Lugubrious

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

Dead Zone Hinterlands - Curien Mansion

Harry’s @Eviledd1984 Amaterasu’s @DracoLunaris Chosen Undead’s @Simple Unicycle Level 11 Big Band (32/110)
Word Count: 1764

With how dark and cramped these halls were, neither Kit nor Band could fight at full strength, and any skirmish was bound to favor their unknown assailants. When it came to tackling the spider, their best bet was Band supporting from behind, rather than block off his comrade completely behind his bulky frame. Even with that tactic in mind, though, neither were quite prepared for the Bunker Spider when it scuttled from the shadows. Featuring far more than eight legs, the monstrous thing reminded the detective more of a house centipede than a spider, but there was no mistaking those nightmarish fangs–especially when they punctured Kit’s cuirass. Band moved fast to intervene and crumple the beast’s exoskeleton beneath the strength of his Brass Knuckles, allowing the Chosen Undead to retake control of the fight and finish the thing off. It was a brief but vicious exchange of blows, and despite his hardened nerves and body of steel, Band’s heart was pumping from the experience.

When thanked, Band shook his head. He didn’t need the knight doubting himself right now. “Nah, it ain’t nothin’. No need to go round pledgin’ fealty, either. I’m just happy to help.” Really, the two had gotten lucky, and not just for the fact that the spider didn’t seem to be venomous. With how volatile fights in tight spaces could be, it would be terribly easy to accidentally clip Kit with a strike and aggro him, given his gleaming nature. Band had missed his chance now that the knight had healed himself with an Estus flask, but he’d need to use a Friend Heart to free him the first chance he got. In a place like this, with any number of unknown horrors lurking around every corner, being able to flee would be the difference between life and death. “Those things are spirits, by the way. You got the right idea hangin’ on to ‘em, but I’ll tell ya what they do later. C’mon, let’s boogie before anythin’ else shows up.”

The two pushed forward through the hall with the fewest intact spider webs, reasoning that Harry would have torn through any in his path during his abduction. After so many delays, the pressure was on to find both their other allies and Heismay, so the atmosphere was tense. At the same time, Amaterasu was working her way back along the distinctive scent trail Harry sent, with the man himself shuffling along behind her. With the covetous bug satiated -for now- by his peace offering, it left Harry to his own devices. Naturally, he’d broken a couple of the valuables stuffed into his clothes while brawling with the gnomes, which turned out to be very fragile. None took more than a single hit to shatter like porcelain from either him or Amaterasu. Even picking one up and dropping it was enough to take it out. With that easy -and perhaps cathartic- run-in out of the way, they could seek out the other half of their team as well.

After about thirty seconds, the two pairs converged in a strange room. It was square, and decently sized, with black and white checkered tiles and a variety of cupboards and cabinets along the wall. It also seemed impossibly tall, with at least five stories between the intruders and the vaulted ceiling, with a narrow perimeter staircase winding upward one long flight at a time. It was difficult to gauge, though, since the only light in here came from a single bulb that dangled directly over a ten foot square pit in the center, its wire stretching up into the darkness. When the opposite door creaked open a moment after he stepped inside, Band readied himself for another fight, only to identify Amaterasu in the fitful glow of that lonesome bulb. “Aha! Found ya.” He let out the breath he’d been subconsciously holding. “Y’all in one piece still? Good. We been runnin’ into all kinds of creepy crawlies in here. And still no sign of…!”

Just then, the doors of the room’s cupboard and cabinets flew open. Out leaped at least a dozen human skulls, with tiny skeletal limbs, red glowing eyes, and implanted sticks of dynamite. “Oh damn.” Overwhelmed, Band whirled toward the nearest ones, trying to put together a plan. These targets were plentiful and small, and there was no telling whether or not they’d explode when hit. With that pit in the middle of the room, the team couldn’t assume a back-to-back formation, which meant they could easily be blindsided. As he watched, one of the skulls did a spin to light its fuses, then charged.

Then something happened. A whitish blur shot down from a high vantage point and struck the sizzling skull. It soared through the air, little legs flailing, and plummeted down into the pit. It happened so fast that it left Band blinking, confused. The next moment, though, it happened again, with another skull lighting its fuse and being summarily disposed of. The same blur streaked across the room again and again, handling the little bombs two or three at a time. Finally, when the last four lit up at about the same time, the white streak zigzagged around to capture all four before it came to a sudden stop in the room's center. The Seekers’ savior seemed to be a white-furred, batlike creature with big ruby-red eyes, small but strong enough enough to hang from the cord with one clawed hand while the other held the four struggling skulls by their fuses.

“This place is dangerous,” he warned the awestruck onlookers, his stern voice colored by a provincial French accent. “Full of all manner of disgraceful creatures. You should return from whence you came.” With that, he dropped the hissing skulls into the pit. They exploded violently, and when the flashes ceased, the batlike fellow was gone.

Band narrowed his eyes, thinking. For a while now, it felt like he was being watched, and now this stranger -the first intellectual being his team found in here- had swooped in from the shadows to save them. It wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine that the bat, stealthy and swift, had not just heard Harry the moment he first yelled out for Heismay but also been following the intruders ever since. Trusting in his intuition, Band decided to go out on a limb.

“Heismay? That you?” His voice echoed through the upper reaches of the room, and it garnered no response. “I know you can hear me. Look. The militia sent us after your head. Said you’ve been kidnappin’ kids. But I think there’s more to this story, and not just ‘cause you saved our butts just now.” Band searched the darkness as he spoke. “Morris told us there’d be no monsters here today on account o’ the sandflash, but that clearly ain’t the case. He said he saw you climbin’ into town late at night, but why would he catch ya climbin’ when you can move like that? Somehow didn’t mention you’re a little bat fella neither. And how’s a little guy like you steal kids bigger than you are, too? It don’t add up.”

A moment of eerie silence passed. Then Heismay’s voice echoed back down, giving no hints as to where its source might be. “I am many things, not all of them good, but I am not a kidnapper.” His voice was filled with indignant venom, as if the very idea of him doing such a thing seared his soul. “The world out there is filled with loss and pain, and I could not abide its cruelty. I thought it better to live here in solitude than in the embers of hell. At least the monsters here do not hide their true faces!”

Sensing Heismay’s pain, Band tried to read into his words. “So the village is hidin’ somethin’. It sounds like we won’t find the lost kids up here.”

“Indeed, you will not,” Heismay confirmed knowingly. “But you won’t find them in Martira, either. I don’t know what was happening down there, but I do know who put a stop to it, and I believe she has the childrens’ best interests in heart.”

Band raised an eyebrow. “So you know who’s been stealin’ ‘em?”

“Not stealing them. Saving them. From a terrible fate,” Heismay corrected him insistently.

“Oh?” Band had expected a second layer to the story, but a third? Now we’re talking. “And who might that be?”

For another moment, silence reigned. Then Heismay replied, hesitant. “I’ve gathered that you’re all outsiders to Martira. Genuinely concerned for the children, and able to understand that not everything might be as it seems. If I take you to her, and you see that the children are safe, will you promise to leave her in peace?”

“If this friend o’ yours stole the kids away to keep ‘em safe, then all we gotta do is fix whatever’s goin’ on in Martira so they can go back home safe and sound.” He squinted. “Assumin’ she lets ‘em.”

“She will,” Heismay told him. “She’s been taking good care of them. Once the problem is dealt with, she’ll bring them back.”

“If that’s how it is, then you have my word,” Band told him. “But if it ain’t, it ain’t just your ass, ya hear?”

“Very well.” The shadows stirred, and Heismay appeared. In full view, he seemed laughably small, but Band saw the sword slung across his back. “Then let’s go.”

As if in response, the lightbulb -and all other sources of light in the mansion- went dark. Band looked up sharply. “What just happened?”

Heismay’s eyes narrowed in the gloom. “The house doesn’t want to give us up.” He took off at a run, waving at the others to follow him. “Hurry!”

A creak issued from the doors behind the team, through which Amaterasu and Harry had come. A peek backward over Band’s shoulder gave him a terrifying glimpse at a shadowy figure with white glowing eyes and a huge ghost swaddled in a pitch-black robe. Something deep inside him told him to not try fighting these things. Instead, the detective burst forward in a stream of sound. “Don’t gotta tell me twice!”

Behind him, the masked ghost let out a harrowing shriek. With Heismay to lead the way, it was time for the intruders to run for their lives.

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

Paved Wilderness - Scorched Gorge

Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (63/150) and Chucho the Polterpup
Roland’s @Archmage MC Therion’s @Yankee
Word Count: 967

Although very annoyed at herself for forgetting all about her Harbor Demon striker and doing all that hard labor by herself instead, Nadia managed to get over it pretty fast. What’s done is done, after all, and if nothing else it might make for a funny story later. Plus, how mad could she be when she’d pulled off that ingenious Bunger wrangling idea so perfectly? Rather than bemoan her silliness, Nadia set her mind to her next task: getting the salvage sphere she’d extracted from Scorched Gorge to the people that’d pay her for it. This time, unfortunately, no bright ideas or forgotten abilities would bail her out. Without a vehicle to her name, much less one capable of hauling cargo, the task of transporting her salvage to a Ficsit depot made her previous Sisyphean struggle look like child’s play. This time, Ms Fortune would need help.

Hoping that nobody else would come along and spot her hard-earned loot, Nadia and Chucho left the sphere, retracing their earlier steps. Steeltusk was still sitting right where she last saw it by the road but this time the flashy red-and-black eighteen wheeler wasn’t alone. At some point while Nadia had been exploring the canyons, two bikers had pulled up next to the truck on their custom hogs and seemed to be lounging around, enjoying a late lunch. Both were darkly-dressed and sported desaturated green hair, but the solidly-built girl featured flashy gold ornaments all over her outfit and bike, while everything about the lean guy from his scarf to his shades to his leather jacket screamed ‘cool dude’. The newcomers had just been given cold drinks from the Steeltusk’s onboard bar by Piper, and as Nadia approached, her ear twitched at the familiar sound of crack and hiss from a frosty can in the truck driver’s hand.

Nadia hid her right arm behind her and waved with her left. “Hey!”

“Hey yourself!” The girl with the ‘king’ necklace grinned good-naturedly, her voice naturally somewhat booming. “You must be the cat thiren Piper told me about! Find any treasure?”

Cat thiren? Nadia could only assume that must be these folks’ version of a feral. “A little! Dunno how I’m gonna get it home, though!”

That seemed to make the girl crack up. “Ahahaha! You’re the act now, questions later type too, huh? Kitty after my own heart! The name’s Caesar, nice to meetcha! And this is Lighter!” She gestured at her companion. “Say hi, Lighter!”

“Hi, Lighter,” the guy replied with a smirk, giving Nadia a little two-finger salute.

