And with this, the last part of the Lowee Arc.
Lord-Sylph: Let the games begin!
Ragedrock: I'm glad to entertain. And yes, I agree with you wholeheartedly about Uni. Poor girl had the worst luck.
With Mina now joining us, we quickly take the secret tunnels back up to ground level. Through the walls, the frantic shouting of ASIC troops realizing that the Lowee forces have broken out becomes more and more obvious. Soon, we begin to hear skirmishes erupting around us, and from the sounds of things, they're quite large ones too.
So it's understandable that we hardly run into any resistance whatsoever as we approach the Sharicite building.
I've never actually been into one of these before, nor even been pointed out what one looks like. And judging from the triple-reinforced, black-steel industrial blast door blocking our entrance, I don't think I'll ever have another chance. I can only imagine that the walls are just as durable, if not more, than the door.
A nearby blur in the sky quickly descends to reveal the forms of Nepgear and Uni, whom are quickly welcomed back into the party. As IF and MAGES. quickly explain the situation to them, I'm left sorting through my inventory as Mina taps in her access code on a keypad.
Finally, the keypad emits a satisfied bleep, and the door moves towards us, and then to the side. From within, the depths of the building look far more ominous and gloomy that I would have expected such a building to be.
One by one, we step inside, and Mina seals the door behind us. Those of us that have never been inside one of these buildings are taken aback by the finery of the structure… myself included.
The massive vault that forms the Sharicite building is lavishly decorated, with furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold dotting the surroundings. Several smaller rooms, probably emergency shelters, are located on the outer edges of the main room. I can also see the beginnings of a second floor from here, atop of a single, massive staircase.
But even more eye-catching than the probably-priceless furniture and lavish bedrooms, is the foot-wide, humming crystal in the shape of a power symbol located in the center of the room, which is hovering about a meter over my head.
But instead of the brilliant, shining crystal I had expected, this crystal is covered in some strange, crimson mold. It carpets the crystal in strange, geometric lattices, ensnaring it like some kind of fleshy net. The entire structure below pulsates softly and weakly, as if its life is being slowly strangled out.
"Heavens… What have they done?" utters Mina, who steps ahead of us to get a better look. "The Sharicite…"
Nepgear and Uni soon spot the mold, and flinch. I can't blame them… probably imagining this happening to their Sharicites as well.
Slowly, I walk closer towards the Sharicite, and raise my crowbar towards it. No way in hell I'm touching that shit with my hands.
I brush against something solid, which soon solidifies into a highly-visible yellow forcefield. Almost immediately, a voice that I can only describe as incredibly, incredibly moist speaks from nearby.
"Well well well... What do we have here? More hags trying to interrupt my fun? Well I won't be having that."
I step backwards, and the others draw their weapons. Two flashes of light signify the transformations of our two Candidates.
"But… I don't think it's my job to protect that Sharicite now, is it? Girls... Show them the door now, would you?" continues the voice. I still can't place it, even while focusing. It's definitely coming from the floor above, but every time it speaks, it's from a different corner.
A nearby whoosh signifies the appearance of the Twins of Lowee, who must've been hiding in the ceiling or something. They swoop downwards, staves at the ready. Their cold, emotionless eyes stare dead ahead, as turn their staves towards us.
Nepgear and Uni glance between one another, but raise their weapons to guard for impact. Mina, on the other hand, merely looks furious.
"Just what exactly do you two think you are doing?" she demands, pointing her finger at the Twins. Her tone's cold enough, that I can almost see rimes of frost appearing on the floor around her. Almost. Financier chuckles softly, obviously not surprised by Mina's control.
The twins pause mid-dive, immediately cutting their velocity and instead just hovering without righting themselves. I can definitely see where Financier's coming from.
"Is this some kind of spell?" whispers MAGES. from behind me, to which IF responds with a grin, "Nope. It seems the Oracle has them trained."
