[center][h3]LeFwee’s Finest[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Sea of Serendipity
Level 9 Nadia (71/90), Blazermate and Susie’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt’s [@Multi_Media_Man], Rubick’s [@Scarifar], Peach
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3927 (+4)[/center]

Regrouping with the others aboard the Adrian, Geralt found the pirate vessel to be quite the ship. Even most Skelligers couldn’t lay claim to a ship this robust, and it gave the impression that Cortez’s self-imposed title might have been a little more than bluster after all. He had the feeling Cerys and Hjalmar wouldn’t hate having this thing for themselves to take the fight to the Nilfgaardians, had they the chance.

Rubick managed to reach the Adrian with not a moment too soon, as the Toadies spell expired while he was still in the air. The Toadies faded away, and Rubick fell a couple feet onto the deck, roughly landing on his rump. “[color=limegreen]Oof!"[/color] Rubick exclaimed, and the Staff he had pocketed earlier was now peeking out of his robe. Rubick was quick to shove it back in and jump back onto his feet, brushing his robe off for any dust and water. 

Soon enough, without waiting for the few laggards, they were off. Peach was right in that they knew the group’s destination and were more than capable of taking care of themselves on the way there, so he didn’t dwell on it himself. Separating when convenient and meeting up later was something he’d done plenty lately, it felt, even before having been brought to the World of Light. 

Cortez brought the Adrian out of the lake and out onto the open sea, which spilled forth before their eyes. Geralt took a moment to admire the view before his eyes locked onto the rickety sea town that looked like a stiff enough breeze could take it out. It certainly didn’t stand up to Limsa Lominscuttle Town, not by any metric. As he and the others looked out into the water, Geralt frowned when he noticed Nadia’s focus on something, turning to the strange ‘birds.’ 

She caught on a moment before him, but when they did, Geralt’s hand made the all-too-familiar Sign of Quen and he drew his bow, not even managing to get an arrow off before the bombs fell. 

Rubick took a page out of Geralt’s book and quickly copied his Sign, making a Quen shield to protect himself as well. He then looked around for suitable cover and dove towards it. The bombs did quite a bit of damage to the ship, but at least he’d be fine for the time being. 

Blazermate had been chilling on Cortez’s ship along with Geralt, having procured the pirate’s help and it in a way with her cute looks and charm. A bit of self pride that was shattered as they came under attack by no less than 5 different groups of enemies! Apparently this spot was a huge ambush point, and these people would not be reasoned with. Cortez took a fair amount of the opening fire and clattering to the ground. Blazermate started to panic, but stopped when she noticed Cortez was fine. While he looked dead, her Scan ability told her he was okay. Did… Did he just start to play dead? Well, seeing as he was fine, even if his ship was a bit damaged, Blazermate looked to join the others in dealing with one of the groups. They’d need her healing and shields. 

Of course once Blazermate left the ship, Cortez got back up and yelled. “We’re being attacked, get to it men!” and his ghost crew sparked back to ‘life’ after having been extinguished. He assumed a more menacing form and began charging up some type of attack, getting ready to deal with those attacking his ship, but with the spirits’ vitality tied to the Adrian’s it wouldn’t be long before both craft and crew went down.

“[color=limegreen]Oh, what fun! I was beginning to believe this would be a boring trip![/color]” Rubick yelled in delight. Plenty of adversaries attacking their ship, leaving them in dire circumstances. There was nothing better!

His big mouth. Geralt didn’t even have to say the words, the mere [i]thought[/i] of being attacked seemed to bring it into being. While his magical shield protected him from the heat and much of the explosive compression of the bombs, it shattered and the remaining kinetic energy pushed him into the deck’s railing, his arms holding on for dear life as the ship rocked.

A pair of ships had revealed themselves in the chaos of the attack, one fused into a titanic snail and the other floating and held aloft by a balloon. It was the latter that Geralt focused on, a savage and sadistic grin forming on his face, even darker and more disturbing due to the physical traits the Orphan had granted him as his cat-like eyes narrowed. 

