[i][center][h1] Picking The Carcass[/h1][/center][/i]

[center][i]Link's [@Gentlemanvaultboy], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey], Kamek's (and Rika’s) [@DracoLunaris], Blazermate's [@Archmage MC], & Bella (+4)[/i][/center] 

[hr][hr]

	It was a fine thing to see a plan come together in such a commanding way. Anything with any sense had taken the opportunity to get out of the cave while the rest of them were either swept away under a wave of gunfire or decided to hang around and accept Kameks offer of answers and, shortly, sanctuary. Link had even managed to get a pair of flippers out of it, trading away another of his sulfur crystals to the big bury Zora that had offered them before the refugees were directed back towards Junior’s portal. 

	“Find a man named Vandham once you get there, he’ll help get you settled.” Link called after them, thankful that the city was situated over a large body of water where some of them might be more comfortable. He wasn’t unaware of the sour look Kamek was pointing his way, but all he could say was “I told her we would get her once we were done.” He was just as tired as the wizard was. “At least we aren't likely to be attacked on the way.”

	Bella gave him a dubious side-eye glance. The sheer number of monsters that prostrated themselves throughout the Azure Weald when the team first came through had been vast, and even if many had already returned underground or underwater at this point, those who rushed headlong into a fight with Rika’s fleet -depleting some of her new force in the process- weren’t the only ones who might pose the group a threat. Decently far off but still too close for comfort, for instance, was the [url=https://i.imgur.com/qbq9Cpi.png]Squiffy Ghast[/url] whose eldritch violin melodies something deep within even her, an Abyssal product of the ocean deep. Around the damned minstrel stooped other creatures whose features were more difficult to discern in the gloom, and with the fatigue that hung on her limbs like leaden weights, Bella didn’t want any more fighting.

	“I’m glad zat you brought ze little ones ‘round,” she told Rika. “Poor things. Zeirs is an awful existence, and zey need someone to give zem structure. Zat said, if we’re continuing onward, more numbers will attract more attention.” She cast a wary glance down the immense tunnel of lush alien vegetation, where every nook and cranny might hide another enemy. “We should stay more, how you say, low-key, non?”

	“Yeah…” Rika said, not exactly sure if using them in the same way as the fleet had was a good idea or not now that the consequences of her actions were sitting and glowing in a pile of the dead.

	Kamek gave her a reassuring pat on the arm [color=DeepSkyBlue]”It would have been a lot worse if we’d simply left this to fester on its own. It's good that you got us to come back”[/color] she told the young woman, before agreeing with Bella’s assessment, [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Yes, it would likely be best that we do anything more quickly and quietly. I’m fairly certain most of us do not have another fight in us”[/color] before stifling a yawn.

	Sakura was sitting on a nearby rock, elbow on her knee, and holding her back that seemed to have a cramp that wouldn’t go away. Maybe it was psychosomatic. Or maybe she just needed a lie down. More fighting? She hadn’t expected it, but maybe that was her fault. Kamek’s stifled yawn was contagious, and Sakura didn’t bother hiding it. She stood up and stretched, raising her arms behind her head and bending them far backwards.

	[color=f49ac2]“Let’s just get this over with. A promise is a promise.”[/color] She said, voice strained as she stretched. She relaxed, sighing and rubbing her eyes. [color=f49ac2]“I haven’t stayed up this late since Kei and I’s Godzilla movie marathon. And we don’t have any popcorn.”[/color]

A rumble issued from Link’s stomach. He didn't know what popped corn was, but it sounded fantastic. “Yeah, let’s try and do this fast.” He turned, crouched down, and started moving toward the far end of the cave keeping a lookout for anything unfortunate enough to be setting up an ambush. “Fast, but quiet.” His feet fell lightly on the cave floor as he took the lead, issuing not even a peep of sound as he stepped around pools of water and discarded piles of that red fruit. 

Kamek took a sip from one of the mana potions she’d received from the dead. It was no replacement for food or sleep, but it at least gave her the power to take off on her broom and hover silently after the soft footed hero. Then behind her came a squelch and a whispered “oops, sorry” from Rika as she tried to be stealthy for the first time in her life and put her foot right in a bloopy froot while overthinking things.

