[center][h3]The Astral Plane[/h3]
Level 5 Goldlewis (128/50) Level 4 Sandalphon (43/40)
Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2401 / 1069[/center]

It went without saying just who Goldlewis, and by extension Geralt, planned to ‘take out’. They were the only ones who could attack Chimeras after all, and they wasted no time doing so. As flimsy and flighty as the winged trio looked, airborne opponents posed a problem that the two needed to take seriously Goldlewis stayed put while his comrade burst off the remark, chasing down one Aello to grab hold before it could gain altitude. He managed to bring it down, getting the attention of one other in the process. Goldlewis wasn’t so fortunate. The hail of bullets belted out by the veteran’s Skyfish minigun passed right through the third Chimera. “Dagnabbit,” he breathed, realizing what had happened. He might’ve spiked himself with a trace amount of Blue Evolve, but why would that apply to his weapons? That meant the big man needed to get up close and personal. But still, thanks to Geralt’s efforts, he needed only to deal with one Aello. Surely that would be easy.

Not so. For starters, this red matter arena wasn’t that big, and the fight against the Antimatter Legion took up a lot of real estate. Those Voidrangers were fond of big, sweeping dual blade attacks, and as the Seekers found out, they were a little tougher than they looked. Only physical and electric damage ate into their Toughness and could cause a Weakness Break. The Eliminators, meanwhile, fired their plasma cannons in bursts, and Goldlewis had to make sure as he chased his Aello around not to get hit by those volleys. Still, Zenkichi, Roland, Blazermate, and Susie managed to destroy them one by one. Although, when Roland eventually got an EGO page, the area change around him distracted and threw off everyone. The real problem was the Trampler. When it brought its hooves down, it created shockwaves, and more than once Goldlewis almost got his hands on the Aello only to get thrown off by a shockwave. He also almost got hit by its End of Bow attack, barely Roman Canceling in time to avoid the enormous quantum arrow as it hurtled off into the distance.

By that time the enemy’s numbers had thinned out though, and as the Aello went off to help dogpile Geralt with its sisters, Goldlewis chased it down. He jumped, airdashed, and tackled the extradimensional harpy to the ground. Pinning it beneath him, he sat up and started to pummel, only to take a huge hit from Geralt’s Hateful Flesh as the Witcher whirled the meaty cleaver around him in a wide area. “GYAHT, DAMN!” He bellowed, his hands flying to his chest. A huge gash had been cut across his pectorals, through his clothes (cutting his tie in half in the process), and into the skin. Blood was quickly soaking his shirt, and as he sagged backward the Aello wriggled flee. He sucked in his breath with his teeth gritted, wincing. He looked over and called Blazermate. “Need a medic!”

Luckily, the medabot wasn’t too busy. He flew over long enough to heal the veteran up, but while the wound was gone, his front was a mess. “Much obliged,” he groaned, narrowing his eyes at Geralt as he eviscerated two of the Chimeras in a blind rage. “Go-lly. That boy ain’t right.”

Seeing him vulnerable, the Aello that got away swooped toward him to make the most of the opportunity. It lunged toward him with its talons wreathed in red light, kicking repeatedly with both legs. Rather than tear Goldlewis up any more, however, its talon slashes clanged off his Faultless Defense, not even dealing chip damage. “Tough luck.” When the onslaught ended, the veteran reached up and grabbed the Aello by the ankle. “Try this on!” It squawked in dismay as he yanked it down toward him, then slammed it against the ground with a mighty hammerfist. Before it could get up, he brought his [url=https://i.imgur.com/srgWhY3.png]leg down[/url] on it hard enough to fracture the red matter beneath. As the Chimera lay there, Goldlewis took a deep breath, then jumped. He twisted in the air and fell on his foe with a titanic elbow drop, killing the Aello instantly in the miniature crater the impact left behind.

While Karin picked up where the others left off to terminate the last Voidranger standing, Goldlewis collected the Aello spirit and headed over to Geralt. The Witcher had been an intimidating man even before his Harbor Demon and Orphan of Kos fusions, and now he stood panting in a pit of chimeric carnage. Goldlewis did not balk, however. Instead he marched right up and gave Geralt a good view of his blood-soaked shirt. “You got me pretty bad. If we didn’t have Blazermate and Sandalphon to patch us up in an emergency, I coulda bled out.” He raised his hand slowly and pointed a finger at Geralt. “Whatever the hell that was, you need to get it under control. Where I’m from, friendly fire’s called a blue-on-blue, and it’s the single worst thing a soldier can do. Grounds for immediate dishonorable discharge. Those flyin’ chimeras were pains in the ass, yeah, but we got way bigger fish to fry, partner.”

Geralt nodded, letting a small breath out of his nose.

"I mentioned earlier that ever since I absorbed the Spirit of the Guardian of the Blue that my mind...isn't as clear as it was. There's something constantly pressing against it from the inside like a painless hangover. A sort of persistent rage. Even if Peach were here to get it out of me, somebody else would need to absorb the Spirit, or it'll just come back. They'd have to take on its power, and the mindless rage of an infant god torn out of the womb and left to fend for itself."

He sighed. "You have my apologies, and if you'd prefer I stay far away from you, I will." Geralt, for what it might have been worth, did look truly contrite, but with that came the knowledge that a mere apology couldn't undo the trust that had been lost. "But I can't promise that I can just grit my teeth and control it. When we get a moment to take a breath, I'll meditate and try to think of ways to channel it, keep myself present while the Orphan's rage is threatening to overwhelm me. And as you can imagine, I'm reluctant to mess with more Spirits, unless they've proven to be the most unflappable man you or I have ever met."

Goldlewis grunted. “I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe there’s more ways to offset it. Or to nullify your rage once it flares up. If fusin’ caused this problem, maybe fusin’ will solve it.”

