Edward managed to get even more that he bargained for from Clark and Stanley. He’d assumed that there’d be a haggling stage once they’d found/worked out exactly what they were willing to part with, but in that he’d been very much mistaken. Instead he ended up weighed down by pillows, bedding, towels and little soaps while his pockets didn’t end up even an iota lighter.
Add to that light, a pleasant little trinket, and most importantly as far as Edward was concerned, a way of producing hot food on the go, and they might as well have robbed the place.
”We’d best find some way to fill it” he commented, regarding the pot, reminded by it that they weren't exactly loaded down with rations. Foragable plants and huntable game wouldn’t exactly be common out in the snow, and that was before you got to how things went poof in Galeem’s world.
He really did wonder how the sausage, so to speak, got made.
That would wait for later however, as first they had to renovate their ride using all the gifts they had received.
Lamps were affixed, pot stashed at the back of the wagon where some of the windows on either side could be opened to let the smoke and steam out, and the windchime set by this window so that both driver and passengers could enjoy it.
Their pot wasn’t exactly the most pleasant looking thing, it had to be said, but the warm, pleasant smell, and promise of a hearty meal would likely outweigh the slight discomfort having a demonic face on it would cause.
Pillows and a few blankets were strewn across the benches (away from the pot to prevent any fire hazards), making for much more comfortably padded seating than bare wood. The spare blankets were chained up above to be taken down at the passenger’s leisure for the purpose of snuggling up under.
And two for the driver. Whoever would end up stuck in the cold outside (and he suspected might be him) would need extra protection against the elements after all.
After that he stashed the various toiletries (bog roll included) up above and out of the way, which took up the rest of the time till a few of the seekers found their way back to the center of town.
With his inferno hound squad padding along after him, Edward moved to join them, and was happy to find that winter clothing had indeed been procured, and a set that was baggy enough to fit over his armor too to boot. Naturally, it was going to be rather, well, vulnerable out there outside his armor, but better it being damaged than it and him together. Cold seeping in via gashes in cloth killed more slowly than blood seeping out of gashes in flesh after all.
A hole patching kit would not go amiss as a result, and he mentioned as such as they were all getting dressed.
He also reported that ”The two fellows running the 'Snotel' have kindly provided us with bedding and bathing materials free of charge, as well as an… eccentrically styled stewpot and stand with which we can prepare food” and then suggested that ”Speaking of, if we have not already, we may wish to pool funds and buy more food than we think we need, and fuel to cook it. An army marches on its stomachs after all, and in climates like this, those can quickly run empty”
Once he was done reporting, Edward set about setting up the carriage for (slow) travel.
He dismissed the inferno hound squads, and in their place forged a pair of bronze golem squads, an inferno steed, and an observer drone squad.
The pairs of towering constructs were then lashed to the front of the carriage via the pair of chains, two per chain, their halberd shafts being pushed between the links. They’d be utterly worthless in a fight as a result, but they could tirelessly pull their transport to the ends of the world.
Very. Very. Slowly.
The dislocated nature of the golem’s structure meant that they weren't the best pushers or pullers, even if they did somewhat make up for it with their prodigious size.
”We’re going to need some actual harnesses for these ‘Reindrix‘ beasts should we manage to acquire some. Or rather materials to make them out of, given we’d need them custom set most likely. I’d rather not have to use our bedding as crafting materials” He said as he finished up their temporary setup.
After that he finally divested himself of the two guns he’d been hauling around, neatly slotting the Mag Launcher and Plasma Cutter into holsters on either side of the inferno steed’s rear mounted satchels. The non ammo dependent Smiting Bishop was kept by his side, intended as it was to be used as a mainstay rather than a situation specific weapon.
Finally, the pair of observer drones were set up to hover a bit ahead of the golems, where he’d use their discerning eyes’ to check the terrain before they passed over it. The last thing they wanted was to have the carriage get re-buried in snow after all.
”Transport is prepared” he reported ”I can direct the golems remotely, so we won’t need a driver just yet. When we do, I will see if I can manage. Till then I’ll ride alongside”
He didn’t mount up immediately however, and instead had the inferno steed pad along after him as he had had the pair of hounds. They still had to get everyone together, and to purchase all the little things that they needed to make the trip in (moderate) comfort, after all.
In some ways the strange double chain setup the wagon had actually worked out, at least for the moment, as Edward had his copper golems slide their spears through the chain’s loops and could then simply have them mindlessly march forwards. It was a slow process, of course, but the metal constructs did not tire in their match towards the center of town.
They weren't going to be suitable for pulling it at any kind of practical speed however, especially under load, which meant it was a good thing Heismay managed to track down a pair of mounted locals, and information about both about where they’d acquired these Reindrix and how they’d tamed them.
”What useful sounding devices” Edward commented upon learning about Pal Spheres, before suggesting that ”We’ll have to ask the other Seekers if they’ve found something like that in town. Assuming the similar sounding objects that some of them use for monster storage aren't usable for that same purpose at any rate. I believe I have seen… Roxas I believe his name was… using such devices, though they were red and white rather than blue if I recall correctly”
Still, that ment they’d be hanging around in the cold till the others did return, which was hardly a recipe for a good or productive time. They did have their new carriage for shelter, of course, but its wooden benches didn't exactly provide comfortable seating, nor was its interior decor particularly pleasant to be around.
Peering through the snow and dark for somewhere nearby to go, Edward spotted a building called the Snotel which claimed to have rooms open.
”Hmmm. Perhaps the original owners of this wagon stayed, or are staying, there?” he pondered out loud, before suggesting they check it out, vaguely saying it would be ”Best to get ahead of things” he himself having not decided what they would do if someone tried to reclaim their property.
Leaving his golems to keep an eye on their transport, the pair headed. Then, after pausing outside to shake off his wings and stomp his feet clear of at least some snow, Edward pushed open the front door, and entered the establishment, seeking answers or, at the very least, and perhaps more so if you boiled it down to base needs, warmth.
Inside was a plain but practical reception whose desk was manned by a pair of odd fellows, one green and one blue, when went by Clark and Stanly respectively going by their name tags. Both beings waved enthusiastically to Edward and Heismay as they stepped inside, while Clark specifically called out “hello friends! Come in come in”
”Good morning to you” Edward said, as he finished de-snowing his boots on a welcome mat, before striding over.
“Looking for a room?” Stanly asked, just a little to hopefully.
”Ah, no I’m afraid not. I just have a question regarding the carriage outside” Edward apologized, causing both beings' shoulders to slump in disappointment, before setting about quickly explaining/asking ”You see we just dug it out of the snow, and where wondering if the owner might have passed by here seeing as they had been deprived of their, hmm, home away from home so to speak?”
Not that it was the best place to live inside, but still, that was a future problem, and frankly all the more reason that they might have come here.
“Hmmm, no sorry, don’t think so” Stanly replied, to which Clark added that there where “Not many people coming out here recently”
”Ah, how unfortunate” Edward said, before asking ”has business been slow?” out of a mix of politeness and as an excuse to stick around indoors for just a bit longer
“Yup”
“Basically none”
“We’ve got whole cupboards of stuff that’s fresh as the day we got it” Stanly said with a sigh, only for Clark to insist that “it’ll all pick up once summer comes along! Then it’ll all be worth it” which Edward highly doubted was the case.
”And that will be?”
“Any day now! It's been snowing for what feels like forever!”
Empirically speaking, Edward thought, that implied that it would probably keep doing so. The region being called the Frozen Highlands certainly seemed to indicate as such. Plus with the way it managed to exist between two temperate regions and parallel with a desert, it certainly didn’t seem to be a natural state of affairs, now that he considered it. Not that anywhere was, of course, it all being glued together by Galeem, but if he was to hazard a guess he’d say that seasons were likely not a factor in the current weather.
At any rate, it didn’t seem like he’d be getting much information out of these poor fools, but, he thought, after a moment, maybe he’d be able to help them help him, and in doing so keep them afloat for a little while longer.
Till Galeem’s world inevitably swallowed them up (something was keeping the clock in the center of town nice and fed after all) at any rate.
”Well, till you do see the weather improve, perhaps I can divest you of some of your excess stock? Pillows. Blankets. Toiletries. Candles. That sort of thing? We need to furnish our new transport, and perhaps a new home if we can locate one” he asked/suggested.
“Oh you would? That’d be swell” Stanley said, to which Clark nodded in enthusiastic agreement and then offered “I can go and see what exactly we’ve got right away”
”Before you do” Edward gently interrupted, before glancing at his companion and asking if there was ”Is there anything else you think they might have that we could use, Himsley?”
Miss Fortune's assumption that once they left the water that she’d have the advantage over the kids initially proved false, because once the water ran out they simply hopped the fence and started painting their own, leaving a trail of goop as they went.
What actually stopped them from keeping pace was a certain divine wolf being most displeased with them making a mess of the road she was trying to fix. Said wolf hopped off her cart ride and promptly barreled after them. Hypocrite that she was, she stopped them via drawing trees onto the road, which they both crashed into.
Kids had to be tough to have made it this far was her logic for not minding hurting them, and they promptly proved this in the resulting physical altercation, which only ended once the milkmaid and her passengers caught up, whereupon the kids were verbally admonished for their vandalism of the road by those who could use words.
And then made to clean up their mess, which was a first.
Fortunately a shoulder riding Dazzle made for a suitable standin for F.L.U.D.D. as his bubble beams scoured the road clean, which was then dried off with fireballs.
Despite the ease, however, the pair of equally rotten eggs were sulking as they trudged into the little town and showed little enthusiasm for getting involved with the commotion like some of the others.
Ammatarasu was naturally among those others, and her hackles raised as she beheld the Yokai for the first time, only to mentally admonish herself. These were not the demons that had plagued her on her travels back in her world, but instead entirely different beings with the same name.
Not that they were harmless in any sort of way, it seemed, but on the chart of immorality being a mindly destructive and very noisy nuisance was certainly a lot lower on the scale than spreading diseases or attacking travelers indiscriminately. Thus she stood back and let the others attempt to talk things out. When this failed, however, she stepped up beside them, unleashing a howling battle cry to the heavens, before shifting her equipment, bringing her Devout Beads to the fore, lashing them together to form a whip, while her disk shifted into place to be used defensively, and the sword was moved to the back, intended to be unused.
They were not, she interpreted, trying to kill these beings, merely knock some sense into them, or to send them packing, so a light lashing was what she needed to deliver, not the cleaving blow of an executioner’s blade.
She might as well have brought one out however, because the Yokai were certainly a bit frazzled by her presence, her divine aura causing them to be more wary than they otherwise might have been.
It didn’t stop them entirely however, and with a cry of “cheap counter-picker!” one of the green gremlins charged forwards, prompting a few more to join in with similar cries that made just as little sense to Amatarasu as their prior ranting.
They quickly came to regret this move.
The wolf made a minor flick of her snout that sent the chain of divine beads flicking out, striking swiftly but not at all softly, delivering a punishing lash of divine retribution that set the front runner running off while howling in pain. Then a half second later the beads flicked fourth again, slashing at a second, then a third, then a fourth, as the wolf directed her weapon with small movements, and backed away only a step or two as she turned aside the tide with her rapidly striking weapon.
It didn’t take much to convince the runts that they’d lost this fight, the stings of defeat she was inflicting clear for all to see even if her attacks where not, and in short order those who had worked up the courage had been turned aside, and the others thought better than to challenge her.
All except for two fighting fanatics.
“Cowards the lot of you!” barked a beetle shaped yokai in samurai armor known as a Rhinoggin, as the green gremlins fled around him.
The goddess tilted her head to the side upon seeing this yokai stand against her, given that he was about the same sizes as the gremlins, especially when the little beetle declared boldly that “Looks like I’ll have to show you all what a real fighter looks like!”
The absurdity of the moment didn’t end there, as a Beetler stomped over and yelled at the other bug Yokai “You couldn’t beat a casual scrub! Leave this one to me!”
The Rhinoggin whirled around, and then laughed “You!? Don’t make me laugh! Run along like the greenies and leave this to a pro fighter!”
“You're nothing but hot air! All bark no bite!”
“I’d never stoop to biting like you, ankle biter!”
“We’re the same size rock for brains”
“Your horn’s are titchy!”
“No yours!”
“Noob!”
“Scrub!”
At this point the pair of beetles had locked horns and were yelling insults at each other’s faces while the divine being they had challenged looked on with bemusement. Clearly those who had issues to resolve, and so while they were busy with that, she promptly wandered off to go fight something else while their shouting match continued.
While the wolf wanted nothing to do with the two’s antics, Bowser Junior wasted no time in poking fun at them ”Pfffff hahahahaha, look at those two idiots!” just loud enough for the pair to break their shouting match just enough to glance over is the prince’s general direction.
