[center][h3]Abandoned Subway - Infested Tunnel[/h3]
Raz’s [@Truthhurts22], Sakura’s [@Zoey Boey], Peach, Luka, Dexio, Sina[/center]

With the whole platoon’s combined firepower, the Rainy Rummies didn’t stand a chance. Some of the Scarlet Guardians took hits from either the Others’ umbrella attacks or their lightning bolts, but as long as they didn’t get waterlogged first a few zaps didn’t pose too much of an issue, allowing everyone to outmaneuver their foes as they more than outmatched their firepower. Once the last Rummy fell, the team spent a brief moment collecting their spirits, as per standard protocol. Seven Rainy Rummies, three Rat Ruts, one Exonerator. As platoon leader, Luka carefully stored them all inside a specially made canister.

[hider=Luka Platoon Encounter 1/3 Results]
[b]Party:[/b] Sakura, Raz
[b]Reward:[/b] +5 EXP[/hider]

“You took out two Rat Ruts on your own!?” Despite lacking Raz’s iconic eyewear, Sina practically goggled at Sakura. “We had to dig deep just to deal with one! I’m so jealous!”

Dexio rubbed the back of his head, a little sheepish. “And here I thought I was the team’s physical powerhouse.”

“No need to make comparisons, you two,” Luka chided gently. Weight Hammer in hand, he moved to the front of the group, walking along the edge of the flooding. “With how competitive it can be in Psych-OSF sometimes, I can’t say this isn't a race. Nor can I say that it’s a race we start on equal footing. But the important thing is that we run it together. We’ll all grow stronger as a team.”

Peach gave an enthusiastic nod. Part of her wished that she, as a leader in her own right, had been the one to say something like that, but she was also grateful to have someone else filling the role for a time. “Absolutely! We’re not trying to show each other up. We’re trying to [i]lift[/i] each other up!”

After everyone took a quick breather, the five got underway. This abandoned tunnel network was a vast labyrinth, and even with all the different squads deployed down here today, Luka Platoon had a lot of ground to cover. As they proceeded the floodwater in the subway tunnel soon receded and the earth dried out, but all things considered Peach liked this area a whole lot less. What began as stray stretches of cobweb quickly became gigantic tangles and tapestries of spider silk, big enough to entrap entire subway trains, complete with bulbous cocoons hanging from the ceiling. Peach thanked her lucky stars that a few of the overhead lights in this tunnel somehow seemed to be working, since without them to illuminate the way it would’ve been the easiest thing in the world to bumble into and become hopelessly ensnared in these sticky nets. Of course, that left just one big issue: whatever artisanal weavers were capable of spinning webs this big.

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

What the team found here weren’t spiders, however. In an open area amongst the webs were three Others that Peach recognized as members of the slime-like Pool family, although they differed visually from the Bile Pools and Scummy Pools she’d seen so far. [url=https://bogleech.com/vgmonsters/scarlet-pooldoppel.png]These ones[/url] featured artificial aluminum plant fronds, and five pink bulbs branching off from the curled trees on their heads. While Pool-type Others had been pretty consistently weak in Peach’s experience so far, the sight of these particular specimens made Luka wince. “Doppel Pools!” he called out, teleporting forward. “We have to act fast, or-!”

As he appeared above one Pool and brought his hammer down, the Other split into three that quickly spread out in different directions. Sina took a few shots from afar with her Refrigerant Ring arm cannon, but missed due to the distance. The other Doppel Pools divided into three as well, and as soon as possible all present copies began to shoot blasts of impure water. “Only one of each trio is real!” Luka called out. “It’ll just keep replacing any fakes we destroy, too. If only Tsugumi was here to give us her Clairvoyance.” Without any way to tell the originals from the doppelgangers, he, Peach, Dexio, and Sina could only try to brute force the solution.