Susie didn’t really react with any kind of shield or anything when they came under attack. But she was also in an area with more cover, having found a place on Cortez’s ship to relax as best as she could. Cannonfire and the sound of fracturing wood brought her to her senses though, and with a battle on the way, Susie was admittedly a bit nervous at the massive amount of enemies in the way. Sure they had a lot of seekers too, but without her business suit, there wasn’t too much she could do. Still, at least she could try to summon it…

And this time it worked! A pink drill shaped robot with massive deadly arms materialized in front of Susie. With a clap of excitement, Susie hopped into her mech, put down her visor, and followed Geralt into battle with her piloting her mech, Susie using its missile launchers to fire basic rockets at their foes as she approached.

Before peeling away to race after Sakura and Karin, Ace left everyone still holding out in and around the Adrian a priceless parting gift. As Pit purged the skies of the Abyssal bombers overhead through clever use of his orbitars, he cleared the way for a fresh cloudburst of vitalizing tonic. “[color=limegreen]Ahh, that’s quite helpful,[/color]” Rubick remarked, noticing how much quicker he had become. “I’ll take the flying one.” Geralt called out as Ace’s invigorating rain fell over him, giving him a boost that would surely be appreciated in the coming fight. “Gonna need some cover!” With that, he hoisted himself over the railing, falling into a roll as the Breaching Bastion appeared below him, and he rose quickly from the recovery, already pointing his guns towards the airship, and more specifically, the balloon keeping it in the air. 

Without the threat of bombs falling on her, Nadia clawed her way up the side of the Adrian and vaulted onto the deck just in time to get a burst of energy from the monster hunter’s stimulant. It alleviated the last of her fatigue from the river, as well as the shadow of dread that the naval cannonade cast over her heart. Of course, with the pirate ship disintegrating bit by bit thanks to the withering combined assault of the Raptor, Tinkerslug, and submariners, she didn’t have a moment to lose. Something needed to be taken out of the equation–and with his Breaching Bastion, Geralt had just the ticket.

“We’ll cover you!!” Nadia called to him. “Just give us a sec!”

Speeding toward the Adrian from their airship came LeFwee’s finest, the shipgirls Massachusetts and Ingraham, plus the fearsome Hydroid Rakkam and a tenacious-looking fishman, who managed to keep pace with the wave-riders with the simple act of swimming. Ace’s parting shots made them wary, but none hit, so his attempt at a diversion fell short. All four would be running circles around Nadia if she tried fighting them in their element, but she didn’t plan to leave the piratical gang to Peach. She watched the sky until one of the bombers not yet dispatched by Pit cruised in to rip through one of the Adrian’s sails, then rushed to shimmy up the nearest mast. When the freakish plane-monster burst through the sailcloth, Nadia pounced with her trademark catlike reflexes and grabbed hold of the Abyssal’s rigid wings, digging her claws in. “Here, birdie-birdie!” It shrieked and scratched at her with its talons, but to no avail. The next second both were out over the water. Just as Nadia hoped, this thing could support her weight while flying, and when she yanked on one wing or another Nadia could make the creature turn. Just in time, too; the next moment Massachusetts opened fire on the Adrian, and at Rakkam’s beckoning great tentacles burst from the ocean to encircle the ship and pull it apart. “[color=limegreen]Hmm, that looks fun,[/color]” Rubick said to himself as he observed Hydroid, pointing his staff at him and Power Stealing it for himself. When the information reached his brain, he quickly became excited. “[color=limegreen]Oh ho ho hooo~ it’s even better than I thought![/color]”

Blazermate, being the medic of the team, had been spending her time buffing those who weren’t too badly damaged with her medi-beam, increasing their effective health and charging her shield and her medaforce. While she would need more time to get her medaforce up, this quickly got her shield charged in the matter of a dozen seconds having such a massive target rich environment to heal.

