Double

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

@Terry Bogard

Word Count: 664
Level 5 Captain Falcon: 40/50
Exp Gained: +1
NEW EXP Balance--- 41/50

Forbidden Kingdom ~ Esaka’s Lower Tier ~ Breakers Dojo

“And, of course, this is the main dojo area.” Lee Dao-Long said as he and Captain Falcon completed the brief tour of the Breakers Dojo. The dojo itself was humble, but had all the necessary amenities. And as a bonus, it was kept in quite good shape compared to some of its other contemporaries in the Lower Tier. Clearly Jin Sawamura had pride in the upkeep of this dojo despite its humble status. “That should just about do it, I think. I trust you can find everything okay, Captain?”

”Of course.” Falcon said, grateful for the tour given to him by his new acquaintance. ”I appreciate it, Lee.” He added giving the young man a firm handshake. ”I did have some questions about how to register for the Tournament, too. Anything you can tell me?”

“Ah, for that you’ll need to find a combot.” Lee said, “They’re these robotic mascot characters that can be found all over Esaka. Just find one and let it know your name, the dojo you represent, and which tournament you’re entering.”

”That simple, eh?” Cap said, ”I’d better go look for one, then. Thanks again, Lee.”

“Hold on, Captain.” Lee said before Falcon could leave. “You mentioned earlier that you wanted to enter the King of Fighters, right?”

”Yep, that’s the one. Why?” Cap asked curiously.

“That one has a few… special rules compared to the others.” Lee explained, “Namely, you’ll need to be on a 3-man team in order to fight in it. And not for tag-matches either. You each fight one after the other, if you defeat your opponent, you’ll immediately move on to their next in line. Once you drop the person behind you will be able to step in and pick up where you left off.”

”Ah…” Cap mused. Now that he thought about it, he did remember Terry mentioning that he needed a team for the KOF. ”...so I’ll have to get two fighters from here who are willing to join me?”

Lee shook his head. “Not necessarily. KOF teams don’t absolutely have to consist of fighters from the same dojo. In fact it’s fairly common for teams to be mixed and matched, especially here in the Lower Tier.”

”Ah, well that simplifies things.” Cap said with a hint of relief in his voice. He just needed to find Terry and all they had to do then was grab a third member and they’d be golden. ”I better get going. I’ve got some recruiting to do and not a lot of time to do it. See ya later, Lee! Hope to face you in a match soon.”

“Same here, Captain.” Lee said as he watched the bounty hunter take his leave, “Good luck to you.”

Forbidden Kingdom ~ Esaka’s Lower Tier

Once outside, Cap knew he had to move fast. Time was running short to register for the tournaments and he needed to get a team together. If he could find Terry, that would at least one down since the bruiser did seem interesting teaming up earlier. That just meant they’d have to find a third fighter. Maybe one of the other Seekers? Or maybe Terry knew someone? Well, no time like the present.

”Let’s see, how does this work?” Cap murmured to himself as he fumbled with his linkpearl and attempted to figure out how to make it work. Magic things like this were obviously not his forte. ”I think I just… squeeze it right?”

Eventually, Captain Falcon managed to figure out the linkpearl and got his activated. ”Ahem, is thing on? Terry, can you hear me? It’s Falcon. Got myself signed up at a dojo so we’re good to form a team for the King Of Fighters if you’re still interested. Let’s meet up and do this thing, but we’d better hurry. Clock’s ticking on the registrations.”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Word Count: 2,026
Level 7 Ganondorf: 64/70
Level 10 Roxas: 54/100
Exp Gained: +3
NEW EXP Balance--- 67/70, 57/100

Frozen Highlands ~ Krat Zoo

By the time Roxas had returned to the stagecoach from catching Reindrix, he quickly found out that the stagecoach had been attacked by Reavers while his group had been away. But seeing as how the stagecoach, his friends, and their supplies were all still intact it was a safe bet that the ambush failed in the end.

Speaking of said ambush, Ganondorf had regarded the attack in a dismissive tone. He’d done his part in making those pathetic bandits regret targeting them, but for him the ambush felt almost trivial. Like he was more annoyed by it rather than relishing the challenge. He did want a chance to test one particular new power he had gained from the Gravemind, but wasn’t afforded the chance when it came to the Reavers. So he knew he would have to wait for another opportunity to present itself.

And present itself, the opportunity most certainly did. Almost as soon as the Seekers had set foot in the Hall of Adventure, they were set upon by what could only be described as undead apes. Roxas and Ganondorf could only imagine that these things were among the Zoo’s former occupants, and were now running free. Initially in the encounter, two of the apes made a lung for Ganondorf and one of them targeted Roxas. Ganondorf had little trouble, all things considered. The first ape that lunged at him was caught by the throat before getting slammed into the second, stunning them long enough for Ganondorf to call forth his trident and plunge forward. The weapon skewered one ape allowing the Warlord to loosen his grip on the shaft and quickly catch the second ape with a Gerudo Dragon uppercut that sent it stumbling back. The warlord capitalized by using his newest dashing ability to teleport back into close range and finish it off with Flame Choke. Roxas, by contrast, had some slight difficulty at first. His smaller frame meant he was in greater danger of being overpowered by the ape that was attacking him. When it first lunged, he was quick enough to cast Reflectga in order to block it and cause the damage to be dealt back to the ape. After that the Nobody vanished and reappeared behind the ape to slash it with the energy blade of his StepSword. But he was caught by a swing of the ape’s arm that sent him sprawling. Scamp had to charge in and pull off a risky Nuzzle to inflict paralysis so that Roxas could launch back in with a Cross Slash that the Boltund then followed by using Spark. All in all, both the Warlord and the Nobody managed their part of the fight well enough.

After the fight, the Seekers were allowed to get a better look around the room. The first thing that drew attention was the metal door. It wouldn’t budge. And while Ganondorf might be capable of breaking through it if he tried hard enough, he frankly didn’t want to waste the energy. For a moment, Roxas thought the door was just locked and tried to use his Keyblade, but to no avail. ”Not locked.” He said, confirming Sandalphon’s guess that it was likely barred from the other side.

”Hmph, just means we’ll have to find a way around.” Ganondorf grunted, quickly deciding to explore the eastern side of the Hall. Roxas, not having any better ideas, shrugged and decided to follow after the Warlord.

”Place is pretty freaky for a zoo.” The Nobody observed, noting the dilapidated state of the building, not to mention the stomach-churning looks of the “animals” that resided here.

”Indeed.” Ganondorf concurred, ”But The Basement is still by far the worst place I’ve ever seen.”

”The… Basement?” Roxas tilted his head, having been with the Midgar Team rather than the Under Team during that particular period.

”Trust me,” Ganondorf said, ”you don’t want to know.”

As the two Seekers continued their way, their path naturally led closer to the Hall of Adventure’s East Wing. And when they finally could see what was waiting in there…

”Ugh, what is that?” Roxas asked, quite disturbed by the elephant monstrosity roaming the East Wing.

”An obstacle, as far I’m concerned.” Ganondorf said, summoning his trident with a wicked grin.

That was when they both heard Sandalphon’s warning over the communication she’d long since established with both of them. And it was Roxas who answered back, ”Copy that, Halo.” He said over the communication glyph over his ear, even as he watched with widening eyes as Ganondorf was already charging in to take the monster on. ”I’m already in the East Wing with Ganondorf, and… it looks like he’s already decided we’re gonna fight it.” He cut the transmission and recalled Scamp to his Poke Ball, thinking the elephant might be a bit too dangerous to risk letting him fight. Then the Nobody vanished.

Meanwhile, Ganondorf was already approaching where the elephant creature was lumbering. While he didn’t charge it directly, he did start closing the distance. In addition he summoned a squad of Moblin Archers to pepper the abomination with their fire arrows. The elephant reared its head in preparation for a charge, only for Roxas to appear on top of its back and slash it with his StepSword. So rather than charge, the elephant began to thrash in place in an attempt to fling the attacker from its back. ”Whoa!” The Nobody yelped, struggling to stay balanced while he attempted to cast Aeroga on himself. The spell went through but at the cost of Roxas not being able to stay up on the elephant’s back longer.

”My turn!” Ganondorf grunted as he used Bullet Jump to launch himself into the elephant’s side, plunging his trident into its body. The weapon sunk in, and certainly did its damage. But the elephant only responded by thrashing even more violently as fire arrows from the Moblins started hitting it. Rather than try to remain, Ganondorf pushed himself off with another Bullet Jump and landed safely back on the ground before re-summoning his trident. At that point he saw a protective whirlwind appear around his body.

It was Roxas, casting an Aeroga on Ganondorf followed by a Tailwind to help him move just a little more quickly. But that was all he had time to do before the elephant finally did a charging attack. Thankfully Roxas was just barely fast enough to dive out of the way. And Ganondorf? He smirked and used his Chaos Rift to teleport forward, harmlessly passing through the charging elephant and reappearing on the opposite side. His Moblins weren’t so lucky and were promptly trampled, leaving Roxas and Ganondorf alone again.

”Um, any other minions?” Roxas asked curiously, before suddenly getting an idea. ”I choose you… Shocker!” With a quick toss he released his Rotom from its Poke Ball. ”Shocker, quick! Use Confuse Ray!” The ghost Pokemon practically warped to the elephant’s fase and flashed it with glowing eyes. When the elephant began shaking its head and appearing as if it was looking for its bearings, that indicated the attack worked.

”Not bad.” Ganondorf admitted, ”For such a small creature. And yes, boy, I do in fact have more minions.” He said as he began channeling magic to summon Phantom Ganon to back them up. Meanwhile he noticed Roxas was recalling his Pokemon back into its ball only to brandish another one.

”Come out, Turbo!” Roxas said, calling out his newest Pokemon, the Revavroom charged her engine in anticipation. ”Use Screech!” The Pokemon obeyed, revving her engine until it made an ear-piercing noise that sharply lowered the elephant’s defense just in time for Phantom Ganon to drop down from above with his black nail - using a strong combination of Ripping Bear to empower himself and N Corp’s Nail to capitalize on the debuff for a powerful stab that also inflicted Bleed on the elephant. ”Now we’re getting somewhere!” Roxas said, ”Turbo? Keep your distance and keep using Screech!” Then he vanished again.

At this point, the confused elephant had managed to bat away Phantom Ganon with its thrashing. But now the actual Ganondorf had rejoined the fray, using Bullet Jump to launch himself up and onto the carcass’ back so he could proceed to plunge his trident downward, hoping maybe stabbing the head or neck might prove fatal. It didn’t, due to the elephant’s undead nature. But the attack still did heavy damage anyway thanks to the debuffs from Turbo using Screech. That was when Roxas reappeared nearby and also attacked the elephant’s neck/spinal area with his StepSword. But this time, both Seekers could predict what was about to happen and both jumped from the elephant’s back before it started thrashing about. Phantom Ganon chose not to charge in again, but instead attacked from a distance by launching a crackling sphere of dark magic at the thrashing beast, inspiring Roxas to do the same by casting a Firaga Spell at the Elephant.

”Hmph, this thing must be getting close to death by now!” Ganondorf grunted, javelin-throwing his trident into the elephant’s hide and following that with a lightning blast that struck the weapon like a lightning rod. That certainly hurt a lot, enough that the maddening elephant chose to charge toward Ganondorf. And this time the somewhat closer proximity didn’t give Ganondorf quite enough time to Chaos Rift out of the way, resulting in the Warlord getting knocked down and nearly trampled on. The damage was heavy, and would have been even worse if not for the Aeroga spell which was just now wearing off.

Roxas, on the other hand, was quick enough to dive out of the way. Seeing that the Aeroga spells were gone, he quickly cast two more. And then… ”Heal!” He cast Curaga, thinking it was going to restore Ganondorf. But he was wide-eyed with shock when it appeared to have no effect. ”Wha- I don’t understand, that usually works…”

Ganondorf pushed himself to his feet through gritted teeth. ”No, you fool! Healing doesn’t work on me anymore, not since I took the Gravemind spirit!”