"Nepgear, Uni, if you two would be dears and help me move these two for a time out?" states Mina, who turns towards our two Candidates, entirely nonplussed by the strange situation she has created.
With a slight sense of awkwardness, our two Candidates grab a twin each, and shove them into a nearby room. The two controlled candidates still haven't moved an inch yet, and I can only imagine whichever person is in charge of controlling them is banging their remote in anger.
With a flourish of her staff, a gleaming silver barrier solidifies across the doorway, locking the two twins inside. Mina leans against the now-formed barrier without any real sense of urgency, as if she's done this a million times.
"Are you sure that will be able to hold them?" asks IF, who is glancing at the barrier dubiously.
Mina chuckles softly. "This isn't the first time the two of them have thrown a tantrum. Don't worry - they'll be fine. Just focus on fixing the Sharicite while I keep them safe."
"Oh well." speaks the felon's voice, tone more or less indifferent. "I suppose it's for the best that you did that. After all, it'd be no good to let such cuties get hurt, now would it? Still I think that it's time for me to have my turn. But first..."
Before any of us can blink, a second, yellow barrier shimmers into place around Mina, locking her in place. The same color as the one blocking the Sharicite...
IF sighs as she twirls her katars. "I knew this was going way too easily…"
A sudden shadow from above forces us all to scatter, just in time to avoid the massive form which collides with the ground with a sordid flop.
Giant, dripping yellow letters appear in the air, declaring a message for several seconds, before fading to nothingness.
Avatar of Sin
CFW TRICK
The Candidates are the first to react, with Nepgear moving in to strike our newly-revealed foe, and Uni lining up a shot to follow up. I, on the other hand, end up dropping to a crouch and pulling out my pistol. I squeeze out a few shots as I try to get a better look at the Felon.
In person, Trick's about twice my height, but four or five times as wide. He's moving around rather quickly for a monstrosity of its size as well…
My train of thought is rather abruptly shattered as I finally get to see the damage its tongue could do. Like a frog trying to catch a fly, Trick's tongue lashes out nearly faster than my eyes can track, striking Nepgear with enough force to send her flying. Even worse, from the sheer amount of goop on the floor under where she was before…
I don't know how they're going to get this crap out of the carpets, but I get a feeling that burning them might be the best choice by the time we're done.
Around me, the others are using what few ranged attacks they have to plink Trick from far away. Not a bad choice, but he's either taking no damage whatsoever, or it's healing faster than we can deal. Even with the heavy slugs, I'm only barely scratching his paint.
Once more, the Felon lashes his tongue towards Uni. I can see the tongue barely miss her, slap into the wall, and then retract backwards into his mouth with a wet slop…
Lightbulb. I guess it's time to bomb some Dodongos.
"IF! Hold him steady! I'm going to do that special!" I shout, pulling out a handful of dynamite in one hand,. As flashily as I can, I spin my knife around my finger with the other.
"Huh?" responds IF, but more importantly, the Felon turns towards me, probably believing that he is stopping some kind of dangerous attack.
The second I see his jaw move, I throw myself into a roll towards the felon himself, banishing my knife and pulling out my lighter on the way down. Not a moment too soon, as the tongue, which which is way larger up close, slaps into the space where I once was. The moment I see the tongue stop moving, I attach the lit dynamite to its gooey underside. The tongue then retracts backwards nearly as quickly as it was first launched.
I sadly don't manage to avoid being sprinkled by some of the goo residue, but at least my jacket wards away most of it. Had it hit me dead on, I doubt I would ever be clean again.
The Felon's expression changes slightly to one of confusion for a moment. Of course, the second that moment is over, a muffled, squishy bang emanates from within his body, and a non-insubstantial amount of smoke pours out from his nostrils. Even better, it opens up enough space for Nepgear to dive at him, blade glowing, and land a solid hit right between his eyes. This forces the Felon back, sputtering smoke.
Pretty much everyone else blinks one moment.
