[center][h3]Quarantine Valley - Empty Lot[/h3]
Level 6 Goldlewis (89/60) Level 4 Sandalphon (54/40)
Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s [@Archmage MC], Geralt and Zenkichi’s [@Multi_Media_Man]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1227[/center]

If there was one upside to fighting this massive monstrosity, it was that it made for an easy target. Goldlewis had no trouble perforating the Homunculus with a full barrage from his Skyfish minigun. If only it did more damage; even with a very helpful Tarukaja from Zenkichi, its stopping power was remarkably low for such a massive weapon, and even at Security Level Three it could only shoot for a couple seconds. After that, it was up to Sandalphon to lay down the law from a distance while Goldlewis got up close and personal.

Coffin at the ready, he joined the charge to fight the huge brute toe-to-toe. Geralt, Roland, Zenkichi, and Vigil -whose revolvers weren’t accurate enough to fight from long range- were the frontrunners, while he, Susie, and Penance brought up the rear. She slowed down in order to try and divert the monster’s attention toward herself. With the defensive abilities she showcased earlier, backed up by the lion’s share of Blazermate’s medigun support, Goldlewis had no doubt that the Judge would be able to weather the monster’s wrath, so left her to it. Contrary to appearances, he was no tank, but an all-out bruiser, and he showed the Homunculus as much when he finally reached it with an unstoppable [url=https://i.imgur.com/kEEVJfI.png]Wild Assault[/url] that landed just after it busted through the house Roland somehow dropped on it. Against an adversary like this that obviously couldn’t combo, Goldlewis judged this to be the best way to spend his Burst, and it worked wonders. When it tried to crush him in its jaws, the Homunculus instead reeled back, several teeth knocked out and its eyes lolling as the Wild Charge brought its lunge to an abrupt stop.

Of course, that lasted for only a moment, but that was long enough for Geralt to cut loose. Goldlewis already knew to stand clear of his overtly aggressive ally, but once appropriately forewarned, he made sure to give Geralt an extra wide berth. Empowered by Blazermate’s kritz and eldritch lightning, the Witcher carved into the Homunculus in an almost frightening display of savage strength to take out a big chunk of its life right off the bat. Though the monster managed to wrest control back from Geralt before the kritz ran out, the damage was done, and everyone surged forward to keep the pain train rolling.

With its massive size and strength, the Homunculus set the pace for the battle, but its pace was slow enough to be manageable. Its enormous sweeps, slams, bites, and crushing blows were telegraphed just enough to offset their huge range, but the Seekers didn’t have the time to fight a war of attrition. Rather than play this methodically, Goldlewis placed his trust in his allies and waged total war against the Homunculus. He went whole hog on the monster’s legs with his coffin, landing Behemoth Typhoons one after another. His target moved a lot, only too happy to throw its massive weight around, but Goldlewis ran to keep up. “Come get some! …Hrrraagh! ..Try this on! …Crumble! ”When his Security Level refilled completely he’d pause just long enough to throw out a Thunderbird grenade to do some explosive headhunting, then return to the brute’s trunk-like legs, chipping away at them like an autumn beaver. Getting this close meant facing the Homunculus’ massive attacks, of course, and he managed to halt his onslaught so he could block them about half the time. Goldlewis, made of sterner stuff and backed by Sandalphon’s periodic Angelic Praise, did not relent, even when faced with the withering might of the monster’s purple laser. He spent a little tension in order to block it with Faultless Defense, then the rest on Down with the System. “Shut the hell up…” he yelled over the roaring noise. “AND SIT THE HELL DOWN!”

His mighty coffin uppercut struck the Homunculus from below, hard enough that its whole body thrashed, causing its beam to veer upward in its last couple of seconds and rake across the lot’s surrounding buildings rather than the veteran’s allies. Sandalphon shrank down into cover as the beam blazed overhead, then calmly got back up, took aim, and loosed an ether bolt that burst one of the monster’s eyes. Everyone’s efforts were adding up, and the Homunculus didn’t have a lot left in the tank. Penance and Vigil had been pulling their weight, shrugging off deadly blows and plugging it full of bullet holes respectively, but in the end the limelight went to Karin. When the monster began an unstoppable rampage, charging across the whole area with reckless abandon, her initiative (plus a little stalwart help) put a stop to its brutally simple gambit and dumped it on its back for a tremendous finishing blow.

