Member
Izurich
MULTI_MEDIA_MAN
Yankee
Rezod92
kapuchu
Elite Minor
Dark Cloud
Tim the Yeti
XandryaTora & Poppi
Level 8 Tora (53/80) and Level 8 Poppi (26/80)
Location: Sandswept Sky – Crown of Sand
Primrose's @Yankee, Fox's @Dawnrider, Sectonia's @Archmage MC Midna's @DracoLunaris, Heavy's @ONL, Medic's @Dr Lovecraft, Yoshitsune's @Rockin Strings
Word Count: 2388
One by one, the new arrivals split between the oasis and the makeshift campsite. Midna's wolfish steed took her with it as it hurled itself into the pool after Tora and Poppi, but she found the waters' embrace quite agreeable. Heavy followed suit, clothes and all, with a splash so big that the ensuing waves swept Tora away. “Wheee!” he sang, bobbing to the other side of the pool.
His friend the Medic and a rather bedraggled Primrose visited the campsite first. They arrived at the same time as Necronomicon, who with some help from Joker had managed to widen the bright aperture lighting the oasis enough for her to get through. Panther in particular had wondered if her new acquaintance would be interested in seeing her as she really was, but the dancer appeared more focused on her attire. “Sorry!” she apologized, giving an embarrassed smile. “Our Phantom Thief outfits are...well, projections, sort of. Our rebellious spirit, given form! So this is what we've really been wearing. It was summer when we got stuck here, you see?” She looked Primrose up and down, taking note of the state of her attire. “But uh, if you don't mind how they look, we got some stuff from the hippos!” She gestured at the small heap of clothes deposited beside the camp, which consisted of loose red-and-dark-red striped robes, peacock-feather accessories and a mantle, and a couple fezzes.
Unwittingly Panther also answered the Medic's question, but Mona replied to him anyway, his comment about their secret identities having received no more than a chuckle from Joker. “We found some peacocks and hippos here when we arrived. Since we didn't eat much today we figured we might as well make the most of 'em.” The cat moseyed over to where his leader was pan-frying a hippo steak and took a deep sniff. “Kinda exotic as meat goes, but it smells good, and it's a whole lot better than starving! Guess all that time making food at LeBlanc's coming in handy, huh Joker?”
The boy nodded. “It'll be a bit longer given this method of cooking.”
He looked over to see Skull approaching, wearing one of the robes, and raised an eyebrow. The blond boy shrugged. “Hey, I don't wanna get my clothes wet, and I didn't pack any trunks!” He headed over to the pool and jumped in, joining the growing crowd.
After seeing Poppi start cleaning the sand from her chassis with a smile on her face, Tora allowed himself to relax. He floated on his back around the pool, marvelously buoyant, and his tension drifted away in the refreshing, wonderful water. With Sectonia droning on about the World of Light in the background he really did almost slip into a dozing slumber, not even taking notice of Primrose letting her hair down, but the coolness of the water at his back prevented him from drifting away completely. He only awoke from his reverie when Braum -having heroically volunteered to be the first to try Joker's cooking and proclaimed it highly satisfactory- maneuvered into the pool himself, which sent another round of waves rippling across the surface. Tora shook and then smacked his head to get water out of his ears, regaining his full hearing in time to catch the end of Sectonia's speech.
Braum, now lounging in the pool, stroked his mustache thoughtfully as he took the information in. “Hmm...this is a lot! So, is there a way to tell who is friend and foe?” He glanced around the more experienced adventurers with his own scarlet eyes inquisitive.
Her voice careful, Poppi replied, “Anyone with both orangey-red eyes and ash on their faces under Galeem influence.” She fixed Braum, the Scout, and Blue Poison with a pointed glance, but strongman only nodded, his features serious.
“Kind of bulky way to describe,” Tora piped up idly. “Maybe friends should come up with name for people not free from Galeem. How about....mehmehmeh, Reddypon?”
