Author's note: I'll just chime in to say that, if you're like me and listen to music while reading crap on the web, I'd recommend 'Fires of Hokkai' from the game Undefined Fantastic Object by ZUN for the dungeon run. I've said it in a chapter prior, but to me, some Touhou tunes would not sound out of place in a PMD game, and this is one of those. It's kinda got the same feeling as Temporal Summit or the Tree of Life in my opinion.


Megalo Tower 0F- Base

One step inside the tower, and the air was already feeling thicker than it had outside… but whether it was actually thicker or simply the Starstorm duo tensing up and breathing heavier was impossible to tell. Arashi took one look around the place and blinked as if he couldn't quite believe it was real, and Astrid's gaze frantically darted around as if there might be some creature or some form of trap just waiting for an outsider to show up. The Greninja could tell it looked slightly different, but to the Decidueye, whether it was different or not didn't matter. It only took one look at the marked-up maps mounted to the walls or the set of thick metal doors at the back of the room for her to deduce that it was absolutely not a happy place they stood in. Her feathers stood up on end just at the sight of her and Arashi's own world mapped out, marked with red circles and arrows for how the self-imposed goddess wanted to conquer it… not to mention the several others surrounding it.

She almost wondered if maybe, just maybe, one of those other worlds being targeted was the one she had come from… and she had no idea what to make of the thought. Either way, thinking about her homeworld she'd be forced to return to wasn't something she wanted to dwell on.

"… This place is empty," Arashi noted, glancing at the leafy 'shelves' to the back of the cavern. "I remember this place being full of potions and other useful stuff…"

He gestured at the leaf-like rocky fixtures towards the back of the cavern, which Astrid could easily see being used as shelves, but indeed, there was nothing there. The only things left behind to indicate that Void and her underlings had been there prior were the maps mounted to the wall, but even if the Decidueye and her partner were alone, she still couldn't help but to feel… unwelcome.

"Those little nebulas are supposed to be here too, right…?" Astrid's voice trailed off as she gingerly took a few steps towards the metal doors at the back.

"Yeah," Arashi answered, following along. "And we promised Gemini we'd let them out, too. Poisoned or not, they've gotta be miserable…"

She thought of the little Cosmog back at Coalition HQ, probably stowed away in a corner and huddled up without anyone to protect him in a strange new world… Having a little nebula to warp them to safety if things got intense would've put Astrid much more at ease, but she didn't doubt Gemini's assertion that he'd be a useless, nervous wreck in Void's territory. She certainly wasn't thrilled about it, either.

However, when the Decidueye put her intact hand on one metal door's hoop handle and tried to open it, it didn't budge. She blinked once and pulled harder, but it still wouldn't move. "Arashi, help me," she said.

Her partner put both of his hands on the door too and both of them tried to yank it open, which made the heavy metal fixtures creak a bit but largely stay in place. A loud whump graced their senses when they let go of the hoop and it clanged back against the door's outer surface.

"Oh, good gods," Astrid said flatly.

"This is a little problematic, isn't it…?" Arashi's voice awkwardly trailed off.

"You'd think if our comrades had been here before us, Rush would've busted it down or Dren would've melted it," the Decidueye surmised, letting her hand droop down at her side. "There's a room on the other side, right?"

"Yeah, there is. That's where Remi keeps all the little nebulas."

"Then let me go look. Maybe Void wants to mess with us and stuck a bar across it or something."

Her partner chuckled sardonically a bit. "Or maybe Salem melted the opposite side together."

She shook her head. "… I honestly wouldn't be surprised."

The next moment, she was phasing straight through the door and into the next room, where a rather puzzling sight met her nonetheless. The first thing she noticed was the number of boxes mounted to the wall… and how every single one of them was open and empty. There were no glowing cuboidal vessels, no stray little nebulas floating or lazing about… nothing. She blinked a bit, glancing around the room, and sure enough, every single side was empty. She wasn't sure what to make of such.

Nonetheless, she turned around, and the door was just as it had appeared on the opposite side- merely a thick, heavy metal fixture. There hadn't been any shenanigans trying to make it harder to open, she and her friend just hadn't been trying hard enough.

She phased back through the door, saying, "There's nothing on the other side, but I still don't think we were the first ones here."

Arashi perked up. "Hm? What'd you see?"

"The little nebulas are all gone," she answered. "Those boxes are all open and empty."

The Greninja gave a jolt, getting a funny look. "W-what?! Really?!"

Astrid nodded. "Not a single little nebula in sight."

It was her partner's turn to blink. "Oh, my gods! W-what happened?! It's not like she'd get rid of them!"

"If what you saw and what Raijin said is true, then no, she wouldn't. My best guess is that maybe our comrades were here before us, Adnea did her thing, and now there's a lot more little nebulas out roaming the cosmos than there were beforehand. Maybe Rush or whoever else shut the doors again so if the guards showed back up, nothing would look different."

"But… wouldn't Adnea tell us…? And if it was Delphi or someone else, wouldn't someone tell us?"

