[center][h3]The City of Glass - Regatta Bay[/h3]
Level 5 Goldlewis (29/40)
Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Karin and Sakura’s [@Zoey Boey], Blazermate and Susie’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man], Pit’s [@Yankee], Raz’s [@Truthhurts22], Roxas’ [@Double], Benedict and Partitio’s [@Dark Cloud], Tora, Giovanna
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1733[/center]

The more Goldlewis saw of Wallace’s boat, the more amazed he became. As a high-up government worker he’d been used to working and meeting important people, whether in elaborate, historic places or huge, fancy venues. Yet he’d never been one to stand on ceremony himself; it just didn’t feel right to live a life of luxury on a salary extracted from the people he endeavored to serve and protect, especially when that money could be invested into their better service and protection. In his heart, he was ever the soldier, never the statesman. Why splurge on the finest French cuisine when a double bacon cheeseburger from Danny Missiles -or hell, Dunny Missiles for that matter- did the job just fine? More than fine in most cases, actually. Still, after a quick wander through the yacht’s incredible interior Goldlewis couldn’t help admit that the high life probably had its charms.

Such an extravagance was just the latest on the long line of brand-new experiences this adventure kept delivering to Tora, but he couldn’t bring himself to be excited. Just as with the breathtaking view of the City of Glass, life’s rich tapestry of beauty and joy lost its savor without someone special to savor it with. Instead of tucking himself in the lounge to enjoy some complimentary snacks and beverages, the Nopon ignored his empty tummy and placed himself on the yacht’s forward railing. All he cared about was reaching Vandelay Campus, where the coalescence of Vandelay’s robots and CyberLife’s androids produced the summit of automaton technology. Tora’s eyes lay on that obscenely massive ‘V’, full of grim resolve. He would use everything he could get his wings on to bring her back.

While Sakura toured the boat with Wallace to fulfill her end of the bargain, taking snapshot after snapshot of the man in an expressionless, neutral pose in front of his various possessions, the other Seekers gradually trickled in. Some of the others spent their brief reprieve on a deeper dive into the ethics of proposed actions in the current context. It seemed to Goldlewis like these heroes wanted to both get the mission done and do the right thing, but in his experience, those two conditions didn’t always mix. There was never a clean, ‘correct’ solution, only trade-offs. Zenkichi probably knew as well as anyone that you could never please everyone, but Goldlewis knew firsthand the kind of crushing weight that accompanied hard decisions when you were accountable to millions. Midna had a very real point: there was no guarantee that Galeem’s defeat would result in universal restoration. And even if there was, relying on that to wash one’s hands of all the consequences of one’s misdeeds. To bear the burden of such consequences, one needed the strongest shoulders imaginable, and the iron will necessary to make those hard decisions. That was where Goldlewis Dickinson came in–to bear that weight, so that nobody else would have to. For now though, the Seekers could avail themselves of the lucky opportunity that Mr. Limestein provided.

Speaking of, the man’s rather stoic photo op was coming to an end. He had his last photo taken in front of a grand piano, and after examining the picture he nodded in approval. “Good...this is a great photo. As a matter of fact, I have done a lot of research on music. I have enjoyed classic songs such as "Still Alive" and "My Heart Feels No Pain" more than twenty times. If my future friend happens to be interested in music, maybe we can book a whole concert hall and listen to an orchestra together. I'll pay for all that, of course.”

When Susie posed him a question, he fixed her with a thoroughly nonplussed expression. “At the moment, my sole occupations are the pursuit of novel entertainment, and my goal of obtaining a true friend.” Utterly nonplussed by the robot’s attempt to be personable, he saw no further need to humor her with a response, but after a moment he scratched his chin. “That said, this does strike me as just the sort of idle conversation I might indulge in with such a friend. Are you perhaps a psychoanalysis android? Alright, I’ll give this a shot. Let’s workshop a back-and-forth exchange once we get underway. After all this time, I am rather numb to the sights around here, after all.”

