[center][h3]Detroit[/h3]
[b]Sector 8 Lower[/b]
Level 11 Tora (144/110) Level 12 Poppi (34/120)
Susie and Blazermate’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man], Benedict’s [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1862[/center]

With one of the team’s primary offensive powerhouses temporarily out of commission thanks to Chemtrail’s status, both Benedict and Blazermate -who in a stroke of good fortune managed to beat the odds and avoid a random status herself- were of like mind and hurried to awaken her, one through conventional means and the other with the ailment-cleansing Revival Protocol. Unfortunately, their lack of communication resulted in two issues. The pair’s efforts proved to be redundant as the former Turk managed to rouse Poppi from her forced slumber without any special means, which meant that Blazermate’s efforts were wasted in such a crucial moment. Second, because she favored Poppi over Tora, that left the two-foot Nopon all by himself standing bravely before the three-headed chrome monstrosity, with nothing but his hammer and his natural bulk to his name.

“MASTERPON!” Poppi cried out as she jolted awake, but she was too late to stop the shadow’s assault. It fired off Riot Gun three times. The first resulted in a painful but not serious glancing blow as Tora threw himself sideways in a clumsy and desperate to dodge. From there he could only try to block the second shot, but his new hammer did not a shield make. The weapon flew from his wings as the brutal round slammed into him, bowling him over backward. Then the third shot pounded his unprotected back, and the Nopon flew away like a fastball in a spray of blood. He smashed through a second-story window into a nearby apartment complex.

“NO!” Both female machines took to the air, but in different directions. Thinking that she could safely ignore her other allies and Chemtrail to save it for last, Blazermate flew over to help Susie in her one-on-one with Loup-Garou. In so doing she also left Giovanna behind, teeth gritted as she hauled herself to her feet the poison that coursed through her veins untreated. Poppi, meanwhile, zoomed after her Masterpon. She wanted nothing more than to carve Chemtrail into slag, but she couldn’t leave Tora’s fate uncertain. In a blink she disappeared into the same hole Tora crashed through, and she found herself in a [url=https://twelveminutesgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Apartment_TopDown-1024x671.jpg]small apartment[/url]. Judging by the noise, the inhabitants had already taken shelter from the chaos outside in the bathroom. It looked like Tora hit the dining table on entry, cracking it in half, then proceeded to tumble clean to the other side and into the closet. There he lay in a pile of wooden debris and ruined clothes, wounded and still.

Her face aghast, Poppi hurried over to cradle him in her arms and run a quick scan, only to vent the excess steam from her pounding core with a shaky sigh of relief. He’d survived the direct hits with health to spare. As bad as it looked, his internals weren’t compromised, and now that he was out of combat he’d already started to regenerate thanks to his recovery Power. Poppi hurried to brush him off. “You okay?” she asked. “You scared the ether out of me. That was too risky! You could have died!”

“Meheheh,” Tora chuckled. “Am fine, not even need second wind. Hurt less than dragonpon step on Tora, that for sure.”

Sighing, Poppi stood up and turned toward the window. “Just promise me, if it ever looks like it’s too much, you won’t pull something like that again. At least not without a real shield.”

“But if Tora not, friend Giovanna get shot instead, and only Tora tough enough to take shots like that, meh!” her Masterpon countered.

“Giovanna…? Uh oh.” Poppi took off in a sprint and dove back through the window, activating her thrusters. While Blazermate and Susie dealt with Loup-Garou, and Geralt’s match against Zenkichi neared its conclusion, Giovanna had been facing Chemtrail by herself.