He and his sister had not gotten involved in the brawl, having little in the way of interest in enforcing civil obedience, and had instead sat themselves down on one of the wooden platforms to watch the show. Jr did have his paintbrush on hand, just in case someone needed urgent healing, but he was pretty sure they had this in the bag.
Unfortunately, when combined with his mockery, his tossing out of a ”Cure” caused the beetles to switch targets.
“Stop interfering in those fights, cheater!”
“I call hacks!”
”Urrgh” Jr groaned as they two came running towards them (and the villagers who’s porch they were sitting on slammed shut the door behind them). Rather than fight himself, he half tilted his head to Rika to ask ”could you?” only to go cross eyed as she reached a hand to his chest and plucked a pair of pokeballs from it using 3 oversized fingers
”Go, Mimi and Peeka!” she called out as she hurled the pair down into the street and summoned Jr’s two ghost pokemon to the field to square off with the two yokai.
”Huh?”
”I wanna practice” Rika said, before calling out for the pair of mon to ”Electro Ball and psybeam the closest to you!”
The pair were briefly confused by this change in dynamic before following the command when their trainer gave ”fine fine” of agreement with this.
The opposing pair began to shout some more, but only the Rhinoggin got off his of “can’t even fight your own battles you wimps!” off as the earth typed yokai shrugged off the electrical attack, while the beetler stumbled and clutched his head as the psychic attack struck him.
“Ha, let me show you how it's done!” The Rhinoggin further taunted his fellow/rival as he leapt forwards, reeled back a fist, and then tried to deliver a full swing strike to Peeka, only for his blow to phase right through the ghost type pokemon.
”Knew it!” Rika said with delight as her strategy of using ghosts vs martial fighters paid off. Unfortunately, the beetler immediately adapted as he kicked up a random pebble, and then roundhouse kicked it towards Mimi, the earth attack landing just fine and busting her disguise.
“That’s how it's done, idiot!” The Beetler mocked Rhinoggin who was still flailing at Peeka who was busy blowing a raspberry at him.
“Shut it you!” he reported, only to cry out in pain as he got the blinding flash of a ”Dazzling gleam!” to his face much to his rival bug yokai’s amusement.
Said amusement was put to an end as he got back stabbed by Mimi’s ”Shadow sneak!”
“Alright that does it!” he yelled, flicking up three stones and then kicking them fourth in three spins. Following suit, even if he’d never admit it, Rhinoggin dug his horns into the ground and hurled up a chunk of earth that hardened and then came down like a rockfall on top of Peeka’s head.
”Mimi, copycat the red horn!” Jr suddenly interjected, prompting a ”Hey!” from Rika, only for Jr to insist ”It’ll be funny” and to then add ”Peeka, confusion ray blue horn!”
The Beetler stumbled as the ray hit him, stumbling and missing his next pebble, which bonked him on the head, which Rika had to admit was kinda funny. That wasn’t the end of Jr’s gambit however as he then got Mimi to use Rhinoggin’s rockfall move on Beetler, and then yelled ”Oh wow, red horn’s trying to take out blue horn! What a shocker!” at the confused Beetler.
“Trying to steal all the glory! I knew it!” the blue beetle roared, charging the red beetle and delivering a one two punch to the other yokai. Said yokai immediately turned on the other one, the two’s enmity meaning their Galeeming nature was barely a factor in the initiation of the subsequent brawl.
”I mean, it was kinda funny, but I did wanna win that one on my own” Rika complained as she called back Jr’s mon and handed them back to him.
”I mean, why don’t you catch the winner then? Then you can practice whenever” Jr suggested, right before the Rhinoggin smashed the confused Beetler’s face in with a punch.
Rather than bite the dust, however, the Beetler simply faded into a mostly translucent form and promptly picked himself back up to demand “get back in here so I can kick your butt without a broken controller!”
”Huh” Jr said with a head tilt, before yelling ”Hey, goody two shoes, they don’t die when you kill em! Just poof into ghosts or something!” at the rest of the seekers.
A moment later Rika hucked Jr’s last regular pokeball at the victorious Rhinoggin, only for it to bonk off him and its front nub to blink red in error due to the Yokai not being a pokemon. She and the Yokai were both angry about this, and while the latter got the first laugh by crushing the pokeball, the former got the last as she swiftly took her frustration via just gunning him down. Rhinoggin was promptly banished back into the spirit realm, where he became embattled with Beetler, though the pair seemed to be only able to futilely tussle when they lacked a physical form.
Ammataratsu had glanced over upon hearing Jr’s yelled information, and upon seeing the evidence of this fact promptly switched her tactics. The punishing lashing beads were put away, and the executioner's blade was brought out.
She gripped the blade in her maw, charged up a strike, and then lunged forwards and delivered a powerful cleave that reaped a harvest of green gremlins, banishing a host of hooligans and leaving them capable of only heckling.
This blow was invisible to most onlookers, while the three inkblots she put into the blockhead lookalike Noway where invisible to all, the wall shaped yokai simply cracking in 3 spots and being banished in a blink of an eye.
She howled again to intimidate the yokai, to let them see how she was no longer holding back, and then stormed forth to cut down any who didn’t flee from her glorious light.
The Stalker made her way back towards the entrance of the Bank with her pockets playing host to a few dozen wet and partially burnt fabric slips and a hope in her heart that they’d still be accepted in the resource acquisition ritual the locals did. She also did so with an audible rumbling in her bellies. If this didn’t work out, it would be time for more drastic action.
Unfortunately for her, there was a barrier between her and the food storage places, one that came in the form of a mass of people who turned their attention to the door as she exited, causing her to freeze up in alarm.
The press, paramedics, and pigs (as a certain Dr would call them) all had her description at this point and as the principle hostage, they all had their reasons to seek her out.
Fortunately for her, the press’ desire to get an interview was disrupted by the distraction of all their recording equipment going on the fritz as soon as she came into view. In a way that would also be a ticking time bomb till they (or some other observer) worked out what exactly it was that their cameras did not like being pointed at.
The cops meanwhile had the appearance of a little man who wanted to talk to them (and vice versa) leapt out the door behind her.
She was just beginning to relax when the third group pushed forwards. Well meaningly concerned about the girl who’d clearly been so traumatized that she’d gone non-verbal, the pair of paramedics striding up the stairs towards her intended to try and hustle her from the press so as to not stress her out even more than she already clearly was.
The Stalker, naturally, wanted nothing to do with this, and so as their approach (and calls of "Please remain calm miss, it's going to be ok, we're here to help" that she did not understand visibly agitated her) became more obviously directed towards her, she stepped to one side, then to the other when they moved to copy her, for making a break for it, duking round the pair, dexterously avoiding the hand of one who instinctively made a grab (along with a shout of "hay, wait!") for her.
Sensing a story even if they couldn't record footage of it, only audio, one of the reporters pushed forwards to intercept her next, and was for her efforts shoulder barged aside before the Stalker dove into the crowd of curious bystanders which parted through a mix of surprise as she did so. Thus free, the Stalker picked up speed as she made a run for it, a half dozen burnt wet bills slipping out of her pockets and being picked up by the wind as she fled the scene.
wordcount: 2128 (+3) Amaterasu: level 8 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (27/80) Location: Fields of Gold with Primrose - Level: 11 - Total EXP: 270/110
Amaterasu looked rather pointedly at Harry while her true name was explained by Pit, hoping he’d get that she very much preferred it over the silly fake name he’d given her. Or snowball. Honestly Dog Mullens had been better than Snowball, at least it was just sort of nonsensical instead of incredibly ironically antithetical to her nature.
The rest of the info given out was popped away for later analysis, as was making any judgments on the others. Actions spoke louder than words and appearance, and so she’d wait to see what kind of people the rest of the Gold Team were before passing value judgment.
At least one pair quite quickly got said value judgment, however, namely the shortest members (possibly children??) who deployed a large metal machine, and promptly took up the entire road using it, the grumbling metal thing dumping vial smog out of the back of two metal pipes on its back.
She tried to put up running after the tractor shaped metal attacker (not that she knew what any of those things were) for a bit, before swiftly getting frustrated and vaulting the thing, much to the chagrin of its driver, who yelled and shook a fist at her.
She ignored him, only to then find herself being chased by the machine and forced to either get off the road or race ahead of it lest it simply run her over.
Very rude and childish.
Naturally she kept one paw step ahead of it, up until they nearly collided with the broken down cart. Amatarasu herself skidded to a halt, and then, worried that the children were simply going to ram into the back of the stuck vehicle, prepared to try and sundisk parry the incoming machine.
Fortunately, it stopped just in time, preventing an accident, after which the kids promptly abandoned their machine to go sailing on the water instead.
As Amatarasu fumed, she heard a polite voice softly calling “Excuse me, I’m so sorry, but could you help me out? The wheel’s broken and-” after the children, only for them to ignore her and race off to meet up with the cat lady, resulting in an addition of a sad “oh. Never mind”
The source of this voice turned out to be the owner: a pointy eared woman clutching her side in clear pain as she leaned around her stuck cart and over the low stone walls flanking the road she was blocking.
She sighed, and then started as she saw the white wolf peering at her between the thin gap in between the wall and the cart’s back wheel.
“Oh. Ah. Hello? Nice doggy?” she said, clearly just a little nervous about this large predator, prompting the goddess to give her some intentional tail wags to dissuade these worries as she inspected the wheel. About a quarter of its circumference was off, and several spokes broke entirely, which would be a pain to fix.
For mortals.
The divine wolf simply paused the world, and painted in what was missing, carefully and methodically completing the circle before adding back in the spokes, and then let time resume as her miracle came to fruition.
In a blink and a swirl of ink, the broken cartwheel was whole once more.
The amazed milkmaid placed a hand over her mouth as she gasped, before glancing around in confusion as to the source of this miracle, before turning back Amatarasu’s way and asking “was that you?”
Not to the wolf, but to the dancer who’d appeared just a moment before the miracle when the armory return sequence the kids had left on the tractor finished, sending it away and ending its own blockade of the road.
Indeed, while some Seekers found alternate paths and wasted no time in following them, Primrose kept to the simple straightforward path. She'd been content with a steady pace, though once Pit had mentioned a breakdown ahead of them and Therion had seemingly noticed something that made him less inclined to talk with her as he'd rather remain quiet, she had given the latter some space and quickened her steps.
And now that Primrose stood before the woman and her miraculously repaired wagon, the dancer blinked at the wheel, the milk maiden, and the wolf at her feet. Pit had said the animal was a goddess, and though she hadn't totally believed him, well... She was fairly sure no one in the group had the ability to instantly fix things like that, so it had to have been one of the new recruits. And in that case, why not it be the allegedly divine canine?
"I believe that may have been our wolf here," she said. If it hadn't been, she was sure whoever was really responsible would correct her. She did glance down at Amaterasu to see if she could tell though.
The wolf, after a moment, barked once for yes. Then she hopped up into the air, and then double jumped over the low wall and landed on a meter wide lilypad floating in the rice paddy that had not been there a moment ago.
It supported her weight without issue, as did the two others that sprung up one after the other, creating a handy path around the stuck cart wish she traipsed along and then leapt off of to get to the other side.
“Oh my” the milkmaid said, having seen all this due to still having been leaning over the wall, before stepping back just in time to let the entirely dry wolf plop down beside her. Convinced of Ammatarasu’s supernatural nature if not of any kind of divinity, she gave a short bow as she said “Thank you so much, miss wolf”
Primrose followed after Amaterasu, though she opted just to float up and slightly over the wall until she was also at the front of the cart with the wolf and woman. Her gaze slid to the latter's side where she was favoring it with a hand gently pressed to her abdomen. "You're hurt?"
She raised a hand to beckon the stranger closer. The flame of Warmth blossomed in that same outstretched hand, emitting a soothing glow as she gently pressed it over the girl's injury.
Once the healing was complete, a fairly quick process, Primrose withdrew her arm. "You're part way to getting back on the road already, so why don't we see what else needs fixing up..."
She glanced at the wolf again, as if to ask for her to inspect the wagon, its cargo, and the mule's harness with whatever power she'd previously used.
“Oh my goddesses, thank you so much! That was really smarting” the milkmaid replied, rubbing the magically healed injury as if to double check that it really was all sorted. “I hope it isn’t too much trouble to ask, but my poor mule sprained his leg too. I don’t suppose you could also...?”
Said mule was looking a tad bit nervous about the wolf, even if his owner seemed fine, and Amaterasu had backed off a bit in order to give it space, even as she padded to and fro to check that everything was in order with the cart, just as Primrose had suggested. The dancer herself approached the beast of burden once it had calmed down some, placing her hand on its shoulder to push the healing spell into it.
