[center][h3]The Astral Plane[/h3]
Level 3 Goldlewis (30/30)
Goldlewis, Roxas’ [@Double], Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Pit’s [@Yankee]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 857[/center]

From the moment they arrived, the Seekers got to experience just how perilous the Astral Plane could be firsthand. The land here, if it could even be called that, hung over a seemingly infinite drop, and no matter where the visitors went a brink was seldom far away. They had no choice but to trust in the integrity of these inexplicably suspended spans of sheer obsidian, overgrown with crimson crags and riddled by golden seams, which left them at the Astral Plane’s mercy. Though practically indistinguishable from one another, the different types of stone behaved in different ways. Some would fizzle out a second or so after someone set foot atop them, completely disappearing for a time and dropping any hapless individuals who hadn’t moved on. Most platforms were ‘locked’ in their current positions, but some slid back and forth through the air in set patterns, and others could be moved by force. With the astral entities added to the mix, lurching weirdly around or raining down gunfire from afar, the going was tough.

Of course, the Seekers were resourceful, and put their multifaceted talents to the task. A few could fly, either in short bursts or continuously, to cross over the many gaps without plummeting into the void. Karen could grapple to points of interest, and Roxas could run across and up ninety-degree surfaces, or ping-pong between them. While the distorted enemies made themselves a frequent nuisance, they also proved themselves lacking in terms of endurance, speed, and intelligence. That made traversal the principal challenge, and luckily for the Seekers, this astral archipelago extended mostly in one direction. Even if no deep southern voice answered Karin’s call, she could be reasonably assured where its owner had been taken, and hasten in the same direction alongside all the others. However, one other strange impediment presented itself, noticeable only in brief moments of rest as the Seekers made their way along. If given a moment to reflect, they might notice that they felt…dirty. Like something weird was on them. [i]In[/i] them. Building up. Weighing them down. Subtly, but there nonetheless. Nobody in his or her right mind could call it a good feeling.

After about twenty minutes of navigation through the alien dimension, the team closed in on the terminus. A straight path led between two high, uneven walls to a final large platform on the other side, accessible by a series of room-sized stepping stones to those who couldn’t just sail overhead. Even before they reached the end, though, the Seekers could see -and hear- what awaited them. Goldlewis was on his feet, but only just, making his stand against the entity that had abducted him. When it first extruded its limbs into the World of Light it had been as invisible as the other chimeras, and the glimpse the heroes caught as it flew off through the Astral Plane had been scarcely more defined, but now for whatever reason they could see it. It looked like a burly torso of hard red armor, with a glowing core in the center of its chest, and above that an inverted face half-hidden beneath a sort of cowl, its eyes and mouth glowing like magma. Rather than full arms it sported only shoulders and gauntlet-like forearms, but those massive mitts floated freely, ready to bash and bludgeon, and its shoulders featured huge trunk-like cannons. Instead of legs it bore strange hemisphere limbs sort of like sleds. It towered above Goldlewis, easily twice his already-remarkable size. And compared to earlier, it now looked almost completely opaque, more than real enough to wound and kill its prey. It looked almost like a demon, but the heroes knew that this was a chimera–the [url=https://i.imgur.com/beftW3m.png]first[/url] they had ever seen.

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

Enceladus was a massive, mighty bully. It liked to throw its weight around, charging like a battering ram from hell, but those arms packed an incredible punch too, and when it pounded the ground the matter of the Astral Plane reacted by cracking to unleash a fiery splash. If it stretched out its hand toward a target, a fusillade of fire bolts shot from its fingers would surely follow, though the projectiles blazed through the air a lot slower than bullets. Then again, it also didn’t mind using finger lasers that created explosions when swept across the ground. Enceladus could send off and remotely control its hands as well, but a lot of its destructive power lay in those two cannons, capable of firing explosive cubic payloads or powerful energy beams, themselves also more than capable of causing explosions in their wake.