“Nice to meetcha guys! You can call me Ms. Fortune.” Nadia couldn’t help but smile at Caesar’s earnestness. Coming to a stop, she crossed her arms to admire her reflection in the shiny gold hubcap on Caesar’s bike. “Wow, this is ‘wheelie’ cool! I’d love to ride a motorcycle someday, but I bet it’d make me ‘two tired’!”

The puns left Caesar cackling, but she seemed distracted by something on Nadia’s person. “Dude, what happened to your arm?”

Realizing what she’d done, Nadia’s brows shot up as she uncrossed her arms and hid her right behind her. “Oh, uh…”

“Probably ate some bugsnax,” Piper drawled from her barstool, sounding tired.

With the cat out of the bag, Nadia brought out her reconstituted arm reluctantly. “Oh, was that what that was? Eheh…” She grimaced. “Don’t suppose, uh, you guys know if there’s any cure for this? I’ve got plenty of meat on my bones as-is!”

Lighter inhaled through his teeth, shaking his head. “Fraid not. In fact, the infection slowly spreads, bit by bit, changing you inside and out, ‘til all that’s left of you is one big burger.” He held up his own half-eaten double decker. “Like this guy. Poor Jeffrey…”

Nadia’s jaw dropped, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Immediately, Caesar burst out laughing, and even Lighter couldn’t keep himself from chuckling. “You’re such a jerk!” She punched Lighter’s shoulder with more force than one might expect, but he seemed to brush it off. Then Caesar held up placating hands toward Nadia. “Relax, he’s just joking. It’ll wear off in, like, an hour.”

“Ask her how she knows,” Piper muttered, to which Caesar just shrugged.

Nadia emptied her lungs in a huge sigh of relief, her ears drooping. “Sheesh! And here I thought my jokes were bad.” She looked up at Piper, eying Steeltusk’s bar. “I could use a drink, if you guys don’t mind. Been dyin’ out here in the heat.

“Yeah, whatever you want, Fortune! My treat!” Caesar clapped a hand around Nadia’s shoulder with a big smile, very chummy already. “You tipped us off about the scavenger hunt, after all! Soon as Burnice and Lucy get here, we’re off. Gonna be livin’ like kings before the night is over!”

Quite powerless to resist Caesar’s strength or charm, Nadia allowed herself to be steered toward the bar. “Thanks! A rum and coke would be purr-fect!” She started rooting around for the ingredients, her tail swishing back and forth above the counter. “So, you’ve got more friends comin’?”

“Uh huh.” Piper narrowed her eyes as she looked up and down the nearby highway. “They’re running late, in fact. Should’ve been here already.”

Lighter pushed up his sunglasses. “Maybe Burnice started another fire, and Lucy’s having to bail her out.”

“Maybe.” Caesar plopped down on a barstool with a sigh, looking unconvinced. “No word from ‘em is strange though. I got a bad feeling.”

Nadia sat down a moment later with her drink, sipping it as she looked out across the wilderness. Nothing in the area seemed suspect, other than that refinery, maybe. “Hmm…”

Paved Wilderness - Highertower

Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate and Sectonia’s @Archmage MC Zenkichi’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Juri’s @Zoey Boey

High above the battlefield, at the top of Highertower, the simple but identifiable nod of Edward’s drone was taken as confirmation by the giant archer. In the midst of all the chaos unfolding down below, he seemed pleased to have found a friend, no matter how small and mute. “I help anytime,” he rumbled, taking hold of his longbow. From that point forward, as long as the drone remained within the giant’s lofty line of sight, it would shoot down piercing shafts the size of spears to skewer any foes foolish enough to attack the friendly drone.

While Zenkichi fought his way toward Celica to make contact, the ever-dutiful Blazermate in tow, word got back to the commanding officer of the New Conglomerate squad he’d slaughtered about the detective’s intercession. Within the fuel depot, a sharp-eyed sergeant pursed his lips in bitter annoyance. “That emplacement has been a thorn in our side since we’ve gotten here, and the moment we’re finally about to wear it down, reinforcements arrive? Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He turned to a subordinate. “Time to send in some backup of our own. Deploy the other Vanguard.” The woman saluted and scurried away, leaving the captain to monitor the map overview.

Less than a minute after Zenkichi reached Celica and her Skell, a booming noise resounded above their position. The next moment, a huge object crashed down nearby, narrowly missing Bunker 4. Before the dust even cleared, the fallen object began to move. Through the haze stomped a huge Vanguard-class Titan, over two stories tall and decked out in New Conglomerate colors. Its hatch popped open just long enough for Corporal LaRue to make visual contact. “There you are.” The hatch snapped shut, and the Vanguard lifted its immense Predator Cannon, big enough to make a nearby Heavy stare down at his Sasha in disappointment. As the minigun spun up, the mech’s loudspeakers made sure the Corporal was heard. “Time to flush you out, mon amie!”

By breaching the central building by way of a rooftop extending out from the rock the facility was built into, Edward and Juri were insulated from the firefight and vehicular skirmishes going on outside, but that facility itself was by no means secure. Though the psychos were holding onto it, the structure’s position on the battlefield meant it would be continuously besieged from both sides by mercenaries and soldiers hoping to cross the area on foot without getting sniped or run over outside. As a result the facility was hotly contested, with each close-quarters encounter in these halls unpredictable and explosive in its own way, especially if someone on a Ghost or Misha tried to drive through the central atrium from the open northern warzone to the underground southern warzone or vice versa.

The sudden arrival of Edward and Juri had put a stop to an NC incursion within this facility, but the moment of peace they earned was short-lived. While the tactician focused his attention on his scouts elsewhere, a Demoknight kitted out with the Chargin’ Targe, Claidheamh Mòr, and Broadband Bonnet charged up a flight of stairs on the opposite side of the central atrium. “HAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” He banked off the top of the stairs and went flying, arcing through the air like a comet. He slammed shield-first into the wall scarcely two feet from Juri with a deafening clang, stunning him for just a moment as he hefted his bloodstained greatsword.

In that moment, though, a metal hook latched around the Demoknight’s waist and yanked him backward. “Ach!”

He flew a good twenty feet straight toward a spot where a hulking masked psycho and singed maniac had set up shop. The instant the Demoknight got caught in Junkrat’s bear trap, he set off his landmine and Roadhog fired his shotgun. Together, both were enough to gib the Scotsman despite his innate explosive resistance, and Junkrat cackled wildly. “Hahahahahaha! Forty-four! Or…wuzzat forty-five, mate?” Roadhog just shrugged and crammed another fistful of scrap metal into his shotgun. Shrugging, Junkrat scowled at the newcomers, then shouted over his shoulder at the psychos pushing their payload into the underground zone for extraction. “Oi! Get a move on, you lot! Things just got a lot spicier in here! Heeheehee!” With that, he and Roadhog opened fire again, their deadly combination of traps, crowd control, lobbed grenades, and airburst shrapnel a recipe for disaster if any mercenaries, soldiers, or Seekers tried to push in on them unprepared.

Outside, the battle continued to unfold unpredictably, proving that nobody was totally safe. For the most part Sectonia had little to worry about, though one Scout in particular seemed incapable of leaving her alone. Very fast and agile, he would climb the Highertower and then use his Sandman to smack baseballs at anyone he could see, including Sectonia. Though he missed often, he seemingly found a new baseball every ten seconds, and a successful hit would leave his victim stunned--a dangerous proposition for anyone in the air. If he provoked someone into coming after him, his strategy was to slurp down some Bonk! Atomic Punch to become untouchable, then corner his assailant and wipe him out with a Grand Slam taunt for the one-hit kill.

Still, that Scout was ultimately just an annoyance, and could be ignored. The bigger problem was when a firefight at the outdoor battlefield's central oasis went south for a Heavy-Medic combo skirmishing with a squad of psychos. Just after the Heavy went down due mostly to his usage of the Brass Beast, a Wasp appeared out of thin air on the metal helipad that extended out over Empty Space, and the medic jumped in. "Time to practice medicine!" A moment later the highly mobile VTOL aircraft was aloft, its mountain machine guns and missile launchers making mincemeat of the psychos. "The healing is not as good as the hurting!" It wasn't long until the Medic, drunk with power, spotted Sectonia and flew over to fight for dominion over the Highertower's airspace.

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

Dead Zone Hinterlands - Curien Mansion

Harry’s @Eviledd1984 Amaterasu’s @DracoLunaris Chosen Undead’s @Simple Unicycle Level 11 Big Band (29/110)
Word Count: 969

Though Band had been more machine than man for a long time now, enough of his original self remained that a chill still ran down his spine at the sight of the mannequin. It stood half-visible in the doorway as motionless as a statue, but the bob of its coil betrayed the abrupt cessation of remarkable speed. The metallic twang of its spring, an intensely unnatural sound, did not help matters either. Even a tempered veteran who’d witnessed all manner of human atrocities in the underbelly of New Meridian, who’d fought countless undead abominations during his storied career at the ASG Labs and with the Seekers, could be taken by surprise. Band’s only consolation was the fact that this new aberration had, for some reason, stopped in its tracks the moment he laid eyes on it, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

Why it didn’t move Band couldn’t say, but the fact that it did gave him a chance to breathe and compose himself. His eyes narrowed and his brows tightened as he assessed the situation. With no time to waste, he had to tackle this problem head-on, and in the best way he knew how: with brute force. “Thought you’d pull one on me, didja?” He threw open his coat, deploying a giant mechanical arm. “AHAAY!” He cannoned forward and drove his Brass Knuckles through the doorframe to hit the still figure center-mass. Wood splintered and flew in all directions, but Band’s momentum stopped cold. Despite his jaw-dropping pneumatic strength, the mannequin did not budge. Only its head moved at all, rocking gently back and forth from the blow, the stare of its eyeless sockets derisive as Band withdrew his fist and confirmed that the only damage he’d done was to himself.

“Hmph!” The detective snorted, stepping back. “Guess it ain’t much of a horror flick if the monster goes down easy, huh?” As he considered his options, he began to edge around the coilhead. It didn’t move until he decided to test it by looking away. Even a quick flick was enough to make it turn toward him, its head bobbing as it froze once more. With that thing in his way, he’d have to go the long way around the huge pit to get where he needed to go. Unless…

Band waltzed up to the coilhead and deployed two halves of a giant brass bell. They slammed together around the creature, and with his line of sight cut off, it became mobile again. Unfortunately, it seemed unable to break free of the bell, so after giving the monster a solid ringing for good measure, Band swung the bell out over the pit. The coilhead dropped through the open bottom and disappeared into the darkness below. After putting the bell halves away, Band gave the abyss a curt nod and continued on, not eager to be here when all the other critters that heard his bell’s chime showed up.

