[center][h3]Esaka, the Tiered City[/h3]
[b]Setting:[/b] Clear Thursday Evening
Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (233/150) Level 11 Big Band (143/110)
Amaterasu’s [@DracoLunaris] Roland’s [@Archmage MC] Pit’s [@Yankee] Sakura & Juri’s [@Zoey Boey] Captain Falcon’s [@Double] Yayama’s [@Chevaleresse] Grima’s [@Goggy]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1972[/center]

Thanks to the distances involved, and her general lack of focus which could be diverted by any number of things, Nadia wasn’t privy to any of the conversation that went on between the Seekers in Chanko House Edomon. Instead she bided her time outside at the pub across the street, swishing her tail as she watched people go by.

In Esaka, there was never any shortage of distractions. Between weird-looking yokai arguing about food as they loitered around the eaves and inebriated patrons drinking away their disappointment at early tournament eliminations, Nadia drifted in and out of various conversations, gleaning little of any interest. Random street fights and bar brawls were so stunningly commonplace in the city of fighters that most simply didn’t bear mentioning, and even those that did make their way through the rumor will weren’t liable to offer any useful info. And thanks to her natural regeneration from the Life Gem, she couldn’t even get a buzz from one or two beers; it would take an unseemly amount to overload her system. That left Nadia just sitting there on her impromptu stakeout, bored, as she sipped some British brown ale.

Things changed, however, when her comrades finally finished their chanko feast and began to filter out of the restaurant. Nadia quickly abandoned her casual lounging spot and made herself scarce. Some of the Seekers were just too perceptive for their own good, after all. The feral didn’t mind if her friend Primrose spotted her, but with Therion’s skill at espionage, the last thing she needed was for her fellow thief to catch wind of her and flip the script by tailing [i]her[/i] instead. As loath as she was to admit it, Nadia knew who the better burglar was. Better to not give him the chance to practice his art.

When Pit singled out a couple teammates and took them aside, though, the catgirl couldn’t help but be curious. At first, it just looked like some sort of offhanded delivery, though when the excited word ‘presents’ drifted over to her discrete hiding spot on the breeze, Nadia paid more attention. Gifts, apparently from White Team? How’d they manage that? The feral could only assume they’d roped the Lost Numbers into this. Then again, it would have made more sense for them to be delivered alongside the Bogard twins. More importantly, why wasn’t there one for her? That was a mild annoyance, but she could justify it away by saying she couldn’t have blown her cover to accept a gift even if there was one. Oh well!

She was becoming both increasingly bored and aware that the other Seekers were getting farther away from her until Pit dropped the words that every eavesdropper cherished: [i]secret plans[/i]. At that, Nadia sidled slightly closer for a better listen, going as far as to crouch down behind a [url=https://i.imgur.com/BnjpQAR.png]lazy yokai[/url] dozing by the sidewalk. To her great misfortune, however, Junior and Rika buzzed off, leaving Amatarasu to communicate with pit via some intermediary Nadia didn’t really understand, which led to a very one-sided conversation.

Pit, at least, spilled the beans about his currently planned undertaking. It sounded like maybe the tournaments weren’t all going so well, and the Seekers were considering stockpiling more allies. When the angel mentioned freeing his dojo mates, Nadia began to feel a little guilty. As much as she liked her fellow NMO members and was rooting for success, she hadn’t considered freeing them. Hers was a burden she didn’t want to foist on them, after all, and even if she decided she couldn’t do this on her own, would the others really help her? They (especially Annie) had been kind enough (in Annie’s own way, of course) to help her so far, but the quest to save the worlds was a different ball game.

Nadia was so busy pondering that issue that it took Pit mentioning something ‘wiped out by Moebius’ to make her focus again. [i]Is he talking about Alcamoth?[/i] she thought. As grim as that had been, he better be; she really didn’t need anyone else getting wiped out by Moebius right. From there the conversation sort of wound down, so Nadia got moving, eventually tailing the other Seekers to the High Rollers’ Club. Sadly, the feral decided that the risk of discovery was just too high for her to stroll in and see the inside of a casino for herself, so once again she had to turn away from the main group to find some other way to entertain herself. [i]Man, this ‘lone hero’ thing is hard…[/i]

Still, there were plenty of places one could spend money in the High Tier. Not far from the casino at all lay a [url=https://i.imgur.com/HqMSP2c.png]small cobblestone plaza[/url] where a bunch of booths had been set up in opposing rows, carnival-style, with a number of two-person wrought-iron tables between them. Nadia’s keen sense of smell drew her to the crepes stand, and after about a minute the feral had a little plastic basket loaded with crispy unleavened pastries filled with hazelnut chocolate spread. Nadia made her way to an empty table, laid down her basket on the red-and-white tablecloth, and started munching. The crepes were sweet and flavorful, very good, but Nadia could help but stare at the empty seat across from her and wish that a certain monster hunter was here to share this treat with her.

