[center][h3]Tora, Poppi, and Big Band[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Sandswept Sky
Level 9 Tora (182/90) Level 9 Poppi (182/90) Level 5 Big Band (120/50)
Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Raz’s [@TruthHurts22], Raiden’s [@XoXKieroBombXoX], the Phantom Thieves, Braum, the Scout, Peacock, Mao, Robin, Tharja, Ciella
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2724[/center]

The plan had been made, but there was a problem, one lost on those possessed of profoundly superhuman durability, like Tora, Big Band, and Ciella. Red Eye’s explosive rising headbutt had ripped the Seeker’s caboose from both train and track, throwing it and all its ammunition into the air like a child’s toy. Its nigh-cataclysmic explosion not only went off too far away from the behemoth to meaningfully damage it, but also pummeled the hapless heroes with a withering pressure wave. It slammed into them like an omnidirectional pile driver, strong enough not just to rattle their brains in their skulls, but to crush their pressure-sensitive lungs and eardrums. In the wake of the blast, the vast majority of Seekers aboard the Railway Gun wound up deafened, dazed, and breathless–in short, stunned. 

For a second or two Band looked around in confusion at everyone who apparently hadn’t heard the man. Then the realization hit him like a bolt from the blue, prompting a guttural [i]hrrk[/i]. He’d managed to bear the brunt of the debilitating shockwave thanks to his iron lung and protective headphones, but Jesse, the Phantom Thieves, Primrose, Peacock and her cohorts, Mao, the Scout, and the Shepherds were all down, in various states of pain as they struggled to draw breath. Those who did manage to pull themselves together and pick themselves up, confused and desperate to do [i]something[/i], went on the offensive against Red Eye for all the good it did. Midna and Braum spearheaded those desperate measures from the back of the train, joined after a moment by Ciella, but Red Eye closed the distance anyway, gaining on the train with agonizing, almost mocking slowness. Unable to help them, Sectonia offered her magic to speed up the turning process, so Tora directed her down below to the enormous turntable that the whole Railway Gun sat upon. Neither Raz nor Therion were anywhere to be found, which hopefully meant they’d taken shelter either down below or up in front with the Conductor, and not fallen from the train or anything. Meanwhile, something had broken in Raiden. After throwing all his flashbangs to no effect, he seemed to go crazy, talking to himself and shouting at the monster that even now grew steadily closer by the second.

Seeing the absolute state of his team brought a fresh wave of sweat to Big Band’s brow, and with a shaky mechanical arm he dabbed at his skin with a handkerchief, trying to get himself under control. Aside from himself, only Tora and Poppi still possessed the faculties and inclination to operate the Dragonfire cannon, owing to the duo’s shared defense and regenerative ability. “That ain’t enough,” he breathed. He or Tora would need to convince the shooters up front to come back and lend a hand, but even if they obliged, it meant the loss of precious seconds.

The Nopon, however, had other issues. He’d beelined to one of the turning stations to start the Railway Gun swiveling himself, only to be stopped in his tracks by a giant flashing error message on the console. “It JAM!?” he wailed, clutching his head in horror. His wide eyes landed on Band. “Sectonia buff no good if gun not move at all! Tora need go down below and fix!”

“No time to waste!” Poppi grabbed her Masterpon and flew down over the edge, headed for the Railway Gun’s innards so that Tora could service the turntable himself.

Band’s handkerchief flew away in the wind as he reeled, suddenly all alone atop the train hurtling toward Hollow Heights with the mother of all monsters in tow. At a loss for words, he clenched his jaw and stomped to the crane loader, the mission’s last hope clutched tight in his brass knuckles. He slammed the Wrath shell into place, then hopped down to the rear middle section by the mammoth barrel of the main gun that still pointed backward at Red Eye, a laughably empty threat. He gritted his teeth and rammed his shoulder against the steel, pushing with all his might in a desperate attempt to turn the cannon by force. He strained and strained, blasting sound behind him for extra force, but for all his effort the barrel would not budge. “C’mon!” he growled, sweat rolling down his face and stinging his bulging eyes. “C’MON!”