After exiting the room with the pit, he passed through a T-shaped junction with a handful of padlocked cabinets, past a bathroom with candles arranged around an eerie portrait, and into a multi-story living room with a confusing, U-shaped layout. It occurred to Band while stomping up and then down the stairs that at no point could this mansion have ever been a livable space; it seemed more like a dolled-up maze than anything, and unfortunately for him, the labyrinth had served its purpose. He was lost, with no clue which direction would lead him closer to his allies. Spotting something, he quieted his breathing and pulled to the side to let a six-legged, stitched-together homunculus crawl past, then pushed through the door it came through as stealthily as he could.

On the other side lay a small square courtyard, with an empty chicken coop, a tree, and a couple gravestones, hemmed in by stone walls on all sides. Overhead hung the starry night sky, which was damning evidence for this mansion being its own magical space, but the bigger surprise was the presence of another humanoid right in front of him. “Gah!” Only after readying himself for combat did the surprised detective realize that the knight he was looking at was Kit. “Oh, it’s you!” A sigh of relief issued from him. “There y’are, I been lookin’ all over. Where’s the wolf?”

As it turned out, unfortunately, Kit and Amaterasu had been separated, and without the wolf’s nose to guide him the warrior had been wandering the mansion as blindly as Band had for the last few minutes. “Well, we got each other at least. Better stick together.” The two went back the way Kit came to try another route. Down a different hallway hung a number of spider webs, as large and thick as blankets, and their owner was on the move. A zombie had wandered into its strands, and the moment it detected a vibration the Bunker Spider pounced. It paralyzed the corpse with its venomous bite, then strung it up in a cocoon, still struggling feebly. Band eyed the least web-strewn passage dubiously. “Our friends coulda gone that way, but I don’t like my chances of squeezin’ through there,” he whispered. He couldn’t see the full spider anymore now that it had crawled up into the rafters, but the tip of one of its legs on a web told him it was still there. “Tell ya what. If ya wanna try fightin’ it, I’ll back ya up. Or, I could try bustin’ through that locked door back in that courtyard. No tellin’ what we’d find though. Or what’d find us.” The choice of how best to proceed was Kit’s.

Deeper in the mansion, Amaterasu had managed to track Harry down, and though there weren’t any more monsters in the study where the ghost dropped him off, the detective was still in a predicament. Everything he’d stuffed into his pockets and clothes was valuable, but it was also impractically shaped, not to mention fragile. The simple act of moving without breaking anything would be a challenge, and as if his outfit wasn’t loud enough, all the clinking and clacking of his purloined goods would make the man into a walking windchime. Still, he somehow managed to shuffle back up the stairs from the basement study and into the lounge above it with only minor losses, at which point he and Amaterasu were confronted by two doors to choose from.

Amaterasu knew which one to go through to retrace her path, of course, but before she could lead Harry through, a squat creature emerged from a tiny air vent on one wall. With antennae, four wings, and red compound eyes, it was definitely the source of the insect scent she smelled earlier, and it was definitely interested in Harry. It did not attack, but it scuttled around him, fixated on its clothes. The greedy gleam in its eyes suggested that it wanted something, and if not satiated with an offering of loot, the bug would take wing and attack, at which point the detective could definitely bid the rest of his ill-gotten gains goodbye–if not his life alongside them.

That wasn’t all, though. A few moments after the bug’s arrival, the door Amaterasu had been planning to go through creaked open, and through the gap issues a gang of killer gnomes to sink their little pickaxes into whatever intruders they could.

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

Paved Wilderness - Scorched Gorge

Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (61/150) and Chucho the Polterpup
Word Count: 1170

After climbing back down the rocky spire, Nadia left her prize where it fell and set off at a brisk jaunt through the branching canyons, her polterpup an ephemeral presence behind her. Scorched Gorge wasn’t that big an area, all told, so even while steering clear of the resident bugsnax, it didn’t take the feral that long to find what she was looking for. Most of these red stone ravines were bordered by cliff walls, either tiered or sheer from bottom to top, but at one end of the broadest valley the terrain sloped upward, becoming a gravelly hill where slow erosion had at some point caused a miniature landslide. Even now rivulets of water trickled down amidst the pebbles, their paths forked like lightning but reunited at the bottom of the gorge to feed a shallow creek that flowed back toward the pools near the central spire. If Nadia could roll her salvage out of this place anywhere, it would be there.

Of course, getting it there was no easy task. Though Nadia’s fusions had filled her out and softened her up somewhat, her physique still featured plenty of lean muscle, which unfortunately did not lend itself to feats of raw strength. Sure, the salvage clump might be spherical in shape, but being just shorter than her, it was unconscionably heavy. Worse still, the feral wasn’t at full strength after exhausting so much energy this morning. Only by pushing against the sphere with all her strength, and also expelling blood behind her for extra thrust, could she get it rolling. Even then, she was at the mercy of any little rock or groove that happened to be in her way, so the road to her destination was by no means straight. Shaking her head, Nadia took a deep breath. “There’s gotta be easier money out there than this.” With no alternatives in sight, though, she hung up her jacket on a nearby cactus and got to work.

Swaddled by the dusty air and midday heat, with not even an errant breeze to relieve her, Nadia toiled away. It was hot, stifling work, and naturally it left her sweating like a big. She decided right away to take breaks every few minutes, which involved her jumping in labyrinth’s central pool, sapphire blue and mercifully cool. Bit by bit, she made progress, and after twenty minutes or so she reached the gravel slope with her salvage. At that point, her philosophy to ‘cross that bridge when we come to it’ came back around to bite her, since it quickly became apparent that her meager strength would not be enough to get her sphere up that hill.

Nadia tried hitting the sphere with her strongest attacks, but even if she could send it flying, it would only bounce and roll back to the bottom. Standing on top to roll it like those thugs in Mafia town did with giant meats didn’t work either, so pushing was her only option. “Hrrrrrrgh! Hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!” No dice. She even tried slashing her own shoulders to better use her blood jets like rear thrusters, but while that seemed promising for a second or two, the only thing it accomplished was making her dizzy. “Oogh…maybe…that wasn’t the brightest idea…” She staggered over to a patch of shade, sat down with Chucho beside her, and pulled the Ripened Heart from its pouch to boost her blood replenishment. As the artifact worked its magic, she stared at the hill, then let out a heavy sigh and stroked Chucho’s head. “The hell am I gonna do…?”

Her ear flicked at a familiar and unwelcome sound. “Bunger, bunger, bunger!” She glanced over to see one two of those grotesque burger-beetles tussling over territory. They charged, locked fry-horns in a bid to wrestle one another to the ground or toss them overhead, then did it again. Nadia’s skin crawled just looking at those freaks, now that she knew what consumption of their flesh could do. Her right arm was still disfigured, and every minute that passed by made her more and more worried that the affliction might be permanent. Better to ditch it and get a mechanical replacement than live with that indignity, she thought. As she continued to watch the BBQ Bungers clash, however, her thoughts turned back toward them, and the hotsauce plants nearby. After another moment, her eyebrows shot up, and she snapped her bacon-fingers. “I got it!”

An excited energy sped her on her way as Nadia moved to put her latest and greatest idea into action. First, she ransacked the nearby sauce-plants, using her jacket as a makeshift container to carry as many as possible. As long as the ‘bottles’ were still in one piece, the Bungers didn’t seem to care. Next, she climbed up to one of the rope suspension bridges spanning one of the Scorched Gorge’s many canyons and cut sections of rope with her claws. By knotting them together, she created two lasses connected to a loop that she tightened around the salvage sphere. Then, with everything ready, she baited the Bungers. One at a time she lobbed sauce bottles where she wanted them to go, leading the greedy bugsnax straight to her setup. Once both were lapping away at hotsauce she’d splattered at the base of the slope, the dextrous catgirl slipped the lassos around them, then positioned herself halfway up the hill, giggling gleefully.

She turned around, cleared her throat, and yelled down at the Bungers as loudly as she could. “Hey, frysores! Yeah, I’m talkin’ about you, grease flunkies! Your buns are soggy, your cheese is moldy, and your beef is ground ‘cause it tastes just like dirt! Bunger? Hah! More like…” She paused, drawing a blank. “...Dunger! Yeah! Screw you guys!”

The bugsnax reacted predictably, charging straight toward Nadia with everything they had. The ropes went taut, and the Bungers began to drag the salvage behind them. Nadia continued to taunt, berate, and generally agitate them until they’d pulled their load all the way to the top, at which point their speed really picked up. The feral was ready, though, and as the bugsnax barreled toward her with the sphere in tow, she called upon her newest striker. “Well? ‘Water’ you waiting for!?” The huge abyssal Harbor Water Demon manifested behind her, lifted her enormous clawed mitts into the air, and brought them down on the Bungers to reduce both to paste in one fatal instant.

“Hah! Now that’s what I call a smash burger! I’m a fur-reakin’ genius!” Panting, Nadia looked up at the Harbor Demon and saluted her with a smile as she disappeared. Then she froze, her face aghast, the sight of her striker’s huge hands and immense strength freshly imprinted on her mind. She stared back down at the gravelly slope and all the way she came, hauling that heavy load, then clapped both hands to her head in despair. “DAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

Paved Wilderness - Highertower

Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate and Sectonia’s @Archmage MC Zenkichi’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Juri’s @Zoey Boey

From their vantage points either in the sky itself or atop the Forerunner pylon that hovered weightlessly above the oasis, both Sectonia and Edward could get a much better lay of the land in order to properly direct the Seekers’ efforts, even if some of their allies were already in the action. Broadly speaking, it all lay atop a cliff overlooking Empty Space, a breathtakingly vast pit occupying the center of the continent. This void was so broad that nobody here could actually see the other side, just a distant horizon where a black-brown gradient gave way to blue. Neither could they see the pit’s depths if they peered over the edge, just a starry darkness like the night sky itself. As absurdly tall as Highertower was, it would certainly not reach the bottom if toppled into it. Huge structures and landforms, like asteroids and miniature planets, floated out in the distance both above and below the horizon, unburdened by gravity, but it still held sway for anything -or anyone- that tumbled over the precipice.

The primary point of interest was the Highertower compound, hemmed in on all sides by the slim, slipshod faded wood or rusted sheet metal buildings of Red Valley Mining and Blu Industries, to the point where no land vehicle could gain entry. On the opposite side of the central boulders from the tower, a multi-tiered shack hung precariously over the edge of Empty Space, ready to fall and take whoever happened to be taking cover inside with it at a moment’s notice. Pieces of the Ficsit freighter, some large enough to cave in the surrounding buildings, were scattered around, their contents looted and packed onto payloads. Hastily arranged tracks criss-crossed the area, meant to convey the carts to wherever the people currently in control of them wanted them, but with all of the possible exits uphill nobody was making much progress, though.

Of course, there was more to the battlefield than the compound. It formed only one extremity of a battlefield that could roughly be divided into thirds: an outdoor battlefield, an underground battlefield, and a central facility built into the mountain that divided them. Roughly rectangular, that facility offered both an indoor path between the Highertower compound and the fuel depot opposite it, and a route between the open and enclosed sides of the battlefield, both converging at a central atrium where an an alien artifact regarded the surrounding bloodshed in stolid silence. Much wider and conducive to vehicular warfare than its underground counterpart, the outdoor battlefield sported not only a glittering oasis in the middle, but a handful of sunken structures that served as bunkers for anyone skittering across through the war zone on foot.