Skull scoffed. “Psh! It should be something cool, but also like, dangerous! Like an enemy force in a video game. Like...uh...” With all the spotlight suddenly on him, he found himself struggling to come up with something. “Light...ful?”
“Uh, no. What about Daybroken!” Panther offered. She sat on the edge of the pool near Primrose, halfway through a drumstick. “Like 'daybreak', when the sun comes up. Doesn't that sound cool?”
With his paws tented, Mona considered the suggestion. “Daybreak is a positive thing though. Something bright and hopeful springing from the darkness.”
Panther took another bite. “Thatsh where the 'broken' comes in!”
Hearing a splashing, Poppi noticed her Masterpon trying in vain to climb out of the pool and went over to help. The commotion drew a few other eyes her way, but she shrugged to put them off. “Poppi have no ideas.”
After a moment of contemplative quiet, Joker spoke up over the hiss of the cookfire. “Sundown. The sun of this world, Galeem, has brought them to a low place.”
Tora scrambled up onto the solid stone. “That not bad, meh! Hey Poppi, can you wash Tora clothes, please?” His companion dutifully reached for his piled shirts and overalls as he bounced over to the camp. With Sectonia's antlions helping a great deal to get the meals ready, there was no shortage of appetizing-looking food. “Ooh, smell make Tora super grumbly-hungry. Could eat Tasty Sausage the size of Poppi!” He settled on a side of roast hippo instead, laid it on a scrubbed slab of stone along with some greens and sat to wolf it down. He was in the middle of thirds when the Medic approached with an idea in mind. Clean, refreshed, and full of good things, Tora could think of nothing better to pass some time with than some fun tinkering. “Okay, Tora help new friend!”
After waddling over to retrieve his toolbelt from the poolside, he joined the Medic in his project. A natural engineer, he quickly proved himself a great help with both his knowledge of his companions and his technical know-how. Using his attachable console the Nopon breezed through the software portion, sizable as it was, and in doing so decided to pass the time with some conversation. Now seemed like a perfect opportunity to get to know the Medic inside and out, and start down the pathway of real friendship. “So,” he began, steadily tapping away with his tiny nub-hands on his terminal. “Not only friend Medic amazing doctor, but also amazing engineer! Tora never think would be helping make inventions to bring back life! Back home in Torigoth, Tora just work on Poppi, sometimes days at time. Tora forget eat, forget sleep. Very unusual for Nopon! But Poppi Tora's pride and joy.” His expression said as much as he looked up from his work to see his companion sitting in the pool, her washing task done. In the cheerful sunlight and sparkling water she seemed especially beautiful.
It was a moment before Tora gave a contented sigh and continued tapping. “Rex-Rex say that if person care enough, anything possible. Rex-Rex is Tora friend and hero, so he right for sure, meh! So, meh, Tora wonder about Medic. How get amazing skills? And what for?” He glanced up again to watch the Medic's face as he replied. Though shamelessly inattentive to others at time, Tora had here a kindred spirit in technological expertise and passion, and waited with bated breath to hear what he had to say.
At about the same time as Heavy went for his own dinner, Braum joined him to get a second helping. “Eat well, my friend!” the big man was saying. “Strength like ours must be built brick by brick, so we must make up for any lost meals! I'm more used to bear meat in the frozen north I call home, but this is fine fare.”
Panther took a sip of water and remarked to Primrose. “This is new for all of us. In the real world most hippos are in, uh, Africa I think, which is totally on the other side of the world. And they're SUPER dangerous. I wouldn't pick a fight with an actual hippo even with Carmen backing my up, no sir!” She laughed to herself. “Then again, I guess we did beat that one that you made a Striker, huh?”
Behind Braum and Heavy in line was Skull, who had finished with the pool and changed back into casual wear in time to join them. “Not bad, huh? I'm always down to try new things, but nothin' beats a steamin' hot bowl of ramen! Ah, man, the first thing I'm gonna do when we get back home is raid Ogikubo!” He almost got lost in thought imagining the noodles of his homeland, but took a serving of poultry all the same.