"Hopefully this gets you moving again," she said, both to the donkey and the milk maid. The statement was only half altruistic - after all, there was a fairly sizable group that needed to take the road... though to be fair, with the giant lilypads still floating on the water, a few had already gone around once they'd arrived on the scene - such as Therion, who nimbly hopped from one to the other and then vaulted the wall to continue on.
Pit had opted to simply leap over the cart with his wings, landing lightly on the other side with only a glance back at the girl and her wagon. Since it seemed like Amaterasu and Primrose had helping out handled, he gave the two of them a wave and then sped ahead to act as a scout.
“It will it will, thank you so much, let me just get old Grumblers back in the harness and we’ll be on our way” she replied with an appreciative nod, before setting about doing just that.
"...Amaterasu?" Primrose questioned once she was finished, carefully pronouncing it the first time as she'd done with a few of the other Seekers' names.
The wolf’s ears perked up at her name before she glanced over and up at the helpful healer.
If Amaterasu really was a goddess, then likening her to animals like Linde was probably blasphemous. But that was Primrose's frame of reference. Linde was such a smart creature that she could understand most human speech, and so Primrose just spoke to the wolf as she would another person.
"I trust everything else is in order?"
The goddess gave a (not very enthusiastic) bark for yes, having done some little patch jobs that weren't really noticeable, but otherwise found everything just fine.
“It is, yes. Only a little bit of spilled milk,” the milkmaid, who had assumed she was talking to her, not having really internalized that the wolf was magic. Rather than correct and potentially embarrass the poor girl, Primrose smoothly nodded to Amaterasu and then turned a small smile on the woman they'd helped in one fluid motion.
Sat atop the seat of the wagon, reins in hand, she seemed ready to go. “would you care for a ride, miss? It's the least I can do.”
"How could I refuse such a kind offer?"
The dancer climbed aboard, taking the seat beside the maiden. Though she may have healed the girl and her mule, she had hardly done all the work... so after a glance back down at the white wolf, and some of the other Seekers nearby, she asked, "would you mind giving a lift to a few more of my group as well?"
Not enough to overload the cart, of course, considering how heavy some among the Seekers were let alone the sheer number of them... but since they and the girl were all headed the same way... well, given that she wouldn't even be able to go anywhere soon if not for the helpful passersby, the milkmaid was more than happy to extend the offer to her saviors' friends as well.
"Sakura, Juri?" Primrose called as she turned around to invite them for a ride as well. She didn't know the two of them that well, but since Nadia and Rika had gone off on the water they were the only other women in the group at the moment, and so the only two that the dancer extended the offer to. Well, besides Amaterasu, though whether the wolf preferred to walk on her own paws or hop into the back of the wagon was her choice. Of course it wasn't Primrose's cart, so if its owner didn't complain then she could hardly stop any of the men from hitching a ride if they were so inclined.
After a moment Primrose turned back to their new acquaintance and casually inquired, "where are you headed?"
“Esaka,” she replied, flicking the reins and getting the accidental roadblock moving once more “It's a hungry city. Those fighting fanatics need their protein and our farm is happy to provide”
"How fortunate," Primrose replied lightly. It likely wouldn't come as a surprise that anyone traveling this road would be headed to what appeared to be one of the largest cities in the area, so she didn't disguise the fact they were traveling in the same direction.
As the two ladies talked, Amatarasu had been busy fixing the road beneath them as well, scribbling away with her ink to repair the local public infrastructure to prevent any repeat incidents, leaving the pair, and any who joined them, with a smooth off ramp and begin their journey. Only then did she join them for a ride, settling down behind the pair, curling up for a rest, though keeping one eye open, watching the road and periodically filling in potholes and other minor hazards with her brush as they traveled forwards.
Once they’d finished chatting, the kids took a look around the area they’d landed in, and decided to go with the plan they thought up before coming here, which was to go for a drive instead of hoofing it on foot.
Jr promptly deployed the very on thematically fitting tractor themed metal attacker Kuebiko onto the main track, before popping inside. Jr took the controls and got to driving, while Rika put her feet up, pulled the games console she’d shown Sakura out again, and started beep booping away on it.
This put them comfortably at the head of the pack, though not at all alone in that fact, as after about 30 seconds of driving there was a metal clunk as Amatarasu, indigent of having been stuck behind the fume trailing machine that was taking up the whole road, leapt up on top of the roof.
She ignored the yelling and fist shaking coming from inside and promptly jumped in front of the moving vehicle and then raced ahead.
Slighted, Jr hit the gas, and promptly raced after her, only for this sudo-race to come to a screeching halt as they almost crashed into the back of the milk transporting wagon, the prince having been too focused on the wolf sprinting ahead of him to see the impending obstacle till they were almost on top of it.
After stopping, he promptly honked on the machine’s horn and demanded they ”Get out the road!” despite the un-feasibility of this.
Technically, he could have just tried to jump/hover over her, but it was the principle of the thing (and not wanting to crush them with a bad jump).
It was while he was grumbling about this that Miss Fortune came sailing alone across the rice fields, catching up, and prompting Rika to suggest ”Why don’t we just copy her?”
”Huh. Yeah sure why not” her brother replied, prompting them to pop out of the vehicle, set up a magic circle to send it right back up to the armory, before hopping the fence and touching down on the water, prince and princess both floating above the paddies thanks to inherent or copied ship girl tech.
Zero consideration was given to helping the poor milkmaid out, nor to helping Amatarasu with helping her. Instead they sailed out after Miss Fortune, who was in the middle of inspecting a big fish.
In front of them, in a basin between several hills of terraced rice paddies and wheatgrass fields, lay a large pond. With a couple wooden bridges, piers, and surrounding footpaths, it served as a junction for three of the serpentine rivers that flowed around the Fields of Gold, which would have made it an excellent route for travel via bamboo raft if not for the gilded lunker that seemed to have taken up residence. The demon catfish, longer and girthier than a minivan, had evidently eaten so well since its arrival that it could no longer escape via the waterways, a problem it seemed eager to rectify. As Nadia watched, the fish released a huge fountain of water from its mouth, raising the water level a millimeter or two. By now, two tiers of terraces had been submerged, and the rivers were almost deep enough to swim through again. Not content with the pace at which it was flooding the farmland, it looked like the catfish had used its remarkable bulk to smash up the bridges and piers, and debris from the destruction floated among the reeds.
”Hey Miss! Thinking of making more sushi?” Jr called out as he headed straight for Nadia, while behind him Rika sailed too and fro in a weaving pattern just for fun, taking a small joy from being on her element while she could.
“Oh, hey!” Having heard them approach with the help of her feline ears, Nadia was ready with a cheerful wave when the kids approached. Having braved the Deep Blue Seaside together, she was no stranger to sailing alongside these two. She could trust them to go along with her hijinx, and right now it seemed like the three of them were of one mind. “Yeah, I’ve been pond-ering it. Looks like this thing’s been makin’ a real mess. It’d be a lot better use in our mess…the mess hall, that is!” She crossed her arms, smiling. “We’re all use to fusion by now, but are you ready for some fission?”
”Huh?” Rika replied with a head tilt, before re-righting it as she got it ”ohhhh. Like fishing”
Jr who’d at least given her a nose exhale of amusement for her efforts, before agreeing ”Yeah. We were on the avenger for a bit before we came down to Mafia Town and the less we eat like that the better!” to which Rika nodded in agreement.
“Sweet!” First things first, though; with the big boss’s orders in mind, Nadia needed to do her due diligence. “Gimme one sec.” She leaned forward, skating through the fronds of rice across the the paddy she’d stopped on. With a hop, she landed on the surface of the pond. Thanks to her rigging the impact barely caused a ripple, but it was enough for the catfish to take notice. It turned toward her, glossy eyes bulging from its scaly indigo face. “Hey buddy, do you understand me? Would it be ‘morally questionable’ to fry you with cornmeal and lemon pepper?”
In lieu of a reply, the river monster let out a bellow like a foghorn. Nadia scrunched up her face as the thing’s breath blew her hair and ears back, bits of spittle flying all over. Then the fish threw itself toward her. “Hup!” The feral leaped into the air, propelled up and over her assailant by jets of pressurized blood. Beneath her the catfish slammed down with a tremendous splash, disappearing underwater. After a couple fancy flips, her rigging arms folded up for less drag, Nadia came down on the water in a deft three-point landing. She looked up, grinning, as her rigging unfolded again, her cannons locked and loaded as the catfish surfaced in front of her.. “Gonna take that as a ‘no’.” She straightened up, claws sharpened. “Purr-pare for pan-nihilation!”
Rika and Jr hoped into the pond, both tossing small objects as they did so, and then landed by her side, paintbrush and halberd in hand.
A second later two more allies arrived. From Jr’s pokeball, his ghost-tailed Brionne Dazzle splashed down, and then a fair bit further away and with a much bigger splash Rika’s warship turret toting white whale arrived, having been summoned from her golden spinner.
”Yeah, prepare to get cooked!” Jr called out with a toothy grin, before Rika retorted jokingly that ”no, those both come after we fill-slay it” spacing out the words just a bit too much for the fillet pun to work smoothly.
Nadia grimaced, but decided not to critique Rika’s attempt since the catfish breached the water and slammed back down in a giant belly flop. A big wave rolled outward, interfering with the feral’s shot, so she naturally decided to accelerate forward and ramp off the wave instead. By the time she’d taken to the air, however, the catfish had filled its cheeks with water, and it spat at the same time that Nadia unleashed a salvo. They traded, blood shots for water blast, and like a bug sniped by an archerfish Nadia fell from the sky. “Ack!” She landed a split second after the wave past by on all fours, sprawled out like a water strider as she tried to steady herself. Her cannons fired another double salvo, pelting the catfish with bolts of condensed blood at a minor health cost.
Dazzle executed a Twisting Dive to punch straight through the wave at his trainer’s command, who himself more carefully navigated over the wave, following in the wake of Rika’s whale. Once there, he followed the second command, which was to hit the foe with his disarming voice, the pokemon belting fourth a beam of pink soundwaves that sapped the foe’s fighting spirit, fatiguing them.
Rika meanwhile launched herself up above even Miss Fortune via featherfall rune, before hurling her halberd down like a harpoon at the great fish. The needle pointed weapon cutting through the water blasts while Rika herself used her maneuvering thrusters and double jumps to dodge water blasts that were being slowed by her dated sunglasses.
While Nadia’s blood shells were more insult than injury, the debuffs that followed set the catfish up for a heavy, painful javelin toss from Rika. It sank at least a foot into the fish’s flesh after grazing by its armored helmet. It bellow again, bucking angrily, and at its call spiky red spars of rock burst up from beneath the water in concentric, sequential rings around it. Now back on her feet, Nadia narrowly avoided a spike with an airdash, then fired off another double-blast from her cannons as she slid sideways. Its helmet would block damage from the front, but not attacks aimed at its sides. Of course, the catfish wasn’t going to make it easy. It launched itself at all its opponents in quick succession, threatening them with a crushing belly flop and bite.
Floating up above, Rika was out of leaping range, while down below the others had to make their own dodges. Dazzle simply twisting dived to the side to avoid being splashed, while Jr’s similar Magma Rush left a floating disk of magma that detonated when the demon fish splashed down on it (though given the watery environment, it wasn’t that effective).
Rika’s whale was nowhere near as agile, and promptly got flopped, but given the lesser size difference involved, it wasn’t harmed too badly from being smashed down under the water.
In the scramble to avoid the monster’s lunges, Nadia got clipped by a slam meant for someone else. “Ugh!” As she flew to the side, though, she twisted around in midair and extended her arm to grab onto its dorsal fin. Immediately it yanked her after it, towing the feral along through the water. “Bubububububub! Ububububub!” Once her arm retracted, she fought against the current to stab its upper body again and again with one Athame, which did low damage but lowered its defense. Finally, the catfish came to a stop, reared up, and fired off a dozen water orbs that shot off toward their targets like homing missiles, three each at Junior, Rika, Dazzle, and the white whale. It did not seem to notice Nadia composing herself until she revved up one arm like a drill. “This is NOT a drill!” She plunged it into the wound she’d made, sending blood and scales flying. “I’ve o-fish-ially had it!”
Rila, now touching down, caused her spear to reappear in her hand and then switched it to lance and shield mode, the princess using the latter to block the water orbs while she closed in to use the former. Jr used much the same strategy, raising his wrist towards the incoming projectiles, and rapidly forming an iron shield to block the strikes. It buckled under the strikes, but he managed to reinforce it enough in between that he could endure the volley.
