ”huh. I mean you are pretty neat. But are you tough enough to hang with my squad, huh?”
Conveniently, a chance for her to prove herself was already in motion, as when Jr, Mimi, and the Flutter Mane reached the top of the stairs, the sound of combat met them. Hurrying over to the edge, they found the rest of the troop battling an ambush of Brute Bonnets that Jr had flown over, the prince having not thought twice about their ‘disguises’ that only worked from that angle.
They were rather slow, but they’d popped up out of the ground around Rika when she’d come after him (Kamek had stayed back and kept watch for Bowser emerging from the water), and they were pretty hardy and nasty at that close range, particularly with their powerful payback punches that they delivered whenever she got in close to strike them.
”Rika! I’m coming!” Jr called out as he leapt onto his drake steed and took off, flying towards her as quick as it could go. He was entirely outpaced in this however by the Flutter Mane however, which casually raced forwards at blistering speeds that explained how she had so easily given him the runaround. She dived towards the bonnets, and then produced a pink flash from her necklace that scoured three of the dark creatures.
They retaliated by blasting dark green life draining energy beams up into the sky after her, but the nimble specter managed to evade many of these. In the process, she distracted the ones shooting at her, and gave Rika the space she needed to target the others with her own brutal punches. After that, with Jr and Mimi joining the fray, and Rika grappling up to the prince’s steed to get fully out of their more dangerous melee range, the remaining brutes hardly stood a chance.
By the time a dripping Bowser and worried Kamek caught up it was all over. The dark plant pokemon had been dispatched, Rika had collected their spirits, and Jr had a new team member ”I’m gonna call you… Peeka! Coz you're like a boo. Get it?”
”Well I see you are in high spirits once more young master, despite F having gotten away” the mage noted, before hoping he hadn’t jinxed things.
”Yeah… Peeka didn't see him come down, so I guess he musta gotten away some other way. She did see someone else though, right?” Jr replied, before nodding to the pokemon, who proceeded to use one of her claws to mimic a trunk, the other two miming scribbling on a bit of paper, and then the fourth to point over in a direction.
”Sounds like that map guy, yeah? Maybe we should check it out, in case there’s a way we can avoid going alllllll the way back up there” he said, to which the others agreed it was worth a look.
After a brief time spent traipsing through the prehistoric sanctum, aided greatly by the mobility of the party’s fliers, they picked up the curious cartographer’s trail. At that point his humming clued them in, and after that the searchers found Cornifer right away. Happy to see the adventurers again after so long, he offered a discount deal on his maps. For a very reasonable price, the Troop got maps not just of the Ancient Pools, but the Abyssal Forest above and Ash Lake nearby. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any connections between them. As beautiful as this place was, a way forward wasn’t one of the secrets it offered.
As such they were forced to head back up regardless of their finding the map bug, which caused a lot of grumbling that was for sure. Bowser used a combo of cat claws and Carrie the trowlon striker to ascend, while Jr and Kamek flew and Rika did some absurd wall jumping and grappling combos to slowly ascend out of the pit all under her own power.
The two fliers went a bit ahead of the climbers so that they could get into radio range of the rest of the team all the way back up at their digging spot as soon as possible.
”Hello? Am I reaching anyone? We are all right and on our way back. We didn’t find F or even where he went unfortunately, he may have dug out of the chamber we found or had some other means of escaping from it, but we did get some more maps from Cornifer of Ash Lake along with the areas we have just been through. Also the young master made a new pokemon friend” Kamek began in a vague attempt to justify the delay, before offering ”If you’d like to go on ahead to Asgore, there’s no need to wait for us. We know the way ourselves after all, so we’ll catch up with you” which they’d at least not have that much trouble with if Kamek made use of his steed creation power, though he’d need to have a rest once they did catch up, that was for sure.
Speaking of catching up, the flying pair had a little bit of time to kill before the climbing pair caught up, time they promptly squandered picking, eating, and then freaking out as a result of the dark visions brought to life by the local Nightmare Pommes.
Between that and the prior alien berries, the troop swore the entire region off as straight up the worst of the bunch so far, which was most inconsiderate of them.
Rayne was glad that she didn’t seem to have been talking, or acting, to fast for Frankenstine to keep up with, so maybe she wasn’t concussed, or she was only hurt in a way that stopped her from talking a lot, or maybe she was just a woman of few words? Either way, she was more than ready to make up for her lack with plenty of excess when one of the villagers enquired if she’d be willing to help with some escaped animals.