More accurately, she faced Chemtrail with Rei. Accompanied by her wolf spirit, the secret agent moved like the wind she dashed back and forth in a zigzag pattern just faster than the metallic menace could react, coolly ignoring the asphalt shrapnel that exploded mere feet behind her. She and Rei slid into melee range with a maximum-range [url=https://i.imgur.com/E9S91gm.png]sweep[/url] that knocked one of Chemtrails’ feet out from under it, but the shadow wouldn’t be so easily displaced. It unleashed a salvo of shots at point-blank range but Giovanna burned some tension to negate the chip damage as she blocked with Faultless Defense. “Meh-meh!?” Tora murmured in awe of the feat as he and Poppi swooped in. “How Gi-Gi even better blocker than Tora!?”

“Just help her!” Without enough time to find and fetch his hammer, Poppi handed him the Variable Saber, then blasted downward to strike Chemtrail in its central face with a kick. She popped Tora up so he could fall with a plunging stab and sink the plasma blade into the top of Chemtrail’s engine. Cursing, the shadow leaned back to blast off an upward shot at Poppi, but she was already on the move. She fired her revolvers as she circled around, although once she realized her Dark element was completely useless she changed gears. Instead she focused on keeping ahead of the next two Riot Gun shots and distracting the monster long enough for Tora to change saber modes and unload shotgun blasts straight down at point-blank. With a growl Chemtrail turned its attention to bucking Tora off, which in turn gave Giovanna -now behind her foe- a great opportunity.

She sprinted into its legs as if in a futile attempt to shove it off its feet, but she had a different goal in mind. Nothing built up tension as fast as running straight toward her opponent, and even if she wasn’t going anywhere, this counted. After a moment she reached maximum, and her appearance changed as Rei’s power infused her. Her eyes went white as her skin and hair began to glow. Right after Chemtrail dislodged Tora, Giovanna went on the offensive with Burst Time. She slammed the earth with an electrified ground pound, then launched upward with three blazing backflip kicks. The sudden force to the top-heavy terror’s back nearly caused it to stumble forward, and as it whirled around it caught a glimpse of Giovanna at the apex of her jump. Then she zoomed downward with a divekick of her own. She not only managed to knock Chemtrail onto its back, but dragged it across the street, carving a furrow like a fiery plow. A [url=https://i.imgur.com/BDzMcmh.png]Sol Nascente[/url] flip kick strong enough to launch the likes of Potemkin actually managed to make Chemtrail airborne. She leaped skyward after it, electrocuting its body on contact with crossed arms until it lost momentum, at which point Rei manifested above it to kick it back down to earth. On impact it left behind a crater in which it lay for a moment, taken aback by the secret agent’s strength and the power of her combined technique.

Giovanna landed beside the crater. “How about it?” she asked nonchalantly as Tora and Poppi approached, ready to finish the monster off. Blazermate was back too, although nobody looked very pleased with her. It seemed like Giovanna had managed to fight through the poison, though. “I call it Dança do Vento Ardente.”

Before the duo could reply, Chemtrail did–by casting Megidolaon. The Seekers ran for their lives as a cluster-bomb of Almighty explosions went off in Chemtrail’s vicinity. Tora, Poppi, and Giovanna avoided the worst of it, but they all took some hefty damage. “Hell of a last resort,” Giovanna hissed. “We’d better finish this!”

“On it!” Flying through the chaos, Poppi switched to her Fire Core, then positioned herself diagonally above Chemtrail. Blazermate joined her to empower her with crits, and after a moment Poppi raised hell. “Noponic Axiom!” she cried, unleashing her accumulated power in a brilliant beam of flame. The torrential inferno both damaged and superheated the shadow’s metal body, softening it up, and with its attention on Poppi it didn’t notice Tora and Giovanna approaching from either side. Together they struck with a saber slash and [url=https://i.imgur.com/aHdSThB.png]wolf kick[/url], carving through the knees holding its heavy body up. With a furious bellow, Chemtrail hit the ground, immobilized. In quick succession, the three Seekers finished it off with one final blow each to its three faces. Then the shadow melted away, and the fight was over.