It was the outdoor battlefield that Zenkichi and Blazermate had taken their Prowler on a joyride through so far, and while Antler reinforcements from Sectonia helped a little, their assistance wouldn’t go as far as the bug queen hoped. Lacking mobility, Antlers were easy targets, not just for vehicles but for any of the dozen-plus fighters ferreted away in a foxhole somewhere on the battlefield, where they laid low looking to pick off easy targets or make a break for the next bit of cover. One could never know if the rock formation or bunker one just drove past had a soldier with a rocket or grenade launcher hiding in it, after all. As a result, the whole area was one big mess, with blurred and constantly changing battle lines. The longer an observer like Edward looked, though, the better he could define the teams.

Naturally, the Psychos were the easiest to identify. ‘Ramshackle but dangerous’ described not just their weapons, but their vehicles like the Rollerhog and Treadmaker, reclaimed from the junkyard and weaponized by acts of unmedicated ingenuity. While many of the crazed raiders were little more than lackeys, a few were racking up impressive kill counts, like a musclebound maniac with an explosive scrap saw, and a dynamic duo that hooked foes into deadly traps. The psychos had the strongest presence throughout the central complex, and their salvage extraction route seemed to be underground, with five payloads stalled in the underground battlefield.

The faction with the best hold of Highertower itself was the Mercenaries. With a versatile arsenal, the well-armed mercs -each more numerous than it might appear- worked as a cohesive team when outsiders were involved, but could resort to color-coordinated infighting just as easily, making it difficult for either sub-faction to make off with any of the four payloads. Aside from highly-mobile scouts and soldiers, the mercs could seldom be found out in the open, since they had the least vehicular options. That said, they could still field a surprise or two in a pinch. Moreover, they seemed to have the easiest access to plentiful explosives, which would be much more effective against Edward’s golems than bullets were.

Lastly, the fuel depot opposite Highertower seemed to be the stronghold for the third faction, a conglomerate of more futuristic Troopers in blue and yellow, which could field a handful of different vehicles like tanks and aircraft. With their exit so far away, though, only three payloads were in their possession, and any interference left them rolling back down the hill into the open. This came not just from the Psychos, but smaller bands of freelancers also trying to muscle their way into the mix, like militaristic soldiers with various gadgets and alien gunslingers with excessively customized firearms.

With all of these factors in play, disposable minions would get disposed of quickly, and Zenkichi and Blazermate would find themselves in hot water if they stayed out in the open for too long.

Edward’s drone saw all this, and a good deal more as it ascended alongside the tower. There were random people fighting on or just climbing it, though these grew more sparse past the nearby cliffs that fighters could jump to or from. Higher up, it spotted some people just sitting there taking a break, watching the chaos unfold from above, to the point where some nominal enemies had reached a temporary truce. At the very top of the tower, the drone found a giant archer clothes in chains, rags, and a metal helmet. He turned his head to peer at the drone, seemingly curious. “Friend?”

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

Dead Zone Hinterlands - Curien Mansion

Harry’s @Eviledd1984 Amaterasu’s @DracoLunaris Chosen Undead’s @Simple Unicycle Level 11 Big Band (27/110)
Word Count: 1653

Given the sheer scale of this overwhelming eerie mansion, and the fact that this place had already coughed up one multi-armed abomination, Big Band was pleased as punch when the surprise knight ventured his name and offered to lend his help. No longer a stranger, and having already proven his skill, Kit received an appreciative nod of acceptance. “Glad to have ya. The name’s Big Band, and this…” He laid down a giant brass arm on Harry’s shoulder as gently as he could. “Is the Icebreaker.” He pronounced the nickname with a certain amount of dramatic gravitas, just shy of being satirical. Having a codename of his own, he couldn’t get too facetious without throwing a brick in a glass house.

Half-turning around, Band quickly took stock of the team. With Kit on board alongside the Icebreaker, the wolf, Stein, and himself, the team was up to just shy of a half-dozen members, which was about as good a posse as Band could hope for. “With all five of us on the job, those kids’ll be back to their mommas and poppas by sundown. Long as we ain’t barkin’ up the wrong tree, that is.” Stein’s Metal Attacker had made one hell of a racket, as well. Without backup to secure a perimeter around the mansion, Band could only hope that they hadn’t already scared Heismay off.

The squad proceeded into the foyer. Thanks to the Atom, the towering bookshelves had sustained some damage, with wooden shrapnel and shredded pages scattered all over. Between the rows, Band identified four doorways leading further into the mansion’s ground floor, one on each side wall and two on the back wall, all symmetrical. All were closed, and while he couldn’t tell if they were locked, he knew they’d be even easier to unlock than the front gate if they were. Band had just taken his first step onto the central stairs to check the upper level, prompting a loud creak of protest when the wood shouldered his weight, when Harry belted out an announcement. After wincing, Band’s face gave way to bemusement at the other detective’s real name. Obviously he hadn’t given his away either, but as far as he was concerned Big Band was his true identity, and the only name anyone needed to know. Was Harry’s earlier introduction just grandstanding…?

Regardless of what Harry said, though, only a resounding silence followed his declaration. Band couldn’t say he was surprised; what kind of kidnapper would show his face to talk things over. “Psh,” he muttered after a moment. “So much for the Icebreaker, eh?” That said, he did have to admit that Harry had well and truly broken the ice. The problem with that was that breaking the ice was an ultimatum, and the next step after that was either sink, or swim. “Well, if he didn’t hear us comin’ before, he definitely heard us now.”

Unlike the humans, who had yet to see or hear any more clues or threats, Amaterasu was close to experiencing sensory overload. Even just this foyer was a smorgasbord of smells, criss-crossing one another in confusing scent trails leading mostly between the various doors or up and down the stairs. She could detect the odors of a couple animals, such as frog, bat, and insect -that last one much heavier than she’d expect for such a small creature- as well as the rotten stink of zombies, but there were plenty of scents like nothing she’d ever smelled before, most of them bad. Through all the olfactory noise she could detect at least one human other than the ones she’d entered with, though. It was unfamiliar, male, and musty with age. It came from upstairs, sporadically enough to make her wonder if its source had fallen down those steps, then slowly, methodically led through the door on the right.

While Amaterasu nosed around, Band checked in with Stein, who’d stopped close to the entrance of the foyer with arms crossed. “You’re comin’ with, right?”

The conductor shook his head. “Don’t wanna leave Tesset alone, even if she’s got Atom and Mr. Mug.” He glanced back to see his girl and her little bear companion wave, prompting him to wave back at them. “Don’t want Heismay to slip around you and escape out the front, either. I’ll cover the entrance and make sure nothin’ gets in or out. Just yell if you need me.”

As the two spoke, Amaterasu’s keen ears picked up a different sound: the patter of very light feet, accompanied by quickened breathing, coming from the left-hand upstairs door. It was soft enough that none of the others could hear it, but it was quickly getting louder. The next moment it crossed the threshold, but the door itself didn’t open, even after the sound of footsteps continued inside the foyer. A series of quick, barely-audible creaks issued from the stairs, but neither the wolf nor the men could see anyone, and nobody noticed anything amiss until Harry -still waiting for a response from Heismay- suddenly lifted into the air.

Still turned back, Band didn’t realize what was happening until Harry made a sound, at which point the detective was already being hauled away. Lifted and grasped by unseen arms, he flew backward up the stairs, powerless to resist. “What!? Hey!” Band charged up the stairs, his legs taking the steps two at a time, but his mechanical frame was much too slow. Before he even reached the halfway point, Harry had slammed through the left upstairs door and disappeared into the mansion. “Hold on!” he yelled as the man’s voice faded from sight, hoping that Kit and Amaterasu could give better chase. “We’re comin’ after you!”

For Harry, of course, the experience was more than a little terrifying. The thing carrying him moved like the wind, fast as an Olympian sprinter, and while his captor could hold him, it seemed completely incorporeal otherwise. The detective had been kidnapped by a ghost. He could do little more than pull his arms and legs in to avoid painful collisions with walls, furniture, and doorframes as they rushed by. The whole time he could hear the thing in his ears, chuckling oafishly like a child who’d just stolen some sweets. “Huhuh! Huhuh! Huhuh! Huhuh!”

It would be difficult, but still possible, to keep track of the rooms as he got carried through them. He passed through a living room with a roaring fireplace, a dining room, a kitchen, a large bedroom with floating beds, and various halls before being rushed down a set of stairs. One narrow corridor later, his captor took a right and charged down another set of stairs into the mansion’s basement. At that point, though, the wild ride came to an end. The ghost slowed down and released Harry, at which point it filled the room with heavy, labored panting, so intense that it might as well be asthmatic. After a few seconds the gasping grew fainter, as if the ghost were staggering away to rest, and Harry was left to his own devices.

He’d been deposited in some sort of study, just one room with an adjoining bathroom, so the only way out was the way he came from. There was nothing getting in his way, but one look around was enough to realize that this place was loaded with valuables. The shelves and tables in here featured several jade plates and cups, a golden pocketwatch, an expertly made ocarina, and what looked like a diamond the size of his fist. It also featured a black-and-gold vase almost as tall as he was, a huge painting of a skull, and a ticking grandfather clock that all must be worth a fortune, if they could only be extracted from here in one piece.

Elsewhere in the mansion, the others were still giving chase. With no idea where in this posh labyrinth Harry had been taken, Band and Kit had no choice but to follow Amaterasu and trust in her nose as she pursued the faint but unforgettable pong of Harry that lingered in the very air. Bringing up the rear, Band thundered through a living room, pausing only to avoid a blinking landmine, then turned left and pushed through a narrow hallway. It opened up a moment later, making Band think he could gain some speed with a musical slide, but the next second he ground to a halt instead, stopping just short of a yawning, pitch-black pit that divided the rectangular room in two. A single plank of wood stretched across the chasm, easy for Amaterasu to patter across and carefully traversable for Kit, but Band didn’t think for one second that the plank would bear his weight. “Damn.” The ceiling in here was too low for him to rocket across, and one double jump was nowhere near enough to clear the gap. The hell is this house? He shook his head, nose wrinkled, and called after the others. “Y’all go ahead. I’ll find another way!”

With a frustrated grunt he turned back the way he came, stopping at the four-way intersection bordering the living room. That gave him two options, but one looked like some kind of sauna, so he opted for the cobweb-covered hallway instead. It led him through a two-story library with a staircase leading up to the mansion’s third floor, and right after that Band stopped on the precipice of a large square room with another huge pit, this one in the center. He edged his way around it to the door on the left, took a few steps into a bedroom, and realized it was a dead end. “Damn it!” He turned to retrace his steps and try the next door in the room with the pit, then froze at the sight of a pale mannequin figure half-visible in the shadowy doorway, motionless except for the twanging bob of its coil.

