[center][h3]Tora & Poppi[/h3]
[b]Level 8[/b] Tora (12/80) and [b]Level 7[/b] Poppi (58/70)
[b]Location:[/b] Sandswept Sky
Courier's [@ProPro], Primrose's [@Yankee], Fox's [@Dawnrider], Sectonia's [@Archmage MC] Midna's [@DracoLunaris][/center]

Although not that far geographically from the quite bearable climes of Eryth Sea, the desert was potently hot. Even with no humidity, the sun beat down ferociously, and from the minute he clambered inside the Morgana-car with the other kids, Tora really began to feel it. He held his wings off his body to try and delay underarm sweat, but it was a losing battle. “Ugh! To think area with no enemies so far hardest area yet,” he complained.

The thieves agreed. “That stinkin' sand burned the hell out of my feet, right through my shoes, just like last time!” Ryuji moaned, wiping his brow. Already the three had removed their outerwear, leaving just their shirts and legwear. Tora figured that to be a good idea and proceeded to remove his overalls, leaving him as bare as he'd been on the hovering reef. The act drew him a few looks, but he gave no hint of an abnormality to his action, so the thieves gave him no grief about it.

Luckily, the situation wouldn't last for long. Even before the car got a move on, Sectonia whipped up a cool solution. Some of her summonable minions appeared to possess the power of ice, and just having one nearby made for a refreshingly chilly experience. “Hooray!” Tora cheered. “Buggypon is very best!”

“You can say that again!” Ryuji echoed as he rubbed himself on the nearest antlion. Although composed enough to offer the queen bee his thanks, Ren clearly appreciated the cooling too, and for some reason or another Ann looked even more relieved.

The trip got underway with morale high, though Tora reflected that he probably should have thought more about what a journey through a desert would entail. “Oh, right!” he mumbled to himself. “Poppi have ice core. Can definitely keep masterpon cool when time comes.” He would have greatly preferred her company to an oversized bug as well, but he kept the criticism to himself. Instead the Nopon looked out the window at the scenery, but what little he saw didn't exactly thrill. Mountains, sky, little totems, and sand, sand, sand. It was awesome in its vastness, sure, but not very interesting in the long term. As such he soon looked inward, and took it upon himself to make some introductions.

“Well, now we all in cozy catty box with wheels, we might as well get know each other, yes?” All smiles, he glanced around the car. Although sadly bereft of Linkle, Blazermate, that Mym lady, or even Sakura, Tora had the pleasure of the company of that fetching young lady in red. These student-types seemed interesting too. “Am Tora, and lovely companion up on roof is Poppi. Tora from Torigoth, which city on Gormott. And Gormott is Titan.” As he said it, he knew that the others almost certainly knew nothing about Titans, but he struggled to put such an obvious concept (to him at least) into words. “Titan is like...super, super giant animal that walk around in Cloud Sea. Everyone in Tora world live on top of one! Who are friends?”

“You can call me Joker,” the boy in glasses replied, setting the pace for the rest of his cohort. Skull and Panther introduced themselves as such in succession, and the car itself took the chance to declare himself as Mona. The others, however, could respond as they pleased.

Up above, Poppi sat atop the herky-jerky Morgana-car as it jolted across the dunes. If not for the bumpy ride the experience might have been peaceful, meditative even. She couldn't feel at ease due to the terrain, however, and to try and take her mind off it she too turned to her comrades. With Sectonia and Courier 6 on hand along with Poppi, Yellow Team boasted the lion's share of the heroes' fliers, but Poppi was not eager to bandy words wit the draconic gunslinger. Instead she called up to Sectonia.

“Although from here it appear to be straight shot to goal, Poppi quite certain that not case,” she declared, pointing toward the mountain in the distance. “Poppi zoom feature in eyes unable to measure distance, but that mountain only seem small because it really, really far. It actually gigantic.” Shielding her eyes against the sun, she took another look. “Poppi run out of ether long before get there if take off now. Plus, likelihood of concealed terrain behind sandstorms very high.” She turned Sectonia's way, curious. “Queen Sectonia very good flier and adept with strange ether called magic. Could you reach mountain?” She asked the question for the sake of conversation, since reaching the peak itself meant little unless whoever reached it could challenge the boss dimly glimpsed circling it.

It was at about that time that the Morgana-car drew to a stop atop a dune, and the woman in white fixed the vehicle with a steely stare.

[center][h3]Edge of the Blue - Inkwell Isle Three[/h3]
Ace Cadet's [@Yankee], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey], Cuphead's [@ProPro], Link's [@Gentlemanvaultboy], Junior and Kamek's [@DracoLunaris], Hat Kid's [@Dawnrider], Geralt's [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN][/center]

Clearly the heroes did not take her plan well, but the black coat kept her silky voice even. “There are no usual guests in Limsa. Not anymore. The Maw snapped them up long ago. That is where the convincing comes in, young one. A new group must come to desire a time aboard the ship, or at least harbor a consummate desire for entertainment, or plenty. They need not necessarily come from Limsa—perhaps in your travels you have seen others, listless and idle in lives of emptiness, desperate for fulfillment? Those who have not heard the tales would surely be easier to convince.”

With a [i]harrumph[/i] the pirate turned and walked away to attend to something or other, throwing his hands about indignantly. The woman then turned toward Sakura, her patience in her tone. “My words merely reflect reality. Little girl, if there was an easier solution, it would be yours. I have been exploring this region for months, seeking the best way to put things right. Can you say the same?”

