Lugubrious

World of Light

Midgar - Burning Vandelay Campus

Level 5 Goldlewis (86/50) Level 3 Sandalphon (27/30)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Karin and Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Susie and Roland’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Giovanna
Word Count: 2657

In a blink the ominous boundlessness of a stormy sky, its dark clouds rendered iridescently oily by the Extinction Belt, was traded for the cool, dark confines of the DespoRHado troop transport. Sandalphon laid her hand on the back of her chair, trying to steady herself. Her halo cast her cluttered workstation in a soft golden glow, very restive. Right now she wanted nothing more than to sink down into it and sit a while in peaceful, contemplative solitude. After all, she’d just concluded her coordination of five separate missions, each involving both allies and enemies with unknown abilities in wildly different sections of the Vandelay Campus, and all happening simultaneously. Though she planned to intervene personally if need be from the very start, she’d ended up hopping between all five teams to provide assistance, sometimes bringing fresh wounds from one fight right into the next without so much as a moment to breathe in between. Even by her standards, it had been quite the ordeal. And at the conclusion of the final counter, what reward did she receive? Nothing less than the complete and utter annihilation of her current worldview. So very much to deal with, and so very little time.

Rather than sit down, Sandalphon propped her gunstaff up and bent over her desk, rummaging through her coffee cups. Her pupils flashed low-battery signs as she checked each one, able to tell their contents by weight. Empty, empty, empty, and empty but for meager, earthy dregs that would achieve nothing. These cups were sized for the average human, after all. Sandalphon pulled the coffee pot from the machine and held it up to the light. Bingo. It might be the least appetizing shade of brown known to man, but to the angel it was good as gold, and still warm. “Thank Illia.” Her pupils turned into hearts and she lifted the spout to her lips to drink. Two point seventy-three seconds later an explosion shook the room, and though Sandalphon furrowed her brow, she kept on drinking until a huge explosion rocked the entire dropship. The shockwave nearly knocked her off her feet, and as she choked in surprise she accidentally blew coffee out her nose. She gasped, her pupils blinking fire symbols, and she quickly dabbed at her face with the napkin she’d eaten her breakfast burrito over earlier that morning. Her gaze landed on the coffee pot, shattered on the floor, and sighed through her nose. It seemed like she couldn’t delay any longer. She picked up her gunstaff and ran through the dropship until she reached the cargo ramp, from which she could peer out at the crisis unfolding in Circuit Royal.

For the time the authorities remained at the perimeter they set up to assess the situation, but now, with reinforcements arrived and the signal given, they had begun their assault. Both Peace Preservation and General Affairs had turned out in droves, with several squads of Shinra troopers backing up a veritable army of G-men, which was a frankly terrifying sight. At the head of the columns of G-men strode their commanding officers: the curly-haired tigress Swire, the one-horned shieldbearer Hoshiguma, the devilish guardswoman Matoimaru, and the grim, wolf-eared visage of Penance with her golden thorns. Of course, the Turks Sandalphon saw were just the tip of the iceberg; it was the Turks she didn’t see that worried her. And even without them, the situation was worrisome enough. The Administration’s forces were attacking DespoRHado wholesale. One wave at a time, the G-men revealed their true forms and charged forward to fight against the androids and cyborgs holed up around the dropship.

“So you’re making your move, Shinra,” Sandalphon muttered. Reasonably speaking the authorities should be impartial when it came to corporate warfare, but Vandelay was Shinra’s favorite. She watched for a moment as shadows like Loa, Cyak, Troll, and Lillim faced off against her androids in a furious struggle. Quickly she pinpointed the source of the giant explosion as the many-headed great serpent, Ananta, hammered the dropship with another massive blast of Nuclear power. 9S, who had arrived from Production to provide air support with his Flight Unit, ripped into Ananta with his chainguns, prompting Penance to send one of her G-men after him. It erupted into the demonic manta raw Forneous, his wingspan as wide as a jet’s, and flew up to challenge 9S in the air, forcing him to stay mobile. It was a brave effort on the part of the DespoRHado remnants, but with so many G-men, this was impossible. The Winds of Destruction had been destroyed, and its forces depleted by Vandelay’s defenses during the assault. It seemed that the PMC was destined to die here.

That didn’t mean that Sandalphon intended to die here, however. Thanks to Roxas, she could see clearly now. All her hard work, her carefully laid machinations, mattered as much as dust in the wind. She knew the face of her true enemy, as well as the only faction that would lead to this world’s salvation.

“Sandalphon!” The archangel looked down to see Laxi and Mascula, both lightly damaged by elemental attacks. Laxi’s face betrayed no emotions, but Mascula looked distraught as he stepped toward her. “There’s too many of them. What are your orders?”

At this point, it was too late to order a full retreat. DespoRHado was in the heart of enemy territory, surrounded and under siege. They could neither escape on foot nor in the troop transport, which would never get off the ground. Sandalphon made her decision. “It’s time for DespoRHado to collapse. And for us to disappear. You two, with me.”

“Understood.” Laxi and Mascula took off down the ship’s ramp with Sandalphon right behind them, matching their speed with her long strides. Escorting their leader, the two androids carved a path through the chaos of battle toward Production, following the path Team Mustang had taken. Mascula fought with his katana and the power of water, while Laxi wielded katana and knife alight with flame. She shot out phantoms of herself in quick succession to slash from a distance before teleporting above her targets to assassinate them from above as a meteorite of piercing flame. Sandalphon supported them with rifle shots and healing, and together the three cut through to the edge of the battle. Just as they drew near Production, however, two men in black suits appeared to block their path.

“Going somewhere?” Reno grinned, his electro-mag rods at the ready.

His partner Rude said nothing, but raised his fists.

“We’ll hold them off,” Mascula told Sandalphon, brandishing his weapon bravely. “Don’t worry about us. You can escape.”

Sandalphon was quiet for a brief moment. “I order you both to survive this.”

“I aim to please,” Mascula said, a melancholy smile on his face.

Before anyone could attack her, the archangel warped to 2B, appearing suddenly atop the android’s Flight Unit in midair. She stood there with her staff planted, her coat billowing in the wind as she surveyed the scene, before she put in a call to all the Seekers at once. “The Administration is here in force. Far too many to fight. Their goal seems to be the extermination of DespoRHado, but I doubt they’d turn up the chance to squash you as well. We need to rendezvous as soon as possible. What’s your status?”

Goldlewis answered her first. “All accounted for over here in Production. After the fight ended Rekka turned tail, and we ended up followin’ her back down to ground level along some kinda emergency escape route. Sounds like we’re ahead of the curve.”

Giovanna responded last. “We’re a-okay in security. Managed to capture Korsica, and while she woke up after Pit went to open the door for Benedict so he could follow us, we ended up reaching an understanding thanks to our new buddy Chai.” She paused for a moment. “She wants to talk actually.”

“Oi, what’s this magic rubbish? Can anyone hear me?” An unfamiliar woman’s voice with a pronounced Scottish accent could be heard over the comm line. “Uh, one of you said somethin’ about an escape route, didn’tcha? All the department heads got a personal L.I.F.T. that heads straight there. It leads down from the City of Glass right through Deep-Paris. Got it set up just in case we ever needed to disappear, boost pads and everythin’. Since Vandelay’s literally burnin’ down and the Administration’s here to clean shop, that’s your best bet for a clean getaway.”

Sandalphon nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Ms. Korsica, I can give everyone an exact route there if you can provide me with campus schematics.”

“What, like an upload? This magic symbol thing doesn’t exactly have a port.”

“If you have computer access, just display them on screen where Giovanna can see,” Sandalphon instructed her. “I have a photographic memory.” Luckily, the interior of Korsica’s miniature L.I.F.T. came with a computer terminal, and once she obliged the archangel’s request, Sandalphon proved the truth of her words. Each of her Seeker contacts received a heads-up display marking their destination and indicating the way to get there via dotted line. “Hurry, everyone. There’s no time to lose.” She gave 2B her coordinates, and the Flight Unit swooped down to head in the right direction.

---

About twenty minutes later, the teams arrived in a circular open-air courtyard. On one side lay the big reinforced gate that led down into Deep-Paris, and on the other five railways came to an end after emerging from the five tunnels, one for each division. As the mini-L.I.F.T.s came to a stop at each terminus, the Seekers on board piled out. Goldlewis, Roland, and Partitio arrived from Production, having bid farewell to Rekka when their paths diverged. Geralt and Midna arrived from Research and Development without Tora; instead, they brought with them a little girl with white hair and a red coat. She introduced herself and her giant, dangerous-looking robotic companion as Clara and Mr. Svarog, then somewhat bashfully explained that she wanted to get away from Vandelay campus. Pit, Giovanna, and Benedict arrived from Security with not two but three new acquaintances, those being Chai, the black cat-bot 808, and Korsica. Geralt, Karin, and Blazermate arrived from Finance, and lastly came Sakura and Roxas from the Signal Tower, looking very out-of-breath. Of course, Sandalphon, 2B, and 9S arrived before any of them thanks to the Flight Units, which deposited them before soaring away to find Laxi and Mascula, and Susie showed up too. That left everyone accounted for except Tora, whose absence his teammates could explain, and Raz, whose absence his teammates could not.

That is, until a noise only Sakura would really recognize signaled the arrival of a familiar face. It was Luka, the young-looking, hammer-wielding Psych-OSF captain. More specifically, he was the captain of the platoon to which Sakura and Raz had been assigned yesterday morning. He brought the Psychonaut with him in fact, and the first thing he did was bow in apology. “Forgive me for not arriving sooner,” he told them. “I came as soon as I spotted you two on the news. I figured you must be in trouble, and a platoon leader never leaves his soldiers behind.” He put on a wry smile. “Even if his soldiers leave him.”

After a second he held up his hands to placate them. “I, uh, don’t mean to guilt you though. Or to keep you here if you’re in a hurry, so I’ll be brief.” Korsica nodded stiffly, then went over to open the gates for everyone. “Fact is, I was hoping to tell you both something. And maybe get your help. Some weird stuff has been happening around the Otherlobe since yesterday. When they got back, Dexio and Sinah couldn’t stop talking about what they’d seen, trying to recruit people to go back down into the tunnels and find Peach. When I saw them again this morning, they were acting completely different. Pretending that Peach had been killed, and not remembering anything else. So…I linked up with Gemma, Yuito, and Hanabi, and we did some snooping around.” Luka’s frown deepened. “I found this old hospital that’s supposed to be abandoned. But there were people there, up to something. Shipping something somewhere by truck. We kept hearing the phrase ‘Supernatural Life’, and Raz said-”

“That’s where they took Peach!” Raz chimed in excitedly. “I knew you’d want to go, so I told Luka he’d have to ask you, too.”

Goldlewis looked serious. “If y’all got a lead on Peach, that’s some damn fine news. How many of us can ya take with ya, Luka?”

“Aside from these two…” Luka furrowed his brow. “If I share my power, us three can take one more person apiece as we teleport.”

Just then, a strong smell filled Giovanna’s nostrils. “Well, whoever’s going, pick fast. We’re about to have company!”Just then, a mean, green, six-wheeled machine smashed through one of the courtyard walls, sliding to a stop in a shower of dust. Huge, menacing, and as heavily armored as it was armed, it stared down at the crowd of heroes with a head like a medieval helmet. “Oh, GREAT,” she groaned, rolling her eyes. “Shinra’s pursuit robot, Motor Ball.”

“We can take it,” Goldlewis asserted, raising his coffin. He projected a Wall of Light from it to block the robot’s attacks. “There’s, what, twenty of us?”

“If it can find us, so can his army,” Sandalphon pointed out. “Every second we spend here is another they have to close in on us, and we can’t ‘take’ them.”

“Over here!” Korsica called. Thanks to her Vandelay authorization, the reinforced emergency gates were open, revealing a street leading underground at a somewhat sharp angle as far as anyone could see. Lights affixed to the ceiling illuminated it from above, and the buildings of Deep-Paris stood quietly on either side. For their inhabitants, proximity to the surface probably came with certain advantages, both for them and for Vandelay.

Gio divided her gaze between Motor Ball and the downhill road. “Uh, on foot? Not even I’m that fast.”

“Didn’t I mention boost pads?” Korsica stepped onto one and immediately got launched downward, somehow running at blistering superhuman speeds. “See you at the bottom!” her voice echoed back.

Goldlewis’ jaw dropped. “This is ridiculous.” As Motor Ball smashed through his Wall of Light, however, he heard voices in the distance. The emergency gates creaked, beginning to close. “Aw, hell,” With Sandalphon giving covering fire, he ran through the gates, stepped onto a dash pad, and zoomed downhill. “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”

Giovanna ran after him, followed shortly by Chai, Svarog (with Clara in his arms), and then Sandalphon herself. It was up to everyone else to either follow suit, stand firm against insurmountable odds, or join the Scarlet Guardians as they teleported away. Out of all the Shinra forces only Motorball got through the gates before they slammed shut, and without delay it began to careen downhill through Deep-Paris, plowing after the Seekers like a runaway truck.

The Under - Holograd, the Termite Capitol

Level 11 Nadia (140/110)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2701

Once everyone gathered in the misty outskirts clearing and the Hive Knight outlined their new mission objective, the Seekers split up, deciding where to explore based on the landmarks they’d spotted on their descent through the immense hollow. Naturally, rather than plan anything out they essentially just picked various directions to go and then went. For once, though, the team’s designated point woman found herself uncharacteristically indecisive about where to look. With her arms up and her hands clasped behind her head, she ambled after the others at a leisurely pace, even after she entered the city limits and strode carefully across a fuzzy Mothfly bridge. As she considered her options she watched her teammates head out in different directions, trying to guess at their reasoning.

Bowser’s stomach led his capricious quartet not any closer to the Hive but to Holograd’s marketplace and restaurants, evidently not satisfied with the smorgasbord of pizzas stowed away in the team’s infinite pizza bag. Sectonia and Rubick happened to share an interest in the ruined city’s residential quarter, and since those derelict homes seemed to house the Termite Capitol’s biggest spider infestation, Nadia happily left them to it. More eager to fight than find a way forward, Artorias wandered off in the direction of the colosseum, while Ganondorf set his eyes on what had been Holograd’s grand castle. Out of all the places, the Arboretum seemed the most promising due to what Barnabee said about roots, but Therion and Primrose were on their way, and Nadia did not want to be a third wheel for the two old friends. Those two made quite the pair. Idly Nadia wondered if they harbored feelings for one another, and she resolved to ask Primrose the next chance she got. Her thoughts drifted toward Ace. Hopefully, wherever he ended up after that train station kerfuffle, he was doing well.

Jesse watched the others split up, and rolled her shoulder, as she tended to do. Everything looked interesting, but Jesse usually opted for what looked the most bizarre. That, or should we go with whoever went by themselves. “Look at everyone go.” She said. “It’s like…it’s like herding cats.” She glanced at Nadia who was nearby. “Eh? What do you think? Right?”

The feral glanced at her with wide eyes. “Hey, that’s racist!” Then she grinned. “Haha, just jokin’. Now I know you like puns though, so you’re in for it now.”

For a moment, Jesse seemed genuinely alarmed, wondering if she had made the same mistake as she had with the rabbit person. “Oh, heh, oh. Okay.”

In the end, Nadia’s mind could only wander so far from her feet, especially with that bizarre song in the distance that dug its hooks into her like an ear worm. It sounded like singing, at least, but she couldn’t make out the words for the life of her, and if those were instruments they sounded unlike any she’d ever heard. Unable to suppress her curiosity, she came up with the plausible justification that any option might benefit the team in some way and made her decision. Tapping the linkpearl in her ear, the feral tried letting everyone else know. “Uh, hello? How the heck’s this thing work, is it on? Uh, well, assumin’ it’s on, I’m gonna go figure out where that weird song’s comin’ from. Guess I’m just mew-sically inclined! If anyone finds a way down to the Hive, ‘bee’ sure to let everyone know, ‘kay?”

Damn, she’s good. Jesse thought to Polaris, before turning her thoughts to the music. “Weird sound waves are basically my entire wheelhouse. I’m tempted to check it out, too. Just in case there’s some creepy shit going on.” Jesse said. “Unless you wanna go it alone.”

“Nah, let’s check it out together! It’s like last night all over again, ‘cept it’s just us gals, huh?”

With that Nadia scampered off on all fours down the twists and turns of Holograd’s cobblestone pathways, jumping over the rubble that had spilled down from the husks of nearby buildings. In a city of rounded, red, domed buildings, the one the music led her towards stuck out like a sore thumb. Big, blocky, and predominantly white, it almost looked like a courthouse to her, but instead of columns or statues it featured the ravages of time, with giant cracks along its walls, smashed windows, tattered advertisements, and collapsed stonework. Nadia could hardly call its atmosphere inviting, but the weird song’s volume confirmed that this was the place. It was loud enough that the feral could just about start to make out the words, but still tantalizingly hard to grasp. She sighed and gave a shrug. “Well, I came this far. Not gonna puss out now.”

Inside the structure lay a wide-open space, not-so-quietly sinking further into ruinous decrepitude along with the rest of the Termite Capitol. It seemed to feature a square center structure with two floors, ringed by a wide walkway with planters and white plastic trees. Many of the tiles in here were smashed and dislocated, exposing the meager dirt beneath, along with a few sprigs of the bone-white plants that seemed to grow in this cavern. Broken glass, rotting wood, and peeling paint could all be found in abundance. Recessed into the walls were a variety of long-neglected storefronts. Parts of the floor featured yawning black crevices with no discernible bottom. Strange masses of darkness with red eyes floated aimlessly about here and there, and what looked like giant animate toys stalked around. The big, pill-shaped, one-armed pink ones with lime-green halos and metal claws unsettled the feral more than they reasonably should have–the Mascotoys themselves looked less alive than the cream-colored stuffing that poked out of them like living tissue. Throughout the place echoed that music from barely-functional loudspeakers, their quality so laughably low that what should have been an ordinary song sounded distorted, wistful, and haunting.

“What is this place?” Nadia wondered aloud, baffled.

“It’s like a…fucked up version of a rundown mall.” Jesse said, answering Nadia’s external thoughts. Setting her hands on the railing, Jesse peered through the halls. Her eyes tracked the floating red-eyed shadows. “Though with way more abominations than I’m used to seeing. D’you think they’re friendly? What are the odds?” Jesse asked.

A mall? Nadia blinked, looking around. So that’s what this was. She turned away from Jesse so that the other woman couldn’t see her rapidly-growing mischievous grin. “Surprised ya recognized it so fast. But I guess if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen a mall, right?” Barely able to hold it together long enough to get it out, Nadia doubled over, cracking up. Jesse let out an instinctual ‘ugh’ noise, before Nadia continued: “Pff, hahahahaha…but, uh, no way these things are friendly. That’s your idea of a joke, right? I like a good scrap as much as anyone but I’d be fine not killin’ stuff the second I go somewhere for once.” Putting her hands in her pockets, she began to walk around, giving the lumbering Mascotoys and other critters a wide berth. At least there weren’t that many of them. “So this is somethin’ normal in the world you’re from, Jess? Abominations aside, I mean.”

Jesse shrugged: she didn’t want to fight either, so if those things left them alone, she would leave them alone. “A mall? Yeah.” She answered. There was a brief pause.

“Oh, uh, yeah. A mall. Basically a big marketplace, except it’s just one huge building and everyone puts stores and stuff there. There’s food courts and attractions, movie theaters, some even had roller coasters. And basically their heyday was forty years ago and they’re going out of business. So there’s a lot of malls that see sparse visitors, are occasionally empty, or on rare occasions, entirely abandoned like this one. A place like this used to see thousands of people a day. Now?” Jesse said, wiggling her fingers mysteriously. “...A modern-day ghost town.”

Nadia pursed her lips, reflecting on that. “Huh. Sounds kinda…I dunno, sad. There’s a boardwalk in New Meridian that sounds kinda similar, roller coasters and everythin’, but it’s always jam-packed with people just havin’ a good time. Not just rich folks either, ordinary people havin’ fun in the sun, eatin’ ice cream, ridin’ the ferris wheel. So nice you could almost forget about all the ugliness everywhere else.” She shrugged. “D’you know why the malls ain’t doin’ so hot back where you’re from?”

“Eh,” Jesse said, clearly not feeling too upset about the plight of the American mall. “There’s still amusement parks and boardwalks, like you’ve got. The main appeal of the mall was shopping, and shopping,” Jesse pointed at the ceiling. “Can now be done online.” Jesse explained. Nadia gave her a blank stare.

“Just hop on the computer, click on a few buttons, and the thing you want can be delivered to your door in as much as a week or as little as a day. It’s crazy. So, way less reason to go to the mall.” Jesse concluded. Nadia’s stare somehow grew even blanker. Nothing was going on behind those eyes.

“And, then, I guess, in this case, all the monsters move in. Or wake up. Though, now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s gonna be a creepy mall full of something Paranatural out there somewhere, someday, back where I’m from.” Jesse mused.

“Yeah, haha.” The feral scratched her head as the two continued to walk around. After a moment of silence, Nadia spoke up. “Y’know, out of everyone in the group, I feel like I know ya the least, Jess. There’s others who don’t talk about ‘emselves a whole lot, like Big Dorf, but I kinda understand his whole deal. You, not so much.” She furrowed her brow slightly, still smiling. “Sorry if this seems…I dunno, mean-spirited or somethin’, but wouldja say you’re ‘normal’ in the world you’re from?”

“Big Dorf.” Jesse replied absent mindedly, before blinking and looking at Nadia. “Oh, me? Hah, um, no.” She said good-naturedly. “Not exactly.”

“Between the powers, the gun, Polaris, the job, and, y’know…how much I hate normalcy. No. I’m not normal. But I can’t imagine many of us can claim that. Whoever could would be the odd one out in our little group, wouldn’t they?” Jesse asked rhetorically. “I don’t mean to come off as enigmatic. But it does make me seem cooler.”

“Hah, that’s true,” Nadia admitted with a chuckle. “On both accounts. I mean, I don’t…think…I’m weird? I mean, what I am is purr-etty unique. Y’know, feral. Three tails. Split apart. But other than how I look, I’m just your average outgoin’, fun-lovin’ gal.” She smiled. “Then again, maybe some of ya think I’m weirdly upbeat.”

“You do seem to have a good head on your shoulders.” Jesse admitted. “Most of the time, anyway. Ba-dum tsst.” She briefly mimed a drum set in front of her.

“It’s just, and maybe I’m wrong, but in my experience most people go away from scary things rather than towards them.” She said.

Nadia smiled. “I guess it’s easy bein’ happy-go-lucky when nothin’ can hurt me.” She shrugged. “At least, not in any way that matters.”

After another couple moments, the sight of something familiar prompted a double take. It was a red ring supporting a white arrow that pointed down, stuck to the wall over a downward staircase. With the memory fresh on her mind, Nadia was able to recall where she’d seen it before. “Hey., isn’t that…didn’t we see that last night?” It had been dark and very rainy, but she’d glimpsed that same symbol hanging over another somewhat ominous abandoned entryway. The feral led the way down the stairs, and when she reached the bottom she found a large room of dark green and beige tiles, with ticket machines, turnstyles, and pitch-black doorways blocked by metal bars. “It’s another station!” she realized, her eyes roving across the room until they found a familiar one-eyed crustacean with a wizard’s hat as a shell. “And another magic crab!”

“The one and only Magikrab,” the critter corrected as the ladies approached. “As the custodian of these railways, I have been blessed by the Stagmer-line to be able to visit any station within this underground land.”

“Oh, uh, hello again.” Jesse said with a wave.

Nadia nodded sagaciously. “That’s magic, alright!” She then glanced at Jesse, her eyebrows raised. “I guess that means there’s more of the stations down here? Maybe we can use ‘em to get around!” In her excitement she ran toward the big barred tunnel, but before she could disassemble herself to slip through she stopped cold, her ears going flat “Urk…I’m gettin’ that feelin’ again, all the way from here,” she winced. “Although…maybe I’m just gettin’ used to it, ‘cause it doesn’t seem quite as bad. That pizza guy gave off the same aura, but aside from that one gimmick, he really wasn’t anythin’ to write home about.” Still, Nadia stepped away from the bars and looked back at Magikrab. “If we go in…would we get attacked another horrible monstrosity?”

