TruthHurts22

World of Light

@Dark Cloud Just so you're in the loop I'm gonna be posting tomorrow, and hoping to have Raz drag Benedict along with the group to the copter. What better way to becoming a party member than being kidnapped, eh? Though if you rather otherwise that's cool too

World of Light

RANK 5
17/50 EXP
@Dark Cloud's Benedict
Kunad Highway

"Nice one!" Raz went for a high five with Pit, which hopefully the peppy angel would reciprocate before the two were approached by Peach.

"An angle they wouldn't expect?... Oh, I got it! We can 'float' down near the bottom of the trucks, and--" His quick plan was interrupted by Trumpeter's trumpeting, which pierced the rushing wind and roaring engines. With it came light that also pierced the sky, landing on where most everyone had gathered. "Okay new plan wing it!!" Raz shouted as he dived out of the way of the nuclear blast. Even if the other two didn't go with his original idea, Raz still figured it was worth a shot. He turned the dive into a roll, tumbling across the roof to the back of the truck, catching the edge and sliding down the rear doors until his feet touched the very thin edge of the trailer's skirt.

Pressing up against the metal walls Raz sidled sideways, inching along the side of the truck, getting between two of them. "Don't look down, don't look down, don't think about looking down," he muttered to himself. He kept his eyes up, feeling his way around the truck as he got into position beneath Trumpeter, who hovered over the gap - and now, over Raz.

"Okaaaay, I really hope this works." Raz had felt a tingling in his mind for a while now, and he tried to grab hold of it...

Power Get!

Mental Connection

This psychic power allows Raz to connect disparate thoughts in a person's mind, changing how they think directly, though he wields it in a unique way; with it, Raz pulls himself towards thoughts and float inside of them, using them like pathways to get to out-of-the-way places. Outside of the mental realm, only stray thoughts exist (if he can find them). Raz primarily uses Mental Connection to pull himself to his enemies and vice versa, delivering a high-speed beatdown or repositioning baddies on a whim.

In an instant, a dotted line formed between Raz and the Trumpeter, framing the latter in a glowing purple thought bubble. Then Raz was yanked upwards, pulled towards the larger demon with the speed of a flying bullet. His helmeted head rammed into Trumpeter's underside, knocking him off balance, though Raz did more than just slam into him. "I'll take that," he shouted, grabbing the demon's trumpet, using both the momentum of his pull and Trumpeter's loss of stability to yank it clear out of its bony hands as he soared further past it. The demon was now open and defenseless for Midna's assault!

With the demon's (presumed) source of power in hand, Raz materialized his bubble, holding onto it with his free hand only for a moment, stalling in the air just long enough so the convoy didn't leave him behind. No, instead Raz had his sights on the schoolbus still tailing them, landing on its roof, closer to the rear, behind Benedict. "Hey, you!" He called over the din. "I dunno who you are, but you're messing with some really dangerous stuff, using these G-Men or, fake G-Men, whatever! You're asking about our intentions? What about yours, ordering these monsters around and trying to kill us?"

Raz lifted the stolen trumpet to his lips. "Let's see how you like a taste of it!" And with that, he blew, tooting the apocalyptic instrument with all his might! And, when nothing even happened, he looked at it bashfully. "I, uh, thought that would work. Uhh..." So as a Plan B, Raz lifted the trumpet with his TK and merely flung it, hard, at Benedict. "Take that!...?"

---

623 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

RANK 5
16/50 EXP

Gutsford

It was a good thing that Peach decided to let loose a huge blast into the air, because Raz wasn't really sure which way the Trade Depot was from where they ended up. Following the shrieking flare Raz and Roxas turned the corner of a warehouse just in time to see the rest of their friends clambering up onto a fleet of trucks right as they began to pull out.

"Gotta book it!" Raz started for the trucks, vaulting onto his Levball mid-run as he spotted another group of G-Men after the others. Three big bounds across the pavement, and a bounce off of a moving forklift ("That'll buff out!") sent him careening across the depot, over the grasping hands of a few of the faster G-Men, to finally land atop one of the last trucks to leave. Not a graceful landing either; the momentum threatened to send him flying right off again so Raz had to de-levitate on the move, which made him tumble and flip across the roof of the truck before finally skidding to a stop on his face.

"Uuogh," Raz groaned as he lifted himself up. "...still got it."

Their trip to Midgar began for real now. The top of a bunch of trucks wasn't the most comfortable form of travel, but at least it have them all a great view of the scenery. Raz kept low, sitting on the roof of the truck's cabin, back against the trailer, to keep the wind from knocking him off. The path the trucks took was pretty bumpy, sending their trailers bouncing left and right whenever they weren't on one of those sections of roads, though luckily Raz could handle some turbulence.

Speaking of turbulence...

"Who the heck is that guy?!" Raz shouted to the others over the rushing wind as he stood, ready for the fight. The spectacled man with the shield was in charge of the G-Men it seemed, but it wasn't anybody Raz knew. "Oh, this should be easy," he tempted fate, taking a little combat stance so he could wallop these fedora-wearing fools. That is, until they exploded.