Ultimately, there were only three Others though, and once flushed out they weren’t too tough to dispatch. With the interim threat quelled, Luka Platoon got moving again. This time, as her squad swept through the tunnels, Peach gradually became aware of noise from up ahead. “I think I hear…people fighting?” Voices, explosions, the discharge of weapons–it sounded pretty definitive. Luka nodded, and the team picked up the pace until they came upon a larger underground chamber where a boss battle already seemed to be in progress.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/kNKnes1.jpg[/img][/center]

The first thing Peach saw was the Other, and though all Others were both bizarre and intimidating to some extent, this one took the cake. It resembled a huge, shaggy-haired, six-legged beast, with cagelike forearms tipped with red rubber gloves and a strange masked head with keyhole-like sockets. Metal garden hoses sprouted from its body as both a mane and tails, and on its back -within a bed of long spines amidst green roses- lay a red tank full of viscous, boiling-hot oil. So tall that Peach’s head would only reach the very bottom of its mask, the [url=https://static.bandainamcoent.eu/high/red-strings/03-news/monsters/em0300_dispenfisher_pass.png]Gunkin Fisher[/url] looked like a fearsome opponent, but she could see another squad fighting it with everything they had. Septentrion Sixth Class [url=https://i.imgur.com/jMwl12F.png]Seto Narukami[/url] used twinblades and his electrokinesis to fight with careful precision, safeguarding another electrokinetic, the baton-wielding [url=https://i.imgur.com/XhaP2oy.jpg]Shiden Ritter[/url], who looked like he’d taken a bad wound. Peach recognized the pink twintails of [url=https://i.imgur.com/Y4h50Dh.jpg]Arashi Spring[/url] as she blitzed around with Hypervelocity with her chainsaw, Innocent Rabbit Hug. She did not, however, recognize the [url=https://i.imgur.com/mTkmc4o.jpg]green-skinned redhead[/url] who appeared to be commanding a small swarm of [url=https://i.imgur.com/pMGGPBz.png]giant spiders[/url] to fight on her behalf. [i]Oh, that’s where they are,[/i] Peach thought, creeped out as she was impressed. She also spotted a man in a stylish suit of OSF [url=https://i.imgur.com/evYBakI.png]red and black[/url] augmented with gauntlets, boots, and a grimacing facemask of blue-green metal beneath his ruby-red glasses. With Atmokinesis he created localized weather phenomena, mostly rain, and as Peach watched he managed to wash off a quantity of movement-impeding oil that the Gunkin Fisher blasted Arashi with just before the Other tried to crush her beneath its massive weight. The last member of Seto Platoon looked to be a [url=https://i.imgur.com/u6npi4U.png]young man[/url] with a spiky plume of hair, long coat, and studded scarf. Akira Tadokoro worked to manipulate the monster’s mind with illusions created by his Hallucikinesis, but he succeeded in making the Gunkin Fisher a little too angry, and got whipped by its tail-hoses for his efforts. It looked like this team could use a hand.

“Luka Platoon, moving to assist!” the team leader announced, and Peach hopped to it.

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

[center][h3]Edinburgh MagicaPolis[/h3]
Level 8 Big Band (71/80)
Ace Cadet’s [@Yankee], Frisk’s [@Majoras End], Red’s [@TruthHurts22], Mewtwo’s [@Double]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2154[/center]

Regardless of whether or not Sierra might have any more slivers of useful information for the Seekers, Band backed off to let her rest after her initial explanation. She needed some time to decompress, and the detective needed time to think. That was just as well, since for now the small team had nothing but time. With the EMPD out in full force after the dramatic incident at the Noumenon, and no doubt whipped into a frenzy by the showdown with their top dogs, it’d be a good idea to lay low until the whole thing blew over. Or at least, until nightfall, when the dead would rise and give local law enforcement a far more widespread -and far less complicated- problem to worry about. It looked like the team might be at odds with the police from here on out, but that was nothing new to Band. It had been a long time since his early retirement from the force; since then, as an operative of the supposedly shuttered Anti-Skullgirl Lab 8, he’d gotten used to working in the shadows.

After getting his thoughts in order, Band began to play music to pass the time. He selected some chill, low-key blues just to set the mood, and though he only intended to practice, the rehearsal of a skilled player sounded nice enough. His slow, jazzy notes filled the restaurant’s upstairs habitation and drifted down to the diners below, where they complimented a cozy, altogether pleasant experience. Eventually, Ace returned from his chores and conversation downstairs with food for everyone, which Band gratefully accepted. He might not need nearly as much sustenance as his massive frame would suggest, but the flesh-and-bone part craved a good meal as much for the nutrition as a reminder that, underneath all the brass and bionics, he was still human. It helped that Grammeowster’s cooking was to die for, hearkening back to warm, homemade dinners on the cold winter nights of childhood. Just one mouthful of roast chicken and savory potatoes filled Band with warmth, and he relished it with his eyes closed. “Mm-mm,” he murmured, smacking his lips. “My compliments to the chef.”

