[center][h3]Valley of Ruin[/h3] Level 11 Tora (157/110) Level 12 Poppi (47/120) Giovanna, Roxas’ [@Double], Pit’s [@Yankee], Susie’s [@Archmage MC], Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man], Partitio’s [@Dark Cloud] [b]Word Count:[/b] 1557[/center] About halfway between the salvage site and the factory smokestacks where the Rust Crew planned to get a lay of the land, their truck briefly pulled over to let Tora and Poppi disembark. This particular part of the ruined city looked especially old. Botany had never been an interest of Tora’s, let alone a strong suit, so he couldn’t tell exactly, but the giant concrete husks of buildings here sported massive trees growing in, out of, and around them, some with roots big enough for a Metro Cat’s subway train to ride on comfortably. In fact, green foliage blanketed the whole area, with only stretches of ancient, cracked roadways visible between the swathes of bracken and grass. That probably didn’t happen overnight. Gazing around at the post-apocalyptic environment, Tora had to remind himself that all this -as well as the World of Light in general- was a mere fabrication. Those enormous wooden spires hadn’t grown here over the course of centuries; they’d been plonked down by Galeem. Still…this overgrown cityscape came from [i]somewhere[/i]. Some distant world of melancholy, meaninglessness, and loss that Tora couldn’t even imagine. Standing here reminded him of the feeling he felt when he stood at the graves of Vandham and Rex’s parents, wondering about the lives lived and lost that led to this wistful moment. So Tora couldn’t harden his heart to this scenery. But the knowledge of this world’s falsehood, or perhaps more accurately its shameless appropriation, drove him onward. As well as the rain that stung his eyes whenever he tried to look upward. Poppi took care of the area’s verticality for him. Once she had her Masterpon in her arms, she ascended the nearest skyscraper in a series of rocket-propelled high jumps, from window to window and branch to branch. It wasn’t long before they reached a high, [url=https://i.imgur.com/4CYICBN.png]flat roof[/url] among the treetops. Judging by the rain that poured down through the highrise directly next door, its roof had caved in some time ago, so this seemed like as good a spot as any. Despite the rain, it provided an incredible vista of the surrounding area, including the flooded, [url=https://i.imgur.com/uEp0o1H.jpg]collapsed district[/url] to the south. While Tora shuffled over to sit underneath a giant leaf, Poppi tuned her long-range optics to better examine the mechanical lifeforms working there, puzzled by their behavior. Most of the Machines she’d spotted in the Valley of Ruin so far just ambled around aimlessly, but not these ones. They didn’t emulate the behavior of the animals they resembled, either. Instead they appeared to be working, each with some sort of goal in mind. The Clamberjaws roved the streets and foliage in aggressive gangs for wrecks to disassemble, not too unlike Midgar’s salvagers themselves. Widemaws collected and processed raw minerals from the landscape. Snapjaws imbibed and detoxified the bodies of water they basked in, launching pods full of the extracted chemicals onto the shore. Finally, the crablike Shellwalkers carefully collected the resources that the others gathered, sequestering them in the different compartments of the huge cargo containers on their backs. As Poppi watched, one of the Shellwalkers turned to leave the machines’ work zone, crawling down the river. “Strange,” she said aloud. “It’s almost like they’re all working together to collect different resources. But why?” Tora thought about her question for a moment. “Meh-meh-meh,” he murmured. “Well, it sound like Ever Crisis is big-big battle of attrition, going on for long time. In war that big, both sides need way to refill ranks. Tora not remember who, but someone say something about Machine factories. It not occur to Tora before now, but it make sense that there units designed to gather bot materials, meh.” Narrowing his eyes, the Nopon waddled over to join Poppi at the edge of the building. “Maybe…if friends follow crabbypons, they lead straight to factory?” “That makes sense! Should we go back down and tell the others?” Poppi asked him, spooling up her thrusters for flight mode. Tora shook his head. “Right now, factories not friends’ concern. If Machine invasion about to happen, we need worry less about units not built, and more about units already built.” He lifted one wing and pointed at a point a little farther to the west, toward a wetland responsible for the tributaries that created waterfalls into the flooded gorge. “Look there.” A solitary larger [url=https://i.imgur.com/7Tw2flu.png]machine lifeforms[/url] could be glimpsed there, slowly patrolling on a predefined loop. It reminded Poppi of Gormott’s native Garaffas, albeit with a very broad, disc-shaped head sporting multiple antennae. “Tora was just thinking,” her Masterpon continued. “There have to be way Machines communicate over very long distances. Was looking for relay station of some sort, but then Tora see tall-neckypon.” Scratching his chin, he looked up at