"Whaoh! Okay, they didn't do that where I came from!" Raz somersaulted away from the heavy hammer of Ippon-Datara as it came down on him, leaping between one truck to the other in order to dodge. "Looks like it's time to get schooled!" He nailed his attacker with three well-placed Psiblasts aimed at its broad chest. "Get it? Because they came out of that school bus? That works, right?" Raz's would have to workshop his one-liners another time, since the little alien-looking guy in the floating pot zoomed in close to him, the air crackling with electricity. It tried to nail Raz with tiny lightning bolts, forcing the Psychonaut on his toes, jumping to and fro in a little jig to avoid the shocks. "Hey, hey, watch it!" Fingers to temple, Raz grabbed Agathion with his TK, the large glowing hand holding the thing in its pot like he'd caught a spider in a jar.

"Batters up, anyone?" He called to the others, focusing on keeping the Shadow still, despite its best efforts jerking it back and forth in the air.

---

547 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

The Chase

Collab: @TruthHurts22's Raz, @Double's Roxas, & @Lugubrious
1,926 Words / +3 EXP

Raz focused ahead as he and Roxas headed up the chase, the few glances he managed to throw over his shoulder only making sure they were still being chased. He didn’t know just how many G-Men took the bait, so hopefully their ruse was enough to catch the attention of most of them, enough to give their friends a decent window to escape. ”I know, right?” Raz kept up the fake bragging with Roxas even as they rushed down the road. ”Like that thing! With the important people! So economically sensitive!”

When asked what next, Raz just shrugged. ”No clue! I didn’t think this far ahead.” They sidestepped into an alley to avoid some agents that were starting to flank them. ”Just wing it I guess!” ‘Winging it’ would have to wait, as the alley only lead them into a dead-end, surrounded by G-Men on either side. Raz followed Roxas’s lead on climbing up, only his was much less flashy than Roxas, shimmying up a gutter pipe with rapid speed.

The roof would give them a bit of leeway, but it wouldn’t be long before some G-Men scrounged up, what, roof tiling equipment? Raz looked down at the ground with hands on hips. ”Alright, well, we can’t get to the rendezvous point with them on our tail. Guess we’ll have to lose them somehow.” Raz looked up and scanned the city, trying to drum up ideas. ”They can’t get anywhere they’re not supposed to be, not without a ‘disguise’ at least. Maybe we can cut through some warehouse? One of the schools?”

“The schools? You sure none of them were disguised as students?” they’d spotted so many G-Men on their way to the pet shop that Roxas couldn’t remember all the disguises they were using. If any of them were disguised as students they could just follow them right into whatever school they ran to, “Huh?” Roxas peaked down to the alley below and saw what was coming for them.

Down below, the G-men poured into the alley, jogging at a decent clip. Between the ‘road workers’ and ‘students’ that originally closed in the group and forced them into the pet shop, the decoy duo could count seven of them, all of them one hundred percent identical now that they’d ditched their disguises. While the runners managed to break their pursuers’ line of sight for a moment, the G-men naturally looked up once they witnessed the empty alleyway, and in so doing spotted the young men peering down at them. “Up there!” one of them barked. “They are clearly not air conditioner repairmen!”

As he slowed to a stop, another G-man shook his fist. “Rooftops are restricted areas! Get down here!”

“Now that you’re running from us, we have probable cause!” a third declared. “You may as well give up now.”

Between flowmotion and levitation, Raz and Roxas had made a way up where there was none, but that didn’t leave the G-men out of options. Two of them up their backs to the brick wall down below so that they could give the rest a powerful boost up. Wherever the two planned to go next, they needed to get going soon.

“Uh… I don’t think they’re bothering with disguises anymore.” Roxas told Raz. He glanced around in search of another route they could take and spotted a neighboring rooftop that looked to be at a lower elevation, “How well can you jump?” he asked, pointing at the potential route he had spotted, “Think we can make it?”

”Oh I can jump,” Raz replied with a smug tone. ”I dunno how long we can leapfrog over these guys before we run out of roofs or they wise up though. Plus we still need a way to shake ‘em so we can get to the copter.”

“Well, we’ve got no other ideas right?” he said with a shrug, and then took off in a sprint toward the edge of their current rooftop. When he reached the edge he leaped with as much strength as his legs could give him. Now thankfully for Roxas, he was actually quite spry and thus landed on the other side safely and with no issue. Raz followed soon after, taking the jump at a brisk sprint - he didn’t have enough momentum to make the whole leap, but he formed a psychic bubble under him, boosting off of it for the extra distance needed.

Hurrying to the other side of the building, Raz surveyed their options, soon pointing out a bus stop a few blocks from them. ”How’s about a little trip for our friends back there, eh?”

“Works for me, let’s go!” Roxas replied as he ran to make his move. When he reached the edge he summoned Oblivion in his right hand, “Blizzaga!” he cried, aiming the ice spell at the roof’s edge so that a bit of ice spiked forth and provided a slightly farther out spot to jump from. He hopped into that jutting spike of ice and made another leap. The ice was necessary to reach the neighboring roof as it was a little bit further away and just outside his natural jumping distance. The outreaching ice helped make up the distance and like before he reached the other side safely.