“You mean an archangel?” The Magikrab nodded. “Most certainly. The Stagmer-line’s next of kin are many and varied, and each possesses a favorite station.”

Nadia’s disappointment led her to gloss over the implication of what the crustacean said. “Aw, kitty litter. I was hopin’ we could get around easier.”

“Oh, you still can!” Stepping aside, the Magikrab revealed a much smaller passage, about six feet in height, and the bars in front of it slid upward with a grinding sound. “Routes to other Stag Stations, now boarding at Platform B. Now with two connections to the Metro! Just ring the bell.”

A grin spread across the feral’s face. “What an a-track-tive proposition! Whatcha think, Jess? Once we deal with the Hive, this oughta make the boss hunt a helluva lot easier. A tram-endous help, you could say, heehee.”

“Heh, yeah, um.” Jesse said off-handedly, her thoughts elsewhere. She raised her eyebrows and glanced back in the direction of the symbol. “I’m sorry-” She looked at the wizard. “The Once and Future Magikrab- you said archangel? Of the Stagmer-line? Is that secret, or can I ask what that is?” Jesse asked.

The Magikrab thought for a moment. “That’s the name given by the people of New Wirral, where the Stagmer-line last rested. They’re just…beings. Unique and different, no two alike. Given life and form by the collective archetypes of humanity, their thoughts and motivations are a complete mystery. Those that ride the Stagmer-line can be…unfriendly. They’re castaways, after all. Wandering far from home, trapped in the liminal space here. But you don’t need to worry about them if you stick to Platform B. The Last Stag is a little gruff, but he’s nice on the inside.”

Jesse scratched her head, trying to take that in. “Thanks, Magikrab. Sounds like the Stagmer-line is both a magical source and… a literal train line?” Jesse tried to parse through the multiple ways the word Stagmer-line had been used by Magikrab. “And Archangels are somehow related. I guess they don’t have to do with Galeem though, so that’s good. Maybe.”

“Mm-hm.” Nadia didn’t quite get everything Magikrab said, but her discovery of a fast-travel system left her in even higher spirits than usual. “We’ll be seein’ ya again pretty soon then, li’l guy! Wanna head back up and keep lookin’ around, Jess?” The feral gestured back toward the stairway. Even after this amazing find, it felt like Falldown Mall had more for the two to discover.

Jesse was of the opposite mind, a little too focused on weird esoteric lore to fully appreciate how helpful fast travel would be. “Uh, yeah! Sure, Nadia.” She gave Magikrab a grateful wave and then turned back to the stairwell.

“I wonder if any of the attractions still work.” Jesse wondered aloud.

“Alright, mall run round two!” Nadia grinned, jogging toward the stairs with pep in her step. “Let’s see what else is in…store!”

World of Light

The Under - Forsaken Land

Level 11 Nadia (137/110)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 1987

For a couple more minutes Nadia sat there on the cliff’s edge. Though she admired the view, listened to Barnabee, and watched some of her more-daring teammates trailblaze a way down the kingdom’s edge, she mostly just spent that time decompressing. Maybe her mornings in Smash City Alcamoth, Limsa Lominscuttle Town, Lumbridge, and -to a lesser extent the Home of Tears yesterday- had spoiled her, but she wasn’t used to fighting tooth and nail just to get breakfast. Even back in New Meridian, where she relied on guile and thievery to win her daily bread, the generosity of friendly Little Innsmouth restaurateurs like Yu-Wan made sure that even on bad days Nadia wouldn’t go hungry. Of course, her adventure in Crust Cove had been a breath of fresh air in a couple ways, but that simulated seaside would never compare to the real thing, and that whole Pizza Time deal meant her time in that level ended on a sour note. Add to that the run-in with Pizza Head, which had been a chaotic scramble even by her standards, and it had been quite the eventful morning already.

Still, Nadia might have relaxed by now if not for the occasional bit of precipitation. Once or twice a minute, a shape silhouetted against the lightroot above would plummet down through the open air, seemingly from the cavern’s vaulted ceiling. Though little more than dark blurs as they hurtled down, they looked rather like bugs to Nadia’s keen eyes, especially when one happened to land on a floating island and promptly burst into chunks of slimy chitin. After seeing Jesse meet with the Koopa Troop on the island with what looked like a giant antique gumball machine before continuing there descent, Nadia exhaled deeply and got to her feet. “Welp, I’m nyaat gettin’ anywhere just sitting here. Better get a mewve on.” Still, the extra break helped center her, and she felt a little better prepared for the challenges ahead.

For Nadia

New Strength:
Su-purr-conductor
The Lightning type gleaned from Cat-5 helps shore up some of Nadia’s weakness while granting new strength. Now, instead of being flash-frozen by Ice attacks thanks to her purr-manent Hydro status, Ice attacks grant her Multitarget for thirty seconds, and so do Air, Metal, and Water attacks. Multitarget causes her attacks to burst on successful hit, dealing splash damage in a 5 ft radius of an appropriate type (her normal attacks ‘burst’ with blood, which is treated as Hydro/Water).

With another certified Nadia Fortune great idea in mind she turned in the direction of the giant dandelion, but before she got going her ear swiveled toward the sound of footsteps behind her. When she looked over, she spotted Ichiban on his way over. His expression looked uncharacteristically sheepish, so she crossed her arms and greeted him. “Heya, Ich. What’s up?”

“Hey, Ms. Fortune,” he replied, preemptively giving her an instinctive half-bow of apology. “Look, uh, I’m gonna be straight with you. I don’t know if I’m a great fit for the group. I mean, I’ve dealt with some crazy stuff, but that pizza guy? That was a whole ‘nother level.”

Nadia felt like she could intuit where this was going. She gave him a resigned nod of encouragement. “Yeah, I totally getcha. I mean, a guy with a face made of cheese? Un-brie-leavable. Still, we cashed out in the end, so all in all, a pretty gouda time.” The feral giggled to herself. “Best part is, that isn’t even the freakiest muenster I’ve dealt with in the last twenty-four hours. Let alone the last couple days! You’ve gotta be a special kind of crazy to put up with this whole hero business.”

Ichiban winced. “Yeah…I do wanna help out. Maybe even become a real hero. But I’ve gotta…work myself up to it, you know? And besides.” He jabbed a thumb back at the tower behind him. “I’m worried about Omori. Poor kid’s even more out of his element than me! So I was thinking I’d take him back to Home of Tears. The people there must’ve calmed down by now, right? I’ve got some friends there, too.” His face turned to one of determination. “But I know what’s at stake. Once I’m ready, I’ll find you guys and join the team for real. A real hero!”

The irony of someone looking up to her as a hero made Nadia want to laugh. Even as she approached a full week with the Seekers, with one slain Guardian under her belt, she still didn’t feel like one. Nor did she suspect that she ever would be; it just wasn’t who she was. Like many of the others, she suspected, the feral’s plan boiled down to ‘fake it ‘til you make it’. But she didn’t actually want to goad Ichiban into staying, so instead of her true feelings Nadia gave him a big smile and a thumbs up. “Sounds like a plan! You take care of whatever ya need to, Ich. We’ll keep on truckin’.”

Once the two bid farewell, Nadia jogged over to the giant dandelion. She crouched down, pressurized her blood, and launched into the air, not to seize a dandelion sprig to act as a parasol, but to grab hold of the little dangling legs of a Morbula Cave Angel. The alien creature gave a squealing noise like air escaping from a balloon, no doubt thanks to the downside of her Massachusetts Fusion, but despite its cat-eared cargo the living hang glider remained aloft–it just wouldn’t be able to ascend. That worked just fine for Nadia though, and with a huge grin on her face she glided down through the immense cavern, yowling in exhilaration. By tugging on one of the legs she found she could steer the Cave Angel in her desired direction, so she swooped and banked around to her heart’s content, her tails streaming behind her.

On the way down through the Forgotten Lands, she got a good look at the sprawling ruined city far below. Nestled within the rocks at the bottom of the cavern lay what remained of the Termite Capitol, Holograd. Very irregular in layout, its jagged roadways and clustered city blocks sculpted around its stony surroundings, the city boasted a distinctive architectural style of reddish stone, replete with arches and grand domed roofs, no two exactly alike. In its heyday the place would have been a sight to behold, but true to Barnabee’s story of sudden and utter calamity, the Termite Capitol lay in a state of pitiable ruin. Virtually all of the domed roofs had caved in, many buildings had been reduced to rubble, and everything of value had been looted, leaving the place a picked-over corpse. Worst of all, many of the streets and even the buildings themselves lay caked in foul-looking tar, pitch-black but alight with an evil red glow from within. From that sinister morass sprouted tendrils tipped with clawed, inhuman hands, the baleful light of their freaky palm-eyes visible even from up here. Nadia’s lip curled reflexively. That had to be the ‘fetid mire’ Barnabee mentioned.

Still, signs of life remained. Nadia’s keen eyes glimpsed a couple odd, stone-bearing specters both big and small haunting Holograd’s dark recesses. Within toxic purple webs lurked pairs of steely spiders adorned with death masks, sometimes headed by one crowned in bygone glory. Though the crumbling vestiges of forgotten dynasties trundled troops of hunchbacked claymen, the spears that they used to scratch and dig at the dirt tipped with fragments of glinting meteorite. Parasitic Hoppers, their bellies full of stolen fluids, obliviously bounded along the streets with their proboscises swinging. However, the ink-black, mostly-docile mothflies seemed to be the most ubiquitous, sometimes so much so that they formed huge clusters that blocked off a lot of doorways and windows, though they also seemed to form bridges where the originals had fallen into the gloom-filled gorge that ran through the town.

Nadia’s lofty viewpoint also gave her a look at a few points of interest. Most prominent was the destroyed Holograd Castle, surrounded by giant green-tinged shards from what had once been enormous glass windows, possibly the site of the desperate last stand of the city’s royalty against the despot Barnabee mentioned. If anywhere in the Termite Capitol had quality loot to offer the Seekers, it would probably be there, though any leftover traces of that legendary destructor might be, too. Off to one side stood a domed arboretum with a huge tree growing from the holes in its ceiling and roots reaching outward from its front door like twisted fangs. At the city’s opposite edge stood a ruined colosseum, its walls slick with corruption, and for a moment Nadia thought she spotted something big in there. One eatery called ‘DineMite’ seemed relatively intact, even if the bomb shop next to it had evidently exploded at some point, and not far from there, on the other side of a ransacked marketplace, stood the wreckage of an inn with burnt-out neon lights that labeled it the Dome Hotel. Faint, almost completely unintelligible music filtered through the forlorn streets from Falldown Mall.

After that though, Nadia needed to focus on landing. Those who went down before her had congregated at a misty clearing on the city’s outskirts that sat at the very base of the stony Kingdom’s Edge. A river flowed behind it and promptly dropped away in a large waterfall, and when the feral glanced down into the gorge, she found not more gloom but a whole ramshackle shantytown on the walls, built by the survivors who fled their home’s destruction and returned at a later date. With just one hut and no visible enemies, the clearing looked like as good a spot as any, so Nadia steered her Cave Angel there. She swooped down to the clearing and let go of her makeshift hang glider, and after landing amongst her allies she looked up to watch the critter flap its wings and fly away.

Nadia crossed her arms and looked at the others, starting with Sectonia, who asked a question and then followed up with a statement the cat burglar didn’t understand in the slightest. “Huh?” Unbeknownst to her, the group had amassed four mask fragments so far: one from Silitha the Brood Mother, one from It Lives, one from Asgore, and one from Pizza Head. Four down, five to go, according to those who’d been to the Black Egg in person.

“Guess we gotta keep our eyes out for anythin’ that looks like a big, bad boss,” Nadia observed, reusing the memorable words uttered by Consul F last night.

“I can think of neither bigger nor badder than the usurper to Her Majesty Queen Vespa’s throne!” Barnabee exclaimed. “And should thee agree, thy objective is not so far away. Forsooth, it lay beneath thy very feet! Oh, to feel mine homeland within arm’s reach, so near and yet so far! How I’ve longed to taste of its sweet vapors once more…”

Nadia scratched her head. “We’d ‘bee’ able to taste them faster if we knew the way down. Do you remember the route you used to escape in the first place?”

The Hive Knight’s face fell. “Pray forgive me. I know not the exact location. Only that, in my flight from the usurper’s legions, I fled through tunnels of strange, virulent roots wont to regrow with such speed that only this fanged blade of mine could carve a path. I could not tarry long enough to memorize the spot.” He turned to stare at Holograd. “I am certain twas within the city bounds, however. I have no doubt thy heroic company will discover the path erelong.”

With that, the team’s mission was more or less clear: head into the Termite Capitol and explore its points of interest until someone found a way down into the Hive.

World of Light

Vandelay Campus - Production

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Level 5 Goldlewis (76/50)
Roland’s @Archmage MC, Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Goldlewis Dickinson
Word Count: 765

A massive crash the trio of Seekers plowed through the glass front of the Production head office with Goldlewis and his coffin in the lead. He, Roland, and Partitio slid to a stop amidst the shattered glass, leaving behind the jump pad they’d forcibly twisted to point in the right direction from the cooling center’s upper balcony, and looked around. The interior of the Production center’s pinnacle turned out to be quite futuristic, full of hexes and glowing lights around the spot where the Seekers landed. There even seemed to be a technological throne up here, floating off the ground with the help of anti-gravity. When he turned his attention down the stairs, though, the top floor’s design took quite a turn. Most of it appeared to be a big, empty square that this section with the throne looked over, almost like a colosseum arrayed before an emperor’s personal viewing box. Of course, he couldn’t miss the huge woman standing in the way, either, whose back had been turned to the windows until their sudden destruction caused her to whirl around.

This must be Rekka, Goldlewis knew. Though her reputation preceded her, seeing her in person was something else. Her bulging white collared shirt, little round glasses, and loose red-and-yellow striped tie were the only pretenses she bothered making about being an office worker, and even then she wore a sleeveless red longcoat with giant zippers over it. Her ostentatiously-patterned gloves and pants, her lace-up boots with red steel toes, and her giant golden belt harkened to her true calling: wrestling. In her voluminous side-swept hairdo were spiky, colorful streaks in red, yellow, and white, and little fangs visibly poked upward from her lower jaw. Most incredible were her height and brawn, very comparable to Goldlewis himself, but having already removed her gloves he could also see her enormous mechanical forearms. With those added on, she looked even less like a wrestling businesswoman and more like a gargantuan grappler. “HEY!” she exclaimed in a thick Texan accent. “The hell’d you do that for, you lookin’ to throw down, too?”

“Now, hold your horses, ma’am,” Goldlewis told her, holding out his hand. “Couldn’t ya give us a chance to talk things through?”

“Well now, ain’t this somethin’! Another big ol’ southerner!” Down in the middle of the arena stood Sundowner, just as big and bald-headed as the veteran remembered him from last night. He shared his grin between Goldlewis and Rekka. “Welcome to the dance floor, partner. Me an’ this belle were just about to have ourselves a good old-fashioned hoedown, heheh.”

Rekka sneered. “I ain’t one much for dancin’, but if you wanna couple tickets to the gunshow.” She flexed her arms, bursting out of her sleeves. “I’m more’n happy to oblige!”

Goldlewis only gave the two a stern glare in reply. “Southerners we might be, but if even half the stuff I’ve been hearin’ about your companies is true, you brutes ain’t any kinfolk of mine.”

Sundowner laughed. “Hah! You sure you’re up for this, old-timer? Ah, well.” As Goldlewis watched DespoRHado’s leader grabbed and ripped off his enormous trench coat. Beneath lay a hulking cyborg mass of black armor, red lights, and little gray plates almost like scale mail, all overlaid by another coat, this one of sleek white atop gray hexes. His forearms in particular bulged with heavy white braces that glowed with blue light, and when his black mask extended around his mouth, white clasps also closed around his eyes like goggles. Out from behind him unfolded six red-and-black plates on mechanical arms for even more protection, creating an formidable powerhouse somewhere between scourge of the south and titan of the north. Laughing, he drew two gigantic machetes, one in each hand. “The more the merrier!”

“You’d do well to address me as ‘sir’,” Goldlewis snapped at him, hoisting up his coffin. “And this ain’t my first rodeo, hoss.”

“Finally ready to CRUMBLE?” Rekka leaped from the raised section, sailed over Sundowner’s head, and came down on his other side with a superslam. Then she turned and pounded her fists together. BANG_BANG. “Then let’s GET IT ON!”

Without hesitating Goldlewis jumped down. He’d come here expecting a fight, but now this was personal.

Vandelay Campus - Research and Development

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Geralt’s @Multi_Media_Man, Tora, Sandalphon
Word Count: 1391 (+3)

Macaron mulled over Sandalphon’s words as the team jogged up through the server room’s spiral staircase. “Huh, so you’re essentially working to reform DespoRHado from the inside?”

“Essentially,” the archangel replied, conversing second-hand with the engineer through the communication glyph still affixed to Midna. “I have no personal or idealistic stake in the PMC itself, nor any connections with its major shareholder, Senator Armstrong. With the exception of Khamsin, who is more of an upjumped grunt, and Samuel Rodriguez, who joined due to his belief that ‘the victor is justified’, the Winds of Destruction form a tight-knit group. The rest of the organization is merely a tool, including myself. I believe they think I am merely a high-functioning machine myself, which is not the case, as my somewhat stoic manner might imply.”

Sandalphon went quiet for a moment, switching to another team’s line to give them some advice before switching back. “Despite my purely functional role in the organization, I recognized that the sheer amount of resources at its disposal means that it could achieve great things for Midgar and its people if it were more intelligently, morally, and efficiently managed. That is why I concocted this scheme to slowly shift the balance of DespoRHado from cyborgs, whose enlistment involves a great deal of cruelty, to androids, as well as to slowly assume more power and authority. Shortcut, on your right.” She paused again to speak with another team, during which time the Seekers used her shortcut to exit the server room and enter one last testing chamber. “I did by working harder and for longer hours until the easiest option for them was to simply give me as much responsibility as they could. I also overemphasized the threat Vandelay posed to DespoRHado, though, hoping for an opportunity just like this to expedite my plans.”

“Pretty smart,” Macaron mused. “Y’know, we’re a lot alike, I think. Both stuck with a job in a terrible company that we know could be so much better. At least you had the wherewithal to take action.”

“It’s never too late to begin,” CNMN pointed out. As the team stopped in front of one of the walls, the robot knocked on it with his fist. “And you can start with this wall, sir. According to the schematics I dug up, Zanzo’s personal laboratory should be just on the other side.”

Macaron nodded, filled with determination. “I’m on it!” He got ready, flexing his fast, and punched. “HM!”

He, Geralt, Midna, Tora, Mayer, her Robotters, and Clara all burst into a big metallic room, warmly lit by the glow of the facility’s power-sustaining magma core behind the glass on the other side. The sudden, tremendous noise and commotion came so unexpectedly that Zanzo, standing in front of the glass, instinctively adopted an exaggerated pose of surprise before course-correcting into a more normal one. ‘Normal’, of course, being relative for a man such as he. Clad in a sleeveless lab coat lined with gold and crowned by an absurd circular collar, he boasted arms and legs of shiny blue metal and a hairdo almost as wild as the look on his face. The cord connected to his head, vibrant green like his mohawk and goatee, thrashed around like spider legs as he gesticulated.

“So you’ve finally found me, DespoRHado dogs!” he exclaimed. “Well, you may have made it here, but here’s where your merry little journey…wait.” He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not the ones who’ve been tearing up my labs!

Tora laughed nervously. “Uh, yes, that not us in slightest, meh…”

“Well then, who in the world are-” Zanzo blinked as he recognized Macaron, even if only just. “...Oh, you! I was meaning to send you an email or something, but this works, too. So listen, even though I pulled money from the employee bonuses to help fund my latest AWESOME idea, it wasn’t enough, so I’m gonna need you to-”

“You did WHAT!?” Macaron clapped both massive hands to his head in dismay, just about falling over.

Zanzo raised an eyebrow. “What’s the matter, you feeling alright? Just so you know, sick days need to be submitted four months in advance. Ah, we’ll talk later. As for you…” He squinted at Mayer, clearly not remembering her in the slightest. “Uhh…keep up the good work with your, uh, ferrets or whatever.”

Mayer crossed her arms, a little offended. “They’re clearly otters, my guy.”

“I said ‘or whatever’, didn’t I?” Zanzo rolled his eyes indignantly, which happened to land on Clara. “Wait, what’re you doing here?”

“Um, I work here?” Clara scratched her head nervously. “A-actually, Mr. Zanzo, I was hoping to talk to you about these things I heard about called ‘child labor laws’...?”

The green-haired inventor groaned. “Ugh, for the last time, you don’t technically work here if I don’t pay you!” He shook his head. “The bottom line is, where’s Mon-”

For the second time Zanzo got interrupted, this time by a giant blue HG-0M unit smashing through a different wall. It slumped down in the debris, offline, and from the hole leading to the AR labs stepped a lone figure. He possessed an almost completely cybernetic body, its exterior black with a slight bluish tinge, painted in DespoRHado red but with glowing green rings on them, three on each bicep and thigh, one on each forearm and calf, and two in an X on his chest. Around his waist hung a belt with two huge sais in the back beneath two sheathed katanas, and on his thighs lay knife racks. His only visible skin was his lower face, since a rounded module with three vertical green lines covered the rest, and a mix of black an white hair spilled out from the back. Part vicious nihilist and part enigmatic swordsman, he climbed down the HG-0M unit and slowly approached the others.

Though surprised once again, Zanzo recovered quickly. “...So you’ve finally found me, DespoRHado dogs!” he exclaimed. “Or…dog!”

“I am Monsoon of the Winds of Destruction,” the newcomer declared, his voice coarse and snakelike. “I learned long ago that this world, and all its people are diseased. And yet I’m always finding greater depths to which they can sink.” He glanced at the Seekers, frowning, then back at his primary target. “Zanzo…feasting on the weak and powerless, feeding them in droves to your machine of development without a shred of remorse. At least you’ll be able to die,” He drew his sais, spinning them slowly in his hands. “With a clear conscience.”

Zanzo posed with one hand covering his face. “Spoken like a true lackey. A measly little footsoldier like you couldn’t possibly understand what it takes to be a genius!”

Monsoon smirked. “Now there’s a pretty meme. Exquisite!”

“Besides,” Zanzo continued, “Who’s to say I’ll be the one biting the dust? I can stand up for myself, you know…” Robotic outlines began to appear around him: a lithe sharpshooter, an airborne medic, a massive obstacle, and a deadly warrior. Tora blinked in surprise at what looked disturbingly like Strikers, wondering if the Seekers didn’t have these two that outnumbered after all. As Zanzo’s shoulders shook with laughter, they formed up around him, striking a dynamic group pose. “So if anyone’s dying,” Zanzo declared, dramatically pointing right at Monsoon. “It’s YOU!”

“Looks like we’re doing this!” Mayer declared cheerfully. Her Robotters tensed up, ready for action, and she raised her Short Circuit. “Good luck everyone~”

“Ohh, man,” Macaron moaned, reluctantly raising his fists. Tora readied his hammer and shield as well, saying nothing. As much as he wished that Poppi was here, he knew he should save the pining for later. For now, it was time to fight.

Monsoon turned up his nose. “The wind blows. The rain falls. And the strong…” He brought his facemask down to cover his lower jaw, his sais held tight. “Prey upon the weak.”

Vandelay Campus - Security

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Pit’s @Yankee, Benedict’s @Dark Cloud, Giovanna, Sandalphon
Word Count: 1569 (+3)

For once, no complications arose to make the Seekers’ commute any more difficult, so they arrived at Security Wing 2 with no issue. The L.I.F.T. came to a safe stop at the platform and the team disembarked promptly. That vehicle would be going no farther, however, as Giovanna could see the wreckage of another L.I.F.T. on the tracks ahead. When she and the others advanced across the station toward the security tower proper, they found the smoldering, smoking wreckage of many Vandelay robots, be they armed combat bots like SBRs or harmless workers like TECs, PGRs, or VA-SERs. The handful of dead cyborgs and androids left no doubt as to what happened here. “Looks like the DespoRHado crew made quite an entrance,’ Giovanna remarked.