Poppi. “It seem important. Tora want try access it like with truck. If nothing else, ride-around on mobile vantage point might be fun, meh!” Shaking water off his fur, he gave a cheerful smile. The duo’s scheming came to an abrupt end when a terrific crashing sound resounded across the landscape from the north. After a brief shared glance Tora and Poppi raced across the rooftop to the opposite side, with the former sliding beneath the huge tree branch while Poppi jumped over. Immediately they saw that chaos had broken out at the defunct factory, evidently mere moments after the Rust Crew arrived. A colossal [url=https://img1.goodfon.com/wallpaper/nbig/6/a3/binary-domain-robot-spider.jpg]spider robot[/url], with smooth plates of shiny white armor and an array of beady red eyes, had smashed its way out of one of the factory’s smokestacks in a terrifying show of destructive might. Naturally the Rust Crew opened fire the instant the mechanical monstrosity appeared, sending the sound of gunfire echoing through the rainy cityscape, but with their foe so needlessly large that even Big Bo only came up to its second ankle-plate, the trio were more focused on covering their retreat than actually fighting. Hounded by a hail of bullets from the Spider’s head-mounted underslung machine guns, the Rust Crew made a break for their parked truck. “Oh, no!” Tora cried, jumping up and down. “Must get down there now, meh! Other friends too far away to help!” Poppi grabbed him, took off, and blazed through the deluge toward the unexpected boss fight. Squinting against the rain, Tora spotted red targeting lasers homing in on the truck, and he managed to trace their paths to a pair weapons systems that looked rather like supersized versions of the missile racks inside Poppi QT’s Mech Arms. If they managed to lock onto the truck, it would be a disaster for the team. “Poppi!” he called, having to yell to be heard over the rushing wind. “Need fight fire with fire! Swap to QT!” His companion adjusted her flight path. “Understood.” Swinging Tora around to her back, she boosted into a shallow dive to swoop down over the Rust Crew’s truck, where she hastily dropped off her Masterpon before transforming in midair. A maelstrom of fiery sparks and red ribbons heralded her rapid reconfiguration into her more defensive form, the lethal adaptability of her Variable Saber replaced by mighty mechanical mights. The Spider locked on and unleashed a fusillade of missiles into the air, but Poppi held firm. She popped open her own miniature silos, locked on to the enemy’s projectiles in flight, and let loose her own salvo in response. For a moment the watery sky filled with fire, and the next second the chain-reaction of aerial explosions set off a spectacular fireworks display. “Fully intercepted!” Poppi reported as the smoke cleared. After an awestruck moment, Tora and the Rust Crew rejoiced. “Hell yeah!” Bo cheered, pumping his fist. “You sure know how to pick ‘em, boss.” “Simply breathtaking, mademoiselle!” Cain added. After picking himself off the wet grass where he rolled to stop, Tora smugly put his nub-arms akimbo. “Poppi just that good!” “Hold your applause, fellas. This is far from over.” Once he finished reloading, Marshall took aim at the Spider. The giant machine looked almost surprised to see that its targets survived the bombardment, but it was more than happy to finish the job. “Split up and keep moving! Don’t let it pin you down!” Tora focused up, standing firm just long enough to get a bead on the Spider before its machine guns got blasting again. Poppi passed him the Mech Arms just in time for him to block a couple dozen rounds. “Tora see massive drive system on belly, meh!” he announced while hunkered down in defense mode, his guard enhanced by Poppi’s channeled ether barrier. “While Tora have it attention, hurry and give upset stomach!” “The legs!” Marshall called out. “They’re only protected from the front! Shoot ‘em out to stop it moving!” With the duo on foot to tank for them, the Rust Crew climbed aboard the truck, with Cain swinging into the driver’s seat to put the pedal to the metal. With a roar from its engine and a spray of mud from beneath its tires the vehicle took off, circling around the Spider to give the other two an angle on its joints. [hr] The other half of the team’s truck stopped at a fork in the road. On one hand, the flooded ruin that Tora and Poppi surveyed from afar, with its crew of perplexingly animalistic machines laboring away at their harvest. Erosion there led to enough collapses to turn the highway there into a series of tiered cliffs leading down toward the water, meaning that if the truck went that way, there’d be no going back. Down the other road stood a much drier half-finished neighborhood with a much more militaristic -and coordinated- contingent of machines. Differing ideas on which route to take left the six at an impasse. Zenkichi suggested the left-hand path, and Susie the right. Pit didn’t mind the latter choice, apparently thinking that the team would make short work of all those machines. Roxas and Partitio didn’t take a stance either way. That left it up to Giovanna to arbitrate. Sitting on top of the