Meanwhile, Amaterasu and Kit reached a kitchen with golden goblets on the counter that gleamed in the glow of the dangling overhead lights. Unfortunately, this kitchen was occupied. Hidden at first behind the counter, a freaky frog hopped into view, spotted the newcomers, then pulled out bloody cleavers with a smile. While the wolf could sprint out of danger, it would be much harder for Kit to avoid the chef’s flailing leap, and harder still to not get turned around by the encounter.

Umbra Rose Condos

I've more or less been waiting for either of the people my character was with to be posted for, or for the scene to move on via GM. If this is the end of the road though, I do want to say it was a fun concept and I enjoyed playing my character with you guys.

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

Paved Wilderness - Scorched Gorge

Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (62/150) and Chucho the Polterpup
Roland’s @Archmage MC Therion’s @Yankee
Word Count: 1960

Even if the well-traveled, sun-baked road was a little bumpy, with plenty of cracks and its fair share of potholes, the experience of simply watching the environment roll by from the comfort of a vinyl barstool was nothing to scoff at. The magnificent painted desert, rolling plains, and enormous buttes, interspersed with scrubland-clad serpentine rivers that shone like diamonds in the afternoon sun, possessed a beautiful grandeur, especially for a city-bound alley cat who’d missed her chance to see the Sandswept Sky in all its glory. At the same time, the sheer scale of the Paved Wilderness meant that the surroundings changed slowly, with only the occasional shack or race track to break up the peaceful monotony.

That meant that staring off into the distance for minutes at a time, especially with the trailer’s toastiness and the engine’s growly purr, was a rather soporific experience, and Nadia soon found herself struggling to stay awake. “Hooh…” she sighed, leaning more and more on the bartop as her eyelids drooped. “Guess I’m more tired than I thought…” All this dry air was making her thirsty, too, and the more her eyes rested on all the bottles of booze stocked by the semitruck’s onboard bar, the more she licked her lips. The felonious feline managed to reign in her base impulses, though; given how risky it must be to pick up a hitchhiker, how could she possibly think to repay the driver’s kindness by stealing from her? Her mind began to conjure up images of Limsa Lominscuttle Town, especially Heaven’s Edge, with a whole ocean’s worth of cool, refreshing water to soak in followed by a round of free drinks from Karin Kanzuki afterward, all shared with Ace of course. As she imagined paradise, her eyelids’ gradual descent turned into a headlong plummet, and Nadia passed out.

“Hey. Hey. He-eeey.”

The feral jolted awake suddenly, almost falling out of her stool before she remembered where she was. While its engine continued to putter idly, the Steeltusk had stopped, and before Nadia unfurled a network of red rocky canyons littered by rotund barrel cacti and uniquely crooked Joshua trees. All the heat around here was making the air swim, but no matter how surreal they looked, the wildlife the cat burglar saw were no mirages. She witnessed half-racks of ribs that crawled through the crevices like centipedes, mothlike puffs that left trails of cheesy dust as they flapped their crispy orange wings, and peppery scorpions with red-hot stingers. Nadia had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

“Welcome to Scorched Gorge,” a familiar tired, reedy voice said. Nadia looked down to see the little truck driver staring up at her. Her eyes were impossibly world-weary for how old she looked, which was more than a little off-putting. Still, Nadia had reached her destination in one piece (or at least, with all her pieces together) so she could hardly raise any objections. The girl crossed her arms. “I had to poke you a good five or six times. You sure you’re okay, miss?”

Nadia wiped the drool from her lip with the back of her hand, then gave her most reassuring smile. “Yeah yeah, I’m good! Just dozed off or somethin’. Thanks ‘fur’ the ride!”

“Uh huh. Whatever you say, kiddo. Well, if you need anything, the name’s Piper. Gimme a call.”

Seemingly unconvinced, the driver stepped away, and Nadia hopped down from the truck to the dusty ground. Chucho followed, almost invisible in the bright sunlight. The catgirl took a few steps away, looking around, then reached up to her ear. She’d honestly forgotten about the linkpearls for a while, but hearing from Therion earlier reminded her, so now seemed like a good time to repay the favor. “Hey guys! I’m at the place, and I gotta say, it’s Scorched Gorge-ous. Might, uh, need a ride back though. So when you’re done checkin’ out that other spot, don’t forget to pick me up, or I’ll take it purr-sonally!”

She’d already spotted Roland and Therion’s destination on the other side of all the canyons. Tall, blocky, and gray-brown in tone, the Refinery stuck out like a sore thumb amidst all the pristine natural beauty. Her sharp eyes could make out a strange, dark-red sigil plastered on the side of one of the buildings. She couldn’t see any people or vehicles from this distance, but the fumes billowing from its four smokestacks suggested some kind of activity.

“If you’re meeting friends near here, I reckon you all oughta stay away from that factory,” the truck driver advised.

Nadia swiveled her head back around to see the girl seated at her own bar, a glass full of ice and murky brown liquid in her hand. Both were momentarily affronted -Piper by Nadia’s 180-degree head turn and Nadia by Piper’s premature alcoholism- but after a moment both managed to get over one another’s eccentricities. The feral turned her body around sheepishly. “Uh, why?”

“I hear there’s some real odd folks ‘round there. Strange critters, too. The kind you hear, but can’t see, not ‘til they’re already breathin’ down the back of your neck.”

Despite the heat, a chill ran down Nadia’s spine. Which she thought was honestly weird, given all the horrific things she’d already seen and overcome. “I’ll let ‘em know, but we can look after ourselves. Besides, what if there’s treasure there?”

Piper blinked. “Treasure?”

Nadia nodded enthusiastically. Since the girl had done her a favor, she didn’t mind sharing even if it meant a little more competition. “Yeah! The whole region’s gone crazy over this big scavenger hunt some shipping company started after they lost their cargo. Turn in their loot, and you could win big! That’s why we’re out here.”

“Huh! Well, I’ll be.” Piper scratched her chin lazily. “Guess I’ll let the others know when they get here. Thanks, kid.”

Already regretting her choice somewhat due to the trucker’s patronizing tone and the prospect of even more competition, Nadia moseyed away with Chucho right behind her. Once she reached the nearest precipice, she began to survey Scorched Gorge with narrowed eyes, searching for anything that might have come from the crashed freighter. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to locate a sphere of compressed salvage almost as tall as she was, but unfortunately, it somehow seemed to be perfectly balanced on top of a sheer rocky spire. The feral did a double take, baffled. “Huh? How does that happen?” Chucho didn’t have any answers, though, so Nadia had no choice but to roll her eyes and head on over.

After jumping down into the canyon, she meandered through it at a leisurely pace, preoccupied by scattered pieces of what seemed like ancient ruins. She stopped a couple times to pick through skeletons or pieces of prehistoric pottery for anything valuable, and during one such perusal Chucho seemed to catch a scent on the wind that intrigued him. “Chuch? Where ya goin’, boy?” He floated out of sight, and when Nadia followed him, she found a bizarre plant with bright pink flowers and huge orange stamens that looked like bottles more than anything else. Curious, she pulled one off and sniffed it. It looked like a fruit, but it smelled…spicy?

Just then, a strange noise caused her ears to perk up. Nadia peered up at the nearby canyon wall to find two Ribblepedes staring at her. “Whoa!” Reacting instinctively, she jumped back and hurled the fruit at them. It struck the bigger one and burst into bright orange liquid, coating it, and the smaller one promptly dove at the other, causing both to plummet down to the canyon floor and roll away in a heap of scrabbling, bonelike limbs. No longer alarmed but instead mildly concerned, Nadia watched them tussle, absently licking at some of the fluid that had spattered on her knuckle. She immediately blinked in surprise–it was hot sauce! “Weird…but cool!” Nadia turned to continue on her way, a little faster and more situationally aware than before.

After another minute, she reached the spire. At only around thirty feet tall, Nadia figured she’d have no problem reaching it, but before she could get started she ran afoul of the wildlife again. This time she noticed the checker-shrouded creature well before it reached her, thanks in part to the noise it made. “Bunger, bunger, bunger!” it hollered, charging on curly-fry legs with curly-fry tusks extended.

Smirking, Nadia stood her ground, then leaped up as it charged and somersaulted onto its back. Surprisingly sturdy, the BBQ Bunger bore her weight but went into an immediate frenzy, running this way and that as it tried to buck its passenger off. “Yee-haw!” Nadia laughed as she held on, her tail and arms extended for balance. Only when the Bunger tried to ram into a rocky outcropping did she crouch down and sink her claws in to brace herself. The next moment the critter slammed into the stone and stunned itself, ripe for Nadia to finish the job. “Think fast, food!” She detached her tail, tossed it up like she saw Zenkichi do with Ragnell, then flipped up to catch it and slash down. Hardened like a blade, her tail neatly cut the Bunger into halves, its googly eyes becoming spirals as sweet, savory barbecue sauce eked from within.

Nadia hesitated for a moment, her arms on her hips, then shook her head. “Okay. I gotta know.” She ran over to the nearest river to wash her hands -better than nothing, right?- then carved out a portion of the BBQ Bunger to stuff in her mouth. Much to her delighted surprise, it was identical to an actual barbecue burger. Of course, she’d already eaten plenty of burger for lunch, so Nadia only helped herself to a little bit of the bugsnack’s body before it began to dissolve. But even that was enough to metamorphose the feral’s right arm into something altogether unnatural.

“...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!”

Even after the initial panic wore off, Nadia’s heart pounded as she queasily tried to come to terms with what had happened. Most of her right arm had been replaced by appropriately large, spring-shaped curly fries, approximating the original limb. Her fingerless glove had been replaced by checkered wrapper, and strips of bacon had replaced her fingers. She flexed them experimentally, aghast. “Okay…okay. You are what you eat, I guess?” As she wondered how feasible it would be to trick Juri into eating bugsnax, Chucho sniffed at her hand, prompting her to jerk away, horrified. “Knock it off! I’m not a hamburglar!” The bigger issue was the salvage, since she no longer had claws on her right hand to climb with, and her grip was woefully greasy. Ever inventive, however, Nadia found a solution: she could extend her new limb like a spring in order to grab onto better handholds. Doing roughly the same with her other hand via muscle fiber and pressurized blood, she managed to scale the spire, reach the salvage, and push against it with her shoulder until it rolled off and fell down into the canyon below.