As he ran patch the scrap, Chai gave it a good look. “It’s weird not having to do a fight myself for once.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching him, though.

“Just get to the door. I’ll hack it open, and we’ll make our way…” When 808 and the others got closer, Peppermint saw that the console had already been smashed and the doors frozen solid, then smashed open wide enough to admit someone -or several someones- inside. “...through.”

Giovanna spotted movement through the opening. Down the hallway, what looked like a figure in a tan trench coat and hat ducked around a corner, disappearing from view. She launched into action and ran after it, barely stopping to squeeze through the gap. “C’mon!”

After a few twists and turns through the halls, encountering no enemies but never quite escaping that sensation of being watched, the Seekers reached the interior of Security Wing 2, emerging onto a semicircular balcony. Within the tower itself lay a massive cylindrical space, dimly lit, with columns of green code flowing up and down the black sections of the walls. If Giovanna had to pick any one detail that she liked the most, though, she had to go with the tower’s rotating central pillar and the utterly absurd number of eye-searingly bright red lasers projected outward from it.

Both Chai and 808 shared an expression of terrified shock, and Giovanna was only marginally better at hiding hers. “You’ve gotta be kidding,” she complained. “This is serious overkill.”

“Korsica’s office is at the very top,” Sandalphon informed everyone, displaying a readout of the tower’s interior. “There’s a way, but you’ll have to contend with those lasers, as well as any resistance on the way up.”

808 locked onto a disc-shaped lift directly ahead of the team. “Well, what about that?” Peppermint asked. When Chai walked over, the cat-orb popped out into the shape of an actual cat, and laid its paw on the control mechanism. “...Looks like it’s still operational.”

“It better be, dude!” A TEC unit that had been sitting out of sight by the door piped up. “Korsica disabled elevator access to keep that weird chick from gettin’ up to her, but she, like, found a way anyway. Just about fried my circuits gettin’ it working again, man.”

Giovanna gave a wry smile. “Wow, is getting somewhere gonna be simple for once?”

As if on cue, the Seekers suddenly became aware of movement on all sides. Over the edge of the balcony clambered at least a dozen strange black robots, their red-eyed pods ringed by three very humanoid arms apiece. There came a sound behind them as the trench-coated figure dropped down behind them on bizarre hand-legs, its head lolling weirdly, before it cast aside its coat to reveal three more Dwarf Gekkos stacked on top of one another. Four others formed up into pairs as the DespoRHado drones spread out to surround the team.

“Aw, man. People really have to stop saying stuff like that,” Chai groaned.

“Everyone, on the lift!” Sandalphon urged them, her tone as imperative as it gets.

The team made a mad dash for the elevator, shooting, slicing, and kicking Dwarf Gekkos on the way. Right after Benedict hobbled aboard, 808 slammed a paw down on the controls, and the floor began to rise. It quickly peeled away from the tower entrance, and though a few pesky Gekkos clung on, most of them got left behind. Gio kicked one of the little UGs off like a soccer ball, and Chai happily took care of the rest in a quick game of whack-a-mole. Their ride carried the Seekers swiftly and safely past the huge laser grids, and in no time the elevator came to rest snugly inside a ring-shaped platform directly in front of a set of locked doors, with just the label that everyone wanted to see. They also saw that a nearby vent, and a needlessly large one at that, had been ripped off its hinges. “Mistral made quite the entrance. That’ll be your ticket in, too.”

This was it, the point of no return. If anyone had preparations to make, they had to make them now, and if anyone couldn’t make the jump over to the vent, they simply wouldn’t make it. Chai downed a small, bright green energy drink and rolled his shoulders. “Alright, everyone ready to rock?”

He grappled to the vent, and Giovanna followed him with a jump, airdash, and triple flying kick to close the gap. Soon she was sprinting after him beneath grates and jumping over pipes. “Remember, we need Korsica’s cooperation,” Peppermint reminded Chai as the team went along. “There’s no other way to get her SPECTRA password.”

Her reminder threatened his composure. “You keep telling me that, but we still don’t have a plan! What am I doing?”

Peppermint’s reply sounded less than confident. “...You’re gonna have to wing it, and…talk to her.”

“Remember the last time I tried to talk it out? Didn’t end well,” Chai muttered.

“What’s all this, now?” Giovanna commented. “You guys wanna try reasoning with a Vandelay boss?”

“Well, Korsica’s pretty reasonable. I don’t think she’s totally bought into what Vandelay’s doing. In fact, I think they’re keeping her in the dark,” Peppermint replied.

Sandalphon put Korsica’s file on display for Gio to see. “Level-headed, hard-working, responsible, no sense of humor. Prizes efficiency. All the qualities of an ideal boss. Compared to the caricatures rounding out Vandelay’s roster of bosses, she seems rather normal. It may be possible to communicate with her if you can keep Mistral from killing her.”

Giovanna pursed her lips. “I’ll keep that in mind.” A moment later, everyone came to a giant hole in the bottom of the vent. The voices of two women could be heard below, one with a Scottish accent, the other mostly French, albeit tinged by something else Gio couldn’t quite place. Without any hesitation Chai dropped down, and Gio followed right after him. They dropped down into a clean white room full of security screens, adjoining offices, and elevated sections, with a large glass circle in the center over machinery and ringed by blue light.

She also spotted the VIPS. Korsica was a tall woman in her early thirties, with poofy spikes of fuchsia hair done up in a ponytail, a red jacket with rolled-up sleeves and a big yellow collar over a white turtleneck, jean shorts, black tights, and white boots. Built into her attire were a number of segments of sleek, blue-accented white armor of an unknown, possible alien material, most notably her shoulder pads, her gauntlets, and the almost beak-like visor she wore like a baseball cap. She looked somewhere between a consummate professional and a graceful destructor. Opposite her stood Mistral in a tight, high tech suit, half black with vivid red DespoRHado branding and half white with bright blue tech lines, though the port-covered apparatus around her neck and back was all black. The vermillion hair that lay over one eye grew straighter and blonder the longer it got, fanning out in the back to reach her waist. Around her danced a pack of Dwarf Gekkos. Though by all accounts a purposeless killer, her appearance also evoked an icy secret agent.

“Great, more intruders,” Korsica groaned. “Like this wasn’t enough of a mess to begin with.”

Mistral smirked. “Our little chat was just about done with, anyway.”

“...Quite.”

“Wait, we’re fighting already!?” Chai exclaimed in dismay.

Both women moved at once. Mistral’s Dwarf Gekkos swarmed her in a massive dogpile, pulling off their own arms to jam them into the ports in her harness. Korsica drew her collapsed batons and leaped into the air to extend them, striking a pose surrounded by lightning. As she landed the Gekko cores rained down around Mistral, their arms both attached to her body and formed into a pole. With a smile the killer plucked a throwing knife from her leg brace and passed around the arms until one in her weapon took it and held it straight, creating a spear. Chai assembled his guitar, assuming a defensive posture, and Rei swirled behind Gio as she prepared to fight.

Vandelay Campus - Finance

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Blazermate’s @Archmage MC, Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Sandalphon
Word Count: 751 (+2)

Moving quickly, the Seekers left the well-decorated overlook behind. At the end of the hallway they emerged into a huge office decked out even more lavishly than the entryway, with fancy light fixtures, enormous framed panels around Japanese text, giant scrolling stock price tickers, and two rows of samurai-themed WA-ES units in display cases. At least, that had been the case before Khamsin arrived to carve a warpath across the room, awakening every single WA-ES in the process. Once inadvertently broken out they fought back against the marauding mech, a couple at a time doing dash-slashes past Khamsin while the rest shot sword waves from a distance. Though much less powerful and durable than the intruder, they made Khamsin work for it, and by the time his enormous axe ground the last one to scrap metal the soldier ended up a little short on breath.

“Looks like you made it,” Sandalphon observed. “Good thing Roquefort had some extra security on hand to slow Khamsin down. Be advised, I don’t have a lot of data on him. Just a general bad reputation. Smart, but short tempered, very money-minded. Described as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. I wouldn’t underestimate him.”

“Hah!” Khamsin laughed, stomping through the mess toward the desk on the far side. Blazermate remembered Khamsin’s war machine well from their encounter in Detroit: a an engine of destruction blended with a bovine titan, every bit as imposing as it was enormous. “How’d you like that, little man? Looks like your last line of defense just broke down. Now all you got left is last words!”

The man seated behind the desk in front of him curled his lip. Though short, stout, bearded, and balding, something about the white-haired Roquefort seemed off. Maybe it was how he just sat there as a walking tank with a rocket-propelled chainsaw axe wreaked havoc in his expensive office, or the strange blue glow in his eyes behind Galeem’s glaze of red, or the bright pink tie worn just low enough to expose some chest hair. His slacks and suit vest were an odd mix of purple and peach, with a fancy cape thrown over his shoulder, lending him the semblance of an ominous dandy. “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” he told Khamsin, his voice a grouchy British growl. “It’d be a waste of time telling you, though. And do you know what time is? MONEY! And I’m not about to waste any more of that.”

With a last massive footfall the mech stopped in front of Roquefort’s desk. “I’m gonna waste you,” he declared, revving his axe like a motorcycle.

“Well then. You’ll have to tell me how it feels…” The glorified accountant slowly stood. “To underestimate someone.”

Roquefort jumped on top of his desk and, much to everyone’s surprise, howled. As his voice echoed through the chamber, a third of his personal shields discharged, slamming into Khamsin and inflicting him with paralysis. Then he began to transform. His mechanical body began to open up and reconfigure, his limbs lengthening dramatically as extra armor swiveled and clicked into place. Blue energy claws flared from new digitigrade legs and powerful arms, and as Roquefort smirked, armor closed around his upper body to form the torso of what could only be described as a giant wolf, tail and all. A mass of parts deployed upward and settled into the shape of a head, ears and fangs extending. Plates of purple and gray settled over a mesh of artificial sinew, orange with teal and white wires, and gray armguards plus a matching collar settled into place. Taking control of the exoskeleton, Roquefort turned his face, half-masked in teal plate, upward. An ear-rattling howl resounded from the mechanical intersection of apex predator and unchained berserker.

“That explains that expression I mentioned earlier,” Sandalphon mentioned idly. “This may be somewhat difficult.”

“Shit!” Khamsin yelled as he got his mech under control, stumbling backward. Roquefort now stood as tall as he did, if not taller. He barely brought up his axe in time to block before his opponent swiped him with a massive claw and sent him skidding backward with a chuckle. Inside his cockpit, Khamsin gritted his teeth. “Laugh while you can, freak! I’ll be picking that ugly mug out of my chainsaw’s teeth!”

“Talk is cheap, jarhead,” Roquefort leered at him. “Put your money where your mouth is!”

Vandelay Campus - Signal Tower

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Raz’s @Truthhurts22, Roxas’ @Double, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Sandalphon
Word Count: 1012 (+2)

After Sakura’s question about Strikers, the short ride up to the Signal Tower’s actual entrance grew quiet. The young Seekers weren’t anxious to broach conversation with this dangerous, self-assured stranger. Sandalphon, meanwhile, stood in the safety and privacy of her control center aboard the DespoRHado dropship back at Circuit Royal, with 2B and 9S newly returned from their flight mission for extra protection. In addition to keeping track of the other four missions on top of this one, including both their statuses and any conversations going on in her glyph’s vicinity, she’d continue to provide assistance to DespoRHado itself. The PMC’s cyborgs might not enjoy the archangel hovering over them, so to speak, but the androids still needed her support. Even after withdrawing all the androids she possibly could to the dropship, that meant a lot of balls to keep in the air, even for a juggler of her caliber.

With a moment to breathe at least, she gulped down her newest coffee and set the empty cup by the standing desk alongside the others. While the press arrived a while ago, the authorities appeared alongside them. Both of those posed a huge problem. Regardless of this raid’s outcome, the optics would be bad, but the Winds of Destruction went ahead with it anyway. They probably reasoned that DespoRHado had the power to simply do what it wanted, but Sandalphon didn’t think so. Peace Preservation might be content with the perimeter they set up, but the moment any Scarlet Guardians or Turks arrived, she’d really need to worry. Assuming they hadn’t already. The PMC’s dropship wasn’t exactly subtle, either. Sandalphon sighed, rubbing her temples. After this operation, DespoRHado as Midgar knew it would cease to exist. If she could pick up the pieces like she planned, no trace of the private military company once known as Desperado Enforcement would exist. Only the android element, derived from YoRHa, and whatever Unmanned Gears could be retrofitted with android intelligence. It was all a lot to deal with. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone better to do it.

After another couple seconds of thought, Sandalphon opened the line to Roxas again. “Come in, Skywatch. I was hoping I could speak directly with Samuel Rodriguez.”

Back on the elevator, the swordsman lifted an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

Sandalphon’s voice replied from the glyph. “You strike me as somewhat different, so I wanted to ask. For what reason have you chosen to cast your lot in with DespoRHado?”

“Oh my, how intimate. Is this not out of line with your operating procedures, ‘Halo’?” Sam joked, smiling slyly. “Relax, I kid. I don’t mind answering, it’s quite simple, really.” He leaned on the elevator’s wall, his hand rested on his scabbard. “I once waged quite the war. A one-man army, you could see. Dedicated to the pursuit of what I believed to be justice. Killing people who needed to be killed. I never fooled myself into thinking I was a good man, but I hoped that by the time I finally died, I’d have made the world a better place.” Sam scratched his chin. “That changed when I met Armstrong. I finally lost. My life, my mission, were in another man’s hands. And I learned that in the end, only the victor can decide what’s right. The loser dies, his ideals along with him, and the victor goes on to make his ideals manifest. I don’t know what Vandelay wants or believes in, but if he dies by my blade, it’s all for nothing, isn’t it? And if I should fall, DespoRHado made a mistake challenging him.” He glanced around at Raz, Sakura, and Roxas. “Remember that, kids. If your ideals are worth anything, you’d better prove it. You’d better win.”

By that time, the elevator was slowing down, almost to the top. With Sam in earshot, Sandalphon kept quiet, and left the implication of the swordsman’s words implicit: that if he could be beaten, he could be swayed.”

With Sam moving quickly at the forefront, the team entered the Signal Tower. Contrary to the building’s lower levels, which were still under construction as the Seekers had seen, the interior looked pretty close to completion. All done up in dark gray with red highlights, it funnily enough matched DespoRHado’s barding better than Vandelay Technology’s, but at least it matched Kale himself.

“Took you long enough,” he complained to the newcomers, turning around to face them from where he stood by the giant SPECTRA control terminal. “I have to say, a corporate takeover wasn’t on my itinerary for today. Shinra really got you guys feeling insecure, huh?”

Sam shrugged, putting his hand on his sword. “Vandelay, DespoRHado. It was always going to come to this. Town’s not big enough for the two of us, as they say.”

In the ensuing lull in the conversation, Raz took his chance to speak up. "Vandelay! We know about your schemes, working with Konoe and Calvert! We don't want to hurt you, all we want is information. We can protect you from guys like him" He pointed at Sam, who pretended to look indignant. "If you help us back!"

Kale looked surprised. “Kids these days,” he complained. “Always getting into stuff they shouldn’t. Well, let’s get this over with.” With a sigh, he threw off his suit and coat, revealing a sleek dark gray cyborg body with red accents, swathes of light gray and a bright blue reactor in his chest. He raised his hand to shoot a hilt from his wrist, and when he caught it a crossguard extended to protect his hand while a blue beam sword blazed from its end. “Loose lips sink ships, after all.” Then a gray mask assembled on his face, bearing a single blunt horn on his forehead and no other features but a jagged grin, completing the parallels with a peerless swordsman

“Hah! I’ll take this dance!” Narrowing his eyes, Sam drew his katana and dropped into a half-crouched stance, ready for action.

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (234/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2041

The slugfest with Pizza Head’s latest lackeys kicked off right away, and though action in the corner of her eyes told Nadia that her friends were busy lending a hand, at the moment she couldn’t afford to pay any attention to anyone’s fight but her own. In short order the very average-sized catgirl found herself staring down all three beady-eyed, slavering heads of an obscenely Big Dog all on her lonesome. They all seemed to want a piece of her, and as the monster plodded its ungainly, tumorous mass toward her the metal of its big, digger-like lower jaws jostled against one another to create a hair-raising chorus of loud clangs. Nadia grimaced. “Maybe we could talk about this?” she suggested. “Don’t wanna bark up the wrong three…”

In response Big Dog began to spin, instantly picking up enough speed to become a top-heavy gray and yellow tornado. “Oh boy.” Nadia crouched down to spring, ready if the cyclone stormed her way, but instead the monster let fly out a barrage of slow red projectiles. Though they moved at a leisurely pace, Big Dog belted out six at a time with enough spread to make their paths unpredictable, and they quickly began to pollute the air. The feral quickly backed up to the point where the shots could be dodged more easily, but at this distance, just a foot away from the rooftop arena’s edge, she couldn’t launch any attacks of her own. Well, except one. Nadia closed one eye and took aim with her bait launcher, patiently dodging a couple orbs until she got a clean shot. “Nice to ‘meat’ you!” Grinning, she pulled the trigger and slapped Big Dog right in the kisser with a succulent slab of raw meat. It did no damage, but it did distract the mammoth mutt, which stopped spinning to snap the sneak up. Nadia laughed aloud when its three sets of eyes bugged out at the sight of the burly tiger that manifested in front of it. As her summon savaged the beast with its claws, shattering one of its eight dog-head icons, Nadia dashed across the tower to take the fight to her target.

To her surprise, her tiger vanished sooner than expected, and it left Big Dog behind in much better shape than the feral would’ve hoped. Just how beefy was this thing? Without giving Nadia the courtesy of an answer, Big Dog started doling out missiles instead. It fired off three at a time in rapid succession, forcing Nadia to take evasive action as she made her approach. “Where the hell are these coming from!?” Exploiting the gaps, she managed to close the distance until she opted to cover the final stretch with a jump into blood-propelled airdash. A missile to the shoulder cut her flight short, demolished one of her eight bell icons, and sent her sprawling in a burst of smoke and flame. It also hurt a whole lot, and Nadia’s vision swam as she tried to spring back to her feet. “Ow, ow, jeez,” she groaned, her hand on her shoulder. After blinking she noticed her body flashing still, which baffled and distracted her long enough that she only noticed another missile headed her way in time to block. Unfortunately for her, the chip damage chopped off another eighth of her lift, leaving her with just seventy-five percent left. “Nyaaagh!” she yowled, only barely staying on her feet. Those flashes happened again, but Nadia also realized something that worried her way more: her new wounds weren’t healing.

A chill shot down her spine as her gaze returned to Big Dog, already sending more missiles on their way. Filled with panic, Nadia dodged like her life depended on it, sprinting on all fours in a wide arc around her foe despite how close it put her to another fight. This was bad. Very bad. Her regeneration was everything to her, and if she couldn’t take hits like a champ, this could go south real fast. The Koopas’ brawl with Grovetender ended up cutting her off, forcing her to take her beast head-on. With no other option she charged toward it, narrowly avoiding its missiles, then went low to slide beneath its massive body and out the other side. On the way she dug her claws in, slicing into its belly, though it didn’t seem like the cuts did any damage when the monster’s body started to flash. Pained and confused, Big Dog started up another projectile spin, and a similarly confused Nadia ended up leaping to one of the tower’s decorative pillars to take shelter behind it, her claws embedded into the solid rock above a long fall. Though Big Dog pounded the stone with its artillery, the stone held for now, and the feral tried to calm the manic beating of her heart. “Holy moly,” she gasped. “Wh…why ya gotta treat me so ruff?”

After a few seconds she leaned out from behind her cover and launched another steak, then ducked back into safety. Big Dog naturally tried to fight its vicious assailant the moment it poofed into being, but its jaws found no purchase and its heads took a heavy slash in return. On contact another dog-head icon broke apart, leaving five, but that weird blinking prevented any extra damage. Nadia watched the whole thing, her mind racing. “Those things above our heads…” It appeared to Nadia like that reality-warping Pizza Head cast some sort of spell that redefined the rules of engagement, changing how the bodies of both Seekers and monsters reacted to injury. Now, instead of damage, it seemed to be all about hits. As she processed this, hindered by Big Dog as it resumed its steady destruction of her cover, a smile slowly spread across her face. This wasn’t the end of the world, not in the slightest. Raw damage was never Nadia’s strong suit; meanwhile, landing hits might as well be her speciality.

Newly fortified, she peeked out from behind the pillar and maneuvered her way to the most damaged part of its front. “Hey, ugly!” she yelled. “You got a face only a mutt-er could love!” Big Dog grunted and fired off another trio of missiles, and as Nadia scurried out of the way, they hit the perfect spot to blow enough from the pillar’s foundation to send it crumbling down. It fell toward the wide-eyed monster and smashed down on top of it with a prodigious crash, though that still only amounted to one hit. With a groan Big Dog shook its heads to get the stars out of its eyes, only to see Nadia sprinting its way. As she jumped into the air again more missiles rose up to greet her, but this time the feral used Charge to zip forward as a bolt of lightning, both threading the needle to zap Big Dog before she reformed behind him. “Watts up, dog?” She laughed and sprang into the air as the beast whirled around, landing with a graceful backflip on its shoulders a moment after its heavy jaws smashed the ground.

“Here’s a head-up for ya!” While Big Dog looked around, confused, Nadia extended her arms and looped them around its left and right heads. “No need to thank me, it’s the leashed I can do!” Big Dog bucked like a wild bronco, slammed its head, and even tried spinning, but even that good trick couldn’t dislodge her. “Get along, li’l doggy!” From on top of the beast Nadia could literally ride out its invincibility slashes, then jump up and stomp in its middle head the moment it became vulnerable. Six, seven! On the cusp of her victory, however, Big Dog wised up and shot Nadia in the back with missiles to knock her off, forcing her to retract her arms blearily. “Me-owch. Whoa!” The desperate monster reared up to come down on her with its jaws, and she scrambled to avoid its smashes. On the third smash, however, something occurred. She had way more hits left than Big Dog, so why bother? That very instant she fired off her heaviest Fiber Upper. “Nothing pupper-sonal!” The two blows traded, leaving Nadia at half and Big Dog at nothing. With a roar the monster died, pitching over onto the arena to slowly dissolve into ash. Nadia stood, breathing out a sigh of relief. At least her pain tolerance meant that she could live at half, provided no other nasty surprises came her way.

When she turned her attention to her fellow Seekers, she found the battle all but done. Bowser and his family had felled Grovetender, Artorias carved up the Dark Quartz Ogre, Rubick blindsided the Eyebrute, and the Octopath Travelers put an end to the Mawlek’s brooding. Everyone had survived, though the greater miracle was how none of the bosses’ stray projectiles hit Nadia’s allies in the middle of other fights. Nadia wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, however–she was too busy looking at Pizza Head as Ganondorf finally caught up to him. After Sectonia softened him up and Jesse put a whole lot of work in, the King of Evil cornered Pizza Head with his Strikers before swooping in to send him packing with a withering shadow blast.

“Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Pizza Head wailed as he flew straight up. Right away he slammed into the ceiling of Pizza Tower’s hollow, leaving a crack, and when he peeled off he fell right back down to smash head-first into the tower’s roof, embedding his noisome noggin in the masonry. Instantly the environment reverted to normal and the icons above everyone’s heads disappeared. Nadia gasped in relief as her healing started up again, almost teary-eyed.

Pizza Head did not dissolve, however. He just stayed there, stuck upside down, but from his pockets spilled a handful of goodies. Geo, pizza recipes, a few precious gems like rubies and topaz, and even a few glowing purple ingots. Finally, a porcelain-white mask fragment plopped down neatly on the stack of treasure. Nadia snatched up a few jewels practically before they hit the ground, which promptly disappeared into her pouches. Hitting Pizza Head more didn’t seem to have any effect, so after trying for about thirty seconds, Nadia gave up. “Well, got what we came for!” she beamed.

