[center][h3]Tora, Poppi, and Big Band[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Sandswept Sky - Graveyard of the Peaks
Level 9 Tora (142/90) Level 9 Poppi (142/90) Level 5 Big Band (80/50)
Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Fox’s [@Dawnrider], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Raz’s [@TruthHurts22], the Phantom Thieves, Braum, and the Scout
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3455[/center]

Eyes as wide as saucers, Big Band blinked a couple times just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, but no matter how much he might wish otherwise there was no mistaking it. In the space of just a few moments amidst the turbulent tempest, the three Phantom Thieves who’d fallen behind had completely and utterly disappeared, without a single trace. “Good heavens,” he breathed, his mind racing to figure out what happened, but at every turn his train of thought hit a dead end. It seemed impossible that the same storm front which only battered the rest of the Seekers managed to hurl those downwind from the slope, or leave them buried beneath the snow, even if all three of them gave up the ghost and collapsed simultaneously. Yet they were gone all the same.

For those who remained, disbelief, astonishment, and woe ran amuck. After staring down for a few seconds in horror, Tora glanced at Poppi, silently imploring her for any reassurance her keen sensors might be able to offer, but she shook her head. Several team members made ready to race downhill in search of their vanished friends, but before any more barely-warm bodies could tumble through the stupefyingly cold snow, cooler heads prevailed. Therion stopped Primrose before she could begin her descent, and though none of the others could hear their urgent exchange through the ceaseless caterwaul of snowstorm, they could reach the same conclusions. The Seekers stood knee-deep in a haystack that extended as far as anyone could see in every direction, and in these conditions searching for three needles would demand far more time and energy than they had.

Tora’s head swam, not just from the piercing chill that seemed to numb his very brain, but from the unfairness of it all. In his heart of hearts he knew that if he wanted to make it through, he didn’t have much of a choice at all, but clinging to that justification only made him feel worse. An awful weight had come to rest in his guts, coagulated from the guilt he felt for spurring everyone onward. Not for a second did he believe that anyone would actually falter in this decisive final stretch of their journey–how could such a horrible, ignominious thing happen to such awesome heroes, after all? Now, however, the Nopon was beginning to realize that he’d made a terrible mistake. His friends were not safe. Poppi wasn’t safe. [i]He[/i] wasn’t safe. He began to shake, wondering how many more would disappear before the party reached their destination. How many more gone, lost in the blizzard, just like that?

Though almost as rattled as their naive Nopon defender, the remaining Thieves managed to keep their despair at bay. Like Primrose they looked to their navigator for guidance, knowing that if anyone could offer any clue to their friends’ conditions or whereabouts, it was Necronomicon. Sure enough, the Persona had already kicked her scanners and diagnostics into overdrive, pinging the snowfield again and again in a flurry of activity. Just seconds later the results were in, checked and rechecked, and using the Thieves’ radio channel she relayed her findings. “I’m not picking up anything within a couple hundred meters, and my transmissions to them didn’t complete, prolly ‘cause of the storm! They’re not anywhere around here!”

Brows furrowed, Joker nodded repeatedly. “Okay. Okay. That means they either b-blew down the mountain and can glide to safety, or s-s-something took them.”

“You th-think M-master Hand left something in the storm, after all?” Though only a couple feet away from his friend, Fox’s voice only came through clearly thanks to their communication line.

“Maybe. Might be what h-happened to the others, too. P-picking us off one by one. Whatever the case, we’ve g-gotta keep moving.”

Joker waved his arm, signaling the team to keep moving. Band raised an eyebrow as if to ask if the teenager was sure. After a stiff nod he replied in kind, turned, and began to spearhead the uphill slog once more. Anger at the kids’ disappearance infused the detective with an adrenaline shot of defiant determination, and unwilling to lose anyone else, he took a deep breath. “Guess I gotta play over you.” He put his lips to his mouthpiece, and his soul into his music. His saxophone blared out in revolt against the snowstorm, fighting back against its howl with a strident symphony of jazz, pitting sweet blues against the tide of bitter white that sought to drown him out. The world around him, already rendered claustrophobic by the storm that closed in around him, shrunk even further as he squeezed his eyes shut, rendering him blind even to the allies that pushed doggedly onward alongside him. Nothing existed but his solo, a grave procession of rhythms and footfalls taken one at a time. Too focused to count the minutes, he played on and on, step by step and note by note, until the one-man-band finally ran out of breath.

