DracoLunaris

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

Cold Open

The Midnight Walk - Cave of the Forlorn - Murky Friday Morning
@DracoLunaris@Double@XoXKieroBombXoX
Wordcount: 2989 (+3)

While the majority of the Seekers opted to rest for the night, Ramattra had taken duty to watch the entrance and potential points of threat so that Heismay could rest from his scouting jobs. The Omnic, however, was clearly distracted by the small Darumaka that he had attracted back to their base. While he wasn’t keen on the idea of keeping and caring for a “pet”, there certainly was some benefit to developing an army to command, even if small.

He stared at the small creature, perplexed with his broken sensors. The beast was certainly ornery, but to Ramattra, this didn’t strike him immediately as a bad omen. Perhaps he could mold the Pokémon into shape for the theoretical New Null Sector. The Darumaka returned the gaze, its small beady eyes more confused than curious. “Daradara?” The creature mumbled before stumbling away to return with another granola bar it had clearly taken from Tenna’s possession. It began lazily munching on it as it plopped back down beside Ramattra.

“Ha! I didn’t expect you to have such a colorful personality!” The Omnic silently praised as the white-haired yeti continued munching on its treat, seeming to have taken a liking to him. Ramattra had traveled his world for years alone as a nomad, and companionship was not a commodity he saw himself needing regularly… Was he really considering recruiting this small, brazen creature? He hadn’t even gotten a chance to examine the monster’s combat prowess.

With a sigh, Ramattra came to a decision. Making use of Edward’s Armory, he scoured through for any capturing devices similar to the one Roxas used for his Pokémon, or similar to the one he received at the Christmas feast. He grabbed one of the more ornate and rustically designed capture spheres and raised it toward the creature, silently offering a chance to travel with the Omnic. The creature appeared to almost immediately recognize the device, a remnant of its old world still alive deep in its subconscious. “Be my companion. I will make you strong, and you will learn to make your foes cower from your raw power.”

The line was empowering, and the excitement of being chosen for friendship despite its reckless attitude was overwhelming for the small white beast, causing him to jump up and down rapidly like a bouncy ball. “Daru! Daruuuu!” The creature cheered as Ramattra shushed it silently to allow his teammates their rest.

“But what would I call you? Nothing childish for certain.” Darumaka pretended to understand what Ramattra was saying, nodding along aloofly. “Kashmir.” The Omnic declared as he stood, steadying his aim of the archaic ball onto the willing Pokémon. “Like the Snowcaps near my home.” He hurled the ball at the beast, the latch of the ball clicking open to secure his new ally.

Pokemon Captured!

Kashmir
Level 24 Darumaka ♂ - Nature: Naughty (^Atk, vSp Def.)
Captured in: Leaden Ball
Moveset:
Work Up
Avalanche
Ice Fang
Taunt

The ground began to rumble just moments after the two’s new companionship, causing the Omnic to attempt to gain his footing, only to realize it was futile because of what Ramattra knew was next to come.

The seekers awoke to a roar of noise and a sudden sensation of falling as the ground shattered beneath them.

It was, suffice to say, a rude awakening.

Edward manages to right his fall with a panicked flapping of angelic wings, righting the fall into a slow glide, giving him a birds eye view of everyone and everything plopping down into the snow below.

At the center of the collapse the stagecoach had landed on its side, the heavy thing surviving the fall more because it was built like a brick house than because of the snow.



To the South, towards where the entrance had been, all of the various guard minions, including his golems, had landed. They were now hopelessly out of position in the impending battlefield, forming only a small defensive wedge that would be easily circumvented. Their closeness to the new cave’s walls also meant they were under attack first. A wave of lesser glyphids grunts scrambled towards them, mixed in with armored Glyphid Praetorians. Above them floated a pair of blimp like Icy Blowhog who’s icy breath could freeze dozens of foes solid in a single gust, making them a significant threat to the tightly packed troop formations they were drifting towards

To the north, back near where the rear of the cave had been, the sheildrix had been bedded down for the night in presumed safety. Now they too were exposed to danger and out of position. They’d be out of there quickly once they untangled their limbs and got to their hooves, but having them run amuck would be its own problem. They’d also have to outrun the bolder sized snowball shots of an Arctic Cannon Beetle, and a towering Frosty Bulborb stomping its way forwards with freezing to the touch armor on its backs and Glyphid grunts swarming around its feet.

Edward just got a warning out about both these situations before being swatted from the sky by a barrage of acid blasts coming from a Glyphid Menace that had unburied from the roof of the entry cave above them. The man crashed down into the snow and then, unarmed and unarmed as he was due to having been awoken in the night, scrambled to use the stagecoach in order to use it as cover from the ranged foe.

Even as he lay sprawled on the floor, Ramattra caught glimpse of the Dreadnaught scurrying across the icy cave floor for cover. The globs were harmless to the Stagecoach's rugged exterior, though Edward was now trapped behind the Stagecoach for cover and would be limited in mobility. The Omnic raised his hand, preparing a nearby barrier for Edward to hide behind should he decide to reposition himself into a more tactical mindset and collect his bearings.

Ramattra clambered onto his three legs. He needed to cull these numbers. Not one of the common enemies was particularly strong by any means, but it wouldn’t take long for the rest of the Seekers to get overrun. Ramattra seized his Scimitar and activated Nemesis form, the blade now able to crush with each swing because of its modified weight. He made himself into the middle of the show, dispensing a Vortex below him to slow any Glyphid approach. He began crossing his legs over one another, beginning to slowly build speed to begin rapidly spinning in a circle with his large blade to mow down any common bugs he could draw aggravation from. “HAHAHA! Do your worst, pests!”

Ganondorf grumbled awake at the sudden noise and plummeted hard. But it wasn’t for long, as he similarly had a method of slowing his fall thanks to his ghostly Phantom Familiar acting as a glider for him. Of course, he too was eventually pelted by acid blasts that sent him crashing the rest of the way to the bottom. Winded, but still more or less in shape, the warlord stumbled to his feet. Without much preamble he used his dark summoning magic to quickly conjure his armor back onto himself so as not to be completely exposed.

”Who dares?!” He demanded, even crankier than usual, from being so abruptly awakened. The only answer he got was the sight of all manner of bugs and icy foes closing in on the Seekers. His own moblins were currently haphazardly in formation with Edward’s golems but were also heavily injured from the fall. So he made the decision to immediately replace them with a fresh squad, archers specifically, wagering their fire arrows would be particularly effective here.

Then he whirled around and unleashed an angry breath of fire, producing a straight line of searing hot flames that he swept over a collection of Bulborbs stomping toward him. Sure enough, the Charcoal he’d received in the Christmas Village did its job, enhancing the power of his flames, melting the creature’s icy armor with ease. After the exhale, Ganondorf brandished his great swords for battle.

For Roxas, the fall was quite a bit more of a close call. Without any means of gliding or slowing his fall, the Nobody had to think fast. And his first instinct was to immediately grab for Turbo and Titan’s Poke Balls so he could recall them mid-fall, then frantically did the same for Scamp and Larxene. Shocker was the only one Roxas didn’t recall, as the Rotom was perfectly able to simply levitate down on its own.

After that Roxas had to try to take the fall on his own terms. He quickly conjured a sloppy trail of virtual cubes that led down toward the bottom that he launched himself between. The only thing he could count on was flow motion allowing him to maneuver through the aerial enemy attacks. And he did so, albeit barely. One acid blast in particular managed to graze the Nobody before he crashed hard onto the ground.

But rather than be wounded by the fall, Roxas was able to orient the momentum he’d building during his descent from Flow Motion to do a controlled explosive landing in which he expelled a burst of light from the Flow Motion around himself that knocked back a handful of foes and even did some opening damage to them to boot. And just like Ganondorf, he also noticed how many of the creatures looked like they were ice elemental.

”Shocker - use that new Fire Blast move of yours!” He called. And the Heat Rotom obeyed, zipping and zig-zagging down from above to unleash a searing blast of fire that took the shape of a fire kanji as it screamed through the air toward an Arctic Cannon Beetle. As for Roxas himself, he quickly went to work casting Tailwind and Aeroga on as many allies as he could see, making sure not to spend all of his MP in the process just in case an emergency Curaga was needed later. In particular he tossed a Firaga to Ganondorf, remembering that the warlord’s own flames would be buffed further from being struck by fire.

The swarm continued, but this was no coordinated attack that would retreat if they took too much heat. Rather, this was a survival, and the only guarantee of success was being the ones alive when they ceased. Ramattra was observant, though. By the end of his attack, he began to notice a trend where a specific subspecies of insect had to engage in the fight by emerging from various silica-lined holes. Could these be destroyed?

“Does anyone have explosives?! I think I may be able to help whittle them down more!” He pointed at the bug holes, hoping his allies could put together that insectoid monsters were being spawned from these. He continued to clobber various Praetorian-class bugs with his sword, trying to make more space for his teammates amidst the chaos.