”You couldn’t have told me that BEFORE I wasted all my magic?” Roxas said, flustered and surprised. Unfortunately, this little interaction gave the elephant enough time to recover from its confusion. But not before Phantom Ganon hit it with another N Corp’s Nail, inflicting a worse form of Bleeding now that the carcass was below half of its health. Thanks to the Curaga blunder, Roxas was now without any MP to use for the next half-minute. That was going to make this harder. He decided to mimic the strategy he told Turbo to employ and keep his distance. In fact he hopped on the Pokemon’s back and let her carry him while he fired charged shots from his RockGun, occasionally telling Turbo to use Screech again to try and lower the elephant’s defense further.

Ganondorf fought through the pain to brandish his trident again, watching as Phantom Ganon was finally vanquished by the elephant. Getting frustrated, he empowered his trident with dark energy, preparing a new strategy. He threw the trident at the elephant, but this time it forced the beast to be pulled back toward the Warlord who was waiting with an angry Warlock Punch to smash it with. Ganondorf’s Warlock Punch was already known to be quite a strong attack, but against an enemy whose defenses were already immensely lowered, it would be devastating. Ganondorf roared as his fist collided with the elephant, the Triforce of Power giving him enough strength to launch the large beast away from him despite its size. That, it seemed, had been enough. Both the Seekers watched as the thrashing elephant slowly melted and dissolved into ash, leaving its spirit behind - which Ganondorf claimed and bottled for later.

”Um, Halo?” Roxas said over the communication glyph after he recalled Turbo to her Poke Ball, ”The elephant monster’s down. East Wing should be okay now. And one more thing? Apparently, healing powers don’t work on Ganondorf anymore. Because of the Gravemind spirit, he told me. Just… thought you should probably know and would want to inform everyone else who can perform healing.”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Word Count: 1,648
Level 5 Captain Falcon: 37/50
Exp Gained: +3
NEW EXP Balance--- 40/50

Forbidden Kingdom ~ Esaka’s Lower Tier

At Terry’s advice, Captain Falcon spent several minutes wandering Esaka’s lower tier in search of the Psycho Dojo, but had no luck in finding it. The closest the Captain came was a run down dojo called Saikyo Ultimate Style, but he quickly found out that it was not run by Terry’s friend, so it couldn’t possibly have been the dojo the hat-wearing bruiser was referring to. Besides, the name of the dojo was different anyway.

Of course, the bounty hunter had no idea that this was indeed the dojo Terry was referencing. But due to his own ignorance of the bruiser’s misspelling, Falcon walked away and continued his search. After several more minutes of searching for a dojo that he technically already unknowingly found, Captain Falcon was ready to give up. But that was when he spotted one of the other dojos that Terry had mentioned.

”Breakers, eh?” He mused, rubbing his chin in thought. He knew there was only so much time for new fighters to sign on with dojos so the Captain decided it had to be this one or bust. ”Well, if Terry says they’re good, then I have no reason to think otherwise.” Cap concluded with a shrug as he approached the dojo’s doors and pushed his way inside.

The building was a bit run-down, but it was clear that someone here was at least trying to maintain the upkeep despite lacking what the higher tier dojos had. It was almost like this place collectively had something to prove and an aura of determination to prove it. Or maybe that was just Falcon’s imagination. Either way, he found he quite liked the look of the place despite its humble nature. Inside, students practiced against wooden dummies and sparred against each other. As Falcon’s eyes scanned the surroundings for whoever might be in charge, his gaze noticed faded posters and trophies referencing something called the “FIST Tournament”, likely some other fighting tournament that probably fell off due to the high prominence of the Four Kings and their specific tournaments of choice. He also spotted two unfurled scrolls hanging above that each displayed kanji that read the names of the dojo’s top two pupils, however the Captain was unable to read the language so the names remained unknown to him.

And there, instructing a row of pupils in basic kata exercises, was the man Captain Falcon had to assume was in charge here. He was a karate master wearing a distinctive yellow dogi, a tight white undershirt beneath the top and guards on his shins. He had sunkissed skin-tone and dark brown hair that he appeared to keep cut short save for some lengthy bit on the top that was swept aside. After a moment, the instructor's gaze caught Falcon’s and he paused his teaching to greet him. “Welcome!” He said, leaving the pupils to practice on their own while he approached Falcon, “I am Jin Sawamura, and you’re currently standing in the Breakers Dojo. How can I be of assistance?”

”I’m looking to take part in the King of Fighters Tournament.” Cap said with a grin, ”And I was hoping your fine school was accepting applicants.”

“The King of Fighters, you say?” Jin said, appearing to size the Captain up, “Hmm, yes, perhaps we could take you in… if you’re willing to take a small test, er…?” He never caught Falcon’s name.

”Falcon.” Cap said politely, ”Captain Falcon. As for your test? I’ll gladly take it. What do I have to do?”

“You’ll be sparring against one of my pupils.” Jin explained, “Full contact, and the goal is simple - land a single solid hit, unblocked. Do this, and I will accept your entry into Breakers.”

”Simple enough.” Falcon said, already loosening and rolling his shoulders, ”Who am I up against?”

“Me.” Came an unfamiliar voice belonging to a confident young martial artist wearing loose blue pants, small black shoes, and a white long-sleeved jacket over his torso. He brushed aside a strand of his blue hair and cracked his knuckles. Either he had only just entered the room, or Falcon simply hadn’t noticed him before now. “Let me be the one to test him, Sensei.”

“As you wish, Lee.” Jin said with a nod, “This is Lee Dao-Long, one of the two star pupils of the Breakers Dojo. There is no one better to test yourself against than him.”

”Then let’s not waste anymore time.” Falcon said, already joining Lee in one of the sparring rings. He bounced on the balls of his feet, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck joint to loosen up.

“One more thing.” Jin said calmly, “You’ll find that the Tournament fights in Esaka are typically done within strict time limits. So a time limit rule applies here as well.” A pause, “You have 30 seconds to pass the test.”

That was certainly going to make things more challenging. But Captain Falcon only smiled. A challenge like that was exactly the kind of thing a man like him relished. As soon as Jin gave the signal to begin, Falcon was already on the move. With his blistering speed he circled around Lee and then slid forward along the ground, his leg ablaze with fire. ”Falcon Kick!”

But Lee was no slouch. With a lightning fast crouch he pushed himself into a straight jump that allowed Falcon’s sliding kick to slide harmlessly beneath him. The second his feet touched the ground, Lee’s hand reached for his white jacket and he tore it off and threw it aside, revealing a form-fitting sleeveless shirt that matched the color of his pants as well the blue bracers on his wrists that depicted golden dragons coiling along them. “Kou Ryuuga!” Lee chanted, thrusting his open palms forward which appeared to conjure a blue blast of chi in the shape of a dragon’s head that flew toward Falcon.

”Ryuugeki Sen!” The bounty hunter chanted as he quickly whirled his body around and swung his arm, focusing chi into an orange disk of flame that flew forward to intercept the incoming chi attack. The two blasts collided and canceled one another out, rendering Falcon and Lee exactly as they were when the match started - evenly matched with neither landing a blow yet. The fighters lunged at each other and the match began anew.

It was a blur of punches, kicks, and palm strikes that were blocked or redirected. Falcon noted the unique empty-handed strikes that Lee prominently fought with and how it wasn’t an exact match for the karate being used by the other students in the dojo. This had to mean he trained under more than one discipline. After a few short seconds of evenly matched exchanges, Falcon decided to go on the offensive again. ”Raptor Boost!” He called as he lunged and threw his flame-wreathed uppercut. Lee pivoted to the side and then dived at the bounty hunter with arms making a circular swinging attack that carried his momentum forward. Falcon’s response to raise his defense and let his bubble shield block what could have been a bad hit had it gone through unobstructed.

“15 seconds!” Jin’s voice, reminding Captain Falcon of the time limit and warning him that half of that time limit had already passed.

That made the Captain realize that he couldn’t afford to continue cautiously testing the waters with Lee. Either he needed to start taking risks or he’d be timed out of passing the test. At that moment, Lee’s voice shrieked as he channeled another chi attack. This time the dragon head was slightly larger and appeared to be actively chomping as it flew toward Falcon. With no time to think, the Captain spent one of his built up Power Gauge stocks and charged up his chi. ”Haoh Shoukou Ken!” He thrust his open palms forward and unleashed the fireball that clashed with Lee’s chomping dragon head. They canceled each other out again, but this time the fireball created a temporary poof of smoke that partially obstructed vision within the ring.

And while Lee coughed and struggled to keep the smoke from his eyes, Captain Falcon needed no such protection thanks to the visor of his helmet guarding his eyes. He moved through the temporary smokescreen until he was right on Lee with fire and electricity charging in his fist, ”Falcon…!” He began, as if he was about to unleash his signature Falcon Punch technique. Lee responded accordingly by preparing to block. But the punch never came. It turned out to be a feint, a ruse Falcon used to get Lee to block in one direction so he could pivot around to strike from another angle. And that’s exactly what Falcon did jumping upward into a backflip kick that brought his leg up against Lee from his flank. ”Ryuuzanshou!”

Lee grunted as the kick launched him upward and staggered him back. He tightened his stance as if ready to go on the attack again, but Jin’s sharp voice stopped him.

“Enough!” Jin gave a nod of acknowledgment to Captain Falcon, “A solid hit, and in under 30 seconds. Exactly as requested. Congratulations, Captain, you pass. And… welcome to the Breakers.”

Falcon breathed a sigh of relief as he approached Lee and extended a friendly hand. ”Good match.” He complimented, giving a friendly grin.

Lee paused a moment before taking the bounty hunter’s hand, “Yes, I suppose it was.” He agreed, almost begrudgingly. “But don’t think this means we won’t finish what we started eventually, Captain.”

”Wouldn’t dream of it.” Cap agreed, ”I’d love to find out how a full match between us would have gone.”

“Agreed.” Lee said with a small smile, “But first, let’s get you better acquainted with the dojo.” With that he took Falcon on a tour of the dojo and explained where its facilities were, allowing the two to chat and get better acquainted.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Frozen Highlands - Young and Old

Level 5 Heismay (19/50) & Level 10 Roxas (46/100)
Word Count: 3,480 (+4 EXP and Rapport)

Unsurprisingly, few of the Seekers had the patience to sit around the excruciatingly slow stagecoach as Edward’s golems tugged it along the Midnight Walk, so a number went on ahead to survey the path that lay before them. Night in the Highlands might look peaceful, with its gentle blankets of snow and darkness shrouding both wood and moor, but almost nowhere in the World of Light could truly be considered safe. For a time, Heismay contented himself with standing watch from his lonesome perch atop the stagecoach, a short and silent sentinel against any dangers that might spring from the shadows.

His keen eyes could glimpse what the others were up to, though. Edward did well to attend to the Ty-foo that stood to obstruct the wagon’s path; their ride might be sturdy, but there was no need to test its fortitude against the vaporous monster’s blustery breath. It wasn’t long after that that the long-eared hermit began to grow restless. And no matter how warm his new parka might be, prolonged inactivity while exposed to the elements out here would allow the cold to seep in. After a particularly strong jolt from the stagecoach as a wheel rolled over a stone buried beneath the snow, which nearly threw the eugief off his feet, Heismay made the executive decision to set off on a brief excursion of his own.

Just now, the wagon happened to be rolling past a frozen lake. On the near shore huddled the cat-eared huts of a cute little fishing village, their red walls warmly illuminated by blazing campfires, so close that any Seeker so inclined could visit it with ease. On the far shore, however, he could see the dilapidated but distinctive mast of a shipwreck, a desolate vessel lined with long oars and locked in the ice for who knew how long. Going there struck Heismay as a much better way to stretch his legs, and perhaps warm up his sword-arm too, if that warship wasn’t as abandoned as it looked.