Covered in snow and frozen stiff, unable to take another step, Band pulled his chapped lips from his mouthpiece at last. His eyes opened one last time, peering upward into the wind at the split peak. For all his herculean effort, it seemed no closer. [i]Just like always[/i]. The corners of his mouth twisted into a wry smile. Whether against injustice or the elements, no one man could soldier onward forever. At this final hour it all came to nothing, his noble aspirations unfulfilled, the sad story of his life wrapped up in another unhappy ending. Had his purpose, his old-fashioned visions of truth and justice, service and protection, all been an exercise in futility?

[i]No.[/i] Nobody lasted forever. Every journey had its end, and wherever that might be, it didn’t mean that the journey had been meaningless. As he sank to his knees in the snow, the man once known as Ben Birdland felt oddly at peace. Like he could pass on content in the knowledge that he stuck to his guns the whole way through–that he held high the word of law, no matter how far it might have fallen. He only regretted not making it through to the end. “Salt…” he grunted, lamenting the mischief that Peacock would no doubt get up to in his absence. “...peanuts.” Then he fell, face-first in the snow, and was still.

The loud metallic slam made Tora jump. He loosened his death grip on Poppi Alpha for a moment to look back for the first time in ages, and saw where Band had collapsed. For a moment he stood there in the roaring wind and cruel cold, mouth agape, before what he was seeing really began to sink in. Aside from the detective, there was no sign of…anyone. Not Primrose and Therion, not Joker and Fox, not Raz, not Sectonia, and not Braum. “F-f-friends?” he quavered, the voice that welled within him feeble. “Friends!?” he then called, louder and more fearful, desperately scanning the snowstorm for even the vaguest silhouette of one of his allies who’d surely just fallen behind.

But nobody came.

“...Meh-meh,” Tora gulped. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be the last one standing, having outlasted the others purely by virtue of his robust constitution. Fading fast, he turned to his companion and pressed himself against her, desperate for any modicum of heat. “Poppi. Poppi!” he wept, tears welling up in his eyes. “Everyone gone. Everyone! We only ones left! Poppi, you hear? It just you and…and…”

Her ether furnace was cold. Speechless, Tora stared up at Poppi’s expressionless face. She was offline.

“P..P…Poppi?” he stammered, cold tears streaming from his eyes to freeze on his fuzzy, frost-bitten cheeks. “No. No! Come back, Poppi! There have to be more ether! Please turn on Poppi, don’t leave me! Don’t leave Tora…alone…” The Nopon sagged to the ground, his muscles limp. With his last conscious thought, he nudged his head against Poppi’s leg. Then his eyes slid shut.

When he opened them again, he found himself surrounded by dreamlike stillness. Beneath him he found a glowing white expanse, and above him a swirling gray sky. It wasn’t hot, or cold, or anything. He felt weirdly fine. Great, even, as if he’d just woken up from a nice, long nap. No pain or fatigue or discomfort of any kind troubled him. “Meh, meh meh? Is Tora…dead!?” A little groggy and very confused, he put his wings against the ground and pushed himself up. His gaze fell on the backs of six robed figures, facing away from him, and before his eyes they faded away. As they disappeared, they left behind a dim, distant light in the sky that flickered like a star, drawing Tora’s attention. He squinted, trying to make it out, until he realized that it must be the mountain’s split peak.

Then two arms grasped him from behind and hauled him into the air. “Meh meh meh!” he yelped, struggling for a moment until he felt himself pressed against a familiar chest. As the arms squeezed him tight in a hug craned his neck around to see the face of Poppi QT Pi, her core ablaze with the vivid orange of ether. A golden glow surrounded her body, and after a brief moment Tora realized it was on him, too. “Poppi!” he cried, seconds away from bursting into tears of joy. “Tora thought he lost you! What the heck going on!?”

Some sort of power seemed to be welling up around them. The artificial blade glanced up through the clouds at the far-off light, and tightened her grasp around her creator’s middle. “Poppi have no idea, but Masterpon should brace himself!”