He then turned his attention to the wisdom Sakura imparted to him. “You are very correct. I could not accept any ‘friend’ attracted solely by my riches or reputation. Friendships of utility are not true friendships. And given my status, it's inappropriate for me to chat with strangers out on the street.” When she mentioned shared interests, he nodded in agreement. “Precisely. These photos will help demonstrate my interests, so that anyone who shares them can instantly recognize what an excellent friend I would make.” She lost him when her train of thought veered back toward fighting, though. “I am no ruffian, miss, and I must insist that you and your friends refrain from any action that might damage my yacht. They do not come cheap, you know.”

Soon everyone was aboard, with Roxas the last one on courtesy of his detour to a sushi bar, and the boat set sail across Regatta Bay. While Wallace claimed to have learned how to control it himself, since he originally figured doing so might make for a fun pastime, he set the yacht to autopilot. Then he met with Susie to begin their conversation session. “Alright, let us simulate a typical conversation. What was it you asked…what do I do? Hm. Well, I have a couple of properties in the Administrative District that require maintenance. I have to pay taxes for them. But I'm far too lazy to rent them out — I mean, time is money! Besides, they're full of priceless relics.”

Goldlewis, watching from the sidelines, raised his eyebrows. “You’re into ancient relics, mister?”

Not exactly,” Wallace admitted. “I just like to own them. For example, a while back Lord Simon told me he obtained a particularly rare gold watch, said to be a relic left behind by Midgar’s previous Administration. How could I miss out on such a rarity! So I offered him three houses for it.” He shrugged, then continued without giving Susie a chance to speak. “I also own an antique car that I’ve kept in pristine condition for years with some help from my twenty-person maintenance team. And a few days ago, I spent a small sum of money — as much as the price of a few antique vases. I requested for someone to fetch a cyberpet from the Sector 04 undercity. Unfortunately...once it was assembled, it was nothing special. As for the people who come from below, all they talk about is policies, money, and business. There is absolutely nothing I can talk to them about. How painfully mundane!” The conversation continued like this for some time, and Susie got very little out of it.

After a good while spent sailing at a leisurely pace across the waters of the Sector 06 plate, the yacht drew close to Vandelay Campus. Its iconic tower had been gargantuan from a distance, but from up close it loomed even larger. Sure, it didn’t exactly compare to the sheer height of Split Mountain, or the vastness of the Sandswept Sky, but this was a man-made edifice. It didn’t just make Tora feel small; it made him feel unimportant. Compared to the rest of the City of Glass, these facilities and factories were both a lot more colorful and rough around the edges, but the public-facing offices and the grand atrium were as spotless and sparkling as could be. Their destination lay between the main building and an exorbitant outdoor concert stage: the illustrious [url=https://i.imgur.com/AswkOwI.png]Dendenmille Showcase Theater[/url], with its rich red facade and impressive domes.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Ha6Cqvl.png[/img][/center]

The public entrance to the Vandelay Campus took the form of a large area that accommodated all forms of transportation from cars to watercraft to aircraft, known as Circuit Royal. After steering past a number of other boats, Wallace’s craft pulled up at the docks so that the Seekers could disembark. With no intention of attending the debate himself, their pretentious benefactor bid them farewell, then left them in the company of a huge amount of people making their way to the same destination. It wasn’t just residents of the City of Glass; travelers from all eight of Midgar’s plates had come to attend the final debate of the presidential race that would define their city’s future. Blimps, airships, and helicopters seemed to be the exception to the City of Glass rule of ‘no interplate traffic’, and quite the variety could be found around the port. No wonder the Sector 06 Hublink had been so busy, crowded, and well-defended! Security seemed even stronger here, not necessarily any tighter, but a lot more numerous. With this being the birthplace of the Vandelay robots, it made sense that there would be a lot of them here. And somewhere, in all of this hubbub, were the presidential candidates themselves, each with their own hand-picked retinues of capable guards.

Goldlewis took a deep breath. “Well, we’re here. Thanks to these press passes, we’re gonna get front-row seats.” He stroked his whiskers. “Or, six of us will, at least. The rest of y’all need to figure somethin’ out if ya wanna watch first-hand. That said, I’m sure the debate’s gonna be plastered all over every TV in the whole doggone city, so you can put your feet up at a restaurant or somethin’ just as easy.”