Astrid looked pensive for a second, then replied, "Not necessarily. If it happened while we were busy with Necrozma, I don't see why they'd tell us then. I mean, Necrozma was pretty focused on wiping us out back there, so chiming in might've distracted us, and Necrozma can read minds, after all… It probably would've been better for our comrades to just slip in and let us catch up."

Arashi nodded, finding it reasonable. "We better get going, then."

"We better open this door," Astrid noted, giving an unamused glance to the heavy metal fixture blocking their progress. "You grab it, and I'm gonna try using my wings to get some more momentum."

The Greninja did as he had before, grasping it with both hands, while Astrid took to the air and clutched it with her feet like she was swooping something up. She flapped as hard as she could, and Arashi pulled as hard as he could. It creaked some more, gradually creeping out of its closed position.

"How did she open this thing?!" Astrid exclaimed, still beating her wings.

"She didn't!" Arashi replied. "Either Remi would kick it or Knox would bust it open!"

Astrid wasn't surprised. Remi of all creatures would've been great for kicking things, and busting open other heavy metal structures probably came easy to a being made of heavy metallic bricks. The door creaked, she flapped, and Arashi tried pushing against the other side with one leg while still pulling it out. After a few tiring seconds, the hinges gave in to their efforts, and Arashi went sprawling backwards while Astrid quickly let go and landed.

"Sheesh!" the Greninja exclaimed.

"And the ridiculousness of Ultra Space continues," Astrid said flatly. "Can't even open a door in this place without some serious effort."

A laugh escaped Arashi's mouth as he picked himself up, but it wasn't a happy laugh. "I bet if Raijin was here, he would've just told us to stand aside and blasted it open without any trouble," he said, clearly trying to sound upbeat but sounding haplessly despairing instead.

Astrid's body tensed up, and she clamped her eyes shut tightly for a moment to avoid tearing up again. "All the more reason you and I have to give it our everything," she choked out quickly. "We're carrying the torch for three instead of just us two. I'm not letting him down."

Her partner nodded. "Neither am I."

The Decidueye's head still darted around as she strode into the next room, and Arashi quickly followed close behind. There wasn't any indication that they had unwanted company lurking somewhere in the corners or in the shadows, but still, the mere fact that she and her partner were alone made her cautious nonetheless.

Arashi, however, was more alarmed by the lack of little nebulas than anything. "Oh, my gods, they really are gone," he said quickly. "I guess someone fulfilled Gemini's wish, aha…!"

"I really hope he's doing okay by himself," Astrid noted, briefly recollecting the timid little Cosmog huddled away in Adnea's study. "He's had one wild ride these past few days too."

Arashi chuckled a bit. "Well, one of these days, we'll make sure he becomes a Solgaleo, and he won't have to worry about much."

Astrid stayed quiet, knowing it wouldn't be 'we' making sure of anything and would rather be Arashi alone. She still tried not to think about it and instead strode over to the back of the nebula-less room where one last heavy, hulking door stood in their way. The two of them knew it lead to the dungeon, but Astrid still couldn't help being a bit wary, seeing as neither she nor her partner had actually seen anyone open it up. Nonetheless, she wrapped her feet around the hoop on one side and her partner grabbed it as well, and several moments of exertion later, that door too creaked open to reveal nothing but darkness on the other side. Astrid didn't waste any time in stepping right in, and Arashi was close behind.

Not even three steps in, the Decidueye felt something on her intact hand- none other than her partner grabbing it. She gave a little jolt of fright at first, but that quickly melted the moment she noticed the source. She didn't protest it in the slightest- they were both scared, exorbitantly out-of-place creatures walking straight into their nemesis' bastion of power. Her own grip tightened around his too.

"Hey, Astrid…?" the Greninja's voice trailed off.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"What was it that you and Raijin talked about while I was away…? You mentioned hiding in a cave where no one would find you, and me pissing off a bunch of Buzzwoles…~" He got an awkward grin the more the words came out of his mouth, but his eyes still drooped and got misty at their comrade's absence.

Astrid tensed up a bit, body going completely stiff for a moment and heart dropping in her chest for what seemed like the umpteenth time, but still she answered as best she could, "… About how we were going to enjoy our lives on our own terms once this was all said and done. We wouldn't be hiding from Void or trying not to get ourselves killed while keeping her from reshaping the universe as she sees fit. We could befriend a little nebula- which we kinda did when you brought Gemini with you- and just go enjoy whatever's in the galaxy. Raijin could watch the storms and be happy, I could find me a secluded place that only my friends would ever know about, and we joked about you going and trying to pose like a Buzzwole and accidentally pissing off an entire group of them. It… seemed like a really nice idea."

The Greninja took it in. "It still is a really nice idea," he replied. "We can still do all of those things."

Once again, she tensed up. "… I'd sure like to," she answered, technically not telling a lie.

Shortly, the ground underneath them ceased to be glassy, and a wall closed in behind them to block any attempts at retreat.