Then she tried again only for a loud clunking to follow her as some of the abyssal minions instinctively followed her as an escort. She held them all up for a few moments as she got them all to stop following her, ordered them to take up a defensive position back on the Orphan’s beach where they should be safe, promising them she’d come back, and then brought up the rear of the group as their most amature sneaker.

 Bella’s enormous metal tail did not lend itself to stealth, but with the stakes high she took every pain not to give her team away as the group pressed forward through the Azure Weald. The plentiful underbrush turned out to be both a help and a hazard at times, since while the plants could conceal the weary heroes from the monsters, some reacted to their proximity even without being stepped on. Whenever anyone got too close to the sail-like pink petals of an Orchey Shy, for instance, the five-foot flower would suddenly retract into its bud with an audible [i]fwoop[/i]. Still, the going wasn’t too bad, and with a little patience and perseverance the team reached the rocky grotto tunnel that led back to the Parasite Farm through which they came.

	
	[color=f49ac2]“Almost there.”[/color] Sakura said quietly. [color=f49ac2]“This place isn’t really scary anymore…now it’s just kinda gross.”[/color] With that, she brushed off her skirt and started scampering her way up the nets that lead upwards to the rocky grotto.

	Link had to agree, looking around to see the farm hadn’t changed significantly from when they had come through the first time. The fish men in here still kept their wary distance and tended to the maggots or whatever it was that they were up to. South had moved on from here, though. He hoped she hadn’t left the island already as Sakura started up the nets to the next floor.

	[color=f49ac2]“Um- just let me know if any of you need a hand?”[/color] She said, briefly pausing on her way up to look at the others. 

	Link flexed his fingers. “I’m not too tired or a little light climbing.” He looked over at Bella and Rika. They might need a little help. “Ladies first. We can help carry your tail if you’re having trouble.”

“Oh? Ok yeah, thanks Link” Rika replied after a moment of hesitancy, before she started the climb up the nets. They’d done worse than this as little kids after all, though the sheer fatigue was taking its toll, enough that she lost her grip at one point, only for her wrist to be caught by a supervising Kamek

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”I’ve got you”[/color] the mage said, letting go once the ship girl had re-grabbed her handhold on the net [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Just a little further, she can't have run off to far after this. I hope”[/color] she reassured the ship girl with what turned out to be an entirely false hope.

Though she did not want to trouble the young hero unduly, Bella ended up needing him to make good on his offer, after all. Her leviathan tail was heavier than the Abyssal herself, more suited for dragging her human portion along than the other way around. A net, however, lay well beyond its abilities to scale. Seaplanes could help make up the difference by buoying the blacksteel weight upward, but anyone could see it would take more than that. “Erm…if you don’t mind, too terribly?”

As Bella started up Link ascended close behind, straining to buoy the weight of it with his shoulders as they went. Sakura offered the pair a hand up, which Link was much obliged to accept after the ordeal.

The pelagic shamans below cast the climbers wary looks as they made their beleaguered ascent, but they kept to themselves rather than risk endangering their bountiful parasite farm. While the nets strained -and in the more rotted places, even tore- the heroes managed to triumph over the obstacle, which meant that all that lay between them and the violated fishing hamlet up above was the eggy grotto, with its encrusted ladder.

Kamek went first, angling her broom straight up and then shooting up the length of the well and up into the dreary skies, the real skies, of the island. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Just as foul as I remember them”[/color] she complained while doing a quick circle looking for danger or the missing shipgirl, and finding neither.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”You're clear to come up, doesn't look like anyone’s here”[/color] She called down the well before wondering to herself [color=DeepSkyBlue]”where in the world has she gotten off to?”[/color] as the other’s began their accent, staring with Rika who popped her head out of the well and then hauled herself over the precipice. Then, knowing she wasn't going to have to do any more climbing, the girl leaned against the wall well (in a place where she did not obstruct others coming up) and slipped her gauntlet back on while asking “So…. Now what do we do? Do you think she’s in one of the buildings or something,” which Kamek responded to with a tired shrug. 