With their red matter contamination slowly crying, the Seekers got moving again the second Karin finished off the Trampler. Any further conversation or looting could happen once they got out. Using Hal’s biosignal tracking and Geralt’s nose, they quickly navigated the remainder of the archipelago and found (much to their communal relief) a Gate they could use to return to their original dimension. At the very end, they found the woman they’d come searching for lying in a daze near the edge of the final island. Much to their relief, they also found a Gate just beyond her; she’d collapsed just before making her escape. Goldlewis and the others raced over, only for Hal to cry out in alarm. “Heads up, there’s a new one!”

And by ‘new one’, he meant a Chimera of unprecedented size. Shaped like a gigantic, demon gorilla to the point of walking on its knuckles and crowned by blood-red horns, the coal-black monstrosity dropped onto the island behind the Seekers hard enough to shake the whole formation, then unhinged its massive, toothy jaw to terrify them with a roar they could feel in their bones.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ER2Ewbo.png[/img][/center]

“We can’t fight this!” Goldlewis bellowed, turning to make a break for it. “Grab ‘er and get the hell outta here!”

[hr]

After a few moments spent in crimson limbo, they’d made it. The Seekers reappeared on a rooftop back in Quarantine Valley, a ways off from Sector V but still able to see it. Though they’d only been in the Astral Plane for about fifteen minutes, it seemed much more dark than they remembered. The already-cloudy day looked cloudier, its gray clouds thicker and angrier. Rain could start falling any minute now. Maybe, for Midgar’s plates high above, it already was.

“There you are, I see you,” Sandalphon called everyone. They couldn’t find her amidst all the scenery right now, but it was a comfort knowing that their guardian angel was watching over them once again. “Welcome home.”

Goldlewis let out a heavy breath, bending over with his hands on his knees. Blazermate had made sure that nobody was wounded after the battle, but everything the Seekers had been through in the Astral Plane and prior left the Seekers pretty gassed, and nobody more so than the portly veteran. Getting back to reality did him a world of good, though. Like a weight had been lifted from every part of his body. It looked like the same held true for Iron, too. Carefully piloting his drone, Hal set the woman down on the rooftop, and after a moment she picked herself up onto her knees, doubled over with her dark hair hanging in front of her bespectacled face.

“I don’t understand…” she mumbled, sounding a little delirious. “What the hell went wrong? I mean, I know it was still experimental, but…but…it was supposed to help people…that’s what she said…” Suddenly she looked up, panic on her face. “...Wait, m-my case! W-where’s my case?”

“Alert,” Sandalphon warned everyone urgently. “I’m seeing multiple bogeys closing in on your position.”

The case was lying a couple dozen feet away. When Goldlewis spotted it, he also noticed the figures on the other side, approaching at a measured pace. Their leader stopped behind the case, reached down, and picked it up. As he did, the Seekers became aware of more movement all around. Hermits showed up a couple at a time, including the four they’d sparred with back at the hideout, all of them armed. As Goldlewis watched, wondering just what the hell was going on, the Hermits grouped up around their leader. Kyle grinned at his new friends and held out the case for a subordinate to take.

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

When the Hermit opened the case, Kyle took one of the vials inside. Its contents glowed bright purple, and he held it up into the air with the grandeur that befitted an elixir of immortality. “Heh…the Administration’s abandoned us here for twenty years. And this drug gave us the claws to fight back.” He lowered the vial, looking down at it. “But now, we’ll really show those bastards up top…a thing or two. And Reunion’s out of the deal…” His gaze turned suddenly to the Seekers. “Y’know, I thought we’d hit the end of the line, BUT…now we know there’s somethin’ even stronger.” He held out his hand, grasping. “Your, uh…spirits, was it? Hand ‘em over.”

Behind him, all his Hermits passed around the remaining vials, quaffing a full dose each. Crimson wisps of power began to swirl and streak around around them, and their weapons and bodies alike hummed with energy. They hefted their weapons, ready to fight. Goldlewis glowered at them, nervous. They’d beaten the main five and a couple lackeys, but there were four times as many now, and while the Seekers had been working, the Hermits had probably been resting. Kyle’s holographic face turned into a scowl. “Get ‘em!”

As the Hermits moved forward, something happened. Without warning one suddenly gave off a red pulse, doubling over with a groan. As the others looked over, alarmed and confused, another one pulsed. Then another one. A chain reaction rippled through the entire gang minus Kyle, including Kabal, Lester, Mudrock, and Bernavas. Worried, Kyle stepped forward, putting a hand on Lester’s shoulder and turning around to face her. “Hey! What’s wrong?” Angular, dark red crystals began to push through the skin and clothes of the first Hermit to drink. The outcrops grew larger, and they began to burst out of other Hermits, too. Some collapsed, and turned to run, but they didn’t get far. Kyle whipped around, his projected face horrified, then looked down at the vial in the palm of his hand. “Oh, shit. This ain’t happenin’!”

Behind everyone, Iron stumbled to her feet, eyes full of terror. “This…this wasn’t supposed to happen!” She took off running for her life, fleeing into an abandoned apartment complex nearby.

“Redshift,” Sandalphon observed from afar. “They’re aberrating!”

After the crystals emerged, chimeric flesh quickly followed. It spread across the Hermits’ arms, turning them into twisted axes, claws, and bows. Their masks fell apart, revealing faces mutated beyond recognition. The elites had stronger constitutions, but it was only delaying the inevitable. Goldlewis stood, his teeth bared. [i]Not if I have anythin’ to say about it![/i] Some of the others had used Friend Hearts during the sparring, but not him. If he was fast enough, there was a way to save the opponent he’d come to respect. He jumped, and right as he started his air dash with a burst of speed, he performed a Roman Cancel. It preserved his momentum at that instant, turbo-charging his momentum and sending him flying across the rooftop. Aiming for Mudrock, he brought his coffin down on her from above, dealing just enough damage to reach the threshold. The next instant he delivered a Friend Heart, restoring her just before the redshift corrupted her spirit data irreversibly into an aberration’s. Mudrock slumped down, mentally overwhelmed but still human.

