[center][h3]Tora, Poppi, and Big Band[/h3]
Level 9 Tora (34/90) Level 8 Poppi (104/80) Level 3 Big Band (24/30)
[b]Location:[/b] Al Mamoon Northwest - Obelisk Temple
Primrose’s [@Yankee], Fox’s [@Dawnrider], Yoshitsune’s [@Rockin Strings]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1266[/center]

With time of the essence, the Grimleal captains and their associates busied themselves searching their new locale for any sign of a way forward. More like the bridge-spanned cavern that Band and Primrose braved than the rest of the Temple of Khamoon, this place appeared to be more of a naturally-occuring (albeit massive) cave that ancient buildings constructed within, rather than an area painstakingly cleared by the laborious efforts of miners and masons. The manmade section actually occupied a comparatively small area, with untamed rock walls, roiling sand pits, and bulky columns around it. At least four stalactite-lined tunnels extended haphazardly away from the central cavern, any one of which could reasonably lead to the stronghold of the Resistance.

Seeing all this, Band couldn’t help but wonder if Tora and Poppi might have jumped the gun in declaring that the route to their destination lay right below everyone’s feet, just waiting to be revealed by some clever mechanism. Depending on how far those tunnels went, his team could be here for hours, even days, and never know if this or that ordinary-looking stone was actually a button for a hidden door. “Ugh. We ain’t got time for all these stolen moments.” The idea of getting stumped in such an unceremonious, mundane fashion after coming all this way pissed Band off, so he deployed his magnifying glass and stepped forward after Primrose to scope the place out with renewed vigor. He was a detective, after all! If the Resistance came this way, there had to be a sign.

The first problem he ran into wasn’t too little evidence, but too much. So many feet had trampled the sand in the area going to and fro that nothing useful could be gained by trying to trace them. With furrowed brows Band widened the scope of his search. After a couple minutes of examination between the assembled party members, he came to what he thought was a conclusion. “It don’t look like there’s much sand up and around the rocks. If their base was down a tunnel, all those bozos trampin’ though woulda left some kinda trail. That means we can set some...aerial boundaries.”

Kan-Ra, crouched down before the recessed relief of a scarab beetle, murmured his concurrence. “Mm, yes. I believe that this is the door. I’m sensing a magical artifice here as well, which would indicate some sort of security mechanism in place.”

While the others searched, Azwel had reclined against a pillar, ostensibly to recover from his fight with Es but also to keep sand out of his raiment. “Or a trap of some sort, hmhm,” he added helpfully.

“There is indeed some sort of curse at work,” Kan-Ra confirmed as he stood to his full height. “The work of an inferior magician, I might add, but it would likely trigger if we attempted to force our way in nevertheless. I highly doubt it to be so sophisticated as to distinguish friend from foe, so the solution must be around us.”

“Hem-hem!” Tora cleared his throat with his little arms akimbo, all smug and full of smiles. “What did Tora and Poppi tell friends? Smartypons know puzzle when see one!”

A double honk from Big Band’s little horn, just like that of a clown nose, cut through the Nopon’s elation. “Instead of gloatin’, how ‘bout you make yourself useful and hustle down that sidepath, since you two can fly ‘n all?” the detective told them.

Aware that he was pushing it a little thanks to the Grimleal captains’ shared look of annoyance, Tora turned to give it a shot. After Poppi helped boost him over the shifting sands the two disappeared down the little tunnel, leaving the rest to continue their search for anything that might be of use. Their concentration didn’t last, however, as less than a minute later the sound of running footfalls drew their collective attention toward the entrance. After a moment Yoshitsune, Skull, and Panther appeared, banged up and burned to varying degrees but otherwise okay. “Hiya!” Panther greeted cheerily, waving to everyone. “Looks like we didn’t miss much. Everyone alright?”

Skull took stock of everyone and came up a few short. “Wait, where’s, uh, Tora and Poppi? And Red?”

“The duo went off to explore a side path,” Kan-Ra explained. “As for Red, if you mean the masked woman, she was injured in the initial ambush. When we moved on, she turned back and left.”