Approaching the edge of the wagon’s roof, Heismay glanced down at a young man still walking alongside the vehicle. The boy couldn’t have been much older than his son would have been, which brought a melancholy smile to the old bat’s face. Against his better judgement, he cleared his throat. “Ho there, young lad. You look like a sprightly fellow. I plan to pay that shipwreck over yonder a visit. There, cross the ice. Care to join me? Should we find any buried treasure, I’ll gladly consent to a fifty-fifty split.” His joke might paint him as a more lighthearted man than he really was, but oh well.

Roxas, at least first, looked like he was somewhere else. He was just thinking back to the last conversation he had with Pit before they were all deployed.

Flashback

The Night Before Deployment

Word Count: 3033 (+4 exp/rexp)

By the time Roxas made it back to his bunk, his roommate was already there. He could tell by the slightly muffled voice that could be heard through the door. It was not uncommon; sometimes Pit preferred to commune with Palutena aloud. When the door opened the angel paused, sitting up from where he'd been lying in bed. He grinned at Roxas, folding his legs underneath him.

"Roxas! Did you know we have a giant robot on board now?"

”Huh?” Roxas asked, tilting his head. ”Giant robot? For real?”

"Yeah! Me and Blazermate went to check it out in the hangar. It's huge! Blazermate said they picked up a new person earlier and she brought along her mech." Pit didn't mention that it was pretty beat up looking, as that would dampen the excitement of having one on their side in the first place. Plus he preferred to think it would be up and running sooner rather than later.

Pit thought his afternoon of avoiding a huge circus train and catching some entertainment at the rocket league arena with Nero and Nico had been exciting, but apparently once everyone had split up they'd gotten into a lot more action than he did. Speaking of, Pit tipped his head slightly as he regarded Roxas with a curious look. "What've you been up to today? Feels like I haven't seen you around at all since lunchtime."

”I went with Jr and Rika to look for materials we could use to make more Poke Balls, and Geralt ended up coming with us.” Roxas explained. ”Got into one fight when a couple bigger monsters were chasing around some wild Pokemon.”

”Oh, check it out!” Roxas suddenly said excitedly as he released Scamp from his Poke Ball. ”Scamp evolved while we were doing all of that! We were battling a tough Pokemon I was trying to catch and all of a sudden Scamp started glowing and growing bigger until he looked like this.”

"Whoa!" The Pokémon looked a lot different now, from a fluffy little puppy to a tall, sleek hound. If Pit hadn't been familiar with the general concept of how Pokémon worked, he might have had a hard time believing they were the same animal. He clapped his hands together then held them out to beckon Scamp over for some petting. "I've never seen one evolve before - sounds cool though."

Was he supposed to say congratulations? And if so, to Scamp or his trainer??

"Did you end up getting the other one you wanted?"

”Yup.” Roxas confirmed, ”I’d let her out so you can see her, but she’d be a little cramped in here. She’s a Revavroom that I named Turbo.” The Nobody fished his Rotom Phone out of his pocket and brought up Revaroom’s Pokedex entry and passed the phone to Pit so he could see a picture of what the Pokemon looked like. ”Her engine and wheels make her faster than she looks. And she’s a Steel type which makes her really tough against physical attacks. Geralt caught a Pokemon of his own, too. A Shieldon, and he named it Tirn.”

"Even Geralt's becoming a trainer?" the angel asked in surprise. He hadn't expected that of the man. Though to be fair, he hadn't gone out of his way to really get to know him ever since the awkward spar.

I guess the Poké-mania continues, Pit thought as he looked down at the 'Revaroom' photo. Were those really supposed to be wheels? Pit turned the phone and his head, trying to get a better sense of what kind of creature Turbo was. He hadn't seen very many Pokémon in the grand scheme of things, but weren't they usually like amped up plants and animals and things like that? Finally Pit spotted the singular eye in the picture displayed in the Pokédex app, and it mostly came together from there.

"She's like a living car? That's awesome - you can ride her around in the Highlands!"

”Yeah, more or less.” Roxas said. By this point he was reclined back on his bunk with Scamp curled up on the floor right next to it. ”So what did YOU get up down in the Paved Wilderness?” Roxas asked his angelic roommate. ”Anything fun?”

"Well everyone that went to Hammerhead ended up going a bunch of separate ways. I wanted to go to this arena I've been to before, it's like a giant cage and has all these cars driving around inside of it playing soccer... somehow. I dunno how it works but it's really cool! Anyway, Nero and Nico -have you met Nico?- gave me a ride, so the three of us went over that way. On the way we saw this gigantic truck that was like a circus tent with a big ugly clown face and metal arm attached to it which had some kind of busted up airplane or something, and they -the big truck had a bunch of normal sized ones driving around with it- were attacking anything that got close. I think they must have had a ton of the treasure crates everyone else was looking for. I wanted to go check it out, buuut we ended up sneaking around it instead. Well Nico was driving so she did it, me and Nero were just along for the ride."

Pit flopped back over, laying on his side with his head propped up on his hand. "So anyway, once we got to the arena I was gonna look for some of those cases, but I wanted to see if I could find some of the people we met there last time. There was one of Captain Falcon's friends, and Ken, like the Ken. Didn't see them, so then we went to catch a match..."

He continued to give Roxas a play by play, up until the return to Hammerhead and the message that Nero was going to head to the Theater of War. The rest of the night had been covered by the meeting, dinner, the service, and the discovery of Celica's skell in the hangar.

Unfortunately, Roxas had no idea who “the” Ken was. But he took Pit’s word for it that the guy was probably famous or something. ”Soccer with… cars?” Was his first reaction. The Rocket League sounded kind of bizarre, but he figured the sport must have had an audience for there to be a whole arena dedicated to it. ”Sounds wild. After we saved the Pokemon being attacked by monsters on our end, Geralt and I captured them. After that we did a little spelunking around to find the ores and stones we were looking for. Oh, and we needed to find a grove of apricorn trees since that was another ingredient we needed.” Roxas said, beginning to offer a play by play of his own.

”On our way we came across an abandoned gas station that was occupied by some armed guys who told us they’d open fire if we got too close. Jr was all ready to pick a fight, but thankfully Geralt was able to talk him out of it. All we really needed was a solid wall for him to paint one of his portals on for us. So I just used my virtual cubes to make him one. We went into the diner at Hammerhead for snacks and drinks before we came back up to the Avenger.”

"Huh, wonder if they were scavenger hunters too," Pit mused of the armed men. It had seemed like a lot of people had been taking that really seriously. It sounded like they'd only run into trouble with some monsters though, pocket or otherwise, and the rest of the time they'd just gathered rocks. Not terribly exciting, especially not enough to keep up an energetic conversation when the hour was getting late. Pit was curious about why they were even getting that stuff in the first place though, so he asked, "What'd you need the ore and corn for?"

”So we can make more Poke Balls.” Roxas answered, ”Or so Dr. Yu can, I guess. We let her reverse-engineer one of our spare Poke Balls so she could learn the recipe for how to make more of them for us. After that all we needed to do was gather the ingredients.”

"Oooh." Did all Pokémon trainers have to make their own Pokéballs? Pit was pretty sure there were marts and shopping centers that sold that kind of thing, but then again he hadn't checked himself. Plus, maybe they weren't very common in this world.

Pit turned over to lay on his back, his wings splayed out on either side of him and his hands folded on his midsection. "I never really got the Pokémon collection thing. I mean yeah they're cute, and some of them are strong, but, I dunno. I used to have one a long time ago -PikaPit- but now he lives on a farm."

The angel then turned his head to glance at Roxas across the room. "Seems like you're getting really good at training them though. Isn't it kind of weird how some stuff from other worlds feels more... natural, I guess, than others? Like maybe your world and wherever Pokémon come from are actually pretty close!"

”I guess?” Roxas said with a shrug. ”I never really thought about that before. I know there were creatures in my world that could be raised kinda like Pokemon. But they only existed in Dream Worlds, so you’d never see them without going into deep sleep to enter those worlds yourself. They had a name, too… Dream Eaters? Or something like that?”

After a moment he admitted, ”Sora knows more about that than I do. He and his friend Riku were the ones who traveled through Dream Worlds. I was… well… not really ‘around’ for that part.”

Sora... the name was sort of familiar, but no face immediately came to Pit's mind to fit with it.

"Aw, that sounds pretty fun... did they go on adventures without you or something?" As much as he genuinely considered Roxas a friend, he didn't know a lot about the boy's past besides what he'd managed to pick up. Things in Twilight Town, the association with Organization XIII. If he'd missed out on something cool like going into people's dreams, then... "Maybe... we could go see some Dream Eaters here? If they live inside people's dreams then if we can figure out a way to jump into people's heads while they're asleep, it'll probably lead to a Dream World."

”That’s… not quite how it works.” Roxas said with a soft laugh, ”It’s probably more accurate to call them Sleeping Worlds. It’s not people’s dreams, but a whole world’s. It’s a dream version of a sleeping world that fell to Darkness and never properly reawakened from it.” He explained, or at least tried to anyway. It was always confusing trying to explain the things he wasn’t there to witness in his world.

It was a little hard to picture too, though not entirely impossible. Pit likened it to a world in stasis, waiting, and some kind of collective dream formed from its people.

”And the reason I wasn’t… around… isn’t because they left me behind.” Roxas said, ”I’m what my world calls a Nobody. In my world, Hearts that get consumed by Darkness become transformed into creatures called Heartless. And sometimes, if a person with a strong enough Heart becomes one of those Heartless, the empty shell left behind continues to live and exist on its own. Those are called Nobodies. I was, um, am… Sora’s Nobody. I existed for about a year before I had to return to Sora’s Heart. But he found a way to bring me out again later so that we could exist side by side. So the things about his adventures in Sleeping Worlds? That all happened before he brought me back. I guess you could say I was kinda there, in spirit, but still not in a way that let me see any of it for myself.”

Pit's eyebrows rose up in surprise, though truthfully the thought of someone existing as part of another person outside of them was not at all foreign to him. He just hadn't known that was the case for Roxas.

"Huh." It was a contemplative noise more than anything as the angel thought it over. Like, why were they called 'Nobodies' when it sounded like a body was all they were? And how did Roxas and Sora exist at the same time now, assuming the latter had gotten his body back?

He didn't ask though, because after all...

"That's sort of like me and Pittoo." Though in his case, he would be more like the Sora to his own counterpart's Roxas. Either way, everything could easily be chalked up to some sort of supernatural happenstance.

"You don't seem like an 'empty shell' at all though," Pit pointed out. Then he turned a wide smile Roxas' way. "I guess a lot of stuff must have happened to fill you in? Anyway, I'm glad you guys figured out how you could both exist at the same time!"

”Us being ‘empty shells’ is what Organization XIII told us to keep us in line.” Roxas said, ”The actual truth is a bit more complicated than that. Nobodies start out having no Hearts, but over time can… grow one as they forge bonds and experience things.”

"Makes sense to me," Pit replied easily. Sort of like a newborn or a fresh soul. He wiggled his feet at the end of the bunk in a way that would have been absentmindedly if he wasn't thinking on everything Roxas had told him. "...all this isn't weird for you to talk about, right?"

Roxas shrugged, ”Nah. You’re not the first person who was curious about aspects of my world.” He said, ”You wouldn’t believe how many questions Sandalphon had for me, especially about the Organization.” The archangel in question had indeed inquired much about those topics from Roxas already.

"Alright," Pit nodded. He'd asked just to be sure, but yeah, it figured that with Roxas' prior connection to a group they were... working with? That he'd get a lot of questions about it. Pit yawned slightly then. It had been a long day, but only now was it all catching up to him. He still wanted to talk a little more though, since the two of them would be splitting up tomorrow. "Here's one more question for you then. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to though."