As the Seekers joined the battle they could see just how bad it had been for Goldlewis. Such a strong monster would be an incredibly formidable opponent on its own, but without his coffin the veteran could rely on nothing but the strength of his own two hands, and as great as that might be every man had his limits. Goldlewis was on his last legs; this fight was do or die.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENMXnNwGnZU&ab_channel=VidiAutumn[/youtube][/center]

[center][h3]Detroit[/h3]
[b]Sector 8 Lower[/b]
Level 11 Tora (133/110) Level 12 Poppi (23/120)
Susie and Blazermate’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man], Benedict’s [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 993[/center]

Giovanna’s attempt to smooth things over came to a crashing halt when Zenkichi cut in, and not just with any run-of-the-mill intercession, either. While the secret agent didn’t know what Manananggal was she could put two and two together thanks to the explicit knowledge that this man believed she and her crew killed it. Giovanna plopped back down in her chair, watched in worried silence by Poppi and especially Tora, who by now had actually been distracted to the point of interrupting his meal. Giovanna’s retelling of past events had been meant to show that her little band had nothing to hide, but after this crucial tidbit of misinformation had come to light it meant she’d stumbled right into disaster. No matter how she tried to play nice now, Zenkichi wouldn’t be having any of it. Plus, if this Turk actually took the time to memorize the names of his goons’ true forms, he was even more fastidious than she originally thought. Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.

“It sounds like you ought to get your facts checked. You of all people should know that those shadows’ testimony isn’t reliable. Khamsin’s the one who butchered Manananggal, and if you want proof, you’ll find it smeared all over his axe. He was pretty shameless about it.” She crossed her arms. “If I were you, I’d be a lot more worried about DespoRHado than a couple street cleaners. It sounds like they’ve got a bone to pick with Shinra’s administration, and they’ve sure got the manpower for a coup d’etat.”

The tense exchange didn’t last much longer. After expressing his disappointment with Benedict’s intended departure from General Affairs, and urging the Seekers to keep to themselves, the detective went on his way. It was an abrupt change; for a minute it sounded like he’d be calling in the G-men, but now he suddenly had better places to be. Giovanna took a long drink of water from her glass, thinking. Tora, Poppi, and everyone echoed Geralt’s confusion, but whatever Benedict’s answer might be, Giovanna figured she could better address the Witcher’s question.

“Definitely not,” Giovanna sighed. “I mean, it’s good for your health not to trust anyone in General Affairs in, well, general, but even if this guy’s somehow a diamond in the rough, we’re probably in trouble. Wrong or not, he’s holding [i]us[/i] responsible for Khamsin mulching that split-in-half vampire woman. And with Benny’s resignation, he just gave up his professional courtesy. I’d be willing to bet his arrival here wasn’t just a chance encounter, either. They might have caught on to us while we were spread out and followed us here.”

Tora fidgeted in his chair. “Meh…that may be true. Tora and Poppi not really pay attention. We spend time playing hitty-ball game for shinybig prizes.”

“...That explains the new gear. Ugh.” Giovanna massaged her eyes with the palms of her hands, then gave Benedict a weary glance. “We’re gonna need to get our story straight in the future. That guy was right, the less details the better. Speechcraft just isn’t my strong suit; I’m better with problems I can hit.” With the bill paid up front, she stood up from the table.

Poppi followed her example. “It’s alright, you did the best you could. But we should probably get going, right?”

“That’s the problem.” Crossing her arms, Giovanna looked out the door. Her tone was hushed. “He might not just let us leave.”

“Tora see. Should prepare for worst then, meh.” Tora popped the last bit of savory pizza into his mouth, wiped his wing off, then jumped down to the ground. He adjusted his pack, making sure his new hammer could be reached readily and easily. Once Geralt, Blazermate, Susie, and Benedict were all ready as well, the crew made for the pizzeria’s front door.