With the Homunculus dead, the high-power fight had come to its climactic conclusion. Goldlewis watched the enormous, otherworldly body begin to turn to ash, his breathing heavy from the effort he’d put into that final maneuver. His gaze turned toward Sandalphon as she descended from her perch, gliding with the help of her radiant golden halo. As she landed, his communication glyph flared up, and a familiar voice offered a nonchalant greeting. “Someone call for a ride?”

An increasingly loud whirring brought both their attention to the cargobob helicopter just now descending in front of the opening between the empty lot and Quarantine Valley. As it flew carefully through the gap, its side doors swung open, revealing a certain gorgeous secret agent and her emerald green wolf spirit. Goldlewis breathed a sigh of relief. “There y’are. What in tarnation took y’all so damn long?”

Giovanna shook her head, nonplussed. Suppressed by the noise of the rotors, her voice only came through his glyph. “Just get in here, will ya?”

Everyone made a break for the helicopter, pushing through the wind given off by its rotors. For some of them, it was a blast for the past, just like the day almost half a week ago after they’d escaped the Cluster Trucks. How things had changed since then; Benedict had come and gone, Raiden made his final stand, Peach and Poppi as the Seekers knew them had ceased to be, and Tora became bereft of hope. Now they were advancing to a still more uncertain future, but at least they weren’t alone. Though Penance and Vigil hesitated, Goldlewis waved them over after climbing inside and turned to help them up. The Judge gave him a nod of appreciation, and as the cargobob’s doors closed, she turned toward the new arrival. “Giovanna,” she said somewhat stiffly. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Hey, Vinnie,” the secret agent replied with a smile, glancing at Goldlewis. “New boss, meet old boss. Old boss, meet new.”

The veteran ran his hand through his hair, then offered his hand to shake. “Huh. Didn’t realize we had a mutual friend.”

Penance accepted it, giving him a rare, slight smile. “Thank you for looking after her. Since she left, well…General Affairs, it hasn’t been quite the same.” Vigil just rolled his eyes.

“Where to?” Duke, the pilot, shouted from the cockpit as the helicopter rose and turned back toward Quarantine Valley.

“Neuron HQ.” Tonight had been hell already, but there was one final event that Goldlewis knew the Seekers couldn’t miss. “And step on it.”

[hr]

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

Sector 04, Veles. A heavy-metal cyberpunk dystopia of towering black buildings, and none more so than the Aegis Research Institute in its center, Midgar’s greatest pioneer of scientific marvel. While even that didn’t reach the altitude of the Vandelay Tower in Sector 06, let alone the monumental Shinra Building, this sector’s cityscape gave it the highest average altitude in all of Midgar. Even to the Seekers flying high above it via the Special Operation Unit’s signature helicopter, it was overwhelming, not due to visual clutter like its smaller neighbor Suoh or its more jam-packed undercity Night City below, but due to its sheer scale. Goldlewis and the others weren’t here for the Aegis Research Institute -not yet anyway- but for the headquarters of the Neuron Task Force, the police division of Peace Preservation specialized in Astral Plane countermeasures. As they approached, they could see that Jena had been true to her word–Neuron was under attack. All around the building, its officers -as well as local security groups- were under attack by an army of masked vigilantes armed to the teeth with tools of destruction. “Reunion,” Sandalphon observed. “And if they’re here, Anderson must be as well.”

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/yFPM0sb.png[/img][/center]

Up on the building’s helipad, a situation was unfolding. Two Neuron officers, the brother and sister duo [url=https://i.imgur.com/MD6NjjQ.png]Hayato[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/nzLQVpt.png]Akira Howard[/url] in armored uniforms of Neuron blue and Raven black, had just broken from the elevators to run across the open area with a third armored figure in tow. His outfit featured cherry-red plates over a gray undersuit, an intricate helmet, and a black cape that fluttered in the wind behind him as [url=https://i.imgur.com/Rlc1Srg.jpg]he[/url] ran. After a moment, he slowed to a stop behind the siblings, seemingly out of breath, only to turn and see Jena Anderson walking toward him, flanked by Mephisto and Faust.

Behind his mask, the Consul’s eyes narrowed. “...Jena.”

Her face hard and bitter, she took a few more steps forward before stopping. “It’s been a while, Y. Or can I drop pretenses, and simply call you Yoseph?”

The Consul ignored her. “Jena, why are you doing this?”