Which probably only went to show how accustomed the villagers had already become to strangers with strange looks and stranger powers showing up out of the middle of nowhere, given as he barely even blinked at Frankenstine’s presence.
Speaking of the women in question, she seemed more than happy to help as she agreed to do so in what was, it seemed, her minimalist style.
Rayne, naturally, also agreed with a “I'd be happy to help” before lifting off into the air, picking her hat up off her chair, and then setting it on her head, giving it just the littlest turn of adjustment before being satisfied with it.
“I’ll admit, I haven't had the most experience with herding, mushrooms don't exactly get up and run around thankfully. Imagine if they did though, little legs scampering under bobbing caps” she joked, farmer to farmer, before pausing and adding “which I guess maybe they could do in some other world” because the familiar was now no longer a given.
“Either way, I’ll do my best!” she concluded, before turning around to Frankenstein to continue the fairly one-sided conversation they’d started.
“So, let me explain some stuff while we go '' she said, before proceeding to do just that “First things first, this is a different world from the one you're from. But also I’m from different different world. There’s also this big Toa, they’re a bit like golems but they’re people, called Lewa from yet another different world, a lady called Anne from another, for some reason 3 ladies from one specific other other one and… well you get the pictures there’s a bunch of us, and you’ll meet the rest in time I’m sure. Most of them are out in the woods dealing with monsters but they’ll be fine, I know they can handle themselves”
To explain why she knew this, and also just what had happened here, she then gave a quick little summary of the prior day’s events “See, yesterday, most of us sorta showed up in this church summoned by a goddess to protect these two children from these jerks called the Raven Heralds, but like I said, we already ran them off. Doesn’t look like that’s all she wants though, as the goddess seems to keep teleporting people here, like you and lady Remilia, so I guess she wants us to do more stuff. I don’t know what though, she’s not exactly said anything since we got here, but I guess whatever they wanted those kids for is still a big deal maybe? We never did find out exactly why the Heralds attacked the town.”
“Either way, right now we’re helping the town get back on its feet, and then after we’ll probably try and work out what in the world the goddess wants, or even just how to get in contact with her so we can go home” she concluded her quick summary as they headed out of town to where the farm animal escape situation was going down.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”Come on, come on! At this rate we aren't gonna get back before-” Jr shouted at his family as they raced back up the train, only for he feared to come to pass and for them to not be able to reach their foe before the darkness took them down, prompting a disappointed ”awww” from the prince before he huffed about the tentacles being ”rotten kill stealers”
”Now we have to hope that the darkness is satisfied with just blotting out the light” Kamek said, not at all sad about the final phase being, if not trivial, then at least a swiftly done thing. The run back had not exactly been a fun time, what with it involving dodging through the endless piles of indiscriminately launched sword power coming their way, something they’d only really made it through thanks to Rika’s shot slowing power.
Bowser in particular was flagging, and was not going to be much help if they had to fight the ocean of darkness next
Fortunately, Kamek’s concern was unfounded, and, having taken down its sworn foe, the void was satisfied and retreated, leaving them to wake back up in the egg.
They were not alone however, as the hollow knight still kneeled where it had fallen when they entered its dreams. Now, in response to the death of the Radiance, the corruption both within and without it withered and died, leaving its long watch finally over.
As jr cheered about how they’d saved the underground (which only he really cared about among the Troop members) Bowser raised a claw and waved at the big bug, beginning to say ”Oh, uh, hey there buddy. Are we good?” only for F to appear and cut down the knight before anyone could find out what it would have done with its new, and likely entirely unexpected, duty free existence.
”Well now, that was quite uncalled for” Kamek commented, having been rather curious about what was about to happen as well.
”Yeah I had that” Rika agreed, tilting a raised gauntlet a few degrees from where she’d been ready to casually execute the knight herself to instead point it at F ”and now you” only for Kamek to raise a hand and lightly press her gun hand down, saying ”Now now, let’s see exactly what this fool expected, throwing himself at the mercy of villains” with a sneer on his beak.
”Yeah, what’s the big idea you sniveling shnook? Gonna help us till you can stab us in the back huh? Already gotta keep an eye on this guy for that” Bowser agreed, jabbing a thumb at Ganondorf before bringing the hand back and punching it into his other palm and telling F that ”So you better start talking and make yourself real useful before I decided to just beat the answers out of your sorry mug” while repeating the motion intimidatingly.
”Yeah like, where are the other guardians and and what they are and… and…” Jr piped in to add to the demands, before faltering for a moment while trying to think of more before suddenly launching into ”.. and give us all your treasure! Bet you got all sorts of cool stashed away somewhere, right?” in the exact tone a bully would demand some kid’s lunch money.