Touching bases with the Phantom Thieves put Primrose’s mind at rest, allowing her to fully focus on the task at hand. As luck would have it, the dancer happened on something interesting just moments thereafter. Like the others her eyes and hands had been tracing the intricate patterns and carvings that covered the pillars and walls in this place nonstop, and though she wasn’t nearly so fixated as to accidentally fall in a sand pit, she wasn’t watching her feet, either. As such, it took her by surprise when her open-toed shoe happened to hit something hard in the sand. A glance down revealed what looked like a dark stone half-buried in the sand, but it glistened oddly in the light of the chamber’s braziers. A closer inspection revealed it to be far from natural: it was a carving of a beetle rolling an orb. If touched it emitted a slight yellow glow, and if struck the shaped crystal would light up.

In response, the wings of the scarab on the doorway opened, and the first of the three symbols connected by lines beneath it gained a glowing, circular outline the color of sunlight. The door itself, however, did not open. Band gave a long, low hum of contemplation as he looked at the door and Primrose’s find. “Hmm. This beetle...just like with Eliza.” As Azwel and Kan-Ra looked at him, he explained further. “Lemme back up. There’s this vicious li’l honey I’ve tangled with once or twice back home named Eliza. Blood’s her thing, and if she’s goin’ all out she might turn it into a bug just like that and fly around. Straight up, straight out, straight down, big boom. And ‘cause she won’t shut up, she sometimes calls out ‘sunrise, high noon, sunset’.” He shot a look at Azwel as the sorcerer yawned, then cut to the chase. “Anyway, I’m thinkin’ we got two more bugs to find. One in the middle, one up high.”

Kan-ra grinned as he gave a soft clap. “I am impressed. It is rare that the myths of ancient Egypt come in handy, and rarer still to find someone who knows them--however that knowledge might have come about.”

Crossing her arms, Panther squinted at him. “Are you saying you recognized this stuff too? You coulda led with that!”

“And rob our good detective of his time to shine?” Kan-Ra looked amused. “Perish the thought. Now, let us seek the remaining scarabs.”

Band took serious issue with that sort of condescension, but since he’d already wasted enough time, he let sleeping dogs lie. The team dispersed, only a little closer to their destination but with clear targets in mind. Skull brushed some particles out of his hair after he got a little close to the sandfall on one side of the ruin. “Gah! Y’know, this’d be a lot easier if we could use Third Eye like Joker can.”

“You mean, if we could cheat,” Panther laughed. “C’mon, let’s climb up on the rocks. I’ll have Carmen send up some Agis and we can shoot any beetles we see up high.” Skull nodded, and the two jumped to higher ground.

[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Level 4[/b] Nadia (78/40)
[b]Location:[/b] The Maw - the Depths
Blazermate's [@Archmage MC], Bowser's [@DracoLunaris], Ace Cadet's [@Yankee], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey], Frog's [@Dark Cloud], Mirage’s [@Potemking], Link’s [@Gentlemanvaultboy]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 859[/center]

The hollowness in Nadia’s stomach forced her to agree with the Cadet that she could have chosen her insults better. Even for a stray kitten used to living on scraps, this hunger was becoming a serious problem. It could only be worse for those with more normal, well cared-for childhoods, but Nadia found that telling herself she had it better than the others didn’t help her out a whole lot. There was no telling how much farther the kids had to go to be free of the Maw and its damnable curses, but just two areas sounded a little too good to be true. The odds of them making it were slim. Consequences or not, the kids needed to eat something soon, or else grow too weak to carry on.

But there was neither food nor rest to be had in the hanging catwalk labyrinth, and both Nadia and Ace agreed that they needed to get a move on. While trying to deal with Moreau they, Link, and Bowser had managed to get the platforms and both the start and end of the aerial maze wrecked. That left them both stranded in the middle without an immediate option, and left Nadia in particular bemoaning the fact that she left her bedsheet parachute behind. On the subject of Bowser, however, the little king started hollering across the former Depths’ upper reaches to make sure Link and Kamek were okay. While Kamek didn’t exactly make a great case for spending his time productively, Nadia was still glad that everyone seemed to be okay. Although, she couldn’t see that green-haired kid. Did he end up hiding in the storeroom? Falling in the water when Moreau attacked? Hopefully not.

Bowser ended up directing Nadia’s attention downward. She could see Link making his descent, but apparently Junior was down there, too. By pure coincidence she smacked her own forehead at the same time as Ace, having not put two and two together earlier. Of course, that meant that the young hero who just saved everyone’s bacon by risking his life to open the way now faced an irate Moreau on his own. Worse still, and hopefully not thanks to Kamek’s ‘help’, Moreau seemed to be plodding toward Flow Control at the north side of the room.