The egotism of the shelled child, however, earned him her attention. She chided him in that eerie, soft voice of hers, herb verbiage trending toward poetic. “You are bold, my child, and so very, very young. You are peering into the sea whilst standing on the shore, claiming it is not so deep while its depths churn farther down than your nascent imagination could ever take you. You and your company came here on a straight path, plying the strength of your hand against every branch and stone. But not everything will be so simple.”

She gave Kamek what might have been a curious glance, then looked out across the ocean. “In some waters, when you begin to sink, you will never again see the light of day. Some dreams from which one can never awaken. Will the things of the deep be the ones that are tamed, or will you? Devour them that lurk below, if it please you. Share in their heedless fantasy, and allow your self to drift away. With loving arms the sea will accept you. Once the deep becomes your home, never will you rise.”

With a sigh, she addressed Peach directly. “Only terrible things swim through those waters. But good things can hide inside them, sheltered from the nightmare without. Of the few options, the Maw is the best. With the others, it will be a constant struggle to avoid being consumed. With the Maw, you need only avoid consuming. Provided you can bring it to port, of course.”

[center][h3]Dead Zone - Argent Tower[/h3]
Donovan's [@Genon], Blazermate's [@Archmage MC], Banjo & Kazooie's [@Dawnrider], Linkle's [@Gentlemanvaultboy], Jak and Daxter and Mag Launcher's [@ProPro], Bowser's [@DracoLunaris][/center]

Though taken by surprise, the heroes sprang into action. Bowser and Linkle scattered the first wave with arrow volleys and roaring flame, gaining enough ground to allow backup to enter without a telefrag incident occurring. Bowser's flames reduced the Flood to ash, removing the dead biomass from play. Linkle's projectiles filled the air, only a little less dense but a lot more painful than rain, but against the Flood combat forms her attacks lacked permanence. Piercing damage served to rupture vital organs, causing death with a minimum of bodily harm, but while that worked for infector forms, the hosts of the vile parasites cared little for such means of attack. Catastrophic damage to a body part, enough to physically remove it, was necessary to render it unusable; so long as a Flood continued to pull the strings, the repugnant corpses danced on.

When Bowser's fire faded, Linkle stepped up to keep the Flood at bay. She manifested a frozen wall high and long enough to give her party room to breath, keeping the next wave out long enough for those remaining on the heroes' side to wipe them out and seize a brief chance to rest. But the relentless horde came again. They circled around the wall on either side, and clambered over the middle, using their jumping ability and one another to avoid sustaining much damage on Linkle's wall. The simple but effective pincer attack forced the heroes to split their attention and trust the others to protect their backs, but a few invariably got through. The moment an infector got close enough without being burst, it would invariably leap for it's target's chest to start tearing in with its tendrils. Worse still, the combat forms felled but not destroyed rose again when new infectors arrived to squeeze inside. Witnessing this taught the heroes a quick and important lesson: while killing the infector nestled in a combat form's heart would fell the thing, it seemed the biomatter needed to be useless to render it completely harmless. 

One of the abominations that came at Linkle was a combat form with a shotgun. With its arm outstretched like a manniquin's, the Flood rushed at her, firing again and again with better aim that one would expect. The buckshot didn't do much more than sting from afar, but even amid all the chaos she couldn't afford to ignore it for long. A close-range shot went off that blasted apart some ice not too far from her, suggesting that if this thing got close enough, it would kill her, no questions asked.

While being healed by Blazermate following his fierce skirmish with the infected trainer and his team, a [url=https://giantbomb1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/original/0/7473/480158-infected_elite.jpg]particular combat form[/url] closed in on him. It ran at him with impunity, a dual-bladed sword of blue light in hand, for the corpse that comprised it harbored a cloaking device. Practically invisible but for the glow of its blade, it moved in to hack off a limb from the Koopa King.

The deterioration of the scenario continued to accelerate as a rumbling noise filled the building. Something could be seen plowing up the avenue through the hole in the ice wall, but nobody could feasibly spare the time to look. Whatever it was arrived all the same, skipping up the steps to the Argent Tower, through the front door, through the time-stopped Fleshburster and the explosion that followed. It slammed into Linkle's wall and demolished it in a massive spray of ice, although the impact stopped it as well. When the diamond dust cleared, the heroes could see a [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/deadrising/images/5/55/Dead_rising_Shock_Dozer.png/revision/latest?cb=20140409160351]heavy-duty vehicle[/url], part ambulance, part backhoe, and all tough as nails. In the driver's seat was none other than a flood.

Electricity sparked from the turret on the vehicle's back as it moved into position. A moment later, a blast of lightning flew into the middle of the party. The start-up time meant it could be avoided by all except the teleporter, which blew up in a spray of debris.

The black-coated man messily gutted a Flood-infested Empusa with his knife only for five more to converge on his location. His eyes widened as they jumped for him, but before the monsters could grab him he disappeared in a blue flash. Another flash the next second heralded his arrival by the heroes, and a look at him revealed that his hood had fallen down in the process, exposing a [url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WesuY20eYaQ/maxresdefault.jpg]sharp, middle-aged face[/url]. “This is getting out of hand. “ Winding up, he threw his knife at the driver of the Shockdozer. Another combat form jumped in the way, taking the blow harmlessly with its lolling head. “They're coordinated. This Flood will not stop.”