[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Level 4[/b] Nadia (50/40)
[b]Location:[/b] The Maw - the Belly
Blazermate's [@Archmage MC], Bowser's [@DracoLunaris], Ace Cadet's [@Yankee], Hat Kid's [@Dawnrider], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey], Frog's [@Dark Cloud], Mirage’s [@Potemking], Mr. L’s [@ModeGone]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2000[/center]

When Bongo Bongo finally decided that the flower pot couldn’t possibly get any more smashed, its gaze moved on once again, but this time Nadia noticed what looked like a change in the monster’s behavior. Already the repeated provocations were wearing on the shadow beast’s nerves, perhaps knowing that it wasn’t striking at the root cause of the various disturbances. Leaving behind its methodical, reactionary strategy from before, the scarlet searchlight started to move faster and more erratically, making its gaze much harder to predict and hide from. Even Nadia, whose middle name might as well be ‘Levity’, had a tough time taking the situation lightly. She made a mental note to praise Mirage for his pun later as her brain raced to come up with a solution to the predicament before her.

Her traveling companion beat her to the punch. Nadia looked on as he extracted a nearby tire from the rubble, and when he began to outline his plan she absorbed every detail, her tail swishing around as the gears turned in her head. Someone possessed of an excess of sanity or perhaps a particularly well-developed intellect might have found fault with his plan, but given the feral’s attempt to jury-rig a paraglider mere minutes ago, it was perhaps unsurprising that Mirage’s idea sounded like the bees’ knees to her. In New Meridian and even the Little Innsmouth itself it wasn’t too strange a sight to see a few pint-sized street rats playing with whatever refuse came their way, tires included. The classic combination of tire and hill could keep a kid riding high for the whole day. “Okay,” she whispered, more excited than scared by the prospect. “Let’s do this!”

Together the two got a tire into position, and after bunching up the remains of her bedsheet parachute and stuffing it inside, Nadia climbed in herself. With her fan clutched between her chest and her knees as extra support she fit snugly inside. At that point movement to her right alerted her, but luckily it turned out to be Geralt, nigh-unrecognizable as he was in his current state. “Hiya,” she whispered, keeping things casual despite the ambient threat of the monster turning them to paste. “Mirage can use his darts to make a kind of ladder up the wall. Then we can climb up into the vent. We were just about to get down.” From inside the tire she pointed a clawed finger in the approximate direction of the junk mountain’s foot. “We can use tires to roll down fast. Our target…”

She cleared her throat as she realized, again a little sheepish, that she hadn’t thought about an actual destination. Carefully she got out of the tire, glanced to make sure the phantom’s searchlight wasn’t about to roll over her, and then peered down through the darkness toward the vent that would be her salvation. “There,” she whispered. “Can you see it? Look for the little metal shine. There’s a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/nomanssky_gamepedia/images/5/5d/BUILDABLE.SOFA2.png]couch with red cushions[/url] pretty much right below it, about halfway between us and that boat.” She pointed to the houseboat currently commandeered by the Koopa Troop. No doubt they’d be reaching the exit at about the same time, which was great news. “Let’s aim there.”

At that point she heard a voice from down somewhere. She skittered to the edge of the metal platform to look and found Sakura down at the base of the mountain, sending up encouragement and high fives. [i]Too pure and innocent for this world[/i] Nadia recalled as she clenched her teeth, looking to see if the little street fighter had alerted Bongo Bongo. Luckily the phantom seemed otherwise occupied at the moment at the other side of the Belly, venting some of its frustrations. Nadia waved down at Sakura with both hands, making the universal [i]keep it down[/i] gesture. They might be near the end, but it was way too early to celebrate.

Still, she resolved to give Sakura some high-fives when they got through this. First, though she needed to get through this. With a deep breath she re-entered her tire, while Mirage re-adjusted his aim. “Well, if I get mulched, remember me fondly. Adult me, preferably.” She got as comfy as she could and braced herself for adventure. “Okay, I’m ready. Send me!”

Her friend complied, and the next second she was rolling. Her heart instantly leaped into her throat as the tire hit the junk and started to pick up speed, but pretty soon the dizziness set in and flushed everything else from her mind. The poor kitten could do nothing but hold on for dear life as her tire bounced, rolled, and bounced again down the slope of junk, each impact sending items clattering down the mountain. Normally the phantom might have passed the noise up as nothing more than the typical shifting of junk, but with its dander up Bongo Bongo wasn’t going to let a chance slip through its fingers. Its gaze flew across the Belly to the slope of the junk mountain, but by the time its hit the spot the noise came from Nadia’s tire had moved on. As the disturbances continued it tried to keep up, but for whatever reason it didn’t sense the pattern of her movement and attempt to intercept her, and only grew more frustrated.

Maddened by its continued tantalization, Bongo Bongo started smashing. From the shadows its mottled mitts dropped again and again, flying over one another in a line in a horrific game of leap-frog, destroying the junk in Nadia’s wake in an immense racket. If the monster even heard the sound of Mirage’s thrown glass over the hubbub, it flat-out ignored it. It picked up speed, and only a moment after the kitten’s tire ramped off the car door a hand reduced it to broken glass and scrap metal, hurting itself in the process. A strangled, guttural [i]OOGH[/i] came from up above, where the searchlight originated, and both hands ceased their raging as the damaged one flashed blue.