Megalo Tower 1F

Almost as soon as their scenery changed, Astrid and Arashi both were tensing up again. Every single surface looked identical- a sheet of grey stone bricks, all of them shaped slightly differently with maybe one width more slanting than the other or the like, but nonetheless fitting together in a perfect geometric puzzle. No smallish eyes peeked out from any of them, but the Starstorm duo didn't doubt that somewhere nearby, some of them would probably flip over to reveal another organism watching… and with all of them looking virtually the same, there was no telling which ones. The bricks under their feet were cold, and the air was still rather thick, but at least it wasn't as dim as outside seeing as just below the ceiling and at several corners where the walls joined, a glowing blue line through the middle of the bricks shed some light. Of course, it was unlikely that every single glowing piece was indeed a part of a Stakataka, but given the luminescent features of the rocky 'plants' in Deep Sea territory, it wasn't hard for Astrid to deduce how the dungeon might've been made to mimic the living ramparts. If any of them started glowing red, however… that was a different story.

Neither one of them hardly dared to move at first, eyes darting around in suspicion (Astrid's more so than her partner's).

"Is it too early to say this place gives me the creeps…?" Arashi whispered. "If a Stakataka was hiding in the walls, I literally would not be able to tell the difference…"

"I agree," Astrid replied, likewise keeping her voice low. "You've seen Knox up close- is there anything that's different…?"

"Not that I can tell," was the answer.

"… Great," Astrid said flatly, nonetheless starting for the corridor closest to them with careful, light steps. "At least in places like Brushwood Tangle, if an Oddish was hiding in the ground, we could tell what kind of leaves not to brush up against, but this…"

"Yeeeaaaaaaahhh," the Greninja concurred. "Sheesh, can you imagine a Monster House in a place like this? Every single wall just springs to life and closes in on you or something."

The Decidueye stopped dead right before entering the corridor, looking her partner straight in the eyes with an unamused expression. He started to grin awkwardly, obviously not too thrilled with the idea either but nonetheless trying to brush it off.

"… I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear that," Astrid said.

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't say it," Arashi affirmed.

It was slightly dimmer and the air slightly thicker in the corridor, but that wasn't what made Astrid's feathers fluff out slightly. She couldn't help but to think if that one part of the wall was indeed a hulking living rampart, it would be so easy to box them in… and that thought alone made her pick up the pace as quick as she could while still stepping lightly. Arashi stayed close behind, not even making a sound as he scurried after her. The next room that it opened up into wasn't much different from the first- it had two branching corridors to pick from either in front of them or to their left, and Astrid picked left.

"I know every dungeon's name describes it somehow, but I'm a little stumped on this one," the Greninja noted. "It's a tower, but what the heck is 'Megalo' referring to?"

"Something abnormally huge," Astrid replied. "I mean, this place isn't small."

"But there's bigger dungeons out there," Arashi wasn't too sure. "Some are 99 floors, remember? Maybe it's referring to how all the occupants of Ultra Space have abnormally huge capabilities for whatever their specialties are."

"But that's the norm here, so I doubt that's it, unless we're talking about Void and her host's ridiculous advantage over everyone else."

"Or Necrozma's ridiculous power- they were here too!"

A thought popped into Astrid's head that made her start to smirk a bit, bringing to mind a possibility from the negativity that stirred in her head at hearing Necrozma's name. "Maybe it's short for 'megalomaniac,'" she suggested flippantly.

Her partner got a slightly confused look. "What's that mean?"

"Someone who's obsessed with being the best."

The Greninja started to grin a bit. "Someone like me, huh?"

Astrid shook her head, thinking her partner's words a little ridiculous. "No, no, like Void, not like you," she quickly said to the contrary. "It's not a positive word. They have no regard for the lives around them because they're so obsessed, and that's not you."

He quickly capitulated. "Aha, you're right…!"

At that moment, though, they felt the distinct feeling of the ground rumbling and hushed, Astrid pulling Arashi in closer to her with her intact hand. He grabbed one of her hood strings with one hand while several Water Shurikens formed between his fingers on the other hand, and she plucked an arrow free… but no immediate cause for concern presented itself. The Decidueye's head turned just about every direction, but there wasn't a foe in sight.

"… Now would be a great time to have Adnea," Arashi remarked.

"It sounds far away, at least," Astrid noted, easing up. "Let's just… hope it stays that way."

Her partner didn't disagree and eased up as well, though the Decidueye still grasped her arrow just in case. Clearly, there was a much larger and hostile creature stirring someplace else, and she didn't want to be scrambling to act if it showed. Arashi stayed close to her, practically glued to her side as they crossed the room's floor, and still stuck close behind when she entered the next corridor. She glanced down at their shadows on the floor momentarily just to make sure he was still close, not wanting too much space between them either. Thankfully, the next room they entered was still empty, but the Decidueye certainly wasn't lowering her guard as she headed straight for the only hallway opening.

"Hey, Astrid…?" Arashi whispered.

"Yeah…?"

