[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Sea of Serendipity
Level 9 Nadia (67/90) 
Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Blazermate and Susie’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt’s [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN], Ace Cadet and Pit’s [@Yankee], Sakura and Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Rubick’s [@Scarifar], Omori’s [@Majoras End], Nadia Fortune, Peach
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2263[/center]

For a couple minutes Nadia rested on her rock, allowing the cool freshness of the rain to revitalize her. Ever since her fusion with the Rhodeia, the hydrokinetic Oceanid from Carcass Isle, she found herself endowed with a better sense of purity when it came to water. While not filthy by any stretch, the river couldn’t exactly be called clean either, with all the plant and mineral debris stirred and broken up by the ruthless rapids. Nothing felt purer than the rain, formed from vapor up. in the clouds where water, the source of all life, coagulated and fell far from the reach of earthly foulness and contaminants. And thank goodness, really, because without this newfound appreciation Nadia figured she’d be pretty damn miserable by now.

As the rain rinsed the fatigue built up by fighting against the rapids away, more of her fellow Seekers accumulated in Floria Lake at the bottom of the mountain river. It looked like Geralt, Sakura, Peach, Rika, Bowser, and Karin all made it without any obvious issue. Had she really been the only one to lose her boat? Then again, as she took stock of those around her Nadia began to realize just how many allies weren’t here yet. Of Rubick, Omori, Ace, Pit, Blazermate, Susie, Kamek, and Junior she found no sign. “Where is everyone?” she wondered aloud. “Hope they didn’t wash down a dead end, or somethin’.” She remembered the gigantic bear, and shivered at the thought of poor Junior or Omori disappearing into that horrendous maw. Maybe they should have all stuck together on the way down, after all.

Her reverie came into an abrupt end as a giant robot appeared over the waterfall, which nearly made her lose her head. “What!?” Only her recognition of Blazermate through the downpour stopped her falling back into the drink, and after flailing her arms to regain her balance Nadia got to her feet. It took a few seconds, as well as the sight of Kamek flying around the enormous Medabot, for the feral to put two and two together. “Ohhh!” She scratched the back of her head, looking sheepish. “I totally for-bot about Kamek’s size magic for a spell, huh?”

The arrival of both robo-ladies and the missing Koopa Troop members did a lot to assuage Nadia’s worries–it looked like the others just fell behind, after all. Only one question remained: what was giga-Blazermate holding? In short order Nadia got her answer, as the big healer plopped the thing into the water and Kamek restored both of them to normal. As Blazermate shrunk back down, the wooden thingamajig grew, revealing itself to be the pirate ship Adrian, seized from the ship graveyard up at the river’s headwaters for use on the open ocean.

“Wow, that’s so smart!” she exclaimed, impressed at the others’ resourceful combination of powers. How they somehow made friends with a literal monster like Cortez, she couldn’t imagine. “You’re tellin’ me we ‘arr’ actually gonna set sail on a real pirate boat? That’s some serious gourmet ship!”

Peach shared the feral’s enthusiasm. “Good work, everyone. And thank you, Mr. Cortez, for lending us a hand. They can be a rowdy bunch, but trust me, they’re all worth their weight in gold.”

“Gold, eh?” the skeletal pirate mused, drawing his hook along his jawbone with an unpleasant scraping sound. “I’ll hold ye to it, Princesa.”

A few of the heroes, eager to be out of the rain, in a sturdier watercraft, or both, climbed aboard. Nadia charged up her water pressure and launched off her rock to sink her claws into the Adrian’s exterior. Compared to Shippy, with its singular mast and sail, [url=https://i.imgur.com/xSA3eMJ.png]the Adrian[/url] was [i]massive[/i]. It boasted three masts, with three sails on the largest of the bunch, and even an auxiliary sail on the prow. With its pitch-black hull and [url=https://i.imgur.com/trbxbT4.png]will o’ wisp[/url] crew, it looked every inch the haunted pirate vessel, which Nadia honestly found sick as hell. “I’ll take normal ghosts any day of the week,” she murmured. While she could have easily ascended to the deck and walked around like anyone else, using her claws to climb around the hull felt more fun, so she maneuvered herself all the way up to the prow. After stopping to appreciate the horrific skeletal figurehead, she swung up onto the bowsprit, then trotted out along the narrow beam -using her tail for balance- until she could take hold of the rope connecting to the forward sail. “Avast, me hearties!” she cried. “Aweigh anchor!”