parked truck, she considered the others’ viewpoints in conjunction with her own, both literally and metaphorically. Zenkichi wasn’t kidding about hippos and crocodiles being dangerous, and the ones Giovanna knew weren’t augmented with heavy-duty plating and multiple onboard weapons systems. The mostly aquatic terrain looked almost as bad for business as the machines themselves. Watching a Widemaw vacuum up entire chunks of masonry and exposed sediment into a jaw like a hydraulic press, outfitted with multiple grinders and drills, did not make her eager to get in melee range. Luckily, they seemed about as disinterested in tangling with her, focused instead on their jobs. In contrast, the machines at the other outpost looked like weapons of war with their various firearms, spoiling for a fight. Their makeshift outpost smacked of reconnaissance. That seemed more relevant to the Seekers’ mission of stopping a machine invasion–a mission that it sounded like Susie needed a reminder of. “We’re not actually here for scrap. That was just the cover story,” Giovanna said, her arms and legs crossed. Susie’s attempt to decide for the group, and to cement her chosen course of action by ringing up her business suit, sat about as well with Giovanna as her motivations for doing so. She doubted that Susie intended to give whatever she got to Midgar’s poor. “We’re here to find and deal with the Machines that are going to invade Midgar. Lining our pockets with ‘the good stuff’ should be our last priority.” Her tone of voice was blunt, and she pulled no punches. “I mean, hey, if loot’s more important to you than human life, whatever. A dozen giant robots is gotta be easier than one Loup-Garou, right?” Giovanna jumped down from the truck in the direction of the crane, glancing at the others. “I’m not your boss, so I’m not gonna tell you all to follow me, but I’m gonna see what’s going on over here.” Opting for the stealthy approach to scope out the situation before taking action, Giovanna quietly entered the neighborhood on foot. Though originally drawn here by the crane that might serve as a vantage point, she now found herself more intrigued by the possibility of something else afoot in this location. She dashed between hiding spots at high speed, her eyes out for any Machine sentries. The weather lowered visibility in general, but not enough to disguise the bright, soulless red of the robots’ eyes, and the shine of their optics against the falling rain gave the perceptive a rough outline of their vision cones. She stayed outside to avoid any potential traps or security measures the Machines might have set up inside the buildings, but overall the place didn’t seem very fortified. Her suspicions of it being a temporary base seemed more on-point by the minute. With the cards stacked in her favor, she managed to follow a distinctive humming noise toward the center of the neighborhood. The guards were too plentiful for her to dare intrude much further without abandoning any pretenses of stealth, but she did find the source of the sound. A [url=https://i.imgur.com/JUKaVL4.png]mechanical obelisk[/url] stood in the shell of an unfinished building, the panels on its sides sliding in and out. As she watched, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/TmbMv29.png]strange drone[/url] the size of a car hovered up from an underground tunnel. It plugged one of its seven tentacle-like arms into the obelisk and transferred data over the course of about thirty seconds, then flew back down after the deposit to continue scouting. Giovanna began to regret telling Susie off; if this was some sort of data center, it might have information on the Machines or their targets, so hacking it would be worth the Seekers’ while. Without a tech expert on hand, Giovanna would need to destroy it, but that lay beyond her ability as a lone operator too. [i]Maybe I can rope them into this,[/i] she thought as she glanced upward. She couldn’t help but picture something massive dropping from the crane’s outstretched arm and smashing the whole station flat. [i]Or maybe…[/i] [center][h3]Abandoned Subway - Chinery Junction[/h3] Level 4 Goldlewis (18/40) Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Blazermate’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt [@Multi_Media_Man], Benedict’s [@Dark Cloud] [b]Word Count:[/b] 1007[/center] Goldlewis’ face tightened as he put two and two together. Others ate human brains, and if he and his teammates stumbled upon these two at the tail end of a feast, it meant that the heroes had a couple fallen Scarlet Guardians to avenge. Once the Winery Chinery and Slippy Chinery detected their next meals, they wasted no time showing off their dangerous abilities. For the former, water and electricity made a deadly combination Goldlewis knew all too well, while oil and invisibility made the latter into a different but still dangerous problem. Of course, these powers came packaged with these monsters’ natural speed and strength, so it looked like the Seekers would have their hands full with their vengeance. “Work together, y’all!” he shouted as the team spread out from the entrance to avoid getting washed away by the Winery Chinery’s opening gambit. [i]Another damn spitter.