“Brace!? Brace for what!?”

The next second he and Poppi launched skyward, zooming up at a breakneck pace. “Meeeeeeeeeeeh!” Tora cried, both his and Poppi’s hair and clothes whipped into a frenzy by the wind, as the pair left the mountainside behind. Together they shot up into a [url=https://i.imgur.com/9cGOfWh.png]swirling tunnel[/url] of storm clouds, like surfers in the tube of a wave. As they ascended, both became aware of other golden lights soaring in the same direction ahead of them. One was close enough that the dynamic duo was able to catch up, and as they circled around the blazing trail it left behind they recognized Big Band in his [url=https://i.imgur.com/MOBgRpV.png]rocket form[/url]. Delighted to see the detective alive and well, Tora waved at him, and Band tipped his hat in reply.

Not even bothering to ask if he knew anything and just along for the ride now, Tora turned his attention back to the light at the end of the tunnel. Green flashes in the stormclouds illuminated dark shapes as they cut through, like sharks in the water. Only after a couple broke through into the vortex could the Nopon really make them out, although they still didn’t quite make sense. Though shaped like great six-winged serpents, each blocky body was segmented into a series of stony pieces, and from each head shone a single ferocious searchlight. The creatures veered dangerously close, but Poppi didn’t seem able to change course, so with no other options, Tora held on for dear life. Well before the Guardian could strike them, however, a brilliant green beam slammed into its body, blasting it out of the way. Tora peered in the direction of the source, but got only the briefest glimpse at a [url=https://i.imgur.com/DMFrVyx.png]familiar figure[/url] clad in white before he and Poppi were long gone. With Big Band just ahead of them, the duo continued to speed upward, higher and higher through the thickening haze, until finally…

They reached the sky.

[hr]

[center][h3]The Apex of the World[/h3]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/KfiVfYh.png[/img][/center]

In a puff of fluffy vapor, Tora and Poppi emerged from the clouds, and even without needing to breathe the artificial blade shared her Masterpon’s gasp of amazement. They found themselves struck dumb by the sight of pristine mountains that rose like islands from a sea of clouds beneath the clearest, bluest sky that either of them had ever seen, tinged only on one side by the colors of the coming sunset. It was so like their home of Alrest that a flood of memories swept over them, leaving both quite unable to speak. Frosted peaks sparkled like jewels in that late afternoon radiance, so dazzlingly bright that Tora had to rub his eyes. A procession of spires led toward a grand ring of lesser peaks, arranged like an ancient council around a vast basin, and over that primeval conclave loomed the uncontested eminence of the mountain’s summit: the split peak whose inexplicable effulgence could be seen from every corner of the Sandswept Sky.

No matter how far either Tora or Poppi looked in any other direction, they could find no other solid ground, but the [url=https://i.imgur.com/kcD4HFU.png]clouds[/url] formed breathtaking vistas of their own. They did, however, manage to spot distant islands that floated in the empty air, as well as the [url=https://i.imgur.com/dzU84rU.png]majestic temples[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/f1BaIfG.png]towering citadels[/url]. For now though, they focused on the objective before them. Still empowered by the golden glow, Poppi soared after Big Band, following the flat-top spires like stepping stones. They made for the vast crimson gate that stood atop the last spire, for around its pillars they spotted a group of familiar figures. Elated beyond description, Tora and Poppi cruised straight there, and after only a few moments they touched down.

“Hey, hey! Took ya guys long enough!” Skull greeted them, a big grin plastered across his face. He and Panther sat together on a rock, holding hands while Mona sat at their feet, trying not to look dejected.

After a brofist of epic proportions with Big Band, Braum stomped over to sweep Tora and Poppi onto his shoulders, wearing a smile so warm it was hard to believe the snow wasn’t melting. “Aha, welcome, little ones! I am so very, very glad to see everyone safe and sound!” Indeed, a quick head count turned up each and every Seeker who had undertaken the climb. Save one.

A moment later, however, a grappling hook attached to the edge of the platform, and the next second the Scout appeared. He looked cold, exhausted, and thoroughly miserable, with no sign of the golden aura that clung to everyone else. Seeing everyone, his jaw dropped in astonishment, and he plopped down into a sitting position. “Bloody hell, how’d you lot beat me up here!?”