”Working on it!” Edward called back, the man presently aglo in a blaze of fire as Hestia’s Soot Sprint blessing protected him from the acid shots. He’d made good use of Ramattra’s cover to get a proper lay of the land, including finding where his weapon holsters had fallen when the ground fell away.

By his side sprinted Loona, the Lunarpup having linked up with him in his cover, and who had then empowered herself with a pystical attack boosting howl before they started this run. In front of them a few leading glyphid grunts were in the middle of crawling past his things, and who would need dealing with.

As they got close, Edward dropped the sprint, ending his illumination of the area and plunging into shadow. Through this shadow, Loona shadewalked, vanishing into the dark and began striking at the glyphid grunts, sowing confusion among them.

From behind them, a gout of flame briefly lit up the fight again as Taffy the Traffikrab used inflame to strike the grunts, and then finally the Chillanth and SomnaDrix crashed into them, claws, antlers and fangs tearing into the smaller bugs.

As the mon assailed the bugs, Edward duked between them, leaping through portals and over heads till he could get to his gear. Among them he ignored the melee weapons, pistols, palspheres and more, and instead grabbed the Mag launcher.

Then, with a flap of his wings, he was up above the glyphid grunts, steadying his aim in the air as best he could, before casting his grenade spell into the chamber of the weapon. With a pull of the trigger, the launcher launches the explosive towards one of the silica-lined holes that he had a moment before cast designate target on. The spell guided the shot home, detonating within and colapsing the tunnel, slowing the flood of bugs.

Between them, the seekers had thoroughly disrupted the north side advance. Bulborbs had been burned and their armor broken, grunts cleaved and sundered. Unfortunately, the snowbolder rolled after the sheildrix had been allowed to freely roll on, picking up a few of the unfortunate mon in the process, and only stopping when it collided with the stagecoach. The collision left the impossible caricatures stunned, and caused a trio of large icicles to fall from the ceiling.

The shooter of this snowball meanwhile had mostly tanked the fiery shot with its heavy armor, but now exposed its vulnerable rear, the armor opening up as it inhaled a torrent of air into its cannon like snout, clearly prepping another shot.

To the south, the Icy Blowhog also inhaled deeply, before unleashing a freezing torrent from its balloon like body, which washed over the golems, freezing them solid, leaving them unable to fight and at high risk of being torn apart.

Ramattra was quick to shift his defense upon seeing Edward’s defenses nullified by the odd icy insects. They were down troops, and there was no telling how long it would be before the golems and other allies thawed out fully from the frigid assault. Once his Nemesis form ended, he fled the swarm around him, utilizing his spider-like legs to rapidly step over and around bugs. A shield was deployed between the golems and the frost breath, giving the Omnic a chance to rally closer and deliver a devastating stab of his blade into the freakish creature’s chest. The Golems would need to thaw, but they weren’t out of commission just yet.

Above, the sky began to fill with aerial insects, while the Glyphid Menace continued to freely harry the fighters down below, only mildly scorched from the divine smiting it had received in response to shooting a soot sprinting Edward.

Many Terminids continued to assault from nearby holes- two of which Ramattra now had eyes on. “Edward! The last two! I’ll handle the sky.” The Omnic leveled his staff to the sky, aiming at any flying ice-bugs that joined the Menace’s assault on Edward, their ice-goo-filled organs splattering as nanites hailed from Ramattra’s staff onto their soft flesh. At the very least, focusing on these enemies would allow the Dreadnaught another chance to reduce their spawning areas.

In a quick patch of decision-making, Ramattra clicked open his Poké Ball, releasing Kashmir. “Daru?” The small creature chirped, ready to assist his new master.

“Kashmir, do whatever you must to draw away some fire. Return safely, and I will reward you.” Immediately, the rambunscus creature rubbed its ball-like belly hungrily. A snack did sound nice. The Darumaka used Taunt to anger enemies and draw their attention, tucking his arms into his belly as he rolled like a ball along the icy floor away from the enemies he just enraged.

”Almost got it!” Edward called back. The man had the grenade launcher tucked under one arm, while the other wielded his nanite-infused Katana. With it, the man seemed to be dueling a single glyphid grunt, the man delivering careful cuts to his foe.

Around him, grunts battered against plastic barricades while Taffy clawed at those attempting to get past one side with electrified claws, and Loona struck those coming round the other from the shadows. Between them, the Chillanth and SomnaDrix reared up behind these walls, the former launching quills and sprays of sleeping gas, while the latter slammed its freezing horns down onto foes.

While they kept him safe, Edward bled his own foe for as long as he was able. For each cut, one of the mana fuel cells at his side lit back up as Hestia’s other blessing recharged his magic.

When the grunt fell to its wounds, the man leapt onto the back of his Chillanth and used it as a firing platform. Up there, he marked and fired once more, closing a second cave. The second shot hit a bug emerging from the cave, preemptively detonating it, but also clearing the way for the third cave to be sealed by his final fuel cell.

”Sealed!”

That cut the flow of new bugs, but between the snow-bolder firing cannon bettle in the north, the Icy Blowhog drifting over the shattered remains of Edward’s Golems to the south, the menace on the roof and the swarm of lesser bugs coming from all directions (including above), the situation was far from stabilized.

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

wordcount: 1363 (+3)
Location: Forbidden Kingdom - Esaka’s High Tier
Amaterasu: level 9 (1 level up stored) EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (61/90)

The moment of satisfaction Amaterasu felt at a job well done was nice while it lasted, but it came to an end when she noticed their little group was still missing a member. Obviously she’d know Terry hadn’t been with them in the fight, or done much before it, but she assumed that now that things were resolved he’d snap out of his stupor/thoughtful reprieve and come join them.

Thus, when he didn’t she grew worried, and paused the world in order to use the third person view of the canvas she had rendered to look over the heads of the crowd. She first checked where he had been. Nothing. Then scanned through the crowd. Again. Nothing.

That… was not good.

She gave a bark at Harry before scampering through the crowd to the spot he had been, where she sniffed at the ground, trying and failing to pick out his scent, but among all of the other people and the exhaust fumes it was rather hopeless.

Harry had put away his flask when he noticed Ammy starting to bark at him. “What’s wrong girl? Timmy stuck in a well? You ate a whole wheel of cheese? Wow, that’s really impressive. You know I don’t speak Spanish. Speak English.” Of course, it just occurred to him that the wolf couldn’t speak at all. He started following Ammy to the location, watching her sniff the area.

His Inland Empire was speaking to him, allowing him to connect with what Ammy was thinking. His Visual Calculus is rebuilding the scene and trying to figure out where Terry was.

The two had no luck, however, and with calling not working, and Captain Falcon on the hunt at the likely spots he might have returned to, the pair were left with only one possibility: that the man had headstrong stormed off to give G-Corp a piece of his mind.

Eventually, the two reached G-Corp Headquarters. Unlike Ms Fortune, who’d stolen from the building yesterday, Amaterasu and Harry had no reference what it should look like. Outwardly, it did not seem meaningfully different from any of the High Tier’s other tall, concrete-and-glass office buildings, and it lacked any kind of logo or signage, so neither Seeker could identify it at a glance. They could, however, use context clues, and the fact that the building itself and the area around it looked like a warzone helped clue them in.

Most obvious were the huge holes that gutted the building, more prevalent toward the lower floors, that suggested the detonation of several explosions. It wouldn’t be much of a leap to assume that G-Corps remaining Jack-5s, with their built-in bombs authorized ahead of time, were responsible. With how many and how big they were, it was a wonder that the skyscraper still stood. Furthermore, the structure had been punched, kicked, chopped, clawed, shot, bombarded, and more by dozens of attackers throughout the day, leaving so much concrete debris and broken glass nearby that just walking in the building’s vicinity felt like navigating over crunchy snow.

Apparently the conflict only intensified when G-Corp’s neighbors, located near the nefarious corporation through no fault of their own, got involved to try and minimize collateral damage. Some quick inquiries indicated that the jury was still out on whether or not Kazuya had been dealt with and Heihachi’s bounty claimed, despite a few fighters’ assertions otherwise. As the number of casualties in the communal assault mounted throughout the day, the overall aggression had petered out, with those who remained more or less under the impression that G-Corp was toast.

Harry looked up at the massive holes that were littered all over the skyscrapers. “S***” He muttered under his breath as he started asking around about what happened. And if they had seen a muscular blonde man around.

Ammy tried to sniff him out as well, but with all the lingering dust, blood and smoke she didn’t like her odds. It was also likely tricky business, given she wanted to sniff around the place where the fighting had happened and that meant both being on high alert for any danger, and careful to avoid cutting her bare paws on shards glass and the like.

As the two got closer to the building to continue their investigation, a different burly blonde, dressed like a riot cop, was giving his report nearby. He was speaking to a woman in futuristic cherry-red armor plates over a form-fitting gray undersuit, her face hidden by a tall helmet and her chestplate dominated by a glowing purple core. She stood with her arms crossed as she absorbed the details, her violet gaze cold and steady.