“Why?” Jena looked affronted. “You know why.” She began to pace, throwing her arms wide as if tearing something down. “To put an end to this misguided project of yours!”

Y shook his head and thrust his hand toward her in frustration, as if the true nature of things were patently obvious. “YOU’RE the one who’s misguided!”

“No…” Jena shook her head. “We can win. We have a future as we are!”

“Idiot!” Y cut her off, casting his arm aside. “Cling to your worthless husk, but let the rest of us evolve!”

Their voices rose in anger, and in unison. [b]”Only I can save humankind!”[/b]

Jena inhaled sharply. “It appears talking will get us nowhere.” She lifted up a vial of perfected Blue Evolve, a startling shade of purple. Without hesitation she knocked it back, drinking everything. The contortions began before she even finished, and the vial fell from her grasp as she doubled over, purple veins spreading across her skin. Her irises turned from blue to glowing violet, and her sclera ink-black. “RrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAGH!” With a final effort she thrust her arm upward, constructing a lance of chimeric flesh around it. Then [url=https://i.imgur.com/Wnp6thr.png]Jena[/url] lowered it, all three Reunion members ready to fight. Y moved back in silence as Hayato and Akira stepped forward, their batons drawn.

It was at that moment that the cargobob swooped in, its bay doors open. Goldlewis jumped, fell a couple dozen feet, and slammed down on the surface of the helipad. Giovanna, Penance, and Vigil landed to either side of him, and a moment later, Sandalphon gracefully drifted down via her halo to alight amongst the group.

Jena gritted her teeth, glaring at the newcomers. “...You again!?”

“Well, well.” Y crossed his arms, unimpressed. “If it isn’t the Seekers of Light. I had a feeling we’d run into one another sooner or later. Quite the dramatic entrance, and with remarkable timing, too.”

Penance stepped forward. “Consul! On behalf of Midgar’s citizens, once this terrorist is dealt with, we need to talk.” 

Y shook his head. “On the contrary, what you need is to fight.” He snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the eyes of Penance and Vigil, as well as Hayato and Akira, gleamed a vivid ruby red. “So fight. Protect me or die trying.”

“Wha-!?” Goldlewis lifted his coffin to block as Vigil turned, unloading his revolvers on his former allies. “You’ve gotta be shittin’ me!” At the same time, Giovanna fell prey to a leg sweep from Penance’s flail. As she went to bring the hammer down on her fallen friend, Sandalphon interposed her gunstaff in the way, causing the flail to wrap around its length. Penance promptly yanked it back, and the archangel’s weapon flew from her hands as she stumbled forward. 

Wasting no time, Jena went straight for her nemesis. “Yoseph!” she screamed, charging forward as Mephisto and Faust covered her with shots from their crossbow and [url=https://i.imgur.com/oYgkZiJ.png]luger[/url] pistol respectively. The Howard twins moved to stop her. The night’s final battle had begun.

[center][h3]The Under - Rival Incursion[/h3]
Level 12 Nadia (129/120)
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Artorias’ [@Dark Cloud], Nocturne’s [@Grimnir], Tingyun, Stetson the Scout, Paintbrush the Gunner, Overhard the Engineer, Cyclops the Scout
[b]Word Count:[/b] 4250[/center]

Just when it really looked like the Seekers and their new compatriots had the Caretaker’s number, it brought out its biggest and nastiest batch of reinforcements yet, and the manageable battle went to hell in a handbasket. Once the Dirtscrews churned through the earth like giant drills to create entrance tunnels, the packs of Choppers charged in to start cutting, the Smallfries marched in to wreak havoc, and the bullet-spraying Hot Rods put the Rival Tech turrets to shame. Nadia scrambled along with everyone else to respond to the overwhelming new threat. While individually these new robots might not pose much danger, they were everywhere, and the risk of getting physically bodyblocked or locked in hitstun was a very real possibility. The chaos was such that when another uninvited guest showed up, smashing through a solid wall of dirt as if it were styrofoam, Nadia only glanced the newcomer’s way expecting yet another Dirtscrew making an entry. Instead she beheld a strange metal machine, vaguely similar to the automobiles of her world and the more modern cars throughout this one, but far more futuristic than anything she’d ever seen before. Still, even if it rang no bells for her, the visage of a white rabbit instilled her with a deep sense of dread.

And sure enough, she was right.