Peach, having skated up toward the ship’s front after Rika, gave a nod. “Yes, let's move out!” she called, waving to Cortez up at the ship’s wheel.

“Aye aye!” the pirate replied. At his command the sails unfurled, billowed in the wind, and got the Adrian moving through the waters of Floria Lake.

This turn of events somehow took Nadia by surprise. “Wait, we’re really goin’? What about Ace and the others?”

“They know where we’re going, and they’re more than capable,” Peach replied. She did not look one hundred percent confident herself, but the situation couldn’t be helped. “Besides, we couldn’t very well go back and search the whole mountain range. With how much faster the rowboats are, they can catch up in no time.”

Not totally reassured, Nadia kept looking back over her shoulder as the final waterfall grew farther away, her ears lowered and a worried look on her face. The team had a whole haunted ship to call their own now, bound for open waters and a straight shot to a grand reunion, but the feral couldn’t put aside a sinking feeling.

Cortez steered the Adrian through the short channel to the sea. After rounding the mountainous bend at the forefront of the ship, Nadia was the first non-shipgirl to catch a glimpse of the open ocean, as well as what lay atop it. A ways from the shore lay what looked like a floating city, not unlike Limsa Lominscuttle Town, but as she studied it Nadia found more differences than similarities. While Limsa stood on firm foundations, a seastack city with bastions of stone like a castle, this one looked rose above the waves on stilts and trunks of wood, with tent canopies rather than carven parapets over huts and floors of slapdash, nailed-together wooden planks, their lower reaches thick with seaweed and bivalves. Rafts floated between the sea towers, many rather elaborate buildings in and of themselves. Anchored to the sea floor, they rocked precariously on the waves. Compared to Limsa’s splendor, the place looked shoddy, quaint, and dilapidated. Nadia marveled that such a place could still stand in such turbulent waters, but the World of Light nothing was impossible.

She also noticed that the rain seemed to have thinned. Though the sky remained moody, its deluge fell off to just a drizzle, and with the haze lessened Nadia could see a lot farther. She looked up and down the coastline, finding it mostly rocky and mountainous. The nearby cliffs divulged a flock of black birds, probably emboldened enough by the reduced rain to make their move back to their nests. Maybe it was just the cat in her, but Nadia couldn’t take her eyes off them. They flew in the direction of the Adrian, their flapping ungainly and irregular. Now that they grew closer, she could see that their wings looked rather small, too, with tails that were thick and long, more like a fish’s. Were these even birds at all?

Nadia’s eyes narrowed. Whatever they were, these things were [i]weird[/i], with their stubby white beaks, opening and closing as they glided. They looked more like teeth than anything. “Wait,” she murmured, craning her neck upward to get a better look as the creatures passed overhead despite the rain in her eyes. Black bodies, white teeth. Short, steady wings, and a long body. Almost like a plane. But what were they clutching in their talons? The feral gasped, so suddenly that she nearly choked herself, and at the top of her lungs yowled, “ABYSSALS!”

“Take cover!” Peach cried.

The next moment, the attack began. Several dozen explosive canisters rained down on the Adrian from the [url=https://i.imgur.com/o7MlcsD.png]bombers[/url], each packing the punch of a fragmentation grenade. The chain reaction laid waste to the upper deck, including the masts and the ship’s wheel, wounding Cortez in the process. As Nadia sprinted down the bowsprit one bomb struck the beam, snapping it like a matchstick. The feral jumped and let out some blood for an airdash, narrowly twisting around another bomb in the process, and latched onto the wood beneath the Adrian’s prow for cover. She fought to hold on by digging her claws deeper when the ship rocked wildly, bashed about by the force of both the explosives on deck and those that detonated in the water beside it. Shards of wood and smoke filled the air, while will o’ wisp crewmen dissipated into nothing with an ethereal shriek apiece.