With Geralt under fire, the Seekers needed to take initiative. Nadia steered the Abyssal toward Peach as Blazermate flew out to join them, healing those on the way, and together they headed out to meet the LeFwee pirates atop the waves. The princess added to Susie’s rockets with an explosive salvo from her own launcher and a handful of torpedoes in the water. Registering the challenge, the enemy squad turned their attention to their opponents and changed formation to engage the threat. Massachusetts turned the six cannon barrels of her rigging on the incoming misfits with a smirk. “I can appreciate a little backbone,” she said, her low but powerful tone amplified by her comms array to carry across the water. “Show me what you can do.”

Rip Tide let out a foamy, guttural chuckle. “Course, we’ll blow you chumps outta the water long before then!” As Massachusetts took aim, Rakkam unleashed his Tempest Barrage, calling from the ocean an artillery onslaught of liquid fury to rain down on the water’s surface, forcing all three Seekers to take emergency evasive action. Peach quickly realized that her umbrella wouldn’t be much help against this deluge as several projectiles punched through the fabric and into her body; Nadia’s Abyssal ride didn’t make for much of a shield either. She, Peach, and Blazermate all took a battering from the impact damage, softening them up for the cannonade from Massachusetts that followed. As it turned out, the Raptor’s chief gunner possessed some serious skills. Two shots whizzed by Nadia close enough for her to feel the heat before one struck the bomber she dangled from head-on, nearly destroying its head. Seeing the first two shots of cannonfire coming to the group as Blazermate recovered from her tumble from the wave, Blazermate used her projectile shield to block incoming shots. She missed the first one that nearly missed Nadia, but was able to fizzle the shell that was heading right for Peach. And all while she could heal herself and the others from the safety of her barrier as they approached, at least from the front.

Susie meanwhile had begun advancing on the location of the pirates from a different direction than the others. She began to spin up the arms on her mech before dashing forward with them spinning like sawblades, moving at incredible speeds as she dashed to crash into all of them. By that time of course, they’d broken formation, and Rakkam, who’d been mitigating the incoming explosives with corrosive shots from his [url=https://i.imgur.com/KUPs1S2.png]Carcinus Scourge speargun[/url] surfed up to take care of the easy target before she started causing problems. He hurled his speargun at the incoming mech, and though it did little damage, the burst of strange energy it released in an area created a bullet attractor field directly on Susie’s head. Rakkam swapped to his secondary weapon, the [url=https://i.imgur.com/M2pylVO.png]Akjagara[/url] pistols, and hammered the trigger. The precision barrage left Susie in dire straits in a matter of seconds.

Susie figured that this wouldn’t be much of an issue, but boy was she wrong. She never had to deal with this stuff when dealing with pinkie, as even if he turned into a weird rock and came down on top of her in her business suit, the suit would just take the damage. Apparently that wasn’t how things worked in this world, and Susie’s suit started to spin wildly as she was hit and more or less knocked out, the suit’s arms still spinning and damaging anything nearby for awhile before she came to a stop, just floating on the water. At least she wouldn't’ sink unlike some others.

For the moment, however, Geralt was in the clear; it was time to silence the Raptor’s thunder. Geralt took careful aim at the Raptor, a test shot of the Bastion’s smaller guns confirming that he had the right of it. With no fanfare, only grim determination, he fired the main cannon, the massive projectile firing directly at the balloon keeping the Raptor in the air. 

“[color=limegreen]Looks like they need to be taught a lesson,[/color]” Rubick said, finally leaving his hiding spot and making his way over to the edge of the ship. While Geralt took aim, he’d pointed his staff toward Massachusetts and begun to charge the ability for a few seconds. Once he was done, he announced, “[color=limegreen]Tentacle Swarm![/color]” and summoned a large mass of watery tentacles underneath the Shipgirl, intending to restrain her and prevent her from damaging the ship further. Massachusetts neither anticipated nor could guard herself against her ally’s attack turned against her. The tentacles that erupted beneath her ensnared both her limbs and her rigging as they lifted her into the air. Amused, she pit her strength against them in a mighty struggle, but for a moment her artillery assault against the others petered out.

