Upon reaching the Desert Base, they encountered multiple new enemies. Modified barricades that imploded when touched, ATEMS soldiers with laser guns were present as well. But the most difficult obstacle they faced was giant land mines. As he passed one, Gunvolt noticed the mines were up to his waist in height.
"Why did they feel the need to put automatic turret columns in the desert?" Lola complained.
"They probably just wanted to show off." Copen supposed.
"Are those pipes?" Gunvolt pondered.
Copen looked ahead and slightly to the left, there was pipes in curves going up and down. All the pipes stopped at the same height before curving down again. When they finally reached the pipes, everyone felt a rumbling underneath their feet. Everyone shook, Atari fell backwards and Zeno caught her trustfall style.
Just then, a giant mech popped up out of the sand. It looked like a pink mechanical scorpion tail. It consisted of the "stinger", a ring of dark gray metal with pink highlights directly behind the "stinger" and round, tire-like segments held together by what looked like pink lightning.
"That is one ugly worm." Zeno declared.
Copen was the first to take any action. Particularly by underestimating the speed of the machine. It opened its stinger and launched a long, 15 foot diagonal neon pink laser.
"Man, it's like they let a nineties themed Ninja Turtles mech loose out here." Zeno retorted as he dodged to open fire.
The assault on the worm mech lasted only five seconds before the armor returned to normal. The sharp top segment was spinning before the whole thing went underground. In its wake, the device left five foot, three inch tall mines, similar in appearance to the ones left by the ATEMS soldiers. The worm reappeared on the left.
Less than thirty seconds later, it was destroyed by Gunvolt's Astrasphere. They found a new, albeit bizarre looking Hexapyle. It was round, a mix between mint and neon green wit a picture of a shield.
"Not a very creative bunch." Copen commented.
Upon entering the second to last section of the area, they found the whole area was practically sand, with only a few metal platforms in between.
"I never thought I'd despise the thought of a beach." Zeno remarked as he used his right arm to keep Atari from falling into the endless pit below them.
"What are we going to do now? We can't jump across, it's too far." Gunvolt wondered.
"And the Lazy Teleportation is still on cooldown. I guess we'll only be able to use it during emergencies." Copen declared.
Suddenly, Copen got an idea and turned to look at Gunvolt. The Azure Striker's concern grew as he felt the slayer's eyes on him.
"Some lightning strikes have been reported on beaches. Wherever they struck, glass was left. Maybe you could use your Septima to create glass steps." Copen theorized.
"It's worth a shot." Gunvolt sighed as he shrugged his shoulders and focused on a particular spot in the sand stream. He swapped out his Cerberus darts for Naga. But he couldn't decide between those or Dullahan tags.
"Is something wrong?" Copen queried.
"The Naga tags can be charged but they pass through multiple targets when charged. So, it might pass through the sand and not even work. Although, it might work or miss. And there's the Dullahan tags that're high energy projectiles." Gunvolt droned.
"Go with the Dullahan ones, it seems like they'd have a better shot." Copen advised.
That's exactly what he did. The plan was successful. Sooner than they'd hoped, there was a tank looking machine with the same shade of green and it shot what looked like red miniature nukes, two of them on either side. They encountered plenty of ATEMS soldiers with rocket launchers. Looking at another sandfall, Gunvolt knew what he had to do.
"Looks like you can finally take a break Geeves." Zeno grinned.
Gunvolt didn't understand what his friend was talking about. Until he saw a platform of hardened sand appear from behind the falls.
"It looks like two people can fit on a single platform. Zeno, you go on with Atari and make sure she doesn't fall. I'll go with Gunvolt, just to make sure he doesn't mess this up." Copen informed.
"Roger that. But, uh, who's going to get on first?" Zeno worried.
"We will, I guess." Gunvolt offered.
After going down about 20 feet, Gunvolt and Copen noticed spikes beneath their platform. Seeing another platform appear to their left, the boys got the same idea and jumped. It was alright until they saw lasers and had to skip to another platform. The process kept reapeating until they reached a metal platform on the right next to an automatic metal shutter. Zeno and Atari were right behind them.
"Great, more sand." Zeno sighed as the noticed the rest of the treacherous territory they'd have to cross.
To everyone's relief, the enemy wasn't too far. Upon reaching where the target was, the group noticed a stone arch and someone near it. Standing near the right side of the arch was a fair skinned young girl with a chubby frame and long blond hair tied into two rings through two blue accessories. She had orange eyes which were covered behind a pair of glasses. She wore a white blouse with a belt tied across her underchest with a feather accessory in the middle. Along with what appeared to be an open green jersey on top of her blouse. She dons a pair of orange sneakers and white socks with an orange stripe right below her knees. The girl also had a wristband with what appear to be silver bells.
"Waaah! L-looks like ya'll went an' found me!" the girl shrieked.
"And you are?" Copen wondered.
"My 'pologies! Mr. Zeddy really wanted this here Bindin' Brand is all!" the girl apologized.