While all the others were demanding to know about things that would be useful in the future, Rika ended up looking back and asked ”Also why you haven't just done that time thing Kamek said you could do and undone everything we just did?” while scratching her cheek thoughtfully with an oversized finger while doing so.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
By the time Midna had blinked her sight back, it was all over, and whatever machine had been built around Tychoon began to fall apart. The gateways which she hadn’t really paid attention to due to being focused on fighting collapsed, tearing apart the machinery that had been going through them.
”Huh, I wonder what that was all for?” Midna asked nobody in particular, and then, much too late, got a very bad feeling about this. C had, after all, just said that they had no idea what the consequences of their actions were going to be, and he was very much right. Well. That she didn’t know anyway. Sandalphon worked it out in short order, and it was very bad news.
At least that’s the impression she got, she didn’t exactly know what a ‘citywide blackout’ was exactly, but she could infer that it wasn’t going to be a good time.
”How much of the city’s… everything is going to stop working? Is there nothing else they can use in its place? The actual reactors maybe, if they are off?” Midna asked. Not that she was exactly in favor of draining life from the world or however those worked, but ”It only has to keep running till we win, seeing as this is going away once we do” she suggested.
For Sandalphon, Midna's first few questions were a matter of guesswork, but she tried to provide perspective as best she could. "I am no electrician, but I can only imagine that the power needs of this city are truly staggering. Even if we could get the systems running in time, the region might not have enough life energy left to meet those needs, thanks to Nox."
Speaking of both Nox and power sources, the man had abandoned his at the start of the fight, and her eyes ended up drifting over to where it now lay, the untold amounts of life force it had held spent to undo his own victory and nothing more. It had also driven him mad, despite being just an energy storage device according to Sandalphon which might have dissuaded others from picking it up.
Midna on the other hand, who was presently wearing a madness inducing artifact as a hat, was fairly sure she could handle it. Just to be safe however, she formed and used her shadow hand to pick it up, the great orange glowing limb pinching the cube between thumb and forefinger, and then bringing it close to inspect.
It felt heavy in her hand, though not so much with mass but with import. It also seemed to have a lingering mote of power as well, she could see, as she brought it close to her face. She moved a hand to slip aside the mask she was wearing, the lens was damaged and getting in the way of a detailed inspection, only for the fracture lines along it to close back up, fully and perfectly repaired without so much as a hint of fanfare.
”What?” she asked, slipping off the mask and turning it around in her hand, confirming its repaired state with her own eyes. She made a little surprised sound at the sight, before hanging the half mask around her neck and then saying ”Well, aren't you a handy little thing?” to the cube.
Eliacube A mysterious artifact. Under normal circumstances the cube is dark and closed, with a texture like jade, and it never opens. It seems to hold some sort of restorative ability, and it can hold a seemingly limitless amount of energy, but how -and perhaps why- it works is an enigma. It's rather interesting and gives off an important feeling. Probably warrants further study. Could it have some sort of psychic effect on those who own it? Or is it just a mirror, reflecting your own uncertain face back at you, and its magic is all in your head?
In short order she’d used it to repair her broken tree spear, failed to find enough bits of her pistol to repair it, and then realized she could use this to fix the caved-in armor on her darknut.
”We really need to find a way to make you more durable, don’t we thing?” she said as she was patching up the undead knight ”Nearly everything we’ve faced that’s dangerous just ripped through you. That mech was way better… oh! Well there’s one way to solve that isn’t there?”
At this point they’d moved up through the one available teleporter out of the generator, and ended up next to the mainframe computer that controlled the city. She didn’t really have the know how to use it however, so instead she just answered and asked a few questions.
”Think it can tell us how much time the city has left power wise, and if there’s a way to turn on the other reactors? Also anything else we can really use? Such as why the regime was making Others in the first place?” she asked first
The archangel could make no suppositions about the inner workings of Shinra's power infrastructure. "I am unsure. Given the sheer scale of this facility, not to mention the city itself, restoring it to its original configuration could be an infeasibly gargantuan undertaking." When Midna mention Others, however, Sandalphon seemed to be at a loss. "Making Others...?"