Still, from her position Nadia managed to avoid the worst of it, and it also gave her a good look at what came next. From the shelter of the nearby mountains emerged an [url=https://i.imgur.com/PCrD8mH.png]airship[/url] suspended beneath a giant balloon emblazoned with the symbol that was the nightmare of every mariner: the pirate skull. It kept its distance from the Adrian as it began to circle around, its deck full of [url=https://i.imgur.com/OQ71670.png]neopets[/url] armed to the teeth and harpoon-wielding [url=https://i.imgur.com/LsFE9AO.png]Gill Grunts[/url], all screaming themselves hoarse in a terrifying throng. At the same time, the surface of the ocean opposite them exploded to reveal a [url=https://i.imgur.com/h8KLwIU.png]three-eyed leviathan[/url] with another pirate ship built into its shell. Some sort of bubble that extended over its deck deactivated, and a horde of scimitar-wielding [url=https://i.imgur.com/hKnBvle.png]Tinkerbats[/url] appeared. A purple blur shot up from their midst to land in the crow’s nest, and from that lofty perch an uproarious laugh rolled across the ocean.

“Ohohohohohoho!” [url=https://i.imgur.com/Vu7rJrA.png]The lady captain[/url] guffawed, extending her sword toward the vessel that had fallen right into her trap. “Well hello there, my pretties!” she called, her voice amplified by her megaphone. “Welcome to the Sea of Serendipity. I, the great pirate Risky Boots, will be your guide today on your grand tour…of Davy Jones’ Locker! Prepare yourselves for the wrath of my Part Omni-Organic, Partially Titanic, Ocean-Optional Tinkerslug!”

Nadia blinked, thrown for total loop by her uncharacteristically quick observation. “P.O.O.P.T.O.O.T.!?”

Risky bared her teeth. “Don’t call it that!”

“RAAAWK!” A shrill scream from the other vessel. Nadia span her head around to see a purple-clad [url=https://i.imgur.com/r5O5U7Z.png]pirate parrot LeFwee[/url] on the deck of the airship, flanked by the [url=https://i.imgur.com/KBrAisY.png]warframe Hydroid Rakkam[/url] with a gunspear and the [url=https://i.imgur.com/L4G63Q7.png]swordfish-wielding Rip Tide[/url]. “Not if we sink ‘em first! Fire, me hearties!”

Determined not to be outdone, Risky fired her pistol into the air. “POOPTOOT, open fire!”

Thunder rolled across the Sea of Serendipity as both halves of the pincer attack let loose. The Raptor fired a triple-fanged broadside, while the Tinkerslug unleashed its four forward-facing cannons. Finally, Port O’ Panic itself opened fire with the only cannon on its solitary [url=https://i.imgur.com/XoANZtU.png]Lookout Tower[/url], operated by the marine iguana [url=https://i.imgur.com/C43gTyA.png]Reme Lousteau[/url] and the nymph [url=https://i.imgur.com/aNDeRsO.png]Annetta Fish[/url] herself, with a tall stranger looking on. Cannonballs hurtled through the air toward the Adrian, none of them on target quite yet, but it would only be a matter of time before the bombardiers dialed in their aim. 

“Gahahaha!” LeFwee cackled. “We got ‘em right where we want ‘em! Let’s finish it off quick-like! Get down there, ye scurvy dogs!”

Rakkam and Rip Tide vaulted over the Raptor’s railing and plummeted down toward the waves below, joined by two more fighters that, unlike them, stopped on the water’s surface. The Raptor’s chief gunner, [url=https://i.imgur.com/hTvuk1U.png]Massachusetts[/url], prepared to join the bombardment, while the medic [url=https://i.imgur.com/NHwdCYr.png]Ingraham[/url] hung back with her healing drones. Rip Tide rose to the surface and began to swim toward the Adrian, backed up by Rakkam as he surfed atop a wave.