“Tora not care about big argument, meh,” Tora piped up. “Want guided tour of robot factory. That something big company do, yes?”

The veteran scrunched his brows together. “I reckon they oughta, but you shouldn’t go off on your own, son…”

Once the team made the final selection and juggled around the press passes, the lucky few could proceed toward Dendemille Showcase Theater to be seated, while the rest needed to look elsewhere. The vast and varied Vandelay Campus was like its own self-contained city, though, so there was plenty to see and do even without entering any restricted zones, and about an hour to do it before the main event.

[center][h3]Escaping the Home of Tears[/h3]
Level 10 Nadia (208/100)
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Ganondorf’s [@Double], Rubick’s [@Scarifar], Ichiban’s [@Truthhurts22], Artorias’ [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3743[/center]

Peals of uproarious, manic laughter rang out from the tentacled pirate Barbary as her Octobombs detonated one after another, their plumes of billowing flame a bright, harsh light against the gloom of the Home of Tears. Entire swathes of its monstrous citizenry either hurtled into the water, propelled by the explosions’ concussive force, or leaped in on their own to quench the fire when Barbary’s destruction set them ablaze. Sophie’s potions sowed almost as much havoc, their sorcerous splashes instantly afflicting all those unlucky enough to be caught in them with blindness, slowness, poison, and fatigue. Though not as fast off the blocks as the others, Solon managed to outdo them both in terms of pure havoc. As the heroes fled, hounded by gangs of pursuers, his relentless casts of Miasma Δ quickly blanketed the circular plaza with clouds of thick, venomous gas to swallow up any who failed to get clear in time. Once caught in that noxious smog, it would only be a matter of time until even the strongest combatants succumbed, their throats and lungs agonizingly thick with malefic chemicals.

Whether her allies made it out of the mayhem or not, Nadia didn’t dare look behind her just yet. Courtesy of the Koopas’ quick thinking and varied abilities, an avenue of escape had opened up just when it looked like the Seekers were about to be swallowed up by the horde, so right now nobody’s safety concerned her quite as much as her own, and she needed to [i]move[/i].. Thanks to F’s terrifying mind control, the cityfolk were literally seeing red, and the hunt was on. Those that could took to the waterways, the paper boats on their endless journey, or private watercraft. The rest crowded along the water’s edge on both sides, taking potshots from the bridges and islands of the Collection or the southern jetties of the Amusement Park on the right. With a cacophony of vengeful yells, battle cries, incantations, and called-out attacks at her back. She skated across the surface of the city’s southeastern waterway in a zigzag pattern, dodging arrows, spells, hurled objects, and a couple citizens who threw themselves from the railings in hopes of taking the feral with them into the drink. At one point a grenade plopped down into the river behind her and blew up a moment later, sending up a spout of water, but the resulting wave only helped speed Nadia on her way. With most of the enemies focused on the Koopa Troop, she quickly outpaced the swimmers and sailors with Massachusetts’ incredible nautical mobility, putting some distance between herself and the action. Her stores of adrenaline were starting to run dry, though, and realizing she desperately needed a moment, she cruised towards a rock protruding from the water a safe distance from land.

Nadia plopped down on the outcrop, her breath ragged in her throat as she fought to catch her breath in the pouring rain. The fatigue, aches, and stress of a whole day’s near-constant exertion all weighed her down, and her heart pounded in her chest. If not for her nap at Habbo Hotel and that much-needed reprieve at the Terminal cafe, she reasoned that she might’ve been done for. Of course, Nadia knew she wasn’t out of the woods just yet. After rolling over she scanned the waterway in a sitting position, on the lookout for the Koopa Troop and their great white whale, but when she spotted them her heart sank. She’d assumed that with that kind of firepower Bowser’s gang would be able to handle being the center of attention, but it looked like they’d gotten a lot more than they bargained for. The Mermaid Corps had caught up to Rika’s ghastly cetacean and started stabbing, and enemy watercraft closed in on all sides. A magic shield went up around it, and as the paper boats converged the whale submerged, but its future was anything but certain. Unfortunately, before Nadia could see any more the water erupted in front of her. 

