[center][h3]Big Band[/h3] Level 3 Big Band (3/30) [b]Location:[/b] Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Yoshitune's [@Rockin Strings], Fox’s [@Dawnrider], Laharl’s [@Dark Cloud], Red’s [@TheDemonHound], Mao’s [@Potemking] [b]Word Count:[/b] 1198[/center] A few moments passed while Big Band’s info sank in for the others, parts of which elicited no small amount of contempt from the royals. Once Midna got up to speed, however, she offered an excellent suggestion that the detective was only too happy to agree with. “Sounds like an A1 plan to me,” he told her. “Won’t turn down some instant backup, no sir.” The Twilight Princess’s contribution prompted Sectonia, who never settled for second best, to offer what she could, but Band turned her down. “Save your bugs for when we begin the beguine. Until then I need the suckas feelin’ like they got me all to themselves.” Fox’s arrival both gladdened Band’s heart and tied off one loose end in his mind. After confirming both the ruthlessness of the Resistance and their awareness of the Seekers’ presence he would have been lying if he said he hadn’t worried where Fox went. His appearance here no worse for wear put an end to that line of thinking. Succinctly the detective repeated his plan. “I’m gonna show up at the scene of the crime actin’ the fool, with this sophisticated lady in my shadow, and see if anyone rolls up with intentions for me.” He leaned back in his chair with a slight smile. “Chances are I’ll end up in a lot somewhere and they’ll try’n give me the one-o-clock jump. If the two of us can’t bring about a resolution I’ll give the signal, so if you hear my sax come runnin’. Take five ‘til then.” Once everyone got the plan down, Band stood to get to work. He plodded his way through the cooling mist and out of the coffee shop, at which point he retraced his steps to the Commissions Office. Big Band could be discreet despite his size, but he could also be conspicuous because of it, and now he made no effort to mitigate his presence. In short order he was stomping around the scene of the crime, looking up and down the street, trying so hard to find someone that he could only possibly find someone who wanted to be found. And in surprisingly short order, he found one. In the course of his faux investigation Band spotted a large man hanging between the public bathhouse and the library across main street. He was blonde and burly, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/PGK4dHy.png]rough warrior type[/url] ridden with showy spikes, and absolutely not a visitor at either nearby establishment. Most tellingly the stranger kept looking Big Band’s way, pretending to look at passing citizens or other buildings for a few seconds at a time here and there, or when the Detective glanced his way. Once sure, Band winked at Hunnigan and took off in the direction of the burly loiterer. Predictably the stranger beat a hasty retreat, disappearing between the buildings. Band followed, rounding the corner just in time to see his quarry’s boots vanish behind the next. “Too easy,” he murmured, more for his passenger than himself, as he gave chase by sliding across the concrete, asphalt, and tile with a stream of music notes. The pursuit came to an end in a parking lot between a few large buildings. One had a garage door partially open, and the meathead ducked into the dark inside. His perception and intuition told him he’d followed his mark far enough east to be close to the market district again, making these warehouses or offices of some kind, but this particular lot seemed deserted. [i]A perfect place for an ambush.[/i] Feeling pretty wise to the act, Band slowed his roll and used a giant hand to slide up the garage door enough to get in. The instant he entered he visually swept the interior, taking in every detail as fast as he could. While the place bore a few signs of relatively recent activity, the current occupants were not workers. He spotted a [url=https://webcdn.hirezstudios.com/paladins/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Koga_TheLostHand_1920x1080-1.jpg]green-clad ninja[/url] with pistol and claw, a [url=https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/024/301/801/large/nicolas-amarilla-daemon-hires.jpg?1581975773]masked swordsman[/url], a [url=https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/027/668/166/large/bao-vu-cass-beauty.jpg?1592216576]mohawk-having punk[/url] on robotic bird legs, an [url=https://www.kindpng.com/picc/m/302-3028296_img-visual-tira-soul-calibur-6-png-transparent.png]indecent jester[/url], and last but not least the trio who’d set up the bomb scare: Mao, Maeve, and Klee. Though they stood, sat, or otherwise lounged around in a casual manner, they were positioned to have him almost surrounded. A noise from behind