"You, and I guess the other Nobodies too... did you always feel like yourselves? Or like you were the person you were born from?" he asked, turning over onto his side again to give Roxas his proper attention. He was curious about it on Roxas' behalf, but there was an ulterior reason for the question too.

”Hmm, well…” This one was genuinely strange to explain, ”For most Nobodies, they feel like their old selves, even retaining their memories.” Roxas paused, and Pit could feel the ‘but’ coming. ”But I wasn’t like most Nobodies. I looked different from Sora, and didn’t have a single one of his memories. Even our voices were different sounding. Because of that, well, my life as a Nobody was pretty unique. And I guess my looking different from Sora is the reason we’re able to co-exist. Because we’re not just the same person lacking a Heart like is the case for most Nobodies. We’re separate people altogether.”

"A lucky fluke I guess?" Pit said. Even if he was a lot more familiar with the process of a Nobody's creation, he probably wouldn't have a better explanation for something like what had gone on with Roxas happening. A fluke was what had resulted in Pittoo's creation as well, but based on what Roxas had just said his dark clone was probably more similar to a regular Nobody than to Roxas. He had always been curious about a lot of things regarding Pittoo, but there was no way he'd ask the black winged angel himself even if he got the chance to. Learning about something close enough from another world was the next best thing.

”Maybe it was…” Roxas mused, rolling onto his back on his designated bunk. Scamp hopped on and curled up at his feet. ”Guess we’d better…” he yawned, ”...get some kind of sleep, huh?” He asked, ”Just one more thing. You mentioned a Pittoo… is he like… your Nobody?”

Pit nodded before actually answering. "Yup. Or pretty close to it. I mean, I'm pretty sure he still had a heart when he was made. He came out of a mirror, so he's me, but not me? He's Pit, too."

A brief grin crossed the angel's face. He remembered that Lady Palutena had needed to explain that nickname she'd come up with to him, but once she had he'd found it pretty funny. Pittoo not so much.

"He's also kind of a jerk, always claiming he's the original Pit and that he's better than me. Which he totally isn't!" Pit huffed, then shut his eyes and nuzzled into his pillow. Sleep did sound pretty good right about now. "...but I still wanna find him, wherever he is in this world, you know?"

”I know what you mean…” Roxas said softly, nestling sleepily against his own pillow. ”I’ve got a few missing friends of my own I wanna find.” His thoughts drifted to those friends as he slowly started falling asleep. Axel, and his constant grin and bravado. Isa, and his stern look that he always wore when he was annoyed by everyone else’s (mostly Axel’s) antics. And Xion, her kind eyes and bright smile. Roxas missed all of them.

Pit nodded again. They'd have to keep an eye out for anyone and everyone that was still missing, get them on board or at least confirm they were safe and let them know what was going on. With tomorrow, and heading into two new regions, maybe they'd manage to find them sooner than later. For tonight though, rest was a more pressing matter.

Hesimay’s geeting had snapped Roxas out of his thoughts. For his part, Roxas had been walking alongside Scamp, his Boltund. Truth be told he had a means to zoom ahead with one of his other Pokemon (Turbo, his Revavroom), but he had decided to stick around closer to the group as a whole. And that seemed to be paying off now. ”A little exploration?” The Nobody said and then grinned, ”Sure, why not?” It also occurred to Roxas that this was one of the new Seekers and he had yet to introduce himself.

”I’m Roxas, by the way.” He said, eliciting an impatient bark from Scamp, ”And that’s my Boltund. His name’s Scamp.” Roxas rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ”You’re… Heismay, right?” Roxas recalled when the newest members were introduced back on the Avenger, and he was hoping he’d pegged the right name to the right face.

“Indeed.” Heismay leaped down from the stagecoach. When he landed next to Roxas he only came up to the Nobody’s waist, which put him much closer to the profile of some of his new acquaintance’s Pokemon. “You command quite the following,” he remarked, reaching out a three-fingered hand for Scamp to sniff, which the Boltund did before giving a quick lick. “It seems that you really are the person to ask when it comes to beast-taming. We will have need of your talents to capture Reindrix for the stagecoach, when we find some. For now, though, let us be off.” The eugief cracked a sly smile. “Being a youngster, you should have no trouble keeping up with these old bones, hm?”

”Not a problem.” Roxas promised.

Almost imperceptibly, Heismay tensed his legs. Then he sprang into action with the speed and agility of a ninja. Running like the wind, he sped away from the Midnight Walk and toward the frozen lake, leaving flurries and tiny footfalls behind him. Patatatatatatatatatatata!

Roxas also broke into a sprint. With flow motion he could keep up with most people. With Scamp following that was lessened somewhat, but the Boltund had strong legs for sprinting, so the only area Scamp would struggle in was climbing or platforming. Both the Keyblade Wielder and his Pokemon followed after Heismay toward the lake. Both would skid to a sliding halt on the snowy ground once they got close enough.

After a quick glance back over his shoulder to gauge his followers’ speed, and an almost disappointed look once they stopped, Heismay shot out onto the frozen lake. Traction wasn’t great even with the inch or two of snow atop the ice, but such was his poise that he managed to stay upright with only a moderate hit to his velocity. Of course, if Roxas wasn’t up for a friendly competition, there was no point in wasting his stamina. Heismay slowed to a jog as he made progress toward the shipwreck, his light weight nowhere near enough to crack the ice beneath him.

Roxas stopping was more for Scamp’s sake than his own. He could just easily create a trail of virtual cubes to platform along to avoid the ice altogether. But he also knew Scamp wouldn’t be able to benefit from that. And while he could recall the Boltund to his Poke Ball, Roxas was kind of enjoying letting him run around with him for now. So he and Scamp did make their way across ice after a brief pause at the edge, but the lack of traction slowed them down - Scamp especially. Either way, they’d reach the shipwreck just fine.

As the two approached the wreck, they both grew more cautious, more out of instinct than any overt signs of danger. A far cry from a pirate vessel, the viking warship just wasn’t big enough to hold that many surprises. Still, big things could come in small packages, as Heismay himself could attest. At a couple hundred feet away, the eugief could discern that a few of the odd shapes laying around or against the ship were carcasses, withered and frozen to the bone. The scraps of worn leather and dented plate suggested they were the husks of warriors. Had the ashes of dead bodies frozen in place, preserving their original shapes, or had these poor souls perished in their home world and been brought alongside the wreck into the World of Light as corpses? Neither possibility painted a pretty picture. “I like not the look of this,” he remarked, his quiet mutter nearly lost in the biting wind.

The ship sported a gaping wound on one side that formed an obvious entryway, but Heismay elected to leap up and grab onto the the mast like a tree branch to scout the ship’s insides from a safe vantage point. Aside from a couple more bodies, though, he saw no signs of danger. Instead he spotted a wooden chest, adorned by painted antlers and the scalp of a four-eyed beast. “Here, lad,” he called. “Tis safe. For the moment, at least.”

Roxas strained his eyes and managed to glimpse the wooden chest that Heismay had spotted, ”Treasure ahoy, then!” He said playfully, ”What do you think we’ll find in it?” He asked as they continued toward the viking shipwreck, ”Gold? Jewels? Maybe something cooler?” There was something about the simple act of a treasure hunt that brought out the Nobody’s more playful side rather than his usual serious and introspective side.

His earnestness prompted a smile from Heismay. “I haven’t opened it yet. Will you do the honors, or shall I? Provided that it isn’t locked, of course.” Being a thief only in name, the eugief carried no lockpicks, so if it came down to that the two might need to carefully apply force.

”No problem.” Roxas said. If it was locked, all Roxas had to do was use his Keyblade to open it, easy as that. When they did eventually make it to where the chest was waiting, Roxas gave the latch a tug. It was indeed locked. No problem for him, though. Roxas summoned Oblivion, the black Keyblade materializing in his hand with its usual flash of purple-ish light. Then he merely reached with the weapon and gently tapped its tip on the chest. Almost immediately, they heard the clocks of the locking mechanism being undone, and the chest even opened itself up for them, no doubt a product of the Keyblade’s magic.

Heismay’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “That’s handy,” he commented, impressed, as his eyes wandered from the boy’s miraculous keyblade to the gleaming contents of the treasure trove. Inside the box lay a variety of different coins, worth at least a couple thousand dennies all told. The distinctive triangular shape of some of the silver coins caught his eye. “Is that…churchsilver?” If this was really reeve from the nation of Euchronia in his homeworld, it would be quite the coincidence. All things considered, though, the coins were small change compared to the other items contained within the chest. Within rested a pillaged butterfly lamp with inlaid gems, a frozen microwaveable burrito in specially sealed packaging, and a bottle of whiskey called Broadbay 30 Year, aged for three whole decades for peerless depth and richness of flavor.

In an instant, Heismay dropped down beside Roxas and leaned into the chest to retrieve the bottle. “Careful, lad! I’ve seen the likes of this before. It’s a dangerous and highly addictive substance that meddles with the mind, driving many to ruin and early death. As the adult here, I’ll confiscate it and see that it’s properly disposed of.” He carefully tucked the bottle away, nodding gravely.

At that moment, Scamp barked, the sound sharp and loud. All around the two Seekers, the frost on the withered corpses had begun to crack and shatter as the bodies moved, their leathery skin stretched hideously across ghastly bones. They were draugr, not quite dead but definitely not alive, dormant and laying in wait for fools such as these to stumble along.

Heismay drew his saber in a flash, its blade gleaming in the alpine twilight. “Hmph. Why am I not surprised?”

With one Keyblade already in hand, Roxas summoned the other one. Oathkeeper appeared in his off hand in its usual white light. ”I have a feeling they were waiting for someone to come along and open that chest.” He said, then charged in to engage a pair of draugr. Their attacks weren’t exactly refined, and instead were sluggish as one might expect from their vaguely zombie-esque appearance. Roxas kept his opponents at bay and then pointed to a third draugr that was approaching Scamp, ”Use Fire Fang!” Roxas called, eliciting a bark from Scamp before the Boltund lunged for the draugr and attacked with flame-wreathed fangs.

As for Roxas, he struck at his two draugr opponents and noticed they were trying to flank him. As a result of this, Roxas changed tactics, dismissing Oathkeeper so he could teleport behind one of the two draugr he was engaged with and strike with the ignited energy blade of his StepSword.

By the time the draugr closest to Heismay rose to its feet, the eugief had disappeared. His would be-assailant looked around for something to kill, its attention turning to Roxas, only for Heismay to glide down from above. “Hmph!” He went for a one-hit kill, his katana aimed for the draugr’s neck to decapitate it, but the blade didn’t quite bite deep enough. He landed behind the undead warrior and followed through with a spinning slash to the back of its knee. At that point the draugr whirled on him for a shield bash, but Heismay was ready and hopped back out of range. Leveraging its greater reach, his foe went for a lunging thrust, but Heismay was fast enough to leap above it, spread his wings to stall his momentum, then ram his foe’s helmet with the hilt of his blade. He landed with muscles tense, then sprang. The draugr raised its shield, but rather than at him Heismay darted past him, sprang off the wooden hull behind him, then brought his blade around for a cleave to part the draugr’s head from its shoulders from behind.

On Roxas’ end, he managed to finish off one draugr with a quick few strokes of his Keyblades. But he still had the other two to contend with, plus another that was now approaching from the flank. ”Thunder!” The Nobody chanted, calling down a Thundaga spell to pepper the surrounding Draugr with lightning bolts that managed to finish off the one that was already damaged and soften up the other two. Meanwhile he spotted Scamp still engaged with his one draugr, baring his fangs as the undead warrior recovered from the Fire Fang hit and was swinging his heavy-looking battleaxe.