“Just a couple more jumps and then we can make our way back to ground.” he said with confidence. If they could keep the high ground long enough to get as close as possible to where they were going, then they could hit the ground and sprint their way to the bus stop. What would happen after that? Well, they’d probably have that figured out by the time they got there, right?

”Got it!” With the two of them sticking to high ground, the G-Men had no real chance to catch up to them. They couldn’t make the same leaps and bounds if they did get on the roofs, and the two never stood around long enough for them to clamber up the same building. The G-Men didn’t give up their pursuit though, which is what they were counting on.

A few more leaps and several further taunts later, Roxas and Raz made it to a small hardware shop just outside the bus stop, oh so luckily when the next bus was pulling in. The G-Men following them took a wrong turn a block away so they managed to put some distance between them. ”Alright, follow my lead,” Raz told Roxas as he hopped down from the shop’s awning onto the sidewalk, and then made a dash into the bus. He led Roxas further in, about halfway down the rows of seats, before he stopped. ”Okay, these guys still work on the same warped logic as when I first dealt with them, so as long as we can disguise ourselves…” He unclasped a small pouch dangling from his rucksack, pulling out a pair of colorful lollipops and handed one to Roxas.

”We’re a couple of lost kids looking for our parents,” Raz explained, glancing out the windows on the lookout for their pursuers. ”And if they ask where we went, say we saw us hide in the bus somewhere. That should deal with them. Got it?”

“And this’ll fool them?” asked Roxas, staring at his lollipop incredulously, “Alright, I trust you know what you’re talking about.” he then added with a shrug.

One thing stuck out to the two as they took refuge inside the bus, which was its emptiness. No students of any grade could be found on board. The bus driver said nothing to them either, but once they got inside he closed the double doors, shifted out of park, and began to pull away. Only for a squad of G-men stampeding across the street to flag it down, forcing the bus driver to stop again. Very nervous all of a sudden, he swallowed before pulling the lever to open the door again. With no other scapegoats to deflect their pursuers’ attention once they came inside, the boys hurried down the steps with their disguises ready, betting what might be their very lives on the Psychonaut’s plan.

Outside, they found all seven G-men arranged in a semicircle around the door, their red eyes fixed on Raz and Roxas. Close up, they were even more unnerving. They did not seem to breathe, nor to blink. Were they even alive?

Roxas was quick to take a big lick of his lollipop, “Hey, why’d we stop?” he asked, trying to make his voice sound a little different from earlier, “I thought we were going to school?”

”I don’t know,” followed Raz, who made no attempt to hide his voice. ”We are just a couple of children doing regular school-related activities after all.”

The G-men glanced between one another, thinking. One of them crossed his arms, his vivid red eyes narrowed. “Kids, you say? Using a school bus…on a Saturday?”

“Oh yeah, our uh, Speech Club moved its meetings to Saturdays. We were just on our way to meet with our club mates.” he nudged Raz with his elbow, “Right?”

”That’s right! Speech Club helps us with our speech,” he helpfully explained.

“I see…” Furtively the G-man glanced through the bus’s windows, scanning for the runaways among the seats. “Run along then, children. We…being very busy bus inspectors…must further inspect this bus.” The crowd parted to let the boys pass. Then two of them entered the vehicle in single file.

One stared at the bus driver, taking note of the man’s shaking and the beads of sweat on his forehead, then moved down the aisle. The second took his place beside the bus driver, watching his colleague. For a few moments the G-man moved between the seats, finding nobody on board. Then he looked up to examine the emergency roof escape hatch, which he found to be locked from the inside. Impassive as ever, he turned back to the front of the bus, and shook his head.

“Eyewitnesses confirm that our suspects boarded the bus, but there are no passengers, and other exits are all sealed,” the G-man at the front murmured. “Which means the fugitive…” He whirled around to face the bus driver, extending his hand. “Is you!”

The man’s eyes widened as he tried to squirm away. “No, wait, No-!”

When the G-man grabbed his shoulder, a loud snapping noise rang out, and both disappeared. All that remained was a plume of smoke in the seat, the bus driver’s hat, and the haunting echo of his scream.

The first G-man sauntered up, reached down, and picked up the hat. He dusted off the seat and sat down, then replaced his own fedora with his newly-acquired headwear. “I am the bus driver,” he deadpanned. “Bringing my students to school for extracurricular activities.” One by one the other G-men filed onto the bus, holding their pencils, rulers, and calculators. The double doors slammed shut behind them, and with a loud pneumatic hiss the bus began to move.

“Oh man,” Roxas said after a sigh of relief, “I can’t believe they actually bought that. I just hope that bus driver doesn’t get hurt or something because of us.”

Raz and Roxas watched the bus pull away, the G-Men nonthewiser to their clean getaway. ”That guy’ll be fine,” Raz reassured Roxas as he stuck his Psi-pop back into its holster. ”They won’t kill him. At least I think so. Now c’mon, we gotta hurry to the others!”

“Right behind you.” Roxas responded as the two took off for the rendezvous.