drew Band’s eye, and when he looked over he shoulder he found the purple-clad woman he’d seen stalking the Seekers early, behind him with a submachine gun. She waved cheekily with the hand not holding her weapon at the ready. Though instantly on guard, Band betrayed no fear. He turned back toward the rest “Huh! Real nice welcoming party ya got here. Makes me feel all kinds of warm ‘n fuzzy inside.” “Spare us the brave face,” the demon-faced samurai snarled. “You’re going to tell us every last detail about your group. Who you are, and what you’re doing in the city with Validar.” Band raised a brow. “You wanna know who I am? I’m all there is of the most real.” A smattering of bullets struck the ground around his feet. Daemon hefted his sword onto his shoulder and took a step forward, while the other Resistance members got to their feet. “I told you we’re not playing games. We’re-” “You’re a two-bit, no-account, rat soup eatin’ grab bag of fools,” Band told him, steamrolling right over his speech. “And if ya don’t take this last chance to lay down your weapons and stick ‘em up, you’ll be prosecuted to the full extent of the jam.” A moment of pregnant silence followed before Daemon gave a derisive snort. “Have it your way.” His mask turned ever-so-slightly to Big Bands’ left and nodded. Band was moving before the first few shots left Koga’s gun. He slid across the floor like a freight train, soaking up the bullets with a cymbal shield before he got into range. “Gimme a hit!” From his other side hurtled his gigantic fist, and when it connected the ninja got smashed into the wall behind him hard enough to leave a crater. The sight cowed Band’s enemies, but only for a moment. More bullets pierced Band’s back as the Resistance melee fighters rushed in. “Short stuff!” he called to Midna. “Wipe out miss vanishing act before she hits the tracks!” Tira, Baz, Daemon, and Maeve were nearly upon him, but the detective stood his ground and deployed an enormous drum pedal. “Giant Step!” Its pendulus weight swung and slammed into the ground, releasing a tremor that knocked his attackers bodily to the ground. Only Cass managed to keep her footing thanks to her legs, but when she lashed out with a brutal kick, Band armored through the pain to deliver a mighty sound blast from his sax, loud enough to be heard from a distance. The trade went in his favor, blowing Cass back while he staggered from the body blow, but just a moment the others had gotten to their feet, and the battle was on for real. [center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3] [b]Level 4[/b] Nadia (55/40) [b]Location:[/b] The Maw - the Depths 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] 1201[/center] Much to her chagrin Nadia had to leave the pun-making to Mirage for the moment, and she focused on stabilizing herself instead. Her eyes rested on the fan that lay on the floor beside her, and her mind filled with gratitude. Never in her life would she have expected such a mundane little device to be such a lifesaver. And thinking back on it, she was honestly shocked that she’d been able to put the fan to use on the fly like that. She decided to repay it by sitting up and beginning the task of untangling the streamer from the fan blade. Even being turned into a child, it seemed, couldn’t dampen her creativity--her aptitude for making the most of a bad situation. The thought emboldened her just as much as the others’ celebration. Mirage was right. Despite everything stacked against them, the team had made it through the dark, miscellaneous hellscape and through that shadow beast’s gaze without a single casualty. There was hope for them yet. She nodded her response to Blazermate’s question but did not resist Sakura’s hug, but received it with open (and then closed) arms. “Meowst Valuable Player, huh? Well, it was mostly this thingy, but I’ll take it,” she smiled, patting both her fan and herself on the back. A few of her friends hyped themselves up too, filled with determination by their little victory. Still, even if things weren’t quite so bleak, Nadia didn’t think for one second that they were out of the woods just yet. Their trip through the vents gained them a little elevation but the Seekers had a long way to go before they made up for their trip through the chutes. [i]Just how big is this place?