”Wind!” Roxas chanted, casting an Aeroga spell on Scamp that summoned a shield of whirling wind around the Boltund that blunted a good chunk of the damage that axe would have dealt, ”Use Spark!” Roxas commanded. With a bark, Scamp lunged forward and slammed into the draugr with an electrified body, dealing the normal electric type damage in addition to some additional touch damage from the Aeroga cloaked around him.

Back in his own fight, Roxas used his StepSword again to get out of being flanked. The ignited energy sword seemed to be enough to finish off the draugr, leaving just one that was coming in through the main entrance. But there was another one a little further back, and this one was aiming a bow and loosed an arrow that sang through the air toward the Keybearer as he was distracted by striking down the other remaining draugr he’d been engaged with. ”Reflect!” Roxas chanted, hoping he was quick enough on the draw.

On the other side of the ship, Heismay narrowly avoided the heavy axe of a bearded, armored cadaver as it hacked into the floor. The draugr then swung its axe like a club, sending a handful of debris flying. With a grunt, Heismay guarded his face as best he could. The draugr charged, but Heismay went low, slipping beneath the swing as his enemy chopped a deep furrow into the ship’s hull. Thinking quickly, Heismay transformed before the draugr could turn around. “O, power of kings!” Now in his Thief form, he kicked his foe into the wood, further weakening it, then stepped forward with a stronger kick that smashed the draugr through the withered wood and onto the ice. As it sprawled, dark magic ignited in his palm. “Shadows, rage!” He cast Mudo, and the spell flew out to detonate atop the draugr in a nebulous blast. Afterward Heismay shrank down to his normal self, only to see that the heavy draugr wasn’t quite done for. He jumped out of the ship to finish the fight.

Back inside the ship, Roxas’ Reflect spell just barely managed to shimmer in time to catch the incoming arrow and shield the Keyblade Wielder from it. As a bonus, the draugr archer ended up being the one to take the damage instead due to the spell’s effect. ”Too close.” Roxas muttered, ”Scamp - after him! Use Spark!”

With a bark, Scamp darted past Roxas and the greatsword-wielding Draugr he was engaged with and slammed into the Draugr archer. Both the Spark and the touch damage from the Aeroga spell did their thing and the Draugr staggered back, its aim now off balance as it was forced to abandon archery to deal with its canine opponent. ”Go for a Fire Fang!” Came Roxas’ voice, eliciting a growl and bark from the Boltund as he lunged for the draugr and attacked with flame-wreathed jaws.

At the same time, Roxas had managed to roll out of the way of a heavy greatsword swing before pushing himself off of a nearby wall to build up a small amount of flow motion momentum that he then channeled into a stronger Keyblade strike against the draugr. Both it and the one Scamp had bitten appeared to be down for the count. ”Is that all of them?” He asked aloud, hoping Heismay was still faring okay.

Outside, Heismay had already found the answer. The moment he jumped out to finish the heavy draugr, another that had previously been slumped outside slashed him with a reinforced longsaber. “Agh!” he hissed through gritted teeth as he fell, his white fur stained with blood. As his attacker advanced, he was forced to cede space and allow the axe-wielder to retrieve his weapon unchallenged. “I yet stand!” In a straight fight this two-on-one against much larger opponents would be difficult, especially with the evident quality of that swordsman’s weapon. If Heismay had seen that on the way in, that draugr would’ve awakened with an empty grip. At least he had plenty of room to work with.

“You think yourself equal to a eugief’s agility?” Heismay took off running over the ice. The swordsman gave chase in a frenetic, ungainly gallop, while the more damaged warrior lagged behind. “Thief!” Once far enough away, the eugief transformed and expended a bit more mana to knock the swordsman down with Mudo. “Expect no quarter!” Then, while the fallen draugr recovered and the other closed in, Heismay raised his blade in his Archetype form. He unleashed Dark Sword, targeting not the undead but the ice between them. The shadowy cleave sent snow flying as it carved into the ice, spreading cracks. When the draugr attacked, Heismay leaped into the air, then came down atop the heavy. “Your fate is sealed!” The impact broke the ice, and the draugr could only flail feebly as he sank between the shards into the frigid water.

That left the swordsman, which lunged toward Heismay for a shining slice, just as he expected. After reverting to normal to not sink alongside the warrior into a watery grave, Heismay dashed beneath the swing, his vertical slash a touch quicker on the draw. The draugr’s arm flew off, severed at the elbow, and Heismay slumped down on the ice as his foe stumbled into the water. The longsaber stuck, blade-first, into the ice beside him.

By this point, Roxas and Scamp had made their out of the viking ship and back outside. And while there didn’t appear to be any battle happening still, it didn’t take the Keyblade Wielder long to notice his injured compatriot. He approached Heismay and held his Keyblade up aloft. ”Heal!” Roxas chanted, expending his remaining MP on Curaga that washed over himself, Heismay, and even Scamp too. ”Looks like we got ‘em all.” The Nobody said as Scamp barked triumphantly.

Heismay nodded as his wounds disappeared. “Tis so. My thanks lad, that’s a big help.” Standing, he pried the reinforced longsaber from the ice to compare it to his own sandglass katana. It was sturdier, longer, heavier, and able to hold a sharper edge. “A fine reward,” he remarked, exchanging the blades. He looked between Roxas and his hound. “Have you collected everything else?”

”Oh! Uh…” Roxas said sheepishly, ”Guess I got caught up in fighting and forgot to. Easy fix though.” He beckoned for Scamp to follow him back to the chest so he could grab the remaining stuff. And he also went ahead and made sure to collect the draugr’s spirits and check for anything else they left behind. That mostly amounted to their weapons and none of them looked nearly as good as the one Heismay had scored, so Roxas didn’t feel bad about leaving those behind.

Once he was pretty sure he had everything, Roxas and Scamp linked back up with Heismay so the two of them could catch back up to the other Seekers. ”Nice haul.” Roxas said with a smile, although the longsaber was clearly the main prize. Unless the butterfly lamp had some kind of magic to it that they couldn’t see. Roxas was no expert there, so if it did have an enchantment on it he had no way of recognizing it. Regardless, that was still some pretty interesting adventuring on the side. The Seekers’ wagon was just up ahead, still moving relatively slowly because of Edward’s golems. But that was fine, it meant Roxas and Heismay had an easy time linking back up with the others.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

@Terry Bogard@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

Word Count: 531
Level 5 Captain Falcon: 36/50
Exp Gained: +1
NEW EXP Balance--- 37/50

Forbidden Kingdom ~ Esaka’s Lower Tier

The Captain had been politely quiet during the actual trip to Esaka. In hindsight he probably should have made more conversation with the others. He was going to be working with them as a colleague and competitor for a while so he would eventually need to break the ice with some of them. Well, he was certain Esaka would give plenty of chances for that.

As for Esaka itself, Cap had to give a low whistle of appreciation. They certainly weren’t kidding when they called this place the Tiered City. From his vantage point, the city looked like a giant circle with smaller circles within it. Those had to be the tiers that Esaka was nicknamed after. Fortunately for the Seekers, they bumped into a friendly enough face not long after arriving properly. And the Captain listened intently to Azuma’s explanation of the rules during the tour.

It all made a surprising amount of sense to Falcon. Or maybe his experiences in the F-Zero Grand Prix allowed him to more easily compartmentalize the way the rules in Esaka worked. Either way, he was ready and willing to hop into the ring and fight his way to the top if that’s what it took to draw out the area’s Guardian. Falcon loved competition, so he suspected he would be able to thrive in this environment. He nodded his thanks to Pit when the angel gave him a linkpearl.

”So we have to join a dojo…” Captain Falcon mused as he saw Pit excitedly talking to that Terry fellow. Seemed the angel knew him from somewhere. He just hoped Pit wouldn’t accidentally make the same mistake with him that Cap had previously made with Venom Snake. Still, if he wanted to recruit fighters for their cause, then Falcon wouldn’t question him.

”Good to meet you, Terry.” Falcon said as he extended a muscular arm to the hat-wearing bruiser for a handshake, wanting to be nice and introduce himself to the guy. ”Call me Captain Falcon.”

As the topic went back to the tournaments, Cap’s jaw tightened at the description of what the Mortal Kombat tournament sounded like, ”Sounds like a rough crowd, alright.” He said in agreement with Zenkichi, ”Guess there’s always a ruthless underbelly in any sport.” He mused, recalling some of the seedier parts of the F-Zero Grand Prix that he had previously had to deal with.

”So Azuma said we have to join a dojo.” He said, ”Probably would have been smart to have a group discussion about that. Figure out if we should all sign up at the same dojos or not.” He said to himself, noting how many of the Seekers had already dispersed and were talking about different dojos they wanted to join. Oh well, it looked like this was the method the Seekers were collectively choosing to go with, so the only thing Cap could do was shrug his shoulders and roll with the punches.

”Hey, what about you, Terry?” Falcon asked the brusier, ”You mentioned needing teammates for the King of Fighters Tournament, right? Mind if I ask which dojo you’re in? And whether or not it’s taking applicants?”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Word Count: 589
Level 7 Ganondorf: 63/70
Exp Gained: +1
NEW EXP Balance--- 64/70

Frozen Highlands ~ Snowdin

It didn’t take long for Ganondorf to set about looking around the town on his own. He was more interested in making progress toward hunting down Baldur than anything else, but he supposed a brief little time taking in the crisp winter air wouldn’t be terrible, either. The town was almost… picturesque in its peacefulness. That made it a rather striking juxtaposition to the dark warlord that now walked its streets.

Ice and snow crunched under Ganondorf’s boots as his eyes scanned the buildings and noted shops or other places of business. But during that scan, he spotted the quaint Christmas Tree that acted as a sort of centerpiece to the quiet snowy town. But in moments the Gerudo’s eyes narrowed as he spotted something underneath among the wrapped presents.

”It can’t be-” Ganondorf muttered to himself as he walked closer. Sure enough, there was a flame clock of all things under the tree! This one, however, was much smaller than the other flame clocks he had seen. It was also near empty, indicating it was either recently used or perhaps was simply ignored by whatever Consul governed this region. Like always, the clock was stuck to where it was sitting, as though built into the ground. That was nothing new to Ganondorf, but the clock’s smaller size was certainly interesting. Perhaps that was merely a testament to the lower population of this town compared to other places? Unbeknown to him, Sectonia had been here examining this clock mere minutes ago before him.

The clock wasn’t the only object here. Boxes wrapped in colorful paper and ribbons were also placed under the tree. Whether this was some kind of ritual or offering, the Gerudo didn’t know. But his curiosity got the better of him and he opened one of the boxes up. Inside he a found a box with a label that read “blueberry muffin” mix in addition to a set of instructions that explained how to prepare them. Not exactly the kind of spoils Ganondorf was usually interested in. Still, his current form required him to be much more mindful about having food available to him to eat, so maybe this could prove useful anyway? He went ahead and kept the muffin mix. He recalled the Avenger running low on stocks anyway so if nothing else he could always hand this over as a donation.

”Hmm, that’s one more clock noted.” He mused to himself as he stood back upright again. Holograd Castle, City of Tears, Gerudo Town, Edinbourgh, and now here. He had to be sure and remember where they were all located. It was very likely that Sandalphon was already keeping some kind of record about the flame clock locations in whatever network or database her magic computer screens were connected to. And knowing the archangel, she probably also noted this flame clock as well.

And as soon as they properly had the means to do it, they could return to each of these flame clocks and destroy them one by one.

Ganondorf’s cloak billowed behind him as he walked to catch up with the rest of the Seekers. They managed to set up a wagon being pulled by some of Edward’s golems. But it also looked like a rather slow ride, enough that even the warlord was able to catch back up and keep pace with everyone after his momentary distraction in Snowdin.