Some time later, dinner came to an end along with Medic's project, and the curious healer decided to take a leap in the name of science. Every eye went his way as he absorbed the spirit of a Flygon. The moment the spirit touched his body his entire form became shrouded, then lost in a dazzling show of multicolored light. His very being came undone in a flurry of reconstitution, then combined with the essence of the pokemon. When the light finally died, there stood a Medic not too dissimilar from the original, yet unmistakably different all the same.
“Oooh,” Tora admired. He looked at the loot from the battle below the barrier, arrayed across a section of floor. Mostly bugs, but one thing did catch his eye. “JET BOOTS!” He scooped the weapons up, only for his delighted expression to falter. “Meh, meh, meh! They're broken!”
Poppi looked them over. “Why don't you fix them?”
The Nopon's face lit up again in realization. “Oh, yes!”
“We found some stuff too,” Mona announced as Joker placed five spirits down with the rest of the goods. “Some monsters we fought in the temple, along with the fight on the cliff.”
Poppi give her Masterpon a sideways look for his deception, but he seemed more focused on the spirits. “Maybe it time for Tora and Poppi to get new power,” he suggested, examining the choices. “Not fleshy thing...not ugly bat...armor suit might work for Poppi, but it hurt agility and charm, meh.”
“What if Masterpon fuse with four-arms? Double wings, double useful. Although zero times two still zero,” Poppi told him.
Too deep in thought to listen, Tora scratched his head. “Hmm...Tora wonder if changes can isolate to just one Poppi form. If armor suit stick to, say, Poppi Alpha, then that form can go full defense and others stay mobile.” Remembering the Medic's fearlessness, he grabbed the spirit in question. “Meh meh, let's try!”
With a deep breath Poppi changed to her young-looking Alpha form, then gingerly took the Armor spirit. She too unraveled in a kaleidoscopic lightshow, and in a few moments reappeared.
Tora was on Poppi in an instant, running diagnostics as he babbled. “Is Poppi okay!? How does Poppi feel?! Any strange urges? Can see out of left eye? Can move legs? Repeat after Tora: 'La la la la laaa...”
Laughing, Poppi patted his head. “Dn't worry Tora, Poppi feel fine! Stronger than ever in fact. About as tall as QT mode too!” she noticed, comparing her height to Tora's. She held up one gauntleted hand. “Analysis indicates higher defense, lower speed. Free flight likely impossible. And can do this!” From a blast of darkness she summoned a huge steel claymore in her hand, which she stuck point first in the ground. “Poppi Alpha have both sword and shield. Like legendary knight!”
“Dark knight maybe,” Tora fretted, but it was clear he was happy. One lingering worry remained. “Meh, meh, can Poppi try changing to QT Pi?”
“Roger, roger!” In a whirlwind of sparks and ribbons Poppi transformed from her modified first form to her third, and Tora saw to his satisfaction that it bore no trace of the Armor.
He cheered, dancing around. “Hip hip hooray! Tora find workaround! By giving specific spirits to different forms, can create three different 'builds' with different strengths and weaknesses, like crazy Poppiswap!” His elation dwindled to normal levels. “Alright, Tora run more detailed checks on Poppi, get fully acquainted with new abilities. Now perfect time for everyone to power up before next leg of journey, meh!” With Poppi right behind he headed for where he and the Medic had been tinkering to lay Poppi down and get to work.
Sakura's response left Bella less than convinced. Although the girl had her heart in the right place, the Abyssal felt like she simply didn't know the situation at hand quite well enough for her pronouncements to be wholly accurate. For now, all Bella could be sure of was that she hoped Sakura was right, and that a better future lay within the grasp of all.