"Do that again!" shouts IF, pumping one arm in success, and hurling a ball of flame with her other.
The Felon, of course, is less than happy with his explosive meal. He leaps straight up, and lands on the upper floor, glowering down at us. "You… You dare?" he bellows, pointing a stubby finger towards me, but he soon sweeps it over the rest of the cast. "I could crush you all like bugs… But why get my own hands dirty… When I have all the help that I need?"
Trick snaps his fingers, and chuckles to himself, before declaring "Behold the power of ASIC!"
Generally, when someone tells someone else to behold something, it is definitely not a good thing. My eyes dart frantically about, in search of whatever it is that this giant yellow pedophile believes we should behold. Unfortunately, my vision is directed towards the Sharicite: more importantly, below the Sharicite.
Below the crystal, a murky, ominous pool has formed. Every second, countless black drops rain from above, fed by the fleshy lattice carpeting the crystal. Strangely, despite the impact of the drops meeting the pool, its surface is entirely still.
The yellow forcefield which had once merely covered the Crystal now extends down towards the floor, preventing us from interfering with whatever that pool is supposed to be. Even worse, the forcefield is slowly growing outwards, matching the inexorable creep of the pool below. I can hear Trick's laughter echoing from the floor above. The bastard knows that we can't follow him, or else he'll be able to drop the barrier keeping Mina held...
I can hear gasps all around as a humanoid hand surfaces, twitching as it pulls itself ever further. The hand is soon joined by a head, and then a torso. Within moments, a fully formed Shade pulls the final portions of itself from the pool, draws a weapon, and charges through the barrier towards its new opponents. Not a moment later, I can see three more hands breach the surface.
It seems we've found the source of the infestation. Ahhh, disposable minions. Is it really a boss fight without them? It's truly a shame nothing in this world drops health pickups.
"Nepgear! Uni! Focus on the ugly yellow dinosaur!" shouts IF, who steps in to intercept the first Shade. The lone creature is easily dispatched, but by now at least a dozen of them have begun to free themselves from the ever-expanding pool, meaning that we're going to have a lot of company, fast.
Nepgear and Uni nod their heads, and move to re-engage Trick. Soon, it's just us humans, and an ever-growing swarm of humanoid abominations.
Just great. I put away my gun: this is no place for slow weapons.
"Derek. Marvy." whispers IF, who retreats backwards towards our trapped Oracle, "You two go upstairs and help Gear and Uni. We'll be fine down here."
"You sure, IF?" replies Marvy, who gazes at the gathering swarm uneasily. "You sure you won't need the help?"
"Do not worry." answers MAGES., who looks more alive than ever, rare smile dancing across her face. "They'll have to not only get through your old friend, but through all of us as well."
"Yeah!~" cheers RED. "We'll show these monsters just why it's a bad idea to mess with RED's Wifeys!"
"We've got this." smiles Financier, twirling her fan.
I turn towards the Ninja, meet her gaze, and then we charge directly up the stairs, devouring the steps below two at a time.
The upper floor is just as lavish as the floors below, although somehow it's even more slick with Trick's slime. Nearly immediately, we can see Trick and the Candidates: He's forced the two into a defensive stance, if only from the lack of space to maneuver. Although I can't quite tell whether or not Nepgear's eyes turned to notice us, I can't help but feel that she definitely knows we're here.
As quietly as we can, Marvy and I sneak up on the lolicon dinosaur, doing our best to avoid the Felon's gaze… up until he turns his head, snorts at us dismissively, and continues his assault.
We're below him, eh? Let's show him just how wrong he is.
Marvy's the first to close the distance, sinking a blade into the Felon's flank. It descends about half an inch in, before it bounces back outwards.
"Hehehe… That tickles!" states the Felon, knocking her aside with an uncaring backhand. Marvy goes flying, forcing me to dive to catch her. "You'll truly have to do better than that!"