Goldlewis breathed a sigh of relief. If only the others were so lucky. By that point almost every other Hermit had already aberrated. Kyle just stood in the middle of them, dumbfounded. “H-hey, what’s goin’ on?” The aberrations began to attack, striking him again and again with no resistance. “Snap out of it!” he cried. “Don’t you recognize me!?”

Just as one lifted its axe to bring it down on Kyle, a blue bolt streaked across the sky and popped its head. The aberration slumped down, and Sandalphon took aim at the next one. “All units, begin operation. Eliminate the enemy.”

Goldlewis lifted his coffin, ready to fight. “And someone go after Iron!”

[center][h3]Suoh - Psionic Scramble[/h3]
Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Sakura’s [@Zoey Boey], Pit’s [@Yankee], Roxas’ [@Double], Luka[/center]

Given their greater numbers, the two opposing platoons pressed their advantage right away. For his part, Luka led his band by example, teleporting past the frontrunners immediately to shatter the opposition’s backline before they could set up. In the scramble that followed, what might’ve turned into a chaotic all-out brawl split up into a handful of one-on-one or two-on-one skirmishes, separate enough to keep things clean. When humans clashed, unspoken rules of engagement like these benefited everybody; nobody needed to worry about getting blindsided by a stray shot or third-partied, at least until one of the duels concluded. Sakura managed to grab the attention of Hanabi’s former squadmates to keep them from fighting one another, which nobody involved objected to whatsoever. Roxas went for the youngest and least aggressive psychics, Ninten and Lucas, hoping to mop the boys up fast. Midna and her newly-evolved Flygon took on the P-types Sabrina and Will, matching their varied and potent powers with her own. That left just the four substitutes, and their fight with Luka had already begun.

He’d warped directly in front of Yamaguchi Wolfe as the only male soldier among the four reinforcements nocked a lightning-infused arrow to his sizable compound bow. Surprised, Yamaguchi gritted his teeth and took the first blow from Luka’s Weight Hammer as best he could, his bow arm in pain and his aim knocked askew. When Luka swung back around, Yamaguchi dodged backward, the hammerhead missing his dyed blond pompadour by mere inches. In a remarkable gymnastic display he performed a retreating cartwheel without even using his hands, nocking an arrow as he did to fire the moment he was perfectly upside-down. Luka blocked it with his hammer, but the added jolt from the archer’s Electrokinesis pushed him back in extra blockstun, and it was at that moment that Kotone attacked.

The stick-thin beanpole of a woman flung one knife as she ran in, then the other, both bouncing off Luka’s guard but keeping him locked down. As one stabbed into the ground she rolled to pick it up, then leaped to catch the second mid-rebound, and descended on the much smaller psionic with a double overhead stab. Luka teleported behind her and brought his hammer down, only for the latina’s Umbrakinesis to activate and render the immediate area pitch-black. In the darkness she rolled behind him, but even if he couldn’t see her, he could hear her. He whirled around as the shadows receded and thrust his hammer’s shaft into Kotone Aguilar’s stomach. She gasped, and the next moment she found herself thrown over Luka’s shoulder and onto her back.

That meant Tanabe Row, crouching with her sights on his head, had a clear shot, and she took it. Her [url=https://i.imgur.com/pX77Lxg.png]Pantera rifle[/url] fired vertical sawblades, each with an extra oomph thanks to the Rotational Ergokinesis that intensified their spin. Luka teleported a couple feet to the right to avoid her first shot, breaking into a run. As he teleported to avoid her sawblades she whipped her aim left and right to track his movement, the golden beads in her pile of coffee-black dreadlocks jingling as she did. When he appeared right in front of her, Tanabe unleashed her contingency plan, launching a flash kick that just kept on going as her Ergokinesis sustained her backflip’s momentum, carrying her higher and higher. Luckily for Luka, he’d opted to sweep in under her firing line with a slide attack, so he low-profiled her flash kick, too.

He couldn’t wait for Tanabe’s kick to end so that he could punish her, though. At that moment, Kasumi Tucker made herself known by firing off her grenade launcher. Luka dodged away from the explosion, but thanks to Kasumi’s Audiokinesis, the blast itself was just the beginning. She amplified its sound into a deafening, almost physical blast that stunned Luka and left him reeling. Immediately Yamaguchi jumped off the ground to fire an electric triple shot at Luka. Kotone threw her knives, Tanabe squeezed off three more sawblades, and Kasumi’s second grenade landed a direct hit.

Luka slid back out of the smoke, the Sclerokinesis he’d borrowed from Gemma to survive the onslaught timing out a moment later. The whole exchange against the four psionics lasted only a handful of seconds, but already his heart was pounding. Private or not, these four were well-armed and well-trained. Yuito and Hanabi ran up behind him and slid to a stop on either side, their faces serious. “Need a hand?”

“Do I ever,” Luka gasped with a wry smile.

Sneering, Yamaguchi drew his bow. “Come and get some!” He turned his aim straight upward, electrified his arrow, and fired into the sky. A moment later a deluge of lightning bolts began to fall on the trio’s position, and they quickly scattered.

Yuito immediately found himself faced with Kotone and her throwing knives. He spun his sword in front of him to block her projectiles as they rushed together, and the knives bounced off. Thinking his foe disarmed, he went to attack, only for Kotone to then throw herself feet-first in a drop kick. The unexpected move staggered Yuito, knocking the wind from his lungs. Kotone teched backward when she hit the ground and caught her knives as she rolled to her feet, which she promptly hurled into Yuito’s chest. “Agh!” he grunted. Thanks in part to his clothes and mental health, the wounds weren’t deep, but boy did they sting, and he could feel blood running down his skin. As Kotone rushed in he tried to put that aside and focus on her, but when she used her Umbrakinesis everything went black. With no other option Yuito swung blindly to try and catch her, but he found himself grappled before Kotone painfully wrenched the knives out.