"What do you think is our best bet for beating these Stakatakas? I know they're not all as durable as Knox, but-"

He went silent and Astrid gripped her arrow tighter when a brick on either side of the hallway she made for flipped over with two beady eyes staring back at them from the centers. They froze for a second, the Starstorm duo holding still as statues as if that somehow might have convinced the Beast facing them not to take any action, and the set of eyes blinked once or twice. Astrid's grip on her arrow tightened and Arashi's hands twitched, but no shurikens took form with the latter just yet. The three of them merely stared, unmoving and silent…

… Until a good chunk of the wall on either side and part of the floor sprang to life too, leaving an exposed layer of solid black rock on the walls and floor as they coalesced into a single huge collective.

"… I think we're about to find out," Astrid croaked.

A flurry of Water Shurikens and Razor Leaves followed from the Starstorm duo, but it was impossible to tell if the heavy metallic hiss that followed was purely out of aggression or at discomfort that their attacks caused. Either way, several sets of eyes locked on Astrid and Arashi, and the Stakataka positioned itself like a quadrupedal carnivore about to pounce on prey.

A gravelly, almost unintelligible voice came from the creature. "NOT VOID! GET OUT!"

The Starstorm duo was taken aback for a second, but they quickly got ahold of themselves when the rocky Beast waved one of its front legs and sent multiple bricks from it flying at them- a Rock Blast. Arashi ducked down and Astrid flapped aside, sending another Razor Leaf its way while some rather forceful crashes sounded behind them. The other ordinary bricks on the wall quickly had some damage to them, several busted apart or cratered by the Stakataka's attack. Still, Astrid's leaves seemed to make the living rampart focus on her particularly, for several more eyes flipped out on the side facing her and the creature lurched towards her without breaking stride. It didn't even have to take a second to re-orient like a creature without eyes on every side would, only adjusting in that some of its bricks changed positions to act as one of its legs again. She hardened her injured wing while still grasping her arrow in the other hand, her Steel Wing clanging against a much stronger Iron Head that still threw her back into the wall.

"Agh-!" the Decidueye grunted, her grip on the arrow faltering for a second as she smashed into more bricks. It wasn't as bad as taking a point-blank Discharge from a Xurkitree or a doubly super effective Ice Beam from a Pheromosa, but it certainly didn't feel good.

"Hey!" Arashi hollered, shooting an Ice Beam that coated the Stakataka's legs closest to him.

The conglomerate creature made a hissing sound, but the bricks on the room's ceiling started to glow white before becoming detached and falling in a Rock Slide.

"Oh, sheesh-" the Greninja protested flatly, pressing himself up against the wall to avoid the dense array falling from the middle of the room. Still, his position wasn't a perfect maneuver, and one of the stones fell directly over him where he couldn't dodge. "KYAH-!" he exclaimed, dropping onto the ground in a daze at the brick bashing him over the head.

Astrid, on the other hand, wasn't in the mood for dodging, and simply phased into the ground before the stones could strike her while the Stakataka causing them to fall wasn't fazed at all with them bouncing off its top. She darted over to where her partner was and held out a Steel Wing as a shield while similarly pressing herself up against the wall, and with some labored movements, the Greninja picked himself up. Another flurry of Water Shurikens followed as he hurried back to his feet, the Decidueye easing up with her injured wing while the ground shook some more from all the stones plummeting down. She didn't have to say a word, for one of his hands grabbed up one of her vines, and she quickly fired an arrow into one of the Beast's outward-looking eyes. An awful hiss came from that piece and the hulking creature's shadow was shortly stitched down, but just as quick, another eye flipped outwards to take the first one's place, and another Rock Blast followed from one of its other legs whipping around its corners. Arashi hit the ground while throwing another round of Water Shurikens, and Astrid flapped aside while sending another flurry of sharp leaves.

… And finally, with one more hiss, the creature tucked all of its legs in and crashed onto the ground as a hollow box with a mighty whump that shook the ground, all of its eyes flipping back inwards. Astrid's intact hand was poised to rip another arrow free and one of Arashi's hands was poised to grab one of her vines again, but one way or another, the living rampart wasn't stirring.

Astrid still wasn't quite relaxing. "How many attacks did we hit it with…? I think around nine, and your shurikens are super effective…"

"You think that's enough…?"

"I sure hope so," Astrid replied, carefully stalking closer to the unmoving creature.

Arashi looked slightly hesitant at her approaching their foe, but the knowledge that, if it started stirring again, she could use her ghostly attributes to escape put him more at ease. Very carefully, she reached out with her intact hand, and with a slightly unsteady (on account of the apprehension) movement, nudged one of the bricks. It didn't respond, not even when she nudged it a bit more and made it fall to the floor on the inside of the Stakataka's body. She winced a bit at her own maneuver, jumping back slightly when the brick fell, but their foe still didn't move.

"I think we beat it," she said, voice hardly above a whisper as if she might rouse it back into aggression if she was too loud.

"Thank the gods," her partner replied, rubbing his head a bit. "That hurt, aha…!"

"I wasn't too fond of its Iron Head, either," she concurred, shaking herself off. "We've both taken harder hits, but that's still some hard hitting."