In that same moment, Geralt’s ordnance hit its mark. His shell blew straight through the Raptor’s balloon, in one side and out the other. A chorus of yells rang out as the ship jerked, knocked off-kilter enough to stop its continuous broadside in its tracks and begin its descent toward the water. “What in blazes!?” LeFwee squawked as his crew members rolled around the deck, ignoring the Gill Grunt who got hurled overboard. He glared up at the gaping punctures in his balloon. “How’d they hit us!? Where be the Trophy thingy!?”

Holding on to the railing for dear life, his Blumaroo deck hand yelped back. “But captain, you said to…!”

“I DON’T CARE WHAT I SAID, JUST GET THE DAMN THING!” the parrot screamed. “And someone patch the balloon, before we be dead in the water!”

As the Raptor dipped lower and lower, losing helium fast, the crew scrambled to salvage the situation. Most climbed up the rigging and slap a couple of giant patches on the balloon, while a few fetched a [url=https://i.imgur.com/7oVVYOO.png]curious device[/url] from the hold to set up on deck. For now, no more cannonballs sailed toward the Adrian, allowing the Seekers to focus on the battle at hand.

Hydroid’s Tempest Barrage came to an end just a couple seconds before Massachusetts ripped free of the Tentacle Swarm, using her cannons to blast apart the constructs and give her room to move. She then carved her way loose with a pair of small anchors connected by chains to spools on her rigging, wielding them like hand axes. As Ingraham sped up to top off her health, she pointed her anchor toward Rubick and Geralt. “Rakkam. Take care of those two, will you?” In response the warframe twirled his speargun and began to surf their way.

With the Raptor slowly descending, Geralt turned his guns towards the advancing Rakkam, the smaller cannons opening fire while the larger one slowly reloaded. “Unfortunately,” He called out to Rubick above, trying not to be [i]too[/i] loud so that their enemies heard, “This thing can barely move. If it goes badly, can you pull me up and out onto the ship? I also can’t fix this thing if it gets too badly damaged, it needs to be physically repaired. We have an engineer I could ask where we’re going, but it’s a big ask and I don’t think he’d do it for free.”

Rubick tilted his head from side to side as he responded, “[color=limegreen]Sure, that’s an easy matter. And in the other scenario, I do still have some funds, so there’s no issue there either.[/color]” Turning his attention back to the Shipgirls and warframe, he couldn’t help but worry a bit. They were converging towards the Adrian, and he was still sorely lacking in firepower. Even the Tentacle Swarm wouldn’t hold them back for long. Still, it was something to do. Charging the spell again, Rubick once again summoned the mass of watery tentacles under Hydroid Rakkam. 

Rubick then pulled out his Magic Wand and activated it, causing the energy stored within to restore a portion of his spent reserves. Rubick did have a large reserve of mana, but he needed to manage his resources efficiently. He would have to work hard if he wanted to survive this. While doing so, he also witnessed Rakkam disappear beneath -or maybe into- the surface of the water with Undertow, effectively dodging the stolen ability and hiding his approach. In another moment, the warframe would be here.

Back out on the water, Peach’s group had managed to gain some ground after weathering the Tempest Barrage and gunfire storm with the help of Blazermate’s shield and healing. Since the medabot prioritizes her allies, a shell to the head spelled the end for Nadia’s ride, but the cat burglar didn’t mind hopping on top of Blazermate instead. Balancing on top of the robot’s pigtails with feline grace, she tensed her muscles for a superjump as the barrier began to flicker. With a final explosive burst from Massachusetts, the shield went down, and it was go time. 