“Alright!” Nadia gave Chucho a high five, then winced. Only when she finally began to consider her next step did she realize her much, much bigger problem: how in the world she’d be getting that loot wherever it needed to go. “Oh, hell…”

Things were decidedly less whimsical, though, over by the Refinery. Neither Roland nor Therion saw any signs of life as they drew closer, but the whole place was locked up tight, practically a citadel of concrete, stone, and metal with only a few heavy, reinforced doors and no exterior windows anywhere near the ground floor. All the doors featured mechanical deadbolts sealed by keycard access, invulnerable to conventional lockpicking. Outside of the ability to fly or scale shear walls, the only possible means of ingress seemed to lie at the end of tire tracks: a heavy garage-style segmented door that safeguarded some sort of loading bay, kept in place by the weight of the door itself. While the newcomers couldn’t see anyone, they could see old-fashioned security cameras, so even though their approach garnered no response, it felt like someone was watching.

Paved Wilderness - Northwestern Wastes

Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate and Sectonia’s @Archmage MC Zenkichi’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Juri’s @Zoey Boey

When Zenkichi, Sectonia, and Blazermate arrived from the sky to assist the Mammoth and its occupants against the gang of Locust marauders, the battle began to swing in the Coalition’s favor, but not without a heaping helping of confusion. The Gears didn’t know who these newcomers were or what their intentions might be after all, and when more fighting broke out atop and even inside their vehicle, the skirmish became even more of a scramble than before. The situation in the Mammoth was helter-skelter, with rapidly changing and often conflicting orders dividing the troopers’ attention between the assailants outside, the unidentified infiltrator wrecking havoc, and keeping the giant machine running at all.

Things were even more chaotic among the units of the Locust assault force, scattered around their target and presented with multiple new bogeys. Wheeling around to try and deal with Sectonia or Zenkichi guaranteed that the COG war machines would gun them down, while not addressing the new threat practically guaranteed a crash into the bug queen’s summoned swords. The dangerous but clumsy choppers got picked off quickly, while the slow Bloodmounts made easy targets. Prowlers and Reavers were more flexible, but as the Locust rapidly dwindled it became clear that victory would be a pipe dream. The retreat order was given, and the last Prowler -which happened to be the newest into the fray- broke off to flee through a swampy ravine. Reavers zoomed away in different directions, and the battle concluded with a decisive victory for the Coalition.

Of course, reports quickly reached the Mammoth’s crew chief about the theft committed during the chaos. Eyewitness accounts described a maniacal woman who fought and defeated veteran Gears barehanded. They said that she shrugged off Gnasher slugs like one might swat flies, then warped away through some kind of magical wormhole, taking all the Ficsit cargo they’d recovered with her. With no sign of the fugitive, the chief could do little but order the Mammoth to be stopped to recover the damaged vehicles. One of the Centaurs had been totaled, but the LAV had enough horsepower to drag the wreck back inside so that salvage and repair could begin in earnest.

If Zenkichi and the others expected to receive medals of honor for their help, though, they would come away disappointed. The troops remained standoffish with them, unconvinced of their motives and suspicious of their involvement with the inexplicable theft. At the same time, though, the woman barking at them through the Mammoth’s loudspeaker tried to downplay the deed with a braggadocious tone, saying, “That stuff we lost? Psh! Small potatoes compared to the haul we took in this morning, and the haul we’re headed toward now! You pipsqueaks wanna see some real action? Follow along and you’ll get to see what happens when we turn this BFG on Sweet Tooth’s circus! Hoorah!” With that, the Mammoth got moving again, headed east with its sights set on a much, much bigger target: the Carnival of Carnage.

Of course, unless Edward’s scout drones were listening in, he and Juri were too occupied by their own payday to catch wind of the COGs’ plans. With just a little finagling, the red chests they finessed from the Mammoth’s hold popped open like trophy cases, proudly showing off the three firearms contained within each.

Juri’s Chest

Items obtained:
Hexagun
Created by a vengeful Gunjurer, the stock is formed from what was once his staff, and each piece of metal was enchanted thrice before assembly. In the hands of a mystic, its rounds have the chance to transmogrify targets. A semiautomatic precision rifle that fires extremely fast, piercing arcane rays. It comes with 75 magic rounds, but it’s single-shot and takes 1.2s for an expert to reload. With a horn instead of an actual scope, it demands exceptional aiming ability. Can be replenished via universal/long gun/sniper pickups
Akjagara
The design of these hard-hitting dual pistols is a mix of organic and bladed elements. A pair of burst-fire bladed double-barreled handguns that deal Slash damage, both firing a bullet simultaneously per burst. 210 ammo max, magazine is 36, fire rate is 5 per second, reload time is 2.25s in an expert’s hands. Can be replenished via universal/handgun/secondary pickups
TX-41 Sterilizer
More or less a flamethrower for caustic chemicals. Comes with 4 canisters, each of which can sustain 10 full seconds of sterilization in a wide cone. Its DPS is middling, but its blinding and slowing effects sow confusion, making it a powerful (and painful) crowd-control tool. Can only be replenished by universal ammo pickups

Edward’s Chest

Items obtained:
Beehive
A hive with 300 bees in it. Shaking it will dispense 10 bees per second that slowly home in on targets to sting them. If there are no targets, they will slow down and land until targets enter their range. Can only be replenished via universal ammo pickups
Odden’s Pinky
Odden Hammerite's brutal pyre-forged weaponry must be charged before firing. Once this machine wand spools up, it can spit out a cascade of empowered spell bullets, 10 per second. 18-round mag, 1.2s reload time, short effective range. Comes loaded with Destruction I spell bullets. Can only be replenished by crafted spell bullets, and only works in the hands of a magic user
Hurtsall 2K
An assault rifle capable of putting out 10.67 per second, with a reload time of 2s, a 40-shot mag, and 27 m effective range, with only light recoil. A solid and dependable workhorse, its only downside being its weight. Can be replenished by universal/long gun/assault rifle pickups

Once the skirmish with the Mammoth ended, the Seekers had to pack up and move on. With Edward’s drones performing reconnaissance, those still headed toward Highertower got enough of a lay of the land to plot out an effective route. Beyond the boggy badlands lay a biome of oil, tar, and silt, bruised black and blue by untold years of excavation and extraction to fuel the Paved Wilderness and lands beyond. The flatter areas had been turned into sprawling oilfields, while the more mountainous parts were an oil-rich ecosystem all their own, where there dwelt bizarre lifeforms touched by the strangeness of the Outback down south, like colorful Muk, quiet Lurkers, and predatory Rompopolo. It wasn’t an ideal route, but with half of the biome ablaze in an infernal Firespring that filled the sky with smoke, it was better than the alternative. Passing through there brought the Seekers toward Highertower from the south, and after ascending through a canyon roadway up from Oilwell Basin, they crested a hill that gave them a good look at what they’d be dealing with.

The tower certainly lived up to the legend. That sheet metal spire was a legitimate skyscraper, dwarfing everything in the region in height if not girth. Wind’s Gasp? No comparison. The Rocket League Arena? Nowhere near. Noctis, a town built up into a mountain? Close, but no cigar. It was comical in its repetitious simplicity, especially since the only means of ascent seemed to be ramps around the outside, but it was apparently sturdy enough to withstand a collision with a Ficsit freighter. This zone, perched on the precipice of Empty Space, had always been a hotspot for conflict, but with Ficsit’s scavenger hunt ongoing, it looked a lot more like an actual warzone.

There were dozens of psychos camped out everywhere, identifiable by their minimalist orange attire, white masks, and ramshackle weaponry. They wielded all kinds of guns, as well as machetes and saws fused together from scrap. Opposing those gangs were all kinds of soldiers and mercenaries, entrenched in a ceaseless war of attrition. Everyone was fighting over a dozen entrenched stockpiles, capturing and then attempting to extract Ficsit loot via payload while keeping the other factions at bay. The various factions weren't making much progress, since any time one got close to extracting a payload, the others tended to gang up on it. Big team battles were going down farther away from Highertower itself, with cars, trucks, and tanks all going at it in vicious bursts, then limping away to lick their wounds and prepare for the next round. Over everything blazed the purple light of a nearly-full Flame Clock, attached imperiously to Highertower itself. In this place, both danger and opportunity abounded, promising a rich payday to those who picked their fights wisely.

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

Dead Zone Hinterlands - Curien Mansion Courtyard

Harry’s @Eviledd1984 Amaterasu’s @DracoLunaris Chosen Undead’s @Simple Unicycle Level 11 Big Band (24/110)
Word Count: 1468

“HM!” The moment Band regained his feet, mere inches away from the partner in crime of the zombie he’d unceremoniously dropkicked, the undead wretch lunged for him. All it got for its efforts, however, was a mouthful of beige cotton gabardine so densely woven it barely even tore. It couldn’t even get its infectious jaws around the detective’s broad metal frame, much less bite off a pound of flesh. Of course, Band barely even noticed–while normally one to respect the dead, he hadn’t the slightest bit of pity for corpses like these. He had already crouched down, and now two trombone slides shot out like straight punches to soften the hapless cadaver up. Then, while it tried to catch its balance, Band unleashed a massive tuba that walloped the zombie with a heavy slam, then blasted it away in giblets with a deep, almost flatulent blast of sound. BWAAAAAAMP!

With the first two shamblers taken care of, Band took a quick look around to check on the others. He did not expect to see a medieval knight, well-armed and armored, expertly decapitating a zombie as he approached the embattled detectives. The stranger didn’t look like a member of Martira’s guard corps, so Band could only assume him to be some sort of drifter or sellsword. Either way, he clearly knew what he was doing, so while he didn’t think he needed help against rabble like this, he wasn’t going to object. “Hello yourself, sir knight!” He called back, a tone of mild, metallic amusement on his voice. “Knock yourself out, but don’t go thinkin’ you’re gonna get paid for it!”

The far bigger surprise, as it turned out, was the Icebreaker. After ditching a few articles of clothing, he unveiled a hidden blunt instrument and drowned out the zombies’ ravenous groans with an almost bestial wail, as if his very soul had given vent to its turmoil. He then vaulted over Band -a very impressive feet given their height difference- and charged straight into a mob of zombies with reckless abandon. Holding back nothing, he went to town with an onslaught of brutish bludgeoning and theatrical special techniques, as if working his way through all the signature moves he’d ever seen on the silver screen. It was a jaw-dropping display, especially because his nonsensical fighting style somehow seemed to be working. Zombie after zombie fell to his feverish assault, astounded by feats of acrobatics that not even Band could emulate. Taken aback, the cyborg could only glance over at Amaterasu to confirm that she was seeing this too, only to release a burst of helpless laughter when he found the wolf as slack-jawed as he was. That settled one thing, at least: that this wolf was at least as smart as a person.

Amaterasu didn’t just stand idly by and gawk, though. When a couple zombies came at her, the first few seemed to fall apart on her own, and for the stragglers the white wolf unleashed a handful of unnaturally agile kicks. Not once did she attempt to use her canines’ crushing biteforce like a normal wolf might, perhaps sensing the deadly contagion lurking within these monsters’ failing frames. Band nodded his approval, his expectations thoroughly exceeded. In fact, he was sufficiently distracted by Amaterasu’s antics that he didn’t react to another zombie coming his way until it had already pounced, sailing through the air with claws extended.