“GAH!” Angered, he whirled his sword around himself in a tornado of steel, catching his foe as she went to kick him down. “Don’t like fighting fair, huh? Fine!” Yuito turned on her with a burst of psychic force, causing her to stumble backward, but he quickly grabbed a piece of rubble behind her with Psychokinesis and pulled it into her to send her right back toward him. He lashed out with a two-hit sword combo into launcher, then jumped after her to keep the pain train rolling with disjointed sword hits. For the finale he seized a stop sign and brought it down on top of her, spiking her into the ground before landing himself. After a deep breath, Kotone performed a ukemi, and once on her feet she hurled her knives once more. Frowning, Yuito plucked them out of the air with his power, then sent them sailing off down the street. Kotone growled in frustration, realizing her error, and charged. Darkness enveloped Yuito, and a moment later Kotone loomed behind him, her hidden blade flashing as she drew it from her belt. When she tried to stab it just below his collarbone, however, her knife snapped against his Sclerokinesis-hardened body. Her vehement swear got cut short as Yuito elbowed her in the face, stomped on her foot, and finally delivered an uppercut that knocked her clean out.

Meanwhile, Hanabi went after Tanabe. All the sawblades that Tanabe fired earlier meant that she needed to reload, and with her Prometheus Torch in hand Hanabi raced toward her to try and take her out before the gunner could cut loose once more. She reached Tanabe just as the new magazine clicked into place, but rather than fire her Panthera, the Black woman launched a roundhouse kick. Her Ergokinesis boosted her centripetal force, causing her to whirl around like a ballerina with her leg extended and her dreadlocks splayed out like helicopter rotors. Hanabi dodged away twice to avoid the kicks, putting herself at a perfect range for Tanabe to slide to a stop, crouch down, and start shooting. While Hanabi took off into a strafing run, a couple saws clipped her, one leaving a painful gash in her arm. She winced, thinking about just how hard it would be to approach this lady until she got an idea. “I’ve got your back, Hanabi,” Yuito’s recorded voice said as SAS Psychokinesis activated, quickening Hanabi’s heart in a way the fight did not. As Tanabe fired, Hanabi began to grab and collect her sawblades. After a moment the redhead launched four of them right back at her, and Tanabe flinched, hunkering down as she turned her face away. Hanabi got in, Pyrokinesis engaged, and attacked with a fiery three-hit combo, once with both sides of her staff and then a revolving bash.

After staggering, Tanabe hopped backward, firing a sawblade down into the ground as she did. It bounced up and flew straight toward Hanabi’s head, prompting her to reel back in fear. With her eyes upward, Tanabe went low, curling up into a ball and rolling forward at high speed thanks to her Ergokinesis. “Whaa!” Hanabi yelped, swept off her feet and splatted flat on her stomach. Tanabe got to her feet and turned to fire more sawblades into Hanabi’s back, but the girl protected herself with Gemma’s Sclerokinesis. Try as she might Tanabe couldn’t keep her opponent down, and when her last-ditch rifle bash traded with Hanabi’s wakeup attack, the younger woman blew straight through it and knocked the Panthera from Tanabe’s hands. As Sclerokinesis deactivated Hanabi then went on offense, striking with three flurries of flaming jabs, the first straight forward, the second behind her back, and the third through the crook of her leg. Tanabe fell to one knee, and as Hanabi tossed an ember onto her, the older woman activated Brain Drive. Her hood flipped on and she kicked off phase two with another quintuple flash kick, nearly knocking her adversary out as she took a foot to the jaw. Hanabi braced herself, however, planting a foot behind her, and snapped her fingers. Her ember went off in a fiery explosion, flinging Tanabe to the ground smoking and unconscious.

At the same time, Luka faced off against both Yamaguchi and Kasumi. The punkish sharpshooter and the bookish grenadier didn’t have a lot in common, but together they kept Luka from making any progress at all. Since even the general area of Kasumi’s grenades could be brutal thanks to her Audiokinesis, he avoided them at all costs, but the farther away he got the more effective Yamaguchi and his lightning bow became. Things changed, however, when he made a crucial gamble. Ignoring Kasumi, he teleported right on top of Yamaguchi and started bashing. The dude tried to get away with his acrobatics, but Luka clung to him like a bulldog, hammering him again and again. “Hey!” Yamaguchi yelled. “A little help here!” Kasumi hesitated, though. She hadn’t trained alongside him long enough to know what to do in this situation, and all she had was a hammer. Well…in the end, it was just math. An ally and an enemy versus just an ally. Yamaguchi was toast anyway. The young-looking girl pushed up her glasses, took a deep breath, and fired. Hearing the grenade launcher, Luka promptly teleported away, and the grenade did the rest of the job for him.

“Fuuuuuuuuu-” Kasumi groaned, hanging her head. When she brought it up again, Luka had been joined by Yuito and Hanabi. “Uh oh.” She tugged the cord at her collar, engaging Brain Drive, and when she stuck her fingers in her mouth she let out an ear-piercing whistle. To the three soldiers, it felt like two drills piercing their brains, threatening to knock them unconscious even with their hands clasped over their ears. Furthermore, the aftershock lasted longer than it took Kasumi to fill her lungs again for another whistle, meaning the soldiers would black out before she’d drop from lightheadedness. In intense pain, Yuito opened one eye that he fixed on the bent streetlight not far from Kasumi. Normally he used his hands for this, but in theory that wasn’t strictly necessary. He reached out with his Psychokinesis and tore the streetlight from its base. Fighting against the deafening noise, he guided the pole directly over Kasumi, then unceremoniously dropped it on her head.