Results

Party: Ms Fortune, The Koopa Troop, Primrose and Therion, Sectonia, Jesse, Ganondorf, Rubick, Artorias
Encounter Reward: +13 EXP
Additional Reward: 2400 Geo, Neapolitan Pizza Recipe, Sicilian Pizza Recipe, Margherita Pizza Recipe, Caprese Pizza Recipe, Amber x 5 4, Opal x 4 2, Ruby x 2, Sapphire x 2, Diamond x 1, Eridium x 4, Big Dog spirit, Grovetender spirit, Dark Quartz Ogre spirit, Eyebrute spirit, Brooding Mawlek spirit, ⅓ Mask Fragment

Once everyone recovered from the ordeal, the team could move on. The operative question was ‘how’. After reuniting with Barnabee, who had evidently gotten dogpiled by cheeseslimes and then fallen off the tower during the boss fight’s first phase, he confirmed that his noble kingdom the Hive and its most glorious Majesty lay waiting beneath the floor of this very cavern. Nadia sat on the edge of the cliff and peered around the Forsaken Lands, wondering how the heck she’d make the descent. At the very bottom of the Forsaken Lands lay what looked like a sprawling ruined city, many parts of it immersed in a dark, dubious-looking substance. “Tis the once-proud Termite Capitol,” Barnabee explained. “Once the largest city in the whole Underground, it has since ceded that title to the Home of Tears, owing to the calamity that befell it.”

By looking upward Nadia eventually figured out that what looked by daylight actually seemed to be coming from a gigantic, incredibly bright root structure that grew from the ceiling, but that wouldn’t help. That incandescence gave rise to dandelions the size of trees that grew around the cavern like weeds, including a few by one side of this cliff. Gentle, three-eyed critters like alien manta rays, the cave angels seemed to like them, and when one happened to brush by a dandelion it sent cottony white tufts the size of umbrellas floating slowly to the cave floor. Nadia also spotted what looked like floating islands in the open air, some of which featured strange structures like a glassy globe pedestal, but there wasn’t anywhere near enough to jump between. More than likely she’d end up scrabbling down the cliff face between the various ledges despite the bloated Booflies that floated around down there, but that looked like a hassle. “Quite the conundrum,” the feral muttered, kicking her legs. To be honest, it was pretty nice just sitting here, relaxing and enjoying the marvelous view.

World of Light

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (221/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Ichiban’s @Truthhurts22, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 1851

With the tension that typically accompanied a boss fight thoroughly broken by a hearty round of laughter, jeers, and mockery, everyone was ready to get down to business. Pizza Face’s choice to start the fight by barfing out a bevy of minions sort of set the tone for the whole fracas, since any chance it had of being a serious trial by combat the instant Sectonia, Kamek (as well as Rubick by extension), and Junior summoned an absolute horde of underlings in reply, blanketing what had been an imposing arena with a throng of silly-looking critters slapping each other around.

Out of all the peons she only recognized the Water Workers, but if the rest were comparable in terms of strength, they’d be nothing to write home about either. The crowd sort of blocked Nadia, so rather than beeline straight for the big bad like usual, she hung back for a moment at the edge of the mook brawl, her bemused enjoyment writ plain on her face. Guess I can sit back and relax. Somehow, the goofiness of this throwdown felt oddly appropriate for the bizarre Pizza Tower’s climactic battle. The others -at least those with a shred of humor in their hearts- clearly felt it too. Artorias even took a moment to critique her mouthiness, and after dispatching an airborne refrigerator he followed up with something she didn’t quite understand. Huh? What does that have to do with anything? His crazed grin implied something funny, though, so she placated him with a tentative laugh. “Haha…yeah!” Satisfied, he ran off to join the fray, smashing through the melee two or even three minions at a time.

He wasn’t the only one, either; Ganondorf made his displeasure known through a remarkable display of violence, his frenzied bladework carving a trail of carnage across the arena, made all the more fearsome by Sectonia’s Haste. Ichiban joined the fray in slick new formal wear with an equally sophisticated-looking curved sword in hand, and Nadia’s surprise quickly turned to excitement. “Heck yeah, Ichi! Mess ‘em up! Just don’t cut the cheese!” Of course, by the time she said that, he’d already done it. “...Gouda grief.”

While some of the Seekers’ heaviest hitters pulverized the small fry, the others focused on Pizza Face himself. Artorias reached him first, and gave the greasy entity ample reason to stay as far off the ground as possible. Leveraging his brand-new boxing skills, the knight practically pounded the pizza’s face in. When the flurry ended the oversized pie quickly hovered out of range, his cheesy features covered with welts and bruises. He even had a black eye and bandages, somehow. Things didn’t go much better, though. While the steak Nadia fired from her Bait Launcher bounced off its head to splat down on the arena, where the tiger appeared with only minions within mauling distance, Bowser’s ‘projectile’ worked a lot better. Flung into the air by royal strength, Rika cleaved through Pizza face’s crust and a foot or two of cheese-topped red sauce better than any pizza cutter. She then redirected her aerial momentum with a burst of speed, latched on, and whipped all the way around to lay into the oven-baked boss with everything that cool-ass lance of hers had to offer. The impressive display ended with a perfect dismount that sent her right back to her new dad, and Nadia felt like clapping–she couldn’t have done better herself.

Of course, that was no reason not to try! When Therion and Primrose made their moves, so did she. Saving her boxcutters for later, Nadia charged into the chaos with her claws out. First up, a familiar Water Worker. It went down to a good old Cat Scratch rekka, sliced up by the first two hits and popped like a water balloon when she drove her hardened ears in. “Water you even doin’ here?” Two Forknights charged in, and she went low to trip one well before it reached her with a hyper-extended leg. “Armor, huh?” She turned into lightning blitzed through the other with Charge, electrocuting it. As she rematerialized behind it, she jammed her elbow into its back, then launched it overhead with Limber Up. “You’ve hel-met your match!” Her head blasted off to hit it mid-air, keeping it juggled long enough for Nadia to extend her arms, snatch it, and slam it headfirst into the floor. As the other Forknight tottered to its feet the feral grabbed it by the mouth and pulled the cheese-creature out of its armor, which clanked down on the ground. A Piglin squad bore down on her, and while she kicked her head into one to daze him the others managed to smack her. “Ow, hey!” In return she jammed the cheese-thing into one’s face like a cream pie, blinding it. “How’s that for head cheese?” She promptly took another swing to the shin. “Agh, you little stinker!” The next, however went over her head as she went low to take out their legs with Kitt n’ Spin. “Sorry, piggies…” She flipped into the air and hurled a Purrge of Vengeance straight down to blow away all three in a rippling eruption of pure Hydro. “This one’s a wash!”

A cheeseslime sludged toward her, but an upward claw slash unstuck it with a shlorp and she jammed her other hand straight into its face only to find that it wouldn’t come off. “Eugh. Stick around, why dontcha?” An idea struck her, and she lifted its gooey mass above her head. When span her arm up like a drill, the cheeseslime quickly flattened out and then flew apart, its globules scattered far and wide. “What a spread!”

By that time, Therion had sunk a whole handful of throwing knives into Pizza Face’s ugly mug, and Primrose’s dark magic scored an explosive direct hit. Barnabee had joined the fray too, pelting Pizza Face with bees before he dashed up to deliver some choice cuts with his saw-toothed sword. Nadia watched as Jesse perforated the boss with Spin bullets, quickly depleting the last of its health. “Oh crap, I’m gonna miss my chance!” She scooped up her head and took off, running toward the spit where her allies were polishing off the last few mooks. Wait a second. Grinning wildly, she jumped into the air, springboarding off Ichiban, Artorias, and finally Ganondorf in ascending order. “Thanks for the lift, fellas!” she laughed, sailing into the air. With a final burst of blood she shot straight up to Pizza Face. Nadia shot off her forearms, sinking them into Pizza Face’s cheesy cheeks, then snapped back her muscle fibers to drive her best dropkick of all time straight into his fungal nose. “Call this gratuitous,” she quipped, face-to-face with the big pizza. “But I don’t leave mush-room for error!” With that, she unleashed the blood pressure in her legs in a terrific shotgun-like blast, kicking off him in the process. As he reeled, she plummeted back to earth, twisting around to land -as always- on her feet.

Of course, immediately after landing, Nadia let out a long-overdue breath, hyperventilating with wide eyes. “Holy frijoles! Can’t believe that worked.” After a moment though she quickly straightened up, clearing her throat. “I mean…can you believe that worked? I surprise myself sometimes~”

As she said this, a beat-up looking Pizza Face descended to the ground, seemingly inert. Then he suddenly began to vibrate, scrunching down until finally, it popped open to reveal a strange man, sitting on a toilet and reading the newspaper, a man with blue overalls, a red bowtie, and a white shirt plus gloves. As Nadia and the others gaped, the paper slowly lowered, revealing that the man had a slice of pizza for a head. He laughed nervously, slowly crunching up and setting aside the paper, then cracked a wide smile as he climbed out of the Pizza Face machine.

”Hello, hello”

The moment his foot touched the ground, everything began to change. In the distance the light turned a soft orange, surreal and dreamlike as strange shapes, pizza toppings, and TV sets depicting Pizza Head began to float about. The rock surrounding Pizza Tower and the vegetation transformed, becoming meatballs and green peppers, with flowers and fungi taking on the likeness of Pizza Face. Over Pizza Head, eight likenesses of his own ahead appeared, arranged in two rows of four, and the next moment something similar happened to Nadia. Over her head appeared eight round bells, just like the one she wore on her collar, and the rest of the Seekers experienced a similar phenomenon with iconography of their own. Then the symbols faded, leaving Nadia to wonder just what the hell was going on. The feeling coming off this guy…it felt like the Nowhere Monarch, back in King’s Station. And the Orphan of Kos, the day before that. She could never forget that crawling, pervading sensation of wrongness. Her eyes widened as Pizza Head grinned at them, a pipe in his hand. “Another one. Somethin’ that shouldn’t be!” she hissed, sharpening her claws. “And won’t be for much longer!”

As if in reply, Pizza Head ran over to the far side of the arena, and reached down over the edge to stretch and plunge his arm through solid stone. When he pulled his arm back up, it came with a Brooding Mawlek several times bigger than himself, which he nonchalantly tossed onto the stage. In quick succession Pizza Head dredged up four more minibosses: a Dark Quartz Ogre, Big Dog, an Eyebrute, and Grovetender. Once all five were on the scene, Pizza Head stood idly by, ready for more tomfoolery.

Nadia forced a smile as she drew her boxcutters. Everyone present would need to divide their attention between the boss and the uninvited guests to pull through this. “Guess we’ve got our work cut out for us.” Still, compared to the Mom fight this really wasn’t that bad. She whistled to try and get the three-headed hound’s attention so she could lead him toward one side of the arena. “Here, doggy! Let’s play!”

Until Pizza Head is defeated, all characters take 1/8 of their max health (a 'pip') in damage from every hit they receive. When hit a character flashes invincible for the next second afterward. Healing is disabled

Edinburgh MagikaPolis - Dead of Night

Level 8 Big Band (102/80)
Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Red’s @TruthHurts22, Mewtwo’s @Double, Frisk’s [@Majoras End]
Word Count: 1291

When two more serious threats showed their ghastly faces, the Seekers quickly regrouped. They didn’t plan to just sit around and wait for the Darkbeast to come to them, but Paarl was even more aggressive than they predicted. First off the block, Ace charged in with a speed and tenacity that belied the clanking weight of his kit, his blades glinting in the arcane lamplight as he carved at the emaciated horror’s fleshless leg-bones. He landed a clean couple hits as Paarl tensed up, chipping rather than breaking the bones, before the monster let out a shrill scream. Arcs of electricity burst off it in a wave of concussive force to knock the hunter down in the middle of his pre-emptive strike, and Paarl began to attack.

As it moved, its bones ground together horribly, the sound enough to make Band’s skin crawl. He steeled himself and charged in to give Ace a hand. He bulled forward with Brass Knuckles, but Paarl ignored the cracks it left in its bones to slash at him with lightning-infused claws. Gritting his teeth, Band blocked both, then performed a backstep to avoid a downward slam and set up for another Brass Knuckles. Instead he accidentally backed right into a trash can and toppled over backwards. “Gyat, damn!”

At the same time, Lucia chased down the Revenant, knowing that it couldn’t be allowed to sit back and wreak havoc with those rocket launchers from afar. Pumping her arms, she ran in a zigzag pattern as the demon blew chunks from the roadway with its missiles. It ended its salvo by firing its last two rockets both simultaneously and right at her, aiming to take her out in one deadly blast, but this cop was made of sterner stuff. She pivoted and performed Flipper Shot, a fiery backward scoop-up kick to intercept the missiles and flip them upward. With a daredevil grin she let fly the follow-up turning roundhouse to smack the rockets right back. They blew up against the surprised Revenant’s body and broke its poise long enough for her to close the distance with EX Tornado Spinner, launching diagonally upward to blast it with three fiery kicks. Unfortunately for her, this hellspawn knew fire all too well. When she landed it lashed out with a headbutt, bopping Lucia’s skull with its own, then kicked her backward. She slid to a stop on one knee and looked up to see the Revenant wrench a streetlight out of the ground, then swing it like a bat. “Sonuva-!” Lucia blocked, but the enormous bludgeon shattered her guard and sent her flying with the explosion of its luminous magic crystal.

While those three got started, Albedo had elevated himself to a second-story balcony with a Solar Isotoma. He ran along a section of window ledges and leaped to deliver a downward plunging attack, landing on Paarl’s back. Unfortunately, his swordblade found no real flesh to pierce, and it simply grated along the monster’s spinal column and ribs before lodging in the gristle. Still, Paarl bucked to get the alchemist off, hurling its body into the nearby building. The wind-knocking blow left him stunned and crumpled against the window where Paarl bashed him, and while Albedo’s defense could take it, he felt less confident when the Revenant turned its attention his way. Grunting in exertion, he leaped down from the second story to the ground just as the rockets blew the window -and surrounding section of wall- to smithereens. Several voices could be heard screaming from inside.

Band rose from where he’d fallen with a groan, more angry that he’d tripped himself up than hurt, and found Paarl coming straight toward him. He blocked its toothy lunge and reeled back, from the close-up view of its grotesque, weirdly-human face almost as much as the force. As he slid he grabbed the trash can that tripped him and slammed it against Paarl’s face like a beer bottle in a bar brawl. It recoiled, and Band risked a glance in the direction his fellow officer had flown. “Lucia!?” She’d smacked into another street lamp and bent it from the impact, and while she was on her feet again he saw her clutching her back in pain. That impact broke the street lamp, too, and to make matters worse, a mob of skeletons seemed to be coming up behind her. This street is too narrow, Band realized. There wasn’t enough room to maneuver around these monsters, there was too much stuff in the way, and with two lights out the dark of night was beginning to retake it, too.

The bad news didn’t stop there. A blonde man appeared in the destroyed section of wall, and though in his nightclothes he wielded a fire staff and the determination to protect his family. “Fireball!” he yelled, aiming at Paarl.

“Wait!” Band reached out his hand.

Too late. Aren’s fireball burst against the monster’s dried-out hide, and while it did some damage it also triggered Paarl’s enmity. The monster lunged upward at him and snatched him from the window by the arm with its jaws, hurling him into the ground. He barely got the chance to howl in pain before Paarl dragged his claws through him. Immediately, the poor soul began to resurrect as a skeleton, his staff held tight in his deathgrip.

Band growled in anger, but he knew he couldn’t let it go to his head. “We have to move!” he yelled to the others. “We can’t fight here, there’s too much collateral!”

He spent the meter on another Super Sonic Jazz, clipping both Paarl and the Revenant as he blasted past them . Once the blaze of glory ended he slid to a stop, looking over his shoulder just long enough to confirm that he’d gotten the monsters’ attention. The Revenant bellowed in anger, and with a screech Paarl launched after him, smashing through whatever clutter happened to be in its way as it chased him down. “Hoo, boy,” Band sighed in resignation. Too late to back out now.

“That’s right, follow me!” Turning back to the road ahead, he leaned forward and began to play. Sound streamed from his back and his legs to propel him down the street, allowing him to pick up speed as he ground across the cobblestones and even up stairs, somehow. Paarl rampaged along behind him, growing ever closer, but the twists and turns in Band’s path made it smash into the walls a few times on the turns. Explosions went off behind him as the Revenant shot its rockets, but Band buckled down and forged ahead. The further he went in this somber borough, the darker and more foreboding the architecture seemed to get, and the more skeletons he found. Band made sure to choose the path with more undead each time, plowing straight through them when necessary, until the chase brought him up a couple flights of stairs and through a fancy wrought-iron gate. In front of him lay a circular monument plaza surrounded by the tall, grim buildings of Edinburgh Magicapolis. The clouds had parted, and that old devil moon shone down on the sinuous, sparking bones of Darkbeast Paarl as it crashed through the gates behind him, followed shortly by the Revenant. “Plenty of room to dance.” As Band turned around, he spotted Albedo and Lucia dropping down into the plaza on a different side, having taken to the rooftops to bypass the labyrinth as they followed the commotion. Then ran over, and the Seekers faced the monsters together. “Let’s see ‘em off.”

World of Light

Midgar - Seiran Hideout

Level 5 Goldlewis (66/50)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Karin and Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Pit’s @Yankee, Raz’s @Truthhurts22, Roxas’ @Double, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Tora, Giovanna
Word Count: 3238

Once Goldlewis delivered his account of all that transpired in the last few hours, the discussion opened up to everybody, and it went on for some time. A primary concern for Blazermate and Susie was the fate of their fellow machine, Poppi. Goldlewis couldn’t give them an answer about the fallout of a Guardian’s defeat, having never witnessed one himself, or the nature of Consuls in Midgar, but he urged Susie to temper her expectations. A master hacker she might be, but the systems of the city computer Arahabaki were almost certainly going to be psy-tech. After hearing about Happy Chaos, Geralt offered some interesting insight on a similar phenomenon from his home world, comparing a Source to the Original. Zenkichi went in-depth on the man behind the curtain, Akira Konoe, sharing not just his methodology but his twisted origin story. Though this shed some light on PubSec’s big boss, it didn’t change how Goldlewis felt; ‘sympathetic’ was not always ‘redeemable’.

Roxas chimed in with some dirt on old enemies from his world as well, the original Organization XIII. He didn’t see this new version as anything different, and he didn’t see why anyone would choose to serve as a Consul in the World of Light. Goldlewis could think of a dozen easy answers, some of which Raz and Midna alluded to after the Twilight Princess summed up a few problems that the Seekers needed to attend to, including the Supernatural Life Research Facility. She pointed out that, when it came to the Organization, the enemy of one’s enemy ought to be a friend. That matched up with the veteran’s experience so far, with the Organization members helping to point both the desert team and city team in the right direction, however cryptically. That unlocking power Roxas boasted of would definitely come in handy, though–provided that the entrance to the place C called ‘the Twinning’ lay behind something as simple as a lock.

While Goldlewis wouldn’t call the notion of helping Konoe deal with his psychological issues one of them, Raz brought up some good points about the Psych-OSF. He and Sakura already had an ‘in’ to the organization, but his familiarity and prior experience with Truman Zanotto sounded like a big deal. Though, being Scarlet Guardians meant fulfilling the duty and accountability that accompanied that role. Raz and Sakura had been absent ever since the joint operation ended, and for all Goldlewis knew, the two might already be marked down as Absent Without Leave, and he mentioned as much. “Goin’ AWOL is a huge deal. In the US you’ll get a warrant out for your arrest after thirty days, but it might be different here. Even if there ain’t charges, they might not letcha outta their sights again if y’all go back, and we need all hands on deck bright and early tomorrow mornin’.”

As Karin and Sakura went off for some late-night fighting, the veteran sighed, rolling his neck. “Now that we know where the Guardian is, and we got a rough idea of how to get there, it’s temptin’ to bum rush the Shinra Buildin’ first thing in the mornin’,” he said. “But like Midna and Raz said, we got a billion things we oughta look after. The minute we march on Shinra, we’ll have Peace Preservation, General Affairs, Psych-OSF, and Vandelay too, all ready to rip us limb from limb. Then we got DespoRHado to deal with, Supernatural Life, and who even knows how Neuron, the Machine bosses, and Reunion factor into all this. We can’t afford to go off half-cocked. So we’ll do like C said, and wait. Rest up folks, ‘cause tomorrow, we gotta be ready for anythin’.” Goldlewis then stepped away, his face dour. The worst part of all this was that Pit was right. Even if the Seekers destroyed the Guardian, Midgar would be far from saved. Indeed, its troubles would just be getting started.

For the first time in a good long while, it looked like Goldlewis would be spending the night away from home. It wasn’t much, considering the heights to which he’d risen in his political career, but his little house in Sector 07 was precious to him. No matter how hard the day got, no matter how bitter or complicated, he could still retreat to the privacy, peace, and quiet of the one spot in this cruel world he could call his own. Unfortunately, the same audacious look that made him so enviably stylish also made him innately recognizable, and if any of the Seekers’ enemies identified Goldlewis Dickinson while he was out and about these last few days, it wouldn’t be that hard to find out where he lived. So here he was. After going through his usual ritual of disassembling his layered, highly accessorized outfit, he’d donned a tank top and shorts, then laid himself down in his military-style cot after moving it well away from the others. In a way, its spartan embrace almost nostalgic. But even if he’d been able to sink into the soothing memory foam of his California King, Goldlewis doubted he’d be able to sleep. Even if he didn’t show it, tonight’s events had rocked him. Midgar was a vast and varied tapestry, full of loose threads just waiting to be pulled, but tonight the debate -and the interview that followed it- had slashed open the cloth. A million thoughts ran through his head, and though too weary to start grasping them, Goldlewis couldn’t fall asleep either. After a time spent lying awake, he heaved a heavy sigh and went outside to get some air.

Goldlewis leaned on the railing, staring out across the Sector 07 undercity. Though he couldn’t see the night sky from here, he could still feel a breeze in his hair. Down by the reservoir it might be a stagnant, toxic mess, a foul miasma of pollution and decay, but up here the air was clear. It blew in from the southwestern mountains and wove between the skyscrapers of Seiran like the trees of a massive, concrete forest, its colorful leaves the flags, windsocks, and hanging lanterns found all over the connective bridges and walkways. The scale of this place, complete with its own infrastructure and culture, boggled the mind, and yet it formed just one sixteenth of this unimaginable city. In a place like Midgar, even a very big man could feel very small. Especially with such a big day ahead of him.

He heard the hideout’s front door creak, then a familiar voice. “Wow, I didn’t think I’d actually find someone out here.”

Goldlewis looked over, not alarmed. Giovanna crossed her arms and leaned herself against the wall, a mildly amused smile on her face. Rei lay at her feet. Thanks to the secret agent’s equatorial upbringing, her idea of comfort in a climate like this tended to be a sweater and sweatpants. “In movies, shows, games, you name it, whenever everyone goes to sleep, there’s always that one guy that goes off and stares into the distance. Then someone else shows up and they have a secret, important conversation.”

The veteran chuckled, looking back down at the Reservoir. Far below, its muddy depths pulsed with the synchronized luminescence of the Psifish. “Well, I can’t think of anythin’ important to say. You?”

“Nah. We don’t have enough in common.” Giovanna walked up and leaned over the railing beside him. A few moments passed by in silence. “Hm.” She rested her cheek in her hand. “It’s pretty nice out.”

“...Sure is.”

“Not as nice as Iguazu.”

“Iguazu?”

“You never heard of Iguazu, dude?” Giovanna nudged him with her elbow, an incredulous look on her face. “Iguazu Falls, in Brazil. Right next to Argentina. The biggest set of waterfalls in the whole world. It’s amazing. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“...Sounds mighty fine. I oughta go sometime.”

“You better. You’ve seen so much ugliness. You’ve gotta get out there and see that the world’s beautiful, too.”