Harry stared at the building's destruction before realizing why they were there. He made his way over towards the blonde man who definitely wasn’t Terry. “Excuse me, my name is Harry Dubois with the RCM. I am here to help with this investigation. So what is the situation?” He flashed his RCM badge at the blonde man. His eyes briefly looked over at the scary-looking woman.

“RCM?” Kevin Rian asked, his tone a little incredulous, as if asking why should that hold any weight here? “Who-”

When Harry’s gaze met hers, the woman’s eyes narrowed. She held out a hand to halt the policeman’s response. “Thank you, officer. You’re dismissed.” With a shrug, Kevin turned away, allowing the Consul to face Harry alone. “You’re destoried,” she remarked matter-of-factly. This matter seemed to completely override anything to do with G-Corp. “When, where, how, and by whom?”

Amatarasu, having split off a little from Harry, did her best to keep acting natural even as she turned her own eyes away from the woman to hide her own nature. It was tricky to approach like that, but she did her best to navigate by her other senses, taking a lazy circle of a stroll towards the two, ready to leap into action if need be.

Internally she cursed herself for not putting two and two together when it came to the descriptions of Consul armor and this woman’s own. She could only hope Harry could talk his way out of this, otherwise they might just have blown the Seeker’s already flimsy cover.

“Revachol Citizens Militia.” Harry said to Kevin before putting away his badge. Thinking that this scary woman was the one calling the shots. Or perhaps she was working with G-Corp; he wasn’t sure just yet. “That is what I wanna know as well. I have a few theories, but I wanna hear your thoughts first.” He had a few ideas on who could be behind the bombing.

The Consul narrowed her eyes, more bemused than annoyed. “My thoughts are immaterial to you,” she informed Harry icily. “If you are truly ignorant to the circumstances of your own awakening, there is little to be done but return you to the cycle.” She lifted her hand and splayed her fingers as if to summon a weapon there and then, in the middle of a crowded street, but after a few purple sparks danced between her digits she lowered her arm. “Then again, it is of no consequence. Time will claim you, and we have all the time in the world.”

By the time she’d changed her mind, however, Ammy had already lunged into motion. Pausing only to draw two horizontal lines on the world to slow time, the divine wolf darted in at quadruple speed, hauled Harry onto her back, and then drew the same to lines to extradite him from the situation in a blur of motion.

Consul E watched, impassive, as the detective and wolf beat a hasty retreat. She her eyes followed them until they disappeared from sight, and after lingering on their last known position for a few moments, she warped away in a shower of purple particles.

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

wordcount: 2121 (+3) Location: Forbidden Kingdom - Esaka’s PoolsBowser Jr: Level 15 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(325/150)
Rika: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(161/110)

It didn’t matter that the kids had recently had a second lunch, fighting worked up an appetite, and so they were inevitably drawn to the sight and most importantly smell of cooking wafting out from the yellowish meadow.

Admittedly, the smell itself wasn’t exactly of the highest quality, but food was food and so after letting the others know what was up, the two made their way there. As they did, Rika’s scout planes got a bit of a look at the culinary experiment going on, and also determined that there wasn’t going to be any danger with the crane.

Thus they strolled into the meadow casually, with Rika giving a friendly big handed wave as she asked ”Hi, um, we were just wondering what you're cooking out here? It smells kinda good”

‘Kinda’ was the best she could offer as a compliment unfortunately.

Jr then chimed in on her heels to ask ”also why you're cooking out here?” because it seemed like a weird spot to be doing so to him unless she was mainly cooking bamboo or something like that, he supposed. Maybe that's what they ate? They were kinda black and white like pandas after all, so that must be it, he decided.

The crane’s long, narrow beak turned the newcomers’ way, her beady eyes examining them. Despite their appearance and manner, she did not turn tail and take flight, indicating much more confidence than the average bird. “...Salutations,” she greeted them after a moment’s scrutiny. “One has just set up and is now in the process of fine-tuning one’s latest and greatest invention. A device with vast faculties, into which one has put much personal work. The Supreme Cuisine Machine.”

She paused for admiration, but after receiving only blank stares, continued. “Be at ease, and let one explain it to you. Much lore did one read in the construction of this cuisine-making machine. Know that there are a few key points in the art of ‘making food.’ The result is a miracle device that can do everything from ingredient location to food preparation…” Cloud Retainer trailed off slightly, then cleared her throat. “Aside from temperature control, regrettably. The heating mechanism is a magic conduit, but one’s own adeptal flame is too strong to channel without warping the internal components.”

Both kids looked at the pots, and then, as one, tilted their heads 45 degrees to the side as if this would help them work out how the pots were meant to ‘locate ingredients’ as the Crane claimed. Still both kids weren't going to say no when it came to testing if the’ Supreme Cuisine Machine’ live up or not, and so they put their heads together to ponder the problem.

”Could you breathe fire on it? You know the one that leaves the little burning patches” Rika suggested, to which Jr shrugged and then shook his head while replying ”I mean I guess? but what am I gonna do, hang around forever being a cooking fire? No thanks”

”Burning goop?” she asked, but Jr claimed that ”The Stus’d mess it up for sure” leaving his sister tapping a cheek and tapping a foot while going ”Hmmmm”

As she did this, Jr turned to the Crane and asked ”Have you thought about, you know, using a regular fire instead of things that wander off?” gesturing at the slimes who were in the middle of doing just that.

Cloud Retainer fixed him with a rather severe look. “It is not fire that one requires, but elemental energy,” she informed him. “The Supreme Cuisine Machine is a magical artifact, after all.” After spreading her wings, she flapped them to unleash a wind current to return the fire slimes to the makeshift ash pits where they were supposed to be. The winds also extinguished the embers the fire slimes had been unwittingly spreading in the yellow grass nearby. “Insipid, self-destructive things…without ashes to feed on, they’ll sputter out like candles.”

”Urgh, of course its a magic thing” Jr complained with a groan, then groaned again as Rika asked ”Can you train them”

”I mean yeah, probably. The fire ones want, what, ash? Just gotta convince em that they’ll get more of that stuff if they stick around and they will” Jr said, before asking the Crane ”What do the cold ones want? Ice or something? Same deal.”

As much as wrangling slimes did not appeal to Cloud Retainer, the adeptus knew that she couldn’t expect results from them if she took half-measures when it came to their care. She sighed through her beak, which had an almost musical quality, and stretched her wings as if to take flight. “One supposes that it would not be too troublesome to construct an adeptal incinerator or adeptal irrigator to make conditions more favorable for the gelatinous ones.” Flapping her wings, she conjured up swirls of orange-gold magic, pulling materials from the earth beneath her to fashion various components of great intricacy. It seemed as if this crane’s first response to any new problem was to invent something new; hopefully the process wouldn’t take so long that the cart full of ingredients nearby would begin to spoil.

”So is that, what, a magic wood burner and a sprinkler or something?” Jr asked as he squatted down to inspect what she was doing more closely. This sort of technical tinkering was actually of interest, and he’d be more than happy to lend a claw if it meant learning a thing or two that he could use for his own work.

Rika, meanwhile, was not very interested in the complexities of machinery, and so instead wandered over to take a look at the carful of ingredients to see what might be on the menu later.

Unfortunately for Junior, Cloud Retainer’s adeptal arts were far more mystical than they were mechanical. Components just seemed to assemble themselves out of thin air, working in ways that he couldn’t divine at a mere glance. Nevertheless, pleased that the koopa seemed to be taking such an interest in invention at such a tender age, the crane humored him with an explanation. “That is somewhat reductionist, but one supposes that you are essentially correct. In this case, the incinerator will be both simple and sturdy enough to withstand one’s adeptal flame, so all one requires is fuel.” Her slender beak turned in the direction of some nearby bamboo stalks. “If the prospect of trying food produced by the Supreme Cuisine Machine intrigues you, one would be pleased if you fetched some bamboo for burning. As for the irrigator, the condensation of atmospheric moisture should be sufficient.”

Meanwhile, Rika could both see -and smell- the quality ingredients in Cloud Retainer’s stockpile, maybe the very items marked by the Supreme Cuisine Machine itself for retrieval beforehand. She found poultry, ham, soybeans, mushrooms, snapdragon flowers, lotus heads, tofu, shrimp, crab, sugar, salt, and of course bamboo shoots, tender and young.

The ship girl took a deep inhale of the scent, let out a sigh, and responded to the question/request the Crane had given to Jr with a call of ”I’ll do it!” before taking off at a jog towards the edge of the clearing. There, she got to work, grabbing a stalk of bamboo in both gauntlets, and then using her hip mounted hull blades to hack away at the base of the plant till it was severed, before finally turning, yelling ”Catch!” and hurling the shaft Jr’s way.

The boy, having given up on learning how the ‘Kamek stuff’ the Crane was doing worked, was fortunately looking her way, and so had the time to run, jump and catch the thrown firewood. A bit of a bigger projectile than a baseball, but the skill transferred over nonetheless.