Goldlewis realized that, as a member of DespoRHado down in Detroit, the healer must have seldom, if ever, interacted with an aspect of the Ever Crisis that mostly concerned the psionics of the plates above. "Uh, to be specific, she means targeted metamorphosis, not all Others." He stroked his whiskers. "I reckoned it was a way to assassinate their enemies all stealthy-like, turnin' 'em into monsters nobody'd think twice about killin'." The veteran's brows furrowed. "Now that I think about it, though, we never figured out how to stop Others droppin' from the Extinction Belt. That ain't good..."
”Still a strange thing to have developed in the first place, right?” she replied, but she had to admit, that even if they did work it out, it wasn’t a solution. None of the questions she’d asked had solutions, it seemed.
She did at least have one of her own, and that was ways of how to get out of here: ”I’ve got enough power to make one more, but I did also make one down in the guardian’s room to escape the massive explosion attack. If we can get back down, we should use that”
”As for places we can go in the city, that’d be the entrance of this place, the S.O.U. Building, the Seiran Clinic, two in the city of glass, and one in the underway subway tunnels out in the outskirts. Only useful one that doesn’t just put us back in the desert or up a mountain is the virgin victory, which is out in Port Meridian west of here. If it’s fixed, we could fly it anywhere, assuming it doesn’t get attacked again” she wasn’t exactly for that however. They’d come to solve the ever crisis, and by all accounts, they’d just made it worse by undermining the city at every turn, regardless of how corrupt it had been.
Questions asked and answered, she got back to the whole improving her darknut situation, resummoning it and applying the spirit of Roadblock to its chest.
Spirit absorbed: Roadblock The host is now a hulking seven-foot titan of yellow and black metal, futuristic in make and fantastical in style. Nigh impervious to slashing, and resistant to practically anything else, it is an immovable object on the battlefield that foes are forced to play around, although its slow speed and short range make it somewhat one-note. This spirit confers the Power Obstacle, allowing it to project a large rectangular energy barrier from the shield on its left arm. Allies can move and shoot through it, but enemies cannot do either, and it can take some serious punishment. This spirit also confers the Weakness Mighty Glacier, making the Darknut unable to jump or run
”Quite the makeover. I think you got a bit of an armor upgrade out of that too which is good. So, can you-” she began asking even ash she magically commanded it, prompting it to raise its shield and project a barrier before it, a rectangle with beveled edges rather than the angular ones of the original Roadblock ”- yeah you can. Perfect”
After that very fitting and needed upgrade, she was still left with several more spirits of unfused strikers. She was tempted to fuse with one of the initiates, but her fusion had been getting pretty costly as of late, and so she decided the worth of the mediocre power was probably not worth whatever she’d sacrifice this time. Skywave might be worth it given its toolbox of tricks, but she ended up offering it to Sandalphon seeing as it fit well with her entire aesthetic and role in the team. The chillfos were not even worth considering, so she crushed them alongside the initiates.
Items obtained: Ice Shield A somewhat cumbersome medium shield, decorative and heavy. It nevertheless provides great defense, especially against ice, water, air, and slash attacks Horned Ice Helm An enchanted helmet that protects against the elements, numbing cold's sting and cooling one off in the heat. The protective ice, which provides the resistance and extra defense, can be melted or broken but will refreeze if given the chance Festive Spycicle An ice-cold spike wrapped in blinking Christmas lights. Though very strange, it's actually incredibly valuable to anyone with an eye for appraisal. If not for the light on the end it could probably kill someone with a backstab, but it still deals critical damage from behind. If the holder is ignited, it will extinguish the fire at the cost of melting for good Ice Geode Smithing material that's great for ice enchantments or making ice-themed weapons, though it'll take a master to put it to good use Psi Stone of Dissonance A crystalline pyramid that can be used to launch a conical energy wave that deals mental damage, applying high stagger. It takes a long time to recharge, however, and can only be used effectively once every five minutes. It darkens after use and starts glowing again when ready to blast PSI Core A disembodied eye with an alien appearance. If combined with nine PSI cards, it forms a PSI Challenge Marker that's can provide a free psychic level upgrade to a psychic character PSI Card A collectible from a mental world, fairly common in psychic circles. If nine of them are combined with a PSI Core, they form a PSI Challenge Marker that's can provide a free psychic level upgrade to a psychic character
”Well would you look at that, I’ve been needing a replacement shield-” Midna commented as that one appeared, grabbing it with two hands before it could fall on her foot ”- bit heavy though. Still, if it works it works”
Among the other items produced there were some additional useful oddities. The icy knife was bizarre in form but felt swift and deadly in hand to Midna, though her analysis was that it would be good to sneak into weak spots rather than specifically into the back. The Psi Stone meanwhile might have been awkward to use for some, but she figured she could blast with it, and then chuck it into a portal to free up her hand, which would work rather well.