"Seriously," her partner didn't protest.

The feathered ghost cast one more glance to the fainted figure, then made for the corridor again with Arashi keeping close behind. "I think we still need to be more careful if we can help it," she kept on, gaze darting around. "That thing took a lot to go down, and we don't need to get exhausted early on."

"You're right," Arashi replied. "You think we should've handled that differently…? Maybe we could've just ran for it instead of trying to fight."

She was quiet for a second, still keeping watch on every nook and cranny of the corridor. "I'm… not sure yet. But I'll figure something out- we have 30 floors of them to get through, after all."

Her partner chuckled softly. "You always do, Astrid.~"

Thankfully, the room they entered contained a staircase, and they quickly abandoned any attempts at stealth in favor of hurrying up it.

Megalo Tower 2F

The more Astrid's eyes scanned the myriad of bricks making up the walls, the more they all seemed to blur together, and if a Stakataka was feeling their footsteps or hearing their approach, she couldn't have hoped to tell. She and her partner practically stayed glued together- she curled her injured wing around him and he stuck close to her, shurikens in his hand and an arrow clutched in Astrid's intact hand.

The Greninja gave her burnt, bloodied wing patch a glance, wincing uncomfortably. "That still hurts, doesn't it…?" his voice softly trailed off.

"Hm? Does what hurt?" Astrid asked quietly, her gaze still darting around as she stalked towards the nearest hallway.

"Your wing," Arashi answered. "It doesn't look fresh anymore, but I can see your muscles moving…"

"… Oh," the Decidueye replied. "Yeah. Not as bad, but… safe to say, it's at the back of my mind. I'm hoping it's not an issue for too much longer… Y'know, dungeon healing and all."

The Greninja giggled. "The one good thing about this place."

The edges of her beak started to curl up in a weak grin.

However, her grin didn't last for very long as when she took another step, the brick underneath her foot gave way, and she was shortly flapping her wings while Arashi jumped aside. The two of them expected the bricks underfoot to spring to life and attack, but that wasn't the case- they instead went dropping down with a splashing sound that seemed utterly out of place. Astrid landed on the edge of the opening, and Arashi crept closer with shurikens forming in his hand, but no immediate threat presented itself… at least, not a living one. The two of them stared down at the bottom of the hole, and their reflections stared back up from a deep purple puddle.

"Is… that…?" Astrid's voice trailed off.

"… A trap," Arashi said, studying it. "So this is that kind of dungeon."

The Decidueye studied him in turn. "What do you mean, 'that kind of dungeon?' You got something you need to tell me?"

"You see this in some of the tougher dungeons," her partner explained. "You don't know they're there until you're directly over them, then they activate. They've got all kinds of effects- some will poison you like this one here, some make it hard to move, some cause explosions-"

"What?!" Astrid exclaimed, looking thoroughly perturbed and trying to keep her voice low. "So you're telling me there's traps that you won't know about until you're right on them and some of them explode?!"

Arashi grinned awkwardly, mouth curled up but eyes not looking too happy either. "Yeah, that's exactly it!"

Her expression fell and she shook her head. "You've gotta be kidding me," she said, touching her intact hand to her face.

"I'm not kidding," the Greninja replied. "We just haven't seen any yet on our world, but we have them too."

A heavy sigh escaped her beak, and her wing drooped back down at her side again. She looked back down at the poison pool. "So we have these on our world too, huh?" She motioned at it. "This exact thing? So odds are, it's your average, run-of-the-mill poison and not her poison?"

Her partner started looking perturbed too at her insinuations. "W-well, yeah, poison traps are a variety of trap! They're all part of the dungeon and they can change along with it! J-just because this is a Nihilego's stronghold doesn't mean that all the poison is her poison… at least, I hope, aha…!"

Astrid blinked a few times, staring back down at her purple-tinted reflection. "There's a cloud of her poison on the outside because she put it there, but whenever Salem torched the forest, you and Raijin said that things on the outside of the dungeon don't affect the inside… and you've also said that if you get knocked out or die in a dungeon, it'll expel you eventually."

Arashi nodded. "What're you getting at?"

"Her poison is technically a part of her… right? So even if she did theoretically put poison in here, it wouldn't be permanent because the dungeon would expel it at some point."

Her partner perked up. "That… That sounds reasonable!"

Astrid eased up a bit too, but still looked cautiously at the pool. "… I hope I'm right, at least… Either way, we shouldn't chance it."

Arashi nodded fervently in agreement, displaying the same sentiments.

The feathered ghost still couldn't help but to be even more careful with her steps, gingerly touching the floor with a talon for a split second before setting her foot down. It probably wasn't going to be much help, but even so, the revelation about traps made them both feel even more unsafe. Even Arashi was watching their surroundings carefully, something that normally only the Decidueye was keen to do.

"This place is gonna make for some crazy stories later, at least," Arashi softly remarked.

Astrid tensed up a second, the thought flashing through her head that only her partner would be there to tell them… and how part of that story might very well have been leaving the dungeon without her. "Y-yeah, I bet it will," she said, trying to brush it off.