As soon as Kanna showed her face, or rather her drawn-on pot, Nadia’s blood ran cold. “Waitwaitwait,” she pleaded, so distracted by the prospect of another nightmarish assortment of random reality warps that she barely noticed the Chopper jumping for her in time. She brought her hands together and caught the little fiend with its chainsaw blade just inches from her horrified face. “Dammit, not now, I gotta-!” More ravenous Choppers were skittering her way, backed by a hulking Smallfry. One pounced, and she reflexively fell onto her back, where she brought her knees up to her chest, let go of the one she’d grabbed, then hyperextended her legs in bursts of blood to kick both high into the air. Planting her hands against the wood beneath her, she then hyperextended her wrists to launch the rest of her up after them. Once her hands snapped back into place, she grabbed both Choppers by the legs and hurled them down into the rest of the pack. They smashed messily through their kin, spraying the Smallfry with scrapped parts. As it put up one arm to block, Nadia blasted out high-pressure blood to hurtle toward the robot and shear through its metal with an [url=https://i.imgur.com/r18YdeF.png]X-scrape Claws[/url] shining silver with the power of New Moon. Her eyes met the Smallfry’s as the pieces of its arm fell, and the next moment she shot off her head on a spring of coiled muscle fiber.

The mighty headbutt knocked the robot over, and after Nadia caught it, she turned it toward Kanna to realize that the senseless girl had already grown a new Wonder Flower. “Waitwaitwait!” she yowled in protest, waving her panicked hands as she ran toward Kanna only to get caught in a shower of bullets from a Hot Rod. “Argh!” she groaned, her teeth gritted as she tried to block the stinging barrage while groping blindly for her Bait Launcher. After her fingers finally closed around the weapon, she yanked it out and fired off a steak at the offending Hot Rod, which she trusted would soon be sorted out. Without giving her a second to rest, another Chopper leaped at her, so Nadia got the hell out of doge with a spinning backdash, the claws of her free hand anchored in the wooden ground. As she slid to a stop, however, her ears perked up and her pupils shrunk. Something was standing right behind her.

Nadia whipped around, one arm poised for a bloody jet punch, only for the Smallfry she’d partially disarmed earlier to catch her with a massive haymaker right to the stomach. The feral’s eyes went wide as saucers, and spittle flew from her open mouth. “PUAH!” Her torso flew backward before the rest of her, connective tissue stretching out as her body -not to mention her Bait Launcher- flew away, though her limbs and head snapped toward it after another split second. Her various parts struck the petrified wood of the cave wall and bounced off it in quick succession, slowly sliding back into place like a pullstrings on a toy. Whimpering, her Polterpup flew after her and started to lick her face. “Uuuuugh,” she groaned, seeing stars instead of the robots closing in on where she’d fallen. It was in that state that Kanna’s lucky Wonder Effect washed over her. A bouquet of flowers appeared above her resting place and fell onto her body, absorbed in an instant and converted into power.

Nadia’s eyes popped open as a sudden flood of energy coursed through her veins. She looked up to see the Smallfry raising its arm to bring down like a hammer. The deathblow descended, but Nadia’s head flew off on a jet of blood that rocketed past the robot and into the air. The Choppers that crowded in to hack the feral to pieces found themselves beaten to the punch as her pieces flew off on their own. In an instant the area filled with rogue body parts, each a missile propelled by a jet of blood and spinning like a drill bit. “Remember, remember!” They crashed and cut into the robots repeatedly, clumping them together until every portion of Ms. Fortune slammed together in a [url=https://i.imgur.com/3mRQPxz.png]bloody explosion[/url]. “The Fifth of Dismember!”

As the blood subsided, carrying with it the sparking, mutilated remains of the machines, Nadia rose from the carnage in one piece. Something was amiss, though. She stared at her wrist as it, like all her scars, poured out blood without any sign of stopping. And yet she felt no trace of depletion or lightheadedness. Was this Kanna’s doing, too? Well, there wasn’t time for introspection, because there were plenty of robots left, not to mention the Caretaker itself. “Not sure if this is a-positive or a-negative…” She sharpened her claws and got into stance, Chucho wagging his tail as he floated beside her. “But I’m full-blooded and red-dy to rumble!”