Suddenly, the Railway Gun obliged, but in the wrong direction. It flew sideways in a burst of speed, forcing Band to grab hold to avoid being knocked off the train. “Whoa-oa-oa!” Tora must have fixed the turning mechanism, he realized, allowing Sectonia to hasten it with her magic. But if they were down there, who was up top? Wheezing, Band looked up to see none other than Jesse at the turning station, nowhere near as hurt as he first thought. With the FBC director mashing away, and bemoaning certain allies for not lending a hand or two, the detective gave a sigh of relief. As the whole thing continued to spin he clung to the barrel for dear life, waiting until it brought him back over the train before he relinquished his grip. Disheveled and in sore need of a breather, Band tumbled down the slope and landed [url=https://i.imgur.com/YqytI2C.png]upside-down[/url] on the lower forward platform, where he remained.

The noise of his landing made the Conductor glance over his shoulder, though he obviously couldn’t see anything from inside the engine. “Gah! What was that!?” he exclaimed, glancing between Therion and Raz. “Go look, wouldja? We’re arrivin’ at Hollow Heights any minute!” Sure enough, a yawning pit had appeared in the desert up ahead. Across the void, a single railway bridge extended through the turbulent air, and that was where the train was headed.

Meanwhile, Poppi burst out from the Railway Gun’s undercarriage, boosting up to the crane loader to get the long-awaited Wrath shell ready to fire. Tora emerged a moment later, panting and smeared with machine grease. When he laid eyes on the team’s pursuer, his mouth hung open in terror. It was too close. The extremities of its gargantuan outer jaws were only seconds away from coming up alongside the train on either side, and in the center of its horrendous mass its inner-jaws gnashed together in anticipation, those pedipalp-like limbs eager to grab hold of the train and pull it straight down Red Eye’s nightmarish gullet. No amount of metal spears, icy blasts, water arrows, or drunken turret fire could keep that monstrosity at bay.

“Meh-eh-eh…!” Tora moaned, tears pooling in his eyes as he flapped his wings in fear. “It t-too late! Train is done for! Need abandon ship! P-Poppi-!”

A hand came down on his shoulder, steading him as he went to shout for his companion. “Meh?”

He looked up to see Robin, clearly still hurt but on his feet nonetheless. “Don’t worry, my little friend,” he said, patting Tora one last time before he stepped toward the back of the train. As he crossed the lower rear platform to where Midna and the others were shooting, the tactician raised his voice. “Hear me, Seekers of Light! I’m telling you this, not for the sake of senseless sacrifice, but so that if worst should come to worst, no-one should ever have to lay their lives down in vain!”

Robin pressed his eyes closed, then opened them with a flash. There came a sound like a thunderclap, and around him swelled a prismatic energy. “This is the power within us–a power unique to each and every one of you. Your whole being in one almighty attack, strong enough to turn even the darkest hour to brightest day. A Final Smash!”

As the aura around him continued to grow, his very body refulgent with power, Ciella seemed to understand what he meant. The Agito lowered her bow as she stared at him. “What madness is this? Do you truly intend to throw your life away for these strangers?”

Robin’s gaze seemed to pierce her mask, meeting his former enemy’s eyes. “My dear friend believed that it was our duty, Ciella. To be the heroes that people needed, to serve and fight for those who could not do so themselves. To be Shepherds for the sheep. His ideals of heroism were no delusion. My faith in them, and in the dream of these ‘strangers’, is no deception. Wallow in despair if it pleases you, Agito, but if my life can somehow be a guiding light unto others, then that is what I will do!”

He thrust his Levin Sword into the air, sparking with lightning. Red Eye roared, its maw so close that the Seekers could feel its infernal heat, but Robin’s voice cut through the chaos. “It’s time to tip the scales!” A lightning bolt shot skyward. Tora watched in astonishment as a cyclone of clouds exploded outward from the top, then opened wide. Through the tempest a colossal [url=https://i.imgur.com/U3UGGbo.png]black dragon[/url] descended, its six great wings carving through the air. As many blazing eyes glared down at the behemoth below, and as it unleashed a tremendous roar, purple flames welled up in its throat, so vivid that it hurt even to look at them. Robin, however, didn’t bat an eye. He leveled his sword at Red Eye, and let out a roar of his own.