[hider=Results][b]Party:[/b] Tora, Poppi, Blazermate, Susie, Geralt, Benedict
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] 5 EXP
[b]Worthy Opponent Bonus:[/b] Zenkichi
[b]Worth Opponent Reward:[/b] 5 EXP[/hider]

In the aftermath of the fight everyone recovered as quickly as they could. Poppi recovered Chemtrail’s spirit, while Tora took Jack Frost’s. Though brief, it had been a furious confrontation with no small amount of collateral damage thanks mostly to Chemtrail, and it wouldn’t be long before others -most likely DespoRHado- got involved. The Seekers needed to skedaddle, but that’s where things got interesting. In the course of his contest against Zenkichi, Geralt utilized a Friend Heart to both end the fight and free the Persona user from Galeem’s influence. The results spoke for themselves; Zenkichi was [i]not[/i] happy. The double-whammy of realizing his daughter might be in danger and that a past enemy of his now worked as his superior left Zenkichi reeling, but the team didn’t have time to pick up the pieces.

“It’s a long story, and we’re a little short on time right now,” Giovanna told him. She pointed out a sky-line nearby as a way to escape the scene, and pulled out her sky-hook in preparation to use it. “It sounds like you’re worried about your kid, so do whatever you need to do. But we can tell you everything you need to know about the state of the world, and how to fix it. Come and find us tomorrow morning.” She quickly recited the address of the S.O.U. building in Sector 7. “I’m trusting you here. The you that Benedict here seems to trust in. I know it’s a lot to think about, but give us a chance to prove we’re the good guys. Don’t screw us.” With that, she took off running for the sky-line, and the other Seekers had little choice but to follow.”

Once a safe distance from prying eyes and DespoRHado enforcers, the Seekers headed back to the train station. By the time night fell across Midgar they were well on their way back to headquarters, destined to arrive there before the Suoh group with no knowledge of what had befallen the other team until Goldlewis called in to give his unbelievable report. Not long after that Karin, Roxas, Midna, and Pit arrived via Neuron helicopter, disheveled and wide-eyed from everything they’d seen and been through. Despite their curiosity, Tora and Poppi were in agreement: catching up could wait until tomorrow morning. With space on the couches limited, the two spent the night swaddled in blankets in a closet, Tora resting safe and secure in the lap of his beloved companion. He dreamed of many things, but never in his wildest dreams did he conceive of what the morrow would bring.

[center][h3]S.O.U. Building - the Next Morning[/h3]
Level 4 Goldlewis (5/40)
Goldlewis, Tora and Poppi, Roxas’ [@Double], Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Pit’s [@Yankee], Susie and Blazermate’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man], Benedict’s [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 894[/center]

Goldlewis awoke at six o’clock on the dot, not because he wanted to, but because that was when he woke up. No matter what time he went to bed, or the events of the night before, the clock in his head retrieved him from slumberland at six o’clock in the morning. It had been that way for decades now. Just a part of aging, he supposed. He couldn’t go back to sleep either, but today at least he lay awake in bed for a little while longer. Not that his apartment could be called very comfortable. No matter where he went, Goldlewis tended to find that people simply built things too small, and in this particular corner of the Sector 7 Plate he barely squeezed in. So most days he didn’t find it too hard to roll out of bed, but today was not most days.

Not after yesterday, his first real day as a member of the Seekers who bravely chose to fight for the freedom of all people from Galeem’s dominion, and only in the crisis of that evening did he really begin to understand what that meant. He’d been away from the frontlines too long. Just as he had back in America, he’d gotten so concerned trying to handle things from the top down that his life as a soldier, fighting firsthand against the enemies of humanity, had receded into the distance. Yet those days never truly left him. Even if his mind grew hazy, his body remembered–muscle memories drilled into him, and the ache of old scars. A younger man, fresh from his first battle, might have gone the whole night without sleeping a wink, his mind awash with the horrors of war. But Goldlewis slept like a log the whole night. This wasn’t his first rodeo, not by a long shot. Whatever the enemy, whatever the casualties, whatever the consequences, if Goldlewis Dickinson meant to fight, he would take everything he could get. In this case that meant six straight hours of shuteye, from the moment he parked his hummer out front and fell into bed until the moment his mental clock woke him up. And now, it was time to go. Another long day no doubt awaited him.