“I’m one step ahead of you, featherbrain!” Risky barked back. “Submariners, now!”

In the water beneath the Adrain, the sisters [url=https://i.imgur.com/aZM3LkJ.png]Adie[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/CiXdGWb.png]Elsie[/url] got to work. With their arm cannons they laid into the bottom of their target from below, blowing out chunks of hull so that the giant [url=https://i.imgur.com/g24czmX.png]Thumpback[/url] could hook his anchor inside and really start doing some damage.

As the first cannonball hit the ship, jarring it almost hard enough to shake Nadia into the water, she grit her teeth and tried her best not to panic. Pirates, rogue shipgirls, loose Abyssals, and heavy artillery. Memories of Blackwater Bay had her stunned. This wasn’t just bad. It was [i]terrible[/i].

[center][h3]Twilight Town[/h3]
Level 10 Tora (62/110) Level 10 Poppi (62/110) Level 7 Big Band (76/70)
Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Bede’s [@Crimson Flame], Roxas’ [@Double], Vandham, Shovel Knight, the Phantom Thieves
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2018[/center]

The moment the subway car’s doors parted to let its passengers disembark, Tora realized that the name ‘Twilight Town’ wasn’t just for show. Orange-gold light poured through the train station’s windows across the polished red granite and beige travertine tiles of the interior, casting long, dark shadows from the benches and counters beneath great arches. Vast, stately, and practically empty except for the new arrivals, it imparted a slight echo to the footsteps and voices of the visitors, but more than that it offered a sense of quiet and peace that neither the open-air platforms at Radlandia, nor the top-security Biodome headquarters, nor the cramped confines of Rapture’s underwater transportation hub, nor the vista at the terrace station amidst Karnaca’s pungent winds could provide.

In Band’s eyes, the place possessed a solemn grandiosity that befitted a cathedral more than a train station. With stained glass and an altar or two, he might have just as well been back at the Grand Cathedral of the Trinity. That place always gave him the creeps, even before he caught wind of the rumored catacombs that lay beneath, where the Skullgirl Marie surreptitiously bided her time until New Meridian faced its judgment day. Did those sepulchral crypts still exist, beneath the city at the bottom of the ocean deep? The detective honestly didn’t want to know, and with how things were headed, he had bigger fish to fry, anyway. He lifted his face to the comfortable warmth of Twilight Town’s forever-setting sun, so much kinder than the cyclopean depths of the earth or sea, and for just a moment’s time pondered the irony of how the apocalyptic threat of the Skullgirl now suddenly seemed so small.

He took a deep breath and hurried after the others, stomping across the open floor of the train station to the front doors. Tora and Poppi led the way, though whether the defensive duo took point to protect the others or just sate their curiosity, Band couldn’t say. The two ended up holding the door open for the others, with Poppi taking stock of who’d made it in the process. Both Octopath Travelers, the entirety of the Phantom Thieves, Big Band, Jesse, her old friend Vandham, and her new friend Bede all stepped out into the eternal dusk that shone down on the Station Heights plaza. Poppi noted a handful of absences, but between the reports of Band and Primrose she didn’t concern herself too much about the missing members of the Black Line or Mountain teams. That left just the Virgin Victory delegation with their ornery escort Asbestos, and the Purple Line crew that Therion made no mention of. If something went wrong though, Poppi assumed that the thief would tell them, so for now she joined her Masterpon in the plaza with a worry-free processor to take in the sights.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZfklbV1.jpg[/img][/center]

“Wow-wow!” Tora marveled, flapping his wings in excitement. “It so pretty! And peaceful!” As she scanned Station Heights, Poppi couldn’t help but agree. It was, in a word, cozy. The whole city seemed to be cast in friendly, homey earth tones of brown, yellow, and tan, accented all throughout by the green of countless potted plants, flower boxes, and rooftop gardens everywhere one looked. The routes visible from here, especially the [url=https://i.imgur.com/0Qh5c9b.png]Market Street[/url], curved and wended in an organic fashion, all awash in the soft yellow glow of lanterns, windows, and shop signs. Places like the nearby cafe featured chalked blackboard menus out front with the day’s specials written out in cursive. Railings and fixtures inevitably featured wrought iron, curled and bent into all sorts of shapes, and the [url=https://i.imgur.com/jzlHZ9V.png]people[/url] who ambled around seemed unusually carefree. Pleasant, relaxing music rolled up and down the brick roads from various establishments, completing an unprecedented nice atmosphere. Behind the new arrivals towered the [url=https://i.imgur.com/cv1haDI.png]clock tower[/url] in all its splendor.