Alright, this might be slightly harder than I thought it would be. Trick doesn't even miss a beat, slapping Uni across the room with a tongue lash.
The Ninja growls, as she raises herself back to her feet. "Thanks for the catch… How do we deal with this giant pedophile?"
I summon a handful of knives, and throw them directly at the Felon… It is only slightly more effective, sinking in and holding their position far more than Marvy's blade… Seems Killachine metal's made of some pretty solid stuff. Still, it's not doing much at all.
The knife blades themselves look quite a bit like handholds from here…
I sigh. "Marvy… Why do I always end up climbing the giant-"
Trick gives us the stink-eye over his shoulder and moves his tail between us and the knives, blocking the way.
"-monster?"
"Welp. There goes that idea." I state, lowering my hand to my face. "Got anything else, Marvy?"
Without a real plan for taking down the Felon, the two of spend the next thirty seconds tossing daggers and knives into the Felon, all the while watching Trick continue to assault the Candidates. Up close though, it's pretty obvious that he inhales slightly before he does his lash…
Just like a Dodongo, actually. A giant, perverted Dodong… Er… Yuck. Still, he's making his move, so I put my hastily-thought-up plan into action as quickly as I can.
Drawing the first bomb I can find from my inventory, I rapidly light the fuse and throw it at the Felon, the moment I see his mouth begin to open.
Only when the bomb is in flight, do I realize that I had thrown a goo bomb.
On the minus side, I miss the mouth. On the plus side, the glass bottle crashes against his eye, spreading a nice little coating of burning goo over its surface.
"Were you aiming at that?" asks Marvy, who watches the Felon scream incoherently in pain, grin wide across her face.
"Nope." I respond, drawing another. "Keep going?" I hurl a few more goobombs at the Felon, but they're all deflected by his tail and arms.
Sadly, the fire doesn't last long. The Felon quickly blinks out the flames and glares back at us with both eyes, although one is definitely more puffy than before.
So uhh… we got his attention now… So what do we do, now that we have the attention of the giant, unholy monster?
Fortunately, the answer comes in a resounding boom, as a large, explosive shell collides with his head, courtesy of Uni. Trick's eyes momentarily cross, but he's soon right back to the way he was before, and twice as ugly. Now, not only does he have a face that not even his mother could love, but he also has a serious case of pink-eye.
Before either of us are able to react, Trick rushes towards us, grasping me in one hand, and Marvy in another. "I've had enough of this nonsense! Why don't you two go back to your little friends?"
And then we're falling… The bastard threw us!
I land hard, not able to roll out the impact. I can feel my teeth clenching as I collide with the stone below. Far above, amidst the stars now swirling across my vision, a yellow barrier shimmers into existence, cutting access to the upper floor off entirely.
"Derek! Are you alright?" states Compa, who comes to my aid a moment later with her healing magic. "What happened up there?"
Trick stares down at us in displeasure, his previously-burned eye obviously not healed yet. "Ah, it seems that these… new troops are quite useful!" he chuckles. "But if only they were just a little… slurp... younger…"
I glance towards the nearest Shade, with its hollow eyes, snarling teeth, and uneven stride. There's a second of terror where its form is mentally replaced by that of a screaming, scantily-clad nightmare child.
Okay… No more First Encounter Assault Recon for me.
Around me, noises of disgust erupt from the girls.
"You people have no taste!" shouts Trick. "No taste!"
"Shut up, you lolicon!" hisses Marvy, to which replies of 'Yeah!', 'Go to hell!' and 'He's gross!' echo in moments later.
Trick pauses for just a moment, before he rolls his eyes back at us and turns away. "Before, I was willing to let you go after I had dealt with the Candidates… But I think I've changed my mind. You can meet their fates as well!"
"Hehehe…" he chuckles, as he steps away. "Good night! Now, minions, if you would be so kind as to take out the trash..."