[b]”Incarnate Calamity!”[/b]

The fell dragon swooped down, and from its jaws raged a torrent of purple fire. Its breath of ruin blasted Red Eye right in the mouth, then swept across its back all the way to the tip of the tail, with the giant worm screeching all the while. Red Eye slowed down, thrashing from side to side in agony, and overhead the soaring dragon dissolved into multicolored light.

Tora blinked several times, trying to process what exactly just happened, and how. In the end, though, he latched onto the most important detail: that Robin had bought enough time for the Seekers to get their final shot off. “Go, go, go!” he yelled, bouncing up and down. Red Eye was still coming, but it had a lot of ground to make up, and the others weren’t going to waste this opportunity. After getting the Wrath shell loaded Poppi moved to the turning console to take over from Jesse, who climbed back in the cannon. The whole shebang began to swivel back around again, creaking and grinding until its business end faced Red Eye once more.

Tora’s eyes landed on Robin once again, and despite the circumstances they lingered there a moment. The young man seemed oddly indistinct, as if he were caught in a desert mirage. On second glance Tora was shocked to realize that Robin seemed to be dissolving, but into light instead of ash. He’d turned around to meet the gaze of Tharja, who was staring at him with teary eyes in stunned silence. For a moment he just looked at her sadly, and when he tried to say something, no words came out. Then he disappeared, evaporated, like morning dew.

Suddenly the desert sand on either side of the Railway Gun disappeared, replaced by pitch-black nothingness. The train clattered along a double track suspended over what seemed like a bottomless pit, surrounded on all sides by an endless forest of metal girders and scaffolds that held up the Sandswept Sky. Red Eye wasn’t far behind, but something strange had happened. As the sand it burrowed through grew shallower beneath it, its whole body rose higher and higher, and its segmented legs found less and less purchase with which to pull its titanic mass along. It slowed down fast and came to a stop not far from the precipice, its limbs scrabbling uselessly at the metal floor beneath a pittance of sand. The guardian was a sitting duck, its defenses blown and burned wide open. It was quite possibly the easiest shot of Jesse’s whole career.

For the final time, the Dragonfire Cannon invited hell. Its payload ripped through the air and exploded against Red Eye with jaw-dropping power. A safe distance away and growing safer every second, the train screamed onward, but its dumbfounded passengers could still feel the blast on their faces. On the heels of the unfathomable explosion came a cacophony of metal as the floor beneath Red Eye gave way, sending both the beast itself and the desert for thousands of meters around plummeting into the abyss.

There was just one problem. That included one end of the railway bridge, and as the Seekers looked on in horror, the rest of the span quickly began to collapse behind them.

Panic erupted all along the train as the whole bridge began to wobble dangerously. With no way to reach the other side in time, there were only two choices: abandon the train, or die. Tora ran around like a chicken with his head cut off, calling for Poppi until his partner snatched him up and took to the sky. Unfortunately, the pair’s troubles didn’t end there. All the chaos had provoked a reaction from Hollow Heights itself, kicking up gale-force winds from deep inside the earth below. As metal came tumbling down, the storm surged up, yanking the heroes from the train with such outrageous force that even the likes of Tora couldn’t help but black out completely.

[hr]

The first thing Tora felt upon awakening was the wind coursing through his hair. When his eyes blinked open his brows furrowed in surprise, for he could see nothing but blue, blue, blue, no matter where he looked. He tried to crane around for a better look, only to realize that he was being held tight in Poppi’s arms. “Poppi!” he called, straining against the wind to pat her gently on the cheek. As he wriggled he happened to look downward, at which point he very quickly realized where he was: the sky.