They intrepid climbers didn’t need to waste time discussing what that meant; instead, Nadia took off after Ace toward where Bowser hung over the platform by the Command Center. The route taken by Link proved that the stair towers didn’t need to be intact to be traversable, and right now the Seekers didn’t have enough time to be picky. The two ran, jumped, swung, and slid like lives were on the line until they reached Bowser’s ladder and could shimmy down to what remained of the stair tower.

Nadia paused as she landed on the twisted platform, her spine chilled by a grotesque noise that issued down the hall from the direction of the Command Center. “W-what was that?” she squeaked. “Are they in trouble in there?” In vain she craned her neck to try and see inside, but couldn’t get a clear shot down the corridor without committing to it. Then she looked back down to see Link reach the bottom floor and promptly start making a racket at Moreau. Indecision clutched her heart like an ice-cold hand, squeezing in two directions. This was a crossroads; she needed to make a decision, and make it fast.

“Ohhh…” she moaned in dismay, both brain cells working overtime to come up with an answer that would break her out of this paralysis. “W-well...whatever’s in the Command Center, it can’t be worse than the fish monster, right? And we’ve only got two guys down there.” But doubt riddled her. Did she think that just because the exit lay that way, too? Before she could second guess herself, the kitten leaped down to the mangled stair tower’s third floor. From there she could race down the stairs as fast as her little feet could take her, headed for the bottom.

Meanwhile, Link’s noisemaking earned him his desired results, for better or worse. Rather than comb through the debris to try and flush out Junior, Moreau rounded on Link with a bellow. Its anger could not be mistaken, but it held something else as well, a sort of piteous, quavering, almost sobbing quality. “Don’t...be cruel,” Moreau cried. “It’s not fair. It’s not fair! I should be the one with her...not them…” He hauled himself toward Link, crawling faster than one would expect for such a misshapen monstrosity. “Rrragh! You’re the reason nobody loves me!” his garbled moans echoed through the once-flooded base, addressing all the intruders at once. “If she didn’t need monsters to...to terrorize intruders, I...I wouldn’t be stuck with this [i]miserable life[/i]!”

Like a walrus he reared up and slammed his weight down where he last saw Link. “They’ll have to respect me if I kill you! Please!” he pleaded. “She’ll make me better...I just need to...to! Grrah!” He started lumbering around, trying to ram and bite anything that moved on either the ground floor or the metal walkways just above.

[hr]

Once it became clear that the Proxy found its targets by sound, the Command Center quickly filled with grave silence. Even as the horrific pile of pustules began to stalk among the gathered children, however, there existed a glimmer of hope. Its senses were not so acute that it could detect the muffled shuffling of little feet here and there, particularly when timed with the nauseating cries that issued from the creature’s warped gullet. And though its strength and speed made actually fighting it a near-impossibility for a bunch of tired, scared, and hungry kids, Mirage awakened his team to a different possibility. Smack dab in the center of the room was a four-story drop that not even this abomination could survive.

First, Peach needed to vacate the area right between the opening in the pit cage and the pilot seat, which was about to become a highly contested area. Sakura moved in to help the fallen princess out. She got lucky with her footsteps, but as she maneuvered Peach face-up and whispered to Peach to no response, the sound carried far enough to alert the Proxy. With a gargle the fleshy horror turned her way, but the sudden rattle of Mirage’s dart against a section of the chain-link pit cage got its attention off her back. The Proxy howled and threw itself against the fence, thrashing its imagined prey, but despite the frightening display of violence Geralt came back to help drag Peach to safety. Mirage’s distraction also allowed Rika to take charge of the submarine controls without getting mobbed herself, and once the mechanical arms started up their mechanical ruckus the Proxy’s wrath was thoroughly occupied. Together Sakura and Geralt two pulled the little princess around the side of the cage opposite the Proxy and toward the communications station by the window. If either checked her pulse en route they’d be relieved to learn that their ally was still among the living.

A few moments later they’d ferreted the half-conscious Peach in the legroom of the desk and could turn to reappraise the current situation with their unwelcome guest. Rika’s efforts with the arm controls had drawn the wailing Proxy around the cage, through the open gate, and onto the extension over the pit itself. There, unable to jump or otherwise reach the source of the noise, it could only stamp and scream in hideous frustration.