Tora took a deep breath. He got no trace of the pestilence or sea-borne foulness that he whiffed in Karnaca, and none of the weird scents that befuddled his senses in Radlandia. Just the aromas of coffee and baked goods, reminding him that lunchtime couldn’t be far off. “Tora not believe it. Friends actually get spend time in nice spot? No sand, no snow, no monsters? Nothing to do but wait for more friends? Sound like Tora dream!”

“Better enjoy it while it lasts,” the team’s detective chuckled. “After this, we’re back on the beat.”

“Yes-yes, Tora know.” Grumbling, the Nopon brushed his hair back with a wing, only for it to pop straight back up. “So, where to for lunch?”

As it happened, the new arrivals were due for a reunion already. As they milled around the plaza, a familiar inhuman silhouette cresting the top of Market Street caught their eye, and Tora turned to see Sectonia on her way over. “Meh, meh! More friends incoming!” he called, waving. Since her fusion with a certain flowery Spectrobe the bug queen looked more monstrous than ever, but it looked like she and the Scout had made a new friend. Both Tora and Poppi noticed his distinctive outfit right away. “Oh! You…you!”

“Organization 13?” Poppi asked, her memory banks crystal clear on the matter. Though the member who called herself Ram assisted the team several times in the Sandswept Sky, she remembered the hassle that the die-headed one caused them in Lumbridge. “Here to help this time, Poppi hope?”

As the reunified Seekers ironed that out, Tora’s attentioned began to wander. He heard a noise above Twilight Town’s general ambiance, the unmistakable sound of motors and machines, which naturally piqued the engineer’s curiosity. As he listened the noise got louder and louder, coming roughly from the plaza’s north side, and he pitter-pattered over in that direction to look. Suddenly, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/GNyGIJr.png]bizarre contraption[/url] roared around the corner, drifted past a candy shop, and promptly tipped over onto its side with a loud crash. “Dangit!” the [url=https://i.imgur.com/Lw24D1u.png]boy behind the wheel[/url] yelled, seemingly more annoyed than hurt by the impact, before he unbuckled himself. As Tora watched, taken aback, a handful of other makeshift cars hurtled around the corner, each more kludged than the next.

A [url=https://i.imgur.com/sh67Ny3.png]long buggy[/url] narrowly missed the fallen vehicle, giving the [url=https://i.imgur.com/XASai7G.png]monkey Amigo[/url] driving it a chance to screech at Alex, followed shortly by a [url=https://i.imgur.com/5jLAYey.png]white-bearded dwarf[/url] on a [url=https://i.imgur.com/vLkf5qr.png]trolley[/url]. An H-shaped [url=https://i.imgur.com/Y1YeJvT.png]doohickey[/url] wobbled along with the graffiti artist [url=https://i.imgur.com/FsGAcko.png]Gum[/url] in back, and a [url=https://i.imgur.com/jeJijUB.png]monster truck[/url] steered by a [url=https://i.imgur.com/uejtJk2.png]red-suited maniac[/url] in a gas mask brought up the rear. The parade of cobbled-together vehicles did a rather low-speed lap around the station plaza, honking their horns to clear the road, then headed for the south road. Multiple collisions occurred, making the reason for the wrought-iron poles around the plaza’s perimeter sidewalk very clear, but somehow the vehicles just bounced off everything in their path, including one another.

Poppi jetted over to make sure her Masterpon was okay as he approached the fallen racer, then landed beside him and turned a furrowed brow on Alex. “What is meaning of this?”