“...Yeah, well…okay. Well then, you better go visit Yellowstone sometime.”

“Huh? Why?”

“America can be beautiful too.”

“Hah. If you say so.”

“I do say so!”

“Okay, okay, jeez. First thing tomorrow morning. I’ll send you a postcard, ‘kay?”

“Fine. I’ll wrangle you up a souvenir from the Falls, then. One o’ them li’l wooden gorillas or somethin’.”

“There aren’t any gorillas in Brazil, dude.”

“Whuh!? Well, whaddya want, then?”

“Anything’s good. Just don’t get fleeced at the shops. You’ve gotta know how to haggle.”

“Aw, I hate hagglin’. Why can’t folks just say what they really want up front?”

“Man, you’re hopeless.”

---

As usual, Goldlewis woke up bright and early, though in sunless Seiran it was still dark. Some days he felt like he could just drowse in bed all morning, but even if his accommodations were comfortable enough, today wasn’t one of those days. He cleaned himself up, assembled his iconic outfit, and got something to eat. Milk spoiled fast, but with this many people he’d judged it a wise purchase, so with that and some instant oatmeal he made breakfast. With a little brown sugar as the finishing touch, and freshly-brewed black coffee to wash it down, Goldlewis seated himself in the breakfast to start the brand new day off right. It was six fifty-nine.

Just as the hungry veteran raised his first spoonful of oats to his mouth, a magic glyph sprang into existence by his head, filling the hideout with an urgent tone. “Whoa, nelly!” Goldlewis yelped, fumbling his spoon in panic. The oatmeal splattered down on his tie, and the spoon clunked against the floor the next instant. Groaning, he reached for a napkin to wipe himself off, and answered the call. “Hello?”

“Ah, Mr. Dickinson,” a woman’s voice replied. “Just the man I was hoping to reach.”

The voice was low, flat, no-nonsense, and completely unknown to him, putting him instantly on alert. He rose from his chair with such suddenness that he accidentally shoved the table forward. When he looked at Giovanna, he saw that she’d received and accepted the same call, but said nothing. They shared a nod before he responded. “Who is this? How’d you get my number?”

“I am the mission control administrator, chief communications officer, and android legion commander for DespoRHado Enforcement, LLC. In order to reach you, I used my telecommunications power to hail every endpoint for magical communication in Midgar, in hopes of reaching you. Hear me well: I mean neither you nor your organization any harm. I merely come bearing poignant information, as well as what you might consider a vital opportunity.”

Goldlewis had already narrowed his eyes. While his first instinct was one of exasperation, he recognized a lead when he saw it, so he bit his tongue, swallowed, and replied evenly. “Go on.”

“Thanks to Shinra’s official announcement of his intent to replace DespoRHado with Vandelay Technologies as Midgar’s Machine Defense contractor, DespoRHado’s leadership has decided to move against Vandelay, effective immediately. As we speak, a massive assault force, led by the Winds of Destruction, is assaulting the Vandelay Campus. If you move quickly, you may be able to intercede, and make of two of Midgar’s strongest organizations what you will–be it allies or ashes.”

For a second Goldlewis gaped. His mind was already racing, and he wasted no time locking eyes with Midna. Thanks to her portal, the team could get back to Vandelay Campus in a flash. Before they did anything, though, there was something the veteran needed to know. “Why are you tellin’ us this?”

“The winds of change, Mr. Dickinson,” the stranger replied. “For a long time, DespoRHado has been more focused on its enemies within Midgar than those without. I have attempted to remedy that. My initiatives have succeeded in transitioning the company toward Androids and Unmanned Gears, made not to suppress men, but Machines. DespoRHado can win the fight for humanity, but not under the Winds of Destruction. Of course, I cannot allow Vandelay to crush us, either. Both must be brought to heel, and no better time than while they’re busy fighting one another. I have reached out to you because my countless eyes have witnessed your Special Operations Unit in action, both in Midgar and beyond, still fighting the good fight, while the rest of Midgar fights among themselves. If you choose to take Midgar’s future into your hands, meet me in Circuit Royal as soon as possible.”

The line went dead. Goldlewis stared at the gathered Seekers. Was this what C meant by ‘next morning’? If Vandelay and DepoRHado were really going to war, today was starting with one hell of a bang. “We can’t ignore this,” he said. “This is our chance to either get some vital chess pieces off the board, or get them on our side. Not just for the good of our mission, but for Midgar. Plus, if we left ‘em alone, whoever wins would end up strong enough to be a right thorn in our collective be-hinds if they got half a mind to.” He grabbed his coffin by the chain and hoisted it over shoulder, ready for action. “Let’s mosey.”

As the hideout turned into a flurry of activity, Tora got busy making preparations as well. This was his chance to get hands-on with the leaders of Midgar’s technological revolution. Even if he couldn’t do much on his own, he was determined to take any chance that might get him closer to a future with Poppi in it. Not knowing who it was who reached out to Goldlewis, Tora could only imagine that destiny was calling–and it would be rude to not say ‘hello’ back.

---

When the team emerged from Midna’s twilight portal and rushed out of the dumpster-ridden backlot, they found a very different Circuit Royal waiting for them than the one they experienced last night. Most glaringly, its jumbo parking lot was now dominated by an enormous, hulking transport ship. Goldlewis also quickly noticed that the devastation that had befallen this place, with the broken-down wrecks of dozens of Vandelay robots -primarily SBR units- littering the scene, many reduced to little more than scrap metal and sparking spare parts. Circuit Royal’s facades and fixtures had been perforated by gunfire and blown apart by excessive force; everything lay in wartorn disarray. Goldlewis guessed that the DespoRHado ship, which itself must have been laying in wait for just such a day as this, had landed and taken the basic security teams completely by surprise, overwhelming them before moving into the campus itself. The echoed sounds of fighting off in the distance were the proof in the pudding. Weirdest of all, though, was the sky. Goldlewis hadn’t seen it while in Seiran, but it was dark and overcast. The oily Extinction Belt shimmered threateningly among the clouds, stronger than ever, giving the whole sky a dark, ominous, almost alien appearance. It looked like a good day for bad stuff to happen.

Since the Seekers arrived, the androids and Unmanned Gears guarding the ship had focused on them, but made no move to attack. After a few moments, the bay doors of the transport ship began to open. Goldlewis bristled, ready for an ambush with his coffin primed to shield everyone with a Wall of Light. Down the ramps strode a retinue of androids, two teams of two. The first pair seemed doll-like, one male and one female, the former with a kind expression and the latter showing nothing but callous indifference. The other two, clad in black and blindfolded, regarded the newcomers with stern wariness. All four sported katanas and paper-white hair, but none seemed eager to fight just yet. Goldlewis focused more on the figure that floated behind them: a very tall, very pale woman with short silver hair, its strands curved and sharp as the blades of her android attendants. She wore a sleeveless collared crop top under a suit vest, a massive gold-trimmed white longcoat worn off her shoulders, and at least five black belts with pale gold buckles over curious white pants with attached high-heeled shoes. In her red-tinted black eyes gleamed bright green power symbols instead of pupils, and an elaborate halo floated above her head.

“Greetings.” Goldlewis recognized her voice as his mystery contact from earlier. “I am Sandalphon. These units are Mascula, Laxi, 9S, and 2B. If you’re here to decide Midgar’s future, I am here to help.”

Goldlewis did not allow himself to relax just yet. “You’re puttin’ an awful lot of faith in us, stranger. Why?”

“Out of all of Midhgar’s leaders, I believe only Vernon had his heart in the right place. One would have to be a fool to believe that either Shinra or Armstrong, or the PMCs that back them, offer a true way forward for humanity,” Sandalphon answered matter-of-factly. “Neither Vandelay nor DespoRHado as they are can be allowed to survive. As Vernon’s trusted friends, I trust you will all do what you must. If diplomacy fails, I will be content to pick up the pieces, and forge a better DespoRHado from them.”

After a moment, Goldlewis nodded. “With so many key players gathered in one place, we can’t afford to look away. So what’re we up against, Sandalphon?”

The angel nodded, and began projecting screens one at a time. “DespoRHado’s troops, primarily cyborgs, have already swept into the campus. The Vandelay robots are out in full force to stop them, but the Winds of Destruction have divided and conquered, each carving through a different sector of Vandelay campus.” Sandalphon put up an image of a volcanic cavern, laden with lava beneath high-tech bridges and platforms, with testing chambers built into the walls. “Monsoon is going after Zanzo in Research and Development to tear down the birthplace of Vandelay’s technologies.” Next came a view of a gigantic, dark purple, cylindrical room, full of moving lasers. “Mistral is ascending through Security to nullify the head of Vandelay’s resistance, Korsica.” She then put up a shot of the campus’s centerpiece, the grand, lavish atrium. “Khamsin marches on Finance to prove to Roquefort that there’s no price tag on freedom.” She projected a view of colorful factories, with fast-paced assembly lines and giant contraptions. “Our boss Sundowner is targeting Production, specifically its boss Rekka, to bring Vandelay’s output of robots to a screeching halt.” She projected a view of a tall, imposing-looking tower. “And Jetstream Sam is in pursuit of the CEO himself, Kale Vandelay.”

Goldlewis stroked his whiskers, thinking quickly. “Sounds like we need to split up too. Catch up to our VIPs before they start wipin’ each other out, and deal with ‘em ourselves.” Himself, Roxas, Raz, Midna, Geralt, Zenkichi, Sakura, Karin, Susie, Giovanna, Tora, Pit, Roland, and Blazermate made about fifteen. Just about enough to send exactly three to each Vandelay division. “I got a bone to pick with your boss Sundowner, so I’m headin’ to Production.”

“Tora go to R&D!” the Nopon piped up, his agenda about as plain as could be.

Giovanna thought for only a moment. “Seems like Security could use a few pointers.”

Once everyone decided, Sandalphon gave a nod of approval. “I can link up with you now and communicate between all five teams here, with no issues. The difference between victory and defeat is measured by just one metric: intelligence. Now hurry. I can provide additional intel en route, and we don’t have a moment to lose.”

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (216/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Ichiban’s @Truthhurts22, Omori’s [@Majoras End], Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2081

As one might expect, the proud and outspoken royals were the first few Seekers to accept Nadia’s invitation to share a little about themselves. Having seen only the tail end of the Dead Zone, Sectonia instead recounted Yellow Team’s ordeal in the great eastern desert, specifically its climactic railroad boss battle against a gruesome grub of immense proportions. Though she could picture both a train and a gun in her mind, Nadia couldn’t quite put them together, especially when it came to a firearm capable of shooting rails. She wanted to see such a magnificent contraption for herself, or at least hear more about it, but the subject seemed to hold no further interest for Sectonia. Instead the big bug turned her mind to confections and conquest. While she briefly mentioned another fight in the desert, she shared barely any details. A queen she might be, but a storyteller she was not. Therion filled in a few details for her, though, mentioning the Seekers’ arduous ascent -and the ensuing breakneck descent- at Split Mountain.

Sectonia also decided to use this time to make the other Seekers ‘beautiful’. Of course, she didn’t actually do anything; instead, she assigned that task to her antlions. Even if the mooks came armed with tools or product of any kind, however, they lacked any semblance of aesthetic sense as well as the dexterity to act upon it. In the end, they just ended up bugging everyone. Chewing on a pizza slice, Nadia shooed away the one that approached her, unafraid to answer its insistence with disproportionate force. “Hey, hands off the merchandise!”

Throughout the pizza-making and the meal so far Nadia didn’t pay much attention to Kamek’s attempts to placate the Pizza Trolls. Not until their displeasure at the conga line of unsatisfactory pizzas rose to such a level that Arno somehow managed to muster up enough force to smash the Magikoopa’s minions sky-high through unimaginable quantities of solid rock. The feral blinked in astonishment, her mouth hanging open. “Did…I’m not seein’ things, right?” When Arno treated everyone to a repeat performance, she could only conclude that she hadn’t been. Swallowing, Nadia scooted a little farther away from the irate trolls to finish her pizza, keeping a wary eye on the trio the whole time.

After that slightly terrifying revelation, Bowser proceeded to tell a tale of his own. He revealed that he’d been there at the very beginning, not just of the Seekers’ campaign in the World of Light, but prior to that as well. His story placed him at ground zero of the reality-level extinction event that Galeem unleashed. Captivated by Bowser's account of Kirby, the sole survivor, and his fateful encounter on Precipice Knoll, Nadia listened at rapt attention, not even eating for the few minutes it took for the king to shed some light on how this whole campaign got started. At its end, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sounds like things have been screwed up since the very start,” she muttered. While some of the details sailed over her head, like the exchange between Bowser and his son about events in the even more distant past at the end, most of the details fell right into place. “You’re sayin’ your first memories were a Consul controllin’ ya and forcin’ ya to fight this poor little Kirby guy? Yeesh. The way you say it, it sounds like the only reason we’re here to begin with is pure, dumb luck.” From that one fateful encounter, a chain of events had spiraled outward across the World of Light, sweeping up all kinds of people in its wake. Even her. If not for Blazermate, Banjo & Kazooie, Ratchet & Clank, Nero, and Nico, she would’ve probably died in the Dead Zone like so many others.

After Bowser’s conclusion, Ganondorf glommed on to his tale, revealing that he too had been there to witness the obliteration of reality at Galeem’s hands. Nadia wondered if that made the two of them special somehow, and just who else might have been there at the start of it all. Of course, the sorcerer’s reminiscence about his experience in the World of Light lasted nowhere near as long. “Oh…right,” Nadia muttered, a little embarrassed to have prompted the King of Evil for anecdotes when he’d spent most of his time chained to a giant egg.

Primrose briefly pointed out something that seemed a lot more important than anyone was willing to admit: the timeline. The memories of some Seekers extended a lot farther back than others, and many of them featured gaps. Nadia couldn’t explain it, but it made her uneasy. If the Asgore fellow the Ash Lake contingent mentioned before had answers, she wanted to see him in person when this underground adventure came to an end, too.

Jesse and Artorias chimed into the general conversation, while Rubick and Omori maintained a tacit silence. Not remembering if she’d already given the knight her name, Nadia introduced herself. “You can call me Ms. Fortune!” Finally, it was time. Pushing the remains of her food away, Nadia held her fist in front of her mouth and cleared her throat dramatically. “Well, my story begins in Carnival Town, way up on the northern shore of the Sandswept Sky, even farther than the giant mountain with the split peak. I was pretty happy there. Life was pretty easy, just sambas and siestas day in, day out. It was nice and all, sure, but I dunno. Just never really clicked for me. Then one night, a strange wagon train showed up in town. Nobody even saw it come in, it just appeared, straight outta thin air. The Zombie Caravan, home to a troop of wanderin’ undead. They turned out to be decent folks, and after chattin’ with ‘em, I decided I wanted to get outta Carnival Town and see the world. So I joined ‘em, and every night the Caravan appeared somewhere new. Partyin’ in Tostarena Town, skydivin’ in Skyworld, Al Mamoon, Gerudo Town, a haunted mansion, the circus, you name it. It was an amazin’ couple months, just travelin’ place to place, makin’ all kinds of friends, seein’ everythin’ the world had to offer. That caravan was the cat’s meow. Until we showed up…in Redgraccoon City.”

Nadia chuckled, her dramatic pause ruined. “Dang, I was hopin’ to say it with a straight face, but that name’s too funny. Still, what happened was no joke. We got overrun by mindless zombies. All the good people of the Caravan ripped apart. I tried to help ‘em, but…” Nadia faltered for a moment, a little choked up, then shook her head and continued with a grim look on her face. “I had to go. I ran and ran. Fightin’ all the time. Until I heard guns goin’ off and found my way to the Police Station. Not knowin’...that it was cursed.” Trying to seem upbeat again, she spread her hands wide in dramatic fashion. “The minute I stepped through the fog, I was trapped. No choice but to fight alongside the survivors there as wave after wave of zombies kept crashin’ in.”

“Dunno how long it was. Days? Weeks?” She’d truly lost track of time during that miserable period. Forget fighting the hordes–even keepin’ a smile on her face for the sake of the others had been a grueling battle. “But we held out. Eventually the Seekers showed up, and you guys helped us solve the mystery. The thing trappin’ us there was a giant ghost called a Preta, tall as the station itself, but with a mouth the size of a pinhole, and hidden away in some kinda warped space. It was starvin’, so to get rid of it, we needed to make it some rice. After that we were dyin’ to get out of there, literally, ‘cause just as we got packed up and ready to leave, the mother of all hordes showed up. We made a break for it, fleein’ through the city ‘til we made it to this big tower. We woulda been trapped there too, but Blazermate’s teleporter got us all out.” Nadia smiled. “Course, I ended up goin’ back later, but that’s a story for another time. And Bowser there knows how it ended, anyway. We all lived happily ever after~” Now that was a joke. Snickering, Nadia fell silent, more or less satisfied with her story. She’d omitted everything to do with the Skull Heart, but the fewer people knew about that, the better. If only she’d been able to sneak in more puns.

After concluding breakfast and packing up all the food they could for the road while Sectonia’s antlions took care of the Deluxe Camping Set, the team prepared to depart Pizza Tower for parts unknown. Thanks to Primrose, the Seekers knew just how to do it, too. Unfortunately, it also seemed pretty obvious that the big boss the Pizza Trolls alluded to would be in the team’s way. As Barnabee pointed out, if Pizza Face was as big a deal as his employees made him out to be, chances were good that he’d have a mask fragment, so the Seekers couldn’t afford to let him slide. Everyone armed and readied themselves to face a new day, practically guaranteed to be just as full of fighting as the last. When Nadia and the others made their way to the hall marked ‘staff only’, they discovered the ‘210’ room just as the dancer described it.

“Alright!” she smiled, tightening her belt. Her bait launcher, Athame dagger, and boxcutter hilts were all ready to go, and after both a nice swim and a hearty meal in Pizza Tower she felt like a million bucks. “Who’s ready for a piece-a Pizza Face?”

When the team proceeded through the doorway, they appeared at the top of a grand, fantastical tower. Thick columns carved by ancient hands surrounded it, sizable stretches of threadbare cloth hung between them, and forked pillars rose around it in groups of three like raised spears. It seemed to protrude from the floor of a large, stony alcove, surrounded on three sides by solid stone and shaded by an equally formidable overhang. On the last side, however, the tower overlooked yet another utterly massive cavern, this one mostly vertical, a pit of unimaginable proportions. On the near side side lay a primarily sheer wall, with countless spigots extruding from its stony face to pour down runoff water from the Home of Tears and the Royal Waterways beneath. The far side seemed to be a vast mosaic of huge, circular shells, stacked and wedged together like the stones of some primeval cairn, with the leafless white branches of long-dead trees reaching out like ghostly fingers from the cracks between them. Somehow, an ethereal white light poured down from above, and every so often a dark shape would plummet past. Before the Seekers lay the Forsaken Lands, the resting place of the Termite Capitol.

Before they could venture any farther, however, the boss of Pizza Tower awaited. Nadia’s ears flicked, alerting her to a strange being descending from above. She looked up to see none other than the aptly-named Pizza Face floating down toward the team, his nefarious green pepper grin, mustache, and eyebrows complimented by evil pepperoni eyes atop a gluey, oozing slab of cheese-slathered crust, with a bulbous mushroom nose to top it all off. He said nothing, but swelled into a hideous leer, his eyes morphing into pineapple rings as he grew extra mushroom teeth. A horrific laugh resounded through the still air, sweeping through the Seekers to echo across the Forsaken Lands.

By the time it finished, Nadia was laughing, too. “What, no chit-chat or monologue? Just gettin’ right to the point, huh?”

In reply, Pizza Face belted out a handful of enemies, including ooey-gooey Cheeseslimes, armored Forknights, grimacing stone Mini Johns, prod-wielding Water Workers, googly-eyed Bad Rats, brutish porcine Piglins, killer Peppibots, rocket-propelled Fridge Bots, and other foes faced individually by the Seekers throughout Pizza Tower. The battle was on.

World of Light

The City of Glass - Vandelay Campus

Level 5 Goldlewis (62/50)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Karin and Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Pit’s @Yankee, Raz’s @Truthhurts22, Roxas’ @Double, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Tora, Giovanna
Word Count: 1786

Within a few minutes, Goldlewis and the rest of the debate attendees stood out in the open air of another Midgar night. It might be smoggy or stifling in other sectors, but the City of Glass was a city of the future. Even in the periphery of its most industrial area, the air felt clear and breezy, its clear skies affording a view of the stars obstructed by the oily shimmer of the Extinction Belt that floated far above Midgar’s loftiest heights, a beautiful but deadly aurora borealis. During the course of the debate, as tension mounted and tempers flared, it had gotten pretty stuffy inside Dendemille Showcase Theater, so Goldlewis took deep breaths of the fresh air with gratitude in his heart. In this brief moment of respite he looked out over the scenery, past the attention-hogging spotlights and glitzy golden floodlights of Circuit Royal, the grand public entrance of the Vandelay Campus, and across the water of Regatta Bay.

All the cloud-white yachts and sailboats that wandered the waterways during the day now moored peacefully at their docks, like cattle brought into their stables for the night, but the City of Glass itself never slept. Enormous electronic billboards and company names writ large in eye-searing neon crowned many of its tall buildings, their glare seemingly strong enough to diminish the distant radiance of the cosmos above. Further down, light panels on many of the buildings that lined the waterfront bathed the quiet boardwalks and gentle waves in a serene pink glow, reflected by the bay and the austere glass facades that encircled it like so many mirrors to make Regatta Bay into a soft, surreal dreamscape. It was a nice night, but Goldlewis was hardly at peace. His mind still raced from everything he learned thanks to the theatrical machinations of Consul C. What this knowledge meant for Midgar -and the Seekers’ campaign as a whole- he could only imagine. Even if C spoke truly about the location of Midgar’s elusive Guardian, the veteran knew that his troubles had only just begun. He dreaded the possibility that these revelations would keep him up tonight when tomorrow promised to demand all his strength, but in order to even find out, he and the others would have to get out of here.

The prospect of navigating back through the City of Glass was one that appealed to no-one. With the added traffic it could be hours, and from the looks of it, the friction generated during the debate had brought even more of Vandelay’s security out of the woodwork. The docks and parking lot exits were swarming with company robots, not just SBR and GNR units but plenty of beefy ES units as well, some with different colors probably denoting different special equipment. Good thing the team had an ace in the hole.

“Princess Midna,” Goldlewis began, approaching the cheeky imp. “I know ya already bailed us out earlier, but if it ain’t too much trouble, I was hopin’ you could pull off that portal-makin’ trick again. We could really use an easy way outta this place, not to mention a quick an’ easy way back in case somethin’ else comes up with Vandelay.”

Thankfully, Midna agreed. Not long after, the group’s wait came to an end, as Goldlewis spotted a handful of familiar faces hurrying over. Giovanna, Sakura, Geralt, Blazermate, Pit, Tora, Benedict, and Partitio moved quickly, driven by their uncertainty at whatever fate might have befallen their friends inside the debate venue, but the sight of everyone in one piece set their hearts at ease. The two halves of Black Team reunited in a corner of the parking lot, walled in on two sides by the Greco-Roman-styled strip mall of guest facilities that served as bulwark between the public face of Vandelay Campus and its staff-only industrial factories. Though relieved to see that nothing bad happened to any more teammates today after the bomb scare, they couldn’t breathe easy just yet.

“How’d it go?” Giovanna asked her comrade breezily.

Goldlewis heaved a mighty sigh, a helpless expression on his face. “You won’t believe what happened right afterward.” The screech of tires distracted him, and to his shock he spotted an extravagant fuchsia six-wheeled convertible peeling away and zooming off into the night with none other than Consul C behind the wheel. After a moment of silence Goldlewis shook his head in resignation, his incredulity quickly turning to caution. “We’ll go over everythin’ once we get back to base. Let’s hustle before the bots start gettin’ suspicious of us hangin’ ‘round past closin’ time. C’mon!”