However, as soon as they emerged into the next room, the two of them were perking up when the floor started to move again, but not because of another trap. A quick glance down revealed a beady eye staring up at them, then another, and another as they flipped over.

A screeching, gravelly voice assaulted their senses. "INTRUDERS! NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"

The Starstorm duo darted forward as the Stakataka's hulking form came together, one stomp of one of its legs making the ground shake.

"Why are they all talking?!" Arashi cried in uncertainty.

"Well, Raijin, did tell us semi-feral!" Astrid replied, still unnerved nonetheless.

She whirled around and held her arrow up, and Arashi grabbed one of her vines while following suit, but as they did so, the Stakataka waved one of its legs and sent a Rock Blast their way.

"NGH-!"

"KYAH-!"

The second Astrid had her arrow nocked, one of the living bricks pounded into her chest, and another followed moments behind that pounded Arashi too. The two of them were slammed backwards into the wall, thumping back down on either side of another corridor. Astrid gasped for air, the wind knocked out of her, and Arashi made some pained choking sounds with wide eyes.

"Dear gods…!" the Greninja breathed.

Astrid still grasped her arrow and tried to pick herself up, but Arashi moved quicker and was unsteadily on his feet before she was. He yanked her up by the bend of her injured wing, which she didn't protest, and quickly she was moving to nock an arrow again when he grabbed her vine. The Stakataka, though, clearly wasn't dissuaded, for it wildly rushed forth in an attempt to hit them both with a Double-Edge while they were still getting a grip.

"Dodge!" Astrid cried, nudging her partner to make him let go.

He did so, but she herself didn't move and instead drew her arrow-gripping hand back. The Beast smashed into her and caused the wall to look much less intact for the cracks and crater it bestowed, but Astrid herself… wasn't affected in the slightest.

Arashi, however, only saw the shattered bricks of the wall and a newly-formed hole as he sent a flurry of Water Shurikens flying at the living rampart, getting a bit unsettled. "Astrid?!" he called.

The Decidueye wasn't fazed. She was pressed against a cold rock wall on both her front and back, but that was all the wild creature had accomplished- a ghost simply wasn't going to feel the effects of a Normal-type attack. The Stakataka, however, was quickly screeching again with one piece's eye impaled on an arrow and Spirit Shackle fully taking effect, effectively having impaled its own piece for the way Astrid had held it. It still wasn't letting up and was quickly going for an Iron Head, but Astrid phased into the wall and re-emerged next to her partner, who was filling the air with shurikens again.

WHUMP!

Vibrations coursed through the room again as the Stakataka's attack collided with the wall and nothing else.

"Hey," Astrid chuckled at her partner, simultaneously sending a flurry of sharpened leaves at their foe. "You didn't forget I was a ghost, did you?"

"No, but I just saw that giant hole and got worried for a second!"

She couldn't blame him. Both of them quickly grew worried, though, whenever the bricks on the ceiling started to glow and come loose.

Astrid gave her partner a nudge, crying, "Gimme a hand!"

He did so, albeit looking rather reluctant at the Rock Slide that was quickly coming down, but Astrid nocked and fired her arrow as the bricks started their downward descent. Quickly, her injured wing was taking a steely glow while she yanked her partner in close with it, trying to duck down under it a bit herself. She gritted her beak together to stifle the cries of discomfort that would've escaped otherwise when some of the stones struck her (especially on the area that still bore her injury), but the Greninja she shielded went unscathed. Instead, he carefully reached into her feathers and plucked a sharp one loose himself, nudging it into her intact hand. Astrid started to grin just a bit.

When the rocks settled moments after, the Stakataka's legs moved as if it wanted to go for another Double-Edge… but clearly, it didn't know what the spectral stitches on its shadow entailed. Arashi held up one of Astrid's vines, and the Beast shortly had another eye pierced by her arrows while a Water Shuriken followed close behind too. The living rampart, though, went for another Rock Blast while screeching in pain, to which Astrid again hardened her injured wing and held it up like a shield, one of the bricks clanging against it while three others crashed into the wall behind them.

"Ngh-!" she grunted in pain.

"H-hey, be careful!" Arashi hesitantly exclaimed, shooting an Ice Beam at the Beast's legs closest to them.

"Look, if I'm gonna get another wing injury, I'd rather keep it to the same wing," she said.

The Ice Beam certainly slowed down any attempts at another Rock Blast, and when Astrid let another Razor Leaf go, it finally piped down and went immobile. Both of her wings drooped down at her side, and she and her partner let out a sigh of relief. Arashi nudged up next to her, and she clutched him lightly too, the two of them leaning against each other for some welcome support.

"… That brick hurt," Arashi mused haplessly. "A lot…"

"… Agreed," Astrid said flatly. "There's gotta be a better way to do this."

She hoped she'd figure it out soon.

Megalo Tower 3F

"If there's a way to tell these bricks apart, then I don't see it," Arashi whispered, studying the walls around them while Astrid's gaze darted around.