Outside, the street seemed oddly empty, even for the furtive citizens who hustled around this area in the shadow of DespoRHado’s Bunker. Tora and Poppi looked around. As ordered, Zenkichi’s G-men were making themselves as inconspicuous as possible, in the best way they knew how. Two were crouching around a manhole with plungers in hand, while one appeared to be using a wrench to play pinfinger on the hood of a random car. One stood in front of a store’s windows with a washrag in hand, but rather than scrub the glass he towel-snapped it with the wet, wound-up cloth. Poppi rolled her eyes. “Oh, brother…”

A couple seconds later the moment Zenkichi had been waiting for arrived, and he appeared from behind a statue. He fixed his eyes on Benedict. [color=BFBFBF]“Pascal. You're going to get more than yourself hurt if you keep talking like that. I don't want to hurt you, but I do need to know exactly what you know. This goes deeper than any one of us, and I can't have you messing this up for me.”[/color]

Giovanna put her hands on her hips and gave a thin smile “Sorry, mister. But Special Ops needs him right where he is.”

Zenkichi shook his head with a sort of resigned frustration. The four G-men dropped their pretenses and began to approach. [color=BFBFBF]“I’m afraid I’m not asking.”[/color]

The inhuman peacekeepers doffed their hats and transformed in bursts of shadowy tar. Tora recognized [url=https://i.imgur.com/58RxKKD.png]Loup-Garou[/url] from before, but the other three took the forms of [url=https://i.imgur.com/vZQhXZ3.png]Apsaras[/url], [url=https://i.imgur.com/aPArzj0.png]Jack Frost[/url], and last but certainly not least a fearsome [url=https://i.imgur.com/kVSPvNt.png]three-headed engine[/url] of chrome, Chemtrail. The first two looked weak, but strength practically billowed off that last one. Tora armed himself with his new Star Crusher while Poppi kept hold of her Variable Saber, not forgetting the new set of beads she’d earned that outfitted her with fresh dance moves. Just another legally dubious fight.

[center][h3]Home of Tears[/h3]
Level 10 Nadia (135/100)
Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Omori’s [@Majoras End], Ganondorf’s [@Double], the Knight
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1925[/center]

After receiving the map from Cornifer and expressing her gratitude, Nadia unrolled it and turned to leave the shelter of the gazebo, looking over its contents. Her [url=https://i.imgur.com/ipvUJd0.png]map[/url] of the Under itself seemed to have grown, but for now she focused on the map of the city itself. The [url=https://i.imgur.com/9zkps44.png]Home of Tears[/url] featured a pretty uniform layout, at least from such a lofty perspective. Four districts, just like the mapmaker said, and the one her team wanted -or more accurately, desperately needed given the amount of coughing going on- lay to the east. For a moment Nadia wondered if Cornifer drew this while hanging from the ceiling or something. While he looked a little rotund for such extensive fieldwork, he’d already proven that the heroes would do well not to underestimate him. Just how far were they underground now, anyway? Well, whatever. She planned to keep up the established tradition by taking the lead, and almost set foot outside before a frantic Cornifer gave her pause. “Wait wait, stop!”

Though terribly ill and fatigued, Nadia still jumped at the sudden shout, wondering if something was wrong. “Huh!? What!?”

“Don’t just walk out into the rain with the map out!” the cartographer admonished her. “It’s…well, I know it’s yours now, and you may do with it as you please, but I thought I should say. If you hold it out under the rain, all the work I poured into it will be washed away! You’ll also have no way to know where you’re going lest you commission a replacement, so please, be careful.”

Nadia chuckled, jokingly palming the side of her head. “Aha…right. Duh.” She rolled up the map and put it in her pocket. Then, after staring out into the pounding rain for a moment, she pulled it out again for another inspection. “Uh…which way is it from here, again…?” In her state, it would be a wonder if she could memorize a birthday card, let alone a complicated and yet at the same time abstract representation of an entire city’s layout.