Like the others, she went on total offense against the machines. Whether because of Kanna’s literal flower power flooding through her or some sort of catastrophic fault with the robots, Nadia found herself tearing through the enemies like tissue paper. She’d quickly found that while they weren’t weaker across the board, their heads -or equivalent processing centers- took way more damage than usual, practically popping like balloons. For a dextrous fighter who targeted such weak points anyway, the Rival threat quickly turned from unstoppable horde to cannon fodder. The others seemed to be every bit as super-charged, and the cavern filled with a magical lightshow as the Seekers unleashed a deluge of thunder, pitch-black flame, ice, and darkness. For the Koopa Troop and the dwarves, the whole place had become a shooting gallery. Cyclops bathed robots in flame, Paintbrush wiped them away in a deluge of micro-missiles, and Stetson busted heads with precision bursts of gunfire from his Deepcore GK2. “Whoa-ho! Whatever she did, it actually worked!” he yelled in a mixture of glee and disbelief. “My gun–it’s totally loaded!” The prospect of endless ammunition seemed to have activated something primal in the dwarves; all were roaring in satisfaction as their weapons sowed streams of destruction through the metal horde.

Nadia had been contenting herself with hand-to-hand combat and wanton abuse of her Blockbusters, leaving a wide trail of her own blood in her wake as she ran around collecting flowers and pulverizing robots, but when she realized what Stetson meant she got in on the fun. After spotting her Bait Launcher amidst the chaos she made a break for it, Chucho hot on her heels, and sure enough, when she held down the trigger it began to divulge an endless amount of tiger-summoning steaks. [i]FOON-FOON-FOON-FOON-FOON-FOON-FOON[/i]! Her burly beasts appeared among the machines in droves, tearing them up like tinfoil. “Nyahahahaha!” Nadia laughed, almost euphoric, and her Polterpup barked along with her. “This is AMAZING!”

Everyone’s abuse of their unlimited resources meant it was curtains for the Caretaker’s reinforcements. Even Kanna got in on the action this time. She drove donuts through the bots, shot down Hot Rods with Eir’s main cannon, or jumped her Metal Attacker into the air to come down on opponents with a huge drill extended from its undercarriage, all while cheering everyone on incoherently. Thanks to Therion’s tactic, the machines couldn’t even fight back. Before long all that remained was the big bad itself. Sectonia’s magic slowed the Caretaker’s spin, however, and a few seconds later the explosion of a C-Foam grenade brought the inverted pyramid to a complete stop. Everyone joined the effort to focus down the vents one final time, and Nadia had a brainwave on how she could pitch in. “Aha, just you wait ‘til I get my ship together!” Running for where she’d laid her jacket, she scooped it up and put it on. At that point, the blood she’d inundated the floor with let her activate her rigging, and like clockwork its mechanical arms unfolded to bring her cannons to bear. “There we go! How’s this for in-vent-ive?” From her cannons she fired off homing hydro-missiles to join in the Seekers’ fusillade, and when the vents were done for, the Caretaker’s eye was next. Nadia kept skating and kept firing until the deed was done.

When the final blow was struck, the Caretaker pulsed violently, sparks flying as it lost power. It fell and hit the top of the Data Vault hard, then pitched onto one side with a massive [i]KOMMM[/i]. After a brief moment, its four eyes open and lolling cartoonishly, it began to suck in energy. It released a resounding death scream like the shrieking bugle of an elk, then shook the entire cavern with the explosion. Kanna fed Yacopu a Wonder Seed so he could dispel the Wonder Effect, and as what passed for ‘normal’ in this reality reasserted itself, the torrent of blood from Nadia’s scars subsided. “Man,” she groaned, looking over her clothes. “Everything’s soaked through. And blood never comes out…” Her ears perked up and she fell quiet, though, as she heard the deep clicks of some massive mechanism. As everyone watched, the Data Vault unlocked, swinging upward like the door of a safe. Beneath it, concentric circles arose like a ziggurat, until finally the center section extended to reveal a glowing, humming Data Rack, cases of rare minerals, capsules containing specimens, and a one-third mask fragment.

“Alright, let’s grab the damn thing and blow this hellhole,” Cyclops groused. None of the dwarves seemed too enthused about the victory; to them this was just another day at the office, and Nadia got the impression that this wasn’t the first Caretaker they’d beaten, anyhow.

Stetson grappled up and grabbed the big, techy-looking cylinder, which he brought to the four-legged robot that had been waiting in the wings. “‘Ere, Molly.” Nadia’s team took the mask fragment, and split the minerals fifty-fifty between dwarves and Seekers, with the specimens free to whoever might want them. Once Stetson loaded the Data Rack onto the Mule, he held his hand over the big red button and turned to look at the others. “Roight then, once I press this button, it’s go time. Wherever the drop pod lands, we’ve got five minutes to make it there, ‘cause it’s leavin’ with or without us. Molly ‘ere’s gonna lead us at least, but it’ll be nonstop bugs the whole time, so keep your wits aboutcha.”