Below him stretched the desert in its entirety, the mountains on one side, the ocean on the other. He could see Al Mamoon from here, and Sweet Sweet Canyon, the great wall of ruins, Split Mountain, even Smash City Alcamoth way to the south. Beyond the western mountains lay plains, forests, and arid badlands, the green green grass of the Land of Adventure, and beneath storm clouds a great crater blackened by what looked like a colossal handprint, with a strange tree towering at the center. He gulped. “P-Poppi! Wakey-wakey, Poppiiii!” The artificial blade’s eyes lit up as her systems rebooted, and with a groan she brushed Tora’s hair out of her face. After some furious blinking she finished recalibration, then looked down in wonder at the landscape.

“...We very high up!”

“Tora see that!” the Nopon howled, barely able to hear her despite being inches away from his partner. Poppi just stared down at the pit far below, trying to calculate how strong that upswell must have been to carry them this high up. She and her Masterpon both spotted Ciella in her [url=https://i.imgur.com/deQwBha.jpg]Agito form[/url] nearby, and quickly realized they weren’t alone; everybody on board the Railway Gun had been blown sky-high and scattered around, their fall slowed by a lingering updraft. Ciella pointed downward, encouraging Poppi to look again. As she searched, Poppi’s optics were drawn to a fiery glow in the pit, and when she focused she found something disconcerting.

Red Eye was still alive. It lay skewered on countless girders, its whole head in gruesome tatters, but in its middle an enormous core of thermal energy smoldered with unquenchable fury. As impossible as it sounded, this fight wasn’t over. A guttural sound drifted up from below, accompanied by a massive swarm of Trilid sent straight upward to strike the Seekers down. Ciella responded by diving like a bird of prey, zooming down past the incoming Akridd that Tora realized must be trying to protect what could only be the mother of all weak spots. He narrowed his eyes, pounded his Mech Arms together, and pointed downward. Poppi nodded her assent, a smile on her face. Around them the Phantom Thieves descended, and the dynamic duo joined them, sped on their way by Poppi’s thrusters. It was time to end this once and for all.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZNbabKjKpA&ab_channel=Knuxfan24%27sSongGallery[/youtube][/center]

[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
Location: Deep Blue Seaside - Limsa Lominscuttle Town
Level 8 Nadia (80/80)
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] 2724[/center]

For nearly ten minutes straight Blazermate took Nadia on a whirlwind tour of Limsa Lominscuttle Town by air, pulling off twists and turns, plunges and slopes, even a couple loops for good measure. It was way crazier than any roller coaster ride the feral had ever been on, and she dutifully screamed herself hoarse whenever Blazermate took a deep dive or made a daring maneuver, much to her carrier’s amusement. Their circuitous trip took them from the city’s lowest depths, where Nadia skimmed along the surface of the fishers’ oyster-encrusted canals, all the way up to the loftiest parapets of its breezy seastack towers among the terns, cormorants, and gulls.

They passed by the Bismarck restaurant, tidied up and open for business after their group’s nasty spat with Cia nearly two days ago, and soared over the harbor they’d set sail from yesterday to find it utterly devoid of shipgirls making ready for war. In the light of day the city’s [url=https://www.supersoluce.com/sites/default/files/logo1/000-image-illu-ff-10-luca.jpg]immense Blitzball arena[/url] seemed even more magnificent, and with no game in progress Blazermate could fly right inside. While the two of them had visited the stadium before, an aerial view was a far cry from watching in the stands. She skirted around the great orb of water suspended in its center, allowing Nadia to reach out and drag her fingers along its incredible surface. When she pictured the players from that beautiful night inside, she remembered their movements better than their faces. To an outsider it had been a mesmerizing display, not too unlike the elegant fish she’d seen schooling throughout the reef in Heaven’s Edge, except the Blitzball players were more like sharks on the prowl, working together to hunt down the ball and hungry for victory. Their dance had been one of lightning passes, cunning interceptions, and ruthless tackles, intense as it was beautiful, and thrilling to behold. If she weren’t so caught up in the moment Nadia might have asked Blazermate to drop her into the water, curious to see if her fusion with the Oceanid made her even half as good a swimmer as those athletes on the night before the storm, but before she knew it the pair were back out in the open air once more.