Her eyes went wide as the [url=https://i.imgur.com/euOQi7U.png]purple dinosaur[/url] from below lunged towards her like a crocodile, fangs bared and a ferocious axe brandished. There was no time to pressurize her blood for a Fiber Upper. Moving instinctively, the feral rolled backward into a handspring, and as she vaulted onto the water the head of Susie’s axe came down on the stone. Instead of obliterating her target it cracked the rock in half, and as Nadia slid backward across the water’s surface the two locked eyes, lips curled and teeth bared. Without saying a word, both took action. Nadia pressurized her arms, and a pink flame sparked at the end of Susie’s axe. At the same exact time both unleashed their might, the feral with a blood-propelled right-arm rocket punch and the dinosaur with a blazing arrow of Rude-elemental damage. The next second both attacks hurtled past their foes’ faces, coming within centimeters of a critical headshot. Susie, however, snapped her jaws shut on Nadia’s outstretched muscle fiber, eliciting a pained “YOWCH!”

With a grin Susie yanked the limb with her mouth, trying to reel Nadia in like a fish on the line, but the cat burglar detached the cords and cannoned off her other arm. Puzzled as to why the limb suddenly went slack, Susie took her opponent’s palm strike straight to the nose, and as the dinosaur reeled Nadia closed her hand to clamp down on Susie’s snout. “Just call me a pepper…” From there the feral just retracted her arm to zip straight across the water to Susie and start up a combo. “‘Cause I’m jalapeño business!” Her two-hit [url=https://i.imgur.com/59CpXUW.png]Flip Flop[/url] kick led straight into a [url=https://i.imgur.com/gBIvZGc.png]One[/url]-[url=https://i.imgur.com/ytlg36H.png]two[/url] Pun-isher and finally a good old-fashioned [url=https://i.imgur.com/uJ099xy.png]Limber Up[/url] to pop Susie into the air. Then Nadia went low, mustered her strength, poured a whole lot of blood into a copied right arm, and finally launched her fist skyward in a jaw-dropping uppercut. “Honorable…DISCHARGE!” When the punch connected, she blasted it out in a geyser of blood to add even more oomph, and Susie sailed into the air, her eyes and mouth wide open. Nadia’s right arm fell from her jaws and socketed neatly back into place, held up in a fist-pump of victory, and a moment later Susie splashed down into the water a couple dozen feet away.

Nadia chuckled, feeling a little light-headed, and turned her attention back toward the others. The Troop had resurfaced on the other side of the citizens’ flotilla, but the exercise left their whale thoroughly boarded. [i]Guess I’m safe on my own,[/i] she thought with a sigh. [i]Our only chance is together.[/i] As if on queue, a wicked cry made her ears perk up, and she turned to see Lord Raptor flying at her through the air with Death Hurricane, his limbs whirling like helicopter blades. “Whoa!” She put up her guard to block it, and after landing Raptor immediately threw her; his claws closed around Nadia’s shoulders and he extended his ribs like fangs to pierce her torso again and again before slamming her down. He went in for the meaty and got a Fiber Upper for his troubles–this time Nadia was ready. Before she could capitalize on her reversal, though, she spotted Hsien-ko skywalking in. The Jianshi extended a chain from her sleeve to grapple to a point in space, then swung beneath it, her arm windmilling in a vertical circle with claws outstretched. Nadia made her decision and got the hell out of there, skating away from the rocky outcrop as fast as her sealegs could take her, with the two undead in pursuit.