Relieved that the rain had stopped and that no more murderous murlocs were around to cause problems (at least for now), Bella took a look around the village. It was every bit as gunky and infested as she remembered, and it was still the dead of night, but the storm around the island appeared to have calmed. All she felt was a slight seabreeze, still malodorous of course, but a lot better than before. Checking the shacks for New Southern would be an exhausting -not to mention risky- chore, but the disposition of their target might be a clue. “She prizes her own comfort, yes?” the Abyssal brought up. “If I were her, I would find somewhere high and dry.” With the dilapidated shanty town around the basin she couldn’t get a great read on the island’s terrain, but with the fog cleared she could make out bulbous dark shapes beyond the houses in one direction, back toward the shore. Rocks, most likely. “Perhaps zat way?”

[color=f49ac2]“Good idea!”[/color] Sakura said, jogging off that way [color=f49ac2]“A good thinking spot where she can come up with an apology to Rika-chan.”[/color] She said, only half-joking.

	“You think so?” Rika asked, not picking up on the half of it that was joking, while following along after the street fighter, while Kamek hovered above them, weary eyes keeping watch for trouble. 

	“I should have taken her picture.” Link said as he hauled himself out of the well, sitting on the wall Rika had for a bit to catch his breath. He could have tracked her even if she had decided to shack up in one of these depressing houses. That gave him an idea, however. As he got up to follow Sakura he pulled out the Sheikah Slate and thumbs the Magnesis Rune. The magnetic grid he could see would highlight metal to him and allow him to see more clearly, for example, the big guns attached to New Southern’s crab if they got close enough. 

	Following Bella’s suggestion, the team either swam or skated across the basin and back the way they originally came. With no time or energy for further distractions they hustled by the jellyshrooms, sea maggots, and other spurious flotsam as best they could, until finally their weary splashing left the last barnacle-encrusted hovel behind them. The waterlogged path became a stream toward the left that split into rivulets across the mucky beach to empty out into the sea, but there was no sign of New Southern among the myriad sealife corpses and ghost-white corals that plagued the shoreline.

Hooking a right, however, brought the ragtag team away from the festering oceanic graveyard and up along the rocks. It was slick from rain and sea scum, with crabs and other critters lurking in the crevasses, but the higher they climbed, the more tolerable things got. The detestable odor of decay that hung heavy over the beach faded away beneath them, and fewer sea creatures troubled them. After a couple minutes of slow going, the team reached the top of the rocky-sided hill. There stood the pitiful remnants of an old lighthouse, little more than its lower third, with a suitably decrepit wooden fence along the ridge. As Link’s rune indicated early on, however, they weren’t alone. At the top of the ridge, where the wind blew as clean as it possibly could on Carcass Isle, rested three monstrous figures in silent commiseration. New Southern reclined on her crab mount as the newcomers expected, staring off into the calm night sky in search of stars, but next to her sat King K Rool, and on her other side stooped Moreau, the both of them having managed to extract themselves from the guts of the Maw. As the others arrived both K Rool and Moreau looked their way, the latter without any hint of recognition.

“Ohh…” the grotesque man moaned in fear, not nearly as big as he seemed while the Seekers were children.

K Rool affixed the heroes with a suspicious stare. “Huh!? Who’re you? Whaddya want?”

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Good morning, your majesty”[/color] Kamek said hastily, landing her broom a ways off front he trio and bowing to the crocodilian king from her world while saying [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I am Kamek, humble mage and advisor to lord Bowser. We were simply looking to meet back up with your companion there,”[/color] she nodded her head towards New Southern before adding [color=DeepSkyBlue]”and mean neither you nor her any harm.”[/color] while not so subtly leaving out Moreau from the equation so she could not be called a lier later. 

The big croc crossed his arms, trying not to look pleased that his royal status was recognized on sight. “Oh yeah?”

“It’s as Kamek says.” Link said, stepping forward with a slight bow before raising his voice to the Abyssal Princess, who seemed transfixed with the night sky. “I told you we would be back when we were done. We have a way off this rock, and two of your sisters have already taken it. My offer still stands.” He turned his attention back to the crocodile king. “If we can rescue you while we’re at it, all the better.” He looked down at the last of them, a decrepit looking hunchback halfway through a far worse mutation than any fish plague, displaying as much recognition as K.Rool had shown him. He was reminded of Kilton, the monster obsessed man that shunned conventional society and chose to live in the wilds, and decided to leave the offer open.
	
Rika raised an eyebrow at the sudden defarence, but did not ask any questions as she assumed her friend knew what she was doing. Sakura hung back by Rika and Bella, not sure how to react to royalty she wasn’t in the mood for humoring. Or the previously loathsome Moreau, who now just seemed even more pathetic. She held her elbow awkwardly, mouth to the side. 