"Neither do I," Astrid agreed.

"I'm trying to think of what Raijin might have paid attention to if he was here, but…"

They were silent for a moment, Astrid's eyelids drooping and Arashi clamping his shut. If they'd had just a few moments longer, if something had gone differently with Zariel, if the Decidueye herself hadn't waited until after Zariel was a corpse to scramble the insides of her skull and elected to deal the finishing blow instead of her comrade… then maybe they wouldn't have been in such a mess.

"… I was afraid of this happening," Astrid said softly but aimlessly.

"Huh…?" Arashi inquired, shooting her a thoughtful glance.

"This is why whenever Raijin joined our team, I still wanted you and I to handle the brunt of the battles. This is why I had him beat the everloving daylights out of me until I could pull off a win before we reclaimed you- because I knew the Ultra Space natives would outclass us and we'd be screwed by ourselves if we couldn't hold our own. Now here we are, and we're struggling."

An amiable but uncomfortable look crossed the Greninja's face. "H-hey, now, I thought you still believed in us!"

"I didn't say I didn't," Astrid said to the contrary. "I'm just saying… it's obvious how out-of-place we are. This isn't our turf and it shows."

Arashi giggled awkwardly. "Well, you're right about that," he noted. "But hey, Necrozma said they picked you because you don't rely on strength. Heck, that's been true ever since that Rhyperior went nuts on us the day you got here- he didn't kill us because you figured something out."

She blinked, eyes going narrow for a moment at the sound of Necrozma's name. "… Arashi, I'm pretty sure he didn't kill us because Rush knocked him out, but okay, we'll go with that."

"I mean at the beginning!" her partner quickly clarified. "Before you stuck leaves in his eyes!"

The Decidueye giggled. "For a second, I thought you were trying to take away a win from your idols."

"Never! I mean, you're good and I love you and all, but you're not my idols!"

She giggled again. "I figured."

When she put her foot down to take another step, she was quickly recoiling as the brick she touched moved, but it didn't matter much how she might've tried to avoid it- the floor peeled back and a giant gust of wind blew forth from a large fan blade set into it.

"Wha-!"

"Yiah-!"

Whump!

It was like taking a Gust from an upset Pidgeot. Both of them crashed against the furthest wall of the room and slumped back down, Astrid quickly glancing around to see if maybe the bricks they'd hit would spring to life at being touched. Luckily, the only thing that moved were the two Pokémon, casting dirty glances at the trap. Arashi lightly rubbed the back of his head, and Astrid fluffed her feathers out for a second to straighten them while gently hugging herself for a second with her intact wing.

"… At least it didn't explode," Arashi mused.

Astrid said nothing, only shaking her head and keeping onwards while giving the trap plenty of room to not detect her.

Megalo Tower 4F

"Hey, your wing is starting to look better!" Arashi happily noted, somehow managing to keep his voice down still.

"A-ah, is it…?" Astrid piped up, giving it a glance.

She was still missing her hand and the feathers thereof weren't yet showing any signs of growing back, but the edges of her skin where the useless burnt and melted bits had been sliced off wasn't looking so raw anymore. The exposed muscle patches didn't look so dehydrated either, but as far as anything growing back yet, it still looked like there was a ways to go.

"That's good…" her voice trailed off. "I just want my other hand back."

Her partner giggled. "Thank the gods it's made of feathers, or you might not ever get it back."

"You're probably right," she replied. She thought for a moment that she'd probably need a healer's intervention if it was to fully go back to the way it had been prior and not bear a nasty scar, but at the same time, she doubted she'd have to care that far about the future… All that she had left was to get through Megalo Tower and depose Void, and whenever a member of the Light Trio was up and running again, she'd be back in her homeworld in a completely different body.

"Hey, Astrid…?" her partner softly inquired.

"What's up?" she whispered back.

"What do you think of Salem?"

She blinked. "What do you mean? I'm not happy with her, and I don't think you are either."

"Well, yeah, but… You remember what she said back at Tranquil Town? About how she understood you because she was a human too?"

She gave Arashi a quizzical look. "I have my doubts. I mean, I guess we were thrown into the same situation, but if anyone understands me best, it's you, not her."

He grinned a bit but kept on, "Look, I was just thinking, maybe it might be nice to have another human-turned-Pokémon around. She's probably really cool when the poison isn't doing the talking."

Astrid studied the Greninja even more. "… What're you on about, Arashi?"

"Well, without Void, she's kinda just back to being an ordinary Delphox with a lot of determination and a really big Flamethrower, right? What do you think she's gonna do once this is all over?"

She certainly had an idea- that Necrozma would send her home too- but she didn't voice it. "I'm not really sure… I guess I'm fulfilling her entire purpose and she wouldn't really have anything left. It's not like she had her own friends or expedition team if she was off in Ultra Space giving the faction hell for most of the time she was still normal…"

Her partner grinned even more. "You think maybe she'd wanna join us…~?"

The Decidueye blinked, fluffing up slightly before ducking into another corridor. "… Y'know, Arashi, I don't think any of us can make that call."