He showered, styled, and dressed with well-practiced efficiency, and soon set out for headquarters. It was still dark out and starting to rain, but his beloved vehicle hummed contentedly as he drove along the streets. Just by looking at it one would never guess that his Patriot Mammoth had sustained tremendous damage just last night, its sides scraped, its windows shattered, its rubber burnt, and its body poked full of holes, but living in this composite world had its benefits. The most successful mechanics in Midgar cornered the market with absurd turnaround time on repairs no matter how severe the damage, all thanks to miraculous ‘pickups’ that looked like holographic wrenches, floating in the air. The simple act of driving a broken-down vehicle into one, as long as it still retained some semblance of function, fixed it right up in the blink of an eye. Such services didn’t come cheap, of course, but for the Mammoth? Anything.

By seven-thirty, Goldlewis sat himself down in the S.O.U. office meeting room, his spot at the table the same as it had been yesterday afternoon. On the table lay two boxes of doughnuts, courtesy of him, and twelve black coffees, courtesy of Jessica McCarney. After arriving a little on the later side, Giovanna claimed one of the coffees before plopping down on a bean bag with Rei. All the action from yesterday had taken its toll on her previous outfit, so today the secret agent showed up in a similar but [url=https://i.imgur.com/Bx8BtZn.png]different outfit[/url], minus the tie and glasses but plus her trademark shoes. If things were going to get even rowdier going forward, she probably figured that having more than one button might be a good idea. Still…

“When’re you gonna button that thing up all the way?” Goldlewis asked idly. “It ain’t professional.”

Giovanna shrugged. Her comrade got the impression this wasn’t the first time she’d been asked. “How else am I gonna catch a good man?”

The pair’s chat came to an end when a familiar face entered the room. Though stout, bald, and sporting a white chinstrap beard, the man possessed a certain magnetism, and he wore a smile on his face. “Good morning,” [url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z5fKcyrpChI/maxresdefault.jpg]former president Vernon Groubitz[/url] told them, helping himself to a doughnut. “Read your reports on the way over,” he told them evenly after taking a bite. “One afternoon with our new friends, and it sounds like you’ve already gone through hell.”

“We seem to have a knack for findin’ trouble,” Goldlewis sighed.

“And sticking our fingers in a whole lot of pies.” Vernon took a coffee as well, then seated himself, crossing his legs. “Gangs in Detroit. People going undercover in Psych-OSF. A new base in Seiran. Some sort of big operation this morning? And not one, but two Turks freed from Galeem, possibly defecting to our side! Making waves, hmm?” He chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’m eager to finally meet our new friends. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

Goldlewis nodded as he reached for a doughnut himself. “You bet your britches we do.”

[center][h3]Home of Tears[/h3]
Level 10 Nadia (141/100)
Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Omori’s [@Majoras End], Ganondorf’s [@Double], the Knight
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1645[/center]

Plumb tired though she was, Nadia made her way back out of the Royal Quarter with a pep in her step. Few things lifted her spirits in the same way as a good old-fashioned wad of money just burning a hole in her pocket. It meant the best eats, drinks, and comfort she could find for the remainder of the night and as long as she could laze around tomorrow morning before things got rolling again. Was this indulgent of her? Maybe, but with how often she put her neck on the line nowadays, she felt she had more than earned her just rewards. If anything, after making it out of the Dead Zone, Kosm’s Beach, and now the Womb after as many days, she felt like a bonafide hero; surely she deserved to rest on her laurels, just a little. So she felt pretty unashamed about the prospect of lavishly spending her ill-gotten gains. The bigger issue, come to think of it, was whether or not a city for bugs and beasts would have feasts fit for a feral like her. All of a sudden all the different creatures she’d spotted before ran through her head as she pictured the different kinds of monster chow this place might have in store. This matter perturbed her so thoroughly, in fact, that as she approached the long bridge between the Royal Quarter and Fountain Central, she didn’t pay any attention to where she was going until too late.