When the sun went down, the Seekers went to work. They went their separate ways in search of any sign of the Skullgirl, or any leads on their new enemies the Consuls. Band moved through the streets of Edinburgh with an abundance of caution, careful to be as inconspicuous as a trench-coat-clad titan could as he swept each area, giving each and every pitch-black nook and cranny in his path at least one cursory glance. He looked over his shoulder almost as often, wary of any potential pursuer. The light of magical streetlamps provided ample light in certain areas, but elsewhere he relied on the dim, eerie glow of the scar-faced moon high above. Unlike New Meridian, this city seemed to be a remarkably clean and well-kept place, thanks perhaps to the abundance of magic that made everyday chores and appearances easy. Of course, that brought any abnormalities into sharp relief, and it wasn’t long at all before Band found his first gang of skeletons. There were three of them, clad in tattered clothes, and they meandered together in a small group along the sidewalk. Silent except for the rattling clank of their bones as they walked, they lurched along without paying Band any mind, and the detective didn’t bother them either. There seemed to be some semblance of purpose to their movement, although he wondered if those bones might be aping the motions their owners made in life. He tailed them for a few minutes until they reached some sort of office building. They rattled the knob, but after finding it locked, turned back the way they came.

At that point Band moved on–he did have somewhere to be, after all. He continued through the streets to his destination, spotting more skeletons as he did. Some wandered around, scratched at dumpsters or doorways, or ran down the roads as if they had somewhere to be. At one point Band spotted a group of five standing in a circle around a magic car, motionless. He couldn’t see anyone in the car, but the sight disquieted him nonetheless. Not all of the skeletons were permitted to go about their business unimpeded, however. Some of Edinburgh’s citizens closed their blinds and cowered in their beds, but others took to the streets themselves to challenge the undead with might and magic. Band skirted around two separate large-scale scuffles where local mages were mopping the floor with skeletons before he finally reached the spot. Crashed against a magic streetlamp was a familiar van, its engine dead and the driver long gone. The detective’s nose drew him to the driver-side door, where he discovered a lot of frozen light-blue goop on the sidewalk and the vehicle’s exterior. Despite the darkness, he also found a number of burn marks, several of which even now faintly smoldered with pink embers. [i]No doubt about it,[/i] he thought.

Moving to the back of the van, he ripped open the doors. Inside he found four cages, just as he expected, and inside those cages were four rotund, terribly dispirited Spheals. At the sight of Band, however, their sad eyes light up with joy. “There y’all are,” Band crooned, using what he hoped was a soft, sing-song sort of voice to comfort the scared Pokemon. “Don’t fret now, I gotchyou. There’s someone I think ya oughta meet.”

[hr]

The next morning, after a good night’s sleep, Band could be found in Grammeowster’s Kitchen, seated in a corner booth with the table removed to accommodate his size. He held a pot of coffee in one hand like a normal person might hold a mug, and with the other he paged through the morning newspaper across his lap. As happy as Sierra’s reunion with her Spheals had been last night, and as cute as the sight of her asleep with her four best friends all snuggled up with her had been, Band now wore a rather severe expression. None of the other early-morning customers dared come near him, but when his fellow Seekers approached, he quickly opened up about what he found.

“Although I wouldn’t call my time ‘wasted’, I didn’t turn up much in my investigation last night,” he began. The others’ efforts had been similarly fruitless, but that was understandable. Edinburgh was a huge and unfamiliar city, and the heroes couldn’t be expected to stumble upon the critical path every single time. That wasn’t to say, though, that they hadn’t missed anything. “Take a look at this though. Looks like somethin’ else went down at that big library after nightfall. Somethin’ serious. Accordin’ to eyewitnesses, a whole boatload of skeletons showed up. The police still there cleanin’ up ended up tanglin’ with ‘em, which went on until a strange girl showed up.” Band narrowed his eyes. “A pale girl in green, with hair and rabbit ears comin’ outta her hood like icy-blue fire. They say she wiped out the cops in an instant, includin’ that fool I laid out. ‘Kurtis Stryker’. But get this. Right afterward, a Consul showed up and fought her: Consul N. There ain’t much details after that, but it says that despite both fightin’ tooth and nail, neither won. The Skullgirl escaped into the night. Sure tries its damnedest to make N look like a hero though.”

Albedo furrowed his brow. “As expected of one of the World of Light’s rulers. Thankfully it sounds like he wasn’t able to defeat Linkle, but the fact that she’s using the Skull Heart’s power is cause enough for concern. We need to find her tonight, before the situation worsens.”