“More bugs?” Still breathing heavy from the battle, Nadia sighed in resignation. “Man, you guys just can’t catch a break.”

“You’re bloody well right,” the dwarf grumbled, trying not to let it set in.

Kanna, meanwhile, seemed just as cheerful as ever. “Ooh, I’ll totally go with you! One good turn, like, deserves another, right?”

For a moment Nadia’s gaze lingered on the unexpected helper. Then she adopted a rueful smile. “Uh, yeah, well...thanks, by the way. You really helped back there. Made the whole thing a piece of cake.”

“Well, doy!” Grinning, Kanna gave the feral a wink. “Like, I totally know what I’m doing and stuff~”

At that, Nadia’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but she managed to stay positive. Having recovered enough at this point to continue, Tingyun spoke up next, turning to Therion with a sly smile. “While we’re at it…” She leaned toward the thief, spreading her fan to cover her face as she planted a little kiss on his cheek. “You saved my life. Thank you.” Then she stepped back and turned toward the others. “Is everyone ready? Not to rain on my most gracious benefactors’ parade, but the sooner we’re out of these bug-infested caves, the better, hm?” Nobody could disagree with that, and when everyone was ready, Stetson pressed the button to begin the countdown.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fnlY3CHCrA&ab_channel=Agarast[/youtube][/center]

A few tense moments passed before the Mule suddenly stood up, turned, and hustled off in the direction of a tunnel nobody had used yet. That tunnel also happened to be a good fifty feet up on one of the cavern’s walls. Molly climbed it like a spider, leaving both a trail of green warning lights behind her, and everyone else to find their own way up. “Aw, hell,” Stetson griped. “Paintbrush, zipline. Stat!” Nodding, the gunner ran back far enough to get an angle that wasn’t too steep. Once he set it up he, Overhard, and Cyclops all jumped on the slow-moving ride upward, with Tingyun joining them. Given the strict time limit, the Foxian seemed fretful, but she had no other choice. Stetson opted for the direct approach. “From A to D, skippin’ B an’ C!” He zipped right up with his grapple hook, and Nadia followed suit with Chucho right behind, digging her claws into the petrified wood to haul herself upward. With a Charge and a few spurts of blood, she managed to reach Molly and climb onto her to ride the rest of the way.

Kanna drove her Metal Attacker toward the wall and started jumping. While Eir could get some serious elevation, it wasn’t enough. “It’s, like, waaaay too high!”

“Here, try this!” Bringing out his platform gun, Overhard created a handful of plascrete shelves on the wall. When Kanna tested them out, the impressive substance held, and by jumping Eir between the shelves she managed to ascend to the exit tunnel.

Said tunnel turned out to be quite the gauntlet. It twisted and turned in a series of grottoes and chambers with plenty of thorny scarlet vines, bulbous plants bursting at the seams with sticky yellow goo, stray bots, and glyphids. With adrenaline fading and fatigue mounting, the Seekers could only fight through, following the trail blazed by allied Metal Attackers. At one point their mad dash awakened a towering, fleshy [url=https://i.imgur.com/sPkTgYG.png]thing[/url] hailed by the dwarves as a Spitball Infector. Unfortunately, the Seekers were many, and they were in a hurry. They overran the spitballer, squelching its pustules into paste, and hastened down the final stretch. There they finally saw the fabled [url=https://i.imgur.com/0BvpItq.png]drop pod[/url], a large, roughly octagonal pillar of corroded orange metal with bladed teeth on the corners and a huge drill on the bottom. With its eyes lights out and entrance open, with ramp leading down to the ground, it looked almost like a big face. Kanna’s Metal Attacker pulled to a stop beside it, and she got out to wave the others over, as if Molly’s trail wasn’t enough. Beyond it, the tunnel opened up into a huge, utterly colorless cavern of thick, towering trees and soft gray mists. A wide, heavyset structure, like some sort of hotel, could be seen in the distance. Right now though, Nadia had eyes for the drop pod only, and she saw a problem with it.