…Then again, given how much he tended to eat, maybe it was for the best.

While eating, Nadia kept an eye on a couple street performers in the plaza area, all three of them clowns. [url=https://i.imgur.com/lyz2fAM.png]One[/url] looked fairly traditional, although he seemed to serious to actually be that funny and wasn’t drawing much of a crowd, while another (a blue-haired freak known only as [url=https://i.imgur.com/RgdElNC.png]T.H.I.S.[/url]) looked positively monstrous as it juggled chainsaws. Amusingly, it seemed to have attracted a number of fighters disturbed by its appearance, who were just waiting for any reason to jump in and beat the hell out of it, so if anyone was afraid for their life it was probably T.H.I.S. The standout was a [url=https://i.imgur.com/HC9AHUg.png]cute clown lady[/url] with springy arms who could do tricks with nunchucks and flying chakrams, and it looked like she had plenty of adoring fans.

Inside the High Rollers’ Club, meanwhile, a handful of Seekers were busy entertaining themselves. Few were having a better time in there than the Bogard twins. Once they installed themselves at a roulette table, the pair proceeded to kick off the evening with an impressive win streak. Their wins earned them some curious and even questioning looks, so Band hovered nearby to keep an eye out for trouble. The twins did lose a few times, though, and their winnings were never massive. Eventually, most of their doubters were forced to concede that they were simply very lucky. And lucky for them, Bart and Marg were wise enough to move from table to table rather than bleed anyone dry, in order to avoid invoking more ire than usual.

Still, that kind of luck was bound to cause problems, so Band stayed close. Just standing behind the two with a sour look on his face was enough to dissuade the casual complainer, but Band saw more than one well-dressed casino staffer whispering to a coworker or murmuring into an earpiece. Abusing their uncommon good luck had already earned the kids some unwanted attention, and sooner or later, Band knew that this simmering pot was going to boil over.

Not all the Seekers were here to gamble. Roland wandered the floor, hoping to find someone who would interest him. He cast a wide net, not approaching or initiating with anyone in particular, and though this limited his options his ‘efforts’ eventually bore fruit anyway. After passing by a strange [url=https://i.imgur.com/T6WXxAs.png]gaggle of pirates[/url] at a bar, who surrounded a [url=https://i.imgur.com/41bUnXy.png]lovely young woman[/url] who must have been their leader, Roland found himself faced with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/5L2xsxz.png]beautiful Chinese lady[/url] with pink hair, a bright yellow qipao that hugged her quite tightly, and lusterless dark purple eyes beneath Galeem’s glare. “Well, there you are, handsome,” Marilyn Sue Daije greeted him as she hooked her arm around his, her bangles jingling as she fanned herself with a silk tuanshan. Not far away, a very serious-looking, dark-haired [url=https://i.imgur.com/y0gDLon.png]young man[/url] in uniform watched her with a frown on his face, but the lady pretended he wasn’t there.  “I think its about time for that drink you promised me, hm?”

Band’s continuous observation of the casino interior meant that when a couple new players emerged from a back room, the detective took notice. The fact that these two, a man and a woman of about equal height, wore similar outfits and came armed with rattan escrima sticks stood out to him right away. They both sported a gray jacket lined with white fur, the man’s long enough to be a trench coat while the woman made up the difference with long dark hair, with a white ascot, but while the man wore a brown vest with white slacks, his counterpart preferred a brown silk shirt with brown shorts. Regardless, both had a commanding presence that caused customers and subordinates alike to shrink away as they sauntered through, and they were physically big, big enough that they might as well be called [url=https://i.imgur.com/UTByhrW.png]Mr.[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/ujeOvKA.png]Mrs.[/url] Big.