She reached the entrance to Crumble Cavern just after the Koopa Troop did. Just as with the passages to the Womb and King’s Station, this entrance featured a semicircular stone platform on each side of the cave wall, so she leaped up from the water to race across it. In a blink, she’d exited the deluge of the Home of Tears and entered into the merciful dryness of the cheese-filled megacave. Running behind Rika’s whale, she watched as it used its momentum and slick underside to slide across the stone with everyone atop it, then fly off the opposite side over a yawning abyss. Nadia’s eyes widened, but there was no turning back now, so she buckled down for the final sprint. “This not a gouda ideaaaaaaa!” A terrifying moment later the whale slammed down on the cheesy cliff on the gorge’s far side, sending crumbs spiraling down into the dark, and Nadia touched down beside it. Thanks to her new paws she landed better than ever, but her momentum sent her into a roll and she wound up on her back, which meant an uncomfortable smack against her blade case. “...Gah!” she grunted as she gasped for breath, wanting nothing more than to lay there for another few hours, but the Seekers’ pursuers had other plans. Bowser’s yell got her attention, and after sitting up Nadia saw cityfolk amassing on the stone platform above the waterfall. Bowser was right; there was no time to lose. “Yeah, ricotta get goin’!” With a groan she got to her feet and took off running across the cheesescape. Soon the caves and tunnels echoed with the sounds of a half-dozen battles.

Under better circumstances Nadia would have liked to stop and marvel at this place. The cheese was breathtaking, and not just in a metaphorical sense–the smell was almost overpowering. Beneath her feet, the ground felt spongy and even a little bouncy. Dozens of varieties littered the landscape like different kinds of stone in all sorts of formations, a smorgasbord of colors, textures, and aromas. With bloodthirsty monsters on her heels, though, she’d have to stop and admire the scenery some other time. On the far side of the cavern lay the team’s destination, but getting there -and getting rid of her unwanted company- would be a problem. Between the river and the gorge most of the cityfolk had given up their chase, but that left the Home of Tears’ strongest warriors. A quick look over her shoulder after swatting aside Cheeseslimes confirmed both Hsien-ko and Raptor in pursuit. When she leaped and airdashed over a pit full of cheese wedge spikes, Raptor airdashed after her by whipping his legs around, and Hsien-ko swung over. “Ugh. Curd you two give it a rest?” When she sliced up a Gabaghoul and then slid underneath a low-hanging cheese archway with Cat Slide, the zombie morphed his lower half to perform a bizarre crouch-walk, and the jiangshi simply blinked to the other side. “Oh, brie-lliant.” Even when she approached the cavern wall and sunk in her claws to wall-run a couple hundred feet over a massive ravine, her pursuers kept up, Hsien-ko with another skywalk and Raptor with a freakish teleport that involved summoning some sort of demon to swallow him up and then spit him out from the ground on the other side.

“...Cheese Louise,” the feral laughed breathlessly, frustrated. She just didn’t have the gas to keep this up. After a longing stare at Pizza Tower, her eyes landed on a gigantic swiss cheese wheel just a short ways off, and the gears in her mind began to turn.  “Guess we’ll finish this the old-fashioned way.” As the zombies closed in she took off, sprinting into one of the swiss wheel’s holes. She ran and climbed through the twists and turns of its tunnels, and though the undead followed they quickly lost sight of her in the maze. When the two eventually climbed out through a hole in the very top of the wheel, they found Nadia waiting for them in what looked like a giant, circular arena of cheese.

“What took ya so long? Feelin’ bleu?” Nadia grinned at the pair as they approached, Raptor at a saunter and Hsien-ko with slow hops, head lolling creepily. With Pizza Tower in the background and the chase concluded, the showdown was about to begin. Their eyes lingered for a moment on the spare blades haphazardly plunged into the creamy-white surface of the swiss, then the case at Nadia’s feet. “Y’know, I can’t say I’m cheesed to meetcha. This isn’t your fault. But there’s no other way,” the feral told as she stood firm, her boxcutters in hand. “So let’s cut to the chase. Your fon-doom approaches!”

In reply, the zombies charged. Raptor messily morphed his right forearm into a freakish chainsaw, as long as he was tall. The way this guy moved, the way he fought, reminded Nadia of herself, albeit to a much greater extent. There was no way he felt pain, and therein lay her strategy. As he ran in swinging, two Copycats burst up from the holes where they’d been lying in wait. They pounced on him from the sides, grabbed hold, and sank their claws in. Together they made him stumble and fall directly onto one of the extra blades, piercing him through the stomach. Both Hsien-ko and Nadia rushed toward him, but the feral arrived first to drive both her boxcutters into him to hold him in place. Pulling the triggers detached the blades and left Raptor triple-nailed to the cheese, giving Nadia a chance to fight one-on-one.