More than anything else, she came to realize the importance of exercise. The nebulous goal of greater strength made the activity seem more like a chore than a worthwhile pursuit, without a tangible goal in mind, but Sakura made a very good. Bella realized that she would only be able to accompany her heroine and her friends on their adventures if she could cut it on land, and that would be beyond her if she couldn't stand upon it in the first place. Suddenly fired up to exercise, Bella watched Sakura demonstrate a push-up for Rika, then awaited her own instructions. 'Standing practice' was the name of the game for now—and that, Bella thought, she could try her best at. Flushing again as Sakura took hold of her to help her to her feet, Bella placed her whole weight onto her wobbly legs. Her enormous, monstrous tail coiled behind her, helping to keep her from suddenly falling, but the weight of her human body lay upon her legs alone.
She steeled her muscles as best she could while the seconds crawled on, but finding nothing to steel, she found the wobbling growing more and more severe. “Grrrrgh...” she breathed. “I...can...do zis. I will...leave the sea...” Her muscles burned beneath their burden, all her strength straining to keep her upright. “I...wha!” And just like that her limbs went slack, and she slid to the floor on her knees, panting. “Hah...hah...” With hopeful eyes she looked up at Sakura. “H-how long was zat?”
The light drained from them as they went wide. “Six seconds!? How!? Zat felt like...like hours!”
While recovering her stamina she listened to Sakura outline exercise goals in the future, and by the time she finished was ready to go again. Her next round of standing practice began while Junior said his piece, and ended long before his did, but Bella listened nonetheless. Becoming powerful enough to lead seemed simpler than somehow convincing the Abyssal legions, but Bella doubted if it would be an easier. She knew a few of the Abyssals who stood above her in the brutal hierarchy, and the thought of facing them in combat terrified her to the core. “I'll keep that in mind,” she told him shakily, wondering if a child knew well enough to stand as an authority on such matters.
More chatter and exercise followed, but for all her attempts Bella didn't find the act of standing any easier. In fact it got harder, since she seemed to recover less and less each time. After a few minutes she collapsed onto the coil of her tail, using it as a makeshift seat. “Sacré bleu, this is difficult. I would not object to...haah...finding one of these spirits that could help me walk.” She wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, her hat long since removed.
Ms Fortune
Level 2 Nadia (1/20)
Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town – Bismarck
Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Bowser & Kamek's @DracoLunaris, Geralt's @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Hat Kid's @Dawnrider, Frog's @Dark Cloud, Sephiroth's @Zavazggg
Word Count: 839
For a moment it seemed as though Cia had given up as she miserably addressed Link, but Nadia's caution proved well founded. Either the sorceress didn't ultimately understand the dire situation before her, or she didn't care. In a rage she called forth another crop of dark swordsmen to assail her enemies. Nadia bunched her muscles to leap over the hole in the floor and take care of the deranged woman personally, but her foe pulled another trick out her bag. Waves of dark force swept across the wooden floor from the impact point of her scepter's head, elicited by a move that Nadia would have expected in more provocative circles. The shockwaves swept the catgirl off her feet, but she remained far from helpless in the air. Jets of blood from her ankles boosted her away from the hole in the floor, leaving Geralt to plummet through himself. “Whoops, sorry!” she called after him, before refocusing on Cia.
The arc of her jump meant she wouldn't reach the sorceress without having to land and risk the shockwaves, but Nadia had nothing if not fallbacks. She extruded a length of muscle fiber from her wrist to loop over one of the hangers that previously held up the Bismarck awning, and swung from it as if on a jungle vine. “Swing and a miss!” she called, swooping over the open air and ocean blow, then back toward the restaurant. Well before she could drop onto Cia from above, however, Sephiroth burst from the struggle with the sorceress's conjurations and pushed his ridiculously long blade straight through her. Death came instantly; the Dark Links dissipated like someone flipped a switch, and the fight way over.