”I found a flame clock back in town.” He announced to no one in particular. ”A small one at the center of town, underneath that decorated tree. For anyone who’s been keeping note of them besides me.”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Word Count: 912
Level 7 Ganondorf: 62/70
Level 10 Roxas: 44/100
Level 5 Captain Falcon: 36/50
Exp Gained: +2
NEW EXP Balance--- 64/70, 46/100, 38/50

The Avenger

The morning of a new deployment always felt serious. The Seekers had been divided into two Teams that were about to be sent to two completely different regions. And there was no telling how long they’d each spend in their respective areas. For Roxas, anyway, the main thing he anticipated about the Frozen Highlands was that it was going to be cold, as its name suggested. Thankfully, Roxas’s Organization coat - albeit heavily altered from its default appearance due to his spirits - was in all likelihood enough for him to stay warm up there. But that aside, he’d also heard about that region having a Pokemon-centric area in the form of the Aether Foundation at Edinbourgh. He had to admit he was pretty curious to find out what kinds of Pokemon could be found in the colder environment, too.

For Ganondorf, a deployment to the Highlands was less about excitement. Instead he was focused on seeing the subjugated Consul L and confirming the location of her Flame Clock. And he recalled that the Ace Cadet said he could show that to him once they got there. Good. As for that area’s guardian, Ganondorf had little doubt the Seekers could handle them, especially with himself among their ranks. And if the reports about the Guardian having a crippling weakness to a specific plant were accurate, then all the better. Ganondorf secured himself a thick cloak he could wear over his armor as a means to mitigate the cold. His armor, while somewhat capable of fending off cold weather, wasn’t completely ideal for what was described. But a cloak wrapped around himself over it should more than suffice, the Warlord guessed.

That wouldn’t matter at all to Captain Falcon, on the other hand. The Bounty Hunter was going to be deployed to Esaka instead. And so he listened to the description the returning Sakura gave and committed it to memory. A city full of dojos and fighting tournaments, while not his first line of work - that would always be the Grand Prix - it would still suit his preference for fighting his opponents man–to-man with his fists. And besides, it didn’t matter where the competitions took place. Whether on a race track or in a fighting arena, the Captain had no intention of doing anything less than his absolute best.

”Hm! Well if it’s tournaments we’ll need to win…” Falcon said aloud, ”...then that’s what we’ll do.” He offered a smile a thumbs up to Sakura, ”Sounds to me like you might just be our ace in the hole for this city, Ms. Kasugano. If we’ve got you as our guide then I’m sure we’ll do fine. Great, even.”

Sometime after this the crowd of Seekers were dispersed to either cramp into hellpods or board the Pelican-1. Falcon had no great difficulty fitting into a pod. And as for Roxas and Ganondorf, they were roughly in the middle of the pack in regards to when they got on the dropship. That left them some time to think for themselves, and eventually the Gerudo King’s thoughts led him to strike up a conversation with the Nobody.

”Would you care if I asked you something?” Ganondorf asked Roxas in a low voice.

”I… guess not?” Roxas replied, a bit hesitant but still undeniably curious about what the King of Evil of all people would want to ask him.

”I’ve managed to learn at least a decent amount about Moebius.” Ganondorf said, ”But I still know precious little about their counterparts. The ones you call Organization XIII. Is it true you were once among their ranks?”

Oh, so that’s what he wanted to ask about. ”Yeah, I was. But not this version of them.” Roxas answered. ”Their leader came from the same world as me. And the original version of the Organization he created there was the one I was a part of. But if I know him, his goal hasn’t changed between then and now.”

”And that would be…?” Ganondorf asked.

”He probably wants to get rid of Galeem so he can put himself in its place as the ruler of this world. Or something to that effect. The guy was always obsessed with the idea of claiming a particular power from my world that would let him rewrite things as he sees fit. If he’s allowed to, he’ll be no different than Galeem.”

”Is that so?” Ganondorf replied, rubbing his chin. ”Fascinating. I’ll have to make sure to remember that when the time comes.”

That made Roxas clam up a little. While there was at least some comfort that Ganondorf was willing to believe that the Organization would be their enemy in the end (something not everyone on the Avenger was completely convinced of yet), it also made Roxas second guess whether he should have shared this much information with him. Would Ganondorf also try to use a power like Kingdom Hearts for himself? Based on what he’d heard about the guy? Probably.

Sensing the shift in tone, Ganondorf decided to leave the Nobody be for now. But if what the boy said was true…? Well, the Gerudo King would have keep a more wary eye out for the Organization’s actions and scrutinize their motives a bit more. Still, they were at least useful for the time being. But Ganondorf had no compunctions about discarding them the moment their usefulness ran out, or better yet, the moment they became his enemies.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 4488 (+5 (+2 rapport))
Bowser Jr: Level 15 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(225/150)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(271/100)
Lvl 14 Geralt (193/140) -> (198/140)
Lvl 10 Roxas (39/100) -> (44/100)

”We should give Ace that spirit”

”Huh?”

”Hang on just a second” the prince said, before scampering off

”Huh”

Rika wasn’t really sure what to do with that thought. She's not really gotten why they were handing over the spoils of their fight to someone they hadn’t really seen since he got lost post the Blue mission, had been kinda surprise was still alive/came back, and who’d soon be off on a different mission once again. She hadn’t really talked with him then either and…

It was at this moment that Rika was struck by an unpleasant relapse of the sadness of the funeral and she did not like it. But it also hit her that the people they just had spent a bunch of time with, and actually talking with instead of just kinda being around (even if she’d mostly been on the sideline of that), were also going to go off like that. Who knew if they were also gonna come back.

It was that that spurred her to go find Geralt in the crowd and say to him super bluntly ”Hey. You should pokebattle Jr before we spit up so you can learn. Also Roxas should come”

Geralt looked at Rika a little confused, before shrugging and downing the rest of his drink. “Sure, kid. Sounds like a good idea. Lead the way.”

The ship girl nodded, and promptly about turned and went to go find Roxas, and initially failed entirely due to being too short to see past all the people. Then she started using double jumps to launch up above it, catching sight of Roxas and calling out ”Roxas. Come here.” and then belatedly, after another jump up, adding ”Please?”

Roxas tilted his head in curiosity at the display at first. But after that shrugged and went to go see what Rika wanted with him. ”Yeah? What’s up?” He asked after squeezing his way through the crowded room over to where he saw Rika jumping up from. Jr wasn’t around for once, but he did see that Geralt was.

”We’re gonna show him how to fight using pokemon before you both go” Rika explained simply, before adding ”Just as soon as my brother gets back” and then hopping up to try and work out where said brother was, only a little bit antsy about having lost track of him in the crowd.

“Figured it would be a good idea to get the basics before the team split up.” Geralt explained to Roxas, “though it was their idea.” He finished.

”Sure, sounds good to me.” Roxas replied with a shrug.

Soon enough, the koopa prince was brought along and brought onboard, and the quartet headed down to the training room once again, wherein Jr tried to gauge how much work getting Geralt up to speed was going to be.

”I guess how much minion commanding stuff have you done before?”

“None. Not really a thing Witchers wound up doing much at all.” Came the simple reply.

”Urgh”

”I mean did you either?” Rika asked Roxas, making an off the cuff guess as to the Nobody’s own experience levels.

Roxas himself didn’t directly have any experience at commanding monsters before becoming a Pokemon Trainer. However, his Other Half actually did for a time. Of course, trying to explain that would take entirely too long. So instead Roxas just shrugged and said, ”Kind of, but not really. But I battled with Scamp when I first met him at Port Meridian. Twice actually. Plus I battled Jr that one time just before we all split up.”

”See”

”Alright alright, let me figure something out um” Jr replied, scratching his head and glancing around, not going to be the one to suggest an actual match because of how much anti-fairy type there was between the other two trainers. Instead his eyes landed on a pretty typical punching bag in the training room.

”Ok, let’s just start off with this!” he said, pointing it out, and suggesting ”Let’s see if you can get your mon to hit that before you try and do an actual fight”

”How about you?” Roxas asked Jr, ”Ever battled with two against two before? I did once, back in Port Meridian. It was against a bad guy trying to steal Pokemon, uh, Pit teamed up with me for it.”

Geralt’s brow furrowed angrily at the story. “No shortage of bandits and thieves here, either, huh?” He grumbled.

”There were about a hundred of em in the armory” Rika replied, a bit too casually to tell if that was supposed to be a joke or not, while Jr focused on the challenge to his prowess.

”Huh? No? But I bet I’d be great at it!” Jr replied, before adding ”But there’s only 3 trainers so we can’t find out” and then after a half second pause adding ”and Rika’s whale is way too big to fit!”

”I mean I could borrow some? We’ve got. What. 3. 1. 4. That makes 8 pokemon. 2 each” Rika pointed out, counting them on her fingers as she spoke.

”Huh? Um. I guess?”

Geralt shrugged. “Guess we could do it. I'll be at a disadvantage, but the whole point is to learn. Failure is an effective teacher.”

”I mean, i’ve never done this before either really, soooo, me and Roxas vs you and jr would be fair, right?” Rika suggested, getting a ”Huh, what?” from her brother who’d just assumed they’d be on the same team.

Geralt agreed with a nod. “Sounds fair to me. What do you think, Roxas?” Completely bowling over Junior's dashed expectations.

”Let’s do it!” Roxas agreed. Then he looked over at Rika and asked, ”So which Pokemon do you wanna borrow?” He was willing to let her borrow one or two of his if she asked for them.

”hmmmm” Rika hummed, before requesting ”What were they called… Shocker and Titan” she requested.

”My Ghost types, huh?” Roxas asked with a grin, choosing their respective Poke Balls and offering them to Rika. ”Here ya go. Do you know what moves they can do? Titan can use Curse, Iron Defense, Shadow Punch, and Stomping Tantrum. And Shocker can use Electro Ball, Confuse Ray, Double Team, and Blizzard.”

”Oh. I guess so yeah. I just thought you’d like to use your new one and your evolved one was all” Rika said, as she weighed up her two options, and then tossed Shocker the haunted refrigerator onto the field. A haunted refrigerator that, because it was part machine, immediately gained a chaingun turret and missile launcher thanks to Col. Droneman’s spare parts buff.

”Huh” was Rika’s response to this, before she tentatively acknowledged that ”Using that’d probably be cheating” and resolving not to have the now packing heat refrigerator gun down the other pokemon.

Jr sighed, defeated, then shrugged and plucked his pokeballs from his bandolier and tossed them out to summon his mon for Geralt to see before asking ”How about you?”

Looking over his option, Geralt let Tirn out of his own ball, letting the Shieldon get a feel for its potential partners. “The floating one. What did you call it again, Peeka?”

”Yup. Coz they are like a boo!” Jr replied, seemingly very proud of what was presumably a pun.

Either way, the fluttermane hovered over, and took her spot by Geralt’s side, ready to take the field whenever he wanted her too.

Nodding, Geralt looked over the assortment of trainers and Pokemon before him, nodding. “Okay, so how do I actually do this?” He asked, completely lost. “How do I know what it can do?”

”Well, Jr and me typically just have most of our moves memorized.” Roxas said, ”But I’m pretty sure the Pokedex App on either of our phones can say what moves a Pokemon knows, too.”

”Ohhh. We should probably get you one of those. Here, you can use min though” Jr said, retrieving his phone and offering it to Geralt. As he did, Rika leaned over to Roxas and asked ”Can I?”

”Sure, I don’t mind.” The Nobody answered as he handed his silver-white cased Rotom Phone to Rika, who took it and started checking out his pokemon’s stats.

Taking the offered Pokedex, Geralt scanned Tirn with it (with help from Junior), prompting the device to chirp up. “Shieldon, the Shield Pokemon. It is outstandingly armored. As a result, it has no particular need to battle with others and can spend its time feeding on grass and berries.”