”How much you need?” Jr asked, as he laid the stalk down and dusted off his hands

“That should be sufficient,” Cloud Retainer reported as she finished her incinerator. The main device appeared to be a sort of pylon, almost tall enough to reach the floating Supreme Cuisine Machine, and its stood in a wide, flat, circular collection bin. The whole device had been positioned atop one side of a disk, with the irrigator opposite it, and like a playground toy the whole thing could be rotated to bring either invention into position. Once the kids loaded up the incinerator, Cloud Retainer focused her power through it. In only a few short moments, all the bamboo went up in flames, reduced to a heap of ash. At the same time, the irrigator began to fill its basin. In no time at all, both the fire slimes and the puddle slimes had ideal habitats.

“Excellent.” The crane flapped up to her invention. “One will handle the fine-tuning. The temperature control, one leaves to you two. You must follow one’s instructions to the letter. Ready?”

”Yeah alright” Jr replied with a casual shrug, while Rika gave a more enthusiastic ”Can do!” eager as she was to see (and eat) the results of the process.

Cloud Retainer nodded. “Then let us begin. Supreme Cuisine Machine, activate!”

The process began, with the adeptus making adjustments and calling out for changes at a blistering rate, which forced the kids to keep turning the invention wheel from side. “One needs heat. More heat, stimulate the slimes! Good. Now…cold, quickly now! We must temper the ingredients, turn up the heat!”

”Ease up!”

”This way this way!”

”No this arg!”

”To me, to you!”

Suffice to say, there was a lot of panicking even as they managed to stay somewhat on top of things. Luckily, the process went a lot faster than most methods of cooking, and in less than a minute, the Supreme Cuisine Machine whirred to a stop with a cheerful ding.

The mechanism sprung open and a platter extended, revealing three servings of piping-hot oncidium tofu. The tofu, thread-thin as the autumn leaves, floated in the bowl, like mist in a forest, and the shredded bamboo shoots gave the image a sweet, lustrous sheen, while the broth combined the essence of fowl and ham, giving off an unbelievable aroma.

“How is it? Is the Oncidium Tofu complete?” Cloud Retainer practically bowled the kids over in her eagerness to examine her machine’s handiwork. She inserted her beak into the bowl and slurped up a mouthful of bamboo-shoot tofu. “Very good! Verily do the capabilities of this machine exceed the norm!” The crane stared proudly at her masterpiece. “The fine control exercised in processing this Tofu... Indeed, one has outdone oneself.”

Cloud Retainer then peered at the Koopa Kids. “This is thanks to your aid as well, young ones. Allow one to bestow a copy of the Oncidium Tofu recipe upon you. And of course, you may sample the fruits of your efforts.” She circled around her invention to give the others space, already thinking of ways to improve the device. “Further adjustments must one make to this machine's faculties...our method of temperature control can indeed be automated and made miniature…”

The two, having just recovered from the bowling over, quickly backed up and out of the way of the circling Crane, though not before Rika grabbed the noodles and Jr the recipe. Once clear, they both glanced down at the delicious looking meal, and weighed up the superb snack the tantalizing aroma was advertising vs the fact that there had been bird beak in there.

Rika came to her decision first, ducking her head down and greedily slurping (no one here carried cutlery around with them after all) prompting a ”Hey!” from Jr who practically shoved his sisters head back up so he too could slurp a sample too.

Suffice to say none of this was very hygienic, but the heavenly taste of the meal meant that any ick factor was swiftly forgotten.

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

Words: 2102 (+3 +4 +10 +5)
Edward Portsmith: Level 9 (22 cells) (2 level ups stored) ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (26/90)
Location Frozen highlands - The Midnight Walk

Edward’s boot touched down on the invisible walkway down below the ash covered staircase, the flap of his wings scattering the fallen spirits had given away its presence. These fell off the edge and drifted slowly down into the abyss below, joining many others in their lazy, fading descent.

Indeed, most of the ghoul spirits had been lost, but Edward didn’t consider this much of a waste, as he had little interest in whatever rotten flesh crushing them would likely have been produced. As such, he’d not bothered salvaging those that had remained in reach either.

Instead he had descended here to seek secrets.

Alone.

Ramattra had lunged deep into the complex in-order to split the horde, and the Dreadnought had resultantly lost track of him in the dark. Taffy the Traffikrab meanwhile had been sent back to the entrance due to the crab’s inability to make the jump he had just made.

Fortunately enough, the ghoul swarm seemed to have been the majority of the mobile threats in the dungeon. As such the man was free to use the barrel of his magelock to tap out the invisible pathway he was walking without fear of interruption till he found his way to solid ground once more, finding himself upon a bannerless balcony and a way out of the stairway chamber.

Through that exit he found rows upon rows of ancient stone caskets, many of them thrown open and empty. Perhaps the former resting place of the ghoulish undead, he speculated. No valuable grave goods could be found at a cursory glance, but the chamber was host to some interesting plants.

The resin growing on roots that the chamber seemed to have been built to accommodate seemed like it might make for a good basis for weapon enhancing grease, if he had any way to collect the substance without leaving his pockets a sticky mess that was.

The singular bud also growing on those roots seemed to contain fresh blood, which was perturbing to say the least. It also seemed almost sacreligious to harvest it without knowledge of any value in doing so worth, and so he left it alone to grow.

Lastly, around the tombs themselves, grew the odd patch of grave glovewort which shimmered eerily, and which seemed to attract the spirits haunting this place. Indeed, as he moved through the chambers, he disturbed a gathering of litwick who fled into the walls, leaving behind one of these blooms in their flight.

He plucked it out of curiosity, examining it as he continued to explore.

As he moved, the bell shaped flowers chimed in a tone only the dead could hear, causing the blue lights of the candle pokemon to draw nearer, and a small shape began to stalk him from within the shadows they projected.

The man paused as he walked, not at all ignorant to this following, which promptly faded as the silent chiming stopped.

”How curiouse” he entoned, before stashing the plant carefully in one of his pouches before continuing on. This led to a reduction, but not quite an absence, in his followers as he exited the tombs and found himself in a round chamber.

On the walls were a depiction of two large wolves, one silver, one gold, facing each other and with a trio of metallic symbols on the wall between them: a gold sun, a silver moon, and an iron planet. These seemed to be on a set of tracks, though no mechanism to move them could be seen. What could be seen was a large wheel in the center, and a locked door at the far end.

Edward took in this scene for a moment and then approached the central wheel, assuming it would activate whatever puzzle lock this was, gripped it by the side, and gave it a few spins.

Activate the puzzle it did, revealing pullable chains on the wall below the symbols.

It also activated a trap.

Slots opened in the floor, up from which roots of the tree the tomb was built around reached up and ensnared the Dreadnaught, pinning him to the wheel. At the same time the circular segment of floor the wheel was in began to sink down, forming a depression into which water began to spill, threatening to drown the man once he was lowered deep enough.

Edward immediately began to struggle, cursing himself for not summoning more troops as soon as possible. Inadvertently, however, his struggles summoned aid, as the grave glovewort chimed and chimed in his pouch in response to his fighting against the roots, calling forth his followers.

A lampent hovered into the room, basking it in a blue light that reflected off of the metallic wall ornaments, and also revealing the canine shape to be a Lunarpup whose skull head and floating lunar companion both were aglow with a ghostly aura.

The former swooped in and began flying around the Dreadnaught even as they remained wary of the water rising below, while the latter approached a little more cautiously.

Knowing that beasts like these seemed to be able to take human instruction with little to no training, he asked them ”Please, you must help me!” a request that they seemed to be amiable to, given their focus on him when he asked, and the Lampent’s failed attempts to pull at the roots.

As the question of how they could help, burning himself out of the roots was a terrible option, and besides, between a grenade spell and a summoned Reaver striker he already had options there that he did not want to take due to the collateral damage involved. Thus, he would hope that the revealed chains would offer a chance to freedom.

”The chains, pull… the one on the one in the middle!” He commanded, casting a Designated Target on the requested leaver to further clarify.

The two mon glanced at each other, and then the Lampent flew over and tried to pull the leaver, only to fail to be able to apply the needed force. That left the Lunarpup, who had more cautiously hung back. Upon Edward giving it a strained ”Please!” however, it seemed to find its resolve and scampered over, leaping up, grasping the chain in bone jaws, pulling it down with its full body weight.

This caused the metal symbols to slide over to the left, and then a pull of the left lever caused the moon to slide down into a slot above said chain.

A pull of the center sent the sun and planet over to the right, where a pull of the right chain slotted the sun down. A pull of the left send the moon back up to the main track, a pull of the center sent it and the planet over to the left, after which, finally, a pull of the right brought the sun back up.

With all that, it was all Edward could do to hold his breath and pray that matching silver moon to silver wolf (on the left) and golden sun to golden wolf (on the right) with the world in between them was the intended pattern.