Unable to raise defensive armaments, Dazzle did his best to ”Dodge!” ducking under the water before trying to dash under the homing shots, avoiding two, but taking the third despite this, though the water pokemon naturally resisted this aquatic attack. Rika’s whale meanwhile didn't so much resist as it simply endured, though again its sheer size ment the demon catfish’s attacks were far less of a threat to it than the smallfry fighting around it.
At Rika’s command, the beast then surged forwards, jaws opening to reveal two rows of teeth, the outer sharp and monstrous, the inner uncomfortably human, which it bit into the hit sunned catfish, grappling it in the process.
With the whale in the way, it would be quite tricky to hit it in its exposed flank.
Its commander ran up its back, lept up, and then used maneuvering thrusters to add a burst of speed to a downward thrust with her lancet, one which made the foe more vulnerable to her ranged attacks, which she aimed to land near where Miss Fortune was already drilling.
Jr meanwhile got around this by painting electrical goop around his battered shield, before flexing and shattering it into metal shards that were promptly launched at the head. Rather than uselessly hammer it however, an orange glow to surround the shots, causing them to orbit around the whale and then strike it in its opposite side
As his shots flew, the prince commanded his pokemon to attack from ”Underneath!” with ”Bubblebeam”, prompting his pokemon to swim down and left fourth a stream of highly compressed bubbles through the water, ones that burst with quite a bit of force upon impact.
While the bubblebeam hurt the catfish even less than its water orbs hurt Dazzle, the strong impale and electric flechettes from the Koopa Kids hurt the beast a great deal. It bellowed and leaped from the pond with a powerful sweep of its tail, pivoting around to come down in a tremendous upside-down crash. Nadia managed to disengage and narrowly avoid getting crushed between the monster’s bulk and the water’s surface, though the ensuing wave did bowl her over as the catfish dove down. “Whew! Close one!” When she rose and tried to spot her foe underwater, though, all she saw beneath the surface was a ripple of red light. Then the spikes burst up from below, several of them piercing the underside of Rika’s whale. One spike struck the feral with such force that she flew upward, blood flying from fresh gashes. “MRROW!” She landed in the water on her back, stunned by the ungainly impact with her rigging arms splayed out in every direction.
When she spotted a shadow rising beneath her, though, Nadia took action. She used Charge to blitz straight upward as a bolt of lightning, just in time to avoid getting swallowed hold. “Seriously?” she growled through a smile, her teeth gritted. “You look at me and seafood?” As she fell, she airdashed toward one of the little piers, where she would take a second to compose herself and straighten out her rigging. “Need a second!” she called.
Of course, by then the catfish was already going after the others. It breached beneath Junior, trying to chomp him like it almost chomped Nadia, then plummeted toward Rika in a tremendous belly flop. Once back in the water, it whipped around to follow up with a giant tail slap.
The prince Magma Rushed away, leaving the catfish a lovely mouthful of magma. Rika meanwhile fired her maneuvering thrusters as she bullet jumped forwards, avoiding being smashed but not splashed as she was sent tumbling by the wave kicked up by the big fish’s impact with the waters. That left her in prime position for the follow up, the tail slap, that sent her flying over to where Miss Fortune was, the ship girl crashing down into the rice paddy beside the pier.
Thanks to her ship-girl levels of durability, she was more banged up than busted, pulling herself up unsteadily out of the stalks.
She straightened, when Junior called out ”Afflatus Solace!” and expended the freshly grown blue lily on his healing gauge to restore her, before the prince also cast ”Cure!” to heal up Miss Fortune for good measure as he sailed over.
Behind him, Dazzle continued to pelt the fish with ineffective bubblebeams due to a lack of additional instructions, while the heavily bloodied whale opened its maw and spat a triple volley of skull and crossbone tagged bombs at the opposing sea creature.
Though Nadia’s regeneration had already begun to mend her wounds, the magical heal from Junior sped up the process considerable. In a flash, the feral was right as rain, blinking at the whimsical green wisps and sparkles that swirled around her. “Oh hey, thanks! Always knew I’d look good in heals.” After seeing that Rika had been helped as well, she turned her attention to the catfish. It returned fire while swimming away from the bombs, its water orbs sailing toward Dazzle and the white whale. Their shootout looked inconclusive, but it did give the Seekers a chance to jump back into the action.
Nadia’s mind raced as she tried to consider all the paw-sibilities. If the trio did too much damage to the beast, or outright killed it, there wouldn’t be any meat to send the Avenger. They needed to subdue it, but how? With a skull that thick, knocking it out would be impossible, even if they did pry the armor off. Then she remembered Junior’s electric paint–maybe, with enough lightning, they could zap it into submission? Either way, it was hard to get a hold of this thing while it was in its element. That, though, could be changed.
“Hey, conch sucker!” The feral jumped back onto the water, her rigging activated. A couple blood shots aimed right at the catfish’s eye got its attention. She then span in place, taunting it. “Water you waitin’ for? Come and get me!”
With a bellow, the monster briefly submerged, then launched itself out of the water in a full-body tackle, its huge bulk poised to smash the catgirl flat. Instead, the Harbor Demon manifested around Nadia, her huge clawed mitts raised around Nadia to block. The catfish slammed into the striker’s guard, but with her ordnance platform at her back, the Harbor Demon held fast. She grabbed the big fish by the jaws and pried them open as Nadia jumped up to grab the crane hooks from the ordnance platform, and before the beast knew what was going on, the feral had it hooked. “What’s the matter?” She teased. “Cat got your tongue?” With a tremendous heave, the Harbor Demon yanked the demon catfish from the pond. It flew through the air and crashed down in a much shallower rice paddy, out of its depth.
”Nice catch!”
Nadia waved goodbye to the Harbor Demon as she disappeared, then turned to her target. Yellow electricity crackled around her scars as she grinned ear to ear. “Fish on!”
Beside her, something else cracked with electricity, as Rika had summoned her Vespikan Ichor Queen, and the crimson scaled wasp was raising its towering cleaver to the sky, causing it to crackle with electricity, before it thrust it forwards to blast their foe with a lighting bolt. As it did so, the princess herself was busy tossing her spinner out to retrieve her wounded white whale, preferring to take it out of the fight rather than having to have her brother focus on healing it back up.
Freed from that concern, Jr called Dazzle to his side, prompting the seal to dive up onto the pier. Once there, he commanded his pokemon to ”Sing!” while he doubled this up with ”Repose!”, intending to put their fishy foe to sleep for a bit so they could close the gap after Rika’s striker’s lighting blast.
The lightning bolt shocked the catfish into action, prompting a flailing fit that would have walloped Nadia if she tried to go in, but the double sleep spell put an end to its tantrum. Overcome by sopor, the beast went limp. “Wow, nice!” Impressed by the pair’s teamwork, Nadia skated forward and hopped up the terrace tiers toward the fish. It had been enough time since her last Charge that she’d recovered her energy, leaving her fully juiced. “We wish you a merry fish-mas…” In a lightning-quick lightshow, she used Charge five times back-to-back, creating an electric star that left the catfish spasming. “...And a zappy new year!”
”Flank and zap!” Jr called over to his sister, as both surfed through the shallows, each priming a paint brush covered in electric goop to bring in more shocking power.
Fan-Brush-Spear (Crossover - Bowser Junior): Rika can transform her halberd into a copy of Jr’s paintbrush, only with a fan like head and a longer spear length handle. It produces ink(poison, flaming and electric) that functions identically to her brother’s mechanically. It also retains its warping ability from the other 2 forms.
With her newly switched up weapon, Rika began swiping away with the brush in one hand, the other was held palm up to fire more shocking goop from her grizco blaster. On the other side, Jr slashed away with his own brush, while commanding Dazzle to use ”Disarming voice” to further fatigue the fish.
Although the catfish struggled mightily, its frenzied thrashing very dangerous, the Seekers’ strategy seemed to be working. The Koopa Kids coated it with electric sludge faster than it could wash or rub it off, and as it spent its strength, the damage kept piling up. Making the most of her limited lightning-aspected arsenal, Nadia kept up the pressure with a series of Smacks, Charges, and Batteries, all gleaned from her fusion with Cat-5. With her target stuck in waist-deep water and increasingly overwhelmed, both physically and mentally, the fight had become one-sided. If anything, the Seekers needed to take care to make sure they didn’t go overboard at this point. It wasn’t long before the demon catfish, too sore, exhausted, and numbed by electricity to keep fighting, finally gave in. It flopped down in the mucky rice paddy, alive but defeated, with smoke streaming from its scales.
Nadia slid to a stop and wiped her brow with the back of her hand, grateful for the temperate breeze. “Whew! Now that’s what I call a warm-up! High fives all around!” She skated around to Rika and Junior to slap their hands with hers, even giving Dazzle the chance to boop his snout against her palm (it made an amusing clown nose honk). Then she slapped the catfish for good measure. “The Lost Numbers are gonna be eatin’ good tonight! Now that we’ve done our good deed for the day, we can slack off to our hearts’ content, eh?” She chuckled as she pulled out a fulton, then stared at the briny beast with pursed lips. “Uh…might take more that one to airlift this guy, though.”
“Wait we’re not gonna eat it? Awww,” was Rika’s reply to this news, but she didn't actually nay-say the plan as she set about taking a Fulton from each of them and rigging the fish for it's first and last flight.
As she did that, jr healed everyone up back to full (including Rika”s whale) while he suggested “maybe they'll send us specifically some if we ask? we could send the armory lady a note or something?”
“Um…purr-obably!” Nadia hadn’t actually thought about how to get in touch with the Avenger if need be. If it came up, she’d probably just call Sandalphon and let the archangel figure it out. That’s what leaders are for, after all!
Once all three fultons were attached, one to the tail and another to each horn of its helmet, the packs popped open together. Their balloons inflated in an instant, heaving the heavy fish off the ground, and after another moment the beast shot skyward. Nadia watched it go, hands on her hips, until it disappeared from sight. Then, a couple seconds later, the smile faded from her face. “Oh, carp! We’re gonna be so far behind!” Her rigging activated, and the catgirl sped away across the rice paddies back toward the southern path. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
“You're on!” Jr called after her, before starting to magma rush after her, while Rika was briefly confused, before calling out “wait for me!” And then putting her pile of mobility fusion to work, bullet jumping, manuring thrusting and grapple hooking after them, giving both of the other two a real run for their money despite their headstarts.
wordcount: 3299 (+4 exp (+4 rapport with Heismay)) Edward Portsmith: Level 6 (16 cells) ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (28/60) Location Snowdin Feat: Heismay
”I imagine you might be able to find something in a diverse town such as this” Edward said to Sectonia as they took in the non-humanoid residents, even as he slipped off the ring protecting him from its cold and flicked it to her ”But I will lend it to you till you find a suitable replacement in town. Or suitable compensation”
As soon as he did, the cold hit him fully, and he shivered, prompting him to pull out the tome of pyromancy, flicking through the pages of the book (even as he warms himself from its constant smoldering heat) till he found the passage he wanted.
He then groaned at the contents, before committing to reading them out anyway, chanting: ”Rise front he pit, o hound of flame! Rise to claw and bite and burn! Rise and strike fourth, wash across this world! Howl with breath of flame, and herald the coming of its new master!”
And so rise the inferno hounds did, though not from a pit as advertised. Instead the pair of stone skeletons that had been forming, bone by bone, on the ground as Edward cast the spell suddenly ignited, flames boiling across its body as the pair of beasts rose to their feet, creating an oasis of warmth in the process.
”There we are” Edward concluded, as he snapped shut the book, before he quickly explained that they were ”Constructs. Facsimiles of the real thing” and that there was thus no risk of demonic mauling. Looking between him and the fearsome fiends, Heismay wasn’t sure if he completely believed in their safety, but the warmth that radiated them was an undeniable relief against winter’s chill. Still, best to enjoy them from a distance.
Edward offered to produce 2 more pairs, should others want their own mobile bonfire escorts, and also reminded them that, should they accept the blessing (unlike Ace) their weapons could act as burning torches to offer additional heat, assuming they were not worried about spooking the locals by walking around with their swords (etc.) drawn.
”As for plans, hmmm, I could assist in seeking transport. I can provide some with these, or rather alternate variants with fire proof saddles, but that would only transport a max of four people, and prevent me from using any other magic, including the weapon enchantments” Edward offered, before cementing his motivation by stating ”So an alternative would be preferable”
”If you do not mind me joining you, Heismay?” he added, speaking to the newcomer, with whom he had also, naturally, shared a handshake, though little else in regards to words other than his name so far.