The only thing that flew faster than Blazermate and Nadia as they hurtled beneath the bridges and around the vast nets of Limsa Lominscuttle Town was the time. All too soon Blazermate coasted down for a landing among the dirigibles and flying machines of the city’s bustling airship pad, bringing their wild ride to an end. “Whoo-oo!” Nadia exulted as Blazermate let her go. “That was- wagh!” When the feral hit the deck on wobbly legs she nearly fell flat on her face. She ended up in her knees, gasping for breath as she clutched at her chest in a vain attempt to grab hold of and bestill her racing heart. “Gah…hah…hah!” she coughed, her throat raw from a potent combo of hyperventilation and emphatic yowling. Her nerves were shot, she’d lost her voice, and her head still spun from the dizziness, but as Blazermate could see when Nadia lifted her head after a moment to shoot her a huge grin, she was happy as a clam. “That..” she croaked. “Was awesome.”

After a few more moments she managed to bring her breathing and heart rate under control, which also turned out to be enough time for the cityfolk going about their business in the area to stop giving the surprise newcomer weird looks. That meant that when Nadia picked herself up, she got to see the airship deck in all its glory. Perched high atop the Mizzenmast, the great tower that formed the beating heart of Limsa Lominscuttle Town, the landing stretched out in every direction like a giant umbrella. News of the city’s freedom from Abyssal siege seemed to have traveled fast, and a whole host of air vehicles now sat upon or hung about the place. Some, like lhe [url=https://i.imgur.com/xm84EUC.png]Junker[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/BOBMcKY.png]Squid[/url], hovered alongside the deck like ships docked at a pier, prevented from setting down by their peculiar construction. Their immense balloons really caught the eye, but even they didn’t quite hold a candle to the [url=https://i.imgur.com/108ikbn.jpg]actual blimp[/url] moored nearby, its fins and undercarriage a striking hot pink. Nadia spotted a sick-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/jSRhAMp.png]helicopter[/url] with two adjustable rotors, as well as an even more futuristic [url=https://i.imgur.com/kMGAb2b.png]hauler[/url]. Not counting the steampunk ships’ balloons, the hauler tied for biggest alongside a green [url=https://i.imgur.com/YaAPHT1.png]arship[/url] with a huge, sharp nose that reminded Nadia of a narwhal’s tusk. She expected to see the Seekers’ Atomos somewhere, but if unlike her Bowser spent the night in Alcamoth, it made sense that the team’s airship would’ve been left in the public park or something. Workers were loading and unloading cargo, making regular use of the Crow’s Lift in the deck’s center. It was an impressive scene, although even with all its grandeur, the airship deck couldn’t claim the honor of being Limsa’s highest point. That went to Sky’s Hatchery, accessible by the spiral staircase that began where the lift ended. When Nadia looked upward, she could see the rookery up above, traces of animal activity visible through the windows.

Nadia took a deep breath in, then let it out. Despite the fumes coming off some of the nearby vehicles, she could really savor the fresh air up here, almost as much as the wealth of opportunities that stretched out in every direction beneath her. Her flight with Blazermate, and all the sneak peeks around the city it provided, had helped her realize just how much there was to see and do around here. Her previous jaunts around the city had really just scratched the surface; exploring the upper and lower decks alone could keep her occupied for days, and after taking into account the labyrinthine wharftowns plus the shoreline districts across the great bridges, as well as the culture and citizenry that brought the whole place to life, Nadia could picture herself falling in love with Limsa in a way she never could with New Meridian. Compared to that, even the thought of facing another Dead Zone or Bottomless Sea made her want to die a little inside. She looked over at Blazermate. “Thanks again for the ride! Never have I ‘meda’ better ‘bot. I think I’m gonna wander around a while, though. Maybe meet up back at the beach ‘round dinnertime. See ya!”