A shattering noise rang out as she fell to her knees, her mental health destroyed. “Brain crush!” Hanabi called, her own ears still ringing. Though the others might not hear her, they recognized what she was doing when she extended her hand toward her opponent, holographic Vision rings appearing around it. A giant holographic port appeared behind Kasumi’s head, and when Yuito and Luka joined in, another appeared on either side of it. Then, gigantic SAS cables as thick as paint cans manifested behind her, their plugs like rapiers. In quick succession they stabbed into the ports, connecting straight to Kasumi’s mind. Hanabi furrowed her brow. “How about…every episode of every season of every romcom I’ve watched this year!” In an instant, an immense amount of foreign data was forcibly injected into her target’s brain, overwhelming her senses and knocking her out instantly. She dropped like a log, and the battle was over.

Yuito shook his head, his ears still ringing, then raised an eyebrow at Hanabi. “...You watch a lot of romcoms, huh?”

“I…heheh..” His friend averted her gaze.

Everyone met back up in short order. Their opponents had all been soundly defeated, although in some cases it had taken a lot out of them. It was another victory. Unfortunately, their journey was far from over. After catching their breath, everyone hurried down the rest of the avenue to its intersection with Main Street. Finally they’d arrived at Suoh’s center. The battle damage and plentiful ashes told the newcomers that a lot of action had gone down here, but for now the fighting seemed to have moved elsewhere. At the opposite end of Main Street loomed the Otherlobe, like a giant red apple waiting to be picked, but before the team could head there they had one other order of business to attend to. They hurried across the roads and the parking lot toward Musubi’s, where several of them had eaten two nights before. When they reached the front door, however, they didn’t find Raz where he said he’d be. Instead they found two Psych-OSF soldiers, the lovely duplicating crossbow-wielder [url=https://i.imgur.com/E3QqAGQ.jpg]Kyoka Eden[/url] and the quiet plant-loving gunslinger [url=https://i.imgur.com/DrH5RaQ.png]Tsugumi Nazar[/url].

“Luka?” Kyoka’s eyebrows rose, her surprise clearly evident. She and Tsugumi both had their weapons out, and a group of civilians they’d evidently been protecting could be glimpsed throughout the restaurant behind them. Luka’s grip tightened on his hammer as he wondered whether he’d be in for a fight; there was no way Kyoka didn’t know about the APB. As if sensing his worry, however, the motherly soldier shook her head. “Oh, don’t worry, we’re not gunning for you. We’ve got bigger things to worry about, after all.” Tsugumi just nodded.

Luka breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing a little. “We’re looking for a boy named Raz,” he explained. “Big head, goggles…?”

“Oh yes, he was here just a moment ago with Morceau Platoon, though naturally Morceau’s nowhere to be found. Nagi and Poo were injured defending this place, the poor dears, so they’re still here. But he, Lili, and Norma ran off for the Otherlobe all of a sudden. Something about a call for help from the Grand Head.”

“Zanotto?” Yuito furrowed his brow. “Perfect, thank you!” With that he, Hanabi, and the rest turned to go.

Luka lingered for just a moment, looking back over his shoulder at Tsugumi. “Where’s Kagero? I don’t see him.”

“That’s the point of invisibility,” Tsugumi replied flatly. Not really having a reply to that, Luka hurried on his way.

[hr]

Pacing themselves so as to not exhaust the remainder of their strength, the Seekers and soldiers made their way down the wartorn Main Street to the Otherlobe. A couple times a stray Other reared its ugly head, but against six fighters none stood a snowball’s chance in hell. Things only got complicated a little after the halfway point, when the team spotted [i]something[/i] up ahead. It seemed to be a large, fearsome construct with a body the size of a truck, all angular silvery armor accentuated by glowing lines of a vivid, unfriendly red. It stood upon two enormous, thickly plated legs, like a colossal roboticized ostrich. Luka, Yuito, and Hanabi would recognize this immense war machine as one of the Psych-OSF’s most prized pieces of military hardware: the mighty [url=https://i.imgur.com/YL3fYVi.png]Sectopod[/url]. None of them even wanted to see it here, much less be on its business end.

As daunting as the armored walker was, however, the two people standing at its feet scared the soldiers even more. In a way, the two seemed like peas in a pod. They were decked out in the Psych-OSF’s characteristic red, gray, and black, and both featured long, dark hair that turned silver the farther it went, though the woman’s extended far longer. [url=https://i.imgur.com/VoI42S2.png]She[/url] gave off the impression of flashy, romantic secret agent, her dark gray ruffled dress with a diamond cutout just below her black tie lined with bright red, just like her dark gray overcoat, while gold-clasped belts and black boots with red clasps completed her look. Two long red horns rose from her somewhat floppy fedora, and in addition to the wicked-looking dagger sheathed in her belt, she wielded a forked staff of demonic aspect. A dark energy seemed to surround her, a portentous blend between [url=https://i.imgur.com/5Q1fM0H.png]Catastrophe Messenger[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/2RDw6lx.png]Renegade Spitfire[/url]. The man, meanwhile, seemed to epitomize the cold, consummate marksman. [url=https://i.imgur.com/vdenYyy.png]He[/url] wore a heavy dark gray coat, stylized and armored, over a striped black and gray turtleneck with a triangle cutout, pants, and thighboots with armor belted on. He had two scarves, a red one around his neck and a blue one that trailed from his left forearm, as well as two weapons, a heavy crossbow slung across his back and an automatic rifle in his hands. Even through his glasses, his gaze felt like an eagle’s, owing to his mix of [url=https://i.imgur.com/ha1nG73.png]mercenary sniper[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/JGbotIK.png]Sinful Marksman[/url]. Almost immediately, the Sectopod released a warning shot, a spray of plasma bolts from its main cannon that burst against the ground in front of the team.

“That’s far enough,” Sasha told the group.

“We heard you ran into our platoons. Gave them a good thrashing, too!” Milla shook her head in disappointment. “Tsk, tsk. I expected better of Gisu and Morris. And those reinforcements were no substitute for the real thing, hmm? Of course, we shouldn’t be missing people to begin with. Good soldiers running off, disappearing, turning traitor. What is this world coming to?”