Fortuitously, with them set out in this order, the mechanism took over, sun sliding into the maw of the gold wolf, and moon into silver, completing the phase of Ragnarök the tablough represented: Sköll and Hati devouring the sun and moon respectively, dooming midgard in the center.

Naturally Edward was unaware of this symbolism, nor was he aware of its connection to the guardian they wished to slay, and was instead just relieved as the platform he was on began to rise up out of the water, after which the roots unfurled, freeing him.

The man slumped to a knee, panting to catch his breath, before looking up at the mon and offering them ”My thanks to you” generally, and then ”And especially you” to the Lunarpup as it padded over and sat before him expectantly.

After a moment, he reached forward a hand, paused before the spirit energy infused skull, and then moved a hand to its back to pet its coat while his hand reached into a pouch and retrieved the grave glovewort that had called it, which he offered to the ghost-type wolf. The beast cautiously gripped the plant in its bony jaw, and then seemed to get a great deal of joy by vigorously shaking the silent bellflower.

The discordant sound drove back the Lampent, which then departed in offence as the little wolf promptly ate the plant.

”Intresting” Edward commented, seeing perhaps a difference in attitude between the entirely spectral lanterns and then sudo-spectral pup’s interest in the plants. He wondered if the gatherings around the plant were as much to keep it away as they were acts of reverence. Said pup, incidentally, showed little inclination to leave his side now that it had been supplied with pets, a treat and praise.

”Well then, I suppose you are more than welcome to come along, after saving me from death, injury or embarrassment” Edward, who could have called for Sandalphon’s help at any time, told it, before asking ”So what do I call you anyway”

The Lunarpup responded with a cry that, to Edward, sounded like ”Loona, huh?”

”Well then, come along Loona, lets see what was so important as to seal behind this deathtrap”

As it turned out the answer was more puzzles, though these at least did not have deathtraps attached. The first was a door with large symbol ladened rings on it that seemed to work more or less exactly like a combination padlock. Sadly, the code did not seem to be present in the section of the dungeon he was in, and so he resolved to ask Ramattra about it once they linked back up, which would turn out to be the right call. Not because it was located elsewhere in the dungeon, but because the Omic had previously found a claw puzzle artifact with the solution on it.

Should they put two and two together, they would find an ancient food larder full of dust, mold, and some highly aged Emberbrand Wine that would likely make for an enjoyable evening once they made camp.

The other puzzle meanwhile was a wall mounted circular puzzle that involved moving a ball through a maze via rotation, this one found in what seemed to be a small bedroom. There was no initial rotational mechanism obvious, but as soon as Edward started talking out loud to his new companion about the puzzle it started rotating. A quick series of experiments later and he and Loona were whistling/howling in tune to rotate it left and right with low and high notes respectively.

When this was solved, it revealed itself to be the lock to a wizard’s closet, containing the most stereotypical blue wizard robe and hat with yellow stars combo possible, as well as a pair of wands.

The latter Edward carefully retrieved, and gave a quick inspection of.

Edward received

The Wand of Illusion: by saying the names of the spells, the holder can cast Dub-ill-oo, which creates an illusionary double that runs forward, and Mim-ill-oo, which can disguise the user as an environmental object temporarily.

Grotesque Wand: by saying the names of the spells, the holder can cast Achoo (creates a blast of sticky, slimy green orbs that can impair sight and movement) and Fish-yuk (spawns a handful of smelly fish to flop around)

”Well then, those are some very silly spells” said the second bed in the bedroom as it examined the slime covered fish flopping around a dopleganger of Edward presently running headfirst into a wall.

Despite their silliness Edward could see the utility of them, he supposed, and so he stashed them away with plans of a pair of thin holsters for them. Not exactly worth hiding behind the deathtrap however, though he supposed the wizard who’d used this place as a base of sorts had likely taken their better equipment with them before leaving it for so long their larder turned to dust.

Or they had perished here due to being a pretty shitty wizard.

Still, he had gained one thing from the whole escapade with no question of its value: a friend. One that he tucked under his arm as he flapped his wings and ascended out of the pit and back up to the ghoul ambush stairs.

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

Coffee Conclusion

Amaterasu & Harry Du Bois
Word Count: 3501 (+4)

The divine wolf sat herself down on the top of the van and raised her snout to the heavens again, not to howl but instead as an act of frustration. Apparently these people had no respect for miracles. Perhaps they were simply too focused on themselves and the moment to recognise the impossibility of what had just occurred… or they were too used to the impossible for her to have had an impact.

Then she had a thought that caused her to lower her head and tilted it in confusion. The reaction had seemed genuine to her sharp ears, which made her wonder how much of this was her doing, and how much G-Corp.

Either way, her message had failed, and so now she was just sitting on the information she’d tried to convey with no way to communicate its complexity… unless…

With an idea in mind, the wolf hopped down off the van, and started to push her way through the crowd towards Harry, intending to grab him and take him to the Polar Star van so he could hear the tale from the bear’s mouth himself.

Harry looked disappointed in himself for not talking with his fist. But thought that fighting her would do nothing to help them. Even the wolf’s attempt to convey her message seemed to fail. He stood there, feeling awkward, as people went back to ignoring him and the other seekers.

“Huh, did ya need something, Ammy?” He turned his head to Ammy, somewhat stumbling behind her.

Ammy made a muffled bark as she thoroughly the hem of his jacket she was tugging, before letting him go and slinking her way through the crowd, expecting him to follow her. Once she got back to the polar star coffee van she sat down next to the bear and glanced between its proprietor and Harry, leaving the rest up to him.

The disgruntled polar bear had been hopeful for a moment as Amaterasu took her stand, but the wolf’s limited ability to communicate -and Azucena’s bravado- meant that her accusation went nowhere. That left the bear feeling more glum than ever, although now that he knew Amaterasu was intelligent, he did feel a little embarrassed for spilling his guts to her, since he didn’t actually want to ship Azucena off to Everdream Valley or anything.

When Ammy led Harry to him, the crestfallen bear turned to confusion. “Uh…did you want me to tell him, too?” Being in the vicinity the whole time, the bear could identify Harry as the heckler, who’d been bothering Azucena with baseless accusations but folded when the martial artist told him to put his money with his mouth was. He’d probably be happy to make a scene about the actual dirty deeds perpetrated by G-Corp, but due to his behavior he din’t have a whole lot of credibility right now. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to try.

“Well, G-Corp’s been trying to put me out of business, since my coffee shop is Azucena’s competition,” the white-furred beast began after a moment. “First they built a shop right by mine and undercut me, stealing my sales. They could do that ‘cause they didn’t need to make money off the coffee. When I didn’t give up, they bought the building I’m leasing in and jacked up the rates so high I couldn’t pay.” The bear bared his teeth at Azucena. “And now here she is, doing this stunt of hers right where I’m tryin’ to sell coffee outta my truck, all smiles and laughs. Doesn’t she know what her G-Corp buddies have been doing to me? Or maybe she’s just that cold-hearted.”

The detective followed Ammy to the truck that was owned by a polar bear. This was strange to Harry as such a thing was not present in his world. But thought nothing of it because this world was quite strange. He had been crouching in front of the truck, but was now standing in front of the counter where the owner was.

Carefully, he listened to the tale of how he was being shafted by G-Corp. Feeling a throbbing anger, hearing the injustice that had happened to him. But he wasn’t red in the face, screaming and ranting, although internally he felt that way. Harry had been rubbing his chin as he heard the Polar Bear’s story. He wasn’t sure to what extent Azucena knew about G-Corp screwing over the bear. But he didn’t want such an injustice to happen to other people.

“I don’t know how much she knows about G-Corp screwing you over. But perhaps we could use this information to convince her to break ties with G-Corp.” Harry looked back at Azucena, who was still working the crowd. He hoped this story could make Azucena doubt her ties with G-Corp. The thought of her not wanting to speak to him came to mind, since he had made a first impression on her.

While this was happening, Hilde continued to grow uneasy. With no clear plan in mind, and no idea what her new associated were doing, but a rising need to do something, the lady knight began to sidle closer to the Gigas through the crowd. In a normal city a woman in silver armor might have been the center of attention, but among the vast and varied fighters of Esaka she was a little less unusual than one might think, so it wouldn’t be long before she was within striking distance of Azucena’s bodyguards. If she took the initiative against the bioweapons and caused a scene, the others might be able to take advantage of the distraction to do something about Azucena before the city’s Aurumatons showed up.

The woman was still unusual enough for Amatarasu’s sharp eyes to spot her moving. She had, admittedly, almost forgotten about the knight, but there was no mistaking that she was moving with some sort of purpose now, which was worrying given that they had no idea what it was.

At the same time, she was the only one among them who’d not made a fool of themselves at this juncture. Yet anyway. Whatever she was up to might well become a problem given she wasn’t working with the info they now both had.