World of Light

RANK 5
12/50 EXP

Geralt @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Roxas @Double, Bede @Crimson Flame, Blazermate & Susie @Archmage MC

Gutsford

The pet shop was a brief bit of safety for the crew. So long as the G-Men didn't get a hold of leashes or chew toys or whatever they might not brave stepping inside and be "found out". At least they were easy to manipulate.

The twins lead them further into the pet shop, to where their small base of operations was. Everything felt very spy-like, especially when Raz caught a glimpse at the huge corkboard full of pictures and clippings. "Whoa... hey, check it out!" Raz pointed up at the blurry photos of himself and looked back to the others. "I'm part of a secret anti-government conspiracy!" His face broke out into the widest grin possible, fists clenched close to his chest. "Isn't it awesome?"

While Giovana introduced herself, the Doctors, and their little organization, Raz couldn't stop himself from geeking out, his eyes taking in every detail the room had to offer, especially in regards to the board. He tried to focus on the conversation, though. "Mr. Goldlewis? Yeah, I met him back when I was still all Galeem'd in the head, in Al Mamoon. He helped us with climbing the mountain and fighting that huge monster. I figured he was with you guys, actually," Raz said, pointing to Peach. "I uh, guess not, though?"

"I know all about these guys," Raz continued, gesturing vaguely to outside the room. "We're from the same... world? Home? Universe? I'm still not really sure how to call all this. I dunno if it helps with anything but where I'm from they weren't even physical things, they were a mental construct in someone's mind. Maybe the person in charge has the potential to, I dunno, pull things out of people's head?" An interesting proposal, but Raz felt like that was barking up the wrong tree.

A vague plan-shaped idea was made - splitting up to distract the G-Men and get the rest of the team to their meeting place. "I can do it!" Raz jumped at the chance, literally, hopping up with his hand raised high. "I've dealt with the G-Men before, so I know how to handle them."

Geralt made for the front to deal with the ones coming in, so Raz took to the backdoor they came in from. He pushed the door open a smidge to peer through the crack; it seemed like the G-Men had all made their way to the front instead, no doubt with their new 'disguises' at the ready. Raz entered the alleyway and headed around the building, ending up just outside the large group of trenchcoat-wearing spies.

"Ohhhh wow!" Raz said, loud enough for his voice to carry. "I sure do know a lot about things! Super secret things! I have sooo much knowledge of a plot against the General... Investigation... the, the government! I hope nobody has questions to ask me!" Raz slowly backed away from the G-Men as he spat all that out, wanting to make sure he hooked most of them at least before he made a break for it, running clear the opposite direction of the pet store, not dashing down a side path until he was sure the coast was clear for them. He'd have to think quick on his feet to navigate the city, but he was used to this sorta stuff!

---

571 Words
+1 EXP

World of Light

Level 2 (XP: 8/20)

Edinburgh MagicaPolis

Wonder Red’s tour for information didn’t start out all that fruitful. The ebb and flow of the city, itself a hodgepodge of different shops and buildings from dozens of unique worlds, made it hard to zero in on where the best info would be. He didn’t have the same relevant experience to throw around like Big Band did - ‘costumed superhero’ wasn’t a common occupation, and his alternate identity as Elementary teacher Mr. Wedgewood wouldn’t help, either. In reality, without a team to support him Wonder Red was a small fish in a big pond, and now that pond was exponentially huger than what he was used to.

That line of thinking wouldn’t keep him down though! He was on a mission and no personal qualms were going to drag down his performance. He made little progress on the street, trying to stop groups of passersby to ask for any news and attempting to purchase some newspapers without having any of the region’s currency, and his first real stop at Coffee Talk yielded the same results. The cozy café seemed promising at first, but there were barely any customers present, with the ones that were there being more interested in relationship advice or overcoming writer’s block than if any monsters have been wreaking havoc somewhere else. Disappointed but undeterred, Wonder Red hit the streets once again, doing his best to sleuth out some better hubs, eventually leading him down a particularly shady alleyway to a bar, tucked away from the general populace.

On the inside the bar had a strangely similar atmosphere to the café, a place where the weary can come in, unload their problems, have a nice drink and take a breather from the chaos of the outside world, though this one had much more of a cyberpunk flair. Maybe, Red figured, such an out-of-the-way location would offer some equally out-of-the-way gossip.

Inside, the red-suited Wonderful One found a motley selection of strangers. Although he’d gotten an idea of how Edinburgh MagicaPolis worked from what he’d seen while outside, like cars that floated on magic circles instead of running on tires, the interior of this bar all but confirmed the pattern: that everything in this city ran on an eclectic blend of magic and science. From phones that were little more than glyph-projecting artifacts, to lights powered by crystals, to taps that were more like fancy cauldrons, no conventional technology could be seen anywhere. Naturally, the people here possessed a certain fantastical element as well. Most notable was the two-foot-four leipori sipping wine over a book on one of the couches, but an old man held a rod somewhere between a cane and a casting catalyst, and the most conventional people like the smoker and scarf-wearer over at the bar. When Red stepped a little farther inside, he even saw a bipedal turtle over in the corner booth, shivering with a big mug of beer beneath a heat lamp.