Sasha sighed joylessly. “There’s too much going on to waste any more time. By order of Grand Head Zanotto, you’re all under arrest. Lay down your weapons and come quietly.” He clicked the safety off on his rifle. The wind seemed to pick up. “Or be destroyed by Septentrions Third and Fourth class, Commanders Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello.”

Milla winked. “That’s [i]Ca[/i]millia to you all, though.” Darkness welled around her as her staff blazed red, taking the form of a terrifying, spectral goat skeleton. ‘Well? Don’t keep us waiting, now~”

[center][h3]The Under - Hollow Bough[/h3]
Level 12 Nadia (89/120)
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Artorias’ [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2574[/center]

Well, great. Just when Nadia thought she’d finally reached a spot where she could take a break, a huge horde of slavering alien insects showed their ugly mugs to kick off the biggest bug fight yet. Getting here in the first place certainly hadn’t been easy, after all. Even with everyone pitching in to light up the way with flame or magic and clear out threats, the going had been treacherous. The frustratingly uneven, unpredictable terrain throughout these peculiar caves and caverns involved more climbing, clambering, and jumping than running, though at least petrified wood proved to be a bit easier for Nadia to sink her claws into than solid rock. Add to that deathtraps like the Worm Grass, and it had been far from a walk in the park with her new dog. After that trail of thrills and spills led her here, she’d been hoping for a chance to catch her breath, but it looked like the Hollow Bough wasn’t done with her just yet.

As the first wave of glyphids dug out from the cave walls, Nadia drew her box cutters and snapped new blades into place. She assumed her typical side-facing [url=https://fightersgeneration.com/nf8/char3/msfortune-skullgirls-stance.gif]fighting stance[/url], one blade down in front and the other on her shoulder. “Come and get me then, creeps! I’ll slice you up in-sections!” Bugs swarmed her way in packs, but after learning how to fight them on the way here, the feral felt confident. She’d already found out that their attacks did very little to break her stance, meaning she could just beef through them to cut the offending glyphids down, but their bites and leg slashes did slow her down. That made it easier for other glyphids to join in, and they could quickly surround her. A death by a thousand cuts sounded unlikely, but with no means of escape, it was a real possibility. So Nadia fought them at arms’ length, severing legs and splitting heads with her boxcutters before the glyphids could land attacks of her own. This meant a lot of kiting them around, and in the tunnels the feral had to be methodical, relying not on the others’ inconsistent light but the certainty of her own senses. Her keen eyes meant she could see them okay, but she could hear them very well–the skittering of their legs, their aggressive shrieks and squeals, and the snapping of their jaws. Right now though, Stetson’s flare gun bathed the entire area in light, meaning that Nadia Fortune could go to town.

“Hah, hah! Mrow, myao!” The feral dealt each glyphid death with two strokes, the first to cut through as many legs as possible, and the second to carve through its body as she stepped in. From there she could strike again the other way, or dash to reposition. A couple came at her at once, so she extended her leg for a disjointed spin kick made all the more impactful by her heavy Mantread boot. It knocked all three sideways, stunned briefly, and Nadia cut them to ribbons with a double spinning edge. When a pack came her way with a glyphid guard at the head, the frontrunner put its hard-shelled front legs together to protect its head, and Nadia’s blades barely made a dent. It snapped at her, slowing her just enough that bugs could start spreading around to either side, but the feral wasn’t about to get surrounded. “Good luck blockin’ this!” As the defender put its guard up again, she jumped forward over the shield, leaping right into the middle of the pack. With a little boost provided by jets of blood, she became a vertical propeller that carved across the guard’s back and through several glyphids behind it. “Saw that comin’!” She stuck the landing with a grin, and as the rest of the pack closed in, she decided to bust out her new Blockbuster. Bloody hydro energy welled up around her arm as she spun it up, and when she stabbed it into the ground a Preda-Torrent whirlpool roared to life on the spot. All the glyphids around her got soaked, sucked in, and minced up by [url=https://www.fightersgeneration.com/nf8/char3/msfortune-skullgirls-sweep.gif]Kitt N’ Spin[/url].

That was just one wave though, and by now the whole cavern had become one enormous battlefield. Sectonia’s antlions evened the odds, and her elements plus Cyclops’ roaring flames obliterated a bunch of bugs through temperature shock alone. When her Tesla Coil wreaked havoc among groups of glyphids with chain lightning, Stetson added his electric boomerang to the mix to leave entire crowds at a time shocked, stunned, and sitting ducks for the wasp queen’s AoE. When orange acid spitters and purple web spitters reared their ugly heads, though, Sectonia took to the heights of the cavern to skewer the ranged bugs that the Koopa Troop didn’t shoot down first, which was a big help. Speaking of, it looked like Bowser’s group had somehow set up a palisade of iron spikes during the first wave, creating a defensible position perfect for managing the horde. As more kinds of bugs began to arrive, and incoming Macteras proved that Sectonia wasn’t the only airborne bug around, Nadia hastened toward the makeshift spear walls to join her team. The dwarves, who’d already grouped up, did the same. Together, they and the Seekers held the line. Rika’s guns blazed alongside Stetson’s DRAK-25 Plasma Carbine, Overhard’s turrets, and Paintbrush’s impressive ‘Hurricane’ Guided Rocket System, making things easier for Kamek. Together they cleared the air and cut down as many bugs as they could before the horde could reach the melee fighters.