Though the team didn’t have enough time to be choosy, they quickly settled on a clever spot. After ducking out of sight from the security robots into a mostly walled-off lot full of dumpsters, Midna affixed her twilight portal to the underside of one of the circuit’s suspended racetracks, where no normal person would ever think to look. Using it, Midna could discreetly warp the team straight to the Seiran hideout.

Only Giovanna stayed behind. “Come back for me in five minutes,” she murmured to Midna. Once the others left, she turned to face the otherwise empty lot, a frown on her face. She closed her eyes and sniffed, and sure enough, there it was again. Ever since she met up with the rest, something strange had been happening. She’d been smelling someone, hearing someone, and seeing someone, only to repeatedly forget who it was. As her keen senses caused the process to repeat, the lingering sense of unease grew, and she’d become more and more certain that someone was tailing them. At first she assumed the use of some sort of cloaking device, but it didn’t line up. It wasn’t her senses playing tricks on her–it was her cognition itself. Upon making that realization the savvy secret agent figured it out. She was forgetting about someone the moment she became cognizant of him, but if she didn’t become cognizant of him, she didn’t forget. As long as she couldn’t assign this smell to a person, that person couldn’t be wiped from her mind. So it was that, with her eyes closed, Giovanna prepared to face an unknowable pursuer.

“I can smell you,” she said ominously. “The nose knows. Whoever you are, this is the end of the line. I heard that if you try to use this portal without Midna’s help, you’ll get stranded in some corner of the Twilight Realm, cursed to wander until you become a mindless beast. So if you want something from us, might as well speak now.” Behind her, Rei manifested, electric sparks dancing through her thick green coat as she growled at Roland. “...Or forever hold your peace.”

---

Once back in the hideout, Goldlewis finally allowed himself to relax. He stood his coffin up by the front door, loosened his tie, hung his suit jacket on the back of the same chair he used earlier, and sat down at the table. It was late -the clock in the former clinic’s kitchen read 11:03- but while he hadn’t eaten dinner, he didn’t feel terribly hungry. The others could fix themselves a bite to eat from the supplies in the pantry (granola bars, chips, jerky, and other snacks) or refrigerator (a none-too-fancy mix of cold cuts and frozen food) if they wanted, but right now the veteran needed his focus elsewhere.

Such was the import of the team’s brief conversation with C that Goldlewis sorely missed not having some sort of recording device. He’d done his best to internalize everything in the moment, but C spilled the beans fast and hard, and even a single missed detail might spell the difference between victory and defeat. As such, Goldlewis enlisted the help of Raz -and his handy-dandy notebook- to make sure that his retelling of the encounter with one of Midgar’s Consuls wanted for nothing. After going over the team’s questions and C’s answers, with special emphasis placed on the bonus reveal of Midgar’s other Consul Y, Goldlewis added one extra detail of his own.

“Y’all mighta been wonderin’ what that li’l exchange was between me and C before I asked about the Guardian,” he began. “The truth is that C, which is to say Happy Chaos, comes from the same world as me. Not too long before this whole Galeem mess got started, he staged an international incident at the White House during the G4 summit. Hijacked the whole place, holdin’ the world’s leaders hostage while puttin’ on one hell of a show. Not all that different from what happened tonight, come to think of it. The debriefin’ from that debacle shed a little light on who he really is, and it ain’t pretty.” He paused for a moment, his face deadly serious as he swallowed. “Accordin’ to the Gear Maker, he’s the Original. The man who brought magic into the world, and the strongest magician there is. As far as we know, there ain’t anythin’ he can’t do. He can manipulate the world around him, minds, bodies, magic, tech, everythin’. He’s…well, terrifyin’. The one savin’ grace is that he doesn’t care about anythin’, either. Only gettin’ people riled up to amuse himself.” He stroked his beard. “If he’s on Galeem’s side, he could very well be their greatest strength, or their greatest weakness.”

After that, the floor was open. Everyone could offer their two cents on the day’s events, try and puzzle out new conclusions from the gathered clues, or workshop a plan for tomorrow. Or, like Tora, they could just go straight to bed. The Nopon didn’t care about politics or Consuls; even the Guardian was a secondary concern to him right now. Before he could face any of that, he needed Poppi. But Tora didn’t know what to do. His attempts to combat the Logic Virus in Poppi’s arm had been utterly futile so far. He didn’t know if he should keep trying, pivot in the direction of making a new body for Poppi her consciousness could be transferred into, or ready for battle in the hopes that his allies could force the Machine leaders to restore Poppi herself. He knew only one that–that tonight, he would be on his own for the first time, and without Poppi, Tora was nothing. Utterly miserable, the young engineer wrapped himself in blankets and secluded himself in his cot, weeping until he fell asleep, his furry cheeks wet with tears.

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (216/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Ichiban’s @Truthhurts22, Omori’s [@Majoras End], Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 3150

“Huh? No petting!” Nadia tried to shake off Sectonia’s antlions when they came for her just prior to her planned excursion. Bugs weren’t exactly beauticians, after all, and Nadia didn’t know how much stock she put in the swarm queen’s idea of ‘proper’ anyhow. Prim and proper might befit some prissy princess, but a puckish rogue-slash-tomboy like Ms. Fortune did things her own way. Still, it’s the thought that counts, as they say. “Uh, thanks anyway, Sec. Secky? …Toni? Ah, forget it.”

As she stepped up to the doorway labeled ‘Crust Cove’, Nadia steeled herself. She had no idea what to expect from one of Pizza Tower’s levels, and though this would hardly be the first time plunging face-first into the unknown and she had no qualms doing it, the many misadventures that had already befallen her as Purple Team’s point man told her that she’d better be ready. Despite that, she was not at all ready for what happened the moment she hopped through.

For a couple seconds straight she wound up struck blind by a dazzling light, brilliant to the point of being painful. “Meowch!” she yelped, squeezing her poor eyes shut as she reeled like a drunk, only finding stability on all fours. For once she actually found herself grateful for the bangs that had been insistently hanging over her left eye since her fusion with Kronya. When her eyes adjusted, however, she opened them and witnessed a breathtaking scene. She found herself standing on a tall, cylindrical tower of glass, emblazoned with fanciful swirls of bronze that made it look more like a giant goblet than a medieval rampart. All around her lay a gorgeous shoreline of sparkling, bubbly water, pristine sand, and lush grass. Birds -or were they flying fish?- flapped over the glinting waves in small flocks. Even more miraculously, the whole scene lay bathed in the golden rays of a glorious sunset over the open ocean.

For a few moments Nadia just sat there, enchanted. A full day and a half had passed since she last glimpsed the light of day, and she hadn’t realized just how much she missed it. She felt the sun’s warmth on her skin, and a gentle breeze toyed with her hair. It felt a lot like that incredible beach back in the Deep Blue Seaside near Limsa Lominscuttle Town, Heaven’s Edge. That much-needed, blissful afternoon wouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon. Had that doorway in Pizza Tower really transported her to some far-off, picturesque coastline in the World of Light?

Well, no. When Nadia looked a little closer, she began to notice the flaws. For starters, the horizon didn’t look right. Past a certain point, it seemed weirdly solid and stationary, and it didn’t take the feral long to realize that she was looking at the painted wall of what she ultimately determined to be a huge, cylindrical room. Here and there she spotted bits of equipment poking out of what should otherwise be solid terrain, like fans and wave generators, and she realized the sun must just be a very big, very hot light. Still, it managed to be a pretty convincing illusion, and she appreciated that. The sun and the sea were where Nadia Fortune belonged, not caves or castles. When she looked back at the door, however, she realized with a start that it seemed to have slammed shut behind her. “Huh? When did that happen?” She scratched her head, and as she looked around, her eyes landed on that sack she’d brought. “Oh, right,” she chuckled. “Almost fur-got.” She was here to get food for pizza-making, and judging by the movement on the shore and beneath the waves, she wasn’t alone. I can just get directions outta someone, she reasoned, pushing the sack into her belt. Might as well get to work.

As she went to jump, a sudden voice in her ear made her jump in a different sense. It was Primrose, and she came bearing good news. Nadia grinned. If the others found a way out, all the more reason to gather ingredients as fast as she could. Then the whole team could eat and be on their way. She tensed up, wiggled her tails, and threw herself from the top of the tower.

“Waaaaaaaahooooooooooooo!” she yowled as hurtled through the air in a daredevil high dive. Extending her arms in front of her head, she made a perfect entry with barely any splash, and swooped through the water with grace. To her surprise the water actually seemed to be carbonated, the whole indoor ocean fizzed up like one giant jacuzzi, but pleasantly cool in contrast to the warmth of the artificial sun. To Nadia, dirty, sore, and bedraggled from a rough day and equally rough night, it felt like heaven. She could finally relax, feeling clean, awake, and alive. Even better, this wasn’t just some sterile simulation; the shallows were full of life. In addition to verdant beds of seagrass and shelves of blue coral like pebble mosaics, she spotted vast schools of minuscule anchovies with scales like glittering silver coins, and loads of vivid pink shrimp making their rounds on the white sandy seabed. They, Nadia realized, must be the point of this place, both for her and Pizza Tower itself: habitat for the cultivation of the freshest possible seafood pizza toppings. Her eyes twinkled. “This is AWESOME!” she wanted to say, but bubbly sea water filled her mouth the instant she opened it, so before anything else she swam back up to the surface for a breath of fresh air.

A moment after she breached the surface and filled her lungs, though, a problem occurred to her. She couldn’t possibly catch any sealife with a burlap sack. Too much drag. With neither nets nor a fishing rod -not to mention the patience to use one- she needed a fresh idea, and after a couple seconds of treading water she dove down again to search for one.

Rather than the fish, she focused on something else she caught a glimpse of before. Trudging along the bottom of the shallows were bulbous bipeds in old-fashioned diving helmets. These Water Workers wielded shock prods, and they didn’t seem happy to see her. She raised an eyebrow at one slowly hopping toward her, then both when she realized what its weapon could do. Electricity arced through the water in an area around it as it thrust at her, but she managed to swim out of range in time. Unable to treat the little jerk to any quips underwater, she furrowed her brow and got straight to business.

She extended her legs in a perfect split and began to rotate her whole lower half like a propeller, picking up speed until she was cruising through the water at a good clip. The Water Worker readied its prod to jab at her the moment she got into range, but it did not anticipate her detaching her forearms to drill through the water like torpedoes. They swerved around the mook’s guard and pierced into its suit. Its water drained through the holes and diffused into the ocean, quickly thinning the worker out until it no longer existed, leaving an empty suit behind. Nadia gaped at it as it drifted to the sea bed. Yikes…

Her ears perked up at the sound of electricity from behind, and after quickly reattaching her forearms she twisted around to find the other three members of the Water Worker’s squad. They charged at her, nice and slowly, and Nadia fired off her arms. She punctured the two frontrunners, but that left her without anything for the last as it leaped from the seabed to close the last few meters. Think, think! she fretted internally. I’ve got to use my…oh! With a grin she launched her head, beaning the Water Worker right on the helmet with a long-range headbutt. As it stalled in the water, she grabbed its slowly sinking shock prod and shoved it through the mook’s torso, and in a burst of electricity that was that. As the shriveling suit joined the others on the sand, she looked around to see if the workers left behind any nets or anything, but they did not. With a defeated expression Nadia swam up to the surface to get some air. “Yeesh,” she gasped, still zinging from her near-electrocution. “Not much of a challenge. Barely ‘wetted’ my appetite. Thank goodness I didn’t get shocked though, otherwise…”

Wait a second. She held up her hand. Thanks to Cat-5, she could do that too! With a grin she dove back down and propelled herself to the nearest school of anchovies. When she got close, she let her veins fill with lightning and willed herself forward in a burst of energy. Almost to her surprise she blasted through the shoal as a streak of lightning, sowing destruction in her wake. After coming to a stop and making sure she was still in one piece, Nadia turned to find a wealth of stunned fish just waiting to be scooped up. Don’t mind if I do!

After repeating the process a couple times, both for anchovies and shrimp, Nadia emerged from the surf with a sack filled to the brim with seafood over her shoulder. She made her way to the nearest beach chair, then plopped the bag down, followed shortly by the rest of her. A convenient towel worked to dry off her hair, though her jacket would be wet for a while. “Shockingly fun,” she joked to herself. She relaxed for a moment, enjoying the relaxing seaside peace and quiet while chewing on some raw fish as she air-dried. It wasn’t long, though, before her ear twitched, and she flipped away just in time to avoid the salvo of asparagus spears that messily punctured her chair. She landed to see a platoon of Pizza Box Goblins, and each of the squat green guys in their red boxes wielded either asparagus spears or broccoli clubs. “Avast!” the one in charge, who wielded a cannon made of celery, spat at her. “What be the meanin’ of this, lubber? The only thieves in these waters be us, the Green Pizza Pirates!”

“You’ve gotta be kitten me,” Nadia groaned. “Look, guys. It’s cool if you like veggies, but ya can’t just go killin’ everyone ya meat! Sooner or later ya might make…” Suddenly she whipped out her Bait Launcher. “A mis-steak!”

If the sight of a slab of meat plopping down at their feet affronted the goblins, the tiger that sprang into existence right by it scared them out of their wits. In the chaos that followed Nadia made her escape, her bulging bag of seafood slung over her shoulder as she ran down the beach. Only after rounding a corner did she pause for a break, putting a hand against a big, dark rock for support as she breathed. Of course, the rock then spoke to her. “Hello?”

“Yahh!” Nadia sprang back, her ears and tails rigid with fright. When she realized the big blockhead wouldn’t be going anywhere, though she relaxed. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“Just minding my own business I guess.” Despite the nice environment, he sounded emphatically unhappy.

Nadia winced, feeling like she’d ruined this poor rock’s day all of a sudden. “Uh…well. Sorry for droppin’ in then. What’s your name, pal? B-rock? S-tony?”

“...John.”

“Right. John!” Nadia clapped her hands together. “D’ya know how to get outta this beach area, John? It’s nice and all, but-”

“Just smack me and it’ll start the timer.”

Nadia grinned. “Oh great, thanks!” She smacked him, and when he fell over he promptly crumbled to nothing. Nadia blinked a few times as she watched him die, her smile fading. “...Wait, timer? John…?”

The level changed. As the sky turned redder, all the flying anchovies, pizza goblins, and other inhabitants previously ambivalent to Nadia’s presence uniformly turned to look at her. As if that wasn’t enough, John-faced portals manifested to spit out even more foes. Bizarre, terrifying clock faces were appearing everywhere. In mere moments, this tranquil seaside had become hell. “Oh…crap.” Her jaw dropped as she watched the doorway at the very top of the goblet pop open. “I have to get back up THERE!?”

All the enemies began to move, so she did too. She hoisted her sack and took off running toward the water, engaging Massachusetts’ power to skate across the surface as asparagus spears, artichoke heart cannon balls, and Gushens flew toward her. Picking up speed, she sped across the water, zigzagging left and right. The goblins on shore she left behind, but now their captain’s ship could take potshots at her. She had no idea what the ‘intended’ way to escape was, and she didn’t care to find out. A stupid idea struck her, and she altered course for the ship, watery eruptions caused by its cannonballs on the way.

When she got close enough she jumped and airdashed onto the deck, surprising and then bashing the pirates overboard with a few energetic swings from her sack. Nadia aimed upward, her veiled eye shut and her tongue out, then fired off her free hand to knock the ship’s cannon into a vertical position. Then she blasted off with a pressurized jump and landed nice and snug in the cannon, just in time for it to go off and send her soaring sky-high, leaving the flying fish in her dust. “WOOOOOOOOOO!” she screamed, as much from adrenaline as terror. As the cannonball beneath her lost momentum, she leaped off it and sailed through the air, waiting for just the right moment to use Charge one more time. She blasted down onto the goblet like a bolt from the blue, landing right in front of the door. The goblins lobbed their health foods at her, and their captain angrily waved his fist, but they fell far short, so with a smile a mile wide Nadia took a bow and jumped through the portal, not even paw-sing to collect her A-rank.

A few seconds later, she arrived in the Hub’s pizza kitchen, her sack of fresh seafood in hand. Though still a little wet, she looked cleaned-up, energized, and in high spirits. “Heya! I’m back!” she greeted everyone, including the eager Pizza Trolls. “And if you think I’m quite the catch, wait ‘til ya see THIS!” She plopped down her soaking-wet sack and opened it wide, inviting everyone feast their eyes on the bounty of the sea before everyone got busy making stuff they could feast their stomachs on, too.

Thanks to the collective efforts of everyone who went out to gather ingredients, the pizza-makers found themselves with a bounteous selection of toppings. Bowser, Kamek, and Ganondorf delivered a wealth of pork products: sausage, pepperoni, chorizo, ham, and more. Ichiban had risked life and limb to collect the most vital pizza ingredient of all, cheese. From the bizarre stony jungle known as John Gutter Therion brought a boatload of fruits, far more than could -or should- ever be piled on a pizza. Sectonia, Junior, and Rika came with a smorgasbord of sweets from the Peppibot Factory, none of which made a lick of sense to Nadia, but she didn’t plan to question it. Barnabee had gone to Gnome Forest to collect honey, but he returned with plenty of mushroom’s that he’d chopped off too. Last but not least, the feral’s own offering of anchovies and shrimp from Crust Cove. One after another the Seekers dumped their ingredients into the pizza kitchen’s Incredible Pizza Machine, and from there they could simple select what they wanted and watch the machine belch out a pizza ready for insertion into the pizza oven. While the red pizza bags wouldn’t accept anything but pizza boxes, they’d accommodate any number of boxes pizzas, so the team could afford to splurge.

Unable to bear the sight of amateurs throwing together crap pizzas, the trolls stepped in to lend a hand, offering plenty of advice about what to pair together. With their help, Nadia went with two pizzas: one with shrimp, the other with anchovies, and both with plenty of mozzarella and parmesan. Some olives, onions, garlic, and extra tomatoes would have been excellent additions, if only the Seekers had them. Unfortunately, with Rubick, Omori, and Jesse staying behind in the Hub, the team of gatherers hadn’t been at full strength. Still, there were plenty of extra ingredients, enough for everyone to share. Once she made her own, Nadia tried her hand at making the pizzas the Trolls wanted, starting with one that had pepperoni and cheese.

“Something must go!” Arno proclaimed, though he didn’t say what.

“Is that all I get?” Willa asked, disappointed, but not as much as Nadia when she didn’t get any hints for what else Willa might want.

“Something on there’s not good for me,” Shyler fretted, also not bothering to specify.

Nadia quickly gave up. Cunning schemes, clever puns, and sharp wits were her strong suit. Logic, not so much. Instead she sat herself down by the fire to finish drying off and, eeing no sense in wasting perfectly good food, chowed down on the pizza the Trolls refused. Not a normal breakfast by any means, but food was food, and she wasn’t going to complain. The only problem, she realized, was the silence. “Sheesh,” she piped up after swallowing a mouthful of pizza. “It’s like we don’t even know each other. C’mon guys, let’s liven things up a little! Ooh, why don’t we catch up on some of the crazy stuff we’ve been through? None of you were there with me in the Dead Zone, so I could probably knock your socks off with the story of…the haunted police station! WooOOooOO!” She gave a spooky wave of her fingers, then grinned and grabbed another pizza slice. “Buuut it’d be a hard act to follow, and I don’t wanna hog all the attention, so I’ll just save it for the end. So who’s up first? Any takers?” She looked around the gathering. “C’mon, don’t by shy! This is our chance to get closer as a team!”

Edinburgh MagikaPolis - Grammeowster’s Kitchen

Level 8 Big Band (99/80)
Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Red’s @TruthHurts22, Mewtwo’s @Double, Frisk’s [@Majoras End]
Word Count:

With a plan in mind, the Seekers need only wait until nightfall once more. Though they planned to do more or less the same thing as they did yesterday, the stuff that had gone down since then made the events of yesterday’s afternoon and evening seem a lifetime away. The fight between Linkle and N, the destruction of Alcamoth, and everything else that the other teams were doing wherever they’d ended up–those stuck in Edinburgh had missed it all. Yet that still only turned out to be the very tip of the iceberg when it came to their ignorance, as revealed by their run-in with the Consuls in L’s mansion. Who were L and N, really? Why were they here? How did they attain such roles and power? How much suffering had they perpetuated? How much death?

Though it felt like their organization had only just now crawled out of the woodwork, Band had already begun to get a sense of just how deeply entrenched the Consuls were in this world. There was no doubt in his mind that they would stand in the way of the Seekers’ goals, and after hearing Albedo’s account of his ill-fated voyage to Edinburgh four days ago, it seemed just as likely that L and N were the custodians of the secret weakness harbored by the Frozen Highlands’ mighty Guardian. The Consuls had to go, but the degree of power they possessed disturbed him. How nice it would be if they could really team up with Linkle to take down this terrible threat together. Red, Ace, and probably Mewtwo all saw a road to victory in that possibility, giving them the strength to fight on even after a brutal defeat at N’s hands. How unfortunate it was that only Band knew the truth. Linkle was dead, and if anything of her remained, it wouldn’t for long. If the Skullgirl wasn’t destroyed, Edinburgh -and maybe even the world- would be the price the heroes paid.

While Ace prepared his gear, refining his weapons and armor to peak condition and amassing consumables, and Red ventured back through the city in an effort to circle around the EMPD’s patrols and find out more from the Aether Resort, Band went on a journey of his own. At its core Edinburgh was a city of both magic and knowledge, and when it came to solving mysteries any detective worth his salt knew how to look for clues. To weather the coming storm, Band went in search of items and enchantments capable of making him more effective against undead, and his hunch turned out to be correct. Whether zombies, skeletons, ghouls, or even fouler monstrosities, undead seemed to be a common threat in fantastical worlds, which meant solutions for them weren’t uncommon, either. Of course, the steady rise in skeletons at night recently meant that such items were in demand, and Band couldn’t boast that much cash to begin with, but he managed to stock up on six holy water pots and purchase a Salve Amulet, inlaid with bright pink amethyst, to make his attacks fifteen percent more effective. He stopped for a cheap bite to eat at Danny Missiles on the way back, so by the time he returned from his trip, night was already beginning to fall.

The Seekers rallied together, meeting downstairs in Grammeowster’s Kitchen. With the old cook’s last few customers gone and the shop closed up for the night, they had the place to themselves. Mewtwo, Wonder Red, the Cadet, Albedo, Lucia, and himself made six, since Frisk did not show up. While her absence disappointed him to an extent, Band couldn’t really blame her. Even without formidable foes like the Consuls around, one couldn’t expect a normal person to just charge out into a night of the living dead. The power of a Skullgirl tended to grow with terrifying speed; tonight would be far worse than last night, and the team would have their work cut out for them. Better to leave such work to monster hunters, alien battlers, seasoned brawlers, genius alchemists, and ASG soldiers like himself.

“Alright, y’all,” Band began. “We’re gonna work our way toward the great pumpkin. We got a lotta city to cover, and I don’t want us splittin’ up, so we’re gonna have to go fast. There’s no tellin’ what’s out there. Not just ordinary skeletons, but policemen, mages, Pokemon too. Maybe even the Consuls. But we ain’t tryin’ to get into a rematch before we find the Skullgirl. She’s the source of the dead risin’, so chances are we’ll find her wherever there’s a skele-ton of ‘em.” He smiled as cheerfully as he could, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. “I hope y’all rested up and rounded up some healin’, ‘cause we’re in it for the long haul.”

Lucia nodded. “I figyahed we would. So I went out and got some eneahgy drinks.” She lifted up the blue cooler bag slung over her shoulder and unzipped it to reveal nine aluminum cans. “Just say the wahd and I’ll chuck one ovah. They’ah even bettah than cuaffee in a pinch, so gulp one down and it’ll getcha healed up in a jiffy!”

“I made something as well.” Albedo withdrew a plate from his Inventory, revealing a hearty helping of his special fish dish, Woodland Dream. “You may have noticed that when my Geo powers react with other elements, they produce crystals. If you pick one up, it will give you a shield for a short while. If someone eats this, those -and any other shields- will be much stronger for five minutes. And not just for the consumer, but the whole party.”