Grimacing, Hsien-ko swung her sleeve, flinging a handful of basketball-sized spiked metal spheres her Nadia’s way. She blocked them, reabsorbed her Copycats, and ran toward her foe. On the way she passed by and attached two new blades, clicking them into place. She stopped short to avoid a giant claw slash, then leaped for a jump-in only to take a strike from Hsien-ko’s claws, extended diagonally on chains. As she fell her foe hopped forward, and by the time she rose Hsien-ko had leaped into the air to come down on her with Zanpa, her claws spinning beneath her like a grinder. Never one to block, Nadia dashed forward to cross beneath her opponent, then spun around with her Cat Scratch series, made longer and stronger by her boxcutters. “One! Two!” For the final hit she flipped forward to bounce Hsien-ko off the ground with her [url=https://i.imgur.com/6Ci15oO.png]El Gato[/url] axe kick. “Wreck-a your face!”

Nadia used this brief window to create a Copycat, and when Hsien-ko hit the cheese, she sent it low with [url=https://i.imgur.com/rl1pw2Q.png]Cat Slide[/url]. The jiangshi blocked low on wakeup, smashed the doppelganger flat with her claws, and when her foe hurled her boxcutter blades, she produced a huge gong to reflect her projectiles right back at her. Taken by surprise, the feral took a slice to the ribs and the bicep. “Agh!” she cried, her severed arm falling to the ground in a spurt of blood. “You munster!” Hsien-ko blinked in to capitalize only to run straight into Nadia’s disjointed knee. “Gotcha!” she cackled, extending her head on a cord of muscle to smash into Hsien-ko’s like a flail. The zombie’s backward stumble came to an end as the reformed Copycat hit her from behind with [url=https://i.imgur.com/kZQ5H6n.jpg]Shove Off[/url], pushing her back into Nadia, who launched herself sideways with her lower half spinning to unleash a vertical windmill kick. She landed in a split and reattached her arms as her clone made [url=https://i.imgur.com/BJLL930.png]Ear Piercing[/url] its last hurrah, allowing her to finish off with a double-bladed [url=https://i.imgur.com/By3PkKo.jpg]Gol-fur Swing[/url].

Just when Nadia managed to send Hsien-ko flying, though, Raptor finally worked his way off his blades. He ran up and jumped in on her with Loudness Screw, twisting his whole bottom half into a bone-tipped coil of flesh. Naturally Nadia challenged him, lashing out with a series of slashes, but she found out she wasn’t the only one with a guard cancel when he beefed out of blockstun with the killer guitar riff Death Phrase, backed by the one-eyed monstrosity she caught a glimpse of before. The soundwave stunned her, and the horror promptly launched Raptor forward for a body-slam that knocked her down. To add insult to injury, he then jumped and danced on her with Skull Javelin, letting out high-pitched laughter as he stomped one foot after the other. Enraged, Nadia let out all her frustration in one big [url=https://i.imgur.com/YEeQvL4.png]burst[/url]. “RAAAAAWWRRR!” When Raptor regained his feet he immediately took one of Nadia’s flung blades to his chest. As an angry Nadia barreled toward him, she unwittingly used Charge, becoming a streaking bolt of electricity that burst through Raptor to reform behind him. As he reeled, she blinked, coming to grips with what happened. “Shock?” The zombie wheeled around with a massive guitar swing, but it passed harmlessly between her as she bifurcated her midsection. Then she struck in turn, this time with Battery. “And awe!” Right after her flourishing blade strikes came a two-burst aftershock. With a groan Raptor lashed out in return, jutting out his own elbow as a bone lance, but Nadia beat it out with [url=https://i.imgur.com/Dcji6cW.png]Hand in Hand[/url] and popped off her own head for a [url=https://i.imgur.com/BJLL930.png]Furnado Drill[/url] to seal the deal. “A bit off the top!”