As mactera dropped like flies, Nadia focused on the earthbound glyphids crawling her way. With the arrival of Praetorians and Centiwings, things were heating up. “Earn your stripes!” ”She pulled out her Bait Launcher and fired it at an incoming Praetorian, and as the yoked tiger appeared to start shredding its armor, Nadia circled around. A trio of glyphid slicers came at her, but she intercepted the first one with a double overhead slash that severed both its bladed forelegs, allowing her to cut through its front half with an x-slash and then scatter its quarters with a disjointed spinning hook kick. Another one cut in a split second later, but Nadia somersaulted into the air away from the lunging slice and dropped her heel on its head in an El Gato axe kick. Before it could rise she sank one blade through its body and into the wood below, pinning it to the ground. “Goin’ nowhere!” As the third slicer attacked, she tried to pull the blade out, only to find it had stunk. In the nick of time, her new pup Chucho tackled the bug, stopping it short. “Good dog!” Nadia crowed. She squeezed the trigger on her handle to leave her blade there, then turned around to strike back with [url=https://i.imgur.com/uJ099xy.png]limber up[/url]. “Careful! The devil’s in…” The glyphid popped into the air, and Nadia bent forward to shoot off one of her tails like a javelin, impaling her target mid-air. “De tail!” Turning once more to face it, she jumped and grabbed the slicer by the embedded tailspear to slam it down into the ground. That third his activated New Moon, and with a silvery gleam the bug burst into a shower of green guts. “Bug-ger off!”

By then the tiger had timed out, and the Praetorian unhinged its jaws to belt out a spray of corrosive poison. Nadia put away her tail and hilt, then took off running with Chucho floating after her, parting several glyphids from their legs on the way. She dipped and dodged, but the Praetorian just wouldn’t leave her alone. “Normally I hate to cut and run, but sheesh! It’s a thirsty one, huh boy?” She timed and spaced things so that just as the stream ended, she closed the distance as a bolt of lightning with Charge, appearing right in front of the big bug’s shredded face with a level one Purrge of Vengeance rippling in her hand. “Well, here’s a drink…on me!” She slammed the maelstrom sphere into the Praetorian’s mouth, then performed Charge again to blitz straight through the monster to the other side. “After all, it’s zappy hour somewhere!” She grinned ear to ear, and behind her the monster promptly exploded into stinky, bright green chunks. As cool as that must’ve looked, she had to scramble back to safety a moment later, coughing from the noxious gas that got in her lungs.

By that time the battle seemed to be winding down. The Koopa Troop had dealt with the Centiwings, managing to avoid getting skewered by their awful lancelike probosci. Most of the hordes had been cut down either by the Seekers or their new dwarf friends, who really seemed to know their way around a battle. After calling in a supply drop, Stetson brought out his scanner and yelled out his report. “Swarm’s peterin’ out, we’re almost through!” As if on cue, the last few packs of glyphids showed up. Nadia moved forward to help wipe them out, approaching what looked like an alien clump of wood and vegetation to jump on it for the high ground advantage. Instead that mound burst from the ground, taking her by surprise with the sudden reveal of a [url=https://i.imgur.com/aWW6U3b.png]Stalker[/url], camouflaged by its color-changing skin to look like just another part of the environment as it lay in wait for the ambush. “Me-YOW!” Its huge foreleg raked across her, and as it went to grab her and pull her into its mouthparts, she backdashed in terror. “Nyagh! That’s not very…KNIFE!” Still wielding one box cutter, she used her other hand to hurl Athame into the Stalker’s head. Then she dashed forward and sheared through both its forelegs and long, lobster-like antennae with a horizontal cross cut. Falling on the ground, the feral bent the monster backward with [url=https://i.imgur.com/nictM28.png]Limber Up[/url], then snapped up to her lower legs. After an aerial backflip she landed directly on the Stalker’s back. 2700 Pounds of Justice, her Mantreads, and the debuffs to the bug’s already-low defense combined to instantly splatter it beneath Nadia’s effective weight. Its limbs went flying off in different directions on jets of green gunk, leaving Nadia not just victorious, but immensely satisfied. “Whoo!” she yelled, her heart pumping. “I’m just that goo-d!”

As crazy as the swarm had been, it was just another day at the ‘office’ for the dwarves. In the aftermath of the fight, Stetson, Cyclops, Paintbrush, and Overhard all resupplied at the newly-arrived drop pod, meaning each only got 50% of their total health and armor back. “We’ll ‘ave to be stingy with what we got left and mine all the nitra we see,” Stetson reasoned, taking stock of the team’s inventory. “But with our new friends along for the ride, we oughta be able to take out both generators at once, long as we’re bloody careful. Keep an eye out for red sugar too. Heal ya right up in a pinch. ” There was no time to rest, so once everyone caught their breath and handled the leftover spirits, it was time for the four dwarves and the ten Seekers to split up and follow the generator cables to their sources. They pointed the teams toward two tunnels leading out from this central hub. One seemed greener, with more soil and leafy plants around it, not to mention a load of dirt blocking the way. Overhard and Cyclops went that way, the latter using his drills to clear the obstruction. On the other side, pink flowers grew around the mouth of the tunnel, and a strange noise issued from within. Stetson and Paintbrush opted for that route, and once Nadia went with them, Tingyun did as well.

[hr]

[center][h3]Hollow Bough East - Montoj[/h3]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zodTfr4oEmA&ab_channel=RockyDraggy[/youtube][/center]

The eastward tunnel system from the cavern where the Caretaker lay in wait sloped generally downward, and pretty soon its explorers got a good sense that they’d entered another biome. If Hollow Bough proper was a forest in decline, petrified and parasitized by maggots and invasive vines, this area was a quiet, tranquil garden of healthy vegetation. Instead of briars and lichens, it grew tall stalks of bamboo and sugarcane, golden fronds of wheat and even rice in the low-lying pools of mineral-rich water that had collected in pockets around the tunnels. How did all this grow without sunlight? The dwarves didn’t know, and they didn’t care. Instead they homed in on certain kinds of crops like mice to cheese: red barley bulb stalks, droopy blue yeast cones, teal malt start sprouts, and pink starch nut bushes. “Them’s good beer-makin’ ingredients!” Cyclops explained with gusto, enthusiastically collecting all of them that he could get his hands on. He and Overhard deposited them, as well as all the gold and nitra they mined, into the four-legged [url=https://i.imgur.com/4yGREHF.png]walking storage box[/url] that accompanied them, frequently yelled for it to hurry up or get out of the way.