As such, the divine wolf gave a bark, and then slipped into the crowd again to head the knight off at the pass. As she did so she paused the world, rendering it into her canvas, and drew two horizontal lines to slow time and give her the time she needed to make it to her destination. Once there’ she’d grab the butt of her spear and give it a tug in an attempt to request a forestalling of violence and to try and direct her to Harry so he could relay the info to her in turn. At the tug, Hilde stopped in her tracks and looked down at Amaterasu with a quizzical look.

Harry was trying to intercept Hilde from doing anything drastic. He sprinted, or really, he was jogging towards her. Feeling beads of sweat running down his face and flabby body. By the time Ammy was tugging at the hilt of her spear, Harry was right behind her, panting loudly. His body arched forward, and his hands were placed on his knees. After a few seconds of catching his breath, he told her the new information he just learned.

“Hi…miss i just learned something we could use against Azucena. They bought the building near his store and stole most of his customers. And then they hiked the lease rate for the building where he had his store. Now he’s stuck selling coffee in a truck.” All of this was a stream of consciousness, only taking a deep breath after he had finished relaying this information. If she wanted to know more about the situation, he would take a deep breath before explaining it properly.

Hilde’s eyes widened. This information changed everything. Taking Harry aside, she listened carefully to the specifics of the fate that had befallen Polar Star Coffee and its unlucky ursine owner. A plan began to form in her mind as she nodded along, and after a moment she gave the exhausted detective a reassuring (if somewhat reluctant) pat on the shoulder. “Understood. I’ll take it from here.”

The lady knight stepped forward from the crowd, waving the standard attached to her spear for attention. Azucena noticed her, of course, and treated Hilde to a toothy smile. “Oho! After seeing you waiting in the wings, I was hoping you’d step forward, señora! Looking to take on my Coffee Challenge?”

Hilde began by giving a polite bow, just the sort of formality one might expect of a knight, and just the opposite from how Harry began his own interaction. “Good afternoon. I do indeed intend to challenge you, but not your combat skills, which are clearly beyond repute.”

The flattery stoked Azucena’s ego even more because it came from a woman decked out in weapons and armor. “Well, I can’t blame you!” she replied, beaming. “But then, how’s this challenge gonna work? A dance-off?” She spun around and clapped her hands.

“Your principles,” the German told her. “Tell me, are you aware of Polar Star Coffee?”

The name elicited a raised eyebrow. “Polar Star?” Azucena gaze briefly wandered to the truck nearby. She had already noticed it, after all. “I guess. They’ve got guts competing against me, I’ll tell you that much?”

Hilde shifted her weight from one leg to the other. “Not much of a competition when G-Corp seems to be fighting dirty. Undercutting them, pricing them out of their own building, all in an effort to drive them out of business and force customers to you. You seem to pride yourself on your brand’s own strength, your coffee’s ability to speak for itself. A shame your sponsors lack your confidence, and think you can only win by cheap tricks.”

“What?” Azucena scowled, her pride besmirched. “I don’t need any cheap tricks! Just like my coffee, I can win any competition fair and square!” She glanced back at the polar bear’s truck, then at Harry. “No way that’s true. G-Corp’s a little shady, I get it, but they’re just here for marketing!”

The knight’s gaze was as steely as her armor. “Do you really believe that, after the bombing last night?”

“Uh…”

At that moment, the Gigas pushed past Azucena, lumbering toward Hilde and Harry. The shove seemed to flare up her indignation more as she gave the brutes an incredulous look. “Hey, what’re you doing? I didn’t say to throw ‘em out yet!” One of them took a mighty swing at Hilde, who narrowly managed to backstep out of range. When Azucena went to grab one’s shoulder, it reached back and shoved her away. “HEY!” Her confusion turned to rage in an instant as Galeem’s influence activated. She ran forward and delivered a flying kick to one Gigas’ back, which sent it stumbling into a skewering thrust from Hilde’s spear.

Harry had been listening to the conversation between Hilde and Azucena. His eyes were more focused on the Gigas that were coming closer towards the group. Jumping into the action when it was apparent that they took a swing at Hilde. The detective closed the distance between himself and another Gigas coming towards them. Harry jumped a few feet in the air, trying to spin-kick one of the Gigas in the head.

Seeing this, Amatarasu put a bit of divine oomf into his kick, flicking a swirl of wind to boost his rotation and then dabbing an inkbullet on the impact site. In between pauses of time she hurried on after him, ducking low and sweeping a lash of her divine beads underneath his jump, aiming the divine weapon at the Gigas’s legs to try and destabilize him.

The pair’s combined efforts were more effective against the Gigas than the brutish bioweapon expected. Once its head got rattled, the divine beads were enough to sweep a leg and bring it down to one knee. Of course, with such enormous arms it didn’t need to haul itself back up to reach Harry. With a bellow, it reached out to try and grab the man’s leg, pull him to the ground, and then fall on him in a heavy body slam.

At the same time, the Gigas impaled by Hilde fought back despite the polearm lodged through its midsection, spurred on by anger and the potent chemicals flowing through its veins. It walloped a surprised Hilde with a one-two punch from its burly arms, then aimed a double overhead fist slam at her that forced her back. The next moment, Azucena struck him with a low kick into a backswing punch. Gigas turned to block her next strike, then aimed a massive haymaker, but the martial artist had already clapped and begun to strut forward in Libertador Stance. Head-first, she slipped past the knockout blow and launched Gigas with a reckless upward hook. A couple jabs kept him juggled long enough for Hilde to draw her sword, jump forward, and knock the bioweapon back down with a silver slash.

Harry felt the large hands grab onto his leg. Panic was starting to set in as the worst situation came to mind. His thoughts changed to the pain he was feeling as his body was slammed onto the ground. Harry felt as if all the breath was being taken out of his lungs. He took a couple of deep breaths as his Pain Threshold was trying to get him through the pain. It would impress his comrades as he quickly got back onto his feet.

“Okay, pal now your askin for it.” Harry huffed and puffed as he rolled up the sleeves of his jacket. His Endurance thoughts encouraged him that he was strong enough to take on the Gigas. Harry clenched his fist and tried punching one of the Gigas in the jaw. It cracked the bioweapon’s face mask, but did not really impede it as it wound up for a giant punch.

Amaterasu paused time and added a dot of an ink bullet to the impact site, before twisting her view around and drawing a line through as many of the tubes on its back as possible to try and slice through them. Then, with her divine weapons left unavailable by her excessive use of ink, she leapt up, grabbed the tube on the Giga’s shoulder with her jaws, and put all of her weight into yanking down on it to offbalance the supersoldier.

While slicing the dangling tubes (which seemed to serve no practical purpose) didn’t do much, the full weight and strength of the wolf goddess were enough to throw the Gigas off and send it stumbling past Harry as its haymaker narrowly whiffed, passing so close to the detective that he could feel the displaced air. Grunting, the Gigas grabbed at Amaterasu to try and pull her off, then hurl her as far away as it could.

In response the divine wolf released her grip on the decorative pipe she was holding at the same time as she kicked off of the Gigas’ body with all four paws, sending her flying away but not nearly as far the Gigas might have wanted. She then double jumped in the air to adjust her flight and landed softly on all fours.

Meanwhile, the ladies were making headway against the other Gigas. With its immense strength and distorted proportions, it did not fight with any kind of martial art so much as throw its weight around with flailing motions. Hilde’s excellent defense meant that she had no need to play a game of cat and mouse, however. With a combination of spear and sword, she kept it at arms length, checking the brute’s unstructured offense with quick jabs to give Azucena the chance to beat it down. The Peruvian’s aggressive style was even more potent than her coffee, despite the vast difference in weight class, she could juggle and combo the Gigas with ease. Being experienced fighters, the two women got a sense of how to cooperate without needing to communicate, and it wasn’t long before the two were making a spectacle of the bioweapon before the crowd.

Harry moved out of the way of the punch, being lucky that he did so, or his head would have been knocked off his shoulders. The detective gave a couple of hard kicks to its midsection, trying to knock it down. He hoped this would be enough to take out one of them. He was thankful he had Ammy and Hilde around to help fight these things. When he felt his kicks weren't doing enough, he started shoulder-tackling it, trying to topple it over.

Amaterasu joined in with this, rushing in and delivering a flying tackle to the Gigas in union with Harry’s own, unsteadying their foe. A warning screech of tires then sounded behind them as Amaterasu’s summoned striker, Cris the Car, revved its engines and then came roaring towards the super soldier.

Harry, seeing the car, jumped out of the way in a comical manner. Scrapping his elbow in the process.

As it came in, Amatarasu leapt up onto the bonnet of the demonic vehicle and then backflipped off of it. Her sundisk re-manifesting as she leapt, and she put the momentum of both the backflip and the car’s motion into a downward slam of the flat of the disk which she delivered to the Gigas’ head. A full-on car crash (however spiritual) followed by the terrific wallop of Amaterasu’s sundisk provided enough to fell even the mighty Gigas. The bioweapon slumped down, its helmet cracked and its six glowing lights replaced by spirals.