Red did some quick social math; the small creature was reading a book so she wouldn’t appreciate being disturbed, and the people at the bar might be open to talk but seemed to be in a group, so a stranger barging between them for an interrogation was going to fall flat. That left the lonely old turtle in his own booth. Wonder Red strode to him and took the seat opposite.

”Hello there. Do you mind if I take this spot? It’s pretty chilly outside and your heat lamp seems… less chilly.”

When Red approached, the turtle’s rather miserable expression suddenly brightened up. “Oh no, nono, please, sit!” He shifted in his own seat a little, although he obviously didn’t need to move so that that superhero could seat himself. Not quite sure what else to say, he took hold of his mug with both hands and took a long drink, then set it down and smacked his beak. “Just…awful cold out there, isn’t it?” Whether elderly or just infirm, he spoke with a somewhat quavering voice, as if he’d always just stubbed his toe on something. “Dry, too!” he added. “Most…most folks, they don’t think about that part, but it is. Anything that gets damp’ll just freeze, of course, I know. But look at me! Scales dry as a bone…I’m not a tortoise, I need somethin’ wet!” He gave an airy, almost coughing laugh as he raised his mug. “So this stuff…’bout as good as it gets, eh?”

”Wet, huh? I suppose you could always collect some snow, and… bring it indoors, so that it… melts?” Red offered, having no real hydration advice handy. ”Sorry, let me start again. My name is Wonder Red, and I was hoping to get some help. You seem like you know the place very well, and you’re sitting here by yourself. Would you mind if I asked a few questions?”

The turtle scratched at his cheek. “Questions? S-sure, I suppose.” He blinked at Red a couple times, then tilted his head. “Hmm? ...Aren’t you gonna get something to drink?”

”Later, maybe. Right now I’m, ah, on the clock, in a manner of speaking. So, sir, do you know of any ways out of the city? Other than the Metro, that is.”

After a brief moment the reptile’s brow furrowed somewhat. “Don’t wanna share a friendly drink with ol’ Bubbles, uh, I get it, I get it.” He looked down into his own beverage and waved his claw dismissively. “Just walk in whatever direction long enough, and you’ll get out. Eventually.” The last word he said with a shrug before he went to take another swig.

Wonder Red’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward in his seat. ”Oh, no, sir, that isn’t at all how I meant– uh, Mr. Bubbles, is it? I-I’d be glad to have a drink with you! What would you recommend? It’s my uh, first time here after all.”

Bubbles looked up from his mug, his spirit seemingly renewed by the mere thought that someone might actually like to spend quality time with him. “Well then, why didn’t you say so? As for beer, it doesn’t get much better than this.” He tilted his cup forward so that Red could see the foamy red-pink liquid inside, although it seemed to be just about empty. “Watermelon lager! It’s light, refreshing, reminds me of…of summertime, oh…” The turtle seemed to tear up suddenly. Maybe he’d already downed a few. “I miss the summer, Wendy, I really do. How’m I ever s’posed to get by, stuck up here in this wretched cold…”

Things were getting out of hand. Red looked around the bar as if this ‘Wendy’ would appear out of thin air, but he wasn’t that lucky. He cleared his throat and reached a hand out to Bubbles to try and placate him. ”Bubbles, sir, me and my compatriots are also looking for a way out of this region to somewhere further south. I can understand how difficult it might be for you to be stuck here, but if you could offer any information we’d be glad to accompany you to somewhere nicer. Would that be okay?”

Another ray of sunshine brought Bubbles out of his shell. “Really? You’d do that for me?” He sniffed and patted at his face with a napkin. “Well then. If I have anything worth anything to tell you, I’ll tell you over a nice round of drinks!” With prospects looking unusually bright for the first time in a long while, Bubbles seemed steady at last.

”Excellent!” Red, too, was looking brighter than when he walked in now that some progress was being made. He sidled off his seat, went to the bar and came back soon after with two more cups of Bubbles’ favorite watermelon lager. A sip here or there would be fine to keep the mood light, so long as he didn’t get too tipsy trying to get something out of this old turtle. ”A toast, to… a new friendship, and a way forward!”

“Cheers!” Feeling uncommonly cheery, Bubbles raised his mug, then bent his neck to shove his whole head inside. He greedily gulped down as much as he could before retracting it, dripping wet. A few of the other patrons glanced over, but only for a moment. “Aaagh,” he shamelessly sighed in relief, moistened at last. “Tastes even better knowing it’s free!”

”R-right.” Wonder Red sipped on his own mug and tapped a few fingers on the table. ”It’s on me…” He’ll have to start a tab. And then, hope Alcamoth covered mission-critical expenditures. Hmm.

After Bubbles had finished his chug, Red continued the topic. ”So then, seeing as you’ve been here for a while, have you heard of any other ways out of the city? I’m sure a hike would work, but that seems more of a last resort. A place as big as this, there must be some other means of transport, right?”