A terrible grinding noise fills the air as the barrier protecting the area below Sharicite begins to fracture. Streams of the substance begin to leak from within… We all back up, unwilling to touch the volatile substance. Soon enough, the barrier itself is finally stretched to its limit, and vanishes under the pressure.
The now-freed pool greedily devours the floor around, and nearly immediately, more Shades begin to form.
The moss spawning the troops no longer is dripping the fluid… It's now raining down in a constant stream - more than enough to ensure that the pool continues outwards.
MAGES. seems to glance at the moss for a moment, before she exclaims, "I was right! That growth is not able to maintain its level of operation!"
A quick glance at the Sharicite is enough to confirm her hypothesis. The lattice no longer covers the upper portion of the crystal, allowing the brilliant crystal beneath to shine out. Small markings, like dried out roots, still mark the lattice's previous location, but it seems dead.
"I don't think it's meant for this kind of use!" I excitedly whisper, unsure of whether Trick is still listening or not. "We might be burning it out!"
IF seems to perk up at the news. "We just need to last a little bit longer, then?"
Already, I can see the shapes of countless Shades beginning to emerge from the pool. There's over a dozen half-formed already… And more than double than that nearly there.
I take in a breath. "Final push. Let's go."
The pool slowly recedes as we slice our way through the countless monsters spawning from its depths. Whereas by themselves, they are little to no threat, in such great numbers, we find ourselves retreating to around Mina, picking off the Shades as they approach us. Slowly, the pool becomes less fluid, and more just a gigantic pile of low-value credit chips.
After what seems like an eternity of combat, the river of monsters becomes a stream, and then a trickle. RED scores the final kill of the night, dispatching the lone remaining monster with a blow to the head.
The lattice is now dried and dead. We collectively let out sighs of relief as the final monster fades.
"We did it…" breathes IF, who wipes the sweat off her brow.
The Sharicite, now freed from its bonds, begins to glow like the sun, and the barrier holding Mina cracks and breaks, releasing her from her prison. As Compa rushes to deal with the now-freed Oracle, the rest of us can only glance upwards.
The gigantic barrier spanning the upper floor has a spider web of cracks rapidly growing on it. Before our eyes, it shatters into tiny pieces, which fade to nothing as they descend like rain. Which is probably a good thing, because I wouldn't enjoy being peppered with shattered glass.
And then, like music, we hear the scream of Trick, as he is hit by the backlash of whatever the Crystal is doing to him.
By the time that we arrive at the top of the Stair,s Uni and Nepgear have backed the Felon into the corner, and are essentially just bludgeoning the sod with their weapons, as Trick tries in vain to protect himself. The two are breathing heavily, and seem to greatly enjoy having the tables turned on their foe.
"The Sharicite… How?" garbles Trick, as he winces from another blow. "The plan… It was supposed to be perfect!"
"Nothing's perfect. Especially not you." replies IF, face smug. Behind her, RED sticks her tongue, Financier glares at the Felon while twirling her fan, MAGES. tips her hat… And I join in by throwing a mock salute.
"But what about… No… No! My cuties!" he screams, even as the light behind us intensifies in brightness. "I'll get you for this… I'll get you all for this!"
Trick coughs up a rather slimy Eject Button and spits it into his right hand. Before any of us can stop him, the Felon is gone. All that remains is a tremendous greasy stain marking where he was but a moment ago.
Nepgear hovers lower, exhausted look on her face. "We did it…"
Uni sleepily smiles back at her friend. "That we did…" she trails off, slumping and lowering her weapon.
IF and I quickly exchange glances, before we charge underneath the two Candidates. We're just in time to catch them. They flash out of their HDD mid-fall, probably too exhausted to keep their forms active any longer. Catching a falling girl is difficult, but not unmanageable. I make sure to bend my legs to properly absorb the impact.
Fortunately, their weapons disappear with their HDDs, meaning that I do not have to catch Uni's massive hand cannon.