“Be my guest,” the eugief replied. He would not be taking Edward up on his offer, partially because he figured he could outpace the infernal pooches and partially because the laws of thermodynamics made close contact a dangerous proposition, but he did not mind the man himself. If four people did consent to a hellish ride though, and Sectonia could fly herself, that meant only six people would need transportation of their own. At that point, even a conventional horse-drawn carriage would suffice. “Let us see what Snowdin has to offer.”
The two set off together, not to explore the town but to circumnavigate it, since there were no vehicles to be found anywhere along its main avenue. Edward’s demonic hounds moved at a steady gallop, a trail of half-melted snow left in its wake by its radiated heat. In contrast, Heismay barely left footprints, sprinting along with his wings tucked in close and his long ears trailing behind him in a speedy ninja run. Even if the chill wind didn’t threaten to drown them out while moving, the two had no real cause to speak. While both were alert, especially after Sandalphon’s precautions, they found no enemies, or even civilians during their snowy jaunt. As settlements went, this isolated village was not all that big; compared to Snowdin, even Martira seemed like a sprawling city. The more ground he covered, the more Heismay became convinced that the town didn’t even have stables. He paused once when he spotted a strange, boxy red contraption immersed up to its doors in an icy ditch, but not recognizing the truck for what it was, Heismay moved on without making mention of it.
It wasn’t long before the pair’s search led them to Snowdin’s northwestern sector, the rows of cabins safeguarded by giant snowy sentinels. There, his keen eyes spotted the familiar shape of a carriage half-buried in a the belly of a collapsed snowman. “There, look!” He slowed to a stop by the pile, his ever-so-slightly labored breathing coming out in brief, light puffs. Eugiefs were sprinters and not marathon runners, after all. Even partially concealed, the wagon fascinated him. It was much larger than any stagecoach he’d ever seen, and it had extra sets of wheels to support its weight. He counted four sets, maybe even more hidden beneath the snow. “Tis no gauntlet runner, but it’s certainly large enough for our cohort.” He crossed his wings, eyes narrowed as he thought. “Shouldn’t be a trial to excavate, with all that fire of yours. The real question is, how to get it moving? Twould easily take four…nay, six hearty horses to run at a tenable rate.”
”We’d need fire resistant reins for the Inferno Hounds unfortunately, and I can’t craft enough Inferno Steeds to pull it, but perhaps my Bronze Golems or Sectonia’s antlions could drag it along. Likely not very fast, but still, it could be done even if we fail to find native beasts of burden“ Edward theorised, before directing the pair of hounds to start digging, and immediately missing their warmth as they got to work.
Initially, the hounds just ‘attacked’ the snow due to being, as he’d described, simple minded constructs rather than actual creatures. This wasn’t very efficient, prompting him to begin directly Commanding them in how to dig, accelerating their movements in the process. This included some careful positioning before getting them to Vent Flames in such a way as to blast melt a whole heap of snow without scorching their prize.
In between issuing commands to get the inferno hounds to dig out the main body of the vehicle, the man himself pulled out his Illumina Baton and used its ability to shoot flames to work on getting the entrance open so they could inspect the inside of it for its suitability (and maybe also use it as shelter from the cold while they waited).
As the tactician got to work, Heismay observed for a few moments without comment. He couldn’t help but be intrigued by how Edward commanded the constructs, which he didn’t know how to distinguish from genuine creatures. “These monsters serve at your beck and call? Consider me impressed.” Euchronia was home to a great many dangerous and exotic beasts, but few could be controlled without the use of necromancy, which was itself a vile and forbidden art. The hellhounds’ concerted efforts could melt the snow, but given the extremely low ambient temperature it would take a fair amount of time and effort. Edward’s attempts to unfreeze the wagon’s door seemed much less effective. Heismay’s ear twitched as he watched, and after another moment he stepped forward.
“Here, allow me.” Ever since awakening to his new power, he’d been itching for an excuse to use it. He unsheathed his sword, then closed his eyes and focused, taking a deep breath. “O, power of kings!” His heart shone orange, visible through his chest, and quickly the glow spread throughout the veins of his whole body. Then the rest of him turned red and black, becoming pure magla that swelled and spread until a new, much larger body took shape, like steel quenched after the forge. Now looking rather like a golem himself, Heismay lifted his enlarged sword and forcibly inserted the blade into the ice. With a little strength, it bit deep, allowing the blade to slide beneath the hatch. From there, he could use the weapon as a pry bar, helping cracks spread along the ice with a few well-placed talon strikes until the coating finally shattered.
“There we are.” Heismay’s voice had a metallic resonance until he reverted to normal, nodding in satisfaction at his handiwork. “Fire triumphs over ice in theory, but in this realm, ice is king. Better to exploit another weakness: its tensile strength.”
”Should have gone with the scythe then, it seems. Or a gun“ Edward remarked as he put away the baton.
Of course, the little guy still needed help to swing open the heavy hatch, given the stagecoach’s angle, which Edward naturally gave. Once they shone some firelight inside, it would reveal a single huge compartment that extended from the floor to the high ceiling. Both sides featured a single long bench. The sides and roof also featured a cagelike metal mesh, with some hooks and ropes dangling from the ceiling. Heismay tilted his head. “Hanging storage?” He could easily picture himself hanging upside-down from the ceiling mesh as well, rocking back and forth as the carriage rolled along. Overall it seemed rather spartan, but certainly spacious, and the carriage’s construction offered excellent protection. “This could work,” he remarked optimistically.
”Or to restrain prisoners with“ Edward guessed offhandedly, the two bench setup being somewhat reminiscent of a paddywagon, as he inspected one of the hooks.
The widening of Heismay’s eyes suggested raised brows. He hadn’t considered that, but now that Edward said it, it made a lot of sense. “Hm. Possibly.” He stepped back to check on the hellhound’s progress, which was proceeding well. It would only be another couple minutes until the carriage could be dislodged and tilted onto its wheels, which would no doubt demand the strength of his archetype again, at minimum. “I did not see any stables earlier. Did you?” It seemed unlikely that a human could spot something in the dark that a eugief could not, but it didn’t hurt to check. “It may be difficult to find suitable replacements for horses. Perhaps…reindeer?” Heismay was a little out of his depth here, but his attempts to posit a solution suggested that he was trying to be helpful, if not succeeding.
”Possibly. I have seen them used as mounts in a few realms, though it is not too common. I am unsure why. Perhaps they are more difficult to tame than horses? Beyond that, the Frostlings from my home realm used polar bears to pull the chariots of their frost queens, but I suspect they were magicly controlled by said queens rather than naturally tamed. Now a mammoth perhaps, those they used as mounts without any need for spellcraft, and one of those would fit our needs just perfectly“ Edward theorised, but it was mostly academic as ”Unfortunately, as you say, I did not see anything of the sort either, I am not well versed in the natural magics required to tame such beasts quickly“
”We’ll have to see if any of the others have relevant talents, and that is if there is even any native wildlife nearby that would be suitable. If not, Golems it will be“ Edward said, as he took a seat on one of the benches, feathers ruffling as he tried to get comfortable. Heismay followed him inside to take shelter from the biting wind and sat across from him.
Once there, content to let his constructs work away with only passive mental supervision, Edward asked ”That transformative magic you had, you said you were new to it I believe? Is it something you picked up in this stitched together reality, or something from before, do you know? It seems rather useful“
His new acquaintance seemed perplexed. “Tis…difficult to say. All I know is that in a critical moment, grappling with indecision, I heard a voice…’thy long-stagnant stance has finally been broken. O lodestar, whose light reveals the king’s own path’...” Heismay shook his head, flapping his ears. “I understood nothing, but that form, it felt…almost natural. Instinctive. As if I’d unlocked some manner of potential I harbored all along.” He gave a rueful laugh. “Wouldn’t have thought I had it in me. If only…” His head drooped, his eyes on the floor. “If only I wielded such strength back then. For what purpose I have it now…I cannot fathom.”
”Hmmm“ Edward said, polling out a notebook and writing down the phrase, before tapping the quill a few times as he pondered it. He was a little disappointed that whatever this was was some sort of inherent ability, likely from the man’s own world, but he was never one to turn down a conundrum. It sounded rather fanciful, really, to unlock a hidden power in the moment it was needed, but he wasn’t about to naysay Heismay when he had so little to go on, and instead rolled with the concept for now.
”Given that it said that your ‘long-stagnant stance had finally been broken’ I assume you overcame that indecision at that moment? Indecision that was perhaps representative of your prior ‘stance’ or state of being whatever that might have been“ he speculated, before asking ”Might I ask what the decision was? Perphase it was a different one from the ones you made during that somber past event you where alluding to?“
Although he had been thinking about the event, Heismay had not been analyzing it, or how it might relate to his history. The idea of a connection there both perturbed and perplexed him. For a couple moments, only the cold wind and the crackle of flames outside disturbed the silence. “Twas a difficult conundrum. Children had been disappearing from the town of Martira. Initially the town guards lay the blame at my feet, and while I had done no such thing, I languished in such shame and despair from past events that I cared not to refute them. By chance, though, I encountered a creature named Huggin’ Molly. She explained -via puppet show- that she had indeed stolen some of the children away, but only to save them from a far worse fate at the hands of certain guards. Before we could figure things out, the town guard stormed in and demanded the children be returned.”
He shook his head. “We didn’t know who to believe, and I was struck with indecision. In the end, though, I chose to side with Molly, and the guards backed down. Afterward, one of the guards broke down and confessed. We had to leave before the situation was fully resolved, but it seemed I made the right choice.” He crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently. “But I righted no past wrongs, and I fail to see the connecting thread with my past.” Whatever had happened, he clearly did not like dredging up those old memories.
Edward did not press on the past, but he did proceed to speculate on the present ”It is interesting that you say that the power came from within, and yet accessing it also came with a voice from without. Assuming it was genuinely from within, then perhaps this voice belonged to some esoteric observer who, upon seeing you take this stand and approving of it, helped unlock it for you? I could certainly see some self proclaimed patron of heroes acting in such a manner. You where in the presence of one ‘god’ at that moment, who is to say she was the only one who knew your tale and decided to intervene in response to your actions“
The man’s tone made it clear he did not particularly believe in the authenticity of such beings, he’d encountered enough self proclaimed gods to fill a dozen pantheons, but that didn’t mean they, or even less powerful beings, would not act in ways like this.
Not one for staking everything on his first hypothesis however, he also suggested that ”Or perhaps it is the voice of the power itself? Some magical being living within you that approved of your action? It is hard to say. If that were the case, it would not explain why this access to power came only now” before asking ”Have you heard this voice again? Attempted to commune with it? It might be too convenient a solution for it to be possible (Magic is never simple, especially the esoteric sort) but if it was willing to communicate once, it might do so again, and if so might hold the answers you seek”
Heismay’s brow had been furrowed for a few moments now. “The answers I seek? To be honest, I do not share your inquisitiveness. I heard no such voice again, and did not think to ask.” He shook his head. “To me, ‘tis little different from finding a sword at the side of the road. Regardless of the path it took to find me, what matters is how I wield it henceforth.” With that resolution in mind, the hermit pushed himself off his bench and made his way out of the wagon to see how the hellhounds were doing. After stepping back out into the wind, he quickly realized that they’d finished excavation. Heismay waved to Edward to join him. “Tis done. Let us tilt it onto its wheels.”
The man certainly looked a little disappointed with this lack of inquisitiveness, closing and putting away his notebook with an ”ah well” before rising and following the hermit outside, mentally calling the mobile heat source that was the pair of hounds to his side as he did.
They’d done, as he told them casually ”good work”, even though they were incapable of benefiting any way from such praise. It was difficult to not anthropomorphize the constructs, and he had long since given up doing so. Suppressing that polite urge had more cons than pros, in his opinion, lest it bleed over into his dealings with actual people.
The inferno hounds would be ill suited to actually righting the oversize carriage however, same as they would pulling it, which was why he summoned his reaver striker to do this instead, the oversized monstrosity grappling the carriage with its tentacles and hauling it upright with ease before it dissipated. Heismay blinked at the ephemeral aberration, clearly taken aback.
”Strikers. I can highly recommend their usage” Edward said after the moment was done, before asking ”Shall we tow it closer to the center of town? Or rather shall I make some copper golems to do so for us? It won’t be fast, or practical while under load, but it should do till we come up with a longer term solution”
After a quick look at the giant stagecoach in all its glory, as well as an attempt to ballpark its weight, Heismay nodded. “Please.” With that, he hopped up onto the vehicle’s roof to start brushing off snow as he enjoyed the ride.