The turtle drummed his claws on the table. “Weeeeell…there’s buses and taxis, I guess. Cause enough of a ruckus and the cop’s’ll give you a free ride, too!” He took another sip and wiped the foam off his beak with the back of his caly hand. “There’s also the canals. They keep ‘em from freezin’ with some kind of magic, but they’re still too cold to swim in. Gondolas, boats, even ferries for cars, you name it. All…urk, magical, just like me.”

Red listened intently, making sure to note any piece of useful information that came from this rambly old turtle. ”Canals?” He took an idle sip from his own drink again. ”This city seems to be on an island - do they lead out into the ocean?”

Bubbles nodded. “Eventually, yeah. Whole city’s surrounded. Glaciers to the north, Highlands to the south. Not much on the mainland ‘cept snow, rocks, an’ trees though, from what I heard. It’d be days ‘fore you an’ me saw a single…gosh-darn blade o’ grass.” He slumped down on the table, resting his tired head but still very much awake.

”I see…” Going by water would be the slowest option, but it was the one most easily reached within the city. They could also fare with simply leaving Edinburgh proper to some other form of travel outside the city, though there wasn’t a guarantee that would end up leading anywhere. A true dilemma. ”I’m sure that once I meet back up with my group we can discuss the proper course of action. Is there anything else you can think of that might be helpful? Maybe any news from the mainland?” He decided to omit details on the region’s Guardian, just in case asking about ‘some big thing that may or may not be causing mayhem’ made him seem crazy.

When asked if he could think of anything else, Bubbles seemed to tune Red’s follow up question out. “Be careful after dark!” he blurted out. “These last couple days, folks’ve been whisperin’ about something mighty strange at night. Funny sounds. Funny lights. They say the bones of the dead are walkin’ the streets, burning on the inside with blue fire. Nobody knows why. They’re not hostile, s’posedly, but I tell you it’s only a matter of time! They got a bone to pick with this city, I’m tellin’ you! It’s cold, dead ground….” Bubbles went to take another drink, only to find his mug empty again. He slumped back down, and this time fell sound asleep.

Well, that was certainly a bit more than Red expected to find out. Disappearing people, strange happenings at night? It might not be related to the Guardian itself, but it was probably worth investigating still. Something that affects an area this big couldn’t be nothing. Before he left Wonder Red quickly grabbed a naked and jotted down the location where he and the others would meet, slipping it in Bubbles’s sleeping hand. He might’ve only been there to get info, but Red didn’t want to leave this man in his circumstances.

And since he’d been there enough to “blend in”, in a manner of speaking, Wonder Red went around the bar a second time, asking the other patrons for further details, both on ways to the mainland and of the nighttime strangeness.

He got a mixed bag of responses, with the simplest but also most helpful information coming from the bartender, since Red was now a customer. Public transportation seemed to be plentiful and relatively inexpensive, with option to pay per ride or buy passes, while taxis tended to cost more but could be more flexible. He did learn one detail that Bubbles skipped over: that magic flying machines existed both to carry passengers and fly in the freight that Edinburgh needed to stay afloat, so to speak. As for the nocturnal activity, nothing too concrete came his way. Some thought the whole thing to be an elaborate hoax at best, and a downright lie at worst; after all, in a city full of magicians, anyone could pull a supernatural stunt or two. The old man, however, spoke of a personal encounter with some of the skeletons, and after putting two down with his own sorcery more just reanimated elsewhere. This necromancy, he said, seemed to lack any kind of purpose. His own theory was that it merely preluded something far more dire yet to come.

Thanking each person for their help, Wonder Red left the cool interior of VA-11 Hall-a and back out into the much colder Edinburgh weather. Finding some ways off the island was a definite boon, though with what he’s gathered so far about the so-called necromancy at night he wasn’t sure if they should jump ship quite so soon. At the very least it didn’t sit right with him to leave this place to its own devices when something potentially dangerous could happen.

Either way, Red spent enough time there that it was close to when they were all to meet up again, so he headed off back to the pub. Hopefully his friends didn’t mind a potential fourth party joining them later on…

---

2,344 Words
+3 EXP

World of Light

Level 2 (XP: 6/20)
Ace Cadet (@Yankee) + Big Band (@Lugubrious)
Nyakuza Metro -> Edinburgh MagicaPolis

Just the three of them against a swarming mob were pretty bad odds, even with their combined skillsets. Wonder Red's Unite Morphs were out of commission until their energy recharged - not that he was eager to use them now that he understood his compatriots could get swept up in their formation too - so fighting them off wasn't an option. They would really have to make a retreat.

The good news is that what they lacked in raw power at the moment they made for in speed. Ace Cadet seemed a natural in traversing dangerous terrain quickly, and Big Band was surprisingly agile for his size and (presumed) weight. Being made out of brass must add a few dozen pounds. Their escape wasn't easy, involving plenty of close calls, crowd control, and a bit of luck, but the trio managed to make it to the Metro's proper exit before they were overwhelmed.

"We're safe," Wonder Red said, jinxing them just enough so that one of their more avid pursuers braved the cold in order to get one last assault in. She was swiftly dealt with, though, thanks to the efforts of Red's two partners. "Uhh, correction. Now we're safe."