Though of course, neither was as big as Big Band. He figured the luxuriously-dressed duo might be siblings, but more importantly, he assumed they were the floor managers here, if not the big cheeses in charge. He also had to assume the worst: that they were here to address the matter of the Bogard twins’ consistent wins. If the house wasn’t always winning, after all, that was a Big problem.

While Bart and Marg were watching their latest roulette roll, the detective deployed a pair of spindly mechanical arms to nudge them in their backs. “We got trouble,” he alerted them in a low tone. “Head honchos, it looks like, comin’ this way. Better pull out and cash out before things get hairy.”

The twins looked at Band, then past him at the Bigs, then at each other. Neither wanted to quit just yet, but there was a fine line between being lucky and being foolhardy. After exchanging a knowing glance with his sister, Bart discreetly adjusted his tie, just barely nudging his distinctive gemstone broach. The jewel set within, half silvery green aventurine and half luminous amber, gleamed every-so-slightly. A second later, the ivory pill fell into the red eighteen slot, which neither twin had wagered on. “Awwwww!” Both he and his sister chorused, making a big show of their disappointment. “What a bust,” Bart complained.

“Ouch,” Marg added. “After a loss like that, I guess our lucky streak’s run out.”

Shaking his head, Bart backed away from the table, waving at the very annoyed-looking staffer at the table. “Alright, guess we’ll get outta your hair. Toodles!”

The two turned to head for the money counter with their many remaining chips, only to find both Bigs stopped directly in front of them, their faces severe. Band let out a sigh, his mind racing. They hadn’t been fast enough. This could get ugly.

[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/OV83Z6P.png[/img][/center]

Now that the sun had set and night had fallen over the Forbidden Kingdom, the High Tier’s most notable zoo was closed for the day. No guests could enter through the giant locked gates at this hour, but that didn’t mean the zoo was abandoned, as a number of zookeepers, janitors, and other workers were still hard at work, and a handful of security officers -mostly miis- had begun their night shift. These factors meant that the retrieval of Mr. Chevalier’s take-out would be a bit more complicated than Sakura, Primrose, and Therion might have thought.

That said, Anji’s specific mention of Rugal’s Panther Zoo did narrow down the search area quite a bit. Rather than the whole zoo being dedicated to panthers, that spot appeared to be a specific subsection of the zoo, judging by the marked-up maps that would be visible on any zoo brochure (whether retrieved from outside trash bins or otherwise). In fact, Rugal’s Panther Zoo occupied a spot fairly close to the entrance, bordering an exterior wall, so that anyone passing near the complex might be intrigued by the animal sounds and tempted to buy a ticket. As such, the dropped parcel had to be somewhere in that area.

That realization presented its own problems, of course. If it had landed in a panther enclosure it would probably be toast already as the panthers smelled the tantalizing aroma of stewed chicken. If the take-out landed outside, though, a worker could have found it instead. With the whole meal intact, there would be no sense in wasting it, so the worker would have logically taken it somewhere to see whose it was. And where better than the front office, directly between the main gate and Rugal’s Panther Zoo? Still, even if that line of thinking proved to be correct, retrieving it -whether through stealth or diplomacy- would be tricky. A challenge worthy of a suitable reward from the United Nations’ leadership.

[center][h3]The Midnight Walk - Glacial Strata[/h3]
[b]Setting:[/b] Murky Friday Morning
Lvl 10 Sandalphon (5/100) Level 7 Heismay (44/70)
Edward’s [@DracoLunaris] Blazermate & Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC] Ace Cadet’s [@Yankee] Roxas & Ganondorf’s [@Double] Ramattra and Tenna’s [@XoXKieroBombXoX] Mokou’s [@Goggy]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 931

[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/p76VSWM.png]Nameless Stagecoach[/url][/b]
𖥞: 5/8 | 🛡️: 3/8 | [color=blue]◆◆[/color]◆◆ | [b]Equipment:[/b] Stewpot/Vegetubes/Icebox[/center]

When it came to the team’s escape route, the drilldozer might have been at the forefront, but it was Edward Portsmith who demonstrated that when the going got tough, it was the Dreadnought’s time to shine. Especially with his brand new beard, inspirational in its size and triangular shape. The mobile perimeter he set up behind the stagecoach ensured that only a scant few glyphids and terminids managed to breach the defensive line (mostly by crawling on the ceiling out of the golems’ reach), easy pickings for Edward’s allies like Mokou and Ace. Even then, he had enough minions to spare to help scour the caves the dozer carved into.