Out of the blue she bumped into someone, lightly bonking her head on a metal exterior. “Meowch!” she squeaked, much more startled than hurt by the unexpected impact. Nadia backpedaled a couple steps reflexively, shaking her head in an attempt to snap back to reality. “Sorry about…:”

When she attempted to lay eyes on the person she’d collided with she wound up with quite a shock. This stranger loomed over her like an ancient statue, tall and imposing in a suit of metal armor, lit from behind by one of the pink lanterns that adorned the district’s arched entryway. Blue-scaled, with fins, fangs, and a red ponytail, this wasn’t just a formidable warrior, but the guard Nadia spotted while on the prowl earlier. Her ears almost flattened out of defensive reflex, but despite her elevated heart rate the cat burglar managed to keep her composure. Nobody put on a brave face like Nadia Fortune, after all. She quickly cleared her throat. “...Sorry about that! Guess my head was in the clouds, nyaha!”

Undyne chuckled, laughing the accident off with no overt hostility, which in Nadia’s experience was pretty rare for a keeper of the peace. “Fuhuhu! There aren’t any clouds underground, SILLY!” After a moment though, the eye not hidden behind her eyepatch suddenly narrowed. “...Hey! You aren’t from around here, are you?”

At the big fish’s sudden change of tune, Nadia could help but bristle. “...What, a commoner like me can’t visit the rich part of town, pinin’ after the sweet life I could have one day long as I keep myself on the straight and narrow, like I have been?”

“Huh?” Undyne blinked, her brow raised. “I mean, you aren’t a Home of Tears citizen, are you? Just saying, I think I’d remember a face like yours!”

A mite embarrassed at having barked up the wrong tree, Nadia scratched her nose, putting on an apologetic face. “Ohh…right, I gotcha. Uh, no, I’m not. My friends and I just rolled in from the Womb, actually. After I got myself straightened out at that freaky sanitarium, I figured I’d look around for somewhere to grab a bite, y’know?”

Her mention of the Womb seemed to impress Undyne. “Not bad! That place is pretty tricky for normal people. But…” She rubbed her bald cranium as if to massage her brain into overdrive.  “Isn’t the Sanitarium downtown? What’re you doing in the Royal Quarter?”

[i]Crap.[/i] “Because…” Nadia stretched out the word as she held up her hands in resignation, trying to think of something. “It was too…expensive? Yeah, that’s it. I wanted to treat myself, but after comin’ over I realized I was flat broke. Blegh!” She smacked her palm against her head in a self-deprecating gesture.

Undyne nodded sagaciously. “Ahh, makes sense!” Crossing her arms, she looked off into the distance. “Me, I’m only here to keep an eye out. You know, thieves, burglars, such and such.” She leaned over Nadia, squinting. “You see any out there?”

“Me?” With every fiber of her being Nadia attempted to portray the depths of her indignance. “No ma’am! Why, I’m so straight-laced, the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind!”

The announcement made Undyne crack a grin. “Wow, that straight-laced? Sounds like a challenge to me! Nobody upholds the law better than the captain of the guard, just wait and see!”

Nadia couldn’t help but giggle a little at this goofball. “I’ll be rootin’ for ya. Go get ‘em!”

“They won’t know what hit ‘em! Fuhuhuhuhu!”

Energized by the power of justice, Undyne took off running down the street through the rain, forcing her mermaid guards to race after her. Her direction was anyone’s guess. Nadia turned to watch her go, but she thought of something before the fishwoman disappeared from sight. “Oh, one more thing, miss sheriff, if you don’t mind!”