“It’s a race, duh!” the boy told them. “Can you help me here? Pretty please?”

Tora, who’d been staring at the machinery, suddenly gave Alex his undivided attention. “If we help, can we ride with? Tora help distribute weight better!”

“Sure, but c’mon! I’m gonna come in last at this rate!” Alex wailed.

Nodding, Tora turned to his companion. “Please to flip it, Poppi!”

“What? Why? Masterpon, explain.” Poppi questioned him, baffled. She didn’t question the danger of joining the race, knowing that his durability made any accidents at these mediocre speeds a joke, but she couldn’t fathom why.

“Where there funny contraption, there certainly funny mechanic, meh!” Tora reasoned, his eyes sparkling. “While have down time, Tora want learn all about local machines! Plus, after seeing friend Rose-Rose, Tora have many new idea for upgrade Poppi Qt Pi chassis!”

Poppi crossed her arms, a suspicious look on her face. “Poppi chassis just fine as-is, thank you.”

She glanced over to see Band on his way over, having threaded the needle between racers on their way out of the Station Heights plaza. He honked his horn as he slid to a stop. “Hey, if there’s a grease pit nearby, you can finally gimme that tune-up ya owe me, instead.”

“Meh!?” Tora balked, the prospect of one exciting project pulled out from under his nubby little feet and replaced with something totally different. Still, time was wasting, and the pros outweighed the cons. “Fine, fine, yes. Tora make good on word for friend Biggypon Band!”

Poppi nodded, and with one hand flipped Alex’s car back onto its tires. Both he and Tora mounted up, with Poppi and Band resolved to follow behind. The Nopon waved to the other Seekers. “Come on, friends! This look like fun!” Alex put his pedal to the metal, and at a sprightly twenty miles an hour, sped away.

[hr]

The race came to an end in the town’s southernmost point, halfway down the slope, in a lot surrounded by trees with padded bumpers on their trunks; there, the Seekers found a machine shop called [url=https://i.imgur.com/e3kmARs.png]Mumbo’s Motors[/url]. With Tora as ballast in the back Alex’s rickety contraption only tipped over two more times on the downhill stretch to get here, and as the vehicle slowed to a stop to take last place, the Nopon hopped down with only minor bruises to offset his giddy excitement. This place looked like an inventor’s paradise, with piles of components from nuts and bolts to engines and wheels stacked high. Some of the racers who stuck around already seemed to be tinkering with their rides, pulling them apart and socketing them together like toys. In charge of the place were two chief mechanics whose only point of commonality was their overalls: the skull-headed [url=https://i.imgur.com/QiqepmZ.png]Mumbo[/url] and the formidable [url=https://i.imgur.com/EJ5BxP7.png]Ellie[/url]. They alternated between telling the racers what to do and trying to do it themselves, bickering all the while. It was perfect. The fact that the building’s plumed facade looked sort of like a Nopon with a mohawk was just icing on the cake.

It was perfect. As much as Tora loved the smell of food, the odors of oil, gas, coolant, and rubber were near and dear to his heart, as well. He bounced up and down, flapping his wings. “Meh, meh, meh! Tora can’t wait for tinkerings!” When he looked at Band, however, he closed his eyes and gave a stiff nod. “But first, Tora fulfill promise! When done, friend Band feel good as new! Tora learn lots about ancient tech from peeking around insides too, meh!”

“You sure you oughta have said that last part?” Band asked him, brows furrowed, before sighing. “Still, ain’t gonna turn down my first real tune-up in who-knows-how-long. Show me whatcha got, li’l man.”

As the two went inside, Poppi approached the others. “It look like they let anyone use chop shop for free. Everyone allowed to put together own cars and race around Twilight Town perimeter track, or others, but Mumbo Motors not liable if people do bad job. Could learn how drive, too.” She shrugged. “We just need kill time until rest of Seekers arrive from Alcamoth, so can do something else if friends want. If Poppi know Masterpon, he definitely want lunch after this, though. Hopefully finish just in time for full reunion, and everyone get bite together. Meet you all in hour?”