“H-huh!? It’s tiny! We can’t all fit in there!” The pod’s interior could seat four dwarves comfortably, and maybe sixteen if they all really crammed, but no way could all of Nadia’s huge teammates squeeze in. At least Sectonia and Kamek could fly, plus Junior if he left Kuebiko behind, but the Metal Attacker’s UI made it clear that its Recoil Jump would let it leap off walls as much as needed to ascend the purely vertical shaft the drop pod carved on its way down. Bowser and Artorias might be able to crawl inside, but they’d hog all the space and be terribly uncomfortable too. The four dwarves, Tingyun, Primrose, Therion, Nadia, and Kamek (if he wanted) could fit in without too much issue, the taller among them needing to stoop and/or crouch. Once everyone who could got in, the drop pod shut its gates, sealed the entrance, and began to ascend.

“Bye bye everyoneeeeeeeeee~” Kanna sang, bouncing up and down on the ground as she waved to the others with both hands. “Come back and visit soon, flower!”

After the intense rumbling diminished a little and it was clear that the extra weight wouldn’t sink the ship, Stetson let out his breath. He took off his cowboy hat, revealing a shiny bald head underneath, and wiped his brow. “That’s one for the books.”

[hider=Results]
[b]Party:[/b] Bowser, Kamek, Junior, Rika, Sectonia, Primrose, Therion, Artorias, Nadia
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] +15 EXP[/hider]

[hr]

[center][h3]Mercy Dreams, the Prison of Hope[/h3][/center]

After about a minute, the drop pod began to shake again, much more violently this time. Loud clangs gave the impression of multiple hits taken from above. Tingyun hugged her tail tightly, her eyes fearful. “What’s going on?”

“Loose debris in the shaft,” Overhard guessed, pulling out his terrain scanner to see what was going on. “Looks like we’re passing right by some sort of big underground complex.”

Nadia tried to peer at his tablet over his shoulder. “Wait, doesn’t that sound like where we oughta be goin’? Hold up a sec, let us off!”

After a bit of back-and-forth, Overhard managed to bring the drop pod to a half in the middle of the shaft, suspended by the teeth it was using to climb and the downward rocket burning just enough to keep it up. The doors opened and the ramp flipped down, breaking through a stone brick wall into some kind of dungeon. Nadia and the others piled off, while Tingyun chose to stick with the dwarves. “The sooner I’m back in the space rig, the sooner I can find a starskiff and chart a course toward the Luofu!” she explained, ironically explaining very little. “Thank you for all your help, benefactors. I hope to see you again soon!” Since the drop pod couldn’t tarry long, it was on its way after another moment, bound with all its passengers toward the surface. That left the Seekers in a new, very important, and very ominous place.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/dOYuv1A.jpg[/img][/center]

The heroes had arrived in a sprawling prison complex of considerable age and size, dimly lit by assorted candelabras that stood along the walls or hung from the ceiling. Crumbling walls, pillars, and arches characterized the whole place as one of both antiquarian style and sorrowful neglect, yet one neither in ruin nor silence. Voices and whispers echoed through the place, some more distant than others, eerie but not exactly ghostly. Nadia’s ears turned this way and that, zeroing in on definite sources. Whether this place’s prisoners were ghosts or real people, it didn’t ultimately make a lot of difference. The Seekers’ mission was the same: find the Dreamcatcher, find the eighth mask piece, and move on.

Of course, getting through this place was going to be anything but simple. On the surface this dreadful prison harbored an oppressive, twisted atmosphere, into which who knew how many sufferers had been immersed and left to rot. Although Nadia couldn’t see any enemies outright, her instincts told her to keep her voice down, lest she be discovered by…something. Something about Mercy Dreams ignited the imagination in unpleasant ways. Was it something in the air? Or leaking from the corners or the seams between stones? This strange undercurrent made the feral think of water slowly trickling through caves, slowly eroding cracks in the thin walls of reality and inviting madness to fill in the gaps, or depositing unknown minerals bit by bit to create monstrous teeth and regal columns never before seen, much less made, by man. While not as bad as the eldritch train platform where Nadia encountered the Nowhere Monarch, this place still unnerved her, so rather than sprint off guns ablaze, she slunk over from the wall everyone busted through to a spiky wrought-iron railing that overlooked the central atrium of Mercy Dreams.