Joker blinked. “Did you…climb up here on your own?”

“Well, I used me ol’ grappler, plus Engie’s platform gun, but yeh, pretty much,” the dwarf replied. “Could really go for a beer right now.”

“At this point, I ain’t even gonna question it,” Band sighed. “I sure as hell can’t explain it, but I’m groovin’ high like a new man. Never flown like that before, either.”

Though confused as everyone else, Necronomicon offered her diagnosis. “It looks like everyone’s in peak condition, somehow! No wounds, no hypothermia, nothing. Plus, I’m detecting some kind of buff. Must be how everyone flew up here.”

Panther nodded. “Yeah, like, one minute I was dying in the blizzard, and the next my glider opens up all on its own. Me, Skull, and Mona just [i]fwooshed[/i] straight to the top, right past all these crazy giant rock snakes.”

“We saw Ram!” Tora supplied. “She help clear way for us with biggy-big lasers, meh!”

Fox appeared contemplative. “So, it was some sort of test, after all. When we faltered in our attempt to reach the summit, we received some sort of vision, then got flown up to the top. Rather poetic, in a way. Would that I had my paints with me.” He held out his fingers in two L-shapes, putting them together to form a rectangle that he swept over the scenery. “This environment really is quite remarkable.”

“Considering how high we are, I thought it would be colder, but it actually quite nice,” Poppi observed, her arms crossed. “Poppi certainly not complain. All well that end well, I suppose?”

Skull looked annoyed. “I dunno, as challenges go, that one was pretty bullshit. I mean, just plod up a mountain until you keel over to win?”

“Yeah, that was pretty unintuitive,” Mona agreed. “Good thing we’re all stupid.”

“Speak for yourself,” Band gruffed. “Whatever the case, we ain’t there just yet.” He pointed toward the nearest lesser peak, joined to the spire where everyone rested by a bridge of brown cloth. “Now that we’re all here and fightin’-fit, we oughta boogie on over there. Our head honcho’s just around the corner.”

Once everyone had their bearings, the whole troop could proceed. While the cloth bridge didn’t look like it could support the weight of Tora, let alone Big Band and Braum, the golden glow that still shone from the ascendants caused runes to light up along its length, and over the rippling fabric they could flow without issue. After making their way across, the heroes could make their way up a spiraling incline to a rocky pass between two of the ring’s peaks. Everyone knew to keep an eye out for the region boss, but the view that opened up before them took them by surprise.

Within the ring of peaks, between them and the split summit, lay an enormous basin, perfectly and unnaturally circular, with walls of dark bronze rather than stone. Manmade patterns emblazoned its interior, particularly the likenesses of [url=https://i.imgur.com/UKo2UHV.jpg]men seized by suffering and grief[/url]. A great many [url=https://i.imgur.com/El2emEZ.jpg]bridges[/url] criss-crossed its span, reaching out from the edges or suspended from great chains, although the two sturdiest bridges lay across its top in a tremendous plus sign. Even from this here, four oxidized bronze statues of men could be seen on the bridge, one on each of the spokes that met at the center, and all held great chains of their own. It was so much to take in that the frontrunners almost didn’t notice a wizened, bent-over [url=https://i.imgur.com/uVYiTGs.png]figure[/url] standing among the stones at the end of the pass until he spoke.

“O itinerant ones!” he hailed, drawing the Seekers’ attention. When they looked they found an old man, his ankles bound together by ropes and his hands tied behind his back, stooped by the weight of the jar that hung from his neck. “We traverse strange roads under the same firmament. My name is Redento, barefoot pilgrim of the Order of Genuflectors. Prithee taketh nay affront in my not looking at thy visage, for we at each moment lean forth, so as not to divert our eyes from the path. Such is our olde precept.”
He gestured to the metal basin before them. “We are before Jondo, the great buried bell, erected upside down so that its ringing would make the earth tremble and reach distant lands. Now Jondo resoundeth in a deep triune moan, that traveleth in echoes through its broad spiraling circles.”
Suddenly overcome by sorrow, he hung his head even further. “My feet wish to cross to the other side of this ancient valley to move onto the next destination. But I dare not venture forth, lest the creature knock me from the precipice. Oh, my sins! Who could help me?”
“Creature?” Big Band glanced out across Jondo. “What creature, old timer?”