“Hmm. Not bad.” The Witcher commented with a nod, paying attention as the device also showed him what ‘moves’ the Pokemon had. “Only one actual attack, huh…?” And it wasn't a particularly great one, from what he could see. It seemed powerful, but caused self-inflicted damage as well. “No matter. You'll learn more.” Geralt reassured his Pokemon, earning a resolute nod from the Shieldon.

Peeka, on the other hand, was somewhat more offensively-focused without bottlenecking itself too deeply into any one battle philosophy. He gave the borrowed ‘Mon a nod, handing the Pokedex back to Junior. “We'll have to get me one before we leave tomorrow, but thanks.”

Jr nodded in agreement, before pondering for a moment and deciding ”Mimi, your up” prompting his Mimikyu to shimmy onto the field to face down the opposing Rotom. He definitely wasn’t putting Dazzle, his water type, out against an electric type, that was for sure.

Roxas then took one of his own Poke Balls and tossed it. ”You’re up first, Scamp! Come on out!” The ball released his recently-evolved Boltund who gave an excited bark before bending its legs in anticipation of whatever Roxas’s first command would be.

Geralt took up a spot beside Junior, watching as he directed Peeka forward. “You have more experience fighting, and I'd like to have a little more of my own before sending Tirn out for his first battle.” He commented.

”Hope you’re ready.” Roxas said, ”Scamp - use Nuzzle on Peeka!”

”Shocker, blizzard both of them!” Rika followed up, prompting the Rotom to pop open its fridge freezer door and unleash a torrent of cold air that swept over the far side of the arena, the mon artfully aiming this wave over the head of its ally.

Mimi was buffeted by the snowstorm, but rather than taking damage herself it was her disguise that took the hit, the oversized head snapping back to an unnatural angle. This, unsurprisingly, made her a bit miffed.

”Mimi, Mimic that move!” Jr commanded after seeing the effectiveness of it, causing the Mimikyu to swirl her tail around lke a wand, sucking up some of the lingering frost particles.

Geralt silently cursed as Peeka attempted to dodge Scamp’s attack but failed, sparks silhouetting the Flutter Mane's form. He'd been caught off guard by how quickly this all started. “Alright, then. Peeka, psybeam on Scamp!” For a split second, as the psychic energy charged, Geralt felt that same hunger he had with Dr. Yu, but it passed as soon as it came once the attack was launched. That boded poorly for his continued presence around Pokemon…

Scamp took the Psybeam and did manage to shrug it off, at least this time. But Roxas knew he couldn’t keep taking those Psybeams forever. Peeka may not have looked like a normal Misdreavous, was it still a Ghost type? If so…

”Scamp, target Peeka again! Use Bite!” And with Scamp’s Strong Jaw ability this could hit especially hard assuming the attack went through.

”Electroball her as well!” Rika added to this, prompting the floating fridge to discharge a ball of lightning that was more effective against slower targets (which was, unfortunately, due to her fusion, what Peeka was)

”Mimi, blizzard em both, stop em from focusing down the newbie” Jr commanded, prompting his mon to thrust her tail stick forwards and call forth her own blizzard to sweep across the enemy mon. It wasn't very effective against its origin, but the raw power of the move meant that it was almost as effective as anything Mimi could (currently) throw out herself.

Peeka took both hits hard, barely hanging on owing only to her relatively high level. The paralysis also meant that she was unable to act, despite Geralt's attempts to get her to. Luckily for her, Scamp also took a pretty hard hit from the Blizzard. So neither one of them were in the best of shape right now. ”Switch it up, Scamp! Use Nuzzle on Mimi!”

He scampared towards the little spook, who tried to back up, but was caught and then viciously nuzzled by the much larger canine-pokemon. Very little damage was dealt, but Mimi was now also paralyzed, adding insult to the (minimal) injury.

Adding a second insult, Rika commanded Shocker to ”Use Confuse Ray on Mimi!”, prompting her borrowed mon to blast her brother’s mon with a confuddling ray, prompting Mimi to bop herself on the noggin when Jr tried to get her to use Blizzard again.

”Gah, stupid status effects!”

Geralt sighed, shaking his head at how the battle was going. They were being trounced. “Peeka, try Dazzling Gleam!” He called to Junior's Pokemon. The Flutter Mane twirled with a flourish before unleashing a blast of sparkling energy on both Scamp and Shocker, dealing a surprisingly large amount of damage, though it was spread between the two Pokemon.

It did more than the Blizzard had to Shocker, the sheer raw power of the strike taking it fairly low, but Rika was undeterred, commanding her mon to ”Finish Peeka with an Electroball!” The ball of electricity landed viciously, Peeka floating to and fro dazed before sinking to the ground, knocked out.

“Come back, Peeka. You did good.“ Geralt sighed, returning the Flutter Mane to its Poke ball. “Alright, Tirn, now's your chance.” He continued, releasing the Shieldon from his ball.

After the Dazzling Gleam, Scamp was looking pretty rough. And Roxas knew they still had Dazzle to contend with. And so… ”Return for now, Scamp!” He called, recalling the Boltund to his Poke Ball to get a minute of rest and to catch his breath. Then Roxas brandished his remaining Poke Ball and threw it.

”Your turn, Turbo!” He said, calling out his Revavroom.

”Uh oh” was Jr’s response to the fairy anathema mon being thrown onto the field. He glanced at the still confused Mimi, and made a snap decision to also swap her out, calling out ”Come back Mimi” and then ”Go Dazzle!” as he sent out his pure water type onto a field that still had one electric type on it.

”Guess I wasn’t the only one with the idea to swap.” Roxas mused to himself before he more loudly called his next move, ”Turbo, target Dazzle - use Screech!” This elicited an engine rev from Turbo that soon amped up into an earsplitting noise focused in Dazzle’s direction. The poor pokemon dropped to the ground, flipper suppressed over his ears, but it wasn’t enough to prevent his defences being sharply lowered by the nasty status move.

“Tirn, take down on Shocker!” Geralt called to his Mon, looking for a revenge KO on the Rotom. Tirn launched forward in a reckless full-body tackle in response.

The heavy little pokemon slammed into the haunted refrigerator, sending it skidding back and then toppling over with a crash, leaving Shocker down for the count.

”Ah. Um. No wait they’re ok right ok come back” Rika rambled as she found herself a bit more taken aback by her mon fainting that she’d expected, before recovering and commanding ”Out you go Titan” to send Roxas’ Golett onto the field.

In the meantime, Turbo had finally stopped screeching before Roxas called for the next attack. ”Go for an Iron Head!” The Revavroom responded by revving her engine before peeling out into a head-on collision aimed at Dazzle.

With his defences savagely weakened, and the level difference massive, Dazzle was sent tumbling backwards by the impact, and left barely clinging on to consciousness.

”Ah! Uh. Quick, Dazzle, sing to Titan before they finish you off” Jr commanded, prompting his mon to push himself up on one flipper, presse the other to his chest, and to sing a soft lullaby that put Titan to sleep, which left Rika’s subsequent command to fall on deaf ears.

”Return!” Roxas said, recalling Turbo while Dazzle was busy using Sing. Then he tossed his other Poke Ball back out. ”You’ve got this, Scamp.”

“Tirn, follow up! Take down again, on Titan!” Geralt ordered, blissfully unaware that as a ghost type, Titan was utterly immune to the move. Tirn seemed hesitant, but nonetheless obeyed its trainer, charging forward and phasing right through the ghostly Pokemon, its attack having no effect. “What?” Geralt, baffled, muttered.

”Oops.” Roxas said apologetically, ”We forgot to tell you about how the types work. Sorry about that, Geralt.”

”Urgh” Jr groned, before saying ”Ghost types are immune to normal attack”

”and fighting!” Rika called over to add helpfully.

”Your turn, Scamp!” Roxas called, pointing directly at Dazzle, ”Hit ‘em with Spark!” The loyal Boltund growled into a bark before he bounded forward in an attempt to slam his electrified body into Jr’s Brionne, easily taking the water mon down with damage to spare.

”Back out Mimi, come one we can still pull this together” Jr called out, as his Mimikye, no longer confused, returned to the field.

Geralt sighed as he processed the information. It was like being unable to punch a Specter, he supposed. “Damn. Well, like I said, failure is a hell of a teacher.” He seemed to be taking the seemingly inevitable loss in stride. “Tirn, use swagger on Scamp.” He ordered, hoping it would cause similar havoc as to when they first found the Shieldon.

”Mimi, hone your claws!” jr called out, trying to take advantage of their foe’s deliberated states to power up. This gamble paid off vs titan at least, who continued napping.

”Don’t let it shake you, Scamp! Use Fire Fang - on Tirn!” Roxas called, hoping that the Boltund’s Strong Jaw ability and Shieldon’s Steel typing would let this be a solid super effective hit. But no luck. Scamp bounded forward but stumbled in his confusion and only succeeded in attacking himself, and with his attack sharply raised and his health already lowered from earlier rounds in the battle, that meant a hard hit. Hard enough that the Dog Pokemon KO’d himself.

”Guess we’re all down to one, now. Come back out, Turbo!” Roxas said, recalling Scamp and then tossing out Turbo’s Poke Ball. The Revavroom revved her engines in anticipation before Roxas quickly issued his next command, ”Swagger! On Mimi!”

While Roxas targeted Mimi, Geralt commanded Tirn to go after the Revavroom. “Tirn, hit Turbo with a take down!” It was a predictable move, but the only offensive tool his Shieldon had in its arsenal. The shield Pokemon bounded forward, launching itself into the living vehicle to deal a weak, resisted hit.

”Mimi! Shadow Sneak! Win that coinflip for me!” Jr commanded the confused pokemon. Her shadow extended, wobbling as she struggled to keep control of it, only for it to successfully hit Titan in the back, and with 3 attack raises and a crit, it did absurd amounts of damage, taking the sleeping pokemon down in a single hit, prompting a cheer form jr and an ”aww” from Rika

Unfortunately for Jr, Roxas didn’t look too worried about this. After all, he still had Turbo at nearly full with no status conditions. ”Use Iron Head on Mimi!” Roxas calmly called with a smirk on his face. His Revavroom fired up her engines and peeled out for another head on collision, this time aimed at Jr’s Mimikyu.

Now it was Jr’s turn to ”Awww” in disappointment as the already low Mimi was launched into next week by the massive engine of destruction. Or rather through a wall and into the next room.

”Well I’m out. Gonna go get her” Jr said, all his mon, borrowed or otherwise, down, before hoisting his paintbrush and scampering out the room to go revive his fainted pokemon. Rika, who was also out, added ”Going with!” as she too popped out of the room for a brief moment, leaving the Witcher and Nobody to finish the match.

It was something of a foregone conclusion anyway.

“Tirn, iron defense!” Geralt called, hoping the defensive tactic would buy him more time to think as the Shieldon rallied itself.

”Screech!” Roxas called, eliciting the rev of Turbo’s engine into the ear splitting sound that harshly lowered Tirn’s defense, effectively undoing the Iron Defense - but also simply stalling the battle out.

It was enough that Jr and Rika managed to come back before they were done, which the koopa prince was more than happy to complain about while he got to healing all the fainted mon back to consciousness: ”You’ve got all the type advantages just finish it already!”

Geralt nodded, a bit resigned. “Tirn, take down! Make him fight for it.”

”Turbo, brace yourself and hit back with Iron Head!” The Revavroom dug in her heels, or whatever equivalent one would do when they had wheels instead of feet. The Shieldon’s attack and - like before - did ineffective damage. And then Turbo struck, lurching herself forward while Tirn was still up close and slamming it with her Iron Head attack.

Tirn stumbled from the blow, wobbled for a moment, then finally plopped to the ground, knocked out. “Good job.” Geralt encouraged, drawing his sword and casting First Aid to return some vitality to the downed Shieldon.