Band whistled, impressed. “Good work, y’all.” He reached up and gingerly parted the restaurant’s blinds with a mechanical arm. Clouds over the city blocked off the moon and stars, casting a pitch-black shadow over the streets of Edinburgh. Just like last night, the magical street lamps weren’t the only things lighting up that stygian dark. Ghostly blue flames blazed in the eyes of fleshless undead as they moved through the quiet streets. The witching hour had already come. Band took a deep breath in through his nose, then out through his mouth. Whatchu nervous about? he asked himself. You’re literally made for this. Maybe his nerves were still raw from the fight with N, or he feared for the safety of his allies, or he dreaded the inevitable fight with the Skullgirl and the old wounds it would surely open. But no matter what, Benjamin Birdland wasn’t going to call it quits. “Let’s go.”

The team hit the streets. Grammeowster waved them off, urging them to stay safe, and locked the door behind them. Right away, Band noticed that things were more intense than last night, just as he expected. Before, they mostly lurked in secluded spots, with only a few shambling along the streets. Now, though, entire troops of them trudged along the sidewalks. They rummaged through trash cans and mailboxes, knocked on doors, and peered into windows. None made a sound beyond the steady rattle of their bones that accompanied their footsteps as they strode purposefully through the byways and avenues, as if on patrol. Their greater numbers, of course, elicited a greater civilian response. Glintstone Sorcerers in dark blue robes and stone masks challenged the skeleton gangs with staves in hand, casting brilliant blue pebbles, rays, and blades to destroy their foes from afar. Shadowy-faced Black Mages conjured destructive magic with their rods, destroying attackers with ice, lightning, and fire. Most impressive of all was the colorful quartet of wizards who fought with sword and sorcery, combining different elements and casting styles to great effect with various projectiles, rays, and magic mines, able to shield and heal one another.

Of course, in emerging from their homes to fight at all they were risking their lives, for their enemies were vicious. Run-of-the-mill skeletons were the most abundant, many of them wearing tattered gear and wielding weapons or magic from their own. The bones of warriors, mages, and archers, some bound in ice, lightning, or fire, attacked in groups anywhere between three to a dozen strong. Finding one with a gun was an unpleasant surprise. The living could also fear inhuman skeletons, from small fry like Dry Bones and beastmen, to bigger, scarier Stalhounds and Beasts to undead brutes like horned Gigans, armor-strapped Giants, and Horrors with bony tails and tusks. Pokemon skeletons could be found as well, all seemingly able to use the same moves they could in life.

“...Right,” Band grunted, getting into a fighting stance. “Let’s do this.”

He began to move, either sliding across the roads with his music streaming behind him, or advancing one ground-shaking stomp at a time. A well-aimed Brass Knuckle could not only close the distance, but also power through attacks, and one mighty slug from Band’s huge mechanical mitt was enough to reduce most skeletons to bone meal. When the shamblers stepped to him the detective solemnly pulverized them one at a time. He blew them away with the tube from Overblow, crushed them with cymbals, took out their legs with the organ pipes from Low Rank, and sent them packing with his dropkick, the Five Thousand Pound Slam. Blunt force and raw strength, backed up by armor from Bagpipe Blues and the damage boost from his new Salve Amulet, worked wonders. If his play attracted a crowd Giant Steps could lay out a whole bunch at once, dialing things down a notch, and when a mob of incoming skeletons were nice enough to come at him roughly single-file Band treated the whole line to Super Sonic Jazz. Propelled by blasts of sound from the giant French horn, he plowed down the street, launching the few skeletons not fortunate enough to already be splintered with a stylish flip at the end.

Things didn’t stay simple for long, though. As the Seekers got closer to what felt like the epicenter of skeleton activity, more choice specimens began to show up. At one point a whole pack of skeletal beasts jumped him at once. Unfortunately for them, Band liked nothing better than catching overconfident fools in the act. He let loose his Satchmo Solo, freezing the entire pack in the air around him. Striking up a tune on his trumpet in that stolen moment, Band played the birthday jingle, alerting the others to his position. Then he unleashed his fists, pounding the beasts’ skulls and cracking their bones until only ashes remained.

“Whew…” Band breathed as the dust, ash, and snow began to settle. Despite the cold, he was managing to work up something of a sweat, so he deployed a little arm to dab at his brow with a handkerchief. “Three streets down, three to go. Piece of-”

An enormous slam cut him off, blowing away his hat and handkerchief. When Band’s trench coat stopped billowing and he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a horrific monstrosity. Though bestial in shape, it towered far large than any ordinary quadruped, and to its enormous, yellowing bones huge tufts of raven-black fur still clung. The fleshless face of Darkbeast Paarl stared at him with the hideous semblance of an enormous grin as lightning danced across its bones. Not far away, a Revenant touched down, the rocket launchers affixed to its shoulders trained on new targets. Band crouched, keeping his eyes on the monsters as he felt for his hat. “Finally. Thrashin’ all that small fry was startin’ to lose its savor.” He placed his hat back on his head and tightened it in a businesslike fashion. “Bring it on!”

World of Light

For the Under this week, we've got a special chance to stock up on food before the remainder of our subterranean adventure. Feel free to tackle a Pizza Tower level either alone or in a group. Could be a chance to show off your speedy platforming prowess, sneak in a conversation with someone else while working, or perhaps settle some differences. You can work with the theme of each level as you please to add related elements as you're going through them, like challenges, scenery and enemies / workers. Or, if you're so inclined you can just summarize a run through a level or have your character abstain altogether in favor of doing something else. There's all the dough in the hub, so we don't need to worry about gathering that at least. Just rolling it so all the toppings we collect can be made into pizzas. Whatever you do, remember to get back out of the levels before Pizza Time!

World of Light

The Under - Pizza Tower

Level 10 Nadia (212/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Ichiban’s @Truthhurts22, Omori’s [@Majoras End], Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 3205

It was a night like any other. Or maybe day, you could never tell down here without a clock on hand. The fashionable antique that had been sitting on the desk wasn’t working anymore, so after what felt like an eternity spent waiting in the cramped darkness, Nadia really couldn’t tell. Of course, that didn’t matter now. It was all over with. No more waiting, no more wanting, no more needing. No more sleepless nights spent longing, and no restless days spent toiling, planning, plotting, months of it, all just for this moment. And now she’d done it at last.

For a good long while, she just stood there in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out across the expanse. Few people could afford a view like this, either in terms of elevation, the amount of reinforced glass, or reconstruction costs. Certainly not her, and now she found that she couldn’t tear her gaze away. It really was an unfathomable miracle, this city in the deep. Schools of fish flocked like birds, congregating at clusters of seaweed that danced slowly in the gentle caresses of the currents. A blue whale, the greatest and most majestic animal in all the oceans, flew serenely past the window. Scarcely more than a parade float in comparison. From the rooftops of towering buildings that might’ve been called ‘skyscrapers’ anywhere else, powerful spotlights cast their brilliant rays up into the stygian depths as if to rail against the crushing blackness of a firmament that would never twinkle with distant starlight. Instead the people here gazed up at the glow of innumerable windows throughout the metropolis, not in wonderment of the unattainable cosmos, but in appreciation of the light and warmth they possessed, and in hopes of the heights they might one day attain.

It was a beautiful view. Everyone down by the seabed dreamed of becoming somebody someday, and gazing out of a window just like this one. Nadia flicked her tail restlessly Of course she’d dreamed those same dreams. Her and her whole family. Though she came from nothing, never knowing or caring for extravagance, and delighted in life’s simple pleasures, she hungered the same as they did. Others had more than enough to go around; the Fishbone Gang just wanted their fair share, and a fair share for the poor folks of Rock Bottom too. But life wasn’t fair. Greed was greed, and for daring to reach so high they’d been brought so, so low.

Nadia looked over her shoulder. Down at what was, by now, just another pile of ash. Now, they were even. Sweet, sweet revenge. And yet, despite years and years of constant practice, she couldn’t find it in herself to smile. She felt neither elation nor relief. That was the worst part. From the beginning she’d known that this wouldn’t fix anything. She never intended to do it for the sake of future victims, after all. But she’d convinced herself that this act would bring her satisfaction. Or maybe closure. Right now though, she only felt empty. Everything she’d cast aside for the sake of this moment, for what became her sole defining purpose…what now?

The door to the lounge slammed open, and she looked up, her expression blank. “She’s here!” A handful of suit-wearing goons spread out from the entrance, the barrels of their tommy guns trained on her. After them barged their ringleader, the teal-haired girl in orange, Cerebella. That hat of hers was already ready to fight. The girl paused for just a moment, stopped in her tracks by the sight of the devastation that had befallen the lounge. All the furniture and decor, from the sofas to the side tables, lay in ribbons and splinters. Ice and fire from Dahlia’s special rounds had wreaked almost as much havoc as Nadia herself, and a half-dozen ash piles remained of the Bunnies who’d tried to come between them. Funny that it’d be Cerebella. Nadia had heard just two things about her, and like all good gossip they were contradictory: that she was a good person, and that she’d do anything for Vitale. Well, she wouldn’t be here if that first one was true.

“...You actually got her,” Cerebella sounded almost impressed. “But I’m afraid this is as far as you go. Hand over the Life Gem, and I’ll get Vitale to let you go.”

Nadia sighed. So it’s like that, huh. She took one last look out the window, at the city and all its radiant lights. So much for being somebody. Then she turned to face the mobsters. By now all her new wounds were at least a little healed, which was good. She was going to need every drop. “Wow, just like that? You’re too kind~” She sharpened her claws. “Like I’d buy that. Let’s get this over with.”

The fight lasted only moments. Nadia didn’t hold back–she fought like a woman possessed, or someone with nothing to lose. The mobsters shot, stabbed, and swung at her, fighting to pry her claws from their throats, and she just kept coming. Slaughter for the slaughterers. Her rampage only came to an end when Cerebella finally managed to snatch her up, clamping her between Vice Vera’s massive palms.

Pushing back against the living weapon’s strength, Nadia laughed grimly. “You’ve got some serious guts, fightin’ me after seeing what I did to Dahlia, her bunnies, all your little friends…or maybe you’re hopin’ they softened me up? Hehe, you wish. I won’t stop until the Medici Mafia is destroyed. Every last one of ya.”

“That’s my family you’re talking about now,” Cerebella growled. “I won’t let you touch Vitale.”

Nadia grinned at her with pearl-white teeth. “Yeah? Try all you like. As long as the Life Gem’s power flows through my veins, no-one can stop me avenging the Fishbone Gang!”

“...Flows through your veins, huh?”

She began to squeeze tighter. Much tighter. Nadia grit her teeth, her eyes wide, as the walls closed in. Her attempts to fight back were in vain. A second later the giant hands slammed together, and when they opened again, almost nothing remained.

---

Nadia jerked awake with a guttural gasp. Her chest heaved as she hyperventilated, her skin slick with sweat, her nervous system in raw shock from the visceral certainty that she had been dying. To her horror she found herself bound, encased in some sort of sack, and in her panic she instinctively fought it tooth and nail, like a prey animal squeezed by a boa constrictor. After a couple furious seconds she fought her way loose, partially shredding it with her claws in the process. Only once she’d escaped confinement did her jolt of primal panic begin to subside. That awful sensation of being wadded up, then crushed to death…just a dream. A terrible, terrible dream, but no more than that. Jeez… As the thumping of her heart slowed, her breathing returned to normal, and she began to search for an answer to a very important question.

Where the hell am I? While she didn’t recognize her surroundings, she could tell that she’d wound up in some sort of tent, military green in color. When she took another look at the cloth thing she’d attacked in her terror, she was embarrassed to realize that she'd been fighting for her life against an ordinary, perfectly harmless bedroll. A bunch of her equipment lay neatly arranged on the other side of the tent, including her blade case, her boxcutter hilts, her new dagger Athame, the Bait launcher, her pouch-laden utility belt, and her jacket. That left just her top and her shorts to sleep in, which was definitely for the best. Everything else seemed to be in order, from ears to tails to toebeans. Hearing noise from outside, she crawled on all fours to the slit at the front of the tent where warm light seeped in, and after poking her head through the tent flaps Nadia got her first good look at her surroundings. Purple brick walls, roaring fireplace (the reason it felt so toasty in here no doubt), a firmly barred door, and more tents.

Ah. Now it was all coming back to her. This was the Pizza Tower’s bottom floor after all, the last thing she remembered before passing out. These tents and bedrolls were new, though. The more Nadia thought about it, the more probably it seemed that someone had been nice enough to scoop her sorry ass off the ground, get all her stuff off her, and put her to bed properly. Honestly, while someone else might see it as an invasion of privacy, that act of kindness struck Nadia as a major relief. Right now she felt sore, stiff, and hopelessly unkempt, with a bad case of bedhead turning her raven-black bob cut into an unruly wad of fluff. I must look like a disaster. She couldn’t imagine how much worse it’d be if left to sleep on solid stone, with all her equipment poking and pulling at her all night! It felt like she’d been tossing and turning, and no wonder, with a dream like that. “Ugh…” Nadia groaned, rubbing her eyes. Though the exact details of her dream were already slipping away, her unease lingered. It felt so real…

After shaking her head she ducked back inside her tent and threw her jacket on. While underground there was no reliable way to tell how much time had passed while the Seekers slept, but her gut instinct, drowsiness, and well-restedness suggested that it was some time in the morning. Seven, maybe? That meant it was a brand new day, guaranteed to be as chock-full of thrills and spills as the last. As much as Nadia hated starting another day of adventure in this state, she had to admit that she’d been pretty darn lucky to have spent the last three nights straight of her globetrotting trip in well-stocked hotels, complete with showers and complimentary breakfast. “Gonna have to get used to roughin’ it,” she told herself as she ran her claws through her hair as a makeshift comb.

Thinking of breakfast, unfortunately, made her realize just how hungry she was. She was starving. Thirsty, too–her tongue felt like sandpaper, and not in the way a cat’s tongue usually did. Nadia treated herself to a luxurious stretch, yawning like a lion, and exited her tent to greet the new day. “Good mornin’! Mornin’! Mornin’ everyone!” She made sure to greet everyone with the same cheerful smile. “Anyone got any water? I’m kinda fursty. Purrched, even.” After a few moments she came face to face with the three Pizza Trolls, who happened to be enjoying their last few leftover slices next to the warmth of the pizza oven. “Hey, guys!” she chirped. “What’s on the menu?”

Arno wasted no time in correcting her misconception. He, Willa, and Shyler didn’t make visitors pizzas; in fact, anyone seeking passage through this area needed to make pizzas for them. “If you want to get through Pizza Tower and reach the Forsaken Lands, you’re gonna have to make all three of us pizzas with only stuff we like!”

With that little nugget of wisdom came a new opportunity, however. “We are rather particular when it comes to toppings,” Willa advised the heroes. “But you’re free to make as many pizzas as you wish in order to find the right one for all of us. And the ingredients to make any pizza you could possibly imagine can be found on our magical tower’s various levels.”

Shyler nodded. “Y-you can even take ‘em with you when you go! In our special pizza boxes, pizzas never go bad or fall apart, and you can fit as many in our red pizza bags as you want!”

“Yeah, knock yourselves out,” Arno added. “They’re all open, just make sure you’re fast. Each level’s got a time limit, and trust me, you don’t wanna be in one when the timer runs out! And don’t go anywhere marked ‘Staff Only’, ‘cause boy you’ll be sorry! Now get movin’, these pizzas aren’t gonna make themselves!”

After that somewhat brusque briefing Nadia circled back around to talk with the others. “You guys catch all that?” she asked them excitedly. “Unlimited pizzas that don’t go bad? This sounds like the purr-fect chance to stock up on food for our journey! We don’t even have to make all the ingredients we get into pizza, we could just keep ‘em, or eat ‘em on the spot!” She looked over her shoulder at the trolls in case they were listening, but they were currently playing rock-paper-scissors for their last pizza slice.

While the feral spoke with the others, Barnabee approached the Pizza Trolls. “I beg your pardon. Last night I distinctly remember thee mentioning a ‘boss’ of some sort. Is he an individual of some repute?”

“Y’mean, is he a big deal? ‘Cause he’s like, the biggest!” Arno cackled. “Trust me, nobody -and I mean nobody!- messes with Pizza Face!”

“And hast thou happened to glimpse a porcelain-white mask fragment in his possession, by any chance?”

The troll looked bemused. “Uhh…maybe? T’be honest, I don’t pay that much attention to anything that isn’t pizza.” He narrowed his eyes at Barnabee. “Wink, wink!”

Barnabee nodded in gratitude, then returned to the others. Nadia joined them again after a few moments as well, having gone back together etch her belt and weaponry. Then she padded over to the Hub’s adjacent halls to get her first good look at the Pizza Tower’s available floors. The first hall featured five introductory levels, though the last one in the row appeared to be completely blocked off.

• John Gutter, a blend between underground jungle and tropical isle, with vegetation tinged as purple as the swampy water and a populace of living stone pillars, and various fruits like pineapple hanging from the trees
• Pizzascape, a medieval-themed castle of red brick, infested by Pepperoni Goblins and patrolled by Cheese Knights. Instead of weapons, its armories and wall-mounted racks contain arrays of peppers, including bell peppers, banana peppers, pepperoncini, and jalapenos
• Ancient Cheese, Pizza Tower’s cheese repository, piled high with all sorts of cheeses harvested and delivered from Crumble Cavern to be carved into building blocks and styled in the fashion of ancient Greek ruins. Home to many cheeseslimes
• Bloodsauce Dungeon, a foreboding and labyrinthine expanse of dark halls and rooms where cauldrons, vials, and even pits of red sauce, marinara, pesto, olive oil, barbeque sauce, alfredo, and buffalo sauce can be found if one can get past the monsters

In the second hall, the Seekers found western-themed levels, although the fifth and final one also seemed inaccessible.

• Oregano Desert, an arid expanse plus herbal oasis where all sorts of herbs grow in bushes, shrubs, and sprigs. Home to Buffalocusts, Egglers, Scorpeppers, and according to legend, the terrifying Mothza Supreme
• Wasteyard, a spooky underground cave full of ghosts, gabaghouls, and the burnt, shambling remains of pizzas that never got a chance at life. Being underground, roots, bulbs, and tumors can be found here in abundance, including garlic, red onions, and green onions
• Fun Farm, a lush Italian farmstead with a bumper crop of tomatoes. All sorts of poultry and beef products can be found here, from shredded chicken and eggs to ground beef and meatballs, if one can get past the giant bipedal poleaxe-wielding cows
• Fast Food Saloon, a western-style town where ranch dressing can be found in abundance, usually packing heat in the form of Ranch Shooters and a handful of banditos. There’s plenty of liquor here too, though

The third hall offered five levels collectively referred to as ‘Vacation Resort’, though two were blocked off.

• Crust Cove, a beautiful sunset seaside where the water is not only full of shrimp and anchovies, but sparkling. Black olive trees grow along its sandy shore as well. The vessel that sails its waters is crewed by green pizza goblins, wielding asparagus spears, broccoli clubs, and all sorts of things too healthy to go on pizza
• Gnome Forest, an enchanted fungal woodland filled to the brim with all kinds of tasty and flavorful mushrooms, with plenty of fungal freaks to match. Beehives can also be found littered around it, though the bees are loathe to give up the honeycombs inside
• Deep-Dish 9, an alien planet inhabited by U.F.Olives and one-eyed pickle creatures, highly protective of their flavorful, briney vegetables

Finally, the last hall also offered just three usable levels.

• The Pig City, a swine-themed urban city center where every shop is a butcher or deli, this is a one-stop shop for all essential pork products, like pepperoni, ham, prosciutto, salami, chorizo, and sausage. Just beware the wrath of the pigmen and piglin residents, only too happy to join together into an angry mob to dispose of any meat-eaters
• Peppibot Factory, a facility where raw materials are refined into a number of ingredients for dessert pizzas, including marshmallows, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips, candy bars, cookie crumbles, pie filling, and more. Owing to the value of these ingredients, the machines that operate this facility are well-armed and highly aggressive
• Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator, a snowy landscape where cheap, low-quality, frozen pizzas are assembled and kept. In terms of effort needed to make a pizza this is as low as it gets, but they’re practically guaranteed to displease, and the snowmen here aren’t exactly welcoming

While she found more closed doors than she expected, as well as a number of ‘help wanted - miniboss’ signs on said doors, Nadia found herself quite spoiled for choice. Each open door offered only a sneak peek at the level’s contents, so what the Seekers would run into once inside was anyone’s guess, but if the Pizza Trolls were right about it being dangerous they’d still need to be careful. Still, with her stomach rumbling and empty the feral was more than prepared to take a risk. There were a bunch of good options, but once she caught the faint smell of seafood drifting from the level marked as ‘Crust Cove’, she realized there wasn’t much choice at all. Trying not to salivate, she grabbed a burlap sack from the nearest pile and waved to her fellow Seekers. “Alright, see you guys back here in a few minutes!” With that she jumped in and was promptly whisked away to Crust Cove, eager to rustle up some seafood. Any other enterprising Seekers would be following suit with their own chosen levels, ready to put an end to the team’s short-lived food shortage.

World of Light

For the most part that sheet is okay, 'Lifeless' needs to be adapted somewhat. We can't just play characters that can't be killed. Ms Fortune's probably the closest it gets, and not only is her life-preserving ability a Power, but it's also not bottomless; she regenerates based on her current blood level, which replenishes over time or when she receives healing, and if she runs out of blood completely she can flatline. She could also theoretically be killed in other ways. There's also the WoL system of Lifelight, which is used up by gleaming characters to live. In addition, having a weakness be 'he can take damage sometimes' doesn't balance this out. So 'Lifeless' doesn't work as-is.

In addition, before playing a fourth character, I would prefer you didn't miss any weekly posting cycles with your other three characters for a bit in order to make sure you're okay with the load.

World of Light

The City of Glass - Regatta Bay

Level 5 Goldlewis (29/40)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Karin and Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Pit’s @Yankee, Raz’s @Truthhurts22, Roxas’ @Double, Benedict and Partitio’s @Dark Cloud, Tora, Giovanna
Word Count: 1733

The more Goldlewis saw of Wallace’s boat, the more amazed he became. As a high-up government worker he’d been used to working and meeting important people, whether in elaborate, historic places or huge, fancy venues. Yet he’d never been one to stand on ceremony himself; it just didn’t feel right to live a life of luxury on a salary extracted from the people he endeavored to serve and protect, especially when that money could be invested into their better service and protection. In his heart, he was ever the soldier, never the statesman. Why splurge on the finest French cuisine when a double bacon cheeseburger from Danny Missiles -or hell, Dunny Missiles for that matter- did the job just fine? More than fine in most cases, actually. Still, after a quick wander through the yacht’s incredible interior Goldlewis couldn’t help admit that the high life probably had its charms.

Such an extravagance was just the latest on the long line of brand-new experiences this adventure kept delivering to Tora, but he couldn’t bring himself to be excited. Just as with the breathtaking view of the City of Glass, life’s rich tapestry of beauty and joy lost its savor without someone special to savor it with. Instead of tucking himself in the lounge to enjoy some complimentary snacks and beverages, the Nopon ignored his empty tummy and placed himself on the yacht’s forward railing. All he cared about was reaching Vandelay Campus, where the coalescence of Vandelay’s robots and CyberLife’s androids produced the summit of automaton technology. Tora’s eyes lay on that obscenely massive ‘V’, full of grim resolve. He would use everything he could get his wings on to bring her back.

While Sakura toured the boat with Wallace to fulfill her end of the bargain, taking snapshot after snapshot of the man in an expressionless, neutral pose in front of his various possessions, the other Seekers gradually trickled in. Some of the others spent their brief reprieve on a deeper dive into the ethics of proposed actions in the current context. It seemed to Goldlewis like these heroes wanted to both get the mission done and do the right thing, but in his experience, those two conditions didn’t always mix. There was never a clean, ‘correct’ solution, only trade-offs. Zenkichi probably knew as well as anyone that you could never please everyone, but Goldlewis knew firsthand the kind of crushing weight that accompanied hard decisions when you were accountable to millions. Midna had a very real point: there was no guarantee that Galeem’s defeat would result in universal restoration. And even if there was, relying on that to wash one’s hands of all the consequences of one’s misdeeds. To bear the burden of such consequences, one needed the strongest shoulders imaginable, and the iron will necessary to make those hard decisions. That was where Goldlewis Dickinson came in–to bear that weight, so that nobody else would have to. For now though, the Seekers could avail themselves of the lucky opportunity that Mr. Limestein provided.