With that she was off, but Nadia didn’t plan to go down before she checked out everything that was up. With bright eyes the feral skipped up the stairs two at a time until she stood at the threshold of Sky’s Hatchery. The instant she set foot inside she found herself greeted by a whole flock of birds, winged beasts of all shapes and sizes, some even big enough to ride on. A few were flapping around but overall they seemed pretty content to just lounge around their perches and cages. Some customers milled about, mulling over potential purchases, and a couple hired hands -who were themselves [url=https://i.imgur.com/5Ffdd0X.png]penguins[/url]- helped to take care of the other creatures. They were adorable in their little caps and vests, although the ‘DANGER - DO NOT THROW’ warnings on their backs threw Nadia off somewhat. In the middle of it all stood [url=https://i.imgur.com/Jqp1fGB.png]Sky herself[/url] with her trusty partner Wrench on her arm. She seemed to be talking about owls with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/WA1Fh6e.png]magical-looking girl[/url], who had a cute little owlet of her own. Nadia waved when they glanced her way, then did a lap around the place to look at the birds. Most were a little wary of her, so she only stopped once in order to pet an industrious-looking rooster named [url=https://i.imgur.com/yfK6Fcq.png]Nugget[/url], whose label identified him as the hatchery’s manager. Highly impressed, Nadia gave him some feed, then went on her way.

Rather than join the crowd using the Crow’s Lift, Nadia made her way to the edge of the airship deck. The wind whipped at her hair and her shirt, but she wasn’t afraid. As tall as it was, the Mizzenmast didn’t exactly compare to modern skyscrapers, and she was by no means starved for ways to get down. She turned and, like a diver from a boat, fell backward over the railing. As she did she embedded hardened claws into the rim. From there she descended using her muscle fibers as a bungee cord, stretching them out farther and farther until she could feel the pain even through her typical numbness, at which point she was left dangling in the air.

Ignoring the probability of being stared at through the windows behind her, possibly by somebody important, she scanned the nearby upper decks for any good anchor points and found a suspension bridge held up by nets between two buildings. “Okay,” she told herself, bringing her off hand up in front of her. “This should work…I think…” After taking a deep breath Nadia began to pressurize her arm, charging up power until her scar tissue couldn’t hold together any longer. In an explosive burst of vital fluid her hand launched forward, connected by strands of fiber. She aimed high, and thanks to the abundance of net, managed to snag a handhold from afar without issue. “Hah! Like shakin’ up a can of soda–a certified pawttle rocket!”

Of course, that was just stage one. Nadia started building pressure in her thigh and ankles, but kept her muscles tightly bunched, so that instead of blowing her parts off, she’d blow herself forward. When she had enough power she took a deep breath, let go, and with a hearty blast of blue blood zoomed toward her new handhold. Nadia barely kept herself under control, her teeth clenched the entire time, but after a moment she came together right where she wanted to be.

A moment of silence passed as she double-checked to make sure everything was intact. Then she breathed a sigh of relief–a sigh that turned into a cackling laugh halfway through. “Nyahahaha! Course it worked, I’m the coolest!” Still giggling, she climbed onto and flopped down on the bridge, where she lay staring at the sky. After a couple moments she lifted up her forearm again and looked it over. “Hmm,” she thought aloud. “Y’know, I bet if I sat down for a couple hours and practiced I could use that to punch dudes from a ways off. Fast, too. That’d be purr-etty cool…yeah…” As she realized she was talking to herself, she rolled her eyes, then got to her feet. [i]So, the Upper Decks,[/i] she mused, looking around. [i]Where to next?[/i]

She wound up in the next building over, the Marauders’ Guild, where a bunch of big, burly dudes trained with axes. While she watched for a few minutes, wondering if she could apply any of their techniques to her fish tail, she soon moved to the balcony to get a good view of her surroundings with no nets in the way. It offered a great view, not just of the Upper Decks around her, but the Lower Decks beneath. From here she could see the Mizzenmast Inn, where she and a number of the other Seekers had their rooms, and where they’d chowed down on pub food the same night she went to watch Blitzball. Just down the way stood the Aftcastle, where the Maelstrom militia was garrisoned, keeping the peace inside the city and doling out commissions to anyone who wanted some work. Farther down she could see the Aetheryte Plaza with its distinctive enormous crystal mass, full of people mingling or going in and out of Hawkers’ Alley. Lower still, the shanties extended outward. If the Mizzenmast was the hub of a wheel and the other seastacks plus their stone walkways the spokes, then those multi-tiered wooden wharves were the space between.