Of course, Big Band wasn’t one to be caught unawares. He tilted his body and extended two halves of a titantic tambourine to catch the wretch mid-leap in its vicelike clasp. Once he’d caught his prey, Band rattled the instrument, shaking the zombie to its bones with the reverberation. “Beat…Extend!” Stricken by Sound Stun, the monster felt nervelessly from Band’s grasp, a sitting duck for a definitive double honk from his bike horn. Its head popped, and Band disdainfully scattered its ashes as it slumped to the ground. “Hmph! Deadbeats!”

By then, the combined efforts of the detectives, the dog, and the plate-mailed interloper had put the little horde to route. Whether or not the zombies had ever been alive, they were definitely dead now. As the action dwindled, however, Band became aware of some stomping noises that were quickly getting louder. He turned toward the front doors of Curien Mansion, brows furrowed, and a moment later they burst open to admit a huge multi-limbed horror, a brute seemingly fused together from multiple corpses. Band inhaled sharply, then stepped forward, his stance wide. Two Brass Knuckles deployed from beneath his coat, and with his head tucked in, Band put up his dukes. “Stay back this time, y’all. This one ain’t goin’ down to cartoon super moves or puppy paws!”

The juggernaut roared, its chains and armor pieces clanging normally, but when it stopped the rumbling kept going. When he realized where the new sound was coming from, Band blinked, then looked back over his shoulder. Through the gates thundered a war machine the color of barley corn, its design somewhere between a tank and a high-tech train. Green lights shone all over its chassis, and as the turbine in the front of the vehicle rotated faster and faster, the same light built up inside. For a second Band thought it was going to shoot at him, but the Atom adjusted its aim and belted out a gigantic green laser. It smashed into the abomination and melted it away, blasting what remained back through the mansion’s front door to leave the whole entrance in shambles. Then, just as quickly as it came, the beam disappeared, and the train came to a stop. A hatch on top popped open, and none other than the big, muscular gray conductor Stein climbed out. The sight of the others’ stunned expressions brought a big grin to his face. “You guys look like you’ve got something to say. Maybe…’wow, thanks for the save Mr. Stein, you’re so cool!’ …Somethin’ like that? Heheh!”

His daughter, Tesset climbed out beside him. “Um! Is everyone o-okay?”

“...Uh huh.” Band shook off his bemusement and raised an eyebrow at the unexpected pair. “Just wonderin’ why ya’d go to the trouble, after what happened in the Friendly Arm.”

Stein hefted himself out of the Atom, landed on the ground, and turned to help Tesset down before patting the dust off casually. “Well, after hearin’ that you’re out to solve the missin’ kids’ case, I couldn’t turn a blind eye.” He patted Tesset on the head, prompting her to adjust her hat with pretend indignation. “Not with a kiddo of my own, y’know? So with my help, I figured findin’ this Heismay guy would be a cinch.”

Band nodded, his internal opinion on Stein shifting from ‘jerk who loves his daughter’ to ‘good day with a tough exterior’. “We probably had it handled, but thanks. Monsters like these ain’t much of a challenge, but…” He narrowed his eyes, kicking at a nearby pile of ashes. “Urgh. Sometimes it feels like I can’t go anywhere without the dead rising.”

Stein crossed his arms, a wry smile on his face. “Whaddya expect, comin’ to the house of the dead?”

“You sayin’ this place got some kind of resident evil?” Band gave the newcomer the side-eye.

He shrugged. “Just sayin’ there’s probably evil within.”

“Yeah,” Band turned back and began to approach the front door. “I bet there’s evil within, too.”

He led the way toward the yawning, dark opening that Stein’s laser left in the front of Curien Mansion, with the man himself plus Harry in tow. The wolf could do as she pleased, and now that Kit knew what his new acquaintances were up to, he could make introductions and tag along if he liked as well. Tesset retreated back into the Atom and locked it up to provide support from afar as the team set out to explore the mansion. With the light of day behind them, the newcomers could look forward to plenty of dark rooms, tall bookcases, and nooks and crannies where any number of unknown entities could be hiding. Finding Heismay in here would be like finding a needle in a haystack, and there was no way the fugitive hadn’t heard all the commotion. Still, Big Band was determined to see the expedition through.

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

<Snipped quote by Lugubrious>

How good of a time to join are we talking? Been peeping in every once in a while... have no idea what's ACTUALLY going on but, keep coming back and thinking about this. So curious if you think you're too full up or not!

@Sadu

It's a pretty good time, and our roster is never full. To make long story short, game characters from various worlds have been thrust into a mishmash World of Light, and it's up to them to defeat Galeem's guardians in order to challenge and overthrown Galeem itself. And on the way, we do all sorts of things like scavenger hunts, dance-offs, cosmic horror, and kart racing. If you're interested in trying, we'd be happy to have you.

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

Paved Wilderness - Eastern Road

Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (59/150) and Chucho the Polterpup
Roland’s @Archmage MC Therion’s @Yankee
Word Count: 1702

As much as the prospect of a high-octane joyride through the Paved Wilderness made Nadia want to put the pedal to the metal and speed out of Hammerhead in style, tires screeching and engine roaring, a good thief knew when and when not to make a scene. Plus, she didn’t want to give that little guy the wrong impression; she’d be returning this dune buggy once her scavenger hunt was over, maybe with a made-up story about how she’d followed the actual culprit behind the theft and taken it back in hopes of a reward, maybe not. She wasn’t the type to steal willy-nilly from people who didn’t deserve it, after all. And she couldn’t exactly blame a guy for shooting his shot with a gal like Gemma, no matter how vertically challenged he might be.

But once Nadia put Hammerhead in her rear-view mirror and hit the open road, with nobody but her ghostly pooch in sight, the feral couldn’t help but go a little wild. “Let’s go, Chucho! Wooooooooooo!” She floored the gas, hollering in exultation as the wind on her face caught her hair and ears. Even her polterpup, incorporeal though he was, had to chomp onto part of the rollcage and hold on for dear life as his lower half flapped like a flag. It took a few moments to get used to the dune buggy’s handling and powerful suspension, but luckily the highways east of Hammerhead weren’t exactly congested, and what was life without a few heart-pounding near misses? Once Nadia got a feel for the vehicle, though, she was cruising along with ease, purring almost as loud as the motor. This whole region was like a massive sandbox, and with her shiny now toy Ms Fortune felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Her plan was simple. She figured that since the Ficsit carrier originally crashed against and went down around Highertower, that area would be the most hotly contested. And for now at least, Nadia didn’t feel like fighting anyone if she couldn’t help it. In fact, while actually finding anything from the wreck would be a sweet bonus, the feral mostly just wanted to have fun driving around until she found somewhere to chill. To that end, heading somewhere far from the crash zone but still vaguely in the hauler’s original flight path made sense, and the mention of unique wildlife around Scorched Gorge caught her interest, so that was her current destination.

As it turned out, she wasn’t the only one headed in that direction, either. After a few minutes mostly spent focused on the road ahead and figuring out how to control her ride, Nadia noticed another car consistently occupying her rear-view mirror. After squinting for a better look, she realized that it was none other than Roland behind the wheel, with her fellow thief Therion along for the ride. “Oh, hey!” An idea popped into Nadia’s head, and she pulled over, waving out the window for Roland to do the same. “Hey! Wanna race?” she called to him over the rumble of their engines.

The well-dressed man waved back. "Oh sure. I'm headed to that Refinery, so we'd probably need to figure out a finish line before then. But it sounds fun."

“Alright, you’re on! Don’t come cryin’ to me when you lose, though. This kitty’s built for speed!” She put a hand on her polterpup’s head and rubbed it. “We’ll go on Chucho’s third bark, okay?”

Once the two were ready, Chucho bowed down, wagging his tail. “Woof! …Woof! …WOOF!”

Engines roared, tires spun, and the race was underway. Both vehicles launched forward with appreciable acceleration thanks to their Dragon engines, but since they both featured the same amount, their top speed turned out to be the same, so for a couple miles the racers were neck-and-neck. Ever the mischief-maker, Nadia bumped Roland’s car with her dune buggy a couple times, but she didn’t actually want to hurt him or Therion of course, so she never got too frisky. With the sun almost directly overhead Nadia couldn’t tell which direction she needed to go, so she stuck to the highway. Doing so made it easier to drive, but it also meant that, aside from the occasional vehicle that she and Roland needed to avoid, the race wasn’t actually that eventful. At the very least, the rocky red badlands that formed their race track were beautiful in their own way, with all kinds of cacti and vulture-picked skeletons resting beneath the monolithic spires and mesas.

After a while, the race naturally petered out as a result of taking too long over a somewhat monotonous track not designed with entertaining competition in mind. Nadia did spot what looked like actual racetracks here and there, including one with bright blue tarps stretched out between megalithic fossils, and one that ringed a huge quarry complete with giant industrial excavators, but she didn’t feel like muscling in on the competition. Just past the quarry, her route took her through a series of canyons and archways lines with strange machines, but after that it was nothing but straight road for a while as she drove between a river and a large plateau. Getting bored, Nadia allowed Roland to pass her and her eyes to wander. After only a couple moments, she did spot something intriguing in the sky. What originally looked like a high-altitude fireworks display wound up being a dogfight between three old-fashioned airships, covered in rigging, plated in armor, and suspended from unusual balloons. One seemed almost stationary, dangling like a castle tower beneath a balloon like a huge globe, outfitted with enough heavy weapon emplacements to cover every angle. It seemed to be holding off the other two, a light but speedy Goldfish that was more of a distraction than a threat, and a heavier Galleon with three balloons and a bevy of cannons. The two ships seemed intent on outmaneuvering the formidable Spire and taking it down through hit-and-run tactics, but Nadia couldn’t tell if it was working.

As she gawked, the Galleon got too impatient and tried to take a shot from a risky position, opening it up to a broadside from the Spire. A huge chain-explosion went off in the sky, and the airship began to go down. Nadia was so intent on the battle that she forgot to keep her eyes on the road until Chucho gave an alarmed bark. Alarmed, she looked back in time just in time to see a strange green creature in the road, something between a turtle and a penguin. It was ugly in a cute way, and it stared at its impending doom with big, round eyes. Time seemed to slow down for Nadia as her adrenaline spiked, a look of horror spreading across her face. Her first instinct was to cut the wheel as hard as she could, so the next second she swerved away from the critter and sailed right off the road.