The koopa kids, Bowser Junior and his sister (as of about a week and a bit ago) Rika, where, to likely no one’s surprise, last to get their butts out of bed and to turn off their alarm. It was pretty common, especially now that they lacked proper parental supervision. Sometimes it was late night gaming that kept them up, or eating sugar too late. Other times Rika would have nightmares about her many (short) past lives or Jr would have ones where his dad died (grimm's arrival had been an unbeknownst to them godsend in this department). This time however the two had been trying to figure out how Jr could have won the last pokemon battle, and also thinking about what kind of pokemon team Rika could/should make, resulting in lots of team building thought experiments and looking up pokemon tips and tricks on the internet.
While they were groggy coming out the gate, and late to breakfast, youthful energy soon revoke in them after they got some food in them (and topped it off with treats from their rapidly dwindling supply of sugary snacks) and so they were wide awake once they rolled up to the hanger, just barley making up the time they’d wasted to arrive right as thing where starting to be explained.
After having been given the rundown on their mission and their new team members the seekers had been presented with free gifts, and it was perhaps to no surprise that the kids among them had been the least reserved about receiving them, the pair nipping to the front of the crowd to fetch them before finding a spot to actually set about storing them.
Madkits both went into a pokeball themed duffle bag belonging to Bowser Jr, and that wasn’t the only poke-apparel the kid was wearing today. On his head he sported a pokemon ranger cap (along with a tulip hairstick that had belonged to the fallen Omari), while his chest sported a bandolier that was home to 3 pokeballs. This itself was over the top of a light sleeveless jacket of a pokemon ranger, and tucked under a metal pauldron sat above the exposed arm, around which the focus sash was wrapped, intertwined with an existing white ribbon, both now floating supernaturally above the
Other than said arm, which was oddly human, off-hue, and covered with a spider web of runic metal tattoo work, the prince mostly looked the same as he ever had. Well except for the cat tail.
By contrast his Rika was very different from how she’d started out. For one she had an entirely natural human skin tone rather than being deathly pale, and for another, she was shorter than she had been, making her look even like the child she functionally was.
She had been casually wearing a three piece outfit that had probably been cool somewhere or other, but it was in the middle of being covered up with metal. Hull soled boots had already been slipped on, as had her claw and cannon equipped rigging, while Jr was in the middle of helping her don her gauntlets, gauntlets that now sported oversized but fully functional hands rather than maw-containing cannons.
Still to go on was a spartan helmet, one that sported both cat ears and a three pronged tiara that coincidentally aligned with her now royal position, which she had tucked under her arm.
Really, if it wasn’t from the way her eyes still bled a ghostly green aura and the presence of her brother, she might well have been enteral unidentifiable compared to the last time Sakura had seen her.
The same could not be said for the woman in question, to whom the shipgirl gave her a (somewhat awkward given she was trying to avoid dropping the helmet at the same time) wave upon spotting her.
Sakura, pretty much unchanged except for the new digs, recognized Rika after a moment and waved back eagerly. Then she sped over with a few bounding skips. ”Rika-chan! Junior-kun!” She set her hands atop both of their heads with aggressive kindness.
”It’s so good to see you! Where ya headed? Where’s your old man?” She asked.
Rika blinked once at this head hold, clearly confused, before bobbing her head back and forth and looking amused. As she did this she replied ”We’re gonna go to that ‘forbidden kingdom’ place. Mostly that city with the Guardian in it, but we're also gonna check in on Shin-ju-ku” she replied, a little hesitant in her memory of the city’s name.
”Supposed to like cassette tapes over there, n we’ve got a lot out of using these ones to transform and fight so gonna see if we can power up by checking it out” Jr replied, having by contrast not noticed the head hold due to both his hat and the way he was focused on his work attaching Rika’s gauntlets.
”Mmm. That. Also Papa went to go look after P, n Kamek went to keep an eye on him, so just us for this one” Rika then replied to the second question, before tossing her helmet up and catching it in a now gauntleted hand while Jr stepped to her other side to start putting on the second of his sister’s armaments.
”After Peach” the boy added for clarity.
”Oh, right. Sorry.” Sakura rubbed her own forehead. ”So you two are comin’ with us to Esaka, huh? Exciting! That’s where I’m going, too. They have tag team tourneys I’m pretty sure.” Sakura said.
”Neat” Rika replied succinctly if cheerfully to all that information, while Jr finished up locking her other gauntlet in place. As soon as he was done, the girl lifted it up flexed her fingers, and then set about putting on her armor via alternate costume powerup, leaving her fully good to go.
”Hi, sorry, wanted to get that done” Jr apologized as he finally turned to face her, and then adding that it was ”Good to see ya”
”Mmm. It is. I’ve .. missed you?” Rika added, seemingly having to think that last over before she nodded and confirmed ”Yeah” she had.
”I missed you guys, too!” Sakura nodded.
”So yeah, we were kinda thinking it’d be all tournament stuff, but we kinda don’t really work that great in small brawls. I’ve got my pokemon. Rika all her drones. We do battles not fights” Jr explained their situation, before adding more detail to why they were thinking of doing a side thing ”Buuuut during the Under trip we got these cool tapes that let us turn into monsters, and then in the Guardian fight we, like, fused together into one even bigger super strong monster! Somehow. So we were thinking if we can figure out how that works properly, then we can, like, totally use that to take on anyone and everyone 1 vs 1. Got a tip from the weirdo spirit eating demon in the spirit chamber that Shinjuku might be the place for that. So we’ll be doing a little side mission and then come back bigger and better than ever!”
Sakura’s eyes widened. ”That’s amazing!” She said. ”That’d be something to see. Like a fusion!” Sakura widened her stance and leaned all the way to the side, lifting her hands ‘up’ and pointing her index fingers. She held that pose for a moment before she blinked and went back to normal.
”There’s all sorts of fighting styles, though, so you could probably do good even on your own. But yeah that sounds totally awesome! You should name it something bada- I mean, something cool.” Sakura said.
The pair glanced at each other, both correctly guessing that Sakura had just dodged pulling a Geralt, before Rika asked ”What was that pose you did a reference to?”
”Yeah, do you know stuff about fusing people like that?”
”E-eh? Oh, it’s just from a comic-” Sakura said, with a dismissive wave of her hand, blushing slightly. ”Nothing real. I- I think.” Sakura said, though now she slightly doubted it given the circumstances.
”Oh? Oh well”
”I mean we didn’t have to do any kind of silly pose to fuse. Just nearly get eaten by a big toothy Yoshi while using the cassettes. That, and beat up a bunch beforehand too?” Jr said, before speculating ”Least I think it's getting beaten up that let us do it? Kinda why we wanna find someone who knows this stuff, ya know? Like a teacher I guess”
”...It’s not that silly-” Sakura started, before shaking her head, trying to discard the subject. ”Nevermind. Finding a master is a great idea. On first blush, I also get more powerful when I get beat up, but it’s just, um, kind of a coincidence. I can’t just sit here and punch myself in the face until I get a power up. It’s all about the intensity of the fight and the focus of my spirit. It might be the same for you two!” Sakura said.
”I mean we haven't tried punching ourselves in the face yet”
Sakura suppressed a snicker.
”Eh, I mean, even if it's not you getting punched but the monster, maybe let’s not do that” Jr said, well aware that Rika already was probably way to used to getting hurt for a gain given her whale summoning and symbol of avarice hat wearing for the koopas both involved such things ”Besides, yeah, that whole focusing spirit thing sounds right. It feels right anyway. Like, just, uh, um, how do I-?”
”I just kinda refused to die and it worked” Rika said, picking up from where her brother was failing to put the feeling they’d both had into words.
”Sounds like you two were in a real pinch.” Sakura said. ”Adrenaline pumping, life on the line. Prime situation for unlocking a new transformation.” She crossed her arms and nodded sagely.
Then she squared her legs and extended out her palms. ”In a fight like that, it’s practically zen. Your mind is empty of everything except your objective. That’s when the real good stuff becomes possible.” Sakura smiled. ”It’s like, totally awesome.”
”Kinda? Be more awesome when we get how to do it and can use it before being in that pintch” Jr said, downplaying how bad said pinch had been, only for Rika to rather flatly state how bad it had been with ”Doing it without needing to be squashed as a bug’d be nice, yup”
”Uh. It’s ‘like a bug’” Jr pointed out after a moment of awkwardness, only for Rika to herself point out that ”I was a bug at the time though” helpfully.
”Annnyway. Yeah” Jr said after another awkward moment, before asking ”wanna see em? The monsters I mean?”
If there was any awkwardness, Sakura didn’t seem to notice or care. She just nodded sympathetically at the plight of not wanting to be squashed like a pug. At the offer though, she perked up. ”Uh— could I?” She asked. ”Is that okay? Here?”
”Yup!” Jr replied, before thinking and then correcting ”Maybe just Undyne. Not really space for the Beast” to which his sister agreed, with a side bob of the head.
”Alright! Let me just set it up aaaand” Jr said, as she fumbled around in his duffle bag, pulled out a pair of plastic earphones and popped them over his head, before plugging them into a cassette player, loading it up, and pressing play.
As he did, static, like that found on a channel-less CRT, spread across his body, before it changed in shape beneath that fuzzy vail. When the static fell away, it revealed an armored figure of Undyne (former) head guard of the Home of Tears.
”So?! What do ya think?!” the prince asked with the loud bombastic voice of his new form, forming a watery spear and spinning it around, before slamming its butt to the ground and declaring that it was ”Pretty cool, huh!”
Sakura didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t that. ”W-woah!” She said. She reached out and gingerly poked Jr in the cheek, to confirm it wasn’t an illusion. ”You turned into a totally different person! And strong, too, I can tell!” Sakura exclaimed.
”Yeah!” Jr replied, flexing one of Undyne’s arms which bulged with muscles.
”The other good one we’ve recorded is a really big bug with lots of legs, and together they were this twelve foot tall and super angry armored warrior that punched things super hard and got stronger whenever it did. It was exhausting to be that mad the whole time, but during we were just thrashing A’s Mobius form” Rika told Sakura, before looking off to the side and saying ”Wasn’t fast enough to stop him getting goldlewis though” before putting her helmet on to hid her expression.
”Mmm” Jr grunted in agreement, before ending the transformation and saying that ”We’ve just gotta get even stronger, is all”
Sakura looked off to the side. ”We can all get stronger together.” She said. ”To that end…lemme know if you ever wanna run some fights with me! Either of you. To practice with any of your forms or whatever. ” She said. ”We’re gonna have lots of time to do it in Esaka.” She said this eagerly. She had been really itching to take on more Seekers ever since she first joined up.
”Um, could do?” Junior replied, not anywhere near the kind of fighting enthusiast that Sakura was. Not against it, by any means, but he wasn’t exactly someone who’d trained before all this, mostly out of spoiled laziness and natural talent/advantage. It was all about fighting inorder to get or achieve something, be it impressing his papa or self aggrandizement, rather than because of the thrill or love of the art.
Rika was somewhat similar, and indeed, if she thought about it, probably didn't want fighting to be her thing. She’d been created as a disposable weapon, and if she had her say, would want to dedicate her life to something else, if for no other reason than to spite her creators. That said, she had enjoyed training to use her new red baron drones with her brother over their break, and the pokemon battle had been fun, so maybe sparring would be fun too? Plus, she liked Sakura, so maybe she should try and spend more time with her?
”If that’d help? Then yeah. Yeah we could do that” Rika replied, voice now muffled by her helmet. She hadn’t ultimately, just put it on to smother her feelings the funeral had left her with, but also because it was getting close to their time to drop.
Sakura could feel the lack of enthusiasm radiating off them. ”...You don’t have to.” She said. Objectively she knew she was going to get a lot of fighting done in Esaka, but fighting with friends was a special kind of fun! It was like training and fighting at the same time.
”Do they have any video games on here?” She asked.
”I wanna try it at least” Rika retorted, upset that she’d upset Sakura, before pouncing on what might be a way to cheer her up by nodding with agreement to her question and saying that ”We do at least, if you wanna play some some time”
She then rummaged around in a little pouch by her side and with two very careful fingers pulled out a chunky handheld console with some conveniently big buttons and presented it to Sakura to see. Something about the design made it reek of being a knockoff, from the cheap plastic and the tacky branding, but Rika still seemed very happy to have it. She was also happy as she she said that ”We stole a whole load of toys and stuff from one of the Consuls, and even if papa gave away a bunch to kids in the home of tears, we still got a bunch”
”That was sweet of him.” Sakura said with a smile, before looking, amused, over the game controller. ”Um.” She looked the machine over in her hands. ”This is really cool, Rika-chan.” Sakura said. ”I feel like I haven’t played any video games in ages. I’d love to, maybe if we get some downtime while we’re down there. Or once it’s all over.” Sakura said. Then she tried turning this one on to see what it even was.