Redento flicked his head. “There. Look!”

As he spoke, a shadow emerged from behind the eastern lesser peaks. It was a flying leviathan, its color like the desert sands, eel-like with its many winglike fins and odd protuberances. Three immense gas bladders allowed it to float, while four gleaming sunset-red eyes stared listlessly down at the great bell, and with a deep, low groan the beast began to circle. It took a second to get a grasp of its sheer size; each wing had to measure at least sixty feet in length, and the width of its body could support four cars driving side by side. Despite its vast size and bizarre biology it flew with an odd grace, the lazy circle it wove through the air devoid of hostility. There could be no doubt that this serpentine colossus was the monster glimpsed from the desert below, and the Guardian that the heroes had come to slay.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NhJqQ7U.png[/img]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eq-qUy-a-A[/youtube][/center]

[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Carcass Isle - Where All Things Must Come
Level 7 Nadia (79/70)
Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Blazermate’s [@Archmage MC], Hat Kid’s [@Dawnrider], Geralt’s [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN], Ace Cadet’s [@Yankee], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey],  Link’s [@Gentlemanvaultboy]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1425[/center]

For the second time a monsoon of lightning crackled across the beach, and though it spread out from Blazermate’s position like a ripple on a pond to rage throughout the whole area, it wasn’t taking anyone by surprise this time. Opportunistic as ever and eager to save whatever she could of her flagging stamina, Nadia figured she’d make use of the devastation her enemy wrought earlier. On all fours she raced the wave to reach the spot where one of the boulders that the Orphan sundered from the craggy cliffside came to rest. With the gravitational reduction still very much in effect, she didn’t even need to let off a spurt of blue blood to pounce right up on top of the rock, and when the electric tide surged through her area a moment later, the feral remained high and dry. Confident that she’d be protected both going and coming from another nasty electrocution, she heaved a sigh of profound relief, and after a much-needed Nyawn to kickstart her recovery ndia turned her attention to her allies.

While Rika wiped out and Junior couldn’t help out until he got healed, everyone else managed to clear the shockwave, and together the wrathful band of heroes closed in on their loathsome adversary. Nadia was glad to see the Hero of the Wild back on his feet again, and Link did not disappoint. He led the charge into the shallows with a cannonade of Abyssal artillery and a blood-curdling scream that scared Nadia a lot more than any of the Orphan’s, seizing the monster’s attention while his comrades followed in his footsteps. Geralt’s long stride meant he joined the melee right on the smaller hero’s heels, his silver sword eager to claim its prize at last. After pulling off a sweet pole vault, Ace hurried after them, teamed up with an ice-bound Hat Kid once again to deal some serious damage. Even Mimi lent a hand or two, empowered by Kamek’s sorcery into a shadow force to be reckoned with. And as if that wasn’t enough, the sight of her fellow catgirl back in action filled Nadia with joy. Sakura leaped up from the mucky crater where the Orphan laid her to rest with barely a scratch on her, taking the distraught Bella so utterly by surprise that the she almost fell over backward, but once the Street Fighter got a move on the ecstatic Seaplane Tender joined her without a second thought. 

Seeing everyone come together for the final bout, despite all the physical and mental pain they’d endured, today filled Nadia with exhilaration, piercing through the fatigue that weighed her down to stoke her inner fire. “Kick its gnarly ass, ya goddamn heroes!” she cheered, pumping her fists, and the heroes bent their efforts to the task.

Once Link paved the way with his Cryonis rune, he started off with a bang. His jawbreaker slammed into the Orphan’s mouth, shattering more than a few of its baby teeth, and as the nightmare reeled from the counterhit the rest of the Seekers descended on it with everything they had. What Link knocked up, Ace hammered down, and though it trashed around in the water Geralt’s argent blade danced through the storm, carving through muscle and gristle alike as he weathered its wanton fury. The grievous wounds he left behind made tempting targets for Mimi’s claws of darkness, whose savage mauling left the Orphan in such exquisite pain that it lashed out in blind fury. Yet even as they pressed their advantage in a whirlwind of shadow and steel, a flurry of activity so intense that Nadia could barely follow it, the Seekers watched out for one another. As Geralt stepped back, Ace went on the defensive, and Mimi withdrew, enough space opened up for Sakura to make her move.