Looking to take out the medic first, Rip Tide immediately breached the surface to drive his swordfish into Blazermate’s torso with the whole weight of his body behind it, ensuring that even if he didn’t hit anything vital, he’d essentially tackle both her and her passenger into the water. That is, if Nadia hadn’t already been jumping as well. “Peach, send me!” The feral bailed off of Blazermate and went for the princess, who understood and used her umbrella to bounce the catgirl in the direction of the enemy. A pressurized blood blast did the rest. Nadia launched toward Massachusetts, not really knowing if her daredevil pounce would hit or miss, but either way, the shipgirl didn’t plan on letting her foe find out. Her anchor whipped through the air toward Nadia with a tremendous din of clanking chain, fast and well-aimed enough that the feral barely put up her guard in time to deflect the heavy metal to the side. “Anchor, aweigh! …Nyowch!” Despite her pain resistance, the dent left in her forearm hurt a lot.

Massachusetts grabbed her chain and yanked to reel it back in while throwing her other anchor. Nadia’s first instinct was to airdash out of the way, but going anywhere else would leave her with nothing but the ocean. She made a split-second decision and stayed her course, which meant that the shipgirl’s anchor struck her clean in the head, literally knocking her block off as she reeled backwards midair. Seeing her enemy beheaded, and a little disappointed it was over so soon, Massachusetts took hold of her chain to retract it. To her surprise, Nadia pivoted midair, the muscle fibers that still connected her head to her body -and her toothy grin- hidden by the blood. “Purr-fect!” She snatched the passing anchor and let the surprised shipgirl pull her straight to where she wanted to be. Nadia zoomed in, somersaulting like a vertical sawblade, and slammed her fishtail down on Massachusetts’ head. As her tail curled she kicked off her opponent’s shoulders and into the air, then at the height of her backflip shot both forearms down to grab the shipgirl’s rigging and rubber-band back down headfirst for a skull-rattling headbutt. The impact knocked Massachusetts over backward, and both tumbled across the water.

Blazermate, having seen that her shield was going down, was preparing for more evasive maneuvers. Nadia put a bit of a stop to that for a bit by jumping on her pigtails though in order to attack someone else, which forced Blazermate to have to rely on her suffering shield arm when Rip Tide decided to jump at her from the water. Still, Blazermate could try to deflect the guy so she didn’t go into the water with him, it’d take forever for her to get out of that, so she sidestepped his attack and used her suffering shield to deflect his thrust away from her. The shield, having been attacked, attacked back by biting Rip Tide as he passed by, infecting him with the zombie virus. Of course, for it to have any effect he would need to die first, and for this Aqua-Fighter that was a tall order. The bite stopped his momentum, and he used that moment to twist around and grab hold of the shield’s edge. “Not bad!” Suddenly, Blazermate was supporting his weight, and Rip Tide plunged his swordfish inside the mouth of her shield, piercing through its innards and into the arm inside. He then leaped off her, and from his pocket somehow pulled a large Blubber Whale to hurl down at the medabot like a giant mallet. “But not good enough!”

Blazermate didn’t like this guy trying to shove a sword fish into her shield, and battered away his sword when he was a fair amount in there to reduce the damage and disarm the guy, which he seemed all too happy to lose as he leaped away and tried to throw something at her from his pocket. Blazermate had the mobility to dodge the car sized whale coming at her from this guy, especially considering he had to make that throw while falling being unable to fly himself. Before he fell in the water though, Blazermate could mark all of his weak points, which light glowed through the water when he was near the surface, making his ambush tactics not as effective anymore. The Blubber Whale struck the surface with a mighty slap, sending up a geyser of water, but its target got away just in time.

It had gotten her attention that a few people were hurt, so she had to go deal with that. Susie most of all, who got hit by something nasty. [color=0072bc]”Hey, someone else play with this brat, I’ve got work to do.”[/color] Blazermate said as she went to go heal Susie, buffing the nearby Peach her with some overheal before doing so. Obligingly the princess skated in to give Blazermate a break and take her place against Rip Tide. The fishman held out his hand for his swordfish to jump into, and moved in to accept her challenge.