That wasn’t all, though. Flipping back to the front page, he brought the others’ attention to the main story. The headline read [i]Edinburgh MagicaPolis declares war![/i] “Check this out,” he read aloud. “Consul L announced a state of emergency yesterday after receivin’ word that the foreign city-state Alcamoth had begun a campaign to overthrow world leadership and destroy the world itself.” His tone sounded grave. Even though he’d never been to Alcamoth, the crumbs he heard about it from other Seekers made it sound important. “In response to this clear and present danger, L vowed swift and decisive action. While her plans must remain confidential, Edinburgh citizens can rest assured that her forces are more than sufficient to overcome this adversary. Provided all goes well, we can expect to hail her triumphant return to Aether Paradise at approximately one o’clock today.” He looked up at the others, raising his eyebrow with a frown.

Lucia’s eyes widened. “Wait just a second. Aethah Paradise as in Aethah Foundation? The hell’s L doin’ at a consahvation centah?” She gasped. “UNLESS…the Aethah Foundation’s just been a front this whole time!? All that cute and cuddly stuff with Pokemon ta boost theah public image, but L’s in chahge doin’ all kinds of screwed-up stuff?“ Scowling, she cracked her knuckles. “Maybe we oughta pay those dahtbags a visit.”

“This might be a trap,” Albedo cautioned immediately. “L might believe that Frisk and I are dead, but by now the Consuls must be aware that several of their enemies are somewhere in the city. If they do indeed control the presses here, this may be an attempt to draw us out.”

Big Band harrumphed. “Bastards must be pretty damn confident callin’ us out like that if so. Worst part is…well, they might have our number. If not for that flashbang from Ace, we mighta all kicked the bucket back in the Noumenon. If we nearly got outmatched by N’s pet project, chances are we ain’t strong enough to fight him straight-up. Still.” He folded up the newspaper and slapped it down. “We don’t gotta go loud the minute we get there. Long as we play it cool, we might learn a thing or two. If there’s gonna be a crowd, we can blend in. Sound like a plan?”

[hr]

[center][img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FUmV2H5X0AAze_Z?format=jpg&name=4096x4096[/img][/center]

Contrary to the newspaper’s report, L didn’t return at one o’clock. Instead, it was almost three by the time the people in the crowd began to a spot a purple-and-cyan [url=https://i.imgur.com/MOZPhUq.png]Galaxy[/url] dropship flying in over the snow-dusted buildings from the southeast. It made a low-altitude beeline straight for the artificial island known as Aether Paradise that floated due north of the city’s humongous central pumpkin, in a circular body of water within the city itself fed by countless canals. While this lake wasn’t much larger than the island itself, no bridges spanned it to create a walkable or drivable connection from Aether Paradise to the rest of Edinburgh, leaving it accessible only by water or air. Thus, the citizens that did turn out to witness L’s triumphant return clustered along the railings that surrounded the lake on the east side, hoping to catch a glimpse of Edinburgh’s most important woman.

Finally, the Galaxy set down on the structure’s eastern helipad, and when the rear doors lowered L herself walked down the ramp to a chorus of cheers. She waved like a celebrity on the runway, but even at this distance Band’s sharp eyes could tell that something was off. She moved stiffly, as if in pain, and despite her attempts to hide it she walked with a limp, favoring her right leg. That, plus the extra time it took her to get here, convinced Band of one thing: things hadn’t gone quite as well as she might have hoped. He also noticed some people who came out from inside Aether Paradise to receive the dropship on the landing pad, which included a [url=https://i.imgur.com/2tfcawQ.png]scientist[/url] in white with big green goggles and -much to Band’s exasperation- Wicke.

“Good people of Edinburgh MagicaPolis,” L’s voice rang out, amplified via some magic. Practiced -or maybe forced- charisma oozed from every word. “Thank you all so much for your support, both here today and every day. It is your tireless effort that has made our fair city the shining diamond of the frozen north, and inspired me to do whatever it takes to see that it never loses its luster. Today, I am proud to tell you that your city, your loved ones, and your tomorrows are all safe and secure, for the looming threat of Alcamoth is no more!”

More cheers echoed across the water from the people, reaching a fever pitch. L bowed her head, full of gratitude. “Thank you, Thank you! And I assure you. Now that I’ve laid your fears abroad to rest, your fears here will soon follow!” With a final wave, L turned to strut across the helipad toward the central building of Aether Paradise, still noticeably limping.