Dust and pebbles went flying as she spun out, whirling down the roadside slope until her buggy splashed right into the water. With her head literally still spinning, Nadia was too dizzy and disoriented to do anything until Chucho grabbed one of her ears to stop it, by which point her vehicle had begun to float downriver. “Aw, damn it!” she groaned, trying the pedals and the wheel to no avail. Her engine only sputtered, already waterlogged. As the water rose above her ankles, she sighed, then climbed out of the window and on top of the car. She scanned the riverbanks, but couldn’t see Roland’s truck anywhere. Had the Fixer left her behind? Well, even if she’d forgotten about picking up Massachusetts’ rigging, she could get to safety pretty easily. If only that didn’t mean giving up her car…

While the feral wondered if either of her strikers could be used to save the dune buggy, Nadia the loud sound of a truck horn broke her concentration. She looked back at the road to find a red-and-black semitruck with distinctive tusks. The window was rolled down, revealing a young but tired-looking face, as if the driver had just been asleep at the wheel. “Hey,” she called out, her barely-raised voice almost inaudible over the engine. “Ya need a hand?”

“I’m good!” Nadia crouched down, pressurizing the blood in her legs, then rocketed into the air. She used Charge to cover the rest of the distance, rematerializing on the shore with a sad backward glance at her dune buggy as it floated off. Chucho floated down next to her with a sympathetic whine, and Nadia sighed again. “Easy come, easy go…”

The truck driver scratched the side of her head as she peered at the blood trickling down Nadia’s legs. “You sure you’re fine…?”

“Uh-huh!” Nadia turned, her tail flicking behind her, and crossed her arms. That girl looked way too young to drive, but Nadia wasn’t exactly in a position to talk right now. “Uh, do you know the way to Scorched Gorge?”

“Mm-hm…” The truck driver yawned. “Just a couple miles from here. Hop in, I’ll take ya.” She pulled a lever, and the side of the truck began to lift up. Inside was a mobile saloon-style bar, complete with vinyl stools and all kinds of liquor, strapped tight to survive the highway.

Nadia didn’t need to be told twice. “Thanks!” With Chucho in tow she jumped aboard, then settled in for the rest of the trip. She was not looking forward to the look on Therion’s face when he found out what happened. Maybe he doesn’t need to know.

Paved Wilderness - North-northeastern Road

Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate and Sectonia’s @Archmage MC Zenkichi’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Juri’s @Zoey Boey

Compared to the territories to the east and northwest, the terrain to the north of Hammerhead seemed pretty unremarkable at first blush. It featured a few sandstone bluffs and towering wind-carved pillars, but for the most part, the interior of the Paved Wilderness was wide open and flat, dominated by hardy yellow grasses and tall cacti, with only a few withered trees. Here and there one might spot a giant anthill, grassy crag, or herd of wild horses or buffalo, but the ecology here wasn’t as varied or interesting as the Windward Plains to the west, and this area didn’t seem as favored by racers as those to the east, either. This went on for miles and miles and miles, and judging by how far away Highertower had been from Hammerhead on the map, it would go on for many more.

There were a few elements that broke up the monotony, though. Scattered around the grasslands, especially closer to Hammerhead, were a number of little hovels and roadside attractions. Most seemed to be the result of continuous construction over time, cobbled together from different materials and styles as the original structure was expanded upon. Some, little more than shacks roofed by corrugated sheet metal, seemed to be abandoned, with threadbare, sun-faded garments dangling limply from old clotheslines. Others bore signs of habitation, like the inn known as Dieter Restaurant and a three-tier cafe bolted to a white stone villa. Nobody sprang out from these houses or hailed incoming travelers; the residents only watched in peaceful silence as drivers -or fliers- passed them by. The farther the Seekers got, though, the less frequent these structures became, until all that remained was the rumble of the road, the wind in the grass, and white clouds in the blue, blue sky. For a solitary driver, the experience might be meditative–or just really, really boring.

Eventually, though, that all changed. As the five approached the same latitude as Outback, the terrain suddenly got rockier, and the flora more alien in appearance. The lowlands took on an unhealthy greenish tinge, and sulphuric fumes arose from the bogs therein. Given the propensity of the region around Outback for bizarre wildlife, perhaps some of the adjacent biome’s strangeness was seeping through. Either way, things were about to get more interesting. As the travelers rounded a bend, they beheld an enormous, six-wheeled ultra-heavy vehicle. At ninety feet tall and two hundred twenty five feet long, it was mammoth in size as well as name, and it even sported an enormous rotating cannon on its back. Unfortunately, that starship-buster was in fact too big to deal with its current problem.

A mechanical roar like no engine Juri had ever heard resounded from the ridge above her as she drove past, and the next second a Chopper flew overhead. It resembled a bike, but dragged by two enormous, crushing wheels in front rather than propelled by one from behind. It soared overhead, then slammed down on the other side of the road and began to take potshots at the Mammoth with the cannons mounted on either side of the wheels. Brutally but clumsily designed, the Chopper could only shoot in the direction it was facing, so the ghastly pilot had to turn in order to aim. A moment later, another Chopper cruised in, followed by some kind of sled that cruised along with the aid of anti-gravity technology as the gunner on its mounted turret took aim. These reinforcements joined a band of Bloodmounts and Reavers already attacking the Mammoth, which was just now lowering its doors to deploy a green LAV equipped with four wheels, two treads, and a machine gun, followed by two four-wheel Centaur tanks with cannons. A fierce battle quickly erupted within the boggy canyon, threatening everybody in the area whether involved in the skirmish or not.

Of course, all this was no surprise to Edward, whose drones had scouted out the area and the brewing conflict beforehand.

Paved Wilderness - Northern Road

Pit’s @Yankee

For a few minutes, it seemed like Pit’s optimism would lead him to disappointment. Most people around Hammerhead were very busy, either working on other people’s vehicles or preparing for their next trips across the wilderness. Given the ongoing event quest, most of the truckers, bikers, drifters, and hunters here were slow to trust, wary of any competition and sabotage that might interfere with their next payday. Local transport services were rather expensive today as well, with everyone eager to cash in on the big search. Fortunately, even if most of the Seekers had already driven, flown, or teleported away, Pit had one friend at Hammerhead that he could depend on. The screech of brakes caught his attention as a familiar-looking vehicle ground to a halt behind him, and when Pit turned he spotted none other than the Minotaurus, with Nico at the wheel and Nero riding shotgun, just like before. “Hey, kid,” the devil hunter hailed him with a wave. He knew that Pit wasn’t a kid, but couldn’t help using it as a term of endearment. “You up for another ride? No timefall this time, I hear.”

“Better haul your feathery butt in here then, if so!” Nico called with a grin. “‘Cause I’m fixin’ to peel outta here whether you’re buckled up or not!”

Within minutes, the gunsmith’s van had left Hammerhead in its dust. Given the northern highway’s proximity to the road chosen by Juri, the first leg of Pit’s journey was much the same as the martial artists: yellow prairie interspersed by ramshackle cottages and time-worn waypoints. With a variety of songs on the radio and good company, though, the drive was much less tedious than it would have been for a lone rider. And the farther the team traveled north, the more the land began to differentiate itself from the road to Hightower out west. For one, there were some race tracks. Pit could watch a handful of Excitebots tearing up Wario’s Gold Mine. and after passing by Dingo’s Diner, they caught a glimpse of the Dingo Canyon to the east, its water glittering in the afternoon sun. There were roving bands of treasure hunters as well, some of which also employed Excitebots to great effect. While none of them seemed overtly hostile, tensions continued to rise as the minutes ticked by, and eventually the reason became clear.

After a while, Nico brought the Minotaurus over a ridge and into a broad valley. Both she and Nero spotted something in the distance right away, but neither could quite tell what they were looking at. It looked like a giant circus tent with a large crane or something protruding from the top. The two friends exchanged a glance, then returned to their examination, wary but curious. After another thirty seconds, though, the unknown structure had gotten close enough that Nero could not only tell what it was, but that it was moving, too. It was a giant circus tent, carried on top of unfathomably huge tank treads, much bigger than the crawler-transporters used to launch space shuttles, big enough that the Minotaur could fit underneath the chassis with room to spare. At the end of the crane’s arm there was an enormous clown head, perpetually on fire, and in its jaws it held a huge chunk of the Ficsit carrier, no doubt full of recovered loot. It was Sweet Tooth’s Carnival of Carnage, and a major step up from what the clown offered when the Seekers first visited the Paved Wilderness.

“Holy cow!” Nico swerved off the road, heading for an outcrop of rock to conceal the Minotaurus from whatever lookouts were aboard the CoC. She and Nero had encountered their fair share of huge foes, but this thing was leagues above, and could be carrying hundreds of men or deployable vehicles as well. There was plenty of cover in this valley, but getting around the CoC as it rumbled south would be quite the task.

Nero shook his head, an incredulous look on his face. “Sure, a vehicular stealth mission. Why not.” He raised his eyebrows at Pit. “You’ll make this up to us later, right kid?”

Paved Wilderness - Western Wilds

Junior and Rika’s @DracoLunaris Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Roxas’ @Double

When not overtaken by a season of Fallow, the Windward Plains were a place of great natural beauty, as well as impressive biological diversity. As populous and visible as the pangolin-like Ceratonoth herds were, they were really just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the creatures that intrepid explorers could find in the region. From smaller forms of endemic life such as the birdlike amstrigans and yellow-bellied tracktail lizards all the way up to large predators like the colorful Brute Wyvern Quematrice with their loose scaly flaps and burrowing Balahara leviathans, there were critters to suit almost any kind of fancy. There were even a few wild Pokemon, like Cranidos, Shieldon, Dunsparce, and even refugee Tropius from the Land of Adventure. For the Koopa Kids, however, this region’s charms proved unremarkably mundane, and it wasn’t long before they set their sights to the north.

The arid region to the north represented an even greater level of geological and biological variety, practically to the point of abnormality. Its yellow sands lay atop relatively thin layers of rock visible in canyons and valleys, where their differently-colored strata created a rainbow of color amidst flat, circular mineral deposits arranged like sections of a terrace farm. Pearlescent spherical formations could be found around the area at random, impossibly dense and heavy. What appeared to be bonelike corals revealed themselves as Articulated Angstoks when small prey animals like Trebhum or Tetracrabs drew too near, rapidly growing and branching their husks until fanged maws could protrude and snatch their food and slowly drag it back to the main organism underground. Angstoks weren’t the only dangers here, though, since hideous Tonglegrops could spray viscous, sticky acid, and . And of course, the freakish Great Gaaahrs towered over everything, and avocado-stalks loomed in the distance.

The Outback’s surprises didn’t stop there, though. A number of debatably edible items could be discovered throughout the area, either readily available or hidden away. Only through trial and error would visitors learn that these foodstuffs could spark sudden mutations, each more or less useful in some way. Against all odds, the newcomers could also find a couple pokemon here, albeit atypical ones like Lickitung, Cradily, Rellor, Naclstack, Brambleghast, Revavroom, and Sandy Shocks. Finally, beyond all that, lay the derelict outpost that had failed to outcompete Hammerhead as a truck stop, with even its name fading into obscurity in the wake of its owners’ ill-fated venture. Still, its water tower and windmill evoked some small sense of bygone majesty, as if still trying to measure up to the Great Gaaahrs and avocado trees.