Uni is soaked in… Ew. it's not sweat, it's Trick's saliva. Gross! I need to get her to a shower immediately!
"Heavens… What a mess!" speaks a voice from behind us.
Mina, free of her bindings and holding the hands of the two awakened, but still rather sleepy Loweean Candidates glances about in dismay. I can't blame her… There's goo absolutely everywhere, not just coating Nepgear and Uni. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see IF handing the unconscious Nepgear to Compa. I suppose she is used to carrying unconscious people.
Too bad I can still see drool-stains on IF's coat. Yuck.
Mina sighs, before she retrieves a device from a pocket, presses three buttons, and states, "Would all janitorial teams report to the Sharicite building please? We have quite a mess ahead of us…"
Financier winces as a device on her person repeats Mina's message, but Mina catches her eye and chuckles quietly. "Don't worry. As a reward for going above and beyond your duty in protecting the Basilicom… Why don't you take two weeks off, with full pay, Financier?"
"But, Miss Oracle… There's no way this job will…" begins Financier, but she is cut off by a large blob of drool the size of a watermelon falling from the ceiling and splatting onto the floor about six feet in front of us.
"... Thank you, miss Oracle." she rescinds, bowing. "I live to serve."
Mina smiles, and turns to the rest of us. "Thank you, all of you, for coming to assist Lowee in its time of need. What do you say, you two?"
"Thank you…" murmurs Rom.
"Rrrr…" growls Ram, but slowly, she relents and states, "Thank you."
With no Candidates to speak for us, IF takes the lead. "Can we rely upon Rom and Ram's assistance soon? We plan on freeing the CPUs from the Gamindustri Graveyard within the next few days."
Both Rom and Ram blink. "You're going to save Sis?" murmurs Rom.
"Of course we're in!" shouts Ram, overtalking her sister. "There's no way we'll let you dummies go without us!"
That means yes.
"Thank you, you two. I'll tell Nepgear and Uni the good news when they wake up." smiles IF. She tries to brush off some of the goop covering her, but only succeeds in spreading it around.
"No problem! We're going to make those dummies pay for hurting big sis!" smirks Ram, puffing out her chest.
"And for being gross…" murmurs Rom, who glances towards the goo puddle.
"Right! And for being gross!"
It's good they're right back to normal, even after being so long under mental control.
As we step down the stairs towards the exit, I can't help but glance towards the giant pile of Credit chips underneath the Sharicite Crystal. "Is… Are we just going to leave that there?"
Marvy meets my gaze, and quietly laughs. "Do you want to spend the next hour redeeming those?"
"Oh." I reply. Yeah… That'd take a while. "Maybe Mina can give them to the janitors as a bonus?"
Financier shrugs. "I mean, she's definitely going to be paying them for overtime for this job."
IF pauses for a moment, and then turns to our guide. "So Financier… You heard what we are planning to do. Would you like to join us? The more help we have, the better."
Financier pauses for a moment, before she shakes her head. "As much as I'd like to assist in freeing Lady White Heart and the others… My duty lies here. I can only send my best wishes for your success."
"We understand. Thank you for the help." smiles IF.
With one final round of goodbyes, we go our separate ways, with Financier headed towards her home, and us headed towards the Embassy to get cleaned.
I let loose a breath as we trek forward through the snow, our steps muffled into silence. Above us, the light of the full moon above shines, casting the world below into gloom. The chill air nips at my exposed skin, a further reminder how lucky the Candidates are to have reverted back to their winter clothing. Both of the two are still sound asleep, although Uni seems to be gripping my arm rather tightly. It might be enough to cut off circulation, but it's cold enough that I really can't feel the difference.
I let out a sigh as I stare up at the moon.
We've faced one of ASIC's best… And we succeeded.
I can't help the smile that slowly crosses my face. It was tough, and there's no way it won't get even tougher...
No matter what they throw at us, no matter what horrors they develop to fight back…
We will save this world. There is no other possible outcome.
That much I promise.