[/i] “Divide their attention, and don’t let ‘em corner ya!” Midna worked fast to attend to the elephant in the room, that being the Slippy Chinery. While her sands hadn’t availed her against the extradimensional Chimeras, buffeting the surrounding area in a miniature sandstorm worked wonders against the invisible Other. The grains that stuck to its oily coating, rendered its trick of the light all but useless. Recognizing the danger, it went on the offensive before Midna could coat it more thoroughly. As she got smacked Geralt moved to support her. The Twilight Princess put a dampener on the vicious thing’s assault and struck back through clever use of her bottomless bag of tricks, and the Witcher tag-teamed the Other from the back, dealing appreciable damage. Things really heated up when the two lambasted the Slippy Chinery with flame. Its flammable coating caught fire instantly. As it burned its midsection -little more than a spine and ribcage full of fruit that connected the meshes of its front and rear thirds- became brittle and susceptible to attack. The strikes Karin pulled off as she joined the fray would deal serious damage to the midsection. At the same time, however, the revealed Slippy Chinery went berserk. Oil streamed from the holes in its limbs as it thrashed around, creating burning splashes with every blow, in a mad bid to pulverize its opponents before its damage accumulated past breaking point. While his teammates tangled with the Slippy Chinery, Goldlewis moved to engage the other Other. “Over here!” he called, grabbing a Thunderbird drone from the UMA to hurl at the monster’s leafy head. The airborne explosive bounced off the Winery Chinery and blew up, putting its aggro squarely on Goldlewis. He barreled toward his target as fast as he could go, but while he cut an intimidating figure as he ran, his enemy had more than enough time to act. As it wrenched its facial value to unleash another spray Goldlewis risked jump and follow-up airdash to close the distance. Karin did her best to get the monster’s attention, but unfortunately the Thunderbird grenade meant that right now, the Winery Chinery only cared about Goldlewis. It adjusted its aim upward and rinsed him mid-airdash. “Aw, hell!” he groaned as he got blasted back into an overhead sign. He smacked into it hard enough to bring it down with him as he fell, and by the time the veteran regained his feet the Other was upon him. Fortunately, Goldlewis found himself well-protected. Blazermate flew to his aid with her energy shield, and though it didn’t technically block the Chinery’s withering blows, it did punish the monster’s overeager attempt to capitalize severely. With a snarl the Other leaped away from the painful protection, crackled with electricity, and smashed its arms down to unleash a lighting wave. Even if the barrier didn’t soak up all the voltage, Goldlewis had recovered enough to block for himself by now. It gripped its valve again to let loose another torrent of water, but with Blazermate shielding him Goldlewis forged straight ahead, plowing through the flood to shoulder-bash the Chinery right in its stupid nozzle. It reeled back, taken by surprise, only to find the veteran’s coffin descending upon it like a blazing meteorite. “Try this on!” Goldlewis bellowed as he smashed the Winery Chinery against the floor, splaying its front legs out to either side. He dropped his coffin, the UMA thrust his minigun into his hands, and he unceremoniously pressed its barrel against the Other’s head to unleash a stream of bullets. The point-blank barrage bowled the monster over, but it sprang to its feet to return with a vengeance. It brought its fists down on Goldlewis, right, left, then both, only to find that its attacks bounced off his impervious, ubercharged body. “Eeeeeeyaaaaaaagh!” He swung his massive coffin around like a lasso, pounding the Other again and again in a spectacular Behemoth Typhoon. While Blazermate couldn’t hold it still even with her shield thanks to the size and strength difference, she did act as a wall Goldlewis could bounce the Winery Chinery off of, allowing him to keep up his combo. Finally, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/orEUw3J.png]tremendous slam[/url] bounced it over Blazermate’s head with an OTG hit. “Crumble!” After a moment the monster slid to a stop against some turnstyles. It staggered to its feet and grabbed its valve again, this time with both hands, and promptly wrenched the faucet right off. Water poured from its insides, quickly pooling around it. A moment later lightning danced across the Other’s body, electrifying the water around it. “This shit again!” With the ubercharge spent, Goldlewis backed up from the waters edge. Noticing the weakspot mark on his adversary’s hindquarters, he brought out Skyfish to try and finish the Other off from afar. It promptly hurled a bolt of lightning at him, which both counterhit him and wasted his Security Level. “Dadgummit!” he snapped, his lip curled in frustration. While the Winery Chinery was clearly hurting, he couldn’t finish it off without getting fried thanks to this water hazard. Not without doing something clever.