She announced her return with a spectacular footstool-jump-turned-flip. As she hung in the air above it the Orphan craned its bloody, battered head upward, its jaw loosely flapping beneath baleful, soulless eyes. It began to move, but from the side Bella’s leviathan lunged forward to close its fearsome jaws around the nightmare’s eviscerated torso to hold it still. Then Sakura descended to mete out the death sentence that she pronounced. Her superlative divekick cannoned straight into the spinal cord exposed from its knotted flesh, and with a sickening crunch she ended what Geralt’s well-aimed chop had begun. The next second Sakura hit the ground, sliding to a stop in a spray of wet sand, and behind her the headless cadaver of the Orphan of Kos fell to its knees. It reeled limply backward one last time, as if seeking succor from the sky it could no longer see, then toppled forward into the shallow tidewater. Its gruesome husk exploded on contact, reduced to an ashy goop that fell over the beach like so much rain.

For a moment Nadia waited, scarcely daring to breathe. Then she slid down off her rock to patter across the sand, joining her allies at the water’s edge. For once, the feral was silent, since what was there to say? No words from her felt appropriate to cap off such an awful, despicable, egregious experience. Yet for all the abomination’s eldritch, unholy power, she and the other Seekers had beaten it. They were dirty, wounded, exhausted, and probably scarred for life, but they won. It would be a while before they could feel good about it, but still.

Having limped over, Peach put a hand on the shoulders of the nearest compatriots, those being Link and Junior. “Congratulations, everyone. This victory was hard-fought, to say the least, but at the end of it all we’re one step closer to achieving our goal. To saving not this world, but every world, and every soul between them. That is something worth savoring.” The princess gave a weak smile. “And I, for one, can’t imagine things getting any worse than that.” She glanced over at Nadia, curious as to why the feral seemed to be picking through the shallows where the Orphan had fallen. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, uh,” Nadia cleared her throat, a little embarrassed. “Well, just looking for loot, you know. That’s how these things work, right?”

“Sort of,” Peach replied, creasing her brow. Her expression darkened. “In…in fact…did anyone happen to, er…pick up its spirit?”

Blinking, Nadia looked around, but instead of a spirit she found something else. She stared quizzically at the body of a crab that seemed to be floating above the water. It levitated up into the air as if unaffected by gravity, but a pitch black cord hung down from its middle into the shallows. All around, corpses of small animals and globules of a tarlike substance were rising into the air. Nadia’s ears suddenly stood up straight, the hairs on the back of her neck on end and goosebumps breaking out across her skin. She sprang to her feet. “Somethin’s happenin’,” she hissed as her wide eyes swept across the beach. “Somethin’s very, very wrong…”

All across the beach, inky pools were welling up, turning the black sand into glossy, sticky tar. Fog had rolled in across the impossible sea, even though Nadia could feel no wind on her wet skin. She swallowed, and watched as some of the boulders scattered across the beach by the Orphan began to sink. In other places entirely new objects rose from the muck, rowboats, rafts, wagons and doors, all as briny and encrusted as everything in the fishing village, until the dilapidated roofs of a few whole buildings poked through. A slight but profoundly disquieting noise pivoted her ears behind her, and in a fright Nadia turned in the direction of the huge white corpse from which the Orphan had arisen. For a moment she frozen in terror, her eyes fixed on the vaguely humanoid shadow that hung above the beached cadaver. Then it was gone, and from the fog over the water beyond the shore, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/GF7WCDw.png]tarry colossus[/url] appeared. Its fingers were but strands that extended into the water like dredge lines, an umbilical cord hung from its belly, and rather than a head, only a nest of grasping hands sprang from its shoulders. At its heart was a patch of golden crystal, from which a [url=https://i.imgur.com/A2ov71w.png]collapsed eye[/url] gazed drunkenly outward. The titan stood at least seven stories high, motionless for only a moment, before it slowly began to wade toward the shore.