Luckily, fate had another surprise in store for the team this evening, and this time it turned out for the better. After a few moments a stranger came to call on the mapmaker in his cozy gazebo, stumbling over through the rain with a bulging sack slung over his shoulder just to say hello. Nadia glanced over as he drew near. He turned out to be a man, well out of his prime but still animated by a youthful spirit, with a bright maroon suit, a scruffy goatee, and an impressively voluminous head of hair. His tone and even his body language conveyed a sort of wholehearted cheerfulness, which was saying something considering the man appeared to be soaked through by the constant rain, and after catching just one glimpse of the Seekers huddled around the Gazebo (which included the comatose, antlion-borne Ganondorf) he could tell just how debilitated they were. Nadia couldn’t help but laugh at his forthright outburst. He wasn’t exactly wrong. “Not one of my better days, I’ll admit.” Even making puns felt a little much for her right now.

He offered to guide them to the Sanitarium, which through sheer coincidence happened to be his destination. The others might be dubious, but the news left Nadia with a smile of extravagant relief on her face. If this man’s clinking sack contained more capsules like the one the sharp-eyed thief saw roll across the ground earlier, which looked for the world like vials of healing tonic, she felt inclined to believe him. This guy looked like a goof, but someone who’d go the extra mile to get things done if it meant helping someone out. [i]The best kind of person[/i]. Who but a kind-hearted fool would lug around a bag full of this stuff in the pouring rain after all, especially dressed as eye-catchingly as that? It was a stroke of good fortune at last. Nadia jammed the map in her pocket and stepped back out of the gazebo and into the rain. Now that she’d been shivering beneath shelter for a moment the rain felt positively warm, like jumping back into a pool after getting out on a less-than-balmy day. “Say no more,” she declared.

Ichiban led the team through the streets, across the bridges, and along the canals of the Home of Tears as fast as his new retinue could go, anxious to get them treatment. Although these surroundings interested Nadia greatly, being a city built and lived in principally by non-human hands, everything passed by in a blur. She felt dazed and half-conscious, wracked by coughs every other moment. Sightseeing could come later. The Seekers needed a cure for what ailed them, and quickly.

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

At length, Ichiban brought Nadia and the others across a final bridge to their destination, not within the confines of the Downtown district itself, but sitting on an island directly adjacent to it. Formally known as the Addermire Institute of Infectious Disease, but better known to the city residents as the Sanitarium, this imposing hospital of glass and stone had clearly seen better days. Rusted metal, dead plants, and cracked concrete were all common sights, but a ghostly blue light poured from its many windows, courtesy of the whale-oil lamps therein. Once everyone reached the front desk Ichiban needed to hurry off to finish his delivery, but he wasn’t the only one who could tell what was wrong with the team with a single glance. The bright blue eyes of the [url=https://i.imgur.com/gLAA2ER.png]pink-haired lady[/url] behind the counter filled with worry when she approached. “Goodness me, did you all enter the Womb? Stained with blood, coughing like mad. It’s good we have plenty of room, we’ll see to you straight away.” She pressed a button behind the desk, which made a buzzer go off in a room not too far away.

A little nervous, Nadia ran a hand over her face and hair, wiping the water off. “Is it bad?”

“It’s…certainly not good,” Nurse Joy admitted, scribbling on a set of forms at lightspeed. “But it’s a reasonably common case. Virtually everyone who goes there contracts the same diseases. It’ll take some doing to get them out, and it may not be pleasant, but we can do it.” She glanced up at the Seekers, visually confirming something, then started to scribble again. After a moment, a small team of [url=https://i.imgur.com/JLMbFmL.png]hospital workers[/url] arrived with gurneys, led by a stern-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/I8xNQWV.png]nurse[/url] with glasses. They bid the diseased adventurers lay down, and relieved Sectonia’s antlions of their heavy burden, though the gurney creaked under Ganondorf’s weight. Everyone got whisked away to separate rooms, then helped out of their clothes and given hospital gowns in exchange.