Of course, being safe meant little over the fact that because of his actions, the three were separated from the rest of their team with no easy way to reconnect, in an unfamiliar location that Mission Control back in Alcamoth had no access to, to boot. Strategizing would have to come later, as the first order of business was to deal with their pursuer. Red brought up the possibility of liberating her as they carried her to someplace to rest, but they weren't exactly in the best of situations to add a newcomer on, being so far from the rest.

Afterwards they decided to stop at a pub and figure out what to do next. The news from the Moogle was as helpful as it was demoralizing; no way to get back to Alcamoth and so far north, they would have to find their own means of progress. "Moogle, be sure to inform Commander Nelson of our situation," he added. "Without the Virgin Victory fully functional he'll need to be debriefed in person."

Despite the circumstances Ace Cadet congratulated Red on his Unite Morph's abilities. Red nodded. "A silver lining is always important to keep in mind," he noted, "though it's a bit worrying. Back home, civilians could only become part of our Unite Morphs with the use of specially made Wonderful Masks, much like my own. The fact that in this strange world those rules don't apply means we'll have to be careful. You two don't have the same CENTINEL gear like me or my fellow Wonderful Ones, so becoming part of a Morph could have negative effects on your health."

Big Band brought up the potential issue of clothing, to which Red held up a hand and shook his head. "No need to worry for me. These CENTINEL suits are designed to regulate our body temperature to survivable standards across all sorts of climates, from the chill of the Arctics to the heat below the Earth's crust. A little wintertime weather is no issue for me."

He continued, "while you and Ace Cadet find better clothing, I can do some cursory recon in the area. It seems the cats of the Metro don't have a reach extending into the city, and being displaced from the rest of our team most likely means we won't have any enemy eyes on us for the time being. A short separation should be fine." He hopped down from his stool, almost comically like a child. "And I'm sure the two of you can find something out while exploring. Let's say we meet up back near the Metro's entrance in an hour?"

Wonder Red left the pub (assuming that the other two were like totally chill with that idea) and started his snooping. All Wonderful Ones were trained in the art of on-the-field information gathering, should they ever find themselves cut off from the reconnaissance afforded by Alison and the Commander. Wonder Red began his search in some local hot spots close to the big pumpkin that housed the Metro, namely a lowkey coffee café followed by a much shadier, out-of-the way punk-ish bar. Two opposite extremes of clientele and so close to a major hub of travel - there should be at least a few folk between either shop who have heard of strange happenings or gigantic monster sightings.

---

757 Words
+2 EXP

World of Light

RANK 5
9/50 EXP

Nyakuza Metro -> Gutsford

Things got hectic for the group right when they had to overcome this last hurdle and make the final stretch. Being stuck in a dead-end will do that. Raz helped hold back the encroaching tide of the mob as his friends did their best to make it up to the landing, though he wasn't fast enough to stop Roxas from being shot down. "No!" Since Geralt was dealing with the assassin themselves Raz continued to blast the cats back, enough aggression coursing through his big head to provide him ample ammo to give Geralt and the downed Roxas a wide enough berth. The others either pitched in to help defend or focused on getting up to the station, but luckily Geralt made quick work of their attacker with the help of some little creature that appeared out of nowhere. Was that one of those Spirits people mentioned? He'll have to ask later, since their ride was here - literally, as Raz could hear the train pull into the station above them.

Another bit of good fortune; by the time Panther was dealt with and the group was ready to move on, the wall-bound cat vacuum (or "catuum") was close enough to bounce off of, giving them all the way up they needed. Raz made sure that everyone else had made it before he took the cat-vacuum-bouncy-thing, sproinging off it like a pinball against a bumper and landing with ease in the last hallway to the Black Line.

"Everyone okay?" Raz asked, pulling his goggles back onto his head now that the worst of the assault was behind them. "Did we lose anybody?" Apart from Roxas still being unconscious, the only one not in their group was the very conspicuous Wonder Red. How they lost someone so flashy was beyond Raz. Hopefully he only got split up and not... you know, worse. No use in worry about it right now. That guy seemed pretty capable. Yeah! That's enough justification to put it aside.

On the train itself, which thankfully did not have any feline foes after a bounty, Raz watched Roxas as Blazermate and Geralt healed him up. He was sure he was fine, he was more curious about the un-Galeem-ing process. He wasn't exactly cognizant enough when he got freed, so there was still a curiosity there to sate. It was pretty uneventful, though. Geralt produced a heart out of thin air, which was neat, and then tossed it onto Roxas, where it disappeared with a small poof and restored color to the kid.

"I'm trying to find my friends too," Raz said to the newly awakened Roxas. "It's a pretty big place though. It'll probably be hard for either of us to find them. But if your friends are anything like you, I'm sure they're doing okay out there!" Raz looked out the window as the train pulled into their stop. "Same for mine..." A sadness flashed across his face as he thought about just how many people close to him were out there somewhere, under Galeem's influence and possibly in danger. He turned back to Roxas and the others as they all prepared to leave the train, trying to get that particular thought out of his mind. If only he managed to learn the Memory Removal technique before he got beamed into this world. There were quite a few things already he'd just love to forget. The smell of monster guts still haunted him, after all.