Nadia landed on the floor, sucking her fibers back in, and placed her arms akimbo. “You killed her again!” she accused the swordsman, her face cross. “That was the last one, too!” As much as murder rubbed her fur the wrong way, she couldn't really condemn him. Cia's lack of casualties was not for want of trying. If not for her own abilities, or the others' intervention, she, Peach, Cuphead, and Sephiroth might be dead. She watched the magic barrier around the restaurant start to glow, then shatter into wisps of energy. There came a flash that left her blinking, confused, and when she looked again she saw two glowing orbs by the hole in the floor. One was sea-green, with a trident at its center, and the other was pink with a heart. A moment later Bowser reappeared from the hole atop his Trowln, the fallen Geralt caught unceremoniously in his arms.
A bit later, as people sorted through the rewards, Nadia's motioning for them to get a move on grew to a fever pitch. “Come on, we've got to get out of here, before-”. A big man with green skin, a gray chinstrap beard, and a marvelous chef's outfit rushed onto the scene from the kitchens. He fell to his knees in despair, raising his oven mitts to the heavens. “Oh, Hydaelyn! What did I do to deserve this...!” Dejected to the core, he hung his head and took a deep breath. Then he looked up at Blue Team, and stood, his expression severe. “I hope you people are prepared to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and to pay due recompense.” He pointed an accusatory mitt. “It was your side that began the fight, inside the Bismarck nonetheless, set off the firebomb, tore off the awning, and put a hole the floor! The dining floor is a ruin, and the kitchens a mess! That woman may have set off an blast of her own, but would she have taken such measure if you didn't gang up on her? And she's dead anyway, in no position to undo the damage. You, meanwhile!” Enraged, he shook both fists. ”YOU have put an end to the culinary arts of the entire region, in addition to my business, for the foreseeable future! Even with millions in repairs it will take an age to mend it all.”
There came a commotion by the entrance. A dozen guards armed with spears and firearms appeared, joined by the ships Pennsylvania and Tosa, as well as Admiral Merylwyb herself brandishing twin double-barreled pistols. She eyed the spirits of the killed bystanders, and treated the heroes to a fearsome scowl. “So, this is what the travelers from afar have brought us after asking how to earn our trust. Death and destruction. What do you have to say for yourselves?”
Nadia gulped, her ears lying flat against her hair. More than anything she wanted to sprint away at high speed, and she knew she could escape easily, too. But being part of this group meant not abandoning them. She looked urgently at Peach, but the princess was standing stock-still, a look of fear on her face. What are you doing? Nadia wanted to ask. You're the leader, right? Say something! But like Peach, she could say nothing at all.
After dealing with his hurled chunk of earth, the Skullgirl quit running and sprinted the Stranger's way. He held his arms wide, taunting her. “Come and get me!” She closed the distance quickly, sending up puffs of powder with each pound of her feet against the snow. Did she plan to strike him, knowing already that her strength meant nothing to him. “POINTLESS!” he cried, lifting a leg to deliver a kick to her head, compounded such by her speed and his power that it could very well tear her head clean off.
Instead she summoned forth a fleeting ally, and the next second everything vanished in a cloud of smoke. “That all?” In the haze the Stranger waited for his foe to hit him, and dutifully her legs lashed out at him. Both missed, sent to either side of his head, then glistened with blades of ice. The Skullgirl brought them together in a killer vice. She felt her frozen edges hit flesh, but something was wrong. Try as she might, her legs would not come together.
The wintry wind cleared the smoke a moment later, revealing the reason why. With a disdainful expression the Stranger stood, having not so much as blocked, his adversary's blades biting into his neck. Blood speckled the ice. Yet for all her strength the wounds were no more than skin deep. “Nice try,” the man drawled. “Woulda worked on anyone else. But lemme tell you one thing. The boooolts, the blaaades, the coooold...I. Don't. Feel. Any of it.” His hands closed around her legs. “You're gonna have to do better.”
With one motion he crushed the ice surrounding her limbs, freeing himself from her vicegrip. Rather than let go, he lifted her up, then dropped her in a mighty powerbomb. The impact shook the ground and cracked the earth, sending fissures through the ice fields. Without missing a beat the Stranger grabbed the Skullgirl's legs and swing her around and around, then let her fly.