Naturally, everywhere she looked, Nadia saw the people of Limsa just going about their business. Funny how just watching ordinary people still didn’t tire her out; hopefully it never would. Maybe she was just imagining it, but today it seemed like everyone was walking with some pep in their step. With the Abyssal Fleet leaderless and in tatters, people were full of zest all over, even those who couldn’t afford to while away their time on beaches and in resorts. When Nadia narrowed her eyes in search of familiar faces, she spotted Shantae down in the Aetheryte plaza, cheerfully giving dance lessons to a dozen or so bright-eyed girls and a couple guys. Some of the young ladies seemed vaguely familiar, so the feral went ahead and assumed they were shipgirls she saw during the battle on Blackwater Bay. She also saw Bacchus slumped against the wall by the Mizzenmast Inn, unsurprisingly plastered. Other than that though, she didn’t really recognize anyone. Not until she happened to glance back at someone she initially passed over, a gray-haired young man on a different bridge looking out to sea.

It took a moment for the ball to drop. “Oh wait, yeah, I know him, he was the guy…” Nadia stopped dead in her tracks, a knot forming in her stomach. [i]The guy who asked me to tea a couple days ago. Who I saw at the Blitzball game, with…her.[/i] She recalled her impression that Inigo was an incorrigible flirt who seldom saw success, and that when she saw him actually on a date with the somewhat aloof Northampton, she felt happy for him. Happy that he seemed to have found someone, and ended up happy himself. But that girl was dead now. Killed on Blackwater Bay, fused by Nadia herself, then later removed and fused with Link. It was impossible to say one way or another, but an idea haunted the cat burglar: the idea that Northampton really had been the one for this poor guy, only to be murdered the very next day, then have her remains passed around like a trading card.

“Ugh.” Nadia held a hand to her head and averted her gaze. Part of her felt like she ought to make her way over and offer her condolences, but at the same time, she didn’t really know Inigo, or even Northampton for that matter. Her eyes drifted to her old wounds, which no amount of regeneration seemed able to heal. She was no warrior, but she knew that in any war, there were always sacrifices. Better than most, she reckoned, she knew the scars that tragedy could leave in its wake. Some scars would never fade away. But by the same token, those scars made sure that she would never forget what she had lost–and why she needed to keep fighting. Today was her day to take a load off, sure, but tomorrow the sun would still rise on a world full of evil. Her fingers closed into a fist, her Oceanid eye glowing with resolute power. Tomorrow, she would rise to the occasion, too. No matter how many more Dead Zones or Bottomless Seas awaited her, she couldn’t live well while Galeem and all the evil it brought into this world still endured. As long as she had her allies, stronger and braver than she, and spirits to give her the power to make a difference, Nadia Fortune could finally be the change she wanted to see.

[hider=For Ms Fortune]New Power obtained:
[b]Cat-aract[/b]
After building up enough pressure in her head, Nadia can use her Oceanid eye to unleash a torrential cascade of pure Hydro, a foamy spiral beam of water. The beam itself is magic rather than physical and does not rely on her reserves of vital fluid, nor does the water stick around afterward. It is two feet in diameter, has a range of 100 meters, pushes Nadia backward while using it, does not pierce opponents or objects, and deals high continuous damage to whatever it hits for the couple seconds it lasts. Like her vital fluid, however, it can proc Hydro reactions. It takes as much Dramatic Tension to use as Fifth of Dismember[/hider]

She took a deep breath and straightened up. Her conviction allowed her to dull the pain of seeing Inigo alone again; hopefully, he wouldn’t give up, either. While today still lasted, she could still make the most of it, at least. Nadia turned and began to make her way to the Aetheryte Plaza, wondering if she could learn a thing or two about dancing before the next bubble pit came around.