“Good match, Roxas. Rika. You did good, Junior. Worry I held you back, though.” He followed up with the others, returning Peeka's ball to its owner.

”You, too.”

”I, uh, yup, definitely. For sure” Jr insisted for the sake of his ego, as he finished his rounds of casting ”Cure!” on all of the pokemon.

”That Turbo’ll be really hard to get past next time. Jr’s fairies really don’t like both its types” Rika said, before handing Roxas back his phone and pokeballs. He accepted them with a nod.

Geralt nodded, looking over the Revavroom. “Fairies are known to dislike iron, that much is true.” He replied sagely. “Wonder if Tirn would be a problem for them as well, if it learned a different attack.”

”Yuuuup” Jr agreed in a half groan, already seeing his future fate of uphill battles vs terrible type matchups continuing, before asking ”Can you catch some dragons or something please? That’d help out a lot”

Geralt blinked for a moment, then sighed. “Of course there are dragons. Witchers aren't supposed to hunt those, on account of them being sapient. Never heard a rule against capturing them to fight alongside you.” He joked.

”He’s just saying that because Fairy types are immune to Dragon type attacks, and because Dragon types are weak against Fairy moves.” Roxas teased. ”I know Turbo is strong against most of his fairies. But his Dazzle is strong against Titan. And so is Mimi.”

”and Peeka, but he’s strong vs them too. Plus Scamp and Shocker are both good against Dazzle” Jr pointed out.

”Also he’s got more pokemon than you now” Rika added, before wondering ”Maybe you’ll find one in the Forbidden Kingdom that’ll work well against his?”

”Eh maybe”

“Well, good luck to you over there tomorrow.” Geralt offered with a nod. “Not that you should need much. Might be young, but you kids are fighters.”

”I’m going with you guys to the Frozen Highlands, remember?” Roxas pointed out to Geralt with a grin, ”But I appreciate the thought, anyway.”

”Yeah we are” Jr agreed with a pump of a fist, while Rika shrugged and agreed ”It’s what I was made for, and I’ve only gotten better since I got freed” before adding ”I’m sure you two’ll be just fine over there as well, but um, good luck too”

”Mmm hmm. Go kick that guardian's butt with whatever plant it was he didn’t like, and then after that I’ll kick your butts in a pokemon battle!”

“Looking forward to it.” Geralt joked with a roll of the eyes. “Alright, I think it's time to settle down for the night.” He added, rolling his shoulders.

”Yeah…” Roxas said with a yawn, ”...you’re probably right.”

”I guesss” Jr relied reluctanctly, right before catching the infectious yawn and doing one himself and saying ”Yeah. Alright. Nighty night” with Rika echoing right after ”Night night”

Pokémon: Echoes

Interested. I would like to ask if these trainers hail from Verillian or if they were brought from other regions. I have an idea for a Fighting type trainer that somewhat hinges on that question. My second question is whether or not Galarian Farfetched still counts as a single stage Pokemon since the original Farfetched was single stage. It's fine if it does, I already have a backup starter in mind just in case.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

wordcount: 2118 (+3 exp) (+1 rapport)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(297/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(213/100)
Lvl 14 Geralt (12140) -> (130/140)
Lvl 10 Roxas (23/100) -> (26/100)

for seekers

30 brown apricorns

The gang’s leisurely ride/drive to the abandoned truck stop was interrupted at the last moment by its current occupiers who yelled at them rather rudely to leave and then shot at them. Or near them

Not at all familiar with the concept of a warning shot, Rika leapt off of her steed and had it bank around to act as cover while she called out for the others to get ”Behind the whale!” to use it for cover. As it came to a stop and she crouched behind it, the ship girl began to turn the whale’s turrets towards the building, intending, it seemed, to simply level it rather than worry about where they were being shot from exactly.

With her brother having been a bit away from them in his own ride, it was down to the other two to allow or stop this behavior at their own discretion.

Geralt let out a long-suffering sigh at the warning shots, but his exasperation turned to alarm at Rika’s reaction. As the whale's turrets turned towards the shack, Geralt called out to her. “Rika, wait! Those were just warning shots. They're just trying to keep us out. Warn us that if we try to come closer, they'll shoot for real.”

”Huh?” Was Rika’s confused reply, but she did stop turning her turrets, and just in time too. A few more degrees and they’d have been shot at for real.

”But we do wanna go in though, right?” Rika asked with a confused cock of her head, before pointing out that ”My brother needs a wall to paint on”

The brother in question had wheeled around the other way when they’d been shot at with Roxas sprinting to follow, and was now driving his way over, a metal shield raised between him and the building in case they decided that stopping their approach wasn’t good enough.

Geralt just sighed at Rika's question, shrugging. “Up to you, but I usually don't make a habit of killing folk unless they really need it.” Punctuating the reality of the situation, he gestured over to the outpost. “Unless you think we can knock them all out without getting ourselves killed, that is.” Ultimately, it was up to them. He'd protect them if they decided that they needed this wall to draw on, but he wasn't going to start the fight, either.

”Huh” Rika replied, curling up a big metal fist, popping it under her chin, and going ”Hmmm” as she tried to think of doing this, at which point jr rolled in and asked ”Hey, what we doing?”

Once he’d been filled in, he said ”I mean I’ve got a spell that puts things to sleep, and Dazzle can do the same with singing. But I kinda need to know where they are to do that” before adding that ”also we could just go back to the cliffs and I could paint on those, but that’s booooooooring”

”So you’d rather… pick a fight… with strangers?” Roxas asked between heavy breaths after he caught up with the group. He was with Geralt on this one, not wanting to get into any fights they could avoid. He’d certainly still act in defense of his friends if they decided to go through with fighting. But he wouldn’t feel particularly great about it, either.

”If it’s a wall we need, then I can just make us one with my virtual cubes.” The Nobody offered.

”I mean, bad guy, remember” Jr began to rely, only for the loudspeaker to blare “I repeat. Turn back. You have ten seconds to comply” over him, the building holders clearly not satisfied with them simply stopping their advance, before beginning a countdown of “nine, eight, seven”

”Uuuuurgh, fine, we can go and try and make a wall!” the prince groaned, before starting up his car’s electric engine and setting off away from the gas staging muttering about how they couldn’t blame him if the art came out bad.

”Couldn’t we fire our own warning shot and make our own demands that they leave? We are stronger n stuff, right? I could, like, make a big explosion or something to scare em” Rika suggested, even as she followed her brother in moving away from the building, a whale trailing behind them in case the occupiers decided to try and shoot them in the back anyway (They didn’t).

As they started moving away, Geralt leaned over to Rika. “If we shot back, that might have triggered Galeem's influence and forced them to fight us to the death. I'm not exactly sure how it works with warning shots, but better to be safe I think.”

”I guess” she replied with a sigh

Roxas started to jog away but got the idea to ride on Turbo instead. He released the Revavroom from her Poke Ball and hopped on. Once her passenger was secured, Revavroom began accelerating forward in order to catch up with Jr’s clown car. Once they were a distance away, the Nobody hopped off of Turbo in thought. He wasn’t sure how big the wall needed to be exactly, and there were limits to the number of virtual cubes he could generate at a time.

Ultimately he decided on a five foot by five foot square wall to start with. If needed, he could always dispel the wall and generate one with slightly different dimensions if it wasn’t tall or wide enough for Jr’s painting to fit on it. Roxas grasped the triangular Phantom Ruby necklace he wore and proceeded to generate the five-by-five wall in question. The red virtual cubes were packed solidly together, and hopefully that was enough of a solid surface for the portal to be painted on.

”I guess this’ll work” the prince decided before snapping his fingers while thinking and saying ”Now, uh, what did it look like again? … oh, right!” before brandishing his brush, and painting a large M with two umlauts on top onto the wall, one that shimmered and revealed in it a vision of a bustling, non abandoned, truck stop

”And done!” he declared, planting the butt of his brush against the sand, frowning, and then asking, ”These gonna stick around after you go through? Coz I dunno what this vanishing while your going through would do”

”It should be fine.” Roxas said as he recalled Turbo back into her Poke Ball. ”The only times I’ve noticed them vanishing is if they’re destroyed in battle or if I generate a new set of cubes somewhere else.” He explained but then also added a warning, ”That still means this’ll be a one-way trip, though. So are we sure we’ve got everything we were after?”

Jr just sorta gestured around the landscape and its general lack of value to the likes of him before spotting one of the great gaaahrs way off back the way they had come and remembered an idea he’d had that they’d not acted on ”Oh. We forgot to record one of the tall things. Oops” before simply shrugging and saying ”oh well”

”I mean I wanted a big treasure but I guess the rocks will do” Rika said, having joined them just in time for the question

Geralt nodded. “I mostly just came to make sure you all didn't get eaten by a giant monster.” He said with a small smirk.

”Alright, then let’s go already!” Jr said, before bunny hopping his clown car up in front of the portal. It hung in the air for a moment, no propeller spinning, simply suspended, and then both he and it transformed into a stream of bubbles that flowed into the painting.

Within it, if the others looked closely, they could see a stream of bubbles pop into existence above near the entrance to the truck station, which then solidified into the form of the prince and his flying machine.

Rika didn’t look, she just counted in her head for a few moments to give her brother enough time to get clear, and then followed suit, warping from here to there in the blink of an eye.

Taking a deep breath, Geralt waited about as long as Rika had before jumping into the portal as well.

Roxas was the last one to go. He counted fifteen seconds in his after Geralt left before approaching and jumping through the portal. He was not a hundred percent sure if his assertion about the cubes had been correct, but it was a relief when it turned out that it was.

And just like that, the gang crossed the entire space they had just traveled, and a bit more, in only a fraction of the time it had taken them to get out to the outback.

”Soooo. Wanna go for a snack? Place we ate at last time is gone, which is lame, but whatever that is might be good” Jr suggested, referring to the new Cheesetopia restaurant that had replaced Grillby’s, only for Rika to remind him that ”Tora took all our money”

”Oh. Right.” the prince replied, a little dejectedly, before glancing around and saying ”Well there’s gotta be something to do round here till the others get back”

Taking a few moments to get his bearing after the portal, Geralt shrugged. “If it isn't too late, we could always try to get something on board the Avenger.” Far be it from him to turn down food.

”I guess we could just go right back rather than sticking around here” the prince replied, before asking ”wanna?”

Unfortunately Roxas was light in the pockets as well. He had some change from an earlier trainer battle he had won back in Port Meridia but that likely wasn’t enough to buy a meal, especially not for four people. ”Wonder if there’s some other way to get a snack?” He pondered aloud.

Geralt shrugged, looking around. “Unless we begged for it, or went back out to scavenge for food, can't think of many ways we could get our hands on something.”

”Shoulda taken whatever those shooty people’s salvage was” Rika grumbled, while Jr looked over at the manufacturing set up and though out loud ”I wonder if they’d wanna buy some of the rocks n stuff we found?”

`A quick check in about that, and the total sum they could get was a total of 6,300 z, which was a fair amount, yet at the same time not so much. Certainly enough for a little snack however. Little, being the key word, given it was 400-500 for a coffee alone. Still. It was something.

They got themselves settled down, and the kids grabbed themselves a pair of ‘Nitro Fuel’ juice boxes and one for Roxas as well. Geralt ordered an “Uncle Henry’s” for his own drink.

As for food, Rika more or less insisted they get a Cheesetopia Platter due to it giving them the most variety in food possible on their budget. Plus it was good for sharing.

Not a lot of food, but then the point really was to be able to sit down in the air conditioned restaurant and take another break while they waited for the other groups to get back. And all it cost about 2/3s of the money they’d just gotten then so be it.

Still, it was a pleasant enough way to pass the time, and so the quartet engaged in low stakes smalltalk till the time to head back and meet the mysterious commander of the lost numbers arrived.