The consol played a merry little 8 bit jingle before a brief intro played, during which numerous creatures vaguely reminiscent of marsupials battling it out where displayed, before ending on a tidal screen proudly proclaiming the game to be called ‘Pouch Monsters’
”It’s not the best one but it is one of the only ones that I can use while wearing my gauntlets” she explained, before adding that ”Jr’s got some for when we aren't in any danger with him too” to which the Prince gave a nod, unzipping his duffle bag and revealing that a not inconsiderable amount of his supplies for the mission consisted of a cartridge loading home console.
”and yeah, we for sure should play. It’d be fun”
”Puh-” Sakura suppressed a laugh. ”Pouch Monsters! Cute!” She said. It looked like a Pokemon rip off, but she wasn’t going to rain on their parade. ”A strategy game. Surprise surprise, I’m mostly into fighting games, but I could destroy you guys in this too, if we ever find the time.” She said casually.
”Wha! No way! I am, like, the best ever at video games!” Jr insisted, entirely unaware that everyone he’d played against (apart from Rika) had been taking it easy on him due to his royal status/his tendency to tantrum/them being his dad.
”You are?” Sakura said. ”Should be a match, then!” Her eyes gleamed with the spirit of competition. She would not go easy on him.
Rika herself meanwhile (who had just over a week’s experience with them) simply said that ”I’ve been getting better”
”No way to get better than to practice! That’s just true with everything in life. And one way of practice is learning from me by how I destroy you.” She made a few quick karate chop motions with the game controller, turning her voice mystical at the end, before she giggled and handed the game back to Rika.
Rika took it back with her oversized hand, flicked off the power, and put it back in her pouch while saying ”I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m better at fighting than games, so maybe when we do that you’d learn something instead?” finding she had maybe just a little bit of pride for her prowess after all.
Sakura grinned, punching her fist into her palm. That was what she liked to hear! ”Heh!! Only one way to find out. Man, I’m all pumped up.” Sakura said, shaking out her hands and hopping up and down.
”I’m ready! You ready?!” Sakura shook her fists.
Rika raised a hand up, flexing the fingers while, grinned back beneath her helmet, Sakura’s infectious enthusiasm getting to her, only for their hyping up for a match to be interrupted by the call to get ready to drop.
”Aw”
”Gonna be a buncha dummies to punch down there for sure, so you can practice punching each other by beating them up instead” Jr joked, before hopping into a pod.
”See you down there!” Rika said with a wave, before following him. Into the same pod, which was not at all standard issue and only worked because they were both shorties.
Sakura stepped left, and then right, punching the air as she did. ”Yeah! Let’s go!” With that, she threw herself feet first into the nearest pod. ”Uh, so, how does this thing work?” She could be heard saying as the doors slid shut over head.
”Just hit the…” Jr began to call out before riesling it was pointless and shrugging. ”Eh. She’ll be fine”
He was, mostly, correct, although their friend did have to take a moment to recover before launching into her explanation of how the tournament worked. They’d heard the brief of it of course, but the full thing was fairly interesting too.
Jr actually got a little upset that they’d be missing out on it, or at least be playing catchup after their own little detour, but for Rika there was a nagging question that she put out after Juri started guessing that there was something sinister going on beneath Sakura’s optimistic painting of the whole situation.
”So… what’s doing all the dying to keep their flame clock full if this tournament thing doesn't have any deaths in it?” she asked, that state of affairs often on her mind given she had been one of the things doing/causing that dying in the past, before guessing/suggesting ”Is it attacked from outside a bunch?”
wordcount: 2244 (+3 exp (+1 rapport with Kit)) Edward Portsmith: Level 6 (16 cells) (1 level up benefit stored) ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (24/60) Location The Avenger
Edward didn’t need an alarm clock to wake up at the right time, having lived without such conveniences for most of his life, and managing to operate on a military timeframe regardless.
Still, he was among those who hadn’t gotten a perfect night’s sleep. Not due to wastefulness, like a certain set of children who were next door and failing to get up in response to the alarm, but because he’d worked into the night.
First he’d continued with the arcane item forge by going through the rest of the magical items to see what could be recycled.
For t2 and below, there was the Illumina Baton, Machete and Pistol and Charr Pirate Musket, which technically was enough to make another T2, but, having another look at the batton, he found himself interested in its capabilities. He certainly needed a one handed melee weapon, and this sturdy device seemed like it would fit the bill well enough. It would be something of a waste to dismantle it simply to make his own tier two weapon.
Meanwhile wand Dagon, might not have seen use yet, but, he thought, surely if they were going to a land of ice someone, such as himself, might pick up related magic. Plus he’d only be able to make t2 items out of it, lacking any other t3 or above with which to get the required fragments to make anything better.
Thus, the only things he had were the two gun combos, which were scrapped and turned into, based on the same line of thinking that had resulted in him not scraping the wand, a ring of frost resistance.
Simple, but no doubt effective given the environment.
The little inconspicuous ring was hardly the main thing people would notice if they cared to regard Edward while awaiting drop off.
The most obvious difference was that the man was now wearing a full set of armor covered in drillbit-like teeth made out of Balahara scales which he’d purchased from Ace. He’d tried to pay the man the same amount as Sandalphon had paid him for her new gun, more or less to pass on the favor, and then had also had his offer halved down to 8,000 Zenny.
For the synergy it gave with his powers and skill sets (namely juggling autoloading weapons and his new portal dodge) that price was banditry.
Speaking of banditry, the already belt strapped armor had multiple new holsters and sheaths attached to it, all of them made from salvaged leather and cloth made from bandit hoods and boots. These held the Illumina Baton, magelock pistol, war scythe (which had been a complicated thing to sheath indeed, but would probably make for a good ice-pick if nothing else) and the Finger of Odin magical machine pistol.
The bandits had additionally contributed the iron and wood of their knives to produce ammunition for said gun (alongside the disenchanted remains of his maglock and the musket), all together producing 200 rounds of Burning I spell bullets he’d produced using a blueprint from the Mysticenter, some of which was nicely stashed into his ammo pouches.
He’d ditched the enchanted buckler for weight reasons now that he had enough sidearms to go around, and wanted to have the dexterity to wield them, but he’d made up the weight in other ways. Namly in heavier ordinance. For one he’d converted the hanging quiver from a Feather-bow into a long gun holster, presently storing his Smiting Bishop rifle, as well as having two more slung over his shoulder via straps that would be incredibly inconvenient to fight with, and who’s ‘thematic resonance’ was rather debatable.
The Plasma Cutter was rather clearly a pure science weapon, as was the Mag launcher, but both seemed, to him, to too suitably fill niches in his weapon set for him to let that get in the way. The man had at least fiddled with the theme of the latter by building a custom magazine (that was less magazine and more a catcher) into which the man could cast his grande spell, converting mana into explosive ordinance. It also meant he could practice with it, without fear of wasting ammunition.
It was a lot of bulk, but he had a solution to that problem, just not one that was going to be deployed till they touched down.
Tome of Pyromancy: Hellhounds: Edward can now animate facsimile of Pyro Hounds, fiendish beasts with burning manes, to fight for him. These can come in three squad sizes:
Inferno Puppies (Tier 1): a pack of 8 ankle biters that aren't very durable or dangerous, but can be quite the nuisance with their small hitboxes and high numbers.
Inferno Hounds (Tier 3): a pack of two matured hounds that have a 60% chance to inflict burning whenever they deal damage. Their bodies are suffused with flame, granting them 2 abilities other than melee attacks. First they can Vent Flames, dealing a melee attack range burst of fire all around them (20 second cooldown). Second, their Vengeful Flames present a hazard to anyone attacking them in melee, causing gouts of flame to burst from their wounds, which inflict light fire damage.
Inferno steed (Tier 3): A single Inferno hound that comes equipped with a saddle, stirrups and rump mounted set of saddlebags that both are fire resistant themselves, and grant fire resistance to the rider and their equipment. Said resistance fully protects them from the hound itself, and also gives 20% resistance against external sources of fire damage. The hound’s Vengeful Flames and Vent abilities are however suppressed in the process (as they would overwhelm the fire resistance). Instead it can Breath Fire forwards in a wide but short aoe (hitting foes in and just out of melee range in a 160 cone) every 20 seconds.
All hounds are fiend units, which have +15% crit chance, 20% fire resistance, 40% frost weakness and 40% spirit (holy) weakness. They are also pack hunters, dealing 10% extra damage per friendly squad/hero also attacking a foe in melee, are fast movers, are equally resistant to magic and physical damage, and are, unsurprisingly, immune to burning related debuffs.
Hellishly Sorcerous increases the damage output of these units, which is 60/40 split of physical/fire on melee and pure fire from abilities.
The rideable one was where he intended to store the situational weaponry. It would be just a might easier to grab them from there to respond to the current situation, rather than try and call them in from the armory in the same amount of time, or at least that was his thought on this matter. The straps presently linking the weapons together meanwhile were so that he could easily extract everything if he needed to abandon the steed for whatever reason, or it fell in battle.
Beyond that, though hellhounds would likely fare rather poorly in the cold themselves, they should act as convenient portable campfires for the rest of the seekers. As should his enchanting of their weapons, which the man proceeded to set up in advance.
While testing/examining his war scythe however, he got inadvertently turned into an inkwell, as Pit began conversing with a wolf of all things, though given it seemed to be responsible for the flames benign stolen from his weapon and written in very stylised cursive, it was likely not one of those.
Actually, if the man squinted his (aglow with a mix of demonic and angelic energy) eyes he could almost see there was something more to the wolf, but whatever vail it was disguising its true nature was not something he could quite pierce.
Regardless, he did not complain about his new temporary position as a fire-ink source, and quietly tested the grip and weight of the unorthodox weapon while the wolf used it to converse. He got a brief glance of acknowledgement by the end of it, but ultimately that was his only direct interaction with the strange wolf as she hurried off to her own mission.
Best time he headed for his.
Thus the man reupholstered his warscythe, tied the focus sash over his new armor, around from his left shoulder to his right hip in reminiance of his regular attire’s sash, and then set off for the Pelican-1.
The man ended up being second to board the flying machine, and thus the first of White Team to meet their latest new member.
He nodded to the knight, and then thought twice about just leaving it there, instead turning and offering a hand to shake and an introduction of ”Edward Portsmith: Dreadnought of the Commonwealth”
The knight shook his hand, offering up his name, ”Kit. Good to meet you, sir.”
”So I heard” he replied, giving a firm shake of the man's hand before stepping back, considering the use of sir for a moment, and then clarifying ”I’m somewhat new myself. Merely a day into things in fact, though it has been quite the day, that I can certainly say” just incase it was based on assumed seniority and not a simple respect thing, before continuing on and ”But if there is anything you need to know, I can do my best to fill you in”
”Good to hear that recruiting has been so active, we need all the people we can get. I shouldn’t need anything just yet but I appreciate the offer.”
Edward nodded in response to the latter, before commenting on the former ”This cause attracts all sorts, it seems, from selfless heroes to those who simply see Galeem as a challenge to their own supremacy” and then describing himself as ”I myself owe them my life, first and foremost, but also cannot stand by and watch while this self proclaimed god rules over a realm of endless suffering and strife”
Kit nodded at Edward’s words before replying, ”I’ve sworn to myself that I’ll purge evil wherever I go. This world is foreign to me, but I must hold true to my principles no matter where I am. Galeem might be the greatest evil I’ve ever faced, but I know that we will succeed in taking him down.”
”That’d put you firmly in the first camp then, I’d wager” Edward replied with a smile, before guessing ”I assume you are a knight of some sort then?”
”Something along those lines. I serve no house, but I am skilled in swordsmanship and wear this armor in remembrance of a fallen friend. What sort of fighter are you?”
”A ranger from a purely martial standpoint. Mostly from range with these” he patted his magical firearms, before gesturing to his unorthodox melee weapons and saying ”and with these up close if I must” before getting to the meat of his battlefield presence, the spellcasting
”I am also a Dreadnought: a commander of steel and sorcery forged together in fire. One we touch down, I will be conjuring golems to aid us in battle, and enchanting our arms to sunder armor and ignite foes”
Then, because it was as opportune moment to do so as any, he also added ”Oh, and I’ve set up a way to access the ship’s armory remotely, which I can link you into now if you’d like”
The knight gave an impressed whistle as Edward described his combat prowess. ”Impressive. I’ve met a few sorcerers in my time but none that could summon creatures to fight with us. And as for the armory, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have access. Please, link me into it.”