On the way down, following the generator cable as it wound around the spacious tunnels, the team found only a few scattered packs of glyphids, and maybe one or two Praetorians. Here and there they found odd [url=https://i.imgur.com/pNaaTk9.png]scarecrows[/url] in the plots, and while these Twirligigs turned out to be animate plant creatures, they were neither terribly fast nor aggressive. Their remastered forms, the samurai-esque [url=https://i.imgur.com/nea7vjw.png]Kirikuri[/url], stalked among the fields, keeping them glyphid-free with a defensive fighting style based on splinter contact damage. As long as the newcomers didn’t disturb them or steal crops from under the cassette beats’ noses, it was pretty peaceful for the most part. Still, given the sheer amount of enemies they just fought, the presence of Twirligigs and Kirikuris didn’t fully explain this area’s tranquility.

When the explorers reached a larger area, they began to understand why. A loud grunting noise alerted them beforehand, and when they emerged from the tunnel, they spotted it: a gigantic kemono, part pig and part plant, the [url=https://i.imgur.com/fL55ok2.jpg]Kingtusk[/url]. It seemed to be feeding, rooting around in the vegetation and chowing down on everything in its path. While the beer ingredients seemed to be its favorite, it gobbled down whatever it felt like, including any glyphids or cassette beasts that took issue with its wanton gluttony. “It’s eatin’ our damn starch nuts and barley bulbs!” Cyclops whispered angrily. “Who’s up for makin’ pork chops?”

“Ignore it, you dolt,” Overhard told him, elbowing the driller in the ribs. “We’re spread thin enough as is. Gotta focus on the generate first. Look!” He pointed out the tunnel that the cable led to. “We can get around it, nice and easy.”

Cyclops huffed. “Fine, but if we got time afterward, that pig’s history,” he grumbled.

For the time being, everyone snuck past the optional boss. On the other side of the tunnel Overhard pointed out, they found the final cavern in the area. It looked like one big wheat field, surrounded by a forest of bamboo, and in the middle stood the Power Station, a sophisticated computer tower-esque machine of thick gray armor and orange lights.

[hr]

[center][h3]Hollow Bough West - Stranga[/h3]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP_l6QkvSng&ab_channel=RockyDraggy[/youtube][/center]

Nadia, Tingyun, Stetson, Paintbrush, and the three others took the western route, moving at a quick pace. Whenever the dwarves found a deposit of nitra or gold, the pickaxes came out. Everything they mind went straight into their pockets and pouches. Nadia kept watch as the two did their thing, sticking to just one box cutter that she rested on her shoulder for now. At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly, despite the rather winding nature of a tunnel that twisted, turned, and doubled back on itself without rhyme or reason. They cut down vegetation, collected minerals, and exterminated any stray glyphids that they happened to run into. Without much need to communicate, they kept quiet for minutes at a time, with only the skirmishes, the crack of ore struck by pickaxes, and the intermittent ring of Tingyun’s attack-boosting bell offering disturbance. Still, there was that odd, underlying noise. It started as a whisper, but it began to sound more like a drill constantly spinning up and down. The deeper the team went, the louder it got, and the weirder things became.

It started slow. Thickly tangled, corded green vines replaced the walls. They had red flowers that span like wheels, and from the ceiling strawberries grew individuals on long, upside-down stalks. Patches of bulrushes littered the floor here and there, but instead of the brown sausage-shaped clumps, they had three round, gummy bulbs stacked on top of one another, pink, white, and green. They looked like dango. They began to encounter strange glyphids and other bugs. Nadia had already torn through half a pack when she realized that they weren’t fighting back. Instead they just stood there passively, with pink flowers sticking out of their heads. “Freaky.” Still, Nadia and the dwarves were unanimous when it came to wiping them all out, just to be sure. Next came the odd-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/BLp9Ksv.png]elevator plants[/url], which adjusted between a high and a low position when stimulated. Riding on one mildly amused Nadia for a few moments, but none of them were remotely useful for actually getting around the area given how long they took to move and how random their high and low positions were. So when the tunnel suddenly went almost vertical, Nadia needed to climb manually. While she clawed her way up the wall, Stetson used his grappling hook to scout ahead, and Paintbrush silently set up a zip line so he, Tingyun, and anyone else could ride slowly upward.

At the top of the chute, the tunnel opened up into the first cavern, and the sight left Nadia baffled. The walls were dark stone, overgrown with vines in a lattice pattern like a gigantic net. Large [url=https://i.imgur.com/kh29Tby.png]plant towers[/url] grew straight upward, the two triangles at the top jumping every few seconds, or bent around to grow right back down again toward the ground. Strewn throughout the place among the green vines were large [url=https://i.imgur.com/VDJ7UD5.png]void sunflowers[/url], towering [url=https://i.imgur.com/danAl2y.png]flower rings[/url], and strange, round [url=https://i.imgur.com/hMLiVqP.png]blue bulbs[/url] big enough to fit a person inside. Some just sat there, but others gushed out fountains or blasts of water from their green ‘lips’, the latter of which flew into weird tube plants (either bent or straight) with a flower on either side, which redirected the water. Strangest of all though was the phenomenon several of the blue bulbs seemed to be sustaining. In the open air, near docile, tentacled brain-creatures that hovered obliviously around the cavern, bodies of water just floated in the air. They took on random but constant shapes. One even looked like [url=https://i.imgur.com/nSh47pz.png]a face[/url].

Nadia blinked, taken aback. “Wow…this is so weird!” A smile crept across her features. “This crazy, messed-up world never ceases to amaze!”