Nadia’s tire, meanwhile, sailed through the air and landed on the bottom layer. It rolled a short distance, hit the edge of a buried nightstand, and toppled over. Only after a moment did Nadia’s tousled head poke up from within, looking incredibly dizzy. For the moment Bongo Bongo seemed to be recovering, but there was no mistaking the trail of tossed objects that heralded the arrival of the thing that lurked below. Even if she couldn’t see straight, Nadia could hear the noise that terror etched in her soul from earlier, and she struggled to pull herself from the tire. The sofa was close, painfully close, but still too far.  [i]It’s going to get me. It’s going to get me![/i]

Then a pair of scaled hands wrapped around her arms and pulled her free. She mewed in fear, but rather than up into the darkness or down into the junk she got hauled onto the deck of the mostly-buried houseboat, and once her head stopped spinning she realized that a Koopa had come to her aid. “Junior! Oh man, you really saved my skin” she breathed, still too dazed to stand up straight. Her bright eyes turned just in time to see her tire get pulled beneath the junk, along with the blanket she’d left behind. At least she hadn’t let go of the fan.

A crescendo of clashing noise turned her attention back the way she came. Bongo Bongo’s wanton destruction of the mountainside had destabilized the terrain, and now the mountain was coming down. The piled-high items came sliding, tumbling, and clattering down in a landslide, taking the car hood that Geralt and Mirage stood on with it. Balancing for their very lives the two rode the hood down the mountain, eventually coming to a stop past where Nadia’s car door ramp had been. No other way across lay before them, but thanks to the landslide a box containing a set of [url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zw3MrLGwtDY/maxresdefault.jpg]welcome streamers[/url] among other things had been exposed, offering a perceptive dart-shooter the very sort of rope he’d been looking for.

At the same time the others took advantage of the noise to close the gap. Nadia spotted Sakura and Link pillow-stepping their way across the miscellaneous expanse, the latter having gained a strange companion that was not at all the green-haired lad the kitten had been expecting. Peach kept hopping along in her shoe, slow enough to not cause a scene. Though Bella looked exhausted she kept on trucking, rowing her toy boat toward the red-cushioned finish line. Bowser’s own little vessel picked up a passenger in Ace Cadet, who Nadia was overjoyed to see alive and well after he fell behind at the start. With the cover of the landslide Blazermate would have no trouble blazing her own trail over the junk to where the others were coalescing. Behind her, Rika and Kamek emerged from the houseboat’s interior wielding the split halves of a [url=https://i.redd.it/rx16yveorwp61.png]magnet[/url], and the boat’s prow was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from a couple picnic tables and lawn chairs that led right to the sofa. Nadia’s heart surged with hope; somehow, despite the helplessness and terror, they were actually about to make it!

[center][hider=New Paired Tool]Blue Team has Acquired:
[b][url=https://i.redd.it/rx16yveorwp61.png]Magnet Halves of Attraction[/url][/b]
[i]Despite not being scientifically possible, the halves of the magnet retain their charge. Each one can attract metal of the opposite color and repel metal of the same color, including whatever they might be attached to. Originally created to help restore a troubled couple’s attraction, the magnet halves are stronger if the halves are borne by two people with attraction to one another, and weak otherwise. Their power continues to grow as the bearers’ attraction increases, allowing for new possibilities, including the halves flying together.[/i][/hider][/center]

Of course, that notion smacked of confidence before the fall, and in anticipation of a problem Nadia turned her cat vision of the exit. Sure enough, there she spotted a problem with the vent beyond its height off the ground: there was a fan inside it. It spun at a good clip, remarkably quiet, but its edges looked sharp, and it promised to make escape difficult. At the hub there appeared to be a softly pulsing red core of some kind that looked important.

Her observation got interrupted by another noise from the shadow beast. As she watched its red eye began to descend, until its hanging form floated only a couple dozen feet above the final stretch of junk, hands at the ready. In anger and desperation at the intruders’ imminent escape it started to beat the ground layer, twice with its left hand and then once, stronger, with its right. Each impact sent a shockwave through the terrain, making it harder to balance and move, and all the while its eye continued to rove around. The final stretch had become a crazed game of red light, green light for those not already at the finish line, and Bongo Bongo wasn’t playing fair.

Those in the middle would have a hard time getting to the sofa, so it fell to those with a clear path around the sides to clear the way as much as possible. That meant Mirage, Geralt, and possibly Blazermate coming in from the left, and the remaining Koopas plus Rika on the houseboat route to the right. And, of course, Nadia. She grabbed Junior’s shoulder and tilted her head to the others, pointing the way with her ears since her other arm held her fan. “We’ve gotta go. Let’s get into position on the couch, so we can climb up. If you’ve got any ideas for dealing with the big fan, now’s the time!” Leading by example she scurried across the deck of the houseboat and hopped across the outdoor stepping stones to the couch, where she prepared to stage her getaway. She watched out for any signal from the others, any chance to put her own fan to use.