[center][h3]Team Seekers of Fight Debriefing[/h3]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1238 (+2)[/center]

Amaterasu turned from where she’d just finished helping Jun out of the water (she’d drawn the woman a chain of lily pads to walk across) and looked at the two children in confusion. Certainly what they had done was quite impressive, but she assumed it might be that whole Interlinking thing the Koopa children had mentioned learning about rather than something that was alarming to have used. Or perhaps that talent was more of a big deal than the children had let on when they spoke of it.

Either way, she displayed apologies in her body language towards her opponent (she felt she owed Jun even more now given how much she’d learned in the heat of the fighting) and then moved towards the wooden walkway off of their arena.

She gave a bark to get their attention, and then lead used a combination of her sharp senses to track down a place that did not smell or sound of people. This led them to a little swampy section of the pools sporting a few decorative mangrove trees and a trickling waterfall. Based on the signage and the schedule, it looked like it would be free till at least the next round of matches, giving them some time to hunker down out of sight behind a large alligator statue. 

[center][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/151ef88acc03.png[/img][/center]

Breathing heavily, the twins seated themselves on the stone, their hats removed so the cool drizzle could fall upon their blonde hair and sweaty faces. “Phew,” Marg sighed after a moment. “Wasn’t expecting victory to ride on us. But we did it, didn’t we!”

“Even if it took our Stratagems form to do it,” Bart admitted. “Wasn’t sure the Heavenly Principles would let us get away with that after it screwed with how our shields worked, but I guess plenty of people have some kind of super mode.”

“We were badass!” His sister practically sang.

Amaterasu didn’t disagree with their enthusiasm or assessment of how it had been quite the trial by fire to have all that pressure put on them, and did a few tail wags as they enjoyed themselves. Once they’d gotten to have a bit of fun, however, she dipped her paintbrush into the swamp water, and drew streams of it into the air saying “why need to run” in order to try and figure out why they were here.

“Um…” Bart shrugged. “Well, Stratagems is a lot like an Interlink, sp…wait, you guys know about Interlinks, right?”

“Consuls know Interlinks when they see them,” Marg piped up, cutting to the chase. “We do NOT need any Consuls thinking there are Interlinks going on in Esaka.”

Bart nodded, his expression more grave than usual. “Nor that we’re the ones doing it.”

“And there’s no telling who might run and blab to their evil overlords,” Marg added. “So the fewer people see them, the better.”

“I know we took a big risk, but we had to,” Bart said solemnly. “We’ll do our best not to rely on that power going forward.”

[color=1f66b2]”It’s my fault.”[/color] Captain Falcon said. He’d been unusually solemn all this time. [color=1f66b2]”If I hadn’t let the detective best me, we wouldn’t have had to depend so heavily on you two. I’m… sorry. I should have done better.”[/color] He’d been distracted by the disappearance of Terry and his concerns about the twins’ safety. That combined with the heckles from the audience were finally beginning to take their toll on the Captain, taking the form of his losing against Lei Wulong.

Such self-admonishment from the big, braggadocious celebrity seemed to stun the twins for a moment. They shared a glance before trying to lend a hand. “Don’t sweat it!” they chorused, before Marg added, “It just happens. Can’t win every time.”

“It’s a big tournament,” Bart agreed. “Always a bigger fish.”

[color=1f66b2]”Heh, you’re right.”[/color] The Captain replied, his spirits lifting a bit. [color=1f66b2]”In any case, the two of you were great out there.”[/color] He said, then softly added, [color=1f66b2]”Terry would be proud, I’m sure.”[/color]

The kids seemed touched by Falcon’s praise. “Thanks.” Remembering part of why they came here got the two feeling just a bit sentimental. They’d never met their grandfather, the Terry a few generations back, and had only ever learned about him and his famous techniques through his son, their dad Al. And now, it looked like they might never get the chance to meet the current Terry, either. Not that they were trying to rekindle a familial bond that never existed in the first place; they just wanted to meet the man, the myth, the legend for who he really was. Still, their involvement here meant that the Bogard name would go places, one way or another.

While the humans had been talking, Amaterasu had been both waiting for her ink to recharge, and going over in her head about how she should phrase what she needed to say regarding their fusion with only 4 words. In the end she settled on “koopa children might interlink” and hoped that this pair could pick up on the need to warn them about the amount of ire that would bring. 

Bart and Marg’s eyebrows shot up at the same time. It was almost comical just how in sync the two really were. “They are? Wow. It’s been forever since any of you guys actually managed to do it.” By ‘you guys’, Amaterasu would have to assume they meant the people borne of Galeem’s Life Service, destoried and destined to fight for the worlds’ freedom.

“If true, that’s big news,” Bart remarked. “Interlinks are the only thing that can bust open Flame Clocks. I mean, us Lost Numbers can do it, but even we’re not strong enough to destroy one…” From his tone and the way he sighed, there might be more to the story there than he let on.

Marg gave Falcon and Amaterasu the finger guns. “Really, you Seekers should be doing your darndest to make as many Interlinks happen as possible. I know it’s hard as hell forging strong bonds in a such a sucky world, but hey, the Lost Numbers are proof it can happen.”

“Life finds a way! Just got to find that special someone,” Bart explained.

Had she been with the Seekers longer, this news might have caused Amaterasu’s jaw to drop. Given that she’d just learned flame clocks a few days ago and not thought much about them since then due to having never seen one, she took this mostly in stride.

The information didn’t mean a whole lot to the Captain either. He knew of the clocks and that they were an important target, but beyond that, he wasn’t as active in keeping track of that information as certain others were.

As that conversational topic came to an end, the twins turned their minds elsewhere. They’d had a brief but much-needed breather, but they weren’t out of the woods just yet. “Guess we’ll find a bulletin board,” Marg suggested.

“See who we’re up against next, when, and where,” her brother spelled out. King of Fighters was no where near World Warrior or Tekken when it came to the sheer amount of competitors to get through, but even though the team’s path would be shorter, every step on the way would be that much harder.