Arashi giggled. "Hah, you're right, and I'm getting carried away again," he replied, then becoming much more subdued, "… Maybe she could take over being Necrozma's emissary. No one can replace Raijin, but she could still do a good job."

Astrid's eyes again went slightly narrowed, and she replied more icily than she intended to, "No. Necrozma's not backed into a corner anymore; they can fix their own issues and stop involving everyone else."

An uncomfortable but still amiable chuckle escaped the Greninja's mouth. "You're still worked up over what they said back there, aren't you…?"

She didn't answer.

Megalo Tower 5F

A trap that sprayed mud all over the place was an annoyance, and another Stakataka went down following a barrage of attacks, but the Starstorm duo kept on. The middle of a battle didn't give much time for trying to figure out how to tell Stakataka bricks from ordinary ones, but even when Astrid looked at a fainted one, she still didn't notice a difference. There was no slight difference in the rocks' colors, no slightly different way they were shaped in comparison… The Beast bricks seamlessly melded into the dungeon surroundings, and if there was a way to tell them apart, she still couldn't figure it out.

"I know Raijin wouldn't lie to us, but at this point, I'm almost wondering if he could see something we can't," Astrid mused as they crossed another room.

"Maybe it's not something you see," Arashi haplessly proposed.

"I'm not sure what else it would be," Astrid replied. "These bricks aren't making any noise, so that's not it, and going around and touching them all would completely defeat the purpose, so that can't be it either. I've never heard of rocks having a distinctive smell, and we both know that if they tasted different, both of which I highly doubt, Raijin wouldn't be telling us because he wouldn't know either."

The Greninja gave her a funny look. "… Okay, when you put it that way, you're right."

They ducked into a corridor, being extra cautious in case the walls decided to spring to life. The dungeon-dwellers on their own world seemed perfectly at peace in their surroundings, but Astrid almost had to wonder how the Stakatakas of the tower could be perfectly at home just embedding themselves into walls… She brushed it off as something she'd probably never understand, just like dungeon-dwellers liking their ever-changing surroundings in the first place. (Then again, with everything looking so uniform, 'ever-changing' was a bit subjective regardless.)

However, several steps out of the corridor, the floor wasn't uniform as the bricks underfoot started to shift. Immediately as the bricks started to coalesce into a larger collective organism, a flurry of sharpened leaves and watery stars filled the air, eliciting a screech of protest as fast as the Stakataka formed up.

"GET OUT!" came a thunderous, wild cry from their foe as one of its legs angrily stomped the ground.

Moments later, the rocks on the ceiling were detaching from their usual places. Arashi had another set of shurikens forming between his fingers, but Astrid had other ideas and darted back into the corridor while yanking him along with her intact hand.

"Wha-!" the Greninja started to exclaim at the sudden gesture.

Crash!

The stones in the room came tumbling down with loud reverberations, but in the hallway, the only discomfort being caused was from the loudness. Arashi looked surprised for a second at Astrid seemingly retreating, but when she ripped another arrow free, it quickly became obvious that such was not the case.

"Gimme a hand," the Decidueye said.

He reached backwards over one shoulder and held her vine up while throwing his own attack down the corridor, which were quickly followed by her arrow. Thankfully the living rampart was quickly stuck in place, for it moved and lurched at them like it wanted to go for a Double-Edge, even starting to rearrange itself to move more easily within a narrow corridor.

"Run back to the other room," Astrid said quickly, momentarily vanishing into the wall.

"I'm not sure what you're doing, but okay!" her partner replied, doing as she said and darting back where they'd come from.

It barely took a second for the Greninja to be on the other side, and the moment he was, he ducked behind the wall just beside the corridor. Not even half a second later, five of the Beast's bricks came flying out behind him, Rock Blasting the back wall. Astrid reemerged next to him with another arrow in hand, and a vicious screech sounded from the other side.

"This idea is working," Astrid mused, peeking around the corner.

The Stakataka saw her and another Rock Blast came shooting down, cracking the back wall even more but missing the Decidueye's head when she ducked back.

"What idea?" her partner inquired. "Did you figure something out?"

"If we run back into the corridors when they use Rock Slide, they won't hit us," she replied. "So if I lock them down fast enough, we can position ourselves like this and get a painless win if we're careful." She carefully leaned back around the corner, where another Rock Slide brought down the bricks on the corridor's half closer to their foe, the Stakataka angrily stomping in place. "Now gimme a hand."

The Greninja started to grin, grabbing her vine and holding it up. "I never would've thought of that, aha!"

Another screech followed as another piece's eye was pierced by her attack.

"It's not a guarantee, but at least we have some kind of strategy," Astrid noted, her beak's edges curling up just a bit too.

One way or another, it was a fairly painless win when Spirit Shackles and Water Shurikens quickly wore down the haplessly rampaging rampart, which the Starstorm duo welcomed. There wasn't much telling if the rest of them would be that way too, but they held out hope at the very least… seeing as 25 more floors remained.