”Of course. Here. Just repeat these gestures” he said, before demonstrating a few esoteric flicks of the fingers and wrist, before a floating spell circle appeared before his hand, one showing a scrollable menu of items which could be operated like a touch screen (which he also demonstrated) before explaining ”You can retrieve items instantly, but sending them back takes a small amount of time to charge the teleportation spell on our end, so be mindful of what you bring through. It is a shared stash after all. That said feel free to pursue and see if there is anything you’d find useful”
Kit repeated the gestures and began to scroll through the list of items he could use. ”Thank you, I’ll see if I can make use of anything.” prompting Edward to nod and then leave him to it.
wordcount: 3,007 (+4) (+4 rapport with Pit) Amaterasu: level 8 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (24/80) Location: The Avenger
Treachery! Betrayal! After all Sandalphon had done for her, namely letting her use the spare bed in her room overnight, she’d gone ahead and just gave her such a silly, inappropriate name! She could see her symbols of divinity. The red markings, the artful swills, the massive flaming disk and divine weapons, and she went with ‘Snowball.’
Disgraceful.
Indigent.
She’d have to rectify this on the double!
Such were the thoughts of Amaterasu, she who had not thought about the fact that she should have just given her name at some point before now. As it was, she was left glancing around, hackles raised as she tried to work out a way to correct this misstep.
There was at least one other Seeker who could see the goddess' true form and shared her confusion over the name, if not her ire. Upon first seeing the wolf and her fiery divine disc, Pit had blinked in surprise. Even if he hadn't been able to see it, his angel sense clued him in to the fact that one of the crew's newest recruits was no normal wolf. She wasn't even just a wolf with super powers.
She was genuine divinity.
And her name was Snowball.
It took a fair bit of control not to utter even a giggle, but the angel managed just barely. Instead he coughed into his fist, and only once everyone was dismissed for departure did he approach the goddess.
Despite her being a wolf and showing some warning signs in her behavior, Pit was not wary. He couldn't actually sense if someone was good or evil, but this was a goddess who had, apparently, decided to join up with the Seekers. Ergo, she must be a benevolent deity. And there was the fact that she didn't feel particularly powerful, at the moment anyway. Maybe she just wasn't in her element up here. Either way, now the Seekers had two goddesses on their side! They were pretty much guaranteed to succeed. Speaking of, the Goddess of Light turned curious attention to her ward's situation, as she often did.
"Hi, uh, Snowball?" Pit called to get the wolf's attention. "Kind of a weird name for a god. Unless you're a god of snow?" He glanced at the flaming diving weapon hovering over her back. Maybe... it was for warmth in the cold...?
"Anyway, welcome to the team! I'm Pit, and I'm actually a servant of the Goddess of Light, Lady Palutena." He said it proudly, but after a moment added, "and I'm a one goddess guy, but if you need a servant I guess we could find one of yours out there?"
The divine wolf just looked more distressed as he started talking about her ‘name’ till salvation came on a different set of angel wings, namely those of a middle aged man who had been chanting some spell or other, and who now pulled out a small scythe out of a sheath, the blade of which was crackling with magical flame.
Which was perfect.
Time stopped for all but her as she reached out with her divine brush to borrow that flame. Thrice it rushed in a line towards her, and then thrice it swirl above her as she wrote her name and divine domain in fire for all to see.
The sudden appearance of fire in the air surprised Pit, but he was more than used to rolling with the weird by now. The message, though bright and obvious, was fleeting; and though Pit had definitely seen it, he was almost unaware it was a message at all. Sure he could read print now, but calligraphy written in flame? That was still beyond him, understandably so.
"Fire god then?" he guessed, which would make the name even more strange. Then he tilted his head, seemingly even more confused about something. "Can't you talk in your wolf form...?"
Hmm, I don't think she can. When she's incarnated like this, she doesn't just appear in that shape - she is both wolf and goddess.
Ooh, so you know who she is, Lady Palutena?
Actually, I just read her message and looked her up. Her true name is Amaterasu, and as the goddess of the sun she's one of the most important gods back where she comes from. She also doesn't have any of her own angels as far as I know.
Wow, that's pretty impressive, but I guess she has nothing on you, the Goddess of Light then, huh?
Hehe. Well, I do have the benefit of having my own personal Pit and being able to communicate directly, but she does have fellow brush gods that help her out… and we have a few things in common too. For one, her abilities aren't limited to just her domain. She can harness any of the elements around her, among other things.
So like your Power of Cooling or Caging... Hopefully she doesn't have telepathy.
She also relies on the people's belief in her for her power. The more praise she receives, the more powerful she is.
The internal conversation didn't last more than a couple of seconds, and to most it would have just appeared like an angel and white wolf staring at each other for those few seconds. At the end of it Pit blinked, a sympathetic look in his electric colored eyes. So that was why Amaterasu didn't seem all that powerful for a god - if hardly anyone could tell she was one, and she had a hard time telling them herself, then she probably hadn't been appreciated for a while. Especially in this world, if she didn't have people to watch over like Lady Palutena did.
"Okay, I got it now - Amaterasu," he told the goddess. Considering she was also a literal wolf if he understood Palutena correctly, and a wolf was sort of like a dog, he also reached out with the intent to pet her head, above her divine markings between her ears.
Upon hearing her name, the divine wolf calmed, adjusting her footing with a pad pad pad of paws as she returned to a more neutral pose. She was very much relieved things had been cleared up a bit, especially after he’d seemed so clueless before. Before she could wonder what had caused that change, the angel reached a hand out towards her head, clearly intending to pet her.
She could accept children blind to her nature doing that, but this one really should know better than to pet without asking permission first, as she informed him with a short little growl.
"Okay, sorry! Guess you're more deity than dog."
Your way with words never ceases to amaze, Pit.
Pit had pulled his hand back, instead folding both arms behind his head and starting for the deployment area.
"Don't worry, I'll tell Sandalphon and everybody else your real name. And I guess we're gonna have to get you powered up before we find the Guardian."
The divine’s aggression had dropped as soon as the hand was pulled back. Not on the mark on the first shot, this one, but quick to adapt, and that was a virtue all of its own. She could work with that. She’d have too, given she was fairly sure he was the only one who saw her for what she really was.
As for how they’d her up, well, she’d need to step up her game when it came to helping people. She would, in three words, need to be a notable part of performing:
Also, finding a way to actually communicate that did not involve borrowing fire from a man who wasn’t going to even be on their team would probably help, she thought.
The same issue came up in that Pit glanced at the flames, guessed there was some kind of message in them, but could not decipher it. Luckily his own goddess read it out to him.
"So it's not gonna be as easy as, like... Saying your fur and shield is really cool? Or thanking you for joining the team or something like that?" He got to thinking, eyebrows pulled together in the middle. "Well we do all kinds of good deeds, so that shouldn't be a problem..."
He figured that of course it had to be genuine praise, but it made sense if the level of gratitude correlated to the level of power the goddess received.
"Oh, and I think we'll have to figure out a better way for you to talk to us. Lady Palutena might not always be able to translate. Maybe like one bark for yes, two for no, and howl for something else," he said next, unwittingly picking up on Amaterasu's own thoughts.
The wolf shuffled in place a few moments, and then gave a half hearted bark of confirmation. It felt far too much like being a dog who had been taught to “speak” but it would do for now, nevermind how much she disliked it.
From divine power to trained puppy... As a fellow goddess, I feel for her. There was an undeniable hint of amusement in Palutena's words. That, and Amaterasu's apparent approval, brought a small grin to Pit's face.
What, but it worked! It'll just make it easier for her to speak to us!
But at what cost... Hmm, why don't you at least throw a little praise her way? It might make up for the bruised ego I'm sure she's feeling.
"Oh, right," Pit said, seemingly out of nowhere. You won't get jealous, will you Lady Palutena?
Hmm, I'll let it slide for now.
The angel looked at Amaterasu once more, dropping his arms back to his sides and considering the best way to go about it. This wouldn't be in return for a 'grand good deed' but... maybe it would work? "I dunno how you get your praises Amaterasu, but... um..."
Pit closed his eyes and dipped his head slightly, praying to Nippon's Goddess of the Sun as he would Angel Land's Goddess of Light. After he was done he peeked one eye open, looking to see if he could tell if anything had changed.
Before him, and visible only otherwise to the eyes of those divine, the angel found a floating orb with a symbol meaning happiness/fortune upon it. It bobbed in the air for a moment till the divine wolf stepped forwards and tapped it with her snout, causing it to bounce away, only to then be pulled right back and into her chest. There, it joined a pool of power scrounged from revived plants, entertained beasties, delighted children, making the divine being just a little more deserving of the title of goddess.
Enough, indeed, to push her over her baseline, forming a singular package of power that she invested into a fourth inkpot, giving her just a little more of a reserve of power before her divinity ran dry.
She’d not expected this show of, well, faith from someone she’d only just met, especially not another divine for whom this held actually tangible value (or at least as far as she was aware anyway).
She owed him, but had ever so little to give in return. As such, she stepped closer, raised up and presented her forehead, before using the power he had just granted her to write an ever so slightly longer sentence.
"It worked! I think!" Pit had never seen a prayer take a physical shape before, hadn't even known it was possible, and definitely could not read the character in the little bubble, but after it was absorbed into Amaterasu what else could it have been? He found it to be neat, but before he got the chance to ask Palutena if they could figure out how to do that with the people of Overworld, she informed him of the content of the other goddess' latest message.
Pit smiled again, reaching out before the wolf changed her mind. Honestly respecting gods was not something Pit was particularly concerned about (the gods of his home world hardly commanded or frankly deserved it, save for one of course); still, he didn't pet her like he would Caesar or Scamp, instead placing his hand on her head and gently stroking once down toward her neck. A more dignified sort of pet, if that was even possible. Her fur was warm.
He gave her some space afterward, overall pleased with (sort of) figuring things out with the non-verbal goddess. "Well now that we know what to call you and how to communicate, guess we're good to go! ...actually there's a ton of other Seeker-stuff that usually gets explained, but if Sandalphon didn't already tell you then I guess we'll just deal with it when it comes up."
The divine wolf supposed this would do. It wasn’t as if she could ask any kind of detailed questions. She did, however, have one more thing she’d need help with, unfortunately, the wolf reaching back, nuzzling her own fur, and somehow pulling out the focus sash she’d fetched earlier but, due to having paws and all that, wasn’t able to affix. As such she needed a squire to put on this (thin) piece of armor, and if her holding it up for Pit to take was any indication, she’d decided he’d fit the bill.
Luckily Pit was much quicker to pick up on motions and gestures like this than he was on calligraphy. His own focus sash was already tied around his arm, replacing the kerchief that had been there, and so he easily guessed what Amaterasu wanted.
"Oh, sure, I can do that for you." He took the ribbon and knelt down so that he could wrap it around one of her forelegs, as close to an arm as the wolf had.
The divine wolf patiently kept her paw raised and still as the sash was tied to her front leg, before giving the binding a nose, confirming that it was solid and not likely to slide down and trip her up.
Satisfied, she set the paw down and glanced at him approvingly, now set to go out there, and do some good in the world.
Right on cue, the call to descend was called, bringing the little pre-mission talk to an end and it was time to depart. Something they did in just the worst way in Amatarasu’s opinion.
It didn’t help that the things were made for bipeds, and that the divine wolf did not appreciate being stuck in a cramped confined place one bit. It was just unnatural. Combine that with the noise and the rattling and… well, suffice to say, if she’d thought going up had been bad then this was about 10 times worse.
Still, finally, eventually, it ended, and Amatarsu rose from the earth, forced to stand on her hind legs as she did so, front paws walking up the sides of the impact crater till the touched down on the actual surface of the ground and she could walk herself forward back onto a standing position.
It could have been worse.
She could have flopped down face first after the ride as the girl who introduced herself as Sakura had.
Despite her undignified first impression however, Sakura turned out to be a wellspring of information that the divine wolf sat herself down to listen too, doing her best to not zone out during the exposition and being rewarded for it with a new plan.
To impress these ‘Stream Monsters’ and win their praise. Less righteous than doing grand good deeds certainly, but as a bonus to what she was going to be up to anyway, it was nothing to be sniffed at. Nor was the money, which could help her fill her belly with food, and fill her soul with prais for spending it charitably.
All in all, this seemed like it would be a far better time than traipsing through the snow like the other team were going to be doing, and so she was eager to set off, popping back up onto her paws, ready to begin her journey.
Just as soon as Pit properly introduced her to everyone. She could hardly have them going around calling her Snowball afterall, and she’d now lost the convenient force source with which she had been writing with before, which would make repeating the introductions a bit more difficult.
Fetzen
Frettzo
teenangstlife
Lord Zee
Neziul
Ariamis
rush99999
Simply Not Real
Shadowheart