As for the last bit of equipment she ended up asking ”Anyone need a helmet? It is nice to see all your pretty faces but it would be wise to protect them” in a bit of hypocrisy given she was basically only wearing a helmet for protection. Maybe, she thought, she should change that.
Then finally the geode, weird eye and card were stashed for when she could work out what in the world they were for. Or, more likely, worth.
With that all out of the way, all that was left was to try and avoid going blind from any and all other flashes of fusion going on, as well as sit back and see if anyone who knew how to work the computer would find any value in doing so. That and see if anyone was going to be the bearer of bad news to the city. Their premier hero and leader were both dead, their power about to fail, who knew how bad the machine attack had gotten outside without them. Things were not looking good.
”Only thing we can hope for is that Nox’s giving up puts a damper on the machine army. Do we think that without their leader they’ll just, well, stop?” she asked, very much hoping that it was a take of the king of evil’s head and his armies melted away sort of situation.
When Midna asked about the Machines, Sandalphon nodded stiffly. "Not Nox, per se. While we made our way through Deep Ground, the Machines clashed with Midgar's defenders just outside the city. I've been receiving reports from YoRHa operatives the whole time, and according to them, the loss of two humanoid units -known as Adam and Eve- left the enemy force leaderless and unable to fight. By now, their extermination should be nearing completion."
Goldlewis gave a sigh of relief. "Guess that's one third of the Ever Crisis that oughta be over with. If the OSF's busted and the city's shut down, though, the Others could still finish the job." He crossed his arms. "After seein' just how rotten Midgar really is for myself, I really wondered if there was any savin' it. Just too many people all crammed together, everythin' dug in too deep. I thought to myself, maybe it'd be better if we all started over. If the city's fixin' to go dark, maybe a mass evacuation'd be for the best."
”But where would we evacuate them too? This place is so isolated. Plus where can you even support this many people?” she asked, before pausing, and finally thinking out loud ”... there’s no farms here. There were ones where the Virgin Victory is parked, I think, and that’s nearby. So that’s probably where they get the food from. If they can get the food to here, they can get the people to where the food is the same way?”
Sandalphon opened a map screen. "Options nearby include Gutsford, the Satisfactory industrial zone, and Everdream Valley, where Meridian is located. New settlements could also be established in Kunad Highway or the Valley of Ruin, now that the Machines are no longer a threat. However, it is doubtful that 'we' have the means or time to evacuate them, beyond delivering a message. Chaos and panic will set in soon, if they haven't already. Many will no doubt refuse to leave, even with the continued threat of Others and Chimeras, and many will fight over the scraps now that the tenuous rule of law has shattered."
Giovanna shrugged. "Even if we took this chance to, I dunno, stick Vernon in the power vacuum, it'd be meaningless at this point."
"Midgar was already a hellhole," Goldlewis grumbled. "And now it's been dismantled from the bottom up."
”Living under a monster spawning sky and in a place where dimensional rifts kept opening was probably not the best idea in the first place, yes” Midna agreed plainly ”Not that anyone decided to do that I suppose, its all Galeem’s fault”
“Your… Frankenstein? A… Servant Berserker? Or is that a servant who is also a Berserker?” Rayne echoed, checking that she was putting the slowly delivered words together. She had plenty of other questions too, like what a servant berserker was, or who she was a servant of, and so on, but it looked like the latest divinely abducted individual was in no state to answer any of them. Rayne’s incorrect guess was that the fall must have hurt Frankenstein more than her unharmed body might have suggested.
“Also are you hurt? Concussed?” she asked before glancing around and saying “You should probably sit down if you are. Here let me get you a chair, I think there was one just around-” before interrupting herself by blinking away round a corner, and then returning in a flash, finishing her sentence with a “-there” as she set down a plain but well (hand) carved chair down and then floated a step back as she offered it to Frankenstein.
Then she thought for another moment, considered that it would be rather strange for her to be sitting in the middle of the square on her own, and so in a few flashes another, non matching, chair was added for Rayne, as well as a table because why not, it completed the setup that she’d now made in the shade of one of the town square’s bordering buildings.
“There we go,” she said, dusting her hands off. If Fran did take a seat, Rayne would join her in doing so, the very short woman hanging her hat off the back of her chair when she did, before saying “now I’m sure you have questions, so ask away. We have time and we’re not in any danger. Anymore anyway. We already ran off the people who did this” gesturing vaguely at the state the town was in.
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