The noise from that massive collision, not to mention the spectacle of a runaway vehicle in the middle of a fairly crowded metropolitan street corner, were just the distraction Azucena needed to pull off a thrown on her own Gigas. After climbing around and atop the super-soldier’s shoulders, she locked her leg around its neck and squeezed hard enough to make its helmet lights go teary-eyed, then rolled forward to use the Gigas’ weight against it and flip it onto its back. As it staggered to her feet, Hilde moved in. “Behold my power!” She lashed out with a series of spear and sword slashes, ending with a thrust that speared the Gigas through. “The wolf claws, it bites!” Using her sword, she ground the blade along her spear to create a shower of sparks, setting her polearm ablaze. She whirled her spear around, then lunged forward to deliver a stab surrounded in a fiery tornado. “It tears asunder!” With a guttural roar, the Gigas tumbled backward and stayed down, unable to fight any further.

After a brief moment of silence, the nearby spectators began to clap and cheer. Nobody really understood what was going on; to them, it was all a show. Azucena, Hilde, Amaterasu, and Harry stood victorious, the Peruvian breathing heavily as the rage of Galeem left her eyes and her adrenaline subsided. She still seemed annoyed enough to spit at the fallen Gigas, though. “Some ‘bodyguards’ you were. Who do you think you are?”

Harry was getting back onto his feet; he looked quite tired. The detective was huffing and puffing loudly. Harry looked over towards the others before speaking. “Good jobs guys. Guess like your relationship with G-corp is over?” Even if it wasn’t from this fight, then Harry would tell her what G-corp had done to the Ursinae’s coffee shop.

If the detective was correct, then Amaterasu would be very pleased indeed. Well. She’d slightly regret the vandalism she’d done. After all, it seemed the woman was no hypocrite, just a bit blind to the truth and given the sunset glow in her eyes, that wasn’t exactly unexpected.

When Azucena learned what G-Corp had been doing to Polar Star Coffee without her knowledge, she was furious. “That’s so stupid! If Azucena Blend can’t win on its own merits, it shouldn’t win at all. There’s no point in winning a rigged fight.” Her anger gave way to embarrassment as she looked around at the crowd that remained. “Should’ve expected as much from G-Corp, eh? Guess I ought to take a step back for now and get my act together. The spotlight isn’t worth all this.”

And there it was, job done and with minimal casualties. Other than the Gigas anyway, which Amaterasu sniffed at, thinking she might as well learn their scent in case they were an issue again in the future. Being able to have a whiff of warning of their presence could only be a boon.

Harry was glad this whole deal was over. But the voices in his head was saying the contrary. In fact their war was still going on, and was going to only escalate. Harry fished out his flask and took a quick swig from it.

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

wordcount: 1,111 (+2) Location: Forbidden Kingdom - Esaka’s PoolsBowser Jr: Level 15 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(322/150)
Rika: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(158/110)

”Yeah! Come on! Get it! Crush that tin can!” Jr cheered as Anji, Therion and Mimi kept one of the Jack-8s on the back foot. It was only when the water orb struck into Overdriven Knockdown that he got directly involved, commanding Mimi to ”Electroball the wet spot!” as he used a magma rush to close the distance.

Leaving an explosive lava mine in his wake, the prince arrived by the fallen machine with Mimi riding his shoulder. In her tendrils palm the mon had charged a volleyball sized sphere of ball lightning, which she promptly spiked down onto the spot the bot had been hit by Theon’s watery strike.

The prince himself raised his paintbrush staff to charge and cast ”Holy!” while the others laid into the machine, causing a pulse of light to burst out from him, stunning the Jack-8 as it tried to rise while washing harmlessly over his allies.

Meanwhile, Rika was busy with the Jack-5s.

She’d started laying into the one she’d slammed down onto from on high with a series of punches, but as her drones were still up there, trailing to catch up, she had a strategic view of the battlefield, including how Yayama had both a Jack-8 and a Jack-5 on her.

That was probably not a great situation to be in, she concluded,given that the other Jack-8 was being handled by three people. So rather than finish off the present Jack-5 she was battling, she moved to intervene in the Dark Knight’s fight.

Or rather she got herself moved, as her whale resurfaced beneath her at speed, acting as a springboard which launched her through the air towards that brawl.

As such, when the Jack-5 went to bodily tackle the tiny tank, it found a tug on its shoulder as Rika’s grappling hook thwipped down and affixed itself there. Naturally, it won the battle of who was heavier vs the short ship girl, but with its dive already clumsy, the bit of resistance was enough to throw it off entirely.

Plus there was now an incoming living homing projectile to contend with. Fortunately, its processors registered as it rolled over, she was a relatively small projectile. Thus it braced for the moderate impact, only for Rika to click play on a tape a breath before impact, transforming her into the form of the Beast.

The Beast, twelve meter long centipede that it was, promptly slammed down onto the Jack-5, compressing it into the dirt road. Said dirt meant that the recoil wasn’t so bad, but it also meant the bot wasn’t incapacitated, nor was it especially stunned, and so even as Rika began to scramble with the beast’s claws to get into a good position to start biting, her Beast form was grabbed by the Jack-5. It then rose up, hoisted the Beast over its shoulders, and then spun rapidly round and hurled it away in a Rotary Catapult.

She rolled to her many feet to evade a pancake press which was as slow as it was silly looking. Still, it fit the slow yet powerful build of the bots just fine, and so she assessed that it would be silly to try and engage them on their own terms. Especially with the bot she’d left behind closing in again.

As such, when the charging bot dove towards the neck of the Beast, it became a static blob that quickly shrunk down to Rika’s now much smaller height, over which the machine flew, crashing down into the ground on the other side of her.

”Got these ones!” Rika called over, even as she backed up a bit while the bots were picking themselves up, before she spread her fingers like claws and slashing them in the air towards the two. In response, her blade drones came flying in towards them, only for the Jack-5s to block the telegraphed attacks, drones pinging off their guards and wobbling through the air as they tried to adjust their flight and return to their controller.

Said controller was busy being on the backfoot now that she’d lost the element of surprise and momentum that had carried her through her first kill. Armed with a helbard as she was, however, this wasn’t the worst position to be in. She backed up and repeatedly jabbed at one Jack-5, keeping it on guard while the other circled around, only to surprise it with the summing of a striker, the dark knight Maria, who blocked the machine’s incoming punch with her twin blade and then delivered a scything counter attack.

She had her scout planes fire down on it from on high as it staggered, bullets and minimissiles rattling it, but it managed to start high guarding a moment or so later to protect itself. In turn that moment of inattention to the one she was stabbing at gave it the time to push past her helbard and slam a big boot towards her gut.

The ship girl raised her rigging’s hullblades to block the impact, but her small frame still got launched back by the strike. The Jack-5 attempted to follow through, only for her to tap her featherfall rune before she hit the dirt, hurling her up into the sky and out of its reach.

Using all her air control she stabilized her tumble and hung in the air, before complaining that the perfect blocking was ”Really annoying”. She’d seen enough matches to know the way around it however, mentally clicking a plan into place before the Jack-5s stopped waiting for her to fall down into their clutches (or worse, she did do so).

She mentally commanded her minions into formation and then, surrounded by her regrouped drones, had them unleash a hailstorm of fire down at the Jack-5s. The enemy machines blocked this fire again, but with their guards raised up, they were not ready to block low when Rika’s white whale unleashed a volley of cannonfire from the bamboo-line within which it had been licking its wounds.

Rika slammed down onto one of the staggered machines a moment later, creating a blast that hit both, before slamming a pre-charged vaultbreaker through the pair, launching them up into the air before they crashed down to the ground.

She then did a short hop to spin a round 180 degrees, spread out her hands, and slashed them down, sending all six blade drones slamming down into the closest Jack-5 as it tried to rise, which punched through its banged up metal flesh and slides through half a dozen different internal systems, leaving it to fall limp to the ground.

That left just one battered bot to deal with.

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

Words: 500 (+1)
Edward Portsmith: Level 9 (22 cells) (2 level ups stored) ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (4/90)
Location Frozen highlands - The Midnight Walk

Edward breathed a sigh of relief as the situation with the ice king was brought to a peaceful conclusion. It had been first very tense, seeing if the giant cat would accept their gift offers, and then it had been a struggle to avoid laughing as the self declared royal folded in the face of pets and scritches.

The closest equivalent he could think of to the great cat, the Sphinxes of his homeworld, would certainly never have never been so easily placated by such ruses and would have begun incinerating people upon being offered the fish.

Regardless, the day had been saved, which meant he now had time to focus on the task he wished to complete before they departed. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Sundren, the elven princess from his homeworld whom he had fought alongside to defend it could not be convinced to abandon her people at the drop of a hat, especially when the ice king still represented a possible threat, and Galeem’s nature made it impossible for him to explain the greater good they fought for.

At least, not in the time they had before departing, which was sadly very little.

He did not let it get to him, however, and instead fully dedicated himself to the task of hitching their ride and getting all of the beasts in order. A task that proved slightly more difficult due to the more attentive ones being well aware that their treats had just been sacrificed on the altar of saving the village.