Raptor fell flat on his back and lay there for a moment, but when he finally dragged himself to his feet, Hsien-ko was standing beside him. Though both had taken some decent damage, they stood together for a last ditch effort. Meanwhile, Nadia swayed drunkenly, barely standing. She didn’t fight in a way that conserved energy, and now she’d just about run out. Her blood reserves were too low for any more Copycats, too. [i]I can do this. I can do this![/i] It took a conscious effort to keep smiling as she clicked in a new blade from the ground. “Hey…any chance we could call this a draw? I’m basically dead on my feet…not as much as you two, but still…”

Raptor chuckled and snapped his fingers, a rainbow glow overtaking his body. Teeth erupted from the cheese beneath Nadia, and as she froze in terror thanks to her phobia, the zombie’s monstrous companion arose to chomp her into a ball. It spat her into Raptor’s waiting hands, and after dribbling her twice the monster morphed into a bizarre basketball hoop, allowing Raptor to finish off his incredible [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/darkstalkers/images/8/8c/Hell_Dunk_Anakaris.gif/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/384?cb=20180304011021&path-prefix=es]Hell Dunk[/url]. Though Nadia turned back to normal after that, her troubles were only just beginning; Hsien-ko unleashed Tenrai Ha, raining down spiked balls from the sky on top of her. Though she tried to block while on the ground, in the end she lay there flat-out, on the verge of blacking out. The undead approached and stood over her, ready to finish her off.

“Oww. You got me,” she groaned. “But I got…one last…Idea…”

Her striker manifested over her, dwarfing both zombies in size. As they stood there, shocked, the monstrosity shot out its seven tongues to bind the two and bash their heads together. That left them stunned just long enough for Nadia to get to her knees, dig in her claws, face them with the power building in her left eye. “River-carvin’...” Spending every bar of Tension she had, Nadia blasted the two with a thick beam of pure, unadulterated Hydro. “RAPIDS!” The magical torrent washed both Lord Raptor and Hsien-ko all the way across the swiss cheese arena. They disappeared over the side, and after a moment Nadia slumped down. “Damn I’m good,” she gasped, the instant before she smacked face-first into the swiss.

A few minutes later she stirred, already in better shape thanks to her regeneration, but more tired than she could ever remember being. After getting to her feet she lurched to the edge of the swiss wheel closest to the Pizza Tower, collecting her boxcutters, her blade case, and her loose blades on the way, then slid down the side. Just a little farther to go.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/8WNoUBb.png[/img][/center]

When she finally climbed the last cheese hill and reached the tower’s doors, she found most of the others already there, and the doors wide open. “Oh, hey,” she said dazedly, pausing for a moment to lean against the door on the way in. She looked pretty beat-up. “We made it…thank goodness.” Once everyone staggered inside, they could close and bar the doors behind them.

The bottom floor of the Pizza Tower seemed to be some sort of lobby. There were five adjoining halls labeled ‘Tower Lobby’, ‘Western District’, ‘Vacation Resort’, ‘Slum’, and ‘Staff Only’, each of which promised to connect to five or so specific floors of the tower. For now though, those doors -and the tower itself- seemed to be closed for the night. Sconces on the walls blazed softly, and in one corner a huge [url=https://i.imgur.com/RwwXxsu.png]pizza oven[/url] kept the place dry and very warm. While the sudden intrusion of well-armed outsiders had roused the three [url=https://i.imgur.com/yYMa5dm.png]attendants[/url] from their slumber, but the stump-like Pizza Trolls didn’t seem to care. “W-well, the levels up above are pretty dangerous, but nothing happens down here,” Shyler, the nicest of the three, explained. “When you’re feeling better, you can visit any of the levels, and bring all the toppins you gather back here. Then you can make all the pizzas you want with our oven. Especially if you give us some! Oh, pizza…” Though lost in dreamland for a minute whilst thinking about pizzas, he quickly refocused. “O-oh, and you can stay and rest here in the Hub if you like. I’m sure the boss wouldn’t mind. Nobody messes with the Pizza Tower, after all! Hehe…”

By the time Sectonia (or her ‘minions’) unpacked her new Deluxe Camping Set, with its spacious tents and cozy bedrolls, Nadia was already sound asleep.