Though brilliant blue-pink quartz and luminescent mushroom grottos did intrigue Heismay, he left their contents for Sectonia, Ramattra, and the others. The eugief stayed put aboard the drilldozer as the final line of defense to ensure no stray crawlers or surprise burrowers reached the contraption to threaten the caravan’s progress. It took some serious concentration for him to drown out the infernal din created by the dozer’s tunneling, which hurt his sensitive ears and made communication impossible, in order to cut down his foes, but Heismay remained steadfast. With primarily rank-and-file glyphids and terminids fast enough to trace the dozer, Heismay’s steady longsaber carved up bug after bug. If an errant arthropod did somehow manage to get all the way to the dozer, the guardian would be alerted by the onboard AI’s high-pitched screeching, the only thing loud enough to cut through the racket. Neither he nor Mokou would stomach that for long.

With defense taken care of, the only piece of the puzzle left was upkeep, and Blazermate was once again proving her worth. Canister in hand, she could fly around to reach the deposits of oil shell hidden up in the darkness out of reach, then zip back down to keep the dozer up and running. Whatever superficial damage the vehicle received from gnashing fangs and bladed claws, a few whacks of her Engineer striker could fix. All the moving parts came together to keep the convoy moving like a well-oiled machine, with both danger and downtime minimized to very manageable levels.

Still, it took a long time (and a lot of oil shell) to drill back up through solid rock to the surface. The constant noise, reverberations, and acrid fumes certainly didn’t make things easier. When the giant drill finally broke through a crumbling wall of rock and the bitterly cold wind rushed in, it was actually a relief. The drilldozer rolled out into the thick snow, plowed straight through a dead tree, and with a synthetic groan came to rest among the splinters on a [url=https://64.media.tumblr.com/faec8dff03150cf337ac2ceda46f072a/f90709659de221f4-f8/s2048x3072/f5a3ea49d41aa06234737f6298d62ed0db373641.pnj]small snowy field[/url] illuminated by a couple free-standing light pylons. Overhead, the sky above the Frozen Highlands was as dark and cloudy as ever. Heismay shivered in his heavy coat. It felt even colder than it had before.

Thanks once again to Edward perhaps, the team had emerged at quite an opportune spot. Through this snowfield, hemmed in by walls on one side and a sheer drop on the other, ran the Midnight Walk, as evidenced by the burnt matchsticks that flanked the path’s unmistakable pattern. To the right, downhill from here, it looked like an avalanche had blocked the path that the stagecoach would have otherwise needed to traverse. To the left the Midnight Walk continued uphill, but instead of circling what could only be Moon Mountain as it climbed higher and higher, it quickly terminated in a sheer drop. The only way forward was manmade: a rather narrow stone bridge, encrusted with icicles, that spanned the gap to a great stone pillar with what looked like a castle perched atop it.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/eNkIAzs.jpeg[/img][/center]

At the foot of the first staircase stood a small arcane monument, with some kind of magical energy whirling inside it. When Heismay looked around, though, he couldn’t find much else. This snowfield was barren, with no alternate way forward that he could see. At least there were no enemies present either, or defenders stationed atop the castle ramparts, which meant that every one could wipe off the bug gunk and rest up for a bit.

Heismay let out his breath at last. “That’s enough action for me for one morning,” he complained as he massaged his aching ears, then turned back toward the stagecoach. “After all that noise and jostling, I could use a nice, quiet sit-down. Don’t suppose there’s any more stew?” A bite of something warm and hearty was just what he needed. Without any semblance of breakfast, it would be a very long, very hard day. As he approached the rear door, it swung open to let Sandalphon out. He got a good look at her condition, though he ended up wishing he hadn’t. He bit his tongue and stepped aside to let her past in silence, then hopped up the rear steps to access the stagecoach’s interior.

Now Sandalphon surveyed the mountainside, quickly coming to the same unspoken conclusions as the team’s scout. For all the effort the team put in to keep the stagecoach with them, it didn’t look like they could take it any farther than here, not with a bridge half as wide as the vehicle itself. “Let’s gather ourselves and make ready,” she declared, careful with her facial motions as she spoke so the petrified side wouldn’t cause her pain. “Barring any new discoveries, we continue on foot.”