Unable to see any stars through the clouds, New Southern allowed her gaze to fall upon the sea. Her expression was murky, as if what Link said bemused her. Maybe she didn’t believe him in the first place, or didn’t expect him or his friends to return from their ordeal beneath the island. With a sigh she ran her hand through her hair, then replied. “Anywhere’s better than here,” she observed. “I’m in no position to refuse, either. I’ve got nothing. No allies, no pride, and no purpose. Just a hollow puppet with no more war to fight. If you’d pity such a thing…very well.”

“Whoa, melodrama alert!” K Rool jeered. “Didn’t hear anyone askin’ for your life story. Got one thing right though–anywhere’s better than this dump!” The portly reptile heaved himself off the masonry he’d been using as a seat, then plodded over to the Seekers to stand over them imperiously. “Let’s blow this joint!”

At that point, Moreau was already on his feet. “W-w-wait, don’t go!” He practically threw himself on his knees in front of the heroes. “Pleasepleaseplease, take me with you! I’m sick, and, and alone, and everyone I knew is gone, and, and I can do whatever you need, believe me, I’ll prove I’m worthy, I swear!”

“It’s you?” Link said, taking a step back from the voice he recognized. The situation had suddenly become dangerous. Though they were adults now and the shoe seemed like it was on the other foot he wasn’t sure they were in any state to fight the monstrous side of this man. He couldn't let him know that, though, so he projected a strong front. “You looked a lot bigger when I was a kid.” He said coldly, snapping a picture of the man as he did so. “Did you see anyone else at all when you were crawling out of The Maw?”

“Bwuh?” Moreau looked baffled after trying to block the photo with his hands. “I…I didn’t see anyone in that place. I looked and I looked for the Lady, but I couldn’t find her anywhere…” The mutant hunchback sniffed. “B-but, that’s all over, now. I’m ready for a fresh start, please!”

Link sighed. “What do you think, Kamek?” He asked the Koopa witch. “It looks like he’s finally willing to take your advice.”

The mage scratch the back of her hood thoughtfully, and then let out a little sigh, shrugged finally said, simply [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Eh, better late than never, I suppose”[/color] because quite frankly she was in no mood or state to make a fuss about this. Besides, it would be quite hypocritical of her to refuse to collaborate with someone who had tried to kill them after all.


Sakura looked at Moreau. [color=f49ac2]“Just- no more bad guy stuff. Good luck with finding your lady.”[/color] She said. She then walked over, closer to New Southern. [color=f49ac2]”It’s not impossible to start over.”[/color] She said. [color=f49ac2]“Some really brave people have done it before, if you’d just open your eyes to it.”[/color]

The Abyssal averted her gaze. “Nowhere to go but up, I suppose.”

	Blazermate, having been very wary of everything on this island, was almost relieved to see some familiar faces from the Maw. Unlike everyone else though, Mordeau had seen the medabot at her proper size, although her new abyssal kimono might’ve thrown him off. [color=0072bc]”So… These are the last ones we need to get going? I really hate this island, it's gross, and nightmares are everywhere. Dead Zone was a bit more quaint in comparison.”[/color] Blazermate said. She then turned to K Rool, and gave him a thumbs up. [color=0072bc]”I can see why they spoke so nice of you! King of the sumos, you must be a strong guy!”[/color] 

Link looked solemnly across the beach at the massive wreck of the Maw in the distant gloom. “The last tonight, at least.” He said. “Let’s go get some rest.”

“Thank goodness,” Bella sighed. “Back down below, zen?”

	“I can make a teleporter for everyone, it's why I stayed back.” Blazermate stated. With everyone in agreement that it was time to go back, Blazermate summoned her striker and instead of making a sentry nest, he was ordered to finally make a teleporter. He did make a dispenser either way, as it was just something the engineer was used to doing at this point. 

	With the teleporter being built and upgraded, people could teleport out one at a time every few seconds. Even the larger members like K.rool had no problem taking the teleporter, as even if it was a bit smaller than the big croc, it was made to teleport some quite large things.

“That’s a useful shortcut.” Link said. Smiling at the medabot, he took a step back from the group to keep a look out until everyone was safely through.