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

The complex featured five layers, with the fifth and final being the bottom floor. Roughly shaped like a massive [url=https://i.imgur.com/Xh1ztSs.png]letter I[/url], the rest of the floors ringed the atrium, increasingly narrow the farther down they went, with standalone cell blocks to either side of the central space and a square hall around the edges. Layers could be accessed via staircases barred by metal bar gates, which designated pull-switches could operate. On the opposite side of this first layer stood some sort of office, possibly belonging to a warden. On every floor were prison cells, some open, some not. Every windowless door featured a slot to drop food in and two locks, a bronze one and a silver one, either of which could open the otherwise impregnable cells if they received the right key. All of the voices that permeated this place issued from behind those closed doors, intelligible but delirious. Only one prisoner in the whole place seemed to be trying to get free. At the same time, not all of the open cells were empty. Within one could sometimes find pale, misshapen [url=https://i.imgur.com/w3Gf7n1.png]things[/url], wretches somewhere between man and dragon that lurked in the dark. Dead silent, passive, and almost -but not quite- still as statues.

Nadia could also catch glimpses of the prison’s jailers on patrol. On the fourth layer were [url=https://i.imgur.com/nAEz1nI.png]bishops[/url] on floating cathedra, wielding long spears to thrust downward with from their high chairs, often attended by a couple masked, bleeding flagellants with lashes. On the third layer were [url=https://i.imgur.com/yYZz969.png]mind flayers[/url], robed, tentacled, and beaked. They could cast brilliant soul rays without limit, or if the situation called for it, fire off an electric snare to bind an escapee in place for a deadly grab attack. Deeper still on the fourth layer, [url=https://i.imgur.com/0sDWqVq.png]illuminators[/url]. Anyone within the light of their lanterns would find their maximum health drained at a rate of 25% per second to a minimum of 15%, accompanied by the sound of their pumping hearts. While their max health would restore after twenty seconds, the health itself would not, and if a laughing illuminator managed to brand a target with her soldering iron, the curse it inflicted would prevent healing and increase equip load to hinder evasion. Finally, two abhorrent [url=https://i.imgur.com/5GMHIiM.png]jailers[/url] walked the fifth layer, each massive abomination carrying a cylindrical cage as a weapon. Nadia couldn’t see what they were guarding down there, but it had to be something serious. “...Yeesh.”

That wasn’t all, though. Much to her amusement, she also spotted a number of what looked like paper butterflies quietly sitting or flitting around the prison, the soft rasp of their paper wings adding to the overall ambiance. One fluttered Nadia’s way, and despite her earlier trepidation, she crouched down and went after it, pursuing and pouncing at it repeatedly until she finally caught it between her palms. “Gotcha, haha!” When she opened her hands, the butterfly -or was it a fairy?- unfurled into a sheet of parchment. It depicted one of those strange masked illuminators, naming it as an ‘Irithyll Jailer’. “The jailers were among the few survivors inhabiting the Profaned Capital, later serving under Pontiff Sulyvahn,” she read aloud, bewildered. “Perhaps the screams emanating from the cells help them forget their old home.” The page also gave a number of statistics, including health, resistances (slash and impact), weaknesses (pierce and lightning), and even a selection of three ‘drops’. “Well, that’s useful,” she muttered, passing the page to whoever wanted to read it. “Not to mention really…weird.” Were these paper butterflies the enchanted notes of some sort of monster biologist? Whatever the case, it made her uneasy. “Guess I wouldn’t mind snatchin’ one of their outfits though. Those fancy masks have me feelin’ kinda jail-ous.” Her attempt to lighten the mood did not, unfortunately, get results.

“...Nadia?”

In the middle of the feral’s uneasy chuckle, she heard a voice that made her freeze. It was distant, and a little muffled, but she knew that voice anywhere. Not many people knew her as anything but Ms. Fortune, and it would probably be some of her teammates’ first time hearing her real name, but she didn’t care. Right now, she only wanted one thing. “Minette!?”

“Nadia, is that you!?”

“Minette!” Nadia hesitated, a little spooked. While she sometimes had her moments, she wasn’t stupid. What were the odds of running into her best friend here, of all places? “Where are you? What are you doing here?”

“I’m trapped!” the Dagonian called out from somewhere in the complex. “Please, help me!”

Nervous, Nadia went back over to the railing and looked around, trying to zero in on the voice. She kept her own quiet enough not to alert the jailers. “Hang on, I’ll try and find you!” Like the others she was tired and a little hungry -it had to be dinnertime by now, after all- but now especially, she couldn’t afford to take a break. The hunt was on.