Speaking of, the man’s rather stoic photo op was coming to an end. He had his last photo taken in front of a grand piano, and after examining the picture he nodded in approval. “Good...this is a great photo. As a matter of fact, I have done a lot of research on music. I have enjoyed classic songs such as "Still Alive" and "My Heart Feels No Pain" more than twenty times. If my future friend happens to be interested in music, maybe we can book a whole concert hall and listen to an orchestra together. I'll pay for all that, of course.”

When Susie posed him a question, he fixed her with a thoroughly nonplussed expression. “At the moment, my sole occupations are the pursuit of novel entertainment, and my goal of obtaining a true friend.” Utterly nonplussed by the robot’s attempt to be personable, he saw no further need to humor her with a response, but after a moment he scratched his chin. “That said, this does strike me as just the sort of idle conversation I might indulge in with such a friend. Are you perhaps a psychoanalysis android? Alright, I’ll give this a shot. Let’s workshop a back-and-forth exchange once we get underway. After all this time, I am rather numb to the sights around here, after all.”

He then turned his attention to the wisdom Sakura imparted to him. “You are very correct. I could not accept any ‘friend’ attracted solely by my riches or reputation. Friendships of utility are not true friendships. And given my status, it's inappropriate for me to chat with strangers out on the street.” When she mentioned shared interests, he nodded in agreement. “Precisely. These photos will help demonstrate my interests, so that anyone who shares them can instantly recognize what an excellent friend I would make.” She lost him when her train of thought veered back toward fighting, though. “I am no ruffian, miss, and I must insist that you and your friends refrain from any action that might damage my yacht. They do not come cheap, you know.”

Soon everyone was aboard, with Roxas the last one on courtesy of his detour to a sushi bar, and the boat set sail across Regatta Bay. While Wallace claimed to have learned how to control it himself, since he originally figured doing so might make for a fun pastime, he set the yacht to autopilot. Then he met with Susie to begin their conversation session. “Alright, let us simulate a typical conversation. What was it you asked…what do I do? Hm. Well, I have a couple of properties in the Administrative District that require maintenance. I have to pay taxes for them. But I'm far too lazy to rent them out — I mean, time is money! Besides, they're full of priceless relics.”

Goldlewis, watching from the sidelines, raised his eyebrows. “You’re into ancient relics, mister?”

Not exactly,” Wallace admitted. “I just like to own them. For example, a while back Lord Simon told me he obtained a particularly rare gold watch, said to be a relic left behind by Midgar’s previous Administration. How could I miss out on such a rarity! So I offered him three houses for it.” He shrugged, then continued without giving Susie a chance to speak. “I also own an antique car that I’ve kept in pristine condition for years with some help from my twenty-person maintenance team. And a few days ago, I spent a small sum of money — as much as the price of a few antique vases. I requested for someone to fetch a cyberpet from the Sector 04 undercity. Unfortunately...once it was assembled, it was nothing special. As for the people who come from below, all they talk about is policies, money, and business. There is absolutely nothing I can talk to them about. How painfully mundane!” The conversation continued like this for some time, and Susie got very little out of it.

After a good while spent sailing at a leisurely pace across the waters of the Sector 06 plate, the yacht drew close to Vandelay Campus. Its iconic tower had been gargantuan from a distance, but from up close it loomed even larger. Sure, it didn’t exactly compare to the sheer height of Split Mountain, or the vastness of the Sandswept Sky, but this was a man-made edifice. It didn’t just make Tora feel small; it made him feel unimportant. Compared to the rest of the City of Glass, these facilities and factories were both a lot more colorful and rough around the edges, but the public-facing offices and the grand atrium were as spotless and sparkling as could be. Their destination lay between the main building and an exorbitant outdoor concert stage: the illustrious Dendenmille Showcase Theater, with its rich red facade and impressive domes.

The public entrance to the Vandelay Campus took the form of a large area that accommodated all forms of transportation from cars to watercraft to aircraft, known as Circuit Royal. After steering past a number of other boats, Wallace’s craft pulled up at the docks so that the Seekers could disembark. With no intention of attending the debate himself, their pretentious benefactor bid them farewell, then left them in the company of a huge amount of people making their way to the same destination. It wasn’t just residents of the City of Glass; travelers from all eight of Midgar’s plates had come to attend the final debate of the presidential race that would define their city’s future. Blimps, airships, and helicopters seemed to be the exception to the City of Glass rule of ‘no interplate traffic’, and quite the variety could be found around the port. No wonder the Sector 06 Hublink had been so busy, crowded, and well-defended! Security seemed even stronger here, not necessarily any tighter, but a lot more numerous. With this being the birthplace of the Vandelay robots, it made sense that there would be a lot of them here. And somewhere, in all of this hubbub, were the presidential candidates themselves, each with their own hand-picked retinues of capable guards.

Goldlewis took a deep breath. “Well, we’re here. Thanks to these press passes, we’re gonna get front-row seats.” He stroked his whiskers. “Or, six of us will, at least. The rest of y’all need to figure somethin’ out if ya wanna watch first-hand. That said, I’m sure the debate’s gonna be plastered all over every TV in the whole doggone city, so you can put your feet up at a restaurant or somethin’ just as easy.”

“Tora not care about big argument, meh,” Tora piped up. “Want guided tour of robot factory. That something big company do, yes?”

The veteran scrunched his brows together. “I reckon they oughta, but you shouldn’t go off on your own, son…”

Once the team made the final selection and juggled around the press passes, the lucky few could proceed toward Dendemille Showcase Theater to be seated, while the rest needed to look elsewhere. The vast and varied Vandelay Campus was like its own self-contained city, though, so there was plenty to see and do even without entering any restricted zones, and about an hour to do it before the main event.

Escaping the Home of Tears

Level 10 Nadia (208/100)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ganondorf’s @Double, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Ichiban’s @Truthhurts22, Artorias’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 3743

Peals of uproarious, manic laughter rang out from the tentacled pirate Barbary as her Octobombs detonated one after another, their plumes of billowing flame a bright, harsh light against the gloom of the Home of Tears. Entire swathes of its monstrous citizenry either hurtled into the water, propelled by the explosions’ concussive force, or leaped in on their own to quench the fire when Barbary’s destruction set them ablaze. Sophie’s potions sowed almost as much havoc, their sorcerous splashes instantly afflicting all those unlucky enough to be caught in them with blindness, slowness, poison, and fatigue. Though not as fast off the blocks as the others, Solon managed to outdo them both in terms of pure havoc. As the heroes fled, hounded by gangs of pursuers, his relentless casts of Miasma Δ quickly blanketed the circular plaza with clouds of thick, venomous gas to swallow up any who failed to get clear in time. Once caught in that noxious smog, it would only be a matter of time until even the strongest combatants succumbed, their throats and lungs agonizingly thick with malefic chemicals.

Whether her allies made it out of the mayhem or not, Nadia didn’t dare look behind her just yet. Courtesy of the Koopas’ quick thinking and varied abilities, an avenue of escape had opened up just when it looked like the Seekers were about to be swallowed up by the horde, so right now nobody’s safety concerned her quite as much as her own, and she needed to move.. Thanks to F’s terrifying mind control, the cityfolk were literally seeing red, and the hunt was on. Those that could took to the waterways, the paper boats on their endless journey, or private watercraft. The rest crowded along the water’s edge on both sides, taking potshots from the bridges and islands of the Collection or the southern jetties of the Amusement Park on the right. With a cacophony of vengeful yells, battle cries, incantations, and called-out attacks at her back. She skated across the surface of the city’s southeastern waterway in a zigzag pattern, dodging arrows, spells, hurled objects, and a couple citizens who threw themselves from the railings in hopes of taking the feral with them into the drink. At one point a grenade plopped down into the river behind her and blew up a moment later, sending up a spout of water, but the resulting wave only helped speed Nadia on her way. With most of the enemies focused on the Koopa Troop, she quickly outpaced the swimmers and sailors with Massachusetts’ incredible nautical mobility, putting some distance between herself and the action. Her stores of adrenaline were starting to run dry, though, and realizing she desperately needed a moment, she cruised towards a rock protruding from the water a safe distance from land.

Nadia plopped down on the outcrop, her breath ragged in her throat as she fought to catch her breath in the pouring rain. The fatigue, aches, and stress of a whole day’s near-constant exertion all weighed her down, and her heart pounded in her chest. If not for her nap at Habbo Hotel and that much-needed reprieve at the Terminal cafe, she reasoned that she might’ve been done for. Of course, Nadia knew she wasn’t out of the woods just yet. After rolling over she scanned the waterway in a sitting position, on the lookout for the Koopa Troop and their great white whale, but when she spotted them her heart sank. She’d assumed that with that kind of firepower Bowser’s gang would be able to handle being the center of attention, but it looked like they’d gotten a lot more than they bargained for. The Mermaid Corps had caught up to Rika’s ghastly cetacean and started stabbing, and enemy watercraft closed in on all sides. A magic shield went up around it, and as the paper boats converged the whale submerged, but its future was anything but certain. Unfortunately, before Nadia could see any more the water erupted in front of her.

Her eyes went wide as the purple dinosaur from below lunged towards her like a crocodile, fangs bared and a ferocious axe brandished. There was no time to pressurize her blood for a Fiber Upper. Moving instinctively, the feral rolled backward into a handspring, and as she vaulted onto the water the head of Susie’s axe came down on the stone. Instead of obliterating her target it cracked the rock in half, and as Nadia slid backward across the water’s surface the two locked eyes, lips curled and teeth bared. Without saying a word, both took action. Nadia pressurized her arms, and a pink flame sparked at the end of Susie’s axe. At the same exact time both unleashed their might, the feral with a blood-propelled right-arm rocket punch and the dinosaur with a blazing arrow of Rude-elemental damage. The next second both attacks hurtled past their foes’ faces, coming within centimeters of a critical headshot. Susie, however, snapped her jaws shut on Nadia’s outstretched muscle fiber, eliciting a pained “YOWCH!”

With a grin Susie yanked the limb with her mouth, trying to reel Nadia in like a fish on the line, but the cat burglar detached the cords and cannoned off her other arm. Puzzled as to why the limb suddenly went slack, Susie took her opponent’s palm strike straight to the nose, and as the dinosaur reeled Nadia closed her hand to clamp down on Susie’s snout. “Just call me a pepper…” From there the feral just retracted her arm to zip straight across the water to Susie and start up a combo. “‘Cause I’m jalapeño business!” Her two-hit Flip Flop kick led straight into a One-two Pun-isher and finally a good old-fashioned Limber Up to pop Susie into the air. Then Nadia went low, mustered her strength, poured a whole lot of blood into a copied right arm, and finally launched her fist skyward in a jaw-dropping uppercut. “Honorable…DISCHARGE!” When the punch connected, she blasted it out in a geyser of blood to add even more oomph, and Susie sailed into the air, her eyes and mouth wide open. Nadia’s right arm fell from her jaws and socketed neatly back into place, held up in a fist-pump of victory, and a moment later Susie splashed down into the water a couple dozen feet away.

Nadia chuckled, feeling a little light-headed, and turned her attention back toward the others. The Troop had resurfaced on the other side of the citizens’ flotilla, but the exercise left their whale thoroughly boarded. Guess I’m safe on my own, she thought with a sigh. Our only chance is together. As if on queue, a wicked cry made her ears perk up, and she turned to see Lord Raptor flying at her through the air with Death Hurricane, his limbs whirling like helicopter blades. “Whoa!” She put up her guard to block it, and after landing Raptor immediately threw her; his claws closed around Nadia’s shoulders and he extended his ribs like fangs to pierce her torso again and again before slamming her down. He went in for the meaty and got a Fiber Upper for his troubles–this time Nadia was ready. Before she could capitalize on her reversal, though, she spotted Hsien-ko skywalking in. The Jianshi extended a chain from her sleeve to grapple to a point in space, then swung beneath it, her arm windmilling in a vertical circle with claws outstretched. Nadia made her decision and got the hell out of there, skating away from the rocky outcrop as fast as her sealegs could take her, with the two undead in pursuit.

She reached the entrance to Crumble Cavern just after the Koopa Troop did. Just as with the passages to the Womb and King’s Station, this entrance featured a semicircular stone platform on each side of the cave wall, so she leaped up from the water to race across it. In a blink, she’d exited the deluge of the Home of Tears and entered into the merciful dryness of the cheese-filled megacave. Running behind Rika’s whale, she watched as it used its momentum and slick underside to slide across the stone with everyone atop it, then fly off the opposite side over a yawning abyss. Nadia’s eyes widened, but there was no turning back now, so she buckled down for the final sprint. “This not a gouda ideaaaaaaa!” A terrifying moment later the whale slammed down on the cheesy cliff on the gorge’s far side, sending crumbs spiraling down into the dark, and Nadia touched down beside it. Thanks to her new paws she landed better than ever, but her momentum sent her into a roll and she wound up on her back, which meant an uncomfortable smack against her blade case. “...Gah!” she grunted as she gasped for breath, wanting nothing more than to lay there for another few hours, but the Seekers’ pursuers had other plans. Bowser’s yell got her attention, and after sitting up Nadia saw cityfolk amassing on the stone platform above the waterfall. Bowser was right; there was no time to lose. “Yeah, ricotta get goin’!” With a groan she got to her feet and took off running across the cheesescape. Soon the caves and tunnels echoed with the sounds of a half-dozen battles.

Under better circumstances Nadia would have liked to stop and marvel at this place. The cheese was breathtaking, and not just in a metaphorical sense–the smell was almost overpowering. Beneath her feet, the ground felt spongy and even a little bouncy. Dozens of varieties littered the landscape like different kinds of stone in all sorts of formations, a smorgasbord of colors, textures, and aromas. With bloodthirsty monsters on her heels, though, she’d have to stop and admire the scenery some other time. On the far side of the cavern lay the team’s destination, but getting there -and getting rid of her unwanted company- would be a problem. Between the river and the gorge most of the cityfolk had given up their chase, but that left the Home of Tears’ strongest warriors. A quick look over her shoulder after swatting aside Cheeseslimes confirmed both Hsien-ko and Raptor in pursuit. When she leaped and airdashed over a pit full of cheese wedge spikes, Raptor airdashed after her by whipping his legs around, and Hsien-ko swung over. “Ugh. Curd you two give it a rest?” When she sliced up a Gabaghoul and then slid underneath a low-hanging cheese archway with Cat Slide, the zombie morphed his lower half to perform a bizarre crouch-walk, and the jiangshi simply blinked to the other side. “Oh, brie-lliant.” Even when she approached the cavern wall and sunk in her claws to wall-run a couple hundred feet over a massive ravine, her pursuers kept up, Hsien-ko with another skywalk and Raptor with a freakish teleport that involved summoning some sort of demon to swallow him up and then spit him out from the ground on the other side.

“...Cheese Louise,” the feral laughed breathlessly, frustrated. She just didn’t have the gas to keep this up. After a longing stare at Pizza Tower, her eyes landed on a gigantic swiss cheese wheel just a short ways off, and the gears in her mind began to turn. “Guess we’ll finish this the old-fashioned way.” As the zombies closed in she took off, sprinting into one of the swiss wheel’s holes. She ran and climbed through the twists and turns of its tunnels, and though the undead followed they quickly lost sight of her in the maze. When the two eventually climbed out through a hole in the very top of the wheel, they found Nadia waiting for them in what looked like a giant, circular arena of cheese.

“What took ya so long? Feelin’ bleu?” Nadia grinned at the pair as they approached, Raptor at a saunter and Hsien-ko with slow hops, head lolling creepily. With Pizza Tower in the background and the chase concluded, the showdown was about to begin. Their eyes lingered for a moment on the spare blades haphazardly plunged into the creamy-white surface of the swiss, then the case at Nadia’s feet. “Y’know, I can’t say I’m cheesed to meetcha. This isn’t your fault. But there’s no other way,” the feral told as she stood firm, her boxcutters in hand. “So let’s cut to the chase. Your fon-doom approaches!”

In reply, the zombies charged. Raptor messily morphed his right forearm into a freakish chainsaw, as long as he was tall. The way this guy moved, the way he fought, reminded Nadia of herself, albeit to a much greater extent. There was no way he felt pain, and therein lay her strategy. As he ran in swinging, two Copycats burst up from the holes where they’d been lying in wait. They pounced on him from the sides, grabbed hold, and sank their claws in. Together they made him stumble and fall directly onto one of the extra blades, piercing him through the stomach. Both Hsien-ko and Nadia rushed toward him, but the feral arrived first to drive both her boxcutters into him to hold him in place. Pulling the triggers detached the blades and left Raptor triple-nailed to the cheese, giving Nadia a chance to fight one-on-one.

Grimacing, Hsien-ko swung her sleeve, flinging a handful of basketball-sized spiked metal spheres her Nadia’s way. She blocked them, reabsorbed her Copycats, and ran toward her foe. On the way she passed by and attached two new blades, clicking them into place. She stopped short to avoid a giant claw slash, then leaped for a jump-in only to take a strike from Hsien-ko’s claws, extended diagonally on chains. As she fell her foe hopped forward, and by the time she rose Hsien-ko had leaped into the air to come down on her with Zanpa, her claws spinning beneath her like a grinder. Never one to block, Nadia dashed forward to cross beneath her opponent, then spun around with her Cat Scratch series, made longer and stronger by her boxcutters. “One! Two!” For the final hit she flipped forward to bounce Hsien-ko off the ground with her El Gato axe kick. “Wreck-a your face!”

Nadia used this brief window to create a Copycat, and when Hsien-ko hit the cheese, she sent it low with Cat Slide. The jiangshi blocked low on wakeup, smashed the doppelganger flat with her claws, and when her foe hurled her boxcutter blades, she produced a huge gong to reflect her projectiles right back at her. Taken by surprise, the feral took a slice to the ribs and the bicep. “Agh!” she cried, her severed arm falling to the ground in a spurt of blood. “You munster!” Hsien-ko blinked in to capitalize only to run straight into Nadia’s disjointed knee. “Gotcha!” she cackled, extending her head on a cord of muscle to smash into Hsien-ko’s like a flail. The zombie’s backward stumble came to an end as the reformed Copycat hit her from behind with Shove Off, pushing her back into Nadia, who launched herself sideways with her lower half spinning to unleash a vertical windmill kick. She landed in a split and reattached her arms as her clone made Ear Piercing its last hurrah, allowing her to finish off with a double-bladed Gol-fur Swing.

Just when Nadia managed to send Hsien-ko flying, though, Raptor finally worked his way off his blades. He ran up and jumped in on her with Loudness Screw, twisting his whole bottom half into a bone-tipped coil of flesh. Naturally Nadia challenged him, lashing out with a series of slashes, but she found out she wasn’t the only one with a guard cancel when he beefed out of blockstun with the killer guitar riff Death Phrase, backed by the one-eyed monstrosity she caught a glimpse of before. The soundwave stunned her, and the horror promptly launched Raptor forward for a body-slam that knocked her down. To add insult to injury, he then jumped and danced on her with Skull Javelin, letting out high-pitched laughter as he stomped one foot after the other. Enraged, Nadia let out all her frustration in one big burst. “RAAAAAWWRRR!” When Raptor regained his feet he immediately took one of Nadia’s flung blades to his chest. As an angry Nadia barreled toward him, she unwittingly used Charge, becoming a streaking bolt of electricity that burst through Raptor to reform behind him. As he reeled, she blinked, coming to grips with what happened. “Shock?” The zombie wheeled around with a massive guitar swing, but it passed harmlessly between her as she bifurcated her midsection. Then she struck in turn, this time with Battery. “And awe!” Right after her flourishing blade strikes came a two-burst aftershock. With a groan Raptor lashed out in return, jutting out his own elbow as a bone lance, but Nadia beat it out with Hand in Hand and popped off her own head for a Furnado Drill to seal the deal. “A bit off the top!”

Raptor fell flat on his back and lay there for a moment, but when he finally dragged himself to his feet, Hsien-ko was standing beside him. Though both had taken some decent damage, they stood together for a last ditch effort. Meanwhile, Nadia swayed drunkenly, barely standing. She didn’t fight in a way that conserved energy, and now she’d just about run out. Her blood reserves were too low for any more Copycats, too. I can do this. I can do this! It took a conscious effort to keep smiling as she clicked in a new blade from the ground. “Hey…any chance we could call this a draw? I’m basically dead on my feet…not as much as you two, but still…”

Raptor chuckled and snapped his fingers, a rainbow glow overtaking his body. Teeth erupted from the cheese beneath Nadia, and as she froze in terror thanks to her phobia, the zombie’s monstrous companion arose to chomp her into a ball. It spat her into Raptor’s waiting hands, and after dribbling her twice the monster morphed into a bizarre basketball hoop, allowing Raptor to finish off his incredible Hell Dunk. Though Nadia turned back to normal after that, her troubles were only just beginning; Hsien-ko unleashed Tenrai Ha, raining down spiked balls from the sky on top of her. Though she tried to block while on the ground, in the end she lay there flat-out, on the verge of blacking out. The undead approached and stood over her, ready to finish her off.

“Oww. You got me,” she groaned. “But I got…one last…Idea…”

Her striker manifested over her, dwarfing both zombies in size. As they stood there, shocked, the monstrosity shot out its seven tongues to bind the two and bash their heads together. That left them stunned just long enough for Nadia to get to her knees, dig in her claws, face them with the power building in her left eye. “River-carvin’...” Spending every bar of Tension she had, Nadia blasted the two with a thick beam of pure, unadulterated Hydro. “RAPIDS!” The magical torrent washed both Lord Raptor and Hsien-ko all the way across the swiss cheese arena. They disappeared over the side, and after a moment Nadia slumped down. “Damn I’m good,” she gasped, the instant before she smacked face-first into the swiss.

A few minutes later she stirred, already in better shape thanks to her regeneration, but more tired than she could ever remember being. After getting to her feet she lurched to the edge of the swiss wheel closest to the Pizza Tower, collecting her boxcutters, her blade case, and her loose blades on the way, then slid down the side. Just a little farther to go.

When she finally climbed the last cheese hill and reached the tower’s doors, she found most of the others already there, and the doors wide open. “Oh, hey,” she said dazedly, pausing for a moment to lean against the door on the way in. She looked pretty beat-up. “We made it…thank goodness.” Once everyone staggered inside, they could close and bar the doors behind them.

The bottom floor of the Pizza Tower seemed to be some sort of lobby. There were five adjoining halls labeled ‘Tower Lobby’, ‘Western District’, ‘Vacation Resort’, ‘Slum’, and ‘Staff Only’, each of which promised to connect to five or so specific floors of the tower. For now though, those doors -and the tower itself- seemed to be closed for the night. Sconces on the walls blazed softly, and in one corner a huge pizza oven kept the place dry and very warm. While the sudden intrusion of well-armed outsiders had roused the three attendants from their slumber, but the stump-like Pizza Trolls didn’t seem to care. “W-well, the levels up above are pretty dangerous, but nothing happens down here,” Shyler, the nicest of the three, explained. “When you’re feeling better, you can visit any of the levels, and bring all the toppins you gather back here. Then you can make all the pizzas you want with our oven. Especially if you give us some! Oh, pizza…” Though lost in dreamland for a minute whilst thinking about pizzas, he quickly refocused. “O-oh, and you can stay and rest here in the Hub if you like. I’m sure the boss wouldn’t mind. Nobody messes with the Pizza Tower, after all! Hehe…”

By the time Sectonia (or her ‘minions’) unpacked her new Deluxe Camping Set, with its spacious tents and cozy bedrolls, Nadia was already sound asleep.