Fortunately, the animal loving elves came to the rescue at the behest of Sundren who, despite rejecting his ‘advances’ (as she, probably jokingly, put it), ensured that they would depart on good terms by sending them away with plenty of animal feed. At least enough that would last as long as the leftovers would last the Seekers themselves anyway.

After ensuring that every beast got a little bit of a taste of the extras they were being sent along with, Edward got most of the stashed away, leaving just the Reindrix pulling the sled, the Chillanth and SomnaDrix stalking alongside as escorts, and of course the Traffikrab with its now neon cone riding upfront with him.

Things could have gotten a little cramped up there with Ace along for the ride, but fortunately the creature was both full and sleepy enough that it did not mind taking a nap on his lap. Which, given it retracted almost entirely into the cone, meant it looked like he was just wearing said cone there, which looked a little silly it had to be said.

He was more than happy to put up with that for the companionship however.

Speaking of, it looked like the Seekers had made a new companion here as well, one which the Dreadnought was sure to introduce himself too upon spotting him with a simple Edward Portsmith, at your service. Welcome aboard via the stage coach's new sheep themed front facing window.

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

wordcount: 377(+1)
Location: Forbidden Kingdom - Esaka’s High Tier
Amaterasu: level 9 (1 level up stored) EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (58/90)

After feeling smug about the compliment, Amaterasu settled down to hear the bear’s tale of woe, and it didn’t take long for his talk of how he’d been treated to get her righteously furious. For the goddess whose contexts where a celestial realm, feudal japan, and demon infested cities and ruins (both in her world and in the DeadZone where she’d awoken in this life), the specifics of this kind of economic strong arming were not business as usual but highly offensive to her sense of justice and fairness.

It also felt so incredibly petty in the face of all she’d experienced. Did she not have enough? Was it spite that drove her to try and snuff out a fellow merchant? A delight at the cruel joy of it? Or simple, naked, unrepentant greed, a hunger that could never be satiated?

Suffice to say that, even were it not for her sponsor’s crimes, the divine wolf would have despised Azucena and everything she stood for. By the end of it her heckles were raised and she was growling in the woman’s direction, though being at the back of the crowd this would not stand out much to any but those close by.

This anger had a lid of worry was briefly shoved onto it when Harry got called out by the woman for her heckling, only for things to boil over when she spoke of her thugs being there to prevent others ‘stealing her spotlight’ or ‘making a scene’ given that was exactly why she was here, and was exactly what she was doing to the bear and his Polar Star Coffee van.

Enough was enough.

The bully of small business bears and broken ribbed men deserved karmic justice and the wrath of a goddess delivering it.

She leapt up into the air, and then jumped again to land atop the polar star van, before pausing time and performing some divine intervention. Then she raised her snout the the heavens and howled a soul piercing howl as the beams of light raiding from the sun she’d moved lit up her snow white coat, the van beneath her, and a word written in a single perfect cursive brushstroke across the face of the electronic billboard behind her:

Hypocrite!

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

The Oracle had a brief moment of vision where it got to see first the airblade cut off the rouge’s head, and then be horrified when the blade came up towards it before it once again saw nothing once more due to discombobulation.

This sounded a bit like “ahaha-aaaaaaahh!

Suffice to say, it wasn’t going to be much help for a little while longer.

It had at least been helping, somewhat, unlike the dungeon’s units, but to be fair to them, they were all pretty tired. Still. It was hard to rest when there was a battle going on right around the corner, and so the lot of them had approached, unable to stay away.

Not that they were rounding the corner to get involved, mind. It sounded like a hectic mess in there and how much could they actually do, so they were more or less hanging around with Kleine around the corner, using the Oracle as makeshift cover

The sound of something crashing into a table nearby however was enough to get the most active of them, the naga, to slither through the illusory and poke its head around the corner. It was just in time for Salbjorg’s darts to whisk by as they sailed towards the dwarf who’d landed among the pitiable Zoppy’s wares.

The laborer hissed “Zoppys in trouble!” back at the others, prompting the kobold to poke it's head around the corner below the naga's, and the ent to poke it’s own around it above the both of them.

Upon seeing the situation, they all immediately came to a silent agreement, which was that the moment the dwarf caused trouble he was going to a two bone knives in the back and a wooden fist slamming down on his noggin.

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

wordcount: 898 (+2) Location: Forbidden Kingdom - Bamboo forestBowser Jr: Level 15 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(320/150)
Rika: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(156/110)

”Oh commmmme onnnnnnn! That’s not fair! You can’t just no-sell stuff like that!” Jr whined in response to their barrage being blocked, even as it had the desired tactical effect of further fouling the bot’s already Therion stunned charge.

”Whaaaaat?” Rika called over the sound of gunfire that was still substantial even as her palm rifle and helbard butt cannon clicked empty.

Said guns running dry, plus the lifeform disintegration ray petering out and the white whale’s cannons reloading, meant that only the rapid handgun and infrequent mini missiles remained as part of their bombardment. Then they too cut out in response to Yayama’s vehicular bot-slaughter as she plowed a hole through the formation.

”Yeahhhhh, mess em up!” Jr cheered on the Lalafel as she rolled on through, to which Rika called over ”Whaaaaat?” again, her ears ringing from her self-inflicted sonic overload.

A quick cast of ”Esuna” cleared that right up.Then, after recalling Peeka (the slow moving ghost fairy would not have a good time against the agile metal foes) the kids moved to get involved in the skirmish.

First thing’s first, a cast of ”Afflatus Solace!” also cleared up a solid chunk of the damage Darli had taken from the pair of bots ganging up on her. Then Rika moved in to even the odds.

With her helbard transformed into a paintbrush and planted to the floor before her, Rika painted a river of ink over which she sailed, while her free hand pulled back and then thrust forwards, sending three of her rocket propelled blade drones shooting forwards towards the Jack-5 presently flanking the carpenter.

The first slammed into its back, the second glanced off a shoulder as it turned, and the third was blocked, going spinning off to the side and embedding into the dirt.

”We’ll take these, you help your friends!” Rika called out as she raised a palm and opened fire with her grizco blaster, keeping the bot blocking as she circled around and unloaded a volley of disruption cannon shots from her rigging guns at the other one.

It was enough to distract the pair, and give Darli the space she needed to back off and move to tip the odds of another fight alongside a partner she was more used to coordinating with.

Meanwhile Rika’s partner in this new two-vs-two wasn’t her brother, but instead her whale, which breached out of the land it could move through like water, and then came slamming down towards the two bots, forcing them to move or be crushed.

The one she’d forced to block her rapidfire grizco blaster got splattered with electric ink on the way out, leaving it sparking while the shipgirl got her drones to hammer the other with mini-pistol and mini-missile fire.

This shot hammered bot started blocking as soon as it was clear, only to be forced to stop as Rika launched her grappling hook in and caught an arm. The flying lead was replaced with a flying girl as she came reeling in, a bullet jump and maneuvering thrusters combo adding to the speed of the right hook that she slammed into its chest.

Poseidon’s boon immediately followed this up with a blast of water that knocked the bot back from her. She shot her disruption cannons into it again, and then had the halberd she’d teleported to her back reappear in her hand, transformed into Vichya's Black Lance and Shield. The former of she thrust across the distance between her and the knocked back bot, piercing its battered armor.

Then she thrust the other hand forwards, but instead of delivering a shield bash she shifted the helbard back to its former shape, while also warping it to that other hand. With a perfectly aimed thrust she stabbed the thinner point into the hole the lance had pierced, striking all the way through the machine, the thin tip slipping out the other side as it shish kebabed the vital systems within.

Not even bothering to pull the blade out, instead released it, hopped up into the air, and then wall jumped off of its collapsing body in order to reverse her momentum.

Behind her, her whale had been keeping the other jack-5 busy mostly via taking a beating. Flailing anchor tail, biting jaws, and swiveling turret barrels had prevented the machine from using it purely as a punching bag, but it clearly had the upper hand.

It was no surprise then, when the whale dove down into the earth to escape. What was a surprise, if the machine could even feel such a thing, was Rika coming crashing down from on high. Having used all her methods of vertical locomotion to ascend as high as possible, the ship girl had locked onto the machine with her H3AD-5T v2 unit and then slammed down, creating a massive explosion on impact that the whale had dove down to avoid.

While his sister took the fight to the enemy, Jr hung back and took advantage of the fact that the rest of the team had the bots occupied to play support. ”Cure!” spells were tossed the other two UN member’s way first of all, before he plucked another pokeball from his bandolier and brought Mimi the Mimikyu into the fight.

Sat atop her trainer’s shoulder and, at his direction, plunged a tendril-like arm into her own shadow, extending it out into the battlefield. Out there, she had it pop up behind the Jack-8 Anji was fighting in order to swipe at it at the most inopportune times with her shadow sneak move. A quick and dirty little trick, and one that could intervene without them worrying about friendly fire or getting in the fan-fighter’s way.