Gutsford seemed like a much needed break from the whole 'cat mob bounty onslaught' they just went through. Appearances weren't everything, sure, but how much danger could there be in a place like this? Student debt was probably the biggest threat someone could encounter. "School? I never went to a big academy like these," he noted, "or even a public school. Mom and Dad taught us everything we needed to know. Usually things to help run the circus. You'd be surprised how useful Geometry is when it comes to performing a spiraling septuple front flip without hurting yourself." His family... great, another thing to worry him!

Lili, Sasha, Milla, Ford, they all could take care of themselves just fine in this dangerous world, but what about the other Aquatos? Where were they? Are they even still together or have they been splintered all over the place? So much anxiety flooded his mind that he wandered straight forward without paying attention, leading him to slip in a puddle and fall flat on his face. "Oofgh!" Picking himself back up, Raz caught a glimpse of something quickly hiding into a conspicuous mailbox on a seemingly random part of the sidewalk. Weird.

Everyone's attention was brought to the city in the distance, a massive metropolis the likes Raz has never seen before. "Oh man. That's a... really far walk." Raz looked up and down the roads leading to Midgar, hoping for a convenient bus or friendly taxi driver to show up. "Not to complain about our super important mission to save pretty much every world in existence or anything, but after climbing that huge mountain I'm really not looking forward to another hike. Hey, if there's roads leading from here to there, there's gotta be some kinda way to use them, right? They're not just there for show?"

And that was the next thing on the agenda: finding transportation! Despite only just getting there everyone split off into their own smaller groups. Raz stuck with Roxas and Geralt, also finding himself in the company of the leader, Peach, and Bede and Blazermate. On Peach's warning about keeping cautious, cleared his throat nervously and fell into step with her. "Hey, Princess, uh, Peach? I'm not super familiar with this Organization XIII or these Consul guys, but exactly how evil do you think they are? They wouldn't, like, try to find the people we care about and hurt them or use them against us... for example?" He tried to pass it off with a big, innocent smile, but that only made things more awkward.

Things only got more awkward as their search lead them to a very busy section of Gutsford, one that seemed rife with construction. Or so it seemed. As soon as Raz's eyes rested on one of the trenchcoated street workers, he froze in place. "Uhmmm..." There were more of them, too, gardeners and sewer maintenance workers and phoneline repairmen bemoaning the advent of cellphones. "Okay, this situation has officially gone from 'strange' to 'alert level reddish indigo'." In a hushed tone, Raz advised his teammates while trying to corral everyone into a safer, less surveilled part of the city. "These G-Men are from my world. I know them! They aren't real-- well, okay, they are here, but what I mean is that where I'm from they were only mental constructs inside somebody's mind. If Galeem can bring those out into a physical space, that could have so many implications. How many places or people or creatures have come from someone else's mind?" As the group turned into an alleyway, Raz got off one last piece of advice. "Oh, also, don't get near them, answer any questions, and if you see a particularly pyromaniacal milkman, run in the opposite direction."

Of course this ended up being moot since soon after they entered the side road. The G-Men, much more proactive than Raz remembered them being, started to corner them, first from one end of the street than the other. They were trapped. "Okaaay... we might have to fight them off, which is not a good idea, but..." Before he could finish the thought, a door to the pet shop opened, and two twins told them to follow. Without much time to gauge the intentions of the pair, Raz seized the opportunity. "Oh look! He said, loud and stilted much like the G-Men that threatened them. "A store for pets and pet accessories! My newly adopted animal companion could do with a new leash and/or toy!" Hoping that was enough to convince the G-Men, Raz semi-quickly sidestepped towards the shop, beckoning the rest with a look and a tilt of his head to follow his lead.

---

1,381 Words
+3 EXP

World of Light

You could probably word it a little different. Call it 'Tunnel Vision' or something, say he gets too focused on combat to notice traps or the like? You're allowed some leeway after all

World of Light

@Lugubrious That's all fair. Admittedly when I sat down to write it out, "RPG Nut" was a vague idea I had that sounded cool but I didn't really have many ideas for in the first place. My intent behind it was to give a unique spin on those game-y elements that are related to the game he's from, namely how the different status ailments would work and the ways in which Ichiban can (de)buff since it isn't magic or anything, it's mundane actions contextualized by Ichi treating everything like an RPG, you know? I'm okay with splitting that up into smaller strengths like you said, the HP and Inventory parts, maybe a third one to fill them out.

As for the MP weakness, I was going going for less of a stamina thing and more of a resource to be used for the big Powers like Essence of Mayhem or to apply status effects. For Essence attacks - which like you said I envisioned either as an 'invincible' move or a pocket dimension - which are too good to be always used, and being able to Stun or Brainwash enemies on a whim seems too powerful too. Moreso a weakness that mitigates more than hinders, though I can figure out a different one if you'd prefer.

Poundmates and Hello Work being Powers does make more sense, so I'll swap them out for other Strengths and save them for level ups.