After only a few moments, Nadia found herself alone, lying in a dark room where the only lamp made the surgical equipment cast eerie shadows on the walls. Just what were these instruments? Nadia peered around with wide eyes and lips pursed when not seized by coughing. Some of this equipment looked positively medieval. Come to think of it, why did those egg-shaped creatures strap her in? She tugged at the belt-like bindings, but it was no good. They wouldn’t budge an inch. Fear began to creep through her, but she felt too terrible to focus on it, and just lay there in a state of worried delirium until the door slammed open. Her eyes shot to the entrance, where she saw a [url=https://i.imgur.com/58gL8IC.png]frog[/url] in a surgical mask, followed by a [url=https://i.imgur.com/sFC7CEo.png]man in blue[/url] carrying a clipboard. “Suspected Red Plague. Creeping Cough. Ooh, tetanus, how fun. Hemophilia? Eh, may as well.” The man spoke with a pronounced German accent. After drawing close he tossed the clipboard on the bedside table in a casual manner, then glanced at Nadia, rubbing his chin as he noted her ears and tail. “Possible rabies. Yes, yes. Just in case. Couldn’t hurt.” He turned away to a nearby cupboard and opened it to root around inside. “...Much.”

Nadia gulped. “Uh, what was that just now?”

“Oh nothing, nothing. Just relax.” The Medic turned back, snapping his glove as he did. Nadia eyed the syringe in his hand, which he flicked in order to remove air bubbles. Only when he turned a leering grin on the feral did she really start to struggle. “It’s time to practice medicine.”

Nadia screamed until the sedative overtook her.

[hr]

Somewhere between two and three hours later, Nadia could be found sitting in the sanitarium lobby, rigid as a mannequin with eyes as wide as saucers. A free lollipop protruded from her mouth, her hands lay on her knees in a white-knuckled deathgrip, and a sticker that read [i]I gave blood =)[/i] lay on the breast of her jacket. She’d been like that for a while. The Chanseys had put her clothes through the washer and dryer during her stay at Addermire, but she couldn’t thank the people here for much more than that. Well, that and curing her diseases in almost no time flat, all things considered, but that crazy doctor and his 'treatment' had to have taken years off her life. Surely most of that stuff couldn't be proper medicine? There had been actual leeches in one of those jars, for goodness' sake! Nadia shuddered. She felt more or less fine now, thanks to both her regeneration and the medic's medibeam, but she could hardly describe the ordeal as pleasant, and she didn't even want to consider what all had happened while unconscious. “I need…a damn drink.”

Unfortunately, drinks cost money, and she’d spent everything she earned in that nightmarish basement on the Night Light in her sternum, which she was strongly beginning to suspect might not be a gemstone at all. Her pockets were empty, which meant no much-needed alcohol, no food, no spa treatment (however well deserved) and not even a place to spend the night. What time was it anyway, eight, nine? The thought did occur to her that she could probably solicit a room in Addermire overnight, but she knew more surely than she’d ever known anything before that she wouldn’t be caught dead inside a room in this place ever again. [i]I’d rather sleep outside in the deluge,[/i] she thought, grumbling to herself. [i]Wouldn’t be the first time.[/i] Then again, most of the inhabitants of this rain-drenched city seemed to be bugs. If she crashed in some alley she could get swarmed by giant earwigs or flies or something. No, she needed money, and that left her with only one option: doing what she did best.

With a heavy sigh Nadia stood up, still a little shaky and very twitchy. She spat the lollipop stick onto the floor and rolled her shoulders, trying to loosen up. “Here I go stealin’ again,” she muttered to herself, pulling out her map. “Royal Quarter’s gotta be it. If I hit some rich sucker, I’ll be set for tonight at least. Somethin’ warm to eat…somewhere dry to sleep…and enough beer to kill a horse. Yeah.” She plodded toward the front door, then turned to glower and glare back at the insides of the Addermire Institute. Nadia hissed, then pushed through the doors and ran out into the rain.