[/i] Worse still, the hunger she felt actually did seem to be the work of some witchcraft. Kamek shared a tidbit of information that Nadia must have missed: the heroes weren’t supposed to eat anything aboard the Maw. With a frown Nadia rose, putting the fan on her back. “Then this is a race against the clock, too. Spend too much time hidin’ or explorin’ and we’re done for.” Peach nodded, her petite features about as grave as they could conceivably get. “Agreed. Let us proceed, then.” Her eyes fell on Sakura, trying all by her miniature lonesome to shift the obstruction blocking the door. “We’d better give her a hand.” Many hands made light work, and soon the children dispersed enough of the piled boxes to slip through the doorway and into the dim light on the other side. On the way through Nadia tried to steel herself for anything, so what she saw surprised her only a little, even though it discouraged her a lot. [center][img]https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.primagames.com/_resized/files/Playdead-Inside-Flooded-Base-25.jpg_1200x675_.jpg[/img][/center] On the other side of the doorway three metal steps took them onto a red metal platform with railings, its surface about half an inch underwater. Beyond the railing stretched a gargantuan expanse of water, flat as a mirror. Large cylindrical structures of unknown purpose rose from its calm surface like leviathans from the deep. Catwalks of varying elevations, linked by stairs and in some cases wooden boards or hanging chains, snaked throughout the room both above and below the water. Nadia guessed that the place must be some sort of industrial zone, but what for she couldn’t tell, since the Maw certainly didn’t seem to suffer from it being flooded. The Depths had to be at least as big as the Belly, but the kitten got the feeling it extended much farther down. She scampered to the metal platform’s stairs, splashing the shallow coat of water, and saw that they led down, down, down until they finally vanished into the darkness. She whistled. How deep it went, of course, was none of her concern. What bothered her was what might be lurking down there ready and willing to devour a couple kids who needed to make their way across all this water. “Yuck. This has sea monsters’ written all over it. And here I thought we’d had enough for a lifetime…” Try as she might, though, her cat eyes couldn’t discern much of anything down there, so she turned her gaze across the water for a possible destination. Bella leaned on the railing and stared into the water herself, unperturbed by the Depths. “That’s unfortunate,” she mused. “I was thinking that Rika and I could just swim. We’re still Abyssals, after all, even if we’re little. But you’re right, there could be anything down there.” It was as clear to her as to anyone else that the team would need an alternative. “Over here,” Peach called, waving. She’d been looking up at a laminated paper attached to the wall by the door the group came through, but she needed a boost or two to be able to actually read it. Once properly elevated, the pint-sized princess was gladdened to find that it was a map of the Depths. In fact it was four maps, one each for the area’s first, second, third, and fourth floors, the latter of which served as their current location. The first three floors appeared to be underwater, and she quickly caught on to a painful truth. “There’s an elevator but it...it’s...underwater,” she breathed in disbelief. A sour expression had taken hold of Nadia’s face as she stood with her arms crossed. “Is there another way out?” After a few moments Peach shook her head, frustrated. “It doesn’t look like it. But…on the first floor, there’s a room called Flow Control. And…!” As she spotted something else of note she turned to find its real-life counterpart across the water on the fourth floor. In a central location on the huge room’s right-side wall a windowed section jutted out, which the map labeled the Command Center, and right beside it was the Submersible Bay. “There! We might be able to...well…” Peach climbed down, looking like she already regretted her idea. “I mean, I know this is going to sound awful, but we could try using a submarine to go down and drain the water at Flow Control. It’s not like we have any other options right now, so we could at least head over.” Nadia shot the Command Center window a dubious look. It might as well be across the ocean. “How?” Pointing upward, Bella said, “We could use those hanging and suspended walkways.” Eyebrows raised, Nadia looked toward the ceiling. The catwalks did form a pretty large, if extremely precarious, network that spanned the whole upper level. Not all were connected to one another, and fewer still in a safe manner, but on the far side a ladder lay right beside the door to the Command Center. The whole thing essentially made for an aerial maze, and one that would take no small amount of daring. But she could see pinpoints of light in the dark that the others probably couldn’t. “I think I see control panels up there. They might extend, raise, or lower the walkways. We’d just need…” Her eyes landed on Mirage and his gun, then on a flat section of wall nearby between the Seekers’ current footing and a low-hanging bridge. “A way up there.”