Undyne skidded to a stop in a spray of water, causing a pileup with the mermaid guards. As they toppled over their captain whipped around. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“If you see anyone else not from around here, could you tell them somethin’ for me?” Nadia called after her. “Miss Fortune awaits at the biggest hotel in the city!”

“Huh? Something wrong with Habbo Hotel?” Undyne looked confused. “I mean, I don’t know who’d go looking for misfortune on purpose, but I’ll tell ‘em!” Then she ran off, with her entourage as close behind as they could manage, and with a smug grin Nadia went on her way.

[hr]

With only a brief pause in Fountain Central, both to observe Cornifer’s absence for the night and that strangely off-putting statue in greater detail, Nadia returned to the western downtown district. Even with her coat keeping her head and upper body mostly dry, she was beginning to get tired of the constant pounding rain, and she wanted nothing more than to hole up in a nice, cozy place and go to sleep. It wasn’t difficult to spot the giant orange mass of the [url=https://i.imgur.com/IhTd1yM.png]hotel[/url] Undyne mentioned toward the back of the district near the cavern wall, but before that she needed to hunt down somewhere to eat.

While looking around she noticed an open store in a big, burlap tent, held together by stitches and buttons. Called Seam’s, it seemed to be a pawn shop if the extra signage was anything to go by. She made a mental note of its location to pay it a visit later. While she didn’t mind fighting with the anchors she’d gotten from Massachusetts, their unwieldy combination of stubbiness and top-heaviness meant she could do a lot better in terms of melee weapons, and she might as well make a few extra coins off them. Hopefully Seam’s would have some other unwanted loot weapons lying around she could pick up in exchange. The Bait Launcher she planned to keep, of course. Not everyone got the privilege of being able to just blast a steak at some poor mook and summon a tiger to ruin its day.

In the end, the feral did manage to find a suitable restaurant: [url=https://i.imgur.com/dsCgalI.png]Definitely Not Fried Chicken[/url]. Despite the name, it did actually offer fried (as well as grilled and blackened) chicken, in addition to a few other options. Hardly a fancy affair, it bore the trappings of a typical sports bar, with [url=https://i.imgur.com/ziixDRI.png]snail races[/url], [url=https://i.imgur.com/xrY4zMd.png]swordplay[/url], and [url=https://i.imgur.com/jj2FO4F.png]pain olympics[/url] on TV, and a rough-and-tumble selection of customers. Perfect. Nadia grabbed a big basket of spicy wings and the biggest glass of beer the place could offer, then seated herself in a cozy corner. She planned to chow down all by her lonesome, but halfway through her second wing a lycanthrope showed up to say hello. He seemed eager to make a good first impression on account of her being a catgirl, but since Nadia was a dog person metaphorically and always happy to make new friends, she did not hesitate to accept his invitation to join his friends over at their table.

Over a round of drinks and a feast of chicken she soon got acquainted with [url=https://i.imgur.com/M2WGYmO.png]the gang[/url] and their poultry-loving buddy [url=https://i.imgur.com/u9pBSUF.png]Bob[/url], who upon closer inspection Nadia realized was a pile of pink slimes in a trench coat. For a while, the feral could put her worries and cares aside and enjoy some simple pleasures with undiscerning, like-minded strangers, laughing and joking and telling stories. Nadia and the wolfman naturally played off one another, Drac served as the perfect straight man to the others’ antics, the leprechaun was just a funny, boisterous guy, and Bob was a good listener. Although, Nadia also noticed the others on either side of him gathering pink crystals from around his chair every so often after he ate, and she couldn’t help but wonder where they were coming from. It was almost eleven o’clock by the time DNFC’s employees shooed the gaggle of drunken monsters out the door. After a quick round of heartfelt goodbyes and goodnights, they all staggered off through the rain in different directions toward home. Nadia made her way to Habbo Hotel to check herself into a luxury suite for the night, and after dragging herself upstairs she could only toss away her coat before she collapsed into the freshly-made plush softness of bed. She was out like a light.